Q&A: Homebrewing

[Matty]

Wow, you've been busy Chris.

I've been looking at a Dubbel recipe but the one I have takes at least 4.5 months before its ready. Is that a standard?

Also wondered if its worth doing a Kolsch. I've never tried it but was looking for a light beer to brew as have a dark bitter in primary at the moment. Have you ever brewed this? Any thoughts?

I'm sure there are others out there who have found this obsession via your course Chris. Its such a consuming and inexpensive hobby, and your friends get to benefit as well. Its a win-win as they say in business circles. Many thanks again.

Matt

[cdh]

16 to 18 weeks for a dubbel seems excessive. They say that the Rochefort monks only age their beers a week for each degree... so a 6 rests 6 weeks, the 8 for 8 and the 10 for 10... The dubbel recipes I'm accustomed to are all at or below the 6 degrees sort of range so maybe a month of resting after the fermentation comes to an end might prove beneficial.

The beer I brewed on September 14 was quite tasty today, though has a bit of mellowing to do... It was intended to be quite dry, and came out that way... it may be improved by a little sweetness that could be added by a bit of a light crystal malt... but here is the malty but dry version for a 5 gallon yield:

2.5 lb. Belgian pale

2.5 lb. Belgian Pilsner

.5 lb. Dextrine malt (Cara-Pils)

2 oz. Melanoidin

4 oz. Belgian CaraMunich

4 oz. Belgian Special B

1 lb. American Munich

4 oz. Belgian biscuit

Mash around 152F.

1 lb. Cane sugar

2 lb. Light dry malt extract

1 oz. Willamette (3.8% AA, 60 min.)

.5 oz. Perle (8.6% AA, 60 min.)

Wyeast 1762 Belgian Abbey II fermented at about 68F.

Edited October 5, 2006 by cdh (log)

[Matty]

I'd like to make that. I'll have to start scouring the UK suppliers for those malts.

The most exotic grain bill addition I have done so far is to put some chocolate malt in with my pale and crystal.

btw I live right in the middle of where East Kent Goldings are grown and finding that a nice hop for British bitters.

Cheers,

Matt

[FoodMan]

I've got an espresso stout and two variations on a belgian dubbel in the works

Sounds right up my alley for my next beer. Actually I still want to do that Porter with the wood chips and all. I would like it to be ready by November if possible. Any recipes you've tried for that?

What exactly is a Dubbel?

Also, will the golden ale I made really benefit that much from aging even though I did not use the Saison yeast?

[Msk]

I can't keep that Golden Around long enough to age, I just kicked a 5 gallon keg of it las week. Everyone I know that drinks that stuff can't get enough of it.

I recently brewed a nut brown from Northern Brewer, and its nice. I think I messed up though and I only produced about 3.5 gallons of beer when I was supposed to make 5. The resulting beer was very chocolatey versus nutty. However it is drinking really nicely now with some age.

Next up is the Northern Brewer Dubbel kit. I kind of like the kits because they pre-measure all the grains and there is no waste. However, maybe I'll do your recipe Chris and pitch it on the yeast cake of this Dubbel.

Chris you gave me the bug bad. I have even started listening to The Brewing Network

For my next batch I am going to try and control my fermentation temps better snd ferment at 64-65.

Glad to see everyone doing well, thanks again.

Msk

[Matty]

Chris,

I've got my sights on a wheat beer brewday this weekend. The recipe I have is

Pale malt 2.5kg

Wheat malt 2.5kg

Hallertauer Hersb 28g FB

Wyeast 3098

However I'd like to introduce a little more maltiness (is that Amber Wheat territory?) and I'd like to try to use from what I have available:

British Crystal Malt

Melanoidin Malt

Cara Red

What do you think is best, and at what quantity? My thought would be 200g of Melanoidin (?).

Cheers,

Matt

[cdh]

The Melanoidin is the way to go, I'd say... You might also use Biscuit or Aromatic for that purpose, but they're all similar in effect.

You could, alternatively, use 500g of Munich or Vienna in place of the 200g of Melanoidin, if you wanted to increase the fermentables while adding some maltiness.

[cdh]

For my next batch I am going to try and control my fermentation temps better snd ferment at 64-65.

Now that we're getting past summer, playing with yeasts that like it chilly does get much easier... Summer is the time for brewing the wacky Belgian styles that don't mind a warmer ferment... the German styles that demand long cool fermentations are a fine winter project.

I would say that there is a lot of overstatement about how terrible beers that aren't fermented as cold as possible end up. But there are some people in the world who really hate every flavor that yeast produces and go out of their way to avoid any beers that have allowed the yeast to express themselves in any way other than ethanol.

[Msk]

I think every beer I have made has been underattenuated and full of esters. I have still loved every one better than the mass markket beers. However, I am really interested in the impact of proper yeast pitching and fermentation temperature control wll have on the quality of the beer.

The fermentation temperature one is a tough one, the yeast piece I'll just do with a starter. There is a great yeast pitching calculator at Mr Malty According to this I have been underpitching by 1/2 to 1/3.

My fisrst fermentation control will be in a plastic tub with water and frozen ice in liter soda bottles swapped out to ty to maintain mid 60s.

Your advice so far has been spot on Chris, I have even gone back to buckets from my carboy because of the glass issue. I also bought a Therminator to hasten the cooling of the wort to pitching temps, and that has had a huge positive impact on my beer clarity. ( Don't have a pond nearby )

Time for me is more of an issue than budget so equipment that makes thing easier and faster are well worth it for me.

Msk

[cdh]

I also bought a Therminator to hasten the cooling of the wort to pitching temps, and that has had a huge positive impact on my beer clarity. ( Don't have a pond nearby  )

Ah... you found that picture of my wort chiller in action back in the Chef's Beer Thread?

Edited October 9, 2006 by cdh (log)

[Matty]

Chris,

Thanks for your guidance on the Weizen. I'll report back.

Cheers,

Matt

[Msk]

I also bought a Therminator to hasten the cooling of the wort to pitching temps, and that has had a huge positive impact on my beer clarity. ( Don't have a pond nearby  )

Ah... you found that picture of my wort chiller in action back in the Chef's Beer Thread?

←

Your cooler rocks...no pun intended.

Msk

[FoodMan]

I got to pop open a bottle of the latest batch and it did not dissapoint. This was a pretty gold color and very crisp and clear. The bitter hop edge is certainly very very mild. As expected I did not have much of the tangy flavor since I did not use a saison yeast.

[cdh]

Elie- Glad to hear that Saison meets with your approval. It is a great summery beer, being both light and complex with a good hop bitterness in the background.

What are you brewing next?

[cdh]

I just ran across a great reference/summary of information about a lot of grains that you might want to use in building recipes of your own. Have a look at

http://www.carolinabrewmasters.com/06Aprgrains.html

[FoodMan]

Elie-  Glad to hear that Saison meets with your approval.  It is a great summery beer, being both light and complex with a good hop bitterness in the background. 

What are you brewing next?

←

I definitly would like to tackle that Porter, like we talked about with some wood chips in there. Any ideas how to do this? Do you have a formula you've tried.

[cdh]

Didn't Michael post a porter recipe a few pages back... If people are ready to go on another brew now, maybe we should drop him a PM and let him lead that brew, since I've not brewed a porter in a long time, and am not entirely sure on the dark grain proportions that work best.

As to the wood chips, they'd be a final addition after things are done fermenting, so you could add wood to some of your beer after you've siphoned some off to bottle, giving you the chance to try both the woody version and the sans-wood version.

Edited October 25, 2006 by cdh (log)

[TongoRad]

Thanks for the invitation, Chris.

Hello again, everybody. I'd be happy to offer any assistance I can. I've brewed many many Porters of varying sizes and substyles as it is one of my very favorite types of beer and I think I've got a pretty good handle on the recipe aspect of it. For starters I'll re-post the recipe that I posted a few pages back:

Porter

2 ½ gal. ferment (I will be boiling 2 3/4 gal.)

3 lb. Light DME

6 oz. Crystal Malt 80L

5 oz. Chocolate Malt or 6 oz. Carafa I (de-husked)

Crack grains, place in strainer bag and steep 30 min at 155F

1 oz. Goldings (6%) or 6 AAU- 60 min.

44 IBU approx. @ 25% util.

½ oz. Tettnang @ 5 min.

½ oz. Tettnang – @ Flameout

o.g. 1.054ish proj. f.g. 1.014

Nottingham Dry Yeast at 68F

The recipe above is definitely a quaffer, and on the hoppy side. In fact, it is very much in the ballpark of Sierra Nevada's Porter- so get some of that if you haven't tried it for a point of reference. The stuff available in the NYC area lately is particularly fresh (bottled in mid-August) and drinking exceedingly well.

Elie- I have an idea for your oak-tinged beer, and it is a bit different from the recipe above. Maltier, less hoppy, higher gravity, and a bit more of the chocolate malt. I did a smoked porter once that was a takeoff on the high-gravity recipe in Terry Foster's book and was one of the best beers I have ever brewed. Remove the smoked malt and it should be quite suitable for what you are looking for. Just let me know if you are looking to steep the specialty grains or do a full mash, and I'll check my notes to come up with something for you.

[FoodMan]

Chris-

Do you mean that after bottling say half the porter, the rest is left in a vessel and wood chips are added and allowed to steep for a week then bottled?

Michael-

Thanks for the recipe. The one you posted sounds good, but I would certainly appreciate it if you can find the other "maltier" one. I can do either a mash (like the last recipe I made) or steep. I also prefer to make a 4-5 gallon batch at a time. Thanks.

[cdh]

   

Chris-

Do you mean that after bottling say half the porter, the rest is left in a vessel and wood chips are added and allowed to steep for a week then bottled?

Exactly what I meant.

[FoodMan]

In doing some research for my own Porter recipe, a question occured to me that I really have not though of before. What is a good rule of thumb to distinguish between a grain that is meant to just be steeped Vs. one that needs to be mashed?

In the tutorial, Chris says grains that do not carry the label "Crystal" or "Cara" need to be mashed. Is it that simple or is there more to it? I am assuming that there is no harm in mashing a steepable grain but the reverse is not true, right?

Take this English Porter recipe for example, I think all the grains with the exception of the "1 lb. medium crystal malt" need mashing, but it would not hurt to mash that too. right?

6 lbs. amber malt extract

1 lb. British pale malt

1 lb. medium crystal malt

10 oz. chocolate malt

1/4 lb. Special "B" malt

2 oz. black patent malt (optional)

3/4 oz. Target or Northdown hops (bittering)

1/2 oz. Fuggles or Willamettes hops (flavoring)

1/2 oz. Fuggles or Willamettes hops (finishing)

2/3 cup brown sugar (for priming)

1 pkg. Safale S-04 (or Wyeast #1028, #1968 or White Labs British, Burton, or English)

1 pkg. Bru-Vigor (yeast food)

[cdh]

In that list, only the british pale malt actually needs to be mashed.

I said in the tutorial that there was an exception for the very dark malts, none of which need to be mashed. Black patent, chocolate and special B are all very dark malts, the lowest L number in there is likely to be the 250 or so for the Special B.

The crystal malt, while light, has the crystal signifier so you know you don't need to mash it.

The way you can tell whether a light grain needs to be mashed or not is to taste it and see if it is sweet. IF the sugar is already there, then you know that the starch has already been converted.

[FoodMan]

Perfect, thanks! I like the tasting test.

There is no harm in mashing all grains together though, right? I do not think there is, but figured better be safe.

[cdh]

No harm in mashing everything together most of the time. Mashing is a pH sensitive process, and if you throw something in there that really messes around with the pH, you could be in for trouble... but Acid Malt in large quantities is the only real pH affecting thing most people might consider mashing.

[TongoRad]

Elie-

I've got a recipe recommendation for you. It's for a 5 gallon batch and, per the tutorial, it is essentially a full mash with some DME added to the boil to boost the gravity. Everybody's setup has its quirks, so I am making some assumptions on certain things (efficiency, utilization, boil-off rate) just to get it down on paper. If you don't get these numbers all you will need to do is make some alterations in the future, but unless something goes really wrong you will still get a heck of a beer this time out.

In the mash tun:

4 lb. Pale Ale Malt (Marris Otter)

2 lb. Munich Malt

1 1/2 lb. Crystal Malt 80L

12 oz. Chocolate Malt

10.25 quarts heated water

Mash for 90 min. at 152F (I'd recommend doing a mash-out before sparging. Somehow- either by removing some of the mash, bringing it to a boil and returning it, or by just adding some additional boiling water- get the mash up to 168F for 10 minutes. It stops the enzymes from converting and makes things flow better). I'm assuming 1.027 per pound per gallon, or 77% efficiency, fwiw.

Sparge with 4.25 galllons at 168F

Add 3 lb. light DME to the runoff, bring to a boil.

Hop additions

2 oz. Northern Brewer @ 8% (or 16 AAU) - 60 IBU @ 25% utilization- for 60 min.

(It may seem too bitter, but this is for a big beer that can handle it.)

Add 1 1/2 oz. East Kent Goldings at flameout

Your o.g. should be in the neighborhood of 1.070-1.072

Ferment with Nottingham dry yeast (2 pkts) or Wyeast 1028 (London) with a starter. Try to keep it below 70F.

The info I have on the wood chips comes from others, not personal experience, but they should be steamed before putting them in the beer and figure about 1 oz., maybe even less to play it safe, per 5 gallons.

If you have any questions feel free to fire away, and good luck.