Saturday night on may 12th I brewed up my Munich Smash recipe. My wife had the weekend away so I seized the opportunity to brew on a Saturday night. Of course, when an opportunity to brew presents itself on short notice you tend to forget things. I violated the true Smash recipe because I used two different hops. I used magnum to bitter and then did Hallertau as planned for my other addition. I don’t care too much about that because this beer was all about the Munich Malt (10L) anyway.
The wort aroma in my garage was very intense. Munich certainly has a lot of grainy, bread like aroma to it. I hope that continues to hold true in the final beer’s aroma. I tasted a bit of the first runnings of wort and man was it melanoid-rich. Almost to a scary level. After I tasted it I thought for sure I had over done it and was certain I was going to hate the brew. I carried on though and after all the sparging was done I tasted the more appropriately diluted full wort and the assault on my palette was much less. The flavor still didn’t make me jump for joy as I think it really needs some fermentation character to remove the sweetness. Full on Munich malt sweetness unfermented smells great, but is too much for my palette. The color however in the fermentor and kettle was pretty dark. Much darker than I would have expected. I think in the glass this will be a deep golden color with reddish hues. At least that’s what I dream it would be.
This is my first brew in our Master of Lager series as well. I pitched WLP830, the seminal German Lager yeast from White Labs. My OG for the batch was 1.056. I quick look at Mr.Malty Pitching Rate Calculator told me I needed two WLP vials into 1.5L of wort when using a stir plate. That assumes 97% viability of the starting yeast. So to be safe, I used two stir plates and split my total starter volume across the two. I did two 1.2L starters. The additional total volume will ensure a truly adequate pitch of yeast.
My yeast management and fermentation procedure for this lager was as follows. I made the yeast starters the night before I brewed (because that’s when the wife left, so Friday night). They sat on the stir plate until Sunday morning. Yep the day after I brewed. This was to ensure they completely fermented out. I then transferred them to the fridge to crash cool and settle the yeast. On brew night (saturday), I chilled the wort to 70-72F ish. I could have gone longer but didn’t need too. Reason being is that I then put the carboy full of wort in my fermentation chest freezer set to 48F. Because I wasn’t planning on pitching the yeast until the next day, I knew I could use the chest freezer to chill the beer the rest of the way and not waste more water trying to do it with the chiller.
Sunday got a little hectic for me after the wife came home and I failed to pitch my yeast that day. I pitched on Monday night, a full two days post brew day. This is where confidence in your cleaning and sanitation come in. The wort was sealed up with an airlock and still looked good in the freezer. (The cold 48F temps helps to suppress wild microbe contaminants too.) Monday night I oxygenated the wort. Decanted my spent start wort from the flasks and pitches the yeast in.
Tuesday night I had the first early signs of krausen forming. A good sign things were coming along. I adjusted my temp controller to 52F to allow it to warm to my desired ferment temp as it became more active. Wednesday night I cam home to a very nice inch or so of healthy Krausen, a bubbling airlock and an reassuring yet unpleasant sulphur aroma from the yeast. The temp was 51F.
So off it goes. My first lager in the series. My plans for the next two are Helles and an Oktoberfest. Bock might tempt me too if I get a chance to do one of those too.
