Pliny the Toddler Variants

Abby and I finished off both the Saison Sombre and the Wedding Stout this week, so it was a good thing that I had planned on brewing this weekend. When I finally managed to remind myself to get ingredients, my latest edition of Zymurgy had come that day, so when I asked Abby what she wanted to drink for a standard swiller, she pointed to a variation on Pliny the Toddler from a section on going from mash tun to good beer in 6 days.   I don't think I'm going to rush it that way, but it seemed like a decent recipe for a session IPA.   This will also be my first 10 gallon batch.  Now that I have a kettle that will handle that, I figured I should take advantage of the way things scale.

Unfortunately, Rebel Brewer didn't have WLP001 or WY1056 in stock, so I decided on WLP007 Dry English Ale and WLP575 Belgian Style Ale Yeast Blend.   I'll be splitting the batch and trying some different things.   I also accidentally only got one pound of Carapils, so I made up the gravity difference with some Wheat Malt and the last of my Caramel 20L.   The wheat should add some additional protein and help out with head retention, and the Caramel Malt should just add a little sweetness.   My current plan is to ferment with the belgian yeast in my brettanomyces fermentor and add some oak cubes that spent several months in the Old Funkulator (Bretted Old Ale).


Pliny The Toddler Variants

Batch Size (Gal): 10
Total Grain (Lbs): 16.26
Adjunct Sugar (Lbs): 1.00
Anticipated OG: 1.046
Anticipated SRM: 4.1
Anticipated IBU: 56.4
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70%
Wort Boil Time (min): 90

Grain
42.0% -- 7.25 lbs. Maris Otter Pale Ale Malt
42.0% -- 7.25 lbs. Canada Malting 2-row Pale Ale Malt
5.8% -- 1.00 lbs. Carapils (Dextrine) Malt
2.7% -- 0.47 lbs. Wheat Malt
1.7% -- 0.29 lbs. Caramel 20L Malt

Sugar
5.8% -- 1.00 lbs. Turbinado Sugar

Hops
1.25 oz Warrior (Pellet, 13.7% AA) 60 min.
1.25 oz Columbus (Pellet, 13.9% AA) 10 min.
1.38 oz Centennial (Pellet, 8.8% AA) 10 min.
1.38 oz Cascade (Pellet, 5.4% AA) 0 min.

Yeast
1/2 White Labs 007
1/2 White Labs 575

Water Profile
Clearview, degassed overnight
3/8 teaspoon Calcium Sulfate

Mash Schedule
Sacch. Rest: 90 min. @ 152F

Extras:
26 drops Fermcap-S (to prevent boiling over)
2 Whirlfloc tablets

Notes

• Brewed on Saturday, October 29, 2011
• Actual efficiency: 67% (I'm starting to think my efficiency problems are ingredient related, rather than process)
• Pitched yeast into each fermentor at ~9PM.   The wort was down to 64F, and it's 62F in the cellar.
• 6:30AM Monday, both beers are fermenting happily.   the 007 has a bit more kraeusen, but the 575 is catching up to it. 
• Beers rose to about 70F, after I covered them with a blanket, and they are now holding there with the use of the heat mat.   The 007 is pretty much finished, and I'm giving it another day at the warmer temp before letting it chill back to cellar temp (61F, currently) for a few days.   I added the brettanomyces infected oak cubes from the wedding stout keg to the 575 fermentor on Tuesday (11/1), and it still has a nice layer of foam on top, so it will sit around in the fermentor at least until I have another empty keg. 
• The 007 beer is carbonated and is getting swilled down this weekend.  It's quite hoppy, but the malt flavor is still there, and there's a nice sweet fruitiness with the yeast, even though it finished out quite dry

Belgian IPA MII

The first beer I brewed using my new setup was also my first attempt at creating something similar to Stone's Cali-Belgique.   Though, instead of doing an IPA with Belgian yeast, I basically did a Tripel that was hopped like an IPA.   I did use all European-style hops (Mt. Hood, US Fuggles, US Saaz), to try and keep it in that less-aggressively-hopped realm.   It turned out to be really tasty, and something about that particular combination of hops produced an Orange-Juice-like flavor, which was pretty neat.

Today's brew is going in a little different direction.     I've got the T-58/3787 left over from the Cherry Stout, and I'm going to go with American hops this time around, to get more fruit flavors.   I'm using a few pounds of honey to dry it out and maybe provide some floral flavors, and I'm going to give it about an ounce of oak chips for it to sit on during primary fermentation.   I did the honey and oak thing in my first beer of the year, and it wound up making a really tasty, drinkable beverage.

So, yet again, my efficiency was horribly low.    All I know to do at this point is to either adjust the copper manifold somehow or to go back to the stainless mesh.   Luckily, I had some malt extract on hand, so I wound up adding a good bit of that to the boil kettle.   I even did a 90 minute mash.   I really don't have any obvious culprit for what the problem is, though, so I may just try going back to the mesh on the next beer and see if that fixes things.   Then I'll at least know whether it's an equipment problem or a technique problem.   Another culprit may be the gap on my grain mill...   I should check that.

Belgian IPA MII

Batch Size (Gal): 6
Total Grain (Lbs): 11.83
Adjunct Sugar (Lbs): 3
Anticipated OG: 1.081
Anticipated SRM: 7.1
Anticipated IBU: 76.8
Brewhouse Efficiency: 40%
Wort Boil Time (min): 90

Grain
53.9% -- 8 lbs. French Pilsen Malt
3.4% -- 0.50 lbs. Aromatic Malt
3.4% -- 0.50 lbs. Crystal 40L
19.1% -- 2.83 lbs  Munton's Extra Light DME (Due to efficiency problems)

Sugar
20.2% -- 3.00 lbs. Tennessee Mountain Wildflower Honey

Hops
0.50 oz. Centennial (Pellet, 8.80% AA) First Wort
0.50 oz. Amarillo VGXP01 (Pellet, 6.90% AA) First Wort
0.75 oz. Magnum (Pellet, 12.10% AA) @ 60 min.
1.00 oz. Amarillo VGXP01 (Pellet, 6.90% AA) @ 15 min.
1.00 oz Centennial (Pellet, 8.80% AA) @ 10 min.
1.00 oz Amarillo VGXP01 (Pellet, 6.90% AA) @ 5 min.
1.00 oz Centennial (Pellet, 8.80% AA) @ 0 min.
1.50 oz Amarillo VGXP01 (Pellet, 6.90% AA) Dry
1.50 oz Centennial (Pellet, 8.80% AA) Dry

Yeast
Wyeast 3787 - Trappist High Gravity
Fermentis Safbrew T-58
(repitched slurry)

Water Profile
Clearview, degassed overnight
1.5 teaspoons gypsum

Mash Schedule
Sacch. Rest: 90 min. @ 151F
Batch Sparge:  15 min. @ 166F

Notes

• Brewed on Monday, May 30, 2011
• Actual OG was 1.070 after everything was said and done.   A good reason to keep DME around.   That was around the gravity that I was originally aiming for.
• Added 1oz oak chips soaked in 1 cup of water for a couple of hours and then heated to boiling in a microwave to fermentor immediately prior to racking from the kettle.
• Chilled to 64F and pitched.
• ~48 hour lag time.  I'm not sure if that was because of the temperature, the honey, or both.
• Temperature rose by itself up to 70F, and after a day and a half, I covered it and set the temperature controller to 70F.
• Temperature then levelled off at 72F, and it was held there for 7 days.
• Flavor is currently "Tropical fruit bubblegum"   which isn't a bad thing in my opinion.
• The bubblegum has diminished significantly.   Racked to secondary and dry hopped with 1.5oz Amarillo and 1.5oz Centennial on June 20, 2011