Brau Haus

S-04 Fermentis fermentation temperature

2011-04-23T11:54:00.000-07:00

Contrary to popular belief, S-04 Fermentis dry ale yeast ferments just fine in the upper 50's, temperature-wise. First, start with a warm pitch (warm pitch to me is 68F), then let the beer settle to 57-58F within 24 hours. Fermentation does kick off quite rapidly [6 hours]. It will fully attenuate after 3 weeks. Taste is fine, no diacetyl rest needed. Sometimes this is necessary even with cool fermented ale yeasts. But, no funny flavors are there because of the cold temperatures.

This is with no starter, and direct pitch. Never have used water first on dry yeasts. I have not found a reason to.

Amarillo Pale Ale

2011-04-03T08:08:00.000-07:00

Below is a 10gallon batch of Amarillo Pale Ale. I would have rather done Simcoe, but I still have a 1# bag of Amarillo pellet hops in the freezer. Next time the opportunity comes around to buy 1# of Simcoe, I will probably take it. If you are going to use this recipe, cut everything in half to make it 5 gallons.

Amarillo PA

Size: 39.46 L Efficiency: 64.0% Attenuation: 76.9%

Original Gravity: 1.052 (1.045 - 1.060) ===============#================

Terminal Gravity: 1.012 (1.010 - 1.015) ==============#=================

Color: 9.84 (5.0 - 14.0) ================#===============

Alcohol: 5.22% (4.5% - 6.2%) ==============#=================

Bitterness: 45.5 (30.0 - 45.0) ========================#=======

Ingredients:

22 lb 2-Row Brewers Malt

1.0 lb Caramel Pils

1.0 lb Crystal 60

1.55 oz Magnum-PLMG (13.0%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min

0.75 oz Amarillo (8.5%) - added during boil, boiled 15.0 min

1.25 oz Amarillo (8.5%) - added during boil, boiled 5.0 min

2.5 oz Amarillo (8.5%) - dry hop

2 ea Fermentis S-04 Safale S-04

Schedule:

Ambient Air: 58 °F Source Water: 40 °F Elevation: 0.0 m

00:31:56 Mash In - Liquor: 33.0 L; Strike: 164.63 °F; Target: 152 °F 00:41:56 Rest - Rest: 35 min; Final: 151.5 °F 01:11:56 Sparge - FirstRunnings: 0.0 L sparge @ 168 °F, 20.0 L collected, 15 min; Second: 31.0 L sparge @ 200 °F, 31.0 L collected, 15 min; Total Runoff: 52.43 L

Results generated by BeerTools Pro 1.5.10

Summit Brewing Co. IRA

2010-05-02T17:17:00.001-07:00

Today I had the opportunity to drink the India Style Rye Ale from Summit Brewing Co's Unchained Series. Lets say I was more than impressed. It was a medium color spicy pale ale that was not overwhelming. The rye came through tremendously, but not too much to make it undrinkable. The cup of beer (served at Sea Salt Eatery) went very nicely with the fried fish sandwich, and was gone before I knew it. Not an especially bitter beer, which made it easy to pass the time with and not get shocked upon every sip. The Citra hops are very nice, and I may try them someday in my homebrew (if I can find them).

Brewtroller Ordered

2010-04-11T11:57:00.000-07:00

Yes, the Brewtroller has been ordered. I have big expectations for it.. but, in the beginning I will just use it for monitoring and simple boil and heating stages. I have some ASCO valves in-house, but I will not use until much later.

I am curious to see if I can get my pressure transducer to work with the Brewtroller. I am sure I can, it is just a question of what will I NEED to do to get it to work reliably. Seems like most people are concerned with air leakage in the system. I will try to alleviate that by glueing everything up tight.

Thing to note about last "Perfect" batch of weissbier

2010-03-06T13:11:00.001-08:00

The last 10gallon (40L) batch of weissbier turned out perfect. When I say perfect, I mean very little banana, and all clove.

Things to note.
1. Fermentation in the lows 60's (62F or less)
2. Half vial of WLP380 per 5 gallon fermenter, with no starter.
3. Fermentation took >24 hours to kick off (there must have been yeast stress involved)
4. The carboy that had more cold break in it started off a little faster and ended earlier than the carboy with less break inside. One carboy had more cold break than the other because the 10 gallon runoff took place after the wort had a chance to settle from the whirlpool. Normally, I run the wort from the kettle to the carboy immediately after the pump turns off.

Interesting Brewing Observations

2010-02-07T15:50:00.000-08:00

So, 10 gallon batches are now being brewed. I chilled my weissbier wort to 64 degrees in the whirlpool chiller within the kettle. Something I dont normally do is turn the whirlpool pump off long before I transfer the wort to the carboys. This time I let the cold water run for about 10 minutes after I stopped the recirculation . This allowed the break matter to settle towards the bottom.

I transferred the wort to the first carboy, then the second. The first carboy had a particularly large amount of break in it, while the second didnt seem to have so much.

I put equal amounts of liquid yeast into both fermenters, and shook both for over a minute (standard routine).

In general, things were cold (the wort, the room, everything) so fermentation got off to a slow start. But, the interesting factoid is that the carboy with the break material started faster than the other carboy. Also, it ended sooner.

Not only that, the final gravity was lower on the beer with the precipitate in it. As for flavor, they both taste about the same (preliminary findings). The final gravity point difference was about .004.

Next time I will let the recirculation pump run right up until I transfer the wort out, to allow for a more homogenous wort solution.

Pressure Sensor

2010-01-10T15:22:00.001-08:00

I received my free samples from Freescale. The pressure sensor is
MPXV5010DP, and I will be testing it soon enough. I am not sure how I am going to attach it to the top of my sight glass yet, we will see.

Sight Glass Installation

2010-01-10T14:56:00.001-08:00

Ok, so I finally installed a sight glass onto my stainless steel megapot. Here I will show what things looked like in the process. Below is the cold water running over the location where I drilled the 7/8" hole. I used a step bit, with cold running water only, no oil. This worked out perfectly, with no problems.

The step bit I used is below. It goes to 7/8". I picked up two of them on ebay for about $14. Worked like a champ.

Below is a picture of the weldless T sightglass fitting I received from http://www.bargainfittings.com/. Inserted into it is a 1/2" MNPT Machined Through Compression Fitting that I received from http://www.brewershardware.com/ along with a 6" temperature probe end to go inside it. The temperature sensor being used is a ds1820, which fits perfectly into the probe end.

Surly Imperial Brown Update

2009-11-15T10:14:00.000-08:00

Got full attenuation on my wort, 78% using US-05 dry yeast. Started with an OG of 1.088 and finished at 1.020. This leaves it at a hair over 9% alcohol level. Initial small sampling indicates that all is well, no alcohol flavor, at all!!!!!!!!!!!!

Excellent initial flavor, I will let it carbonate up a little bit before I have a pint and can fully qualify it.

It has been 5 weeks since the beer was brewed, time can only make it better I suppose, but we'll see.

Surly AHA Rally

2009-10-17T09:51:00.000-07:00

On Oct 10, the AHA (American Homebrewers Association) hosted a rally at the Surly Brewing Company. At first, it was supposed to be a brewery tour, and tasting event. Then, to the surprise of us all, Surly offered to brew a batch of beer, so we could all fill our fermenters with 5 gallons of Surly wort. The trick was that there would be only enough for 160 people or so, due to batch size.

The reservation for this wort fill up expired a few hours after the email announcement. Surly then graciously offered to brew a second batch, so everyone can fill their carboys if they liked. In the picture below, you can see just a fraction of the buckets carboys and kegs.

Ok, so Surly gave away an Imperial Brown Ale wort... the (5 gal approximation, taken from actual percentages in the given real recipe) recipe is below. I tasted the wort, and it is phenominal! I can't wait until it completes.

Surly Imperial Brown

10/10/2009

Size: 21.12 L

Efficiency: 80%

Attenuation: 80.5%

Calories: 296.89 kcal per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.089 (1.045 - 1.060)

================================

Terminal Gravity: 1.017 (1.010 - 1.016)

===========================#====

Color: 24.1 (18.0 - 35.0)

=============#==================

Alcohol: 9.5% (4.3% - 6.2%)

================================

Bitterness: 65.4 (20.0 - 40.0)

================================

Ingredients:

14.5 lb Pale Ale Malt

1.9 lb Brown Malt

.6336 lb Candi Sugar Dark

.3168 lb Crystal 85

.3168 lb Crystal 120

1.3 oz Columbus (15.0%) - added during boil, boiled 60.0 min

0.5 oz Willamette (5.0%) - added during boil, boiled 0.0 min

Results generated by BeerTools Pro 1.5.2

Northern English Brown Ale

2009-10-04T12:36:00.000-07:00

I have decided to try and brew a new type of beer, Northern English Brown... I guess the commercial version of this is Newcastle Nut Brown. I am using some hops that I already have... they are not British, but this is really not a hop-centric beer, so it doesnt matter. Ok, we will see how this turns out. Here is the recipe ->

I will brew within a couple of days.

Northern English Brown

10/4/2009

Size: 44.16 L
Efficiency: 73%
Attenuation: 75%
Calories: 177.61 kcal per 12.0 fl oz
Original Gravity: 1.053 (1.040 - 1.052)
=========================#======
Terminal Gravity: 1.013 (1.008 - 1.013)
=========================#======
Color: 17.83 (12.0 - 22.0)
=================#==============
Alcohol: 5.25% (4.2% - 5.4%)
=====================#==========
Bitterness: 22.4 (20.0 - 30.0)
===========#====================

Ingredients:

19.5 lb Pale Ale
1.5 lb Special Roast Malt
1 lb Victory® Malt
1 lb Light Crystal
1 lb Pale Chocolate
.85 oz Magnum-PLMG (13.0%) - added during boil, boiled 60.0 min
.4 oz Magnum-PLMG (13.0%) - added during boil, boiled 20 min
2 ea Danstar 3767 Nottingham

Results generated by BeerTools Pro 1.5.2

First Basement Brew

2009-03-22T09:26:00.000-07:00

First basement brew took place this week. It was not only the first brew in the basement, it was also the first time I did a 10 gallon boil (actually 13.5). This was all thanks to the 5500W water heating element used in the kettle. The element is not physically mounted to the kettle, but attached to a heatstick so it can be easily removed/cleaned, etc. Here are some things I learned from this whole experience...

1. 5500 watts is more than adequate to boil 13.5 gallons of wort.

2. The absorption ratio of grain is a bit more than I had thought... need to calculate this again.

3. My batch sparging method used on a ten gallon batch is stretching the limits of my 48qt mash tun. Actually, the mash tun is too small if I want to single batch sparge. I was able to finish it with a 2 batch sparge. The liquid did go up to the top a couple of times, but it worked out fine in the end.

4. It is easier to hit mash temps with greater volumes of grain and liquid... definitely a big bonus.

5. Moving the tubing around for the march pump is not entertaining. Will need to put the valves into effect to end this nonsense.

6. The SSR was needed for the water heating element. I would have had boilovers if I had not throttled down the element to 70-80% duty cycle sometimes. The frequency I was running the SSR at was 1Hz. This seems ok. The SSR is mounted to an old pentium/CPU heatsink and fan setup. There are no problems dissipating the heat the SSR puts out.

7. A fan running 240CFM will exhaust a 5500W element's boil with a 18" diameter brew kettle. A 240CFM fan is barely adequate though. I would prefer something over 280CFM.

Cold Fermentation of Wheat

2009-03-01T11:59:00.000-08:00

Since it is a cold winter here (including the upstairs closets), my latest batch of weissbier had the opportunity to ferment in a sub 60F environment. One word (awesome).

Ok, WLP380 will ferment under 60F, and the flavor is great. I am not a big fan of the banana, and, it did not give me any.

The crisp, spicy clove flavor that I long for in a weissbier is ever present, and that is the way it needs to be.

On another note, my extraction efficiency was really bad on that particular batch (around 60%), which made for a slightly thinner beer than I would have liked. It ended at 1.010 FG, whereas I am usually at 1.015FG or so. That is fine. At 4.2% alcohol or so, I can drink a bit more of it at any particular time.

WB-06 vs WLP380 PT II

2009-01-17T07:20:00.001-08:00

Ok, a couple of things went wrong with the last batch after stressing the WLP-380 yeast in the starter.

One is that it may have taken on an infection, although it is very difficult to recognize. I say this due to the fact I fermented the thing at around 68 - 70F, which will throw a lot of esters (smells) that I am not used to. My usual fermenting temp is below 64F. It just didn't smell like a 68-70F weissbier, and I am not talking about banana aroma either.

That all being said, the beer tastes fine, and the slightly strange smell goes away within 5 seconds of pouring the beer into the glass. The color is adequate as well.

WLP380 is still my yeast of choice, because given all that, it still made a fine weissbier.

Start of Brewing Automation

2008-11-30T10:24:00.001-08:00

A good bit of time has been spent on getting the homebrewery going in the basement. This is mostly due to the fact the lugging around large amounts of hot liquid is not so nice. Also, I can go all-electric and be able to control my temperatures a little better.

Along with bringing my brewing activities in the basement, I can now automate the system. As seen in the picture above, there is very little automation (due to switches on the side). But, soon enough my computer that is nearby should be able to control about 90% of the process. I will be able to control the SSR units via the computer (well, at least transmit what duty cycle I want, and then the microcontrollers will be able to do the dirty work). Also, I will get feedback into my computer on the temperature levels at the various stations, so it can know what duty cycle to pulse the SSRs at.

I still have to get the workbench to put the mashtun etc on, as well as the march pump with the ASCO solenoids (got them off of ebay). Eventually I will hookup copper pipes as well as a water filter, so I will just need to press a button and the water will fill up. One thing that I am still not so sure about is the water level sensor. Still, I need to figure out how to pull that off. I do not want to have to turn off the water flow manually... that's cheating. The homebrewing continues...

WB-06 vs WLP380

2008-11-15T14:45:00.000-08:00

So, I have brewed two weissbier batches (same recipe) and have used these two different yeasts [ WB-06 and WLP380]. The WB-06 is the new dry German wheat yeast, and WLP380 is an older liquid strain.

Both wheat beers were fermented around 64 degrees, due to the fact I am not a huge fan of banana flavor, and am going more toward the clove side of things. Both beers also had a 105F rest in the mash schedule, with a 148F sac rest.

I prefer WLP380 over the WB-06. The dry yeast seems a little two tame, with not enough spicyness coming out. Luckily, no banana was thrown at the low fermentation temps either. I must say that for the price, it is not bad, and will do in a pinch if you do not have any liquid yeast lying around (or, are too cheap on that day to buy it).

Currently I am trying to stress the heck out of WLP380, and see how it does. I poured 1/4 tube of really old yeast into a 2 litre starter. It took 3 days to start fermenting. It smells alright, and it seems the starter was not taken over by any bacteriological forms. So, I will dump this starter into my weiss that I am brewing as I type.

Amazing Weissbier Recipe

2008-10-05T10:53:00.000-07:00

Here is a great weissbier recipe taken/adapted from this thread. It was meant to replicate a good Bavarian weissbier. In particular, Schneider-Weiss I believe. Anyhow, it turned out great, and is probably my best weissbier to date.

Weissbier-Selair 08_8_12

15-A Weizen/Weissbier

Date: 8/12/2008

Size: 23.6 L
Efficiency: 66.0%
Attenuation: 76.9%
Calories: 172.0 kcal per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.052 (1.044 - 1.052)

=======================#========

Terminal Gravity: 1.012 (1.010 - 1.014)

===============#================

Color: 10.73 (2.0 - 8.0)

===============================#

Alcohol: 5.22% (4.3% - 5.6%)

===================#============

Bitterness: 12.7 (8.0 - 15.0)

==================#=============

Ingredients:

8.0 lb Pale Wheat Malt

5.0 lb Pilsner Malt

.9 lb Munich Malt

0.25 lb Caramunich® TYPE I

.05 lb Carafa Special® TYPE II

1.04 oz Hallertau Mittelfruh (3.2%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min

0.69 oz Hallertau Mittelfruh (3.2%) - added during boil, boiled 10 min

1 ea White Labs WLP380 Hefeweizen IV Ale

Schedule:

Ambient Air: 74 °F
Source Water: 74 °F
Elevation: 0.0 m

00:14:34 Mash In - Liquor: 10.37 L; Strike: 128.61 °F; Target: 115.0 °F
00:34:34 Rest - Rest: 20 min; Final: 113.9 °F
00:35:34 Infusion - Water: 10.34 L; Temperature: 195.4 °F; Target: 149 °F
01:35:34 Sac. Rest - Rest: 60 min; Final: 145.7 °F
02:05:34 Sparge - FirstRunnings: 2.21 L sparge @ 168 °F, 14.43 L collected, 15 min; Second: 14.26 L sparge @ 200 °F, 13.91 L collected, 15 min; Total Runoff: 28.99 L

Results generated by BeerTools Pro 1.5.0

Robust Porter

2007-11-11T11:39:00.000-08:00

The robust porter I outlined below has turned out pretty well. Very clean and flavorful. One of the better beers I have brewed. It seems that ever since I have been treating my water the beers have been getting better as well.

My basic water additions are 7g of calcium carbonate, 1.5 grams of Epsom Salt, and 1.5 grams of Baking Soda for about 8 to 10 gallons of water (inclusive of water that goes into the mash, of course). This is to replicate Munich water starting with a base of very mineral-less water (which seems to be my local water). The reason I want to replicate Munich water is due to the fact it tastes so good coming straight out of the tap. And, since beer is mostly water, this is a good starting point. In general this has worked for my darker beers, and even the weissbiers. I figured that the Munich brewers were using local untreated water for their weiss as well as their dunkels, so RA may not be as big a factor... Who knows.

A long time ago I had started using Campden tablets to rid the water of chlorine and chloramine. This has been working wonderfully. No need for water filters here...

It's been a while, how poor of me

2007-09-30T17:15:00.000-07:00

Anyhow, drool over this -> Two boils, one batch sparge. You can see where the chiller went in on the boiling sections by the dip in temperature. Below, I will post the recipe i made, it is a Jamil "Robust Porter", pitched US-05.

RobustPorter 29_9_07

12-B Robust Porter

Size: 5.44 gal

Efficiency: 60%

Attenuation: 80.5%

Calories: 197.16 kcal per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.060 (1.048 - 1.065)

==================#=============

Terminal Gravity: 1.012 (1.012 - 1.016)

======#=========================

Color: 29.01 (22.0 - 35.0)

================#===============

Alcohol: 6.31% (4.8% - 6.0%)

============================#===

Bitterness: 31.6 (25.0 - 50.0)

============#===================

Ingredients:

11.5 lb 2-Row Brewers Malt

1.5 lb Munich Malt

1.5 lb Crystal Malt 40°L

.5 lb Black Malt

.75 lb Chocolate Malt

2 oz East Kent Goldings - 4.5% (4.5%) - added during boil, boiled 60.0 min

.75 oz East Kent Goldings - 4.5% (4.5%) - added during boil, boiled 0.0 min

Schedule:

Ambient Air: 78.0 °F

Source Water: 78.0 °F

Elevation: 0.0 m

00:03:00 Mash In - Liquor: 4.33 gal; Strike: 170 °F; Target: 153 °F

01:03:00 Rest - Rest: 60.0 min; Final: 149.0 °F

01:04:00 Infusion - Water: 8.02 L; Temperature: 194.2 °F; Target: 162 °F

01:34:00 Sparge - FirstRunnings: 0.0 L sparge @ 168.0 °F, 4.07 gal collected, 15 min; Second: 4.1 gal sparge @ 170 °F, 4.1 gal collected, 15 min; Total Runoff: 8.35 gal

Notes:

Put some comments here:

Results generated by BeerTools Pro 1.1.0.6-alpha

Breaking in a New System

2007-05-23T17:40:00.000-07:00

So of course, when I brewed my first batch, my efficiency was poor. Now, the first element I am going to blame this on is the crush. The grains were very coarse in comparison with my previous all-grain brews. My crushed grains are typically more powdery in texture... this time is was not. I know, I need to get a grain mill.

I broke in the system with a Weissbier. Here is the recipe, it is simple, sweet, and should work out just fine. I used WLP300 for the yeast. Good things have been said of WLP380, next time I will probably try it.

Weissbier 22_5_07

15-A Weizen/Weissbier

Size: 16.36 L

Efficiency: 66.0%

Attenuation: 76.0%

Calories: 166.62 per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.050 (1.044 - 1.052)

====================#===========

Terminal Gravity: 1.012 (1.010 - 1.014)

================#===============

Color: 4.5 (2.0 - 8.0)

==============#=================

Alcohol: 5.0% (4.3% - 5.6%)

================#===============

Bitterness: 13.17 (8.0 - 15.0)

===================#============

Ingredients:

4.75 lbs Pale Wheat Malt

4.75 lbs Pilsner Malt

0.75 oz Hallertau Mittelfruh (3.2%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min

0.5 oz Hallertau Mittelfruh (3.2%) - added during boil, boiled 10 min

1.0 ea White Labs WLP300 Hefewizen Ale

Schedule:

Ambient Air: 70 °F

Source Water: 70.0 °F

Elevation: 0.0 m

00:10:10 Mash In - Liquor: 6.62 L; Strike: 137.7 °F; Target: 120 °F

00:30:10 Rest - Rest: 20 min; Final: 118.0 °F

00:31:10 Infusion - Water: 7.85 L; Temperature: 194.8 °F; Target: 154.0 °F

01:31:10 Sac. Rest - Rest: 60 min; Final: 148.7 °F

02:01:10 Sparge - FirstRunnings: 0.0 L sparge @ 168 °F, 7.19 L collected, 15 min; Second: 9.5 L sparge @ 200 °F, 9.5 L collected, 15 min; Total Runoff: 17.09 L

Notes:

Put some comments here:

Results generated by BeerTools Pro 1.0.26

In Colorado

2007-05-17T19:08:00.000-07:00

... is where I am at the moment. I have a chance now to taste a local "Colorado" beer. I saw in the latest Zymurgy (I think), that there is a brewery called Breckenridge. I wanted to try one of their IPAs or APAs, but the local liquor shop only had a Vanilla Porter, and one other one that I forgot the name of.

So, I decided to go with 5 Barrel Pale Ale from O'Dell Brewing in Fort Collins, CO. First, the aroma seemed a little stale, so I checked the date, and it is 061507, which means it is almost expired. I suppose. There is no noticeably distinct hop aroma or flavor in it, so I suspect a huge blend. Ok, so on the bottle it says that they run it through a hop-back, and that 4 hops are added in the boil. I would expect much bigger aroma, but again, the beer might be old. It tasted fine, fairly similar to SNPA. I am not a BJCP judge or anything (yet), so I will not go through the ratings for aroma, flavor, appearance, etc...

The Ordinary Bitter

2007-05-13T15:01:00.000-07:00

turned out pretty well. The FG was a little higher than I wanted (1.016). This was completely out of my control because the extract brand/make determines this, not myself. If I would have mashed this, it would have dropped below 1.010, as have most of my previous brews. This was due to low mashing temperatures, and the use of US-05 (previously US-56).

I ended up having to use a packet of US-05, because I did not make a starter on the WLP002. After almost 24 hours, there was little if any airlock activity, so I could not risk things, and pitched the cal ale yeast. I do not think this was a problem, because the yeast is fairly flavorless, and there is also a whole vial of "50/50 alive/dead" WLP002 to add some of the correct flavor in there.

The beer has turned out good. This has to have been my fastest turnaround ever as far as the "boil->bottle->drinking" time is concerned. The whole process was 2 weeks. Not bad in my opinion.

The only thing i wish that could have gone better is the MoreBeer Marris Otter extract finishing out a little drier. I know that US-05 can attenuate 80%, at least... so it is the extract that has the problem.

BTW, the beer tastes great, I carbonated it a 1.3 volumes CO2.

Short Lived

2007-05-02T20:04:00.000-07:00

...was my brewing haitus... I wanted a low alcohol (session) beer, so I had to come back to brewing. Since I needed to do something easy (because of a lack of supplies), I made an extract batch of Ordinary Bitter. This is Jamil's recipe (converted from All-Grain), and I only made some small modifications to it to accomodate batch size. The original recipe is here. Otherwise, this is a tried and true recipe, and I look forward to drinking it. I hope it ferments quickly.

A note, the OG turned out a little higher than I had wanted... no problem though, I can handle the higher alcohol content. The beer is supposed to be under 3.8% or so. Also, this is scaled down to a 4.5 gallon batch... I could not do 5 gallons (not enough bottles, LOL)

Here it is.

Ordinary Bitter

8-A Standard/Ordinary Bitter

Size: 4.49 gal

Efficiency: ----%

Attenuation: 76.8%

Calories: 138.74 per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.042 (1.032 - 1.040)

===========================#====

Terminal Gravity: 1.010 (1.007 - 1.011)

==================#=============

Color: 14.1 (4.0 - 14.0)

========================#=======

Alcohol: 4.21% (3.2% - 3.8%)

================================

Bitterness: 32.2 (25.0 - 35.0)

===================#============

Ingredients:

5 lbs Liquid Light (English Pale) MoreBeer

.5 lbs Crystal Malt 120°L

.25 lbs Special Roast Malt

0.8 oz East Kent Goldings (5.4%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min

0.5 oz East Kent Goldings (5.4%) - added during boil, boiled 30 min

0.5 oz East Kent Goldings (5.4%) - added during boil, boiled 1 min

1 ea White Labs WLP002 English Ale

Notes:

Put some comments here:

Results generated by BeerTools Pro 1.0.25

Brewing Haitus

2007-04-26T11:48:00.000-07:00

I have not brewed in over a month or so. The itch to do it again is being felt, but due to my current circumstances, I may have to wait a few more weeks. At least I am still drinking homebrew.

I shall return!

Some Updates

2007-04-09T15:29:00.000-07:00

After another week or so, the Chocolate Hazelnut Porter's roastiness has really mellowed out. It is quite amazing what one week can do for this particular beer in the bottle.

I have opened a bottle of the "Weizenbock accident", and the beer is superb. It is basically a weak Weizenbock. Not quite dunkelweizen, but supremely smooth and drinkable. Even though the FG fell below 1.010, it seems to have very good body. This must be due to a good percentage of wheat (I think I was a hair over 60% or so). I did not have high hopes for it, but it has turned out much better than expected.

I believe I still owe all of these great beers to the Munich tap water. This is by far the best tasting water I have ever drank (this includes all bottled water as well). When brewing in other cities, I vow to replicate this water as best I can. I know the RA is for darker beers, but if I need to make a lighter beer, I guess I could try to get many of the minerals as close as possible, while keeping the RA down.

I must admit, if the above sounds crazy, it is because I do not know much about water chemistry. Soon enough I will need to start mucking with it.

Chocolate Hazelnut Porter/Stout is OK

2007-04-03T15:15:00.000-07:00

The CHP I brewed turned out fine. It was a little roastier than I would like it to be, so maybe next time I would cut back a little on the chocolate malt, and roasted barley. The amount of unsweetened chocolate I used seemed to be fine. I can taste it, but it is not overwhelming--- in the background.

However, I have a bit of trouble tasting any hazelnut. If I concentrate, maybe I can pick out the flavor, but I think it is more of a mental taste, then a physical one. So, next time I should up the amount of hazelnut extract.

Messed up my Weizenbock

2007-03-21T15:35:00.000-07:00

So it will end up being a Dunkelweizen. Funny how these things turn out. I am sure it will end up being quite a tasty Dunkelweizen, because it smelled sehr gut.

The only reason it is not a bock, is because a missed my OG by a few points. I was aiming toward the much lighter side of a bock, but since I missed it (first time I have done wheat, and the percentage was 60%+ of the total grain), it is into weissbier territory. This being said, the IBUs will be a little higher as well, I am sure.

Here is the recipe... I think it will turn out great! Note that it was a small batch, with the final volume being near 10L.

Dunkelweizen in Munich

15-B Dunkelweizen

Size: 10.22 L

Efficiency: 70.18%

Attenuation: 80.5%

Calories: 178.11 per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.054 (1.044 - 1.056)

=====================#==========

Terminal Gravity: 1.011 (1.010 - 1.014)

==========#=====================

Color: 15.3 (13.0 - 14.0)

================================

Alcohol: 5.7% (4.3% - 5.6%)

=========================#======

Bitterness: 23.85 (10.0 - 18.0)

================================

Ingredients:

3.6 lbs Wheat Malt

1.3 lbs Pilsner Malt

0.5 lbs Munich TYPE I

0.33 lbs Caramunich® TYPE II

0.09 lbs Chocolate Malt

0.02 lbs Roasted Barley

0.38 oz Hallertau Tradition (8%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min

0.11 oz Hallertau Tradition (8.0%) - added during boil, boiled 15 min

1.0 ea White Labs WLP300 Hefewizen Ale

Schedule:

00:03:00 Mash In - Liquor: 4.14 L; Strike: 134.2 °F; Target: 122 °F

00:23:00 Protein Rest - Rest: 20 min; Final: 118.8 °F

00:24:00 Infusion - Water: 4.0 L; Temperature: 211.8 °F; Target: 157 °F

01:24:00 Sac Rest - Rest: 60 min; Final: 147.8 °F

01:25:00 Infusion - Water: 2.61 L; Temperature: 212 °F; Target: 160.9 °F

01:55:00 Sparge - FirstRunnings: 0.0 L sparge @ 168.0 °F, 7.0 L collected, 15 min; Second: 7.0 L sparge @ 170 °F, 7 L collected, 15 min; Total Runoff: 14.0 L

Notes:

Put some comments here:

Results generated by BeerTools Pro 1.0.22

Bottling Day... and running out of DME

2007-03-15T03:25:00.000-07:00

Yes, I am running out of DME as my priming agent. Since I do not have a LHBS nearby, I am going to have to resort to table sugar to do the work. It has been a while since I have done this, but, I am sure things will be fine.

I am going to bottle the CHP I made a couple of weeks ago... and again, I am worried about the amount of Roasted Barley I added. So, I will be giving it a taste later this afternoon.

I have this deep fear that somehow I will forget to add the hazelnut extract to the bottling bucket. Luckily I got plenty of sleep this morning, so my mind should be sharp enough to avoid that catastrophe.

Chocolate Hazelnut Porter/Stout

2007-02-27T14:08:00.000-08:00

After doing some research, I have determined what the difference between a stout and a porter is. The reason for the research, was due to limited grain resources on hand. Currently I have these grains in stock:

Weizen (Wheat)
Pilsner
Wiener (Vienna)
Munich
Caramunich II
Carapils
Chocolate Malt
Roasted Barley

Now, I have wanted to make Jamil's CHP (Chocolate Hazelnut Porter) for a long time. Due to some forethought on my part, I made sure early on that I acquired Hazelnut extract, although I did not put enough forethought into what specialty grains/malts I should have on hand though. So at the end of the day, I am not able to brew Jamil's recipe, but a clone of a microbrew porter with the CH part.

The difference between a porter and a stout... the differences I am concerned about are the ones pertinent to this recipe. I could substitute (or have) everything but one ingredient, Black Patent Malt. Porters are "all malt", while stouts can have things other than malt (like "Roasted Barley).

So, I do have roasted barley. I thumbed through BYOs recent clone recipes magazine, and found a porter that contains ingredients that I have on hand. Now, I think this might technically not be a porter, since it does have roasted barley, and I have read that you must NOT-NOT-NOT put that in a porter.

Well, I will brew Bridgeports "Porter" recipe from BYO. Now, the recipe I will show is pretty identical to the one published, except I scaled it down, and substituted in Pilsner for 2-row, and Caramunich for the Crystal. Otherwise, it is identical. The SRM, IBU, OG/FG are close enough.

On brewday, the smell of the wort seemed a little too roasty for me. It tasted like reasonably good unfermented beer. In time the roastyness will die, or? Upon bottling, I will add in the Hazelnut extract... here is the recipe ->

Chocolate Hazelnut Porter (probably stout, but a Bridgeport Brewery clone) I

12-B Robust Porter

Size: 14.45 L

Efficiency: 81.49%

Attenuation: 75.5%

Calories: 199.9 per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.060 (1.048 - 1.065)

===================#============

Terminal Gravity: 1.015 (1.012 - 1.016)

==================#=============

Color: 27.6 (22.0 - 35.0)

==============#=================

Alcohol: 5.95% (4.8% - 6.0%)

=======================#========

Bitterness: 34.22 (25.0 - 50.0)

=============#==================

Ingredients:

6.6 lbs Pilsner Malt

1.0 lbs Caramunich® TYPE II

0.38 lbs Chocolate Malt

0.57 lbs Roasted Barley

0.43 oz Magnum (15%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min

0.47 oz East Kent Goldings (5.7%) - added during boil, boiled 5.0 min

6.0 oz Cocoa Powder - added during boil, boiled 5 min

18.75 mL Hazelnut (extract) - added dry to secondary fermenter

Schedule:

00:03:00 Mash In - Liquor: 8.9 L; Strike: 167.0 °F

01:03:00 Rest - Rest: 60.0 min

01:04:00 Infusion - Water: 4.48 L; Temperature: 206.8 °F

01:34:00 Sparge - FirstRunnings: 0.0 L sparge @ 168.0 °F, 8.5 L collected, 15 min; Second: 8.5 L sparge @ 170 °F, 8.5 L collected, 15 min; Total Runoff: 17.0 L

Notes:

Results generated by BeerTools Pro 1.0.20

It has been brewed! (Dampfbier)

2007-02-14T01:02:00.000-08:00

Ok , so I have finally got around to brewing the Dampfbier recipe. Except for some mash temperature maintenance/striking problems, things went smooth-like. I ended up having to use Hallertauer Tradition, instead of Mittlefruh... but I will not be able to tell the difference. You can bet on that. My nose and tastebuds are not that sensitive.

Starter-> Boiled enough DME for 200ml starter, dropped in 1/10 WLP300 tube, let it go overnight. Twelve hours later, boiled 800ml worth of starter, and put 4/10 WLP300 in to go for another 8 hours. The starter was bubbling hard by the time I pitched in the nightime. The wort temperature was 70F.

Fermenter-> Airlock activity started within the hour. The next day the airlock is still active, and the wort is sitting at 63.5F. Ok, so "dampf" means "steam"... at these temperatures, it will not be an active (steam) ferment. The starter smelled like a banana plantation, so that should be enough banana for me. I would rather have it cold ferment (clovey).

Dampfbier I

15-A Weizen/Weissbier

Size: 15.6 L

Efficiency: 82.51%

Attenuation: 79.4%

Calories: 176.26 per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.053 (1.044 - 1.052)

|==========================#=====|

Terminal Gravity: 1.011 (1.010 - 1.014)

|===========#====================|

Color: 7.1 (2.0 - 8.0)

|=====================#==========|

Alcohol: 5.55% (4.3% - 5.6%)

|=======================#========|

Bitterness: 13.26 (8.0 - 15.0)

|====================#===========|

Ingredients:

5.33 lbs Pilsner (2 Row) Ger

1.14 lbs Vienna Malt

1.14 lbs Munich TYPE I

0.38 oz Hallertau Tradition (8.0%) - added during boil, boiled 45 min

0.19 oz Hallertau Tradition (8.0%) - added during boil, boiled 5.0 min

0.5 ea White Labs WLP300 Hefewizen Ale

Schedule:

00:03:00 Mash In - Liquor: 7.92 L; Strike: 166.9 °F

01:03:00 Rest - Rest: 60.0 min

01:04:00 Infusion - Water: 4.53 L; Temperature: 210.0 °F

01:34:00 Sparge - FirstRunnings: 0.0 L sparge @ 168.0 °F, 8.0 L collected, 15 min; Second: 9.0 L sparge @ 170 °F, 9 L collected, 15 min; Total Runoff: 17.0 L

Notes:

Put some comments here:

Results generated by BeerTools Pro 1.0.20p

Dampfbier

2007-01-29T22:30:00.000-08:00

After perusing through a BYO magazine from last year, the style of "Dampfbier" has got me interested. The is basically a German Weissbier, without the wheat. Since I love the Weihenstephan yeast strain so much, this beer seems very well suited for me. It is basically 70% Pilsner Malt, and 30% Munich Malt with Hallertauer hops. Ok, this seems simple enough.

Here is the recipe from BYO (more or less)

Dampfbier

15-A Weizen/Weissbier

Size: 5.0 gal

Efficiency: 73.51%

Attenuation: 80.5%

Calories: 169.68 per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.051 (1.044 - 1.052)

======================#=========

Terminal Gravity: 1.010 (1.010 - 1.014)

========#=======================

Color: 6.4 (2.0 - 8.0)

===================#============

Alcohol: 5.43% (4.3% - 5.6%)

=====================#==========

Bitterness: 14.38 (8.0 - 15.0)

======================#=========

Ingredients:

7 lbs Pilsner (2 Row) Ger

3 lbs Munich TYPE I

1 oz Hallertau Mittelfruh (4.0%) - added during boil, boiled 45 min

.5 oz Hallertau Mittelfruh (4.0%) - added during boil, boiled 5 min

1.0 ea Whirlfloc Tablets (Irish moss) - added during boil, boiled 10.0 min

1 ea White Labs WLP300 Hefewizen Ale

Schedule:

Just mash at 152F for an hour.

Notes:

Ferment it cold ( <>72F) for the steam "dampf" effect. This would give you huge banana flavors.

Results generated by BeerTools Pro 1.0.19

Simcoe Tasting

2007-01-10T05:06:00.000-08:00

Ok, so my IPA in Muenchen II (an All-Simcoe beer) recipe had been bottled, and is now ready for tasting. Let me first say how excited I am about this beer. This beer is basically a hop delivery system. First, it consisted of a late hop addition, exclusively. Second, I did not dry hop it because I did not want to impart extra aroma due the experiment with this late hop only (10 minutes, all hops went into the boil).

I needed to check how much aroma went into the brew without staining of a dry hop addition.

So, the tasting, look and feel of the beer. LOL

1. The head is thick, and long lasting. So far so good.
2. The color is spot on according to the recipe I posted earlier. Nice
3. The aroma... piney and fruity, I can not say much more about it, except that it is obvious.
4. Bitterness, normal for a pale ale, not necessarily IPA numbers, according to taste of course.
5. Flavor... yes, this beer is a hop delivery system. The first impression I had when I drank it was ORANGE. Nice. No need to add fruit extracts when you can pull similar flavors from the hops.
6. Mouthfeel. Great, it is not as dry as my last beer. I am not sure what the FG gravity is at the moment since I do not have a hydrometer. But, I would guess 1.012 - 1.015 or so.
7. It must be the Munich water. I can not complain, the water is the best tasting tap I have ever had, and this goes into the beer somehow.

Collecting Wort

2007-01-04T04:36:00.000-08:00

Ok, here is a picture of the wort collection from one of my brewdays. As you can see, the worlds cheapest mashtun is being used in a high tech siphon gravity feed system. It is my belief that the fermenter I am using is made for winemaking, but it was the only thing I could really use here. And, it works fine. Previously I had used glass carboys, but I have none at the moment.

The collection of the wort is slow. Tube diameter plays an important role in this, and I have to make do with what I have.

All in all it seems to work out fine. I was going to go through the trouble of drilling a hole in the cooler, and have the runnings feed out of the bottom. But, siphoning works just as well. I do not have to worry about sanitation (starting the siphon) since it is a pre-boil process step.

This type of all-grain system could not get any simpler!

Chill Haze

2007-01-04T03:56:00.000-08:00

It seems I have my first case of chill haze, and the symptoms are obvious. My beer seemed to have dropped clear in the third week of it being bottled, and I was thrilled. Unfortunately, once it cools in the refridgerator, things get murky.

The sad part is that I had Whirlfloc on hand for all of my recent brews, but I had forgotten to put it in for the last two out of three batches. So, we will see if the All-Simcoe IPA (no whirlfloc) retains a chill haze quality or not. My last batch I did remember to put it in, I guess I will know in a month or so.

From what has been read, it seems that gelatin, whirlfloc, and irish moss can sometimes solve the problem. But, cold filtering will usually always solve the problem. Since I do not have the means, I will find another way.

The cause of the problem can be everything from what the barley farmer did, to protein content, to tannins, to the maltsters...etc.

Few Things in the Last Couple Days

2006-12-29T06:01:00.000-08:00

I managed to bottle on Wednesday (IPA in Muenchen II), and I brewed yesterday (IPA in Muenchen III). Yes, it has been a couple of busy days.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, my hydrometer is broken. I feel completely naked without it. The hydrometer somehow gives me a sense of the science going on behind the brew... and without it, it just feels like art (subjective). Being the technical person that I am, I am saving samples of the wort that I am not able to test for when I finally get a new hydrometer. Being that there are no LHBSs around here, I will need to wait a while. Bummer.

Some New Blogs Added

2006-12-27T14:54:00.000-08:00

...to the left side of the page. Three added that are brewers blogs. Interesting to read into the mind of a professional brewer.

First Tasting of IPA in Munchen I

2006-12-26T15:34:00.000-08:00

Well, I cracked open a bottle of my first batch sparged all grain brew... and I would have to say it is lecker (German for tasty). I never anticipated that my first all grain would taste so good, or get brewed so easily and smoothly. This recipe is basically an IPA with EKG and Centennial hops.

I have to say that I was a little worried about using the EKGs because I have not used them in the past. But, all seemed to turn out fine.

The beer is clean, and there are zero off flavors. The bitterness is super smooth (it has no bite). The hop aroma is super noticeable when inhaled, but not overwhelming when the glass is sitting a foot and a half away from you.

The beer is cloudy, but came out the correct color. The head is long lasting, and not overly large.

The final gravity of the beer ended up being 1.008. This is a little on the dry side, but to be honest, it is not a big deal. The only downfall of this dryness is that I drink the beer faster than I really should be. Dangerous it is, due to the alcohol percentage of 7%+.

The alcohol can not be tasted, this is a sign of a good fermentation. The basement held in the low 60s, and the yeast is US-56. Both properties allowed the presence of alcohol flavor to be minimal.

I can say that this recipe is a winner. One of the downsides is that the clarity of the beer is poor. This is most likely attributed to me forgetting to put whirlfloc in it, and not boiling as hard as I could have been.

All in all, things went super well. I would like to thank "The Brewing Network", and Denny's batch sparging webpage, and all of the great beer forums out there for allowing this process to be so easy, fun, and producing of great flavored brew.

Ok, I did not win an award. But, I feel like I could not have done so well without the above mentioned resources.

Distinguishing between Weissbiers

2006-12-21T04:50:00.000-08:00

I noticed that I am having a little trouble distinguishing between Weissbiers here in Munich. I can definitely say that I do not enjoy Erdinger Weissbier. Otherwise, the rest taste super similar... except for some differences in aroma, and whether they have gone bad or not, it is hard to distinguish between them.

Now, I can of course distinctly taste the difference between styles of Weissbier (i.e Dunkel, Weizenbock, Regular). My favorite being the Dunkles Weissbier. I guess as time goes on, my palette will advance a bit. For now, I can enjoy the majority of them without thinking about it too much.

To be honest, after 5-10 sips, who is analyzing any beer anymore?

Bottle Conditioning Yeast

2006-12-18T14:17:00.000-08:00

I have heard before that some breweries place a different yeast strain in their bottles to bottle condition their beers than what was in their primary fermentation. A topic recently came up on Brewboard asking about what kind of lager yeast to bottle condition a hefeweizen with.

It strikes me odd that a German hefeweizen would get bottle conditioned with a lager yeast for two reasons.

A lager yeast will not mask/hide what the primary strain of the original fermentation yeast was.
Don't lager yeasts need cool temperatures to ferment (i.e. do they work at warmer ambient temperatures)?

It is possible that the hefeweizens are kept in cool storage to bottle condition, but it all seems kind of pointless to me. The Weihenstephan 68 strain is perfectly capable of bottle conditioning on its own... and if a German brewer uses some different strain (I think Erdinger does), then I might be able to understand.

The one possible explaination that I can think of is to not get as much yeast trub on the bottom of the bottle. But, with hefes, you usually consume this yeast anyhow...

TBN Conical Christmas Giveaway

2006-12-17T06:45:00.000-08:00

Tonight (17.12.06 @ 5pm PST) they are giving away two conicals on TBN. It is too late to register for it (I believe), but it will probably be a fun show to listen to.

I usually listen to the podcast, since I am not able to listen to the entire live show.

Fermenter Chirps Away Happily

2006-12-15T05:02:00.000-08:00

The fermenter is chirping away happily from my brewday on Monday. I do not know exactly when it starting fermenting, but it was well within 12 hours of pitching the yeast.

The rate of chirp was about 2 seconds/chirp (irregular viewings, since it is in the basement) on the second day. Now, it is going about 10 seconds/chirp. This is not too bad, I still have to wait a week or so until bottling.

Cheapest Mashtun, ever

2006-12-15T04:51:00.000-08:00

Here is my mashtun, a work of genius.

Ok, this could be the most low budget mashtun ever constructed. All of the materials cost about $15 or so... And, I pulled off about 75% efficiency batch sparging with it.

The materials...
1. 25 quart cooler
2. SS braid
3. 4 zip ties
4. hose

...and get this, the SS braid is not even being held down to the bottom of the cooler. I make sure it sits on the bottom while I put my grain into the water. Before I collect my runnings, I confirm it is sitting on the bottom by pressing it down with my mash stirrer.

Who ever said all-grain brewing had to be expensive. The cooler does not even have a hole in it. Can someone please pimp my mashtun? Actually, there is no need. :)

Late Hop Additions

2006-12-12T06:22:00.000-08:00

Ok, yesterday I made an all Simcoe APA (may turn out to be IPA when I do a real check on the gravity). All hop additions were done at 10 minutes, we will see how it works.

Otherwise things went fairly smooth like. I do not have a chiller, so I placed the wort outside in the 5C environment. It seemed to cool to pitching temperature within a few hours.

I added US-56, because I think my mash temps were a little high, so I pitched the most active yeast I had. I am having a hard time controlling the mash temps, because I have not been able to dial my tun mass/heat properties super well. I believe my mash temps were around 154F. It should be ok...

Dumb things to do

2006-12-12T06:20:00.000-08:00

Do not put a hydrometer in hot water. I was not thinking, and I was dumb. Now I am out 10 dollars or so. :(

Have you broken a hydrometer this way? The sad thing was, I was not even drinking at the time. LOL

No Brewing This Week :(

2006-12-08T06:56:00.000-08:00

I will not be able to brew this week. It got really warm today, and
conditions are not right for cooling my wort. LOL.

I have decided that the batch I will brew on Monday will have a
super-late wort hopping, so all of my hops will go in at the 10 minute
mark. We will see how this works. Nobody says that there are problems
with this method. I use BTP, so it can calculate my hop dosage to attain
the required IBUs.

A lesson that I learned from yesterday's bottling session is that small
batches are really small batches. I had originally brewed (or so I
thought) for 12 L of beer. At the end of the bottling session, I only
got 8 liters out of it (16 bottles). The yeast cake at the bottom was
thick, and the dry hops did not help either (especially since I did not
put them in a bag).

So next week I will push the limits of the system, and try to get 18L or
so brewed, so I have a reasonable quantity of beer to drink. I guess I
need to use a 7 gallon boil kettle, instead of using my 2.5 gallon with
a texas two-step.

What Should I Brew?

2006-12-07T02:49:00.000-08:00

Ok, I have to brew either today or tomorrow. Reason being, I am bottling today, and this will free up a fermenter. Being in Munich at the moment, I have limited myself to brewing beer styles that originate outside of Germany. (This is due to the fact that German beer is obviously so cheap and plentiful here).

I am really at the mercy of the weather, for I have no means of fermentation temperature control. So either I can

Ferment in the apartment at 18 - 19C
Ferment in the basement at 15.5 - 18C

On the last batch, I started in the basement, and then moved it into the apartment.

It is sunny today, so I must restrict my brewing to near nightfall, so I can cool the wort outside (colder) and the sun will not be out (hop skunking).

The question is, what should I brew? Given my ingredients (Cent, Simcoe, EKG, Magnum hops) (Pilsner, Caramunich II, CaraPils grains) (US-56 or S-04). I think I will make a variation of the last one, with lower alcohol, mashed at a higher temp, Simcoe instead of EKG, and "maybe" S-04.

What ya think? BTW, this will be EXTREMELY late hopped, with all of the hops going in at 10 minutes. I will still get my IBUs, there is just a larger quantity in there to attain it under such a short period of time.

IPA in Muenchen 2

10-A American Pale Ale

Size: 15.67 L

Efficiency: 73.5%

Attenuation: 76.0%

Calories: 186.14 per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.056 (1.045 - 1.060)

===================#============

Terminal Gravity: 1.013 (1.010 - 1.015)

==================#=============

Color: 11.2 (5.0 - 14.0)

==================#=============

Alcohol: 5.58% (4.5% - 6.0%)

===================#============

Bitterness: 44.81 (30.0 - 45.0)

=======================#========

Ingredients:

7.89 lbs Pilsner (2 Row) Ger

0.52 lbs Cara-Pils/Dextrine

0.66 lbs Caramunich® TYPE II

1.65 oz Simcoe (12.3%) - added during boil, boiled 10.0 min

0.47 oz Centennial (9.6%) - added during boil, boiled 10 min

1.41 oz Centennial (9.6%) - added dry to primary fermenter

1.0 ea Whirlfloc Tablets (Irish moss) - added during boil, boiled 10.0 min

1.0 ea Fermentis US-56 Safale US-56

Schedule:

00:03:00 Mash In - Liquor: 9.44 L; Strike: 167.0 °F

01:03:00 Rest - Rest: 60.0 min

01:04:00 Infusion - Water: 3.13 L; Temperature: 212 °F

01:04:00 Sparging - Sparge: 0.0 L sparge @ 168.0 °F, 9.0 L collected, 0.0 min; Sparge #2: 9.0 L sparge @ 168.0 °F, 9.0 L collected, 0.0 min; Total Runoff: 18.0 L

Results generated by BeerTools Pro 1.0.15

A Few Days Before Bottling

2006-12-05T04:32:00.000-08:00

... i need to check the FG, to see if it has fermented completely. I have used US-56 (a California Dry Ale Yeast), due to its great attenuation properties. In the past, I have had trouble fermenting out higher gravity beers. They would usually end up in the high 20s or so, which is a bit too wet.

To make a long story short, in hindsight, I had a little trouble with the mash. In the beginning of the mash, it seemed my temperature was a little too low (149F). So, I stirred and stirred, and finally the temperature probe said 152F. Ok, this is perfect.

I have a feeling there might have been some temperature gradients there that I was not aware of. The reason I say this is because my final gravity is at 1.008. This is a bit low for this OG of a beer (1.064). Well, I have had my before bottle tasting, and yes, it is a little dry.

This is ok, the young beer tastes really good, and I am happy with it. I will dry hop for a couple days, to get some hop aroma into it (the hops taste nice... and I will talk about this later).

For such a high alcohol beer (7.3%), I do not taste the alcohol. This is in part most likely due to the cold fermenting conditions I put it under. In the beginning, and for the majority of this beers fermenting life, it was sitting below 62F. This allowed the nasty types of alcohol from being excreted by the yeast.

First All Grain Brew, As Well

2006-12-05T04:23:00.000-08:00

Yes, I use to brew extract beers... but, I have found that all-grain brewing is cheaper, and definitely a bit more fun. Time-wise, it takes a little longer to brew all-grain than it does extract, but it is not difficult at all.

There are three primary types of all-grain brewing.
1. Fly Sparge
2. Batch Sparge
3. No Sparge

I have chosen to do batch sparging primarily because it is very easy, the sugar extraction efficiency is very good, and I do not have to worry about oversparging and extracting nasty stuff from the grains. For superb information on batch sparging, check out this site.

I hit around 75% efficiency, which is way more than i thought i would end up with for some reason, so my first beer ended up with a OG of 1.064. I was shooting for a 1.054 (I think I assumed 62% efficiency in the beginning). Now instead on an APA, it is an IPA... LOL

Recipe: IPA in München

2006-12-05T04:17:00.000-08:00

Ok, this is my first brew made in Munich. It is probably a bit sacrilegious to brew an IPA in Germany... but, my justification is that I can not buy any here.

Note: this is not a full 5 gallon batch, so if you want to use it, you must scale it up.

IPA in Muenchen

14-B American IPA

Size: 11.83 L

Efficiency: 73.51%

Attenuation: 87.5%

Calories: 209.35 per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.064 (1.056 - 1.075)

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Terminal Gravity: 1.008 (1.010 - 1.018)

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Color: 8.5 (6.0 - 15.0)

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Alcohol: 7.36% (5.5% - 7.5%)

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Bitterness: 45.45 (40.0 - 60.0)

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Ingredients:

2.34 oz Centennial (9.6%) - added dry to primary fermenter

0.35 oz Centennial (9.6%) - added during boil, boiled 20.0 min

7.06 lbs Pilsner (2 Row) Ger

0.47 lbs Cara-Pils/Dextrine

0.26 lbs Caramunich® TYPE II

2.12 oz East Kent Goldings (4.8%) - added during boil, boiled 20 min

0.8 ea Whirlfloc Tablets (Irish moss) - added during boil, boiled 10.0 min

1.0 ea Fermentis US-56 Safale US-56

Schedule:

00:03:00 Mash In - Liquor: 8.1 L; Strike: 166.9 °F

01:03:00 Rest - Rest: 60.0 min

01:04:00 Infusion - Water: 1.84 L; Temperature: 215.8 °F

01:04:00 Sparge - FirstRunnings: 0.0 L sparge @ 168.0 °F, 7.0 L collected, 0.0 min; Second: 7.0 L sparge @ 168.0 °F, 7.0 L collected, 0.0 min; Total Runoff: 14.0 L

Results generated by BeerTools Pro 1.0.15

Recipe: Not As Roasty Weizenbock

2006-12-04T09:11:00.000-08:00

After my first Weizenbock, I had decided that I wanted one that was not quite as roasty. So, I got rid of the Black Patent Malt. At the end of the day, I could not tell the difference. I think the Bavarian Wheat Yeast was throwing too much banana flavor because I fermented too warm. I tried to keep the fermentation at 68F, but this is still too warm. Possibly 65F or cooler will be adequate for this Weissbier.

Notice the batch size here is smaller (~2.5 gallons), so this needs to be scaled up for normal batches of 5 and 10 gallons.

Not As Roasty Weizenbock

15-C Weizenbock

Size: 9.46 L

Efficiency: 0.0%

Attenuation: 75.0%

Calories: 219.96 per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.066 (1.064 - 1.085)

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Terminal Gravity: 1.016 (1.015 - 1.022)

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Color: 21.3 (12.0 - 25.0)

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Alcohol: 6.5% (6.5% - 8.5%)

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Bitterness: 32.76 (15.0 - 30.0)

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Ingredients:

1.25 oz Hallertauer (3.5%) - added during boil, boiled 60.0 min

3.0 lbs Wheat Dry Extract

0.75 lbs Extra Light Dry Extract

0.5 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L

0.25 lbs Chocolate Malt

1.0 ea White Labs WLP300 Hefeweizen Ale

Schedule:

Results generated by BeerTools Pro 1.0.15

A Recipe from MoreBeer

2006-12-04T09:00:00.000-08:00

Here is a great one... and I think it has won a few awards (not by me). This is a specialty beer, it has great body and flavor. I believe the recipe below is missing oats, but it has been a while, and I do not remember :(

B3 Fire in the Hole

23-A Specialty Beer

Size: 18.93 L

Efficiency: 75.0%

Attenuation: 75.0%

Calories: 256.31 per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.077 (1.030 - 1.110)

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Terminal Gravity: 1.019 (1.006 - 1.024)

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Color: 19.3 (5.0 - 50.0)

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Alcohol: 7.58% (2.5% - 12.0%)

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Bitterness: 30.71 (5.0 - 70.0)

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Ingredients:

1.0 oz Magnum (6.6%) - added during boil, boiled 60.0 min

2.0 oz Centennial (10.0%) - added during boil, boiled 2.0 min

2.0 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) (14.4%) - added dry to primary fermenter

7.0 lbs Pale Liquid Extract

2.0 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US

1.0 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L

1.0 lbs Wheat Malt, Pale (Weyermann)

0.5 lbs Munich Malt

0.5 lbs Rye Malt

0.18 lbs Carafa I

1.0 oz Oak Chips - added dry to secondary fermenter

1.0 ea White Labs WLP002 English Ale

Schedule:

Results generated by BeerTools Pro 1.0.15

My Second Beer ever (and a favorite)

2006-12-04T05:36:00.000-08:00

Ok, here is my second beer, and I think this is based on one from Joy Of Homebrewing. Anyhow, here it is!

Weizenbock

15-C Weizenbock

Size: 18.93 L

Efficiency: 0.0%

Attenuation: 75.0%

Calories: 219.96 per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.066 (1.064 - 1.085)

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Terminal Gravity: 1.016 (1.015 - 1.022)

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Color: 23.0 (12.0 - 25.0)

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Alcohol: 6.5% (6.5% - 8.5%)

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Bitterness: 23.87 (15.0 - 30.0)

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Ingredients:

0.75 oz Northern Brewer (8.5%) - added during boil, boiled 60.0 min

6.0 lbs Wheat Dry Extract

1.5 lbs Amber Dry Extract

1.0 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L

0.25 lbs Black (Patent) Malt

0.25 lbs Chocolate Malt

1.0 ea WYeast 3068 Weihenstephan Weizen

Schedule:

Results generated by BeerTools Pro 1.0.15

The Brewing Network

2006-12-04T04:34:00.000-08:00

Listening to "The Brewing Network" is super helpful in attaining brewing information, as well as brewing trivia, and of course brewing Quatsch. If you do not know what Quatsch means, translate it in Google or something, from German to English.

The Sunday show is cast live, via their website (just click on the appropriate bandwidth speed you have), and you can hear informative things from their guests (for example, Vinnie Cilurzo, Dan Gordon, among others). There are great brewing tips, and debates such as cold pitching vs. warm pitching.

On every other Monday or so, "The Jamil Show" is cast. This is a style show, where for one hour, they go over a specific style. The show is hosted by Jamil Zainasheff, who is a multiple award winning homebrewer. It is best advised to take his advice!

There is also the other show, Lunch Meet, which I personally do not listen to, but, defines Quatsch. It is on Fridays during lunch, for those of you who enjoy killing your brain cells.

I personally listen to the Sunday Show (the main one), and the Jamil show. I have learned greatly from these, and I am sure you will as well.

My First Beer (from a while ago)

2006-12-04T04:22:00.000-08:00

Here is my very first beer. Amazingly enough, it was not a kit, but a handcrafted masterpiece. Ok, just kidding about the masterpiece part, but it was pretty good. Super simple, and it tastes phenominal (no pun intended!).

WeissBier

17-A Bavarian Weizen (Weissbier)

Size: 18.93 L

Efficiency: 0.0%

Attenuation: 75.0%

Calories: 175.23 per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.053 (1.040 - 1.056)

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Terminal Gravity: 1.013 (1.010 - 1.014)

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Color: 9.6 (2.0 - 9.0)

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Alcohol: 5.18% (4.3% - 5.6%)

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Bitterness: 17.97 (10.0 - 20.0)

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Ingredients:

1.0 oz Hallertauer (4.8%) - added during boil, boiled 60.0 min

6.0 lbs Wheat Dry Extract

1.0 ea WYeast 3068 Weihenstephan Weizen

Schedule:

Results generated by BeerTools Pro 1.0.15

Start Brewing People!

2006-12-04T04:10:00.000-08:00

This blog is about homebrewing beer... as it relates to me, possibly. Anyhow, I got into this hobby a little after the year 2005 started. That being said, I am a relative newbie. So far I have about 10 brews under my belt, mostly German styles... but, a couple of American.

If you want to get started homebrewing, and I suggest you do because it is so easy and and entertaining, if not a little labor intensive... The beer you make will be better than the largest of beermakers. In addition, you CAN not die from making bad beer. In fact, it would be hard to get sick from bad beer, because you would probably just not end up drinking it due to some off flavors.

... here are some books to get you started, listed in order of favor.

1. How To Brew (latest ed 3rd), by John Palmer (www.howtobrew.com)
2. Designing Great Beers, by Ray Daniels
3. The Complete Joy of Homebrewing, by Charlie Papazian

I will start posting my recipes, and I hope to get opinions and such

Brau Haus

S-04 Fermentis fermentation temperature

Amarillo Pale Ale

Amarillo PA

Summit Brewing Co. IRA

Brewtroller Ordered

Thing to note about last "Perfect" batch of weissbier

Interesting Brewing Observations

Pressure Sensor

Sight Glass Installation

Surly Imperial Brown Update

Surly AHA Rally

Surly Imperial Brown

Ingredients:

Northern English Brown Ale

Northern English Brown

Ingredients:

First Basement Brew

Cold Fermentation of Wheat

WB-06 vs WLP380 PT II

Start of Brewing Automation

WB-06 vs WLP380

Amazing Weissbier Recipe

Weissbier-Selair 08_8_12

15-A Weizen/WeissbierDate: 8/12/2008

Schedule:

Robust Porter

It's been a while, how poor of me

RobustPorter 29_9_07

Ingredients:

Schedule:

Notes:

Breaking in a New System

Weissbier 22_5_07

Ingredients:

Schedule:

Notes:

In Colorado

The Ordinary Bitter

Short Lived

Ordinary Bitter

Ingredients:

Notes:

Brewing Haitus

Some Updates

Chocolate Hazelnut Porter/Stout is OK

Messed up my Weizenbock

Dunkelweizen in Munich

Ingredients:

Schedule:

Notes:

Bottling Day... and running out of DME

Chocolate Hazelnut Porter/Stout

Chocolate Hazelnut Porter (probably stout, but a Bridgeport Brewery clone) I

Ingredients:

Schedule:

Notes:

It has been brewed! (Dampfbier)

Dampfbier I

Ingredients:

Schedule:

Notes:

Dampfbier

Dampfbier

Ingredients:

Schedule:

Simcoe Tasting

Collecting Wort

Chill Haze

Few Things in the Last Couple Days

Some New Blogs Added

First Tasting of IPA in Munchen I

Distinguishing between Weissbiers

Bottle Conditioning Yeast

TBN Conical Christmas Giveaway

Fermenter Chirps Away Happily

Cheapest Mashtun, ever

Late Hop Additions

Dumb things to do

No Brewing This Week :(

15-A Weizen/Weissbier

Date: 8/12/2008