Yet another belated update

Why do i bother stating that my blog is behind the actual brewing activities? It's pretty much a given at this point.

Session Ale

The Session Ale remained at 1.011 adjusted gravity for its final reading, which means I can drop the pretense and just call it an IPA at 5.3%ABV. It's now conditioning in the keg until i hook it up to the Angram for some yummy cask action. When I had racked it to secondary and did the dry hop, i'd been a bit afraid that i had missed my hoppiness target. It was the right bitterness, but the flavor was a bit subdued. However, the Simcoe plugs did their job, not only imparting that wonderfully floral aroma, but also accenting the flavor. Can't wait for a pint of that.

Winter Spiced Ale

I also racked the Winter Spiced Ale to secondary. OG was 1.062 @80F or 1.065 adjusted. At secondary, i got a specific gravity of 1.016 @66F or 1.017 adjusted. That gives me 6.5% ABV. I didn't rack any of the wort, so i don't anticipate much of a change there by the time it gets kegged. As you can tell from the gravity, the sugars were pretty much converted. The spices are fairly subtle now (subtler than i had hoped, to be honest) and the Roast Barley really imparted a strong chocolate flavor. It's almost more a chocolate Porter than anything. The Spiced Ale will get kegged this coming Sunday.

Spiced Winter Ale

This past Saturday was the Carlsbad Pizza Port Strong Ale Festival, which as usual was a lot of fun. One Ale i really enjoyed was the Left Hand Snowbound, a spiced strong ale that just put you in the holiday spirits. So on Sunday, I gathered ingredients and decided to improvise my own spiced winter ale. Here's what I came up with:

Steep, 30min @160F

• 0.5# Biscuit
  
• 1# Honey Malt
  
• 1# Roast Barley
  

Boil @ 60 min

• 6# Light Malt Extract
  
• 1 oz. East Kent Goldings pellets
  

Boil @ 15 min

• 8 oz. Dark Brown Sugar
  
• 16 oz. Honey
  
• 1 oz. East Kent Goldings pellets
  
• 1 oz. Cascade pellets
  
• 1 tbsp. Irish Moss
  

Boil @ 0 min

• 1 oz. Cascade pellets

Pitched at 80F with White Labs California Ale yeast.

Session Ale, once again

Time to play post catch-up and that means starting with the more IPA than Session 4th edition of my session ale. This time it came out to about 5.3% ABV, so really not quite session material. But it'll rock on the Angram. Since I change my recipe every single time, let's get to that first:

Steep, 30min @160F

• 1# Carapils
  
• 1# 10L Crystal
  

Boil @ 60min

• 2 oz. Magnum pellets
  

Boil @ 15 min

• 6# Light Malt Syrup
  
• 1 oz. East Kent Goldings
  

Boil @ 0 min

• 1 oz. East Kent Goldings
  

Pitched with White Labs English Ale Yeast at 80F. Primary lasted for a week, at which time I racked it into secondary with 2 oz. of Simcoe plugs. It's still in secondary now (second week) and I'll let it sit at least the full second week before racking to the keg.

Initial gravity was 1.048 @ 80F or 1.051 adjusted and gravity at secondary fermentation was 1.010 @ 72F or 1.011, which gives it a current ABV of 5.3%.

Catching up and the MindTouch RESTful IPA

As usual, my entries are woefully behind my actual brewing. Quick recap (with some questionable chance of detailed follow up) of the last 6 months:

• Second batch of Session Ale recipe using British Ale yeast came out the way i intended right at about 4.5%. This was bottled as the Bunkspeed Hyperdrive 2.0 Release Ale
  
• Third batch of Session Ale repeated the second batch's success but was cask conditioned and put on the Angram (and is already gone)
  
• Another attempt at a Paulaner clone ended up off the mark. A fine Hefeweizen but not quite a Paulaner
• Second annual Cranberry WitBier is now on tap and even tastier than last year.

And my most recent brewing excursion is the MindTouch RESTful IPA. This is a variation on my take on the SDPA and will be bottled. I'll probably start another batch of it next weekend to put on the Angram. Either that or another Session Ale, since it is more quaffable.

Session Ale status

Session Ale went to secondary after some remarkably active fermentation. It was still fermenting when i racked it, but considerably slower. When i first kicked off almost two weeks ago, it bubbled to the top of the carboy, clogged the filter and blew out the airlock. It actually ejected the airlock with such force that it hit the ceiling of the shower and smashed it.

All this fermenting would indicate that all the sugars are converted and the specific gravity supports this. Original Gravity was 1.056@ 80F (1.059 adjusted) and current gravity is 1.010@ 68F (1.011 adjusted). Problem is that my Session Ale is now more alcoholic than my SDPA with 6.5%. Hrm... I may end up doing the old heat treatment to bring that down. Also it's really dry right now. I hope it will be tasty once it goes through secondary and carbonation and some of the current bitterness mellows out.

When I racked it, I also added 1 oz. of Simcoe plugs for dry hopping.

SDPA kegged

Just kegged my SDPA and put another ounce of Simcoe in there for further dryhopping. The specific gravity was 1.016 (1.017 adjusted) giving an approximate alcohol content of 6.4%. I put in a little bit of fermentation sugar, since this is going on the Angram and needs to be just lightly keg conditioned.

Time for a Session Ale

The other night at a company party, I ended up with a Stone Levitation instead of Stone IPA I had aimed for. I'd had Levitation once before and remember thinking it was remarkably tasty for such an easy drinking beer. That impression was redoubled at that party. Considering that almost all my brewing efforts lately have been around big, high gravity ales, I thought I really could do with a session ale as quaffable as Levitation. Since there were no clone recipes to be found, I went off an ingredients list someone posted: 2-row, 75L Crystal, 150L Crystal, Flaked Barley, Magnum, Centennial, Chinook. Since that's all grain and I was planning on using extract, I scaled back the Crystal, to get the right color. For that matter, Home Brew Mart doesn't even stock 150L. I also replaced Centennial with East Kent Goldings in an attempt to go through my hop reserves, in the present hop climate.

This is what I ended up brewing yesterday. Curious what I will get.

Steep (30min @ 160F)

• 1.0# Flaked Barley
  
• 1.0# 20L Crystal
  
• 0.5# 120L Crystal
  

Boil @ 60 minutes

• 1 oz. Magnum Pellets
  
• 1 oz. East Kent Goldings Pellets
  

Boil @ 15 minutes

• 6# light malt extract syrup
  
• 0.5 oz. East Kent Goldings Pellets
  
• 1 tblsp. Irish Moss
  

Boil @ 0 minutes

• 2 oz. Chinook Pellets
  

Yeast

• White Labs California Ale Yeast
  

Initial Gravity

• 1.056 @ 80F (1.059 adjusted)
  

Dry Hop

• 1 oz. Simcoe Plugs
  

Yeah, I can't not dry hop. I'm just a hop-head, sorry.

OAB @ 12% and new SDPA

I just kegged the Oaked Abstract Bastage and it's gravity had further decreased to 1.034 or 1.035 adjusted which gives it a whopping 12% alcohol by volume. Still has that guava juice taste to. Still very sweet. I'm letting it age some more before tasting it, partially because i don't have room in kegerator. In two weeks it'll probably go in the kegerator and be tapped for a tasting, but i still expect to let it age at least another month or two before drinking it.

In the meantime, I've started a new SDPA. Well, I really started it two weeks ago and today transfered it to secondary for dryhopping. It's got a beautifully light color and a yummy aroma. It's gonna be a bit of a weird one, because i completely screwed up my hop additions. My plan was to use some spare hops for the bittering, since hop prices have shot up and I want to leave the strong aroma hops for flavoring and aroma. Except i kept grabbing the wrong packets. So here's the recipe as it turned out:

Steep (30min @ 160F)

• 0.5# Victory
  
• 1.0# Cara Pils
  
• 0.5# 10L Crystal
  

Boil @ 60 minutes

• 1 oz. Amarillo Pellets
  
• 1 oz. Magnum Pellets
  
• 1 oz. Cascade Pellets
  

Boil @ 15 minutes

• 7# Light DME
  
• 1 oz. Amarillo Pellets
  
• 1 oz. Cascade Pellets
  

Boil @ 0 minutes

• 2 oz. Perle Pellets
  

Yeast

• White Labs California Ale Yeast
  

Dry Hop after two weeks

• 2 oz. Simcoe Plugs
  

My initial gravity was 1.060 @ 87F or 1.064 adjusted. Today's reading was 1.018 @ 66F or 1.019 adjusted which gives me 6.3% alcohol by volume. That's just about perfect, although I assume it's gonna pick up another 0.3-0.4% by the time i keg it.

The SDPA will be keg-conditioned and replace the guiness on the Angram.