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Glen’s Best Bitter

I haven’t been as consistent as I’d like to be in keeping up with homebrew recipes, posting all the details of my brews. Life gets in the way of blogging sometimes. My dad and I are going to brew up a batch of bitter trying to reproduce ‘glen’s best bitter’ which you used to be able to get at the Wild Duck before they closed up shop. Following is a (preliminary) guess at what might be in such a brew. Who knows how close we’ll come, as it’s mostly a stab in the dark. They stopped producing this, my dad’s favorite beer, before I was of legal drinking age, much less interested in reproducing beers. I haven’t ever tasted the original and Dad knows basically nothing about the elements of beer. So, between us here’s a guess. If you have any additional information about this beer, or suggestions, I would greatly appreciate them.

2 Lbs American 6 Row Pale
1.5 Lbs English Mild malt
1 Lb American Caramel, 40 L
.5 Lbs Munich
.1 lb flaked barley for head retention

3.5 lbs dry light extract

1 oz centennial 10% boiled 60 minutes
.5 oz willamette 5% boiled 15 minutes
.5 oz willamette or sterling, 4-5%, boiled 1 minute

White Labs British Ale yeast (WLP005)

We’ll go for this one sometime in July. We were going to brew it today, but he’s not feeling well.

Chamomile

Today, I tried my hand at all grain brewing for the first time. I screwed up good and proper, which is exactly what I was supposed to do. Here’s what happened.

I set out to make a chamomile honey wheat beer. In the end, the recipe I went with is not entirely unlike the one I posted a month ago, but it isn’t entirely like it either. Into my mashing/lautering tun I put;

4.75# Pale Wheat Malt
5# Two Row Pale Malt

Cracked and ready to go. To this, I added around 3 gallons of hot water. The temp of the water I added was around 160 degrees F. The mash ended up being 140 degrees F. This seemed too cool, so I shut it up for about half an hour while I researched how much more hot water to add to make the final temp closer to 160. Ooh. Here’s the problem; I misremembered the appropriate temp for mashing grains. It’s 145 - 155, not 165 - 175. Here’s a helpful chart that I will use next time.

So, what happened when I mashed at 160 degrees for an hour is; mostly nothing. I ended up with a much lower gravity wort than I had anticipated, because the enzyme that does the most, best work (beta amylase) I killed after half an hour of mashing. Instead of my target 1.050 Original Gravity I hit 1.029. Blech. But, not to worry. I was going to add 1.5# of honey at the end of the boil, which would bump the gravity up by about a point overall (to 1.04, give or take). I had some extra honey around, so I doubled it and added three pounds.

The place where I hope this beer really stands out is the chamomile included in place of hops. I used about two ounces of chamomile and a half ounce of saaz hops boiled for 60 minutes, and another two ounces of chamomile and half ounce of saaz boiled for ten minutes give or take. When I transfer to the secondary, I’m going to do a little taste test and maybe add some more chamomile for aroma at that time depending on how much the flavor comes through.

Rather than a weitzen yeast, which has a lot of character of its own that I didn’t want, I’m using the Wyeast American Ale, which is pretty good and neutral especially if I keep the fermentation temp cool, which I’m doing.

As always, updates to follow.

Lately I’m drinking the India Amber Ale. I’m very pleased with how it turned out, despite some small mishaps. It’s got a unique flavor for sure, but not a bad one. I’m not much of one for flavor reviews like they do on the beer sites; it seems haughty. I like drinking my beer. It tastes good. Come over and I’ll offer you one, and you can see for your own self.

All Grain Setup Diagram

And here is a diagram of the all grain brewing system that I’ve put together. I still haven’t taken it for its trial run yet, sometime mid March is my expectation. In other brewing news, I found a local nursery where I can buy brewing varieties of Hops near the end of March or early April. Very exciting. Click the picture for a PDF of the system with text and stuff. Or just look at the tiny picture there.

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
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General
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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
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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
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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
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General
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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
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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.

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.

Nutcase Maple In Bottles

This morning I put five gallons of Maple Nut Brown ale in bottles. It’s a good do, I think from the warm flat sample I had. It doesn’t have any marked off flavors, at least. The final stats.

OG: 1.051 (6.5% pot. alc.)
FG: 1.015 (1.9% pot. alc.)
Alcohol by Volume: 4.6%

As mentioned previously, the beer was bottled with Maple Syrup used as priming sugar to give it a woodsy, maple flavor once it’s had a chance to bottle condition. Reviews to follow, of course. In the meantime, here’s a fun quote.

When we drink, we get drunk. When we get drunk, we fall asleep. When we fall asleep, we commit no sin. When we commit no sin, we go to heaven. So, let’s all get drunk and go to heaven!
— George Bernard Shaw