El Dorado Amber Ale

Now having an all-grain amber ale, IPA, and porter under my belt, I decided to try another all-grain amber ale. I based this recipe off of Amarillo Amber Ale from BYO magazine. I made some small substitutions for what was available at my local (and awesome) homebrew store, primarily in switching up the Weyermann malts with approximate equivalents. I also ended up using El Dorado and Nugget for the hops (they had just run out of Amarillo!). As I designed this recipe in BeerSmith, I was super excited to try a whole bunch of new grains and hops.; this sort of beer geekery is why I got into homebrewing! And even better, this was my most successful all-grain brewing session. I scored 75% efficiency, my best to date.

El Dorado Amber Ale

• 9.3 lbs. Best Malz Pilsen malt
• 0.25 lbs. aromatic malt
• 0.25 lbs. 40° crystal malt
• 0.25 lbs. carastan malt
• 0.25 lbs. caravienne malt
• 0.1875 lbs. chocolate malt
• 1 tbs. 5.2 pH stabilizer
• 0.5 oz. Nugget hops pellets (14.4% alpha acid) - 30 minutes boil
• 0.5 oz. El Dorado hops pellets (15% alpha acid) - 10 minutes boil
• 0.5 oz. El Dorado hops pellets (15% alpha acid) - 5 minutes boil
• 0.5 oz. El Dorado hops pellets (15% alpha acid) - 14 days dry hop
• 1/2 tsp. Irish moss
• 1 pkg. SafAle English Ale Yeast S04

Steps

• Add 1 tbs. of 5.2 pH stabilizer to grist
• Add 13.5 quarts of water at 170° to grist in mash tun, for target temperature of 152°. The temperature stabilized here within 5 minutes, and only dropped 1 degree over the entire 60 minutes of mashing.
• Mash for 60 minutes, add 1 gallon of water at 170°. I collected 3.5 gallons of runnings.
• Next, I added 3.1 gallons of water at 170°. The temperature settled at 160°. I let the mash tun sit for 10 minutes, and then I collected 3.4 gallons of runnings. This totaled 6.9 gallons of wort collected; with a gravity of 1.042, I calculate 75% efficiency for my mash.
• Because I had collected such a volume of wort, I elected to boil for a total of 90 minutes. Once I had the wort to a boil, it boiled for 60 minutes before the first hop addition.
• At 60 minutes, I added 0.5 oz. Nugget hops pellets.
• At 75 minutes, I added the Irish moss.
• At 80 minutes, I added 0.5 oz. of El Dorado hops pellets.
• At 85 minutes, I added 0.5 oz. of El Dorado hops pellets.
• At 90 minutes, I removed the pot from the heat, and began cooling it with my wort chiller.
• It took around 30 minutes to cool the wort to 75°. From here, I transferred the wort to my primary fermenter.
• I proofed the yeast in 1 cup of 85° degree water, and pitched it. The space where I am fermenting is about 65° ambient temperature--perfect for this yeast strain.
• I collected 5 gallons of wort, with a starting gravity of 1.053 (at 60°). Once I had adjusted the mash efficiency in BeerSmith for my system, I was exactly on the nose for o.g. This will potentially yield ~5.2% abv.

Beer Updates: California Vanilla Porter, Gondwana IPA, Fake Tire 3.0

I haven't done a brewing session in two weeks (life has been busy!), but I have been dabbling in a few other beer-related activities. These are outlined below.

Fake Tire Amber Ale
The Fake Tire 3.0 Amber Ale was bottled on March 23. Final gravity was 1.008; with a starting gravity of 1.045, this means I have 4.8% abv. I added 3.5 oz. of corn sugar dissolved in 2 cups of water. The total yield was 11 12-oz bottles, 7 22-oz bottles, and 8 16-oz bottles (grolsch).

Gondwana IPA
As noted before, this beer has had a bit of a roller coaster of flavors that has finally evened out on the positive side. On March 19, I added 2 oz. of Citra pellet hops for dry hopping. After these have had a full two weeks in the fermenter, I will bottle.

California Vanilla Porter
In order to achieve the eponymous vanilla flavor for this porter, I cut up and scraped 4 Madagascar vanilla beans and then soaked all of them in 2 oz. of vodka. They soaked for 10 days, and generated a really tasty and nice-smelling extract. Today, I finally got to transferring the porter from the primary fermenter into the secondary (after 15 days--the beer was brewed on March 15, and transferred on March 30). The beer is quite tasty, and weighs in at 1.014. Down from 1.064, that means the beer weighs in at 6.4% abv. Right before I sealed up the secondary, I tossed in the vanilla extract (plus pods). I figure I will bottle this in about a week.

California Vanilla Porter

California Vanilla Porter

• 5 lbs. US pale malt (2 row)
• 5 lbs. Maris Otter pale malt
• 1 lbs 60° crystal malt
• 1 lbs. Vienna malt
• 0.75 lb. chocolate malt
• 0.5 lb. carapils malt
• 1 oz. Cascade whole hops (60 minutes bittering)
• 1 oz. Cascade whole hops (30 minutes bittering)
• 1 tsp. Irish moss (15 minutes boil)
• 1 pkg. Danstar Nottingham yeast
• 4 Madagascar vanilla beans (cut up and soaked in a 2 ounces of vodka), added to the secondary

Steps

• I added a tablespoon of 5.2 pH stabilizer to the grist prior to mashing in, to help counteract previously suspected pH problems.
• Mash in with 16.8 quarts of water at 170°. This resulted in a mash that stabilized at 153° within 10 minutes. The temperature was down to 152° by 30 minutes, and 151° by 60 minutes.
• After 60 minutes, I added 0.5 gallons of water at 170°, and collected the first runnings. The gravity from these was 1.074 (at 60°).
• I then added 3 gallons of water at 170°, stirred the mash, and let it sit for 10 minutes. I collected the rest of the wort for a total starting volume (pre-boil) of 6.25 gallons. The gravity at the start of the boil was 1.052 (at 60°), indicating a mash efficiency of around 70%.
• I started the boil, adding 1 oz. of whole Cascade hops. After 30 minutes, I added an additional ounce of whole Cascade hops. For the final 15 minutes, I added 1 tsp. of Irish moss.
• I cooled the wort down to 78° using my cooling coil, which took ~25 minutes.
• I pitched the rehydrated yeast. Fermentation had visibly started within 12 hours.
• Starting gravity was 1.064 at 60°; approximately 4.85 gallons of wort were in the fermenter.

Notes

• I plan to add the vanilla to the secondary fermenter.
• This is the first all-grain batch for which I feel like things went fairly smoothly--finally a decent mash efficiency (I suspect I fixed a lingering pH issue), and a good batch of wort at the end.
• This beer was brewed on Saturday, March 15.

Laurasia IPA Bottled, Gondwana IPA Update

After a week of dry-hopping with 2 oz. of Simcoe hops pellets, I bottled the Laurasia IPA (8 March 2014). The gravity was unchanged from last check, at 1.020, resulting in a final abv of 6.5%. I added 4 oz. of corn sugar boiled in 1 cup of water. The final volume in the bottling bucket was 4.5 gallons, yielding 15 12-oz bottles, 13 18-oz. Grolsch bottles, and 6 22-oz. bottles.

I transferred the Gondwana IPA to the secondary fermenter on 9 March 2014. The gravity measured 1.010, down from 1.047, yielding an abv of 4.8%. Somewhat distressingly, there was a bit of a vegetal aroma and flavor to the beer; this had come off strong after the mash, but disappeared after the boil. With the aroma's reappearance, I was worried that I would have to toss out the beer. But, I rechecked a week later (16 March 2014), and the beer tasted and smelled just fine. A good argument for patience!

Fake Tire 3.0 and Laurasia IPA updates

On Thursday, February 27, I transferred the Fake Tire 3.0 (my first all-grain batch) over to the secondary fermenter. The gravity was down to 1.006, which works out to 5.1% abv. This is certainly the most I've ever had a beer ferment out, and I suspect this was due to the unintentionally low mash temperature.

On Saturday, March 1, I added 2 oz. of Simcoe hops pellets to the Laurasia IPA, for dry hopping.

Gondwana IPA

After my first experimental all-grain batch, I decided to refine my technique further and attempt an IPA this time. The previous batch had issues with temperature control and poor mash efficiency. The former was resolved by insulating the cooler lid with spray-foam and preheating the cooler/tun with hot water, as well as waterproofing my thermometer leads with silicone tape. I attempted to resolve the second issue by double-milling the grain at the local homebrew store as well as by improving temperature control as noted. Temperature control was much improved, although my efficiency still isn't where I want it to be (~57% mash efficiency). In any case, brewing science marches on.

Gondwana IPA

• 9.5 lbs. pale malt (2 row US)
• 1 lb. Vienna malt
• 0.5 lb. cara-pils malt
• 0.5 lb. 40° crystal malt
• 0.5 lb. 20° crystal malt
• 3 oz. Cascade whole hops (bittering)
• 1 oz. Cascade whole hops (late addition aroma, 5 minutes before flame-out)
• 1 tsp. Irish moss (last 15 minutes of boil)
• 1 package of Safale American Yeast (US-05)
• 2 oz. Citra hops pellets (dry hop)

Steps

• Mash-in with 15.4 quarts of water at 173°. I stirred once, after 30 minutes. The mash temperature ended at 154° after 60 minutes. The mash ended up at about 75 minutes, due to the time required to heat the sparge water.
• I sparged with 0.62 gallons of water at 170°, stirred, and let it sit for 10 minutes. I collected 2.78 gallons before the tun ran out of liquid. I then sparged with 3.22 gallons of water at 170°, stirred, let it sit for 15 minutes, and decanted. This round collected 3.34 gallons.
• In total, I collected 6.12 gallons of wort, with a gravity of 1.040 at 60°. This equals a mash efficiency of 56.7% as calculated by BeerSmith.
• I heated the wort to boiling and added the 3 oz. of whole Cascade hops. At the 45 minute mark, I added the Irish moss. At the 55 minute mark, I tossed in the final Cascade addition.
• It took about 25 minutes to get the wort down to 70°, using the wort chiller. I then whirlpooled the wort and let it sit for 20 minutes before transferring to the fermenter.
• In the end, I had 4.75 gallons of wort with a starting gravity of 1.047 at 60° This is a bit lower than conventional style for an IPA, but I figure that is just par for the course as I figure out this new mode of brewing.
• I pitched the yeast, and left the beer to ferment at an ambient temperature of ~62°.

Notes

• Mash efficiency is still lower than I like; next time I might aim for hotter sparge water to mobilize more of the sugars, and I will probably adjust my grain bill to compensate for a lower efficiency. I'll give it another try or two, but I am wondering if the crack I'm getting from the mill at the local homebrew supply is too coarse.