Dark Cloud: West of Eden Black Ale

Winter is coming! By the time this brew will be ready I'll expect the first winter storms to be here in California. Need to have some strong dark beer to cope with that! This beer features extra strong dark malts, throwing in some punches with my own homegrown Cascade hops.

BREW DATE: 08/20/2017

BOTTLING DATE: 10/29/2017

GRAIN BILL: 14lbs total

-6lbs Vienna Malt
-3lbs Dark Munich Malt

-2lbs Briess Caramel 40L Malt

-1lbs Carafa Chocolate Malt Type I

-2lbs Briess Dark Malt Extract 30L

MASH-IN: 1 hr at 155F, Mash-out 10 min at 170F. Fly sparked with 175F water.

HOP SCHEDULE:

-60min 1oz Jarvis Cascade leaf hops 2017 harvest

-30min 1oz Czech Saaz leaf hops

-5min 1oz Czech Saaz leaf hops

OG: 16.8 brix for 14l wort filled up to 21l => alcohol content should come out at 6.0%.

YEAST: Wyeast Northwest Ale. The bag didn’t inflate well and after 3days there was no sign of fermentation. I salvaged the batch by using some yeast from a previous batch. That kicked fermentation off nicely, however we had some super hot days above 40C even inside the house the following week. Hope that didn’t screw things up. Upon bottling taste was still ok but some side notes I didn’t like. Oh well, let’s see how it turns out eventually..

TASTE NOTES: ..and just as expected, this one ended up having some side tastes and I ended up throwing the whole batch away. Some sourness so I guess I ended up with some acid bacteria contamination. Never again ordering from homebrewsupply.com. 

Rough Ryder RyePA

I thought I give another shot at a RyePA. The last one didn't quite come out as strong and hoppy as I had hoped for, so I upped the ante a little by getting some extra DME for body, and used pure Chinook for hopping. That should give it a grand, piney underswell of hoppiness. For dry hopping, I double the dose to 2oz and switched to Citra, which gives great citrusy head flavors. Let's see! A RyePA can take quite some hops flavors without risking to overdo it since the Rye malt adds such a strong, bready malt flavor that it is very hard to push into the background making the beer unbalanced. So, full blast ahead! Here's to West Coast happy hoppiness!

Grain bill and hops. Notice the darker color of the Rye Malt in the middle

BREW DATE: 06/25/2017

BOTTLING DATE: about 6 weeks later

GRAIN BILL: 12lbs total

-6lbs Rahr 2-row Malt

-3lbs Weyermann Light Rye Malt

-3lbs Weyermann Vienna Malt
-2lbs Briess Sparkling Amber DME 

MASH-IN: 1 hr at 165F, Batch/Fly sparked with 170F water.

HOP SCHEDULE:

-60min 1oz Chinook leaf hops

-30min 1oz Chinook leaf hops

-10min 1oz Chinook leaf hops
-dry hopped w/ 2oz Citra leaf hops

OG:27.1 brix for 9l wort filled up to 23l => alcohol content should come out at 5.9%.

YEAST: Wyeast American Ale 1056

TASTE NOTES: Nice IPA with some bready untertones thanks to the Rye Malt. Citra is a little bit overhyped I have to say, it tends to be on the light side unless you use tons of it. I thought 2oz would really get some citrus flavors going but it is still quite benign. Anyways, good beer, no complaints!

California Chinook Pilsener

Winter time is the time to brew Pilsener in California. Day time temperatures are usually low enough to support continuous fermenting temperatures below 60F. Wyeast has a Lager Strain that works well up to 65F, we'll try that out this time. To give it a nice West Coast touch I'm pairing noble Pilsener malts from Germany and the Czech Republic with my backyard grown Chinook hops.
  

BREW DATE: 12/08/2017

BOTTLING DATE: Early Jan 2018

GRAIN BILL: 9lbs total + 1lb DME

-5lbs German Pilsener Malt

-4lbs Bohemia Pilsener Malt

-1lb Briess Light DME

MASH-IN: 1 hr at 160F. Fly sparked with 175F water.

HOP SCHEDULE:

-60min 1oz WestOfEden Chinook

-30min 1oz WestOfEden Chinook

-10min 1oz WestOfEden Chinook

OG: 15.0brix (1.0611OG) for 13l wort filled up to 21l => alcohol content should come out at 5.1%.

YEAST: Wyeast California Lager 2112

TASTE NOTES: Awesome! Crisp and clear with lots of hops flavor from my home grown Chinook hops. Still quite balanced with fine malt notes from the high quality Pilsener Malt I used. Light color, no haziness, perfect head. Probably the best one I ever made!