Author Archives: Andy Farke

Beer Tasting: Lab Bench Pale Ale

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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

Beer Tasting: Live Long & Porter

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In mid-April, roughly two months after brewing, I did a formal tasting of Live Long & Porter.

  • The Basics
    • Starting gravity = 1.050; final gravity =  1.016; abv = 4.5%; estimated IBU = 30
  • Aroma
    • Coffee and a hint of chocolate. Nice.
  • Appearance
    • Creamy, tan-colored head, very persistent. Dark brown beer with good clarity.
  • Flavor
    • Chocolate, coffee; some maltiness behind it. Finish a little more bitter than perhaps I like.
  • Mouthfeel
    • Carbonation is good, but body is pretty weak.
  • Would I brew this again?
    • Probably not in this form; it’s a good enough beer (and the aroma absolutely nails what I love in a porter), but the body is too thin, which really detracts from the overall beer. For the next iteration, I would probably add a bit more carapils and crystal malt, as well as perhaps some flaked oats.
  • Overall rating: 
    • 5.5/10

A Whole Mess of Kegging

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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.

Bonedigger Brown Ale 1.1

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Another one for the homebrewer conference…this is my second go at the brown ale. Basically unchanged recipe from last time.

Bonedigger Brown Ale 1.1

  • 9 lbs. 2-row malt
  • 1 lb. Maris Otter pale malt
  • 0.75 lb. 80°L crystal malt
  • 0.5 lb. carapils malt
  • 0.5 lb. chocolate malt
  • 1 oz. Cascade whole hops, bittering (60 minute boil)
  • 1 oz. Cascade whole hops, bittering (20 minute boil)
  • 0.5 oz. Willamette hops pellets, aroma (5.2% alpha; 3.7% beta; 5 minute boil)
  • 1 tsp. Irish moss (10 minute boil)
  • 1 pkg. US-05 Safale American Yeast, rehydrated in 150 mL of water.
Procedure
  • I mashed in with 3.75 gallons of water at 164.5°, hitting my target mash temperature of 153°.
  • The mash was down to 151° after 35 minutes, and down to 149° after 50 minutes.
  • I added 0.75 gallons of water at 190°, stirred, and let sit for 10 minutes. I vorlaufed and collected 3.1 gallons of wort.
  • I added 3.25 gallons of water at 185°, which raised the temperature of the mash bed to around 168°. After 10 minutes, I vorlaufed and collected the remainder of the wort.
  • In total, I collected 6.4 gallons of wort at 1.052 specific gravity. This works out to 79% efficiency.
  • I boiled for 60 minutes, adding hops and Irish moss at the appropriate intervals.
  • After chilling with the wort chiller, 5 gallons of wort went into the fermenter. The starting gravity is 1.059.
  • After pitching the yeast, I set my temperature controller to 68°. On the second day, once fermentation had started, I dropped the temperature down to 65°.
  • This beer was brewed on April 26, 2015, and fermented for 10 days, before cold crashing for 24 hours and then kegging.

 

Pannotia White IPA Kegged

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Every once in awhile, you just know that a particular batch is going to be good, even early on in the process. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, you can’t stop thinking about how the final product is going to taste. I’m thinking my Pannotia White IPA just might be one of those batches.

Tonight, I transferred this batch over to the keg. It had been in the primary fermenter for 18 days, after two pretty vigorous bouts of fermentation. The first bout settled down a couple of days after brewing. Given come online commentary I read about this particular yeast strain, I agitated the carboy a bit (four days post-brewing), and sure enough, fermentation took off again. At kegging, the beer had a gravity of 1.012, down from 1.057. This works out to 5.9% abv, right within the range of what I was hoping for.

I transferred just under 5 gallons of beer over to the keg, and added 2 oz. of Citra hops pellets for dry hopping. I’ll leave it to dry hop for about a week before carbonating.

At the time of kegging, the beer was a beautiful straw color with a prominent hazy; truly a “white” IPA! There is a nice citrus and slight clove aroma, along with a delightfully balanced bitterness on the tasting. This beer can only get better from here!