Lagunitas IPA Approximation

Posted by pvdsuds – 2010-04-30

Brew Date: 2010-04-24

I was looking to make a spicy, refreshing IPA like Lagunitas. With help from our local brew store, we decided on this recipe.

Grains

  • 1 lbs 2 Row Pale
  • 7 oz Dextrine Cara Pils
  • 5 oz Crystal
  • 3 oz Munich
  • Malt Extract
  • 5 lbs 9 oz Light Dried Malt Extract

Hops

  • 60 mins: 1 1/2 oz Challenger A.A. 7%
  • 30 mins: 1/2 oz Cascade A.A. 7.3%, 1/4 oz Willamette A.A. 5.6%
  • End of Boil: 1 1/2 oz Cascade

Yeast

  • Safale 05 American Ale Yeast

OG: 1.042, FG: 1.020

Despite my past unfounded prejudice against hop pellets, malt powder, and dried yeast–I used to live in the Pacific NW and we only used freeze dried hops, extract syrup, and liquid yeast–this turned out great. I’ve since found the Safale dried yeasts to be reliable and have excellent flavor. I pitched the dry yeast directly into the wert.

saphouse heavy ale

Posted by zymurgist – 2010-04-18

8.8 lbs Premier light hopped malt extract

1.2 lbs Vermont light amber maple syrup

2 oz Cluster hop pellets

water to make 5 gal

Boiled the malt, 1 gal water, and 1 oz of the hops, then added maple for 1 minute boil, and second oz of hops just before shutting down. Pitched 5 packets of stale (several-year-old) yeast.

Soda Batch #6: Ginger Beer

Posted by tgl – 2010-04-14

2010APR14

* 3oz ginger root
* juice from one lime
* 1 teaspoon Cream of Tartar
* 2 dashes of cayenne pepper
* 1 1/2 cup turbinado sugar
* 4 quarts water

~40min:
Combined ingredients and 1 quart water. Brought to boil and simmered.

0min:
Added 3 quart water.

Activated 1/2 teaspoon Red Star Champagne Yeast in 1/2cup ~100*F water.

Pitched yeast.

8 16oz. bottles

Kolsch for Anna Rose

Posted by mac – 2010-04-11

When a certain girl I know was 3 or 4, she decided her given name wasn’t doing it for her anymore, and instead introduced herself to anyone who asked as Anna Rose.

Neither Anna Rose nor her grown-up alter ego particularly like helping me with the brewing, but they’ve proven to be good at making up names.

Brew Day: 2010-04-11

  • 6.5 lb German Pilsner Malt
  • 1 lb Wheat (unclear whether this was malted or not)
  • 0.5 lb Dextrine (CaraPils)

Single infusion mash in 10 qts water at a target of 152*F for 90 min.

Sparge with 18-20 qts at 167*F

Collected a total of ~5.9 gal which measured 1.031 at 130*F, corrected to approximately 1.043 for a total of 254 pts.

Boil 60 min

  • 6.5 AAU Spalt hop pellets (2.5 oz * 2.6% AA) at 60 min
  • 1/2 tsp Irish Moss at 15 min
  • 1 AAU Spalt hop pellets (0.5 oz * 2.6% AA) at 10 min

Chill to ~65*F, post-boil yield of ~4.8 gal at 1.051 (245 total points, or 30.6 pts/lb)

Poured off the trub into the primary, I ended up with ~4.4 gal.  To hit my target OG, I calculated that I’d need to add water to top up to ~5 gal.  After topping up, my temp in the primary was 71* (in the butter zone), but my OG ended up being 1.042 (three points low).  Not sure where I went wrong, but it won’t make a whole lot of difference in the end.

Pitched Wyeast 2565 Kolsch

Fat Tire Ale Clone

Posted by mac – 2010-04-11

mac batch #5.  First all grain!

Brew day: 2010-03-28

Recipe straight from Scott Russell’s North American Clone Brews

Targets:

OG: 1.058, FG: 1.012, ABV: 5.9%, 28 IBU

  • 8 lb Belgian 2-row (3.5-4*L)
  • 1 lb Belgian Special B (130-220*L)
  • 8 oz Crystal 120*L
  • 8 oz Munich I (5-7*L)
  • 1 1/2 tsp gypsum

Single infusion mash, heat 3.5 gal mash water to 164*F, mash in. Hit target temp of 152*F.  Dressed my 5 gal rubbermaid cooler in a Carhartt jacket, it held temp within a degree for 70 minutes.  Target mash time was 90 min, but I didn’t have my sparge water ready at that point, so mash ended up going more like 120 minutes.

Recirculated 2-3 quarts, drew off ~1 gal, then recirculated another quart or two, then started the sparge with 166-168*F water, two cups at a time, using a total of ~3 3/4 gallons of sparge water.

At this point, I measured 1.043 @ 132*F, which corrects to roughly 1.055.  I had 6 gal of wort, so thats 330 total points.  To hit my target of 1.058, I should end up with roughly 5.7 gal post-boil.

  • 5 AAU Brewer’s Gold  @ 60 min (0.5 oz x 9.8%)
  • 4 AAU Saaz @ 15 min (1.4 oz x 2.8%)
  • 1/2 tsp Irish Moss @ 15 min

chilled down, ended up with 5.6 gal at 1.056.  Two points low, I’m happy.

Pitched Wyeast 1214 Belgian Abbey Ale at ~72*F.

Batch 26: Patersbier

Posted by tgl – 2010-03-20

2010MAR19

- 9lb Belgian Pilsner

~3g mash water, strike @ 160F

one step infusion mash 60min

~5.5g sparge water @ 210F, collecting ~7.5g

Boil

60min:
1.5oz Hallertau (3%)

10min:
0.5oz Saaz (2.8%)

OG: 1.042

Pitched Wyeast Activator Trappist High Gravity 3787

(source)

2010MAR31

Racked to secondary

SG: 1.011

2010APR09

FG: 1.006 (5.3% ABV)

Primed with 2/3 cup brown sugar

56 12oz bottles

Thin mouthfeel. Nice, full pilsner malt flavor. Crisp finish. Funky yeast flavors: not so much.

[TASTING] Magic Hat Vinyl Lager

Posted by tgl – 2010-03-8

Pours reddish amber, head fades to lace quickly. Malt aroma and flavor, a little hop backbone. Finishes clean, an easy quaff. A robust lager.

I was looking forward to this year’s HiPA, I’ll have to look elsewhere for a spring IPA.

Bold name. Great label.

Black Box Stout

Posted by mac – 2010-02-28

mac batch #4

Based on a “Black 47 Stout” recipe from North American Clone Brews.  Black 47 is brewed by The Old Nutfield Brewing Company of Derry, NH, but as I’ve never had any of their beers, I don’t quite know what to expect out of this brew, hence “Black Box”.

[2010-02-28] Boil Day

  • 3 lb UK 2-row pale malt (1.8 L)
  • 1 lb roasted barley (525 L)
  • 8 oz black patent malt (500 L)
  • 8 oz crystal 120 L
  • 1 1/2 tsp gypsum
  • 6 AAU Northern Brewer (0.8 oz of 8.1% AA) for 60 min
  • 1/2 tsp Irish moss for 15 min
  • 3 lb LD Carlson Briess Sparkling Amber dry malt extract for 15 min
  • 4 AAU Fuggles (0.8 oz of 4.8% AA) for 5 min

steep all above grains (two giant muslin sacks worth) in 155*F water for 45 min (started with 5 3/4 gal), then bring to boil

Ended up with 1.018 @ 78*F, which corrects to 1.021; using hopville’s beer calculus, I worked out that I got about 56% efficiency from my “super steep” method.

The recipe I was following has OG at 1.047, so I needed to work out how much dry malt extract I’d need to add.  Fortuitously, the 3 lb that I calculated I needed was exactly how much I had on hand.

As I was bringing the wort to a boil, I added ~1.5 tsp of gypsum.  I’d never used the stuff before, maybe I should have added it before the steep, since I’ve read that its supposed to alter the pH, which has an effect on the mash.

Add Northern Brewer, boil 45 min

Off heat, add dry malt extract and Irish moss, return to boil for 10 min

Add Fuggles, boil 5 minutes

Chill to ~70 deg with immersion chiller (took 30-45 min)

Pitched Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale using the “immediate” method, rather than the “let swell for at least 3 hrs” method.  It was probably around 10PM when the yeast met the wort.

Gravity was 1.049 @ 68*F, which corrects to 1.050; a little high.  I have about 4.8 gals in the ale pail, so that’s 240 gravity units.  If I want 1.047, I need to add water to get to 5.1 gal, so I put about 6 cups of water on to boil and cool (dig a hole; now fill it in).  When it got to ~70*F,  I popped the lid on the ale pail and poured in the water.  I didn’t bother to take a hydrometer reading (cleaned and put away), but the math doesn’t lie, dude.  OG should be 1.047 for my now 5.1 gal of wort.

Hold the Lemon Hefe – Hefeweizen

Posted by halfmanbot – 2010-02-13

  • A Hefeweizen made for the man who likes some citrus is his beer but doesn’t want a wedge of lemon floating in his pint glass.
  • target OG: 1.047
  • target FG: 1.012
  • target ABV: 4.5%
  • brewed: 02-15-09
  • 5.5 lb wheat
  • 5.5lb german pilsner
  • Tried to protein rest at 122 F but my strike water must have been high because the mash settled at 137 F.  Mashed at 137 F for 30 minutes then decocted up to 154 F, mashed for another 60 minutes and mashed out with 170 F water.
  • Boiled for 90 minutes.
  • 3/4 oz Hallertauh hops 5.0% (17) for 90 min
  • 1/2 oz Perle 9.4% (10) for 15 min
  • 1/2 oz Perle 9.4% for 1 minute
  • Pitched at 80 F with Wyeast 2068 Weizenstephan Weizen.  Temp dropped to 54 F overnight and rose to 64 F the next day. Temp rose to 67 F at end of fermentation. 
  • Transfered to secondary after a week.  Simmered the flesh and juice from 2 mini watermelons and 3 stalks (1 oz each) of lemongrass at 170 F for 15 min.  Added the tea to the secondary.  Added brewers belt to fermentor.
  • Kegged after 2 weeks with 1/2 cup priming sugar.  Strained out the lemongrass and watermelon, added another 2 oz of lemongrass in the keg.  The beer smelled pretty hot at this point, didn’t think it would turn out well.
  • OG: 1.004
  • FG: 1.008
  • ABV: 4.4%
  • Results:  This ended up being a nice, refreshing summer beer.  The lemongrass was a nice touch, but couldn’t detect much of the watermelon.  This beer could actually use more lemongrass.  Next time increase by maybe 50% and drop the watermelon.

mac batch #2: first taste of Sierra Naomi

Posted by mac – 2010-02-13

[2010-02-13]  It has been a week since I bottled this batch, so, typically impatient, I chilled one down on the back deck to have a taste.  Not too energetic on the pour yet, though it did form a bit of  a head when I poured right down the middle.  Also, I overcooled it a bit, so had it been at a slightly warmer temp, it might have been a little fizzier.

This is actually quite a delicious brew.  I was concerned that the dry hopping might make for a smack across the face of hop aroma, but I think this has really good balance.  I really like the Cascade flavor, I think they’ll become a staple of my brewing for American pale ales.  I’m very pleased.  Hopefully it gets even better after another week or two in the bottles, but I’m going to have a hard time staying away from them in the mean time.