Author Archives: Andy Farke

Take Two Vienna Lager

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My previous attempt at a Vienna lager was pretty darned tasty, but a little short of the style in terms of coloration. For my next round, I elected to throw in a few additional dark malts, as a short-cut to something more on style. Additionally, I decided on a straight-forward infusion mash, rather than messing around with decoction. The decocted lager I did before was really tasty, but also a bit of work, and I wanted a quicker brew session for this batch.

The recipe was modified from one by Andy Weigal that medaled at NHC in 2015. I simplified the grist slightly (replacing the portion of pilsner malt with Vienna malt, and using regular Munich malt instead of Munich II). Additionally, I switched to Saaz alone for aroma and bittering.

Take Two Vienna Lager

  • 9.5 lbs. Vienna malt (Weyermann)
  • 0.75 lbs. Munich malt
  • 0.25 lbs. melanoiden malt
  • 0.175 plbs. Carafa Special II malt (Weyermann)
  • 1.25 oz. Saaz hop pellets (5.6% alpha acid), 60 minute boil
  • 0.25 oz. Saaz hop pellents (5.6% alpha acid), 5 minute boil
  • 2 pkg. German lager yeast (White Labs WLP830), prepared in starter to target ~390 billion cells
  • 1 Whirlfloc tablet, 10 minute boil
  • 1 tsp. yeast nutrient, boiled in 1/2 cup water and added to chilled wort

Target Parameters

  • 152° mash, batch sparge, 60 minutes
  • 1.051 o.g., 1.011 f.g., 5.2% abv, 25 IBU, 12 SRM, 6 gallons into the fermenter

Procedure

  • Five days in advance of brew day, I prepared a 3.5L starter, using 2 packages of yeast and 353 g of extra light DME. After 2 days, I decanted 1L of the starter to set aside a 125 billion cell culture for later use. The remainder was cold-crashed for 3 days, with supernate decanted.
  • On this batch, I followed a water treatment popularized by Gordon Strong. I added 1/4 tsp. of phosphoric acid per five gallons of brewing water, and also added 1 tsp. of calcium chloride to the mash. I am a little surprised by his minimal treatments (especially on the acid additions, given their likely minimal effect on mash pH), but figured I would give it a try.
  • To start the mash, I added 3.6 gallons of water at 167°. This slightly overshot my mash target of 152° (hitting 156°), so I added a half gallon of cold water. This undershot my mash target, so I added a half gallon of boiling water to finally hit the mash target temperature about 25 minutes into. Close enough, I figure.
  • After collecting the first runnings, I added 4.25 gallons of water for the sparge (followed by vorlaufing) and collected the second runnings.
  • All told, I collected 7.5 gallons of runnings with a gravity of 1.045. This equates to an efficiency of 85%. Perhaps it was so high because my mash ended up relatively thing…I’m not certain.
  • 20161202_224854I boiled the wort and added hops and other ingredients per the recipe.
  • After 60 minutes, I removed the hops, chilled the wort, and transferred to the fermenter. Once the temperature had dropped to 56°, I pitched the yeast.
  • I will be fermenting this at 52° for ~10-14 days. I brewed this on 2 December 2016.
  • Starting gravity was 1.052, right about at my target. Not too bad! The wort is a deep amber color…a bit darker than I expected, but still looks to be within BJCP style.

Beer Tasting: Hell Creek Amber Ale

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20161119_134231My Hell Creek Amber Ale–a first attempt at incorporating wild hops into a recipe–just kicked. Thankfully, I got a tasting in before the keg was totally drained.

  • The Basics
    • Original gravity = 1.060; final gravity = 1.014; abv = 6.1%; estimated IBU = 33
  • Aroma
    • Malty, with a honey-sweet background.
  • Appearance
    • A deep amber color, with a thin ivory head that has decent persistance. The beer dropped fairly clear after a few weeks in the keg.
  • Flavor
    • Malt-forward, with a toasty and biscuity character. Hop flavor is pretty clean, with moderate bitterness.
  • Mouthfeel
    • The hop finish is a touch harsh, perhaps a little out of balance, so I might drop the bittering just a touch next time, or go with a “cleaner” bittering hop.
  • Would I brew this again?
    • Yes! This is a decent, middle of the road amber ale, and has been popular with guests to the house. I might up the biscuit malt a touch, and swap out the Special B with some crystal 120 (per the original recipe). I don’t pick up much in the way of hop character, so would probably add a bit more on the whirlpool if possible.
  • Overall: 
    • 6/10

Kegging Update: Fade to Black IPA, Odell Isolation Ale Clone

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I’ve gotten two of my batches kegged during the past couple of days.

First up was Fade to Black IPA. Final gravity was 1.016 (down from 1.065), for an abv of 6.5%. I added the dry hops at the time of kegging, on November 27. The beer just went on-line tonight (4 days later), and is pretty tasty even at this young state. The balance of roasty malts and earthy hops promises to shape up as something special!

The Odell Isolation Ale Clone was kegged on November 30. Starting gravity was 1.061, final gravity was 1.015, and thus the beer is 5.9% abv. I am currently carbonating this, and it will go into the rotation once a tap has freed up. At the time of kegging, the beer was gloriously clear and flavorful.

Wild Times Pale Ale

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I recently acquired a pound of wild hops from the Seattle area of Washington state, courtesy of a generous friend who found them on his property. The plus side of wild hops is that they have a definite “cool” factor. The negative side is that wild hops are indeed wild (or naturalized, if they are “feral” versions of cultivated hops)–you have no real published guidelines to constrain expectations for aroma, flavor, and bittering properties. It’s all lab analysis and careful sensory evaluation. In other words–a grand opportunity for a motivated homebrewer.

My first order of business was to figure out the chemistry of these things, particularly alpha acids. Because I had a good quantity of the hops, I didn’t mind sending them off for analysis. My go-to place has been BrewLaboratory; they are relatively inexpensive, fast, and supportive of homebrewers. They use HPLC (High Performance Liquid Chromatography), and their turn-around time has been less than 2 or 3 days from receipt of the sample.

I was pleasantly surprised by the alpha acid values–5.8%! Beta acids clocked in at 3.2% and cohumulone at 30%.

2016-washington-state-wild-hops

HPLC Profile for Washington State Wild Hops

The analysis nicely covered the basic chemistry, but what about the more complex aromas and flavors? When rubbing the hops between my palms, I noted a dominant, very perfume-like aroma! Behind that is a bit of vegetal/allium aroma. To help formalize my thinking on the matter, I roughed out the hop profile using spider diagrams. There are two slightly different formats that I found in my research, included below. Each breaks out the aroma descriptors slightly differently–for instance, one specifically has an “onion/garlic” category, whereas in the other that is lumped in with “vegetal”.

Wild Hop Spider Diagrams

Wild Hop Spider Diagrams, Showing Level of Intensity of Different Aroma Components

With nearly a pound of thoroughly analyzed wild hops in hand, I wanted to put together a nice and simple batch of beer to highlight their flavor and aroma. After consulting with some friends, I settled on an American pale ale. The goal was for something that was clean and not overly malty, to let the hops shine. Because I didn’t want to commit to five gallons of beer for the first round on these hops, I settled on a 3 gallon batch, which will fit into a 2.5 gallon keg that I have on-hand.

The weather is turning cool, and I didn’t want to deal with the thermal loss of brew-in-a-bag. So, I also elected to do a full-volume, no-sparge mash in my mash tun.

Wild Times Pale Ale

  • 5.5 lbs. California Select 2-row malt (Great Western Malting Co.)
  • 0.5 lb. 10°L caramel malt (Briess)
  • 0.25 oz. Galena hop pellets (13.8% alpha), 60 minute boil
  • 1.5 oz. Washington wild hops (5.8% alpha, 3.2% beta), 10 minute boil
  • 1.5 oz. Washington wild hops (5.8% alpha, 3.2% beta), 1 minute boil
  • 1 oz. Washington wild hops (5.8% alpha, 3.2% beta), 5 minute whirlpool
  • 0.5 tablet WhirlFloc, 10 minute boil
  • 1 pkg. Safale American dry yeast (US-05)
  • 1.5 oz. Washington wild hops (5.8% alpha, 3.2% beta), 10 day dry-hop

Target Parameters

  • 152° mash, no sparge, 60 minutes
  • 1.051 o.g., 1.011 f.g., 5.2% abv, 43 IBU, 4 SRM, 3 gallons into the fermenter

Procedure

  • I mashed in with 5.3 gallons of water at 168.8°, to hit a mash temperature of 152.4°. The mash was down to 149.5° after 25 minutes and down to 147° after 50 minutes.
  • After 60 minutes, I drained the mash tun. I collected 4.5 gallons of wort at a gravity of 1.036, for 74% efficiency. Not too bad!
  • I started the boil, and added the hops per the recipe specifications.
  • After 60 minutes, I turned off the flame, added the whirlpool hops, and chilled the beer down to 76°.
  • I transferred the beer to the fermenter while aerating, and pitched the yeast. I’ll be fermenting this at 68°.
  • Starting gravity was 1.046, a bit less than expected. However, I am not surprised because I kept a gentle touch on the flame to avoid overboiling with the smaller volume of wort.
  • I brewed this beer on 21 November 2016.

Isolation Ale Clone

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20161119_204044Another winter beer! Thumbing through the November 2016 issue of Brew Your Own, I ran across a clone recipe for Odell Brewing Company’s Isolation Ale. I can’t say I’ve ever sampled the beer myself, but the description of a rich, malty British strong ale (which isn’t a complete alcohol bomb) had me intrigued. This is the perfect brew to balance out my winter line-up!

The recipe I am brewing here is pretty similar to what was in BYO, with a few minor changes to account for my system’s efficiency and the ingredients I have on-hand. I decreased the amount of Maris Otter by a quarter pound, increased the mild malt by a quarter pound, and decreased the Vienna malt by a half pound. Additionally, I opted for an all-Cascade hopping, which better accommodates my hop stash (I really, really don’t need to buy any more hops!). Finally, I swapped out liquid yeast (WLP007) for dry yeast (SafAle S04), because my local shop had just run out of WLP007 on the day I stopped by.

Isolation Ale Clone

  • 4 lbs. Maris Otter pale malt
  • 3 lbs. mild malt – Ashburne (Briess)
  • 2.5 lbs. Vienna malt (Weyermann)
  • 1 lb. Munich malt
  • 0.75 lb. 90°L caramel 6-row malt (Briess)
  • 0.5 lb. 10°L caramel malt (Briess)
  • 0.25 lb. 120°L caramel malt (Briess)
  • 0.25 lb. 45°L crystal light malt (Crisp)
  • 1 oz. Cascade whole hops (5.1% alpha), 60 minute boil
  • 1 oz. Cascade whole hops (5.1% alpha), 40 minute boil
  • 1 WhirlFloc tablet, 10 minute boil
  • 2 pkg. SafAle English Ale dry yeast (S-04)

Target Parameters

  • 152° mash, 60 minutes
  • 1.062 o.g., 1.016 f.g., 6.1% abv, 30 IBU, 15 SRM, 5.5 gallons into the fermenter

Procedure

  • I mashed in with 4.8 gallons of water at 168.5°, to hit a mash temperature of 153°. I let it sit for 60 minutes (at which point it had declined to around 150°), and added 0.86 gallons of water at 185°. After 10 minutes, I vorlaufed and collected the first runnings. Then, I added another 3.5 gallons of water at 185°, let sit for 10 minutes, vorlaufed, and collected the second runnings.
  • In total, I collected 6.8 gallons of wort with a gravity of 1.050, for 75% mash efficiency.
  • During the 60 minute boil, all hop and other ingredients were added per the schedule above.
  • After flame-out, I chilled the wort to 76°, transferred to the fermenter, and pitched the yeast. I will ferment at 67° for the first three days, and then raise the temperature to 70° for the remainder of fermentation.
  • Starting gravity was 1.061. This was a great brew session, in terms of how closely I hit my targets! I consider this well within the margin of error for my measuring equipment. I brewed this up on 19 November 2016.