Homebrew Journal: I'm ba-ack

[Audiofan2]

The yeast was the Nottingham dry yeast and I used two packs, and it is fermenting at 66F ambient temperature.

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Is there a benefit to using more yeast?

[Audiofan2]

A

The Lucky Lab rocks- I heard that they were opening a second location. The last time I was out there they made the hoppiest beer that I ever had in Portland, which is really saying something.

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They are up to three locations now. I believe all kegs are sold from their NE Quimby beer hall. It is nice to be able to call up and speak directly to the brew master to order my kegs. We have quite a few parties and the Lucky Lab is always a favorite. Their Blue Dog Amber was well received at a party that we hosted last night. A mix of coffee, nuts, and malt are the most significant flavor traits. Their Super Dog IPA is very hoppy with a nice floral scent. Plus at $55 for ponies and $110 for regular kegs the cost can't be beat.

While discussing Portland beer, I would also mention that Laurelwood is also very good as well.

Edited December 6, 2006 by Audiofan2 (log)

[TongoRad]

The yeast was the Nottingham dry yeast and I used two packs, and it is fermenting at 66F ambient temperature.

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Is there a benefit to using more yeast?

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A shorter lag time is what I was looking for, but in general you'll get a much better end result if the yeast isn't stressed. It is possible to overpitch, but my gut tells me that it is very difficult to do it as a homebrewer. The dry yeast is also cheap enough that it made sense to go with the extra one just in case- mostly because I knew that the og would be in the 1.060's and could handle more than one pack.

I miss Portland, it's been a while since I've been there. Two of my college buddies moved out there in the early 90's and started working at some of the local breweries. I visited a number of times and became exposed to the beer scene, went to the beer fests as a tag-along insider, visited Newport and Bend just to have a few pints, stuff like that. I had just started homebrewing about that time but those trips really gave me some focus and drive; I wanted to make fresh hoppy beers like those I experienced on the west coast (cask conditioned Bridgeport Blue Heron was really something special back then), so that's where a lot of my brewing energies were concentrated. I'll have to crank out one of those recipes for the next batch, though I might just have to ramp up the hops even more to get in line with how times have changed (the guys in my club thought I was nuts to use 4 ounces of aroma and dry hops, but that just seems par for the course these days, now doesn't it?).

[TongoRad]

I believe Northern Brewer stocks Munich (and maybe a few other varieties) of LME that you don't usually see.

I've had pretty good luck getting pale beers out of DME, but an important factor I feel is being able to do full-volume boils. Having your sugars spread out over 5 gallons of water instead of 2 makes for a bit less caramelized sugars, which contribute to the darkening (and keep your beer from finishing dry in some cases)

Just outta curiousity what problems did you have adding the DME late in the boil? I've done that a few times without incident, mostly  as a different slant on avoiding caramelized sugars as I mentioned above.

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Thanks for the tip on Northern Brewer. I checked, but it seems like they're out of stock for now (maybe a lot of people were brewing Oktoberfests in the fall... ). It is definitely something to keep an eye out for.

I'm sure there is a technique involved with the late DME addition, but I really had a big problem with clumping and sticking to the spoon and getting it to dissolve. I lost track of how many times I said "Aw Crap!" Funny thing is, that didn't happen during my initial addition of the DME. I'm thinking that 3 lbs was too much to add all at once and it really brought the temperature down too fast, and that the right way to do it is a little at a time. At the moment, though, it's still a little too soon for me to think rationally about it.

[Malkavian]

Huh, brewing dry up over the holidays?

I've got a chocolate stout going that I'm doing for a friend. Post the recipe when I can dig it up (What, organized, me? NEVAR!) Thing's taking it's sweet time due to the low temps here (55ish indoors) but I'm interested to see how it'll come out. Using Safale S-04 just for the heck of it.

Also trying to work up some recipes usin Sorghum syrup...you guys ever played with that stuff? We have about 100# at work, got it in for a handful of customers who wanted to be able to do gluten free brews...but now it's just sittin there. I like the taste of it, just not sure how it would shine through once hops, specialty grains and etc are in the mix.

[mtigges]

Hope tongo is ok ...

Posting is definitely sporadic in forum #32.

Re homebrew ... I'm having a few friends over for a sporting event (note that I'm writing this on saturday night, not sunday) we'll be sampling an all amarillo pale ale, a beautifull rich stout and a so-so pilsner.

[TongoRad]

Thanks for the concern, guys. Man, I have been remiss, haven't I? Sorry about that. The 'craziness' I alluded to earlier in the thread centered around a long-term project I had been working on that was coming to an end, and I was searching for a new position. I am at a new job now, and things are going very well, couldn't be happier , actually (no more commuting to NYC!!!), but the downside is that I no longer have time to do (ahem)"online research" from work. Add to that a lot of weekends away from home and I haven't been posting much lately.

Anyway...

The Porter was great. We had it at my parents' house over Christmas- the recipe is solid, and it was pretty nicely conditioned by the time it was served. The thing is- we only went through about half of it and the rest has been sitting there ever since. I had a crazy thought, lately, and that was to innoculate what was left with some Brettanomyces culture as a bit of an experiment. I've enjoyed that 'barnyard' quality in similar beers and there are a few gallons just sitting there waiting for something to happen, so why not?

I'll try to post back more often when I can get that keg to my place. Sounds like you guys have been up to good things. Enjoy the brews!

[Malkavian]

Tongo- One of my co workers actually requested some samples of sour beer from a customer with the intent of pasteurizing it for use as a souring agent in porters and stouts to add a little bit of extra "kick" ---you might try that if your inoculated porter gets too tangy to drink straight.

[Audiofan2]

Huh, brewing dry up over the holidays? 

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I did an IPA that turned out pretty good and just bottled an Orange Honey Wheat, both 5 gallon batches. Funny thing though, I was able to score a keg of Eugene Brewing Company (Rogue) Honey Orange Wheat for only $70 for a Superbowl party that I had for about 40 people on Sunday. I guess I picked a bad beer to brew as with the keg I may get a bit tired of this beer. Trying to figure out what I want to brew next. Rogue has an amazing Oak Rum Stout that I have been buying by the growler weekly that would be fun to re-create. That is the fun part about homebrewing, to collect a bunch of beer that I have brewed in the past, do tastings, then try and improve using techniques I have learned.

[TongoRad]

Tongo-  One of my co workers actually requested some samples of sour beer from a customer with the intent of pasteurizing it for use as a souring agent in porters and stouts to add a little bit of extra "kick" ---you might try that if your inoculated porter gets too tangy to drink straight.

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Yeah- that's definitely the proper way to do it. I once brewed 10 gallons of porter with a guy who did that to his half, and I dry-hopped my half (I'll admit now that his was the better one ). He was really into brewing lambics- even blended his guezes with some portion of 3-year old stuff- and had a good handle on how to do it. Essentially he just separated a gallon of the beer, innoculated it until he thought it was strong enough, pasteurized it and blended it back into the rest prior to bottling.

My hope is that I don't have to go through with all of that because there isn't that much left, and it isn't being bottled. Heck- if I plan it right it will probably disappear in one session. The beauty of the keg is that I can periodically take small samples to see when it is 'ready', and then rapidly chill it to slow things down or even stop it. Again, the key word there is 'hope', but I am feeling adventurous.

[Malkavian]

Yeah- that's definitely the proper way to do it. I once brewed 10 gallons of porter with a guy who did that to his half, and I dry-hopped my half (I'll admit now that his was the better one  ). He was really into brewing lambics- even blended his guezes with some portion of 3-year old stuff- and had a good handle on how to do it. Essentially he just separated a gallon of the beer, innoculated it until he thought it was strong enough, pasteurized it and blended it back into the rest prior to bottling.

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Sounds a lot like that guy I mentioned; he was really into lambic, geuze and saison techniques.

Right now I'm just waiting on my chocolate stout to finish fermenting (taking forever in this cold weather, my house is about the right temp to lager in on the ground floor!) and I just started a yeast culture from an interesting bottle of Scottish ale I found.

Next up: Making a metheglin from an old sherry concentrate kit I got on my last day of work. Should be interesting.