Updates on the Cow and Bull

An update on the Cow.
The Kolsch yeast did a great job. I transfered to the secondary last night. When I opened the bucket, I was greeted by a huge floating yeast cake (or sponge). I broke through with siphon starter and pulled very clear beer. As I moved the siphon around, I managed to pull in a lot of bottom yeast, which was not my goal. It will clear even more and be a great summertime beer. Even at just basement cool and with some of the yeast sponge, my little sampler was very good.

And for the Bull.
It's going to get less bittering hops at 60 minutes in favor of getting more hop additions at the midpoint and later in the boil. I'll also bump up the chocolate malt and use a lighter British pale chocolate to avoid getting too roasty.

Old Bull Brown Ale

Here's a possible recipe that will be made for drinking in the fall.

Beer name:Old Bull Brown Ale
Batch size:5 gallons
BJCP style:10C. American Brown Ale
Malt bill:
10 lb Briess Brewers 2-row Malt
.5 lb Briess Caramel 80L Malt
.375 lb Dingemans Biscuit
.125 lb Briess Chocolate 2-row Malt
Hops bill:
.50 oz Magnum (14.0% AA, Pellet) @ 60 min.
1 oz Cascade ( 5.0% AA, Pellet) @ 15 min.
1 oz Cascade (5.0% AA, Pellet) Dry Hop in the secondary
Yeast:
WhiteLabs WLP001 California Ale

At 70% efficiency

OG 1.057
FG 1.011
ABV 6.1%
IBU 40
SRM 23

Hoochie-mama!

In an unrelated post...

Here is a pic of our winnings at the St. Richard's Trivia Night. This was their Wheelbarrow of Fun raffle. You can't see it all in this. It was about $600 worth of stuff and that didn't even include the wheelbarrow which we donated back. (They use it ever year.)

Blowoff eh!

Here's the pic of that blowoff tube I had to make for the Little Pig Wheat Beer. My first time using liquid yeast proved successful.

Dancing Bear Roggenbier

This is scheduled for a July brew, but I thought I might as well get my recipes down.

5 lbs. Weyermann Rye Malt
4 lbs. German Munich
2 lbs. Rahr 2-Row Pale
0.25 lbs. Weyermann Chocolate Wheat
0.25 lbs. Weyermann Caramel Wheat
0.25 lbs. Rice Hulls

1 oz. Mt. Hood (60 min)

WLP351 Bavarian Weizen Yeast or Wyeast 3638 Bavarian Wheat Yeast

Church Mouse Belgian Blonde

I'll think of a better name.

How about

Souris D'église Belgian Blonde?

10 lbs. Belgian Pilsner
.5 lb. malted wheat
.5 lb. Dingemans aromatic
1 lb. beet sugar

Mash at 150 degrees.

90 minute boil

1.5 oz. Hallertau (4%AA) for 60 minutes

WLP540 Abbey IV Ale Yeast
http://www.whitelabs.com/beer/strains_wlp540.html

OG 1.068
FG 1.015
ABV 7.2
IBU 26
SRM 5

Stupid little pig!

This stupid little pig. The brew day was not as successful as the last.

66% efficiency.

I guess I don't know what happened. It's not disasterous or anything...just lower than I would have expected after hitting 82% the Saturday before.

The good news? The White Labs yeast WLP300 (German Hefeweizen) took off like mad the day after brewing. By the evening, I had to construct my first blowoff tube. I'll get pictures up soon.

A blowoff tube for a 1.044 OG? I guess, but maybe my gravity was actually higher than I read.

kleines Schwein Weizenbeir (Little Pig Wheat Beer)

Here is the beer plan for Good Friday. Good Friday indeed!

4.75 # Malteries Franco-Belges Pale Wheat
4 # Pilsen

1 oz. Hallertau Mittelfruh @ 60 min.

Dry yeast Safbrew WB-06

This will be brewed with the assistance of Jim Ziegelmeyer, a real life chemical engineer!

I can see that the naming beer after farmhouse animals is going to continue. I guess my fictional brewery would be Farmhand Brewing Co.

The Dirty Cow Strikes Back

Here are the results from my second all-grain brew session using the Dirty Cow recipe.

I hit around 80% efficiency. That'd be great normally since it means that I converted more of the starches to sugar meaning more alcohol. However, since I was calculating at 70%, it drove my potential ABV way above the guidelines. I'll probably still enter it in competitions, since most people wouldn't know the difference of a 5.5% beer vs. a 6.4% by taste.

I used a Kolsch yeast slurry provided by Willie (www.yearofbeer.com). It's bubbling away right now.

Next up. Ein nettes Bier des deutschen Weizens.