Yeast Washing

So, I put the Slam Dunkle (Dunkleweizen) into a keg last night. It should be ready in a few days.

That allowed me to utilize my new pressure cooker to sanitize jars for washing the yeast cake.

This was a dry yeast packet from one of the last beer kits I have bought. I didn't take much note of which company it was from, or yeast strain, my notes only said 'German Wheat'.

Well, now I have 4 'German Wheat' yeasts to use in the future. The process itself was simple enough, I'll be doing this again with the yeast from Ranger Danger, as well as Brown Turkey. I think I have just enough mason jars for those 3 yeast cakes. I may in the future just save two jars instead of the 4 I got out of the Dunkle.

With liquid yeasts from White Labs, or Wyeast running in the $6 - $8 range, this should be saving me a good portion of the cost of future brews.

Choices

During the holiday weekend (which I took a break from the 'nets so no new posts here), my family visits helped with emptying out the English Pale that had been on tap since just after Thanksgiving.

Now I have to pick between 3 different ready to keg beers:

Dunkleweiss
Ranger IPA clone
Northern English Brown

The Dunkle has been in the fermentor the longest time, and I already have a Black IPA on tap...
The NEB hasn't even been checked for final gravity yet...

Dunkle it is!

Also, my lovely wife gave me a pressure cooker for Christmas, now I can sterilize jars, lids, implements, etc, for yeast washing and storing.

I'll be getting to that next, washing the yeast cakes in order to store my own like bank.

Brewing Pipeline

So I've come to a point where I have quite a bit of beer in the pipeline. When I started earlier this year I knew it would take a while before I could build up a stockpile of brewed beer given that I was drinking my product from kegs as soon as I made it.

For months I kept on a schedule, trying to get ahead of consumption. This barely kept me stocked with ready to drink beer, as it was being consumed almost as fast as I made more.

In September my wife and I gave birth to a new baby girl, this had two effects on my brewing stockpile. In the short run it interrupted my brewing schedule for a good month, and I had nothing on tap for a long time. I thought that this would set me back for months in trying to build a stockpile.

Interestingly enough though, in the long run it has increased my stockpile as my consumption has gone way down. While my wife was still off of work I was free to indulge in a pint or two a couple times a week, thus I was still managing a consumption rate that kept up with my brewing rate.

However with my wife having gone back to work now my consumption has dropped to about 4 pints a week at most, and never more than 1 a day during the work week. Most nights I do not even have one. You see, my wife works third shift, and while she is at work I am tasked with being a responsible adult. Such is the sacrifice that we make for our children.

I've had a busy brewing schedule since just before Thanksgiving, even while my consumption has plummeted. This now has me in the position I originally envisioned where I had multiple beers ready for kegging as I empty a prior tapped keg.

As of right now, I have the last of an English Pale Ale, which my wife likes alot, so I've been saving that for her (she has even fewer than myself per week), and the Black IPA on tap (which is freshly tapped). Once the English Pale is gone I will be kegging the Dunkle.

This still leaves me with the Ranger Danger IPA, and the newest Brown Turkey still in fermentors.

All told, discounting the English Pale, I have 20 gallons of beer to cycle through before I run out. At my current rate of consumption this might keep me stocked with beer through February of 2013. I may end up brewing only once more over the coming winter. Brewing outdoors in the winter is a major deterrant.

It was just a haphazard strategy that I used to get to this point, but I think that I will be attempting the same in the future. Brew a lot before winter comes, then enjoy the fruits indoors where it is warm.

Major Difference

So the Brown Turkey is happily percolating this morning with an inch of Krausen already fully formed.

For the majority of the this year I have been using dry yeast in all of my brews for a couple reasons. Locally sourced kits were all dry yeast, and when ordering over the internet in the middle of the summer heat I tended to use the dry option as well. I didn't want to have complications with shipping liquid yeasts and having the heat kill them off before I received them.

I had been spoiled by the quick action of dry yeast. Dry yeast is packaged when the yeast has already been through the O2 uptake phase, making them set to go as soon as they rehydrate from the wort.

Other times I used Wyeast smack packs, which also tend to take off rather quickly. It really only seems to be White Labs that takes a while for the yeast to go through the O2 uptake phase prior to getting down to work. With the Ranger Danger IPA I did a few weeks ago, it was 36 hours or so before I started noticing any airlock activity.

This time around using the White Labs yeast, I made a starter on Thursday evening to get it all kick started.
2 cups of water and 1/2 cup of wort boiled for 15 mins, then chilled down and yeast pitched in. I haven't made a stir plate for it yet, but the yeast burned through that little amount of wort in 24 hours.

Using that starter has made a world of difference with this brew.

I'm happy.

Brew Day

Brewing the Northern English Brown today. Cold and rainy out so looks like I will be in the garage.

I'll also be smoking some baby back ribs, as well as a turkey breasts. The garage is going to smell awesome!

UPDATE: Okay, all done with the brew. Started heating water at 8 AM. Crush grains, mash, sparge, boil, chill, cleanup. 1:30 PM. Not to bad if I do say so myself.

In between brew activities, I prepped 3 slabs of ribs and a turkey for the smoker. Started those around 10 AM. They should be done around 3 PM or so.

The Northern English Brown has been dubbed 'Brown Turkey'. My target gravity was 1.052 based on the brew calculator. One thing I did was crush the grains a little be finer this time. It looked even better than the last one. I had a large majority of half husks for setting the grain bed, but this time around very few of those husks had any malt clinging to the inside.

I think this might have increased my efficiency, as I came out at 1.066 OG. Thats quite a bit higher than I would have expected from the grain bill using my BrewR calculator, but maybe someone else can run numbers for me and give me a different idea on what I could have expected.

Here is the grain bill:
8lbs Marris Otter
1lb Victory
.5 lb Caramel 120L
.25 lb Chocolate

I did a yeast starter on the WLP002 that I'm using on this beer so hopefully fermentation will start a bit quicker than the last brew. Time will tell.

Nano Nano Nano

Via Instapundit, an article in Slate on my favorite topic here at WBHY.

 Pint Sized

From the article:

 Brewing beer begins as a hobby. Friends praise the homebrews and clamor for more. The idea of going pro and quitting the day job tempts. But launching a microbrewery requires a mid-six-figure sum. Without independent wealth or deep-pocketed backers, the entrepreneurial fantasy ends there.

But a nanobrewery can get off the ground with a five-figure outlay. That’s real money and real risk, but it’s attainable for someone with passion and modest resources. In Dlugokencky’s case, he took a loan against his retirement for about $40,000 to upgrade his homebrewing kit into a system capable of producing three barrels of beer at a time. (A barrel is 31 gallons, or two kegs.) He handles the distribution—to bars, restaurants, and stores—himself.

Quitting the day job isn't in the cards, at least for the time being. A three barrel system would take up quite a bit of room, pretty much my whole garage. Sure would be fun though wouldn't it?

Taste Testing

Blackened is the IPA has been on CO2 at 10lbs now for 8 days. Pulled off a pint of it tonight, and I pronounce it good.

The recipe that came with the kit called for it to be dry hopped, but I altered it and put all the hops in during the boil. Most dry hopped IPA's tend to be a bit 'green' to my tastes.

Carb level still isn't quite up to full snuff, another week and it will be perfect. But, as of now, it is good to go as it still retains CO2 in the beer after the head subsides.

The gravity bottomed out at 1.024 on a projected 1.021. Earlier I thought it was a bit sweet to taste, but now it seems to have equalized out and has a nice balance.

Rare Belgian

I'm not sure if I can talk my wife into allowing me to make a trip to John's Grocery to pick up a 6-pack.

http://121212xii.wordpress.com/2012/12/03/hello-world/

Not when a 6'er costs $85.00.

Would make a great Christmas present though.

Rib Cage IC

I was browsing HBT looking for a faster way to cool my wort. There are times in the summer where it has taken me 75 minutes to cool from boil to pitching temp, and that is just not fast enough. I have plans to make a prechiller to help combat that, but then I ran across this thread.

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/diy-interwoven-rib-cage-immersion-chiller-106415/

The OP calls it a Rib Cage Immersion Chiller (RCIC). My current IC is only a 20' length, and during the spring/fall/winter it doesn't do to bad, but I'm still running times of about 40 - 45 minutes to reach 70F. Many of the people in this thread claim to have gotten down to under 15 minutes to cool 5 gallons.

With a prechiller added, other claim under 10 minutes for 5 gallons. I'm thinking I'm going to try out a similar design, and retask my current IC into the prechiller portion for the warm months.

There are several other alternate takes on the RCIC, and I think I'll attempt the following:

I like the design, it has the dual coils both being fed cool water at the top, split with a T, and then the outflow is collected with another T at the base, leading out with a single outflow tube. The in/out single tube will need to be a larger diameter than the coils themselves I would think to keep from a chokepoint slowing the flow of water. I plan to make something similar.

Here is another one:

This one is quite a bit more radical and involves quite a bit of work to make, but I bet it cools down faster than blazes given that each coil is being feed cool water. To much work though.

Let me know what ya'll think.

Beer and Politics

I don't plan on using this blog to debate politics, but I couldn't resist posting this informational article.

http://www.nationaljournal.com/blogs/hotlineoncall/2012/09/what-your-beer-says-about-your-politics-27

I know my beer drinking tastes do not match their chart, but then again I'm really an exception when it comes to most beer rules, as are most home brewers I would imagine.

Hops, what can't they do?

Sapporo has released a study showing that Humulone, a compound in hops, has anti-viral properties.

http://www.microbeworld.org/index.php?option=com_jlibrary&id=9802&view=article

Of course, you'd need to have about 30 or so Sapporos a day to receive the effect. The study doesn't say anything about IPA's though!

Multi-level stand

Today I built a 2-tier stand to place the HLT and MT above my boil kettle so I can drain one into the other, without having to stack them on makeshift boxes, tables, etc.

Materials were all 2x4's, with some left over plywood for the platforms.

4 @ 58"
6 @ 37"
9 @ 18"
2 @ 21" x 18" 3/4" plywood

And the finished product.

It isn't the prettiest thing in the world, but I made it using scrap lumber I had lying around taking up space.
It will do the trick until I need to make something better.

Keg Setup

So if anyone was interested in seeing my bar/keg setup, here is a brief overview. This is my dual tower with the drain. The drain snakes under the bar and goes into the sink installed in the counter, the counter is out of the pictures to the left. Comes in quite handy to have the drain rather than just a drip tray.

Having two is nice for variety.

 Next up is the kegerator that sits below the bar. Notice that the air tank sits on the outside to the right. I could move this inside as well as I have room in the back of the kegerator. I have a single line for air going into the top, and the dual beer lines coming out of the top as well. The kegerator is offset to the left of the tap by about 18 inches, thats the only place I could put it due to the structural support incorporated into the bar (The maroon/red 4x4 seen just behind the CO2 tank, which can also be seen above directly behind the tower).

Inside the kegerator I can only fit the two 5 gallon corneys due to headspace in the back of the fridge being lower than the front. In the future I plan to invest in a couple of 3 gallon corneys as well and be able to keep 4 styles in the fridge, even tho I can only have two on tap. It is easy enough to use quick disconnects to swap back and forth.

Here you can see the limit of the headspace in the back (which contains the compressor for the cold plate). The CO2 line that comes in from the top is split with a T fitting in order to run two kegs at once. A much cheaper option than a dual regulator (another future purchase).

And that is my setup. It took a couple years to finish my basement, but it was all worth it.



Here is the rough finish on the bar, prior to the tower being installed in front of the support pillar. You can see the countertop with sink with the mirroed backing. Underneath the counter is where I put the fermentors, both empty and full.



Northern English Brown

Next beer to be brewed is going to be a Northern English Brown Ale. I've looked at numerous recipes to get a good idea of how most of them are built. Here is what I've come up with for the style.

Mash at 150F for 90 minutes.

8# Marris Otter
1# Victory
.5# Crystal 120L
.25# British Chocolate Malt

Boil for 90 minutes.
1.5 oz UK Fuggles @ 60
.5 oz UK Fuggles @ 10

WLP002 - English Ale Yeast

Specification Targets:
OG: 1.051
FG: 1.013
IBU 25.6
SRM 21

Style Guidelines
OG: 1.040 - 1.052
FG: 1.008 - 1.013
IBU: 20-30
SRM: 12-22

This should be on the upper end of the ABV scale at 5%, mid hoppyness for the style, and on the darker end.

Should be fun.

Sourcing Ingredients

So, for the home brewers that read this. How much comparison shopping have you done on sourcing grains in bulk?

I've got the main companies linked on the right from which I normaly order supplies. I'm going to forgo kits from here on out, so buying #50 at a time is my likely route and have to price shop in much larger quantities.

I've done a brief comparison on Briess 2-row as a base malt. LHBS will sell for $54 or if preordered (they order on their own schedule and do not put in special orders for 1 customer) they sell it for $46.

I know I have to be overlooking something on Northern Brewer, but I cannot find regular Briess 2-row in a #50 bag, only the 'Organic' 2-row. So, then pricing NB by the # puts #50 at $62.50.

Midwest Supplies has Briess 2-row at $49.50, and also a cheaper brand, Rahr 2-row at $33.60 for #50. (nice prices but is there a reason Rahr is so cheap?)

I know there are a ton of other suppliers out there, but this was just a brief overview looking at this first sources.

So I'm looking at;
NB $62.50 + $12.86 Shipping = $75.36
MS Briess $49.50 + $16.24 Shipping = $65.74
MS Rahr $33.60 + $16.24 Shipping = $49.84
LHBS $46.00 + Tax (and get it on their schedule) = $49.22
     OR $54.00 + Tax For in stock. = $57.78

Anyone got anything better to report?

UPDATE: I've been reading reviews on Briess vs Rahr on 2-row. Majority opinion is that Rahr and Briess are interchangeable as a base malt, but Briess is a bit better on specialty malts. Added new entry to the calculation above.

At a suggestion I checked morebeer.com
MB Domestic 2-row $60.25 w/free shipping

Happy Repeal Day

Tip one in celebration.

http://www.repealday.org/

Hard to believe that insanity lasted for 13 years. The damage it did to the brewing culture in this country is incalculable. Even after prohibition ended this country did not recover the deep culture of brewing fine product for many decades.

I'm glad I live in the modern era where craft brewing has once again taken root, and is growing by leaps and bounds.

Brewing Goals

Over the course of the last year I've been brewing extract kits. This has been done mostly at a whim with very little planning into what I brewed. The kits were selected for taste for the most part, and the goal (besides making good beer to drink) was to learn the process involved, techniques, sanitation, fermenting, kegging/bottling, etc, etc.

One of the great things about home brewing is that you can brew exactly what you like to drink. This also can lead to stagnation, you only brew a select few beers over and over. One of my goals is to be proficient in brewing any style of beer. In order to do this, I have to make sure that I continue to branch out from brewing beer that I currently already enjoy, and try out new things. Even I don't know whether or not I'll like the new ones more, or less, than what I consider to be my current favorites.

Another aspect of branching out to cover all styles is that it will help me in another goal of becoming a certified beer judge. It is one thing to do the training for certification, learning the styles based off of examples provided, and quite another thing to know the styles inside and out because you've made your own examples.

I've put together my own little spreadsheet that has the BJCP style guidelines, and I've putting in the recipes I've already made. I plan to tackle a new style at least once a month in the coming year that I have never done in the past, while also keeping stocked up on some of my wife and my favorites.

I'm going to have to put off the lager styles for now as I don't have a freezer or fridge I can dedicate to lagering, yet. So my first foray into new territory looks like I will be making a English Brown of some sort. When I find the style and recipe, I'll post it.

Krausen

So of course my paranoia was unjustified, I came home from work to find a nice Krausen forming (a hoppy green tinted one to be sure).

Bubble bubble toil and trouble....

Bad Yeast?

It's been 29 hours since I picthed the yeast on the Ranger Danger and there is no activity at all in the fermentor. The date on the yeast stated it was good until Jan 2013 (WLP051 from LHBS). I know it is still a bit to early to pass judgement, but I've never had a yeast take this long to begin activity.

Meh.....

Update:
I checked it again in the early morning hours when I was up feeding the baby, and now there is the beginning of activity in the airlock. I'll keep an eye on it, but I think it is finally starting to take off.

First AG Brew Day

Brew day began roughly around 9:30 AM when I began measuring out water. I calculated that I would need just over 7 gallons between Mash and Sparge. I used the figures of 1.25 qts per lb of grain, with 8.7 lbs of grain. Using 1/2 gallon of water per lb of grain for sparging, adding the two I came up with 7.1 gallons needed.

I started heating strike/sparge water a bit before 10 AM. By 10:20 AM I had set 2.75 gallons with the grain for the mash. Temp going into the tun was done at 168F, I checked it after 30 minutes and it had settled down to 148F, perfect target for the recipe (see Ranger IPA post).

The Mash. Using 8.7 lbs of grain the MT was a little over half full.
Bigger beers using up to 12 lbs of grain should be no problem with this MT.

At 11:20 I had the heated sparge water at 174F and into the HLT it went. Started setting the grain bed and then draining the wort. I learned that the flow of water from the HLT to the MT is slower than draining the MT into the Kettle. The flow fluttered out after about 20 minutes, so I closed the valve and let the sparge water build back up. When I resumed I used a slower flow out of the MT to the Kettle so that all the water would not drain off the grain.

Flow of water out of the sparge arm.

The grain seemed to have absorbed a bit more water than I anticipated as once the wort was drained I ended up with 6 gallons, instead of the 6.75 that I anticipated. I will adjust next time and prepare a bit more sparge water to use.

HLT on the left going to MT, and then the Kettle. Eventually I'll build a 2 Tier stand for the HLT and MT, and let the kettle stand on the legs from the burner.

Once all the wort was in the kettle I started to bring to a boil. I hit boiling at 12:15 and did first hop addition. From there it was a standard 60 minute boil with Tons of hops, some pellet, some leaf (LHBS only had Simcoe in leaf).

The large amount of hops, with some being leaf made the trub at the end of the boil cost me a gallon of water. I didn't want to drain to much of the sludge into the fermentor so I ended having to top off with a gallon of water to hit my 5 gallon total. Next time my calculations will be taking into account a better estimate of losses from HLT, MT, and Kettle.

As a consequence of the loss to the kettle I missed my target gravity, but was very close. My BrewR calculator gave me an estimate of 1.061 OG and I ended up with 1.059. Not to shabby for my first attempt if I do say so myself (and I do!).

I ended up tweaking the Ranger IPA recipe from the post below to the following:

• 8.25 lb 2-row
• 3 oz Chrystal 120
• 30 oz of corn sugar (I had 6 packs of priming sugar sitting around not being used, as I keg 99% of my brews)

I haven't yet bothered to figure out the efficiency of my mash, but given how close I was, and how much water I used to top off I think it was pretty good.

All in all, I would call today a smashing success based on my goals. From the very beginning at 9:30 AM to finishing clean-up of all equipment, putting it all away, yeast pitched, etc... I was done at 2:45 PM.

And, I have dubbed the brew 'Ranger Danger' as I altered the hops bill a bit as well (I like hops, alot). The IBU's calculated out a bit above an American IPA style, and a bit above the recipe I used as a guidline.

• 1 oz Chinook @ 60 mins
• 1 oz Simcoe Leaf @ 30 mins
• .75 oz Cascade @ 15 mins
• .75 oz Cascade @ 0 mins
• 1.5 oz Cascade Dry Hop

Recipe was targetted at 70 IBU's, BJCP style 14B is 40-70 (really? 40? wusses), with this hops schedule BrewR came up with 72 IBU's for Ranger Danger.

Looking forward to drinking it in a month.