BBA Bourbon Brown Ale ( w/ Brett)

BBA was brewed on Big Brew Day 2018 (May 5). I was going for a porter but brewing being what it is, complications lead to improvisation and a Scottish or brown ale resulted.

5/4/2018 Big Brew Day Baltic Porter from Mashmaker
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	60	min			Boil off rate		0.5	gal/hour
Select Style	Brown Porter		<-- Style Guideline		Loss in kettle		0.2	gal
Expected OG / FG	1.070	1.014	1.040 - 1.052	1.008 - 1.014	Yeast attenuation		0.8
Expected ABV	7.3	%	4.0 - 5.4	%	Grain Absorption		0.11	gal/lb
Expected Bitterness	37.6	IBUs	18 - 35	IBUs	Loss in MashTun		0	gal
Grain Build
Grain Name	Amount (lbs)	Eff (optional)		Hop Schedule
Munich	8		3629g (90%)	Hop Name	Alpha Acid %	Amount (oz)	Time (min)	IBUs
Carafa 1	0.364	0	165g (4%)	Centennial	8.7	0.5	60	23.9
Caramunich 3	0.364	0.5	165g (4%)	Germ Spalt	2.5	1	60	13.7
Special B	0.200	0.5	91g (2%)
Malt Extract
DME		0
LME		0
Adjuncts / Sugars	Amount (lbs)	Gravity Units
Total Gravity Points		224.5218182
Brew Day Instructions
Desired Mash Temp	152	F	66.7 C
Mash Water Volume	3.25	gal (1.46qt/lb)	12302 grams
Grain Temperature	70	F	21.1 C
Strike Temperature	162.26	F	72.4 C
Grain Absorption Loss	0.982	gal	3717 grams
Sparge water needed	1.432	gal	5420 grams
Pre-boil gravity=1.061	Pre-boil volume=3.7gal

Water was RO, to which I added 3g Baking Soda, 1g Gypsum, and 2g CaCl2.

First wort was hitting 1069, low already, but my PVC grid got completely plugged up and the sparge was stuck after a few minutes. In the end I collected 5 gal at 1035. I made the gravity up by adding 2-3 lbs of DME, no FG was recorded (probably 1065). Since this was a big beer I made a starter of US05.

Some Medium Toast Oak cubes (~2 oz) were also set in some Rittenhouse Rye Whiskey to be added in the secondary, along with the Whiskey :). Fermentation controlled with the TEC at ~60F for two weeks.

Placing the beer on the cubes for another week basically. After secondary finished I bottled ~2 gallons and another 2 gallons got WLP655 each in a 1 gal glass carboy. One of the glass carboys also got about 1/2 the oak cubes from the secondary. While bottling, two bottles also got a few drops of WLP655, hoping to replicate the success of The Mad Fermentationist.

Update 6/8/18: The bottles were quite good already, a tad hot maybe but clear Whiskey taste and oak is delicious. I think in another few months will be really good. Also tasted the oaked and soured carboy and no real strong character yet from Brett so they will continue to sit in fermenters. 

Moderate Doppelbock

Doppelbock with moderate temps. Lets try this someday!

https://byo.com/hops/item/283-brewing-doppelbock-tips-from-the-pros

Updated Calculator

The calculator now calculates water and shows more unit conversions

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ry84euA--yNfAKkS1RsX1tHPRblzE-6Vfqt3nmZzXXQ/edit?usp=sharing

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.