Tag Archives: experimental brews

Live Oak Canyon Ale

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The holidays aren’t just for dark beers–anything with a decent bit of “heft” to it in flavor, alcohol, body, or some combination of those can be a great sipper next to the fire. Looking to expand my brewing repertoire, I returned to wood-aged beers, with a riff on an Imperial Red IPA from beloved local brewery Claremont Craft Ales. The original, called Happy Days, is an exceptional beer that has taken gold at the GABF (twice!), among a ton of other awards. It weighs in at 9.5% abv, so isn’t a casual beer–but it goes down smoothly nonetheless!

A clone recipe for Happy Days is available, and it’s a surprisingly simple brew. It starts out with just three malts — 2-row, crystal 150L, and a dash of chocolate malt for color, with some dextrose to dry out the beer. CTZ, Mosaic, and Simcoe round out the hop bill…and that’s it! This beer is a testament to how great recipe design and careful handling come together to make something exceptional.

For my own version, I used Happy Days as a starting point, but not the end. One goal was to play with wood aging, so the beer departs from a “clone” pretty much right away. Second, I wanted to try out some different hops, partly to see how they worked and partly to use up my (admittedly too large) hop stash.

I kept the target gravity around the same as the original Happy Days, but dropped the chocolate malt from the recipe. It seemed to be there only for color adjustment, and I just didn’t need it to hit my goals in the current batch. I had crystal 120 but not crystal 150 on-hand, so that was another malt adjustment. I aimed for around the same level of bitterness, but chose HBC 522 and Talus as my flavor/aroma hops. They seemed to have roughly similar qualities to the original recipe. Finally…I needed to figure out an oaking strategy. I didn’t want this beer to be an oak bomb, and I also didn’t want an extended barrel aging process that would kill the hop character. So, I elected to use the BeerStix product, aging a textured slab of wood in the primary as well as a bit in the keg.

The end result was pretty satisfying–one of the better experimental beers I’ve made! I am both glad and sad I did only a small batch–glad because I didn’t need 5 gallons of a 10% abv beer; and sad because this beer really is a smooth drinker, pretty darned tasty, and gone distressingly quickly.

The name for this beer comes from a canyon near where we live…it conveniently has “oak” in the name, so was a logical choice for a wooded beer.

Live Oak Canyon Ale

  • 10.5 lb. 2-row malt (Briess)
  • 13 oz. caramel malt 120L (Briess)
  • 1 oz. Warrior hop pellets (13.4% alpha), 60 minute boil
  • 0.5 oz. Magnum hop pellets (16.5% alpha), 60 minute boil
  • 0.75 lb. corn sugar, 5 minute boil
  • 1 Whirlfloc tablet, 5 minute boil
  • 2 oz. HBC 522 hop pellets (9.4% alpha), 15 minute whirlpool
  • 1 pkg. WLP001 (White Labs), California Ale dry yeast
  • 1 medium toast American oak Beer Stix carboy stick, added to primary and carried over to keg
  • 2 oz. LUPOMAX Talus hop pellets (12.0% alpha), dry hop in keg

Target Parameters

  • 1.093 s.g., 1.015 f.g., 10.5% abv, 125 IBU, 17 SRM
  • Infusion mash, held at 152° for 60 minutes and 168° for 10 minutes, with sparge
  • Claremont tap water, with Campden tablet, adjusted with minerals to achieve 58 ppm Ca, 23 ppm Mg, 54 ppm Na, 155 ppm SO4, 60 ppm Cl, 10 ppm CO3, -47 ppm RA

Procedure

  • Starting with 5.6 gallons of water, I added 4 mL of 88% lactic acid to neutralize the carbonates. Then, I added 2 g epsom salts and 2 g gypsum, to achieve my target water profile.
  • I heated the strike water to 161°, added the grains, and hit a 152° mash temperature. I also added 4 mL of 88% lactic acid, to adjust the pH.
  • After a 60 minute mash and recirculation, I raised the mash temperature to 168° for 10 minutes, before pulling the grains and sparging with ~0.9 gallons of water.
  • In total, I collected 5.25 gallons of runnings with a gravity of 1.058, for 72% mash efficiency. This was great…but meant that I needed to boil for a full 60 minutes before adding hops — so, the beer had a total of a 120 minute boil.
  • After the initial 60 minutes of boiling, I began adding hops and other finings per the recipe, with corn sugar added at the very end.
  • After the boil, I chilled the beer down to around 68°, before transferring to the fermenter.
  • I brewed this beer on 4 November 2023; it had a starting gravity of 1.089. Once pitching the yeast, I let it ride at ambient (around 62°).
  • Visible evidence of fermentation was present within 24 hours, and the beer was up to around 68° and had vigorous fermentation by 6 November 2023. On the morning of 7 November, the beer had climbed to 74°, so I put it into the conditioning chamber to drop it down over the course of the day. Unfortunately, I overshot a bit and it went all the way down to 45°. I pulled it out to ambient again, and it steadily rose to 62° by 9 November 2023. At this point, I put a thick towel around the beer to raise and maintain the temperature.
  • I soaked the oak stick in water overnight, and then put it into the microwave for around 90 seconds to flash steam and sanitize. I spritzed the oak with StarSan, before adding it to the fermenter. The oak was added to the primary fermenter on 7 November 2023.
  • I kegged the beer on 19 November 2023, adding the dry hops in a baggie and also transferring the oak to the keg.
  • Final gravity was 1.016, for 9.9% abv.
  • I left the keg at ambient until 27 November 2023, when I removed the dry hops and oak, moved the keg to the conditioning chamber, and let it condition and carbonate at 34°.

Tasting

  • Appearance
    • The beer has a deep reddish amber color, with a slight haze; it pours with a creamy and persistent ivory head. Gorgeous!
  • Aroma
    • Pine, sweet orange, and resin, with a hint of woody oakiness. As the beer warms up, the wood comes through more prominently.
  • Flavor
    • Hop forward, very bitter beer, with a hint of orange and resiny bitterness, and some woody character behind that. Caramel maltiness is at a moderate level. This woodiness holds mainly until the back end of the palate and the finish, which complements the hops nicely.
  • Mouthfeel
    • Medium carbonation, medium body, off-dry finish.
  • Would I Brew This Again?
    • What a wonderful experiment! This has been an incredibly enjoyable beer, with high drinkability. Overall, it’s an awesome winter seasonal brew.
  • Overall
    • 10/10

Odds ‘n’ Ends Belgian Ale

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Last year, I had fantastic results with a Belgian pale ale, even if it’s not a style I typically make. They can be interesting beers, so it seemed worth another attempt. This time, though, I’m not worried as much about brewing to style as I am wanting to use up ingredients on-hand. The result is a kitchen sink recipe that tastes pretty good, even if it isn’t precisely any style. We’ll just call it a Belgian ale.

amber beer with ivory head in tulip glass, sitting on wood windowsill

Odds ‘n’ Ends Belgian Ale

  • 9 lb. 15 oz. 2-row malt (Rahr)
  • 8 oz. Carared (Weyermann)
  • 6 oz. honey malt (Gambrinus)
  • 2 oz. Carafa Special II malt
  • 2 oz. coffee malt (Simpsons)
  • 2 oz. Special B malt (Dingemans)
  • 1 oz. Hallertauer Mittelfrueh hop pellets (5.2% alpha), 60 minute boil
  • 1 oz. Hallertauer Mittelfrueh hop pellets (5.2% alpha), 10 minute boil
  • 1 oz. Saaz hop pellets (3.5% alpha), 5 minute boil
  • 1 pkg. Abbaye Belgian ale yeast (Lallemand)

Target Parameters

  • 1.050 s.g., 1.013 f.g., 4.9% abv, 29 IBU, 13 SRM
  • Full volume mash, 152° for 60 minutes, 168° mash-out for 10 minutes
  • Claremont tap water adjusted with lactic acid and mineral additions, to achieve calculated water profile of 60 Ca, 6 Mg, 84 Na, 30 SO4, 137 Cl, 156 HCO3, RA=82 ppm.

Procedure

  • I mashed in with 7.5 gallons of water at 158°, to hit a mash temperature of 152°. I added 4.3 mL of 88% lactic acid to adjust the mash pH.
  • I held the mash at 152° for 60 minutes, while recirculating, before raising the temperature to 168° for a 10 minute mash out.
  • After the mash, I removed the grains. In total, I collected 6.6 gallons of runnings with a gravity of 1.041, for 66% mash efficiency.
  • As I brought the runnings to a boil, I added 1 g of CaCl to adjust the water.
  • I boiled for 60 minutes, adding hops per the recipe. After 60 minutes, I turned off the heat and chilled the wort to 64° before transferring to the fermenter.
  • I started with 5.5 gallons total and a gravity of 1.048. I brewed this beer on 7 April 2023, and fermented at 64°.
  • On 15 April 2023, I pulled the beer to ambient.
  • I kegged the beer on 30 April 2023. It had a final gravity of 1.010, for 5.1% abv. A thin white pellicle was forming on top of the beer, but overall it tasted just fine. Either way, I’ll need to do a deep sanitize/sterilize of my equipment.
  • The beer was a bit hazy to start, but had dropped fairly clear by 23 May 2023, and had dropped brilliantly clear by 1 June 2023.
A pellicle! How did that get there?

Tasting

  • Appearance
    • The beer pours with a fluffy, ivory head that subsides to a persistent blanket across the entire top of the beer. The beer itself is a deep amber color and brilliantly clear.
  • Aroma
    • This beer has plenty of clove yeast character at the front, with some black pepper. There is caramel and dark bread crust maltiness behind that.
  • Flavor
    • Yeast is at the front, with clove and sweet apple fruitiness, with a bit of pepper. Malt character is smooth, with some caramel and bread. Moderate level of bitterness, but not much hop character otherwise.
  • Mouthfeel
    • Medium body, medium carbonation, smooth finish with an off-dry quality.
  • Would I Brew This Again?
    • This is overall a good beer, with interesting qualities but not too interesting. Is it a Belgian pale ale? Sure, we can call it that. I’m grateful that I caught the pellicle before it went too far down the sour or funky road….as it is, I don’t really pick up anything. Phew! It’s squarely in the category of “decent, but probably won’t be brewed again.”
  • Overall
    • 7/10

Tropical Dream IPA

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I crafted this recipe to be very tropical hop-forward, with Voss kveik to accentuate any citrus qualities. The kveik choice also let me not be so fussy about temperature; in the end, I’m not sure I’m 100% happy with that decision, but even so the beer is pretty darned good. The hops are amazing!

Tropical Dream IPA

  • 12 lb. 2-row malt (Rahr)
  • 0.5 lb. biscuit malt (Dingemans)
  • 5 oz. crystal 15 malt (Great Western)
  • 5 oz. corn sugar, added to boil
  • 1.15 oz. Magnum hop pellets (10.1% alpha), 60 minute boil
  • 1 tsp. BruTanB, 10 minute boil
  • Whirlfloc tablet, 5 minute boil
  • 1 oz. Enigma hop pellets (19.2% alpha), 10 minute whirlpool
  • 1 oz. HBC 586 hop pellets (11.5% alpha), 10 minute whirlpool
  • 1 oz. Vic Secret hop pellets (18.4% alpha), 10 minute whirlpool
  • 1 pkg. Voss Kveik Ale Yeast (Lallemand)
  • 1 oz. Enigma hop pellets (19.2% alpha), dry hop in keg
  • 1 oz. HBC 586 hop pellets (11.5% alpha), dry hop in keg
  • 1 oz. Vic Secret hop pellets (18.4% alpha), dry hop in keg

Target Parameters

  • 1.060 s.g., 1.010 f.g., 6.6% abv, 67 IBU, 6 SRM
  • Full volume mash at 149° for 60 minutes and 10 minute mash-out at 168°
  • Claremont tap water with Campden tablet, adjusted to hit 113 Ca, 7 ppm Mg, 92 ppm Na, 194 ppm SO4, 110 ppm Cl, 156 ppm HCO3.

Procedure

  • I heated 7.25 gallons of water to 155°, and added the grains along with 8 mL of 88% lactic acid for pH adjustment. I maintained the mash at 149° for 60 minutes, with recirculation, and then raised the mash to 168° for 10 minutes.
  • In total, I collected 6.25 gallons of runnings with a gravity of 1.045, for only 60% mash efficiency. Awful! I’ve had major issues with my grain mill lately, and this was pretty much the last straw. I added a bit of DME to adjust things.
  • I added 7 g of gypsum to the boil, to hit my water target.
  • I brought the wort to a boil, adding the hops and finings per the recipe.
  • After a 60 minute boil, I chilled the wort slightly (down to around 195°), did the whirlpool, and then did the initial chilling of the wort. I finished the chill overnight at ambient, letting things settle down to around 68°.
  • I brewed this beer on 26 November 2022, pitched the yeast on 27 November 2022, and let the beer ferment at ambient. Starting gravity was 1.055.
  • I kegged the beer on 29 December 2022. Final gravity was 1.012, for 5.6% abv.

Tasting

  • Appearance
    • The beer pours relatively clear, with a light-gold appearance and a persistent white head. Overall, it’s a very pretty brew!
  • Aroma
  • Lots of hop aroma–guava, honeydew, and orange; very nice!
  • Flavor
    • The beer has a prominent pithy bitterness, with guava, melon, and bright citrus character. The malt is light, clean, and malty sweet. The yeast quality has a very slight bit of ester character; it’s not bad, but gives some kind of Belgian character to the brew. The yeast holds fairly well against the hops, but as an American IPA it would be better without the kveik.
  • Mouthfeel
    • Medium-light body, medium carbonation, dry finish with lingering bitterness.
  • Would I Brew This Again?
    • Yes, but I would likely do it without the kveik; perhaps swap in some American ale yeast instead? There is some type of ester in the background that keeps it from being truly clean. There are no off-flavors; just…something…that clashes a bit. The hop combination is fantastic, though!
  • Overall
    • 7/10

Dance Party IPA

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This one was a total experiment for me! Experimental hops, experimental yeast, and experimental fermentation. My local homebrew shop had a new variety called Samba, with tropical characters that sounded pretty neat! So, I picked up a few ounces for a batch. I also had been meaning to try out Lallemand’s new dry Voss kveik strain, so grabbed some of those packets.

For this beer, I wanted a tropical/citrus character and fairly light drinkability, alongside a “full-strength” IPA. So, I combined Centennial, Samba, and Simcoe for a whirlpool as well as a dry hop addition.

Dance Party IPA

  • 12.5 lb. 2-row Xtra Pale Malt (Viking)
  • 0.75 lb. Carapils malt (Briess)
  • 1 oz. Magnum hop pellets (10.6% alpha), 60 minute boil
  • 1 Whirlfloc tablet, 5 minute boil
  • 1 oz. Centennial hop pellets (8.1% alpha), 15 minute whirlpool
  • 1 oz. Samba hop pellets (11.6% alpha), 15 minute whirlpool
  • 1 oz. Simcoe hop pellets (12.7% alpha), 15 minute whirlpool
  • 1 pkg. Voss Kveik Ale dry yeas (Lallemand)
  • 1 oz. Centennial hop pellets (8.1% alpha), dry hop in keg
  • 1 oz. Samba hop pellets (11.6% alpha), dry hop in keg
  • 1 oz. Simcoe hop pellets (12.7% alpha), dry hop in keg

Target Parameters

  • 1.059 s.g., 1.013 f.g., 6.1% abv, 62 IBU, 4 SRM
  • Claremont tap water, with Campden tablet and 5 g of gypsum added at the boil, to bump up the bitterness
  • 60 minute full volume infusion mash, 152°

Procedure

  • I mashed in with 7.25 gallons of water at 159°, to hit a mash temperature of 152°. I added 6 mL of 88% lactic acid, to adjust the mash pH.
  • After a 60 minute mash with recirculation at 152°, I bumped up the temperature to 168° for a 10 minute mash-out.
  • Following the mash, I removed the grain basket and brought the kettle to a boil.
  • In total, I had 6.3 gallons with a gravity of 1.050, for 66% mash efficiency. I added 5 g of gypsum to the boil, to bump up the sulfate.
  • I boiled for 60 minutes, adding finings and hops per the schedule.
  • After the boil, I did a 15 minute whirlpool at around 195°, and then chilled down to 90° and transferred to the fermenter.
  • Starting gravity was 1.050. I brewed this beer on 27 March 2021.
  • I pitched the packet of yeast directly, and began fermentation at 90°. After 18 hours, I raised the temperature to 95°, and then raised to 100° at the 24 hours mark after yeast pitch. After 72 hours, I lowered the temperature to 90°.
  • I kegged the beer on 7 April 2021, with the dry hops floating loose in the keg and a screen on the floating dip tube to filter out hops.
  • Final gravity was 1.013, for 5.8% abv.

Tasting

I didn’t have time to do a formal tasting on this one before the keg was kicked, but have a few general perceptions. First, the fermentation had a super clean character, and the kveik lives up to its reputation. I would totally do this fermentation profile again! Second, I really enjoyed the hop combo, but think that I probably overbittered it a bit, and the hops drowned out any potential malt character. There was a touch of astringency from the dry hops also, at times, which I think also detracted from the final flavor. So, if I redo this kind of IPA I might use a more character-rich base malt such as Vienna or Maris Otter and maybe a touch more of a crystal malt (e.g., crystal 20 or even crystal 40). That aside, the Samba hops did live up to their tropical reputation, and played well with the rest of the hops. It might be interesting to switch up the hop combos; I think this beer would be great with any combo of Samba, Citra, and/or Mosaic.

So…I would probably do this again, but modify things significantly. It was definitely worth the experiment, and I’ll likely dive into more kveik fermentations this summer! I give the beer itself a 5/10…not awful, but not quite where I want it to be either.

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