Garuda (Espresso) Porter

I'm having a brew party coming up pretty soon, so I thought the wife and I should brew up something fresh for everyone to taste when they arrive at our place to mash in with us bright and early on a Saturday morning. What could be better than a coffee porter to wake everyone up?

I've had a few email requests to post the weights of grain I'm using in these recipes. I usually get right around 75% efficiency in my mash tun, so if your system hits right around there too, then go ahead and try the same numbers. If you get a higher or lower efficiency, then you'll need to adjust the amount of grain you're adding. If you only want to brew 5 gallons, then half everything and you'll hit 5.5 gallons. So, from now on I'll try to remember the weights and the %s in each post.

For an 11 Gallon Batch:

Grain:
76% British Pale Malt (19.8 lbs)
9% Munich (2.3 lbs)
9% Crystal 40 (2.3lbs)
3% Carafa II (.78 lb)
3% Chocolate Malt (.78 lb)

Single Infusion Mash:
Saccharification rest at 68 degrees C (155 F) for an hour.
Sparge at 75 C (166 F).

Boil:
90 min. boil

Hops:
2 oz E.K. Goldings added at 60 minutes.
2 oz Cascades added at knockout.

Yeast:
2.5 liter, 2 day starter of 2 vials of White Labs (WLP001) Cal Ale Yeast.

Predicted Original Specific Gravity:
1.065

Notes:
Ferment at 18 C (65 F) for one week or until primary fermentation dies down, bump the temperature up to 21 C (70 F) for another few days and let it finish off. Then keg it up and add 1 oz/gal of Peets Garuda Espresso (my favorite espresso in the world).

UGH. That was the most disastrous brew session I've had in a long time. For some reason I ended up with about 40% efficiency. I think there must have been a portion of the mash that got itself stuck during sparge and it ended up channeling. I don't know, but I stopped the sparge at around 9 gallons and ended up with 7 in the end and hit about 1.061 OG. I adjusted the hop schedule accordingly, but at the last 15 minutes of the boil I ran out of propane. So... it might be a little low on IBUs. With all that said, it smells great and will probably turn out to be a fine, drinkable beer. But, what a mess of a brew day. I hope the next session goes a little more smooth.

EDIT: I screwed up the numbers... new weights, total grain should equal 26 lbs for 11 gal (not the previously posted 32! :)

Celebrator Best of the West Beer Fest

The bad news is that this is the first time in 3 or 4 years that we will not be attending the Toronado Barleywine Festival. The good news is that we will be attending 2 other beer events this week:
Tuesday the 10th is the Russian River night at Toronado, hosted by Vinnie Cilurzo.

Friday/Saturday the 13/14th is the Barleywine fest (which we won't attend).. :(

Then, on Sunday the 15th Celebrator magazine is hosting the 2nd annual "Best of the West Beerfest" at the Oakland Convention Center (Marriott Hotel). I didn't go last year but heard it was a hoot. Should be fun.

Join us if you can!

Simcoe Pale

Sara and I bought a new house! so the brewing has gone on the back burner again for a while. But, I'm back at it and thought I'd brew another pale ale. Due to the hop shortage this year, I had to adjust my recipe. I happened to have a little amarillo left over so I'll use some of that for the dry hopping, but I had to substitute simcoe for a lot of the other hopping schedule. So, it'll taste quite a bit different. It should have more of a piney aroma and flavor and less of the grapefruit that amarillo contributes. Amarillo is by far my favorite aroma hop, but this should turn out just fine.

Grain:
85% Pale American Malt
3% Carapils
4% Crystal 15
4% Crystal 35
4% Munich Malt

Single Infusion Mash:
Saccharification rest at 155 degrees for 45 minutes.
Sparge at 165 degrees.

Boil:
90 min. boil

Hops:
0.6 oz Columbus added at 60 minutes.
0.5 oz Simcoe added at 30 minutes.
0.5 oz Simcoe added at knockout.
1 oz Simcoe dry added after primary fermentation.
0.5 oz Amarillo dry added after primary fermentation.

Yeast:
1 liter, 1 day starter of 2 vials of White Labs (WLP001) Cal Ale Yeast.

Predicted Original Specific Gravity:
1.054

Notes:
Ferment at 65 Degrees for one week or until primary fermentation dies down, bump the temperature up to 70 for another two days and let it finish off. Then add the dry hops and drop the temp down to below 60 for another week to let things settle before kegging.