Pinus Ananus Comosus IPA
Recipe: Cold IPA. Malts: Canadian Pilsner, Flaked Corn, Carapils. Hops: Columbus (0.5oz), Sabro (4oz), Cryo-pop (2oz). Yeast: Imperial L17. BJCP Style: 21B. Specialty IPA.
I’m not big on IPAs, especially the newer style IPAs that resemble pulped orange juice. Cold IPA, however, is a fantastic expression of the style: American pilsner and adjunct malts fermented with clean lager yeasts, combining to make a super clean canvas to let hops fully express themselves. I cooled and racked this beer directly onto an Imperial L17 harvest yeast cake that fermented my previous helles lager. At 64C it took no time at all to ferment. My planning for this beer wasn’t phenomenal, but the end result was a wonderfully drinkable 6% IPA with a strong dank and pine/cedar hop aroma that leads to a pine and pineapple finish.
Reclaim the grain - in breads
An overview of using spent grains from brewing in breads, resulting characteristics imparted, and an example recipe.
Deciding what to do with 5-6 kg of spent grains after a brewday is a bit of a problem. As I don’t want to encourage nearby mice/rats to make our house a home, I’ve been in the habit of bagging and freezing those grains, then leaving it out on the street on recycling day. Though I forget most weekends and the grains keep piling up. I ran out of space a couple months ago and since then have built a habit of incorporating those grains back into my baking. While I can’t use the whole 6 kg, I can repurpose about 10-15% of it back in my breads. It contributes a nutty flavour and chewy texture, turning simple white loaf recipes into hearty looking and tasting breads.
Gemütlichkeit Helles
Recipe: Munich Helles Lager. Malts: German Pilsner, Munich, Carapils. Hops: Hallertau (1.5oz). Yeast: Imperial L17. BJCP Style: 4A. Munich Helles.
I forgot how much I love lagers. Like an idiot it’s been close to a year since I’ve made my last one. As penance I brewed a classic Munich Helles, and a super simple one at that. I love this style: nice malty flavours, perfume-y nose, and just enough bitterness to make me want to drink five. This particular beer was supposed to come in around 1.047 to ensure an abv of more than 5%, however I completely forgot that I only get around 70% efficiency with pilsner malt. No matter though as the yeast fermented the wort down to 1.008 and I still hit my 5%. The finished beer reminds of Budweiser, in a good way, with more German character.
Milk Loaf
A richly soft bread loaf made with milk, egg, sugar, and oil.
This is a simple milk loaf, made with milk, egg, sugar, butter, and oil. It is rich, fluffy, and creamy. I made a loaf out of this one, but these work great as dinner rolls as well. If you’re going for the Instagram look, brush the loaf with egg prior to putting in the oven to brown.
AvgBrü American Amber Ale
Recipe: American Amber Ale. Malts: Marris Otter, Munich, Crystal 60L, Chocolate. Hops: Columbus, Amarillo (2oz) and Centennial (2oz). Yeast: Imperial Kaiser. BJCP Style: 19A. American Amber Ale.
This quarter’s AvgBrü recipe from the Brulosophy homebrew club intrigued me: an American Amber Ale. I haven’t even seen an amber ale in over a decade, let alone brewed one. It’s been so long in fact that it feels like a new style. The recipe guidelines called for a mix of American or British malts, British yeast, and traditional American hops including amarillo, centennial, and cascade. I came up with the below recipe and fit the hop schedule to a process that works best on my Grainfather setup.
Cheesy Bread Loaf
Recipe: Cheesy Bread. Ingredients: White flour, butter, olive oil, cheddar.
This loaf is a replacement for a ham and cheese pull-apart from a local bakery my kids love. I’ve been making this loaf as an accompaniment to “slop” recipes like chili and soups. I’ve made variations of this style of stuffed bread over the years but was never thrilled with the results until I stumbled across a genius fold technique wherein the dough is stuffed, rolled, then cut in half and braided. This technique allows the cheese to spread and ooze throughout the loaf instead of being confined to a tight swirl inside the loaf.
Britannia Mine Mill #1 - Canadian IPA
Recipe: Canadian IPA. Malts: Maris Otter, Carastan, Carapils. Hops: Fuggles (4oz), Goldings (2oz), and Willamette (2oz). Yeast: Foggy London Ale. BJCP Style: 12C. English IPA.
I chaperoned my daughter’s 5th grade field trip to the Britannia Mine museum recently. The entire time I couldn’t help but wonder what all these guys drank after a shift or on weekends. What types of beer did they have access to? What types of beer were even popular at the time? Unfortunately beer drinking didn’t feature prominently in the exhibits, so I’m left to making broad assumptions based on research. According to a Beer Advocate article, at the turn of the 20th century IPA accounted for 74 percent of the beer being produced in Canada. Digging deep into the characteristics of these beers would be fun but time consuming and I’ll save for a later date. For the time being I feel like brewing something relatively to style, that I want to drink, and that captures the feeling of cracking open 3 or 4 much needed IPAs after finishing a long-ass day in a mine.
Knockoff Oatmeal Breakfast Stout
Recipe: Oatmeal Stout with Coffee and Cocao. Malts: Pale malt (2-row), Roasted barley, Chocolate malt, Carafa Special II. Hops: Columbus (0.5oz), Willamette (1oz). Yeast: Imperial Kaiser. BJCP Style: 16B. Oatmeal Stout.
This oatmeal stout is inspired by some of the Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout recipes out there. Despite that, this is not a KBS clone recipe, and isn’t really meant to be. I wanted this beer to be smaller in alcohol and have a nice coffee/chocolate balance. Unfortunately the coffee overpowers any chocolate notes from the cacao nibs. While still a good beer it lacks nuance and complexity that a winter warmer like this should have. In the next iteration I intend to find those flavour complexities with increased alcohol, bourbon, and oak.
The BruSho Altbier
Recipe: German Altbier. Malts: Pilsner, Munich, Carapils, Maramunich III, Carafa I. Hops: Saaz, Czech (3oz) and Hersbrucker (0.75oz). Yeast: Imperial Kaiser. BJCP Style: 2B. Altbier.
I stole this recipe from a recent BruSho episode. I was a little reluctant to brew it since commercially I haven’t found many examples of an altbier I liked. This particular recipe is solid though and makes a perfect fall or winter style beer. I fermented with Kaiser at 70F which is 10F warmer than recommended, and it definitely threw some esters. Because of that, the beer is less cleanly lager-like and something between an altbier and an english brown ale. Despite that I prefer this beer to other english brown ales and brown porters I’ve done in the past and I now have a couple of ideas to make those beers better. As for this beer, I’ll probably make changes to better suite my palate, which is to say cleaner with less caramel.
Prison Juice Cider
Recipe: Dry Cider. Fermentables: SunRype Apple Juice. Yeast: SafCider. BJCP Style: C1A. Common Cider.
This was my introduction to brewing ciders and this recipe is basically prison juice. SunRype apple juice, yeast, and nutrient: that’s it. My brew day took about 15 minutes. It was so short I almost felt guilty. Despite the simplicity, the product is super drinkable and my wife seems to like it. It also makes for an interesting canvas to play with fruit and other additives. I’d like to make it a regular brew and keep playing with different fruit, hop, and spice flavors.