Batch 86, Oatmeal Pale Ale

I wanted to make a batch of Gemutlich, but I didn't have the ingredients, so I made this Gemutlich-inspired oatmeal pale ale instead. Like Gemutlich, the oatmeal will give this a nice mouth feel and body.

10 gallon batch.

Grain:

20 lbs 2 row
1.5 lbs Quaker oats
2 oz Chocolate malt
4 oz honey (add to BK at 30 minutes)
6 oz molasses (add to BK at 30 minutes)

Mash at 153F for 60 minutes. I used my immersion chiller again as a heat exchanger to keep the mash temp even, and that worked very well again. I brought the water in the HLT to 170F, then I adjusted the flow on the output side of the pump to be fairly low, and the temp stayed constant for the entire mash. That's probably the first time ever that has happened.


Hops:

2 oz Fuggles, an experimental variety, 5% AA, FWH
2 oz mixed hops, 60 minutes (a mix of HG Chinook and Willamette)
1 oz Cascade, 30 minutes
1 oz Willamette, 30 minutes
2 oz Fuggles, an experimental variety, 5% AA

60 minute boil. The "mixed" hops is a combination of homegrown Chinook and Willamette. The plants had grown together, and I couldn't tell what was what.


Wyeast 1272 from batch 85, pitched directly on the yeast cake.


OG: 1.068 (actual)
FG:
IBU: 42
SRM: 10
ABV: 6.8%


A few pics of the brew day, it snowed most of the day. I started at about 9 am, and was done around 1:30 pm. Just getting started:


Using the immersion chiller as a heat exchanger:



Hops. The FWH hops are already in the boil kettle. I used 8 ounces total for this batch.


Transferring from mash tun to boil kettle. The bucket is to keep the snow off of the pump.

Tasting Score Sheet

Date	Mar 5, 2010
Batch #	86
Beer Name	Oatmeal Pale Ale
Style	10A, American Pale Ale, more or less
Packaging	Bottle | Draft
APPEARANCE	1 [2] 3
Head	spare | small | average | large | huge | rocky | creamy | frothy | fizzy | white | off-white | light brown | dark lasting | diminishing
Lacing	excellent | good | fair | spare
Body	clear | sparkling | flat | cloudy | hazy | murky | muddy
Particles	None | lightly cloudy | cloudy | heavily particulate | chunky
Color	light | dark | yellow | amber | orange | red | brown | ruby | black | tawny
Comments	This beer is always hazy due to the oatmeal.
AROMA	1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 [10] 11 12
Malt	light | average | heavy | harsh | bread | cookie | molasses | caramel | grain | hay straw | cereal | chocolate | coffee | toffee | toasted | roasted | burnt | nutty | meal
Hops	light | medium | strong | heavy | harsh flowers | perfume | herbs | celery | grass pine | spruce | resin citrus | grapefruit | orange | lemon | lime
Yeast/Bacteria	light | average | heavy | harsh dough | sweat | horse blanket | barnyard | leather soap | cheese | meat | broth | earth | musty | leaves
Miscellaneous	alcohol: light | average | heavy banana | bubble gum | clove | grape | raisin | plum | prune | date | apple | pear peach | pineapple | cherry | raspberry | cassis | wine | port | cask wood | toffee butter | butterscotch | smoke | tar | charcoal | soy sauce | licorice | cola | honey brown sugar | maple syrup | vanilla | pepper | allspice | nutmeg | cinnamon coriander | ginger | tobacco | dust | chalk | vegetable | cooked cabbage/corn | cardboard | paper | medicine | solvent | bandage | skunk | sour milk | vinegar | rotten eggs
Comments	Good hops flavor, not overwhelming, lingering hops aftertaste.
MOUTHFEEL	1 2 [3] 4 5
Body	light | medium | full
Texture	thin | oily | creamy | sticky | slick | alcoholic | thick | minerals | gritty| smooth
Carbonation	fizzy | lively | average | soft | flat
Finish	metallic | chalky | astringent | bitter
Comments:	Smooth pale ale.
FLAVOR	1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 [16] 17 18 19 20
Duration	short | average | long
Sweet	light | moderate | heavy | harsh
acidic	light | moderate | heavy | harsh
bitter	light | moderate | heavy | harsh
other	vinegar | sour milk | salty | minerals
Comments	Really good hops flavor. Hint of honey and molasses, but maybe that's because I know that both are in this beer.
OVERALL	1 2 3 4 5 6 [7] 8 9 10
Comments	I like this beer. I'd make this again and I'd drink another.
TOTAL	38

Batch 85, Imbolc

This is the same as St. Brigid's Lake IPA from batch 70. I made a change in the hops -- I don't have any Centennial, so I used Perle instead and am calling this batch Imbolc. Imbolc is the pagan name for St. Brigid's day, which is the Catholic name for Ground Hog's day.

10 gallon batch.

Grain:

21 lbs 2-row
4 oz chocolate malt

Hops:

This is the hard part.
1/4 oz Chinook (whole)
1/4 oz Cascade (whole)
1/4 oz Perle (pellets)
Add all of the above at 90, 80, 70, 60, 50, 40, 30, 20, 10, 5, and 0 minutes. That is 11 additions of 3/4 oz hops.

Wyeast 1272

OG: 1.059 actual: 1.065
FG: 1.015 actual:
ABV: 5.7%
SRM: 11

IBU: 98

I ended up with a little extra in the boil kettle, 13 gallons, so I turned up the heat to get to the right volume at the end. I guess I had it a little too high, since I only ended up with 9 gallons in the fermenter instead of 10. OG came out a little high because of that.

Tasting Score Sheet

Date	Feb 14, 2010
Batch #	85
Beer Name	Imbolc
Style	14B, American IPA
Packaging	Bottle | Draft
APPEARANCE	1 2 3
Head	spare | small | average | large | huge rocky | creamy | frothy | fizzy | white | off-white | light brown | dark lasting | diminishing
Lacing	excellent | good | fair | spare
Body	clear | sparkling | flat | cloudy | hazy | murky | muddy
Particles	None | lightly cloudy | cloudy | heavily particulate | chunky
Color	light | dark | yellow | amber | orange | red | brown | ruby | black | tawny
Comments	Under carbonated, but looks good otherwise. Could be clearer, but that will come with age. Update 2/23/10, carbonation is very good, beer is clearer now but still has a slight haze.
AROMA	1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Malt	light | average | heavy | harsh | bread | cookie | molasses | caramel | grain | hay straw | cereal | chocolate | coffee | toffee | toasted | roasted | burnt | nutty | meal
Hops	light | average | heavy | harsh flowers | perfume | herbs | celery | grass pine | spruce | resin citrus | grapefruit | orange | lemon | lime
Yeast/Bacteria	light | average | heavy | harsh dough | sweat | horse blanket | barnyard | leather soap | cheese | meat | broth | earth | musty | leaves
Miscellaneous	alcohol: light | average | heavy banana | bubble gum | clove | grape | raisin | plum | prune | date | apple | pear peach | pineapple | cherry | raspberry | cassis | wine | port | cask wood | toffee butter | butterscotch | smoke | tar | charcoal | soy sauce | licorice | cola | honey brown sugar | maple syrup | vanilla | pepper | allspice | nutmeg | cinnamon coriander | ginger | tobacco | dust | chalk | vegetable | cooked cabbage/corn cardboard paper | medicine | solvent | bandage | skunk | sour milk | vinegar rotten eggs
Comments	Nice hops aroma, pleasant, not overwhelming at all. Need the carbonation to help bring out the flavor. Update 2/23/10, the flavor is now excellent. The carbonation has brought out that nice hops sharpness that make this an IPA.
MOUTHFEEL	1 2 3 4 5
Body	light | medium | full
Texture	thin | oily | creamy | sticky | slick | alcoholic | thick | minerals | gritty| smooth
Carbonation	fizzy | lively | average | soft | flat
Finish	metallic | chalky | astringent | bitter
Comments:	I think the lack of carbonation is negatively affecting the mouthfeel. Update 2/23/10, the carbonation is much better, I've moved the mouthfeel from sticky to smooth.
FLAVOR	1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
Duration	short | average | long
Sweet	light | moderate | heavy | harsh
acidic	light | moderate | heavy | harsh
bitter	light | moderate | heavy | harsh
other	vinegar | sour milk | salty | minerals
Comments	Good flavor, but could be better with more carbonation
OVERALL	1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Comments	This beer is a little young and isn't quite ready. It is still lacking in carbonation, although it's been on the tap for 10 days. I'll rate this again, either later on this keg or on the second keg. Update 2/23/10, same keg, beer is much better the past few days now that the carbonation is up to where it should be. I bumped the overall score from 6 to 8.
TOTAL	38

Update Feb 23, 2010: Bottled 2 bottles for future drinking. Updated the tasting sheet, this is quite a good beer now.

Update on the Brown Ale

Here is an update on the Brown Ale that I made along with the Rumcake a while back. As expected, a week or so in the kegerator and it's a quite good beer. The alcohol content is fairly low (4.2%) compared to most beers I make, so it's easy to drink several of these. The flavor is very mild. It's a little over carbonated at the moment, which adds to the perceived lightness. I doubt I'll make this again since it was the second runnings of a bigger beer, but I wouldn't have a problem making something similar either as the main recipe or as the second runnings of a bigger beer.

Batch 84, David's Scotch Ale

My brew club did our annual group brew on Jan 9. It was sort of a complicated brew, bigger than what we've done as a group before. We had 9 brewing rigs in Rob's shop (heated!). It was pretty organized, more so than last year, I think. The crush on the grain seemed a little course, and just about everyone missed the OG. Here is the recipe:

David's Scotch Ale
Style: Strong Scotch Ale
Type: All grain Size: 8 gallons
Color: 49 HCU (~22 SRM)
Bitterness: 29 IBU
OG: 1.093 FG: 1.023
Alcohol: 9.0% v/v (7.1% w/w)

Grain: 21.9 lb. American 2-row
5.87 lb. Belgian biscuit
7.7 oz. Briess Special Roast
0.64 lb. American crystal 40L
1.92 lb. American crystal 60L
5.1 oz. Peated malt
5.1 oz. British crystal 135-165L

Mash: 65% efficiency
Mash @ 154°. Boil a portion of first runnings for added kettle
caramelization.
Boil: 90 minutes SG 1.074 10 gallons

Hops: 0.41 oz. Fuggles (5.5% AA, 60 min.)
0.73 oz. Northern Brewer (8.5% AA, 60 min.)
0.83 oz. Centennial (10.5% AA, 30 min.)
0.41 oz. Fuggles (5.5% AA, 30 min.)

The Fuggles was actually an experimental variety, a Fuggles and Mt Hood cross. We ended up using Nugget instead of Northern Brewer, and both the Nugget and Centennial were home grown by Steve P. David made a big pot of wort and let it simmer for a long time, then topped off several of the boil kettles, which helped with the final gravity. I ended up taking 7 gallons home with an OG of 1.082. The plan is for everyone to ferment individually, then in a month or so, we'll all meet up and dump it all into a wine barrel for aging. That should be interesting. Since I had 7 gallons, I'm fermenting in two 5 gallon corny kegs. I volunteered to bottle one of the kegs without the wine barrel aging so we'll have something to compare with.

Update, Sep 29, I'd given a keg to David a while back, he filled it from the wine barrel.  My share was 3.5 gallons.  I was going to force carb it, but decided to bottle it instead and let it age some more.  I added 2 tablespoons of Wyeast 1272 slurry from a mason jar in my fridge, and 22 grams of sugar to the bottling bucket.  I ended up with 33 12 ounce bottles.  They are sitting in boxes in the basement at 65F.  I'm thinking to open one a month and see how they progress.  I had about a half of a bottle left over from bottling, and it still has some strong wine barrel flavors.  It is a very complex tasting beer, and I think this will be outstanding as it ages.

Batch 83, Panama Red

A fresh batch of Panama Red. The previous batch got hit pretty hard over the holidays.

10 gallon batch

20.25 lbs 2-row
1.5 lbs Crystal 60
4 oz Chocolate malt
6 oz wheat

Mash 60 minutes at 153F, collect 12 gallons.

2 oz Mt Hood (whole, last of the 2008 crop), FWH
2 oz Nugget (whole, HG from Steve P), 60 min
2 oz Cascade (whole, HG), 30 min
2 oz Cascade (whole, HG), 5 min
2 3/4 oz Mt Hood (whole, HG), 5 min

90 minute boil

Wyeast 1272, a brand new packet, I made a 1 gallon starter

OG: 1.059
FG: 1.015
IBU: 70
SRM: 13
ABV: 5.7

I bumped up the Mt Hood on the finishing hops a little bit to use up the last of the 2008 crop. It was a longer brew day than expected, I ran out of propane and had to make a run to get a refill, then I got a vapor lock and it was about 20 minutes before I realized it, so it took forever to get to boiling. I ended up about a gallon short, so having the gallon starter worked out just right. I really need to get 13 gallons out of the mash, the whole hops suck up a lot of wort.

The wheat is a new addition. I just used all that I had, it should help a little on head retention. 6 oz won't make much difference on the final product.

I used my immersion chiller as a heat exchanger to keep the mash at the right temp in this cold weather. That worked out really well. I put it in my HLT and ran the wort from the bottom of the mash tun into the inside of the IC, then back out to the top of the mash tun. It was real easy to keep the mash temp just right. I (finally!) added a valve on the output side of my pump, which is really handy. I used that valve both with keeping the mash at the right temp and with the CFC. I got 60F into the fermenter just by slowing down the flow to about half.

Tasting Score Sheet

Date	Feb 15, 2010
Batch #	83
Beer Name	Panama Red
Style	doesn't fit a standard BJCP style, closest is 14B, American IPA
Packaging	Bottle | Draft
APPEARANCE	1 2 3
Head	spare | small | average | large | huge rocky | creamy | frothy | fizzy | white | off-white | light brown | dark lasting | diminishing
Lacing	excellent | good | fair | spare
Body	clear | sparkling | flat | cloudy | hazy | murky | muddy
Particles	None | lightly cloudy | cloudy | heavily particulate | chunky
Color	light | dark | yellow | amber | orange | red | brown | ruby | black | tawny
Comments	pretty beer
AROMA	1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Malt	light | average | heavy | harsh | bread | cookie | molasses | caramel | grain | hay straw | cereal | chocolate | coffee | toffee | toasted | roasted | burnt | nutty | meal
Hops	light | average | heavy | harsh flowers | perfume | herbs | celery | grass pine | spruce | resin citrus | grapefruit | orange | lemon | lime
Yeast/Bacteria	light | average | heavy | harsh dough | sweat | horse blanket | barnyard | leather soap | cheese | meat | broth | earth | musty | leaves
Miscellaneous	alcohol: light | average | heavy banana | bubble gum | clove | grape | raisin | plum | prune | date | apple | pear peach | pineapple | cherry | raspberry | cassis | wine | port | cask wood | toffee butter | butterscotch | smoke | tar | charcoal | soy sauce | licorice | cola | honey brown sugar | maple syrup | vanilla | pepper | allspice | nutmeg | cinnamon coriander | ginger | tobacco | dust | chalk | vegetable | cooked cabbage/corn cardboard paper | medicine | solvent | bandage | skunk | sour milk | vinegar rotten eggs
Comments	strong hops flavor
MOUTHFEEL	1 2 3 4 5
Body	light | medium | full
Texture	thin | oily | creamy | sticky | slick | alcoholic | thick | minerals | gritty
Carbonation	fizzy | lively | average | soft | flat
Finish	metallic | chalky | astringent | bitter
Comments:
FLAVOR	1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
Duration	short | average | long
Sweet	light | moderate | heavy | harsh
acidic	light | moderate | heavy | harsh
bitter	light | moderate | heavy | harsh
other	vinegar | sour milk | salty | minerals
Comments	This is my favorite beer, so this flavor evaluation is certainly biased.
OVERALL	1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Comments	This is a good batch, but I've made better. This batch used a lot of home grown hops. The hops flavor is not as sharp as previous batches using commercial hops.
TOTAL	42