matt76's Brewdays

[foxbat]

My turn to cheer on the yeast as it tries to escape!

 

[matt76]

My turn to cheer on the yeast as it tries to escape!

If my next brew didn't already have a name I'd gladly call it "What goes around, comes around" in acknowledgement

 

[matt76]

AG#84 Podium IPA

Brewed this after work yesterday evening.

I'm still struggling to get this more orangey/tangeriney so I've decided to shake things up a bit:

- All the Citra and Simcoe goes in with just 5mins left in the boil, and I'll just use all the Amarillo as a dry hop. The IBUs come out lower but it should be enough.

- I've also decided to forgoe the gypsum - my water already has enough calcium plus the CRS I use has both sulphate and chloride ions, so the resulting profile is more neutral rather than strongly sulphate forward.

- I've left the ususal BRY-97 in the fridge and instead gone with Lallemand Verdant IPA harvested from AG#82 and woken up in a starter (it didn't overflow in the end!) I've been wanting to try this yeast in this beer for ages but just not got round to it while I've been busy tweaking the recipe.

15L tap water, 17.5ml CRS, half a Campden tablet, giving:
Calcium 135
Chloride 121
Sulfate 149
Alkalinity 75

1000g Maris Otter
500g Vienna
250g Munich
250g Carapils
2.0kg TOTAL

125min full-volume no-sparge mash @ 67degC

30min boil:
20g Simcoe 13.3% AAU 5mins
10g Citra 12.2% AAU 5mins
30g Citra 13.0% AAU 5mins
1/2 Britewort tablet 5mins

Will dry hop at end of primary fermentation with 60g Amarillo.

12L clear wort in the FV - more than normal which is unusual. Plus once the crud I collected had settled overnight I was able to top up with almost another litre, so this will be a tight squeeze in the keg!

Pitched Lallemand Verdant IPA starter. In the brew fridge set to 20degC and it hasn't hung about!

SRM = 4.3 (pale)
IBU = 29 (Rager)
OG = 1.039
Expect it to end up about 1.009 and somewhere in the region of 4.0% ABV.

 

[matt76]

Kegging: AG#83 Mk.V Hurricane Porter

OG = 1.057 (Tilt)
FG = 1.023 (Tilt)
Apparent Attenuation = 60%
ABV = 4.5%
SRM = 38.0 (Very dark brown-black)
IBU = 29.6 (Rager)

It's ended up a little bit stronger than the last couple of versions (though still quite modest!), due partly to using a bit less water and also a slightly hungrier yeast strain.

I'm really liking the way Lallemand Verdant IPA ferments - I had pitched some slurry from the previous brew so there was little or no lag time or course, but beyond that it fermented rapidly in just 2-3 days and flocced out. Nevertheless I left it 2 weeks in the keg and did notice it dropped 1-2 points more between about days 3-7.

I'll have to wait and see how the finished beer actually tastes though. I reckon there's about 10-11L in the keg and for now it's sat on top of the kegerator to condition at garage temps hooked up to the gas at 12psi. I'm not yet half way through my AG#81 NPS Stout so I'm in no rush to tap this Porter.

The little taste I had was nice but I'm still trying to figure out what is needed in conditioning these dark beers compared to when I was bottling. Even for these not-hoppy dark beers I'm certain exposure to oxygen or not at packaging makes a huge difference, but I'm not sure which is better.

I have a new theory though - I wonder whether oxygen at bottling kind of softens up the dark/roasted flavours so they mellow out and condition more readily, whereas with kegs the elimination of oxygen means that doesn't happen so more conditioning time is needed. So I'm wondering now whether I need to adjust the recipe and reduce the amount of dark/roasted malts a bit to account for this - I'm thinking reduce them by 1/3 and see what happens. But I've got lots of other brews planned so I'll have to wait until much later in the year before I can test this idea out!

 

[matt76]

AG#85 Mustang Ale v2

I wasn't planning to brew this again quite so soon but I'm enjoying it too much and there are only a few pints of the last batch left in the keg.

The only change I've made is to the hopping as I want to see if I can just give it a slightly hoppier finish. I've done away with the hopstand and instead spread those hops throughout the boil, and then I plan to do a modest dry hop at the end of fermentation.

15L tap water, 10ml CRS, 0.75g gypsum, 1.25g CaCl half a Campden tablet, giving:
Calcium 169
Chloride 128
Sulfate 130
Alkalinity 193

1000g Maris Otter
500g Vienna Malt
250g Amber Malt
250g Carapils
125g Carared
60g Extra Dark Crystal
65g Briess Extra Special Malt
2.25kg TOTAL

120min full-volume no-sparge mash @ 67degC

Boil 30mins:
10g Magnum 11.0% AAU 30mins
8g Cascade 5.8% AAU 15mins
8g First Gold 8.0% AAU 15mins
11g Cascade 5.8% AAU 10mins
11g First Gold 8.0% AAU 10mins
16g Cascade 5.8% AAU 5mins
16g First Gold 8.0% AAU 5mins
1/4 Britewort tablet 5mins

Plan to dry hop post-fermentation with 15g each Cascade and First Gold

Pitched a full vitality starter made yesterday from 50g medium DME, 0.5L water and ~3-4tbsp Lallemand Verdant IPA slurry (now 3rd gen) harvested from AG#83 Hurricane Porter.

12.3 SRM - Lovely deep amber-caramel colour
37.8 IBUs Rager
OG 1.044
FG - Based on the last batch I reckon it'll finish at 1.014 and about 3.8% ABV.

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Nice!

I'm looking forward to trying the first edition of this one on Saturday!

 

[matt76]

AG#86 Lagery Amber Lager (a.k.a. "Third Time Lucky" Lager)

Three packs of Wyeast I went through - Three, count them, three! - until I got a good one! Fortunately The Malt Miller came through for me and delivered a pack in super quick time that turned out to be about as fresh as could be so hopefully it's third time lucky!

This is my Hoppy Amber Ale grist (with a touch more base malt) re-purposed as a pale(ish) lager - it's too dark for a Munich Helles and too pale for a Vienna Lager but I'm aiming somewhere in that malty lager region. First time using Wyeast 2308 but hopefully it'll do the job.

15L tap water, 5.0ml Lactic Acid 80%, 2g CaCl, half a Campden tablet, giving:
Calcium 170
Chloride 103
Sulfate 40
Alkalinity 120

1500g Maris Otter
500g Vienna Malt
250g Amber Malt
250g Carapils
2.5kg TOTAL

90min full-volume no-sparge mash @ 67degC

Boil 30mins:
35g of Hallertau Mittelfruh 4.0% AAU for 30mins
15g of Hallertau Mittelfruh 4.0% AAU for 5mins
1/4 Britewort tablet 5mins

The groundwater is nice and cold at the moment so I left the chiller running longer than normal to get the wort down to lager pitching temps. I got 10.5L crystal clear wort in the FV plus nearly 2L crud which should give me another 1L or so once it's settled out.

Pitched full pack of Wyeast 2308 - Wyeast say 9-13degC for this strain so I'm aiming in the middle at 11degC.

7 SRM - Golden
22 IBUs Rager
OG 1.047
Expect it to end up about 1.013 and 4.5% ABV.

 

[matt76]

AG#87 Chocks Away Bitter

Re-brew, with a few minor tweaks, of something I made all the way back in AG#4 - as I recall it was very nice.

15L tap water, 12.5ml CRS, 0.75g gypsum, 1.25g CaCl half a Campden tablet, giving:
Calcium 169
Chloride 139
Sulfate 145
Alkalinity 153

1500g Maris Otter
250g Munich
250g Carared
250g Carapils
25g Chocolate Malt
2275g TOTAL

60min full-volume no-sparge mash @ 67degC

Boil 30mins:
15g of Simcoe 13.3% AAU for 30mins
10g of Simcoe 13.3% AAU for 5mins
1/4 Britewort tablet 5mins

Pitched a vitality starter made the day before with 50g medium DME, 500ml water and 5.5g Lallemand Verdant IPA. Brew fridge is still occupied by AG#86 so I'm going old school and leaving the FV in a cool spot.

9.7 SRM - deep amber
32.6 IBUs Rager
OG 1.041
Expect it to end up about 1.012 and 3.8% ABV.

 

[matt76]

AG#88 Hana Helles

Inspired by Experimental Brewing Ep.141 where they talked to Crisp about their Heritage Malts I thought it would be fun to have a go with their "Hana" malt, a heritage Moravian barley variety.

I emailed Crisp to double check and they confirmed that a decoction isn't needed but you definitely want to do a step mash and long boil as this malt is all retro and under-modified so that means some big changes over my normal process (seriously, why did I ever think this was a good idea?).

Since this was always gonna be all about the malt I decided I'd make a Munich Helles rather than a (relatively!) more hoppy German or Czech Pils

When planning in Brewer's Friend I had noted this malt has a rather lower lower PPG than regular pilsner/lager/MO malt so you get less bang for your buck. Well that turned out to be cobblers as my pre-boil gravity was way over what I expected, 1.048 measured vs. 1.038 predicted.

I had planned a long 2 hour boil anyway, and the first hop addition wasn't due until 60mins so that gave me time to re-group and re-plan.

A quick check on the web and while I reckoned my OG would be too high for a Helles I'd be in the ballpark for a Helles-Bock or Dortmunder Export. Quick re-jig of the hops and we're back in the game.

17L tap water, 5ml Lactic Acid 80%, 2g CaCl half a Campden tablet, giving:
Calcium 167
Chloride 99
Sulfate 40
Alkalinity 137

3000g Crisp Hana Heritage Malt
3.00kg TOTAL

Full-volume no-sparge multi-step mash:
15mins @ 42degC
15mins @ 52degC
60mins @ 62degC
45mins @ 67degC
45mins @ 72degC

Boil 120mins:
10g of Magnum 11.0% AAU for 60mins
10g of Hallertau Mittelfruh 4.0% AAU for 10mins
1/4 Britewort tablet 10mins
1/2tsp yeast nutrient (aka bread yeast!) 10mins
15g of Hallertau Mittelfruh 4.0% AAU for 5mins

Now I'd previously done an experiment and worked out my boil off would be 4L over the 2hr boil. So I expected to see an OG of 1.063, but in the end I measured 1.057. This is hard to fathom since based on all my measurements I'm convinced I still got the expected 4L boil off.

I originally targeted about 19 IBUs for the Helles I'd planned but the extra hops brought that up to a slightly more hoppy/bitter 33 IBUs.

I had a few E4 boil dry error codes along the way, one during the mash, the other during the boil but I managed to resolve them quickly and carry on. I'm puzzled why this happened as it's only ever been caused by rye in the past, never by malted barley. As expected when I came to clean out the kettle the element was scorched and took some elbow grease to clean up but the wort sample tasted absolutely fine to me.

Ended up with 10.5L clear wort in the FV. Pitched starter of Wyeast 2206 made 4 days earlier with 100g light DME and 1L tap water. In the brew fridge set to 12.0degC.

3.1 SRM - Very pale
33 IBUs Tinseth
OG 1.057
Expect it to end up about 1.014 and 5.6%.

So not the most straightforward brew day with a slightly different outcome then planned but I'm confident I'll send up with a tasty beer that accentuates the flavour of the malt.

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Sounds good, I had the dreaded e4 for the first time in a while recently, think it was as a result of using the dregs of a bag of malt and there being more 'dust' than usual. I've never noticed any off taste in the wort from it though.

How long do you expect to condition this for?

Nice work on changing the style of brew though, I'd not have the presence of mind for that, I'd just swear

 

[foxbat]

10 points over your pre-boil gravity is a heck of an overshoot on a small batch. What mash efficiency % does that work out as? If you fiddle with any of the recipe numbers (e.g. ppg) does it bring it in to line with what you actually got?

You do seem to boil off rather a lot as well compared to me, maybe due to a small batch boiling more vigorously? Everyone's system is different of course but I boil off a fairly predictable 3 litres (27 -> 24) adding 3 points-ish to the pre-boil gravity.

Anyway, it's good to see the heritage malts being used. I've got 4kg of Chevalier waiting for me to pluck up the courage to use it. I hope yours ferments down to the expected FG. I'll be letting the Brewlab yeast loose on mine. Nothing can resist that sugar-munching monster.

 

[matt76]

Sounds good, I had the dreaded e4 for the first time in a while recently, think it was as a result of using the dregs of a bag of malt and there being more 'dust' than usual. I've never noticed any off taste in the wort from it though.

Yeah, that's kinda what I'm thinking. It's fancy malted barley but it's still malted barley so I don't see why it should be radically different from regular Lager Malt, Maris Otter or Golden Promise. Main thing though, when I was scrubbing off the black burned stuff on the element I could really smell the burned tyre smell in the kettle but couldn't detect anything at all in the gravity sample

How long do you expect to condition this for?

As long as I can resist! The thing with bottles is you can chuck a case in the shed and forget about them for months, but a keg will be taking up only one of 3 spaces in my kegerator so you kinda want to get on and drink it. And to give you some idea how long I'll likely resist for, I kegged my AG#86 Lagery Amber Lager last Monday and already had a little taste yesterday, y'know, just to check the carbonation

Nice work on changing the style of brew though, I'd not have the presence of mind for that, I'd just swear

I would say there was a suitable blend of calm "Ahh Houston, we have a problem" combined with an appropriate level of effing & jeffing! My main thought was a Helles is only really really lightly hopped, only 15-20 IBUs. Since the gravity ended up higher I didn't want to end up with something overly sweet so I knew I'd need to up it a bit to keep it balanced. In hindsight I'd have preferred 25-30 IBUs so I'm a touch over that, on paper at least - although the Magnum has been in the freezer about 2 years I think so probably lost a bit of it's potency. I'm sure it'll be fine though

 

[matt76]

10 points over your pre-boil gravity is a heck of an overshoot on a small batch. What mash efficiency % does that work out as? If you fiddle with any of the recipe numbers (e.g. ppg) does it bring it in to line with what you actually got?

Well this is the really bizarre thing. Thinking about it, I probably shouldn't have put so much faith in my BG reading - I mean I measured it correctly & accurately at 20degC, corrected for zero error, all as normal etc etc etc. What I mean is when I've measured BG in the past I can never get it to tally with measured OG and pre/post boil wort volumes in Brewer's Friend so I generally don't bother because from experience I know I'll hit my OG usually dead on or maybe +/- 1-2 points out at worst.

Now I know for sure I started with 17L water. And I know for sure I ended up with 10.5L in the FV, plus 750mL crud from the bottom of the kettle. And I know for sure it measured OG 1.057 @ 20degC.

When I put this into BF I get 83% efficiency (normally it's about 75-77%, but the longer mash could explain this rise). BUT!!! BF tells me the BG should have been 1.042 - and I know for damn sure I measured 1.048.

It's very odd.....

You do seem to boil off rather a lot as well compared to me, maybe due to a small batch boiling more vigorously? Everyone's system is different of course but I boil off a fairly predictable 3 litres (27 -> 24) adding 3 points-ish to the pre-boil gravity.

And here we come to the other thing - I usually do a 30min boil and although I never particularly measure pre-boil volume I know the boil off isn't huge.

Since I knew I'd be doing a much longer boil, total nerd that I am, a few weeks ago I did an experiment - I did a 2hr boil of just water, with the hop bag in place and measured the boil off. Even accounting for water absorbed in the hop bag I measured 4L boil off in 2hrs (which implies 1L in my usual 30min boil, which seems reasonable from my experience).

So to put it all together, I'm confident I know my boil off, I know my post-boil volume, I know my BG & OG and yet I still can't get the figures to balance in BF. It's so odd

Anyway, it's good to see the heritage malts being used. I've got 4kg of Chevalier waiting for me to pluck up the courage to use it. I hope yours ferments down to the expected FG. I'll be letting the Brewlab yeast loose on mine. Nothing can resist that sugar-munching monster.

If you haven't listened to that Experimental Brewing episode yet then do, it's really interesting and useful. Also worth emailing Crisp for specific guidance - I got a response quickly from, as it turned out, one of the guys on the podcast

 

[matt76]

Kegging: AG#86 Lagery Amber Lager (a.k.a. "Third Time Lucky" Lager)

So after all this I'm pretty sure Wyeast 2308 hates me! The first pack was frozen and wouldn't wake up in a starter. Second pack turned out to be frozen and that wouldn't wake up in a starter either. Third pack inflated fine and went in to the brew as planned.

Fast forward a week or two. On A whim I checked the starters from the first two packs as I'd not thrown them away - both down (from about 1.036 I reckon) to 1.010!!! (I've since combined them and given them some fresh wort to play in to see what they do).

The main brew on the other hand stubbornly stopped at 1.015 and remained there for several days despite my attempts to persude it to go another couple of points to the predicted FG of 1.013.

You might argue you'd never notice the difference but I wasn't putting up with it so in went a pack of Lallemand Diamond Lager yeast, which seemed to do the trick and got it down to 1.013. WY2308 isn't a monster attenuator so maybe it had just had enough, maybe it wanted a bigger pitch, or maybe being a lager yeast it prefers a wort that's either been step mashed or at least mashed a touch lower, maybe 63 instead of the 67degC I mashed at.

Anyhoo, after a diacetyl rest and then cold crashing for a few days I kegged last Monday - I fined the keg with gelatin and purged with CO2 before closed transferring about 11.5L to the keg. I hooked it up to the HP line at 20psi - I'll have to see if that proves to be about right or a touch too much for my setup.

I had a sneaky taste yesterday, only 4 days after kegging, just to check carbonation The jury is still out on that point but it was crystal clear already. I'm surprised how pale it was considering the amount of Amber malt in the grist, maybe only just a touch darker than a regular pub lager. Quite sulphur-ey I think - not unpleasant as such, maybe more just I'm not used to it lately after lots of hoppy ales. Perhaps it might condition out, not sure if it's just one of those things or maybe a sign of a less than 100% happy fermentation or maybe stressing the yeast during cold crashing.

 

[foxbat]

Wyeast 2308 is a superb Helles yeast; so rich, malty and just classy. Looking at my records I've had attenuation of 83%, 85%, 86%, 85% from it. That and the Augustiner strain (2352) would be my choice yeasts for a Helles any day of the week.

 

[matt76]

Wyeast 2308 is a superb Helles yeast; so rich, malty and just classy. Looking at my records I've had attenuation of 83%, 85%, 86%, 85% from it. That and the Augustiner strain (2352) would be my choice yeasts for a Helles any day of the week.

I hadn't used 2308 before but yeah, this is exactly why I wanted to try it...

The original plan was to make the Lagery Amber Lager then use the yeast cake for the Haná Helles...

But having added some Diamond Lager Yeast that wasn't really an option as i couldn't be sure which one would dominate...

So I switched to 2206, which I have used before a couple of times including my first ever Helles which I recall was really good.

On paper at least I think 2206 & 2308 are similar, i.e. both more malt forward, but the former attenuates a bit more.

I'm really surprised at your figures for 2308 as Wyeast say 70-72% AA. I know you say you normally get higher attenuation which I reckon is down to pitch rates...

Another thought I had is a German lager yeast has probably been brought up to expect a step or decoction mashed wort. So I probably wasn't helping myself by mashing at 67degC...

But in the Haná Helles I hope I've address both points by growing a starter and also a step mash with a long 60min rest at 62degC

 

[matt76]

Quick check again yesterday afternoon of the carbonation of my AG#86 Lagery Amber Lager. In the garden. With a camera.

And again at dinner time

 

[matt76]

Kegging: AG#87 Chocks Away Bitter

Added 1/4tsp gelatin to 100ml cool tap water and left it to bloom for 15mins. Then zapped in the microwave, short bursts, stirring between until it reached 65degC. Added finings to sanitised keg then purged 4 times.

Approx. 12L transferred to keg - almost full but didn't quite overflow through the PRV. Connected to LP line at 10psi.

The hydrometer sample tasted really good. It didn't seem anywhere near as fruity as my recent AG#82 Mustang Ale which is surprising considering it's a similar beer brewed using the same process and fermented using the same yeast. It might simply be that the "room temperature" I fermented it at was more like 18degC-ish then the 20degC is normally set it to in the brew fridge.

I also noticed something odd when I compared the Tilt logs: By comparison AG#82 fermented out and levelled off really quickly, whereas this brew took much longer (18 days compared with 9 or 10) and gradually crept down and down, little by little.

But, like I say, the hydrometer sample tasted good though as always I'll wait a few days until it's carbonated and ready to drink before making a final judgement.

pH = 4.4-4.6
OG = 1.041
FG = 1.011
Apparent Attenuation = 73%

ABV = 4%
SRM = 10 (Amber-Brown)
IBU = 33 (Rager)

 

[matt76]

Kegging: AG#88 Hana Helles

After the ramp up it's been held steady at 20degC for a while but even so only fermented from 1.057 down to 1.017. That's still 70% Apparent Attenuation and 5.25% but a few points short of the 1.014 predicted. Not sure why, maybe it's down to the heritage malt used. Anyway, it's been steady at 1.017 for a good few days so time to keg.

Added some gelatin finings to the FV before closed transfering about 10.5L to a purged keg. Hooked up to the high pressure line at 20psi.

pH = 4.5
OG = 1.057
FG = 1.017
Apparent Attenuation = 70%

ABV = 5.25%
SRM = 3
IBU = 33 (Rager)

Colour = It's pale but definitely darker than the calculated 3 SRM.
Aroma = Honey
Taste = Honey sweetness, maybe a bit of floral-ness from the hops. Hopefully the sweetness doesn't translate so much into the finished beer once it's carbonated but we'll see.

 

[matt76]

AG#89 Hoppy Amber Ale v5

Last time I made this (AG#75 back in August 2021) I was really pleased with the result. Nevertheless I couldn't resist the temptation to try out a few tweaks:

- I've added a bit of crystal malt, just to see, and to bring it more formally in line with the "American Amber Ale" guidelines.

- I've also increased the base malt - I plan to enter this into the May American Pale Ales competition and I've heard the judge takes a particularly dim view of sub 4% ABV beers

- Slight tweak to the water profile, cutting out the gypsum and just relying on the CRS to do the work.

I also did an overnight mash which I haven't done for well over a year. I was feeling a bit paranoid but it worked fine and saved a bunch of time this morning.

I normally only pitch half a pack of dried into my smaller brews but decided this time to try a full pack of BRY-97. It's still within the recommended pitching rate stated by Lallemand but I'm interested to see if it makes any noticeable difference to attenuation.

15L tap water, 15ml CRS, half a Campden tablet, giving:
Calcium 35
Chloride 110
Sulfate 133
Alkalinity 114

1500g Maris Otter
500g Vienna Malt
250g Amber Malt
250g Carapils
125g Carared
125g Dark Crystal
2.75kg TOTAL

7h20m overnight full-volume no-sparge mash @ 67degC

Boil 30mins:
I'm using a blend of hops, Amarillo 9.0%, Cascade 7.2% and Centennial 9.9% AAU
5g of each for 30mins
5g of each for 15mins
10g of each for 10mins
1/4 Britewort tablet 10mins
10g of each for 5 mins

Dry hop:
Will add 10g of each at end of fermentation

All plain sailing, no issues to report. Pitched a vitality starter made yesterday afternoon with 500ml tap water, 50g medium DME and a full 11g pack of BRY-97.

11 SRM - Deep amber
50 IBUs Rager
OG 1.053

Brewer's Friend reckons it'll end up at 1.013 and 5.25%. I'm sceptical that the crystal malts will ferment that much so I reckon it'll be more like 1.017 and 4.7% ABV, or at least somewhere in between