Category Archives: Uncategorized

Update: Good Riddance Pale Ale and Eagle Face Oatmeal Stout

Posted on by

Tonight it was time to keg my most recent pale ale and my annual oatmeal stout batch.

Good Riddance Pale Ale, after 20 days in the primary fermenter, was down to 1.011 from a starting gravity of 1.053. This equates to 5.6% abv. As I kegged the beer, I added a weighted mesh bag with the dry hops (1 oz. Amarillo hop pellets, 1 oz. Falconer’s Flight 7C’s hop pellets). I’ll be letting this sit at ~68° under carbonation pressure for at least a few days before serving.

Eagle Face Oatmeal Stout (1.4) had been in the primary fermenter for 15 days. It had a starting gravity of 1.060 and a final gravity of 1.019, equal to 5.4% abv. The gravity was a few points more attenuated than expected–most likely due to the slightly lower-than-normal mash temperature for this particular iteration.

This whole undertaking was a good reminder of why I am glad I was able to switch over to kegging–it took barely an hour to sanitize the kegs, keg the beers, clean my transfer equipment, and set the fermenters to soak! I would have needed up to twice that time for bottling!

Beer Tasting: Fade To Black IPA

Posted on by

20161226_211618My first-ever black IPA has been kegged for about a month. So, it’s tasting time!

  • The Basics
    • Original gravity = 1.065, final gravity = 1.016, abv = 6.5%, estimated IBU = 67
  •  Aroma
    • Herbal/piney hop aroma, with a touch of toastiness behind that for the malt. Hop aroma has definitely diminished substantially over time. I probably should have dry-hopped it a few more days before cooling.
  • Appearance
    • This is a very clear, black beer that is chocolaty brown (with a slight reddish tinge) when viewed edge-on. The head is full when first poured, subsiding to an exceptionally persistent, fine beige blanket, with excellent lacing on the sides of the glass. Absolutely beautiful in appearance overall!
  • Flavor
    • Hop-forward, and the hops are primarily earthy/piney in flavor. The malt is grainy and toasty in flavor, with a slight roasty coffee note behind that; the roastiness comes through a bit more prominently over time as the beer lingers on the palate.
  • Mouthfeel
    • A medium-bodied beer with moderate carbonation and a medium-dry finish. Mouthfeel overall is about right where I want it.
  • Would I brew this again?
    • It’s a good enough beer, but needs a bit more hop aroma to really satisfy me as a black IPA. I might up the late hop and dry-hop percentages so that they stand out a bit more. The types of hops are in the right ballpark; tropical/fruity ones would be completely inappropriate. I wonder if Simcoe wouldn’t make a nice addition to the hop bill, to up the piney qualities. The malt character is maybe a bit strong on the toast and roast. Not a bad first go at a black IPA, but I’ll probably try a different recipe the next time around that I want to aim for this particular style. All that said, this batch is an absolutely delicious winter beer on its own merits. I don’t mind a glass or two on cold nights!
  • Overall
    • 7/10

Gingerbread Winter Warmer Kegged

Posted on by

Today (October 16, 2016), I kegged my Gingerbread Winter Warmer. It has been fermenting for just about a month, so it seemed like a good time to keg it. I roused the yeast three or four times during primary fermentation (about once a week), to keep things moving along. Even so, the brew was a bit underattenuated–it had a final gravity of 1.030, or 10.3% abv. I think two factors might explain the relatively high gravity. First would be the high mash temperature, which should limit overall fermentability. Second, and probably most important, was the high gravity of the beer. I aerated as best I could, but am guessing that a shot of oxygen would have helped out. Now that the beer has been agitated on the ride over to the keg, I might expect a little more fermentation (but probably not much). For now, I’ll let the 2 gallons of beer in my mini-keg condition and carbonate at room temperature for about a month before tapping.

Hell Creek Amber Ale

Posted on by

bottleGimmick beers can be a fun way to liven up familiar styles, especially when there is a good pun involved. A friend recently located some wild (or more likely, feral) hops growing on an old homestead in eastern Montana. This happens to be right on top of the Hell Creek Formation, a ~66 million year old package of rocks that preserves some of the last dinosaurs to live on the planet. It also yields fossil amber…and a pun was born!

Hell Creek Amber Ale makes a great name–but could I capitalize on it any further? How could I build a recipe around the concept?

Early on, I made a decision to use ingredients primarily from the home region of the Hell Creek Formation (Montana, South Dakota, and North Dakota). I had a small quantity of wild Hell Creek hops on-hand, and supplemented them with a few ounces of my dad’s Cascade hops from South Dakota. Malt presented a bit of a challenge, though. After some research, I learned about MaltEurop’s Montana malting facility. Fortuitously, one of their flagship products is billed as being malted from barley “grown in and around Montana.” The recipe was rounded out with a few non-thematic malts, to produce a nice American amber ale.

The base recipe is a modification of the American Amber Ale from Zainasheff and Palmer’s Brewing Classic Styles. However, I used American malt instead of English malt, and substituted Special B malt for some of the darker crystal malts suggested by the recipe. The latter gambit was to create a slightly richer flavor, evoking the deep color of fossil amber as well as the rich aromas that must have permeated the ancient Hell Creek landscape. I also modified the hop additions a bit–the only late addition was that of the wild hops, with a steeping to allow any interesting aromas and flavors to come to the forefront. The dried hops had a moderate herbal aroma, which I expect should play nicely with the caramel qualities of the specialty malts.

Hell Creek Amber Ale

  • 9 lbs. 2-row American pale malt (MaltEurop)
  • 1 lb. Munich malt
  • 0.8 lb. 40° crystal malt
  • 0.5 lb. Special B malt
  • 0.5 lb. Victory (biscuit) malt
  • 2 oz. Cascade whole hops (5.1% alpha), 60 minute boil
  • 0.44 oz. wild Hell Creek hops, 10 minute steep after boil
  • 1 Whirlfloc tablet, 10 minute boil
  • 1 pkg. California Ale Yeast (White Labs, WLP001), in 1L starter

Target Parameters

  • 1.059 o.g., 1.014 f.g., 5.9% abv, 33 IBU, 14 SRM, 5.5 gallons into the fermenter

Procedure

  • I mashed in with 4.75 gallons of water at 167.5°, to hit a mash temperature of 156°. It was down to 153° after 40 minutes.
  • I added 1 gallon of water at 185°, stirred, let it rest for 10 minutes, vorlaufed, and then collected the first runnings. Subsequently, I added 3.5 gallons of water at 180°, let it rest for 10 minutes, vorlaufed, and collected the remainder of the wort.
  • In total, I collected 6.6 gallons of wort with a gravity of 1.050, for 77% mash efficiency.
  • I brought the wort to a boil, adding hops per the schedule above. At flame-out, I added the wild hops and then let them steep for 10 minutes before chilling the wort down to 80°.
  • Approximately 5.5 gallons went into the fermenter, and I pitched the yeast immediately. I’ll be fermenting the beer at 66°.
  • This beer was brewed on 10 October 2016.