Spring Training IPA (Ninkasi Total Domination IPA Clone)

A very full boil

A beer to kick off the Dodgers Spring Training! A ten gallon batch I brewed with Scott; five are for me and the other five are for two friends Erik and Jeremy. This recipe is supposed to be close to a Ninkasi Total Domination IPA (65 ibu and 6.7%). I read somewhere that some dude went down there and talked to the brewer about what hops he uses, I guess he said Summit, Amarillo, and Crystal. Also that they use Wyeast 1968 yeast. Here's what I'm trying:

Ingredients:

Grain: Targeted OG/FG/ABV 1.064/1.023/6.7 

25lbs 2-row
4lbs Cyrstal 15
3lbs Munich

Hops: IBU-66
2.5 oz Summit @60 (I really did 2 oz Summit and a half oz of Nugget)
2 oz Amarillo @30
2 oz Crystal @2

Yeast:
Wyeast London ESB 1968, a 32 oz starter made a day prior

Water:
12 Gallons strike @ 170
Collected around 6 gallons
5.7 Gallons of (double batch) sparge @ 185
Collected around 5.3 or 5.4 gallons

Extras:
Wirflock @2
Yeast Nutrient @2

Notes:
2-26-2011--Forgot to do a pre-boil gravity. There was a LOT of wort. I almost filled the keggle. Post boil gravity was 1.062. Ninkasi's website has the Total Domination OG at 1.064 so I'd say i'm off to a good start. To hit the correct ABV I need this to get down to 1.012, so we'll see.
3-1-2011-Gravity down to 1.020.
3-6-2011--Both batches gravities are still at 1.020, I think it's fermented out. I must have the grain bill wrong if Ninkasi gets theirs to under 1.015. I bottled Erik and Jeremy's 5 gallons and I kegged mine. Since I adjusted the batch to be 11 gallons instead of 10, I ended up with a couple growlers full as well. I put three teaspoons of priming sugar and will try to condition in the growler.
4-3-2011--A good beer. I think Erik and Jeremy like it more than I do. It's kind of sweet with a small, small amount of bitterness. Emilie really likes it. I have a hard time calling it a IPA, but who cares about the stupid style descriptions anyways?

Brawl'n Stout

Brewing up another batch of Rogue Shakespeare Stout for a friend. I switched the roasted malt from Great Western to Simpsons and increased it from 6 to 10 ounces. I'm hoping for a little darker of a stout.

It was really cold out, Emilie's warming her hands

Ingredients: 
Grains:
11 lbs 2-row pale
.5 lbs 120L Crystal
.5 lbs chocolate
1 lbs flaked oats
10 oz Roast Barley

Hops:
2 oz Cascade @ 60
1 oz Cascade @ 30
.5 Cascade @ 2

Yeast:
Rogue's PacMan yeast

Water:
5.6 gallons of strike @ 170
Collected 3.5 gallons
3.5 gallons of (triple batch) sparge @ 185 (I accidently did 4.5 gallons geerrrrrr!)
Collected 4 gallons (oops)

Extra:
Yeast nutrient @ 2


Priming Sugar:
3/4 cup Dextrose


Notes:
2-25-2011--Well...my streak of 3 perfect brew days came to a close. I need to lower the thermometer on my HLT because I put up too high and I can't sparge under 4.5 gallons. What I've been doing is heating up 4.5 gallons and dumping the extra down till I have what I need. Well, this time I forgot. Pre-boil gravity was like 1.050. I ended up with an extra gallon of water so I boiled for 2 hours instead of 1. All said I finished with just over 5.5 gallons, which is what I was shooting for. Post-boil gravity was just shy of 1.060. Catastrophe avoided. 
3-1-2011--Gravity down to 1.015. Tastes good. I'll bottle it tonight or tomorrow.
3-13-2011--I got a text from Mr. Brawley himself stating he's very pleased with the stout, the he gave a bottle to a couple of his friends (more brewing for me) and that his wife was currently horking down a bottle.

Elderberry Beer

It's not what you think, I haven't decided to make fruity girl beers. I did; however, make another Pliny but this time for my Pastor (elder) Dave Berry. I have farmed out my services (at cost) to friends. I've already filled up the next three weekends brewing for buddies. I must really like to brew. Everything went fine--Andy came over an we finished in record time (3:45). Same recipe as before, but this time I strained the hops better so I ended up with 5.5 gallons in the fermenter.

Ingredients:

Grains:        

 14 lbs two row

.6 lbs Crystal 50

.6 lbs Carapils 

Hops:          

3.5 oz Millennium @ 90 min

.5 oz  Millennium @ 45 min

1 oz Nugget @ 30 min

2 oz Nugget @ 0 min

1 oz Chinook @ 0 min

1 oz Millennium dry hop after 6 days

1 oz Chinook dry hop after 6 days

1 oz Nugget dry hop after 6 days

Yeast:         

Safale 05

Misc:         

 1 lbs dextrose (calls for .75 lbs)

Water:

6 gallons of 165

Collected 4 gallons

3.5 gallons of triple batch sparged 180

Collected 3.5 gallons (it must have been more like 4)

Extra:
Wirflock @0

Yeast Nutrient @0

Notes: 

2-19-2011--Pre boil adjusted gravity 1.067. Post boil gravity was 1.07+ Same as before. I'm interested to see what the different yeast will do.
2-26-2011--Down to 1.012, perfect. Racked to (a short) secondary and simultaneously cold crashed.
3-1-2-11--Bottled and ready to send off.

Cheerilee Wee Heavy

St. Patty's day is right around the corner, so I figure I'd brew up a Wee Heavy (Scottish, I know) to go along with my wife's world famous corn beef and cabbage. I'm planning on bottling this unless a keg miraculously opens up. I asked Clarabelle to give me a name for the beer, she first answered, "Block Tree." I certainly liked the name, but I asked her to give me another. Her second try was "Cheerilee." For those of you not familiar with the world of My Little Poney, you're not going to get it; for those of you that are, you'll know that Cheerilee is the older sister of Scootaloo which, of course, makes Clarabelle Cheerilee and Adelaide Scootaloo. I supposed that's what you get when you ask a 3 year old to name a beer.

Ingredients

Grain:
15 lbs 2-row
.30 Special B
.30 Roasted Barley
.25 Crystal 60
.25 Carapils
.15 Peated Malt

Hops:
1 oz Centennial @60
.50 oz  Northern Brewer @5

Water:
6 gallons of strike @ 165
Collected 3.25 gallons
2.7 gallon (tripple) batch sparged @190
Collected 2.9 gallons

Yeast:
Safale-04 British

Priming Sugar:
3/4+ cup of liquified dextrose

Extra:
Whirflock @5
Wyeast Nutrient @5

Notes:
I collected a total of 6.15 gallons of 1.060 (pre boiled) wort and I collected 4.8 gallons post boil at 1.070. Brewing went really smoothly, but next time I'll up the sparge. I think I'm going to start calculating for 5.5 gallon batches so I wont be under anymore.
2-19-2011--I'm pretty sure it's finished fermenting and a keg opened up, but I'm out of CO2 so there's no reason to keg quite yet. I still may bottle, not sure yet.
2-21-2011--Cold crashed 4.6 gallons of 1.016 and racked to bottling bucket for more cold crash. I bottled 43 bottles with 1 gram of yeast per bottle to the bottling bucket to aid in carbonation.
4-1-2011--I've had a couple of these now. The first was really, really, REALLY peat malty which isn't the best flavor in the world. It's calmed down a bunch since then and I like it. It's certainly not a daily drinker, or a session beer, but it's good.

Holly Gratz Pilsner

Over Christmas I got to talking with Emilie's cousin about my blog. She said she often reads my posts to her coworkers. I was both shocked that someone actually reads my blog an embarrassed that someone actually reads my blog. I told her that I'd name the next beer I made up after her. So...Holly Gratz, this one's for you!
Pretty simple recipe. I was going to do Pilsen only, but Chris at brewbrothers.biz suggested I go with some Carafoam for head retention. Honestly, I'm not sure I know what head retention is (I sort of blushed when he said that...wink, wink). When I got to the brew shop, I had a $75 gift card waiting for me care of my parents for my birthday. I emptied out my ledger on the 10 gallon stout, so this was perfect timing. I've got 39 lbs of 2-row left on the ledger, which means the next two times I brew's going to cost like 4 bucks each!

Ingredients:
13 lbs Pilsen
0.50 lbs Carafoam

Hops:
2 oz Perle @60
1 oz Perle @45
1 oz Saaz @15
1 oz Saaz @0
1 oz Perle Dry Hopped

Yeast:
Wyeast 2001 Pilsner Urquell with a 1 quart starter made a day prior

Water:
5+ gallons strike water @165
collected around 3.5 gallons
3+ gallons (quadruple batch) sparge @190
collected another 3 gallons

Extras:
Whirfloc tablet @5ish
Wyeast yeast nutrient @5ish

Notes:
2-5-2011--Everything was going so well. I was speeding through with no hangups, I even told Emilie that I was about to have two straight perfect brew days; however, at the last sparge the innards separated and stopped filtering. I grabbed a strainer which worked pretty well. Clear wort (I thought) with a pre-boil gravity of 1.044.

Post boil was 1.064 but the wort was suuuper murky. I let it sit while I cleaned and racked the semi clear wort into a bucket, tossed the trub, and racked back to the carboy.

2-7-2011--Fermenting away. I'm shooting for an FG of less than 1.01 so I'll need to let this sit in primary for a week or so. I'm planning on doing a secondary (in the keg or out i'm not sure) for 3 weeks for clarity purposes.
2-13-2011--This is taking longer than I thought I would. It's still bubbling, but it's only at 1.030. I'm thinking of bringing it in the house, then again the word lager means to store or wait, so maybe I should do that.

2-19-2011--Down to 1.018. I'll rack to secondary as soon as a bucket opens up (but I'll rack back to glass).

2-24-2011--Down to 1.017. Racked to secondary.

2-25-2011--Kegged to cold condition for a while. Added the dry hops.

3-8-2011--Lagering blows. I'm over it. Started to carb

4-1-2011--Took the above picture. Pretty good. Sweeter than a Pilsner Urquell but still has the appropriate amount of pilsner skunky taste. I like it; however, I'm not going to do another lager for a while. I just don't think they're worth the wait.

Remember When Crap was a Bad Word Imperial Chocolate Oatmeal Breakfast Stout

I was having a brain storming session with Scott (Bean Bot Brew) about a new name for an IPA he was making. I came up with some real gems, or so I thought. "Remember When Crap was a Bad Word" seemed appropriate enough for my new flavor sensation stout. I'm taking a Founders recipe from BYO and modifying it a bit and doubling it since five gallons are for me and five I'm taking to the Eden Man Night. I need it to be ready in two weeks, so I'm hoping fermentation and carbonation go quickly.

Ingredients:
Grain
25lbs 2-row
1.5lbs Chocolate
1lbs Crystal 120
1lbs Black Patent
0.26lbs Roasted Barley
2.2lbs Flaked Oats

Hops
2 oz Nugget @60
1 oz Cascade @25
1 oz Cascade @0

Water:
11 gallons strike @ 170
Collected just under 7 gallons of first runnings
5 gallons (quadruple batch) sparge @ 190
Collected just under 5 gallons of second runnings

Yeast:
2 quart Pacman Yeast Slurry split into two 5 gallon batches

Extra:
3 oz Unsweetened Bakers Chocolate liquified in a couple ounces of wort @2
4 oz Bold Coffee @2
4 oz Mild Coffee Dry Hopped in keg

Notes:

Blackest of black wort

2-4-2011--Believe it or not; nothing went wrong on this glorious brew day. No leaks, no spills, no forgetting to install anything, nothing but smooth sailing for around 5 hours. I took off from work early so I got a quick jump today; I started around 2 pm and finished cleaning up around 7:30. I collected 5 gallons on the nose in both buckets. Really, really black wort with a pre boil gravity of 1.050+, post boil 1.070+ and a heavy coffee taste. I couldn't pick up on the chocolate, but I'm stoked on that, I was hoping it would be subtle. I'm looking for an FG of 1.017, but I'd take anything under 1.023 since it needs to be done fermenting in 4 days minimum so I can have it all carbed and ready for the Eden Man Night on the 18th. I enjoyed three wonderful birthday beers tonight: Anderson Valley Winter Solstice, Hair of the Dog Fred, and Alameda Brewing Yellow Wold IPA. All three were really good.

Coffee and chocolate ready for the boil

2-5-2011--One of the batches started to bubble within an hour the other hasn't started yet.
2-6-2-11--Checked the gravity on the one that hasn't started bubbling, 1.035. I guess fermentation's going fine.
2-7-2011--Kegged one of the 5 gallons with a final gravity of 1.018 which gives it an ABV of 7.1%. I'm pleased with that; however, I sort of wish I would have beefed it up a bit and gotten an ABV of 8-9%. I think beers with this much flavor should be balanced with a higher gravity. Oh well. I have 11 days for it to carb and be ready for the man night. I think it'll be just fine. I'll probably taste it before, although it would be pretty cool to have the first taste be with 35 of my buddies.
2-12-2011--Kegged the second 5 gallons, same final gravity. Big, big coffee taste with a balanced malty chocolaty finish. I really like it. The coffee taste is really prominent so I think I'm going to skip the dry hopped coffee.
2-13-2011--The first 5 gallons is carbed and ready. The first pint was mostly yeasty-coffeey-chocolatey grossness and uber foamy. I popped the seal and released the excess co2 and poured a second pint which was wonderful. I'm digging it big time.
I previewed a growler at Community Group tonight to grand success. I think I'll stay put on the coffee.
2-18-2011--The beer was warmly received to some shining reviews at man night. Good thing I have another 5 gallons to enjoy.