Tag: planning

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A Six-Pack of Blonde Ale

Let’s brew a six-pack of beer.

Goal

I am a craft beer drinker. I like the full body and flavors that I cannot find in mass produced beers. That said, there is a time and a place for everything. On a hot day after hard work, or when I just want to quench my thirst, it is convenient to have a good lawnmower beer on hand. Something that is not complex. A clean, simple, balanced, low-alcohol beer. An American Light Lager may be what comes to mind, but lagering is a challenge, especially for small batches, and brewing with adjuncts has never been my thing. So I would really like something similar, but that can be brewed as an ale with simple ingredients. That, my friend, is what the American Blonde Ale style is all about.

Continue reading “A Six-Pack of Blonde Ale”

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Buying by the Sack

I brewed 35 batches of beer between 4/19/2008 and 2/27/2012. That means I have brewed about every seven weeks. I would have guessed it would have been more frequent. In the last year, I have brewed about every four weeks. That is more like it. The average grain bill for my last 13 batches has been about 12 pounds. If it were all base malt then I would be going through a 55 pound sack of grain every five months or so. I have been using Crisp Maris Otter as my base malt, so let us see what the marketplace for sacks holds.

Just for comparison, here are the same vendors for 10 pounds of Crisp Maris Otter, noting that Fifty Pound Sack only sells by the sack.

While they do not sell by the sack, I have been buying my Crisp Maris Otter from Rebel Brewer. Here is their price for 10 pounds.

  • Rebel Brewer: $14.31 + $14.02 shipping = $28.33 -or- $2.83 per pound shipped

So, I could pay just over 50% of what I have been paying by buying by the sack.

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Magnesium

There is a discussion on the AHA Forum about adding magnesium to brewing liquor. I have wondered about this since my water is so low in magnesium (3 ppm). That is pretty low. I had heard, as had the poster, that you do not need to worry about the level because malt contained all of magnesium needed1. The poster points out that John Palmer cites a minimum of 10 ppm in How to Brew. Finally, the poster mentions his own experience in identical brews where the only deliberate difference was adding 10 ppm of magnesium — as magnesium sulfate, or Epson Salts — resulting in greatly improved fermentation.

Martin Brungard talks about seeing a paper that shows significantly enhanced yeast flocculation performance in wort with 5 ppm magnesium.

Denny Conn cites Tobias Fischborn’s 2009 NHC presentation, which mentions the importance of the calcium to magnesium ratio, though it gives no guidance on what it should be.

  1. According to Winning Homebrew it is from Greg Noonan’s book New Brewing Lager Beer, but it is also in George Fix’s book Principles of Brewing Science:

    Magnesium ions also play an important role in yeast growth, primarily as a cofactor in metabolic reactions. Malt generally will provide sufficient magnesium for these purposes, even when the brewing water is low in this ion. Corrections with MgSO₄ additions are needed only with very high adjunct worts.

    ↩

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Tasting Notes on BVB House Ale v 1.0

This was not supposed to be one of those “Wow!” beers, and it is not. It is a good tasting, smooth, creamy beer, with a nice citrus aroma and flavor, a good malt backbone and some sweetness to offset the bitterness of the hops. It does all of that and I am quite pleased.

That is not to say it is perfect. It is not.

There is a tremendous amount of yeast still in suspension.

I wanted to play with different yeast varieties, but I think I need to try to address the flocculation of the yeast first.

Wyeast 1056 (WLP001) typically exhibits good flocculation — Wyeast describes it as medium to low.

I had thought that my adjusted water and all-grain recipe would provide enough nutrients to not require supplementation or assistance, but there are two things that I could try in future brews.

First, I have some Brewer’s Choice™ Wyeast Nutrient Blend. It could be that the yeast is simply missing something it needs. There were no off flavors that would have indicated stressed yeast, but perhaps whatever is needed to allow good flocculation does not impact flavor when it is missing.

If that does not work, I also have some Whirlfloc tablets. I have this belief that they should not be necessary. James Spencer of Basic Brewing Radio and Chris Colby of Brew Your Own magazine did a collaborative experiment to demonstrate the effects of Irish Moss — the source of the carrageenan in Whirlfloc — that I felt showed minimal impact to the clarifier. Besides, they are intended to bond with positively charged proteins, rather than yeast.

If none of that works, I may have to crash cool my fermenter before racking to the keg.

When I get around to experimenting with the yeast variety, I have in mind trying both 1968 (WLP002) and 1098 (WLP007). In particular, 1968 exhibits very high flocculation. It does not attenuate quite as well, so it may be slightly sweeter. It also has a higher temperature range, so I might have to go with 64 °F fermentation instead of 62 °F.

Update 3/24/11: I believe this beer is just peaking. It is just slightly too bitter — that is, slightly too much contribution from the first addition, it is not too hoppy. Apart from that it is nicely smooth. A bit hazy, but the yeast seems to have finally dropped.

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Mash Temperature Experiment

Say you have a fairly simple recipe that you like. A base malt, one specialty malt, one hop variety, and a readily available, consistent yeast. Simple enough that you can make it consistently.

Now, vary only the mash temperature. Mash the first batch at 142 °F. Mash the next at 150 °F. Mash the last batch at 158 °F.

Do a side-by-side comparison and record your observations.

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Brewing by the Yeast

During the Fall 2008 cycle of the Wyeast Private Collection I picked up a couple of each of the available strains: Wyeast 1026 PC British Cask Ale, Wyeast 1469 PC West Yorkshire Ale, and Wyeast 1768 PC English Special Bitter. Since I am still somewhat of a neophyte I was not sure what I was going to do with them.

I did some searching and found CJ’s House of the Rising Sun JPA using the now deceased extract recipe from Homebrew Adventures. It sounds like the beer to make using this yeast and I have a batch working in the cellar at the moment. Update: Here is a discussion of 1026 fermentation temperature and another about how it got into the VSS database.

I did a little more searching and discovered that Wyeast 1469 is the yeast Timothy Taylor uses so it seems like a Landlord Strong Pale Ale clone is in order. Perhaps The Inn Keeper from Northern Brewer, thought it seems the water profile is important, too. There is an interesting all-grain clone recipe from the book Brew Your Own British Real Ale, as well.

So far, the only recipe I have been able to find that uses the 1768 is the Northern Brewer Peace Coffee Stout Porter. Though there is some discussion about how fast this yeast ferments.

Does anyone have any other recipe suggestions?

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Beginner Recipes from Brewing Classic Styles

I have been trying to decide what beers to brew in 2009. In Brewing Classic Styles, Jamil and John have the recipes nicely broken down by difficulty level:

  • Beginner — Extract with steeped grain and basic equipment.
  • Intermediate — High gravities, tricky yeasts, odd ingredients, extra steps, and better fermentation temperature control.
  • Advanced — Partial mash, bacteria cultures, extended fermentation, and active fermentation temperature control.

I still consider myself a beginner and am happy to stick with extract with steeped grains for a bit until I get my skills better refined, so I decided to take a look at all of the “beginner” recipes.

While reviewing the recipes I came across what I assumed was a misprint — always assume somebody else is at fault before assuming you are mistaken — regarding the 300 °L Roasted Barley in the Irish Red Ale recipe. It seems to be a common question. To double check, I went to listen to the Irish Red Ale episode of The Jamil Show. Sure enough, the recipe is correct. I did some searching and discovered that Midwest Homebrewing Supplies carries something called Light Roasted Barley from Briess that fits the bill.

Anyway, I was listening to the show and they got to talking about how Jamil brewed a bunch of recipes using the same yeast in series by pitching on top of the yeast cake from the last batch.

Since I have reusing my yeast as one of my Brew Year Goals, I took a look at the recipes and found a number of series using the same yeast and primary malt. None require a secondary or dry hopping or exceed an original gravity of 1.070, which would seem to make them ideal candidates for yeast reuse. I have them listed here by increasing alcohol content, which is what some recommend.

This is well more than a year worth of brewing for me, but it does provide some interesting ideas.

White Labs WLP001 California Ale or Wyeast 1056 American Ale and Light Malt Extract

  1. Dirty Water Brown (p. 141) — 10C. American Brown Ale — 4.9% ABV
  2. American Pale Ale with Caramel (p. 136) — 10A. American Pale Ale — 5.1% ABV
  3. Call Me! (p. 96) — 6B. Blonde Ale — 5.2% ABV
  4. American Pale Ale (p. 134) — 10A. American Pale Ale — 5.7% ABV
  5. Black Widow Porter (p. 156) — 12B. Robust Porter — 6.5% ABV
  6. Janet’s Brown Ale (p. 143) — 10C. American Brown Ale — 6.6% ABV
  7. Hoppiness is an IPA (p. 186) — 14B. American IPA — 7% ABV

White Labs WLP001 California Ale or Wyeast 1056 American Ale and English Pale Ale Malt Extract

  1. Scottish Heavy 70/- (p. 125) — 9B. Scottish Heavy 70/- — 3.2% ABV
  2. American Amber (p. 137) — 10B. American Amber Ale — 5.1% ABV
  3. West Coast Blaster (p. 138) — 10B. American Amber Ale — 6.8% ABV

White Labs WLP013 London Ale or Wyeast 1028 London Ale and English Pale Ale Malt Extract

  1. Nutcastle (p. 151) — 11C. Northern English Brown — 5.1% ABV
  2. Who’s Your Taddy Porter (p. 154) — 12A. Brown Porter — 5.1% ABV
  3. Bière De L’inde (p. 183) — 14A. English IPA — 6.2% ABV

White Labs WLP002 English Ale or Wyeast 1968 ESB and English Pale Ale Malt Extract

  1. Through a Mild Darkly (p. 146) — 11A. Mild — 3.2% ABV
  2. No Short Measure (p. 116) — 8A. Standard/Ordinary Bitter — 3.6% ABV
  3. Nutty Man Brown Ale (p. 149) — 11B. Southern English Brown — 3.8% ABV
  4. I’m Not Bitter, I’m Thirsty (p. 119) — 8B. Special/Best/Premium Bitter — 4.6% ABV
  5. Programmer’s Elbow (p. 121) — 8C. Extra Special/Strong Bitter (English Pale Ale) — 5.4% ABV

White Labs WLP300 Hefeweizen Ale or Wyeast 3068 Weihstephan Weizen and Wheat Extract

  1. Harold-is-Weizen (p. 192) — 15A. Weizen/Weissbier — 5.0% ABV
  2. Trig Oscuro (p. 194) — 15B. Dunkelweizen — 5.6% ABV

One Shot Recipes

That leaves these recipes which do not share a common yeast with any other beginner recipe.

Sources of Ingredients

With the exception of one yeast, I have managed to locate online sources for all of the ingredients involved in making these recipes. I had to go to five sources to find them all:

In some cases the ingredient is available from more than one source. In general I tried to select the one with the lowest shipping charges.

The yeast exception was the Wyeast 3655 Belgian Schelde. It is part of Wyeast’s Private Collection and was last available in 2006. Should it come back around, I am certain that anyone that carries Wyeast will be able to get it. In the mean time, White Labs WLP515 Antwerp Ale seems like an acceptable substitute.

Also note that the White Labs WLP515 Antwerp Ale and WLP006 Bedford British Ale are both part of the Seasonal Platinum Yeast program and availability may be limited.

Malt Extracts and Sugars
Steeping Grains
Hops
Yeast