Author Archives: Andy Farke

IPA and Amber Ale Updates

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A few odds-and-ends. . .

Fake Tire Amber Ale 1.1
This brew was transferred to the secondary on Sunday, February 12, after 8 days in the primary. The gravity at that time was 1.012, down from 1.050 (giving a current ABV of 5.0%). Unlike the first version of this recipe, I did not get an estery aroma out of the primary fermenter – maybe because I fermented at a slightly lower temperature?

Fake Tire 1.0

Fake Tire Amber Ale 1.0
The original version of this recipe has conditioned very, very nicely, and as a result I’ve been drinking it with some regularity. A few weeks back a friend and I did a blind taste-test with the commercial version of Fat Tire. My version is a little less bitter and just a shade darker. Otherwise, they’re quite similar. In some ways, I prefer my slightly less hoppy version; it will be interesting to see how version 1.1 varies.

Socks-Off IPA
On January 5, I transferred this IPA over to the secondary fermenter; the gravity at that time was 1.024. On January 19, I added 2 oz. of Northern Brewer hops pellets directly to the fermenter (no hop bag). I let this mixture dry-hop until February 12, when I bottled the brew. The final gravity was 1.021, yielding an ABV of 6.7%. I ended up with four 22-oz. bottles, 21 pint bottles, and 13 12-oz. bottles.

This is a solid IPA. It has a subtle hop aroma, and a clear, coppery hue. The flavor is appropriately bitter, but perhaps the only fault is that it is a shade on the sweet side.

Brewing Plans for the Rest of Winter 2012
Time is growing short, before the temperatures inch their way up too far. My summer ale is in the primary fermenter now, and I’m considering doing a wheat beer to close out the season. If that happens, it will have to be next weekend. Finally, I have five pounds of honey that I’m planning on turning into mead. My understanding is that you can ferment mead at a reasonably high temperature, so that will be my “anchor” for Winter 2012.

Claremont Summer Ale

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The brewing season is nearing an end here in southern California, so it’s time to stockpile some refreshing beers for the coming warm months. I also had a few packages of grains and hops pellets sitting around that needed to be used up. The result: a recipe for Claremont Summer Ale. I built the recipe in BeerSmith, using the Blonde Ale style as a rough guide.

Claremont Summer Ale

  • 6 oz. 20°L crystal malt
  • 8 oz. carapils malt
  • 8 oz. Munich malt
  • 3 pounds light dry malt extract
  • 3 pounds pale (extra light) dry malt extract
  • 1 oz. Cascade pellet hops
  • 1 oz. Mt. Hood pellet hops
  • 1 tsp. Irish moss
  • 1 package East Coast Ale Yeast (White Labs #WLP008)

 Steps

  • I heated 3 gallons of water to 158° F, and steeped the grains at this temperature for 1 hour (plus or minus a few degrees).
  • Then, I sparged the grains with a gallon of water, bringing the brew kettle up to 4 gallons total. Upon heating the mixture to boiling, I turned off the heat, added the DME, and brought it all back to boiling again. The Cascade hops were added.
  • After 45 minutes of boiling, I added the Irish moss.
  • After 58 minutes of boiling, I added the Mt. Hood hops.
  • After 60 minutes of boiling, I removed all of the hops and chilled the wort.
  • I decanted the mixture (except 0.5 gallons of trub) into the primary fermenter, and topped up with water to 4.75 gallons. The temperature was 68° F, and I pitched the yeast directly in.
  • BeerSmith estimated my starting gravity to be 1.057 (slightly outside the blonde ale style), with 18.1 IBUs, a color of 6.7 SRM, and estimated ABV at 5.5%. The actual starting specific gravity was 1.052, and I expect the color will be a little lighter than estimated too. The most likely reason for this is that I poured off such a healthy amount of trub. The end result is that I should be within the style for a blonde ale (for whatever that’s worth).

Fake Tire Amber Ale 1.1

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My first batch of Fake Tire Amber Ale is amazing. In my (non-humble) opinion, it’s probably one of the best recipes I’ve done yet. A genuinely biscuit-ish flavor (just like Fat Tire!), clear appearance, and nice head combine deliciously. The downside of this is that I have finished most of the batch. Watching my dwindling supply, I decided to take action and brew up another batch today. I made some small changes, largely on account of what was available for ingredients.

Changes from first batch
Nothing major – instead of whole hops, I used hops pellets. This presumably has the effect of upping the hops utilization a little bit, but according to BeerSmith it’s not a major amount. 21.9 IBU’s versus 24.1 IBU’s for the whole and pellet hops, respectively. Given the margin of error in IBU measurements for hops, as well as the margin of error inherent to home brewing, I decided not to mess with the recipe.

The only other major variation was that I topped up to just a hair under 5 gallons, with a starting gravity of 1.050. I presume the larger amount of water was needed to get close to last time’s gravity (1.051) because I decanted a little more of my wort into the brewing bucket than I did previously.

In any case, I will be curious to see how this one turns out!

Socks-Off IPA

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This IPA is so-named because it will “knock your socks off”, between the hops and the potential alcohol content. My wonderful spouse got me a “home-brewed” IPA kit from our local small brew store (i.e., one thrown together by the owner) for Christmas, so I decided to brew it up tonight, with a few minor modifications for what ingredients I had on hand and wanted to use up.

Socks-Off IPA

  • 0.66 lbs. Munich malt
  • 3.75 lbs. Pale Malt, Maris Otter
  • 3.3 lbs. Briess Amber Liquid Malt Extract
  • 3.3 lbs. Briess Golden Light Liquid Malt Extract
  • 3.3 lbs. Briess Bavarian Wheat Liquid Malt Extract
  • 3 oz. Cascade hops (whole)
  • 1 oz. Hallertauer hops (whole)
  • 1 oz. Sterling hops (whole)
  • 1 oz. Saaz hops (whole)
  • 1 tsp. Irish moss
  • 2 oz. Northern Brewer hops (pellets)
  • 1 package London Ale III yeast (Wyeast Labs #1318)

Steps

  • I heated 3 gallons of tap water to 154° F, and steeped the grains for one hour (between 154° and 156° F). Then, I sparged the grains with one gallon of water at roughly 160° F, to bring the total volume to 4 gallons (or just a little over).
  • After bringing the mixture to a boil, I turned off the heat and added the liquid malt extracts. Then, I heated the kettle back to a boil (again) and added the whole Cascade, Hallertauer, and Sterling hops.
  • After 45 minutes, I added 1 tsp. of Irish moss.
  • After 55 minutes, I added the Saaz hops.
  • After 60 minutes, I removed all of the hops and chilled the wort. Once it had gotten down to an appropriate temperature, I added the wort to my fermenter. The volume at this point was 3.5 gallons, so I topped up with cold tap water to roughly 5.25 gallons.
  • The temperature of the wort was 76° F. I pitched the yeast, sealed the lid, and let the yeast do its thing.
  • Starting gravity was 1.072 – right at the upper of end of the American IPA style. BeerSmith estimates the bitterness at 59.3 IBU, color at 11.7 SRM, and ABV at 7.1%. 
  • In a week or so, I’ll move the mixture over to my secondary fermenter, and add the Northern Brewer pellets for dry-hopping.

In other news, I’ve started using the BeerSmith software to formulate my recipes. The excellent reputation of the program is quite deserved – it’s flexible and friendly to extract brewers as well as all-grain brewers.

Amber Ale, Vanilla Porter, and Irish Stout Updates

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A few updates condensed into one post. . .

Vanilla Voay Porter
This experimental brew (recipe, update, and update) was bottled on Saturday, December 10. This gave the vanilla extract/pods around two weeks in the secondary fermenter – the chopped and scraped pods floated on the surface, and many of the tiny seeds were everywhere in the fermenter.

Final gravity was 1.016, from a starting gravity of 1.056, giving 5.25% alcohol by volume. Final yield was just over 5 gallons of beer(!), with 30 12-oz. bottles, 12 1-pt. bottles, and 4 22-oz. bottles.

Four days after bottling, I was impatient and opened one of the small bottles. Carbonation was still very slight, but the flavor and aroma were delicious. A faint vanilla scent, but a rich vanilla flavor (not overpowering though, thankfully). I’m very excited to see how this is going to mature over the next few weeks!

Fake Tire Amber Ale
One week after brewing, I transferred my Fat Tire clone into the secondary fermenter. The aroma was very estery, with a strong banana component. I might have been a little worried, except the yeast strain is known to do this. The gravity was around 1.014 at this point, and hadn’t changed at all when I racked the beer into the bottling bucket today (December 17, 19 days after brewing). This gives 5% alcohol by volume, a little less than the 5.2% of real Fat Tire.

From this batch, I got 20 12-oz. bottles, 14 1-pt. bottles, and 1 22-oz. bottle. Next time I might try scaling the recipe up a bit.

When preparing to bottle, I’m very impressed by the absolute clarity of the beer. This bodes well for the final product (which I’ll probably test in a week’s time – Christmas Eve!).

Coopers Irish Stout
The Irish stout I made a few weeks ago has matured into a wonderfully drinkable brew. The head is a nice caramel-color, and isn’t overwhelming, but certainly sticks around the edges of the glass after pouring. The flavor has a hint of malt and is dominated by the roasted grains, and has a nice dry finish (as expected for the style). As I noted at the time of bottling, it’s not a very exciting beer (middle of the road flavor – good but no really unusual highlights), but it’s certainly a solid one.

This kit was cheap, fast, easy, and tasty – perfect for the beginning or end of the brew season when I just want to crank something out! I’ll admit that it’s not quite as much fun as doing everything from scratch, but then again that’s also a welcome break sometimes. I expect I’ll probably do this kit (or a similar one) again!

Irish stout, in the glass