Brewday: Brown Ale

On Wednesday I decided I would brew a new session beer today. The style I chose was a brown ale. Beers of the World had a new shipment of yeast and hops, which was great because my fear was not having a choice of yeast for this one. I managed to get a British yeast that's always worked well for me in the past.

Brown Ale

Malt
-8.00 lbs Maris Otter
-1.00 lbs Flaked Oats
-0.50 lbs Crystal 60L
-0.50 lbs Roasted Barley
-0.50 lbs Vienna Malt

Hops
-0.50 oz Northern Brewer pellets (7.7%AA 60 minutes)
-0.50 oz Northern Brewer pellets (7.7%AA 30 minutes)
-1.00 oz Mount Hood pellets (3.8%AA 5 minutes)

Yeast
-Wyeast #1098 British Ale Yeast

Mash Schedule
-3.25 Gallons of water at 160F stabilizing to 151F
-Mash for 60 minutes
-Sparge with 4.25 Gallons of water at 170F

Specific Gravity
1.055 (temperature corrected)

Brew day went extremely well. I wound up with the exact 5 gallons I was looking for, and the exact specific gravity I was looking for. I sparged the grains for over half an hour to make sure I got as much out as possible. Seems to have worked as I hit my estimated gravity perfectly.

Looks like there's already pressure in the airlock of the fermenter, so the yeast were ready to go!

Upcoming Batches

Before it gets too late in the summer, I want to brew a beer to age for the holiday season. That beer will be either a slight tweak on my Mocha Porter, or a cherry version of the Mocha Porter. In addition to the beer for the holidays, I need to get another session beer made (I'm going through the mild ale pretty quickly). I'm thinking of using some of the remaining grains and hops I have here to keep the cost of a new session beer down.

The hard part of choosing the next session beer is figuring out what style to make. I haven't made a brown ale in a long time, and I have my favorite brown ale hops right now (Mount Hood and Northern Brewer). A good English bitter is always good, too. Oatmeal stout is a style I've never really brewed, but could be interesting. I've made some pretty good witbiers in the past, but haven't really been in the mood for them this summer (wit + rain = meh).

So yeah, help me decide if you like. I'm thinking of choosing between:
Brown ale
English bitter
Oatmeal stout
Belgian pale ale

Leave a comment and help me decide. If there are suggestions for other styles, also let me know. Looking to make a session beer (3-5% ABV, yes I consider 5% to be a session beer).

This will, of course, depend on the yeast selection in the area. Last time I was at Beers of the World their selection was sparse. I'll head back there tomorrow to get an exact list, possibly picking up ingredients if I've decided on a recipe.

Brewday: IPA

I brewed the American IPA this afternoon. From start to finish, including cleanup, it took four and a half hours. Not too bad for all grain. I was able to use the mash downtime to watch the Baseball Hall of Fame induction speeches. Good times.

The beer came out a bit weaker than I was hoping as it looks like my extraction from the grains was lower than normal. Not really sure what the issue was this time, though I think I may have drained that mash too quickly. I need to brew more often so my technique stays consistent.... hmmm, maybe I should brew again sometime this upcoming week. :)

Starting gravity is 1.064, where I was aiming for closer to 1.070. Hmph. Oh well.

New Beer Recipe: American IPA (Updated)

It's been a while since I brewed a batch of beer, and I just realized I've only brewed 5 times this year. Wow, homebrew fail. Looking through my brewing records (I keep records of all my batches in a paper binder and on my computer) I brewed: 21 times in 2006, 7 times in 2007, 3 times in 2008, and 5 times so far in 2009. That's a most unfortunate trend. To be fair, though, the brews in 2007 and 2008 were all 10 gallon batches, so they could really count as twice as many brews. The change in frequency is pretty easy to explain (though there's no good excuse, I know...), I quit grad school and went looking for a job. I moved to Rochester in February 2007 and didn't brew again until I had my all-grain setup put together. It's tough finding the time to brew, especially when I have to brew alone, with a full time job schedule, and lots of travel on weekends because Rochester sucks.

Well, I have 5 months left to get my brewing back on track. I'm going to start this weekend with an American IPA. For reasons that elude me, I've never brewed an IPA of any sort. My tastes tend to keep me more focused on Belgian and English styles, and typically maltier styles. I've always brewed a lot of English Bitters, as that's my favorite session beer style. Various types of stouts are also frequently in my queue. Now it's time for some good American hop action.

My first cut at the recipe is below. I don't know the exact alpha acid content of the hops, but I'll recalculate once I buy them and find out the numbers. The alpha acid contents I'm using below are my best guesses.

American IPA:
Malt
- 1.00 lbs Light Dry Malt Extract
-10.00 lbs U.S. 2-row Malt
- 1.50 lbs Vienna Malt
- 0.50 lbs Crystal 20L
- 0.25 lbs Wheat Malt

Hops
-1.00 oz Amarillo (8%AA, 60 minutes)
-0.75 oz Simcoe (13%AA, 30 minutes)
-0.50 oz Amarillo (8%AA, 30 minutes)
-0.75 oz Simcoe (13%AA, 5 minutes)
-0.50 oz Amarillo (8%AA, 0 minutes)

Yeast
Not sure yet. Depends what they've got. Probably Wyeast #1272 American Ale II

Mash
152 degrees for 60 minutes, most likely. Might go 150, not sure yet.

[Update]
After going to Beers of the World to buy ingredients, the recipe has been forced to change slightly:
-They had no light crystal malt, so the Crystal 20L will now be replaced by Crystal 40L
-Simcoe hops were sold out. This will now be an all Amarillo IPA with the following hop schedule:
-1.50 oz Amarillo (60 minutes)
-1.00 oz Amarillo (30 minutes)
-0.50 oz Amarillo (5 minutes)
-1.00 oz Amarillo (0 minutes)
-This batch of Amarillo is all at 8% Alpha Acid content.
-Yeast selection was extremely thin this time (which is rare for these guys). No Wyeast 1056 or 1272, so I picked up the only American yeast they had: Wyeast 1332 Northwest Ale.