Bearded Brewing Blog

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Back in Action with Aye PA

It's been a very long time since I've blogged. Life got busy, I didn't brew for awhile and when I finally did, it was a recipe I've brewed before (and blogged about before...El Muerto). So I decided to hold off on the blog.

First, a couple quick updates... I bought two new tools for brewing. The first was a Better Bottle carboy. For years I've read reviews, contemplated, etc. But I'd never heard convincing enough evidence to sway me. Then one night I grabbed my 6 gallon glass carboy, slippery with PBW and dropped it all over my cement basement floor. The glass just missed my bare feet (yes I'm an idiot) and the clean up was a bitch. I decided that my pride of carrying big carboys wasn't worth the pain in the ass/risk of injury that the glass carboy carries. I eventually bought the 6 gallon Better Bottle and am never going back. The piece of mind alone is worth it, not to mention the ease of moving it even full.

I also felt like after 8 years of brewing, it was time to start properly aerating my wort, so I bought a small aeration system. I must confess that the new Northern Brewer retail store is 5 minutes from my house and it is a beautiful store that changes the way you shop for homebrew supplies. So I was "inspired" to drop cash on things I had eyed for a while. I digress.

The aeration system is cheap, easy and I have noticed a difference in the start of fermentation times if I run the system for 20 minutes.

As for the Aye PA. I have been using the Zeus hops that my friend Jesse grew for me. We got close to 16 ounces and I have brewed several beers using them. They are very pungent,orangey and sweet. In my Doble Double IPA I balanced out the Zeus with Chinhook hops. But the hops lend themselves perfectly for a Belgian IPA. I brewed a Belgian IPA last year with the Zeus hops and I was happy with the outcome. I tweaked the recipe a bit, changed the label and name, and am going to be much more patient this time around waiting for it to condition. For the Aye PA, I used only Zeus for the aroma and flavor hops and used Belgian malts, as well as some Belgian Candy Syrup. I also used Belgian Ardennes for the yeast, but I'm keeping the temps in the high 60s to avoid too much fruitness. I plan on bottle conditioning for a few months. I'm hoping that in June and July, the beer will be a hoppy and complex.

Here's the recipe:
4 lbs Belgian Pilsner
8 oz Belgian Carapils
8 oz Belgian Caravienne
*mash @ 154 for 1 hr.

6 lbs Pilsner Malt

1 lb Belgian Light Candy Syrup

Hops:
1 oz Columbus @ 60
1 oz Whole Leaf Zeus @ 15
1 oz Whole Leaf Zeus @ 5
1 oz Whole Leaf Zeus @ 3
1 oz Whole Leaf Zeus @ 0

Wyeast 3522 Belgian Ardennes in a yeast starter

I'm excited for the turn out, and need to make sure I'm patient with this one. Part of the reason I will be bottling it instead of kegging this one.
More to come.
Salud!
Bearded Brewer

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Doble Double IPA

As part of my double brew weekend, I brewed up a double IPA. I always love the slew of Imperial IPAs that come out in late February/Early March, and thought it was about time I added my own to the mix. Plus, my Ryeteous Rye Porter got an infection, so I'm looking for something that I can have on tap in a month or so. Instead of brewing two lagers that would require time, I went with the Doble.
I've brewed my fair share of big IPAs, and I tend to focus more on the hops than the malt, since I tend to like IPAs that aren't too syrupy. I had a lot of whole leaf hops grown by my friend, Zeus and Centennial. I wanted to choose a complimentary hop that would balance the intense citrus and fruitiness of those hops. So I chose Chinhook, a hop I've used in some other beers of mine. I really like the piney/slightly smokey flavors that come from Chinhook and when paired with overly citrusy hops, I think it creates a nice complexity. I've been striving towards adding complexity in my hop profiles, so I'm hoping the desired result comes through.
The other difference with the Doble than previous brews, is that I chose to boil the wort for 90 minutes. I had time to spare, and have never done this. Based on what I've read, it should add some bitterness to the beer.
I was a little disappointed that my OG ended up lower than intended, so I'm thinking that I need to adjust my sparging techniques. I batch sparge, but I wonder if I am rinsing too fast, because my OGs have been lower than expected. That is however, the beauty of partial mashing...I still end up with a decent product, but am not getting as much out of the grains as I should. After two weeks of fermentation, the Doble has finally finished at around 7% abv. So its more "double" in IBUs than ABV. First pull out of the carboy was very tasty and very hoppy so, I'm not too concerned.

Going forward I would like to correct the sparging problem, or figure out another reason why my OGs have been so off.

As for the Doble recipe:
Mash @ 151 for 45 minutes
3 lbs Org 2-Row
8 oz Org Crystal 60
80z Org Crystal 40
1 lb Org Carapils

9.15 Organic Light Malt Extract (@ 20 min)
1 lb Honey (@ 5)

Hops: 1 oz Chinhook @ 90
1 oz Chinhook @ 60
1 oz Leaf Centennial @ 30
1 oz Chinhook @ 15
1 oz Zeus Leaf Hops @ 10
1 oz Centennial @ 5
1 oz Chinhook @ 2
1 oz Zeus Leaf Hops @ 1

2 packs Wyeast American Ale 2

I'm very excited to see how this turns out.
Salud!
Bearded Brewer

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Gringo De La Noche

It seems like it's been a very long time since I've brewed or posted anything. With a busy holiday month, I didn't have time to brew in December, but made up for it by brewing twice this weekend.

My Friday night brewing session was my annual Imperalistic Mexcian Cerveza, the Gringo. This year I decided to brew a darker version of the Gringo, more in a Negro Modelo style. I have had some Vienna malt I've been wanting to use up, so a Vienna lagerish beer would be perfect. I have had success in the past by balancing out my "imperial cerveza" with Centennial hops. For the darker version, I wanted to go with all Cascade instead and I didn't use quite as many hops as I have with the other versions. I wanted to tone down the hops until I saw how they played off the darker malts.

As with all my pseudo-lagers, I use the California 2112 "steam" yeast which gives a nice clean finish and after lagering the beer for a couple months, I can get in the ball park. That said, the Gringo has always been it's own animal, clean and smooth with a nice hoppy citrusy presence with little bitterness. I'm hoping De La Noche continues the tradition.

Here's the recipe I went with:

Mash @ 150 for 1 hour

3 lbs Organic Vienna Malt

1 lb Organic Munich Malt

10 oz Organic Carapils

6 oz Organic Carafa 2

6 lbs Organic Light LME

Hops: .40 Cascade @ 60

.60 Cascade @ 15

1 oz Cascade @ 10

1 oz Cascade @ 5

1 lb Agave nectar @ secondary. Lagered for 3 months.

Yeast: Cali 2112

Very excited to see how it turns out!

Stay tuned, I brewed the following night and will be posting about my Double IPA this week.

Salud!

Bearded Brewer

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Ryeteous Rye Porter

I have never brewed with rye before. I haven't drank a lot of rye beers, but have had several recently that I really enjoy. The two I really like are the wonderfully hoppy Red's Rye PA from