Beer Tasting: Old Speckled Hen Clone

After a month of keg conditioning, it's time to do a taste test of my Old Speckled Hen clone attempt!

Old Speckled Hen Clone

• Basics
• Starting gravity = 1.055; final gravity = 1.011; abv = 5.8%; estimated IBU = 37
• Appearance
• The beer is a rich amber color with orangish hints; a modest bit of chill haze. Head is low, creamy and ivory-colored; fairly persistent. 
• Aroma
• Light caramel notes, with a bit of maltiness at the core. 
• Flavor
• Lightly malty, with a lingering bitterness on the finish. Very hop-centered. Unfortunately, I think the bitterness overrides the maltiness more than I like. This becomes a better beer as it warms up a bit, though. 
• Mouthfeel
• In the mouth, the carbonation has an almost creamy effect that is quite nice. The overall body, though, is moderately thin and a bit thinner than I prefer in this type of beer.
• Would I brew this again?
• In it current incarnation, probably not. The aroma is delightful, but the bitterness:body ratio is just a too high for my preference. I attribute this primarily to the fairly low mash temperature called for in the recipe, as well as use of the highly attenuative Nottingham yeast strain. If I were to do this again, I would mash higher (maybe 156°), use a different yeast strain (perhaps WLP002), and cut back the bittering addition just a touch. As it is, the current iteration just doesn't hit the round, malty notes that the original OSH does.
• Overall rating
• 4/10

Note (19 July 2015): After a few more weeks in the keg, this is a much better beer. The bitterness has rounded out quite a bit, and more balanced relative to the maltiness. So, I would up it to 6/10; brew again, with modifications to the mash temperature and a longer conditioning time (probably 6 or 7 weeks).

Brewing Update: Old Speckled Hen Clone and Red Oak Ale

Red Oak Ale sample

Tonight I transferred the Old Speckled Hen Clone and the Red Oak Ale (right) out of their respective primary fermenters and into their kegs. Visible fermentation had long since ceased for both.

Old Speckled Hen Clone
This beer had been in the primary fermenter for 10 days, with a reasonably vigorous fermentation. The Nottingham dry ale yeast was a little slow to start relative to the liquid yeasts I've been using lately, and didn't display signs of active fermentation until nearly 24 hours after pitching.

This beer had fermented down to 1.011, and is still a little hazy. I'm expecting that should settle out as the beer chills. The beer has a nice toffee color, and was a little more bitter than I expected. I think it is mainly because I had memories of a much more malt-forward beer; I expect this will come back to the fore as the beer conditions and the yeast continues to drop out. The distinct hops flavor is also probably due to the "spicier" English hops (where I usually have been using American hops in my other beers--I had forgotten how big the difference was!). Starting gravity was 1.055, which works out to 5.8% abv.

The kegged beer (~4.5 gallons) went directly into the keezer, where it is force carbonating under 13.5 psi at 42°.

Red Oak Ale
This beer showed vigorous fermentation within 9 hours of pitching the yeast. I agitated the beer a bit after 3 days (and once or twice more after that), following notes from yeast reviewers that the WLP041 strain tended to slow or stall out if left alone. I figured this was a good idea given the relatively high starting gravity, too (1.070).

The beer had fermented down to 1.015 over the past 18 days, with a gorgeously clear burn umber color (see above picture). This works out to 7.3% abv, one of the "bigger" beers I've done in some time. So far, I'm pretty happy with how it is turning out.

Before sealing up the keg, I added a mesh bag with 2 oz. of Willamette hops pellets for dry hopping. They'll stay in for ~14 days (or maybe even permanently). Tomorrow, I'll add 2 oz. of French oak chips (medium toast), boiled in water and contained in a mesh sack. Those will stay in for just a week before being pulled. I'm leaving the keg at room temperature for at least the next week.

Old Speckled Hen Clone

Time for another new recipe. One of my favorite English beers readily available in the USA is Old Speckled Hen, an ale that falls somewhere in the English Pale Ale / Extra Special Bitter style. A quick internet search turned up this recipe at BIABrewer.info (also available on the BeerSmith recipe cloud). BIABrewer user hashie posted the recipe, so it has their name at the helm. The original recipe was developed for the brew-in-a-bag technique, so I had to modify the grain bill slightly for my own batch sparge setup.

Hashie's Old Speckled Hen

• 8.25 lbs. Maris Otter pale malt
• 1 lb. 120° crystal malt
• 0.90 oz. U.S. Northern Brewer hops pellets (9.9% alpha, 4.6% beta), 60 minute boil
• 0.50 oz. U.K. Goldings (4.8% alpha), 15 minute boil
• 0.5 oz. U.K. Goldings (4.8% alpha), 5 minute boil
• 0.75 lb. Lyle's golden syrup, 5 minute boil
• 1 tsp. Irish moss, 10 minute boil
• 1 pkg. Nottingham yeast (Danstar)

Procedure

• I mashed in with 3 gallons of water at 164°, hitting 151.4° for the mash start. The mash temperature was at 148.5° after 35 minutes and 146° after 60 minutes. 
• I added 1.3 gallons of water at 180°, which raised the mash bed to 151°. I let this sit for 10 minutes, vorlaufed, and collected 2.75 gallons of wort.
• Next, I added 3.25 gallons of water at 185°, which raised the mash bed temperature to 168°. I let this sit for 10 minutes, vorlaufed, and collected the rest of the wort.
• In total, I collected 6.2 gallons of wort with a gravity of 1.043. This works out to ~69% efficiency. It's a little less than my best brews (~75%), so I wonder if that's because I didn't use 5.2 pH stabilizer on this batch.
• I brought the wort to a boil and added the Northern Brewer hops.
• After 45 minutes, I added the first dose of Goldings. After 50 minutes, I added the Irish moss. After 55 minutes, I added the second dose of Goldings and the golden syrup. The syrup has a really nice toffee note to it--I am interested to see how that will translate into the overall beer.
• After 60 minutes, I turned off the flame and chilled the wort down to ~78°.
• I transferred ~4.9 gallons of wort into the fermenter, with a starting gravity of 1.055.
• After pitching the yeast, I sealed everything up and put it in the fermentation chamber. Temperature is set for 66°.

Beer Tasting: Lab Bench Pale Ale

My Lab Bench Pale Ale has turned into a pretty nice brew; I did a formal tasting at the end of April (as well as a run-through with my homebrew club). Results are below.

• The Basics
• Starting gravity = 1.047; final gravity = 1.010; abv = 4.8%. Estimated IBU = 38
• Aroma
• Crisp and hoppy, as expected for a dry-hopped beer. A touch citrusy.
• Appearance
• Clear, rich golden hue; off-white head with fine bubbles and excellent persistance. 
• Flavor
• Hop-forward, only a hint of maltiness. Smooth bitterness on the finish.
• Mouthfeel
• A touch thin (but not overly so); excellent carbonation for the style
• Would I brew this again?
• I think so, but with a little modification. My mash temperature seems to have been about right, but perhaps a little carapils would help with body. I am pretty pleased with how the first wort hopping seems to have created a smooth bitterness for the beer. The aroma is also just about perfect!
• Overall rating
• 7.5/10

A Whole Mess of Kegging

Eagle Face Oatmeal Stout, ready for kegging

It's only five weeks until AHA (American Homebrewers' Association) in San Diego, and in preparation I've been brewing up a storm the past few weekends. In order to give everything sufficient time for conditioning, carbonation, and such, tonight was the night to keg it all.

Gondwana Pale Ale 1.2

• This beer had been in the primary fermenter for 3.5 weeks, for the first 10 days at 66°, and the rest of the time at ambient temperature.
• I racked the beer onto 2 ounces of Citra hops (13.2% alpha, 3.7% beta), weighted down in a bag at the bottom of the keg.
• Final gravity was 1.010; down from 1.048, this works out to 5.0% abv. The beer was wonderfully clear, with a medium yellow color and clean flavor.
• I'll let this dry hop at room temperature for a week or two before carbonating.

Eagle Face Oatmeal Stout 1.1

• This beer had been in the primary fermenter for 2.5 weeks; I cold-crashed it for the final 24 hours down to 38°.
• Final gravity was down to 1.021 from 1.061, which works out to 4.1% abv. The beer has really nice body to it, and should be delightful once carbonated.
• I began carbonating this beer immediately.

Bonedigger Brown Ale 1.1

• This beer had been in the primary fermenter for 11 days (cold crashed during the final 24 hours).
• Final gravity was 1.013, down from 1.052. This works out to 5.1% abv. Both flavor and appearance are on the mark.
• I began carbonating this beer immediately.

To move things along, I'm going to try a "quick carbonation" technique. For the oatmeal stout and brown ale, I began carbonation under 40 psi at 38°. In 24 hours, I'll lower pressure to 20 psi, and after another 24 hours I'll check out the carbonation. 

Gondwana Pale Ale 1.2

Mash on!

Ramping up for the National Homebrewers Association conference, my club is going to be serving our beers at club night! I've (perhaps foolishly) agreed to provide three kegs, using some of my more tried-and-true recipes. First out: Gondwana Pale Ale. I've made this recipe in two previous iterations, and have modified the grain and hops bill just a touch as my techniques are refined. Additionally, I'll be using a liquid yeast starter (WLP001) instead of dried yeast (Safeale US-05).

Gondwana Pale Ale 1.2

• 8.25 lbs. 2-row malt
• 0.85 lbs. Vienna malt
• 0.45 lbs. carapils malt
• 0.45 lbs. crystal 40 malt
• 1 oz. Citra hops (pellets, 13.2% alpha, 3.7% beta), 35 minute boil
• 1 oz. Citra hops (pellets, 13.2% alpha, 3.7% beta), 1 minute boil
• 2 oz. Citra hops  (pellets, 13.2% alpha, 3.7% beta), dry hop 14 days
• 1 tsp. Irish moss (boil 10 minutes)
• 1 pkg. California Ale Yeast (White Labs, WLP001); prepared 24 hours in advance in 1L starter

Procedure

• I mashed in with 3.185 gallons of water at 164°, nailing 152° on the nose for a mash temperature. This had declined to 151° after 10 minutes and 150.4° after 35 minutes.
• I added 1.18 gallons of water at 190°, which brought the temperature up to 154°. I let it sit for 10 minutes, vorlaufed, and collcted 3.25 gallons of wort.
• I added 3.18 gallons of water at 185°, which brought the mash temperature up to 172°. This was a touch high, so I added .125 cups of ice cubes, which brought the temperature down to 165°. I let it sit for another 10 minutes, vorlaufed, and collected the rest of the wort.
• All told, I collected 6.95 gallons of wort with a gravity of 1.037. This works out to ~72% efficiency. Because my efficiencies have been a touch low the last two batches (compared to the usual 75%+), I rechecked the gap on the rollers on my grain mill. Sure enough, they had slipped out just a touch, so I readjusted them back to 0.039.
• I brought the wort to a boil and added the first hops charge after 25 minutes (for a 35 minute total boil).
• I added the Irish moss after 50 minutes of boiling.
• I added the second hops charge 1 minute before flame-out. At flame out, I removed the "old" hops, left the "new" ones in to steep, and cooled the wort. Once it was down to ~75°, I transferred the wort to the fermenter and pitched the yeast.
• I have ~5.5 gallons of beer in the carboy, with a gravity of 1.048 (exactly where I was at for my last batch, too!). I'll be fermenting it at 66°.
• Within 12 hours after pitching the yeast, fermentation was well under way.
• I brewed this beer on Saturday, April 11.

Lab Bench Pale Ale Kegged

Tonight I kegged my Lab Bench Pale Ale, after 13 days in the primary fermenter. The yeast had dropped out pretty nicely, leaving a golden beer with a smooth bitterness and a crisp, slightly malty aroma. The gravity was 1.010, down from 1.047, which equals 4.8% abv and ~78% apparent attenuation.

I got around 4.75 gallons of beer. Before sealing up the keg, I added 2 oz. of Cascade hops in pellet form (7.5% alpha, 5.5% beta). In about 5 days, I'll start carbonating (leaving the hops in place); the goal is to have this ready to go on Easter!

Lab Bench Pale Ale

Another weekend, another brewing session. Because the IPA on tap just ran out, I figured it was a good time to rev up another IPA or pale ale. A recipe I saw in the September 2013 issue of BYO was intriguing. Miss'ippi #BIGCASCADE Pale Ale was originally brewed in honor of the legalization of homebrewing in Mississippi, back on July 1, 2013. Beyond its historic interest, this recipe also interested me because it incorporated hops in the mash as well as first wort hopping. I had heard of both techniques, but never used them, so this seemed like a great opportunity to expand my brewing horizons. I made a few other (minor) adjustments to the recipe for my equipment, and thus Lab Bench Pale Ale was born.

As another note, I added a small amount of gypsum to the boil. My hope is that the sulfate from this will help add some "zing" to the hops character. Additionally, I prepared the yeast starter 4 days in advance, and cold crashed it in the refrigerator after 3 days. After approximately 36 hours, and just prior to pitching the yeast, I decanted most of the spent wort, and pitched just a yeast slurry of approximately 0.5 L volume.

Finally, I have been doing some adjustments to my equipment profile in BeerSmith, to try and get my mash temperatures a little closer. For this time around, I assumed a mash tun temperature of 164°. Finally, that seemed to do the trick, and I hit my mash temperature pretty much square on.

Lab Bench Pale Ale

• 8.6 lbs. 2-row malt (Great Western Malting Co.)
• 6 oz. 40° L crystal malt
• 0.5 oz. whole Cascade hops (added to mash; approximately 85 minutes steeping total)
• 0.5 oz. whole Cascade hops (first wort; steeped in wort for approximately 45 minutes and boiled for 60 minutes)
• 1 oz. whole Cascade hops, 20 minute boil
• 0.75 oz. Cascade hops pellets (7.5% alpha, 5.5% beta), 10 minute boil
• 1.25 oz. Cascade hops pellets (7.5% alpha, 5.5% beta), added at flame-out and steeped for ~30 minutes during chilling of wort
• 2 oz. Cascade hops pellets (7.5% alpha, 5.5% beta), dry hop for 10 days
• 1 tbs. 5.2 pH stabilizer (added to mash)
• 8 g. powdered gypsum (added to boil)
• 1 tsp. Irish moss  (10 minute boil)
• California Ale Yeast (White Labs WLP001), prepared 4 days in advance with 1.5 L starter

Anticipated statistics

• 1.047 o.g., 1.010 f.g., 4.8% abv
• 37.8 IBU
• 5.0 SRM

Procedure

• I mashed in with 4 gallons of water at 164°. The grains, 0.5 oz. of whole hops, and 5.2 pH stabilizer were all included in this mix. The temperature had stabilized at 152° within 10 minutes, and was down to 150° after 30 minutes.
• After a 60 minute mash, I added 1.35 gallons of 190° water, let it sit for 10 minutes, vorlaufed, and collected approximately 3.25 gallons of wort.
• I added 3.14 gallons of water at 180°, which brought the mash up to 168°. I let this rest for 10 minutes, vorlaufed, and collected the remainder of the wort.
• All together, I collected ~6.65 gallons of wort, with a gravity of 1.038 at 60°. This translates to 76.8% mash efficiency, within a percentage point or so of where I predicted.
• I added the gypsum and brought the wort to a boil, adding hops at the designated intervals. Thus, hops were added at 40 minutes, 50 minutes (along with Irish moss), and 60 minutes (at flame-out). I noted a larger than normal amount of hot break; I'm not sure why this was. 
• I chilled the wort down to 72°, transferred it to a carboy, and pitched the yeast. I plan to start fermentation (the first 12-24 hours) at 67°, and will do the remainder of fermentation at 65°.
• I plan to transfer to the keg and dry-hop in 7 to 10 days.
• Starting gravity was 1.047, exactly as calculated by BeerSmith. This has been a really good brew session, in terms of nailing efficiency, temperatures, volumes, and gravities.

Beer Update: Gondwana Pale Ale 1.1, Vaalbara Session IPA

Last night (August 29), I bottled up the Gondwana Pale Ale 1.1 and transferred the Vaalbara Session IPA over to the secondary. Details are below.

Gondwana Pale Ale 1.1

• This beer had been dry hopping for 12 days. It had a final gravity of 1.011, which works out to 4.7% abv.
• I filled two mini-kegs, which were each primed with 1.5 tbs. of corn sugar. The remaining beer, totaling 1.9 gallons, was bottled and carbonated with 1.65 oz. of corn sugar to reach a target carbonation  of 2.5 volumes.
• Total yield was 2 5-L kegs, 4 22-oz. bottles, 2 18-oz. bottles, and 8 12-oz. bottles.
• This beer promises to be really nice -- a pretty clean flavor and just the Citra hops aroma I was aiming for.

Vaalbara Session IPA

• After six days in the primary fermenter, I transferred the beer over to a secondary fermenter.
• I racked the beer directly onto ~1.75 oz. of Cascade hops pellets, with approximately 3.75 gallons transferred. The carboy went into my temp-controlled fermenting freezer, set to 66°.
• At the moment, the beer is fairly clear and perhaps a little green in flavor, but there is nothing "off" for flavors relative to what a beer should have at this point in fermentation. Gravity is 1.015, down from 1.045, which calculates to 3.9% abv. I will not be surprised if the gravity drops another point or two in the next two weeks before bottling.

Beer Update: Gondwana Pale Ale 1.1

Today I transferred the Gondwana Pale Ale over to the secondary fermenter, following 9 days of primary fermentation. Some highlights:

• Gravity is 1.012 at 60 degrees, down from 1.048. This works out to 4.7% abv and apparent attenuation of 74%.
• I racked the beer onto 2 oz. of Citra hops pellets (14.5% alpha, 3.9% beta), and plan a solid 2 weeks of dry hopping before bottling/kegging.
• In total, 5 gallons of beer was transferred; there was about 0.25 gallons of trub, and another 0.25 gallons of stuff that was just too murky to bother with.
• The sample is tasted has a slight whiff of Citra hops, presumably from the late addition during the boil. This is quite nice! As with the first version of this recipe, there is a very slight vegetal/off-malty after-taste. Because I haven't really had this with my other all-grain recipes, I wonder if it is something inherent to the malts I used (maybe the Vienna malt?). In any case, the aroma was very transient in the last batch, and is much fainter by comparison in this batch, so I am not too worried.
• I set the fermenting chamber (i.e., temperature controlled freezer) to 64 degrees, up 2 degrees from the primary fermentation. I may raise it again slightly later this week.

Gondwana Pale Ale 1.1

Back in March, at the start of my all-grain brewing, I brewed up Gondwana IPA. The resulting beer turned out unexpectedly tasty, and hooked me on Citra hops (especially for dry-hopping). Because I was still figuring out my techniques at the time, my mash efficiency was a little low (~57%), and the result was closer to a pale ale than a traditional IPA in some respects. Thus, I retooled the original recipe as a pale ale, cutting back some of the malt and utilizing Citra as the only hops for the brew. As before, I want a prominent hops aroma, so this beer will get a nice dry-hopping.

Gondwana Pale Ale (version 1.1)

• 9 lbs. 2 row malt
• 1 lb. Vienna malt
• 0.5 lb. cara-pils malt
• 0.5 lb. 40° crystal malt
• 1 oz. Citra hops (bittering, first addition; pellet form; 14.5% alpha, 3.9% beta)
• 1 oz. Citra hops (bittering, second addition)
• 1 tsp. Irish moss
• 1 pkg. Safale American dry yeast (US-05, 11 g)
• 2 oz. Citra hops (dry hopping)

Steps

• First, I preheated the mash tun with 9 gallons of water that was as hot as possible from the tap.
• In my brew pot, I heated 14 quarts of water to 170°. I added the milled grains to the mash tun with 1 tbs. of pH 5.2 stabilizer, and mashed in. The temperature stabilized at 154°. After 30 minutes, the temperature was 153°.
• After 60 minutes, added 1 gallon of water at 185°, and let it sit for 10 minutes or so. I drained the tun, extracting ~2.9 gallons of wort.
• Next, I added 3.2 gallons of water at 195°. This raised the mash temperature to ~175°, a little warmer than I wanted. So, I added 1 quart (.25 gallons) of ice cubes. This dropped the temperature down to 168°. I let the mix sit for 10 minutes before draining.
• I collected a total of 6.7 gallons of wort, with a preboil gravity of 1.043. This works out to a mash efficiency of ~73%.
• I heated the wort to boiling, aiming for a total of 60 minutes at boil. After 30 minutes, I added the first addition of hops.
• After 50 minutes, I added the Irish moss.
• After 58 minutes, I added the second addition of hops.
• After 60 minutes of boiling, I turned off the heat, removed the hops (they were all bagged), and chilled the wort to ~80°.
• Once the wort was chilled, I transferred it to the primary fermentation vessel. Along the way, it was oxygenated using my Venturi pump.
• The yeast was rehydrated in 2 cups of preboiled water at ~90°, and pitched into the wort.
• Starting gravity was 1.048 at 60 degrees, with ~5.3 gallons of wort. I can probably expect around 5% abv in the end.
• The beer is fermenting at 64°; after 1 week I will transfer it to the secondary fermenter and dry-hop for 2 weeks, prior to bottling.

Notes

• Total ingredient cost for this was $27.65. Assuming around a 5 gallon yield in the end, the cost per 12-oz. bottle will be around $0.55.
• In order to maximize extract efficiency, I have been using a double crush on the mill at my local homebrew shop. Based on a visual inspection of the milled grain, and on conversations with the owner, I decided to try just a single pass through the mill this time. Based on my efficiency, that was an okay decision.
• In the past, I had been a little frustrated by trying to raise the temperature of the grain bed during the second collection of wort. Thus, I tried adding much hotter water (~195°) than recommended by BeerSmith (168°), and got much better results both in terms of temperature as well as mash efficiency. There was a little fiddling to keep the temperature below 170°, so I might aim for around 185° to 190° next time.

Claremont IPA

At long last, it's here. . .the first brewing session of the season! I'm happy to be brewing with Dr. Brian, who lives just up the street and has been wanting to get back into the home brew thing. We're working at his place for this first batch - my apartment is just a touch too warm during the day still, and he has a nice cool basement.

I've been wanting to do an honest IPA for some time now. . .last year's Kamikaze Pale Ale was good, but lacked that level of in-your-face hoppiness that I crave. So, it's time for another concoction. This one I call Claremont IPA.

Ingredients for "Claremont IPA"

• 0.5 lb. carapils malt
• 6 lbs. dry American light malt extract
  
• 2 oz. Centennial hops (pellet form; 8% aa)
• 1 oz. Cascade hops (whole)
  
• 11 g active dry Nottingham brewing yeast (Danstar brand)

Steps

• I heated 2.5 gallons of tap water to 158 degrees Fahrenheit, and steeped the carapils malt (in a nylon bag) for 25 minutes
• I gently rinsed the carapils milt in warm (~158 degree) tap water, to bring the total volume up to 3 gallons
• Then, I heated the water to boiling and added the dry malt extract and 2 oz. of the Centennial hops.
• After another 55 minutes of boiling, I added 1 oz. of Centennial hops
• After 5 minutes of boiling, I removed the wort from the heat and chilled it down to 70 degrees.
• After putting the wort in the primary fermenter and topping it up to around 4.5 gallons with pre-boiled, chilled water, I pitched the yeast.
• On measuring the specific gravity, I noticed it was quite low - only 1.025! This is probably because I had left a quantity in the pot with the worst of the accumulated solids. Apparently, just a little too much! So, I boiled up 1.5 lbs amber dry malt in 1 gallon of water for five minutes, chilled it in ice, and then added it to the fermenter. This resulted in an original gravity of 1.066 (8.5 percent potential alcohol).

Upcoming Plans

• After one week, I'm going to transfer to a secondary fermenter and add 1 oz. of Cascade hops, for some dry-hopping action.
• Then, I'll probably let it condition for another two or three weeks before bottling.
  

Ingredients Cost Summary
A half pound of carapils malt costs $1; the malt extract (including shipping) cost around $32. The Centennial hops cost $8.75 for two ounces, and it was $1.50 for the yeast. The rest of the hops were "free" from South Dakota, so we have a total materials cost of $43.25. Assuming a typical yield, we're looking at around $1/bottle. The real killer right now is getting the dry malt extract. . .unfortunately, my closest home brew shop (which I otherwise love) doesn't carry the light stuff.

First Taste of KPA

Over the past week or two, I've been (impatiently) cracking open a bottle or two of the Kamikaze Pale Ale. I don't think it has fully carbonated yet - after two weeks, it has a nice fizz, but not quite the level of bubbly that I would prefer. My red ale had similar behavior at first, so I think I'm just being impatient. At any rate, I agitated the bottles a bit tonight to see if that will help the carbonation along. Some brewing sites I've read recommended this procedure to "rouse" the yeast if it's not carbonating at the preferred rate. Mostly, I think I just need to wait a little longer.

On first pouring the beer, I get a mild hops scent. The beer is a nice red color (as mentioned in a previous post), and the carbonation (at this writing) is manifested as a light but steady stream of tiny bubbles along the side of the glass. The taste is smooth, with some definite hops flavor, but not overly bitter. The finish is pretty smooth, too. I don't know if it quite has as much "body" as I'd like on my beers. There is relatively little head, too, but I think this might just be a factor of the present low carbonation.

So what might I do differently next time? I might experiment with steeping another type of malt or two, to add a little extra body (but not too much). Perhaps I just need to crack the pale malt a little finer. I think I'll also try dry-hopping, to give it a more prominent hops aroma (the aroma is just a little milder at present than I might like). Additionally, I'll try boiling with a greater water volume - I only did two gallons (modified after one recipe I saw) for the boil this time, but I suspect I'd get slightly better hops utilization if I used 2.5 or 3 gallons. Next time, I'll also try using dry malt instead.

Despite all these ideas for "next time," I still think it's a pretty drinkable beer. I like the smoothness, and it will be even better once that last bit of carbonation settles in.

KPA Bottled

This evening, I bottled up the KPA. I siphoned it out of the carboy (everything had settled out nicely - there was relatively little sediment, and the beer looked very clear). For primer, I boiled 3/4 cup of corn sugar in 2 cups water, cooled the mix, and stirred it in to the beer. I got 37 12-ounce bottles and 4 16-ounce bottles, for a grand total of 41 bottles. Accounting for the pint bottles, this is a slightly higher bottle count than the last batch (which gave me 41 12-ounce bottles).

The beer has a nice amber color, and tastes pretty good so far (if one can trust flat beer). It's a little darker than I was expecting, so maybe next time I'll use only dry malt extract (which I've read can give a slightly lighter color). Now to wait for carbonation. . .

KPA Update

I just transferred the KPA to my secondary fermenter, to settle out a bit while I'm away for Christmas. Things looked A-OK in the primary, and the beer has a final gravity of 1.011. With my starting gravity of 1.041, this gives about 4 percent alcohol.

The beer has a very nice, dark golden hue, and a good hoppy aroma. The hops flavor is strong but smooth, so I think this will be a very good one once I get it carbonated. Now just to wait a few weeks. . .

KPA Bubbling Away

I just checked on the KPA I started yesterday. . .it's brewing fine (as viewed from the outside of the bucket - there's lots of krauesen that I can see when I shine a light through), but no bubbles are evident in the air lock (which is quite firmly in place). So, I'm pretty certain that the bucket lid isn't entirely airtight, and a little carbon dioxide is escaping somewhere around the edges. Fortunately, this seems to be a pretty small deal in the grand scheme of home brewing, so I'm still not going to worry about it.

Kamikaze Pale Ale

This is the first time I've ever stepped free of the confines of a brewing kit, so I've called this recipe "Kamikaze Pale Ale," or KPA for short. I started with the American pale ale in Charlie Papazian's Complete Joy of Home Brewing (3rd Edition), and changed ingredients as I felt appropriate. Some of the ingredients were determined by what was available at the nearest home brew supply shop, but that's half the fun! With the Cascade hops, I suppose it's an American pale ale, but the Nottingham yeast probably puts it into the British category. We'll see what it tastes like in the end!

I'm going to go into a fair bit of detail for this recipe, but I don't expect to do quite as much in future posts.

Here are the basic ingredients:
1/2 pound pale ale crystal malt (at least, that's what it said on the tub at the store)
6.6 pounds Bries CBW Golden Light Pure Malt Extract
3 oz. whole Cascade hops from South Dakota (2 oz. for the full boil, 1 oz. for the finish)
11 g active dry Nottingham brewing yeast (Danstar brand)

Here's what I did:

1. I steeped the crystal malt (all wrapped up in a cheesecloth sack) in two gallons of water, heated to 160 degrees, for 30 minutes.
2. I removed the crystal malt, let it drip out a bit, and discarded it. Then, I heated the whole mixture to a boil.
3. I added all of the liquid malt extract and the hops (again, enclosed in a cheesecloth bag), and then boiled the whole mixture for 60 minutes. Two minutes before the end, I added the finishing hops.
4. I cooled the whole mess in the sink - it took about 15 minutes to get it down to a reasonable temperature. Then, I poured it into the primary fermenter and topped it up to five gallons with cold tap water (with one gallon of Target's purified water in the mix - it was sitting in the house, so I thought I'd get rid of it).
5. Finally, I sprinkled the contents of the yeast packet across the top of the whole thing, and sealed it up.
6. I put the fermenter in the closet, where it's a happy 70 degrees. Now, I'll just wait until next weekend, when I'll siphon it into the secondary (a glass carboy - newly acquired as of last weekend) and let it sit over the Christmas break.
   

Other odds and ends:
For this recipe, I decided to try crushing the crystal malt at home. Easier said than done. In the end, I crushed a quarter pound at a time in two gallon freezer bags (one inside the other) by rolling over the grains with a large beer bottle. The grains ended up a little more floured than I might have liked, so we'll see if/how this affects the end result.

My starting gravity is 1.041. A little lighter than I might like, but we'll see how it turns out. If I were to do it again, I'd probably only top it up to 4.5 gallons (although interestingly enough, I didn't have any loss due to boiling over this time).

I sampled a bit of the wort - it's very hoppy and quite sweet (as I'd expect on both counts). I think this is going to be a good one!