Red Baron Brewday 4/26/11

This is a hoppy American amber ale. Lots of late hops and crystal malt. The Munich is a 40% Munich liquid malt extract.

Batch size: 5 gallons

Boil Volume: 3 gallons

Calculated OG: 1.070

Estimated FG: 1.017

Estimated ABV: 6.9

Calculated IBUs (Tinseth): 43

Pitching Temperature: 60

Yeast: Wyeast 1056 (American Ale)

Fermentation vessel: Ale Pail

Malts		Amount	%	Max Pts.	Color
Extra Pale DME		4.5	47%	56.00	1.50
Munich		3	32%	48.00	12.00
Crystal 20		1	11%	35.00	20.00
Crystal 60		1	11%	34.00	60.00

Hops/Additions		Amount	Time	AA%	IBU's
Centennial		0.5	20	8.9%	8.22
Amarillo		0.5	20	9.3%	8.58
Palisade		0.5	20	7.8%	7.20
Centennial		1	10	8.9%	9.84
Amarillo		0.5	10	9.3%	5.14
Palisade		0.5	10	7.8%	4.31

5/4/11: Added 1.4 grams of gelatin and put in fridge.

5/5/11: Bottled.

Belgian Porter 4/23/11

Everyone was in the midst of intensive academic work, but we managed to take a day to brew two beers. The first was a Belgian porter. We used the same yeast blend that we had for the Ram's Head (Belgian Amber), but used a malt bill characteristic of an English brown porter. It will be interesting to see how it compares to a traditional dark Belgian (dubbel, dark strong, etc.).

Batch size: 5 gallons

Boil Volume: 3 gallons

Calculated OG: 1.070

Measured FG: 1.020

Estimated ABV: 6.5

Calculated IBUs (Tinseth): 28

Pitching Temperature: 74

Yeast: WLP575 (Belgian Ale Blend)

Fermentation vessel: Better Bottle

Malts		Amount	%	Max Pts.	Color
Extra Pale DME		7	74%	56.00	1.25
Crystal 40		0.5	5%	34.00	40.00
Chocolate		1	11%	28.00	350.00
Pale Chocolate		1	11%	28.00	225.00

Hops/Additions		Amount	Time	AA%	IBU's
Horizon		1	60	9.1%	27.74

Less attenuated than we planned. This is the second time this yeast blend has underperformed (previously Ram's Head). Nevertheless, in terms of flavor, this beer turned out almost exactly as we imagined. Both chocolate and Belgian phenolic flavors are strongly present, and the two complement each other well. It tastes a lot like a Belgian dark, but with all of the dark fruit flavors replaced by chocolate flavors. We might have to re-brew this.

Mon Oncle Brewday 4/12/11

The day after I got back from the conference we brewed the Mon Oncle, a biere de garde. The final recipe is simpler than it started out being, with pale chocolate being the only specialty malt. I have little to no idea what the yeast character is going to be in this beer. Even though it's labeled biere de garde yest, rumor is that the yeast is from Fantome, which is known for its saisons. Saison and biere de garde have been lumped together for historical reasons, but in terms of taste they are worlds apart.

I tried a biere de garde for the first time two days before brewing this one. It was Jenlain's biere de printemps. I enjoyed it, but was underwhelmed. As a result of this I decided to increase the hopping somewhat, from 1.5 oz to 2 oz total hops. I think that the beer I tried isn't generally considered to be one of the better biere de gardes, though. Anyway, Jack has doubts about this beer, but I think it's going to turn out pretty good.

This should be a deep amber to light brown ale, with a moderate earthy hop aroma (slightly out of style), moderate bitterness, a dry finish, and a malty, breadcrust type flavor. Yeast character could be anywhere from clean to wild.

Batch size: 5 gallons

Boil Volume: 3 gallons

Calculated OG: 1.070

Measured FG: 1.010

Estimated ABV: 7.9

Calculated IBUs (Tinseth): 35

Yeast: Wyeast 3725 (Biere de Garde)

Fermentation vessel: AHB Bucket

8 lbs extra light DME

0.75 lbs Pale Chocolate

1 oz Northern Brewer 9.4% AA at 60 minutes

1 oz Northern Brewer 9.4 AA at 15 minutes

Bottled 4/26/11 with 5.5 oz of priming sugar: More bitter and estery than the style, but from what I could taste through my congestion, it's quite good and very interesting. This beer is very attenuated (86% apparent attenuation!).

Hefeweizen Round 2 4/3/2011

Tim and I brewed this beer after the Imperial Stout finished, while Lee took the afternoon off to nap. Our last hefeweizen was such a success we decided to go for round two. If you didn't get to try the first round, you're not alone; we didn't really want to share.

At Angry Monocle we're always trying to innovate, and this beer is no exception. The Western Wheat as I have just decided to call it, is a german style hefeweizen dry-hopped with Amarillo, currently our favorite hop. For this brew we decided to take the recipe from the previous hefeweizen and up the malt and add in some american hops. Our aim is to make a beer that's got a good balance of body and sweetness with a fruity kick from the yeast and pungency from the dry-hopping. Its gonna be interesting to see how the fruitiness of the Weihenstephan mingles with the fruitiness of Armarillo hops.

Batch size: 5 gallons

Boil Volume: 3 gallons

Calculated OG: 1.062

Estimated FG: 1.015

Calculated ABV: 6.3%

Calculated IBUs (Tinseth): ??

Yeast: Weihenstephan Smack pack

Fermentation vessel: Better Bottle Carboy

10 lbs wheat LME (40% wheat)

1 oz Hallertau 4.3% AA at 60 minutes

0.25 oz Amarillo 9.3% AA at 60 minutes
0.75 oz Amarillo 9.3% AA dry-hop

The boil went without a hitch. As usual, we added half the LME at the start, and this time the other half went in at 15. We added it earlier than usual as previous batches had been held up by adding the LME too close to the end. This was also the first batch we remembered to add yeast nutrient (.5 tsp at 10 min). Crunched on time, we opted to pitch right from the smack pack this time, which swelled up like a bag of Lay's on a cross-country flight.

The only possible trouble could result from infection. The outside of the funnel wasn't santized, and the foam billowed out as the fermentor was filled, contacting the funnel. I don't think this should cause much of a problem, but we'll see! Right now the airlock is bubbling away nicely.

Imperial Stout Brewday 4/3/11

In the midst of Div III madness, we managed to make time to brew a beer of greater proportions than we had previously dreamed. This stout is loosely based on the Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout, with a lot of influence from the stout chapter in Designing Great Beers.

Batch size: 5 gallons

Boil Volume: 3.5 gallons

Calculated OG: 1.095

Measured FG: 1.030

Calculated ABV: 8.4

Calculated IBUs (Tinseth): 54

Yeast: Nottingham (two 11 gram packets)

Fermentation vessel: AHB Bucket

Days in primary: 19

10 lbs Extra Light DME

1.5 lbs Roasted Barley

1 lb Chocolate Malt

0.25 lbs Black Patent

2 oz. Horizon 9.1% AA at 60 minutes

1 oz. Kent Goldings 7.2% AA at 15 minutes

4/4/11: This thing is fermenting so hard its blow off needed a blow off. It's the first time we've had a bucket blow off; I think the lid may now be permanently convex. I guess with the amount of yeast and fermentable sugar we put into that bucket I shouldn't be that surprised, but it's quite dramatic.

4/14/11: Fermentation stuck at 1.030. Tried rousing the yeast by swirling the fermenter slightly, but a few days later, no change in specific gravity. Re-pitched with dry champagne yeast.

Bottled 4/22/11: Gravity still 1.030. Not as attenuated as we were aiming for, but this should still be a very good beer.