2012 Year End Review

2012 was quite a productive year.  I brewed around 100 gallons of beer and cider; made my highest abv beer to date (EoTW Stout); made my first lager; blended lambic with two types of fruit and experimented with a number of ingredients.  Some ingredients I used this year included:  chocolate, oak, home grown hops, Zythos hop blend, smoked malt, local fruit and 'wild' yeast.

2012 Home brew Log:
12/28/11 (Finished in 2012) 5 gallons Chocolate Stout - Tasting
12/28/11 (Finished in 2012) 5 gallons  End of The World Stout - Tasting
1/29/12  10 gallons  Scottish 80 - Half with Oak - Tasting
2/20/12  10 gallons  Lambic-Base 2012
2/20/12   5 gallons   Wheat second run - Tasting - Tasting 2 
4/7/12     5 gallons   Zythos IPA - Tasting
5/5/12    10 gallons  German Lager / Oktoberfest
6/2/12      5 gallons  Zythos Pale Ale - Tasting
7/8/12      5 gallons  Raspberry Wheat - Tasting
7/16/12    2 gallons  Blended Raspberry Lambic
7/21/12    2 gallons  Blended Peach Lambic
8/12/12    5 gallons  Harvest IPA
8/26/12   10 gallons Eberhardt Dark
9/30/12     5 gallons Cider 2012 (Wilkens)
10/7/12     5 gallons Strong Stout
10/7/12     5 gallons Smoked porter - Tasting
11/1/12    10 gallons Belgien Dubbel/Oud Bruin
12/2/12    10 gallons Honey Wheat

Plans for 2013:
 Strong Double/Imperial IPA - Possibly with Belgian yeast (I happen to have some I need to use)
 Another 10 gallons of Lambic base
 Blending Lambic Gueze and this year's Raspberry and peach
 English bitter
 American IPA
 Another raspberry wheat - probably with another 5 gallons of HeffeWeizen
 Another harvest IPA
 Historic 1800 IPA - Possibly with Brett

End of the World Stout is here

Millions of years ago, the galactic Mayan empire foretold the end of the world.  But how will it come? Will it be impact with a comet, zombie apocalypse, death star or Volgon construction crew?  No! it comes to you in a convenient 12 oz bottle!

  I present to you End of the World Stout - a beer brewed to ridiculous strength (20% abv) flavored with chocolate and aged on oak.

I made this monster brew almost one year ago.  Update  After aging for a few months on oak and chocolate, I force carbonated and bottled.  It has been sitting, waiting for this day...

The bottle opens with a hiss to remind me the carbonation transferred over ok.  I was a little worried since this was force carbonated in the keg and I don't have any of that fancy bottling equipment.

It pours deep black with only a hint of head that leaves a ring around the top.

Sweet aroma of dark malt with a hint of chocolate backed up with a whiff of alcohol. Maybe a little bit of roasted in the aroma too, but you have to look for it.

Strong malt favors right up front along with a slight alcohol burn.  The alcohol is actually quite mild considering it is around 20%. The malt/alcohol is followed by velvety chocolate, which lingers long after you have swallowed.  Sadly, I can't find the oak, but maybe it's there helping the favors blend together.  I guess a beer this strong needs more than an ounce.  It could also be that the oak cubes were buried in layers of yeast that settled out in secondary.  

The feel is a bit thick, but not syrupy or sticky.  The carbonation it does have helps lighten it up a bit.  It finishes with a slight alcohol burn and that chocolate.

This beer is more like a chocolate liquor than your average ale/stout/etc.  something to keep you company after the world has ended.  Enough of these and you won't even remember the comet strike or the wave of incoming zombies!

Notes:

    12/28/11 - Brewed  OG=1.10
        Made 2x 1/2 gal WLP099 starters
        Started with Nottingham yeast
    1/1-1/8 - Added 7.# corn sugar added some 099 and yeast nutrient
    1/9/12 -  Final sugar addition. vOG=1.074
    1/10/12 -  + 1 Vanilla bean (Vodka soaked) + 2oz Coco Nubs
          BR=19.2 G=1.04 ABV=14-19%
     1/16-1/17 added 1# cane Sugar vOG=1.182
     1/19/12 - Secondary Got ~4.5 gals - 1 gal of sludge!  G=1.029  ABV=20%
     5/29/12 - Keg + Fridge (To force carb)  FG=1.023, 19brix  ABV=20-21%
          Based on current brix+SG, OG could be 1.169, putting ABV at 19.5%
      8/23/12 - Bottled 1.5 cases
      12/20/12 - This tasting!

     

Honey Wheat - Recipe

With all of the dark, strong and sour beers I have been brewing recently, it was time to make something light and easy drinking.  After tossing a few ideas around I decided to make some honey wheat beer. 

Recipe (10 Gallons)
  10# Rahr 2-row
  5# Wheat malt (Local shop didn't have enough of one kind, so I used white and red)
  2# Wheat flour
  3# Orange blossom honey added at the end of the boil.
  1oz Zythos hop blend (60)
  1oz whole homegrown Cascade hops (15)
  2 packs US-05 dry yeast

Mash:
  Protein rest 10 minutes at 122F
  Sacc rest 50 minutes at 152F

Notes:
  Brewed 12/2/12  OG=1.051
  I took a chance mashing so much wheat with no rice hulls, but with the protein rest and a thin (1.5qt/#) mash, I didn't have too much trouble sparging.  I boiled 9 gallons down to a little over 7. At the end, I topped off with 2.5 gallons of bottled water, giving me 10 gallons in the fermeters.

Belgian dubbel/oud bruin

Recipe for 10 gallons.  I split this into 2 pails.  One got the standard Belgian yeast, the other Roeselare yeast blend, which will become an Oud Bruin.

Fermentables:
   18# Rarh 2-row malt
     1# Carapils
  1/2# Special B
  1/2# Belgian aromatic malt
     1# Belgian dark candi sugar
     2# sugar
Hops:
  2oz German Tradition (60)
  2oz Hersbrucker (15)
Other:
  1 Whirlfloc tablet (10)

Yeast:
  Wyeast 1214 Belgian Abby ale - Sub White labs 530 Belgian Abby ale
  Wyeast 3763 Roselare blend - used in 1/2 the wort for an old bruin.
 
Notes:

10/28/12 - Starter of WYeasty Abbey Yeaast

10/31/12 - Belgian starter failed!

10/31/12 - New starter w/ WLP 530 Abbey Ale

11/1/12 - Brew 10g Belgian double (1/2 goes to oud bruin)   OG=1.065

11/24/12 - Secondary  SG=1.011

Hazy, amber.  Slight yeasty. not much Belgian character.  A little sweet but not bad.

Smoked porter - tasting

Smoked porter Tasting

The beer is dark, almost black with ruby red highlights and a tan head.  Aroma of roasted malt with hints of wood smoke.  The smoke is more prominent in the flavor, backed up by the roasted malts.  It is full bodied and smooth. 

I like how this turned out.  I think the 5# was just the right amount of smoked malt for what I was looking for. 
I will be enjoying this over the winter months.

 

Notes:
10/7/12 - Brew OG=1.052
  +Nottingham Yeast
10/27/12 - Secondary - SG=1.009
  Nice smoky aroma and some in the flavor.  Dark. 
   Lost a lot to trub - only 4 Gallons in secondary.
11/2/12 - Bottled 4 gals of Smoked porter  FG=1.009  ABV=5.75%
   + 2.9oz sugar

Smoked Porter - Recipe

I combined 2.5 gallons of a strong stout and 2.5 gallons of smoked malt to make this beer.  I got 2 different 5 gallon batches with only a little extra effort.  See here for the full Strong Stout recipe. I mashed the smoked malt separately testing the 'brew in a bag' method.  It doesn't help that I didn't have the right kind of bag, but I think I got enough out of it.

For 2.5 Gallons (Then combined):
Fermentables:
  5# Briess Cherrywood smoked malt

Hops:
 1/2oz Northern Brewer (60 min)

Yeast:
  1 packet Nottingham dry ale yeast

Combine with 2.5 Gallons of Strong Stout wort.

Notes:
 Brewed: 10/7/12

 Mashed  @ ~152F for 60 minutes at 2qt/#
   Collected 3.5gals @9brix (1.036sg)
   Final (After combining): 4.8gals @14brix (1.056sg)
  After cooling, I took a gravity reading and got closer to 1.050. 

Looks like I got poor efficiency from the smoked malt.  The small bag made it difficult to stir the mash well.  At least the high gravity of the strong stout helped balance that. 1.050 will probably yield around 5% ABV, so its not too bad.  I will have to top it off 1-2 quarts to make up for the short volume, but it wont affect it by too much.
I did notice that the smokiness of the malt was very mild.  I am hoping 5# was enough to give it some good smoke character.

Update 11/25/12 Tasting

Strong Stout/Porter - Recipe

This recipe was for a combined brewing day.  I have been experimenting with different ways to get more than one beer in a short brew day.  For this, I made ~7.5 gallons of a strong stout and 2.5 gallons of smoked beer.  This recipe is for 7.5 gallons of stout.  See here for the smoked half.

For 7.5 Gallons:
Fermentables:
   15# Rahr 2-row
   1# Caramel 80
   1# English Chocolate Malt
   1# Flaked Oats
   1# Flaked Barley (I had ordered 2# barley, but was shipped 1 barley, 1 oats)
   8oz Black Patent Malt
   8oz English Roast Barley

Hops:
 2oz Northern Brewer (60 min)

Other:
 1 Whirlfloc tablet
 1 Vanilla bean (at flame-out)

Yeast:
  2 packs of S-04 dry ale yeast.

Notes:
 Brewed: 10/7/12 Start 7:45am

 Mashed  @ ~152F for 60 minutes at 1.5qt/#
   First running: 4.25gals @20.8brix (1.087sg)
   Second running: 5gals @11brix (1.044sg)
   Pre-boil 9.25gals @15brix
   Final: 7.5gals @18brix (1.074sg)
  After cooling, I took a gravity reading and got closer to 1.070. 

I probably could have gotten away with 1 yeast pack, but with the high OG, I decided to over pitch rather than under.  I'm sure it helped because the next day, I had blow off - Unexpected with 2 gallons of head space I leave in the pail.
Another thing I noticed with this beer.  Skimming the wort really helped avoid boilover.  I started with 9+ gallons in a 10 gallon pot.  I have skimmed before, but I could see this was really going to need it.  After taking off the top layer of foam, the rest of the boil went flawlessly.

2012 Cider (Wilkens)

 Its apple season again and time to make some hard cider.  For this batch, I decided to go more fresh & natural.  5 Gallons of local fresh apple cider, wine yeast (Montrachet) and a little nutrient.  No added sugar, no pectic enzymes.

Started on 9/30/12
OG=1.048

It is bubbling away nicely and smells of sweet apples.  I will leave it in primary until the yeast drops, then a few months in secondary.  I still haven't
kegged Apfelwein IV, which has been aging since last
November.  Time to get to work!

Eberhardt Dark - Recipe

I based this recipe off of a combination of the Scottish 80 and German Lager - both of which I made in the last few months and liked at lot.
I combined what I though were the best parts of each into this one batch of 10 gallons.  This will be split into 2x5 gallon with the only difference this time being the yeast.

Recipe:
  for 10 Gallons OG=1.049
Malt:
 16.5# 2-row
 2# Munich 10l
 2# Vienna
 4oz Chocolate malt
 4oz Black patent malt
Hops:
 2oz Northern Brewer (60 minutes)
Yeast - each went into half (5 gallons)
 Safeale S-04
 Safbrew S-33
Other:
 1 Whirlfloc Tablet in boil (15 Minutes)
 2oz Med Toast Hungarian oak cubes - 1oz in secondary for each 5 gals
Mash 60 minutes at 152F

Brewing:I took the first gallon of mash runnings to boil down separately. This is to caramelize it a little and add to the maltiness.
My boil kettle is only 10 gallons, so I don't have enough room for a full 10g boil.  I started with 9 gallons, which boiled down to a little under 8.  Combined with the separate boil and 2 gallons of distilled top off water, I have my 10 gallons.
With my basement temp around 75F this time of year, I started the first few days of fermentation in the chest cooler, set to low 60's.
After at least 2 weeks primary, I will secondary on oak.  The first half will be kegged soon after, with the other waiting until the first half is gone.
I brewed this at the same time as this year's Havest IPA, which made for quite an exhausting day.

Notes:
  8/26/12 Brew 10 Gals @ 1.058 (Efficiency must have been a bit better than expected..)
     Fermenting in Chest freezer @60F
     1/2 gets S-33 other gets S-04
  

Harvest IPA 2012

With the homegrown hops ready for harvest, it's time for a Harvest IPA.  In this, I load it up with tons of fresh hops - something you can only do this time of year.  Last year, I only got nugget hops, but it turned out ok.  This year both the nugget and cascade plants are producing, so I am excited to see how it turns out.
While putting together the recipe, I was drinking the last of my German lager, which had a nice malty flavor from Munich and Vienna malts.  I wanted to give this beer a little bit of that, so I included a pound of each.  Hopefully it is just enough to balance the hops and not overpower the beer.
I like more hop flavor without over the top bitterness, so I decided to add all of the hops in the last 20 minutes.  This also let me do a short boil (1/2 hour) which really helped because I brewed this the same day as a 10 gallon batch of dark.
I first put the recipe together with 1oz hop additions, but since fresh hops are 70-80% water, this version includes 4x as much hops (by weight).  This came out to about 2 full solo cups for each hop addition.  In the end, I strained 1-2 gallons of used hops from the wort.

Recipe:  5 Gallon batch
Fermentables:
 10# 2-row malt
  1# Vienna malt
  1# Munich malt
  1# cara pils
  1# cane sugar
  Mash 1 hour @ 152F
Hops:
  4oz fresh nugget  (20)
  4oz fresh cascade (15)
  4oz fresh nugget (10)
  4oz fresh cascade (5)
  4oz fresh nugget (flame out)
  4oz fresh cascade (flame out)
  4oz fresh cascade (dry hop)
Boil additions:
  Whirlfloc (15)
Yeast:
   Fermentis US-05
Notes:
  Brewed on 8/26/12 staggered after the dark beer
  With the short boil and extra water from the hops, I ended up with 6 gallons of 1.058 wort.  Weaker than planned, but I do get an extra gallon of final proeduct.
  Fermented at ~70F in swamp cooler.
  Will rack to secondary and dry hop after 1-2 weeks
  It will sit in secondary for 1 week before going into the keg.  I want to drink this one fresh.

Hops - Growing



Cascade plant



Nugget Hop tower

After making your own beer, whats the next level? How about growing your own ingredients?  While it isn't practical for the homeowner to grow fields of barley, hops are actually not so difficult.  There are numerous websites selling hop rhizomes (Root cuttings you can use to propagate the plant)

I forget if these plants are on their second or third year, but I do know I only got hops from one of them (Nugget) last year.  It was enough to make a nice IPA and I plan to do the same this year - but hopefully with enough hops left over to dry and save for later batches too.

I moved the Cascade plant to a better spot with more sunlight and it has thanked my with tons of hop cones.  I have it growing horizontally along the fence.

For the nugget plant, I made a 20' pole and hung strings for it to climb.  In only a few months, it climbed to the top and back down another 6'.  It looks like this single massive hop tower.

In a few weeks, I will harvest and use a ton of them in a nice IPA.  Most recipes use dry hops, which weigh about 80% less than fresh, so I will need to adjust by about 5x, so while a normal IPA recipe may ask for 1/2# or so of hops, I will need more like 4 pounds...

I will post more on that IPA when the time comes.

Drying hops - Assuming I have enough to save for future batches, I will need to dry them for proper storage.  There are a number of methods suggested out there.  I am leaning towards filling a pillow case and putting it in the dryer.  Once they lose 70-80% of their weight I will pack them in ziplock bags and store in the freezer.

Other uses - I also like to make Hops tea from the fresh hop flowers.  For this, just break up a few cones, put them in a tea steeper, fill a container with hot tap water and put in the fridge.  Once it cools down you have a nice refreshing hoppy beverage.  Now that I have a carbonator cap, I may try some hops soda...mmm.  My wife has a recipe for ginger hop soda that we want to try.



Lambic 2012 (Peach) blending

2/3 of my 2012 Lambic blends now completed and aging.
I did the raspberry last week and will do the gueuze sometime in a few months probably.
For this beer, I also took 1 gallon from each of the 2011 and 2012 base beers. We went peach picking on Saturday and picked 9pounds of yellow peaches. The white were not ready yet. Since only a few were ripe, I added 2.5 pounds on Saturday and another 1.5 Monday night for a total of 4 pounds in 2 gallons. This should be enough to get a nice peachy aroma and flavor.
Sometime next year we will get to see how well that goes...

Raspberry Wheat - Tasting

This beer (Recipe) (Brewing) has only been in the keg for about a week and its just about ready for drinking now.  Just in time for tomorrow's party.
 Low malt flavor, just enough hops to balance and a neutral yeast make this wheat beer a clean canvas for the local raspberries to shine.

Appearance:  It has this reddish amber or maybe copper color.  Not as bright red as I would have liked, but this is what you get without food coloring.  The head is nice foamy slightly pink, but mostly white.

Aroma:  the smell is mostly fruity (I would guess raspberry) with a little wheat in the background.

Flavor:  It has a slight tartness and up front berry flavor with a little wheat.  I think there are some hops sneaking in too.

Mouthfeel:  Thin, but in a nice refreshing way.  The carbonation gives it some body.  Just about what I would want for a light refreshing fruity summer beer.

Overall: I do like the beer and I hope it is taken well tomorrow - but I do hope they leave me some to savor over the next month or so too.  Also it gives a preview to what the lambic version may be when it is ready.

 7/8/12 - Brew 5.25 gals.  BR=12 OG=1.046
   Wort was surprisingly clear/white
   US-05 pitched @71 - In swamp cooler w/ ice bottles.
  7/13-15/12 - Picked 7.5# raspberries (total)
  7/15/12 - Added 5.5# Raspberries to Primary  G=1.005
  7/26/12 - Secondary G=1.006
   Not a whole lot of raspberry aroma.  Some flavor. OK warm.  should be better cold/carb
   Good clarity.  better than expected.  color good, little lighter.
  8/2/12 - Keg  ABV=5.25%

Raspberry wheat 2012

Last year, I made a "wheat" beer with wild raspberries to serve at my daughter's birthday party. I add the " because at the last minute, I couldn't get any wheat malt and substituted a couple pounds of wheat flour. The beer turned out good, so this year I am only changing things a little. The recipe now has 50% wheat malt and I chose a different hop.

I brewed the base beer on 7/8/12. The brew day was rather uneventful and went pretty smoothly. I was surprised at how clearish white the wort was coming out of the mash tun. I am not used to brewing without darker malts. The whole thing looked greenish while boiling with the hops. It carmelized in the kettle a bit, so the final wort looked like the more usual light brown.

Friday 7/13 picked around 2# but almost half were eaten, leaving me with 1.25#
Saturday 7/14 picked over 4#. After washing, I had 5.5# of berries.
2# are going to the lambic, which leaves 3.5 for this.
Sunday I picked another 2# giving me a total of 5.5# for this beer.

I will give it another week or so before racking to secondary to let it clear up before kegging.  This will be on tap for mid-August.

My little helper

Lambic 2012 (raspberry) - blending

Raspberry Lambic - Framboise
Fruit beer aged for years with various microbes with fruit added (in this case raspberries)

After my first Lambic attempt 2 years ago with the Dawson creek kit from northern brewer turned out pretty good, I decided to start my own lambic project.

Spring of 2011, I brewed 5 gallons of wort and pitched wyeast lambic blend - this part has been aging quietly since.

Spring of 2012, I stepped it up and brewed almost 10 gallons. This time I pitched a combination of lambic blend, slurry from the year before and some bottle dregs from sour beers I have been sampling.

The plan is to take 3 gallons from both years, blend them and split to 3 separate 2 gallon batches. One gets raspberries, one gets peaches and the last will be gueuze.

I know 1.5 years in is a little early to start blending them, but I am impatient, this will age another 6 months before bottling and I am saving plenty for next year.

This weekend (7/13-7/15) is peak season for wild raspberries here in Croton. Over the weekend, I picked over 7.5 pounds (Not including the 1-2 we ate). 2 pounds of this is for this lambic, the rest goes into RaspBerry Wheat.


Framboise in BB



I had a little tasting session Friday night to see how the 3 batches were doing and confirm my 50/50 blend plan. All went well and I am sticking to the plan. There was some tartness, a little brett flavors coming through and luckily no horrible off flavors. The older one had some apple flavor and the younger one had a little too much oak tannin.

The 2011 batch was crystal clear, while the 2012 was almost opaque it was so cloudy. Hopefully that will settle out with extended aging. The 2012 that I had in this plastic cubitainer tasted like it was more aged than the half in glass, so I will go with that one.



Lambic 2011 original gravity: 1.055 SG now: 1.003

Lambic 2012 original gravity: 1.050 SG now: 1.008

Expected abv: 6%



 

 

Zythos Pale Ale

With the success of my Zythos IPA, I decided to use most of the remaining hops for a lighter pale ale version to serve on July 4th.

I based the recipe off of the IPA, lowered the alcohol a bit, adjusted bittering hops to match and changed a few things based on what I had on hand.

This was kegged and ready just in time for our July 4th BBQ. I was hoping it would have cleared up more by then, but it still had chill haze. Good thing we served in red plastic cups :)

Brewing:
Recipe here

The brew day was reletively uneventful.  Gravity was a hair under what I wanted, but still OK.  I used 4 ounces of Zythos hops in the boil, and one each dry hop and keg hop.  Original Gravity: 1.045, Final Gravity: 1.005.  ABV: 5%

Tasting:
It has finally cleared up and looks great, though I might like it a little lighter.
A nice hoppy aroma with citrus fruitiness. The flavor is similar with a nice balance. Definitely not too sweet or bitter, which makes it nice and drinkable. The light body helps here too. The carbonation is a little high, which is the only thing keeping me from from chugging it.

Overall:
I do like this beer, but am not sure if I will brew again. In the lighter beers, people seem to preffer more malt/less hops.  I will focus my hoppy efforts on the stronger IPAs.

Zythos IPA - Tasting

I love the way this beer turned out. My goal was strong citrus American hop flavor without too much bitterness. I did originally plan it to have higher alcohol, but it is ok where it ended up. I do not expect this keg to lay too long, which is ok because these IPAs are best fresh. This weekend, I will be brewing a lighter pale ale version of this.
Links: Recipe Brewing

The beer is this pretty copper color with great clarity. I think I will stick with using a secondary. It helps to drop the yeast out before I get it into the keg.

The aroma is all hops. American citrus type hops.

For the most part, the flavor matches the aroma, hoppy goodness. There is a little malty sweetness to help balance.

The beer is quite drinkable, especially for a 7.5%abv beer. It has this thirst quenching quality to it. I could drink it by the quart.

Notes:
  4/7/12 - Brewed - OG=1.061 (Poor efficiency)
  4/22/12 - Secondary G=1.005   + 1 oz Zythos dry-hop
      Hazy, but not too yeasty.  Some hop aroma, good hoppy flavor.
  5/10/12 - Keg Zythos IPA  FG=1.004  ABV=7.5%
      + 1oz Zythos keg-hop
  Initial tasting - Soft with pleasant hop flavor with a hint of "Soapy"   Low bitterness
  So far, I have not had any issues with the keg hops. I didn't do anything special, just tied up 1oz of pellet hops in a mesh Baggie and threw them in.

And a thank you to Keith for the perfect mug to drink this beer from!

First sourdough (bread)

With all of this beer making, we thought it was time to start our own sourdough culture. Bread is solid beer after all.
It all started two weeks ago when I mixed some leftover wort with some flour in a mason jar. We fed it daily (your are supposed to feed twice daily, but we had trouble keeping up) for two weeks. This weekend I decided it was time to see what our little creation could do. I found a basic sourdough recipe and got to work.

Starter culture

Here is the recipe and process I used. It is a combination of a few I found online modified for what I had on hand.

Mix 1 cup sourdough starter in large bowl with -
 3/4 cup water
 2-1/3 tbsp olive oil
 1-1/2 tbsp buckwheat honey
 1-1/4 tsp salt
Mix ingredients well then add in 2 cups whole wheat flour and mix well.
Turn onto floured surface and kneed in another 1/2 cup or so of white flour.
Kneed into a ball and put in covered greased bowl.
Allow it to rise - we gave it about 8 hours.
Punch down, kneed some more and formed into a ball ( from here you could do loaf, rolls, pretzel, etc)
Put onto floured pizza stone (bad idea) and let rise another hour or so.
I forgot to slash the top, but that didn't cause a problem here.
Baked at 370 for 40 minutes.

I baked it on our pizza stone, but soon learned I should have put something on it other than just flour. The bread was glued to the stone and it took some time to scrape it free. Someday I will learn how to use that thing,.

We let it cool 10 minutes before trying it.

Soft crust, very soft and springy inside. It was also a bit chewy. Not bad for almost all whole wheat.
Standard bread flavors, but definitely has that sourdough taste to it. Not overpowering, but it was definitely there.
Lactic acid flavor lingers long after you are done eating it.
Overall, we were very happy with how this came out and will definitely make it again.

4 way wheat beer tastings




Weihenstephan, Schneider, Franzikaner, Mine!

  Spring is here (not that we really had much of a winter) and that means its time to break out the wheat beers. Or as the Germans call it Weissbier. Sure America has wheat beer too, but this post isn't about those.  I stopped by the beverage distributer and grabbed 3 German weisse beers to compare - and of course added my own into the mix (This one). I had used the weihenstephan yeast for mine, so there should be some similarities.

 #1. Weihenstephan 
  We start with the Worlds oldest brewery. It also happens to be the only one that I have a matching glass for.
     Yellowish orange hazy. Pillowy white head.
      Fruity Belgian yeast aroma
      A little bread malt in flavor.  Refreshing light beer.  Yeast esters dominate the flavor.  It is a little tart with some citrus and maybe a hint of banana.
     The beer has good carbonation with a slight prickliness to it.

#2 Schneider Weisse "The original weiss beer"
   This one is a bit darker with an off-white head.  Sizzling carbonation.
   It has a cleaner aroma and flavor.  Not as light and refreshing as the last one.
   Lauren says it needs brats :)
   The flavor does have some yeast mixed with a mild maltiness - and perhaps some fruit?
   It has a good carboniation, but with less prickly.
   This beer has a slightly drying to the mouth in the finish. Is that tannins?

#3 Franziskaner Weissbier
   How can you not love a beer with a drunken monk on it?
  Pours light hazy orange with large creamy off white head.
  Mild yeasty aroma with a slight spiciness mixed with citrus and bread.
  This beer has a good wheat flavor with more of that spicy citrus.  It also has a slight drying of the mouth.
  Again highly carbonated with some prickly, but not overly soda like.
  Another great beer.  Similar to the weihenstephan one.  My Only complaint is the foil wrap that is impossible to get off if you want to reuse the bottle.

 #4 My 2nd run wheat beer
  One difference - this beer was kegged, while the others were all bottle conditioned.
  Nice light orange color.  Hazy, but it is starting to clear up a bit.  More translucent than the others, but not by a whole lot.  Pillowy white head.
  Mild yeast aroma.  Less of the clove/banana than I got on the initial tasting.  Leaves a slightly phenolic after taste.
  Flavor is bright and almost citrusy wheaty goodness.  Good carbonation.
  Definitely light and refreshing.

Overall:  Mine may be the overall most refreshing, but I think I like the more complex flavors of Weihenstphan and Franzikaner a little better.  To me, Schneider came in last place here.

Double German lager brewing

I finally made the leap and am doing my first lager. Lagers are not really much harder than ales, except that temperature control during fermentation is much more important. Lager yeast ferments at a lower temperature than you can get from leaving the fermenter in the basement.
Ever since I got this chest freezer, I have been waiting to make the move - And today is the day.
I wanted to make the most of today's brew session and end up with two beers. To keep things simple, I decided to go with generic German lager and Oktoberfest. This would let me use the same mash and hops, with the divergence after the boil.  The only differences are the yeast and I will water down the lager a little.

A few days ago I made large starters of wyeast bohemian lager and octoberfest blend yeasts.

The day ended up being quite productive. In addition to ten gallons of beer, we made a sour dough yeast starter, took the kids to mayfair, mowed the lawn, cleaned the basement - All while I monitored a job for work.

Back to the beer - I opted for simple to save time and let me multitask a little. Single infusion mash at 152dg.  My mash tun was filled to the top, but rather uneventful.  First run and 2 sparges later, I had 12 gallons to work with.  Making a 10 gallon batch in a 10 gallon pot can be a bit tricky, so I split the wort - 8 gallons into the main kettle and 3.5 in a smaller pot on another burner. I combined these while it was cooling.
I ended up with 4.5 gallons in the octoberfest and 4 gallons in the lager. This seems low, but it was stronger than expected (1.064 sg) so I can water them down to 5 gallons each.
After filling the fermenters, I collected some more wort to feed some wild yeast starters I have and make the sour dough starter.

It was a tight fit, but I got the two buckets into the chest freezer with 4 kegs. I did have to remove the cider keg.  After initial fermentation at 50dg, I will let it warm up to finish off for a few weeks.  After that, the Lager gets 1 month of cold storage.  The Oktoberfest 3 months.

Notes:
Full recipe here.
Measuring out the grain, I realized I was 6# short - So emergency trip to the Growler in the morning.
1:30pm - Started heating water and crushed the grains
 Infused 30qt at 168dg for 152dg mash at 1.4qt/#
2:30 pm Sparging:
   1.  4.75 gals @ 21.7Brix (1.091sg)
   2.  5.25 gals @ 11.5Brix (1.046sg)
   3.  2 gals @ 7.5 Brix (1.03sg)
4pm Start boil
  2 hop additions into the 8 in the main pot
  3.5 gallons in another pot
5pm combined and cooled
6pm - 8.5 gallons into the fermentors at 16Brix (1.064)
  Will add .5 gals water to Oktoberfest for vOG=1.059 
  Will add 1 gals water to Lager for vOG=1.051