mr. sheeps

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[mrsheeps]

Batch #51 - Brew Day

After brewing 46 batches using a small burner on an old electric stove (as well as four batches “gypsy homebrewing” using two friends’ system), Batch #51 - SHop Talk: Galaxy was my first batch using my apartment’s new stove. The difference was absolutely incredible. It took 40m to reach strike temp compared to 1h40m before. My typical practice has been to gather the first runnings and then start heating them while sparging - this time that wort was boiling halfway into sparging! In the past the wort would reach 170° at best, but this time I had to take the lid off completely and turn it down to medium heat.

That gave me a preview for what the full boil would look like, but my pictures didn’t do it justice, thus the video above (complete with Duck Soup in the background). While it used to take 1h50m to go from ~165° to a boil, this time only took 20m from 185°! I took the lid off when it got to 205°  and then turned the heat down a full notch when it reached a boil - I used to have to keep putting the lid back on to get it back to a boil, with the lid on more often than not. The wort dropped 10° when I added the corn sugar at 15m, just like it always has, but it only took two minutes with the lid off to get back to a boil compared to 15m with the lid on before.

This was also my first time using a pre-chiller, as my tap water was coming out at 75° and I needed to get the wort down to 68°. It came down to 72° within 20m, but it took another 20m to get to 68°. I was a bit disappointed it wasn’t faster, but given how it would have taken longer just to get to 75° without a prechiller, overall it was a success.

This batch definitely made me think about what I will do in the new house. For a while I had been thinking about a set-up in the basement, but if the stove in the house is similar in power to the new one in the apartment (which it should be), why would I bother? I don’t have any interest in larger batches, the change knocked a solid two hours off my brew day time, plus my new kitchen has a pass through to the living room, which means I can brew while watching football. Sounds good to me!

[mrsheeps]

Old Partial-Mash Tun + New Pre-Chiller

I have been meaning to brew an all-Galaxy IPA, but have been spending many weekends house-hunting and, even when free, I still didn’t have a pre-chiller and my tap water was coming out at 74 or higher. Most important bit of good news first: house hunting has concluded successfully! I also got this pre-chiller from Austin Homebrew, which has garden hose attachments on both ends. I quickly realized it is a near perfect fit for my old partial-mash tun - something I haven’t used since Batch #19 nearly two years ago - and should work quite well given the insulation for the ice bath as well as the spigot to drain water when wanted. I will probably only brew one more batch before moving, but I’d love to test this out while we still have warm weather!

[mrsheeps]

Batch #50 - SHop Talk: Citra

For my 50th batch, I wanted to represent what I love brewing most - fresh, juicy American IPA - and felt it appropriate to use my favorite hop. Batch #50 - SHop Talk: Citra was strong on grapefruit, melon, mango, peach, and pineapple. It was also slightly creamier than my earlier attempts (no lactose, just a larger flaked grain contribution).

I shared growlers at Fuj’s Beefstock-ish as well as with my girlfriend’s family up north in the Adirondacks (pictured above) and got a lot of favorable reviews. While I have not brewed in over a month (usually do every two or three weeks) I do have plans (and ingredients) for brewing an all-Galaxy batch soon, which will make three single-hop IPAs in a row!

[mrsheeps]

Batch #50 - Brew Day

With my apartment building being renovated, my 50th batch was also my last on this old stove. It was a bittersweet experience - while it helped me brew over 180 gallons of beer, the only large burner never worked, a double whammy given the fact I’m stuck with electric. To give you an idea, a five gallon batch would typically take seven and a half hours. Yeah.

My LHBS was out of Vienna last batch and then flaked oats this batch, but at least oats are the only part of the grain bill you can get at the grocery store! I had dialed the flaked grain down to 5% flaked oats + 2.5% flaked wheat for Batch #49 - SHop Talk: Simcoe and decided to go even further to 4% flaked oats + 2% flaked wheat for Batch #50 - SHop Talk: Citra.

In the past, I would stir while chilling until pitching temp and then wait ten minutes for the tea leaf paradox. This time I stirred while chilling to 72, four degrees above pitching temp, but then kept the wort chiller running for fifteen minutes without stirring. Compared to my last brew day post, there was far less hop goo making its way out of the kettle, remarkable given this was a larger batch size - amazing the difference five more minutes of the tea leaf paradox makes!

[mrsheeps]

Batch #49 - SHop Talk: Simcoe

After a few disappointing batches, Batch #49 - SHop Talk: Simcoe was the return to form I was hoping for. The massive reduction of flaked grain made the beer much brighter visually and eliminated the unpleasant chewy mouthfeel, allowing the hop flavor to once again be on full display. Juicy orange, clementine, and mango on top of a surprisingly light amount of dank pine, one friend even said it reminded him of a dreamsicle!

[mrsheeps]

Batch #49 - Brew Day

I wasn’t proud of Batch #47 - SHop Talk: Ekuanot nor Batch #48 - SAC Group; most of my IPAs are hazy, but those two came out practically muddy, with the hop profile still being tasty but hard to enjoy given the chewy, unpleasant mouthfeel. They were so bad that I actually dumped around two gallons worth of #48 and will probably not do a tasting post for either. My first targeted change was to scale back the flaked grain additions, which had nearly doubled in Batch #44 - The Cool Kids (while mostly following a clone recipe for WeldWerks DDH Juicy Bits) and then increased even more based on the suggestion of a friend. To give an idea, most IPA recipes had ~6.5% flaked oats, #44 used 6.4% flaked oats + 6.4% flaked wheat, then #46-48 used 8.4% flaked oats + 8.4% flaked wheat. For this, Batch #49 - SHop Talk: Simcoe, I rolled it down to 5% flaked oats + 2.5% flaked wheat.

The second change was to go back to running the wort over a mesh screen while transferring to the fermentor. I had read several posts saying that they just dump everything into the fermentor without a problem, but given that I don’t use hop sacks anymore, I believe all the hop goo (pictured bottom left) that did get into the fermentor on #47-48 really was detrimental. (Note: I collect the gravity sample by interrupting the flow to the screen, so it has more sediment.) Whether it was the grain bill, the screen, or both (my guess), this batch - spoiler alert, as I am finally posting this after it has been in the keg for a week - has already proven to be much, much better than my previous few.

At the end of the day, every homebrewer wants every batch to be amazing, but that’s just not how it works - sometimes you have to make mistakes in order to improve!

[mrsheeps]

Memorial Day Wings & Beers

The Alchemist cans magically floated into bars around me this past week, with The Ruck releasing their cans at 11 AM on Memorial Day. Given that any military holiday is a solid reason for me to celebrate my dad via wings and beer, the timing was impeccable.

Atypical for me, I ordered regular hot, having been delightfully owned by the chef’s extra hot the past few times I have been in - not that I didn’t like nor finish them, just delightfully owned...

[mrsheeps]

Evil Twin I Speak the Language of Television

Evil Twin has been killing it with their IPAs recently and I Speak the Language of Television is no exception. Brewed with Falconer’s Flight and Citra lupuplin powder, it brings flavors of grapefruit, mango, apricot, pineapple, and peach. My last post involving an Evil Twin IPA had me hoping they would start canning, though I certainly can’t complain with a $7.49 crowler fill!

[mrsheeps]

Threes Bad Wallpaper

I was still traveling back from Florida during the first annual Albany Craft Beer Festival but got to enjoy some leftover amazingness via Brew Crew (Westmere) This is Threes Bad Wallpaper pictured in a glass I hadn’t used in years but clearly need to use more. I couldn’t find my notes - AKA words scribbled on whatever scrap paper is near my desk - but remember loving this beer, so I’m going to post it anyways!

[mrsheeps]

Back From Florida

My family takes a trip to Disney every two years and, as usual, I managed to sneak out a few times to grab some tasty local beer. The two Cigar City bottles in the middle came from a trip to Knightly Spirits - Orange Blossom Trail while the rest came during excursions with my cousin in Tampa. We hit Cigar City first by car, getting a beer each but mostly picking up bottles/souvenirs, then took an Uber to St. Petersburg for the express purpose of spending more than a few minutes at Cycle Brewing, since I was so pressed for time my last visit. My suitcase only weighed 35 pounds at the airport (including a third CB crowler hidden in pic), so I’m definitely going to have to stock up more next time - though still quite happy with this return!

[mrsheeps]

Batch #48 - Brew Day

I neglected to make a yeast starter in time - and I needed to brew this by a certain day as I am soon out of town - so I ended up coughing up another $7 and double pitching. I enjoy this picture as I don’t often show my corn sugar addition, with this being a half pound in a five-gallon batch. The hops are 4/3/2 parts of Simcoe/Amarillo/Columbus, which made me think of naming it SAC Group, an homage to my school, SAC, and Owen, AKA the man.

Damn, chilled wort with hop extract sure looks cool... and the variance of color in wort is pretty awesome too! The inspiration for this batch was taking more readily available hops and brewing a beer that rivals those with the hippest of the hops. Batch #49 will be an all-Simcoe IPA on deck to brew when I get back...

[mrsheeps]

Batch #46 - A Golden Rainbow’s End

With a trio of mango-forward hops - Azacca, Citra, & Ekuanot - Batch #46 - A Golden Rainbow’s End did indeed taste of mango as well as pineapple, strawberry, melon, and green pepper; this was much more tropical fruit heavy than citrusy outside of a bit of orange peel and grapefruit. It was remarkable to see how big a difference CaraMunich II made in terms of color - despite only being a small fraction of the grain bill - though I do not believe the difference in taste was nearly as identifiable. Compare the above picture to the one in the tasting post for Batch #44 - The Cool Kids, which doesn’t use any CaraMunich (I or II) - the above picture definitely looks more orange and less hazy/milky. It is amazing how much 2.4% of the grain bill can influence how a beer looks!

[mrsheeps]

SingleCut DDH Softly Spoken Magic Spells

SingleCut Double Dry Hopped Softly Spoken Magic Spells follows the way of Trillium/Other Half/WeldWerks/etc with releasing a separate DDH version of a beer, with this in particular “DDH'd with a totally different hop bill then the first time around.” This growler was filled at Troy Beverage Center, which is a bit closer to home plus they recently got a crowler machine. Juicy tangerine, grapefruit, mango, and passionfruit as well as a solid amount of pine - would love to try this and the normal version side-by-side sometime!

[mrsheeps]

Batch #47 - Brew Day

Well, this shows how much I’ve been neglecting Tumblr - I’m posting about the brew day of a batch already in the keg! But seeing as I’ve posted about every batch’s brew day for 30 batches straight, better late than never, right? When I saw Ekuanot in Northern Brewer’s catalog, I was immediately curious reading its profile described as “Tropical fruit, papaya and mango notes reminiscent of Mosaic and Citra,” quickly ordering an 8oz bag and two 1oz bags to use in Batch #46 and Batch #47. When my package contained an 8oz bag labeled Ekuanot and two 1oz bags labeled Equinox, I assumed Northern Brewer made a mistake and e-mailed them the above picture. To their credit with cheers, they sent out replacement hops promptly without asking me to return anything, but then more Equinox arrived! So I did what I should have in the first place and Google’d it, finding out that Ekuanot is the new name for Equinox...

My LHBS was out of CaraMunich I for Batch #46 (left) so I substituted it with CaraMunich II, but they had it back in stock the next week for Batch #47 (right). While the recipes are for different batch sizes, the grain bill was scaled proportionately, so it’s interesting to compare the two original gravities side by side. Despite the CaraMunich only being 2.4% of both grain bills, Batch #46 definitely has a deeper, more orange hue - which some people seem to prefer, with my theory that it decreases haze perception - but I am much more interested in experiencing the difference in taste. These batches were brewed a week apart, something I am interested in doing in the future seeing as both of these are on tap right now!

[mrsheeps]

More Equilibrium

Equilibrium hype is still real, especially when either of their DIPAs - mc² or Vulgar Display of Flower, pictured above - hit the growler station at Brew Crew (Oliver’s & Westmere). Both stores announced when they were tapping a keg a few weeks ago and had people (not me) showing up over an hour early - unsurprisingly, they have chosen not to announce tappings in advance since.

Similar to other sought-after IPAs, it has been much easier to find on draft - the same kegs that kick in an hour at Brew Crew take a day or two to kick at bars, with the above picture of Fractal Citra taken at Albany Ale & Oyster. This happens to be my favorite of theirs yet - super smooth hop juice with grapefruit, melon, orange, and mango. While I particularly enjoy Photon, their DIPAs have - for me - a bit too much hops (yes, such a thing does exist, as I have personally experienced with my homebrew); even they describe mc² as “chewy,” which just isn’t a selling point personally. But that’s my two cents - Untappd ratings sure seem to disagree with me!

[mrsheeps]

Batch #46 - Brew Day

Back to the IPA game! While I enjoyed the overall hop flavor of Batch #44 - The Cool Kids, I decided to return to using hop extract for bittering, an approach that has repeatedly yielded me a soft bitterness that humbly sets a stage for the finishing hops. The whirlpool of Batch #46 - A Golden Rainbow’s End above shows the extract pushed to the center by centripetal force as well as the array of shades observed before wort turns into beer...

The whirlpool was the result of these four hop additions, coming at (left to right) flameout, start of 40m whirlpool (190°), 30m wp (172°), and 20m wp (163°). The latter two whirlpool additions did come at slightly lower than intended temperatures - cold weather and thus cold tap water meant my immersion chiller worked super quick even on very low flow - but as I have seen many sources advocating similar temps, perhaps it will work out even better! Each hop addition contains equal amounts of Azacca, Citra, & Ekuanot (formerly Equinox), with the idea being that all three are - among many other flavors of course - mango-forward hops.

My LHBS was out of CaraMunich I (for the first time in my experience), a grain I left out of my last IPA only to not like the end result as much as usual, so I subbed in CaraMunich II. This should lead to a slightly breadier flavor and darker color, though at only 2.4% of the fermentables any differences will be minor. A 6g fermentor full of golden hoppy wort that has the blowoff tube bubbling like crazy the next day = WIN

[mrsheeps]

Common Roots Beta 2/9

Pretty sweet to snag a Common Roots tulip and then some Beta 2/9 (Citra, Columbus, Mosaic) cans a week after (both at Brew Crew). The can art is dope and the beer followed suit, with sweet orange and grapefruit upfront leading into dank resin, dancing between the juice-bomb style and a more aggressive bitterness. Common Roots is local to me and I’d definitely buy IPAs like this on the reg, pending its availability of course!