Nobody could be more surprised at my brewing a porter than me.  Among all the styles out there that are popular today, I’ve tended to find porters to be the least accessible.  Not that I haven’t liked porters, but I did generally feel that the richness, the complexity and the intensity overwhelmed my palate.  When looking for toasted, roast flavors I reached for stouts and dunkels.  Porters seem to be a style that has to be arrived at for some.  I recently made my acquaintance with Southampton’s Imperial Baltic Porter, and was blown away by the chocolate and toffee notes.  It was sweet without being cloying, presented rich flavors and aromas, and had a lingering finish with a suggestion of “toasted” at the end.  Sometimes all it takes is trying the right beer at the right time.  This was a good beer, and the timing was just right for this month’s brew. Continue reading →

I just kegged my first batch of beer and if I have only one thing to say about the experience, it’s that I will never go back to bottles again.  I ordered a Brew Logic 4-keg system for myself over Christmas.  It arrived Saturday and finally I got to play with it.  There was a bit of a fiasco trying to get the CO2 tank charged on Saturday, but I managed to get out today and do it over lunch.   Just in time too, since the Red Rye Ale I made in November is done dry hopping in secondary, and needed a home.  I was bound and determined not to put this one in the bottle.  I just gave the keg a quick rinse in sanitising agent, purged the lines, racked the beer into it, and threw 20psi on it.  Almost too easy.  I cut the gas on the main tank, and will check back in the morning to make sure the line is still holding pressure.  If so, I should have a fresh batch ready to pour by the weekend.

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I brewed this Red Rye Ale recipe yesterday with my buddy Dave.  It’s a reprise of my first all-grain recipe from a few seasons ago.  Since then I’ve really gained an appreciation for rye ales, and wanted to see if I could improve upon the original.

This was also an opportunity to try some new techniques and kit.  Dave brought along his sparge arm, and I wanted to try out a new heat shield for my burner rig.  This is also the first time I’ve included rice hulls in the grain bill.  For his part, Dave had not yet worked with rye, and was interested to see how it worked out. (Flaked rye can be a sticky mess sometimes!) He also got to see the CFC in action.  Things worked out beautifully, and we nailed our target numbers spot-on.  24 hours after I pitched the yeast there’s a rolling, slow and steady fermentation. Smells wonderful.

Technical specs for those interested, 12SRM, estimated 60IBU at 5.5% ABV.

American Cream Ale: light-bodied beer with plenty of hop character produced by the Hallertau hop. Difficulty: the kit came with Vanguard hops because of the hop shortage this year.

The Deutschlander will be sitting in primary/secondary for a about six more weeks, and I was looking for a little more immediate feedback on my brewing process. I’ve elected to start a second batch that should finish up within a couple of weeks. This was the perfect justification to run out and buy an extra carboys for primary as well. I needed to get one for secondary, anyway.

This is a basic kit. It’s an all-extract recipe with a can of plain light malt extract, 2lb bag of light dry extract, 1.5 oz Vanguard bittering hops, and 1/2 of vanguard finishing hops and a packet of Windsor dry yeast. This is a cream ale recipe, which is sort of a hybrid brew. It uses lager yeast at ale fermentation temperature. Thus, it’s one of the few ale styles you can put into secondary.

The plan is to give this one two weeks in primary, and then rack straight into bottles for conditioning. The instructions suggest a secondary period, but some of the research I’ve been doing suggests that there are some benefits to leaving the brew on the yeast cake after primary has finished up,. This would allow the yeast more time to clean up the by-products from the activation phase. In fact, it’s been suggested that the extra time in primary actually performs the same proccesse as secondary, without the added risk of infection, if the secondary was going to be short.

It’s snowing out as I’m boiling the batch, and it’s challenging keeping the heat up. I’m going to give it a longer boil– maybe by as much as a half hour or as long as the propane holds out. I’m also rehydrating the yeast now, though I started with slight cooler water that I’d intended to. One of these days I’ll treat the wee yeasties right.

It also seems like I didn’t add enough water to the brew kettle, and have ended up shy of 5 gallons in the primary. Now I’ve added too much water by about 1.5 quarts, and my starting gravity is a little low. Looks like I’ll be brewing light beer this time around.

Starting gravity is 1.036.

Update 1/12/09: The airlock was bubbling along like crazy earlier yesterday, but seems to have quit sometime in the afternoon. What krausen there was has since laid down. Will give it another few days before I check gravity and possibly re-pitch.

Update 1/18/09: Took a gravity reading of 1.016. Still a little high for this late in the fermentation. I gave it a swirl, and will try raising the temperature a bit to rouse the yeast. I’m not working with a thermometer on this one, so the yeast may have gone dormant on me. I was going to leave it in primary for another week anyway, so the additional time may knock off a few more points. The sample tastes fine, with a stronger hop flavor than I’d anticipated. Still, I’m looking forward to drinking this one!

Update 1/24/2009: Bottling day! Final gravity was 1.015. I managed to fill exactly 32 12oz bottles, and 18 500mL bottles. I had wanted to give the beer some time to settle in the priming bucket, but there was a slow leak at the spigot, and I had to hurry through the bottling. It was still a little cloudy in the bottles, but should hopfully settle out through the week.

The Analysis 1/31/2009: I finally get to try my own, first homebrew. I’m impressed with how well it came out, this being my “first” attempt, though it’s certainly not winning any awards. It’s lightly carbonated after one week in the bottle, but has enough fizz to give it a nice head in the glass, if only briefly. No lacing to speak of. It comes through with a golden-amber color, and has much more clarity than I was expecting. It has a light aroma, with medium body and good mouthfeel. There are notes of corn that probably from the DME, as this particular batch fermented cool and didn’t get all the way to its intended final gravity. The malt flavor is nicely balanced with the hop character, with hints of corn and some mild fruity esters. The finish has a distinct hop character that reminds me a little of Sam Adams’ Boston Ale.

Golden to amber in color, medium body, refreshingly hopped. Representative of the old German style. Respectable alcohol level.

Brew day! I probably could have found a more difficult beer recipe to get started with, but I would actually have had to try. I’m starting with a Deutschlander Lager that uses specialty grains and several hopping charges. It’s hardly the most complicated brew, but it’s going to be a little more involved than I’d expected, which was basically to boil some wort, chill it, pitch it and stick it in the basement for a couple of weeks. Looks like I’ll be steeping some grains and doing a couple charges of hops as well.

Deutcshlander Lager

• 0.33# Crystal Malt 40L
• 0.33# Munich Malt
• 2.25qt Pale malt extract
• 0.25qt Adjunct
• 1.33oz Hallertau hops (bittering)
• 1.0 oz Hallertau hops (finishing)
• 2tbsp Irish moss
• 0.75oz Hallertau hops (dry)

OG was 1.058 (or thereabouts). This recipe doesn’t indicate brewery efficiency, so I’ll have to assume somewhere between 75 and 80%. Looking for a FG of somewhere between 1.011 and 1.014.

I also made a bunch of rookie mistakes. For one, I left the brew pot partially covered during the boil. This is because I was boiling outside, and didn’t want crud falling into the kettle. Unfortunately, I positioned the lid to let the condensate drop back into the wort, and may not have boild off as much of the sulfides as I might have liked.

I also did not get a good reading on the OG. I recall having pointed out potential 8% ABV to someone, and am therefore assuming I started around 1.058, which is about right for lagers, if a little on the high side.

I may also have pitched the yeast a little warm. The wort was cooled to around 75 dF. I also did not think to rehydrate the yeast before I pitched it– it just went straight into the primary from the packet. There was also a thick head of foam on the wort from when I poured it to the primary. That could either help or hurt.

But, its in the basement now, and the airlock is starting to bubble, so maybe it’ll all turn out OK. Everyone has to start somewhere, right?

Update: 1/5/09: Fermentation appears to be under way, bubbles every 5-15 seconds, and smells of rising bread.

Update: 1/8/09: Still bubbling 5-15 seconds, but starting to smell a little sulfur.

Update: 1/12/09: Bubbling seems to have slowed down in the airlock to < 1 in 3 minutes since yesterday afternoon. Took a gravity reading this evening of 1.018. Still a little farther to go. Will check again in a couple of days. Took a sample taste too; strong hop character I’m hoping will mellow in secondary. Lacks nose, but will dry hop in secondary. Malt finish suggests sweetness, but it actually was not very sweet. Update 1/24/09: I racked over to secondary today, and pulled a gravity reading of 1.016. I’ve also added the dry hops, and will let this stand for another few weeks while I collect more bottles. I must say, I’m looking forward to trying this beer. It’s got a nice amber hue to it, and has much more clarity than the American Cream Ale did after two weeks in primary. I’m assuming this is the effect of the Irish Moss, and will certainly be using it in my recipes from here on out! Even without dry hopping and carbonating, this beer is developing very well. There is a distinctive hop character that almost overwhelms the malt flavor, and it lacks nose in the finish, but I expect those characteristics to improve in secondary. I understand I can let this thing go for the next three to seven weeks, so I’ll just wait and collect more bottles. I’m really looking forward to trying this one out when it finishes.