Batch 7: 'Merican IPA: Ingredients

I'm making this one for the annual trip to Gatlinburg. I've brought some investors on board so this batch will be known as "Brad's 'Merican IPA Presented by Cam and Ty."

• 9.9 lb. – Pale liquid extract ($34.47)
• 10 oz. – CaraPils grains ($1.12)
• 4 oz. – Centennial hops ($7.16)
• 1 packet – Wyeast American Ale II Yeast (#1272) ($7.49)
• 4 oz. – corn sugar ($0.25)

The total cost after tax was $54.02.

I also took the opportunity to spend some Christmas money on a couple upgrades to my setup, adding a 6.5 gallon glass carboy to replace my brewing pail for primary fermentation and a digital scale. (To be honest, the pocket scale makes me feel like drug dealer--which brings new meaning to the term "hop head." #rimshot)

Batch 6: Papa Bear Porter: Tasting Day

This one turned out OK. It's very dark, almost completely opaque. It has a subtle coffee nose. I still like the balance of chocolate maltiness and the hops. The vanilla adds a very nice front-end smoothness that is offset by the alcohol flavors at the back-end. I'm happy to report that using the swamp cooler seems to have eliminated the off-flavors that have plagued all of my previous batches. I just cannot get this beer to carbonate, though! It is quite flat. I upped the priming sugars from 3.5 to 4 oz. from the previous batch with no discernible difference. I'm wondering if the high alcohol content (7%) is damaging the yeast, though I've not had this problem with the 'Merican IPA of similar gravity. I might have to try re-pitching before bottle conditioning with the next batch. Still, it'll make for decent Christmas gifts.

Batch 6: Papa Bear Porter: Secondary Fermentation/Bottling Day

After two weeks in the secondary fermenter, the final gravity of the beer ended up at 1.014. With an (assumed) original gravity of 1.067, the ABV ends up being about 6.96%. I tasted the sample from the thief, and the vanilla was fairly prominent. I expect this to mellow somewhat during the bottle conditioning, which will make the beer quite nice. I primed the beer with 4 oz. of corn sugar before bottling, an ounce more than in the previous batch, which was a bit under-carbonated. I used several larger bottles this time, filling five 26 oz., five 24 oz., one 20 oz., one 18 oz., and 28 12 oz. bottles. I lost somewhere around 16 oz. in the process. (I had been coveting the narrow-lipped champagne bottles previously but now know that they hold the same volume as the larger one-off  bottles, the latter of which is far lighter, because they use less glass, and is also easier to cap.) I'll be giving away almost all of this batch as Christmas presents to family and friends so I've designed a label for the six-pack carrier and the larger bottles.

Not too shabby if you ask me.

Batch 6: Papa Bear Porter: Primary Fermentation

I let the primary fermentation go for two weeks and measured the specific gravity at 1.014, which puts the ABV just under 7%. I halved two vanilla beans, and cut the halves into 1" pieces, which I added to the sanitized carboy. I carefully siphoned the beer off the trub and into the carboy for secondary fermentation. The sample, like the previous batch, has strong coffee notes and some subtle hints of chocolate. I suspect that the vanilla flavor will add some smoothness and complexity. I plan to let this condition for two weeks before bottling.

Note on Swamp Coolers

I'm currently using a "swamp cooler" to regulate my fermentation temperature for the first time, and it is working surprisingly well. I'm giving this a shot in the hopes of eliminating some off flavors that all of my beers so far have been exhibiting and that I suspect is due to making the yeast "sweat" (i.e. straining the yeast by fermenting at higher-than-recommended temperatures). I started simply by immersing the brew pail about three-fourths of the way up in two store-bought bags worth of ice water in a storage container. The water temperature hovered around 32º for several hours but, after about 24 hours, rose to about 70º. I added a 2L bottle of frozen water at that point, which dropped the temperature back down to about 60º. Over nearly three days, the temperature slowly rose to just under 70º at which time I added a new frozen bottle. I'll continue this process of monitoring the temperature and swapping frozen bottles throughout the primary and secondary fermentations.

Batch 6: Papa Bear Porter: Ingredients/Brewing Day

Here is the program:

1. Boil 1.5 gallons of water, and set aside to cool.
2. Steep 1/2 lb. crystal 60L malt, 1/2 lb. chocolate malt, and 1/4 lb. black malt in 2 gallons of water at 160º ±10º for 30 minutes.
3. Bring tea to boil until break (approx. 20 minutes).
4. Chill tea in ice bath in sink to 80º. (I like to add salt to the bath to lower the temperature.)
5. Put tea in sanitized brew pail, and set aside.
6. Add 3.3 lb. of pale LME to 3 gallons of warm water, and stir till dissolved.
7. Bring to boil until break (approx. 20 minutes).
8. Hop.
1. 0.5 oz. Magnum hops T-60 minutes.
2. 0.8 oz. Willamette hops T-40 minutes.
3. 0.5 oz. Willamette hops T-20 minutes.
9. Add 6.6 lb. of pale LME at knockout, and let stand for 10 minutes. (Whereas I would usually try to rinse all of the LME from the plastic containers, I was sure to leave plenty of LME behind since I didn't really want an entire 9.9 lb. of fermentables in the wort.)
10. Chill wort in ice bath to 80º.
11. Add wort to tea in brew pail, and add cooled boiled water to just over 5 gallon-mark (or approx. 3 inches from top of pail).
12. Measure original gravity.
13. Let wort cool to 70º.
14. Aerate the wort by pouring back and forth between sanitized pails.
15. Pitch two packets of Wyeast American Ale Yeast (#1056).

I forgot to measure the original gravity, but the previous batch ended up being 1.067 so I'm going to go with that. I'm using a "swamp cooler" this time to keep the temperature of the beer between 60º and 72º during fermentation. I'm simply immersing the brew pail in ice water in a storage container. As the ice melts, I'll keep an eye on the temperature and swap 2L bottles of frozen water as needed. I plan to let this ferment for about two weeks before racking for secondary fermentation in a glass carboy. I'm going to try adding a vanilla bean or two to the secondary.

total cost of ingredients  = $68.41
estimated cost per bottle = $ 1.37

Batch 5: 'Merican IPA: Tasting Day

This was a major improvement over my first attempt at this recipe. The beers still tastes a little too green. I'm thinking I might step down the amount of hops that I use to dry hop in future batches. Over-pitching certainly took care of the sweetness, and so far, there are no bottle bombs. Unfortunately, after five go-arounds, I've found that all of my beers have the same flaw. It's in the front end of the taste, not unpalatable, but certainly not desirable. My guess is that it's oxidation, but I need to get a more expert opinion on this. The color now is definitely more appropriate to the style. It's all about limiting the LME in the boil and adding the rest at knockout. It ended up perfectly carbonated, though with little head retention.

I'd like to use this beer as a model for different hop varieties in the future, subbing out single varieties for the Centennial hops in the original recipe. This way, I can learn about the subtle differences in the varieties and, I think, find perhaps a better hop for this recipe.