Below are a few snap shots of the brew kettle, before the boil and  during the boil.  The recipe tweaks for this batch were to increase the chocolate malt to 1.0 lb and increase the Crystal malt to 0.75 lb.  The brew day went very smoothly!  I think the smell of a porter or stout wort might be my favorite!

Enjoy brewing up this delicious porter today, get the recipe by becoming a BeerEasy.com Member!

The hop schedule looked this:

0.50 oz Galena 13.2% AA – 60 minutes

0.25 oz Simcoe 12.2% AA – 60 minutes

0.50 oz Simcoe 12.2% AA – 20 minutes

I blended 1.5 oz each of Simcoe 12.2% AA and Amarillo 7.5% AA, for a total of 3 oz or 84 grams.  I added 7 grams of the hop blend every minute from the 12 minute mark to the end of the boil.

After the primary fermentation is drawing a close, I will dry hop with 0.5 oz each of Simcoe and Amarillo.

I’m thinking maybe the name of this recipe should be ‘Can You Handle It? Pale Ale’ because the hop flavor and aroma will be off the charts.  A solid 61 IBUs will provide a firm bitterness in what will be a mid 5% ABV brew.

I’ve included a few pictures from today’s Simcoe Pale Ale brew day.  I can’t wait for this one to finish up!

So the brew day started at a chilly 23F.  But no worries, I had my winter jacket and hat on.  The brew day went well despite the cold temperature, although running the hose to the wort chiller was kind of a pain, the hose was quite stiff.  Some of the water froze in the hose while I was cleaning, but no big deal, I’ll let it melt in the garage.  Also using so many whole hops I knew siphoning the wort might be a challenge, so I tried something new, using a copper scrubber attached to the racking cane to act as a filter, I got the idea from another brewer on the web.  It worked very well, no clogged racking cane.  Although I’ll say this, no more brewing outside in subfreezing weather…back to the kitchen until spring or maybe a mild spell.

The recipe today was quite simple:

9.0 lbs Maris Otter

1.0 lbs Wheat Malt

1.0 lbs Crystal 40L

Wyeast 1056 American Ale Yeast

1.25 oz Cascades 60 mins

1.20 oz Cascades 15 mins

1.20 oz Cascades 0 mins

I will ferment this batch cool, in the low 60s.  With the simple grain bill, clean yeast and cool fermentation temperatures this beer will showcase the entire 2009 harvest of our Cascade hops.  I’ve attached some pictures of brew day if you’re interested.  If I have time I’ll also post a few things about two of my other latest brews, a Northern English Brown, which tastes fantastic and an update on the Maibock Pale Ale which I’m enjoying as I write this.

The pictures:  1) a cold start!  2) the grains, toward the ‘top’ of the bag you can see the crushed wheat malt atop the other grains 3) the mash after doughing-in 4) the bittering addition 5) wort before the boil got going 6) wort with the bittering hops added

The recipe I came up with used a lot of German pilsner and German munich malt and a bit of caramel malt, hence the maibock part of the beer recipe, basically similar malts I would use in a maibock recipe.  We bittered with Perle and made a 15 minute, 5 minute and zero minute addition of Tettnanger hops.  For yeast we went with Wyeast 1007 German Ale yeast, as this should give a rather clean fermentation, allowing the hops and malt to shine.  If you want the recipe, give me a shout, otherwise here are a few pictures of the fermentation that is going strong in my basement.

Oh, and if you were curious I ended up going with Nottingham Ale yeast for this batch.  I fermented at 57F, it took a full 24 hours to see action from the yeast at this cool temperature, but once it got going it fermented slowly and steadily through much of the week.  It will be interesting to see how this beer tastes, I never have fermented an ale at this low of a temperature.  I’ll post back in a couple months with a tasting.  Here are a few pictures I thought you may enjoy from my brew day last Sunday.

1120 IPA Grains

Here is the grain bill mixed throughly before adding to the mash tun.  The non-barley specs are flaked barley, which I think will give this IPA just a bit of a creamy mouthfeel.

Bittering Addition

The bittering addition, added at the beginning of the boil.  The whole hops are Amarillo and the pellets are Cascades.

Mash after draining

Here is the mash after draining, before the first sparge, smells SO good!

Draining into brew kettle

Draining the first runnings from the mash tun into the kettle.  I have the burner on low after running off to stop any further enzyme action that may be going on.

Rolling boil

Ah, a full rolling boil, you can see the whole hop flower pieces if you look closely.

Well there you have it, another enjoyable brew day!  I can’t wait until this one is ready!  Are you brewing anything soon?

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What you’ll find here are some commercial beer reviews, an update on my latest homebrewing adventures, comments on the brewing industry and beer in general, and some resources any homebrewer may find useful.

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Thanks again and Happy Brewing!

Justin