foxbat's brewdays

[foxbat]

Sorry, I don't know. My guess would be it's down to the gelatin which is made from pigs trotters or cow hooves so I suppose it may go off after a while, but is apparently stable in powdered form.

At least I hope it is!

You're probably right about the gelatin. I chucked away some Kwik-Clear that I'd had for a few months because the gelatin started to stink. Buying separately and using the powdered form could be a good plan.

 

[foxbat]

A quick update on Forever Vienna, my Vienna lager. After my standard 3 weeks in the fermenter the FG was 1.008 for an ABV of 5.1%

Kegged, fined and a couple of bottles filled from the remains. The unconditioned beer tastes rather interesting; nutty with a Saazy spiciness to it. Hopefully this'll be a tasty lager. Anyway, keg purged and it's on at 20psi and 6C for however long I can bear it.

 

[matt76]

Anyway, keg purged and it's on at 20psi and 6C for however long I can bear it.

I'm not too far away from kegging my first beer so this is something I've been looking at / thinking about...

From what I've read so far I thought your 20psi sounded pretty high...

Sure enough, according to the chart on BF at least, 20psi & 6degC/43degF is about 3vols CO2 - high even for a lager *if* we take what the chart says at face value.

I've no doubt that in the same way as I know from experience X grams of priming sugar is about right for a given style, you probably know this is probably about right for the style / your tastes.

So do you reckon it works the same way for kegging? I.e. as with so much in brewing, regardless of what the web says, there's a element of practice and trial & error needed to get your gear dialled in and work out what works on your setup and for your tastes?

Or am I over thinking it and you just like your beer really fizzy?

 

[foxbat]

I'm not too far away from kegging my first beer so this is something I've been looking at / thinking about...

From what I've read so far I thought your 20psi sounded pretty high...

Sure enough, according to the chart on BF at least, 20psi & 6degC/43degF is about 3vols CO2 - high even for a lager *if* we take what the chart says at face value.

I've no doubt that in the same way as I know from experience X grams of priming sugar is about right for a given style, you probably know this is probably about right for the style / your tastes.

So do you reckon it works the same way for kegging? I.e. as with so much in brewing, regardless of what the web says, there's a element of practice and trial & error needed to get your gear dialled in and work out what works on your setup and for your tastes?

Or am I over thinking it and you just like your beer really fizzy?

The chart is a good guide but like you say with the sugar weights you come to know what's right for your system. On mine an indicated 20psi/6C just about matches pub lager carbonation and 10-ish/12C is about right for ales. I'm sure it'll be slightly different on yours.

 

[foxbat]

Tonight I'm drinking the bottled remainders of my Dunkel and they're every bit the equal of the kegged version. I'd brew Weyermann's Dunkel recipe again in a heartbeat.

 

[samale]

Tonight I'm drinking the bottled remainders of my Dunkel and they're every bit the equal of the kegged version. I'd brew Weyermann's Dunkel recipe again in a heartbeat.

I will be brewing it next week sometime. Probably use saaz as I have it in stock

 

[foxbat]

I've been drinking my Phoney Peroni (No.2) for a few weeks now and it's great:

Very smooth and so light from all the corn in it and a dead ringer for the original but at 5.4% it's got a bit more punch. This is certainly a recipe that I'll brew again each summer. I think I'll repost this piccy in the What Are You Drinking thread since I'm doing just that...

 

[foxbat]

I'm brewing this weekend which means that Tuesday is get-the-starter-on day. This will be the fifth and last outing for the excellent Wyeast 2352-PC Augustiner strain and fittingly it will be a German Pils. The saved back overbuild from last time is looking fresh and clear in the fridge:

I've gone for a 2 litre starter which was duly boiled, cooled, yeast added and is now in the brew fridge on the stir plate at 20C.

And with the evening's work out of the way I shall take a moment of reflection and raise a glass of fermented starter wort and say to my 100 billion yeast cells, thank you for your service!

We will meet again!

 

[foxbat]

Today's brew, my last lager of the summer season, is going to be a German Pilsner. It's been a few years since I've brewed with Perle hops and I recall really liking their fresh taste so I've decided to give them a shot in this pilsner.

Here's the recipe:

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Recipe: Perle Pils
Batch Size (fermenter): 24.00 L
Estimated OG: 1.044 SG
Estimated Color: 6.4 EBC
Estimated IBU: 34.8 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 75.6 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes
Finished water profile: Ca:28, Mg:3, Na:9, SO4:10, Cl:44

Ingredients:
------------
Amt         Name                                        Type          %/IBU         Volume   
29.51 L     Tesco Ashbeck                               Water         -             -
3.20 ml     Lactic Acid 80% (Mash)                      Water Agent   -             -
1.20 g      Calcium Chloride (Mash)                     Water Agent   -             -

4.31 kg     Weyermann Bohemian Pilsner (4.0 EBC)        Grain         97.0 %        2.81 L
0.13 kg     Weyermann Wheat Malt (3.9 EBC)              Grain         3.0 %         0.09 L

0.30 g      Calcium Chloride (Sparge)                   Water Agent   -             -
0.20 ml     Lactic Acid 80% (Sparge)                    Water Agent   -             -

20.00 g     Magnum [10.70 %] - Boil 60.0 min            Hop           8             24.5 IBUs
12.00 g     Perle [5.60 %] - Boil 15.0 min              Hop           9             3.8 IBUs
16.00 g     Perle [5.60 %] - Boil 10.0 min              Hop           10            3.7 IBUs
1.00 Items  Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 7.0 mins)            Fining        11            - 
22.00 g     Perle [5.60 %] - Boil 5.0 min               Hop           12            2.8 IBUs

1.0 pkg     Munich Lager II (Wyeast Labs #2352-PC)      Yeast         13

Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 4.44 kg
----------------------------
Name              Description                             Step Temperat Step Time 
Mash In           Add 24.51 L of water at 70.9 C          65.0 C        60 min   

Sparge: Dunk sparge with 5L of 75C water.

Brew day went off without any hitches. Pre-boil gravity was spot-on and post-boil OG was only a point off at 1.043:

I got it down to about 24C with my immersion chiller before putting it in the brew-fridge to cool down to 13.5C when I'll pitch the 2 litre starter of Wyeast 2352. That should happen early tomorrow morning with a bit of luck.

 

[Hanglow]

What attenuation have you got from that yeast over the time you have used it?

I'm itching to do another lager but have some hoppy ales to do first

 

[foxbat]

What attenuation have you got from that yeast over the time you have used it?

I'm itching to do another lager but have some hoppy ales to do first

Helles: 85.9%
Dunkel: 74.3% (dark grain bill)
Phoney Peroni: 88.8%
Vienna Lager: 81.3%

It's a seasonal release so it won't show up in the shops again until Wyeast decide to put it on rotation.

 

[matt76]

Helles: 85.9%
Dunkel: 74.3% (dark grain bill)
Phoney Peroni: 88.8%
Vienna Lager: 81.3%

It's a seasonal release so it won't show up in the shops again until Wyeast decide to put it on rotation.

It's been a while since I've made a lager of any kind, and no immediate plans to make another one for now.....

But what you've said about this particular strain got me thinking..... I've made a Helles a couple of times, first time round with WY2206 and second time with W-34/70.....

To be fair, W-34/70 seems pretty well regarded as a good solid all round lager yeast, which surely can't be down to chance or luck.....

But nevertheless, and maybe it's just my memory playing tricks on me, I'd swear that second batch just somehow lacked that certain something.

Which kinda brings me back to something I'm becoming more and more convinced about, that yeast is probably the most important ingredient in your beer so yeast selection really matters.

For sure, every time I've done a split batch I've always been surprised at the difference between the strains I've used. I doubt any given yeast can make a bad beer good, but I suspect that choosing the right yeast can make a good beer great - and I wonder if this is even more true when it comes to pale lagers where you really don't have anywhere to hide.

All of which is a long way of saying that as and when I get round to making another pale lager I think I'll be inclined to put more thought into yeast selection than just grabbing one of the dry packets I have in the fridge - even if that means going for a "standard" off the shelf liquid strain like 2206 or 2308, rather than hunting down a seasonal strain.

 

[foxbat]

Which kinda brings me back to something I'm becoming more and more convinced about, that yeast is probably the most important ingredient in your beer so yeast selection really matters.

This has always been what I've believed. Yeast is a living organism and it's the yeast that makes the beer, we just make it some wort in the style and condition that we hope it likes.

It's true that lagers are not a yeast-driven style but there are still significant differences in the strains. To me, 2308 is a superb helles yeast. It's very rich and malty with Wyeast's description of it being right on the mark whilst this 2352 is more balanced with the hops. Then there's 2278 which I found to be super-crisp and bright (must use that one again as I really enjoyed it).

The 2352 strain is supposed to be Augustiner which is also available from Omega all year round as OYL-114.

 

[foxbat]

I added my mostly decanted 2 litre starter of 2352 yeast to the wort at about 8:00am yesterday and by late in the evening there were early signs of bubbling. By this morning it's off at full speed so everything seems to be in order. The CO2 produced during fermentation is being used to purge the corny that I'll package it in.

Nothing to do now for 3 weeks except choose a good yeast for a series of English bitters. I was hoping to get hold of one of the Brewlabs Yorkshire slants but since they outsourced their homebrew shop to Hop & Grape the Yorkshire strains aren't on the list. I might have to make enquiries...

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

The CO2 produced during fermentation is being used to purge the corny that I'll package it in.

Now that’s a good idea!

 

[Buffers brewery]

The CO2 produced during fermentation is being used to purge the corny that I'll package it in.

Out of interest @foxbat how do you purge your corny? Do you just run a pipe from your fermenter to the corny while venting it?

 

[foxbat]

Out of interest @foxbat how do you purge your corny? Do you just run a pipe from your fermenter to the corny while venting it?

Yes, here's a photo. Fridge on left, blowoff on the right. An average fermentation leaves approx 5ppb of O2 in the keg. I don't do a closed transfer so I'm not making the best use of all that CO2 but the time it takes for gases to mix in a still room whilst the CO2 is being actively pushed up and out of the keg by the beer that's filling it is enough for me. And I purge the headspace again after filling with CO2 from the bottle anyway :)

 

[foxbat]

@foxbat

Have you ever considered compiling the recipes from this thread? Wouldn't half make it a bit easier for us mere mortals to choose which of them to do next.
Here's hoping

Cheers Tom

I tried to create a compendium post with all the recipes last night and hit forum limits on both post size and maximum number of lines per post. I'm going to have to get creative with some kind of attachment that's well formatted and easy to search. I'll give it some more thought.

 

[soupdragon]

I tried to create a compendium post with all the recipes last night and hit forum limits on both post size and maximum number of lines per post. I'm going to have to get creative with some kind of attachment that's well formatted and easy to search. I'll give it some more thought.

Good man.

I'm sure I'm not the only person that would be glad if you can sort something out :small

Cheers Tom

 

[foxbat]

It's a bit of a dull and overcast bank holiday here in the south east but I'm still managing to quaff a pair of my Vienna Lagers outside on the patio (oh the hardship). The light's not good for a clear photo, but here we go anyway:

I have to say that I'm not convinced the style offers more to me than a Helles, Pilsner or a Dunkel and I don't ever recall seeing a Vienna lager on tap in Vienna but I am still enjoying it. It's quite similar to a Marzen. The flavour is bready, toasty with a healthy dose of spice from the Saaz and just a little caramel but not nearly as much as the Dunkel I did.