Dark Mild: Brewing for Competition

This year my goal is to start entering beer in to competitions. I’ve never entered anything before but I would like to get some feedback from someone that doesn’t know me and will give honest feedback. I feel my beers are good, but it will be nice to see what others think. Normally I tend to not brew to “style,” put prefer to think of what I would like to drink and then create a beer based around that idea. I will be entering beers into style categories where I think they’ll fit but I also plan on brewing some beers specifically to fit style guidelines. The way I prefer to do this really isn’t that different then my normal process for creating a recipe. I read the BJCP style guideline for the specific style and design a recipe based off of the parameters provided and the taste that I would prefer. 

My English Dark Mild was my first attempt to specifically brew a beer based off of BJCP style guidelines. I think it came out quite well but there were some small adjustments that needed to be made to dial it into the style requirements. It was probably a touch too sweet, so I reduced the Crystal malt a bit, which also helped it to fit better into the alcohol percentage range. Previously it was on the high end of the style range. The other issue was that it was definitely over carbonated. I’ll have to work on that because I keg the beer and don’t have a duel regulator, so this will be a challenge. The entry of the competition is about a month away and the judging is about a week after that so I should have time to cold condition for a few weeks to help clarify the beer. 

I’ve also started to determine the corrective factor for my refractometer. I didn’t learn until recently that refractometers are not calibrated to measure wort so their measurements will be off from what they are reading. On top of that the standard gravity scale on a refractometer is virtually useless because Brix to SG is not a linear relationship. In order to correct my refractometer measurements I take a reading with a properly calibrated hydrometer followed by a reading with my refractometer and then use the following equation 

=Brix/(-1*616.868)+(1111.14*SG)-(630.272*SG²)+(135.997*SG³)

More information on the subject can be found here. Thanks to this revelation I found out that instead of being constantly under efficient, I’m much more efficient then I thought I was because my refractometer was not calibrated and I was reading the standard gravity measurements. Your average corrective factor should be between 1.1 and 0.9.

 

Beer Stats

Batch Size: 5.5 Gallons

Boil Time: 90 minutes

Estimated OG: 1.038

Measured OG: 1.038

Measured FG:1.010

ABV: 3.68%

SRM: 25^o

IBU: 18.5

Grain Bill

7.5 lbs - Pearl Malt

0.65 lbs – Crystal 80L

0.25 lbs – Chocolate Malt

0.5 lbs – Golden Naked Oats

0.5 lbs – Brown Sugar

Hop Schedule

1 oz – Fuggles – 60 minutes

Yeast

Wyeast 1335 – Brittish Ale II

Mash Schedule

154F –Single Infusion – 60 minutes

Notes:

1/9/15 – Brewed by myself. Added 1.5 grams of CaCl and 0.5 grams of Gypsum to the mash and 2.4 grams of CaCl and 0.8 grams of Gypsum to the sparge water with 6.4mL of 88% Lactic acid. Measured pre-boil gravity 1.038, added 1.25 gallons to bring it back down to 1.032. Accidently added hops at 90 minutes but ended up only boiling for 60 minutes to hit target gravity. Pitched 1L starter made the night before and added 45 seconds of pure O₂. Placed in beer room at 64^oF. Fermentation started that night.

1/11/15 – Fermentation up to 68^oF.

1/12/15 – Fermentation up to 71^oF to finish out the fermentation.

1/25/15 - Placed in chest freezer at 35F to cold crash.

1/27/15 - Racked to a keg set to 8 psi to add some carbonation. It might not need that much in the end. 

3/4/15 - First tasting. There is definitely an infection. Now it's a Stock ale :)

Project Gueuze: Or American Blended Wild Ale

Amazingly the time has finally come for the third and final year of Project Gueuze. Two years ago I set out to brew my own gueuze. If you’re not aware of what a Gueuze is I’ll explain. A Gueuze is a blend of 1, 2, and 3 year old Lambic that is spontaneously fermented and refermented in the bottle. The oldest Lambic imparts the most sourness while the youngest Lambic adds fresh yeast and sugar for carbonating as well as softening the acidity of the oldest Lambic. I did not spontaneously ferment nor do I live in the area nearby Brussels so I won’t refer to my “Lambic,” as such. By definition Gueuze is blended Lambic so I really can’t refer to it as Gueuze either. The title is a work in progress.

The first year I brewed a simple base similar to a traditional Lambic (60% Pale base and 30% wheat), aged hops, and pitched the dregs of a Cantillon Cuveé des Champions. For the second year I used the same base, the same hoping rate and used ECY20 Bug farm for the souring. For the final installment I kept everything the same but used a blend of Tilquin Gueuze à l’ancienne and Drie Fonteinen Golden Blend. 

Unfortunately I still have to wait another year until I can blend, but that is when the real fun happens. My plan is to blend each beer and naturally carbonate without the addition of yeast or sugar. This process will delay the carbonation, but it is the way Gueuze is made. Technically even after I blend I’ll have to wait a year until the bottle beer is ready, but I’ve already waited two years, what’s two more. I did a ten gallon batch so that I will have some more sour beer in the pipe line. 

Beer Stats

Batch Size: 10.5 Gallons

Boil time: 90 minutes

Estimated OG: 1.051

Measure OG: 1.049

Final OG: won’t know for a year

ABV: see above

SRM: 5^o

IBU: 0 (technically there are IBUs but most software will not account for it but I’ve read Cantillon classic Gueuze will run anywhere from 30 to 50 IBU)

Grain Bill

14lbs Pilsner Malt

7lbs White wheat

1lb Acid Malt

Hop Schedule

90 minutes – 5 year old Willamette – 4.5 ounces

Mash Schedule

60 minutes –Single infusion – 158^oF

Yeast

0.25L of Wyeast 1065 Slurry from Pecan Porter and Tilquin and Drie Fonteinen dregs

Notes:

1/1/15 – First beer of the year brewed by myself. No issues brewing other than coming in a little under gravity (I may not have now that I know my refractometer is not calibrated correctly). No salt additions. Chilled to 60^oF and pitched the yeast. 

1/3/15 – Signs of fermentation.

 

1/6/15 – Dreg starter developed a pellicle the day before. Split dreg starter between each batch. 

1/14/15 - Added a few oak cubes that I had sitting in some Crown Royal to one of the carboys. 

Breakfast Stout v2

I’ve had to put off brewing this beer for a while because I didn’t have any space in my chest keezer thanks to the keg of Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale. Early on in my brewing career I wanted to attempt to brew a Founder’s Breakfast Stout clone because Founder’s at the time was unavailable in Texas. Well since then things have changed dramatically in the Texas beer scene and Founder’s in one of the many new breweries to the Texas market which many of us never dreamed would come to Texas. As I’ve previously stated I generally don’t clone beers except for certain reasons (ie too expensive to buy or can’t get in my market), however, there I do have some exceptions to this rule. If I feel a beer is the best or one of the best at what it is I have no problem trying to brew that beer.  FBS falls into that category for me just as would Live Oak Hefeweizen. 

The last time I attempted to brew FBS I was not pleased with the coffee or chocolate addition results. This time I added the coffee beans straight into a keg for cold extraction in the beer, rather than using water and essentially diluting the coffee flavor and aroma. The other difference is that I decided to use cocoa powder instead of nibs. Last time I used nibs for fear of head retention reduction from the fatty oils in the cocoa powder. After some research I learned not all cocoa powders are created equal and that the Chrystal malt should be more than enough protection.  Most of the fat has been removed from cocoa powder leaving behind the acidic bitter chocolate flavor. The two different types that I considered are raw cocoa powder and Dutch processed cocoa powder. Dutch processed cocoa powder has been alkalinized to give it a darker color and a less bitter taste. Knowing that I decided to go with the raw unprocessed cocoa powder since what I like about FBS is the bitter dark chocolate flavor.  The only remaining question was when to add it. I decided to add it in two steps: first in the mash for what I’m hoping will provide more chocolate flavor and second towards the end of the boil, which I was hoping will extract some of the “bitterness.” 

Beer Stats

Batch size: 5.5 Gallons

Boil time: 90 minutes

Est Original Gravity: 1.084

Measured Original Gravity: 1.081

Measured Final Gravity: 1.020
ABV: 8.0%

SRM: 65^o

IBU: 63

Grain Bill

15lbs Pale Malt

0.25lbs Black Patent

1.25lbs Chocolate Malt

2lbs Flaked Oats

0.75lbs Crystal 120L

0.25lbs Roasted Barley

Hop Schedule

60 minutes - Magnum – 2 ounce

30 minutes - Willamette – 0.25

15 minutes – Cocoa powder – 1 ounce

0 minutes - Willamette – 0.25 

Mash Schedule

151^oF single infusion for 60 minutes – one ounce of cocoa powder added at 15 minutes

Yeast

0.25L slurry of Wyeast 1056 American Ale from Pecan Porter

Notes:

1/30/14 – Brewed by myself. Added 3 grams CaCl, 1 gram Gypsum, and .5 grams Baking Soda to the mash. Mash pH came in higher then I wanted so I added 1ml of 88% Lactic acid. I calculated lower mash pH from all of the roasted grains so I decided to add the baking soda, but I guess it wasn’t as low as I estimated. I added 1 ounce of cocoa powder into the mash towards the end and mixed it in. Added 1.5 ounces of cocoa powder with 15 minutes left in the boil. Chilled to 58^oF and added 90 seconds of pure O₂. Yeast pitched and placed in beer room which is at 66^oF.

1/31/14 – Fermentation has begun. 

1/8/15 – Temperature up to 69^oF to try to finish out fermentation.

1/14/15 - Placed into chest freezer to cold crash. Gravity down to 1.020

1/15/15 - Racked to a keg and added 3.75 ounces of Intelligentsia Mexican coffee to a bag and placed it in the keg.

1/17/15 - Removed the coffee beans after roughly 36 hours. Set pressure to 10psi to carbonate.

2/1/15 - First tasting. I couldn't be happier. I targeted a final pH of 4.58 that was measured from a glass of FBS and ended up with 4.62, pretty close in my book.

Juicy IPA

I took the opportunity of two weeks off from work to get some brewing done. Overall I brewed 20 gallons worth of beer over three separate batches. The first beer that I brewed was an IPA for a friend. She wanted a fruit forward IPA, which is right up my alley, so I had no problem brewing it for her. I quickly came up with a grain bill targeting a lighter SRM and a drier finish that wouldn’t conflict with the hop flavor. I knew right away that I was going to use some combination of Citra and Mosaic but I wasn’t sure how I was going to go about using them. While I enjoy Citra, it can vary from time to time and I’ve never really enjoyed Mosaic on its own. I think Mosaic is a good support hop, but not a good standalone hop. To avoid the beer becoming fruit juice like a Deschutes Fresh Squeezed, I decided to use come Cascade for bittering and underling aromatics. 

For this batch I also decided to use” hop bursting” for the first time. This technique involves adding all of your hops at flame out or just before flam out. The theory is that the hops will still impart bitterness but it will be more flavor than alpha acid pure bitterness, while preserving the aromatics better then boiling. I’ve used this in the past, but have always relied on some sort of 60 minute bittering addition out of fear that the beer will be too sweet. I’ve learned over time that the hops will still impart bitterness even if they are not “boiled,” but are at a temperature above 180^oF. I did add an addition of Cascade at 20 minutes just for a little more classic IPA bitterness, but not a pallet wrecker. For the rest of the hop additions, I basically just threw it together while I was heating the mash water. I pretty much just grabbed whatever my LHBS had in stock without any real plan on how I was going to use them. My goal was to layer the flavor and aroma with a hop addition at flame out, whirlpool, and hopback. I think the best IPAs have a layered aroma and flavor that is derived from specific time additions and specific hop ratios. 

The last technique I decided to try was to add my dry hops prior to the end of fermentation. From what I have read adding the hops while the yeast are still active will, first help to prevent oxidation and second allow the yeast to do some interesting things with the hop esters. It should, if theory is correct, produce more of the fruity aromatics from the hops, rather than the grassy fresh hop aromatics from dry hopping. You want to add the hops towards the end of fermentation so that they CO₂ produced by the yeast don’t blow the aromatics out of the beer. 

Beer Stats

Batch Size: 5.25 Gallons

Estimated OG: 1.064

Measured OG: 1.060 (updated)

Measured FG: 1.016

ABV: 5.8%

SRM: 7

IBU: 60.2

Grain Bill

9 lbs 2-row Pale Malt

1lb Vienna Malt

1lb Sugar

0.75 lbs Acid Malt

Hop Schedule

20 min – Cascade – .5 oz

30 min whirlpool – Citra – 1 oz

30 min whirlpool – Mosaic - .5 oz

30 min whirlpool – Cascade – 0.25 oz

30 min hopback – Citra – 1 oz

30 min hopback – Mosaic - .5 oz

30 min hopback – Cascade – 0.25 oz

Dry hop – 8 days – Citra – 2 oz

Dry hop – 8 days – Mosaic – 1 oz

Mash Schedule

148^oF – Single Infusion – 60 minutes

165^oF – Mash out

Yeast

Conan yeast slurry stepped up to 1.5L starter

Notes:

12/24/14 – Brewed with Danielle. Ended up being under gravity again but I recently learned that it might be because my refractometer needs to have a corrective calibration calculated. Apparently they routinely read under where they should be because they are calibrated using sugar water not wort. I added 2 grams of CaCl,6 grams of Gypsum, and 2 mL 88% Lactic acid to the mash. Mash pH was 5.22 (estimated 5.23), pre-boil pH 5.39 and final boil pH is 5.26. Added 60 seconds of pure O2. Beer left to ferment in my beer room in a swamp bucket. The room should be roughly 64-68^oF.

12/29/14 – Dry hops added. 

1/6/15 – Placed carboy into chest freezer to cold crash. Gravity down to 1.016.

1/12/15 - First tasting. Awesome. Final pH was 4.88.  A little higher then I was expecting.