Sésquac Imperial Stout

A huge bold RIS fermented with Wyeast 3711, French Saison. I brewed this with Great Divides Yeti RIS in mind. On a recent visit there I was able to try many of the variations of Yeti that they have produced. I most enjoyed the Belgian Yeti and decided to try and produce something similar.

This beer was brewed late September, so I suspect it is no where near its flavor peak. Still even this early on it is an incredible stout.

 

Grains & Adjuncts (10 Gallons)
Amount	Percentage		Name	Time	Gravity
29.00 lbs	79.45 %		Pale Malt (2 Row) Bel	60 mins	1.037
1.50 lbs	4.11 %		Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L	60 mins	1.033
1.50 lbs	4.11 %		Chocolate Malt	60 mins	1.034
1.50 lbs	4.11 %		Black (Patent) Malt	60 mins	1.025
1.00 lbs	2.74 %		Roasted Barley	60 mins	1.025
1.00 lbs	2.74 %		Rye, Flaked	60 mins	1.036
1.00 lbs	2.74 %		Wheat, Flaked	60 mins	1.035

Hops
Amount	IBU's		Name	Time	AA %
2.50 ozs	33.64		Chinook	60 mins	11.90
2.50 ozs	25.86		Chinook	30 mins	11.90
1.00 ozs	6.68		Chinook	15 mins	11.90

Yeasts
Amount	Name	Laboratory / ID
9.00 pkg	French Saison	Wyeast Labs 3711

Mash at 150

M.I.C. Jaggery English Barley Wine

Yesterday we brewed up an English style Barley Wine. This is the richest and strongest of all the English style ales. This style should be a showcase of malty richness and complex, intense flavors. The character of these ales can change significantly over time; both young and old versions should be appreciated for what they are. 

In addition to some well modified english style malt, we pulled out the jaggery sugar to help with the complex flavors.  The jaggery we used are small blocks of sweetness made from concentrated sugarcane juice without the separation of the molasses and crystals. Unfortunaly it is not the seasonal type of  jaggery which is made from palm sugar. However it is still a fairly unique sugar type that we thought tasted a bit like southern style pralines.

Jaggery sugar

From the BJCP guidelines

Ingredients: Well-modified pale malt should form the backbone of the grist, with judicious amounts of caramel malts. Dark malts should be used with great restraint, if at all, as most of the color arises from a lengthy boil. English hops such as Northdown, Target, East Kent Goldings and Fuggles. Characterful English yeast.

Aroma:
Very rich and strongly malty, often with a caramel-like aroma. May have moderate to strong fruitiness, often with a dried-fruit character. English hop aroma may range from mild to assertive.

Appearance: Color may range from rich gold to very dark amber or even dark brown. Often has ruby highlights, but should not be opaque. Low to moderate off-white head; may have low head retention.

Flavor:

Strong, intense, complex, multi-layered malt flavors ranging from bready and biscuity through nutty, deep toast, dark caramel, toffee, and/or molasses. Moderate to high malty sweetness on the palate, although the finish may be moderately sweet to moderately dry (depending on aging).

Mouthfeel: Full-bodied and chewy, with a velvety, luscious texture (although the body may decline with long conditioning). A smooth warmth from aged alcohol should be present, and should not be hot or harsh .


Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 10.00 gal     
Boil Size: 14.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.096 SG (actual 1.098)
Estimated Color: 20.7 SRM
Estimated IBU: 52.23 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.0 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes
Mash temp: 153


Ingredients:
------------
Amount        Item                                       
28.00 lb      Gambrinus Pale ESB malt
1.50 lb        Crisp Crystal 60                           
1.50 lb        Dingmanns Special B                    
2.00 lb        Jaggary Sugar                     
8.00 oz       Williamette [4.9%]  (90 min)                 Hops         52.23 IBU     
1 Pkgs        Nottingham slurry

Massivly Intoxicating Cervisia
Jaggery
Barley Wine

YAMber Ale and more...

It was a seriously busy weekend for home brewing.

I filled all my kegs and a bunch of bottles. I was also able to brew up a small batch of some Yam beer... More on that in a minute.

I needed to free up some corny kegs so I bottled the remains of my recent Cascadian dark ale and a big dark strong Belgian.

I then filled a keg with my Farmhouse Saison. It's been sitting in primary for 5 weeks. So I transferred it to a keg and will leave it in the basement for a while.

I also put my experimental old ale/braggot I brewed last Oct into a keg to carb. I will plan on bottling that in a few days. That one is quite interesting. You can find a previous post from my brew day on that.

Next I emptied the conical of the 10 gallons of Coconut porter. I put it into kegs where I will let it sit another week or so before carbonating it.


Then finally I wanted to brew an autumn beer... Yeah it's probably a little late but whatever.
I thought about a pumpkin ale, but that's pretty common now days. I decided to use yams instead. Probably not all that different in the end, but it sounds cool.

I did a small 7 gallon batch. Into it went 6 pounds of yams that I chopped up, sprinkled with brown sugar, and cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamon, and cloves. That was baked in the oven and then mashed up. I dumped that into the mashtun and added a small amount of additional spices with 5 mins left in the boil. It's fermenting away now and I hope it is drinkable before the snow flies around here. If not it will probably end up as a holiday beer :)

So that's it... Busy couple of days.

Coconut Porter in the fermenter

I finally got around to brewing a coconut porter yesterday. I am not a big fan of fruit beers but this one has always intrigued me. I had a chance to try Maui Brewing’s Coconut porter a few weeks back and I think that really pushed this one to the top of the brewing schedule. I liked that porter, but I thought the coconut could stand to be a little more apparent in the beer. So of course I decided to brew it with a stronger coconut flavor.

Mash being recirculated.

Here is the recipe of the top of my head.

11 Gallon batch Coconut Porter

Malts:
16 Pounds Northwestern Pale ale malt
4 pounds Dark Munich malt
2 Dingmans chocolate malt
2 Golden naked oats
2 Crystal 40

Hops:
1 oz Calypso hops (12.9%) 60 mins
2 oz East Kent Golding (4.9%) 15 mins

Coconut:
Unsweetened shredded, lightly toasted on cookie sheet at 350 degrees. Each sheet spent about 5 mins in the oven and the coconut was flipped one time in that 5 minutes.

2 Pounds went into the 60 minute mash
2 pounds went into the kettle at flameout and was whirl pooled for about 10 minutes while chilling.

Draining the boil kettle with 2 pounds of coconut.

I mashed this one at 154, OG came in at 1.065, and I pitched US-05 yeast.

This thing smelled wonderful. The mash reminded me of a mounds or almond joy candy bar. It will be interesting what this tastes like when fermentation finishes. I am reserving the option to add some more coconut after fermentation, but it just depends on how it tastes.   

Pumping from the kettle to the fermenter

Brewing heavily

I have not posted on here for a while but I have been brewing quite a bit the past couple of months.
A couple weeks ago I received my portion of a big bulk grain order. All total about 600 pounds of barley.

So far I have brewed two 15 gallon batches from it. The first was a clone of Surly Cynic based on the recipe from the brew master Todd Haug. I put 10 gallons of that into my conical with WLP550. I put the other 5 in a carboy and pitched some WLP670 American farmhouse blend. I went ahead and filled a couple of bottles with this and sent it down to the beehive brew off competition.

I also brewed up a big cascadian dark ale. This is a big one that comes in at 9.5% ABV and something around 100 IBUs. This one is looking to be a great one so far. I am currently dry hopping it with some cascade hops.

El Dorado RyePA

It's still on the cold side for outdoor brewing, but it warmed up long enough this past Saturday to get some brewing done. It is still getting too cold to ferment in my garage fridge so I came up with an ale to ferment in the basement.

I just got some El Dorado hops and figured I would use them in a single hop brew to see how I like them. These hops sound pretty good, but they are also about the only hops that have their own profile on Facebook. So obviously someone is really pushing the marketing of this new hop.

Description: This dual purpose hop variety has high alpha acids making it great for bittering. Additionally, it has a tropical fruit, watermelon candy, pear and stone fruit aroma making it an interesting flavor and aroma hop.

The Grain bill consisted of about 70% 2 row, 15% Rye Malt, 10% Vienna, and 5% Crystal 120
Hops were added at 10 minute intervals until 20 minutes and then every 5 minutes. A total of 3.5 Oz of leaf hops went into the brew. The remaining half once will be used to dry hop. IBU calculation came in at approx 75