Wet Hopped IPA

It is my desire to start to brew darker beers and scale back production of my larger batches to allow me the opportunity to fine tune my recipes on smaller batches. As with everything else there is an opportunity cost to brewing one beer over another. This opportunity cost can manifest itself in monetary costs, but it can also manifest itself in calories. Beer has calories and so I can only drink so much over time without additional exercise or caloric reductions. I wanted to brew a harvest wet hop beer, and I wanted to brew a DIPA so I combine the two desires into one and brewed this beer. I will not be brewing a porter for winter(at least until after the new year) because of this. I'll also have a pale ale, a Belgian single, and now a DIPA on tap. The once a year opportunity to brew something special was just too much for me to ignore at the time. The Baltic porter will have to wait; opportunity costs.

I'll need a new keg to put this in and fortunately the day wet hops were on sale was also Siciliano's Home Brew Sale, and free hot dog day. I've wanted a 3 gallon keg for smaller and imperial batches but never felt like I was getting a good deal until it went on sale. If the internet is to be believed a 3 gallon keg will fit behind my existing kegs on the back shelf with the CO2 tank in my kegerator.

Fresh Hops are less potent then dried hops, as such 3-5 times more fresh hops are required than dry hops in a recipe. The desired effects of fresh hops come from the "volatile compounds" that are driven off in the drying process, as such don't waste these on bittering additions. This appears to be the internet consensus but trying things for yourself is the only way to truly know. I want to brew one fresh hopped double pale ale so I'm going with this advice and bittering with dried pellets. In addition I am going to work in a bit more of Vinnie's IPA advice and attempt to use corn sugar to bring my FG down to size. Also after losing many gallons of  wort in the to hop trub I am going to brew a bit of extra wort to make sure I get 3 gallons. I'll be keg hopping with wet hops in a hop bag as well.

(read more after the break)

American Black Ale (Simcoe) Review

American Black Ale (Simcoe) Review
Appearance: Dark and rich; the head is as tall as the beer. After a few minutes it melts into the beer leaving a thin but perfectly white layer.

Aroma: Roasted and piney, the simcoe worked, and is quite pungent. The roasted note seems a touch out of place with the citrus and pine but it's a new experience.

Flavor: Good, but the touch of metal from the porter is present, not as pronounced, but I think the hops are dominating it. It starts hoppy and melts into a roasted metallic mess. the roasted metallic flavor lingers around my mouth for minutes.

Mouth: Nice, coating, the mouth feel could be thinner, I really need to start taking detailed measurements

Overall: I think it is the water, I have 2 beers in primary with all natural spring water from Meijer's natural springs high in the Fredrick Meijer mountains. I may redo the simcoe one after the other two turn out. Otherwise I may go back to formula.

Rating: if I paid for this I'd rate it a D/D+, The rating would have been a lot higher without the metallic twang of Saint Joseph city water.

Cinnamon Treacle Old Ale

The signature flavor of an old ale is treacle. Treacle is "uncrystallised syrup produced in refining sugar", and has a "distinctively strong flavor, slightly bitter, and a richer color than golden syrup".

To fit this beer to style I wanted a highly apparent malt profile with a good complexity; I wanted the Maris Otter to contribute to a nutty English base, and the caramel malt to add a passive caramel flavor. I wanted to add treacle to add a traditional flavor. I split the treacle additions between golden and dark to test the flavors imparted by treacle in a one gallon batch. I want a balanced malty-sweet flavor so I went with around 50 IBU to get a bitterness ratio of approximately 0.75. I normally use Nottingham yeast from Dan-star for English ales, but for this beer I wanted to use Windsor for a profile with more esters. It looks like it will finish with a sweet character at 1.015. I plan to add cinnamon to accent the flavors involved; if golden syrup and dark treacle add a treacle tart flavor to the beer it might mesh well. Optionally I might add a touch of port aged oak cubes for a subtle oaked/fruit wine flavor layered in, or maybe rye whiskey for a spicy oak flavor.

(read more after the jump)

Hops, whole vs pellet

If you read my post on the STL brown or the Black IPA you'll notice that whole hops annoy me. Pellet hops also annoy me, but for different reasons. There is no perfect solution to this problem.

The Problems with Hops:

Whole hops: clog my siphon, absorb lots of wort, float forever, but work better for dry hopping than pellets. Allegedly they impart less grassy-ness over time.

Pellet hops:  will clog all manner of filters, are hard to remove from the wort, are difficult to clean when dried onto the inside of a better bottle, and can impart a grassy flavor when beer is over exposed to remnants of the pellets. They do have the upside of increased utilization.

(read more after the break)