The Year Thus Far in One Rambling Paragraph

We've been extremely busy this year. And with the creation of a new homebrew club, The Grain Trust, seems like there is always something hectic going on. Some interesting beers have been brewed. A cotton candy cream ale, a toasted coconut porter, American oaked bourbon RIS, French oaked bourbon RIS, and citra dry hopped Imperial IPA to name a few. And we've been fortunate to score well at the National Homebrew Competition. We received a score of 44 for our Baltic Porter for example. Even better, we won second and third place awards at the recent CA State Fair for the 2009 Spiced Sour Cherry Dubbel and Pumpkin Spiced Barleywine (respectively). We've maxed out keg and fermenter capacity so no brewing in the near future. A saison and black rye IPA will eventually be the next two beers brewed... In the meantime, our attention is focused squarely on the homebrew club. Check it out.

Cheers.

2009 Achievements

Finding the time to update has been difficult as of late. And there's so much to talk about. Homebrew clubs. RRRIS. Upcoming brews. Unfortunately these topics will have to wait.

In the meantime, we're pleased to announce the Raz's Fine Ales 2009 Achievements!

Doug King Memorial Competition - 3rd place (specialty) for Todd's RIS w/ coffee.

Quaff America's Finest City Homebrew Competition - 3rd place for cream ale.

World Cup of Beer - 2nd place for Sourwood Honey Mead (dry).

Sam Adams LongShot Competition - 1st place (Western Region) for traditional bock.

CA State Fair Homebrew Competition - 1st and two 2nd places for RIS, old ale, and cream ale respectively.

MoreBeer Forum Competition - Best of Show for RIS.

And while we didn't place, I'm very proud of the fact that in the first (regional) round of the National Homebrew Competition, three of our beers scored the highest in the categories that they were entered into. The old ale, RIS, and cream ale scored 44, 43 and 40.5 respectively.

Hopefully we will continue to do well in 2010!

Ridiculous Reiterated RIS - Attempt #2

Gearing up for attempt number two at brewing the RRRIS. The brew date is fast approaching and is less than three weeks away. The equipment is fixed. The recipe is revised and nailed down. The ingredients are in inventory. Over the long upcoming weekend, the yeast build up will begin...

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009 MoreBeer Forum Competition - BOS

Happy to come home today and see a newly redesigned conical fermenter from MoreBeer sitting on the front porch. This was the Best of Show prize for winning the 2009 MoreBeer Forum Competition with our Russian Imperial Stout!

American Wheat Update 3

We got it done in time. And it was a big hit this past Saturday. The 5 gal keg I brought was killed in less than 90 minutes and many didn't get to try it. Next time, we'll take 10 gallons. And maybe one of those big scary dark beers too...

American Wheat Update 2

10 gal of American Wheat is now currently bubbling away at 64 degrees. Smooth brew day yesterday and while we planned for 70% efficiency, we were closer to 80%. Since the beer has a higher OG than originally planned, we also increased the bittering hops by half an ounce to help compensate. Looks like the planning efficiency numbers will have to be changed in BeerSmith.

Now, will this beer be ready in 20 days?

American Wheat Update

Here's the situation:

No Hallertauer hops in inventory. Scheduled delivery on Thursday.

25 days (from today) the beer needs to be ready.


Here's the plan:

Brew on Sunday, skip the split batch idea, and hope the beer is ready to drink in 20 days.

Yikes!

American Wheat

Going to whip up a quick easy drinking American Wheat in a week or two for an event early next month. Never brewed one before but am hoping that this one will be what LN likes. We know at this point it's certainly not the traditional hefeweizens she digs.

Currently thinking of using noble (not citrus) hops. Not sure of the hop schedule or yeast strains. I wanted to split the batch and use either a neutral yeast or american hefeweizen yeast as well as a traditional german hefeweizen yeast. Here's what I've got thus far.

Comments? Suggestions?

BeerSmith Recipe Printout - www.beersmith.com
Recipe: American Wheat (6D.1)
Brewer: Dan
Asst Brewer:
Style: American Wheat or Rye Beer
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (0.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 10.00 gal
Boil Size: 11.85 gal
Estimated OG: 1.043 SG
Estimated Color: 3.5 SRM
Estimated IBU: 18.2 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
1.00 lb Rice Hulls (0.0 SRM) Adjunct 5.88 %
8.00 lb Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 47.06 %
8.00 lb White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM) Grain 47.06 %
3.00 oz Hallertauer [3.50 %] (60 min) Hops 18.2 IBU
1.00 oz Hallertauer [3.50 %] (0 min) Hops -
2.00 tbsp PH 5.2 Stabilizer (Mash 60.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs American Hefeweizen Ale (White Labs #WLP320Yeast-Wheat


Mash Schedule: Temperature Mash, 1 Step, Light Body
Total Grain Weight: 17.00 lb
----------------------------
Temperature Mash, 1 Step, Light Body
Step Time Name Description Step Temp
75 min Saccharification Add 29.75 qt of water and heat to 152.0 F
10 min Mash Out Heat to 168.0 F over 10 min 168.0 F


Fermentation temps:

wlp320 - 65
wlp300 - 67

Overachiever Imperial Mild - We're Back in Business

Darren at MoreBeer in Concord came through in a big way. He repaired, free of charge and in a day, the electrical wiring on the hot liquor tank. We're back in business! Fire good!
We managed to work in a brew session this past weekend. The planned beer was an English mild with an estimated OG of 1.038 and 18ish IBUs. Our typical efficiency ranges from 65% - 70%.

Prior to dough in, two changes were made. One subtle and one not so subtle. The first was to slightly crank down on the grain mill's gap size in order to get a slightly finer crush. The second was to increase the water to grain ratio from 1.25 qt / lb to 1.75 qt / lb. (A comment was made on a message board that based on research and experimentation, a thin mash like this does wonders. Reference to Kai Troester)




The combined effect of these changes on efficiency was stunning. Instead of 65% - 70% efficency, we achieved 88%. Pre-boil gravity of the (almost) 12 gal of runoff was in the low 1.040s. As a result, I added an ounce of hops at 30 minutes to bump up the IBUs. Gravity of the post-boil wort going into the conical was 1.052.

Given the gravity and IBUs, this is certainly no longer a mild and is more like an English brown ale in terms of style. However, it's much more fun (and probably inaccurate) to say that we brewed an Imperial Mild! Can't wait to taste Overachiever in a couple of weeks.

Brewing Equipment Finally Repaired!

Just need to run to Concord to pick it up. I look forward to finally being able to brew with some precision again! Winging it is fine once in a while, but I guess I'm spoiled.

First up, an English mild. Formerly known as Girlie Getaway Mild, I'll have to come up with a different name since this wouldn't be brewed for a Girlie Getaway Weekend for LN. Suggestions? Maybe I can crow bar in a brew session this weekend... Second up, the Ridiculous Russian Imperial Stout that was postponed due to broken equipment?

Very stoked.