So, I have decided to try re-using my yeast for a second batch. Up until now, I've always just bought new yeast (thus far, always Wyeast smack-packs) for each batch. However, now I have formulated a couple of recipes to allow me to experiment with yeast re-use.
Plan I: use Wyeast 1272 American Ale II to brew a regular-gravity high-hop IPA, then harvest those yeast after racking to pitch into a batch of Imperial IPA. The first batch will essentially be a starter for the second; this will test the idea of brewing a much bigger beer of a similar style for the second generation of yeast.
Plan II: use Wyeast 1056 American Ale to brew up an amber ale, then harvest the yeast cake for brewing up a hoppy American stout. This will test the idea of brewing a much darker beer for the second generation of yeast.
I had originally considered just pouring my wort directly onto the yeast cake left in the fermenter of the prior batch; however, after reading this article I think I will harvest the yeast from the fermenter the previous day and pitch a more appropriate quantity of yeast. I think I'm more comfortable cleaning and sanitizing the fermenter in between batches anyway.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Tasting: Bar-None Brown
So, I think I am going to start posting my homebrew reviews here as well as on the Grid. My tastings of Terrible, Dummkopf and Black Ryeday the other day were unofficial vis-à-vis my personal homebrew rating system, so you may see them referenced again.
I try to do my ratings as I would any other beer using the system they use over at Beer Advocate. Each review I do is as honest an assessment as I can give to a beer I brewed myself.
So, without further ado, The Review:
Poured from bomber into a tulip. Ultimately, I would like to compare this to a bottle of Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale, upon which this beer was theoretically based.
Appearance: rich, hazy, chocolatey brown which allows practically no light through. Head is two fingers of persistent tan foam; this brew got a pretty good carbonation. (4)
Smell: aroma is very brown and green: a nice, smooth chocolate and sweetish, slightly minty, vegetabley hops. It is actually rather dessert-like. (4)
Taste: chocolate up front, transitioning to floral and vegetabley hops. Bitterness really starts to come through at the end. Alcohol is also a bit noticeable. Toward the very end of the aftertaste flavor is like the aroma of crushed maple leaves from the beginning of summer. It is good but it lacks refinement. (3.5)
Mouthfeel: medium body with absolute loads of carbonation. This is just as creamy as you ever need a beer to be. Style-wise, I don't know that it is strictly appropriate, but I think the texture is great. (4.5)
Drinkability: after awhile, the raw hoppiness begins to be one-note. It is still a very refreshing beer, however, and I think it would make a good summer beer despite its darkness and high ABV. (3.5)
Overall score 3.8 (B+). This beer was an interesting experiment all-around: the addition of brown sugar, the rather high IBUs for a brown ale and the floral, sweet Saaz hops. I think for the future I might want to go with something funkier like Willamette; the Saaz are kind of cloying at the 3 oz level. I'm reminded of jasmine or lavender tea -- just too much flower. I think the malt bill is just spot-on, though, and I look forward to trying Ringwood yeast again.
I try to do my ratings as I would any other beer using the system they use over at Beer Advocate. Each review I do is as honest an assessment as I can give to a beer I brewed myself.
So, without further ado, The Review:
Poured from bomber into a tulip. Ultimately, I would like to compare this to a bottle of Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale, upon which this beer was theoretically based.
Appearance: rich, hazy, chocolatey brown which allows practically no light through. Head is two fingers of persistent tan foam; this brew got a pretty good carbonation. (4)
Smell: aroma is very brown and green: a nice, smooth chocolate and sweetish, slightly minty, vegetabley hops. It is actually rather dessert-like. (4)
Taste: chocolate up front, transitioning to floral and vegetabley hops. Bitterness really starts to come through at the end. Alcohol is also a bit noticeable. Toward the very end of the aftertaste flavor is like the aroma of crushed maple leaves from the beginning of summer. It is good but it lacks refinement. (3.5)
Mouthfeel: medium body with absolute loads of carbonation. This is just as creamy as you ever need a beer to be. Style-wise, I don't know that it is strictly appropriate, but I think the texture is great. (4.5)
Drinkability: after awhile, the raw hoppiness begins to be one-note. It is still a very refreshing beer, however, and I think it would make a good summer beer despite its darkness and high ABV. (3.5)
Overall score 3.8 (B+). This beer was an interesting experiment all-around: the addition of brown sugar, the rather high IBUs for a brown ale and the floral, sweet Saaz hops. I think for the future I might want to go with something funkier like Willamette; the Saaz are kind of cloying at the 3 oz level. I'm reminded of jasmine or lavender tea -- just too much flower. I think the malt bill is just spot-on, though, and I look forward to trying Ringwood yeast again.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Keg Wagon
Yesterday I picked up a kegging system from my buddy Cole. Two 5-gallon Cornelius kegs, CO2 tank, regulator and various hoses and taps. I'm looking forward to kegging The Elder and Brevity Wit #2 sometime this weekend. The CO2 tank is about 60% full so I should be able to get a few keggings out of it.
Now all I need is a way to refrigerate these kegs. For the time being I will probably tap them and pour into a growler when I want some and then refrigerate that. I may also end up brewing more now that the hassle of bottling has been removed, so I will probably need to acquire more Corny kegs. Ah, the slippery slope of hobbies.
Now all I need is a way to refrigerate these kegs. For the time being I will probably tap them and pour into a growler when I want some and then refrigerate that. I may also end up brewing more now that the hassle of bottling has been removed, so I will probably need to acquire more Corny kegs. Ah, the slippery slope of hobbies.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Helmut Kölsch
I debated not naming my Kölsch a stupid, nonsensical pun, but then I remembered who I am and what I represent. Thus, the name.
The Recipe:
8 lb 2-row pale malt
8 oz European Munich malt
6 AAU (56g @ 3% AA) Hallertau @ 60
3 AAU (28g @ 3% AA) Hallertau @ 30
1 Irish Moss tablet @ 15 min
Wyeast 2565 - Kölsch
Mashed at 152° for an hour using about 10.5 quarts of water. Sparged with 170°-190° water until I had about 26 quarts for the boil. My sparge was a combination of fly and batch sparging; more on that below.
O.G.: 1.035
Est. IBU: 36.2
The OG ended up extremely low, even for this relatively low-alcohol style. The reason for this is that, despite double-milling, I ended up with a dismal 61% mash efficiency, my second-worst since building my mash/lauter tun. I noticed right away that the mash was draining way too fast, so I tried to mitigate by slowing the outflow by adjusting my ball valve. Due to a design flaw with my spigot, this is extremely messy; so, I decided to close it off, pour in most of my on-deck sparge water, and do a mini batch sparge. I poured in about 8-10 qts and let it sit for five minutes, then resumed the drain. Still, efficiency was godawful.
Poor efficiency is something I can deal with; my problem is the wildly unpredictable nature of my last few mashes. I have already ended up with a 6.6% dunkelweizen which I was expecting to be in the low 5% range, and now a Kölsch which will be lucky to hit even 4%, with all other kinds of wild things in between. Perhaps it is time to invest in my own grain mill? It may indeed just be.
The Recipe:
8 lb 2-row pale malt
8 oz European Munich malt
6 AAU (56g @ 3% AA) Hallertau @ 60
3 AAU (28g @ 3% AA) Hallertau @ 30
1 Irish Moss tablet @ 15 min
Wyeast 2565 - Kölsch
Mashed at 152° for an hour using about 10.5 quarts of water. Sparged with 170°-190° water until I had about 26 quarts for the boil. My sparge was a combination of fly and batch sparging; more on that below.
O.G.: 1.035
Est. IBU: 36.2
The OG ended up extremely low, even for this relatively low-alcohol style. The reason for this is that, despite double-milling, I ended up with a dismal 61% mash efficiency, my second-worst since building my mash/lauter tun. I noticed right away that the mash was draining way too fast, so I tried to mitigate by slowing the outflow by adjusting my ball valve. Due to a design flaw with my spigot, this is extremely messy; so, I decided to close it off, pour in most of my on-deck sparge water, and do a mini batch sparge. I poured in about 8-10 qts and let it sit for five minutes, then resumed the drain. Still, efficiency was godawful.
Poor efficiency is something I can deal with; my problem is the wildly unpredictable nature of my last few mashes. I have already ended up with a 6.6% dunkelweizen which I was expecting to be in the low 5% range, and now a Kölsch which will be lucky to hit even 4%, with all other kinds of wild things in between. Perhaps it is time to invest in my own grain mill? It may indeed just be.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Carbonation Ruminations
It seems like my last few brews have taken an atypically long time to carbonate in the bottle. My guess is that since it is winter, my storage room has been quite a bit cooler and that this has affected my carbonation rate in comparison to my earlier brews. For instance, take Dummkopf Dunkelweizen and Black Ryeday: it's been three weeks since I bottled them, and the last two bottles I opened of each (at 1 week and 2 weeks since bottling) had not carbonated up well at all.
The Dummkopf I just cracked today, however, has begun to carbonate up nicely, so I think I will do a little tasting of it and Black Ryeday; I may also see how Terrible Tripel is coming along.
Dummkopf has a nice color but relatively poor head retention, despite the good level of carbonation it has attained. The aroma is pretty low-key, but it does have a nice banana and chocolate thing going on; I'm definitely going to have to use the Weihenstephaner yeast again. Flavor is a bit hot on the alcohol side; this guy ended up about 6.6% which is high for the style. A little of the banana comes through, but there is also a fair presence of esters which could possibly be part of the high ABV. Mouthfeel is nice and creamy, but drinkability is impacted by the noticeably high ABV.
Black Ryeday has a slightly orange golden color and a nice white head (admittedly, I poured vigorously). The head leaves a very nice lace, too. It has a very herbal/spicy aroma on top of its malt base which is interesting but I'm not so sure I'd go so far as to call it "good". Flavor is slightly sweet but similarly spicy. Actually, I'm getting some strawberry flavors here which I totally did not expect. Wow, this is interesting; I'm liking it! Mouthfeel is pretty creamy, which I also like. This strawberry thing is kind of freaking me out, but it makes for good drinkability. This one will be interesting!
Finally, on to Terrible Tripel. I haven't had one in a couple of weeks and I admit that I haven't been too impressed so far. This pouring shows enough carbonation to yield a half-finger head. Color is cidery and cloudy. Aroma is sweet with some slightly tart cidery character; this is probably due to the sugar. Flavor is unsubtle; it is exceedingly malty, quite sweet, somewhat cidery and rather sticky. It's not too bad but it is rather hot, from an alcohol standpoint, and there's a graininess toward the end which I prefer not to have. Could that be the Pilsner malt? Next time I'll just try it with domestic 2-row. However, for a style as complex, refined and steeped in history as tripel, this isn't too bad for a first try. Mouthfeel is nice and creamy; I got good carb with this one. It is drinkable, but the alcohol is way too hot and the grain is a bit of a drawback. This beer does have the distinction of getting better with each sip, at least through the first bottle. It's not necessarily the alcohol; I think that the cidery bits finally inure you to the grainy bits and then you develop a resistance to the cider. In any case, I'm going to try to keep some of this stuff for at least 6 months to see what happens.
The Dummkopf I just cracked today, however, has begun to carbonate up nicely, so I think I will do a little tasting of it and Black Ryeday; I may also see how Terrible Tripel is coming along.
Dummkopf has a nice color but relatively poor head retention, despite the good level of carbonation it has attained. The aroma is pretty low-key, but it does have a nice banana and chocolate thing going on; I'm definitely going to have to use the Weihenstephaner yeast again. Flavor is a bit hot on the alcohol side; this guy ended up about 6.6% which is high for the style. A little of the banana comes through, but there is also a fair presence of esters which could possibly be part of the high ABV. Mouthfeel is nice and creamy, but drinkability is impacted by the noticeably high ABV.
Black Ryeday has a slightly orange golden color and a nice white head (admittedly, I poured vigorously). The head leaves a very nice lace, too. It has a very herbal/spicy aroma on top of its malt base which is interesting but I'm not so sure I'd go so far as to call it "good". Flavor is slightly sweet but similarly spicy. Actually, I'm getting some strawberry flavors here which I totally did not expect. Wow, this is interesting; I'm liking it! Mouthfeel is pretty creamy, which I also like. This strawberry thing is kind of freaking me out, but it makes for good drinkability. This one will be interesting!
Finally, on to Terrible Tripel. I haven't had one in a couple of weeks and I admit that I haven't been too impressed so far. This pouring shows enough carbonation to yield a half-finger head. Color is cidery and cloudy. Aroma is sweet with some slightly tart cidery character; this is probably due to the sugar. Flavor is unsubtle; it is exceedingly malty, quite sweet, somewhat cidery and rather sticky. It's not too bad but it is rather hot, from an alcohol standpoint, and there's a graininess toward the end which I prefer not to have. Could that be the Pilsner malt? Next time I'll just try it with domestic 2-row. However, for a style as complex, refined and steeped in history as tripel, this isn't too bad for a first try. Mouthfeel is nice and creamy; I got good carb with this one. It is drinkable, but the alcohol is way too hot and the grain is a bit of a drawback. This beer does have the distinction of getting better with each sip, at least through the first bottle. It's not necessarily the alcohol; I think that the cidery bits finally inure you to the grainy bits and then you develop a resistance to the cider. In any case, I'm going to try to keep some of this stuff for at least 6 months to see what happens.
Rack Day
I racked The Elder and Brevity Wit #2 today. Brevity has attenuated to about 87% so I don't expect it to ferment much more but at 78% I'm think The Elder might have a little bit further to go.
Brevity #2 is a fair bit brighter than its earlier version, due, I think, to having over twice the amount of orange peel. The Elder has a chocolatey aroma but is rather bright and sour on the backend due to the berries. I can't wait to try both of them when they are carbonated. At this point, I'm thinking of buying a kegging system and these would be the first two on tap, so I'll really be able to pump up Brevity's carb. That was one thing I really liked about #1: it was super fizzy.
Brevity #2 is a fair bit brighter than its earlier version, due, I think, to having over twice the amount of orange peel. The Elder has a chocolatey aroma but is rather bright and sour on the backend due to the berries. I can't wait to try both of them when they are carbonated. At this point, I'm thinking of buying a kegging system and these would be the first two on tap, so I'll really be able to pump up Brevity's carb. That was one thing I really liked about #1: it was super fizzy.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Brevity Wit #2
Well, it was a busy weekend. I bottled Dummkopf Dunkelweizen (6.6% ABV) and Black Ryeday (6.9%) on Saturday night and then brewed up the second round of Brevity Wit on Sunday morning before the Super Bowl. While I hope it will be as good as the last batch, there were a few disappointments.
The Recipe:
4 lb 2-row pale malt
4 lb wheat malt
1 lb flaked wheat
5 AAU (28g @ 5% AA) East Kent Goldings @ 60 min
1 oz ground coriander @ 5 min
zest from 2 oranges @ 5 min (about 12 grams)
Wyeast 3944 - Belgian Witbier
Mashed at 152° for an hour using about 11 quarts of water. Sparged with 170°-190° water until I had about 26 quarts for the boil.
O.G.: 1.039
Est. IBU: 17.6
My biggest disappointment with this batch was that I only hit 70% mash efficiency. This is way down from the 90% efficiencies I had been getting; I was sort of counting on high efficiency this time to boost the alcohol and body just a little bit from the last batch while still using the same amount of grist. To add insult to injury, even after getting marginally better efficiency than with Brevity Wit #1 (which clocked in at 68%), I still ended up with a slightly lower OG than #1 (1.039 vs. 1.040). I'm not sure why this is; it was a pretty solid one-gallon boil-off. I suppose it is possible I didn't get a good reading for my OG, but presumably the chilled wort was sufficiently homogeneous in density when I took my sample.
This time I used whole-leaf East Kent Goldings so the batch ended up with a little bit lower IBU than #1, where I used pellets. I am a little torn as to whether I ought to bump the AAU when I'm using whole leaf vs. pellet or if I should just stick to the recipe. In this case, the hops are such a small portion of the recipe that I don't think it will matter much; still, it's something to consider for the future.
I did also make one intentional change in the recipe. This time, I zested two oranges rather than just one, as the orange was not all that discernable in #1. However it turns out, though, I'm hoping it will be at least as tasty as #1, which I really did like quite a lot.
The Recipe:
4 lb 2-row pale malt
4 lb wheat malt
1 lb flaked wheat
5 AAU (28g @ 5% AA) East Kent Goldings @ 60 min
1 oz ground coriander @ 5 min
zest from 2 oranges @ 5 min (about 12 grams)
Wyeast 3944 - Belgian Witbier
Mashed at 152° for an hour using about 11 quarts of water. Sparged with 170°-190° water until I had about 26 quarts for the boil.
O.G.: 1.039
Est. IBU: 17.6
My biggest disappointment with this batch was that I only hit 70% mash efficiency. This is way down from the 90% efficiencies I had been getting; I was sort of counting on high efficiency this time to boost the alcohol and body just a little bit from the last batch while still using the same amount of grist. To add insult to injury, even after getting marginally better efficiency than with Brevity Wit #1 (which clocked in at 68%), I still ended up with a slightly lower OG than #1 (1.039 vs. 1.040). I'm not sure why this is; it was a pretty solid one-gallon boil-off. I suppose it is possible I didn't get a good reading for my OG, but presumably the chilled wort was sufficiently homogeneous in density when I took my sample.
This time I used whole-leaf East Kent Goldings so the batch ended up with a little bit lower IBU than #1, where I used pellets. I am a little torn as to whether I ought to bump the AAU when I'm using whole leaf vs. pellet or if I should just stick to the recipe. In this case, the hops are such a small portion of the recipe that I don't think it will matter much; still, it's something to consider for the future.
I did also make one intentional change in the recipe. This time, I zested two oranges rather than just one, as the orange was not all that discernable in #1. However it turns out, though, I'm hoping it will be at least as tasty as #1, which I really did like quite a lot.
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