Who's brewing this weekend? 4/20/13

'Bout to brew a berliner weisse. Already have 3 other berliners sitting in carboys in preparation for summer!

 

Session session....

 

Brewed last weekend my first English Barleywine which means I am going to sit & watch it ferment this weekend with a brew or two.

 

Just Finished bottling my Belgian Tripel and got all cleaned up. Then there was a knock on the door it was Fed EX with my supplies for my next two brews! On deck is a copper ale and a Saison but probably wont get to brew those until sometime in May.

 

Just finished brewing my funky little saison.

Pros- I love saisons, I love brett, I finally got to use the wlp670 I've been bugging everyone about.
Cons- had to sub out cara red for the intended cara vienna, totally f'ed up my timing for everything. I have a new kettle, great unit. 15 gallons, brewedd 6.5 gallons to hopefully bottle 5, but my burner was for a smaller kettle. So instead of sittting in the outer "safetyring" the new kettle sat on top. It took me twice as long to boil, and I had to use my oxy. Acetyline set up to help the boil along. I wound uup getting rushed at the end as the wife was heading out and I needed to watch my boy, wound up not taking OG readings and pitched into 80ish degree wort. Sooooooooo we'll see what happens in about three months.

 

Trying Belle Saison Yeast for the first time. Just pitched a little while ago. Recipe in the video description.

 

I'd really like to see a recipe here. I'm trying to get into the style and can't find anything commercial. I'll have to get off my butt and brew 5 gal.

 

My hefe (simple recipe but very good) is bubbling 4-5 bubbles per second through the airlock at about 70-72F. Most active I have seen fermentation through an airlock!

6# Bavarian Wheat DME
1oz German Hersbrucker (60 min)
WB-06 Safbrew Wheat

OG - 1.059 with a hair over 5gal batch size.

 

It's about as short and simple as a brew day can get. I think the bugs are largely what makes/breaks a berliner, and I don't yet have enough of a sample size to give an informed opinion on the best way to get your lacto/best strain (though I should in a few months). The recipe itself should look something like this:

50/50 pilsner and wheat (I used 4lbs of each for a 5-6 gallon batch yesterday)
10 minute boil with an ounce of saaz (or something low alpha and european) at the beginning of the boil

If you're going to use a commercial strain of lacto, I'd probably pitch it a couple days before the yeast at 100* or so.

 

Got lazy and didnt brew Friday, so I am doing the Kolsch as we speak, 60 mins through my 90 min boil. Barleywine will be maybe this coming Friday now.

Tasted my sour brewed with East Coast Yeast Bug County and at about 3 months this thing is sour and tasting great! I am very surprised at how fast it got this complex. I am thinking of using an Apricot puree to make this a fruited lambic-esque beer.

I put 2 more kegs on tap, a Mosiac-Golden Promise SMaSH and a sour saision. I have a Mild conditioning in a keg as we speak. I will have to rotate some in and out depending on my drinking mood.

 

So you can boil a soured mash and it will still be sour? I assume the yeast will kick in and work down to a FG, then the lacto would finish up lowest. Also, what yeast are you using, just a wheat beer strain?

 

Yes. The acid is not volatile and will stay in the beer.

Some people sour mash, then boil with a small amount of hops to kill the bugs. Others go through the mashing procedure (typically a single, hopped decoction) then chill to 100-110 F and pitch Lacto (or Lacto+ whatever else), wait until sourness hits the right level and then pitch ale yeast, +/- Brett at bottling.

Wyeast lacto produces acid, but no alcohol (homofermentative), whereas White Labs is heterofermentative and produces acid and alcohol. When I tried fermenting solely with White Labs lacto I did not pick up much sourness, whereas Wyeast Lacto, then German Ale yeast to finish off (after hitting target sourness level) then Brett at bottling has worked well.

 

went ahead and brewed an APA, though yesterday's judging showed I didn't need to rebrew for NHC. Lost in mini-BOS.

...more for me!

cheers--
--Michael

 

A little young still, alcohol is evident in nose and pallate (not fusel, but enough booze @ 8.2%), big hop nose and flavor, the alcohol helps sweeten the finish, enough bitterness to balance, good malt presence, semi-dry (even for 1.011 FG). Need color adjustment though, muddled amber, I want RED... Vienna and Munich base worked well. No crystals (I don't care for raisins and dark fruits in IPA type beers, once the hops start to fade, it is too prominent for my tastes).

 

That sounds good to me, thinking the base malt may be the issue with mine... For this round it was Weyermann pale (68.2%) and rye malt (25%), 2.5% each Aromatic and English Medium crystal, with Midnight Wheat for color (its RED). I think you need a small amount of very dark malt + 90 min boil to get it blood red, as SRM doesn't tell the whole story.

Munich and Vienna may be the way to go for maltiness without raisin/dark fruit (Just remembered Nugget Nectar does this), next time I brew this (six months from now ) I'll give this a shot..

 

We did that ZD clone recipe as well today. This was our second time around and we did a few things different. We upped the grainbill a bit because we did a session beer with the same grains after the first sparge. Also we used falconers flight hops for the session. Cant wait to see if it turns out! Used US-05 yeast on both after using US-04 the first time. Great recipe though!

Question to anyone that's brewed a lighter/session beer before. Our OG was 1.026. Hoping thats not too low but was wondering what I can expect the FG to be around?

 

Yeah, I used Balck Malt instead of Roast Barley (LHBS was out), I think, .2# or so, steeped after mash (single mash, split boil for Our Bruin as well). 1.6# cane sugar in boil too to dry it out some more. CTZ, Simcoe, and Chinook. Its dank and piney, mild fruits as well. I'll post the recipe on my blog later this week. Review in a few weeks too.

 

I'm still searching for a session beer to fill in between the Belgian brews. Can't drink the big ones all night. Next up at bat is a Hefeweisen.

 

Brewed a wit:

5.5gal
6# Pils
4# Flaked Wheat
1oz Czech Saaz (45min)
5g Bitter Orange Peel (15min)
5g Whole Coriander (15min)


45min boil, Protein rest (122F for 20min) and Sacc rest (149F for 60min)

Also bottled a Citra Red Rye ale and an Imp. Stout aged for 3mos on an oak spiral I used to make some apple brandy. Good weekend to say the least.