Batch #24 - Oktoberfest

It is time I finally did a lager on this system!  I can't think of a better style than getting an Oktoberfest started.  Timing right now should be good as it will be ready towards the end of Sept.  I got the recipe from a clone brew recipe book I have.  It is a clone recipe of an Oktoberfest called Ayinger Oktober Fest-Marzen from Privatbrauerei Aying, Aying, Germany.  I have not had this beer myself, but that is part of the fun!  It is seasonal so it should be out in the fall when mine is ready.  It will be fun to get some bottles of it and compare it to my brew.

Here is the recipe:

Batch Size - 5 gallons

Grains

7 lbs 12oz - German Pilsner

3 lbs - Munich Malt

8 oz - Dark Munich Malt

8 oz - Caramunich Malt

Hops
1.03 oz - Tettnang (6.5%) (90 min)
0.5 oz - Hallertauer Hersbrucker (2%) (15 min)

Yeast

Wyeast 2308 - Munich Lager - Target 440 billion cells

Brewers Salts

2.3g Chalk

0.7g Baking Soda

The brew schedule was as follows:

Mash

1.25 q water/lb
90 min at 153 degrees
Mashout to 170 degrees for 10 min
Sparge for approx 1 hour

Boil

90 min boil

Full 90 min add Tettnang hops
Final 15 min - Add Hallertauer Hersbrucker and Whirfloc tablet

Fermentation

Primary - 14 Days @ 50
Secondary - 7 Days @ 55
Secondary - 30 Days slowly decreasing temp to 34
Secondary - 3 Days @ 60 degrees
Keg Condition - 14 Days

Here are the specs on this brew:

IBU's -23.3
Color - 8.0 SRM
Calories - 182 per 12 oz
Estimated OG - 1.056
Actual OG - 1.055
Estimated FG - 1.013
Estimated ABV - 5.7%

The fun and different thing I did on this one was rather than using my usual water profile and brewers salts, I added chalk and baking soda to get as close to a Munich water profile as possible.  I am really looking forward to seeing how this turns out.  Unfortunately it will suck up one of my fridges for a while to lager, but it will be worth it!

The brew day went really well and smooth.  The only thing I didn't hit on the mark is I lowered my boil just a little, and as a result I didn't evaporate at the same rate, so with that my finishing hops ended up being on a little longer.  Outside of that things went great.  Below is a photo from the refractometer of my OG.

Batch #23 - Cream Ale

The award winning Cream Ale had to be brewed again!  This time I bumped it up to a 10 gallon batch.  Other than increasing the ingredients, the recipe followed was Batch #14.  I plan to play with this a little though this time.  I of course split this up into two 5-gallon carboys to ferment.  The tricky thing here with yeast starters is how to evenly split the yeast between the two carboys.  I don't have a great technique right now other than eying it, but I will figure out a good solution soon.  To try and compensate for any variations between the two carboys, I blended the batches when I transferred to secondary.

At this stage the Cream Ale is in its secondary fermenters.  One fermenter I will keep the original recipe, the other I added something a little special which I can't wait to try.  I got a nice vanilla bean, split it in two, scrapped it out the inside, and chopped up the skin.  I then take all of that and drown it in a little bit of vodka to kill anything so I don't contaminate the beer.  After letting it soak for a few hours in the vodka I then dump it all into the secondary.  Since vodka is already pretty flavor neutral, it works out well, plus it is a very small amount.  I will then taste this regularly until I feel I've achieved enough of the vanilla flavor I am looking for.

This vanilla cream ale has a special place in my heart going back to my days living in Nashville.  This was right around the time I turned 21 which was great too.  There was a brewery down there called Market Street on 2nd Ave.  They had this great vanilla cream ale that I could not get enough of.  This beer lives only as a memory in my mind because it is no longer made.  The brewery/pub closed down a few years ago.  Fortunately I think I had enough of it back then to lock that flavor in!  Ideally the vanilla bean will do the trick, I would like to not use extract, but my gut is telling me to get the strong vanilla flavor they used to get, and because they did this on such a large scale, using extract was probably easier for Market Street.  Will see though if I can achieve the flavor profile with the vanilla beans.

Batch #22 - Bourbon Barleywine

I could not get enough of this delicious beer last time around.  It is so full of flavor, and of course it is oaked with a bourbon (Woodford Reserve) oak spiral (American oak medium char) which makes it all taste so very good!  This time around I am going to only oak it for 4 weeks.  In recent tastings of the Bourbon Ale (Batch #20), 4 weeks was perfect.  No heavy oak or tannin flavors, but the bourbon and vanilla from the oak comes through.  I'm hoping to really let this age for a while too so it can mature.  I couldn't resist last time and drank it pretty soon, but could taste it evolving over time.  This time I will be more patient, and it should prove an awesome Fall brew.

I followed the recipe and process exactly as before in Batch #18.  Feel free to review that posting for the recipe.  The only difference this time is I was able to hit a higher OG at 1.099.  I believe I achieved the higher OG simply because I boiled it down a little further, as well as a more controlled sparge technique I've been doing lately.  As I write this I brewed this 4 weeks ago and will be transferring it into secondary tomorrow so I can put on the oak.  Then 4 weeks later I will keg and let time do its thing.

Batch #21 - Firecracker Ale

Nothing like a good Firecracker Ale to ring in the 4th of July!  I brewed this batch last year as an extract brew before I had the all-grain setup up and going.  It was an interesting beer that is a good easy drink on a hot summer day.  The interesting part of this brew is the kicker added to it during the boil.

That's right, Red Hots!  It gives the beer a reddish hue and a little subtle zip.  This year I converted that recipe to all-grain.  Here is that recipe:

Batch Size - 5 gallons

Grains

10 lbs - Pale 2-Row

1 lbs 8 oz - Crystal 20L

12 oz - Torrified Wheat

4 oz -Flaked Barley

Color and Flavor
1 lbs - Red Hots Candy

Hops
1.2 oz - Centennial (60 min)
1.73 oz - Liberty (20 min)

Yeast

Wyeast 1056 - American Ale - Target 625 billion cells

The brew schedule was as follows:

Mash

1.25 q water/lb
75 min at 150 degrees
Mashout to 170 degrees for 10 min
Sparge for approx 1 hour

Boil

60 min boil
Final 60 min - Add Centennial and Red Hots
Final 20 min - Add Liberty
Final 15 min - Add Whirfloc

Fermentation

Primary - 14 Days @ 64
Keg Condition - 14 Days

Here are the specs on this brew:

IBU's -47.6
Color - 5.9 SRM
Calories - 195 per 12 oz
Estimated OG - 1.059
Actual OG - 1.056
Estimated FG - 1.012
Actual FG - 1.010
Estimated ABV - 6.2%
Actual ABV - 6.0%

We drank this over the 4th of July weekend and it was a hit!  We didn't drink the whole keg as the crown was not huge, but that is fine as it will give me some left that I can bottle and hang onto.

Batch #20 - Bourbon Ale

Ahhh, I do love the flavor of this beer.  It is inspired by the Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale.  I have brewed this in the past (Batch #7).  When I brewed #7 I took a 10-gallon batch and split it into two 5-gallon batches, then experimented with oaking the beer different lengths.  One batch I did for 30 days, the other for 60.  There was considerably more vanilla and whiskey flavor in the 30 day than the 60 day.  The 60 day the flavors were more subtle and there was more straight oak and tannin flavors.  With that knowledge in hand, I am doing this one for 30 days.

The recipe is based on an Irish Red Ale recipe, and this time had some small variances from the last.  Also this time I only brewed a 5-gallon batch.  Here is the recipe:

12 lbs  - US 2-Row
1.23 lbs - Crystal Malt 40L
1.23 lbs - Briess Carapils
14.8 Oz- White Wheat Malt

Mash was a 90 minute mash at 150 degrees with 21.27 quarts of water.  We mashed out at 170 degrees and Sparged for 60 minutes.

Hops
0.53 Oz- Goldings, East Kent - 90 minutes
0.54 Oz - Fuggles - 45 Min
0.27 Oz - Fuggles - 15 Min
1 each - Whirfloc Tablets 15 Min

Boil was for 90 minutes.

Yeast
Wyeast 0007 - Dry English Ale

Fermentation at 64 degrees for 2 weeks.  Then racked to secondary, moved to 70 degree environment and pitched the oak.

This time around I have been keeping American Oak Medium Charred spirals on Woodford Reserve for months, so I only needed to pitch one of the spirals.

I left the oak on for 30 days, then kegged.  So far I have had this in the keg for about a week and only took a brief sample and boy were the flavors great.  I am going to let that condition for a few more weeks then go ahead and start drinking it for real.

In general this brew I did not hit my numbers or my efficiency.  I'm not sure why, but not too worried based on what I've tasted so far.  Learning something new each day...

A Little Behind

Well mine is not so little, but I am behind in my posts!  Due to some life events I have recently slowed in my brewing, and for certain my posts, however it is picking back up now.  I am taking this opportunity to post a quick update.

First let me tackle brewing.  I have brewed two batches since the last post.  One batch was my Bourbon Aged Ale which I just recently kegged, and the other the Firecracker Ale for the 4th of July.  I will post some reviews and pictures on these later along with the recipes.

Now I can announce the fun news.  I placed Best in Show at the Kohler Festival of Beer in their Homebrew competition! 

 

It was Batch# 14 that won, and the recipe and brew day was logged here:

http://relativitybrewery.blogspot.com/2013/02/batch-14-american-cream-ale.html

What also scored very well was Batch# 15 the Scotch Ale.  The BJCP judges gave that a 44!  Here is that recipe and brew day:

http://relativitybrewery.blogspot.com/2013/02/batch-15-scottish-strong-ale.html

All great news and very encouraging.  I look forward to entering more competitions!

The next few weeks will be packed with some good brewing.  I want to redo both Batch #14 and #15 again since they scored so well.  This time for Batch #14 I will make a 10 gallon batch, and split up the fermentation into two 5-gallon batches.  I will then take one of those and play with adding vanilla.  I have always loved a good vanilla cream ale, so this sounds like fun.

I also have on the horizon an Imperial IPA, and an Oktoberfest.  Going into July I need to get that Oktoberfest started so it will be ready in time (probably should have started even sooner).

I brewed over this last weekend my Barley Wine, so I will post those details shortly.  More to come...