Recently in Home Brewing Category

After three weeks of glorious fermentation, I transferred Barlennan, my homebrewed Scotch Ale/Wee Heavy, to two secondary fermenters. Fermentation appeared to be vigorous and healthy, like a conquistador who drank from the fountain of youth (sorry, I read a silly thriller whilst cooped up in lockdown and I'm a little loopy right now). After an intense battery of tests and measurements, my initial readings were pleasantly surprising in that I achieved a pretty high attenuation ferment. Of course, by "intense battery of tests" I mean that I splashed some beer on my refractometer and quickly eyeballed the measurement, a process that is far from rigorous and has undoubtedly yielded wildly inaccurate results. I'm the worst!

Final gravity was approximately 12.1 Brix, which roughly translates to 1.022. Given the OG of 1.096, this leaves us with 76% attenuation and about 9.6% ABV. This is well over the normal range for the Wyeast 1728 Scottish Ale yeast (which is 69% - 73%), but I'm wondering if the relatively high ambient temperatures kept the fermentation going stronger than I usually maintain (I typically don't brew during the warmer months due to temperature control issues, but this seemed to work out fine). The beer certainly smelled great, tons of rich, caramelized malt and a very nice fruity note that comes across well. Supposedly higher fermentation temps result in more esters from the yeast, which could be part of that fruity character.

I mentioned before that I'd been soaking the oak cubes in Aberlour A'Bunadh for about three years or so. The resulting scotch wasn't particularly great (it had a sorta grainy, bitter astringency, and it tasted like burning), so I dumped it (sad!) and got myself a fresh bottle of Aberlour 16 and did a quick rinse of the cubes with a small amount of scotch (about 60 ml). I went with Aberlour for a couple of reasons. One, it's not an Islay Scotch, so no one will be wondering who put their cigar out in my beer. And two, it's at least partially finished in sherry barrels, which I think could be a harmonious combination of flavors.

While transferring the beer to secondary, I split the batch into two, one getting the oak cubes (and I dumped the 60ml of scotch in there while I was at it - no sense wasting that precious, pricey juice) and the other I left alone. As with previous oak aged experiments, I plan to let this one sit 3-4 weeks and bottle some of the regular, some of the oak-aged, and some of a blend of the two. I may also court perilous levels of extremity by making up a few bottles of fortified beer, adding some Scotch until a given bottle reaches some ridiculous ABV. Or maybe I'll dump a bunch into a keg and see what happens. Time and assorted levels of laziness will tell.

As an aside, have I mentioned how much the PLCB sucks? Since Covid-19, all of the liquor stores in Pennsylvania have been closed. Over the last month or so, they've slowly been reopening for curbside pickup (and now, I believe, they're starting to actually open up stores again). I gave it a shot, but I called a couple of local stores approximately 20 times over the course of a few days and always got a busy signal. Instead of continuing with that mess, I just went to TotalWine in Delaware and grabbed a bottle (for what I assume is a cheaper price than PA would have). I think I'm done with the PA state stores. Anywho, I'll check back in in a few weeks when it's time to bottle (or maybe Keg)

According to my voluminous records, it's been over two years since my last batch of homebrew, so I've officially lost any and all superpowers conferred by the home brewing fraternity of zythophilia. I could list out some excuses, but it ultimately comes down to having an excess buildup of world class beer in my house already. Alright, fine, I should probably just admit that it's sheer laziness, but I do, in fact, have a lot of beer in my house.

Anywho, now that I'm in lockdown, I thought it might be a good time to reignite that homebrewing flame and make the Scotch Ale I've been threatening to brew for nigh on 4 years now. It will join Trystero and Bomb & Grapnel in my little series of oak-aged homebrew experiments (using a similar process that will result in some base beer, an oaked version, and a blend). Let's get into it:

Beer #20: Wee Heavy/Scotch Ale - Barlennan
Full-Batch (5 gallons)
May 19, 2020

0.5 lb. English Medium Crystal Malt (specialty grain)
0.375 lb. Belgian Biscuit Malt (specialty grain)
0.125 lb. English Roasted Barley Malt (specialty grain)
12 lb. Gold Malt Syrup (LME)
1 oz. German Northern Brewer Hops (bittering @ 8 AA)
Wyeast 1728 Scottish Ale Yeast (1 smack pack + starter)

I originally wanted to do an even simpler recipe, but my preferred homebrew shop is far away and their Scotch Ale kit had peated malt in it (this isn't an actual historical thing, but for some reason a lot of recipes call for it), so I just ordered this Northern Brewer kit that seemed pretty close to what I was going to do anyway. My initial version had a little less in the way of specialty malts, but the kit is still pretty simple stuff. Mostly just a base malt with some specialty grains for flavor, a single hop addition for bitterness (historically, Scottish ales are not known for pronounced hop character owing to the fact that they had to import their hops from *groan* England). Simple ingredients, but I'm going to do some decidedly non-simple stuff for the rest of the process.

It's a high-ish gravity brew, so I did a yeast starter using some old Bavarian Wheat DME that I had laying around (this is not what I mean when I say non-simple - I just should mention it). It had solidified into a brick, so I had to soak it in some warm water first to dissolve it, but the general yeast starter recipe (3 parts water, 1 part malt) worked well enough, and resulted in a reasonable 600ish ml starter. The Northern Brewer kit came with two Wyeast smack packs, so I used one for the starter, and just saved the other to pitch at the same time as the starter. I did the starter on Saturday and brew day was on Tuesday (probably should have been Monday, but no big whoop).

The only real deviation from standard brewing practices here is that I followed the apparently infamous skotrat technique that he developed for a Traquair House Ale Clone (incidentally, that's probably my favorite Scotch Ale that's actually from Scotland that I've had). Basically, the technique has you removing a small portion of the wort and giving it a really hard boil to caramelize it. He says to reduce two gallons down to a pint, but that recipe is for a much larger batch. Also, my readily available cookware for this is limited and I didn't feel like spelunking through my basement to find something bigger, so my portion was more like 1.5 quarts reduced down to about a cup (maybe a cup and a half, I didn't measure it). It was noticeably darker than the base brew, so hopefully it got some good caramelization on it that will come through in the finished product. Honestly, this might be something I want to do for all of my high gravity stuff, but let's not get too far ahead of ourselves.

As mentioned above, after about two weeks or so, I'll rack to secondary, splitting the batch into two 2.5 Gallon fermenters, one of which will get oak cubes that have been soaking in Aberlour for about 3 years (remember when I said I've been planning this beer for four years?) At bottling time, I'm going to split this up into three different bottlings. One with the base, one with the oaked version, and one with a blend of the two. Depending on how I feel, I may also do something like a fortified beer, adding enough Scotch to a couple bottles to bring the ABV up to about 20% ABV.

Hopefully, all these little tweaks to the process will make up for my continued engagement with extract brewing.

OG: ~23 Brix = 1.096.

This is a little higher than the original target OG of around 1.083, but I'm fine with the higher gravity because I want this to be a big, chewy, oak aged monster of a beer. That said, assuming something like 70% attenuation, I'll get about 9% ABV out of this (FG of around 1.027), which should be a good base for the oak aging. One concern with the fermentation right now is that the ambient temps in my house are hovering around 70° F, which is pretty much the max temp for this yeast. Fortunately, we're having a cool spring, so I should be able to keep it slightly lower for these critical first few days (update: I've been able to maintain an average of 69° during the most active periods of fermentation - nice.)

As for the name of the beer, in accordance with my other high gravity brews, I've selected an appropriately nerdy (and obscure) reference from science fiction literature: Barlennan. If you already know what I'm talking about, we are probably kindred spirits of some kind. If not, well, it's from a 1954 Hal Clement novel called Mission of Gravity. That review was from almost exactly three years ago, and when that character's name showed up in that book I thought it would be an exceptional name for a beer, mostly just because "Barl" is also the base for barley, but also the notion of "high gravity" fits with the events of the book (I suppose we're talking about different concepts, but still). I'm glad I'm finally able to make this beer. Hopefully it will live up to the years of hype. It's bubbling away happily right now, so we're certainly on-track... stay tuned!

The Session, a.k.a. Beer Blogging Friday, is an opportunity once a month for beer bloggers from around the world to get together and write from their own unique perspective on a single topic. Each month, a different beer blogger hosts the Session, chooses a topic and creates a round-up listing all of the participants, along with a short pithy critique of each entry. You can find more information on The Session on Brookston Beer Bulletin.

This time around Jon Abernathy wants to talk homebrewing: "the good, the bad, your experiences, ideas, (mis)conceptions, or whatever else suits you, as long as it starts the conversation!" That sounds good, so I'm just going to talk about each of those things, though not necessarily in that order. I know, that probably doesn't make sense to you, but you'll get it in a minute, I promise. Wait, where are you going? Stahp!

My Experiences: I've been homebrewing for, huh, 7 years? But that's incredibly misleading, as I don't brew very often, and I think I've only made something like two batches in the past two years. However, I did just keg an Northeast IPA, which should be ready for the SuperBowl (go Iggles), so there is that. Also, I'm pretty basic with my setup, still doing extract brewing. I've played around with oak aging and even Brett once, to mixed results. Basically, I have an idea of what homebrewing is all about, but I'm far from an expert.

The Good: One of the reasons I started home brewing is that I spend most of my time working in a virtual world. Everything I produce for my job is digital in nature, and most of my home projects are also digital, so I really appreciated the idea of making something out here in meatspace. And when I manage to make a great batch of homebrew, it tastes so much better. Plus, getting familiar with the process of making beer is a great way to learn about beer, and you start to understand how various aspects of the process impact even beer you didn't make. Finally, I really enjoy huffing empty hop packets.

The Bad: Well, I've managed to make some rather lackluster batches, and, well, having five gallons of a lackluster beer sitting around isn't the most exciting thing in the world. One of the good things about having made a decent batch is that you get to share with friends and family... but when you make a bad batch? Nope! This is all compounded by the fact that it's pretty rare that I drink the same beer over and over again. I mean, I'm getting better at drinking beers I've had before without thinking of it as a moral failure, but I'm still a novelty whore at heart, so drinking lot of the same beer, even when it's decent, can still get me down. In addition, my eyes are bigger than my liver, so I almost always have way too much beer on hand at any given time, and homebrew only adds to that.

Ideas: I like the experimentation that a lot of homebrewers engage in, and I've done a little of that, like making an Earl Grey Bitter. I haven't quite cracked the oak aging process, but my last attempt, a barleywine I calle Trystero did turn out pretty good (though I did have some issues with carbonation). My next batch of beer will include some oak aging, this time using oak cubes soaked in Aberlour A'Bunadh Scotch. As with my previous oak aging batches, I plan on splitting the batch in secondary, with some aging on oak, some not, and then when I get to bottling, do some plain, some oak aged, and some blend of the two. Then! I'm going to do few bottles of what I'll call "fortified beer", meaning that I'll add some more straight Scotch to a small proportion of beer, bringing the ABV up to 15-20%. Could be a disaster, but hey, it's worth trying, right? Whatever, I'm doing it anyway.

Misconceptions: I hope you are very patient and that you like cleaning things a lot, because you'll need both of those things.

I'm really glad that I've played around with homebrewing and would definitely recommend the experience for anyone interested in learning more about beer. Or drinking a lot of the same thing. Whichever.

It's been over a year since my last brewing escapade, so let's change that, shall we? First up is a quickie variant of Crom Approved, my Northeast IPA that I keep screwing up. Some differences in malt/hopping mean I should probably call this something different. Also, I'm guessing that Crom did not approve of my previous batches. Anywho, here's the nerdy details:

Beer #16: Untitled Conan Project
Full-Batch (5 gallons)
January 14, 2018

16 oz. CaraPils (specialty grain)
7 lb. Breiss Extra Light DME
1 lb. Breiss Wheat DME
8 oz. Turbinado Sugar
1 oz. Simcoe (bittering @13.6 AA)
1 oz. Amarillo (flavor)
1 oz. Amarillo (aroma)
1 oz. Citra (aroma)
1 oz. Citra (first addition dry hop)
1 oz. Galaxy (first addition dry hop
2 oz. Citra (second addition dry hop)
GigaYeast GY054 Vermont IPA Yeast

(Some malt not pictured, click to embiggen)

Very similar to previous batches. More CaraPils, no crystal 20, a little extra base malt, and some minor tweaks to the hopping. Moar Citra, less Amarillo. The all-important Vermont IPA yeast is the key to the recipe though, and I think I got a good pitch this time.

Original Gravity: 18.8 Brix, which runs about 1.079, higher than I was aiming for, but should result in something around 7.5%-8.5% ABV depending on how well the yeast does (I probably should have done a starter for this, but we'll see how it turns out).

I originally wanted this to be a bit toned down from the past couple of batches, but I must have done something wrong in my recipe app, as I ended up using too much malt, which is what brought the OG up. Still, this should wind up in the 8% area, and the higher Alpha Acid Simcoe hops actually yielded more IBUs this time, so I should be in decent shape there.

Activity started in the airlock almost right away, so I think I'm in decent shape here. If all goes well, dry hopping commences next week, and then I put this sucker in a keg on the weekend of 1/27... Fingers crossed.

As for the name, I'm not sure. This recipe has mutated enough from its initial batch that it warrants a new name. Current candidates include The Riddle of Steel, something about The Atlantean (i.e. Conan's Sword), or some sort of play on one of Robert E. Howard's Conan story titles (i.e. Rogues in the Hops, The Hops of the Dragon, The Hops in the Bowl, Hops of Gwahlur, etc...) Funnily enough, the "Untitled Conan Project" name that I chose as a placeholder is actually growing on me. It's the sort of thing you saw on Jason Mamoa's IMDB page, like 5 years ago or whenever they were making that movie.

Up next on the homebrew front is that Scotch Ale/Wee Heavy I've been threatening for a while now. This will be another split batch, with some oak aged, and some not. Or maybe I'll just oak it all. I'm hoping to get to this in relatively short order too (though obviously the oak aging takes a few extra weeks).

I have been woefully neglectful of my homebrewing hobby, but it's no use crying over spilled milk and there's no time like the present, so let's get this show back on the road. Enough idioms for you? Good, let's get to it:

Beer #18: Kaedrin Christmas Ale
Full-Batch (5 gallons)
November 28, 2016

1 lb. Crystal 40 (specialty grain)
2 oz. Roasted Barley (specialty grain)
3.3 lb. Golden Light LME
4 lb. Amber DME
1 lb. Golden Light DME
1 oz. Comet (Bittering @ 9.3% AA)
1 oz. Hallertau Hops (Flavor)
1 tsp Irish Moss
1 tsp Fresh Orange Peel
1/4 tsp Ground Nutmeg
1/4 tsp Coriander
2 Cinnamon Sticks
3 Whole Cloves
Wyeast 1272 - American Ale II Yeast

(Click to Embiggen)

So this is basically the same recipe as Beer #6, brewed way back in 2011. Most of the differences stem from availability rather than any sort of meaningful consideration. That original batch turned out fantastic and may be my overall favorite batch of homebrew, so I didn't want to change much. I'm cutting it a little close in terms of timing this year (started about 3 weeks earlier back then), but it should be ready to go by Christmas, which will be good enough for me.

No changes to the steeping grains. I added one extra pound of Amber DME because I thought I was a little under target last time (as it turns out, I probably wasn't). I am using Comet hops instead of Northern Brewer, mostly because the homebrew shop didn't have the latter and the former has a comparable (slightly higher) Alpha Acid percentage (which, since I'm using more malt, should work out). I'm using fresh orange peel (I peeled it off an orange myself!) because I forgot to get the bitter orange peel when I was shopping and fresh is probably better anyway, amirite? Finally, I went with American Ale II yeast this time, again because homebrew shop had just ran out of regular 1056 American Ale yeast (which is actually pretty surprising).

Original Gravity: 1.072. Hoo boy, I miscalculated something with this beer (target was 1.060, I'm guessing the use of LME is screwing up my normal calculations). Refractometer readings were 17.5-18 Brix. That being said, assuming 75% attenuation, this puts the beer at about 7.3% ABV, which should be fine by me.

I have high hopes for this. I loved the original beer, but I haven't really attempted to make the same beer very often, and this one has more variables than normal. Regardless, I'm sure I'll end up enjoying this stuff.

Up next, I've been meaning to do a Scotch Ale aged on oak cubes (that are currently soaking in Aberlour A'Bunadh) for a while, so that's certainly a candidate. Crom Approved might be up for another at bat soon as well. And I also want to do a funky saison, brewed mostly with Brett. Will I get to all of these this year? Probably not! But I'll give it a shot.

I've been woefully neglectful of my homebrewing hobby of late, and recently decided that I must rebrew my recent failed IPA. As you probably do not recall, I made an IPA using copious amounts of my favorite hops and fermented with the infamous Conan yeast (aka Vermont Ale yeast), then dry hopped with more of my favorite hops. It turned out fantastic, but when I kegged it, I was a little careless and allowed too much dry hop sediment into the keg, which clogged the whole thing up. I tried to salvage the beer by transferring to another keg, but that only served to oxidize the whole thing and basically ruin the batch. Which is a terrible shame, because the limited amout of the stuff I got to try when fresh was fantastic and exactly what I was going for. I mean, perhaps not Heady Topper good, but in the same league as the Alchemist, Hill Farmstead, and Tired Hands IPAs that I love so much. Drinking the oxidized remnants was a major disappointment, so I thought I should do something I almost never do and rebrew the original recipe. For posterity, here it is, in all it's glory:

Beer #16: Crom Approved Double IPA
Full-Batch (5 gallons)
November 28, 2015

12 oz. CaraPils (specialty grain)
8 oz. Crystal 20 (specialty grain)
6 lb. Muntons Extra Light DME
1 lb. Muntons Wheat DME
8 oz. Turbinado Sugar
1 oz. Simcoe (bittering @11.1 AA)
1 oz. Amarillo (flavor)
1 oz. Amarillo (aroma)
1 oz. Citra (aroma)
1 oz. Citra (first addition dry hop)
1 oz. Galaxy (first addition dry hop
1 oz. Amarillo (second addition dry hop)
1 oz. Citra (second addition dry hop)
GigaYeast GY054 Vermont IPA Yeast

(Click to embiggen)

This is basically identical to the previous batch. Minor differences include the fact that the Simcoe hops I procured for the bittering addition were slightly lower in alpha acids, but that only resulted in a dip of about 2 IBUs, which I judge to be fine. Indeed, the original goal with this brew was to produce something light and aromatic, not something punishingly bitter. Also, my turbinado sugar addition was slightly different this time due to the fact that I did not have as much in the pantry as I thought, so I had to compensate with a bottle of liquid sugar that I had laying around. I'm pretty sure I got that amount right, but my guess is that there's slightly less simple sugar added in this batch. Otherwise, the recipe is the same, and the key component is really the Conan yeast.

As with the last batch, the target is an aromatic 8% ABV Double IPA with attenuation in the 75-80% range (maybe slightly less). The specialty grains and wheat addition will provide a nice malt backbone and platform for the hops, while not being too bitter. IBUs are targeted for slightly less than 50, which is a little low for the BJCP guidelines, but I'm shooting for that newfangled juicy, bright, and citrusy IPA rather than the old school dank and bitter IPA.

Original Gravity: 17.1 Bx, or 1.071, which is slightly lower than the target 1.074. This is not at all troubling since the last batch attenuated higher than expected and got us to something higher than 8%. This batch might hit closer to that target, assuming the yeast does its work.

Once again, I have high hopes for this batch, though I am cautiously optimistic. The last batch turned out great, but I will admit the fermentation of this batch started slow. I brewed this on Saturday, and the airlock was essentially inactive until Monday. It's bubbling away now, which is heartening, but now that I think about it, I did have the yeast in the fridge for a while, and perhaps it was not as viable as the last batch. Fingers crossed! Dry hopping will commence after this weekend, and this sucker will be kegged by 12/13. It will be a nice Christmas present, I think.

Next up? I'm not sure. I was thinking about making a small batch of wild ale (not sure what exactly I'll patter that after, but I'm looking at a full Brett/bacteria fermentation, rather than my previous mixed fermentation approach), but I've also been planning a Scotch Ale (which will, of course, be partially aged on bourbon soaked oak cubes). Only time will tell. Since both of those are time intensive, I might even get to brewing them sooner rather than later, even though they won't be ready for a few months (at which time, I'm sure the keg will be clear of Crom Approved!) At this point, I'm leaning towards Scotch Ale, because we're heading into winter, and that boozy, malty style is probably better suited for the season... We shall see. In the meantime, may Crom bless my current batch of beer. I'm sure the god of steel would appreciate such a brew!

(Cross Posted to Kaedrin Weblog)

My Crom-approved, Conan yeast DIPA (tentatively titled The Enigma of Steel) has been happily fermenting away for about two weeks now, and it's been dry hopped for the past week or so. In previous batches, I only dry hopped with 1 or 2 ounces, but this time, I went with two additions of 2 ounces, because why not? Can't have enough aroma, I say. So here's what I used:

1 oz. Citra (first addition, about 8 days)
1 oz. Galaxy (first addition, about 8 days)
1 oz. Citra (second addition, about 3 days)
1 oz. Amarillo (second addition, about 3 days)

That Galaxy smelled absolutely fantastic, and makes me want to do a down under IPA of some sort (incorporating stuff like Motueka and Riwaka, maybe Nelson Sauvin). Anywho, kegging will commence in the next couple days, and I'm really looking forward to this sucker. The fermenter itself smells rather awesome. Cannot wait.

Update 3/26/15: And it's in the keg! It smells absolutely amazing. All sorts of juicy tropical fruits, just a little floral character, pretty much exactly what I was going for. Now I just need to force carbonate it. This is going to be so great. The little sample in the picture below is a bit on the turbid side because all the sediment is coming out of the keg right now, but it has a nice light color and will look great once the yeast settles and gets expelled...

Final Gravity: 9 Bx, which translates to 1.012 and about 8.1% ABV. This is definitely a higher attenuation than I was expecting (somewhere around 83%), but it seems to be working out well enough. The bitterness in what I sampled seemed pretty light (exactly what I wanted), so the high attenuation actually matches my strategy well.

Trying to decide what my next batch will be. I was originally thinking about some sort of summer saison, but I might be able to squeeze something in before it gets warmer out...

Update 3/29/15: It appears that my zeal in dry hopping and lack of vigilance in transferring the beef from the fermenter to the keg means that too much hop sediment made its way into the keg and have now clogged up the dip tube (i.e. the tube thingy that the beer goes through on its way to the tap). This is most distressing! I tried letting it sit a couple of days, I tried agitating the keg a bit, and I even tried throwing the CO2 line in through the out connector (i.e. shooting CO2 down the dip tube), but it's still clogged. I was really hoping to get this resolved without having to crack open the keg, but that seems unlikely at this point. I'm pretty sure I'm going to lose some aroma when I release the pressure, and I want to avoid doing that as much as possible. I actually grabbed another keg, and will be racking the beer from the clogged keg to the new one, being extra careful while transferring to ensure no sediment makes its way through (will probably use one of those mesh strainer bags over the end of the racking cane to minimize debris). Lesson learned!

Around this time of the year, I'm normally brewing up a batch of Fat Weekend IPA, a beer brewed for a specific gathering of portly individuals from across the country. Well, it looks like Fat Weekend will be scaled down a bit this year due to an inability to align schedules. A quorum of chubby friends will be traveling to New York, but we'll be spending most of our time at bars or restaurants, so no brew needed.

But just because it's not strictly needed doesn't mean I shouldn't make anything, right? I've actually been woefully inactive on the homebrewing front. My last brew, a barleywine that I ended up calling Trystero, turned out ok, though it never carbonated in the bottle and I had to dump it into a keg, where I was able to force that carbonation, at which point it was rather great. Well, it's kicked and I need something else to put in there, so here goes nothing.

I started from the base Fat Weekend IPA recipe and amped it up a bit, now hitting DIPA territory (though still on the lower end of that scale):

Beer #16: Double IPA
Full-Batch (5 gallons)
March 7, 2015

12 oz. CaraPils (specialty grain)
8 oz. Crystal 20 (specialty grain)
6 lb. Muntons Extra Light DME
1 lb. Muntons Wheat DME
8 oz. Turbinado Sugar
1 oz. Simcoe (bittering @12.3 AA)
1 oz. Amarillo (flavor)
1 oz. Amarillo (aroma)
1 oz. Citra (aroma)
1 oz. Amarillo (dry hop)
1 oz. Citra (dry hop)
GigaYeast GY054 Vermont IPA Yeast

(Click to embiggen)

Several tweaks to the Fat Weekend IPA recipe are worth mentioning. First, the inclusion of wheat in the grain bill. Nothing fancy, just a pound of basic wheat DME (which is actually only 55% wheat). So this isn't going to be a white IPA or anything, but it will hopefully soften things up a little and provide a nice platform for the hops. Second, the hop schedule is tweaked a bit as well. Last year's brew turned out a bit too bitter, so I'm just sticking with 1 ounce of Simcoe this year. As with last year, Amarillo pulls flavoring duty and a blend of Amarillo and Citra will serve as the aroma and dry hop additions. I may actually grab some more hops for that dry hop addition, depending on what's available and when I can get to the shop...

Finally, the biggest change of all, the use of GigaYeast GY054 Vermont IPA Yeast. This is the infamous "Conan" strain of yeast that is used in Heady Topper (and seems similar to the yeast used by other Vermont heroes as well), and is finally available to homebrewers (albeit in limited, hard to find quantities). The general description sounds perfect. It's a mostly clean fermenting yeast that yields some slightly fruity, citrusy esters that are "amazing with aromatic hops" (like, hopefully, Amarillo and Citra). There are a few reasons I think Heady Topper enjoys the popularity it has, and one of the major ones is the yeast. The yeast costs a little more than your typical Wyeast smack pack, but it seems worth the stretch.

So the target here is an aromatic 8% ABV Double IPA. With attenuation in the 75-80% range, it won't be too thin, and with the adjustment to bittering hops, it shouldn't be too bitter. One of the things I've noticed from drinking so many Tired Hands IPAs is that they tend to be on the lower range of bitterness. Anecdotal observations indicate that their IPAs rarely exceed 60 IBUs (for reference, last year's IPA was somewhere on the order of 90-100 IBUs). This year's should be around 50 IBUs, which is actually a little lower than the style guidelines (which has a minimum of 60 for a DIPA). I'm hoping this will come out to be bright and citrusy rather than bitter and dank.

Original Gravity: 17.8 Bx, or 1.074 (exactly on target).

I have high hopes for this batch. It should be ready to drink right around the time my little break from beer ends, which is good timing. Up next, I'm thinking an easy drinking summer saison. Perhaps something of the more funky variety (I have some ideas about that, having learned from my previous attempt). All in good time. For now, I'm just trying to figure out what to call this batch. Going with the Conan theme, I was thinking Crom, but that might be too simplistic. "The Enigma of Steel" sounds like something Tired Hands would brew, a not entirely unwarranted comparison. Or perhaps I could combine the two and call it Crom: The Engima of Steel. But that sounds too ornate. This will bear some deep thought.

(Cross posted on Kaedrin Weblog)