Orange Rye IPA

Since I have consumed almost all of the simcoe single hop IPA, it is time to brew more beer as I am running out! I brewed up an orange rye ipa that I think will be really tasty. It is a combo of several recipes, from denny conn and don osborn with my own hop twist. Here is the grist and hop schedule:

12lbs rhar 2 row
3 lbs Rye Malt
1 lb crystal 40
.5 rhar white wheat
.5 carapils

Mash 180>156 for 1 hour (mashed high as I knew this was going to be really bitter and I wanted enough sweet left over to balance it out. Sparge at 167 for 30 min.

FWH 60+ 1oz Simcoe 12.7
60 1oz Centennial 9.7
30 1oz Centennial 9.7
15 1oz Sweet Orange Peel
5 2oz Simcoe 12.7
2oz Simcoe 12.7 Dry hop

Yeast starter of 1056

OG 1.070!
FG ?

68% brew house efficiency

Brew day was split into two, I mashed and sparged friday night and heated the kettle to 185 covered it in blankets and let it sit over night. Woke up @ 6am and the kettle was @ 170, added FWH and brought the kettle to a boil.

I am hoping that this works out just fine as I rarely have time to fit in a brewday and if I can keep splitting it up I think that I will be able to brew more as I am not spending a whole day brewing. Stay tuned for updates! Cheers to good beer.

Single Hop Simcoe Tasting

First I will start out with the review of the single hop IPA simcoe edition. This beer pours a clear orange color with a nice cap that sticks. The aroma is of pungent simcoe hops, really nice strong simcoe smell from the big late editions and the dry hop. The taste is somewhat bitter up front, assertive but not overly bitter, there is some malt balance then a burst of hops come through and it finishes with just enough lingering bitterness with a hint of sweet. Mouthfeel is really nice, the oats definitely add a touch of smoothness that i really like. Over all I have to say that is by far and away my best beer yet. It fared really well at the single hop tasting and was enjoyed by all. This beer on an A to F scale gets an A. This is a beer I would buy and drink a massive amount of, even though I love the simcoe hops, I think that many beer drinkers would really like this offering. It is a shame that I have drank nearly the entire batch as I really should have saved some and entered it into a competition to see what the scores would be just to see how it measures up. I guess I will just have to brew it again! Also be sure to stock up on your simcoe and amarillo hops as there is a reported shortage of those hops in 2011! Midwest and Northern Brewer are out of them or have very little in stock and midwest doesn't anticipate another shipment of simcoes until next year! I got a pound in the mail and I will repeat this beer and then brew a few more beers where simcoe is the finishing hop.  Check out the pictures of the Nordeast brewers alliance single hop ipa beer tasting! Cheers to great beer!

Amarillo American Pale Ale - Update

The amarillo american pale ale is now in the sweet spot. The beer is crystal clear and all carbonation problems have worked themselves out. Time is really the key when having carbonation issues, this batch was bulk primed and I did not get the sugar mixed in well enough, so the last few bottles were gushers and the first ones bottled took over 5 weeks to prime. Another thing to note is the taste difference between the beer that were lightly carbed and the ones that were over carbed. The over carbed beers, at least early on, tasted so much more complex and fruity, the ones that were under carbed we harsh and extremely bitter. Strange to say the least as I thought that priming with dextrose did not change the flavor of the beer. That still may be true, if you wait long enough. Two things that I have had to admit to myself are that I am impatient when wanting to drink my beer, another is that I over bittered this batch a bit. Here is the true review of the first all grain batch I produced, the Amarillo American Pale Ale:

Pour - Pours a bright orange, almost crystal clear with a nice white two finger head.

Aroma - Citrus/spicy hop aroma. No sweetness in the aroma, a nice match of the spicy chinook hops and citrus fruity notes from the amarillo and simcoe hops, smells really nice.

Taste - Well carbonated, nice mouthfeel may be a bit thin, the bitterness is aggressive and a little over powering but not bad. Next time I would just do the 1/2oz chinook FWH and not add the other 1/2 oz @ 60. This beer would be much more balanced without the extra 1/2oz. But if you are a hophead you will like the bitterness, to an untrained palate it may taste a bit harsh and overbitter.

Finish - Lingering bitterness and some spicy notes, not sure where those came from simcoe/amarillo or just the combo? I really like the aftertaste and the flavor/aroma hops, this is a solid beer, not a competition beer. On an A to F scale I would rate this a B+!

Cheers to good beer!



Homegrown Hop IPA on Deck for this weekend!

I am really excited about this brew, my first with the nordeast homegrown hops! I will repost back with pics and notes from brewday.  Here is the bill for the HomeGrown IPA:

GRIST
65% 10lbs Golden Promise
6% 1lbs British Crystal 50-60L
6% 1lbs Biscuit Malt
6% 1lbs Munich Malt - 10L
3% .5lbs Cara-Pils/Dextrine

With 10-15 min left in boil
13% 2lbs Corn Sugar (Dextrose)
1 Whifloc Tablet
Yeast Nutrient

HOP SCHEDULE (ALL HOMEGROWN)
FW 60+ 2oz Magnum
1oz Cascade @ 20
1 oz Cascade @ 10
2 OZ Cascade @ flameout to 140 degrees
2 oz Cascade Dry Hop

Pitched a tube (no starter) of WL051 Cal V and
Since I didn't do a starter I also pitched a pack of Nottingham dry yeast (was worried about underpitching with a high SG)


Cheers and look out for the updates on brewday.

Black IPA Tasting

I tried one of the Black IPA's last night and I am extremely pleased with the results. There are definitely things that I would change, but overall I truly think that this is my best beer yet. The pour is a nice dark brown with a nice creamy off white head. The aroma is of coffee and dark malts with a nice hint of hops. Nothing is really overpowering in the aroma and it is nice and balanced. The taste is hard to describe, I will attempt to take you through my thoughts as I drank this, I thought wow nice bitterness but is it the hops or the dark malts? It the hops, no the malt, you can see where this is going...it is a highly drinkable beer with a really nice mouthfeel and a nice lasting bitterness from the hops and malt. The finish is spot on and begs for another sip. Again, I am extremely pleased with this beer. Things that I would change are I think that next time, and there will be a next time, most likely fairly soon, I would be more aggressive with the bittering hops and also with the aroma hops. I would dry hop this either another ounce of Anthum hops or change the dry hop and go with either cascade,centennial or simcoe. I would also mash longer to get some more color out of the black patent as I would like this to truly be a black IPA and not a brown IPA. Other than that it will stay the same. Cheers to good beer and don't drink swill.  I am planning on doing some more videos in the nearer future and there are a few projects in the works. I will let you know more when they finally happen but the should be right around the corner now and I should have those project in full motion with a few weeks! Check back for some updates!

Black IPA and Home Grown Hops Update

UPDATE:
Chalk one up to not thinking things through! The black bitter with the homegrown hops went down the drain last night. I am bummed as this is the first time that this happened, but hindsight is 20/20 and I don't know what the heck I was thinking! I was harvesting some of the cascades and I didn't dry them and just threw them into the bitter, well that is really dumb as I tasted a little bit last night and it tasted like drinking a blended up plant with some malt in it, man it was gross. Guess I will just chalk this one up and not repeat the same mistake again.

I have racked the Black IPA into secondary and I added 1 oz of Ahtanum plug hops. I also got the Amarillo pale bottled as well (I will be sure to do a tasting of this one!). I also was able to rack the black bitter with homegrown hops into secondary and I picked some of my cascades and threw those into secondary. It looks like I will have a few ounces of cascades and magnums to use up straight from the NE Mpls soil! I am excited about this and I am also excited to try the black bitter and see how the homegrown hops stack up.  Here is a pic of some of the hops that I picked last night.  Cheers!



HomeGrown Goodness!



All Grain Amarillo Pale Ale Update..

Here are some pics of the amarillo pale ale.  It is not quite ready for a "real" tasting but it is good and I am excited about it so far!

Nice Color with some chill haze but that should clear up

Nice head and some lacing

I have transferred the Amarillo Pale Ale into secondary with an ounce of simcoe for dry hopping. The beer looks and smells great and I am really excited as this is my first all grain beer. I should be bottling next weekend then 2 more weeks until I can taste the sweet nectar. One other first is that I saved the yeast from this batch. I still need to wash it, but I was really surprised at how easy it is and how much yeast I got! Since I whirlpooled in the kettle and siphoned into the better bottle I got almost no break material and very minimal hop sediment. When I checked on the yeast this morning in the fridge it settled nicely and there was a super small layer of hop trub in the saved yeast. I will decant and try to get all the yeast and use it on my next batch or the one after that. I don't want to hang onto it too long, but it is in a nice sanitized sealed mason jar for safe keeping. I am hoping to brew another all grain beer in the next 2-4 weeks and it will most likely either be the same recipe as Dank Brewers Dead Guy Ale Clone or a black ipa.  I am leaning toward the black IPA as WL001 would work really nice in that one and I will then have two really nice all grain hoppy ales to drink on for a while. We will see and I will keep you updated.  The bottling of the celebration stout went really well and I am looking forward to enjoying those with my brother in law when his new arrival comes this winter!  Here are some pics of the Amarillo in secondary!  Cheers!

First year Hops from NE Minneapolis!

Here is a video of my first year hops growing on the fence.  SWMBO wanted something to cover the fence as I planted some hops, a nice dual purpose compromise!  They look great and I am hoping to get at least a few ounces of hops this year!  They are budding like crazy and it looks like a good year for the magnums and cascades.  Cheers!

Cream ale in its prime...

The cream ale has been bottle conditioned for two months now.  Man what a difference time can make.  The flavor is way better and the hop aroma has really mellowed but is now in the sweet spot.  This is a highly quaffable session beer at 5% abv.  When Dank Brewer and I had a tasting there seemed to be a little twang in the beer, that is now gone and the finish is really nice.  The 1056 had great attenuation, by my calculations this yeast attenuated at 91%!  That is crazy!  The SG was 1.044 and the FG was 1.004.  The yeasties really liked this sweet wort!  The result is a really dry finish.  The beer has a really nice aroma, a little malty with the nice hop aroma from the 3oz dry hop, 2oz of cascade whole leaf and 1oz of centennial whole leaf.  The bitterness up front is mild, I used 1oz of cascades pellets for 60min and split a second ounce at 20 and 5 and 1 minutes.  This beer is really in its prime now and is really tasty!  Here are some very crappy pic of the 12oz I cracked last night.  There seems to be a little chill haze in this bottle, it was only in the fridge for about 90 min so maybe all of the yeast didn't drop out, I will try to get a better pic later, but here is what it looked like.  Cheers!

Fercious Dry Hopping

The furious clone has been racked to secondary for dry hopping.  I am going to dry hop for 10 days then bottle it.  It was my first time using Star-San and wow is it foamy...but don't fear the foam!  The racking went smooth and all seems well.  The beer is fairly clear but I am hoping that the time in secondary will do it some good as it does have some haze.  But as long as the final product is tasty who cares!  It smells tasty and it will be in the bottle in a little over a week.  Cannot wait to tase it!