Cracked Malibu – Lagering

As I mentioned in my previous post, the fermentation schedule for this beer was…

Primary:  3 Weeks @ 10C

Diacetyl Rest:  3 Days @ 19C  (Raises the temperature briefly so the yeast can clean up any remaining diacetyl funkiness in the beer)

Lager:  4 Weeks @ 2C

….

So the Primary and Diacetyl Rest had been completed and it was time to move to the lagering stage.  The first two stages took place in a glass carboy, which is a great way to see what’s taking place during fermentation.  Ale’s are considered ‘top fermenting’ in which the yeast tend to sit on top of the beer, and lagers are considered ‘bottom fermenting’ in which the yeast sit on the bottom of the fermenter to do their work.  This isn’t really true.  During primary fermentation, if you use a glass carboy, you can see the beer churning and mixing vigorously as if its in a blender.  The yeasties are actually swirling around, eating sugar, and spiting out alcohol and co2.  The co2 is a gas that rises out of the liquid and blurbs out the airlock.  Well this motion of co2 rising out of the wort/beer creates this churning affect which is great for keeping the yeast in suspension.  From what I’ve noticed though, lager yeast does pack down on the bottom of the carboy after the vigorous stage and continues to do its work from there.  I could see little co2 bubbles rising up from the bottom of the yeast cake – something that I haven’t see ale yeast do.

Once the primary was over I simply raised the temperature up a bit to do the diacetyl rest.  This rest allows the yeast to work more quickly (yeast work faster with higher temperatures) to finish cleaning up their mess, diacetyl.  It’s an off-flavour that makes the beer taste like corn and cooked vegetables.  I did actually notice a bit of a corn smell to the beer when I started the diacetyl rest, so its a good thing I did this step.

I had an open package of Mount Hood hops sitting in my fridge that I thought that I would use to ‘spice’ things up.  So I extended the diacetyl rest a little bit and added the hops directly to the beer in the primary.  Dry hopping is a great way to add fresh hoppy aroma to a beer.  When I racked the beer over to the keg I could smell the delicious aroma of the hops.  Fantastic.  However, this may be in vein since hop aroma diminished with time.  So after a month long lager I may loose quite a bit of this wonderful aroma.  Meh, oh well..

So instead of just racking this beer to another glass carboy, lagering for a month and then moving it to a keg, I’ve decided to skip a step.  I just racked the beer directly to the keg and stuck it in my beer dispensing fridge.  This way I free up my fermentation chamber for another beer.  This was a bit of a chore though because I first had to bottle all of the Clean the Cupboards Ale first.  So the taps are dry for the next month, but at least I have bottled beer in reserve.

Near the end of the lagering I will add in Gelatin, a fining ingredient, which will latch on to any suspended particle or yeast and drop it right to the bottom of the keg thus clearing the beer further.   I hope to see crystal clear beer in the end.

So here is the hidden detail in all of this.  I actually brewed two lagers, not just one.  The other lager is one that I brewed later in the day with my friend.  He paid for all the stuff so I was able to brew two beers, one for him, one for me.  Not a bad deal.  Both lagers have the exact same recipe and ingredients and yeast (I just made a big starter and split it in two for each beer), but there are differences.  His beer is 5 gallons, 4.5%, and lime juice and sea salt will be added to it before bottling, thus making “Al’s Lime Lager”.  My lager, with the same recipe, ended up being smaller in volume since I only have one 6 gallon carboy and a bunch of 5 gallons.  So it ended up being 4 gallons, 5.5%, and dry hopped with lovely Mount Hood hops.  This all worked out perfectly because I had the space in the fermentation chamber for both of them.

I had a chance to swip a small sample of Al’s Lager to see how it tastes.  I had a small sample of mine and it was pretty light and hoppy, but I was more interested in the other lager because it has not been messed around with.  I included a picture of  the Clean the Cupboards Ale beside Al’s Lager.  Stupid me though!!  I put them both in frosted glasses – I don’t know what I was thinking.  But you can get the sense of the lager being very clear already, from the clear beer in the carboy and it compared to the Clean the Cupboards Ale (which is quite clear itself).  Its going to end up looking like a crystal clear light beer, which is exactly what we are shooting for.

How does it taste?  Well, not carbonated, obviously.  Drinking non-carbed beer is difficult to judge, but I am very pleased with the results.  First off, I don’t detect any diacetyl – no cooked corn or vegetable flavour or aroma.  Its quite light in taste with a fairly dry finish (dryness is enhanced with carbonation and a cold serving temperature) which is perfectly on target.  It has a light grain taste that is mildly sweet.  Sort of like the Nickel Brook Organic Lager, but less of the grainy taste.  So for now I am extremely happy with the results, even though it is a lager.  I might have to make it again if it turns out well and I get tired of Ale’s (which isn’t very likely to happen).

Up next I have planned a Quad that I am dubbing the “Belgian Bomb”.  It will be around 11.5%, 22lbs of grain, candi sugar, and Belgian Ardennes Yeast (yeast strain from La Chouffe).  I will brew this and let it sit for a year before I touch it.  I think I’m compensating for brewing a wimpy light lager.

Growing Hops – Part 1 – Arrival of Mount Hood

A few months back I placed an order from Left Field Farms in British Columbia for a single Mount Hood Hop Rhizome.  $6.50 for a 4″ piece of a root – Sure!  Why not!  I didn’t really have a plan when I ordered it, but I did anyway.  Well, it finally arrived yesterday (May 2nd 2012).  I’m quite hopeful but I’m not all too sure if I will be successful.

I can’t plant the rhizome at home since I have no real property and I fear the dreadful Hamilton pollution.  I can plant it at my mothers house, but I would not be able to monitor its growth closely and it would be in a mostly shaded backyard.  I may be able to plant it up north near Ashley’s store, but again, I would not be able to monitor its growth.  So for now I am going to plant this in a planter box in my office.  Its obviously not ideal, but I do have large windows that face direct sun 3/4 of the day, and I can monitor its soil moisture to keep it hydrated (these things need lots of water apparently).  I may even put a supplemental fluorescent light near it to give it more light hours.  I hope that I can at least grow the root structure so that it can be transplanted next year with a better chance of survival with less attention.

I will keep posting with updates on this little project – with the next update being the planting.  Exciting!  At least I will have a little buddy at work that I can look at every day.

What’s Mount Hood?

“Mt. Hood is a triploid aroma-type cultivar, the 1983 result of a cross between the colchicine – induced tetraploid female Hallertau mf (USDA 21397) and the USDA 19058M, male plant. It is a half-sister to Ultra, Liberty and Crystal.  An aromatic variety derived from Hallertau with a refined, spicy aroma and clean bittering. A good choice for lagers. (alpha acid: 4.0-6.0% / beta acid: 5.0-7.5%)” “Typical Beer Syle:  Lager, Pilsner, Bock, Alt, Munich Helles, Wheat”

I would have went with Cascade, but that was already sold out.  So I picked this variety for a few reasons.  Its a noble type hop, so it will be great for Belgian style beers.  Its mild enough that I really can use it in any style of beer.  Also the description from Left Field Farms makes this hop seem like a champion.

“Alpha 5-8% Hallertau type, very vigorous, high yielding, early maturing. Moderately resistant to downy mildew. Good storageability. Very popular hop in the Pacific Northwest, overwinters well.”

So here’s hoping that I will be successful in at least growing a plant, and if the God’s are willing, hop cones..

Clean the Cupboards Ale

Before I ever got the crazy notion of making a Lager, I decided that I should do a little bit of spring cleaning (in February).  I decided to use the leftover grains and hops that have been kicking around for a while to make a nothing special drinking ale.  I shot for 5% IPA-ish brew that wouldn’t take very long to go from grain to beer to belly.  Here are some of the ingredients that I used.  However, I cannot comment about the proportions of anything because I kind of got a little happy with drinking some leffe brun and smashbomb..

Grains

2 row pale malt

pilsner malt

special b

crystal 45L

Hops

Mt. Hood

Styrian Goldings

Perle

Hallertau

Willamette

Yeast

Safale US-05 Dry Yeast

I actually haven’t used dry yeast before up until this point.  I did not rehydrate the yeast so it did take a little while to get going.  Everything went fine, primary fermentation took only 5 days.  I did however leave the beer in the primary for 3 week until I moved it over to the keg where it was force carbed for a week.

How about the review?  Well it is a nice amber colour, simple head that dissipates over a few minutes, quite clear in complexion.  It has a floral aroma and taste to it, most likely given from the noble hops that I used, with a slight bitterness that fades quickly but leaves a residual flavour behind.  Its nicely carbonated and quite refreshing – not too dry, not too sweet.  You can get the slightest hint of the special B malt in there with a faintest of prunes dancing around on your tongue.  Refreshing, floral, fresh, tasty!  I enjoyed this brew with a bag of spicy cajun peanuts, and while its probably not the best pairing, it was heaven during the middle of watching a baseball game.

A very average brew that I will probably make again next year.

Bottled Steam Beer

“The Sun Has Left Us On Time Steam Beer” has been bottled in an array of different shapes and sizes of bottles, including a one gallon jug:

Outside the Hops: Thyme Ale

The time for herbal home-brew number two has arrived, and I decided on producing a thyme ale. There was no specific recipe that I found to make this, so it essentially entirely from scratch. Here is the ingredients list:

2.9 L water (another growler brew)
1 pound brown sugar
3 ounces thyme
1 ounce rosemary
brewing yeast

In order to make sure that the flavour of the herbs would not be too powerful or too weak, I looked over various other recipies that used similar herbs with simlar potancy such as mint and sage (mint, rosemary, thyme and sage are all part of the mint family) in order to get a good idea of the amount that I needed. So this is exactly what I did:

I boiled the 2.9 L of water and threw in the one ounce of rosemary and one ounce of the thyme. This simmered for about 15 minutes to which I then added the brown sugar and stirred until everything was dissolved. I then transfered the beer into a cleaned jug, then added the remaining two ounces of thyme. After the yeast was pitched, the airlock went on and now it’s sitting comfortably in a dark corner in my room wrapped with a sweater to keep out the light.

Steeping Thyme and Rosemary

Dissolving the Brown Sugar

I didn’t strain any of the first set of herbs that I simmered in the water, just to make sure that I

extract all of the benefitial nutrients and vitamins. I would like for this to be a bit on the

powerful side, sort of on the verge of being medicine. Thyme is one of our most cleansing herbs, and discourages viruses, bacteria and fungus with surprising vigour. Thyme essential oil has even proven effective in the treatment of black mold infections in damp old houses. It is also a wonderful digestive and soothing to the respiratory tract.

Rosemary is similar in many respects, but also has different virtues all together. It also affects you on an emotional level, clearing up headaches, mental cloudiness and fatigue and improving concentration and memory. So, I am hoping that this will be another good one. I made it Sunday afternoon, so it should take another 5-6 days to complete fermentation. After that, another 7-10 days bottle conditioning and it will be good to go. Pretty excited.

Chamomile Ale Review

Woah, I am really surprised by this one. Considering that it was my first attempt brewing beer at home using less than ideal equipment, I was sort of expecting a complete bomb but this really turned out to be quite good. Just as a reminder, this beer is made with unfiltered tap water, brown sugar, ginger root slices, dried chamomile blossoms and un-bittered brewery’s yeast. So in all honesty, this creation can’t legitimately be called beer because it contains no malt or hops. I don’t know what you would call this. I call it great.

This beer, adopted from an 18th century recipe, has an apricot color and is quite cloudy.The flavour is quite yeasty and a direct result from my inadequate straining methods (perhaps cheese cloth isn’t the greatest) but I sort of like it. Too often people forget that yeast has it’s own bitter and hearty flavour that could contribute quite a  bit of complexity to a beer. So, I’m glad that I didn’t strain it properly. Initially, there was a lot of carbonation that forms a light soda pop like fizz which quickly dissipates to a slow tangy hum on the tounge.

I feel like I should have added more ginger than I did, because you can’t really taste any zing. Although, it is possible that the flavours of Chamomile and ginger compliment each other so well that they blend together indestinguishably. I don’t know what’s really happening though. The sugar I knew would produce a cider-like sweetness, and this makes the beer (if it can even be called beer) light and summery. I should have tried making this beer next month, then it would have been the perfect temperature outside to enjoy it.

The level of Chamomile flavour in this is perfect. It it is fresh, bitter and explosively floral. Might be too strange for some palates, but I think it is really, really good. I’m satisfied with how this turned out, and I might try an adaptation of this recipe again sometime soon. Growler brewing has been a successfully experience, mostly. I know now that sterilization is a pretty big deal. I made 1.9L ofthis beer in total, but half of it developed some strange, white film on the top of while it was fermenting in a clear glass jar (I put a garbage bag over it to keep it out of the light, but that did nothing). I actually tried the brew to see if it was still alright, but it tasted like death. I really need to get a hold of some sanitizer for my next patch, because I kind of don’t want to see that happen again. Chamomile is naturally anti-bacterial, but apparently not as anti-fungal as would have been appreciated.

Cool stuff. Not sure what I am going to make next, but I’ll keep ya’ll posted.

“The Sun Has Left Us On Time” Steam Beer

As Chris suggested I have moved my Imperial Stout into a secondary fermenter and am now in the process of cooling my wort from ”The Sun Has Left Us On Time” Steam Beer to pitch onto the yeast from the Imperial Stout. The Stout is merrily fermenting away in its new home, where it will live for another 3 weeks or until there is next to no sign of active fermentation. Below is a picture of the Imperial Stout that was taken after I had filled the secondary fermenter and was removing the last bit of beer, leaving the yeast behind for this new beer. I thought I would have a little taste. Note the chunks of hop debris floating on top, apparently I need to use a finer strainer. This was definitely tasty, very yeasty and flat, of course, but it has got potential!

Here is the recipe I used for “The Sun Has Left Us On Time” Steam Beer:

1/2 lb. crystal malt
8 lbs. light malt extract
1 oz. Northern Brewers hops (boiling)
1/2 oz Northern Brewers hops (finishing)
1/2 oz Willianette hops (finishing)
The yeast cake from the bottom of “Honey Imperial Stout”

And I plan on using 1 1/4 cups blackstrap molasses for priming.

The finishing hops were supposed to be Cascade hops, which I thought I had, but I did not, I had Willianette hops left over from last time. I don’t think this beer will be as botanically aromatic as it would have if I did use Cascade — too bad. The Cascade hops smell GREAT, these other 2 varieties smell.. good.

This beer recipe also called for lager yeast, not ale yeast which I am using. It is not going to turn out how it is described in the book that I got it from. Also considering that there is going to be some flavour and colour from the Honey Imperial Stout that was left behind with the yeast. Hopefully it will be really good despite all this, but I am having some doubts to be honest, the lack of Cascade hops was truly disappointing.

Here is the wort coming to a boil with the crystal malt in it (no malt extract or hops at this point):

Here is the final wort coming back up to a boil (note the colour — not what you would expect from a “steam beer” recipe):

I’ll keep you updated on the progress of both of these beers.

Nosradamus

A dark brown, ruby-reddish, “worn leather jacket” coloured beer. It’s well carbonated and kind of cloudy with a thick head that dissipates to the perimeter. It smells like a lemon tree. The flavour of this warming, strong Belgian ale is very complex. It took a few sips to appreciate it. At first it seemed to be too sweet, but after a few sips I began to enjoy it more. It’s not syrupy, it is very sweet, but refreshing.  The are definite hints of molasses, liquorice, prunes, pear, sour cherry and other dark fruit, but the strongest flavour and after-taste is of lemon. It’s also quite “bready” or “yeasty”, would probably make a lovely lemon loaf (ah yes, alliteration). The after-taste definitely also leaves a warm alcoholic feeling behind.

9% ABV

Good beer, don’t know that I’ll buy it again for a while though, a little sweet for my taste. 3.5 out of 5 heads.

Good News, Bad Brews

Obviously I haven’t been up to nothing this whole time.  It really looks like Beer for Breakfast has taken a turn from consumer to brewer.  Is this because we have sampled every single beer ever created (or that the LCBO permits us to try) and yearn for more?  Or perhaps we desire beers that have more complexity and unique tastes to suit our personal preferences..  So while everyone is dreaming and brewing up these delicious brews, I’ve decided to make a bad brew… a boring lager.  Crisp, clean, plain, not very strong.. lager.

Why?

…umm…

Well, its a challenge.  Its technically more difficult to achieve a flavorless lager than a bold and beautiful ale.  If I can pull this off then I will have learned just a little bit more about brewing  After all, Lagers are the most popular beer in the world.  Sounds crazy, but its true.  So to ‘feed the masses’ I have crafted my own lager.  I will do a follow-up rating on it in a few months when its ready.  But to give the per-cursor of brewing the lager I’ve give a few details.

…

Beer Name:  Cracked Malibu Lager

* An ode to the cracked windshield on my Chevy Malibu.  Gives the beer a real good ‘Mass Produced” vibe to it doesn’t it?

Grain Bill:

6 lbs – Pilsner Malt

2.5 lbs – American 6-row (6-Row is a base malt with a higher diastic power than 2-Row Malt to help convert other adjuncts.)

1 lb – Flaked Corn

Hops:

1oz – German Hallertau (Hallertauer Mittelfrüh. The original German lager hop; named after Hallertau or Holledau region in central Bavaria. Due to susceptibility to crop disease, it was largely replaced by Hersbrucker in the 1970s and 1980s. Substitutes: Mount Hood, Liberty.)

1 oz – Mount Hood (Soft American variety developed from Hallertau. Frequently used in styles that require only a subtle hop aroma (German/American lagers). Named for Mount Hood in Oregon.)

Notes:

All grains mashed at 150F for 90 minutes.  Mash out and sparge at 168F for 15 minutes.

Final Volume:  5 Gallons

Original Gravity:  1.050

Final Gravity Expected:  1.010

ABV:  ~5%

Primary:  3 Weeks @ 10C

Diacetyl Rest:  3 Days @ 19C  (Raises the temperature briefly so the yeast can clean up any remaining diacetyl funkiness in the beer)

Lager:  4 Weeks @ 2C

…

Part of the challenge of producing a Lager is the strict temperature control of the fermentation.  To achieve this I am using my commercial refrigerator that I picked up used, and an aquarium temperature controller that I got off Ebay for $17.  The temperature controller will allow my to set the fridge to a temperature range that is optimal for this lager.

The other challenge was having enough yeast to do the job.  Lagers need a lot more yeast than their ale counterparts.  I started a week early with a liquid Wyeast activator packet and went through a few yeast starters to grow a healthy amount of yeast.

There quite a few other issues with brewing lagers, such as water profile, mash ph level, lower mash temperatures to achieve a more fermentable wort, longer boil times to remove DMS, and a few other issues that I will go into more detail with in the followup post.

Sorry about the crap photo – cell phone camera.

…

So..  What’s the Good News?

Bread!

Gentlemen!  Save your spent grains, head to the kitchen and put your chef hat on.  I found a few easy recipes to use the spent grains from brewing to make delicious bread.  I will post up a full recipe later when I take a second crack at it.  I made two loafs of bread during the middle of the lager brew day (insane?) which turned out decent.   I should have left more time for the bread yeast to rise the dough because I ended up with a pretty dense bread, but its bread none the less.  Sorry for the crap photo quality again..

Beyond the Lager & Bread, I also have an IPA that is almost ready to sample (which I will do a post about) and I have a monster Belgian style brew planned for later this month (21 lbs of grain, crap load of hops, ~11%, will leave it to age for a year before I even look at it).  Exciting times are ahead for Beer for Breakfast.

PS.  If this Lager turns out to be a fail, I will definitely use the Ioni Zero Rating picture…

Honey Imperial Stout

This is my first homebrew, so I thought I’d make something that packs a punch! This is a modified recipe from the book “The New Complete Joy of Homebrewing”. Emma picked this book up for me at a rummage sale for something like 25 cents — and it’s great! It includes everything from how to make beer for beginners, to much more advanced, start-from-scratch techniques. It also includes info on growing hops, culturing yeast, beer nutrition, etcetera. Anyway here’s the recipe I came up with based on what was available to me:

1/2 lb. roasted barley
5 lb. dark malt extract
6 lb. “regular” malt extract
400 g honey
3 tsp. gypsum
2 oz. Northern Brewer hops (bittering hops)
2 oz. Willanette hops (flavouring hops)
1 oz. Cascade hops (aroma hops)
1 package liquide ale yeast
1 1/4 cups blackstrap molasses (for priming)

Here are all of my ingredients (and the oatmeal stout that I was drinking at the time):

This is how I steeped the roasted barley as I heated the water for my wort:

This is Oscar’s insulated pot and grill contraption that I used to boil the wort:

He uses that contraption to distil alcohol, not to boil wort, so he didn’t know that it wouldn’t work for my purposes. It was taking way too long to bring the water to a boil, so I switched over to this burner instead:

Here is my wort (cooling-down) and my liquid yeast with nutrient pack (warming-up):

24 hours later, the yeast buddies are going nuts!

This brew smells great! It smells like a strong Belgian ale, which isn’t what I was going for.. but I’ll take it!