Brewing for BB2014

[TheMacheteMasher]

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Alright gang lets start brewing for Bluebonnet 2014. There are 12 weeks remaining. That's enough time to brew almost any BJCP style including mead using the staggered nutrient additions.

First brew lagers (12 weeks) then ales (8 weeks) and last wheats (6 weeks). Allow the last two-four weeks for bottling and conditioning.

BB2014 Brew Schedule
Lagers & Smoked & Meads (Nov 24 -- Dec 7)
Ales & Belgians (Dec-14 -- Dec28)
Wheats (Jan 4 -- Jan 25)

Brew I'd like to see use keep the trophy again. I know a couple of folks are brewing for competition. What are you brewing?

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[RyanD]

Kevin and I are brewing a few for Bluebonnet. We are brewing our Winter Warmer this Friday that will go into the barrel for a month and ready right in time. We will also re-brew our S'more stout for BB. We will do at least one more batch for bluebonnet, not sure what quite yet. Our Oktoberfest took about 4 months of lagering but we finally kegged and its drinking great, a little sweet, didn't dry out as much as I'd like, its within BJCP guidelines for OG and FG but I am afriad we may lose points for a non-dry finish. We will enter it for sure though. What are you entering Barrett? If our Berliner Weisse is sour enough in time we will enter that as well. We are also going to enter our whiskey barrel aged pumpkin beer. Maybe the base beer as well. That puts us at somewhere around 5-7 entries.

[TheMacheteMasher]

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Ryan looks like you and Kevin are body slamming the specialty beers. I am planning to enter list longer than my arm if funds permit. I have been cleaning house of old beers and experimental sours. Here is the short list: Gueuze, Sour, Berliner, Stout, Saison, Belgian Specialty, Cider, Mead. As for new beers I'm mentally challenged (subject to change mid-brewday). I am planing a Kolsch in competitive spirit with Fred. Then maybe a nice Bitter/Mild and lastly maybe an IPA. Thinking what could I pull off at each month of the brew schedule. When BB2014 registration arrives I'll sample and enter the best of the bunch.

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[Bill Lawrence]

Just starting? Your kidding right? I start brewing for the Bluebonnet immediately after the Limbo Challenge was completed. I already have half of my entries bottled and four more are already brewed just waiting to be kegged or bottled. Since I have relatively little in the way of cool storage ('cause my name ain't Fred or Wayne) I need to stick to a fairly rigid production schedule. If I do this right I should have:

English Bitter
Brown Porter
English IPA
Northern English Brown Ale
Dortmunder Export
Munich Dunkel
Ocktoberfest
English ESB
Oatmeal Stout
Oud Bruin
Olde Ale

Of course the last two have been sitting around a lot longer than since August. The Oud Bruin has some beer in it that is maybe four years old (I have a solera going) and the Olde Ale is about 1 1/2 years old. Naturally, after going to all that trouble I'll likely get my ass handed to me on a silver platter but at least I'll go down swinging.

By the way there Ryan, if your lagers are coming out too sweet I suspect maybe you are not pitching enough healthy yeast (been there, done that, got the t-shirt). My regular routine is to make up a 3 liter starter and/or use the yeast off the first lager to brew the second one (especially if it is high gravity). As you suggest, you absolutely want to dry those beers out as much as you can, you want malty but not sweet.

[TheMacheteMasher]

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Bill yes I am just starting to brew for BB2014. I will brew a lager after work on Wednesday started the yeast on thanksgiving. I'd like to get high gravity beers started early and well aged when time allows. The schedule will allow for three beers into BB at their peak.

What are you thoughts on brewing early for competition? For me the concern is cold storage space. Bottling early would allow for more accurate assessment when entering. There is also the challenge to bottle for stability (lipids & oils (rancid, head retention), yeast (carbonation & infection), oxidation (sherry, hop & malt degreadation). Assuming the brewer can reach carbonation levels by force carbonation the production time can be shortened. My effort to produce a stable bottle. I am cold crashing to drop the yeast and racking. I'm not a fan of using fining glue or biomass. Fred filtered my last blond ale (notsokolsch) which helped to stabilize the beer. I agree aging to drop the green notes is needed. Here are the ones I'd brew fresh what's your timeline?

English Bitter (7 days ferment, 4-7 days cold, (rack bright, carbonate), Age 2 weeks bottle) 4 weeks
Brown Porter (10 days ferment, 4-7 days cold, (rack bright, carbonate), Age 4 weeks bottle) 6 weeks
English IPA (10 days ferment, 4-7 days hopped, (rack), 4-7 days cold, (rack, carbonate), Age 2 weeks bottle) 6 weeks
English ESB (7-14 days ferment, 4-7 days cold, (rack bright, carbonate), Age 4 weeks bottle) 6 weeks
Oatmeal Stout (10 days ferment, 4-7 days cold, (rack bright, carbonate), Age 6 weeks bottle) 8 weeks

Now that my neck is on the line here lets chat about the merits of keeping these beers longer like process (water, mash ph, hot side aeration, trub & break) and fermentation (oxygenated wort, nutrient, pitch, ferment temp schedule).

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[Bill Lawrence]

Generally speaking, I like to enter stuff that is no more than 6 months old (with certain exceptions of course). I also force carbonate, again with exceptions. Some beers are better when really young like heffe for instance (and I guess American hop bombs). I will force carbonate everything I enter this year except the Oud Bruin, I ain't letting those bugs get anywhere near my counter pressure filler so I'll bottle the entire keg and naturally carbonate. Now I know Fred will get his knickers in a wad by me saying this but in my opinion, filtering your beer can cause some issues and actually reduce stability (depending somewhat on how tight you filter). At the end of the day though, I use what I call the "throw it up against the wall and see what sticks approch". I try to brew the best I can then trust to luck; hell most of the time I badly overestimate some of my beers and underestrimate others. I figure in the BB if I can get any kind of metal at all I'm doing ok so I try to get 8 to 10 decent entries and hope I get lucky somewhere.

[Stormin Norman]

Hey folks, I'm new to nthba. Just joined.
I've never competed but would like to get involved. I don’t really know how to get started. I don’t want to steer your post off topic but are there some “things you need to know before you decide to compete” thread/FAQ out there you can point me to? Just something to get my head around what to expect.

On another note I was planning to try and make the next scheduled brew day to introduce myself and maybe bring a few of my brews to see if they are even worthy of competition.

Thanks!

[Bill Lawrence]

Competitions are essentially just a trial by fire and they are extremely subjective. As long as you don't take this crap too seriously it can be really fun and also help you brew better beer. In my opinion, just pick out a few of your better efforts and give it a go. As you can tell, we are all trying (or some of us are thinking about) getting our beers ready for the Bluebonnet. By all means, bring some of your stuff to the next brewday. We just love to sit around and pontificate about beer and life in general. As it happens, the next brewday is at my house and myself and the ever lovely "Cougars" will be brewing an Imperial Bourbon/Vanilla Porter so at least you will know how Not to do it after we are done. We can for sure help you get your entries into the right category and you can drink up some of my swill if you dare. By the way, the club holiday party is this weekend and I suspect there will be some imbibing at that function as well.

[TheMacheteMasher]

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Here is a lager recipe for those who like to brew the winners.

Viking Gold - Munich Helles
by Vincent Rokke, Fargo, ND, Prairie Homebrewing Companions
http://wiki.homebrewersassociation.org/ ... oldNHC2011

5 Gallons 1.048 OG | 1.012 FG | 15 IBUs

8.5 lb German Pilsner Malt
1.0 lb Dextrin Malt

142F Mash 1st | 30 Min
152F Mash 2nd | 30 Min
165F Mash Out | 15 Min

75 Min Boil
1.0 oz Hallertau Hersbrucker 4.6% | 60 min
1 tsp. Irish moss | 15 min
1.0 oz Hallertau Hersbrucker 4.6% | Flame Out

Wyeast 2206 Bavarian Lager yeast | 3 Liter starter
18 days | 50F
Keg Condition | 35F Two Weeks+

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[Bill Lawrence]

Well at least I did something construtive with all this unfortunate ice. I got two entries bottled this weekend, an olde ale and an oud bruin. That brings my entry count up to six ready to go. If things go as planned I should have 5 more to go between now and the entry deadline (and two of them are already brewed).

[Jimmy Orkin]

I have been brewing lately. Landon and I did a Russian Imperial Stout. I did a Dopplebock two weeks ago complements of Brian Beyer and Dallas Homebrew. I kegged it up yesterday. Although Dopplebock is not one of my favorite styles it did taste pretty good.

I brewed a German Pilsner yesterday. I am planning to reuse the yeast from the Pils to brew a Dortmunder Export.

I want to try to make a Standard American Lager and a Hefeweizen and maybe something else before the BB.

That would give me 6 or so entries.

[TheMacheteMasher]

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Jimmy glad to see you and Bill are ahead of the crowd!

I took the cold weather to bottle up cider in champagne bottles as gifts. I brewed a Kolsch last Wednesday for BB. This will be a test of faith. It is my not-so-kolsch base with an appropriate hop schedule. Fermenting nicely/we shall see how she ferments.

I also split the batch onto some Lakewood Brewing -Till & Toil yeast. It will be a Saison. However, the TT yeast has been around since May so low-to-no expectations. I did revive the yeast first as a starter. The fermentation is smelling good. If all good well this on will be in BB.

I brew most Wednesdays so I should have time to catch up.
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[TheMacheteMasher]

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Here is an American Pale Ale recipe for those who like to brew the winners.

Sacred Summit Pale Ale
by BierMuncher
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f66/sacred- ... how-62758/

5 Gallons 1.055 OG | 1.011 FG | 35 IBUs

7.75 lb Maris Otter
1 lb Vienna Malt
1 lb Munich Type 2
1 lb Carapils (Dextrine)
0.25 lb Crystal 20L
0.25 lb Crystal 60L
0.25 lb Honey Malt 
155F Mash | 60 Min

90 Min Boil
0.50 oz Summit 16% | First Wort Hops 90 min
0.25 oz Summit 16% | 15 min
0.25 oz Summit 16% | 5 min
0.50 oz Summit 16% | Flame Out | 0 min
1 tsp. Irish moss | 15 min
0.50 oz Summit 16% | Dry Hops 7 Days
0.50 oz Williamette 5% | Dry Hops 7 Days

Safale - 05 Yeast
14 days | 65F
Keg Condition | Three Weeks

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[Jimmy Orkin]

There is way to much malt in the recipe for a 1.055 OG.

[TheMacheteMasher]

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