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.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
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.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
The Elder
Today I brewed up my first batch in two months. A few days ago, I decided it would be a wheat porter, using half and half barley and wheat for the base malt component.
For Christmas I received a gift certificate to my LHBS from my sister-in-law. My ingredients only costing about $18 and I not wanting to have leftovers from my GC, I grabbed at the nearest interesting item to the register: an 8oz bag of dried elderberries. This got me to thinking: I really like Ebulum dark elderberry ale, an un-hopped Scottish ale, so why not try my own homebrew in that vein?
The Recipe:
4 lb 2-row pale malt
4 lb wheat malt
12 oz chocolate malt
4 oz crystal 60°
8 oz dried elderberries @ 10
Wyeast 1318 - London Ale III
Mashed at 154° 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.: 1.052
Est. IBU: n/a
I didn't go into this batch with an ironclad mash temperature in mind, so when I ended up at 154° after my initial dough-in I decided to stick with it. The last beer I brewed with an above-152° mash was Foam Dome Stout, which had a mouthfeel I really liked.
As far as bitterness is concerned, I have read that elderberries contribute a fair amount of it, albeit of a different character than hop bitterness. I'm calling this brew a major experiment; based on its taste pre-fermentation I have high hopes that it will at least be drinkable. Ebulum, by which this decision was inspired, uses no hops; however, it is fermented with the berries rather than having the berries used in the boil as I have done. In any case, this shall be interesting.
Lastly, my efficiency for this batch was merely 83%, which is relatively low by my recent standards. I double-milled the grain, but despite this the sparge took less than an hour, which is somewhat quicker than the last two brews. This is especially interesting considering the large amount of wheat I used. Perhaps the mill at my LHBS needs to be adjusted; still, 83% is within the satisfactory range.
For Christmas I received a gift certificate to my LHBS from my sister-in-law. My ingredients only costing about $18 and I not wanting to have leftovers from my GC, I grabbed at the nearest interesting item to the register: an 8oz bag of dried elderberries. This got me to thinking: I really like Ebulum dark elderberry ale, an un-hopped Scottish ale, so why not try my own homebrew in that vein?
The Recipe:
4 lb 2-row pale malt
4 lb wheat malt
12 oz chocolate malt
4 oz crystal 60°
8 oz dried elderberries @ 10
Wyeast 1318 - London Ale III
Mashed at 154° 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.: 1.052
Est. IBU: n/a
I didn't go into this batch with an ironclad mash temperature in mind, so when I ended up at 154° after my initial dough-in I decided to stick with it. The last beer I brewed with an above-152° mash was Foam Dome Stout, which had a mouthfeel I really liked.
As far as bitterness is concerned, I have read that elderberries contribute a fair amount of it, albeit of a different character than hop bitterness. I'm calling this brew a major experiment; based on its taste pre-fermentation I have high hopes that it will at least be drinkable. Ebulum, by which this decision was inspired, uses no hops; however, it is fermented with the berries rather than having the berries used in the boil as I have done. In any case, this shall be interesting.
Lastly, my efficiency for this batch was merely 83%, which is relatively low by my recent standards. I double-milled the grain, but despite this the sparge took less than an hour, which is somewhat quicker than the last two brews. This is especially interesting considering the large amount of wheat I used. Perhaps the mill at my LHBS needs to be adjusted; still, 83% is within the satisfactory range.
Friday, January 1, 2010
A New Year, A New Beer
OK, so there's not actually a new beer. December was almost entirely devoid of brewing-related activity, with the exception of yesterday. New Year's Eve I bottled Bar-None Brown and Terrible Tripel and racked Dummkopf and Black Ryeday to the secondary. The latter are going to end up pretty good I think, but I'm not so sure about Bar-None (finished 8.1% ABV) and the Tripel (10%). Some bottle conditioning and carbonation will probably help these a lot (especially the Tripel).
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Black Ryeday
Today I brewed up batch #13, a rye beer. I had intended to brew Brevity Wit again, but the homebrew store was out of the appropriate yeast. So, I flipped through some brew magazines to get ideas and thought, hey, how about rye? I dreamed up some proportions, milled my grain twice, and was ready to go.
The Recipe:
7 lb 2-row pale malt
2 lb rye malt
1 lb flaked rye
11 AAU (24g @ 13% AA) Nugget @ 60
5 AAU (31g @ 4.5% AA) Willamette @ 15
4 AAU (37g @ 3% AA) Hallertau @ 5
1 Irish moss tablet @ 15 min
Wyeast 1272 - American Ale II
Mashed at 150° for an hour using about 14 quarts of water. Sparged with 170°-185° water until I had about 25 quarts for the boil.
O.G.: 1.062
Est. IBU: 57.0*
This beer is either a rye beer or an IPA; you could call it a hybrid. I'm just calling it a rye for my own purposes.
As I mentioned, I milled the grain twice just as I did last time; lo and behold, I hit 90% mash efficiency once again. The fine mill (plus, I have read, rye's natural properties) led to a very slow sparge of about an hour and fifteen minutes. Still, I'll take the extra time waiting in exchange for great efficiency any day.
I went with the name Black Ryeday because I bought the ingredients for this batch on the day after Thanksgiving, though the beer itself is not black in any way. The homebrew store was busier than I'd ever seen it, which I thought was weird, but at least it inspired a name.
Also, I racked Terrible Tripel to the secondary and measured its gravity at 1.005. If that ends up being the actual final gravity, we're talking 9.8% here. It tasted pretty good, too.
*Note: I just noticed (13 July 2010) that the AAU and IBU calculations were slightly off based on how many grams of hops I actually added at the 5 minute mark. Not sure how this happened or how I missed it for so long. This has been fixed; IBUs dropped by a paltry 0.8 units.
The Recipe:
7 lb 2-row pale malt
2 lb rye malt
1 lb flaked rye
11 AAU (24g @ 13% AA) Nugget @ 60
5 AAU (31g @ 4.5% AA) Willamette @ 15
4 AAU (37g @ 3% AA) Hallertau @ 5
1 Irish moss tablet @ 15 min
Wyeast 1272 - American Ale II
Mashed at 150° for an hour using about 14 quarts of water. Sparged with 170°-185° water until I had about 25 quarts for the boil.
O.G.: 1.062
Est. IBU: 57.0*
This beer is either a rye beer or an IPA; you could call it a hybrid. I'm just calling it a rye for my own purposes.
As I mentioned, I milled the grain twice just as I did last time; lo and behold, I hit 90% mash efficiency once again. The fine mill (plus, I have read, rye's natural properties) led to a very slow sparge of about an hour and fifteen minutes. Still, I'll take the extra time waiting in exchange for great efficiency any day.
I went with the name Black Ryeday because I bought the ingredients for this batch on the day after Thanksgiving, though the beer itself is not black in any way. The homebrew store was busier than I'd ever seen it, which I thought was weird, but at least it inspired a name.
Also, I racked Terrible Tripel to the secondary and measured its gravity at 1.005. If that ends up being the actual final gravity, we're talking 9.8% here. It tasted pretty good, too.
*Note: I just noticed (13 July 2010) that the AAU and IBU calculations were slightly off based on how many grams of hops I actually added at the 5 minute mark. Not sure how this happened or how I missed it for so long. This has been fixed; IBUs dropped by a paltry 0.8 units.
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