Hazy Pale Ale

This is the 3rd time round for this recipe using the same malt base.  I have been using it to create light beers (under 5%) and trying out different hop combinations.  It seems to give me exactly what I want from the malt profile and its not thin with the addition of either flaked wheat or oats depending on whats available at the time.

Last time I used Citra and Vic Secret for the hops both in the kettle and dry hop.  I found that the Vic Secret to be a bit harsh and over powering so I won't use that in the kettle again even though it was only for whirlpool, next time it will be only for dry hopping.

This time the only hops going in the kettle would be some 60 minutes hops to get the bitterness and that was it.  The rest of the hop bill would all be dry hop.  I got this from a Brulosophy podcast that mentioned they haven't used whirlpool hops for quite a while as they see it as a waste of hops when brewing the high aroma hazy beers so this is my attempt at this method.

Brew day went off without a hitch considering there was no hopstand/whirlpool it was about 30 minutes quicker which is a bit of a bonus.  It also mean transferring the wort to the fermentor was much quicker as well once chilled.  I did get a higher than expected efficiency around 80% so the ABV is bit higher than I was planning for however still under 5%.

Recipe:

Hazy Pale Ale

OG 1.044

EBC 5.5

IBU 26.7

ABV 4.6%

FG 1.009

Fermentables:

2.4kg Coopers Pilsner Malt (51%)
1.2kg Coopers Pale Malt (26%)
700g Flaked Wheat (15%)
400g Carapils (9%)

Yeast:
Wyeast American Ale II 1272

Mash:

Mashed at 65 degrees C for 60mins

Mash Out at 75 degrees for 10mins

Boil:
Boiled for 60mins

Hops:

Columbus 15g (16.6AA) 26.7 IBU @ 60mins

Fermentation:
Fermented at 19 degrees C for the first 5 days then raised up to 21 to finish it off for another 3 days

Dry Hops:
Citra 40g (12 AA)
Cascade 40g (5.8 AA)
Mosaic 40g (12.3 AA)
Galaxy 40g (13.6 AA)

Tasting Notes:

Well it is hazy, all those dry hops definitely added to the haze.  I haven't used gelatin on this one as this is the appearance I was after, that light golden colour.

Aroma is awesome, I would say passion fruit is what I get.

The head is a bit low in this pic as its still not 100% carbonated when I took the picture but it still tastes so damn good this keg isn't gonna last long.

The mouthfeel is spot on, its not thin but is still refreshing, again this malt bill is something that I will keep returning to and trying new hop combinations on as its exactly what I want in a beer.

Is it missing anything from not having the kettle hops?  I would say no.  I think the bitterness from the 60 minute hops is spot on and this is going to be how I make my beers from now on.  It is basically half the amount of what I would normally use for my hop count on this type of beer so for me its the way to go.

Chinook Smash

After the failed brew on for Galaxy and Centennial IPA which some of it I put down to my choice of bittering hops being Chinook I wanted to actually see what this hop was about and since I had so much of it I though fuck it, I'll do a single hop beer (actually my first ever single hop beer).

I figured some Maris Otter and I know this doesn't make it a smash but I through in some wheat to go with it.

Hops, well you guessed it Chinook from start to finish.  I used a shitload of hops on this one, mostly in the hop stand and dry hop hoping that I would get a good amount of aroma from this beer to really see what the hops are about.

On the yeast from once again I went with the 1272.

Recipe:

SMASH Pale Ale

OG 1.047

EBC 9.2

IBU 43

ABV 4.9%

FG 1.010

Fermentables:

5kg Maris Otter (79%)
300g Gladfield Wheat Malt (6%)

Yeast:
Wyeast American Ale II 1272

Mash:

Mashed at 65 degrees C for 60mins

Raised to 75 degrees for 10mins

Boil:
Boiled for 60mins

Hops:

Chinook 15g (12.2AA) 19.1 IBU @ 60mins
Chinook 10g (12.2AA) 4.6 IBU @ 10mins
Chinook 10g (12.2AA) 2.5 IBU @ 5mins
Chinook 50g (12.2AA) 17.5 IBU @ hopstand once chilled to 80 degrees C

Fermentation:
Fermented at 18 degrees C for the first 5 days then raised up to 20 to finish it off.

Dry Hops:
Chinook 160g (12.2AA) @ Dry Hop

Tasting Notes:
Well this beer sucked.  I don't know what happened to the aroma from the hops, but they weren't there at all.  For 160g dry hop I was disappointed.  I don't know if this was the batch of hops I had or if this is how Chinook is all the time?  In the end I didn't bother finishing the keg as it was so boring and I had another beer I wanted to get in there that might actually have some flavour.

Water

Something that I didn't put too much thought into was the water I used.  I had been using spring water in casks from the supermarket.  I figured it was controlled, the chemical amounts were around the mark and there was no Chlorine in it.  However this was another cost to my brewday (only $10) and it was a pain in the arse having another thing to worry about organizing.

A friend of mine who lives in my area had been using his tap water however filtering it with a carbon filter to remove the chlorine with good success.  His beers were always on point and I figured it was time to try out filtering my own water.

I had a look on the net at our water profile provided from SA Water and punched it into Bru'n Water spread sheet.  It turned out that if I was just going to be brewing basic pales then I didn't really need to do too much.  It seems we are pretty lucky at least where I live in Adelaide and I only need to add a tiny bit of Gypsum (around 3g) to get my Ph on the mark.

For the carbon filter I had a look around and did some reading and with the low chlorine levels in our water I ended up just using one of these from Bunnings.  I know its cheap and shit and surely that means it won't work very well, but its similar to what my friend had been using so I thought fuck it.  It is also super easy to use, just connect it to the hose.  I make sure I run the water through nice and slow as it isn't rated for high flow.

So how has it turned out, well I think it has definitely made a difference.  I think my beers taste much cleaner and crisper, especially my Session IPA's which turned out amazing.

Once I move my tap around to the side of the house I will probably install a proper wall mounted filter where I can push the water through a bit quicker.  But for now it's doing the job!

Simple Pale Ale

Simple Pale Ale

Being on a bit of a roll with the Session IPA's I switch my attention back to a standard pale ale.  Something with a bit more malt and a bit less hops.

I wanted to keep it around the 5% mark so I could at least knock a few back without getting plastered so I built my malt bill around that.

For the malts I decided to give the Coopers Ale malt a whirl since it is local and cheap.  With 80% of the malt being Ale Malt I added in some Gladfield Munch Malt and also decided to give their Supernova Malt a whirl as it is supposed to add color without being too sweet.  There is a good blurb about it here at the Gladfield site.  I chucked in some oats to again try and boost the body and not have it come out too thin.

For the hops I wanted to try added bittering hops through out the boil so I could get the bitterness but not have it come across as being too harsh.  I used Columbus for bittering and boil hops until the hopstand which I used up some Amarillo I had in the freezer.  For dry hopping I went with one of my favorites Galaxy and another favorite Mosaic.

When it came to the yeast, 1272 or go home.

Recipe:

American Pale Ale

OG 1.046

EBC 13.7

IBU 36

ABV 4.7%

FG 1.009

Fermentables:

4.2 Coopers Ale Malt (79%)
500g Gladfield Munich Malt (9%)

300g Gladfield Supanova (6%)

300g Flaked Oats (6%)

Yeast:
Wyeast American Ale II 1272

Mash:

Mashed at 65 degrees C for 60mins

Raised to 75 degrees for 10mins

Boil:
Boiled for 60mins

Hops:

Columbus 5g (16.6AA) 8.8 IBU @ 60mins
Columbus 10g (16.6AA) 13.5 IBU @ 30mins
Columbus 5g (16.6AA) 6.4 IBU @ 10mins
Amarillo 30g (9AA) 7.8 IBU @ hopstand once chilled to 80 degrees C

Fermentation:
Fermented at 18 degrees C for the first 5 days then raised up to 20 to finish it off.

Dry Hops:
Galaxy 60g (14.2AA) @ Dry Hop
Mosaic 30g (12.3AA) @ Dry Hop

Tasting:
The color is exactly what I was aiming for, even with just 6% of the Supnova Malt it made quite a difference, I wouldn't have wanted it any darker.

It has a really nice malt profile to it, not too sweet or cloying.  Some of my earlier beers I would use too much crystal and they would end up overly sweet and not enjoyable.  I think I will try removing the Munich next time.

The idea of using the Columbus hops throughout the boil to kind of layer the bitterness seems to have worked.  I think next time on the dry hops I will maybe sub out the Mosaic for with more Galaxy or maybe go with the Simcoe to try and get some pine.  Maybe Cascade?

Overall pretty happy with this one, I've been on a pretty good run lately and seem to have hit the sweet spot with both malt profiles and hop combos.

Session IPA Version II

Session IPA Version II

After the huge success of Session IPA version I there was never going to be long before I brewed it again.  This time there would be no fuck up with the boil hops and I was going to try out a new hop combo.  I knew I wanted to use Citra again but couldn't get any up my local home brew shop.  So I went with a bulk order again splitting it with a friend so we could both get a good amount of Citra and Vic Secret.  I had been keen to get hold of some Vic Secret for a while but had never been able to get it when I wanted so I thought fuck it.

I used the exact same grist again except I couldn't get flaked oats so I just subbed in with some flaked wheat.

On the yeast front I went with my go to yeast Wyeast American Ale II 1272.

Brew day went off without a hitch (unlike last time).

Recipe:

Session IPA

OG 1.038

EBC 5.5

IBU 40

ABV 4%

FG 1.008

Fermentables:

2.4kg Gladfield Pilsner (49%)
1.2kg Gladfield Ale Malt (24%)

700g Flaked Wheat(14%)

400g Carapils (8%)
200g Rice Hulls (4%)

Yeast:
Wyeast American Ale II 1272

Mash:

Mashed at 65 degrees C for 60mins

Raised to 75 degrees for 10mins

Boil:
Boiled for 60mins

Hops:

Columbus 5g (16.6AA) 9.4 IBU @ 60mins
Citra 35g (12.4AA) 26.8 IBU @ hopstand once chilled to 80 degrees C
Vic Secret 30g (12.4AA) 13.4 IBU @ hopstand once chilled to 80 degrees C

Fermentation:
Fermented at 18 degrees C for the first 5 days then raised up to 20 to finish it off.

Dry Hops:
Citra 40g (12.4AA) @ Dry Hop
Vic Secret 30g (17.7AA) @ Dry Hop

Tasting:
So this time no fuck up with the hops in the boil.  Overall pretty darn good again.  I'm going to have to control myself so I can actually have this one tap for Christmas Day since we are having the family over.

Again not thin in the mouth again I am guessing from the high amount of flaked wheat.  Aroma is nice and fruity again without being over the top.  I think I preferred the aroma from the first batch with the Galaxy in it, but with out a side by side I can't say 100%.

Bitterness is nice its still enough and fades quickly.  I love Columbus for bittering I think its the best option out there, high AA so you don't need a lot and doesn't become harsh in the boil.

Color is again spot of for what I was aiming for, again I used Gelatin to get it clear quickly as I wanted to drink this as fresh as possible.

I am thinking this malt bill will become my standard issue for trying out new hops, either single hops or combination.

So whats next for Version III?  I might go with some Citra/Mosaic/Vic Secret........

Session IPA version I

Session IPA Version I

I have been craving low ABV beers lately that I can just crush.  I guess all those years of high ABV and massive IBU beers have finally taken its toll.  My latest go to beers have been from Mismatch Brewing both their Lager and Session Ale.  Being able to crush a six pack of them in a afternoon without being legless is a huge up side.

For this beer I wanted it around the 4% ABV range and it needed to have almost no malt flavor and to give this beer its flavor it needed to be nice and fruity.  For the malt bill I went with Pilsner, Ale Mat, Flaked Oats and Carapils.  I was hoping the oats would help it from being thin.

On the yeast side I went with my favorite Wyeast 1272, hoping to get some more fruitiness to compliment the Citra and Galaxy that would be used for both boil and dry hop additions.

On the brew day disaster, I added my flameout hops at 60 minutes.........fuck, my subtle and fruity session IPA would now be a bitter mess.  I quickly switched to a 30 minute boil and added some table sugar to get the OG I needed to then get the ABV around 4%..........................fingers crossed.

Recipe:

Session IPA

OG 1.038

EBC 5.5

IBU 40

ABV 4%

FG 1.008

Fermentables:

2.4kg Gladfield Pilsner (49%)
1.2kg Gladfield Ale Malt (24%)

700g Flaked Oats (14%)

400g Carapils (8%)
200g Rice Hulls (4%)

Off the Cuff
200g Table Sugar

Yeast:
Wyeast American Ale II 1272

Mash:

Mashed at 65 degrees C for 60mins

Raised to 75 degrees for 10mins

Boil:
Boiled for 30mins

Hops:

Citra 25g (12.4AA) 26.8 IBU @ 30mins
Citra 35g (12.4AA) 13.4 IBU @ hopstand once chilled to 80 degrees C

Fermentation:
Fermented at 18 degrees C for the first 5 days then raised up to 20 to finish it off.

Dry Hops:
Galaxy 40g (14.2AA) @ Dry Hop
Citra 40g (12.4AA) @ Dry Hop

Tasting:
What else can I say, this beer barely lasted 2 weeks on the tap, it was on point.

I ended up fining with Gelatin (has become a standard practice for me lately) so its clear as can be, made it hard for my shit phone to actually focus on it.

This beer turned out exactly as I wanted, very light malt flavor but the hops.  They were exactly how I wanted it, really nice and fruity without being over the top.  I would go as far as saying this is probably the best beer I have brewed so far.

Its just dumb luck that this turned out so well after my fuck up with the hops in the boil but I'll take it, can't wait to brew this one again.

Galaxy and Centennial IPA

This beer is yet another hoppy IPA, its seems that's all I'm doing these days since I have so many hops in the freezer it makes sense.

This time I am hoping the combination of Galaxy with Centennial with give a nice fruitiness from the Galaxy and some spice from the Centennial.

The brew day was pretty normal I did work out a good way to get a fast transfer to my fermentor from the Grainfather.  Once I chilled my wort down the 80 degrees I turned off the pump, threw in the hops and gave it a big stir to get a 'whirlpool' effect going on.  Left it for 20mins then came back to chill it down further.  Once I got it to the temp I wanted I turned off the pump again, got another 'whirlpool' going and left it for 5 mins.  I then started pumping into the fermentor and it seemed the time letting it settle meant that the hops didn't clog up around the pump filter and the flow was super fast while still being clear.

I changed up the yeast this time moving to the Wyeast 1272 hoping that it would add to the fruity character instead of just relying on the hops.  I have found my beers with 1056 to be a bit one dimensional especially when paired with a basic malt bill.

Recipe:

American IPA

OG 1.061

EBC 10.2

IBU 61

ABV 6.3%

FG 1.012

Fermentables:

4.6kg Gladfield Ale Malt (68%)
1.5kg Maris Otter (22%)

450g Torrified Wheat (7%)

200g Rice Hulls (3%)

Yeast:
Wyeast American Ale II

Mash:

Mashed at 65 degrees C for 60mins

Raised to 75 degrees for 10mins

Boil:
Boiled for 60mins

Hops:
Chinook 30g (13.2AA) 36.4IBU @ 60mins
Centennial 30g (9.8AA) 5.4IBU @ 5mins
Galaxy 30g (15.8AA) 12IBU @ Hopstand for 20mins @ 80 degrees

Centennial 30g (9.8AA) 7.4IBU @ Hopstand for 20mins @ 80 degrees

Galaxy 70g (15.8AA) Dry Hop

Centennial 30g (9.8AA) Dry Hop

Fermentation:
Fermented at 20degrees C for 10 days

This beer turned out very hazy and never cleared up.  You can't really tell in the photo (it was the only one I could find) but it was super murky, not sure why.

It was big, bitter and boozy which was what I was after however I don't think the Chinook hops were the right choice to bitter with.

It was a bit of a love and hate affair with this one as I really had to be in the mood to enjoy it since it was so large on both the bitterness and the booze.

To be honest the hazyness wasn't really something that made me want to drink it either.

Overall this one missed the mark and wasn't really what I was going for.  Next time ditch the Chinook and replace with Columbus while also dialing back the 60 minute addition.  I think the Centennial and Galaxy is a combo worth exploring more.

Amarillo and Centennial Pale Ale

This beer was based on a recipe a friend of mine brewed that turned out really good.  It also makes use of all the existing hops that I have in my freezer from the bulk buy that the same friend and I went in on to try and save some money on hops.

There was a couple of differences between the recipes.  My friends beer had Columbus for bittering which I swapped out for Chinook as I had it on hand and I used a different yeast.  The yeast was a mistake for some reason I don't know why, I thought he used Nottingham.  It turned out he used Liberty Bell.  This is the first beer I have brewed in a long time with dry yeast, the reason for this is my friends beers all use dry yeast and to be honest they turn out great.

If this beer turned out like what I tasted on tap at my mates I was going to be happy.  It was a very balanced beer with nice light malt and some good fruit from the hops.

Recipe:

American Pale Ale

OG 1.045

EBC 10.8

IBU 43

ABV 5%

FG 1.006

Fermentables:

3.6kg Maris Otter (75%)

500g Munich I (10%)

500g Flaked Wheat (10%)

200g Gladfield Light Crystal (4%)

Yeast:
Danstar Nottingham

Mash:

Mashed at 65 degrees C for 90mins

Raised to 75 degrees for 10mins

Boil:
Boiled for 60mins

Hops:
Chinook 10g (13AA) 13.8IBU @ 60mins
Amarillo 25g (8.8AA) 8.5IBU @ 10mins
Centennial 25g (9.8AA) 9.4IBU @ 10mins

Amarillo 35g (8.8AA) 5.4IBU @ Hopstand for 20mins @ 80 degrees

Centennial 35g (9.8AA) 6.4IBU @ Hopstand for 20mins @ 80 degrees

Amarillo 40g (8.8AA) Dry Hop

Centennial 40g (9.8AA) Dry Hop

Fermentation:
Fermented at 18degrees C for 10 days

Tasting:
20/09/2018
This turned out perfect.  Exactly what I wanted, a nice easy to drink pale ale with nice fruity notes and a clean malt.  It has only been in the keg for a week so far so it should clear up a little bit more.

I love the colour, little big of haze that gives it that juicy look.  Without the haze it would be very light in colour.

I am very surprised as to how good the hop combo is on this one and considering the amount of hops used isn't over the top it has a very nice aroma.  I am thinking the yeast may have a little bit to do with this as it isn't a super clean yeast like Wyeast 1056.  It just goes to show that you don't need to be using Citra and Mosaic to get a nice fruit forward beer.

The malt profile is perfect, its not sweet, its not thin and it doesn't get in the way of the hops.

Needs a little bit more carbonation but given its only been in the keg for a week at 10psi that will come in time.

This is going to be hard not to drink super fast, especially since this is the only beer I currently have on tap.  Luckily I got off my arse and there is another IPA in right now sitting on dry hops.

Brewdog Stout - Riptide

Brewdog Stout - Riptide

Winter time equals stout time.  I was after something with as substantial alcohol content, it had to warm you up being winter, but I also wanted to get 19 litres so it couldn't be a imperial stout. I was looking through the Brewdog DIY dog and noticed that they had Riptide Stout that appeared to tick the boxes.

I copied the recipe into the Grainfather recipe calculator and got as close as possible, I had to drop the ABV down to 7% range in order to be able to fit the mash into my equipment and still get a full 19 litres into my keg.

I also didn't use the complete hop combo they listed.  As the grain bill was already quite expensive I went tight arse and just used Columbus, I didn't want a heavily hopped Stout anyways (does that mean its no longer and American Stout?).  When I think of hops in a stout I always come back to the Pirate Life stout which to me is just too hoppy and I didn't want it to end up like that.

On the grain side I couldn't get Maris Otter so I subbed it out for Vienna.  I also couldn't get Carafa III so I had to use Carafa II instead.

Brew day was a bit of a pain in the arse.  With all the wheat and oats I ended up with a stuck sparge and the proceeded to break my crappy plastic mash paddle.  So I looked around the house for other options to try and free it up so I could finish the sparge but couldn't find anything.  In the end I used some rubber gloves from my cleaning kit and using packing tape I taped it to my arm and ran the tap up past my elbow so I could reach my arm to the bottom.  It was like porridge down there and took quite a while to free it up so water could flow, and damn was it hot.

In the end it took over 40 minutes to sparge and I had to keep reaching in and freeing it up to keep the water flowing.  In the end this affected how much I ended up in the boil and then how much I had in the keg.

The lesson learnt from this?  Next time use some rice hulls..........oh and invest in a decent mash paddle you tight arse!

Recipe:

American Stout

OG 1.068

EBC 71.6

IBU 68

ABV 7.1%

FG 1.010

Fermentables:

4.5kg Vienna Malt (68%)

500g Flaked Oats (8%)

500g Dark Crystal (8%)

400g Caramalt (6%)

300g Wheat (5%)

250g Chocolate Malt (4%)

200g Carafa Special II (3%)

Yeast:
Wyeast 1272

Mash:

Mashed at 65 degrees C for 90mins

Raised to 75 degrees for 10mins

Boil:
Boiled for 90mins

Hops:

Columbus 28g (16.6AA) 45IBU @ 90mins

Columbus 60g (16.6AA) 23IBU @ Hopstand for 20mins cooled to 80 degrees

Fermentation:
Fermented at 18degrees C for 10 days

Tasting Notes:
This is pretty much what I was after, could maybe have more of a chocolate flavor but this is very smooth and drinkable for a 7% stout, almost dangerous.  (see my notes for the Amarillo Saison)

The body is very smooth I am guessing from the high amounts of oats and wheat in this one.

The color is black but when held up to the light you can see through it just in the narrow parts of the glass so its not a cloudy beer.

Head is nice and solid and last for a long time with great lacing down the glass right to the end.

The nose is super clean, you can tell it is an American IPA based on the aroma from the yeast with almost no hop character to speak off, just what I was after.  Suppose its not really and American IPA then?

Changes for next time?  More chocolate malt and perhaps from coffee or cocoa nibs would give this another dimension.  Maybe even an English yeast?  So an English stout then.........

West Coast IPA - Dirty Harry

West Coast IPA - Dirty Harry

A friend and I went halves in a bunch of hops, mostly hops I hadn't really used too much before.  I figured the last few beers I had made were all pretty similar, juicy IPA's with my usual hops, Galaxy, Mosaic, Simcoe or Citra so lets try something different.

Having recently been at Little Bang Brewery for a few beers and having a couple of pints of their Naked Objector I knew I needed something like this on tap.  For me it ticked all the boxes, it was bitter, and not too sweet and a awesome orange color with head for days.

So based on this beer the hops we ordered were some of the more old school hops:

• 1kg of Centennial
• 1kg of Amarillo
• 1Kg of Chinook

Having never really used any of the above in my beers before except for Amarillo I decided to chuck them all in the mix.  So with a shitload of hops to play with I went about putting a recipe together that would hopefully tick all the boxes.

The Chinook would hopefully give some nice pine and resinous notes.  The Centennial hopefully some spicy citrus and the Amarillo some more citrus notes.  I used Columbus for bittering as I had exactly 20g left from a previous brew and its usually my go to for bittering.

Recipe:

West Coast IPA

OG 1.057

EBC 12.5

IBU 73

ABV 6%

FG 1.011

Fermentables:

5.5kg Ale Malt (90%)

400g Wheat Malt (7%)

200g Medium Crystal (3%)

Yeast:
Wyeast 1056

Mash:

Mashed at 65 degrees C for 60mins

Raised to 75 degrees for 10mins

Boil:
Boiled for 60mins

Hops:

Columbus 20g (16.6AA) 31.8IBU @ 60mins

Centennial 15g (9.8AA) 8.5 IBU @ 20mins

Amarillo 15g (8.8AA) 7.6 IBU @ 20mins

Centennial 50g (9.8AA) 7.7 IBU @ Hopstand once cooled to 80 degrees for 20 mins

Amarillo 50g (8.8AA) 6.9 IBU @ Hopstand once cooled to 80 degrees for 20 mins

Chinook 50g (13.2AA) 13.2 IBU Hopstand once cooled to 80 degrees for 20 mins

Fermentation:
Fermented at 18degrees C for the first 4 days then raised up to 20 to finish it off.

Dry Hops:

Centennial 20g (9.8AA) @ Day 2

Amarillo 20g (8.8AA) @ Day 2

Chinook 20g (13.2AA) 1@ Day 2

Centennial 30g (9.8AA) @ Day 6

Amarillo 30g (8.8AA) @ Day 6

Chinook 30g (13.2AA) @ Day 6

Not the greatest picture, but since the keg is done this is all I have.

Tasting:

So how did this turn out?  It was good, not great.  It was what I was after I guess, lots of bitterness and plenty of pine and resin from the Chinook with a slight sweetness from the crystal malt.  However definitely wasn't a Naked Objector.

It wasn't thin which was good, it tasted like you were drinking a big beer with good body.  So a West Coast IPA?  I think it was the hop combo that just wasn't doing it for me, it was quite subdued, not jumping out of the glass like my previous beers.

Looking back at it I think I am just used to be spoiled with the hops like Citra, Galaxy and Mosaic where the aroma jumps from the glass.  I shouldn't have been expecting this with the hops I used for this one.

I ended up calling it dirty harry because it was big, bitter and kicked your arse, after a couple of pints you knew you had been drinking an IPA.  While not being great it still didn't last long on the tap, I think the longer it had to sit in the keg and settle the better it got, the flavors of the hops had time to mellow out together.  I think my biggest issue is be patient with my beers and getting into them too quickly.  I need to learn some restraint and give them time to settle out.

Changes for next time?  Well I would change up the malt bill.  Drop the crystal for some Maris, Vienna or maybe some Golden Promise and add some Munich I.  Hops?  Well maybe just use the Chinook hot side and keep the Amarillo and Centennial for the dry hops as to not muddle the flavors up to much.

I'll see what hops I have left over from my bulk buy in the coming weeks to see if I revisit this one.

Amarillo Saison

Amarillo Saison

I never used to enjoy Saisons, that was until I tried the Sturt Street Saison by Little Bang. Really simple and refreshing in summer I was the beginning of me branching out to other styles of beers besides Pale Ales, IPA's and Stouts.

This will be the second Saison I have brewed with the first one being OK but I think I had to many beers while brewing (well that's my excuse) and I put the 0 minute hops it at 60 minutes, and it ended up to bitter.  I also used a dry yeast first time round, I don't think there was anything wrong with that but I have come to enjoy my IPA's, Pales etc much more since making the switch to liquid yeasts.  So liquid it is.

So for this one I wanted it to be a bit of a session beer, around 5% ABV but with some nice fruity notes from the hops, nothing over the top though for this I want the yeast to do the work.

For the grains I wanted this to be pale, like straw pale, I love the look of a Saison like this.  So it consists of pilsner and wheat.  That's it.  The torrified wheat is there to try and give it some body so it doesn't end up too thin.

The main inspiration for this beer was from the Mad Fermentationist and his Hoppy French Saison recipe.

I decided to brew this one on a Friday after work as I wouldn't have time on Saturday and would likely be hungover Sunday.  Let this be a lesson to all home brewers (and one that most likely know) don't get high on your own supply while brewing (didn't I learn any lessons from the first Saison?).  By the time I got started I was a few 7% stouts down and quite merry.  Then my brother in law rocked up to 'supervise' and well, it was all down hill from there.  Especially when drinking the IPA from my earlier post, the hop aroma from that beer is amazing.

Anyway somehow it got brewed with the only mistake that I missed the whirfloc tablet, not too bad considering I woke up and couldn't even remember putting it into the fermentor..........

Recipe:

Saison

OG 1.046

EBC 6.7

IBU 27

ABV 5%

FG 1.008

Fermentables:

3kg Pilsner Malt (59%)

1.5kg Wheat Malt (29%)

400g Torrified Wheat (8%)
200g Rice Hulls (4%)

Yeast:
Wyeast 3711

Mash:

Mashed at 65 degrees C for 60mins

Raised to 75 degrees for 10mins

Boil:
Boiled for 60mins

Hops:

Amarillo 25g (8.8AA) 23.2 IBU @ 60mins

Amarillo 30g (8.8AA) 4.5 IBU @ hopstand once chilled to 80 degrees C

Fermentation:
Fermented at 22 degrees C for the first 4 days then raised up to 24 to finish it off.

Dry Hops:
Amarillo 50g (8.8AA) 0 IBU day 5

This beer turned out pretty average.  Not at all like I wanted.  The yeast has totally taken over and with no malt or hops to go along with it there really is nothing making you come back for more.  The Mrs reckons it tastes like pickle juice, I don't think its that bad but its not good either.

The hops are just not there at all, absolutely nothing..........

The beer looks nice and clear and the colour is exactly how I wanted it, I guess that's something right?

To be honest I think this is going to go down the drain as its not a beer that's getting any better in the keg either.  Its been 4 weeks now and it still tastes pretty average.  I think its destined for the drain...............