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.