February 28th, 2010
This brew was an attempt to make a brown ale using brown malt that I made by toasting half a pound of 2-row malt in my oven for thirty minutes. I also used a pound of oats that I had toasted using a similar method (the oats were in the oven for an hour as opposed to thirty minutes). I’m hoping that the end result has a toasty, nutty, oatmeal cookie quality to it, as well as a detectable level of hop flavour.
I re-used the Rogue Pacman yeast that fermented my last brew (a single hop ale made with Sorachi Ace hops). The re-pitched yeast took of pretty quickly, with lots of bubbling inside of two hours. I had to improvise a bit on the hop schedule, as I am down to my last few ounces while waiting for a new batch to arrive.
Toasted Brown Ale
9 lbs. 2-row
1 lb. biscuit
1/2 lb. brown malt
1/2 lb. melanoidin
2 tbsp. chocolate malt
1 lb. toasted oats
1/2 oz. citra (leaf) @ 60 min.
1/2 oz. citra (leaf) @ 30 min.
1/2 oz. hallertau (pellet) @ 10 min.
1 oz. chinook (leaf) @ 5 min.
1/2 oz. chinook @ end of boil
1 tsp. Irish moss @ 10 min.
Yeast: Wyeast Rogue Pacman
OG: 1.050
Est. IBU: 50
Mashed for 60 min. @ 150°F
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February 15th, 2010
Sorachi Ace – just the name of this hop variety is intriguing. It is a high-alpha (11.1% AAU) hop that originates from Japan and it is said to have a somewhat lemony flavour. I didn’t detect a lemon note in aroma of these hops when I opened the bag on brew day, so we’ll have to see if it comes through in the finished beer a few weeks from now.
My decision to make a single hop ale came about for two reasons. Firstly, I had been reading Randy Mosher’s Extreme Brewing and had noted his observation that you could get more hop flavour and aroma with late hop additions. Being a bit of a hophead I wanted to try this technique out. Secondly, I had a 4 oz. bag of Sorachi Ace hops lying around and this seemed to be about the right amount for what I wanted to make (a hop-forward beer with a fairly low ABV).
What I’ve ended up with is a pale ale that comes in around 55 IBU, fermented with the Rogue Pacman yeast. This is also the first beer I’ve made using two new toys – my Barley Crusher grain mill and an 0.5 micron oxygen stone, as well as building the largest starter I have done to date (about 1/2 gallon).
Sorachi Ace Ale Recipe
7 lbs. 2-row
1/2 lb. melanoidin
1/2 lb. light crystal
1/2 lb. carafoam
1/2 oz. sorachi ace (leaf) 60 min.
1/2 oz. sorachi ace (leaf) 30 min.
1 oz. sorachi ace (leaf) 10 min.
1 oz. sorachi ace (leaf) 5 min.
1/2 oz. sorachi ace (leaf) at end of boil
1/2 tsp. Irish moss 10 min.
Total boil time: 60 min.
Yeast: Wyeast Rogue Pacman
OG: 1.036
Est. IBU (ProMash): 55
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January 16th, 2010
Over the past two days I’ve bottled two beers – an Imperial IPA and a Belgian Brown Bitter that I brewed just prior to the holidays. I’m a little disappointed that the IPA has finished out with a gravity of 1.030 (it had an OG of 1.084). I tried to bring it down a few points with some Danstar Nottingham, but to no avail. Tasting it before bottling I found it a bit sweet (as you might expect), but not cloyingly so. There’s definitely a pronounced hop presence, so we’ll see how it is after a few weeks of bottle conditioning.
The Belgian Bitter Brown seems to have turned out well. I used Wyeast’s Flanders Golden Ale yeast, which I gather is often used as the base yeast for a sour ale or a lambic. I decided to go for something brown and moderately hoppy (see the recipe below). This was also the first time I tried brewing using decoction and I think that process has resulted in a beer with a maltier backbone than I’ve been able to achieve in the past. Again, it will take a few weeks of bottle conditioning to really see how things have turned out.
Belgian Brown Bitter Recipe
8 lbs. pilsener
1 lb. special B
1 lb. Vienna
0.5 lb. Munich light
2 oz. black patent
0.5 oz. super styrian @ 60 min.
0.5 oz. super styrian @ 30 min.
1 oz. hallertau @ 20 min.
1 oz. saaz @ 10 min.
0.5 lb. brown sugar @ 10 min.
0.5 oz. coriander @ 5 min.
0.5 oz. orange peel @ 5 min.
0.5 tsp. grains of paradise @ 5 min.
1 tsp. Irish moss @ 15 min.
Yeast: Wyeast Flanders Golden Ale (from starter)
OG: 1.052
IBU: 45
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