Begin Brewing!

I've come to the conclusion that the best way to bring my recipe creation skills up a level is to focus a bit on the flavor contribution of various malts. There is a lot out there on the subject already, but most experts will tell you that each of us has a slightly different sense of taste and smell. What may seem dry and lemony to me could seem very different to you.  The best way to know what the different base malts contribute to a recipe is to build a single-malt and single-hop (SMASH) beer.  To fairly compare the malts to one another, you will want to use the same water profile, mash and sparge steps, same hops, same yeast, etc.  Your only change should be the base malt. I have a fair amount of a number of base malts in stock, along with a decent quantity of Mandarina Bavaria hops pellets, and some Coopers dry ale yeast.  With the Brewie+ functional again, I should be able to create a number of SMASH beers which are nearly identical apart from their base malts...

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 at cloning Georgetown Brewing's Manny's Pale Ale was a dismal failure. It was a drinkable beer, but not pale in color and nothing like a pale ale in flavor. The second version was more like a pale ale in flavor, but still a touch dark in its color. The family member who loves the real beer says this version is too "malty" (which I'm interpreting as the beer having too much Caramel malt or too dark of a Caramel malt). In this version, I'm switching from Caramel 60L to Caramel 40L and decreasing the proportion of the Caramel malt in the recipe. Ingredients 2 pounds 2-row Pale Ale Malt 2 pounds 13 ounces 2-row Brewer's Malt 5 ounces Crystal 40L Malt 0.25 ounces of Summit hops pellets @ 17.5% AA (30 min.) 0.35 ounces of Cascade hops pellets @ 6.9% AA (20 min.) 0.45 ounces of Cascade hops pellets @ 6.9% AA (10 min.) 0.45 ounces of Cascade hops pellets @ 6.9% AA (5 min.) 1/4 tsp. Yeast Nutrient 1/2 tsp. Irish Moss 1 packet Wyeast 1...

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...

This recipe started out as an attempt to replicate the no-longer-made Stevens Point Brewery Cascade Pale Ale. A good friend of mine was a huge fan of the beer and was disappointed when it was no longer being made.  My first attempt was a drinkable beer but bore little resemblance to the real thing. My second attempt was much better, and my friend (who may have been being nice) said he preferred it to the real beer.  Still, even that version was a little light on hop flavor and a bit darker than the actual beer. For this version, I'm going with a plain 2-row malt base instead of a Pale Ale malt. This should lighten the color of the beer.  I'm increasing the amount of Caramel and Munich malts to get closer to the original beer's sweetness level, and adding some Cara-Pils to give it a longer-lasting head.  I'm also going to hop the beer every 5 minutes, kind of a balance between minute-by-minute continual hopping and using the typical addition timings (i.e., 60, 3...