Live in Oslo and need malt?

Then you might be interested to know that there is an initiative to collectively order 2000 kgs of various Thomas Fawcett malts from the UK.

More information here (in Norwegian).

Norwegian Homebrewing Competion 2009

What: The annual festival where homebrewers serve their own beers to the public, which get to vote for their favourite beer of the evening. Homebrewers also compete in five other categories (bottled entries submitted earlier), including strong/specialty beers, light lager, dark, larger, light ale, and dark ale. The winners are announced towards the end of the evening.

When: Saturday March 28th 2009, 19:00-00:00 CET
Where: Studentersamfunnet Bislet, Pilestredet 52, Oslo, Norway.
Cost: 130 NOK (100 NOK if you're a member of Norbrygg)

This year's event is going to be a great one as the best beer from the strong/specialty category will be brewed at Nøgne Ø and will later be available at Vinmonopolet (the government liquor shops). Cred to Nøgne Ø for doing this! Also, the 30 best beers served at the event will be awarded with 12 liter brand new Cornelius kegs. Plus there'll be lots of other prizes. In another words, there is no reason not to participate this year.


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I'll be there serving my beer. This year I'll have the Imperial Kölsch (brew #66), Russian Imperial Stout (brew #67 with Madagascar Bourbon vanilla beans and MacAllan 10 yo cask strength single malt whisky) and Raspberry Melomel (brew #70) on. See you there!

Brew #70: Raspberry Melomel

I have been planning to make a mead for a long time, and have had 4 kgs of Argentinian honey lying around for almost a year, and I have now finally done something with it.

It went pretty well, but I made a couple of mistakes along the way. First I miscalculated the final volume. Originally I had aimed for 13 liters of water and honey, but ended up with 18 liters (21 liters after adding the raspberry). I also ended up fermenting the mead a too little cold and the sweet mead yeast crapped out at 1.060 (I suspect because of the pH level), so I had to add some really old Lalvin D-47 from 2005(!). That boosted the fermentation, and it went down to 1.008 just a couple of days later.

The melomel is now in the secondary, but I'll keg it soon. From the samples I've had so far it is promising, and I'm sure I'll try making more meads in the future. I plan to serve it not carbonated.

The batch was brewed 2009-02-06.

Style:
Raspberry Melomel
Type:
21 liters. No heat.
Ingredients:
4200g Argentinian honey
500g Norwegian Raspberry honey
2840g Red Raspberry puree, Oregon
1.5ts Fermaid K (day 0)
1ts Fermaid K (day 2)
1ts Fermaid K (day 5)
Yeast:
2 packs Wyeast 4184 Sweet Mead, and 2 packs of Lalvin D-47 after a few days
Boil:
180 min
Fermentation:
17 C and 22 C

OG: 1.085 FG: 1.006 abv: 9.0% (estimated)

Brew #69: Russian Imperial Stout

This beer is a straightforward Russian Imperial Stout, which I gave a long three hour boil. Because of that I got a reasonably good mash efficency given that I only did two batch sparges. I have bottled a couple of liters, but will put the rest of it in a keg with two Madagascar Bourbon vanilla beans infused with MacAllan 10 yo cask strength single malt whisky.

Added 1ts CaCO3 (calcium carbonate) and 1ts to boil.

The batch was brewed 2009-02-03.

Style:
Russian Imperial Stout
Type:
25 liters. All grain, batch sparge
Colour:
100 EBC (Black)
Bitterness:
49 IBU
Malts:
4500g Golden Promise, Thomas Fawcett
4100g Pale malt, Pearl, Muntons
800g Aromatic malt, Dingemans
500g Roasted Barley
500g Special B
500g Flaked Barley
300g Crystal malt, 150 EBC, Thomas Fawcett
150g Carafa I Special, Weyermann
350g Wheat Malt Extract (for OG correction only)
Mash:
65C, 75 min
62% efficiency
Hops:
50g Magnum pellets, 14% 60 min
40g East Kent Goldings pellets, 4.8%, 10 min
30g East Kent Goldings pellets, 4.8%, 1 min
Yeast:
2 packs Safale US-05 (rehydrated)
Boil:
180 min
Fermentation:
19 C

OG: 1.092 FG: 1.026 abv: 8.7%

Brew #68: American Pale Ale

I love hoppy beers, and here we have another one. I haven't really dry hopped my beers for a long time now. I did it on two IPAs earlier, but was not happy with the results. This time, I can say after having tasted the result, the result of dry hopping is quite impressive. The beer ended up with a great hop aroma and flavour. I guess I could have left the dry hops on the beer for a longer period, but I'm very happy with the result, and will definitely dry hop many more beers in the future. This is also the first time I've dry hopped with pellets. I've been a little afraid of getting too much hop debris in the beer, but that seems to be no problem as the hop pellets sank to the bottom quickly. The beer is still young, but there is quite a bit of yeast still in suspension in the keg, so I'll leave it in the kegerator a little longer before a draw a final conclusion. The FG is surprisingly high, even though the beer does not taste sweet at all.

Added 1ts CaCO3 (calcium carbonate) and 1ts to boil.

The batch was brewed 2009-02-03.

Style:
American Pale Ale
Type:
25 liters. All grain, batch sparge
Colour:
23 EBC (Amber)
Bitterness:
39 IBU
Malts:
5700g Pale malt, Pearl, Muntons
400g Melanoidin malt, Weyermann
400g Crystal malt, 150 EBC, Thomas Fawcett
Mash:
67C, 90 min
65% efficiency
Hops:
40g East Kent Goldings pellets, 4.8%, 60 min
40g Centennial pellets, 9.1%, 15 min
40g Centennial pellets, 9.1%, 1 min
60g Amarillo pellets, 8.4%, 1 min
56g Columbus pellets, 12.2%, dry hop for 4 days
Yeast:
1 pack Wyeast 1272 American Ale II (0.9 liter starter on magnetic stirrer)
Boil:
75 min
Fermentation:
19 C

OG: 1.053 FG: 1.017 abv: 4.7%

Homebrewing event at Nøgne Ø

Last weekend the kind people at Nøgne Ø, the Norwegian microbrewery, had invited home brewers to an event at their brewery. I went there together with about 40 other home brewers.

The goal of the day was to brew 800 liters of Nøgne Ø Saison. The batch was then to be split 40-ways, so that everybody could take 20 liters home to ferment and alter it at will. The attendes were encouraged to make the most of it. My twist will be to add a can of Oregon Apricot puree and use a Belgian yeast blend (not Saison yeast).


When registering for the event one had to decide which yeast from the White Labs catalog to use. This yeast had arrived just a few days before, so it was very fresh. I chose this yeast:

WLP575 Belgian Style Ale Yeast Blend
A blend of Trappist type yeast (2) and one Belgian ale type yeast. This creates a versatile blend that can be used for Trappist type beer, or a myriad of beers that can be described as 'Belgian type'.
Attenuation: 74-80%
Flocculation: Medium
Optimum Fermentation Temperature: 20-24°C (68-75°F)
Alcohol Tolerance: Medium-High

Nøgne Ø uses WLP400 Belgian Wit Ale Yeast in their own version. Interestingly, quite a few also ordered vials of wild yeast and bacteria. It'll be interesting to try out the end results.

If I remember correctly the recipe contains lager malt and wheat. The hop additions are East Kent Goldings for bittering, Hallertau (Mittelfrüh I presume) for flavour and Saaz for aroma. OG was 1.057 and the FG usually 1.015 (something they thought was a little too high for a Saison). They ferment the beer at 25°C from the start to the finish. Their web site also says 25 IBUs and 6.5% abv.


The agenda looked like this:

10:00 Welcome and a walkthrough of the brewery
11:00 Introduction to brewing
12:00 Transfer wort to sparging vessel
12:30 Sparging
12:30 Lunch and beer
14:00 Introduction to yeast and yeast handling
15:00 Boil wort
16:30 Transfer to whirlpool
17:30 Chilling and transfer to fermentation tanks

After the brewing session quite a few went downtown to have dinner and drink more beer.


On 21st of March there will be another event where everybody meets at the brewery and tastes each others beer.

I enjoyed the event immensely. Meeting other enthusiastic home brewers was a lot of fun. And I'm looking forward to the tasting next month. In any case this is a great thing for Nøgne Ø to be doing. I like their attitude and their eagerness of being open about everything. There are no secrets in brewing, quite the attitude of most home brewers. Cheers!

Brew #67: Porter/Crowberry Porter

It has been a while since I made a dark beer, and it has been too long since I made a porter. With its 7.0% abv this is a fairly robust porter.

Knut Albert has been kind enough to mention that crowberries might do well in a porter. I agree. Last year I had a sample of Haandbryggeriet's lingonberry porter, an experimental brew that they had made but did not put into production. It was an excellent beer with an interesting bittering quality that balanced the roasted malts in a nice way. It is sad that they decided not to take it further. The reason was supposedly the high production costs. Crowberries should be quite similar in flavour.

I found 330 ml bottles of crowberry juice at a Helios store here in Oslo. 1 liter juice to 11 liters of porter in the secondary. Interestingly I could not see any visible fermentation activity in the secondary, so I guess there's not much fermentable sugars in the juice. It is anything but sweet, but I think it'll lend a nice balance it the beer. The juice is organic and should not contain any preservatives.

Added 1ts CaCO3 (calcium carbonate) to mash and 1ts to boil.

The batch was brewed 2009-01-26 and bottled 2009-02-10.

Style:
Porter
Type:
25 liters. All grain, batch sparge
Colour:
76 EBC (Very dark brown)
Bitterness:
35 IBU
Malts:
6000g Pale malt, Castle
850g Aromatic malt, 100 EBC, Castle
800g Münchener malt, Weyermann
300g Crystal malt, Castle
300g Special B, Dingemans
300g Chocolate malt (Special II), Weyermann
100g Coffee malt, Castle
Mash:
66C, 90 min
68% efficiency
Hops:
35g Cascade pellets, 5.8% 90 min (first wort hops)
35g East Kent Goldings pellets, 4.8%, 60 min
25g East Kent Goldings pellets, 4.8%, 10 min
Yeast:
1 pack Wyeast 2450 Denny’s Favorite 50, 1 liter starter
Boil:
180 min
Fermentation:
19 C

OG: 1.073 FG: 1.020 abv: 7.0%

Brew #66: Imperial kölsch

The imperial pilsener beer style is a fairly new phenomenon, so why not make an "imperial kölsch" now that I had a fresh kölsch yeast cake? The recipe is pretty much a scaled up version of the kölsch/Czech pilsener hybrid. The Saaz hops have been replaced with Riwaka (formerly known as D Saaz), a very aromatic Saaz breed from New Zealand. It contains twice the oil content of Czech Saaz. As the hop contains a lot of cohumulone (a harsh bittering oil) I thought it best to use Magnum, a cleaner bittering hop for bittering. As I've never used Riwaka before I look forward to see how it compares to its ancestor. The descriptions I've seen sure sounds like it'll do well in a strong and bold pilsener.

Added 1ts CaCO3 (calcium carbonate) to boil aiming at 50 ppm carbonates.

The batch was brewed 2009-01-21.

Style:
Strong kölsch
Type:
25 liters. All grain, batch sparge
Colour:
11 EBC (Golden)
Bitterness:
51 IBU
Malts:
8000g Pilsener malt, Castle
500g Wheat malt, Weyermann
200g Melanoidin malt, Weyermann
Mash:
65C, 90 min
69% efficiency
Hops:
35g Magnum pellets, 13.5% 60 min
60g Riwaka whole hops, 5.9% 10 min
100g Riwaka whole hops, 5.9% 1 min
40g Riwaka whole hops, 5.9%, dry hop for 4 days
Yeast:
Wyeast 2575 Kölsch II (batch #65 yeast cake).
Boil:
75 min
Fermentation:
19 C

OG: 1.072 FG: 1.014 abv: 7.6%

Brew #65: Kölsch/Czech Pilsener hybrid

This is an experiment that I've wanted to do for a long time. The beer is a hybrid between a Kölsch and a Czech Pilsener. It is brewed with Kölsch yeast and a lot of Czech Saaz hops. There is 10% wheat in the recipe, so the fermentables are closer to a Kölsch than a Pilsener. The batch was split in half, and is fermenting with two different Kölsch strains. I look forward to seeing whether there will be any significant differences between the two strains. It will also be interesting to see if one can make a decent pilsener with an ale yeast.

Added 1ts CaCO3 (calcium carbonate) and 0.5ts CaSO4 (gypsum) to enhance the hops.

The batch was brewed 2009-01-04 and bottled 2009-01-21.

Style:
Kölsch/Czech Pilsener
Type:
25 liters. All grain, batch sparge
Colour:
8 EBC (Pale yellow)
Bitterness:
42 IBU
Malts:
5300g Pilsener malt, Castle
500g Wheat malt, Weyermann
200g Cara-pils, Weyermann
Mash:
67C, 90 min
72% efficiency
Hops:
110g Saaz pellets, 3.4% 60 min
40g Saaz pellets, 3.4% 15 min
30g Saaz pellets, 3.4% 1 min
Yeast:
1 pack Wyeast 2565 Kölsch (0.7 liter starter on magnetic stirrer) and 1 pack Wyeast 2575 Kölsch II (1.0 liter starter).
Boil:
90 min
Fermentation:
19 C

OG: 1.052 FG: 1.011 abv: 5.4%

Brew #64: Barley wine

At first I wanted to make an English barley wine, but I soon found out that the Centennial hops used for bittering impose a really strong bitterness, so this beer came out like an American barley wine. I'm very happy about it and think that it is a good one. When I tasted it two weeks after bottling I was scared by how harsh the bittering hops were. Another three weeks later the beer has mellowed and now present itself as a nice and very drinkable barley wine. I look forward to see how this one develops the coming years.

I hope to be making a new barley wine every year. Next year I'm considering something similar to North Coast Old Stock Ale.

Added 1.25ts CaCO3 (calcium carbonate) and 0.5ts CaSO4 (gypsum) to enhance the hops.

The batch was brewed 2008-11-17 and bottled 2008-12-03.

Style:
Barley wine
Type:
25 liters. All grain, batch sparge
Colour:
37 EBC (Brown)
Bitterness:
60 IBU
Malts:
10600g Pale malt, Weyermann
2400g Aromatic malt, 50 EBC, Dingemans
300g Crystal malt, 150 EBC, Weyermann
Mash:
65C, 90 min
56% efficiency
Hops:
120g Centennial pellets, 9.1% 60 min
40g East Kent Goldings pellets, 4.8%, 10 min
Yeast:
2 packs Safale US-05 dry yeast
Boil:
180 min
Fermentation:
19 C

OG: 1.095 FG: 1.018 abv: 10.1%

Brew #63: American IPA

This being my favourite beer style, I do brew it quite often. This particular recipe is for an IPA that is easily drinkable and not too complex. The bitterness is crisp and dry. It is very aromatic with strong notes of grapefruit and hints of pine. There is little malt complexity. I'll add more crystal malt next time.

Added 1.25ts CaCO3 (calcium carbonate) and 0.5ts CaSO4 (gypsum) to enhance the hops.

The batch was brewed 2008-10-03.

Style:
American IPA
Type:
25 liters. All grain, batch sparge
Colour:
19 EBC (Amber)
Bitterness:
65 IBU
Malts:
6100g Pale malt, Weyermann
400g Cara Münich malt, Weyermann
200g Carahell, Weyermann
Mash:
67C, 60 min
68% efficiency
Hops:
30g Columbus pellets, 12.2%, 60 min
40g Warrior pellets, 13.5%, 10 min
70g Columbus pellets, 12.2% 5 min
120g Centennial pellets, 9.1% 1 min
Yeast:
1 packs Wyeast 1272 American Ale II, 1.5 liter starter
Boil:
90 min
Fermentation:
18 C

OG: 1.061 FG: 1.015 (estimated) abv: 6%

Brew #62: Traditional Bock

Last year I made a spiced Christmas. This year I wanted to drop the spices and make something more plain, so I ended up with an attempt at a traditional bock. The result is very drinkable, but I feel that it has little bitterness. Next time, I'll add more bittering hops and a little flavouring hops to cut the malty dullness. A higher alcohol content would not have hurt it either. I'll drop the mineral additions as well.

Added 2/3ts NaCl (salt) and 1/3ts NaHCO3 (baking soda) to enhance maltiness.

The batch was brewed 2008-09-24.

Style:
Traditional Bock
Type:
25 liters. All grain, batch sparge
Colour:
26 EBC (Deep amber)
Bitterness:
22 IBU
Malts:
4600g Münchener malt, Weyermann
2200g Pilsener malt, Castle
400g Cara Münich malt, Weyermann
200g Dark Crystal malt 300 EBC, Thomas Fawcett
200g Melanoidin malt, Weyermann
Mash:
68C, 60 min
74% efficiency
Hops:
20g Magnum pellets, 13.5%, 60 min
Yeast:
2 packs Wyeast 2663 Octoberfest, 2.5 liter starter
Boil:
90 min
Fermentation:
9.5 C

OG: 1.066 FG: 1.016 abv: 6.5%

Brew #61: Extra Special Bitter

This beer was made for an event at work. I was hoping for something easily drinkable. As I had little time to make it I had to skip the yeast starter and throw in some dry yeast. In the end I think that the recipe worked out well. The beer was light and refreshing with a crisp dry EKG hop bitterness. It was far from complex, but it had a dry and grainy mouthfeel with a crisp bitterness. Not really what I would consider an ESB, but rather more like a really dry Special Bitter.

The batch was brewed 2008-09-10.

Style:
Extra Special Bitter
Type:
25 liters. All grain, batch sparge
Colour:
26 EBC (Deep amber)
Bitterness:
45 IBU
Malts:
4500g Golden Promise malt, Thomas Fawcett
350g Aromatic malt, Dingemans
200g Cara Amber, Dingemans
200g Carapils, Weyermann
150g Dark Crystal malt 300 EBC, Thomas Fawcett
Mash:
67C, 60 min
70% efficiency
Hops:
60g Challenger pellets, 6.7%, 60 min
40g East Kent Goldings pellets, 4.8%, 10 min
60g East Kent Goldings pellets, 4.8%, 1 min
Yeast:
1 pack Safale S-04, rehydrated dry yeast
Boil:
90 min
Fermentation:
21 C

OG: 1.048 FG: 1.012 abv: 4.7%

Brew #60: Rye IPA

This is an adaptation of Denny Conn's popular Rye IPA. I had to change the recipe somewhat as I did not have some of the ingredients.

The batch is already kegged, but as the CO2 tank ran out yesterday I have not yet been able to taste it carbonated. Will have to get it refilled on Monday. It tastes promising though.

As this was the first time that I used the outdoor brewery this year the brew day was ridden with errors on my part. I had problems with a leakage close to the pump, so that air got sucked into the pump causing the pump to stall. I spent about half an hour trying to locate where the leakage was. In the end I realized that the silicone tubing was torn near the hose clamp. This extra time lowered the mash temperature to about 63C. Fortunately the beer did not dry out as much as I had thought. I have struggled with the pump before, but next time this problem should have been elimiated.

The batch was brewed 2008-06-16.

Style:
Rye IPA
Type:
40 liters. All grain, batch sparge
Colour:
30 EBC (Copper)
Bitterness:
62 IBU
Malts:
9200g Maris Otter malt, Thomas Fawcett
2000g Rye malt, Weyermann
1500g Wheat malt extract 55%, Muntons
900g Carahell malt, Weyermann
500g Dark Crystal malt 300 EBC, Thomas Fawcett
Mash:
65C, 60 min
50% efficiency
Hops:
150g Cascade whole, 6.8%, 60 min
100g Cascade whole, 6.8%, 10 min
80g Simcoe whole 13.0%, 1 min
15g Amarillo whole 8.0%, 1 min
Yeast:
2 packs Wyeast 2450 Denny’s Favorite 50, 2.5 liter starter
Boil:
90 min
Fermentation:
21 C

OG: 1.063 FG: 1.013 abv: 6.6%

Brew #59: Weissbier

I have not been very happy with the Weissbiers that I have made from all-grain, so I decided to make a quick malt extract batch as I have been successful with extract wheat beers before.

Unfortunately the fermentation stopped a little too early making the beer a little too sweet. I forgot to add yeast nutrient, so I suspect that that might have something to do with it. Another thing is that this beer was made in the middle of a (minor) heat wave, so the fermentation temperature fluctuated quite a bit. For this reason there is quite a bit of flavour. Doh.

The batch was brewed 2008-06-12.

Style:
Weissbier
Type:
25 liters. Extract, batch sparge
Colour:
15 EBC (Amber)
Bitterness:
10 IBU
Malts:
3800g Wheat malt extract 55%, Brewferm
Hops:
50g Saaz pellets, 2.0%, 45 min
20g Hallertauer Mittelfrüh pellets, 2.1%, 15 min
Yeast:
1 pack Wyeast 3068 Weihenstephan yeast, 1.5 liter starter
Boil:
60 min
Fermentation:
22 C

OG: 1.055 FG: 1.015 abv: 5.2%

Brew #58: American Brown Ale

I have always enjoyed the impressively rich and malty beers from American microbreweries. I've so far only found that kind of malt flavours in American beers. Some of them have an incredible maltiness. I have so far not been able to get even close in my own beers. This beer is hopefully a step towards something more resembling. There is a whopping 21% specialty malts in this recipe, of which most of them are very aromatic and flavourful malts. Lets just hope that is doesn't come out too cloying. There is also a bit of bittering hops in there to cut some of the sweetness. The mashing efficiency came out a little low this time. Not sure why. It could of course have something to do with the specialty malts.

I have not found any information on the attenuation of the Fat Tire yeast, but Brew #57 came out at 80%, so it is pretty high.

The batch was brewed 2008-04-13.

Style:
American Brown Ale
Type:
25 liters. All grain, batch sparge
Colour:
44 EBC (Dark brown)
Bitterness:
36 IBU
Malts:
3000g Maris Otter malt, Thomas Fawcett
2300g Münchener malt
500g Biscuit malt, Dingemans
300g Aromatic malt, Dingemans
300g Special B, Dingemans
200g Dark Crystal malt 300 EBC, Thomas Fawcett
100g Pale Chocolate, Thomas Fawcett
Mash:
66C, 60 min
69% efficiency
Hops:
65g Cascade pellets, 5.8%, 60 min
30g Styrian Goldings pellets, 3.2%, 10 min
Yeast:
Wyeast Fat Tire yeast, on Brew #57's yeast cake
Boil:
90 min
Fermentation:
19 C

OG: 1.056 FG: 1.013 abv: 5.6%

Brew #57: American Pale Ale

This is the first brew of the year, an American Pale ale. It actually ended up more like an India Pale ale as the mash efficency came out at 78%, something I'm really happy about. I used a new batch sparging technique, which I'll say something about in a future post.

The batch was brewed 2008-03-27.

Style:
American Pale Ale
Type:
25 liters. All grain, batch sparge
Colour:
15 EBC (Amber)
Bitterness:
40 IBU
Malts:
5400g Maris Otter malt, Thomas Fawcett
270g Crystal malt 80 EBC, Dingemans
230g Caraamber, Weyermann
200g Biscuit malt, Dingemans
Mash:
66C, 60 min
78% efficiency
Hops:
30g Simcoe whole, 13.2%, 60 min
30g Cascade pellets, 5.8%, 10 min
60g Cascade pellets, 5.8%, 1 min
Yeast:
Wyeast Fat Tire yeast, 2.7 liter starter on magnetic stirrer
Boil:
90 min
Fermentation:
19 C

OG: 1.060 FG: 1.012 abv: 6.3%

Norwegian Homebrew Competition 2008

What: The annual festival where homebrewers serve their own beers to the public, which get to vote for their favourite beers of the evening. Homebrewers also compete in five other categories (bottled entries submitted earlier). The winners are announced towards the end of the evening.

When: Saturday April 5th 2008, 19:00-00:30 CET
Where: Studentersamfunnet Bislet, Pilestredet 52, Oslo, Norway.
Cost: 130 NOK (100 NOK if you're a member of Norbrygg)


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I'll be there, but I won't be serving any beers this year as I'm judging the finals of the five other competition categories (light lager, dark lager, light ale, dark ale and strong beers). For the same reason I won't be able to partake in any of the competitions either (doh).

A brewing tip from Norway's Julia Child

"Kjøkkentips", a book by Ingrid Espelid Hovig and Scott Givot contains a lot of practical tips about doing smart things in your kitchen. One of the tips that caught my eye that might be useful to brewers is how one can cool down a pot of hot liquid in the sink. They say that if you place a spoon upside down beneath the pot that would allow it too cool down quicker. Simple, and just brilliant, as this would expose the pot to more surface. If you chill your hot wort in the sink then this might help you cool down your wort faster.

Getting the temperature right

You may remember that I have had some issues with mashing at too low a temperature. Because the beers were mashed too low they were thin bodied as this produced more fermentable sugars. I recently bought a new thermometer (the one on the right), and that helped a little. The recent beers have had more body, but the doppelbock I brewed just before Christmas still was a little thinner than expected. It meant that I still had some problems with the mash temperatures.

Interestingly, I was offered to have my thermometers calibrated at a local brewery using professional calibration equipment. That was exactly what I needed as this would let me know exactly by how much the thermometers were off.


The temperature calibrator system that was used was a Tek Know TC2000 from Scan-Sense. The results from calibrating the two thermometers at 55C, 65C, 70C and 80C can be seen below. Click the thumbnails to see the full-sized photos.



The digital thermometer on the right is clearly the most exact of the two as its readings are the most consistent, but they are still off by 1.5C or so. It was this thermometer that I used for the last few brews, so the dobbelbock was mashed at 67.5C instead of 69C. The old white digital thermometer (now broken) must have been off by at least 3.5C as it read 2C lower than the new one. That is a quite significant difference.

In all this is very useful information to me and it will allow me to hit the mash temperatures much more precisely than before. If you have doubts about the readings from your thermometer then having it calibrated is much recommended. Even small variances on the readings in the mashing range can lead to significant differences in fermentability.