Over the past few days, these Brew Dudes have been making preparations for the epic brewing duel that is happening on Sunday, June 5th.
Mighty yeast starters have been crafted.
Questions about burners, kettles, propane, and scales have been asked.
Allusions to gypsum have been made causing head scratches and confusion (I think Mike is trying to psyche me out).
Anyway, we will be capturing the brew session on video and posting updates to the twitter feed if you’d like to follow along.
Brew On.
The first step to get ready for the brewing duel is to create a huge starter. I did this for the Rauchbier I made last year and it came out great.
When you making starters this big, you’re basically making brewing up a separate albeit simple beer just to get the yeast primed for the actual beer that you are brewing.
For a 4 liter stater, I will combine 400 grams of dry malt extract with 4 liters of water along with a pinch of yeast nutrient and bring it to boil for 15 minutes.
Then, I’ll let it cool to room temperature and aerate it. I have aeration stone with an aquarium pump so I can let it do the work rather than shake the carboy.
Last year, I let the starter ferment at cool room temperatures. I think it was around 65° F. I’ll probably let it sit around for a day and then slide it into the fridge until the brew day.
On the brew day, I will let it warm up to fermentation temps ~ 50° F.
When the Oktoberfest wort is ready, I will siphon off the starter beer and rack the O-fest wort right on top of the yeast cake.
Sweet, sweet yeast cake.
I’m not sure what to call this, but the Brew Dudes are going to brew an Oktoberfest on the same day during the same brew session. I think this is a chance for us to brew together on a bigger scale. We’re multiplying from one pot to two. Wow.
From here, we can both chronicle our own brew making process and post updates as time goes on. I am sure Mike will try to sabotage my beer, but I will be ever vigilant.
So yeah, the brew date has been set for June 5th. Stay tuned.
If you are making a mead, a key to success is having healthy yeast. Here’s how to make a yeast starter for your mead.
I got and modified this information from The Compleat Meadmaker book.
Ingredients:
6.5 cups of water
0.25 teaspoon of yeast nutrient
0.25 teaspon of yeast energizer
1 tablespoon of Light Dry Malt Extract
0.5 cups of honey
Equipment:
1 gallon glass jug (sanitized)
1 funnel (sanitized)
Small pot
Directions:
Add water, yeast nutrient, energizer, and malt extract together in the small pot and bring to a boil for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and add honey, cover and let sit until it reaches room temperature. Pour mixture into glass jug using the funnel. Add yeast and cover top with some aluminum foil. Shake vigorously to oxgeniate. Let it sit somewhere at room temperature away from light for a day or two. Siphon most of the liquid off of the yeast at the bottom of the jug, but leave enough to mix up the bulk of the yeast into a slurry. Pitch the entire slurry into your fermenter.
As one of my brew year’s resolutions for 2011, I am planning to make a mead. I thought a simple recipe to put together would be for a raspberry melomel. For my first one, I was thinking I could make a simple show mead with medium sweetness…but my tastebuds are calling for a melomel.
To keep it simple, I chose one fruit to add in. I think raspberries deliver good flavor and I think they complement honey very well.
Plus, I need to find out if I can make a raspberry melomel that tastes better than the commercial offering the Brew Dudes had at a wine tasting that had the aroma of gym socks.
After reading The Compleat Meadmaker and watching Curt Stock’s video on BrewingTV, I thought I would give this recipe a go.
Ingredients:
15 pounds of clover honey
8 pounds of raspberries
3 gallons of water
1 teaspoons of yeast energizer (Fermaid-K)
2 teaspoons of yeast nutrient (diammonium phosphate)
Yeast: Wyeast 4632 Dry Mead
Instructions:
I plan to make a yeast starter for this melomel. There are instructions on how to do that in Compleat Meadmaker and I’ll write a post dedicated to mead yeast starters.
Although Mr. Stock ferments everything together, I think I am going to ferment without the fruit. I plan to rack it to a secondary vessel (plastic bucket) and add the fruit to it there.
So, for primary fermentation – add the water, honey, and yeast together and oxygenate your must. Then add a quarter teaspoon of the yeast energizer and a half teaspoon of the yeast nutrient. Then follow this schedule for the rest of the yeast energizer/nutrient:
Add .25 teaspoon yeast energizer and .5 teaspoon of the yeast nutrient 24 hours after fermentation begins
Add .25 teaspoon yeast energizer and .5 teaspoon of the yeast nutrient 48 hours after fermentation begins
Add .25 teaspoon yeast energizer and .5 teaspoon of the yeast nutrient after 30% of the sugar has been depleted
I plan to let the primary fermentation go for a month, then I will rack it to a bucket and add the raspberries. If I can get them from the local farm down the street, I will. I’ll wash them and freeze them before I add them to the mead.
I’ll let it sit in the secondary for a couple of weeks at least, then I will bottle. I am not sure if I will prime or not, but we’ll see…
Bottle condition for at least two weeks before I try it, then I hide it somewhere and try to forget about it for 6 months or so.
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