Two more days till Brewcation

First up...Bulldog Brown Ale.

Draft Horse Dunkelweizen

This is the recipe given by Jamil Zainasheff on the "The Jamil Show" as heard on the Brewing Network.

http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/The-Jamil-Show

The only thing different for me is the yeast. He recommended the typical White Labs Hefeweizen yeast and I'll be using a Platinum strain, WLP351.

2 lbs. Pilsner malt

3 lbs. Munich malt

6.9 lbs. wheat

6 oz. Special B

6 oz. Crystal 40

2 oz. Carafa Special 2

Mash at 152

Boil for 90 minutes

Add 1 oz. Hallertau at 60 minutes.

Note: I've recalculated the figures below. Jamil's seemed off.

OG 1.066

FG 1.017

IBU 16

SRM 19

ABV 6.3%

Brewing the Barn Mouse

I started early running some errands at 7:30 AM for the brew. I needed a refill on gas and some bags of ice since I still don't have my immersion chiller complete. Stay tuned for a post on that.

Everything went very well. My lovely assistant Kelly helped me mill the grain the night before, so it was straight into mashtun warming and mashing for me.

I won't bore you with the gory details, but here are the results. Almost 6 gallons at 1.070. If I round that down to 5.5 gallons, it's 78% efficiency, which is my highest using this pilsner malt. The key, it would seem, is stirring at the 15 and 30 minute marks.

I was all done, including cleanup by 1:30PM.

I used the 3rd generation yeast from the Saison du Mock. I pitched about .5L slurry. I was a little concerned about using it since I hadn't seen activity this morning, but as of 5:30PM the next day, the bubbling is non-stop.

Since Willie hasn't brewed a saison yet, I've offered my yeast cake for his Belgian pleasure.

Souris de Grange Belgian Blonde

Have you seen this before? Yes! This is a small revision on the Church Mouse Belgian Blonde recipe that went over really well at the St. Louis Brewer's Heritage Festival. The only difference is that I might be forced to use some domestic 2-row in place of the Pilsner malt if I don't have enough for the batch and I'm going to ferment this a lot warmer than last time to try to gain some big Belgian flavors. Also, I'm using Styrian Goldings for the single hop addition.

10 lbs. Belgian Pilsner (or 2-row depending on supplies)
.5 lb. malted wheat
.5 lb. Dingemans aromatic
1 lb. beet sugar
Mash at 150 degrees.
90 minute boil
1.5 oz. Styrian Goldings for 60 minutes
WLP540 Abbey IV Ale Yeast
http://www.whitelabs.com/beer/strains_wlp540.html

By the way, the name translates to Barn Mouse. I figured it's not as prestigious as the Church Mouse if I have to use 2-row.

Strike 2 American IPA

I'm taking another shot at my American IPA recipe. The first batch was good (it even took a second place in a competition), but I think it could use a little more late edition hops. Since my first batch was boiled way down, I'm going to work on making sure I pull the right amounts of everything.

Here it is for now. The hops may change a bit since I have Centennial available.

12 # Breiss 2-row
1 # Breiss Crystal 40
1 oz. 14.4 AA Magnum @60 min
1 oz. 4.5 AA Cascade @30 min
1 oz. 4.5 AA Cascade @15
1 oz. 4.5 AA Cascade @1 min

1 oz. 9.0 AA Centennial @1 min

Dry hop with 1 oz. 4.5 AA Cascade and 1 oz. 9.0 AA Centennial

White Labs WLP001 California Yeast

At 70% efficiency -

OG: 1.067
FG: 1.013
ABV: 7.2%
IBU: 71
SRM: 12

Snakebite American Strong Golden Ale

The other Brewcation recipe. This is going to be similar to a light barleywine.

Brew date:7/4/2009

Beer name:Snakebite Oaked American Golden Strong

Batch size:5 gallons

BJCP style:19C. American Barleywine

Malt bill:

14 lb. Briess Brewers 2-row Malt

.5 lb. Briess Carapils 2-row Malt

1 lb. Gambrinus Honey Malt

1 lb. Light Munich Malt

Hops bill:

1 oz Magnum (14.0% AA, Pellet) at 60 min.

1 oz Cascade ( 5.5% AA, Pellet) at 20 min.

Yeast: 2 packets of Fermentis Safale US-05 (US-56) American Ale (dry)

Original Gravity: 1.085
Final Gravity: 1.019
ABV: 9.1%
IBU: 53
SRM: 11

Bulldog Brown Ale

This is for the upcoming Brewcation happening during the 4th of July weekend. At least one British beer and one American beer are going to be made. This is the Brit.

Brew date:07/03/2009

Beer name:Bulldog Brown Ale

Batch size:5 gallons

BJCP style:11B. Southern English Brown Ale

Malt bill:

10.5 lb Thomas Fawcett Maris Otter

.5 lb Briess Caramel 60L Malt

.4 lb Briess Carapils Malt

.3 lb Thomas Fawcett Chocolate

Hops bill:

.5 oz Fuggles-UK at 60 minutes

.5 oz Styrian Golding at 60 minutes

.5 oz Fuggles-UK at 30 minutes

.5 oz Styrian Golding at 30 minutes

.5 oz Fuggles-UK at 0 minutes

.5 oz Styrian Golding at 0 minutes

Yeast: WhiteLabs WLP026 Premium Bitter Ale

Original Gravity: 1.061

Final Gravity: 1.015

ABV: 6.1

Bitterness (IBU): 33

Color (SRM): 34