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...............

American IPA - Fresh Prince

American IPA - Fresh Prince

So my first beer I am going to post on this site is the good old IPA.  I am yet to be converted to the NEIPA side as I haven't found them to be very enjoyable.  They all seem to lack what to me is beer, malt and bitterness leaving it a one sided affair, pretty much just fruit juice.

So for this beer its nice and simple, I kinda based the grain bill off the Pirate Life Mosaic IPA as I had a couple of them the other night and they were delicious.  Basic grain bill, basic hop bill and a good old American yeast.  I have moved away from using crystal malts in my IPA's these days, I have found it makes them too sweet for my liking.  If I am after some extra malt flavor I will usually add some Vienna, Maris or some Munich I.  I have added the sugar to try and dry it out a bit but also see what it adds to the body of the beer, as I feel my IPA's have been a bit thin.

For this beer I wanted it to be fruity, like when you pour it you can already smell the hops hence the heavy hand with the dry hops.  I only used Simcoe for the hot side as I have found in previous brews these three hops in the dry hop tend to muddle things up a bit.  Hopefully the Simcoe in the hot side will give me the pine notes I am after.  I normally go with Columbus for all the 60 minute hops but didn't want to have to buy another pack of hops so will just go with the Simcoe.

The name?  Well my brother in law and I were pretty hammered when brewing the Amarillo Saison and we tried this beer for the first time, and it was fresh, so fresh.

Recipe:

American IPA

OG 1.061

EBC 9.6

IBU 42

ABV 6.4

FG 1.012

Fermentables:

5.8kg Ale Malt (91%)

400g Carapils (6%)

200g Table Sugar (3%)

Yeast:
Wyeast 1056

Mash:

Mashed at 65 degrees C for 60mins

Raised to 75 degrees for 10mins

Boil:
Boiled for 60mins

Hops:

Simcoe 20g (12.8AA) 24.2 IBU @ 60mins

Simcoe 10g (12.8AA) 4.4 IBU @ 10mins

Simcoe 70g (12.8AA) 14 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:
Mosaic 25g (12.3AA) 0 IBU dry hop day 2

Citra 25g (12AA) 0 IBU dry hop day 2

Mosaic 75g (12.3AA) 0 IBU dry hop day 5

Citra 75g (12AA) 0 IBU dry hop day 5

Tasting:
So this beer finished fermenting quick!  After 5 days airlock activity had stopped so I took a gravity reading, yup 1.012.  It smelt good and tasted clean no off flavors to speak of so I left it on the yeast for a couple more days before cold crashing.

Left it to carb up for 5 days at 10psi before tasting.  What a difference getting a good level of carbonation makes to the aroma and flavor.  This was exactly the what I wanted from this brew, very fruit forward with big citrus notes.

The bitterness is spot on, love it.  The Simcoe is bringing some nice resin and pine to the table with real clean bitterness, exactly what I was after.

The beer has good body as well without being thin, did the sugar help?  Will have to do some more brews to be sure of this but initial signs point to yes.  There is no malt sweetness which is exactly what I was after.

Its going to be hard not to drink this one down quick.

Changes for next time?  I think the only thing I might try is scaling back the amount of dry hops I am using. There has to be a point where you aren't getting good return on your investment.  I would also try changing the yeast to 1272 American Ale II just to add more fruit character.