Multigrain, 100% Brett Farmhouse Ale

Apparently my brewing and my blogging isn't going to be as regular and as often as I had hoped. Oh well. Guess, I'm just going to have to make due with what I can, when I can. I thought I would have brewed more this Spring in anticipation of the hot summer months when I usually take a hiatus from brewing since I lack any real fermentation temperature control. However, since I didn't and since I was itching to brew something, I figured some sort of Saison/Farmhouse-style beer would be perfect to brew while the outdoor thermometer was hitting the mid-90s. Besides, I had never brewed something like this. Only recently has my palate started to appreciate the flavors associated with farmhouse beers, so it was time to brew one up.

Actually, the impetus for this particular beer came several weeks ago. I had read some of Phile Markowski's Farmhouse Ales and then found myself staring at all the raw "alternative" grains in the bulk food aisle of my local Whole Foods. Spelt. Buckwheat. Amaranth. Quinoa. I couldn't help myself, so I grabbed a few pounds of a variety of grains and headed home to research what to do with them.

It took me a while to come up with a plan - reading through Farmhouse Ales some more, perusing various homebrew blogs, searching HBT and Google for any info I could find on using non-barley adjuncts and saison yeasts and cereal mash technique. I finally had a plan and headed out to my local homebrew shop of choice to gather up the rest of the ingredients...only to find that it was closed for a week of vacation. My window to brew was small and I was determined to brew this up, so I headed to another shop which I try to avoid since every time I am there they tend to have about half the ingredients I was looking for. Of course, this time was no different...no saison yeasts of any kind and no Saaz hops. No big deal on the hops, I could sub out something else I had at home already, but I was stuck on the yeast. After looking through their tiny yeast library, I found a vial of wlp644 Brettanomyces bruxellensis Trois. I was intrigued. I had been thinking about doing a 100% Brett beer and here might be a great opportunity. So, I grabbed a vial (along with some wlp072 French Ale yeast in case I got cold feet about using the just the Brett...I didn't, so now I'll need to brew up a Biere de Garde or something with that extra vial...foreshadowing of a future blog post)

Most folks seem to recommend giving a Brett starter 7-8 days before pitching, but I didn't have the time since I was headed out for some vacation with the family. Instead, I made the starter on Saturday, brewed late Sunday night (didn't get to bed until 2:30 am!) and then pitched the starter Monday night, giving ti a full 2.5 days to get going. The starter looked great - just like all my non-Brett starters - and fermentation was going by Tuesday morning, so I am hoping things will turn out OK despite not giving the starter enough time.

I should point out that this was also my first attempt at a cereal mash...which is one reason my brew session took so long. I followed the steps outlined in How to Brew by John Palmer. However, I really didn't know what temp my main mash was supposed to be at. I used the decoction formula presented in How to Brew to calculate it, but I must have done something wrong since I ended up WAY overshooting my target saccharification rest of 150°F ( I hit about 175°F). After 30 seconds or so of unmitigated panic and cursing, I dumped some room temperature spring water into the mash, bringing it down to a respectable 152°F. I let it go for an hour and a starch conversion test with some iodine showed a successful mash. Whew.

It has only been fermenting for about 6 days now and the gravity is down to about 1.020. The sample smelled and tasted fantastic - full of tropical fruit. I am very much looking forward to seeing how this one turns out.

Threshing Ale
brewed on 6/24/12 (and into the morning hours of 6/25/12)

Recipe Specifications
Batch Size: 3.75 gal
Estimated Color: 5.8 SRM
Estimated IBU: 30.8 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 65.00 %
OG: 1.045 SG
FG: 1.010
ABV: 4.6%

Grist
2.5 lbs Pale Malt - 32.3 %
2.5 lbs Pilsner Malt - 32.3 %
1 lbs Spelt, Raw - 12.9 %
1 lbs Red Wheat, Raw - 12.9 %
8.0 oz Red Quinoa, Raw - 6.5 %
4.0 oz Acidulated - 3.2 %

Hops
7 g Magnum [14.00 %] - 60.0 min
6 g Saaz [4.00 %] - 15.0 min
4 g EKG [4.50 %] - 15.0 min (I didn't have 10 grams of Saaz on hand)
20 g Motueka [7.10 %] - 1.0 min
8 g Motueka [7.00 %] - Dry Hop
4 g Goldings, East Kent [4.50 %] - Dry Hop

Yeast
Brettanomyces bruxellensis Trois (White Labs #WLP644)

Mash Schedule
Infusion Mash with Precooked Adjuncts
- pulsed the raw grains in a food processor
- ran a cereal mash with the raw grains and 1 lb of the barley malt
- held at ~119°F for 15 minutes
- held at ~152°F for 15 minutes
- boiled for 1 hour
- added cereal mash to main mash sitting at ~127°F (TOO HOT for this mash schedule)
- overshot target sacc. rest - hit 175°F - needed to add ~3/4 gallon of room temperature spring water to bring it down to ~152°F

Funky Oatmeal Stout - a mixed culture fermentation

Way back in September 2011 I walked out of my LHBS with the ingredients to make a simple oatmeal stout for the Fall weather that was going to be settling in.  However, as I posted earlier, life got hectic, brewing and blogging was put on hold, and the oatmeal stout never saw the inside of a fermentation bucket.

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago.  I had the time and I had already brewed up the batches I wanted to get done between January and March (a Belgian Tripel, an Altbier, a Kolsch, and this year's Empirical Series brew) and I had this bag of grain sitting in my cellar.  Seemed like a waste not to use it.  But it also didn't seem right to brew an oatmeal stout with the warm weather settling in.  So, inspired by Jolly Pumpkin's Madrugada Obscura and a previous successful experiment of mine with souring dark beer (a tale for another day), I decided to try something different and funkify it.

The base grist is similar to the oatmeal stout I brewed in Fall 2010 with a few tweaks (I can't seem to leave well enough alone).  To that I decided to add some molasses and grains of paradise (available at my favorite spice retailer - the Spice House).  The molasses added some additional gravity and will give the beer a little more depth and character.  The grains of paradise should impart a nice peppery tone.  As if that wouldn't be enough (like I said, I can't leave well enough alone), I opted to ferment with a mixed culture that included a Belgian yeast (WLP500, harvested from my Belgian Tripel), an English strain (WLP023, which was the intended yeast for the original oatmeal stout), the dregs of one bottle of Jolly Pumpkin's Madrugada Obscura, and the dregs of one bottle of Russian River Consecration.  All these cultures were put into the same starter, so were pitched into the beer all at the same time.  How this will all play out is anyone's guess.  I'm just going to keep it in a dark corner of my cellar and patiently wait to see how things proceed.

Oh, and as luck would have it, the "Word of the Day" on the day I made my mixed culture starter was "selcouth"

Selcouth Stout
brewed on 3/26/12

Recipe Specifications
Batch Size: 3.75 gal
Estimated Color: 38.4 SRM
Estimated IBU: 30.8 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
OG: 1.062 SG
FG: TBD
ABV: TBD

Grist
5.5 lbs Maris Otter - 66.7 %
12.0 oz Oats, Flaked- 9.1 %
8.0 oz Melanoidin Malt - 6.1 %
4.0 oz Chocolate Malt - 3.0 %
4.0 oz Chocolate Wheat - 3.0 %
4.0 oz Crystal (56L) - 3.0 %
4.0 oz Roasted Barley - 3.0 %
8.0 oz Molasses - 6.1 %

Hops
26 g EKG [4.50 %] - 60.0 min
10 g EKG [4.50 %] - 20.0 min

Misc
1.00 g Seeds of Paradise (Boil 5.0 mins)

Yeast
Mixed culture
 - Trappist Ale (White Labs #WLP500)
 - Burton Ale (White Labs #WLP023)
 - dregs of Madrugada Obscura
 - dregs of Consecration


Mash Schedule
Single Infusion, 152°F, Batch Sparge

Wheat Wine - Empirical Series 2012

"Resolve, resolve, and to be men aspire...
Let godlike reason, from her sovereign throne,
Speak the commanding word I WILL, and it is done."

I was a little late getting this year's Empirical brew done. I want to get these done in February of each year, but I couldn't quite squeeze this one in. Early March isn't too bad though I suppose. This year's edition is inspired by Harpoon's Triticus, a dark wheat wine. My wife and I tried this during a brewery tour in Boston a couple of years ago and were both instant fans. Almost immediately I began searching for info to help me design a homebrewed version. The original Triticus was actually the concept of the Alstrom brothers (of Beer Advocate fame) for Harpoon's 100 Barrel Series, and, as luck would have it, they had made available some blog posts about their experience brewing this, including some details about the recipe. I can't seem to find those posts now, but before they disappeared I took down some notes, but hadn't gotten around to brewing it until now.

As is probably self-evident a "wheat wine" is a high gravity wheat ale - basically the wheat version of a barley wine. With this recipe almost half of the grist is wheat, including specialty wheat malts like Cara- and Chocolate wheat. Staying true to the Triticus recipe, the hops are German. Somewhat surprisingly the yeast is a neutral American strain (e.g. WLP001). I thought about using a more characterful strain, but, in the end, decided to remain true to the inspiration.

Unfortunately, brew day did not go as planned. Basically, my efficiency sucked. Normally, I am in the 72-74% range. For this batch I only hit 55%. The only other time my efficiency was this low was also my only other time using this large a percentage of wheat. I've come to the conclusion that because of the smaller size of the wheat grains, my LHBS's mill doesn't crush them as well as it does the larger barley. Luckily, I had some DME around, but, unfortunately, it wasn't the wheat DME I thought I picked up when I bought the ingredients for this batch - I must have grabbed the wrong bag off the shelf. So, a pound of Extra Light DME went into the kettle. I wanted the OG to be higher still (was shooting for the mid-1.090s), but didn't want to use any more extract or simpler sugars, so I decided to leave it in the 1.080s. I just hope it ferments out well. The pound of demerara sugar should help with that (with these high gravity beers, I like to use up to 10% simple sugars).

It is now fermenting away in the basement. I'll let it go for probably a month and then rack it into a glass carboy for extended aging before bottling it sometime this summer. The first tasting will happen sometime around Halloween or Thanksgiving, if I can hold off that long. At the moment, I am toying with the idea of adding either oak cubes and/or cacao nibs when I rack to the carboy. Guess I'll wait to see how it tastes when I get to that point.

UPDATE: I decided to go with the cacoa nibs and skipped the oak

Bene Victum (aka James) - Empirical Series 2012
Brewed on 3/12/12

Recipe Specifications
Batch Size: 3.75 gal
Boil Size: 5.00 gal
Estimated Color: 24.8 SRM
Estimated IBU: 65.5 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 55.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes
OG: 1.084
FG: 1.012
ABV: 9.4%

Grist
5 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) UK - 38%
4 lbs Wheat Malt, Pale - 30.4 %
1 lbs Munich I - 7.6 %
6.0 oz Carawheat (50L) - 3%
6.0 oz Chocolate Wheat (450L) - 3%
6.0 oz Wheat, Flaked - 3%
1 lbs Extra Light Dry Extract - 7.5 %
1 lbs Dememera Sugar - 7.5 %

Hops
20 g Magnum [13.10 %] - 60.0 min
10 g Hallertauer [3.80 %] - 20.0 min
10 g Saaz [4.00 %] - 10.0 min
15 g Saaz [4.00 %] - dry hop

Yeast
California Ale (White Labs #WLP001)

Mash Schedule
Single Infusion, 149°F

Misc
aged on 6 oz cacao nibs

Sour Brett & Cranberry Ale Tasting

I brewed this beer, Vaccinium, over a year ago (part one, part two, part three). It was inspired by Ithaca Beer Company's Brute, a beer with Brett and soured only with acidulated malt. Putting my own spin on this idea, I used a wine yeast for primary fermentation and added local cranberries in secondary. It's been in the bottle for about 5 months. Overall, I probably shouldn't be disappointed in this beer given how experimental and off-the-wall it is, but I am. In general it lacks complexity and is missing a certain "brightness" and fruitiness that I was hoping for. Honestly, and unfortunately, it's just not that exciting of a beer.

Appearance - Pours a hazy orange-rose. Not quite as pink as I would have thought with using the cranberries. I think the beer would actually pour clear, but the high carbonation caused the sediment in the bottle to kick-up. Next time, I'll chill the bottle down (this one was probably only chilled down to about 50°F - the temp where I've got these bottles stored in my cellar). A large foamy head quickly subsides to a thin layer. No lacing is left on the glass.

Aroma - Slightly fruity with oak and a phenolic Brett component. Not at all overly funky or barnyard-y, most likely from using Brettanomyces claussenii, which is known to be the most mild species of Brett.

Taste - Sour, but not nearly as much as I would have thought given that acidulated malt made up 13% of the grist. Definite carbonic bite from the high carbonation. Much less fruit flavor than I had hoped for, though really, I wonder how fruity I should have expected using cranberries. Probably, unreasonable expectations on my part. The Brett seems to be coming through as plastic-y, for lack of a better descriptor. There's also an astringency - probably from the tannins in the cranberries and/or oak.

Mouthfeel - Thin and highly carbonated (both as intended). The high carbonation prickles the tongue. There's also a drying sensation on the tongue and throat, presumably from the tannins in the cranberries - my mouth feels the same way it does when drinking cranberry juice (shocker, I know). I suppose it could be the oak tannins as well.

Overall - Unfortunately, I am disappointed by this beer. It has more tannic astringency than acidic sourness. It is lacking the complexity and brightness that I thought it would have. I suppose it is still young and the Brett character may continue to develop over time, so I'll leave it alone for a while and come back to it. Not sure cranberries were a good choice. Or maybe it was a bad idea to add oak cubes. I'll probably try cranberries in another beer at some point - I like the idea of using such a local and native fruit - but I'm not sure I'll try to make a sour beer with just the acidulated malt. Instead, I'd probably go the traditional route of using Lactobacillus and Pediococcus bacteria.

Tasting: Wild Yeast Saison

Well, it's about time I put up some tasting notes for my wild yeast "saison". I've realized that I delay putting up these posts since I don't really feel like I have a good tasting vocabulary and I find it hard to accurately describe the beers. But the more I do this, the more comfortable I am with it and I really want to make sure I follow up with all my batches. So, I'm going to try to be better about writing more timely tasting posts. And even if this post isn't exactly timely, it's better late than never, right?

So, this is the beer I brewed up using wild yeast (and probably bacteria) I collected from my back yard last June (and in case you missed it, I posted some photos of the wee beasties under a microscope). In short, this beer turned out quite well and did not contain anything near the funk I thought it would have. Even though I didn't really know what to expect from this experiment, the final product was definitely outside of what I thought I was going to get. To help me decipher what I was tasting, I sent a few bottles out to some other folks to taste, including Mike Tonsmeire, the Mad Fermentationist. My tasting notes below will also include some of their comments.

Appearance - Pours a hazy, dirty yellow-brown with a nice thick, foamy white head. Honestly, the color is quite ugly - I don't think the photo above does it justice (must have been the warm afternoon lighting). The head leaves nice Belgian lacing behind.

Aroma - Smells faintly of fruit. Not quite citrus with some mellow spiciness - hard to know if this is from the yeast or the Northdown dry hops. A nice malt aroma comes through as well.

Taste - Here's where things get interesting. First off, the flavor is much cleaner than I ever would have thought from using microbes that were floating around in my backyard. There is a fruity, slightly spicy Belgian-y quality there. There's also a slight tang, though certainly not sour - something reminiscent of fresh lemon peel. The rich maltiness of the Maris Otter comes through nicely, but the beer is not quite a dry as I was hoping for. Even though I mashed low (147°F) and pushed the fermentation temp up into the mid-80s, the beer only finished in the 1.012-1.014 range, which is a bit too high for the Belgian quality of the beer. I was hoping for sub-1.010. One of the more interesting flavors comes through at the back-end. One taster described it as "...almost brett-like...sort of 'woodsy'...I wouldn't say barnyard, but like outdoorsy without the smoke...that smell you get when stepping out to go hunting in the fall.". There is also a lingering bitterness that detracts a little from the beer - one taster likened it to tobacco, another to leather.

Mouthfeel - moderate carbonation and a not-so-dry finish leave this beer a bit fuller than it probably should have been.

Overall - Definitely a good outcome to an interesting experiment. Not sure I would call the beer a great beer, but given what I was attempting to do I am very happy with the result. In the end, it was a pretty refreshing beer with a lemony crispness to it. I actually kept some of the original yeast, hoping to use it in another beer, but it is now 9 months old and I'm not sure how great it would be to reuse. I will definitely try my hand again at capturing new yeast though - this brew demonstrated that it was a worthwhile endeavor.

Vaccinium - update

It's been a little while since I've said anything about my attempt at a sour cranberry ale with Brett. Well, this beer has been quietly sitting on the cranberries and the Brett for several months now and had developed a nice pellicle on and around the floating raft of cranberries. Much of the pellicle has actually fallen away by now and I figured it was time to get the beer off the fruit and into a tertiary vessel. So, I racked it into a 3-gallon glass carboy and added 0.5 ounces of medium toast Hungarian oak cubes that had been soaking in some Deep Purple zinfandel (BTW, this is a spectacular wine).

The beer is a a hazy pink with some nice sour and Brett aromas. The taste is actually quite mild, but not too mild - I definitely taste the cranberries and the Brett character. I'm assuming the Brett character will increase a bit more as it ages. I'm excited about this beer - I think it just might turn out really good, despite all the crazy things I'm trying with it (e.g. 14% acidulated malt, primary fermentation with a wine yeast, cranberries, Brett, wine-soaked oak cubes). However, the one thing that is concerning me is that the gravity is only down to 1.018-1.020 (I think my hydrometer is reading a little high, thus the range). I really expected this thing to be much lower by now. It still tastes great - much drier than I would expect given a 1.020 gravity. Everything I've read and heard seems to indicate that Brett pretty much eats through anything. This is precisely the reason I mashed high (~160°F) and used a wine yeast - to leave some residual compounds for the Brett to metabolize. I'm not sure why the gravity is still as high as it is. I've posted about this over at the Burgundian Babble Belt homebrew forum and the only thing that seems to have any consensus might be that the Brettanomyces claussenii isn't a particularly strong attenuator.

So, for now, my plan is to let it sit in the tertiary vessel for a month or so and see where it goes. I'm hoping to be able to bottle by the end of August so that it has a few months in the bottle before Thanksgiving. Not sure yet what my bottling plan is - I'd like it to highly carbonated, so ideally I'd like to cork and cage with 750 ml champagne bottles, but I'm not really set up for that and I'm not sure I should splurge for the equipment for just this beer (though if it turns out well, there will certainly be similar beers to brew in the future). In any case, I have some time to think about this.

New England Wild Yeast Saison

Not sure what style to call this brew, so I'm going with "New England Saison" (yeah, I know it's a made-up style). Maybe a more generic "American Wild Ale" or "American Farmhouse Ale" would be better, but I looked to the saison style for inspiration. Not really knowing the characteristics of my wild-caught yeast (don't forget to check out the photos!), I figured I would go with a relatively simple recipe with a modest, but not too modest, OG. I know that saisons are mainly brewed with pilsner malt and continental hops, but since this is not a standard Belgian saison, and since I'm coming to realize I am not the biggest fan of pilsner malt or continental hops, I decided to spin this a little more English-style. It is a New England Saison after all.

Nothing special about the brew day. I'm starting to really settle into a groove with my split-boil, 3.5 gallon batch process. I had run out of Irish Moss during my last batch, and forgot to grab some at my LHBS, but I figured a little cloudiness would be OK with this brew. After aerating and cooling the wort to about 70°F, I decanted my wild yeast starter and dumped the slurry in (saving a little of the yeast in a bell jar so I could try to maintain an active culture, just in case this turns out to be a yeast I want to use again). I was a bit nervous about how the fermentation would go, but within 24 hours I had an amazing krausen forming and the airlock was rocking. After a few days I moved the fermenter upstairs to a warmer part of the house (~75-77°F). A couple of days after that, I wrapped a heating pad around the fermeter, set on low, to get the fermenter temp up to the low 80s. I want to give this yeast every chance to attenuate well. I'll let it sit in the fermeter for at least a couple of weeks before bottling.

(tasting notes posted)


Voie du Curé (Saison de la Nouvelle Angleterre)
Brewed on 6/16/11

Recipe Specifications
Batch Size (fermenter): 3.50 gal
Boil Size: 5.00 gal (split 2.5 & 2.5)
Estimated Color: 5.9 SRM
Estimated IBU: 31.0 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 74.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes
OG: 1.053
FG: TBD
ABV: TBD

Grist
6 lbs Pale Malt, Maris Otter - 88.8%
8.0 oz Wheat Malt, Pale - 7.4%
2.0 oz Caramunich I - 1.9%
2.0 oz Acid Malt - 1.9%

Hops
7 g Northdown [12.30 %] (60 min)
10 g Goldings, East Kent [4.50 %] (30 min)
20 g Goldings, East Kent [4.50 %] (5 min)
10 g Northdown [12.3 %] (dry hop - 6 days)

Yeast
Local, Wild-Caught Yeast

Mash Schedule
Single Infusion, 147°F, Batch Sparge

Notes
Brewed on 6/16/11

Two stage strike

• 2 gallons @ 212°F + 1.34 gallons @ 77.4°F --> 3.34 gallons @ ~154°F in mash tun
• With grain added, mash temp hit 146.5°F
• Added 2g gypsum and 1g CaCl₂ to the mash
• Mashed for 80 minutes

Batch sparge and split boil

• ~2.5 gallons of 1st runnings = 1.062
• Sparged with 2.5 gallons @ 170°F
• ~2.5 gallons of 2nd runnings = 1.024
• hopped just 1st runnings

aerated with aquarium pump and stone for ~20 minutes

6/17/11 - strong krausen forming

6/18/11 - moved to warmer upstairs (ambient temp = 75°F)

6/20/11 - wrapped with heating pad (fermenter temp = 83°F)

7/1/11 - racked to 3-gallon glass carboy, dryhopped with 10g of Northdown - overfilled carboy, lost some of the hops during overflow - not sure how much. Moved to cellar; ambient temp ~73°F

Vaccinium - continued

I continued my first sour/Brett/fruit/wine yeast experiment by racking the beer onto some cranberries I picked up fresh last fall that I sealed and froze. The primary yeast (a wine yeast, Lalvin BM45) had fermented the beer down to 1.022 and the sample I took tasted very nice - clean, a bit fruity. It was still very cloudy and I must admit not nearly as sour as I thought it would be with all that acidulated malt in the grist. With the Brett and cranberries I figure the acidity will jump up some.

Not sure that I had to or should, I pasteurized the cranberries, still in the vacuum sealed pouches, in 165°F water for about 20 minutes. I then mashed them up and dropped them into the carboy, which more difficult than I anticipated. I then racked the beer on top and set the whole thing in my basement for 24 hours before pitching a vial of WLP645 - Brettanomyces claussenii. I went with this strain because I didn't want an overpowering Brett character. I'll let this sit undisturbed for a while - 3 months maybe? At the moment I am thinking of adding some oak cubes as well - I have 0.5 ounces soaking in some red wine that I might add at some point.

Tabula Rasa (aka John) - Empirical Series 2011

"No man's knowledge here can go beyond his experience."

The original intent of my annual "Empirical" project was to brew a barley wine every year. However, I've since realized that, 1) I don't want to be limited to a single style for this series, and 2) the previous years' brews were, in fact, not actually barley wines. So, I've now decided that style plays little role in these beers and that the only "rules" are that they are big and that they are allowed to age for a year before drinking. Live and learn. The slate has been wiped clean.

The inspiration for this year's recipe was Deschute's Black Butte Porter. Now, the interesting thing here is that I have never had the privilege of tasting this particular beer, but by all accounts, it is wonderful. And as an avid listener of the Brewing Network, I had a good starting point for a recipe after the boys on CYBI brewed up a clone of this beer (podcast here; recipe here).

For my version, I increased the OG to 1.090 to help get me in the 9-10% ABV range and added some smoked malt for added complexity, especially in conjunction with a planned addition of oak. Also with these Empirical beers, I like to add 5-10% simple sugars to help increase the ABV as well as to help the yeast attenuate as much as possible. Given the nature of this project, I opted to experiment with a new-to-me sugar, sucanat - essentially, dried pure sugar cane juice. I expect this unrefined sugar to give the beer some rum notes, which I think will work well with the chocolate and smoked malts and the oak aging. I was unsure about the hop schedule, but since it seems to work for Deschute's, I figured I'd stick to it as close as possible - just increasing the additions to get me close to an estimated 70ish IBUs.

I ended up pitching three vials of yeast because I broke the growler of my intended starter and didn't have time to make up a new one. Fermentation took off quick and I had airlock activity for a good 7 days (the longest I can remember for any of my beers). I'll let it sit in primary for 4 weeks and then rack into a secondary carboy with some oak cubes for several weeks before bottling. I'll keep the bottles squirreled away until next winter.

Tabula Rasa - Empirical Series 2011
Brewed on 2/23/11

Recipe Specifications
Batch Size: 3.75 gal
Boil Size: 5.00 gal
Estimated Color: 29.2 SRM
Estimated IBU: 65.6 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 74.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes
OG: 1.090
FG: 1.020
ABV: 9.3%

Grist
7 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) UK - 60.87 %
1 lbs Wheat Malt, Pale - 8.70 %
8.0 oz Chocolate Malt (450L) - 4.35 %
8.0 oz Crystal malt (50-60L) - 4.35 %
8.0 oz Smoked Malt - 4.35 %
1 lbs Extra Light DME 8.70 %
1 lbs Sucanat - 8.70 %

Hops
0.75 oz Galena [13.00 %] (60 min)
0.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (30 min)
0.50 oz Mt. Hood [6.00 %] (5 min)

Misc
0.75 oz Oak Cubes, Hungarian, Medium Toast (Secondary 4-8 weeks)

Yeast
Dry English Ale (White Labs #WLP007)

Mash Schedule
Single Infusion
60 min 152°F

3/18/11 - racked to 3 gallon carboy for bulk aging; added oak cubes; SG = 1.020