Skull Splitter Clone: Continuing on the Quest for New Ingredients

July 15, 2011  |  Comments Off  |  by Matt Hufford  |  Homebrew, Homebrew Recipes
Skull Splitter

Skull Splitter

As I continue along the never ending path of using new and exciting ingredients, I came across a Skull Splitter clone recipe in my Clone Brews book.  The recipe included a few grains that I had not used before and oak chips, which I had been considering trying out in a beer.  Skull Splitter is a Scottish Ale whose medium body makes it go down surprisingly fast for an 8.5% ABV beer.  With the complex flavors present in Skull Splitter, it is no wonder that new ingredients for me had to be used to brew a clone.

The exotic ingredients in the recipe for me were torrified wheat, Belgian aromatic malt, peated malt, and oak chips.  Torrified wheat is a wheat whose starches have been pre-gelatinized, which makes it easier for the enzymes to break down the starches during the mash.  Belgian aromatic malt is a malt designed to give a beer a strong malty flavor.  The most interesting ingredient, peated malt, is malt that has been smoked over burning peat, which gives it an extreme smokey flavor.  When I tasted a few grains of the peated malt, I found the flavor to be very shocking, because I wasn’t expecting something so smokey.  Oak chips are used to impart an oak flavor to the beer to imitate being aged in an oak barrel.

There are a few differences that I used for process of making this beer than I typically use.  I mashed for 90 minutes instead of the usual 60.  I split my normal single batch sparge into a double batch sparge to try to rinse off the residual sugars on the grains better, since this is a higher gravity beer.  I also did a 90 minute boil because I had sparged a bit too much.

Grains:

  • 14 lbs 2 row
  • 10 oz. 55L British crystal malt
  • 6 oz. torrified wheat
  • 4 oz. Belgian aromatic malt
  • 2 oz. British chocolate malt
  • 1 oz. peated malt

Adjuncts:

  • 10 oz. cane sugar

Hops:

  • 1.5 oz. Goldings at 90 min
  • 0.5 oz. Goldings at 15 min

Yeast:

  • Safale S-04

Secondary:

  • 0.25 oz. steamed oak chips

Monday Garden Update – Two Weeks Edition [Gardening]

July 5, 2011  |  1 Comments  |  by Ben Czajkowski  |  Gardening

It has been a busy two weeks, not only in real life, but in the garden, as well. In between drinking and almost dying, I forgot to update last week. It’s been mostly hot here, in northern Baltimore city. There’s a real shocker, right? Luckily, it hasn’t crept back into the 100s. For early July, I couldn’t ask for better weather: it’s been mostly sunny with the occasional shower; the tomatoes and peppers are absolutely loving it.

Bell Pepper Fruit

Bell Pepper Fruit

To date, I still only have one bell pepper. The two plants are so lush with green leaves, and there are budding nodes on them. It’s only a matter of time until I have plenty of bell-pepper fruits. I’m already thinking ahead to the fall and winter, and I’m wonder if it will be possible to over-winter them…

Tomato Blossoms

Tomato Blossoms

Sweet Million Tomato Fruits

Sweet Million Tomato Fruits

Bush Early Girl Tomato

Bush Early Girl Tomato

The tomatoes are doing absolutely fantastic. All of the plants have tons of flowers, and a couple of them have fruit already growing on them. Which means I need to pay close attention to their water levels, every day, at this point.

Ichiban Eggplant Quickly Growing

Ichiban Eggplant Quickly Growing

Last week, I was so excited about my Ichiban eggplant that I gave it its own post. Well, the fruit is now well over six inches long. It looks healthy and purple. And the best part is that the earwigs appear to be leaving the plant alone.

Fairy Tail Eggplant Fruits

Fairy Tail Eggplant Fruits

The Fairy Tale eggplant is happily producing fruits, as well. At last count, it had four budding babies on it. The Fairy Tale is half the height of the Ichiban, but it is putting out more fruits at this point.

Chili Pepper Flowers

Chili Pepper Flowers

Jalapenos

Jalapenos

The jalapenos, pepperoncinis, and chili peppers are doing remarkably well, as well. I’m honestly surprised at how healthy they have been, thus far. I expected some kind of pepper bacterium to swoop in and destroy them (no idea if something like this exists). Keeping my fingers crossed!

Patio Picker Cucumber Taking Over

Patio Picker Cucumber Taking Over

Patio Picker Cucumber Fruits

Patio Picker Cucumber Fruits

The “patio picker” cucumber plant has at least two fruits on them, as well. I will probably pick both this week. I need to research at what point that I should pick them. Or maybe read the info stick that came with the plant.

Planted Moonstruck Marigolds

Planted Moonstruck Marigolds

One of the things that I did of which I am proud is that I picked up five HUGE moonstruck marigold plants to companion-plant with my peppers and tomatoes. So far, they have taken root fairly well. The ones left, at Lowe’s, were less than stellar. With at least four and a half months of a growing season left, I picked up two packs of marigolds as well, and I’ve started them from seed. More on that later this week.

Rosemary

Rosemary

The herbs are happier than could be. We used some of the rosemary sprigs on potatoes, this weekend, and it made them taste fabulous. I am strongly considering trying a sprig or two in a bottle of beer to see if it would be worth using it to “dry hop” with.

The Cascade Hops are happily threading their ways up the jute twine that I have strung for them.

Cascade Hops Sending Up New Bines

Cascade Hops Sending Up New Bines

Cascade Hops Quickly Growing

Cascade Hops Quickly Growing

Currently, each of the two Cascade Hops rhizomes have three flourishing bines that are heading for the tops of their respective ropes. I am so anxious for them to begin producing cones. I’ve been reading on how to brew with them, and that has me excited to try it.

Dying Zucchini And Squash

Dying Zucchini And Squash

Unfortunately, I have lost both my zucchini and squash plants to the forces of nature. More on this later in the week, as well.

How are your plants doing, so far? Let me know in the comments!

Molasses Marzen

June 28, 2011  |  1 Comments  |  by Matt Hufford  |  Homebrew, Homebrew Recipes

Excited to start brewing lagers as soon as possible, I found a lager recipe and brewed it as soon as I had time to.  I kinda wanted to brew a true marzen, and at the same time, I wanted to experiment a bit with molasses.  I found the perfect recipe.

Given that I kinda like the question and answer format that I did in a previous post, I think I will continue using it:

  • This recipe looks similar to one I saw in Extreme Brewing by Sam Calagione.  Did you steal it?Well, first off, lists of ingredients are not copywrittable, so I didn’t steal it.  Second, I had to make a few changes to the recipe so that it could fit my methods.  Instead of steeping grain and using 6.6 pounds of light liquid malt extract, I mashed the specialty grains along with 11 pounds of 2 row.  To be more authentic and true to the original recipe, I could have mashed 11 pounds of pilsner, but that would have cost me more.  Since the only real difference in the final product would be that the color would be a little lighter, I figured it wouldn’t make much of a difference with how dark this beer is going to be.  I put in the molasses and brown sugar before the wort started boiling.  I skipped adding gypsum and Irish moss (if I added gypsum, crystals would probably start forming and my beer would end up having gravel in it because of how hard my water is).
  • Your recipes seem to be kinda terse and lack important details.  Could you post more specifics on your process and such?Sure, I could, but I am not sure what you, the reader, wants to know beyond what I already post.  Leave a comment clearly describing what additional information you would like, and I will start adding that to my posts.  I might update older posts with the information.For some details in general, I do single infusion mashes and batch sparge.  I aim my mash temperature to be at 153F, but don’t try to fiddle with it if it is off by a couple degrees.  My mash thickness is always 1.25 qt/lb.  I sparge with enough water to get 6-6.5 gallons of wort, which seems to usually be around 4 gallons.  I don’t mess with my water chemistry at all.
  • I don’t like beer.Then don’t drink beer? Not really sure how to respond to this. I get some really odd hate mail sometimes.
Brewing Sugars

The brown sugar and molasses I used. The molasses is sitting in hot water to make it easier to pour out of the jars.

Grains:

  • 11# 2 row
  • 1# Crystal 60L

Sugars:

  • 2# Light brown sugar
  • 24oz Molasses

Hops:

  • 1.5oz Chinook at 60 min
  • 1oz Saaz at 10 min

Yeast:

Oktoberfest Recipe! [Homebrewing]

June 21, 2011  |  1 Comments  |  by Matt Hufford  |  Homebrew, Homebrew Recipes

I foresee a few questions upfront about me posting this recipe.

  • Didn’t you already brew this weekend?  How much do you need to brew? What are you doing with all the beer???No, I did not.  The previous recipe I posted this weekend was actually brewed last weekend.  I’ve been posted them a while after I had brewed them.  I am lazy.  I am going to make an effort to post these within a day or two of brewing.  My friends tend to drink a lot of my beer.  I don’t mind at all, as it means I get to brew more.  I think the only time I complained was when I brewed a beer so delicious that I didn’t want to share it with anyone else.
  • Why are you brewing an Oktoberfest beer so early?  October is so far away!Oktoberfest is in September, not October.  Don’t ask me why; ask those silly Germans.  Maybe it has something to do with schadenfreude?   (Ok, yes, my ancestors are from Germany, but I have no idea why.  Maybe Wikipedia could inform you as to why.)
  • Oktoberfest beers are lagers, not ales.  You used the wrong yeast and fermentation temperature.You got me there.  I currently don’t have the equipment or space to be able to brew a lager.   I want to age it at lagerish temps using some kind of aging chamber and ice.  No idea how this will work out, or even how I will do it.  I figure I have a few weeks to figure this out, as I will probably also be priming the keg with sugar to carbonate it.  This probably won’t end up happening as time/effort/cost could be prohibitive.  If successful, I will probably try to age all of by beers like this.  If anyone has any suggestions/ideas, I would be glad to hear them.

Continue reading “Oktoberfest Recipe! [Homebrewing]” »

Monday Garden Update – Eggplant Blossom Beauty [Gardening]

June 20, 2011  |  Comments Off  |  by Ben Czajkowski  |  Gardening

It was a good week, the garden. Almost everything has flowers on it. This is my first time growing eggplants, so I have been unaware how beautiful the blossoms can be. And they haven’t even bloomed yet.

Ichiban Eggplant Bloom

Ichiban Eggplant Bloom

Heather and I also picked up several new additions:

-Another tomato, an heirloom that I can’t remember right now
-Rainbow pepper of some kind that I hadn’t seen before. Even the guy selling them was confused as to where it came from
-Chives
-2 jalapenos

And all the plants have been potted up, at this point.

Potted Up Tomatoes In Sub-Irrigated Tote

Potted Up Tomatoes In Sub-Irrigated Tote

Even some with pepper plants with…peppers!

Green Pepper Fruits

Green Pepper Fruits

My indoor lettuce has sprouted. I currently have 11 seedlings for baby romaine lettuce. Unfortunately, that’s over only four containers. So, I’m going to have to trim it down a bit. Also, two of my spinach plants have come up. However, that’s 2/23 containers. A horrible, horrible ratio. So, either the seeds aren’t viable or I killed them somehow.

Baby Romaine Lettuce Sprout

Baby Romaine Lettuce Sprout

And the Cascade hops rhizomes are doing well. One of them is almost a foot long, at this point. And it’s only going to grow more vigorously, at this point. I’m so glad that I didn’t lose either of them.

Cascade Hops Vine

Cascade Hops Vine

More later this week: how to apply calcium to tomatoes and how to create a worm bin!

Amber Ale

June 18, 2011  |  2 Comments  |  by Matt Hufford  |  Homebrew, Homebrew Recipes

An amber has been brewed.  It isn’t really anything special, but a normal, run of the mill beer is nice every once in a while.  While brewing this beer, I noticed that it didn’t look like all the grains were crushed when after they passed through my grain mill.  I guess it is time to get a feeler gauge and make sure the gap is set correctly.  I guess with the number of batches that have been made using my mill that either the points on the rollers have worn down a little or the gap has slowly worked itself open a little.

Grains:

  • 12# 2 row
  • 1# Caramunich
  • 1# Munich
  • 0.5# Crystal 40

Hops:

  • 1.25 oz Perle @ 60 min
  • 0.25 oz Perl @ 30 min
  • 0.5 oz Perle @ 5 min

Yeast:

  • Nottingham

Foreign Extra Stout

June 11, 2011  |  Comments Off  |  by Matt Hufford  |  Homebrew, Homebrew Recipes

I brewed a recipe called “Foreign Extra Stout”.  I think it is supposed to be a clone of Guinness’ Foreign Extra Stout.  I was intrigued by the sheer number of flaked grains that this recipe uses.  My only thought it that it has to give the beer amazing head and mouth-feel.  I guess I’ll just have to wait to figure out if this is the case.

Grains:

  • 9 lb Pale Malt
  • 2.5 lb Flaked Barley
  • 1 lb Flaked Oats
  • 3/4 lb Black Barley
  • 1/4 lb Chocolate Malt
  • 1/4 lb Flaked Wheat

Hops:

  • 1 oz Challenger @ 60
  • 2 oz Goldings @ 40
  • 1 oz Challenger @ 30

Yeast:

  • Nottingham

Because of the large amount of flaked grains, I mashed this beer for 90 minutes instead of the usual 60.

Black Wit

June 5, 2011  |  Comments Off  |  by Matt Hufford  |  Homebrew, Homebrew Recipes

I’ve been feeling a bit more experimental in my brewing lately (maybe Ben rubbed off on me a bit? or maybe I am brewing them in his honor?).  I decided to brew an “esoteric” beer from the “Clone Brews” book I got for Christmas.  The recipe in the book is called “Wit Black”, but since my local homebrew store didn’t have the exact ingredients the recipe called for , I kinda had to substitute and make due with what was available (how pioneer like of me).  The most noticeable different in the recipe is that I was unable to find chocolate wheat malt.

Grains:

  • 1 lb – Custom Roasted Wheat (I roasted wheat malt at 220F in my for about an hour in my toaster oven pan, stirring occasionally, then I let it sit for a week or two in a paper bag)
  • 8 oz – Midnight Wheat Malt
  • 2 oz – British Roasted Barley
  • 2.25 lb – Wheat Malt
  • 7.25 lb – 2 row

Hops and spices:

  • 1 oz – Tettnanger @ 60min
  • 1/2 oz – Star Anise crushed (now that I re-read the recipe, I see it calls for 1/2 tsp of anise crushed – whoops)

Yeast

  • Nottingham

The anise smell was pretty strong during the boil, I hope this mellows out a bit by the time I end up drinking it.  At least I now know why it was so strong smelling. Haha.  I also have no idea how star anise translates into using just the anise seed, so maybe I wasn’t too far off?  Who knows, I’ll still have beer though.

Cheers.

Cascade Hops Break Ground, Good Day In The Garden [Gardening]

June 2, 2011  |  Comments Off  |  by Ben Czajkowski  |  Gardening, Homebrew

One of my biggest experiments this gardening season is going to be with hops. Thanks to Matt, this will be our third season home brewing our own beer. Something I’ve wanted to do since season one is to grow my own hops. It seems simple enough…

Well, a couple weeks ago, I ordered two Cascade Hops Rhizomes from a merchant on eBay. I have no idea what to expect. I read a couple forum posts and articles on how people’s hops just aren’t taking this year, which has me scared. It was quite a wet start to Spring, and now it is blistering.

First Of The Cascade Hops Bines

First Of The Cascade Hops Bines

The good news is that the stronger of the two Cascade rhizomes broke ground only after a couple of days. I wasn’t expecting it for about a week. So, this was a pleasant surprise when I got up early to go out and water.

Sweet Million Tomato's First Blossom

Sweet Million Tomato's First Blossom

Among other surprises was the first blossom on the Sweet Million Tomato plant. Hopefully, this is the start of many, many cherry tomatoes from it.

Bell Pepper Blossoms

Bell Pepper Blossoms

Also, the peppers seem to be absolutely thriving in the heat.

Ellie Sitting In The Window

Ellie Sitting In The Window

My garden is protected by an attack cat. Ain’t no critter gonna get my peppers! Not under Ellie’s watch.

And The Beer Turned Green, Homebrew Saturday [Homebrewing]

November 14, 2010  |  2 Comments  |  by Ben Czajkowski  |  Homebrew
India Cream Ale with Spalt Hops

India Cream Ale with Spalt Hops

Beer generally comes in a range of golden-yellow ales to dark-as-night imperial stouts. Occasionally, you run into an Irish red, and on St. Patrick’s Day, you can expect your BMC beers to be dyed a Slimer shade of green.

Well, today isn’t St. Patrick’s Day; nor is it even close. The ending effect wasn’t intentional, but after SEVEN ounces of hops, it was bound to happen. The wort, as it came out of the mash tun, was extremely pale, almost ghost-like in its fashion. For an India Cream ale, both of these were to be expected. I fully think that once the hops have a chance to settle out in conditioning that this batch will be quite clean.

This morning started off at a beautiful 55 degrees in the Miami Valley. “Wait Wait Let Me Guess” was on NPR, and Matt Hufford and I cruised to fill the propane tank and picked up some lunch before really starting out. Today, I brewed a recipe from Radical Brewing: Recipes, Tales and World-Altering Meditations in a Glass by Randy Mosher. (As an aside, if you use this book, please consult its errata. They clearly did not edit this book, to start.) I finally settled on “Hinky Dink India Cream Ale” recipe:

7.5lbs Pilsner malt
2.0lbs Munich malt

0.75lbs corn sugar (I used a little more because I had less than a pound, but greater than three-quarters. No use for a small amount)

1.5oz Spalt @ 60 minutes
2oz Spalt @ 30 minutes
3oz Spalt @ 5 minutes

For yeast, I settled on a strand of Octoberfest Lager Yeast. My basement stays at a constant 60-66 degrees, so leaving this one in the fermentor for three weeks is a must. Maybe four, if I’m lazy.

Now, this was my first time using Spalt hops, a traditional German noble. These little green pellets of joy come from a place called Spalt, a region south of Nuremberg, and it is a traditional hop that is known as a landrace variety. Spalt is a perfect lager-style hops; it was extremely aromatic. It had moments where it smelled almost like a pine forest, to me.

As you could see in the picture above, after the sixth and seventh ounces of hops at the five minute mark, it gave the beer a nice green tinge. When I poured the wort into the primary fermentor, the soon-to-be potent potable was sludgy. I need to think of a good way to bottle this batch without clogging up my bottling wand.