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Another clone from Brew Your Own.  This time it’s Bell’s Best Brown from Bells in Kalamazoo, MI.  I have loved Bell’s ever since a buddy first brought home some of their Expedition Stout.  Those guys just crank out excellent beers, and lots of them.  They remind me of Rogue in that way.  When another friend brought me a bottle of their Bell’s Best Brown, I thought that it would be a perfect beer to have on hand as winter drew to a close.  Turns out I was right!

This was not my best-managed brew session by a long shot, but the beer still turned out good.  Malty, nutty, not-too-sweet.  This is one tasty Brown ale.

Here’s a pointer to the recipe.

Last time I went in to my local homebrew shop, they were thankfully carrying copies of the special edition of Brew Your Own magazine that contains nothing but clone recipes they have published over the years. I had seen advertisements in my subscription, but hadn’t bothered sending away for my copy. Lucky for me, my homebrew shop had copies set out for the impulse buy. When I went in last time, I picked up a copy. I’m so glad that I did, because on pages 28 and 29 are a hop lover’s recipe paradise.  There you will find BYO’s clone recipes for Alesmith’s IPA, Three Floyd’s Dreadnaught, Bear Republic’s Hop Rod Rye and Racer 5, Russian River’s Pliny The Elder, Rogue’s Imperial IPA, and Lagunitas’ IPA.  I was realized that I had quite a few batches of IPA ahead of me, and figured why not start big?

I’ve been wanting to try Pliny The Elder for a long time, given its 100 percentile rating on RateBeer and 93 percentile rating on BeerAdvocate. I went to the homebrew shop, and decided to change things around on the recipe just a hair to get rid of some leftover hops and save some cash.  I also didn’t use the recommended American Ale yeast, and went with the American Ale II yeast.  This was mostly because they called for White Labs California Ale, and I’ve never had to make a decision about a substitution there.  I knew that the most common substitution there is American Ale yeast, but I didn’t know that WYeast also offers an “American Ale II” strain.  I went with the II on the homebrew shop’s recommendation, but I think that might not have been the closest substitution.  Regardless, I’m sure it will be close.  I started early on Sunday morning last week.  Here’s the brew day notes:

8:00 AM: Started bringing the 16.68 quarts of strike water up to 164°F to hit a rest temperature of 152°F.  Added 3.2 grams of the gypsum to the strike water (remaining 1.8 grams will be added to the water used for lautering).

8:40 AM: Dumped strike water into the cooler, and stirred in the grain.  Threw the top on the cooler, let it rest 10 minutes, and checked the temp.  Spot on!

8:50 AM: Started bringing second addition of water up to temperature.

9:40 AM: Dumped second addition of water in to step temp up to 168°F.  This is one area that I have to go out to the net to get some feedback on.  Using brewing software to formulate temperatures yields what I feel is way too high a temp and way too much water in the mash/lauter tun (mash schedule portion of BeerSmith told me to bring this second amount up to 207°F).

9:50 AM: Vorlofed and lautered out a little over 6.5 gallons of wort for a five gallon batch.  Figured I’d boil off a little over 1 gallon in a 90 minute boil, and the tons of hops would soak up some of the wort.  Took a sample, and OG was 1.071 (pretty damned close to 1.074 OG stated by the recipe).  I think that this will concentrate down after being boiled for 90 minutes.  Need to go check the net for an equation to calculate OG based on evaporation, but will probably be too lazy to do that after brewing.

10:30 AM: Began bringing wort up to boil.

10:35 AM: Set out hop additions for boil.  Holy crap what a load of hops!  It smells amazing over on the counter!

11:10 AM: Wort is boiling.  Dumped first load of hops and started the clock.  Now onto cleaning and sanitizing the primary fermenter, stopper, and airlock (food-grade plastic bucket).  Set aside the mash tun to cool off.

11:45 AM: Boil progressing nicely. The evaporation rate appears to be progressing as expected, and I think that I’ll actually end up with 5 gallons of wort after draining from the boiler. Keeping my fingers crossed.

12:25 PM: Inserted immersion chiller so it will sanitize. Dumped in yeast nutrient and irish moss.

12:42: Began crashing wort.

1:12 PM: Wort is crashed to 78°F. Opened up valve on brew pot, to let it splash drain into primary in hopes of introducing oxygen into liquid. Pitched yeast and began to clean up.

10:00 PM: Seeing signs of life on the airlock.  Bubbling away!

Day 5: 5:30 PM: Time to dry hop.  Measured out all dry hops, and there’s a boatload!  It smells amazing.  1.75 oz of Centennial, 1.75 oz of Simcoe, and 3 oz of Columbus (Tomahawk).  Daaaaaayum!  In all seriousness, this is quite the incredible haul of hops going into 5 gallons of beer.  16.75 ounces!  Holy hop slam Batman!

So the Witbier has been in the primary for a week.  It is approaching its final gravity, so it looks like we’re on target.  Thie wort collected did not hit the target OG, 1.052.  It fell way short at 1.040, so it looks like this is going to be a Witbier Mild weighing in at an approximate 3.8 ABV.  Given the difficulty of this first all-grain batch, I’m very much OK with that (although I’ll be researching what specifically happened).  In addition, the style should lend itself well to that.  I imagine being very happy to be able to throw back a couple of these on a hot day without the alcohol hit were it a typical beer at twice the ABV.  I’m not sure what happened, and am going to be investigating as I go.

I took a grav reading, and it is at 1.011 (just north of where I think it should end up: 1.010 or 1.009).  Time to transfer.  I popped the lid, and saw something that I hadn’t seen before in previous brews.  It was a 1/4″ layer of proteinaceous gunk on top that I assume came from the huge amount of wheat in the grist.  The color was right on target as a beautiful, cloudy, pale yellow, and the smell is a fruity, spicy, somewhat funky aroma that is awesome.  There is a bit of a faint bready character in the aroma that I hope will dissipate with the lower temperature conditioning that I plan on putting the secondary through. Can’t wait to see what it does when it’s carbonated.

I plan on putting the carboy next to a floor air conditioning vent with a box over it to try and push the temp of the beer down a bit in an attempt to drop some crap out of the beer and smooth out the flavor. I just got my fermentation refrigerator hooked up, but don’t yet have a break-out thermostat to keep the temperature higher than the refrigerator’s high of 45 degrees. If I can find a thermostat solution soon, I’ll transfer the carboy to the refrigerator. For now, however, the cardboard box over the AC vent is as much energy as I’m willing to put into trying to get the temp down. We’ll see how it goes.

Here are some pictures:

Quick post to say that I updated the brew day post for the Hazy Daze Wit by uploading some pictures so that people not familiar with homebrewing can get a clearer picture of the process.  Also, the fermenter is bubbling away.  The starter I made provided a big enough yeast colony to firmly take root quickly.  They’ve been chugging along, and it should be ready to transfer to a carboy in a few days.

So it’s brew day today.  This will be the first all-grain batch using the new system.   This is intended to be a Belgian Witbier that I’m calling Hazy Daze Wit.  I’m going to take some pics and do a more journal-oriented post so that I’m trapping some of the decisions made along the way which always seem to get lost before I sit down with the brewing software to document things.

Prior to brew day, I researched the style and brewing approaches.  Traditionally this is a beer that is about half and half barley and wheat.  Large amounts of wheat in a grain bill is notorious for stuck sparge due to the high gluten produced by the wheat.  Basically, it is like trying to rinse all the sweet nectar from the grain bed when there’s a boatload of library paste in there with it.  Given a little experience and what I read, I’ve taken out some insurance and added half a pound of rice hulls (which are mostly benign in flavoring).

I was worried about using traditional raw wheat.  I didn’t want to complicate things by having to deal with what I had read regarding gelitinization of the raw wheat.  Because the raw wheat is not modified like barley, gelinitization of wheat needs some help.  There is a process of doing this separately, then adding this to the mash.  Flaked wheat, on the other hand, has already been gelinitized, so this made the recipe formulation a little easier.

The mash schedule is a single decoction mash found in a couple of recipes out there.  The first infusion temp is to do a protein rest as described at John Palmer’s How To Brew.

The typical Protein Rest at 120 - 130°F is used to break up proteins which might otherwise cause chill haze and can improve the head retention. This rest should only be used when using moderately-modified malts, or when using fully modified malts with a large proportion (>25%) of unmalted grain, e.g. flaked barley, wheat, rye, or oatmeal.

Since I can’t apply direct heat to the mash (because it is a Rubbermaid cooler), I am going to perform a single decoction to reach conversion rest temperatures where the enzymes in the highly-modified pale malt will act on the starches that have become available during the previous rest. I will try to mash out at this point, but if I get a stuck sparge, I will perform another decoction to try and reduce the viscosity of the grain bed. We’ll see how it turns out.

10:15: Started boiling 6 and 4 gallons of water in my 7 and 5 gallon pots.

11:30: Both are boiling. Killed the heat, and am beginning to cool the water down to strike temperature (128°F).

11:45: Put some water in a tea kettle and boiled it.  Added this to the cooler to bring its temperature up so that I didn’t lose too much heat when doughing in.

12:45: Poured out warming water.  Poured in strike water (128°F), then stirred in grains thoroughly.  Tightened lid.

12:47: Checked temp.  Hit 122°F.

1:00: Took out 6.8 qts of the mash for the decoction, and began bringing it to a boil.  Not sure how long this will take.

1:22: Decoction is boiling.  Letting it go for 10 minutes.  Stirring it every minute to try and keep it from burning on the bottom.

1:32:  Transferred decoction to mash tun.

1:33: Began bringing sparge water back up to 170°F

1:36: Checked temp of mash.  It is only 140°F.  Bringing kettle water up to boiling to try and raise mash a bit.  Thinking I didn’t allow for the mash to cool off while I was pulling the decoction off.  Anyway … I’m relaxing, not worrying and … you know.

1:43: Added boiling water to mash to bring it up to target 154°F.

1:45: Still not hot enough. Added more boiling water. If not hitting it after this, I’m going to have to pull another decoction to get me where I want to be. I think that I messed up with calculating the decoction volume. Rookie move!

1:50: Inching up there, but I don’t want the mash too thin. Pulled another decoction of 3 quarts to see if I can push the mash temp up to 154°F.

2:00: Added second decoction. Fingers crossed.

2:15: Not sure why, but the temp appears to be dropping. I think it has to do with all the head space given the fact that I’ve got no thermal mass above the mash keeping the whole internal volume warm. Each time I open the cooler, I let all that steam out. Keeping it closed, and will just see how this first all-grain batch goes.  Also read that I might have had too thin a decoction (too much liquor … not enough grain). Next time, will pull a thicker decoction.

3:15: Sparge water fell to 162°F. Boiling some of it to bring back up to target 168°F.

3:30: Brought sparge water up to 168°F. Began sparge. This took about 40 minutes including recirculating 2 gallons to establish the grain bed as a filter (vorlof).

4:15: I collected 6 gallons of wort, which allows for a little over half a gallon of boil-off, concentrating to 5.5 gallons after the boil. Began bringing this up to a boil on the stovetop over the front and back burners. I also set aside some to cool. Will use this to see how I did with hitting my estimated gravity.

4:35: We have boil, and the clock has started. Five minutes, and the hops go in, then straight to cleaning/sanitizing the primary fermenter (food grade plastic bucket).

5:20: Inserted immersion chiller so it will sanitize. Deciding at the last minute to reduce the spicing. I can always add it with a potion of infused vodka in the secondary if necessary. Just don’t want to overdo it. Going with .75 orange peel, and .5 of ground coriander.

6:00: Wort is crashed to 78°F. Opened up valve on brew pot, to let it drain into primary. Doing it this way to let it splash away hoping to introduce oxygen into liquid. Pitched yeast and began to clean up. Will post more as readings are taken.

I’m committed.  I just put the airlock on a starter for the Hazy Daze Wit - a Belgian Witbier that I spoke about brewing about two months ago.  I took 1.25 cups of DME and brought it to boil in a little over a quart of water.  I added a pinch of yeast neutrient as well.  I let this go for about 10 minutes, and then crashed it in my new dedicated refrigerator’s freezer in the garage.  Pitched the yeast and airlocked it.  Will keep each step documented as it goes.

Anyone who knows me or regularly reads this blog knows I received my all-grain equipment two months ago, and made big plans to brew a Belgian Witbier.  Two months later … where’s the f’n beer?!?!  Well, we hit summer here in the high desert of Central Oregon, and I didn’t have air conditioning. The fermentation temperatures would have been way too hot for doing what I wanted to do.  I wanted a clean, slightly-tart, Wit, and the house temperatures of around 80° F would have been way too hot for fermentation and conditioning. So I waited and started looking into ways to control the fermentation temperature.

My wife is at home during the day. She had finally had enough of the miserable house temperatures, so we pulled the trigger on air conditioning for the house. First of all, how the hell did it take us this long? It was getting to the point where it was so hot in the house that I was barely able to think (much less fire up the burners for a batch). Now the house is sitting at a very comfortable 72° - 73°. Sounds like the upper range of the idea temperature for many ale strains, no?

So I’m back in the game people. I’m going to formulate the recipe and slot the time to actually brew this week. I’ll post the plans when I have them.

Think positive beer thoughts, people.

I met some of the members of the Central Oregon Homebrewers Organization (COHO) here in Bend, Oregon over a year ago, and have meant to go check out a meeting for some time. Well, Wednesday was about damned time. I looked up when the meeting was going to take place, and they had it posted that it took place between 6:30 and 9:00. Unfortunately I had another meeting to make at 8:00, but figured some time would be better than none. Have to say it was a good time.

I drove up to the new Homebrew shop (which is at the old homebrew shop location on Division) which is a by-product of opened Tyler selling off that portion of the Silver Moon brewery’s business. I walked in to see a table set up with all kinds of things including ounce bags of hops, small bags of pre-measured grain, individual beers from Dick’s Brewing Company, and other items. I didn’t know it, but they were going to raffle this stuff off. Cool idea. There was pizza from Cibelli’s in the back and a bunch of different beers, some on tap … some in bottles that were within site. Everyone had a beer, and everyone was talking about anything and everything under the brewing sun. Gravity, brewing at altitude, IBUs, competitions, other homebrew clubs, previous trips, group brews … it was great.

I walked in, and several people came up to me and introduced themselves. They quickly directed me to the beers, where I started on my journey for the evening. This was my first homebrew club meeting ever, and it was like what I hear all homebrew club meetings are like in one regard: lots of homebrew. I had two different IPAs, a Rauch-Porter (no it wasn’t too smoky), a Belgian Strong, and a couple of different meads. Now that’s just what I had. Other choices were available, but I wanted to be coherent when I met up with my buddy at 8:00.

Their site had indicated that they were going to cover making a stir plate, and using it to make yeast starters. I know how to make a yeast starter, but I’ve really wanted to make a stir plate, so this was one of the topics that drew me in. I was kind of bummed that that didn’t take place in the time that I was there, and I don’t think that they covered it after I left. They hadn’t done the raffle yet, but who knows.

All in all everyone in the group appears to like one another. Like any group, there are people who are more outspoken than others, and that’s natural. It is good to see that no one is afraid to ask questions, and no one is afraid to be the sage providing the answer. I think that there’s definitely a knowledge dynamic present at homebrew clubs that presents numerous learning opportunities for its members.

It was a good time, and I’ll gladly attend another COHO meeting.

Sometimes the brew gods are on your side. The past 30 days has definitely been a stretch where they’ve been hooking me up in a big way. First, my birthday yielded several brewing books and the all-grain system that I’ve been wanting for a while. I brewed what I think will be a good IPA this month (waiting to pop the first one so that I can update the recipe). And now the July-August issue of Brew Your Own has hit a bulls-eye for what I’m focused on with my brewing.

As I mentioned in a recent post, I’m thinking about brewing a Witbier. I’ve pretty much decided that I’m going to do it. Unfortunately this style traditionally has a grain bill of around 50% unmalted wheat, and my new single infusion mash system is somewhat inadequate to convert that type of grain. I’ve been spending my time away from the site figuring out the recipe and how to pull off the mash (separate post, but one word … decoction).

In addition to thoughts about the next brew, I’ve also been realizing how bummed I’ve been with the initial performance of my starters. They always end up doing the job, but it takes quite a while to start up, and they’re rarely as lively a fermentation as I’d like them to be. I’ve read many articles about using stir plates for stepping up the reproduction rates of yeast in a starter to have a larger colony of yeast to pitch, but when I look at getting one, sticker shock keeps me in the smack-swell-pitch-swirl camp. I’ve also been honest enough to know that if I don’t have good instructions, I’m not going to build my own.

So when the new BYO came in the mail, I got the double whammy: an article on the style and recipe formulation of Witbiers, an article on how to build a stir plate, and an in-depth article on starters. What a score given what I’m working on. Thanks, BYO!

The days are getting hotter, and I have a brand new all grain system waiting to be christened. What to brew … what to brew? I’ve got two ideas for the inaugural beer that I want to explore here. Because of the growing heat, and because I miss the hell out of the original Celis White (I was born and raised in Texas), I’m inspired to get a nectar-licious Belgian Witbier going ASAP. It truly is difficult to beat the thirst-quenching flavor of the soft, light, citrusy flavors that make up a Belgian Witbier spiced with hints of corriander and orange peel. The only thing is, it has been a while since I’ve done all grain, and working with 45-50% wheat is a scary prospect (stuck mash from the high gluten) when I’ve never lautered with this system.

The other option is more emotional and less seasonal in inspiration. The Cloud Cover winter ale I just finished off was, in a word, awesome, but it was a partial mash interpretation. I was also not able to control the mash quite the way I wanted to. Getting an all grain recipe dialed back in for an all grain beer that I’ve been brewing now for years will be like coming back home. It would be a very appropriate beer to start back up with.

Fearing a stuck mash shouldn’t keep me away from a great summer thirst quencher, and a few handsful of rice hulls should be plenty of insurance. I think it’s going to come down to, what would be a pleasure to drink, and it’s going to be damn hot here again soon … especially when the beer’s finally done. Feel free to register a vote via comments.