Small Batch Sunday: Mosaic SMaSH

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I just had a pint of Lone Pint’s Yellow Rose and well, I can’t think of a better beer to start trying to dial in on our Small Batch Sunday series here.  The last small batch was Stone IPA which is currently tasting really nice in the dry-hop keg.  I’m bottling the Stone this afternoon and tonight will start into another just amazing IPA that is as simple as they come.

Yellow Rose is now available all-year around and most recently to me, it can be had in bottles.  Hopefully I’ll be able to track down a six pack, or a bomber so I can do a side-by-side.  I don’t think this beer can really be cloned right now simply because it varies somewhat out of the brewery.  I’ve seen numerous mentions of getting radically different noses and flavor profiles from batch to batch.  The silver lining is that everyone agrees that it remains an amazing IPA.

My initial impression of this beer’s smooth malt profile that just carries the hops was one that needed a really solid base that’s interesting.  My go-to base malt for that sort of thing is always Thomas Fawcett Marris Otter, aka.  The Crutch as my good friend once told me of a remark from a pro-brewer here in Texas.  It’s hard to go wrong when putting Marris Otter in a beer at any level.  Some of my best SMaSH (Single-Malt and Single Hop) beers were 100% Marris.  What I’ve seen discussed around the net though was that Yellow Rose uses Wyermann Pilsen malt.  I can believe that since it doesn’t seem to have any crystal in it (neither in color nor taste) and lets the hop shine.  And it’s certainly easy enough to try a different base malt out next time.

Recipe Details

Batch Size Boil Time IBU SRM Est. OG Est. FG ABV
1 gal 90 min 66.0 IBUs 5.1 SRM 1.062 1.011 6.6 %
Actuals 1.046 1.01 4.7 %

Style Details

Name Cat. OG Range FG Range IBU SRM Carb ABV
American IPA 14 B 1.056 - 1.075 1.01 - 1.018 40 - 70 6 - 15 2.2 - 2.7 5.5 - 7.5 %

Fermentables

Name Amount %
Pilsen (BestMälz) 3.422 lbs 100

Hops

Name Amount Time Use Form Alpha %
Mosaic 0.07 oz 90 min First Wort Pellet 11.6
Mosaic 0.35 oz 5 min Boil Pellet 11.6
Mosaic 0.35 oz 20 min Aroma Pellet 11.6
Mosaic 0.53 oz 5 days Dry Hop Pellet 11.6

Miscs

Name Amount Time Use Type
Phosphoric 9.80 ml 60 min Mash Water Agent
Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) 2.10 g 60 min Mash Water Agent
Calcium Chloride 0.30 g 60 min Mash Water Agent
Epsom Salt (MgSO4) 0.20 g 60 min Mash Water Agent

Yeast

Name Lab Attenuation Temperature
Dry English Ale (WLP007) White Labs 75% 65°F - 70°F

Mash

Step Temperature Time
Saccharification 147.9°F 90 min
Mash Out 168°F 10 min

Small Batch Sunday – Stone IPA Batch 1

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3 gallons of Stone IPA wort boils, one hop addition in.

My first small batch has been quite a success so far. While the whole process wasn’t any shorter, what with all-grain brewing mash, mash-out, boil, chill and pitch. However, the clean up was short and the impact of the brew isn’t 5 or 6 gallons that need to be drunk. Rather, I’ll have 6 750mL bottles to taste, share and critique. If they go well, then it’s an easy scale up to larger batches.

In addition testing out various recipes and temperatures with the Jester King wild culture I really like a really good IPA. I’ve backed away from the double/imperial IPA, mostly because I prefer to get the balance of the beer right without just cranking up the ABV. Most commercial examples don’t get it right and have a huge malt-bomb with hop bitterness just scattered everywhere. Don’t get me wrong, there are some great examples. That said, drinkability is a big thing for me now. I’ve a few criteria that I need to have.

Dry finish. I just can’t work through that much gravity or lingering crystal malts, no matter how bitter the beer. A massive chewy and sugary IPA just isn’t good. The best chewy IPA you can find is Lagunitas. They mash high, but somehow get the attentuation, bitterness and hops (oh those hop aromas) just right.

Massive hop nose. I don’t want to have to hunt for the hops. Either you know what you’re doing with late additions, whirlpooling and packaging, or you don’t and I won’t be able to smell the hops in your beer.

Creative hop bitterness. I’ve made a few hop-bombs of my own that were just over-the-top with bitterness and frankly, they’re not that fun to drink. After aging another month, the bitterness is drinkable, but I’ve lost valuable hop aroma while waiting for things to rebalance.

Color. I really want a straw to pale color and it should be reasonably clear. I don’t really enjoy a really murky IPA. Not because it doesn’t taste good or smell great, but because I know it can be achieved without sacrificing clarity.

A beer that’s been getting this right since forever is Stone IPA. I picked up Stan Heiromynous’s IPA book and read it multiple times. A wealth of information, quite a bit coming from Mitch Steel, head brewer at Stone. Mitch and crew were kind enough to leave the Stone IPA recipe in the book. I’ll assume that this is the best source yet and I’ll skip trying out the various homebrew attempts as well as the apparently not accurate version included in BYO years ago.

The goal here is to dial in the various aspects of the IPA recipe, mash temp, thickness, pH, hoping rates and other parameters. Instead of brewing different IPAs, I’m going to keep dialing this one in until I’ve got it exactly where I want it. Just like Stones. Besides having an impeccable IPA available in a larger batch; it means that when I do want to play around with new hops or grains, I’ve got something I know really well for comparison.

Looking forward to giving this a go and sharing it with some close friends.

Recipe Details

Batch Size Boil Time IBU SRM Est. OG Est. FG ABV
1 gal 90 min 78.6 IBUs 5.4 SRM 1.065 1.012 7.0 %
Actuals 1.051 1.012 5.1 %

Style Details

Name Cat. OG Range FG Range IBU SRM Carb ABV
American IPA 14 B 1.056 - 1.075 1.01 - 1.018 40 - 70 6 - 15 2.2 - 2.7 5.5 - 7.5 %

Fermentables

Name Amount %
Brewer's Malt, 2-Row, Premium (Great Western) 2.632 lbs 96.8
Crystal 15, 2-Row, (Great Western) 1.39 oz 3.2

Hops

Name Amount Time Use Form Alpha %
Columbus (Tomahawk) 0.09 oz 90 min Boil Pellet 14.7
Chinook 0.11 oz 60 min Boil Pellet 11.8
Centennial 0.21 oz 20 min Boil Pellet 8.1
Centennial 0.29 oz 1.5 day Dry Hop Pellet 8.1
Chinook 0.03 oz 1.5 day Dry Hop Pellet 11.8

Miscs

Name Amount Time Use Type
Phosphoric 9.80 ml 60 min Mash Water Agent
Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) 2.10 g 60 min Mash Water Agent
Calcium Chloride 0.30 g 60 min Mash Water Agent
Epsom Salt (MgSO4) 0.20 g 60 min Mash Water Agent

Yeast

Name Lab Attenuation Temperature
Dry English Ale (WLP007) White Labs 75% 65°F - 70°F

Mash

Step Temperature Time
Saccharification 147.9°F 90 min
Mash Out 168°F 10 min

Summer IPA

Scurvy RUM!

Filling the rum barrel with Makkurokurosuke v4. The CO2 blanket shows up nicely.

It’s been two years since I’ve brewed this recipe. It was one of my first attempts to clone a commercial beer. Belgo IPA from New Belgium was an amazingly good beer; one that I drank a bit too quickly. After two six-packs disappeared rather quickly I decided it was time to make a larger batch. With some research on line and some brewing experience, I came up with the following recipe and posted it onto homebrewtalk.com. I learned during the brewing of this beer (and the previous few IPAs) that I had some water issues. But, other homebrewers attempted my recipe and produced great beers. I’m pretty happy with having a recipe that other folks have tried and best of all, really enjoyed.

While I do suffer from brewer’s wanderlust when it comes to repeating recipes, I knew I needed to re-brew this now that I’ve dialed in my water process which consists of 100% Reverse Osmosis water and some salts, calculated by Brew ‘n Water spreadsheet.

I’m really excited to try this one now. The only downside is that I don’t have access to Belgo IPA right now to do any comparison. I guess I’ll just have to brew it again once I do. Tough life this. =)

Recipe Details

Batch Size Boil Time IBU SRM Est. OG Est. FG ABV
6 gal 60 min 69.5 IBUs 8.9 SRM 1.066 1.015 6.8 %
Actuals 1.046 1.01 4.7 %

Style Details

Name Cat. OG Range FG Range IBU SRM Carb ABV
American IPA 14 B 1.056 - 1.075 1.01 - 1.018 40 - 70 6 - 15 2.2 - 2.7 5.5 - 7.5 %

Fermentables

Name Amount %
Organic 2row Pale Malt (Briess) 14 lbs 93.33
Honey Malt 12 oz 5
Crystal Extra Dark - 120L (Crisp) 4 oz 1.67

Hops

Name Amount Time Use Form Alpha %
Simcoe 0.75 oz 60 min Boil Pellet 12.9
Centennial 1 oz 30 min Boil Pellet 11.4
Cascade 1 oz 15 min Boil Pellet 5.9
Amarillo Gold (20120604) 1 oz 5 min Boil Pellet 8.2
Amarillo Gold (20120604) 0.5 oz 0 min Dry Hop Pellet 8.2
Cascade 0.5 oz 0 min Dry Hop Pellet 5.9
Willamette 0.5 oz 0 min Dry Hop Pellet 4.7

Miscs

Name Amount Time Use Type
Calcium Chloride 4.40 g 60 min Mash Water Agent
Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) 3.70 g 60 min Mash Water Agent
Epsom Salt (MgSO4) 1.60 g 60 min Mash Water Agent
Whirlfloc Tablet 1.00 Items 15 min Boil Fining

Yeast

Name Lab Attenuation Temperature
Trappist High Gravity (3787) Wyeast Labs 76% 64°F - 78°F

Mash

Step Temperature Time
Mash In 152°F 60 min
Mash Out 168°F 10 min

Farmhouse Brett IPA

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Farmhouse IPA split into 4 gallon batches

I’ve been fan of Rye IPAs for some time.  My first love was Jester King’s Wytchmaker.  Initially this beer was a straight-forward American IPA with a nice dose of Rye, solid American Hops and Dry-English-Ale yeast.   Over time, Jester King evolved their beer by slowly modifying the fermentation to include local wild yeast and blending in some amount of older sour beer.

I’ve enjoyed tasting this beer as Jester King has made these changes.  Last summer I was pleasantly surprised to encounter a rather prominent change.  With the introduction of Brett, there is a huge impact in the nose of the beer; clearly for the better.

In November, I attended an AHA Rally at Jester King Craft Brewery and I spent some time chatting with Jeff Stuffings.  One of the complements I shared was how well the Brett complimented Wytchmaker.  Jeff chuckled a bit and said that they’ve been adding Brett since June this year, but I was the first person to have noticed the change.   I didn’t seem possible NOT to recognize this massive change in aroma.

With that situation in mind, I decided to brew the two versions of this beer and experiment with a third. The recipe is a 12 gallon batch which I’ll split into three 4 gallon batches.  One carboy will be fermented with White Labs Dry English Ale (WLP007) like the original.  The second with Wyeast French Saison (3711) and then aged with Brett B. in secondary to come close to the current release of Wytchmaker.    The third will be fermented with Brett B. Trois as an experiment with 100% Brett fermented beers.

Enjoy Wytch Brettmaker.

Recipe Details

Batch Size Boil Time IBU SRM Est. OG Est. FG ABV
12 gal 90 min 95.8 IBUs 9.5 SRM 1.062 1.013 6.5 %
Actuals 1.046 1.01 4.7 %

Style Details

Name Cat. OG Range FG Range IBU SRM Carb ABV
American IPA 14 B 1.056 - 1.075 1.01 - 1.018 40 - 70 6 - 15 2.2 - 2.7 5.5 - 7.5 %

Fermentables

Name Amount %
Brewer's Malt, 2-Row, Premium (Great Western) 23.192 lbs 79.28
Rye Malt 4.38 lbs 14.97
Carapils (Briess) 1.46 lbs 4.99
Carafa III 3.56 oz 0.76

Hops

Name Amount Time Use Form Alpha %
Warrior 1.82 oz 90 min Boil Pellet 13.7
Cascade 2.15 oz 20 min Boil Pellet 5.9
Centennial 1.89 oz 20 min Boil Pellet 11.4
Cascade 4.3 oz 2 min Boil Pellet 5.9
Centennial 4.3 oz 2 min Boil Pellet 11.4
Amarillo Gold (20120604) 2 oz 7 days Dry Hop Pellet 8.2
Cascade 2 oz 7 days Dry Hop Pellet 5.9
Centennial 2 oz 7 days Dry Hop Pellet 11.4
Simcoe 2 oz 7 days Dry Hop Pellet 11.7

Miscs

Name Amount Time Use Type
Phosphoric Acid 24.00 ml 60 min Mash Water Agent
Calcium Chloride 16.20 g 60 min Mash Water Agent
Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) 13.80 g 60 min Mash Water Agent
Whirlfloc Tablet 2.00 Items 15 min Boil Fining

Yeast

Name Lab Attenuation Temperature
Brettanomyces B. Troi (644) White Labs 90% 65°F - 80°F

Mash

Step Temperature Time
Saccharification 148°F 90 min
Mash Out 168°F 10 min

Update 2014-01-02

IMAG1477

Dry-English-Ale (007) on the left, 100% Brett B. Trois on the right.

I’ve now kegged two of the three batches.  The Dry English Ale yeast finished first, but for some reason this time it threw off a ton of diacetyl.  So much then I knew I needed to do something.  I was stepping up some Wyeast 1056 yeast for ardeo, so I decided I would pitch some active 1056 (kruasening) to clean it up.  This restarted fermentation in the beer and when I dry-hopped, I didn’t pick up any more diacetyl, though I didn’t perform a complete test.  Terminal gravity was 1.013.

Next finished was the 100% Brett Trois fermentation.  F.G was 1.010.  The amount of tropical fruits coming out was intense, so much that I almost didn’t dry-hop, but part of reason for brewing this recipe was to finish off some hops.

The 3711 version fermented down to 1.006 and at this point I pitched Brett Brux and dry-hopped the beer.  It’s still aging another 4 weeks to bring out the Brett B. character, and then it’ll be bottled and aged for 6 weeks before tasting.

IMAG1481

Dry-English-Ale (007) on the left, 100% Brett B. Trois on the right.

On to the results.

Wytchmaker Rye IPA (OG-style with Sacc.)

Aroma  Huge hop nose, some citrus, a little pine.  Some malt in the nose.  A faint hint of caramel… most likely remnants of diacetyl; present but not offensive.

Appearance Amber color.  Slight cloudiness that comes from a heavy dry-hop.  Slightly off-white head, creamy texture.  Quite a bit darker than the current Jester King Wytchmaker color; most likely due to different kettle malliard reactions during the 90 minute boil.

Taste Sharp rye spicy bite, followed by malt sweetness, fading into a lingering hop bitterness. Hop flavors and presence help balance the higher gravity finish.

Mouthfeel — Medium body.  Not chewy, but but not thin.  Hard to tell if there is a dry finish because of the hops covering much of the lingering flavors.

Notes — Solid Rye IPA, though slightly marred by the diacetyl presence.  Hard to beat this recipe when done flawlessly.

Wytch Brettmaker Rye IPA (100% Brett B. Trois)

Aroma — Tropical fruits, sweet malt, mango, bananna, touch of bubblegum.

Appearance — Amber color, just a bit lighter than the 007 version.   Same slight cloudiness from the dry-hop; possibly will clear up in keg, other Brett beers have become brilliantly crystal.  Same off-white head, a bit more fluffy and foamy.  Lingers and leaves lovely lacing on the glass.

Taste — Similar sharp rye bite and then a bit of a belgian yeast spiciness, followed by sweet malt, melding together and then absolutely crushed with a huge hop bitter finish, lingering for quite some time.

Mouthfeel — Medium to light body; definitely lighter than the 007 version.  Specific Gravity backs that up, though only by 3 points or so.  Over time, it’s possible the brett might drop down a notch or two.

Notes — It appears the brett “ate” lots of the hop aromas.  WIth the amount of dry-hop added, I should be able to pick out the Simcoe, Cascade, and Centennial, but it seems to sit behind the yeast aromas.  I also bottled a case of this beer to see how it evolves in the bottle.

I’ve got 99 problems but not enough hops isn’t one

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Intense campfire at Jester King Brewery during their volunteer Friendsgiving

Homebrewers face many problems in the quest to making great beer consistently. There are many more than 99 of these problems. A reoccurring problem that I face is an over-abundance of hops; mostly because of my lupulust. I really enjoying buying ingredients in homebrew-scale bulk. I also cringe when buying some of these ingredients at the local home brew store (LHBS) simply because the markup over the bulk purchase is sometimes quite astounding. I’m not here to criticize the business model; rather I work around it with bulk purchases. However, this can present a separate problem.

I recently updated my inventory of hops and was a bit shocked to tally up the total. Roughly 18 pounds of frozen hops, from crop years 2010 through 2013. So far, i’ve not encountered any freshness issues due to the quality packaging from today’s homebrew supply vendors. Certainly there will be Alpha Acid degradation, but that’s less of a concern for homebrewers who aren’t attempting to rebrew the exact same beer from batch to batch.

To address this “problem”, I’ve been reorganizing my brew schedule and recipes. I’m currently pushing all of my hop-heavy recipes (IPAs yay!) up sooner. And I’ve also adjusted some existing recipes to be hopbursted instead so I can make use additional hops.

It was in this climate that this recipe was born. Fancy new hop?, check (Mosaic). Highly-prized and hard-to-find hop, check (Nelson). Name-brand hop, check (Simcoe®). Hop-bursting?, check. Using 3/4# of hops in a 6 gallon batch?, check.

Enjoy ārdeō.

Recipe Details

Batch Size Boil Time IBU SRM Est. OG Est. FG ABV
6 gal 70 min 205.1 IBUs 8.0 SRM 1.068 1.011 7.5 %
Actuals 1.046 1.01 4.7 %

Style Details

Name Cat. OG Range FG Range IBU SRM Carb ABV
American IPA 14 B 1.056 - 1.075 1.01 - 1.018 40 - 70 6 - 15 2.2 - 2.7 5.5 - 7.5 %

Fermentables

Name Amount %
Vienna Malt (Weyermann) 14.5 lbs 87.88
Munich Malt 1 lbs 6.06
Carapils (Briess) 8 oz 3.03
Crystal 75, 2-Row, (Great Western) 4 oz 1.52
Corn Sugar (Dextrose) 4 oz 1.52

Hops

Name Amount Time Use Form Alpha %
Columbus (Tomahawk) 1 oz 60 min Boil Pellet 15.3
Columbus (Tomahawk) 0.77 oz 60 min Boil Pellet 14.7
Simcoe 1 oz 25 min Boil Pellet 11.7
Mosaic 3 oz 20 min Aroma Pellet 11.6
Nelson Sauvin 3 oz 20 min Aroma Pellet 11.2
Simcoe 1 oz 20 min Aroma Pellet 11.7
Mosaic 1 oz 7 days Dry Hop Pellet 11.6
Nelson Sauvin 1 oz 7 days Dry Hop Pellet 11.2
Simcoe 1 oz 7 days Dry Hop Pellet 11.7

Miscs

Name Amount Time Use Type
Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) 10.70 g 60 min Mash Water Agent
Calcium Chloride 5.30 g 60 min Mash Water Agent
Epsom Salt (MgSO4) 1.10 g 60 min Mash Water Agent
Yeast Nutrient 2.00 tsp 3 days Primary Other

Yeast

Name Lab Attenuation Temperature
Dry English Ale (WLP007) White Labs 75% 65°F - 70°F

Mash

Step Temperature Time
Saccharification 147.9°F 90 min
Mash Out 168°F 10 min