Azacca Hoppy Ale

I was intrigued by the description of Azacca hops from NB, so I brewed a beer around it. Also got to teach someone brewing with this simplified brew recipe using BIAB on the stove.

Pumpkin 2017

I wanted to try a new yeast this year for Pumpkin17' and I found this saying K97 (which I had on hand) would be appropiate for the style:
http://brulosophy.com/2017/04/17/yeast-comparison-safale-us-05-american-ale-vs-safale-k-97-german-ale-exbeeriment-results/

Here is the recipe:

This one has a lot of pumpkin in it, roasted 3 pie pumpkins in 375F for an hour or so until they were starting to take on color.

Typical mash in my larger cooler-mash-tun. I also added brewed 8 Chi Tea bags and 2 cinnamon sticks and 1 cassia sticks and 1 tsp of ground cloves.

Using the TEC fermentation cooler, set to 65F. Fermentation was really fast.

Beer is pretty good, it's sweet but I was expecting that, spice is nice, probably pumpkin is hidden if at all apparent, but it's tradition.

Project H2OHx Fermentation cooler

I've been using water baths with frozen water bottles to "control" fermentation temperatures. This has worked to some degree, but there isn't much control. See for example.

Borrowing an idea from work, I wanted to try a Thermoelectric Cooler (TEC) to cool (and potentially heat up) the water rather than relying on me to remember to put in frozen bottles daily or so. This would also allow me to dial in the temperature precisely. TECs typically run 12V and turn electron movement into heat movement, this is a 92W version available on amazon for 7$. 

http://a.co/g7bkNtu

To cool the water, the TEC moves heat from the water block (blue) into the heat-sink (silver) where a fan dissipates it into the air. A pump moves the water in the cooler through the cold water block and that is what cools the fermenter. 

I use a towl to keep the heat out so things are more efficient. The TEC is switched on and off by a simple temperature controller: http://a.co/g69nd9F

The temperature controller has a sensor which you put in the water and it can switch a relay to control when to cool (and also heat) the water. The only thing left was a beefy power supply that can output ~10A at 12V. All in all a pretty cheap system. Next post will probably be about the ultimate performance after I attempt to cold crash this beer. For now it's holding fermentation temps at 65F no problem. 

Porter Split Batch Experiment

Big Brew day I contributed 3 gallons of porter with the intent to split into 3 secondary fermenters to make 3 distinct beers.

Edit yellow cells in System Setup. Edit green cells for recipe creation. DO NOT edit red or blue cells.					System Setup
Volume into Fermenter	3	gal	11356 grams		Brewhouse efficiency		0.7	%
Boil Time	30	min			Boil off rate		0.5	gal/hour
Select Style	Robust Porter		<-- Style Guideline		Loss in kettle		0.2	gal
Expected OG / FG	1.062	1.012	1.048 - 1.065	1.012 - 1.016	Yeast attenuation		0.8
Expected ABV	6.5	%	4.8 - 6.5	%	Grain Absorption		0.11	gal/lb
Expected Bitterness	22.0	IBUs	25 - 50	IBUs	Loss in MashTun		0	gal
Grain Build
Grain Name	Amount (lbs)	Eff (optional)		Hop Schedule
Chocolate Malt	0.2	0	91g (3%)	Hop Name	Alpha %	Amount (oz)	Time (min)	IBUs
Kiln Coffee Malt	0.2	0	91g (3%)	Willamette	5	1	30	22.0
chocolate wheat	0.1	0	45g (1%)
melinoidin?	0.53	0.75	240g (7%)
2 row	1		454g (14%)
Malt Extract
DME	3.6	147.6	1632.9 grams
LME		0
Adjuncts / Sugars	Amount (lbs)	Gravity Units
Total Gravity Points		199.0395
Brew Day Instructions
Desired Mash Temp	150	F	65.6 C
Mash Water Volume	1	gal (1.97qt/lb)	3785 grams
Grain Temperature	70	F	21.1 C
Strike Temperature	157.39	F	69.7 C
Grain Absorption Loss	0.2233	gal	845 grams
Sparge water needed	2.6733	gal	10119 grams
Pre-boil gravity=1.058	Pre-boil volume=3.5gal

I made coconut extract about 2 weeks ahead using vodka.

The second beer was Chili Pasile added directly in secondary. I sterilized them in a 200F oven for 30 minutes.

After 1 week in the primary, they go into the secondary. Used 2/3 of a cup of coconut extract into the one, and 3 chilies into the other. The last gallon was plain.

Putting them into the bottles I noticed a white substance (probably coconut fat and solids) floating on the surface so i pulled into another vessel to pull that off. Also noticed a red oil on the chili beer surface, so pulled that off as well as best as I can.

Conundrum Pale Ale

This was a brew for the brew club challenge to define and compare pale ale. I see in my notes that I call this a session IPA actually, but is there a difference?

Edit yellow cells in System Setup. Edit green cells for recipe creation. DO NOT edit red or blue cells.					System Setup
Volume into Fermenter	3.5	gal	13248 grams		Brewhouse efficiency		0.7	%
Boil Time	60	min			Boil off rate		0.5	gal/hour
Select Style	American Pale Ale		<-- Style Guideline		Loss in kettle		0.2	gal
Expected OG / FG	1.043	1.009	1.045 - 1.060	1.010 - 1.015	Yeast attenuation		0.8
Expected ABV	4.5	%	4.5 - 6.2	%	Grain Absorption		0.11	gal/lb
Expected Bitterness	45.8	IBUs	30 - 45	IBUs	Loss in MashTun		0	gal
Grain Build
Grain Name	Amount (lbs)	Eff (optional)		Hop Schedule
Pilsner	2		907g (33%)	Hop Name	Alpha Acid %	Amount (oz)	Time (min)	IBUs
Golden Promise	2		907g (33%)	Columbus	15	0.27	60	24.0
White Wheat	0.7		318g (11%)	Pride of Ringwood (Hop-Stand)	8.6	0.15	60	7.6
Caramel 20	0.56		254g (9%)	Crystal	3.7	0.4	15	4.7
				Columbus	15	0.26	5	7.2
				Crystal (Hop-Stand)	4	0.3	5	2.2
Malt Extract
DME	0.6	24.6	272.2 grams
LME		0
Adjuncts / Sugars	Amount (lbs)	Gravity Units		Columbus		0.5	dry - 2d
				Pride of Ringwood		0.2	dry - 2d
				Crystal		0.3	dry - 2d
Total Gravity Points		160.0976
Brew Day Instructions
Desired Mash Temp	153	F	67.2 C
Mash Water Volume	2.5	gal (1.90qt/lb)	9463 grams
Grain Temperature	70	F	21.1 C
Strike Temperature	160.95	F	71.6 C
Grain Absorption Loss	0.5786	gal	2190 grams
Sparge water needed	2.2786	gal	8625 grams
Pre-boil gravity=1.038	Pre-boil volume=4.2gal

As one would expect nothing remarkable about brewing a pale ale. This was a BIAB brew.

Came out pretty hoppy, but maybe not as malty as I was going for. I submitted this one to the enchanted brewing challenge so hopefully get good feedback on this style that I'm non to fond of.