Begin Brewing!

A good friend of mine loved Stevens Point Brewing's Cascade Pale Ale. Since the beer is no longer made, I tried to get the recipe from the brewery itself but failed. Based on the available data, I knew it had three malts in it: 2-row Pale, Munich, and Crystal. I made a version 1.0, but was very disappointed with it. Compared with the original, it lacked much of the flavor and aroma of the Cascade hop. It was darker, and lacked the sweetness of the original beer. In short, it wasn't even in the ballpark. Time to go back to the drawing board. Version 2.0 research had me searching various online forums for award-winning pale ale recipes by homebrewers. Specifically, I wanted to try to find a recipe that used only Pale, Munch, and Crystal malts and came out in the color and alcohol ballpark of the Stevens Point beer. I found a Lara Pale Ale recipe that used Goldings, Fuggle, Amarillo, and Cascade hops. I scaled that recipe down from 23 gallons to 5.6 (which in my system works o...

The following recipe comes from MadTree Brewing directly , so it should be close to the original beer. The Recipe Specifications BJCP Style: 13-E American Stout Batch Size: 5 gallons Efficiency: 89.78% Attenuation: 82.5% Original Gravity: 1.074 (1.050 to 1.075) Final Gravity: 1.013 (1.010 to 1.022) Color: 33.42 (30-40) Alcohol: 8.05% (5-7%) IBUs: 25.1 (35-75) Ingredients: 7.23 pounds of 2-Row Brewer's Malt (59.9%) 1.45 pounds of Victory Malt (12%) 0.96 pounds of Extra Special Malt (8%) 0.96 pounds of 2-Row Caramel 120L Malt (8%) 0.48 pounds of Midnight Wheat Malt (4%) 0.24 pounds of 2-Row Chocolate Malt (2%) 0.27 pounds of Carafa III Malt (2.2%) 1.06 pounds of Acidulated Malt (8%) 0.31 oz. of Apollo hops (17% AA) 0.48 lb. of White Table Sugar 0.1 lb. Lactose 0.31 oz. Experimental #05256 hops pellets (7.7% AA) 1.6 pounds of Blackberry puree 1 Cinnamon Stick 10.6 mL Lactic Acid MadTree doesn't specify which yeast they used, so choose a vari...

I've only made one Belgian Dubbel in all the time I've been brewing. That was an extract-based Dubbel that turned out just "OK" by my taste. I decided to create a new all-grain one. The Recipe 8 pounds Belgian Pale Malt 3 pounds Belgian Pilsner Malt 8 ounces Special B Malt 4 ounces Caramunich I Malt 4 ounces Melanoidin Malt 4 ounces Cara-Pils/Dextrine Malt 6 ounces D-90 Candi Syrup 12 ounces Golden Candi Syrup 1.25 ounces Styrian Goldings hops pellets @ 6.4% AA 1.25 ounces Czech Saaz hops pellets @ 3.2% AA 1/4 tsp. Yeast Nutrient 1/2 Whirlfloc Tablet 1 Tbsp. pH 5.2 Stabilizer 1 packet Omega Labs OYL-028 Belgian Ale W yeast 1 packet of dry T-58 Belgian Abbaye yeast Estimated OG: 16.9 Brix (Actual was 18.3) Estimated Pre-boil Gravity: 16.7 (Actual was 15.2 before sugars) Estimated FG: 9.7 Brix (adjusted for alcohol), actual was 10.5 Brix IBU: 22.9 SRM: 17.2 ABV: 6.8% Batch Size: 5.6 gallons (5 gallons into fermenter) Some of you may be wo...

In the first two parts of this series, we covered recipe selection and adjustment , getting the ingredients ready, and performing the mash in The Grainfather. This week, we'll look at the boil. The Grainfather makes the boil process pretty simple. The kettle is deep enough that boil-over on a 5-gallon batch is unlikely. The thermal cut-out switch reduces the chances that you'll scorch the wort when adding sugars, syrups, or other ingredients. When we last saw our example beer, it was just starting to boil. When it finally reaches a boil, I take out my stainless steel spoon and stir the hot break foam back into the wort.  Once the foam stops forming on top of the wort, I'll rig up my hop spider and place it in the kettle. I take two soapstone rocks and drop those in the bag to weigh it down. I use binder clips to ensure that the hop bag stays on the spider and doesn't drop into the kettle. Hop spider in place, ready for hop additions As I mentioned in the f...

In the last post , I talked about how I select and modify recipes to match my equipment, process, and efficiency. I also talked about how, before I start to brew, I clean, measure, and arrange everything so that the actual brew goes as smoothly as possible. In this post, we're going to look at the mash process and how I typically do it. My brew day sheet tells me how much mash and sparge water I've calculated that I will need based on the grain bill and equipment. I begin by filling The Grainfather with the mash water and dropping in a Campden tablet to remove chlorine and chloramine. I fill my sparge water kettle with the sparge water amount, plus one gallon to account for dead space in the Mega Pot kettle. When The Grainfather has reached the mash temperature (or the temperature of the first step in a multi-step mash), I begin scooping in the crushed grain. Adding crushed grain to the mash water Every few scoops, I stir the grain with the stainless steel spoon you s...

A couple of homebrewing friends have asked me about my process. They want to know how I go from a recipe to a finished beer, the steps I follow, why I follow them, and the tools I use. This post is an attempt to capture and share all the information. It's important to note that my process changes a bit as I learn new things, gain new equipment, or discover better or easier ways to do things. Consider this post a "snapshot" of my process and equipment as it stands right now. Six months from now it could be different. The Equipment My current brewing equipment consists of the following: iMake's The Grainfather RIMS brewing system: This handles mashing, boiling, and chilling of the wort. I also added the Graincoat accessory to reduce heat loss and speed up kettle heating time. An induction cooktop and Mega Pot 1.2 kettle: This provides heated sparge water. I have it on top of a tall table, at a height that I can open the valve on the kettle and have sparge...

A few months ago, I made an attempt to clone the excellent Trappistes Rochefort 10 beer in my Grainfather. The resulting beer turned out well, but had two significant flaws. It had no head when poured into a glass and it was missing a caramel/toffee note that was in the original beer. Since then, I believe I've sorted out the foam/head issues. The original recipe used a high percentage of adjuncts (D-180 candi syrup), relatively low-alpha-acid hops (4% and 6.4%), and probably had yeast that got a bit "tired" after fermenting an 8.5% or higher beer. In this version of the recipe, I've replaced some of the Pilsner malt with Cara-Pils and Melanoidin malts, which I've found produce an excellent creamy head without appearing to affect the flavor of the beer. I also replaced some of the Styrian Goldings hops pellets with German Northern Brewer pellets at 10.1% alpha acid. I'll also bottle the beer with a freshly-rehydrated yeast and priming sugar, which should ens...