brewing in maine

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.