batch number thirteen, and what happens? the power went out in my building, for no apparent reason. for some other reason i also thought it would be a good idea to start drinking while i was waiting for my water to come to temp. usually, if at all, i at least wait to start drinking until the wort has been lautered. less time for me to become a slobbering, depraved mess.
i awoke the next day, foggy and a little worse for wear. the apartment was a mess. nothing was put away. somehow, the yeast had been pitched to the wort and was beginning to attenuate nicely. looking over my notes i realized i failed to record the OG. luckily, i have started to accumulate a pretty good record of figures. with some detective work, i believe i will at least be able to make an educated guess. lets go, follow me.
i did record the pre-boil gravity at 1.058. in the last batch i brewed, the ESB, my base grain bill of 12 lbs. came in with a pre-boil gravity of 1.052. this batch, only had a base grain bill of 11 lbs. and the pre-boil gravity reading came in 6 points higher with a whole pound less. my efficiency has sky rocketed. i believe this has to do with a modification in my lautering process. it is a hybrid of a batch and continuous sparge.
after the wort is draining at the correct speed (approximately one gal/min), i replace each gallon of wort lautered with a fresh gallon of hot water back on top of the lautering wort. this gives me four or five minutes to do whatever needs to be done in between gallons (in this case, drinking beer and smoking cigarettes at a furious pace) of lautered wort. this prevents me from having to hover over the mash ton trying to keep an inch of liquid over the grain bed. since i do not have a sparge arm set-up, this method seems to be one that works quite well. and considering the significant jump in efficiency witnessed by using this method, i believe i'm on the right track. as long as i keep the fresh water i add on top to replace the volume of the lautered wort at or around 168ish, i shouldn't have to worry about drawing any tannins off the husks or the mash becoming too viscous because it starts to cool down.
as i mentioned before, the ESB had a lower pre-boil gravity, with a larger amount of grain. the OG ended up being 1.060, not too shabby. this being the case, i am going to make an educated guess and conservatively estimate my OG for lucky number thirteen at 1.070. i still haven't learned how to calculate my efficiency, but i will in these next few batches. i have a feeling with this new hybrid sparge method i am going to continue to use, efficiency is going to be pretty good. the real test of improvement will come when i adjust my grain bills for my new efficiency percentage and compare the next vertical series i am going to brew, the scottish shillings, to the old efficiency i was getting with the english bitters vertical series. is anyone else rabid with excitement?
lucky number 13 irish red
11 lbs muntons pale
6 oz. caramel 40L
6 oz. caramel 120L
4 oz. chocolate 375-450L
mash @ 151, 60 min.
mash out @ 168, 10 min.
pre-boil gravity: 1.058
OG: ?? (1.070)
FG: not done fermenting yet
uk kent golding (4.9%), 2 oz, 60 min.
note about the hops:
the hops i acquired are from last years harvest. also considering their slightly lower alpha acid levels than i normally brew with, as well as my suspected spike in gravity levels, i went ahead and bumped up my hop addition to a full two oz rather than palmer and zainasheff's suggested 1.25 oz.
Wyeast 1084 irish ale, 1 pint starter, ferment at 64 degrees
something that i haven't mentioned yet, but that i was thinking about when the power was off, is people learned how to make beer without electricity or power. people made beer for a looong time without power or electricity. i think it would be cool to make beer without these things. just having the power out for three hours while i was trying to brew made me really think about the things we take for granted- like the resources that allow us to do amazing things with relatively little expenditure of personal effort. i really hope us human can get our shit together.
Friday, October 01, 2010
extra special/strong bitter (ESB)
after talking with my professional brewer friend there a couple things i will begin to take not of now in this journal that i haven't before. the first one will be fermentation temp. recording this will give me a better frame of reference when criticizing how my beer tastes. it will also give me better insight into apparent attenuation. making sure to record fermentation temperatures gives me another control by which to better evaluate my beer making ventures.
the second thing i will begin to record (which i think i have been intermittently on here) is OG (original gravity) and FG (final gravity). these two readings also help me calculate apparent attenuation, as well as alcohol content, and coupled with the fermentation temp readings will give you, the reader, a better understanding of what happened with these brewing attempts.
i finished out this verticle series of bitters with an ESB. if anyone has ever had Fuller's ESB, this is pretty much the standard that everyone compares all other ESB's, but i think that is more because that is mainly what is available here in the states. English style pale ales are not very popular here, and as such, i dont think people have an appreciation for the wide range afforded by this style (as understood by reading the BJCP style guidelines). i think it would be neat to go to england and drink the stuff they have there. like all beers, the closer you are to the source, the better the beer is going to be.
this bitters recipe just vamped up the two row again. and that's it. i ended up bumping up the special roast, but i didn't need to. i could have left it alone. i think i was just finishing off what i had left.
actually, i take that back. i just noticed i had been bumping up the dark crystal too, starting with the premium batch. having been doing research into the scottish ales, i realize i probably dont need to mess with the specialty grains at all when brewing a series like the this bitters. really, the only differentiation between the sub-styles is alcohol content and malt back bone, which in turn calls for slight adjustments in the hops boil schedule. but other than that, any other adjustments aren't necessary.
the second edition of hops i bumped up ten minutes to balance the bittering with the increased malt presence. other than that, nothing changed. i pitched onto the yeast cake of the standard and premium batches and fermented at 66 degrees again.
ESB
12 lbs. Muntons Pale
1 lb. Muntons Dark
.375 lb. Domestic Special Roast
after tasting, this bulked up specialty grains bill was definitely not the way to go. too dark in color, and the taste has a bitter chocolaty note that is very forward and out of style. if i would have kept the muntons dark at a half pound and kept the special roast to a quarter lb, this beer would be excellent. is has a nice alcoholic warmth too it, not too overpowering, but there all the same. the specialty grains have over-shadowed the pleasant sweetness of the two row. ah well, we live and we learn, right? maybe i'll pass it off as a an english brown...CHEERS!
single infusion @152, 60 minutes
mash out @168, 10 minutes
1.5 oz kent goldings (5.4%), 60 minutes
.5 oz., 50 minutes
.5 oz., 1 minute (flameout)
a note about the hops: when buying little one oz packets of pelletized hops from brewcraft, what they call an ounce, does not weigh an ounce. in fact, with what brewcraft called 2 ounces, when i weighed the hops, i only had 1.5. in order to make up for this difference, i just put in a half ounce of some old leftover cascade (originally packaged as 7.8 %) and mixed it with my 1.5 oz. of kent golding. this of course kind of ruins my whole "vertical series" thing i had going on. but it couldn't be helped. i had to adapt to my situation. the beauty of brewing. what i did to minimize the shock of a half ounce of a completely different hop in my beer was to just mix it in with all the rest so it was evenly distributed at least. WAH!
preboil gravity: 1.052
OG: 1.060
FG: 1.018
AA (apparent attenuation): 70%
again, this AA figure is a little low. i am wondering how much of it has to do fermentation temp, my mash, and finally, pitching onto the existing yeast cake. maybe when mashing for a series like this, for the second and third batches i should mash a little lower, like 149 or 150 to try and get some more fermentables out of the grain. then maybe i should ferment at a little higher temp, more like 68 degrees instead of 66. these suggestions come from listening to Brew Strong, a podcast on the BrewingNetwork, hosted by John Palmer and Jamil Zainasheff.
another thing to remember though, is that when yeasts are stressed, that is what provides esters. so if you want esters restrained you have to make sure the yeast is not stressed out. now does that mean making them warmer or colder? i think warmer, i cant remember...
the second thing i will begin to record (which i think i have been intermittently on here) is OG (original gravity) and FG (final gravity). these two readings also help me calculate apparent attenuation, as well as alcohol content, and coupled with the fermentation temp readings will give you, the reader, a better understanding of what happened with these brewing attempts.
i finished out this verticle series of bitters with an ESB. if anyone has ever had Fuller's ESB, this is pretty much the standard that everyone compares all other ESB's, but i think that is more because that is mainly what is available here in the states. English style pale ales are not very popular here, and as such, i dont think people have an appreciation for the wide range afforded by this style (as understood by reading the BJCP style guidelines). i think it would be neat to go to england and drink the stuff they have there. like all beers, the closer you are to the source, the better the beer is going to be.
this bitters recipe just vamped up the two row again. and that's it. i ended up bumping up the special roast, but i didn't need to. i could have left it alone. i think i was just finishing off what i had left.
actually, i take that back. i just noticed i had been bumping up the dark crystal too, starting with the premium batch. having been doing research into the scottish ales, i realize i probably dont need to mess with the specialty grains at all when brewing a series like the this bitters. really, the only differentiation between the sub-styles is alcohol content and malt back bone, which in turn calls for slight adjustments in the hops boil schedule. but other than that, any other adjustments aren't necessary.
the second edition of hops i bumped up ten minutes to balance the bittering with the increased malt presence. other than that, nothing changed. i pitched onto the yeast cake of the standard and premium batches and fermented at 66 degrees again.
ESB
12 lbs. Muntons Pale
1 lb. Muntons Dark
.375 lb. Domestic Special Roast
after tasting, this bulked up specialty grains bill was definitely not the way to go. too dark in color, and the taste has a bitter chocolaty note that is very forward and out of style. if i would have kept the muntons dark at a half pound and kept the special roast to a quarter lb, this beer would be excellent. is has a nice alcoholic warmth too it, not too overpowering, but there all the same. the specialty grains have over-shadowed the pleasant sweetness of the two row. ah well, we live and we learn, right? maybe i'll pass it off as a an english brown...CHEERS!
single infusion @152, 60 minutes
mash out @168, 10 minutes
1.5 oz kent goldings (5.4%), 60 minutes
.5 oz., 50 minutes
.5 oz., 1 minute (flameout)
a note about the hops: when buying little one oz packets of pelletized hops from brewcraft, what they call an ounce, does not weigh an ounce. in fact, with what brewcraft called 2 ounces, when i weighed the hops, i only had 1.5. in order to make up for this difference, i just put in a half ounce of some old leftover cascade (originally packaged as 7.8 %) and mixed it with my 1.5 oz. of kent golding. this of course kind of ruins my whole "vertical series" thing i had going on. but it couldn't be helped. i had to adapt to my situation. the beauty of brewing. what i did to minimize the shock of a half ounce of a completely different hop in my beer was to just mix it in with all the rest so it was evenly distributed at least. WAH!
preboil gravity: 1.052
OG: 1.060
FG: 1.018
AA (apparent attenuation): 70%
again, this AA figure is a little low. i am wondering how much of it has to do fermentation temp, my mash, and finally, pitching onto the existing yeast cake. maybe when mashing for a series like this, for the second and third batches i should mash a little lower, like 149 or 150 to try and get some more fermentables out of the grain. then maybe i should ferment at a little higher temp, more like 68 degrees instead of 66. these suggestions come from listening to Brew Strong, a podcast on the BrewingNetwork, hosted by John Palmer and Jamil Zainasheff.
another thing to remember though, is that when yeasts are stressed, that is what provides esters. so if you want esters restrained you have to make sure the yeast is not stressed out. now does that mean making them warmer or colder? i think warmer, i cant remember...
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