Dirty Robot Brew Works

Blown Füze Brown Ale

Phil and Marek (since joined by Fred and Dave S) started brewing in Carnegie Mellon's student-led course 98-050, "Beer Brewing and Beer Appreciation," taught by Kevin Schmidt.

For our first batch of beer, we used BYO's clone recipe of Bell's Best Brown Ale. We purchased our equipment from South Hills Brewing Supply and ingredients from Triangle Homebrewing Supply.

We brewed on February 1, 2005 and bottled on February 19. The specific gravity before fermentation (OG) was 1.040 and after (FG) was 1.010, indicating ~4% alcohol by volume. Our tasting party on March 25 was a success! The beer had a malty aroma, a strong hoppy flavor, and great head retention.

For our TG debut, we used Brewer's Best recipe for English Brown Ale. We brewed on April 8, 2006 and kegged on April 25. We serve on May 12 at 5pm in the NSH Atrium! We'll also be selling pint glasses fror $5, ordered from Brew Pack.

Thanks to Dan for the drawing, Tom L for the name, and Bilge for help designing the label.

Midas Battles the Golden Robot

Our sophomore effort is BYO's clone recipe of Dogfish Head's Midas Touch, an interesting combination of beer, wine, and mead. Ingredients were from South Hills Brewing Supply and Penzey's Spices.

We made a yeast starter on March 25, 2005, brewed on March 26, and bottled on April 12. OG was 1.050 and FG was 1.005, indicating ~6% alcohol. This beer was a great success!

We built a sensor rig that detected airlock bubbles to track the rate of fermentation.

Thanks to the Flaming Lips for inspiration.

Hydraulic Hefeweizen

BYO's Bavarian Hefeweizen was the inspiration for our third effort, an easy-to-make, light summer beer for our end-of-semester frolicking. Ingredients and recipe substitutions were from South Hills Brewing Supply.

We boiled 3lbs Munton's Spraymalt Extract (55% wheat, 45% barley) Plain Wheat, 2lbs Munton's Spraymalt Extract (100%) Plain Wheat, and 1.25oz Hallertau 3.8aa hops in 3gal water for 60min. We added .75oz Hallertau 3.8aa hops for the last 30 minutes. Then we cooled the wort, added 2.5gal cold water, and pitched the WLP300 Hefeweizen Ale Yeast.

We brewed on April 25, 2005. OG was 1.030. We bottled on May 17. FG was 1.010, indicating ~3% alcohol. Our sensor rig was at work again.

We used a simpler recipe to brew two batches for our TG debut. We boiled 3 gallons of water, 1.6kg John Bull Wheat Syrup, 1.5kg Munton's Wheat LME, and 1oz 3.3aa Hallertau hops for an hour, and topped off to 5 gallons. We brewed on April 8, 2006 and kegged on April 25. We serve on May 12 at 5pm in the NSH Atrium!

Thanks to Scottoons Interactive Robot Factory.

Paranoid Android Pale Ale

We used BYO's clone recipe of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Ingredients and recipe substitutions were from South Hills Brewing Supply. We differed from the recipe in using 8oz Crystal malt 20L, 8oz Dingemans Cara-pils malt 7.7L, 6.5lbs LMS, 7.2aa Perle hops, 5.7aa Cascade hops, and WLP001 yeast.

We brewed on July 23, 2005. OG was 1.030. We went with the wet-t-shirt technique to keep the carboy cool in the basement. We racked to secondary fermentation on July 29.

We've purchased a kegging system from Beer, Beer, & More Beer, and CO2 from Alloy~Oxygen. We kegged and force carbonated the beer on August 11. We've also bought a new refrigerator in which to store the keg, and maybe start some lagering later on...

We brewed a second batch of the same on November 6, 2005. OG was 1.044. We racked to secondary a few days later, and kegged on December 5. FG was 1.008.

Thanks to the Hitchhiker's Guide movie.

Holonomic Hefeweizen

We used Clone Brews' recipe for Paulaner Hefe-Weizen.

We brewed on September 3, 2005. OG was 1.050. We used a wet-t-shirt in the basement again. We kegged and force carbonated on September 22.

Serial Porter

We used The Complete Joy of Homebrewing's recipe for Sparrow Hawk Porter (p. 201). Substitutions were 1lb Muntons 2-row Black Patent Malt, 3.52lbs John Bull Dark LME, 1lb Muntons Plain Dark spraymalt DME, 3.52lbs BierKeller light LME, 1.5oz Northern Brewer 7.1aa hops, 1oz Tettnang 4.5aa hops, and WLP002 yeast.

We brewed on January 22, 2006 during the Steelers AFC game. OG was 1.020. We kegged on February 5, before the Steelers won the Super Bowl. Because of these fortuitous events, this beer was fantastic.

We brewed using this recipe again on December 10, 2006, with 3.52lbs BierKeller light LME, 3.52lbs John Bull light LME, .75lb Munton's Plain Light spraymalt DME, 1.5oz Northern Brewer 6.5aa hops, and everything else the same as above.

Robot Chicken

In mid-August 2006, we brewed a clone of Old Speckled Hen from Clone Brews (p. 104). We kegged in the end of August. This was a good beer.

Stdout

In mid-August 2006, we brewed the Toad Spit Stout recipe from The Complete Joy of Homebrewing (p. 206). We kegged in the end of August. This was also a good beer.

Fluffer's English Sex Bot

We used Clone Brews' recipe for Fuller's ESB (p. 94). We used 6.25lbs Munton's plain light spraymalt DME, 1.25oz 10.4aa Target bittering hops, .5oz 6.5aa Northern Brewer flavor hops, and WLP013 yeast as substitutions.

We brewed on December 10, 2006.

Boss Ale

We used Clone Brews' recipe for Bass Ale (p. 86). We used 6lbs Briess DME, 2oz 10.0aa Phoenix flavor/aroma hops, and WLP005 British Ale yeast as substitutions.

We brewed on November 1, 2008, OG 1.020. We kegged on November 15, FG 1.004.

Bothaven

We used Clone Brews' recipe for Belhaven (p. 87) with some modifications. We substituted 55L British crystal malt with 50L American 6-row special roast. We substituted the toasted 2-row pale malt with Munton's 2-row crystal 60L. Where it called for 2.75 lbs M&L Light DME, we used the full 3lbs in the bag instead. We made complex modifications to the hops. Total hops are: 3/4 oz each of 6.3 Cascade, 4.6 Willamette, 3.7 Argentine Cascade. Most of the hops were added in the bittering step. Between 1/4 and 1/2 oz went in the flavor hop step. Due to a mixup at the beer store, these hops are from the Magic Hat #9 clone in the same book. The yeast was White Labs Edinburgh Ale Yeast, WLP028.

We brewed on April 25, 2009. We transferred to secondary fermentation after one week, and kegged on May 10. We served this beer to wide acclaim at Guffey Hollow on June 1.

Magic Ed 209

We used Clone Brews' recipe for Magic Hat #9. We may have added extra apricot extract, and run short on some hops due to sharing with the Bothaven. The yeast was White Labs German Ale/Kolsch Yeast, WLP029.

We brewed on April 25, 2009. We transferred to secondary fermentation after one week, and kegged on May 10. We served this beer to wide acclaim at Guffey Hollow on June 1.

Johanneskaner & Sarahkaner

We used Beer Captured's recipe for Franziskaner. Johanneskaner was by the book. Sarahkaner was the same, with an additional two flavor ingredients from Clone Brews' Blanche de Chambly: 1 tsp bitter orange peel and 1/2 tsp crushed coriander in the last 10 minutes of boil. Yeast for the Johanneskaner was White Labs Hefeweizen Ale Yeast WLP300. For the Sarahkaner we used White Labs American Hefeweizen Yeast WLP320 -- but the vial was old, we didn't do a starter, and the fermentation didn't start -- so after two days we transferred some yeast from the Johanneskaner with a turkey baster. Incestuous, but it worked.

We brewed on May 30, 2009. We transferred both brews to secondary after one week, and kegged on June 11.

Ginger:/

This was a highly experimental ginger root beer.

Malt:
3 tbsp american 6-row 50L
1 tsp acidulated 1.8L
1 tbsp aromatic dingemann 17L
2 tbsp american crystal 60L

Steep grains in one quart of water for 30 min at 65-70 C.
Sparge in one quart of 65-70 C water.
Put in boil pot.

Add to boil pot:
1 lb ginger, pulped in blender
4 cups or approx. 1 lb brown sugar
2 tbsp malto dextrin (might not want this after all)
may need to add water to blender to get ginger blended up

Boil for 30 minutes

Add spices:
1 tbsp coriander
1 tbsp green cardamom
3 cinnamon sticks
1 tbsp mint leaves
1/2 tsp star anise
1/2 tsp cloves
2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 vanilla bean
1 tbsp dried bitter orange peel (should add less, or leave out)

Boil for 10 minutes

Add additional juices:
1 pink grapefruit, pulped in blender
zest of the grapefruit, approx 1 tbsp lightly packed
juice of 1 key lime
zest of one key lime, approx 1/2 tbsp lightly packed
Another 1/4 lb of blended ginger.

Get back up to 80C and then strain out solids.
Let liquid cool to room temperature
Pour into carboy and pitch yeast.
For yeast, we used the sediment left after the secondary fermentation of the Sarahkaner, which is a Hefeweizen yeast.

This recipe, with implicit water added, made 5 quarts of wort. We fermented 1 gallon at full strength, and added 1 quart of water to the remaining quart in another fermenter.

Brewed on June 13, 2009.