03-25-12 - English Mild - Brewmaker Essential Brew Kits Collection

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Brewing Day!

Today we are brewing a Brewmaker Mild from their Essential Brew Kits collection.  We hope to have this ready for casking in conjunction with the cask bitter we did last weekend for another cask party.

We smacked the Wyeast packet at 10:15 AM.  We are using 1028 London Ale for this brew and it was manufactured on 12/6/11.

I checked the yeast at around 4 PM and it hadn’t swelled up quite as well as the others, so I gave the packet a gentle shake every 20-30 minutes and by the time we were ready for pitching, it had swelled up beautifully.

The kit is based on metric measurements, so we will be making 23 litres of beer.  That is roughly equivalent to just slightly over 6 US gallons.  As such, we will be casking just under 5 US gallons of this brew and bottling the rest.

We have sanitized all of the tools we will need, put the extract and the additional light and dark extract into warm water to make them flow a bit better, and have started boiling 5 ½ gallons of purified water.

I measured out 500 grams each of the Brewcraft Light Malt Extract and the Dark Malt Extract.  Once the water was brought to a boil, we turned off the gas, added the Brewmaker Mild Malt Extract, 500 grams of Light Malt Extract, and 500 grams of Dark Malt Extract, stirring the whole time.

We added a capful of the water treatment and yeast nutrient we have from The Beverage People and about 4 ounces of Malto-Dextrin to add a bit more body to the beer.

This was all completed at about 6 PM.

We then turned the gas back on to bring the wort back up to a boil.  We are experimenting with actually leaving the lid on but widely cracked.  However, our first attempt led to a boil over so we brought the wort up to a boil without the lid and then put the lid on and adjusted the flame, watching the wort the whole time so we could get the flame down to an appropriate size to have a good boil while the lid is on.  We had one more boil over before we got it right.  We then let it boil for 30 minutes.

We then used the wort chiller to bring the wort down to below 85 degrees F.  We then emptied the boiler into the fermenter, making sure to aerate the wort.  At this point, I poured a bit of the beer into a cylinder and used this to check the original gravity.

OG: 1.032

We then pitched the yeast at about 7:45 pm, secured the lid, put vodka in the airlock and secured it in the lid, and moved it to where it will ferment for the next 6 to 8 days.  We then put on a heating jacket to keep it at 67 to 68 degrees F for the fermentation.

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Directions said 4 to 8 days fermentation time and the Final Gravity should be at 1.006 or less.

9 days into fermentation, the gravity is 1.016

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Unfortunately, I did not do a very good job with this brew in terms of noting down what happened after this date.  We did end up casking and bottling this beer on April 5, 2012.  I believe the final gravity did not change much which is why we decided to forward with it.

While we had no explosion troubles with the bottles, the beer we casked did appear to be a bit lively.  On April 12, Tony noticed that the shive had come up a bit from its proper lodging (as you can see in the picture).  We were a bit concerned that this would spoil the beer.  He used the mallet to bang the shive back into place.  Luckily, this had no ill impact on the beer as it turned out well.

The bottles of Mild turned out rather nice, as did the cask of the Mild.  The Mild went over very well at the cask party we had on April 29, although I think the William’s Brewing English Bitter we did was a bit more popular -- not surprising given the Pacific Northwest's love of hops!

03-18-12 - English Bitter - William's Brewing (double-batch for cask and bottle)

Sunday, March 18, 2012
Brewing Day!

Today we are brewing 2 batches (10 gallons) of William’s Brewing’s English Bitter.  We will be bottling half and casking half.

We smacked 2 Wyeast packets at about 10 AM this morning.  Both are 1028 London Ale, one with a 2/1/12 manufacturing date and the other with a 2/20/12 manufacturing date.  This means that they should both be quite fresh.  It is now about 4 PM and both packets are bulging.

We forgot to start pouring out purified water earlier.  Tony has successfully gotten five gallons of it and we will be supplementing this with three gallons from the tap.  We will also have to boil more water to top things up once we have emptied the boiler into the fermenters.

And, of course, we have filled one of the fermenters with StarSan solution and have set in everything to be sanitized (2 plastic spoons, airlock, measuring cups and spoons).

I have also put the two packets of liquid extract into the sink with some hot water to soften up the liquid so it is easier to pour into the boiler.

Tony is bringing the 8 gallons of water to a boil.

By 5:08 we have successfully added both packets of malt to the boiled water and are bringing the water back up to a boil.  A note: I’m not sure if the boiler really is 10 full gallons although it says it is.  Maybe we do actually have 2 gallons worth of malt – but, of course, 2 gallons of malt and 8 gallons of water makes for 10 gallons total, so we are right on the edge and will have to watch the boil very carefully for the first bit of it.

At about 5:28 PM we were 5 minutes into the boil and we added the KCF125 flavoring hops.

I boiled about 5 gallons of extra water for the top up water once we put the wort into the fermenters.

After 50 minutes of further boiling, we added the packet of aromatic hops.

We then boiled the malt for 5 more minutes.  We then put the wort chiller in at 6:23 PM and are chilling the wort down to below 85 degrees F.

Given that we thought of the additional water a bit too late, the water was quite hot, so we used the wort chiller to cool the additional water as well.

We then put a little over 3 gallons of the beer into 2 different fermenters.  We topped up each of the fermenters to 5 gallons with the boiled and cooled water.  We then took a little bit from each fermenter to make a sample to get the Original Gravity.

We stirred around the contents of each fermenter to make sure the beer was well-aerated.

We pitched the yeast at about 7:40 PM.  We then gave the contents of each fermenter a final stir, snapped the lids on, popped the airlocks in and added the vodka to the airlocks.

We are storing the fermenters upstairs in our spare bedroom during the fermentation so that we can keep both at a constant temperature.  The house generally stays around the mid-60s degrees F. 

Original Gravity: 1.043

Tuesday, April 3, 2012, Bottling and Casking Day

16 days into fermentation

Final Gravity (bottles): 1.016

Final Gravity (cask):      1.015

Goal was 1.019 or less so this is very good and we will be bottling/casking this evening

We have sanitized 38 bottles and caps for the bottling, along with a filling tube.  We have also sanitized one of the casks, a shive, a keystone and proper tubing for that as well.  Finally, we sanitized one of the other fermenters to rack off the beer we are bottling so that we may add the priming sugar.

We boiled a whole packet of sugar in water in one pot for the beer we are going to bottle, and boiled 2/3 of the packet of sugar in another pot for the beer we are going to cask.  I also drew off a bit of beer through the tap in order to clear the tap, then poured out a ½ cup of beer in which to mix 1 teaspoon of the isinglass finings.

We banged the keystone into the cask with the mallet.

We poured the bottling beer into a priming tank, poured in the priming sugar boiled into solution, and gently stirred it into the beer.  We then attached a hose to the spigot, attached the bottle filler to the hose and filled 37 16.9-ounce bottles.  We have put the bottles in our cabinet upstairs for the first week of fermentation so that the temperature stays in the mid- to upper-60s degrees F for the initial part of the secondary fermentation.

We then brought the cask upstairs, put it on its platform and placed the shive hole directly under the spigot of the fermenter holding the cask beer.  We then attached a tube to the spigot and poured the beer into the cask.  We then added the ½ cup of beer with the isinglass finings mixed in and the priming sugar solution directly to the cask.  We then banged the shive into the shive hole.  We used a plastic shive and keystone this time.  These parts were supplied to us by UKB as a good fit for the casks we bought that had shive holes that were slightly too small for standard shives.  The shive banged in almost totally into the shive hole this time.  Tony tested it for liquid leaks by rolling the cask (which also helped mix in the priming sugar and finings).  It appeared to seal quite well (far better than the wooden ones that were the wrong size), but we decided to leave the cask on its side for about an hour just to make sure.  We checked and found that they had sealed quite well.

Sunday, June 10, 2012

We have been working our way through the bottles.  This beer turned out quite well.  It has a light, hoppy taste to it that is especially pleasant to drink with the warm weather, but with enough malt character to make the beer interesting.

At the cask party held on April 29, it did very well among our guests.  We had the cask empty of beer by Monday evening from the drinking thereof, and from me filling 2 growlers to bring to the Taproom.

02-19-12 - Classic Dark Ale - Toohey's

Saturday, February 18, 2012

We have decided to try a yeast slant for the first time with this beer.  We have decided on the Brewlab East Midlands 1 yeast slant.  We will need to start it growing this morning with the aim of brewing tomorrow afternoon.  I started it at about 12 noon.

I decided to use the powdered malt extract for this.  I opened the liquid malt extract to use that, and then realized that the sticky thick mess would probably not work out too well.  I took 3 tablespoons of the Brewcraft Briess Dry Malt we have and put it into the sanitized flask (in the future, I really need to remember to sanitize a funnel for this purpose).  I then put 300 ML of boiled water into the flask.  Then I waited for the water to cool.  I put the flask into cool water with 2 ice cubes to speed up the cooling.  I measured the temperature at 80.1 degrees F so it was definitely below 95 degrees F. 

I poured a bit of the malt solution into the yeast slant tube, replaced the cap, and shook it around a bit to dislodge the yeast.  I then poured this back into the malt solution.  However, I also accidentally poured the yeast slant into the malt solution.   After doing a bit of Internet research, I came back with nothing conclusive in terms of this being a problem.  I have decided that I am going to just leave the slant in the solution as this will probably be safer than risking contamination by trying to fish it out.  I have emailed Brewlab with my issue.  We will see if I get an answer during a time that is still significant.  If not, then at least I will know for future experiments with the yeast slants.

We then wrapped a heater coil around it.  We have set the heat to come on when the temperature drops to 75 degrees F and turn off when it goes up to 77 degrees F.

Below are instructions from the website regarding how to use the yeast slants.

http://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/acatalog/Brew_Labs_Yeast_Slants.html

 

How To Use Brew Lab Slants

Yeast Cultures - INSTRUCTIONS FOR USE

STORAGE

Yeast cultures supplied by Brewlab are held on agar slopes to preserve their viability and consistency. They are stable for up to 6 months if kept in a refrigerator below 4 C. They will be harmed by freezing and will deteriorate within one month if kept at room temperature.

STARTER CULTURES

To grow the yeast from the slope prepare a nutrient solution of malt broth by dissolving three table spoons of malt extract in 300 cm³ of boiled water in a clean sterilised flask or bottle of at least 500 cm³ size

When cool (below 35 C) pour some of the solution onto the yeast culture and shake to suspend the yeast cells. Alternatively a flamed wire loop may be used to loosen the cells. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO DISSOLVE THE SLOPE. THE CELLS ONLY GROW ON THE SURFACE OF THE AGAR AND SHOULD BE DISLODGED BY SHAKING.

Transfer the yeast suspension into the rest of the nutrient solution and allow to grow for 24 to 48 hours in a warm environment (20-30 C – 68-86 F) as a starter culture in your brew. Cover the bottle opening with aluminium foil or plug with cotton wool. DO NOT INCUBATE A STARTER CULTURE IN A TIGHTLY SEALED BOTTLE AS PRESSURE MAY CAUSE IT TO EXPLODE.

Ensure that the yeast is working well before pitching. It should show a frothy surface as gas is released and have a good sediment of yeast cells at the bottom. Ensure that all of these are pitched into your wort to achieve maximum speed of fermentation.

Take care when handling the culture and starter bottles to avoid contamination particularly from fingers.

FERMENTATION

Maintaining an active yeast is essential in obtaining a good fermentation and requires a good temperature control and some degree of rousing when yeast is pitched. Temperature during fermentation should be between 15 and 23 C and not vary excessively. Too low temperature and the yeast will produce undesirable flavours. Insulate fermentation vessels where possible and plot temperatures to check progress.

Rousing of pitching yeast ensures that sufficient oxygen is present for the yeast to grow. This is particularly important for high gravity worts. Rousing after pitching should not be conducted as stale and undesirable flavours may develop.

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Brewing day! 

Upon inspecting the yeast, I wasn’t sure what to expect.  There was somewhat of a film on the top, but not really a head.  There did appear to be quite a bit of build up on the bottom of the container.  I did a bit of browsing around on Youtube and found a few examples of yeast in a starter solution that was ready to go, and it looks like we probably have it right.  I have given the yeast a shake up a couple of times today as apparently I should’ve done this before.  I have decided to go forward with brewing, although we decided to wait until after 5 PM to try to give the yeast as much time as possible.

We heated 5 gallons of purified water.  I put the can of extract into hot water for about 15 minutes to soften it up.  I also poured out 500 grams of liquid Dark Malt Extract (Brewcraft) and liquid Light Malt Extract (Brewcraft) to be added.  The recipe calls for 1 kilogram of sugar, but says malt extract can be substituted.  I also came across a website that discussed this particular brew kit and mentioned using ½ Light and ½ Dark, so I decided to give that a try. 

Once the water came to a boil, we shut off the fire and we added the can of malt extract, 500 grams of Light Malt Extract and 500 grams of Dark Malt Extract.  We then brought the water back to a boil and boiled for about 10 minutes in order to sanitize the wort.

After boiling for a few minutes, we added 4 ounces of malto-dextrin.  This can be added to extract brews to give the beer a fuller mouthfeel.

Then we added a water treatment (Burton salts) and yeast nutrient and turned off the fire.  We added about 1-2 teaspoons.

We then connected the wort chiller and put it into the boiler to bring the temperature of the wort down below 80 degrees F.  We then emptied the boiler into the fermenter, making sure to allow for plenty of aeration via pouring and via swirling with a slotted spoon.

Initial gravity: 1.034

We then swirled the yeast around to get all of the yeast cells into suspension and pitched the yeast into the wort.  We had to use a fork to prevent the yeast slant from going into the fermenter.  I then dumped out the yeast slant into the sink and then shook out all of the foam I could into the fermenter to try to get every last yeast cell.  We then used the slotted spoon to give the wort one final rousing, then secured the lid, put a bit of vodka in the airlock and secured the airlock onto the lid.  Now we wait.

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Gravity reading: 1.024.  We decided to sanitize a spoon and give it a bit of a rousing and then let it keep fermenting.  I think these kits are bizarre as these beers take far longer than 4-7 days to complete fermentation.  I have made a note to do another gravity reading on Wednesday.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

The gravity reading came in at 1.020 and the beer did still appear to be working vigorously.

Sunday, March 4, 2012

The gravity reading is coming in at 1.012.  It was supposed to get down to 1.006, but since it has been working for 14 days, we have decided to bottle it while leaving a somewhat generous amount of room in the bottles to avoid potential explosions.  It appears to taste alright, although I feel there is a slight cidery smell to the beer that I am unsure of.  Tony believes that smell should probably drop out in secondary fermentation.

We bottled 33 22-ounce bottles and put them in the cabinet upstairs for a fermentation in the late-60s to early-70s degrees F for the first week of fermentation.  Should probably move them down into the basement in about 1 to 1 ½ weeks.

1.034 – 1.012 = 0.022 x 131 = 2.9%

Sunday, June 10, 2012

We have been slowly drinking our way through the bottles of this beer, although admittedly I have left most of this job to Tony.  This beer did not turn out terribly good.  There doesn’t appear to be anything technically wrong with it.  It is just a fairly boring beer.  It has a pretty thin body to it with a fairly simple flavor profile.  When I first tasted it, I felt that the beer was still green.  However, after many weeks and more tastes, I have concluded that this beer will apparently always taste “green”. 

It was a disappointing first experiment with the yeast slant, although I do not believe the yeast slant is to blame.

Also, this is the only beer we have brewed in which we have used liquid malt extract.  I have read that liquid malt extract is better to use than dry malt extract, but only when the liquid extract is fresh.  I am not sure of the age of the liquid malt extract we used, so old liquid malt extract is potentially part of the problem.

I also don’t think this went for long enough of a boil.  The instructions actually followed a very different method in which there was very little boiling at all.  I added more boiling time because I didn’t trust the instructions for the purposes of sanitation.  However, this also may have had a negative impact on the flavor of the beer.