Bikes, Beer, and Adventures

Monday, January 30, 2012

Split Batch Series: English Dark Mild

This is the second beer in my Split English Ale Yeast Experiment. In the Best Bitter Batch, the Fuller's strain was much preferred to the West Yorkshire strain. But it will be tested again, and with a much different beer, Dark Mild.

English Dark Mild is a style I have been working on over the years and I think it is really progressing. It originally started out as Jamil's recipe and has been tweaked every year. The major change from last year's batch was to substitute Chocolate Malt for Brown Malt. And I was a big fan of this change, not only did it make the beer a bit more historically accurate, but it gave the beer a more toasty flavor. This year I made a few slight adjustments again.

Upped the Crystal Malt from 10% to 14%, but kept the same proportion of light to dark. I wanted a bit more residual sweetness to balance the dryness of the roast and toast of the dark malts
Added 1 lb of wheat malt to build head retention and seems to be in most historical recipes
Decided to go with a more balanced dark malt addition, so I used equal parts Brown Malt and Pale Chocolate Malt

Recipe: English Dark Mild 2011
O.G.-1.039 F.G.-1.012 IBU-15
SRM-21 ABV-43.5% Batch -10 gal

Grain Bill (77% Efficiency):
10 lb Maris Otter (69%)
1 lb Carastan Dark - 135L (7%)
1 lb UK Crystal ~77L (7%)

1 lb Wheat Malt (7%)
12 oz Brown Malt (5%)
12 oz Pale Chocolate Malt (5%)

Hops:
.85 oz Horizon, 9.1%, pellet, 60 min 14.6 IBU

Yeast:
150 mL of White Labs 002 - no starter

150 mLl of Wyeast 1469-PC West Yorkshire Ale Yeast - no starter

Brew Day:
Brewed: 11/27/11

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

Mash Details:
H2O/Grain Ratio: 1 qt/lb
Mash Volume: 3.5 gal
Sacc Rest. Temp/Time: 154F @ 60min

Boil Details:
Boil Volume: 11 gal
Boil Time: 60min
Post Boil Volume: 10 gal

Ferment Details:
O.G.: 1.038
Ferment Temp: Around 68

A side by side taste test will be performed like it was for the Best Bitter.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Homebrew Tasting: Best Bitter West Yorkshire Vs. Fullers

This was one of my first 10 gal batches where I split it into 2 - 5 gal batches and it won't be the last because there is a lot to learn from doing this.

Brew Session detailed here

The differences are quite amazing and I greatly preferred the Fuller's batch over the West Yorkshire yeast (at least for this malt bill). See below for my tasting notes on each.

Fuller's (WLP002)

West Yorkshire (WY1469)

I think the main difference is that the Fuller's yeast kept more residual sweetness. That alone helped to make the malt flavors stand out more. I still need to work on the hop flavor and aroma for these beers, because these were both malt forward beers. I think my big process change for them next year will be to use whole flower hops for my flavor and aroma additions. And I'll keep the Fuller's yeast and compare another English strain in next year's split batch.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Dreg Series: Hoilday Party Oud Bruin 2011

In keeping with tradition, Ashley and I hosted our yearly Holiday Party. Which for me is a great excuse to bring out beers that I have been saving. Plus my friends' interest in craft beer has grown and they are always excited to bring a special beer to share.

And this year we had a full house and a great selection of beer. It was a good thing that I made a triple batch of my soft pretzels (they have become my specialty, along with homemade mustard (post to come)). Ashley also made sure to bake plenty of sweets to soak up the booze we drank.

This year I reserved the wort a little differently than last year's batch and it seemed to work very well. I racked off a gallon of my 2011 Oud Bruin wort just after I turned the flame off into a pre-heated/sanitized glass gallon growler. I put the lid on loosly and cooled the wort in a water bath in the sink. Once the wort was down to room temperature, I tightened the screw cap. Then the growler was kept in the fridge until the party. Right before the party I poured the wort from the growler into a 1 gal jug and aerated. Throughout the party we dumped the dregs from different commercial beers.