A thought or two on malt

Since I started brewing in 10 gallon batches, I've purchased malt and hops in bulk whenever possible to save money. I have always tried to keep a sack of pilsner malt, wheat malt, and 2-row on hand at all times so that I could simply stop by the brew shop, pick up my specialty grains, yeast, and any hops I don't have on hand, then go brew.

I've always purchased Briess base grains probably because that's what the home brew shop has in stock. For me, I always assumed that the specialty grains were where I'd get my malt character and the base grain was there as a sort of blank canvass. Occasionally I'd pick up a sack of Maris Otter or use English malt when trying to make an authentic English beer.

A few weeks ago I brewed a Munich Helles with a 100% German Avangard Pilsner malt bill and I was blown away by the malt character in the beer. Then last week on the Brewing Network's Brew Strong podcast, I was really surprised by the conversation between Jamil Zainasheff and Colin Kaminsky on malts. It boiled down to this: the big American producers of malt give their best yield to the large craft brewers and the megabrewers in the form of contracts. The big brewers demand a higher standard of product because of their bargaining power. This leaves the smaller craft brewers with the rest of the stuff. The home brewing industry, with zero organization and relatively speaking, zero buying power, is left with the rest. They recommended going with small maltsters whenever possible. Since that's an industry that's still in its infancy in this country, they recommended going with smaller European malting companies that have been providing smaller, more discerning operations with quality malt for decades.

For my latest brew, I decided to pick up a sack of Crisp Malting Group "Best Ale Malt," which is their standard Pale Ale malt. I put samples of the Briess 2-row and the Crisp malt side by side to see the difference.

Crisp on the left, Briess on the right

The Crisp Pale Ale malt is slightly darker. The L rating is higher too, so this isn't a surprise. The aroma is way different: the Briess has a papery smell to it while the Crisp has a bready aroma, like a freshly unsealed can of oatmeal. And the flavor, no surprise, puts the Crisp way out ahead as well. Basically, it has flavor. The Briess has a "green" sweetness and only a hint of bread flavor, the Crisp has a sweetness that really jumps out and a depth of bread flavor with a slight bit of toastiness.

If you asked me if I've been unsatisfied with the malt character of my beers prior to this revelation, I would have said no. But when you stack these base malts side by side and actually taste them, it's a no-brainer of which I'd rather use in my beer.

I did the same simple test with Briess Munich malt and Weyermann Dark Munich (which has a lighter L than the Briess). Same result: the Weyermann had depth, the Briess tasted papery and light. Not to mention the Weyermann is 2-row and the Briess is 6-row.

Will I ever use Briess again after my stock runs out? Maybe in a pinch. This has been pretty telling though and I'm looking forward to seeing the difference in my beer.

Adventures in production home brewing

I over promised beer. Again. It happens. This time it isn't a constraint of quantity or capacity, but rather time.

It was on Wednesday of last week that I realized I had a situation on my hands. I committed to brewing some beer for a event later this month. Unfortunately, I didn't take into account that I'd be out of the country for a week, pretty much blowing a giant hole into the conditioning, racking, and packaging period for the planned beer - a pale ale. I'd need to get the beer brewed, fermented, carbonated and packaged within 7 days.

I brewed on a Friday night and adjusted the recipe to account for the complete lack of conditioning time. Out of necessity this would be a very sessionable pale ale at 1.042 OG. In addition to 2-row, I used some extra grain that I had laying around: the last of a bag of C40, some Victory malt, and a pound of Carapils. For the hop bill, I rummaged through my freezer for hops with distinctive tropical flavor that might open the minds of the typical "that's too bitter" crowd. And I dosed my water with my go to pale, hoppy beer treatment for Warren, OH water: more gypsum than calcium chloride and a ml or two of lactic acid.

Since I wouldn't be able to dry hop it, I dumped a ton of hops into the knockout addition and used a 30 minute whirlpool steep at 180 degrees to get fresh flavor and aroma in the beer.

The result was surprisingly good. I sampled the beer on 1/14/2014 hoping that it would be fermented out completely after four days. The taste did not disappoint: it was dripping with grapefruit and tropical flavor from the Galaxy and Apollo whirlpool steep. But, it was still 10 points above the target FG. I let it sit for one more day then pitched 10g of Polyclar VT and loaded it up in the cooler where it would crash cool and prepare for conditioning. I've never used Polyclar before, but figured this was a perfect time to give it a shot. It would be fine for vegetarians, has a larger particle size to facilitate quick flocculation, and would be filtered out of the final product. The product specs say to allow 3-10 days for it to work. I've got 2.5. Given that I see gelatin work in 2 days, I don't see why the PVPP won't make a difference in that time frame.

For filtering, I recently picked up a beer filter kit from www.filterstore.com. I like the idea of a reusable cartridge filter rather than paper plate filters, which I haven't had good results with. That being said, I am a little worried that the .5 micron filter will strip out the delicate hop character that I achieved with late addition hops.We will see.

After 2.5 days of cold crashing, I plan on filtering this beer, force carbonating it, then bottling it. In one night. I don't know what to expect, but I've got a plan and frankly, not a lot of other options.

While I wish the process could have been less rushed with this beer, there's something exciting about being pressured to produce a quality product under the gun. I'm confident the beer will be good. At the same time, I'd be lying if I didn't say it the whole thing wasn't a carefully executed experiment of necessity.

Space monkey. Ready to sacrifice himself for the greater good.

We'll see how this guy works.

Recipe: Late Night Session Pale Ale

Brewer: Adam Keck
Date: 1/10/2014
Style: American Pale Ale
TYPE: All Grain

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Estimated OG: 1.043 SG
Estimated Color: 5.9 SRM
Estimated IBU: 39.6 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 80.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 81.8 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
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Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU         
10.00 g               Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 60.0 mins Water Agent   1        -             
5.00 g                Calcium Chloride (Mash 60.0 mins)        Water Agent   2        -             
14 lbs                Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)           Grain         3        84.8 %        
1 lbs                 Caramel Malt - 40L (Briess) (40.0 SRM)   Grain         4        6.1 %         
1 lbs                 Carapils (Briess) (1.5 SRM)              Grain         5        6.1 %         
8.0 oz                Victory Malt (biscuit) (Briess) (28.0 SR Grain         6        3.0 %         
1.00 oz               Bravo [15.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min          Hop           7        33.9 IBUs     
0.55 tsp              Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 mins)              Fining        8        -             
1.00 oz               Bravo [15.50 %] - Boil 5.0 min           Hop           9        5.7 IBUs      
2.00 oz               Apollo [17.00 %] - Steep/Whirlpool  -30. Hop           10       0.0 IBUs      
2.00 oz               Galaxy [14.00 %] - Steep/Whirlpool  -30. Hop           11       0.0 IBUs      
1.50 oz               Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min      Hop           12       0.0 IBUs      
2.0 pkg               Safale American  (DCL/Fermentis #US-05)  Yeast         13       -             


Mash Schedule: Temperature Mash, 1 Step, Medium Body
Total Grain Weight: 16 lbs 8.0 oz
----------------------------
Name              Description                             Step Temperat Step Time     
Saccharification  Add 20.62 qt of water at 161.4 F        150.0 F       60 min        
Mash Out          Heat to 168.0 F over 10 min             168.0 F       10 min        

Sparge: Fly sparge with 10.32 gal water at 168.0 F