Session Ale status

Session Ale went to secondary after some remarkably active fermentation. It was still fermenting when i racked it, but considerably slower. When i first kicked off almost two weeks ago, it bubbled to the top of the carboy, clogged the filter and blew out the airlock. It actually ejected the airlock with such force that it hit the ceiling of the shower and smashed it.

All this fermenting would indicate that all the sugars are converted and the specific gravity supports this. Original Gravity was 1.056@ 80F (1.059 adjusted) and current gravity is 1.010@ 68F (1.011 adjusted). Problem is that my Session Ale is now more alcoholic than my SDPA with 6.5%. Hrm... I may end up doing the old heat treatment to bring that down. Also it's really dry right now. I hope it will be tasty once it goes through secondary and carbonation and some of the current bitterness mellows out.

When I racked it, I also added 1 oz. of Simcoe plugs for dry hopping.

SDPA kegged

Just kegged my SDPA and put another ounce of Simcoe in there for further dryhopping. The specific gravity was 1.016 (1.017 adjusted) giving an approximate alcohol content of 6.4%. I put in a little bit of fermentation sugar, since this is going on the Angram and needs to be just lightly keg conditioned.

Time for a Session Ale

The other night at a company party, I ended up with a Stone Levitation instead of Stone IPA I had aimed for. I'd had Levitation once before and remember thinking it was remarkably tasty for such an easy drinking beer. That impression was redoubled at that party. Considering that almost all my brewing efforts lately have been around big, high gravity ales, I thought I really could do with a session ale as quaffable as Levitation. Since there were no clone recipes to be found, I went off an ingredients list someone posted: 2-row, 75L Crystal, 150L Crystal, Flaked Barley, Magnum, Centennial, Chinook. Since that's all grain and I was planning on using extract, I scaled back the Crystal, to get the right color. For that matter, Home Brew Mart doesn't even stock 150L. I also replaced Centennial with East Kent Goldings in an attempt to go through my hop reserves, in the present hop climate.

This is what I ended up brewing yesterday. Curious what I will get.

Steep (30min @ 160F)

• 1.0# Flaked Barley
  
• 1.0# 20L Crystal
  
• 0.5# 120L Crystal
  

Boil @ 60 minutes

• 1 oz. Magnum Pellets
  
• 1 oz. East Kent Goldings Pellets
  

Boil @ 15 minutes

• 6# light malt extract syrup
  
• 0.5 oz. East Kent Goldings Pellets
  
• 1 tblsp. Irish Moss
  

Boil @ 0 minutes

• 2 oz. Chinook Pellets
  

Yeast

• White Labs California Ale Yeast
  

Initial Gravity

• 1.056 @ 80F (1.059 adjusted)
  

Dry Hop

• 1 oz. Simcoe Plugs
  

Yeah, I can't not dry hop. I'm just a hop-head, sorry.

OAB @ 12% and new SDPA

I just kegged the Oaked Abstract Bastage and it's gravity had further decreased to 1.034 or 1.035 adjusted which gives it a whopping 12% alcohol by volume. Still has that guava juice taste to. Still very sweet. I'm letting it age some more before tasting it, partially because i don't have room in kegerator. In two weeks it'll probably go in the kegerator and be tapped for a tasting, but i still expect to let it age at least another month or two before drinking it.

In the meantime, I've started a new SDPA. Well, I really started it two weeks ago and today transfered it to secondary for dryhopping. It's got a beautifully light color and a yummy aroma. It's gonna be a bit of a weird one, because i completely screwed up my hop additions. My plan was to use some spare hops for the bittering, since hop prices have shot up and I want to leave the strong aroma hops for flavoring and aroma. Except i kept grabbing the wrong packets. So here's the recipe as it turned out:

Steep (30min @ 160F)

• 0.5# Victory
  
• 1.0# Cara Pils
  
• 0.5# 10L Crystal
  

Boil @ 60 minutes

• 1 oz. Amarillo Pellets
  
• 1 oz. Magnum Pellets
  
• 1 oz. Cascade Pellets
  

Boil @ 15 minutes

• 7# Light DME
  
• 1 oz. Amarillo Pellets
  
• 1 oz. Cascade Pellets
  

Boil @ 0 minutes

• 2 oz. Perle Pellets
  

Yeast

• White Labs California Ale Yeast
  

Dry Hop after two weeks

• 2 oz. Simcoe Plugs
  

My initial gravity was 1.060 @ 87F or 1.064 adjusted. Today's reading was 1.018 @ 66F or 1.019 adjusted which gives me 6.3% alcohol by volume. That's just about perfect, although I assume it's gonna pick up another 0.3-0.4% by the time i keg it.

The SDPA will be keg-conditioned and replace the guiness on the Angram.

Oaked Abstract Bastage, One week of Oak

Last weekend I racked the OAB into a carboy with the whiskey soaked oak chips. At the time the specific gravity was 1.038, or adjusted, 1.039, giving me an alcohol volume of 11.3%. The taste was alcoholic guava juice. Since it was still very sweet and there was still a significant amount of Trub in the carboy, so I racked a bunch of it into the new carboy as well.

Today, I checked on the oakeyness and it was already sufficient. So I'm racking it again. The current gravity reading is 1.038, or 1.037 adjusted, which gives me an alcohol volume of 11.6%. Woah.

Oaked Abstract Bastage, Repitch

Initial Reading: 1.110
Gravity adjusted for 90F temperature: 1.114

Reading before re-pitch with Champagne yeast: 1.044
Gravity adjusted for 66F temperature: 1.045

Current alcohol: 8.96%

Oaked Abstract Bastage, Starting Gravity

Initial Reading: 1.110
Gravity adjusted for 90degree temperature: 1.114

That's a good bit higher than last time and means I'm likely to break 10% this time around