Cleansing Waters

I spent little time yesterday thoroughly cleansing several fermenters that were badly in need.  No brew this weekend, but next weekend I'm planning a partigyle brew day.  The first beer will be a high gravity English barleywine that I hope ages well for many years to come.  The second brew is going to be a strong ale aged in a whiskey barrel.  This is my first foray into partigyle brewing.  Hopefully all goes well.

Keep it clean,

HolzBrew 

Hoosier Red Ale

It's been a busy month or two and I haven't had much time for brewing (or blogging).  That being said, I managed to carve out a few hours this morning to brew up a red ale that I have had the ingredients for some time.  I wanted something with a reasonable ABV that would be great on draft.  Lately, most of the commercial red ales I've tried have been really hop-forward, which is great.  Because I can buy great hoppy red ales, I decided to go in the other direction and shoot for a malt focused red.  I snapped a couple of photos when I was setting up the mash this morning.

Mrs. HolzBrew and I got out yesterday afternoon for a hike in Brown County State Park.  It's been a great fall weekend here in Southern Indiana.  Hoosier Red Ale

	Style: American Amber Ale
	Type:	Calories: 178
	Rating: 0.0	Boil Size: 5.85 Gal
	IBU's: 27.77	Batch Size: 5.00 Gal
	Color:   15.6 SRM	Boil Time: 75 minutes
	Preboil OG: 1.052

		Estimated	Actual
	Brew Date:	-	11/11/2012
	OG:	1.055	1.055
	FG:	1.010	1.010
	ABV:	5.90 %	5.89 %
	Efficiency:	70 %	70 %
	Serve Date:	12/07/2012	/ /

Fermentation Steps
Name	Days / Temp	Estimated	Actual
Primary	7 days @ 68.0°F	11/11/2012	11/11/2012
Secondary	19 days @ 72.0°F	11/18/2012	-

Grains & Adjuncts
Amount	Percentage		Name	Time	Gravity
8.00 lbs	68.09 %		Crisp Maris Otter	60 mins	1.038
1.00 lbs	8.51 %		Fawcett Torrified Wheat	60 mins	1.035
1.50 lbs	12.77 %		Briess Mild Malt, Ashburne	60 mins	1.036
0.50 lbs	4.26 %		Crisp Crystal Dark 77L	60 mins	1.035
0.50 lbs	4.26 %		Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L	60 mins	1.034
0.25 lbs	2.13 %		Fawcett Pale Chocolate	60 mins	1.030

Hops
Amount	IBU's		Name	Time	AA %
1.00 ozs	21.04		Brewers Gold	60 mins	6.20
1.00 ozs	6.74		Styrian Goldings	15 mins	4.00

Yeasts
Amount	Name	Laboratory / ID
1.0 pkg	Safale S-04	Fermentis S-04

Additions
Amount	Name	Time	Stage
1.00 oz	Orange Peel	01 mins	Boil

Mash Profile

Medium Body Infusion In 60 min @ 152.0°F

Add 14.69 qt ( 1.25 qt/lb ) water @ 166.0°F

Sparge

Sparge 16.84 qt of 170.0°F water over 60 mins The Redder the Better, HolzBrew

Trappist Cider

A few weeks ago I picked up a a few gallons of organic cider here in town at Bloomingfoods.  I racked this cider on to a yeast cake left over from the primary fermentation of the sour dubbel I brewed a bout a month ago.  I like the idea of a cider fermented with Trappist ale yeast, something along the lines of The Saint by Crispin.  Last night I back-sweetened and kegged it.  One thing that I always forget to do when making cider is to add pectin enzyme to help clear up the pectin haze.  Oh well, we'll just have to enjoy it in its natural murky brown state.

I had just finished cleaning some wood cubes and chips that I used in the bourbon stout I brewed a few months ago and decided to toss them into the keg for some added complexity.  While I usually wouldn't recommend wood aging beer prior to serving, it just felt right.

-HolzBrew

 

Dubbel the fun

I managed to find some time this morning to brew a Trappist-style Dubbel.  Pictured above is the belgian candi rock sugar that the Trappist beers are well known for using.  As you might expect, I plan to do something a little different with this brew.  In a few weeks after the primary fermentation is complete, I intend to spike this holy brew with some wild yeast (and bacteria) and sour it.  That being said, I may bottle a few beers before pitching the wild bugs, because a nice clean belgian dubbel would be welcomed around the house.

Sour Dubbel

	Style: Belgian Dubbel
	Type: All Grain	Calories: 197
	Rating: 4.0	Boil Size: 5.88 Gal
	IBU's: 24.38	Batch Size: 5.00 Gal
	Color:   35.9 SRM	Boil Time: 90 minutes
	Preboil OG: 1.056

		Estimated	Actual
	Brew Date:	-	09/16/2012
	OG:	1.060	1.066
	FG:	1.016	1.016
	ABV:	5.76 %	6.0 %
	Efficiency:	70 %	70 %
	Serve Date:	11/04/2012	/ /

Fermentation Steps
Name	Days / Temp	Estimated	Actual
Primary	14 days @ 73.0°F	09/16/2012	09/16/2012
Secondary	21 days @ 72.0°F	09/30/2012	-
Bottle/Keg	14 days @ 74.0°F	10/21/2012	-

Grains & Adjuncts
Amount	Percentage		Name	Time	Gravity
10.00 lbs	81.63 %		Pale Malt (2 Row) Bel	60 mins	1.037
0.50 lbs	4.08 %		Caramunich Malt	60 mins	1.033
0.25 lbs	2.04 %		Special B Malt	60 mins	1.030
1.50 lbs	12.24 %		Candi Sugar, Dark	15 mins	1.036

Hops
Amount	IBU's		Name	Time	AA %
1.00 ozs	19.63		Tradition	60 mins	6.00
1.00 ozs	4.75		Hallertauer Hersbrucker	10 mins	4.00

Yeasts
Amount	Name	Laboratory / ID
1.0 pkg	Belgian Ale	Wyeast Labs 1214

Additions

(none)

Mash Profile

Sacch' Rest 60 min @ 154.0°F

Add 16.12 qt ( 1.50 qt/lb ) water @ 168.7°F

Mashout 10 min @ 170.0°F

Heat to 170.0°F over 2 mins

Sparge

Sparge 14.98 qt of 170.0°F water over 60 mins Dubbel your fun, Holz

Saaz Monster Rehash

I'll admit it, I've never been good about systematically rehashing recipes after I've brewed them here on the blog.  I love how The Mad Fermentationist revisits his brews religiously, so that you the viewer learn about the beer over its entire life cycle.  Sometimes I do and sometimes I don't.  I'm trying to get better.






A few weeks ago I kegged the Saaz Monster clone (renamed "Doctor Dayton's Magic Mustache Ale")  that I discussed a few months ago here and it was not good.  Neither Mrs. HolzBrew or myself have been able to put a finger on what exactly isn't great about it but we both know its not great.  I can only describe the flavor as "muddled."  A strange description I realize, but I think if you tried it you would agree that it lacks direction.  It has a decent biscuity flavor with some hop earthiness from all the saaz, but in order to throw it closer to a fresh hop flavor I decided to dry hop the keg with 2oz. of cascade hop leafs.  While not the direction I originally expected to go with this brew I think it can only help.  Citrus hop flavor is always welcome in the HolzBrew household.

I'll let you how my curve ball turns out.  Hopefully it will break in my direction, but if not its out of here.

Also, I plan to brew a dubbel this weekend that I eventually hope to sour.  Lastly, I think I'll try my hand at another hard cider this fall, so be on the look out for more ...

Viva el mustachio,  

Holz

What is craft beer?

A question you see in every beer magazine and scattered across the interwebs is, "What is craft beer?"  Often times this discussion is framed by the Brewer's Association ("BA") as it struggles with who is allowed to call themselves "Craft Brewers."  In January of last year the BA amended its previous definition of craft brewer, in what I refer to as the "Sam Adams compromise", to include all small independent breweries producing 6 million barrel of beer a year or less.  To a guy who brews maybe 60 gallons of beer a year, 6 million barrels sounds pretty darn large, but I am not a for-profit entity so I digress.  I understand that the BA is an industry group who derives much of its funding from its members, so it doesn't make sense to kick out your biggest due-paying members because of some arbitrary size qualification.  I mean its basic economics, folks.

There are lots of definitions of craft beer, so I won't pretend this is a unique post, but I thought I'd give it a whirl.  I think that we can easily agree on the second word, beer.  Beer has been defined for hundreds of years, as a fermented malt beverage consisting of malted cereal grains, water, hops, and yeast.  Additionally, I'd add that beer also may contain other food products such as fruit or spices for flavoring.  I doubt that definition would rouse much debate.  Therefore, the controversial part of the definition is the word "craft."

To me, "craft" connotes a passion for the product produced.  Sure a brewery has to make money to keep the lights on and pay the bills, and the brewers and owners like money just as much as any red-blooded capitalist.  My American heart appreciates this fact.  That being said, when a decision has to be made regarding how to use the limited resources controlled by that brewery, a craft-oriented passionate brewer will invest in the quality of the product above other expenditures like marketing or distribution.  The thing that frustrates beer geeks like myself the most about macro brewers like Anheuser Busch is that they spend millions of dollars on marketing when they could instead spend that money on making the actual beer taste better.

Support your local breweries,
Holz

The fruit of our labor

While not particularly beer related, I thought the picture below succinctly summarized the summer we experienced here in southern Indiana:


The only tomato grown this summer on our budding tomato plant