SOBA NHC 2013 recipes

[Kelly Milligan]

Hey ya'll,

I recall there being another thread similar to this for last year's recipes, figured I'd get a 2013 version started! (hint hint Barb, give us some Joppa Stout love!)

Martin asked if I could share my "Smell the Roses" recipe :) Happy to! 

This is a rad summer beer. Sorry to say, but it uses pretty tough-to-get hops. This doesn't use any random ingredients as the name may suggest, just a name with a bit of a back story. I'm providing the ingredients in % (grains) and grams per litre + AA% + IBU's (hops) - I do double size batches so you can work it out for your system from there.

Session IPA - "Smell the Roses"

ABV: 5.2%

IBU: ~60 (Using Rager)

OG: 1.055

FG: 1.013 - 1.015

Water adjustment

My water is pretty soft, adjust this to your system. I've added gypsum and Acid Malt to achieve the appropriate mash PH.

0.3g/L Gypsum in mash water (aiming for about 250 ppm if I recall)

Fermentables

91% Golden Promise @ 6.3 EBC (I used Thomas Fawcett, but am also a big fan of Bairds)

5% Medium Crystal @ 153 EBC (Bairds)

3% Munich Malt @ 16 EBC (Weyermann)

1% Acid Malt (Weyermann)

Hops (kettle)
I'm using Simcoe to bitter as it gives a lovely smooth bittering. The Cascade is intended to be a "layering hop", with two rockstar hops like Simcoe and Amarillo, I needed something to sit quietly in the background and tie the hop profile together. 

1g/L Simcoe @ 12% @ 85mins (36.7 IBU)

1.25g/L Simcoe @ 12% @ 20mins (15.4 IBU)

2.5g/L US Cascade @ 6.2% @ 10mins (9.5 IBU)

1.25g/L Amarillo @ 8.5% 0 mins (probably a few extra IBU's from this addition)

Other additions

0.1g/L White Labs Yeast Nutrient @ 10mins

1x White Labs Servomyces Capsule per 20L @ 10mins (Make that yeast happy for gods sake!)

~1g/L Koppafloc @ 10mins

Hops (dry)

From what I've learned over time, dry hopping is all about surface contact with the beer (duh..). I don't have a conical fermenter so can't rouse my dry hops using CO2. Instead, I split the dry hopping out like this to get multiple instances of the hops "falling through" the beer before settling on the bottom. I also do it across a temperature range to try get different characters out of each dry hop. This could all be hearsay, so by all means do what you think works best for your system. The "days" refers to how many days before kegging or racking the beer. You can see I have it at crashing temp for that last addition.

0.65g/L Simcoe & 0.65g/L Amarillo @ 7 days @ ~20c

0.65g/L Simcoe & 0.65g/L Amarillo @ 5 days @ ~10-17c

0.65g/L Simcoe & 0.65g/L Amarillo @ 3 days @ ~1-5c

Yeast

White Labs WLP007 - This strain has been a favourite of mine for some time.. It has great attenuative properties (70-80%), and ferments very clean like an American Strain, but just seems to give the beer something a little bit special.. 

I grew up this vial over the course of a week, stepping a starter up to about 450b cells for ~40L. This is a bit of an overpitch. It was a very happy chappy when it went into the beer!

Process

Mash at 67-68c for 60mins

Boil for 90mins

Chill wort to 17C & oxygenate well before pitching yeast

Raise temperature to 19c over first 36-48 hours

Raise temperature to 21c over next 5 days

Fermenation will finish quickly with WLP007 (she's a beast), allow the yeast to clean up for at least a week before crashing and transferring.

Start your dry hopping after 1 week of fermentation. 

WLP007 Drops clear well, so you probably don't need to Gelatin this. Feel free to if you want it super clear, but that hop haze will prevent you from getting it brilliant. 

Carbonate to 2.3 - 2.6 volumes depending on your preference

Drink in volume in the sun, with a BBQ burning, music cranking and laughter abounding.

OK, I think that's pretty much it! feel free to ask any questions you may have. 

CHEERS!

K

[Tilt]

Congrats Matt,  6 medals from 6 entered, not bad for an amateur ;).

How about your thoughts on brewing a good IPA?  Its a hotly contested and  tough category and the average score always sits at a very middling level so there's probably plenty who could learn from your extensive experimentation in the category.

[Matt Smith]

I find IPA's really difficult, I've never made one that I was super pumped with. I have much more success with darker hoppy beer's like Amber's and American browns. Probably a PH issue, so perhaps that's one of the key's to good IPAs.

As far as brewing techniques go, they are much the same as what I mentioned below re. hoppy American Beers. I listen to a ton of the pro-brewers interview segments on the brewing network sunday session, and take bits of information from all over the place that stand out to me and my brewing style. Paying particular attention to people like Matt Brynildson and Vinnie Chilurzo.

My "standard operating procedures" for IPAs are:

-Simple grist, 4% max crystal, no darker than 40L usually a bit of Munich for some malt complexity and some carapils mostly out of habit.

-Mash around 66, I like dry IPAs

-Fresh hops!
-3 hop varieties max, I don't trust myself to come up with a blend above 3 that isn't muddled in flavour. This is something I hope to improve on.
-Obviously plenty of late hopping. around 2.5gpl at 10mins, and about 5gpl at flame out.
-Steep flame out hops for 20 mins, then cool rapidly.
-Always make a starter or re-pitch
-Ferment cool, around 18 for 48 hours, then raise 1 degree per day until 21, then hold. This insures a clean fermentation, and efficient cleanup of diacetyl and acetyldehyde. 21 is also a good dry hopping temp
-Dry hops in two 3 day doses. About 6gpl total. I put the first in once krausen has dropped. Matt Brynildson recommends dry hopping when the beer is 1 plato (4sg) from final gravity, however I almost always still have a ton of krausen floating on top at hat point and feel like I'd be wasting hops dumping them on a pile of yeast. Instead I wait, and purge the headspace before and after dry hopping to minimize oxygen.
-Crash cool to 0 for 3 days, keg with finings, drink after 7 days.

[Jamie McQuillan]

Congratulations. I hope to be able to sample some of you beers in the near future. Such an awesome prize. 

What yeast did you use for your Saison and why do you think you were getting the phenols? Too warm, low pitch rate? I am thinking of using Wyeasts French Saison rather than the Belgian. 

[Matt Smith]

Thanks! Can't wait to get down there and brew.

I used French Saison. I think the issue was with tannins and hop astringency clashing with the yeast character and coming across as harsh. The beer was super pale, super dry, really low gravity and was also dry hopped. My wort out of the mash was a little hazy so I think I had PH issues. All of this sticks out plenty in a beer like this.

I don't think it was an issue with warmth or pitch rates. I did the classic Belgian fermentation start at 20 and let rise to 24. I'm brewing this again soon without dry hops, and with some Dingemans Armatic to beef up the malt a little, and with about 3% Acid malt to be sure that the PH is correct. Curious to see if it fixes it, I'll report back. I'm thinking of brewing it for the NHC prize, so fingers crossed!

[Adam Sparks]

Good choice Matt, there aren't enough pacific styIe saisons on the market! I reckon a hefty flameout addition is all you need when working with 3711, dry hops just take away from the yeast and change the character too much. plus you never know where that yeast will end up, a few points one way and your left with something out of balance

[Matt Smith]

Cheers for the tip. I'm planning to split my next batch between 3711 and the Ardennes strain. Not exactly a Saison yeast, but really versatile and I think it would make a good low gravity "farmhouse style" beer. We'll see anyhow. Also keen to try the White Labs Saison blend.

[Crusader-Rob]

nice Mat! Good marks all around.
A quick question for those of you who have posted your recipes (in particular those american and NZ Pale ales/IPA's) what sort of Volumes of CO2 did you carb to? I'm not kegging yet, but my main comments given were that hop vibrancy/and intensity weren't there for my APA and some of the american beers.
Kelly? Matt? Alex?

[Matt Smith]

I usually target 2.5 volumes in the keg for American Ales. For this competition I bumped this up to about 2.7 knowing that I would lose a little when filling bottles from the kegs.

I have wondered about the keg/bottle conditioned thing myself. I may be wrong, but I think the immediate disadvantage for bottle conditioned hoppy beers is the 2 weeks or so spent warm in the bottle before it is cooled down. Whilst two weeks isn't a huge amount of time, temperature is an enemy of hop freshness. When your kegging, you are able to chill immediately after dry hopping and force carb. Even if you are bottling from the keg, your able to permanently maintain cold temps, which locks in hop freshness. Another bonus of kegging is that you always have access to Co2 for purging oxygen during transfers, dry hopping etc, this helps to minimize oxidation, another enemy of hop freshness

Something else Ive noticed recently, is the massive inconsistency in hop freshness from some homebrew shops. I've started paying almost twice as much to buy hops only in nitro flushed packs so that I can be sure they are fresh.  When you open the bag, the aroma should leap out at you, it should be dank, fresh, pungent, should be green and feel reasonably soft and sticky. If the aroma doesn't jump out at you, it smells cheesy, or is starting to develop a yellow tinge, then its probably not best to use in a hop forward beer.

Some other quick tips:

-Sulphates to between 100 and 350ppm. I target the lower end because I'm afraid of overdoing it.
-Steep flame out hops for at least 15 mins, chill quickly afterwards.
-Reserve dry hops until yeast has dropped out, yeast cells suck up hop oils.
-Dry hop in multiple, shorter doses (as in Kellys recipe, also see Richard Deeble's great article on his champion NZPA from last year)
-Ensure a good rolling boil
-A good clean fermentation helps. Aerate your wort well, use nutrients, ensure good pitching rates, ferment on the cooler side and raise temps at the end to clean things up
-When planning for comps, brew hoppy beers last to ensure they are fresh. For example, my American brown was only 1 week in the keg when I bottled it for the comp, the APA and IPA were 2 weeks old.

[Peter Smith]

Can you tell us you use gelatine in the final bit do you just stir in 48hrs before moving to keg?

[Matt Smith]

I add to the empty keg before racking on top of the keg. Works great if you don't need to move your keg.  Either way would work though.

[Peter Smith]

So you just leave it in there while drinking from keg?  or rack off agin 48hrs later?

[Matt Smith]

Most of it gets poured off in the first pour which will be super murky. There will always be a thin layer left on the bottom where the dip tube doesn't reach, but as long as you don't need to move the keg it doesn't effect things. Fining in the carboy and racking clear beer to the keg is probably more ideal, I just do it this way because its what I've always done and its quick and easy.