Recipe: Bottle Logic Fundamental Observation

ALL-GRAIN
Batch size: 5 gallons (19 liters)
Brewhouse efficiency: 72%
OG: 1.129 (30°P)
FG: 1.048 (12°P)
IBUs: 30
ABV: 10.6%

[PAYWALL] MALT/GRAIN BILL
17.2 lb (7.8 kg) Simpsons Best Pale
1.65 lb (748 g) Simpsons Dark Crystal
1.65 lb (748 g) Canada Malting Premier Flaked Oats
1.4 lb (635 g) Simpsons Chocolate Malt
15 oz (425 g) Simpsons Roasted Barley
11 oz (312 g) Simpsons Black Malt

HOPS & ADDITIONS SCHEDULE
1 lb (454 g) dextrose at 60 minutes
1 oz (28 g) Columbus at 60 minutes [30 IBUs]
1 oz (28 g) Perle at flameout/whirlpool
1.5–3 oz (43–85 g) Madagascar vanilla in barrel/tertiary

YEAST
Fermentis SafAle S-04 or similar

DIRECTIONS
Mill the grains, mix in the flaked oats, and mash at 154°F (68°C) for 30 minutes, then raise to 168–170°F (76–77°C) for mash out. Recirculate until the runnings are clear, then run off into the kettle. Sparge as needed to get about 7.5 gallons (28 liters) of wort, depending on your evaporation rate—or, forget volume and aim for a pre-boil gravity of 1.092–1.101 (22–24°P). Boil for 180 minutes, adding dextrose and hops according to the schedule. After the boil, stir or recirculate to create a vortex, then add the whirlpool hops. Chill the wort to 66°F (19°C), aerate/oxygenate thoroughly, and pitch a healthy yeast starter. Ferment at 70°F (21°C) for the first 3 days, then raise to 72°F (22°C) until complete and the gravity has stabilized. Crash for 1 week and rack to a bourbon barrel—or a glass carboy with bourbon-soaked oak cubes—for about 1 year. Add 1.5 oz (43 g) vanilla and taste after 1 month, increasing the amount if more vanilla character is desired. After 2 more months, crash, package, carbonate, and enjoy.

BREWER’S NOTES
Water: We add 270 ppm calcium carbonate and 120 ppm calcium chloride.
Yeast: Even if you’re using dried yeast, make a big, healthy starter for this one. At Bottle Logic, this a two-day, two-batch brew—they pitch the yeast on the first batch, letting it propagate and get a good, running start. Then they add the second batch the next day. “It gives it better viability and attenuation,” Parker says. Their yeast pitch is harvested from a freshly fermenting batch of their blonde ale, 714. “It’s kind of a feeder beer for our barrel age program,” Parker says.
Pre-barrel: Bottle Logic used to crash the beer for a week before racking to barrels, but now they centrifuge instead. “I think it leads to better barrel-aging, leads more toward the wood itself and gives us a more stable product,” Parker says.
Aging: The brewery recommends drinking this beer after bottling or for up to a year afterward, at the most. “We invested a lot into new packaging last expansion,” Parker says. “We have extremely low dissolved-oxygen numbers. We use the system for barrel-aged beer, and that’s precisely because people hold onto beer.” Even so, Langton says that these are neither lambic beers nor wine. “Extended time is not going to make them more delicious,” she says.