12-12-12 Wee Heavy Recipe Formulation

[BenS]

Yeah, I enjoy tasting other's homebrew as much as getting feedback on my own. It's fun to try to pull out ingredients and flavors from a beer someone else made. And most of them are really great and I've gotten many good ideas from trying them. And hopefully I'm able to provide some suggestions when a beer has flaws to help the brewer improve. It's a win-win, but I realize not everyone wants to evaluate a beer when they could just drink it.

Ok. You've convinced me that I need to be a part of this swap. I honestly would rather do swaps like this than to send my beers into competitions every month.

 

[azscoob]

Ok. You've convinced me that I need to be a part of this swap. I honestly would rather do swaps like this than to send my beers into competitions every month.

You never get beers in return to enjoy when you enter comps!

 

[JLW]

I will definately swap beers.

 

[statseeker]

I did the 11-11-11 brew but I need to wait until at least mid October to even bottle it, if not December. I did it in February, so my concern is bottle bombs. It's re-pellicling heavy duty as I write this. It's been slowly covering over since about late August. Maybe I can bottle it now with about 2/3 of the normal amount of corn sugar for a similar gravity. I really want about 2.2 volumes.

As far as this 12-12-12 goes, I'm down for doing it any way that's agreed upon.

 

[Regulation]

Subscribed

 

[kegdawg]

Count me in.

 

[JuanKenobi]

This will be my first time participating in this thing, but I am definitely in for the swap. As for the recipe, I'm also new to the style, but have always been interested. I've already learned some things that I would have done wrong on my own. For what it's worth I'll be going the simple grain bill route. Golden Promise base for me. Definitely no smoked malt and maybe a split batch with oak on one.

 

[LVBen]

The shipping $ is why I will pass on the swap. However, I'd be happy to brew it on my own and post some tasting notes.

I am planning on organizing something similar for my local homebrew club. It just seems more practical to cut out the shipping costs.

 

[Cromwell]

Well, I'm definitely in for the swap, unless an earthquake or something happens.
Golden Promise, some roasted, no crystal, EKG, no smoked malt. (Although I don't mind swapping with someone who does use smoked malt. I'd hope it wasn't overwhelming.)
I might do a second batch with just a hint of (non-peat) smoked malt. If I have to age it for a year, and then find out it's awesome, I'm not going to want to wait a year to get more.

Oh, wait, am I showing addiction signs? Planning the next brew before I've even started this one?

 

[commonsenseman]

So far all good suggestions. I'd like to use some smoked malt in mine, but only a very small amount. I want the main flavor to be caramel with some smoke/peat in the background.

The pass would eat up most of a 2.5gal batch, so I might just have to make two!

If it were up to me, I'd set very few recipe limitations. I think it'll be interesting to see how different they come out. The only limitation I'd set it that it has to be within bjcp specs.

 

[bottlebomber]

If it were up to me, I'd set very few recipe limitations. I think it'll be interesting to see how different they come out.

I think it would be interesting to implement MORE limitations and see how different they come out, due to different grain sourcing, water, and brewing practice.

 

[smokinghole]

I think we should set the hops, target gravity, boil length, and the recipe percentages. The base grain can be a variable but not the specialty grain other than the source.

Here's my idea. 30ish IBUs EKG or Target. 1-2% roasted barley and the rest MO or Golden Promise. Fermentation control will be a variable as will water and specific hops used. I think the yeast used can be chosen by the brewery as long as it's appropriate.

 

[KingBrianI]

I think we should set the hops, target gravity, boil length, and the recipe percentages. The base grain can be a variable but not the specialty grain other than the source.

Here's my idea. 30ish IBUs EKG or Target. 1-2% roasted barley and the rest MO or Golden Promise. Fermentation control will be a variable as will water and specific hops used. I think the yeast used can be chosen by the brewery as long as it's appropriate.

Since scottish ales have no hop presence I don't see any point to limiting the hop choice. Any british hop should work with very little difference.

 

[smokinghole]

That's how I feel personally but I know some guys in the world of brewing think bittering hops matter.

 

[bottlebomber]

I wouldn't personally use 1 ounces of EKG when I would use one ounce of nugget...

 

[bottlebomber]

That's how I feel personally but I know some guys in the world of brewing think bittering hops matter.

I think in some cases it may... you wouldn't want to bitter your wee heavy with simcoe for example, but that's an extreme example

 

[smokinghole]

Well within reason of course. I figure if it's on the earthy side of things it shouldn't matter.

 

[Golddiggie]

Additional, specialty, malts should be allowed as long as they are there to enhance the brew. I'm not a fan of carapils, but I do enjoy what different British caramel/crystal malts bring to a brew. Over 90% of my grain bill is Maris Otter. The remainder is spread over three different malts, two of which are from the UK. I think that >95% of the grist should be UK malts. That can be a hard parameter... It limits what we'll be able to use, but not hinder our creativity in the recipe formulation and brewing.

Obviously I've been tweaking my recipe some since I posted one up.

I'm set to use all EKG for my hops (have just under 3# of pellets in the freezer). Going with UK hops should be a hard parameter. Which hop you use, should be left up to the brewer.

Using oak, or not, should also be completely up to the brewer. Personally, my first wee heavy did very well with a medium toast oak cube aging spell. I plan to repeat the experience with the new batch.

Something else that could be rather fitting... If we can have the brew day in November of this year. Even better if you can hit 1.111 for your OG...

 

[KingBrianI]

Lookie what I got!



Gonna toast and char some oak this weekend and drop it in. Still haven't decided whether to bury the oak in some peat or just leave it out in the rain and sun for a few months after it has a couple months in the drink. Might be a game time decision. Or I could take two chunks of oak, do one treatment on one and the other treatment on the second, then decide which smells better before dropping it in the 12/12/12. This is what you call innovation folks.

 

[bottlebomber]

Lookie what I got!

Hey I like the looks of that stuff! Its got soul

 

[KingBrianI]

Hey I like the looks of that stuff! Its got soul

just had a nip. wooo, i guess you could call that soul! it's actually not that bad and will taste really good after aging on some oak then diluting down to 80 proof. my only problem with it is that it's called georgia moon but made in kentucky!

 

[SaccharoVices]

Been sippin' on a jar of that stuff this summer, tastes like pure corn cob squeezins. Doubt they even used the kernels for the mash.

 

[KingBrianI]

Haha, it definitely has a lot of corn flavor to it. It tastes a lot like something I made in a hobby I can't discuss on this forum that I thought I did something wrong to and was afraid to drink. Now I know that's how it's supposed to taste:cross:

 

[CA-LT1]

Haha, it definitely has a lot of corn flavor to it. It tastes a lot like something I made in a hobby I can't discuss on this forum that I thought I did something wrong to and was afraid to drink. Now I know that's how it's supposed to taste:cross:

Wow, where is the "like" button?

 

[ashplub]

How many roads must a man walk down.....Yiccup. I been drinkin again.

 

[bottlebomber]

How many roads must a man walk down.....Yiccup. I been drinkin again.

Bin Ladens lesser known brothers... Bin Drinkin, Bin Sleepin, and Bin Asskissin

 

[SaccharoVices]

Going off on tangents is fun, but geting back to the recipe, can we agree on the following, thus far? -

Ingredients:

English 2-row base malt of your choice (MO, GP etc) 98% of grain bill
English Roasted Barley 2% of grain bill
English hops (EKG, Target, Fuggle, Challenger)
Yeast of your choice, appropriate to the style

Process:

Reduce/carmelize first wort
2 hour boil
Oaking- optional?

Packaging:

Bottle carbed in 12oz brown glass for exchange

Is this an accurate summation?

Does anybody insist upon caramel/crystal malts, or should we agree on the reduction solely to create the flavors? I would like to keep it simple, using process to bring about variance in the batches.

 

[KingBrianI]

Does anybody insist upon caramel/crystal malts, or should we agree on the reduction solely to create the flavors? I would like to keep it simple, using process to bring about variance in the batches.

I'm usually one of the first people to sing the praises of simplicity in a recipe, but in this case, I've been thinking that the addition of a little british crystal could only help.

Here's my concern. If anyone doesn't reduce their first runnings to a thick enough syrup, they are going to miss out on most of the caramel and toffee flavors that technique will provide. And reducing down to a thick syrup isn't that easy. If the pot you're using is slightly too thin, you'll start scorching the wort before it is reduced enough. Even if you aren't scorching the wort, it's still an intimidating process. There is a lot of pressure to pull the syrup before it scorches, which leads to pulling the plug too soon on the caramelization. Having a little bit of british crystal just adds some extra insurance. No one wants a thin, dry wee heavy.

By the way, I've just recently tried Crisps' crystal 60 in a beer, and it is hands down my favorite crystal malt. It not only has that caramel/toffee flavor, but a really nice toasty flavor as well. It really rounds out a beer. I think about a lb of it in a 5.5 gallon batch would be about right.

If everyone would like to skip the crystal in the pursuit of sticking to a simple recipe though, I'm fine with that too.

 

[JLW]

I have no problem making the crystal at least optional.

 

[KingBrianI]

Now that I posted on topic, here is some more of the aside!

I finished preparing the oak this morning. Here's the process if anyone is interested:

Split off a piece from a chunk of well-seasoned white oak.

Cut the split off piece into two jar-sized pieces.

Put the pieces into aluminum foil and wrap them up.

Toast in the oven for 1.5 hrs at 400F then 0.5 hr at 450 F. This is what you get. (By the well, it smells amazing at this point.

I decided to test two different things. One jar will get the toasted oak as is, the other will get charred oak.

So I used a torch to char the outside of one of the pieces of oak. Immediately after charring, drop into a glass of water. This not only puts out the fire, but causes the charcoal on the outside to "puff" slightly and develop micro-fissures. The charcoal on the oak like this helps filter impurities from whatever you put it in and "cleans" it up.

Here's what you end up with.

Comparison of the raw oak, to the toasted, to the charred.