A Tale of Two Pales

These are actually the same beer. Same malt bill, same process other than a slightly longer mash on the darker one, different hops in the same quantity, and different carbonation levels. The left beer was hopped with Pacific Gem (13.2% alpha) and Australian Galaxy (13%) and the right was Columbus (13.9%) and Simcoe (13%). Never mind the shitty picture quality - you can still get the point.)

They're all small differences, but this is one of those one of those experiences that continues to blow my mind and preconceived notions about what matters in brewing.

I'm not sure where the dramatic difference stems from, but here are a few possibilities:

• There are a few episodes of Can You Brew It where Jamil talks about how particulate still in solution in the beer can actually make it appear lighter. 
• The actual oil levels in the hop combinations were different. I know that hops and yeast tend to do a little chemical dance at different points of fermentation, so it's possible that the beer on the right flocculated out better because of this.
• The dissolved volumes of CO2 were different (I carbonated the left and Jeremy did the right), which again could affect color
• One of the two beers (I didn't take great notes on the order we brewed them in) was mashed about 15 minutes longer than the other. I don't think that would have a significant impact, but in this case I can't rule it out.

So ultimately I don't really know how two beers with the same malt bill ended up looking so different, but it was an eye opening experience. 

10,000 Hours?

Hey J - you look pretty bored. Oh and Diesel is characteristically
not giving a shit about anything. Except maybe that squirrel.

In his book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell talks about the 10,000 hour rule. His poses the theory that to really reach mastery of any skill or craft you need to spend at least 10,000 hours honing it. He talks about the Beatles spending 10,000 hours over a few years playing in Hamburg Germany and about Bill Gates growing up spending his weeknights and summers in a computer lab starting at a young age.

I'm positive I haven't spent ten thousand hours brewing. Since I started tracking with BeerAlchemy in December of 2010, I have brewed 32 batches (195.75 gallons) either solo or with Jeremy. I started brewing in early 2004 and conservatively did about another 30-40 extract batches in that period of time. That probably works out to a bit under 1000 hours of brewing and cellar maintenance during fermentation. I've listened to most of the programming the brewing network has put out there, read a rather ridiculous volume of books and blogs, and certainly spent many many hours seeking out and trying new beers.

All in all, I really don't know how much time I've spent in the hobby and related activities. But what I do know (and the picture in this post sums it up well) is that it dawned on me this Sunday that there were certain points of the brewing process during which Jeremy and I didn't even need to talk this weekend. We just flowed from one task to the next, having dialed in our process on our equipment. I was laughing about our first all grain effort in which we screwed up royally on the mash temp, didn't quite hit our numbers, spent the whole time freaking out about whether we were screwing it all up and just barely made it through the whole process in 7 or 8 hours. Contrast that with a day which looked a lot like that picture. Mostly we just stay a couple of steps ahead and then sit around and way until it's time for the next burst of activity.

I don't purport to be an expert. We're just barely scratching the surface of making predictably good all grain beer and understanding how the inputs actually affect the finished product. But I think Malcolm's on to something. Maybe in another few years when I actually hit that 10,000 hour mark I'll start taking home some competition medals or even a best in show. Although at this point, I'm not really that worried. I'm having way too much fun along the way.

Mexican Hot Chocolate Stout (Scoresheet review)

As per my previous post, I'm going to taste each beer Jeremy and entered in competition this winter against the score sheets we got back. Hopefully paying attention to the feedback from the bjcp judges and making some tweaks will help us to get better.

Since the Mexican Hot Chocolate Stout is still on my main tap handle downstairs I decided to lead off with it.

The score sheet I got back on this one is online here.

My notes:

Aroma
Judges' Notes: Malty, slightly spicy, lightly roasted malt in the background, lack of carbonation hurts

My Notes: Bready, sweet, slightly peppery / yeasty, some very slight green apple

Appearance
Judges' Notes: No carbonation, clear, mahogany
My Notes: Jet black / opaque with tan, lingering head

Flavor
Judges' Notes: Munich breadiness, minimal hop flavor, no hot chocolate flavor, phenolic, minimal spiciness from peppers 
My Notes: Sweet, green apple flavor persists, finishes with some roast bitterness and lingering sweetness (presumably from the lactose in the mexican hot chocolate used)

Mouthfeel 
Judges' Notes: No carbonation, light body, minimal astringency
My Notes: Light, moderate carbonation, slightly "slick" (I'm guessing from the lactose or milkfat)

Overall
Judges' Notes: Lack of carbonation really hurt the beer, malt bill was not quite stout-like, more pepper would have been desirable.
My Notes: I missed the mark on this one. The underlying recipe was good, but I think next time around I'll use more of the hot chocolate spices (chile, cinnamon, cacao nib) and skip the actual hot chocolate. I also get a distinct, but not overpowering acetaldehyde flavor from this one. It'll get more time in the fermentor with a temperature bump next time around.

Score: 21

One of the things which stood out in all of the results from this competition was that our carbonation was off. The Blichmann beer gun is an awesome device, but I don't think we quite have the process dialed in with it. I'm going to experiment with it on the next couple of batches we do in order to get an appropriate level of carbonation. It's good in the keg, but it seems like some is getting lost in the bottling process.

The other changes I'll make on this one are upping the chocolate and roasted malts and using a spice blend instead of actual Mexican Hot Chocolate.

Brettanomyces

I brewed a dark cherry lambic back in June and it's been aging in a carboy since. I'd only made one prior attempt at a lambic much earlier on in my brewing career, which I ended up dumping. Thankfully I've learned enough about yeast, bugs, and sanitation that I understand what I did wrong the first time around. This batch looks and smells like it's supposed to, although I haven't tasted it yet to be sure how it's coming along. I thought everything was good. I was wrong.

It seems like I either have brett lurking somewhere in my equipment or I have a natural source of wild yeast in my back yard or basement. Since then, I've had one batch I tossed because of contamination and traces of it show up elsewhere.

The first hint that something was up was a ten gallon batch of Firestone Double Barrel Ale clone which was split into two fermentors and pitched with two different yeasts. One of the batches turned out amazing, and the other was infected. The process for both was literally identical up to the point of pitching. The results couldn't have been more dissimilar. The aroma, taste, and even then color of the two beers was distinctly different.

So after a bit of research, I tossed all of my old plastic tubing, and brewed a batch of my ginger wheat which I fermented in a V-Vessel. (Separate post on that at some point.) I racked a gallon off into the sanitized, but possibly contaminated better bottle and let it sit for a couple of weeks. The test was inconclusive, and in hindsight I probably should've bottled up the results and done a "forced" conditioning at high temperatures to see if there really was anything at work.

But in any case, here are the steps I took / have taken since.

I bought a new better bottle and hardware for it.
I replaced all of my tubing and hoses used on the cold side of the process.
Instead of using a brush and mild detergent, I upgraded to PBW for cleaning the Better Bottle.
My keg cleaning regimen now involves a soak in PBW, scrubbing, a rinse and then a soak in star san instead of just a water rinse / scrub and a sanitizing cycle.
I've started buying fresh, clean bottles for anything which is going to need to age and only using recycled bottles for short term transportation.
As much as my limited space permits, I keep all of my aging beer cold.

After all that, I can't definitively say that I've beaten or contained that troublesome but wonderful bacteria lurking in my brewery somewhere, but I do brew with more confidence that I won't have to pitch any more batches soon.

Anything I missed?

Hop Utilization (A Geeky Take)

One of the lessons it really took me a while to learn is how different hop additions truly affect the finished beer. I started to really get into craft beer (which at the time was still colloquially referred to as "microbrew") shortly before I started brewing. So by the time that I was really starting to experiment with recipes and deviate from kits, I'd developed a palate for hops. Furthermore, I was in a purely experimental mode and brewing without doing a ton of research and definitely without the aid of brewing software to help me calculate the effects of recipe changes or additions.

As I've researched more, started to use software and take measurements religiously, I've dialed in my understanding on a few parts of recipe formulation. This post is about hops and bitterness. All of the calculations herein are performed using the Rager formula. (Apparently this is less accurate for full-volume boils than Tinseth, but it's what I've been using and it's what the guys at the brewing network use. Since most homebrewers probably aren't using lab equipment to accurately measure IBU's, we're just looking for a consistent way to measure.)

The IBU scale ranges from 0-100. According to most sources, you really can't discern bitterness past 100, but you will pick up additional hop aromas from late boil additions or dry hops once you've hit 100 IBU.

There are five variables in the Rager formula which affect bitternes: wort volume, wort gravity, alpha acid %, hop mass and addition time. I held the wort volume and wort gravity constant and ran some numbers for both this post and my own curiosity. The results were interesting and pointed out a few things I hadn't fully realized before.

(The table I used to create the graph is here.)

The conclusion I'd already come to by using brewing software and digging in to styles is that it doesn't take much of a bittering addition to max out one's taste buds. A 1 oz charge of bittering hops is really all you need for an IPA or any other highly bitter beer. Much beyond that and you're just wasting hops.

One thing I didn't realize is that the utilization (according to Rager) for a 90 minute boil is almost exactly the same as a 60 minute boil. So don't bother extending your boil time for higher bitterness. (Use it for wort concentration on high gravity beers or DMS reduction, but those are two separate posts.)

The other thing which I dug into is the affect of a flame-out addition. Based on some other sources, the extraction of bitterness from hop additions happens at temperatures above 158F. As such, your flame-out or late additions may end up contributing more bitterness than aroma if you're not cooling your beer quickly. (I noticed a substantial difference in the level of hop aroma I got this summer when I incorporated a proper wort chiller into my process.)

Green Apple Lambic - 5

I think my suspicions were correct about the green apple lambic.

This past Friday was a brew day. Before moving on to the other tasks at hand (moving a Czech Pilsner to secondary - more on that later - and brewing a spiced winter ale) I sampled the lambic one last time.

It still had the scotch-like off flavor that was present about a month ago when moving it to secondary. (Boo.) Not to mention the fact that it looked like something was growing near the surface of the secondary after a week or so. I intended to take some pictures of it, but every time I moved the fermentor to get better light, it'd shake the crap off of the surface again...

So, ultimately I'm still a bit unsure that the batch was totally spoiled, but I guess it's better to be safe with this stuff.

Tack one up to catastrophic failure. I think that makes it Jordan 11 (or so) - beer 2.

Green Apple Lambic - 4

I moved the green apple lambic to secondary fermentation today. I can't say that I'm sure this batch is going to turn out well at all. I think that I may have left it on the yeast (primary) for too long - there are some pretty weird off-flavors that I caught when I tasted it today. (It had some good flavors, but an almost scotch-like note on the finish. Not so good.)

So, we'll see how it turns out after a month or so of conditioning. If it stays bad, this might be the first officially bad batch of homebrew I've made so far. (It's gotta happen at some point, right?)