Tag: 2012B01

Nutty for nutter!

Courtesy of Butter, we brewed up another batch of the Black Squirrel Nutter. The first one was such a hit and it was gone far too soon. Everyone agreed that we needed to do that again.

So after sufficient recovery from the previous night’s festivities had happened (and thanks, Jeremy, it was awesome to be included in your birthday festivities) we all trucked down to LHBS and picked up some essentials.

Butter grabbed another nut brown ale kit. I grabbed some C-Brite and 5/16″ tubing. Elizabeth tried to grab the mayorship, but I’m still a few steps ahead on that count. The high point of the trip being when I was presented a “key” to the store in honor of my Foursquare mayorship!

I love that place.

So on to brewing. My notes are pretty sparse, so it was probably a good time. Dan was great on the regulator button–we only flamed out once and that was due to him being pulled in several directions. Doug was appointed to the waterboy position and did yeoman’s work with the wort chiller.

Oh, yes, it was the debut of the wort chiller. 25′ of 5/16″ copper tubing with sweated connectors for garden hoses. PHENOMENAL! We went from full boil to 70˚F in less than 15 minutes. Yeast was pitched and it was burbling away when I peeked in this morning.

For completeness sake:

Fermentables

  • 1/2 lb UK Dark Crystal
  • 3/8 lb US Dark Chocolate
  • 1/8 lb Crisp Roaster 2-Row
  • 3.3 lb Hopped LME
  • 1 lb Light DME
  • 1 lb Amber DME
  • 1 lb Muscovado (Dark Brown Sugar)

Hops

  • 2 oz UK Fuggle

Mash Schedule

Put specialty grains into the muslin bag and added to 7 gallons water. Heated to 160˚F and then rested for 30 minutes. Removed specialty grains and squeezed bag for maximum extraction. Flame on to near boil then added can of LME, both pounds of DME, and the sugar.

Brought to boil and started timer for 45 minutes. At 45 minutes, put the wort chiller into the kettle to sanitize. Always smart to connect the chiller to the hoses before dropping into the kettle. That bastard gets hot quickly.

With the chiller in the boil, boil another 15 minutes. Add hops and continue boil for another 2 minutes.

Cranked on the faucet and watched the temp of the wort drop to 70˚F in less than 15 minutes. AWESOME!

Drained chilled wort into sanitized bucket and pitched Cooper’s Ale yeast–1 packet dry yeast. Covered and put in the coal room. Looks like almost 6 gallons of beer (whatever happened to my 1.5 gal/hr boiloff?) with an OG of 1.048. This is a few points lower than the predicted 1.050, but we’re also a bit higher on the volume. I think this will all work out wonderfully in the end.

So…like I mentioned, we all want to fast forward about five weeks from now which is when this should be chilled and served. Thanks again Dan and Doug for the help.

Pouring and details

Here’s the end result. 2012B01 A.K.A. Black Squirrel Nutter. She’s lovely, brown, and crisp/sweet with a moderate nuttiness.

Stats:
OG: 1.051
FG: 1.016
ABV: 4.7%

Bottles remaining: 21 as of right now. Yikes! Between gifts, graft, and personal consumption, that’s half the batch in less than a week.

Time to make more beer! Maybe this weekend?

Released into the wild

It’s been a bit of a wait, but the first reviews of Black Squirrel “Nutter” have been favorable.

This is the second ever batch brewed by Circle Bar Brewery, which is a fancy way of saying me and my compatriots. Special thanks to Dan, Doug, and Gavin who stopped by and helped while away the hours. The day was a bit warmer than the first ever batch, which helps explain why we were accidentally smart enough to keep the lid off the kettle.

Nutter is an extract recipe for a nut brown ale and the first that used LME. The full recipe:

  • 1/2 lbs UK Dark Crystal — steeped
  • 3/8 lbs US Dark Chocolate Malt — steeped
  • 1/8 lbs Weyerman Crisp Roasted 2-Row — steeped
  • 3.3 lbs Hopped Light Liquid Malt Extract — in boil
  • 1 lb Light Dried Malt Extract — in boil
  • 1 lb Sparkling Amber Dried Malt Extract — in boil
  • 1 lb Muscovado — in boil
  • 2 oz Fuggle Loose Pellet Hops at 10 minutes to flame out
  • 1 pkg Coopers Ale Yeast

Specialty grains in muslin bag at flame on, heated to 160F. Rest for 30 minutes and then removed bag and squeezed into wort. Boil for 60 minutes with hops addition at 10 minutes to flame out.

Of note: No boil overs this time! Kit called for a partial boil of 3 gallons and then a top off. Since I have the kettle space I did full volume boil. I believe we used 6 gallons which after boil off and trub loss netted almost 5 gallons of beer. We did get to the 80F pitching temperature (yes, too hot) within 45 minutes. Pitched dry yeast on top of cooled wort (now beer) in a 6.5 gallon carboy. Airlocked and off to the fermenting chamber for three weeks. Ambient temps ranged from 58 – 64 over the period.

Bottle conditioned using 5oz DME (probably 1oz too much given carbonation) and rested at room temp for two weeks.

Tasting notes: Nice pour with possibly too much carbonation for the style. Head retention is passable but not great. Wonderful nutty taste with sweet/spicy finish. At 5.5% ABV, highly drinkable.

I’ll post the pour pictures and additional notes later. Would definitely do this kit beer again but am more interested in moving to all-grain doing BIAB so it may be a different path to nut brown goodness next time out.