WeizenBock

Beer Judge Certification Program's overall impression and comments of style 15C, "a strong, malty, fruity, wheat based ale combining the best flavors of a dunkel-weizen and the rich strength and body of a bock." "A dunkel-weizen beer brewed to bock or doppelbock strength. Now also made in the Eisbock style as a specialty beer. Bottles may be gently rolled or swirled prior to serving to rouse the yeast." BJCP claims, "Aventinus, the world's oldest top-fermented wheat doppelbock was created in 1907 at the Weisse Brauhaus in Munich using the 'Methode Champenoise' with fresh yeast sediment on the bottom. It was Schneider's creative response to bottom-fermenting doppelbocks that developed a strong following during these times"

The grist is made up of German pilsner malt, munich malt, wheat malt, Special B, crystal 80, and chocolate malt. I won't be doing a traditional triple decoction brewing today, but will be doing a step mash and caramelizing the first gallon of first runnings. To, in theory make up for the lost nuances of decoction brewing.

Beer Blogger Brew Off 'Stout'

Peter at Simply beer contacted a group of home brew bloggers to have a cross country brew off on the same day, Sunday the 13th of December 2009, to brew a stout. The concept is for us all to brew the same stout recipe and we each to change one thing. This could be a regional ingredient, a grain, a hop, spices, chocolate, chilies, anything. My changes are going to come a little out of necessity. I wasn't able to get to my local home brew store this weekend, which is only open on Saturday's. In short I don't have flaked barley or tettnanger hops. Instead of the flaked barley I'm going to toast 4 oz. of flaked oats instead. To me that is my "one" change to the recipe, a grain and extra process change.

For the tettnanger I'm just going to substitute glacier hops (I hope this is okay with everyone involved)by doing an alpha acids substitution calculation.

(AAU% of hop in recipe*weight)/AAU%=weight of hop substituting with

So in this case I'm substituting Glacier 5.5%AAU for the Tettnanger 4.0%AAU that 's in the recipe.

(.04*1 oz)/.055=.72 oz Glacier

Simply Beer blog explains what were up to, "I(Peter of Simply Beer) came up with this idea a couple months back. I’m not entirely sure what dark unused part of my brain it was spawned from, but has been warmly received from the Beer Blogger’s I’ve approached about it. Basically the idea stemmed from seeing my fellow bloggers tweeting about brewing beer. It seems to me, you get a deeper understanding of beer when you make your own. But I digress, since I’ve been doing the Beer Brawl™ podcasts, reviewing beers, and brewing them, I thought it would be fun to combine it all together! So, I enlisted the help of some beer bloggers you probably know…
Aaron – Captain’s Chair(@captainschair)

Derek – Luther Public House(@LutherHaus)

Erik – Top Fermented(@topfermented)

Ethan – Geek Beer (@geekbeer)

Joseph – Hopfentreader (@hopfentreader)

Michael – Thank Heaven For Beer (@heavenlybrew)

Nate – Thank Heaven For Beer (@THFBeer_nate)

Peter – Simply Beer (@simplybeer)

Thomas – Beer Genome Progect (@TomBGP)

So what is the “Beer Bloggers Brew-off“?
We are all going to brew the same base Stout recipe with the same time frame, but we all get to change ONE thing about the recipe, our secret ingredient. The secret ingredient can be anything, as long as the 5 gallon batch is completed on time. Once the batch of beer is bottled, we’ll ship each other a couple bottles of our Stout and we do a virtual tasting. I will record a podcast for all to hear. Sounds cool, huh?
The recipe:
9 lbs. Domestic 2-Row barley

16 oz. Chocolate Malt

16 oz. Roasted Barley

4 oz. Flaked Barley

4 oz. Caramel 60°L

1 oz Williamette hops (60min)

1 oz tettnang (2 minutes)

60 min mash @ 152

~75 min sparge @170

60 minute boil.

American Ale Yeast (wyeast 1056)

base recipe has estimated gravity of ~1.046 and finish around 1.014.

The Schedule:
Brew day will be December 13th, Beer bottled on January 10th, 3 bottles of Beer shipped to each of us on Feb 1st Tasting on Fri Feb 12th(subject to change) Very simple! I’m excited to see what these accomplished home brewers can put together. I’m sure it is going to be 6 exceptional brews that we’ll be tasting February."

Cranberry Winter Wheat

A different sort of Holiday ale. An American wheat ale brewed with whole cranberries, the zest and juice of naval oranges, crystallized ginger and toasted oats. Malts include German pilsner, wheat malt, and biscuit malt. I'll be spicing this ale with Hibiscus flowers for color and depth. With a sprinkle of whole leaf glacier hops at the beginning of boil for balance.

When I added the cranberries to the kettle they began to pop like a semi automatic toy rifle. This is my first time using cranberries in brewing. Started with whole fresh berries that I added to the freezer to break down the cell wall of the berry. Then let thaw and added to kettle with five minutes left in boil. Very interested to see how the tartness of the cranberries comes through.

Dunkelweizen

"Similar to a Hefeweizen, these southern Germany wheat beers are brewed as darker versions (Dunkel means "dark") with deliciously complex malts and a low balancing bitterness. Most are brown and murky (from the yeast). The usual clove and fruity (banana) characters will be present, some may even taste like banana bread." as described by Beer Advocate. Beer Judge Certification Program explains the history for style 15B: Dunkelweizen "Old fashioned Bavarian wheat beer was often dark. In the 1950's and 1960's, wheat beer did not have a youthful image, since most older people drank them for their health-giving qualities. Today, the lighter hefeweizen is more common"

My grist bill today consists of Munich malt, wheat malt, crystal 60, and Special B malt. Doing a step mash because of the large proportion of wheat malt in the grist. I find the protein rest helps the runoff further down stream, helping to prevent a stuck runoff. As well as insure conversion in a wheat based beer. This wheat beer is hopped with whole leaf glacier hops. Yeast being used is Safbrew WB-06.

English Special Bitter

"The Bitter style came from brewers who wanted to differentiate these ales from other mild brews, enter pale malts and more hops. Most are gold to copper in colour and are light bodied. Low carbonation. Alcohol should be low and not perceived. Hop bitterness is moderate to assertive. Most have a fruitiness in the aroma and flavor, diacetyl can also be present. These are traditionally served cask conditioned, but many breweries have bottled versions." as explained on the Beer Advocate website.

I'll be using East Kent Golding hops which are traditional English aroma hops as well Willamette hops for bittering and flavor. The grist bill consists of pale, munich, biscuit, brown, and crystal malt. Also added a 1/4 pound of organic barley flour to the mash. In theory to add body to this low alcohol offering. Mashed in warm at 157f and let rest for :45 then mashed out to 168f. Boiled for seventy five minutes to increase kettle caramelizing. Looking forward to enjoying this English session ale.

Export Oatmeal Stout

A strong (7%abv) oatmeal stout is the plan for this evenings brew. Not quite imperial, but stronger than a session beer. Using oat groats as well as flaked oats in the mash. I need to get some oat flour, as I would have added that to the mash as well. Next time. This stout is somewhere between a Russian Imperial stout, foreign export stout and an oatmeal stout. Roasty, full bodied, a little sweet but with enough strength to fortify you.

Buckwheat Brown Ale

Brewing a flavorful brown ale today using organic toasted buckwheat groats. Buckwheat is used in cuisine around the world. Making noodles, kasha, and pancakes. Buckwheat is gluten free and being used in a variety of new settings because of this. I'm using toasted buckwheat to add complexity to this brown ale. Will also be collecting the first gallon and a half of first runnings and reducing down to less than half a gallon and adding back to the kettle. Which adds body and downright maltiness to the beer. Lightly hopped with whole leaf simcoe.

Wikipedia says this about the agricultural history of buckwheat, "Common buckwheat was domesticated and first cultivated in southeast Asia, possibly around 6000 BC, and from there spread to Europe and to Central Asia and Tibet. Domestication most likely took place in the western Yunnan region of China. Buckwheat is documented in Europe in the Balkans by at least the Middle Neolithic (circa 4000 BC) and the oldest known remains in China so far date to circa 2600 BC, and buckwheat pollen has been found in Japan from as early as 4000 BC. It is the world's highest elevation domesticate, being cultivated in Yunnan on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau or on the Plateau itself. Buckwheat was one of the earliest crops introduced by Europeans to North America. Dispersal around the globe was complete by 2006, when a variety developed in Canada was widely planted in China."

classic American IPA

The style re-invented in America. Beer Advocate describes it as "The American IPA is a different soul from the reincarnated IPA style. More flavorful than the withering English IPA, color can range from very pale golden to reddish amber. Hops are typically American with a big herbal and / or citric character, bitterness is high as well. Moderate to medium bodied with a balancing malt backbone."

I used a little amber and crystal malt to add a color and complexity to the malt backbone of this IPA. Used a variety of citrus forward northwest American hops. Will be dry hopping with more hops, one and a half more ounces. Calculated color 7 lovibond, 45 IBU's and around 6% abv.