It's a Girl!

Yes, Señor Brew™ is a proud papa! As you can see, from the bottle label above, Tesla Marie was born 2 days ago. She and her mother are both healthy and happy.

Of course, being a homebrewer, I brewed a big batch of ale in anticipation--something I could give out instead of cigars. I wanted something that was flavorful, but would appeal to a wide range of people. I decided to go with a full flavored, yet lighter-bodied blonde ale. The recipe is below with notes:

Tesla Marie Honey Blonde Ale (12 gallons)

Water
1/3 Redondo Beach Well Water (treated with campden tab to neutralize chloramine)
2/3 Reverse Osmosis Water
Gypsum added to mash to lower pH

Grains
10.5 lbs pale malt (base malt)
4 lbs vienna malt (for extra malty-biscuity flavor)
4 llbs rice (to lighten the body in compensation for the vienna malt)
3 lbs honey (for complexity of flavor, and also to lighten the body)

Mash Schedule (step mash, with cereal (rice) mash addition to raise temp)

143F for 20 minutes
boiling rice was then added to raise temp to
154F for 4 hours (due to break taken to tour the hospital where Tesla would be born)

Hop Additions during 60 minute boil

1.8 oz Magnum 10.3% AA 60 min (bittering--wanted a slightly bitter beer)
0.5 oz Williamette 15 min (flavoring--adds a bit of earthiness)
0.5 oz Hallertau 15 min (flavoring--noble hop, reflects her German heritage)
0.5 oz Williamette 0 min (aroma)
0.5 oz Hallertau 0 min (aroma)

OG 1.058 F.G. 1.010


ABV 6.3% (pretty strong for a blonde, due to honey addition)

Yeast Wyeast 1272 (adds a touch of fruitiness to the fermentation)

fermented primary 13 days at 68F
secondary 7 days at 70F
cold conditioned and force carbonated in keg 7 days at 45
bottled from keg with counterpressure filler

Obfuscator Doppelbock

I brewed this beer two weeks ago, but am finally getting around to posting it here. It was one part of a split batch of lager/ale, as I have done in the past, but this time it was a true partigyle brew, using the first runnings from the mash for a strong beer, and the later runnings for a "small" beer. Also, this time, opposite of the YMM/YSM and the Johann Sebastian Bock/ Anglerman Ale , I made a smaller amount of the lager, and a larger amount of the ale. So without further ado, here's the recipe:

15lbs Dark German Munich malt
8lbs American two-row (I would have used Vienna malt, but I've got a ton of two-row on hand)
1lb Carahelles (a free gift from Larry at the LHBS--it was a sample from their supplier)
1lb Melanoidin malt
1/2 lb U.K. pale chocolate malt
2 oz Hallertauer 3.9% AA hops
Wyeast Munich Lager yeast

I did a single infusion mash for 1 hour at 146F. I mashed low, because I knew this was going to be a big beer. This style traditionally calls for a decoction mash to get melanoidin in the wort, but I thought the addition of the melanoidin malt would allow me to skip this step.

It was a batch sparge, and like I mentioned earlier, I took the first runnings as well as just a small amount of the second to get me approximately 6 gallons of wort. Pre-boil gravity was 1.083.

The hop addition was simple, all 2 oz at the beginning of a 60 minute boil. O.G. ended up at 1.089.

Sounds fairly simple, right? Well of course nothing is simple here at the Noble Square Brewery. I had to leave in the middle of the boil because of a family emergency. The wifey turned off the burner for me at the proper time, and covered the brew kettle. I returned from the hospital three hours later--don't worry, everyone is o.k. now--to finish my brewday.

But this means I didn't add Irish moss ( a clarifying agent) at the end of the boil, and it also means that the wort was not force cooled quickly. The temperature had dropped over 2 1/2 hours from boiling to 160F. Since it was covered, and still at a fairly high temperature, I wasn't concerned with bacteria or wild airborne yeast contaminating the wort. But also since it was covered and cooled slowly, I was concerned about DMS (Dimethyl sulfide). DMS is created from heating grain in a certain temperature range--it gives an unwanted cooked cabbage flavor to beer. Normally, when boiling wort, the precursors to DMS are driven off, and by force cooling it quickly, they don't reform.

I did force cool it from 160F down to 55F in about 15 minutes with my immersion chiller. I tasted a sample before I transferred it to the fermenter. I didn't taste any DMS, but the wort was so sweet and caramel tasting that it could have masked the flavor. General consensus at Brews and Views was to not worry about it. I fermented for two weeks at 53F on the yeast cake reused from Your Mother's Mustache. I'll find out soon if it tastes like cabbage when I transfer to secondary, although I won't know how well it clears until it lagers. I could always add gelatin to help it clear up.

Still still.

No activity on the bock ale this morning. You could say it's still still. I racked a carboy of Superbowl Stout to a secondary, and racked the bock ale on top of the stout yeast cake. I'm guessing it will be bubbling like crazy by the time I get home from work.

Speaking of the bock ale, I have yet to name it. Bock ale sounds lame, and it's not even really true. Any suggestions? It's the third runnings of my bock mash fortified with some light dry malt extract, lightly bittered with columbus, and now fermenting on Wyeast London Ale 1968. German malt, American hops, English yeast--worldwide ale? Nah, not really worldwide. Traveler ale--nah, it didn't travel anywhere, the ingredients did. I've got it, Angerman Ale.

Change of plans

OK, so the LHBS was out of pilsner malt. Can you believe it? It's a brewing staple and they were out. Oh well, they say necessity is the mother of invention. In this case it was scarcity, but regardless, I improvised. I bought up a bunch of vienna and munich malt and am now making a traditional bock instead of the maibock I made the shopping list for below.

I like to prep stuff ahead of time, hence the starter already going. I also ground the grain tonight, and have my hot liquor tun full of water that I've already treated with a half of campdem tab to clear up any chlorine or chloramine. It's got an electric heater in it set up to a timer to go off at 5am, so the water will be at strike temperature when I start the mash about 8am. Speaking of the HLT, why is it called that? You never put liquor in it. I think it should be called the hot water tun.

Also, Ben Spiegel asked for some photos in his last comment, so here they are:


Mill with Drill attached





Hot Liquor Tank




Closeup of the electric heater