Citra Grapefruit IPA (9/12/12)

I'm hesitant to say this beer was inspired by Lagunitas's DayTime IPA. In fact, I went out and bought the beer with the express intention of making something in the same style, a low ABV daytime brew. The beer itself, however, didn't hold up. Its lack of body and hollow malt character left it tasting more like hoppy water than beer, so when I made up the recipe for this beer I wanted to be confident it was different. At 6.5 ABV and a starting gravity of 1.064, the beer would definitely have some body. Not an imperial stout, but something. Alas, the gods frowned. When I checked my dry malt extract today I found a sad bag with less than half the DME I needed. The 5 gallon batch became a 2.5 gallon batch, and 1.064 became 1.045. I'm hoping the attenuation stays low, but for now it looks like I'm gonna have mid-day gulper.

On the bright side, its gonna be packed with Citra and grapefruit, a combination I have a lot of hope for.

Calculated O.G: 1.045
Measured F.G: 1.012
Expected Attenuation: 73%
Estimated ABV: 4.3%
Calculated IBUs (Tinseth): 86
Pitching Temperature: 70 F
Starter: 3 liter (for a batch that was never brewed)
Fermentation Vessel: Bucket

Other Fermentables		Amount	%	Max Pts.
DME		2.65	100%	42.00

Hops/Additions		Amount	Time	AA%
Citra		0.3	60	15.3%
Citra		0.5	20	15.3%
Citra		0.5	10	15.3%
Citra		2	0	15.3%

The batch is fermenting in the same bucket as Peche Mortal did, in which it left a distinctly peach odor. I cleaned it as well as I could, but it remains to be seen whether the peach will have any effect. I plan to dry hopping with 2.7oz of Citra, and the rind of two grapefruits, and maybe a lemon. And I forgot the camden tablets again.

9/14/12 - Added 1.7 oz Citra, 1 grapefruit rind, and two lime rinds. I opted to lower the Citra so as not to overwhelm the other citrus. I went with lime on a whim, and I think it will round out the hops really well.

9/30/12 - Bottled. 2.5oz of priming sugar in about 2gal means the carbonation could be up to ~3.1 volumes. Tastes excellent, completely citrus.

La Mure (The Blackberry) 9/2/2012

August means blackberries here in Seattle, and of all the good ways to use a freezer full of free blackberries, I decided to toss them in a beer. Big surpise, huh? So La Mure was born. Its a Belgian Golden Strong Ale with a healthy helping of blackberries. This is the second time I've used De Dolle's house yeast, and the first time it came out a little sweet and a bit underattenuated. I'm hoping that sweetness helps to balance out the potent tartness of the blackberries.

Of note: I forgot to add camden tablets to neutralize the chlorine. It should fall out of solution naturally, but we'll see how this turns out.

Calculated O.G: 1.065
Expected F.G: 1.012
Expected Attenuation: 82%
Estimated ABV: 7.0%
Calculated IBUs (Tinseth): 26
Pitching Temperature: 70 F
Starter: None
Fermentation Vessel: Bucket

Other Fermentables		Amount	%	Max Pts.
DME		2.8	74%	42.00
Cane Sugar		1	26%	46.00

Hops/Additions		Amount	Time	AA%
Saaz		1.25	60	3.0%

Fermentation started slow and steady, bubbling began at 8 hours.

9/5/12 - Fermentation slowed significantly, added 1lb of cane sugar. Bubbling restarted that evening.

9/8/12 - Added 3.5lbs of blackberries.

9/14/12 - Gravity at 1.010