Monday, August 27, 2012

Fullers ESB, and another element failure

I'm a regular listener to the brewing network's "Can you brew it" show with Jamil Zainasheff. I have a lot of time for Jamil, mostly because of his book "Brewing Classic Styles". Everything I've brewed from that book has been a complete success, and I've learned a hell of a lot just working through the recipes. "Can you brew it" provided the recipe for the Black Sheep Riggwelter I brewed quite a while back. This wasn't a complete success, mainly due to under-attenuating yeast which left me with a sickly sweet 1.018 FG. Still I could see that the recipe had the potential to be really good.

My next "Can you brew it" recipe is Fuller's ESB. There were actually a series of shows on Fuller's beers, and one conclusion the guys came to was that you need to do a parti-gyle brew, and stick to a somewhat anarchic fermentation schedule in order to accurately nail this beer.  I'm not going to go quite that far, although the "Brew in a bag" system is essentially a no-sparge technique, meaning that my wort will be similar to the first runnings from a parti-gyle. I have adjusted the numbers from the show a little, as I wanted a slightly lower OG - though increased efficiency means I ended up two points higher than I was aiming anyway. I have subbed some of the hops too, magnum for target for the bittering addition I don't think will hurt much. Subbing extra EKGs for challenger for the final hop addition will undoubtedly change the character of the beer, though I think the dry hopping will probably dominate over any potential changes from this.

I brewed this yesterday, and about 5 minutes after mashing out I had more element woes. No harm done but I how have a plug in RCD which is completely shot. I won't go into detail about this, but it meant I had to rip the insulation from my pot and carry it inside to my cook top. Luckily for me the big burner on our cook top is well able to get a rolling boil going with 26ish litres of wort, so the beer should turn out ok. 

Here's the recipe:

Recipe Specifics
----------------

Batch Size (L):          22.50    Wort Size (L):     22.50
Total Grain (kg):         5.70
Anticipated OG:          1.056    Plato:             13.77
Anticipated EBC:          29.5
Anticipated IBU:          37.1
Brewhouse Efficiency:       70 %
Wort Boil Time:             60    Minutes

Pre-Boil Amounts
----------------

Evaporation Rate:      15.00    Percent Per Hour
Pre-Boil Wort Size:   26.47    L
Pre-Boil Gravity:      1.047    SG          11.79  Plato

Grain/Extract/Sugar

   %     Amount     Name                          Origin        Potential EBC
------------------------------------------------------------
 95.0     5.41 kg.  Pale Malt (Maris Otter)       UK             1.038      8
  5.0     0.29 kg.  Crystal 120L                  UK             1.033    317

Potential represented as SG per pound per gallon.


Hops

   Amount     Name                              Form    Alpha  IBU  Boil Time
----------------------------------------------------------------
 20.00 g.     Magnum                Pellet  11.00  31.2  60 min.
 15.00 g.     Wye Northdown         Pellet   9.60   3.0  3 min.
 25.00 g.     East Kent Goldings    Pellet   4.3    2.8  3 min.
 21.00 g.     East Kent Goldings    Pellet   4.3    0.0  Dry Hop


Yeast
-----
WY1968 London ESB

Chilled to 20 degrees and pitched with a generous quantity of washed yeast from the Rebel rising brew (WY1968 London ESB). As mentioned before this ended up at 1.058 OG, meaning efficiency was really more like 73%. As I have been doing for other high OG beers, I did a mash out for 15mins at 75C. Mash temp was 64C to get the desired attenuation from the WY1968 yeast.

It's now in the fermenting fridge at 18C. I'll step this up to 20 over the next day or two and send it back down to 18 later on in the fermentation, somewhat mimicking the Fullers fermentation schedule.

Yesterday was meant to be a double brew day, with a Beamish clone being the second brew. The element blowing meant that this didn't happen so if I can get it fixed soon I'll be brewing up some Beamish later this week.

Kolsch fermentation

I've had some trouble with the Kolsch fermentation. It looks like I dramatically underpitched the recultured WLP029 yeast, resulting in an extremely slow ferment. A week after pitching the gravity was at 1.034, compared to 1.020 for the same timepoint on my last Kolsch (same recipe).

To see what I'm dealing with here I took 200ml from the fermenter and put it on a stir plate for a fast ferment test. While this was running I cultured up some more of this yeast, this time a stirred 500ml starter and pitched this. The fast ferment ended up at 1.009 after about 2.5 days. The main fermentation has now speeded up quite a bit, dropping from 1.032 to 1.020 in 2 days. Hydrometer samples are not tasting very good at the moment. This beer will be lagered for a month after fermentation, so it may clean up a bit during that time. I'm hopeful about this beer, though not very confident.


Monday, August 20, 2012

Rebel Rising Tasting

Rebel Rising Red

Update: 31-Aug
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


This is almost gone, only a pint or two remaining. Over the past two weeks those strong dark flavours have started to mellow, and are now allowing a little of the spicy hop aroma through. It's finished up a wonderful brew, and as usual I'll be very sad to see the end of the keg. The changes I suggested will probably still be implemented next time round, just to compare and contrast, but this was by no means a 'miss'. In fact it's one of the beers I'm proudest of, having come up with the recipe myself.



Original Post
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So we're nearly four weeks in with this beer, and once again I haven't been able to leave it alone. I kegged this about 10 days ago and have been tasting every day since. I always find it fascinating to taste the dramatic flavour changes in my beer as it transitions through the conditioning phase. This one was severely lacking in mouthfeel and maltiness at first, but now has bucketloads of both. It's almost fun to start worrying about what looks like a bad beer, only for it to turn the corner to malty heaven.

My aim with this recipe was to have a go at creating a beer of my own, loosely based on the irish red ale style. I chose some of my favourite malts and hops, my favourite yeast, and put them together with some invert sugar to see what I could come up with. I gave the grist in weight in a previous post, but here it is in percentages:

Simpsons Maris Otter      83.1%
Simpsons Dark Crystal      7.1%
Simpsons Roast Barley      1.7%
Invert No. 2                        8.1%

I wish I had looked at this a bit more carefully before I started! Really I shouldn't have gone past 5% dark crystal. It's a malt I really love but it's flavours are quite intense (rum, raisin etc.), and it takes away from the sessionability of the beer. The invert no.2 is also adding flavours like this, and so some of the malt flavours become overpowering by pint number three.

Pints number one and two, however, are inspiring. This drinks really well, with a full mouthfeel and some interesting yeast derived flavours. The WY1968 has done a fantastic job here, and I will certainly stick with it for future versions. In the end it's the heavy dose of dark crystal which stops your session, which is a shame as making a really sessionable beer was one of the key aspirations for this brew. I'm relatively happy though, for a first go it's really good, and promising.

I think the following would make a good version 2:

Simpsons Maris Otter       84.7%
Simpsons Dark Crystal        3.5%
Simpsons Light Crystal        2.4%
Simpsons Roast Barley        1.2%
Invert No. 2                          8.2%

I have dialed back the roast barley a little. This is a colour consideration. Currently the colour is a deep ruby red, beautiful in it's own way but perhaps a tad darker than I was aiming for. Cutting back a little on the roast barley and dark crystal will cut about 10 EBCs and should result in a nice bright red.

On the hop front, I'm happy with the bitterness level, but I think I could aim a little higher with the aroma level (currently almost non-existent). I may consider trying cube hopping again with this one. Again I'm probably heading out of style, but who cares?

I'll be having another double brew day next Sunday, which will be a "Can you brew it" Fuller's ESB, and a Beamish. I've got a nice washed WY1968 yeastcake from this red ale for the ESB, and a recently procured packet of Pacman yeast for the Beamish.

Friday, August 10, 2012

The Path Is Clear

A few months back I mentioned that I was planning to start brewing lager. Even though I still haven't gotten around to doing it, the decision to start has actually been quite beneficial to my brewing knowledge. It has resulted in some experimentation which has greatly increased my knowledge of the finer points of the brewing process. The main aspects of brewing I have been studying up on recently are water chemistry and mash ph, which are of course very closely linked. My main sources of knowledge have been the braukeiser wiki and the "Key Concepts in Water Treatment" document by Tony Wheeler, available from here. I also purchased a Hanna pH meter, and have learned to calibrate it correctly (it helps that I work with lab people). Here are some key concepts i have come to terms with (all based on Melbourne water supply - largely lacking in all ions important to brewing, with addition of about 75ppm Calcium plus some other ions):

  1. Mash pH varies quite considerably with grist composition - darker grists produce lower ph mashes
  2.  Very light grists produce mashes with pH (far?) above the desirable range of 5.2-5.4 (My recent Kolsch)
  3.  Average grists producing copper coloured mashes just about hit the pH 5.4 mark. (My recent APA)
  4.  Not adding gypsum as part of calcuim addition negatively affects hop character in medium to highly hopped beers. (Harsh hop character in my Brakspear Special with no gypsum addition, did not seem to affect hop character of my Rebel Rising Red, which had moderate hop levels and also received no gypsum)

Extrapolating from 2&3 above, it's possible that very dark grists may cause the pH to drop below 5.2. Wheeler claims it's better to be too low than too high, so we'll have to wait and see if this is an issue or not. I've got a Beamish clone coming up soon that will test this out.

Based on these findings, this is what I aim to change from now on.

  1.  Measure pH with well calibrated meter FOR ALL BREWS.
  2.  Add lactic acid to mash water for lighter coloured grists to get pH level in desirable range.
  3.  Add gypsum to bring SO4 ion level into the 100-150ppm range for all hoppy beers. I just did this with my American Pale Ale and I'm keen to see how it affects the hop character. I may push even higher for the sake of experiment later on.


I should explain that I have always treated my water with about 1.5tsp of Calcium Chloride and 1tsp gypsum, but never really tried to understand why I should do this. I had a vague (and correct) idea that I definitely needed to add Calcium to my water, but didn't know any more than that. In the end I convinced myself that gypsum probably wasn't that important, but the first hoppy beer of my production line where it wasn't used had a very noticeable harsh hop character. Perhaps from something else, but I will experiment to see if it is from lack of gypsum.

Sunday, August 5, 2012

A Big Day

I decided to do two brews today, something I have done in the past but not lately. As a good Melbourne citizen I hate to waste water, and so once I decided to do a beer that requires chilling (a hoppy american pale ale), it made sense to use the hot waste water from the chiller to start another mash.

Both brews are from the book "Brewing Classic Styles" by Jamil Zainasheff and John Palmer. This is a great recipe book and I have really enjoyed the beers I have brewed from it. These beers tend to be real crowd pleasers too, which can be both a good and a bad thing, I love to have people taste my beer but I hate seeing it disappear in a night or two.

Anyhow, the first beer is the American Pale Ale from "Brewing Classic Styles". This is a big beer, with an OG of 1.056, and should end up at about 5.7% abv. It's hoppy too, with 60 grams of hops in the last 10 minutes. There's no crystal malt in this one, with Munich and Victory providing a biscuity background. I also changed my water treatment a bit, based on a suggested bitter ale profile from perfectpint . 1tsp Gypsum, 1tsp Calcium Chloride, and a half tsp Epsom salts. Here's the recipe I used (slightly modified from the original):



Recipe Specifics
----------------

Batch Size (L):          22.50    Wort Size (L):     22.50
Total Grain (kg):         5.98
Anticipated OG:          1.057    Plato:             14.11
Anticipated SRM:           6.8
Anticipated IBU:          40.6
Brewhouse Efficiency:       70 %
Wort Boil Time:             60    Minutes

Pre-Boil Amounts
----------------

Evaporation Rate:      15.00    Percent Per Hour
Pre-Boil Wort Size:   26.47    L
Pre-Boil Gravity:      1.049    SG          12.08  Plato

Grain/Extract/Sugar

   %     Amount     Name                          Origin       --------------------------------------------------------------
 84.8     5.07 kg. Joe White Pale Ale Malt (2-row)        
  3.8     0.23 kg.  Joe White Wheat Malt                   
  5.7     0.34 kg.  Breiss Victory Malt                           
  5.7     0.34 kg.  Joe White Munich Malt I                

Hops

   Amount     Name                   Form    Alpha  IBU  BoilTime
------------------------------------------------------------------
 20.00 g.     Magnum                 Pellet  12.10  34.1  60 min.
 14.18 g.     Cascade                Pellet   5.75   2.3  10 min.
 14.18 g.     Centennial             Pellet  10.50   4.2  10 min.
 14.18 g.     Cascade                Pellet   5.75   0.0  0 min.
 14.18 g.     Centennial             Pellet  10.50   0.0  0 min.


Yeast
-----

WYeast 1272 American Ale II



I hit all the numbers on this one, which I was really happy about because it can be difficult to get consistent efficiency with bigger beers with the brew in a bag system. To aid me in this I did a mash out at 75, which I wouldn't usually do. I tested the PH with my now properly calibrated ph tester, and the mash ph was 5.4.

My pH tester, used in anger for the first time


I chilled after a 10 minute whirlpool and pitched a starter of WY1272. I've got the fermenting fridge set to 18.


The second beer of the day was the Kolsch from "Brewing Classic Styles". I brewed this last year and really liked it. At that time I had managed to get my hands on some White Labs WLP029 Kolsch yeast, which I really  like. White Labs yeast is hard to get here in Melbourne, with Wyeast being dominant. When cleaning out some old bottles last week I found six bottles of last years Kolsch, which to be honest didn't taste great, but had a good layer of yeast in the bottom. I got this fired up in a weak starter and I've been stepping it up.



Here's the Kolsch recipe:

Recipe Specifics
----------------

Batch Size (L):          22.50    Wort Size (L):     19.00
Total Grain (kg):         4.90
Anticipated OG:          1.047    Plato:             11.67
Anticipated SRM:           2.8
Anticipated IBU:          23.8
Brewhouse Efficiency:       70 %
Wort Boil Time:             90    Minutes

Pre-Boil Amounts
----------------

Evaporation Rate:      15.00    Percent Per Hour
Pre-Boil Wort Size:   29.03    L
Pre-Boil Gravity:      1.036    SG          9.12  Plato


Grain/Extract/Sugar

   %     Amount     Name                         ------------------------------------------------------
 95.4     4.67 kg.  Joe White Pilsener
  4.6     0.23 kg.   Joe White Vienna Malt                  


Hops

   Amount     Name                  Form    Alpha  IBU  Boil Time
--------------------------------------------------------------
 43.00 g.     Mt. Hood              Pellet   3.90  23.8  60 min.


Yeast
-----

White Labs WLP029 German Ale/Kolsch


Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Brakspear Special Tasting

Final Update 10.08.12:

I finished this keg last night. Things I have learned:

1. I need to give my beers more time, 2 weeks from yeast pitch is not realistic for 4.5%abv beers. This beer got much better towards the end (finished keg after 30days from yeast pitch)
2. I need more than 113g of specialty malts when using highly attenuating yeast like WY1275, this beer ended up very dry with little 'maltiness'
3. Following from 2 above; underattenuation, something that's cursed my brewing since day one, is actually a lot easier to deal with than overattenuation, and underattenuated beer tastes a lot better than overattenuated. 
3. Attempts at fancy ways of capturing late hop character in no-chill beers have been largely unsuccessful. Better to stick to the obvious - a slightly increased dose of hops at flameout, whirlpool, then leave them behind in the kettle.
4. Invert no. 1 is highly fermentable, if you use it don't depend on it to impart much flavour.
5. Don't neglect gypsum. I had convinced myself it was having little impact on my beers, and didn't use it here. The result was quite a harsh hop character. Gypsum seems to help soften the hop bitterness.

So there you go. I learned a hell of a lot on this beer. It is far from the best beer I've ever made (in fact it may have been the worst), but it was well worth any effort and will make me a much better brewer I am sure.

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Update 6.08.10:

I'm writing this another week on, so the beer is almost 4 weeks since yeast pitching old. The unpleasant yeast character I mentioned last week has completely disappeared, though there is still the faintest hint of acetaldehyde. This beer has really improved, and I think it will continue to improve if I can stop drinking it. One thing I would consider changing is the bittering level, it is quite unbalanced in my opinion, and I would drop the IBUs by at least 5 or maybe up to 10. I may be tempted to give the WY1275 another chance if something suitable comes up.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 Original post:

I've had this on tap for nearly a week, but a slight acetaldehyde issue prevented me from giving it a proper test until now.



It pours quite clear, with a straw gold colour. The first thing you notice here is the hop character, both the overall bitterness and the pleasant styrian goldings aroma. It is quite bitter at 42IBUs, much more so than any English style bitter I've made before.

Unfortunately this beer has what I call the 's-04 tang'. This is a kind of faint peppery yoghurt aftertaste which a lot of people notice when using Safale S-04 dry ale yeast. I had this issue with the session bitter I brewed a while back with this same yeast (WY1275 Thames Valley), so along with S-04, WY1098 and WY1099, I'll be adding WY1275 to the list of yeasts I will no longer use. I have read that certain fermentation regimes can increase or decrease this yeast characteristic, but I'm not prepared to look into it any further, as I can't see any characteristics that this yeast brings that is worth striving for. Here's a mention of it at perfectpint. Will seems to think it might be from underpitching or too warm a fermentation, but I don't think either of those were an issue for me this time around.

Aside from the 'S-04 tang', there is a distinct mineral character which interplays with the bitterness. As with the session bitter I find that this works quite well with food, but less well when drunk on it's own.

Overall this is a drinkable beer, but far from memorable.

Next up is my rebel red, currently at 1.016 and dropping. Fermenter samples are quite promising, though I think I may be well off the mark in terms of cloning rebel red. That wasn't really what I was aiming for this time, so it doesn't really matter. The reason for this is of course the yeast - WY1968. I'm quickly finding that the English yeasts I have used over the past year all seem to dominate the flavour profile of the beers they ferment.

I'm tempted to think that it is likely that two beers made from completely different worts, but fermented with the same English yeast, would in some ways have more in common than two beers from the same wort fermented with different English yeasts. Perhaps an experiment is due!