Chocolate Rye Lager

Back in mid-February I made the journey down to LA to visit an old friend and while there, we headed over to the Bruery to sample some of their offerings.  Alright, the real reason I went down was to pick up my 2011 Bruery Reserve Society beers, but I sound much less like an insanely beer-obsessed nerd if I play the friend card before the beer.  Oh well, a spade’s a spade I suppose.  Anyway, while there, we tried a number of their on-tap beers and one that really surprised me was their Chocosaurus Rye.  This collaboration brew with the guys at Bootlegger’s is a dark rye lager that they then aged for a bit on cacao nibs and vanilla beans.  Honestly, the description sounded more like a mess than a masterpiece to me, but they pulled it off and I was impressed with how well the chocolate melded with the rye (probably due to the slight vanilla in there and the low roast character).  Since I wanted to build up a large volume of lager yeast for my next iteration of Polecat Porter, this seemed like a fun beer for replication.

Developing the recipe for this beer was fairly simple since there’s quite a bit of information in a video that they made on brew-day.  It’s difficult to tell whether they mention “base and Munich malt” or “base of Munich”, but regardless, I’m 10 steps ahead of starting completely blind.  Aside from the grist, the only real deviation that I made from their mentioned recipe is the yeast.  While it sounds like they use a German lager strain, I wanted to re-purpose the yeast for my Polecat Porter and since I’ve used Bohemian for that in the past, I decided that I’d start with it for this beer.

While I’m confident that the base will turn out decently given the amount of information they’ve reported, aging the beer on cacao nibs will be a bit of a gamble.  My last foray with nibs, a chocolate pumpkin porter that I brewed years ago, might possibly be the worst beer I’ve ever brewed and I haven’t been too excited to play with them ever since.  I did make the mistake of aging the beer on raw nibs, and probably for too long as well (a month and a half), which resulted in a harsh bitterness that wasn’t present before the nib addition.  This time, after researching various methodologies and talking to friends about their failures and successes with the nibs, I plan to use roasted nibs from a local chocolatier (Theo), presoak them in a bit of vodka as a vehicle for extracting some of the non-water soluble flavor and aroma compounds, and aging the beer on the nibs for a short period of only 3-7 days.    Hopefully using this method will impart the natural bitter-sweet chocolate flavor that I’m looking for and by sampling daily, I’ll be able to transfer the beer off the nibs before any negative flavors start to develop.

Recipe Specifics

Batch Size (Gal): 6

Total Grain (Lbs): 16.75

Actual OG: 1.067

Final Gravity: 1.015

Anticipated SRM:  36

Anticipated IBUs:   25

Wort Boil Time:  60

Grain Bill

30.2% - 4.75 lbs Breiss Rye Malt

28.6% - 4.50 lbs Weyermann Munich Type 2

27.0% - 4.25 lbs Gambrinus 2-Row

7.9% - 1.25 lbs Flaked Oats

6.3% - 1.0 lb Breiss Midnight Wheat

1.0 lb Rice Hulls

Hops/Spices

40 grams Styrian Goldings (pellets, 5.2% AA) @ 45 minutes

4 oz. Theo Organic Roasted Cacao Nibs @ secondary for 3-7 days

1 Tahitian Vanilla Bean (Split) @ secondary for 3-7 days

Yeast

Wyeast 2124 Bohemian Lager

Water Profile and Additions

Charcoal filtered Seattle Water

Mash Additions: 0.5 g/g Calcium Chloride

HLT Additions: 0.1 ml/g Phosphoric Acid (0.75ml)

Boil Additions: 1 g/g Calcium Chloride and 0.35g/g Epsom Salt

Mash Schedule

90 minute rest at 146°

15 minute mash out rest at 168°

Sparged with 170° water

Notes

3/1/12 – Added two packets of Wyeast 2124 to 2.5L of starter wort and placed on stirplate at 54°.  After 36 hours, another 1.5L of wort was added.  36 hours later, started was placed in fridge to crash cool and drop the yeast.

3/11/12 – Brewed solo.

Doughed in at 153° and mash came to rest at 147°.  Made mineral additions and mash pH came in at 5.16 and HLT at 5.26.

90 minute mash and a long sparge.  Collected 5.25 gallons of 1.082 wort with final runnings stopping at 1.046.  Topped up to about 7.3 gallons. 

Boiled for 60 minutes (post break) and since only 1 hop addition, I used a hop sack.  Finished with 6.25 gallons of 1.067 wort.

Chilled down to 48° and let rest for about a half hour.  Decanted yeast starter and added about a quart of wort from the kettle.  Placed both yeast and carboy in fermentation chamber at 47° and let rest for 30 minutes. 

Oxygenated for 90 seconds and then pitched in yeast.  Set fermentation chamber at 49°.

4/1/12 – Sampled and gravity down to 1.0155 so I bumped up temp to 58° for a diactyl rest.

4//4/12 - Crash cooled to 33°

4/712 - Racked over and onto 4oz, by weight, of Theo Cacao nibs (which had been soaking in Bend Distillery's Crater Lake Vodka for 24 hours...just enough to cover the nibs) and 3/4 Tahitian vanilla bean (split and seeded...and also had been soaking in 5ml of Vodka for 2 hours).  

Autumn Maple Clone(s) Tasting

From left to right, '09 Clone, '09 Bruery's Autumn Maple, and '10 Clone

Although I brewed my first attempt at an Autumn Maple clone over 2 years ago and my 2nd attempt about 1 year ago, in all that time never once did I taste either side by side with the real thing.  I also never compared my two versions to one another at the same time.  It’s crazy to think that I allowed that much time to pass without conducting the tasing, but after realizing this, I decided it was time to put them to the test. 

Last week I hosted our monthly homebrew club meeting and it ended up being the perfect opportunity to present the three-way comparison.  Since only a few of the members had previously tasted my versions and not everyone had had the chance to try the Bruery’s Autumn Maple, I thought it would be fun to make it a blind tasting.  Since my first batch was nearly 2 years old, I was afraid to open up a fresh commercial bottle of Autumn Maple in fear that the alcohol and spicing intensities might be different.  Luckily enough, I happened to have a bottle from '09 that I squirreled away in my cellar that was perfect for the occasion.

Appearance:  Even though I poured the glasses and knew which beer was in which glass, it was clear to see which one was not like the others.  The Bruery’s beer showed significantly more carbonation, which resulted in a small layer of foam that lingered around the edge of the glass long after all the others had faded.  The two versions that I brewed were crystal clear with a slightly more orange hue than the commercial beer.  What really surprised me though was that my two clones were practically identical looking even though I used nearly twice the amount of yams in my '10 clone.  I'm not sure whether it was due to them bottle conditioning their beer or not, but the commercial version was slightly cloudy (mine were force carbed and bottled with a counter-pressure filler).

Aroma:  The differences here were very subtle.  I’d say my original clone attempt (’09) smelled nearly identical to the Bruery’s ’09, but my ’10 clone maybe had a bit of a milder spice composition. 

Taste:  I was extremely surprised at how similar the flavors were between my ’09 clone and the Bruery’s ’09 Autumn Maple.  Comparing the two, the spices in the Bruery’s version might have been a little more round with maybe a touch more molasses cookie flavor, but if so, the differences were extremely subtle.  With the '10 clone, the spices seemed even a bit more subdued and more importantly, it had this very nice warm, caramelliness/toffeeness to it.  Maybe it's due to the lower alcohol than in my first clone or maybe it's from the addition of yams in the boil, but regardless, the flavors in this beer seemed to blend together in a smoother manor than all the others and for me it was the most enjoyable to drink.

Mouthfeel:  Although the Bruery’s beer showed more signs of carbonation, I’m not sure if I really felt a difference in my mouth.  One member of our group mentioned that they thought the Bruery’s version had a slightly fuller mouthfeel maybe from less attenuation. 

From left to right, '10 Clone, '09 Bruery Autumn Maple, and '09 Clone

Overall:  Overall I was shocked at how close my two beers came to the original.  When you have them all in front of you and you're trying to determine ways in which they differ, yes, you can find minor variations.  However, between the '09 clone and the '09 commercial version, those differences were so subtle that I would be willing to bet that if I were to hand someone familiar with Autuman Maple my own ’09 clone and tell them that it was the Bruery’s beer, they'd never even suspect that it was anything but the original (aside from the clarity).  The same thing might happen with the ’10 clone, but because it had the nice rounder spice and toffee note, I wouldn't feel as confident. 

Since the above notes are more of a comparison between the beers and not actual descriptions of their components, you can see what some BJCP judges wrote about them by clicking here:  ’09 Autumn Maple Clone and ’10 Autumn Maple Clone

Hair of the Dog Matt Clone

With NHC approaching, my brewing focus lately has been centered on creating beers to serve at either Club Night or in the Hospitality Suite.  I’ll still probably enter a few into the competition for fun, but I get so much more enjoyment out of creating something that’s unique and complex rather than crafting the best possible example of a certain style.  Since I’ll be serving my beer to the public, I obviously want to lead with my best foot forward and what better way to do that than to attempt to recreate a beer that, to me, is very possibly the best I’ve ever had…Hair of the Dog’s commemorative beer Matt.

Matt is a beer that was originally created to honor the 10^th anniversary of one of Seattle’s best bottle shops…Bottleworks.  This sinfully delicious concoction is absolutely unique in that it’s an intensely malty, relatively sweet beer with flavors of caramel, chocolate and dark fruits balanced with a hint of smoke from both peat and rauch malt.  The beer was then aged in 30 yr bourbon barrels and Eau de Vie de Pomme casks from Clear Creek Distillery in Portland before being blended for the final product.    

Alan Sprints, the owner/brewer of Hair of the Dog Brewery, has been very generous in giving out details about his more commonly produced beers such as Fred, Adam, and Doggie Claws, but locating information relating to Matt was a bit more of a challenge.  According to numerous unconfirmed web sources, Matt was based off of the grain bill for Adam and this served as a starting point for me (Alan produced an Adam recipe for Sean Paxton which you can view here).  According to Alan though, Matt is produced using two Munich Malts, 2 smoked malts, and 2 Belgian sugars and so Matt clearly isn’t just a scaled up, barrel aged version of Adam.

Knowing that Alan likes to use Gambrinus malts, I decided that I too would use their Pale malt as a base with significant portions of their 10 and 30 lovibond Munichs.  Two Munichs, check.  Unsure of which Belgian sugars are used, I opened up a bottle of Matt and tried to pick out the various flavors myself.  With so much going on in the beer, it was difficult to pinpoint the specific flavors exactly, but there were definitely a lot of caramel/toffee notes along with some underlying raisin-y/fig type flavors.  In the end I decided to go with a 50/50 mix of D1 and D2 Belgian Candi Syrup (D1 for the more caramel/molasses flavors and D2 for the more rich fruit flavors).  Two Belgian sugars, check.

Determining which smoked malts to use and the corresponding amounts caused me a bit of debate.  Adam definitely uses peated malt, along with rauch malt, but my sensitivity to it is pretty strong and the last thing that I wanted was for my Matt beer to come out tasting like band aides from all the peat phenols.  Alan mentions in the July 31^st podcast of the Sunday Session that he does use peated malt, but that the phenol levels are quite different between the different maltsters (primarily Simpsons and Hugh Baird) and you have to be careful with what you choose.  After researching the two, I was excited to learn that the Hugh Baird variety only had a phenol level in the 4-6ppm range whereas Simpsons was up near 12-24ppm…but this excitement quickly vanished after an exhaustive search to locate some HB failed to provide any results.  In the end, and after doing a side by side taste of Matt and Adam, I decided that I would still use the Simpson’s malt, but just cut down the overall level.  If 3.2% of the grist from Adam is the Hugh Baird variety of peated malt, which has an average phenol level of 5ppm, I treated this as 16 units of peated phenols (3.2 x 5ppm = 16).  So, with only access to Simpsons malt, I knew that I wanted the overall peated phenol level to come in at about ½ to 2/3 the amount of that in Adam and so I ended up making only 0.55% of my grist Simpsons peated malt (0.55 x the average phenol level of Simpsons malt…18 = 10 phenol units).

As for the remainder of the grist, I tried to stick with either ingredients that Alan would use or malts from the various maltsters that he likes (i.e. Crisp crystal malts).  There’s an important distinction though between trying to replicate a recipe and replicate a result.  In the case of Matt, I wanted the result and so even though I’m sure Alan didn’t use all of the same ingredients or proportions that I did, my choices were based on the experience that I’ve had with these ingredients of the flavor contributions that I thought that they would impart. 

With the grist settled, it was time for brew day.  One of the ways in which Alan generates such rich, full bodied beers is through the use of a high temperature mash.  It seems counterintuitive to create such a high gravity beer starting with a 157° mash, but with a large pitch and a generous dose of oxygen, hopefully the Scottish Ale strain will be up for the challenge.  During the mash, I decided that I would leave the roasted grains out until mash-out so as not to have to adjust my water too much.  When I added them though, after 10 minutes the color was nowhere near the nearly opaque blackness of the original beer.  I was hesitant to add more grains since I didn’t want the end product to have any sort of roasted harshness, but after tasting the wort, there was definitely room for a second addition.

With a long, four-hour, melanoidin-producing boil, my Matt brew day turned out to be one of my longest on record.  Even though Alan pitches at 75° and ferments at 68°, the Scottish Ale strain is relatively clean and rather than risking any additional alcohol heat, I ended up pitching at 62° and fermenting at 60°.  As the fermentation slows, I’ll gradually increase the temperature up to 68° to finish and then rack half onto a half ounce of oak with Clear Creek’s 8 yr Eau de Vie de Pomme and half onto a half ounce of oak with Maker’s Mark.  After six months of aging, hopefully the beer will show some slight resemblance of the original Matt.

Hair of the Dog Matt

Recipe Specifics

Batch Size (Gal): 6.3

Total Grain (Lbs):  23.54

Anticipated OG:  1.108

Anticipated SRM:  37.8

Anticipated IBU:  74

Wort Boil Time (mins):  240

Anticipated ABV:  11.1%

Grain/Fermentables

56.6% - 14.0 lbs Gambrinus Pale Malt

15.2% - 3.75 lbs Gambrinus 10L Munich

11.1% - 2.75 lbs Gambrinus 30L Munich

4.0% - 1.00 lbs Crisp 77L Crystal Malt

3.2% - 0.8 lbs D2 Candi Syrup

3.2% - 0.8 lbs D1 Candi Syrup

3.0% - 0.75 lbs Crisp 45L Crystal Malt

1.5% - 6 oz. Crisp Chocolate Malt (See Notes Below)

1.0% - 4 oz. Weyerman Smoked Malt

0.5% - 2 oz. Crisp Black Malt (See Notes Below)

0.5% - 2 oz. Simpsons Peated Malt

Hops

28 grams Northern Brewer (9.4% AA, Pellets) @ 95 mins

28 grams Northern Brewer (9.4% AA, Pellets) @ 50 mins

35 grams Styrian Goldings (5.2% AA, Pellets) @ 45 mins

Yeast

Wyeast 1728 Scottish Ale

Water Profile and Additions

Charcoal filtered Seattle water

Mash Additions:  0.5g/g Gypsom, 0.5g/g Baking Soda

Sparge Additions: Adjusted pH down to 5.6 using phosphoric acid

Boil Additions: 4.5 grams Calcium Chloride, 2.1 grams Epsom Salt, 1.2 grams NaCl

Mash Schedule

60 minutes @ 157°

20 minutes @ 168°

Sparge with 170° water

Notes

Brewed solo on 10/22/11

10/16/11 – Made yeast starter with 2 liters 1.035 starter wort and 2 smack packs.  Placed on stirplate for 36 hours and then crashed in the fridge.  After 12 hours, decanted spent wort.  On brew day, I added another liter of fridge-temp wort to the yeast and placed flask on stirplate @ 60°.

10/22/11 – Doughed into 8.5 gallons at 165° and came to a rest at 156°.  Temp at 157° after 3 minutes.  Added mash minerals and took a pH reading which came out to be 5.31.  Also added phosphoric acid to sparge tank until pH reached 5.6.

After 60 minutes, I adjusted the temp regulator to bring the mash up to 168° and at the same time, I added in the chocolate and black patent malts.  Color was nowhere near dark enough, so I tasted the wort and added in another 3 oz. chocolate and 3 oz. black patent. 

At sparge, first runnings were 1.075.  Collected 8 gallons with a total of 594 gravity units.  Final runnings ended at 1.064.

Started boil and after 20 minutes, pH was at 5.13.  After 60 minutes of boiling time, sugar and mineral additions were added.  Boiled down to 5 gallons adding hops at the appropriate times.  With about 45 minutes left to go, I topped off to about 6.75 gallons.  Yeast nutrient, whirlflock, and immersion chiller were all added in the last 15 minutes.

Chilled down to 65°, rested for one hour, and then racked into carboy.  Carboy was placed in the fermentation chamber @ 60° and after 2 hours, temp had dropped to 62°.  At this point, I aerated with pure 0₂ for 60 seconds and then pitched entire yeast starter.

10/25/11 – Raised temp to 62°

10/27/11 – Raised temp to 65°

10/29/11 – Raised temp to 68°

11/5/11 (expected) – Assuming that the beer has completed fermentation by this date, I plan on splitting the beer into two kegs.  Into keg one will go a half ounce of oak (11 American Heavy Toast cubes, 3 French Med+ cubes, and 2 charred American Heavy Toast cubes) and the 4 oz of Makers Mark that they’ve been soaking in.   In the other keg, I’ll add the same variety of oak and the 4 oz. of Clear Creek Distillery’s 8 yr Eau de Vie de Pomme that they’ve been soaking in for the last three weeks.  This will all go down into my basement (~60°) and rest for six months.  I’ll taste along the way and add more oak/spirits if needed.

Autumn Maple II and the Yambic

Back in October of ’09 when we set out to clone the Bruery’s Autumn Maple, we were experimenting with a strain of yeast that we hadn’t worked with before…the Bruery’s house yeast.  With commercial strains, you can review the fermentation specs before hand and expect the yeast to maintain those same properties, allowing you to craft a beer to your own desires.  With unknown strains though, aside from scouring the internet to find another brewer who captured and brewed with the same strain, you’re basically left to assumptions and experimentation.  Those assumptions led us to brew a 13% abv beer when, in fact, we intended to only brew a 10% beer.

Although the 13% version of Autumn Maple turned out to be a fantastic beer in its own right, it wasn’t what we were aiming for and before settling on the recipe, we wanted to make some adjustments to hit our initially intended goal.  Two things come to mind: 1.) gravity/abv and 2.) flavor profile.

First the ABV.  With the ’09 batch of Autumn Maple, we made the assumption that the Bruery’s house strain of yeast would act in a similar manner to most commercially available, high-gravity Belgian strains of yeast and attenuate somewhere in the range of 74-78%.  With this assumption in mind, we crafted the beer to have an OG of 1.100 so that at 76% attenuation, we would end up with about 10% abv.  After fermentation completed, we discovered that the yeast could tear through the wort and was capable of attenuation rates closer to 98%.  With this knowledge in mind, for batch two we decided to scale down the OG to 1.080 so that at 98% attenuation, we’d end up with a 10% beer.

Second, the flavor.  A complaint that I often have with pumpkin beers is that you only taste the spices and not the pumpkin.  With our first batch of Autumn Maple, the spice mixture was at a perfect level and although there was a touch of yam flavor, it didn’t stand out as much as we wanted it to.  Whereas with the first batch we only added the cooked yams to the mash, for batch 2 we decided that not only would we increase the amount of yams in the mash but we’d also add some yams to the boil.  With the increased volume in the mash and the new addition in the boil, hopefully the yam flavor will shine through and elevate the beer to new levels.

Autumn Maple II / Yambic

Recipe Specifics

---------------------

Batch Size (Gal): 6.0

Total Grain (Lbs): 13.5

Anticipated OG: 1.080

Anticipated SRM: 14

Anticipated IBUs: 23

Wort Boil Time: 90

Anticipated ABV: 10.0%

Grain/Fermentables

---------------------------

46.5% - 9.0 lbs Domestic 2-Row

20.7% - 4 lbs Munich Malt

26.1% - 5 lbs Cooked Yams

3.2% - 10 oz. Grade B Maple Syrup (added at secondary)

2.8% - ½ lb CaraMunich

0.6% - 2 oz. Dark Molasses

Hops/Spices

---------
65 grams Libery (pellets, 3.0% AA) @ 60 minutes

1 ½ grams Allspice, freshly ground @ 2 minutes
¾ gram Cinnamon stick, broken into small pieces @ 2 minutes
¾ gram Nutmeg, freshly grated @ 2 minutes
1 Tahitian Vanilla Bean, split and seeded @ 2 minutes

Yeast

---------------

Bruery house strain – cultured from a bottle of Orchard White

Water Profile and Additions

------------------------------------

Charcoal filtered Seattle water

Mash Additions: 0.1 gram/gallon baking soda

Boil Additions: 1.2 g/g Calcium Chloride, 0.25 g/g Epsom Salt, 0.2 g/g table salt.

Mash Schedule

--------------------

15 minutes @ 135°

60 minutes @ 151°

20 minutes @ 168°

Sparge with 170° Water

Notes

--------

Brewed on 9/26/2010 with Blake and Paul

9/13/2010 – Started growing up the dregs from an Orchard White.  Same process was used as in the first batch: Harvested the dregs from a bottle of Orchard White and mixed with 10ml of 1.035 worth.  Once fermentation started, I added another 20ml and then 24 hours later, another 50ml.  24 hours after that, I stepped it up to 250 ml, then 1000ml, then 2000ml, and then 4000ml all with about 24 hours in between each step.

9/26/2010 – Placed about 5lbs of washed yams on the BBQ and 5lbs in the oven for about 45 minutes.  After the yams were cooked, we mashed them all up, skins and all and measured out 5lbs to add to the mash (shortly after dough in).

With the additional yam content, we ran into a few issues where the mash stopped recirculating.  We were able to get it started again each time by stirring the mash and back-pressuring the line.  Next time, we’ll add rice hulls.

Other than the few stuck mash times, the mash went smoothly and our efficiency was great.  Collected 7 gallons of 1.069 wort and topped off kettle to a little over 7 ½ gallons.

Hops added at 60 minutes.

Molasses added at 20 minutes.

Whirlflock and yeast nutrient added at 15 minutes.

Spices were added at 2 minutes.  Same amounts were used as during the first batch: 2 parts allspice, 1 part cinnamon, and 1 part nutmeg (3 grams in total).  We also added one whole Tahitian vanilla bean which we split and seeded.

90 minute boil.  Wort chilled to 68° and 60 seconds of pure 02 was dosed.  6 gallons of 1.081 wort in total.  5 gallons went into one carboy and then the Bruery yeast was pitched.

Yambic

Yambic - About ¾ of a gallon of the pre-pitched wort went into a gallon jug.  To this jug, we added a ½ cup of a sour starter that we had on hand (starter contained the dregs from numerous beers: Deviation, Vagabond, Isabelle Proximus, Girardin Gueuze 1882, etc).  Should be interesting to see what it can do to such a high gravity wort.

Primary fermentation took place at 68°.

10/6/2010 – Racked to secondary and 10 oz. of grade B maple syrup were added.  Beer was moved up to my office which had an ambient temp of about 70°.

12/11/10 – Moved both the Yambic and the Autumn Maple down to the basement where temp is about 63°.  Gravity at 1.002.

3/6/2011 – Kegged the autumn maple.  There’s definitely more yam flavor than the first batch, but the beer is also more cloudy.  With the lower alcohol, it’s smoother than the first beer initially was but it also doesn’t taste as complex or rounded.  We’ll see what it’s like with carbonation.

11/17/2011 - Tasting and review

Imperialized Autumn Maple

There’s something to be a said about commercial pumpkin beers…a high percentage of the time, they’re complete garbage.  I absolutely love fall, I love pumpkins, and I of course love beer, but when the three are married together, more often than not, the  harmony that was meant to be is nowhere to be found and what remains can only be described as a sad excuse for ingenuity.  Not a lot of character comes from the pumpkin itself and most of the time I find that brewers try to overcompensate for this by adding too many spices or leaving the beer too sweet with a one-dimensional flavor. 

Although not brewed with actual pumpkin, the Bruery’s Autumn Maple breaks this mold and finds a balance between the actual yam essence, the warming alcohol, and the broad range of spices and phenolic flavors.  Even though it doesn’t blow your hair back at first sip, the yam flavor is present and the spices are subtle enough to plant that seed of fall in your head without making you feel like you’re choking on grandma’s pumpkin pie.  In my mind, it’s a great harvest offering and having never brewed a pumpkin beer myself, I thought it best to start out by trying to emulate one that I actually respect. 

According to an interview with The Brewing Network back in November of ’08, founder Patrick Rue stated that Autumn Maple is mashed with a full 17lbs of yams per barrel, has a grain bill comprised of 2-row, munich, and caramunich, and is spiced and flavored with the following: a 1 lb mix cinnamon, allspice, ginger, and nutmeg per 15 barrels, 1 pound Tahitian vanilla bean per 15 barrels, as well as molasses and maple syrup.  

Without knowing either the original or final gravity of the beer, we played around with the grain bill until we arrived at a grist that, at an estimated 75% efficiency and attenuation rate, would give us a 10% ABV beer.  To keep it authentic, we cultured up the Bruery’s house Belgian yeast from one of their lower alcohol beers, Orchard White, and pitched a decanted 4 ½ ltr starter into the primary.  Amazingly, the yeast strain turned out to be extremely attenuative and transformed our 1.100 wort into a 1.001 gravity beer.  At just a touch over 13% alcohol, the beer still retains a surprising amount of body, has a mild yam flavor and just the right amount of spices. 

Imperial Autumn Maple

Recipe Specifics

----------------------

Batch Size (Gal): 5.0
Total Grain (Lbs): 13.5
Anticipated OG: 1.099
Anticipated SRM: 19
Anticipated IBU: 25.8
Wort Boil Time: 150 Minutes

Anticipated ABV: 10.0%

Actual ABV: 13.2%

Grain/Fermentables

---------------------------

50 ½ % - 9.00 lbs domestic 2-Row

22.5% - 4.00 lbs Munich Malt

28.5% - 3.3 lbs Cooked Yams

3.5% - 10 oz. Maple Syrup

2.8% - ½ lb Caramunich

2.1% - 2 oz. Dark Molasses

Hops/Spices

---------------

40 grams Liberty (pellets, 4.5% AA) @ 60 minutes
1 ½ grams Allspice, freshly ground @ 2 minutes
¾ gram Cinnamon stick, broken into small pieces @ 2 minutes
¾ gram Nutmeg, freshly grated @ 2 minutes
1 Tahitian Vanilla Bean, split and seeded @ 2 minutes

Yeast

-------

Bruery house strain – cultured from a bottle of Orchard White

Water Profile and Additions

------------------------------------

Charcoal filtered Seattle water

1.2 grams per gallon Calcium Chloride added to the mash and sparge

Mash Schedule

-------------------

60 minutes @ 151

15 minutes @ 168

Sparge with 172 degree H2O

Notes

-------

Brewed on 10/25/2009 with Blake and Paul

10/15/2009 – Harvested the dregs from a bottle of Orchard White and mixed with 10ml of 1.035 worth.  Once fermentation started, I added another 20ml and then 24 hours later, another 50ml.  24 hours after that, I stepped it up to 250 ml, then 1000ml, then 2000ml, and then 4000ml all with about 24 hours in between each step.

10/25/2009 – Placed about 2.5 lbs of washed yams on my BBQ and 2.5 lbs in  350 degree oven for about 45 minutes.  Once both sets were cooked through, we smashed them in bowl, skins and all, and then added 3.3 lbs of the yams, along with the grain, into the mash tun.

Mashed at 151 for 60 minutes and then raised the temp to 168 for a mash out.

The mash and sparge wasn’t as efficient as we hoped, so after collecting 6 gallons in one kettle, we started collecting in another to allow for faster evaporation when boiling.  Later the two were combined before the hop addition.

Hops at 60 minutes.

Molasses was added at 20 minutes.

Whirlflock and yeast nutrient added at 15 minutes.

Spices were added at 2 minutes:  Although we knew what spices the Bruery used, we didn’t know the exact ratio.   To come up with our own, we freshly ground each spice, tasted, and then weighted according to our preferences.  We decided to forgo the ginger knowing how it can be such an overwhelming flavor and ended up with about 2 parts allspice, 1 part cinnamon, and 1 part nutmeg (3 grams in total).  We also added one whole Tahitian vanilla bean which we split and seeded.

After a total of 150 minutes boil time, wort was chilled to 67 and aerated with an oxygen air stone for 60 seconds.

Primary fermentation took place at 68 degrees.

11/8/09 - Racked to secondary and onto 10 oz. of grade B maple syrup.  Beer was moved up to my office, which has an average temp of about 70 degrees.

1/25/10 – Split beer into two kegs for maturation: half straight, half with a bourbon soaked oak stave that weighed about an ounce dry.

4/12/2010 – Kegged and carbonated.

11/17/2011 - Tasting and review.