The Lazy Brewer » Homebrewing

Centennial Ale!

Mark Ranes — Tue, 04 May 2010 16:31:24 +0000

Mark's Centennial IPA Tap Handle

Batch 100

This Friday (with the close of another school year imminent, I’m trying to recover some of the extra days I worked last summer to open a new school campus – use ‘em or lose ‘em), I’ll be brewing my 100th batch of home brewed beer! My, how the time flies. Seems like it was just yesterday and I was waiting for any new information I could get on the progress of the construction of my MoreBeer 1550 BrewSculpture. I even visited the Concord showroom and was taken on a tour of the metal shop. There in a bucket, were the various pieces of of angle iron , tubing and parts that would eventually become my brewery. When the FedEx freight truck finally arrived in June, I couldn’t wait to brew my first batch and in 100 degree plus weather, I brewed a Racer 5 clone. It turned out OK – not great, but OK.

It was at least fifteen batches before I really felt comfortable with my equipment, where I could brew on autopilot and not make stupid mistakes. By batch 30 I was making really good beer and feeling comfortable with replicating recipes and experimenting with what different malts and hops brought to an ale. I started messing around with lagers, first brewing in the winter, taking advantage of environmental chilling to aid the fermentation. By batch 50, I was fermenting both ales and lagers in a temperature controlled fermentation vessel – a thermostatically controlled refrigerator. I brewed a couple amazing ales in this period of time. Somewhere in the next few batches, Sociables became a reality. From there, it was a race to this batch!

I’ve been thinking about this batch of ale – batch number 100 – for quite some time. I has to be an IPA:) It has to use my favorite hops and have a simple malt bill. It needs to be a big, bitter IPA. Here’s what a threw together.

Mark’s Centennial IPA
14-B American IPA
Author: Mark Ranes
Date: 5/7/10

Size: 10.0 gal
Efficiency: 75.0%
Attenuation: 75.0%
Calories: 316.98 kcal per 16.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.071 (1.056 – 1.075)
Terminal Gravity: 1.018 (1.010 – 1.018)
Color: 9.71 (6.0 – 15.0)
Alcohol: 7.03% (5.5% – 7.5%)
Bitterness: 71.1 (40.0 – 70.0)

Ingredients:
12.0 lb American 2-row
12.0 lb Maris Otter Pale
1.0 lb 2-Row Carapils Malt
1.0 lb Carastan
1.0 oz Columbus (15.0%) – added during boil, boiled 60.0 min
2.5 oz Centennial (10.0%) – added during boil, boiled 20.0 min
1.0 lb Corn Sugar
1.0 ea Servomyces Yeast Nutrient – added during boil, boiled 10.0 min
2.0 ea Whirlfloc Tablets (Irish moss) – added during boil, boiled 10.0 min
4.0 oz Cascade (5.5%) – added during boil, boiled 4.0 min
4.0 oz Amarillo (8.5%) – added during boil, boiled 4.0 min
4.0 oz Cascade (5.5%) – added dry to secondary fermenter
4.0 oz Amarillo (8.5%) – added dry to secondary fermenter
2000 mL Starter White Labs WLP041 Pacific Ale

I hope turning 100 feels this good!

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Watermelon Wheat on Deck for Thursday

Mark Ranes — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 07:18:07 +0000

While I’m not much for fruity ales, I have been intrigued by the stories of 21st Amendment’s Watermelon Wheat ale. It was the buzz beer of several beer festivals a couple years back and 21st Amendment has made its name in the craft brewing business on its accolades. It is also interesting that it is only available in cans for retail packaging. At tonight’s Modesto Mashers homebrew club meeting, one of our members, who is in the craft brewing industry, told us that cans make for a more stable product, as well as being a more environmentally friendly retail package. His words were compelling. 21st Amendment was one for the first to return to cans, rather than bottles for its retail offerings. Oskar Blues Brewing, in Colorado, is also going back to cans for their retail packaging and I’d expect more craft brewers to do the same in the near future as it is actually cheaper than bottling.

I’m looking for a quick turn-around, summer ale for the masses, that I can have ready for the July 4 holiday. I dug around the web looking for a clone recipe of 21st Amendment’s Watermelon Wheat, but there are very few existing recipes out there. I found several that use Williams Brewing’s watermelon extract flavoring, (and they even have an extract-based kit for a watermelon wheat ale) but I wanted a more traditional recipe using fresh fruit. I came up blank for an all-grain version of the recipe I wanted, so I decided to develop one of my own. I started out with a basic American Wheat ale recipe, and then was lucky to discover that one of my brew club buddies has some inside info on how much watermelon to use, as well as when to add it to the boil. The amount of watermelon works out to about 1.06 pounds per gallon of finished ale, with the watermelon cut into wedges, rind and all, added to the last ten minutes of the boil. 21st Amendment’s own site states that their Watermelon Wheat ale is a 5.5 ABV ale, with 17 IBUs, so I tweaked my basic American Wheat ale to match these numbers. Here are the details of the recipe:

Mark’s Watermelon Wheat
6-D American Wheat or Rye Beer

Size: 10.56 gal
Efficiency: 75.0%
Attenuation: 75.0%
Calories: 245.46 per 16.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.055 (1.040 – 1.055)
Terminal Gravity: 1.014 (1.008 – 1.013)
Color: 3.7 (3.0 – 6.0)
Alcohol: 5.44% (4.0% – 5.5%)
Bitterness: 17.02 (15.0 – 30.0)

Ingredients:
2 tbsp 5.2 pH Stabilizer – added during mash
10.0 lbs Wheat Malt
11.0 lbs Standard 2-Row
0.5 lbs 2-Row Carapils® Malt
1.6 oz Willamette (5.0%) – added during boil, boiled 60.0 min
1.0 tsp Wyeast Nutrient – added during boil, boiled 10.0 min
1.0 oz Liberty (4.0%) – added during boil, boiled 10.0 min
10.6 lbs Watermelon (fresh) – added during boil, boiled 10.0 min
1.0 oz Liberty (4.0%) – added during boil, boiled 0.0 min
1600.0 mL White Labs WLP320 American Hefeweizen Ale

My budding brewing buddy, Evan, will be joining me this Thursday, at about noon, and taking away a five gallon prize of Watermelon Wheat Ale wort:) Hopefully this summer thirst quenching brew will be a hit!

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Jurassic Amber Ale Brew Day

Mark Ranes — Sun, 18 May 2008 04:17:02 +0000

Steve showed up ready to brew (but not ready to drink – he had an encounter last evening with the Blue Flame IPA he recently brewed) this morning and we had an uneventful brew session. Things just kind of played out like they should, with no issues. We mashed in right on target at 152 degrees and it just went like clockwork from then on. The aromas off of the 7 ounces of Columbus, Centennial and Cascade hops permeated the air throughout the boil and hinted at the final product this American Amber will be in 6-7 weeks.

Steve graciously offered to bring lunch. This guy now has a permanent place in my heart:) He brought beer soaked brats and the most amazing caramelized red peppers and onions. He also brought a fantastic red potato salad that kicked ass! Damn! This was some of the finest brew day grub I’ve ever had the pleasure of eating. Stephen was able to coordinate his family activities so that he arrived just in time for lunch – and an ale or two. Prior to lunch I was able to get some tonic into Steve to ease his discomfort. Last weekend I cleaned out the keggerator and found a keg of Double Tun Imperial Stout that I had completely forgotten about, that was originally brewed on 01/02/07. It was hiding in the very back of the keggerator and was a wonderful find. The Imperial Stout has hints of sherry and the flavors have melded together in the ways that only time can bring about (that is my number one rule of brewing – Time is your friend:) After a short cup of Double Tun Imperial Stout, Steve was miraculously cured and ready to face the day!

The lunch served to set an ale foundation and we enjoyed numerous ales as the day progressed. Steve brought a bomber of his version of the Blue Flame Imperial IPA (spot on to the recipe I’ve been brewing:) and a great inky black Stout that was enjoyed by all. A couple friends stopped by after a round of golf (in 100+ temps!) just as we were dropping the wort into carboys. They had several beers and enjoyed the brews on tap. The amber ale came in at about 14.5 brix – for an original gravity of about 1.058. One of my brewing faults is that I never seem to be ale to put out a session ale, so this is probably the closest I’ll come to this in the foreseeable future.

There were two unseen bonuses to the day! Steve brought his 5.5 month old Boston Terrier, Cooper, with him today as his wife Maggie was in the air, flying back from DC, so he was on dog sitting duty. I have never, ever, seen a more well behaved and adjusted pup as Cooper! He explored the back yard (and had an interesting face to face encounter with our territorial cat) and hung out in his kennel. Hopefully his presence doesn’t cause puppy envy in my family:) The final treat was the stout cupcakes I’d heard so much about on the Modesto Mashers forums. Steve and Maggie brought them to the AHA Big Brew Day at Barley & Wine on May 3. I brewed ten gallons of Old Man Bitter that day, here in Turlock, so I missed out on the stout cupcakes that everyone raved about! I was sooooo jazzed to give them try:) Imagine my joy when I heard Steve mention them, at my place!

You can drool by looking at their loveliness in this picture. Oh, wait – there’s nothing on the plate! Steve got all the way to Turlock and discovered that he had forgotten to bring them (I think this was caused by his encounter last night with the Blue Flame Imperial IPA:) Actually, I think the oversight was carefully planned so that he gets another invite to brew! Next time we’ll meet him at his car to check the inventory.

Steve hung out, and Brenda and I got to know him much better. What a guy (other than the cupcake thing:)! Aside from the heat, it was a great brew day, surrounded by like-minded friends, and in the end, we made beer:)

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Bitter Brewing…

Mark Ranes — Sat, 03 May 2008 22:58:57 +0000

I slept in until 9:15 a.m. (woohoo!), and walked around in a daze for fifteen minutes. At 9:30, I lit the brew sculpture burners, made a pot of coffee, and pulled my feeder wort out of the fridge to warm up a bit. After a quick shower, I heated the feeder wort, and then decanted off the nasty starter beer from the 1600 ml White Labs Premium Bitter Ale yeast, WLP026 starter, and fed it another 700 ml of wort. It is back on the stir plate and the airlock is bubbling away like crazy.

I turned off the strike water burner at 161 degrees and mashed in. Final mash temp was right on the money at 153 degrees.

I changed the Old Man Bitter recipe a bit, as I’m apt to do in the days leading up to a brew day, to reflect the British nature of this brew. I wish I’d had some Marris Otter on hand for the bulk of the grist, but the closest thing I had was Golden Promise, so I split the bulk of the grains between it and standard 2-row. I also mixed up the crystal malts a bit add some complexity to the bitter. The updated recipe is as follows:

Old Man Bitter
8-C Extra Special/Strong Bitter (English Pale Ale)

Size: 10.00 gal
Efficiency: 70.0%
Attenuation: 75.0%
Calories: 272.61 per 16.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.061 (1.048 – 1.060)
Terminal Gravity: 1.015 (1.010 – 1.016)
Color: 12.8 (6.0 – 18.0)
Alcohol: 6.04% (4.6% – 6.2%)
Bitterness: 41.12 (30.0 – 50.0)

Ingredients:
0.7 tbsp 5.2 pH Stabilizer – added during mash
11.0 lbs Golden Promise Malt
10.0 lbs Pale Malt(2-row)
1.5 lbs Cara-Pils Dextrine Malt
1.2 lbs Toasted Pale Malt
8.0 oz Crystal Malt 120°L
4.0 oz Crystal Malt 20°L
4.0 oz Crystal Malt 10°L
2.0 oz Fuggle (5.0%) – added during boil, boiled 60.0 min
2.0 oz Fuggle (5.0%) – added during boil, boiled 30.0 min
2.0 oz Goldings – E.K. (4.8%) – added during boil, boiled 15.0 min
1.0 tsp Wyeast Nutrient – added during boil, boiled 15.0 min
2.0 ea Whirlfloc Tablets (Irish moss) – added during boil, boiled 15.0 min
2.0 oz Goldings – E.K. (4.8%) – added during boil, boiled 1.0 min
1 1600 ml starter White Labs WLP026 Premium Bitter Ale

Lately my efficiency has been up and I attribute that to extended recirculation, while I mash-out. I figure that for the last ten batches or so, I’ve recirculated 75%-125% of the wort back through the mash while the temp slowly climbs to mash-out temps. I know for a fact this practice clears the wort going into the boil kettle – and far fewer chunks of malt from the grist wind up in the boil. I didn’t mash-out on my first fifty batches, and I really don’t think it negatively affected the taste of the final product, but I do know that my recent batches have fallen clear faster than in the past, so I do see that as a benefit.

12:15 p.m. – Ahhhh! the aroma of Fuggles boiling away. Being a major hophead, I typically use west coast types of hops in the majority of my brews. They tend to have the citrusy, piney and floral aromas of IPAs and pale ales, and these Fuggles lend a more “earthy” and subdued aroma to the boil. The aroma filling my backyard is a pleasant sign of the simple session ale that will come from this brew session.

John, the inspiration for this bitter brew, stopped by and had an ale (or three:). When I finally get my act together and get a sign made for the bar, it’ll be named after one of his favorite phrases when offered a beer – “Well, just to be sociable!”. The bar will be called Sociables. Let’s face it, homebrewing, and beer drinking, is all about being sociable! Additionally, this bitter’s name is also inspired by John. Those of you who know me well know that I am a rabid (long suffering:) Seattle Seahawks fan. John has been gracious to share his 49ers season tickets with me for the last six or seven years. We always go see the 49ers vs. Seahawks game together, sharing a friendly rivalry. The second year we went, the Seahawks won the game, and as we were waiting for the crowd to subside so that we could get out of the Stick, a drunk 20-something 49er fan, started throwing popcorn at me (I was in my blue Seahawk fan gear) and talking trash. John looked up at the jerk and said, “That’s not very nice!”, to which the drunk shouted back, “What are you going to do about it, Old Man!” I thought John was going to leap three row of seats to go kick the drunk’s ass! I grabbed him in a big ‘ole bear hug and held him back. He later thanked me for keeping him out of jail, but for me it was self preservation. You see, he had the car keys in his pocket and I really did want to get home:) So to John, I say, “Old Man, this bitter’s for you!

2:15 p.m. – The Old Man Bitter is in carboys. I oxygenated the wort and popped on two Carboy Covers, and put the ale to bed. The original gravity is 1.064. This should be a nice session ale (at least as much of a session ale a 6% ABV ale can be:) in 4-5 weeks!

Old Man Bitter on Deck

Mark Ranes — Thu, 01 May 2008 04:37:04 +0000

It’s time to brew an English Bitter, in honor of my next door neighbor, John. John is probably the biggest fan of my beers, after Stephen, and never fails to sing the praises of the beer in his hand. John is very English and is always teaching me new phrases I can use to amuse and excite my friends. Old Man Bitter is an ESB (Extra Special Bitter), hopped with Fuggles and East Kent Goldings, traditional hops of English ales. It also features a pound toasted 2-row malt that adds a biscuity note to the ale. I’ll be using one of White Labs Platinum Series yeast strains, Premium Bitter Ale yeast, WLP026. The last time I brewed this ale I used White Labs Dry English Ale yeast, WLP007, so it’ll be interesting to see how it differs. The last batch attenuated almost too well and seemed to lack the chewy mouthfeel I like in my beers. The Premium Bitter yeast doesn’t attenuate quite as well and has a more estery quality that should suit itself well to this ale. Here are the recipe particulars for Old Man Bitter:

Old Man Bitter
8-C Extra Special/Strong Bitter (English Pale Ale)

Size: 10.0 gal
Efficiency: 70.0%
Attenuation: 75.0%
Calories: 268.34 per 16.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.060 (1.048 – 1.060)
Terminal Gravity: 1.015 (1.010 – 1.016)
Color: 9.5 (6.0 – 18.0)
Alcohol: 5.95% (4.6% – 6.2%)
Bitterness: 41.12 (30.0 – 50.0)

Ingredients:
2.0 tbsp 5.2 pH Stabilizer – added during mash
21.0 lbs Pale Malt(2-row)
1.5 lbs Cara-Pils Dextrine Malt
1.2 lbs Toasted Pale Malt
1.0 lbs Crystal 15
2.0 oz Fuggle (5.0%) – added during boil, boiled 60.0 min
2.0 oz Fuggle (5.0%) – added during boil, boiled 30.0 min
2.0 oz Goldings – E.K. (4.8%) – added during boil, boiled 15.0 min
1.0 tsp Wyeast Nutrient – added during boil, boiled 15.0 min
2.0 ea Whirlfloc Tablets (Irish moss) – added during boil, boiled 15.0 min
2.0 oz Goldings – E.K. (4.8%) – added during boil, boiled 1.0 min
1 1600 ml starter White Labs WLP026 Premium Bitter Ale

Saturday is brew day. I’ll be mashing in to Marley about 9:30 a.m. Have I told you lately how much I love brew day?

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TAFTBD IPA Brew Session

Mark Ranes — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 23:11:47 +0000

The Teach a Friend to Brew Day IPA is currently chilling (as I am with a Summit IPA:). The brew session went well once I quit chasing the temperature of the mash. I always wig out when the mash temp is not where I expect it to be once I mash in – always forgetting that I need to wait for it to stabilize. Initially it seemed high and I dropped in a couple quarts of cold water to drop it, and then it was way low, necessitating a couple quarts of water from the hot liquor tank. Maybe I just need to have a pint and chill out with some good tunes when I’m mashing in!

It’s funny how your perspective changes as to the value of a particular brew, with this ale requiring such a large amount of hops. But in the big picture of things, it is worth it. I love the big hop front-end of this ale, backed up by the huge malt backbone. This is truly one of my house ales that needs to be on tap all the time.

TAFTBD IPA has got to be one of the most aromatic boils I do, of all my ales. Each addition of hops causes a crescendo of aroma that permeates my back yard, as well as the nearby neighborhood. I just love brewing this ale! John came over towards the end of the boil and at that point I had a couple ales. I’ve learned that my brews turn out better (like I don’t forget to add things at the right time:) if I wait to have an ale until late in the boil. The ice on my pre-chiller is almost gone and the temp is right on track at about 72 degrees. I’ll be dropping the wort into the carboys in just a few moments.

The only difference to the recipe I posted earlier, is that I added a half pound of corn sugar as I have been doing lately with all my IPAs. I like how the corn sugar helps dry out the ale a bit. It also help me hit my projected OG. The TAFTBD IPA came in at 19 brix, or an original gravity of 1.076. This should be a quality ale in eight weeks!

Wow! Wyeast 1388 is a Workhorse!

Mark Ranes — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 05:52:17 +0000

Jeez – just a little more than 48 hours later, the Belgian Strong Golden is all but done! The airlock is only bubbling about once every 30 seconds and there’s a huge yeast cake on the bottom of the carboy. Tomorrow morning I’ll give the carboy a swirl (yea, I’m a swirler:) to re-suspend the yeast and hope to get a couple more points off the final gravity. I’ll not rush this ale out of glass, so it’ll sit on the yeast for at least ten days, if not longer.

On a completely different note, when I woke up Saturday morning, eager to brew the Belgian Strong, I noticed that one of my eyes was red – like a small blood vessel had burst, but it didn’t look too bad. My eyes are often pretty funky looking and red after taking a shower, so I didn’t think a whole lot about it. But within an hour or so it kinda blossomed (if you look carefully at Saturday’s pictures you can see it:) and over the next day it started looking pretty bad. Brenda suggested that if it didn’t get better I ought to call the optometrist’s office and see what they had to say. By Sunday, it looked bad and I had pretty well decided to call the eye Doc on Monday morning.

I called this morning and they reassured me that the burst blood vessel wasn’t dangerous, or even that urgent, but I could come in if I was worried. A strange coincidence, I’d planned on getting an appointment for a regular check-up this week since I’m on spring break. Of course, they had no last minute appointments available, but put me on the “call list.” Well, I got a call about 3:00 p.m. today saying that they had a cancellation for 4:00 p.m., so I jumped at the opportunity:)

The doctor looked at it, laughed (he’s an old family friend:), and said I had a good one indeed!

It may take as long as a month for all the blood to drain out and make the eye look normal again. Great…

Tomorrow is a full day. We drop Brenda’s Jag off in Livermore to get worked on, I have a leather jacket to return to Wilsons in Pleasanton, then it’s off to EJ Phair (they currently have Drakes IPA and Schooners IPA as guest handles – yum!) in Concord – and a quick trip to MoreBeer. Once we pick up Brenda’s car, we’re heading down to Redwood City and the Paul Thorn show. Life is good!

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Strong Golden Showers…

Mark Ranes — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 17:11:04 +0000

The obligatory pre-brew photo…

The mash-in went perfectly! We hit 149 degrees on the mark.

Once we looked at just how much a bag of cane sugar is, we both decided to back off from 6 pounds of sugar to 5 pounds.

Per Jamil, we’re doing an extended mash – 80 minutes.

The OG seemed a little low after the sparge (pre-boil) at 1.036, but we still have a ninety minute boil to go, not to mention five pounds of cane sugar:)

Sampling the style we’re brewing…

It’s in glass! OG is 1.084…

I was really worried about the 1388 yeast. I made the starter Wednesday evening and never saw any activity. When I got up Thursday, nothing was going on. I cooled the starter so the yeast would drop out and by late Thursday evening, there was a really nice yeast cake on the bottom of the flask. I fed the starter about 400 ml of wort on Friday morning and it took off like a banshee after just a minute or so on the stir plate. Four hours later, there was no activity! I chilled it once again and then decanted off about 500 ml of nasty starter beer this morning, fed it another 300-400 ml of wort, and again it burst to life, fermenting out in about 2-3 hours! Jeez – this 1388 yeast just chews through the wort. I’m expecting a quick, violent fermentation in my carboy:)

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Wow! Wyeast 1388 is a Workhorse!
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Sold Out!

Mark Ranes — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 02:54:01 +0000

Damn! Brenda and I were planning on seeing one of our favorite performers, Paul Thorn, in a small intimate venue in Nicasio, in Marin County, next week. I called to get tickets today and they are sold out! I’m really bummed. Were were planning on staying overnight at a friend’s cabin in Inverness after the show, as it is only 20 minutes away. Paul just released a new CD last month, A Long Way from Tupelo, and I was really looking forward to hearing the new cuts live. You can download several of his live shows, in MP3 format, for free! He’s playing in Redwood City and Santa Cruz also next week, but it is less attractive to think of having to drive home for several hours after the show (and a couple of ales:). Oh, well. Chances are we’ll be able to see him again at the Sonora Blues Festival this summer. He’s performed there the last three or four years. Last year, we saw him with the band on the main stage and then in a “workshop” where it’s just him, a guitar and about a hundred people. I got to request one of my favorite songs last year, Give Them Their Roses, and hear it live, about 10 feet away. Great stuff!

Back to homebrewing! I pulled the two 1388 smack packs out of the fridge this morning, broke open the nutrient pack and left them on the counter all day. They bloated up the best I’ve ever seen Wyeast smack packs perform. I made the starter, pitched both of the smack packs, oxygenated the starter wort, and set it off on the stir plate. I’m expecting this starter to take off like crazy, and still give me time to feed it a couple times before Saturday’s brew day.

And yea, that’s a bottle of Meantime IPA