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

Zythos IPA - brewing

I thought it was about time to make something hoppy. Over the last 6 months, I have been making malty, roasty or sour beers. With such a long break from hops, I wanted this one to be big. As I was putting the recipe together, I decided to focus more on the citrusy side of American hops, but I soon found out that all of the good ones are sold out until the next harvest (early fall). What I did find was the hop bled from hop union called Zythos. It is apparently a blend of quite a few American hops. I ordered a pound of this and worked 1/2 of that into this recipe. 6 ounces in the boil and 2 more for dry hopping. I needed a malt bill that can stand up to that much hop flavor.
I started with a base of standard 2 row, a pound of caramel 80 (I happened to have some I wanted to use up) another pound of cara-pils and a pound of sugar to top it off. The goal is an ~8% abv beer. Full recipe here. Also with 6oz hops in the kettle, you lose quit a bit of wort, so I planned this as a 6 gallon recipe and will hopefully end up with 5 in the keg.

For today, I wanted to keep it simple and focus just on this one beer. I didn't start the water or crushing the grains until after 9am and I had the chiller going in time to make it to the farmer's market by 12:30. For the most part, the day went smoothly although during the boil, there was some boil over, but strangely no wort escaped, it just pushed all of the hops out. I scooped them back in and kept the fire going. Everything looked like it was going well, but when I checked the gravity, it was much lower than expected. 1.061, which means I only got 60% efficiency. Depending on where it finishes, I may have a 6.5% beer. Not quite as big as I was hoping, but will still be OK.
My daughter really liked sampling the sweet wort. I may have to start making some non-alcoholic malt beverages.

I then used a half gallon of the final runnings to top off my sour cultures and set a couple out in an attempt to capture wild yeast. We will see how that goes...

Big lambic brew day

 Today was a busy day. After taking the kids hiking and starting the garden, I completed my first 15 gallon brew day.
 I converted 22# of grain into the wort that will eventually become 10 gallons of lambic and 5 gallons of wheat beer. The wheat being ready MUCH sooner.
You can find the recipe here.

 I seem to always want to push a little bit more out of each brew session. On other brew days I have done two 5 gal brews, partigyle and a 10 gallon batch. Today combined 10 gallons and partyigyle (2 different beers from the same mash)

 With the day already so busy, I didn't want to do a full traditional turbid mash, so I came up with a simpler schedule that should yield similar results. Protein rest at 125, then drained 2qt of very milky looking wort. I boiled this in a separate pot while continuing with the main mash, which I did a sach rest around 155. After draining and sparging to get the first 9 gallons, I even did a mini decoction for the wheat beer. 

This is where you scoop out some of the grains (1/2 gal in this case) and boil those separate from the mash. Similar to the turbid part, but done after the sacc rest, so there shouldn't be any starch. Also, boiling the grains brings out some more malt flavors.

    What comes next?
For the lambic, I am pitching 1 pack of Wyeast lambic blend, slurry and a few oak cubes from last years bath and a bit of a sour starter I have been keeping. This has dregs from a number of commercial sour beers. Sometime over the summer, I will blend with last years to get 6 gallons. This will be split in 3. The first third will age on local peaches; the next on wild Croton raspberries; the last will remain unflavored gueuze. This should leave ~6 gallons from this years batch for longer aging and future blends
The wheat beer gets a pack of wyeast 3068 and should be ready in a few weeks.

My little helper

Scottish 80/ bew day

I was looking for something that I could make 10 gallons of and split into 2 different 5 gallon batches. It is a little more work and a tight squeeze on my equipment, but gives twice the beer! For this round, I was looking for something easy drinking with a balance towards malt. Almost went with German, but in the end decided a Scottish beer. I was looking for something in the 5% abv, so scotch 80/ it is. 1/2 of the beer will age on oak. Being able to taste both side by side will let me really see what oak does to a beer.

The grain bill is mostly base malt, with some English caramel malt and a bit of roast barley. The first gallon was boiled down and added back in later in the boil. This helps to caramelize the wort and bring out some toffee like flavors.

Full recipe here.

It was tight, but I was able to mash at almost 1.5 qt/# in my 10 gallon mash tun. I was aiming for mash temp of around 152, but it dropped quite a bit before mash was over. Ended somewhere around 145. I hope the beer doesn't suffer too much. It may end up a little thin or might just take a hit in efficiency.

Since it have a 10 gallon pot, I don't have enough room for a full boil on a 10 gallon batch. Aside from the gallon I split off to boil down, I started the mail boil with almost 9 gallons. I had trouble keeping a rolling boil. This time of year, you really need to have two propane tanks. Mine kept freezing up. In the end, I barely got 7.5 gals into the fermetors. This added with the 2.5 gallons of bottled water brought me to exactly 10 gallons. I was hoping for a bit more since you always lose some to trub when transferring.

Brewing - end of the world stout

I decided on this brew for a few reasons. I have been slowly upping my abv in big brews - 10% belgian strong dark, 12% barleywine - and thought it was time to go all out.
I also wanted something that I could age until this time next year. What better way to celebrate the end of the world than a 20% chocolate stout?
I dont get to brew that often, so to keep the pipeline going, I wanted a quick beer also.
I have done partigyle and double batch brew days, but decided on a new strategy for this one - brew 7.5 gals of strong beer. Ferment 5 as is and water down the other half to 5% ish beer.
After initial ferment, i will feed corn sugar to the big beer until it cant take anymore.



Full, think mash in 10g cooler

   Base Recipe:
   23#  Maris Otter
    2#   Flaked Barley
   13oz Chocolate malt
   13oz Roasted Barley
    4oz  Black patent
    6#   LME added to boil
    5oz  Northern Brewer hops (60 Minute)
    8oz  Coco powder added in last 20 minute

    Mash 60 minutes @ 152dg
    Split wort 5 gallons to EWS stout
              2.75 gallons to Chocolate stout



26.2 Brix = 1.11sg  Not bad first runnings

 

  End of the World Stout:

     Pitch 2 packs Nottingham dry yeast

     Once ferment slows, start adding corn sugar 8oz/12hrs

      Try to keep grav low 1.02's

      Add 2oz coco nubs and a vanilla bean

      let sit 2 weeks or more





      Secondary months on 1oz oak

      Bottle in time for drinking 12/22/2012

      I would suggest force carbonating this one



First and Second runnings



   Chocolate stout:

     Pitch 1 pack S-04 dry yeast

     Add 2oz coco nubs + Vanilla bean to primary

      let sit 2 weeks or more

      Keg and enjoy!    



The boil

  

The brew session was a success.  Mashing 27# in a 10gallon cooler was tight. I normally aim for 1.25 qt/#, but had to go with 1.1qt/#, which is quite thick. Sparge was slow, but didn't stick. 
I ended up with 5 gals of 1.1sg for the EWS and 5.25 gals of 1.055sg for the Chocolate stout (After adding 2.5 gals spring water)