Brewday 15/02/2019 - Lager and Kolsch

One Brew - Two Beers

I've been wanting to brew a lager for ages but it's difficult without temperature controlled fermentation - lager yeasts generally ferment at 10-12°C, compared to ale yeasts which are quite happy at room temperature. However, I thought if I could utilise the twin benefits of cold weather and a draughty Edwardian house I may have a chance of success. After a bit of checking with a thermometer I discovered that the cupboard under the stairs (unheated, north facing, non cavity external wall and a bit draughty) was only around 12°C and the ambient temperature of my mains water was just over 8°C. This meant I could easily chill the wort down to 14°C with my immersion chiller and keep the temperature low during fermentation. I planned to use Saflager W-34/70 lager yeast which has a recommended required fermentation temperature of 12-15°C. Originally I only intended to brew a small batch (12lt) which I would ferment in three demijohns. However I also had one pack of Kolsch yeast and plenty of suitable malt and hops so decided to brew around 30lt of beer, 12lt fermented with the lager yeast and 18lt with the kolsch.

Recipe (BIAB) + sparge

Since this recipe would result in a boil size of approximately 35lt (which almost fills my pan) I took a slightly different approach to this brew. Firstly I heated my initial mash water in two pans, 20lt in my usual brew kettle plus an extra 10lt in another stock pot. Secondly, as I was using almost 6kg of grain I reverted to my original large brew bag. This was basically to allow easier handling of the water for the mash and the grain bag pre-boil. Once the water had reached the strike temperature of 72°C I placed the large pan on the kitchen floor in its insulated jacket, put in the grain bag and added the additional 10lt of water from the second stock pot. Then I carefully added the grain, stirring well to avoid any doughballs. Once the mash was complete I lifted up the grain bag, let it drain into a fermenting bucket and sparged the grain bed with 8.5lt of 76°C water. While this was happening the pan was heating on the hob. Once all the water had drained through the grain bed and rinsed out all the sugars I transferred the contents of the fermenting bucket into the pan which gave me a pre-boil volume of about 35lt.

• Mash water (72°C) 30lt 
• Sparge water (76°C) 8.5lt
• Vienna Malt 3kg
• Lager Malt 2kg
• Munich Malt 0.5kg
• Wheat Malt 190g
• Carapils 250g
• Perle 4.4% 50g 60mins
• Pacifica 5.36% 15g 30 mins
• Pacifica 5.36% 10g 15 mins
• Crossmyloof Kolsch yeast 1 pack
• Saflager W-34/70 1 pack

Once the boil had finished I was left with 29lt of wort. After chilling to 14°C I transferred 12lt into three demijohns and pitched the lager yeast, the remaining 17lt went into a normal 25lt fermenter with the kolsch yeast and an extra 2lt of water to bring the original gravity down as better than expected efficiency (86%!) meant I was going to get two beers with abv's in excess of 6%.

Results:

Kolsch!

Firstly the Kolsch which I fermented in my kitchen for 10 days at around 16°C. I pitched at 14°C but the temperature soon rose to 16-17°C so I used a wet towel to keep it cool.

• OG: 1.049
• FG: 1.008
• ABV: 5.3%
• IBU: 26

Very clean and crisp. A little bit floral with just a hint of apple flavour. A bit more malty compared to my previous efforts, maybe due to the Vienna and Munich malts, more like a lager really but very nice.

Next the lager which was fermented for 10 days at ­12-14°C and then another four days at room temperature finishing at 18°C. 

Lager!

• OG: 1.055
• FG: 1.008
• ABV: 6.1%
• IBU: 27

This was my first attempt at a proper lager and I am very pleased with the end result. It's clean, crisp and crystal clear (despite no finings as usual). Compared to the Kolsch there are no floral or fruity flavours, the lager yeast is very neutral which lets the malt and hops provide all the flavour. I fully intend to make a lager again, perhaps a dunkel or doppelbock next time.

   

Brewday 01/02/2019 - Rye Caramber!

Think of a name. Then brew the beer

I'd been meaning to brew another Rye beer for a bit so I checked through my ingredients to put together a recipe. I still had some amber malt which I used for the first time in the bitter I made in October, and which I thought added a distinct malty flavour to the beer, so I planned to combine this with some rye and crystal rye. This led me to come up with the name Rye Caramber (thank you Bart Simpson). Now all I had to do was brew the beer. As per usual I mashed in and went out to work, returning about four hours later. I also repeated my hop extract experiment with the Centennial hops, 20g in a cafetiere/French press with 750ml water at 70°C left to steep for 20 mins and added to the fermenter for the last three days of fermentation.

Recipe (BIAB)

• Mash for 240 mins at 65°C
• Boil for 60 mins
• Mash water volume 28.2lt
• Maris Otter 3.865kg
• Wheat Malt 250g
• Amber malt 300g
• Crystal Malt 45L 135g
• Rye Malt 500g
• Crystal Rye 250g
• Northdown 7% 20g (60 mins)
• Northdown 7% 20g (15 mins)
• Cascade (6.1%) 50g whirlpool 20 mins at 70°C
• Cascade (6.1%) 50g dry hop for 3 days
• Centennial (7%) 20g "hop extract" for 3 days
• Fermentis Safale US05 11g pack pitched at 17°C
• Recipe in Brewer's Friend

Results

OG: 1.058

FG: 1.010

ABV: 6.34%

IBU: 40

Wow! This is excellent. A big hoppy aroma, a nice spicy flavour from the rye but with a bit of sweetness and although it's quite bitter the high abv balances it well. I am very pleased with this. I love the flavour of rye, with the hop aroma and the alcohol this works really well.

Brewday - 14/01/2019 American Porter

You Want it Darker*

I haven't brewed porter or stout for a while, which is odd since mostly I tend to drink the darker stuff, so when I got a chance to brew I thought I'd have a go at an American Porter. I'm not sure what exactly defines an American Porter but I guess it's got to be a dark beer with lots of American hops. I tried making my own hop extract for this beer. To do this I boiled some water, let it cool to 75°C and then added 750ml to a cafetiere (or French press) with 20g of Pacifica hops. I let it steep for 20 minutes and then pushed down the plunger and added this "hop extract" to the fermenter. I did this at the same time as dry hopping with 50g of Cascade. 

Recipe (BIAB):

• Mash for 60 mins at 67°C
• Boil for 60 mins
• Mash water volume 29lt
• Maris Otter 3.85kg
• Rolled Oats 480g
• Crystal 45L 125g
• Chocolate Malt 235g
• Black malt 115g 
• Northdown 7% (leaf) 30g (60 mins)
• First Gold (homegrown leaf) 15g (15 mins)
• Cascade 6.5% (pellets) 50g whirlpool 75°C for 30 mins
• Cascade 6.5% (pellets) 50g dry hop for 3 days 
• Pacifica 5.8% (leaf) 20g "hop extract" for 3 days
• Gervin GV12 English Ale Yeast 11g pack
• Recipe in Brewer's Friend

Results

OG 1.046
FG 1.010
ABV 4.7%
IBU 48
Efficiency was disappointingly low at only 65%, originally I was anticipating over 5% abv. Apart from that I'm very happy with this beer, there's definitely a good hoppy aroma and it's very smooth and easy to drink.

Brewday - 07/11/2018 American Amber Ale

American Amber

Time for another brew, in this case an American Amber Ale. As usual I did a four hour mash to fit around with work schedules. This recipe filled my pan to capacity. 

Recipe (BIAB)

• Mash for 240 mins at 65°C
• Boil for 60 mins
• Mash water volume 33lt
• Maris Otter 4.25kg
• Wheat Malt 260g
• Amber malt 310g
• Crystal Malt 45L 260g
• Chocolate Malt 106g
• Northdown 7% 30g (60 mins)
• First Gold (homegrown) 15g (15 mins)
• Cascade (6.1%) 50g whirlpool 20 mins at 70°C
• Cascade (6.1%) 50g dry hop for 3 days
• Motueka (7%) 17g dry hop for 3 days
• Gervin GV12 Ale Yeast 11g pack pitched at 20°C
• Recipe in Brewer's Friend

Results

OG: 1.050

FG: 1.006

ABV: 5.75%

IBU: 39

Overall really pleased with this, apart from being a little bit darker than I anticipated. There is a good hop aroma and well balanced flavour between the hop bitterness and malty sweetness. The only stand out issue was the how low the final gravity reading was. I was expecting it to finish around 1.010, in fact I got 85% apparent attenuation which is far higher than I've had before with a yeast used several times in the past. I'm unsure what caused the additional fermentation but the beer tastes great so I'm not overly concerned.

Modifying my Homebrewing Kit

Modifying my Homebrewing Kit

One of things I enjoy about homebrewing (aside from drinking the beer) is the opportunity to tinker with recipes, method and kit. When I started using the BIAB method my system was pretty basic. I had a 40lt pan and a BIAB bag, I would fill the pan with about 30lt of water, insert the bag and add around 5kg of grain to get about 22lt of beer into the fermenter. It's a simple method and it works, there's no need for a separate water heater and mash tun, and there's no sparging involved either. However, there are drawbacks. Firstly my efficiencies were not great, usually below 70%, which means I was not utilising the fermentable potential of the grain. A more efficient system would get the same results from a smaller grain bill. The second problem is dealing with the grain bag at the end of the mash. A mesh bag containing 5kg of malt soaked in hot water is not the easiest thing to lift out of the pan. The bag is heavy, the wort is hot and sticky and tends to drip everywhere, and in my case I haven't got much space between the hob and the cooker hood. I know other homebrewers using BIAB have a pulley system enabling them to winch up the grain bag and suspend it above the pan allowing the wort to drain out. Unfortunately I haven't got the space or permission to do this so I had to think of something else. 

After a bit of googling I realised the best option for me would be to use a bucket with holes drilled in the base which could be lifted out and stood on an oven rack above the pan so the wort could drain out while the pan was heating up for the boil. I had a 15lt fermenting bucket which fits nicely inside my pan, so I just needed to drill holes in the base and I could then use my grain bag to line it. 

My original grain bag was really too big for this so I replaced it with a Youngs fine large nylon straining bag which has a cylindrical shape and fits neatly into the plastic bucket. This new setup has worked well so far. I've done two brews, achieving 73% and 76% efficiency scores and I've found it far easier and cleaner to handle the grain bag after mashing. The first beer I brewed in this way was this best bitter which tastes great and I've just brewed an American Amber Ale which I hope will turn out just as well.

This system also lets me sparge the grain bed so I've got greater control over the finished beer, I can work to a specific pre-boil gravity if necessary.

Other modifications I've made include adding a false bottom to the pan made from an old BBQ grill with 50mm steel bolts as legs. I've also made an insulated jacket from foil bubble wrap and a load of gaffer tape which the pan can sit in during the mash. 

As I still use the hob to heat the pan I have to be able to remove the pan from the insulating jacket. This is not a tight fit, the pot just slides in and out but since I've started mashing for over four hours this has enabled me to restrict the heat loss to 1-2°C.

Brewday - 05/10/2018 Best Bitter

Brewing Again, Finally!

For the first time since the end of May I have been able to brew some beer. The combination of an unusually hot summer and an unusually busy me meant home brewing was off the agenda for a few months. When the opportunity finally arose I decided to keep it simple and brew a nice easy-drinking best bitter. I fitted this brew-day around work which meant a long four hour mash in my recently insulated brewing pan. Despite the extended mash time the temperature only dropped by 1°C so I may try an overnight mash in the future. 

Recipe (BIAB)

• Mash for 240 mins at 67°C
• Boil for 60 mins
• Mash water volume 30lt
• Maris Otter 3.45kg
• Wheat Malt 220g
• Amber malt 200g
• Crystal Malt 45L 80g
• Flaked Maize 170g
• Northdown 7% 25g (60 mins)
• First Gold (homegrown) 40g (15 mins)
• Crossmyloof Real Ale Yeast 11g pack pitched at 20°C
• Recipe in Brewers Friend

Results 12/10/2018

I bottled this after 7 days fermentation

OG 1.043

FG 1.012

ABV 4%
IBU 39

First Taste 26/10/2018

I managed to wait for two weeks before tasting the beer, first impressions were very good. It's not aromatically hoppy but still quite bitter. There is a bit of residual sweetness and it has a nice nutty flavour, really just like a traditional English best bitter and very easy to drink at just 4% abv. All in all lovely stuff!

Checking the Barley Wine

Barley Wine Time

So it's high time I tried the Barley Wine I brewed in April. First impressions are it's quite boozy, second impressions are it's very boozy. It is dark, rich and smooth and I hope it will mellow even more over time. I'm pleased with this, if I manage to save some for Winter it'd make a great Christmas drink, that's a big if though...