Emerald: Recipe

RETRO: Post written on November 13, 2014, but set to publish on the date of the original brew session to maintain order within the blog.

This was originally designed as a Munich Helles with New Zealand hops, and it ended up going on tap that way.  At the time, I had 5-6 beers on tap, and I ended up with about half a keg that had lost it's hop presence and was too tame for my palate.  Based on this, I decided to sour the remaining portion and add kiwi, which seemed an appropriate fruit based on the New Zealand-based ingredients that I had already used.

The recipe for the full batch is as follows:

Batch Number: 36
Brew Date: April 21, 2012
Keg Date: April 1, 2012
Batch Size: 5 Gallon
OG: 1.051 (estimate)
FG: 1.002 (estimate)
Fermentation Temperature: 65-70*F (room temperature throughout)
IBU: 28.6
ABV: 6.7%
SRM: 4.0 (not accounting for fruit)

Mash: Single infusion at 148*F for 60 minutes

Boil: 90 minute

Fermentables

9lb 0oz Pilsner Malt
0lb 8oz Cara-Pils
0lb 8oz Munich

Salts & Water

At this point I wasn't doing anything besides filtering the water and adding 5.2 buffer, so that's probably it.

Hops

1.0oz Nelson Sauvin (pellet, 12.0 AAU) at 20 minutes

1.0oz Nelson Sauvin (pellet, 12.0 AAU) at flameout

Other

Whirlfloc

Yeast Nutrient
Kiwi

Yeast

White Labs German Bock Lager (2 vials) (WLP833)
Brett and bacteria, as identified below

Notes

04.21.2012 - Brewday began at 7:45 AM. Milled the grain and got the hot liquor going. Used 14 quarts of 168 F water, aiming for 153 F. The initial shot was too high, so I added a bit of filtered water out of the hose to bring it down to 153 F. Set the time to 60 minutes and let the mash sit. Sparged with 6 gallons of 180 F water. The final collection was 7.8 gallons of 1.034 runnings.

Did a starter with each of the two vials. Let ferment for 5 days.

05.01.2012 - Gravity down to 1.018. Put chest freezer temperature up to 60 F for a diacetyl rest.

05.04.2012 - Gravity down to 1.012.

05.07.2012 - Transferred to keg to begin lagering.

08.28.2012 - Not sure why I don't have notes on this until now, but didn't really enjoy the character of this beer after the hops faded, so decided to make a sour lager. While this was originally known as "German Nelson," at some point around the Fourth of July, I added 2lb of kiwi per gallon along with a few lambic oak cubes and some lambic dregs. On 08.28, I transferred to a keg. The beer is now known as "Emerald."

Ruby (Batch 01): Recipe

RETRO: Post written on November 13, 2014, but set to publish on the date of the original brew session to maintain order within the blog.

This was the first batch of Flanders Red/Brown that I've done.  Once it was toward the end of fermentation, it spent some time in a 3-gallon whiskey barrel.  That allowed it to pick up acidity faster, and even though it was the second use of the barrel, the beer picked up some nice whiskey notes.

The recipe for the full batch is as follows:

Batch Number: 35
Brew Date: April 6, 2012
Keg Date: October 14, 2012
Batch Size: 5 Gallon
OG: 1.060 (estimate); 1.056 (measured)
FG: 1.004 (estimate)
Fermentation Temperature: 65-70*F (room temperature throughout)
IBU: 16.1
ABV: 6.8%
SRM: 15.0

Mash: Single infusion at 155*F for 60 minutes

Boil: 60 minute

Fermentables

9lb 0oz Pilsner Malt
1lb 0oz Munich Malt
0lb 8oz Aromatic Malt
0lb 8oz CaraMunich Malt
0lb 8oz Special B
0lb 8oz Wheat, Flaked

Salts & Water

At this point I wasn't doing anything besides filtering the water and adding 5.2 buffer, so that's probably it.

Hops

1.0oz East Kent Goldings (pellet, 4.5 AAU) at 60 minutes

Other

Whirlfloc

Yeast Nutrient

Yeast

Wyeast Roeselare (WY3763)

Notes

Roeselare package was manufactured January 3, 2012. It popped when I hit the smackpack, so I drained the contents into a sanitized measuring cup with foil on top.

Mashed at 155 F for 60 minutes. Did a single-step batch sparge without stirring and collected 7.5 gallons of 1.048 wort for 83% efficiency.

OG is 1.056. Tried siphoning to the carboy after whirlpooling, but ended up with too little beer. Tried to pour through a thin strainer, but still ended up with quite a bit of trub in the fermenter. Will need to transfer to second. Should do so along with red-wine oak cubes from Saison Lambicus.

Gave pure oxygen for 30 seconds and pitched Roeselare blend.

07.04.2012: I transferred 3 gallons of this to the whiskey barrel that previously held Batch 003 -- Kukulcan Imperial Stout. The two remaining gallons were transferred to two separate one-gallon jugs.

07.18.2012: I added approximately 5-6 grams of red-wine-soaked lambic oak cubes to one of the single-gallon portions. This was 4 cubes. I plan to eventually blend the base portion with wine and whiskey portions. I also have one gallon of Monnik Six soured with currants to add to the blend.

LATER: The single-gallon portions had airlock issues and ended up being too acetic, so were dumped.