Should I Brew That?

Sampling my Oak Aged IPA on 12seconds.tv

Brought to you by my good friend Drunken Polack over at http://www.drunkenpolack.com/

So the oak aged IPA has been in the bottle for about 3 weeks now and it’s time to crack open the first bottle to see how it has turned out so far. The aroma is pure malt & a bit of a hop aroma. I did expect more floral notes from the hops at first pour but somehow that fell short of my expectations. This may be due to the oak chips that were added as it also has that oaked flavor that is dominate with the malts. This beer obviously is still a bit young and I think it definitely needs more time to mature although it is quite drinkable now. Paitence is key here my friends! I think over time the oak will come forward so I’m anxious to see how the flavors progress.

Oaked IPA
14-B American IPA

Original Gravity: 1.046 (1.056 – 1.075)
Terminal Gravity: 1.012 (1.010 – 1.018)
Color: 24.26 (6.0 – 15.0)
Alcohol: 4.51% (5.5% – 7.5%)
Bitterness: 59.2 (40.0 – 70.0)

Ingredients:
2.0 lb Crystal Malt
4.5 oz Crystal Malt 60°L
6.6 lb Liquid Amber Extract
1.0 oz First Gold (7.5%) – added during boil, boiled 5.0 min
1.0 oz Mt. Hood (5.0%) – added during boil, boiled 60 min
1.0 oz Pilgrim (9.0%) – added during boil, boiled 60 min
.5 oz Oak Wood Chips – added dry to primary fermenter
11.5 gr Fermentis S-04 Safale S-04

Notes
Started steeping grains @ 3:35 @ 168, will steep for  30 minutes

Added LME and 2 oz hops at  4:10 (used hop ball, hope  it  extracts enough!)
Boil started  at 4:30

Will add the UK First Gold to last 5 minutes of the boil @5:25, adding immersiion chiller @ 5:20

Turned off boil & started chiller @ 5:25-5:30

Chill to 80 degrees then add top off water to fermenter

This was simply an extract kit, I just added a bit extra to use up what little I had, 2 row malt and 1oz of Mt. Hood hops. Bubbling away in the fermenter now. I thought this one a bit strange due to the oak chips addition but figured, what the hell, I’ll give it a shot! OG came in at 1.046, expecting the finishing gravity to be about 1.012.

So it’s been 2 weeks carbonating in the the bottle, time to open one of my flip top 12oz sampler bottles! This beer turned out suprisingly well, spot on for a scottish ale. It obviously needs to sit for another month or so to mellow out a bit but other than that I am extremely happy on how this batch turned out. Nice winter beer to enjoy in the upcoming cold months.

Stay tuned for the next batch, not sure what I’m brewing!

Well folks, finally had time to post about my latest brew thats been in the bottle almost a week already! My 60 Shilling Scottish Ale. I originally set out to make an 80/- Scottish Ale but this being my first all grain experience I missed my OG by a few! (details below)

60 Shilling Scottish Ale
9-A Scottish Light 60/-
Date: 9/8/2008

Size: 5.0 gal
Efficiency: 59.5%
Attenuation: 77.3%
Calories: 266.48 kcal per 22 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.044 (1.030 – 1.035)
Terminal Gravity: 1.010 (1.010 – 1.013)
Color: 16.77 (9.0 – 17.0)
Alcohol: 4.44% (2.5% – 3.2%)
Bitterness: 27.7 (10.0 – 20.0)

Ingredients:
10 lb American 2-row
0.25 lb American Chocolate Malt
0.75 lb American Caramel 60°L
1.0 oz Mt. Hood (5.0%) – added during boil, boiled 60 min
1.0 oz Mt. Hood (5.0%) – added during boil, boiled 15 min
35 mL White Labs WLP028 Edinburgh Ale

Notes
Started mash @ 12:40 for one hour at 149 degrees at start with approx 3.44 gallons of water (@ noon, temp is 145)

Will sparge (rinse) with 2.56 gallons for a total of 6 gallons

NOTE: lost 1.44 gallons in grist, will rinse with 3 gallons and run water voliume addition through for a total of 6
Added 3 gallons of rinse water for 10-15 minutes, will continue untitl I have 6+ gallons of wort
5 gallons of wort after 2nd rinse
Final rinse with 1 gallon then boil @1:25pm

started boil at 1:45 rolling at 2:03
First hop addition 2:05
added second hop addition @ 2:50
Shut off gas and started immersion chiller @ 3:02

im getting a better chill this time by stirring the wort, went from 140 at flame out to 100 in 10 minutes!
Down to 85 degrees @ 3:15
Temp @ 80 @ 3:24

Now I was shooting for an OG of 1.064 but ended up with 1.044 so any advice would be well received! I plan on doing this beer again with a new 10 gallon mash tun in place of my current 5 gallon to see if that will make any difference whatsoever. Many people use a 5 gallon mash tun cooler and get better results so im not so sure of any change that will make. A few more weeks in the bottle and it’s sampling time!

Now a little history on the “shilling” if you thought my title of this post looked a little weird!:

The abbreviation for shilling is s, from the Latin solidus, the name of a Roman coin. Often it was written informally or printed with a slash, e.g., 1/6d as 1 shilling and sixpence (often pronounced “one and six”), or when there were no pence with a slash then a hyphen, e.g., “11/-”. Quite often a triangular shape or (sans serif) apostrophe would be used to give a neater appearance, e.g., “1′6″ and “11′-”. In Africa it is often abbreviated sh.

 Scottish Ales are commonly called “60 Shilling” or “80 Shilling”.

It’s due to the era of Scotland so historically portrayed in “Highlander,” Scots had to pay tax on barley. Thus, the more barley in the beer, the higher the alcohol content and body of the beer.

A 60 Shilling ale would be weaker(let’s say, oh, 3%abv) than a 90 shilling(6% abv).

 Also, because importing hops all the way from England was costly, the Scots compensated by brewing with barely any hops at all.

The Chocolate Stout was bottled on 08/22/08. I will sample in the next week or  two to check its progress, the worst part about homebrewing is the waiting game!

After taking my first gravity reading (currently at 1.035) from 1.066 original gravity) for the chocolate stout I just had to take a sample and I must pat myself  on the back on this one, it is pure  chocolaty goodness! I was a bit worried about the flavor profile for this  batch as I used  about a 1/4 of a White Labs Irish Ale Yeast (WLP004) due to the vial exploding all over  my hands when I opened  it! (shake gently and open slowly!!) To be sure  of proper yeast cell  count I added the only  yeast I had on hand at the time, the Safale US-05 which is a basic, nutrual ale yeast. Mixing two different yeast should in theory create a funky flavor profile that is not desirable in your beers. Although I may be missing some of the Irish Ale Yeast smokey flavors, the beer tastes great  with a huge chocolate backing. I think I will save  some of these for  the upcoming 2009 Valentine’s Day goodness!

I will update once flocculation is complete and I am ready to bottle, which should be soon. Pics from the brew day have been uploaded here!

Also, just a quick note regarding the self adhesive duct insulation (Frost King) that I wrapped around my 5 gallon mash tun, it worked like a charm! Held the temp steady for an hour with no additional water additions. Highly recommened as a cheap solution to buying a whole new cooler for your mash!

It’s time for me to brew again & this time I will be attempting my first chocolate stout! Should be a perfect recipe just in time for the fall & winter months to come! Here’s the ingredient list:

3 lbs. Dark DME (Dry Malt Extract)

4 lbs. Amber DME

1 lb. Chocolate Malt

1 lb. Roasted Barley

0.5 lb. Black Patent Malt

0.5 lb. Munich Malt

2 oz. Mt. Hood Hops

I will be doing a partial mash for this recipe & I may add more hops to play around with the hopping schedule a bit. Brewing tomorrow 08/09/08 I will post more either during the brewday or shortly afterwards.

Made another overhaul to my mash tun cooler by adding self adhesive duct insulation (Frost King) that I had in storage. Available at any hardware store, picked mine up at Home Depot for around 10 bucks. I will be testing it in the next few days to see how the temperature holds up. Also will be brewing a chocolate stout soon so look forward to that!