X

Another All Grain Wheat Recipe

My wife’s side of the family likes strange Germen terms. It is in their honor that I will attempt to brew a Bavarian Dunkelweizen. Here is a proposed recipe (generated using Beer Tools).

Eine Kleiner Mine Dunkelweizen
————————————————————————–

General
————————————————————————–
Category: German Wheat and Rye Beer
Subcategory: Dunkelweizen
Recipe Type: All Grain
Batch Size: 5 gal.
Volume Boiled: 6 gal.
Mash Efficiency: 72 %
Total Grain/Extract: 10.84 lbs.
Total Hops: 1.0 oz.
Calories (12 fl. oz.): 211.9
Cost to Brew: $23.76 (USD)
Cost per Bottle (12 fl. oz.): $0.45 (USD)

Ingredients
————————————————————————–
4.14 lbs. American 6-row Pale
5.09 lbs. Belgian Wheat Malt
0.68 lbs. Munich Malt
.68 lbs. German Vienna
.25 lbs. Belgian Chocolate Malt
0.5 oz. Hallertau Tradition (Whole, 6.00 %AA) boiled 60 minutes.
.5 oz. Hallertau Mittelfruh (Whole, 4.50 %AA) boiled 15 minutes.
Yeast: WYeast 3056 Bavarian Wheat

Vital Statistics
————————————————————————–
Original Gravity: 1.054
Terminal Gravity: 1.012
Color: 16.74 SRM
Bitterness: 14.2 IBU
Alcohol (%volume): 5.4 %

All Grain Brewing

First off, in my Beer Terms post several months ago, I made a technical error. I described ‘mashing’ and ‘malting’ as being the same thing. This is not the case. Malting is something that professionals do pretty much exclusively. I haven’t run across any information about people doing this themselves. Malting is when they just begin to sprout the grain, then pop it into a kiln really quickly. I’m not clear on the technical specifics of why this process works, but my understanding is that it generates the enzymes that will later be used to convert the starch to sugar, then freezes the process by kilning so that the brewer can start it again later.

Mashing, on the other hand, is what the All Grain home brewer does. In a mash, one submerses malted grains in hot water (155 degrees or so, depending on what you’re doing. Again, not clear on the specifics yet) for a period of time, allowing the enzymes to work their magic and create the sugars that will be converted to alcohol in the fermentation.

Today, with part of my tax return, I went to the Home Depot and began the work of piecing together the equipment for All Grain brewing in preparation for my next experiment, a Heffeweitzen flavored with chamomile and honey. A good spring afternoon nap time beer. Here’s what I got;

*A five gallon Igloo cooler. I did this today because the HD has these on clearance for $8.00. It’s small enough that it will be limiting in the long run, but the next size up was 10 gallons for $40. I think not.

*A 1/2 inch ball valve to replace the plastic thing on the cooler. The plastic thing is fine for water, but will not serve my purposes.

* The hardware needed to create a bulkhead fitting. I’m not going to go into this, and I’m not 100% pleased with it. It’s water tight. For now.

What I still need to complete this project is

* A false bottom. I’m working on several ideas for the best way to achieve this. I’m thinking about possibly using a sort of a tube made of screen, buying or otherwise getting a circle of perf plate to fit, or maybe even using a laundry bag type apparatus to hold the grain above the bottom of the tub.

Also, I bought 20′ of 1/2 inch copper tubing and several feet of vinyl tube, some hose clamps, and a deal that hooks to a garden hose on one end and the vinyl tube on the other. This will be a wort chiller, with which I will run cold water into my wort and get hot water out, thus chilling the wort. Awesome.

Finally, I invented a simple spreadsheet for developing a recipe. You tell it the target Original Specific Gravity, the proportions of the different grains you’re using (50% wheat, 40% pale 2 row, etc…) and the points/pound/gallon rating of each (I’ll explain later maybe, or just look it up) and the expected attenuation from the yeast you’re using and it’ll tell you how much of each ingredient you need in pounds for a 5.5 gallon batch (you can scale up or down easily), what the expected FG is, and the expected ABV. I ran a quick recipe plan for the Chamomile Honey Wheat beer, and here’s what I came up with;

For a 5.5 Gallon Batch I’ll use

5.8 lbs of Malted Wheat
4.6 lbs of Pale 2 Row malt
1 lb of Honey

With the Bavarian Wheat yeast I plan to use, I’m expecting 75% attenuation (high estimate, I think).
My target OG is 1.05 (I assumed a low efficiency for my brewing setup, since it’s the first time I’m using it and better too much gravity than too little I always say)
My expected final Sp. Gr is 1.013
My expected ABV is 5.06

I’m thrilled, as this is the first recipe I designed with no help from brewing software (except the formulas in my own spreadsheet). I’m beginning to understand some of the calculating that goes into recipe design, which is great.

For hops, I’m using 1/2 oz of Saaz or something similar for bittering and another 1/2 oz for flavor. I’m also using 4 oz of Chamomile, 2 oz boiled for 60 minutes and 2 oz added at the end of the boil and infused into the wort with the lid on to preserve the essential oils. I’ll check the flavor after primary fermentation, and if I still want more Chamomile character I’ll add more in the secondary like dry hops.

As always, reviews to follow.

Woah There Nelly!

I done screwed up! Don’t use my IAA recipe without some major modifications. I used crystal malt exclusively in the grain bill for the mini-mash because I like the way it tastes. Problem; crystal malt doesn’t have any enzymes and therefore can’t convert itself into sugar. It needs to be paired with something like a 2 row or similar normal malt in order to convert.

I learned this as I racked the IAA from the primary to the secondary today and took a hydrometer reading when I did it. Not one to waste perfectly good (albeit room temperature and flat) beer, I drank the sample. It had a strange, starchy flavor. Wondering what this was, I did some reading. Turns out, I screwed the pooch. It’s not undrinkable bad or anything, but it’s a pretty strange flavor.

Of course, we’ll have to see what the secondary and bottle conditioning bring about. I’m still hopeful, if abashed.

The problem with starting a new hobby, learning as I go, and sharing my mistakes here in this public forum, is that it can be embarrassing. I’m pretty much flying by the seat of my pants at this point (which is my favorite way to learn things) and hopefully every mistake is a learning experience.

The gravity reading I took today was 1.012. That means that the yeast did its job really fully despite my screwing up, and the beer is about 5.45% ABV. Very little fermentation will take place from this point forward.

Next up; something with chamomile infused in the wort. I’m thinking a chamomile honey hefe-weitzen, but I might try to clone the Rogue chamomellow if I can get my hands on a pint at the local Rogue alehouse. I haven’t had it for a while and want to taste it with more of a mind toward cloning. It’s a lager, if I remember right (could be wrong here), and I haven’t done one of those before. Next brew day isn’t until mid March, so we’ll have to wait and see what turns up.

Vital Stats on the IAA

So, the brewing finger boils and having cooled it takes a hydrometer reading (to coin a long, awkward phrase). I have vital stats on the IAA, and some information about last minute choices I made. First - in addition to the malts and extracts I discussed in the previous post, I also added a cup of Brown Sugar and a slosh of Molasses to round out the flavor. Despite the addition of these extra sugars, the actual OG was somewhat less than expected, weighing in at 1.052 (after a temperature conversion). I think that I had the mash rest at too low a temperature and got a bad conversion. Hard to tell, with my limited experience and no working thermometer (wish list item number 1). According to my hydrometer, this means a potential alcohol of 6.9%. This is not to say that the beer will be 6.9% alcohol (or even close, really). It depends on how well my yeasties attenuate the available sugar. The yeast I use is 75% attenuating, so if I get a really full ferment they’ll leave it at 1.013. That means that the highest alcohol content I would expect would probably be 5.4% or so by volume.

The yeast has started doing its thing. This Nottingham yeast is really cool high floctuating (clumping) top fermenting stuff. That means that it does that awesome lava lamp thing while its fermenting. It also means it leaves a lot of schmutz around the shoulders of my carboy to scrub out with a bottle brush later (a task which I am not relishing the thought of).

Reviews to follow, of course.

India Amber Ale

This here is an experiment; to do an amber beer with a malty flavor but with as much bitterness as an IPA. I can’t think of what this style might be called or if there is an official ’style’ into which this beer fits. I’m not ‘into’ style guidelines anyway, except as a general guide for making a beer that tastes a particular way. Anyway, I’m calling it an India Amber Ale. I just picked up the ingredients today from the Willamette Valley Vintner and Brewer shop. I usually go down to Home Fermenter Center. I find them more helpful and their malt extracts to be a bit tastier, but today was absolutely beautiful out, 54 degrees and I absolutely had to ride my bike.

Here is the recipe and it’s vital stats, as calculated by the Beer Tools Recipe Generator. I made some changes to their calculations, as they didn’t allow me to use as many ingredients as I actually am going to use (and therefore I had to fudge it a little).

India Amber Ale
————————————————————————–

General
————————————————————————–
Recipe Type: Extract + Mini Mash
Batch Size: 5 gal.
Volume Boiled: 5 gal with water added to make up for evaporation loss.
Mash Efficiency: 72 %
Total Grain/Extract: 9.75 lbs.
Total Hops: 4.0 oz.
Calories (12 fl. oz.): 263.8
Cost to Brew: $38.25 (USD) (actually spent more like $35, and this included crown caps and hop socks)
Cost per Bottle (12 fl. oz.): $0.72 (USD)

Ingredients
————————————————————————–
2 lbs. Crystal Malt 60°L
1 lbs. Dry Amber Extract
.75 lbs. Extra Light Dry Extract (left over from a prior batch)
6 lbs. Liquid Light Extract
1 oz. Chinook (whole, 13.00 %AA) boiled 60 minutes.
1 oz. Cascade (whole, 5.50 %AA) boiled 60 minutes.
1 oz. Goldings (whole, 5.00 %AA) boiled 15 minutes.
1 oz. Goldings (whole, 5.00 %AA) boiled 1 minutes.
Yeast: Danstar Nottingham

Vital Statistics
————————————————————————–
Original Gravity: 1.066
Terminal Gravity: 1.015
Color: 15.13 SRM
Bitterness: 70.0 IBU
Alcohol (%volume): 6.7 %

So, brew day is tomorrow and I hope to have some friends over to enjoy the fun with me.

The slight phenolic flavor in the maple nut brown has aged off nicely, which is a plus, but it got over-carbonated. If I work with Maple Syrup as a priming agent again, I’ll use less. In the meantime, in order to pour two beers you have to have three glasses (at least) to catch all the foam. Then you have to wait for it to settle and by that time the beer is mostly flat. Blech.

I wasn’t impressed by the WYeast ESB yeast, and for this beer I’m going back to the first yeast we used (Nottingham ale yeast by Danstar). It floctuates (clumps up) enough to all fall out of the beer before racking to the secondary, but not so much that it falls out of suspension on the second day of the ferment (which is what the ESB yeast did, requiring me to shake the carboy every two days).

Besides all that, the dry yeast packets are much less expensive, and one reason for making my own beer is to save money. Which I’m doing. Have you ever heard of a tasty microbrew for $0.75 a bottle? I have a fridge full. Boo-yah.

Apple Care Update

They sent me a replacement part, free of charge, because the machine was under Apple Care. The guy said that while this problem happens for a lot of people, the Apple engineers insist that it isn’t a design flaw. He said “it’s just part of the physics of having two wires in such close proximity.”

Okay, I’m glad they replaced the part (and would have been furious if they’d refused) but come on. A properly engineered power cord has enough insulation to keep the wires from rubbing together under normal usage conditions.

The service guy said that they will replace one or two for people.

Saychi! Oak Barrel Kombucha

For the past several months I’ve been getting into Kombucha, a cultured tea drink that comes from China and other points East. I’ve tried my hand at making my own (and still need to do some work at balancing enough sugar for a good ferment and not so much to create a sweet drink). I’ve also tried several brands.

Last week I discovered an amazing Kombucha. It’s made by a local company called Saychi! It’s fermented and aged in Oak Barrels. They do a good job of not adding too much of the fruit and other flavors, so the sour tea flavor comes through. Their ginger flavor has a lot of spice, which I think is nice.

They don’t seem to have a website, or else I’d link them here. But if you’re in the Eugene area I’d highly recommend looking them up. Their products are certainly available at the SeQuential Biofuels station in South Eugene and at the Kiva.

Pat Robertson

On the CNN live web stream following the Super Tuesday results, Pat Robertson just said that god told him that a Republican would not win the general election. That guy says the damnedest things.

Join my Fantasy Congress League!

Fantasy Congress is a fun and easy way to prove beyond all shadow of a doubt that you’re a giant geek. Here’s how it works;

You pick ten sitting members of Congress, two each from various levels of seniority starting with the most senior Senators and ending with the rookie Representatives. As the ’season’ progresses, you can make changes in your lineup. When these real people are successful at passing legislation or making news or doing other stuff that members of Congress do, you get points. Whomever has the most points at the end wins.

Here’s how to join; go to the Fantasy Congress website and set up an account using any username and password you like. Then, choose to Join a League. Search for ‘Pax Humana’ which is the name of my league. The password is 12345. It is a private league, but I’m pretty sure most of my readers here are friends anyway and I don’t mind a stranger or two. I just wanted to make sure that there are seats open for some specific people and making it a private league seemed the best way to do that.

Anyway, here’s my starting lineup. For this round, since I’m going to keep trying to recruit players after we’ve started playing, multiple teams can draft the same member. In future seasons, I’d like to experiment with closed drafts where you have to trade to get the members you want;

Hillary Clinton (D)
Peter DeFazio (D)
Jason Altmire (D)
Chris Carney (D)
Ron Paul (R)
Robert Wexler (D)
Harry Reid (D)
Barack Obama (D)
Ted Kennedy (D)
Charles Rangel (D)

How to Beat Up a War Hero

This post was predicated on this note from the Atlantic

The Clinton campaign has released a memo playing up her strength as the best candidate to beat John McCain because of her experience. I think she’s not only wrong; she is exactly wrong. She is the candidate most vulnerable to John McCain precisely because of her experience.

Let’s step back for a second and think about the implications of this year’s general election. If the Democrats can’t win in 2008, we can’t ever win. Republicans will control the White House for another 50 years at least and the ‘Reagan Revolution’ (Viva El Gipper?) will be complete. If we can’t take the presidency after the most unpopular President since Nixon, how can we ever expect to take it? We can’t, and so I say a loss in 2008 will make the next several decades a painful display of false populists looting the social safety net and giving a healthy share of the spoils to wealthy corporations in the form of tax loopholes and kickbacks. Let me be clear as mud; this is the most important election ever for the Democrats.

So, having said that, let’s really look at who is the candidate best positioned to beat John McCain. We all know that John has a lot of appeal with independents and swing voters. They love him, and they aren’t likely to stop loving him any time soon. We all know that Hillary Clinton is a polarizing figure. Democrats love her, but she carries a lot of baggage from her prior eight years in the White House. The Right Wing Smear Machine threw a lot of mud her way, and while almost none of it stuck for good Democrats, it’s still there in the back of many independent and swing voters’ minds. I’d be willing to bet that if someone did a survey where they read several words and asked people to name the first candidate from either party to pop into their mind, Hillary would win for ‘conniving’, ‘controlling’, and ‘manipulative’ whether or not people are even aware that they have this perception of her.

Okay, so we’ve established two things; independent voters love John McCain, and people have some very negative subconscious impressions about Hillary Clinton. So, how do people choose who to vote for? I would submit that people choose who to vote for based 1) on their own economic self interest, and 2) from their gut. I think that among independents, it’s pretty much a wash who wins on the economy. So who wins the gut check? Is it the ’straight talking war hero’ or the ‘conniving, controlling, manipulator’? I overstate my case for dramatic effect, but I think the point is there.

Some will argue, and not without cause, that when you put either Hillary or Barack up against John in head to head polls, they’re neck and neck with him 44 to 46 or so with the rest undecided (see some numbers here at Real Clear Politics). I would submit, however, that while Hillary seems to be even with Obama, she’s a known quantity while he’s still got the oportunity to make his case with the voters. What do I mean? Check out this stat from a CBS news story this morning;

“Polling and election results so far suggest that the more time Obama has to present himself to voters, the better he fares. In each of the first four states where voting was sanctioned by the Democratic National Committee, Clinton maintained essentially level support in polls in the months leading up to the contests, while Obama saw a steady upward trajectory the more he campaigned. In Florida, by contrast, where the candidates did not campaign after the DNC punished the state for moving its primary to January, Clinton soundly defeated Obama, offering a rough gauge on how much the senator from Illinois relies on voter contact.”

So, if Obama has (as we know) a lot of support from independents and even Republicans, and has the opportunity to continue improving his standing with the electorate (remember that not everyone or even most people are even paying attention at this stage) and Clinton does not it stands to reason that Obama is the best choice to beat John McCain in November. A lot of people don’t know anything about Obama, whereas if you don’t have some preconceptions about Clinton you lived under a rock during the 90s.

Besides all that, the VP candidate is the attack dog in a traditional race while the main candidate keeps it positive. Clinton is, frankly, better at going on the offense than Obama whose real talent is as a motivational speaker.

I sincerely think that either candidate would do a remarkable job as President, but I think that if our choice is going to be about who will win in November, Democrats must rally behind Barack Obama. Disagree? Start an argument by hitting the ‘comment’ link. I’d love to get into this with someone.