I have been informed that our grain for the Hoptacular Club Competion has arrived today!
This years competion is a S,M.a.S.H. beer. Single malt and single hop. We can brew any style. We can toast, roast or smoke the grain. We can barrel age the beer or add wood to it. We can add herbs, spices and miscellaneous flavoring such as fruit or fruit flavorings. We can not add any other fermentable sugars to the beer; no malt extract, candi syrup, honey, apple juice, molasses, treacle, ect.
We are not required to make a 5 gallon batch
We can use any hops and amount of we want as long as it's only one kind of hop.
We can use any yeast and ferment at any temp.
6 12 oz brown bottles must be submitted for judging
Competing bottles must be dropped off at Mid Country Malt no later than 3:30pm november 7th.
Ok, those are the rules!
Here is the grain that they sent us;
13 lbs of Best Red X Malt from Wallertheim Germany.
I have never heard of this grain, but anyway submit recipe ideas, GO!
Sounds very interesting...
BEST Red X malt is specially created for brewing red-tinted beers. You can use BEST Red X for up to 100% of your grain bill – no other malt is required. Offering exceptional reliability and optimal processability, BEST Red X can be employed to brew consistently fiery beers with intense reddish hues. Its full-bodied flavor and attractive, unique color coupled with easy handling in the brewery, make BEST Red X the best choice for creating a broad range of new beers, such as red-tinted wheat beers.
As with all BEST malts, BEST Red X is produced using a special malting procedure exclusively from two-rowed summer brewing barley from recognized and thoroughly tested barley varieties.
Use
All red beers, amber beers, wheat beers, Altbier, ales, dark beers as well as in other beers
Rate
Up to 100% of the grainbill (recommended for red beers)
http://www.dvksp.com/products/malt/best-red-x.html
Hey Adam, is your 5 gallon rum barrel empty?
I'm thinking a barrel aged Altbier might just be the ticket...
I was thinking an Altbeer too...Rum barrel aged, I was not. We could brew 10 gallons and see which tastes better, but unsure of how much of the barrel character will come through in two months.
I think with the smaller barrel you would get a bit. I know the 1st year we entered this competion we lost out of 1st to the South Suburbs crew barrel aged beer...
I think a ton of barrel character will come through in a small barrel in 2 months. I also think we should make a non barreled for blending if we go that route.
Traditional Alt has Target IBU 4-5%, traditionally with Spalt hops.
The 5 gallon barrel imparted a lot of barrel character in one month: it was only used once for whiskey, and it has a high surface to volume ratio. It's available for club use, but it should have some whiskey poured in it to condition it.
I dropped off a ton of whiskey for the other barrel...Daniel either put it in the loft or the apartment in the old brew house.
The whiskey is near the bathroom at the new space
I think an Alt is a good choice. I was gonna suggest a marzen, but that's just because I'm planning a SMaSH marzen soon. I brewed a Kolsch recently with Spalt hops. How about breaking from tradition slightly and using some of the fresh hops from the harvest this weekend if anyone is willing to donate a portion of their share, I'm willing to bet no one else will have that edge. That plus the barrel might make for a very complex brew. I also think that the relatively high daytime temps with the relatively cool night time temps that we're starting to ease into will help that beer move in and out of the wood and help it take on the wood character quicker.
One idea I just had was maybe doing a bock or doppelbock with it, something with a decoction mash and really concentrating and carmelizing that malt character and a deep ruby color.
The problem with a Bock or Dopppel Bock is the long lagering time. With an Alt you can go from grain to glass in about 28 days...
I like the quick turnaround of a Kolsh or an Alt, but I think Joe's idea of doing a decoction is a good one; it'll give us some flavors that other clubs might not get. That, combined with barrel aging, could give us a unique beer.
I think a decotion mash would be good and not out of style for an Altbier. Water profile really made Chris and Jessica's Golden Glacier SMaSH beer shine at our last event and something I think we need to pay special attention to as well.
Is it a audience vote that decides the winner?
No, its a panel of judges, some BJCP, but most have something to do with Bells. Its mosly a "pick your favorite" by some experienced beer drinkers.
Just doing a little research, and kinda thinking out loud, so correct me if I'm wrong please, and I'm more inexperienced than most around here so I defer to anyone's expertise....
Designing Great Beers by Ray Daniels has been my main source, for those that have it pg. 131 is where the Alt party gets started. Given that Alts have a reputation for high attenuation Daniels recommends you mash low at around 148 to extract the most fermentables, I also thinking doing a short decoction at the end might be nice to help concentrate flavors and colors and showcase that malt, I'm not sure how these two ideas reconcile, I'm not sure they do....but then again a whisky barrel aged Alt isn't exactly traditional. I think that water amendments would help the hops shine, hops and water chemistry is a topic I haven't yet begun to research and understand, but I hear that getting the right water chemistry can make or break the hops, given that our singular type of hops will be alone in the spotlight I agree with Ken that special attention should be paid to this. I think if we pay attention to the little things like water chemistry and perhaps a decoction, execute the process perfectly, we'll have a pretty amazing, complex beer that will have layers and levels that the other entries won't. I want to drink it right now.
Dusseldorf Water profiles:
http://www.swd-ag.de/privatkunden/wasser/trinkwasseranalyse.php
http://hbd.org/discus/messages/46667/47366.html?1239986916
Chicago Water:
http://forum.northernbrewer.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=91302&start=0
As soon as the new Brewhaus is ready I wanna brew this beer!
Are we going with an Alt?
Are we brewing 10 gallons? If so we need to get 13 lbs of Red X malt.
Can someone (James?) develope a recipe.
We have place 2nd and 3rd in this competion, this year I want us in 1st!
Ill try to put something together in the next few days.
We can get a sack of malt from Midcountry if someone will go pick it up.
James, if ya go ahead and order the sack I can get it tomorrow or Friday...
If all goes well we (fingers crossed) will have an operational brewhouse on Sunday!
I was going on a bike ride but screw it I'd rather brew!
Who wants to help me brew this on Sunday?
Mark typically handles the orders. He know the proper info.
Thanks James. I'll text mark and see whats up...
What time on Sunday?
The emperor is not as forgiving as i am
Hey Chuck, I'd like to participate on Sunday. I started a recipe in Beersmith for an Altbier that I saved in PDF format, just to get the ball rolling. Since Best Red X is malted from 2-row and isn't in the beersmith library I used a 2-row and altered the SRM to 14.21 which is what the info sheet on the Best website says it is.
Best Red X Alt.pdf
Here's my first shot.....
I included a decoction mash like we talked about previously in the thread...and I just noticed I didn't add yeast to the recipe...It's a work in progress...I calculated that at 72 percent efficiency. According to the program that will give us a final product that is:
OG 1.048
SRM 13.2 (I think this will increase as a result of decocting)
ABV 5.1
IBU 43.1
Also, if we are gonna amend the water here's the comparison based on the links I posted previously, they seem reliable, not sure. I have no idea how much of what add to change anything, but here's the info for anyone in the know in that regard.
Dusseldorf Chicago
pH 7.5 7.65
Ca 82 31
SO4 57 29
Mg 11 12
Cl 74 13
Na 36 8
Carbonates 211 135
Hi Joe,
The goal for water is not to necessarrly match a city's brewing water, its to create a balanced mineral profile that will compliment the malt and hops. Once we figure out the malt and hop bill we can work on the water.
For the malt bill, is there any desire to roast some of the malt? We could use a small ammont (like 1/8 to 1/4lb) of black malt as well as some crystal.
This is how you make crystal:
http://drinks.seriouseats.com/2012/01/homebrewing-make-your-own-crystal-malt-for-beer-how-to-technique.html
and here:
http://barleypopmaker.info/2009/12/08/home-roasting-your-malts/
I was thinking roasting some of the malt would be a good idea. The only draw back is we would have to wait a week before we could use it.
Also, heard back from Mark about getting a sack of RedX, unfortunatly it's on back order till October...
So, what we have is what we got...
How much do we have?
We have 13lbs...
As per the rules, we do not have to brew 5 gallons...
True, we should be fine on malt, we just cannot make 10 gallons.
Do you have the grains already? If so you could make some crystal and chocolate between now and Sunday. It does not seem hard, it just takes time.
Yes I have grains. I wouldn't get to it till Friday morn... and I would need to borrow a digital thermonitor...
How much do you want to do for each?
I was thiniking about a recipe along these lines:
10lb RedX
1lb Crystal
.25lb black
30 ibus from clean bittering such as magnum, warrior, horizon
.25oz of flavor from saphire, opal, ect
If the lager fridge is working and someone can make a 5gallon starter go with 830 munich lager
If not just use 1056 or 001 american ale in the ferm room
Water profile to come.
Barrel age until ready, check on weekly basis. We dont want the barrel character to overwhelm. Judges hate that.
I another version I would skip the crystal and just toast 1/2lb base malt for an 30min at 350 to get a toasty/nutty flavor.
That leaves us with 1 3/4 lbs not being used...
I would also like to be part of the brew team...but I thought the comp was SMaSH this year? From Chuck's first post: This years competion is a S,M.a.S.H. beer. Single malt and single hop.
I have to plug the whole thing into beersmith, but it will all get used. Maybe it becomes a 6 or 6.5 gallon batch.
Ken is correct This is a SMaSH. So we have to go with a single hop but, we can modify the grain anyway we want...
That is just fine.
Can you clarify the rules? Did you get them in an email? The website for this years competion is posting different grain for some reason...
http://beerhoptacular.com/homebrewchallenge.php
Website still has 2012 dates on it.
I have some pacific jade hops I can donate if we want something semi-unique. I have no idea what they taste like, however.
My 1st post to this thread has all the rules for this year...
Pacific Jade:
Delivers soft bitterness with desirable aroma; well suited for "up-front" additions in dryer lager styles
Bold herbal aromas with hints of fresh citrus and crushed black pepper
Opal:
Good aroma type with average to high bitter value
Even dispersal of all aroma characteristics - fruity, floral, herbal and hoppy tones all appear
I think we want to avoid citrus in this one
The Rules Distilled:
This years competion is a S,M.a.S.H. beer. Single malt and single hop. We can brew any style. We can toast, roast or smoke the grain. We can barrel age the beer or add wood to it. We can add herbs, spices and miscellaneous flavoring such as fruit or fruit flavorings. We can not add any other fermentable sugars to the beer; no malt extract, candi syrup, honey, apple juice, molasses, treacle, ect.
We are not required to make a 5 gallon batch
We can use any hops and amount of we want as long as it's only one kind of hop.
We can use any yeast and ferment at any temp.
6 12 oz brown bottles must be submitted for judging
Competing bottles must be dropped off at Mid Country Malt no later than 3:30pm november 7th.
Also, the only other fermentables they are allowing is fruit...
I like Joe's idea of going with Saaz for the hops...
Saaz is fine, I was looking for something a bit more unique. Saphir is a good spicy option too.
I used Saphir for a saison this past spring and really liked the result.
Pages