Special Bitter

Today I'll be doing a simple infusion mash and brewing an all-grain recipe courtesy of Annapolis Home Brew.

Their recipes are expensive, but worth every penny if you are looking for a high quality recipe kit. I've had excellent results with their Amber Ale, Marzen, and Golden Pilsner recipes. Some of the best compliments I've received has been on beer made from their recipes. As a local home brew shop, they are awesome! Again, pricey, but you get excellent customer service and their web site is chocked full of useful information and instructions for brewers of all skill levels. I'm willing to pay a little extra to support a great local business like AHB.

I'd disclose the recipe, but unfortunately AHB keeps the components of their recipes a secret. Proprietary rights! They generally don't skimp on ingredients, so you get good value for your dollar. For example, the ESB comes with 11.5 lbs. of grain. That doesn't seem like a lot, but compare it with comparable recipes from Terry Foster's book Pale Ale and you'll find the grain bill is similar to Jamil Zainasheff's recipe in Brewing Classic Styles. Jamil is not shy about using a lot of grain (or yeast for that matter).

My kit comes with 11.5 lbs. of grain. This is one style I absolutely love! "Strong" and "bittter" are misleading. This is a premium amber ale that balances malt with hops to create a very drinkable and flavorful pub ale. It's between a pale ale and an ordinary British session bitter.

Because this isn't my recipe, I won't make a starter, but will stick with the slap pack that came with the kit. I might play around with the yeast if I knew the grain bill, but figured AHB has fine tuned their recipes. I plan to mash with 1.25 quarts of hot liquor per pound of grain and fly sparge with 4 gallons of 170 degree
H20. Primary fermentation in glass at 65 deg. F. with a secondary fermentation at the same temperature for three to four weeks. While awesome kegged, I think I'll bottle this one so I have a nice house ale on hand should I need to take some to friends. I've already got the Wee Heavy Scotch Ale and Irish Draught Ale on tap in the kegerator in my garage. I installed the stout faucet and dedicated beer gas tank this weekend.

If you are interested in the Premium/Best/Special Bitter category, then you access the style guidelines here.

Bottling Time!

I'm bottling my San Francisco lager today! Normally, I use dried malt extract instead of corn sugar, but I'm low so I'll use the corn sugar instead.

The other project I have for the weekend involves drilling a hole and installing my stout faucet so I can finally tap my Irish Draught Ale and use my nitro system.

On Tap? Wee Heavy Scotch Ale

On Deck? I have an Extra Special or Premium Bitter, a Pre-Prohibition Pilsner, and an Oatmeal Stout I need to brew sometime within the next month.

Dunkelweizen Risin'

The bacteria pellicle on my Flander's Red Ale is starting to fall. It won't be long until I can bottle the Rodenbach! The Irish Draught Ale is kegged and in the fridge, I just need to clean out my kegerator, install the wood flooring and complete my fridge project. That means filling my second 5 lb. tank with beer gas, installing manifolds in the fridge walls and putting in my disconnects and forward-sealing Perlick and stout faucets.

This weekend I decided to take it back to basics and brew an extract recipe. I'd tried mashing wheat once and the experience convinced me that weizens are one style that are probably better if brewed using an extract recipe. Here's the recipe I used:

• 8 lbs. of Weizen malt extract from Williams Brewing (60% German White Wheat and 40% Moravian 2-Row)
• 10 ounces of Munich malt (hand cracked and steeped at 150-155 deg. F. for 15-20 minutes)
• 6 ounces of Caramunich (steeped)
• 5 ounces of Special B (steeped)
• 7 ounces of Crystal 60 (steeped)

I started it with a 90 minute boil and added 1 ounce of Tettnang hops at 60 minutes. (2) vials of White Labs Hefeweizen Ale 300 yeast pitched at 65 deg. F. Glass carboy fermentation.

I'm using the pitching rates and recommendations from Jamil Zainasheff. I just picked up his book Brewing Classic Styles: 80 Winning Recipes Anyone Can Brew. After trying his Rodenbach, I'm sold on his methods and recipes! He's not afraid of big grain bills and typically recommends either 2 or 3 vials of yeast (if you don't build a starter) per batch. Most of the styles I like require anywhere from 12 to 20 lbs. of grain.

I'm going to need a bigger mash tun...

Has it been this long?

The beer challenge I laid out for myself kept me busy until May alright. May 2008!!!

I'm still working my way through my list and have a yeast starter ready for my Belgian Dubbel. The 7 gallon tun is only marginally better than the 5 gallon Gott. I should have just went with an 8 gallon or kept mashing in the 48 quart cooler I had. Both need better insulation.

Here's where I am:

• Flander's Red Ale -- in secondary letting the bacteria start their 8-12 month journey
• Irish Draught Ale -- in glass secondary awaiting full fridge conversion for second stout tap
• Scottish Ale -- in the fridge, kegged, and waiting to be carbonated and tapped

Updates on stuff:

• Kegerator: I have all the stuff I need to install a wooden shelf another tap (dedicated stout tap and beer gas set up) and run the gas lines outside of the fridge.
• 10 gallon brewery: I have everything I need to build a wooden frame, run propane gas lines, and install wheels. I have a March pump but need hoses and connections. Also, do I really need 10 gallon capacity? I guess if I find a beer I really like and want to make a bunch to share with neighbors (a pale ale or amber lager).
• Yeast starters: are now being conducted with a stir plate. Wow, the yeast you can build with a simple pint!

Next steps? I think I'll build a fermentation/lagering chamber out of some plywood, studs, insulation and a window air conditioning unit. Great for summer.

Seven Beers in Seven Weeks

Let the countdown begin! Here's the brewering challenge that will keep me occupied through early May:

1. Bourbon Barrel Robust Porter
2. 1850 60 Shilling Scotch Ale
3. Belgian Dubbel
4. Pre-prohibition American Lager
5. Flander's Sour Red Ale
6. California Common Ale
7. Irish Draught Ale

New Tun

I'm re-thinking my Old Faithful 5 gallon Gott as my primary mash tun. Using fly sparging, I was only able to achieve 69-75 percent effeceincy on my last two beers. Granted, they were higher gravity beers and one would expect a lower extraction, but the time I wasted with the sparge (45 minutes) could be shaved off with a batch sparge. Plus, I want a tun that will accomodate high-gravity 5 gallon batches. The 5 has a limit of about 13 lbs of grain.

I'm going to try batch sparging in a 28 quart (7 gallons) rectangular cooler from Coleman. This should give me a grain capacity of 20 lbs., more than enough for the bocks and Belgians I plan to brew until my 15 gallon converted Sanke brewery is constructed this summer. I'm not sure if that project is worth it, I enjoy brewing the 5 gallon batches inside, and my garage is a litte rustic.


The 48 quart I bought for this purpose is too long and shallow, and I've found I don't get a very good grain bed. Plus, my manifold doesn't drain evenly. The 28 quart has better dimensions to support a two arm manifold that can be used either for batch or fly sparging. Parts are on order from McMaster so that I can install a ball valve and attach it to a CPVC manifold.

Pending Brewery Projects:
-Test 10 gallon plastic containers for bulk grain storage (will mice chew through them to get at my grains?)
-Finish curing my 5 gallon oak barrel for the Robust Porter
-Rack Dortmunder into keg and finish lagering

President's Day

I used my three day weekend to brew back-to-back 5 gallon batches of a Scotch Ale and a Robust Porter. The scotch ale recipe is modified from the Scottish Wee Heavy recipe found on the Northern Brewer website. Instead of using 14 lbs. of Golden Promise, I used 12 so that it was closer to one of the shilling recipes I found in Noonan's Scotch Ale book. My OG was right on target at 1.070. The recipe is pretty straight forward. 1/2 lb. of Crystal, 6 ounces of Biscuit and 2 ounces of Special B add some color and flavor to the base malt. I used a single infusion mash program of 158 degrees F for an hour (15 quarts of liquor water) before sparging with about 4 and 1/2 gallons of 170 deg. water to collect 6.5 gallons of wort. 1 ounce of Fuggles is thrown in at the boil and another ounce 15 minutes into the boil. I used the White Labs 028 Edinburgh Yeast. I may have to move the primary upstairs from my basement, because the temperature down there is about 62-64 deg. F. and the yeast doesn't ferment well below 62 deg. It's been slow to ferment, taking a good week.


My makeshift carboy cozy:

Overall, the ale has a nice inch thick yeast pancake that looks healthy. I'm glad I pitched a starter.

The Robust Porter recipe is taken from Horst Dornbusch's article by the same name found in the September 2006, Vol. 12, No. 5 edition of Brew Your Own magazine. Essentially, the recipe calls for a single infusion of 14 quarts of liquor into 9.5 lbs. of Munton's Pale Ale malt, 3 ounces of Chocolate, 13 ounces of Special B, 14 ounces of Crystal (40L), and 13 ounces of Carastan (I just subbed more crystal here). My recipe may have been a bit off because my LHBS rounded the grains to even poundage. I weighed the adjuncts, so I'm pretty close. The mash temp is 158 deg. F. for an hour. Sparged with 170 deg. water until I had 6 gallons. My pre-boil gravity 1.050 was approximateto the article's 1.058, but after an hour boil it was 1.076. The hop schedule was .55 ounces of Magnum 15 minutes after the boil, 1/2 ounce of Tettnang 45 minutes into the boil, and 1/2 ounce of Glacier hops 5 minutes before knock off. I messed up the hop schedule by misreading the directions, and complicated things by going with a 60 minute boil versus a 75 minute. I pitched the White Labs 002 English Ale yeast and it has quickly fermented. I need to take a gravity reading to make sure it's done. This was my first time using the White Labs products and they seem to be comparable with Wyeast.

Some photos:

Yeast starter for the porter and scotch ale

It's too cold to lauter and mash outside! It was hard enough to do the full boil in the garage.

My 5 Gallon Mash Tun

I've dubbed this "old faithful" because it holds mash temperatures so well. This is the perfect tun for 5 gallon batches, provided you aren't trying to brew anything with more than 12 lbs. of grain. Experience has taught me to mix certain mashes in my hot liquor tank (also a 5 gallon cooler), then transfer them to my mash tun when lautering and sparging. I do this with certain beers to avoid a stuck sparge. Namely, recipes with a lot of adjunct grains (wheat and oats primarily). The false bottom is a stainless 9" screen attached to some vinyl hose, which is attached to a plastic male barb. This screws easily into the 1/2" coupler that comes standard with the Kewler Kitz valve from Zymico.