Thalia Hibiscus Wit

Yes it's been almost a year since my last post, but it seemed fitting to revive this blog from the doorstep of death by posting my first homebrew label in a year and a half.

Thalia is a Beligian Witbier infused with hibiscus flowers, a combination pioneered by Dieu du Ciel! brewery in Montreal, Quebec. When Bailie and I went to Canada on vacation last year, Bailie developed a fondness for the beer, which is only sold as close as Charlottesville. During this year's vacation to Charleston, SC and other points south, we wound up in a spice shop which sold the dried hibiscus flowers by the ounce. Recognizing this as a great opportunity to try my hand at a hibiscus wit, I bought an ounce of the flowers to take home.

When I brewed this beer at Learn to Homebrew Day at Blue Ridge Hydroponics and Homebrew Supplies, my initial thought was to add half of the flowers towards the end of the boil to pull out aromatics, but it didn't seem like enough after grinding the whole flowers down to a powder. I decided to throw the rest in and see how it tasted after fermentation. Still lacking the pungent, floral, perfumy aroma and flavor I was looking for after 3 weeks in the fermenter, I started looking around for more hibiscus to infuse more flavor in the beer. Luckily, I found some just down the street at Roanoke Natural Foods Co-op.

The best way to add flavor and aroma post-fermentation is to create a tincture by soaking the dried flowers in vodka for several days or weeks, drawing a sample and adding small amounts with an eye dropper to that sample until the desired product is reached. You then figure out the number of teaspoons of tincture these drops for the sample produced, and finally scale that up for a 5 gallon batch and add at bottling time. In my case, I found that I needed to add 10 teaspoons of the strong potion (1.67 oz) to attain the desired character. This small amount of vodka adds only about .09% alcohol to the 5 gallon batch.

Intended to be a 5% alcohol beer, my brewhouse efficiency (amount of sugars produced after mash, sparge and boil) and attenuation (% of sugars eaten by yeast during fermentation) were so high that it wound up at 5.66% after fermentation. Add the vodka tincture to that, and you have a nice even 5.75% ABV.

Thalia is the Greek muse of comedy. I liked the name and found it fitting for this girly beer. Going with the comic theme, the label depicts Thalia farting on a Venusian volcano, causing it to spew hibiscus flowers into the atmosphere. Need I say more?

Belgian-style Glacier Pale Ale

I decided to brew on Thursday last week for a couple reasons: one, to make sure I got another batch in for the upcoming Blacksburg Brew-do homebrew competition; two, to make sure I didn't flake out on brewing over the weekend and put it off again like last weekend; and three, because I was curious if I could brew an all-grain beer at night after work, and still make it to work the next day.

Indeed, though I didn't start heating my mash water until 5:15 PM, I got in a quick and tidy batch and pitched yeast by 10:30. Will L., Mike A., Chris B., neighbor Chris all stopped by to make sure I got my money's worth proving point 3. No significant hangovers.

The greatest source of anxiety for me over the past 5 or so months and numerous batches of beer has been my mash tun, a problem I recently diagnosed as a combination of warped mash tun floor and flattened out false bottom. After much debate on how to fix the problem (and nearly buying a new Rubbermaid cooler), I settled on drilling 4 holes through the mash tun floor, inserting bolts and pinning down the warped floor with nuts. The remaining 1/2 inch of bolt sticking up provides some reinforcement for the false bottom should it try collapsing under a heavy load of malt.

This mostly did the trick, much to my delight. However, my efficiency wound up extremely low (56% vs. 75% planned), which I am partially attributing to the leaks I created in the tun by not using washers or gaskets of any kind. There really wasn't much liquid coming out, but it may have filled up in the space between the plastic. It also may have been some of the more concentrated sweet wort coming out at the beginning, causing a more rapid efficiency loss. At any rate, I'll fix it for the next batch and keep my fingers crossed.

The lack of efficiency jacked up my IBUs a little and it's going to be seriously dry beer if my alcohol gets where I want it to be. Another bummer which lowered the OG (but not the efficiency) was the fact that I only had 6 ounces of corn sugar around, and I had been planning on using at least 8 ounces. So in the end, the strong Belgian IPA I was going for is going to be a hoppy, yet moderate-strength pale ale, which may be a blessing in disguise. I'd been waffling between brewing something moderate for the Brew-do or something serious for the Brewer's Guild's "Imperial Anything" competition. While I settled on something Brew-do-centric before brewing, I was still concerned my recipe would approach 7% ABV. This one should be in the 5.5% range, and will also finish fermenting quicker so it will have more time to meld and carbonate before the Brew-do, Oct. 24. Works for me.

6 lb. Belgian Pilsner malt
3 lb. Wheat malt
1 lb. Aromatic malt
.5 lb. Carapils Dextrine malt
6.3 oz. Corn sugar

Glacier hops 1 oz. 60 min, 15 min, and 10 min and 2 oz. dryhop.

White Labs WLP 500 Trappist Ale yeast

My Beer Labels

Carrie gave me props about a month ago in her blog post about making beer labels, and I just got around to reading it. So in honor of that, here are the labels I've put together to date for my Revolution is Brewing Company homebrews. I use a program called paint.net, which is a free download that lets you import and manipulate picture files, draw, and add text to create really nice-looking images. I then print and tape the labels onto my bottles so I can easily remove them to reuse the bottles for future batches.Marsupium was my first attempt at making a label with paint.net. I brewed this one in late fall 2007 for my first annual Holiday Homebrew Party. It was an extract-brewed stout with 8 oz. of organic cocoa powder added to the end of the batch. The idea behind the label was that I treated it like a baby, keeping it close as a marsupial would it's young. The kangaroo is holding a basket of hop cones and cocoa beans. It was actually brewed after Chrysalis, the next label I attempted (below). Chrysalis was a very bitter (97 IBU) dry-hopped IPA, also from extract. The grassy, spring-like flavor and aroma from all that hops (Columbus mostly, some Cascade, and Nugget for bittering) inspired the theme for the label: a butterfly emerging from a hop cone-chrysalis. This one was also served at the homebrew party in December '07. Following these, I brewed a beer called Lady Fitzgerald Irish Red, in honor of my grandmother, whose maiden name was Fitzgerald. I skipped the label on this one - although I had some ideas, the beer didn't last long enough to do one, thanks in part to St. Patrick's Day. Following Lady was Hippity Hoppity, another ultra hoppy IPA much like Chrysalis, brewed around Easter, again with no label.
Then followed a long and arduous period of being too broke or busy to brew, two words I refuse to ever let sway my brewing tendencies henceforth. The reward at the end of the tunnel was Lazarus, brewed in August 2008, a big-ass strong Belgian Golden Ale brewed with extract and a shitload of sugar. Lazarus got its name from a primary fermentation that looked like it was ready to peter out after a week, then kicked in for another week, presumably when it started eating the cane and corn sugar. Raised from the dead you could say. I also liked the religious theme that it and so many other Belgians imply, though when I made this label I was teetering more towards heresy. Yes, that's Jesus being abducted by aliens in a bottle-shaped laser beam. All in good fun.
Bellona is my first real concept beer. I envisioned a full-bodied, syrupy beer with minimal bitterness or dryness, kind of a smooth yet complex elixir. I'd wanted to experiment with agave nectar, but didn't want the yeast to eat it all, so I added it to the secondary. I used a Scottish ale yeast to keep it malt-forward, some wheat malt extract as a base, malto-dextrin to keep the body up, and kept the carbonation light. Then I used a few hop varieties that were supposed to make it qualify for the September Star City Brewers Guild Competition (Glacier, Palisade and Galena). Unfortunately, I didn't realize adjuncts weren't allowable for this competition, so obviously I couldn't enter it. The label is inspired by the city "Bellona" in Samuel R. Delaney's book Dhalgren, a city where all kinds of oddballs gather and live together. Read the book and you'll get it!Next I took a couple of months off while upgrading my equipment to all-grain. In November 2008 I brewed my first all-grain batch for the December competition, a Robust Porter with a variety of malts. By all accounts it was a solid first batch that really only suffered from low carbonation at competition time. Time took care of that though. Having brewed this shortly after the Presidential Election, and itself brewed for a competition, the political theme was in my head, so I dubbed it Proletariat, a working class style (see History of Robust Porter) for the working class. Instead of a hammer and sickle, thats a crossed mash paddle and auto-siphon. The Voice of the People Series is a gimmick that will cover all of the beers I brew for competions through this year (American Brown, Saison, Oatmeal Stout and Imperial whatever).
Dreamer was my second all-grain beer, one that started out with every intention of being a strongish English export ale or special ale, but whose original gravity wound up low enough to fit comfortably in the Extra Special Bitter (ESB) category. There's a movie I won't mention that kind of inspired this, in addition to my constant daydreaming at work of someday opening a brewery. The peacock is a reference to the book Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver that I read and liked in high school...seemed relevant. This one was a little rushed (trying to get it finished for Christmas which didn't happen) so it's not my favorite.
Lastly, for now, is Flora. With the homebrew shop closed the day after Thanksgiving and myself itching to brew, I turned to Patrick from the Brewers Guild to supply me with some grains. I wound up with a recipe much different from what I was intending, so I personalized it by adding some rose hips, the dried berries of rose plants often used in teas, to the end of the brew. It's very citrusy and a bit too bitter from hips and hops, but certainly its own animal, and packs a nice punch. The label theme is kind of obvious, "flora" meaning plant material, this shows a picture of some roses taken by Bailie out in our yard from last summer, a picture of hop vine leaves, and a picture of a rye plant.

Thanks for reading and please feel free to comment. I'll post new labels as they are conceived!

Homebrew Session: Belgian Stong Pale Ale

At long last, I've tackled another homebrew, the first since I've begun this blog, but the 12th in my two-year brewing career. The reason for the delay (over four months) was primarily that I had been focused on upgrading my system to support all-grain mashing, and wanted to put every spare penny towards that goal. But the government stimulus funds didn't last long and the usual summer travel frenzy took care of the rest and I'm finding myself looking at Fall before I'm able to take the plunge.

As a consolation, I decided upon brewing my most ambitious beer to date in terms of strength, and resolved to eliminate all the mistakes that I knew I could control that seemed to plague me (and my short attention span) again and again. Specifically, to use only malts that need not be mashed (you have no idea how much I've done this even since I learned it was a mistake), to measure the hops carefully and not overdo them, to cool the wort efficiently but not too far, etc.

I then settled on a Belgian ale of some sort, a beer that is light enough to be thirst-quenching on a late summer evening, yet strong enough to obliterate all my previous attempts. From there, I picked out a yeast that would be both available to me at Blue Ridge Hydroponics, since I didn't want to wait to order anything special, as well as be robust enough to ferment in a range of temperatures. I selected the White Labs Begian Ale Yeast since it can ferment up to 78 degrees. In the end, this wasn't too important as I wound up doing the primary fermentation in my air conditioned computer room. More on that later. I also chose a Belgian Strong Pale Ale for the "style" as it gave me more room for experimentation, and did not require fermentation procedures or temperatures beyond the scope of my equipment.

Ingredients
Yeast Starter:

2 oz. Munton's Light Dry Malt Extract
2 cups filtered tap water
1 vial WLP 550 White Labs Belgian Ale Yeast (best before 8-5-07)

Beer:
~5 gallons Kroger Spring Water
0.5 oz. 20L Crystal Malt (grains)
1 lb. 14 oz. Munton's Light DME
10 oz. Corn Sugar
1 lb. 8 oz. Private Selection Organic Sugar (cane)
6 lb. Blue Ridge H and H Super Light Malt Extract
2 oz. Hallertaur hops (60 min boil)
2 oz. Hallertaur hops (5 min boil)
1 tsp Irish Moss (15 min boil)
0.5 oz. Ground Coriander (purchased from Roanoke Natural Foods Co-op)

Directions
Yeast Starter:

7-26-08 Set out yeast ~ 5 hours before pitching. Realized yeast was out of date more than a year...Brought water to boil, added DME, boiled ~8 minutes, added slightly more water to remove stuck DME from scale tray. Transferred to 22 oz. bottle w/ funnel, both sanitized with no-rinse sanitizer. Set in ice bath in sink (3:30ish).
Pitched at 80 degrees F, 4:18 (48 min later). Very little activity noticed until 7/28; postponed brewing until 7-29, when i was still in a krausen phase, but slurry was forming on the base of the bottle.

Beer:

Brought two gallons of water to 165F, added grains, covered at 175F @ 8:10 PM. Heat off, let steep for 30 minutes. Remove grains, add DME, corn sugar, cane sugar, and finally malt extract, in that order. Turn on heat, and bring to boil (8:53 PM). Boiling at 9:20 PM. Add 2 oz. Hallertaur hops at 9:28 PM. Hops could have smelled a little cheesy (due to storage issues from supplier), but could just be true to style. Hops bought from friend had sat in single Ziploc bag in fridge for ~3 months. Had him seal them airtight in 2 oz. bags prior to sale, put in freezer immediately after.

Added Irish moss 45 minutes after boiling (10:13 PM).

Added 2 oz. Hallertaur finishing hops and ground coriander at 55 minutes after boiling (10:23 PM). Removed from heat at 10:28 and cooled in ice bath in sink (two bags of ice rotated with water). Cooled to 78F by 11:00 PM.

O.G. 1.083 at 77F (1.085 corrected). Pitched yeast at 11:08 PM. Shook from 11:17-11:22 PM, put in front of kitchen A/C with blow off tube for the night.

Moved to closed air conditioned computer room the following morning. Steady bubbling noticed at 12:05 PM on 7-30, less than 1 second between bubbles. Room temperature 68-72F for majority of fermentation. Noticed room temp down to 62F at lunch on 8-5, so corrected quickly to 69F. Roused yeast continuously during fermentation but avoided oxidization from shaking. S.G. at 6:00 PM on 8-5 was ~1.026, and krausen still abundant, so fermentation left at least one more day.

Hoping for a 38 IBU, 8.5% abv spice Belgian Strong Pale Ale, sometime in September!