Tag: Recipe

Roscoe Simcoe, a red IPA

I dusted off my Amarillo Red recipe and decided to change it up a little for a fall brew. I have an abundance of Simcoe hops at the moment and a relatively small amount of Amarillo pellets, so I’me going to tweak the recipe for this brew.

Grain bill

  • 15 lbs. domestic 2-row
  • 5 lbs German Pilsner malt
  • 1.5 lbs Crystal 60L
  • 1 lbs Crystal 120L
  • 1  lbs malted wheat

Hops

  • 2oz Simcoe (whole cone) @ 60 minutes
  • 2oz Simcoe @ 10 minutes
  • 2oz Amarillo pellets @ 5 min
  • 1oz Amarillo @ flameout
  • 1oz Simcoe @ flameout
  • 1oz Simcoe dry hopped

Yeast

  • Safale S-05 (1st carboy)
  • Wyeast British Ale Yeast (2nd carboy)

Instructions?

You know the drill, right? Get up at 6am on a Sunday, start heating the water in the HLT, go back and get some more coffee, etc. The SRM should come out around 13-14L. f

Danzig Baltic Porter

Yesterday, as rain poured down outside the open garage, a Baltic porter was born. A few friends joined to get a refresher in partial mash brewing (extract plus steeping grains). We started the morning with a quick recipe, a trip to Homebrew Exchange (which is open Sundays thankyouverymuch), and got the water heating. I had to do some reading again to remind myself how to do an extract batch, but the savings in setup, time, and cleanup were a nice change of pace. To mix things up, and to get beer a little sooner, we decided to split the beer in two carboys and pitch one with british ale yeast and the other with California lager yeast (2 packs on a recommendation from the shopkeeper). Brew day was easy, and the extra hands around meant that cleanup (and carrying the 6+ gallons for beer to the basement) was much easier.

Anyway, here’s the recipe:

Grains:

  • 23 lbs light malt extract
  • 1.25 lbs chocolate malt
  • 1 lbs Munich
  • 1 lbs Vienna
  • 1 lbs Crystal 60L
  • 1 lbs Crystal 80L
  • 0.5 lbs black patent

Hops

  • 3oz Palisades @ 60min
  • 3.5 oz Glacier @ 10min

Other

  • British Ale Yeast
  • California Lager Yeast x2
  • Irish Moss

OG came in at 1.087. Get to work yeast!

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Jasmine IPA

Today I’m brewing a Jasmine IPA loosely based on Elysian’s Avatar. Avatar (the name greatly pre-date the movie hype) is one of my wife’s favorite beers, so I thought I’d give it a try. I picked up some jasmine via the web from a local reseller on Etsy. The bag arrived yesterday. I’m not entirely convinced by the experiment, and since this is a double batch (10 gallons), I’ll probably only do 5 gallons as the jasmine brew and the other as a dry hopped IPA using Simcoe hops. Here’s the base recipe. We’ll see if I go through with the split or just decide to do 10 gallons of Jasmine.

Malt

  • 17 lbs domestic 2-Row
  • 5 lbs Weyermann Pilsner
  • 1 lb domestic Munich
  • 1 lb Crystal 40L

Hops

  • 2 oz Simcoe @ 60 min
  • 2 oz Simcoe @ 10 min
  • 1 oz Simcoe @ 2 min
  • 1 oz Simcoe @ dryhop for 1/2 of the batch

Adjunct

  • 2 oz dried Jasmine @ 10 min
  • 2 oz @ flameout
  • 1-2 oz dryhop (is that a verb?)
  • Safale S-05 American Ale yeast x 2

Stan, Stan, He's our Man Cream Ale

My grandfather passed away last weekend, and he was a big fan of my brewing, even if only in theory. He still hadn’t opened the IPA I brewed for my wedding nearly 8 years ago so he could show people the bottle. He was more of a macro-drinker, and combining that with his being Nebraskan and his love of cream can dinners, it only seemed appropriate to brew a cream ale of the pre-prohibition style.

I’m not going to stick with period ingredients, but I think he’d be happy enough with the results to keep a bottle on his desk well beyond the “best by” date.

I’ve not used corn before, so this will be yet another adventure.

Grain

  • 7 lbs Pilsner Malt
  • 3 lbs 2-Row
  • 1 lbs flaked corn
  • 0.5 lbs Carapils

Hops

  • 1 oz. NZ Saaz @ 60 min (4% alpha)
  • 1 oz. NZ Saaz @ 10 min
  • 1 oz. NZ Saaz @ 5 min

Should be interesting. I’ll probably just stick with Safale S-05.

Red Oak mash-in

This morning I mashed in at 10 am to an overcast sky at roughly 40F. Things are going smoothly so far as recycling trucks go by picking up the waste of the past few days. I’m praying that the rain will hold off for another 2 hours, and that I don’t slip on the wet birch leaves on the deck as I carry hot pots of water out to top off the hot liquor tank.

Today I’m brewing a fairly simple amber ale. It’s just 2-row and Crystal 60 and 80, with 1.5 oz of hops. I’m hoping to keep the flavor simple since I’m going to try and oak chip the beer in secondary with bourbon soaked toasted red oak chips. The bourbon is supposedly to “sanitize” the chips (blocks weren’t available) but I’m actually hoping to recreate a bourbon barrel flavor. I probably should have tried this with a bigger beer, but the amber will allow me to taste how the oak affects flavor.

Red Oak

Grains

  • 9 lbs. domestic 2-row
  • 1.5 lbs Crystal 60L
  • 0.5 lbs Crystal 80L

Hops

  • 0.75 oz Chinook (12.2 % alpha) @ 60 min
  • 0.5 oz Chinook (12.2 % alpha) @ 5 min

Other

  • Yeast starter with Fermentis Safale S-05
  • 2.4 oz dark toasted oak chips (added in secondary, soaked in bourbon for 1 week)
  • pinch of Irish Moss near end of boil

Now I should get back to the mash. It’s probably just about time to sparge.

Max C Imperial IPA

Here’s a recipe for the Imperial IPA I’m brewing this weekend. It’ll be an 8 gallon batch (5 keg, 3 bottled) and the hop bill is still under scrutiny.

Malt bill

  • 16 lbs Domestic 2-row malt
  • 1 lbs Domestic Munich
  • 1.5 lbs CaraPils
  • 0.5 lbs Crystal 40L

Hops

  • 2 oz Chinook (12.5% alpha) @ 60 minutes
  • 1 oz Centennial (10% alpha) @ 30 minutes
  • 1 oz Centennial (10% alpha) @ 20 minutes
  • 1 oz Chinook (12.5% alpha) @ 15 minutes
  • 1 oz Centennial (10% alpha) @ 10 minutes
  • 1.5 oz Centennial (10% alpha) @ 5 minutes
  • 1.5 oz Centennial (10% alpha) @ 2 minutes
  • 1.5 oz Centennial (10% alpha) @ Dry Hopped

Misc. Ingredients

  • Fermentis Safale S-05 dry yeast
  • Irish Moss @ 15 minutes

Seems like I should be able to fit some more more hops in there. I can’t find any information on whether S-05 will ferment enough to hit my target gravity.

Edit: I changed the name of the beer at the last minute celebration of our friend’s newest, Maximus Charles Walz, born on Friday, October 5th. Nate’ll have get a batch as well, but a Scottish seems more appropriate.

The Hop Bomb drops

My christmas gift from my father-in-law included a box full of hops. A mix of pellets, and whole cones too. I’m a little overwhelmed, and for the night I couldn’t really focus on what we were doing. All I could think about were recipes. Here’s why:

Whole cones:

  • Galena – 13.2% α
  • UK East Kent Goldings – 6.4% α (freshly imported)
  • Santiam – 6.8% α
  • Crystal – 3.9% α
  • Vanguard – 4.4% α
  • Nugget – 13.2% α

and for Pellets:

  • Cascades – 5.7% α
  • US Fuggle – 3.7% α
  • Simcoe – 12.1% α
  • Chinooks – 12.2% α
  • Centennial – 10.0% α
  • Palisades – 9.7% α

There are a couple I’ve never heard of, and one in particular makes me nervous. The Palisades are supposedly a new variety that could replace Willamettes. Willamettes are one of the most widely grown varieties here in the, uh, Willamette Valley, and the Palisade has a higher alpha acid content and a higher productivity, which could seriously hurt hop growers. Its one of those cases where the green revolution has surpassed its benefit to a large number of people and concentrated the benefit for one or two folks. You know who I’m talking about. The king of beers.

Regardless, I’m pretty damn excited because many of these hops will be very useful in expanding the variety of beer styles I can brew. I know Crystal and Galena to be favorites of Rogue, and there are several noble-style hops that rarely use.

Oddly enough – my coffee has taken on a distinctive hop flavor. Maybe I should move this box somewhere else.

Rooftop South-of-Town Brown

This weekend should include the brewing of a Nut Brown – Porter hybrid called South-of-Town Brown for my sister and her friend’s move to town, and their affinity for brown ales. Plus, its fall, and it sounds really good.

Ingredients

  • 6 lbs. Pale LME
  • 0.5 lbs Crystal Malt (120L)
  • 0.5 lbs Victory Malt
  • 0.5 lbs Chocolate Malt
  • 1 oz. Cascade Hops – 60 minutes
  • 1 oz. Cascade Hops – 30 minute
  • 2 oz Willamette Hops – 5 minutes
  • Irish Moss
  • British Ale Yeast – pitched to starter

OG: 1.050

If the batch goes well, I may reuse the yeast cake for another.

Hop Damn! humulus lupulus furor (hop madness)

Hop Damn! spent hops
I moved Hop Damn! to secondary today. The IBU count of 114 may be a little high, but its still bitter and has a great citrus aroma and full grapefruit flavor. The gravity is still a bit high at 1.028, but its got a week left. I’m curious how I’m going to get a bottle carbonated enough to take to Hop Madness next Saturday.

I have my doubts that it’ll win Best Damn Hoppy Beer in the Pacific Northwest, but it is good, and with any luck, it’ll get sampled near the end and will place.