Best Brew Day Ever!

What is the one dream that every homebrewer has...or maybe it's just me:  Working or owning their own brewery.  Well...I have not made it that far yet, but I did have the opportunity to brew on a larger...err make that much larger scale this past week.  Let me explain.

Here in St. Louis, we have a huge beer festival every year called the Heritage Fest which celebrates the rich brewing history that is and was St. Louis.  This festival features countless local and surrounding area breweries.

In December, a local brewing club holds an annual contest rightfully titled the Happy Holiday Homebrew Contest.  I just so happen to enter a few of my creations and just so happen to place first in the IPA category and second in best of show with the same beer.  As a result, my recipe is featured at the Heritage Fest...but not only will one brewery brew it...but instead many will brew it.

Every year the festival event organizers try to have a theme ale.  This year they wanted multiple breweries to brew the same beer but each feature a different hop.  To make a longer story short, they chose my AIPA recipe as this recipe.

I was able to assist the brewday of Schlafly's version which will feature galaxy hops.  I was surprisingly responsible for much of its production, of course being instructed on what switches and what water valves to turn and when....and there were alot.

It was a blast!

I never have this much fun cleaning my mash tun!

Arrogance IS Brett Tasting and Blog Update

It has been over six weeks since bottling Arrogance IS Brett.  I have been "sampling" a bottle a week for the past few weeks and have finally noticed the brett character showing itself more.  It has started taking on the characteristics of the Rayon Vert more as it ages and I assume will continue to do so for quite some time.  It has a very nice pineapple aroma to it along the same line as with GI Matilda.  I do however regret dryhopping.  I think the dryhops cover up much of the brett character and will omit this step during my second attempt at the recipe.
I am still in the process of updating and moving into my families new house so brewing has come to a stand still but will resume in full force shortly.
 It most recent news, I had my American Brown take first place in the Garage Brewers Society Champion of the Pint last month and my first place in category/second place best of show IPA will be featured as the festival ale at St. Louis' Heritage Festival.  A handfull of the local breweries around town will brew the grain bill and then single hop it to educate the crowd on the different characteristics of the various hop varietals.

Stay Tuned!

Bottling Day

Four weeks after brewing the "arrogance is brett" ale, I have decided to go ahead and bottle.  I first took a gravity reading after only 2 weeks and then again another 2 weeks later.  Both times it was 1.012, with a starting gravity of 1.067.  This gives an apparent attenuation of ~81%.  After reviewing some interviews and articles by Vinnie of Russian River Brewing and Chad Yakobson of Crooked Stave, I have decided I should be safe.  I am looking forward to trying this fresh and aged to see how the brett changes the ale over time when used as the sole primary yeast.  I am concerned thought that they might become overcarbonated.  When weighting the priming sugar, I used a slightly less amount (.25 oz. less) then I normally would use for standard ales given the fear that the brett would continue to drop in gravity and cause explosions.  However, I forgot that this batch was slightly smaller than my usual batches, so now my fear of bottle bombs is back.  To help with any possible explosions, I lined my boxes with trash bags.  My fingers are crossed.

The yeast was saved and is currently under refrigeration until I have time to wash it for later use.  I already have the next "arrogance is brett" planned and hopefully will brew it shortly.  Hopefully within a couple weeks I will have the first tasting of this ale to share.  

This project started out as an attempt at cloning Stone Brewing's Arrogant Bastard and using brett, but it has evolved into something entirely different and has really helped open my eyes to 100% brett fermentations.  I believe most "beer geeks" or "nerds" out there usually associate brett'd beers with being funky/barnyardy/horse blankety/so on & so on, but this only occurs with specific strains of brett and under certain conditions.  I can say this because I use to be one of those "geeks", but now having done an all brett beer, I know otherwise.  What I am looking for in this beer is for the fruity characteristics of the Brett B to shine through as the beer is young and fresh and then as it ages, "funk" to start developing.  Again, my fingers are crossed.

Blood Sausage & Stout

Food pairing is not just for wine anymore!  The wide array of beer styles commercially available now allows for some interesting food pairings.  One of my favorite websites for food and beer pairings is New Brew Thursday.  Since I enjoy it, I figured it could become a regular feature on the blog.  So...the inaugural food and beer pairing today will be Blood Sausage and my Imperial Stout.

First, a little about the stout:

This is one that was recently entered into a local competition (the same one where my IPA won second place in best of show).  This recipe was still fairly young when entered.  It was brewed in June and then bulk aged until late October at which point it was bottled.  It was entered into competition in late December and received a 36.  Not the best I would have hoped for, but still high scoring and a beer of this stature requires long aging periods to fully develop.  It now has more age in the bottle and is coming together quit nicely.  Being that it was my first "big" beer, I did not know how the efficiency would react with such a large grain bill, now I know to expect poor efficiency.

Delicious!

Brew Type: All Grain	Date: 6/23/2011
Style: Imperial Stout
Batch Size: 5.50 gal
Boil Volume: 6.50 gal	Boil Time: 60 min
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %	Equipment: Brew Pot (7.5 gal) and Igloo Cooler (10 Gal)
Actual Efficiency: 66.78 %

Ingredients

Amount	Item	Type	% or IBU
15.00 lb	Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)	Grain	88.24 %
0.50 lb	Black (Patent) Malt (500.0 SRM)	Grain	2.94 %
0.50 lb	Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM)	Grain	2.94 %
0.50 lb	Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM)	Grain	2.94 %
0.50 lb	Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM)	Grain	2.94 %
1.75 oz	Summit [17.00 %] (60 min)	Hops	73.9 IBU
2.00 oz	Cascade [5.50 %] (0 min)	Hops	-
1.00 items	Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 10.0 min)	Misc

Beer Profile Estimated Original Gravity: 1.082 SG (1.075-1.115 SG) Measured Original Gravity: 1.073 SG Estimated Final Gravity: 1.021 SG (1.018-1.030 SG) Measured Final Gravity: 1.014 SG Estimated Color: 38.8 SRM (30.0-40.0 SRM) Color [Color] Bitterness: 73.9 IBU (50.0-90.0 IBU) Alpha Acid Units: 29.8 AAU Estimated Alcohol by Volume: 8.00 % (8.00-12.00 %) Actual Alcohol by Volume: 7.71 % The blood sausage I am pairing with the stout is of Eastern European origins.  It is referred to as kaszanka.  Unfortunately, I do not have any pig or beef blood readily available, so this sausage was purchased already made from Global Foods in Kirkwood, your one-stop-shop for that hard to find food. The dark malt flavor matches perfectly with the rich, creamy, fatty flavor/texture of the blood sausage.  The stout was mashed at a low temperature (151 degrees) so it's not an overly thick/sweet stout.  This works out well with such a fatty/rich food.  I would definitely suggest this pairing!  Any commercial American Stout or Russian Imperial Stout would be a good substitute for my recipe.  I would however avoid any sweeter style stout, like the obvious milk stout versions. ENJOY!

My Best Brown

UPDATE:  Even after many months in the bottle, this recipe just won 1st. place in Garage Brewers Society's Champion of the Pint.  Very Exciting!

It's always a pleasant surprise when you uncover a hidden six pack of a brew you thought was long gone.  Lately, I have been setting back a six pack or two of my brews so they don't disappear too quickly.  Tonight, I uncovered my version of the American brown that I bottled back on December 1st.  The hops on the nose have dropped out slightly, but not on the tongue.  It has also developed, what I perceive to be, a slight sweetness to it.  This was a nice surprise as I had just recently thought of adding 1# of dark brown sugar to it.

Aroma- slight chocolate and biscuit-ness balanced with sweet maltiness tangled up with slight citrus/pine from the dry hops that have dwindled off.
Appearance/Mouthfeel- light dark brown/almost porter-ish with a medium mouthfeel.  Mashed fairly low so this was to be expected and perfect match for this recipe.
Flavor-medium maltiness and bitterness.  No diacetyl or fruit esters, clean with malt,chocolate,hops shining through and slight sweetness.
Overall-excellent stronger American brown ale.  Does have slight alcohol prescense in taste, but none in the nose.  When fresh, it had a very large and pleasurable citrus/pine/resiny nose and flavor.  It is still very enjoyable to drink over 2 months later and absolutely stands up to time.  I will re-brew and the only change so far planned is to add some dark brown sugar at the end of the boil.

I did hit 83% efficiency with this recipe.  That would account for the higher gravity and ultimately, increased alcohol.
Starting gravity was 1.063 and final gravity was 1.010.  I stuck with my usual 4 week primary fermenting schedule on this one.

The moment you've been waiting for...

Brew Type: All Grain
Style: American Brown Ale
Batch Size: 5.50 gal
Boil Volume: 6.50 gal	Boil Time: 60 min
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %	Equipment: Brew Pot (7.5 gal) and Igloo Cooler (10 Gal)
Actual Efficiency: 83.58 %

Taste Rating (50 possible points): 0.0

Ingredients

Amount	Item	Type	% or IBU
10.00 lb	Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)	Grain	86.21 %
0.60 lb	Chocolate Malt (347.0 SRM)	Grain	5.17 %
0.50 lb	Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM)	Grain	4.31 %
0.25 lb	Biscuit Malt (22.0 SRM)	Grain	2.16 %
0.25 lb	Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM)	Grain	2.16 %
1.00 oz	Citra [12.00 %] (Dry Hop 7 days)	Hops	-
0.50 oz	Magnum [13.10 %] (60 min)	Hops	20.1 IBU
0.50 oz	Simcoe [14.10 %] (Dry Hop 7 days)	Hops	-
0.50 oz	Amarillo Gold [10.30 %] (15 min)	Hops	7.8 IBU
0.25 oz	Simcoe [14.10 %] (15 min)	Hops	5.4 IBU
0.25 oz	Simcoe [14.10 %] (5 min)	Hops	2.2 IBU
0.50 oz	Amarillo Gold [10.30 %] (5 min)	Hops	3.2 IBU
1.00 oz	Simcoe [14.10 %] (0 min)	Hops	-
1.00 oz	Amarillo Gold [10.30 %] (0 min)	Hops	-
0.50 items	Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 10.0 min)	Misc
1 Pkgs	Safale American (DCL Yeast #US-05)	Yeast-Ale

Mashed at 152

Beer Profile

Estimated Original Gravity: 1.057 SG (1.045-1.060 SG)	Measured Original Gravity: 1.063 SG
Estimated Final Gravity: 1.015 SG (1.010-1.016 SG)	Measured Final Gravity: 1.010 SG
Estimated Color: 21.5 SRM (18.0-35.0 SRM)	Color [Color]
Bitterness: 38.6 IBU (20.0-40.0 IBU)	Alpha Acid Units: 15.2 AAU
Estimated Alcohol by Volume: 5.39 % (4.30-6.20 %)	Actual Alcohol by Volume: 6.92 %
Actual Calories: 280 cal/pint

Arrogance Is Brett

Finally got around to brewing up my clone of Stone Brewing's Arrogant Bastard.  Except for some alterations, like all Simcoe instead of Chinook and all Brett instead of regular sach. yeast, and the acid malt, it is the same recipe that the Brewing Network determined to be the closest of their clone attempts.  I built up quit a nice size starter out of dregs of Rayon Vert and O'dell's Sabatuer.  Needless to say, within 7 hours, I had some nice activity and it smells great!

I mashed at 153 for 60 minutes and added the acid malt after the mash was complete, so not to alter the mash pH.  The final gravity was 1.067, so higher than expected.

I think I'm hooked on harvesting bottle dregs and stepping them up.  I still have a bottle of O'dell Friek and a bottle of some recent Cantillion that I will probably add to my sour blonde that is only 4 weeks in.

Brew Type: All Grain	Date: 1/30/2012
Style: Specialty Beer
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Boil Volume: 6.00 gal	Boil Time: 60 min
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %	Equipment: Brew Pot (7.5 gal) and Igloo Cooler (10 Gal)
Actual Efficiency: 82.33 %

Ingredients

Amount	Item	Type	% or IBU
10.00 lb	Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)	Grain	86.96 %
1.00 lb	Special B Malt (180.0 SRM)	Grain	8.70 %
0.50 lb	Acid Malt (1.8 SRM)	Grain	4.35 %
0.50 oz	Simcoe [14.10 %] (60 min) (First Wort Hop)	Hops	25.3 IBU
2.00 oz	Cascade [5.50 %] (Dry Hop 5 days)	Hops	-
0.25 oz	Simcoe [14.10 %] (60 min)	Hops	11.5 IBU
0.50 oz	Simcoe [14.10 %] (20 min)	Hops	13.9 IBU
2.00 oz	Simcoe [14.10 %] (10 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep)	Hops	-
1.00 oz	Simcoe [14.10 %] (10 min)	Hops	16.7 IBU
1.00 items	Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 10.0 min)	Misc
1 Pkgs	My Brett Yeast Culture [Starter 0 ml]	Yeast-Ale