Begin Brewing!

While browsing of the online homebrew supply shop web sites, I discovered that they had both Belma and Azacca hops on sale. Having never used either, I decided to order some and craft a Pale Ale recipe around them.  I'd also wanted to try the relatively new Omega Yeast OYL-091 Hornindal Kveik yeast.  This recipe is the culmnation of that recipe design.  The flavor and aroma contributions from this combination should harmonize pretty well: Azacca hops : Citrus and mango notes with a little orchard fruit. Belma hops : Clean with a very orange, slight grapefruit, tropical pineapple, strawberry, and melon aroma. Hornindal Kveik yeast : Complements fruit-forward hops with its aromas of fresh pineapple, mango, and tangerine. Fermenting at high temperatures (up to 95F) will intensify the aromas and speed up fermentation. Blend all that and we should get lots of nice citrus, mango, pineapple, and grapfruit aromas and flavors. I plan to intensify that by using only later...

With some satisfaction that the issue with the Brewie+ overshooting target volumes being possibly solved (by removing excess water after loading), I decided to try one more recipe to see if I could consistently hit my volume and gravity targets. I decided to try another Pale Ale with a blend of Simcoe, Cascade, Citra, and Amarillo hops. Ingredients 5 pounds Briess 2-row Pale Malt 12 ounces Caramel 10L Malt 8 ounces Munich Malt 1/2 tsp. Citric Acid added to mash water 0.10 ounces Simcoe Pellets @ 13.6% AA (60 min.) 0.10 ounces Cascade Pellets @ 6.9% AA (25 min.) 0.10 ounces Citra Pellets @ 13% AA (25 min.) 0.10 ounces Amarillo Pellets @ 8.6% AA (25 min.) 0.10 ounces Cascade Pellets @ 6.9% AA (10 min.) 0.10 ounces Citra Pellets @ 13% AA (10 min.) 0.10 ounces Amarillo Pellets @ 8.6% AA (10 min.) 0.10 ounces Citra Pellets @ 13% AA (0 min.) 0.10 ounces Amarillo Pellets @ 8.6% AA (0 min.) 0.10 ounces Cascade Pellets @ 6.9% AA (0 min.) 1/4 tsp. Yeast Nutrient 1/8 tsp. B...

Recently, I have struggled to get the desired final volume out of the Brewie+ system. To try and resolve that issue, I've decided to brew a couple of recipes and babysit the mash and sparge process to see where the problem is occurring, as well as double-checking my calculations to ensure they are correct. The first test was this Pale Ale recipe. Ingredients 5 pounds of 2-row Pale Ale Malt 1 pound of Munich Malt 4 ounces of Flaked Corn 0.75 ounces of Mandarina Bavaria hops pellets @ 9.2% AA at 10 min. 0.60 ounces of Citra hops pellets @ 14% AA at 5 minutes 1/4 tsp. Yeast Nutrient 1/8 tsp. Brewtan B in the mash water 1/4 tsp. Brewtan B in the boil at 10 min. 1/2 tsp. Irish Moss in the boil at 15 min. 1 packet of Lallemand Nottingham dry ale yeast 9.2 liters of mash water 3.2 liters of sparge water The mash schedule began with a mash in at 104F, followed by 20 minutes at 140F, and 40 minutes at 158F. Mash out was 15 minutes at 168F. BeerSmith estimated the follo...

My first attempt to clone this beer was a dismal failure.  For this version, I decided to dig through the clone recipes I could find online. As with many clone recipes you encounter, most of them contained no images of the finished beer, no indication of whether the beer had ever been brewed, and no reviews indicating how it compared to the original. I finally settled on a recipe on one of the home brew forums which did actually have tasting notes under it, from someone who had reportedly done a side-by-side test against the real beer.  I had all the ingredients on hand and put them to work last night. Ingredients 4 pounds 2-row Pale Malt (75% of the grist) 12 ounces of Crystal 40L Malt (14% of the grist) 2 ounces of Crystal 60L Malt (2%, because I had some lying around to use up) 7 ounces Cara-pils/Dextrine Malt (8% of the grist) 0.3 ounces of Summit hops @ 16.7% AA (60 min.) 0.25 ounces of Cascade hops @ 6.9% AA (15 min.) 0.45 ounces of Cascade ho...

The real Manny's Pale Ale from Georgetown Brewing in Seattle One of my relatives spent time in Seattle and fell in love with Georgetown Brewing's Manny's Pale Ale . Now that he is here in Central Ohio, he can't get the beer anymore. I thought it would be nice to try to brew a clone of the beer for him. I started with a visit to the Georgetown web site, which yielded the following information: 2-row Pale malt and Caramel malt are used Summit and Cascade hops are used Original gravity is 1.051 SG Final gravity is 1.009 SG ABV is 5.4% IBU rating is: 38 English Ale yeast is used For the next step, I formulated a tentative recipe based on the image of the beer on their web site and the above information. I asked the brewery by email if the brewers would offer any advice.  All I learned was that they recommended using the Wyeast 1275 Thames Valley ale yeast . Searching on the web, there are various forum posts out there that suggest possible clone recipe...

Pico Pale Ale I was fortunate enough to be able to purchase a new Picobrew Zymatic automated brewing machine a few weeks ago for myself.  Today, I unboxed it and began brewing the sample kit included with it.  The sample recipe, Pico Pale Ale, was one of the easiest brews I've had in years. The machine shipped in four boxes.  Two of the boxes contained 5-gallon Cornelius kegs.  One contained the plastic tray, hoses, power cord, and other items, along with the recipe kit.  The last box contained the machine itself. Setup was fairly easy.  Remove everything from the boxes and confirm that it's all there.  Remove the plastic film covering the stainless steel parts of the Zymatic.  Attach the in and out liquid hoses to the correct fittings on the side of the unit, after inserting a nylon washer.  Attach the ball lock connectors to the appropriate posts on the keg.  Assemble the tray and insert it into the unit.  Register the dev...