Author: stoutmaker

Halloween beer

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Finally got around to brewing after a few months. Had to get the backyard hops used. But I may have waited a bit too long.  But Halloween is closing in and this beer needs to get done one way or another.

They are a bit dry but not bad and still smell very good. So I picked about a half of a 5 gallon bucket to use as the late hops.

Backyard IPA.

  • 1o lbs pale
  • 1 lb 60L
  • 1.5 Oz magnum @60
  • 1/2 bucket of the Mt Hoods @5
  • 1 Oz falconer flight at flame out
  • 05 yeast and mashed at 158

Always hard to get a read on how much extra water to add with homegrown hops, so I used 3/4 gallon more.

And seemed to be pretty close. Just a tad too much. But shouldn’t be bad.

Ended up with an OG of 1.058.  And will be ready for Halloween.

Fresh hop

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Need to get back brewing soon. Its been a long hot summer. Too hot brew really. But have a few events that I usually brew for coming up.
Halloween. Used to brew big ass beers for this. Imperial Stouts, Double this or that, but tradition is changing it a bit. I have been going with a wet hopped for the ol’ garage concert of Halloween.
I usually get enough of the back yard Mt Hood hops to end up with about a pound or more dried. Which sounds great! But the amount of work involved no where near makes it appealing to me any more. Picking, finding drying space, packaging… bleh. No more.
What I do now for the wet hopped now is pretty straight forward. Take whatever recipe I plan to use and add more water to it. Like alot more. And figure to use your regular bittering hop and mid boil hopping. Your fresh hops will all be going in at the last minute.

I pick as many hops as I can during water heating, mashing, and boil. Then right at the last minute of boil I put them in my big mesh bag and put them in. Flame out, and let them sit for 15 min. Then start cooling.
I usually get around a 5 gallon buckets picked in that time. And I have also found that picking during the brew is better. With the wet hopping, all your really trying to get is some flavor and a lot of aroma.  But when I used to pick them before I brewed, every time you walked by them you could keep smelling them as they were losing their potency.
Plus is sound better when you say the hops in there are 5 minutes old.
Back to the water. I know some people (Tim) dont like guessing at volumes,, but when you are adding more water to the boil to accommodate the amount of water these hops are going to soak up, you pretty much have to. And its a lot. 1-2 gallons a lot. I dont have much advice here as I do it by feel, but the of course the drier the hops appear to be, the more water you’ll need.
And yes I tried adding my water after the hops have soaked up, but then you really should re heat back up to sterilize. And again,, while doing this, you can almost see those volatile aromas burning off.  
A word on the beer its self. I personally have found that these wet hopped beers taste profile change greatly in a short amount of time. At first the aromas will be up in ya and cover everything else up. But within a few weeks those aromas start to dissipate leaving the tastes behind. And remember there was a 5 gallons of hop taste put in there.
(And while have no proof,, it feels like they dissipate way faster than pelleted hops.)
I would assume each hop variety would vary in the long term taste that that amount leave behind, but I have only ever used just mine, and my Mt Hoods seem to break down into almost a maraschino cherry flavor during long term storage.
So get your wet hopped beer plans ready,, and make sure to drink it now, but save some for different stages of age.


A National Homebrew Day scorcher

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May 7th 2016 is National Homebrew Day! So I guess I gotta brew something.
I have bits of grain stashed everywhere from over the winter. Plus some of the bulk hops I have are getting to be a year old in the freezer. Time for a clean out brew.
After collecting all the loose ends and getting them weighed up, this is what the final recipe was.
Loose End Basement Brew 2016 – 3 gallon Double Rye IPA?
6 lbs 2 row
.5 lb 80L
2 lbs rye malt. (not flaked rye)
1.5 lbs Flaked barley
1 oz Magnum @ 60
2 oz Willamette @ 10
1 oz Chinook @ flameout 10 minute stand
1 oz Centennial @flameout 10 minute stand
Nottingham yeast mashed at 150
I was briefly worried about a stuck sparge with all the rye and flaked. But I took the batch sparge a bit slower than usual and didnt have any problems. 
Beersmith has been calculating my temps and volumes a bit low on the 3 gallon batches, so I upped them slightly. This helped get everything right on the numbers.
With an OG of 1.082 I was a bit worried that the one pack of Nottingham might not be enough. But holy crap did it take off. Almost like the Notty of old. 
But we did have one problem. But I’m not even sure it is a problem yet. 

I didnt run it dry. I tasted the beer and no signs of burnt taste or smells. 
I would assume this is caramelized sugars,, but never had anything even remotely like this before, even with bigger beers than this.
Maybe all the rye and flaked barley? Gonna keep eye on this one.
How do I clean this? Maybe just replace them.