A Chef's Beer

[cdh]

Seeing that the chocolate malt is so much darker, I might use a little less than called for. It's going in at such a low amount that I assume it's more for color and flavor than body. Thoughts?

Good calls. I'd go from a quarter lb down to a handful of the chocolate malt. The darker choc will probably have less complex flavor to give, and a lot more color. Too much might take it past nutty to roasty and you might end up with a malty porter.

[Jim]

I can be moved into the confirmed column. I still need to procure ingredients, but there are plenty of local home brew shops so that's no problem. I just made 10 gallons of all grain India Pale Ale, so I'll be using some of the yeast in that ferment, the London ESB strain, in my batch; it usually gives a great malt profile, so it's an appropriate yeast.

[theakston]

Got all the ingredients. Unfortunately the malt was only available in 1lb bags so I may overdo some of these - especially the chocolate malt - if I can't restrain myself on brew day.

I got a Belgian Biscuit for my "mystery malt" . The yeast I'm using is a WhiteLabs "pitchable" yeast - Bedford British Ale yeast. It comes in a large vial and looks like it should be OK to use without a "starter" as it has a lot of yeast cells. Anyone have any experience with this type of yeast?

For those of you using a Wyeast "smack pack" - now is the time to get smacking if you haven't already (I always let it blow up in the pack then add to a "starter" - a bit of malt extract and water in a sterilized growler or large bottle covered with a bit of plastic wrap or even an airlock). This process usually takes 2-3 days depending on room temps and how old the yeast is.

Edited January 8, 2004 by theakston (log)

[wnissen]

Gaaarrr, turns out I won't be able to brew. I decided to start taking classes toward an M.S.C.S. and and that means I need Saturday to get my computer set up. Hope everyone has a successful brew day!

Walt

[iain]

Gaaarrr, turns out I won't be able to brew. I decided to start taking classes toward an M.S.C.S. and and that means I need Saturday to get my computer set up. Hope everyone has a successful brew day!

Walt

You could always do it on Sunday. Honestly, I'm not sure how much I'll be posting on Saturday anyway - though I wil be brewing.

[cdh]

My brew shop told me that my yeast would be coming in tomorrow, so I'm hoping their prediction was right. We'll see if I can actually brew on saturday or not. Yeast should at least be really fresh in the smack pack...

[theakston]

My brew shop told me that my yeast would be coming in tomorrow, so I'm hoping their prediction was right.  We'll see if I can actually brew on saturday or not.  Yeast should at least be really fresh in the smack pack...

Ask them to smack it for you as soon as it arrives then it should be ready for Saturday no problems. My old (sadly now closed) brew supply place always used to do that for customers to save them some time.

[iain]

My stuff is supposed to be arriving today. I'll have the pack smacked as soon as it arrives, but I hope it inflates enough to start on Saturday. Otherwise, it's Sunday for me.

[iain]

CDH - do you have a set of instructions you're working from for this recipe? I don't necesarily need one, but it might be helpful.

Edited January 9, 2004 by iain (log)

[theakston]

Well.....good luck everyone.

It should be good wortchilling weather tomorrow.

I'll post again Monday and let you know how mine's looking.

I'll probably be too busy to log in before then. Hope all goes well.

Cheers!

[cdh]

CDH - do you have a set of instructions you're working from for this recipe? I don't necesarily need one, but it might be helpful.

Here you are:

http://www.keystonehomebrew.com/beerkits/nutbrown.cfm

[cdh]

Well, the Wyeast shipment didn't arrive at my brew shop yet... they say it will probably appear on Monday, so I'll brew during the week. Best of luck to those infusing grains and boiling hops as I type.

Post any questions, and I'll do my best to answer them.

Edited January 11, 2004 by cdh (log)

[Jim]

Here are the specifics of my brew today. It took me about 3 hours.

Grain / extract bIll:

6# Alexander's Pale Male Extract

15 oz Belgian Caravienne

10 oz British 50-60L Crystal

3 oz Chocolate Malt

12 oz CaraPils

Hops:

2 oz domestic Fuggle leaf [4.2AA] 60 min boil

1 oz domestic Fuggle 15 min

1 oz domestic Fuggle knock out / cool down

Process Used:

Boiled 6 gal. local [Mercer Island, WA water... a soft water] 15 min

Steeped grains, cracked at the store, 30 min at 150F, sparged with 1 gal 150F water from boiled water

Added extract, previously soaked in hot water from tap to increase viscosity

Boiled for 10 min, skimmed, added hops per above and boiled 60 min more

Force chilled in 25 min to 68F

Strained hops, agitated to incorporate oxyzen

Pitched Wyeast London ESB yeast from last weeks batch of IPA

OG: 1054 at 60F

Saved 1.5 qts for priming later [frozen]

The chilled wort's taste was reasonably balanced between sweet and bitter, though to the hoppy side, with some hop aroma and flavour noted.

I'll report progress as there's any to report. Good luck to all other brewers!

[theakston]

Here's my version.

2 can's muntons Amber extract (they had no pale unfortunately)

1/2 lb chocolate malt

1/2 lb crystal malt

1 lb belgian biscuit malt

2 oz goldings hop pellets

1 oz Target hop pellets (couldn't resist)

1 oz whole fuggles

yeast is white labs bedford ale.

boiled 3 gallon water let it cool to around 160F tossed in the grain bag - using only half of the crystal as the extract was darker than I wanted already.

Turned it off and went to brunch.

Came back about 3 hours later and removed the grain bag. sparging with another 1/2 gallon water

brought it to the boil then added the extract, 1 goldings and half the target.

Added the rest of the pellets after boiling for 1/2 hour.

Boiled for a furhter 1/2 hours adding the fuggles for the last couple of minutes.

cooled to 65F transferred to bucket, topped up with water and pitched the yeast around 5PM Saturday.

Looks to be OK with a thin layer of bubbles forming on top, but slower than I would have expected had I used a yeast starter. Hope it hits the wild and frothy stage soon.

As I expected it is pretty dark but without any patent malt I don't think it will veer into stoutland. Smells pretty good too!

Happy fermentation!

[iain]

I brewed on Saturday but didn't have time to post until now. I meant to take photos during the process but forgot to charge the camera. Sorry about that.

Grain / extract bill:

6.6 lb Munton's Amber Malt Extract

10 oz Simpson's Medium Crystal 50-60°L

8 oz Dingemans Caravienne 21°L

8 oz Dingemans Biscuit Malt 24.5°L

2 oz Crisp Chocolate 625-635°L

Hops:

1.5 oz Kent Golding UK Hops (bittering) 60 min boil

1 oz Fuggles Hops (finishing) 2 min boil

Process Used:

Brought 2.5 gal. spring water to boil, with grains (cracked at store) steeping in muslin bags ~30 min

At 170° F, removed grain bags

At boil, added extract, previously soaked in hot water from tap to increase viscosity

When fully dissolved and boiling again, added bittering hops (in muslin bag) and boiled 58 min

Added finishing hops (in muslin bag) and boiled 2 minutes longer

Chilled in ice bath, discarded hops

Racked into 2.5 gallons cold water in primary fermenter (plastic 6 gallon bucket)

Agitated well to aerate

Pitched Wyeast #1098 British Ale Yeast

Sealed bucket with lid and airlock

Some notes:

I broke my hydrometer as I was unpacking my gear, so I was unable to take an OG reading.

I would have preferred to use a glass carboy as the primary fermentation vessel, but I don't have one. I'll be borrowing one from a friend for the secondary, though.

Right now, two days later, the brew is fermenting nicely. The airlock is perking quite quickly. My biggest concern, though, is temperature control. Basically I have none. Living in a NYC apartment means I have to deal with crazy temperature swings. On the high side, it often gets up to ~74°F. It gets as low as 60°F. I'm not so worried about the low, but the high does bother me. According to Wyeast, 1098 does well from 64°F to 72°F. Do you guys think the extra few degrees will make a big difference or contribute to off flavors? Wyeast also recommends limiting night and day temperature fluctuations. Again, I simply can't do this. I've made beer here in the past with no problems, but I don't think it got quite this hot those other times. Thoughts?

I'm looking forward to hearing everyone else's accounts. More to the point, I'm looking forward to drinking five gallons of delicious brown ale.

[Jim]

I've had more problems with temps too low than too high with British type yeasts, so I should think you'd be ok. I'm finding my temp is too low, so I've moved the fermentor to keep it warmer.

[iain]

I just opened up the fermenter to see how the foam was forming and was greeted by a truly excellent smell and a beautiful brown, crusty Krausen head. Since I forgot pictures on Saturday, I figured I'd try to make up for that here:

The primary fermenter - sitting on the floor right next to my computer desk. The lid is slightly ajar here, b/c I just opened it up.

Crusty brown foam. Mmm.

And a little closer.

If anyone else thought to take pictures, please post them! If anyone is still to brew, try to take some.

[theakston]

Iain I agree with Jim that you shouldn't have any problems with it getting too warm. Also even though the air temp may fluctuate during the day, it takes quite a while to affect a 5 gallon bucket of wort so it will keep more constant than you think. I think mine is a little too cool right now at a constant 65, but then it probably will just take a little longer.

Another thing - I think that a bucket is better than a carboy for English styles and English yeasts. Almost all english brewers use an open fermenter and the yeast will work best in a similar environment. This is especially true of the Ringwood strain that is similar to that used by Sam Smiths in their famous "Yorkshire square" slate fermenters.

Having said that I will rack to a carboy with an airlock one the fermentation has almost stopped. this will give the beer some time to clear before I bottle it.

[theakston]

And now I've seen the pictures it looks to be much further along than mine. Looks perfect.

Edited January 12, 2004 by theakston (log)

[cdh]

If anyone else thought to take pictures, please post them! If anyone is still to brew, try to take some.

Will do. Have yet to hear from my guys... I should have controlled my wacky yeast compulsion and taken something they had in stock... but I just couldn't brew with Whitbread yeast... Will take lots of pictures once I'm able to brew.

[iain]

The temp fluctuations are from the fermenting vessel itself. I have one of those little strip thermometers stuck on the side of the bucket (which you can see in the top photo - it's at 70 right now).

[iain]

Another thing - I think that a bucket is better than a carboy for English styles and English yeasts. Almost all english brewers use an open fermenter and the yeast will work best in a similar environment.

Silly question perhaps: is the bucket with lid and airlock considered an open fermenter or closed? I always thought open was truly open - with nothing between the beer and the air but the Krausen head.

[cdh]

Its not an either/or kind of situation... A bucket w/ airlock has slightly more air exposure than a carboy with an airlock. A carboy without an airlock is still pretty damn closed, given its narrow neck and the propensity of CO2 to form a blanket over the beer unless disturbed by air currents... the propensity to diffuse into equilibrium with the air would be inhibited by the narrow neck too.

Considering the advice I've been given on the Ringwood yeast, I intend to go a step closer to fully open than my usual bucket w/ airlock, and just do a bucket with a dishtowel rubber banded around the top. The towel will keep most airborne beasties away, and there will still be decent access to oxygen since the diffusion won't be affected too much by the towel.

[Chad]

So? When can we expect results/tasting notes, et al? I don't brew, but I've been fascinated by this thread. Makes me want to try it. I'm eager to hear how the group experiment turned out.

CHad

[jhlurie]

So? When can we expect results/tasting notes, et al? I don't brew, but I've been fascinated by this thread. Makes me want to try it. I'm eager to hear how the group experiment turned out.

One assumes if they make a regular habit of this, they may do other "rounds" of brewing. Maybe others can join in at that point.

These guys are doing a heck of a job here though.