American Pale Ale

Today I'm brewing an American Pale Ale. This may not be the most exotic of craft brews but it's very enjoyable and I've been craving a lighter session beer with some nice hop character. This is also the first brew session using my new heat exchanger (HEX), hot liquor tank (HLT), and mash tun (MT). I haven't done a write-up on the new HLT and MT yet but like the HEX they're essentially inspired by Kal's Electric Brewery.

This recipe is based on the American Pale Ale recipe from Brewing Classic Style. I've adjusted the grain bill based on an expected efficiency of around 83%.


8 lbs 10.8 oz Briess Pale Ale Malt 2-Row
9.2 oz Dingemans Munich Malt 7L
9.2 oz Briess Victory Malt
6.1 oz Rahr White Malt
0.66 oz Chinook - Boil 60.0 min
0.50 oz Centennial - Boil 10.0 min
0.50 oz Cascade - Boil 10.0 min
1.00 oz Cascade - Hopback
1.00 oz Centennial - Hopback
1.0 pkg California Ale (White Labs #WLP001) in 1L starter

Mash at 152F for 60 min.  60 min boil.

Ferment at 67F

Brewing Notes
The HEX seems to be performing well. Strike temp was a little low but I was able to raise the temp by almost 1.5F per minute. The old HEX was a bit over 1F per minute, so this seems to be performing at least as well as the original.

Brewhouse efficiency came in at 84.01% on this batch. This is consistent with the old equipment, so I'm glad I'm not seeing any huge differences.

OG 12.9P, 1.052

Update 5/18/2013
I put this one on tap a few weeks ago. This is a very good beer with some really nice bready and biscuit flavors. It has a real nice hop/malt balance; definitely lower hop flavor and aroma than my last SNPA clone but a great beer nonetheless.

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Heat Exchanger Redesign

Finished HEX

I recently decided to build an upgraded version of my heat exchanger. The old one is based on a Rubbermaid cooler and has worked well but I know at some point the plastic is going to crack. I also thought I could have done a better job enclosing the element connections. Another issue is the half coupling used to mount the element; it has a tendency to pool water around the base of the element resulting in some rusting. This time I’ll be using a stainless nut that should allow the water to drain away from the element base. More on mounting the elements later.

My redesign is inspired by "The Electric Brewery" brew system. Kal's system is extremely well thought out and I’ve borrowed some of his ideas in the past for my own setup. Kal uses a HERMS coil in his HLT and I believe this design works well, but I really like the size of my HEX and the flexibility that comes from using a standalone HEX (e.g. the ability to change mash temps independently of the HLT temps). I figured I could take Kal’s design and implement it on a smaller scale and retain the flexibility and functionality of my design.

I started looking into vessels that I could modify to suit my needs. I wanted stainless steel so that it was easy to clean and would last a long time. I ended up settling on a 2.25 gallon Bain Marie pot that I picked up at my local Asian market. It seems to be well-made and at $10.99 it was pretty cheap. The material is thin but these things are made to be repeatedly submerged in boiling or near boiling water, so it should hold up to mashing temperatures.

I also bought some used Greenlee radio chassis punches off eBay. These punches were used to create the holes for mounting the HERMS coil (13/16”) and heating element (1 ¼”). The 13/16” Greenlee punch creates perfect sized holes for mounting ½” fittings which is what I’m using. The punches are really nice because they give you a perfectly round burr-free hole. They can be a little pricey if you buy them brand new, but if you’re patient you can usually find used ones on eBay for half the price of new.

All fittings on the HEX are weldless and are Blichmann-style as described on Kal’s site. If you’re considering doing something like this I highly recommend checking out Kal’s site first because he as some great information.

Drilling the Bain Marie Pot

Marking the pot for drilling

My design called for mounting the HEX input/output through the wall of the pot so I needed to drill a couple holes. Going through the side of the pot will allow the coil to drain better after each use. Compared to my original design, it will also allow for better clearance when attaching hoses or moving the temp probe from the startup position to the recirculation position.

I marked the pot 1.25 inches on vertical center from the top and bottom of pot. I started out with smaller bits then worked up to larger bits until I was able to use the 13/16” punch. If you haven’t drilled stainless steel before, it’s worth mentioning that it work hardens; the hotter it gets, the harder it gets. When drilling it’s important to go slow, use a fair amount of pressure, and use lubricant to keep it from heating up too much. 4-in-1 oil works well for this as does vegetable oil and I’ve heard of people also using motor oil.

Like my original build, the heating element will be mounted through the bottom of the pot. The bottom was drilled out like the side and the 1 ¼” punch was used to create the hole for the water heater element.

Mounting the Heating Element

Sink drain wrench

Due to space limitations, I mounted the heating element through the bottom of the pot rather than the side like in Kal’s HLT. Except for that, the mounting design is basically the same as Kal’s. Kal has great step by step directions on his site, so I won’t repeat them here. The key components are a 1” stainless nut, o-ring, washer, stainless double gang blank cover, double gang box, and an all-weather cover.

One thing I had to contend with was due to the shape of the pot there wasn't enough room to tighten the element nut with a regular wrench. This isn't an issue when you mount the element through the side of a pot. I ended up buying a sink drain wrench and modding it into a custom crowfoot-style wrench. I used my grinder to remove some material from the jaws to get it to fit the nut. I also trimmed off the excess where needed to get it to fit inside the pot. Th image to the left is what I ended up with and I must say that it gripped the nut very well and allowed me to really tighten it down.

Forming and Mounting the HERMS Coil
I decided to use copper tubing again for my HERMS coil. I was considering using stainless tubing but it is notoriously difficult to bend by hand without kinking; the tighter the radius the more difficult it is. Considering the relatively small diameter of my pot, even the copper was somewhat difficult to bend without kinking. I used 10 feet of ½” I.D. copper tubing and formed it in three stages. First was shaping it into a rough cylindrical-shaped coil. Next I wrapped the tubing around a mini crockpot to refine the shape and tighten it up a bit. Lastly I used a roll of duct tape to form an even tighter coil. There was some slight deformation of the tubing, but not too much and no kinks.

Ports for input/output

I used 90 degree elbows on the ends of the coiled tubing to transition to rigid copper pipe. Stainless compression fittings attach to the rigid pipe, which connect to stainless nipples to form the bulkhead. This is attached to the pot Kal/Blichmann style which forms a very solid and water tight connection. It’s also worth mentioning, I had to use an assortment of 45 degree fittings to clear the heating element at the bottom of the coil.

Miscellaneous Fittings and Final Assembly

Test fitting the coil

Pot filled with water and testing for leaks

The fittings on this project are by far the most expensive part. Stainless isn't cheap, but I think it’s worth it in this case. All the threaded fittings where wrapped in Teflon tape then everything was assembled and leak tested. I still need to order a 1/4" stainless fitting for the temp probe, but it's basically ready to use. Next week will be the inaugural brew using the new heat exchanger.

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Lambic

Today I'm brewing up my first ever Lambic style beer. This is a sour style from Belgium and is the one that's responsible for getting me hooked on sour ales. I haven't made one before because Lambics take quite a while to mature...typically longer than a Flanders Red. That said, I'm so happy with the way my first Flanders Red turned out that I wanted to give this style a try. This will most likely end up a fruit lambic, but I'm not sure exactly which fruit yet...probably a kriek (cherries).

A lot of people are familiar with Lindemans line of lambics. Their fruit lambics are back-sweetened, and while I think they're really good it's not something that I intend to do. I will be using the Roeselare yeast blend instead of some of the other lambic blends. I've had great success with this blend so far and really like the flavor profile it develops.

Here's a link to the BJCP guidelines for the style.

Here's the recipe as I made it:

4.5 # Briess Pale Malt
3.0 # Weyermann Pilsener Malt
5.0 # Flaked Wheat
3.0 oz Aged Hops (90 min)
Rice Hulls (a couple handfuls)
0.5 t Wyeast Yeast Nutrient
1 Wyeast Roeselare Blend 3763 (no starter)

Dough in at 113F for 15 min. Raise temp to 122F for 15 minutes. Raise temp to 149F for 45 minutes. Raise to 158F for 30 minutes. Mash out at 169F.

90 minute boil.

As for ferm temps, it will be in the ferm chamber at 68F for a few weeks then will be moved to my utility room (around 68F seasonally) for aging. This will be fermented in a Better Bottle for the next year or so.

Brewing Notes
The original recipe called for 7.5 pounds of Pilsner malt; I thought I had enough on hand but ended up substituting 4.5 pounds of American 2 row. Other than that, everything went well. Efficiency on this batch was a hair over 85%. The starting gravity is 16.8P (1.069), very close to the Beersmith prediction of 1.068. The aged hops for this batch came from Hops Direct and are their Aged/Choice Debittered Hops which are Willamette. Here are a few pics of the brew session.

During the Mash

Notice the stainless scrubby for filtering the hops

3 ounces of aged hops

After the hop addition...looks like chile verde

Update 3/4/2013
I checked on the brew this morning before I went to work and there didn't appear to be any activity, but when I got home from work this evening there was a lot of krausen. The yeast blend was only a couple weeks old, so it was very fresh compared to the ones I used in Flanders #2 and #3.

Update 1/19/2014
I posted an update on several sours back in November, and this lambic has progressed nicely. I decided it was time to go ahead and get this on some fruit. I'm going to go ahead and split this batch with half going onto three pounds of red raspberries and the other half going onto 4.5 pounds of tart cherries. I picked up the raspberries in the frozen fruit section of the local Whole Foods. Trader Joe's or Wallyworld would have been cheaper but they only had berry blends in stock. I got the tart cherries in the frozen fruit section at Costco. I'm not sure if they always carry tart cherries but they had them at a really good price for $10/3lbs bag.

I want to get the fresh fruit character into this beer, so I'm not going to do the pasteurization method that I used for my Belgian Red. Instead I decided to sanitize the fruit with potassium metabisulfite. For both fruits, I dissolved 1/8 teaspoon of  potassium metabisulfite into about 1/4 cup water, then poured it over the fruit. I left it uncovered overnight, stirring periodically. This should kill of any wild bacteria and yeast on the fruit while ensuring I get that bright fresh fruit character.

Update 7/7/2014

I bottled the Framboise half about a week ago. I re-yeasted with Red Star Premier Cuvée to help ensure carbing/conditioning doesn't take too long. I used a fine mesh hop sack to try to filter out the raspberry leftovers but some still made it into the bottles. I was planning on entering this into a competition but now I'm not so sure. Hopefully it will settle into a nice compact sediment layer, but right now it doesn't look as good as I'd like for a competition.

Update 7/26/2015
I recently bought a pH meter for checking the pH of sours, also pH of the mash. The kriek half of this batch has been sitting in a 3 gallon keg for about a year. I was doing a bunch of bottling today, so I figured I'd check the pH. The reading came in at 3.13, a bit higher than I'd anticipated given how bracingly sour it was last year. The sourness has definitely rounded out a bunch; it's still very sour, but it's mellowed a lot. Color is also a bit of a darker red, almost burgundy compared to the pinkish red of a year ago.

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Blood Orange Hefeweizen

I picked up a copy of Extreme Brewing by Sam Calagione not too long ago. It's probably geared more towards beginning brewers since all the recipes are extract-based. However, it's filled with lots of good information for intermediate and advanced brewers too...especially when it comes to fruit and spice additions, how much to add and when.

On the extract note, my club has an extract meeting coming up soon (at least 50% of fermentables must come from extract), so I figured I'd give one of the recipes from Extreme Brewing a shot. One that jumped out at me was the Blood Orange Hefeweizen. I really like a well-made fruit beer and I also feel like I need a break from the high gravity beers I tend to brew in the winter. This brew lets me kill two birds with one stone.

It's been a long time since I brewed an extract beer and I have to say I was a bit surprised by the cost of extract. This batch (with blood oranges, yeast, hops, specialty grains, and DME) cost me around $50.  I probably could have done an all-grain version for around $30. It's still probably cheaper when you factor in the AG equipment and gadgets I've bought over the years, but I still had a bit of sticker shock. Anyway, below is how I made my version (I tweaked it a little so it's not quite the same as the original).

5.0 # Muntons Wheat DME (added at 15 min)
12.0 oz Rahr White Wheat Malt
8.0 oz Weyermann Pilsner Malt
04.0 oz Briess Crystal 10L
04.0 oz Flaked Wheat
05.0 oz Hallertau (60 min)
05.0 oz Saaz (20 min)
05.0 oz Hallertau (5 min)
05.0 oz Saaz (5 min)
8 small Blood Oranges
Whirlfloc
Wyeast Yeast Nutrient
White Labs WLP320 in a 1L starter

Specialty grains were steeped around 153F for about 45 minutes.  I didn't measure the amount of water but I'd guesstimate I had about two quarts. The tea was then added to the boil kettle along with 5 gallons of water for a total volume of about 5.5 gallons. DME was added the last 15 minutes of the boil to avoid darkening of the wort as much as possible.

The original recipe called for 4 medium oranges; my local supplier only had smaller ones so I upped the count to eight. To prepare the blood oranges, I took the zest from four along with the peeled and diced fruit from all eight and added that to 80 oz of water. This was brought to 160F then allowed to cool. The liquid and fruit were added to the fermenter while I chilled the wort. It was quite red so it'll be interesting to see the final color of this beer.

I want this to be more of an American style hefe without a lot of banana or clove character, so fermentation is starting out at 63F and I'll bump it to 65F over the first few days.

Brewing Notes
No issues with this brew. One nice thing about extract, the brew day was much shorter and there was less equipment to clean. O.G. came in a hair over 11.6 P (about 1.046). My plate chiller got the wort down to about 50F, so it's currently warming up in the ferm chamber. The oranges smelled awesome going into the fermenter; I hope this doesn't get scrubbed out too much during fermentation. I have the fruit and zest tied up in a knee-high nylon stocking...trying to avoid the messy sludge that I had with the peach/apricot wheat a little while back. This should end up being a nice refreshing and light beer as the weather begins to warm this spring.

Update 2/18/2013
This brew is still happily fermenting away.  I added 2 teaspoons of pectic enzyme today.  Normally you'd add this to prevent chill haze in fruit beers but since this is a hefe I'm expecting it to be cloudy. I'm told that it can also break down the cell walls of the fruit resulting in better flavor/color extraction from the fruit. I figured I'd give it a try and see what happens. There's still a bit of krausen in the fermenter so I'll probably let this go another week before racking to a keg.

Update 2/27/2013
This went into the keg today. It finished at 1.011 for an ABV of 4.65%, which is great for a session beer especially with warmer weather around the corner. It has some great orange aromas so I'm really looking forward to trying this when it's carb'd up.

Update 3/12/2013
I pulled a sample of this tonight. This is a really good hefe. The blood orange is noticeable, but not overpowering so you can really taste the base wheat beer behind it. Very tasty and very refreshing. It makes me want to hang out on the back patio. I'll definitely be making this again, next time as an all-grain version.

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Dark Saison 2013

I was so happy with the way my two Saisons turned out this year that I decided I'd like to brew a dark version for my first 2013 brew session. Dark Saison isn't an officially recognized BJCP style so it falls under 16E Belgian Specialty Ale. The Saison style itself is a pretty broad category with a lot of room for experimentation. That's even more so the case with Dark Saisons.

Speaking of experimentation, I've never used Midnight Wheat Malt or raisins in a recipe before so this will be fun. The midnight wheat will contribute a lot of color but is said to be similar to de-bittered malt in that it lacks the astringency associated with dark roasted malts. I was originally planning on going with a full pound of Midnight Wheat, but after talking to Cody at Salt City Brew Supply, I scaled it back to half a pound. As for the raisins, I'm using Trader Joe's Thompson Seedless Raisins. These raisins are not treated with sulfur dioxide or any other preservatives per the label. I'm hoping some of the raisin character carries through to the finished beer but that may be asking a from only 6 ounces. I may end up adding more raisins in the secondary if it seems to be lacking character. The reason I'm using raisins is I got to try a Dark Saison a couple years ago at Beachwood BBQ in Seal Beach. It was a sour saison and had been aged and/or brewed with raisins which added some really nice complexity to the beer. I don't expect to get the same level of sourness out of my beer, but I'm hoping for something that is complex and will age well.

As for the yeast, I saved the WLP644 Brettanomyces bruxellensis Trois from my Funky Saison and will be re-using it in this batch. So this will be a 100% brett fermentation as well. Since this yeast has been sitting dormant in the fridge for a while, I made a 1 liter starter.

Here's the recipe as I'm making it:

9.0 # Weyermann Pilsner Malt
2.0 # Briess Dark Wheat Malt
0.5 # Briess Midnight Wheat
0.5 # Special B
0.5 # Acidulated Malt
2.0 oz Styrian Goldings (60 min)
1.0 # Belgian Candi Sugar (10 min)
6.0 oz Raisins, pureed (10 min)
2.0 oz Saaz (5 min)
0.25 t Bitter Orange Peel (5 minutes)
Zest from a navel orange (5 minutes)
Whirlfloc
Wyeast Yeast Nutrient
White Labs WLP644 Brettanomyces bruxellensis Trois

Mash at 147F for 90 minutes. 90 minute boil. Start fermentation at 72F then raise to 85F over a few days.

Brewing Notes
Brew session went well. I got started a little later than I'd planned, so I didn't finish cleaning up until about 7pm. This was due to kegging both my Rauchbier 2012 and my Mannish Boy Bourbon Barrel Barleywine. I've said it before, but I'm really thankful I can brew in my garage rather than outside. Right now it's a nippy 4F outside. The garage was probably 40F...still chilly but a heck of a lot better than 4F.

The only problem I ran into during the brew session was a chilled the brew a little too much. I was shooting for about 70F but chilled to 60F, so it's currently in the ferm chamber warming up. One of these days I'll get around to installing a thermometer on the chiller output.

Update 1/15/2013
I checked the ferm temps when I got home from work last night and it was right at 72F. Not bad considering the high outside was only 5F. It may seem a little odd to brew a Saison in the dead of winter, but I'm hoping this will have developed some nice brett character by the time the weather starts to warm up. I pitched the yeast last night and there's now a nice layer of krausen on top. I just bumped it up a half a degree and will continue to do that morning and night over the next few days.

As I mentioned above, I wasn't sure the 6 ounces of raisins would be enough to provide much raisin character in the finished beer. I'm glad to say the aroma of raisins was quite noticeable when I pitched the yeast. I'd expect some of the character to get scrubbed out during primary fermentation, but I think it's a good sign of things to come.

Update 1/22/2013
Not much of an update, but I did crack open the lid on my ferm chamber tonight. This one definitely smells interesting. Like the Funky Saison I brewed back in June, I'm picking up tropical fruit aromas along with a little bit of banana, and something else I can't quite place. It doesn't smell like the raisins, but it is somewhat fruity/estery.

Ferm temps are up to 80F now. I think I'm going to have a hard time hitting 85F given the cold weather we've had in Utah lately, but based on the aromas coming out of the ferm chamber I don't think it's going to be lacking fruity character.

I'll probably check the gravity this weekend and also taste a sample. On that note, I realized I forgot to check the starting gravity before I pitched my yeast. I'm guessing terminal gravity will be around 1.005. ABV should end up in the 9-10% range.

Update 1/26/2013
Checked the gravity with my refractometer today. It is ballpark-sh at best since I forgot to get my OG (knowing the OG is critical if you use a refractometer rather than a hydrometer). Assuming my gravity was near the Beersmith prediction (1.079) today's reading of 9P would translate to approx 1.010 and 9.18% ABV. I think it can still drop at least three more points, so this will be staying in the ferm chamber at least another week.


Update 2/18/2013
I racked this to a glass carboy on 2/9/2013 to free up my conical for my Blood Orange Hefeweizen. It's been sitting in my office at about 68F ever since. My plan is to cold crash it and add gelatin in about a week. It looks very dark in the carboy, but I don't know that I'd call it black. It's probably more of a dark brown with deep ruby highlights. I'm hoping the gelatin will help pull any chill haze causing proteins out of suspension so that it has good clarity when held up to the light. Hopefully this will be in the bottle by 3/2/2013.

Update 2/27/2013
I bottled this batch tonight. It had dropped pretty clear so I decided to skip the gelatin and go ahead and bottle it. This beer is definitely dark...it looked like motor oil as I racked it into the bottling bucket. Assuming the Beersmith prediction of 1.079 for the O.G. is close, this finished at 1.006 for an ABV of 9.69%. I tasted a small sample and it was very good. There's already a bit of brett character and I'm interested to see how it tastes once it's carb'd up.

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