Homebrewer’s Wine Barrel

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American oak cubes, medium toast, soaking in Russian River Pinot Noir red wine

While working on my first sour, a Flander’s Red, part of the original instructions suggest that one can approximate some of the barrel characteristics by using some oak cubes and the ingredients that are typically stored within an oak barrel.

In my case, the Flander’s Red was aged in an old Russian River Pinot Noir wine barrel.  I won’t be getting a full-sized barrel anytime soon, but I can attempt to impart some of the same flavors into the beer.

What I have here is 2.5 oz of American Oak cubes, medium toast in three small canning jars.  I’ve poured a few ounces of Russian River Pinot Noir red wine, specifically some Healdsburg Ranches, Appellation Series Pinot Noir 2010 on top.

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Healdsburg Ranches, Appellation Series Pinot Noir 2010

The article mentions that one should change the wine every few days for a period of two weeks to lessen the oak character helping further to simulate putting a beer into an used wine barrel.

After the soak these wine-soaked oak cubes will sit in the carboy with my Flander’s Red,  in Rubicundiusque, for another  couple of months to mix in the flavors and allow the beer, oak and wine flavors to develop together.

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Oak cubes ready to be stored for two weeks to simulate used wine barrels

Bluebonnet 2013 Results

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Momosuppai, a sour-worted Berliner Weisse with Peaches

Momosuppai, a sour-worted Berliner Weisse with Peaches

The Texas BlueBonnet Brewoff 2013 was held in Dallas, TX March 20-23.  On Sunday night, the results were announced, even tweeted via the Austin Zealots homebrew clubs’ newly announced twitter account, AustinZealotsTX.

I had entered three beers into this competition, Big Fat Phony in category 23 Specialty Beer, Momosuppai in category 20 Fruit Beer, and Kuroppoi in category 5C Dopplebock, even though I have seven beers available.  Unfortunately, the American Homebrewers Association (AHA) rules restrict what one can enter.  For example, the rules prevent a homebrewer from submitting multiple beers to the same sub-category.  While this isn’t in general that bad, it does affect some brewers that are brewing beers don’t yet have official sub-categories.  Rye IPAs and India Black Ale (or Black IPA, or Cascadian Dark Ale) are common beers but aren’t yet recognized by the BJCP.  There is a catch-all category for these beers, 23, Specialty Beer.  I happened to have three beers that would only fit in 23 only (Black Hop Day, Fly Ralcon and Big Fat Phony).  I had to pick the best of these for category 23. I chose my favorite, Big Fat Phony.

As the results came in, I was checking to see which categories I had entered.  And while it was little disappointing, I wasn’t totally surprised that I claimed none of the medals in the categories I entered.

Later that week I got back my score sheets.  One of my biggest fears around Big Fat Phony happened.  The scores for BFF were just too low to be real (average around 20 / 50) and the sheet was marked up with “off” flavors.  Band-aide, medicinal, iodine, “you might have an infection”… If you’ve seen my post on Scotching a Beer, then you know that Big Fat Phony was scotched with an Islay Whiskey, which is known for its, wait for it… peaty flavor which is commonly referred to as “medicinal”.  So, I don’t think Big Fat Phony got a fair shake, but that’s entirely my fault for submitting an experimental beer.

The other two beers did reasonably well.  Kuroppoi scored an average of 34 points, but not enough to move on to the second round.  One judge commented that the beer didn’t have quite the “rich, malty” character that 5C requires and that I should instead just submit it as a 5B, Traditional Bock.  That’s decent feedback.

The best of the group was Momosuppai, a Fruit Beer, which was a Berliner Weiss with Peach puree.   This was my first attempt at a sour-worting and Berliner Weiss which came out really well.  It could have used a few more days to increase the sour intensity, but it was still very nice.  This beer scored an average of 36.5, and made its way to the second round, and re-scored at a 26.5.

After asking around, this lower score during second round is typical, but there is also a lot of randomness too as some members reported having a lower score in the first round, only to see a higher score in the second.

I’m still learning things from competitions and it’s fun making sure the brewing schedule works for whatever is needed for the next competition.

Splitting Fancy Lad, English Mild

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mmm, Fancy Lad likes English Milds

Blue boy is a fancy lad who can appreciate a good dark English Mild

Working with a sour beer pipeline is challenging. Since sours take quite a bit more time than non-sour beers a brewer needs to plan ahead. Back in January I had a “double” brewday of sorts. I was finishing up a sour-worting for a Berliner Weiss which only required a 30 minute heat to 176 and then chill and pitch. I decided that I had enough time to brew a full batch of beer in addition to this short heating and cooling cycle.

This turned out fine, but was one of the busiest brewdays I’ve had, even with help. So, to avoid this extra stress, I’ve instead decided to brew larger batches and split the results. My next planned sour is a Flander’s Brown, or Old Bruin. I’ve also got a nice yeast cake from the Ed’s Best Bitter batch, so instead of wasting that, I’m going to brew an English Mild, right at the edge of the gravity limit for the style and then pitch half on the 1968 yeast and the other half will be racked onto a Roselares yeast cake from a Flander’s Red that’s been souring since January.

in-Rubicundiusque

in Rubicundiusque, Flander’s Red souring since Jan, 2013

Here’s the recipe for Fancy Lad

Recipe Details

Batch Size Boil Time IBU SRM Est. OG Est. FG ABV
10 gal 60 min 20.4 IBUs 20.9 SRM 1.041 1.015 3.4 %
Actuals 1.046 1.01 4.7 %

Style Details

Name Cat. OG Range FG Range IBU SRM Carb ABV
Mild 11 A 1.03 - 1.038 1.008 - 1.013 10 - 25 12 - 25 1.3 - 2.3 2.8 - 4.5 %

Fermentables

Name Amount %
Maris Otter (Thomas Fawcett) 12.5 lbs 80
Crystal, Medium (Simpsons) 2.5 lbs 16
Chocolate Malt (Thomas Fawcett) 10 oz 4

Hops

Name Amount Time Use Form Alpha %
Fuggles 1.41 oz 45 min Boil Pellet 5.3
Fuggles 1.41 oz 15 min Boil Pellet 5.3

Yeast

Name Lab Attenuation Temperature
London ESB Ale (1968) Wyeast Labs 69% 64°F - 72°F

Mash

Step Temperature Time
Saccharification 158°F 60 min
Mash Out 168°F 10 min

Download

Download this recipe's BeerXML file

2013-03-29 — Brewed with Mark, collected 10 gallons of 1.041 wort, split into two carboys. One repitched onto the Wyeast 1968 cake from Ed’s Best Bitter. The second 5 gallons collected into a 6.5 gallon carboy with the yeast cake from the Flander’s Red.

Split Fancy Boy

2013-04-03 — Gravity Check, Non-sour half, S.G @ 1.016, raised temp to 72F for d-rest
2013-04-03 — Gravity Check, Sour half, S.G @ 1.009, continue ambient temp

Off-schedule brew for competition

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This year, I’ve been trying to enter at least one beer in each of the Lone Star Circuit homebrew competitions.  I entered three into the Bluebonnet Brew-off and another three into the Alamo City Cerveza Fest, but the next one, the Celtic Brewoff caught me by surprise since it has a restricted/modified list of BJCP categories.

This meant that even though I have close to 8 beers on-tap in my garage, I didn’t have anything that I could submit. I happened to have an older beer that had been aging over at my friends house available, so I ended registering one of my favorite brews, Makkuro Kurotsuki, an Russian Imperial Stout (Category 13F). But I wanted one more.

I dug through my list of recipes in Beersmith and found a lighter and easier (meaning faster) beer that had been a big hit in the past. Ed’s Best Bitter.

Ed's Best Bitter fermenting at 68F

Ed’s Best Bitter fermenting at 68F

Now that I had my recipe selected, it was time to brew. I normally brew twice a month on a Friday night. I invite a bunch of my friends, some who help out and others who come to enjoy the show and drink some homebrew. However, I couldn’t wait if I wanted this beer to be done in time for the competition.

So I did a complete brew, from grain to fermentor including the cleanup in about 4.5 hours. Starting at 8PM when the kids go to bed, my head hit the pillow at 12:30.

Not bad without any help.

The brew session went as expected. Targeting a mash pH at room temp (25C) of 5.5, I ended up with 5.4 @ 23C. Pre-boil gravity was a few points low (1.033 instead of 1.035) and subsequently, O.G was as well, 1.045 instead of 1.048. But that works out OK since the style is meant to be lighter in alcohol.

Here’s the recipe

Recipe Details

Batch Size Boil Time IBU SRM Est. OG Est. FG ABV
5 gal 60 min 27.8 IBUs 9.2 SRM 1.048 1.013 4.5 %
Actuals 1.046 1.01 4.7 %

Style Details

Name Cat. OG Range FG Range IBU SRM Carb ABV
Special/Best/Premium Bitter 8 B 1.04 - 1.048 1.008 - 1.012 25 - 40 5 - 16 0.8 - 2.1 3.8 - 4.6 %

Fermentables

Name Amount %
ESB Pale Malt (Gambrinus) 8.25 lbs 91.03
Crystal, Medium (Simpsons) 13 oz 8.97

Hops

Name Amount Time Use Form Alpha %
Goldings, East Kent 1 oz 60 min Boil Pellet 5
Fuggles 1 oz 15 min Boil Pellet 4.5
Goldings, East Kent 1 oz 0 min Boil Pellet 5

Miscs

Name Amount Time Use Type
Calcium Chloride 5.40 g 60 min Mash Water Agent
Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) 3.10 g 60 min Mash Water Agent
Epsom Salt (MgSO4) 0.40 g 60 min Mash Water Agent

Yeast

Name Lab Attenuation Temperature
London ESB Ale (1968) Wyeast Labs 69% 64°F - 72°F

Mash

Step Temperature Time
Saccharification 152°F 75 min
Mash Out 168°F 10 min

Notes

Bru'n Water calculates a mash pH of 5.5
Did a 1L starter of 1968 24 hours before pitch.

Download

Download this recipe's BeerXML file

2013-03-24 — Measured gravity after 4 days, 1.016 with activity still going, hoping to hit 1.011 or 12 by Wed, 2013-03-27.
2013-03-26 — Measured gravity after 5 days, 1.012, start cold crash
2013-03-27 — Racked 5 gallons into keg, force carbing to ~2 volumes of Co2.

Scotching a Beer

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Bruichladdich Port Charlotte 8 poured into small mason jars with an oak spiral.

Bruichladdich Port Charlotte 8 poured into small mason jars with an oak spiral.

After brewing the Big Fat Phony, which is a modified clone of +Oskar Blues‘ Old Chub Scotch Ale, we decided to give it a kick with some really peaty scotch.  My friend +Brian Freeman offered up his excellent Bruichladdich Port Charlotte 8 for inclusion in the experiment which was no surprise given his devotion to Old Chub.  I took a medium toast oak spiral I got from Farmhouse Brewing Supply a while back and snapped it into two small lengths that fit inside my pint mason jars.  I poured enough scotch to cover the spirals…. and a sample for myself.

Medium Toast Oak spiral soaking in PC8 Scotch

Medium Toast Oak spiral soaking in PC8 Scotch

These samples sat in the pantry for about 2 weeks while the beer was fermenting and then I pitched both oak spirals and one jar of scotch into the beer to age another two weeks.

Oak spiral and PC8 Scotch soaking in the closet.

Oak spiral and PC8 Scotch soaking in the closet.

Yesterday I racked the Big Fat Phony into a keg that had the remaining jar of oak-infused peaty scotch.  The beer is still quite young, but it has a unique peaty aroma from the scotch, a bit of vanilla sweetness from the oak, some husky tannins from the wood, and a sweet, boozy flavor from the 9% ABV and the malt-heavy recipe.  In a word: amazing!

It needs another month or two lagering to really bring out the malts, but as-is, I’m extremely pleased with the result.