This porter is pretty much a replica of the porter I did two months ago. This time there is less black malt and a little more münchener malt. I liked the previous one a lot, but I thought that it had a little too sharp bite from the black malts. This is an attempt at making it a bit rounder. The increased mash temperature should also make it a little richer.
The single pack of dry yeast seems to have been plenty as the fermentation started soon after pitching and it is currently very vigorous.
The batch was brewed 2007-06-17.
Style:
Imperial Porter
Type:
All grain, batch sparge
Colour:
76 EBC (Black)
Bitterness:
41 IBU
Malts:
4500g Pale malt
1500g Münchener malt
550g Dark crystal malt
500g Amber malt
250g Crystal malt
250g Dark crystal malt
250g Carafa I, debittered chocolate malt
150g Carafa II, debittered black malt
Mash:
67C, 60 min
76C, 10 min (mashout)
72% efficiency
Hops:
30g Warrior pellets, 13.8%, 60 min
20g Warrior pellets, 13.8%, 10 min
Yeast:
Nottingham, 1 pack, dry yeast, best before date 2008-09.
Boil:
90 min
OG: 1.067 FG: 1.016 (estimated) abv: 6.7%
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Brew #50: Roggenbier
I am quite excited about this beer. A roggenbier is like a dunkelweizen, except that the wheat malt has been fully replaced by rye malt. Not having tried a German roggenbier before I do look very much forward to doing so. It is going to be interesting to compare this batch with a commercial interpretation of the style -- once I get hold of one.
The mash smelled absolutely wonderful when I mashed in. The predominate aromas were rye bread and nutty chocolate. I am not particularly fond of pumpernickel bread, but I do like other kinds of rye bread.
When I started brewing I thought that I had 3 kg of rye malt on had, something I did not, so 750 grams were replaced by wheat malt. This means that the rye content is 40% and not above 50% as dictated by the BJCP style definition. But, who cares. I had absolutely no problem mashing the rye.
German wheat yeasts are supposed to be pitched a little low so that the clove and banana characteristics can develop more, so this time I did not make as starter. Instead I just poured the contents of the swollen smack-pack into the wort. I really wanted to try this out in a weissbier, but this will have to do for now.
The batch was brewed 2007-06-17.
Style:
Roggenbier
Type:
All grain, batch sparge
Colour:
32 EBC (Copper)
Bitterness:
12 IBU
Malts:
2250g Rye malt
1500g Münchener malt
1000g Pale malt
750g Wheat malt
250g Caramünich malt
250g Dark crystal malt
50g Carafa I, debittered chocolate malt
Mash:
67C, 60 min
76C, 10 min (mashout)
72% efficiency
Hops:
40g Tettnanger pellets, 2.7%, 60 min
18g Tettnanger pellets, 2.7%, 15 min
Yeast:
Wyeast 3068 Weihenstephan Weizen Yeast, production date 2007-04-16, no starter
Boil:
90 min
OG: 1.053 FG: 1.013 (estimated) abv: 5.2%
The mash smelled absolutely wonderful when I mashed in. The predominate aromas were rye bread and nutty chocolate. I am not particularly fond of pumpernickel bread, but I do like other kinds of rye bread.
When I started brewing I thought that I had 3 kg of rye malt on had, something I did not, so 750 grams were replaced by wheat malt. This means that the rye content is 40% and not above 50% as dictated by the BJCP style definition. But, who cares. I had absolutely no problem mashing the rye.
German wheat yeasts are supposed to be pitched a little low so that the clove and banana characteristics can develop more, so this time I did not make as starter. Instead I just poured the contents of the swollen smack-pack into the wort. I really wanted to try this out in a weissbier, but this will have to do for now.
The batch was brewed 2007-06-17.
Style:
Roggenbier
Type:
All grain, batch sparge
Colour:
32 EBC (Copper)
Bitterness:
12 IBU
Malts:
2250g Rye malt
1500g Münchener malt
1000g Pale malt
750g Wheat malt
250g Caramünich malt
250g Dark crystal malt
50g Carafa I, debittered chocolate malt
Mash:
67C, 60 min
76C, 10 min (mashout)
72% efficiency
Hops:
40g Tettnanger pellets, 2.7%, 60 min
18g Tettnanger pellets, 2.7%, 15 min
Yeast:
Wyeast 3068 Weihenstephan Weizen Yeast, production date 2007-04-16, no starter
Boil:
90 min
OG: 1.053 FG: 1.013 (estimated) abv: 5.2%
Thursday, June 07, 2007
Brew #49: Witbier
Witbier is, along with IPAs, a very popular beer style in this household. It is summer afterall and I just had to make another. This time I did a few twists of the earlier recipes. The recipe was different in that it used zest from two oranges and a lemon, ground coriander from a glass, steeped chamomile tea bags and dried yeast.
Fermentis, the producer of the Safbrew S-33 dried yeast packs, seems to be recommending the yeast for Belgian wheat beers, which I can only understand to be Witbiers. This is an experimental brew, so I've gone ahead and created a Witbier with it. In theory it doesn't sound that bad. Literature I've read say that the yeast is the Edme strain, which is seems to be a British yeast strain. What its origin is I do not know. There seem to be other dried variants of this yeast strain as well.
The batch was brewed 2007-06-05.
Style:
Witbier
Type:
All grain, batch sparge
Colour:
7 EBC (Pale yellow)
Bitterness:
14 IBU
Malts:
3000g Pale malt
3000g Raw wheat kernels
500g Oatmeal
300g Dry light malt extract
Mash:
66C, 60 min
76C, 10 min (mashout)
67% efficiency
Hops:
40g Styrian Goldings pellets, 3.2%, 60 min
30g Saaz pellets, 3.3%, 15 min
Other:
10g ground coriander
2 bags of chamomile tea
zest from two oranges
zest from one lemon
Yeast:
Safbrew S-33, 1 pack, dry yeast, best before date 2008-11-01.
Boil:
90 min
OG: 1.050 FG: 1.012 (estimated) abv: 5.0%
Update: Oslo is experiencing a heat wave this week. The fermentation temperature has reached 26C during the day, and thoughout the night it falls to about 21C. The outside temperature has been in the vicinity of 30C the last few days. The primary fermentation was over after two days and the fermentation bucket now sits idle. I'll leave it there for another week before kegging. The houses here do for obvious reasons not have any air conditioning systems, so there is not really much that one can do about this other than hoping for the beer not being ruined. This weekend's double brew, a German pilsener and a Roggenbier, has been postponed until the weather returns to something more normal. In the meantime I'm enjoying the nice sunny weather on the terrace.
Fermentis, the producer of the Safbrew S-33 dried yeast packs, seems to be recommending the yeast for Belgian wheat beers, which I can only understand to be Witbiers. This is an experimental brew, so I've gone ahead and created a Witbier with it. In theory it doesn't sound that bad. Literature I've read say that the yeast is the Edme strain, which is seems to be a British yeast strain. What its origin is I do not know. There seem to be other dried variants of this yeast strain as well.
The batch was brewed 2007-06-05.
Style:
Witbier
Type:
All grain, batch sparge
Colour:
7 EBC (Pale yellow)
Bitterness:
14 IBU
Malts:
3000g Pale malt
3000g Raw wheat kernels
500g Oatmeal
300g Dry light malt extract
Mash:
66C, 60 min
76C, 10 min (mashout)
67% efficiency
Hops:
40g Styrian Goldings pellets, 3.2%, 60 min
30g Saaz pellets, 3.3%, 15 min
Other:
10g ground coriander
2 bags of chamomile tea
zest from two oranges
zest from one lemon
Yeast:
Safbrew S-33, 1 pack, dry yeast, best before date 2008-11-01.
Boil:
90 min
OG: 1.050 FG: 1.012 (estimated) abv: 5.0%
Update: Oslo is experiencing a heat wave this week. The fermentation temperature has reached 26C during the day, and thoughout the night it falls to about 21C. The outside temperature has been in the vicinity of 30C the last few days. The primary fermentation was over after two days and the fermentation bucket now sits idle. I'll leave it there for another week before kegging. The houses here do for obvious reasons not have any air conditioning systems, so there is not really much that one can do about this other than hoping for the beer not being ruined. This weekend's double brew, a German pilsener and a Roggenbier, has been postponed until the weather returns to something more normal. In the meantime I'm enjoying the nice sunny weather on the terrace.
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
What is the USPS thinking?
For some odd reason the US Postal Service has decided to drop their low-cost international shipping services. This leaves Global Express, Express and Priority, which all cost a fortune. I noticed this when I placed an order at Morebeer today. The shipping cost, which I had calculated to USD 70 suddenly became 164 USD. That's an incredible price hike. Heavier packages now effectively cost more than twice of what they were before May 15th this year. A positive side of this is that shipping now takes seven days instead of four weeks. But sometimes the money saved is worth waiting an extra three weeks for. Well, not anymore.
Dear old faithful USPS, what were you thinking? Why? Aaaaaargh...
Dear old faithful USPS, what were you thinking? Why? Aaaaaargh...
Monday, June 04, 2007
Fermentation buckets: pros and cons
The India Pale Ale is fermenting happily in one of the new fermentation buckets. Since the buckets hold 32 liters there is quite a bit of head space in there, so I do not have to worry too much about the fermentation overflowing.
After having tried one of these fermentation buckets I have found a few things that are good and bad about them:
Pros:
- Easier to clean as one can reach into them by opening the lid. One has to be a little careful so that it does not pick up any scratches. A soft non-scratching cloth is needed.
- The bucket has a flat top which means that one can stack them on top of each other saving a little space while fermenting. On the other hand this also means that the cat can sleep there.
- The stackability is even more useful when storing them between use. Four buckets take up just as little space as one of them do.
- A bucket does not fit very well in my kegerator. The old fermentation tanks was just a little wider that a cornelius keg, so I could fit one of them in the fridge with three cornelius kegs. Not so with the new fermentation buckets. From what I can gather there is not room for any kegs together with a bucket. I'll have to try and find one of the old type, so that I can ferment my lagers in it.
- It is harder to oxygenate the wort as one cannot vigorously shake the bucket. With the old tanks I could just close them with a lid and shake hell out of them. Pouring the wort from the siphon from a height did seem to work nicely, but it is not perfect. I'll have to look into getting hold of an aquarium pump and an oxygenation stone.
Sunday, June 03, 2007
Brew #48: India Pale Ale
The IPAs I make seem to disappear rather quickly, so I do have to make them quite often. In order to keep the hop levels in the blood stream up throughout the summer it's time to make another one.
This one is intended to be a little nutty and somewhat on the rich and malty side. I used the new digital thermometer, so we'll see if the fermentability is a little lower this time. When comparing the measurements with the old thermometer there seemed to be a 2C difference between the two, with the new one giving the lower result. Given the recent experiences that makes sense.
There is quite a bit of finishing hops in this beer. Since I had reached the bottom of the big bag of Warrior hop pellets I thought that I just as well might add the rest of it. I have a 1.5 kg bag left, so it's going to take quite a while before I run out of Warrior hops. In my opinion there can never really be enough aroma hops in an IPA.
This batch will be fermented in one of the brew fermentation buckets.
The batch was brewed 2007-06-03.
Style:
India Pale Ale
Type:
All grain, batch sparge
Colour:
24 EBC (Deep amber)
Bitterness:
64 IBU
Malts:
5500g Pale malt
700g Munich malt
500g Carapils
300g Wheat malt
300g Crystal malt, 130 EBC
250g Victory malt
Mash:
67C, 60 min
76C, 10 min (mashout)
72% efficiency
Hops:
30g Warrior pellets, 13.8%, 60 min (first wort and bittering hops)
30g Warrior pellets, 13.8%, 10 min
30g Palisade pellets, 9.3%, 10 min
140g Warrior pellets, 13.8%, 1 min
70g Palisade pellets, 9.3%, 1 min
Yeast:
Safale US-05, 2 packs, dry yeast, best before date 2008-11-01.
Boil:
90 min
OG: 1.068 FG: 1.017 (estimated) abv: 6.7%
This one is intended to be a little nutty and somewhat on the rich and malty side. I used the new digital thermometer, so we'll see if the fermentability is a little lower this time. When comparing the measurements with the old thermometer there seemed to be a 2C difference between the two, with the new one giving the lower result. Given the recent experiences that makes sense.
There is quite a bit of finishing hops in this beer. Since I had reached the bottom of the big bag of Warrior hop pellets I thought that I just as well might add the rest of it. I have a 1.5 kg bag left, so it's going to take quite a while before I run out of Warrior hops. In my opinion there can never really be enough aroma hops in an IPA.
This batch will be fermented in one of the brew fermentation buckets.
The batch was brewed 2007-06-03.
Style:
India Pale Ale
Type:
All grain, batch sparge
Colour:
24 EBC (Deep amber)
Bitterness:
64 IBU
Malts:
5500g Pale malt
700g Munich malt
500g Carapils
300g Wheat malt
300g Crystal malt, 130 EBC
250g Victory malt
Mash:
67C, 60 min
76C, 10 min (mashout)
72% efficiency
Hops:
30g Warrior pellets, 13.8%, 60 min (first wort and bittering hops)
30g Warrior pellets, 13.8%, 10 min
30g Palisade pellets, 9.3%, 10 min
140g Warrior pellets, 13.8%, 1 min
70g Palisade pellets, 9.3%, 1 min
Yeast:
Safale US-05, 2 packs, dry yeast, best before date 2008-11-01.
Boil:
90 min
OG: 1.068 FG: 1.017 (estimated) abv: 6.7%
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