Gran-daddy's Medicine (Vanilla Bourbon Smoked Porter) - Recipe & Brew Day

Well, with one beer for the wedding under my belt, it was time to move on to the second batch of brew. My friend Sarah, the bride, made a request for my Vanilla Bourbon Porter, and there was no way I was going to refuse her, so I had to brew it.

Joined by my good friend Seth, we pumped out about 8 gallons of brew, which is bubbling away out in the controlled freezer environment in the garage at a nice 66*F. Not bad! No we just need to let it ferment out to completion, dump on two Vanilla Beans for a few days of aging and then blend the brew with a bit of Old Gran-dad Bourbon before kegging. Yum!!

Gran-daddy's Medicine (Vanilla Bourbon Smoked Porter) – Recipe & Brew Day Stats

Brewed: Sunday, July 25, 2010

Racked:

Bottled/Kegged:

Batch Size (Gal): 8

Brewhouse Efficiency: 70%

Wort Boil Time: 75 Minutes

Original Gravity: 1.055

Final Gravity:

SRM: 33

IBU: 35

ABV:

Grains/Sugars (Total Grain Bill (Lbs.): 17.77)

10.50 lbs. American Pale Malt (2~Row)

2.30 lbs. Smoked Malt

1.25 lbs. Crystal 80L Malt

1.25 lbs. Munich Malt

.86 lb. Wheat Malt

.86 lb. Chocolate Malt

.50 lb. Black Patent Malt

Hops

1.25 oz. Mt. Hood, 5.50%, pellet, 60min

1.00 oz. Willamette, 4.90%, pellet, 30min

1.00 oz. Willamette, 4.90%, pellet, 15min

0.75 oz. Mt. Hood, 5.50%, pellet,5min

0.50 oz. Willamette, 4.90%, pellet, 5min

Yeast

WLP001: California Ale Yeast 3000ml. starter

Additives

2 tsp. Irish Moss, 15min

Mash/Boil/Fermentation

H2O/Grain Ratio: 1.51 qt/lb

Sacch. Rest Temp/Time: 152*F/75min

Mash Out Temp/Time: 165*F/10min

Sparge Temp/Time: 170*F/15min

Pre-Boil Vol: 9.58

Post-Boil Vol: 8.13

Evaporation Rate(per hour): 10%

Ferment Temp: 66°F

Primary Fermentation (Days):

Secondary Fermentation (Days):

Watermelon Witbier (Batch #2) - Recipe & Brew Day

Even though I kegged the first batch yesterday, the first attempt at the Watermelon Witbier came out pretty similar to how I remember it tasting, so that is a good thing. There were a few things I wanted to change up, nothing too dire, but it will definitely change the flavor a bit.

Watermelon Witbier (Batch #2)– Recipe & Brew Day Stats

Brewed: Sunday, July 18, 2010

Racked:

Bottled/Kegged:

Batch Size (Gal): 8.00

Brewhouse Efficiency: 70%

Wort Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Original Gravity: 1.054

Final Gravity:

SRM: 4.70

IBU: 21.40

ABV:

Grains/Sugars (Total Grain Bill (Lbs.): 17.50)

5.00 lb. Flaked Wheat

4.00 lb. Wheat Malt

3.50 lb. American Pale Malt (2~Row)

2.50 lb. Pilsner Malt

1.33 lb. Flaked Oats

0.67 lb. Munich Malt

0.33 lb. Aromatic Malt

.17 lb. Acidulated Malt

Hops

0.67 oz. Saaz, 6.80%, pellet, 60min

0.50 oz. Cascade, 7.40%, pellet, 25min

0.40 oz. Saaz, 6.80%, pellet, 10min

0.40 oz. Cascade, 7.40%, pellet, 5min

Yeast

WLP400: Belgian Wit Ale Yeast 2000ml. starter

Additives & Spices

0.30 oz. Coriander, crushed, 5min

0.40 oz. Candied Ginger, chopped, 5min

0.05 oz. White Pepper, crushed, 5min

Mash/Boil/Fermentation

H2O/Grain Ratio: 1.32 qt/lb

Protein Rest Temp/Time: 120*F/15min

Sacch. Rest Temp/Time: 152*F/75min

Mash Out Temp/Time: 165*F/15min

Sparge Temp/Time: 170*F/30min

Pre-Boil Vol: 9.00

Post-Boil Vol: 7.80

Evaporation Rate(per hour): 9%

Ferment Temp: 76*F

Primary Fermentation (Days):

Secondary Fermentation (Days):

The Tiny English Gentleman (Best Bitter) - Tasting

Tonight I had the pleasure of spending my evening with two new friends tasting a few of my brews. I was very lucky because both are well versed in beer and really know their stuff in regards to brewing, so it was nice to get their opinions on my brews. What made it even better was that one of them has a heightened sense of taste. What I can say is that I had a really good time and got a lot of positive feedback on the "Burninator", "Mayan Gold Stout" and "Tiny English Gentleman". And from what I heard, I'm definitely going to need to brew more of these beers!

The Tiny English Gentleman - Best Bitter

OG: 1.047

ABV: 4.32%

Look: Orange-Red, I almost want to say Copper, with an off-white head that doesn't retain fairly long

Aroma: Big malt aromas of raisins and dried cherries, bread and biscuit

Taste: The taste mimics the aroma with bread and biscuit playing more so over the raisins and cherries, however the hops are there and help to balance the beer very nicely. Definitely finishes dry

Mouthfeel: Medium to light in body with a moderate carbonation, more so than what you would find in a casked conditioned version of this style, with a smooth, dry finish

Biere Transvesti (American Pale Ale) - Recipe & Brew Day

I just finished listening to The Brewing Network podcast featuring Shea Comfort discussing yeast blending and oaking. I was pretty impressed with his talk on blending wine yeast and and beer yeast to create a fruit like quality in your beer without using the fruit. Shea went on to say that white wine yeast generally fall into 2 categories, those that give off apple and pear qualities, and those that give off tropical and citrus qualities. Red wine yeast on the other hand can give off cherry or berry qualities. While wine yeasts, like beer yeast, are strains of Saccharomyces Cerevisiae they are incapable of fermenting maltotriose, a type of grain sugar. Shea suggested a few ways to deal with the maltotriose issue. One heavily discussed option was the use of Convertase AG-300 enzyme, which would break up long chain sugars (including maltotriose) into simple sugars, thus making it possible for the wine yeast to ferment all of the sugars until it is bone dry. By splitting a batch into 2 fermenters, one could add ale yeast to one batch and Convertase AG-300 & wine yeast to a second smaller batch, then blend later. Unfortunately I couldn't find the Convertase AG-300, so I'm going to try the blending method, two-thirds on ale yeast and one-third on wine yeast, minus the Convertase AG-300. This should be interesting...

Biere Transvesti (American Pale Ale) – Recipe & Brew Day Stats

Brewed: Monday, July 12, 2010

Racked: Sunday, July 18, 2010 (Combined the 1/3rd's Lalvin Yeast: 71B-112 batch with the 2/3rd's WLP001: California Ale Yeast batch)

Bottled/Kegged: July 22, 2010

Batch Size (Gal): 7.50

Brewhouse Efficiency: 70%

Wort Boil Time: 75 Minutes

Original Gravity: 1.052

Final Gravity: 1.012

SRM: 7.50

IBU: 42.70

ABV: 5.25%

Grains/Sugars (Total Grain Bill (Lbs.): 15.38)

13.13 lb. American Pale Malt (2~Row)

1.25 lb. Crystal 40L Malt

1.00 lb. Munich Malt

Hops

0.32 oz. Columbus, 14.00%, pellet, 60min

0.53 oz. Simcoe, 12.40%, pellet, 15min

0.35 oz. Citra, 12.30%, pellet, 15min

0.66 oz. Simcoe, 12.40%, pellet, 10min

0.32 oz. Columbus, 14.00%, pellet, 10min

0.79 oz. Simcoe, 12.40%, pellet, 1min

0.51 oz. Citra, 12.30%, pellet, 1min

0.40 oz. Cascade, 7.40%, pellet, 1min

Yeast

WLP001: California Ale Yeast 1000ml. starter

Lalvin Yeast: 71B-1122 500ml. starter

Mash/Boil/Fermentation

H2O/Grain Ratio: 1.24 qt/lb

Sacch. Rest Temp/Time: 151*F/75min

Mash Out Temp/Time: 168*F/15min

Sparge Temp/Time: 170*F/30min

Pre-Boil Vol: 9.67

Post-Boil Vol: 7.61

Evaporation Rate(per hour): 15%

Ferment Temp: 66°F - Primary / 68*F - Secondary

Primary Fermentation (Days): 6

Secondary Fermentation (Days): 4

Burninator (American Tripel) - Tasting

So last night I had some friends over for a blind tasting event involving American Amber Ales. It was a lot of fun, educational, definitely tasty and I grilled up some of my delicious pizzas to feed the masses. At the end of the night, as people were leaving I graced them with a bottle of the "Burninator" and asked them to let me know their thoughts on my attempt at an American Tripel. At about mid-night, 1AM I received a text from one of my friends praising the beer, curious to see how good the beer was I grabbed one from the cellar and put it in the fridge to sip throughout the brew day the next morning. So, this morning I decided to pop the top and drink it with my Fruit Loops for breakfast, and holy crap was it good!

Burninator - American Tripel

OG: 1.083

ABV: 9.2%

Look: Golden, slightly hazy (due to Wheat addition), with a creamy white head that lasts fairly well and Belgian lacing

Aroma: Sweet honey, tropical fruit, mangoes, pineapples, passion fruit, peach, apricot, grapefruit peels, with a hint of clove. The phenolic characters are only slight, while the tropical fruit characters are in your face

Taste: Starts off semi-sweet, with the hop bitterness and flavor sweeping into take the center stage. The hops bitterness definitely cuts the honey sweetness, with the tropical fruit flavors of mangoes, pineapples, apricots and grapefruit peels standing out significantly over the Pilsner malt. The alcohols are there in the finish, but are very soft. It finishes surprisingly light and dry, unlike some commercial Tripels that are too sweet big-bodied and make you feel full after a pint

Mouthfeel: Light, dry and smooth in body with a higher carbonation

Watermelon Witbier - Recipe & Brew Day

A few summers back I had some friends who were just getting into the beer drinking scene, breaking in with Blue Moon Brewing Company's Belgian White Beer. They loved the stuff, and wanting to them to delve deeper into beer, I decided I set about the task of brewing my own Witbier. After a couple of weeks of research, talking to other homebrewers and looking for clones on the internets, I came up with a recipe. I brewed it a few times, once with the traditional Bitter Orange Peel and Coriander spices, and another time with a Dried Tropical Fruit White Tea mix. Don't get me wrong, both times the beer came out amazing, but I wanted to experiment with a fruit that wasn't used that often in the world of brewing. Well, it just so happened that the farmer's market down the street had recieved a large shipment of watermelons, and they were pretty cheap. Figuring, "why the hell not?" I went for it and bought a few, adding the pureed meat and juice into the secondary fermenter. Then two weeks later I bottled with some wildflower honey and two weeks after that I had a delicious Witbier with mild hints of melon in the finish. It was such a hit that within a week I was out, and haven't brewed it since. Well, with my two good friends getting married in a month I figured why not brew it and have some on tap for the reception. So this batch is the tester, with another batch to come in a weeks as the final version. Lets see where this gets us....

Watermelon Witbier – Recipe & Brew Day Stats

Brewed: Sunday, July 4, 2010

Racked: Wednesday, July 14, 2010 (Transferred onto 15lbs. of pureed Watermelon)

Bottled/Kegged: Sunday, July 18, 2010

Batch Size (Gal): 6.00

Brewhouse Efficiency: 70%

Wort Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Original Gravity: 1.052

Final Gravity: 1.011

SRM: 4.70

IBU: 20.40

ABV: 5.40%

Grains/Sugars (Total Grain Bill (Lbs.): 12.89)

5.00 lb. Wheat Malt

3.40 lb. Pilsner Malt

1.75 lb. Flaked Wheat

1.00 lb. Flaked Oats

0.75 lb. American Pale Malt (2~Row)

0.50 lb. Munich Malt

0.30 lb. Aromatic Malt

.19 lb. Acidulated Malt

Hops

0.50 oz. Saaz, 6.80%, pellet, 60min

0.30 oz. Cascade, 7.40%, pellet, 25min

0.30 oz. Saaz, 6.80%, pellet, 10min

0.30 oz. Cascade, 7.40%, pellet, 5min

Yeast

WLP400: Belgian Wit Ale Yeast 1500ml. starter

Additives & Spices

0.43 oz. Coriander, crushed, 5min

0.21 oz. Candied Ginger, chopped, 5min

0.05 oz. White Pepper, crushed, 5min

15.00 lbs. Watermelon Meat, pureed, secondary (4 days)

Mash/Boil/Fermentation

H2O/Grain Ratio: 1.33 qt/lb

Protein Rest Temp/Time: 122*F/15min

Sacch. Rest Temp/Time: 152*F/60min

Mash Out Temp/Time: 168*F/15min

Sparge Temp/Time: 170*F/30min

Pre-Boil Vol: 8.00

Post-Boil Vol: 6.50

Evaporation Rate(per hour): 10%

Ferment Temp: 72°F - Primary / 70*F - Secondary

Primary Fermentation (Days): 10

Secondary Fermentation (Days): 4