Russian Imperial Stout

I just finished hand milling 21 pounds of grain for this beast of a beer that I will endeavour to make tomorrow. That took quite a while but it was worth it and that's pretty much the only exercise that I get.
I am quite excited about this one; I have not yet made a beer of this magnitude. I plan on bottling my Scottish Export 90 tomorrow and then I'll pour the chilled stout onto the yeast cake. This is going to be some nice, healthy yeast which will produce a hopefully awesome stout.
This is a typical bin-end beer in the sense that I am using all the leftover dark grains and bin ends that was sitting in my grain drawer. A compilation of some roasted, chocolate, caraaroma, and black malt with a touch of brown (because that's what I had)to give the beer a smorgasbord of flavour. Of course, it's not going to reach it's peak for about a year which is the sad part.

This dude is going to probably reach an OG of 1.093 and FG of 1.024 resulting in a 9% ABV beer. Well, here's the recipe:

TEARS OF THE TSAR

5.346 Kg Domestic 2-Row
2.255 Kg Maris Otter
.500 Kg Munich 10L
.674 Kg Flaked Barley
.331 Kg Roasted Barley
.250 Kg Chocolate Malt
.160 Kg Black Patent
.150 Kg Caraaroma
.100 Kg Brown Malt

38 grams Magnum @60 min
29 grams Golding @20 min

I will let it sit on the yeast cake for about 3 weeks and then bottle with about 4 oz dextrose (maybe less) and let it stew for several months.

UPDATE: I made this beast of a beer today and due to a little panic on my part and determination to not have poor efficiency, I ended up with an OG of 1.099. Pre-boil, it was sitting at 1.064 and from my experience, the post boil gravity is only about.010 above the pre-boil gravity. I took about 3 liters of wort from the boil kettle and boiled that on the stove top for 15 minutes. I also added 200 Grams of sucrose and 100 Grams of lactose for safety. I opted to boil for about 1 hour 40 minutes. I ended up with less wort than usual due to my antics so I am adding some water raise the level. That ended up dropping my OG to about 1.088. I think I should have left the quantity alone but I wanted more beer, but that's the way it goes.
Here's a picture of my mashtun brimming with 21 pounds of grain and 30 liters of water.

DUSSELDORF ALTBIER IN THE SUMMER

We have a tasting party in October, so I need to replenish my beer stock because it is severely diminished due to an unexpected rash of infected beers from an outside contaminate. I have a American Blond in the bottle and I need at least 6 or 7 more. My bright idea was to take a 'beer trip' with representation from the US, UK, France, Belgian, Germany and maybe one more.
I decided on making a Dusseldorf Altbier first then proceed to a Kolsch because that beer needs healthy, once used yeast to make it better. Also, these German ales are hybrids and they need a low fermentation temperature down to about 62F. The problem with this scenario is that it is the end of June and it is pretty freaking hot out there and me without a dedicated fermentation chamber. Well, I have a laundry sink and ice, so I will have to make the best out of this difficult situation.

Dusseldorf Altbier
3.9kg Pilsner
.500kg Munich 10L
.500kg Vienna
.110 Black Patent (last 30 mins of mash)

16G Magnum @60 min
19G Hallertau @20 min
20G Hallertau @1 min

1/2 tsp Calcium Chloride in Mash
2 ml of Lactic Acid in sparge water

Presently, the primary is sitting in my laundry sink full of water at about 57f. I need to maintain that temp for about 5 days then I can slowly warm it up. I have not yet decided whether to rack to secondary then commandeer the family fridge to lager it or just bottle then lager (after it has carbonated)
UPDATE: I bottled the beer last night and unfortunately, there was a distinct banana aroma. Sure, it may subside over time, but it is an indicator that the fermentation temperature was too high. I really need a freezer chest with temp control but no money for such extravagance. Sigh.

THE CALIFORNIA COMMON CHALLENGE

I received a gold medal for my California Common at the Aurora Brewing Challenge in Edmonton, Canada. That made me a qualifier for the 2013 MCAB (Masters Championship of Amateur Brewing. That beer only received 33 points out of a possible 50. So, that means I have to come up with a better recipe/technique to net me a gold in that category. I will be brewing a lot of my "Cali B" over the next 8 months or so to come up with my best entry.
That's all I have to say about that for now, but I will be posting my updates as I make the beer. Should be an interesting Steam Beer year but I will be brewing other beers for more competitions. I have only been brewing for a year but I think I'm going to shoot for the Canadian Brewer of the Year for 2013. This year, I'm in 19th place so far.

It's Time for a Flanders Red (in about 2 years)

I am conflicted. I was all set to make a Flander's Red and went out and bought the ingredients. The only pack of Roselare available was a year old so I bought it at a half off discount. I went home and Tweeted that I did that and Wyeast replied back to me stating that it won't be very good and I should buy the freshest stuff for the best results. So,I don't know what to do: Use the yeast as is or wait until the LHBS has it in stock.

Here's my recipe so far:
The Forgotten Flander's Red
3.00KG 2 Row Pale
1.400KG Vienna Malet
.588KG Flaked Corn
.500KG Honey Malt
.250KG Caraaroma

16 grams Fuggles

Roselare Yeast

I would just pitch the package in the cooled wort and let it sit for 12 to 16 months then blend with newer Flander's red. There are a lot of discussions on line on what type of carboy to use. Apparently, a plastic bucket will allow in too much oxygen and the glass carboy will prevent the requisite oxygen from getting in. A better bottle is supposed to let in a nice amount of oxygen. The Flander's is the only beer that requires the acetic acid (vinegar) flavour profile. There is also the technique of adding an oak stick in the carboy to let in oxygen and wood up the beer. I am going to pass on that. My better bottle is a little scratchy so I think I'll just use the glass carboy. A little vinegar flavour is all right by me.

Wyeast has gotten back to me stating that they would not know what bugs are still alive and that I can pitch another pack down the road (sooner than later).
So, that's what I'm going to do. Pitch the old roselare now and wait until a new pack arrives.

Head Retention

I have made over 20 beers with varying degrees of head retention from okay to good but since I tried a new technique, it is now awesome. My secret? I switched cleaning products. Previously, I just used dish soap to clean all my plastics and then rinsed my buckets et al as well as possible. Obviously, I sanitize after. I was aware of head retention problems due to soap but I figured if I rinsed thoroughly, it shouldn't be that big of a deal. Well, I was wrong. I switched to OxiClean two beers ago and now my head retention is phenomenal. The head remains right to the end of the beer. The only drawback is that I have to pour it more carefully or the head gets out of control and I need to wait until it calms down.
I know there are other variables to head retention but a proper cleaning will do wonders for retention.

TASTING PARTY #2

I'm having another tasting party tonight on St. Patrick's Day. It should be an awesome night. Chef Cindy has lined up a delicious selection of food that should pair perfectly with my beer. Obviously, I had some trepidation with a couple of my brews, specifically, the Witbier and the Belgian Blonde. I haven't used Belgian yeast before and was not prepared for the qualities that it lent to the ales. They had a strong phenolic aroma to it that did eventually subside. I'm used to drinking my beer without worry about 6 weeks after brewing but the Wit and especially the Belgian have taken more time to get up to snuff. I have a plan with the Witbier because it had a weird lake/hotdog aroma to it: I will cut up orange slices and add those to the glasses. Of course, I'm worrying too much but that is my shtick. Here are the pairings:

Scottish Export 80?

Well, sort of, it was intention to make a Scottish Export 80 but things got away from me. The OG for Ex 80 should be between 1.040 and 1.054. Mine turned out to be 1.062 which will probably end up being a 6% ABV. I expected a 1.050 because my efficiency has always been about 73%, now it's going to be about 84%.
There might have been a couple reasons for this (as well as I can deduce): 1. My new grain mill: the crush I am using is too fine for the amount of grain I'm using. 2. Maris Otter is a very clumpy grain, especially when it is finely ground so there is a lot more stirring than normal.
Regardless of all that, this beer turned out excellent even though I do not know what type of beer it is now. It's a little dark and a little strong for a Scottish 80 and doesn't fit the flavour profile of a wee heavy, but I might be able to fit it into an Irish Red category. I don't know. I'm going to take it to the beer club on Tuesday and see what they think it is.

PRICKLY THISTLE IRISH ALE
3.00KG Maris Otter
2.00KG Golden Promise
.260KG Brown Malt
.150KG Roasted Barley

39 Grams Fuggles 60 minutes

Wyeast 1728 Scottish
OG 1.062
FG 1.016

This beer was delicious, absolutely awesome. I feel kind of sad because I gave this beer away as a birthday gift.

YELLA: The Golden Ale

I have been slacking off with my blog lately. I've made quite a few beers since my November 28th post so I'm going to try and catch up with my past recipes. Part of my problem is that I discovered Hopville.com and have posted a lot of my recent recipes there. Here is the link for my brews.
Alright, I made an American Golden in December and it turned out very well. In fact, it won a silver medal at the Cowtown Homebrew Roundup in Calgary that was held in February. The coolest part of that win was the fact that I used Homegrown Hops for the flavour addition of the brew. Here is the recipe:

YELLA

4.55KG 2-Row Pale
1.00KG Vienna

28 Grams Brewer's Gold (5.5 AA) 60 minutes
28 Grams Brewer's Gold 30 minutes
15 Grams Golding 1 minute

Wyeast 1056 American Ale

154F Mash

Hopbursting a Lager

In the year since I started brewing, I have made 19 different ales. It was time to make my 20th beer a lager. It's a little tougher for me to make a lager because I don't have temperature control and that is quite important for that style of beer, but I decided to go forth and do my best.
At present, my lager is sitting in the laundry sink with 47F water. I have to regularly add ice to keep it at that temperature. My big concern is to get it to just above freezing for the long, 2 month lagering session. I haven't figured that one out yet. I might just maintain that in a secondary for a few weeks, then bottle. After it is done carbonating at room temperature, I will put the bottles in the fridge for a couple months.

Along with never making a Lager before, I decided to try hopbursting. That is the technique of putting all the hops in the last 20 minutes of the boil. This will omit the bitterness of a 60 minute hop addition and keep all the flavour and aroma. The downside is that you have to put a whole swack of hops to reach the requisite IBUs. I had to double the amount of Saaz in order to get to my IBU goal of 35.
I had planned on making a Bohemian Pilsner with Saaz hops, but unfortunately, the LHBS was out of Pilsner malt so I went with Vienna malt instead:

SUPER SAAZ ME
4.70 KG Vienna Malt
.280 KG Crystal 10L

65 Grams Saaz 20 min
65 Grams Saaz 15 min
28 Grams Saaz 10 min
28 Grams Saaz 5 min
13 Grams Saaz 1 Min
Saaz hops at 3.0 AA

saflager 189 Yeast