Golden Eye, Golden Rye

I was inspired a few months back to make a dry golden ale with the spiciness of rye malt. I put together a recipe and then forgot about until last week. I started scrolling through my Beer Alchemy recipe library trying to figure out what I wanted to brew. The last few beers I have made have been darker and more malt driven. I wanted to get something a little more light and hop driven on tap. I knew that this was the beer I needed to make. I wanted the rye to shine, so I left the recipe pretty simple with three malts including the rye (rye made up ~28% of the malt bill). I originally wanted to just use Northern Brewer hops all the way through, but at the last minute I subbed in some Amarillo at flameout. I debated what yeast to use; American Hefe, Wheat or US-05. I ended up going with the cleanest so that I could let the rye shine and it would allow me to see what rye really lends to a lighter beer. If I like how it works, I may incorporate it into an IPA. I am hoping to get in a batch tomorrow on my last day of vacation, either a Wee Heavy or a Dark Mild.

Recipe: 2 Row, Rye, Victory. Northern Brewer @60 and 30, Amarillo @0. US-05.

Feliz Navidad & Chai Spice Brown

Good New Year to all! I actually brewed these beers back a month or so ago, but didn't get a chance to post about it. The Feliz Navidad is a beer that I brewed last year for Christmas. It is a pretty standard stout base with added cocoa powder added at flameout that then gets dry spiced with vanilla bean, cinnamon, chile peppers. The beer was  huge hit last year at my Christmas party. My friend who works at a local brewery tried to pitch this idea to them for their holiday beer, but they wanted something that could age a little bit longer (they are doing a 12 years of Christmas beer), maybe in the later iterations? I decided to bump up the cocoa powder by an ounce this year, but other than that I didn't really change anything.


Recipe: 2-Row, Red Wheat, Chocolate Malt, Crystal 40, Crystal 80, Roasted Barley, Cocoa Powder, Goldings @60, US-05, Cinnamon Stick, Vanilla Bean, Dried Ancho Chilies.

The other beer I brewed for the work holiday party was a twist off a brown mild that I brewed earlier in the month. I wanted a spiced winter ale, but often find the spices use din these winter warmers to be a little harsh. Instead I tea bagged my beer with 6 Mate Chai tea bags. I left them in the keg for a week and this beer was a huge success. I personally would want a more sweet and malty base beer than what I had. Overall, I was very happy with this beer and think it is a great beer for fall and early winter.

I have this week off, so I will b e doing some brewhouse cleaning (very much needed!) and brewing a couple of beers. I will be rebreeding the first beer that I ever created the recipe for, a Strong Scotch Ale called Wee Obese, a Mild (I was at Magnolia in San Fransisco and became inspired), and possibly another stout, lager or hop forward beer.

Sheriff Bloody Ear Imperial Amber & Fall Mild

Hello All,

Great to be back. I took an unplanned hiatus from beer brewing. Life, work, and the heat got in the way and I didn't brew for 3 1/2 months, this is the longest I have gone without brewing in the past 6 years. I had been dying to brew, yearning to try out some new recipes. I even bought grain, but never had a chance to get to it. I had Veteran's day off, so I knew I had to get some beer made since I had time and with the holidays coming up I needed some new beers to serve to family and friends. Thanks Jeff for worrying about me. We will have to brew soon and finally set up our sour tasting soon.

Living in San Diego, I am often tricked by the "seasons", we get cold winter like rain storms, followed by hot and dry Santa Ana conditions in the Fall. The evenings cool down, but the days are still warm. Hell, it was 74F today. So it is difficult for me to decide what to brew in the Fall, maybe a saison for the warm days, maybe a big malty amber, or maybe a West Coast IPA. I have been wanting to brew an imperial amber for a long time and with the weather finally starting to turn I decided to go for it. I doubled my red ale recipe from last Fall. I also decide dot move away from the American hops and go for a more traditional hop. I wanted to use Northern Brewer my go to hop for beers where I don't want the hops to stand out. However, I couldn't get any so I went with Sterling hops. I want this beer to be malty, toffee-like with a slight roast. I upped the chocolate malt a tad and I think that the beer may come out a little darker and more brown than I was shooting for. I guess when you haven't brewed in 3 1/2 months, this isn't that big of a deal. Since the beer was going to be on the larger side ~9% I thought, hey why not get a second beer out of the mash. I was hopping to get a dark mild out of this beer, and to my surprise I was able to get a nice 1.040 OG beer from a second mash. I really like this idea and will try and do this with any of my larger beers.

All in all, the brew day went very well, and I am happy to be back in the saddle. I have all of next week off, so I will be brewing up a couple of beers for my work Holiday party. I will also be brewing my Feliz Navidad (Mexican Hot Chocolate Beer) it was such a great beer that I have to make it again.

Recipe: US 2- Row, Dark Munich, Victory, US Chocolate Malt, Sterling Hops @ 60 and 30. Fall Mild, same grain second mash with Sterling and Goldings @60 and Goldings @30. Safe Ale US-05

Be Back Soon!

After many months of not brewing, I will be back soon. I picked up grain for a few batches here soon. Stay tuned, glad to be back in the game.

SMaSH Saison

I recently saw a video cast of  Drew Beechum speaking at this year's NHC about simplifying the brewing process "Brewing on the Ones" .  In the video he speaks about SMaSH beers, which are Single Malt and Single Hop Beers, this got me thinking. I had bunch of 2-Row on hand and I just got some new varieties of hops that I wanted to try out (Motueka, Riwaka and HBC324 Experimental). I also recently stocked up on some new yeast strains and some that I wanted to use again. I wanted to make a saison using White Labs new Saison III strain, a strain I first tried at Drew Beechum's Saison for Every Season lecture at last years NHC. I was one of the people who emailed White Labs about releasing this strain, at last years NHC is was still an experimental and unreleased strain. I wanted to keep the beer simple so I could see how the Motueka hops and the Saison III strain would act. This strain is spicy and fruity like a traditional saison strain, but it also has this wonderful tartness that makes it  even more refreshing.  I also wanted to keep the beer lower in alcohol. The recipe wasn't a true SMaSH beer because I did us some flaked oats to add a slight amount of body and mouthfeel since I was only using 2-Row. I also boiled the first runnings for about 10 minutes to try and get some extra color and taste since 2-Row and Oats were the only malts.

Recipe: US 2-Row, Flaked Oats, Motueka Hops @60, @30 and @0. WLP Saison III (Platinum Strain).

California Steamin'

In my opinion Steam Beer aka California Common beer is the quintessential beer for seafood. It is hardy enough for a cool day, yet still refreshing enough for a warm day. It pairs well with all types of food and is a truly California native. Anchor Steam was one of the first real craft beers that I ever drank and it holds a special place in my heart. I brewed a batch as my second beer back when I was still making extract beer. It was okay but didn't really live up to the original. I wanted to give this beer another shot. I didn't have the correct hops on hand and since it isn't a hop forward beer, I figured it is okay. I substituted the Norther Brewer with a blend of Falconers Flight, Fuggles and Challenger. My thinking is that Falconers flight is similar to Chinook, and Chinook can be a substitute for Northern Brewer. Challenger can also sub for NB and the fuggles were to give that more traditional hop flavor. I'm also using a blend of White Labs San Francisco Lager Yeast, and SafLager S-23. My thinking is I would have enough strong yeast S-23 to ferment at lower temps and I would still get the characteristics from the San Fran yeast.

Ingredients: US 2-Row, 80L, 60L, Victory, Carapils. Falconers, Challenger and Fuggle @60min. Falconers, Challenger and Fuggle @30. WLP 810 San Francisco Lager and SafLager S-23.

Summer Solstice Pale Ale

To celebrate the longest day of the year I wanted to make a hop forward pale ale. This is my most hop forward beer to date. I wanted to make a hoppy pale ale that really stretch my comfort zone of hop additions.  Normally I go low on the bittering charge and really crank up the late additions, not this time. This time I went big all the way through. I have made number of Belgian style ales in the last few months, so I wanted to get something a little hoppy on tap as the weather warms. I kept the malt bill simple and used 4 types of hops in the beer. I also think that this is the most hop varietals that I have used in any one batch. I tried out two newer hop varietal called Zythos and Falconers Flight. Both Falconer's and Zythos are blends of Pacific Northwest and "C" hops made by Hop Union. I also used Pacific Gem and Amarillo in this beer. I hope it will be a citrusy, piney-like pale that is well balanced and refreshing.

The yeast cake for this beer will be used for my first attempt at a IIPA.

Recipe: US 2-Row, Honey Malt, Crystal 40L. Zythos, Amarillo @60min, Pacific Jade, Zythos and Falconers @30min, Zythos, Amarillo, Pacific Jade and Falconers @15min, Zythos and Amarillo @5min, Zythos and Amarillo @Falme Out. US-05.