Bad Tastes...

I've been running into a few issues with an off flavor in my beer.  It has a terrible medicine taste and is really astringent.  Almost like a box of band aids.  This has been the downfall of many of my past few brews.  Last year I made an Oktoberfest that had this flavor.  My last two Pilsners have had this flavor and I brewed a copper ale that I am going to have to throw out as well.  Needless to say, throwing away beer makes me a sad homebrewer.

I believe this flavor is coming from the chlorine in my water.  With every beer I make I have used some amount of tap water.  I typically boil the water and add metabisulfite to break up the chloramine as well.  I thought this was getting rid of any chlorine, but I think I'm wrong.

I have been focusing on the water chemistry of my mash water and using Reverse Osmosis water with CaSO4 (gypsum)  and CaCL2 (Calcium Chloride).   I've been trying to his a 5.50 PH on my mash.  I will then use tap water or a combination of RO and tap to sparge my grains.  This is probably where the chlorine is introduced.

There maybe a few more factors going into is such as fermentation temperature or even the crush of my grains, but I'm sure it has to be the chlorine in the water.

Today I am going to make an Oktoberfest, I know it's really late in the year, and use only RO with treatment.  This should give me a chance to see if it is chlorine or if it is a different issues in my brewing process.  I want to eventually filter all my brew water, but this is be best way to insure I have no chlorine in my water.  Wish me luck.

Citra IPA

Who doesn't love a great India Pale Ale.  It's hoppy, sweet, malty, light in color, you can drink them all day long.  And those amazing little hop cones giving it flavors of citrus, spice, pepper, grass, bubble gum, and grapefruit.  One of the issues of the IPA is the bitterness that can become overwhelming.  Since so many hops are utilized, the beer can become bitter and that can ruin all of the other great flavors.  In my other IPA I remedy this by using Nugget hops which have a great smooth mellow bitterness.  This time around I decided to use no bittering hop, but instead add a bunch of hops at the end of the boil to give it a nice flavor, aroma, and slight bitterness.

I used a fairly traditional grain bill:

11 lbs. 2-row Barley
1 lb. Munich Malt
8oz Crystal 20L
1 lb. Carafoam
(now the fun part)
1oz. Citra 20 minutes
1oz. Citra 15 minutes
1.5oz. Citra 10 mintues
.75oz Citra 5 mintues
.75oz Citra 1 minute
3oz Citra Dry Hop

I had a great brew day and I used my propane burner for the first time a while.  And my gravity is at 1.071 so it should be a nice warming beer.  It's had a fantastic smell coming through the bubbler on the fermenter for the past two weeks as well.  I took the thief and got a sample last night and it has the amazing orange flavor with some other citrus and a good alcohol balance.  It's going to be amazing cold, I just need to get another keg empty...

Weed Puller Rye Saison

It's funny how someone can get so far into home brewing and not pay much attention to the most important ingredient.  When you think about Coors, you think about cold Rocky mountian water.  When you think about Hamms, you think about the "land of sky blue" waters.  And yet, I've overlooked the water profile of the water I've been using out of my own tap.  Beer is really just water with a few other amazing things in it.  Brewers use water to convert starches to sugars, rinse the sugars from the grain, isomerize hop acids, coagulate unwanted proteins, the list goes on.  Therefore, it is, arguably, the most important ingredient in beer.


Lincoln, Nebraska has hard water coming out of the tap.  Hard water is good for beer, there are lots of great salts and metals that aid in making good sugars and complex beers.  But when it comes to making something light and easy to drink, sometimes these salts and create off tastes.  Plus bigger cities add chlorine and chloramine in the water and that can give beer a medicinal flavor.  Here is Lincoln's Profile:


Magnesium is about 16ppm
HCO3- is 246.44ppm (alkalinity)
CACo3 is 181ppm


When I'm brewing I add a little Sodium Metabisufite (or a Camden tablet) to eliminate the Chloramine from the water.  Chlorine will eventually evaporate out of the water if you let it sit.  I've never had an issue from there until I try to brew something very light.  I get an off taste, almost medicinal and very off putting.  It ruins the light maltiness and hop of a pilsner or pale ale.  This profile is great for a stout or a porter, but not something light.  I decided to start really paying attention to what style I was brewing and my water profile.  So with this brew, a saison, I decided to go with a 50% Lincoln water, 50% Reverse Osmosis from HyVee.

I am using Rye malt in this beer to add some dryness, a little spiciness, and some peppery notes.  I used pilsner malt to lend some European taste to the body as well.  I am using a Styrian Goldings hop to give it some northern European/Austrian flavor.  I used 1.5 oz for 60 minutes to bitter up the beer and 1 oz to give it some flavor at 10 minutes.  I'm really excited to see how this ones turns out.  My Original Gravity is 1.059 and the ABV should be around 6.5%, a perfect summer beer after mowing the lawn or pulling weeds in the garden.

Hopfenweisen or India Wheat Ale (IWA)

This beer is more of an experiment.  I was curious what my ultimate two "spring" beer styles would be like together, wheat and ipa.  Wheat beers are traditionally very mild.  They are very smooth and have a good mouth feel.  They stand alone, don't need any caramel malt or strong hops, they are very relaxing and just remind me of a cool spring day.

On the other hand, ipa's have a strong hop character that reminds me of all the little green things starting to wake up again and stretch their little heads from the cold wet soil.  The pronounced citrus and candy resin flavors give it a "waking up" taste.  That's why I felt these two styles could be suited to be paired.  A mild wheat back ground and a bright hop flavor.

I decided to stick with one kind of hop and use Amarillo.  It is a good all-around hop.  It has nice floral, citrus, spice, and orange like aroma and flavor and it's a good bittering hop because of it's low cohumulone content.  I also like a mainly wheat grist in my wheat beers so I stuck with a 50/50 wheat to barley mix.

6 lbs. Wheat Malt

5 lbs. 2 Row

1 lb. Caramalt

.25 oz Amarillo Mash Hop

.25 oz Amarillo 60 mins

.5 oz Amarillo 15 mins

1.25 Amarillo 5 mins

1 oz Amarillo 1 mins

2 oz Amarillo Dry Hop 7 Days

Safebrew 33 Dry Yeast

I've never really understood the purpose of a mash hop so I looked it up.  First Word Hopping is said to impart he same bitterness as a 20-minute addition and retain the essential oils that impart flavor and aroma.  This works because alpha acids and compounds that would normally boil off during the 60 minute boil are isomerized and stay with the wort for the most part throughout the boil.  The mash did have a great hop aroma from the very beginning.

Tin Pail Ale

I began transporting my beer in empty 12 oz bottles when I first started homebrewing.  This was very time consuming to do and I was always washing so many bottles.  I then tried using empty wine bottles, this was a little easier, but I was afraid the pressure from the carbonation would push out the cork.  I then discovered half gallon growlers and I'm never going to look back!

I have been transporting my beer recently and I decided to do a little research on the history of the growler.  Turns out at the turn of century, local breweries would sell their brew for a nickel or a dime to fill up a 2 quart tin pail.  Since refrigeration wasn't in every home, this made it much easier to drink cold beer.

In honor of this tradition, I decided to brew my next beer in honor of this pre-prohibition tradition.  I formulated a recipe using a good deal of flavor, aroma, and dry hops.  Also adding just a bit of chocolate malt to give it some rusty color.

9 lbs. 2-Row

1 lb Crystal 80L

2 oz Chocolate Malt

.5 oz Cascade 60 mins

.5 oz Centennial 15 mins

.5 Cascade 10 mins

1 oz Centennial 5 mins

1 oz Citra 5 mins

1 oz Citra 7 days dry hop

I mashed in at around 150 degrees and let it sit for an hour.  Boiled as usual and I used a dry yeast Safebrew 33.  I has a sharp bitterness at first taste and I wonder if this is because not all of the chlorine evaporated out of my mash water.  I am letting it sit a little longer to see if it mellows out.  It does have a nice grapefruit character and a good amount of maltyness.  

Chest Freezer Kegorator Build

I got my first Kegorator from Craigslist for free.  It was a former kegorator with a hole in the side already.  It worked great when I got it home and I started with just one tap.  I painted the fridge with black spray paint and added my, at the time, brewing name (West Diamond).  I eventually added two more taps and it's held everything from Coors Light to Empyrian Ale's Third Stone to every batch of my homebrew so far.

With everything, I needed to expand.  Rebekah and I got a chest freezer from my uncle a when we first moved into our house.  His neighbors were moving and they didn't need it any more.  My uncle also didn't need it so that's how we ended up with it.  

The freezer measures 36 inches by 21 inches.  I decided to build a collar on top of the freeze so if we ever decided to turn it back into a deep freeze it wouldn't have holes in it.  I also purchases a Johnson Controls Analog Thermostat to keep the freezer at a refreshing 40 degrees.  I also noticed everyone stains the wood on their kegorator collars so I decided to go with a different look.  I found some stainless steel contact paper at Menard's so that's how I'm going to finish my look.  I detached the lid of the freezer and began construction of the collar.

I just used select pine board 1x8 for my collar.  I used wood screws and then routed the edges to match the round edges of the freezer.

Here's the Freezer with the contact paper on the wood.  It doesn't look too bad.  It is a little fake, but it was a quick way to finish the project in less than a day.  I also got some R6 insulation to line the inside of the wood on the freezer.  I just going to use the basic set up I had on the inside of the other kegorator for now. 

You can see the foam insulation on the inside of the freezer on the bottom left you can see the end of the thermostat.  After a long day of work, I thought I deserved a nice pint of Pale Ale.

Prost!

   

Snowed In Smoked Porter

 All week it seemed like I couldn't have a conversation with someone without the possibility of a big snowfall this weekend coming up.  Coworkers, customers, passersby, even people on the phone.  So Friday we prepared the car lot (I work at Anderson Auto Group) by grouping all the cars together so we could scoop around them easier.  It was wet and cold and everyone was soaked by almost freezing rain.  I made it back home before it really started coming down.

I still had to go into work Saturday morning, but we decided it wasn't going to be a great day to buy cars so we shut it down at about 10:45.  We received about 14" of snow and it's never been colder than 29 degrees.  So since I had the day off, I decided it'd be a good day to make a smoked porter.

I started with a clone of the Cut Throat Porter Recipe from Odell's Brewing Co. and changed it to my tastes.  I like a little smokey flavor in my porters, I made a smoked porter two years ago and I'm not big on dark beers, but this was my favorite by far.

9 lbs. 2-Row Barley
2 lbs. Smoked 2-Row Barley
8 oz. Caramalt
8 oz. Chocolate Malt
4 oz. Crystal 40L
2 oz. Roasted Barley

2.5 oz. Willamette for 60 mins.
.75 oz. Kent Goldings 2 mins.
.25 oz. Northern Brewer 2 mins.
Edinburgh Scottish Ale Yeast

Here's a picture of all that wonderful Willamette hops in the bag just before I put it in the boiling wort

The mash had a great smokey smell and had a great bitter smell to it as well.  I pitched the yeast and the airlock is nice an bubbly today so I should have a nice smokey beer to keep me warm the last few nights of winter.  Also, since the Groundhog saw his shadow, it'll be nice for the extra 6 weeks of winter.

 Here's my dog, Izzy, having fun in the snow

This beer has been very popular.  I shared it with some of my coworkers and friends and they have all really enjoyed this one.  It's not a thick porter, it almost has more of a brown flavor.  The smoke flavor is also very subtle.  The next time I brew this, I will add more roasted barley and and one more pound of smoked malt.  It will be just a bit more robust and smokey.  I'm looking forward to it.

   

Smokin' Oinker Bacon Ale

This next brew was inspired by my friend Drew Urbanovsky.  One day at work we were coming up with the ultimate business idea.  He thought any bar that would incorporate beer, bacon, and boobs would never go broke.  Well this next brew takes care of two of those.

When I think of bacon, I think of roastyness, smoke, and salt.  So in developing the recipe I added 2 oz. of chocolate malt to give it some brown color and some roastyness.  I also added 8.2 oz. of Caramel 60L malt to give it some sweetness and a little more color.  Also a nice malt base will give the beer some depth.  I also wanted to try some high alpha acid hops for the bittering hop.

9 lbs. 2-row Barley

8.2 oz. Caramel 60L

2 oz. Chocolate Malt

1/2 oz. Yakama Magnum 60 mins.

1/2 oz. Willamette 2 mins.

5 oz. Cooked Bacon

1968 London Ale Yeast

I brewed and poured the cooled wart over the flocculated yeast of the Chief Pale Ale.  It was fermenting almost immediately.  I will add 5 oz. of cooked bacon when I transfer it over for secondary fermentation.  After that I will taste it daily until the beer has the right amount of bacon flavor.

Here's an updated picture of the Kegorator with my current brew numbers

Last night I cooked the bacon for the "Dry Hogging."  I heated up the oven to 425 degrees and placed the bacon on a cookie sheet.  

I then dried the bacon and let the grease from the bacon drip off.  I then dried the bacon with paper towels and placed it in a muslin bag and I will daily test the flavor of the beer until it has he right amount bacon flavor.

Chief Pale Ale

In my last post I explained Warrior the 1981 Rabbit Diesel truck.  Well this post is about her sister, the Chief, my brother's 1981 Rabbit Truck.  He bought her in Colorado and was driven back to Nebraska, well, about three quarters of the way and at about Ogallala, NE the water pump went out and she was flat-bedded the rest of the way to Kearney.

This is not a picture of Chief, but it is the same color, apart of her orange hood...

Since Chief is a nice pale yellow, I decided her most fitting dedicated brew would be a pale ale.  I wanted to do something with some hop flavor but still a nice malty-ness.  I decided to start with a 2-row barley base and add some caramel malt with some carapils as well.  I also wanted to stick with a traditional English hop, so I went with Willamette for the bittering, aroma and dry hop.

10.5 lbs. 2-Row

8 oz. Carapils

8 oz.Crystal 40L

1 oz. Willamette 60 mins.

1 oz. Willamette 20 mins.

1/2 oz. Willamette Dry Hop

I carbonated the beer today and it has a very nice flavor.  The hops are subtle and not over powering but it still has a little sweet and malty finish. I think next time I'll try a little more dry hop.  But over all, a good Pale Ale.

Warrior Double India Pale Ale

I have a new girlfriend.  Her name is Warrior, yes, my wife knows.  She has a few issues and obviously needs quite a bit of attention, but I'm excited at my new relationship.  And my new beer is inspired by her.

She's a 1981 Volkswagen Rabbit or "Caddy" Truck.  She has a 1.6L Diesel engine, no turbo, so 56 horsepower.  Still the last owner thought it was a big truck so she's got dual chrome stacks, a 3" lift, and emblems that say "Size Matters" and "Turbo" (even though she's naturally aspirated).  She's equipped with a 5-speed manual transmission so that mean about 50 miles to the gallon.  She's dressed in forest green with orange pin striping.

Now I can't get credit for finding this treasure.  My brother Eric helped me find this beauty.  His first truck, also a '81 Rabbit came from Colorado.  His yellow truck with an orange hood named "Chief" was the first in his fleet.  The second truck, Warrior, found him.  Along with a third, an '80 Rabbit, and a parts truck.  Deciding he had too many projects, he turned one over to me.

I named this truck "Warrior" for a few reasons.  One, it plays off the name of my brother's truck, "Chief".  It is also the name of one of my favorite types of hops with a high alpha acid content.  It is also green so, as a home brewer, it reminded me of hops.  It was also a leadership position I help in a group, the Scarlet and Cream, in college.

I was inspired by these diesel trucks to make some dedicated brews, an IPA and a Pale Ale for Chief.  Today was my day off so I decided to start with the IPA.  This is a strong IPA, it'll be around 8% by volume with plenty of Warrior hop flavor.  It has a nice amber color and it had a  roasty smell while it was in the mash.

Recipe:
16 lbs. 2-row Barley
2 lbs. Amber Malt
2 oz. Warrior Hops
2 oz. Summit Hops
1 oz. Warrior Hops Dry Hop
.5 oz. Summit Hops Dry Hop
1968 London Ale Yeast

I started my mash at 152 degrees and a stiff mash as well.  I let it sit for an hour and then began sparging.  I did a 90 minute boil and I started adding my hops at 10 minutes after the first bubbles appeared.  I mixed together the Summit and Warrior hops in a bowl, I added .5 oz. of the mixture every 10 minutes.  This should give the beer a nice variety of hop bitterness, flavor, and aroma.  The dry hopping will also give it some grassy, resin flavor.  I can't wait to try this beer.

I did something stupid though, I haven't brewed in a while, and I know that isn't an excuse, but I forgot to sanitize my fermenter.  I had just rinsed it out, but there could have been some bad critters in it anyway.  I had already pitched my $6 yeast so I decided to just chance it.  So we'll just see what happens.  Again, cross your fingers...

So it tastes great!  The beer turned out fantastic and is a great dedication to the truck.  It has a great malty-ness and a great hoppy bitterness.  It also has a nice grapefruit citrus flavor.  That color came out great too.  I think this is my favorite double IPA recipe so far.

Birthday Märzenbier

I'm posting this a little late but my birthday was November 22nd.  For my Birthday I received some grain and hops and I decided to do a little brew/birth-day.  My favorite beer to drink would be an IPA but my second favorite is definitely Marzen lager or Oktoberfest.

Here's the recipe:

8 lbs. Pilsner Malt
4.5 lbs. Vienna Malt
8 oz. Carapils
8 oz. Caramel 40L
2 oz. Mt. Hood 60 mins
1 oz. Hallertau 2 mins

I didn't do anything too epic in the process.  I had a nice steady mash temperature of 151 degrees.  I thought about batch sparging, but since Marzens are very malty beers I decided to just sparge on the fly.  I did a 60 minute boil adding two ounces of Mt. Hood for my bittering hop.

I pitched the Wyeast Bavarian Lager Yeast and let it sit for two weeks at 50 degrees.  I lager it in a keg for 4 weeks at 40 degrees.

The beer turned out nice, it has nice head retention and a sweet malty aroma.  It reminds me of Ayinger or the more traditional Oktoberfests.  Its a little sweet but that could be because of my colder lagering temps.  It still has a great Amber color and it cleared out very nicely.  I am excited too because today I have a 50 lb. bag of 2-row Barley showing up in the mail with enough yeast and hops for 4 recipes.  So more on this to follow...