#52: Weisen

Continuing my revisiting of Mr. B recipes and extracts... 

I'm not a huge wheat fan (though I loves me a Gumballhead or Oberon), but I'm trying to gain a taste for it. This is the second time I've had the WW extract on hand. Last time (nearly two years ago, and near the beginning of my brewing adventure) I added it to the OVL from the variety pack and made something resembling the Prince Ludwig Lager, though I used Centennial instead of Saaz and also added some honey. It was so-so though drinkable.

This time, instead of trying to add it to something else, I went instead full bore into it, getting a wheat yeast and supplementing with wheat DME. Also threw in a touch of EKG I had left from another brew day just for fun.

I did the easy-peasy brew day on Monday night. Overfilled to the top of the Q as an experiment (figuring it's about 2.5 gallons). Odd that the OG was way over the estimate. I didn't weigh the DME. I wonder if they mismeasured at Rebel, as I get the same OG if I change the stats to 1.5 lb. Interesting...

I tested gravity tonight (something like 69 hours later)... 1.011! Below estimate! I guess I need to get some bottles ready... Wow... Munich tore it up...

Hydrometer taste is very encouraging. Banana and clove just as expected, but not overpowering. 
Wheat 
Weizen/Weissbier

Type: Extract
Ferment 7/11; bottled 7/24
Batch Size: 2.50 gal
Brewer: Swenocha

Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
1.00 lb Wheat Dry Extract (8.0 SRM) Dry Extract 45.25 %
1.21 lb Whispering Wheat (6.0 SRM) Extract 54.75 %
0.10 oz Goldings, East Kent [4.70 %] (30 min) Hops 1.6 IBU
1 Pkgs Munich (Lallemand #- ) Yeast-Wheat

Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.035 SG
Measured Original Gravity: 1.044 SG
Adj Est Final Gravity: 1.012 SG
Measured Final Gravity: 1.011 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.17 %
Actual Alcohol by Vol: 4.30 %
Bitterness: 9.7 IBU
Calories: 194 cal/pint
Est Color: 5.2 SRM

#51: Two Dogs Mexican Brown (take 2)

Back to my AG confort zone...

I did the Yazoo Dos Perros recipe a while back... It tasted all right, but it was my first AG and I had some temp control issues.

This time I had better control of the temps, but I had to figure out a good way to do 5 gallons on the stovetop (since I still haven't gotten the turkey fryer and bigger pot as I intended when I bought this grain). Thus, I split the recipe between my bigger pot and my water cooler for the mash (staggering the times so that I wouldn't have them finish at the same time), and continued to run them parallel in my big and small brew pots the rest of the way out. Worked pretty well, but I don't think I'll run a 5 gallon AG again until I upgrade my equipment.

Regardless of process challenges, I hit my OG perfectly. RDWHAHB...


Here's take #2:

Two Dogs - All Grain - 5 gallon

Type: All Grain
Date: 6/12/2011
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Brewer: Swenocha
Boil Size: 6.00 gal
Boil Time: 60 min


Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
4.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM) Grain 58.99 %
2.25 lb Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 33.17 %
0.33 lb Corn, Flaked (1.3 SRM) Grain 4.82 %
0.20 lb Carafa II (412.0 SRM) Grain 3.02 %
0.85 oz Pearle [5.40 %] (60 min) Hops 18.6 IBU
0.40 oz Saaz [4.90 %] (5 min) Hops 1.6 IBU
S-04 yeast


Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.037 SG
Measured Original Gravity: 1.037 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.010 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 3.52 %
Bitterness: 20.1 IBU
Calories: 162 cal/pint
Est Color: 13.0 SRM

#50: Irish Red

Ahhh, number 50. Haven't brewed a lot lately, so just getting back in the swing of things this week.

Second of the Mr. Beer extract series. This one is one of the three (or so) with add-ons. Going for a nice Irish Red, and EKG and Mt. Hood sound like a good boil addition to me.


Irish Red Ale

Type: Extract
Date: 6/6/2011
Batch Size: 2.40 gal
Brewer: Swenocha
Boil Size: 2.75 gal Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 60 min
Equipment: Brew Pot (4 Gallon)


Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
1.00 lb Amber Dry Extract (12.5 SRM) Dry Extract 33.11 %
1.21 lb Bewitched Red Ale (13.2 SRM) Extract 40.07 %
0.20 oz Mt. Hood [6.00 %] (60 min) Hops 9.0 IBU
0.20 oz Goldings, East Kent [4.70 %] (60 min) Hops 7.0 IBU
0.81 lb Booster (0.0 SRM) Sugar 26.82 %
1.00 pkg Nottingham yeast

Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.052 SG
Actual Original Gravity: 1.050 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.013 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.82 %
Bitterness: 25.0 IBU
Est Color: 8.1 SRM

#49: Czech "Pilsner" Ale

After buying the international and American sampler boxes on a whim when I saw them on a super cheap clearance, I decided to do two or three of them straight up (well... either straight up or using a recipe from the Mr. Beer recipe book), while modifying the other three or four. I hadn't done a Mr. B straight-up standard extract brew since the first month I started brewing (I quickly moved to non-HME brewing out of preference).

First up in my venture into basic Mr. Beer brewing: the Czech "Pilsner" recipe (pilsner in quotes, as a true pilsner is a lager and this is an ale, but I digress). I did the HCCD once before early in my brew experience with booster and 1 lb of DME, as well as some Argentine Cascade for dryhop, and had a banana flavor that never conditioned out. I'm hoping that that isn't the case with this one. I will monitor my temps closely, as I believe that to be my problem from the last go.

I did do a slight modification, as I used .4oz Saaz and a .1oz smidge of Glacier for the dryhop instead of the Sterling listed in the recipe. Saaz and Sterling are good subs for each other in general, and as Saaz is the traditional aroma hop for a Czech Pilsner, all is good there. The smidge of Glacier was added simply to clear some excess inventory and to round things out at .5oz. I also used three Fromundas instead of one.

Super quick brew day. A boil with the Booster, and then add the HME and into the sanitized fermenter. I had kinda forgotten how easy these are, but I also remember this simplicity being why I quickly moved out of "soup mix" brewing (no offense to anyone who normally HME brews... I have no problem with it, and I've tasted some fine brews made from HME. I simply prefer the control I have over AG brewing).

The only issue I had was a loss of wort as I moved to the fermenter. Generally I use a bigger brewing pot, and then use my auto-siphon to transfer. This time, I went back to using the smaller pot that I used when I started, and did the pour into the fermenter. Unfortunately I poured a bit down the side beginning my pour. I suppose I should stick with the auto-siphon. Hydrometer reading tells the tale... 1.034. A bit lower than anticipated, but no worries...

Czech "Pilsner"
---------------
Brewer: Swenocha
Style: German Pilsner (Pils)
Batch: 2.12 galExtract

Characteristics
---------------
Estimated Gravity: 1.038 OG
Measured Gravity: 1.034
Recipe Bitterness: 20 IBU
Recipe Color: 3° SRM
Estimated FG: 1.008
Est Alcohol by Volume: 3.4%

Ingredients
-----------
MrB. High Country Canadian Draft1.21 lb, Extract, Extract
MrB. Booster 0.81 lb, Sugar, Other

MrB. High Country Canadian Draft1.00 oz, Pellet, 5 minutes
Saaz (Czech) 0.40 oz, Pellet, 0 minutes
Glacier 0.10 oz, Pellet, 0 minutes

Mr. Beer Dry Ale Yeast 3.00 unit, Yeast

#48: Burton upon Trent Original Pale Ale

Brew day today in the midst of Easter dinner preparation...  Surprisingly things went really smoothly.

Went for a clone of the "original pale ale"...  Followed the BYO Bass recipe.  Looked and smelled great.  I left the hydrometer at home by accident, so I don't have an OG....  RDWHAHB...

Here's the recipe...

Bass Pale Ale

American Pale Ale

Type: All Grain	Date: 4/24/2011
Batch Size: 2.40 gal	Brewer: Swenocha
Boil Size: 3.25 gal	Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 60 min	Equipment: Brew Pot (4 Gallon)
Ingredients
Amount Item Type % or IBU 3.25 lb Malteurop 2-Row (2.0 SRM) Grain 69.89 % 0.90 lb Corn, Flaked (1.3 SRM) Grain 19.35 % 0.31 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 6.67 % 0.19 lb Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) Grain 4.09 % 0.40 oz Northern Brewer [8.50 %] (60 min) Hops 27.1 IBU 0.10 oz Northern Brewer [8.50 %] (15 min) Hops 3.5 IBU 1 Pkgs Nottingham (Danstar #-) Yeast-Ale
Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.052 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.012 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.10 %
Bitterness: 30.6 IBU
Est Color: 17.0 SRM

#47: English Session Pale

This recipe is based on the Clone Brews recipe for SW2 from the Orange Brewery in London, though the clone calls for London Ale yeast and I only have Notty on hand.  This is supposed to be an English session pale.  It sounded really good to me, and I liked its simplicity.

SW2

Standard/Ordinary Bitter

Type: All Grain	Date: 4/18/2011
Batch Size: 2.40 gal	Brewer: Swenocha
Boil Size: 3.25 gal	Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 60 min	Equipment: Brew Pot (4 Gallon)
Ingredients
Amount Item Type % or IBU 3.75 lb Malteurop 2-Row (2.0 SRM) Grain 82.24 % 0.81 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 17.76 % 0.75 oz Goldings, East Kent [4.70 %] (60 min) Hops 28.3 IBU 0.25 oz Goldings, East Kent [4.70 %] (15 min) Hops 4.7 IBU 0.25 oz Goldings, East Kent [4.70 %] (1 min) Hops 0.4 IBU 1 Pkgs Nottingham (Danstar #-) Yeast-Ale
Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.051 SG	Measured Original Gravity: 1.046 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.012 SG	Measured Final Gravity: 1.014 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.01 %	Actual Alcohol by Vol: 4.17 %
Bitterness: 33.4 IBU	Calories: 205 cal/pint
Est Color: 13.0 SRM

#46: Prohibition Ale

A fellow poster on a homebrewing website graciously sent me a can of Premier Malt Extract. I couldn't justify not running it prohibition style, though adding 2lbs of sugar was quite a juxtaposition from my normal no adjunct stance. As mentioned before, my great grandfather followed the recipe provided by Pabst/Premier, so I'm totally curious to what the brew they did tasted like. I did change the process just a touch... they talked of dumping the sugar straight into the fermenter and then adding water and wort. I instead added the sugar to the boil, and then added the malt extract at flameout (just like a Mr. B brew).

The recipe stats below are a total guess, outside of the Brewsmith stats for table sugar and the actual OG. After getting the OG, I worked backwards to estimate the stats for the extract.  I have no idea on the IBU or the color...

Prohibition Ale

American Pale Ale

Type: Extract	Date: 4/17/2011
Batch Size: 5.00 gal	Brewer: Swenocha
Ingredients
Amount Item Type % or IBU 2.20 lb Priemer Malt Extract (3.0 SRM) Extract 52.38 % 2.00 lb Sugar, Table (Sucrose) (1.0 SRM) Sugar 47.62 %
Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.034 SG	Measured Original Gravity: 1.034 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.009 SG	Measured Final Gravity: 1.002 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 3.21 %	Actual Alcohol by Vol: 4.16 %
Bitterness: 20.7 IBU	Calories: 144 cal/pint
Est Color: 2.2 SRM

At two weeks, I took a potential FG reading (2 weeks in the fermenter)...

1.002~!

Holy crap! I pulled and reseated the hydrometer 3-4 times just to be sure. The yeast kicked the snot outta that wort... Adjusted the readings above to reality...

I guess it's time to bottle...





Fast forward another week...


I made three sampler bottles that I intend to taste the next three weeks on this one.  The first is at 6 days in the bottle...

Has OK carb, but still needs some more carb time.  Pour is straw colored and pretty clear.  Very slightly ciderish on the nose and the taste, but not nearly as much so as I anticipated.  Lightly bittered, and lightly hopped.  Pretty smooth.  Really close to being pipeline ready, though I still plan to give it three to four weeks before throwing any volume of these into the fridge.  I anticipate this will be a good lawnmower/BMC friend brew based on this early tester.