re: Homebrewing Thread: Volume II

Brewing a saison this afternoon. But I’m gonna dry hop the bejesus out of it.

I've done a 3.5% grisette in a week. A little rough around the edges, but it worked.

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Brewing a saison this afternoon. But I’m gonna dry hop the bejesus out of it.

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Something tells me you're not dry-hopping with noble hops

Hmmm. Starter would’ve been a good idea

Did not make a starter, but pitched a very young smack pack of wyeast 1010. Aerated the shite out of it. Hoping for the best. If it’s not done by Friday, it’s all good. Planning to ferment on the warmer side of the range also. Which I’ve had good results from 1010 before with that method.

Appreciate he answers

So for you sour beer drinkers, had an idea for a sour. It came about after having a conversation with someone who was a wine drinker, but never really had sours. And i consider some sours closer to wine than beer, in terms of taste and character. In addition i saw a box of Opus One wine, which is highly acclaimed, and highly priced ($257/bottle). It got me thinking, could you brew a sour that mimicked the notes of wine. What i mean by that are the descriptors used. I picked Opus just as a starting point but the descriptors are fairly common among wines such as chocolate, earthy, blackberries, red currants, etc...

So i was thinking, what if i formulated a grain bill for a sour, that included a chocolate malt. Age it to a noticeable but not overbearing amount of acidity. And then let it sit on top of blackberries, aged hops, red currants, cherries, etc... then age on some french oak. I know the ingredients themselves aren't unique to sours. However, i haven't come across a sour that had some chocolate malt, but was then aged on fruit. Usually it's just a sour stout. So, i think with my next mixed ferm sour, i will try to formulate a recipe to mimic some of the descriptors from some opus one bottles.

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The 2014 Opus One exudes subtle aromas of fragrant florals, fresh garden herbs and forest floor that give way to a concentrated blend of red cherry, blackberry and black currant. Fine-grained tannins offer a velvety texture and complex structure that builds to a long, vibrantly fresh finish with a touch of mocha.

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So for example, i'd do this, with a grain bill made up of anywhere from 8-20% of roasted malts like chocolate, carafa 3, etc... Add about 5-10 IBU's of hops to prevent it from getting too sour. Then ferment with a good sour strain, probably some propped up Wicked Weed and Jolly Pumpkin dregs. Once it's tasting right, i'd add 2 lbs/gallon of tart cherries, and .5 to 1 lb/gallon of blackberries. Maybe split the batch and do one with blueberries.

Just thought this would be something fun to do with my sours. Right now i'm just trying to keep a steady pipeline going so i have new sours ready every 3-6 months.

I think Flanders Red has some characteristics of wine. A lot more sour of course but most wine is actually fairly tart.

If you're looking for a good dark sour recipe, I can recommend Donkere Geneeskunde from Wild Brews. Some friends of mine and I did a big group brew to fill an old whiskey barrel that had gone sour and we used that recipe. Came out fantastic. [Note that the barrel had had 4 batches in it and all of the whiskey flavor was gone by then.]

Did a double brew day today in 4 hours. Citra IPA and what will be a kettle sour. No sparge on the kettle sour, because why not?

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because why not?

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Finally brewed again yesterday. I wanted to only use my new kettle and not have a second pot to heat sparge water, so I decided to try out a cool sparge. I had read about it a while ago on Brulosophy so it didn't seem all that crazy.

Estimated OG: 1.065
Measure OG: 1.064

works for me

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I'll never understand how it takes some people 7 hours to brew a beer.

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Early on, it would take me about 6 to 6.5 hours to brew, with cleanup included.

My last brew day was about 4 to 4.5 hours. But there was no dry hopping in the beer, and i only drank 1 or 2 beers the whole brew day, so i was on top of my cleaning when i finished with the equipment.

If it's aggressively dry hopped, requiring a hop stand of about 30 minutes post boil, and in the summer when ground water is in the 80's and cooling down takes longer even with the addition of ice to the pre-chiller, it'll take me probably around 5-6 hours if i'm on top of things.

Forget about a double brew day.

I did my last biab in a little over 2.5 hours.

15 minutes to get up to temp
40 minute mash
5 minute drain
75 minute boil (includes heat up time)
Chilled in 6 minutes
Cleanup the single kettle.

The beer was good, too.