Ingredients for 5 gallon batch:

• 8.75# RAHR 2-row
• 1.3# 60L crystal malt
• 1.0# chocolate malt
• 0.25# black patent malt
• 0.75# lactose (1 min)
• 0.5# cocoa powder (0 min)
• 1.5 oz Mt Hood Hops , 4.1% (60 min)
• .25 oz Kent Goldings, 7.2% (30 min)

Batch #14 notes:

• Mashed @155-156˚F
• Boiled 90 minutes
• Only collected about 4.5 gal — left about 0.5 gallon of that plugged up the siphon
• OG: 1.075
• Rehydrated S-04 yeast and pitched  11/28/2010
• Racked to secondary 12/9  with 2 oz of cocoa nibs
• FG: 1.029 –  6.1%
• 32 IBU
• Tasting notes: It’s dark in color — black, almost, with a hing of cream color. It pours out of the tap with very fine bubbles, sorta-of like it was on nitrogen. Aroma has distinct chocolate notes, toasty notes, and a hint of burnt sugar, almost smokey caramel note. Tastes of toasted chocolate nibs, with a bit of creaminess in the finish. The chocolate is not in-your-face candy bar chocolate — there’s no overt sweetness. It’s subdued by the toasted flavor that is either coming from the nibs, or likely the black patent. Admittedly, the first taste is almost overpowering, but, the palette warms quickly and by the third drink you either love it or hate.

Batch #13, brewed 11/07/2010:

• Subbed RAHR 2 row instead of Maris Otter pale malt
• 2.2#  Munich instead of 2.0
• 0.6# Cara-pils instead of 0.5
• Used Centennial instead of the Mt. Hood for the aromatics.
• Cascades were only 5% vs the 7.8% called for. Didn’t have extra to increase with.
• 7G mash water. Strike of 168˚F. Mashed at ~155˚F. Sparged with 9G.
• Dumped onto WLP029 Kolsh yeast from the Oktoberfest altbier.
• Collected 10.5G into primary at 1.067, for an efficiency of 87%!
• Dry hopped with 0.5oz Mt hood and 0.25oz Centennial (per 5 gallon) for 6 days
• Finished at 1.021, for 6.0% ABV
• 29 IBU
• Kegged 11/25.

Recipe used for 10G batch:

• 10# German Vienna malt
• 10# German Pilsner malt
• 4# German Munich malt
• 1# Caramunich malt
• 1# Caravienne malt
• White Labs WLP029 German Kölsch
• Mash at 154˙F for 90 minutes
• Boil for 90 minutes
• 2 oz Tettang for 60 min
• 1 oz Hallertau@3.8% for 30 min
• 1 oz Hallertau@3.8% for 15 min

Batch #12 brewed on 10/9/2010:

• 8.0G of water and 26# of grain is the absolute limit of my 10G mash tun.
• Struggled to maintain 154˙F and probably averaged 152˙F
• Pitched with 3 bottles of yeast since I didn’t get to the store in time to do a starter
• Subbed Liberty@4.3% for the Tettang
• Collected 11.0 G into primary at 1.065, for a real efficiency of 74% — Not shabby!
• Pitched in the late afternoon on 10/9 and temp was about 72˚F .  Cooled it through the night down to ~63˙F.
• Most of the fermentation was between 64-68˚F, with a brief excursion above 70˚. On 11/5, moved buckets into fridge to chill prior to kegging.
• One bucket finished at 1.021, and the other at 1.017 — quite a bit higher than the original. Not doing a starter was probably a mistake. After blending, that’s about a 6.1% ABV.
• ~23.7 IBU

Ingredients (5G batch)

• 5.5# 2-row malt (RAHR)
• 5.5# Malted white wheat
• 0.25# rice hulls
• 12gm Sterling hops (4.8) — 60 min.  (nothing special about this, just wanted to use up a remnant)
• 6gm Cascades hops (7.0) — 60 min.
• 10gm Cascades — 10 minutes
• 2.5 oz fresh baby ginger, medium-finely shredded — 5 min.
• Ginger was asian-market fresh — none of the dried, brown skin you see in most grocery stores
• US-05 yeast

Batch #10 notes:

• Mash target 154˙F
• OG: 1.055.
• Pitched 8/29/10
• Racked to keg on 9/6 (8 days in primary).  Sample has very forward ginger flavor, almost like an unsweetened craft ginger ale (soda), but, the wheat beer base is still distinctly present.
• FG: 1.010, for a 5.9% ABV

Batch #15 notes:

• Used 5.75# of malt and wheat.
• Used Golding hops, scaled for AA from original for bittering, and 10gm for aroma
• 2.9oz grated ginger this time
• Came up with only 4.5G of wort (at 1.072). Over boiled it. Made up with 0.5G of RO water (unboiled — yikes).
• Pitched 1/29/11
• OG: 1.065
• FG: 1.014 — for a 6.8% ABV
• Kegged on 2/21. Fermentation went off the morning after pitching, but, the higher gravity just took longer to finish out. I should have racked it about 4-5 days sooner, but, I got distracted with other things. Sample has less forward ginger than I recall on the first batch.

Batch #8, brewed 6/20/10:

• 5.25 Gallon batch
• 5.5# Belgian Pilsner Malt
• 3.3# White wheat (raw)
• 0.5 oz Sterlings (7.0%) — 60 min
• 0.25 oz Czech Saaz (4.0%) — 10 min (should have been 60 min)
• 0.25 oz Czech Saaz (4.0%) — 1 min
• 0.25 oz Coriander
• 0.25 oz fresh orange zest
• 0.25 oz fresh shredded ginger
• White labs WLP400

• Mashed @152˙F in 3.0 G water. Sparged w/ 5.25 G
• Boiled for 90 minutes.
• OG: 1.043

Ingredients actually used:

• 8lb 8oz American Two-row
• 8 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt – 80L
• 8 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt – 60L
• 8 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt – 40L
• 4 oz Melanoidin Malt (german)
• 2 oz Carafa II special (german)
• 1 oz Roasted Barley (british)
  
• 60 mins 1 oz Palisades pellet 8.0
• 20 mins 0.5oz Sterling leaf 7.0
• 10 mins 0.5oz Willamette leaf 4.5
• Safeale US-05 yeast
• Dry hop 7 days .5oz Cascade leaf 8.7

How batch #5 went down:

• subbed .5oz Target for the Willamettes
• Mashed with 3.5G water @ ~152˙F temp for 60 minutes.
• Brought up to 175˙ for sparge
• Sparged with 3.5G
• Yielded 5.75G before boil at ~1.050. Which makes 76% brewhouse efficiency.
• SG: 1.053 Pitched evening 4/2
• $21 worth of ingredients

How it went down for batch #7:

• Omitted the roasted barley for this batch, just to see what difference 1oz of it really makes
• Calculated numbers: 3.4 G mash water, 4.0 G sparge, Strike of 164 ˙F,
• Strike temp was too hot and mash ended up on a roller coaster from 158ish down to 146 before stabilizing at 152ish.
• Came out with 6.28 G pre-boil at 1.050 for a brewhouse efficiency of 83%!!

Post boil ended with ~5.1 gals. Calculated gravity of 1.063 (forgot to take a reading).

How it went down for batch #9:

• Batch size: 10 G — first time scaling up
• Mashed at ~156˙F initially, and then let it cool to 152.
• Collected 11.7G wort at 1.045 –  only 70% efficient.
• OG: 1.056.  Pitched on 8/16
• Omitted the roasted barley for this batch. Subbed Amarillo and Cascades for the Pallisade hops. Only have 1/2 of the needed Sterling, so subbed more Cascades to make up for that.
• Spent 1 week in primary, 1 week in secondary w/ dry hops.
• FG: 1.012 making it a little light at 4.5% ABV.
• Still not as red as I’d like it to be.  Flavor is notably more floral/citrus due to the added Cascades.

Batch #17:

• Brewed 5/14/11
• 10G batch.
• Added the 1 or 2 oz of roasted barely this time. It did darken up the color, but, it adds a toasted, slightly burnt flavor that I’m not keen on. I’d rather miss the red tone and hit the flavor.
• First time using the fermentation temp controller.

• 7# RAHR 2-row malt
• 0.75# CaraFoam (should be Cara-pils)
• 0.5# Crystal 15L
• 0.5# German Vienna
• 1 package Safeale US-05
• 1 oz Centennial hops @8.3% (scheduled half each at 55 and 35 minutes of boil)
• 1 oz Cascade Hops @8.7% (scheduled half at 20 and 5 minutes of boil)
• ~$20 worth of ingredients

How it happened (brew batch #4):

• Mashed with 4 G of water. This is 1.5 to cover the false bottom and 2.5 to wet the grain. This was a mistake and should have used about 3 – 3.5 G
• Mashed with Mashed at 150-152˚F for 60 minutes and then brought up to 170˚F.
• Sparged with ~2.25 G hot liquor. Needed more sparge volume and less mash volume.
• Yielded 5.0 G of wort after sparge.
• IG preboil: 1.041, which yields about 64% efficiency. Not shabby for the first all-grain attempt — but leaves some room for improvement (damn my perfectionist tendencies)
• Added .5 G of water during the boil to help maintain volume.
• Racked to keg on 3/5 — 9 days in primary.  Put on CO2. Probably should have let it settle in secondary.
• FG: 1.008 — 4.3% ABV
• After 2 weeks in the keg, it’s turned nearly clear, losing almost all of the chill haze. Taste is moderately hopped, with a refreshing hop aftertaste that is not bitter. Ohh so very drinkable. Very happy.

Batch #6:

• modified ingredients: 7.5# of 2-row, and 0.8# carafoam (instead of 0.75 cara-pils). Subbed 0.5 oz of Amarillo for the 20 minute cascades (due to insufficient cascades). Rest same.
• made modification to false bottom to reduce the below space to only 1 gallon.
• Mashed with 3.25 gallon water
• Strike: 164˙F. Maintained 152-154˙F mash for 1h, 5m.
• Overshot mash-out and brought it upto 185˙F. Ooops.
• Sparged with 4.25G
• Pre-boil yield: 6.0 G at 1.042, which makes a brew house efficiency of 75.4%. Hot damn!
• Post-boil 5+ gallon at 1.047

Batch #16: Brewed on 3/28/2011
With the start of spring, it’s time to renew this favorite in the kegerator. I’m going to hop this one up a bit more, and dry hop it as well. While measuring the base malt, I had 1 pound left over from the sack, so, I just dumped it in.

Even with that, I’m tracking at the upper limits of the BJCP style guide for a blonde. Good enough!

• modified ingredients: 8.5# of 2-row, and 0.8# carafoam (instead of 0.75 cara-pils)
• Bumped the hops up: 10gm Centennial for 55; 11gm Centennial for 35, 12gm Cascade for 20, 14 gm Cascade for 5
• Centennials were 9.2%, and Cascades were 5.0%
• Estimated IBU: 28
• Pitched 2 packets of hydrated US-05
• Targeted mash of 156 to bump the maltiness up a bit. It averaged a bit lower than that.
• Collected 5.3 G at 1.056, for an efficiency of 78%.
• Dry hopped for ~2 weeks with remaining hops from 2 oz packages. Should have used more cascades.
• Stuck fermentation. Racked to keg on 4/28.
• FG: 1.011, for 7.2% ABV

Batch #18 Brewed 7/17/2011
Doing 10G batch, splitting it halvsies with S-05, and half with WLP568 Belgian Saison strain. The Belgian will get 5# of Apricots in secondary.

• 15# 2-row, 1.3# cara-pills, 1# 10L, 1# Vienna
• Mashed at 150. Little hot, then little cold, then stable. Used Recirc pump during mash. Worked great.
• Collected 10.7G at 1.0465 (corrected to 60&deg), for 75% effeciency
• Belgian is targeting 72&deg ferm. Got warm for a 1-2 days and went up to 75&deg and slowly came back down to 72.
• S-05 is targetting 68&deg
• Both finished at a 1.010, for a 4.8% abv
• Kegged S-05 version on 7/27
• Racked Saison yeast version to secondary with 5# of apricot on 7/27

• 4# light dry malt extract
• 0.6# corn sugar
• 0.5# Carapils malt
• 0.5# Crystal malt 15L
• 0.5# Crystal malt 60L
• 0.33# Belgium Special B 180L
• 0.25# Chocolate malt 350L
• 0.5oz Target hops 11% boil for full hour. (possible subs: Nugget, Fuggle, Willamette, Admiral)
• .25oz East Kent Golding 5% — last 15 minutes. (possible subs: Fuggle, Progress, First Gold)
• Safeale S-04 yeast
• Batch size: 5.5 Gallons

Batch #3 Notes:

• Mini-mashed for 1 hour at 155-157˚F in a grain bag. Brought up to 170˚F and then rinsed with 170˚F water.
• Broke the siphon out of the kettle through the chiller. Had to restart.
• Pitched late on 2/3/2010
• Held primary @69-71˚F. Finished bubbling after ~3 days Racked 2/10
• Bottled 26 bottles worth on 2/20. Other half went into a keg.
• ~$25 worth of ingredients
• OG: 1.045 (calculated after measuring prior to dilution — might be rough)
• FG: 1.010 — 4.6% ABV.  The real stuff is 4.7%, so, just about nailed that.

Ingredients:

• 6 lbs Coopers Dry Malt Extract (DME)
• 0.5 lb corn sugar
• 1.5 lb (16 Fl Oz) Belgian Dark Candi Syrup — D2
• 1 lb Munich malted grain (1.4L)
• 0.5 lb Belgian aromatic malted grain (20L)
• 0.5 lb Belgian caramunich malted grain (50L)
• 0.5 lb Belgian special B (130L)
• 6 AAU Amarillo Hops
• White Labs Abbey ale yeast  WL530 — 3 vials, or a large starter

Method:

1. Put 6 gallons of water in the brew kettle
2. Put the grains in the kettle inside of a grain bag.
3. Heat to 155˚F and steep for 60 minutes.
4. Remove grain bag and drain. Rinse with hot water but do not squeeze the bag.
5. Add DME and bring to boil
6. Add hops and boil for 60 minutes
7. Add candi syrup and corn sugar and then boil for 5 minutes
8. Cool as quickly as possible.
9. Add yeast and aerate thoroughly
10. For best result, cool to 65˚F and let the temp rise slowly to 70˚F during fermentation.

Batch Notes

Batch #2:

• Pitched the evening of 1/17/2010
• Brewed in 5G pot.
• Pitched at 73˚F. First use of wort chiller — took about 1 hour to cool to 73˚F w/ top-up water. Needs more work.
• FU#1: Pre-heated the water. Added grain when it was 120˚F
• Volume in fermentor: 5.25G
• Very slow to finish fermentation. Bubbled ~2 months. Racked to secondary and racked to keg with air-lock after that.
• IG: 1.073; FG: 1.017; ABV: 7.4%
• Nose: plummy, spicey, hint of nutmeg.
• Flavor profile: tons of toasty caramel, slightly sweet and nutty. Finish is clean, doesn’t linger excessively, which is problematic as it leaves you wanting another sip — far to easy too drink. Brings back fond memories of honeymooning in Brugge.

NIKON D200, ISO 250, ƒ/2.8, 1/45sec, 38mm focal L.