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%

Brew #56: Doppelbock

I kegged the German Pilsener today, and since I had a fresh and healthy yeast cake in the fermenter this was a perfect opportunity for brewing a strong doppelbock for the spring. The recipe should hopefully result in a rich and malty bock. I mashed quite high, so there should be lots of complex non-fermentable sugars. Interestingly the mash efficiency seems to have increased. I'll leave this in the fermenter for about three weeks.

The batch was brewed 2007-12-20.

Style:
Doppelbock
Type:
25 liters. All grain, batch sparge
Colour:
45 EBC (Brown)
Bitterness:
26 IBU
Malts:
6000g Münchener malt
1500g Vienna malt
350g Carapils
350g Caravienna
350g Dark crystal malt
100g Chocolate malt
Mash:
69C, 60 min
76C, 10 min (mashout)
76% efficiency
Hops:
70g Spalter Select pellets, 4.5%, 60 min
30g Spalter Select pellets, 4.5%, 10 min
Yeast:
Wyeast 2206 Bavarian Lager, on Brew #55's yeast cake
Boil:
90 min
Fermentation:
In the fridge at 9.0 to 10.5 C.

OG: 1.078 FG: 1.021 abv: 7.5%

Brew #55: German Pilsener

This is a straightforward simple pilsener with hopefully quite a bit of hop flavour and aroma. I just realize that I forgot to add the sulphates required to enhance the hop crispness. Not sure how much it'll matter as I'm sure it'll be fine anyway.

I added a little specialty malts to increase the malt complexity somewhat.

The plan is to brew a doppelbock in about two weeks that I then rack on top of the yeast cake from the pilsener. The Bavarian lager yeast is supposed to be very well suited for rich and malty lagers. Pitching on top of the yeast cake from another batch is a nice way to make sure that one has enough yeast for a healthy fermentation. That is important for strong lagers like doppelbocks.

The batch was brewed 2007-11-29.

Style:
German Pilsener
Type:
25 liters. All grain, batch sparge
Colour:
11 EBC (Golden)
Bitterness:
32 IBU
Malts:
5800g Pilsener malt
150g Carapils
150g Aroma malt
Mash:
64C, 60 min
76C, 10 min (mashout)
66% efficiency
Hops:
20g Warrior pellets, 13.8%, 60 min
40g Hallertauer Mittelfrüh whole, 3.8%, 10 min
60g Hallertauer Mittelfrüh whole, 3.8%, 1 min
Yeast:
Wyeast 2206 Bavarian Lager, 2 packs, production date 2007-04-30, 2.5 liter starter on stir plate
Boil:
90 min
Fermentation:
In the fridge at 9.0 to 10.5 C.

OG: 1.048 FG: 1.011 abv: 4.8%

Brew #54: Christmas Ale

Inspired by the upcoming season I've decided to make a strong and malty brew with a subtle hint of spices. This brew should be a nice sipping beer for Christmas. I suspect that it'll end up similar to an English Old Ale because of the muscovado sugar.

The yeast pack was smacked on Sunday and it had not really expanded fully when I made the starter wort on Tuesday evening. Anyway, after about 12 hours there were lots of activity on the magnetic stir plate. The yeast is known for its impressive capability of flocculating. After the fermentation was over large clumps of yeast where spinning around the erlenmeyer flask. When the stir plate stopped all yeast fell straight down to the bottom. Kind of cool, but I hope it ferments out my beer before deciding to clump together in the bucket.

The batch was brewed 2007-11-15.

Style:
English Old Ale
Type:
25 liters. All grain, batch sparge
Colour:
63 EBC (Dark brown)
Bitterness:
30 IBU
Malts:
4000g Pale malt
1400g Amber malt
1000g Rauchmalz
830g Münchener malt
400g Crystal malt
300g Dark crystal malt
300g Special B
100g Pale chocolate malt
Sugars:
500g Billington's Unrefined Dark Muscovado Cane Sugar
Spices:
6 cm cinnamon bark
1 small vanilla bean
Mash:
68C, 60 min
76C, 10 min (mashout)
72% efficiency
Hops:
40g Northern Brewer pellets, 10.0%, 60 min
30g Saaz pellets, 2.0%, 10 min
Yeast:
Wyeast 1968 London ESB Ale Yeast, production date 2007-04-30, 2 liter starter on stir plate
Boil:
90 min
Water treatment:
2 ts calcium carbonate
1/2 ts calcium chloride
OG: 1.081 FG: 1.024 abv: 7.5%

Brew #53: Weissbier

The batch was brewed 2007-10-10.

Style:
Weissbier
Type:
40 liters. All grain, batch sparge
Colour:
10 EBC (Golden)
Bitterness:
12 IBU
Malts:
7300g Wheat malt
5000g Pilsener malt
500g Melanoidin malt
500g Pale malt
400g Münchener malt
Mash:
67C, 60 min
76C, 10 min (mashout)
74% efficiency
Hops:
100g Hersbrucker pellets, 3.1%, 45 min
30g Styrian Goldings pellets, 3.2%, 15 min
Yeast:
Wyeast 3068 Weihenstephan Weizen Yeast, production date 2007-04-16, 2 liter starter
Boil:
60 min
OG: 1.052 FG: 1.016 abv: 4.8%

Brew #52: India Pale Ale

The batch was brewed 2007-08-19.

Style:
India Pale Ale
Type:
40 liters. All grain, continuous sparge
Colour:
29 EBC (Reddish brown)
Bitterness:
52 IBU
Malts:
8000g Pilsener malt
1000g Crystal malt
1000g Amber malt
700g Biscuit malt
300g Wheat malt
Mash:
67C, 60 min
76C, 10 min (mashout)
55% efficiency
Hops:
60g Cascade pellets, 6.1%, 60 min
40g Centennial pellets, 9.4%, 15 min
40g Simcoe pellets, 12.1%, 15 min
70g Centennial pellets, 9.4%, 1 min
70g Simcoe pellets, 12.1%, 1 min
Yeast:
Safale US-05, 2 packs, dry yeast, best before date 2008-11-01.
Boil:
90 min
Water treatment:
2 ts calcium carbonate
OG: 1.045 FG: 1.011 (estimated) abv: 4.5%

Brew #51: Imperial Porter

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%

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%

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.

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%

Brew #47: Imperial Porter

Too many of my recent brews have been brownish in colour, so it was now time to make something really dark. The intention was to make a normal strength robust porter at around 6.0% abv, but the mash efficiency was pretty good for a dark beer and it came out as an imperial porter. Things could have been worse.

I have had terrible mash efficiencies when making dark beers earlier. Fortunately things went better this time.

An extraordinarily fine crush made by Frode's Crankandstein (or is it Crankenstein monster?) must have contributed somewhat, but not enough to replace the Barley Crusher though. I noticed a lot of dry grain balls in the mash as I doughed in, but a few minutes of stirring made them go way. So it was clear that the crush was much finer than what I have had earlier. There were no hints of any run-off problems, so the crush is fine. I also tried to sparge a little slower than at full speed making it more likely to extract more sugars. Each sparge took about 10 minutes, which is still a reasonably short time. I'll consider reducing the gap my own Barley Crusher for the next brew. It is currently set to the default.

The water in Oslo is extremely soft, very much like the water in Plzen, something that makes it perfect for light beers like pilsener. At the same time this makes it harder to make dark beers. Soft water is really the perfect brew water as it is a lot easier to add minerals than it is to take them out. So to emulate the water of other famous brewing cities one can just add minerals.

I made a porter with 500 grams of chocolate malt and black malt about a year and a half ago, which turned into something very harsh and astringent. I blame the pH of the water. A low pH means a lower mash efficiency and extraction of undesired characteristics like tannins. This time I added 2.5 ts calcium carbonate and 2 ts of 5.2 powder. The recipe also use dehusked dark malts, which should keep the sharp edges out of the beer. I also added the dark malts 45 minutes into the mash, giving the base malt a better chance of converting itself before the pH gets lowered by the dark malts.

The batch was brewed 2007-04-16.

Style:
Imperial Porter
Type:
All grain, batch sparge
Colour:
80 EBC (Black)
Bitterness:
40 IBU
Malts:
5000g Pale malt
1000g Munich malt
500g Amber malt
400g Crystal malt, 300 EBC
400g Crystal malt, 130 EBC
250g Carafa I, debittered chocolate malt
250g Carafa II, debittered black malt
Mash:
68C, 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, 2 packs, dry yeast, best before date 2007-01-15 and 2007-12-01.
Boil:
90 min
OG: 1.068 FG: 1.017 (estimated) abv: 6.7%

Brew #46: Weissbier

It has been a really long time since I brewed a German weissbier. Too long, in fact two years ago. That's even before I started kegging my beers. Heck, it is one of my favourite beer styles, and perfect for the upcoming warm season.

The recipe is straightforward. I did an acid rest this time as it will improve the clove flavours. I used the Wyeast 3068 yeast, which in my opinion is the best weissbier yeast that there is. It'll generate little banana, but that depends a little on the fermentation temperature.

The wheat malt percentage is quite high at 59%, which is quite high, but still quite common. Wheat malt can be notoriously difficult to sparge as it easily clogs up the mash. I have been impressed by the Bazooka screen in my mash tun as it seems to work really well even with malt bills that are hard to sparge. I tried to batch sparge as quickly as possible and opened the ball valve fully from the start. The mash soon compacted on itself and the grains moved about 3 cm from the walls towards the Bazooka. Alright, a stuck sparge, but it was really easy to get the flow going again. Cutting into the grains with a knife released the vaccuum and the sparge continued at a nice rate. I can very much recommend the Bazooka screen. It's pretty impressive. It is also quite cool that a stuck mash is nothing to be afraid of as one can just cut or stir the mash to start the sparge again.

I decided to add a little melanoidin malt to add some complexity and fill out the body.

The batch was brewed 2007-04-11.

Style:
Weizen/Weissbier
Type:
All grain, batch sparge
Colour:
9 EBC (Golden)
Bitterness:
14 IBU
Malts:
3500g Wheat malt
2500g Pilsener malt
200g Melanoidin malt
Mash:
44C, 15 min (acid rest)
64C, 60 min
76C, 10 min (mashout)
73% efficiency
Hops:
50g Tettnanger pellets, 2.7%, 60 min
20g Tettnanger pellets, 2.7%, 10 min
Yeast:
Wyeast 3068 Weihenstephan Weizen Yeast, production date 2007-01-15, 1 liter starter
Boil:
90 min
OG: 1.055 FG: 1.013 (estimated) abv: 5.5%

Brew #45: Düsseldorf Altbier

Altbier is a beer that I have drunk on several occasions while visiting Germany, and I have enjoyed all of the variants I have tried. I have not been to Düsseldorf yet, but it sure is on my short list of beer cities to visit. Commerical examples seem to range from malty sweet to intensely bitter.

This recipe is for an Altbier that is on the upper end of the OG and bitterness ranges. I have tried to make it a bit sweet and with some complexity, and balanced by 35 IBUs. That should make it a nice spring beer I hope. It will have to be lagered in the fridge for a few weeks before drinking though.

The brew day lasted 5 hours and 50 minutes, of which 40 minutes was spent trying to get the wort into the fermenter. I will never ever again use whole hop cones with my current brew setup. The easy-siphon clogged and it was almost impossible to get a siphon from the brew kettle. I have used whole hops before, and do remember that I have had similar problems, but never this serious. The Spalt hops were quite small, so that might have something to do with it. I literally had to pump the wort, and that didn't always work either until I had cleared the opening. Anyway, lesson learned.

The batch was brewed 2007-03-26.

Style:
Düsseldorf Altbier
Type:
All grain, batch sparge
Colour:
34 EBC (Light brown)
Bitterness:
35 IBU
Malts:
2500g Pilsener malt
1500g Vienna malt
1300g Münchener malt
700g Cara-münich malt
50g Debittered chocolate malt
50g Debittered black malt
Mash:
67C, 60 min
76C, 10 min (mashout)
73% efficiency
Hops:
60g Spalter Select whole, 5.2%, 60 min
40g Spalter Select whole, 5.2%, 10 min
Yeast:
Wyeast 1007 German Ale Yeast, production date 2006-11-17, 1 liter starter
Boil:
90 min
OG: 1.054 FG: 1.013 (estimated)

Brew #44: India Pale Ale

The previous IPA was a success. We ran out of it last Saturday, so my wife asked me to make another preferrably using the exact same recipe. That was easier said than done as I had no more Crystal (135 EBC) and no more Safale US-56 dry yeast. I adjusted the recipe to use some Cara-münich malt and the Rogue Pacman yeast. I also took out the Chinook hops and added Columbus. The Amarillo also got upped a bit. In the end I think it is going to taste much the same.

Being somewhat feverish at the time I also forgot to add the mash hops, so I decided to make up for some of it by first wort hopping the 60 minutes addition of Amarillo.

The mash efficiency improved a bit this time as I tried to crush the grist a little finer. Still no sparge problems through, so there is more to go on I think.

The batch was brewed 2007-03-25. The brew day lasted 5 hours and 10 minutes.

Style:
American IPA
Type:
All grain, batch sparge
Colour:
33 EBC (Light brown)
Bitterness:
61 IBU
Malts:
6000g Maris Otter pale malt
1000g Amber malt
450g Crystal malt
400g Wheat malt
300g Cara-münich malt
200g Melanoidin malt
Mash:
66C, 60 min
76C, 10 min (mashout)
69% efficiency
Hops:
50g Amarillo pellets, 8.4%, first wort hops and boiled 60 min
30g Columbus pellets 12.2%, 30 min
30g Warrior pellets 13.8% 10 min
80g Amarillo pellets 8.4%, 1 min
Yeast:
Wyeast Rogue Pacman Ale Yeast, production date 2006-11-17, 1 liter starter
Boil:
90 min
OG: 1.072 FG: 1.018 (estimated)

Brew #43: Extra Special Bitter

This beer is a fairly bold ESB, both in original gravity and hops. It also has quite a bit of specialty malts, much more than I've had in any of my earlier attempts. I used mash hops with this brew, and it is the first time I try this in a British beer. The few times I've done this, with good results, have all been with hoppy American beer styles.

Again, I'm trying to get rid of my stock of old, but still usable yeast. I have a couple of vials of liquid yeast that I just have to throw away, but with this brew I should be left with a pretty decent set of fresh yeast packs, especially if I manage to squeeze in a double brew on Sunday. I used both the 11 grams packs I had just to be on the safe side. Even though it was past its best before date I'm sure it is more than enough of vital yeast for a beer like this. I store all my yeast, both dry and liquid, in the kitchen fridge.

The incredibly useful Mr. Malty's Pitching Rate Calculator™ says that the yeast in this particular beer must have a viability of minimum 67% for the two packs to be optimal. Go check it out. I'm sure you'll soon realize that you're underpitching. I sure did when I first tried to calculate the amount of yeast to pitch in my own beers. Since then I've tried my best to improve my pitching rates. Also make sure that you read Jamil Zainasheff's (Mr. Malty) Proper Yeast Pitching Rates article. It's almost scary how much vital yeast you need. Anyway, it is very helpful and makes you realize that yeast is extremely important to the quality of your beers.

The batch was brewed 2007-03-14.

Style:
Extra Special Bitter
Type:
All grain, batch sparge
Colour:
30 EBC (Copper)
Bitterness:
40 IBU
Malts:
5200g Maris Otter pale malt
750g Ambermalt
400g Wheat malt
450g Crystal 60L
200g Crystal 40L
250g Melanoidin malt
Mash:
66C, 60 min
76C, 10 min (mashout)
73% efficiency
Hops:
50g First Gold pellets 7.3%, mash hops
50g Fuggles pellets 5.1%, 60 min
50g First Gold pellets 7.3%, 10 min
50g Fuggles pellets 5.1%, 1 min
Yeast:
Safale S-04, 2 packs, best before 2007-01
Boil:
90 min
OG: 1.066 FG: 1.016 (estimated)

Brew #42: Belgian Dark Strong Ale

The last beer of the day was a strong Belgian ale. I'm a bit excited about this one as it is the biggest beer I've ever made. When it is done it should have reached 11% abv (depending on how it attenuates). That's quite something, but there's not just alcohol. It will be a complex beer with significant esters and a rich sugary malt complexity. I hope. It should end up in the vicinity of the classics Westvleteren Abt 12 and St. Bernardus Abt 12.

The malt bill is quite simple, but has been extended by dark liquid candi sugar and simple sugars. The candi sugar should add complex sugars and caramel, while the simple sugars will dry it out preventing it from being cloyingly sweet. The recipe should be quite traditional -- and straightforward.

I used a big yeast starter so it should get off to a good start, but 11% is a lot of sugar and alcohol, so it puts a big burden on the yeast. It is hard to survive in such an environment. Having thought this through a little I decided to leave out the simple sugars (~1100g). This to make it a little easier for the yeast in the beginning. The plan is to add the remaining sugars after three days when the yeast have multiplied and adjusted to the environment. This particular yeast strain is a sturdy one and known to ferment up to 15% abv.

The batch was brewed 2007-01-21.

Style:
Belgian Dark Strong Ale
Type:
All grain, batch sparge
Colour:
38 EBC (Brown)
Bitterness:
29 IBU
Malts:
6500g Pale malt
1000g Pilsener malt
500g Caramünich
700g Liquid dark candi sugar
575g Demerara sugar
225g Dextrose (aka glucose)
300g Dry light malt extract
Mash:
64C, 60 min
76C, 10 min (mashout)
66% efficiency
Hops:
50g Northern Brewer 10.0%, 60 min
50g Tettnanger pellets 3.8%, 15 min
30g Tettnanger pellets 3.8%, 1 min
Yeast:
White Labs WLP 530 Abbey Ale, 2 vials, best before 2007-03-03, 3.0 liter starter
Boil:
90 min
OG: 1.097 FG: 1.016 (estimated)

Brew #41: Bohemian Pilsener

This beer is my first ever pilsener, or pale lager for that matter. I used a lot of hops, so I expect it to be hoppy, quite bitter and really aromatic. It wasn't intended to be like an average commercial pilsener, but something more traditional and with a lot more punch. The beer is within the style guidelines, except perhaps for the aroma hops of which there are a lot.

In an interview with Charlie Papazian, by the generous people at Basic Brewing Radio, he said that it was possible to achieve much the same kind of malty flavour produced by traditional decoction mashing by instead adding 3-4% aromatic malt to the mash. So in this beer there is 200g of melanoidin malt. I hope that that will provide a richer malt complexity than just what pilsener malt will add.

Pale lagers are quite sensitive and not able to hide flaws very well. It is supposedly hard to make a good clean lager because of this. So from what I've gathered the devil is in the details. Here are some of the things that I tried to follow when making this pilsener:

• Use lots of vital yeast
• Ferment cold to get a clean fermentation profile
• Get rid of the hops and the break material (mostly proteins)

To brew a good lager you need a lot of yeast, thus a really big yeast starter is neccessary. For my ales of medium gravity I usually make 1 liter yeast starters from a single vial. For this one I made a 3.5 liter starter from two vials. Given that the yeast was quite old I was a bit sceptical and planned to use Saflager W-34/70 as a backup if it didn't wake up. I was wrong (read: lucky). The yeast starter was surprisingly vigorous. Liquid yeast can survive a while, especially if stored properly. Having said that, I know that is always best to use fresh yeast. I need work on my yeast logistics so that the yeast is as fresh as possible.

The beer is fermenting in the fridge between 9.2 and 10.2C. I guess I would have used an even colder setting on my thermostat, but from watching how it behaves I've seen the temperature fall down to 8.0C before it gets warmer. The reason might have something to do with where the thermostat sensor is located. Anyway, this should give a pretty clean fermentation profile.

Once the wort was chilled and transferred into the fermenter I placed it in the fridge for about 6 hours (while I was brewing the next beer). I also poured out half of the yeast starter and added fresh wort on top of it. During this time the temperature had reached the target temperature and most of the hops and break material had dropped to the bottom of the fermenter. I then siphoned the clear beer into another sanitized fermenter leaving the non-desired material behind. The goal was to not let the fermenting beer pick up any off-flavours from it. I then added the now vigorous yeast starter to the fermenter. The airlock started moving within an hour. So, the fermentation got off to a good start. We'll see how it ends up. I'm optimistic.

The batch was brewed 2007-01-21.

Style:
Bohemian Pilsener
Type:
All grain, batch sparge
Colour:
11 EBC (Golden)
Bitterness:
44 IBU
Malts:
6300g Pilsener malt
200g Carapils
200g Melanoidin malt
Mash:
65C, 60 min
76C, 10 min (mashout)
66% efficiency
Hops:
15g Warrior pellets 13.8%, 60 min
50g Liberty pellets 4.0%, 60 min
50g Saaz pellets 3.9%, 15 min
50g Liberty pellets 4.0%, 5 min
50g Saaz pellets 3.9%, 1 min
Yeast:
White Labs WLP 802 Czech Budejovice Lager, 2 vials, best before 2006-07-08 and 2006-10-30, 3.5 liter starter
Boil:
90 min
OG: 1.053 FG: 1.013 (estimated)

Brew #40: India Pale Ale

I'm down to just two kegs with something in them, and that's the last two beers I made. That's two out of ten kegs. What a waste! I've been procrastinating for too long now, so I went head and brewed one yesterday. And I'm brewing another two this Sunday. Usually I make two at a time, but there is only time do one brew during the weekdays.

This beer is an India Pale Ale with only American hops, so I guess it is fair to call it an American style IPA.

Mash-hopping is a technique that I have tried once before in a Rye IPA that had a delicious infusion of hops. I have reasons to believe that much of the hop flavours and aroma are there because of this unusual, but simple, technique. What I did was basically just throw the Warrior hops into the mash, and then stir them in. I did not add any bittering hops at 60 minutes as I believe that the mash hops do indeed cause some hop particles to end up in the wort and hence be isomerized in the boil making the beer more bitter. Not everybody agrees it seems, but we'll see how this one ends up.

My previous attempts at India Pale Ales have been quite a bit thinner and have been lacking much of the malt complexity that I've found in U.S. versions of the style. So, to make up for this I this time used quite a bit of amber malt and melanoidin malts (now that I have gotten hold of them) in addition to the caramel and crystal. The wort sure smelled nice, so I think this one might end up nice and complex.

The new mashtun did the job brilliantly. I love it. It is really nice to just open the ball value and drain the vessel that way. As an experiment I found that I should just do a single sparge to see if that worked well or not. The mashtun has a capacity of 49 liters, but remember that once the grist is in there there isn't that much room for sparge water anymore. The grains will also absorb about the same amount of water as its own weight. So, with 8 kilos of grains in there, 32 liters seems to be the maximum volume of wort that you can get out of it with just a single sparge. Also, I only got 60% mash efficiency this time, which is below average. I suspect that this was because I did just this single sparge. Next time I'll do two batch sparges.

The batch was brewed 2007-01-18.

Style:
American IPA
Type:
All grain, batch sparge
Colour:
28 EBC (Light brown)
Bitterness:
56 IBU (a rough estimate because of the mash hops)
Malts:
6000g Maris Otter pale malt
1000g Amber malt
500g Carapils
400g Wheat malt
200g Crystal malt
200g Melanoidin malt
200g Dry light malt extract (to make up for the low efficiency)
Mash:
66C, 60 min
76C, 10 min (mashout)
60% efficiency
Hops:
75g Warrior pellets 13.8%, mash hops (last 30 min of mash)
40g Chinook pellets 12.0%, 30 min
60g Amarillo pellets 8.4%, 15 min
80g Warrior pellets 13.8% 1 min
Yeast:
Safale US-56, dry yeast, best before 2007-12
Boil:
90 min
OG: 1.065 FG: 1.016 (estimated)

Brew #39: Scottish Export 80/-

Today's last brew is a Scottish Export, aka eighty shilling ale. It is a traditional Scottish session ale. The ale is somewhat dark and will hopefully have a malty and slightly nutty character balanced by crisp hops.

This is the first time I use Amber malt, and I'm looking forward to seeing how it affects the result. The yeast is a Scottish yeast strain, which is supposedly a real work-horse.

As per Charlie Papazian's recommendation I added 1/2 ts of cinnamon powder to the mash. This is done to prevent wort oxidization as cinnamon is an efficient antioxidant. I did this to the Grisette as well. The cinnamon should not have any influence on the flavour of the finished beer, at least that's what he said. We'll see. I also used 2 ts of 5.2 in the mash.

For the record: the pale malt was 3700 grams Muntons Pearl Pale Malt and 800g of Castle Pale Malt as I ran out of the first. The Amber malt is from Castle Malting and the Crystal malt from Muntons.

I got terribly low mash efficiency with this beer also. Now I suspect that the crush on the malt mill is too coarse. I'll try to reduce the roller gap for the next brew.

The batch was brewed 2006-12-10.

Style:
Scottish Export 80/-
Type:
All grain, batch sparge
Colour:
26 EBC (Light copper)
Bitterness:
23 IBU
Malts:
4500g Pale malt
500g Crystal malt
400g Amber malt
250g Wheat malt
Mash:
67C, 60 min
76C, 10 min (mashout)
62% efficiency
Hops:
40g East Kent Goldings pellets 4.9%, 60 min
40g Fuggles pellets 5.1%, 15 min
30g Cascade pellets 5.9%, 1 min
Yeast:
White Labs WLP 028 Edinburgh Ale, best before 2006-09-16, 1 liter starter
Boil:
90 min
OG: 1.044 FG: 1.011 (estimated)