Thursday, July 18, 2019

Summer mit hefe

The Summer Wheat - Hefewizen

Chilling on the backyard with Mrs. North on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. Kids were playing, birds chirping, beers were cold.

6 lbs 65/35 Wheat LME from Northern Brewer
1.5oz backyard mix for 60 min.
Chilled.
Bring to 5 gal. volume.
Pitch dry Danstar wheat yeast directly to the wort.



When it comes to hefewizen, I just let the yeast do the work. Simple malt, light hops, add yeast, stress them out a little to add flavor.

Hour 16 or so, open up the fermenter and covered loosely with tinfoil.
+78 f. for the first day dropped to 78 as fermentation slowed down.
Resealed fermenter before the krausen dropped back down. (probably should have skimmed)

Brewed: July 14th 2019
Racked: Never. This will prove to be my downfall.
Packaged: 8/21/2019

So, this beer soured. Hard. Because I'm dumb. For open fermentation, the beer needs to be racked out from under the krausen. There's a pucker factor present now.

July 202 Update

It's coming up on a year old, a full year in a cold keg! The beer is puckeringly sour but not to the point where the back of your tongue will scream out in pain. It seemed to sour to a point and then stabilize there. 

It's thinner than a wheat and perfectly clear. The fermenting beer had a krausen so I'm confident that it fermented with the German Wheat yeast before the lacto took over. Surprisingly, there's no sign of bananas or cloves at all. It's actually a decent sour base beer, although I wouldn't want to enter it into any contests.

July 9th 2020 - tasty 
It cuts through on a hot day

I'm still not sure what I want to do with this beer. (and the keg that it's in ) I need to check it to see what kind of pelicle it has floating on it. Maybe I could start a "sour program" and transfer fermented beer into that keg. I like the idea but I need to get a better handle on the funk milk that I like the best.

Update: I packaged the remaining 2 gallons in 22oz bottles. No pelicle in the keg, just clean beer. 

- Brew North

Wednesday, June 19, 2019

Fruit Bazooka!

Northern Brewer's Fruit Bazooka extract kit.

Jed and I brewed this in February, the same day as the German Lager. Good times.






1lb rolled oats (in a boat)
6 lb pilsen LME (60 min)
2lbs plisen DME (15 min)
1lb wheat DME (15 min)

Hop Stand 30 min
1oz, Mosaic
1oz Citra
1oz Equakot
1oz Azarcca

Stick in the snow bank to chill.

OYL 200 Tropical IPA @ 76f

Dry hop during fermentation
1oz, Mosaic
1oz Equakot

Dry hop 5-7 days before packaging
1oz Citra
1oz Azarcca

Brewed: 02/22/2019
Racked: 03/02/2019
Packaged: 04/15/2019

Fresh IPA.

This was much better fresh. Or maybe the sweetness of the beer had a hard time competing with the dryness of the lagers I had on tap this spring. Still, a good beer. The aroma, 4 months in, is still fruity but not overpowering. The beer is sweet, cut slightly by the bitterness but maybe under attenuated. It's really a one and done beer. Maybe two. Interesting, not bitter like a west coast IPA but not an east cost, hazy IPA either. (Mrs. Brew North's fav.)

I've made better Azaracca/ Citra beers. Jerrylo is a good one too. I think I prefer the malt bill of a pale ale rather than a stronger IPA. Light and refreshing are two qualities that keep me coming back to a beer, not that an IPA needs to be that, I just miss them from time to time.

- Brew North

Cheap swill

Brewing some cheap lager beer today. I've got 5lbs of Pilsen DME, bags of backyard hops (cascade?), and buckets of trub from the schwartz beers. That and the basement is the right temperature for cold fermentation. Not so much lagering but hay, it's cheap swill right?

I'm hoping the Pilsen DME makes a nice straw colored beer. I threw in 0.5 lbs of carapils for head retention and it's magic properties. I'm not sure if a half was a good amount or if I should have went for a full pound. At a rate of 0.5lbs/ 5 gal, who knows if I'll even be able to tell it's there.

Another bonus, I'm doing it on the stove top like the olden days and the house smells so good!

Feb-brew-ary, too cold to go outside!

Stove-top brewing!

The first sip meets with approval.

Not bad for a stove-top brew.

0.5lb carapills
2lb Pils DME 60 min
2oz backyard hops 60min
4lbs Pils DME 10 min
Irish Moss 15 min

Brewed: 02/22/2019
Racked: 03/02/2019
Packaged: 05/01/2019

Pitch "washed" trub from schwartz. (this will be beer #3 for this batch of yeast.)

Stuck it in a snowbank to chill.

It tastes like... Miller Genuine Draft. It's nothing like Lite, High Life, Bud, Heineken (fresh not skunked), or Grain Belt. It tastes "cheaper" than Minnesota Gold or Surly Hell. Something about the backyard hops that is very familiar.

In the future, this will be the 10 gallon batch, it's very drinkable, and stronger than you'd think. I have no idea what the OG/FG are, tt wasn't that kind of brew day, but two pints in and it's doing a fine job.

- Ride North


The Schwartz

The schwartz bier, a German response to porter.


A ten gallon pot for a ten gallon batch.


This may be the only picture I have of the 2018 Schwartz bier in the wild.
But there is 5 more gallons hanging out in the basement waiting to be kegged. 
(and it's June!)


9 lb Pils LME, 3lb pilsen DME @ 60 min, 

Steeped: 1 lb Carafa III, 0.5 lbs roasted barley, 0.5 lb carahell 

0.5 oz Magnum (1 yr old), 0.5 oz GH 60 min, 1.5 oz German Hallertau 15 min

Omega German Lager I OYL - 106 (trube from dunkel)

Brewed Jan. 5th, 2019
Racked Jan. 23rd 2019
Kegged ?
First keg was emptied in June 2019. 
Second keg TBD!

The 1lb Caraffa III made this beer very rosty. 0.5 would have done nicely.
The bitterness was spot on. (low)

- Brew North

Tuesday, June 18, 2019

the Dunkel

the "chocolate" dunkel

Brewed 12-23-2018

3 lb Munich LME,
3 lb Pilsen DME,
0.5lb melinoidain,
0.5 cara aeromatic,
0.5 chocolate rye

1oz GH 4%AA 60,
0.5 oz German Tradition 6.5%AA 15

Omega German Lager I OYL - 106
56f 14 days,
58f - 63f 3days,
56f (no lager other than keg storage in serving fridge)

2018-12-23, 2019-01-06, 2019-01-22



Mmmm, the smells.


This thin pot just does this.




I am an Uncle. I like a Dunkel. I am fun. I am a fun Uncle. A fun uncle is a Funkle. Fun Uncles with Duckels are Funkles with Dunkels. Merry Christmas a Dunkel New Year!

- Mrs. Brew North

Wednesday, January 30, 2019

How I brew with malt extract

This seems like a good place to start a blog.

It takes about 3 hours to brew with malt extract.

Start your yeast - 10 min

If you have a smack pack, smack it or pitch 1 to 2 dry yeast packs.
sometimes I will pour the cooled wort onto the yeast from a beer I just transferred
Or... collect yeast from your primary and "clean" it.
  • In a big container let the sediment settle for a day or two
  • pour off the liquid
  • pour off the top, healthy active yeast into a smaller container or beer bottles.
  • store for later use (you may need to add "pasteurized" water for storage)
When reusing "cleaned" yeast from a previous batch or brewing higher gravity beers, make a starter.
  • boil some water in the microwave
  • add some sugar
  • cool it to room temp in the fridge 
  • add the yeast and let it sit out while you brew

Beer tea - 20 min

  • Fill the pot to about 6" from the top
  • put your specialty grains into the "tea bag" 
  • make beer tea for about 20 min while the water heats up. 
  • don't let the bag rest on the bottom, it will burn
  • Heat to water to 160 - 170 F (to hot to touch but not hot enough to burn you ;) 
  • Turn off the burner
  • Sanitize the equipment (while the grains steep)

at this point your equipment should be clean but not sanitized.
  • fill a bucket with warm water and star-san or whatever you are using
  • throw in the air lock, air lock gasket, big spoon or paddle and a bowl/ plate/ Tupperware (something to set the small bits on when you're done)
  • pump the star-san water through your racking cane and tubing

Boil the wort - 90 min

  • remove the tea bag
  • With the heat off, stir in your malt extract 
  • some beers will have a mid-boil malt extract addition
  • this is to increase bitterness extraction/ hop utilization
  • waiting to add 1/2 the extract will produce a more bitter beer with the same amount of early-addition hops.
  • While stirring. bring the wort back to a boil (this could take a while)
  • Turn the burner down until you have nice a rolling boil
  • !!! This is where biol overs happen, throwing sticky sugar water everywhere
  • Don't freak, just turn the burner off as fast as you can.
  • and/ or spray with water

  • Add the first hop addition
  • Start counting backwards from 60 min.
  • Crack a beer.
  • Add additional hops and/or malt if called for (often at t-15 min, t-5min, and 0 min)
  • For IPAs a 20 min whirlpool hop addition may be called for. (during cool down/ post heat)
  • Don't do this for malt forward, traditional beers and/or with "traditional" hops
  • Best with fruity new skool hops. mmm.
  • Dry hopping the beer (after primary fermentation) can give you more aroma 
  • BUT it will clog your racking cane when you transfer it, best to use a hop bag.

Cool down the wort as fast as you can! -30 min

You will have been drinking so pay attention to this part. :)

  • Cool down the wort to room temp (70 or 80F)
  • Do not slosh it! Do not pour it out of the kettle hot! 
  • Adding oxygen to hot wort can ruin your beer. Ruin. Maybe. (hot-side aeration, is it a thing?) 
  • Fill the sink up with COLD water and put the kettle into the water.
  • You will need to change out the water 2 or 3 times
  • OR stick it into a snowbank 
  • OR use an immersion chiller, which is what I do.
  • Add air, water, yeast and more air
  • pour the cool wort into your sanitized bucket
  • add cold water until you have 5 gallons 
  • add your yeast and yeast nutrient
  • put the lid on
  • rock the bucket back and forth, sloshing the shite out of it to add more air.
  • the yeast need oxygen to grow
  • you just boiled all the dissolved O2 out
  • install the air lock 
  • this is what keeps the bad yeast and bacteria out of your beer
  • some people put vodka in the the air lock but I just use water

Fermentation (& cleanup) - 30 min

Where matters, ferment ales in a cool dark place

in the summer I put them on the basement floor
in the winter they go on a shelf in the basement or in a first floor closet
These are my options so I don't get too hung up on the temp

It's better to adjust your yeast to your conditions
Shoot for the middle of the temperature range for a healthy fermentation
if you are fermenting on the cold side of the temp range for your yeast, this may stress your yeast.
warm the beer up for the last day or two of the primary fermentation
this step will help the yeast clean up any off flavors that they may have produced
this comes from lager fermentation (more on lagering in a future post)

warmer temps = more yeast flavors
cooler temps = less yeast flavors
cold temps = no fermentation?

If you're using a glass carboy, wrap it in an old towel to keep the light out.
Also, leave enough head space for the krusen! and maybe use a blow off tube.
Also, glass breaks in horrible awful ways so be careful!

Conclusion

That's pretty much it. Extract brewing doesn't have to be boring. There's still a ton of brewing process and technique to play with form hopping to yeast selection and fermentation. And with a 3 hour turn around time, it doesn't take up all of your day. You can even do it after dinner on a school night!

So, as the wise man often says, "Relax, don't worry, and have a home brew"

- Brew North