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Monday, June 18, 2007
Pre-NHC
OK, so the week after brewing the IPA and porter, I brewed my pale ale and a dry stout.
My pale ale recipe changes a little bit every time I brew it, but modern incarnations have been pretty close to the recipe I published as Patrick Henry Pale Ale in the March-April 2006 issue of BYO. For this round of brewing, I decided not to make any tweaks and brew it exactly as it appeared in the magazine. The brew day was very straightforward — it was the third 5-gallon (19-L) batch of moderate-strength ale I'd made in two weeks, so everything went according to plan. (Man, I love it when that happens.)
A couple days after that, I brewed my favorite dry stout recipe. This is, essentially, the Murphy's Stout clone that appears in the 150 Classic Clone Recipes book that we put out last year. Again, I stuck pretty close to what I had published because I planned on bringing a couple beers from this round of brewing with me to the NHC (National Homebrew Conference, this year in Denver). So, I wanted to brew "production" batches of beer, not experiments.
After brewing three batches of beer in a row without any problems, I was feeling pretty confident that everything would turn out fine with the stout. Brewday went according to plan until it came time to rack the chilled wort over to the fermenter. Somehow, I was three quarts over my target volume. Now, this isn't exactly the end of the world, but I was a little curious how I ended up being over volume when my last three batches had been right on. I may try to "kick save" this beer by adding some specially-engineered "kräusen" beer when I rack it to secondary. If I make the "k-beer" a little darker and a little heavier, it should balance out the slightly diluted dry stout I now have. Or maybe I'll just keg it and drink it as is. (How bad could it be?)
So, right now I have the IPA, porter and pale ale kegged and carbonated in my fridge. (The dry stout is still in the fermenter and the Vienna lagers are still lagering. )
The porter turned out great. It has a nice roast-y, chocolate-y nose to it and is nicely balanced overall — a very drinkable beer. I really think I got the water chemistry right on this one as it is not overly acidic — as some dark beers can be — nor overly flabby, which can happen if too much chalk is added to the brewing liquor. Although I briefly thought of keeping this beer all to myself, I decided it that I'll be bringing it to the NHC for club night (look for it at the Austin ZEALOTS booth, if you are going to be attending).
My pale ale also turned out great, a very quaffable brew. It has a nice hop flavor and aroma, but there's just enough malt to balance it out. And, it has just the right amount of "zing" to it, for my tastes at least. I'll also be bringing this to club night at NHC (although I also thought of squirreling this one away for my private consumption).
I was a little less happy about how my IPA turned out. There's nothing really wrong with it — it's hoppy with solid malt backbone — it just seems a little "flabby" to me. I am going to bring this with me to the NHC and decide on club night whether to serve it. Maybe it will "condition up" nicely within the next few days.
I haven't dry hopped either the pale ale or the IPA and I may not have time before I hit the road for Denver. Neither one really "needs" it, but if I have time tomorrow, I might throw some hops in both kegs.Labels: dry stout, IPA, pale ale, porter
Posted by Chris Colby @ 12:03 AM Link This
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Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Memories of Beer
I had a beer-intensive extended Memorial Day weekend. (Is there any other kind?) On Thursday, I made two yeast starters (for an IPA and a porter) and a gallon of kräusen beer. Friday morning, I added the fermenting kräusen beer to my Vienna lager. That beer should be just about ready to keg and I hope to get that done later this week.
On Saturday, I went to Austin Homebrew Supply and picked up ingredients for two batches of beer (pale ale and stout). While there, my wife and I heard that some of the Austin ZEALOTS were checking out the new brewpub in Austin (Uncle Billy's BBQ) that evening. So, we headed there after we ran all our errands.
Brian Peters, who formerly brewed for the Bitter End (the Austin brewpub that burned down last year), is Billy's brewer and he had five beers on tap — a blonde ale, a pale ale, an amber ale, an IPA and a hefe-weizen. My favorites were the blonde (nice grainy taste and good balance), the pale ale (good hop bitterness, flavor and aroma — from Simcoe hops, I think — nicely balanced with some crystal malt) and the hefe-weizen (yummy German wheat beer flavor, aroma and "zip"). Brian was there and gave a tour of the brewhouse and dispensing room. He said he was smoking some malt soon to make a smoked beer to go with the barbecue. I'll definitely want to check that out.
I had planned to brew my IPA on Sunday and my porter on Monday, but I pushed that back by one day. So, on Monday I brewed the IPA (which appeared as Roswell IPA in the May-June 2007 issue of BYO). I bitter this beer with big dose of Magnum hops, then add Centennial and Cascade hops near the end of the boil. (I'll dry hop it with Cascade and Amarillo in the keg.) I got big, fluffy hot-break during the boil and that made me happy. (Yeah, I'm a simpleton.) I pitched the yeast around midnight and the beer was fermenting the next morning when I got up. You can smell the hops coming out of the fermentation lock.
On Tuesday, I brewed my porter (a partial-mash version of which appeared in the October 2006 issue of BYO). For me, one nice thing about brewing a dark beer is that I don't have to dilute my water — which is very carbonate-rich — with distilled water. Since I have been brewing frequently, my brewday went very smoothly. The only hitch was that a thunderstorm blew through midway through wort collection. I brew out on my carport and for 20 minutes or so, the wind was blowing fairly hard and — even though I was in the middle of the carport, under the roof — I was getting misted by rain. But soon enough, the sun came out and the rest of the day went by smoothly — so smoothly that I kept wondering if I had forgotten something. This one is fermenting nicely, side-by-side with the IPA.
So, now I have a bunch of different batches of beer in progress, but only one on tap — the "speed brew." It's maturing very nicely, and — of course — the keg is almost gone. I brought this beer to the ZEALOTS meeting six days after I brewed it and it tasted pretty good. It did show some diacetyl then, but this matured out in the next few days. Overall, it was a very thirst-quenching summer bitter with a nice malt presence (from a 2-row pale ale malt made from Maris Otter barley) and just enough hops for balance.
Later this week, I need to add my reserved kräusen beer to my high-gravity lager, keg my Vienna lagers, make two yeast starters and brew my pale ale and stout. (Oh yeah, I also have an "oddball" beer I'm going to brew. More on that later.) My club (the Austin ZEALOTS) has a booth at the upcoming club night at the NHC and hopefully one or two of the beers I have been blathering about will be on tap there.Labels: IPA, porter
Posted by Chris Colby @ 1:19 PM Link This
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