No brewing this weekend, but today I casked the five gallons of Boathouse Bitter we brewed a week ago from the second runnings of the Double Jack IIPA clone.  Gravity was down to 1.011, so it should be just over 3% ABV after conditioning.  I dry-hopped it with two ounces of Styrian Goldings.

Speaking of the Double Jack, on Thursday, after four days of fermentation, I dry-hopped each of the two primary fermenters with 1.5 ounces of Cascade and 1.5 ounces of Centennial whole hops.  Using a large funnel, it was surprisingly easy to get the hops into the necks of the carboys.  I will give the dry hops at least a week of contact time  before racking to kegs and dry-hopping the beer again in the serving vessel.  Total weight of hops for this beer is in excess of two pounds, or more than 6 pounds per barrel.

Another year has come along already, and what better way to welcome the new year than to brew some beer?  Today’s batch is a clone of Firestone Walker’s Double Jack imperial IPA, which is my favourite commercial double IPA.  It is hoppy, well-balanced, and the high 9.5% alcohol content is well hidden.  It will be a challenge to get this right, but a worthy effort to have this on draught at home.  Based upon how this first attempt turns out, we can alter the recipe and re-brew it to hone in on the real thing.

The recipe is said to be domestic 2-row, Munich, and light crystal, so we used the first of the Great Western Northwestern Premium pale ale malt.  Having never used this base malt before, it was difficult to know what level of extract we would get, so I was not surprised that our gravity was off: almost ten points off, actually, which is quite a lot.  Target was 1.089, itself on the low side, actual original gravity was 1.080.  This should still yield an alcohol content of 8.5% or more, which is enough to do some damage!

The total mash was 38 pounds of malt, and there was still sufficient sugars left in the mash to yield 5 gallons of a smaller beer, with an original gravity of 1.033.  This beer, Boathouse Bitter, was hopped with Admiral for bittering, and Styrian Goldings  whole hops late for an anticipated 40 IBU.  This beer was pitched with extra yeast from the Boathouse IPA, the bulk of which is fermenting the Double Jack batch.

The hops are Chinook and Columbus for bittering, and Cascade and Centennial as the late hops.  I added enough for a calculated IBU of 200.  There will be copious dry-hopping as well, starting with hops added to the primary fermenter after a few days, and followed by more hops in the kegs.

The Boathouse IPA brewed two weeks ago was kegged and dry-hopped with homegrown Cascade and Centennial.  The  beer was quite hoppy when sampled out of the primary, with a nice flavour that bodes well for after further conditioning.

Brewing Santa brought a new oxygen aeration system, which we used for the first time today.  We injected oxygen for 40 seconds into each Double Jack fermenter, and 25 seconds or so for the Boathouse Bitter.  Given the long lag phase of the bitter, I think that 25 seconds may not be enough, even for such a low starting gravity.  The amount of yeast pitched should have been sufficient to get it started earlier.

The last few batches of various IPAs have turned out a bit less hoppy than expected, so today we made sure to go overboard with the hops.  It is difficult when using home-grown hops to know what the IBU will be, since the alpha acid levels of the hops are unknown.  We have been using an average AAU percentage based upon the variety, but since the beers have been less bitter than targeted (Lagunitas IPA clone, Two Hearted ale clone), I switched the AAU% down to even lower levels for this batch.  Hence the criminal quantity of hops in this recipe – over 2.5 pounds in the kettle and mash tun!

The mash hop, first wort hop, and bittering additions were all home-grown Galena, a combination of 2010 and 2011 harvests.  Because nearly two pounds of hops were added to the boil kettle from sixty minutes left until the end of the boil, I removed the first wort hops from the copper before the 60-minute addition.  Even so, the hop matter left in the kettle after the wort was run off filled the bottom 1/3 of the kettle.  Even with this outrageous hop load, there was absolutely no trouble with running the wort off through the counterflow chiller.  I am always stumped as to why brewers complain about using whole hops, and today’s experience makes me wonder even more.  If I had tried to brew this beer with pellets I would have dumped the batch after spending hours dealing with heinous clogging of the screen and the chiller. Whole hops are definitely the way to go, and the flavour and aroma qualities are better than pellets, to boot.

The recipe was Boathouse IPA, and the hops added after bittering were a combination of Chinook and Cascade, all home-grown in Portland by Brian.  Additions were made at 45, 30, 15, 5, and 0 minutes, all ranging from 3 to 4 ounces.  Target OG was 1.068 from a grist of Maris Otter, Vienna, carapils, and kiln amber.  Because the first wort hops soaked up some wort when they were removed, I added back some of the last runnings to the boil when adding the bittering addition, so I was pleased that even with this dilution our actual OG was 1.067.  And for all those who grumble that whole hops act like wort sponges, we still got good volume in the primaries, more than enough to fill the corny kegs.

The Fuller’s ESB brewed two weeks ago was racked to a couple of corny kegs, each dry-hopped with two ounces of East Kent Goldings.  Racking gravity was 1.015, so this will yield an ABV of 5.9% after a couple more weeks of conditioning.  The Boathouse IPA brewed today was racked onto the yeast from the ESB.  The milk stout brewed last weekend is still in primary, I will likely keg it next weekend.  I am not sure yet whether the next and last batch with this yeast, the Firestone Walker Double Jack IIPA, will use the yeast from the milk stout or the Boathouse IPA.

Following up on the parti-gyle double batch of Fuller’s London Pride and ESB, this week is a single batch of the Boathouse Milk Stout.  Amazingly, we still have the batch brewed in Ohio on tap, mainly because I’ve been saving it by not drinking it at all over the last six or eight months.  These dark beers keep really well, so it’s still fresh and tasty, but almost gone.  The recipe remains largely unchanged, except for dialing down the roast barley a little bit, and substituting in some black malt as well.  The lactose addition was bumped up to 2.5 pounds as I wanted a little higher gravity, around 5.5% ABV.  For some unknown reason though, we overshot our target gravity by SIX points (got 1.071 instead of 1.065).  Not sure how that works.

The milk stout was pitched onto the yeast cake from the London Pride, so that beer was racked to a couple of corny kegs with 2.5 ounces each of East Kent Goldings.  Both fermenters dropped down to 1.011, and tasted dry but very good.  Even after just one week, the beer has the characteristic earthy hop flavour and substantial bitterness.  The colour is perfect.  We’ll see how it develops in the cask.  Sometimes a beer that tastes amazing out of the fermenter changes for the worse by the time it is tapped; we’ll hope that does not happen here.  The Fuller’s ESB batch remains in the primaries for now, keeping the milk stout company in the fermentation fridge.

A busy busy brew day here at Boathouse.  The parti-gyle double-batch of Fuller’s ESB and London Pride were on the schedule.  It was an interesting brew.  Nothing substantial went awry, the only real issue we had was a lack of mash tun capacity, which resulted in struggles to get all the malt and water into the tun.  In the end we were left with half a gallon of wort that had to be run off and left to the side until the malt absorbed enough to subside from the very lip of the mash tun.  The new burner and stand worked well, though a bit oxygen-deprived when run at full bore, which indicates a bigger air vent is needed on the hurricane burner.  I sailed close to the wind in using a mostly-depleted propane tank on the London Pride batch, but it didn’t run out until after the ESB boil was over, so swapping tanks was all that was needed.

The malt bill was 40 pounds of grain, 38 pounds of Maris Otter and 2 of crystal.  I expected to be short on gravity on one or both of the recipes, but in the end we overshot the gravity on the ESB (1.058 actual, target 1.055) and hit the target on the London Pride dead on (1.040).  The wort collected was generous on the ESB and a bit short on the London Pride, so if I were to brew this again I would know to divert more of the first runnings to the London Pride and less to the ESB.  Hops were Target for bittering, with Admiral (substitute for the Northdown that Fuller’s uses but which are unobtainable) and Challenger as the primary late hops, with a bit of East Kent Goldings as well.  Colour looked good in the gravity cylinder, we’ll have to compare them to the real thing in a few weeks.  It all depends on how fresh the samples of Fuller’s beer are from such a distance from their home.

The day was definitely a success: two batches brewed and less than an hour and a half longer than a single batch brew day.  It’s tempting to brew double-batches more often, especially doing two session ales, rather than one session beer and one premium strength.  With a big mash of 100% Maris Otter, I could brew Hophead and Batham’s Best Bitter together, or Landlord and a single-hop Citra or Simcoe pale ale, for example.  If both were in the 1.040-1.042 range (my preferred gravity), the mash would be relatively normal.  With one more kettle, it would be very easy, because the hot liquor tank would not have to double as the second boil kettle.

We also racked the Boathouse Dark Mild brewed last week.  Racking gravities were 1.013 and 1.014.

Brewing resumes with the fifth brewing of our Boathouse Dark Mild.  The weather here definitely calls for some dark ale with roast, chocolate, and coffee notes.  The aroma from the mash and the boil kettle as it filled was very enticing.  This recipe calls for a wide array of specialty grain, including light and dark crystal, special B, brown malt, flaked maize, pale chocolate, chocolate, and peat malt.  This is only a 60 minute boil recipe, so I collected 14 gallons rather than 15, but for some reason, the original gravity is 1.044 instead of the targeted 1.038.  No doubt we will have more malt character as a result.

Hops are rather unimportant in a mild, but we used traditional varieties of Kent Goldings and Target, for around 25 IBU.  The yeast is a fresh pitch of WLP002 which was cultured by a starter yesterday.  Wort temperature after chilling was 70F.  The rest of this brewing schedule is Fuller’s London Pride and ESB, milk stout, IPA, and a double IPA.

Today we brewed our Christmas ale, which is a great beer to have on tap in December. The recipe is based on the holiday beer from Great Lakes Brewing in Cleveland. In addition to pale malt, crystal 35, carapils and kiln Amber (aka Special Roast) in the mash, there is honey, cinnamon, and ginger in the boil for a seasonal spiced flavour.

Alcohol content should be 7.5%, so our target gravity was 1.072, actual original gravity is 1.073. The worth smelled amazing in the kettle due to the cinnamon and ginger. Hops are Northern Brewer for bittering with a late addition of Cascade, around 30 IBU total. After a week in primary we will let this age for at least three weeks before it’s ready. Half the batch is destined for Brian in Portland.

Last week’s batch of Two Hearted ale was kegged, one half dry-hopped with the last of Brian’s homegrown Centennial, the other dry-hopped with commercial Centennial. Final gravity was 1.011, putting it at 6.3%.

It has been a while since we made a clone of Bell’s Two Hearted Ale, one of my favourite midwest beers.  Having three-quarters of a pound of newly-harvested Centennial grown in Portland by my friend Brian certainly helps.  The malt is Maris Otter, light crystal, Vienna, and carapils, and the hops are entirely Centennial.  The target gravity is 1.058, we reached 1.059 with 25 pounds in the mash.  The bittering addition was with commercial Centennial, with all later flavour and aroma additions except for the last one from the homegrown hops.

The pale ale brewed a week ago was racked to corny kegs and dry-hopped with more Citra.  Right out of the primary it tasted fabulous, although not attenuated as much as expected.  This no doubt was due to the cold snap we had earlier in the week, which affects the fermentation even when using a temperature-controlled fridge.  The initial cooling of the wort in the fridge was switched later than it should have to heating mode.  One keg was force-carbonated and the other left alone to condition naturally.  At 5.3% it should be a nice American pale ale on the handpump.

Next week is the annual Christmas ale, based on Great Lakes’ famed seasonal of the same name.

Today we brewed another batch of Boathouse pale ale, but with a hop variety that we’ve never tried before. I’ve heard good things about Citra and like the couple of beers I have tasted, and the hops smelled great during the brew, quite similar to Simcoe.

The malt is Maris Otter, crystal 55, carapils, Vienna, and kiln amber. Target gravity was 1.054, actual was 1.055. The hops were a combination of Citra and Cascade, with Chinook for bitterness. The brew went smoothly, and no doubt this batch will be dubbed Colin’s pale ale since we made it on his fifth birthday.

I also racked the Hophead from last week off odd the yeast, into a couple of corny kegs. The gravities were 1.013 and 1.012, both dry-hopped with the single hop in the recipe, Cascade. Next week’s batch is the Two Hearted clone.

This week’s batch is Hophead, a clone of a fantastic hoppy golden ale from a great brewery in Sussex, England – Dark Star.  I’ve been lucky enough to have this beer on draught in a few pubs there, as well as a tour of the brewery by the head brewer himself, who helped me with the clone recipe.  As with many great beers, the recipe itself is dead simple – one hop (Maris Otter) and one hop (Cascade).  Target OG is 1.040, we reached 1.041 today.  The brew went well, and I have hopes that the yeast issues I’ve had with a couple of previous batches may be resolved after having thoroughly cleaned the inside of the ball valve on the boil kettle last night.

I used combination of commercial Cascade (bittering and flavour) and homegrown Cascade (aroma), grown by my friend Brian in Portland.  The Landlord clone from last week was racked to a couple of corny kegs.  Gravities were 1.014 on the half dry-hopped with Styrian Goldings, and 1.013 on the half which was dry-hopped with Styrians and Willamette.

For an upcoming batch I’m thinking of brewing both Fuller’s London Pride and ESB, ten gallons of each at the same time.  I can use the parti-gyle method and with some creative use of the HLT as a second boil kettle, I think I can do the double batch in the time it takes to do a single batch, plus an hour to two hours, staggering the boils so as to do back-to-back chilling of each wort.  Other upcoming batches are a clone of Two-Hearted ale, a double IPA, and our annual Christmas ale.