Beer for bottling

Posted on February 19, 2018 by funkmetal

Today’s holiday brew session is another round from the “light and hoppy” styles. I’m pushing this recipe to pull in more farmhouse than North Eastern IPA. I ran across a new-to-me hop, Jester, which is of UK origin but exhibiting some American Hop citrus and fruity characteristics. That sounded really nice for a farmhouse hoppy beer. Brewing NEIPAs though has definitely affected the hop process I used. Normally I would include a bittering addition and something late, maybe a step but save most for dry-hopping but now I’m much more happy with using significantly more hops late and after flame-out.

I’ve also been a bit of a mix of bottling and kegging. Kegging is *so* much easier. So much so that it does tend to make me a bit lazy and skip the effort of bottling; much to my regret. Many of the beers I’ve brewed in years past age extremely well so I’m planning on trying to keep more of it around longer. I’m looking at simplifying my process of bottling with this batch. I’ve got quite a few items that do help the process: 12 bottle rinsing system, drying racks that stack, a pneumatic bottle capper, and two different bottling wands. The main effort is the standing and filling part. I’ve had a Blichmann Beergun for quite some time. I’ve had few issues with it. I also picked up a Last Straw. The Last Straw’s main improvement over the Beergun is how it is held; that helps remove the shoulder ache after filling 15 gallons worth of bottles. The drawback (for me) is that I tend to bottle condition which means filling uncarbonated beer. The diameter restrictions on both fillers slows the entire process down. I recently picked up a wine auto-filler which I’m hoping will make things go a lot faster. It utilizes a pressure switch to automatically stop the flow into a bottle. This is quite effective. My hope is that I’ll be able to hook up two or three of these to a manifold off of the fermentation vessel and then start each bottle which will then stop automatically allowing making it easier to grab the filled bottles, purge with co2 and cap while other bottles continue to fill.

Here’s the recipe for Hoats and Boes:

Recipe Details

Batch Size	Boil Time	IBU	SRM	Est. OG	Est. FG	ABV
16 gal	60 min	54.5 IBUs	3.2 SRM	1.030	1.006	3.2 %
			Actuals	1.046	1.01	4.7 %

Style Details

Name	Cat.	OG Range	FG Range	IBU	SRM	Carb	ABV
Session IPA	16	1.038 - 1.052	1.008 - 1.014	40 - 55	4 - 12	2.2 - 2.8	3.7 - 5 %

Fermentables

Name	Amount	%
Maris Otter (Thomas Fawcett)	16 lbs	88.89
Barley, Flaked	1 lbs	5.56
Oats, Flaked	1 lbs	5.56

Hops

Name	Amount	Time	Use	Form	Alpha %
Centennial	2 oz	5 min	Boil	Leaf	10
Citra	2 oz	5 min	Boil	Pellet	25.2
Jester (UK)	2 oz	5 min	Boil	Pellet	6
Centennial	2 oz	20 min	Aroma	Leaf	10
Citra	2 oz	20 min	Aroma	Pellet	25.2
Jester (UK)	2 oz	20 min	Aroma	Pellet	6
Jester (UK)	4 oz	3 days	Dry Hop	Pellet	6

Miscs

Name	Amount	Time	Use	Type
Phosphoric Acid 85%	28.80 ml	60 min	Mash	Water Agent
Calcium Chloride	1.80 g	60 min	Mash	Water Agent
Epsom Salt (MgSO4)	1.80 g	60 min	Mash	Water Agent
Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate)	1.80 g	60 min	Mash	Water Agent

Yeast

Name	Lab	Attenuation	Temperature
French Saison (3711)	Wyeast Labs	80%	65°F - 77°F

Mash

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

Notes

- Lupu

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One good NEIPA deserves another

Posted on December 30, 2017 by funkmetal

Somewhere between Fall and Winter south Texas actually got some snow! That’s probably the third time in nine years. I know this because my oldest son keeps track of these things. Now that the winter freeze is over and Texas Winter has returned us to the mid 60s F we can resume brewing. The previous NEIPA batch was a huge success in a number of ways so obviously with all three kegs almost gone it’s time to brew another.

The previous batch dropped the gravity down to session levels around 4.6%. I certainly don’t mind or even notice many of the higher ABV NEIPAs in the 6 to 8% range; well that is until I’m two or three pints in and then I’m wishing they were 4% instead so I could have a few more. One challenge with sessions is retaining mouthfeel, however, given the huge amounts of oats and barley in the recipe that isn’t an issue.

The second experimental element in the previous batch was using a mixed-culture yeast that I typically reserve for sour beers. However, it’s a faithful yeast which is known to ferment beers to complete (or nearly there) dryness. I also figured that if the culture did turn a bit sour that wouldn’t be out of place for a NEIPA designed after “juice” anyhow.

Upon the first samples of the beer as it fermented it was quite evident that it was taking a sharp turn down grapefruit lane. That worked out quite well but it did mean that for this recipe the hop bill was going to take a turn toward the more tropical and stone fruits.

Process-wise, no changes. The critical part of brewing stage has been stirring the hops in the filter. The 5-minute charge gets a stir after stopping the heat and then the hop stand gets multiple stirs, every 5 to 10 minutes. While opening the lid means some of the volatile aromas escape the stirring overcomes that loss by extracting more flavors, oils and aroma by saturating the whole batch with the hops.

For this batch, I wanted to make use of some aromatic hops that I had around in smaller quantities so I have quite a few more varieties than last time replacing the Meridian and Cascade hops used previously. I also recently had an Idaho #7 hopped beer at Pinthouse Pizza and whole-heartedly approved of those flavors and aromas and chose to have it come along for this NEIPA.

Looking forward to this batch!

Recipe Details

Batch Size	Boil Time	IBU	SRM	Est. OG	Est. FG	ABV
16 gal	60 min	92.8 IBUs	3.3 SRM	1.044	1.010	4.5 %
			Actuals	1.044	1.01	4.4 %

Style Details

Name	Cat.	OG Range	FG Range	IBU	SRM	Carb	ABV
American-Style Pale Ale	50	1.044 - 1.05	1.008 - 1.014	30 - 50	6 - 14	2.2 - 2.8	4.4 - 5.4 %

Fermentables

Name	Amount	%
Organic Brewers Malt 2-Row (Briess)	19 lbs	71.03
Barley, Flaked	3 lbs	11.21
Oats, Flaked	3 lbs	11.21
Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L	1 lbs	3.74
Cane (Beet) Sugar	12 oz	2.8

Hops

Name	Amount	Time	Use	Form	Alpha %
Azacca	3 oz	5 min	Boil	Pellet	15
Idaho #7	3 oz	5 min	Boil	Pellet	13
Nelson Sauvin	3 oz	5 min	Boil	Pellet	11.2
Azacca	3 oz	30 min	Aroma	Pellet	15
Galaxy	3 oz	30 min	Aroma	Pellet	14.8
Idaho #7	3 oz	30 min	Aroma	Pellet	13
Azacca	3 oz	3 days	Dry Hop	Pellet	15
El Dorado	3 oz	3 days	Dry Hop	Pellet	15
Idaho #7	3 oz	3 days	Dry Hop	Pellet	13
Azacca	3 oz	1 day	Dry Hop	Pellet	15
Ekuanot - Equinox (HBC 366)	3 oz	1 day	Dry Hop	Pellet	15
Idaho #7	3 oz	1 day	Dry Hop	Pellet	13

Miscs

Name	Amount	Time	Use	Type
Phosphoric Acid 10%	61.90 ml	60 min	Mash	Water Agent
Calcium Chloride	5.80 g	60 min	Mash	Water Agent
Epsom Salt (MgSO4)	1.50 g	60 min	Mash	Water Agent
Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate)	1.50 g	60 min	Mash	Water Agent
Whirlfloc Tablet	3.00 Items	15 min	Boil	Fining
Yeast Nutrient	3.00 tsp	3 days	Primary	Other

Yeast

Name	Lab	Attenuation	Temperature
London Ale III (1318)	Wyeast Labs	73%	64°F - 74°F

Mash

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

Notes

Nor'easter V2

- Really need the rice hulls with all of the rolled oats and barley
- Giving London Ale III yeast a try. Not sure about the sugar addtion or not.
I really do want a dry beer; so we'll see how gravity drops and if it gets sluggish
around 1.020 , I'll likely add some to keep the fermentation going and drop the
final gravity.
- Stirring the hop additions *really* makes a huge difference.

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A Nor’easter blowin in

Posted on October 20, 2017 by funkmetal

I recently spent two weeks in New York City for work. One of my co-workers was coming in from the Boston area via train. This afforded him a really special perk: BYOB! That’s right, you can bring your own beer along for the ride. My friend was nice enough to bring some of the finest NorthEast IPAs that he could get his hands on including Trillium, Baby Genius, Industrial Arts Wrench and quite a few others.

I’ve recently brewed a NEIPA beer which turned out much better than expected for a first-time recipe. It was very well received and the only correction for my palette was the maltier character that came from a 50% Marris Otter grain bill. After almost drowning in NEIPAs in New York I have been craving to update my Session IPA done with the techniques and hopping rate used in Hop Candy. Today is that day. Here’s the recipe and follow along brewday below.

Recipe Details

Batch Size	Boil Time	IBU	SRM	Est. OG	Est. FG	ABV
16 gal	60 min	65.9 IBUs	3.2 SRM	1.041	1.007	4.5 %
			Actuals	1.041	1.01	4.1 %

Style Details

Name	Cat.	OG Range	FG Range	IBU	SRM	Carb	ABV
American-Style Pale Ale	50	1.044 - 1.05	1.008 - 1.014	30 - 50	6 - 14	2.2 - 2.8	4.4 - 5.4 %

Fermentables

Name	Amount	%
Organic Brewers Malt 2-Row (Briess)	20 lbs	80.81
Barley, Flaked	3 lbs	12.12
Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L	1 lbs	4.04
Cane (Beet) Sugar	12 oz	3.03

Hops

Name	Amount	Time	Use	Form	Alpha %
Azacca	3 oz	5 min	Boil	Pellet	15
Cascade	3 oz	5 min	Boil	Pellet	5.9
Meridian	3 oz	5 min	Boil	Pellet	6.5
Herkules	0.81 oz	5 min	Boil	Pellet	18.5
Azacca	3 oz	30 min	Aroma	Pellet	15
Cascade	3 oz	30 min	Aroma	Pellet	5.9
Meridian	3 oz	30 min	Aroma	Pellet	6.5
Azacca	3 oz	3 days	Dry Hop	Pellet	15
Cascade	3 oz	3 days	Dry Hop	Pellet	5.9
Meridian	3 oz	3 days	Dry Hop	Pellet	6.5
Azacca	3 oz	1 day	Dry Hop	Pellet	15
Cascade	3 oz	1 day	Dry Hop	Pellet	5.9
Meridian	3 oz	1 day	Dry Hop	Pellet	6.5

Miscs

Name	Amount	Time	Use	Type
Phosphoric Acid 10%	61.90 ml	60 min	Mash	Water Agent
Calcium Chloride	5.80 g	60 min	Mash	Water Agent
Epsom Salt (MgSO4)	1.50 g	60 min	Mash	Water Agent
Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate)	1.50 g	60 min	Mash	Water Agent
Whirlfloc Tablet	3.00 Items	15 min	Boil	Fining
Yeast Nutrient	3.00 tsp	3 days	Primary	Other

Yeast

Name	Lab	Attenuation	Temperature
French Saison (3711)	Wyeast Labs	80%	65°F - 77°F

Mash

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

Notes

Calma Muerta Attempt #1

WLP090 Recommendations:
"Make sure you make a proper sized starter, pitch cool at 65˚F then set your
regulator to 66˚F, let it rock for 3 days, then raise the temp to 70˚F for a
couple days to encourage complete attenuation and reabsorption of
fermentation byproducts. At this point, I usually crash the beer to 32˚F for
a couple days then keg per my typical method, pouring the first pint a
couple days later."
-- http://brulosophy.com/2014/10/06/is-san-diego-really-all-that-super-a-yeast-comparison/

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Local grocery store as a new curbside pickup… hrm, I wonder if they fill 22 gallons of Reverse Osmosis water? Guessing not.

You’re damn right that RO water is an Emergency Essential to my IPAs.

Crush em all! Even the Flaked Barley and Flaked Oats!

Split the crushed grain into two buckets since I’m mashing in solo today.

Don’t forget to heat the sparge water… this time.

Transfer, sparge time. Glad I remembered to heat the sparge water.

Look at that layer of sparge water over the grains. I was surprised at how well the grain flowed without any rice hulls and all of the barley/oats which were pretty dang gooey.

Brew day requirement: special beer from the shed. Today I pulled out a Jester King Biere de Miel Honey Sour Saison from 2014. The story behind this beer is pretty neat. Garret of Jester King at the time related that this first batch was brewed in December here in Texas which has quite cool mornings but is nothing like fall or summer where at dawn it’s already 70F or 80F+. The interesting part was that beer reached terminal gravity much faster than they expected despite the lower temperatures. It turns out that the Jester King mixed-culture is somewhat unique in that at cooler temperatures the bacteria tends to take over if the sacchromyces isn’t warm enough and it resulted in a beer that’s pH was quite a bit lower than expected. The result is this perfect balance of malt, honey sweetness and strong but soft lactic acidity. Even after 3 years the beer holds up very well.

Oh right, *lots* of hops needed. This is just the 5 minute addition and the steep. There are still two more rounds of this same size (~9oz) for two dry-hop additions. Also special Equinox Cyro-hop injection at steep time for shits and gigs.

That’s right, another massive does at steep time. I decided to do a bit more hands on with the hops this time. Normally I just leave the hops in the basket and move along. However this time I stirred the hops continuously to help distribute as much of the hop oils as possible. When I added the hops for steeping I also stirred and then I lowered the hop basket to the bottom of the kettle and since the wort is not longer boiling it stays put exposing more wort to the hops. Let’s see if that pays off.

Jackpot!

Hop Candy Time

Posted on June 30, 2017 by funkmetal

It was only a matter of time. And now is the time. The same good friend of mine who was looking for a witbier also wanted something hoppy. I told him that it was time for me to brew a North Eastern Style IPA that’s all the rage on the intertubes. My first thought was to take my Calma Muerta clone and change it up a bit. I wasn’t so sure that the grain bill and hops would work with the yeast nor match the style. Luckily there have been quite a few recipes going around and earlier this year The Electric Brewery released a recipe that included a greatly detailed break down of the techniques and recipe changes used to achieve what looks to be a fantastic beer. I considered the large amount of hops and larger batch size that I’m brewing with and wanted a bit more assurance that things would turn out. I’ve scaled up the Electric Hop Candy recipe, tweaked it for my water profile but it’s almost identical otherwise.

I wasn’t able to get the Wyeast London Ale III (1382) but many folks have said that White Labs Dry English Ale (WLP007) does a really great job as well. I’m very familiar with WLP007, it’s been a favorite of mine. It’s also a great flocculator so I’m interested in how cloudy the result will end up. There still is a lot of discussion about whether the cloudy appearance is related to hops or yeast, or something else.

This batch will also be compared to an amazing local favorite IPA, Independence Stash IPA. Stash is a traditional IPA; nothing NEIPA about it, but it’s a really high bar of excellence and my friend and I are interested in comparing, contrasting and seeing how other friends compare the beers.

Recipe Details

Batch Size	Boil Time	IBU	SRM	Est. OG	Est. FG	ABV
16 gal	60 min	103.9 IBUs	6.2 SRM	1.065	1.016	6.4 %
			Actuals	1.046	1.01	4.7 %

Style Details

Name	Cat.	OG Range	FG Range	IBU	SRM	Carb	ABV
American-Style India Pale Ale	56	1.06 - 1.075	1.012 - 1.018	50 - 70	6 - 15	2.2 - 2.8	6.3 - 7.6 %

Fermentables

Name	Amount	%
Brewer's Malt, 2-Row, Premium (Great Western)	12.5 lbs	32.47
Maris Otter (Thomas Fawcett)	12.5 lbs	32.47
Oats, Flaked	5.75 lbs	14.94
White Wheat Malt	5.75 lbs	14.94
Honey Malt	2 lbs	5.19

Hops

Name	Amount	Time	Use	Form	Alpha %
Warrior	1.33 oz	60 min	First Wort	Pellet	15.7
Citra	2.66 oz	5 min	Boil	Pellet	14.4
Galaxy	2.66 oz	5 min	Boil	Pellet	14.8
Mosaic	2.66 oz	5 min	Boil	Pellet	11.6
Citra	2.66 oz	30 min	Aroma	Pellet	14.4
Galaxy	2.66 oz	30 min	Aroma	Pellet	14.8
Mosaic	2.66 oz	30 min	Aroma	Pellet	11.6
Citra	2.67 oz	3 days	Dry Hop	Pellet	14.4
Galaxy	2.67 oz	3 days	Dry Hop	Pellet	14.8
Mosaic	2.67 oz	3 days	Dry Hop	Pellet	11.6
Citra	2.67 oz	1 day	Dry Hop	Pellet	14.4
Galaxy	2.67 oz	1 day	Dry Hop	Pellet	14.8
Mosaic	2.67 oz	1 day	Dry Hop	Pellet	11.6

Miscs

Name	Amount	Time	Use	Type
Calcium Chloride	9.20 g	60 min	Mash	Water Agent
Epsom Salt (MgSO4)	2.50 g	60 min	Mash	Water Agent
Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate)	2.30 g	60 min	Mash	Water Agent
Phosphoric Acid	1.20 ml	60 min	Mash	Water Agent

Yeast

Name	Lab	Attenuation	Temperature
London Ale III (1318)	Wyeast Labs	73%	64°F - 74°F

Mash

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

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Bottling and Blending Woxbic

Posted on June 10, 2017 by funkmetal

DIY Barrel Transfer tool from Milk the Funk Wiki

After four long years, it’s time to blend and package my first Woxbic beer.
I struggled quite a bit on the blending ratio. Too many variables to take
into account: the volume of beer I could produce to replace what goes into the
blend, the number and size of the barrels I already have, the volume to package,
and ultimately, how the blend would taste.

where did you get that shed? what have you got in your shed?

Transferring Year 1 Woxbic from barrel into a keg

In order to ensure I did have some of year 2 blend left, I needed to limit the
total volume I packaged. The result was that I was going to have quite a bit of
year 3 left over and that I’d need a new barrel to fill for going forward since
I was not also ready to package what would be left in year 3 barrel. Eventually
I settled on a 60/30/10 of Year1/Year2/Year3 ratio, similar to what Jester King
did with their recently released lambic-inspired, Méthode Gueuze beers. I
packaged approximately 10 gallons of blended beer. That works out direclty to 1
gallon of three year old, three gallons of two year and six gallons of one year.

Year 3 and Year 2 barrels transferring into keg for blending.

Year two and year one blends will remain in-barrel (without a top off) for next
year’s blend, and year 3 will have 9 gallons left to package separately. I’m
planning on blending that with some fruits for a cuvee style release as well.

For the actual transfer of the beer, I was excited to use a constructed barrel
transfer tool fashioned after the industry tools, like a Bulldog or
Rack-It-Teer, this was put together by some homebrewers on Milk-the-Funk
community.

The transfers from barrel to keg went flawlessly. A bit of CO2 to push and the
beer flowed quickly into the keg. After collecting all of the volumes, each was
pushed via CO2 into the Chronical where it was recirculated with some bottling
sugar.

Recirculating the blend in the Chronical

Bottling with the Last Straw was nice. The ergonomics of holding the Last Straw
are very nice in comparision to the Blichmann Beergun. I do wish the Last Straw
had a larger diameter for beer. It was designed for already carbonated beer, so
I can understand why the line is small. But for uncarbonated beer, it would be
nice to fill faster.

The weight of the line let the bottle fit itself slowly; that was handy for a single person operation.

With the bottling complete, I now have 6 to 9 months to wait to see how the beer
changes in the bottle. I’ll post some pictures and tasting notes later this
year.

And some fantastic beer to celebrate the occasion.

Dat Crooked Stave!