Rye IPA (redux)

My brother, Jeff, and I hadn't brewed together in a while, so we decided it was about time. He did the first draft of the recipe and I tweaked it a bit by upping the rye and crystal malts and suggesting some hop schedule changes. He came back with more ideas about the hops and we had a true collaborative brew on our hands. Nothing else to report really from a brewing perspective. We hit all our numbers and everything went really smoothly. We finished the day with a great dinner and excellent beers at the Armsby Abbey (where I had my first Flanders Red - a Vichtenaar Flemish Ale - absolutely wonderful).

Tasting notes: This turned out to be a pretty nice beer - clear, nice color, full, creamy head, good hop aroma. The rye was really noticeable though. So much so that my brother didn't like it at all and I ended up with all the beer (well, not all, since we gave some to our other brother too). I feel badly now about suggesting we up the rye from his original recipe. I like this beer, but I would definitely cut down the rye next time. It's distinctive and I can see where if someones doesn't like that flavor, they're not going to like this beer. On the flip side, you'll love this beer if you like rye.
62 Minute RyePA

Recipe Specifications
Partial mash, partial boil
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Boil Size: 2.5 gal
Color: 7.6 SRM
IBUs: 55.0
OG: 1.054
FG: 1.016

Grist
2.5 lbs Pale Malt - 31.25 %
1 lbs Rye Malt - 12.50 %
8.0 oz Crystal Malt (~60L) - 6.25 %
4 lbs Extra Light DME - 50.00 %

Hops
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.70 %] (60 min)
0.50 oz Cascade [7.40 %] (15 min)
0.50 oz Amarillo Gold [8.70 %] (15 min)
0.50 oz Cascade [7.40 %] (5 min)
0.50 oz Amarillo Gold [8.70 %] (5 min)
0.50 oz Amarillo Gold [8.70 %] (1 min)
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.70 %] (Dry Hop 7 days)

Yeast
California Ale (#WLP001)

Mash Schedule
Single Infusion, 154F, Partial Mash, Batch Sparge

Irreproducible ESB (redux)

With a name like Irreproducible ESB, I wonder if I should even bother posting a recipe, but it is what it is and there may be some useful information gleaned herein. Besides, this blog is supposed to be a record of my brewing history. So, pressing on...

This was an impromptu (read: impulsive) brew. I don't have temperature control, so I figured I would just take the summer off from brewing. But, the brewing bug has hit me hard and I was jonesing to make something. I had a window of opportunity so I quickly threw this recipe together and rushed to the LHBS before they closed. Worried about my lack of temperature control, I decided to use a "swamp cooler" (something like this) and some clean yeast. I was worried that a more estery yeast would throw off too many esters at the temps I was thinking I could maintain. My worries were ill-founded as my swamp cooler managed to keep fermentation temps in the mid-60s. Given this, I probably should have used a different yeast since I was shooting for an English-style ESB.

Now, the name comes from the fact that I had an immediate boil over when I added the bittering hops - and by immediate, I mean like 0.72 milliseconds. I have no idea how much of the hops ended up on the stove versus in the wort. I guestimated about half. So, I did a few calculations and threw some hops in at 55 minutes to "make up" for the lost bitterness. How much hops were really lost? Who knows. But after tasting it, I think I may have overestimated how much - it's pretty bitter...but not necessarily in a bad way. Regardless, the beer turned out very nice and I have something to drink while I get my fall beers underway.

Irreproducible ESB
Brewed on 8/1/10

Recipe Specifications
Partial Mash, partial boil
Batch Size: 3.25 gal
Boil Size: 2.75 gal
Color: 13.0 SRM
IBUs: 45.6 (maybe)
OG: 1.062
FG: 1.014
ABV: 6.27%

Grist
3 lbs Maris Otter - 50.00 %
4.0 oz Crystal, Extra Dark - 4.17 %
4.0 oz Crystal, Light - 4.17 %
2.5 lbs Extra Light DME - 41.67 %

Hops
note: original recipe called for 0.5oz of Northdown at 60 min (and no EKG at 55 min)
0.25 oz Northdown [10.60 %] (60 min) (maybe)
0.50 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (55 min)
0.50 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (20 min)
0.50 oz Northdown [10.60 %] (1 min)

Yeast
SafAle (#US-05)

Mash Schedule
Single Infusion, 152°F, Batch sparge