Hive Door Ale

I had an extra vial of the Trappist yeast, b/c only knowing so much, I thought I may have to reyeast the Trap Door, but then when it went fine, knowing I wouldnt age it THAT long, I worked up another recipe on Brew Wizard. This one, in my own early style, was trying to do a Tripel, but what I now realize, is that many times, your recipe, or style, may change due to what the brewing shop actually has, as far as grains etc. You can follow the recipe, but you may be subbing a few things... That's the fun part...

I had some clear Belgian Candi Sugar left, so I had worked up a Tripel recipe, deciding to add in some clover honey (Tripels tend to offer up a lot of simple sugars for their high alcohol content). I had to pasteurize it first; poured it into the wort around 15 minutes left of the boil.

With 5 minutes left, along with some last minute Saaz pellets (used Hallertauer bittering and Kent Golding aroma), I tossed in some white & black pepper, some coriander, some vanilla.

Cooled and strained...

Cannot be totally sure why, but my Original Gravity (1.067) was significantly lower than the expected OG my recipe had worked up (1.081). Most likely due to a sub on the grains, as well as low extraction of my steeped grains ("How the Brew" states that CaraPils extracts low through steeping). But no worries; it's just going in its own direction...

After a day and night in the fermenter, it cooled down to 68. Yeast was fairly dormant, but once I shook it, wham, off to Pac Man Land. Airlock bubbling like crazy. Steady gurgling for almost 24 hours now. This is probably the most healthy fermentation I've seen. Due to equipment, and plans, I think I'm gonna leave this one it in primary for some time.

Brewed on Tue, Sept 16

Racked on Sun, Oct 12

Bottled on Tue, Oct 28

Trap Door Ale

Next up, the Trap Door:

Original Gravity was 1.070, going for a Trappist style Dubbel, or something in the vacinity, mixed and matched my recipe, came up with this... Fermented for about 9 days. Slow start, due to temp fluctuation, I think, plus I put a fan on it to bring it down a bit at first, may have shocked the yeast (I was trying to get it down to about 68), but then the weather picked up, and made it a bit warm, I shook it up a bit a few days later seeing the cake on the bottom, was so slow that slow pressure was able to push the CO2 out of the lid, only bubbling when I pressed the lid seal down. A few days later and I shook it good for a few times, 5 minutes later it starts bubbling periodically, then weather pushes it down to a green 68 for a few days and the White Labs Trappist yeast slowly does its thing. A few hours before I racked it, the hydrometer read 1.013.

Nothing like a yeast cake. I wish I would have had another batch of this same wort to throw on this; It felt like this stuff was just getting started...


Brewed on Sun, Sept 6
Racked on Mon, Sept 15
Primed & bottled on Sun, Oct 12

Malt/Sugars: 7 lbs LME (I think), 1 lb Vienna, 1 lb Munich, 1 lb Special B, 1/2 lb Chocolate Malt, 1 lb Candi Sugar

Hops: 1 oz Fuggles (60), 1 oz Saaz (13)

Spices: almost 1 tbl cinnamon, almost 1 tbl coriander

Yeast: vial of White Labs Trappist Ale WLP500

Hidden Door Ale

TFE is now a venue for my experiments in brewing (as well as the occasional cooking aside). I am hoping to offer something to a Search Engine somewhere. Maybe someone new to the hobby of brewing (like me) will come away with some useful info as I have from other blogs Ive seen. Itll also be a place to organize notes, recipes, general thoughts on the craft.

Hidden Door Ale.

I took a recipe for a stout to the local homebrewing store. To tell you the truth, I am not certain of what I came away with in regards to the grains. The dude at the brewing store used the paper I gave him, and threw them all into one bag. They didnt have either of the hop selections, or the yeast, so I got comparable.

I did a partial mash, this time steeping the grains in a grain sock to get what you see above. I actually only used half of the grains I was given (more on that later), which would probably bring me to a much lower Original Gravity (OG) than would be expected for a stout, I'd imagine. This brew was already going in its own direction.

Once the wort (the syrup malt extract and the liquids from the steep) began to boil, I added the first hop addition, some Cluster pellets. They smelled good. The aroma hops, dropped in towards the end, were Goldings. I used a touch more hops than the recipe called for, but since I'd already veered into questionable territory with the malts, I figured that was a good thing.

After a 60-minute boil, I filled a tub with ice water and brought the wort's temperature down as fast as I could, bringing it down a bit below 80 degrees.


I aerated it by pouring back and forth with 3-gallons of warm water I had waiting in the fermenter...

I pitched the rehydrated dry yeast I had prepared.

The 3-gallons of water I had waiting hadnt had time to cool below 90 (since I boiled it just beforehand), so the wort into ferment ended up pretty warm... Within hours the yeast was munchin away and blowin the lid off of the fermenter!!!!!!!!!!!

After a day it cooled out a bit, bubblin steady for a touch at a steady 70 or so. I let it condition a bit more after the early ferment, 5 more days, then racked it into a carboy.

Let it mellow out in the carboy for about 2 weeks...

After bottled they were transported to an old cellar later that night

Picture of first tasting after 1.5 weeks in cellar:

It's a bit citrusy, possibly because of the early fermentation, also the extra bitterness from the hops, which takes over pretty much after a thin malty nose. It's an interesting brew.

When bottle-aging in a cellar (if you arent planning to leave them at least a month - I only put them there for spacial reasons), it's best to let them sit another number of days at room temp, at least, before fridging and drinking. Though I think this one does get better as it warms, and you warm up to the taste. Beer that gets better by the day. I would call it a hoppy Brown Ale maybe, but I'm just not totally sure yet...

Brewed Sun, Aug 10
Racked Sat, Aug 16
Primed and bottled Wed, Aug 27

BIG THING LEARNED: The importance of conditions and its effect on the outcome of the brew. Things like water and room temperatures, things like that. The weather in general. It is interesting to see how things mostly outside of your control (unless you have a major brewing setup or brewery with temp controls) can effect a beer in different ways. My advice is that if you are brewing for the first time, and things veer away from the recipe, just run with it, dont consider it a "mess up", just consider yourself a natural.