#ahtanum

[tiggymalvern]

Ahtanum state forest, Yakima, WA

[applepowersports]

Apple State Powersports is a dealer in Yakima, Washington, and near Terrace Heights, Ahtanum, Gleed and Selah. We feature new and used Yamaha, and Polaris motorsport products as well as parts, services and financing.

[agladman]

Brixton Brewery, Effra Ale

Here's my #BeerBods cheat sheet for Effra Ale from @BrixtonBrewery. Anyone want to guess how many kinds of hops are in there? (Clue: lots.)

Here is the cheat sheet for Effra Ale by Brixton Brewery. You may have seen recently that Heineken acquired a minority stake in Brixton Brewery. This will lead to an increase in their capacity. Perhaps this will also lead to their beers being more widely available. You can find the brewery on Twitter at @BrixtonBrewery and on Instagram at @brixtonbrewery. Amber Ale, 4.5% ABV Featured in BeerBods…

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[hopdamn]

Brewing a bit of a stash-buster today (almost on a whim). I haven’t had much chance to brew lately - having moved house, spent the following months building furniture, then ‘doing Christmas’ means I’ve had enough to keep me busy of late.

I only had 1.7kg of Maris Otter in my possession, so that determined two things - the batch size (10l max), and the max ABV unless I was going to start adding sugar etc. I have PLENTY of strong beer in the stash at present as it is, so light, clean, and session strength it is. Something to suit the crisp, bright weather we’ve been having in York these last few days.

I also had a couple of packs of these fancy Hull Melon hops I haven’t gotten around to using yet, so after initially planning a Hull Melon and Sorachi or Nelson pale ale (thinking, fruity and coconutty or melon and grape-y hops would make a fantastic fruit-salad pale-esque beer) I had a sudden change of heart mid brewday.

To make a low ABV pale beer that is both crisp enough to let the hops shine, especially those with very delicate flavour profiles like Hull Melon, whilst retaining enough malt flavour to not be wishy-washy is something a lot of breweries struggle with. I’m still trying to dial in what I think is acceptable, so this time I’m going a slightly different route, omitting the customary 1% crystal altogether and relying on Vienna malt to round out the flavour profile.

[Recipe after the break]

The Grist consists of:

80% Maris Otter

10% Vienna Malt

5% Wheat Malt

5% Caramalt

I mashed hot, around the 67c mark for 45 mins, then while my sparge liquor heated I gave the mash a final stir and set it off to drain slowly. I’m hoping for a slightly higher final gravity than usual here, hence the slightly hotter mash, because I don’t want bone-dry hop water, I want a session pale ale more than a ‘session IPA’.

The Hopping is REALLY basic:

15 IBUs of Centennial as a first wort hop

3g/l Hull Melon at flame out

1g/l Ahtanum at flame out

The flameout additions will go in as the wort reaches abotu 80c, and sit in for an hour, this will allow some bitterness to still carry through and allow plenty of flavour to carry across.

I’ll also follow the same weights and measures of flame out hops as a dry hop for 4 days, at the end of primary so it can clear up in secondary.

Yeast is a predictable Saf-05 because... well I always have that on hand and the only other option I have is Saison yeast at the minute. I’m not after a saison, so it’s settled for me.

Collected 10l of *somewhat* craft hazy wort (I didn’t use hop bags, and I don’t fine my beer so... you know) at an OG of 1.042. Bang on what was expected, and with basically no fuss or stress. Just a very laid back brewday :)

[hopdamn]

Tiffany Lou - Cali Common

So after a lot of umming and/or aaahing about whether to risk using the S-23 for a Cali Common or splashing out on a massively over-sized smack pack for my batch size, I just went with the cheap option. Spoiler warning: it went well. Perhaps in part because I went for 'massive over-pitching' (read: 11.5g for 1.5gal instead of 5g).

So, Fermentables:

80% Maris Otter

 9% Munich Malt

 5% Crystal (80l)

 4% Caramalt (20l)

 2% Biscuit malt.

I settled on this grist after brewing the brown ale and deciding it was too dry and roasty for its hopping rate. This malt bill isn't too disimilar at base as a result; I wanted this dry and drinkable with only a touch of crystal and cara to keep the body reasonably dry but still flavourful. I added the Munich and biscuit for bready and malty fullness. 

I'm aware this is a slightly complex malt bill for the style - as homebrew-agony aunt/yeast beast Mr. JK (thanks for all the advice!) pointed out, Anchor Steam is just pale malt and 10% crystal - I just wanted to push the style a little further away from that burnt toffee flavour that sits a little too much in the 'sometimes food' category for me to always enjoy.

I totally ignored the 'traditionally hopped with Northern Brewer' part of the style too, my Hops stood as:

Pilot FWH to 22 IBU

Ahtanum to 5 IBU as steeping hops

Pilot to 10 IBU steeping.

This went completely out of the window once I realised I a) didn't have any Pilot after all, and b) that what I'd assumed was the last of my Celeia was actually the last of my Bramling X, which has double the AA. Some frantic recalculation resulted in this:

Bramling X to 40 IBU at FWH (oops!)

Ahtanum steep for 60 minutes @ 65C for 0(ish) IBU?

I usually steep at 80C but I didn't want the flameout to add much bitterness at all after the initial mess-up. The result was longer and cooler steeping - we'll see how it works out.

I've just added the dry hop now, after the yeast attenuated to 1.011ish in 3 days. I added in the remaining Bramling X (works out about 2g/l) and Ahtanum at 3g/l - thinking a short dry hop (2-3 days) and bottle before a month or so of conditioning. May require a little longer due to the slightly excessive dry hop.

So my Vital Statistics:

OG - 1.052

FG - 1.011 (5.4-.5%)

45 IBUs (approx, depending if any isomerization occurs at 65)

20 EBC/ 40SRM.

The sample I pulled before the dry hop went in tasted nice and bready, a lovely nuttiness and grassy bitterness. A touch of tangerine too, which is always welcome. The S-23 fermented at room temp seems to have produced moderate fruitiness, but nothing overwhelming, perhaps due to the crazy-high pitching rate.

Oh, and the name? Comes from this guy.

[whatchudrinkin]

Ahtanumus Prime

The Yakima valley is not a natural hop growing region. In the wild, hops prefer a damp ditch, a low hanging branch, or a simple fence. They are weeds, but even weeds need a regular supply of water. The Yakima valley is sagebrush country, only with the help of irrigation can crops thrive there.

The first hop plants were trained to climb in 1872, and have since made the valley the world's premier hop growing region. Ahtanum is a tiny town just west of Yakima, Washington. Not too far from where my mother grew up. The population reaches just over thirty five hundred, but the town lent its name to the unique hop found in the latest IPX beer from Hopworks. 

Ahtanum hops are a crossbreed between various English and German strains which give it a nice perfumey floral scent, but it has an equally American punch. Floral notes on the nose give way to notes of citrus and pine on the tongue. Ahtanum is similar to the popular C-hops but has a softer, gentler approach to the palate. It's easy to forget between sips, but satisfying every time you come back for more.