The little changes..advice on refining your recipes

"Are we there yet? "
""Dad....?  are we there yet"
"how much longer"
"If you kids don't cool it, I'll turn this car around."

You have seen this scene a hundred times.   You have probably lived both sides of this scene too at some point in your life.   It is frustrating to be sure to be on a journey, to know your destination, to know what wonderful things are waiting for you, and to still be stuck on the journey.   So is the burden of travel with children, and so is the burden of home brew recipe design.

It takes time, and it takes multiple attempts.   Case in point our recent C4 hop explosion pale ale.  You remember, the attempt to make a super hoppy pale ale that is still balanced?   Well, we did it, it is awesome... almost.

Jake and MA working
on a batch of beer.
Or Jake next to a normal sized
human being

What do I mean by almost?   I mean, we are becoming fair, honest, critics of our own home brew efforts.   The C4 is outstanding.  Any of the team would proudly serve it to any of you, and we would take joy in your reaction.   I served it to the guys at the local home brew shop today.  Their reactions were gratifying, satisfying and mollifying.  They loved it, "don't change a thing", "this is excellent"  and "you did great champ!"   There is a certain pride in that, but that is not what I need.  I need a fierce critic.  Now, I am fortunate that one of my brewing partners, has an extraordinary pallet.  Now, I want to protect his privacy, so I'll just describe him for you,  he is 8' tall, and his initials are... Jake.   Jake can taste a beer and describe the flavors like an experienced sommelier describes fine wine.  I think that was a little embarrassing for him at first.  Using terms like, "fresh cut melon", and "a wine like bouquet"   But now he has embraced terms like "fresh citrus peel", and "musty earthy aroma"  I am fortunate that I am hundreds if not thousands of batches into this hobby.  So I can taste with the best of them as well.   I can work with my partners to truly identify areas for improvement. Not flaws mind you, just areas for improvement.  What do I mean by that?

You must examine the
beers that you make,
If you want to get better.

The C4 is flawless.  It wouldn't win a BJCP contest, it is way to hoppy.  But it would knock your socks off.  There is not a hint of off flavor or aroma.  It was carefully brewed, and carefully fermented in a temperature controlled environment.   We're not looking for flaws, were looking for areas of improvement. We're trying to make "ambrosia" not Amstel light.

So last night I set out to taste the C4 and be critical.  I approached it like I would a beer I was ranking on beeradvocate.com, I analyzed the beers appearance, aroma, mouth feel and taste.  Jake did the same.  And here is what we came up with, and how we will improve the beer in the next brewing.   It is our goal that C4 be the best pale ale we have ever drank.   And were almost there.

C4 Hop explosion Pale ale.  Analysis.

Appearance - Deep orange, crystal clear.  Can see my fingerprint magnified on the other side of the glass.  Small white head dissipates quickly, lacing lingers as beer is consumed.  Are we there yet?  No,  Color needs to be just a shade or two darker, this beer is a pale ale not an IPA.  Add darker malt.  4.25 / 5  Jake disagrees.  He likes the color.  So he gives it a 5 on the color. ( And after trying a couple more,  I think I now agree with Jake. It's not worth changing the malt profile to get a little more color.) 

Aroma - Strong Hop aroma, smells of pine, strongly of grapefruit, and lemons, there is a slight floral almost rose aroma. No off aromas detected at all. Are we there yet?  Yes,  Change nothing in the late hops, the aroma is outstanding.   5 / 5

Mouth feel -  moderate carbonation, should improve,  nice mouth feel, neither crisp nor viscous.  Just where you want it for a pale ale.  lingering sense of hops, almost creamy but not quite,  slight tongue sting, slight numbness from the hops.  Lots of fun. Are we there yet?  Yes, Mouth feel outstanding.  5/5 

Taste - Front end taste is bitter as you would expect, but the bitterness fades as you swallow and the beer moves to the back of your mouth/throat.  The bitterness is replaced by a gorgeous aftertaste of pine, grapefruit, citrus, a touch of spice, and floral flavors.   There is no middle pallet flavor to describe. In other words, this beer has a hole in the pallet.  No off flavors detected. Are we there yet?  No, but were damned close.   The beer needs a middle hop addition to reach its full potential.  Jake and I agree a spicy, smokey, middle hop would be most appropriate to create the correct flavors for an pale ale. We had great talks among the team last night and we all think a 20-30 minute Chinook addition would do the trick.  4.25 / 5

Overall the C4 hop explosion scored an 18.5 on my rating scale and a 19.25 on our team's overall rating scale. 19 or above we leave alone.  "Wait, what?  you have a system for analyzing your home brew?"  Sure, why? you don't? Wait a minutes, seriously, you don't have a rating scale?  Well get one.  C4 is an 19.25, it, therefore, is formally set as a team recipe, with only one change, that the entire team agrees upon.  The 20 -30 minute bittering addition.   Other than that, the recipe is ready to go.  And we will brew it over and over.

Here's the recipe: https://www.brewtoad.com/recipes/c4-pale-ale-hop-explosion-10-g-1abd7e

But there is always room for self analysis, there is always room for contemplation, and there is always room for improvement.   And there is always room for stealing from a successful recipe to make a new recipe!  So here is what we came up with for next time.  We're going to make a vairant of C4 Called "red rocket"  We're going to try to get a little more roast, and a  deep read color in the red rocket.  It will not be the same beer, but it will be dang close.   Here is how we will go about it.  If it works, and we love it, then we'll re examine.

• Appearance - Cap the mash with Carafa  3 or pale chocolate until the color we want is obtained.  Just add a little at a time until we get a slightly darker color. deeper than orange, but not brown.  If we could get brilliant red, I would certainly take it.  I know MA and Jake have the discipline to shoot for that.  I know John and I can provide the real time analysis and practical hard work to assist.
• Taste Add a middle hop addition of 1 ounce of Chinook at 25 minutes.   We want some of the spicy, almost smokey notes that Chinook provides.  if that doesn't work we'll add some Rye malt next time.

See we're making 2 changes, not one,  And with them we are creating a variant that we can compare to C4.   I know prevailing advice is change one thing at a time. Only one.  That is what the beer cannon guys say you must do.  And that is hogwash.  If you take the time to analyze your beer carefully, you can make more than one change at a time.  But if you find you are changing a whole bunch of things at once.  It is probably time to seek advice from a more experienced home brewer, or the friendly people at your LHBS.

So taste critically,  Evaluate the brew completely.  And then make one or two changes.  If you have persistent off flavors, evaluate your process and sanitation.   And finally, and I can not stress this enough.  Take copious notes.  Comprehensive, thorough, detailed notes.  You'll learn so much from theses notes.  And always ask your self,  "are we there yet".  

C4 Hop Explosion...American Pale Ale Hop Bursting Action Inside!

John came up with the perfect name for the APA that
features 4 "C" hops!

Pale Ale.  Good ol' pale ale.  The impetus of the craft brew revolution.  The craft brew that started it all, the craft brew that the muggles will actually drink.    I think we all love pale ale.  But you have to admit that pale ale has become a bit ordinary.  A bit too familiar.  So we here at counterbrew, your ever faithful servants, are here to update the common pale ale into the hop explosion that it can, and maybe should be.

Pale ale is an awesome background malt bill for hops.   The maltier wort and ever so slight roasty flavors create an interesting backdrop when balanced against the hops.   But beware, this is not the right background for 70-100 ibu IPA hops.   This is the right back ground for the "c" hops.   You remember the C hops.  Chinook, Cascade, Centennial, Citra. (and sometimes Columbus).

Before 5star pH stabilizer pH was 8.1
Due in part to the camden addition the night before.

So Saturday we set out to brew an American Pale Ale.  A "hop explosion" ,  But not an unbelievably bitter beer. A Beer with loads of late hop additions.   We were brewing 10 gallons.  But of course there was a problem with the keggle so we had to split the batch into 2 separate boils.    It was time for the counterbrew crew to understand why we are so committed to BIAB, and no sparge brewing.  So to aid in that understanding, and also because I get a maniacal pleasure out of it.    We did our first 3 vessel brewing session as a group.  John prepared the water the night before with camden.  If you're not using camden to knock the chorides out of your water, then you need to start.   John and Jake had the water heating when I arrived, and we did a simple water treatment.    We added 1 TBLSPN of 5.2 stabilizer for each 5 gallons.   For those of you who don't like 5 Star 5.2 pH stabilizer... get over it.

After 5 star 5.2 stabilizer the pH was 5.86

There has been an unsubstantiated trend on forums recently.  This trend is to say 5.2 stabilizer doesn't work.  Or 5 .2 makes beer salty (whoa there Poindexter, it's not even that kind of salt).   There is no science behind this trend, just a bunch of guys who feel like they are better brewers if they do things the hard way.   Here is a fact from brew day.   By the way, don't you dig Johns zooba shorts (KC Chiefs ) and black socks.

• pH after camden and before 5.2 =  8.1
• pH after 5 star pH stabilizer = 5.86
• pH of the mash was... pause for dramatic effect... 5.2. Right on the money!

All hands on deck for the dough in.  Mark Anthony and his brother Rob
Helped us get doughed in!  3 spoons makes quick work of dough in!

We put 21 lbs of grain into the mash tun, in a bag.  And we hit it with 167 F water.  Stirred to prevent dough balls and that was it.  Our initial temperature was a little high so we stirred.  Missing your initial temperature can lower your efficiency, and it did a little bit. (We only got 72.86% hoping for 75%  We could have added .25lbs of sugar or DME but we just rolled with it! ) We got it to 152 and let it sit for 90 minutes.  Then we drained it off and batch sparged.   We let our batch sparge for 15 minutes.  

spilit the boil

in the future the
keggle will rock!

Today we had to boil in 2 separate pots.  The keggel needs some new parts, a new high pressure hose, a new regulator, and a new 3/8th" flared orifice.   But soon, very soon we will be brewing with 150000 BTUs of banjo burner power again.  I for one cant wait.  This brew day was 5 hours long.  My crew now understand how long a 3 vessel brew day can take.  They now also understand the pros and cons of 3 vessel.  There are times when not having to mess with and monitor the temperature of your mash is a benefit.   A brew day where you need to bottle and do other brew house chores, for example.

Now, here comes the fun part.  The part you have all been waiting for... the hop schedule ( really the whole recipe).

Jake handling the hop bursting!
Bursting may be the trick you
are looking for!

C4 Hop Explosion Pale Ale
OG 1.052
FG  1.008
SRM 11
ABV 5.9%
Taste  - Citrus and lemon notes, with cedar, pine, floral, pepper, and green mellon.   freaking awesome!

16.5 lbs of pale ale malt (ask for RAHR PALE ALE)
2.5 lbs of biscuit malt
.75 lbs of caramel/crystal 80
.25 lbs of caramel/crystal 20
Mash at 152 for 90 minutes.
Sparge to volume
1 tsp of gypsum added mid boil
1.5  ounces of Chinook @ 60
1.5  ounces of Centennial @ 15
1.5  ounces of Cascade @  10
1.5 ounces of Citra @ 10
2    ounces of Centennial @ 5
2   ounces of Cascade added to the whirlpool at 190 to 180 degrees (hop bursting)
2   ounces of Citra added to the whirlpool at 190 to 180 degrees
2   ounces of Cascade dry hop for 4 to 5 days
2   ounces of Citra dry hop for 4 to 5 days
US 05 (2 packs) rehydrated in 1.035 wort during our brew day!

Jake setting the chamber to
64 F.  Yes, he is freakishly tall!

Chill to 185 F.  Then add the whirlpool hops, allow them to burst for 10 to 15 minutes then continue with the chill.   By the way sanitized silicone gloves are a great way to get all that hoppy goodness in your beer, if you, like us put your hops in a bag.

We are fermenting in temperature controlled fermentation chamber at 64 F.  So with endothermic heat the batch should rise to about 68 F.  Which is right where we want it.  With US05  if you ferment at 68F you will get very slight fruity esters.  They should compliment the beer perfectly.  If you ferment cooler, there are very few esters at all.  Its not as clean as K-97 but it is really clean.  Jake set the temp to 64 and now we wait.

But our wait wont be too long.  It's only a 1.050 beer.  The US 05 will chew through this batch in no time.   Should be adding dry hops in 10 days and packaging the beer in about 14 days.

UPDATE:

Tuesday night John reports fermentation was slowing down.   He turned the chamber temperature up to 66 F to help the yeast finish strong.  In about a week he will dry hop for a couple of days, fine with gelatin and cold crash.   This one should be ready after just 2 weeks.   We'll bottle and be ready to drink in another week.  Cant Wait.

Double Brew Sunday... All in the kitchen...

Yesterday was a big brew Sunday at my place.   It wasn't supposed to be all Sunday.   It was supposed to be Saturday and then Sunday.  But the kitchen faucet went kaput and replacing the faucet became like the struggle to re build the bridge over the river Kwai. (on a non brewing side note... who uses construction adhesive to hold down a sink faucet? who in their right mind thinks this is a good idea?)  After my sink faucet adventure brew day became Sunday.

First Brew a good ol extract Cream Ale.  I "mashed" corn and rice, 1 lb each, inspired by all of the recent posts regarding "Cream of Three Crops".   Brew day went smooth, till I realized my brew partner had the wort chiller.   Solution?   I went and bought some filtered ice, a 10 lb bag to be specific.   After brewing I sanitized everything, including the bag and poured the beer right on to the ice.   3 gallons of 190 F wort onto 1.18 gallons of ice.  Instant cool.   Well not instant but pretty quick.   Pitched US05 dry.  As of this am it isn't bubbling, but that is par for the course with US05.    Should be a good lawnmower beer.  I'm going to try to keep the fermentation cool, under 65.  Hoping it finishes clean and refreshing.

Second Brew,  A real partial mash American Pale Ale.   A frustration I have with on line forums is this... there is no control over recipe posting.  As a brewer who primarily brews partial mash brews it is very frustrating to log on line, search for a recipe and find "partial mash" recipes that are really just extract recipes written by someone who doesn't understand mashing, and who thinks that throwing more specialty grains into a recipe is the key to improving a beer.   To that end I am posting all of my PM recipes at Brewtoad.  just type in Real Partial Mash.  They will come up.  I think I have 9 or so of them posted so far.



The second brew was a blast.   I didn't want to use my big mash tun, so I went to Wallyworld and found 2, 2 gallon beverage Jugs on sale for $5.90 each.   Boom, you can mash up to 10 lbs of grain in 4 gallons.  And in reality they are a little bigger than 2 gallons, probably 2.25.  They worked like a charm, no modifications needed.  They are small enough to lift and move around, they lost no heat.   I'm not even going to add ball valves.  Although, I may add a lever lock valve to each of them.   I mashed 3.5 lbs of Maris Otter, 3.5 lbs of American 2 Row, and .5 lbs of Crystal 60.  After a 45 minute mash I vorloffed and batch sparged.  I collected about 4 gallons of wort.  Since I didn't have the wort chiller, I just did a partial boil.

The runnings were a beautiful deep orange color.  Add 2 lbs of DME and you have a 1.046 beer.  Not bad.  After boil about 1.056.  Hopped with Warrior, Cascade and Centennial.  Cooled just like above.   Aerated and pitched US05.



I did all of this in my kitchen.  In 6 hours, and you can too. I like all grain brewing.   I like extract brewing.   There are many many extracts that are great.   But extract always leaves me wanting more complexity in the taste, and all grain should really be called all day brewing.    I know you full time BIAB guys say that BIAB takes the same amount of time as a Partial Mash.  And I know, you're correct.  But I enjoy Partial Mash.  I know my results will be predictable.  Partial Mash rocks, and you can do it on your Countertop.

Let me know what you think, and if you have a recipe to convert, let me know.  I'd be happy to help.