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...

Harvest Sweet-Strong Cider

Today is my second attempt at a hard apple cider this year, more accurately, this is the second Tuesday in a row I've tried to make this.  Last Tuesday I used three gallons of awesome apple cider from a local farm called Kimmel Orchards.  I like their cider especially since it's not heat pasteurized, it's UV pasteurized.  This means it retains more of it's "apple-ly" flavors.  Last year I made cyser (cider and honey) with this cider.  Well this year I didn't get so lucky.  I added honey and sugar to get the gravity up to 1.110 and pitched some dry Windsor yeast, and nothing...

So I added two tsp. of yeast nutrient... nothing.  Frustrated I thought maybe my yeast didn't activate or the gravity was too high so I activated some wine yeast and pitched that... nothing.  More yeast nutrient...nothing.  I was about to tear out my hair.  I finally added two gallons of apple juice thinking the gravity was too high... nothing.  So I looked on the juice jugs and it said it contained 1/10th of a percent of Potassium Sorbate.

I went to my LHBS (Local HomeBrew Shop) and talked with Kirk.  He said that since it contained PS or Sodium Benzonate that yeast couldn't multiply and therefore couldn't ferment the cider.  So I broke down and went to Super Saver and bought some Pasteurized cider that didn't contain PS or SB.  This is some unfiltered stuff I found on sale for $3.95 a gallon:

I heated up about a gallon of it on the stove and added 1lb 6oz. of honey.  I also added about 6 lbs. of sugar so I could get the gravity up to 1.110 just like before.  This should make the cider strong and sweet just like a Muscato or a desert wine.

I also wanted it to have some fall flavors like a nice sweet mulled cider.  I added three cinnamon sticks, three tbs. of whole cloves, 2 tbs. of whole all spice, and four pieces of crystallized ginger.

I pitched some champagne yeast and put the lid on.  Cross your fingers, let's hope the airlock starts to bubble...

Wednesday morning update, the air lock is bubbling, and we have fermentation...

I went to switch over the cider for secondary fermentation and I go to pick up the bucket, it's empty...  I freak out and my mind reels to figure out what happened.  I used the bottling bucket to ferment in and it leaked out through the spigot and into the crawl space under my house.  In the mean time, the cider that wasn't supposed to ferment, started bubbling.  So I go from my five gallon batch in the basement to a three gallon batch in the keg.  I just wish I got to taste both batches.

36th State Prohibition Lager

I was inspired to brew this beer from watching the new Ken Burns documentary Prohibition.  Two of the major ingredients in this beer I grew in my home garden.   I used ingredients I grew just like a pro bootlegger.  I named it 36th State Prohibition Lager because Nebraska was the 36th State to vote in favor of the 18th Amendment, Ratifying the Bill.  The corn for the mash I grew in the back yard, and the Mt. Hood aroma hops was my first experiment in growing hops.

Above is my Nugget vines growing on the arbor in my front yard.  I have Mt. Hood on one side and Nugget on the other.  The Nugget is crazy and almost noxious the way it grows.  I was excited to get an ounce of Mt. Hood out of my first year.  Below is my homegrown corn grits.

I tried making this beer very different than what I'm used to.  My target gravity was 1.040.  I filled a large kitchen pot with one gallon of water and filled my brew kettle with 4 gallons of water.  In the smaller one I added my three pounds of dried and milled corn and a hand full of 2-row at 133 degrees, I turned up the burner and held it at 152 degrees for five minutes.  In my brew kettle I added seven pounds of 2-row and one pound of Marris Otter pale malt and held the temp at 140 degrees.  After the five minute rest in the smaller pot I boiled the corn for 30 minutes and it turned into a thick grits, almost like mashed potatoes.  After the 30 minutes I added the grits to the brew kettle and held the temp at 152 degrees for 30 minutes.

 
After the sanctification rest I poured the mash into my mash tun and began sparging with hot water.  After a 35 minutes sparge I began the boil with one ounce of Cluster hops.  At 45 minutes I added Irish Moss, and finally I added .7 ounces of homegrown Mt. Hood hops for a nice aroma.  This beer was also the easiest to boil with no "boil-over".  My Mt. Hood leaf hops below (they smelled amazing).

I cooled the wart and pitched some dry American lager yeast and took the beer to my root cellar to ferment at about 60 degrees.

My original gravity was 1.040, exactly where I was aiming.  I'll start secondary on Tuesday the 25th of October.

The lager turned out interesting.  It has a very European Lager flavor, a very stark bitterness that lasts a long time on the tongue.  The flavor is very smooth and it has a very light taste.  The color is also very very pale.  The experiment was successful on the bottle conditioning.  It has a good carbonation and the bottles make quite a "pop" when you open them.  Although, you need to drink the whole bottle that night because the next day it is almost too flat to drink.  Over all, not too bad for a beer I grew half of.