Brew Dudes

After asking for recipes and then announcing what we were going to do with them, we finally have a post that shows the brewing and the tasting of one of those recipes. This one was chosen at random and we’ll continue that way until we’re done (maybe next century). Check out this extract hoppy pale ale that was sent to us.

The Recipe That Was Submitted

We got this recipe sent to us from Charlie. It’s for an extract NEIPA (or NEPA but who’s counting?). He writes:

“This is a 5 gallon batch where the only time I worry about the 5 gallon amount is in the fermentor.”

Ingredients

5 US gallons (9 Liters) of store-bought RO water
6 pounds (2.72 kg) Pilsen DME (dry malt extract)
2 ounces (57 g) of Mosaic hops
2 ounces (57 g) of Citra hops
2 ounces (57 g) of Amarillo hops
1 package of Fermentis Safale S-04

Starting gravity: 1.050
Finished gravity: 1.011-1.014 (whatever the yeast finishes at)

Instructions

I heat the full 5 gallons of water to anywhere between 120 and 150° F and add the malt extract, then let it come to as rigorous of a boil as you can get for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, I cut the heat source (I use a propane burner), and then I add 1 ounce each of Mosaic, Citra, and Amarillo hops and do a 10 minute hop stand. When the 10 minutes are up, I cool the wort. I cool it until I feel comfortable putting it into my PET plastic fermentor, which usually is sub-80 degrees F. At this point, I’m usually 1/4 to 1/2 a gallon short of of 5 gallons in the fermentor, so I’ll add cold filtered water we have here at home until I’m back up to 5 gallons. When the wort has reached between 68 F and 72 F, then I’ll add the packet of yeast (S-04).

The next day, anywhere between 12-24 hours into active fermentation (whenever I’m home and I notice high-krausen), I’ll add the remaining hops, which is 1 oz each of Mosaic, Citra, and Amarillo.

Once fermentation is done (4-6 days), I’ll rack the beer to a CO2 purged keg and carbonate the beer.

Our Tasting Notes and Other Thoughts

I wish I had remembered to say this point on camera, but these three hop varieties work wonderfully together. Here are the reported Alpha Acids on the hop pellets that I used.

Mosaic – 12.6%
Citra – 12.9%
Amarillo – 8.1%

I can tell you as the one who brewed this beer that effort to enjoyment ratio is tipped strongly to the enjoyment side. The brew day was quick and the turnaround was fast as well.

This beer is light in body so it made for quick pints. The hop flavor is tremendous and as Mike stated, only 6 ounces in the whole recipe. It does bring into question the need for 2 or 3 times the weight in hops called for in some recipes (cough, like my own).

Charlie wrote to us and asked if he should add maltodextrin to add more mouthfeel. The beer is great as is. It is certainly something he could experiment and try in his next brewing.

Thanks for the recipe. Hope you enjoyed the post. More to come.

BREW ON!

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.

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!

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!