Brewing with Hop Extract

I always seem to be in the mood for a hop overload. I decided to brew up a batch of Double IPA that was loosely based on Russian River's ever popular Pliny the Elder. The main thing I wanted to experiment with was hop extracts for the bittering addition of this brew.

A decent Double IPA has a ton of hops used throughout the brew process and these can put a serious dent in the amount of actual finished beer that one ends up with. While I wanted a lot of control over the hop flavor and aroma in my beer, I thought that the bittering component would be a perfect fit for hop extract of uncertain origin. I was able to get some IsoHop Bitterness Extract from MoreBeer. Which I swapped out for roughly 18oz of high alpha acid bittering hops in my 20 gallon batch.

The hop extract worked wonderfully and I was able to get 22 gallons of wort out of my brew pot quite easily. The finished wort going into the fermenter had a substantial bitterness to it (of course I added enough hop extract to theoretically add 175 IBUs), and was likely comfortably at the max of 100 actual IBUs.

Here is the recipe I brewed on May 21st, 2009.

Note: for a beer this big you need a lot of fresh yeast, so two weeks beforehand I brewed up a 20 gallon batch of a Golden ale (made with hibiscus and jasmine flowers & honey) that I fermented with WLP007 Dry English Ale Yeast.

Finished Beer Volume: 20 gallons
Target Gravity: 1.074
Target IBU (theoretical): 189

Fermentable Ingredients

• 53.25 lb Golden Promise Malt (82.1% of extract)
• 4 lb Carapils (5.5% of extract)
• 1.25 lb Crisp Crystal 45L (1.7% of extract)
• 4.5 lb Sugar (10.7% of extract)

Mash for 60 minutes at 152ºF with 6oz of Simcoe whole hops. Recirculate until clear and collect 26 gallons of wort.

Hop additions

• 6 oz Simcoe, whole (added to mash)
  
• 2 oz Isohop, Extract (boil for 90 minutes)
  
• 4 oz Simcoe, whole (15 minutes left in boil)
  
• 4 oz Amarillo, whole (15 minutes left in boil)
• 4 oz Centennial, pellet (steep after flame-out)
  
• 11 oz Simcoe, pellet (steep after flame-out)
• 13 oz Amarillo, pellet (dry hop in secondary)
• 12 oz Centennial, pellet (dry hop in secondary)

Even without the dry hops, the fermenting beer is smelling very hoppy and quite nice.

Flower Power Blonde (two takes)

So I wanted to grow up enough WLP007 yeast to brew 20 gallons of double IPA, but also wanted something interesting and funky for myself. Instead of limiting myself to hops only, I also wanted to use some other "flowers" in this recipe. So in addition to Amarillo hops I used White Jasmine, Hibiscus and Arizona Citrus Honey.

I also did two separate ferments; one was for the 20 gallon batch with WLP007 to give away, the other batch was fermented with a tube of WLP568 Saison blend, two tubes of expired WLP565 Saison, and two tubes of expired WLP645 Brett Clausenii.

O.G.: 1.042
Finished Volume: 20 + 5 gallons
IBU: ~16

Fermentables

• 24 lb Cargill Two Row
• 10.75 lb Simpsons Golden Promise
• 2 lb CaraPils Malt
• 2 lb Dingeman’s Biscuit Malt
• 5 lb AZ citrus honey (add at flame out of boil)

Hops / Herbs

• 8 oz Amarillo 2006 crop, whole ~3.0%AA: 60 min
• 5 oz Hibiscus, Dried: 15 min
• 5 oz White Jasmine Dried: 10 min
• 2 ct Whirl Floc Tablet: 10 min
• 4 oz Amarillo 2006 crop, whole ~3.0%AA: steep
• 3 oz White Jasmine Dried: steep

1. Perform a single infusion mash at 156ºF for 90min

2. Recirculate until clear, sparge with 170ºF water until runoff is at 1.010.

3. Perform a 90 minute boil, with hop / herbal additions as above. Chill and put into fermenters.

4a. With a 1 gallon starter of WLP007 pitch into ferementer along wih 22 gallons of chilled wort. Control beer temp to 68ºF for 8 days, cool to 48ºF for 6 days and then transfer to keg.

4b. Pitch all the other yeasts (WLP568 Saison blend, two WLP565 Saison, and two WLP645 Brett Clausenii) into fermenter with 5.5 gallons of wort. Control ambient temperature to 80ºF for 2 days. Ramp to 85ºF and ferment for two weeks. Transfer to secondary, bottle when clear to 3 volumes of CO2.

Santa Fe Chardonnay Barrel Aged Chicken Killer Barley Wine

Sampled at 1702 during Santa Fe Brewing Night Thursday April 23, 2009

This is the beer that I have been anticipating trying at the Santa Fe Brewing Night at 1702. Knowing that the keg room and tap lines run at a frigid, ridiculously cold temperature, this was one of the first beer I ordered for the night. I patiently waited for it to warm up for about 45 minutes before I got to it though. Despite the wait, the beer is still topped by a persistent, amber tinged, tan colored head that has impressive staying pour. The beer is a murky, opaque, dark amber, brown color; while hazy, it does lose some of the chill haze as it warms up but it remains opaque throughout. During my wait for the beer to warm up I was able to smell complex notes of layered fruit, a certain tartness and a definite funk all of which make me salivate a bit more in anticipation.

The aroma has a complex vinous quality to it backed by a solid sort of musky goat, sweaty Brettanomyces influenced nose. You can smell the Chardonnay grape influence here as along with the fruit there are notes of flint and a fruity back note. The funk contributes a note that makes me thing of a cured, dried sweat stained leather and it also picks up a brown sugar like maltiness as it warms up. The aroma is just incredibly complex and I find myself spending quite some time just enjoying the richly layered aroma. Towards the end of my glass I start to notice aromas of vanillin.

The beer is still sweet, despite the wild bugs, and has lots of malty Barleywine character. It has been pretty significantly dried out from the un-oak-aged version of the beer. Flavors of light caramel and a light whole grain toastiness boost the malt character. The barrel aging provides a solid vinous note and the funk character is pretty prominent as well. The oak provides a spiciness, a tannic structure / texture and a woody presence; this is just a solidly oak influenced beer, but it is just one component of the flavor profile and really doesn’t bury any of the other complex flavors. Vanillin and butterscotch notes are also subtly here, but they both tend to linger expressively on the palate. The wild / funky influence provides flavors of an earthy mustiness, cured leather notes, some butyric sweat, musty horse blanket character; this has lots of Brettanomyces influence, but it never gets overly phenolic or overwhelming. The Chardonnay wine character combines with the other flavors some how to create flavors that are similar to a red wine, but there are still notes of flinty Chardonnay and nicely bright grape flavors. The hops actually start to sneak into the finish at times and provide a light bitterness as well as a slightly herbal note. The chewy malt character provides flavors of brown sugar coated toasted grain, a sort of earthy grain note, some biscuit like grain and even a touch of raisin like fruitiness.

This is quite a sipping brew, there is a fullness to it that is quite nice, but it is still lighter / more attenuated than the base Barleywine. Speaking of which, this beer is certainly no longer a Barleywine, it would seem to fit nicely into the 19th century classification of an Old Stock Ale; the funkiness and the vinous character make this an entirely different beast. This is very nice and I really wish I had bottles of this to age. This is perhaps a bit of an accident, but man what a tasty, incredible accident. The Brettanomyces has taken hold to a perfect level that mixes nicely with the sweet malt and the Oak / Chardonnay character quite well.