Brew Dudes Homebrewing Blog

Fermentation Activity

On September 23, 2009

It’s taken about a week, but my Oktoberfest/Marzen has finally starter to ferment. It was a slow start for sure. Hopefully, the beer tastes OK, but regardless, I’ll have started a good pitch of yeast for my next two lager attempts. The problem was with the activeness of the yeast. I actually bought 3 activator packs of Wyeast Munich Lager that were marked down to half price. They were manufactured back in February. I paid the price with a really poor start to the ferment. Oh well, live and learn. The tough part is I know better than that. I let my brewing experience get the better of me and figured; “I know what I am doing. I buy this cheapo old yeast and coax it back to life.” Only time will tell how the beer turns out, but like I said, I may be using the cake to repitch some new lagers.

The cider started fermenting right away and got rather violent, despite a 64F ferment temp. Not surprising though as I used a pitch of fresh yeast that came from my Ordinary Bitter. It is really funny however that after a week the beer is still super yeasty. Usually, the English ale strain Safale-04 flocculates out really well. But in this application its still mostly in suspension. I suspect its because the cider is likely really low in calcium levels and calcium is a critical component involved in yeast flocculation. Maybe if I had put some gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) in the brewing water it would have improved the flocculation a bit.
BREW ON!

Honey Wheat Ale Comparison

By John Krochune

On September 21, 2009

In Brew Log, General

So I brewed up a honey wheat ale about a month ago and somehow made two different beers from it. I bottled up half of the batch as one normally would and the other half was introduced to a gallon of a honey solution for a secondary fermentation.

Both beers are ready to be imbibed and analyzed. Here are my notes from a side by side tasting:

Honey Wheat Ale

Appearance: Light amber, cloudy like a wheat beer should be. Foamy off white head.

Aroma: Sweet caramel, like the center of a Rollo. Some floral honey, I guess.

Taste: Spicy wheat. Medium bitterness from the hop. Some hotness from some fusel alcohols, but I wonder about that. The flavors have mellowed a bit, so I am not sure where this spiciness is coming from.

Mouthfeel: Medium body, some pleasant graininess.

Overall: High fermentation temps have left its mark on this beer. It may mellow out further, but I am not betting on it. There are some good sweet and wheat flavors here. Good head lacing.

If I brew this one in the winter, it’s a different beer.

Honey Wheat Ale with honey addition

Appearance: Lighter in color than the original brew. Head is not as strong. I suppose we should expect these differences.

Aroma: Some of that honey malt aroma is still coming through, especially as it warms up.

Taste: Smooth – mild. A little bit of the wheat flavor at the end. The craziness?? It appears that all crappy flavors from the primary fermentation have been scrubbed out. Any graininess and hotness is gone. Just gone. Hop flavors are muted. I am not sure this is beer, but it’s going down very easy. Very clean aftertaste. It seems to have picked up a tangy fruity characteristic that I can’t put my finger on…

Mouthfeel: Much thinner and lighter than the original brew.

Overall: Not sure what I created here. It is certainly drinkable. Very drinkable as I am on my third sample as I type this sentence, but not sure what a beer judge would say about it. I am feeling good about the second half of the brew. I am thinking of presenting this beer at the pseudo-Oktoberfest we are putting on.

Pumpkin Ale Ideas

By Mike

On September 18, 2009

In Brew Log, Equipment

Tis the season for vegetable beers! If you said that to most non-beer folks they’d probably run away from you. But us beer lovers realize that Fall means harvest, and harvest means pumpkins.

Now I am not a big fan of Pumpkin beers. Mainly, because I find most of then out of balance, in-your-face explosions of pie spices. However, a recent pumpkin stout from Cape Ann Brewing Company (A BeerAdvocate review) made me take a different look at this style of beer.

So I got to thinking about these beers and had the following thought. What about making a pumpkin beer using something like WLP550. WLP550 is White Labs Belgian Ale yeast. You can get a spicy phenol and ester profile with that yeast by fermenting a little warm (72-74F). I thought that maybe a nice caramel and nutty malt bill with pumpkin and WLP550 would make for a nice balanced beer if done right.

Does anyone know of any Belgian style pumpkin ales?

In the interest of full disclosure, I am not going to brew a pumpkin ale. But I do have a sweet potato beer I want to brew up for the season. So maybe a 12 gallon batch split for two yeasts is in order to try this out.

What are your thoughts?

BREW ON!

Malted Cider Recipe

By Mike

On September 18, 2009

In Recipes

Last weekend a quick trip to a local farm had me pondering hard cider. I wanted to make a cider last year but never got around to it. But I took the plunge and made my own variant of a cider based beverage. I wanted to go with a malted cider to be different and to not worry as much about trying to get a good healthy ferment of just apple juice. I was thinking the malt addition would help add some needed nitrogen sources for healthy fermentation.

Here’s my recipe and process:

3 Gallons apple cider
2lbs Extra Light DME
1lb Turbinado Sugar
1.5 gal water
S-04 English ale yeast repitched from slurry.

The cider had an OG of 1.040 on its own. I wanted to get a little higher than that, so I added the sugar and only a gallon and a half of water to the DME. My resultant OG was ~1.058.

The cider was preservative free yet pasteurized. My process was to boil the DME in the 1.5 gallons of water for 30 minutes to sterilize. I then added the 3 gallons of cider (at 55F). I continued to heat the cider slightly until it was at 165F and held it there for 20 minutes to pseudo-repasteurize the mix. I cooled it to 74F and pitched the yeast.

I am actually fermenting the cider in a water bath in the garage which is holding a steady 64F the last couple days. It’s supposed to get warmer this weekend. The water bath should only warm up slowly, so I think that should really help dry out the cider as it comes towards the end of its fermentation. As of last night there was a good 6 inch head of Krausen on the cider and it was chugging along nicely at 65F.
We’ll see how it turns out.

I have some ideas for what to do with this post ferment, but I’ll save that for future posts.

BREW ON!

Spray Bottle of Sanitizer

By Mike

On September 16, 2009

In General

I love my spray bottle of sanitizer.

I use Star-San as my sanitizer. I never really appreciated the utility of the spray bottle until my brewing frequency picked up. I took an old house cleaner spray bottle that we were throwing out. Rinsed it several times with hot water. Soaked and rinsed it with PBW. Now when ever I make a larger batch of sanitizer in a brew session I refill the spray bottle.

I use the spray bottle for things like the outside of an airlock. I spray down the top of a fermentor before I open it. I spray my kettle lid before I put it on after chilling to protect the beer before I transfer. The spray bottle works great at spritzing some foil that I put on top if my starter flasks. I spray the start flask before I take off the foil, and before I pour stuff out of the flask.

Having a spray bottle of sanitizer handy makes beer chores between brew session easier.
I highly recommend getting one in your brew house. I even use it as my deodorant now in the morning.

BREW ON!