Chocolate Rye Porter #2

I brewed this a few months ago, and after some feedback from friends and judges I made some minor changes. I am making this for the Emerald Cost Beer Festival in September. I switched from Malted Rye to Flaked Rye and upped that to 2 lbs and added in some Special "B" and Roasted Barley. You can see more of the changes below. Also I am going to up the mash in temp from 150 to 156 in hopes to get a bit more mouthfeel from the beer.

Chocolate Rye Porter

Malt:

8 lbs: Marris Otter

1.5 lbs: Flaked Rye

.75 lbs: Chocolate Rye

.5 lbs: Cara-Pils

2 oz: Belgian Special "B"

.2 oz: Roasted Barley

Hops:

.38 oz: Warrior 15.4AA @ 60 min

1.0 oz: Willamette 4.6AA @ 15 min

1.0 oz: WIllamette 4.6AA @ 5 min

.5 oz Centennial 7.4AA @ 0min

Yeast:

Safale S-04 English Ale Yeast

Target OG: 1.061

Target FG: 1.016

Target IBU: 34

Mash Temp: 154

Mash Volume: 3.59 gals

Mash Rest Time: 90 min

Mash Out Temp: 170 (210)

Mash Out Volume: 1.30 gals

Mash Out Time: 15 min

Sparge Temp: 175 (200)

Sparge Volume: 2 gals

1st Runnings: 1.066 (1.048 @146deg)

Final Runnings:1.062 (1.034 @ 175deg)

Mash Efficiency: 81%

Actual OG:1.068

Actual FG:

ABV:

Apparent Attenuation:

Hopville Recipe

Update 7.3.2009: Brewday is done and it went perfectly. I hit my mash temp on the nose. Once again I over shot my gravity because my efficiency was around 81%. I don't know why I have been getting some outstanding efficiency and I dont know why or how that is happening. Yeast is added so we will see in a few weeks if the new recipe is going to work.

Ferocious IPA

This recipe started out as a clone of Surly's Furious IPA, but I couldn't find any Golden Promise or the correct alpha acid hops to go with the clone recipe. SO I changed out the GP for some pale ale malt and changed up the hop schedule a bit to try and balance everything out. Here is the recipe.

Ferocious IPA

Malts:

10.5 lbs: Weyermann Pale Ale

1.5 lbs: Belgian Caramunich

3/4 lb: American Crystal 60

Hops:

.75 oz: Warrior 15.2aa 60 minutes

.50 oz: Magnium 12.4aa 60min

.25 oz: Simcoe 11.9aa 20 min

.25 oz: Amarillo 8.0aa 20 min

.25 oz: Simcoe 11.9aa 15 min

.25 oz: Amarillo 8.0aa 15 min

.25 oz: Simcoe 11.9aa 10 min

.25 oz: Amarillo 8.0aa 10 min

.25 oz: Simcoe 11.9aa 5 min

.25 oz: Amarillo 8.0aa 5 min

.25 oz: Simcoe 11.9aa KO

.25 oz: Amarillo 8.0aa KO

1.0 oz: Amarillo 8.0aa Dry Hop

2.0 oz: Simcoe 8.0aa Dry Hop

Yeast:

Safale S-04 English Ale

Target OG: 1.060

Target FG: 1.015

IBU: ~66

Target ABV: 6.0

Mash Temp: 154

Mash Volume: 4.03 gals

Sparge Temp: 170 (195)

Sparge Volume: 2.94 gals

Actual OG: 1.070

Actual FG: 1.008

Actual ABV: 8.5%

Apparent Attenuation: 88%

Hopville Recipe

Update 5.30.2009: I don't know what is happening but the past two beers I have done I have overshot my target OG by .010. I reached 1.070 today and was looking for 1.060. Oh well I the only problem I have with that is that the IBU in this beer will be a bit lower than expected. I pitched the yeast and hopefully this will get started quickly.

Update 6.6.2009: I think fermentation is over and I added in the 2oz of Simcoe and 1oz of Amarillo for Dry Hopping. The gravity read 1.009 which is waaaaaay too dry. So the yeast over attenuated the beer a bit. We will see how it turns out when I bottle in a week.

Update 6.27.2009: After a few weeks of "lagering" this beer is really great. Ill try to bottle this soon, if and when I stop being lazy :)

Update 6.29.2009: Bottled tonight. We will see what happens after a week or so. Without carbonation this beer tastes wonderful. Best IPA I have done yet I think. Lets hope it finishes well.

BMO Score Sheets

I received my score sheets yesterday via UPS. In the box were a cannister of C-Brite, 2 ribbons and my score sheets. Ill be posting pictures later of the ribbons and the c-brite. I've never used C-Brite before only B-Brite, I'm sure it's the same thing. Here are the links to my score sheets.

Big Bad Brown
Coffee Big Bad Brown
Chocolate Rye Porter (3rd Place)
Summer Saison (2nd Place)

Some very good feed back on these sheets and I have to say that the BMO has given me the best feed back out of the 3 compitions that I have been in. I look forward to entering next year.

Berliner Weisse (Bugs)

For the past 6 months of brewing I have wanted to get into brewing beers with bugs like Brett or Lacto. There are many different kinds to choose from but I wanted to start out easy and go from there. It's very important when dealing with bugs that you have separate hoses and equipment cause you would not want to get any of the bugs into your regular beers. I had never tried a Berliner Weisse before and from what I have read and heard it should be pretty easy. Small amount of grain with almost 50% wheat. Mash then sparge till you get 5 gallons, then boil for 15 minutes, cool and pitch the yeasts. This equals a very low gravity with almost no hop aroma or taste. Depending on what time you throw in the bugs depends on how tart/sour the beer gets. Being that the bugs really don't have a ton of sugars to deal with anyway. So I will create a starter for the bugs then throw in both yeasts at the same time and just let it go to town.

Berliner Weisse

Grains:

4lbs: Bohemian Pils

3lbs: Bohemian Wheat

Hops:

1oz Tettnang 5.2aa mash

Yeast:

WLP029 German Ale/Kolsch

WLP677 Lactobacillus Bacteria

Target OG: 1.033

Target FG: 1.005

IBU: ~ 3

Mash Temp: 149

Mash Volume: 2.33 gals

Mash Out Temp: 188 (158)

Mash Out Vol: .87 gals

Sparge Temp: 162

Sparge Volume: 2.5 gals

Actual OG: 1.033

Actual FG: 1.002

ABV: 4%

Apparent Attenuation: 93.8%

Hopville Recipe

Update 5.28.2009: Brew day was terrible. I over shot my target OG at 1.047, so I added some water to get it back down. Right now it's fermenting away so we will see what happens with this is finished.

Update 6.6.2009: Checked gravity and its down to 1.002 but the Lacto never kicked in. So it looks like I will have to add some Lactic Acid when I bottle these beers. I might have to also see about adding some yeast to bottle too since there are basically no sugars left in the beer.

Update 6.16.2009: Took a smell of this today and it is actually starting to smell sour. Ill pull out a sample tomorrow and see where it is. I hope I don't have to add any lactic acid.

Update 6.25.2009: Smell is becoming more sour by the day. I think I will let this just sit for another month or two and see what it gets me. I still haven't taken a sample since the sour smell started to come though, hopefully I will stop being lazy and get around to that soon.

Brewmasters Open Results

I just got word that 2 of my beers placed 2nd and 3rd in their respective categories. You can look here for the results. My Summer Saison placed 2nd in the Belgian & French Ale category between 2 Belgian Speciality Ales. One looks like a Belgian IPA, but the one that took 1st I don't know anything about. My Chocolate Rye Porter took 3rd in the Porter category. Looks like all 3 finalists in that category were all Robust Porters. I already know how to make them better next time so we will see what happens. So now I will be looking for my score sheets to be coming in soon and am waiting to see what the judges had to say about those two beers and also what they said about the ones that didn't place.

Table 12 - Porter (12 Entries)
Bob Carlton, Brewmasters of Alpharetta Alpharetta,GA BrewDepot Porter 12B Robust Porter 1
Scott Hedeen, The Burnt Hickory Brewery Ackworth,GA The Courageous Conductor 12B Robust Porter 2
Nick Hudson, Carboy Junkies Birmingham,AL Chocolate Rye Porter 12B Robust Porter 3

Table 26 - Belgian & French Ale (14 Entries)
Rick Foote, Chicken City Ale Raisers Murrayville,GA Guy Noir 16E Belgian Specialty 1
Nick Hudson, Carboy Junkies Birmingham,AL Summer Saison 16C Saison 2
Young Martin, The Covert Hops Society Riverdale,GA Forbidden Fruit IPA 16E Belgian Specialty 3

The Drunk Scotsman "Wee Heavy"

I've always wanted to do a Strong Scotch Ale better known as a "Wee Heavy" due to the alcohol content in the beer. I'm not going to go into a history lesson here on how the Scotch actually went about making their beer, lets say it's a very unique process that I don't really find too much fun or efficient. They would normally do a "Double Mash" and get 2 beers out of it. The 140-/ Shilling and the 2 Penny Ale. I guess I could have done that with this, but the brew day would have lasted 10 hours. I love brewing I just don't feel like staying up to 2:00 in the morning finishing up a brew day. So what I did was brewed 3 gallons in my brew kettle then brewed 1 gallon on the stove by itself and really cranked it up to let it boil down to 1/2 gallon or less. I wanted to go for a caramelized flavor and aroma in the beer. So we will see where this little experiment gets me in a few months. I want age this beer on top of some french oak chips for a few months so that it may add some complexity to the beer.

The Drunk Scotsman "Wee Heavy"

Malt:

13 lbs: American 2-Row Pale

3 lbs: American 2-Row (Baked for 15 min @350)

Hops:

1.0 oz: EKG 4.2aa 60 min

1.0 oz: EKG 4.2aa 45 min

Yeast:

White Labs Edinburgh Scottish Ale (WLP028)

Mash Temp: 156deg Held for 1 hour 15 minutes
Sparge Temp: 165deg Held for 15 minutes
Boil Time: 60 minutes

Actual OG: 1.110

Actual FG: 1.030

ABV: 11.9%
Apparent Attenuation: 70.9%

Hopville Recipe

Update 5.5.2009: Day after brew day. Fermentation has started and beer is a nice cool 58 degrees right now. I am going to try and ferment this around that temperature due to that is what the Scots did and I don't want any off phenol flavors in this beer. So this will be on low and slow for a few weeks.

Update 5.10.2009: Took gravity reading and its at 1.040 and still fermenting away. I don't really know if this will come out being a "Wee Heavy" or not. Its tasting more of a Strong Ale type beer. I am getting some noble hops from the EKG, but hopefully that will drop out over time. Ill take another reading in a few days and then rack to secondary.

Update 5.12.2009: Gravity now at 1.034 which is 11.3% abv. I racked to secondary and added about 1oz of French Oak chips that have been sitting in some Bourbon for about 2 months now. Im sure the gravity will drop move over the next few days but I am thinking that the alcohol will kill off the remainder of the yeast before it gets too dry. Im shooting for 1.030 which would be about right. Now it sits for a few months on top of the oak and lets hope this turns out good.

Update 5.14.2009: We have reached the end of fermentation. FG is 1.030 which is what I was shooting for. 11.9%abv is quite high and you can taste it. Its not a Scotch Ale but something completely different all together. After some months aging on the oak chips we shall see how it turns out. Getting ~70% attenuation out of the yeast I used I think its really good. Keep in mind that normal scotch ale yeasts only attenuate to around 60-65%.

Bluff City Brewers Extravaganza Results

I received my score sheets from the Bluff City Brewers Extravaganza this week. The scores were a bit backwards from what I thought they would have been, but still decent scores none the less.

Amarillo IPA
Chocolate Rye Porter

I thought and still think that the Porter is the far superior beer, but as you can tell from the scores that's not the case. I took the response and already tweaked the recipe a bit so we will see how it comes out next time. I am planning to enter 3-4 beers into the Brewmasters Open next week. I will be entering my Big Bad Brown along with the Coffee Brown and my Chocolate Rye Porter again. Hopefully I can get my Saison bottled up in time but I doubt I can.