Here is my Cherry Wheat Recipe with some more details:  You can read more about the brew day here.

Batch Size 5 gallons (usually 6 but scaled down to account for cherry puree addition later)
OG 1.052
IBUs 32 (tinseth method)
Efficiency (~70%)
Mash Temp 152F
Mash Length 60 mins (mash out to 168F held for 10 minutes, wort transferred to kettle then left overnight, ~9hours)
Boil Length 75 mins

5 lbs German Pilsner Malt
5 lbs American Wheat Malt
2 lbs German Munich (10L)
0.5 lbs Rice Hulls (Lautering Insurance)
2.0 oz Tettnanger Pellets 3.5AA 60 mins (13IBU)
1.0 oz EKG Pellets 4.5AA 60 mins (21IBU)
1 Whirfloc tablet
WLP001 California Ale Yeast, (2L starter volume, grown for 4 days at 72F with occasional shaking, chilled for 2 days, decant pitched ~300ml slurry)
2 cans Cherry Puree

Methodology Notes:

1. This was the second brew session using my new equipment set up.  My new set up employs the use of a March pump to recirc wort through the mash during the entire mash, over a direct fired mash tun.  Maintaining temps has been excellent and ramping to mash out temps after 40mins of mashing at target temps has been a breeze.  I also use the wort to assist with cooling post boil.
2. I am still trying to learn and dial in the liquid losses to the new system however.  Losing some wort to the tubing and the false bottom still needs to be better calculated.  Hence the slightly less than 5 gallons in fermentor.
3. The entire brew was performed in one fermentor.  I used a 7 gallon glass carboy.  I collected just under 5 gallons of wort into the carboy in anticipation of the volume that 2 cans of puree would take up, while also accounting for any blow off that may occur…or at least to attempt to not have a blow off.  Which was a failure as seen here.
4. I also resurrected my oxygenation system for this brew.  I think that even despite using a good starter my last beer did nto attenuate as fully as desired do to this aspect of yeast/fermentation management.
5. Lastly, I maintained the temp of the ferment at 65-70F using a FermWrap heater.  Very please with the results as far as monitoring temperature goes.  A future post will be required to really discuss the ups and downs of the FermWrap.
6. Ok really Lastly, I also split the brew day into two parts.  I mashed in at 7PM at night, performed a mash out (168F), sparged and collected my wort in the kettle.  I shut down the brewery at that point and went to bed, with the kettle covered with a lid. (Although I used a keg as a kettle and the handle holes don’t really let you seal it fully).  The next morning the wort tasted fine, with now sourness or something weird.  Again tasting notes will need to be recorded to see if I am correct there.  I proceeded to boil and add the hops as normal the next day.

Ok, I think I have my hard cider recipe for 2011.

Ingredients

4 Gallons of Cider from Cider Hill Farm.

2 pounds of white sugar

2 packets of Lallemand Nottingham Ale yeast

Someday, we’ll get back to pressing our own apples.  This year, we’re going to get the process down.  The last time I made cider, it came out really dry with no real apple taste.

With buying quality cider, I am hoping the base will be superior to what we pressed two years ago.

Instructions

My plan is to add the sugar to the cider over some heat to dissolve the sugar and get my starting gravity to 1.060 to 1.065.

Instead of using sulfites,  I am going to heat the cider/sugar mixture and hold it at 150°F for 20 minutes.  I am looking to kill wild yeasts – maybe someday I will skip this step.  This time around, I am looking to keep my variables to a minimum.

Chill it to 70°F.  While it’s chilling, I will proof my dry yeasts and get them ready for pitching.

Before I pitch, I will aerate the sweetened, hopefully pasteurized cider.

Once fermentation has started, I am going to keep an eye on it.  I think last time I let it ferment too long.  I think once fermentation starts to slow, I’ll be stealing samples to taste for sweetness.

Rather than ferment too long and back sweetening, I plan to rack it, prime it, and bottle it when it comes to my sweetness preference.

Once it carbs up, I plan to cold crash it in my fridge so the yeast will stop fermenting and I won’t have bottle bombs.

I may pasteurize some bottles by boiling them in my kettle but we’ll see what I have time to do and what space I have in my fridge.

See you on Thursday when I get this cider going.

When my oktoberfest from the brewing duel finished up I didn’t feel like tossing the yeast out. Seems like a shame to generate so much healthy lager yeast to only pour it out. So I decided to brew up a Baltic Porter. Baltic Porter is a bigger version of Robust Porter, but its tpyically fermented clean with a lager yeast. Porter normally is brewed as an ale. This one has been in the fermentor for a little over a week and is coming along. I thought it was starting a little slow, but I managed to rouse the yeast with some shaking and swirling of the carboy, next day I was starting to see some krausen the next day. I collected 600ml of slurry out of the Oktoberfest and pitched that.

My OG was 1.080 at 70% efficiency.

Here is the recipe:

John’s Recipe

After putting together a Baltic Porter style profile, I thought I would create a recipe for it too.

This is an all grain recipe. 

Ingredients

12.5 lbs. English 2-row Pale Malt
0.25 lbs. English Chocolate Malt
1 lbs. Crystal Malt 60°L
1 lbs. Crystal Malt 120°L
0.25 lbs. British Black Patent
1.5 oz. Fuggle (Pellets, 4.75 %AA) boiled 60 min.
0.50 oz. Fuggle (Pellets, 4.75 %AA) boiled 15 min.
0.50 oz. Fuggle (Pellets, 4.75 %AA) boiled 1 min.
Yeast: Wyeast 2112 California Lager

Predicted Results

Original Gravity 1.075 
Terminal Gravity 1.019
Color 25.19 °SRM
Bitterness 30.0 IBU
Alcohol (%volume) 7.4 %

I guess I could have added in some other additives like brewer’s licorice…but I think I am focused on all-malt brewing these days. 

I am sure I could have added more crystal malts or some Munich…maybe even some Special B.  I thought I would keep it simple and English.

For the yeast, I thought I would use a strain that kept lager characteristics at 58-60 degrees Fahrenheit.  It apparently can handle up to 9% alcohol by volume.

Check out our other homebrew recipes.

It appears we are going to have enough homegrown hops for a couple of brews this fall. This is a recipe that I whipped up – it doesn’t really fit any category – but I used the American Amber numbers as a guideline for the outcomes.

It’s more of an experiment to show off the hops and to try out some specialty malts. Plus, I’ll get to try out the East Coast Ale strain.

I am going for a red color so you’ll see there is a tiny bit of roasted barley added to the grain bill. Along with the CaraRed and the Melanoidin, it should be red – at least on paper.

Harvest Ale Recipe

Ingredients:

10 lbs 2-Row Malt
.5 lbs Melanoidin Malt
.5 lbs Weyermann CaraRed®
1 oz Roasted Barley
.5 oz Magnum Whole Hops boiled 60 mins.
.5 oz Mt. Hood Whole Hops boiled 15 mins.
.5 oz Mt. Hood Whole Hops boiled 1 mins.
Yeast: White Labs WLP008 East Coast Ale

Outcomes:

Original Gravity: 1.056
Final Gravity: 1.013
Color: 12.44 °SRM
Bitterness: 34.8 IBUs
Alcohol (%volume): 5.6%

Instructions

Mash at 150°F for one hour. Collect 6 gallons of wort and boil for 60 minutes. Ferment 5 gallons for 2 weeks at 68°F. Carbonate to 2.5 volumes.

With the Magnum hops growing out back, I am looking forward to brewing a nice harvest ale and I think this German Alt recipe will do the trick. This is a Northern German Altbier recipe. This beer style shows a lot of hop restraint and focuses on the malt profile. I went with a split Pilsner/Munich malt base with some German specialty malts.

I think it will be interesting to have this beer alongside the Oktoberfest.

Ingredients:

5 lbs Pilsner Malt
5 lbs Munich Malt
0.75 lbs CaraMunich 60° L
3 ounces Carafa Special Type II
3 ounces Melanoidin Malt
0.5 oz Magnum Pellets 14.5 %AA boiled for 60 mins
Yeast: WYeast 1007 German Ale

Predictions:

Original Gravity: 1.050
Terminal Gravity: 1.012
Color: 14.86 °SRM
Bitterness: 32.5 IBUs
Alcohol % by volume: 4.9%

Instructions:

This is an all grain recipe. You can convert it to an extract with grains recipe if you want. I start off with a 6.5 gallon boil volume with the goal of ending with a 5.5 gallon volume and putting 5 gallons into the fermenter. Mash at 152° F for one hour. You can boil for 90 or 60 minutes based on your experience with DMS in your beer. Ferment for two weeks at 60° F. Bottle or keg as usual. Carbonate to 2.5 volumes.

With a Schwarzbier recipe posted, here’s the Golden Ale recipe that completes the Black & Gold set. I crafted this recipe from a blonde ale base with a little more color coming from the caramel malt. The SRM value is higher than the blonde ale range, but that’s the point.

Ingredients

10.25 lbs. American 2-row
0.75 lbs. 2-Row Caramel Malt 40L
0.3 oz. Magnum (Pellets, 14.5 %AA) boiled 60 min.
0.55 oz. Liberty (Pellets, 4 %AA) boiled 15 min.
Yeast: White Labs WLP001 California Ale

Predictions

Original Gravity: 1.049
Terminal Gravity: 1.011
Color: 8.81 °SRM
Bitterness: 22.8 IBU
Alcohol (%volume): 4.9%

Instructions

Mash for 60 minutes at 149°F. Sparge until you get a 6.5 gallon pre-boil volume. Boil for 60 minutes and ferment at 68°F for 2 weeks. Bottle or keg as usual. Carbonate to 2.5 volumes.

We been posting many recaps from our Oktoberfest Duel.  I think now it’s time to look forward to our future.  Here is a recipe for a Schwarbier or Black Beer.

We call this one “Black Betty” (Bam ba lam).

Ingredients:

8.0 lbs. Pilsner Malt 
2.0 lbs. Munich Malt 
.75 lbs. Carafa Special® Type II 
.5 lbs. Crystal 60
.5 lbs. Chocolate Malt

1.5 oz. Tettnanger Pellets boiled 60 mins. 
.5 oz. Tettnanger Pellets boiled 15 mins. 
.5 oz. Tettnanger Pellets boiled 1 mins. 

Yeast: White Labs WLP830 German Lager

Predicted Results:

Original Gravity: 1.049
Final Gravity: 1.013
Color: 25.59 °SRM
Bitterness: 34.1 IBU
Alcohol (%volume): 4.8%

Instructions:

Mash at 154°F for 60 minutes. Ferement at 50°F for at least two weeks. Lager for 6 weeks. Carbonate to 2.5 volumes.