Hoppy doesn't necessarily mean bitterness....
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Yep, agreed and understood - so them what's the subtlety I'm missing in this recipe?
Commercial pilsners are light on the flavour hops with often just a little at 10 mins. I've gone for my IPA late schedule of 1:1.4:2 at 15:10:5 hoping to get as much flavour from the Tettnang as I can. Worked very well for the Czech Pils with Saaz. I don't enjoy high bitterness in a lager so it stays at traditional levels.
Well my Oktoberfest ran out tonight so it's on to the Tettnang hoppy pilsner that's been force carbing in the keg for the last 2 weeks at 6C.
It tastes fantastic! Herbal, floral, very well balanced and clear as a bell after the first half pulled up the settled trub. Noble hops. Can't beat 'em!
It tastes fantastic! Herbal, floral, very well balanced and clear as a bell after the first half pulled up the settled trub. Noble hops. Can't beat 'em!
Got the OYL-052 starter on last night for my weekend brew. This one's going to be another variation on the Australian/American IPA theme that I've been doing a lot of this year.
There was a fluffy krausen this morning before I went to work and this evening it looks like it's finishing off. I'll let it run for another day before saving off 500ml in the fridge for the next brew and then cold crashing the remaining litre ready to go in on Sunday.
There was a fluffy krausen this morning before I went to work and this evening it looks like it's finishing off. I'll let it run for another day before saving off 500ml in the fridge for the next brew and then cold crashing the remaining litre ready to go in on Sunday.
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As expected the starter was done by this evening (+48 hours) so I decanted 500ml into a sterilised Kilner jar and put it into the kitchen fridge for the next brew in a month or so (this is how you defray the upfront cost of liquid yeast). The remaining litre goes back into the brew fridge to chill ready for Sunday.
OYL-052 is a Conan strain, rumoured to be an isolate from Heady Topper. I've used The Yeast Bay's Vermont (WLP4000) a few times before and absolutely loved it so I'm hoping this one will have the same fruity, peachy characteristics.
Flocculation seems medium-ish, about the same as WLP4000. The yeast is powdery while on the stir plate but rapidly settles into a layer once the plate is switched off.
OYL-052 is a Conan strain, rumoured to be an isolate from Heady Topper. I've used The Yeast Bay's Vermont (WLP4000) a few times before and absolutely loved it so I'm hoping this one will have the same fruity, peachy characteristics.
Flocculation seems medium-ish, about the same as WLP4000. The yeast is powdery while on the stir plate but rapidly settles into a layer once the plate is switched off.
Today was brewday for what I'm calling Southern Silk IPA. I'm going for all tropical fruit, citrus and melon flavours in this one. Here's the recipe.
Brew day started at 6:30 this morning. It takes me about 6 hours and I like to be done and dusted by midday so I've got the afternoon free. Lots of pictures this time.
Mashed in at 67C. Forgot to add the lactic acid to the water beforehand but remembered as soon as the grain went in so I quickly added it and gave the mash a good stir.
Did the iodine test after an hour. Looks good to go.
A dunk sparge for 10 minutes with 5 litres of 75C water follows the mash to rinse as much sugar out of the grain as I can get. The bag gets a really good squeeze after the sparge is done. Mash efficiency turned out to be 85%.
Pre-boil gravity of 1.040 at 20C is exactly what I was expecting.
2.4kW takes a while to get to the boil, stirring all the time. When the boil starts then all the crud comes to the top. There are no hops in the boil until 15 minutes in this recipe.
I strained off all the break material, crud, whatever it is.
Now it's virtually all gone it looks much nicer. I used the half hour or so of free time during the boil to set up the chiller and rinse out the grain bag.
Here's the hops for this recipe. Oh the smell of Galaxy! Does anything match it? It all gets a bit busy in the last 15 minutes with 3 additions of each of the 3 hops, plus the whirlfloc tablet to remember as well.
I chilled down to 27C with the immersion chiller. The ground water temperature here is still pretty warm and I wasn't making much progress so I called it a day at 27C and collected 22 litres into the sanitised fermenter.
Adjusted OG seems to be 1.043 so pretty much as planned. Colour looks good and the wort tastes nice and smooth.
So it was a smooth brew-day in the end. I made what I expected to make which is always good. Now the fermenter is sitting in the brew-fridge chilling down to 20C when I'll pitch the OYL-052 starter.
Code:
Boil Size: 25.72 L
Post Boil Volume: 23.12 L
Batch Size (fermenter): 22.00 L
Bottling Volume: 20.00 L
Estimated OG: 1.042 SG
Estimated Color: 9.2 EBC
Estimated IBU: 40.9 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 75.7 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes
Water profile: Ca:57, Mg:10, Na:10, SO4:105, Cl:46
Adjusted mash pH: 5.30
Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type %/IBU Volume
27.26 L Tesco Ashbeck Water - -
3.10 kg IREKS Pale Ale Malt (6.0 EBC) Grain 80.0 % 2.02 L
0.39 kg IREKS Munich Malt (20.0 EBC) Grain 10.0 % 0.25 L
0.39 kg Wheat, Torrified (3.3 EBC) Grain 10.0 % 0.25 L
10.00 g Cashmere [7.00 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 4.5 IBUs -
10.00 g Galaxy [15.60 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 10.0 IBUs -
10.00 g Motueka [7.30 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 4.7 IBUs -
12.00 g Cashmere [7.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 3.9 IBUs -
12.00 g Galaxy [15.60 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 8.8 IBUs -
12.00 g Motueka [7.30 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 4.1 IBUs -
1.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 7.0 mins) Fining - -
15.00 g Cashmere [7.00 %] - Boil 2.0 min Hop 1.1 IBUs -
15.00 g Galaxy [15.60 %] - Boil 2.0 min Hop 2.6 IBUs -
15.00 g Motueka [7.30 %] - Boil 2.0 min Hop 1.2 IBUs -
1.0 pkg DIPA Ale (Omega #OYL-052) Yeast - -
Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge
Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Mash In Add 22.26 L of water at 69.1 C 66.0 C 60 min
Sparge: Dunk sparge 5L of 75.6 C waterMashed in at 67C. Forgot to add the lactic acid to the water beforehand but remembered as soon as the grain went in so I quickly added it and gave the mash a good stir.
Did the iodine test after an hour. Looks good to go.
A dunk sparge for 10 minutes with 5 litres of 75C water follows the mash to rinse as much sugar out of the grain as I can get. The bag gets a really good squeeze after the sparge is done. Mash efficiency turned out to be 85%.
Pre-boil gravity of 1.040 at 20C is exactly what I was expecting.
2.4kW takes a while to get to the boil, stirring all the time. When the boil starts then all the crud comes to the top. There are no hops in the boil until 15 minutes in this recipe.
I strained off all the break material, crud, whatever it is.
Now it's virtually all gone it looks much nicer. I used the half hour or so of free time during the boil to set up the chiller and rinse out the grain bag.
Here's the hops for this recipe. Oh the smell of Galaxy! Does anything match it? It all gets a bit busy in the last 15 minutes with 3 additions of each of the 3 hops, plus the whirlfloc tablet to remember as well.
I chilled down to 27C with the immersion chiller. The ground water temperature here is still pretty warm and I wasn't making much progress so I called it a day at 27C and collected 22 litres into the sanitised fermenter.
Adjusted OG seems to be 1.043 so pretty much as planned. Colour looks good and the wort tastes nice and smooth.
So it was a smooth brew-day in the end. I made what I expected to make which is always good. Now the fermenter is sitting in the brew-fridge chilling down to 20C when I'll pitch the OYL-052 starter.
This is why we brew isn't it? I posted this pic in the 'what are you drinking' thread but thought I'd include it here as well so I don't lose it.
It's my German Pilsner above. I intended it to be hop-forward like the Czech Pilsner I did earlier but it's come out really rather balanced that I put down to the yeast, Wyeast 2308 which Wyeast describe as "very smooth, well-rounded and full-bodied". It's the 3rd time I've used 2308 and each time I would completely agree with Wyeast's description. If you want a rich, refined, balanced German lager then this Wissenschaftliche Station Munich yeast might do it for you,
It's my German Pilsner above. I intended it to be hop-forward like the Czech Pilsner I did earlier but it's come out really rather balanced that I put down to the yeast, Wyeast 2308 which Wyeast describe as "very smooth, well-rounded and full-bodied". It's the 3rd time I've used 2308 and each time I would completely agree with Wyeast's description. If you want a rich, refined, balanced German lager then this Wissenschaftliche Station Munich yeast might do it for you,
Ooh you jammy so and so... You can go right off some people... I can make nice beer but I really struggle to make clear beer - dammit, why can't I make clear beer like this without chill haze 
(PS - Nice work fella
)
(PS - Nice work fella
)I think the Kwik-Clear finings that go into the keg are the key to the crystal clarity. Not sure how you get the same result in bottles because the secondary refermentation creates its own trub that then needs to be dropped out. I suppose you just have to keep them cold and wait, and wait...Ooh you jammy so and so... You can go right off some people... I can make nice beer but I really struggle to make clear beer - dammit, why can't I make clear beer like this without chill haze
(PS - Nice work fella
I kegged my Southern Silk IPA today after a few hours shy of two weeks in the keg. FG was 1.006 for a final ABV of 4.9% and I managed to get about a pint short of a full corny which will do but next time I'll brew a litre extra to make sure I get the full keg's worth out of it. The remaining headspace was purged with CO2 at 5x15psi and is now sitting at 15psi to carbonate.
The sample jar tasted amazing - all the tropical fruit flavours and aromas I was hoping for from the Galaxy/Motueka/Cashmere hops are there. High hopes for this one.
The sample jar tasted amazing - all the tropical fruit flavours and aromas I was hoping for from the Galaxy/Motueka/Cashmere hops are there. High hopes for this one.
Sounds like a good one, may have to copy this one as well! 
I've got my OYL-052 starter on for my next brew today. This one is being built up from the previous starter that I overbuilt by 500ml so it's cheap yeast this time around. I'm doing this starter about a week in advance because time is going to be tight over the next week or so. The starter will keep in the fridge just fine during that time.
The brew itself will be a slight variation on my Mainline Bitter except this time I've got some Endeavour hops to blend with Challenger and East Kent Goldings.
The brew itself will be a slight variation on my Mainline Bitter except this time I've got some Endeavour hops to blend with Challenger and East Kent Goldings.
I know that you shouldn't make a starter that fills more than 50% of an Erlenmeyer flask.
I know that yeast from an overbuild tends to be more aggressive than out of a pack.
And yet I still made up a 1500ml starter in a 2000ml flask using overbuilt Conan yeast (OYL-052) and predictably this happened in less than 24 hours:
Thankfully not much lost and it seems to be backing off now. Let this be a note to self: don't disregard previous notes to self.
I know that yeast from an overbuild tends to be more aggressive than out of a pack.
And yet I still made up a 1500ml starter in a 2000ml flask using overbuilt Conan yeast (OYL-052) and predictably this happened in less than 24 hours:
Thankfully not much lost and it seems to be backing off now. Let this be a note to self: don't disregard previous notes to self.
One day I will make beer this clear 
That's the OYL-052 starters done for the brew itself and the 500ml small jar to save back for the next starter. What a mess it made of the 2 litre flask and I had to clean up some dregs on the stir plate itself. Lesson learned for next time: break out the 3 litre flask for a 1.5 litre starter. I love these Vermont ale yeasts and can see me keeping this one going for a few more batches.
Regarding the dregs in the flask on the right...
You've probably cleaned it up now, but recently I had similar last few drops and dregs in my stir jar - I just happened to have a bit of starter wort spare so I chucked it in and set it going.
Somewhat to my surprise, a couple of days later I'd built another healthy starter.
Just goes to show, you don't necessarily need a lot of yeast, just give them some sugars to eat and they'll multiply quite happily.
You've probably cleaned it up now, but recently I had similar last few drops and dregs in my stir jar - I just happened to have a bit of starter wort spare so I chucked it in and set it going.
Somewhat to my surprise, a couple of days later I'd built another healthy starter.
Just goes to show, you don't necessarily need a lot of yeast, just give them some sugars to eat and they'll multiply quite happily.
You're right, I cleaned up the flask having got all the yeast I need from it.
Indeed! If you plan ahead like this then the cost of liquid yeast isn't much more than dry.
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