MattFancy Posted August 4, 2014 Share Posted August 4, 2014 Picked up Beer Camp this year. Its going to be awesome. Was looking for that the other day. Hoping to find some around here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grego Posted August 4, 2014 Share Posted August 4, 2014 No problem. I don't have a particular recommendation for a wort chiller, I made mine with copper tubing from home depot. You don't save too much money by building one these days, so you might as well buy one. You make want to pick up a few extra pipe clamps to make sure you get a very good seal where the copper piping connects to the plastic tubing. So, my dad thinks that he dry hopped the beer at the wrong time. I'm fuzzy on the details, but that's his basic explanation. I asked if he followed a specific recipe for this IPA, and he said no- he just got the basic ingredients and went from there, which seems to be the wrong way to do it. (I'm a littke surprised he could tell it was ruined, since it tasted basically like all his other beer.) I'd like to do it step by step following a tried and true recipe. Do you have any good, foolproof IPA recipes you could share? Btw, he did give me his "home brew for dummies book" which I'm reading. He doesn't seem to follow all if it's advice, strangely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HBnotBlades Posted August 4, 2014 Share Posted August 4, 2014 I'd like to do it step by step following a tried and true recipe. Do you have any good, foolproof IPA recipes you could share? I'll put together a good recipe/step-by-step guide for you later this afternoon or tomorrow morning. I'm in and out of meetings until about 4 today and am committed to a yummy beer event tonight, so I'm a bit short on free time, but I won't be complaining about all the delicious sours I get to drink tonight. Anyway, I have one main question. Are you interested in an extract or an all-grain recipe? You might want to try extract at first to simplify the process before moving on to mashing, but I could give a recipe for either one. If you start with extract you can focus on sanitation, the boil, hop additions, and cooling without worrying about what can be a complicated mashing process. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HooHog Posted August 4, 2014 Share Posted August 4, 2014 Brewed an Imperial Blonde yesterday. Everything went pretty smoothly so I'm optimistic it should turn out pretty tasty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grego Posted August 4, 2014 Share Posted August 4, 2014 I'll put together a good recipe/step-by-step guide for you later this afternoon or tomorrow morning. I'm in and out of meetings until about 4 today and am committed to a yummy beer event tonight, so I'm a bit short on free time, but I won't be complaining about all the delicious sours I get to drink tonight. Anyway, I have one main question. Are you interested in an extract or an all-grain recipe? You might want to try extract at first to simplify the process before moving on to mashing, but I could give a recipe for either one. If you start with extract you can focus on sanitation, the boil, hop additions, and cooling without worrying about what can be a complicated mashing process. i think the extract is the way he does it, so that sounds good. no rush on the recipe- i wont be starting anything til this weekend at the earliest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DButz65 Posted August 5, 2014 Share Posted August 5, 2014 (edited) Since the pumpkin beers will be out soon..... Whats everyone's favorite? Mine is...shipyard pumpkinhead (sorry dfitzo lol) Has the best overall pumkin flavor of any out there IMHO and Ive tried many lol I love pumpkin anything Edited August 5, 2014 by DButz65 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoCalMike Posted August 5, 2014 Share Posted August 5, 2014 If you like Shipyard's Pumpkinhead, you seriously need to try this... It's more expensive, but it is worth every penny. It is almost on my "Must buy" list every time the pumpkin beers start rolling out every season! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dfitzo53 Posted August 5, 2014 Share Posted August 5, 2014 (edited) I say this as someone who loves pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, etc. I've never had a pumpkin beer that I liked all that much. I haven't tried many, but the ones I've tried were from solid breweries. Heavy Seas and maybe Sam Adams or something along those lines. Maybe I'm just not trying the right ones, but I've never been excited by them. I'll give them another chance this year. Edit: Also, I know it's stylish to post pics of what you're talking about (and often helpful) but it would be awesome if you guys could also type the names of the beers/breweries for those of us who have images blocked by various filters. Edited August 5, 2014 by dfitzo53 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d0ublestr0ker0ll Posted August 5, 2014 Share Posted August 5, 2014 With all the hoopla surrounding Flying Dog Dead Rise, it's easy to forget how friggin' good their pumpkin ale is. THAT might be their best common beer. Called "The Fear". That beer tends to be released relatively late...like mid-September. Sam Adams Octoberfest should be out any second now. My three favorite pumpkin ales are the Southern Tier Pumking, the Schlafly Pumpkin Ale, and Flying Dog The Fear. All three have massive flavors and bodies, and taste a hell of a lot like pumpkin pie. The Fear is a dark beer, black as night, and the other two are a thick hazy copper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bacon Posted August 5, 2014 Share Posted August 5, 2014 I got this big quart of beer the other day called Mississippi Mud Black and Tan. Cost me $3.50 and actually is somewhat competent. I'd take it over any widely distributed beer and the price was definitely right. From what I can tell, I got a really good deal with that price. More expensive was a $10 bottle of Anderson Valley Bourbon Barrel Stout. It was outstanding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoCalMike Posted August 5, 2014 Share Posted August 5, 2014 Southern Tier's Pumking is on my beer bucket list. Unfortunately they don't have distribution out here and the only way to get some is to pay a ridiculous markup using those beer trading websites. I have a friend who lives in PA, and next time I make it out to the East Coast the first thing I am doing is drinking one. There is also another version of Pumking, I think it is a darker version. Heard great things about that too. Sam Adam's octoberfest is indeed in stores out here already. The pic I posted was of Shipyard's Smashed Pumpkin. It's is their seasonal premium pumpkin beer. They also have an even more expensive version that is brewed in a bourbon barrel but I am not sure if that one ever makes it all the way out to CA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DButz65 Posted August 5, 2014 Share Posted August 5, 2014 If you like Shipyard's Pumpkinhead, you seriously need to try this... It's more expensive, but it is worth every penny. It is almost on my "Must buy" list every time the pumpkin beers start rolling out every season! Have never seen that on shelves, but have only had the regular pumpkin on tap, will look for it With all the hoopla surrounding Flying Dog Dead Rise, it's easy to forget how friggin' good their pumpkin ale is. THAT might be their best common beer. Called "The Fear". That beer tends to be released relatively late...like mid-September. Sam Adams Octoberfest should be out any second now. My three favorite pumpkin ales are the Southern Tier Pumking, the Schlafly Pumpkin Ale, and Flying Dog The Fear. All three have massive flavors and bodies, and taste a hell of a lot like pumpkin pie. The Fear is a dark beer, black as night, and the other two are a thick hazy copper. Oktoberfest is in our warehouse look for it soon lol New Belgiums fall beer is out too, forget the name of it, have never tried it. I have tried Southern Tier Pumking on tap , wasnt impressed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattFancy Posted August 5, 2014 Share Posted August 5, 2014 Flying Dog Brewery Tour this weekend Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d0ublestr0ker0ll Posted August 5, 2014 Share Posted August 5, 2014 I have tried Southern Tier Pumking on tap , wasnt impressed I'd like to know what, then, impresses you. Lol. That's the most pumpkin pie-ish beer I've ever had. Trying to hunt down other elite pumpkin beers, but that's been my fave for years now. Remember kids, the Sam Adams Octoberfest is the most popular fall beer in the world, but it's actually pretty damn good too. I'd take it over a lot of other Marzens. One of the thickest bodied Marzens I've had is the Sam Adams. Paulaner Oktoberfest is still my fave. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattFancy Posted August 5, 2014 Share Posted August 5, 2014 Schlafly's Pumpkin Ale is the best pumpkin beer I've had Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dfitzo53 Posted August 5, 2014 Share Posted August 5, 2014 Alright, I'm going to make it a point to try at least two of these this year and see if they can change my mind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d0ublestr0ker0ll Posted August 5, 2014 Share Posted August 5, 2014 (edited) Schlafly's Pumpkin Ale is the best pumpkin beer I've had Yeah, it's pretty much neck and neck for me between the Schlafly and Southern Tier. They're so much alike. Only had one session with the Schlafly, it was a couple years ago, hope I can find it this year. Edited August 5, 2014 by d0ublestr0ker0ll Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wolfdevil484 Posted August 8, 2014 Share Posted August 8, 2014 The Dogfish Head Punkin is what got me started on pumpkin beers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HBnotBlades Posted August 8, 2014 Share Posted August 8, 2014 i think the extract is the way he does it, so that sounds good. no rush on the recipe- i wont be starting anything til this weekend at the earliest. OK Grego! I finally got some time to write out a solid IPA recipe. A quick background, I started brewing about 6 or 7 years ago because the hoppy beers I was drinking in Vermont were unlike any others I had tasted before and I wanted to be able to make beers like that if/when I moved away. The IPAs up here are light in color, fairly dry, balanced in terms of bitterness, but bursting with floral and citrus flavors. The dryness helps the hops pop and makes the finished product feel crisp and drinkable. Some examples that I loved were The Alchemist's Focal Banger and Heady Topper, Hill Farmstead's Susan, Abner and Edward, and Lawson's Double Sunshine. So that's what I'll shot for in this recipe: not overly bitter, plenty of up front citrus and pine, a dry finish, and a nice orange hue. Grain Bill 7.5 lbs of extra light dry extract 0.5 lbs of cara-pils (dextrine) 0.5 lbs of corn sugar (dextrose) I'll keep the grain bill fairly simple. Liquid malt extract always produces beers that are darker than intended, so I'd suggest using the dry extract. The goal here is to use extra light extract to produce a nice light colored wort and use the cara-pils to add a little color, body, and head retention. The corn sugar will dry the beer out a bit and bring the abv to around 7%. This is a simple and clean malt bill that will be Hop Bill 60 Minute Additions (start of boil) 2 oz magnum 10 Minute Additions 1 oz Amarillo 1 oz Cascade 5 Minute Additions 1 oz Amarillo 1 oz Cascade 0 Minute Additions 1 oz Amarillo 1 oz Cascade Dry Hop 1 oz Amarillo 1 oz Cascade We're going to keep the hop bill pretty consistent. Magnum at the start of the boil to get a nice clean bittering profile, then all the other additions late in the boil for significantly fragrant citrusy and floral notes. Amarillo has a strong orange like flavor and Cascade is pine-y and grapefruit-y, they work pretty well together. The key to making these flavors really pop is to cool the wort down as quickly as possible. Myrcene is the essential hop oil that provides Amarillo and Cascade their signature flavor and it happens to be very volatile. Unlike the alpha acids that provide bitterness and are quite soluble (the stay in the beer), myrcene will boil off at temps above 147 and will come out of suspension as the beer sits over time. This means two things for us, (1) the wort has to cool down as quickly as possible once the boil is over. All the essential hop oils have been extracted at high temperatures, but they're also rapidly boiling off, hence, why wort chillers are SO important to make a good IPA. The volatility of hop oils also tell us that (2) hoppy beers should be consumed fresh. The longer the beer sits, the more myrcene (and humulene, caryophellene, etc.) falls out of suspension. So the key to those wonderful floral, citrus, and pine flavors are (1) late hope additions, and (2) quick cooling. If you do both of those things you'll be in very good shape. NOTE: It may be worth picking up some hop bags to add hops with. If you don't have a system with a built in straining method this can help keep down the amount of hop particles in your beer, you'll also loose a lot less beer to the "hop mush" that forms. This is a lot more important in IPAs than in other beers that use significantly less hops. Fermentation Once the wort is cool (at or below 70F) give it a good shake to get as much oxygen in it as you can. It's practically impossible to shake it too much at this point. Then, pitch the yeast and the wort officially becomes beer. I'd suggest a yeast like Safale US-05. It comes in dry packets, if you buy two of them you can just dump them into the wort with no other prep, it will be nice at clean at temps around 70F, it has high attenuation (leaves little remaining sugar), and produces low levels of diacetyl. It doesn't have great flocculation, but I don't like these beers to be perfectly clear anyway. Try to keep the beer in a room where the temperature is in the mid 60s, that would make fermentation temps peak at around 70 which should be perfect for the yeast. After about 1.5-2 weeks you should be done with primary fermentation and you could either transfer to a secondary to dry hop, or do it right in the primary fermentor. Bottling One tip that I always use for bottling is to transfer the beer to your bottling bucket, see how much beer you have (once it's no longer on the trub at the bottom of the fermentor), then calculate how much sugar you should add to the sugar solution. Sometimes brewers will guess how much beer will end up in the bottling bucket and add the sugar solution first before racking the beer on top of it. If they lose more beer to trub/hops at the bottom of the fermentor than they estimated, they'll end up with an over carbonated beer. Just make sure to gently, but thoroughly stir in the sugar solution so the carbonation will be consistent. Shoot for about 2.2 or 2.3 volumes of CO2, Northern Brewer provides this handy calculator. OK! That should do it, but feel free to shoot me more questions if you have them. There are a lot of interactions and little things to keep track of while brewing making it impossible to cover them all in one post, but I tried to lay out the things that are critical for making a good IPA. You should definitely consult John Palmer's How to Brew for more details. Some of the info in there is a little outdated, but the entire first edition is posted for free online and it's a great resource. I attatched the brew sheet for this beer if you're interested in looking at it, you can ignore the parts about "measured gravity", "actual abv", and the mash profile because those are just default settings. Amarillo&CascadeIPA.pdf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grego Posted August 8, 2014 Share Posted August 8, 2014 thanks, HB. that sounds awesome. think i may be brewing this weekend. i'll let you know how it goes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enforcer_FFX Posted August 8, 2014 Share Posted August 8, 2014 THAT might be their best common beer. Called "The Fear". That beer tends to be released relatively late...like mid-September. YES! The Fear is one of my favorites in the pumpkin world, heck, actually in general. Well worth trying! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twa Posted August 9, 2014 Share Posted August 9, 2014 Alright, I'm going to make it a point to try at least two of these this year and see if they can change my mind. I had severe reservations about pumpkin beer, it is pretty tasty though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skinsfan1311 Posted August 9, 2014 Share Posted August 9, 2014 Since the pumpkin beers will be out soon..... Whats everyone's favorite? Mine is...shipyard pumpkinhead (sorry dfitzo lol) Has the best overall pumkin flavor of any out there IMHO and Ive tried many lol I love pumpkin anything It has everything that I don't care for in a beer, high malt content, spices like ginger, clove, etc, but somehow, it works, and works well. Heavy Seas Great'ER Pumpkin. It's bourbon barrel-aged. So you get a very nice bourbon aroma when you drink it. It's sold in bombers and I stock up when it comes out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d0ublestr0ker0ll Posted August 9, 2014 Share Posted August 9, 2014 It has everything that I don't care for in a beer, high malt content, spices like ginger, clove, etc, but somehow, it works, and works well. Heavy Seas Great'ER Pumpkin. It's bourbon barrel-aged. So you get a very nice bourbon aroma when you drink it. It's sold in bombers and I stock up when it comes out. I haven't had the Great'r or Great Pumpkin in a couple years. Last year I was obsessed with researching Octoberfest styles. Passed up on all the pumpkin beers besides the Southern Tier and Flying Dog. Schalfly wasn't in stock anywhere. What I remember was that I enjoyed the regular Great Pumpkin more. Which took me off guard because I was hyped about the Great'r. The difference was that the Great'r tasted more like BEER. Lol. I LOOK for beers with ginger and clove laced big-time in there. I want a liquid pumkin pie with a touch of beer. I HAVE to get the Dogfish Head Punkin Ale this year. I may have gotten a bad batch last time. Had it twice in my life...last time I was disappointed, and I'm easily won over. It just lacked a pungent pumpkin flavor. Gotta get it again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abdcskins Posted August 9, 2014 Share Posted August 9, 2014 Longboard Island Lager and Golden Ale are really good. My new favorite beers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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