I’ve been a brewing madman! Three beers in three weeks is definitely a personal best; I’ve enjoyed utilizing some new tools and techniques to make my brew day easier and the beer (hopefully) better. This time I am taking a whack at a black ipa/cascadian ale or whatever you want to call it. Throw in a serving of rye and this beer can fly my Every Time I Rye flagship! Only concern from the brew day is the lower than expected efficiency. I seem to have problems with consistency (also have some questions about my hydrometer), but I can’t put my finger on why yet.


Ingredients
Fermentables
9 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) 76.6 %
1 lbs Carafa II (412.0 SRM) 8.5 %
1 lbs Rye Malt (4.7 SRM) 8.5 %
8.0 oz Crystal 20 Malt (20.0 SRM) 4.3 %
4.0 oz Black Patent Malt (500.0 SRM) 2.1 %

Hops
0.50 oz Centennial [10.50 %] – Boil 60.0 min – 15.8 IBUs
0.25 oz Centennial [10.50 %] – Boil 50.0 min – 7.5 IBUs
0.25 oz Centennial [10.50 %] – Boil 40.0 min – 6.9 IBUs
0.25 oz Centennial [10.50 %] – Boil 30.0 min – 6.1 IBUs
0.25 oz Centennial [10.50 %] – Boil 20.0 min – 5.3 IBUs
0.50 oz Centennial [10.50 %] – Boil 10.0 min – 11 5.7 IBUs
0.50 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] – Boil 1.0 min – 0.6 IBUs
2.00 oz Willamette [5.50 %] – Hopback
1.50 oz Amarillo Gold [10.40 %] – Dry Hop 5.0 Days

Misc
1 tablet of whirlfloc
1/2 tsp Wyeast Nutrient Blend

Yeast
Safale US-05

The Brew
Soundtrack: Saints v. Texans, Bears vs. Packers
Brew Beer: Two Brothers Atom Smasher Oktoberfest

Stats
Batch Size: 5 gal
Mash: 4.1 gal @ 149F for 75 min [~1.33 qt/lbs], ‘Sabco’ Tube Sparge ~5 gal @ 168F
Water adjustment: 1.5 tsp Chalk into mash, 1.5 tsp Gypsum, 0.5 tsp CaCl2 into 8 gal Chicago water
Boil Duration: 60min
Original Gravity: 1.060
Final Gravity:
Efficiency: ~72%
Est. ABV: 6.5%
IBU: 48 [Tinseth]
Color: 38 SRM
Fermentation: 67F
Carbonation:
Brewed: 9/25/11
Kegged:

The yearly monster is back from the deaaaaaaaaaaad! This is the third year I’ve brewed a crowd favorite. The first batch in 2009 was jaw dropping, but the followup last year was muddled and blah. I think I have traced it the spices – I tried to use the same ground spices in 2010 that I got in 2009, not realizing that the oils would have deteriorated. This year I’m back with a bigger and more badass recipe along with fresh spices.
Like last year, I used an entire pie pumpkin; new this year was the addition sweet potatoes to give the mix more holiday punch. The potatoes and pumpkin were cooked in the over @ 350F for one hour. The pumpkin flesh was removed from the skin/seeds, and added to the mash tun. The potatoes were roughly mashed (with skins) and tossed in as well. Unfortunately the mash had much lower efficiency than normal – could it be because of the other starches the enzymes needed more time, but generally things still went well.
Also new this batch was two shiny additions to the brewing equipment stronghold. First was a pure oxygen aeration system, necessary for the big booze beer I was going for. Second was a ridiculously cool HopRocket (hopback). While I don’t have the ideal pump/plate and frame heat exchanger setup to fully utilize the hopback, I wanted to get this now in order to use all of my homegrown hops in interesting ways (such as making it into a Randall!!!).
Be afraid, be very afraid!


Ingredients
Fermentables
11 lbs Pale Malt 2 Row (2.0 SRM) 64.7 %
2 lbs Caramel 20L (20.0 SRM) 11.8 %
2 lbs Aromatic Malt (26.0 SRM) 11.8 %
1 lbs Pale Malt 6 Row (2.0 SRM) 5.9 %
8.0 oz Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) 2.9 %
1.60 lb Pumpkin (Mashed 60.0 mins)
1.00 lb Sweet Potatoes (Mashed 60.0 mins)
8.0 oz Brown Sugar (50.0 SRM) 2.9 %
[4.0 oz Rice Hulls added to mash]

Hops
2.00 oz Chinook [13.00 %] – Boil 60.0 min – 62.8 IBUs
1.50 oz Homegrown Nugget [? %] – Hop Back

Misc
2.00 tsp Ground Ginger Root (Boil 5.0 mins)
3.00 tsp Ground Saigon Cassia Cinnamon (Boil 5.0 mins)
1.00 tsp Ground Coriander Seed (Boil 5.0 mins)
1.00 tsp Ground Nutmeg (Boil 5.0 mins)
1 tablet of whirlfloc
1/2 tsp Wyeast Nutrient Blend

Yeast
2 Pkg Scottish Ale (Wyeast Labs #1728) – made starter

The Brew
Soundtrack: Bears vs. Saints
Brew Beer: Two Brothers Atom Smasher Oktoberfest, PBR (getting rid of old left behind beer)

Stats
Batch Size: 4.75 gal (had to boil down to make up for poor mash eff.)
Mash: 5.5 gal @ 152F [1.33 qt/lbs], ‘Sabco’ Tube Sparge ~4 gal @ 168F
Water adjustment: None, Chicago water
Boil Duration: 60min (additional 30m ‘pre-boil’ to make up for poor mash)
Original Gravity: 1.085
Final Gravity:
Efficiency: ~70% (poor mash, reason unknown)
Est. ABV: 9.0%
IBU: 63 [Tinseth]
Color: 14 SRM
Fermentation: 66F
Carbonation:
Brewed: 9/18/11
Kegged:

Returning after the wedding hiatus, I brewed a ‘simple’ session-able oatmeal stout. Essentially a clone of my very successful Unbalanced Breakfast Stout, I wanted to get myself antiquated with the brew day and some new process changes. The temperature controller you see displayed is actually my new fermentation temperature controller, but I was using it as a check (probe is submersible) of my mash temperatures. New this batch is that I didn’t batch sparge! Instead I tried the ‘Sabco’ sparge method. Essentially you just throw the plastic hose discharging the hot liquor tank on the top of the grain bed. As the bed drains, you adjust sparge flow to keep 1-2″ of sparge water on top of the bed. Stop when you have enough for the boil. Simple as that and it worked perfectly, really great numbers from a brew data perspective. I will be using this procedure moving forward!


Ingredients
Fermentables
7 lbs 10 oz Pale Malt (2.0 SRM) 72.6 %
1 lbs 2 oz Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) 10.8 %
1 lbs Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) 9.5 %
8.0 oz Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) 4.8 %
4.0 oz Black Patent Malt (500.0 SRM) 2.4 %

Hops
2.00 oz Fuggles [4.40 %] – Boil 60.0 – 29.8 IBUs

Misc
1 tablet of whirlfloc
1/2 tsp Wyeast Nutrient Blend

Yeast
Safale US-05

The Brew
Soundtrack: NPR, Rooftops
Brew Beer: New Glarus Black Top

Stats
Batch Size: 6 gal
Mash: 3.25 gal @ 156F [1.25 qt/lbs], ‘Sabco’ Tube Sparge ~5 gal @ 168F
Water adjustment: 1 tsp CaCO3 into mash, 0.25 tsp Gypsum, 0.5 tsp NaCO3, 0.5 tsp Salt
Boil Duration: 60min
Original Gravity: 1.052
Final Gravity: 1.018
Efficiency: 85%
Est. ABV: 4.5%
IBU: 30 [Tinseth]
Color: 39 SRM
Fermentation: 66F
Carbonation: 2.3 vols CO2
Brewed: 9/10/11
Kegged: 9/24/11