Brew Dudes

I bought 5 gallons of pressed apple juice for the New England hard cider I am making on Friday but I will probably only use 4 of them for it.

That leaves me with 1 gallon for something else. I was thinking I could make a small batch cyser with it.

I am thinking about meads again because last Sunday Mike and I found a source for buying raw honey in bulk. I will be picking up a few gallons (uh 48 pounds) on Friday so I foresee some mead in our future.

To kick it off, here’s a simple 1 gallon cyser recipe.

I have this idea of making a dry sparkling cyser.

1 pound of wildflower honey
1 gallon of pressed apple juice (well, most of it. Need to leave a little head room for fermentation)
1 packet of champagne yeast
.5 teaspoons of yeast energizer (Fermaid-K)
.5 teaspoons of yeast nutrient (diammonium phosphate)

Starting Gravity: ~1.096
Final Gravity: Targeting around 1.000

I probably will follow a yeast energizer/nutrient addition schedule like I did for my raspberry mead but using smaller amounts for the additions.

Rack it to another gallon bottle once primary is done – maybe in a month’s time once final gravity is met. Then let it sit in the secondary for another month. Then prime with some corn sugar – not too much though – maybe a half ounce.

I’ll bottle in a couple of 12 oz bottles for competition but if Mike lets me use his new corker, maybe I can get a couple of wine bottles filled.

If it comes out ok, I will update the post with a 5 gallon recipe. Until then…

One last lager to close out the 2012 Master of Lager series. I updated this post to include my all grain Doppelbock recipe. Below the line is my original partial mash recipe.

Ingredients

12 lbs Munich Malt
4 lbs Pilsner Malt
1 lbs Weyermann CaraMunich® III
1.25 oz Hallertau (4.5 AA) boiled 60 mins.
Yeast: White Labs WLP833 German Bock Lager

Predicted Results

Original Gravity: 1.083
Terminal Gravity: 1.017
Color: 16.11 °SRM
Bitterness: 23.1 IBUs
Alcohol (% volume): 8.7%

Instructions

Make a mighty starter, at least 9 liter starter wort for one vial of yeast. Mash at 155°F for 60 minutes. Boil 60 minutes and chill to 46° F. Ferment for 2 weeks at 50°F – letting the wort warm up to that temp in the first 48 hours of fermentation.

Rack and lager for six weeks at 35° F. Bottle condition for 6 months if you can wait that long.

A few posts ago, I asked if anyone had a Spaten Optimator clone recipe.  I didn’t get much of a response so I did a little research and found some recipes that were created to be Spaten Optimator clones.   Interestingly enough to mention, they were all different in the types of hops and malts they called for.

So here’s a Doppelbock recipe that probably will taste as good as an Optimator (Extract – Partial Mash).

4 lbs of pale malt extract in boil
5 lbs of pale malt extract added at flameout
1.5 lbs of 80L crystal malt
1.5 lbs of Munich malt
0.5 lbs of Victory malt 
1 oz of Perle hops at 60 minutes
1 oz of Tettnang at 10 minutes
Wyeast 2206 Bavarian Lager

Mash crystal, Munich, and Victory malt in 156° F water for 30 minutes.  Add to boil with first wave of pale malt extract and Perle hops.  

Ferment 2 weeks at 50 degrees.  Move to secondary vessel and lager for 6 weeks at 35 degrees.

Prime with corn sugar and bottle condition for 6 months in your basement. 

Notes:

If you can find Munich malt extract, that would be ideal. 

I put in the Victory malt to get some bready flavors in it. 

I would make a yeast starter for this big beer. 

Not sure I can wait 6 months after the long fermentation and lagering.

After a summer or so of brewing German styles, I think it’s time to move on to Scottish ales. The Scottish Heavy or 70 Shilling or 70/- ale will be a good starting point for me.

This is a simple recipe with an added component to the brew day. Following an all grain procedure, I will boil the first gallon of runnings off of the mash for an hour and then add the rest of the first runnings/sparge to make a full boil for a 5 gallon batch size.

Ingredients:

8 pounds of Maris Otter malt
2.5 ounces Roasted Barley
.75 East Kent Goldings Hops – full wort boil for 60 minutes
Yeast: Wyeast 1728 Scottish Ale

Instructions:

Mash at 154°F. Drain first gallon of runnings from mash and boil for one hour in kettle. Near the end of the boil, add remaining runnings to the boil. Sparge until you get 6.5 gallons for another 60 minute boil. Add hops when the wort comes to a boil again. Chill to 65°F and ferment at that temperature for two weeks. Bottle/keg and let age for a month before serving.

Projected Results:

Original Gravity: 1.038
Terminal Gravity: 1.012
Color: 13.23 °SRM
Bitterness: 17.5 IBUs
Alcohol (%volume): 3.3 %

See the eerily similar 60 Shilling ale recipe here.