What’s Brewing? June 2020 Edition

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I’ve been able to get in a bit of brewing this past month during downtime, working through some of my ingredient stock and anticipating the kinds of styles I’ll want to drink over the summer. A perpetual problem is that I rarely have time to lager properly before a tap opens up, so I need to increase the frequency of my lager brew sessions!

Beer Batch Updates

  • I kegged my “kitchen sink pale ale” on 30 May, adding dry hops and priming sugar at that time. I let the beer carbonate for around 10 days before putting it on tap. It was super hazy, almost cloudy, for the first day or two, but has dropped out a bit since then. It has a ways to go before it comes close to clear, something I’ve noticed previously with the Windsor and S-04 dry yeast strains. The yeasts have nice character, but do not flocculate anywhere nearly as well or as quickly as the manufacturers imply (in my experience).
  • My Dortmunder Export Lager is in the keg, finishing out at 4.9% abv. I kegged it on 6 June 2020, and force carbonated at 33°. A week in, the flavor is really nice, bringing a good malt character without being overly heavy or cloying. It has a decent bit of haze still, so I added a dose of gelatin, anticipating that I’ll be serving the keg sooner than later. I would love to let my lagers condition for a longer stretch, but I just don’t brew often enough.
  • The altbier is kegged (11 June 2020), and now carbonating with priming sugar. I hope to let it go another week or so before cold crashing. I might give it a shot of gelatin then, because I’ll likely have a tap slot opening up soon. The beer clocks in at 4.6% abv, and has a really nice flavor on my first tasting.
  • I brewed a kölsch-style ale last weekend, trying a slightly different recipe from past iterations. I used 95% pilsner with 5% light Munich malt, Sterling hops, and K-97 dry yeast.
  • Yesterday, I made an American amber ale, with a newly devised recipe. It was 70% 2-row and 15% light Munich malt, with crystal 80 and crystal 60 to add a caramel note as well as to use up my supply of those malts. I also had a dash of Carafa III for color adjustment, and Cascade as the solo hop.

What’s On Tap?

  • Adalatherium Pale Ale
    • As described above, this was a quick pale ale to satisfy my hop needs.
  • The Celtic Elk Stout 1.1
    • I’m almost at the end of this keg, and it still drinks really nice. The altbier will go on tap to replace this one.
  • Alta California Lager 2020
    • This beer is nearly gone, also; it has clarified really well, and is a nice beer for hot afternoons.

What’s Coming Up?

  • As noted last month, I’m pretty keen on doing a light (lite) American-style lager. I finally punched in the recipe for Annie Johnson’s famous “Mow the Damn Lawn,” and hope to brew it soon. I’ll be repitching the Que Bueno yeast I harvested from my Alta California Lager.
  • I’m also thinking a new SMaSH pils, centered on Mt. Hood hops this time. It will be a standard German-style pils, and I’m hopeful I’ll have a little more time to lager it this round before it has to go on tap.
  • To use up some ingredients, I’m going to do a Rye IPA (RyePA?) with a Pacific Northwest style hop bill.

Other Than Beer

  • My lacto-fermented food projects have been doing pretty well. The carrot sticks I did were super tasty, and we just finished the jar last night. I’m also particularly pleased with my first batch of sauerkraut. It’s tart, crispy, and as good as anything I’ve gotten from the store. I started a second batch last weekend.
  • The juniper syrup I made last month was pretty good, and I made a second batch with some adjustments. Specifically, I halved the sugar–the problem with many syrup recipes (or I guess the point of many syrup recipes) is that they have too much sugar, and so you end up too….well, syrupy…in many cases. I’ll need to up the acid a touch, to help it keep, but I’m getting closer to something that works for me. The current recipe is 3 tbs. juniper berries, 3 cardomom pods, 1 srig rosemary, and the peel of an orange, simmered in a cup of water with 1/2 cup sugar for 15 minutes. I let it steep in the fridge overnight, and then filter it out.
  • Just for fun, I might try to make a pseudo-gin, by infusing vodka with various botanicals.
man with sunglasses looking up at a jar of sauerkraut held aloft
Behold the sauerkraut.

Alta California Lager 2020

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Another go at my favorite beer of last year, Alta California Lager. I made a few minor adjustments for this iteration, to simplify brewing. Specifically, I used flaked corn (rather than a cereal mash with grits), and used the Imperial version of the Mexican lager yeast instead of White Labs’ version, due to availability at my local shop.

Alta California Lager 2020

  • 6.5 lb. Superior Pilsen Malt (Great Western)
  • 2 lb. flaked corn
  • 1.75 lb. Vienna Malt (Great Western)
  • 0.25 lb. rice hulls
  • 0.40 oz. Magnum hop pellets (13.2% alpha), 60 minute boil
  • 0.50 oz. Sterling hop pellets (7.4% alpha), 5 minute boil
  • 1 tsp. Fermax yeast nutrient, 10 minute boil
  • 1 Whirlfloc tablet, 5 minute boil
  • 1 tsp. Fermax
  • 1 pkg. Que Bueno liquid yeast (Imperial Yeast L09)

Target Parameters

  • 1.046 o.g., 1.009 f.g., 4.9% abv, 20 IBU, 3 SRM
  • Infusion mash, 149° for 60 minutes, batch sparge
  • Blend of Claremont tap water and RO water, to achieve calculated water profile of 19 Ca, 7 Mg, 46 Na, 15 SO4, 53 Cl, 102 HCO3. RA=66 ppm, alkalinity=84 ppm, effective hardness 18 ppm.

Procedure

  • I spooled up a 1.5L starter on 2 April 2020, and cold crashed it on the morning of 4 April.
  • My water was a mix of tap water (4.25 gallons) and RO water (4.5 gallons), to get 8.75 gallons total. Given the stay-at-home orders, I didn’t want to run out for more RO water.
  • I mashed in with 3.75 gallons of tap water and 5 mL of 88% lactic acid, to hit my 149° mash temperature. The mash was down to 143 after 75 minutes, so I added 1.5 gallons of hot tap water/RO water blend to bring up the temperature and prepare for collection of the runnings.
  • I added rice hulls just before first runnings were collected. Once the first runnings were in the kettle, I added 4 gallons of RO water, let sit for 10 minutes, vorlaufed, and collected the second runnings.
  • In total, I collected 7.25 gallons with a gravity of 1.042, for 80% efficiency.
  • I brought the kettle to a boil, adding hops and finings per the recipe.
  • After 60 minutes, I chilled, and transferred the wort to the fermenter. I let it chill the rest of the way overnight, down to 50°. I brewed the beer on 5 April 2020.
  • On the morning of 6 April 2020, I oxygenated with 45 seconds of pure O2, and pitched the yeast. I am fermenting at 51°. Starting gravity was 1.050.
  • I let the beer free-rise to 62° on 18 April 2020. On 25 April, I lowered the temperature to 52°, and then to 42° on 26 April, and 33° on 27 April.
  • I kegged the beer on 10 May 2020, after purging the target keg with CO2.
  • Final gravity was 1.008, for 5.5% abv.

Tasting

  • Appearance
    • Light yellow, slight chill haze for the first few weeks on tap, but otherwise clear. I finally achieved good clarity about a month after kegging–patience pays off! The beer pours with a nice dense head with excellent retention.
  • Aroma
    • Light spice hop note; malt has a slight graininess with a maize aroma too (not DMS!).
  • Flavor
    • Light grainy maltiness, slight maize character with that; distinct but not overpowering bitterness; this beer is definitely more tilted towards the bitter end than I expected, though. It’s not IPA levels, but I think I could notch the IBUs back about 10 percent. I wonder if I got higher utilization this time with the hops free floating rather than bagged. The finish tilts towards bitter.
  • Mouthfeel
    • Crisp, off-dry, moderately high carbonation.
  • Would I brew this again?
    • I’m going to tweak a bit more, and think I’ll go back to a cereal mash for the next version, and perhaps try the White Labs yeast again. I’ll also notch the hops back a touch, to reduce the bitterness for when I use free floating hops in the boil. It’s a pretty good beer, but the slight persistent haze was mildly disappointing, and the slight overbitterness could be fixed. That said, it’s pretty good with a lime slice!
  • Overall
    • 7.5/10

The Celtic Elk Stout 1.1

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Nearly five years ago, I made an Irish stout that tasted great and did well in competition. I gave another go this year, seeking a dark beer with lots of flavor but not a lot of booziness. It was a success!

The recipe is basically the same as last time, just with some minor ingredient adjustments.

The Celtic Elk Stout 1.1

  • 6 lb. Maris Otter malt (Crisp)
  • 1.5 lb. flaked barley
  • 13.6 oz. crystal 75 malt (Great Western)
  • 12 oz. roasted barley (Briess)
  • 10 oz. chocolate malt (Briess)
  • 4 oz. crystal 10 malt (Briess)
  • 3 oz. Blackprinz malt (Briess)
  • 3 oz. Carafa Special III malt (Weyermann)
  • 3 oz. rice hulls
  • 0.65 oz. Warrior hop pellets (15.8% alpha), 60 minute boil
  • 1 Whirlfloc tablet, 5 minute boil
  • 1 pkg. Irish Ale Yeast (WLP004)

Target Parameters

  • 1.045 o.g., 1.014 f.g., 4.1% abv, 35 IBU, 39 SRM
  • Infusion mash, 156° for 60 minutes, batch sparge
  • Claremont tap water

Procedure

  • The night before brewing, I made a 0.75 L starter, and let it run on the stir plate.
  • I mashed in with 3.5 gallons of water at 168°, to hit a mash temperature of 156°.
  • After 60 minutes of mashing, I added 1.5 gallons of water at 185°, let sit for 10 minutes, vorlaufed, and collected the first runnings. Next, I added 3.75 gallons of water at 185°, let sit for 10 minutes, vorlaufed, and collected the second runnings.
  • In total, I collected 7.5 gallons of runnings with a gravity of 1.045, for 87% efficiency! This was way too high, so I removed 0.5 gallons of runnings and added 0.5 gallons of tap water, to hit 1.041. This was much better. I saved 2 cups of this to use in bread (and it made tasty bread!).
  • I brought the kettle to a boil, adding hops and finings per the schedule. After 60 minutes, I turned off the flame and chilled the wort.
  • Once the wort was down to around 75°, I transferred to the fermenter and chilled the rest of the way down to 66°. Finally, I pitched the yeast.
  • I brewed this beer on 18 April 2020. Starting gravity was 1.050.
  • I fermented the beer at 66°, and kegged the beer on 25 April 2020. To save some CO2 and try keg conditioning, I primed the keg with 2.1 oz. of corn sugar in boiling water.
  • Final gravity was 1.019, for 4.1% abv.

Tasting

  • Appearance
    • Dark! Black in the glass, and a deep, dark brown if you get a thin sliver of beer. Thin but persistent brown head.
  • Aroma
    • Rich aroma of chocolate with a touch of roasted coffee. There are hints of dried cherry behind that; I don’t think it’s esters (because the flavor of the beer is pretty clean in terms of yeast character), but a synergistic effect of the dark malts. I like it!
  • Flavor
    • Roasted coffee character at the outset, with a touch of dark chocolate behind that. There is a really nice coffee-type bitterness from the malt than creeps in alongside the hop bitterness. Hop bitterness is clean. The flavor is malt forward, with hops secondary, until the finish. There is an extended, slightly bitter (but not unpleasant) finish.
  • Mouthfeel
    • Dry, medium-light body, moderate carbonation.
  • Would I brew this again?
    • This is a great recipe, and a fine interpretation of the style. I think my modifications were okay overall, although I’ll replace the Carafa III with all debittered black malt next time, and use pale chocolate instead of regular chocolate malt, because the malt was just a little too much chocolate and not enough roast. As the beer matures, it has really come into its prime. I rushed it just a touch to get it on-tap, and so it had a hint of sweetness at first from the corn sugar used for priming (at least I think that’s what I was experiencing). That’s gone away now. This recipe produces a really quaffable beer, and the low alcohol level (4.1% abv) isn’t really a flavor/mouthfeel detriment thanks to the malt character.
  • Overall
    • 9/10

Humboldt’s Hefeweizen

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It has been a loooooong time since I’ve brewed a German hefeweizen / weissbier. In fact, my records show that I’ve only done it once, over five years ago. That attempt was all-extract, and turned out reasonably well.

Alexander von Humboldt, from a portrait by Joseph Karl Stieler

I’ve been thinking about this style because I wanted something that turns around quickly, has a ton of character, and is low alcohol enough to be enjoyed as a session beer on warm days. Plus, I’ve really been into German styles lately–what’s not to like?

The recipe more or less follows Gordon Strong’s weissbier recipe from the March/April 2020 issue of Brew Your Own magazine (recipe here, behind paywall). I liked its simplicity, and that it could be done fairly well with an infusion step mash. I added in a touch of melanoidin malt, to use up a lingering handful, and used up some extra wheat malt, too. The recipe called for a ferulic acid rest (to maximize clove character), and I was willing to give that a try in the interest of science.

The name–Humboldt’s Hefeweizen–honors German scientist Alexander von Humboldt. I recently finished a biography about him (Andrea Wulf’s Invention of Nature–highly recommended!), and I was fascinated by his intellectual and cultural influence, as well as his incredible dedication to documenting knowledge. This dude has a ton of animals and plants bearing his name, bestowed by the scientific community. There’s a Humboldt Penguin, and a Humboldt Squid, and a Humboldt’s Sapphire Hummingbird. Why not a Humboldt’s Hefeweizen? I don’t know that he necessarily drank much of the stuff when he was alive, but he probably didn’t eat many penguins, either.

Humboldt’s Hefeweizen

  • 4.75 lb. Superior Pilsen Malt (Great Western)
  • 4 lb. white wheat malt (Briess)
  • 1.25 lb. white wheat malt (Great Western)
  • 1.6 oz. melanoidin malt (Weyermann)
  • 0.25 oz. Magnum hop pellets (13.2% alpha), 60 minute boil
  • 1 pkg. Hefeweizen Ale yeast (WLP300, White Labs)

Target Parameters

  • 1.047 o.g., 1.010 f.g., 4.9% abv, 11 IBU, 4 SRM
  • Infusion mash; 15 minute acid rest at 116°; 30 minute saccharification rest at 149°; 30 minute saccharification rest at 158°, batch sparge
  • Claremont tap water with mineral additions, to hit target water profile of 80 ppm Ca, 9 ppm Mg, 23 ppm Na, 58 ppm SO4, 50 ppm Cl, 220 ppm HCO3; RA=118 pm

Procedure

  • The night before brewing, I spooled up a 1.25L starter for the yeast.
  • On brew day, I mashed in with 2 gallons of water at 129°, to hit 119° for the acid rest. This is a touch higher than I wanted, but still within the acceptable parameters for an acid rest.
  • After 15 minutes, I added 1.6 gallons of water at 202°, to hit a 149° mash temperature. I added 4.5 mL of lactic acid at this time, and let it rest for 30 minutes.
  • Next, I added 1.6 gallons of water at 185°, to raise the mash temperature to 152°. I had been hoping for a little warmer (158°), but will settle for this. After 30 minutes, I collected the first runnings.
  • I added 3.6 gallons of water at 185°, let it rest for 10 minutes, and collected the second runnings.
  • In total, I collected 7.2 gallons of runnings with a gravity of 1.040, for 75% mash efficiency.
  • I brought the runnings to a boil, adding the hops per the schedule. After 60 minutes, I turned off the flame and began chilling.
  • I transferred the wort into the fermenter, and chilled it further in my fermentation chamber. Once I hit 62°, I pitched the yeast.
  • I brewed this beer on 26 April 2020, and kept the 62° temperature for the first four days of fermentation. I ramped up to 67° on 30 April.
  • On 3 May 2020, I brought the beer out to ambient temperature, which was around 72°, to finish out fermentation.
  • I kegged the beer on 5 May 2020, adding 3.61 oz. of corn sugar. This should hit a target carbonation volume of ~3.4 volumes. After a week, I hooked it up to the gas in my keezer, carbonating the last little bit in there.
  • Starting gravity was 1.045, and final gravity was 1.013, for 4.3% abv.
yellow beer with fluffy white head, in weizen glass with SVP2014 on front with picture of fossil Archaeopteryx, held by hand in green yard

Tasting

  • Appearance
    • Creamy white head, persistent; doesn’t always pour consistently tall, though (gotta work on the head factor). I seem to do better if I let the beer line rest for 10 minutes between pours, to let CO2 out of solution and encourage some foam. Very hazy light gold beer.
  • Aroma
    • Tart aroma, with light bubblegum and clove. (no banana) Lots of yeast character!
  • Flavor
    • Light and smooth, with very low, subtle hop flavor. Slightly tart, with a mild bite coming from high level of carbonation that offsets the malt. Moderate clove, slight banana, very slight bubblegum in the yeast character. Malt character is light and somewhat bready, with a residual sweetness.
  • Mouthfeel
    • Medium-light body, creamy on tongue, with high carbonation, very slightly dry finish.
  • Would I brew this again?
    • This is a really nice weissbier! I think the freshness, malt balance, and high carbonation come together pretty well. I like that I dodged the super-banana (sometimes to the level of stomach-churning) character of wheat beers fermented at higher temperatures, so there’s not much I would change on that end. The yeast character is pretty nice here, too. My one disappointment concerns the level of head; depending on my pour (and how long the beer has sat in the lines between pours, with a greater length of time encouraging more foam), I don’t get quite as tall of a head as consistently as I would like. I wonder if the low temperature initial mash rest had a detrimental effect in this regard (in terms of breaking down the relevant proteins just a bit too much). Or maybe it’s how I’m pouring? Or maybe I am expecting more head than is realistic in a typical setting? I might add in a touch of flaked wheat to address head character next time.
    • As a style, I’m definitely coming back to this one. It’s super flavorful, packing in a ton of character without a ton of alcohol. That’s perfect for enjoying on a summer afternoon!
  • Overall
    • 8.5/10

What’s Brewing? May 2020 Edition

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Following the relatively quiet brewing months of March and much of April, I’ve been able to get back into the swing of things again. With extra time at home, I’ve also been making various syrups and other fermented goodies. It’s a lot of fun!

Fermenter with the Alta California Lager, ready for kegging

Beer Batch Updates

  • I brewed a German wheat ale on April 26 (Humboldt’s Hefeweizen), and it has been carbonated and is now on service! It’s a super straightforward recipe, with pilsner malt, wheat malt, and a touch of melanoidin (to finish out my stash of that malt). I’ve not brewed this style in some time (it looks like 2015 was my last batch), so it seemed like a good time to give it another try.
  • I kegged the 2020 edition of the Alta California Lager on 10 May 2020, and put it on tap yesterday. It has been lagering for just under three weeks, and has a ways to go yet before I’ll consider it optimal. Luckily, I can focus on the weizen for now, which is a bit better young anyhow.
  • On May 3, I brewed a kitchen sink pale ale, to use up a few stray ingredients. I’ll keg it in a day or two, using priming sugar for carbonation.
  • Last weekend, I made an altbier, repitching the yeast used in my kolsch-style ale earlier this year. The recipe is straight from the Brewing Classic Styles series book on altbier, just for a change of recipe pace. Fermentation took a few days to take off, but it’s now going gangbusters!
  • Yesterday I started a Dortmunder Export Lager, as a style new to me. I was going to repitch some German Lager yeast (WLP830), but the jar in my fridge hadn’t clarified terribly well. I took this as a sign to toss the yeast (which had already been through two batches), and just went with dry Saflager 34/70. I did some experimenting with water chemistry on this batch, which I plan to detail in a later post.

What’s On Tap?

  • Humboldt Hefeweizen — as described above, it’s a fairly traditional German wheat ale. I’m serving it at a pretty high carbonation (~3.5 volumes of CO2), and it has been quite enjoyable so far. This is one I want to drink quickly….it might be my favorite on tap at the moment!
  • Celtic Elk Irish Stout — this is a traditional-ish Irish stout, filling the dark beer morphospace in my tap selection. The batch is a slightly modified rebrew of one I did a few years back.
  • Alta California Lager — a Mexican-style lager, intended as a light and drinkable summer beer.

What’s Coming Up?

Freshly empty malt bag…now I’m all set to make more German beers!
  • I’m thinking a kolsch-style ale would be nice. Not sure yet on recipe.
  • An American-style lager (using a repitch of the yeast from my Mexican-style lager yeast) is also under consideration. I’m thinking something using rice to lighten it up.

Other Than Beer

  • I put a batch of sauerkraut out to ferment last weekend. Why not expand into other fermented foods, after all? Today I’ve also started a batch of fermented carrot sticks.
  • I’ve done a bunch of drink syrups…tonic syrup, of course, but also ginger syrup. For the latter, I need to cut back on the water (maybe 1 cup instead of 2?), because it ends up pretty thin, even though the flavor is great. I also did a juniper syrup, to have as an alternative for gin-based drinks. The initial taste is quite good!