Update: I Got Some Hops

I was unable to grow any hops this year due to our move into our first house in mid/late May (YAY!).  My crowns were out of the ground in the sun for a couple hours and once I got them in the soil 5 of the 8 didn't grow at all, and the other 3 grew a small amount.  I was able to get hops from Oakshire Brewing's garden last year, but with their expansion and dropping the farmhouse next door they hadn't strung them up or cared for them in the last month.  I got an email from the brewmaster yesterday saying that they had continued to grow and climb the fence and were mine for the taking if I wanted them.  He even went next door to the farmhouse and asked the new tenants if they would mind me coming around and getting the hops on their side.  They were amicable and I was able to cut off all the bines on the Centennial and Chinook plants (left the Fuggles as I am not a big fan of them nor do I make many English beers).  Unfortunately their Cascade didn't make it this year.  

I was able to score 5 oz of Centennial (which is fine since it throws an annoying floral character that I don't care for) and 36 oz of Chinook.  Those are wet weights so I will have less once they are dried.  We had a hop picking party on our front porch once I got the bines home, even my 3 year old got in on it.  We separated the Chinooks into 4 large paper bags and the Centennial is all inside a standard paper grocery bag.  They are in the garage to dry out over the next few days.  Once they are dried I will re-weigh them and package them in vacuum seal bags in 1-2 oz quantities for freezer storage.  I might have a chance to help a local farm-brewery pick their hops this weekend and score some of those as well.  Hoping to get my hands on some Cascades for the future brew year too.

UPDATE: Hops, Lagers, Experiments

It has been awhile since I last posted, and wanted to get something up here, including a few things that don't need there own individual posts.  After transplanting the hops after the move and installing irrigation for them, only 3 have any growth: Santiam, Chinook, and Blisk.  The growth is very little, maybe a foot or two max, and very thin.  The rest of the hops aren't producing anything at all.  My understanding is that the late move and time out of the ground shocked the plants and they are going to be fine next year.  Keeping them watered to ensure good roots for the next season.

I haven't posted a recipe in awhile now.  The reason for this is because I have brewed 3 batches that take longer to ferment.  I did an extract Berlinerwiesse fermented with only yogurt.  This beer was intended to be a quick sour.  It was quick, only 4 weeks and it was down to 1.003, but it never really soured.  The Lacto strains in the yogurt created CO2 and alcohol instead of acid, and lots of DMS.  I am still debating what to do with this batch.  I have a few strains of Brett right now that I am thinking of adding to it for a few months, then adding fruit to it as well for next summer.

I also brewed 2 American Pilsners, 1 classic with Saaz, Liberty, and Sterling, the other is New School with Simcoe, Mosaic, and Calypso.  They are just starting to lager now and should be kegged by the weekend.  I have found that brewing lagers isn't really my cup of tea.  I can enjoy them when I finally get to drink them, but they just take so long.  My fermentation fridge is locked up for 5 weeks, then I have to clear kegs for them, and then I have to wait another couple weeks for them to lager before I have 2 kegs to drink through before I can put anything else on.  I also find that by the time they are done fermenting and ready to drink I have had a shift in tastes and don't really want to drink 5 gallons of American Pils.

I am also trying to culture up some Lacto off of grains.  I will have a full write up of the process in a few weeks when it is done, but for now, I am using grains and apple juice in a heating blanket set on high to get a culture going and have had success so far.  I will be stepping it up tonight to get more and hopefully with multiple steps should be able to kill off any enterobacter as the pH drops and some alcohol is produced.

DIY Project: Hop Sprinklers

Last year I tried running a drip irrigation system on my hops.  I continually blew the cap off the end due to the pressure.  This year I wanted to install something a little hardier to water my hop yard.  My pastor is moving away and had a lot of 1" PVC pipe he was getting rid of and I was able to get nearly 30' of it.  My original design was to just run 40' and drill 1/16" holes in front of the hops and leave it above ground.  The UV light from the sun would eventually degrade the PVC, but the frost would burst it if there was any water in the line once Winter came.  

Recipe: Let's Partigyle (2nd Runnings Best Bitter)

When making a beer as large as the Callen you inevitably end up with sugars left in the mash tun even after pulling 8.5 gallons of wort to boil.  Adding more sparge water to the mash and running off the additional sugars to make a smaller beer is a great way to get the best bang for your buck as well as getting another beer out of all that work.  Back in the day this method (partigyle) was used quite a bit, and some English breweries still use it to make their classic beers such as Fuller's.

Honestly I was expecting more that 16% efficiency, but then again, I did sparge with 120*F water.  Seeing that the OG was lower than I expected, I added a little bit of sugar as well as what DME I had on hand (not much), and dropped back the bittering hops drastically.  One difficulty with these beers is that the bulk of the body and flavor ended up in the main beer leaving the second beer flabby and thin.  To compensate for this I added a quart of the first runnings to the kettle as well as topping off the mash with a half pound of British Dark Crystal for a boost of body and fresh crystal flavor.  I also added 1/2 oz of American Oak to alter the mouthfeel slightly and add another layer of depth to the beer (and for a little throw back to when English beers were fermented in oak barrels).

Last year I brewed a Scottish 80- for the small beer, but this year I have been itching to brew another Bitter and I have quite a bit of Challenger and Fuggle hops so I went with a Bitter as my second beer.

Stats:

4.5 gallons

1.036 OG

1.012 Est Fg

3.5% Est ABV

39 IBUs

14 SRM

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Fermentables:

11.0#  Great Western Pale Malt

9.5#  Crisp Maris Otter
2.0# MFB Munich

0.75# MFB CaraMunich 40L
0.75# MFB CaraMunich 120L
0.75# Crisp British Dark Crystal
0.12# Crisp Roast Barley
0.50# Crisp British Dark Crystal 75/85L
0.50# Table Sugar
0.26# DME

65 Minutes @ 158*F

16% Extract Efficiency

15% Brewhouse Efficiency

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75 Minute Boil:

60 mins - 0.80 oz Home Grown Challenger ~ 7.5AA%
15 mins - 0.80 oz Home Grown Challenger ~ 7.5AA%
15 mins - 0.80 oz Home Grown Fuggles ~ 6.7AA%
2 mins - 0.80 oz Home Grown Challenger ~ 7.5AA%
2 mins - 0.80 oz Home Grown Fuggles ~ 6.7AA%
DH - 0.80 oz Home Grown Challenger ~ 7.5AA%
DH - 0.80 oz Home Grown Fuggles ~ 6.7AA%

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Fermentation:

Chilled to 65*F

5 gallon glass carboy

1469 West Yorkshire & 1056 American Ale - 1/4 pint of slurry from Brown Ale
5 Days @ 62-64*F

2 Days @ 68*F
7 Days @ Ambient Garage - Dry Hopping

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Additional:

Gypsum 5/8 t (mash), 3/4 t (boil)

Calcium Chloride 3/4 t (mash), 1/2 t (boil)

3 Taps Yeast Nutrient
0.50 oz American Oak (primary)

Fermentation took a little longer to kick off than the Wee Heavy due to the lower pitch rate and sleepy yeast.  By 36 hours signs were starting to show, and by 50 hours the beer had a 1/2" of soapy foam on top with a layer of brown sludge.  The soapy foam dissipated later that day, and on the next morning there was a huge krausen that threatened a blow off.  I am hoping that this is due to the 2 yeast strains since this is the same thing that happened with my 2 Lambics.

Review: Leaf Turner - Fresh Hop Brown Ale

Fall is quickly setting in here in Eugene.  The temps are dropping, sunlight fades, massive cloud cover the sky, rain pours down, the leaves change to brilliant hues of reds and yellows.  As it is clear that the warmth and vibrancy of Summer is gone, much of the desire for a crisp, dry, light, pale beer, and this beer does a great job of quenching the thirst of a shifted palate.  Smokey, fruity, mild chocolate, full, sweetish, balanced, malty, just enough alcohol to help warm you on a cool night.  The name is truly fitting.

Look: Thick creamy super sticky beige head sits atop a clear brown beer with ruby highlights.  Sticky lace.

Aroma: Smoky wood and campfire present themselves first with milk chocolate following close behind. They lead into pecans, biscuits, and fruits, figs & plums as well as peaches.  Citrus rind and light pine finish off the nose, very subtle and fruity.

Flavor: Much like the nose the flavor begins with smokey chocolate leading quickly to sweet caramel and toffee, toasted biscuity malt, nuts.  Fruitiness hits as well with more peaches, followed by Christmas tree and sweet breads.  As it warms there is a distinct roasty bitterness.

Mouthfeel: Big creamy mouthfeel like Nitro, balanced.  Lightly astringent finish when cold, not sure if it is from the roasted grains or the Pickling Lime.  Carbonation cleanses the palate.  Bitterness is perfect.

Overall: For a Wet Hop beer the hops are subdued, but it actually works perfect for this balanced Brown.  The smoke malt is more pronounced in my beer than in Sierra Nevada's Tumbler who I stole the malt bill from, bringing a pronounced smokiness up front.  The yeast plays very nice in this beer keeping it malty, nutty, fully attenuated and yet full and creamy.  Lots of layers in this beer.  The finish is off though, the astringency takes away from an otherwise great beer.  Definitely want to re-brew this one next year.

Recipe: Just Freshin' Up - Wet Hopped Red Ale

The hop harvest has come, and gone, leaving me with quite a bit of hops to do something with.  That something was the question.  I was torn on whether to brew a Wet Hop ale, or to dry them out and package them up for future use.  Seeing that my garage is overrun with wild yeast do to my sour program that inhabits most of that area and it being my brew house, I thought that drying my hops in the open air of that space might not be the best option since I may want to Dry Hop with my harvest at some point.  The spare room was taken by my dad who was up visiting, and the temps in Eugene are barely in the upper 70s so to dry them out properly I would need to run the heater.  This all seemed to point towards doing a Wet Hop beer.  I had been toying with the idea for awhile, and had a Red recipe worked up for it.

I was able to harvest 12.5oz of Chinook, 5.25oz Brewer’s Gold, 2.5oz AlphAroma, and 1.5oz of Shinsuwase.  I also have some Cascades that aren’t quite ready yet, as well as my Santiam, and a few Brewer’s Gold left to pick.  I packaged all of my 1.36# of hops together in a vacuum seal bag and put it in the freezer until they hit the brew.  I will pull them out just after knock out and get them into the batch, dropping the temp some, and getting as much of the aromatics into the beer as possible.

For the base, I wanted something with a great malt backbone for setting the hops against.  I went with Marris Otter for a little more of a malty, toasty base, a touch of Vienna for a little more malt complexity; MFB Kiln Amber will add some breadiness, add a sprinkle of Roast Malt for color and to help the finish dry out.  For the caramel malts, I decided to go with 2 CaraMunich malts instead of standard 2 row crystals.

Stats:

5.4 gallons

1.067 OG

1.016 Fg

6.6% ABV

63 IBUs

15 SRM

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Fermentables:

11.0#  Marris Otter

1.0#  Vienna Malt

1.0#  CaraMunich 40L

0.4#  CaraMunich 120L

0.4#  MFB Kiln Amber

2.0oz Crisp Roast Barley 695L
0.25# Rice Hulls

45 Minutes @ 150*F

76% Extract Efficiency

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60 Minute Boil:

60 mins - 1.5 oz Zeus 16.4AA%

WP @ 150 20 mins - 12.5oz Chinook (Wet) 

WP @ 150 20 mins - 5.25oz Brewer’s Gold (Wet) 

WP @ 150 20 mins - 2.5oz AlphAroma (Wet) 

WP @ 150 20 mins - 1.5oz Shinsuwase (Wet) 

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Fermentation:

WLP 001 Cal Ale - Slurry from Oakshire

Aerated 25 minutes

6 gallon Better Bottle

6 days @ 66

8 days @ 69

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Additional:

Gypsum 5/8 t (mash), 3/4 t (boil)

Epsom Salts 1/4 t (mash), 1/4 t (boil)

Calcium Chloride 1/2 t (mash), 1/2 t (boil)

Despite getting less Extract Efficiency (76% compared to 82%), I still hit my numbers spot on due to a lot less absorption from the hops.  Everyone says that Wet Hop ales will kill your efficiency and just suck up all the wort.  So far (last year as well), I just don't find it to be so, but I do squeeze the hop sacs dry before racking as well which helps.

Pitched @ 8:30pm, fermenting @ 5:45am.

Hop Harvest Pending

Sorry for the long break from posting.  I had been in California for two weeks as my mother suffered from cancer and was taken to glory.  I don't have anything in the works at this time outside of an impending hop harvest, so I thought I would let you all enjoy some great shots of my hops awaiting the final stages of maturity, as well as a shot of some seeds from my Brewer's Gold plant.

Review: BANGARANG - Thud Butt

I wanted a Hop Bomb that would make you BANGARANG!, and I got one, and I have the lost volume to prove it too.  I underestimated the impact that the dry hops would have on the final volume, as well as the difficulty of getting 5 oz of hops into the Better Bottle, and out again.  The bitterness is low for the style and needs to be adjusted.  I attribute this to using the home grown hops since I was guessing at AA% for the bulk of the hops in this brew.  A little more gypsum wouldn't hurt either.  There is a sweetness that is not malt derived that came from all the hops, it might be best to cut back on the additions next time.  The color is also darker than I wanted.  Other than these few details the beer tastes great.  Super dank and hoppy with big citrus and a supporting malt backbone that finishes dry.  Alcohol is present yet clean.  I will be sad when this beast is gone.

Look: Pours a rich, hazy amber w/ a thick, dense, long lasting beige head that leaves thick lacing throughout. Sparkles.

Aroma:  Smells of big resiny hops, grapefruit peel, citrus, orange zest, dank, tropical fruits, pepper, spicy hops, sweet toffee and light caramel, spicy & floral alcohol, raisins.

Taste:  Taste mirrors the nose.  Dank hops, resin, chocolate, citrus peels, spicy alcohol w/ hints of rose, big hops, passion fruit, spicy hops/pepper, raisins, lightly burnt sugar.  Sweet hops.  No off flavors.  Nos solventy alcohol.

Mouthfeel:  Sweet, creamy, full body, spicy alcohol warms the throat, semi-dry finish, drinkable.  Bitterness comes in the finish and, with the carbonation and low FG cleans the palate, but the bitterness is fairly low for the style, more English IPA then American.

Overall:  Big Hops!  Hops shine in the flavor and aroma, though not in the finish.  Malt plays a great supporting role.  Hops give a heavy resin and sweetness.  Color is a little dark.  With a few adjustments this beer will be all the glory it was supposed to be, but it definitely makes you BANGARANG!