Brew Dudes Homebrewing Blog

Starting Off 2018 Right And Setting Some Goals

On January 5, 2018

The calendar flipped over from 2017 to 2018 and we recall all the things we did in the past year to set a course for the new one. We talk about all the achievements and the failures and figure out what we would like to do for the next twelve months on the blog and on the YouTube channel. This video has us blubbering about the year that was and what you can expect from us in the near future.

What Happened in 2017

We put together our first community brew and we’re happy to say that was a success. My version of the Brew Dudes Best Bitter won a first place prize in a competition.
Because we could, we streamed videos live on YouTube and we had a good time with it. The immediacy of chatting with people who watch our videos regularly was pretty cool.
The first attempt at a homebrewed gueuze was completed. More than three years of effort went into the creation of this beer and it turned out well. It was really something to have it come together after all that time.

2018 Goals

We plan to put another community brew together.
Maybe we’ll figure out a Google Hangout or something.
I have to tackle a Pilsner that I am happy with. I think the biggest fail I had in 2017 was the Pilsner so getting one done right for 2018 is a goal.
Mike wants to nail a Brown ale. There is a beer in his head that he wants to brew. He knows what it looks like and tastes like. This year, he has to make it materialize through recipe formulation and brewing technique.
More hop exploration. Certainly, we will have more SMaSH beers to review but maybe some videos to show off how to hop post boil.
Malt exploration. Brew up beers to see what different malts taste like and how to use them in recipes.

Thanks for reading and following us on our homebrewing exploits. If we have accomplish most of these goals this year, we’ll chalk it up as a good year.

Brew on!

Brew Dudes Homebrew Swap – Exchange #23

By John Krochune

On December 29, 2017

In Homebrew Club, Videos

We put out a call to other homebrewers to send their beers to us for evaluation and review. Since then, we have had many different beers sent our way. This one is number twenty three of the ongoing series of homebrew swaps. We tasted this Russian Imperial Stout from Brian in Texas and posted our thoughts on YouTube:

Zorya Russian Imperial Stout Recipe

Brian’s home brewery is named Big Paw Brewery and he’s been brewing this RIS for a few years now. He brewed two different versions of his 2017 batch. Here are the details of the beers:

10 gallon batch – split into two and aged separately on two different kinds of oak.

Original Gravity: 1.094
Final Gravity of the Hungarian Oak version: 1.019
Final Gravity of the American Oak version: 1.017

IBUs ~70

Grains:
80% Maris Otter Malt
4% Special B Malt
4% Flaked Barley
3% Carafa III
2% Aromatic Malt
2% Crystal 40°L Malt
2% Roasted Barley
1% Black Patent Malt
1% Crystal 120°L Malt
1% Chocolate Malt

Hops:
Added Styrian Golding, Perle, and Magnum hops at 75 minutes to go in the boil for 64 IBUs
Added Centennial, Styrian Golding, Williamette, and Palisade hops in whirlpool after the boil for 10 minutes for 6 IBUs.

Yeast: White Labs WLP001 California Yeast – fermented for 1 month

For fermentation, he split the batch into two different vessels. In the last 14 days of primary fermentation, he added to each of the vessels 1 ounce of medium toast Hungarian Oak cubes that had been soaking in 12 ounces of Port wine for 3 weeks (he added the wine along with it).

At the end of primary fermentation, he racked the beers into two different kegs and oaked them again for 1 month. The first beer had more medium toast Hungarian oak (1 ounce) and the second one had American oak (1 ounce).

He removed the oak and let both beers condition for an additional 10 months at 55° F and bottled it from the keg.

Beer Feedback and Thoughts

Let’s split the notes into two sections.

Hungarian Oak: Had a slightly darker head. More port wine in the aroma. Big mouthfeel but not as slick as its counterpart. More port character in this beer’s flavor.

American Oak: More roasted/chocolate malt aroma. There was a fuller, slicker, chewier mouthfeel in this beer. More vanilla notes in the flavor. More character from the malt bill.

Both beers hit the mark when we compared it to the BJCP style guidelines. The flavor was complex and intense. Our biggest suggestion was to simplify the recipe to focus the flavors on what he wanted to accomplish in the final beer.

The best thing about brewing the same recipe over and over again is the ability to modify and improve over time. That’s what it is all about and why we say…

Brew On!

Tasting An Aged Braggot – Did It Improve?

By John Krochune

On December 22, 2017

In Brew Log, Videos

It is true that some beer does get better with age. When I brewed this braggot three years ago, I thought I had a winner but the end result was a little strange and deemed “yucky”. In this video, we harken back to a time where beer and mead hybrids were brewed with no clue about how they would turn out and if years of storage would elevate the braggot to be something worth tasting.

This Braggot’s History

I was inspired by Nelson Sauvin hops because they are supposed to have white wine flavors and aromas. I thought I could brew a braggot that used light-colored honey, light-colored malt, white wine yeast, and Nelson Sauvin hops and it would be a tasty little Riesling type beverage.

My brew date was in December 2014 and we tasted it for the first time in May of 2015. Since then, a few bottles have been sitting in my basement to age with the hope that the braggot would improve.

Notes on How The Braggot Tasted This Time

It was a fascinating experience to taste this braggot. Mike said the aroma had a grapeseed oil aspect and it seemed like it had white table wine essence.

It had a grape-y, honey finish and the body was some legs to it.

Did it improve? Well, it certainly had changed. The honey fermentation characteristics have taken over fully. There isn’t much beer aspects to it. If I were to brew this again, I would shift the percentages of fermenatables to be more malt-derived than honey-derived.

All in all, we challenged our palate and appreciated what this beverage allowed us to do, which was to refine our palette even more.

I still have a bottle or two left in my basement. Let’s see how it tastes in a few years. See you again in 2020.

Brew On!

Classic American Cream Ale – An Old Favorite

By John Krochune

On December 15, 2017

In Brew Log, Style Profiles, Videos

Brew Dude Mike has brewed a cream ale many times over the past (almost) 20 years. He goes back to his standard recipe and plays around with the water chemistry to make a crisp, refreshing beer. If you have never heard of this style and want to brew an ale with the thirst quenching qualities of a pale lager, view this video of our review of Mike’s latest brew: a classic American Cream Ale:

Mike’s Classic American Cream Ale recipe

Mike tinkered with special ingredients in his most recently brewed cream ales. For this one, he went back to classic ingredients to brew a quality, classic version.

For a 5 US Gallon batch in the keg.

Grain Bill:
8 pounds of American Pilsner malt
2.25 pounds flaked corn (maize)
1 pound of white sugar

Hops:
1 ounce of Liberty hops (4.5 AA%) at 60 minutes to go in the boil
1 ounce of Liberty hops at 20 minutes to go in the boil
1 ounce of Liberty hops at flameout

Yeast:
1 packet of US-05 (rehydrated)

Water:
Distilled water with these additions added to the mash
4 grams of gypsum
3 grams of calcium chloride

The starting gravity was 1.052

Notes On This Beer and Style

Initially, I was a little down on this beer. Mike has used Liberty hops in his past Cream Ales and I was looking for that flavor in the beer. Because he used distilled water and added brewing ales, the hops didn’t express themselves as brightly as they had in previous brews so I was disappointed at first.

Once we started talking about the style and what we really want in this type of beer, Mike hit all the notes perfectly. His major goal was to get the beer to finish dry and crisp and he accomplished what he set out to do.
I think the flaked maize and the sugar help to dry out the finish and the water he used kept the body light and taste crisp, even if it did mute the hop flavor.

Cream ales are a great alternative to homebrewers who do not have the equipment to brew pale lagers. The style was born out of the necessity for ale-only breweries to compete with the newly popular pilsner beers that were being brewed commercially. If you are looking for a crisp, refreshing summer beer that will please the party crowd (large and small), take a chance on a cream ale.

Brew on!

Making An Orange Mead and Evaluating The Early Progress

By John Krochune

On December 8, 2017

In Brew Log, Experiments, Videos

Mike made an Orange Mead, all unbeknownst to me. It was a few weeks old and he wanted me to taste it at this point to see if I thought it was on the right track or not. As homebrewers, we get really confident in our ability to rate the quality of our beers at various points in the process on our own. When we make something that we don’t have a lot of practice making, we seek the advice of others who have traveled the path more often in the path.

So fellow homebrewers who may make a mead in the future, roll this video that presents our early evaluation of Mike’s Orange Mead:

Mike’s Orange Mead Recipe and Plan

Mike started out with 15 pounds of honey and the majority of it was orange blossom honey. I think this honey variety is superb for mead making. He added water to make 5 gallons.

His original gravity was 1.120 and the yeast he used was Lalvin 71B-1122 Narbonne White Wine Yeast.

Following a staggered procedure of adding yeast nutrients to his mead (the same one that I used for my raspberry mead), he got the gravity down to 1.025 after a few weeks.

The plan is to rack it to a new fermenter and let it rest on orange peel for an extended time to really make the orange taste pop.

Tasting Notes So Far

So this mead that Mike is making is a sack level mead so it’s going to be big, sweet, and a little more boozy than the ones I make. My starting gravities are typically in the standard range (~1.090). After a few weeks, it had a lot of honey sweetness but nothing tasted off about it. We have had some bad meads in our time but I thought it tasted great for what it was and where it was in the process.

I preached patience to him – these things take time and the process is so easy that I think as beer homebrewers that we feel like we have to tinker with the mead to make sure it tastes great.

You really don’t.

He started to ask me what others things he should do to the mead to accent the flavor. I think his orange peel idea is great. Keeping it simple is key. Spicing it to make it a metheglin would be fine but see how the orange peel addition does. Your patience will be rewarded.

Mead on!