Green Bullet Blondy Shire SMaSH

I was ordering some replacement parts off Northern Brewer (drill mixer, beer gun seal, etc.) and thought maybe I'd check to see if there were some good deals on Hops.  I had noticed a month or two back that they had pretty good deals on a bunch of varieties but I didn't see the need to ordering at the time.  As I glanced through the varieties I noticed a bunch of good deals (1.25 - 1.99 $/oz) on N.Z. varieties.  I decided to take the opportunity to pick up some Pacific Gem and Green Bullet 1 oz pellet packets (already paid the flat $7.99 shipping ... why not).  I wasn't sure the best way to incorporate but remembered reading about Single Malt and Singe Hop (SMaSH) brews here and here and I decided this was a cool way to experiment with these NZ hops.  I had some 2nd generation Cali Hops which I could use too for a super cheap brew.

I was trying to find a commercial example of a SMaSH on the net and was pleasantly surprised  finding Boulevard 's Collaboration No 1 as an solid example and another source of inspiration.  I recalled trying this beer at a trip home to Kansas a few years back and really enjoying it.  Reading Collaboration No 1's style led to the idea of experimenting with First Wort Hopping (FWH).  Ideally, as I read somewhere(s), FWH is best with a lower AA hop (i.e. not 13.2% AA like the Pacific Gem came in at), but whatever and enjoy a home brew (so on and so forth).  FWH involves running the sparge wort over hops before bringing to a boil.  "Old Data" on the topic is here and there are a gazzilion different ways to implement the method.

And all this led me to the SMaSH Paradox:  something so simple is in fact so complicated, so difficult to choose.  I knew I wanted to FWH, I knew I wanted to reuse some Cali Yeast, but I was standing at the homebrew shop trying to figure out the SM of the SMaSH.  Should I stick with Pilsner Malt like Collaboration No 1, should I pick Marris Otter for its depth, should I stick with the budget brew and buy whatever base malt is on sale, should I pick a base malt that a really really want to study further, that is one goal of the SMaSH.  Budget brew won the day and I picked up 12#'s of domestic Pils.  The rest of the recipe is below.  There are some many other variables that can be adjusted, Mash Schedule, Hop Schedule, Yeast and Fermentation temp.  That is the utility of SMaSH's and its  a great way to introduce someone to All-Grain Brewing.

Green Bullet Blondy Shire SMaSH
Single Infusion (154 F, 3.7 gal strike water at 175 F, Sparge water 170 F, 8 gallon wort collected)
12 # Domestic Pils
0.5 oz Green Bullet (FWHed) @ 60 min
1.0 oz Green Bullet @ 20 min
0.5 oz Green Bullet @ 0  min
OG 1045 (target 1048)
Cali Yeast (2nd generation) 1.5 L starter (3 days prior to brew day)

This was the first time in a while I had a gravity lower than target, probably due to collecting an extra half gallon of beer (I collect 8 gallon of wort instead of the typical 8.  Also, note that I did the FWH on the bittering hops and not the aroma or flavoring.  The latter is more typical, but what the heck.  Pitched Yeast at 74 F, chilled down to 68 F.

Brew day went well, I mowed the lawn right before it rained, and the rain was a nice backdrop and kept things cooler than normal lately.  Also kegged Nostalgic Pale Ale and gave it a quick try, review to come later but it seems to have turned out quite good.

Pleuviot Saison Tasting

 
Brewed this beer experimenting with 2nd generation Belgian Wit yeast as a substitute for Saison yeast strain to see if similar flavors could be generated leaving the fermentation on the high-end of the scale.  In a word did this work?  No.  In many words:  this beer has a Belgian Ale taste to it, it has some subtle spiciness, fairly good nose, more than one person who tried it commented to the effect "is this a belgian wit, its sorda dark," its good, but is is not Saison (I'm not renaming it)".

That being said, using a Belgian Wit yeast in a non-belgian Wit recipe (i.e. not ~ 50% unmalted wheat) can produce good beer so its certainly worth experimenting with but using it as a saison yeast substitute is a stretch.

Apperance:

Dark brown with some haze, off-white head.  Figs used imparted a good bit of color to the beer.  The head retention is pretty good and their is a fair bit of small bubbles streaming up the glass (left it at 14 psig for 10 days by mistake).  Darker than a typical saison (well, the nice thing about this style is the broad range in ... everything) but pleasant to look at.

Aroma:

Subtle fruit and nut notes but distinct enough for this style.  A bit of hop aroma but subdued.  Frankly, it smells like beer, which is never a bad thing but not exactly a good thing.  Nothing distinctive to get one ready for the flavors.

Taste:

Nutty and malty with some residual sweetness.  Maltier than I would have expected.  Some spiciness but not as much as one might expect.  As the glass warms the spicy flavors come out more:  probably a beer best served in the 50's not the 40's (F).   Good hop balance with hop bitterness accumlating as the pint goes down.  There are good flavors here, just not the "flavor density" one might want.  Very drinkable.

Taste tidbits - tried after 2 days keg conditioning and tasted a metallic flavor which apparently can be caused early in the forced carb process.  It dissipated.  Also, noted a butter tasted in the head of one of the pints I poured, but not the body.  May be some diactyl preseant but not much.

Mouthfeel:

Creamy and substantial, not thin at all.  Coats the mouth well and leaves no dryness (until the morning).

Overall:

A good homebrew, just not great.  Misses the mark wrt want I wanted, Saison tasting beer with Belgian Wit yeast.  Disappointed that Figs did not come out more.  This beer does go down well and is completely enjoyable.  I'll probably uses a similar recipe next year with a Saison Yeast strain and do a taste comparison down the road.

Nostalgic Pale Ale

I've been thinking a lot about beer lately.  What to brew, what to try, what to do next.  My thoughts took me back to what got me interested in craft beer in the first place.  Circa 2000 was an exciting time for craft beer even in Kansas.  A typical discussion involving beer snobs would go,

Beer Snob: "I have to go to Europe to get great beer, American beer is no good"
me:  "what about Boulevard or Free State ... New Belgium or Sam Adams"
Beer Snob:  "well besides those"

Needless to say the stereotype remained that American's did not appreciate good beer or make good beer but the truth had changed - American Craft Beer brought a person who appreciated beer pride.  I could have a Grolsch, maybe a Warestiener, or a tasty, citrusy pale ale.  And really, for me at least, it was the pale ale that I kept coming back too.  The first pale ale I tried was Free State's Copperhead.  Monday's at Free State a few beers were $1.50 a pint (amazing college student deal, I think they are 2 something now) and I knew I liked ales from trying Bass Ale.  This beer took me by suprise.  It was like bitting into a grapefruit it was so citrus tart and bitter.  I kept drinking my pint and ordered another knowing I loved craft beer but not knowing why.  I know better now.  Cascade hops are awesome and American.  California ale yeast are steady and forgiving.  Ales ferment at ambient tempertures.  Most homebrewers start brewing pale ales and most craft breweries have a pale ale as one of there flagship brews. Nowadays, the craft beer sub-genre is strong and relevant internationally and cannot be denied.

All this reminiscing made me want to make another pale ale.  There are so many good pale ales and IPA's out there that it is almost futile trying to make a unique one.  I really like Red Chair NWPA by Duschutes and generated a recipe based on it (yeast type main switch as I wanted to harvest some WLP001),





Brew Day went well.  Had good help from Jeff and Steve and a few homebrews.  Used filtered tap water for the sparge and strike water.  Did a single infusion at 153 F with pretty good temperature consistency throughout the pot.  Collected 7 gallons of wort which was 1035 at 135 F which should have given 1050-1055 OG but wound up with 1060.  Batch was scaled to 6 gallons but probably only collected 5.5.

We also transferred a couple of gallons of Black Magic IPA to the "party pig," kegged the saison, and bottled the rest of the Belgian wit.  Ended Brew day with a night at BBCB Compass Bank Stadium watching the Dynamo beat Montreal (3 to nil if I remember correctly).  Stopped by Flying Saucer Sugar Land for some ... pale ales!.

 Fermentation started steady the next morning.  Not aggressive like the belgian wit ales and saison's we've been brewing.  I was out-of-town the next weekend so sampled 9 day's later with yeasty smelling 1020 IG beer.  This was a bit higher than I wanted.  I could visibly see yeast agglomerates moving in the sample vial and a bunch of carbonation spewed out the sample port.  I sampled again 4 days later at 1012 IG.  Harvested yeast and lowered fermentation temperature down to 58 F (14 days later).