Caribou Slobber

DESCRIPTION: Brown Ale, very much like a Newcastle Ale. 3 kinds of hops (Golding, Liberty for base and Willamette for aroma) give a surprising character to this beer. Brewed it as the extract kit at least twice and was never disappointed. This one is the first time using the full grain kit, so I'm curious how it comes out.

BREW DATE: 11/02/2013

BOTTLING DAY: 11/24/2013

GRAIN BILL:  

- 9 lbs. Rahr 2-row pale

- 0.75 lbs. Briess Caramel 60L

- 0.5 lbs. Briess Caramel 80L

- 0.25 lbs Fawcett Pale Chocolate

- 0.125 lbs. English Black Malt

MASHING:

- Sacch Rest 153F for 60min, Mash-out 170F at 10min (per recipe). I didn't exactly follow the Mash-out since I can't heat the kettle up that fast. Instead I use 170F hot water for initial lauter, with about 1-2 liters poured back into the mash to make sure the grain has settled and there are not too many floating particles washed out into wort.

HOPS SCHEDULE:

- 1oz. US Goldings (60min)

- 1 oz. Liberty (30min)

- 1 oz. Willamette (15min) 

YEAST: Wyeast North American Ale (optimum temp 65-75F)

Ended up with 17.8 Brix for 8l Wort 1.0733 OG. Fill up to 23l. That should translate to about 3.5% Alc/Vol which seems low, lets see. Next time I really need to get the OG after all is done. :-)

5 Brix at bottling = 1.0197 OG.

TASTING NOTES: Indeed a little on the light side, but still very drinkable. Dark and nutty, malty flavor with subtle hints of hops, very much like a Newcastle Brown Ale, except somewhat lighter.

Caribou Slobber ingredients. Check out the yeast! Ready to explode!

Mash is getting happy at 153F in the big kettle

Caribou Slobber ready for enjoyment!

Dry Dock Breakwater Pale Ale

This is is commercial recipe that I first tried pretty successfully with the extraction kit version. My neighbor was all raves back then! Let's see if I can get a good brew using the all grain kit. The idea behind this recipe is to use the power of Chinook hops for base load and get floral notes from Citra dry hopping.

Meanwhile the beer itself has some more color and character due to the Caramel roasted malts added. I would say it is really more of an IPA than a Pale Ale, but I guess the boundary isn't really well defined anyways.


BREWING DAY: Sep 1st, 2013

BOTTLING DAY: Sep 21st, 2013

GRAIN BILL:
- 9 lbs Rahr 2-row Pale
- 0.375 lbs Briess Caramel 60L
- 0.3125 lbs Belgian Biscuit

SACCH REST: 153F for 60 minutes
MASHOUT: 168F for 10min

HOP SCHEDULE:
0.25 oz. Chinnok @ 60 min
0.25 oz. Chinnok @ 45 min
0.5 oz. Chinnok @ 30 min
0.5 oz. Chinnok @ 15 min
0.5 oz. Chinnok @ 2 min

0.5 oz. Citra for dry hopping 1 week prior to bottling (Sep 13th, 2013). That was a Friday, fingers crossed it doesn't doom my brew..

YEAST: Wyeast 1056 American Ale, 60-72F. It kind of got a little warm early September here in Los Gatos, so I had a couple of days where the fermenter was at about 74-76F. Little worried that this could have spoiled some of the IPA character by adding off flavors, but let's see. When I added the Citra hops for dry hopping it still smelled great when I opened the fermenter and there was no evident issue.

BOTTLING: For priming, I dissolved 2/3 cup of cane sugar in 1 cup of water. Boiled the sugar solution and mixed after cooling down with the beer (still in the primary fermenter). Let the yeast settle and bottled. OG before bottling: 1.0165 (4.2 brix). First tasting notes: Excellent! The Citra hops gives beautiful floral aromas, strength overall is fine, no off flavors detected. Can't wait to taste this one!

TASTE NOTES: Opened the first bottle 8 days after bottling. Amazing! I'm really proud of myself :-) this one turned out really well. Sunflower golden color, medium head, but relatively stable. Nose has floral notes, some hay and citrus, just what you expect from a dry hopped IPA. But the taste! Has so much more body than the extract kit, it's just unbelievable. Very rich maltiness and a rocking ground swell of Chinook hops just adding tons of flavor without overwhelming. Citrusy finish, just what was expected of the Citra. I think I got the extraction this time right on the money, alcohol content is somewhere around 5-6%. After the light Witbeer I made last, this one really carries home! Looking forward for relaxing weekend afternoons on the porch enjoying the redwood hills around us with a glass of Breakwater Pale Ale!

Breakwater Pale Ale

Fool's Wit

This is my very first all grain beer recipe! I was looking for a good, refreshing summer beer. I do like Belgian wit beer, but what is out there is always a tad too sweet for my likings, and is also not very well hopped. Lost Coast Brewing has a wit style inspired beer with west coast hops infusion called 'Great White', but they have also added some spices, which I think is somewhat degrading the overall character. So here is my take on the topic:

GRAIN BILL: 12lbs total (I wanted it to be strong, too!), out of which 3 lbs Rahr White Wheat Malt, 3 lbs German Pilsener Malt, and 6 lbs Rahr Two Row Malt. Making it 25% Wheat and 75% Barley. I didn't wanted the wheat to dominate, just a little hint of sweetness, so left it at 25%, and added the Pilsener Malt to enhance the maltiness.

Grain bill ready for brewing

MASH-IN: 1 hr at 153F, Mash-out 10 min at 165F, lautering for 15min with 165F water. Resulted in 1.5gls of wort. Specific gravity: Unknown (still don't have that refractometer!)

Mash in the kettle getting happy

HOP SCHEDULE: Nothing compares with a solid German Hallertau hops base load. So that's what went in: 60min 1oz German Hallertau, 30min 1oz German Hallertau, 10min 1oz Mt Rainier. Total of 60minute cooking time. The Mt Rainier is a new Cascade hop derivative with medium high alpha but  also has a nice floral bitterness. I thought Chinook or Cascade would probably overdo it in terms of bitterness, so there.   

Hop pellets ready to go

YEAST: Wyeast Belgian Wit. Filled up to 6 gallons (23 liters) with Los Gatos Mountains Spring Water. I only do single stage fermentation (little scared of spoiling the nice beer from contamination when transferring to secondary stage..). Fermenting took place in the basement at ambient temperatures (about 68-76F). That's about the range indicated for this yeast strain. No dry hopping on this one, so after 3 weeks it went into the bottles for bottle fermenting. I could tell I had a really nice one already when bottling! 

TASTE NOTES: First try 1 week after bottling, still a little young. After 2 weeks it was perfect: Pale yellow color, some diffused haziness. Beautiful floral nose (I start to love Mt Rainier!). Head: I'm amazed this beer developed a nice and dense foam without any dextrin tricks played. Taste notes: Initially very light but lots of flavor as it develops. Nice and gentle hops bitterness. Sweetness of wheat is there, but just a hint, as intended. Subtle fruity undertones, but not as overwhelming as on a Hefeweizen, for example. The maltiness is present but not as much as I expected. Next time I should probably use more German Pilsener malt. Alcohol: Not sure, somewhere between 4.5-5.5% I assume. Should have been a little stronger based on the grain bill, but I guess I didn't lauter as aggressive on this one. Still fine! Finishes off tart and citrusy. Makes you yearn for more! Perfect for a warm and sunny summer afternoon. Had this glass below after a bike ride in our mountains. Man, that was perfect!

CHEERS!

Fool's Wit!