First brew of fall

Ahhh... fall at last! This has been a particularly brutal summer here in Houston. A month of temperatures in the 100's, and little to no rain to speak of for most of the year. A "cool" front moved through on Friday night - I never thought mid-to-upper 80's would feel so good! Especially nice was that it went into the 50's last night. So we opened all the windows in the house. Nothing like waking up on a crisp fall day. Almost enough to make me forget I still live in Houston...

So, I thought I'd take advantage of the weather and have a brew day. My wife and I were thinking that a nice idea for Christmas presents this year might be a mix-pack of homebrews I've been working on. So far, we've got the Wicked Widow Pumpkin Porter, a Chocolate Coffee Breakfast Stout, an Oatmeal Stout, and possibly the Lagunitas IPA (if there's any left!). So, I was thinking it might be nice to round out with a pale ale, and/or another IPA. I'd really like another crack at my favorite IPA recipie, the DFH 60min IPA clone. As luck would have it, Simcoe is back in stock at my LHBS! Unfortunately, they didn't have any Nottingham yeast, so Ray sold me some Safale US-05 (American Ale) dry yeast, which he said was probably the closest thing. I've been trying to do starters now for all my beers, but the conventional wisdom on these dry yeasts are that you don't need to make a starter for them, unless it's a pretty high starting gravity (like 1.060 or 1.070). The DFH 60min IPA has a starting gravity of 1.072, which means I probably should do some sort of starter. So, I had an idea - why not make a smaller beer (something with an OG in the 1.040 - 1.050 range) and then pitch the IPA on top of that yeast cake when the small beer is done? That will save me the cost of a second pack of yeast, plus I've always wanted to try re-using yeast. Now I just have to decide whether I want to simply pitch the 2nd beer right onto the yeast cake, or "wash" the yeast, which is a process of separating the yeast from the trub and "canning" it for later use. I've got a couple weeks to think about it...

So, that brings us to today. I've settled on an IPA recipe I found on Homebrewtalk that uses US-05 yeast. The whole hop bill is Cascade, so that should be fun - I'll get a really good idea of what the Cascade flavor profile is like. Right now, I'm sitting in my open garage. It's about 80 degrees (wouldn't even need to have my fan blowing on me if it weren't for the mosquitoes...). I've got a glass of Rogue Dead Guy in my hand, and my grains are mashing with about 12 minutes left on the timer. Life is good...

Yooper's Pale Ale
All Grain
Batch size: 5 gal
Estimated O.G.: 1.058
Estimated color: 12 SRM
Estimated IBU: 43.6
Efficiency: 65%


Ingredients:
5 lbs 13.9oz Pale Malt, Marris Otter (3.0 SRM)
3 lbs 8.5oz Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM)
1 lb 14.1oz Munich Malt (20 SRM)
7.5oz Caramel/Crystal Malt (60 SRM)
7.5oz Caramel/Crystal Malt (20 SRM)
0.85 oz Cascade Hops (60 min)
0.64 oz Cascade Hops (30 min)
0.85 oz Cascade Hops (10 min)
0.43 oz Cascade Hops (5 min)
0.5 oz Cascade Hops (0 min)
1.0 oz Cascade Hops (dry hop 7 days)
0.5 tsp Irish Moss (15 min)
Safale US-05 American Ale Yeast

Breakfast Stout clone

Recipe: Breakfast Stout clone
TYPE: All Grain

Recipe Specifications
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal
Boil Size: 7.22 gal
Bottling Volume: 4.60 gal
Estimated OG: 1.079 SG
Estimated Color: 59.0 SRM
Estimated IBU: 60.0 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 65.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
Amt Name Type %/IBU
13 lbs 3.2 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 76.2 %
1 lbs 6.1 oz Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 8.0 %
1 lbs Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 5.8 %
12.0 oz Roasted Barley (450.0 SRM) Grain 4.3 %
9.0 oz Black (Patent) Malt (530.0 SRM) Grain 3.2 %
7.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM) Grain 2.5 %
1.26 oz Nugget [13.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 53.3 IBUs
0.57 oz Willamette [4.80 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 6.7 IBUs
0.50 oz Willamette [4.80 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 0.0 IBUs
0.50 tsp Yeast Nutrient (Boil 15.0 mins) Other -
0.50 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 15.0 mins) Fining -
1.0 pkg American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056) [124.21 Yeast -
4.00 oz ground Sumatran coffee (Secondary 0.0 mi Flavor -
2.50 oz dark, bittersweet baker's chocolate (Boi Flavor -
1.50 oz unsweetened chocolate baking nibs (Boil Flavor -

Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Full Body, No Mash Out
Total Grain Weight: 17 lbs 5.3 oz
---------------------------
Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Mash In Add 23.66 qt of water at 166.1 F 155.0 F 45 min

Wicked Widow Pumpkin Porter

Before moving to Houston 3 years ago, my wife and I lived in Tempe, Arizona, while we were in grad school at ASU. For a few years, we had the privilege of living within walking distance of 4Peaks Brewery, and I must say, we spent quite a bit of time there. I've never been much for "flavored" beers, but 4 Peaks made a seasonal pumpkin beer that was A-mazing. I heard through the inter-webs that the recipie on the Brewer's Connection site was pretty close, so I decided to start with that. I wanted to do it all-grain, so first I converted the extract to 2-row pale malt. Then, since I'm doing it all-grain, I decided to mash the pumpkin instead of adding it to the boil. Actually, I first baked the pumpkin in a 9x9 baking dish at 350 deg for 1 hour to caramelize it a little, then mixed it in with the grain bill. Finally, I added some rice hulls to the mash to avoid a stuck sparge with all that sticky pumpkin. The final recipe I came up with is below. The name "Wicked Widow" was a friend's suggestion; When I racked the beer from the fermenter into the bottling bucket, I found a small dead spider at the bottom of the fermenter (I brew outside, so I guess I shouldn't be too surprised...)!

Recipe: Wicked Widow Pumpkin Porter
TYPE: All Grain


Recipe Specifications
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.050 SG
Estimated Color: 30.0 SRM
Estimated IBU: 22.6 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 61.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes


Ingredients:
Amt Name Type %/IBU
8.8 oz Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 4.4 %
10.4 oz Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 5.2 %
8.8 oz Special Roast (50.0 SRM) Grain 4.4 %
6.7 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 90L (90.0 SRM) Grain 3.4 %
4.5 oz Carafa II (412.0 SRM) Grain 2.2 %
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 60.0 Hop 19.2 IBUs
1.00 oz Fuggles [4.50 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 3.4 IBUs
0.17 oz Burton Water Salts (Mash 60.0 mins) Water Agent -
0.25 tsp Ground Clove (Boil 5.0 mins) Spice -
0.25 tsp Ground Ginger (Boil 5.0 mins) Spice -
0.75 tsp Cinnamon (Boil 5.0 mins) Spice -
1.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining -
22.00 oz Libby's Pumpkin (Boil 5.0 mins) Flavor -
1.0 pkg London Ale (Wyeast Labs #1028) [125.00 m Yeast -
8 lbs 1.3 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 64.5 %
1 lbs Pale Malt (6 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 8.0 %
1 lbs Rice Hulls (0.0 SRM) Adjunct 8.0 %


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 12 lbs 8.5 oz
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Mash In Add 17.71 qt of water at 164.6 F 154.0 F 60 min

Lagunitas IPA clone

Recipe: Lagunitas IPA clone
TYPE: All Grain

Recipe Specifications
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal
Boil Size: 7.22 gal
Estimated OG: 1.057 SG
Estimated Color: 6.6 SRM
Estimated IBU: 46.2 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 65.00 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
Amt Name Type %/IBU
11 lbs 5.3 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 92.6 %
6.4 oz Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 3.3 %
4.8 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 2.5 %
3.2 oz Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 1.6 %
0.91 oz Horizon [9.10 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 30.1 IBUs
0.75 oz Cascade [6.00 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 12.6 IBUs
2.63 oz Cascade [6.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 0.0 IBUs
1.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining -
1.0 pkg American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056) [124.21 Yeast -
0.26 oz Tettnang [4.80 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 3.5 IBUs

Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 12 lbs 3.7 oz
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temperature Step Time
Mash In Add 17.29 qt of water at 168.6 F 154.0 F 60 min
Also made an awesome pizza from scratch tonight. Mmmm...

Oatmeal Stout

OK, just finished up building my first Mash Liquor Tun (MLT), so this will be my first all-grain batch. When making beer from grain, you need to mix water into the grain, and bring it up to a specific temperature which activates enzymes that convert the starches in the grains into the sugar that the yeast will eat. This is commonly done in one of two ways: (1) direct fire, in which the grain and water are put in a pot over a heat source (gas burner or something similar) to maintain the temperature, and (2) some sort of cooler into which the grain and hot water are added, and the lid closed to maintain the temperature. I went with the second option since it is generally cheaper. My first all grain is going to be an oatmeal stout.



Recipe: Yooper's Oatmeal Stout
TYPE: All Grain

Recipe Specifications
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal
Boil Size: 6.69 gal
Bottling Volume: 4.60 gal
Estimated OG: 1.057 SG
Estimated Color: 35.9 SRM
Estimated IBU: 39.0 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
Amt Name Type %/IBU
7 lbs Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 63.6 %
1 lbs Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 9.1 %
12.0 oz Victory Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 6.8 %
10.1 oz Chocolate Malt (200.0 SRM) Grain 5.7 %
8.0 oz Barley, Flaked (1.7 SRM) Grain 4.5 %
8.0 oz Black Barley (Stout) (500.0 SRM) Grain 4.5 %
8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 4.5 %
2.1 oz Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM) Grain 1.2 %
2.00 oz Willamette [5.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 39.0 IBUs
1.0 pkg British Ale II (Wyeast Labs #1335) [124. Yeast -

Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Full Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 11 lbs 0.2 oz
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Mash In Add 22.45 qt of water at 167.4 F 156.0 F 45 min

New Immersion Chiller

So, given the oppressive heat here, and the difficulty I've been having chilling my wort post-boil, I thought it might be time to build a new immersion chiller. Went to Home Depot and bought 50' of copper pipe. Carefully wrapped it around a plastic bucket. Then attached some vinyl tubing with some hose clamps and some hose adapters on the ends. I think it turned out pretty good!

Mash Tun Build

I built the MLT from a 10 gal Home Depot beverage cooler, a cooler bulkhead kit with a stainless steel ballvalve, and a stainless steel braided hose to filter the wort, from bargainfittings.com. I drilled some holes in the lid and filled it with great-stuff expanding foam to make it more insulative.