Style: Belgian Blond Ale*
Batch size: 5 gallons
Brewed: December 15, 2012
Bottled: January 5, 2013
OG: 1.087  FG: 1.008
IBUs: 32  ABV: 10.35%

Grains
11 lbs Belgian Pilsner Malt
1 lb Belgian Wheat Malt
12 oz Honey Malt

Sugars
1 lb Sucrose

Hops
60 min: 1 oz Tettnang (4.5% AA)
30 min: 1 oz Hallertauer (4.5% AA)
20 min: 1 oz Styrian Celeia (3.1% AA)
10 min: 1 oz Saaz (3.1% AA)
14 days (dry hop): 1 oz East Kent Goldings  (5.6% AA)

Yeast
2 liter starter of Belgian Witbier (Wyeast #3944)

This beer finished a bit drier than anticipated, and is probably due to a lower mash temp. That said, even after one week in bottle, it’s just freakin’ fantastic! The complex hop profile is exactly what we had set out to do…and they all meld perfectly together. The inspiration came from Gouden Carolus’ Hopsinjoor.

* While the base style is a Belgian Blond Ale, this is most certainly out of style. The hops are kicked up a bit (mostly on the aroma/flavor, but bitter too), and the alcohol is increased to balance out the extra bitterness.

Style: Robust Porter
Batch size: 5 gallons
Brewed: December 15, 2012
Bottled: January 1, 2013
OG: 1.074  FG: 1.018
IBUs: 26  ABV: 7.3%

Grains
10 lbs Maris Otter Pale Malt
1 lb Caramel 20L Malt
12 oz Munich Malt
6 oz Black Patent Malt
3 oz Chocolate Malt

Sugars
1 lb Honey

Hops
60 min: 0.5 oz Northern Brewer (10% AA)
30 min: 0.5 oz Northern Brewer (10% AA)
0 min: 1 oz Hallertauer (4.8% AA)

Yeast
Nottingham Ale Yeast (Danstar)

This is the second of two White House recipes that we’ve made, this time we converted it from an extract brew to an all-grain brew.

Basically, we just took the 6.6 lbs of LME and substituted it with 10 lbs of Maris Otter Pale Malt. This will give us a far better and more accurate flavor, as Maris Otter is intended to be used to create English ales, such as a porter. Too bad we don’t have access to the White House honey, some local Illinois honey will just have to do.

Style: Doppelbock
Batch size: 15 gallons
Brewed: November 24, 2012
#1 Bottled: January 1, 2012
#2 Bottled: January 19, 2012
#3 Bottled: TBD
OG: 1.072  IBUs: 26
#1 FG: 1.025  #1 ABV: 6.2%
#2 FG: 1.020  #2 ABV: 6.8%
#3 FG: TBD  #3 ABV: TBD

Grains
16 lbs German Pilsner
10 lbs Dark Munich Malt (Best Malz)
5 lbs Munich Malt (Best Malz)
5 lbs Belgian Aromatic (Dingemans)
2 lbs Cara 45 (Dingemans)
2 lbs Caramunich III (Weyermann)
1 lb Chocolate (Briess)

Hops
60 min: 6 oz Tettnang (4.5% AA)

Yeast
3 Munich Lager (Wyeast #2308)

This brew was done over at Otto’s (Beaver Brewing), in his huge copper kettle, and then split into 3 carboys. One was left with Otto, and then Ed and I each took one. So, in the end, we’re expecting that all three will be unique.

We also had to go with an “-ator” name, obviously!

Carboy #1 = Ed
Carboy #2 = Jon
Carboy #3 = Otto

Style: Barley Wine
Batch size: 5 gallons
Brewed: November 11, 2012
Bottled: December 19, 2012
OG: 1.125  FG: 1.042
IBUs: 54  ABV: 10.87%

Grains
12 lbs 2-Row US Malt
1 lb Flaked Wheat
1 lb 10 oz Caramel 60L Malt
12 oz Caramel 40L Malt
8 oz Biscuit Malt

Sugars / Other Fermentables
6 lbs Light Dry Malt Extract
2 lbs Dark Brown Sugar

Hops
90 min: 2 oz Columbus (14% AA)

Spices
4 lbs Pumpkin
3 tbsp Cinnamon Powder
2 tbsp Ginger Powder
1 tbsp Ground Cloves
1 tbsp Nutmeg
1.5 tsp Allspice

Yeast
2 liter starter of Super High Gravity Ale (White Labs #099)

It didn’t finish as dry as I had thought it would…maybe it’s due to the pumpkin, maybe the yeast was shocked…who knows.
Whatever the case, I’m still going to let this rest until Fall of 2013.

The pumpkin, once again, was a pain in the ass to sparge. Didn’t actually get “stuck”, but was a trickle, and took far longer than it should have. Maybe need to switch to a copper sparge manifold, as opposed to the false bottom.

Next try at a big ass barley wine will be done without pumpkin, and in 2.5 gallon batches, until I get it just right.

Style: Belgian Dubbel
Batch size: 5 gallons
Brewed: November 11, 2012
Bottled: December 2, 2012
OG: 1.092  FG: 1.022
IBUs: 26  ABV: 9.2%

Grains
12 lbs Belgian Pilsner Malt
1 lb Caramunich Malt
0.5 lb Special B Malt
0.5 lb Belgian Aromatic Malt

Sugars
1 lb Dextrose Malto-Dextrine
(This was a mixup, we'll see how this will affect the beer.)

Hops
90 min: 1 oz Styrian Goldings (5.4% AA)
30 min: 1 oz Saaz (4% AA)

Yeast
64oz starter of Belgian Strong Ale (Wyeast #1388)