Rockies Brew » Homebrew

The Opening of the Smoked Chili Pale Ale

Radd Icenoggle — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 01:56:40 +0000

It has been long time since I have homebrewed, and even, longer since I tasted a good homebrew. Tonight, I opened a bottle of my Smoked Chili Pale Ale. It is nice to hear that carbonation sound as the cap pulled away from the bottle. It was made with Cascade hops that I picked last autumn. It has a very grapefruit quality and a sharp hop bite. This quality should mellow with more aging. The recipe can be found in this blog entry.

Smoked Chili Pale Ale Particulars

5.5% ABV
Smoked, pale, and crystal 40 malts and flaked oats
Cascade hops
Smoked jalapeños added to wort.

Smoked Chili Pale Ale Notes

Appearance: Poured a deep amber with very fluffy white head (thanks to the oats). The head retention is ridiculous.

Aroma: Lots of grapefruit and pine resin.

Mouthfeel: I wish the carbonation level was a tad higher

Taste: Some classic Cascade flavors here: grapefruit and resin. There is a slight pepper bite. The smoke is hardly noticeable.

Overall: I always love my homebrew, so for me to make an honest evaluation is impossible. But hell, I like my homebrew.

Smoked Chili Pale Ale

Radd Icenoggle — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 04:02:17 +0000

Finally, after a long hiatus, I am finally back to brewing. I just went to the combo “garden” and homebrew shop in downtown Missoula, and picked up some interesting ingredients and winged it.

Fermentables
3 lbs. – Dry Light Malt Extract
0.25 lbs. - Smoked Pale Malt
1 lbs. – Northwest Pale Malt
1 lbs. - 40L Crystal
0.5 lbs. – Oat Flakes

Hops
4.0 oz. – Wild Montana ~4% AA at 60 Minutes
2 oz. – Cascade ~6% AA at 20 minutes
2 oz. – Cascade ~6% AA at 2 minutes

Yeast
Wyeast American Ale

4 chipotle chilis *UPDATE*

Steep all grains for 30 minutes at ~150 F	Add in the 3 lbs. of dry light malt extract
Hops in the wort	Everything in the fermenter
Now the waiting begins

Hop Harvest 2010

Radd Icenoggle — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 16:00:00 +0000

I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to go harvest hops from a friends place. He had two varieties, Mount Hood and Willamette. Mount Hood is mild, clean aroma, and is mostly used as a finishing hop. Willamette hops have a mild, spicy, grassy, floral aroma that is perfect for British style ales.

I wanted 4 pounds of fresh pounds, which in theory would produce roughly 1 pound of dried hops. These hops will be used in a project beer of mine, Montana Ale. All of the ingredients in the beer will come from the great state of Montana. Now, I realize how much work it takes to pick 4 pounds of hops. Thankfully, Dave had some homebrew on tap, which always makes work go more quickly.

After harvesting, I brought the hops home in grocery bags. The hops were placed on four trays in the food dehydrator. The aromas of hops filled my house for the entire night. I felt like I was using hops as cologne.

After drying for the better part of a full 24 hours. The hops were not crispy, but rather, they were dry, yet pliable. They were placed into freezer bags and into the ice box they went.

Sticky Sweet Maple Honey Porter

Radd Icenoggle — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 17:30:49 +0000

Today I brewed a recipe of my own devices, a Sticky Sweet Maple Honey Porter. The intent of this was to have big porter with sweet tones of coffee, maple, and floral tones from the Fuggles hops and honey. In what follows is the recipes, images from the brew day, and the brew particulars.

Fermentables
7 lbs. – Dark Malt Extract Syrup
1.5 lbs. - Honey
1.25 lbs. – Maple Syrup
1 lbs. - Rye Malt
1 lbs. – American Black Patent

Hops
1.0 oz. – Fuggles 4.6% AA
0.5 oz. – Fuggles 4.6% AA
0.5 oz. – Fuggles 4.6% AA

Yeast
White Labs Irish Ale (WLP004)

Steep black patent and rye for 30 minutes at ~155 F

Add dark malt extract and 1oz of Fuggles hops. Bring up to a boil.

Add honey and 0.5 oz. of Fuggles hops at 15 minutes.

Add maple syrup and the remaining 0.5 oz. of hops at 2 minutes.

Original Gravity1.078	Final Gravity1.022	Color21° SRM(Brown to Dark Brown)
Bitterness4.6 HBU14.5 IBU	Alcohol7.5% A.B.V.5.8% A.B.W.	Calories259 per 12 oz.

Postscript: The fermentation is healthy to say the least.

HOP to It – (Honey-Oat-Pale)

Radd Icenoggle — Tue, 19 May 2009 21:51:06 +0000

Today, I fired up the propane burner and brewed up a new beer, the HOP to IT. It’s an experimental pale ale with flaked oats and honey. The oats should add a creamy mouth feel and the honey will lend it’s floral elements to the fermentation. The recipe particulars are below.

malt and fermentables

%	LB	Malt or Fermentable	ppg	°L
70%	7	Pale Liquid Extract	36	0
20%	2	Honey	35	1
10%	1	Oats, Flaked	37	1

Original Gravity: 1.070
(1.062 to 1.073)
Final Gravity: 1.022
(1.020 to 1.024)
Color: 1° SRM; (Clear to Light Yellow)
Mash Efficiency: 75%

hops

use	time	oz	variety	form	aa
Boil	60 mins	1.75	Chinook	leaf	13.0
Boil	15 mins	0.25	Chinook	leaf	13.0

Bitterness: 22.7 HBU; 54.1 IBU; ƒ: Average
BU:GU: 0.77

yeast

ale yeast in liquid form with high flocculation

Alcohol: 6.4% A.B.V.; 4.9% A.B.W.
Calories: 232 per 12 oz.

Brewing Dandelion Wine or is it mead?

Radd Icenoggle — Mon, 18 May 2009 18:39:26 +0000

Today we made a leap of faith…making dandelion wine. This beverage is a traditional springtime preparation. The recipe I had called for sugar – plain, old suger – and I hate fermentation with just sugar, so I replaced it with organic honey. Is it now dandelion mead?

Recipe for 2 gallons (actually came out at 2.7 gallons)

3 qts dandelion flowers (heads only, remove as much green as possible.)
2.5 lbs honey
3 lemon (zest and juice)
2 oranges (zest and juice)
1 gallon water (sugar takes up some volume)
Yeast

Bottling and Banjo Picking

Radd Icenoggle — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 21:45:49 +0000

This evening I seriously needed to decompress from a series of bad news. I picked on the banjo for awhile (working on the alternating thumb roll) and I bottled the Northern Lights Juniper Rye Pale Ale. The beer was a bit darker than I had expected, and taste was heavy on the juniper. My fingers are crossed in hoping that this flavor mellows considerably with bottled conditioning, otherwise I have 5 gallons to drink out of spite (anyone remember the smoked beer like drinking a camp fire.

Brewing the Northern Lights Juniper Rye PA

Radd Icenoggle — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 21:48:31 +0000

Tonight I brewed up a recipe that I have been mulling over for quite some time, a juniper Rye pale ale. The idea is merge a floral hoppiness of a pale ale with the unique juniper aroma and essence. The following is a summary of the boil and pitch process. Just as the northern lights can be a splash of color and life during a long, cold winter, I want the Northern Lights Juniper Rye PA to be a bright, vibrant brew that awakens a winter palette that has been overwhelmed with thick stouts and complex porters. I will, as always, keep everyone up-to-date as this beer ferments, ages, and is consumed.

For this particular brew, I am using two hop varieties that I have not previously used; the Magnum and Motueka (a New Zealand variety). Another first for me is the use of Juniper Berries, which should lend a pleasant, bitter-sweet aroma which reminds me of gin. The berries are sweet, with a hint of pine and turpentine. This ingredient is traditional in the Scandinavian beers…the homeland of the northern lights.

Fermentables

2 lbs. – Rye Male

7 lbs. – Pale Liquid Male Extract

Hops

2.0 oz. – Magnum 13.5% AA – 60 minutes

1.0 oz. – Motueka 8.9% AA – 15 minutes

1.0 oz. – Motueka 8.9% AA – 5 minutes

Yeast

White Labs American Irish Ale (WLP004)

Steep rye malt for 30 minutes at ~150 F.

Add pale liquid malt extract, and return to boil. Add 2 oz. of the Magnum hops to the boil. A heavy curtain of hop aroma steams up from the kettle. Add 1 oz. of Motueka hops (whole leaf) in steeping bag. Steep the juniper berries in a small pot and pour mixture into a food processor. A quick pulse will crack the berries and create a juniper “slurry”.

With 5 boil minutes remaining, place the remaining 1 oz. of Motueka hops to another steeping bag. Pour the juniper “slurry” through the hops into the kettle and let the berries fall into the bag. Let the entire mixture steep in the boiling wort for the remaining time.

Cool the wort, place into the fermenter, pitch the yeast, and wait for the bubbles.

Original Gravity 1.060	Final Gravity 1.017	Color 6° SRM (Yellow to Gold)
Bitterness 27.0 HBU 80.2 IBU	Alcohol 5.7% A.B.V. 4.4% A.B.W.	Calories 197 per 12 oz.

The homebrew..finally tasted!

Radd Icenoggle — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 07:00:00 +0000

This evening I brought over a couple of bottles of my two latest homebrew to Andy’s place for a little tasting and watch the bills on MNF (we won’t mention the game outcome, but it was brutal). Below is a couple of pics of the brews and my intentional impressions.

	The Sticky Sweet Maple Honey Porter has a light mouthfeel and the flavor has subtle tones of maple and the high alcohol lends a near wine-like quality. The nose is floral.
	The South by Southwheat Agave Ale was very clear, both in color and in mouthfeel. Very refreshing with sweet, nectar flavors. I think that this is going to be a hit.