brewing in maine

So I picked up a bag of Weyermann Pilsener malt a few weeks back and it’s been sitting in the corner of my dining room just waiting to get cracked open. Got it for a song and it should cover at least the next 4 or 5 lagers or Belgians on the list.

It seems like a good idea to have a large amount of base malt laying around now that I finally have a grain mill. I’m thinking of picking up a bag of Crisp Maris Otter for any British beers I want to brew (think biscuity) so that all I need is specialty grains. It keeps the costs down.

Now if only I could get moving on culturing a few key strains of yeast and growing aroma and flavor hops I wouldn’t have to buy much of anything when it comes time to brew.

I tore into the bag this weekend for a traditional Bohemian Pilsener:

12 lb Weyermann Pilsener malt
0.75 lb Carapils (dextrine malt for head retention)

Mash at 154 degrees for 60 minutes, collect enough to end up with six gallons after a 90 minute boil.

1.75 oz Saaz (3.2% AA) @ 60 minutes for 20.3 IBU
2.25 oz Saaz (3.2% AA) @ 30 minutes for 13.3 IBU
1 oz Saaz (3.2% AA) @ 10 minutes for 2.3 IBU
1 oz Saaz (3.2% AA) @ 0 minutes for 0 IBU

WLP800 Pilsener (Urquell) in an active 2L starter (1.3L pitched)

Ferment at 52 degrees. I could only get 54 in the basement and the lager fridge is in lagering mode at 34 degrees right now.

The mash went well, though the grain looked a little more crushed than usual. It was my first crush with the new mill, the Barley Crusher, which was a breeze to use. It came fully assembled, you just stick in on the top of a 5 gallon bucket, hook up the drill, fill the hopper and let it rip. It’s fast and clean with no dust at all.

I definitely learned a lesson about whole hops as well. It was the first time I haven’t used pellets and I underestimated quite how much boiling wort would absorb into the hops, especially 6 full ounces. I only made a fermenter volume of about 4.75 gallons and had to top it off with some water.

The OG before the water addition was about 1.068, 12 points higher than it should have been, so I diluted it to 1.056 with three quarts of cold water. This also brought the temp closer to the target pitching temperature.

The WLP800 should attenuate down to around 1.014, or 75%, for an ABV of about 5.8% and a nice Saazy hop flavor and aroma.

After a nice walk with my wife down to the Town Landing and back I made the starter for tomorrow’s brew session. Then I got to thinking the Oktoberfest might have carbonated in the last few days. I ventured down to the basement, cracked the fridge and pulled a sample off the keg. It’s a deep copper color with a soft, small-bubbled head that dies down quickly. The beer is not crystal clear like the Helles was, but it’s not too bad…first few pulls will probably have some crap in them anyway from the final racking settling out.

Swirling the glass lets loose a nose heavy on caramel. The taste is a bit sweet – probably due to underattenuation – and quite bitter with a subtle floral hop flavor. I took a look at the recipe again and my hop additions came to 36 IBU. The BJCP style guidelines for Oktoberfest/Maarzen give a range of 20-28 IBU so this is by design I guess, though it was quite a surprise after the mellow maltiness of the Helles. It has almost an IPA kind of hop flavor to it. I think it’s quite out of character and not fermented fully but it’s delicious.

I did not make a starter for this beer and I did with the Helles, a mistake I will not repeat for any beer. I really think that the most significant change I have made in the past few batches has been to begin pitching proper cell counts – the benefits to flavor profile and attenuation are just huge.

The Oktoberfest is kegged. It came in at 1.019 – not fully attenuated at all, something like 65%, which was not intentional. This was the Northern Brewer recipe, and I thought I had good temp control but I didn’t make a huge starter. That’s probably why it didn’t go as far.

The taste of the sample I pulled before racking was very bitter, potentially oxidized, but hard to tell until it’s carbonated. This thing has been in secondary since February, having lagered at 33 deg for that month but coming up to the forties for serving temp because the Helles keg was in with it. It’s been through a lot. Fingers crossed!

The first taste of the Munich Helles came this evening accompanying a pea shoot salad and a ham and leek quiche.

My first lager (technically the second, but the first to be tasted) and it’s crystal clear with a delicious smoky hint. No smoked malt was harmed in the making of this beer. There is a lot of malt flavor, a tiny bit of spicy Hallertau (not enough) and the attenuation isn’t quite as high as it might have been. The beer is a touch sweet. The head disappears too quickly but that might be the glass.

And yes I know it’s not a Pilsener and doesn’t deserve the glass.

This should be a solid light summer lager.

I’ve kegged the Helles and it should be carbonated in a few days now. I was worried about the fermentation temps being a little warm and my suspicions might have been confirmed when I tasted it during kegging. It had a subtle high fermentation temp aroma and taste but again it’s my first finished lager and not yet carbonated so I don’t know what’s normal yet. The temps were within range for the yeast strain but not necessarily as low as I was looking for.

The sample final gravity was 1.014 for an attenuation of around 71%, just barely below the average for the Wyeast 2206.

Updates coming next week with tasting results.

The Helles has joined its darker cousin in the lager fridge. After 2 weeks in primary at 54 degrees (warmer than I wanted but that’s the basement for you) I’ve racked it off to secondary. We’re at 70% attenuation so far – 1.050 to 1.015 – and hopefully it will reach 1.012 by the time all is said and done for final attenuation of 76%.

I tasted the sample and it’s full of maltiness – very much the grain taste on the back of the tongue which probably won’t be as present at proper lager serving temps. An earlier sample from a few days back still had lingering Hallertauer flavor but that has faded somewhat even in that short time.

I’ll probably keg it in 2-3 weeks, a month at the most.

While the Oktoberfest sits lagering in the chest freezer and the basement is still at a balmy 48-50 degrees I am taking the opportunity to brew another lager. I’ve settled on a Munich Helles – a lighter, summer beer though still malty, and something that has a short lagering period. That way I can keg both it and the Oktoberfest at the same time and bring the whole freezer up to serving temp.

Once again I’ve borrowed from Jamil Zainasheff, but this time made a few small changes. I accidentally bought too much Pilsener for a five gallon batch, so I’m doing more like 5.5 gallons to bring the gravity back down to the recipe level.

Without further ado, Munich Helles:

9.75 lb German Pilsener malt
1/2 lb Munich malt (the lighter stuff, 8-10 srm)
2 oz Melanoidin malt

1.5 oz Hallertauer @ 60 minutes (3.00% AA)

Wyeast 2206 Bavarian Lager

Infusion mash at 150 degrees, 90 minute boil, chill and aerate 30 mins. Fermentation to start around 64 degrees and then once it gets started I’ll bring it down to the basement where it’s 48-50 consistently.

I’m building up a two-stage starter since Maine Brewing Supply had sold out of 2 liter flasks and I only have a 1 liter. First stage I did last night, pitched the smack pack into 800 mL of well aerated starter wort. This is the first time I’ve aerated a starter and the first starter I’ve done in a while.

Tonight I’ll chill it down a bit in the fridge, decant off the spent wort and boil/chill another 800mL to build it up again. That should get me somewhere in the range of 250-350 billion cells, which isn’t quite enough but it’s sure better than a single smack pack.