New Years Brewing (2)

Over Thanksgiving weekend I volunteered to provide two kegs of beer for a New Years party. I originally set upon making two different recipes: something light and drinkable, like a cream ale, and something maltier, like a brown ale. Fate, it seems, decided otherwise.

During my last visit to the Twin Cities some friends and I stopped at Northern Brewer to pick up recipe supplies. Unfortunately I forgot both recipes at my friend's apartment. Forced to improvise I set upon using two of NB's all-grain recipe kits, one for cream ale, and by complete happenstance, one for "The Innkeeper."

Why "The Innkeeper?" Two reasons. First, it uses a Wyeast Private Very Special Strain (VSS) called West Yorkshire Ale (1469). From Wyeast:

This strain produces ales with a full chewy malt flavor and character, but finishes dry, producing famously balanced beers. Expect moderate nutty and stone-fruit esters. Best used for the production of cask-conditioned bitters, ESB and mild ales. Reliably flocculent, producing bright beer without filtration.

Attenuation 67-71%
Alc. Tolerance 9%
Flocculation high
Temperature Range 64-72°F (18-22°C)

Second, as an ale (and an English ale at that), this beer has a quick turn around from brewing to serving. In fact, I brewed this beer December 20, 2008, kegged it Dec. 28, and served it New Year's Eve.

This beer received rave reviews from everyone at the New Year's party. One reported comment was: "Claussen brews way better beer than I do." It's all subjective but it was nice to hear it.

Ingredients

Quantity	SKU	UOM
0.25	Crystal Malt - 150°L (Briess)	lbs.
6	Golden Promise	lbs.
1	Granulated Sugar	lbs.
1	Salt - NaCL	tsp.
3	Gypsum - Calcium sulfate	tsp.
1	Wyeast 1469 - West Yorkshire Ale (VSS)	Pkg.
1	Irish Moss	tsp.

Hops

Quantity	SKU	UOM	BoilTime	AlphaAcid	HBU
1	Fuggles	oz.	65	0.046	19.034
1	Goldings	oz.	50	0.054	22.345
1	Styrian Goldings	oz.	5	0.048	5.149

12/20/2008
==========
Altered mash water to match that of Burton-upon-Trent
Single infusion mash.
Heated 2.11 gallons H20 to 164°F, poured water into tun, added grain. Bed stabilized at 153°F (ideal temp). Ratio was 1.35 qts/lb. Let mash for 60 minutes.

In meantime heated 2.875 gal water to 178°F.

Vorlauf and collected first runnings. Added sparge water, stired bed, and let rest for 10 minutes.

After ten minutes, vorlauf and collect second runnings. Total collected: 4.5 gallons. Topped up to 5 gal. Brought to a boil and added sugar and hops at prescribed times.

Left cool overnight.

12/21/2008
==========
Transferred to primary. Wort volume appx 3.5 gallons.

12/29/2008
==========
Kegged at 25 PSI

12/31/2008
==========
Served at 5 PSI...it's a hit!

Brewing break

Sorry for the dry spell. Between these posts I've gone on vacation (thrice), started a new hobby (photography), and tried to prepare for the upcoming holidays.

I say holidays because I consider New Year's a set of holidays, too. I get the days off so why not call them holidays?

As such I've volunteered to brew two Cornelius kegs (five gallons each) of beer for our New Year's party. These brews will be unique in that I have but two "free" weekends between now and Dec. 31. I'm planning to brew up a storm (har-har) December 19-21 to kick-off primary fermentations. Why a whole weekend for two beers? I don't have a wort chiller! I depend on the ambient temperature of my garage to cool wort to the proper yeast pitching temperature.

Since the two brews (recipes forthcoming) are ales I expect primary fermentation to complete within a week. At this point I have three options:

1. Place primary fermenters into garage for a few days before racking to kegs
   
2. Rack directly to kegs and carbonate
   
3. Rack each into secondary for two days in the garage.

#1 will force any remaining yeast to flocculate and drop out of the beer before kegging. Unfortunately the beer will remain on the trub (flocculated yeast, coagulated proteins, and hop residue) for a few days which may alter the beer's flavor profile.

#2 is quick and easy but I'll need to discard the few pulls from each keg to get rid of the flocculated yeast.

#3 removes the beer from the trub and ensures the "cleanest" possible finished beer.

More like "Brewing Day"...

...than "Labor Day."

Last Wednesday I declared this weekend my brewing weekend. I had lots of brewing projects on the schedule that needed to be: a) started, b) worked on, and, c) finished.

Let's begin.

Started
New England-style Cider
Every year, about this time, I make a hard cider. In my years of brewing I've made two "regular" ciders, a raspberry (lactose sweetened) cider, and a New England-style cider (NE cider). A NE cider requires the addition of sugar and, sometimes, raisins or other dried fruit to the ferment. Last year's NE cider (I'll get to it in a moment) turned out successfully so I thought I'd try a variation on the same recipe.

New England Cider (II)

SG 1.080
5 gallons

• 12 oz. raisins
• 4 lbs. dark brown sugar
• 5 gal. Cider (I use Indian Hills Cider from Cub Foods. No preservatives)
• 1 drop olive oil
• Wyeast 1098 - British Ale yeast

9/1/2008: Pour all ingredients into primary fermentor. Affix airlock.

Flanders Red
I love sour beers. Rodenbach Grand Cru is one of my favorite beers. This is my second intentionally sour beer. The recipe is from the Jan-Feb 2007 issue of Brew Your Own. I may split this batch and add fruit to half and/or blend it with an almost year old red currently brewing.

Flanders Red

SG ????
5 gallons

• 5 lbs. 5 oz. Vienna malt
• 2 lbs. 8 oz. Pils malt
• 15 oz. aromatic malt
• 15 oz. CaraVienne malt
• 2lbs. 2 oz. raw wheat
• 5 oz. special B
• 1 oz Hersburcker hops (60 minutes)
• Wyeast 3763 - Rosalaire blend
  

9/1/2008: 4.33 gallons @ 170F strike water. 162F final mash temp. Mash for 90 minutes. Begin vorlauf and collect all wort (I collected 2.9 gal). Added 4.33 gallons of 178F sparge water for 10 minutes. Vorlauf and collect all wort (I collected 4.1 gallons). Total of 7 gallons collected.

Bring to boil. After an hour add hops. After second hour turn off heat. Should have five gallons of wort. Chill and rack to primary. Add Rosalaire blend.

Wild grape wine

Wild grapes are in season in SE MN. I went to the local dog park and picked 9.5 lbs. of wild grapes Friday night and Saturday morning. After cleaning and freezing the grapes I placed them in a nylon bag in a plastic bucket to thaw. Freezing breaks the grape cell walls causing extra juice extraction. Be forewarned: wear gloves when juicing wild grapes. I started to juice bare-handed but stopped because my hands started to itch. I'm waiting until tomorrow after work before I continue juicing. Recipe to come when done.




Worked on
Rhubarb Wine
I made this wine back in July from rhubarb picked and frozen by my parents. I racked the wine to secondary. It definitely needs more time to kill the "rocket fuel" taste.

Finished
New England Cider (I)
This was a fortunate accident. I realized too late that I bought phosphated (yeast-inhibited) cider. Phosphates prevent yeast from reproducing. When I discovered my mistake I had already invested three days into the ferment. I decided to forget about the bucket and let whatever happened happen. That was October 2007.

I re-discovered the cider in March 2008 and found it had indeed fermented. SG was 1.071 and the reading then was 1.024. I transferred the cider to secondary and let it sit until July when I added a second packet of yeast to help dry-out the cider. The added yeast didn't help; I kegged this batch on Aug. 30 with a FG of 1.022. Had I tried to bottle I would have had still cider.

New England Cider (I)
SG 1.071
FG 1.022
Alcohol: 6.6%
5 gallons

• 8 oz. raisins (organic)
  
• 8 oz. dried cranberries (sweetened)
  
• 2 lbs. dark brown sugar
• 5 gal. Cider (I use Indian Hills Cider from Cub Foods. No preservatives)
• Wyeast 1187 - Ringwood Ale
  

10/7/2007: Steeped the raisins and cranberries in .5 gal of cider (medium heat) before adding to primary with 2lbs dark brown sugar. Accidently used phosphated cider. oops

3/11/2008: transferred to secondary 1.024

7/2008: Yum! Need to keg or bottle for fall! Added second pack of 1187 to dry out cider.

8/30/2008: Kegged it @ 25 PSI. FG 1.022. In a word: Delicious.


Raspberry Mead (Melomel)
Raspberry Melomel
SG 1.100
FG 1.013
Alcohol: 11.6%
1 gallon

• 3 lbs. honey
  
• 3 pints rasberries
  
• 1 tsp. Go-Ferm
• 1 tsp. yeast nutrient
  
• Wyeast 4184 - Sweet Mead
  

9/4/2007: Added all ingredients but raspberries to one gallon container. Very vigorous ferment.

11/4/2007: Racked and added frozen and thawed raspberries. Freezing and thawing aids juice extraction. Beautiful red color.

3/2/2008: transferred to tertiary.

7/19/2008: transferred again.

9/1/2008: bottled seven beer bottles. Let aging begin. Tastes "boozy."

Homegrown Hops

During Winter 2006-2007 I asked my parents if I could raise hops "down on the farm." They agreed and I ordered Goldings and Cascade rhizomes. We cleared some land, my Dad built a trellis, and I planted my hops in April 2007. My mom waters, fertilizes, and watches over them. As expected the first year was pretty lackluster. In fact, I got no usable hops at all.

That all changed this year.

"Sherburn" Goldings on the left, Cascade on the right. That trellis is about 15' tall.

A closeup of the Cascade bines.

A cluster of of Cascade hops.

More Cascades.

As you can tell the Cascades are going gangbusters this year. Some of the cones are almost as long as my index finger. I'll have plenty of these citrus-y/pine-y "C" hops for IPA's, EPA's, and much much more.

Unfortunately the Goldings aren't doing well in the Midwest heat. I think there are three usable hops on the entire bine. Maybe next year.

Watch for updates when harvesting time comes.

What the Rhubarb?

One of the benefits of living 2.5 hours from your parents (and 2.5 hours from Boondockville, MN) is that they can grow almost anything you ask. I say "almost" because I asked them to grow barley and both parents replied with a resounding "NO."

Along with the Cascade and Goldings hops they tend for me lives two healthy rhubarb plants. Late May I requested rhubarb. Lots of rhubarb: four pounds worth. When I went home for Father's Day I was greated with 4.75 lbs of frozen, chopped rhubarb.

After researching for a few weeks I finally found a great method and recipe. After visiting the local brewshop for yeast I was in wine-business.

Rhubarb Wine (one gallon)

• 4. 5 lbs chopped, cleaned, frozen rhubarb
• 2.5 lbs white sugar
• 1 tsp. turbo yeast nutrient (Go Ferm)
  
• 1 packet Lalvin EC-1118 Champagne Yeast

1. Thaw rhubarb overnight in covered colandar over a large bowl.
2. Transfer released rhubarb juice into fermentation vessel. Add one crushed campden tablet to sterilize must.
3. Spread one pound of sugar over rhubarb in colander and replace over large bowl. Let sit at least eight hours.
4. Transfer rhubarb juice to fermentation vessel.
5. Repeat steps three and four.
6. Replace colander over large bowl and press with spatula/large spoon to capture any remaining juice. Add juice to fermentation vessel.
7. Add 0.5 lbs sugar to reach SG 1.100 (may not be necessary, I had to add extra sugar).
   
8. Add yeast nutrient and yeast.
9. ???
   
10. Wine.

Normally you create a yeast starter or rehydrate the yeast prior to adding to the must. This time I did not. The must started bubbling within two hours of adding yeast. Fermentation was so vigorous that I added a blow-off tube for the first 36 hours.

You know when you first open club soda and you get sprayed from the C02 release? The fermentation looks like that.

Willkommen nach den Claussen Brauerei!

As I'm sure many of you are aware, I like to brew. A lot. Beer, cider, mead, wine, liquors... I've done it all. Therefore, I announce this: A new blog of brewing! Here comes the first entry...