Hobson Brew

Buckwheat Cyser

2011-09-15T17:44:00.001-07:00

I've been wanting to make a Cyser for a while, and finally picked up my honey this weekend. I decided that since honey was going to be there in just a smallish amount I'd get something that packed a punch. With the two honeys I chose, I think this cyser will have a nice dark color, something I like when drinking ciders.

Honey #1 - Buckwheat
This honey has a dark amber color, and a very flowery flavor. This was not nearly as harsh as I had read abut online, and seems like it should make a good addition to a mead in the future.

Honey #2 - Mountain Wildflower
When I asked for this, the guy first made me taste a sample because it is so molasses like. This honey is near-black, and has a strong plummy/bitter flavor that stays with you for a while. This is good honey, but only for small additions.

SG 1.084
5 gallons Treetop 3 Apple Blend (not from concentrate)
5.75 lbs Buckwheat Honey
.25 Mountain Wildflower Honey
Wyeast 1056 American Ale Yeast

I may try to oak this in a couple months. If it gets down to 1.000 I'll be looking at 11.2%...so much for the 9% I wanted lol.

No More Gluten!

2011-07-02T21:36:00.000-07:00

So...no more gluten for me.

What's it mean to my brewing? I've decided to start playing around with random odd ball ciders and meads.

Imperial Indian Ciders coming soon? Well, I have to do something with all these hops and kegs.

Caramel Cider

2010-11-16T12:55:00.001-08:00

Last Fall I made 10 gallons of cider which just ran out (good job mel) and needed to brew up another batch.

My goals with this batch were to give it a sweeter undertone, and a bit of spice to it. That led to me using a darker grain for steeping, and adding some cinnamon and dried ginger to the boil.

Grain-
0.5 lbs c120
2 lbs Amber DME

Hops-
0.5 oz Fuggles 30 mins

Apple Juice-
3 gallons Treetop 3 apple blend (not from concentrate)
1 gallon Honey Crisp unfiltered juice ( i believe this was a blend also)

Spices-
1 stick cinnamon added during steeping
1 tsp cracked/dried ginger added with 10 minutes left in the boil.

Yeast-
Wyeast Kolsch yeast

Cooked up the DME and steeped grains for 30 mins with the hops. This should add some nice body to the cider, and definitley had some great caramel smell.

I ended up using a Kolsch yeast for this instead of the English Ale yeast I've used in the past since the lhbs ended up being out of my normal yeast.

I have a feeling that the spice will be a little less potent than i want, and I'm already planning how to add more cinnamon flavor likely at kegging.

"Black IPA" or "How I could have Ruined my Ruination"

2010-11-03T19:58:00.000-07:00

"A hot mess, I'm hot off the press, you yesterdays news, dude you just not fresh..." MURS "I'm innocent"

And powered by MURS let's talk about the hot new style everyone and their mom is brewing...Black IPA.

I asked the innocent question at work a month or so back of, " I want to brew. What should I make?" A chorus of "RUINATION!" came over the cube walls. Now don't get me wrong, I looove my Ruination clone, but I've already made it three times this year, and I wanted something a bit different...so I pulled up my Ruination recipe and attempted to ruin it.

My version of Ruination is typically very faithful to the original, with a big, but smooth bitterness from magnum, and lots of late centennial. Lately my centennial supply was low, so I've subbed in some amarillo for thbe dryhop, and some of the late additions. It changes it slightly, making it seem slightly sweeter. I'm still up in the air which way I prefer...grapfruit or the slight tangerineness with the amarillo...but I digress...

My typical Ruination recipe is 15lbs 2row, 1 lb munich 10l, 1lb crystal 20. (Note, double check recipe). What I did was simply swap out the munich for debittered carafa II, and change the crystal to a darker crystal 60. I wanted some roastiness, and maybe a bit more crystal flavor to come through in the final product.

Grain -
15 lbs 2row
1lb carafa II
1lb crystal 60

Hops -
0.5oz Magnum
1oz centennial 15mins
1oz amarillo 15 mins
1oz centennial 10 mins
1oz amarillo 10mins
1oz centennial 5 mins
1oz amarillo 5mins
2oz amarillo flameout
1oz centennial flameout

Yeast -
Us-05

You may be wondering why no dry hops...three reasons really. First of all, I typically just hop in the keg since my IPAs don't last long. This one isn't planned to be drank for a few weeks, so I didn't want to risk any grassy flavors. Secondly, I didn't have the muslin bag I needed for dryhopping. But most importantly, when I tasted it I actually loved that it had minimal hop aroma. if I didn't know it was a BIPA I would have thought it was just another stout, and then there is a huge wallop of hop flavor on that first sip. The roastiness melds close to perfectly with the citrusy hops flavors...even the hop-hating gf really liked it.

It is still not carbed, but the first impression is great. I had a couple small glasses last night, and I was really enjoying this. It won't replace the standard Ruination, but it will definitely be part of the rotation.

German Beer is for Parties

2010-11-03T19:55:00.000-07:00

So the other day I decided it was time to start brewing for the party I'm planning on having next month. Aafter a few months of not brewing my pipeline had been almost totally epmty. I've partially corrected that by brewing a brown ale, and a black ipa. More on those later. Todays post is about the beer I decided to brew. One which has been my favorite this year...munich helles style german ale.

Why have I begun to enjoy such a beer when my typical beer purchase starts off with, "what ipas do you have on tap..."?
- low abv% having a beer on tap in the 4-5% range let's me have a couple and not be too drunk
- subtle flavor. While I love being hit over the head with big hops or big malty flavors, sometimes it is nice enjoying the subtle graininess of the pilsner malt almost balanced by the noble hops.
- quick turnaround. Grain to glass in under three weeks? Yes please.

I've brewed three (four if you count the one I dumped after sparging. Ugh.) beers in this style this year, and all have used different recipes. The best to date was actually an extract batch using just a pound of munich and pilsner dme. Very tasty. In fact i had numerous people tell me it had amazing flavor for such a light beer at a tasting event.

My hope is that the one brewed yesterday will match or even surpass that batch. On to the recipe, which was done by guesswork since I couldn't remember my google docs password that day to get my last recipe...

Grain -
9 lbs pilsner malt
0.5 lbs munich 10l
0.5 lbs vienna malt

Hops -
0.75 oz Hallertau 60 mins
0.5 oz tettnanger 60 mins
0.4 oz hallertau flameout (not to style, but the gf liked the smell, which for hops is not common so I though a bit of aroma might not be bad)

Yeast -
Wyeast German Ale (I usually use the Kolsch but there was none at the LHBS)

I mashed at 155 for 90 minutes, then had about a 75 min boil. Cooled to 85ish, and left it in the garage for a few hours before pitching (exacting process control lol). Yeast took off like crazy, and is still sitting in the 65f garage.

Tasting results in a few weeks!

Planning a Barleywine-style Braggot

2010-07-31T16:59:00.001-07:00

With my current Barleywine nearing empty status I've realized that it is about time to rebrew another strong brew. I kegged the last Barleywine, and this time I think I'll be bottling. It takes way too long for a keg of 11% beer to empty!

In my planning for this brew I think my plan is as follows...

- brew 5.5 gallons of a strong (1.1+ OG) barleywine
- put 3gallons in by itself in a 3gallon carboy and add some holiday spicing for xmas
- start fermenting the other 2.5 gallons in a full size carboy with an ale yeast that can take high alc%
- at the height of ferment add 2.5 gallons of honey/water with an OG around 1.15 or so.
- oak the crap out of it and give it some time to develop in bottles.

I still have to put the actual recipe together but i think I'm going to go with one very similar to the current barleywine I have on tap, as it has gotten good reviews from multiple people.

Early Morning Amber

2009-05-17T13:15:00.000-07:00

Decided to brew an American Amber Ale this morning, and got an early start to avoid the heat (100+).

I based the recipe on the great wiki here, which was incredibly helpful. I ended up getting slightly better efficiency than anticipated, and it looks like it will be slightly too high in the SG to be in style, but hopefully it will be a decent representation of a dark, crystally AAA.

I used the following ingredient list -

Grain -
9lbs Pale Malt
1lb Munich Malt
1lb Crystal 40 (I may have accidentally gotten 60 when I was at the LHBS)
1lb Crystal 80

Hop Schedule -
0.7oz Centennial First Wort Hop
0.6oz Centennial 20 minutes
0.2oz Centennial 5 minutes
o.5oz Centennial 0 minutes

Yeast -
Safale US-05

Mash -
153 F
1hr

Details -
SG - 1.062
IBUS - 35.5
SRM - 15.2

I'm going to ferment as close to 60F as possible, which will be fun with the 100F temps we're experiencing.

Edit - Fermentation has been more in the 70F range. I have been bested by the heat.

Update - June 1 2009
Did my first tasting, and measured the FG. Gravity was down to 1.011, which is slightly lower than expected, but still within range. There was not a lot of hop aroma, but the bitterness was about right. The beer was a little alcohol flavored, which I am attributing to the hotter fermentation temps. Hopefully a little time, cold and carbonation will make it less apparent.

Why am I not brewing on opening day ale?

2009-04-05T12:02:00.001-07:00

Man I should really be brewing today. A small batch of "opening day ale" to be drank when either the A's win the WS, or are eliminated would have been a good idea.

I might have to do this next weekend, and possibly make a tradition out of it.

Planning a Blackberry Ale

2009-03-29T13:48:00.001-07:00

I have had a few pounds of fresh picked blackberries in my freezer for about 9 months, and since it will be blackberry season again soon, I figure now is the time to try an experimental batch of blackberry ale.

I'm planning on starting with a base of a Blonde Ale, fermenting it out, and then racking it onto the pureed blackberries. The base beer will be on the lower end of both the alcohol and bitterness scale for this style. This will be a 3 gallon batch.

4lbs 2-row Pale Malt
12oz Cara-Pils
.25oz Centennial Hops - 60 min boil
3lbs Blackberries

OG (before blackberries) - 1.040
IBUs - 17.9
SRM (before blackberries) - 3.3

I'm thinking I will use S-05 dry yeast with this one, which should keep the aromas from the fermentation down, and allow the blackberries to shine through.

If this batch turns out well, I will scale this up for blackberry season and make 5 gallons to keep on tap.

Update - Barleywine

2009-02-28T14:28:00.000-08:00

Today marked one month since I brewed my Barleywine, and it was time for it to make the move from primary to secondary.

I decided to add a little extra flavor to the Barleywine in the form of 2oz of medium oak chips that have been soaking in Jack Daniels for a week, and 1oz of Centennial hops (pellets). I'm planning on letting it sit like this for another 2 weeks, and then bottling. After bottling, I'll let it sit as long as I can make myself wait. Hopefully I'll have a nice pipeline by then to keep me from being impatient.

Had another sample, and this time I could taste a little more of the alcohol overtones, although not nearly as much as many commercial Barleywines. There was a slight fruit aroma, although I couldn't quite place what it was.

First Taste of 999 Barleywine

2009-02-10T20:48:00.000-08:00

Decided to check the SG of the Barleywine tonight.

First off, let me just say that using a bucket when the fermentation blows out the side sucks. The sweet beer decided to congeal and create the most difficult seal to break that I have ever seen. It took me ~10 minutes to pry an opening at the top of the bucket.

On to the beer...

The gravity was down to 1.022, giving me a current ABV of 9.8%. Sipping on the sample was surprisingly nice, considering the age of the brew (9 days). The brew isn't harsh, not particularly boozy, and a pleasant malt flavor.

I think this is going to be a VERY good brew, especially once I oak and dry-hop it.

Beer Review - Mendocino Brewing "Talon"

2009-02-08T20:14:00.000-08:00

This beer was drank at an initial temp of 47 degrees in a brandy snifter. The flavor/aroma really opened up once it had warmed up a bit.

Appearance - This beer is a wonderful amber/ruby color. Very clear, although with a lot of yeast in the bottom of the bottle. I could see a full pour resulting in a cloudy beer. Small head, retains a bit of foam for the duration. Lacing is good, but not exceptional.

Smell - Malty smell, with little/no hops aroma. Very slight alcohol smell.

Taste - Pleasant alcohol flavor, not too overpowering. Nice bitterness to work with the residual sweetness.

Mouthfeel - Think and creamy, which works quite well with the strength.

Drinkability - This beer scores fairly high here, considering it is a barleywine. The 22oz went went down very easily, and paried well with spent grain chocolate chip cookies.

First Big All-Grain Brew – 999 Barleywine

2009-02-03T19:30:00.000-08:00

So since I've never been one to get into things slowly, I decided that a fun second brew would be a nice big Barleywine. The recipe was so big, I didn't feel confident in the first runnings all fitting in my 10-gal cooler, so I invited my friend Joe over to do a second batch (Ordinary Bitter) from the second runnings, and use his MLT for half of the grain.

Recipe...

Ingredients:

Grain -
15lbs Pale 2-row
8lbs Marris Otter
2lbs Munich Malt
6oz Pale Chocolate
4oz Special B - Caramel malt
12oz Crystal Malt 80°L
1 lb White Table Sugar (Sucrose)
.5lb Brown Sugar

Hops -
1.66oz Magnum (14.5%) - 60 min
1oz Centennial (10.0%) - 25 min
1oz Centennial (10.0%) - 0 min
1.5 oz Cascade (5.5%) - 0 min

Yeast -
US-05 yeast cake from ESB

This is a slightly modified recipe that was originally posted on Homebrewtalk.com

We ended up overestimating the amount of water that would be retained in the grain, and had about 10 gallons of first runnings. This resulted in a long (~3hr) boil, which may give some nice flavors. The OG got up to 1.100, which was slightly less than I had planned, but should still make for a nice Barleywine.

We ended up with 7 gallons at the end of the boil, and I was originally going to bottle and force carb some of the remaining wort in a 2-gal bottle, but the taste was just way too much of everything to think about drinking. The hops were overpowering, and the sweetness was cloying. But I can see why the unfermented wort soda is made in Mexico.

This was literally fermenting within minutes, and was going crazy for 3 days. Even using a blow-off I thought it was going to blow the lid of the fermenting bucket. The smell during fermentation was amazing, a mixture of the Centennial and Cascade hops that makes me think dry-hopping this will be a very good idea. I also plan to make this the first beer to which I will add oak chips, giving it yet another layer of flavor.

First All-Grain Brew – ESB

2009-02-01T11:36:00.000-08:00

For my first foray into All-Grain brewing, I decided to make a classic English style and brew up an ESB. This beer was brewed January 14, 2009.

The grain bill was fairly simple, 9.5lbs of Maris Otter and ~1lb of Crystal Malt (60L and 20L). Based upon Beersmith, this should put it right in the color range for an ESB, and be somewhat high on the gravity, but in style.

The Hop plan was to go with a combination of Fuggles, and EKG to have that traditional English flavor. Unfortunately the local Homebrew shop had no Fuggles. I ended up going with Warrior instead, since 1oz had more IBUs than 2oz of Fuggles. I ended up only needing 0.7oz for bittering, and I threw in the extra 0.3oz at the end with the EKG

Recipe Specifications -

Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Boil Size: 6.82 gal
Estimated OG: 1.056 SG
Estimated Color: 9.9 SRM
Estimated IBU: 44.9 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:

Grain -
9lbs 8oz Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM)
11oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM)
7oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM)

Hops -
0.7oz Warrior [15.80 %] (60 min)
0.3oz Warrior [15.80 %] (5 min)
1oz Goldings, East Kent [4.70 %] (5 min)

Yeast -
Safale US-05

The brew session did not go as smoothly as planned. :( The plan was to use my 10-gal cooler as the mashtun, and slowly fly sparge using the other cooler as the hot liquor tank. Unfortunately, the HLT that had not leaked with cold water decided it would let water get everywhere when filled at 170F.

Couple the leaky HLT with misremembering how full to fill the kettle, and you end up with a finishing volume of ~3.5 gallons. In addition to the low volume, the gravity was on the high side at 1.065. I added one gallon of filtered tap water, pitched the yeast, and hoped for the best.

First sample – January 31, 2009
I moved this beer to secondary last night to make room on its yeast cake for a Barleywine, and had a chance to give it a try. This beer finished lower than any of my other beers to date, 1.010, and tasted great! It had a nice amber color, and a good long bitterness. I can't wait to taste it when it is carbed.

Craigslist Find – 10-Gal Cooler

2009-02-01T11:19:00.000-08:00

In my desire to go all-grain, and improve my beers, I've been scouring craigslist for weeks hoping to find someone selling a 10-gal Igloo cooler. After no luck, I went to OSH and was all set to buy one for $60. Then as I was walking to the register with the cooler in hand, I decided that I should check online one more time, and buy it tomorrow if I didn't find anything.

When I got home and started watching the Kings lose another game, I hopped onto craigslist on my cell, and what do I see? 10-gallon Coleman cooler for $10!

Picked it up the next day, and it was in great shape. Only problem was the spigot stained pink from red gatorade...but that was getting thrown away anyway. :)

First Post

2008-12-31T18:22:00.000-08:00

I've decided that I would create a blog dedicated to my brewing as a means of keeping track of my brews, and as a way of seeing what I've learned.

I plan on keeping track of all of my brews, projects, and thoughts on brewing here. I may also review the occasional commercial beer, as I look for benchmarks against which to test my beers.

That is all for now.