Azacca!

I have been monitoring a new hop that was recently introduced as experimental hop #483 of the American Dwarf Hop Association.  I was eager to learn when (if) it would become available to homebrewers.  A patent was filed in May 2013 for a new hop named Azacca.  After a quick google search, I learned that Azacca is the Haitian God of Farming:

"Keep him well supplied with copious amounts of food, booze and sex and he will never desert your farm. If you own a farm think carefully about this.  He's a bit of a hillbilly, being barefooted with denim dungarees, a straw hat and pipe, and an exagerrated country drawl.  Azacca loves his grub but has simple tastes : boiled maize, bread soaked in oil and rum. And he eats like a pig, hiding away with his food and troughing the lot in double quick time. Unlike his sophisticated brother.  Azacca knows everything that's going on in the lives of the commoners and often spurts out everyone's embarrassing secrets after a skinfull of rum."

Sounds like a solid dude.


One of my online hop sites got a few pounds and I pounced on it.  I decided to mix it equally into my mosaic pale ale recipe that turned out so tasty.  Given the ease of the 15 min boil, I turned this one over to a new assistant brewer, my 3 1/2 year old son.  He rocked it out in no time, crushing the grain in the mill, the hop additions and finally pitching the yeast.  What a kid.  Unfortunately, he will be devastated when I explain to him in 6 weeks that he can't try it.
 
Grains
6 lbs Light DME
1 lb c-40 steeped to 170

15 min boil
2.5 oz split Mosaic/Azacca at 15
1 oz split Mosaic/Azacca at 5
.5 oz split Mosaic/Azacca at 0
1 oz split Mosaic/Azacca dry hop two weeks

US-05 at 66 ambient, raise to 68 for 2 weeks, then dry hop for two weeks

Results
7 pre boil at 1051 with DME added, back down the water next time
6.75 gallons post at 1053

Water Adjustments
2 tsp gypsum

Mosaic Pale Ale

This beer is a nod to one of my favorite new beers, Two Brothers Sidekick Extra Pale Ale.  I am pretty certain the hops in that beer are Mosaic and the new experimental hop #483 from the Yakima Valley hop breeding program.  However, since I can't get my hands on the experimental hop, all Mosaic hops will have to suffice.  I brewed this batch in tandem with the all Centennial pale ale.

Grains
3 lbs Pilsen DME
3 lbs Muntons Extra Light DME
1 lb c-20 steeped to 170

15 min boil
2.5 oz Mosaic at 15
1 oz Mosaic at 5
.5 oz Mosaic at 0
1 oz Mosaic dry hop two weeks

US-05 at 66 ambient, raise to 68 for 2 weeks, then dry hop for two weeks

Results
6.25 gallons pre boil at 1052
5.9 gallons post at 1056

Water Adjustments
2 tsp gypsum

Centennial Pale Ale

With 4th of July coming up, I felt like I owed it to my country to brew a centennial pale ale, so I did.  Just like that.

Grains
3 lbs Pilsen DME
3 lbs Muntons Extra Light DME
1 lb c-40 steeped to 170

15 min boil
2.5 oz Centennial at 15
1 oz Centennial at 5
.5 oz Centennial at 0
1 oz Centennial dry hop two weeks

US-05 at 66 ambient, raise to 68 for 2 weeks, then dry hop for two weeks

Results
6 gallons pre boil at 1052
5.6 gallons post at 1056

Water Adjustments
2 tsp gypsum

"Okay guys, one more thing, this summer when you're being inundated with all this American bicentennial Fourth Of July brouhaha, don't forget what you're celebrating, and that's the fact that a bunch of slave-owning, aristocratic, white males didn't want to pay their taxes."

Texas Blonde Ale

We recently visited Austin and had our fair share of the local Fireman's 4.  It's not going to win any awards, but it is an easy drinking summer beer.  And my wife really enjoyed it.  So I thought I would brew up a similar batch.  I made this one as a second mash with the Sour Peach Ginger Ale and I think I am just about done with the double all-grain batches.  It is too much of a pain with all of the pumps and hoses going around.  I think I will still do two brews in a session, but I will  make the first one an extract brew while the mash is recirculating on the other.  I have really liked the last two extract beers that I brewed.  My buddies Shawn and Chris helped again as I scrambled to work around the pump that stopped working and came up short on mash runnings.  I sparged some more to make it up and had to boil down some more to hit the gravity numbers.  Like I said, I think I am done with trying to pull off two all grain brews on my system.

Grains
3# Vienna
2.25 flaked maize
3# 6 row

Hops
1 oz Brewer's Gold at 60

Mash at 150

Wyeast Kolsch Ale 2565

No water adjustments

6.1g collected at 1030
4.5 post boil at 1041
64.7% efficiency
Target OG 1042

Sour Ginger Peach Ale

This recipe piqued my interest.  I have a growing affection for sour beers.  I like peach and I like ginger, so I thought I would give this one a try.  It should make a nice late summer beer.  I brewed this beer with my buddies Shawn and Chris.  Brew day was fun, but one of my pumps crapped out again so I spent a lot of time making adjustments and plumbing changes to get around the pump failure.  It was nice to have both friends lend an extra hand as I was scrambling to fix things.  I hit all of my numbers and the yeast took off nicely by the next morning.

Grains
9# 2 row
1# flaked wheat
.5# acid malt

Hops
1 oz Progress at 60 min
1/2 oz ginger root at 15 mins

Mash at 150

WL AHS Persica Ale Yeast 299

2oz peach flavoring at kegging

7g collected at 1042
5.5 g post boil at 1052
75.1% efficiency

Water adjustment: .5 epsom

Raspberry Wheat

I was brewing the Lambic and my other kettle looked lonely so I decided to brew a raspberry wheat extract for the heck of it.  I generally don't like extract beers because of that twang everyone talks about, but I thought the raspberry flavoring would mask it pretty well.  Raspberry is pretty forgiving and can hide a lot of flaws in beer.  I don't like messing with real fruit so I used the flavoring from Williams.  I haven't used liquid malt extract in a long time, and I doubt I will much again.  The stuff is so goopy and difficult to dissolve.  Numbers came out spot on so that was good.  I brewed this in my HERMS kettle and boil and chill was a breeze with the integrated chiller.

Malt
6 lbs lme 60% wheat 40% German two row

Hops
1 oz hallertau at 60

Wyeast Bavarian Wheat at 65-68 for 12-14 days, then keg condition for 3 weeks

4oz Williams Raspberry flavoring at kegging

Results

1.035 pre boil at 7g
1.042 post boil at 6g

Water Adjustments
.5 Epsom
.1 chalk

Ca=36

SO4=61

Mg=17

Na=27

Cl=70

Carb=67

Hard=162

Alk=59

Lambic - The Journey Begins

I have wanted to brew a sour for a while now so I took a run at this easy recipe.  It is a very simple recipe and has won many awards, so I am hopeful that my several year investment will be worth the return.  I brewed this on my 10 gallon electric kettle and the whole hops completely clogged my recirculation pump during chilling.  I finally got it cooled using my old immersion chiller.  I just knew there was a reason I kept that thing sitting around collecting dust.

Malt    
3 lbs golden light DME
3 lbs wheat DME
4 oz malto

Hops
2 oz aged williamette whole hops at 60

Results
1.044 pre boil gravity
1.056 post boil gravity, only 4.5 g into plastic ferementer

I was shooting for 1.044 post boil, but came in a bit high

Ferment for one month then transfer to secondary

Wyeast lambic blend at 68

Water Adjustments
.5 tsp Epsom
.1 tsp chalk

Ca=36

SO4=61

Mg=17

Na=27

Cl=70

Carb=67

Hard=162

Alk=59