brewing in maine

So I took a reading on the Tripel tonight, three days into fermentation, just as the yeast was slowing down (a bubble every 10 secs or so). The beer was starting to clear up a bit on the top couple of inches, with a settling yeast cloud below.

I roused the yeast first, then added the cooled syrup I made with 2.5 lbs of boiled table sugar.

Before the sugar was added, the gravity read 1012. That’s incredible for three days even with the large starter, and I think tells me my mash went as poorly as I thought. Although it’s consistent with the lower mash temps yielding a more fermentable wort. Since I forgot to take my original gravity measurement, I can only guess based on the recipe what my starting point was, but according to ProMash it’s 1061.  That’s 80% attenuation – more than Wyeast even specifies for the strain. So I’m naturally suspicious my OG was really in the 1052-1055 range.

Either way this beer seems to be very busy even a scant 15 minutes after the sugar addition – should be cranking tonight.

The Tripel is down from a high of 78 deg last to about 72 thanks to the window left open and a box fan blowing air across the carboy all night. Not sure I can cool it much further – it’s still very active.

Here’s a video of the Tripel fermentation, 24 hours in. We’re up to 76 degrees on the carboy thermometer-strip. Yikes – no good!

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Here’s some video of the Tripel mash process, putting the grain in the mash tun.

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I woke up this morning to the Tripel fermentation lock bubbling every second – no churning yet but things are definitely getting started. My starter seemed a little slow but this guy’s getting going. My only worry is temperature…I had it cooled to 64 degrees in the kettle according to the thermometer I trust, but the carboy temp strips said more like 67-68. They are reading 70 now so hopefully this means the fermentation is really in the 66-67 range and we’re on track. It’s going to heat up fast.

The gamble is whether I can find my blowoff hose before things really get roaring.

I shared a Chimay White with some friends today during our Tripel brew session, which went somewhat awry in a few respects but might have resulted in quality wort now beginning fermentation in my living room. And now, the day finally come to its close, I am enjoying an Allagash Tripel. In my opinion, the superior of the two – though mine still holds some vague future promise.

With a head that hangs in spots on the side of the glass, a face full of fruity esters from the yeast with a smooth mouthfeel and full body, this is a spectacular beer.

My own Tripel, however, is at risk. Missed the mash temp – hit 146 instead of 149. Had way too much water in the mash – practically nine gallons in the mash tun grain included, so I only sparged for a short while. Forgot the Irish Moss, leaving all the loose proteins uncoagulated and swirling around. Boiled off too much, only got 4 gal in the fermenter and had to top off. Whirlpooled and siphoned my wort instead of pouring through a strainer and a funnel, thereby gathering nearly all the crap into the fermenter. Went outside to pull the honey supers off the bees while the wort was oxygenating and came back to foam pouring all over the counter. Then, forgot to take an OG reading before pitching the yeast so now I don’t know my OG, nor can I evaluate the efficiency of the mash. Oh well.

Let’s just say this beer had better be good, but if it isn’t I’ll know what to do. At least I made a huge starter of Chimay yeast (Wyeast 1214).

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.

Couldn’t get WLP530 or Wyeast 3787 – got the Wyeast 1214 Belgian Ale instead. It’s basically Chimay according to this page.

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!

I did rock, paper, scissors with myself and the Tripel won out. It’s off to Maine Brewing Supply (where’s your web site content dude?) later today to pick up ingredients. I’ll be kegging the Oktoberfest tonight so it’s ready to drink by Monday’s brew session.

Recipe for Monday is Jamil’s Tripel, potentially with some changes from the BYO Allagash Tripel clone recipe:

14 lb Pilsener
2.5 lb Cane Sugar (in boil at 15 minutes remaining)
0.25 lb Aromatic malt

Mash at 149 for higher fermentability, 90 minute boil.

2.3oz (65g) Tettnanger @ 60 min. – 4% AA
0.5oz (14g) Saaz @ 15 min. – 3.5% AA

WLP530 Abbey Ale x 2 in a 1L starter for ~275 billion cells

Ferment at 68 and let rise into the 70s as things get rolling…not that I have much control over this.

Brew video to follow.