brewing in maine

I did rock, paper, scissors with myself and the Tripel won out. It’s off to Maine Brewing Supply (where’s your web site content dude?) later today to pick up ingredients. I’ll be kegging the Oktoberfest tonight so it’s ready to drink by Monday’s brew session.

Recipe for Monday is Jamil’s Tripel, potentially with some changes from the BYO Allagash Tripel clone recipe:

14 lb Pilsener
2.5 lb Cane Sugar (in boil at 15 minutes remaining)
0.25 lb Aromatic malt

Mash at 149 for higher fermentability, 90 minute boil.

2.3oz (65g) Tettnanger @ 60 min. – 4% AA
0.5oz (14g) Saaz @ 15 min. – 3.5% AA

WLP530 Abbey Ale x 2 in a 1L starter for ~275 billion cells

Ferment at 68 and let rise into the 70s as things get rolling…not that I have much control over this.

Brew video to follow.

It seems like every time I brew something I haven’t tried before I find myself looking up the Jamil Show podcast for that particular style. Usually I don’t use the recipe exactly (though this time I did) but it’s got a ton of great detail on the little things and why they matter. High mash temp for some extra unfermentable body, a little gypsum for Burtonizing my softened water, and so on. And you get this:

The recipe (direct from JZ, credit where credit is due) is below:

4 lb English pale malt (I used Maris Otter)
1/2 lb Munich malt
1/2 lb Honey malt
1 lb 40L Crystal malt
1/2 lb 120L Crystal malt
2 oz Pale Chocolate malt (for color and a touch of nutty roastedness)

1/2 oz Kent Goldings, 60 mins

California Ale (Chico) yeast (I used White Labs WLP001)

Mashed at 158 degrees for 60 minutes, single infusion, mashed out at 168 for 15 mins, recirculated for a while and then sparged. Much darker than expected, but probably the right SRM in the end. Late runnings were (obviously) much paler. Boiled for 90 minutes, and ran out of gas halfway and had to swap in the spare tank.

Starting gravity came in at 1036. Aerated for 45 mins (new aeration kit!) and pitched the WLP001. I’m planning to lock our thermostat at 65 for the next few days and see how it goes – looking for lower attenuation to hold onto some sweetness.

Can I just say how awesome Maine Brewing Supply is? No matter how obscure the malt, Rob’s got it.