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Homebrew #27: Cupid & Psyche

by Rob Friesel

Inspired by Tazo’s Passion herbal tea, this brew was intended as an early Xmas present to my wife, ^^Regular readers will recall I did this for her two years ago, as well.^^^ who had expressed a fondness for it, ^^A fondness for the tea, not the beer, which hadn’t been brewed yet.^^^ and was looking for something special to drink over the holiday break. Thus was born the formulation for Cupid & Psyche:

Cupid & Psyche

In the initial assessment, it was the rose hips that had us intrigued. This should not have been surprising; after all, rose hips were the unique flavor that first had me swooning over Southern Tier’s Compass sparkling ale. With a Xmas brew in mind, I began work on this formulation in October of 2015. ^^Note that I didn’t say which Xmas, exactly.^^^ The tea itself has a lot going on: hibiscus, orange peel, rose hips, passion fruit extract, licorice root, cinnamon, and lemongrass. I drank quite a few cups figuring out which flavors were most prominent, and which I could mimic through yeast or hops. After several months, and after starting over an equal number of times with different base styles, I eventually settled on a formulation that seemed like it could work.

My original idea of using British pale ale (BJCP 11A. – 11C.) seemed like it would be too malty. Australian Sparkling Ale (BJCP 12B.) was another option but that style has too narrow of a definition. A Belgian pale ale (BJCP 24B.) was a strong contender for a while, but the characteristic yeast might interfere. An APA (BJCP 18B.) or a Blonde Ale (18A.) were both fairly safe, but… I wanted something stronger. This more or less left me with that fun catch-all: American Strong Ale (BJCP 22B.).

Having finally settled on a base style, a full year after first getting the idea, I was happy with how the formulation looked and was ready to brew.

Brew Day

I fired up a starter for my yeast (WLP001) two days ahead of time. This was later of a start than I would normally prefer, but all things considered, I decided pitching the whole starter (supernatant and all) without decanting would be fine.

The morning of brew day, I got my strike water started and my grains milled; I mashed in at about 152°F and set about to hold that for 75 minutes. When the mash timer ended, the temperature had fallen to 147°F; I had about 3 gallons of wort at 1.086 (20%Br). Next, I added the DME (the full 3 lb., not just the planned 2 lb. 12 oz.) and got the gravity up to 1.121 (27.4%Br). From there: more heat, got it to boiling, and followed my hop schedule.

When you're trying not to stress about pre-boil gravities but the boil has started and these 2 oz. Chinook aren't going to add themselves. #homebrewing

After chilling, I had about 2.5 gallons at 1.147. ^^The sample I dropped onto the refractometer were greater than 32%Br — basically off those particular charts.^^^ I added 2 gallons of water to the carboy, transferred the wort, and topped off with another half gallon. I took another gravity reading, noting that the wort was 66°F; after adjusting for the hydrometer’s temperature calibration, and adjusting again for the +4 offset, I settled on 1.073 as my original gravity. That’s six points off from my target (1.079) but close enough considering I’d also “over-planned” on fermentables to compensate for this (more on that later, vide infra).

Cupid & Psyche brew day

Satisfied with the initial conditions, I shook the carboy for two minutes to aerate, pitched, shook a little more, and moved it to the fermentation chamber.

A Brief Aside About My Gravities

Like most homebrewers (I assume) — I obsess quite a bit about my gravities. I want to know that given a certain amount of grain mashed at a certain temperature in a certain amount of water ^^See also: pH and mineral content…^^^ for a certain amount of time that I’m going to get a wort with a certain specific gravity. And I’m not necessarily looking for high precision here — it doesn’t need to be perfect. But I’d like to know that I’m going to be within 1-2 points. That seems reasonable, right?

So… (I ask myself) how come I’m so far off?

When formulating this batch, I’d targeted 1.079 as my O.G — and I’d targeted that because I’d historically ^^”Historically” here referring to at least the past six batches.^^^ been 4 points below that targeted gravity. My thinking here was that if I wanted a 1.075 beer then maybe I should shoot for 1.079 and let the averages work in my favor. So coming in at 1.073 was that 1-2 points off… from the 1.075 which was -4 from the 1.079 target and… I can’t shake the feeling that instead of “nailing it” by planning my actual starting gravity around the average margin of error, I just further blew it by landing at an additional two points below that.

GRANTED: I probably should let all that go. After all, I should be am going for flavor. And I can get a great tasting beer without fussing over gravity. But I’m also the son of a molecular biologist and I’ll be damned if I can’t master the science of mashing. So all that business about not being able to get my gravities right is bugging me.

Then I get my first copy of Brew Your Own magazine and I’m reading some of the “fine-print” in the front matter and I see where they call out that their recipes are published assuming a 65% brew house efficiency. Looking at my formulations in BeerSmith, I see that I’ve been using 72%. So that, combined with the fact that I only just recently ^^This discovery having taken place within the past 2-3 months of this brew day. See also: “Brief Aside About Calibrating Equipment” on the blog post about brewing Birdwatcher.^^^ discovered that my hydrometer has an offset… And (well…) that goes a long way in explaining the factors that have gone into my confusion.

Having connected those dots, I feel like I’m starting to get a clearer picture of how I came to get these “bad” estimates, and how I can go about getting better estimates going forward.

End of Aside; Beyond Brew Day

File this one under I Should Have Known Better…

Been so long since I needed a blow-off tube that I just… well, forgot that was an option. #homebrewing

At +17 hours post-pitch I had a nice, thick, very healthy-looking cap of krausen. Peeking in on it again after a few hours, that same krausen was collecting in the airlock. “Should have used a blow-off tube,” I told myself. Which is funny because so many other brewers tell me that this is just part of their normal routine — but it’s just not something I think of until it’s too late. Anyway… I had to swap out the airlock twice before things settled down.

A week after pitching, I took a gravity reading and found that it had dropped to 1.011.

About a week after pitching, C&P's gravity is about 1.011 with the temp. & offset adjustment. #homebrewing

At this point we were about to leave for our Thanksgiving trip so… I gently roused the yeast and unplugged the temperature controller. Given that I typically let a beer sit about two weeks in primary, and given that the basement’s ambient temperature was about 65°F, it seemed to me that the timing had worked out perfectly.

Fast forward another week and we return from our trip; another gravity reading and we’re still sitting at 1.011. As such, it was time to rack it over to the 5 gallon carboy for a little conditioning.

And tonight? Racking Cupid & Psyche, an American Strong Ale inspired by Tazo's "Passion" tea, and brewed as a Xmas present for the wife. #homebrewing

Because “2 weeks primary, 2 weeks secondary” had worked out well for several brews over these past two years, I decided to run with that. Once it was racked, I let the beer sit for about a week and a half. At that point, I added 2 ounces of Mandarina Bavaria for dry-hopping and 1 ounce of rose hips. Those sat for five days. Then I pulled the flavor agents ^^Which… that’s always such an ordeal to get all that junk out through the neck of the carboy. You’d think I’d have learned my lesson by now.^^^ and transferred the beer (which was smelling great, thanks for asking) to a keg.

Four days under approx. 24 PSI; vent the headspace and lower to 12 PSI, then let it sit for another four days and… We’re pouring a lovely American Strong Ale.

It turned out a little cloudier ^^Next time I do something like this I’ll maybe give it a day or two to settle after pulling the flavor agents and/or fine it. But I’d give it some chance to clear before packaging.^^^ and slightly darker than I expected but that’s OK — the aromatics and flavors more than make up for it. The Mandarina Bavaria dry-hopping shows with a lovely wash of citrusy orange aromas and up-front flavors. The rose hips add a fresh botanical note that’s hard to place but really rounds it out. I personally don’t pick out anything that is distinctly contributed from the licorice root — but the overall profile works. A fairly aggressive bitterness at the finish, but I’d say it’s well-balanced with the starting sweetness.

Most importantly, my wife loves it.

I don’t know that I nailed the original flavor target (i.e., that Tazo Passion tea) but it’s certainly drinkable. Perhaps dangerously so considering the 8.3% ABV. Would I brew it again? Very likely.

Recipe

The partial mash recipe for Cupid & Psyche is as follows.

Mash Grains

  • 7 lb. 8 oz. Briess 2-row brewer’s malt
  • 2 lb. Briess white wheat malt
  • 12 oz. Great Western Crystal 60

Fermentables

2 lb. 12 oz. 3 lb. Briess Golden Light DME ^^I made reference to this on-the-fly change earlier in this blog post, but if you’re just skimming it to look at the recipe: take a look at the “A Brief Aside About My Gravities” heading. Given that I’d originally formulated this targeting an O.G. of 1.079, and given that I did so assuming that I would be off by 4 points, and noting that my post-mash gravity felt suspiciously low, I dumped in the whole bag of DME rather than portioning off four ounces. Anyway: I’ve adjusted the formulation here for clarity.^^^

Hop Schedule

  • 2 oz. Chinook (60 min.)
  • ½ oz. Amarillo (30 min.)
  • ½ oz. Amarillo (5 min.)
  • 1 oz. Mandarina Bavaria (flame-out)
  • 2 oz. Mandarina Bavaria (dry-hop 5 days)

Spices

  • ½ oz. licorice root (boil 5 min.)
  • 1 oz. rose hips (secondary 5 days)

Yeast

White Labs WLP001 California Ale

Prepare a 1300 milliliter starter 2-3 days before brew day.

Brew Day

  1. Collect 14.42 qt. water and heat to 162.4°F. Mash in; hold at 152.1°F for 75 minutes.
  2. Mash out. Heat to 168° over 7 minutes; hold for 10 minutes.
  3. Remove filter bag from water. Squeeze filter bag to extract as much liquid as possible for wort.
  4. Top off as necessary to approx. 3 gal.
  5. Bring to a boil. Boil for 60 minutes, adding 3 lb. Golden Light DME and following hop schedule described above.
  6. Cool to 70°F as rapidly as possible and top off the fermentor to reach 5 gal.
  7. Aerate wort; pitch White Labs WLP001 yeast from starter.
  8. Place in fermentation chamber and ferment at 68°F.

Beyond Brew Day

  1. Allow fermentation to complete (approx. 2 weeks) at approx. 68°F.
  2. Rack to secondary for conditioning.
  3. Approximately 5 days before packaging, add 2 oz. Mandarina Bavaria and 1 oz. rose hips for dry-hopping.
  4. Rack to keg. Drop temperature to 38-40°F and connect to CO₂ at 30 PSI.
  5. After 24-36 hours, turn off gas and purge CO₂ from the headspace.
  6. Turn gas back on at 12 PSI and wait 2-4 days.
  7. Enjoy.

Details

Cupid & Psyche, an American Strong Passionate Ale by Tilde Gravitywerks

Original Gravity 1.073
Final Gravity 1.011
ABV 8.3%
Attenuation 85.4%
IBU 43
SRM 9
Links Untappd
Flickr

About Rob Friesel

Software engineer by day. Science fiction writer by night. Weekend homebrewer, beer educator at Black Flannel, and Certified Cicerone. Author of The PhantomJS Cookbook and a short story in Please Do Not Remove. View all posts by Rob Friesel →

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