Monticello Door Batch 2 (aka Monty)

My 2nd batch of this brew.

I left the malt bill alone, mostly; I added another 1/2 lb. of extract, mainly b/c some extract always gets lost in the shuffle, still stuck to the side of the bucket etc. Still all Fuggles hops, same amount. Main diff this time is that I used White Labs Abbey Ale vs. the Bastogne. And I didnt do the Orval yeast in the bottled portion either. This batch was brewed up as a "drinking batch" - in other words, I wasnt planning on aging any of it long enough to develop any sourness etc.

That first batch of Monty, I can remember drinking the last bottle. I think it sat around about 6 months. The sour tinge was there, perfectly. So while I definitely plan on doing that again in subsequent batches, this time I just chose not to deal w/ it.

Since I havent brewed in some time, I am more interested this year in focusing on a few brews/recipes. The below photo shows this batch w/o a crucial growler that was also filled. Half of the batch into the Party Pig this time (holds about 2.5 gallons = a case).

Monticello Door (Batch 2)
-------------------------

Malt
----
6 lbs Malt Extract
2 lb 2-Row
.75 lb Crystal 20L
.75 lb Crystal 40L
.5 lb Carapils

Hops
----
3 oz Fuggles (4%)
[60 1oz, 30 1.5oz, 20 .5 oz]

Yeast
-----
White Labs Abbey Ale WLP530

Etc
---
1 lb Washed Raw Sugar (.5 lb 30, .5 lb 15)
Whirfloc tab (15)
Servomyces (10)

Used my basic process, which has turned into this:
1.75 gallons H20 to 160, add grains, 60m rest w. towel covering, recirculate initial pull, sparge w/ 1.75g @ 170. Then 60 min boil, I usually do half extract before boil, then the rest @ about 10m.

I got a really amazing OG w/ this, surpisingly more than the first Monty batch, & more than you would think from just 1/2 lb more extract. Definitely more. I was pretty patient w/ the mash, so that may have something to do w/ it.

OG: 1.070
FG: 1.014

Alc/Vol: 7.3% (howoever after i took the last reading, it caught fire for another day or two suddenly, so there are probably a few more points in there, 7.5-7.7ish?)

Brewed: Sat, January 15
Racked: Thu, January 27
Bottled: Sun, February 13

Braddock's Defeat Wee Heavyish

This brew was inspired by the historic event of Braddock's Defeat @ the beginning of the French & Indian War. I had recently re-read Pynchon's Mason & Dixon, so was thinking of doing a Scottish style brew. Never done one. My friend Shep came over for the brewing.

Grains used in the mini-mash.

Sparging the mini-mash.

A while later, a nice, healthy boil. I actually boiled this one for 2 hours, versus one, to really cook the malt.

This one took a looooong time to carbonate. Honestly, I wasnt getting good carbonated bottles until about 7 or 8 months after brewing. I also noticed an odd film on the tops of the early bottles (in older ones it eventually got worked out of the beer) - I wasnt sure what it was, but it didnt affect the taste @ all. I was thinking it may have been a food born bug transferred from my wooden spoon, but just not sure.

This was also my first time using Wyeast yeast, a smack pack. I much prefer White Labs.

Braddock's Defeat
-----------------

Malt
----
12 lbs Extract
1 lb Two-Row (Maris Otter)
.75 lb Crystal 90L
.25 lb Roasted Barley

Hops
----
1 oz US Goldings 4.9% (90 mins)
1 oz US Goldings 4.9% (60 mins)
1 oz US Goldings 4.9% (30 mins)

Other
-----
1 Whirlfloc tab @ 15 mins
1 Servomyces tab @ 10 mins

Yeast
-----
Wyeast Scottish Ale Yeast

Mini-mash one step @ 160 (45 min rest) - sparge water @ 170. Gentle boil for 2 hours.

OG: 1.085
FG: 1.026

7.6% alc/vol - This actually fermented a bit more after I took this reading, so most likely a bit higher, also I think it fermented a good bit more in bottle, eventually.

2010 RECAP

So I didnt brew that much in 2010, for a number of reasons. Hoping to get back into it this year, & therefore kinda revamping the blog a bit, a bit @ a time. Though I didnt brew, I did drink a good bit of homebrew as I had full batches of both Bilbo's Brandywine & Braddock's Defeat. I plan to post about the Braddock's Defeat brewing sometime this week, a Heavy Scottish Ale, kinda like a Wee Heavy. It came out well. Here's a picture of the final bit of it, from a growler.

As for Bilbo's, here is a shot of the next to last bottle that was cracked on the night of Christmas. It was super good, & beautifully carbonated, unlike a lot of the early bottles I drank, which were much more syrupy.

And speaking of carbonation, that was one of my main lessons for the year. Both of these beers were pretty heavy (Braddock's was 1.085 OG & Bilbo's 1.096 OG), the biggest beers I've done up to this point, so it took patience to let them sit until well carbonated. But for the bottles I did let sit, it was definitely worth it.

Also, I had to throw out a batch this year for the first time. I brewed up Trappe Door batch 3, but had a mishap, when cooling the wort, a floating thermometer broke, releasing a bunch of metal balls into the pot. Ends up, those bad boys werent sanitized, & though I filtered them out, after fermentation, the beer tasted a bit like nail polish remover. Dump.

Anyway, I brewed up Monticello Door batch 2 last weekend, so I plan to post about both that one, as well as Braddock's Defeat in the coming week, going from there.

The Vitality of Yeast

If you were to search the web wondering "how long does yeast last" you will hear "maybe a few months, but anything over that, throw it out". Not true.

I have had a stoppered jar of used White Labs Bastogne, from a Monticello Door batch Spring 2009, sitting in back of my fridge, for almost 2 years... A few days ago, I worked up a 2 c. wort & made a starter, pitching some of the jar after allowing it to near room temp. As you can see, two days later, as temps conjealed, a nice krausen developed, yeast as live as ever. This makes me happy, b/c I stored a few other strains this same way, & also, this particular strain, is hard to find. It was a limited edition to start w/ (& produced wonderful results).

I will put it to good use soon.

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...