Old Beer Blending Party

Sometimes, things get put on the back burner of the list of brewing projects to fulfill, or just plain get lost in the shuffle of brewing. Maybe you don’t brew enough to have that problem, but I certainly do. I’ve been trying to clean up and organize the numerous carboys gracing my dining room (at some point, I’ll actually start calling the room what it actually is: our bicycle and carboy room), and I realized that tucked in amongst the all the various current projects were several older carboys that had fallen by the wayside. So I pulled them out, tasted them, and decided to try my hand at blending. You know, to get things moving again, and away from their current de-railed project trajectories. Several of these were quite acidic (both versions of 165 had dry airlocks) and sharp; I decided to incorporate batch 203 to bulk up the overall volume, and give me enough to try two different blends. 

The first blend went into the 10 gallon oak barrel that also lives in the bike/carboy room.

10 Gallon Barrel Blend:
151b. ECY05 Brett Blend #9: approx. 1 ½ gallons @ 1.000 (July 2013)
165. The Great Brett Experiment II 005/008: approx. 4 gallons @ 1.006 (December 2013)
196b. Rueuze Lambic: approx. 1 ½ gallons @ 1.000 (February 2015)
203. One Last Lambic Hurrah: approx. 3 gallons @ 1.000 (March 2015)

The second blend went onto the wild raspberries that were previously used in 168b. Wild Raspberry Lambic; I bottled the beer and then added this beer to it. I’m hoping to pick up some tannic skin character to round the beer as a whole; the left over beer mixed in with the fruit was more than enough to already give the beer a pinkish hue.

Second-Use Wild Raspberry Blend:

151b. ECY05 Brett Blend #9: 1 gallon @ 1.000 (July 2013)
196b. Rueuze Lambic: 1 gallon @ 1.000 (February 2015)
203. One Last Lambic Hurrah: 1 gallon @ 1.000 (March 2015)

I’ll probably rack the barrel beer onto fruit before bottling it, and possibly try and finish it with champagne yeast since I want to make sure there are no post-bottling surprises. 

10 Gallon Barrel Blend
Barrel: 2/21/2016
Secondary:
Bottled:

Second-Use Wild Raspberry Blend
Blended: 2/21/2016
Bottled: 3/20/2016 @ 1.000

Tasting Notes:

Cleaning Up Brewday

Today was about moving stuff along; after two weeks, nothing had happened with the two cakes from the Great Brett Experiment II that were on the better tasting side, so I racked both onto the yeast cake from 203. One Last Lambic Hurrah after the Old Beer Blending Party. However, what I am really interested to see is what becomes of the wort that got dumped on the remains of 132a. Wild Yeast Lambic Raspberry, which had done something since the last time I checked; the previous beer on that cake got racked onto the yeast cake from 196a. Yeast Bay Lo Christi. Buncha fucked up stuff that will most likely get dumped. Still, gonna play that game.

224. Cleaning Up

Mash:

4 lbs. Best Malz Pilsen

2 lbs. Best Malz Wheat

1 lb. MFB Vienna
½ lb. Acidulated 

Mash @ 153° F for 80 minutes w/ 3 gallons RO water, 4 g. gypsum, and 3 g. CaCl; collected 2 gallons @ 1.062

Batch sparge @ 168° F for 20 minutes w/ 4 gallons RO water; collected 4 ¼ @ 1.012

Topped off to 7 gallons, brought to a boil (70 minutes), & added:
w/60 to go: 1 oz. Choice debittered hops

w/10 to go: 1 oz. Comet pellet 8.6% AA
5 g. Wyeast yeast nutrient

Chilled & split into 3 gallon carboys between 165 002 Great Brett II, 165 009 Great Brett II, and 132a. Wild Yeast Lambic Raspberry

224a. Great Brett II 002/224b. Great Brett II 009

Brewed: 2/7/2016

Secondary: 2/21/2016; nothing happening, so dumped both 3 gallon carboys onto yeast cake from 203. One Last Lambic Hurrah

Bottle:

OG: 1.038

FG:

Tasting Notes: 

224c. Wild Yeast Lambic Raspberry

Brewed: 2/7/2016

Secondary: 

Bottle:

OG: 1.038

FG:

Tasting Notes: 

Flanders Red Brewday

Another rift on a similar yearly theme. The main changes to this one were to raise the mash temperature and use a half pound of caramel malt, mostly because last year’s version was called thin and over-carbonated by AHA NHC First Round Judges. While I know the contributions from the caramel malt will ultimately disappear—as will the long-chain dextrins from the higher mash temperature—via the slower acting wild yeast, I figured experimenting and waiting to see the end results was the best path forward. See you next year! 

223. Flanders Red

Mash:

4 lbs. Best Malz Pilsner

4 lbs. Weyermann Vienna

1 lb. Weyermann Dark Munich

1 lb. Best Malz Wheat

1 lb. Special B
½ lb. Maltexco/Patagonia Caramel 70-80 L. 

Mash @ 158° F for 60 minutes w/ 4 gallons RO water, 4 g. gypsum, and 2 g. CaCl; collected 2 ½ gallons @ 1.076

Batch sparge @ 160° F for 20 minutes w/ 4 gallons RO water; collected 4 gallons @ 1.028

Topped off to 7 gallons, brought to a boil (60 minutes), & added:

w/60 to go: 1 ½ oz. Choice debittered hops

w/10 to go: 5 g. Wyeast yeast nutrient

Chilled and pitched mason jar of ECY 02 Flemish from 195. Flanders Red; added .55 oz. Hungarian oak, house toast

Brewed: 1/23/2016

Secondary:

Bottled:

OG: 1.056

FG:

Tasting Notes:

Lambic Party Brewday

Slow and steady wins the race. Once this beer and 221. are ready, they will be the replacement beers for the first small pull from the Barrel Project, the goal being to see where the barrel is at, and to then start planning for the next larger pull later in the year. I’m guessing the pull will be three gallons to bulk age and five gallons on sour cherries, but we’ll make the specific call on game day. 

222. Lambic Party

Mash:

7 lbs. Best Malz Pilsen

5 lbs. unmalted wheat

Mash @ 158° F for 90 minutes w/ 4 gallons RO water, 4 g. gypsum, and 4 g. CaCl; collected 2 ½ gallons @ 1.064

Batch sparge @ 169° F for 20 minutes w/ 4 gallons RO water; collected 4 gallons @ 1.024

Topped off to 7 gallons; brought to a boil (70 minutes), & added:
w/60 to go: 1 oz. Choice debittered hops 

w/10 to go: 5 g. Wyeast yeast nutrient (added w/ boiling water after beer racked to carboy)

Chilled and racked onto ECY01 Bug Farm yeast cake from 181b. ECY01 Bug Farm

Brewed: 1/14/2016

Secondary: 2/28/2016 @ 1.002

Bottle: 3/20/16

OG: 1.050

FG: 1.002

Tasting Notes (2/28/2016): Tart and game-y; lemon zest and pith up front, followed by earthiness and game-y brett funk. Looks like the unmalted wheat is paying off. 

New Year’s Lambic Brewday

Time to start out the New Year right, and get back to massively over-producing lambic. In part, this is because I am thinking ahead to the first pull off of the Barrel Lambic Solera, which should happen in a month or so. But also because I am ridiculously intent on building up a massive reservoir of lambic and gueuze, and that requires having plenty on hand. We’re getting there. Happy New Year’s, everyone. 

221. New Year’s Lambic

Mash:

7 lbs. Best Malz Pilsen

5 lbs. unmalted wheat

Mash @ 158° F for 90 minutes w/ 4 gallons RO water, 4 g. gypsum, and 4 g. CaCl; collected 2 ½ gallons @ 1.070

Batch sparge @ 170° F for 20 minutes w/ 4 gallons RO water; collected 4 gallons @ 1.024

Topped off to 7 gallons; brought to a boil (90 minutes), & added:
w/60 to go: 1 oz. Choice debittered hops 

w/10 to go: 5 g. Wyeast yeast nutrient

Chilled and racked onto ECY Bug County yeast cake from 201. Post-Barrel Lambic 

Brewed: 1/1/2016 @ 64° F

Secondary: 2/27/2016 @ 1.004

Barrel: 3/20/16

OG: 1.050

FG: 1.002

Tasting Notes (2/27/2016): Bright and tart going into the secondary; lemonade-like with some funky undercurrents and light spritziness from the CO2 still in solution. 

Iron Brewer Honey Tripel Brewday

In an effort to get more club members brewing, my local homebrew club, DRAFT, stole and re-packaged the Rockit Cup as the club Iron Brewer competition. The Rockit Cup had a three year run, so I can’t really complain. Plus, less to be in charge of, honestly. Anywhoo, I decided on taking a stab at a tripel using honey instead of table sugar to dry out the body. Yes, the late hopping is a bit aggressive, but, well, too bad. Felt like it. Here’s to honey. I’m coming for you, Joe Harrington. 

220. Iron Brewer Honey Tripel

Mash:

10 lbs. Best Malz Pilsen

½ lb. MFB Vienna 

½ lb. MFB Pale

Mash @ 149° F for 90 minutes w/ 3 ½ gallons RO water, 4 g. gypsum, and 3 g. CaCl; collected 2 ¾ gallons @ 1.064

Batch sparge @ 162° F for 20 minutes w/ 4 gallons RO water; collected 4 gallons @ 1.024

Collected 6 ¾ gallons; brought to a boil (90 minutes), & added:
w/60 to go: 1 ¼ oz. Styrian Golding pellet 2.0% AA
¾ oz. Azacca leaf 9.9% AA

w/10 to go: 5 g. Wyeast yeast nutrient

w/0 to go: 2 oz. Azacca leaf 9.9% AA

3 (or so) lbs. Bob Irwin honey
2 g. coriander
1 g. cumin
1 g. grains of paradise 

Let stand for 20 minutes, chilled, & pitched mason jar of Iron Brewer yeast from 218. Iron Brewer Cider

Brewed: 12/27/2015 @ 64° F

Secondary: 1/23/2016 @ 1.008; added 5 g. Wyeast yeast nutrient

Bottle: 4/23/2016 w/ 4 ¾ oz. table sugar

OG: 1.076

FG: 1.000

Tasting Notes: Dry with some earthiness and slight sweetness at bottling. Some alcohol warmth but no heat, even as dry as it is. 

Alan McLeod’s 2015 Yuletide Photo Contest

Welcome to my yearly (or almost yearly) attempt at being arty and shit. For your viewing pleasure, these are the photos I entered into Alan McLeod’s Xmas Hogmanay 2015 Photo Contest. Bit last minute, really, but that is how things go around these here parts. Anyway, if you’d like to see all the photos from this year, go here and here and here. Oh, and maybe here too. 

I missed entering last year because, well, I don’t rightly recall. I just did. Things happen around the holidays. See above. But here are the photos I sent in, along with a quick run down of each. The first picture came on the way to a early morning beer judging competition in Zanesville. Some one forgot to fill up the tank before we left, so we got to hoof it for gas part way through the trip. Nothing says good times like early morning walking along I-70. I thought the YSB sweatshirt was a nice touch, so I took a picture to entertain myself on our walk. Even with running out of gas, we were only ten minutes late. Yes, there might have been some speeding involved. 

The next picture is from Brugge Brasserie in Indianapolis; we stop in at Brugge pretty regularly after cyclocross races for beer and fries before driving home. I took the picture from underneath the table through the hole for french fries. I love the Christmas lights in the background, the matching colors between beer, copper, and wood, and the warm light on the glass reflecting the slightly hazy beer. 

The third picture is an old wall advertisement from a local Dayton brewery, Sachs-Prudens’ Brewing Company, featuring Diamond Brand Pale Ale, amongst other things. The mural is on the side of a house at 101 McClure in the Saint Anne’s Hill neighborhood in downtown Dayton (it was formerly a saloon and grocery store). For more on the house and the neighborhood, see here. Sachs-Prudens’ opened in 1881; in 1895, Sachs-Prudens’ was sold to the Dayton Brewing Company. The building that originally housed the brewery on Wyandot was for a long time the Hauer Music building, and now houses the Dayton Metro Library Operation Center. 

The fourth picture was from a beer tasting in my kitchen with long time friend of the blog Jeff Fortney. I believe this was the night I tricked him into drinking through a complete run of the beers from the Great Brett Yeast Experiment on a work night. I’m not sure how old the beers were at that point, but I think it was something like a little over a year in the bottle, and I had been hankering to see where everything was at. So Jeff was willing to help out. You know, for science and all. For the record, custersianus is still the best single strain to work work, although the claussenii performed well this night. There are notes somewhere. But not here. The light through the glasses with the bottles and Jeff in the background creates a nice overall image. 

The final picture is from Blue Stallion Brewing Company in Lexington, KY. They were a very pleasant discovery when I was in Lexington for the Craft Writing: Beer, the Digital, and Craft Culture conference in February 2014. They focus mainly on lagers, and do an excellent job at it. and their brewery is gorgeous: almost all copper. Anyway, this was from a later visit after another cyclocross race, where lunch and a couple of crisp clean beers were in order. The open doorway behind the glass helps illuminate the light, and I was happy that I actually successfully made the glass the focus so that the background was blurry—I love the contrast between the beads of condensation on the bright, in-focus glass, and the gloomier, darker, hazy background. 

So there you have it: a quick rundown of my entries for this year’s Xmas Hogmanay! 

(12/15/2015)