Right Proper English Mild

So I took a crack at brewing a bit more than a gallon at a time.  It seems that I need to work on my numbers a bit more.  The goal was to make 5 gallons of an English Mild.

7lbs Marris Otter
0.5 lbs Crystal 60L
0.375 lbs Crystal 120L
0.25 lbs Chocolate
0.125 lbs Carafa II

Mashed @ 155.5F for an hour with 3.5 gallons of water, pH was 5.2.  I was rushing more than I should have been and I didn't take great/good/decent notes.  I boiled for 45 minutes, adding an ounce of East Kent Goldings.   I sparged with another 3.5 gallons of water and thought I had collected enough, but it seems that I lose a chunk of water during the boil.  I chilled down to 75F and transferred to a sanitized carboy.

I collected short of the 5 gallons.  I had done up a yeast starter of WLP037 W. Yorkshire and decided I might as well pitch it in.  Its been in a chugging away for 6 days and dropped from 10.8 brix to 7.0, maybe 6.8.  I pulled a sample and it doesn't taste too bad.  I'm thinking this weekend I'll see about bottling, perhaps Monday.

Well, if nothing else...I got a chance to use my snazzy new glass to try my sample.

Update and Things

Well then...I've got score sheets back and all, so it is time for updates.  In the Mazer Cup, well I did a bit poor.  Seems I was a bit off on how I entered a few.  From the comments I might have better with my cyser had I entered as sack strength vs. standard, but not having unpacked all the brewing stuff and prior to bottling and submitting I suppose it is my bad.  It made it to the second round, but didn't pick up anything else.

But lets start with Odin, the Traditional Mead.

So at the Mazer Cup this one took a full 25 points!  (I know...impressive, guess   its half perfect).  They mentioned that it was a bit watery and not sweet enough.  One said it was a bit hot, though age might help.  At the National Homebrew Competition First Round it took a 30, with both judges mentioning that it was more similar to a dry mead than a sweet or semi-sweet.  But we'll see how it goes, should still be good for a certificate from the NHC.  Its also been sent up to NH for the Mead Free or Die competition, this time as a Dry, Still, Standard Mead (24A).  

Next Idun, the cyser.  

  This one took a 37 at the Mazer Cup.  The judges seem to enjoy it, with the note that it should have been entered as Sack strength, It made it to the second round, so thats a plus.  At the NHC it only took a 25, with a few notes that it was too hot and finished much too sweet.  The one judge noted that carbonation might help it somewhat, so I will have to consider this for the next cyser round.

And Loki, the hopped mead.  

  At the Mazer Cup this one took a 28.  One judge said he expected more hops from the aroma, both mentioned not getting enough hops in the flavour.  One judge said that the hops might be old, and truth be told I got them from my local shop, which did not have the best storage for their hops (happily they are under new owners).  At NHC it only took a 24.  More notes of not of hops flavour.

And Cylon Cider.

  This one only went to NHC.  It took a 24, with notes that it didn't have enough sweetness or apple to it to really do well.  I was a bit afraid of that when I realized the yeast took it a bit lower than I had originally wanted it to go.  This was my first crack at cider straight from the apple, and the bottle had apple squeezing and yeast, nothing else.  I think that I'll need to add some brown sugar next time around. 

Now all of these meads/ciders had notes that the yeast were stressed.  In past mead attempts I pitched quite a bit of yeast, but in listening to various podcast I heard a number of people talk about using a gram per gallon.  Since my meads were only going to be a single gallon I figured one gram wasn't enough and doubled it to two grams.  I think I need to go back to pitching more.  Yes, I did rehydrate and do a staggered nutrient addition.  

Lastly...we'll discuss the Volksmarch, my altbier.

So this round of judging I ended up with a 39.  It went in as a North German Alt this time around.  And I got the standard more roasty than expected that I've seen in previous score sheets.  But this becomes my first first place!  It also means that I'm rebrewing for the final round.  This is the first time I'll be repeating the same recipe and don't have access to the fridge that I used to lager last time around.  This time I've got it in a water bath in a cool and have been rotating ice packs through, hopefully it comes out as well or better.  

Building a Mash Tun

So I set out to build a mash tun.  I started with a normal Home Depot drink cooler.  As well as a stainless steel water heater connector plus some hardware.

Step one was to take off the original spout from the drink cooler.

After that I assembled and attached the ball valve.  I added on a quick disconnect.  Plus some stickers.

For the inside I cut both ends off the water heater connector and pulled the plastic hose out the middle.  One end got crimped down and the other was clamped onto a nipple on the other end.

Yeah, perhaps not the most in depth write up...but there you go.

What the picklestick is this Altbier?

So then, I've mentioned this altbier that I've made and how it has fared in competitions.  But a few people have asked what is an altbier.  Being how this is not the most popular beer style in the US, not everyone may have heard of this style.

Well through much of this beer's life, it was simply known as bier.  It hails from the Rhineland region of Germany, which is close to the borders of Belgium and Holland.  Its estimated that beer has been brewed in this region for about 3,000 years.  And since we all know ale is older than lager, its no surprise that the older styles of beer are ales.  Sometime around the 1400's a new style of beer appeared, it was the lager.  (It was mentioned in some statutes of Munich in 1420)  So no the bier of the Rhineland and Dusseldorf in particular needed a bit more in the name to tell the drinker they were getting an old style beer instead the new style.  So it was referred to as  an old beer, but seeing as how Germans tend to speak German and are not inclined to give things English names, it became Altbier. 

We have our name, we know that it is one of Germany's ales.  However it is much cleaner that ales from Britain.  Germany tends to be cooler, so the ale was fermented cooler limiting the esters and phenolics.  The beer was then stored cool (much like lagering) which helped clear the beer.  Traditionally this beer was served from a wooden cask at the bar.  In Dusseldorf in the Altstadt (Old Town), every second beer served is an Altbier.  

Now then, some notes on the beer, it can range from amber to copper to brown.  They tend to have a firm creamy head, medium body and a moderate carbonation.  For judging based on the 2008 BJCP guidelines they fall under Amber Hybrid and there is a subcategory for North German and Dusseldorf.  The main difference between the two is the Dusseldorf has more bitterness, but not really more hop aroma or flavour.  When we update to the 2014 BJCP guidelines the two subcategories are being combined into one subcategory under Amber Hoppy European Beer.

Now as far as my recipe it is as follows for a 2 gallon batch: 

3 lbs Pilsner
1.4 lbs Munich
0.7 lbs Caramunich II
1.4 lbs Carafa I

Mashed 100F for 15 min
              122F for 22 min
              150F for 60 min

80 min boil 

Hops: 1 oz tettnanger 80 min
           0.25 oz Saaz 20 min
           0.5 oz Saaz 5 min

Chilled to 76F Pitched a vial of WLP060

Fermented 6 days then moved to the fridge.  Ferment temp was about 50-ish and the fridge was 38-40 ish.


This one picked up a couple bronze medals and seemed to score better as a North German Alt than a Dusseldorf Alt.  But on score sheets for both I got notes that mentioned there was too much roasty notes.  I'm thinking that it is due to having ended up with Carafa instead of Carafa Special.

Now the next step that I'd like to do is brew up another batch.  Having researched more there are some changes I would plan on making.

Here is the plan for the next batch:

3 Gallon batch

4.5 Lbs - Pilsner
0.5 Lb - Munich
0.1 Lb - Caramunich
0.1 Lb - Carfa Special II
1.5 oz - Pale Chocolate Malt

0.3 oz Magnum Hops (13.0%) - 60 min

90 minute boil
WLP036

This should look very similar to the brewing classic styles recipe, cause it is one of the things I have been referring to.  The swap from Carfa to Carfa Special should help drop the roasty notes that weren't to style.  The addition of the Pale Chocolate Malt should add some toasty notes, which would be considered more to style.

The long term plan would be after I zero in on a more to style I'd like to look at an "American Alt"  at this point I'm thinking that I'd swap the Magnum with Mosaic Hops, and perhaps add a bit of hops at the end to get some of that Mosaic flavour added.

Competition Update

Well to update everyone on my alt bier.  As it turns out it picked up a 3rd place in a competition.  This one competed as a North German Altbier vs. a Dusseldor Alt.  Still the score sheets had saying that it had more roast character than would be to style.  I got similar notes on my last score sheet for this beer as well.  Looking at some of my books and some research, I believe the problem was using Carafa instead of Carafa Special.  It seems that switching would help in dropping out some of that roastiness and lend some of the biscuity flavours that would be more to style.  

So...how did it do.  Well lets roll through it.  It was position 4 of 7.  The first judge had it 9/12 for aroma; 2/3 for appearance; 14/20 for flavor; 4/5 for mouthfeel; 7/10 for overall impression.  For a total of 36/50.   The second judge had it at 9/12 for aroma; 3/3 for appearance; 15/20 for flavor; 3/5 for mouthfeel; 7/10 for overall impression.  A total for that was 37/50.  This put me with an average of 36.5 for this competition.  Putting me at the high end of very good.  I have to say that so far this is the highest score that I've picked up for a beer in competition.  I've had a mead take a 37.  

Whats next?  Well there is an award ceremony this Sunday.  So even if I don't pick up any new hardware this weekend atleast I'll get a few more score sheets to provide some more data points.  Speaking of which I found several of my old score sheets but I know that there are two more floating around.  One is fairly current, the other is one of the first competitions I entered.  I know the old one wasn't anything to brag about, but I'd like to have them so I can have exact numbers on how it did.  But back to now...After this weekend the next is the Mazer Cup, which should be 21 March.  Last year they had a webcast of the awards and I'm hoping they will again this year.  Then I have some entries to submit to the first round of the NHC.  As it turns out I have another entry and enough bottles of the Volksmarch Altbier for round one.  

I think that should about wrap it up.   Happy Brewing to all and to all a goodnight!  

Cider Info For a Friend

   So then, a friend of mine had gotten a cider kit and attempted to make a batch of hard cider.  I'm not overly sure of what all happened but she decided to dump it.  So I figure that now is a good time to jot down a few notes on making hard cider.  First lets start with Sanitize, sanitize, sanitize.

   The first step is how far back you are wanting to go in the process.  You can start just about from growing your own apple trees to going to the store and buying some juice.  Seeing as how my friend didn't have a hydrometer I'm thinking that for the purpose of this post we'll just start with going to a homebrew shop and getting a hydrometer.  But really for this round of cider making it'll be easiest start with store brought cider.  Now if you have never read anything else on making cider, let me be the first to tell you; check to see if there are any preservatives in the cider you are buying.  A number of store brought ciders will add preservatives to stop it from fermenting.  Problem is that in attempting to make hard cider, you kinda want to get things fermented.  So check your cider, pasteurized is fine, preservatives are not.  Not that its the only one that will work, but I have found that the Whole Foods brand (365 something or other) works really well.  Plus it comes in its own glass jar.

   So now that you are home from the store with your glass jar containing a cider with no preservatives, you'll need a few other things.  I've seen a few websites saying that you can do things like you can put a balloon over the top or a sponge in the opening or aluminum foil or something like that.  I have no experience with those set ups, they may or may not work, I couldn't tell you.  I use a stopper and an air lock just like any other brew that I'm doing.  They aren't all that expensive but I can tell you from experience that they work.  Now we have our liquid to ferment, a container, and a way to keep unwanted bugs out of your creation.

  Lastly your going to need is a way to convert the sugars in the cider in the alcohol, this means yeast.  Now you can do it the way people have done for years upon years, leave it open, there are yeast everywhere.   You might end up with an amazing hard cider.  You might not.  May the odds be in your favor.  Another path to take is to select a type of yeast and pitch it into the jug of cider.  So far with every round of cider that I've made I have gone with the selecting a strain of yeast to pitch.  Off the top of my head I can say that I have tried EC-1118, Nottingham, White Labs English Cider and a Belgian strain.  The point being that while there are strains marketed for cider you don't have to use them.  At some point I might go more into detail on what I've found on various strains, but you should experiment.

  Though lets take a short break before we going tossing microorganisms into the juice.  Pull out that hydrometer and take a reading.  Note that down somewhere.  Sure you can skip this step, but there really isn't a better way to keep track of your ferment.  And shoot, since you pulled some liquid out for your reading, well, you need to leave some of the liquid that was in the jar out any how.  So go ahead and drink that sample.  Take a few notes on how that tasted.  Now that you've got that all sorted out, lets pitch that yeast.  If you have a dry yeast rehydrate it, if its a liquid yeast toss it in.  Now that you've added the yeast, we have to keep those yeast happy.  You can do a staggered nutrient addition (apple cider doesn't exactly have everything the yeast craves).  You might want to oxygenate a bit.  At the same point I did neither for my first batch and got drinkable cider, sure it might not win piles of awards and bring you internet fame, but if its your first run (or second) toss the yeast in, swirl the bottle, get an air lock on it and put it somewhere safe.

  We're looking for somewhere dark and warmish (probably in the 60s would be good).  Now for the tough part.  Ignore it for a while, 2 weeks, perhaps a month.  I would recommend not touching it for at least the first 2 weeks.  After that take another hydrometer reading.  (While I haven't mentioned sanitation much yet, be sure everything you use through this entire process is sanitized. ) Take that reading and your initial reading and plug them into an online ABV calculator.  If you google it a number will come up.  Now we are really getting to a choose your own adventure scenario.  Whenever you decide that your final gravity is, you have a range of options.  You can bottle right away, you can transfer to a secondary and let it age in bulk for a while longer, you can add spices, you can carbonate.

   But those are all stories for another day.  Lets assume its your first time and say that you just bottled it.  Then sit back and relax and have one of your ciders.

Bud's Commercial

OOOo, while we are talking about things viewed on TV last night on the channel playing the Super-Duper Bowl, can I go on a slight tangent and complain about....Bud's anti-craft beer commercial?  (Its a slightly rhetorical question, cause here I got)  Why is it that if Bud [the largest American brewery owned by a Belgian company that I know of] is soo very not afraid of the craft beer movement that they felt it was a good idea to spend about $9 million dollars telling us all?  And not just telling us, but insulting craft beer and craft beer drinkers?  But soon after they tell us that this is beer that is not to be fussed over, we get told that it is the only beechwood aged beer.  So, yeah, totally don't fuss over that or anything, but so ya know....      Also, while we I'm on the subject of Bud seems to be very anti-craft beer, they also keep buying up any craft brewery that they can get a piece of such as Goose Island and Elysian (Hold on to that thought...it might come up again).   Soo, umm....beer brewed the hard way, like getting all your fermentable sugars from barley...oops, yeah, not how Bud does it.            
      Now I don't want to come off as a beer snob, drink the beer you like.  If you like Bud, drink it, that's great.  I'd ask that you try some others now and then (not all craft brew is double IPA hop bombs, trust me).  And there does need to be a certain amount of respect for the brewing that Bud does, in my opinion not so much of the flavours produced but the consistency of making a product at that scale at numerous sites across the country, that is an accomplishment.                

      Now when I watched the commercial it hit me that not only could I not think of a pumpkin peach beer, but I don't really want to try a pumpkin peach beer (I'm not that bit a fan of pumpkin beers in general).  It seems that  Bud was having similar thoughts, as a VP for Budweiser came out and said that "The only other beer that we reference in the spot is a fabricated, ludicrous flavor combination of pumpkin peach ale."  Now the difference is that I'm just a guy at a computer that likes beer, so I can beg forgiveness of not doing an internet search.  But as it turns out there is a craft brewery that makes a Pumpkin Peach beer, and it turns out that they were purchased by AB-Inbev about a week back.  Welcome to your new family Elysian.

      Generally I enjoy the ads from Bud.  Its always interesting to seem how touching a story they can pull out in 30-60 seconds with whatever their Clydesdale commercial will bring us and the Bud Lite ads tend to be a bit zany but fun to watch.  Though while I might talk about them or post about them online....they've never made me want to go down to the store and buy a bud.  So depending on what you view the goal of the ad was, Bud might be really good at making ads or they may be failing miserably.

Race for the Points

So, just for fun (since I know no one really reads this) I'm going to see how many competition points I can acquire in 2015.  I think that in 2014 I racked up ummm..I don't remember.  I know that last year I had an entry in the mazer cup, an entry in the national homebrew competition (first and last round), and an entry in  the Beer Blitz.  I think I got about 30 in each so that would put me around 150.  The plan is to break that record.

  This year I have my Alt Bier entered in the Portland Mashing Maineiacs Ground Hogs Day Competition and the Battle of Fredericksburg Competition.  I have 3 meads that will be going to the International Mazer Cup (a traditional, a metheglin and a cyser).   Then tomorrow I can put in my requests for the National Homebrew Competition.  I'm sure there will be more along the way, like I'd like to enter the Dominion Cup and the VA Beer Blitz.

  If my brother were brewing beer I'd challenge him directly, but should anyone else stumble across this and wish to see how they do, leave a comment and we'll see where it goes.


Happy Brewing!

Unpacking

So I have been in the process of moving cross country.  I've been busy unpacking and trying to get stuff organized.  I can happily say that it seems that 5 cases of empty bottles, 2 3 gallon carboys, a 6 gallon carboy and about 6 one gallon carboys all made the trip safely.  As well as a number of growlers.  Well...one had something funky growing in it.
 Luckily I was transferring some beverages, I plan to be bottling at some point this week or so, I wanted to get them off any extra trub that had developed so that they can be clear as possible going into the bottle. (Which is kinda funny, seeing as how when I started about 3 years back I remember telling my brother that I didn't care so much if it was clear so long as it tasted good.  But as it happens I actually am entering competitions.)  But since I was cleaning other bottles I figured I'd see if it would help my growler to free itself of the funk.
  I've been using is to use oxiclean free to let it soak some instead of using PBW.  Mostly since its a lot easier to run down to the grocery store and pick some up.  Then sanitize with Starsan.  Happily after letting the oxiclean sit in the funky growler, everything rinsed out.  For good measure I sanitized it before putting it back on the shelf, looks good now.


   Anyhow, I've got very projects coming up.  I need to build my new homebrewery, build a brew set up and build a bar. It should be fun.

Meads, Ciders and Competition (Oh My!)

Ahhh....I haven't written in a while, but since no one reads this, it hardly seems like an issue. So there has been all sorts of movement and such, which will result in me needing to set up a new brewing area. (Hootenanny Hollows World Headquarters!!) Looks like I have space to brew, a bit of a beer cellar and will have space to build a bar/have an entertaining area.

But anyway, it would seem that the meads and ciders are ready.  We'll start with the mead, I made up a number of one gallon batches.  The first is simple traditional mead.  3 lbs of orange blossom honey, water, 71B yeast and staggered nutrient addition.  I'm impressed with how clear it is.  It tastes quite yummy.
  Next up is a methoglin, a spiced mead.  This one started with 1.5 lbs of clover honey and 1.5 lbs of wildflower honey.  Then water, 71B and staggered nutrient additions.  This one is seems to have a bit heavier of a honey taste.  After a number of months I tossed in an ounce of cascade hops for 4 days now (planning on bottling tomorrow).
  Lastly is a cyser.  Same honey as the methoglin, but instead of water it was topped off with a cider that I made.  Same yeast same staggered nutrient additions.  I'm quite happy with this one, But lets talk more about the cider.

  So, this past fall I found myself some apples.  To be exact I got a bushel of staymann, a half bushel of winesap and a half bushel of arkansas black.  2 bushels of apples is quite a bit.  Its even more when you have to run them all through a food processor to take them to a mush and then press them with a mop bucket and a wringer.  So then....I need to build some equipment prior to my next crack at cider making from apples.  Seems that I need to build a scrapper (to take the place of the food processor) and a press (to replace my mop bucket set up).

 So anyway, after I got all of these apples turned into juice, I split them up.  I topped off my cyser with it and then had 2 gallons of cider that I fermented with nottingham yeast.  Sadly it ended up fermenting a bit lower then planned, happily it still tastes quite good, so it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.  Those two gallons got split after they fermented so I could spice one and leave the other alone.
   The spiced gallon got a cinnamon stick, 2 cloves and an allspice berry, also 1/8th of a teaspoon of ground nutmeg.  Those all went in last night, so they need a bit more time to get to the point that I like the spice character.
   And if that wasn't enough, I took a crack an iced cider, but I cheated a bit.  I used 5 frozen cans of apple juice concentrate and then topped off with store brought cider.  It got WLP550.  I'm pleased with how it turned out.

  Now then, competitions.  I got some of the best comments that I've had on an altbier that I sent into the CASK Beer Blitz.  I only scored a 30, but it seems that I lost most points on not being to style, the judges said that my beer was too roasty for the style.  But I did get one that marked it was excellent, just not to style.
   I'll be sending that altbier to another competition up in Maine, so we'll just have to wait around and see how those judges like the beer.  Also I've put in my entries to the Mazer Cup.  I'll be submitting the traditional mead, the methoglin and the cyser.
  Then of course I am waiting around to see how many entries I can get into the National Homebrew Competition and then I'll have to decide what will move forward for that.