LaVoy Boys Brewing Company

Brewers Gold Mild

2010-05-16T16:49:00.001-07:00

I've really started getting into some of the British beer styles lately. It makes me think of tiny public houses in England full of smoke with old dudes having a beer with their dog on the bench next to them.

I see it as a real challenge as a brewer to create low alcohol beers that are still full of flavor.

Mild #1

Fermentables-
Mild Malt- 6 lbs
Crystal 20- 8 oz
Crystal 80- 8 oz
Black Patent- 2 oz

Hops-
Brewers Gold- .5 oz- 60 minutes
Brewers Gold- .5 oz- 13 minutes

Yeast-
Wyeast 1355- British Ale 2- Yeast cake from previous beers.

Gravity- Target/Actual/Final/ABV
1.038/1.039

This a style I've never brewed before, and it was full of ingredients I've never used also. Mild Malt seemed like a no brainer as far as brewing a Mild is concerned. A couple Crystals for some subtlety, and the small Patent addition for color. Brewers Gold isn't a hop I had ever really seen before, and it's pretty sizable in alpha acids, so it was a nice opportunity to showcase this in a British style beer. They smelled great, but I was disappointed that the aroma disappeared almost immediately when I dropped them into the boil. I'm hoping some of that aroma will carry over into the finished beer.

I've got some temperature control issues to work out with my brew house. My mash pot lost about eight degrees over the hour, which is not so hot (literally). I'm going to have to figure out some way to insulate the pot after I heat the water.

Because I did this beer on a yeast cake, I'm going to do a quick turnaround next weekend with a Smoked Porter, partly to get some drinkable beers in the bottle soon, and also to use up some specialty malts I've got sitting around.

McGill's Best Bitter

2010-04-06T19:04:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I brewed. A combination of beers needing to be bottled, along with a lack of empty fermenters and unpredictable weather have kept me from it. But this weekend, I got back in the saddle. I have an empty corny keg that has been begging for a beer to be put in it, and as the weather has gotten nicer, my thoughts have turned to having a BBQ in our garden with five gallons of home brew to serve up.

A low hoppiness, low gravity, but full flavored beer is perfect for that sort of scenario. And with the weather good for fermenting English ales, I thought I might brew a Best Bitter type ale.

McGill's Best Bitter

Fermentables-
Crisp Maris Otter- 7 lbs
Flaked Barley- 1 lb
Caramel 20L- 8 oz
Caramel 80L- 8 oz

Hops-
Fuggles- .5 oz- 60 minutes
Fuggles- 2.5 oz- 10 minutes

Yeast-
Wyeast 1355- British Ale 2- 1000 ml starter

Mash-
155/170 mashoff- hot water infusion

Gravity- Target/Actual/Final/ABV
1.050/1.048

The recipe is a version of something I did a year ago for a keg. The thought process revolved around trying to make a smallish medium sized beer that tastes a lot bigger than it is. The Maris Otter is about trying to get a nice flavorful malt with a little color. The flaked barley will work in tandem with the higher mash temps to give it a nice thickish body with a creamy mouthfeel. The Caramel will give a little sweetness/roastiness. The Fuggles was all I had, so the bitterness may be a little low, but I think some of my neighbors are a little wussy about beer (read: they drink Miller Lite), so it won't be too hop forward for their delicate (read: untrained) palates. Hopefully, the size of the late addition will play like the mash temp and flaked barely, and make it more hoppy than it seems.

I was most excited by the yeast. Aside from my Saisons I did last year, I was most happy with the ales that I fermented with the British yeasts. The hoppiness can be forward but more subtle and complex than what some of the West Coast yeasts can give you. Great stuff.

I will be posting again soon on my last lager of the year, which was a Pils, but I am really excited by ale season. I'm always excited by the weather changing, and with it, the chance to brew new styles. With the weather getting so warm, it'll be time for my favorites (the Belgians) again soon enough.

Steinsdorf Schwarz

2010-02-06T20:24:00.000-08:00

When I lived in Germany, I drank lots of beers and lots of different beers. But the most memorable moments seemed to take place with the darkest of the dark lagers, the Schwarzbier. My host family had a garden house in Bad Köstritz, home of the famous Köstritzer. The world owes this beer a debt of gratitude culturally, as it was the beer that Goethe would sustain himself with when he was too sick to eat. Indeed, I remember my host mom warming some of this beer to give to me when I was so sick that they nearly stuck me in an ice bath to try and break a fever. The other great black beer memory I have was a trip to Prague with my host dad and brothers where we drank some of the divine dark lagers at U Fleků. The pub had been in business more than 250 years when the Declaration of Independence was written, and it was amazing to think about that in the Prague sun in the garden with trees growing up through the tables.

Obviously, I've got some fond memories of this style, so it was important that I do this one right. Named after a town next to the town where I lived, where my buddy Igor is from, Steinsdorf Schwarz. The village of stones. A proper name for a dark lager.

Steinsdorf Schwarz

Fermentables-
Pilsener Malt- 3 lbs
Vienna Malt- 3 lbs
Dark Munich- 2 lbs
Melanoidin- 8 oz
Carafa 2 400L- 6 oz

Hops-
Hallertauer Northen Brewer- 1 oz- 60 minutes

Yeast-
White Labs WLP833 Bock- Yeast cake from Winter Solstice Dunkel and Bock Bier

Mash Schedule-
151/167- hot water infusion

Gravity- Target/Actual/Final/ABV-
1.047/1.046

The style is sometimes referred to as Black Pils, so I elected for a bigger Carfa charge in this beer to try to get most of the color from there. I also elected to do a single water infusion, trying to keep this simple. Also, in keeping with the general idea of the Black Pils, I wanted to let the melded flavors of malt and bitterness tell the story, as opposed to hitting you in the head with the malts. I also stuck with a single, albeit large hop addition with a fairly high alpha acid varietal, Northern Brewer.

The exciting bit today was getting to use my new mash tun from More Beer. It was well worth the expense, as you can tell immediately that it's built to last. It also made the brew day faster as far as getting the mash going was concerned. With the cooler, I would heat my mash water up to a few degrees higher, then have to wait until the cooler had absorbed some of the heat, then started mashing. If I missed too high, getting that correct temp in the cooler could take 20 minutes. With this pot, I was able heat right to the temp, and start the mash right away. Also, because it is three gallons larger than the cooler, I was able to mash at a higher water to grain ratio. The lautering has rarely gone by so quickly.

Bock Bier

2010-01-21T17:56:00.000-08:00

Lager season this year seems to be turning into the season of the malty lagers. Next up was one of the ancient German styles, the Bock Bier. Noted for big flavor, big alcohol, darkish color and they also often have goats on the label (bock being the German word for goat). Sorry I couldn't come up with a better name. You'd think it would be easy, what with the goat visual and all, but sometimes I just can't be bothered.

Bock Bier

Fermentables-
Dark Munich- 5 lbs
Vienna- 5 lbs
Melanoidin Malt- 1 lb
Belgian Carapils 8L- 8 oz
Carafa 400L- 2 oz

Hops-
Northern Brewer- .75 oz- 60 minutes
Northern Brewer- .25 oz- 9ish minutes

Yeast-
White Labs WLP833 Bock- Yeast cake from Winter Solstice Dunkel

Mash-
127/152/Mash out- All decoctions (I am, in fact, the man)

Gravity- Target/Actual/Final/ABV
1.067/1.070

My recipe creation has hinged on Randy Mosher's great brewing book, Radical Brewing: milk as much color from the primary malts as possible. Hence, I opted for the dark version of the Munich malt, Vienna to provide some balance, and so on. The dark Carafa is a lot like the Black Malt in the English beers, where you literally need a couple tablespoons or you'll blacken the beer too much, along with giving it an acrid aftertaste. Traditionally Bock's only have a bitterring addition on the hops, but being an American, I need my hoppinesss and went with a small flavor addition. A word of note to any home brewers reading this: the White Labs Bock is a new strain, I think, and it is an exceptionally slow starter. I put this beer on the Dunkel yeast cake, and it didn't really show outward signs of attenuation for something like 36 hours. It gets a brownish foam going (almost like an ale yeast when it's almost done) before it takes off. Based on the Dunkel sample I tasted at racking last weekend though, it's a great yeast that totally accentuated the malts.

I think the cornerstone of this beer will be the malt, driven by the decoction mashing. It's kind of a pain, and you really need to do your math properly if you're going to hit your rest temps. Thankfully Promash does those calculations for me, but still, it's not something that you want to just try and wing. Better to cut your teeth on a decoction mash out once or twice (since you're trying to just get above a certain point), which is a lot more forgiving than trying to hit an exact temperature. Again, the Dunkel sample I tried, I wanted to just turn the carboy upside down and drink, it was so bready and tasty. So good.

I'm of two minds about the next beers to do. I would kind of like to do a small session style Schwarzbier, I'd like to do a redo of last years Smoked Lager (which Kerry's friend Lara said was the best beer she's ever had thankyouverymuchlara). I'm also not sure if I want to try a different yeast with these German lagers before I do some light colored beers before spring. The one thing I do know is that my mash cooler has brewed it's last. My old set mash lautering issues have cropped up again, and I'm scrapping this setup. I actually tried brewing this Bock beer last weekend, was only able to drain off two gallons of sweet wort, and ended up tossing it all in the composter. I had never been so frustrated while brewing. This week I splurged and bought an all stainless steel brewpot style tun with a false bottom that sits above the ball valve. First class all the way, so this thing better last a while. I can't wait to brew with it.

Winter Solstice Dunkel

2009-12-20T17:34:00.000-08:00

Ahh, lager season. When I try to prove that a world class beer can be brewed in 32 degree weather on a porch. I like to think yes.

Dunkel means dark in German, which is what it is outside by the time I get done brewing. Which tomorrow or the next day being solstice, it made sense that I would brew a dark one.

Fermentables-
Munich Malt(dark)- 5 lbs
Munich Malt (light)- 4 lbs
Carafa 2 (400L)- 2 oz
CaraPils- 8 oz
Melanoidin Malt- 8 oz

Hops-
Perle- .5 oz- 60 minutes
Tradition- 1 oz- 15 minutes

Yeast-
White Labs WLP833 Bock

Mash-
127/150/166- Double Decoction

Gravity- Projected/Actual/Final/ABV
1.051/1.059/1.015/5.74%

I cannot account for that high gravity. It could have been the massively stuck lautering process again, which has me designing a new mash tun. I'm thinking something where the false bottom is weighted to about 10 pounds, thereby making it impossible for grain to get under it.

The decoction process was something I've done before, but I had never attempted to do it where I was trying to hit an exact temperature rest. I had always played it safe by doing it at mash out, which is not too tough, since if you miss your temp, as long as you don't miss too high, it's not too big a deal. Today I moved from the first rest to the sacch rest, and I absolutely nailed it. All I can say is to do your calculations (or have Promash do it for you like I do), and pull the exact amounts, and it'll work out okay. I'm interested to see what kind of maltiness I get from this technique.

The recipe is pretty German. I try to stay well within what you'd expect for a style the first time I brew a certain beer, then I can make my adjustments from there. All German malts, all German hops, and a southern Bavarian yeast. I'm a little worried that it might be a little too dark (that Carafa is soooo dark, you really don't need much to make a massive color adjustment), but it should taste like it was brewed in a cave outside of Munich by a guy wearing lederhosen.

I've never repeated anything, but I think this may be my first. I'm doing my first lager a little sooner this year, so I think I may try it at the end to see how the repeatability of the recipe is.

Highlanders Kiss- Scottish Ale

2009-10-13T19:07:00.000-07:00

I have been trying to come up with some recipes lately to round out some styles that I haven't previously brewed. Unlike my dad who tries to completely fill his mash tun with grain (I keep trying to tell him that it's not like Belgium in the old days when you would get taxed based on the size of the mash tun), I tend to start out with my beers on the small side.

So I was a bit surprised when I wrote up my recipe for my first Scottish Ale that my gravity pushed it to the upper reaches of the style. I tried to imagine a Highlander, what with his kilt and no undergarments, drinking a beer with and original gravity of 1.035 in rainy 50 degree weather while tending his flock in the Scottish Highlands, and it just didn't seem right. I pressed ahead with my Export strength recipe, and came up with this:

Highlanders Kiss Ale

Fermentables-
Maris Otter- 7 lbs
Crystal Malt 20L- 8 oz
Flaked Barley- 8 oz
Smoked Malt- 4 oz
Carafa 400L- 4 oz

Hops-
Goldings- 1 oz- 90 minutes

Yeast-
Wyeast 1728- Scottish Ale- 1000 ml starter

Gravity- Projected/Acutal/Final/ABV
1.048/1.050

Mash-
156/167 mash out- hot water infusions

Regular readers of this blog (all three of you) will no doubt know that I typically have difficulty obtaining the ingredients I went for at the LHBS. I only had one substitute on this brew which was the Carafa (subbing for an equal amount of Roasted Barley). Meaning it was more or less what I set out to make. The name Highlanders Kiss is for the kiss of smoked malt I threw in to give it just a hint of smoke. Oddly, a lot of what I read said the German smoke malt is more suited to the style than a Scottish Peat malt, which I don't understand, but whatever. Perhaps when I'm perfecting this recipe once and for all, I'll try a batch with both to see how it turns out. Everything else is pretty straightforward. One hop charge at the beginning of a long boil, Scottish yeast, etc. Predictable brew day, hopefully to be a good brew. This yeast strain didn't form the normal krauesen that I expect, so I'm cautiously optimistic. I know it was viable yeast, so I'm giving it three weeks in the primary fermenter.

As far as the rest of the year, I'm at a crossroads. It seems to be getting much colder earlier than last year, so I may brew my sour beers and get on with the lagers. We'll see what the weather does and take it from there.

Saison Dunkel- A German Belgian

2009-09-12T15:53:00.000-07:00

I don't drink Saison's very often, mainly because they're so damn expensive, but sometimes the expense is worth it. I had a Saison Dupont last night, and it just reminded me why I love the style so much. Peppery, spicy, and totally balanced. So good.

Today I brewed the second of two Saison's I will brew this year. I did a more classic version a few weeks ago, so today's was a darker brew. I read in Farmhouse Ales that some German's do some variations on the styel, so it seemed like a fun idea to do a darker incarnation that featured some German grains.

Saison Dunkel-

Fermentables-
German Munich Malt- 3 lbs
Belgian Pilsner Malt- 3 lbs
Vienna Malt- 2 lbs
Special B- 8 ounces
CaraFoam- 8 ounces
Sauer Malt- 4 ounces

Hops-
Fuggle- .75 oz- 60 minutes
Fuggle- 1.25 oz- 15 minutes

Yeast-
Yeast cake from Saison #1

Mash-
148/165- hot water infusion with a decoction mash out

Gravity- Target/Actual/Final/ABV
1.053/1.056

I always go back to Randy Mosher's Radical Brewing when I'm putting together a recipe lately. One of the things he talks about is squeezing as much color from your base malt as possible. I had originally planned on using a dark Munich malt instead of a light, but this beer was still noticeably darker than the first one. The Special B is a classic Belgian Dubbel ingredient, so it seemed like the right roasted Malt to use as my other main color adjustment. The yeast does most of the work on this beer, so there's a very small amount of hops in relation to the gravity, but I think this will be a tasty brew.

I was putting together the list of beers I want to make in the next few months, and I've got some really fun things coming up. I will be harvesting some hops here pretty soon, which will go into my first Harvest Ale. I am planning on a Cocoa Porter using some Scharfenberger Cocoa Nibs as a bittering agent. I am also really excited about doing a Scotch Ale, which will employ a small bit of smokey malt. Good times!

Saison #1

2009-08-29T17:50:00.000-07:00

My dad has a way of describing jobs around the house by how many beers he needs to drink to get the job done. Cleaning the p-trap in the kitchen sink would be a one beer job. Building a garden box for my mom would probably be a two beer job. Farmers in Belgium 150 years ago felt the same way. Not having much farm work to do in the winter time, they brewed beer, a style called Saison. It was meant to be a low alcohol easy drinking beer to give to the farmhands to refresh them in the hard hot summers.

It is also probably my favorite style of beer to brew. Because it was brewed on every farm, every farmer had his own recipes, typically using whatever ingredients he had on his own farm. This made for some massive diversity, to the point where there is no real standard bearer beer for the style. Brewers know when they're drinking one, but no two are alike. Like the guy at the home brew shop said to the this weekend: "Get the right yeast, throw a bunch of crap in your mash tun, and let it rip!"

Saison #1

Fermentables-
Rahr Premium Pilsner- 8 lbs
Sauer Malt- 5 oz
CaraFoam- 5 oz
CaraVienne- 5 oz

Hops-
Wilammette- 1 oz- 60 minutes
French Streisspalt- 2 oz- 14 minutes

Yeast-
Wyeast Saison 3724- 1000 ml yeast starter- pitched off the stir plate

Mash-
148 single infusion with a 1 gallon decoction mash out

Gravity- Target/Actual/Final/ABV
1.047/1.055/

Saison yeasts are typically very high attenuators, so my aim with the grain bill and mash is to make something that will finish dry. This is the first of a couple Saison's I'm going to do, so I decided this one should be light in color (more of a classic Saison), with small amounts of character malts. The next one will be darker, less classic, and more dependent on darker base and character malts. I wanted an unobtrusive bitterness to balance the grain, so I went with Willamette. The Streisspalt flavor charge is more of the sort of thing you would expect to find in a classic recipe, something a farmer in Wallonia might have growing in a far off corner of his farm. They were unlike any hops I've used before. They didn't have that greeny freshness you find with American hops, but more of a solid spice aroma coming off of them.

Makin' it up

2009-08-10T19:27:00.000-07:00

My beers recently have had one common thread running through the recipe: the brew store didn't have have what I was looking for, so I made it up there in front of the sacks of grain, reusing the yeast, and whatever hops happen to be left over in the freezer. This week's beer was supposed to be a stout, but the brew store I visited in Lansing, Michigan had everything I needed and more except for roasted barley. I haven't been brewing a long time, but everything I've read about stout is that without roasted barley, you have something that would be called something other than stout.

I've done a lot of pale ales this summer, mostly because it's pretty easy to come up with a recipe on the spot, but I feel like it's something I'm getting decent at. And again, of all I've read, beer nerds say that if you can't brew a good pale ale, you aren't yet brewing good beer. So, while standing there at the Red Salamander (again, good beer store, minus the roasted barley), I decided on another pale ale.

Pappy Pale Ale

Fermentables-
2 Row Pale Malt- 7 pounds
20L Crystal- 8 ounces
80L Crystal- 8 ounces
Roasted Barley- 8 ounces

Hops-
Nugget- .5 ounces- 60 minutes
Nugget- 1 ounce- 15 minutes
Nugget- .5 ounces- Knockout

Yeast-
Yeast Sludge from the previous two batches

Mash Schedule-
149/167- hot water infusions

Gravity- Target/Actual/Final/ABV
1.046/1042/1.010/4.2%

The highlight of this brew day was undoubtedly getting to brew with my dad. This is, after all LaVoy Boys Brewing, and this was the first opportunity that there have been multiple LaVoy's at a brewing session. In principal my dad was treating it as a chance to see a more experienced brewer brew, and I was treating it as a chance to show off a little, but really we both wanted to brew up some beer as father and son. It was miserably hot (90 in the shade, probably closer to 105 next to the burner), but it was probably my funnest brew session ever.

The beer itself: straight up pale ale. Two row. Two types of Crystal malt (because as Randy Mosher says: when one malt would be good, two would be better), and a decent amount of the leftover roasted barley. Nugget hops are pretty high alpha acid, so I think a subtle roastiness will give it a nice backbone.

I have no idea if my readings were accurate at all, as my dad pointed out that I took the sample with the crud from the yeast cake, so I was probably closer to the 1.046 that I had targeted than I thought.

Next up, I'm going to do a couple of Saisons, as I've been itching to brew one. I think I'll probably order a lot of my stuff online to be sure I can do what I want. Then will be the yearly sour beers, one with fruit. Then some darker ales. I can't wait.

IPA Insanity!

2009-07-19T19:47:00.000-07:00

Last year was marked by a distinct lack of hops in a lot of my beers. Partly, it was due to THE GREAT HOP SHORTAGE OF '08 (NO!), but I think it was mostly due to my being a fairly new brewer. I was loathe to make something undrinkable because I just plain hopped the shit out of it.

This year I'm much more comfortable with my hopping rates, pairings, and also with how I'm using the malts to balance that. My first IPA this year was absolutely fantastic. I've given a few out to taste, and it's gotten some pretty rave reviews. Of all my beers, I would feel comfortable putting that one on a shelf in a store right now.

IPA 2

Fermentables-
Maris Otter- 9 lbs
Crystal 90- .125 lbs
Brown Malt- .125 lbs
Flaked Barley- 8 ounces

Hops-
Willammette- .5 oz- First Wort Hopped
Willammette- 1 oz- 60 minutes
Vanguard- 1.5 oz- 15 minutes
Vanguard- 1.5 oz- 5 minutes
Vanguard- 1 oz- Dry Hopped

Mash-
151/165- hot water infusions

Yeast-
Wyeast 1968 London ESB- yeast cake from the Come Hell or High Water Ale

Gravity- Target/Actual-/Final/ABV
1.055/1.055/1.014/5.38%

The grain bill in this one turned into another attempt to use up what specialty malts I had. I forgot to get some Crystal 60, and I used up all my Crystal 90, which turned out to be less than half of what I had planned on using. So, I pressed the Brown Malt into service. Roasty flavors in IPA's are not completely out of place, but I went with a really light hand on it. Maris Otter: what can I say? I would use it in every ale if I could. While my first IPA this year was a high alpha acid brew, this one used some pretty low versions, but with a very respectable 42ish IBU's. I'm hoping for more of a spicy hoppiness in this one, where the first one was more fruity. The London ESB yeast fermented last week's batch super quick, and the Chinook hops were right up front in that one, so I think this one will be really good.

I'm really hoping to get in a couple of Saison's before the weather turns cooler, although it hasn't been real hot in Chicago this summer. But I'm torn between that and maybe getting in one more fun late summer ale on this yeast cake before I do some darker ales in September and October. We will see.

Come Hell Or High Water Ale

2009-07-12T21:00:00.000-07:00

My plan this weekend was to do a Saison. The warm weather is perfect for just letting a fermentation take off without worrying about how warm it gets. The trouble was that when I got to the brewing store Saturday afternoon, they didn't actually have a single ingredient that I had gone in there to purchase, the most devastating of which was the yeast. My Saisons last year were all done with regular Belgian Ale yeasts, but this year I really was looking to brew them with a true Saison yeast to see how they improved.

Faced with this crushing defeat, standing in front of the disappointingly empty racks shelves where grain usually sit (lots of specialty malts, but very little base malts), I decided that come hell or high water, I was going to brew on Sunday. I came up with the following recipe:

Officially: CHOHW Ale

Fermentables-
Muntons Mild Ale- 5 lbs
Maris Otter- 2 lbs
2 row pale- 1 lb
Victory Malt- 8 oz
Crystal 90- 4 oz
Black Patent- eh...oz. I used up whatever I had left. I think it was about .125 oz

Hops-
Chinook- .5 ounces- 60 minutes
Chinook- 1 oz- 15 minutes
Chinook- 1.125 oz- 1 minute

Yeast-
Wyeast 1968- London ESB

Mash
154/168- Hot water infusions

Gravity- Target/Actual/Final/ABV
1.049/1.050/1.015/4.59

The thing I'm most excited about with this beer is the yeast. Most of my regular American Ales I've done have been done with the same yeast strains (one from White Labs and one from Wyeast, but I think from the same brewery). I've never used this London ESB before, and while Chinook hops wouldn't normally be your first choice with this strain, I had some that needed to get used, and it seemed like a fun thing to do. It was also my first chance to try out hopping a pale ale with an eye toward super charging the hop flavors by doing most of the hop additions later in the boil. The grains were mostly chosen from what they still had at the store, and what I had left over in my pantry that needed to get used up (i.e., the single pound of regular 2 row pale malt, and all of the specialty grains).

I liked the way my Stonebridge Pale Ale turned out earlier this year with the higher mash temperature to make the beer seem bigger, so that definitely informed my mashing decisions. I plan on kegging this beer for use at a BBQ or party in our garden later this summer, so regular readers of my blog (all three of you) can start kissing up to me now if you want to be invited. Joking.

Tripel

2009-06-14T17:16:00.000-07:00

And finally the tripel. If you've never had this style of beer, you are seriously missing out. In principle, it's a big refreshing beer. The Belgians are big on talking about digestibility in their beers. Which is to say, something you can sit down and eat with as opposed to something that would fill you up all on it's own. The tripel is sort of the culmination of that, as it's something you sort of NEED to eat a meal with. The style inherently contains a lot of sugar which makes it really high in alcohol. If you sit down after a long day in the garden with a few of these and no food, you can get yourself pretty drunk really fast.

But again, that's not really the point. Beer, while refreshing and fun on it's own, is best enjoyed with food. I continually see articles in Bon Appetit where people are mentioning beer more and more in food pairings. And there are some foods that just pair better with beer than with wine, so it makes sense that you would start to see this. According to Garrett Oliver, the brewmaster of The Brooklyn Brewery, it's a good style for game birds and gamy hams like prosciutto. I am psyched about having this beer with a nice big dagwood type ham sandwich in August on the picnic table.

On to the recipe!

Tripel-

Fermentables-
Belgian Pilsner- 8 lbs
Vienna Malt- 2 lbs
Belgian Aromatic- 4 ounces
Carapils- 4 ounces
Clear Homemade Candi Sugar- 2 lbs- put in the boil at 45 minutes

Hops-
Kent Goldings- 4.6- 1 ounce- 60 minutes
Chinook- 13- .25 ounces- 13 minutes

Yeast-
Wyeast 1388- Belgian Strong Ale- yeast cake from Single and Dubbel batches

Mash-
149/167- hot water infusion with a decoction mashout

Gravity- Target/Actual/Final/ABV
1.069/1.064/1.006/7.61%

The grain bill of a tripel is geared toward being able to stand up to the large amount of sugar that's going into the beer. That sugar ferments completely, so you need good stuff on the front end to make sure it's got a bit of malt and body to hold up under all that alcohol. Good Pilsner and Vienna malts are perfect for this. The Vienna especially is going to leave a little something that the yeast can't convert. The Kent Golding hops as a bittering addition are a traditional tripel ingredient. The Chinook not so much. I was kind of inspired by Chris, my neighbor who brews for Three Floyds, after talking to him about my single to try some unconventional hop additions. I probably should have done a little more research about the hop pairing of Goldings and Chinook (in truth, I didn't do any research at all), but homebrewing is about experimentation, and the Chinook addition is a tiny one at 1/4 of an ounce, so I don't think it will impart too much harshness. I added the sugar during the boil. Some people have been advocating adding it to the secondary, but I kind of like the idea of getting a little character from what happens when the sugar is a part of the boil.

The gravity came out a little low. I think if there is one aspect to my brewing that I have not really been able to get a handle on yet, it would be evaporation rate. I was unaware of how much volume would be added from the two pounds of sugar syrup, along with the relatively imprecise measurements on the side of my kettle for volume (I basically took a metal file and marked the side as best I could for the 3 to 7 gallon marks). This can get really imprecise when you put multiple whole hop additions in the kettle, along with the immersion chiller and the hop screen. Definitely something I plan on working on. In the end, I collected 5.5 gallons of beer into the carboy, which made my gravity almost the same as with the dubbel. The good news is that there was an extra pound of sugar in there, so I should get the divergence I was looking for from the two beers.

Dubbel

2009-05-24T20:20:00.000-07:00

The Belgian Dubbel is probably one of my favorite styles to drink, and to brew. It's got everything in it, although to be fair, probably not a hop head style. The malts are upfront, the Belgian yeast gets free reign to express itself, and there's the signature dark candi syrup to boost the alcohol and keep it light. Seriously. If you stuck me on a deserted island for the rest of my life, and the only beer I had access to was Chimay Red, I'd probably be cool with that.

Also: I really enjoy using Special B for some reason.

Fermentables-
Belgian Pale Malt- 7 lbs.
Munich Malt Dark- 2 lbs.
Special B- 12 oz.
Aromatic- 4 oz.
Homemade Candy Dark Candi Syrup- 1 lb.

Hops-
American Kent Goldings- 1 oz.- 60 minutes
Mount Hood- .875 oz.- 14 minutes

Yeast-
Wyeast 1388 Belgian Strong Ale- yeast cake from the Belgian Pale Ale batch

Mash-
151/165- Hot water infusions

Gravity- Target/Actual/Final/ABV-
1.059/1.062/1.012/6.56%

There are a few departures from the previous versions I did. I changed the Vienna malt to Dark Munich which should give it a hint of roastiness along with a little extra color (my previous versions turned out orange as opposed to a deep brown that I had been shooting for). New hops, new yeast, but the best part was the sugar. Belgian candi sugar at a homebrew shop is tremendously expensive (something like $5 for a pound), and the candi syrup that they use in Belgium is even worse (more like $9). I've read up quite a bit about it, and every source seemed to say that these were basically cooked up versions of regular sugar that you can buy at the grocery store for a few bucks for a five pound bag. In Brew Like a Monk, Stan Hieronymus even talked to a brewer who had an analysis done by Archer Daniels Midland, and they told him it was regular sugar, so just buy sugar. So I cooked this one up myself. The result so far: I am never buying sugar at the homebrew store again. It took a little longer to cook up than I was expecting, but I got a nice dark color out without roasting it. All for less than a dollar.

A very successful brew day, and I'm very much looking forward to tasting this. My last one I did for Thanksgiving last year didn't have as much time in the bottle to condition, so I want to see what the yeast can do with a proper long storage period.

Single- Belgian Pale Ale

2009-05-18T20:10:00.000-07:00

This beer is the first in my Gay Beers 2009 series. As I said in my last post, my plan is to do three successive beers on the same yeast, each getting stronger and bigger. It's a page out of Ted's book, and he brews some damn good beers, so I'm guessing it'll be a success. I'm not bothering with names for these, so this one is simply called the Single.

The Single-

Fermentables-
Belgian Pilsner Malt- 6 pounds
Munich Malt- 2 pounds
Cara Pils- 8 ounces
Belgian Aromatic- 8 ounces

Hops-
Fuggles- 1 ounce- 60 minutes
Simcoe- .875 ounces- 15 minutes

Yeast-
Wyeast 1388 Belgian Strong Ale- pitched straight from a smack pack

Mash-
151/168- Hot water infusions

Gravity- Target/Actual/Final/ABV
1.049/1/052/1.011/5.38%

I was so pumped to start brewing my Belgian beers this year. I love the spicy beery deliciousness they bring to my belly. I hadn't brewed this style before, so I turned to Michael Jackson (the other one) for most of my recipe notes. Pilsner Malt for most of the gravity. Munich for a little extra kick, sweetness and color. Cara Pils for some body, and Aromatic for...umm, I forget, but I'm sure it'll add something. My plan was to use Fuggles all the way through (more on that in a minute), but I'm interested to see what the Belgian yeast will do with the Simcoe's, which are really a classic western IPA hop. And of course, the lovely yeast. I am always so impressed with what flavors and aromas a Belgian yeast can squeeze out of what you throw in a carboy. I picked the Strong Ale yeast partly because I hadn't used it before, and partly because the successive beers I'll be making with it will be pretty high octane, especially the tripel. Lower pitching rates tend to add esters to a beer, so I deliberately pitched without a starter to maximize the effect.

Most of brewing at this point is a lot of waiting around, which is great, because there is loads of free beer, and that means there's plenty of time for drinking some while I'm watching the beer brew itself. Most of what needs to be done is in the last fifteen minutes. I had been waiting for a repair guy to show up at the house for several hours, and of course, he decided to pull up 18 minutes before the end of the boil. I was dry hopping an IPA, and had two varieties of hops on my table. Of course, instead of throwing 1 ounce of low alpha acid spicy Fuggles in at the fifteen minute mark, I threw in 7/8 of an ounce of high alpha acid fruity Simcoe. Needless to say, I was pretty upset for about an hour. Which is when I ran into Chris from Three Floyds. While our dogs sniffed each others backsides, we discussed the recipe, and my mistake. His response was that is exactly the sort of thing they would do at his brewery. Apparently, Fuggles and Simcoe go well together, and are complementary when blending. So there you go. Happy accidents.

Next up: The Dubble

Gay beers

2009-05-06T18:26:00.000-07:00

If you've seen the movie "In Bruges," you will know exactly what "gay beer" stands for. If you haven't seen it, you should (this means you Grandma).

In the film, one of the main characters keeps referring to Belgian beers as gay beers, and his beloved English Pale Ales as regular beers. Truth is, the gay beers are the best beers (I know of at least 7 Germans who will be seriously disappointed by that statement, but it's true). My buddy Ed said before I brewed my first beer something to the effect that brewing is all about making a nice environment for your yeast. Belgian beers are about the character of the yeast driving the flavor and aromas more than any other. And despite the strict nature of the guidelines for beers in general, I feel like I have the most freedom to experiment with these.

Brewing here is highly contingent on temperature control of fermentation, of which I have none. So it's all seasonal. Belgian yeasts have a tendency to be able to deal with higher temperatures, so it is the time of year where Brauerie LaVoy turns into Brasserie LaVoy. Where I go from making Bölkstoff to making something a bit finer.

I'm going to do my gay beers in two parts. Ted has been doing series of beers with the same yeast, and I will try something similar here. The first part will be a series of Abbey style Belgian Ales, a single, a dubbel and a tripel. The second will be a series of Saisons. Some of what I'll be doing will be building on what I've done before. I've done a couple of dubbels, and a couple of Saisons. The overall approach will change a bit. Instead of expensive candi sugars from the home brew store for the higher octane brews, I will be using sugar concoctions that I cook up on my stove. I'm going to experiment with some different grains for the Saisons, especially with spelt (which is an heirloom varietal of wheat).

Needless to say, I am really excited about this. I was driving Kerry crazy last week mulling over whether to start these beers last weekend or not. I decided to wait, because I wanted to be fully ready for these. GAY BEERS!

American Hops, American IPA

2009-04-25T15:15:00.000-07:00

I really started my serious brewing last year in the midst of a 500 year hop shortage. As such, I felt like it was a little odd to try brewing an India Pale Ale, because hops were in short supply, and really expensive.

I ordered some some supercharged American hop varietals recently from Freshops, and it seemed like it was time to let loose with a hop bomb.

IPA-

Fermentables-
Marris Otter- 7 pounds
Two row Pale Malt- 2 pounds
Flaked Barley- 8 ounces
Crystal 40- 8 ounces
Victory Malt- 8 ounces

Hops-
Chinook- .5 ounces- 60 minutes
Simcoe- 1 ounce- 15 minutes
Simcoe- .75 ounces- 5 minutes
Simcoe- 1 ounce- Dry hopping in the secondary

Yeast-
Wyeast 1056- American Ale yeast- 1200 mL starter- pitched right off the stir plate

Mash-
153/167 mash out- hot water infusion

Gravity- Target/Actual/Final/ABV
1.058/1.057/1.015/5.51%

I had written this recipe up last week, but I completely changed it around after a conversation with Ted about using hops which blew my beady little brain as to how I use hops. The Chinook hops are a classic American IPA hop. The Simcoe hops instantly became my favorite variety when I popped open the bag. They smelled so fresh and fruity, almost with peach undertones. The grain bill is a larger sized version of what I made a few weeks ago for a pale ale. I added some Victory malt to give the beer a bit more malt flavor. I've been reading a lot of Randy Mosher lately, and he's an advocate of getting most of your color from the base malts for the Pale Ale family, so Marris Otter is the backbone of this one.

As far as brewing goes, I could not have asked for a better day to make beer. The weather was absolutely beautiful, and I was able to finish cleanup right before the rain started. Great day, and hopefully a great beer.

Coming up are my favorites to brew: Belgian beers. I'm so excited to be getting back into the Dubbels, Saisons, and start using the crazy expressive Belgian yeasts.

Red Rye

2009-04-20T19:37:00.000-07:00

I've been doing quite a bit of experimentation with my beers since going to all grain brewing, but I've been hoping to do some more work on some older recipes. Specifically, I had been thinking about having a sort of Haus Bier. Something that I've always got a few bottles of, that's good, that if people stop by, I know I can bust this out, and it'll be a crowd pleaser. My Rye Ale last year was definitely a candidate. It was really smooth, not too assertive, so it would work for beer nerds and BMC fans alike.

Red Rye-

Fermentables-
Two row pale malt- 5 lbs
Rye Malt- 3 lbs
Crystal Malt 60L- 8 ounces
Black Patent- 3 ounces
Rice hulls- 1 pound

Hops-
Willammette- 1 oz- 60 minutes
Noble hop mix- ?oz- a few minutes

Yeast-
Wyeast 1056 American Ale- pitched on to the yeast cake from the yet to be named Pale Ale from the week before

Mash-
98/125/151/157- hot water infusions- the 157 was supposed to be a mash out, but I just ran out of room in my cooler. 5 gallons is definitely undersized. I may need to upgrade this year.

Gravity- target/actual/final/ABV
1.052/1.049/1.012/4.86%

This is pretty much the same recipe as last year, plus a little Crystal malt and some Patent for color (this seems to be the year of Black Patent color additions). As far as the hops go, I feel like when I'm brewing something like a Rye, I want the malt to really be showcased, and the hops should be in the background. The Willammette addition should give it a complementary bitterness. The Noble hop melange is a mix of Mt Hood and Crystal that I had only very small amounts of, so I was looking to get rid of them. I was a little frustrated by the mash problems I had earlier, so they were really more of an afterthought.

Needless to say failing to hit my mash out temp turned the mash into a five gallon cooler full of cement. I vorlaufed, started the runoff, and I don't think I got to half a gallon before the mash just set completely. It was back to transferring the mash to a bucket, so it turned into a long and tremendously messy brew day. The rice hulls didn't do a damn bit of good as far as I could tell, and I think the 98 degree rest was far to thick to do any good. Anyway. While this beer is going to be a good one, the thought of brewing it every four to six weeks as a Haus Bier is just a little more work than I think I could take. I may try a different iteration later this year with flaked rye instead. I'll have to research what sort of differences that would make.

Pitching on to the yeast cake was explosive. So explosive, in fact, that in the week it took me to get around the writing this, it's already done with primary fermentation. I racked it yesterday.

Last Minute No Recipe Pale Ale

2009-04-05T16:38:00.000-07:00

I had planned on doing a retooled version of my Rye Pale Ale this weekend, but had a last minute change of plans. I got a call from Ted Saturday morning inviting me to be part of an event based around building arcade games from reclaimed materials. Being a part of a fun event like that was too good to pass up.

The invite itself presented a couple of problems. I would have four weeks to brew, ferment, condition and carbonate a beer. This would mean kegging it. The recipe I had planned on brewing was not the sort of beer that would be ready that quick. I was no where near any brewing software to come up with a recipe. So, I walked into Brew and Grow, grabbed a bunch of grain, and sort of made it up on the spot.

LMNR Pale Ale-

Fermentables-
Maris Otter- 7 pounds
Flaked Barley- 1 pound
Crystal Malt 60L- 8 ounces
Crystal Malt 90L- 2 ounces

Hops-
Fuggles- 1.25 ounces- 60 minutes
Wilammette- .5 ounces- 13 minutes
Willamette- .5 ounces- Knockout

Yeast-
Wyeast 1056 American Ale- I had a yeast cake from my 1 gallon barleywine. I made a 1000 ml starter to help roust the yeast, since this needed to take off right quick. I ended up pitching this as the just as the krauesen was on the way down, which, as I understand it, is the best time to pitch into your brew.

Mash
155/172- hot water infusions

Gravity target/actual
1.049/1.052

As I was first considering this recipe in the car, I was thinking something like a bitter might be good. But Ted had just brewed one, and I didn't want to serve the exact same thing as him at this event. So, a smallish Pale Ale would be in order.

This should be a really good beer. I've been reading Extreme Brewing, and Randy Mosher recommends getting as much color from your base malts as you can, hence hte Marris Otter, which I've never used before. The high mash temp is going to make it feel like a bigger beer than it really is, the flaked barley should make it look like a bigger beer than it is, and the quick cooling time (I went from knockout to under 100 degrees in about 10 minutes) should make the hoppiness really pop. The yeast I was using tends to work with what you give it, so I think I made a real nice clean flavored pale ale. I was a little high on the OG, which has to do with evaporation more than anything. That's something that I'd like to get a little better at predicting this year. All in all, close enough.

The brew day itself was miserable. It was rainy, cold, and starting to snow as I was finishing. I usually do most of my clean up as the beer is chilling, but today I was not in the damn mood to plunge my hands into cold waste water in a 39 degree drizzle. It makes me wish the Illinois Lottery would have pity on me and see fit to award me enough money to build a proper brew shack.

As far as having it ready on time is concerned, I saw the first bubbles in the blowoff bucket about 20 minutes after pitching the yeast. That is a definite good sign.

Confidential to Phil

2009-03-19T19:41:00.000-07:00

Step 1- Pour yourself a brew
Step 2- Rinse bottle with hot water
Step 3- PBW and rinse a day or two before bottling
Step 4- Star san right before bottling
Step 5- Weep at the beautiful head on your brews

One Gallon Christmas Barleywine

2009-03-18T14:39:00.000-07:00

Lager season is over, and it's time to start busting into some serious ale brewing. I'm excited about this, partly because the whole temperature control thing about lagers is a little stressful, and partly because I did some good stuff last year that I want to improve on, and some stuff I want to try out new. I'm going to try a few different incarnations of my rye beer that I did last year. I feel like that was a really good first effort, and could turn into a sort of always on tap haus beer type of thing. I'd like to redden the color a little, and see what sort of interesting things I can do with it, while still letting the rye drive the flavor.

But first on the docket was to do a barleywine. I used a White Labs ale yeast most of last year, and while it did some good beers, it also pooped out on the last few, which led to some tremendously over carbonated stouts, and some spectacular Brown Ale bottle bombs. I decided to use Wyeast 1056 American Ale to do a few right off the bat, and since I didn't have much carboy space, I decided to do a one gallon batch, and start repitching the yeast cake. I haven't done a barleywine before, partly due to the smallness of my MLT, so a one gallon was perfect. I would only need to mash a few pounds of grain, so I could make it as thin of a mash as I wanted. Here it is:

One Gallon Christmas Barleywine-

Fermentables-
2 Row Pale Malt (organic)- 3 lbs
Crystal 60- 4 ounces

Hops-
Cascade- .5 ounces- 90 minutes
Cascade- .5 ounces- Knockout

Yeast-
Wyeast 1056 American Ale- Pitched straight from the smack pack

Mash-
152- infusion

Gravity Target/Actual
1.086/1.068

The general idea behind this was to do a pretty big, super hoppy American style Barleywine, ferment it in a one gallon jug, decant it to two separate growlers after the primary fermentation, and then bottle in a few months. I'm thinking I'll bottle it in some Duvel bottles, as they are such a heavy gauge, and will easily hold the pressure if the carbonation gets too much in the coming months. I'll let it sit til Christmas, and then hand it out to family and friends.

The gravity came out low because I had not really done a one gallon batch in the stockpot I used, so it was a little difficult to know how long I could boil to get the evaporation that I was looking for. I collecting two gallons, and boiling for almost two hours, and ended up with a little over one gallon. I probably could have gone a little longer, since my last hop addition was going to be at knockout, and then I could have topped up the fermenter if I needed any volume. Brew and learn, I guess. It should still be real interesting as I boiled it pretty hot for so long. There was little in the way of character malts, so most of the color will come from the caramelized sugars. The Cascades should explode in aroma when these get poured. I was literally able to take it from knockout to pitching temps in 8 minutes, so the aroma addition will be real fresh.

Note to self: anytime you do a really big beer in a one gallon jug, add a blow off tube. The initial fermentation was positively volcanic. Awesome, but messy. It was pumping out some fantastic Cascade aromas too.

Darkish American Lager No. 2

2009-03-10T19:08:00.000-07:00

Every brewer hears about how if you do the same beer with two different yeast, you end up with two completely different beers. I had never done that before, but my last lager of the season gave me the perfect opportunity.

The first version of this was made a month ago with an American Pilsner yeast strain. I did my smoke beer two weeks ago with a Bavarian strain. The American strain is sort of geared toward accentuating hoppiness. The hallmark of a Bavarian Lager is the malts, so this was set up perfectly.

Darkish American Lager No. 2-

Fermentables-
German Pilsner Malt- 5 lbs
Vienna Malt- 3 lbs
Crystal 60- 2.5 oz
Cara Vienna- 4.375 oz
Cara Hell- 9.125 oz
Black Patent- 1/2 oz

Hops-
Nugget- 1 oz- 60 minutes
Vanguard- 1 oz- 8 minutes

Yeast-
Wyeast Bavarian Lager 2206- Yeast cake from the Rauchbier

Mash-
152 infusion/168 decoction mashout

Gravity target/actual-
1.048/1.054

I didn't have access to a computer for this beer, so I only sort of remembered what I had done the first time. The malts ended up being close, and the hops slightly closer, but there were some definite changes. The malts, especially the character malts were more geared toward using us what little was left of some stuff that's been sitting around for a while. The Nugget hops are pretty high in alpha acids, and with the slightly higher amounts, the bitterness of this beer are going to really pop. Much more bitter than I usually make.

The brewday went really well, after last time's gas issues. I ended up watching parts of several soccer matches while brewing this one. I was up high on my gravity, which I pin to better mash efficiency. I calculated my numbers based on 75%, but I was probably closer to 80%. Pitching to the yeast cake made it take right off, to the point that I'm going to rack it this weekend. I had a small sample fermenting in a test tube in the kitchen to keep an eye on gravity progress, and I'm thinking it should be ready to rack as soon as this weekend. It smelled very bready. Outside temperatures are starting to get warmer, and I'm anxious to get it to the lagering phase before the weather gets in to the 50's every day.

Up next ale season 2009 kicks off. I hadn't really been thinking much about ales recently, so I'm going to try to make some improvements to some of last years recipes, but there will be some completely new ones too. I'm going to start it off with a one gallon batch as a starter for an update/redo of my rye beer, which was one of my tastier efforts last spring.

No Gas Smoke Beer

2009-02-22T20:24:00.000-08:00

My MO for this year is to start to develop some of the stuff that worked well last year, but I also want to build some stuff that I can work on for next year. My brewing buddy Ted did a smoke beer last year that was absolutely fantastic, and it was definitely the inspiration for this one, with it's smooth forward smoke flavor and beautiful red hue:

No Gas Rauchbier-

Fermentables-
German Pilsner- 3 lbs
Dark Munich- 3 lbs
Rauch Malt- 3 lbs
Cara Pils- 8 oz
Black Patent- 1 oz

Hops-
Mt Hood- 7/8 oz- 90ish minutes
Crystal- .5 oz- 10 minutes

Yeast-
Wyeast Bavarian Lager 2206- 1000 ml starter

OG Target/Actual-
1.050/1.068

I had been wanting to do a rauchbier, but I wanted an even amount of smoke in a medium sized beer. Something you drink several of because it's a strong taste but still refreshing. The hops are low alpha acid noble varietals. They should provide some nice bitterness, but I didn't want much since the star of this beer was supposed to be the malt. To that end, I picked a Bavarian Lager yeast, which is supposed to highlight malts. I'm planning on using the yeast cake in another version of the Darkish American Lager No. 2.

So it was a real cold brew day (somewhere in the 20's), and to keep the gas flowing I had to dunk my propane tank in hot water. And then about ten minutes into what was supposed to be a 90 minute boil, I realized I was about to completely run out. I dropped everything, ran to the gas station and got some more. My boil stopped for about 15 minutes as near as I can tell, since on my trip to get gas, I zeroed out my stopwatch. By the time I got the gas going again, my wort was about 160 degrees.

At that point, this beer was basically screwed in the sense that it was not going to end up with what I had wanted. I decided once it got boiling again to just boil another 60 minutes, and call it a beer. I had a lot more evaporation than I had anticipated, so I ended up with a much higher gravity and a lot less beer. Something like 4 gallons or so.

Oh well. As I always tell my dad when he's having issues with his beers: the worst case scenario is you made beer. I'm thinking once it's in the bottle, I'll lay it down for a while, as the higher gravity with the smoke is going to need some time to condition.

I also now have two propane tanks, so I'll never run out again. Now I just need it to stay cold long enough to do another lager before spring arrives.

Darkish American Lager No. 1

2009-02-02T20:17:00.000-08:00

I hadn't brewed in a month, mostly due to a crazy work schedule, and it was time to get this show back on the road.

The recipe-

Fermentables-
Pilsner- 4 pounds
Vienna Malt- 4 pounds
CaraVienna- 4 ounces
CaraPils- 4 ounces
Crystal Malt 60L- 4 ounces
Black Patent Malt- 1 ounce

Hops-
Nugget (11)- .75 ounces- 60 minutes
Vanguard (4.6)- .875 ounces- 10 minutes

Yeast-
Wyeast 2007 Pilsner- 1400 ml starter

Mash-
149/167- hot water infusions- missed this by 1 degree

Gravity Target/Actual-
1.045/1.044

My initial idea with this beer was to make an orange one. It struck me that orange as a taste is probably not all that hot in beer form (truth be told, "orange drink" was horrendous out of those leaky McDonalds cups when we were kids). I wanted some depth of flavor, but I didn't want grain soup, so while there are a few different character grains in it, they are low in weight (the Patent Malt was just there to darken it a little. And it does not take much. I think it was something like 2 tablespoons worth to get the color I wanted). The Nugget hops will give it an assertive forward bitterness, but the late Vanguard addition should make smooth too. Balance. I would have called it Balance Beer, but that sounds like maybe a manufacturer of energy bars for ladies have gone into the beer business. You know, like, it's beer, but it helps fight Osteoperosis. Maybe you could have a bunch of women sitting in those inexplicable Viagra commercial bathtubs in the middle of some far off field drinking them and laughing together. Or maybe a bunch of women in one bathtub. At least it would be a fun commercial anyway.

Super close on my temps, super close on my gravity, blah blah blah. It was nice to brew again. I'm glad my technique is consistent. My beers this year are going to be so much better. I can't wait to crack the first one of these open sometime late in March.

Holy crap

2009-01-27T07:57:00.001-08:00

The news: I have not brewed yet this calendar year.
More news: I will brew a lager this weekend.

I have just finished up an epic month long work related project. I am ready to brew again. I had planned on doing a one gallon batch to get the yeast cake for a big lager, but I'm going to scratch that. I've probably got another month and a half at best for doing lagers, and I'm going to try to squeeze three brew days out of that.

TBC

Lager season commences

2008-12-28T19:02:00.000-08:00

I've gone on a few times about how I'm pretty much bound by the weather around here as to what I brew. With temps dropping down for the winter, it was time to brew a lager.

My dogs are friends with a number of dogs in our hood. One of them happens to belong to the head brewer for a pretty well known local brewery. I won't say who the brewery is, but you can probably guess it if your favorite movie is The Three Amigos, and your favorite band is Pink Floyd (Syd Barret version, of course). To make a long story short, he got a packet of hops a little while back that he couldn't really use. It was a little under three ounces of pellet hops. He gave them to me, with the stipulation that I'd give him a few to see what these hops were like. So, I give you: Three Dogs Lager:

Three Dogs Lager:

Fermentables-
Pale Six Row- 7 lbs
Flaked Maize- 2 lbs
Cara Pils- 8 oz

Hops-
Mt Hood- 1.5 oz- 60 minutes
GR Select Pellets- 2 oz- 15 minutes
GR Select Pellets- 1.875 oz- 5 minutes

Yeast-
Wyeast 2007- Pilsner- 1000 ml starter straight off the stir plate.

Mash-
149 infusion

Gravity target/actual-
1.051/1.046

I had a pretty clear idea of what I wanted to do with this. Chris' brewery is known for some pretty hoppy beers (their mild would probably be called a IPA at some places), so I wanted to be sure that I brewed this in a way that would showcase the hops in a flavor/aroma sort of way. There aren't many commercial examples of the classic American Pilsner, so I wasn't too hemmed in by any classic guidelines. This is a style that German brewers started doing when they came to America, and as such they used the ingredients that they had on hand. They found lots of corn here, hence the flaked maize. Six row malt to help covert the corn. Cara pils to add some body and foam.

The brewing went pretty good. I missed my numbers for the first time in a while, but I am chalking that up to the maize. I hadn't used it much before, and never used six row, so I'm not too worried about it. It'll still have a decent amount of punch. The hops are all German in origin. The Mt Hood is a Hallertauer offshoot, and the GR Select is a low alpha acid Tettnanger hybrid. I threw everything I had in on the two final additions, so the hoppiness should jump out of this beer, because the grain is not malty at all.

I have to give an honorable mention to Kerry on this beer with her timely Christmas presents. Santa..er..Kerry gave me a really nice digital thermometer, and a refractometer. Really good equipment, easy to calibrate. It definitely made things easier today.

Not so nice was my discovery yesterday that my Altbier had an infection. Every bottle had a nice layer of scum forming on the top. This was a big bummer, as I had some high hopes for that recipe. Needless to say, it was a big time cleaning day today. Pretty much every brewing implement I own got a long soak in some hot PBW, with a long soak in sanitizer after. I tossed my old hoses, so I'm hoping this is a one time thing.

Biere de la Voie

2008-12-02T08:06:00.000-08:00

I think that most people get the idea that the French are mostly effeminate snooty wine drinkers. I'm sure that unless you're a big beer fiend/brewer, most Americans are completely unaware that the French really have a beer style all their own. I confirmed this the other day at work, when I quizzed six dudes about French beer (one of whom used to bar tend).

Biere de Garde is a style that is a close cousin to the Belgian farmhouse Ales. In theory it's the beer of the miners, farmers and drunken cycling fans lining the cobblestone sections of the Paris-Roubaix. In brewing practice terms, it's an ale that is fermented at low ale temps, and then lagered (garde being the French counterpart for the German word lager) for a period of time. It's got a malty backbone that would be similar to some Belgian beers, or even the German Altbier, and the hoppiness should tend to be a bit more spicy as opposed to fruity. Like some French brewer found some two year old hops in his hayloft, and decided, what the hell, I'll use them anyway. So then:

Biere de la Voie-

Fermentables-
Belgian Two Row Pale- 7 lbs
Vienna- 2 lbs
Munich Light- 1 lb
Crystal 40L- 3.5 oz- I had actually planned on 8 ounces, but this is what I had in stock. It was more of a coloring addition than for flavor, so no big deal.
Table sugar- 8 oz

Hops-
Fuggle- 1.25 oz- 60 minutes
Mount Hood- 1 oz- 10 minutes

Yeast-
Wyeast 1007 German Ale- 1000 ml starter. This was what Wyeast recommends for Biere De Garde, and I happened to have it to hand, so it worked out nicely.

Mash-
149/168- hot water infusion

Gravity target/actual-
1.058/1.058

Another ho hum brewday. Which is not to say that I didn't enjoy myself. Just that nothing went wrong. I nailed all my temps. I nailed my target gravity. I guess I'm going to have to start writing a little more about why I'm choosing what I am for ingredients, or else I'll have nothing to write about.

As far as the ingredients go, I pretty much went with a standard Biere De Garde grain bill list. Table sugar to dry it out a little. The yeast is not typically a high attenuator, but the low mash temp, along with the sugar should get me to 80%. I'm going to start doing a force fermentation from now on to figure out what my actual terminal gravity will be, but I didn't have the extra yeast to do so this time.

Speaking of the yeast. If you ever decide to use Wyeast 1007, use a blow off tube. I do not have one at the moment, and it went absolutely crazy with this beer, blowing the carboy cap off twice. I suppose I could have tried to harvest the yeast off my pantry floor, but it's probably not the most...ahem...sanitary place to get your brewing yeast. A true top fermenting yeast. On the bright side, our furnace died sometime Saturday night, and the yeast kept working even though the temps strayed down into lager territory. I haven't tasted a beer that I've made with this yet, but I like how it works in a technical sense.

Hohenoelsner Alt

2008-11-10T07:48:00.000-08:00

It's a weird time of year for me as a beer brewer. I don't have the space/money/equipment to do very much as far as controlling fermentation temperature is concerned. Yeast, like probably all other biological life forms, have an optimum working temperature, and that differs from strain to strain. It's early November though, and while it's definitely colder now than a month ago, it's not quite cold enough for me to start doing lagers.

I started reading through yeast strain guides (I know. I'm strange. I suspect few people on CTA buses are reading the Wyeast catalog), and discovered that there are some German strains that are particularly well suited to cold ale temps, but don't quit working if it actually drops into lager temp territory. These beers (Koelsch, and Alt) are malt driven German barley ales. They have one hop addition at the beginning of the boil, which is particularly nice given how expensive hops are right now. So the first I'm doing is an Altbier.

Hohenoelsner Alt-

Fermentables-
Belgian Pilsner- 5 lbs- the LHBS didn't have the full 7 pounds of German malt, so I had to substitute some.
German Pilsner- 2 lbs
Dark Munich- 1 lb
Black Patent- 4 ounces- this addition is mainly for coloring

Hops-
Mt Hood- 2 ounces- 60 minutes

Yeast-
Wyeast 1007- German Ale- 1200 ml starter

Mash-
128/149/170- infusions with a traditional decoction mash out

The grain bill itself is a standard looking recipe for a Duesseldorf style Altbier. The hops are decended from the German Hallertauer hop strain, so with that and the German yeast, this isn't too different than what you see in a Rheinland brewery that was brewing an Alt. It should make for a nice malty red colored ale.

Brewing was smooth, as it always is nowadays. I missed my gravity by .002, which I don't feel too bad about. My equipment isn't calibrated down to the quart, so it's hard to get an exact reading as to volumes in the brew kettle.

The yeast was quick to take off, and since I was using a five gallon carboy as a primary, I had to put in a blow off tube, as the starter went bucky. I've never seen so many gigantic chunks of yeast swirling around. The temperature outside dropped at just the right time, so the yeast were held perfectly at 63 degrees.

The name of the beer is named for the tiny village in Germany where I lived for a year back in 1993. It was so small that the cows would walk down the main drag when they moved from the summer pastures to the winter ones.

St Phillipe Dubbel, Part two

2008-10-13T09:46:00.000-07:00

I was given a copy of The Brewmaster's Table recently. It's got some beautiful photography in it, but that had been about as far as I'd gotten until a week ago. We're having Thanksgiving at our house this year, and it occured to me that it would be the perfect time to start delving into food/beer pairings. And luckily for me, turkey goes best with the types of beer I've been working on brewing the most: Belgians.

My St. Phillipe Dubbel that I did a while back turned out pretty good, but needed some tinkering. I had previously said that I like the Wyeast Abbey Ale II yeast, but having brewed a few beers with it, I kind of revised my opinion. It comes from a Trappist brewery, so it's obvious that you can make good beer with it, but it seemed to bring certain flavors to the fore that I wanted in the background, and vice versa. I had said that my first Saison tasted somehow kind of thin, and I had chalked this up to the large amount of Acidulated Malt that I used, but when I did the Wedding Saison, it had that same sort of alcoholicky banana flavor right up front. They were decent, very drinkable beers, but I wanted something different.

St Phillipe, Part 2-

Fermentables-
Belgian Pilsner Malt- 8 pounds
Vienna Malt- 1 pound
Belgian Aromatic- 8 ounces
Carapils- 8 ounces
Special B- 5 ounces
Dark Candy Sugar- 1 pound

Hops-
Mt Hood- 1 ounce- 60 minutes
Crystal- 1 ounce- 15 minutes

Yeast-
Wyeast Trappist High Gravity- pitched right from the smack pack

Mash-
128/150/167- Hot water infusions with a decoction mash out

So, the recipe itself saw some adjustments from the first St. Phillipe. The main reason was that I was able to actually procure some of the dark candy sugar as opposed to clear, so I substituted the Dark Munich malt with Vienna. The rest of the grains were pretty close, with an extra ounce of Special B. The hops were the same type, but I added an extra quarter ounce of Mt Hood at the 60 minute mark. The yeast is new, and for the first time, I didn't use any sort of starter. Mainly because I completely forgot to. I had read that some Belgian brewers underpitch on purpose, as it gives them some esters that they wouldn't get with the proper amount, so I will have to see how that goes. Again, this beer was done for Thanksgiving, so it'll be two weeks in the primary, two in the secondary, and three in the bottle to condition. It's not as long as I'd like to have it in the bottle before initial consumption, but time was short. I can't wait to see how this one ages, and be able to do a side by side tasting with the first version.

Brewing for me now is basically at the point where I don't need to spend too much time on the technical aspects of the brew day, which is nice. This one went so smoothly that I was able to paint our picnic table while I was brewing. And I still nailed my starting gravity exactly.

Bugs in the brewhouse

2008-10-08T17:24:00.000-07:00

That's right. I've got bugs in my brewhouse. No, this isn't a sort of Monday Night Brewery standard operating procedure type infection. I brewed me up a wild beer.

My lovely wife is, both fortunately and unfortunately, not a fan of beer. She is, however, a big fan of Framboise, specifically of the Lindemann's variety. Given that my beer brewing addiction has essentially consumed my waking thoughts for over a year now, I decided to brew something that she might like as well.

The deeper I delve into Belgian brewing, the more smitten I become. I just finished reading Wild Brews by Jeff Sparrow, and it was another eye opener. As he says in the book, this sort of brewing isn't a product of a throw it in a fermenter under unsanitary conditions and let it ferment sort of idea. It's artistic, calculated, and harrowing all at the same time. Especially when you consider that it's going to be at least a year before what you brew is drinkable, and even then, you may need to blend it with a beer you are going to brew a year from now before you get a product that is good if not great. So here it is, my attempt at a Flanders Red:

Fermentables-
Vienna Malt- 5 pounds
Flaked Maize- 2 pounds
Belgian Aromatic Malt- 8 ounces
Carahell Malt- 8 ounces
Caravienne Malt- 8 ounces
Special B- 4 ounces

Hops-
Crystal- 1.25 ounces- 60 minutes

Yeast-
Wyeast Lambic Blend- This was a smack pack, and I pitched straight from the pack. Sparrow recommends not making a starter with yeast/Brett blends, as sometimes the quicker growing beer yeast will overwhelm the bacterias before they have a chance to get a foothold.

Mash-
122/148/162/170- all hot water infusions

The grain bill was almost straight out of Wild Brews. I haven't experimented or consumed enough of this style of beer to really know my way around what to include. If anything, this will give me a good base to work off of a year from now. Doing a two hour boil should give it the classic red color. It also gave me a long time to prepare my carboy, and clean up most of the brewing equipment before I was ready to chill it.

The lag time on it was over 24 hours, which is weird if you pitch big happy starters like I usually do. I was actually starting to get little nervous when I hadn't seen any activity a full day after I brewed. The next morning though, there was a nice familiar fluff of krauesen on top. Phew!

This batch is going to get split into two when I rack to the secondary. As I stated at the beginning here, the idea was to brew something Kerry would like as well, so half of this is going to get a 2 pound charge of raspberries. The other half will get a chance to age on it's own. I'll probably bottle some of that straight up, some will be blended with other Flanders beers, and some with other sorts of beers suitable for blending.

Thanks to Ted for the inspiration to do a wild beer. I had a bottle of his Ancient Ale, and it was easily one of my favorite beers I've ever had. Also big BIG thanks to Mike for coming over to help brew. I seriously could not have managed to brew without him. Hopefully I will have a pump soon, and once my new brew setup is built, all we'll have to do is fill it full of grain and water, then sit back and watch.

As far as recent other brews go: Black Dog Stout is great. Brown Ale not so much. Seriously though, I may play with the stout a little bit, but it's delicious as is. Fresher yeast maybe. But the bitterness is just right, and the roastiness and mouthfeel are spot on. The Brown Ale needs to go back to the drawing board. Maybe a better name would improve it a bit. Age may as well. Fingers crossed.

Black Dog Stout

2008-08-24T16:45:00.000-07:00

Stouts are a style I don't drink very often, but that I still love. It is also one I've been looking forward to brewing. My beers this summer were all light colored, but as fall approaches, I've started straying more toward the darker beers, which is going to culminate in some darker German beers that I'm going to start formulating recipes for.

It's a little unnerving for a new brewer to do some of these darker beers. The malts that you use to get the colors right can easily stray into something that can be undrinkable. That was on the forefront of my mind when I was putting this one together, but I think I balanced it right.

The recipe-

Grains-
Organic Pale 2 Row- 8 pounds
Flaked Barley- 1 pound
Roasted Barley- 8 ounces
Black Patent Malt- 8 ounces
Faucett Crystal 40 L- 4 ounces

Hops-
Nugget- .75 ounces- 60 minutes
Fuggle- 1 ounce- 13 minutes (it was supposed to be 15, but whatever)

Yeast-
White Labs East Coast Ale- Yeast cake from Brown Ale

Mash-
153/170 mashout- Hot water infusion

Again, my main concern was going to be that I used too much of the darker malts where it could potentially be acrid, but I tried to sweeten it some with the Crystal. The flaked barley should add some nice smoothness and thicken it slightly in a similar way to using oatmeal, but without depleting our breakfast cereal. It had a nice thick look to it when I was draining it from the brew kettle. And dark dark dark.

Stouts have also had a history of having very strange ingredients on occasion. Like oysters. I considered cooking my traditional brewing lunch hot dog in the boiling wort, but elected not to considering that a vegetarian or two will probably drink some of these.

Obviously, this one is named for Patterson, the original super brew dog.

Brown Ale

2008-08-11T07:19:00.000-07:00

Sorry about the name of this beer. I came up with this recipe over the course of about five minutes, and gave no thought to a name. I suppose I could say it has some amusing connection to The Brown Album by Primus (it does contain the song Kalamazoo), but that would be a lie. Brown Ale. Terrible.

The beer, on the other hand, should be great. I was trying to come up with a nice, low alchohol beer that I could drink during the fall gardening projects. Low on hops, nice malty flavor, and something that won't make me fall over if I drink five of them in an afternoon.

The recipe-

Fermentables-
American 2 Row Pale- 7 lbs
Faucett Crystal 90L- 8 ounces
Faucett Crystal 40L- 4 ounces
Chocolate Malt- 4 ounces

Hops-
Willamette- 1 ounce- 60 minutes
Willamette- 1 ounce- 15 minutes (it was supposed to be at 10 minutes, but I threw it in early as I was trying to brew and watch Olympic cycling at the same time)

Yeast-
White Labs East Coast Pale Ale- 600 ml starter

Mash-
156/170 mash out- hot water infusion for both

Fairly straightforward recipe. I looked at the Brown Ale style guidelines, and went from there. The chocolate malt gave it a very satisfying dark color during the boil that was fun to watch. I went very simple with the hops, as I happened to have two ounces of Willamette on hand, and all the rest of my hops are more suited to German beers. Hence, one type. I've really liked the White Labs yeast. I've used it for all my ales so far this year, and it ferments very clear, and makes a clean tasting beer.

The brew day was as smooth as you can get. Temps were nailed, lautering was easy, and as I said, I was able to watch some of the Olympics while I was brewing. There's no way I could have done that earlier this year. Doing a beer with the simple mash schedule was great too. Heat up some water, sit back and relax. I love it. I learned a nice lautering trick as well. Maybe everyone knows this, but it had never been explained to me this way. When you first start draining the vorlauf, apparently you are supposed to not close the valve. Just put the tube in the pot and let it go. I used to stop draining and pour the vorlauf in, which apparently had a plunger effect on the grain bed, which was probably causing alot of my set mash problems.

The fermentation is going good as I write this. The closet where I ferment my beers kind of smells like spicy blueberries.

Saint Phillipe- Belgian Dubbel

2008-07-28T16:58:00.000-07:00

As I started getting into the whole process of starting to brew at home, I had discussed it quite a bit with my dad (reformed Busch drinker...sort of). He had expressed some interest in brewing as well, so for Christmas last year, I got him an IPA kit from Northern Brewer (since he lives in the Pacific Northwest, I thought if he didn't brew something hoppy, they'd never let him brew again). He's really gotten into it, to the point that some of my rantings on the phone influenced him to try brewing a couple of Belgians. I don't know that he'd ever tried a Belgian before brewing one, but he did it any way. So in the spirit of doing things even if you don't really know what you're doing, I give you Saint Phillipe.

Saint Phillipe Dubbel-

Grains-
Belgian Pilsner- 8 lbs
Dark Munich- 2 lbs
Carapils- 4 oz
Special B- 2 oz
Belgian Candi Sugar (clear)- 1 lb into the boil

Hops-
Sterling- 1 oz- 60 minutes
Vanguard- 1 oz- 10 minutes

Yeast-
Wyeast Belgian Abbey Ale 2- 1200 ml starter

Mash-
129/151/167 decoction mash out

So the recipe is pretty straightforward as far as a Dubbel goes for the grains. A nice base of the pilsner malts with some dark Munich to give it some color. Cara pils for some head retention (most Belgian beers seem to want to try to see how patient you are if you decide to wait for the head to subside), and a touch of Special B, a classic Belgian Dubbel ingredient to provide a hint of raisin flavor/aroma. I threw the sugar in right at the beginning of the boil to try and squeeze a little color out from caramelizing the sugars to counter act the fact that I only had clear instead of a darker sugar. The recipe departs from traditional Dubbels with the hops. Belgian brewers are always harping on using what you've got, and these two new style hops are what I had. I didn't set out to brew a clone, so I'm not going to worry about what a judge would say about it.

The brewing went pretty smoothly for the most part. My lautering had a few of the old problems creep up again, but I managed it, and came out with a very respectable 80% efficiency from the mash. That's the third time in a row that that has happened, so I may want to adjust my recipes a little to account for it.

I did this beer on Saturday, so fermentation is well under way. In fact, the first night, it got so violent that the carboy cap shot off. It was still pumping out CO2 at a pretty good clip on Sunday when I got around to fixing it, so I'm not terribly concerned about an infection. I guess that's what happens when you make a big beer and pitch a big starter. I guess you could say I've now tried my hand at open fermentation. If only I had done it in a bucket, I could have also tried top cropping some yeast. All I'd have left is to take vows of silence, chastity, and poverty (so far I'm only working on one out of three), and I'd be ready to move to Westmalle.

The Wedding Saison

2008-07-08T07:48:00.000-07:00

Two of Kerry’s friends (and now, by extension, also my friends) are getting married soon. Possibly this coming weekend. I should know this, but do not. John Pat and Lara are really nice people, who have also given me some nice reviews of beers I’ve made earlier. John Pat really likes Belgians, so as part of their wedding present, I made a special Saison for them.

Most of my beers so far this year have been pretty bare bones as far as the grain bill goes. The idea being to get good at doing simple beers, and let the yeast do the work. The result has been some decent, and one really good one (the Rye Ale). I think the main problem has been an overall lack of complexity. For example, my first Saison was tasty, but somehow…thin. My tendency has been to use at least a full pound of every grain that I use, as I can’t really buy less than a pound of any one thing, so it's kind of tough to get the different tastes and aspects that you look for in certain grains. The beers need a little something extra, and this special occasion calls for a beer that is a culmination of what I’ve learned in my all grain brewing up to this point.

The Wedding Saison-

Grains-
Belgian Pilsner- 8 lbs
Cara Pils- 4 oz
Vienna Malt- 8 oz
Faucetts Crystal 40- 4 oz

Hops-
New Zealand Hallertau- 1.25 oz- 60 min
Kent Goldings (US)- 1 oz- 10 minutes (actually 9:30, but that’s nitpicking)

Yeast-
Wyeast Belgian Abbey Ale II- 600 ml starter

Mash-
130/148/168- decoction for the mash out

I think this could well be my best beer yet. The grains are all among the sort that would easily be procured by classic brewers of the style. I’ve switched up a few times in the past to the detriment of my brews. The hops are not Belgian per se, but they are acceptable substitutes, given the current hop purchasing situation. The yeast is the same one I’ve used for my previous Belgian efforts.

I brewed this on Friday, and as I write this, the primary fermentation has basically finished. I would say the brew day itself was probably the smoothest I’ve ever had. I’ve basically solved my stuck sparge problems, I hit all my temps nicely, and basically after dough in, it was all very methodical. It was also the first time that my target gravity in the fermenter was exactly what I was aiming for, a solid 1.047.

Big thanks to my brewing assistant, Kathy McGraw (Kerry’s mom). She was in town for the 4th, and was very interested in how you turn a sack of grain into beer. Curiously, she was nowhere to be seen when it was time to clean up (joking), but I was grateful for the help.

Stonebridge Ale Part 2

2008-05-27T07:29:00.000-07:00

One of the owners of the company I work for has a cabin in the waythehellfargone north woods of Wisconsin. Like, once you get to Green Bay, you drive north for 3 more hours. Last year on the way up, I started fiddling with the radio dial. I was trying to see if I could get any Russian radio stations in.

We go up there once a year in a sort of corporate retreat. I say sort of, because most corporate retreats probably do not involove all of the following: fireworks, canoeing, a strip club, Playstation 3, and copious amounts of alcholic beverages.

I'm not really the power bender kind of guy, so I'm more about the canoeing and making sure we always have a roaring fire. This year though, will be extra nice, as I will be drinking my own beer. That was what I brewed on Sunday.

The recipe was about as simple as you can get. The idea was to make something that had a nice balanced taste, somewhat hoppy flavored, but with enough malt to make me feel like I'd eaten something nutritious if that's all I happen to consume that day.

The recipe-
Grains-
2 row pale ale- 8 pounds
Victory malt- 1 pound

Hops-
Hallertauer New Zealand- 1 oz- 60 minutes
Mt Hood- 1/2 oz- 10 minutes
Mt Hood- 1/4 oz- Knockout

Yeast-
White Labs East Coast Ale- pitched directly on to the yeast cake from last weekends Rye beer

Mash-
153/Mashout- 2 water infusions

This is different simplified Pale Ale to what I brewed a while back. The idea is to come up with a nice base recipe for Pale Ales that I can refine. I think the hops schedule was pretty close to what I did with the Rupert Lager, and that turned out to be the best tasting of my lagers, so it should be yummy. I may try a different yeast next time, but I do like the White Labs one that I used. Having pitched it on to the yeast cake, I had bubbling in the airlock 20 minutes after I was done, and by the 24 hour mark, it had settled into the conditioning phase already. The temperature was a little high for fermentation, but hopefully that will just add a little estery complexity to the brew. The room I do the fermenting in was already warm, so I think the yeast were pretty acclimated to the conditions.

The brewing itself was the smoothest brew day I have had yet. The lautering had no sticking problems, although my starting volume was a little high, so the gravity ended up a couple of points low. I'll be making a dipstick for my kettle that should help me avoid that problem again. All in all a very good brew day.

We're not going until the middle of July, so this one will have over six full weeks to come into it's own. Then I shall drink it. All of it.

Thanks to the following...er...people-
Ted- for convincing me to only use one pound of Victory. Two would have just been weird.
Mike Jones- for stopping by right as the boil was starting. It was looking like a potential boilover, but ol' Mike Jones made sure that didn't happen.
Kerry- for getting me some lunch.
Bill McGill- for eating all the barley I spilled on the kitchen floor. If that's not a helpful brew dog, I don't know what is.

Last but not least- some people say brewing is an expensive hobby. I say nuts to that. Here's an example. I had a couple of beers with one of my coworkers Friday on State Street. After tip, my tab was $28 for four beers ($7 per beer). The grain for this batch cost $13.29 at Brew and Grow. The hops cost a total of $3.75 (purchased before the rise in prices). I won't count the yeast cost, as I've used it for 2 other batches already. Total bill- $17.04, or a whopping 34 cents per beer.

Rye Ale

2008-05-19T07:57:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday saw the latest stop of the Simple Recipes 08 tour. This one was a Rye Ale.

The recipe:

Grain-
2 row pale ale- 6 pounds
Rye malt- 3 pounds

Hops-
Sterling- 1 oz.- 60 minutes
Vanguard- 1/2 oz.- 15 minutes
Vanguard- 1/2 oz.- 5 minutes

Yeast-
White Labs East Coast Ale- This was yeast that I had saved after I transferred my Stonebridge Ale. I made a 600 ml starter Friday night, and pitched the whole thing into finished wort.

Mash-
125/152/170- all hot water infusions

I would say that for the most part, I've gotten most of the technical aspects of brewing all grain down pat. I don't even need a checklist to remember all the crap I need to do. The exception to this is my lautering process. My stuck sparge issues have been well documented on this blog, and this weekend was no exception. The rye malt would explain some of it, as it has no husk, but I still ended up having to start the process over again. One of the main points about the lautering process is to try and not expose the grain to oxygen to prevent off flavors. I'd imagine I'll have a few on this beer. I think the problem boils down to how quickly I'm draining. The general rule is no more than 1 quart per minute, or you compact the grain bed. I'm pretty sure that's what happened here. Next time, I'll have to sit there with a measuring cup and a stopwatch while I'm vorlaufing.

I'm still excited to see how this one turns out. I had Founders Red Rye Ale a few times recently at Handlebar, and it became one of my favorites right out of the gate. This isn't a clone per se, as it's just pale malt and rye (it should end up yellow as opposed to red), but that was the inspiration behind using the rye anyway. I'm also interested to see what comes of the Sterling and Vanguard hops, as these are, I believe, somewhat new varieties.

As far as other recent beers go, I'm totally fired up about the Saison. The temperature of the ferment never really got above 72, but I pitched a good amount of yeast, and that coupled with the lower sacch rest temperature made it end up at about 85% attenuation, which was basically how I planned it. The sample I tried when I racked it was very tasty. It was kind of peppery/spicy with no hint of sourness from the Sauer Malt. I cannot wait to get that bottled and drinkable. I kind of got the feeling that I had my first good recipe that I can really start refining.

Beer!

Saison

2008-05-05T13:23:00.000-07:00

I have spoken before of my admiration for the brewing ways of the Belgians. Saturday, I brewed up a version of probably one of the most diverse styles of beer, the Saison.

The Saison is a type of Belgian farmhouse ale. They were originally brewed by farm owners to give to the field hands throughout the summer as a refreshing sort of beer. In the last hundred years, they've morphed into something a bit stronger, but a fun one to brew. There are style guidelines when brewing for competitions, but it's generally accepted that no one really knows what the quintessential Saison is. Since every town had their own version, and even sometimes multiple versions at that, there aren't many rules regarding ingredients and brewing techniques.

My version:

Grain-
Belgian Pilsner Malt- 9 pounds
Sauer malt- 1 pound

Hops-
Hallertauer New Zealand (I think it's an organic hop)- .75 oz- 60 minutes
Kent Goldings- 1 oz.- 15 minutes

Yeast-
Wyeast- 1762 Belgian Abbey Ale II- Pitched the yeast cake from the 1 gallon Golden Strong Ale I brewed two weeks ago

Mash-
131/148/165-decoction mash out

The brew day went pretty good. I had another stuck sparge, but it wasn't too devastating. More of a pain than anything. I changed my mash tun around a little so that grain wouldn't get under the false bottom. I think I achieved that, but a new problem immerged. During the sparge process, the grist basically turned into one huge dough ball. I'm not sure if that was a result of not enough stirring or what, but not a big problem. I managed to basically nail every rest temp and gravity target that I had set for myself, so it is truly the beer I was aiming for (my brewhouse efficiency came in somewhere around 80%)

The recipe itself should make for an interesting beer. I added the acidulated malt to give it a slightly sour flavor, without getting into dealing with any lambic type bacteria. The yeast cake that I pitched in turned out to be on the very expressive side (the sample of my Golden Strong Ale I tasted had a strong hint of banana with a peppery aftertaste). I'm hoping that those things coupled with the lower mash temperature to help dry it out a little will make for a refreshing complex taste.

Golden Belgian Strong Ale-Very Strong

2008-04-21T18:16:00.000-07:00

I am a great admirer of Ted's brewing abilities, and as his was probably the first beer blog that I started reading regularly, his techniques and approaches inform my brewing a good deal. Which is to say, I rip off his ideas on a regular basis.

Yesterday's batch is a good example. I've talked in the past about my love of doing yeast starters, but I feel Ted does it one better. He brews an experimental batch of about one gallon in volume. It gives a nice amount of viable yeast, you get some beer out of it, and it's easy to try something you haven't yet. If you get stuck with ten beers that are undrinkable, it's a lot less devastating than pitching a full five gallon batch.

So I (with the help of Mike and the beer he brought over) brewed a one gallon Belgian Strong Ale, sort of a Duvel type deal. More accurately, we brewed about 3/4 of a gallon of Belgian Strong Ale (did I mention I learn a ton every time I brew?).

The recipe:

Fermentables-
Belgian Pilsner Malt- 2 lbs.
Dextrose- .75 lbs (it was supposed to be .6, but I only noticed this just now)

Hops-
Crystal- .25 oz.- 60 minutes
Crystal- .25 oz.- 15 minutes
Crystal- .25 oz.- 5 minutes

Yeast-
Wyeast- 1762 Belgian Abbey Ale II

I tried malt into water this time, and we more or less hit all our temperatures, which was nice. I had a revisitation of the false bottom popping up during the sparging process, which sucked, but sucked way less with a small batch than a big one. I am going to make a change to it which should solve that problem once and for all. We also hit our efficiency targets, which was a first for me.

The weirdness began at boiling time. We ended up with a little more wort than I was expecting, so I decided to boil 15 minutes longer than I had originally planned to. You know, for a little extra evaporation. I hadn't taken into consideration that I was using a kettle that was probably too big. That wasn't a problem per se, but the shallower wort + longer boil basically meant that the amount we evaporated was way more than I had planned for. This accomplished two things. One: we ended up with only 3/4 of a gallon of finished beer. Two: the gravity reading in the fermenter was 1.102 instead of 1.089 (see also the extra sugar I used). Not exactly session like.

Thankfully, I picked (read: it was the only one from my list that Brew and Grow had in stock) a yeast that is very tolerant to high amounts of alcohol, so I think this should end up tasting pretty good, without messing up my yeast for the next batch.

Thanks again to Mike for the help with brewing, as well as the excellent Weissbier from Piece. Yummy stuff.

Stonebridge Pale Ale

2008-04-05T21:26:00.000-07:00

Today was my first ale of the year.

It was a royal pain in the ass.

That said, it was good to get back in the saddle. I also made some adjustments that did make a few things easier. As I recently said, I'm trying to do some simple recipes this spring and summer. Here was today's:

Grain:
8 lbs. Pale Malt (2 row)
2 lbs. Crystal Malt (60L)

Hops:
1 oz Sterling 7.0 60 min.
.5 oz. Kent Goldings (US) 4.2 15 min.
.5 oz. Kent Goldings (US) 4.2 5 min.

Yeast
White labs- East Coast Ale- I secretly picked a White Labs yeast, because if you send in your used flasks, they'll send you a t-shirt or something. I figure I could used the t-shirt to keep light off the carboy when I'm racking.

Ted recently posted some stuff about how to hit your mash temps properly. I impudently said I hadn't had any issues to date by adding water to the grain, as opposed to the other way around. That sealed my fate. An analogy: the mash was supposed to be kind of like how a person at McDonalds would pour your drink for you. All ice, a little bit of pop. Mine was like they handed me the cup and I poured my Dr. Pepper myself, a little ice, and mostly pop. Which is to say, I missed my mash temp, corrected (which is to say, over-corrected), corrected again, and ended up with a pretty thin mash instead of a thick one. As I said, a royal pain in the ass. I'm sure the farting around cost me big when it came to my gravity. If I was a jerk, I'd say I planned it that way, and was shooting for a more dextrinous wort. Instead, I should be writing the follow up to Brew Like a Monk. Only mine would be Brew Like a Polack.

The rest of the day went great. I installed a bazooka screen in my kettle, and draining versus pouring not only kept a lot of my beer off my back porch, but was ridiculously easy. Also, no boil overs, and thanks to my starter, I had about a two hour lag time. I love that shit.

I certainly have some areas I need to improve on. My efficiency was atrocious. I'm not going to post it, because it's embarrassing. Needless to say, I think my mash temperature problems meant that I brewed something closer to a bitter than a pale ale. I'll drink it, but it was a little irritating. I think that, by and large, I need to be a bit more scientific as to how I'm doing things (hitting temp and gravity targets, and calibrating all my vessels so I've got a much clearer picture of what the numbers actually mean). Up until now, especially when it comes to hitting my targets, it's been kind of a shoot for volume and wait and see what happens. That's alright on my first couple of all grain brews, as I was just trying to get some of the mechanics figured out, but I should be beyond that. I guess it's just sort of a desire to brew the beer I envisioned in the first place. This is something I'll be ruminating on the the coming days. I'm going to brew this one again at least two more times this summer. It will be interesting to see what I can come up with.

Side note: lunch today consisted of beans and franks. Somehow, I feel like if you're brewing and you do not dine upon encased meats, that is an opportunity missed.

Spring and Summer Brews

2008-03-20T15:47:00.000-07:00

I haven't brewed in a few weeks now, but it feels like an age. My Blue Blood lager is in the bottle (to be opened for the first time this weekend), and my Red Pheasant Pilsner will be in the bottle soon. It is high time to plan some brews.

Many of you are aware of the hop shortage, and that is something that has been weighing on my mind as I was planning recently. I have a fair bit of hops left over from the winter brewing, and I've actually laid my hands on another ten ounces of several different varieties, so I should be okay for a while.

But hops are only a small part of the picture. Two pieces that I have recently read have sort of changed some of the plans that I was making for my upcoming beers. The first is the book Brew Like a Monk. Having cut my beer drinking teeth on German beer, I felt a small bit of disdain for Belgian beers. Reading that book completely changed how I look at beer, think about beer, and has caused me to revise some of my goals for brewing beer. The Belgians make some amazing beers, and there are quite a few of them who use one grain and one type of hops in their beer. They use the yeast to drive the taste.

The other was an article in Brew Your Own magazine. There was a column in this month's issue where a guy was complaining to the columnist about how his pale ale basically always sucked. One of the key things the writer said in his answer was to try and keep things simple at the beginning. I look at homebrew forums alot, and there are tons of dudes with a post title like: First AG-Double Imperial IPA. Their grain bill looks like a laundry list, and they're using four different types of hops. That's all well and good, but what if it doesn't taste right? How do you decide that it was the 1/2 pound of CaraPils that was too much versus dry hopping with three different varieties? It's very easy to go from a complex taste to something that is just weird.

That kind of brings this post full circle. Up to this point I've paid attention to yeast, but only insofar as I was interested in pitching the proper amounts. My recipes have not been needlessly complex, but I would like to get a little more acquainted with individual ingredients, to know when I can push the envelope a little or when to back off.

To that end, my beers for the spring and summer are going to be very simple recipes. One or two grains. One or two hops. I'm going to try and limit myself to two different kinds of yeast (an American ale yeast, and a Belgian ale yeast). I think if I can make consistently good beers within those narrow parameters, I'll feel better about adding ingredients in future brewing seasons.

Rupert Lager

2008-03-02T19:21:00.000-08:00

On this Sunday, we shall hear a reading from the prophet Patterson. "Thus sayeth the dog: his single decoction mashout skills shall be the envy of the near west side, and the back porch shall not be sullied by gigantic boilovers and moronic lautering."

The last few brew days, and their aftermaths, have been full of issues. To say the least. I felt like I had learned a lot during my previous batches, but that learning had yet to translate into a smooth brew day. I have proved that an old dog can learn new tricks.

The recipe:
Grain
7.00 lbs. Pale Malt(2-row)
1.00 lbs. Munich Malt(2-row)
1.00 lbs. Victory Malt
1.00 lbs. Crystal 60L

Hops
0.50 oz. Hallertau 8.50 60 min.
0.50 oz. Crystal 3.25 15 min.
0.50 oz. Crystal 3.25 0 min.

Yeast
Wyeast 2206 Bavarian Lager- I made a starter of this from yeast that I harvest from the bottom of my two previous batches. It fermented those out extremely well, despite my lack of temperature control.

SG- 1.046
IBU- 20.9
SRM- 11.9

I mashed in at 152 degrees, and then did a decoction to get my mash out temp. In retrospect, I would have bought a 10 gallon cooler instead of a 5 gallon to give some flexibility on how I mash, but it's probably fine as it's caused me to try decoctions and fly sparging, which I think I would have put off otherwise. My brewhouse efficiency seems to be sticking at about 71%. I chalk this up to the fact that I'm using a bottling bucket as my hot liquor tank. It doesn't hold water temperature very well, so my sparge starts out with 175 degree water, and finishes with 165. It will be interesting to see if that efficiency stays the same when the weather is nicer and that water temp is a little more constant.

There isn't much to tell about the brewing itself. I feel like I'm starting to get my setup pretty dialed in, and the execution gets smoother with practice. In fact it went so well, that I was able to make myself some lunch during the boil. And by "make myself some lunch," I mean that I was able to burn a grilled cheese sandwich to a cinder.

A note on the name of the beer: Rupert was one of Kerry's rabbits. He was known for his big nose, and his hijinks. He liked to, on occasion, have Kerry's other rabbit run a diversion so that he could steal a sandwich or a bag of corn chips. That dude deserves a beer named after him.

Sherlock Kevin and the case of the frozen Vienna

2008-02-19T14:05:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to give everyone who reads my blog a little fun update as to my doings as it relates to the fermentation of the beers I recently brewed.

The primary fermentation of the Blue Blood Lager went well, considering that I felt I had under pitched my yeast. Then I read today that some Belgian brewers purposely under pitch to promote esters. Not really what I'm looking for in a Vienna lager, but whatever. I racked it, and set the secondary fermenter in a closet in my laundry room. The idea being that the laundry room is poorly insulated, and would make a great place to lager a lager. I also took the liberty of tasting a sample. Wow. My extract beers never really tasted like beer until I cracked open a fully fermented and carbonated bottle. They always tasted a little green. But this was a revelation. I could taste the grains. I could taste and smell the hops. If this is how all grain works, I'm somehow even more hooked than I was before.

I came home two days later to find that my beer was lagering very nicely. In this particular case though, when I say lagering nicely, I mean almost frozen through. Not exactly what I had planned. Luckily I had read John Palmer's How to Brew where he relates a similar story. With a Vienna no less. The difference was, I don't force carbonate my beer. Frozen yeast tend to stop working, and when you bottle condition like me, that's a problem.

Fortune was smiling on me that day, my friends. Rather than tossing my yeast from the Blue Blood down the drain after I racked, I had pitched my next batch of wort right on the yeast cake. About the time I discovered that my beer had frozen, that batch was at full krauesen. I sanitized some equipment, and cropped some yeast off the bottom of the Pilsner, and made a sort of mini starter with it. After the Blue Blood had thawed completely, I repitched.

This should be plenty sufficient to carbonate the Blue Blood when I bottle it in a couple weeks. This is, however, where the one part of homebrewing that I don't enjoy comes into play. I won't really know if it worked for about 5 more weeks.

There is three pieces of good news in this though. The first is that neither batch is showing any signs of infection, meaning my sanitation practices are good. The second is that I was able to successfully harvest yeast from a fermenting batch. Meaning I can fix mistakes, and reduce my homebrewing costs by reusing yeast. The third thing is that the mini starter I made from harvesting the yeast from my pilsner had settled out after 24 hours, and it was really pretty. An absolutely perfect hay color yellow. I am really looking forward to cracking the first bottle of that.

Red Pheasant Pilsner

2008-02-09T18:29:00.000-08:00

When I was 17, I spent a year living in Germany. What followed was one of those classic stories. Boy discovers beer. Boy drinks beer. And so on. Basically, I fell in love with German Pilsners. When I first thought about brewing, a German style Pilsner was what I thought about first. Those straw colored beers are the images that pop in my head when you say the word beer.

Which is to say, the beer I brewed yesterday is the first incarnation of what will hopefully become sort of my "haus bier." It is my homage to all the delicious Warsteiners, Radebergers and Hasseroeders that I consumed back in the good old days.

The recipe:

Grain
8 pounds German Pilsner
1 pound Munich

Hops
1/2 oz. Hallertauer Hersbrucker- 60 minutes
1/2 oz. Hallertauer Hersbrucker- 45 minutes
1/2 oz. Mt. Hood- 15 minutes
1/2 oz. Mt. Hood- Knockout

Yeast
This batch was pitched directly on to the yeast cake from the batch of Blue Blood Lager. I literally racked the Blue Blood, and poured this batch on top.

Final stats:
OG- 1.048
SRM- 3.5 or 4. It could end up slightly darker than I was hoping. TBD.
FG- TBD. Having pitched on to the yeast starter from Blue Blood, I had about a 3 hour lag time. This one should ferment nicely. Hopefully making up for all the other stuff that went haywire.

I tried to stay a bit closer to the "guidelines" that the style calls for than I did with the Blue Blood a few weeks ago. I was looking for a particular flavor this time. I also elected to do a step mash, due to the less modified European malts. I doughed in at 125 degrees for a 20 minute protein rest, infused hot water to bring it up to 152 for 40 minutes, and then did a decoction to get to the mash out temp. I nailed the protein rest and saccharification temperatures. The decoction worked nicely, but I missed the mash out temp by at least 8 degrees. I attribute that more to not pulling the correct amount as opposed to poor execution. It was on to the sparge.

What followed was the mother of all plugged sparges. I vorlaufed 8 quarts, and it just didn't seem to clear properly. I guess I should have known something was wrong, but I don't think there was anything I could have done about it at that point. The damage was done. I blew back up the hose like a good brewer does. Nothing. Blew again. Still nothing. And again. And again. And again. No flow.

I was basically at the point where temps were dropping in the mash tun and the hot liquor tank, and something was going to have to happen, or I was going to be dumping the entire mash into the composter. And then drinking every drop of alcohol in the house. Luckily, I remembered a post from The Daily Ikura where he had a similar problem. I took his lead and basically transferred the entire mash from the cooler to a bucket. Sure enough, about half a pound of grist had gotten underneath the false bottom, plugging it all up. Thing is, the more I think about it, the more I feel like my blowing in the hose lifted the false bottom and made it worse.

Whatever the case, I managed to get it all relatively straightened out. I'm sure things got screwed up a bit as far as efficiency is concerned, but somehow I managed to actually hit the starting gravity I had planned for to get in the fermenter. From this I think it is safe to assume that I planned on brewing like a moron.

I was much more careful about the boil this week, and brought it up to 212 slowly, thereby avoiding the wort launch that I got with the Blue Blood. The rest of the day went pretty quietly. Again, chilling in 32 degree weather is a breeze. Especially when the cold water coming out of the tap is only 40 degrees or so.

I got another education about brewing today. The decoction was much easier than I thought, although I will be more careful in the future about calculating and then pulling the right amount. I will also be adding a port to the side of my brew kettle next time. Poor Kerry nearly froze helping me pour. Also, I spilled some. There is a better way, and I'm convinced that that way is draining as opposed to pouring a heavy-ass pot into a funnel.

The main thing I learned is that this is going to take time to get working right. I have read four or five books, and blogs and forums beyond count about brewing. But there is nothing like giving something a try, keeping good notes on it, and learning from it. Technique cannot be picked up in a book.

Small bit of housekeeping: I have to give props to Brian from The Daily Ikura. If I hadn't read that post of his about transferring the mash, I don't know that I would have come up with a solution in time to save this batch. Prost, Brian!

Daddy's Little Girl Ain't a Girl No More

2008-01-28T09:04:00.000-08:00

AKA: My first All Grain Batch
AKA: The little starters that couldn't

Saturday was a day of firsts. First all grain. First completely original beer recipe. First time the starter wouldn't really start. First boil over. First time with a chiller. First time brewing with someone (the illustrious Mike Jones). First time throwing myself down my basement stairs while holding a ring burner. But first a word about the beer.

The beer was, as I said, my first original recipe. It will be henceforth known as Blue Blood Lager. The name is a reference to Vienna (and this was a Vienna lager), home of the Hapsburgs. The Hapsburgs, among other things, were known for having big noses. Also for ruling large parts of Europe, but mostly for big noses. And as I have a bit of a schnoz myself, and admire people with large noses, it seemed apropos. In a further connection, a well known commercial example of the Vienna lager is Negra Modelo, and as the Hapsburgs were also Emperors of Mexico from 1864-1867, the connection is complete.

Ingredients:

Grains
8 lbs- Pale 2 Row
1 lb- Carapils
1 lb- Crystal Malt 80

Hops
1 oz Hallertauer Hersbrucker- 4.75 Alpha- 60 Minutes
.5 oz Crystal- 3.25 Alpha- 15 minutes
.5 oz Crystal- 3.25 Alpha- 5 minutes

Wyeast 2206- Bavarian Lager- pitched from a 600 ml sort of starter

Final stats:
OG- 1.043
SRM- 10 (or so)
IBU- 24
FG- Check back on this. We'll see, as I think I under pitched.
Volume- hard to tell given the boil over. I'll be making a "volume stick" this weekend to help with that in the future. This will be an exciting technological development by the LaVoy Boys Brewing Company, so stay tuned!

The mash went off fairly well, but not without a hitch. I wasn't paying attention to the strike water, and overshot the temperature by 5 degrees, so we had to wait a few minutes for it to cool down. We were still over on our temperature at dough in, but well within the acceptable range, so I left it alone. I didn't want to get into a vicious cycle of adding hot/cold water to get to the exact temperature I was trying for. The mash tun (a converted 5 gallon cooler with a false bottom) held up nicely temp-wise and without any leaks. We added a gallon of mash out water, as the mash tun didn't appear that it would take another drop. The fly sparge went as planned on my rigged three tier gravity system (a rickety ladder, plastic picnic table, and burner), and the $2 sparge arm setup (a spihon sprayer, and a couple of 2x4's cut up, screwed together, and drilled in such a way as to sit on top of the cooler with the hose through the middle) worked like a dream. We able to nail the water flow out of the HLT (my bottling bucket) and the mash tun, so the whole lauter/sparge process took no more than twenty minutes. We were a little short on the gravity, but on a first all grain, I think that's probably to be expected. We ended up with 71% efficiency. That left us a little low for a Vienna lager, but I'm not going to quibble about style rules just yet.

We then got the mixture on to the burner, got the flame going, and promptly had a boil over of epic proportions. I'm guessing we lost a good 3/4's of a gallon of wort, which resulted in a smaller amount of liquid into the fermenter than I was hoping for. A 10 gallon brew pot is in my future. I was disappointed that we had lost so much brew. Mike was disappointed that he didn't have the camera ready to take a picture of my face as the kettle turned into a wort launching cannon. After we got things back under control, everything ended up pretty normal for the rest of the boil. The wort chiller was great, and we were able to go from knock out to 75 degrees in about 20 minutes. Mike was pretty impressed that something so ugly actually worked. I also managed to drain the water out right on to the stairs leading down to the basement. Which turned it into a skating rink. Which I threw myself down during the cleanup process while holding the ring burner. Somehow I didn't mess my back up, which, as it is already messed up pretty good, is no small thing.

Where was I? Oh right. Yeast pitching. I had made my starter the night before. I figured that 20 hours on the stir plate would give me a nice big slurry to pitch on to my first lager. Except that the starter never really started. It would foam up a little, and then go back to looking dead. We ended up making a trip to Brew and Grow, and bought a different yeast (also not perfect for the Vienna style, but given the fact that the selection was pretty limited and the Brew and Grow dude was unhelpful, it'll work). I tossed the first starter down the drain, and made a fresh one. It hadn't really gone much by late that night either, but I wasn't willing to risk letting my wort sit there overnight, so I pitched the yeast. After about a 20 hour lag time, some krauesen started showing, and I've got it at a good temperature.

All in all, not a bad day. My ingredients and gravity are a little off of the Vienna style, but I'm not going to worry about it too much. Part of that had to do with availability. I learned a ton about my setup, all grain brewing, and being patient with the yeast. Special thanks go out to Mike for helping me brew. My setup is low tech enough that brewing on that by myself would have been damn near impossible. Which means Kerry would have been pressed into service, and I don't think she would have thanked me for that. Kerry deserves thanks as well, as she dealt with a completely destroyed kitchen for most of the day. And also bought me most of the equipment I used for Christmas. If only she liked beer, she could have a proper reward. She'll have to make do with smooches.

Quote of the day: "I took a picture of your ass over the kettle. That way if the beer doesn't turn out, we can show people that picture and just say it was Shit Beer." Mike Jones

Yeast Redux, Brew Day update

2008-01-17T11:04:00.000-08:00

So the yeast starter post yielded quite a range of comments. From "gee, I should probably use them" to "I've been brewing for an age and never had a problem" to an anti The Big Lebowski diatribe from my younger brother (I only beat him several times, and not very badly. What can I say. He's a sad strange little man).

Whatever your feelings about yeast starters, this is my point: use 'em if you want to. Don't if you don't. I've used them in each of my brews thus far, and been very happy with the results. That said, I will be trying some new yeast methods in the future. My next batch will utilize a starter, but the one after that I'll be pitching to the cake from the first batch. And then I'll attempt to harvest the yeast of that batch (there is a great picture tutorial of that on the Homebrewtalk forums). We'll see how that all works. I may have to keep a Saflager in stock to bail me out if those go sideways.

In sadder news, I will not be brewing this weekend. I am an outdoor brewer, and the weather is supposed to be even colder than it is generally this time of year in Atlanta. Something like 4 degrees on Saturday, and 8 on Sunday. Not that that would be a problem for me personally. But I was planning on fly sparging with my bottling bucket as my HLT, and keeping water in a plastic bucket at a constant temperature in 5 degrees was more than I think should be attempted on the first all grain batch. The highly anticipated Blue Blood Lager will have to wait another week. Which is a bummer. I was actually looking to see how fast I could chill 5 gallons that way.

In the end, that is okay. It will give me more time to finish constructing the most ghetto looking immersion chiller ever built. Seriously. It looks like it was "coiled" by a drunken Polack. Which, basically, it was. I'll share some pictures because I'm cool like that, and basically have no shame.

Confidential to "Freak:" No teabagging, sorry to disappoint. It would have been weird since there was a dog there. Also, she's a real lesbian, and I'm not a woman. Also, this is my beer blog. My bachelor adventures are all posted here.

Yeast Starters

2008-01-13T11:03:00.001-08:00

My buddy Ed has been brewing for years, and was definitely part of the inspiration for me to start brewing myself. He also has a way with words.

Before my first batch, I had asked him a bunch of questions about things that I thought were important, but were really just stupidly obvious that I hadn't brewed a batch yet questions. One of the things that I hadn't given any thought to at that point was pitching yeast. Everything I've read has stated that homebrewers are notoriously bad about pitching the proper amount of yeast. Indeed, some of the homebrew forums I've read have had "experienced" brewers telling newbies that it's fine to spend four hours brewing and then sprinkle a god-knows-how-old packet of dry yeast on their precious brew. Invariably, there are questions by the newbies a few days later about their "stuck" fermentation. Really, it's not stuck. They just pitched some crappy yeast. I'll let Ed take it from here:

"OK, first things first. The most important thing about getting the results you want from the beer making process is the health of your yeast. NOTHING is as important as the health of your yeast. All of my brewing has led me to become some sort of demented mother hen for a bunch of bacteria. Every thing you do in the primary brewing process should be thought of in terms of how productive a yeast colony you can.

First off, I love starters. I tell everyone to use a starter. If you transition from brewing without a starter (as I did) to using one religiously (the ONLY way I brew now), you will weep tears of joy at the reduction in frequency of bad batches and loss of time, effort, and expensive ingredients. If right off the bat you brew with starters, I dunno, you'll think this hobby is too easy or something! The starter is going to be sort of like a nice little kiddie pool for your yeast to get their shit sorted out before you dump them in to the ocean that is 5 gallons of beer."

As Ed went on to say the last time we hung out: brewing, even if you're doing extract brewing, is a lot of work. It also costs money. If you're going to do all that work, and you can do something that is only slightly more work that causes you to increase your chances of success, why not do it?

Make a starter. All the cool kids are doing it.

In brewing news: next weekend will be exciting. Assuming all my stuff arrives on time, I (along with my new brew assistants Mike and Babak) will be brewing my first all grain batch. We'll be doing a Vienna lager. WOO HOO!

First post

2007-12-23T22:22:00.000-08:00

So, I guess I'll start this out by saying this is my dorky homebrewing page. I'm going to be documenting my successes in the brewing of fermented libations, as well as the stunning failures to do that very same thing. The next couple of months/posts will be more focused on my attempts to start brewing all grain batches. Also, I will (with permission) be posting some choice quotes from my buddy Ed about brewing. He has been brewing for years and is wise in the ways of making yummy beer. I know this because we got totally punked on it once and I woke up the next day sandwiched on his living room floor between a lesbian and her dog (if you know Ed, this would not really strike you as all that odd).

The picture is from my first brewday. I was spooning the nasty hop pellet sludge out of my funnel. If I can help it, I will never use that god forsaken shit again. Only whole hops for me!

Thanks for reading!