Squashbuckler

I love Fall. I love the colors, the crisp air, the food, and of course the beer. We harvested more than our fair share of pumpkins and squashes from our garden this year, and I have been trying to use them for things other than pie and soup, mmm bread. While flipping through my latest BeerAdvocate magazine (#57), I spotted a recipe for a pumpkin ale and knew that I had to make it. I tweaked the recipe a bit according to taste, and brewed this past, beautiful, fall weekend. 
Batch Size: 5.5 gal

Brewhouse Efficiency: 70%


8lbs Pale malt 2-row American
2lbs Munich malt

1lbs Crystal malt 60L

1.5lbs Roasted Pumpkin

1.25lbs Roasted Butternut Squash

8 fl oz Molasses

1.25oz Tettnang hops [3.7%] (60min)
0.75oz Tettnang hops [3.7%] (20min)

1/4 tsp Cinnamon (5min)

1/4 tsp Ground Ginger (5min)

1/8 tsp Nutmeg (5min)

1/8 tsp Cloves (5min)
1 vial California ale yeast (White Labs WLP001)

I roasted the pumpkin and squash at 350F for 90 min the night before I brewed. On brew day, I did a single infusion mash with grains and squash at 153F for 60 min. I did a 60 min boil and added the molasses with 10 min left. The wort smelled amazing as it was chilling, just like a pumpkin pie. After the wort cooled, the original gravity was 1.050. I was too lazy to make a starter for the yeast, but they seem to be doing alright. If things go well, this should be ready to start drinking for Thanksgiving!

La Bella Luna Mead

I expanded my brewing horizons this past week with a crash course in making mead. This project had two goals; 1) get back to basics and the beginning, and 2) brew up something meaningful for my wedding. 
Ask a beer enthusiast what the first man-made alcohol was, and they will surely answer beer. Ask a mead enthusiast what the first alcohol consumed was, and the answer will be fermented honey. Currently, the archaeological evidence points to beer being older; however, it is widely accepted that consuming mead predated soil cultivation (a necessary evil for extensive beer brewing). Either way, mead is clearly an ancient beverage with histories throughout Africa, Europe, and Asia.
With mead's age, comes tradition. Probably the most cited tradition is giving mead to a newly wed couple. Throughout Europe, the term honeymoon derives from the practice of providing newly weds with enough honey wine to drink a cup daily for a month. Could this nectar of the gods be a more appropriate wedding libation? 
Even if we throw every other tradition out the window, I know that we have to have a mead toast at the wedding, and plenty to drink afterwards ;) So, I met up with a friend who brews traditional mead competitively, she gave me some pointers, and I was on my way.

Batch size: ~13 gal
30lbs Honey (from local apiary)*
10gal Spring Water
2 5oz packets Pasteur Champagne yeast (Red Star) 
        
Making mead is deceptively easy; all you need is honey, water, and yeast, but forget to sanitize one thing and you have 13 gallons of blegh. So, after extensive cleaning and sanitizing, I got to brewing. My 10gal brewpot could not handle this much fluid, so, I split it up into two batches; luckily mead is less time consuming than beer. For the first batch, I boiled 6gal of water, stirred in 18lbs honey, brought the whole thing back to a boil and boiled for about 15min. Then I chilled the must, split it evenly between my two primary fermenters and started on the next batch. There is a lot of debate as to whether or not you should boil the honey, so to account for this, on the next batch, I boiled 4gal water, turned off the burner, and stirred in 12lbs honey and did not boil it. This mixture was still pretty hot, so, I chilled it to about 80F and split it between the two fermenters. I pitched the rehydrated yeast and measured the SG (1.100). Less than 24 hrs later, both buckets are bubbling away, and things still smell delightful!
*A word to the wise- If you can, buy this much honey in bulk, it is significantly cheaper than buying 6 5lbs containers of honey.

       

Terrapin Rye Pale Ale Clone

A couple of years ago, Boyf and I were at a beer festival when we had our first taste of Terrapin's Rye Pale Ale, and it was love at first sip. Being from the NE, we come across this brew very rarely, so I decided to give brewing it a try. I brewed this a year ago as a partial mash, and it came it well. Now, I am stepping it up to all-grain. The recipe is based on a Brewing Network interview with Spike Buckowski of Terrapin from 5/18/08.
Batch Size: 5.5 gal

Brewhouse Efficiency: 70%

8.5lbs Pale malt 2-row German
1.2lbs Munich malt

1.5lbs Rye malt

0.5lbs Melanoidin malt

0.25lbs Honey malt

0.5oz Magnum hops [13.1%] (60min)
1oz Fuggle hops [4.0%] (30min)

0.25oz East Kent Golding hops [4.5%] (20min)
0.5oz East Kent Golding hops [4.5%] (10min)
0.75oz Cascade hops [8.0%] (0min)
1oz Amarillo hops [9.1%] (dry hop in secondary)
1 vial American ale yeast blend (White Labs WLP060)

I did a single infusion mash at 154F for 60 min. The specific gravity was spot on at 1.054. After 5 days in primary, the SG was down to 1.010, so I racked to secondary and added the amarillo. I'll be bottling this week and drinking it in a few; can't wait! 

Sean's Dubbel Angst

We're doing Belgian-style ales for the next brew off. I went with a dubbel because I like the style and the timing will be good. The recipe is a hybrid from a few different sources. I wanted to try something besides Belgian candi sugar. The plan was to use piloncillo, an unrefined cane sugar popular in central america, but I couldn't get my hands on any, so I used turbinado (sugar in the raw) instead.
Batch Size: 5.5 gal

Brewhouse Efficiency: 70%

10lbs Pilsner malt German
2lbs Munich malt

1lbs Special B malt

0.5lbs Aromatic malt

1lbs Turbinado sugar

1oz Styring Goldings hops [4.5%] (60min)
0.5oz Hallertau hops [3.0%] (20min)

0.5oz Hallertau hops [3.0%] (5min)
1 vial Belgian Abbey ale yeast (White Labs WLP530)

Today was perfect for sitting out, sipping a beer, and stirring my brew. I did a single infusion mash at 147F for 90 min. The specific gravity was a bit low after a batch sparge, but I went with it and did a 90 min boil. I added the turbinado with 10 min left in the boil to make sure it all dissolved. After the wort cooled, the original gravity was 1.066. I'm looking forward to seeing what the yeast do with this wort. They're very happy little beasts and should ferment well.

Home Brew Challenge Cup Spring Edition

Today, I entered a beer in my first home brew challenge. It was a small affair with friends, co-workers and nine entries. The cool thing about being a grad student is that we're all pretty nerdy and like good beer, but we're poor, so there ends up being a high concentration of home brewers (at least at our institution).  We had a great time and sampled a bunch of good beers.

The category for the brew-off was rather broad: wheat beers. I had already brewed and bottled the Blood Orange Hefeweizen when I heard about the brew-off, so I waited and hoped for the best as far as the sulphur smell dissipating. Sure enough, after about a month in the bottle, the smell had mellowed and now it's almost gone. While my brew didn't place in the competition, it was well received, and I did get to trade a couple for what I thought was the best beer there. All in all, it was a fun day, and I'm looking forward to the next one!

Derby Day Stout

The inspiration for this recipe came from the fact that for the past couple of years National Homebrew Day has coincided with Derby Day. This usually leads to hilariousness as I try to successfully brew a beer while imbibing vast quantities of mint juleps through out the day. Then last year it hit me; I like bourbon-barrel aged stout, I like mint chocolate stout, and I love love love mint in my bourbon, why not combine them all into a trifecta of awesomeness: Bourbon Barrel Mint Chocolate Stout! This may be the worst idea ever or the greatest beer to ever grace my lips, only time will tell.

Batch Size: 5.5 gal
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70%

10.8lbs Pale malt 2-row English
2.33lbs Biscuit malt

0.75lbs Roasted barley malt

0.75lbs Black patent malt
0.5 oz Northern Brewer hops [12.3%] (60min)
0.5oz Northern Brewer hops [12.3%] (20min)
1oz Fresh spearmint (flame out)

1 piece mint candy (flame out)

2oz American oak cubes heavy toast soaked in bourbon (secondary)
1 vial Dry English ale yeast (White Labs WLP007)

The day before brew day, I made a 1.5L starter for the yeastie beasties. I also added oak cubes to bourbon in an airtight container to soak until it's time for the secondary.

Brew day went reasonably well up until the very end. I did a single infusion mash at 155F for 1 hour, hit my expected OG after a batch sparge, and boiled down to the desired volume after 1 hour. Then disaster struck! I put my trusty homemade immersion chiller in the wort, turned on the cold water, and walked away to do some clean up. When I returned, the damn chiller had sprung a leak, adding ~2gal of water to my perfect wort :( This in turn decreased my final OG by 0.020. Not the end of the world, but definitely worth having a beer over.

Hefeweizen Update

So, Boyf wants to rename this beer 'Pull My Hefe'. I may have forgotten to warn him that WLP351 yeast produce a fair amount of hydrogen sulfide (rotten egg/ fart smell), but in my defense I had no idea how strong it would be at the beginning. The starter that was pitched smelled fantastic, nice and clovey with a hint of banana at the back. Fermentation got off to a great start, and the airlock was bubbling away within a few hours.

The following morning, everything was going just ducky. Then I came home that evening to a frigid apartment, stinking of sulphur. Poor Boyf thought something had gone wrong when the NStar guy checked our gas that day, so he opened all the windows, checked all the pilots and left the heat off (keep in mind this is early April in N.E.). I re-assured him that it was just the yeast farting away (I don't think he really believed me, but accepted my crazy explanation), and we forgot about it when the smell was gone by the next morning.

A week and half later, it's bottling time. We get all the bottles and caps clean and the priming sugar boiled, then I pulled the lid off the bucket. Boyf stuck his face right in to get the first whiff of delicious homebrew, the beer farted at him, and he deemed it unsatisfactory. I told him not to worry, this happens with lager yeasts a lot, and we would just have to wait it out. I took the F.G. (1.01 for anyone who is curious) and bottled the beer. Now, I just have to sit and be patient while the little beasties clean up the mess they made during early fermentation.*

*There are two camps on how hydrogen sulfide is removed from beer. Some say it's due to the H2S getting caught up in CO2 bubbles and then getting purged with the CO2. Others say it's because the yeast uptake the H2S towards the end of fermentation. I tend to believe the science-y people and am going with the yeast.

Blood Orange Hefeweizen

I finally had my first brew day of the year, and it was awesome. I recently picked up some delicious blood oranges, so I decided to try an all-grain version of the blood orange hefeweizen recipe from Sam Calagione's Extreme Brewing.
Batch Size: 5.5 gal
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70%

5.25 lbs Pale malt 2-row German
5.25 lbs Wheat malt German
0.5 oz Hallertau hops [3.0%] (60min)
1.0 oz Saaz hops [4.0%] (20min)
0.5 oz Hallertau hops [3.0%] (10min)
4 Blood oranges
1 vial Bavarian Weizen yeast (White Labs WLP351)

I started things yesterday by making a 1.5 liter yeast starter. Since this is a seasonal strain, I'm going to try to culture it (more on this another day).
I did a single infusion mash at 152F with 1.33 quarts/lb for 1hr.
For the oranges, I zested two oranges, peeled all the oranges, and then chopped up the sections. I added the zest and fruit to 0.5 gal water and heated to 160F. Then I let the fruit steep as the mixture cooled.
Once the wort and fruit cooled to 70F, I added them to the fermenter, straining the oranges through a small grain bag and added that too. Finally, I pitched the yeast, and a few hours later I'm starting to see a little action.
The original gravity ended up being 1.048, expected OG was 1.050, so a little low :-( I'm working on improving my efficiency, and I think more patience during the sparge will help with that. Ah well, just going to have to brew more I guess!