The Ramblings of a Canadian Brewer

Back to the Crouch Vale

2011-05-20T06:52:00.000-07:00

Haven't brewed in a loooong time. To many other things going on. We had the Upper Mississippi Mashout in January, I started studying for the BJCP exam which I took in April, and I've had a lot of personal commitments. I decided, however, to get back to the Crouch Vale. I was slack on the notetaking later in the brew session so my spreadsheet numbers are not complete but there's enough there to make another batch.

I noticed some oddities with this batch. Fermentation went fine, but finished really quickly (~3 days) with the gravity stuck about 1.022. I had made a good starter, oxygenated, and temp controlled to 63F. I was using the Wyeast 1318 (London III) yeast. I decided to rouse the yeast and bump the temp up to 67F, and also take daily readings of Brix and gravity just to see what was going on. I'm not making any conclusions about waht was going on, but here's what I saw.

The other thing that I noticed once I kegged the beer was a harsh hop finish, more than I expected. I dosed the water to try and mimic a Burton water, I should not do that again. I don't know if that bumped up the hop bitterness that much, but compared to my original 'flabby' Crouch Vale this is much different.

Anyway ... on to the notes.

50-50 mix of spring water and tap water.

0715 :: 3 gal strike water on

0725 :: added salts (9 gypsum, 4.5 epsom, 1 calcium chloride)

0735 :: strike h2o @ 137F

0740 :: stirke h2o @ 147F; mash tun is preheating

0758 :: dough in

0800 :: mash @ 151F

0815 :: 7.0 gal sparge h2o dosed and heating

0825 :: sparge h2o @ 93F

0830 :: sparge h2o @ 106F

0836 :: sparge h2o @ 119F

0844 :: sparge h2o @ 132F - adding middle burner

0850 :: sparge h2o @ 145F

0859 :: sparge h2o @ 158F

0905 :: sparge h2o @ 170F

0905 :: begin sparge

0930 :: wort on to boil @ 152F

0935 :: final wort pH was 5.4 @ room temp

0943 :: wort @ 178F

0949 :: wort @ 192F

0955 :: boil

1110 :: added hops + whirlfloc

1125 :: flameout

1235 :: end hopstand; chill

OG = 9.75 Brix

Chilling for 9 minutes brought the temperature down to 66F.

Oxygenated for 90s @ 0.06 lpm.

Pitched in 0.75l of starter.

Lees Stout - 1952

2010-12-11T15:44:00.000-08:00

Over at Barclay Perkins a while back, there was an interesting recipe for a session stout: J.W. Lees Archer Stout. I was curious about the low gravity, how close it seemed to a dark mild, and the extensive ingredient list. I am a big fan of beers with few ingredients - it is easier for me to identify the specific malt flavors if there are only a couple (or one) in the beer. However, I decided to try it so I ordered a 6-pack of Lyles Golden Syrup from Amazon and got down to business.

Nic decided to come over and help out that day, so there was more talking and very little notetaking. Nevertheless, I did get all my notes into the spreadsheet. The only unique thing that I did was that I used the London Ale III cake from my second Crouch Vale attempt. No problems there.

Day 28 (11 Dec)
Racked into a keg today and pressurized it. FG was 1.010, so just shy of 4% ABV. Big nose on this beer, way beyond what I expected, but none of the expected big flavor is there (there is *some*) but a really nice drinkable beer.

Another Try at the Crouch Vale

2010-11-14T13:25:00.000-08:00

The first Crouch Vale was good, but a bit flabby. The hops were there but muddy. It was suggested that my extra-hard City of Lakeville water might be part of the problem, so I tries the same recipe again but with 50% spring water (practically devoid of anything) and 50% tap water. The tap water is always run through an activated carbon filter to remove any chloramines. Using the 50-50 water mix also required that I do some water chemistry changes.

This turned out to be my last time brewing outside too. It was a Saturday night and by the end, it was down around 40F. I think that contributed to the major problem that I had - my mash temps were low. Having the mash tun sitting on a cold concrete slab doesn't help. I think also that my mash tun is only 1/3 full with these low gravity beers, so I'll be looking for a 5-gal Igloo to do these small beers.

I plan to reuse the yeast to do the Lees Stout the was recently mentioned over at Barclay Perkins, so I made a 1 liter starter of London III. Not exactly the same yeast as before, but the yeast choice was more to have the correct yeast for the Lees Stout. It took a good 8 days for the beer to ferment out, then I racked it two weeks after brew day. The hydro sample was down to 1.014 and the hops were really present, much more so than the last 'flabby/muddy' version. It was a little hazier than I expected, but it is now cold aging at 34F with the Lawnmower Beer, Ofest, and Schwarz.

Here's the spreadsheet with all the details from the brewing session.

Crouch Vale Brewers Gold

Gravity (OG) 1.038
30 IBU
6 gal into the primary

Grist

8lb Halcyon
Mash @ 151F for 60min (actually more like 147F)
Boil for 90min

Hops

3.5oz Brewers Gold - 7.9% @ 15min

Yeast

Wyeast 1318 London III - Ferment at 63F (or so, basement ambient)

Day 0 (30 October 2010)

1749 :: Flame on @ 1749 - 2.5 gal to boil (50-50 H2O).
1804 :: Want 164F strike water (ProMash).
1805 :: Strike water @ 120F so far (low flame).
1810 :: Strike H2O @ 146F.
1817 :: 170F, flame off. Drain tun of preheat h2o.
1825 :: UNDERSHOT! reheating h2o...
1850 :: Mash in.
1900 :: Mash @ 155F, added 2 c cold h2o, temp dropped to 140F! Boiling some h2o to add back (3 qts).

Mash tun on cold concrete floor?
Time to start brewing inside again?
Need to calculate Mash Tun Thermal Mass.

1924 :: Back @ 151F.
1945 :: Swapped out bayou classic for freebie burner from Dean - heats much faster. Need to get the Bayou Classic burner replaced.
2002 :: Sparge water spiked and @ 151F.
2012 :: Sparge @ 171F.
2036 :: Sparge completed, wort on to boil.
2049 :: Boil.
2204 :: 3.5oz bullion in, whirlfloc, IC.
2219 :: Flame off & 15' hop stand.
2234 :: Chill.
2244 :: Whirlpool.
2259 :: Drain.

Day 2
0630 :: Aerate the wort @ 0.125 lpm for 1 minute. Pitch in the yeast.

Day 14
1600 :: Gravity is 1.014. Nice hop presence, still has the nice malt profile as well.

Day 18
2100 :: Racked it to another keg because Kris needs it. Still at 1.014, but at the lagering temp of 34F, the hydro sample is lacking the assertive hop bit that I saw at the previous 63F sample.

Time for a Schwarzbier

2010-09-29T04:56:00.000-07:00

Time for a Schwarzbier. I've always liked the style and the better ones I've tried are nice drinking lagers. I planned to use the yeast cake from the Oktoberfest, so when that quieted down, I racked it and harvested the yeast. This is the third generation of the yeast and likely the last use of it.

This time, I took some guidance from Nic and made up a spreadsheet to track what I was doing. In retrospect, I think that I got a lot more useful information that using my old format. I still have the time-based notes and they are useful, but the extra detail is nice. That spreadsheet is available here.

There are two problems I picked up on while documenting in this new-and-improved way:

Volume calculations
Although I corrected for the volume difference between ambient, mash temp, and boiling, I seemed to have collected more from the first and second runnings that I actually got in the boil kettle. Because the sparge water is in the boil kettle, I need to put the first runnings into a bottling bucket, sparge, transfer the bottling bucket contents to the boil kettle, sparge again into the bottling bucket, then transfer that into the boil kettle. The bottling bucket isn't perfectly vertical, but I accounted for that. Somewhere in measuring the wort depths and calculating volumes, I introduced some errors.

Efficiency
I read through Brewkaiser's wiki and used his efficiency spreadsheet. While my calculated efficiency comes out areound 77%, the lauter and conversion efficiency numbers were off (well over 100%). I think that decoction threw that off and I just didn't understand the calculations before using the spreadsheet. I'll see what happens next time I brew since that likely won't be a decoction.

Finally, my 24" brewing thermometer was out-of-whack. For some reason, when I was ready to mash, it read about 20F below actual (as measured with my digital and mercury thermometers). I was able to recalibrate with ice water, hot tap water, and boiling water by using the adjusting screw on the back, but I'm surprised that I needed to. I lost about 45 minutes figuring that out and resolving it. From now on, I'll validate the reading before starting to mash. I'll also need to put a flat-headed screwdrived into the brewing toolkit.

Day 0 (25 Sep 2010)
0815 :: Preheat mash tun with 8 gal hot tap h2o.
0840 :: 4.55 gal h2o on full (T = 65F).
0847 :: Mash h2o @ 115F; want to mash in @ 160F.
0851 :: Mash h2o is 138F.
0853 :: Turned burner down to constant flame cf noisy flame - replace rusty burner?
0858 :: Mash h2o is 167F.
0900 :: Mash h2o tempin tun only 148, so reheat the mash h2o to 175F.
0913 :: Mash h2o @ 182F.
0930 :: The dial thermometer was off by about 20F! recalibrated against the digital instant-read at freezing, boiling, and hot-tap. back on process now.
0935 :: Mash h2o is too hot (obviously) so I'm air cooling.
0938 :: Mash h2o is 168F.
0951 :: Begin mash in.
0954 :: Completed mash in.
0956 :: Mash @ 152F.
1013 :: Drew off 2 gal; mash temp down to 149F; began boil @ 152F with non-sputtering flame.
1018 :: Decoction @ 166F.
1022 :: Decoction @ 181F; mash @ 149F.
1028 :: Decoction @ 206F; 60 minute boil will be done @ 1130.
1058 :: Decoction boiling nicely; mash @ 149F.
1124 :: Decoction boil continues; mash @ 148F.
1134 :: 1.5 gal decoction added back; mash to 161F.
1140 :: Sparge water on.
1156 :: Sparge water @ 106F (uh oh).
1200 :: Sparge water @ 121F.
1207 :: Sparge water @ 145F.
1215 :: Sparge water @ 172F --> pre-vorlauf.
1237 :: Heating to boil; 12 Brix.
1258 :: Boil (1.0 oz 6.4%AA German Hallertau in loose).
1343 :: Whirlfloc and IC in to sanitize.
1358 :: Flame off, chill, then whirlpool and 15' stand.
1400 :: 14.25 Brix.

Day 1
0900 :: Oxygenated for 90s @ 0.12 lpm and 0.06 lpm. The 0.06 lpm rate doesn't seem to work well - very few bubbles are visible. From now on, I'll up it to 0.12 lpm and extend it to 90s to account for loss via bubbles.
0915 :: Pitched 3/4 of the harvested yeast.

Day 2
0630 :: Lots of kraeusen and bubbling.

Day ? - 11 December
I kegged the Schwarz today. FG was 1.014, a bit high for a Schwarz, but inside the guidelines.

Oktoberfest

2010-09-14T18:30:00.000-07:00

I've always liked Oktoberfests. I went to college in a predominantly German town that had Canada's largest Oktoberfest celebration. I've tried making one early on in my brewing career and it was poor. It lacked the mouthfeel that a good Oktoberfest has. Apparently, a decoction mash is really needed to get that and I tried two Oktoberfests using decoction. Unfortunately, not being able to directly heat my mash tun, these turned out poorly - I dumped them.

So, based on my good experience with lauter decoctions on my Schwarzbiers, I thought I'd try that for the Ofest. In a lauter decoction, you mash-in with at about 1.6 qts/lb, let the mash rest for 15 minutes, then pull off a lot of the liquid (leaving a thick oatmeal in the mash tun). You then boil this pulled fraction for 60 minutes, then add it back to the mash and let is sit for 30 minutes. After that, the process is as usual.

For yeast, I planned to use a portion of the yeast harvested from my Lawnmower Beer, but I used all of it. I know that may be too much yeast, but we'll see. The yeast from this Ofest will be the yeast that I use for my Schwarzbier.

Oktoberfest

6 gal into the primary (5.75 - 6.0 actual)

Brew date: 04 September 2010

Grist

9 lb 10 oz Vienna
1 lb 2 oz Dark Munich

Hops

0.625 oz German Hallertau (6.4% AA) @ 75 min

Yeast

Saflager 34-70, harvested from the Lawnmower Beer.

Brewing Notes

Day 0
0645 :: 9 gal hot tap H2O into tun to preheat.
0705 :: 4.3 gal mash H2O heating.
0715 :: Grain temp is 72.3F so I want to mash in with 1.6 qts/lb @ 160F.
0716 :: Mash H2O is at 120F; flame was low so I turned it up.
0721 :: Mash H2O @ 150F; will stop @ 165F.
0722 :: Began draining tun preheat H2O.
0728 :: Mash H2O @ 178F ... oops.
0737 :: Mash H2O in tun; temp is 166F.
0746 :: Mash H2O in tun; temp is 161F.
0748 :: Mash in @ 160.3F; 3 minutes to put it all in and get it mixed up.
0751 :: Mash temp is 148F; stirred and @ 0753, temp was 151.5F.
0759 :: Mash temp is 151.5F.
0806 :: Began pulling off 2.08 gal for lauter decoction (the dunnmaische).
0810 :: Had to peek into mash tun to check grain, temp loss here.
0814 :: Mash temp @ 150.5F; lauter portion on to boil.
0820 :: Dunnmaische is boiling.
0820 :: Took a sample of the wort from the mash tun; cooled it; pH was between 5.0 and 5.3 (closer to 5.3) with the pH strips from www.sanitationtools.com.
0850 :: Mash temp is @ 150F.
0850 :: Currently cool and still, 48F.
0910 :: We seem to have boiled off 0.4 gal of the dunnmaische.
0920 :: Poured about 1.5 gal of dunnmaishce into the tun.
0922 :: Mash tun temp is 164F.
0935 :: Mash temp @ 165F.
1000 :: Mashout with 180F H2O.
1010 :: 4 gal first runnings, 4.5 gal second, 0.5 leftover.
1030 :: Currently @ 9 Brix (1.036).
1050 :: Boil.
1130 :: 0.625 oz 6.4% AA Hallertau hops in.
1200 :: Kettle seems to be at 7.25 gal.
1215 :: Whirlfloc and IC into kettle.
1230 :: Boil kettle volume @ 6.75, going another 15 min to get volume down and gravity up; currently 1.046 (11.5 Brix).
1245 :: Flame off.
1310 :: I decided to to a 15 min whirlpool to see if I can minimize trub; gravity going into kettle was 13.5 Brix (1.054).
1310 :: Looks like ~ 5.75-6.00 gal into primary.

Extra Notes:

I think I need to adjust my grain absorption number (0.136 gal/lb) downwards. Lately I've been seeing less absorption than what I was used to. This time, I had to do a longer boil to end up with 6.00 gal into fermenter.
Yeast harvesting is difficult. The yeast layer is very thin, so I tried to pull the trub off the bottom and then liquid off the top. Not sure how successful that was, but I got the harvested yeast + trub + beer down from ~1 gallon to ~0.5 gallon.
Clean sanitizing solution off refractometer before taking gravity reading - it dilutes a few Brix pts.

Day 1
0900 :: Oxygenated at 0.06 lpm and 0.12 lpm for 3 minutes. Normally I do just 0.06 lpm, but the bubbles weren't really evident so I cranked it up a bit.

Day 2
0800 :: Fermentation has taken off! Pitching all the yeast made a big difference in fermentation
lag time, hopefully not in the finished product.

Day 8
1800 :: Fermentation is now down to 1 bubble every 20-25 seconds.

Day 13
1815 :: Hydro sample shows the gravity at 1.014, smack-dab in the middle of the BJCP range (1.012-1.016).

Day ? - 11 December

I kegged the Schwarz today. FG was 1.013, right where I want it.

Calculating V(T)

2010-08-17T13:57:00.001-07:00

So when I brewed the Lawnmower Beer, I wondered about the change in volume of water vs. temperature. That's a pretty straightforward analysis so I used EngineeringToolbox to get some values and made the little calculator below. True, I am assuming that wort behaves like pure water, but for my application I think that assumption is acceptable.

Lawnmower Beer

2010-08-13T19:45:00.000-07:00

I'm in a low-alcohol session beer stage right now and since it's summer, it's time to make some lawnmower beer. I've always used some version of Jamil's recipe (80% 2-row, 20% Minute Rice) and have had the best results (taste-wise) with the default recipe. Fletty even gave me a 44 at 1st Round of Nationals, even though he panned the beer at the club meeting.

I've got some old 2-row (20+ lbs of it) lying around and I think it is too old; over a year. I kept it sealed and dry, but everything has a shelf life so tomorrow I'll use most of it up. I'll be doing a 10 gallon batch and while my mash tun can handle it, I like to get 12 gal into the fermenter so I end up with 10 gallons drinkable, and that means almost 15 gal in the boil kettle. That's always the balance when I do "10 gallon batches" - how much can I really deal with. I will shoot for 14.25 gal into the kettle, which, with thermal expansion, is just shy of 15 gallons.

Standard American Lager

12 gal into the primary (11.5 actual)

Brew date: 14 August 2010

Grist

16 lb 2-row
4 lb Minute Rice

Hops

0.5 oz Magnum (10% AA) @ 90 min

Yeast

Saflager 34-70, 0.5 liter starter stepped up with another 0.75 liters

Brewing Notes

Day 0

0630 :: 6.25 gal on for sparge (burner not @ max).
0652 :: Mash H2O @ 149F.
0655 :: Preheat tun with 8 gal hot tap H2O.
0658 :: Mash H2O @ 172F - flame off.
0728 :: Mash H2O @ 159F so mash in.
0733 :: Mash @ 149F.
0748 :: 10.75 gal vorlauf/sparge H2O on full.
0743 :: Mash @ 151F, opened tun @ stirred.
0750 :: Mash @ 151F again ... time to adjust calculation?
0803 :: Vorlauf/sparge H2O @ 100F.
0815 :: Vorlauf/sparge H2O @ 133F, mash @ 151F.
0822 :: Vorlauf/sparge H2O @ 151F.
0833 :: Begin sparge; vorlauf/sparge H2O @ 181F.
0858 :: 14.5 gal on to boil.
0900 :: 10.5 Brix (1.041).
0915 :: 191F.
0920 :: Currently 73F with 88% RH, little to no wind.
0920 :: Boil; hops in.
1035 :: IC and whirlfloc in.
1050 :: Flame off.
1110 :: 80F, so into the fermenter.
1112 :: 11.5 Brix (1.046).

I ran into problems when sparging. My mash tun is 10 gal and with the grain and mash water,
I was up to almost 8 gallons. When I wen to add my 3.5gal of pre-vorlauf water, I ran into trouble. Same again when I want to batch sparge - 7+ gal of water just won't fit! I need to be better prepared in the future.

I also noted that I gathered more than 14.5 gal of wort, probably about 1-1.5gal more. My guess is that the Minute Rice doesn't absorb the same amount of water as grain, it absorbs less.

Another thing I want to look into. How much does the volume of the wort change with temperature? I start off with 10 gal of 165F wort, then bump it up to 212F, then chill it down to 80F, then ferment at 52F.

Day 1
0900 :: wort @ 54F, so I decanted the starter and added about 0.5 liter of resuspended yeast.

Day 3
1800 :: Fermentation proceeding.

Day 4
0630 :: 24 bubbles/min @ 52F.

Day 21 (04 Sep)
Racked into two kegs. The gravity was 1.011. Hopefully that will drop over the next few months of lagering.

Do I Need a Better Brewing Setup?

2010-07-25T17:43:00.000-07:00

Today's brew event was a combination of things. A new recipe experiment for a friend and an attempt at multi-step mashing with a cooler-as-a-mashtun system. The beer is a Patersbier. The actual beer that this is based on comes from at a Belgian monestary and is brewed solely for consumption by the reverent Cistercian brothers. This ale is not served or sold to the public, making it one of the rarest beers in the world. Although the NB kit is Pils only, mine has some acidulated malt (3.5%) and some CaraVienne (3.5%). The hops were also changed up a bit since I have a bunch of Styrian Goldings that were freebies at this year's Upper Missippi Mashout.

The other trick in this beer was to do a short (12 min) mash at 112F, then the rest of the mash at 149F. With a simple system like mine, that means doing the normal hot water addition to hit the initial mash temp, then adding boiling water to reach the final mash temp. There are plenty of calculators out the that tell you how much boiling water to reach your next temp ... I was led astray by them. I had planned to do a bit of a lauter decoction at the end of the mash but I could not hit the second temp with the calculated values and things went to hell in a handbasket. I ended up having an inital mash at 112F, then added far from enough boiling water. While I madly got extra water boiling, the mash had an unintended 25 minute rest at about 121F, then finally the final (planned) 45 minutes at 149F. The notes below tell all the sordid details.

Boiloff was another weird problem. Over 90 minutes, I boiled off 2.25 gal, way more than normal. It was 13% more humid, so I'd expect less boiloff but I got way more. I guess I just had the boil going a lot more than with the two Crouch Vales.

And another problem - the BreweryTimer app. While the boil timer is great, once the other alarms go, they will not shut off unless I restart the app. I said last time "why didn't I code this up"; now maybe I will.

Patersbier

6 gal into the primary (planned, 5.25 actual)

Grist

9 lb 10 oz Belgian Pils
6 oz Acidulated malt
6 oz CaraVienne 75L
Mash @ 112F for 12 min
Mash @ 120F for 25 min (unanticipated)
Mash @ 149F for 48 min
Boil for 90min

Hops

1.5 oz Styrian Goldings (2.6%AA) @ 90 min
2.5 oz Styrian Goldings (2.6%AA) @ 0 min

Yeast

Wyeast 3738 Trappist High Gravity, ferment at 63F

I made a 1 liter starter about two days ahead of time.

Brewing Notes

Day 0
0750 :: 3.5 gal on to boil.
0756 :: Mash water @114F.
0802 :: First H2O into tun @ 142F; rest of H2O continues to boil on lower heat.
0805 :: Remainder of H2O @ 195F - heat off.
0810 :: Added tap H2O to tun (keeping vol constant) and got temp to 128F.
0814 :: Mash in @ 124F; remainder of H2) on flame.
0821 :: Overshot the mash temp - had to add 2 qts tap H2O to get mash temp down to 113F.
0824 :: Mash @ 114F.
0830 :: Mash @ 116F - looks like my (and Promash's) calcs for water:grain and temperature are off for low ratios.
0833 :: Add remainder of H2O for mash.
0840 :: Mash temp only to 122F - WTF! putting 3 gal on to boil to bring it up to 149F - will add slowly until 149.
0905 :: Added 3 gal of boiling to get to 149F.
0910 :: 148F mash.
0917 :: 148F mash, 125F sparge.
0955 :: When I sparged, the mash bed was very very compacted - needed to stir it up to get all the liquid out. Normally I don't have to do that.
1000 :: I got 5 gal first runnings.
1005 :: I only added enough sparge water to get 2.5 gal second runnings.
1010 :: Preboil gravity is 10.25 Brix (1.041) with 7.5 gal --> 80% eff.
1013 :: With full flame, 185F.
1015 :: Current conditions : 71F, 73% RH.
1153 :: Flame off, start immersion cooler. The immersion cooler results are
3 min -- 120F
4 min -- 106F
5 min -- 99F
6 min -- 93F
8 min -- 84F
I love the nice cold Lakeville water.
1211 :: I only got about 5.25 gal into carboy ... big boiloff? The boil rate didn't seem that high.
1212 :: OG is 13.5 Brix (1.054). This doesn't really jive with any boiloff calcs, but it is what it is.
1215 :: The wort is in the refrigerator getting down to 64F (pitching temp).

Day 1
0630 :: I aerated for one minute at 0.12 lpm, then pitched the entire 1 liter starter. The starter was about 68F and the wort was about 65F, so close enough.
1900 :: Nice bubbling (12 bubbles/min).

Day 2
0700 :: Even more airlock activity - 24 bubbles per minute. No blowoff into the airlock jug. The carboy is about 63F.

Day 4
1800 :: It has been stable around 63F for a few days now. Activity has dropped to zero at this point. I will rack to secondary tomorrow night.

Day 7
I was going to rack it, but the gravity was only 1.014.

Day 16
Back from vacation, the gravity is 1.012 - I guess I could have racked it. Something happened while I was away and the temp got up to about 72F, but almost no fermentation occurred (the gravity barely dropped) so I hop no off flavors got into it.

Crouch Vale - Version 2

2010-07-24T09:53:00.000-07:00

Today is replace-the-front-shocks day. I've never done it before and thankfully the corrosion isn't as bad ad I thought it would be. I was unsure of doing it myself, but I found this series of videos over on eHow. Nathan McCullough rocks. The only hiccup I had was replacing the stabilizer control links. The nuts had seized and the 'bolt' portion was a ball joint so you couldn't get a grip on them. I had to cut them out. I hadn't planned on replacing the links, but I noticed last night that the driver's side was shot so I ordered a new set (both sides). This may have been the whole noise-in-the-front-end problem in the first place, but I had already bought the shocks and the original ones have 100k (miles) on them, so I went ahead and did the whole job.

Ok ... on to beer.

I brewed Crouch Vale Version 1 last Tuesday and now it's time to do Version 2. The recipe is identical with two exceptions:

I decreased the amount of Halcyon to 7 lb and added 10oz of Crystal 75,
I washed the yeast from Version 1 and added half of it at pitching time.

Everything else was the same (temperatures, times, etc) but I had some problems. My mash screen (a bazooka tube) got loose during the mash and I had a heck of a time getting it back in. While is was out, though, some grain got into the mash tun valve and buggered everything up. I got my first runnings (less than normal amount) by using a pitcher and a kitchen seive, cleaned things up, then got my second runnings in the normal batch sparge way. Efficiency seemed to drop a bit from the previous version: my preboil wort was 1.035 which means 75% efficiency. Boiloff was a bit higher than planned and although I ended up with 6 gal in the carboy, the postboil wort was 1.038 - spot on what I wanted.

Brewing Notes:

Day 0
1730 :: preheat tun w 7 gal hot tap H2O
1737 :: flame on! 2.5 gal on to boil
1749 :: 185F and nucleate boiling
1757 :: want to mash in @ 162F; currently @ 168F; allowing thermal eq'm
1804 :: after some swirling for cooling, 162F so mash in
1807 :: mash screen came out; fished it out and let the mash go on - will insert at end of mash
1823 :: mash @ 151F
1840 :: 6.25 gal sparge H2O on (2.45 pre-vorlauf + 3.8 sparge)
1840 :: mash @ 151F
1850 :: sparge H2O @ 122F
1902 :: sparge H2O @ 165F; mash @ 149
1904 :: screen disconnectd again; had to take first runnings via seive
1940 :: finally got 7.5 gal of wort; OG = 7 Brix (1.028) --> 75% eff
1948 :: current conditions are 78F and 61% RH
1953 :: full-on boil; going with a fuller boil than normal to ensure that I get the boiloff I want
2100 :: my Bullion hops are 7.9%, so I am using 3.5oz @ 15 min
2108 :: Bullion hops, whirlfloc, and IC into kettle
2123 :: flame off. IC down to 74F in under 15 min
2143 :: into fermentation chamber @ 63F

Day 1
1800 :: Oxygenate for 120s @ 0.06 lpm; Why? This article (and many other sources) say you need about 0.12 liters of O2 added (assuming perfect absorbtion). If I dial my regulator to 0.12 lpm, it foams a lot and not all the O2 is absorbed. Halving the flow rate minimized bubbles (maximizes absorbtion) and it only takes an extra 60 s.
1810 :: Add half of previous batch harvested yeast.

Day 2
1810 :: Kraeusen is present. Slowly bubbling.

Day 3
1715 :: Kraeusen is this with persistent. 63F spot on.

Day 4
0630 :: Kraeusen is present. Still persistent bubbling.

Day 6
1900 :: No more evident bubbling, but there is some kraeusen present.

Day 7
0700 :: The gravity is 1.010 so I will rack to a keg tonight. The hydro sample is noticeably different from Version 1; not nearly as hop forward or bitter, with distinctly more malt character. I am really looking forward to getting both of these carb'd up and onto the tap.

Tasting Notes

OK, it is also a nice beer. Less hop presence, but there's a flavor that I'm not a big fan of. Greg calls if phenolic. Kris says that it is the Crystal 75. Good malty profile.

Carafa Flavors

2010-07-19T10:14:00.000-07:00

We did a tasting experiment at a club meeting a few months back - four Kellerbiers. The main point that I took away (and am noting here for posterity's sake) is that Carafa I adds chocolate flavor, Carafa II adds black patent flavor, and Carafa III adds roasted barley flavor.

I need to modify my Schwarz recipe accordingly. I blindly boosted the Carafa I and Carafa III last time, hoping to increase the roast but ended up making it too chocolatey. My next batch should keep the Carafa I at original levels but up the Carafa III.

Crouch Vale - Version 1

2010-07-16T20:42:00.000-07:00

This is a recipe that I took from Mashweasel's (Kris England) post here here. Kris is a member of my homebrewing club and phenomenal resource. I've made a number of his recipes before and have never been disappointed. This recipe is damn simple - one grain, one hop addition. My plan is to brew this and in a week, brew Kris' "more bittery" version and pitch it onto the yeast cake from this one. The only difference was that I only had Bullion hops available, so I substituted them in place of the Brewers Gold. This should be an interesting experiment - my friend Nic is brewing the same recipes, but he's using invert sugar for the "more bittery" version and he's using Wyeast 1028 instead.

Crouch Vale Brewers Gold

Gravity (OG) 1.038
30 IBU
6 gal into the primary

Grist

8lb Halcyon
Mash @ 151F for 60min
Boil for 90min

Hops

3.5oz Brewers Gold - 7.9% @ 15min

Yeast

WLP013 - Ferment at 63F

I made a 1 liter starter about two days ahead of time. I also used the Brewery Timer app for the first time, which I got here and I must say it is a nice little app. It's one of those things I used and said to myself "now why didn't I code this up years ago?"

Brewing Notes:

Day 0 (because everything should be zero-based)
1710 :: flame on! 2.5 gal on to boil
1720 :: approaching 165F - no time to preheat mash tun so I plan to add the H2O at a higher temp let it drop
1722 :: 182F and nucleate boiling. Flame off and transfer the H2O to the mash tun
1726 :: I want to mash in @ 162F; currently @ 173F; allowing thermal equilibrium to occur
1735 :: 170F in mash tun
1745 :: after some swirling for cooling, I reached 162F (close enough) so mash in
1750 :: mash @ 150F
1805 :: mash @ 151F
1810 :: sparge H2O on to heat (2.5 gal pre-vorlauf + 3.82 gal sparge)
1825 :: mash @ 150F
1838 :: sparge H2O @ 180 F so flame off
1850 :: 4 gal from first runnings
1855 :: 3.5 gal from second runnings
1900 :: OG = 7.5 Brix (1.030) --> 80% eff
1905 :: current temp is 71F and 60% RH (important because summer brewing yields odd boil-off rates)
1908 :: full-on boil
1935 :: going with a fuller boil than normal to ensure that I get the boiloff I want
2012 :: my Bullion hops are 7.9%, so I am using 3.5oz @ 15 min
2025 :: Bullion hops, whirlfloc, and immersion chiller (IC) into kettle
2038 :: flame off. IC down to 74F in under 15 min
2055 :: oxygenate for 60s @ 0.5 lpm <-- I need to change this to 0.12 lpm for 75s
2100 :: added 1 l of yeast starter to just over 6 gal of wort
2105 :: into fermentation chamber @ 63F

From a boil-off point-of-view, I lost just shy of 1.5 gal over 90 min for the given environmental conditions (71F and 60%RH).

Day 1
Morning, fermentation temp was 68F so I dropped the temp controller setpoint.
Evening, fermentation temp was 55F so I let the heater control and cooler control battle it out

Day 2
Morning, I finally achieved 63F. From here on, fermentation was nice and steady

Day 4
Evening, kraeusen has fallen but fermentation still ongoing.

Day 7
The gravity of the beer has fallen to 1.010, which is pretty much where I want it to end. I racked the beer to a keg and put it into the fermentation chamber at 62F. The hydrometer sample was tasty. The hop bitterness was definitely present (as it should be) but not overly so, and no significant hop flavor. Minimal malt presence.

To reuse the yeast for tomorrow's Crouch Vale - Version 2, I poured the remainder of the trub/yeast into a sanitized gallon jar and waited for for the trub to settle out. I poured off the top portion (the yeast) into a sanitized Erlenmeyer flask.

This site documents the process well, but where it takes him 20 minutes to achieve a nice yeast-trub separation, it takes me 90 minutes. I put my flask of yeast into the fridge overnight and will pitch a portion in when I brew Version 2 tomorrow.

Tasting Notes
OK, it is a nice beer. Nice hop presence, but seems a bit flabby. Bit of malt to it. Definitely drinkable though. It did not clarify well though. Nic's version was better - nice and clear. The hop nose was the same but not flabby at all.

And so it begins

2010-07-10T20:59:00.000-07:00

This inaugural post is all about me. The 'About Me' gadget doesn't really give enough space, so I'll give some background about me and what this blog is all about.

First off, I am Canadian and I brew beer. I live in the US though, Minnesota to be more specific. My job brought me here some years back and while I brewed back in Canada, being here has really opened up some opportunities. I am fortunate to live in an area with a phenomenal homebrewers club as well as two great homebrew supply stores, Northern Brewer and Midwest Supplies. The club has really helped me figure out what works and what doesn't for my brewing, as well as opened up my eyes (and taste buds) to different styles. Having easy access to supplies makes opportunistic brewing possible. I would not want to live somewhere that required me to plan my brewing weeks in advance, mail order supplies, etc.

The purpose of this blog is primarily a place for me to log my brewing sessions. I've used notebooks, text files, etc., but they seem to be a hassle. We'll see how it goes. Maybe I'll post other stuff, maybe not.

Initial volume [gal]:
Initial temperature [degF]:
Final temperature [degF]:
Final volume [gal]: