The Grumpy Urbanist

If a recipe is new, sometimes the name I give it when formulating it ends up being temporary. In this case, I had in mind something like "Dead Greek God", on account of the fact that I was using hops from the now deceased Zeus hop vine (it inhabited a large pot next to the driveway and unlike the ground-planted hops, was the victim of winter kill this year.)

The larger bowls are Zeus leaf, and the smaller bowls Palisade pellet.

But, I was feeling a bit grumpy and stressed out in the morning as I got the mash going, and depressed upon reading things like a bake sale with a drive-through. So anger-tweeting got me through the mash, and so too has it provided a new name for this beer.

Brew day went well, with a brief visit from our friends J and C. C has an interest in homebrewing and I routinely offer her an invite to see how an all-grain process goes. Oh, and J happens to be the namesake of the previous batch, which didn't get a brew-day post:

It's an "in" joke.

But back to the Grumpy Urbanist. For once, some accuracy in my numbers. Pre-boil gravity came out at 1.051 (vs a target of 1.050) with an Original Gravity of 1.060 (target 1.057). Much better than the terrible undershoots of the last few batches. Not that I've seen any meaningful efficiency improvements, mind. I've just dialed my expected efficiency down to a weepingly low 65%. Clearly, Chris needs a new mash tun.

This recipe is a little wacky. Brew with what ya gots. And I gots:

• The aforementioned Zeus hops - pungent, obnoxious, good for bittering
• "Palisade" pellet hops - similar to Willamette. Mixing pellet and leaf is a pain on my system, too.
• T-58 yeast - kind of a specialty yeast that produces some estery and peppery flavours
• 5lb of rye malt to go along with the last 5lb of pale, and a few more pounds of pilsner to round out the malt bill.

I figured that this beer could be a mess, in terms of flavour. Sometimes, though, you got to get a little freaky. But what I didn't expect was that this beer would quickly be a mess in the brewery, as well:

Airlock = insufficient.

Mad kreusen.

I've never seen a fermentation take off like this. These pictures are from ~20 hours into fermentation. I was already seeing strong gassing off at 6 hours! I should have known this might happen, since it's typically not until the next day that I see any activity.

So, cleanup on aisle three, change out the lid, and then back to the blow-off tube for the rest of fermentation.

Fortunately, at high kreusen like this, a fermenting beer is actually quite robust even in the event of a containment breach of the warp core. The overpressure means there's very little opportunity for outside air or microbes to get into the fermenter, let alone through the thick layer of CO2 foam. But I'm glad I caught it, because the sweet wort would also attract insects, and that would be that.

The recipe is below. I've also included the Golden Pockets, which turned out to be remarkably close to Dirty Fawcett that it's almost indistinguishable. It is slightly superior to it, though, so I'll regard it as a successful refinement of DF instead of a failed attempt to produce a different beer.

Dead Greek God RyePA

American IPA

Type: All Grain	Date: 17/08/2013
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.50 gal	Brewer: Chris Klein
Boil Size: 6.67 gal	Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 60 min	Equipment: Brew Pot (8gal) + Coleman Cooler
End of Boil Volume 6.12 gal	Brewhouse Efficiency: 65.00 %
Final Bottling Volume: 5.25 gal	Est Mash Efficiency 69.5 %
Fermentation: Ale, Two Stage	Taste Rating(out of 50): 30.0
Taste Notes:
Ingredients
Ingredients Amt Name Type # %/IBU 5.00 gal Distilled Water Water 1 - 4.00 gal Kitchener Water Water 2 - 5 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) Canada (2.0 SRM) Grain 3 35.1 % 5 lbs Rye Malt (Weyermann) (3.0 SRM) Grain 4 35.1 % 3 lbs Pilsner Bohemian (Weyermann) (1.7 SRM) Grain 5 21.1 % 1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 6 7.0 % 4.0 oz Carafoam (Weyermann) (2.0 SRM) Grain 7 1.8 % 2.00 oz Zeus 10-15% Leaf [10.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 8 58.3 IBUs 2.00 oz Zeus 10-15% Leaf [10.00 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 9 44.8 IBUs 1.00 oz Palisade [7.30 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 10 11.6 IBUs 1.10 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining 11 - 1.00 oz Palisade [7.30 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 12 4.7 IBUs 1.0 pkg SafBrew Specialty Ale (DCL/Fermentis #T-58) [23.66 ml] Yeast 13 - 2.00 oz Palisade [7.30 %] - Dry Hop 0.0 Days Hop 14 0.0 IBUs
Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.057 SG	Measured Original Gravity: 1.060 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.012 SG	Measured Final Gravity: 1.010 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.9 %	Actual Alcohol by Vol: 6.6 %
Bitterness: 119.5 IBUs	Calories: 199.7 kcal/12oz
Est Color: 8.2 SRM
Mash Profile
Mash Name: Single Infusion, Light Body, No Mash Out	Total Grain Weight: 14 lbs 4.0 oz
Sparge Water: 4.42 gal	Grain Temperature: 72.0 F
Sparge Temperature: 168.0 F	Tun Temperature: 72.0 F
Adjust Temp for Equipment: TRUE	Mash PH: 5.20
Mash Steps Name Description Step Temperature Step Time Mash In Add 17.81 qt of water at 165.7 F 150.0 F 75 min
Sparge Step: Batch sparge with 1 steps (4.42gal) of 168.0 F water
Mash Notes: Simple single infusion mash for use with most modern well modified grains (about 95% of the time).
Carbonation and Storage
Carbonation Type: Keg	Volumes of CO2: 2.4
Pressure/Weight: 13.72 PSI	Carbonation Used: Keg with 13.72 PSI
Keg/Bottling Temperature: 45.0 F	Age for: 30.00 days
Fermentation: Ale, Two Stage	Storage Temperature: 65.0 F
Notes
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Finistauri's Golden Pockets

American Pale Ale

Type: All Grain	Date: 13/07/2013
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.25 gal	Brewer: Chris Klein
Boil Size: 7.06 gal	Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 60 min	Equipment: Brew Pot (8gal) + Coleman Cooler
End of Boil Volume 5.86 gal	Brewhouse Efficiency: 67.00 %
Final Bottling Volume: 5.00 gal	Est Mash Efficiency 71.8 %
Fermentation: Ale, Two Stage	Taste Rating(out of 50): 30.0
Taste Notes:
Ingredients
Ingredients Amt Name Type # %/IBU 9.00 gal Portland OR Water 1 - 9 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) Canada (2.0 SRM) Grain 2 81.8 % 12.0 oz Amber Malt (Thomas Fawcett) (50.8 SRM) Grain 3 6.8 % 12.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM) Grain 4 6.8 % 8.0 oz Carafoam (Weyermann) (2.0 SRM) Grain 5 4.5 % 0.90 oz Northern Brewer 10.6% Pellet [10.60 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 6 35.0 IBUs 1.05 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining 7 - 1.00 oz Saaz [4.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 8 2.9 IBUs 1.0 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) [50.28 ml] Yeast 9 -
Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.050 SG	Measured Original Gravity: 1.046 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.010 SG	Measured Final Gravity: 1.008 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.2 %	Actual Alcohol by Vol: 5.0 %
Bitterness: 38.0 IBUs	Calories: 150.6 kcal/12oz
Est Color: 14.0 SRM
Mash Profile
Mash Name: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge	Total Grain Weight: 11 lbs
Sparge Water: 5.44 gal	Grain Temperature: 64.0 F
Sparge Temperature: 168.0 F	Tun Temperature: 64.0 F
Adjust Temp for Equipment: TRUE	Mash PH: 5.20
Mash Steps Name Description Step Temperature Step Time Mash In Add 13.75 qt of water at 169.8 F 152.0 F 60 min
Sparge Step: Batch sparge with 1 steps (5.44gal) of 168.0 F water
Mash Notes: Simple single infusion mash for use with most modern well modified grains (about 95% of the time).
Carbonation and Storage
Carbonation Type: Keg	Volumes of CO2: 2.3
Pressure/Weight: 12.54 PSI	Carbonation Used: Keg with 12.54 PSI
Keg/Bottling Temperature: 45.0 F	Age for: 30.00 days
Fermentation: Ale, Two Stage	Storage Temperature: 65.0 F
Notes
Similar to Dirty Fawcett but less nutty and dry, slightly sweeter.
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