Brew Dudes

Homebrewing gets interesting when the brewing doesn’t go as planned but the results are still great. That’s what happened with my most recent lager brew. A somewhat unconventional warm temperature lager.

I have this beer labelled as “Red Lager” on my kegorator. John however has redubbed it Resurrection lager. The first attempt at a springtime red lager was a disaster. I let a mash sit overnight in my garage but it was too cold out there and the mash settled in at a pleasant 100F. A perfect temp for all the bacteria and stuff present in the grain to have a real party with the converted mash. I have done overnight mashes in the past with ill effect but they usually only lose enough temp to get down to the 140F-ish ballpark.

Not wanting to be defeated (and having all this lager yeast ready to go) I scrounged around for ingredients. Finding what I had available and mainly relying on some Carafa Special III for color I made a kitchen sink lager of sorts.

Still being somewhat defeated and not really focused on the outcome, I pitched a good larger pitch of WLP833 Bock Lager Yeast, shook it really well and set it in my 60F basement. A far cry from my normal 48F pitching temp for a lager brew. Over the month plus that the beer sat in the basement we would occasionally bump up the temp in m basement for the kids playroom. This would occasionally take the basement up to 65F. And if we weren’t paying attention we’d leave the heat on all night. Then we’d lower it back down. So my lager ferment was also on a roller coaster ride.

In the end, I let it be and didn’t think much of it. Did some other brews with more care and finesse. Once spring really broke, I went into spring cleaning mode and prepped several kegs for incoming beers. The Red Lager went to keg along with a couple other brews ready at the time.

In the end I am super surprised and please with the results. This beer is very clean, very crisp and its also pretty clear. At the time of the video and our initial tastings of the beer it was still a bit hazey. At the time of this post it pours from the keg a brilliantly crystal clear beer.

My lessoned learned here is that at the end of the day brewing is still an art. As much as we want to apply science and technical aspects to it, art (and maybe luck) still play a big role. Secondary to all that is that brewing really good beer isn’t that hard. Beer is pretty forgiving.

If you don’t have dedicated temp control for doing a lager, don’t worry about it. Get yourself a big tub of water and rotate three to four frozen soda bottles in and out of it to keep it cooler than you would your ales. It’ll still be beer!

BREW ON!

Spring is well upon us and with that we down some dunkelweizen from John.

John intended to try a dunkelweisse a year or so ago, but it never made it into the rotation.  Dunkelweizen seem to us to be a perfect way to straddle two seasons.  Its still cool enough for darker beers with flavors of caramel and toast.  But our dreams are on the warmer months ahead when we dream of wheat beers and well balanced sessionable drinkers.

Tasting this beer we experience all that German wheat brewing can be. Clean fermentation profiles, hearty malt aromas and flavors and interesting yeast derived esters and phenols (or lack there of if German lager yeasts are still in employ at your brew house).

There is a clear presence of darker malt and a touch of caramel, but not accompanied by a sweet finish. The pilsner and wheat backbone give a medium bodied mouthfeel, but maintain a uniquely balanced backdrop for the character malts that give us the color and flavor.

A great Dunklelweisse (I imagine) makes great use of the malt available while creating a clean enough backdrop for the fermentation profile. Weizen yeasts can be coaxed into a great many flavors. You can push them into banana ester bombs or you can create clove like immensity that would make you cry (at least me). Lurking in there somewhere to I have experienced weizen yeasts that can make the beer seem a little solvent like as well. Not a great combo when the clove is high as well.

These dangers be damned! This version of John’s delivers in the balance category. Just enough clove and a sense of banana that muted way in the back. Its presence is just enough to lure me in for sip after sip, trying to pull the flavors apart. Getting this keen balance is a function of temperature profile most of the time. Assuming adequate pitching volumes and oxygen levels, a cooler than normal ferment seems to restrain some of the harsher edges that Weizen yeast can throw.

While this isn’t normally my style to enjoy, and I certain’y don’t think about brewing it, this version comes out pretty damn good. Some early season brats and pickled cabbage on an early season 80+ degree day would be a perfect pairing combo. (Get on that John!)

Tell us about your Dunkelweizen experiences, recipes or questions. Tell us about your favorite spring-time transition brews! We’d love to hear about it.

BREW ON!