brewing in maine

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.

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.

OK, the first real post here. Nearly two weeks ago I brewed my first lager, an Oktoberfest, which has been in the chest freezer at 50 degrees since. It took a few days to start fermenting (didn’t do a starter at all, probably should have) and looks like this now:

The recipe was cribbed from Northern Brewer’s Oktoberfest recipe and modified somewhat.

5.0 lb. Munich Malt
5.0 lb Pilsener Malt
0.5 lb Dark Munich Malt
0.5 lb CaraMunich 60
0.5 oz Millenium (15.0% AA), 60 minutes
0.5 oz Mt. Hood (5.0% AA), 0 minutes
Wyeast 2633 Oktoberfest Lager Blend smack pack

Mash Schedule:
20 minutes @ 122 degrees (Protein Rest)
60 minutes @ 153 degrees (Saccharification Rest)
15 minutes @ 168 degrees (Mash Out)
Sparged to collect about 7 gallons in the kettle.

Boiled 90 minutes, chilled with the immersion chiller, strained into the carboy and pitched the yeast.

I’ve found out in some reading that with modern malts the protein rest isn’t really necessary, so I may omit that in the future. In another week I’ll rack to secondary and do a 1-2 day diacetyl rest at room temp, then put it back in the fridge and slowly drop the temp to 33 degrees for lagering.