Blonde Bottled and Cranberry Wheat Secondary

Friday, October 21st, the first blonde ale was bottled.  The total volume, 48 12-oz bottles.  Final abv is only 3%.  The result has shown me that improvement is needed in efficiency in the mash. An update with taste, aroma, color will be later.

Saturday, October 22nd, Cranberry Wheat was transferred to the secondary.

The cranberry wheat is a cranberry bog! It smells tart and hints of the juniper berries are coming through.

Only about 4 gallons were transferred.  This has been typical with the cranberry ales I have done and have presented a problem that I needed to find an answer for! Along with the beer being transferred, 1/2-oz of juniper berries, crushed by my lovely brew partner my wife, was added along with the juice from crushed 6-oz of cranberries.  Adding the juice is an attempt to get the cranberry flavor in this beer.  I added the juniper berries because I think they will complement the cranberry flavor, we shall see how it turns out.

Double Brew Columbus Day: Cranberry Wheat Ale and Blonde Ale

So to celebrate Columbus Day, I decided to brew two beers; a cranberry wheat ale and a blonde ale.  The cranberry wheat will take a bit longer to be done as it has fresh cranberries. The plan is to have it ready by thanksgiving.  The blonde ale should be ready to be bottled in just a few weeks.  Also to note that these are both all-grain recipes.

First, a little background on the cranberry ale, this is the second cranberry ale I am attempting.  The first cranberry ale was a standard pale ale recipe that I added crushed cranberries to the primary fermenter. It turned out all right, but I wanted to change it up a bit.  The wheat base I thought would help the cranberries shine through.  As for the blonde ale, I wanted to have my hand a simple pale ale.  A blonde is type of pale ale, that has the appearance of a straw-blonde.

Above is my home brewery set up.  I use two modified water coolers, a 5 gallon (top tier) and a 10 gallon (mid tier), a 7 gallon boil kettle and I have several fermentation containers.  For the cranberry ale, I used the 6 gallon bucket and for the blonde ale, I used a 6 gallon carboy.  The top tier 5 gallon water cooler is the hot liquor tank.  This is used to hold hot water, strike or sparge water, until it is needed for the mash.  The mid tier 10 gallon water cooler is the mash ton.  The grains and hot water are added and mixed in this container.

Cranberry Wheat Ale:
6 Gallons
IBU: 21.55
ABV: 7.2%

Ingredients:
Grains:
5 lbs Red Wheat, 3.3L
5 lbs 2-Row - Pale, 2
2 lbs 2-Row - Pilsen, 1L
1 lbs Light Crystal, 10L

Hops:
1 oz Vangard (AA 5%) @ 60 minutes
0.25 oz Vangard (AA 5%) @ 5 minutes


Additions:
1 tsp irish moss @ 10 minutes
0.5 oz orange peel, bitter @ 10 minutes
0.5 oz Crushed Juniper berries @ 5 minutes

66 oz crushed cranberries


Secondary Fementer:
0.5 oz crushed juniper berries
6 oz crushed cranberries
Note: These are to be added once the beer has been transferred to the secondary.  Let it sit in the secondary for at least 2 weeks or until flavor is achieved. Will be updating this beer. I just wanted to add in here that there will be some secondary additions.


Yeast:
WLP300, Hefeweizen
Note: Made starter day before.

Mash: 2-step protein develop (90 minute mash)
Protein rest: 3.25 gallons (13 quarts) of 130F water added to grains.  Let sit for 30 minutes.  Target to get a temperature around 122F to get the grains to extract necessary proteins for fermentation and head retention.
Mash: Add 1.625 gallons (6.5 quarts) of 212 F water added to the mash.  Stabilize to 152F let sit for 60 minutes.
Sparge: Mash out after 60 minutes and sparge with 3.5 gallons of 181 F water.
Target pre-boil gravity and yield: 1.059 of 8.3 gallons
Actual yield: 1.037 of 6.5 gallons.

Boil for 60 minutes, add hops and additions per schedule. Post boil gravity reading 1.045 and 5 gallons of wort.

While boiling mash, crush cranberries in 6 gallon fermenter bucket.  Once boil is complete, pour hot wort directly on crushed cranberries.  Let cool naturally.
Note: For the future, I would place the bucket in an ice bath after 30 minutes to cool it faster.  It took 5-6 hours before the wort cooled to pitching temperature.
Once cooled, I added the yeast starter and placed in the beer closet.


Blonde Ale #1
Note: This recipe is called Blonde Ale #1 because I plan to duplicate this recipe but with different hop additions to see the difference in the flavors that will be imparted. 
5.5 Gallons
IBU: 22.3
ABV: 4.6%


Ingredients:
Grains:
7 lbs 2-Row - Pale, 2L
0.5 lbs Vienna, 4L
0.75 lbs CaraPils, 1.5L
0.5 lbs Light Crystal, 10L

Hops:
0.5 oz Challenger (AA 7%) @ 60 minutes
0.25 oz Challenger (AA 7%) @ 30 minutes
0.25 oz Cluster (AA 7.9%) @ 20 minutes
0.25 oz Cluster (AA 7.9%) @ 5 minutes


Additions:
1 tsp irish moss @ 10 minutes


Yeast:
Wyeast 1056: American Ale
Note: No Starter.

Mash: Single step Infusion (60 minute mash)
Mash: Strike 3.5 gallons of 163 F water added to the mash.  Stabilize to 158F let sit for 60 minutes.
Sparge: Mash out after 60 minutes and sparge with 4 gallons of 181 F water.
Target pre-boil gravity and yield: 1.047 of 8.3 gallons
Actual yield: 1.035 of 6 gallons.

Boil for 60 minutes, add hops and additions per schedule. Post boil gravity reading 1.035 and 5 gallons of wort.  I added 1/2 gallon of cold water post boil to bring it up to 5.5 gallons.  This brought down the gravity and for the future, I wont add water to make up for lack of wort.

Cool to pitching temperature and pitch yeast.

I designed a wort chiller that I thought would be good.  I had a tube in a bucket of ice water.  It turns out, there needs to be a longer tube to be a more effective heat exchanger.  I will stick with the immersion wort chiller for now.  I had to let it cool naturally which also took a while to cool (~5 hours).

So how did I accomplish a double brew day by 2pm?  Well I started at 6am, cleaned all the equipment.  At 8 am I started the mash for the cranberry wheat. Once I mashed out, I had heated up strike and sparge water for the blonde ale.  After the mash out, the water was place in the hot liquor tank (the top water cooler in the picture at the beginning of this post.) As the boil started for the cranberry wheat, I started the mash for the blonde ale.  Because I did not cool the cranberry ale and added it directly to the bucket fermenter on top of the cranberries, I was able to mash out the blonde ale immediately following the end of the boiling of the cranberry wheat ale.

Some notes and final thoughts on this brew day.

My "new" chiller attempt: I made a new chiller for the blonde ale to chill.  I wanted to make a chiller that cooled my wort very quickly.  I took a bucket and fashioned a ball valve on the bottom similar to the mash ton. I then had a coil of plastic tube coil up to the top.  Filled the bucket with ice water and attached the racking siphon to the inlet and siphoned the hot wort through. It definitely needs to be re-engineered and will be another project I will work on.  I was attempting a heat exchanger but it didn't turn out too well. It was still pretty hot when it came out.  Needs some work.  Until I finish the chiller I will have to resort to my old wort chiller.

Cooling the wort: For the cranberry wheat, after about 30 minutes, I should have put it in an ice bath to cool it down faster rather than just waiting on it to cool naturally.

Mashing: To increase efficiency, for the future I will try to mash with slightly more water and try to keep the temperature closer to 152-155F.  The yield for the blonde, did not mash out too efficient. 

Better Bottle: Do not use as a hot liquor staging area.  The 5 gallon better bottle melted to a 3 gallon better bottle when added the strike water to hold for the blonde ale while the cranberry wheat mashed out.

Other than that, everything turned out good or so I hope.  We shall see how these beers turn out. Until next time, cheers!

Barley Barely Wine - Bottling Half Batch

Back in July or August I brewed a barley wine, once the fermentation was complete, I split the batch up into two separate secondaries, 3 gallon carboys.  In one, I added oak chips that I soaked in bourbon for 24 hour and the other nothing.  The one that had nothing was only about half full and I didn't have a stopper so I used duct tape to seal the airlock.  This was not the best option as I think it affected my beer greatly :-/ in a bad way (infection).  However, there was no sign of anything growing in the beer (sat for 2-3 months before I bottled it).  In hindsight, I should have bottled the left overs instead of filling a 3 gallon carboy halfway without a stopper, especially since I didn't add anything to the carboy.  Oh well, I will let it sit for awhile to see what happens.  It only came out to 12 beers, so I am not too worried about loosing it.

I am still letting the rest of the barely wine sit in the secondary with the wood chips, I might try some to see how it tastes. 

All-Grain Pumpkin Ale

So my first all grain recipe is a Pumpkin Ale.  It was brewed on September 25th.  It was 5 gallon recipe.  I just transferred to the secondary (10/2), only 4 gallons made it.  Lots of trub (hops, spices, and pumpkin) left behind.  I had my lovely wife and my friend Mike help me brew.  We made a pretty good brew team.

The target on this beer is as follows:
Batch Size: 5.5 Gallons
Original gravity: 1.075
Final Gravity: 1.022
ABV: 7.0%

Actual results (as of Sunday October 2nd):
Batch size: 5 gallon --> 4 gallons Secondary
O.G.: 1.075
F.G.: 1.010
ABV: 8.4%

The higher ABV is a tribute to the pumpkin that was added.  The brew calculator did not have pumpkin as a fermentable option.

Ingredients:

Grains:
10 lbs. 2-Row Malt
1 lbs. Crystal Malt (~90L)
1lbs. Wheat

Sugars and Other Fermentables:
2 lbs Brown Sugar
60 oz. Canned Pumpkin Puree (unspiced)

Hops (49 IBUs):

1.5 oz Cluster pellets (aa7.9%) @ 60 mins
0.5 Challenger pellets (aa 7%) @ 10 mins
0.5 Challenger pellets (aa 7%) @ 5 mins

Notes: After tasting when transferred to the secondary, the bitterness was a little over powering.  If it was a normal ale, it wouldn't have been too bad, but because Pumpkin and the spices are the star, next time would use less hops.  I was attempting to balance out the higher alc%, but I should have left it with less hops.  The bittering may also have been from not sparging correctly.

Yeast: Wyeast 1968 London ESB Ale

Additions (Spices):
1 tsp. Ginger
1 tsp. All-spice
1 tsp. Nutmeg
1 tsp. Clove
2 sticks of Cinnamon

All added 5 mins before the end of the boil.

First, the pumpkin was spread out on a cookie sheet and baked at 350F for 45 minutes, a nice light browning.  Then I let it cool to room temperature.  I used single step infusion for the mash type.  What this means is that I head the mash to a single optimum temperature ~152F, rather than raising and lowering the temperature to develop proteins.  It depends on the style of beer, the grains used and equipment as to what mash type one will use when doing all-grain brewing.  The grains and pumpkin puree was added to the mash ton along with 4.5 gallons of 163F strike water.  The temperature stabled at around 150-155F.  I let it sit for 60 minutes.  While waiting for the mash, I warmed up the sparge water, 4.2 gallons to 181 F.  After the 60 minutes, I mashed out into the brew kettle.  The first 2 quarts of wort, I cycled back in until it was clear.  I then sparged with the 181F 4.2 gallons of water.  For future, I will try to fix the hot liquor tank that had a leak in it.  In doing this I can have an even spread of the sparge water and maintain the water bed with the grains preventing it from sticking to the mesh strainer.  I think that not having it sparged correctly, i.e. leaving water above the grain bed resulted in some of the husks to get into the wort and boil causing the bitterness. Lesson learned is to be more careful with sparging.

I ended up with about 6 gallons that boiled down to 5 gallons after the hour long boil.  I added the hops and spices at the times given in the recipe.  I used the wort chiller to cool the wort which took 30 minutes.  I might try looking into building a more efficient wort chiller.

It was done fermenting by Friday (5 days) at a final gravity of 1.010.  I transferred it to the secondary and was only able to get 4 gallons.  There was a lot of trub, but that was expected.  Next time, I might try to top off the primary to get around 5.5-6 gallons because the ABV is a bit high and wouldn't be hurt too much by adding some water.

Test (10/02): Gravity Reading: 1.010
Aroma: "pumpkin pie" notes of clove hints of cinnamon and nutmeg not overpowering.
Color: orange/reddish (20-24)
Taste: "pumpkin pie" flavor not as prevalent, slightly more bitter than expected.

The Step to All-Grain Brewing

It has been awhile since I have updated as I have been a little busy.  I am now newly and happily married.  I now have a pretty good brew partner, my wife.

So having a bunch of extract brews under my belt and my natural desire to do everything myself, I decided to take the leap into all-grain brewing.  What is all-grain brewing, you ask? Instead of buying pre-made malt extract, one takes the necessary grains needed for the beer and essentially makes his/her own malt extract just like the big boys in commercial brewing today.  The advantage to doing all-grain is you control the amount fermentable sugars and the taste of your malt. The disadvantage is the there is additional time, space and equipment needed to brew because "mashing" which is mixing hot water with the grain to get the fermentable sugars and proteins for the wort.  Controlling the temperature is a big part in this process.  What takes the most time is holding the temperature for 60 minutes or longer.

The additional equipment needed area a mash ton (basically a large cooler with a stainer to hold the hot water and grains), a larger brew pot (I bought 7.5 gallon),  and a more efficient burner to bring 5-7 gallons of water up to a boil.  After a trip to home depot and the homebrew store I was ready to begin.

(The not so Dark and Imperial) Imperial IPA - Update - 05.17.2011

Sooo, after 2 days of fermenting and an exploded BUCKET fermenter, I checked the gravity and found some interesting observations.

Gravity reading: 1.020
What does this mean?  Well, I will tell you.  Since I dumped pretty much the remaining yeast from the IMPERIAL stout I made into this wort, the batch was probably over pitched and hence the quick fermentation.  So this beer should be done fermenting soon (which is good so I can get it off the yeast cake) and I can move it to the secondary fermenters.

Description:
Appearance: ...well it's not black or even dark at all.  It's a red/orange.  I would have thought the black slug (yeast) from the imperial stout would have added some color, but I guess I learned something today; a beer gets it's color from the malts (and the hops but only a little)  that go into it.  For future, I will add in maybe 1/2 lb of some roasted malts to give it a darker color and some roasty flavor.
Aroma: Very citrusy.  This is due to the hops and I am very pleased with this.  It's almost an orange citrus and it's nice.  I know that with time this will mellow but as a young beer brewing, it is nice to smell.
Taste: Grapefruit, and hoppy. No roasty notes at all.

All in all, this is turning into just your run of the mill IPA, slightly darker and maybe a little more alcohol content than normal.  I do like where it is going but growing in a different direction...this will add to the back story for the Dark Devil which now I am thinking to call it Demon Ale.  It seems more fitting as it is no longer an Black IPA.

We shall see where we go.  Also, up next cultivating the yeast from the Pils.

The Two-Headed Dark Devil (Imperial Dark IPA) - 05.15.2011

The Dark/Black IPA is sort of a new style of beer.  It is as hoppy as an IPA but black/dark like a porter and more malty.  Also known as an American Black Ale.  It being a relatively new style becoming more popular, I had to do some experimenting. I first had to do some research as to what this "new" and "upcoming" style was and is.  So I went down to the local liquor store and pick up a sample.  I chose Stone's "Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale".  I didn't write down a review of it, but I like it.  It had a good balance of Malty and roasty notes and was well hopped.  The hop aroma came through more than a porter, much like drinking an IPA with a brown ale or porter.  It was delicious.

The story behind my choice to do this beer is as follows.  I brewed a HEAVY (probably overly) hopped beer (that may have gotten an infection or it was just the enamel ripping off my teeth that gave the off flavor) that when I transferred to a secondary fermenter, I did a 5 gallon and (2) two 1/2 gallons.  I did this because I was doing some experimenting, as any engineer would want to do.  I was curious about flavors and infusing them into my beer.
One of the 1/2 gallons I added some oak chips that I had soaked for 1-2 days in bourbon.  The final product of this beer, was quiet delicious and it's too bad it only made about (6) six 12-ounce bottles.  It gave the IPA a nice oak-y flavor and you could taste the bourbon.  My thinking behind doing this was to imitate the style of the original IPA flavor.  The style of the Indian Pale Ale was when the English wanted to bring beer to the troops in India.  So to preserve the beer for the long journey, they added more hops and at the time beer was stored in barrels.  So these pale ales where hoppier than the typical English Pale ale and had more of an oak-y flavor because of the time spent in the barrels. Sorry for the short history lesson, but I not only enjoy to drink the different styles, I love to find out how they came to be.  It's like learning a new piece of history because a lot of the styles out there today are that way because they were brewed a certain way with different ingredients due to the part of the globe where they originated.  So I wanted to try to make a tribute to this style of beer and it worked out.  My only regret is there was a limited supply.
The other 1/2 gallon, I was curious how a habenaro would taste with the spiciness of the hops in a beer.  The final product left me with again only (6) six 12-ounce bottles, but it was quiet interesting and delicious.  As one of my friends (best-man actually) put it as "it's a sipping beer".  And there was requests to do it again.  Basically, I just pan fried a frozen fresh habenaro from my father's garden and dropped it in the 1/2 gallon fermenter.  While there was only a limited supply, the demand for more arose. So I tasked myself to brew again.

Now that I had the idea to brew an IPA with some hot pepper again, I also was intrigued by a Black Ale.  My brain began to turn and the idea for "Dark Devil" was born.  I wanted this beer to be dark and "evil" if you will (hotness from pepper).  Again, I did not want to do a full 5 gallon batch of spicy sipping beer, but I wanted to do more than a few bottles.  So I decided to split the batch once again, but into two equal 3 -gallon secondaries, hence the "Two-Headed Dark Devil". One will be made from the burning darkest deepest parts of hell and the other will be it's smooth other half aged on Oak.  Born the same but a different path they will take.

So I had the idea and I had to wait for my breakfast stout to get out of the primary so I could give my creation life.  Then I remembered reading online about reusing yeast from a previous batch and either pitching all of it or some to a fresh wort.  It was advised to start with a light low hopped ale to the darker and more stronger flavored beer because as you reuse the yeast the next beer will take up some of that flavor.  I saw this as a perfect way to get some roasty dark flavors from the breakfast stout! Call me crazy but sometimes you have to be.  Also, the yeast that I used for the Stout, Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale is to be used for stouts or Strong Ales. While it is a little unorthodox to use Irish Ale yeast for an IPA, I am not one to follow the rules all the time (and yes this has resulted in bad beer but hey, you will never know unless you risk it).

Let's begin the birth of this monster.

The Recipe:

Specialty Grains:

• 1 lbs Briess Vienna

Extracts:

• 6.6 lbs LME - Golden Light
• 3.3 LME - Amber (to give a red hue)

Hops and Hop Schedule:

• 3 oz of Cascade Hops (Pellets) AA%: 7.5% (Bittering)
• 1 oz @ 60 minutes
• 1oz @ 45 minutes
• 1 oz @ 30 minutes
• 2 oz of Amarillo Hops (Pellets) AA%: 7.2% (Flavor and Aroma)
• 1 oz @ 15 minutes
• 1 oz @ 5 minutes

Yeast:

• Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale: Harvested from Breakfast Stout II
• Once racked from the primary, I added (cooled) 1 pint of boiled water to the primary fermenter to loosen the yeast cake and poured it into a 1/2 gallon jar, a growler.
• Waited 2 hours to settle and decanted some of the liquid and poured a little more water to loosen it up again and poured into another 1/2 gallon jar.  Typically, one would see the separation of yeast cake and settled yeast  over time but the yeast was quiet dark so I had to take my chances.  This processes is known as yeast washing.  But I wanted some of the flavors from the stout into this Dark Devil.

This was actually the fastest I ever brewed from start to finish, 2:15 clean-> sanitize -> boil -> hops -> cool -> yeast+wort -> clean up.  I was really quiet impressed with myself.  So I started as usual, 2.5 gallons of water bringing to a boil with the grains in a mesh bag steeping them carefully watching the temperature for 30 minutes.  At the end of the "mashing" period, I dumped the grains in a strainer and "sparged" the grains with 1/5 gallons of water that I brought up to ~155 F. Then added the LME and brought to a boil.  Once boiling commenced, I followed the hop schedule as noted above. At 10 minutes I added Irish Moss as a clarifying agent.  I cooled the wort as fast as possible in an ice bath, then dumped it through a strainer into the fermenter.  This yielded probably more than 6 gallons.  Took the OG at 1.067 and added the yeast.

And on the first day, the beast was born with but a single head and a deep dark red color, breathing loudly from the darkest forgotten places in hell as he grows with power and madness.

Maybe I will actually come up with a cool tag line/story that I can put on the beer and give to my friends.

Update: It is fermenting.  This morning I found the top of the pail blown off and Kreusen foam at the rim of the pail. It smelled like an explosion of hops in my basement and replaced the cover.

Update 5.21: So I have come up with a new name for this beer, Angels and Demons Ale,  the Angel Ale will be the IPA without the chili pepper and the demon ale is the IPA with the chili pepper. 

Breakfast Stout II (An Imperial Oak Aged Oatmeal Stout Brewed with Coffee and Coco) - 05.07.2011

This is the second go at the Breakfast Stout.  The first one had a terrible ending when carrying it in the secondary fermenter.  The reason behind this brew is that we wanted to brew a beer for our friends who are getting married soon and thought, since they enjoy a nice beer, that they would like this gesture.  As I had brewed a coffee porter a few months ago and apparently they really enjoyed it, so I figured that they would like a more alcoholic version with some oatmeal for smoothness and the hint of vanilla from the oak chips in the secondary fermenter, I think will add a nice touch.

The Recipe:

Specialty Grains:

• 0.5 lbs Simpsons Black Malt
• 0.5 lbs Simpsons Chocolate
• 0.5 lbs Simpsons Roasted Barley
• 1 lbs Briess Caramel 40L
• 0.7 lbs Oats

Extracts:

• 9.9 lbs LME - Dark

Hops (Calc IBU:24):

• 1 oz of Goldings (B.C.) Hops (Pellets) AA% 4.9% - Bittering
• 1 oz of Fuggles Hops (Pellets) AA% 4% - Flavoring/Aroma

Yeast:

• Wyeast 1094 - Irish Ale: Created Starter, procedure for higher alcohol content ale

Additional:

• 8 oz Coco Powder
• 1.5 oz of Oak Chips
• 1 lbs Coffee -ground (Starbucks Breakfast Blend)

First I steeped all the grains (in separate mesh bags) while bringing the 2.5 gallons of water up to a boil.

Making sure NOT to boil the grains, I kept track of the temperature of the brew pot.  After 30 minutes of steeping, I removed the grains and opted not to sparge the grains for this recipe.  Added all the LME and some additional water (to bring up the water content in the brew pot and to get as much of the LME out of the cans as I could.) At this time I also added 8 oz of coco powder to the brew pot.

Hop Schedule:
Added bittering hops (Goldings) at 60 minutes. At 20 minutes added flavoring hops, 1/2 oz of the Fuggles.  Added the rest of the Fuggles at 5 minutes for Aroma.

After the 60 minute boil, removed the pot from heat and steeped the ground coffee in the pot for 20 minutes before moving to the ice bath.  One does not want to boil coffee, as that will produce off flavors and that is not the optimum temperature for brewing coffee.  I wanted to brew this coffee with the brew, in conjunction. Some people add in premade coffee into the secondary, but I feel this takes away from the process. Just my own opinion, as there are many ways to brew and this is how I like to brew.  I liked how my porter with coffee turned out and so I wanted to do the same for this beer.

I chilled the wort, ran it through a strainer to catch left over hops and such.  Then I added the yeast starter.  With regard to the yeast starter, one can add the entire or decant off some of the liquid and just pitch the yeast.  I added the whole starter for this one.

05.14.2011 - Update
After a week and some gravity samples, it was time to transfer to the secondary and age it on some oak chips.

Gravity after primary fermentation: 1.022
Sample review:
Appearance: Black/dark brown
Aroma: Roasted sweet note. Hints of Chocolate.
Taste: Smooth, malty/chocolate and slightly bitter

So I boiled 1.5 oz of oak chips in water (man it smelled good in my kitchen).  I have used oak chips in the past and there are several different approaches one can use to sanitize the chips before adding them to the beer.  I used bourbon for an IPA before, which resulted in some interesting and good flavors.  This time I wanted to try a different approach and boiled them for 15 minutes in water then drained the water and added them to the fermenter.  I saved the yeast cake from this one...

Bottled/Lager - Pilsner 5.1.2011

After 2 weeks of fermenting, I decided it was time to bottle condition/lager the pilsner.  I figured this was the better method rather than transferring to the second fermenter because the ambient temperature is higher than 50F. Bottling, I have the ability to lager/condition the beer at a lower temperature because I can fit them into the refrigerator.

Gravity Check - 4/26/2011 - Day 11

Specific Gravity: 1.018 @ 60F

It looks like the the Pilsner has slowed fermenting.  I will move the fermenter to the basement to the coolest place I can find it for the next few days.  As it is getting warmer out fast than the pilsner can ferment.  The temperature of the beer was 60F, it should be in the low 50s.

Description:

Appearance: Golden Pale Yellow/ Still hazy
Aroma: Less sweet, slight apple aroma
Taste: Less fruity/apple flavor, slight bitter/hops

I'll be leaving this in the primary for a few more days.  I am hopping that it drops down to 1.011-1.013 range, then transferring to the secondary.  I will move to the basement in a closet, to hop that the temperature is lower than the garage temperature.  I want to make sure that the yeast are used to their full potential.

Gravity Check - 4/21/2011 - Day 7

Specific Gravity Reading: 1.035 @ 44F Corrected to 1.034

The pilsner is still fermenting and its doing so at a decent rate.  I will be leaving it in the primary for about another week.

Description:

Appearance: Golden/pale yellow, Still cloudy
Aroma: Sweet (fruity) and slightly malty, no hop (i think the yeasts right now are going into over drive and over powering the hops, as they are fermenting nicely, this should die down in a week or so, when the gravity gets down to around 1.015ish area)
Taste: Sweet fruity, little hop flavor.

A young beer that is developing nicely.  The large fruit flavors are most likely due to the yeast still actively eating the sugars.  From the picture you can see the suspended yeasts. The flavor is still fruity a little and sweet but hopefully, the hops will be more pronounced as the beer lagers.

Last post for a few days.

Gravity Check - 4/19/2011 - Day 4

Specific Gravity Reading: 1.048 Corrected to 1.047 (temperature correction)

It is important to keep take gravity readings.  It will tell you if you beer is fermenting and when it is time to rack off or bottle you beer.  Also, it is an excuse to taste your beer and see how the flavor is developing.  This is the fun part because you can taste your beer and see how it matures over time.

So the temperature in my garage is about 40F today.  This temperature is ok for lagers as lager yeast ferments at less then 50F.  I will have to take into account the temperature when recording the gravity as this affects the density.  I used correction factor based on the chart that came with the hydrometer.

The beer showed signs of fermentation (FOAMING).  Yay!

Description of sample:
Appearane: Still cloudy, light and pale.  No carbonation (this is good considering, I am not trying to carbonate it.)
Aroma: Smells sweet kinda fruity and hints of some hops, floral. Some light malt aroma.
Taste: Sweet, light bitter notes and hop flavor (light, not too strong), fruity, some malt flavors.

Overall: I like where this beer is going, it definitely still needs time to mature (as it is a lager and they should take at least a month until they are truly ready).  It's sweet and a little buttery (this is due to the diacetyl, product of fermentation which will lessen as time progresses).  I like that it has some notable hoppy flavors and aroma and slight bitterness which I hope will only bring the beer together in the end.

So it may be a few days before I check on the beer again (going away for the weekend and visiting my future brother-in-law and his wife), but that is OK, I need to let the beer sit for a bit.  Until next time, cheers!

2C. American Pilsner/2A German Pilsner - The Immigrant

First Post:

While this is not my first brew, this is my first post and my first lager.  Here is a little introduction for those who are interested.  I am an Engineer (a "Master of Science" if you will) and started brewing beer shortly after graduating from college (where I learned to appreciate beer).  I have a love for the different styles of beer; I love stouts, pilsners, IPA, pale ales, wheat ales, bocks, doublebocks, porters, fruit ales, etc.   There are few styles of beers that I do not enjoy.  I became fond of brewing for two reasons, (1) if I can do it, why pay someone else to do it?, and (2) I love to mix science and art.  I am sure I will make other posts about my beer love and general thoughts about beer, so I will leave this short because this post is really about my first stab at a lager.

So I decided to brew a Pilsner for two (2) reason; (1), I have yet to brew a lager, and (2) it has been awhile since I brewed a beer that my Fiancee likes and when I had Sam Adams (c) Noble Pils, I thought "Pshhhhh, I can make that, I brew my own beer, bitches."  So with those two reasons and a recent defeat in the EngiBeer household (a lost Carboy, my clumsiness dropped my breakfast stout after transferred to secondary fermentor, a sad day.  But you have to pick yourself up after a tragedy and keep on moving.)  I am still an extract/specialty grain brewer as I do not have the funds for the equipment for full grain brewing, some day, someday. As I just finished my Masters, I now will have more time and more funds.

 The tragedy from two weeks ago.

I decided to do a lager and I was inspired by Sam Adams (c) "Noble Pils" brewed with the 5 noble hops, blah blah.  Now, I enjoy this beer, but was also inspired because it is a Pilsner (more hops and more malt flavor than the American pilsner, which I also enjoy) and thought that this "brewed with 5 noble hops" was a gimmick.  You will learn that I question these "gimmicks".  As we are in a new age of beer than we were 20 years ago (even, maybe 30 years ago).

Let's begin.

To make beer you need only four (4) ingredients; water, malt, hops, and yeast.

Ingredients:

(Doesn't look like too much, right? Yeah, it is actually pretty easy)

Malts (Fermentables):
6 lbs. Pilsen Liquid Malt Extract
1 lbs. Plain Extra Light Dry Malt Extract
Specialty Malt: Weyermann Bohemien- Pilsner 1 lbs grain-crushed (note: this is not really a specialty malt as it is a base malt for all-grain brews, I used it here to help balance the extract and pull out a more pilsner taste. We will see how it turns out.)

Hops (I used all the "Noble Hops", i.e. the German Hops):
1/2 oz of Northern Brewer, AA=9.4%
1/2 oz of German Hallertau, AA=3.8%
1/2 oz of Tettnang, AA=4.5%
1/2 oz of German Spalt, AA=3.9%
1/2 oz of Czech Spaaz, AA=3.9%

Yeast:
White Labs 840 - American Lager.  This is where I decided to go against the "German pils" and make it an Immigrant. I brought the German hops and malt to America and added the American Lager yeast to grow and develop this beer.  I am really excited about this conversion of two different ingredients.  It is also important to note, that I did not create a starter for this batch.  A starter is basically creating a small batch of wort to grow the number of yeast cells when you pitch it to your wort.  Creating a starter requires more time for preparation, but ensures that the yeast are viable and quick fermentation.  I decided to go without a starter as I am not in a rush to make this beer.  It will be lagering for quiet sometime.  Also, another thing to note is that Lager Yeast need a much lower temperature than that of Ale Yeast (50-55F as opposed to 65-70F).  With all this spring weather coming in, my fermenter will be in the garage since the temperature is perfect fermentation temperature for lagers.

Water:
Worcester tap water.  I believe that the water that comes out of the tap has been treated and adequate for beer brewing.  NOW, the water does play into beer (hardness, PH, minerals, etc) BUT I believe for this beer, it will be good enough for me (and those not able to tell the difference between my beer and BBC's beer).  But we shall see how this plays into the flavor of this beer.

Additional Ingredients:
(Yes, I added more than traditional ingredients.  Anyone reading this and knowledge of how beer is made will understand that (1) we Homebrewers try to make beer as clear as possible but have little access to filters, (2) everyone (or most everyone for whatever beer (summer ale, etc) will add something a little extra.)
1 tps Irish Mosh - this is an addition that most homebrewers add to help add clarity to their beer. I do the same.
1/4 to 1/2 oz of Lemon Zest - I decided to add a little bit of lemon zest to this pilsner as it will be ready in time for summer.  When summer reaches, it will be very refreshing.  I used fresh lemon.

Next making the wort.

First, clean and sanitize EVERYTHING that comes in contact with the wort.  This is the most important step there is in making beer.  If you do everything else perfectly, but bacteria contamination gets in the wort or beer, your beer will be ruined.  Contamination is a unwanted and will affect the taste of the beer.  As we are dealing with yeasts and any outside bacteria is BAD. I clean everything with dish soap and then use clorox bleach with water to sanitize everything.

So after the tedious cleaning and sanitizing, take 2 1/2 gallons of water and bring to a boil. 

I take the grains and put them in a mesh grain bag and add them to the water while it is brought to a boil.

Then I bring the water and grains up to right before a boil (170F), about 30 minutes.  You do not want to boil the grains as the higher temperatures will cause unwanted proteins in the wort.  After 30 minutes, remove the spent grains.

While the grains are steeping, I warm up the liquid extract to make it easier to add it the wort.

Add the extracts, mix and bring to a boil.

While the wort is being brought to a boil, I separate the hops into the quantities that will be used and arrange them in order of usage.

So a quick lesson in Hops.  Hops add flavor and aroma to the beer.  Depending on when they are added to the boil, the different acids (alpha and beta) are isomerized and the oils are extracted from the hops.  the acids are responsible for the bitterness of the beer and the longer they are boiled the more potential bitterness there is.  The aroma of hops is due to the oils in the hops, but if are boiled too long (more than 5-10 minutes) the oil boil off.  So to get a balance of hop bitterness, flavor and aroma, different hops are added to the wort at different times.  It is also important to note, that all hops are not the same and some are good for bittering and some are good for aroma.  There are many resources out there to learn about the hops.  There is also a calculation used to calculate the IBU (International Bitterness Units) which involves determining the utilization of the hop at different times.  I wont go calculation for this post, that will wait for another time.  So for this pilsner, I have the following hop utilization:


Northern Brewer at begining of boil (boil 60 minutes)
German Hallertau at 15 minutes into the boil (boil 45 minutes)
Tettnang at 50 minutes into the boil (boil 10 minutes)
German Spalt and Czech Spaaz at 55 minutes into the boil (boil 5 minutes)


I used the Northern Brewer and Hallertau as bittering hops.  I used the Tettnang as flavoring and the Spalt and Spaaz as aroma.  As those were the recommendations for the type of hop utilization.

Also at 50 minutes I added the Irish Moss and the Lemon Zest.

Once the wort has boiled for 60 minutes, remove from heat and chill to 70-80F.  Someday I will build a wort chiller, but in the mean time I use an ice bath while constantly stirring the wort to distribute the change in heat from the ice bath to the hot wort. Chilling the wort as soon as possible is ideal.  The sooner it is chilled, the less time it is susceptible to contamination.  Also, I chilled with the cover off.  This is not recommended because contaminates can get in, but it chills it faster.  So we will see how it affects the beer.

After chilling down to 70-80F, I then add the wort to the fermenter along with enough water to bring the total volume to a little over 5 gallons.   When adding to the fermenter, I run the wort through a strainer to remove the spent hops and any grains.

 

Remove the spent grains, and then took the gravity reading.  This is important to do.  As it will tell you when fermentation has stopped and more importantly, how much alcohol is in your beer.

The gravity reading (original gravity) is 1.050 specific gravity at a temperature of about 75F.

Next step is to add the yeast, then close the fermenter and put it in the garage where the temperature will be 50-55F, the recommended optimum temperature for this strain of yeast.  This is the primary fermenter.  During which most of the fermentable sugars will be turned into alcohol.  I will be updating every time I check the gravity.  Right now, I have it scheduled to be in the primary for 2 weeks.  

Waiting is the hardest part, but the pay off is so delicious.