#21 Belgian Tripel

The Cascade Wet Hop Harvest Ale

Now with the brewing and serving of O Hike Ale over with, I am excited to get into brewing more outside of the 1056 American Ale brewing. Brewing the test batch of the O Hike, the Terrapin Rye Pale Ale, the American Wheat Ale, the O Hike final batch, and the Wet Hopped IPA has allowed me to brew a lot with the very typical and very common 1056 strain a lot in the last few weeks. It's a grain strain to use; very resilient to any mistakes you make as a brewer and often produces a great beer, but I'd like to produce beers with some additional variety for the fall and winter months.

The Trappist High Gravity 3787 strain from Wyeast should get me out of my American Ale yeast funk. I've wanted to brew either a Belgian Tripel, Belgian Golden Strong, Belgian Quad, and/or a Belgian Strong Dark for some time now, and I think this yeast will make for a fantastic Belgian strong ale if I use it correctly. Since I have a few dark strong ales available at the moment, I thought that a Tripel or Golden Strong would make the most sense, possibly a brew for mid-winter. Jamil Zainascheff had yet another seemingly straightforward yet quality recipe for the Tripel style, so I chose to go with it.

Belgian Tripel

Batch Volume (Gal): 6.0

Pre-Boil Volume (Gal): 7.0

Total Grain (Lbs): 14.25

OG: Post-Boil: 1.060   With additional sugar during fermentation: 1.080

Anticipated FG: ~1.012

Anticipated ABV: ~9.02%

IBUs: 33.8

SRM: 6.8 (most likely darker)

Brewhouse Efficiency: 67%

Boil Duration: 95 min

Grain                                                (Lbs/oz.) (%)

Weyerman German Pilsner Malt       14       83.6

(What I believe to be) CaraAroma    4 oz.     1.5

Cane Sugar (added during ferment)  2.5     14.9

Hops                     (AA%) (IBU) (Oz.) (Boil[min])

Styrian Goldings    4.5      32.8    1.7          90

Czech Saaz              3.0       1.0    0.5           5

Yeast

Propagated 3787 Trappist High Gravity propagator pack three times to produce ~150 mL of yeast. Pitched ~110 mL of thick yeast slurry, pitched remaining yeast from starter diluted with water. Aimed and hit to pitch between 112 mL and 150 mL of yeast. 112 mL suggested pitching rate for 1.060 OG (when fermentation began), 150 mL suggested rate for 1.080 OG (after additions of cane sugar).

Water

Ca: 85 Mg: 2 SO4: 19 Na: 15 Cl: 17 HCO3: 164

(targeted Chimay water profile, carbonates lower than desired)

1 Whirlfloc tablet (5 min)   1/2 tsp yeast nutrient (5 min)

Mash Schedule:

Single Infusion   60 min (roughly 148-149 F, dropping at mash progressed)

10 min mashout at 170 F

1 g NaHCO3, 0.5 g CaSO4, 0.5 g CaCl2, 4.5 g CaCO3,

6.5 mL Lactic Acid (60 min), ~5.4 pH (30 min),

added additional 2.5 mL Lactic Acid (30 min, ~5.4 pH (5 min)

Yet another seemingly hellish brewday, but I'll have to see how the beer turns out to make the final judgement. My mill continues to create issues. I think at this point I will have to abandon wet milling altogether, if not for a while and begin wetting the grain to a lesser extent. The mill rollers, even though I am taking much better care of them now, still struggle towards the end of milling. The drill is unable to continue to mill once the rollers have turned the grains to mush. This can't be a good thing for mashing and could be resulting in tannin extraction, although I think overall wet milling has likely decreased tannin extraction. I'm not sure if the failure is the drill being weak, the grain being too wet, or this mill not being capable of handling wet grains. I'll have to go back to dry milling, and at some point, possibly begin experimenting with wetting the grains to a lesser extent.

My mash numbers seemed to be a bit off, and I continue to be a bit confused over what exactly I should be measuring when it comes to mash pH and mash temperature. I chose to measure temperature on top of the grain bed and below as I had on the previous brew. My measured temp I went with was the one I measured below the level of the grain bed (~148 F), but I have little way of knowing what temperature is most significant. I would like to get a thermowell and thermometer and install both in my mashtun, but this may be an upgrade for the future. In the meantime I'll have to monitor some area of the mashtun consistently to get an idea of the final that will be produced. pH was especially confusing since I initially hit a pH of 5.4, then added an additional 2.5 mL of Lactic Acid and still hit the 5.4 mash pH. This is a beer that is more likely to benefit from a "softer" texture, and so I am ok with a higher mash pH, but I am a bit confused as to how adding the additional acid resulted in no pH change. I think this is another area where investing in equipment to measure weight in grams, volume in mL, and a legitimate pH meter may come in handy in the future.

My issue with my mill would not ultimately be my only issue. I again had a stuck mash (2nd time in the last three brews), however this stuck mash was most likely due to me not attaching my outlet tubing in the mashtun to the false bottom with a hose clamp. Since first brewing with this mashtun assembly from Northern Brewer, I haven't been using the hose clamp that clamps the outlet tubing to the false bottom since I had one particular brew where I had a stuck mash due to the outlet tubing being twisted, crimping, and making it impossible for any wort to drain from the mash. In the future, I'll either have to either clamp this tube as I should be doing and make sure not to twist the outlet tubing, or clamp tubing that is unlikely to crimp due to the high temperatures silicone tubing experiences in the mash. This issue, as with the mill, are most likely only frustrations on brew day, and are not likely to result in a lower quality final beer, but the mash issue most likely did result in my lower efficiency (67%). It would make things more enjoyable to avoid issues like this altogether in future brews.

For the first time, I had a blockage in the flow of wort into the fermenter after chilling. I've never had this happen, and after this particular brewday, it didn't really surprise me. With such a small addition of hops, I had not idea how the strainer could be blocked. After using a sanitized ruler to strip away some of the hops from the strainer, I was finally able to collect a little over 5.5 gallons. It looked like it was only hops that clogged the filter, not protein. I'm thinking this is most likely due to not allowing enough time for the trub to settle to the bottom before draining the boil kettle. Again, I'll have to see how the strainer works during the next couple brews, although I've never had an issue with it before so I'm confident it won't be a reoccurring problem.

One issue that I think may be more significant in the resultant beer is the fact that I think I was given CaraAroma malt instead of Aromatic malt at my local homebrew store. I guy filling in for the homebrew store owner I think must have seen "aroma" when I asked for "aromatic" and thought it was the same type of malt. The CaraAroma is much much darker and will likely result in a different flavor, similar to the flavors in a Belgian Dubbel or Belgian Dark Strong, but it will be interesting to see how this malt plays out in a Tripel. The beer came out of the boil kettle a dark amber, so I'm hoping the flavor isn't overpowered by this malt.

Once the equipment I have ordered for the fermentation chamber arrives, I hope to keep this fermentation under control as I add the additional cane sugar needed to dry out and strengthen this brew. Then, I may or may not repropagate this particular yeast, and either try brewing a dubbel or dark strong for the colder months.

Labeling the O Hike Ale

After a week of fermentation, a little over a week of dry hopping, and two weeks bottle conditioning, the O Hike Ale is as ready as it's going to be for reunion.

The batch yielded a total of forty-five 12 oz. bottles, forty of which I'll be serving at reunion; the other five I chose to sample over the past week to ensure this was a beer I was confident in serving. The first bottle I tasted was still in the process of conditioning, so I was a bit concerned that the rest of the batch would continue to taste as that first one had. Luckily the other beers I've had from the batch have conditioned, carbonated, and cleaned up nicely.

The most noticeable quality of the beer that, I feel is a detriment to the overall perception of the beer, is the level of hop bitterness. The test batch came out quite sweet, and I was somewhat more comfortable serving a beer like it at reunion than an overly bitter beer. A bitter beer may be more appreciable by a seasoned craft beer drinker like myself. For the typical American beer drinker (or non-drinker) that is unfamiliar with hoppy beers, the final batch may be less palatable.

On a positive note, I feel that the final batch came a lot closer to  the beer I attempted to clone, Gordon (aka G'Knight) from Oskar Blues. I believe the fermentation chamber I built helped quite a bit by allowing for lower fermentation temperatures. The fermentation was much "cleaner" than with the test batch, and thus the final beer has less of the fruity esters and hot alcohols of the test batch. The lower mash pH I also believe greatly improved the quality of the beer. As the result of hitting 5.1~5.2 pH during the mash, I believe it made for a much crisper and brighter beer as I had expected. Whether this was actually due to mash pH or not, I'll have to see with future brews. The beer finished perceivably drier as well, and although this may not be due to a lower final gravity (I last measured it at 1.020, the same FG as the test batch), the resulting taste of the beer is not as overly sweet as the test batch tasted.

It took a while to finalize the label, but I think it came out well and will hopefully offer a few laughs for people during reunion. I feel like I can't go wrong with an ode to Doc Overaker (the subject in both the front and back labels). He's one of the few figures at Holderness that is both instantly recognizable and central to the identity of the school, as well as capable of inspiring amusement with any of the anecdotes that surround his time as a teacher. Glad to hear he is back teaching at Holderness, and I hope he never hears he was the subject of this particular project!

#20 Cascade Wet Hop Harvest Ale

The American Wheat Ale with Willamette Wet Hops

Seeing as my first attempt at growing hops did not result in the yield I had hoped for (three dead hop rhizomes and no hops) I thought that there would be no chance to make a true "Hop Harvest" beer, a style common during the months of August and September. The end of summer and beginning of fall is the perfect time to harvest hops, and many homebrewers/craft brewers often use all or a portion of their fresh hops in hop harvest ales.

Wet Hops still on the bine before picking

I was lucky enough to have my local homebrew show owner, Todd Tilton of the Fermentation Station, give me a huge crop of Cascade wet hops that he was unable to harvest. After hours of picking, I was able to fill a five gallon bucket just under the brim. Half of the hops went to Todd, and my half yielded roughly 43 ounces of wet hops. Wet hops can weigh anywhere from 7 times to 5 times as much as dried hops. Based on an estimated 6:1 ratio of wet weight to dry weight, I yielded roughly 7.16 ounces of dried hops, had they been dried rather than used as wet hops.

Using this many wet hops proved to be difficult as I had no idea of their alpha acid percentage and my true dried weight yield. In order to get my IBUs within the correct range for an American IPA, the majority of the bittering came from the Columbus hop addition at 90 min. Knowing the alpha acid content for this particular hop allowed me to get my IBU value within the accepted range for an IPA. The only potential for variance in my actual IBU level will be the ten minute addition of the wet Cascade hops, which will result in very little influence in the overall bitterness of the beer.

Wet Hops after picking

In the future, when brewing with wet hops, I hope to brew with them closer to the time at which they are harvested. I got these hops a couple days after they were harvested, it took me a few days to pick them all, and it took me a few days to actually get to brew the beer. Likely during this time I lost some of the aromatics of the hops, and this could result in a beer that lacks the intensity of aroma I was hoping for. However I believe that since my hop additions of the wet hops were so large, this will likely compensate for any loss in aromatic potency. During storage, these hops did begin to mold as well, and the aroma in the bags in which I stored the hops took on a very vegetal, tea like aroma. I don't think this will contribute much to the aroma of the final beer due to the boiling of the wort and evolution of this aroma, but it is something I am very worried about tasting in the final beer.

Cascade Wet Hop Harvest Ale

Batch Volume (Gal): 6.0

Pre-Boil Volume (Gal): 6.33

Total Grain (Lbs): 14.26

OG: 1.060 

Anticipated FG: ~1.012   

Anticipated ABV: ~6.33%

IBUs: 55.2 - 65.1 

(estimated at 63.4)

SRM: 9.6

Brewhouse Efficiency: 71%

Boil Duration: 95

Grain                                                 (Lbs/oz.) (%)

Malteurop North American 2-row       12     84.2

Crystal 40                                                 1          7

Munich Malt                                         6.5 oz.   2.8

Victory Malt                                           6 oz.     2.6

Crystal 60                                            4.15 oz.   1.8

Rye Malt                                               3.5 oz.     1.5

Hops         (AA%) (IBU)                (Oz.)                   (Boil[min])

Columbus    14       54.1                  0.9                            90

Cascade    ~5.75    0-9.9 ~2 oz. dry (12 oz. wet)            10

Columbus    14        1.1                    0.1                            10

Cascade        ~          0  ~5.16 oz. dry (40 oz. wet)          0

Yeast

Harvested 1056 American Ale yeast from O Hike Ale, built up yeast in two starters, and separated yeast from majority of hop/trub material from the O Hike Ale. Pitched ~125 mL of fresh yeast with moderate amount of hop material in slurry.

Water

Ca: 123 Mg: 2 SO4: 242 Na: 16 Cl: 38 HCO3: 59 

(targeted Randy Mosher Pale Ale water profile)

1 Whirlfloc tablet (10 min)   1/2 tsp yeast nutrient (10 min)

Mash Schedule:

Single Infusion   60 min (top of mash lower than 150 F) middle of mash 151-152 F, 10 min mashout at 170 F

1 g Baking Soda (NaHCO3), 10 g SO4, 1.5 g CaCl2, 

2.5 mL Lactic Acid (60 min), 1 mL Lactic Acid (50 min)

(all in mash); ~5.4 pH (55 min), ~5.1 - 5.0 pH (45 min), ~5.2 pH (15 min)

Measuring original gravity of the wort

It'll be interesting to see how this beer turns out due to all the variables and unknowns I experienced during the brewday. The hops are a big question; not sure how well they will produce aroma in the final beer, and there could be an off flavor produced by the fact that the hops had started to spoil on the day I brewed with them. 

My malt mill screwed up my first attempt to brew this beer the day before, and after milling 2/3rds of my total grain bill, I was forced to stop. On what ended up being my actual brewday, I finished the milling of the grains to find that the grains I had wet milled the day prior had started to get a little funky, most likely from the moisture, the cracked and exposed starch, and the bacteria (I think lactobacillus) that exist naturally on barley husk. After tasting the wort and some of the grains, there didn't seem to be any flavor from this possibly souring of the grains, but there may be some influence perceived in the final beer. 

Trying to avoid a boil over during the hot break

My measurements of the mash were also confusing, as I decided that I should begin to measure mash temperature in multiple locations within the mash itself. Using brewing software, I typically add two degrees to my strike water's temperature in addition to the temperature calculated by the software. This has often allowed me to hit my mash temperature exactly; however, I've begun to think that it has only been necessary for me to compensate by adding two degrees simply because I measure my mash temperature at the top of the grain bed where the mash is likely to be a bit colder. This is not entirely significant, as the purpose for measuring mash temperature is simply for consistency's sake, and evaluation of whether a mash temp should be changed is simply due to the final taste of the beer. After brewing the O Hike test batch and the final batch and discovering that both beers finished higher than I had hoped, I began to think that this could ultimately be due to an inaccurate measure of my mash temperature. I submerged one thermometer while also measuring mash temperature on the top of the grain bed as I usually do, and I found the temperatures to differ widely. The top of the grain bed (even though I had aimed for 152 F) was below 150 F, while the interior of the mash was measured anywhere from 151 F to 154 F at one point. I can't exactly find a reasonable average for the temperatures I observed, so it will only be after tasting the finished product that I will be able to come to some conclusion about my mash temperature. I will have to monitor this variable much closer in the next few brews, and hopefully I will come to more of an understanding about the temperatures I should be aiming for.

Just after adding the 10 minute addition of wet Cascade hops

Mash pH was another variable I found to be inconsistent during the duration of the mash. Initially I had hit a fairly high pH (~5.4 pH at mash temp, ~5.7 pH room temp). The software I use to predict mash pH has mentioned that it may take up to 15 minutes for mash pH to equilibrate, and therefore this high pH measure may have been taken too soon. I chose to add an additional mL of Lactic acid to try and bring the mash pH down, and soon after it appeared mash pH had dropped to ~5.1 (the value I have been aiming for ever since realizing that 5.1 pH at mash temp is equivalent to 5.4 pH mash temp at room temperature, which is ideal). Towards the end of the mash I chose to measure pH once more and found that it had risen slightly to 5.2. However, all these measurements are taken using pH test strips, which due to their color coding are difficult to get a definitive measurement of pH. As with mash temperature, I'll just have to observe pH in the next few brews, and see if I can come to understand mash pH a bit more than I do currently.

Chilling the wort

Overall however, I'm fairly confident that this beer will turn out well. This beer was my first time brewing with American 2-row malt which will make for an interesting comparison with my prior beers that have used only British 2-row. I also aimed for the Pale Ale water profile described by Randy Mosher, and so I am excited to see how my salt additions will influence the final beer. I have never had my calcium levels as high and I have yet to add sodium in a beer, so it will be interesting to see just how these ions influence the final flavor. If I can find epsom salt (MgSO4), I should finally have all the tools necessary to more closely mimic various water profiles, something that I increasingly believe is (behind fermentation variables) the variable in beer that will turn a good beer into a great beer. Since the fermentation chamber has done so well maintaining proper fermentation temperatures for the O Hike final batch and currently the Harvest Ale (fermenting at 66 F), I feel like I am getting closer to ideal fermentations (provided that my yeast pitching is sufficient as well), and therefore water profiles will become more important in my efforts to make even better beer.

O Hike Ale test batch

#19 O Hike Ale / Building the Fermentation Chamber

The Terrapin Rye Pale Ale clone

Since Reunion is about four weeks from yesterday, I brewed what will hopefully be the final batch of O Hike Ale. 

I was able to taste the O Hike test batch while it continues to carbonate in the bottle before brewing and I chose to alter the fermentation of the beer. I think I failed to pitch enough yeast into the test batch, resulting in an under-attenuated beer after it finished at about 1.020. It's sweet, even for a beer of this size and bitterness, so I focused on pitching a good size pitch for the most recent brew of this beer. The fermentation also ran a little hot. Although 1056 is a great yeast to use if you can't control fermentation temps, the fermentation ran a little too high. In such a large beer, some of the harsh alcohols came through a little too strongly so the new fermenation chamber I built shortly before brewing this beer should help with this issue, as well as allow me to ferment beers correctly in the future which I'm really excited about.

O Hike Ale

Batch Volume (Gal): 5.5 (should be 6.0)

Pre-Boil Volume (Gal): 7

Total Grain (Lbs): 18.71

OG: 1.076 (should be 1.081)   Anticipated FG: ~1.015   Anticipated ABV: ~8.0% (should be ~8.7%)

IBUs: 70 (should be ~65)

SRM: 14.6 (should be ~14)

Brewhouse Efficiency: 60%

Boil Duration: 90 min

Grain             (Lbs/oz.)                 (%)

Pearl 2-row        15                       80.2

Crystal 40          1.5                       8.0

Munich                1.1                       5.9

Carastan             1.1                        5.9

Chocolate Malt  0.01 (42 grains)  0

Hops                      (AA%) (IBU) (Oz.) (Boil[min])

Northern Brewer    12.3     25.9   0.5        80

Columbus                 14      44.3    4           7

Amarillo                    9          0       2       Dry Hop

Yeast

Repitched ~150 mL of thin slurry of 1056 American Ale yeast from American Wheat Ale

Water

Ca: 49 Mg: 2 SO4: 40 Na: 4 Cl: 40 HCO3: 50

(targeted Colorado water profile)

1 Whirlfloc tablet (6 min)   1/2 tsp yeast nutrient (6 min)

Mash Schedule:

Single Infusion   60 min 151-150 F, 10 min mashout at 170 F

1.3 g SO4, 1.5 g CaCl2, 1 g CaCO3, 4 mL Lactic Acid (all in mash);

hit ~5.2 pH mash at mash temp

The one brewday I had hoped would go well turned out to be a bit of a disaster. I rushed to finish the fermentation chamber in anticipation of this brew, but made me unable to get my recipe, ingredients, and equipment ready in time for the brewday. Since Hurricane Irene came in on Sunday, that left Saturday the only day to brew in order to get this beer ready for the September Reunion. 

The compost benefits from 18 lbs of spent grain and excess wort

I had to assemble the mill after last weeks cleaning and the reassembly must have caused some issues for the drill. I just about burnt out the drill trying to grind my grain, and the replacement O-ring I used to space the rollers may have been too large and provided too much resistance, thus putting a larger than normal strain on the drill. Wet milling I believe has made a huge improvement in the quality of the grist; the husk is left mostly intact and pillowy while also separating the starch completely from the grain. I really think wet milling has improved my mashing and lautering, but wet milling appears to have made it much more easier to grind the husk into a paste on the rollers. It's difficult to remove, and soaking the rollers in PBW has only caused leaching of something out of the rollers, leaving behind black spots and remaining bits of husk. I may have to leave the wet milling behind or at least reduce the amount of water I spray the grain with before milling in order to avoid this goey mess left on the rollers.

Even though the milling of the grain was frustrating, it likely had little influence on the final beer; however the issues I experienced with the mash are more likely to have impacted the beer I hope to serve at Reunion. I believe I may have, in the process of using the wooden mash paddle to stir the grain, ground some of the grain husk through the false bottom in the bottom of the mashtun. Once it came time to empty the mashtun and lauter the grains, the flow was blocked by all this grain husk that I pushed through the false bottom. I spent a good twenty minutes with a wire coat hanger trying to remove the blockage only to finally resort to dumping the mash into two buckets, unclogging the valve, and returning the mash to the mash tun for the lauter. I've had this problem before, and I'm not sure the dumping and splashing of wort at this stage will result in hot side oxidation, but I'm worried it may be a detriment to the final beer. I am hopeful however that due the boiling of the wort shortly after this aeration, that all of the oxygen that I added to the wort during this transfer was boiled off quickly, before the oxygen could cause any long term damage to the wort. With all these issues, I'll have to taste the beer after fermentation and see whether or not I give it another shot and rush a batch in three weeks before Reunion.

On a positive note, I think the mash went fantastic even with complicated salt and acid additions. I wanted to closely replicate the Colorado water profile provided by the Can You Brew It show on The Brewing Network when they brewed their Gordon clone. I kept the sulfate to chloride ration just about equal, increased my calcium to just about 50 ppm, and upped the carbonates to about 50 ppm as well. This required the addition of Lactic Acid in order to acidify the mash in the presence of CaCO3. The brewing water chemistry calculators have been excellent tools when trying to imitate water profiles and/or targeting mash pH. I measured a mash pH of ~5.2, but I've had trouble knowing if that is measured with mash temperature accounted for or not. If it isn't, it should be a great mash pH, if mash temp is accounted for with the pH strips, it may be a tad low. I've been trying to push mash pH lower with each subsequent batch in order to see if a lower mash pH, and thus lower overall beer pH, will result in the more crisper and brighter beers I've heard talked about on Brew Strong on The Brewing Network.

The outrageously small amount of chocolate malt (brown, center)

Due to the fact that I had to pour the mash in and out of the mashtun, I failed to collect a good amount of sugar that I should have from the mash. I bumped up the grain bill for this brew since I had failed to hit my target gravity at 75% efficiency. This time I had aimed for 70% efficiency to hit 1.081 but came up short again since my lauter was so inefficient after the stuck mash fiasco. The mash pH may have played a part in this, but I have no way of knowing since I had the issue with the mash. I'll have to see if a lower pH will result in this type of inefficiency in the future.

As a result of having an extremely low efficiency (60%) many of my other numbers were off. I chose to dilute the wort to 5.5 gallons rather than my typical 6 gallons post-boil in order to keep the gravity of the beer high. This however caused my IBUs to be about five IBUs too high (70 rather than ~65) and my color to be too dark (14.6 rather than 14). Again, I'll have to wait and see how this influences the final brew, but since it's not necessary that I clone a batch of beer for Reunion, I may end up being ok with this beer and choosing to hand it out anyway.

The chilling of the beer was another one of the few bright spots in this brew. After doing some research as to what my next chilling system may be (either whirlpool chiller ala Jamil Zainasheff or plate chiller) I figured I could at least begin to replicate a whirlpool chiller by more actively stirring the wort, post-boil, around in the kettle around the immersion chiller. The wort cooled quicker (~20 minutes to 60 F) than in the past when I have simply used the copper coils to stir the wort every 10 minutes or so. This seemed to at least replicate the activity of what a whirlpool chiller would produce, although I wasn't able to stir as constantly as a whirlpool chiller would be able to cycle the wort. This may or may not be my next project/investment in my brewing system, but I think it could greatly improve my reduction in DMS in my final beer as well as enhancement in the aroma of the final beer as the result of finishing hops in the boil.

Tasting the O Hike Test Batch during boil

Even with everything that went wrong during this particular brewday, I'm willing to see how this brew turns out. It may or may not be influenced by the missteps I had during the day, but one thing I've learned as my brewing experience has increased, is that a beer is made during fermentation and not necessarily during "wort production" (aka the brewday). I'm hoping that pitching the correct amount of yeast and keeping the fermentation temperature under 72 F will save this beer, but I'll have to see once fermentation is done at the end of the week. The yeast slurry I pitched from the American Wheat ale was a bit thin, but it seems to have started fermentation fairly quickly, and the "fermentation chamber" I built shortly before brewing this beer is working perfectly at keeping this fermentation under control at 68 F. I plan on ramping up the temperature as things progress, so hopefully this will result in a nice clean brew. Whether or not I brew a second "final" batch of O Hike ale will depend on how this batch tastes at the end of the week.

________________________________________________

Building the Fermentation Chamber:

During the colder months, I've been lucky to have a basement that is relatively cold in order to ferment ales anywhere from 60 F to 75 F and an upstairs that would allow fermentation above those temperatures. However, as I've brewed more and more, I've realized that a sufficient, healthy pitch of yeast at the correct fermentation temperature is what makes or breaks a batch of beer. Ever since I began brewing all grain, I was overly concerned with the things that happened on brewday. While those things are important, they don't compare to the correct fermentation process in the production of beer, and it seems that only during the winter have I been able to attain this correct fermentation process with certain styles of beer. Winter has been great for high gravity British beers, while the summer has been great for Belgian ales, but I have wanted to forget about brewing seasonally for a while now, and the fermentation chamber will hopefully give me that opportunity.

The fermentation chamber I built should allow for a wide range of ale temperatures; so far it appears that I can reach anywhere from 60 F (without accounting for heat from fermentation) to whatever the ambient temperature is outside the chamber. I hope to find how to adjust the thermostat of the ac unit I have cooling the chamber in order to reach even lager temperatures, which will open up a new entire group of beer styles that I will be able to brew. I plan on purchasing a temperature controller prior to attempting any lager brewing, but for now, the internal thermostat of the ac unit seems to work perfectly for my ale fermenations I'm glad to find.

I built the fermentation chamber using 3/4 inch plywood screwed together with 2" foam insulation cut into place to create roughly a 2' by 20" chamber to fit a fermenter or possibly a keg(s). The gaps between the insulation were sealed with caulking. The door is another 2" piece of insulation on another 3/4 inch piece of plywood held tight by ratchet straps with weather stripping providing the extra bit of seal I need between the door and the body of the chamber. The ac unit I picked up off of Craig's List for 20$ and it's been working excellent for what I need. It's only 5,000 BTU, but since the chamber is only about eight cubic feet, the unit has little work to do to keep the chamber a few degrees colder than the ambient temperature. The fan runs constantly, with the ac kicking infrequently, so I think a temperature controller should help to turn off the unit entirely if I end up purchasing one. This should save on electricity, and I believe the unit will be even more efficient once only the ac turns on once and a while to maintain fermentation temperature. This chamber has worked excellent so far, so I hope it can help me make better beer in the future.

The fermentation holding steady at 68F while the chamber ambient is ~65F

#18 American Wheat Ale with Willamette Wet Hops

A Willamette hop cone on the bine

After debating whether repitching from previous 1056 batches (Terrapin Rye Pale ale and the O Hike Ale test batch) or pitching a fresh pitch of 1056 into a small beer would result in a better batch of O Hike Ale, I chose to go with the later. The O Hike test batch is still in the process of dry hopping and so I figured it was premature to remove the beer, leaving the dry hops and yeast cake behind. The Terrapin Rye is just about finished fermenting and almost ready for bottling, but I figured I should just be safe. Rather than repitching yeast that has been with the Rye ale for the past three weeks, I thought it would be best to grow a new pitch and repitch it into the O Hike Ale just after wrapping up fermentation on a low (~1.040 OG) wort. My past experience with repitching yeast into a second, high gravity beer soon after fermenting a low gravity beer has yielded some of my best beer by far, and I hope the same will happen with the O Hike Ale.

I had a few style options from which to choose. In order to produce a large quantity of the healthiest yeast I could propagate I purposefully chose the style in order to minimize IBUs, color, and gravity of the beer. That ruled out pale ales, brown ales, etc. I had hoped to brew an American Rye, but my local homebrew store was out of Rye malt. I chose to go with another wheat beer before the end of summer. The recipe turned out to be very similar to that of the Belgian Wheat, so it will be useful to contrast the two once the American Wheat has finished fermentation.

A Willamette hop bine with cones

I was also lucky enough to brew with some fresh, wet Willamette hops from Bert's Beers in Hooksett, NH. Bert apparently has more of a hop crop that he can utilize as a homebrewer, and when I stopped in the store for a mixed six pack, he was offering some of his Willamette crop for free. I was only able to come away with 1.5 ounces of wet hops (roughly 0.3 ounces dried) so I wasn't able to brew this beer with a huge finishing hop charge at the end of the boil, but I think this small amount of fresh hops should offer a noticeable contribution to the flavor and aroma of this beer. I'm still contemplating whether or not to dry hop with an ounce of Centennial after fermentation as this may likely cover some of that delicate flavor and aroma from the Willamette wet hops; I'll plan on kegging this beer, tasting the finished beer, and then either dry hopping or drinking the beer as is depending on how much I enjoy the finished aroma.

American Wheat Ale with Willamette Wet Hops

Batch Volume (Gal): 6

Pre-Boil Volume (Gal): 5.33

Total Grain (Lbs): 10

OG: 1.044   Anticipated FG: ~1.010   Anticipated ABV: ~4.5%

IBUs: 19.7

SRM: 4

Brewhouse Efficiency: 70%

Boil Duration: 75 min

Grain              (Lbs/oz.) (%)

Pearl 2-row         10        50

Wheat Malt         10        50

Rice Hulls           8 oz.  (at mashout to improve lauterability)

Hops           (AA%) (IBU) (Oz.) (Boil[min])

Willamette   4.8       19.7      1          60

Willamette    ~           0       0.3         0           (Wet)

Centennial   9.1          0        1      Dry Hop

Yeast

 Pitched 1056 American Ale yeast activator pack directly

Water

Ca: 86 Mg: 2 SO4: 8 Na: 4 Cl: 8 HCO3: 148 

(targeted Munich water profile)

1 Whirlfloc tablet (10 min)   1/2 tsp yeast nutrient (10 min)

 

Mash Schedule:

Single Infusion   60 min at 152 F, 10 min mashout at 170 F

4 g CaCO3 (in mash), 6 mL Lactic Acid (in mash); 

targeted and hit 5.4 mash pH

4 grams of CaCO3 and the 6 mL of Lactic Acid

I was excited to find that for the first time I was able to dial in my mash pH using a new excel sheet that I believe was created by John Palmer, author of How to Brew. I've been experimenting with an online brewing water chemistry calculator when looking to imitate a specific water profile or create my own, but until today I had not yet been able to use salt and acid additions to dial in mash pH. My aim was to imitate a Munich water profile just as I had done with the Belgian Wheat before; however, soon after I had added CaCO3 to the boil of the Belgian Wheat I realized that CaCO3 solubility is dependent upon being in the presence of acid and will only dissolve partially when added to the mash. Most likely I added very little if any HCO3 to the beer when I added it directly to the boil during the brewing of the Belgian Wheat. Most of it likely remained insoluble and precipitated to the bottom of the kettle, failing to make it into the final brew.

Willamette wet hops before the "flameout" addition

When in the presence of an acid such as Lactic Acid however, CaCO3 appears to be at least equally soluble/insoluble if not completely soluble. I'll have to do some more research on this topic but I am hoping that much more of the CaCO3 was able to solubilize into the mash in the presence of acid. 

This was also my first instance of using Lactic acid or any acid for that matter in the acidification of the mash. Up until now I had only acidified the mash to a very small extent when brewing using salts (CaSO4 and CaCl2), and these additions were simply based off of the color of the mash as a predictor of pH of the mash. Using this new excel sheet, I mashed in at exactly the pH I had aimed for (5.4), to the level of accuracy that my pH strips will allow. I have meant to experiment with lower mash pHs with the expectation that a lower mash pH will allow for a crisper and cleaner finished beer. Higher conversion pHs (5.6-5.8) are known to produce a beer that is softer and "rounder" whereas lower conversion pH (5.5-5.4 and lower possibly) produce a beer that is crisper and "brighter" due to a more acidified beer. It will be interesting to see how playing with mash pH will influence the resulting beer, something I hope to do now that I have Lactic Acid as another tool to produce this result.

Spraying the grain before "wet milling"

Other than a few issues with the milling of the grist and overshooting my original gravity by a few points (aimed for 1.040), the brewday went well. I was a bit amazed to see how little hotbreak, coldbreak, and over all protein there seemed to be in the wort. With wheat malt I expected a much cloudier wort. I believe after stirring up the grain bed during mash out may have re-suspended the protein from the husks, and caused the protein to be filtered out by the grain bed during lautering. It's hard to know whether separation of a large portion of the protein from the finished wort is a positive or negative for the finished beer; it may result in greater clarity of the finished beer, yet it may withhold necessary protein useful to the yeast during replication/fermentation.

Since the activator pack I pitched was manufactured only ten days ago, I am confident it will do a great job fermenting this relatively low gravity beer and will offer a healthy population with which I can ferment the "production" batch of O Hike Ale. After fermentation, I plan on cold crashing this beer in order to squeeze out all of the yeast I can. Once all the yeast settles out, I'll have a large yeast cake on the bottom of the fermentor from which I can scoop out the healthiest pitch of yeast. One of the parameters that I hope to improve on in the "production" batch of the O Hike Ale over the test batch is the size of the repitch, and a large repitch will be essential for fermenting the batch I hope to produce.

The Willamette wet hops after the end of the boil and during chilling of the wort

#17 "O Hike Ale" Test Batch (Gordon Clone #2)

The Belgian Wheat

The first part of the mash collected in the vorlauf

In order to get a sense of how to brew the beer I intend to make for my High School's reunion, I thought I should at least get one test batch in to see if there's anything I would change in my recipe or process for this Imperial Red ale. Brewing the extract Gordon clone with Laura gave me a few ideas of how I would alter the recipe, firstly by lowering the amount of chocolate malt and secondly by lowering the number of IBUs. I'm hoping to brew a beer that approximates Gordon (aka G'knight) by Oskar Blues, producing a beer that is strong and hoppy but balanced between bitterness and maltiness; a beer that should be drinkable for a wide variety of beer drinkers.

O Hike Ale (Gordon Clone #2)

Batch Volume (Gal): 6

Pre-Boil Volume (Gal): 7

Total Grain (Lbs): 17.4

OG: 1.076 (should be 1.081)   Anticipated FG: ~1.012   Anticipated ABV: 8.3%

IBUs: 64.5

SRM: 13.1

Brewhouse Efficiency: 70%

Boil Duration: 90 min

Grain                     (Lbs/oz.)                       (%)

Pearl Pale 2-row        14                            80.4

Crystal 40                   1.4                              8

Carastan Malt             1                                5.7

Munich Malt               1                                5.7

Chocolate Malt  0.08 oz (39 grains)        0.0

Hops                     (AA%) (IBU) (Oz.) (Boil[min])

Northern Brewer 12.3       23.8  0.5         80

Columbus               14         40.7   4            10

Amarillo                 10           0      2       Dry Hop

Yeast

1056 American Ale yeast harvested from Terrapin Rye Pale ale trub/yeast layer. Collected roughtly ~130 mL of clean, solid yeast.

Water

~2.5 g CaSO4 and CaCl2 (in boil)   Ca: 56  Mg: 2  SO4: 61  Na: 4  Cl: 53  HCO3: 24

Mash Schedule

Single Infusion   60 min at 152 F, mashout at 170 F 10 min

The wort chilling after the boil

The brewday went well except for letting a bit of the mash grains making it into the brew kettle through my mesh bag during the sparge. I also may not have harvested quite enough yeast either; I was unable to measure the exact amount of yeast I had harvested but it appeared to be at least close to the amount I needed to pitch into a beer of this size. If I underpitched, it may result in more fruity esters and/or phenols which may or may not result in the beer I'm looking for so it'll be something to look at once this beer finishes. I also was unable to reach my goal OG of 1.081 as with the commercial version of Gordon. But that as well may make for a more suitable beer for a reunion; somewhat less alcoholic and inebriating.

Other than a few minor mistakes, the brew day went very well so this beer will make for a good reference point from which I can make final adjustments for the beer I hope to hand out at reunion. It'll also be a good chance for me to learn more about my process and about brewing in general. I typically brew very different styles and rarely brew the same beer repeatedly, which is a missed opportunity to learn about how process effects the end result in a beer. I think this process will give me the chance to learn a bit about how small adjustments will influence a beer.

Adding the four ounces of Columbus hops for flavoring and aroma