Hob Headless tasting

++++Christmas 2009 - 34 days in bottle - 22 oz from fridge++++

Appearance - Nice finger & a half head, fairly quick dissipation; murky, dark cherry color, ruby hues through the brew up to lantern light

Aroma - A bit fruity, cherries, some dark malts, smoky vanilla, cola, cinnamon & clove even as it warmed

Taste/Mouthfeel - Nice smooth intro into dark malts, syrup at first, coffeeish into decent carbonation, a slight bit of Fuggle hop bitterness soon into almost cola quality, some dark oranges on the tongue, smoky chocolate

Roundup - I'm not sure this would qualify for a porter in the Brewers Assoc. Beer Style Guidelines, but who knows (or really cares?) - while the Yorkshire Square yeast did a great job for this style, I think the amount of Special B in the recipe may have moved it more into the dark English ale, brown ale territory. Maybe too much dark fruit aroma & taste a bit different from porters, which tend to favor mainly dark malt, chocolate malt flavor, w/ no fruity ale qualities, generally. Also, this probably has a little more alcohol than a general porter (which is usually between 4-5% abv). This is probably more like 5-6%, at least. We did add some Turbinado to the wort to jack it up a bit. Unfortunately, I cant be certain of the abv for this one b/c my hydrometer broke just before I brewed this one. Also, the hops are not banging, but def. present, more than I think I've noticed in a "classic" porter; however, I do like this, it's a good English-style ale, & with the chocolate malt, close enough to where I would still place it as a porter. Flavors/aroma completely swell when warming.

Bilbo's Brandywine (Barleywine)

This is a recipe/idea/process I had been tossing around for some time, and FINALLY got around to actually brewing it up. I finalized the recipe all the way back in the summer, and had put around 3 grams worth of oak chips in some brandy (to soak), back in February, so, while things were lining up, it took a while to actually get to the beer itself. I sure wish I could do all-grain (b/c of the amount/cost of extract in this), but I just have no room to mash that amount of grains. One day... Anyway, again, like the porter, I cant recall exactly what recipes I referenced for my own recipe creation, but I seem to remember viewing a clone of Stone's Old Guardian in an issue of Brew Your Own, the profile of Sierra Nevada's Bigfoot in a pamphlet I picked up at a tasting last year during Beer Week, as well as the profile on Avery's Hog Heaven at their website. Also, I think I viewed a clone recipe for Anchor's Old Foghorn. That said, quite clearly, I was going for an American-style Barleywine (hoppier, bigger in general), versus the English style.

The catch, is that to finish off my recipe, I would be adding the oak chips (that have been soaking in brandy for 10 months) to the secondary, thus imparting an oak barrel aging quality with slight hints of brandy (which I am guessing will come out in the aroma more than the actual taste, but we'll see...)



Also, worth a note on this one, I did something that I never do. Considering the OG of this brew (which came to 1.096), I figured I was going to need a starter (see Infinite Door brewing post). I decided to do so after I was already done brewing. Therefore I transferred the cooled wort to a fermenter, but didnt pitch my vial. Instead, I made a starter just then, and let that get to goin'. The starter actually fermented for almost 4 days. A bit worried about my wort just sitting there (after 2 days of starter action), I opened the fermenter and dumped the krausen of the starter in to get wort fermentation started. I then let the remainder of the starter go a few more days and settle some, then tossed that into the fermenter as well (which was already fermenting mildly from the krauesen addition a few days previous). Sucker took off! Agressive fermentation, yeast up out of the air lock, bubbling out the sides, etc. I started thinking that even though not the best idea (need to be extra careful sanitation-wise, opening fermenter etc.), it may have worked to my advantage considering it gave both the starter and the unyeasted wort in the fermenter time to hit the same temperature, getting them accustomed to the temp, conditions, etc.

When I added the bag of brandy soaked oak chips, they sank right into the beer.






The recipe:

Bilbo's Brandywine
------------------

Malts
-----
15 lbs Malt Extract
1 lb 2-Row
.5 lb Crystal 80L
.5 lb CaraMunich 60

Hops
----
1 oz Chinook (11%)
2 oz Cascade (7.8%)
2 oz E.K. Goldings (5.3%)

Yeast
-----
White Labs California Ale WLP001

Etc
---
1 tab Whirlfloc
1 cap Servomyces

Mini-mash at 160F for 1 hour. Sparged w/ 170F water. Added extract, put to flame. 90 minute boil. 1oz Chinook @ 90, 1 oz Cascade/1 oz Goldings @ 60, 1 oz Goldings @ 30, 1 oz Cascade @ 20, Whirlfloc at 15, Servomyces @ 10. See above for yeast info/starter, etc.

Note: As mentioned, the OG came to 1.096, however, I broke my hydrometer, so I am not sure where it currently stands abv-wise. I plan to test it before I bottle though. By taste, it is hot with alcohol (good sign).

Brewed on Tue, November 3, 2009
Racked on Mon, November 23
Added Brandy soaked Oak Chips on Tue, December 8

Hob Headless Porter

Brew #13: The Hob Headless: a porter modeled a bit after Deschutes Black Butte Porter and Anchor's Porter. Honestly, I cant quite remember exactly what recipes I referenced while working up my own, but what came out, tastes a lot like the above mentioned, esp. the Black Butte.



The name of the brew is inspired by an old English tale about a Hobgoblin they called "Hob Headless". I came across a mention of the tale during a recent re-reading of Thomas Pynchon's Mason & Dixon. Looking for more info, all I could locate was one paragraph from a book titled Notes on the Folk-lore of the Northern counties of England and the borders by William Henderson. Wildcat assisted me in brewing (and bottling) this one, and also designed the labels. He did a great job imagining Hob Headless, and also included the blurb on one version of the label. A good brew for winter.





Hob Headless Porter
------------------------

Malts
-----
8 lbs Malt Extract
1 lb 2-Row
1 lb Special B
.5 lb Chocolate Malt
.25 lb Vienna
.25 lb Munich

Hops
----
2 oz Fuggles (4.5%)

Yeast
-----
White Labs Yorkshire Square Ale WLP037

Etc
---
1 lb Turbinado sugar
1 tablet Whirlfloc
1 capsule Servomyces

Basically followed what has become my "normal" method of one-step minimash brewing. I brought the first water (about 1.75 gallons) to 160 F and then added the specialty grains; Mashed for 45 mins; sparged with 170 F water; recirculated etc; 60 minute boil when it hit the flame. 1 oz Fuggles at 60min, 1 oz at 30min, then at 15min added the Turbinado, Whirlfloc & Servomyces.

Fermented at around 68-70

Primed with about 3 oz raw cane sugar

Brewed Sun, November 1, 2009
Racked Tue, November 17
Bottled Sat, November 21

Dry Hopping

Dry Hopping: Rules! If you can drink it fast enough, otherwise, it can get a tad vegetal (most likely due to the bottled brew still having traces of hop pellets since it isnt strained like the initial wort)...

You can see, above, the beginning of the dry hopping process with the Green Door, as I was racking into the carboy. I put in two types of hop pellets, then two types in normal bud form (within a steamed (to sanitize) bag). Let those work in the brew for around 12 days, until the pellets had settled out to the bottom.

I plan to experiment again with dry hopping soon.

More of the process:





More later... Next up, Bilbo's Brandywine, and etc

Green Door IPA

So the time has come. Time for me to take a stab at an IPA. A number of IPAs that I enjoy use Simcoe hops, so I decided to use them as well (along with four other varieties). Simcoe arent the easiest hops to find, so to make sure I had them on hand (and didnt have to mix-and-match at the brew store, last minute), I mail ordered hops from the Beverage People in Santa Rosa. I used the local brewshop for my malts.

As has been my standard operation for the last handful of brews, I used a one-step partial mash, bringing the water to 160 before adding the grains (Two Row, Carastan, Flaked Barley), then letting it rest under a towel for one hour.

Here is the grain bed as the first runnings go into the kettle.

Poured the first runnings into another pot and then poured them back through the grain bed (called recirculation).


Brought my sparge water to about 170 and then ran that through the grain bed. Here is the grain bed after sparging...

Wort before it hits the stove (and before extract goes in).

1 oz of Simcoe hops. I put half an oz into the wort immediately, before it got to a boil.


Beginning of the 90 minute boil

1 oz of Chinook hops (my recipe called for 1 oz of Chinook hops for the boil, and another oz used for dry hopping (but as usual, I got a bit sidetracked well into the boil and accidentally used the entire 2 oz in the boil (where it was supposed to be .5 oz at 60 minutes & .5 oz at 40, I used a whole oz at each interval))) - hoppy!


Straining out the hops after the boil, and cooling, take three...

Yeast goes in... I hit it with the White Labs California Ale Yeast (WLP001) - temp was fairly high, around 78.


Hydrometer reading was at a whopping 1.079. Provided this has fairly good attenuation, this will most likely fall under the Imperial IPA category.


Green Door IPA
-------------------

Malts
- - - - -
8.5 lbs Malt Extract
2 lb Two-Row
1 lb Carastan
1 lb Flaked Barley

Hops
- - - - -
2 oz Simcoe (1 oz is for dry hopping)
2 oz Cascade (")
2 oz Chinook
1 oz Centennial (for dryhopping only)
2 oz Amarillo (1 oz is for dry hopping)

Yeast
- - - - -
White Labs California Ale WLP001

Etc
- - -
1.5 lb Turbinado Sugar
1 Whirfloc tablet
1 Servomyces capsule

Bring 1.75g water to 160, adding grains, rest for one hour (should mash around 155); sparge water up to 170; add extract and .5 oz Simcoe before bringing to flame; 90 minute boil as follows: 90 (.5 oz Simcoe), 60 (1 oz Chinook, 1 lb Turbinado), 40 (1 oz Chinook), 20 (1 oz Amarillo, .5 lb Turbinado), 15 (1 oz Cascade, Whirfloc), 10 (Servomyces).

Planning to dry hop 1 oz Simcoe, 1 oz Cascade, 1 oz Centennial, and 1 oz Amarillo. More on that later...


Brewed on Sun, June 28
Racked/Dry-hopped on July 9
Bottled on July 21

Monticello Door Ale

So my next project was an idea I had to make a Pale Ale style brew with Fuggles only hops based on a basic recipe I have seen that apparently Thomas Jefferson used to use back in the day. It so happened that his birthday was coming up (April 13), so I was shooting to brew that day, however, life struck, and I wasnt able to get to it until the following weekend.

It so happened that Shep's (who is from Virginia) 30th B-day was coming up in about a month, so I invited him over to help with the brew, and then, when it was ready, I put half of it into the Party Pig, and it was enjoyed at his 30th b-day celebration along with other assorted bottles I contributed to the occasion.

Anyway, between the initial idea for the Monticello to be a classic Pale Ale, as usually happens, some random events changed its course. The first was when I went to buy the malt at Brewcraft, I was looking through the yeast selection. Originally planning to use the California Ale yeast (standard yeast used for brewing stuff like Sierra Nevada clones, classic IPA stuff, etc), I noticed a lone silver vial of White Labs Bastogne, which is a Belgian strain originating at Orval, apparently. Well, Orval happens to be one of my favorite beers. So I picked it up, I could use it on a future beer. I looked at the expiration date. "Best if used by April 13". That solved that. It was written!

To make things even a bit crazier, I had been saving up some Brettanomyces yeast from the dregs of numerous Orval bottles. It was back in my fridge. So I cleaned that stuff off, and when we bottled this sucker, with the half that was actually going into bottles, I hit it with the Brett, to age in the bottles. What that does, over time, is give the beer that slight sour tinge, like Orval.

So after all that, it ended up a Belgian-style Pale Ale, in the tradition of Orval. And it is super good!


Monticello Door Ale
------------------------

5.5 lbs Pale Malt Syrup
2 lbs Two Row
.75 lb Crystal 20L
.75 lb Crystal 40L
.5 lb Carapils

3 oz Fuggle hops

1.5 lbs Turbinado sugar
Whirfloc tablet
Servomyces capsule

White Labs Bastogne Yeast (WLP510)



Partial Mash brought to 160; 60 min rest; sparge w/ water at 170 - 60 min boil - Hop sched: 60 (1 oz), 30 (1.5 oz), 20 (.5 oz) - .5 lb Turbinado at 30, 1 lb Turbinado at 15 - Whirfloc tab at 15 - and at 1o - Servomyces

When I bottled, after priming, and funneling half into the Party Pig, I tossed in dregs of two Orval bottles into the remainder brew in the carboy, and let it sit for another 10 mins or so before bottling it up.

Brewed Sat, April 18
Racked Tue, April 28
Bottled Mon, May 4 (Half into Party Pig - only bottles got the Brett)

Infinite Door tasting

These may be my favorite labels that H has done so far... She does an awesome job, and this one, I think is just perfect. She used the author photo from the jacket of "Infinite Jest".


In bottle for 98 days

Appearance - Nice two-finger head into 1; nice latte looking head atop opaque dark brown/black brew

Aroma - Sweet malt, Edinburgh yeast (a bit fruity but dark, crimson fruits, dark cherries for instance); oaky; slight pepper; bourbon

Taste/Mouthfeel - Thick, smoky malty intro; nice carbonation; dark malt flavors hit, coffeeish; nice hoppy bang suspending into oaky toasted finish; pretty complex and layered

Overall - I really think the bourbon comes out in the aroma, whereas the oak comes out in the flavor. Perfectly, I think, though next time I may leave the oak in secondary for a bit longer... A woody stout is one of my favorite types of brew & I think this is right onto it. The alcohol is masked well by the imperialness of the brew (and creeps up on you!) - hits you hard but slow. The Edinburgh yeast is perfect for this brew.


Specifics of brewing this in previous post

The Power and The Glory pt. II

A month later more guajillo chiles ready to go into the secondary... I left this brew in the initial fermenter for 32 days (!). Longest I've ever done that...

Chiles went into a muslin bag and my buddy Shep assisted in steaming that bag of chiles...


I racked the brew into the carboy, and then I shoved the bag of chiles down in there. Let chiles soak in the brew for about 15 more days before I bottled it up.

More to come... Specifically a 3rd installment about the chili I cooked using this brew in the base. Recipe etc to come...

The Power and The Glory pt. I

Good idea or bad? Mostly good! A brew with chiles? One day an idea hit me: to brew a Belgian Dubbel and then add chiles to the mash (and secondary). Not that this is something super novel, but it was a bit risky. The overlying "idea" for the name, and the beer, came from a Graham Green novel, about a drinking priest.


Here's the grain bed during recirculation of the partial mash...




Guajillo chiles (and one Ancho) for the mash, recipe sheet, along with some hop plugs...



Hops and chiles caught before the mash hit the fermenter...


The Power and The Glory
------------------------------

7 lbs. Pilsen Malt Extract
1 lb. Two Row
1 lb. Munich
.5 lb Vienna
.5 lb Crystal 90L
.5 lb Special B
.25 Chocolate Malt

1 oz Fuggles
1 oz Mt. Hood
.5 oz Saaz

1 lb. Turbinado Sugar
3 Guajillo chiles, 1 Ancho (for mash)
Bag of Guajillo chiles (about 6 or 7?) for secondary

1 Whirfloc tab
1 Servomyces capsule

White Labs Trappist Yeast (actually used yeast that was a 4th generation strain I have harvested from Enchanted Door, Trappe Door 2, etc.)

Partial mash rest at 160, 60 mins, recirculated wort through grain bed, sparged with 170 h2o; 60 min boil; 60 (1 oz Fuggles), 30 (.5 lb Turbinado), 15 (Whirfloc), 10 (1 oz Mt Hood, Servomyces, .5 lb Turbinado), 5 (.5 oz Saaz, Chiles)

Brewed on Thu, Apr 2
Racked on Mon, May 4 (added chiles to secondary)
Bottled on Tue, May 19

Extra

So there's been some serious brewing action this late winter/spring though I havent posted b/c my computer crashed on me - at home we have been using my wife's old laptop and with photos etc just made too difficult - so anyway, i will back post once i get a new comp up and running - we are looking to get an iMac this time out, just been super busy, no time to actually make the deal. But soon. In the meantime, here's whats goin on:

INFINITE DOOR Imperial Stout - Best beer I've brewed yet. Came out just like I hoped it would. It's going to be hard not to tap into the reserves of this, but I plan to move the final box (with the 22 oz. bottles) to the cellar soon, to make them harder to get to.

TRAPPE DOOR Dubbel (Batch 2) - Major improvement over the first batch. I changed up the malt profile a bit, and like it much more. Tasted it last night for the first time (almost two weeks in bottle) and was somewhat blown away. Exactly what I was going for. Nails the Dubbel style and super flavorful. Dry, nutty, caramelly. More detailed post to come.

MONTICELLO DOOR Pale Ale/Saison- A recipe I had been working on for some time to brew on Thomas Jefferson's b-day (April 13). Was to be an American Pale Ale using only Fuggle hops. Didnt get to it by the 13th, but brewed that weekend. Actually turned into a cross between an Orval and an American Fuggle Pale Ale. A friend of mine who is from Virginia, came over to help brew, as we are going to tap this bad boy at his birthday in a few weeks. We ended up Belgianing it up a bit by adding 1.5 lbs of Turbinado Sugar and I used the White Labs Bastogne yeast, b/c the vial I had actually had the "best if used by" date of April 13. I like how random things like that can influence a beer. Anyway, the attentuation was something like 83%, fermenting right at the onslaught of a heat wave, beer got up to 78 degrees. After about a week in secondary, we put half into the Party Pig, and then bottled the other half after adding a bit of Brett yeast I'd kept from the dregs of a few Orval bottles. Will be interesting to see how those bottles turn out. If they sour up at all, etc.

THE POWER AND THE GLORY Mexican Dubbel - this was my last inspired idea... I brewed it up right after racking Trappe Door 2, and pitched onto that yeast. A similar beer profile to the TD, however I used a bit of chocolate malt and some other different grains. PLUS I added some ancho and guajillo chiles to the boil, at the end. This sucker fermenteted FAST, but due to all of my equipment being used by all these brews, it sat for a few days over a month in the fermenter. I then took another bag of guajillo (actually a friend of mine did this as I cleaned the carboy), took out the stems and seeds, put them into a muslin bag and steamed them for a good 15 minutes to sanitize and bring out some juices. Smelled really nice, of tobacco somewhat. Put that into the carboy, then racked the brew onto it. I sampled it and the chiles are working superbly with the beer. I'm planning to leave it sitting until the chiles are almost a bit much, knowing that in bottles, it will fade some. I like the idea of having them right up in your nose and tongue, but in a good, inviting way.

Next up, the GREEN DOOR IPA. Most likely my last beer of the spring.

Back-posts with photos etc coming as soon as possible.

Enchanted Door tasting

I forgot to write down the actual date of this, but it was about a month after bottling, so early March. Clear bottle straight from the cellar.

Apearance - 1.5 finger head; nice lacing; amber gold highlights; clear brew until a bit of yeast murk towards end of pour

Aroma - Banana, slight cinnamon, peppery

Taste/Mouthfeel - Good carbonation; nice mouthfeel; syrupy; dry - hop bitterness gets jolted by crazy spicyness (works nice with hops, not overboard) - slight alcohol zing - aftertaste is pretty smooth - peppery, hoppy, works well - woody/oak notes

Overall - This is my most experimental brew yet, my deep stab at the spiced beer. I think it has come out nicely. No one spice rules, and it all works well with the hops, and the malt. Overall a success in my book. Will only get better with age. Pretty potent at 8.4% alc/vol. Ended up entering this one into a local homebrew competition. More on that soon.

Trappe Door Ale (Batch 02)

Coming soon...

And then the continents of North and South Hallertauer formed...


Getting mystical (I need to work on the audio portion of my videos - esp. since my crappy stove fan doesnt even really work):

Brewed on Sun, Mar 22

A Study of Heads

Infinite Door Ale

Author David Foster Wallace died last fall. He would have been 47 years old this Feb. 21st, so to honor his life and inspirational work, I decided to gather a few friends together on the 21st and brew up an Imperial Stout titled the Infinite Door. Aqua took some nice photos; check them out here. We did some random readings from various DFW books. I worked out a dice rolling system that told you what book to read from and what page to begin on. As it ended up, most of the readings ended up falling on Brief Interviews with Hideous Men (which was recently adapted into a film, which I think first showed at this year's Sundance Festival).

This was the first time I have ever used a yeast "starter". I generally just pitch straight from the vial (which is how you buy it), but this time, knowing it was going to be a fairly heavy brew, I wanted to guarantee that I was pitching enough yeast to get the job done, so a good day and a half before brewing, I prepared a small wort and got the yeast excited and multiplying.

This was probably the messiest beer I've done as well. I tried to abide by the 2 quarts of water per 1 lb. of grain for my mini-mash, which was slightly idiotic as my mini-mash pot is only a little over 2 gallons capacity, so when I dumped the grains in, it was a bit of a problem, but I just let some of it overflow, cut the flame, put the lid on and put a towel on top to trap the heat.

The sparge was when it got truly messy. Here I am recirculating the first runnings.

Shot of boil...

My past few beers have been experiments with spice, to some degree, so this time, I decided to hold back, and added only a few spices, at extremely low volume. Small amounts of Nutmeg, All Spice, Cardamom, and one Star Anise pod.

Some reason I cant get this photo to stand up straight. Here the wort is cooling in the tub.

Pulled a sample before pitching the yeast, Original Gravity of 1.078. Not quite as heavy as I had anticipated, but good enough. My biggest beer yet.

On the 8th day of fermentation it was racked. Final Gravity of around 1.019. Attenuation of about 75.6%. Really good for the White Labs Edinburgh Ale yeast I used. 7.8% alcohol/vol.

As mentioned in my Oak Aging post, back on 12/09/08, I had put some toasted American Oak chips on some Knob Creek bourbon. Here are the chips before I drained them off the bourbon and added them to a baggy to soak in the secondary.

I ended up having some of the bourbon. It was interesting to taste. Extremely oaky, which in someways comes off as peppery. It tasted good.

Here was a sample of the Infinite Door a few days before bottling. The bourbon/oak was very subtle, but definitely there. I think this is going to be a good one.

Infinite Door Stout

-------------------

Malts/Sugars

--------------

8 lbs. Pilsen Malt Extract Syrup (Most before boil/Rest at 15 min)

2 lbs. Two-Row*

.5 lb. Crystal 60L*

.5 lb. Crystal 90L*

.25 lb. Chocolate Malt*

.25 lb. Special B*

.25 lb. Roasted Barley*

.25 lb. Black Patent*

1 lb. Dark Candi Sugar (rocks)

Hops

-----

1 oz Styrian Aurora 7.6% (60 min)

2 oz Cascade 6.3/7.1% (60/30 mins respectively)

1 oz Fuggles 4.6% (30 min)

Yeast

------

White Labs Edinburgh Scottish Ale (WLP028)

Other

------

Whirlfloc tablet (15 min)

Servomyces yeast nutrient capsule (10 min)

1/8 tsp Nutmeg

1/8 tsp All Spice

1/8 tsp Cardamom

1 pod of Star Anise

Mini-mash (*) grains went into water around 160 degrees, so one step mash around 157 or so for an hour. Sparge water around 170. Mixed in most of the malt extract (though not all) before bringing to boil. 1/2 Candi Sugar at 30 min, and half at 10 min. Spices went in at flame out. Otherwise as scheduled above. 60 minute boil.

Brewed on Sat, Feb 21

Racked on Sun, Mar 1

Oaked on Sat, Mar 7

Bottled on Tue, Mar 17 (St. Patrick's Day)