Winter Warmer?

[Jake]

7.5lb 2-row
7.5lb Marris Otter
.75lb Crystal 240
.75lb Crystal 150
6oz Chocolate

Mash @ 152, Sparge @ 168

2oz of 4.8% willamette at 60min, 1.75oz of 3.9% tettnanger at 15 and 1.5oz of 5.3% cascade at flameout.


SO5

Going to be my first spunding valve batch, looking to drink around day 12-13

[Richard]

What's the OG on that? seems like maybe it'd be a wee bit on the low side for a warmer. Might want to mash higher and up the bill a bit for higher body and more booze (the "warm" in "warmer" so far as I'm concerned ) respectively.

Kyle has reported some good results using S-04 with spunding - apparently the profile is much less harsh and closer to a desirable English ale signature. On that basis alone (and that 05 might result in too uninteresting a flavour) I'd go with the S-04, but the Ringwood from the library would probably be your best bet.

Just my $0.02

[Jake]

Yea I like the idea of a few more pounds of grain. Maybe up it 4 pounds. What do you think about the ratio of caramel ... is using .75 or a pound of 240 too much?

I've mashed my last 2 batches at 158ish for a fuller body, and never really liked how they turned out (at all). Maybe I'll mash more around 155ish. I see that Picaroons mash temp is surprisingly low on their winter warmer, so was thinking of doing it low because I really like theirs. Believe it or not their mash temp is around 149-150 at the 30 min mark according to their brew blog on the website. I always thought that was pretty full.

[Jake]

Matter of fact, it appears that all of their beers mash temp are between 147-151 at the 30 minute mark according to their beer blog. I find that interesting because I thought they would have been done higher.

[Richard]

Yeah it's all down to taste at the end of the day - do what you like, we got no BJCP judges sitting around here right now - that said, 158 is a very high mash temp; I was thinking more like 154.

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=467&p=3952

I used 3lbs of crystal in an IPA and it was... very caramel. 3lbs is excessive, but if you like the flavour don't be afraid to push it up there... experiment ftw. Note that I was using 110, rather than 240. 240 would have deeper caramel notes; raisin-ish, almost. I've not used more than a half-lb of 240 in anything so I'm not about to try suggesting anything else on that front

When you say Crystal 60, do you mean 150?

I saw the Pic's brewblog a while back and was a little puzzled by their mash temps too.

[Jake]

Yea I mean Crystal 150. I'm going .75 240 and .75 150 ... we'll see how it turns out. I'm also going to add a couple oz of chocolate.

The 158 mash temp was more of an experiment than anything. I mashed the batch before that around 148, followed by 158, just to see the difference. I like the lower mash temp alottttt more.

[fakr]

surprisingly, after "Best Bitter", Picaroon's winter warmer was really what turned me onto their beer.  Something about it that really got me...full bodied, heavy, strong, with a big punch....a couple of those would literally warm you up good.
I think I'm going to try my hand at a winter warmer once the grain order comes in....Richard, you got a good winter warmer recipe?  lol!  Can't help it...that black IPA is definitely going to be on tap all the time...definite house beer.

[Richard]

Not yet... if Jake's turns out I will likely use his or a variant

[Richard]

From http://www.picaroons.ca/journal/journal ... Position=1

Beer Style: Winter Warmer
Brew Date: Dec. 21/10

Brewer: Esty

Recipe: Grain: (Muntons) Maris Otter pale Malt, Canadian Prairie 2 row, Torrified Wheat, Chocolate Malt, Crystal 240

Hops in boil: Cascade (pellets, A.A. 5.4%), Goldings (pellets, A.A. 4.5%). Tettnang (pellets, A.A. 3.9%)
Hops in hop perc: Willamette (leaf, A.A. 5.6%), Tettnang (leaf, A.A. 4.7%)

Other: Irish moss, Yeast nutrient, gypsum, Ringwood yeast, and our well water. Water is treated with CaCl2 and phosphoric acid to adjust the pH to 4.78.

Mash in @ 8:40, strike temp @ 71 degrees. Mash temp @ 30 min was 64.5 degrees.

Begin sparge 30 minutes later at a temp of 80 degrees.

Copper up at 12:30 and boil at 11:40. Goldings in at start of boil, Tettnang in at 20 minutes and then Cascade at 30 minutes. Demerara sugar added at 40 min. Irish moss added at 50 minutes. Recirculation during the last 10 minutes of the boil, and continued until 10 minutes after burners are shut off.

Willamette/Tettnang leaf-hop juice added to the hop perc before sparging.

Fridge started at 2:40 and finished at 4:40. Clean up begins.

This batch finished fermenting Dec. 23th, was racked on Dec. 28th and filtered Dec. 29th. It was carbonated, kegged and bottled Dec. 29th.
CHEEERS!!

[Jake]

Hops in boil, and hops in hop perc ... what the hell is a hop perc? Also, they use goldings for bittering it appears. Of the varieties that we have, what do you think would be a good substitute?

And as noted by that last post, mash temp at 30 mins - 64.5C degrees = 148Fish mash temp ... seems very low for this style

[Dean]

Hops in boil, and hops in hop perc ... what the hell is a hop perc?

now you've gone and done it ...I bet John's planning to build one as we speak  

[Richard]

Hop perc(olator) is pretty much a hop-back - something you connect between the kettle and the chiller, stuff with hops, and run the wort through just before it gets cooled and stuck in the fermenter.

Also Fuggles/Willamette would be a suitable substitute for EKG, although they're not the same they are pretty similar.

[pliny]

Picaroon's winter warmer was really what turned me onto their beer.

FYI, the WW is out in the Fredericton stores now.

[Richard]

Yeah I was gonna go pick one up to see what they've done with it this year... it has been very variable in the past.

[Jake]

Alright so for hops: I'm looking at using 1.50z willamette (4.8%) at 60min, 1.5oz (4%) Tettnang @ 10 and 1oz of Cascade (5.3%) @ Flameout

According to beercalculus, this should put me in the low 20's range for IBU's ... Look ok? ... any suggestions with the substitutions or schedule?