For all those who are regulars to this site (all three of you), you may remember my last attempt at making an imperial stout. I revisited the recipe and tweaked it to be a bit less crazy with the flaked barley. The result? A starting gravity of 1.074! This was better than the last time I attempted this and got a starting gravity of 1.060. Still a bit lower than what I had hoped for. I think if I wanna do this right, I’ll need to invest in a bigger kettle and spend more time boiling. Before we get into too much detail, here is the recipe:

13 lbs of Pale Ale Malt
2 lbs of Flaked Barley
1 lb of Roasted Barley
3 oz of Special B
1 oz of Yakima Golding Pellets
1 oz of Cascade Pellets
1 packet of Wyeast Scottish Ale 1728

I essentially collected 8 gallons of wort and boiled down to 5. After an hour of boiling, I added the hops and boiled for another hour. I may go nuts next time and try for 20 lbs of Pale Ale malt and than get two batches running (one imperial, one partigyle pale).

Today I transfered my Pale Ale to the secondary fermentor. I have now been brewing around three years and I’ve become much better at predicting if the beer will taste good from tasting from the hydrometer. I generally move my beers from the primary fermentor to the secondary fermentor after around 1 week. This early in the brewing process, there seems to be a lot of off-flavors in the beer. Almost every off-flavor though seems to go away as the beer matures. I will catalog the different off-flavors that I’ve experienced and situations where they go away, and situations where they stick around. Some “off-flavors” are appropriate for certain styles and to a certain extend, part of brewing beer. They become “off” when the level of these flavors get too high for the style (there will always be some tannins (astringency), diacetyl (buttery) and other flavors in all beers). Off-flavors are often more noticeable in the hydrometer sample than beer since beer is served cold and carbonated while hydrometer samples are taken at room temperature (unless brewing a lager) before the beer is carbonated.

Puckering Bitterness

Puckering bitterness seems to be more prominent in dryer beers and darker beers. It is different than a hoppy bitterness since it usually has your mouth feeling drying than an overly hopped beer. In heavier beers (in terms of ending gravity, not necessarily alcohol) I’ve found this astringency is more palatable since the beer is a tad sweater. With dry beers, I’ve found the astringency will mellow out over time. The roasting process of grain seems to also add some bitterness. This is appropriate for the style generally but will mellow out a bit over time. Puckering bitterness can also be accompanied by a “grainy” flavor since the tannins that cause astringency come form the husks of the grain. Unless the beer tastes more bitter than your average IPA (from astringency, not hops), you will probably be fine. Crash cooling your beer in the secondary can also help the tannins that cause astringency to drop to the bottom of the fermentor.

Sourness

Sourness in very low levels are generally nothing to be worried about, since they tend to mellow out with age. At more noticeable levels, there is the chance that the beer may be infected. That being said, I’ve had beers that tasted a bit sour from the hydrometer sample which tasted fine once they were put in the keg/bottled and carbonated. If you have a very “citrusy” taste to the beer, it can very likely be from the hop flavor. This does mellow out a bit over time and generally is a very mild sourness. I’ve found that very young stouts also have a bit of a sour tinge to them due to the fact that darker grains lower the pH of beer by a small amount. When the sourness starts to taste more like vinegar or sour milk is when you may have a problem. Even in those cases though, wait until the beer is finished before passing judgement on your brew.

Wine/Cidery

A wine like or cider like flavor sometimes presents itself in younger beers. These flavors tend to go away with time. The question boils down to intensity. A mild cider or wine like flavor will mellow out. An intense flavor could mean an infection.

A General “This Tastes Like Cheap Beer” Syndrome

If your beer seems to taste a bit more like cheap beer, but with more flavor, you probably just need to give it more time. Professional breweries generally have a flawless process for making beer. That being said, really cheap beer takes a lot of cost cutting methods, the easiest of which is to reduce the amount of time beer sits in the fermentors. Some commercial beers spend less than a month in the fermentors and thus taste pretty terrible. Obviously, homebrewed beer will have better ingredients than some of the bigger commercial beers, but will still suffer if not given enough time.

The Golden Rule

When brewing, always give your beer enough time to mature before dumping your beer. Unless the beer literally tastes like Satan’s anus, it will probably improve with time. For most beers, after around 2 months, you know what your beer will taste like. Stronger beers will take more time and low gravity beers will take less. Also, less than perfect beer may still be drinkable and you can probably pawn it off one of your friends who appreciated the beer. There are more off flavors than the ones I listed above, but those are the ones I experience the most.

Finally got to brewing again. Decided that since it is getting warm, it’s time to start brewing some pale ales. I like my beers on the hoppy side so this might be on the border of what some would consider a pale ale and others would consider an IPA. The recipe is as follows:

10 lbs of American Pale Ale malt
8 oz of Crystal malt
0.5 oz of 15.8 alpha Warrior for 60 minute addition
0.5 oz of 15.8 alpha Warrior for 15 minute addition
2 oz cascade for dry hop

I mashed with 3.5 gallons of water at 151 degrees for about an hour and 15 minutes. I was a bit worried because the mash took longer than usual to start tasting sweet (I usually taste a bit during my stirrings, which I do every 15 minutes). I’m guessing the American Pale Ale malt is less modified than the Maris Otter malt I usually use. In the end it sweetened right up (I should really do the starch test with iodine, but since I have yet to have issues with full conversion, I never do). I ended up sparging with 6 gallons more of water. After a boil of about an hour and a half, I ended up with 5 gallons of wort with a starting gravity of 1.051. I decided I was going to be happy if I could get it above 1.045 so this is very good news. This beer will be served during the drivers rodeo after party and also during the western mass beerfest I am hosting.

So, all those who know me well, have probably already heard the sad news. The IPA I tried to brew has gone horribly wrong. In essence, do to the large number of hops, I needed something to weigh it down. I was going to go shopping for marbles but could not find any. At the ACME surplus store, I found what I though was stainless steel ball bearings. They were heavy, they were shiny, but they were not stainless steel. Whatever material they were made of, they managed to make the beer smell and taste like brimstone and copper pennies. When I removed the hop bags, the hops were dark brown (they were green when I put them in) and smelled like sea weed instead of grapefruit. The ball bearings were black and corroded and smelled heavily like sulfur. The beer was utterly disgusting to taste. Hopefully my next attempt goes better.

This last summer I brewed an Indian Pale Ale that my friends loved. It had a very distinct taste since I had combined many hope varieties. The Goldings helped give the beer an earthy flavor while the Cascade and other American style hops gave it a nice citrusy smell and aroma. My friend Cole, who had previously not liked IPAs now loves them due to this beer. Between me, Cole and another friend, Ian, we were able to finish 5 gallons of this beer in 2 weeks. The recipe is as follows.

12 lbs of US Pale Malt
1 lb of 60L US Crystal Malt
0.5 oz of Pacific Gem (60 minutes)
0.5 oz of Pacific Gem (30 minutes)
1 oz of US Simcoe (at turnoff)
2 oz of Cascade (dry hopped)
1 oz of Kent Goldings (dry hopped)
1 package of Nottingham dry yeast

This beer unfortunately did not have a very good efficiency and ended up having a starting gravity of 1.047. This did not seem to matter though since it ended up being a very refreshing summer IPA. The Pacific Gem I got as a christmas present so I decided to use it in a recipe. You may notice that I used Simcoe, a hop that is generally used as a bittering hop as a finishing hop. This is because I read in a BYO magazine that hops that are used as bittering hops often also have more flavor and aroma. Simcoe would help give a nice pine like flavor to the beer. I recently tried to replicate this beer. Unfortunately, Austinhomebrew does not sell Pacific Gem so I had to get a substitute. I chose instead to use US Warrior and Simcoe for bittering, flavor and finishing hops. I also changed the 12 lbs of Pale Malt to Maris Otter malt and I changed the crystal malt to 20l since I thought the beer was too dark for an IPA last time. I kept the Cascade but used whole hops instead of pellets and substituted Yakima Goldings for the Kent Golding since austinhomebrew sells them in whole hop form. The revised recipe is as follows.

12 lbs of Maris Otter Malt
1 lb of 20L US Crystal Malt
0.5 oz of US Warrior (60 minutes)
0.5 oz of US Simcoe (30 minutes)
0.5 oz of US Warrior (15 minutes)
0.5 oz of US Simcoe (at turnoff)
2 oz of Cascade (dry hopped)
2 oz of Yakima Goldings (dry hopped)
1 package of Nottingham dry yeast

I have only sampled hydrometer readings, but they seem promising. As soon as I kick the Irish Red in the keg, I will keg the IPA. This beer hit the gravity of 1.060 so it will be a bit sweeter/alcoholic. As much as I love my Irish Red, I cannot wait to keg this beer.

Yesterday I attempted to brew an imperial stout. I love imperial stouts and had too much beer to justify brewing a beer that would be ready in less than a month and a half. It, like many of the recipes I do were pulled directly from my ass. I essentially used beer alchemy so I stayed somewhat within the parameters of the style. The recipe is as follows.

6 lbs of US Pale Ale Malt
5 lbs of Flaked Barley
4 lbs of US 6-Row Malt
1 lb of Roasted Barley
3oz of Special B
1 oz of Chinook (60 minutes)
2 oz of Yakima Goldings (30 minutes)
1 packet of Wyeast Scottish Ale 1728

I chose this much Flaked Barley because I wanted an Imperial Stout that was a bit on the dry side since they have a tendency to be a bit syrupy. Unfortunately, due to the large level of flaked barley I ended up getting a stuck sparge. I was only able to collect about 7 gallons of wort. For this style it would have been better if I collected 10 and than boiled down to 5. The starting gravity ended up being 1.060. I mashed for 1.5 hours at 151 degrees. The next time I attempt this I probably will use 7 lbs of 6 row and 2 lbs of flaked barley to prevent the stuck sparge. Alternatively I could attempt to use rice hulls. Fortunately, the beer still falls into the parameters for an foreign extra stout.

Since I was planning on having a higher starting gravity, I decided to make a starter. I started it on thursday night hoping for it the reach full krausen by saturday. I smacked the pack on wednesday but think I probably should of smacked it thursday morning. I think it may have reached full krausen and dropped down while I was sleeping but since I did not use a clear bottle (I used your average growler), I could not tell. I will probably purchase a 2000ml beaker from Northern Brewer for the next time I do this. The beer started bubbling the day after I brewed it so I’m assuming I had a decent pitching level.

I’ve tagged all my posts with the recipe tag. This way if you wanna see my brewing recipes, just go here. I’m hoping to move my livejournal recipes here so that I can inventory everything I brew.

I have almost finished all the stout I have brewed. In the end I really enjoyed the flavor. I could not get nearly as roasty as some of the commercial stouts I’ve tried so I may have to give this another shot and increase the roasted barley a tad. I may also lower the hop content a bit. It was not overly bitter but I think it would have tasted a bit more smooth with a bit lower hops. If I increase the roasted barley a bit it may compensate for reducing the hops.

Tomorrow I’m keeping it Irish and brewing my version of an Irish Red. The recipe is as follow:

12 lbs of Maris Otter
4 oz of Roasted Barley
4 oz of Special B
2 oz of Yakima Goldings
2 packets of Nottingham Dry Yeast

The gravity may be a tad high for an Irish Red but I like all my beers to have a bit of kick. If anybody is interested in joining, I will begin brewing at 11:00 AM tomorrow.

So yesterday, me and Sean bottled up the stout. As I always do when bottling, I tasted a small sample of the beer. It’s still pretty young, only three weeks old but it is a bit to harsh and sweet at the same time. From experience I can tell that it will mellow out though. I will try to wait till the 16th before cracking open the first beer. This will be my first all grain stout which makes me exited. Any ideas for my next beer?

So after months of not brewing, I finally broke down and ordered a few ingredients and decided to whip out a stout. I did not consult any recipe books and pretty much pulled the recipe out of my ass. It consists of:

10lbs of Marris Otter
10 oz of Roasted Barley
7 oz of Chocolate Malt
1 ounce of Nugget (60 minutes)
a packet of WYeast 1084 Irish Yeast

Everything went smoothly for the most part. I did get attacked by bees a few times since they seemed to admire the malty smell from the mash tun. I completely forgot to do a gravity check but I would guesstimate that it is around 1.050. This is the first real stout that I have done an all grain of (I did make a stout like beer without roasted barley, using instead dehusked black grain, it was good, but not roasty enough to be a stout). I’m hoping I will have this beer rolled out by November.