Is in the keg. Took the final gravity reading at 1.015, a bit higher than what I expected, especially given the large, highly-active starter that I pitched. But, it has a nice color and taste, even though flat. Now I just wait for carbonation.
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Oktoberfest!Oktoberfest!
Yes, it’s that time of year already. I christened my 5.5 gallon batch with a 1.8L starter of German Lager yeast, WPL830, yesterday at 5:00pm.
| Ingredient | Amount |
| Munich Malt | 5 lb |
| Pilsner Malt | 5 lb |
| Vienna Malt | 3 lb |
| Hallertauer | 1.5 ounce (60) |
| Hallertauer | .5 ounce (20) |
| WLP830 (German Lager) | 1.8 Litre |
Everything went very smoothly. I treated my water with salts to boost the water profile (tsp epsom salt, tsp calcium chloride, ph stabilizer). Mashed at 156 for 50 minutes. Got 2.8 gallons on the first run at 16 brix @ 140 degrees for a 1.078. Sort of confirmed by a hydrometer reading of 1.054 @ 140 degrees = 1.070 approximately. Second run at 1.25 gallons with 10.5 brix @ 142 degrees for 1.043, hydrometer 1.030 @ 142 for 1.046. Third run at 1.5 gallons at 6.5 brix @ 148 degrees for 1.020. And a fourth run of 1.3 gallons which was nearly water and I only used about a quart. The pre-boil gravity was 1.056. I boiled for one hour. Cooled the wort to 63 degrees (which is the temperature of my basement where the starter had been sitting) and pitched. OG was at 1.050 which I’ll discuss in a minute. Hooked up to my handy-dandy Johnson control unit/heater set up and threw the fermenter in the refrigerator at 53 degrees. Now I’ll just wait for nature to take it’s course.
Per the above, I continue to have issues, for some inexplicable reason, with my gravities at OG time. I cannot understand how a wort with a pre-boil gravity of 1.056 can boil for one hour and come out at 1.050. That seems impossible. Water should evaporate and sugar should not. I confirmed with the refractometer which showed even lower. This is a source of endless confusion for me. I can understand if one over-collects on the sparge and then has too much water in the kettle, but I measured the pre-boil gravity… Regardless, I may have to take another tack and do some calculations on pre-boil gravity, evaporation rates, and so on to see if I can estimate the OG. But the fact that the tools reported something else is highly upsetting. In the end, I guess, it’s all about what the beer tastes like. But still.
Outdoor BrewOutdoor Brew
Spent part of Monday brewing outdoors. The first time I’ve done that. I purchased a Blichmann floor burner from Grape and Granary a few years back and just hadn’t gotten around to using it; well, now I can say that I have.
The burner is fantastic and connects to a propane tank. It puts out 72,000 BTU’s per hour which translates to a whole lot of heat for fast boils. I am used to brewing in my kitchen where I use a standard gas range. The time to boil was a great delay in the brew day for me. After lautering and sparging and collecting the wort into the boil kettle, the time from that 160 or so degrees to 212 was too much. It could take nearly an hour just to get to boil. I didn’t time things out specifically, but I would swear that the Blichmann was heating water at around 10 degrees every five minutes, maybe even faster. So in approximately twenty to twenty-five minute it was boiling. It happened so fast, in fact, that I had my first boil over in years, even with fermcap. But it was outdoors, so only the ants were pissed (and me later, when I had to scrub the pot).
Another upshot with outdoor brewing is that I just ran the hose to the kettle and used the hose to connect to the Blichmann plate chiller that I have. The excess water that comes in chilling the wort went straight into the garden beds for the very thirsty pumpkins, cucumbers, and peppers. The main drawback was that the water temperature was very difficult to get down, with the nearly 100 degree heat, so I could only chill the wort to 77 degrees, which is a bit high for pitching (but I did it anyway).
I brewed a Brown Ale with lots of Cascade and Nugget hops. The Nugget came straight from my backyard, circa 2011 (vacuum sealed in the freezer). It was a low gravity extract beer which I am using as a yeast starter (essentially) for an all-grain Imperial Red (Nosferatu clone) that I’ll brew in a week or two.
Commodore Perry CloneCommodore Perry Clone
Just brewed on Saturday. First time in a long time. Details unnecessary, but back on the hoss. I’ve committed myself to brewing a Commodore Perry clone repeatedly until I get it right. An homage to a great beer.
Noting meticulously my errors and successes. So this is round one. In the future, I’ll brew 2.5 gallon increments! =)
Here’s the recipe I went with. Variations in the future will be noted.
Recipie
| Ingredient | Quantity |
| Rahr Malt (2 Row) (1.9 SRM) | 15 lbs. |
| Caramel/Crystal Malt – 30L (30 SRM) | 1 lbs. |
| Honey Malt – (25 SRM) | 1 lbs. |
| Simcoe 13.0% | 1 oz. 60 min. |
| Cascade 5.50% | 1 oz. 30 min. |
| Willamette 5.50% | .5 oz. 30 min. |
| Cascade 5.50% | .5 oz. 20 min. |
| Willamette 5.50% | .5 oz. 20 min. |
| Cascade 5.50% | .5 oz. 10 min. |
| Willamette 5.50% | .5 oz. 10 min. |
| London Ale Yeast (Wyeast Labs #1028) | 2L starter |
| Cascade 5.50% | .5 oz. Dry Hop. |
| Willamette 5.50% | .5 oz. Dry Hop. |
Hit my targets right on the money. It was beautiful. Too beautiful. I’m waiting for the other shoe right now, in fact.
Struck at 171 degrees and got a mash temp of 156.4.
Let it sit for un hora.
Then my seven-year-old son popped in to start helping me and broke yet another hydrometer.
But together we pushed on to triumph.
He helped through all the runs and vorlaufs:
- 1st Run @ 149 degrees, 3 gallons, 23 brix, 1.094 SG (no hydrometer)
- 2nd Run @ 143.5 degrees, 2 gallons, 23 brix, 1.094 SG (no hydrometer)
- 3rd Run @ who cares degrees, 2 gallons, 9 brix, 1.034 SG (no hydrometer)
- Wort in 8 gallon pot at 7.0 gallons, 17.5 brix, 1.068 SG (no hydrometer)
Boiled for 70 mins, various hop additions, son helping with hop socks and sniffing and considering the differences between hop varietals. While also stirring the 7 gallons of boiling wort and causing me no end to terrible scenarios in my mind, esp while touching the ball valve on the boil pot.
Got a post boil volume of around 6 gallons at 1.079 OG, pitched the yeasties, and …
The fermentation is sluggish. Smells bad. May have effed up the starter. Sour Commodore anyone? I could be pessimistic, too. Stuck my nose in the fermenter and had my eyebrows burned off. Loving life. If this one is bad, I’ll do another.