Imperial Porter Recipe

I haven't brewed in a while, mainly due to money and time. My next brew should be an imperial porter. I put this recipe together toward the mid-late summer, and intended it to be bottled by now and conditioning for the Christmas/New Years time period, but that didn't happen. Perhaps it'll be ready by St. Patrick's Day...

Anyway, here's what I intend to do:

Ingredients:

• 6.6 lbs pale malt extract
• 3.3 lbs brown/dark malt extract
• 2 lbs Crystal malt
• 1 lb chocolate malt
• .5 lb black patent malt
• 1 oz Willamette hops
• 1 oz Fuggles hops
• 2 lb Northern Brewer hops
• White Labs WLP007 dry English ale yeast

As you can see, this is going to pack a punch. The yeast I'll be using is intended for higher gravity worts and can sustain in fairly high alcohol levels. I'm going to wing the Crystal malt and extract selections based on what's available, but I'd prefer syrups and a lighter Crystal.

Comments?

You know you're a homebrewer...

• IF you measure beer in gallons.
• IF you have more than 10 gallons of beer in your home right now.
• IF you don't think 10 gallons of beer is a lot.

Bottling the Strawberry Summer Beer

A quick update...

I bottled the Strawberry Summer Beer with Angelos and guest homebrewer Jeff on Sunday. Final gravity was 1.010, giving this beer a final ABV of 4.5%, which is perfect for the style and a good yield for the lower starting gravity of 1.044.

The beer has a mild though distinct aroma and flavor of strawberry that does not intrude upon the light golden ale base. I think the oats I added softened the mouth feel up just enough, and perhaps took the potentially acidic edge off the berries. The beer is a bit murky still, but I'm hoping that much of that will fall out of suspension once the bottles are fully conditioned.

I'll follow up next week with a tasting update. Need to test for carbonation, you know...

Monday's Brew: Strawberry Summer Ale

This brew day happened on August 10th. Yeah, I'm a slacker.

I know August is an odd time of year to brew a summer ale, but honestly, it's finally starting to feel like summer around here and I felt compelled to honor the warm weather. For those not in the northeast US, the weather throughout July can be summed up as follows: rain with intermittent thunder, lightning and wind, chance of sun 10%.

Earlier this year I discovered a delicious Strawberry lager by Abita and wanted to try my hand at brewing a strawberry beer of my own. Since I don't have lagering capability (yet) I had to go with an ale recipe. I thought about using a wheat beer base, but then changed my mind at the last minute to a summer ale. Good thing, because that same day my brew buddy Angelos also brewed a strawberry beer using a wheat beer base.

The ingredient list:

• 8 oz. oats
• 1 lb. Carapils malt
• 1 lb. Vienna malt
• 12 oz. Wheat malt
• 8 oz. Lager malt
• 3 lbs. Golden dry malt extract
• 3/4 oz. Hallertau hops (4.8% A)
• 1 oz. Tettnang hops (4% A)
• 3 lbs. whole frozen strawberries, pureed
• 1 lb. sliced frozen strawberries in sugar
• Windsor dry brewer's yeast

The process:

Steep oats, Carapils, Vienna, Wheat, and Lager in about 2 gallons of water at 160 degrees for 20 minutes. Strain grain bags, move "tea" to boil pot, add water to 3-4 gallons. Bring to boil, add dry malt extract and Hallertau hops, bring to boil, set timer for 50 minutes.

Meanwhile... bring all strawberries to 180 degrees and simmer at 180 for 20 minutes to kill off any bacteria that may be hiding in the fruit. Bacteria at those levels are fine to eat, but will multiply in the fermenter into something quite nasty, thus the cooking.

When the 50 minute timer goes off, add the Tettnang hops to the boil and set a timer for 10 minutes. When timer goes off, remove from heat, remove hop bags and transfer to primary fermenter with the cooked strawberries. Add clean water to 5 gallons, chill to 70 degrees, aerate well, pitch yeast and seal the fermenter.

Original gravity was a low 1.044, which should produce about a 4-4.5% ABV beer unless the sugars from the strawberries don't factor into the gravity. We shall see.

Wexford Irish Cream Ale

Wexford Irish Cream Ale
Cream Ale
Greene King/Morland Brewery
5% ABV
Grade: B+

Poured from nitro-can into an imperial pint glass. Comes out a thick, rich foam that takes a good 10 seconds to start breaking down. As the foam settles you see a beautiful cascade of foam as it breaks down into beer. The beer itself is a beautiful clear brownish orange color, and the foam a slight yellow in color. Superb head retention on this ale. Even toward the end of the glass there is a good half-finger of creamy foam atop the beer.

The smell is very bready and sweet with a touch of lemony tartness behind it. Not much else to note.

The taste is definitely bready, almost with a bit of rye. Any hops in here are solely for bittering, as there is nothing up front but a nice mild bitterness on the finish.

Mouthfeel is surprisingly creamy for such a clear-looking beer. It's nice and thick-feeling.

Drinkability is high. It goes down easy and has a wonderful bitter aftertaste. Very thirst-quenching, in my opinion.

Overall I'm quite happy with this one. I'd walked past these cans for months and finally decided to try it. I wasn't disappointed.

Monday's Brew: English Pale Ale

I had forgotten to blog this at brew time, so here's the post-game with all the brew details. In truth, I had a particular recipe in mind going into the brew store, but based on what they had, I made alterations. Looking back on the ingredients, this is leaning toward a pale ale.

Ingredients:

• 6.6 lb golden LME (liquit malt extract)
• 2 oz Aurora hops (8.1% alpha)
• 1 packet dry British ale yeast
• 1 lb Crystal 10-degree Lovibond
• 1 lb Vienna malt
• 1 lb wheat

The schedule began with a 20 minute "tea", which involved steeping the Crystal, Vienna, and wheat malt in a grain sock in about 3 gallons of 160 degree water. Once the tea was done, I lightly compressed the sock and ran the hot tea through it a bit as a bit of a faux sparge to release any remaining sugars into the tea.

I then brought the tea to a boil and added the LME along with 1 oz of the Aurora hops. I find that with extracts, it's best to add hops as soon as possible to prevent boil-over. Something about the hop oils seems to calm the beer down as it approaches boiling.

Once at a boil, I set the timer for 30 minutes, at which time I added another 0.5 ounces of Aurora hops. Then set the timer for 28 minutes, at which the remaining Aurora was added for the final 2 minutes of boil.

At the 0-minute mark, removed from flame and removed the hop bags. With wort chiller, chilled down to 70 degrees, aerated the wort heavily and dry-pitched the yeast. I've had a lot of luck with dry-pitching, though over the past year or so the beer's been slower to really start fermenting. But, it does ferment.

Original gravity was 1.062.

Final reading on bottling night (last night) was 1.014, yielding a nice 6.3% ABV IPA. The color is a bit on the deeper side, though not quite brown or amber. The beer has some strong bitter characteristics with mild maltiness behind it. At room temp and flat (and unconditioned) it was fairly good, but Angelos and I both agreed that once conditioned, carbonated and cold, this would be a fine brew. We shall see!

Julius Echter Hefe-Weiss

Julius Echter
Hefe-Weiss Hell
Würzburger Hofbräu
4.9% ABV
Grade: A

Poured from a 500ml bottle in traditional inverted fashion into a traditional weissbier glass. Pour was highly carbonated with excellent head formation. Beer is a beautiful hazy gold color. With minimal agitation I was able to swirl out the yeast. Beautiful fine foam of yeast indicates minimal caking. Final head on the beer was about 2-3 fingers. Excellent head retention even throughout drinking.

The smell is a wonderful mix of spice, citrus and banana. Heavy lemon and spice up front, with a nice mild banana base to back it up. A very unimposing and inviting aroma!

The taste is quite solid. There's a nice bready quality to this beer with more spice coming in (fennel?), rounded out beautifully by the nitrus notes from the yeast. Beautiful in composition!

Mouthfeel is light and crisp. There is substantial carbonation but it's quite soft on the tongue. It has a very juicy, refreshing feel, and is exceptionally thirst-quenching and drinkable.

Weissbiers are ideal in warm weather, but this one really stands out. I wouldn't call this a perfect beer, but it's damn close. Look for it and enjoy it while the weather is warm! You won't regret it!

Weyerbacher Zotten

Zotten
a Belgian style Pale Ale
Weyerbacher Brewing Company
6% ABV
Grade: B-

Pours a hazy dirty gold color with quite a bit of head (2+ fingers), and quickly reduces to a thin layer of light foam at the surface. Moderate lacing on the glass. A bit of a funky color, almost like 50/50 lemonade/iced tea.

Strong malty nose with coriander, citrus, and peppercorn. Slight wildflower notes.

Dry hoppy taste with malted barley, citrus zest, coriander, and a touch of black pepper.

Mouthfeel is surprisingly mellow and juicy at first, but turns to dryness afterward. About average drinkability on this one.

Overall, a good session ale.

Weyerbacher Blanche

Blanche
Wit
Weyerbacher Brewing Company
4.6% ABV
Grade: A

Poured into a wit glass, this beer foamed up on pour but quickly thinned out to a small ring clutching the glass. A beautiful hazy light golden color, with some noticeable lacing on the glass.

This beer has a nice light, crisp aroma of citrus and spice. One sniff and I think summer.

The flavor is also light and crisp, delivering more bitter citrus notes and less noticeable Belgian spices.

Mouthfeel is, again, light and crisp. This is one very refreshing beer with exceptional drinkability. I'm having a hard time putting this one down to type!

Overall, I'm extremely satisfied. Though many wits taste similar, this one is just done well. I would choose this over a Hoegaarden, and likely over a Witte from Ommegang as well. Very well done, Weyerbacher!

Stone 13th Anniversary Ale

Stone 13th Anniversary Ale
Stone Brewing Company
9.5% ABV
Grade: B+

Poured clean with a solid finger of head. Decent lacing on the glass but head retention was fairly short. Beautiful deep mahogany color.

Smells of caramel and very grassy, spicy hops. Little bit of citrus zest coming through.

Incredibly hoppy taste with an almost peppery bite to it. Heavy citrus zest coming through then mellowing against some solid malt notes. Not too sticky sweet, not too dry.

Mouthfeel is full but not overpowering. I definitely get that "this is not a session-strength beer" feeling but there's hardly a bite from alcohol at all.

Despite the heavy hops this is quite a drinkable beer. I've been trying to pace myself because this is, after all, a 9.5% ABV beer, and it's a bomber.

Overall I'm very pleased with this beer and will be looking for more while it's widely available.

Dogfish Head Immort Ale

Immort Ale
Dogfish Head Brewery
11% ABV
Grade: A-

Poured with minimal head. This beer has a beautiful brownish-amber color to it. Not much lacing to speak of.

Smell is deep caramel with some roasted grain notes and mild smoke. A light bit of maple and vanilla peek through but mainly caramel.

Taste is far more smokey than the nose but this is not a smoke-heavy beer. It's still quite subtle, with just enough to come through to add some interesting complexity to the flavor. No vanilla or maple on the tongue though just a faint twang of the juniper. this is a very earthy beer.

Mouthfeel is quite mild considering the strength of this beer. Mild carbonation with only a slight thickness. No dryness from the alcohol at all. That said, this is highly drinkable with almost no hint at how strong this beer really is.

I'm thoroughly enjoying this one, and wishing I bought more than just one when I spied it.