Mad Pig Brew Day

The Surly Sow has mutated.  It's become bigger, more bitter, hoppier, more aromatic, and about 1% more alcohol.  The color looked great in the sparge, the kettle smelled fantastic with 8 ounces of hops going into the boil, and the gravity sample tasted out of this world!  I cannot wait for this beer to finish fermenting so it can go on draft!

I did change one thing in the recipe and added 1 lb of corn sugar to the boil at 10 minutes to dry the beer out a little.  Here's how the brew day went.

I finally found a picture of a "mad" pig that didn't involve foaming at the mouth.  ;-)  I didn't think I'd be happy with a white background on the image, but in the end I was quite surprised at how well it made the pig stand out in the label.  He's one P.O.'d pig!

I was getting everything ready Saturday night and decided to bring things inside to sanitize them so I could spend some time with Carlen while I did it. The fermentor (keg on the left) was easy to sanitize on the stove.  I just put a little water in it and boiled it for 10 minutes.  I had a new thermometer and spigot for the brew kettle and wanted to put it through it's paces for brew day so I put it on another burner.  No leaks!

Santa brought a ping-pong table for the kids this year.  It sure is a nice place to spread out the brew stuff!

31.77 pounds of grain + 9.5 gallons of 175 degree water = 154 degree mash!  Hit it dead on!

Sparging one hour later.  The wort was a beautiful golden/amber color.

The hot break forming on top of one full boil kettle.  I've learned that my boil off rate is very high in the kettle (3 gallons per hour) so I have to collect 14 gallons of wort to to boil down to 11.  10.5 of which goes into the fermentor and 1/2 gallon which is left behind because it looks like pea soup from the pellet hops.

209-210 degrees is the perfect boil temp!  Keeps the wort at a nice, stead boil without going crazy.

14 gallons of wort at a boil with the first addition of hops floating around.  When the 3 ounces of Chinook hops hit the kettle the whole garage smelled like heaven.  Or, what I hope heaven will smell like!

The one hour boil is done and we're cooling everything down to 80 degrees with the immersion chiller.  Also cleaning up the boil over that happens when I put the wort chiller in the pot.  Don't know why it happens, but it does.  I'm thinking of switching over to a different kind of chiller, but haven't figured out which one I want yet.

All those hops left over on the screen after the wort has been drained off.  The wort is in the fermentor and 1800 ML of WLP001 yeast starter is in there chugging away.

2 weeks until this one is done fermenting.
1 week dry hopping.
2 weeks carbonating.
2 weeks conditioning.
----------------
7 weeks until it's ready to drink.

Mad Pig IPA

Finally! After 3 months I'm brewing again this Sunday. The yeast starter is done and will be on the stir plate tonight. This recipe is loosely based off of Blind Pig IPA that I got from Brandon over at The BN.

Mad Pig IPA
14-B American IPA
Author: Wade L. Williams

Size: 10.56 gal
Efficiency: 64.0%
Attenuation: 75.0%
Calories: 223.09 kcal per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.067 (1.056 - 1.075)
Terminal Gravity: 1.017 (1.010 - 1.018)
Color: 12.16 (6.0 - 15.0)
Alcohol: 6.59% (5.5% - 7.5%)
Bitterness: 96.8 (40.0 - 70.0)

Ingredients:
28.5 lb Pale Ale Malt
1.09 lb White Wheat Malt
1.09 lb Cara-Pils® Malt
1.09 lb Crystal Malt 40°L
3.0 oz Chinook (12.4%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min
1.0 oz Cascade (7.8%) - added during boil, boiled 30 min
2.0 oz Cascade (7.8%) - added during boil, boiled 15 min

1.0 ea Whirlfloc Tablets (Irish moss) - added during boil, boiled 10 min
2.0 tsp Yeast Nutrient (AKA Fermax) - added during boil, boiled 10 min

1.0 oz Amarillo (8.6%) - added during boil, boiled 5 min
1.0 oz Simcoe (13.0%) - added during boil, boiled 5 min

2.0 ea White Labs WLP001 California Ale

1.0 oz Amarillo (8.6%) - added dry to primary fermenter
1.0 oz Simcoe (13.0%) - added dry to primary fermenter
1.0 oz Cascade (5.5%) - added dry to primary fermenter
2.0 oz Centennial (10.0%) - added dry to primary fermenter


Results generated by BeerTools Pro 1.5.3

44 Pale Ale

Wow, what a BLUSTERY birthday brew!  Here are the action shots:

The updated label to indicate the windy day.

The scene outside the garage.

Mashing in and heating sparge water in the garage behind one closed garage door and two others open.  This kept out the wind some and the flame didn't blow out.


Mashing out with the rain in the background.

One full boil kettle!

5.5 ounces of hops!

The boil kettle after all the wort was drained off.

The new fermenter!

Birthday Brew Planned

My 44th birthday is next Tuesday, so I decided to take the day off to brew. The Evil Twin Red Ale is just about to blow, so I figured I'd brew a Pale Ale to sit on that tap when the time comes and my Evil Twin kicks the bucket.

Here's the recipe:
44 Pale Ale
10-A American Pale Ale
Author: Wade

Size: 11.0 gal
Efficiency: 64.0%
Attenuation: 75.0%
Calories: 191.23 kcal per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.057 (1.045 - 1.060)
Terminal Gravity: 1.014 (1.010 - 1.015)
Color: 9.21 (5.0 - 14.0)
Alcohol: 5.65% (4.5% - 6.2%)
Bitterness: 42.3 (30.0 - 45.0)

Ingredients:
24.72 lb American 2-row
1.64 lb Munich Malt
1.09 lb White Wheat Malt
1.64 lb Victory® Malt
2 tbsp 5.2 pH Stabilizer - added during mash

1.5 oz Magnum (14.5%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min
1.0 oz Cascade (5.5%) - added during boil, boiled 10 min
1.0 oz Centennial (10.0%) - added during boil, boiled 10 min
1 tsp Yeast Nutrient (AKA Fermax) - added during boil, boiled 5 min
1 ea Whirlfloc Tablets (Irish moss) - added during boil, boiled 5 min
1.0 oz Cascade (5.5%) - added during boil, boiled 0 min
1.0 oz Centennial (10.0%) - added during boil, boiled 0 min

2 ea Fermentis US-05 Safale US-05

Notes
Mash at 152

Results generated by BeerTools Pro 1.5.3

It'll be my first time using dry yeast. I hear it doesn't bring much complexity into the beer, but it sure is easy!

Sick Puppy IPA Kegged!

Wow, what a fun brew this has been. I let it sit on the dry hops for 10 days instead of my usual 7 before crash cooling to 32 degrees on Monday. I finally got around to kegging it today (Friday) where it will sit on the CO2 for 7 days before it goes in the keezer.

I took the liberty to ramp up the fermentation temp to 75 degrees for one day just to make sure the yeast attenuated all the way. well, it did and then some. Instead of 1.016 for the FG I ended up at 1.014. 78.125% attenuation out of that yeast that's supposed to attenuate at 67-71%. I guess I don't have to ramp up to 75 degrees next time! The hydro sample taste great!

Here are a couple of pics of the carboy after draining off 5 gallons of beer to the keg:
































Up next: A pale ale. I'm almost out of Evil Twin.

Sick Puppy Brew Fun

Yesterday was a nice brew day! It wasn't too hot (90's), no interruptions, and the outcome couldn't have been more perfect. Here are the pics!

Boiling the starter in the house Thursday night. Sharon was gone so I didn't have to worry about the beer smell that seems to permeate everywhere in the house. Smells good to me!














Some folks ask "Why go to all the trouble to make a starter?" These pics should clear that up.

The starter Thursday night. If you look really, really closely you can see little white flecks of yeast in there.


















The yeast Friday morning. Looks like those yeasties procreated just a little! ;-)


















Cleaning a few kegs while the grain is mashing. It sure is nice having a hot water spigot outside.














My OG was supposed to be 1.064. Nailed it!

Sick Puppy IPA Brewday Planned

This Saturday is my 3rd IPA brew day! I'm going to be switching back and forth between the Surly Sow and Sick Puppy IPAs to have on tap. I'll make notes each time I make these and hopefully each will become better and better! The Surly Sow will be more bitter/hoppy/piney while the Sick Puppy will have more emphasis on the malt and flavor hop additions. Definitely two different ends of the IPA spectrum.

This will be my first take of the Sick Puppy which is a take-off of the Lagunitas IPA from the CYBI episode on The Brewing Network. I've made a couple of changes depending on ingredients that I have on hand as well as making this just a few IBUs higher than the original.

Here's the recipe that I'll be brewing on the 15th.

Sick Puppy IPA
14-B American IPA
Author: Wade L. Williams

Size: 11 gal
Efficiency: 64.0%
Attenuation: 75.0%
Calories: 213.01 kcal per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.064 (1.056 - 1.075) (Lagunitas = 1.059)
Terminal Gravity: 1.016 (1.010 - 1.018)
Color: 13.48 (6.0 - 15.0)
Alcohol: 6.29% (5.5% - 7.5%) (Lagunitas = 5.07%)
Bitterness: 48.1 (40.0 - 70.0) (Lagunitas = 45.6)

Ingredients:
15.12 lb Pale Ale Malt (It's what I have left)
9 lb American 2-row (I ran out of Pale Ale and regular 2-row was all that B3 had in stock)
2.0 lb White Wheat Malt
1.8 lb Munich Malt
1.2 lb Crystal Malt 60°L
2.75 lb Crystal 15
1 oz Vanguard (4.5%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min (I had it on hand so figured I'd use it)
.75 oz Magnum (14.4%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min
1.3 oz Glacier (6.0%) - added during boil, boiled 30 min (Supposed to be Wilamette, but B3 was out so I subbed Glacier)
1.0 oz Centennial (9.1%) - added during boil, boiled 30 min
1 ea Whirlfloc Tablets (Irish moss) - added during boil, boiled 10 min
2.0 tsp Yeast Nutrient (AKA Fermax) - added during boil, boiled 10 min
2.5 oz Cascade (7.8%) - added during boil, boiled 1 min
1.5 oz Cascade (5.5%) - added dry to primary fermenter
1.5 oz Centennial (10.0%) - added dry to primary fermenter
2.0 ea Wyeast 1968 London ESB

Notes
Mash temp 158-160 (Yup, that's high!)

Ferment temp: 66F for three days - slowly raise to 70F over the next 3-4 days

Results generated by BeerTools Pro 1.5.3