Sandbox Brewing

Brewed:  March 6th, 2016          Bottled: March 30th, 2016

This was a re-brew of the first homebrew batch myself and my occasional brewing partner, Sean, ever made. We kept the recipe identical with the exception of the hop schedule, which was adjusted from 15 and 5 minute additions to a 60 minute bittering charge and a whirlpool addition. We’re considering it an annual brew that we hope to brew every March.

Details:

10 lbs Bohemian Pilsner

2 lbs Wheat malt

0.5 oz Azacca (AA 10.3%) at 60 minutes

1.5 oz Azacca (AA 10.3%) at 5 minutes

Mashed at 153F for 60 minutes

Boiled 90 minutes

Fermented at 68-70F

 

Tasting Notes:

03/30/2016 – Tasting very good on bottling day, the azacca hops are coming through loud and clear with a nice distinctive citrus flavour.

05/31/2016 – This beer turned out well. The azacca is quite distinctive, and was coming through with a minty herbal quality for a bit but has come around to retain its uniqueness without being odd. Great head retention, lots of hop aroma and flavour with a balanced bitterness. Quite pleased with this batch – I find myself craving this beer when it’s hot out.

 

 

 

 

 

Brewed: March 3, 2015              Bottled: March 27, 2016

ABV: 5.5%    IBU: 30

 

Bresse & Byre is intended to be a country (farmhouse) ale that draws inspiration from the style’s more historical roots. As such, the ABV will be modest and there’ll be a fairly assertive bitterness to keep acid-producing bacteria under control. In the spirit of small, resourceful farmhouses its recipe will also utilize a number of fermentables and each batch will be unique.

 

The heart of this brew was the Wallonian Farmhouse yeast from The Yeast Bay. It’s my first time using it. The recipe was developed to be around 5.5% ABV and 30 IBU. I went with 2-row instead of pilsner as the base malt due to the fact that I was brewing this with only an ice bath chill and a stove-top boil, neither of which are well suited to pilsner malt.

 

Details:

3.50 lbs  Canadian 2-row

0.50 lbs  Munich

0.50 lbs  Wheat malt

0.25 lbs  Flaked wheat

0.15 lbs  Dextrose / Corn sugar

0.10 lbs  Acidulated malt

 

It was hopped at 50 minutes with 0.5 oz Strisselspalt and 0.25 oz Tettnang, and then the same quantities were also added at 10 minutes, along with the sugar. Here’s the rest of the details:

 

1/4 tsp CaCl was added to the mash water

Mash was carried out as an infusion at 152F for 75 minutes

Sparged at 169F, resulted in about 3.7 gallons of 1.043 SG wort

Boiled 75 minutes then chilled to 67F, resulting in an OG of 1.052.

 

The yeast was pitched at 8:30pm on Thursday, and when I went to work at 7:00am the next morning there was still no activity, which is the longest lag I’ve had yet and it had me a bit concerned. By 11:00am there was plenty of action though, and when I got home that evening it was really churning. By Sunday it had largely flocculated and the haze was starting to settle out.

 

Tasting Notes:

 

Apr 14, 2016 – 3 weeks in bottle, medium carbonation. Tastes young but the yeast profile seems promising.

 

Apr 25, 2016 – Light, citrus and earthy components. Slightly spicy.  Tasting pretty good.

 

Dec 15, 2016 – Gusher bottle. Cherry flavour on the nose which I don’t remember picking up before. Neat aroma, but there are some displeasing esters in the taste that I am not super into.

 

Dec 29, 2016 – Some bottles have gushed strongly, but this one was only a slow gush. Certainly some additional slow attenuation occurred after bottling as this is carbonated to easily 4-5 volumes now. A unique yeast strain for sure, and as already mentioned it’s not really my bag. Nose is orange zest and herbal notes, while the taste also adds a mineral character and a very dry finish. There is something unwelcome that lingers on as well, though not too strongly.

 

 

 

 

Brewed: Feb 27, 2016   Bottled:  May 28, 2016

This was a homebrew collaboration with Ryan of Maison Brewing (formerly Playhouse), but Ryan has done the bulk of the planning, brewing, and after-pitch care. I add this to my list for completeness, but Ryan deserves the lion’s share of the recognition for this beer.

We teamed up on this beer because we both had the same vision for what it should be:  Somewhere in the 13 – 15% ABV range, minimally bitter, and inspired by English style barleywines such as Pelican’s Mother of All Storms. I had wanted to do a barleywine with rye, particularly flaked rye, so we worked that into the recipe. Ryan had a large starter of WYeast 1318 for our initial pitch, and for insurance he also pitched WY1728 after fermentation was well underway. This was brewed on Ryan’s system.

Ryan developed a feeding schedule for this beer after knockout which included additional oxygen, nutrient, and sugar by way of DME additions. While our OG at the end of the boil was approximately 1.100, the theoretical OG after the additional sugar additions should put us at 1.131.  All post brew-day activities have been performed by Ryan.

OG: 1.135 (theoretical, based on sugar additions)

FG: 1.038

 

Tasting Notes:

05/28/2016 – Bottling from keg. Tastes nice, it’s already not overly harsh and the malt character shows raisin, fig, and plum. Nice English-level bitterness and plenty of sweetness. It’s a tad on the sweet side for style, but that’s the side we wanted to err on anyway. It’s also more pale than anticipated but it’s not a fault, as it’s still within range for style.

06/10/2016 – First bottle. Holy mackerel is this ever viscous stuff. Syrupy, sticky on the lips. Definitely lots of residual sugar but strikes a nice balance nonetheless with caramel, plums, and dark sugar flavours.