In the Fermentor: Twitter Bitter

I was asking around on Twitter about what beer style I should brew with some of my lingering grains, hops and yeast from 2013. The finalists came down to a Mild or an Ordinary Bitter. I've decided to combine both into a brew with the flavor of a Bitter, but the low ABV session beer goodness of a Mild.

Since my goal was to brew without taking a trip to a Homebrew store, everything in the beer below was already on hand at home. My hop quantities are a little odd, because I was trying to use up open Challenger and EKG packages. The finished beer should have a nice sweet/bitter balance and an alcohol content of around 3.5%.

Here's the 5-gallon recipe:

Grains:
5 lbs Fawcett Optic Malt
8 oz Briess Caramel 80L
8 oz Fawcett Amber Malt

Hops:
1 oz Challenger (6.9% a.a.): 60 min
0.5 oz Challenger (6.9% a.a.): 20 min
0.75 oz East Kent Goldings (4.5% a.a.): 0 min

Total Boil Time:
90 min

Yeast:
White Labs WLP002 - English Ale

Mash Schedule:
Saccharification Rest: 156F for 75 min
Mashout: 168F for 15 min

Original Gravity:
1.034
Estimated Final Gravity:
1.008

IBU: 34
SRM Color: 11

Fermentation Schedule:
1 Week Primary
2 Weeks Secondary
2 Weeks Bottle Conditioning

Comments

Out of the Bottle: Insert clever use of the word Wit here

My latest Wit was a hit at my friend's birthday party. He especially liked the beer's citrus components. Others found it to be light and refreshing. I heard no Blue Moon comparisons, which actually made me quite happy. Compared to My Wit's End , this beer is much closer to style. Unmalted Wheat is part of the reason, as there's much less grainy sweetness at work. Instead, the beer is crisp and dry. The bitter orange peel really does its thing. The peel's sharp flavor melds nicely with the sweet orange peel I also used. Coriander pushes the beer's spicy character along. If I were to change anything, it would be to dial it back a notch or two. Some light sourdough aromas round out the flavor and aroma. Despite the relatively low ABV of right around 5.0%, the beer sports a fairly hefty body. Overall, I'm quite happy with this Wit. Next time, I'll hold back on the coriander. Maybe I will even take a shot at a Turbid Mash, which sounds like a great sub...

In the Fermentor: Wood Aged Quadrupel-Imperial-Doppel-Barley-Weizen-Wee-Sour

Who says you can't have everything? Well, I'm doing just that by creating a beer that combines the best aspects of eight big beer styles: Quadrupel, Imperial Stout, Doppelbock, Barleywine, Weizenbock and Wee Heavy. But wait, there's more! The beer will be aged for year with everyone's favorite bacterias to make a Sour. On top of that, Sherry infused oak cubes will provide that little extra something. A massive grain-bill, plus a healthy dollop of Candi Sugar should push the alcohol content up over 11%. Compensating for the strength is a biting combination of Noble, English and American hops. A Decoction Mash gives the beer an extra bit of German character. Heavily caramelizing the First Runnings provides more depth of flavor than a standard boil. For that extra push over the cliff, 11 malts are working to make the beer one louder. I'm giving this one at least a year of fermentation before I even touch it. Here's the five gallon recipe: Grains: 4 ...

Birthday Brewing: Dark Session Saison

I've been asked to brew all of the beer for my friend's Birthday. It's in mid-August, so I have to get everything going right now . There will be five beers in all: Dunkelweiss, Wit, Saison, Dark Saison and Kölsch. Rather than post all of the recipes at once, I'm going to spread them out into separate posts. My Session Saison and SMaSH Kölsch were already underway before I was asked to brew the other beers. The Dark Saison below is an extension of the Session Saison. I've expanded the original recipe to make a darker beer. CaraMunich Malt adds a little caramel sweetness, while Carafa II brings a light dark chocolate edge to the brew. The rest of the beer is as it was before, with the same hops and yeast. Adding extra grains does push the alcohol content up a bit, but the beer still shouldn't break the 5% ABV mark. I'm anxious to try my two Saisons out side by side and taste the difference that two extra grains can make. For five gallons: Grai...

Colorado Kitchen Brew

Search This Blog