Sandbox Brewing

This is a pretty simple mead, one gallon batch size.

Process & Ingredients:

1 kg Wildflower honey from Jane’s Honey Bees

1/4 tsp yeast nutrient & 1/4 tsp yeast energizer

1 blood orange without skin

Lalvin 71B-1122 yeast package

Made on Sep 24, 2016 – no OG taken but calculated as 1.088

1/4 tsp yeast nutrient & 1/4 tsp yeast energizer added Sep 30

Gravity reading 10/24/2016 – 1.004

Racked to secondary 10/24/2016. Bottled 05/21/2017 into clear 375mL flint bottles. Ghetto transfer – just poured it in, so oxygen pickup will be higher than usual.
 

Brewed:  October 15, 2016    OG:  1.094   FG:  1.021   IBU: 60   ABV:  9.7%

Hair of the Dog is one of my favourite breweries. I have immense respect for Adam’s unique and delicious beers, which he’s been making with minimal or no change since the mid 1990s. Craft beer was not what it is today in those times; he is truly a pioneer. Adam is a very interesting and unique beer, and the way it develops over time is incredible.

I have been wanting to brew a clone based on Michael Tonsmeire’s clone from 2009 for a while now. It came up when chatting with my friend Ryan, who is a very accomplished homebrewer as well as commercial brewer, and we agreed it would be a great collaboration brewday since we both wanted to make something like it. I adapted the recipe slightly (largely based on my use of heavy peated malt rather than just ‘peated malt’ as it appears is used in Tonsmeire’s version) and we brewed this on my Grainfather system.

Anticipated OG:  1.099  IBU:  60  

Grist:

15.00 lbs Maris Otter (Crisp malting) [88.2%]

0.65 lbs Munich [3.8%]

0.65 lbs Crystal 60L [3.8%]

0.35 lbs Chocolate malt [2.1%]

0.20 lbs Heavy peated malt [1.2%]

0.15 lbs Black malt [0.9%]

Hop Schedule:

1 oz Galena @ 120m

1 oz Styrian Goldings @ 45m

1 oz Tettnang @ 10m

1/2tsp ‘Yeast Superfood’, 1 Whirlfloc @ 10m

Fermentation:

2 pkg WYeast 1728 @ 57F for 7 days, ramped to 70F afterwards

Tasting Notes:

Oct 22, 2016 – One week in gravity of 1.028. Peat wasn’t too noticeable on brew day but it’s come to the fore now. Not overpowering though. Malt profile is pleasant and interesting already, looking forward to how this develops.

Nov 22, 2016 – Two weeks in bottle, carb-check. No carbonation yet, which isn’t surprising (I should have been more patient!)  I wish it kept more residual sweetness. The smoke is at a nice level though, lending some leathery complexity and coming across as kind of a BBQ note rather than cigarette or anything off-putting like that. Not really any smoke on the nose, mostly plum.

Jan 2, 2016 – Carbonation is there now, and it’s about perfect at the moment at around 1.5 volumes. Nose is plums, BBQ smoke, toffee. Taste follows suit – the level of peat is just where I wanted it, present but integrated nicely. Plum, toffee, chocolate and smoke are all in balance with none overshadowing the others. I’m quite happy with this bottle, and the slightly drier finish than I was hoping for has not done the beer any harm at present.

This is a beer I had been wanting to brew for a while now. I have reinvented the recipe a couple times before brewing it as I changed my perception on what the beer should be.  In the end it has become a light and low-ish ABV beer with big hop character but low bitterness. It’s basically what I want to have on tap in the summer as a crowd-pleasing thirst quencher which will go with anything. It is the new-world version of Zoa, a table ale I plan to refine in 2017.

Here are the specs:

OG:  1.051   FG: 1.007   IBU: 50

Brewed: Sep 11, 2016   Bottled: Sep 25, 2016

Grist:

7.75 lbs Maris Otter

0.50 lbs Flaked wheat

0.50 lbs  Dextrose

Hop Schedule:

0.5 oz Citra @ 60m

4 oz Citra, 1 oz Galaxy @ 200F whirlpool for 15 min

3 oz Citra, 3 oz Galaxy dry hop, 4 day contact time

Additional:

1/2 tsp CaCl added to mash water

1/2 tablet of whirlfloc added at 10m

Fermentation: US-05 @ 66F for 14 days

Brew day notes: 

Brewed on my Grainfather system on the patio of the new apartment. Mashed with 4 gal of water at 150F for 75 minutes, mashed out at 168F for 10 minutes.  Sparged with 3.5 gallons of 170F water heated on the stove.  Was targeting 1.048 OG based on 70% efficiency and hit 3 points high. Whirlpooled with hop pellets direct into the grainfather, which resulted in a very slow transfer through the chiller and into the brew bucket. Took about 60 minutes to transfer, no full clogs occurred though. Accidentally turned the cooling water down too much which resulted in warm wort in the Brew Bucket, so cooled in the cellar for 4 hrs before pitching.

Thoughts for next time:  Switch to 1318 for yeast, I just had the US-05 already. Whirlpool at 180F to reduce the bitterness (perceived bitterness on the final product is easily 60-70 IBU). Give Centennial a try in place of Galaxy, though the Citra / Galaxy combo is very nice.

Tasting Notes:

Oct 4, 2016 – Juicy and very hazy. Tastes great, mild carb.

Oct 15, 2016 – Still quite opaque, not sure how or why this happened but I’m glad, it suits the beer well. Great hop character, very aromatic with citra certainly dominating. A little bit grassy and bitter which takes away a bit. Some hop chunks make it into the glass, which is certainly a likely culprit of that grassiness.

Oct 28, 2016 – Haze remains, and hop aroma and flavour have not fallen off noticeably. Very happy with this beer overall.

Nov 2, 2016 – This is the tasting that the pic above is from. Stayed densely opaque which was exactly what I wanted and not what I expected. The citra is still huge and wonderful in both aroma and flavour, and the bit of galaxy also adds further complexity.

Nov 22, 2016 – Still hanging on well after 8 weeks, I would say it’s only slightly dimished. Maybe a little sweeter now as a result, but still very enjoyable.

For the second group clone-off within our Vancouver homebrewing circle, we decided to all give the Pliny clone as detailed in this link a go. I brewed this with Sean on his BIAB setup rather than my Grainfather system because I was not yet set up in the new place. With some adaptation to suit our system and what we had available, we brewed this recipe:

Grist:

14.00 lb Canadian 2-row

0.25 lb  Crystal 60L

0.75 lb   Dextrose

Hop Schedule:

0.5 oz Apollo @ 60m

0.33 oz Columbus @ 60m

0.25 oz Amarillo @ 45m

0.75 oz Simcoe @ 30m

Whirlpool addition: 1 oz Centennial, 1 oz Cascade, 1 oz Simcoe, 0.75 oz Amarillo

Dry hop @ day 5: 1 oz Simcoe, 1 oz Cascade, 0.33 oz Columbus

Dry hop @ day 9: 1 oz Simcoe, 1 oz Cascade, 0.5 oz Amarillo, 0.33 oz Columbus

Fermentation: US-05, fermented in basement (approx 66F ambient) for 12 days

Bottle conditioned with 4oz dextrose for 5.5 gallons after 2 day cold crash

Specs:  OG 1.069,  FG  1.012,  IBU 72

Brewed:  Sep 8, 2016

Bottled: Sept 20, 2016

Brewday Notes:  Mash and boil went smoothly, but we started the chill with immersion chiller and spaced out on adding the whirlpool addition, so the wort had cooled to about 135F before we realized it was missing. We added the hops and reduced flow on the chiller so it could get about 10-15 minutes in there while it dropped to around 120F. Then continued full-speed chill and collected around 5.5 gallons of wort in the carboy.

Tasting Notes:

Sep 29, 2016 – Hop character is pretty muted, surely due to our mess-up on whirlpool. Odd character to the malt, can’t figure it out. Tastes like a bad extract beer that’s been partly covered up by decent hop character.

Oct 10, 2016 – Odd flavour is still there though has declined a little. I expect it’s a fermentation by-product from perhaps lack of oxygenation or yeast health, since we didn’t do a great job of oxygenating to be honest and we pitched a single packet without rehydration. In retrospect, that was pretty dumb.

Oct 24 2016 – Yeah the off-flavour is here to stay it looks like, and hop aroma and flavour are lacking. Not a recipe I would re-brew but I do feel that brew-day errors are generally to blame rather than the recipe.

Dec 15, 2016 – I prefer this with some age on it, the odd character has diminished greatly and the hop flavours have melded nicely though of course have also lost some of their power. Quite floral, with melon and fruit flavours that I don’t typically expect in an IPA.

Brewed:  May 7, 2016

This beer was brewed to use the washed Wallonian farmhouse yeast I had saved from B&B #1, which initially I had intended to recycle into a Belgian pale ale. However, my current priority is to refine this recipe into the best low-ABV, traditionally-inspired saison I can brew.  In this process I am trying out a few different avenues I could take, with this batch being rye.

I followed a similar mash schedule as on the first batch, 45 minutes at 145F and 45 minutes at 152F. Of course the aim here is a low FG and light body. I switched up the hops based on what I had available (which was less than I expected), but will return to a Willamette / Strisselspalt combination for the next batch.

Grist was as follows:

6 lbs    Bohemian Pilsner malt

0.5 lbs    Rye malt

0.5 lbs    Munich malt

0.5 lbs    Flaked rye

0.5 lbs    Flaked oats

0.25 lbs     Corn sugar

It was hopped with 1 oz Fuggles at 60 minutes and 1 oz Tettnanger at 20 minutes. The boil was 90 minutes. Overall a smooth brew day though my lack of experience on the new Grainfather system contributed to being under-volume and over-gravity – something I may repair with dilution at bottling.  OG was 1.055.  FG was 1.003.

Fermentation was extremely healthy despite my having pitched the washed yeast without a starter and after 6 weeks in the fridge. Activity began at around 6 hours and regular bubbling continued until day 4 or 5.

Tasting Notes

June 19/2016 – Still a bit yeasty in flavour but a nice citrusy brightness to it. Drinks well. Will look forward to over the next couple months.

Brewed: April 23, 2016

I very recently acquired a Grainfather brew system, and this was my shake-down brew to get the hang of using it. I used some washed White Labs 515 (Belgian Pale Ale) yeast I had in the fridge that needed using, as it was 2 months old. I write this at 5 hours after pitching, so I am not sure yet if the yeast was particularly viable.

The recipe is pretty straight-forward, and is based on experience with the first batch which was a little too Munich-forward. The recipe used today for a half batch (2.5 gallons) was:

2 lbs  Pilsner

2 lbs Vienna

2 lbs Munich

0.33 lbs Caramunich

I used Tettnang to hop this batch, with 0.5 oz at 60 minutes and another 0.5 oz at 10 minutes. Should put it around 24 IBU.

For the mash schedule, I took advantage of the Grainfather’s control system and performed a dough-in of 113F for 10 minutes, a protein rest at 130F for 15 minutes, a sacc. rest at 149F for 40 minutes, then a mash-out at 168F for 10 minutes. I hope this process yielded a nicely fermentable wort, as I would like this beer to dry out as much as possible.

More interesting than this beer though is the Grainfather system itself. It’s a pretty darn well-designed system. It’s not perfect, but it’s packed with convenient features and it’s a bargain compared to most all-in-ones. It doesn’t feel cheap. It’s not super powerful, but it’s probably as much as you can expect off a 120V outlet. I still need to figure out the best way to avoid hop trub from clogging up the pump/chiller lines. Might pick up a stainless mesh basket for that purpose. I look forward to seeing how the beer produced on this system turns out, but I have every reason to expect this will improve the quality of my homebrew.

OG: 1.064    IBU: 24

Tasting Notes:

May 1st, 2016 – First pull of primary, was concerned about attenuation as the yeast cake is very thin at the moment. It’s dropped to 1.012 though which is only a few points north of what I had expected. Colour is significantly lighter than batch 1, which is no surprise given the grist changes, but I will adjust colour next time. It’s tasting pretty good thus far though obviously tough to gauge final product at one week.

Brewed:  March 6th, 2016          Bottled: March 30th, 2016

This was a re-brew of the first homebrew batch myself and my occasional brewing partner, Sean, ever made. We kept the recipe identical with the exception of the hop schedule, which was adjusted from 15 and 5 minute additions to a 60 minute bittering charge and a whirlpool addition. We’re considering it an annual brew that we hope to brew every March.

Details:

10 lbs Bohemian Pilsner

2 lbs Wheat malt

0.5 oz Azacca (AA 10.3%) at 60 minutes

1.5 oz Azacca (AA 10.3%) at 5 minutes

Mashed at 153F for 60 minutes

Boiled 90 minutes

Fermented at 68-70F

Tasting Notes:

03/30/2016 – Tasting very good on bottling day, the azacca hops are coming through loud and clear with a nice distinctive citrus flavour.

05/31/2016 – This beer turned out well. The azacca is quite distinctive, and was coming through with a minty herbal quality for a bit but has come around to retain its uniqueness without being odd. Great head retention, lots of hop aroma and flavour with a balanced bitterness. Quite pleased with this batch – I find myself craving this beer when it’s hot out.

Brewed: March 3, 2015              Bottled: March 27, 2016

ABV: 5.5%    IBU: 30

Bresse & Byre is intended to be a country (farmhouse) ale that draws inspiration from the style’s more historical roots. As such, the ABV will be modest and there’ll be a fairly assertive bitterness to keep acid-producing bacteria under control. In the spirit of small, resourceful farmhouses its recipe will also utilize a number of fermentables and each batch will be unique.

The heart of this brew was the Wallonian Farmhouse yeast from The Yeast Bay. It’s my first time using it. The recipe was developed to be around 5.5% ABV and 30 IBU. I went with 2-row instead of pilsner as the base malt due to the fact that I was brewing this with only an ice bath chill and a stove-top boil, neither of which are well suited to pilsner malt.

Details:

3.50 lbs  Canadian 2-row

0.50 lbs  Munich

0.50 lbs  Wheat malt

0.25 lbs  Flaked wheat

0.15 lbs  Dextrose / Corn sugar

0.10 lbs  Acidulated malt

It was hopped at 50 minutes with 0.5 oz Strisselspalt and 0.25 oz Tettnang, and then the same quantities were also added at 10 minutes, along with the sugar. Here’s the rest of the details:

1/4 tsp CaCl was added to the mash water

Mash was carried out as an infusion at 152F for 75 minutes

Sparged at 169F, resulted in about 3.7 gallons of 1.043 SG wort

Boiled 75 minutes then chilled to 67F, resulting in an OG of 1.052.

The yeast was pitched at 8:30pm on Thursday, and when I went to work at 7:00am the next morning there was still no activity, which is the longest lag I’ve had yet and it had me a bit concerned. By 11:00am there was plenty of action though, and when I got home that evening it was really churning. By Sunday it had largely flocculated and the haze was starting to settle out.

Tasting Notes:

Apr 14, 2016 – 3 weeks in bottle, medium carbonation. Tastes young but the yeast profile seems promising.

Apr 25, 2016 – Light, citrus and earthy components. Slightly spicy.  Tasting pretty good.

Dec 15, 2016 – Gusher bottle. Cherry flavour on the nose which I don’t remember picking up before. Neat aroma, but there are some displeasing esters in the taste that I am not super into.

Dec 29, 2016 – Some bottles have gushed strongly, but this one was only a slow gush. Certainly some additional slow attenuation occurred after bottling as this is carbonated to easily 4-5 volumes now. A unique yeast strain for sure, and as already mentioned it’s not really my bag. Nose is orange zest and herbal notes, while the taste also adds a mineral character and a very dry finish. There is something unwelcome that lingers on as well, though not too strongly.

Brewed: Feb 27, 2016   Bottled:  May 28, 2016

This was a homebrew collaboration with Ryan of Maison Brewing (formerly Playhouse), but Ryan has done the bulk of the planning, brewing, and after-pitch care. I add this to my list for completeness, but Ryan deserves the lion’s share of the recognition for this beer.

We teamed up on this beer because we both had the same vision for what it should be:  Somewhere in the 13 – 15% ABV range, minimally bitter, and inspired by English style barleywines such as Pelican’s Mother of All Storms. I had wanted to do a barleywine with rye, particularly flaked rye, so we worked that into the recipe. Ryan had a large starter of WYeast 1318 for our initial pitch, and for insurance he also pitched WY1728 after fermentation was well underway. This was brewed on Ryan’s system.

Ryan developed a feeding schedule for this beer after knockout which included additional oxygen, nutrient, and sugar by way of DME additions. While our OG at the end of the boil was approximately 1.100, the theoretical OG after the additional sugar additions should put us at 1.131.  All post brew-day activities have been performed by Ryan.

OG: 1.135 (theoretical, based on sugar additions)

FG: 1.038

Tasting Notes:

05/28/2016 – Bottling from keg. Tastes nice, it’s already not overly harsh and the malt character shows raisin, fig, and plum. Nice English-level bitterness and plenty of sweetness. It’s a tad on the sweet side for style, but that’s the side we wanted to err on anyway. It’s also more pale than anticipated but it’s not a fault, as it’s still within range for style.

06/10/2016 – First bottle. Holy mackerel is this ever viscous stuff. Syrupy, sticky on the lips. Definitely lots of residual sugar but strikes a nice balance nonetheless with caramel, plums, and dark sugar flavours.

Brewed: Jan 24, 2016      Bottled: Feb 20, 2016

Beer Style:  Biere de Garde

OG:  1.071      FG:  1.009       IBU: 26      ABV:  8%

This was my first attempt at what I would like to be an annual tradition, the brewing of an ale inspired by the rustic French farmhouse ‘Biere de Garde’ ales from many years ago. That said, despite its old-world inspiration, it’s a bit of a modern departure. I used Munich as a base malt instead of pilsner to give it the deeper colour without having to boil all afternoon. I also added Caramunich in small quantity to provide a little further colour and malt complexity. Some simple sugar was added to assist the low mash temperature in reaching a low FG, as low as possible with the given yeast.

One of the drivers to wanting to brew this beer was the use of White Lab’s WLP515 Antwerp ale yeast. Although not a biére de garde yeast per se, its clean Belgian profile and good attenuation sounded perfect for the job. Its seasonal availability towards the end of the year is also appropriate for the traditionally winter-brewed style. I’ve hopped it at a slightly higher rate than traditional although still quite minimally, at about 26 IBU of Tettnang and Willamette.

Recipe (2.5 gallon batch):

4.25 lbs    Weyermann Munich I

2.50 lbs    Weyermann Floor-malted Pilsner

0.35 lbs     Weyermann Caramunich II

0.35 lbs     Dextrose / Corn sugar

0.25 oz      Willamette @ 60 min

0.25 oz      Tettnang @ 60 min

0.25 oz      Tettnang @ 15 min

WLP 515 – Antwerp Ale

Process

Infusion mashed at 145F for 45 minutes, increased to 152F for 45 minutes, mashed out 165F for 10 minutes (BIAB w. boiling water additions)

Boiled 120 minutes (stove-top)

Fermented 7 days at 65F, let rise to 72F for 14+ days.  Ended up skipping the lagering phase until post-bottling.

Bottle conditioned with 2.7 volumes CO2 (corn sugar) – except 0.9 gallons went into a jug for secondary with port-soaked oak and brettanomyces.

Tasting Notes:

February 9th, 2016 – Pull off primary to check gravity. 1.009 (86.5% AA). Smells a little green still but tastes nice, good malt complexity. Just barely enough bitterness to balance which is what I was looking for. Compelling mix of sweet bread and grainy flavours.

March 1st, 2016 – No taste today, but pitched the dregs of a bottle of Goose Island Maltilda (Aug 2015 bottle) into the 0.9 gallons of “Corsa Specialé” in secondary.

March 5th, 2016 – First bottle. Didn’t wait as long as I intended but wanted to check on carbonation. Well, carb is coming along well and taste is better than I expected. Toasty bread with some plum-like fruitiness. The malts come across sweet, but the beer’s got a pretty dry finish. Hops are barely there but do enough to balance, I think. Very much on track with what I was going for so far.

Oct 16, 2016 – Sweetness sits just below cloying with plum and sugary bread dominating. Other than being pretty sweet this is on point, I think.

Dec 26, 2016 – Bottle of the Specialé. The brett character is nice, but I went a little overboard on the oak and the American oak doesn’t jive as well as French oak would have. Also, there is simply no head retention. But beyond that the flavours are quite interesting and the sweetness of the original has been cut nicely by the brett and tannins.

Photos:

During ‘sparge’ (BIAB dunked in 1.2 gallons at 173F)

Put away for primary ferment: