Brew Dudes Homebrewing Blog

Brewing with Hop Oils – Strata Hops Experiment

On August 17, 2022

As the story goes, I was at HomeBrewCon and I stopped by a booth where Oast House Oils were set up and showing off their wares. There were a few varieties of hop oils available for purchase so I bought a pouch. When I got home, I opened it to find a 1 milliliter vial of hop oil. With that, I made a plan.

We brewed a SMaSH beer with Strata before but what if we brewed with Strata hop oil? Well, that’s what we tried to figure out with this post.

Hop Oil In The SMaSH Format

So for this experiment, I followed my typical one US gallon batch procedure. I used 2 pounds (907 g) of malt – this time, it was Golden Promise pale malt – mashed in 2 US gallons of water. Boiled for 60 minutes, I added a smidge of Strata hops pellets at the beginning of the boil.

After it was chilled, I added 3 grams of US-05 dry yeast to my 1 gallon jug. At day 3 of fermentation, I added 2 drops from the hop oil vial to the jug. After fermentation was over, I racked the beer to a keg and carbonated it.

The first pour was not as potent as I thought it would be. I was expecting more from the oil. So, to paraphrase Mike, I made adjustments because I am a homebrewer. I added a few more drops to the keg and put it back in the fridge.

What Did We Think?

You have the hand it to the oil – it had all of the flavor and aroma without the green material. We perceived a clean and precise quality to the entire bouquet. It really impressed on us that the hop oil was a premium product and produced what it said it would.

We still couldn’t get any strawberry out of the aroma/flavor profile but there was a present fruit note. The dankness that is described with this hop was present but it wasn’t super strong.

We think these hop oils would blend well with your typical hop pellets or cones. Check them out at oasthopoils.com and tell them Mike and John sent you.

Cheers and BREW ON!

The Viewer Submitted Beer Recipe Series

By John Krochune

On August 10, 2022

In Homebrew Club, Videos

A few weeks ago, we came up with the idea that people who watch us on YouTube and follow our blog could send us recipes to brew. We didn’t know what kind of response we would get but it was nice to see that it was positive. Now that we have too many recipes, here are our next steps.

We’re also color coordinated

Simple Idea – Simple Plan

I knew the idea of asking for viewer submitted recipes was simple. Where it gets tricky is how to choose which beer to brew. Thanks to a Microsoft Excel formula, I was able to pick one randomly. With that part simplified, we can get onto the simple part of brewing these beers.

First up, we have an extract NEIPA from Charlie Gillis. This recipe is a good one using DME and a variety of hops we know are tasty. We will have this beer ready to tasting sooner than you think.

Beyond The First Recipe

We plan to brew a submitted recipe every other month. The Jar of Destiny brewing schedule has us busy so we need to plan around it. The Jar takes priority – damn jar – but I think we can get a submitted recipe brew in the off months.

Thanks for reading. If you have questions, let us know.

Cheers and Brew on!

Brew Dudes Homebrew Swap – Exchange #47

By John Krochune

On August 3, 2022

In Homebrew Club, Videos

You know what time it is. It’s time for us to taste beer that has been shipped to us. Yeah, I know – Poor us. For this post, we will be talking about a beer that Trevor from Utah brewed and we present our thoughts.

What Did He Send Us?

Trevor sent us a sour ale. Along with it, he had a handwritten note but forgot to put it in the box when he shipped his beer. Instead, he scanned the note and emailed it to us. I’ll provide the details here:

This beer is a mixed fermentation with a Belgian base consisting of Golden Dry Malt Extract (DME), 15 °L Crystal Malt, White Wheat, Demerara sugar and 3 ounces (85 g) of aged hops added a 30 minutes.

To start fermentation, he added WLP565 Belgian Saison, WLP653 Brettanomyces Lambicus dregs from a homebrew cider, Sour Batch Kidz, dregs from a local sour, and 0.5 Liters started of a bootleg solera blend.

During fermentation, he added 33 ounces (936 g) of Thompson raisins and 9.4 ounces (266 g) of toasted peach stones in 2 additions several months appart.

It soured quicker than he expected and he bottled the beer at 5.5 months into the process and used a large starter of his home Brett C. culture.

Target CO2 was 2.1 volumes on bottling day.

Original Gravity: 1.080
Final Gravity: 1.011
ABV: 9.11%

What Did We Think Of His Sour Beer?

Well, it is definitively a sour beer. There was no doubting it. We both picked up on a soft fruit note. Mike sensed a nectarine essence, it was somewhere between peaches and navel oranges.

The beer was light in body and the fermentation is clean. Although a Belgian strain was used in the beer, there are no funkiness/phenols present. It has the qualities of a kettle soured beer without the subtle yogurt note.

Overall, it is a refreshing beer. Even with all the different additions to ferment, this beer would be a great one to drink on a hot summer day.

BREW ON!

Blending Sour Beers That Were Sent To Us

By John Krochune

On July 27, 2022

In Experiments, Videos

We are not experts in blending sour beers, that’s for sure. In our semi-illustrious homebrewing careers, we have brewed traditional sour beers and have blended them – you can see our work here. Now Ethan from PA wanted to know what we thought of the sour beers he brewed, so he shipped them to us. He asked us to taste them all and come up with a blend that would make a superior beverage – greater than the sum of its parts. Watch this video to see what we thought of each individual beer and the steps we would take to blend them.

The Four Sour Beers

Like we stated, we were sent 4 individual beers. As a bonus, Ethan sent one of his blend attempts to try but the main task was to come up with a blend for him. Here are the 4 beers.

Beer #1: The first one is a two year old Golden Sour. We thought it is the fruitiest of the bunch with a cherry note, and not a lot of Brett character. It has some detectable tannins.

Beer #2: The second beer is a 1.5 year old Golden Sour. It was aged in a whiskey barrel so it has some oak/vanilla notes. It is lighter in color than Beer #1. This one has an earthly, celery seed quality. The flavor is muted, and has zero tannins. It is lowest in terms of acid content.

Beer #3: This beer is Ethan’s attempt at an Oud Bruin. It is a dark sour ale and it is tough to take. The aroma reminded us of wet, musty, shoe leather. The flavor profile was rough but it was the most acidic. Mike thought the bad quality beer came from a bad fermentation character.

Beer #4: It is 2 year old red sour and it is his take on a Flanders Ale. This beer smelled of a solventy bananas and has just a smidge of acidity. There are no tannins present in this beer.

What Was Our Blend Plan?

One thing we learned from our own sour blending is that there is no need to be a completist. If there is a beer that isn’t good, there is no need to use it in your blending. We provided Ethan with our parts system, where we experiment by measuring out parts of beers and mixing them together. Whatever the singular measurement you want to use becomes a part, may it be a cup or a teaspoon or a glass. Use the part system to make your initial tasting mix so you can scale it up to the quantities of beers you have to blend.

We thought that he shouldn’t use Beer #3. The other three would work well in a blend in these quantities: 2 parts of Beer #1 and a part each of Beer #2 and Beer #4.

Thanks Ethan for the beer and we hope you enjoyed our blend plan. We also hope you non-Ethans learn something from this post and video.

BREW ON!

Leftover Brown Ale Recipe

By John Krochune

On July 20, 2022

In Brew Log, Recipes, Videos

Sometimes you have leftover ingredients, you make the best of it. You brew a Brown Ale. Here’s the video where Mike took a literal mixed bag of grain and made the best of it.

Mike’s Leftover Ingredient Dilemna

For his Jar of Destiny brew, the British Strong Ale, he ordered base and specialty grains but they all came in one bag. As we all know, part of this hobby is to problem solve. So, he measured out what needed for the Jar of Destiny brew and then had leftover mixed grain for another beer.

This beer.

Check out this recipe for a Session Brown Ale.

Session Brown Ale Recipe

Batch Size: 6.5 US gallon (post boil)

Ingredients:

7 pounds (3.15 kg) of Maris Otter pale malt
0.5 pounds (225 g) of Amber malt
0.5 pounds (225 g) of Double Roasted Crystal malt
0.75 pounds (338g) of Pale Chocolate malt (220 °L)
1 ounce (28 g) of Challenger hops (7.5% AA) – added with 60 minutes to go in the boil
Yeast: Lallemand LalBrew Windsor Ale Yeast

Our Tasting Notes

I thought this beer had a strong toffee note. Mike said that it may have been too strong. It was a really enjoyable beer. It probably would really good in the Fall months. It would go well with smoked brisket or other BBQ food.

BREW ON!