beer and homebrewing in portland maine
So I’m thinking about brewing labor day weekend, potentially a Tripel or some kind of strong beer for the holidays. Time to crack open Brew Like A Monk and review some of the classics. I’ll need to get a 2L Erlenmeyer for this baby if I’m going to get the proper pitching rate.
On a side note the Oktoberfest is still in secondary to be kegged any day now, the Helles is not yet gone but going fast. What a great summer beer – I’ll make that again verbatim next year.
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.
Here’s some video of the Helles fermentation. The huge starter made a big difference – it was starting to bubble this morning, and fully churning by tonight. It’s unfortunately still at 62 degrees but the basement was around 55. I’ve opened the basement window to bring it down to 48-50ish, hopefully the beer will drop gradually over the next day or two with the towel around it.
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.
So the 60 Schilling Scottish is done, kegged and tasty. It actually has a distinct malty, almost pretzel flavor that I think came from the honey malt primarily. The color is lighter than the photo lets on – much more of a reddish amber. Kegged at 5 psi for 1.5 volumes of CO2 at 50 degrees, and sitting in my basement.
The 60 Schilling Scottish ale is in the keg after a week in primary and three days settling out in secondary at 60 degrees or so. Final gravity didn’t quite make it all the way – 55% attenuation out of a desired 60% or so.
When I checked the final gravity I gave it a taste, and it’s delicious even flat. Sweet and malty with a balanced bitterness. It’s in the keg at 5 psi, 50 degrees F. Once it’s carbonated I’ll post a photo of a pint.
It seems like every time I brew something I haven’t tried before I find myself looking up the Jamil Show podcast for that particular style. Usually I don’t use the recipe exactly (though this time I did) but it’s got a ton of great detail on the little things and why they matter. High mash temp for some extra unfermentable body, a little gypsum for Burtonizing my softened water, and so on. And you get this:
The recipe (direct from JZ, credit where credit is due) is below:
4 lb English pale malt (I used Maris Otter)
1/2 lb Munich malt
1/2 lb Honey malt
1 lb 40L Crystal malt
1/2 lb 120L Crystal malt
2 oz Pale Chocolate malt (for color and a touch of nutty roastedness)
1/2 oz Kent Goldings, 60 mins
California Ale (Chico) yeast (I used White Labs WLP001)
Mashed at 158 degrees for 60 minutes, single infusion, mashed out at 168 for 15 mins, recirculated for a while and then sparged. Much darker than expected, but probably the right SRM in the end. Late runnings were (obviously) much paler. Boiled for 90 minutes, and ran out of gas halfway and had to swap in the spare tank.
Starting gravity came in at 1036. Aerated for 45 mins (new aeration kit!) and pitched the WLP001. I’m planning to lock our thermostat at 65 for the next few days and see how it goes – looking for lower attenuation to hold onto some sweetness.
Can I just say how awesome Maine Brewing Supply is? No matter how obscure the malt, Rob’s got it.
The Oktoberfest is in secondary and slowly bring dropped to lager temps. I’m feeling like this lager process takes too long. Waay too long. In the meantime, a photo from Super Bowl Sunday of the Bacon Explosion. Wow.
