Absolute Homebrew

The Amber Ale from Nov 12 was kegged today as well. It will be on tap at Faulconbridge later in the week. I don’t know what Ryoko does with the customers at Faulconbridge but the Black Cologne ale that was kegged on the 19th has all but disappeared.

Here today’s wheat beer is waiting to be run out into the fermenter and the keg is waiting to be filled. A bucket you can up-end a fermenter on is very useful, it keeps everything neat and sanitary. Inside is the fermenter lid, an airlock and keg filler.

We will need some beer quickly at home! The answer, of course, is a wheat beer.

This one was:
Wheat malt 2.4 kg
Munich malt 1.6 kg
Caramunich 200 grams

This will give a amber/coppery colour, a bit like the Maisels from Bayreuth (mmmm Ring Cycle).

This was mashed in 20 litres of water for about 60 minutes. The strike temperature was 71 degrees giving a mash temp. of about 69. Now, for the same temperature a thin mash will give a more fermentable wort (and hence drier beer) than a thicker mash. So to compensate for this the mash temperature was a tad higher.

10 litres of boiling water was added to mash out. After settling for 15 minutes the wort was run out.

Hopping was 30 grams of 7.2 % Perle and 10 grams of 4.2% US Hallertau at 45 minutes for about 23 IBU with another 6 grams of Hallertau at 3 minutes out. A half tab of Whirlfloc was added at about 15 minutes.

Ended up with about 21 litres in the fermenter with a gravity of 1040. The yeast was the Fermentis/Saf WB-06.

This Pilsener is supposed to be for the family Christmas, but it was a disasterous day. A couple of weeks ago the element in my hot water heating bucket died. Consequently it has mucked up the brewing routine somewhat.

If I were just brewing at home it would not be such an issue, but trying to work the shop and with a busy Sunday morning it was just a mess. No disasters to speak of, but lots of mucking around and running behind schedule. For example, I just get the mash water to the right temperature and a customer arrives followed by another one or two so the mash water goes cold and I need to reheat it.

It was that sort of day. In the best John Cleese manner I should just blame it all on the wretched customers. Then I’ll want to rename the shops to Basil’s Homebrew. Anyone called Manuel looking for a job? It was a major consolation that the run-off didn’t stick.

Anyway, small disasters are good because they keep the big ones away.

The grain bill was 4.0 kg of Weyermann Bohemian pilsner malt and 22 grams of their Carapils. It was mashed at about 66/67 degrees C in about 14 litres of water. Not surprisingly the mash run for about 100 minutes. Mash out was with another 15 litres of water at about 90 degrees thoroughly mixed in the mash. Mash out temp was about 78 degrees. This then sat for about 40 minutes instead of the usual 15 to minutes. At least the run-off went smoothly.

Hopping was 40 grams of 7.2% Perle and 10 grams each of 2.4% Saaz and 4.2% Tettnanger at 45 minutes for about 34 IBU with another 10 grams each of the Saaz and Tettnanger at 15 minutes and 5 minutes to give about 38 IBU all up.

The yeast was an out of date vial of Whitelabs Budejovice which was cultured up earlier in the week. Ended up with about 20 litres in the fermeneter with an OG of 1044. Aerated with an aquarium pump, ceramic stone and old yeast vial with a couple of balls of cotton wool and sanitiser as a filter. Threw it in the fridge set at 10 degrees.

The black Cologne style beer from the November 4 demonstration has been kegged and is now on tap at Faulconbridge.

This is probably the best way to keg a beer. Once the beer has fermented, or close to it, rack it out to a second fermenter. Leave it for about a week to condition and clear. Prepare the keg by sanitising it with Iodophor, seal the keg and purge the it with carbon dioxide. Hook a length of 6 mm beer line to a beer disconnect and then run the beer through that into the keg. Remember to open the pressure relief valve.

This is one of the our new malt extract kits. The first step is to infuse/mash the grain, a 500 gram blend of ale and specialty malts. This is done in 4 litres of water heated to about 70 degrees. The grain is placed in a grain bag and then placed in the water. Mix the grain and water inside the bag, make sure the grain is thoroughly wetted.

Close up the bag and leave the grain is left to mash and infuse for about 45 minutes. Next remove the grainbag, give it a gentle sqeeze and place in a suitable container. Don’t wring out the grain. Any liquid that drains out of the grain while the grain bag is sitting in another container can be added back to the wort.

Next turn up the heat, add about 6 to 8 litres of water. You don’t want to overfill the pot because of the chance of a boilover. The dried malt extract, 1.25 kg, is added along with the bittering hops and the wort is brought to the boil.

I boiled this for 45 minutes. After turning off the heat I added several more litres of tap water. This will help cool the wort, it will also dilute so as to minimise wort wastage in the kettle. You will always lose a litre of so of wort to spent hops and the like so it helps to have the wort as dilute as possible so you minimise the amount of fermentables you lose.

The pot is then placed in a water bath to cool.

Once the wort is cooled it is poured into a sanitised fermenter, a tin of liquid malt extract is added, and the wort is topped up to 20 or so litres. There is no need to boil the tinned malt extract. The last step is to pitch the yeast which was rehydrated Fermentis/Safale S-04.

The OG for 21 litres was 1044.

The beer was racked to a second fermenter yesterday. It will have a few days there before getting kegged on about Wednesday. It will be on tap of the Faulconbridge shop from Saturday Nov 17.

Decided to do a black Cologne style ale. Not exactly orthodox but who cares? It was the last run with the Kolsch yeast so why not finish off with a black beer?

The grain bill was much the same as I use for black lagers:
250 g roast wheat
250 g crystal wheat
500 g Munich malt
3.2 kg pilsner malt

Mashed at 66 degrees.

Hopping was a single 45 minute addition of about 36 grams of either Fuggles or Willamette which amounts to pretty much the same thing - Willamette being bred from Fuggles, and another 16 grams of EK Goldings to give about 22 IBU.

The beer was run onto the yeast bed of the previous beer. This one will be on tap at Faulconbridge in about 10 to 12 days time.

Despite the long time since posting, there has been only one Sunday when I haven’t brewed. The beers have included a couple of wheat beers using the Fermentis WB-06 dried wheat beer yeast. This is an excellent yeast. I am not sure what strain it is. It doesn’t taste like the Wyeast 3068/Whitelabs WLP 300 strain. The other yeast still getting a workout has been the Kolsch yeast. Apart from fairly orthodox Cologne style ales I used it brew an Irish red (100g torrefied wheat, 600g Cara-Red, 3.6 kg ale malt mashed at about 65 and about 22 IBU of EK goldings), an English bitter and an amber Cologne ale - for this I used about 40% Vienna malt.

Somewhere in there I also brewed a house standard: a cross between a pilsener and American pale ale. The grain bill is 200g of Carapils, 1 kg of Vienna malt and 3 kg of pilsner malt. Base hopping is Amarillo, Cascade or Perle finished with either Saaz or Tettnanger. The actual choice of hops depends on what leftovers are available. The yeast of course is the US-05 (formerly US -56). This beer is on at Faulconbridge, and the Viennese bastard Cologne ale is what we’re drinking at home.