Journal of Brewing

All ratings are performed on a 0(awful) to 5(great) scale

• Color - 4
• Nose - 3
• Body - 4
• Flavor - 4

Tasting Notes: This beer sort of sneaks up on you. It looks unassuming but it’s rather hefty. The alcohol is certainly present. I really get the hop flavor on the back-end though they are hard to distinguish. I feel that a truly great beer should show all it’s subtleties with distinction. Great beers are like listening to SACD, good beers are listening on my stereo and bad beers, well that’s like using sony products.

The one falt that is apparent to me is that there is a scorched malt characteristic. I’m quite sure that it’s attributed to the fact that I only did a 2 gallon boil so I most likely scorched some malt Now that i’m doing full wort boils, it should come out great next time. I really have to move on from extract because it leaves behind a residual flavor that I’m not fond of. The master brewer I know says that the flavor i’m talking about is a penalty of using extract since it’s a twice cooked product.

Overall though, i’m quite happy with the way it turned out. It should drink well for some time. I think it needs a little more time to age.

Gravity Reading: 1.012

Attenuation: 71.5%

ABV: 3.93

I’ll let it sit in the carboy for a month to clarify and what have you. I’ll take my next reading then.

Final Gravity: 1.019

Attenuation: 70%

ABV: 6.16

Bottling was quite uneventful. Primed with 5oz priming sugar boiled in 1 pint of water. Aging is certainly required to tame down the oats astringency.

Starter
Made the typical starter. Oxygenated it for 1 minute and put it on the stirrer.

I beat the weather!!

Brewed outside for the first time. My burner is like a jet engine. It’s also quite efficient. After my brew session it seemed that I had used next to no propane. The pot worked out quite well too. I think i’ll have to start with more water next time, possibly 6.5 gallons. I had alot of evaporation.

Got the water to a boil and added malt extract and bittering hops. The smell was extraordinary. Boiled vigorously for 50 minutes and then added the second does of Saaz hops. Added the Spalt for the last 2 minutes.

Cooled to 60, transferred to fermenter. Pitched starter and addded just a touch of water to get it up to 5 gallons. Oxygenated for 1 minute.

O.G. 1.042

Right on schedule. First taste seemed very pleasant. Hops were not overpowering most likely due to the low AAU. Body was medium and had a nice color. In the fermenter it looked like a copper color. Primary fermenting at 50 for this week. I’ll diacetly rest for 2 days at 70 and then begin lagering.

So the time has finally come. Spring is here and even though it doesn’t feel like it yet I know i’m going to want a crisp smooth refreshing brew to cap off those warm evenings. In the wake of this desire and my ability to think ahead, it’s time for a lager. I gathered ingredients from the usual haunt. Now comes the difficult part.

Fermentation is going to be a bit tougher on that one. Fortunately, your humble narrator has a kegerator and an external thermostat. I plan to primary at about 46°F for two weeks. Then i’ll transfer to the carboy and lager at about 35 or so. This will also be my first full-wort boil using my new brewpot and outdoor burner. I may have to post pictures for this one. With that said, let’s look at the line-up:

6.6 lbs light Bierkeller malt extract
1 lb Durst Vienna Malt

2.5 oz Spalt leaf hops (boiling)
1.5 oz Spalt leaf hops (final 10 mins)
1 oz Saaz pellet hops (aroma)

1/2 tsp Irish Moss
1 package WyeastXL 2308 Munich Lager Yeast

Specialty Grains

3.8°L for this malt. The site says it will benefit from a multitemperature infusion mash but I’m not doing that. I don’t have the equipment. I’ll just steep for 30 mins at 155. It would be nice to have a dry, slightly toasted flavor in this beer.

Fermentable Sugars

6 2/3 lb light. Since i’m doing a full-wort boil this time I can add it at the beginning and it won’t carmelize in the boil.

Hops

Spalt and Saaz. I went with the leaf hops for the Spalt because I could get it cheaply in the amount that I wanted. It also will make straining out of my brewpot into the fermenter easier. I have a bazooka-T in the bottom of my pot so that should work nicely. For the Saaz I can just hang them out in a muslin bag and pull them out at the end.

Yeast

Munich Lager Yeast. Supposedly smooth and well rounded. That’s what I’m looking for in a lager. I don’t know what a temperature rise and diaceytl rest is. Maybe I can find out before Saturday?

So i’m pretty excited about this one. Hopefully I can get some pictures up. I don’t know how much water to start with since I’ve never done a full-wort boil. I know it should be at least 6 gallons. I just can’t wait to use all my new equipment.

Starter
Made the typical starter with my new pyrex flask!! Oxygenated it for 1 minute and put it on the new stirrer. Oh yes, there was flocculation…

Holy Jesus!

Ran a partial mash with the grains. 3lbs of grains x 1.25 quarts/lb of water so 3.75 quarts. Sparged with 3 x 1.5 = 4.5 quarts. Mash got stuck, had to add the sparge water early to get things moving. Most likely grain bed was not deep enough due to the surface area of the cooler. I think I only hit a 45% mash efficiency. Well you live you learn.

Collected around 1.5 ~ 2 gallons of wort. S.G. when temperature corrected 1.031. Added boiling hops and boiled for 45. Added malt extracts, returned to boil. Added aroma hops in the last 5 minutes.

Cooled to 73, transferred to fermenter. Topped up with water to 5 gallons. Oxygenated for 1 minute, pitched yeast starter.

O.G. 1.066

A little ditty we’re constructing for phDiesel. “Cash Rules Everything Around Me” Ale. Since he’s an accountant I thought he’d appreciate it. I think it’s supposed to be a pale to medium colored ale. We picked up the ingredients from Northern Brewer.

The new trick with this brew is defintely going to be the oats. Since they are an adjunct that needs to be mashed, we’re going to be performing a “Partial Mash”. What that means at least to me is that we’re going to be doing the all-grain process, on a much smaller scale. With that said, let’s look at the line-up:

6 2/3 lbs light malt extract
2 lbs dry light malt extract
1 lb crystal malt (60L)
1 lb rolled oats
1 lb Marris Otter Malt

2 oz cascade hops (boiling)
1 oz hallertauer hops (aroma)
1 oz kent golden hops
(aroma)

2 teaspoons gypsum
1 package London ale yeast

Partial Mash Grains

So we’re looking at 60 Lovibond from the Crystal Malt; not terribly dark. The oats are going to be the real trick. So it turns out that you have to mash them inorder to bring forth their sweet creamy goodness. My book says to boil them but from everything I’ve seen that’s the surest way to extract harsh tannins. I’ve also read that they need to be mashed with an actual grain to truly render them. Since they are only an adjunct and have a high fat and protein content they can’t go on their own.

So I plan to use 1.25 quarts of water per pound of grain. That gives me 3.75 quarts of water. I have a nice 4 gallon igloo cooler that I’m going to use for the rest. I figure if I get the water to about 165 and then dough in I will lose 10-12 degrees from the cooler and mixing which would put me in my target range. I’ll let it rest for 30 - 45 minutes. I have a nice colander from a pasta pot that i’ll use along with a big wire strainer that I’ll fit the colander in. That should filter out most of the crap from the wort. I’ll re-circulate once and then sparge with 1.5 quarts of water per pound of grain. So that means 4.5 quarts for the sparge. I’ll have that at around 170 and I’ll do it a cup at a time. Should be lovely. I’m hoping to collect like 1.5 gallons of wort to which I will add the other malt extracts and hops as usual. If I figure out the calculations for what the initial wort will be, I’ll post them.

Fermentable Sugars

6 2/3 lb isn’t all that bad. I have to add that to what the wort will be already. I’ll make sure to add it at the end so it retains it’s color.

Hops

Not much going on here. 2oz Cascade for the boil. I think this beer is going to be more malty than anything. The Halletauer and Goldings are just for aroma. Bottle conditioning will do well for this beer. I’m looking at 6 IBU.

Yeast

London Ale Yeast. Used for high gravity ales or when high attenuation is required. Medium flocculation, 60 - 72, 75% attenuation. Just going to see what happens with this one. I’ll be using a stirrer and oxygenating the starter too. Gotta pack them hard this time if we want some serious performance.

Final Gravity: 1.020

Attenuation: unknown

ABV: unkown

Bottling was quite uneventful. Primed with 5oz priming sugar boiled in 1 pint of water. I’m suspecting a dilute O.G. reading because everything seemed to go as plan. While drinking some samples yesterday I noticed the extreme hop presence. I also noticed that I was getting buzzed. I think my O.G. reading was low and that’s why I thought fermentation slowed down. Plus, I didn’t account for temperature of the reading. Well, this one is quite drinkable. Very hoppy but smooth going down. Quite tart on the finish, most likely from the lemons. A fine summer beer. It will do nicely when cold.

Gravity Reading: 1.020

I’ll let it sit in the carboy for a week or so before I bottle. I’ll take my next reading then. I’m suspecting that I got a dilute wort reading because I took off the top. I hope so because that attenuation is not good.

This recipe is my own. It’s a modified version of Keystone Wheat Beer. My modification is 1oz of Tettnang hops for the final 30 mins and 2 lemons zested and added for the final 10 minutes.

I’ve made this beer before and with great results. I make sure to add the malt extract late in the brew to keep the color nice and pale. I like a light colored wheat beer.

Here’s the lineup:

Fermentable Sugars

8lb of (60/40) wheat malt extract by Alexander’s. On the phone I was told that the ppg for this extract was 30. So

(8 x 30) / 2 = 120

So that’s a boil gravity. When the recipe is taken out to 5 gallons we get:

(8 x 30) / 5 = 48

That’s a decent orignal gravity. My OG was 1.056. That’s most likely because of the starter. The starter was made with the wheat yeast (3068) and 6oz Light DME and 2L of water.

Hops

1oz Tettnang for 60 minutes and 1oz Tettnang for 30 minutes. Since I added the malt extract toward the end, I most likey got maximum extraction from the hops.

I.B.U. = (13% x .29 x 75) /5 = 56.5 + (13% x .22 x 75 /5) = 99.45 Something is wrong with that number. Got to figure that one out.

Yeast

Wyeast 3068 XL. Wheihenstephaner yeast. An excellent yeast with hits of banana and clove. The best smelling yeast of all I’ve put my nose too. I love that stuff. Best temperature 68F.