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Centennial Blonde Ale 1.0 Some time ago, when searching for some good recipes, I found a Centennial Blonde Ale recipe that had been voted the top recipe by visitors to HomeBrewTalk.com. I've wanted to brew it for a while, and finally got around to doing it today. Ingredients 3 pounds 2-row Pale Ale Malt 5 ounces Cara-Pils/Dextrine Malt 3.5 ounces Caramel/Crystal 10L Malt 3.5 ounces Swaen Vienna Malt 0.10 ounces Centennial hops pellets @ 10.8% AA (55 min.) 0.15 ounces Centennial hops pellets @ 10.8% AA (35 min.) 0.15 ounces Cascade hops pellets @ 6.9% AA (20 min.) 0.15 ounces Cascade hops pellets @ 6.9% AA (5 min.) 1/2 vial White Labs Clarity Ferm 1 packet Lallemand Nottingham Ale Yeast 3 gallons of starting water in keg For a mash schedule, I've modified the High-Efficiency Mash Schedule in the Zymatic Recipe Crafter to hold the mash at 150F for 90 minutes, followed by 30 minutes at 154F, leaving the rest the same. Boil schedule will be: 60 minutes:   N...

2018 Tripel 1.0 Despite having had a Belgian Tripel take fourth place at the Ohio State Fair this year, I've still never really made one that I felt was "perfect" for my taste. I decided before brewing another that I'd study the style a bit, seeing what has worked for other brewers, and try to come up with my own recipe. I located as many Tripel recipes on the web as I could.  If the recipe was for a commercial Tripel, a commercially sold kit, published in a magazine, or listed as a winner in a home brewing contest, then I included it in the study.  There are many (possibly very good) Tripel recipes listed on the web that don't have a "track record" (for lack of a better phrase) associated with them.  I did not include those. The Style The BJCP 2015 definition for the Belgian Tripel style suggests the following: Overall Impression:   A pale, somewhat spicy, dry, strong Trappist ale with a pleasant rounded malt flavor and firm bitterness. Qu...

The finished beer My last attempt at a Tripel Karmeliet clone used what was purportedly the actual recipe from the 1600's. The beer came out darker, heavier-bodied, and far less lemony than the actual Bosteels product. This time around, I reduced the amount of wheat and oat in the mash, and included some Simplicity candi sugar to further lighten the body. To amp up the lemony flavor, I've used a mix of Hallertau Mittelfruh and Lemondrop hops, added lemon peel, and a small amount of coriander. The last time around, the Zymatic had trouble dealing with the grain bill for the beer (which was a full 9 pounds - the device's upper limit). Dropping a half pound of oats and a pound of wheat got the grain bill down a bit. The gravity should come out about the same, since I've added the candi syrup to the mash water (to give it a chance to caramelize during the boil). I edited the mash schedule to dough in at 113F, which hopefully will provide several benefits. At this te...

A glass of the finished "Rapid Cream Ale" Last year, one of my favorite (and shortest-lived) beers was my cream ale. It began as the Kari's Cream Ale recipe on the American Hombrewers Association web site, which had won a gold medal at the national level in 2008. I made some minor changes to it, to bring it more in line with my own tastes. Specifically, I switched from 2-row Pale Malt to 6-row Pale Malt (supplemented with about 6 ounces of 2-row Pale since I didn't have enough 6-row), from WLP001 California Ale Yeast to Safale US-05, from whole Hallertau hops to Hallertau Mittelfruh pellet hops, and added a second mash step at 154F to possibly add some sweetness and body. Bitterness was also decreased slightly to 17 IBUs. Ingredients 1 pound, 14 ounces 6-row Pale Malt 6 ounces 2-row Pale Malt 2.25 pounds Briess Pilsner Malt 4 ounces Flaked Corn 4 ounces Corn Sugar 0.60 ounces Hallertau Mittelfruh hops @ 3.8% AA (30 min.) 0.75 ounces Hallertau Mittelfru...

Last year, one of the beers I earned a silver medal for at the Ohio State Fair was an Australian Sparkling Ale. Although I did not enter that beer this year, I did decide to re-brew it. The beer was a hit with friends and family. This re-brew attempts to reproduce the award-winning beer in the Zymatic instead of The Grainfather. I've attempted to adjust grain volume and hops amounts down to a level that should be equivalent. Ingredients 1.5 pounds Pilsner Malt 1.5 pounds Pale Ale Malt 4 ounces Caravienne Malt 4 ounces Carapils Malt 1 ounce Roasted Barley 1 pound Corn Sugar 1.5 tsp. pH 5.2 Stabilizer 1/4 tsp. Wyeast Yeast Nutrient 1 packet Coopers Ale Yeast 0.35 ounces Pride of Ringwood hops pellets @ 10% AA (60 min.) 0.15 ounces Pride of Ringwood hops pellets @ 10% AA (5 min.) 3 gallons plus 8 ounces starting water I added Carapils to this iteration to help maintain a head. The Roasted Barley was added to increase the malt complexity. I'd wanted to add Ca...

Earlier this year, I won the 23rd Annual Homebrewing Competition at Barley's Ale House across from the Columbus Convention Center. The beer I won it with was a Belgian Dark Strong Ale, a favorite style of mine. There are only a few bottles left of the winning batch, and I have several friends and family who would love to try the beer. That means it's time to re-brew. I brewed the winning batch in November on The Grainfather. While I could fire up the device and brew a new batch following the old recipe, I'd rather work out how to brew it on the PicoBrew Zymatic, as that would be a much easier and more repeatable way to make it in the future. I used the Zymatic Recipe Crafter to scale the original recipe to the 2.5 gallon size and match the original beer's gravity. Then, because I've come to believe the Zymatic's recipe crafter drastically underestimates the bitterness of a beer relative to what I see in BeerSmith (where the original recipe was created), I us...

Last year, I created a blonde ale recipe intended to showcase Mandarina Bavaria hops and Orange Blossom Honey. To my surprise, the finished beer took second place (silver medal) at the 2017 Ohio State Fair's homebrewing competition.  When I tried to re-brew that beer using the Picobrew Zymatic, despite their software claiming it would have a fairly low bitterness level, it actually came out so bitter that I entered it this year as a Pale Ale rather than a Blonde Ale. I decided to try again today, scaling the bitterness back to what I hope will match the original 1.0 brew, but using the Zymatic instead of The Grainfather. Ingredients 3 pounds 2-row Pale Ale Malt 1.25 pounds Munich Malt 3 ounces Carapils/Dextrine Malt 1 ounce Caramel 60L Malt 0.10 ounces Mandarina Bavaria hops @ 9.2% AA (60 min.) 0.20 ounces Mandarina Bavaria hops @ 9.2% AA (15 min.) 0.50 ounces Sweet Orange Peel (10 min.) 1/2 tsp. Irish Moss (10 min.) 1/4 tsp. White Labs Yeast Nutrient (10 min.) 0.35 o...