Late Night Adventures with Homebrew

I know I've mentioned I do too much, but this one felt like taking it to an extreme. Since there weren't enough hours in the day, my last brew started at around midnight to help Mike with his first batch. It was a traditional American Amber, based on the recipe from Brew Your Own's The 10 Easiest Beer Styles' Outback Amber Ale. Instead of the Crystal 135° L, we picked up ¾ lbs of Special B. The resulting tastiness was a pretty traditional amber, but what really threw me was the grassy flavor at the end; turns out the Chinook hops carried some herbal notes that neither of us were expecting, but it's grown on us both.

The recipe, if you care to check it out, can be found on Brewtoad under the name Amber After Midnight. I generally keep all my recipes. here, so if you're interested, feel free to browse around. I also recommend the site in general; while it's somewhat young feature-wise, I have reason to believe that as it goes forward it will begin to gain some maturity and further adoption.

All that said, the brewing bug has really taken hold of me as of late. The next batch I make is planned to take advantage of some Mosaic hops I picked up during our supply run for the amber. We looked to find a good way to compliment it, and it turns out a brettanomyces yeast can do some very fun, funky things, so I intend to play a bit.

The initial five-gallon boil (though if I can't get the gear, I might have to do a partial boil) will first use a steep of Crystal 40° L and Victory malts, then a boil with an additional 6.5 lbs of dry malt extract. The Mosaic is going to be late hopped for all 2 oz - 0.5 oz at 30 minutes remaining, 15 minutes remaining, 5 minutes remaining, and then 5 minutes during a flame-out whirlpool.

Once the boil is done, this is where it gets tricky. The 5 gallon batch (whether a full boil or partial topped off with water) will be split off into a 3-gallon carboy and two 1-gallon carboys. The 3-gallon carboy and one of the 1-gallon carboys will get a traditional California Ale yeast (WLP001); the other 1-gallon carboy will get Brettanomyces Bruxellensis Trois (WLP644).

I expect the 3-gallon batch to fly - probably a 4-8 day fermentation, assuming it's in the basement at about 68° F. We'll bottle that right away, then sit to bottle carbonate for a good 2-3 weeks. Flavor profiles on this should be focused on the Mosaic hops - grapefruit and peach, perhaps, though I've seen reports of a ton of different flavor profiles from this single hop build. Regardless, I'm certain the hops will shine through. Estimated ABV is 5.5% - 6.0%. Estimated yield is 30 12-oz bottles.

The 1-gallon batch with the WLP001 is going to finish equally quickly, and then we'll pitch a non-started pack of the WLP644 for a secondary start. At this point it will get moved to a 70° F to let it get more of the funk aromas. From the preliminary research I've done, this is a mixed-fermentation wherein the brett will overtake the existing yeast and push it far past the point that the WLP001 could take it. I would expect another 2 weeks, finishing between 6.5% AND 7.5% ABV with a yield of approximately 10 bottles.

The 100% brett batch I expect to start slow and take approximately 2-3 weeks, if not a bit longer, assuming it's sitting at 70° F for the full duration. Flavors on this are likely to be all over the place - fruity for sure, with a more robust funk than the mixed batch. By not taking it too warm and keeping the aeration low for the whole process, the resulting flavors and aromas will be a relatively straightforward fruitiness with a hint of funk, as opposed to the heavy funk levels triggered by higher temperatures.

The one thing to keep in mind is that I need to do the starter for the WLP644 early - as much as 10 days early so we've got a good culture to work with. Since it's only a 1-gallon batch, I actually don't expect this to be critical, but always better safe than sorry.

I'll be sure to report back in once the batches are started; I'm anxious to get there, and I'm sure it'll be happening soon.