Sunday 30 September 2012

Pumpkin High π (Pi) Ale/Wiezen


We typically don't brew the same thing twice.  Why do it?  With so many styles to try and variables to consider with amount of available weekends to brew why commit to the same thing twice?  Well, one reason is last year Jeff's recipe for Pi Pumkin Ale was a big hit and its fall.  Ok, that's two reasons but one is enough (+ a gift card from Brew-It-Yourself from the this year's Big Ass Beer Bash raffle helped with the additional $$$).

The recipe is very similar to last year's with the main exception of a tweak on the yeast.  Instead of dual pitching Wyeast 3068 and Wyeast 1099  into each carboy we pitched them seperatly to test the yeast profile.  So we should have a Pumpkin Ale and a "Pumpkinwiezen."

Brew day went well with the exception of hops and pie filling clogging the "bazooka" filter during the boil calling for repeated cleaning by-way-of dipping hot gloves into the pot, dissasembling of the filter, cleaning, and re-installation.  Next time this batch is done care will be taken to put hops and pie filling in the hop bag because the alternative is unpleasant.

We also used the mach pump for the first time in quite awhile since this was a 10 gallon target batch size.  It worked like a charm for us.



Brewday: 9/3/12
Recipe:

10# Maris Otter
8# Domistic 2 Raw
4# Munich Malt (10L)
1# Crystal Malt (40L)

1/2# Rice Hulls
1 Lb Muntons Extra Light DME (added halfway into the mash)
2 lbs Organic Rolled Oats, whole Gran
8 oz Shelled Hemp Seeds
1.25# Sunridge Organic Bulghur Wheat
1 lb Turbinado Raw Cane Sugar
16 fl oz Organic Blackstrap Molasses (30 min boil)
30 oz Pumkin Pie Mix (Can) (60 min boil)
30 oz Organic Pumpkin (60 min boil)
0.37 lbs Dried Mango Spears (15 boil)
0.27 lbs Dried Papaya (15 min)
0.30 lbs Dried banana chips (15 min boil)
0.57 lbs pumkin kernnels (Mash)
0.10 lbs Pumkin Pie Spice (boil 5 min)
0.07 lbs ground cinnamon (boil 5 min)

7 gal spring water to Mash Pot with 1 tablespoon pH stabilizer
10 gallon spring/tap water to sparge water with 2 tablespoon pH stabilizer

start-of-sparge, 1074@ 140 F
 12 gallon wort collected at 1044 @ 122 F

Collected ~ 8 gallon wort to fermentors, 4.5 gallon to first, 3.5 to second.

Pitched 1099 to 3.5 gallon carboy, and 3068 to 4.5 gal. (smack packs, no starter)
Fermented at 67 F.

9/10/12 update,
Transferred 3068 to secondary, krausen did take up 1/3 of the head space as advertized.  IG 1015 (81% attenuation).  Evidence of yeast still in suspension as advertized too.

9/11/12 update,
Transferred 1099 to secondary, 1019.





Sunday 9 September 2012

Nostalgic Pale Ale Tasting

Nostalgic Pale Ale turned out good.  I wanted to make a pale ale that reminded me of the first craft brews I tried and Nostalgic does the deed.  Its a beer that is hard not to keep pouring.

Appearance,

Reddish/Amber color with small bubbles.  Head retention is not great but that may be due to not having carbonation on the keg during several events at the house and just needs a bit more carb-ing up.  Head is slight off white.  Some small bubbles but not a bunch.  Its a gorgeous beer but what beer isn't.

Aroma,

Good hop aroma from Cascade, not great.  Citrus, some orange/lemon notes.  A touch of sweet malt as well.  Not an over-powering aroma.  Thought about dry-hopping ... maybe next time.

Taste,

This beer has a lot of flavors going for it.  Centennial/Cascade combo does a good job doubling down on the citrus appeal:  again orange/lemon/grapefruit flavor with a strong bitter finish.  There is a malt depth to complement the hop flavor which makes is very enjoyable.  The more sips the more straight-up grapefruit flavor comes out which is a good thing.  Everything one would expect in a Pale Ale.

Mouthfeel,

Maybe a little under carbed (fixable) but it does have good body. 

Overall,

Good Pale Ale,  If hop aroma was stronger I would say a great one.  The beer did what it was suppose to, it reminds me of the first craft beer experiences I had with Boulevard's Pale Ale and Copperhead Ale from Free State.  It has enough aroma to set-up the flavor and the beer just looks right and tastes right.  Really happy how this turned out and will be excited to submit to this year's Dixie Cup to get a score on it.




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