Pumpkin Beer

Never made a Pumpkin beer before.  Well I tried once and failed, due to a stuck sparge, even with rice hulls that mash was a failure.  I used 4 lbs of roasted pumpkin in that batch.  That was 3 years ago almost, so I am attempting again but this time with less pumpkin and less alcohol.  I wanted a smallish beer for easy drinking and hopefully full of flavor.  I rested on ~30 oz of pumpkin in the mash.  Trust me that isn't a lot of pumpkin when looking at the mash.  I bought 3 12oz cans of Organic Pumpkin from Whole Foods and just decided to use all 3, which put me at ~36 oz of puree to use.  I just dumped all of it in the mash as I was doughing in.  On top of that I went with a small amount of dark brown sugar (8oz) also Organic, and also from Whole Foods.  I did not want a ton of spice flavor in the beer so I am only adding in 1.25oz of home made pumpkin pie spice.  That includes Cinnamon, Ginger, Allspice and Nutmeg (Organic, Whole Foods).  I added this to a White Labs vial and topped off the vial with Bacardi Dark Rum.  I will add the spice/rum mixture in secondary and let it sit for a week or so.  I hope to have this on tap around Halloween.

Pumpkin Ale

Malt:
9.5 lbs: Rahr 2-Row
12 oz: Crystal 120L
8 oz: Dark Brown Sugar
1.75 oz: Chocolate Malt
1.75 oz: Roasted Barley
30 oz: Pumpkin Puree (in mash)

Hops:
1 oz: Hallertauer 4.8AA @ 60min

Misc:
1 Whirlfloc Tablet


Target OG: 1.046
Target FG:  1.011
IBU: ~18

Actual OG: 1.056
Actual FG: 1.010
Apparent Attenuation: 81.5%

ABV: 6.1%
ABW: 4.8%

Yeast:
White Labs California Ale (WLP001)

Update 10.4.2011: Added in Pumpkin Spice mixture in secondary.
Update 10.10.2011: Started to chill beer in prep to keg.
Update 10.15.2011: Racked beer into keg, set 11psi @ 43degF for around 2.1 co2 level.  Beer came out much darker than I thought, still should be good to drink, just looks more like a brown ale than a nice amber/orange color that I was hoping for.

Nelson Sauvin White Oak IPA

I am attempting to knock out a beer on Labor Day this year cause it seems that the only time I have to brew is on holidays that I don't actually work.  I have been wanting to use Nelson Souvin hops for a while, but they are extremely hard to find and only available during certain times of the year.   The hops comes from New Zealand and is apparently very rare to find.  This hop imparts a nice white wine fruitiness and fresh crushed Gooseberries (whatever that is).  I wanted to use my "standard" IPA recipe which for the last few batches I have done really came out great, especially on my last one.  This time I wanted to not use Rye, but bump the base malt up a bit and add a bit more Munich.  This is rounded out with Crystal 10 and 40 and Flaked Wheat for some body and head retention.

Now what will make this beer different is the fact I am adding in Chardonnay soaked Oak Cubes in secondary along with more Nelson Souvin hops for Dry Hopping.  I don't really want to add too much oak or too much wine flavors into the beer, I just want it to be subtle and basically enhance the wine characteristics of the hops I am using.  I am adding in extra hops because I know it will sit for a time on the oak cubes and I don't want to loose too much hop bitterness and flavor because of that.  So IBU's might seem a bit high for the ABV, but I think in the end things will be balanced out.  I am really looking forward to this one.

Nelson Sauvin White Oak IPA


Malt:
13 lbs: Rhar 2-Row
2 lbs: Briess Munich 10L
.5 lbs: Briess Crystal 10L
.5 lbs: Briess Crystal 40L
.5 lbs: Flaked Wheat

Hops:
.25 oz: Nelson Souvin 11.5AA FWH
.25 oz Nelson Souvin 11.5AA @ 90 min
.25 oz Nelson Souvin 11.5AA @ 60 min
.25 oz: Nelson Souvin 11.5AA @ 35 min
.50 oz: Nelson Souvin 11.5AA @ 25 min
2 oz: Nelson Souvin 11.5AA @ 10 min
3 oz: Nelson Souvin 11.5AA @ Flame out
4+ oz: Nelson Souvin 11.5AA @ Dry Hop

Misc:
1: Whirlfloc Tablett
3 oz: Chardonnay Soaked Oak Cubes - 2 Weeks

Target OG: 1.068
Target FG: 1.012
IBU: ~ 73

Actual OG: 1.063
Actual FG: 1.010
Apparent Attenuation: 83.4%

ABV: 7.1
ABW: 5.5

Yeast:
Safale S-05 Dry Yeast

Hopville Recipe

Update 9.29.2011: Added in 3oz of Chardonnay soaked oak cubes.  Gravity down to 1.010 and fermentation has halted.
Update 10.5.2011: Added in 4 oz of Nelson Souvin Dry Hops.
Update 10.10.2011: Started to chill beer in prep to keg
Update 10.15.2011: Racked beer into keg.  Set 11psi @ 43degF for a 2.1 co2 level.  Also thinking of adding in more dry hops.

Summer Saison

Been too busy to brew is my excuse for now.  I always like trying different Saison recipes for some reason and this time is a take on the now defunct Odonada Saison.  Although I never got to try the beer, or any of their wonderfully sounding beers, I hope to recreate something of what they had with this recipe.  I want the Saison to be rustic, earthy and slightly funky with no Brett present.  So to help do this I bumped up the Wheat malt, Acidulated malt and added some Melanoiden Malt and Flaked Oats.  I also wanted to bump up the fermenting temperature of the WY3711 yeast this time around. To ferment some where in the 80's was my goal.  I was quite lazy making this batch and didn't make a starter at all.  I smacked the Wyeast pack and hoped for the best.  What I got was a much dryer beer than I expected, but thats a good thing.

Summer Saison

Malt:

7 lbs: Weyerman Floor Malted Pilsner

5 lbs: Wheat Malt

1.5 lbs: Melanoiden Malt

12 oz: Cara-Pils

8 oz: Munich Malt

8 oz: Acidulated Malt

4 oz: Flaked Oats

Hops:

1.25 oz: Chinook 1.25aa @ 60 min

2 oz: Willamette 4.0aa @ 10min

Misc:

1 Whirlfloc @ 20min

Target OG: 1.066

Target FG: 1.010

IBU: ~31

Actual OG: 1.065

Actual FG: 1.000

Apparent Attenuation: 88.7%

ABV: 7.7

ABW: 6.1

Yeast:

Wyeast 3711 French Saison (From Smack Pack)

Hopville Recipe

Update 9.1.2011:  Beer finished out a bit dryer than I was expecting.  The Wyeast 3711 is an amazing strain of yeast.  I let the beer sit on the yeast longer than I wanted which caused it to dry all the way out.  This made the beer quite imperial at 8.7% abv, and you can tell it too.  While the beer is cold, the hot alcohol is barely noticeable, but as soon as it starts to warm up, they really come out.  I think it's going to be back to the drawing board on my Saison recipe.  Next time I will look for a more low gravity solution, and try to keep it under 5% abv. 

Double Decoction Kolsch

It's been a hot minute since I have had the chance to brew anything.  New job and life is keeping me down.  So I had originally planned on doing this batch a month or so back but just got around to this on Memorial Day.  I wanted to basically do the same batch of Kolsch I did the previous year, but do a decoction to see if I can pull some extra flavor out of the mash and also just to do one since I have never attempted anything like that before.  I do have to say that I love the way the decoction brews up.  I got super efficiency (82%) out of my grain and the finished wort dropped super clear after chilling.  Instead of using German Tradition this time around I went for Saaz, for a better hop profile.  I repitched the same yeast used last year from Gordon Biersch.  Surprised that the yeast actually kept for that long in the fridge.  Took it a few days for it to wake up, but now its rocking in the beer.

Mash Schedule:

Initial Mash in:
- Protein Rest: 122 for 15 min (thin mash 1.5 q/lb)

1st Decoction:
- Pulled 1.25 gallons thick mash
- Sacc Rest @ 150 for 15 min
- Boiled for 15 min
- Added back to main mash

Sacc Rest in Main Mash
- 150 for 15 minutes

2nd Decoction
- Pulled 1.2 gallons thick mash
- Boiled for 15 min
- Added back to main mash

Mash Out:
- Mashed out @ 168 for 15 minutes
- Sparged as normal


Summer Kolsch

Malt:
9 lbs: Weyermann Floor Malted Pilsner
1 lb: Weyermann Munich
.5 lbs: Flaked Wheat

Hops:
2.0 oz: Saaz 5.5aa @ 60 min
.5 oz: Fuggles 4.9aa @ 5 min

Misc:
1 Whirlfloc @ 15 min

Target OG: 1.044
Target FG: 1.011
IBU: ~34

Actual OG: 1.052
Actual FG: 1.010
Apparent Attenuation: 80%

ABV: 5.6%
ABW: 4.4%

Yeast:
Weihenstephan Kolsch


Hopville Recpie

Update 6.10.2011: This one is a slow fermenter it seems.  After almost 2 weeks in primary it still has a nice thick krausen and still bubbling away, fermenting at 62 degrees.

Update 6.18.2011: Just recked over to a keg for lagering.  Beer finished around 1.010 which is nice, but being that my OG was kind of high the abv is on up there around 5.3%.  I was hoping to keep this beer around 4.4abv.  Ill check back in 4-6 weeks and see how this beer is looking.

Update 9.1.2011: Beer is drinking quite nice right now.  I plan on submitting 2 bottles of it to the Brewmasters Open, to see how it came out.

Pinot Noir Barrel Aged Oude Bruin

After more than a year of waiting on our Flanders Red project to finish up it's time to remove that beer and add a new one.  Next we all decided on a Belgian Brown or Oude Bruin.  There are differences between the two types of Red and Brown, where the red is more tart and vinegar like, the brown is more earthy and lightly funky with the underlying beer carrying it.  For this beer I mashed pretty high cause I was using 2nd generation WLP001 yeast and in the past it will finish out pretty dry on the 2nd go around.  The beer turned out a lot more brown that I was expecting.  Hopefully I can post some pictures of the barrel sometime in the future.

Oude Bruin

Malt:
13 lbs: Rahr Pilsner
1 lb: Munich Malt
12 oz: Caramunich III
8 oz: Special B

Hops:
2.25 oz: Willamette 4.5aa @ 60min

Misc:
1 Whirlfloc @ 20min

Target OG: 1.065
Target FG: 1.015
IBU: ~25

Actual OG: 1.060
Actual FG:
Apparent Attenuation:

ABV:
ABW:

Yeast:
White Labs California Ale (WLP001) - Repitch from Columbus Rye

Hopville Recipe

Update 3.18.2011: Beer fermentation has completed I will take a gravity tonight and see where it stands. Right now it plans on being racked to the barrel next weekend.

Columbus Rye IPA

I recently aquired some very fresh Columbus hops from Septembers crop. I got 1 lb of Leaf and 1lb of Pellet hops. The leaf hops were an astonishing 17.9% aa and the pellets a good 14.5% aa. I have recently come to love Columbus has a flavor hop even though it's such a high alpha. The flavor/aroma profile is earthy, spicy, pungent, with some citrus overtones. Now it's not Cascade, but there is some citrus in there especially in the aroma. For some reason I love Avery Hog Heaven, it's a single hopped Barleywine hopped only with Columbus and when it's fresh it's amazing. I recently got to try their Uberschewin which is their unfiltered Hog Heaven dry hopped with 2lbs of Columbus and it was pretty amazing. For this I wanted something a bit more drinkable with more flavor/aroma of the Columbus hops with a nice malty backbone. I used a very close recipe to my Citra IPA I made a few months back and then hopped with the Columbus.



Columbus Rye IPA

Malt:
11.75 lbs: Briess 2-Row
1.5 lbs: Weyermann Rye Mat
1 lb: Weyermann Munich
.75 lbs: American Crystal 10L
.5 lbs: American Crystall 40L
.5 lbs: Flaked Wheat

Hops:
.25 oz: Columbus 17.9aa First Wort
.25 oz: Columbus 17.9aa @ 60min
.50 oz: Columbus 17.9aa @ 35min
.50 oz: Columbus 17.9aa @ 25min
2 oz: Columbus 14.5aa @10
2.5 oz: Columbus 14.5aa @ Flame Out
4 oz: Columbus 14.5aa Dry Hop

Misc:
1 Whirlfloc Tablet

Target OG: 1.065
Target FG: 1.014
IBU: ~73

Actual OG: 1.075
Actual FG: 1.013
Apparent Attenuation:

ABV: 8.3%
ABW: 6.4%

Yeast:
White Labs California Ale (WLP001)

Hopville Recipe

Update 2.17.2011: Brewday was pretty typical, I had to adjust my water cause of all the whole leaf hops soaking up all the wort. Once it was said and done using whole leaf hops is kind of a pain in the ass. The problem was that I couldn't siphon off most of the wort into the carboy. My auto-siphon kept getting clogged with the leafs. Once I got through that the beer seemed to had turned out pretty well. It's fermenting quite vigorously right now and I hope to dry hop sometime this weekend.

Update 2.24.2011: Beer is still fermenting right now. I have no idea why or how it is, but usually mine are done by now. I took a gravity reading and at over a weeks worth of fermentation I was still above 1.020. My guess is this, I had a huge blowoff after fermentation started and a ton of yeast was ejected from the carboy. With less yeast I suspect that its taking longer to get down to gravity.

Update 2.28.2011: Beer finally finished out pretty dry at 1.013. I am shocked that it finished that low after my last update. I went ahead and added 4oz of Columbus pellets for Dry Hopping. I plan on crash cooling and kegging this week.

Update 3.3.2011: Racked over beer to keg last night. I am thinking about dropping in more dry hops in the keg, but I want to taste it 1st when it's finished carbonating 1st.

Rustic Saison

Rustic Saison

Malt:
10 lbs: Weyerman Pilsner
3 lbs: Wheat Malt
1 lb: Munich Malt
1 lb: Golden Naked Oats
.25 lbs: Acidulated Malt

Hops:
1 oz: EKG 7.2aa @ 60 min
1.50 oz: Willamette 5.2aa @ 10min
1.50 oz: Willamette 5.2aa @ 0min

Misc:
1 Whirlfloc @ 20min

Target OG: 1.064
Target FG: 1.007
IBU: ~31

Actual OG: 1.051
Actual FG: 1.003
Apparent Attenuation: 93.9%

ABV: 6.4
ABW: 5

Yeast:
Wyeast 3711 French Saison (Repitch from Funky Holiday Ale)

Hopville Recipe

Update 2.17.2010:  I was lazy on updating this one on here.  Beer finished out fine and has been kegged for a few weeks now.  Not as much "rustic" as I was hoping, but I think I can fix that.  A good Saison, but it can get better.