Another great brew is behind us and thankfully finished fairly smoothly even though it started a bit slow. The snow crept up on us around 12:00 pm and kept coming down harder and faster until we finished around 3:45 pm. The snow certainly made it difficult but I had four people out there with me in the snow making things easier.

Things started a bit slow with me and John forgetting how to light the main burner. The thermocouple was not opening the valve even when heated with a blow torch, but I completely forgot how to engage the pilot. Not a good way to start. Once we got that rolling, we moved over to milling the wheat and grain. The wheat gave us a bit of a problem because its un-malted and therefore a very hard kernel. To make matters worse my references suggested a very small milling setting. When I went to start milling using my drill the initial force required to get the rollers started was too much, resulting in the whole mill rotating and wheat spilling out onto the floor. No one was holding it of course, but we were not expecting that. We salvaged what we could form the ground, but luckily I had some extra. Once John was holding on tight and I hand primed the rollers, it seemed to grind fine. We ran it through twice to be sure.

The first infusion did a good job at raising the temperature from 113-136, but the second infusion was not as successful. Presumably this was because the mass of water in the kettle was much greater that the previous. For the second and 3rd infusions, we added the prescribed amount of water then used HERMS to get the temperature up, but we stopped it afterwards to prevent clarifying the wort. The Reflectix wrap I used to insulate the mash tun did an awesome job. I’m not sure I saw it drop more then 1 degree once it was stabilized the whole time. IT provided excellent insulation. I’ll post about the Reflectix wrap later.

The highlight of the day was all of the Lambics that we tasted throughout the event. Highlights were the Lambic De Hill, Cuvee De Ranke, and Hansens Kriek. I enjoyed them all really, but they started to run together after we finished a few of them, so its hard to be objective. We even pulled out a Wild Levitation and Berliner Weisse towards the end of the day. The Wild Levitation tasted even better than before, but it was late in the day.

We finished with about 11 gallons of wort in 2 carboys with a gravity of 1.070 sg. This is 14 points higher than planned. I was planning for 12 gallons which means we boiled off a gallon more than expected. I was also expecting 69% efficiency due to the turbid nature of the mash, but if you adjust for the lost gallon the efficiency goes up to 80% assuming the extract data is correct. So, more sugar for the bugs to eat and maybe a stronger lambic, but I am ok with that. I pitched 1 1/2 vials of WLP655 Sour Blend into each carboy and set the temperature to 70.

It was a cold (like 19 degrees) and really messy towards the end, but in the end a great day. Now I have 11 gallons of lambic ready to grow.

What a fun and crazy brew. For the most part things worked out well. Had plenty of help doing the 2 min additions. Thanks Scott for your attentiveness and John for measuring the Dixie cups. Lets revisit some of the specifics…

For some reason we had a mysterious expanding mash. What I mean by this is that the grain bed never really settled and basically expanded equally over the existing volume. We have had this happen once before and I’m still not certain why is happens. Having the grain bed settled is important because it helps with the efficiency of the sparge, which in this case didn’t turn out so well. We collected 14 gallons into the boil and the running still remained close to 1.030 sg. Given that the OG ended up being 1.093 sg, this tells me we had great extract efficiency but our sparge was not very efficient. The other factor that may be involved is the amount of wort boiled off. I predicted a large boil off because of the 120 minutes, but its currently unclear how much volume is in the fermentor.

Since the gravity ended a little lower than expected I may have to add a little dry malt extract to some of the sugar additions to balance things out. I prefer to have at least 60% of the sugar from malt based sources.

So the hopback addition worked as expected, but the one down side to this was the disconnect in pressure. I was expecting that because we were without the bazooka screen in the bottom of the boil, the pump would pull 98% of the liquid from the boil. Unfortunately because the pump wasn’t directly connected to the boil output there wasn’t enough pressure to keep the flow going once the level dropped below the dip tube. The result of this was me dumping the remains onto the fermentor and making a huge mess (picture to your right)

The fermentor is going nicely now. Something like 3-4 bubbles a second with is really good. I’m keeping the fermentation around 72 to ensure good strong yeast growth and fermentation. Also, the high gravity starter is going nicely, so it should be ready when expected.

I will be updating the brew history page daily for this one, so check back frequently to see the status.

The pictures have been posted as well. Enjoy.

The lambic brew day turned out to be a really good one. The turbid mash didn't really work out per say, but the weather was pretty good and the new system worked great. By the end of the day it was clear, in the 40's, and we had sipped our way through 4 different lambics, all very tasty. 

The turbid mash, while an interesting experiment, didn't really work the way we had planned. The biggest problem seemed to be my mash kettle. My mash kettle is made from a keg, therefore it is tall and narrow, while traditional turbid mash tuns were vary wide and shallow. The second issue with the mash kettle was that the position of the probes was too high. The recipe I was using called for a modest 26 lbs of grain, which normally would be just fine. Though because the turbid mash called for so little water at dough-in, we ended up with a total volume that was below both my probes. To solve this we decided to add 3 more pounds of grain (2 lbs pilsner, 1 lb unmalted wheat) and to double the water (~0.75 qts/lb). This put the level just at or above the grain. In hindsight we could have maybe used my long probe thermometer I use for starters by placing it directly into the mash, but at the time this didn't feel right because we wanted to utilize the new control panel. The final temperature was only a little above our target of 113, so this worked out well, but the changes we made affected the rest of the process.

The problems continued when we went to infuse for our first step to 136. We used water that was nearly boiling but still could not get the temperature up higher than 130 degrees. We used 2-3 times the prescribed amount of water with no luck. We decided to let this step stay where is was given that it was only 6 degrees off. When it was time for the next step to 150 we had the same problem, we were only able to raise the mash up to about 140 even though we added lots of boiling water. At this point we decided to abandon ship and continue with our 150, 162, and mash-out steps using the HERMS recirculation, which of course worked TOO well. The use of HERMS and the added grains added 16 sg points to the projected 1.054 gravity. I had planned for 70% efficiency in the mash but ended up with something around 78-82% (depending on final volume). So this may end up being more of a imperial lambic, but I guess thats OK.

The rest of the mash went fine. The stuykmanden transfers were very easy. We did the first 1/2 gallon one on the stove and later did the second 2 gallon transfer to the boil. Prior to boiling we dumped all of the stuykmanden transfered wort back into the mash and immediately drained of 3-4 gallons of liquid from the mash as was described in the turbid mash schedule. The hop addition also worked out very well. By this I mean that even with 3 oz of Saaz at the 90 minute mar, there was little or no noticeable hop aroma coming from the boil. This is a good indication that the hops were aged properly.

The new stand upgrades worked great and I am very happy with the results now that I see them in action. The addition of automatic temperature control on the HLT helped save much time and hassle. The in-line oxygenation was also very smooth and a excellent addition.

As of this morning the lambic has not started to ferment. I noticed last night that the temperature of the carboys was only 61 degrees, so I engaged the ETC on them to 68 this morning to get things rolling. I'm expecting primary fermentation to get started within 3 days of the start given that there was no starter and not the usual amount of sacharomyces yeast pitched. I haven't created the lambic page yet, but when I do you can check there to see how the fermentation is progressing. I plan to post some pictures when the pellicle starts to form, but that should be in a few weeks.

 

Since Jaime loaned me some equipment after his wedding I have made 3 five gal batches.  The first was supposed to be a hopdevil clone and although was not even close It was very good and it is gone.  The second brew was similar to the first except different hops were used.  As it turns out I used my bittering hops where I should have used flavor hops and vice versa.  Regardless, the IPA is on tap and is quite good.  I am trying to save it for a potluck dinner this weekend.  If it is gone I have some Old Rasputin on hand.  Last night I brewed my third batch.  I used 13 pounds of pale ale malt and no other grains.  After consulting Jaime for some hop advice, I decided to hop it as follows.  1oz millenium at 60 min.  1 oz cascade at 20 min.  1 oz cascade at 10 min.  1 oz UK Kent Golding at 5 min.  1/4 whole flower of something I had at 1 min.  The last hop addition was left over from my first brew.  The whole flowers clogged up the system but I was finished by 10:30 pm.  I ended up with an og 1.067.  At 7 am it was bubbling once a second and is sitting in the corner of the kitchen.  I'll soon decide where to put it.  Thanks to Jaime for helping me along the way.  Cheers!

Congratulations to Adam on completing his first brew. From the sound of it there were a few bumps, but it’s fermenting now and off to a good start. Apparently there was some spillage and the volume was a little low as result, but I'm sure it will turn out fine. Maybe Adam can update this post with some details (hint hint).

Raise a glass to his first brew and toast to many more.

Many to thanks to John L, Scott, Steve Z, and Jen Z for helping to make the double brew possible. It would have been very hard to do both brews without their help.

The brew started on time at 6:30 am and by 9:00 am we were ahead of schedule. The first beer of the day (Belgian Tripel) was put into storage at 12:37 pm and completed with no major problems. Only minor one was that we incorrectly measured the run-off so I think we may be a gallon short of the targeted 11 gallons. This also explains why the runnings were a tad bit high (1.024 sg). The gravity of the tripel finished 10 points high (1.090 sg) even though I planned for a about 85% efficiency. This is also most likely because of the missing gallon of wort runoff. The second brew (Doppelbock) started around 9:58 am with the filling and heating of the HLT. The sparge went a little quick, around 30 minutes instead of 45, but other than that things went very well. The runnings were again a bit high (1.022 sg), but this wasn't really an issue. I attribute this partially due to the fast sparge which may have been less efficient, but also because I think our extract was very good. The final gravity of the dopplebock was also 1.090 sg with a planned efficiency of 85% and gravity of 1.085 sg. Thus our final efficiency was probably closer to 90%, not too bad. The doppelbock went into storage around 4:30 pm. So in total both brews took 10 hours.

The weather for the brew started out much better than expected. We had a few sprinkles and light wind, but it was pretty warm for the most part. Later in the day the wind picked up and we had to tie down the pavilion to keep it from blowing away. Even later we got some extreme wind and rain followed by sun and then more rain, but the bad weather never really lasted and showed up only towards the end of the day.

Amazingly, both beers were bubbling in the evening around 9 pm. Today the tripel has been bubbling 4 times a second and the doppelbock at 1-2 times per second. I have the doppelbock stabilized at 52 degrees in the freezer and the tripel has naturally climbed from its set 68 degrees to 71. When the tripel slows down a bit I will probably increase the temperature in order to get a little more character out of the belgian yeast.

The pictures have been posted, so have a look. Hopefully I will have the brew worksheet data up sometime this week. Also, keep an eye out for some blog additions. I hope to have a few new features up in the next week or two.

Next Brew

I don't really have any solid plans yet but I'm seriously considering doing a traditional lambic. These last two beers will most likely fill up the kegerator for a while, so if we want to brew within the next month a lambic would make sense because they take around a year to age. The plan would be to make 10 gallons and use two of the carboys I have so that I do not infect my conical fermetors. I'm also thinking that I would use one of the lambic blends that have a nice mix of Sacharomyces, Brettanomyces, Lactobaccilus, and Pediococcus. The other thing I would have to figure out is what kind of mash to do. Traditional lambics are created using a turbid mash which would be hard to reproduce on my system. So I would need to come up with something to make the resulting wort highly dextrinous.
 

Fresh Hop Ale

This was a really fun brew. We had 4 boil additions (60, 30, 15, 5) that used 100% homegrown cascade hops. In each one we mixed some freshly picked hops, week old hops, and month old hops. I also plan to dry hop in secondary with the remaining homegrown.

For the most part the brew was very smooth. The gravity was exactly what was predicted which is cool. We did have to do a little work to chill the beer down, but we were able to do this by using the HLT as a heat exchanger for the water going into the real heat exchanger. We added ice and water to the HLT and was able to keep the hose water at like 50 degrees as long as I stirred the ice.

The beer was cooled to 69 degrees for the start of fermentation and had a 3-4 bubbles per second rate by morning. Yesterday (9/1/08) it peaked at 77 degrees from the rigorous fermentation. Today it has dropped back to 76 and is bubbling at 1 bubble a second. Given the amount of yeast I pitched, heat, and bubble rate I wouldn't be surprised if this was finished after 10 days of fermentation.

Marzen

The marzen is chugging along as expected. We tested in on Saturday (8/30/08) and the gravity was down around 1.030, which is 12 points lower than a week ago. The brew is approximately 60-70% complete, so two more weeks of fermentation should do the trick.

The brew does taste a little like DMS but some sweetness and maltiness does come through when it warms. The 4 weeks of lagering should take care of all of the off flavors.

 

Blueberry Melomel

I checked the melomel on Saturday also and to my surprise the hydrometer indicated it had ZERO sugar. Not sure how that happened or could happen after two weeks. We tasted it and it definitely had some pool-water DMS like flavor. I thought it had a dry wine flavor but not sure others agreed.

Later that evening I racked the melomel into a carboy. Interestingly lots of sediment has dropped and it continues to bubble very slowly. My plan is to let it settle some more, move it off the sediment to another carboy, and add some more honey to sweeten it up a little. Just enough to bring-out a little blueberry flavor. After that it probably needs 4-5 more months of aging.

Marzen

The marzen brew turned out to be another good one. My starter ended up being a little short of yeast because I calculated based on an ale not a lager, so the started had two vials instead of 3. To make up for it I picked up 2 more vials at MDHB on Friday. The mash went perfect, sparge had one point where the water level was very low, but this was corrected quickly. The initial sparge gravity was around 1.075 sg and runnings were 1.012. We did a measurement post boil and got an approximate 1.050-1.055 sg when adjusted for temperature. I didn't get a gravity reading from the fermentor so this will have to do. The chilling process left us with 76 degree wort because the hose water was so cold. This meant I had to put the beer in the freezer for several hours before pitching. I believe I pitched around 8:00-8:30pm when the wort was at 54 degrees. Currently the ETC for the freezer is set to a cold 51 degrees. I also oxygenated Sunday afternoon because the beer hadn't started yet and my oxygenation was done following chilling. The marzen is bubbling now at a slow rate, but at least its moving. I can't get over how much slower the lagers are at starting than the ales.

Blueberry Melomel

The mead we made, which as you can see by the title was actually a melomel, went of without any real problems either. The main hurdle was getting the frozen blueberries thawed in time and getting the entire solution to the proper 65-70 degrees. Also had to do a little of ph balancing. Starting with a low 3's Ph so I added so potassium carbonate, which raised it into the 5's. Then I added lactic acid to drop it back to around 4, which is the target for mead.

The melomel was bubbling Saturday evening and continues to do so at a decent rate. Unfortunately I didn't get a gravity reading, so I have no idea what the final alcohol will be.

Saison On Tap

After a 5 week wait the Saison is finally on tap. I believe the consensus was that it was excellent because we already drank at least 3.5 gallons. It has a nice flavor, is dry but not extremely dry, and it tastes just as good when it warms up. When tapped it was pouring a with not enough carbonation, so I raised the pressure and shook it. Unfortunately the few hours in between drinks was enough for it to stabilize and we were pouring full glasses of foam for a while. It's under control now and has a decent amount of carbonation. I imagine this brew will only get better with age. I look forward to tapping the second corny in a few weeks.