In 2022 the notion of a brewery having a set lineup of four seasonal beers is as quaint. Sure, Sam Adams is still doing it, but that feels more like inertia than anything else. Breweries will release certain beers or styles seasonally, but you don't see as much of a set seasonal lineup.
The Would-be Brewmaster
A blog about home brewing beer. The highs, the lows and the hangovers.
Sunday, February 27, 2022
Revisiting seasonal beer
In 2022 the notion of a brewery having a set lineup of four seasonal beers is as quaint. Sure, Sam Adams is still doing it, but that feels more like inertia than anything else. Breweries will release certain beers or styles seasonally, but you don't see as much of a set seasonal lineup.
Friday, February 18, 2022
Homebrew Happy Hour ep. 268 Storing grains, American vs Continental malt, Expired LME
I realize it has been quiet in these parts. Sadly I haven't brewed in six months; the longest I have gone without brewing since I started. I am going to fire up my kettle again soon. I need Irish ales on tap for St. Patrick's Day.
Anyway, It is always fun to be a guest on the Homebrew Happy Hour podcast. We talked about what I have been working on with Muntons as of late, and what Josh and Todd have been up to. I certainly appreciated answering some malt-related questions.
Check out the episode here:
Wednesday, March 17, 2021
Brew Day - Angel's Wing's (Helles Bock)
I'm a loner Dottie... a rebel
Nate and I mashing in . |
Beautiful wort, looks like apple juice. |
Although not as big as Field of Immortals, we were shooting for this beer to be over 7%. I replicated my process from the Field of Immortals brew day fairly closely. Again the mash efficiency was high, and the starting gravity of the finished batch was high. So high in fact it falls out of the parameters of the style. Once I entered our hop additions into BeerSmith, our calculated hop bitterness was also high.
How I am going to do every batch. |
Nate and I ended up with almost exactly 5.25 gallons going into the fermenter, which should lead to five gallons of finished beer. It might make sense to dilute the residual sugar, alcohol, and hop bitterness with one gallon of water. That would make the beer more to style and would give us more beer. From now on I am going to assume higher yields in all of my batches and plan accordingly.
Pitching yeast in well-aerated wort. |
It was fun to brew with another person and share knowledge. I'm sure we will collaborate again. Hopefully next time with Kert.
Wort getting down to lager temps. |
Recipe: Angels Wings Brewer: Jason Asst Brewer: Nate Style: Helles Bock TYPE: All Grain Taste: (0.0) Recipe Specifications -------------------------- Boil Size: 7.49 gal Post Boil Volume: 5.99 gal Batch Size (fermenter): 5.25 gal Bottling Volume: 5.00 gal Estimated OG: 1.067 SG Estimated Color: 7.1 SRM Estimated IBU: 41.7 IBUs Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 % Est Mash Efficiency: 76.7 % Boil Time: 90 Minutes Ingredients: ------------ Amt Name Type # %/IBU Volume 8.86 gal Yellow Full (Under 6 SRM) Water 1 - - 2.37 g Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash) Water Agent 2 - - 1.58 g Calcium Chloride (Mash) Water Agent 3 - - 0.79 g Epsom Salt (MgSO4) (Mash) Water Agent 4 - - 0.50 tsp Lactic Acid (Mash) Water Agent 5 - - 9 lbs Pilsner Malt (Muntons) (1.9 SRM) Grain 6 65.5 % 0.70 gal 4 lbs 12.0 oz Munich Malt (Muntons) (8.1 SRM) Grain 7 34.5 % 0.37 gal 0.50 tsp Lactic Acid (Sparge) Water Agent 8 - - 0.75 oz Magnum [14.70 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 9 35.8 IBUs - 0.25 oz Magnum [14.70 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 10 5.9 IBUs - 0.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining 11 - - 1.0 pkg Harvest (Imperial Yeast #L17) Yeast 12 - - Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, No Mash Out Total Grain Weight: 13 lbs 12.0 oz ---------------------------- Name Description Step Temperat Step Time Mash In Add 17.99 qt of water at 163.9 F 150.0 F 60 min Sparge: Fly sparge with 4.74 gal water at 168.0 F Notes: ------ Original recipe needed 12 oz Acidulated Malt. Used Lactic Acid in Mash and Sparge instead. AA% on Magnum was high, so used 0.75 at 60 and 0.25 at 15 instead of 1.0 at 60 min. Awesome mash, sparge and boil. Crush was perfect first time through mill. System is dialed in and will adjust profile accordingly.
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Monday, March 1, 2021
Brew Day: Field of Immortals 2021 (Imperial Stout)
After brewing imperial stouts in November of 2018 and 2019, my intention was to brew another vintage in November of 2020. For whatever reason I never got around to it. Then, at the end of January I brewed a batch of Rundown Irish Red as part of another project I'll be talking more about shortly. Low in alcohol and hops, the Irish Red was a perfect starter beer to build up plenty of yeast for an imperial stout.
That was the thought anyway. Fermentation on the Irish Red stalled, so I pitched a packet of US-05 dry yeast to help the beer finish fermenting out. The yeast I harvested from the Irish Red was some combination of Hugh Hill, my house Irish culture and US-05. For a one-off or vintage beer, I am not concerned about slight variations from batch-to-batch.
The night before brew day, I used a carbonation cap and a soda bottle to help dissolve the water additions. Chalk in particular isn't the most soluble, and carbonic acid helps it dissolve in water. This is something I have wanted to try for awhile, but I never seemed to have a soda bottle lying around. We typically don't have soda in the house. This was pretty easy to do and worked well.
This worked really well to get water salts to dissolve |
What I did take away from this brew day was the desire to cut down on variations in process from batch-to-batch. Over the past couple of years I have experimented with batch sparging, fly sparging, no sparging, mashing in the Mash & Boil grain pipe, mashing in a cooler, boiling inside on the Mash & Boil, boiling outside on propane, checking pH on every batch, assuming pH calculations are good enough because I'm too lazy to calibrate a pH meter, acidifying sparge water, forgetting to acidify sparge water. On top of that I keep having issues with my mill jamming, adjusting the gap, and getting poor crushes through the mill.
The result has been that my yields have been all over the place. I brewed a barleywine that the yield was so poor I added two pounds of dry malt extract to compensate. Last summer my batch of Summer Somewhere came out close to 6% because my yield was really high. With this batch I think I have settled on a process that I can repeat.
I purchased two wire shelves for my Mash & Boil and cooler mash tun. The shelving also gives me storage space for my other kettles where they can drip dry after cleaning. From there I have a pump I can use when fly sparging. With this batch I focused on the flow of sparge water into the mash tun. I made sure there wasn't too much water on top of the grain bed, and that level was steady. The key was for the wort to drain at the same rate the sparge water was being sprinkled.
As full as my 8gal cooler can get |
While milling, my mill was jamming and my crush was initially poor, I tightened the gap, and milled the grain again. The second pass made a huge difference. The endosperm of the grains were fully crushed, while the grain husks were still intact. If anything the crush may have been too fine, but the vourlauf and runoff on this batch was as easy as any batch I can remember.
Easiest vaurlauf ever |
Literally off the charts |
See you in three months buddy. |