SRM / Lovibond / EBC Values

I started looking at SRM recently, after doing some research on Westvleteren 12, which according to notable sources has an SRM 40. This number seemed off the mark to me, so I knew I needed to do a bit of research because I want to brew a credible clone of the Westy 12.

Keeping track of what color value means what is complicated a bit because there are three different scales for determining the color of a beer: SRM, Lovibond and EBC. SRM and Lovibond are essentially the same for the values that can be discriminated by the human eye:

°L = (SRM + 0.6) / 1.35

For example, with an SRM of 6, the Lovibond value would be 4.88, so the difference is nearly indistinguishable, and I think most people treat them as being the same. Looking at beer in a glass, I don't think I could spot one degree of difference without some reference system. Here's an example:

SRM	Color
3
4

EBC is roughly double SRM, but not quite. Why should any part of this be simple?

EBC = SRM x 1.97
SRM = EBC x 0.508

And just to keep things more interesting, the Lovibond scale is mostly used to express the potential color for dry ingredients such as malts and sugars, while SRM and EBC are used to express the color of liquids.

So, back to the problem at hand, the color of Westvleteren 12. To put things in perspective, here is a scale that represents the colors for various style of beer. (Yes, I know that what I can show on a webpage is only a vague approximation because the perceived color depends on the angle of the light, the angle of the view, and the thickness of the sample, so bear with me.) If Westy 12 really does come in at SRM 40, it's at the end of the scale, and is the same darkness as Imperial Stout.

SRM	EBC	Example Styles	Color
2	4	Pale Lager, Pilsener
3	6	Maibock, Blonde Ale
4	8	Weissbier
6	12	American Pale Ale, India Pale Ale
8	16	Saison
10	20	English Bitter, ESB
13	26	Biere de Garde, Double IPA
17	33	Vienna lager, Märzen, Amber Ale
20	39	Brown Ale, Dunkelweizen
24	47	Doppelbock, Porter
29	57	Stout
35	69	Foreign Stout, Baltic Porter
40+	79+	Imperial Stout

With all this in mind, 40 seems way too dark. To settle it once and for all, I needed to open a bottle of Westy 12. This is the kind of research I need to do more often. Looking at a fresh pour, it looks pretty dark, but the head isn't as dark as I would expect for RIS:



And when I shine a flashlight from the back, it's clearly not as dark as RIS:



Finally, as I expected, pouring it into a smaller glass has a significant effect on the color perception. There is also a bit of sediment from the bottom of the bottle which gives the light something more to reflect off.



I think I'll be shooting for an SRM around 25 or 26 when I brew my Westvleteren 12 clone.

Designing A Westvleteren 12 Clone

If there was ever a beer worthy of cloning, it's the Westy 12. It tastes great and is one of my favorite beers, but nearly impossible to get. You need to schedule a time to visit the monks at the Abbey of St. Sixtus in Belgium, and then you can buy a case. Or you can buy individual beers at the pub across the way from the abbey. Not an economical way to acquire this beer unless you live in the area. You can buy grey market beer on eBay, which is a less expensive than the trip to Belgium but it costs about $20/bottle the last time I checked.

So, I'm going to try brewing this beer again. I tried once before but I got too cute and caramelized my own sugar (just like the monks.) This time around I'll go with commercially prepared Candi Sugar. In looking at the recipes around the web that purport to be Westvleteren 12 clones, they mostly seem to be too dark, wandering into porter/stout country. That's not going to get you a credible Westy 12 clone. Knowledge is power, so what do we know? The monks haven't been overly forthcoming, but we do have some information.

The Fermentables: We can't confirm anything here, but the most likely scenario is:
  Belgian Pilsner
  Belgian 2-Row
  Belgian Candi Sugar
And all in quantities that are unknown. The beer may also contain some plain sugar, but no specialty malts. We know that all the darkness and most of the character in the beer comes from the sugar rather than from specialty malts, but how that is accomplished is one of the monks secrets they are not willing to share. All that Michael Jackson and the book 'Brew Like a Monk' (BLAM) say is that "caramelized sugar" is used. BLAM also says that 15 to 20% of the fermentables in a Belgian Dark Strong can be sugar, which would be between 2.75lbs and 4lbs for a 5 gallon batch.

The Mash and the Boil: We don't know anything here. Decoctions and infusions are possible, we just don't know.

The Hops: Michael Jackson wrote that Northern Brewer was used for bittering (which has since been replaced by a hop extract) and Styrian Goldings and Hersbrucker are used for flavor. BLAM says the same. Amounts and schedules aren't known.

The Yeast: We have solid info on the yeast. Westvleteren uses yeast they get from Westmalle, and they pitch fresh on every batch. "A secular worker" makes the drive to get the yeast on brew day. This means White Labs 530 Abbey Ale Yeast or Wyeast 3787 Trappist High Gravity are going to be good choices.

The Ferment: According to Brother Joris, head brewer of Westvleteren, fermentation begins at 68°F and then rises to at least 82°F (pretty darn warm), even in the winter. After apparent attenuation reaches 76-80% he begins cooling the beer to 68°F. Westvleteren 12 spends four to six days in primary before lagering to clarify (crash cooling to 50°F) for 8-10 weeks. Bottle conditioning is done at 79°F and takes 12 days. They pitch additional sugar and yeast for this.

The Water: Westvleteren has a water profile that is not very desirable for brewing, and BLAM says that they treat their water because its high in bicarbonates, sodium, sulfate and chloride. The Chimay water profile has identified by BLAM as being desirable for a Belgian Dark Strong Ale, so this is worth considering:
  Calcium: 96
  Bicarbonate: 287
  Magnesium: 4
  Sodium: 6
  Sulfate: 32
  Chloride: 13

Hope this helps. Please don't make another 'Westvleteren 12 Clone' that comes in at 40° Lovibond. Also, don't try to make one that follows the BJCP color guideline for Belgian Dark Strong. That's also off the mark. For what it's worth here is part of my tasting notes, which were probably skewed a bit by the small tasting glass that made the color seem a bit lighter than it should be:

Pours a cloudy dark amber with a big fluffy off-white head. Creamy medium-full body. Taste of pears and apples, almost to the point of being like cider, but with the toffee and caramel malt and some spice behind it.

Measuring Specific Gravity with Refractometers

I've had my refractometer for a while now, but it's taking me a while to make the leap from the Specific Gravity scale found on hydrometers, to the Brix scale found on refractometers. There is probably a super-cool refractometer out there somewhere that has both scales, but mine doesn't.

There are a number of web pages that have a chart to convert between the two, but I find the charts annoying. Some are short and easy to read, but not very useful because they don't have anything but whole values. Others include the values for 10ths of a degree, but make it tougher to find what I want because the list is so long.

Right now, I look at the value in Brix scale displayed on my refractometer, and then calculate the Specific Gravity on a phone app, or look it up on a web page. Eventually I'll leave SG behind, but for now the calculation and conversion process is a crutch.

The conversion from Brix to SG is not simple math that you can do in your head, but in the interest of science, here it is anyway:
  ( Brix / ( 258.6 - ( ( Brix / 258.2 ) * 227.1 ) ) + 1 = Specific Gravity

And here's a nifty calculator that will do the work of converting the Brix scale to the Specific Gravity scale so that you (and I) don't have to:

Brix/Plato:

Specific Gravity:

Fuminator Smoked Doppelbock

Bock is a strong German lager, a fairly dark, very malty, and it originated as a lightly hopped ale first brewed in the 14th century in the town of Einbeck. The style from Einbeck was later adopted by Munich brewers in the 17th century and they pronounced "Einbeck" as "ein Bock" or "a billy-goat" and thus the beer became known as "Bock". To reinforce this, the goat often appears on bock labels.

Doppelbock or "double bock" is a stronger version of traditional bock that was first brewed in Munich by the Paulaner monks. Doppelbock is high in alcohol and sweet, and served as "liquid bread" for the monks during times of fasting, when eating solid food was not permitted. They named their beer "Salvator" or "Savior", which today is trademarked by Paulaner. Brewers of other dopplebocks often add "-ator" to their beer's name as a signpost of the style. Today there are 200 "-ator" doppelbock names registered with the German patent office and a bunch more in the U.S.

This style seems to me like it would be a great base for a smoked beer. The Latin word for smoke is "fumus" so Fuminator seemed like a natural for a smoked doppelbock. And I really don't want to drink anything named "fumigator." I'm using a combination of the traditional German Rauchmalz (smoked malt) and cherry smoked malt. The cherry smoked malt has a much smokier nose and taste, so I'm going light on that. I think the overall effect will be about the same as an equal mix of smoked and non-smoked malts.

Fuminator Smoked Doppelbock Recipe

Batch size 6.0 gallons Original Gravity 1.083/ 20.0° Plato (1.074 to 1.087) Final Gravity 1.022 / 5.6° Plato (1.020 to 1.024) Bitterness 20.2 IBU / 6 HBU ƒ: Tinseth

BU:GU 0.24 Color 15° SRM/ 30° EBC (Medium Brown) Mash Efficiency 75% Alcohol 8.1% ABV / 6% ABW Calories 274 per 12 oz.

Malts/Fermentables:

%	LB	OZ	Type	ppg	°L
37%	7	0	Munich Malt - 10L	36	10
32%	6	0	Weyermann Rauchmalz	35	3
16%	3	0	Weyermann Vienna Malt	34	3
11%	2	0	Caramunich Malt 40	33	40
5%	1	0	Cherry Smoked Malt	34	2

Hops

Use	Time	oz	Variety	Form	aa
boil	60 mins	1.25	Hallertau	pellet	4.4
boil	30 mins	0.75	Hallertau	pellet	4.4

Yeast

Primary: German Bock Lager (WLP833), liquid yeast with medium flocculation and 73% attenuation

Belle Saison Dry Ale Yeast

This is a new strain from Danstar/Lallemand, and the first dry Saison yeast that I'm aware of. I noticed it in my last trip down to Larry's Homebrew. I asked them about it, but it has only been on their shelves for a couple of days, so they don't have any feedback. Larry's sells it for $4.95 for an 11 gram packet.

According to the manufacturer,

Belle Saison is an ale yeast of Belgian origin selected for its ability to produce great Saison-style beer. The propagation and drying processes have been specifically designed to deliver high quality beer yeast that can be used simply and reliably to help produce ales of the finest quality.

• Quick start and vigorous fermentation, which can be completed in 5 days above 17°C (63°F). High attenuation and high alcohol tolerance.
• Fermentation rate, fermentation time and degree of attenuation depend on inoculation density, yeast handling, fermentation temperature and nutritional quality of wort.
• Low flocculation rate; settling can be promoted by cooling and by using fining agents and isinglass.
• Saison beers are quite unique to brew. During fermentation, cooling is not normally used, allowing temperature of fermentation to increase.
• Aroma is fruity, spicy and peppery due to ester and phenol production, and does not display undesirable odours when properly handled.

Let's break this down a bit. "Belle Saison" really means "Belgian Saison" style ale yeast, with belle possibly having a double meaning that indicates that the yeast has lovely phenolics? Like other saisons, it wants to ferment on the warm side. If you can expect a completed ferment if five days, it apparently does not experience the sluggishness common with Dupont strains.

According to the PDF on the Danstar website, the commercial brewer should "Use 100 g of active dry yeast to inoculate 100 litres of wort." The home-brewer package recommends 1 grams of dry yeast to inoculate 1 liter of wort, or roughly two packages per five gallon batch. With 220 billion cells per packet, that's a lot of yeast, and even one packet is a bit more than the pitch rate recommended by MrMalty for a five gallon batch of an average saison. Danstar also says that the yeast does not need to be aerated.

This all sounds like they are not expecting a growth phase at the recommended inoculation rate. Since so many flavors come from the growth phase, I'm planing to pitch less than the suggested amount and aerate, which should cause the yeast to grow a bit. If that introduces a bit of lag time, so be it.

The pro brewer rehydration instructions (which are much more extensive than the homebrew instructions) are as follows:

• Sprinkle yeast on surface of 10 times its weight of clean sterilized (boiled) tap water at 30-35°C (86-92°F). Do not use wort, or distilled or reverse osmosis water, as loss in viability may result. GENTLY break any clumps to ensure that all yeast is in contact with rehydration medium. DO NOT STIR. Leave undisturbed for 15 minutes then suspend yeast completely and leave it for 5 more minutes at 30-35°C (86-92°F). Then adjust temperature to wort and inoculate without delay.
• Attemperate by blending portions of wort at 5-minute intervals, below 10°C (50°F) at a time. Do not allow attemperation to be carried out by natural heat loss as this will take too long and could result in loss of viability or vitality.
• Temperature shock, at greater than 10°C (50°F), will cause formation of petite mutants, leading to long or incomplete fermentation and possible formation of undesirable flavours.
• Belle Saison Yeast has been conditioned to survive rehydration, and contains an adequate reservoir of carbohydrates and unsaturated fatty acids to achieve active growth. It is not necessary to aerate wort.

I'm excited to try this. If this turns out to be a good yeast, it's one more thing that I can "stock" at home and avoid extra trips to the homebrew store.

BeerTools, SPAM, and Marketing Assholes

I got an email from BeerTools about my login problem. Seems nice enough at a casual glance, but it seems a little odd, since I didn't have a login problem:

BeerTools.com Login Trouble

October 13, 2012
Dear Bob,

We would like to apologize for any trouble you experienced logging in at BeerTools.com. Technical details aside, it involved some trouble with files on the web server that hosts BeerTools.com and we believe the issue is resolved. If you were inconvenienced by the inaccessibility of your recipes please accept our sincere apologies. We value you as a visitor to BeerTools.com and hope to see you there again soon!
Sincerely,

BeerTools Staff
BeerTools.com

Then I started looking at the content. All the graphics in it are tracking beacons that point back to some website called rs6.net. The links that say "BeerTools.com" actually go to http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?[queryString] The queryString part of each web address is a long string of seemingly nonsense characters that identify exactly who I am, and why I clicked on it.

It seems odd that the links to BeerTools in my email from BeerTools don't actually go to BeerTools. they go to rs6.net instead. So, who the hell is rs6.net? There is an Internet service called "whois" and it will tell you:

Administrative Contact:
    Domain Administrator
    Constant Contact, Inc.
    1601 Trapelo Road Suite 329
    Waltham MA 02451
    www.constantcontact.com/index.jsp?cc=TEM_BusLet_003

"The domain rs6.net is used by the email marketing provider Constant Contact as the root domain for certain links embedded in email campaigns sent on behalf of our customers." Well, that's interesting. Constant Contact is a click-through sort of like tinyURL, but it's for designed for tracking those click-throughs rather than just redirecting you.

How does this all work? Let's say you get a 'helpful' email from BeerTools (really Constant Contact), you open your email and your email client is set to display the graphics. A call is made back to rs6.net, and they track the fact that you were interested enough to open the email. After that info goes into their database, they send your graphics back to be displayed in the 'helpful' email. They probably get paid some small amount by BeerTools at this point. As a bonus, you might be a candidate for some targeted marketing some time soon.

If you click on the link in the 'helpful' email that says "BeerTools.com" your request goes to r20.rs6.net and they read the queryString. Again part of that info goes into their database, and the rest is used to redirect you to BeerTools.com. They probably get paid some larger amount by BeerTools at this point and you're probably a great candidate for some targeted marketing.

Nice. Not as bad as a pedophile with a "lost puppy" on the playground, but not an actual solution for my non-existent login problem either. Oh look! Every other bit of brewing software in the world suddenly got more appealing when compared to BeerTools, and the chance of me ever buying anything from BeerTools is approaching zero.

Olde Fortran Malt Liquor

Malt liquor is a North American term referring to high alcohol beer. Legally, it usually means not lower than 5% ABV and made with some malted barley. Sugar, corn or other adjuncts are added to the malted barley to boost the total amount of fermentable sugars in the wort. "High Gravity" or "HG" malt liquor may have high levels of fusel alcohols, which give off solventy or fuel-like aromas and flavors. Examples of malt liquors sold in forty ounce bottles include Olde English 800, Colt 45, Mickey's, Camo, Country Club, Steel Reserve 211 an a host of others.

Despite all this I was inspired by my friend Ben to brew a Malt Liquor...
"Olde Fortran" was the malt liquor in Futurama, and I like Futurama. So there you go. First problem: Malt Liquor is not a recognized BJCP style, so not many malt liquor homebrew recipes seem to exist. I decided to sort of riff on the Classic American Pilsner (CAP) theme, and build an "Imperial" version.

The basic ingredients for a CAP are base malt, adjunct (corn or rice), hops, water and yeast. I was planning on an authentic mix of six-row and two-row malt, but supply limitations lead me to two-row only. Six-row pale malt has more diastatic power (DP) than domestic two-row malts, and I was initially looking for the "extra" enzymatic power to convert to starches from the adjuncts, so I'm going a little "light" on the adjuncts to compensate.

Barley malt occupies around 60–70% of the total grain bill of a Classic American Pilsner, with the remaining 30–40% being corn or rice adjuncts. I decided to use a bit of both, since both yield very little color, their flavor is nearly neutral and are low in protein compared to malt. I decided to go with flaked corn since it is cheaper than the grits I have used in the past for a CAP. Flaked corn is "pre-gelatinized" so it can simply be stirred into the mash. For the rice I will need to do a cereal mash.

The hopping rate for Classic American Pilsners is very low, with IBU levels generally around 10–14. I'm going to double the hops along with the fermentables Cluster was popular among American brewers, so I'll include a bit of that. Classic American Pilsners are brewed with lager yeasts and most lager strains will do a decent job. The ideal is probably Wyeast 2007 (Pilsen Lager) or White Labs WLP840 (American Lager), but I'm going with Saflager S-23 Dry Yeast, just to see what the hell happens. I somewhat distrust the FG number from my calculations. I'm betting it finishes in the high teens.

I was planning to hit 8% alcohol, but I ran off a bit too much during the sparge and a cold, rainy day kept the the evaporation level lower than expected. I ended up with six gallons at 7.2 rather than 5.5 at 8. Oh well.

Batch size 6.0 gallons Original Gravity 1.075/ 18.2° Plato (1.0798 to 1.089) Final Gravity 1.021 / 5.3° Plato (1.018 to 1.023) Bitterness 25.7 IBU / 10 HBU ƒ: Tinseth

BU:GU 0.33 Color 3° SRM/ 6° EBC (Yellow) Mash Efficiency 75% Alcohol 7.2% ABV / 6% ABW Calories 258 per 12 oz.

Malts/Fermentables:

%	LB	OZ	Type	ppg	°L
72%	12	0	Two-row Pale	37	2
18%	3	0	Flaked Corn	40	1
9%	1	8	Rice	40	1
0%	0	4	Rice Hulls	0	0

Hops

Use	Time	oz	Variety	Form	aa
boil	60 mins	1.25	Crystal	pellet	7.7

Yeast

Primary: Saflager S-23, medium flocculation and 73% attenuation

Experimental Flanders Red

Flanders Red is one of my favorite beer styles: La Folie, Rodenbach Grand Cru, and Duchesse de Bourgogne are all worthy of clone attempts. The problem is that a good Flanders Red takes a long time to brew, at least the way I did it last time. I went with the Cal Ale yeast in the primary, followed by Roselaire blend in the secondary. After about eight months it was rather nice. This probably isn't far from the commercial formula of ale yeast fermentation in the primary for one week, lacto secondary for four weeks, and Brett tertiary conditioning for months or years.

There seems to be an almost standard malt bill that involves varying quantities of Munich, Vienna, Aromatic, CaraMunich, Special B and Wheat along with base malt, so this part of the recipe isn't so experimental. Hops don't play a significant part because this is a sour, malty beer. My ideal Flanders Red has a combination of the soft lactic sourness and touch of the sharper acetic sourness, but several of the homebrews I've tried by some pretty good brewers have come up a bit short on any sort of sourness. Hence the experimental part...

This time I'm going to mix the ferment and souring up a bit differently. I'll start off with a four-day sour mash using about half of the Pilsner malt, then do the normal mash on brew day, with a one week ale yeast primary and a tertiary with Lambic Blend. The contents of the sour mash won't be added to the regular mash until it is more than half done, so I don't throw off the mash pH. I would prefer to go with Roselaire Blend to finish it off, but it won't be available right now, so the substitute will have to do.

My hope is that I get the tartness without having to wait forever, and I get some complexity in the sourness to match the malt bill. We shall see.

Batch size 5.5 gallons Original Gravity 1.053/ 13.1° Plato (1.048 to 1.056) Final Gravity 1.013 / 3.3° Plato (1.012 to 1.015) Bitterness 13.18 IBU / 4 HBU ƒ: Tinseth

BU:GU 0.25 Color 31° SRM/ 16° EBC (Light Brown to Medium Brown) Mash Efficiency 75% Alcohol 5.3% ABV / 4% ABW Calories 173 per 12 oz.

Malts/Fermentables:

%	LB	OZ	Type	ppg	°L
32%	3	8	Vienna	36	3
28%	3	0	Weyermann Pilsner	37	2
23%	2	8	Munich	36	10
5%	0	8	Wheat	39	2
5%	0	8	Aromatic	34	23
5%	0	8	CaraMunich	33	75
3%	0	6	Special B	33	220
	11	10

Hops

Use	Time	oz	Variety	Form	aa
boil	60 mins	0.75	Goldings	pellet	5.0

Yeast

Primary: Safale US-05, low to medium flocculation and 73% attenuation

Secondary: Belgian Lambic Blend (3278), 75% attenuation

Miscellany

Use	Amount	Ingredient
Secondary fermenter	3 ounces	Oak Chips

AHA/NHC Gold Medal Recipes 2004-2011

The AHA Wiki is great for some stuff. In the good news section, they have the last eight years worth of first place, Gold Medal homebrew recipes for each of the BJCP categories.

In the not-so-good news section, they make it unneccessarily hard to find the gold medal recipes on their website, and after you've finally found them you need to weed through all eight years to find the one and only Belgian Dubbel recipe that medaled. Or you may end up sifting through all eight years only to find out that that a Brown Porter never got the gold in the Porter category because the Robust Porters and Baltic Porters always win; so you need to keep looking for that superb Brown Porter recipe elsewhere. You'll find that there are 12 sub-categories that haven't struck gold.

I decided to help them get organized, so here you go. The following list has the Gold Medal-winning recipe in each category of the AHA National Homebrew Competition (NHC) for the last eight years. The list of BJCP categories changed in 2005, so I've tried to fit the earlier entries where they make sense in the current categories.)

The AHA Gold Medal-winning recipes for 2012 has been announced, but the recipes have not been posted on the AHA website as of yet. I'll update my list when they become available.

BJCP 1A Lite American Lager
2009 O'Bama-Lot
2008 Billy Bob Mississippi Lager
2006 Champagne Lager

BJCP 1B Standard American Lager
2005 Standard American Lager
2004 Dougweiser

BJCP 1C Premium American Lager
(No gold medal winners in this category in the last eight years.)

BJCP 1D Munich Helles
2011 Viking Gold
2007 Munich Helles

BJCP 1E Dortmunder Export
2010 461 Dortmunder Export

BJCP 2A German Pilsner
2006 Drei Liebchen Deutsche Pils
2004 Edmontoner

BJCP 2B Bohemian Pilsner
2011 Stop Looking For Malt Complexity In Pilsners
2010 BoPils
2008 Liquid Sunshine

BJCP 2C Classic American Pilsner
2009 Classic American Pilsner
2007 Classic American Pilsner
2005 Golden Era Lager

BJCP 3A Vienna Lager
2011 Vienna Lager
2008 Vienna Lager
2005 Little Vienna
2004 Vienna Eh? III

BJCP 3B Oktoberfest/Märzen
2010 Maerzen
2009 Oktoberfest Hallertau
2007 GB Märzen
2006 Oface Ofest

BJCP 4A Dark American Lager
2009 Danny's Bock
2006 Dark American Lager

BJCP 4B Munich Dunkel
2010 Tara's Slam Dunkel
2008 Munich Dunkel

BJCP 4C Schwarzbier
2011 Black Saxon
2007 Schwarzbier
2005 Let the Schwarz Be With You (recipe not available)
2004 Dark Helmet Schwarzbier

BJCP 5A Maibock/Helles Bock
2008 Helles Bock
2005 Heilige Helles

BJCP 5B M Traditional Bock
(No gold medal winners in this category in the last eight years.)

BJCP 5C Doppelbock
2007 Doppelbock

BJCP 5D Eisbock
2011 Tri-Paul-Bock
2010 Isebock
2009 Eisbock
2006 Dominator
2004 EKU

BJCP 6A Cream Ale
2008 Kari's Cream Ale
2006 Cream Ale
2011 $12 Cream Ale

BJCP 6B Blonde Ale
2004 Sweetheart Blonde

BJCP 6C Kölsch
2010 Helios Kölsch
2007 Kölsch
2005 Summer Kölsch
2004 Köelschde Toro

BJCP 6D American Wheat Or Rye Beer
2009 Bye, Bye, Miss American Rye

BJCP 7A North German Altbier
2006 Strike Team Chanukah Altbier
2005 Northern German Altbier

BJCP 7B California Common Beer
2010 NJ Steam 143

BJCP 7C Düsseldorf Altbier
2011 Daily Bread German Ale
2009 Dusseldorf Alt
2008 SummersALT
2007 JZ Alt

BJCP 8A Standard/Ordinary Bitter
2008 Standard/Ordinary Bitter
2004 Ordinary Bitter

BJCP 8B Special/Best/Premium Bitter
2011 ESB
2006 Bob's Bitter
2005 True Brit

BJCP 8C Extra Special/Strong Bitter (English Pale Ale)
2009 Guvnah
2009 ESB
2007 Bears Bitter

BJCP 9A Scottish Light 60/-
2007 Scottish Light 60/-
2005 Scottish 60/-

BJCP 9B Scottish Heavy 70/-
2011 Brown Eyed Woman
2009 Scottish Heavy 70/-
2006 Sand Hill Scottie

BJCP 9C Scottish Export 80/-
2004 Export 80/-

BJCP 9D Irish Red Ale
(No gold medal winners in this category in the last eight years.)

BJCP 9E Strong Scotch Ale
2010 Scotch Bingerson's Rehydration Fluid
2008 If It Ain't Scottish, It's Crap Scotch Ale
2004 Fat Bastard Wee Heavy

BJCP 10A American Pale Ale
2010 Opening Day Pale Ale
2009 Lara Pale Ale
2008 Lara Pale Ale
2007 Amarillo Pale Ale
2006 Drunk Monk Pale Ale
2005 Screaming Viking Pale Ale

BJCP 10B American Amber Ale
2011 Amber Waves Of Grain
2004 Drunk Monk Amber Ale

BJCP 10C American Brown Ale
2004 Janet's Brown Ale

BJCP 11A Mild
2010 Thomas Toes Mild
2009 Modest Mild

BJCP 11B Southern English Brown Ale
2007 Southern English Brown Ale
2005 English Brown Ale

BJCP 11C Northern English Brown Ale
2011 Northern English Brown Ale
2008 Nutty Professor Ale
2006 Nut Brown

BJCP 12A Brown Porter
(No gold medal winners in this category in the last eight years.)

BJCP 12B Robust Porter
2011 Dreaded Robust Porter
2009 Robust Porter
2008 Robust Porter
2007 Robust Porter
2005 Black Hills Porter
2004 Rocket Rod Romanaks Positively Porter

BJCP 12C Baltic Porter
2010 Three Kings Baltic Porter
2006 Baltic Porter

BJCP 13A Dry Stout
(No gold medal winners in this category in the last eight years.)

BJCP 13B Sweet Stout
(No gold medal winners in this category in the last eight years.)

BJCP 13C Oatmeal Stout
2010 Oatmeal Stout

BJCP 13D Foreign Extra Stout
2009 Redridge Stout
2004 West Indian Viagra

BJCP 13E American Stout
2008 Fostag Stout

BJCP 13F Russian Imperial Stout
2011 Badenov Russian Imperial Stout
2007 Leap Second Imperial Stout
2006 Russian Imperial Stout
2005 Veronica's Imperial Stout

BJCP 14A English IPA
2009 Blitzkrieg Hops
2005 13 Mile IPA

BJCP 14B American IPA
2011 Tsunami IPA
2007 Longbrook IPA
2006 Chicken Creek IPA
2004 Inaugural IPA

BJCP 14C Imperial IPA
2010 Hop-Fu
2008 Pliny The Elder Clone

BJCP 15A Weizen Weissbier
2009 El Hefe
2008 England-Weizen
2005 Hefeweizen

BJCP 15B Dunkelweizen
(No gold medal winners in this category in the last eight years.)

BJCP 15C Weizenbock
2007 Bitezen Bock

BJCP 15D Roggenbier (German Rye Beer)
2011 Roggen
2010 Roggen
2006 Peter Nelson's RoggenBier

BJCP 16A Witbier
2011 Witbier
2006 Witbier
2005 Witbier

BJCP 16B Belgian Pale Ale
(No gold medal winners in this category in the last eight years.)

BJCP 16C Saison
2010 Saison Lite 139
2007 Saison d'Ete

BJCP 16D Biere de Garde
(No gold medal winners in this category in the last eight years.)

BJCP 16E Belgian Specialty Ale
2009 Belgian Specialty Ale
2008 100% Brettanomyces
2004 Sorval

BJCP 17A Berliner Weisse
2008 Berliner Weisse
2004 Will Othe Wisp Weisse

BJCP 17B Flanders Red Ale
2010 Zed's Dead Red
2007 Flanders Red Ale
2004 Flanders Red Ale

BJCP 17D Flanders Brown Ale (Oud Bruin)
(No gold medal winners in this category in the last eight years.)

BJCP 17D Straight (Unblended) Lambic
2006 Throwing The Dice Again
2005 Oh to Daisy

BJCP 17E Gueuze
2011 You Snooze You Gueuze

BJCP 17F Fruit Lambic
2009 Ms. Helen's Peche Passion

BJCP 18A Belgian Blonde
2010 Sully's Belgian Blonde

BJCP 18B Belgian Dubbel
2009 Belgian Dubbel

BJCP 18C Belgian Tripel
2008 Have A Nice Tripel
2004 hmmm...Tripel IV

BJCP 18D Belgian Golden Strong Ale
(No gold medal winners in this category in the last eight years.)

BJCP 18E Belgian Dark Strong Ale
2011 Chimayo Azul
2007 Belgian Dark Strong
2006 Belgian Strong Dark Ale
2005 Blunt Trauma

BJCP 19A Old Ale
2006 Old Ale
2004 Big Mo

BJCP 19B English Barleywine
2010 JJs Barleywine
2004 English Style Barley Wine

BJCP 19C American Barleywine
2011 Neural Rust Barleywine
2009 Creative Destruction Barleywine
2008 Cheap Leather Jacket Barley Wine
2007 Old Blood & Guts - California
2005 Arrogant Barrister

BJCP 20 Fruit Beer
2011 Hop Fruity
2010 Peaches-n-Cream Hefe
2009 Thanks, Curt (Blackberry Baltic Porter)
2008 It's All Mine So Keep Back (Berliner Weisse With Sour Cherries)
2007 Summer Breeze (American Wheat Beer with Apricot)
2006 Blackberry & Cream (Cream Ale with Blackberry)
2005 Kölsch Abuse
2004 Raspberry Wheat

BJCP 21A Spice Herb Vegetable Beer
2011 Stefs Olive Beer
2010 Zingibier (Belgian Strong Wheat Ale with Ginger and Spices)
2009 Mashing Pumpkins Spiced Saison
2008 American Wheat Ale With Lemon Verbena
2007 Mild Jalapeño Pepper Beer
2006 Vanilla Cream Stout (Sweet Stout with Vanilla Bean)
2005 Hot Chihuahua
2004 Peppered Honey Wheat

BJCP 21B Christmas Winter Specialty Spiced Beer
(No gold medal winners in this category in the last eight years.)

BJCP 22A Classic Rauchbier
2011 Smoke Screen (Classic Rauchbier)
2009 Brisket In A Bottle
2006 Classic Rauchbier
2004 Rolling Rauch

BJCP 22B Other Smoked Beer
2008 Burnin' Down The House Smoked Weizenbock
2007 Dare to Roeselare (Flanders Red Ale Aged in Oak)
2005 Love Potion #9

BJCP 22C Wood Aged Beer
2010 Spanish Cedar IPA

BJCP 23 Specialty Beer
2011 Urban UFO
2010 Old Ale With Grapes And Honey
2009 Janet’s Brown Ale (Imperial American Brown Ale)
2008 Ben Franklin's Ale Colonial Stock Ale With Molasses And Spruce Tips
2007 Chipotle Pepper Alder Smoked Bock
2006 Garden Gruit
2005 Bellringer
2004 Eye Opener Stout

Here are the AHA Wiki pages for each year:

• 2011 NHC Gold Medal Recipes
• 2010 NHC Gold Medal Recipes
• 2010 NHC Gold Medal Recipes
• 2009 NHC Gold Medal Recipes
• 2008 NHC Gold Medal Recipes
• 2007 NHC Gold Medal Recipes
• 2006 NHC Gold Medal Recipes
• 2005 NHC Gold Medal Recipes
• 2004 NHC Gold Medal Recipes

Making the Brew Day Shorter

I don't brew beer to save money. Let's get that out of the way up front. I've brewed enough beer that my brewing equipment has paid for itself, but from a budgetary standpoint I'd be way better off to pick up some work on the side and use the money to buy beer, rather than taking the same amount of time to brew my own. I brew because I enjoy the hobby and the beer. Even though brewing is a great hobby, the brew day can get long, so I look for ways to do things quicker, easier.

I've noticed that if I'm not actively heating or cooling water during that process, not much progress is being made. I need to heat up my strike water just to get the day started, so I've been thinking about getting a higher capacity burner to be able to heat my water faster. But I found that I was able to cut my "getting ready to mash" time in half with my existing equipment.

Some people heat water in their mash tun, and add the grain directly. Others heat water in a a hot liquor tank and run it off into the mash. I liked the second way because it let me be more precise about mash temperatures.

When I was thinking about the best way to heat a large amount of water for a double batch of RIS, I finally realized that I could do both at once. The key is that you need two burners, which I've had for quite a while. I just heated half of the water in the mash tun, the other half in the hot liquor tank at the same time.

Having a lot of water to start in the mash before I add my grist makes the process of doughing in easier than it used to be, and I can still fine-tune my mash temps by controlling the amount of water I run in from the HLT. It's enough of a speed gain that I now have to scramble to get my malt measured and ground by the time the strike water is ready.