"Not For Summer" Russian Imperial Stout

Brew #2 today was going to be the fourth iteration of the Rye Porter that I'm trying to perfect. Unfortunately I keep forgetting to borrow someone's barley crusher, so that one wasn't happening today. Further down my list of beers to brew was a Russian Imperial Stout. It felt very ironic to brew a beer like this on an 85 degree day, but this should be tasting good by Winter time. This is the biggest beer I've ever done on my system, so it was interesting to see how much of an efficiency hit I took. I planned the recipe for 60% (I usually get 72%) and ended up at 57%, only missing my target by a few points. Definitely acceptable in my book!

Mash: 151F for 90 mins
14lb Rahr 2-row (60.9%)
5lb Pils (21.7%) - used this because I ran out of 2-row
1.5lb Roasted Barley (6.5%)
1lb Crystal 120L (4.3%)
.5lb Caramunich (2.2%)
.5lb Pale Chocolate (2.2%)
.5lb Chocolate Malt (2.2%)

Hops:
2.5oz Nugget @ 75min (88.6 IBU)
2oz Fuggles @ 10min (8.5 IBU)

Yeast:
SafAle US-05

OG: 1.093
FG: 1.023
IBU: 97
SRM: 67
ABV: 9%

Snapping Turtle Brown

Turtles are probably my favorite sweet candy of all time. The local chocolate shop refers to them as "Snappies", hence the name of the beer. At first I had thought of this beer as being a stout, but then realized that it makes more sense as a brown ale since it is mostly caramel and pecans with a little chocolate coating. Recipe as follows:

Mash: 155 for 60 min
7lb Rahr 2-row (66.67%)
1lb Munich (9.5%)
1lb Pale Chocolate Malt (9.5%)
0.38lb Crystal 10L (3.5%)
0.38lb Crystal 60L (3.5%)
0.75lb Crystal 80L (7.1%)
1cup chopped pecans (toasted in the oven @300F for 10 mins)

Hops:
2oz Fuggles @60min - 32IBU

Yeast:
SafAle US-05

OG: 1.054
FG: 1.013
IBU: 32
SRM: 25.5
ABV: 5.3%

I'm hoping for this to be a nice Fall/Winter beer

HopBurst IPA

I've been really intrigued lately by the idea of "hop bursting". In a nutshell, you skip your early bittering additions and add a huge hop addition toward the end. I sort of did this with The Captain's Nephew IPA where I just did a bittering addition and a ton of late hops. Here I went all the way with ONLY a big 15 minute addition.

Malt Bill:
11lb (92%) Rahr 2-row
1lb (8%) Crystal 40L

Hop Bill
1oz Simcoe (13% AA) @ 15min
1oz Amarillo (8.5% AA) @ 15 min
1oz Citra (12% AA) @ 15 min
1oz Centennial (10% AA) @ 15 min

Yeast: Safale US-05

OG: 1.064
FG: 1.015
SRM: 8
IBU: 70
ABV: 6.4%

I'm really anxious to see how this bad boy turns out!

Watermelon Wheat

Amber has been asking me to make her a "girly" beer for awhile now so I'd been kicking around the idea of a watermelon wheat (a la the one that 21st Amendment makes). I tried to keep the recipe pretty simple here:

Malt Bill:
4lb (50%) Rahr 2-row
4lb (50%) White wheat malt

Hop Bill:
1oz (2.5% AA) Czech Saaz
0.5oz (5.5% AA) Cascade

Yeast: Safale US-05

Puree, filter, and add 6lb watermelon into secondary (adds 6 points to the gravity)

OG: 1.054
FG: 1.013
Color: 3.5 SRM
IBU: 19

The hiatus is soon to be over...

After taking two months off from brewing, I'm ready to get at it again! The BJCP class and test really took it out of me. After going to the National Homebrewers Conference this last weekend and with the UP State Fair competition coming up soon I've really got the bug. Stay tuned to see what's in my fermenter!

Citra American Pale Ale

This year Third Eye Brewing is hosting Big Brew Day on May 1st (1008 2nd Ave N in Escanaba, stop by!). I realized the other day that I damn well better have beer for everyone or there might be a riot. I also have over a pound of Citra hops that I've been meaning to play with. Since not many people I know have tasted this hop I really wanted to showcase it. What better style to do this with than a simple American Pale Ale?

Malt bill:
9lb (90%) Rahr 2-Row
0.5lb (5%) Crystal 10L
0.5lb (5%) Crystal 40L

Hop bill:
0.75 oz Citra @ 60 min
0.5 oz Citra @ 15 min
0.5 oz Citra @ 0 min

Yeast: US-05

OG: 1.058
IBU: 44
ABV: ~5.8%

Real simple...should be a great beer to drink while brewing!

A blast from the past - OR - Time fixes all beers

To mark the (approximate) third anniversary of my homebrewing, I decided to reach waaaay back in my cellar and grab a bottle of the second beer I ever brewed - chocolate coffee stout. This is also the only beer I ever brewed that got dumped down the drain. It was my first attempt at a recipe and I had NO clue what I was doing. I can't remember the exact recipe by far, but it was a mix of dark malt extract, who knows what hop, chocolate brownie coffee, and 4oz of cocoa powder. The OG was ~1.060 if memory serves.What a disgusting mess! After 6 or 8 months I gave up on this beer and dumped all but a sixer down the drain. I've tried some periodically since then and not a one of them have been finished. I'd say that the last one I tried was a good year ago. I just cracked into my second-to-last one and this is actually a pretty damn good beer! Now I wish I had that case and a half I drainpoured. Oh well, just goes to show how much a beer really changes over the course of three years. I'll bring my last bottle to the Bay de Noc Brewers meeting on Saturday to get some other opinions.