New Look!

The blogs one year anniversary is coming up on September 4th (wow), and I thought in celebration the old beast could use a bit of a work over.  The new modern look feels a bit more clean to me.  Sometimes you just need a change for fun.  Please expect the usual self absorbed writing.

Sorachi Ace Farmhouse Cider

When you learn to brew beer the hard way, making a simple cider from store bought juice is like child’s play.  Buy juice. Empty juice into carboy. Pitch yeast. Wait. Bottle.  It’s a refreshing change from beer and adds a little variety to your pipeline.

Knowing that apple juice has only simple, readily fermentable sugars, you know your cider will finish out crisp with a low, low gravity unless you can kill the yeast and force carbonate.  I don’t keg so I’m stuck with a bone dry cider; but that’s how I like them anyway.  In lieu of going to an orchard and blending the perfect mix of tart and sweet apples for a real authentic cider, I use store bought juice, it’s much more readily available.  Select a quality juice, one with no preservatives and preferably organic.  I use Whole Foods brand juice, it’s organic and paseutrized and is relatively cheap at $8.99 a gallon.  If you want to bulk your alcohol (which will be pretty high already because of the low FG) you can add simple sugar of any kind.  For complexity, maybe add spices, or dry hop.  Aside from that, dump the juice in the carboy and aerate.

Yeast choice is a matter of preference.  There are cider yeasts that are supposed to attenuate less and generate a slightly sweeter product, but I have never used one.  My first batch I pitched S-05, for this one I used Lallemand Belle Saison, hoping to generate a touch of spice and fruit notes.

We dry hopped our cider with Sorachi Ace.  A lot.  We used two whole ounces for a five gallon batch.  I really wanted to add something to this cider, and thought that the super pungent lemon aroma and hop freshness of Sorachi might be nice.

Here’s the recipe!

Beer Name: Sorachi Ace Farmhouse Cider
Style: Dry Hopped Cider
OG: 1.054
FG: 1.004
ABV: 7.2%

Grains:
5 G Pasteurized, Unfiltered, Organic Apple Cider

In the Boil:
Nothing

Fermentation:
Lallemand Belle Saison Dry Yeast in primary
Dry hopped with 2 oz Sorachi Ace Hops in secondary
Primed with 3.25 oz raw sugar

Brew Notes:
23/06/13: Brewed
Fermented wrapped in blankets
30/06/13: SG of 1.004
07/07/13: SG of 1.004, racked to secondary
21/07/13: SG of 1.00, bottled

Tasting Notes:  Pours a cloudy peach juice with a thin bubbly cap.  Medium to high carbonation with a thin body.  Aromas of lemon, herbal hop, apple, pear and a touch of yeasty spice.  Smooth and refreshing, a great summer quencher, just be careful, they pack a punch.

Overall, this is tasty stuff, the girlfriend loves it.  I really want to see how it comes along over the next six months.

Malty F*%!&R American Amber/Brown Ale aka 'Little Filthy'

You lose some you win some. After pouring out a whole lot of Bitter I'm glad to see that our next beer came together quite well.  Our American Brown Ale, which was originally planned as an American Amber, is suspiciously tasty.  It came up a little darker and wholesome looking than we anticipated, but the flavor profile is phenomenal.

The beer was initially designed to be a kick board for our 'Big Filthy' Barleywine; a good way to make a massive, healthy yeast starter to ferment our final farewell upon.  It turned out to be quite the tasty endeavor on it's own.

We wanted to brew something relatively clean, and it had to use the yeast we wanted to use in our Barleywine, Wyeast 1056 American Ale.  We'd never brewed an Amber so we started there.  Lots of Pale Malt as the base, Victory for some honey and biscuit notes, some leftovers from previous brews for depth (Aromatic and Biscuit), CaraPils for head retention, Crystal 77L for sweetness and a hint of Black Malt for color and roastiness.  Our local homebrew store recommended us to try out a new product, Zythos Hops, so we used those exclusively and spread the hop bill out a lot.  The yeast fermented quite neutral and let the ingredients shine, the hops are present and accentuate the malt bill very well.  Despite having a bite-y bitterness, this is really a malt-forward brew.  It was interesting to compare to our Belgian IPA, which also used 8 oz of Crystal 77L: I swear you can pick out the exact flavor notes it contributed to both brews.  Trying desperately not to drink all of this so I can try a bottle in a months time.  Here she be:

Beer Name: Malty F*%!&R aka Little Filthy
Style: American Brown Ale
OG: 1.046
FG: 1.010
ABV: 4.8%
IBUS: 38

Grains:
7 lbs Pale Ale Malt
1 lb Victory Malt
8 oz Crystal 77L Malt
8 oz CaraPils Malt
8 oz Aromatic Malt
8 oz Biscuit Malt
2 oz Black Malt

In the Boil:
½ oz Zythos Hops @ 60 Minutes
½ oz Zythos Hops @ 30 Minutes
1 tsp Irish Moss @ 10 Minutes
1 tsp Wyeast Yeast Nutrient @ 10 Minutes
½ oz Zythos Hops @ 5 Minutes

Fermentation:
Wyeast 1056 American Ale Yeast in primary
Dry hopped with ½ oz Zythos Hops in secondary
Primed with 4.25 oz Amber DME

Brew Notes:
02/07/13: Brewed
Single infusion mash @ 152F
Missed OG of 1.055, resulted in 1.046
07/07/13: SG of 1.010, added 1 tsp Wyeast Yeast Nutrient, roused yeast and raised temperature
09/07/13: SG of 1.010, racked to secondary
25/07/13: SG of 1.010, bottled

Tasting Notes: Pours a dark mahogany with an off white cap that leaves a touch of lacing.  Aromas of roasted malt, dark bread, butter toffee and a touch of dark fruits.  Alternating sweet malt and bitter hop notes that layer quite nicely and round out just slightly hoppy.  Medium to full bodied with moderate carbonation and a creamy mouth feel. Quite delicious actually, one of our better brews.  Really love the malty roundness to the whole thing.

I'd love to rebrew with a slightly more subtle hop and maybe scale back the medium toasted malts a bit in place of something a little more dark.  All in all quite enjoyable!