Big Brew Day 2014 -Berliner Weisse 2014

The first Saturday in May is always National Homebrew Day/Big Brew Day and for the third year in a row we're hosting a brew session. This year two of my friends will be brewing as well; one an all-grain 5 gallon batch, and one an all-grain 1 gallon batch. For me, I decided to do a 10 gallon batch of a Berliner Weisse inspired beer. The Berliner I made last year was one of my favorite beers I've ever made. This year will be similar to last year's, lacto gets a head start before pitching yeast. I'm using two different yeast blends this year; half will get White Labs American Farmhouse Blend and half will get a blend I grew up from Jolly Pumpkin La Roja dregs. Both contain some sach (assuming some survived in the La Roja dregs) and brett. The La Roja likely also contains lacto and maybe some pedio.

The recipe is basically the same as last time except scaled up for 10 gallons. I did increase the amount of grain a bit to increase the gravity. Process is more or less the same as well. I'll be using a short-boil (15 min) method and the following process:

1. I'll be using 1/2 carbon filtered tap water and 1/2 RO water. This should help prevent any weird mineral/lactic acid flavors.
2. Seven days prior to brew day, add one packet of Wyeast 5335 Lactobacillus to 1L of 1.020 starter wort. Do not aerate! No stir plate! In fact, if possible, purge your starter container with CO2. Keep warm, preferably between 80-90F for a week.
3. On brew day after cooling wort, pitch  the 5335 starter and allow it to ferment for one week at 68F. Again, do not aerate!
4. After one week, add White Labs WLP670 to half and La Roja blend to the other half. Continue to ferment at 68F until finished.

Recipe

8.0 # Belgian Pilsner Malt

7.0 # Weyermann Pale Wheat Malt
1.0 # Rice Hulls 

2.0 oz Aged Debittered Hops (Mash hops, 0.0 IBU's)

1 package Wyeast 5335 Lactobacillus

1 package WLP670 American Farmhouse
1 La Roja dregs culture

Mash at 150F for 90 minutes. Mashout at 168F. 

Collect 10.5 gallons and boil for 15 min. Chill to 68F and pitch 5335. Ferment at 68F for 7 days before pitching WLP670/La Roja dregs

Update 5/12/2014

My wife and I were out of town for the weekend so I pitched the yeast blends a couple of days early on 5/8/2014. I think that was still plenty of time to get some good tartness.

Update 5/28/2014
Both beers are progressing nicely. The American Farmhouse version has a smallish pellicle while the JP version has a pretty mean and nasty looking one. Both have a noticeable acidic aroma. Both have also dropped pretty clear. I'll probably pull some samples this weekend and see where we're at.

Update 6/2/2014

I ran out of time and didn't get either version kegged this weekend. I'm going to give it a try sometime thes week.  

Update 6/24/2014

I got the JP version bottled last night. The  American Farmhouse version was bottled over a week ago. I had originally planned on kegging these but I didn't have any kegs available and I needed to free up the fermenters.

Update 7/7/2014

We cracked open a bottle of each of these for our Independence Day gathering. I'm really happy with the way both of these have turned out. The Farmhouse Blend version is more of a lemony tartness while the JP version is more of a cherry tartness. The JP version also has a bit more brett character, at least right now. 

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Barn Dance Pale Ale Re-Brew

Today I'm re-brewing my Barn Dance Pale Ale. I really liked how the first attempt turned out and judging by how fast it disappeared, so did my friends. I'm not changing much, but I am doubling the quantity of the late hop additions to try to get even more hoppy goodness out of the Amarillo and Chinook hops.

Here's the recipe as I'm making it for version 1.1:

5.25# Rahr Pale Malt - 68.3 % 

12.0 oz Briess Caramel Malt - 10L - 9.8 % 

12.0 oz Crisp Maris Otter - 9.8 % 

9.0 oz Briess Cara-Pils/Dextrine - 7.3 % 

6.0 oz Simpsons Golden Naked Oats - 4.9 % 

20.0 g Columbus - Boil 20 min

46.0 g Amarillo - Boil 5 min

23.0 g Chinook - Boil 5 min

1/2t Yeast Nutrient - 5 min

1/2 Whirlfloc - 5 min

1.0 pkg White Labs San Diego Super Yeast WLP090 in 1L starter

46.0 g Amarillo - Dry hop 

23.0 g Cascade - Dry hop

Mash at 151F for 60 min. 90 min boil. Ferment at 65F.

Brewing Notes
Slight process change, I went with a hop sack to try to contain the hop debris. Also, I added a couple 3/8" standoffs to my burner. I was having a problem venting exhaust gases during the boil if the burner was set too high resulting in some soot. This time no soot and the CO detector stayed at 0 through the whole brew session. I might bump up the dry hop additions on this as well.

Update 4/21/14
Just added the dry hops for this brew. I'm loving WLP090.

Update 4/24/14
Here's a short clip of the whirlpool in action. The flow was much better with the hop sack compared to the scrubby over the pickup tube.

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American Amber 2014

Today I brewed an American Amber. This recipe is based on the one from the CYBI episode for AVBC Boont Amber. The BJCP guidelines describe this style as, "Like an American pale ale with more body, more caramel richness, and a balance more towards malt than hops (although hop rates can be significant)." This is a good "gateway craft beer" that can be appreciated by just about anyone. Here's the recipe as I made it.

8 # Rahr Pale Malt (2 Row)
1 # Briess Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L
1 # Briess Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L
7.00 g Magnum - Boil 90.0 min
5.00 g Horizon - Boil 60.0 min
7.00 g Palisade - Boil 20.0 min
62.00 g Cascade - Hopback
English Ale (White Labs #WLP002)
1/2t Wyeast yeast nutrient
1/2 Whirlfloc

Mash at 152F. 90 minute boil. Ferment at 65F and allow to rise to 68F.

Brewing Notes
No real issues on this brew. The gravity came in at about 14.4P (1.058).

Update 4/30/14

I put this on tap a little while ago. Good beer but next time I think I'll try to increase the all around hop profile a bit. I'd prefer a few more IBU's as well as more flavor and aroma hops.

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Canadian Bacon

Today I fired up the smoker and made some homemade Canadian Bacon. This is my second time making this recipe. The first time I picked up the wrong kind of pork loin; they were really small so I had to tie two together in order to increase the diameter. It worked out but didn't slice up as nicely as it would have if it was one piece of larger diameter loin. Regardless, I made my wife a birthday breakfast of Eggs Benedict with the homemade Canadian Bacon and homemade hollandaise sauce. Not to toot my own horn, but it was pretty awesome. I also used some in sandwiches and such.

This recipe is based on one found in Charcuterie by Michael Ruhlman. Like a lot of the recipes in the book, this is really simple and yields excellent results. Not everything homemade is better than store bought, but in my opinion this Canadian bacon is heads and shoulders above what you'll find in your local deli.

For the Canadian bacon, you need one 4-5 pound pork loin. The pork loin was brined for about 48 hours then hot-smoked until it reached an internal temp of 150F. The recipe for the brine is as follows:

1.0 gallon water

350 grams Kosher salt

225 grams sugar

42 grams pink salt (Prague powder #1)

1 bunch fresh thyme

1 bunch fresh sage

2 cloves garlic

Combine all brine ingredients in a stockpot. Bring to a simmer and stir until salt and sugar is dissolved. Allow to cool to room temp then chill. Once chilled, add the pork loin (with a plate to keep it submerged) and allow it to brine in the fridge for 48 hours. 

After 48 hours, remove the loin from the brine and rinse well with cold water. Pat dry then place on a wire rack in the fridge for at least an hour and up to 12 hours. This forms a pellicle on the outside of the loin and helps improve the smoking process. Take the loin out of the fridge and allow it to warm to room temp while you get your smoker ready.

As for smoking wood, it really comes down to personal taste. For both batches, I used a blend of hickory, oak, and cherry and really liked the results. That's really about all there is to it. Like I said before, it's pretty simple but very tasty.

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Witbier 2014

It's been a while since I've done a Witbier. Blanche de Chambly from Unibroue is one of my wife's favorite summertime beers. Not to rub it in for those in the Midwest that are dealing with another polar vortex, but the weather in Utah has been pretty nice the past week. Today it's 54F but a couple days ago it was up in the mid-60's. Given the nicer weather, I've started thinking about warm weather beers. Witbiers are refreshing with their citrus and spice notes so they're a great choice as the weather warms.

This recipe is based on the one from Brewing Classic Styles. I'm using Wyeast's Canadian/Belgian Ale Yeast which is the yeast from Unibroue.

5.0 # Dingmans Pilsner
4.125 # Flaked Wheat
1.0 # Rolled Oats
0.25 # Weyerman Munich I
Rice hulls as necessary
40.0g Hallertauer  (60 min)
1.0g Dry Chamomile Flowers (5 min)
12.8g Coriander (5 min)
21.0g Bitter Orange Peel  (5 min)
21.0g Sweet Orange Peel (5 min)
Wyeast 3864 Canadian/Belgian Ale

Mash at 122F for 15 min. Mash at 154F for 60 min. 90 min boil. Ferment at 68F.

Brewing Notes
This is the first batch using my new whirlpool setup. Everything went well but the flow was a little lower than I'd hoped. The hop/trub filter was relatively clean, so I think the bottleneck was the pickup tube. I'm going to try using a hop sack on the next brew and run the pickup tube without a scrubby. Everything else went fine for this brew session and the fermenter was happily bubbling away the next morning.

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