Homebrew Highlights of the 2010’s

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As we turn over not just one but two digits in the calendar year, from 2019 to 2020, it makes me reflect on how I’ve grown as a brewer. So, what happened in the ten years of 2010 through 2019?

Beer bottles
An early batch, all bottled up and ready to condition in my closet.
  • Process
    • At the start of 2010, I was doing extract-only, partial volume boils in a 5 gallon pot on my stove. I had no fermentation temperature control, so was limited to brewing during the cooler months of the year, and bottled exclusively. Some of this was due to space (I was living in a one-bedroom apartment), some of it was money (I hadn’t yet bought the full assortment of equipment), and some of it was skill–I hadn’t yet practiced that much!
    • As we close out 2019, I’m doing all-grain, batch-sparge, full volume brew days. I’m using two temperature-controlled fermentation chambers, and then kegging my beers to serve via a three-faucet keezer. 2014 was the biggest year for this, as we moved into a new place that had much more space to set up a brewery.
  • Ingredients
    • In 2010, I was brewing with a limited supply of ingredients from a very small brew shop supplemented by mail order. The world of ingredients was quite a bit narrower then, and things like Citra and Mosaic and craft malting weren’t even in my vocabulary. Because I was only brewing with extract, I was heavily reliant upon a narrow selection of extract products.
    • In 2019, the world of ingredients is scarcely recognizable. Some of this is due to my process changes, as I get to know new malts. Much of this is due to a new array of suppliers and products. We have a truly excellent, well-stocked local homebrew shop very close by (Pacific Brewing Supplies of San Dimas), so I can easily get 95% of what I might ever need via them. There are so many new hops and yeasts and yeast suppliers and malting companies that I can’t even pretend to keep up. It’s awesome!
Wild hops — part of an experimental saison I brewed a few times.
  • Style
    • In 2010, I was brewing a variety of fairly “traditional” ales–brown ales, pale ales, wheat beers, etc. I was severely limited by space and temperature control!
    • In 2019, I’ve tried brewing everything from kettle sours to obscure European wheat ales to light lagers. The world feels wide open, and I’ve embraced lagers in a way I never imagined possible.
  • Community
    • In 2010, I was brewing totally solo, perhaps having friends over from time to time. I didn’t have much to challenge me (beyond myself), and it was hard to get honest feedback from trained palates.
    • In 2019, I am active in a local homebrew club, and know a fair number of brewers outside that circle. This has added considerably to my enjoyment of the hobby, helped me meet new people, and has also opened up new ways to challenge myself and get helpful feedback. I love club contests that push me to try new styles, and I like getting comments from a friendly yet critical crew of tasters. In the bigger sense of community, I’ve had opportunities to contribute to Zymurgy magazine and present at HomebrewCon. I never would have imagined this being a possibility back in 2010!
  • Commercial
    • In 2010, homebrew comprised only a small percentage of my beer consumption. I made four or five batches annually, and as a result had to make up the rest with commercial purchases. The commercial landscape for local craft beers was quite narrow at the time–we only had two or three breweries within a reasonable drive, and the reasonable drive didn’t exactly encourage sampling much (unless I had a driver!).
    • In 2019, there are so many local breweries that I can’t possibly sample them all. Access to Lyft helps a lot, but between money (it’s expensive to go to breweries constantly), liver (I drink less than I used to, and breweries just ain’t doing much less than 5% abv), and time (we’ve got two kids now), I don’t get out as much as I might. I would say 95% of my beer consumption now is my own homebrew. I brew enough that I can usually keep plenty on tap, and I can also brew lower alcohol beers and styles that don’t get as much attention in local craft breweries. It’s virtually impossible to find a quality German-style lager locally (and imports are incredibly hit or miss), so I gotta make ’em myself!
Getting ready for my presentation at the 2017 HomebrewCon
  • Recipe Highlights
    • If I had to pick one recipe to represent each year, what would it be?
      • 2010
        • Premium Oatmeal Stout — the brew session was a bit of a scramble, but it was (in my recollection) a pretty nice beer.
      • 2011
        • Vanilla Voay Porter — another one of my early dark beers. These styles tended to be more enjoyable, because they tended to cover up the sins of the learning process more than a lighter beer could.
      • 2012
      • 2013
        • Citation Porter — I didn’t brew much this year (new kid and all), so Citation Porter gets mentioned more by default than anything.
      • 2014
      • 2015
        • Pannotia White IPA — you just don’t see this style on the market, which is unfortunate. I find it far more interesting and drinkable than your average haze-bomb. It’s got plenty of fruit and citrus character, but also still tastes like a beer.
      • 2016
      • 2017
        • Raspberry Belgian — a sour beer, and one that is really hard to keep on hand because it goes so quickly. I need to play with this recipe more in the future…
      • 2018
        • Jamaica Wit — another Belgian, bringing together a Californian twist with hibiscus flowers.
      • 2019
Cheers to the 2010s, and on to the 2020s!

2019’s Homebrew Highlights

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2019 marked my eleventh year brewing out in California, and I feel like I’m squarely in the comfort zone of homebrewing. Yet, I didn’t let myself get too comfortable, either. This was a year to push myself with more lager recipes and some new styles. I’ve improved my packaging of oxygen-sensitive beers, and overall this has paid off handsomely. Let’s take a look at some of the highlights!

Schell’s Pils Clone
  • Favorite Batch
    • This was a great year, with several batches I really loved. Favorite batch for 2019 is a hard choice, but I think I’ll give a slight edge to the Alta California Lager. It was a virtually perfect beer, and I hope I’ll be able to get something close to it again in a future incarnation!
  • Least Favorite Batch
    • I didn’t have any complete disasters this year, so this is another hard choice. My recent brown ale was a bit of a disappointment, so that’s probably what I would nominate. I also haven’t gotten quite to the perfect Bohemian pilsner. Something to shoot for next year!
  • Experimental Recipe with Most Potential
    • I made a Breslau-style pale schöps, and it was just plain fun. I loved the challenge of creating a recipe for a style taste-unseen, and the result was really nice. It was a treat!
  • Most Fun New Style/Recipe to Try
    • Stygimoloch Bock turned out great in its inaugural run, and with a little more tweaking it’s going to be pretty darned amazing. I had fun working with the artist on the commemorative design, and had just as much fun enjoying the beer with friends.
  • Best Technique Added to Repertoire
    • I’ve perfected a partially closed transfer, to reduce oxygen exposure for sensitive beers like dry hopped IPAs and light lagers. Just like a totally closed technique, I purge the keg with CO2 by filling it with StarSan solution and pushing out the liquid. Rather than pushing the beer in with CO2 also, I just siphon in via the out port. As long as I don’t disturb the surface of the fermenter’s beer too much, I figure that oxygen introduction is quite minimal. I feel this is a touch safer than even minimal pressure added to a glass carboy, and the process also involves less equipment.
  • Best Ingredient Added to Repertoire
    • Comet hops! I liked how my Comet Pale Ale turned out, and will be looking to try this again for future IPAs and pale ales.
  • Favorite Book(s)
    • I read the somewhat old Bavarian Helles volume by Hornbusch (from Brewers Publications), and rather enjoyed it. I picked up a few from this style-centered series when they were on sale, and have been working my way through them. The oldest date back to the early 1990s, when brewing and homebrewing were completely different worlds. Some of the recipes have value, and some I take with a bit of skepticism. Even so, the histories and background are super interesting, with more detail than the typical brewing article. The books are also a nice length to finish in one or two sittings, which is a rare sweet spot for the beer writing market.
    • On the cultural side, I think This Ain’t the Beer That You’re Used To: A Beginners Guide To Good Beer, by Dom “Doochie” Cook, stands out among books I read. It’s highly readable, and brings a fresh voice to the beer writing world. Check it out!
  • Other Milestones
    • This is the year that I finally figured out lagers. Around a quarter of the beers of 2019 were lagers, including everything from Munich dunkels to German pils to Mexican-style lager to bocks. I had more hits than misses, and can foresee even more lagers next year!
  • Overall Stats
    • I brewed around 25 batches this year; not as much as some years, but certainly not too shabby. There were times where I ran a little short on homebrew (mainly when I had extensive stretches of no-brewing due to work/family schedules), so next year I’ll try to plan things out a bit more.
Corn grits, ready to go into the Alta California Lager

Yule Log Smoked Scottish Ale

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For Christmas this year, I wanted a special small-batch beer to sip on a cold, dark evening. I usually buy some barrel-aged commercial beers (Firestone Walker’s 2019 Old Man Hattan is particularly nice), so that flavor profile didn’t terribly appeal to me as a homebrew, especially not in larger volumes. After a bit of thought, I settled on a smoked ale. I’ve done a handful of those over the years, trying out the porter and brown ale styles previously. For this iteration, something in the Scottish ale space was appealing. I could get plenty of malt and plenty of body, and it would (hopefully) stand up well to any smokiness. Thus, the Yule Log Smoked Scottish Ale was born!

The recipe is built around the Scottish Export Ale BJCP style, which according to my reading sometimes is made with smoked variants. My version was based in part on Brulosophy’s Short & Shoddy Wee Heavy Recipe. To add a bit of smoked character, I put in two pounds (~16% of the total grain bill) of Briess cherrywood smoked malt.

In the spirit of the Short & Shoddy series, I cut a ton of corners in the brew day. I only did a 30 minute, full-volume mash, and a 30 minute boil. I used some oldish yeast, which meant I needed three packages total.

Yule Log Smoked Scottish Ale

  • 9 lbs. Maris Otter malt (Crisp)
  • 2 lb. Cherry wood smoked malt (Briess)
  • 5 oz. Biscuit malt (Dingemans)
  • 5 oz. Caramel 120° malt (Briess)
  • 5 oz. CaraPils malt (Briess)
  • 4 oz. Crystal 75° malt (Bairds)
  • 1 oz. Whitbread Golding Variety hop pellets (8.7% alpha), 15 minute boil
  • 2 pkg. Tartan yeast (Imperial Yeast #A31)
  • 1 pkg. Safale American ale yeast (US-05)

Target Parameters

  • 1.063 s.g, 1.019 f.g., 5.8% abv, 21 IBU, 15 SRM
  • 3.25 gallon batch
  • Full volume infusion mash, 156° target temperature
  • Claremont tap water, with Campden tablet treatment to remove chloramines

Procedure

  • I mashed in with 5.35 gallons of water at 165.5°, hitting a mash temperature of 155°. By the end of the 30 minute mash, temperature was down to 152°.
  • I vorlaufed and collected 3.75 gallons of wort with a gravity of 1.068, for 56% mash efficiency. This is a bit “thicker” than targeted, so I added 0.5 gallons of water to get 4.25 gallons of wort at a slightly lower gravity.
  • I boiled for 30 minutes, adding hops at the 15 minute mark. I then chilled down to 70°, transferred to the fermenter, and pitched the yeast.
  • Starting gravity was 1.066, on 24 November 2019. I fermented at 67°.
  • I kegged the beer on 10 December 2019. It had a final gravity of 1.014, for 6.9% abv.

Tasting

  • Appearance
    • Copper colored beer, moderately hazy, with a thin but persistent head.
  • Aroma
    • Faint smoke aroma, but not overbearing. Slight caramel note, and very mild fruity esters as the beer warms up.
  • Flavor
    • Modestly smoky, balanced nicely against the caramel and bready aspects of the malt. Bitterness is moderate, clean, and just about perfect for this beer. There is a very slight but pleasant sweetness to the beer. As I finish a glass, the smoke disappears behind the rest of the beer. On the one hand, it would be nice to smokiness be a bit more prominent, but on the other hand I think the drinkability would suffer. This is a rare smoked beer that can stand up to multiple pints!
  • Mouthfeel
    • This beer has a reasonable bit of body, and a medium-sweet finish. Carbonation level is moderate.
  • Would I brew this again?
    • I liked this beer pretty well! I find commercial smoked beers to be hit or miss, and I think the very moderate level of smoked malt I use paid off. Pretty much everything works about this one, and it’s a nice beer to enjoy on a cool SoCal winter day. I wish the clarity was a bit better at this point, but I never bothered to cold-crash the beer, nor did I use gelatin or even hot-side finings. I expect a combination of these would clear things significantly. I might also mash just a touch higher, as this beer would benefit from a slight bump in body.
  • Overall
    • 8/10

Bierstadt Pils Clone 1.1

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I brewed this recipe nearly a year ago, and found the result to be super enjoyable. Why not give it another try? I made a few modifications for hopping rate, and ditched the whirlpool hops, which were apparently a mistake in the originally published recipe (now corrected at the link).

Bierstadt Pils Clone 1.1

  • 9.75 lbs. Barke Pilsner malt (Weyermann)
  • 0.5 lb. Acidulated malt (Bestmalz)
  • 1.25 oz. Hallertauer Mittelfrueh hop pellets (3.0% alpha), first wort hopping, 90 minute boil
  • 1.5 oz. Hallertauer Mittelfrueh hop pellets (3.0% alpha), 70 minute boil
  • 1.25 oz. Hallertauer Mittelfrueh hop pellets (3.0% alpha), 5 minute boil
  • 1 Whirlfloc tablet, 10 minute boil
  • 1 tsp. Fermax yeast nutrient, 10 minute boil
  • 2 pkg. Saflager lager yeast (W34/70)

Target Parameters

  • 1.048 s.g, 1.007 f.g., 5.4% abv, 34 IBU, 3.4 SRM
  • Infusion step mash with decoction
  • Water built from 8.75 gallons of RO water, with 4.3 g CaCl, 3.4 g gypsum, 2.7 g epsom salts, to achieve -47 RA, 59 ppm Ca, 8 ppm Mg, 89 ppm SO4, 63 ppm Cl

Procedure

  • I mashed in with 12 quarts of water at 140°, to hit 132°. After 10 minutes, I added 3.5 quarts of water just below boiling, to hit 145°. I let it rest here for 30 minutes. Finally, I added 5.5 quarts just below boiling, to hit 158°. After 40 minutes, I pulled 1.66 gallons of thin decoction and boiled it for 10 minutes. I added it back to the mash, which raised the temperature to 164°.
  • Next, I let the mash sit for 10 minutes, vorlaufed, and collected the first runnings. I added the first hop charge to the kettle at this time.
  • Next, I added the remaining sparge water (3.5 gallons) at ~170°, to hit a 164° mash temperature. I let it sit for 10 minutes, vorlaufed, and collected the second runnings.
  • In total, I collected 7 gallons at a gravity of 1.041, for 77% mash efficiency. I added 0.25 gallons of RO water to raise the volume to 7.25 gallons.
  • I brought everything to a boil, adding hops and other ingredients per the schedule.
  • After a 90 minute boil, I chilled and transferred. Gravity at this point was 1.052, a bit above my target. So, I added 7 cups of water heated to near boiling to top up and hit a gravity of 1.049.
  • I chilled in the fermenter down to 48°, before oxygenating and pitching the yeast.
  • I brewed this beer on 14 September 2019, fermenting at 50°.
  • I raised the beer to 60° on 30 September 2019. I cooled down to 50° on 4 October 2019, and down to 35° on 5 October 2019.
  • I kegged the beer on 11 October 2019, with a partially closed transfer. Gravity at this point was 1.010, for 5.2% abv.

Tasting

  • The Basics
    • 1.049 o.g., 1.010 f.g., 5.2% abv
  • Appearance
    • Clear, nearly brilliantly so, light yellow beer, with a fine, white, and persistent head.
  • Aroma
    • Clean, lightly malty aroma, with slight floral hop presence.
  • Flavor
    • Light, slightly sweet, and grainy malt character, with a crisp bitterness against that. The balance tilts slightly towards bitter, but not overly so.
  • Mouthfeel
    • Crisp and light-bodied, with moderate carbonation and a smooth finish.
  • Would I brew this again?
    • This is a great recipe. It’s a really smooth and drinkable beer, and was worth repeating from last time. I enjoy the grainy malt character, and the pleasant German hops alongside that. The head isn’t quite as firm and frothy as I might like (that honor belongs to the last German pils I did), but I’m not sure if that is a recipe flaw or something else. I think it will be worth playing with malts some more to see what happens when I switch those up. This recipe lacks some of what makes my other recent pils great, but in all it’s pretty decent.
  • Overall
    • 8/10

Stygimoloch Bock

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I have a Thanksgiving tradition of crafting a new “fancy” beer for our holiday get-together. After consulting with my friend Justin, we settled on a dunkles bock. It’s rich, malty, and eminently drinkable–a perfect beer for a late fall celebration. I don’t think I’ve ever brewed this style before, either, although I certainly have enjoyed drinking it!

The recipe is a modified version of Gordon Strong’s traditional bock, from Modern Homebrew Recipes. The base grist of dark and light Munich malts is basically the same, although I had to substitute in Briess’s Caramel Munich and some melanoidin malts instead of Caramunich III. Also, I used Magnum hop pellets instead of whole Hallertauer cones. In terms of techniques, I used a straight infusion mash rather than a double decoction.

As an extra special treat, I wanted custom glassware with a unique logo for the beer. So, I commissioned the wonderfully talented Charon Henning to create a design. Bock labels often feature goats as part of a linguistic pun, but hey, I’m a paleontologist. Why not go with a prehistoric goat analog? The bone-headed dinosaur Stygimoloch*, with its goat-like spikes and potential butting behavior, seemed like a perfect fit. Charon did a superb rendering that pays homage to many old bock labels. Even better, she worked some leaves of prehistoric hops into the background!

StygiLoRes

Stygimoloch Bock

  • 9 lbs. Munich II malt (Weyermann)IMG_20191019_150917
  • 5 lbs. Munich I malt (Weyermann)
  • 8 oz. Caramel Munich 60L (Briess)
  • 4 oz. melanoidin malt (Weyermann)
  • 1 oz. Carfa Special III malt (Weyermann)
  • 0.65 oz. Magnum hop pellets (13.2% alpha), 60 minute boil
  • 1 Whirlfloc tablet, 10 minute boil
  • 1 tsp. Fermax yeast nutrient, 10 minute boil
  • 4 pkg. Bavarian lager dry yeast (Mangrove Jack’s M76)

Target Parameters

  • 60 minute infusion mash, 154°, batch sparge
  • 1.070 o.g., 1.017 f.g., 7.0% abv, 25 IBU, 15 SRM
  • Blend of Claremont tap water and RO water, with 3 g CaCl, to produce target water of 4 ppm Ca, 5 ppm Mg, 13 ppm Na, 22 ppm SO4, 53 ppm Cl, 119 ppm HCO3, RA=56 ppm.

Procedure

  • I mashed in with 5 gallons of Claremont tap water and 1/4 of a Campden tablet at 164°, to hit a 154.4° mash temperature.
  • After 60 minutes, I added 0.5 gallons of RO water blend (3 g of CaCl added to 4.5 gallons of water) at 185°. I let it sit for 10 minutes, vorlaufed, and collected first runnings.
  • I next added 4 gallons of the RO water blend at 185°, let sit for another 10 minutes, vorlaufed, and collected the second runnings.
  • In total, I collected 7.25 gallons of runnings with a gravity of 1.055, for 72% mash efficiency.
  • To up the gravity a touch, I boiled the wort for 15 minutes before adding the hops (a total of 75 minute boil). I figured this longer boil time would work well to add additional character.
  • After boiling for a total of 75 minutes, I turned off the heat, and chilled down to 80° before transferring into the fermenter and cooling overnight in the fermentation chamber. I oxygenated for 60 seconds, and added 4 packages of yeast. I used four packages because they were around 9 months past “best by” date. Nonetheless, they took off pretty well.
  • Starting gravity was 1.066, on 30 August 2019.
  • I fermented at 52°, until raising the temperature to 60° on 30 September 2019. I cooled back to 50° on 4 October 2019, and then down to 35° on 5 October 2019.
  • I kegged the beer on 9 October 2019. Final gravity was 1.020, for 6.1% abv.

IMG_20191021_185030Tasting

  • Appearance
    • Color is a gorgeous deep copper, and the beer has become brilliantly clear in the keg. The tan head is quite persistent.
  • Aroma
    • Amazing malty, bready aroma, with a touch of caramel.
  • Flavor
    • Rich, bready flavor, with some toastiness–it is very reminiscent of a hearty bread crust. The beer is a touch more bitter than appropriate for the style. (note: the bitterness had mellowed a bit when I tasted it again on November 24)
  • Mouthfeel
    • Medium-full body, nice rounded finish.
  • Would I brew this again?
    • Yes! This is a really nice beer, with a phenomenal maltiness and drinkability that approaches slightly dangerous. Color and clarity are exceptional, and it’s only going to get better as it matures towards a Thanksgiving official launch date (I did the tasting in mid-October). It is maybe a touch more bitter than I would like for the style, so if I brew it again I’ll dial back the hops slightly.
  • Overall
    • 8/10

*Yes, I mostly agree with the hypothesis that Stygimoloch is probably a younger form of something like Pachycephalosaurus, so the name itself may or may not be valid. Even so, let’s just agree that we shouldn’t let nomenclatural pedantry overrule the fact that “Stygimoloch Bock” rolls off the tongue more easily than “Pachycephalosaurus Bock”.