Homebrew « The Noble Experiment

February 18, 2011

A Few Pics From Yesterday’s Brewday

I’ve worked up a new pale ale recipe that uses a good chunk of rye in addition to pale ale malt and a light crystal malt. The goal of the malt bill was to get a pale ale that is light in color with a bit of spiciness. For my hop choices, I wanted to go citrusy, not piney. I like citrus in my pale ales, pine in my IPAs. That’s certainly not a hard and fast rule, just where my head is as of now.

I went with a Wyeast American Ale smack pack. A pretty safe bet for a drinkable pale ale. My original gravity came in at 1.070 (target was 1.073) which will probably put this beer somewhere in the 7% abv range. You can see I used Sorachi Ace and Citra hops. Sorachi Ace is a Japanese hop originally developed by the Sapporo brewery. It has strong lemon and citrus flavors and is typically used in saisons. But I thought it would be an interesting addition. The citra is best known for its use in Sierra Nevada Torpedo IPA. It’s a really fragrant and aromatic hop and it seemed like a good finisher.

Here is my homemade mash tun which has been working well. I mashed in at 154 and after 60 minutes the temp was at 150. So it has pretty good heat retention and that new plumbing valve I stuck on it doesn’t leak.

Stay tuned for more information on this beer. Fermentation has started and I’ll have my first real taste in a few weeks.

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January 10, 2011

American Pale Ale – A Homebrew Recipe

This was the first recipe I ever wrote on my own for an all-grain home brewing batch. It went over quite well, so I thought I’d share it with you.

I was aiming for something along the lines of a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale in terms of hop bitterness (IBU), but a little bit darker than SNPA. I like aggressive pale ales like Sierra or Troegs, but I prefer a bit more balance from slightly deeper malts. I wanted it both ways – a bit of color in the malt chart and a nice aggressive hoppiness.

This is the first time I’ve posted a homebrew recipe in full, so if you have questions or need clarifications, comment away and I’ll get back to you. And even though it’s like starting dinner with dessert, here’s a pic of the final product.

Malt Bill:

8.5 lb Briess Pale Ale Malt / 0.5lb Two Row Pale Malt / 1lb Caramunich (60 degrees L) Malt for a total of 10lbs.

Mash:

I used a water to grain ratio of 1.25qt/lb, which turned out to be a little bit low. I’d recommend a 1.5qt/lb ratio so you can end up with a full five gallon batch. My batch ended up being about 4 gallons. Nevertheless, with 10lb of grain and a 1.25 ratio I mashed in with 15 qts of water, which is approximately 3.75 gallons, at 153 degrees for 60 minutes.

To sparge, I used an additional 2.25 gallons of water at a strike temperature of 175 degrees. This brought my total volume to about six gallons pre-boil.

Hop Schedule:

I did a 60 minute boil with the following hop addition:

0.5 oz Centennial @ 60 minutes / 1.25 oz Cascade @ 30 minutes / 1 oz Kent Golding @ 10 minutes / 1 oz Kent Golding @ Flameout / 0.5 oz Cascade for dry hopping

According to my calculations, that hop schedule should put this beer at about 35 IBUs. Enough to balance the malt bill, not too much to overwhelm the palate.

Cooling, Racking and Fermentation:

At the end of the boil, I cooled the batch as quickly as possible in an ice bath. It took about 30 minutes to get the temperature down to the low 70′s, after which I transferred the beer to the plastic fermentation bucket. I took a small sample to get my original gravity measurement, which landed at 1.072. A bit higher than expected, but that was fine.

I pitched a smack pack of White Labs American Ale Yeast and let it get to work. Fermentation started within 18 hours and it settled in at a comfortable 75 degrees on the first day. After three days, I added my dry hops and I gave it an additional 10 days in primary fermentation.

Bottling:

After 13 days in primary it was ready to bottle. I added 3.75oz of cane sugar to 1.5 cups of water until it dissolved, then racked the beer to the bottling vessel along with the sugar solution. After bottling, it took about five days to carbonate and after 10 days total, it was ready to drink!

The final product was similar to what I was looking for, although a bit less hoppy than anticipated. It’s almost an amber color (think Stone Pale Ale) and has a nice malty backbone that is really well balanced by the hops. My final gravity was 1.025 (higher than I wanted, but in the appropriate range) so the beer comes in at about 5.9% ABV. Overall, a very drinkable and quite delicious American Pale Ale!

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July 30, 2010

Extract Homebrewing in Pictures

For homebrew #2, I decided to go straight extract and work on a Belgian Wit style beer. More info to follow, but for now, just enjoy the pictures.

Extract that is 60% Wheat, 40% Barley

Bitter Orange Peel and Coriander

Real Liquid Belgian Yeast!

Tettnang and Saaz Hops, low Alpha Acid to provide balance, not bitterness

The gigantic brew kettle

The wort as the boil begins

My hop pellets ready to go

The secret Belgian spice mix – coriander, dried bitter orange peel, black pepper and __________

June 14, 2010

How to Make Bitters

Anyone who has ever had a Manhattan without Angostura Bitters knows the value of that little bottle. Those magical drops can add depth, flavor and balance to your cocktails. Most people are probably familiar with Peychaud, Angostura, and Regans Orange, the most popular brands of bitters and the most vital to a few of the classic cocktails.

But these days, there are all sorts of bitters out there. The good folks at Fee Brothers have a whole boatload of flavors including grapefruit rhubarb, peach and more. And nowadays you can find numerous other brands over at Cocktail Kingdom.

While most of these bitters have their place at the bar (you’ll run into a few that aren’t worth your time or attention), the best way to make a unique cocktail is to make bitters on your own. It’s easy and fun and it will add depth and flavor combinations that are unique to your drinks.

The most difficult item to procure when making your own bitters is the bittering agent. To make this a bit easier on you, here are a few options you can use. My bittering agents of choice are wormwood and bitter orange peel, although you have a lot of options, including:

Gentian

Quassia

Wormwood

Milk Thistle Seed

Birch Leaf

Bitter Orange Peel

Bitter Lemon Peel

Fennel Seed

The best place to find these ingredients is often at a homebrew store. The ingredients are common for beer brewing, so you can often find these items in stock and ready for you. If you live in or around the Annapolis/Baltimore/Washington DC area, check out Annapolis Homebrew.

Here is a basic recipe for orange bitters to get you started.

6 oz high proof vodka or grain alcohol

6 tsp orange peel, chopped

1.5 oz ginger peel, chopped

1/2 cinnamon stick

5 whole cloves

1.5 tsp bitter orange peel

Take the vodka or grain alcohol and add the bitter orange peel. Seal it and let it sit for two days. After two days, strain out the bitter orange peel and discard.

Add the remaining ingredients to the liquid (which should have a nice bitter kick to it), seal it up and leave it in a dark corner for 10 – 14 days. Strain everything out and you have yourself some flavorful, complex orange bitters!

After the 14 day rest period, you can continue to add flavors to your bitters. If you want more orange, add more orange. If you like that spice and cinnamon flavor, leave the cinnamon stick and cloves in the liquid longer. This is a flexible process and that is the great part about making your own bitters.

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April 13, 2010

Annapolis Homebrew in Arnold, MD

If you have any interest in beer, wine and/or spirits, and you live in the Washington, DC area, you owe it to yourself to visit Annapolis Homebrew.

Located just off of Route 2 in Arnold, MD (that’s just past Annapolis), this little home brew shop in an unassuming strip mall has lots to offer. With products ranging from wormwood to hops to crushed California Chardonnay grapes, no matter what type of project you’re interested in undertaking, this place has it all.

I’ve used Annapolis Homebrew for all sorts of different projects. I stopped in to pick up dried bitter orange peel for homemade bitters, wormwood for dabbling in Absinthe, wine stoppers and corks for storage, and a starter set for brewing beer. And this is just a small sampling of what they offer. Seriously. They carry like 30 different types of hops, all labeled with useful descriptions and flavor components.

And the owner/man behind the counter/man in the back brewing the beer actually knows what he’s talking about! This day and age, when information spreads like wildfire through social media and blogs (like mine) it’s nice to walk into a store, talk to the owner and have that owner be an expert on everything he or she sells. And that’s what this place is like – an old fashioned, do it yourself home brew shop.

If you have any interest in brewing, distilling, fermenting, infusing, or just drinking in general, I suggest you check it out.

http://www.annapolishomebrew.com/