Weizenbock

It has been rather moist on the coast the past couple weeks.  Naturally my first brew day in a while was a rainy day, so I setup the canopy and brewed anyway.   The beer was a Weizenbock, which is a german style with a good portion of wheat in it, that ferments in the mid 50s-lower 60s(a perfect opportunity to use the new freezer).  

I haven't brewed a weizenbock before, so the recipe is a modified version of Jamil's Weizenbock from Brewing Classic Styles.  I find myself reaching for that book whenever brewing something for the first time as most of his reciepes are straight forward and make for a good baseline to build my own recipe.  I modify pretty much every recipe I brew(even my own that I'm rebrewing) to accomodate for the hops and sometimes the specialty grains I have on hand.  I am not a competition or commercial brewer, so I am more concerned with experimenting and trying new things rather than using the exact hops, etc. for the style. I also buy as much as possible in bulk, so even though I currently have about 5 or 6 lbs of hops I only have 6 or 7 different varieties, so sometimes the hop substitution is a bit of a stretch and might not have the noble hops in the german style lager.

The grain bill of this beer may seem a bit off, because I was unable to find the dark german wheat at my homebrew shop, so I was forced to make adjustments.   The major substitutions for this recipe included using US White Wheat instead of a more traditional dark german wheat. 

Jammie posing with the weizenbock mash.

Grain Bill:
- 10.0 lb White Wheat Malt
- 5.5 lb German Pilsner Malt
- 2.0 lb German Munich Malt
- 0.25 lb C-120 Malt
- 0.25 lb Pale Chocolate Malt
- 0.25 lb Midnight Wheat Malt

Hops:
- 1.2 oz Legacy (8.5%AA) - 60 min

Mash Temperature: 154 F
90 Minute Boil
O.G. 1.075 - Missed my target gravity by a bit.  I should have boiled it down further, which would have gotten it to the right spot, but collected extra wort for yeast starters for brews later in the week.
Estimated ABV: ~7.5%

I am using WLP300, White Labs Hefeweizen Yeast, for this beer.  I try to do a yeast starter for every beer, but especially for a bigger alcohol beer such as this.  Fermentation started off slow, as I have the temp set at 55 to prevent blowoff and any fusel alcohols from forming.

First fermentation for the new freezer.

My New Fermentation Chamber

My brother and I bought a Blichmann Fermenator conical early on in our homebrewing career, and although it has made a 100 gallons or so of beer, it has been out of commission recently.  When we lived in Denver the basement of the house got cold enough that I was able to control the fermentation temperature just by heating the conical.  (Un)Fortunately here in Southern California my garage doesn't get that cold, so I haven't had the ability to temperature control the thing.  Temperature control is the most important factor of fermentation to prevent off flavors in the finished beer, so I have been fighting a battle to keep beers at the right temp without a proper fermentation chamber.

Introduce my christmas present for myself, a large upright freezer.

It is going to take some modification of both freezer and conical to get it to fit properly inside.  I am also going to have to break down and buy a pump for my system, as that will be the only way to get the beer up into the conical.  I have to wait for some additional fund to come in to finish, so the conical is going to sit idle for a little while longer, but in the meantime I am going to use the freezer anyway.

The first step in creating more space inside was to remove the plastic door shelves.  As you can see in the above picture there was a good bit of moisture behind that panel.  A trip to home depot later and a broken circle saw and I had a new flat plastic panel screwed in place.

New panel, made from a sheet of FRP from home depot.  Cost ~$35

Luckily I had an extra Ranco ETC sitting around, hooked it up and drilled a hole in the side of the freezer for the temperature probe to come through.

Now I need to put it to use!

Burbon Barrel Porter

Brewing a burbon barrel porter today.  I haven't done any liquor infused beers before, so I am excited for the final product.  The plan is to brew the beer normally and after fermentation add burbon soaked oak (and a small amount of burbon) to the beer and let it age for a week or so to extract the oak flavor.  Yesterday started to soak 1.0 oz french oak in roughly 4oz of Makers Mark.  Ideally I would be using american oak, but french oak is what I have on hand.

1 oz of oak soaking in Makers Mark.

Grain Bill:
- 11.75 lb Pale Malt (2-Row)
- 1.5 lb German Munich Malt
- 1.0 lb Pale Chocolate Malt
- 0.5 lb C-120 Malt
- 0.25 lb Black Patent Malt

Hops:
- 0.75 oz Bravo (15.5%AA) - 60 min
- 1.0 oz Northern Brewer (8.5%AA) - 15 min
- 1.0 oz Cascade (5.5%AA) - Flameout

Mash Temperature: 154 F
O.G. 1.065
Estimated ABV: ~6%


I am using the WLP001 Cali Ale Yeast cake from the Dry-Hopped Brown Ale for this beer, so transferring and dryhopping the brown today to make room.  The DH Brown is one of my favorite beers, very excited to have it back on tap soon.

bring it back

SO long time without blogging.  I apologize and I hope you will join me again as I try to resume regular posting.

A lot has happened since my last posts, and I hope to do a summer recap at some point, but not today.  The important thing to note for todays post is we recently obtained a 72 VW Beetle Convertible.  It is a fun little car, but has a lot of little things wrong with it.

As it is steadily getting colder and colder as we ease into Southern California winter, night time driving is getting cold.  Todays project was to get the heater working on both sides of the car.  Previously only the passenger side heater channel was working.

Luckily the only parts that really needed to be replaced were the control cables, the flaps in the heater boxes both function, only the right side had a cable connected to it, and it wasn't properly connected either.  After a quick trip to JBugs in Oceanside, I had new heater cables in my hand, along with a new heater box to car hose, and some floor vents.

The first task was to remove any old cables and make sure the guide tubes leading to the back of the car were clear.  I initially mistook how the system works, there are two levers one on each side of the parking brake. I assumed each lever controlled the heat to each side of the car, in fact the passenger side lever controls the heat exchanger flaps, and the driver side lever only controls the rear seat vents (which are no longer in place on our car).

The first problem...I didn't buy new flap control stuff at all, and the original cable/flap arm interface was no longer intact.  I stopped by a bike shop to see if they would have the barrel clamp for the end of the cable, but no luck.  After staring at the hardware aisle at True Value for a good 10 minutes I figured it out.

Bought 2 threaded aluminum spacers whose diameter are large enough that I could drill a hole through the side for the cable end.  Also required are bolts/screws that thread into the aluminum and are long enough to clamp the cable.

Test fitting the barrel clamp.  Used 1/8" drill bit to put a hole through  it.

The finished product.  Works perfectly and cost less that $2.50.  Both flaps now actuate, and I replaced the drivers side hose so there should hot air making it to the front of the car.  Can't wait for a test drive along the coast highway...

spin

First off, I got 'laid-off' from the shipping warehouse.  Apparently with me involved they are too efficient to employ 3 people full time.  The plus side is my availability to work on beer and other things that need doing before I leave.

Jaclyn's boyfriend, Matt, works at Spin Records here in Carlsbad, and he offered some work helping them count their entire inventory for tax purposes.  Sunday night Jammie, Anthony and I went over there and counted CDs for 5 or 6 hours.  Only got paid $8/hr, but it was very easy work, and we got to drink cheap beer and eat cheap pizza while doing it.  The worst part was standing in one place for a couple hours at a time. I got a couple hours Monday night counting as well, but so many people showed up for both days that they were already done after Monday.

Yesterday I bottled the Strawberry Blonde, and while I was at it, bottled up a little of the Dry-hopped brown ale.  I would have bottled more of the brown, but I love that beer and it tastes amazing on tap, I'm always concerned that I'm loosing some of that deliciousness during bottling.  It is also already carbonated and I have previously mentioned how much I hate bottling carbonated beer. 

I am slowly building up a little stash of bottled beer though, which has been a hidden priority for me.  I just really like being able to share some of my better beers with people more than a month or two after brewing it.  I only have 4 kegs, so I can only save it in a keg for so long before I need the space.

Sorry there aren't any pictures, I'll make up for it next time.

Off to the desert for a couple days to lay tile at my parents house.

Cheers! 

Beer and Work

Jammie and I at the Pub.

I will start off by saying that I just spent an hour or so working on this post, but then when I went to publish it something went very wrong and didn't publish or save any of the information.  So if this post isn't very good, it was certainly better the first time around...

I have been working regularly at the shipping warehouse.  I also worked the corporate stagehand job last weekend, which turned out to be easy and very good paying work.  Other than work I have been making beer and working on getting ready to leave for a month and a half.

For the first time ever I have Jammie and my taxes done over a month and a half early.  Thank you to Rande for the tax program.  It is a huge weight off my shoulders having them out of the way, and I also owe a lot less than I was anticipating, which also relieved some stress.

Kegging something.

I can't recall which beer is being kegged in the above picture, but I believe it is the Kolsch.  I have brewed a few time consuming beers in a row, with the Kolsch first needing to be lagered, to the strawberry blonde which takes an extra week or so due to the berries, and now my most recent is and imperial stout which I will allow to age for a couple months before bottling.  These are going to be great beers, but they aren't helping my short term need for beer to drink...

Imperial Stout Mash.  Full to the brim...

The imperial stout is a 9-10% beer which took about 23lb of grain.  I think its the strongest all grain beer I've made.  As you can see in the photo above, that is as much as I can put in my mash tun.

Imperial Stout Runoff, looks more like dirty motor oil that beer.

5 lb of frozen strawberries, ready for beer.

Racking the Blonde onto the strawberries.

I also will say that these photos are a little old, as I started writing this post a week or so ago.  Since then I've had the opportunity to sample the SB post fruit, and it is pretty darn good.  Closely resembles the first rendition of the Strawberry Blonde, with an amazing aroma and flavor.  I think I'm going to change it up and bottle condition the blonde this time as well.  Bottle conditioning is the only way I will bottle any amount of anything, and I want to be able to save/share the strawberry.  Its been really nice to have bottles of my saisons to take places and give to people.

I had mention adding more actual technical information to the blog, and I am finally going to follow through.

Here is my recipe for the Strawberry Blonde:
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72%

O.G. 1.054
F.G. 1.012

Grain:
10 lb   Pale Malt (2-row)
1 lb     Honey Malt

Mash at 150 for 60 minutes

Hops:
1.0 oz Cascade Boil 60 minutes
1.0 oz Cascade Boil 15 minutes

Fermented in the mid 60's with WLP 090 San Diego Super Yeast.  As I said I used this yeast because I was using the blonde as a starter, seemingly it would be a good yeast even if that weren't the case, but I've previously used WLP001 Cali Ale with equally good results.

After fermentation is complete add 5lb of frozen strawberries to secondary.  I had to halve/quarter the larger berries to get them in the carboy.  I would suggest against making a puree though.

(I purchased my berries at vons for about $2.60/lb, but I saw frozen strawberries at Trader Joes the other day for $1 or $1.50/lb.)

I let the beer sit on the berries for 7-10 days.  I would suggest starting to sample it around 5 days and checking it every other day or so to determine the point where the strength of the strawberry flavor is to your liking.


Today I am brewing my 3rd Saison.  I have changed one or more variables from one saison to the next.  The first one had a lot of spices and flowers added to it, while the second was a pretty simple grain bill combined with a slightly different yeast and no spices.  The 3rd one will hopefully highlight the yeast flavor as the grain is very simple, and no spices added, but a completely different French Saison yeast and a little hoppier.


Saison #3:
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72%

O.G. 1.054
F.G.  1.005 estimated

Grain:
9.25 lb  German Pilsner Malt
1.25 lb  White Wheat Malt
0.75 lb  Amber Malt

Mash at 148 for 90 minutes

Hops:
1.25 oz Hallertauer 60 minutes
1.50 oz Hallertauer 10 minutes
1.50 oz Hallertauer  0 minutes

 Wyeast 3711 French Saison

Since this is my first time using this yeast, I will probably start it off it the lower to mid 70's based on the Wyeast site and some reading about what other people have been doing with it.  I've heard this yeast can really dry a beer out so I'm excited to see how it performs.

Wyeast suggested temperature range: 65-77°F (18-25°C)

I'll let you know how it turns out.  Check back soon.

Warehouse Work and Beer Making

If you spend enough time emailing jobs on craigslist, something is bound to happen.  As a result I have found some temporary work at a freight forwarding warehouse.  Generally speaking it is hard work for the money, but like I said it is temporary and I get paid cash.  I also picked up a 1 day job as a corporate stagehand at the San Diego Hilton, so we'll see how that works out.

Brewing:
After taking a month and a half off from brewing I have gotten back into the swing of things.  Last week I bottled my second saison, and mostly did some cleanup/housekeeping stuff that I had been putting off for too long.  Since then I've made a Kolsch and yesterday started the base beer for my strawberry blonde.  I have been meaning to re-brew the SB since the last batch didn't go well; mostly do to a couple changes in my process that I will not be doing again.  It is the only batch of beer that I've ever thrown out, and was just not a good beer for various reasons.  While the first batch of the strawberry blonde is now gone, even the last couple bottles of it continued to taste amazing.

Another reason to rebrew the blonde is it is the one beer I've brewed so far that my parents actually like, and granted there might have been others that they might have liked but didn't get the opportunity to try, but I thought I should remake it so I can share some more beer with them.  Still working on establishing their taste for craft beer, so I try to make some mellower beers that they might like.  I hope the kolsch turns out and they like it as well.

Kolsch in front and the Blonde in the tub.

I am using a new yeast on the blonde, WLP090 - San Diego Super Yeast.  White Labs is one of the leading producers of beer yeast for homebrewers and craft brewers alike, and they are based in San Diego so the super yeast is a cool tribute to their home city.  It is supposed to be a really fast really clean fermenting yeast, so I am using it on the blonde as a yeast starter for a batch of a big double ipa, or maybe an imperial stout.  Something big is going to follow the blonde into that carboy, just not sure what.

I am working at the warehouse again tomorrow, and maybe for a few more days after that.  I hope to brew a couple more beers in the next week, a brown ale and then the big beer, we will see if I follow through with my intentions. Check back and I'll let you know. 

Jammie, Wolfgang and I went to Joshua Tree. Here is the photo evidence.

Ocatillo!

Jammie and Wolfgang at the top of Mt. Ryan.

Don't tell anyone that wolfgang was there, as apparently he's not supposed to go on the hiking trails.  He sure did have a lot of fun hiking with us though, and I think we managed to wear him out a bit too.  After the first day we were hanging out by the campfire and all he wanted to do was sleep in the camper. 

Our campsite at Jumbo Rocks.  Awesome setting.

Campsite from ground level...

For dinner we made our favorite camping food, poorboys, we used some small cuts of steak instead of ground beef in them and boy were they good. 

Wolfgang and I towards the end of our 6.5 mile hike the second day.