Hefeweizen Update

The Hefeweizen will be transferred to the secondary fermenter tomorrow, but I wanted to post some pictures and video from the first day of ferementation. Just like the Belgian Ale, a higher fermentation temperature and high activity caused the wort to foam and blow off the top. I had placed a bag around the carboy, but the activity blew off the bag. On the bright side, this shows that the yeast was happy and there was plenty of sugar, but hopefully there won't be too many off flavors or too high of an alcohol content. I am currently looking for a cheap used chest freezer, which will allow me to do fermentation at a controlled temperature. This should prevent future explosions. I could also do some lagering. The freezer could hold kegs of beer as well. The temperature will be controlled by a device that allows me to hold the temperature of a freezer or fridge anywhere in the 30-80 degree range.

Second All Grain Attempt

Even though we have not tried our first all grain recipe, the ESB, I decided it was best to start the summer beer recipe. Last night Nick and I brewed a German Hefeweizen. We used the same bucket system with blanket insulation. The mash temperature was a bit high and we had some trouble with temperature loss in the lauter tun, but the water coming out of the lauter tun became clear, which is an indication that the sugars have been extracted.

As was the case with the ESB, I had a lot of water loss through steam with the boiling. Even with 7-8 gallons of wort, I only had about four gallons after the boil. I added a gallon of tap water to the carboy to top out at five gallons.

We were able to use the new 35 quart (almost 9 gallon) brewpot. This was a great improvement over the 5 gallon pot. Although with the first boil we noticed an almost rustlike appearance to the pot. After boiling the wort and cleaning the pot, the coloration was gone, so I am not sure what happened.

After the slow fermentation with the White Labs yeast in the ESB, I switched to Wyeast. I am proud to report that the primary fermentation is very active with a lot of CO2 in less than 10 hours after the yeast was pitched. Check back for updates.

Näf-Woods Homebrew Lab Opens Up

I am proud to announce the opening of the Näf-Woods Homebrew Lab. The Lab will focus on developing new recipes, techniques and a variety of other tasks.

First Experiment
The first project sent to our lab comes from my girlfriend Kati. She asked that the lab develop a hard cider recipe. As you may recall by reading this post, in January this brewery produced a cider. The cider turned out ok, but it definitely needed more apple flavor. I determined that three 1-gallon growlers would allow me to use 1/2 gallon recipes. This worked perfect as most ciders and juices come in 64 oz. containers. As was the case last time, there was no boil, I put juice in the fermenter and added yeast. This time I added some corn sugar to up the alcohol content. There were three different batches, one had apple cider, the second had pure apple juice and the last one was pure apple juice with thawed red rasberries. I used a champagne yeast found at the wine store. I created a yeast started with apple juice and the hydrated yeast. The batches have been transferred to the secondary fermenter. In the secondary I added some apple enhancer flavoring and some isinglass for clarification. The secondary will take two weeks. Check back later in June after the bottle conditioning for more updates.

If you have an experiment for the Näf-Woods Homebrew Lab please send it via email.

Belgian Ale

As you can see in my side column, the Belgian Ale is bottled. I tried one after a week of bottle conditioning and found the beer to be non-carbonated. I typically wait at least two weeks for bottle conditioning, but I thought I might try one early. Nick tried one as well, and we both noticed some great flavors, including the typical banana esther along with a slight bubble gum taste. Hopefully the carbonation kicks in, because this beer is supposed to have a incredible head of carbonation when poured into the proper glass. The proper glass for this beer would be a Belgian glass with a tulip design. A Duvel glass would work. I will use a Piraat glass, which is very similar. I'll try another one in the coming weeks and post my review along with the recipe.

ESB

On American Homebrew Day, as designated by the American Homebrew Association, the first Saturday of each May, Nick, Brian and I brewed some ESB (Extra Special Bitter.) ESB is an English style beer, which has a misleading name, since it is really not that bitter. It is a dark beer with low carbonation, often with a toasty malt flavor.

ALL GRAIN HERE WE COME!
Nick devised our first attempt at an all grain brew. Our manifold was at first attempted with a piece of stainless steel, but it snapped, so instead he used a piece of copper (off his wort chiller) and bent it in a question mark shape. The question mark loops in the bucket with the straight point going out the bucket. Inside the bucket, the copper has small cuts, from a dremel tool, facing the bottom of the bucket, which allows the wort to escape, while leaving the grain in the bucket. He used a bottling bucket that already had a drilled hole. The copper tubing fit perfect in a rubber stopper. He used a special molding clay to form a complete seal. The plastic tubing fit perfect on the copper tube. I'll describe our mash/lauter process in a later post, along with the recipe and some photos.

Beer as a battery?

This article was sent to me. Earlier this week the BBC announced that Foster's brewery in Australia received a grant to build a battery that would capture the energy produced by bacteria consuming sugars in brewery waste water. It is said this battery could power an entire home. They hope to use this technology in other food and drink processing plants. Along with producing power, this process will help clean the waste water. If you don't understand the power of microorganisms and consumable sugars found in beer, check my earlier post and watch the video to see how the yeast produced enough CO2 to blow off the top of my primary fermenter.

Belgian Ale-Fermentation

April Homebrew

Belgian Ale

I started a batch of Belgian Ale last night. This morning the activity was good, about a bubble a minute in the airlock. I used a 6 gallon carboy. Today after work I checked on the activity and discovered that the airlock had been ejected quite a distance away from the carboy, and foam was coming out the top. I replaced the air valve with a blow off hose into a container of water. So far everything appears ok. Activity is still quite high. Below are some pics and a video hosted on Youtube.

Enjoying a beer while brewing

With Blow-off Tube

Lots of Activity!

Tour of Sam Adams-Boston

During a recent trip to Boston, for the marathon, I was able to tour the Boston Sam Adams brewery. In previous trips I have attempted to visit, but they had bad hours. This year they added Tuesday tours, which worked out well. I told myself the tour was a reward for the race on Monday. I enjoyed the tour and the sampling of beer. The brewery is in Jamaican Plain, which is south of downtown Boston. Luckily there is a T-subway stop within walking distance. As we walked into the facility we noticed the wonderful smell of wort. I wonder if they can bottle that smell and pump it into the tours, when a beer is not being made. After the tour we tried fresh samples of Sam Adams Boston Lager, Summer Ale and an experimental Irish Red Ale. In the gift shop I picked up one of the new Boston Lager glasses! Oh and for what it is worth, the Cincinnati Sam Adams brewery makes over half of the beer for the company. The Boston location doesn't have the ability to bottle beer. Below are some pics.

Chilling the Wort

When making beer, contamination is most likely to occur between the boiling and the transfer to the primary fermenter. Since wort is unfermented beer, there is a lot of sugar that can attract contamination. The temperature is ideal, and there is no alcohol. It is critical to keep the wort covered and to get the temperature down quickly to properly pitch the yeast.

If you do not own a wort chiller, you can chill a 2-3 gallon wort with your sink. I don't completely understand thermal dynamics, but the key points to use are temperature differential and container material. You may have been under the impression that it is best to combine the 2-3 gallons of wort with 2-3 gallons of cold tap water in your fermenter, and then chill it in the sink or tub. It may seem counter intuitive, but it is easier to cool something that is at a higher temperature. It also helps to leave the wort in the metal pot, because it transfers the heat better than plastic or glass.

So take your pot directly off your burner and place it in your sink. You need to have water contact the sides of the pots, so that the heat from the pot transfers to the water in the sink. That means you need to change the sink water and replace it with cold water from the tap. I find it best to partially plug the drain, so that some warm water escapes while cold water comes in from the tap. You can add some ice to the sink, but it is not necessary. Once the temperature reaches 100 degrees you can put it in the primary fermenter. If you do this properly, it should only take 15-30 minutes. Top off the primary fermenter so that you have a total of five gallons. The temperature should now be in range for most yeasts, but just to be safe you will want to take a reading and refer to the yeast packaging or the recipe. Remember to do your specific gravity reading before pitching the yeast.

Yeast Starter

It is always a good idea to use a yeast starter.

Dry Yeast
-After 10 minutes of the boil, remove 2 cups of wort. Cover the sample and cool it in a fridge or freezer until it reaches 90 degrees.
-Warm up a 1/2 cup of tap water to 90 degrees. Sprinkle the yeast, cover until the wort is ready.
-Combine the wort and yeast water, cover and set aside until needed.

Wyeast Liquid
Some of the Wyeast liquid yeasts come with an activator pack, which once smacked will release yeast nutrient. Depending on the yeast and beer, you will want to do this 1-3 days in advance. Check the recipe for recommendations.

White Labs Liquid
White Labs makes excellent liquid yeasts in tubes. They do not have a nutrient pack included, but you can make a starter in a similar manner to dry yeasts.

Homebrew IPA

February Homebrew

Snow Day IPA

Recipe

8 lbs. malt syrup

1 lbs. 60L crystal malt

1.5 oz Nugget Hops (bittering)

1 oz. Cascade Hops (flavor)

1 oz. Cascade Hops (aroma)

0.5 oz. Cascade Hops (dry)

5 oz. (3/4 cup) priming sugar

1 packet dry Nottingham Ale yeast

Procedure

Contact me if you want more detailed instructions.

Heat 2-3 gallons of water with malt in a grain bag. Hold between 150 and 160 degrees, while lifting and draining the bag multiple times with tongs (do not squeeze.) Remove the bag after thirty minutes. Turn off heat or remove the pot from the burner. Add malt syrup and the Nugget Hops in a bag. Increase temperature until a boil is reached. Hold the boil for thirty minutes, then add the flavor hops (bag optional.) The total boil will be sixty minutes. Turn off the heat and add the aroma hops. After fifteen minutes remove the hop bags and cool the wort. Once it is cooled, add it to the fermenter, topping it off with tap water to reach five gallons. Record the temperature and specific gravity. If the temperature is 65-75 degrees add the yeast (suggest using a yeast starter.) Fermenation should be at least one week in the primary and another week in the secondary. Add the dry hops to the secondary fermenter. Add priming sugar and bottle. Thanks to Listermanns shop in Cincinnati for the recipe and the ingredients!

The Name

As you may have noticed, I like to name the beer and put an interesting label on the bottle. I bought the ingredients on a weekend. I wasn't sure when I would get a chance to make the beer. Fate stepped in and brought a winter storm, which resulted in me missing almost two days of work. I was stuck at home....I had ingredients for a beer.....and now we have Snow Day IPA!

My Review

I am very happy with this beer. I like the copper color. The hops are evident when putting your nose near the glass and when you take a drink, but they don't overpower the taste. I was surprised at how smooth the beer was, considering it is an India Pale Ale. There is not a bitter aftertaste. The carbonation is ideal, producing a decent head when poured properly. Honestly, I prefer more bitter IPAs, but I still find myself having an easy time relaxing with a bottle. Next time I may try some different hops, or perhaps I will attempt an Imperial India Pale Ale.

Other Reviews

Jeremy said, "I hosted a jambalaya party over the weekend and took a break from some fine Single Barrel Jack Daniels to partake of the Snow Day IPA. I'm not an IPA drinker, so I wanted to be sure I had company to finish it if I didn't like it. I was pleased. It definitely had the hoppy taste, but it wasn't overwhelming for me (like the Bells Two Hearted Ale, or the hops that I ate during the Bockfest parade). I shared a bit with our cook and he enjoyed it as well."

Graham said, "Savoured with a side of cinnamon sprinkled cheddar cheese blocks and poured in a Stella Artois glass this is a really good beer. Carbonation is not high, just perfect in fact, very light hops aroma and taste with little or no after taste. Colour is copper, almost on a par with Killians Red........"

Kati said, "Yuck."

Ryan said, "Joe does a great job of brewing."

I have delivered a lot of bottles, so if you have a comment to post, please send it to me.