News & Notes

A lot has happened at West Oak Brewery since releasing the Gumption porter. Here's a run-down:

BREWING BEER!

Of course I'd be churning out some brews in my brewhouse, right?!

After Gumption, I decided to make a small batch saison that I designed myself (with help from the internet, a guy from the local homebrew shop and my own twist on what a saison should be). Tis the Saison was brewed on August 30, 2015 (OG: 1.062, FG: 1.011, IBU: 25, ABV: 6.7%, SRM: 7). It's gotten a litle better with age. I was hoping to keep this beer until the Spring, but it's almost gone. I'm saving 2 beers just in case I want to enter them into a competition.

Tis the Saison, just starting to show some action in the blow-off tube...

I then brewed Pumpkin Patch Ale, a small batch kit from Northern Brewer, on September 6, 2015. It was ok, but I wasn't a big fan of the flavors. I don't think it had the right spices in it for a pumpkin ale. I think I used Fizz Drops in this beer but for some reason it was way too carbonated (most of the time, one fizz drop is fine).

Just brewed- Pumpkin Patch Ale...already showing its colors!

Next up was Easy Wheat American Wheat Ale (brewed on September 6th), loosely based on the small batch extract kit from Northern Brewer. Even though their recipes don't always come out great, I still like using them as a good base. I used Sorachi Ace hops to kick it up a notch but it might have cancelled out any real flavor because I had no idea what style it was when I drank it! It was a drinkable beer, but very unremarkable. I gave it a score of 3 out of 10.

On September 7th,  brewed an Imperial IPA called Easy Chinook, named after the hops I used. This beer was 8.9%! This beer had that homebrew tatse and sweetness that can come from using DME. I noted this and did some more research online about using DME...I decided to add the DME in increment throughout the boil the next time I used a lot of DME in a recipe. This beer eventually mellowed and became a bit more drinkable, although it never had that great hoppy aroma that I have been looking for. When it pours, there's still a nice head on it and I can see some lace left in the glass with that little dollop-looking thing in the center (it looks almost like a half-melted scoop of ice cream). At this point, I have one left...I'll update the score if I remember...

At this point, I was on a roll when it came to brewing beer...a quick turn-around. I had heard about brewers pouring "fresh" wort over a yeast cake from a previous batch and thought that might be something I could do. SO, I tried it.

The first experimental (technique) batch I tried was using the yeast cake from my saison. On September 20th, I made Saison de Autumne, a darker fall saison. The beer has been ok each time I've tasted it, but I have decided to let it age a little more before I try it again.

On September 21st, I brewed Easy Peasy American Wheat Ale. This beer went right on top of the yeast cake from my Easy Wheat Beer. I was disappointed in my earlier attempt at a wheat beer, but this one took the (yeast) cake- pun intended. It didn't make me vomit, but then again- I didn't drink enough of it to churn my stomach.

I took a break from my experiment to brew my first Belgian ale- a dubbel based on a recipe I found on love2brew. Brewed on September 25th, Dubbel Dually never really got off the ground, either. Although I haven't tasted the last one and I've let it sit for a while now, my earlier tasting sessions were not very pleasant. I had no idea what kind of beer it was!

Steering clear of yeast cakes for now, I decided to create my own chocolate pumpkin stout- El Gourdo. It was brewed on October 3rd. I've had a chocolate pumpkin pie so why not a beer that tasted like that, right? I did some research on using pumpkins and pumpkin spices and making stouts (Basic Brewing Recipes book) and came up with my own all-grain recipe. I was really excited to use some chocolate in a beer. This time, I used 100% cacao powder made by Hershey's. It smelled yeasty when I bottled it and a few of the first beers I had were yeasty too, but in November, the flavors started to come out a little. I might let this one sit for a while and come back to it.

Chocolate Pumpkin Stout...my first stout recipe and first time trying these two flavors together...

So of course I had to put a fresh Belgian-style wort on top of the Dubbel Dually yeast cake, right? Of course! I did some more research into Belgian ales and changed up the recipe a bit (added specialty grains, changed the hops, etc. etc.). Plunder was brewed on October 15th. It was very estery- some fruit, banana, a little spicy and sweet, slightly malty. I liked it so much that I thought about entering it into a competition. I drank all but to of them! I think I have to brew another batch first. I'll try to perfect it next time...

The "yeast cake experiment" continued on October 18th with the creation of El Guapo Pumpkin Porter. Unfortunately, these beers were all bottlebombs. Too much carbonation and/or infection.

Next, I tried to brew a rye IPA from Brooklyn Brewery. RIPA ended up being a bust as well. Every beer was a bottle bomb. I even tried to slow the carbonation by placing a bunch of them in the frige. Maybe there was another infection.

On November 22, 2015, I brewed Christmas-ish Ale, a Belgian-style ale that was basically Plunder with clementine peels and coriander seed. I used three 22 oz. bottles and a few regualr 12 oz. bottles. I drank one for the holidays, drank one on Christmas Day, and gave one to my dad. I have one 22 oz. left, which I am saving for NEXT Christmas.

My first but hopefully not last Christmas beer (the yellow-white patch in the picture was just glare from my iPhone camera)

 On December 3, 2015, I brewed Beachcomber cream ale again. This time, I used White Labs Cream Ale Yeast Blend (WLP080). I was really excited about it because I loved it the first time; however, I didn't like the first taste after a week in the bottle (compared to the first batch, which was actually good after a week). It was too sweet and flat. The jury is still out...I hope it's good!

Transparency IPA was my response to a few failed attempts at an decent IPA. Brewed on December 3rd, I studied an imperial IPA recipe from Brewing Classic Styles and combined it with my earlier recipe, Easy Chinook. This beer was dry hopped- something I have never done up until now. AND- I did it with my very own homegrown Centennial hops! After a few weeks in the bottle, the beer tasted very sweet and homebrew-y still. I'll let it sit for a while.

Dry hopping the Transparency IPA- with my own HOMEGROWN Centennial hops!

I brewed a wheat beer on December 10th. I wanted to strip everything down and make it easy so I made an easy extract batch. I had one shortly after a week and it was pretty good. I have about 6 left and I think they'll be good.

I wanted to brew two different types of porters, but I didn't feel like having 2 brew days. SO- I brewed a 2-gallon porter recipe. One porter will be CocoNutz, a beer with- you guessed it- coconut. Right now, it's still fermenting. The other porter, Rise & Shine, will feature locally brewed cold brew coffee from Rise Up Coffee. The 2-gallon batch was brewed on January 2, 2016. My first brew(s) of 2016!

The holidays didn't slow me down. On January 7th, I brewed a clone of Surly's Bender brown ale called Ardent. January 7th was probably the worst brew day of my "career". Everything that could've spilled SPILLED. Grains. Wort. Ice for the ice bath. I miscalculated the water volume so that mistake (AND water addition) cost me several OG and ABV points. The mash schedule was so off due to the lag time (cleaning/picking up/fixing)...I didn't do an iodine test but I should've. Who knows how this beer will turn out. It's going to be March before I drink this beer...

ˈɡəmpSH(ə)n (Gumption) Porter (F12-01-02-37)

Label Inspiration: I thought of the name of this beer and then decided to spell it phonetically instead of the "normal" spelling.

Based on the Midnight Beatdown Wheaten Porter by Northern Brewer

*Partial mash, five gallons*

FERMENTABLES/SPECIALTY GRAIN:

            6 lbs Wheat malt syrup
            2 lbs. Rahr 2 row

            1 lb Flaked Wheat

            1 lb Chocolate Wheat

            0.5 lbs Caramel Wheat

HOPS & FLAVORINGS:

            1 oz Summit (60 min)

            0.5 ox Cascade (10 min)

            0.5 oz Centennial (10 min)

            0.5 oz Cascade (flameout)

            0.5 oz Centennial (flameout)

YEAST:

            Safale US-05

FININGS & OTHER ADDITIONS:

            Cinnamon, dash (during mash)

            1t Irish Moss (15 min)

            ½ t Wyeast Nutrient Blend

OG: 1.062

Actual OG: 1.059 (unknown ambient temp- sample left in “baster”)

Brewed beer on August 25, 2015.  Brew day went well overall. Mashing went well. The 60-minute mash was at 154 degrees, which I pretty much held to without a lot of tweaking (one small hot water addition). I wasn’t sure about how much water to add to the boil so I just added enough to get to a little over 3 gallons in the boil kettle. I forgot about the addition of the syrup (6 lbs Wheat) so the boil kettle water hit 4 gallons. It turns out that was fine. I kept the boil to a small rolling one…almost has a boil over with the first hops addition (Summit) but I caught it in time. 

I used a strainer on top of the fermenter this time because I remembered what the Brooklyn Brew Shop had on their instructions- to use the strainer as a filter AND also as an aerator. The worst part of my brew day was when I tried to insert the airlock into the grommet on the lid. The vodka I had in the airlock started going into the beer. I tried it again and it did it again. Finally, I got another airlock, sanitized it, and installed it. It worked. I hope the vodka didn’t hurt the wort.

Temps started in the 70-72 range. I added a frozen water bottle to get it to drop a few degrees just in case it really took off and got over 73-75.

August 26, 2015. No activity in the airlock in the morning. Temps around 66-68. Temp at 66 in the afternoon, still no activity in the airlock. It finally started to bubble at 2030 tonight

August 27, 2015. Airlock activity constant but not as “deliberate” as last night. Fermenter temps hit 72 by the time I got home at 1630 hours so I draped a wet t-shirt over the fermenter and added a frozen water bottle. I can smell the US-05 working! I just hope it’s not too hot.

For the next week or so, the temps ranged from 68-70. These temps were too high and might have affected the final product. I tried to lower temps on several occasions, placing frozen water bottles in the swamp cooler.

Racked to secondary September 8, 2015. Things went well enough, so I hope. I’ve read on the Northern Brewer website that some people have left this in the secondary for up to 4 weeks!

The temps gradually got lower due to lower night-time temps outside (I didn't put the heat on). At some point, the wort was down to 65 or so.

October 5, 2015. Bottled beer.

Tried one on October 20, 2015. Man, I like a hoppy porter! I’m not too happy with the smell (smells like homebrew), but I like the taste. It’s actually close to a Black IPA. AND, the viscosity…it’s pretty thick…medum-bodied! I think it still needs some time to blend and mature.

October 27, 2015. I’ve had a few beers since the 20^th and it’s mellowed out a bit. The refrigerator does it justice, believe me. I’m tasting one now that’s been I the refrigerator for about 5 days. It’s light to medium bodied, hoppy (a little bitter), slight coffee/chocolate notes, coffee/malt smell. I like it. Tzied with Boots’ Best for 2^nd place, IMO. Needs more carbination, though.

November 19, 2015. I DO like this beer, but the slight “homebrew” taste and (mostly) smell makes it only a decent, drinkable beer. I’ll have no problem finishing this beer, but it definitely could’ve been better.

December 16, 2015. Still pretty good. I have 8 left and I’m chilling 6 of them. Definitely some bubbles left and nice bitter hop flavor for a porter.

 LESSONS LEARNED:  I would've liked a more fuller-bodied beer. I would've added about 4 oz of maltodextrin or a specialty malt to increase the body/mouthfeel. With partial mashing, sometimes it's tough to keep adding malts because there's no room left in the double-mesh strainer!

TASTING PROFILE:

AROMA: Malty, slight chocolate notes with a tinge of hops, “homebrew” smell after I got down to ½ glass

APPEARANCE: dark brown with a slight copper hue, head was 1/4 to 1/2" right after the pour, 1/8” head still after 15 minutes, small bubbles

FLAVOR: malty, chocolatey, roasted/caramel notes, slight coffee, light hop bitterness at the end that stayed on the tongue a little but it wasn’t too hoppy

MOUTHFEEL: slightly watery, maybe medium-bodied or just above light bodied, bitter on the tongue but not too bad aftertaste

OVERALL IMPRESSION: Definitely drinkable, hoppy porter with chocolate/coffee notes

OVERALL SCORE: 7 of 10

Here's an advertisement I did for this beer, thanks to Apple's iMovie...

 

News & Notes

Sparging on my brew day...partial mash saison d'autumne

SO- Ivywild IPA and Marryin' Berries Blackberry Ale weren't my favorites by far, but I managed to learn a few lessons along the way.

I've been really busy the past few days. Yesterday, I bottled Pumpkin Patch Ale and Tis the Saison saison and I made a saison that I added to my old one gallon jug of the original saison (Tis the Season). Today I bottled the Easy Wheat American Wheat ale AND made yet another wheat beer (Easy Peasy) that I poured over the yeast cake at the bottom of the one gallon jug.

My "yeast Cake" experiments should've gone well but I had some water volume calculations (on my end and on a website's end), but it's all good. Something might work out, right?

FERMENTING:

My Gumption Porter. I'm looking for this to go 4 weeks in the secondary. I'm a little worried about a beer going that long d/t potential oxidation or nasty bacteria. We'll see.

I have my Easy Chinook IPA that's still brewing. It's an Imperial IPA so I'm letting it chill out for anther week (I bottled the wheat after 2 weeks- THIS beer will be 3 weeks in the jug). 

I made a saison d'autumne yesterday. It was definitely darker (on purpose) and a little different. Unfortunately, the BIG difference was in the amount of mash and sparge water that I used (a hex on both Brewtoad and Brew365's houses).

Bubbling away behind me as I write this is my new wheat beer, Easy Peasy. I had yet another water volume issue (my fault this time) so I'll probably only get 5 beers out of it, but it's ok. I learned my lesson. I've learned A FEW lessons these past few weeks.

ON DECK:

I still want to do that Belgian dubbel or trippel. I think it's almost time to do another stout or porter. I am trying to build a good pumpkin stout recipe. I am planning on going away in November so I want to have all of my brewing done before I leave. I think I have up until the beginning of October to brew before I have to just chill and wait until I come back...

Beer Review: Flying Dog's Gourd-geous Beers

Let me preface this new feature of my blog (Beer Review) by saying that I do not EVER intend on telling you things like this beer or that beer tastes like a leather jacket on a moonlit night worn by a mechanic who worked on BMWs in his spare time and who loved to frolick in fields of lavender with his girlfriend of 11 years who in turn enjoyed both a fat Cuban (cigar) and any drink aged in oak or wine barrels.

I wanted to talk aroma, appearance, taste, etc. etc. and maybe sometimes I will, but I don't want there to be a format. I'll just tell you what I think.

Up first...

 THE GOURD STANDARD- Pumpkin IPA, ABV: 6.7% IBU: 60

Flying Dog Brewery is no Dogfish Head Brewery...and that's ok. Adding ancient camel droppings to a porter is interesting, but so is just making funky beers. Flying Dog's interesting take on a pumpkin ale, The Gourd Standard, is a pumpkin IPA. Yes...I...P...A. I was pretty surprised when I saw it in the store. I almost didn't buy it but it was too intriguing for me to pass up.

I was pleasantly surprised. even though the IBUs clock in at 60, they're pretty subtle in my opinion...or at least not overpowering. It's not the West Coast IPA blast of hoppiness that you're expecting- they use German noble hops (Hallertau and Hersbrucker) to create a solid hop foundation. It's not in the background, but it doesn't overwhelm you, either.

So, there is a balance here with the malts and fermentables, most notably the biscuit and oats. The biscit is there to balance the hops and the oats give the beer that full-bodied mouthfeel.

And it's a pumpkin beer, but I have yet to talk about the pumpkin! Truth is, it's very subtle as well. The "magic" behind this beer, I think, is the balance between the hops, the malts, and the adjunct, in this case- the pumpkin flavor. Kudos to Flying Dog for picking the right earthy/spicy hos to go with an earthy and spicy adjunct/flavor.

The BeerAdvocate gives The Gourd Standard a score of 84. Maybe that's right on target, but I think when you drink it, you'll want to score it just a tad bit higher.

THE FEAR- Imperial Pumpkin Ale, ABV: 9% IBU: 45

It's not that this beer blew me away- it didn't. It's that it did what it set out to do. I didn't taste pumpkin or a gourd or anything- I tasted pumpkin spice. BUT, it wasn't too overwhelming and it paired nicely with the warmth from the 9% ABV (NOTE: Yes, that means watch out for the alcohol...this beer will sneak up on you).

They made an interesting choice with the Vienna malt, but it works well here. They also make two more bold choices with their hops (on of them is Warrior) and their yeast strain (Chico). This beer is called an ale but the grain bill might suggest otherwise.

If you want a decent, strong pumpkin ale, this is the one for you. It's not going to knock your socks off or make you want to plan for a day of from work just because you know you'll be up all night drinking this beer and you'll want to savor every sip...you'll just be grateful to have a beer that reminds you of this time of year.

My final thought on Flying Dog Brewery is...your labels scare me. They really do. I was afraid well before you came out with "The Fear". I could tell that the "Raging Bitch" might just be one. Very convincing. I realize that you can't change your labels now- it's a "thing"- but you'd better keep putting out decent beers in my home state or YOU'RE OUTTA HERE!

-DG

News & Notes

It looks like my last two beers, Ivywild IPA and Marryin' Berries Irish Red Ale, are failures. They were way over-carbonated (one was my fault for sure and the other one was a recipe that called for too much honey as a primer). Maybe I contaminated the beer by trying to release the CO2 by prying the caps up for a bit.

I'm very disappointed.

FERMENTING:

I have five beers fermenting right now (see above picture). I have an Imperial IPA on the left front, an American (hoppy) Wheat to its right, a saison behind it, a 5 gallon batch of porter in the green tub and a pumpkin ale on top of the red dresser. I'm taking temperature readings and adjusting swamp cooler water levels and temps as needed.

ON DECK: Right now, I have a lot of darker specialty grains (kilned, roasted, etc. etc.) so I want to do some stouts and porters this fall. I'm also considering a Belgian IPA, another saison and maybe a barleywine. We'll see.

News & Notes

• FERMENTING: I have two one-gallon beers fermenting in jugs right now. They're both sitting in the same swamp cooler. One is a Warrior-hopped Double IPA and the other is a Blackberry Irish Red Ale. 
• CONDITIONING: I recently set my Bourbon Barrel Porter, The Dredge, aside to carbonate. My Imperial Stouts, The Mudline and The Slurry, are still conditioning at room temperature. The Spoils- an Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Stout- is still hanging around and hopefully aging nicely. My second hops experiment is aging, but it might be just taking up space. We'll see.
• ON DECK: I'm going to be making a 6.3% ABV porter and a saison from my very own (created) recipe. I'm looking forward to the saison. I ran the recipe by a brewmaster at Northern Brewer and he thought it was just fine. Hopefully all will go well.

Marryin' Berries (with beer) Irish Red Ale (F13-01-01-36)

 

Label inspiration: A nod to the "wonderful" former mayor of Washington, D.C.- Marion Barry.

Based on the Blackberry Red Ale recipe from Brooklyn Brew Shop 

I received Columbus hops instead of Cascade (as listed in the recipe- but I went ahead and brewed with it. I contacted the Brooklyn Brew Shop.

*One gallon all-grain*

Brewed on August 17, 2015. The brew day went fairly well. I had some issues with the mash temperature. I had to add some hot water to bring the temp up over 144 degrees (I did this at the 30 minute mark- I doubt it was going to make it at that temp).  I added a dash of cinnamon to the mash.

Temps were kept between 68-70 for a few weeks, not a lot of temperature problems with this one.

August 31, 2015. Bottled beer. As I was bottling this beer and priming with honey, I realized that I added both honey AND fizz drops to my Ivywild IPA. Ooops. I checked online and found out that I could release some of the CO2 gas by gently lifting the cap with a bottle opener (without bending the cap) and let it sit for a bit before I re-cap the bottles. 

September 5, 2015. I released a little CO2 from the bottles.

September 10, 2015. Even though the beer hasn't really matured enough, I decided to try one tonight (I threw them in the refrigerator yesterday). I REALLY didn't like this beer. There were chunks of yeast or mold or something floating in the bottles. I'd like to try this (and the Ivywild IPA) again to see if I can actually get a good beer.

September 21, 2015. I finally poured the last one out today. I have tried each and every one of them and could never get past the third or fourth sip. Maybe I'll try the recipe again, who knows...maybe without honey as the primer. OR as much honey...

OVERALL SCORE: 1 out of 10.

Ivywild IPA (F01-02-09-35)

Label inspiration: I was listening to Night Beds' new album Ivywild as I was brewing this beer so I searched for a cool pic on the internet that had something to do with Ivywild and I found this one...

Ivywild IPA (F01-02-09-35)

Based on the Warrior IPA recipe from Brooklyn Brew Shop

*one gallon, all-grain*

Ingredients were from Brooklyn Brew Shop and weren't "itemized". The hops were Kent Golding and Columbus. I will be adding honey for priming prior to bottling...

I added approx. 1/8 t gypsum to the boil as well as a sprinkle of Irish Moss. I DIDN’T add a touch of cinnamon to the mash, as is suggested by Charlie Papazian (I forgot).

OG: 1.059

7% ABV

Brewed beer on August 15, 2015. I did fine with the recipe except for the hop schedule- I added the second round of hops too early (45 minutes instead of 30 minutes). I wonder how that will affect the final product…we’ll see.

To help keep the pot submerged in the ice bath and not bobbing up and down and acting all crazy...

During the ice bath, I placed a 12 lb weight on top of the lid to the brew kettle so it would stay down (it was to buoyant and bobbing all over the place, not cooling down fast enough). 

I pitched at 66 degrees, a little low. I left the kettle in the ice bath too long, I suppose. It didn’t take long for the temps in the jug to hit 68 and then 70. It started bubbling before I went to bed.

August 16, 2015. Temp at 68 this morning (just like ambient temp). Blow off tube is working nicely (plenty of bubbles in the StarSan-filled loaf pan). It climbed up to 72 when I got home  around 7PM so I added another frozen water bottle to the swamp cooler.

Temps stayed in the 66-68 range for most of the week. I added a wet t-shirt to the swamp cooler (draped it over the fermenter) and it managed to keep the temps down.

Bottled beer on August 29, 2015. I used honey according to the instructions as my primer. I got almost 9 beers out of it. It seems lately that I’m only getting about 8 beers out of my one-gallon batches, which isn’t too bad except for the $15 price tag. These beers should at least be 10%ABV for that price!

August 31, 2015. Well, I just realized that I added honey as the primer, but I think I also used fermenting “fizz” drops so my beer will be super-carbonated. Niiiiiice. 

September 2, 2015. I decided to try and release some of the CO2 in the bottles today. I just used the bottle opener end of a wine opener and gently lifted the cap of each bottle up to relieve some of the pressure. I capped each one after letting the bottles sit for about 20 minutes (I think they were cracked open a bit still and releasing the CO2). I'll release more in a few days...I think there's A LOT of carbonation going on in those bottles! I don't want an explosion.

September 10, 2015. Put them in the refrigerator yesterday. They still need to settle down, but I decided to try one anyway. Carbonated like crazy! "Floaties" everywhere, beer tasted drinkable but that doesn't really mean anything. SO far, it's a bust.

September 20, 2015. Tried the last one today but I couldn't finish it. The lesson here is to use a priming calculator and double-check all recipes! I knew that cracking the caps open a little might cause oxidation or invite the nasties in...and I guess that's what happened...but I just had to try and save the batch. 

OVERALL SCORE: 3 out of 10. A few of them were decent and I think I actually drank 3/4 of one once.

Hops Experiment Take 2

Here is my second attempt at the Great Hops Experiment as popularized by James Spencer and Steve Wilkes of Basic Brewing. I am now using light DME and 3 other hop varieties: Jarrylo, Summit and Lemondrop. I also used spring water (I used distilled in the first session) and 1/8 t gypsum during the boil. I used CBW Golden Light DME (Lovibond 4, 8 Plato). The boil only lasted 15 minutes- just enough to sanitize the extract. See the first experiment for more information on the process.

Brewed July 30, 2015. 

Observations: Jarrylo is about ¾” higher (more volume) than Summit (in terms of the wort level in the one gallon jugs). I thought the Lemondrop’s bubbles before the boil looked more like my leftover soap from the washing the pot after the Summit boil. We'll see what happens.

Hops X4- Six Pack Jarrylo IPA (F01-02-06-32)

Hops X5- Six Pack Summit IPA (F01-02-07-33)

Hops X5- Six Pack Lemondrop IPA (F01-02-08-34)

Temps stayed between 68-70 until I bottled. I used small swamp coolers with wet t-shirts draped over the jugs to whisk away the heat as needed.

 August 10, 2015. Bottled X4, X5, and X6.

August 12, 2015. I figured I’d try one but of course it was too early (I stuck it in the fridge for a while). I have another one in the fridge I’ll have to get rid of, too. Way too early!

August 19, 2015. I tried a Jarrylo and thought it was nasty. Same taste I observed during the first experiment but not as pronounced. I wonder if the short boil is the problem (like things weren't sanitized/sterilized).

OBSERVATIONS:

I guess I just don't understand exactly why this set of experiments didn't work, either, but it might have something to do with the 15-minute boil.  I don't know. I'll go back to it someday but for right now I'll leave it alone. Six batches of beer and nothing drinkable.

The Dredge, a Bourbon Barrel Porter

The final beer in the Inflow Series. This is what they call "crust management"- when the dredged material dries, compacts/settles, and either makes room for more dredged material or is manipulated to form a wetland area. I used red letters in the title just for contrast...

Based on the Bourbon Barrel Porter One Gallon recipe from Northern Brewer

*One gallon extract w/specialty grains recipe*

 Porter Grains

            0.175 English Chocolate Malt

            0.0875 lbs English Dark Crystal

            0.0875 lbs English Black Malt

EXTRACT:
1 lb Dark DME

0.5 lb Wheat DME

HOPS:

3.5 g Chinook (12% AA) (45 min)

3.5 g Willamette (4.5% AA) (10 min)

EXTRAS:

0.5 oz oak cubes (secondary)

3 oz Woodford Reserve Bourbon Whiskey

YEAST:

Safale S-04 yeast

Brewed on July 24, 2015. Nice brew day. Things went well pretty much without a hitch.

Temps were fairly steady at 66-68 degrees, but they did hit 70 a few times. I had the fermenter in the swamp cooler and used frozen water bottles again to keep the temps down.

August 5, 2015. Placed oak cubes in a cup with 3 oz. Woodford Reserve Bourbon.

August 6, 2015. Racked beer to secondary (NOTE: I used a Mr. Beer fermentor). I Placed the oak cubes and bourbon in first and then siphoned the beer from the fermentor into the Mr. Beer keg.

August 13, 2015. Bottled The Dredge. Only got 8.5 bottles out of this batch. It didn’t taste too great, but I could smell the bourbon!

September 4, 2015. Put one in the freezer and tried it later that night. It was pretty good, but not really carbonated at all. I'm not sure if it'll carbonate or not.

OVERALL SCORE: PENDING

Boots' Best Brown Ale (F04-01-03-30)

 

My third attempt at a brown ale and probably my best so far. As with the first two, this ale is named for a squirrel with white feet (hence the name "Boots") that used to roam around the grounds of my original "brewhouse" on West Oak Avenue. Here, Boots is decked out in armor...it was time he stopped messing around and started getting serious!

Based on John Palmer’s "Elevenses" Partial Mash kit from Northern Brewer

GRAINS:
 2 lbs Maris Otter
0.75 lbs Briess Caramel 60
0.75 lbs Weyermann Oak-SMoked Wheat Malt
0.5 lbs English Brown Malt
0.33 lbs Flaked Oats (toasted in the oven at 300-350 for 10-15 min, until they smell like cookies)
0.25 lbs Chocolate Malt

OTHER FERMENTABLES:
3.15 lbs Northern Brewer Maris Otter Malt Syrup

HOPS & FLAVORINGS:
0.75 oz German Northern Brewer (60 min)

YEAST:
Safale US-04

I started out with distilled water because that’s what I had at home. I also wanted to see if I could tell the difference between distilled water and the spring water that I normally use. I’ve been reading how you should NOT use distilled water, but some brewers say it’s ok. I’ve been using Deer Park for a long time and I’m just not that satisfied with a lot of my beers. True, it could be the BREWER (hint- ME) but maybe the water isn’t right. I’m considering using my tap water and just treating/filtering it.

Anyway, I used distilled water for the mash and Deer Park for the sparge. We’ll see what happens.

The sparging was a mess, literally. There are some serious grains with this recipe- I sparged with 2 batches of grains in my mesh strainer! I have a lot of spent grain left over, that’s all I'll say. No, wait a minute- I’ll also say that sticky grain and drips and drops of wort were everywhere. It took forever to get to a boil and it’ll probably take forever for the wort to chill to 100. Maybe I should've used the BIAB (Brew in a Bag) method.

Other mistakes I made during the brewing process:

1) I used cold TAP water to help chill the mash at one point. Granted, it wasn't much but it was enough to freak me out a bit. I didn't need that chlorine taste.

2) It took waaaaay too long for the wort to get to 78 degrees in the ice bath. It was a long brew day (from 6PM to almost 1:00AM the next day).

I would say it was the worst brewing experience so far since I got my new brewing equipment last Christmas. The beer didn’t smell good, the process was way too long and things didn’t go as smoothly as I had planned

Target OG: 1.046

Actual OG: 1.042 (refractometer, adjusted for wort temp)

Brewed on July 20, 2015. 

Temps quickly rose to 72 but I was able to bring it down and keep it in between 66-68 for most of the fermentation period. The ambient temperature was around 68 but the humidity outside really worked against me. Temps in the 90s really made it tough for me to keep the swamp cooler water in the mid to upper 60s.

Bottled beer on August 3, 2015.

Threw one in the fridge on August 6, 2015.

Tried on August 9, 2015. Really good! Still not carbonated, of course, but the beer tastes like a brown ale and NO HOMEBREW TASTE! This should get even better with age.

September 1, 2015. Last beer of the batch tonight (besides a few that are promised to other people). Overall, it was a decent beer. Not a lot of head retention and definitely not a lot of body. In retrospect, I would've used something to give it a little more body (like maltodextrin?). 

OVERALL SCORE: 6.5 out of 10.

Hops Experiments X1-X3

I decided to try my hand at six-pack batches. I have been listening/watching the guys from Basic Brewing (James Spencer and Steve Wilkes) and they've done a lot of six-pack batches over the years. I decided to give it a try. My brew day was July 16, 2015.

My first three batches were 1 lb each of light DME with either one ounce of Mosaic, one ounce of El Dorado, or an ounce of Waimea hops. For some reason, I used distilled water with these batches and I'm not sure if it was that, but these beers (experiments or "X"s 1, 2 and 3) were major bombs. Not even one bottle was drinkable.

I don't think I'll do labels for my experiments again...

The Spoils, an Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Stout (F11-05-01-26)

Label Inspiration: Continuing with the Inflow Series...No one really calls the dredged material "spoils" except one guy. The spoils aren't great, but this beer is...

Based on the one gallon Oatmeal Stout recipe from the Brooklyn Brew Shop
*ONE GALLON, ALL-GRAIN*

I didn’t take any gravity readings. ABV: 4.5%

Ingredients:

Grain mix (unknown)

Golding hops (2/3 at 30 min, 1/3 at 45 min)

Brooklyn Brew Shop yeast

1 cinnamon stick

1/8 C raisins

¼ C brown sugar

Boil time: 90 minutes

Brewed on July 2, 2015. I followed the directions for making Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Stout. I mashed in at 160 degrees and managed to hold the temps between the desired range- 144 to 152 degrees. The instructions called for stirring the mash every 10 minutes during the 60 minute rest. I had to put the pot on the stove once to bring it back up past 144 degrees, but it didn’t take that long.

Oatmeal raisin cookie stout mash rest

The boil was 90 minutes. I lost a little liquid by the end so I just topped the jug off with water to bring it to around 1 gallon. I placed the one gallon jug in a plastic storage container- I'm using it as a "swamp cooler." Based on my experience with The Slurry, I used a blow-off tube and a glass loaf pan filled with StarSan. Hopefully the wild fermentation will be done in a few days.

Oatmeal raisin stout

The temperature fluctuated a bit for the next week or so, slowly creeping up to 71 from a 66 reading I got the day after brewing.Whenever the temps crept up, I'd add a frozen water bottle to the water in the swamp cooler.

Bottled the Spoils July 15, 2015.

FG: 1.020 (hydrometer)

ABV: 4.5 (based on the recipe).

August 2, 2015. First taste of it. Slight head on it. About a ¼ inch. Smells spicy. Very nice. Raisin-y, light. Slight bite to it, which I hope will mellow out. No homebrew taste, really. Slight alcohol-y taste but not too bad. Maybe too much carbonation at this point. A little thin in terms of body. Good, though. Will not give up on this at all! So far, I’ll give it an 8.

August 10, 2015. I had another one while on vacation and it was really good. People thought it was a store-bought craft beer! I have 4 left but a few of them are already meant for other people. I'll have to make another batch this winter.

Overall score: PENDING

F1-05-01-25: Beachcomber cream ale

Label Inspiration: I saw the pic first and then knew I was going to brew a beer that would match the awesomeness of the picture. It happened.

Based on the Speckled Heifer partial mash kit from Northern Brewer

Est. OG: 1.042
Five gallon batch, partial mash
 

SPECIALTY GRAINS:

2 lbs. Rahr 2-row

0.5 lbs CaraPils

0.25 lbs flaked barley

0.25 lbs flaked maize

FERMENTABLES:

3.15 lbs Pilsen malt syrup

1 lb Briess Pilsen DME

HOPS:

0.75 oz Cluster  hops (AA 7.2%)- 60 minutes

0.25 oz Cluster hops (AA 7.2%)- 15 minutes

YEAST:

Safale US-05

ADDITIONS:

1 tsp Irish moss (15 minutes)

8 oz. Maltodextrin (10 minutes)

Actual OG: 1.048 (taken with both refractometer and hydrometer)

June 25, 2015. Brewed cream ale according to recipe from Northern Brewer.

 Notes on the brewing process:

My mash temeperature was a little high so I unfortunately grabbed a bit of tap water too cool it down before the resting period, which might affect the taste. Sometimes my tap water smells and tastes really chlorinated. I couldn’t tell at the time but that still may affect the taste of the beer.

Thanks to Charlie Papazian, I added cinammon to the mash, maybe a bit too much (more than a dash). It didn’t smell like cinnamon after the rest.

I used blankets and towels to try and keep the mash kettle warm to 152 degrees. When I took the blankets and towels off after the hour resting perod, I noticed that the mash was around 143-145. That might be an issue; however, I don’t know how long it was at that temperature.

Another issue that came about was the time when I was pouring water out of an old frozen bottle I was using to help cool the wort after the boiling time. A drop from the water bottle went into the kettle.

July 9, 2015. Bottled the cream ale. Temps went up for the past few days, normally around 70 or so. I added a frozen bottle each time the temp got to 70 or over. The beer smelled really yeasty in the fermenter but didn’t taste as yeasty when I drank it. FG was 1.010. A little high, I think.

Apparent attenuation: 79%

Calories: 157.3 per 12 oz

OG Plato: 11.91

FG Plato: 2.56

ABV: 4.99%

July 23, 2015. Threw one in the fridge and will drink tomorrow.

July 24, 2015. WOW! Tasted my first one after only one day in the fridge. I can’t smell or taste the homebrew in it at all. I CAN taste the corn, but it’s good. I think it was good to add the maltodextrin to add body to it, but it might get thicker as time wears on…we’ll see. It is a little dry but not bad at all. One of the best beers I have ever done!

It was so good that I decided to flash-freeze another one so I could have another one! I wrapped a wet paper towel around the bottle then threw it in the fridge.

July 26, 2015. I’ve had several beers at this point- probably 8 or so. I’ll be putting them in the fridge really soon so they can cold condition.

 August 1, 2015. The beers are really going fast! I think I will have to make another batch of this beer in a few weeks.

August 2, 2015. The BEST BEER I have ever made, by far!!!

Overall score: 8.5 out of 10...the best beer I've made to date! I will brew it again.

F11-06-01-24: The Slurry imperial stout

Label Inspiration: Continuing with the dredged material theme, here is a pic of two tugs keeping the scow against the Unloader. The Unloader isn't in the pic but you can see that it's already injecting the dredged material with water (lower left-hand corner) to create a "slurry" so it can be pumped out onto the island.

A homemade American Imperial Stout recipe, part of West Oak Brewery’s Inflow Series©

Originally an American Stout recipe but a late addition of DME created a more imperial-style stout. I created this recipe on my own, but I used several sources to do so. Since it was going to be a small batch (1 gallon), I looked at 2 recipes: Midwest Supplies MICRO BRU Pride of Dublin recipe kit and the Oatmeal Stout from Brooklyn Brew Shop. Several articles from Brew Your Own magazine helped as well, chief among them was “The Dark Secrets of Stout” by Ashton Lewis (Jan/Feb 2005 issue).

*One gallon (or less) batch, all-grain*

From BeerSmith:

Estimated OG: 1.103 SG

Estimated FG: 1.023 FG

Alcohol: 10.6%

IBU: 31.9

SRM: 42.7

Efficiency: 72%

Age for 30 days at least

2 lbs. Pale 2 Row Malt

1.1 oz Belgian Debittered Black Malt

1.1 oz English Extra Dark Crystal Malt

1.1 oz Pale Chocolate I (Fawcett)

1.1 oz Briess Organic Roasted Barley

0.5 oz Weyermann Carafa III Malt

1 lb. CBW Traditional Dark DME (30 min)

TOTAL GRAINS: 2.31 lbs

1.0 oz Fuggles 4.4% AA (75 minutes)

dash of Irish Moss

Brewed on June 18^th, 2015. The mashing process was a little confusing and difficult. I chose to go with the water levels found in the MICRO BRU recipe (1 gallon mash and 1 gallon sparge) instead of the Brooklyn Brew Shop one (2.5 quarts and 5 quarts). I forget what the BeerSmith water levels were, but maybe I should have used those. In the end , I had about 1-2 C of water left in the sparge pot and the 2 gallon pot I used was almost full.

 Which brings me to another point- I needed bigger pots! I’m just always afraid of scorching grains or extracts at the small batch level, you know? I should’ve checked the mash below when I am sparging by lifting it up.

I DID in fact use the BeerSmith boil time- 75 minutes. Maybe I boiled for too long. Anyway, the issue I had was that at the 30 minute mark, I still had what I thought was too much beer (not enough was biling off) so I added 1 lb CBW Traditional Dark DME at the 30 min mark. I thought that would thicken it a bit. THIS is when the beer ventured into “imperial” territory. I added Irish Mos at the 10 minute mark, but when I extend the boil, it ended up being at the 25 minute mark. Go figure.

I thought that maybe I should put the wort into a Mr. Beer keg, but I decided to use the one gallon jug I got from Northern Brewer. BIG MISTAKE!

I took a gravity reading with my refractometer:

OG 1.096 Crazy!

June 19, 2015. Temps 68-70. Starting to bubble a little this morning. In the afternoon, it picked up a little. I added Fermcap and went out for the night.

When I got home, the airlock had exploded and foam was all over the walls and ceiling. I put a blowoff tube in it instead of the airlock. I made sure to put the end of the blow off tube into a pot with StarSan in it.

June 20, 2015. Temps 70. Swamp cooler is full  of brown water from the explosion. One gallon jug is all direty. Threw another airock in because the foam has subsided. Airlock still bubbling. Temps 68-70 in the evening.

June 21, 2015. Temps 66-68 now. I guess it’s because of the smaller volume, but I’m liking that it cooled off a bit. We’ll see how it goes the next few days. Airlock barely bubbles now. The aggressive fermentation period is over!

July 5, 2015. Temps 68 in the AM. Racked to secondary. Used Mr. Beer fermenter. Looks like I’ll barely get a ½ gallon here. Stinks, especially since this was my first shot at designing a recipe.  I had some trouble with the auto-siphon. It’s hard to do that with a small siphon and small batch.

July 15, 2015. Bottled The Slurry. Temps were in the 68-70 range for the rest of the fermentation period.  The taste was ok but it was a little yeasty, especially the smell. Oh well.

ABV: 9.2%

FG: 1.026 (a little too high...I probably should've let it sit for a few more days)
Overall score: PENDING

F11-01-01-23: The Mudline imperial stout

Label Inspiration: So I work on a dredged material placement facility where we see and receive a lot of mud. Maybe it looks like a stout. Maybe the dredge creates a mudline that we have to watch...for fear that it might come too close. 

Based on the Rum Runner 1 gallon recipe kit from Northern Brewer, part of West Oak Brewery’s Inflow Series©

I used a Mr. Beer fermenter due to all the research on this recipe. Apparently, a lot of the one gallon jugs used by customers overflowed/exploded everywhere because of the wild fermentation. One guy used a Mr. Beer fermenter- which is about 2 gallons- so I decided to try it myself.

Ingredients:

Rum Runner steeping Grains (4 oz Belgian Special B and 2 oz English Roasted Barley)

2 lbs. Dark dry malt extract powder

14g Centennial hops

Safale S-04 brewer’s yeast (half package)

Fizz drops- for carbonation

Sprinkle of irish moss (added 5 minutes before end of boil)

Fermacap-S added to boil soon after malt extract and hop addition

Followed instructions for Rum Runner.

SG: 1.092 (9% beer when finished)

June 4, 2015. Brew day. Pitched the yeast at around 66 degrees (based on my infrared thermometer)

Actually had a mishap…poured wort in while Mr. Beer fermeter was open (spigot). Sucked. I lost a bit of it.

June 14,2015. Temps hit 72-74. I bottled today. Not sure what was wrong but I apparently only had about 77 ounces in the fermenter, enough for only 3.5 twenty-two ouncers. Yeah. I think I’ll probably brew that one again, maybe next month. I’m sure it’s screwed up but I’ll keep them. FG was 1.073, which doesn’t sound right at all. I think I screwed up something with the refractometer.

July 1, 2015. Placed the .5 bottle in the fridge today for testing tomorrow.

July 2, 2015. Nasty. Threw it away.

July 23. 2015. Threw one in the fridge. Not sure when I’ll try it.
September 10, 2015. Tried another one. It was VERY thick and alcohol-y. Too thick. I poured it out. I think I'll save the last one for whenever. I'm not thrilled.

Overall score: 4 out of 10.