Brewer's Log - 8.29.2010: Dry Hopping the C'z IPA

WHAT I DID

- Dry hopped a 4-gallon batch of "C'z IPA" that had been in primary since 8/7/2010 and was transferred to a Better Bottle carboy for secondary fermentation on 8/23/2010.

WHAT I LEARNED

- After having underwhelming results from dry hopping a beer in the past, I did some homework this time. I read posts I found via a Google search, I listened to the Dec. 8, 2009 episode of the "Brew Strong" podcast about dry hopping techniques and I read an article in Brew Your Own magazine's September 2010 issue in which brewer Mitch Steele of Stone Brewing Co. offered tips for "amplifying your hops." While there are multiple valid methods for dry hopping a beer, I settled on one that varies from the IPA recipe I was given. Instead of 10 days of exposure to 1 oz. of Bravo hops (as the recipe stated), I'm splitting the additions to be roughly .5 oz. of Bravo hops for five days, then siphoning the beer off of that initial 5 oz. and into a clean, empty Better Bottle, and adding the remaining .5 oz. of Bravo to this new vessel and letting it sit for five more days. The goal here is to avoid any grassy or vegetal off-flavors that could possibly be contributed by prolonged exposure to hop material.

PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED

- I find myself wishing I had a couple smaller vessels and another 1 oz. of Bravo hops so I could split this batch and experiment a little: compare the taste and aroma of 1 oz. of hops in the vessel for 10 days with the taste and aroma from two five-day sessions with .5 oz. of hops. Undoubtedly they will taste at least slightly different. The question is which would be better. I plan to acquire some 3-gallon Better Bottles to allow for such experimentation (with hops, yeasts, other additives) in the future.

PERSONAL BESTS ACHIEVED

- Nothing, aside from improved quality/production value for the associated video.

My Coincidental New Belgium Kick to Culminate With Nashville's Clips of Faith Beer & Film Event

I'm late for everything. I'm serious. Everything. I was even a little late to my wedding. (Don't worry, I didn't miss anything important.)

So it was pretty much par for the course on June 29, 2010, when I rolled up to a bar called Brewhouse 100 about a mile from my house only to learn that I was nearly an hour late for the New Belgium Brewing Company beer tasting I came for. Thanks to some help from New Belgium's Tennessee "Beer Ranger," John Gartner, I was able to double-time it (mostly responsibly) through a couple rounds to catch up with the group, which was tasting a total of five beers.

Brewer's Log - 8.23.2010: Beer Transfer, Belgian Wit & C'z IPA

WHAT I DID

- Transferred a 5-gallon batch of a Belgian witbier (Unibroue Blanche de Chambly clone) that had been in primary since 6/28/2010 (eek!) to a keg for carbonation.
- Transferred a 4-gallon batch of "C'z IPA" that had been in primary since 8/7/2010 to a Better Bottle carboy for secondary fermentation and dry-hopping with 1 oz. Bravo hops.

WHAT I LEARNED

- Make time to keep up with beer fermentation schedules. Pay closer attention to the calendar and the signs of fermentation and transfer the beer as soon as it is ready.
- Having said the above, I noted no off flavors indicative of autolysis (which is, in essence, decaying yeast cells altering the flavor of your beer). Certainly these flavors may surface as the beer ages but for now I would say leaving a beer in primary (especially a light beer such as this witbier) for two months will not ruin it.

PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED

- I need more room for brewing and cleaning, but that's a given.

PERSONAL BESTS ACHIEVED

- Created the first Fledgling Brewer video (see above). Plus a great drinking game if you drink every time I say "um" in the video.

DETAILS

Here are some more technical details about these two beers in their current states.

The Belgian witbier (p. 135 of Clone Brews, 1st edition) is a 5-gallon all-grain batch. It was brewed solo on 6/28/2010 and had an estimated original gravity of 1.050. (The initial reading was 1.055 but I used my BeerSmith brewing software to calculate that I could at .5 gallon of boiled water to dilute the gravity to 1.050--the expected original gravity indicated in the recipe.) It was fermented using a 1-liter starter of Belgian Witbier yeast (Wyeast Labs #3944) and remained in the primary fermenter for a total of 56 days--roughly 12 days in my 65-degree basement and the remainder at around 75 degrees in an upstairs closet. The gravity reading on 7/21 was 1.017. When transferred to the keg, the beer had a final gravity reading of 1.012.

The IPA (recipe given to me by Ozzy Nelson of Mayday Brewery) is a 4-gallon all-grain batch that was brewed with friend Eric K. on 8/7/10. It had an original gravity of 1.073 (well short of the 1.080 expected on the recipe). It was fermented using Danstar Nottingham dry yeast and remained in the primary fermenter for 16 days before being transferred to secondary fermentation for dry-hopping with 1 oz. Bravo hops (11.3 alpha acid percentage). When transferred to secondary, the gravity reading was 1.024. The Bravo hops will be added on 8/24/10 and will remain in the fermenter for 10 days.

Music City Brewer's Festival 2010: A Quick Look Back

2010 Music City Brewer's Festival, afternoon session

Every time I go to a beer event or festival, I have the best of intentions. I plan to keep notes and have a record of what beers I liked and what beers I didn't. But of course it never happens like that. This held true for the 2010 Music City Brewer's Festival, which took place July 31 in downtown Nashville.

And since dozens of beer samples are involved, I usually start growing forgetful about halfway to three-quarters through the event. The one time I did keep notes, my writing grew progressively less legible during the session and I lost my notes on the way home. (I found them several days later; that's how I'm able to verify the legibility part.)

So with no notes from this year's session, I'm left with general recollections. Here they are...

Brewer's Log - 8.7.2010: Brew Day, C'z IPA

My friend Eric during some downtime. I supplied the beer;
he supplied lunch. He was a big help throughout the day.

WHAT I DID

- I brewed a 5-gallon, all-grain batch of C'z IPA with friend Eric K.

WHAT I LEARNED

- For the summer months, investigate using a pre-chiller (either sending the tap water first through another chiller immersed in an ice bucket before hitting the main chiller in the wort, or at least coiling the garden hose in some ice water) to help get the wort temp lower.
- After trying this batch with no hop bag (in other words, simply tossing the loose whole hops and pellets into the boil) and later having difficulty with the wort transfer as a result, I may return to hop bags in my next batch.
- Having a friend around to assist you really does make the brew day go faster.

PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED

- Getting a consistent temp reading of my mash before I close it up still seems to be a challenge. Despite a lot of stirring to mix the mash and break up dough balls, the temperature readings vary considerably depending on where I place the thermometer within the mash.

PERSONAL BESTS ACHIEVED

- This is the first IPA I've brewed.
- With seven ingredients, this is the most varied grain bill I've used to date.
- I (we) finished this all-grain batch in a record time of just over 6 hours.

DETAILS

Finding time to brew in 2010 has been a struggle for me. With a busy 3-year-old son, freelance copyediting work and a long list of home projects, I almost feel guilty dedicating six or seven hours of a day toward an all-grain batch. In fact, I've had ingredients for several beers on hand for a few months now—so long that two vials of White Labs yeast I purchased have expired!

Well, at last, the stars finally aligned on Saturday, August 7, when my friend Eric came over to brew an IPA with me. My very first IPA brew, in fact.

Breaking the All-Grain Barrier: Blichmann BoilerMaker Follow-Up

My trusty 15-gallon
Blichmann BoilerMarker

It's been a while since Part 1 of my series on all-grain equipment. I'll have Part 2 up soon but in the meantime, the bonus is that I've brewed a few more batches and am more familiar with my setup. The 15-gallon BoilerMaker brew kettle and the Hurricane burner continue to be a great combination. There are, however, a few minor negatives with the kettle that I will mention for the sake of others shopping for a large boil vessel.

The boil filter screen can be
easily removed as needed.

First, I've had mixed results with the standard boil filter screen that comes with the BoilerMaker. Each time I've used it, there seems to be a lot of good wort left in the bottom of the kettle after draining the contents through the ball valve. (I should note that I do create a whirlpool after chilling and let the full kettle sit for 15 minutes so the majority of the hop and trub particles collect in the center, away from dip tube.). Not sure if the lack of pickup is the fault of the screen (which doesn't seem to clog--it's only meant for whole hops, by the way) or the dip tube. On my last batch I forgot to put the dip tube in before the boil and used an auto siphon to remove the wort instead. There was noticeably less "lost" wort remaining at the end of the transfer.

These two pesky tools love to hide
when it's time to clean the sight gauge.

While the kettle's glass sight gauge is a fantastic tool to have to accurately determine the volume of water or wort inside the kettle, it is a small pain to clean. It comes with a specialized brush and an Allen wrench. If you are occasionally unorganized like me, tracking down these two smallish (read: easy to lose) items can put a real dent in your brew day preparations. The brush, once you find it, does make the job much easier. Just be careful not to displace/lose the small O-ring at the top of the sight gauge assembly when cleaning, and don't crank down too hard on the screw when you are sealing the tube back up. Instructions say to tighten only until you feel the slightest bit of resistance. While the glass is well-protected by metal on three sides, I do fear a worst-case scenario of accidentally breaking the glass and bringing an abrupt end to the brew day. Still, the benefits outweigh the negatives here.

Notice how the thermometer
probe enters the kettle near
the midpoint--too high for
five-gallon batches.

Finally (and least important to me since I have a good, digital thermometer--namely a Thermoworks Mini Handheld Thermocouple with a PTFE/FEP tip probe) is the fact that the nice Blichmann Brewmometer that comes installed is indeed located too high on the kettle to be effective for 5-gallon batches. I've been collecting extra wort--about 7.5 gallons or more--since learning how much volume was lost to the boil filter screen/dip tube during my first all-grain batch. With that much wort, the built-in thermometer's probe is covered. As liquid evaporates during the boil, though, the surface level drops below the probe and readings are, obviously, no longer accurate.

Let me emphasize that these issues are minor and that I would definitely buy this brew kettle again. The benefits (sturdy construction, smart design, easy to clean, seems to heat up quickly, versatile, aesthetically pleasing) outweigh the negatives by a wide margin. I do, however, remember agonizing over my decision, searching the Web for all the information I could find. Hopefully this will give you a few more details if you are facing the same decision, so you can make a more informed choice.

The well-constructed sight gauge is a
handy feature to have when collecting
wort during an all-grain batch.