Can she do it?

Sadly, sometimes life gets in the way of brewing. So, make it into a challenge. Today, a single decoction Maibock, into work by 11 a.m. Can she do it? Yes, I can. My old Maibock recipe: pilsner, Vienna, cara-hell, white wheat and a bit o'honey malt. Mmmmmmmm. Hella bock slurry and Hallertau tradition hops. Love it. So the solution: mash, decoct and sparge before work. Come home and boil and pitch. It's 5:30 and I'll be done in about a half hour. Oh yeah, take out pizza is helpful. But I do have a pan of brownies in the oven so that's all good.

American rye: very clear, maybe a little too hopped for the style, but good for me.

What's in the pipeline today......

Well, since I absolutely don't need to bring home any more carboys (unless we build an addition to the house) I'd better get into bottling mode this week. I have two ciders to bottle. One seems a fair bit more clear than the other, so probably will bottle that one. Also have a Chardonnay , a Brunello, and a Trio Blanco from last summer to bottle. Can't say I have enough bottles/rack space to do all three wines though. Have a dunkel to rack and another pilsner right behind that. I'm thinking about the bock I want to do next....last year's version was quite nice. A hellesbock with honey malt and a pound of honey, one decoction. Mmmmmmmmmm. Maybe I'll do that again, maybe I'll think about other ones. The bock slurry would make a fine Octoberfest too. Haven't done one of those in a while.

The picture is a medieval drinking vessel from the Musee du Cluny in Paris.

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

The forecast is one of extreme cold for the next couple of days. Water pipes are cracked and pictures of outside thermometers are fun to send to family in Florida. Think I'll brew a Munich style dunkel. My sweetie likes them and I have a Hella-Bock yeast that will go into something stronger next. Haven't decided if I'll make a bock or maybe an Oktoberfest..............

Dunkels are not easy to find commercially brewed. Monkshof is delicious and a local brewer, Allan van Anda at Trapp Family Brewery makes a nice one. Had it last night at the Farmhouse. Hope mine is just as good.

Racked the rye this week. Pretty good. And already it looks like it will clear out nicely without the dread rye haze.

a boring beer?

Well, it's a new year and it's my second brew of the year. I took advantage of no hangover and a quiet (everyone was sick) house to brew on New Year's Day. No surprise, a pilsner. A second pitch of the Wyeast specialty yeast, Rasenmaher. 50F in the basement brewery and it's chugging along nicely.

Today's brew is one I've been grumbling about internally for a while. Our homebrew club has in internal competition in which the winner names the next year's challenge. This year: American rye. Admittedly, I have all I can do to brew enough for us to have homebrew on tap most of the time. Therefore I tend to brew what I/we like. Lots of pilsner, pale ales, Irish red, some dark and or smokey beers. This is not a beer I would brew ordinarily. I like rye. I really enjoy the extra tang it adds to a beer. So when I do use it it's usually in a specialty brew, like a red rye Pilsner or in a smoked porter, or an American amber. American rye, as a style, is pretty boring. Not much color, body or bitterness. Yawn. But, it's a challenge. Okay. Rye beer, in particular, rye beers done with a high percentage of rye in the mash is a challenge. Gummy, gluey, sticky, and the dread stuck mash are all usually a part of any brewers discussion of rye. So I guess the challenge will be, how much rye do I dare?

48% is the number. Using rice hulls and a slight modification to my typical procedure, sparging in progress.

Since I don't normally do a mash out, I mashed on the thick side and layered the mash with hot water as I transferred it into the lauter tun. 1/2 pound of rice hulls as well. Wort is running very well and I have a lovely golden color.

The picture to the right is from Friday. A hawk is dining on a bluejay in the driveway. Gorey but fascinating to watch. I've never been so close to a hawk before. He/she was very intent on the meal. But it glared at me as the camera beeped as it powered up. I was inside. That's some fine hearing.

2 hour brew: one more time, what I've learned

Sunday morning. I am trying to brew before I go to the store. It'll be tight. I started at 9:30 a.m. It's a pilsner with the Wyeast Staro-Prague yeast. This is a new one for me. All light dry malt and US Saaz pellets. Some carafoam, light wheat & a bit of flaked barley.
Some thoughts on this 2 hour deadline:
1. I will need to cut back on boil time to 50 minutes. Depending on how much I boil, it takes more time to come up to a boil. So today I'm starting with just a bit less than 4 gallons. It took about 30 minutes to get to full boil.
2. Mixing in dry malt: Tried something a bit different. Poured dry malt into pot then I used the sprayer attachment to add water. Used hot tap water. This worked really well. It dissolved pretty fast, nothing stuck to the bottom. The paddle is the right tool for a flat bottom pot.
3. The oatmeal stout grains were a pain in the ass. Oats got really big. Hard to rinse well. I don't think I got all the color from the dark grains, so I might have to rename this as an English Brown ale. Don't think I'll do use oats in a post boil steep again.

2 hour brew,part 2

Okay, the schwartzbier seems to be coming along just fine, so I want to try another 2 hour brew.

Start time, 11:00 am

fermenter is already filled with sanitizer

about a gallon of water heating on the stove to make dissolving the malt extract easier

starter is made, yeast looks very good

oats go into cool oven to toast as it preheats to 350F



The recipe:

Toasted Oatmeal Stout

#1 toasted oats

12 ounces chocolate rye

8 ounces 90L US crystal

12 ounces dehusked carafa 1

4 ounces roasted barley

4 ounces mild ale malt



#6-6 ounces Munton's amber malt extract

After I mixed the extract into the gallon of hot water on the stove @11:12, stirred well with spatula, then I started topping off to boil volume with quarts of H2O that I had heating up for 3 minutes in the microwave. That should get everything up to a boil quicker. Oats toasted to a golden color in about 20 minutes. Don't forget them! As soon as you can smell them, it's time to stir or take them out.



11:36 Boil! Set timer for 1 hour

Hops:

1-1/2 ounces E. Kent Golding pellets, 5.5% AAU @ 60 minutes

1-1/2 ounces E Kent Golding pellets, @20 minutes



12:15 am rinse out funnel, cup, strainer, fermenter Add wort chiller to boil. Add 20 minute hop addition



12:39 Boil is done; wort chiller hooked up. Grain bag is in the middle of the chiller.

1:05 Pitched and covered @ 72F



Because the oatmeal grain blend was bigger than most recipes, it really filled the funnel/strainer. Luckily I had the better part of a suitcase of water, so I was able to use that to rinse the grain bag. Did that, then topped it off with tap water.
Okay, a little more than 2 hours, but not bad. done!

Two hour homebrew?

I've had an idea for awhile about how to brew more efficiently. Normally we steep the grains for a 1/2 hour or so, while the kitchen gets cleaned up and the fermenter gets filled with sanitizer. Then add the malt, boil for an hour and chill. Can I brew a five gallon extract w/specialty grain homebrew in two hours?


What if:
1. the kitchen was already clean/tidy?
2. dissolve the malt in the pot and get the boil started right away?
3. steep the grains in the wort while the chiller runs?







Schwartzbier, Jan 5, 2010


9:00 am Dissolve #6.8 d.m.e. in 3 gallons of H20


9:20 am Boil starts, get fermenter filled with sanitizer, start adding hops


10:10 am Wort chiller into pot


10:15 am Drain fermenter, rinse strainer, measuring cup, lid, airlock
10:20 am Add whirlfloc tablet


10:25 am Boil finished

11:00 am Wort chilled, topped off, pitched and in the cellar

Done in 2 hours. I realized that the grains weren't really in the pot very long while the chiller was running. So I poured the wort in the pot through my strainer first to get rid of the hops. Then I put the grain bag in the strainer and rinsed through the grains as I topped off the fermenter. There was a nice color in the wort coming out the strainer and I think I probably ran a gallon and a half of water through the grains.

All in all, this seems like it works. I had #2 of specialty grains. I'll be looking forward to seeing if I get all the color and roastiness I want in this schwartzbier.

Done!