2/15/2014 NHC Cream Ale

Brewday photosphere...turned out alright

Looking back, I should have just stuck to one beer on this brew day. I had a birthday party to get to that evening which put a time limit on the brewing. Everything had to go perfectly to make the time window I allocated for myself. I've been brewing long enough that I should have known better. I ended up running into some issues and the second brew was rushed and I'll be rebrewing the hefeweizen as a result. I won't even write it up. In short, as a result of rushing around, getting more propane mid-mash, and stupidly adding an additional 3-4 gallons of sparge water that I didn't need, I ended up with a beer that was 10 points below target OG. Still within the style guidelines, but not the beer I want to submit to NHC.

I'll still be submitting my gold medal award winning "Minerva" cream ale to the first round of the National Homebrewing Competition in March. From start to finish, this beer went smoothly. Maybe one of the best brews I've had, process-wise. I made a few adjustments to my original recipe to make it stand out a little more and to brew it within the 4 week timeline that I have.

• I'm going with WLP001 to ferment as opposed to Wyeast 2112 - California Lager. I found that the yeast produced a clean beer, but only dropped the overpowering sulphur flavors after a month or more of lagering. I didn't have that kind of time and I've been thinking about changing the recipe for some time now, so I switched the yeast for this brew.
• Added some complexity to the malt bill: I added a pound of biscuit malt and two pounds of Munich malt. Previously I had been using two pounds of Victory malt, but found it was not strong enough of a flavor to get any bready, toasty notes in the beer.
• Bumped up the flaked corn by a pound, up to 5lbs. I want the beer to remain in the style, so I figured if I added more malt complexity, I ought to also bump up the corny sweetness to balance the flavors.

Water treatment:

5ml lactic acid

5g gypsum

5g calcium chloride

1g baking soda

Calcium: 73

Magnesium: 5

Alkalinity as CaCO3: 79

Sodium: 25

Chloride: 74

Sulfate: 82

RA as CACO3: -27

My second time using the pH meter, I hit 5.2 squarely on the head. Not bad.

Notes: 

Mashed in at 152. It was initially a little high, but it corrected itself within ten minutes.

Collected 13.5 gallons of wort at 1.042 PB OG, then mid-boil I added what was left in the mash tun. Rather than play a guessing game with wort collection, I'm starting to transfer everything from the mash tun. In all, I probably ended up with 14 gallons of wort. I figure that if I consistently do this and then tweak the numbers in Beersmith, I'll be able to consistently collect 12 gallons of beer for fermentation and therefore have ~ 11 gallons for packaging. I had too many beers where I was packaging less than 10 gallons of beer.

I mashed out over 10 minutes then sparged with 9 gallons of treated water at 168 degrees.

Boiled for 60 minutes then chilled to 50 degrees. Pitched 3L starter of WLP001 harvested from NHC Amber Ale 1.1. And set in the fermenter at 60 degrees. Original Gravity stood at 1.050.

After 5 days, the beer was at 1.020. I bumped the temp up to 64 degrees to allow it to clean up and to encourage it to dry out to the target FG. The taste was very corny with some biscuit and toast depth. The hop balance was spot on. I'm looking forward to seeing what lagering will do to it.

On 2/24 I crashed the beer to 38 degrees where it will sit for a week or two before kegging and additional conditioning until it is bottled to ship off to NHC in mid-March.

Update:

3/7/2014: this has been lagering now for about two weeks. The flavor is really nice - crisp, clean, slightly corny - with ample malt to give it complexity. It's very drinkable and it's a great cream ale. I'm slightly worried that the judges will ding it for the extra malt flavor, but it could just as easily set it apart from a more standard iteration of the style.

Recipe below:

Recipe: NHC Minerva Cream Ale
Brewer: Adam Keck
Asst Brewer:
Style: Cream Ale
TYPE: All Grain
Recipe Specifications

--------------------------

Boil Size: 13.50 gal
Post Boil Volume: 12.50 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 12.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.052 SG
Estimated Color: 5.8 SRM
Estimated IBU: 18.3 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 80.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 81.7 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------

Amt Name Type # %/IBU
13 lbs Pale Ale Malt 2-Row (Briess) (3.5 SRM) Grain 1 61.9 %
5 lbs Corn - Yellow, Flaked (Briess) (1.3 SRM) Grain 2 23.8 %
2 lbs Munich I (Weyermann) (7.1 SRM) Grain 3 9.5 %
1 lbs Biscuit Malt (23.0 SRM) Grain 4 4.8 %

1.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 5 16.6 IBUs
0.50 oz Saaz [4.00 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 6 1.1 IBUs
0.50 oz Saaz [4.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 7 0.7 IBUs
1.0 pkg California Ale (White Labs #WLP001) [35. Yeast 8 -

Mash Schedule: Temperature Mash, 1 Step, Medium Body

Total Grain Weight: 21 lbs

Bavarian Helles 1.2

I loved this beer so much the first time that I decided I'd get another one in the pipeline. The first one left me wanting more. I made a few changes:

• Add some Munich malt. I chose Avangard Munich.
• I want to get it to attenuate more, since my last one stuck at 1.020. I'll let it ferment for 3 weeks and pitch more yeast.
• I want to use distilled water to see what difference building the water profile from scratch would make.
• Add a protein rest to the mash. I'm going to make this a habit for German beers that I'd do a decoction mash for if I wanted to do a decoction mash.

This is also the first time I'll get to use my new pH meter after having read Water from Brewers Publications.

My profile ended up looking like this:

Calcium: 58
Magnesium: 0
Alkalinity as CaCO3: 10
Sodium: 5
Chloride: 102
Sulfate: 0
Effective Hardness as CaCO3: 41
RA: -31

Water treatment: 12g Calcium Chloride, 1g baking soda (to bump up the sodium slightly)

I hit a 5.4 pH. Not bad for my first crack at using the meter.

It was still going up. It settled at 5.4. The temperature reads 81 degrees, but I ended up cooling it to room temp and getting the same reading of 5.4. I intend to do room temperature readings.

I chose a double infusion mash to keep the brew time down. I added all of the brewing salts and mashed in at 130 for 30 minutes, 150 for 40 minutes, then raised the temp to 168 and sparged.

Transferred 13.5 gallons to the boil kettle over 30 minutes.

Preboil OG: 1.049. Way high for where I wanted this to be. I added another gallon or more from what was sitting in the bottom of the mash tun. If I had an extra gallon of distilled water I would have added that as well.

Boiled hard for 90 minutes. Added 4oz of Hallertauer Hersbrucker at 75 minutes. Pitched rehydrated Irish Moss and 1 tsp of yeast nutrient at 10 minutes.

I chilled to 40 degrees, gave the wort 150 seconds of pure O2, then pitched a 3L starter of WLP 820 salvaged from my last batch into ~11 gallons of 1.060 wort. I'll be brewing a doppelbock in three weeks and I will use this yeast cake directly.

It's a breeze doing lagers in the winter time. I don't even need to pick up ice, just have the snow shovel handy. Once my well water gets the wort down to about 80 degrees (takes maybe 15 minutes), I will switch over to my keg cleaner bucket, which has a little suction pump attached. I simply recirculate this ice cold water through my wort chiller. From the 80 degrees, it takes another 15 or so to get down to pitching temps.

The brew couldn't have gone smoother, save for the higher than anticipated OG. I should have lowered the malt bill - my logic that I'd collect an extra gallon didn't pan out - or had some extra distilled water to top it up in the middle of the boil. I really need to dial in these calculations.

Recipe later.

NHC Amber Ale

I'd like to enter the American Ale category in the 2014 National Homebrewing Competition. Looking at past winners and the style guidelines, it seems that the playing field is skewed towards more complex entries. I thought to myself, why would I brew a standard American Pale Ale or IPA when I can give it a nice malt body that can set it apart?

I've been really itching to brew something like Modern Times' Blazing World. With Simcoe, Amarillo, Apollo, and Columbus sitting in the freezer, I thought I'd put together a hoppy, west coast style amber ale featuring two of the most popular hops in the IPA/pale ale category and use the whirlpool and steeping techniques that I've been hooked on lately to extract tons of aroma and flavor from them. I'm aiming for a balanced, yet assertive amber ale with a formidable malt body. To get a nice amber color, I'm adding a pinch of midnight wheat. I'm adding it at vorlauf to avoid extracting acrid flavors from it.

I don't know what my dry hops will be yet, as I plan to sample the beer then decide which hops to use based on what I think it needs.

This batch will be brewed as a pilot. I'll push it a bit to get it out in 2.5 weeks. That should give me enough time to brew another batch for the March 10th shipping time for NHC.

Water:
Calcium: 69
Magnesium: 5
Alkalinity as CaCO3: 121
Sodium: 44
Chloride: 32
Sulfate: 131
Effective Hardness as CaCO3: 52
RA: 69

Water treatment: 5g baking soda, 10g gypsum.

I had some trouble getting the water profile for this. Darker, hoppy beers are difficult for my water because I need to add alkalinity via baking soda, but I also need to keep my sodium down so that it the doesn't outcompete the hop flavor. It is a balancing act to add enough gypsum to get my sulfate and calcium levels up enough, enough baking soda to get my alkalinity to where it needs, and keep my sodium levels down. I'd like to see more calcium and even more sulfate, but to keep the alkalinity down, that would have required more baking soda and an unacceptable level of sodium. This was the best compromise.

Notes:

Mashed at 152 degrees. Treated strike water with 1/2 campden tablet, 7.5 grams of brewing salts.

Sparged and transferred 13 gallons to kettle over 20 minutes.

Preboil OG: 1.050

I added the other half of my brewing salts at the start of the boil.

My final runnings were about 10.22. I added about a gallon of wort from my tun because my volume was looking low and I knew I'd lose a gallon or so to hop trub.

Rehydrated 2 tsp of Irish Moss and pitched it in at 5 minutes. Added 1 tsp of yeast nutrient at 15 minutes.

Whirlpooled for 30 minutes at 180 degrees.

I bagged the Magnum whole leaf hops to keep them from clogging up my hop blocker...no avail

Cooled to 60 degrees then allowed it to sit for 20 minutes to settle.Collected ~11 gallons of wort. I think my wort chiller bumped my hop blocker when I put it in and hop debris got into the chamber. It started gagging right at the top of the hop blocker and I probably had to leave a full gallon or more of wort in the kettle.

Pitched yeast, set in fermenting chamber for 64 degrees (17.7C).

The color is looking muted. I'd like to get a bit more bright red out of it. I also think I wasn't boiling vigorously enough at the time of my irish moss addition, since I didn't see a very good cold break. Hopefully I can clear this beer despite that.

Update 2/14/2014:

I racked this to kegs last night after 2 days of crash cooling at 38 degrees. It dropped out crystal clear at 1.011 SG. The aroma was muted Simcoe/Amarillo - tangerine and tropical. The flavor was well balance between hop and malt, with maybe a little malt dominance. I think with carbonation and dry hopping it will be about perfect. The malt was biscuity, slightly roasty. The hop flavor was mostly the Simcoe citrus coming out, with hints of grapefruit and dank. I decided that I didn't want Simcoe to overpower this beer so I ended up dry hopping with 4oz Columbus for depth and dank-ness, 2oz Amarillo to accentuate the non-Simcoe citrus notes, and 2oz Cascade to round out the grapefruit character. So in each 5 gallon keg went a nylon garment sock with 2oz Columbus and 1oz each of Cascade and Amarillo.

I'll let the hops do their thing for 5 days then crash cool the beer with finings to clear it out. I'm looking forward to having a pint next weekend and potentially brewing this once more for the 1st round NHC in mid-March.

The fresh Columbus hops I just got from Yakima Valley Hops had a pronounced onion aroma. Much more than Columbus usually does. I've read that that Columbus can lend some undesirable onion character. I'm thinking with just a 5 day dry hop and only 2oz in there it shouldn't be an issue.

Nice clarity after two days of crashing. Dad in back for reference.

Current recipe below:

Recipe: NHC Dreams American Amber Ale
Brewer: Adam Keck
Asst Brewer: 
Style: American Amber Ale
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0) 

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 13.00 gal
Post Boil Volume: 11.75 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 11.00 gal 
Estimated OG: 1.062 SG
Estimated Color: 13.7 SRM
Estimated IBU: 54.8 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 80.00 %
Boil Time: 75 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU         
10.00 g               Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 60.0 mins Water Agent   1        -             
5.00 g                Baking Soda (Mash 60.0 mins)             Water Agent   2        -             
20 lbs                Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM)           Grain         3        84.4 %        
2 lbs                 Munich I (Weyermann) (7.1 SRM)           Grain         4        8.4 %         
1 lbs                 Caramel Malt - 40L (Briess) (40.0 SRM)   Grain         5        4.2 %         
8.0 oz                Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM)   Grain         6        2.1 %         
3.2 oz                Midnight Wheat (550.0 SRM)               Grain         7        0.8 %         
2.00 oz               Magnum [14.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min         Hop           8        54.8 IBUs     
3.00 oz               Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min          Hop           9        0.0 IBUs            
2.00 oz               Apollo [17.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min          Hop           10       0.0 IBUs      
2.00 oz               Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min      Hop           11       0.0 IBUs      
2.00 oz               Columbus [14.00 %]- Steep/Whirl 30m      Hop           12       0.0 IBUs
2.00 oz               Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Steep/Whirl 30m Hop           13       0.0 IBUs      
1.0 pkg               American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056) [124.21 Yeast         14       -             


Mash Schedule: Temperature Mash, 1 Step, Medium Body
Total Grain Weight: 23 lbs 11.2 oz
----------------------------
Name              Description                             Step Temperat Step Time     
Saccharification  Add 29.62 qt of water at 163.7 F        152.0 F       60 min        
Mash Out          Heat to 168.0 F over 10 min             168.0 F       10 min        

Sparge: Fly sparge with 8.44 gal water at 168.0

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.

Flathouse Saison

One of the many advantages of spending 18 hours brewing is that you're bound to have some wort left over. I realized when I overstuffed my mash tun on my Heady Topper clone that I'd have some strong last runnings in my mash tun. Once I collected that, I figured I'd collect the final runnings from the rest of the beers on the triple brew day and make something with it at my apartment. I had a pitch of WLP Saison II sitting around as well as some grown up dregs from The Bruery's Saison Rue, so I figured I'd make a Flathouse Saison (as opposed to a farmhouse saison) in the apartment.

The home brewery.

To make it even more special, I used the ounce and a half of hops that I yielded from my summer hop crop. One ounce of mostly dried then frozen Chinook at 60 minutes and a half ounce of Cascade at 5 minutes.

Home grown hops!

I combined the six gallons of final runnings from all of the beers and ended up with a 1.032 OG. I boiled it down to four gallons and still only saw about 1.045 gravity. Seeing how I wanted to have six gallons of moderate strength saison, I needed to add some more fermentables. In went a 1lb pack of amber DME and a 3lb liquid munich malt can, both I had sitting around. That gave me a final gravity of 1.070 for about five gallons of beer - too high. After I transferred to carboys, I added a gallon of chloramine treated tap water to each of the fermenters. According to Beersmith, this yielded a 1.055 OG on both. In went the yeast and I watched the race start.

Back to basics. This ice bath worked surprisingly well, taking about 25 minutes to 65 degrees.

I'm excited to see how it turns out. The malt will be pretty wild: traces of Pilsner, English pale ale malt, American 2-row malt, and of course Munich. Comparing the yeasts will be the most fun though. The Saison Rue yeast was finished fermenting in three days, while the WLP Saison II yeast took six days.

Early in fermentation

High krausen. The Saison Rue is on the right and is significantly lighter.

House Hefeweizen 1.5 tasting

Wheat beers are a big reason that I got into craft beer in the first place. When I was in college, I remember a friend of mine giving me a bottle of Hoegaarden and saying "this is my favorite beer." The translation being, "when I have a little extra money, I'll buy some of this stuff instead of a 30 rack of Natural Light." I can remember tasting it and being a little perplexed by the tart, yeasty flavor, but liking it. I remember coming home and looking around at local gas stations for the intriguing brew (then with a little bit of my parents' cash in my pocket) and, not being able to find it, settling for a six pack of Miller High Life. I tragically had no idea what a bottle shop or craft beer was at the time.

A few years later I realized that my Saxon Club, a group that I've been a fraternal member for all my life, had the Bavarian variation of wheat beer on tap in the form of Paulaner Hefeweizen. I love Paulaner Hefeweizen. I quickly switched from Warsteiner to Paulaner and eventually found that it was my favorite of the European wheat beers. After discovering home brewing a few years ago, it wasn't long after that I started brewing an attempt at the perfect hefeweizen myself. Rarely will I go a month without brewing a variation of my House Hefeweizen, a recipe I've settled on after brewing a handful of variations.

It's caught on too. I've got a large following amongst my friends and family for hef. It's a great gateway beer - BMC drinkers can tolerate it at first (what else will they drink on tap amongst IIPA, stout, and ESBs), but then come to crave it - and I find total non-beer drinkers are always intrigued by it. My Mom, who never drinks beer, will always pour herself a glass of hefeweizen after mowing the lawn if it's available.

What do I want in my hef? Simple. Apparent malt character - something where I'm able to pick out the bready flavor of a decent Pilsner malt and the sweetness of wheat malt - hefeweizen yeast - banana esters and a touch of clove and bubblegum flavor - a refreshing acidity that makes it great for summer drinking or quenching my thirst, and just a touch of bitterness to balance it. I like a more aggressive banana flavor than the style guidelines call for and have brewed my hefs to accomplish that. 

Last round I throttled back my fermentation temperature to get more within style guidelines with an eye towards the National Homebrewers Conference. I also cut out my decoction mash because of brew day constraints. I still used Safbrew WB-06, which I have come to love at 78-80 degrees fermentation temp, and kept everything the same. Here are the results:

Admire the head. It didn't last long.

Appearance: golden, hazy, yeasty. Just slightly off white color head with very big bubbles. Head recedes in less than a minute.

Smell: juicy fruit with a touch of bread.

Taste: bubblegum, banana, a hint of clove. It's got a nice acidity that I don't think I tasted in earlier batches. 

Mouthfeel: full and creamy. It quickly dissipates making me want to take another sip.

Overall: Solid iteration of hef. The more balanced approach allows the malt flavor to come out more than my more aggressive fermentations did. No discernible mouthfeel difference from my decoction hefs. The head retention is disappointing. I need to tweak the recipe because clearly the decoction does help with head retention. 

Next time? More carapils or maybe a bit of Munich to help with head retention. But I'm enjoying the balance and the fact that I can taste malt. I'm happy with the flavor and can confidently skip the decoction mash, unless I have the time on the brew day. Set the fermenter for 73-74-75. The new name of the game is assertive, but balanced banana yeast ester.

A minute and a sip later.

Adventures in production home brewing part 2

Last week I filtered the session pale ale. Man. "The kit" from The Filter Store worked beyond my expectations. I'm ecstatic that I don't have to deal with paper filters ever again.

If you remember, I brewed the beer, fermented it for 5 days, pitched polyclar finings into it, and crashed it at 38 degrees for two days. Since I ferment in sanke kegs, I installed the sanitized spear in the sanke, applied 5 psi of pressure, then ran the cloudy beer through the filter. The picture below gives you an idea of what the .5 micron filter accomplished. For what it's worth, the finished beer was a bit clearer than the hydrometer jar would let on, as the test draw was still pulling sediment that from the bottom of the keg that ended up clearing out about a half gallon into the transfer.

As I was hoping, I was able to get the entire 10 gallons through the filter without it jamming up. With my paper filters, I was able to get about 6 gallons through one pair of filters.

Pushing from the sanke fermenter, through the filter, and into a sanitized corny keg at 5 psi

The filter during use

Just before backflushing. Look at all the yeast at the bottom.

Backflushing...the filter came back out clear with only 2 visible patches of yeast/residue

Filtered, force carbonated, then bottled. This was about 4 hours later once I was home.

I carbonated the beer by applying 30psi of pressure and shaking the keg for three minutes. Although it was "pouring" perfect drafts, I'm a little worried at how the carbonation level will be once it is in the bottles. It's really hard to tell what the actual carbonation level will turn out to be once it's pushed from the keg through the Blichmann beer gun and into a bottle. I've had best results getting the beer and bottles as cold as possible and pushing the beer as close to 10psi as possible, then capping on foam.

Once again, this is far from how I want to brew every beer, but it was a great exercise in process and equipment. I'm confident in this new filter to use on any batch that I want commercial beer clarity on and can't afford the time to allow the beer to clear via gravity.

How did the beer taste? I saved a bottle, so I will do an in-depth review later. It was tasty though. I did a side by side with the flat beers - pre-filtering and post-filtering - and did not notice a perceptible difference in aroma. This beer was not dry hopped though. More volatile dry hop aroma and flavor is where I would be most worried that I'd lose out. The flavor was much cleaner than the pre-filtered sample, as would be expected.

The plan worked: a tasty beer that accomplished what I needed it to, brewed, fermented, fined, filtered, carbonated, and bottled in 7 days.