Brew Five - American Brown Ale

Once again, I used the Brewing Classic Styles book as a guide for this beer choosing the Janet's Brown Ale recipe to work from.

 Recipe:

3.8kg Blackrock  Light LME

0.5kg Wheat DME

0.56kg Carapils Dextrin Malt

0.56kg Pale Crystal

0.225kg Chocolate Malt

50g Northern Brewer (@ 60 minutes)

35g Northern Brewer (@ 15 minutes)

30g Cascade (@ 10 minutes)

55g Cascade (@ 0 minutes/flame out)

30g Centennial (Dry Hop at Day 7)

US05 Yeast.

Boil volume - 10 litres.

Photo above - OG - 1056 (adjusted)

Photo below - lovely dark brown beer with yeast added.

Comments:

1. I opted for the DME as opposed to having to buy 1.5kg of the Wheat and storing it.  It seemed to work fine and I used it to get the BG to 1040 so we didn't have any problems with it clumping up.

2.  The Northern Brewer had a higher AA rating (9.8) to that in the recipe (6.5) so according to the Kit and Extract sheet it would have come out a lot higher IBU.  We decided to trim back the bittering addition at 60 minutes from 57g to 50g but in hindsight could have reduced it further - only time will tell as to if this has an impact on the final product.

3.  I still haven't got a large sieve and I think I need two further plastic stirring spoons for the brewing process.  Different coloured spoons for different activities would be a good idea.

4.  We decided to stir the first two cans of LME into the pot with around 5 minutes to go - this was a mistake for two reasons: 1.  the temperature of the wort dropped and the boil stopped and 2. the pot was now full to the brim making it very difficult to pour into the fermenter.

5.  It took approximately 25 minutes for the wort to reduce below 40 degrees.  When I added the wort to the cold water in the fermenter the digital thermometer was showing 24 degrees so once again there was no further delay on pitching the yeast. 

6.  The main cost in this brewing is the LME - it costs $14.95 per can.  I can either take a tub along to get filled which may save me a few dollars per litre or look to moving onto BIAB (Boil in a Bag) options.  I think I'll wait and see how the IPA and this beer turn out before deciding whether to progress to BIAB.  I haven't tallied the cost up but excluding bottles I would guess we are looking at $60-$70 for the brew which is still pretty cheap.

7.  Bottling during the brewing process went off without a hitch - obviously having two sets of hands helped out greatly.

Brew Four - Bottling the IPA

Progress on the fermentation of Brew Four has been smooth sailing.  On day seven I added 30g of Imported Cascade hops into the fermenter for dry hopping.  I've read that some people bag it up but I decided it was just as easy to drop the pellets in and hope they don't block the tap when it comes to bottling.

I took a gravity reading on day nine and it was already down to 1014-ish so the plan was to bottle on either Saturday or Sunday (Day 14 or 15).

I've decided to bottle the IPA on the same day as I make the next brew which has the potential to complicate matters somewhat but I've managed to enlist the assistance of my brother Jeremy for the brew so two extra sets of hands should make light work of it.

I'm planning to carbonate with less sugar - because there is only 21L I don't want to overcarbonate the beer and since I've had such success with carbonation so far I figure I don't need it to be so bubbly.  I'll aim to prime the beer with 180g sugar before bottling.

Brew Four - American IPA

Having considered my options I opted to proceed with an American IPA for the fourth brew.  I used the Brewing Classic Styles 'Hoppiness is an IPA' recipe as a guide.

I decided to dial back on the LME as the recipe asked for more than 4kg of it and the outcome would have been a 7% ABV beer which I thought was a bit of overkill.  In doing so, I also saved myself another $15 which may not seem much but by my calculations I had already spent about $60 on this brew (excluding the grain bag, 2/3s of the Briess LME and half the hops since I purchased 60g of each).

I ended up using:

3 kg Blackrock Light LME (2x 1.5 kg cans)

0.5kg Briess Munich LME

0.6kg Pale Crystal

30g Nugget (@ 60 minutes)

30g Centennial (@ 20 minutes)

30g Simcoe (@ 5 minutes)

30g Cascade (@ 0 minutes/flame out)

Boil volume: 9 Litres.

1. Steep Pale Crystal for 30 minutes in hot water (65 deg).

2. Added 0.8kg of LME 

3. Top up with water to 9L.

4. Bring to boil - wait for hot break.

5. Start 60 minute timer 

a)  Add 30g Nugget.

b)  Add Centennial after 40 minutes.

c)  Add Simcoe after 55 minutes

d)  Add Cascade after 60 minutes when you turn off heat.

6. Stir in remaining LME immediately after Simcoe addition.

7. Cool in ice bath to <30 degrees.

8.  Mix into fermenter to make 21L of beer.

9.  Take OG reading: 1050.  Stir and wait.  Repeat.  OG reading again 1050.

10.  Pitch yeast.

Notes:

1. Briess LME only came in a 1.5kg container so the remaining 1kg is stored in the fridge.

2. Pale Crystal used in lieu of  Crystal 15L and 40L as defined in recipe.

Comments:

1.  I can see why people go for a full boil - I don't fully understand the calculations used to ensure your partial boil gravity is the same as the boil gravity but the recipe spreadsheet from the Aussie Home Brewer forum instructed me to add 818g of LME to achieve the same so that's what I did.  If you do a full boil you don't have to worry about the calculations which is appealing.

2. The steeping process was a lot easier than I imagined so it'll give me confidence for the next brew.

3. The whole process (excluding initial prep the night before including sterlising equipment) took 3 hours which is about as efficient as I can make it.

4.  I need a larger sieve which can sit over the top of the fermenter to collect the hops etc when pouring boil into fermenter.

5.  The ice bath dropped the temperature of the boil quite quickly (approx 20 min) and once I poured it into the fermenter which already had approximately 10L of cold water the digital thermometer on the side was reading 24 degrees so I pitched the yeast in straight away.

6.  Contemplating dry hopping the rest of the Cascade hops (another 30g) into the fermenter once the primary has been completed in about a week.  If I'm going to have a hoppy IPA then I might as well go the whole hog.

7.  If I've spent $60 to make this beer, the per litre cost is $2.85.  The per 750ml bottle cost is $2.15.

Brew Four - what to brew next?

I now need to decide what to brew next.  Since I've been reading 'Brewing Classic Styles by John Palmer and Jamil Zainasheff I'm leaning toward taking one of their recipes and running with it.

If I map out the new few beers I see them in no particular order to be:

1.  American IPA.
2.  Brown Ale
3.  Pale Ale with NZ malts/hops.
4.  Porter or Black IPA.

The other tantalizing prospect is that a friend of mine has his own brew kit which he is brewing 100L batches with and he's invited me to help with a brew at some point.  I've sampled three of the beers he regularly makes and they are up there with some of the craft beers I've had to drink in the last six months.  The opportunity to potentially produce a beer in an all grain set up is exciting.  With this in mind I need to take a couple of recipes and refine them to the point where I would be happy to make them on a larger scale - I don't want to make something undrinkable.

I'm also looking to rope in a co-brewer.  Someone who is happy to pay for half the cost of the ingredients and take half of the beer at the end.  At the moment my brother has said he is keen so we might be kicking things off with the fourth brew this weekend.  I don't think I can sustain brewing 30 bottle batches as I'll end up swimming in beer.... at least until I make something that everyone wants to drink!

Brew Three - Amber Ale Fermentation and Bottling

No, I haven't forgotten about the blog - more that there hasn't been much going on in the last month or so.

As per my previously entry relating to Brew Three - the Amber Ale, the beer went into the fermenter on Saturday 12th May.  I took a gravity reading on Friday 25th May which was 1015ish.  When I took another reading the following week it had dropped slightly to 1014 but I figured it was ready for bottling.  Unfortunately we went away down to the Hawkes Bay for Queens Birthday Weekend so the beer wasn't bottled until Sunday 10th June which means it was in the fermenter for more than four weeks.  I don't know if there is any possible negative impact on the beer itself so only time will tell.

The bottling went smoothly and the bulk priming seems to make the whole process a lot more straight forward.  The only thing I was a little bit concerned about what that at the bottom of the fermenter there was a lot more trub than previous brews so I wasn't sure whether I would get the full 30 bottles worth - as it turned out I needn't have worried as I easily managed to fill the 30.

Now we wait to see what the beer tastes like.

Brew Two - Tasting the IPA.... pfft

Well, I've tasted the IPA after it has been in the bottles for two weeks.  What a disappointment.  This beer makes the rather plain flavoured Munich Lager taste like a Imperial IPA in comparison to the dishwater IPA.  I'm struggling to make out any discernible taste or nose on it.

Here is a comparison of the two beers:

The IPA on the left and the Munich Lager on the right.  The only positives I can take out of this brewing process are:


1.  The bulk priming appears to have worked well as the carbonation, even after only two weeks is excellent.


2.  The clarity of the beer is excellent so the finings worked as they should have.


3.  I'm going to make a 'proper' IPA as my next beer.

Brew Three - Amber Ale

Since the second brew I've been doing a lot of reading about home brewing.  Firstly John Palmer's How to Brew finally arrived from Fishpond so I took a read through it - it's easy to follow and clearly explains the process so I understand why people recommend it so highly.  I've also joined the Aussie Home Brewer forum which has a wealth of information and helpful Aussie (and Kiwi) home brewers who are happy to impart their knowledge about all things to do with brewing.  One very useful tool they have on the forum is a spreadsheet which allows you to input your ingredients which then spits out various readings which align with the style of beer you are trying to recreate (e.g. O.G, FG, IBU and EBC).

Armed with all this new knowledge I've been somewhat paralysed by indecision... what beer to I make next? Do I drop the kits altogether or do I keep going until I manage to produce a decent beer? In the end I drove down to Penrose to the Brewers Coup shop with a couple of ideas in mind but no firm plan.  I ended up asking for advice about an Amber Ale recipe which I had taken from the Coopers website and after a really good conversation about the pros and cons of the various kits available I purchased the following:


Ingredients:

1.  Black Rock NZ Draught Kit 1.5kg
2.  Muntons LME 1.8kg
3.  US-05 Yeast
4.  60g US Centennial Hops
5.  60g US Cascade Hops.

I also picked up a fluid thermometer and some more cleaner/steriliser.

The Brewing process:
1.  Sterilise fermenter, stirring spoon and airlock using the remaining sodium met solution.
2.  Add approximately 400ml of the LME to 10L of water.  Dissolve and then bring to boil.
3.  The maximum amount of time you need to boil the hops for is 60 minutes.  Therefore using this as a guide the minute the water is at a rolling boil you make your first hop addition and then start the countdown for 60 minutes.  I used the following plan:
At 60 minutes: Add 20g Centennial.
At 25 minutes: Add 20g Centennial and 30g Cascade
At 10 minutes: Add 20g Centennial and 30g Cascade

Centennial is a high alpha acid hop therefore it will impart quite a lot of bitterness to the beer.  Adding hops in the middle stage of the boil will impart flavours and at the end, aroma.  The Cascade is a lower alpha acid hop which will impart more flavour and aroma to the brew hence only two additions.
5.  Warm the Black Rock kit in some hot water.
6.  Cool the boil as quickly as you can.  I waited for a few minutes then put the stock pot in the sink and fill it with cold tap water which seemed to be quite effective.
7.  Add the kit to the fermenter with some hot water.  Mix.  Add the remaining LME to the fermenter at the same time.
8.  Add the boiled water to the fermenter.  Mix again and top up with cold water to 23 litres.  Check temp and hope it's not too hot to pitch the yeast.
9.  Pitch yeast.  Seal fermenter.



Notes:
1. There are a lot of references to boiling 10-12 litres of water then cooling it overnight so that you have clean cool water to add to the warm mix in the fermenter.  I didn't have anywhere to store the post boiled water so I purchased a 10L container of water at the Warehouse ($6.50) and fridged it overnight.
2. I'm not sure what I expected but when you add the hop pellets to the boil they disintegrate and form a slurry on the top of the water.  When the timer hit zero and I took the pot off the heat I used a sieve to scoop the hop slurry out into a second pot:

Pouring the kit into the fermenter - nice and oxygenated.

Cooling the hop boil in the sink with cold water.

The Original Gravity reading:

The reading is approximate 1042.

Final note:  Having gone through the brewing process I then decided to plug all the details into the spreadsheet from the forum (as referenced earlier) and it says that the beer would be quite highly bitter and that the OG is too low.  I guess I should have done this before hand but then again sometimes ignorance is bliss.  The fermenter is now in the garage and the temperature is reading 18-20 degrees which is perfect for fermenting.