NorthWestAle & Swamp Thing

Brew Day 5/20/12

This was the first weekend of brewing the same wort to be used a total of 4 ways.

NorthWestAle-(American Amber Rye with Coffee)- The base wort is amber colored, pleasantly hoppy without being too bitter, with a nice balance of simplicity and depth that shouldn’t wear you out, and a bunch of rye malt to keep it interesting and bulk out the body while retaining a nice dryness. I late hopped with a big dose of Palisades, Willamettes, and Cascades to hopefully achieve a nice blend of peachy, earthy, and spicy hop flavors and fermented it with the Anchor Liberty Ale Yeast which I thought would be a nice choice given its reputation for clearing well and maintaining some malt character without being too sweet or estery. Then I “Dry Hopped” it with a huge dose of coffee grounds. A coffee beer that isn’t sweet, tight!

Swamp Thing-(Brown Ale fermented with Brett)- A super funky, tropical storm, fruit punch, pseudo sour Brett beer. Same mash and boil as the Coffee brew, except I pulled it out of the kettle onto  some spicy noble hops at flame out and then gave it a healthy pitch of White Lab’s Brettanomyces Lambicus. I thought Brett L would work the best with the amber wort (I would have gone with Brett B in a paler beer), and I was more interested in the “sour cherry” flavors attributed to Brett L in this beer than the all-out goat breath funk of Brett B (which I truly love, especially as a layer on top of otherwise clean and hoppy beers).   Also, because half of the batch was going to be funky and a bit sourish I kept the overall bitterness a bit lower than I would have wanted for the clean batch (sour and super bitter sounds a bit fatiguing). I plan on dry hopping it before bottling with a nice floral variety. It’ll get the dredges of my favorite sours as it develops, and hopefully in a year or so it’ll have a nice, mildly sour, wet, slightly sweet thing going on.

The Recipe (for 6 gal):                                     

10 lbs 2-Row Pale Malt-72%
2 lbs Rye Malt-14%
1 lb Special Roast-7%
1 lb Crystal 120L-7%

Whole batch got 1oz Nugget for 60min boil

NWA got 1oz each Palisade and Willamette for 15min boil
NWA got 2oz Cascade at F/O
Swamp Thing got 2oz German Select at F/O
Swamp Thing got 1.25oz of Amarillo/ Citra mix DH for 5 days

**I diverted 2.5 gal of wort into .5 gal ice water at F/O to bring the Swamp Thing to my target lower gravity and IBUs, and to be able to give different F/O hop dosages to each beer**

NWA got 1 vile of White Labs WLP051 “California Ale V”

Swamp Thing got 2 viles of White Labs WLP653 “Brettanomyces Lambicus”

Single infusion mash at 148F **I was aiming for 152F… Have to remember that the Igloo absorbs a few more degrees than my kettle.**
Batch OG (before splitting and adding water): 1.051=64% efficiency
NWA OG (3 gal after boil): 1.051 FG:-- 1.010= 5.4%ABV
Swamp Thing OG (after splitting wort and adding ~2l water): 1.048 FG:--
SRM: 16ish
IBUs: 37ish Swamp Thing, 55ish NWA

5/23- Took the Brett a day or so to get going, but it is looking strong. Krausen and all.

5/23- NWA is bubbling strong.

5/28- NWA has pretty much settled. SG1.095

5/28- Swamp Thing is still churning out bubbles every 15sec or so.

5/30- Added ~2oz fresh ground Coffee. Kelly picked it out. Smooth roast, low acidity. Will bottle
next weekend.

6/6- NWA SG 1.010

6/9- Bottled NWA @ 1.010. Primed with corn sugar for 2.4 vols CO2 (moderated carbonation) and used my CO2 gun to purge the bucket AND bottles.

6/9- Transfered Swamp Thing on to 1 12oz jar of "Tart Cherry Dark Candi Syrup" form the LHBS in my 3 gal glass carboy and topped it off with ~.5gal of Penny Biere. Harvested a jar of the Brett for later use. Fairly active bubbling from new candi sugars the next morning. SG at transfer 1.006.

7/18- Added ~1oz medium toast american oak chips that have been soaking in Chardonay for 2 weeks.

7/18- Dry hopped wuth ~1.25oz of Amarillo/ Citra mix that I had left over from Sunnyside. SG @ 1.004.

8/1- Bottled Swamp Thing; 2.9 gal with 1/4 cup Corn sugar. The idea is to go for a pretty low CO2 (2.0ish) vol with the priming sugar so that if the brett takes the beers any lower over an extended aging time in the bottle there will be some room for the extra gas without making bombs.

8/9- NWA is finally becoming drinkable. The coffee is strong!

8/27- Swamp Thing is fucking fantastic. I got lucky with this one.

2/19/13- Tasting 2 for Swamp Thing. 7 Months old and still grerat, although different.