Pretty In Pink

Quite fitting for Valentine's day is a pretty in pink fermentation chamber the barrel box. The project is approaching final gravity within a week. The starter culture of Lactobacillus Delbrueckii was given 4 days of heated fermentation at 120F. The first sign of pellicle appeared within 24 hours. After the lag phase the gravity dropped 64% by day four. The flavor is tart with light notes of oak. There is very little acid in this Berliner. The fermentation is very clean. I've pulled a sample contemplating if the acid will increase overtime. I like the clean lactic acid as opposed to the sharp acetic acid from acetobacter. Overall I will say our work is paying off.

2-Day SG 1.040   

Heated fermentation chamber   

White Labs WLP677 Lactobacillus Delbrueckii 24-Hour Pellicle   

Wet towels for additional humidity   

5-Day rolling fermentation. Blow off tubing installed.   

Pulling a sample   

4-Day SG 1.013   

Brewday photo by RF. Yeast Pitching Photo (top) by TC.   

Harvesting Bugs, Ales & Lagers

Harvesting Yeast at High Krausen   

This yeast has been saved for my next batch of beer. I am brewing for my brew-anniversary two beers a golden sour and an Oktoberfest. One beer is for aging the other is for the masses. One yeast is top-cropping ale yeast the other is bottom harvesting lager yeast. Each sample was taken from fermentation at high krausen when the yeast is most active. Fermenting in corny kegs has simplified pulling yeast. Ale samples are pulled from the gas-in while lager yeast is pulled from the dip-tube-out. I pull enough for a starter to keep from making a mess. The yeast is then cultured up on a stir plate. The blend of bacteria will be pitched from a yeast slurry. The golden sour I am brewing today has been going over a year. The yeast was snagged from SSF House Saison. The culture is a blend of White Labs bugs and bottle dregs. Named appropriately the strand is called "The House Guest". I am brewing the 4th batch today and racking the 3rd. I have one tap dedicated to sour beer plus one 3rd award for batch 1.0. Today will be a long day of brewing. Cheers!

The Sour Tap: House Guest 2.0   

Straight Un-blended Lambic   

Vote for Homebrewer of the Year

When you are voting no one peeks at your ballot. Yet, everyone wants to know what's going into your home brew. Given the freedom of information act our 44th President was asked the same question. What are you home brewing? Later the Obama Administration released two beer recipes a Honey Ale and a Honey Porter.

Homebrewers around the country are now brewing versions of these White House Ales. As a home brewer myself it's nice to see the president brewing. Now that it's election day I wonder who I would cast as Home Brewer of the Year. The Obama administration is on the ballot but after spending National Learn to Homebrew Day brewing & teaching answering questions; I see people are missing the details.


I answered questions new brewers have when thinking of all grain brewing. What kind of equipment is needed? What temperature should I mash at? Those questions were easy: hold the mash at 150F for 60 minutes in a large pot, pull out the bag of grains, boil with hops for 60 minutes then cool with a chiller. The equipment needed is dependent on the batch size, and brewing process. Noone asked about fermentation, yeast pitch control, or aging.

People peeked into the kettles searching for a recipe. I was brewing an American Stout. Not one person asked how the sweet wort would transform into beer. We chatted brewing politics about malts & hops forgetting how it would convert. My plan was to work with Scottish ale yeast for its esters and residual sweetness. I would ferment hoping that the hop additions would pair nicely with malt. If all went well the batch would yield a well hopped American Stout with an foreign export quality. The brewday ended with me questioning other brewers. I was looking for ways to speed up my process. Cooling, cleanup, and transferring take more time than necessary. I am thinking the next upgrade will be a heat safe pump for mash vorlauf and whirlpool cooling.

BTW, I received a care package containing a t-shirt and two sour brews. I am looking forward to using yeast from the House Saison. SSF, Thank You! +1 Homebrewer of the Year Nominee

CB2

Cold Box 2 is a used chest freezer complete with a wood collar. The build was a continued effort to confine my beers to the garage. This is spring cleaning for the brewery. My expiring beers have been purged and I've blended a series of saison brews into one keg. The blend was a balance of peppery phenols with a heavier malt presence. I added some sugar and a fresh round of yeast. This should allow the beer to finish dry and refreshing. I'm planing to revive the aroma by dry hopping. The art of blending is often missed in homebrewing. I suppose much of the beer is consumed or not worth the effort of storing. While commercial brewers often blend batches for consistency and quality control.

The new beer is fermenting. I pulled the spear from a sanke keg and used a #10 stopper with an airlock. The locking ring required a small pointed object to dislodge. I used some clamps to compress the ball valve while removing. Be sure to lay the keg on its side to empty the contents.

Fermenting With Oak

Decided to revisit Double Deuce Brewing with some oak in the fermentation. The ale produced is a Strong Scotch Ale inspired by Traquair House Ale. What I liked about Traquair was it's clean well balanced finish. The beer has a rich malt presence with an acute alcohol warming finish. The sweetness reminds you of Scottish ales without the palate coating malt. Traquair is exceptional in this regard. Wanting to brew with this intention my brewing techniques would be challenged to produce a smooth finishing beer. While formulating the recipe I thought Deuce Brewing would offer great kettle caramelization. I changed the boiling schedule running a smaller boil inside and the remaining on the brew rig. I wanted to control the caramelizing process at the stove-top while maintaining a brewer's boil outside. The first boil commenced for three hours and the second for two allowing me to cool as one batch. The resulting wort is the clearest I've produced with less trub in the transfer. For fermentation I thought oak would accent the malt with hints of wood. I toasted some the sticks in the oven and pitched them into the carboy.

Traquair House Ale—33/52 by nagzi, on Flickr

Works Cited:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagzi/4963640540/

Double Deuce Brewing

Double Mashing is a style of brewing from the 1800's used to produce a beer of exact original gravity. The mash was separated hopped and boiled at different intervals. The resulting wort was then blended to gravity before pitching the yeast.

In the details lie the deuce —mashed twice -boiled twice.

"Double Deuce Brewing" in new terms is an all day effort. As a brewer you are producing two beers at once from one bag of grains. The first wort is produced by infusion mash for two hours at ~150F. The same grains are infused again for two hours at ~165F to produce a second wort. In this process there is no sparing just an abundance of time. The hops are divided between the two batches and boiled separately. The boils are also extended for this style of brewing. However, the wort is combined to achieve the resulting gravity.

I decided to try this method to replace my depleted Saison Dupont. The first mash and boil went well resulting in a syrupy wort at 29 Brix (~1.125). The second mash and boil yielded a typical wort of 11.5 Brix (~1.045). The after combining and pitching I had a Saison wort crafted for the highest style gravity of ~1.065 (1.75gal wort-A/3.25gal wort-B). Having to transfer some cold break with wort-A the boil for mash B was shorter less vigorous. After a long day brewhouse efficiency averaged ~72%. The wort had a nice caramel note. The bitterness seemed less than calculated. Overall double mashing is a straight forward way of brewing.

Double Mash -A: 120 Minutes
6 Gallons @ 175 -165F (strike)
2 Gallons @ 165 -154F (adjustment)
Mash Out Temperature 150F
120 Min Boil
Run Out 1.75 Gallons @29 Brix

Double Mash -B: 120 Minutes
Grain Temperature 140F
7 Gallons Strike @ 185 -168F
Mash Out Temperature 165F
90 Min Boil
Run Out 3.5 Gallons @11.5 Brix

Controlled Fermentation

I started worrying about beer fermentation when my closet batch blew its air lock. The slurry shot yeast foul everywhere somehow sparing clothing and memorabilia. Short of a disaster fermenting elsewhere seemed a safer. I was looking for a cool location with limited light and consistent temperature. Some ventilation would also be nice to mask the musty yeast off gases. I researched active carbon filters before deciding it was best to use the garage. I had an old refrigerator set aside during my kitchen remodel. I had reservation about its energy efficiency and dreamed of a fridge with dual zones for controlled fermentation.

Who was I kidding? A replacement refrigerator would be triple the stress and beyond the foreseeable budget. Thinking like a monk determined to make beer the doors were stripped down to their insulation. Once the excessive shelving was removed I installed wood shelves. The freezer side would be for cold conditioning while the refrigerated side for fermentation.

The 23 year old repurposed Hotpoint CSX20EKB was proof God loves me. I could brew like a Monk and cold store. I had space for three kegs and three carboys.

I am still working out the temperature controls but for now I’m using a LUX WIN100. The control was designed with an integrated outlet and temperature probe. I have the power cord running into the chiller. The temperature maintains a 2°F hysteresis turning the refrigerator on when cooling is needed.

I find the WIN100 to be sufficient for controlling fermentation. The thermostat's lower set point is 45°F and so it cannot be used as a freezer controller.

Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us and wants us to be happy.
—Benjamin Franklin