Phriendly Phil’s Velociraptor Pharm n’ Pettin’ Zoo

This brew gets its name because almost 1/3 of the grain bill, and half the hops, were ingredients that I’d had in my fridge or other storage since sometime around 2004. All smelled and tasted fresh (with the exception of one ounce of the Magnum hops, which had an aroma that I could only describe as “silage” and which made me regret not opening the hops beforehand for a sniff. The odor dissipated rather quickly as the wort heated up.)

This is my first all-grain batch since 2004.

The tale of the tape, courtesy of Beersmith:

Brewed 4/20/2008

10.75 gallons

21.00 lb Brewers Malt 2-Row (Briess)
1.00 lb Caramel Malt – 10L (Briess)
1.00 oz Magnum (US) (old 2) [12.24 %] (60 min) (First Wort Hop)
1.00 oz Magnum (US) (old) [11.66 %] (60 min) (First Wort Hop)
2.00 oz Cascade (old) [1.81 %] (15 min)
2.00 oz Amarillo [8.30 %] (2 min)
2.00 oz Cascade (new NB 2) [6.90 %] (2 min)

Fermentis US-05 yeast

Measured Original Gravity: 1.054 SG
Bitterness: 44.8 IBU
Est Color: 4.2 SRM

Odd observation — I pitched the same strain of yeast into both fermenters, but from two different lots and vendors. The yeast I bought from Northern Brewer, lot number 11 2008 OQBC, had a much longer lag than the yeast I bought from MoreBeer, with lot number 05 2009 VWBC. Has anybody else noticed this?

In an effort to test the efficacy of vegetable oils for replacing aeration of beer wort, I brewed eleven gallons to the following recipe:

• 6.6 pounds Briess Pilsen malt syrup
• 4 pounds clover honey
• 2 pounds Briess 80L crystal
• 1 ounce Yakima Magnum pellets, α = 12.5, 60 minutes
• 2 oz Mount Hood pellets, α = 5.2, 15 minutes
• 2 oz Mount Hood pellets, α = 5.2, 2 minutes

The batch was split 5/5.5 gallons (I didn’t try to make them completely equal.) A 3-quart starter of White Labs WLP-001 was decanted to 1 quart, and split into two sanitized pint containers. One pint was dosed with 0.5 ml of flax oil and pitched into the 5-gallon batch, and the other was pitched into the 5.5-gallon batch, which was aerated by 1 minute of vigorous shaking (this is a departure from plan, as I could not find the hose that goes from my oxygen cylinder to my diffusion stone.)

Five hours after pitching, here’s what it looks like (the foam on the right is not kräusen; it is left over from the agitation of aeration):

So far, so meh, as I have been saying.

Update 2/19/2008 22:00

It looks like there is a little airlock pressure in the aerated batch. No such from the oiled batch, but it is showing signs of yeast activity. Photos after the break…

(more…)

• 9 pounds Trader Joe’s brand mesquite honey
• 10 quarts organic apple juice
• 1 quart Trader Joe’s triple-berry juice blend
• 1 quart Trader Joe’s Concord grape juice
• water to bring total volume to 5 gallons
• Red Star Montrachet wine yeast

OG: 1.104.

Ordinary Bitter (10 gallons, OG 1.040)

9.9 pounds Briess Pilsen liquid malt extract
1 Pound 40L Crystal Malt
1 ounce Columbus pellet hops (13.5% α, 60 min)
1/2 ounce East Kent Goldings whole hops (6.3% α, 15 minutes)
1/2 ounce East Kent Goldings whole hops (6.3% α, steep 15 minutes)

Safale S-04 yeast / Safale US-05 yeast (split batch)

Had some trouble brewing this one — two boilovers in a half-barrel boiler (!) left hops from both boiled additions sticking to the sides and lid.

Also, my damned digital thermometer began lying to me, so I ended up chilling this way below pitching temperature — the S-04 had about 24 hours lag, and the US-05 still hadn’t fired up.  I didn’t aerate the wort much, but with the large amount of yeast from the dried yeasts, that shouldn’t matter much.

Black Death 3 still remains to be brewed, although it might be postponed indefinitely for something more in the Trappist vein.

This was my ninth batch ever of beer. I’ve tweaked it a bit, and will be brewing it on December 2 soon:

• 6 pounds Briess Pilsen dried malt extract
• 3 pounds Trader Joe’s mesquite honey
• 0.5 pound 40 L crystal malt
• 0.5 pound chocolate malt
• 1 ounce Columbus pellet hops (13.5% α, 60 min)
• 0.5 ounce Cascade pellet hops (5.9% α, 15 min)
• 0.5 ounce Cascade pellet hops (5.9% α, 15 min steep)
• Safale US 05 ale yeast

Projected OG 1.077, 46.3 IBU

EDIT: I am considering dialing back the hops and using Safbrew T-58 for more of an abbey ale (trappistoid?) style.