Mosaic Pale Ale Split: Conan Vs. Drie

I had another quick brew session (~3 hrs for all - grain) as time is quite limited with house projects and the baby. I wanted to make sure I had some hoppy beer on tap for my birthday BBQ. I also have been meaning to brew another hoppy beer with Brett Drie, since I loved my first Extra Special Bretter (ESBrett). Speaking of yeast, I recently was sent some Conan (Alchemist's Heady Topper) yeast from Derek at Bear Flavored Ales and some Brett Custerianus from Ryan at Yeast of Burden. It only made sense to do a large batch and split it to test the yeast.











For the hops, I happened to purchase some Mosaic hops earlier in the year when we were planning our 2nd batch for the barrel (still not brewed). I've read a good amount about this hop and many brewers are using it as a single hop. I thought I'd give it a go since I don't know anything about hop blending anyways.














As for the recipe, I wanted something fairly simple since I want the yeast flavor differences to be obvious and to taste the hops. The recipe is about as basic as possible. I did make one tweak in which I added some rye malt to help build some body that the Brett Only batches would need.

Mosaic Pale Ale

IBU: ~30       SRM: ~7      Batch Size: 10 gal  (5 gal - Drie/Conan, 1 gal Custers) 

O.G.: 1.051              FG: 1.017 (Conan),1.009 (Drie), 1.006 (Custersianus)

Fermentables 

Name                            Amount          Color

American 2-row            14.000 lb         2 L

Munich Malt                  2.500 lb        10 L

Crystal 40L                     1.000 lb         40 L

Rye Malt                         1.000 lb          5 L

Hops 

Name         Alpha      Amount      Use      Time         IBU

Warrior     15.5%        1.25 oz       Boil     30 min      24.8

Mosaic      12.5%        1.00 oz       Boil     10 min       6.2
Mosaic      12.5%        1.00 oz       WP       0 min         0

Dryhop:
Conan - 1 oz  Mosaic for 7 days at 70F, 1 oz Mosaic in keg
Drie - 1 oz  Nelson for 7 days at 70F, 1 oz Mosaic in keg
Custersianus - .25 oz Citra at 70F

Yeast

Conan
Drie - 100 ml slurry
Custersianus - 30 ml slurry

Brewing Process 

Mash at 154 grain for 30 min

Boil 30 min (quick batch and no need for long boil)

Fermentation

Conan was fermented in glass carboys at 63 degrees for 10 days then raised to 68.

Drie was fermented in glass carboys at ~70 degrees
Custersianus was fermented in glass jug at ~70 degrees

Tasting Notes at Kegging:
Conan - Fantastic - huge fruity esters from both hops and yeast, nice firm bitterness and tastes pretty dry with the high F.G. (1.017)
Drie - Aroma is great and full of fruit, taste is a bit strange with some slight tartness that doesn't work with the bitterness, then a phenol astringency in the finish - Not good and I'm pretty sure my pitch of Brett Drie is now going to be retired.
Custersianus - Very fruit forward with that ripe funky nice to let you know its wild. Nicely dry and a bit thin, no astringency or tartness

Official Tasting Notes coming soon (hint: Conan version is almost gone- yum)

2011 Hop Gardens

It's growing...
I have added another garden this year. Our good friend's Dan and Meagan have agreed to grow some hops for me this year. He even started a webpage called Hoppy House which will have a lot more pictures and updates on growing hops at home. Dan is a big fan of American hoppy beers and coincidentally a fellow QUAFF member and beer blogger at Chillidamos, Sean was just digging up a few of his "C" hops. Sean has a pretty serious hop farm with about 30 plants and this year he was adding a few new kinds. He was kind enough to give me rhizomes and crowns (the original rhizome that propagates more rhizomes) of Magnum (Hallertauer), Centennial and Chinook. As evident on Sean's website the Chinook and Centennial really like Southern California and produce well.






This year I will have the following hops growing (click the names to see Freshops website which has great details on every hop):
Cascade - Dad's
Centennial - Dan & Meagan's
Chinook - Dan & Meagan's
Goldings - Mom's
Magnum (Hallertauer) - Dan & Meagan's
Halfway through the season I should be getting a few more rare and vintage hop varieties.












Dad's House:
Third Year Cascade plant. This meant that we had to chop a few rhizomes. We gently dug all around the plant, then each rhizome and chopped them off at the crown. Since this is growing in a raised bed we made a border to make sure the hops don't take over the whole garden. I believe we cut off 5 healthy rhizomes.

Cascade 05.03.11

06.28.11 - The big crown just is not producing. I had high hopes for this hop. It must be putting energy into more rhizomes. It is only about 6" tall.



Mom's House:
It looks like only 1 of the 2 Goldings planted last year is going to make it. I really have not had success with English varieties, but I want to keep trying since I use a lot in my homebrewing.
Goldings 04.28.11

06.28.11 - Not much to report , never took off still just a couple inches high. I think I will transplant to a shady spot.

07.25.11 - I went to transplant this hop and I found out why I haven't had much success at my mom's house. The neighbor's giant succulent prefers the soil and watering that I give my hops. The rhizome had one tap root that was an 1/8" thick but went down over 3 ft before I broke it off. It was trying so hard to make it. So next year I need to dig the whole area up and make a new retaining wall.


Dan and Meagan's House:
All three hop varieties (Chinook, Magnum, Centennial) were transplanted from a hop crown. So they are very healthy. Also we decided to plant them in 20" planters. We used 50% potting soil and 50% compost (free from the San Diego Landfill). We installed eyelets into the roof awning and ran both twine and nylon twine down to each plant. We made sure to leave an additional length of wire so during the harvest we can raise and lower the bine. Check Hoppy House for more current updates.
Centennial 05.01.11














06.28.11 - Growth was going great till 2 weeks ago. And leaves are starting to turn yellow. Need to figure out cause.

08.11.11 These guys came back to life. And all they really needed was some good organic fertilizer (Dr. Benson's Natural Mix). The experts over at Homebrewtalk really helped. Within a week it became dark green again and starting growing again. But we did miss a good 3-4 weeks of prime growing so I doubt we will get a harvest on these first year plants. But we learned a lot for next year.

Magnum 05.01.11














06.28.11 - Also stopped growing, but not as much yellowing.

08.11.11 - Read above for description of what we did. But after fertilizer this hop just started putting out side arms like crazy. We were excited that we might get a bunch of hops. Even though the side arms are about 24" long there are no cones












Chinook 05.01.11














06.28.11 - This guy took off with 3 healthy bines, but has also slowed. We need help.

08.11.11
We have hop cones! OK, there are only about 20 which probably less than an ounce, but it is exciting to us. For some reason only the side arms up at the top of the house (more sun) sprouted cones.


















08.26.11 We picked them, just over an ounce. They smell of big time grapefruit, very nice.  Enjoy the Photo Collage.

2010 Hop Gardens

So this year, I needed to plant new rhizomes at my mom's house. I decided to try Goldings again because they are one of my favorite English style hops. This year I decided to water more frequently ( 2/day - 5 days/wk for 5 minutes) on the drip system. I also made sure to give the rhizomes a good dose of compost. In San Diego, compost is free at the Miramar landfill. You just show your ID and you can take a couple cubic yards of compost and mulch. The mulch is great for covering the ground around the hops to keep in moisture. Be careful not to cover the rhizomes or near the base of the plant as it may cause mildew. The combination seemed to really help this year as they are taking off. Also after the shoots were about a foot high I cut the bines so I only had 2 shoots. Below will be my updates:
04.26.10

 06.02.10

07.10.10 - Bugs, looks like grasshoppers and spider mites

So not the greatest news at my Dad's house. I can still see the root ball with buds but no action. And it appears the other Cascade did not make it. We recently composted the garden bed and increased the water schedule so maybe it will make a late run.

 9.07.10 Well they made a run. And they were doing really well until... THE SQUIRREL FIGHT 2010. A squirrel got into Dad's garden and as he was trying to get it out he whacked the hop vine in half. The good news is the rhizome for this plant is huge. The reason it was such as slow starter is because it grew under ground for almost 2 feet before sprouting to the surface. So for next year we are going to chop it up a bit and put a barrier around it.

So now I'm going on two years and no hop cones. But I feel like I am getting closer. I already have expansion plans for next year.

Aztec (SDSU) Amber Ale - Hoppy Graduation

My sister is graduating so we need some beer to celebrate. Now she is on the complete otherside of the beer spectrum of myself. She likes big hoppy beers, enough hops you can feel like you're eating your veggies. And she likes a beer to be bitter enough to make you wince. Well I can't make a beer quite that unbalanced because it needs to please a big mix of people at her graduation party.
So I decided to make sure the beer has a huge hop taste and aroma. But try to create a nice balanced beer so the whole crowd can drink it as I BBQ tri-tip the whole afternoon.

Recipe: Aztec Amber Ale
O.G.-1.057  F.G.-1.010   IBU-57 
SRM-15   ABV-5.3   Cal-165

Grain Bill (75% Efficiency):
8 lb 2-row (77.1%)
12 oz Crystal 60L (7.2%)
12 oz Munich  Malt (7.2%)  
8 oz Crystal 120L (4.8%) 
6 oz Victory Malt (3.6%)

Hops:
1 oz Centennial, 9.7%, pellet, 90 min 53 IBU
.5 oz Cascade, 5%, pellet, 20 min 4.5 IBU
.75 oz Centennial, 9.7%, pellet, 0 min
.75 oz Cascade, 5%, pellet, 0 min
  
Yeast:
200 mL slurry White Labs WLP001 (Note: I tried to use yeast cake from previous batch but did not brew quickly enough so the air left in the carboy contaminated the yeast, good reason to keep dry yeast on hand)
1 packet S-04

Brew Day:
Brewed: 5/11/10
Kegged: 5/22/10

Water:
San Diego (Alvarado) Tap Water
1 campden tablet for 5 gal.

Mash Details:
H2O/Grain Ratio: 1.25 qt/lb
Mash Volume: 3.25 gal
Sacc Rest. Temp/Time: 150F @ 60min
Strike Temp: 162F
Batch Sparge Volume: 4.25 gal
Sparge Temp/Time: 170F @ 30min

Boil Details:
Boil Volume: 6.5 gal
Boil Time: 90min
Post Boil Volume: 5 gal

Ferment Details:
O.G.: 1.057
Ferment Temp: 68-70F
Length: 10 days
F.G.: 1.010

2009 Hop Gardens

Growing hops seemed pretty easy so last year I decided to go for it. I planted two varieties (One for my English Style Ales and one for my American style) in two different locations. I planted 2 Goldings rhizomes in my Mom's backyard and created a tower for them to grow on. It is an old tether-ball pole that I tied twin to the top of and then staked into the soil. I tried to treat the soil with a good amount of cow manure and potting soil. And then I ran the drip system to each rhizome.

RESULTS: Both rhizomes came up and grew about 12" then stalled and eventually died. I believe once the summer heat kicked in they did not get enough water. Also I think with the English varieties the So Cal sun is too strong so a sun shade might help.

I also planted 2 Cascade rhizomes at my Dad's house. For that system we install eyelets near the 2nd story roof and ran twine.This is the best way to do it, because when it comes time to harvest I can just release one side of the twine and the whole bine will come down. And I can even string it back up if I need to do multiple harvests.
RESULTS: One bine grew steady to about 5-6 ft and the other grew pretty tall at over 10 ft. But neither produced cones, so I have big hopes for this upcoming growing season.