MiklaBjór

Hallo mr. Ween

2011-11-05T00:13:00.001+02:00

American IPA

Every single drop of this beer was consumed at the halloween party i took it to ! :D First time i had a 20 liter keg emptied in one party! hurray!

One of my friends asked if i could brew a keg of beer for his halloween party, and ofcourse i could :-) It ended up being a easy to drink beer with a smooth spicy/piney taste! with a almost honey like floral taste/aroma, it's quite subtle. It was made with a good dose of hops.

Because this was going to be a party beer, the malt base had to be light, which means mainly pale ale malt was used, and it was mashed at 65C. Also the carbonation rather low (~1.2 bar).But the body of the beer was still good, maybe because wheat malt was added and the fact it was 6.2%ABV

For this beer i for the first time this year used a safale american ale yeast (dry yeast) and it preformed very well, which means that the beer fermented quickly and had a clean/crisp taste. Usually i go with liquid yeast from Wyeast, because I, without good reason, think they are of better quality.

Future notes: The beer could easily take a healty dose of dry hopping with Casacade, simcoe and similar hops.

Malts
6000 g, Pale Malt, Weyermann (6,5 EBC)
350 g, Caraamber (59,1EBC) (to give color and malt aroma)
140 g, Wheat Malt (3,9 EBC) (to enhance body)
Hops
20,00 g Columbus (Tomahawk) [16,00 %] - FWH                 36,9 IBUs
13,00 g Columbus (Tomahawk) [14,00 %] - Boil 30 min,     15,1 IBUs
10,00 g Simcoe [13,00 %] - Boil 60,0 min                                14,0 IBUs
30,00 g Cascade [5,50 %] - Aroma Steep 1,0 min   Hop        0,0 IBUs
25,00 g Willamette [5,50 %] - Aroma Steep 5,0 mi Hop       0,0 IBUs

Additional hop additions

8 g, Simcoe pellets a hop tea was added when the beer was moved to the secondary fermentation vessel. It was made from left over worth.

The hop tea had a very light hop taste and no bitterness.

Salts0,75 tsp, Calcium Chloride: Should enhance malt flavor/complexity.
2 tsp, Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate): Enhance hop flavor and crisp'iness

Yeast
1,0 pkg, Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) Yeast

Ingredients:

Fermentation: Temperature was ~17C the whole fermentation period, except 3 days before 'kegging' then it was lowered to 2C to clear out the beer.

--------------

IBU 626.2 % ABV
OG: 1,061
FG: 1014
Estimated Color: 15,8 EBC
Estimated IBU: 66,0 IBUs

Dark Forces

2011-08-28T11:37:00.010+03:00

Cascadian Dark Ale (Black IPA)
I was on a business trip to the US and during that I stayed in Portland, Oregon over a weekend and during that I got to try a tons of good and fresh brews! (thanks to Brad for showing me all the great breweries, from Portland downtown and to the hood river)One of these was the Pitch Black IPA by the widmer brothers, this was the first "CDA" i had ever tried and it was good! altough not as hoppy as some of the wild IPA's around that area.
From tasting this beer and reading an article about CDA in "byo magazine" i decided to try and brew one. The recite was designed in colaboration with Brad - his additions were that we should go for a dry beer (mashing at 64C!) and add the rather spicy willamette hops.

Taste: Secondary fermentation, taste: Good smooth roasted taste, no of flavors. A lack of Cascade flavors (citrus flavor) but with great bitterness and spicy flavors dominating.

Keg carbonated+conditioning, taste: the taste was very pleasant! with subtle notes of citrus/grape fruit from cascade & simcoe and with the willamette giving a really pleasant spicy smoothness :-) the after taste was of toffee and coffee, with a simple, and lasting bitterness, non of these were overwhelming or to heavy.
The color was deep brown/black and the beer was rather murky (maybe chill hase) *need to fix the murky'ness issue next time, maybe protein rest or finning agents.

Recipe:

Malts4,63kg, Pale Malt, Maris Otter (5,9 EBC)
0,5 kg, Crystal Malt, Thomas Fawcett (130 EBC) /caramel taste and color
0,33 kg Carafa II (Dehusked black malt) ~811 EBC /Gave the good roasted taste and color
0,27kg, Caraamber, Weyermanm (~70 EBC) /for the taste and color
0,18 kg, Wheat malt, Pale, Weyermann (3,9 EBC) /Gives the dry beer a bit more body
0,16 kg, Caramunich I, Weyermann (100,5 EBC) /this was added because i had it

Hops
28 g, Columbus (bittering hop, added as FWH to give a smooth bitternes)
26 g, Columbus (45 min boil, to give some pinecone like flavor)
21 g/6 g, Cascade (aroma and flavor, both as knock out hop and in a hop tea)
14 g/4 g, Williamette (added for aroma and flavor, both as knock out hop and in a hop tea)
4 g, Amarillo (only added as an aroma hop via a hop tea)
Salts
0,75 tsp, Calcium Chloride, should enhance malt flavor/complexity.2 tsp Calcium sulfate, to enhance hop flavor and crisp'iness
Yeast: American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056) (made a 1.5 liter, OG: 1.040 yeast starter)Mashing temperature: 64-65C (then 2 hour boil with FWH)
Fermentation temperature: 16C (cooled to 3C, 2 days before kegging)OG: 1057 (65% efficiency)FG: 1.013
% ABV: 5,8Color: 59,2 EBC
IBU: 82

6th floor pilsner v.2

2011-07-24T13:45:00.009+03:00

Bohemian/Czech pilsner
I wanted to improve on my last "6th floor pilsner" which was not the best, mainly because i used Saaz hop pellets which i was unable to filter out properly, so it got overly Saaz'ish and a green color - and i also found out that i don't really like the saaz flavor that much, at least the flavor my brew procedure devlopes. So to update the beer i decited to go with more spicy hops and cut down on the saaz, which I have noticed being done in some lagers i recently have tried. I also added ~2% crystal malt to gain a similar effect that i got with the decoction mashing of the first "6th floor pilsner" (it was hard work to decoct the mash in my small kitchen!)

6th Floor Pilsner V.2

The beer was drunk at a midsummer party :-)

Taste: Secondary fermentation, taste: Smell very fruity, while the taste was quite clean and a bit sweet/malty and the bitterness was very mild and mostly noticable as an after taste.

Keg and bottling, taste:
the beer was crystal clear and had a nice dark yellow color, much like e.g. karhu. the smell was clearly fruity with a hint of complexity, something like caramel malt or resine. The taste was a little fruity, the fruitiness is partially due yeast strain. Some tastes that can be descripted as forest'ish (sliglty pine cone like) and floral, This taste was backed up by a solid body which made the beer feel wholesome (not sweet). Bitternes was clearly noticable and lasting but still felt mild and appropriate. in summary: I am very satisfied with the taste, especially the pine cone like taste which must be the Columbus/tomahawk hops.

After carbonation: beautiful beer with the cleanest taste i have ever tried in a homebrew! and also good, less fruity than before!

Some observations:
To create a protective CO2 layer during secondary fermentation, I added two teaspoons of dextrose straight to the vessel, this caused a quite beutiful foam explosion (very fine foam) rippeling out from where the dry sugar entered the liquid :) very nice visual effect.

Recipe:
Malts
5,4 kg, Pilsner, 2 row (3,9 EBC)
0,27 kg, CaraPils (Dextrine malt)
0,13 kg, Crystal malt 60L (Thomas Fawcett) ~130EBC
Hops40 g/ 35g, Saaz (First wort hop, 120 min, and as flavor/aroma addtion ~1o min. )
15g, Columbus (First woth hop, 120 min)
Saltsnone, but added ~0.5 ml lactic acid to adjust pHYeast: Budvar lager (wyeast labs #2000)
Fermentation temperature: Primary: 8C (8days) then 11C (2 days) Secondary: in increments of 3C pr. day cooled from 10C to 3C
Mashing temperature: Protein rest at 50C and saccarification rest at 67-69C + 2 hour boilOG: 1053 (68% efficiency)FG: 1.013
% ABV: 5,1Color: 11.5 EBC
IBU: 48

Winter Hop

2011-06-05T10:48:00.012+03:00

American style IPA
My friend Brad had a friend of his, Kari bring two McMenamins beers back from the US, and by trading some of my Drunk Packman i got two of those beers, the Hammerhead Ale and Sun Flower IPA.
These beers were really amazing, they had a superb freshness to them (and tons of bitternes) and a very light, but wholesome body. Having tried these I got the simple idea to scale back my Drunk Packman recipe, to have fewer types of hops (creates a simpler/clearer taste) and fewer speciality malts to decrease the caramel/toffee taste, which at time can give the beer a 'heavy' feeling. But because it was winter i wanted to give the beer a slight dark color, hence added more crystal malt than i would expect was in the original McMenamins.

Taste: Secondary fermentation, taste: Clean, a solid Grape fruit taste with a smooth tea like bitternes and a good malt background.

Keg carbonated+conditioning, taste: Great beer!!!! light and much more drinkable version of Drunk Packman, very murky due to large amount of hops (especially the hop tea). The spicy taste from the Target hops added to the secondary fermentation really helped balance out the quite dominant grape fruit taste.

Winter Hop

Recipe:
Malts
Pale Malt, Weyermann (6,5 EBC)
Pale Malt, Belgian (more biscuit like taste than weyerman)
CaraPils (Dextrine malt)
Crystal malt 60L (Thomas Fawcett) ~130EBC

Hops
Simcoe (bittering hop, added as first worth hop to give a smooth bitternes)
Columbus (90 min boil)
Amarillo (only added as an aroma hop)
Target (added to secondary fermentation as a hop tea)

Salts
0,75 tsp, Calcium Chloride, should enhance malt flavor/complexity.
2 tsp Calcium sulfate, to enhance hop flavor and crisp'iness

Yeast: American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056) (made a 1.5 liter, OG: 1.040 yeast starter)
Fermentation temperature: 17C (cooled to 3C, 3 days before kegging)
Mashing temperature: 67-69C
OG: 1060 (68% efficiency)
FG: 1.015
% ABV: 5,9
Color: 19 EBC (Had a thick haze caused by all the hops)
IBU: 71

Drunk Pacman (AIPA)

2010-11-21T11:19:00.012+02:00

American style IPA
This was my best IPA style beer so far and it was much liked by friends :-)
I wanted to create a large AIPA, using a malt base with many speciality malts, in small quantities as not to mask the hop taste. On top of that to add a lot of hops! My inspiration for this beer came when i tried the AleSmith IPA at the local bar her in Helsinki, it was only available for a short time. At that time it was one of the best AIPA's i had tasted, so i set out to see if i could create something similar.

Taste: when bottling the taste was good! smooth bitternes, wholesome, complex good taste, with clear grapefruit, almost apricot taste, aroma was low with notes of grapefruit.

After a few months of storage carbonation and conditioning had given the beer an almost cognac complexity, offcourse, with the taste of citrus and grape, but much more balanced now than just after bottling. Due the strengh of this beers alcohol, body and taste it is hard to drink to much of it.

Recipe:
Malts
4000 g, Pale Malt, Maris Otter (5,9 EBC)
2700 g, Pale Malt, Weyermann (6,5 EBC
80 g, CaraPils (Dextrine malt)
80 g, Crystal malt 60L (Thomas Fawcett)
80 g, Munich I, Weyermann (14 EBC)
20 g, Caramunich I, Weyermann (105 EBC)
80 g, Wheat Malt (3,9 EBC)

Hops
Columbus (Tomahawk) 16%A (17 g, FWH (first wort hop); 9.5 g, 60 min, 6 g, 10 min)
Simcoe 13%A (17g, FWH, 6 g, 15 min)
Amarillo 9,4%A (17 g, 30 min)
Cascade 7%A (8 g, 5 min, 20g, 1 min)

Created hop tea in a french coffee press (about 0.5 liter wort)
Columbus (Tomahawk) 20 g
Chinook (10 g)
Amarillo (20 g)
Simcoe (10 g)
Cascade (20 g)

Salts
2 g, Calcium Chloride, should enhance malt flavor/complexity.
8 g Calcium sulfate, to enhance hop flavor and crisp'iness

Yeast: American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056) (made a 1.5 liter, OG: 1.040 yeast starter)

OG: 1072 (68% efficiency)
FG: 1.015
Color: 15 EBC (Had a thick haze caused by all the hops)
IBU: 83

Amber Lager

2010-03-21T16:50:00.009+02:00

American Amber Lager (Vienna lager)
For this beer i try to come as close as possible to the Brooklyn Lager, which is one of my favorite lagers! So i have done some research and patched together a recipe that should match quite well, at least in ABV, Color and bitterness but the for the malt and caramel taste, it's impossible to say anything about until tasting it.

Taste: When bottling: Clear caramel taste, some spicy flavors from the noble hobs, little cascade taste/smell - all in all a good and clean tasting beer, but seems to lack the dry hopping flavor/aroma i had hopped for.

-- Comments--

Yeast shock: During the primary fermentation the beer got cooled down to about 1C for ½ day because the thermostat had fallen out of the fridge and was cooling non stop, the yeast had slowed down and the krausening on the surface had fallen to the bottom. Fortunately when reheating the beer to 10C it came back to life and fermented vigorously. Hope no damage is done :-)

Rotten egg: The yeast starter smelled bad of rotten egg / cabbage, but to my surprise it tasted fine. I presume it is because the starter was made primarily with pilsner malt and it was only boiled for 10 min. so that a lot of DMS has been present, and on top of that the lager yeast probably is a average sulfur producer.
------

Recipe:
Malts
3600 g, Pilsner malt
1000 g, Vienna malt
500 g, Munich I (Weyermann) 14 EBC
280 g, Crystal malt 60L (Thomas Fawcett)
420 g, Caramunich I (Weyermann) 105 EBC
200 g, Carapils
150 g, Acid malt
(Note the amounts of malt are sometime determined by what i had lying around at that time)

Hops
(70 g, 60 min; 8 g, 20 min) Hallertauer Mittelfrueh
(8 g, 20 min) Cascade
(25 g, 4 days, Dry hop) Cascade

Salts
3 to 4 g, Calcium Chloride, should enhance malt flavor/complexity.

Yeast: Wyeast 2035 American lager (made a 2 liter, OG: 1.040 yeast starter)

---------------------
Brew stats:
pH: 5,5-5,7 (after dough in) and pH 5,2-5,4 before pitching yeast (regulated with lactic acid and sauer malt)
Mash schedule: Did a 90 min. single infusion mash at 66C, The infusion mash included mash out at 75C.
Volume: 23 liter
Malt/water ratio: 2 liter/kg malt
OG: 1058 (71% efficiency)
Color: 22,5 EBC
IBU: 25

Primary fermentation: 10 days at 10C and 2 day at 13.5C diacetyl rest) then 2 days if cooling worth to 4C before transfer to secondary (total of 14 days)

Secondary fermentation/lagering: 5 days at 4C, 7 days at 2,5C and about 2 weeks at 1C
Added 50g dextrose to create a small 'krausening' that will generate CO2 to protect the beer.
Note: due to the low SG when going to secondary fermentation

Bottling: Added 6 g/l dextrose (about 2,6 volumes carbonation), FG: 1013, pH: 4.2
Beers stored at 12C until carbonated (over 2 weeks).

The brew day:
Best efficiency i have had for a long time, this caused me to overshoot the OG by 3 gravity units. ;)
I added lactice acid to the sparge water to reduce pH before sparging and i also tried my best to ensure a constant temperature of around 75C (usually drops to <70c)>

Hop Torrent

2010-02-08T14:33:00.013+02:00

Late hopped American IPA
This beer was made with inspiration from Mikkeller's 'Green Gold' (IPA with a dark colour, malty and caramel rich taste + tons of hops)

For this beer i wanted to experiment with something called 'hop burst' where >90% of all hops are added less than 15 min. before the end of the boil. Because the hop utilization for 15 min boil is about 50% less than boiling the hops for 1 hours, nearly double the amount of hops are needed This large amount of late hops creates a strong hop flavour and aroma :-) further more I created a malty and caramel tasting malt base.
*Note that there is no Pale Malt in this recipe, so the taste is quite clean, pilsner like, with the malty and somewhat plum like characteristics of Caramunich.

How it ended up: I have to admit that i did not hit the caramel taste very well, i guess some good english crystal malt would preform better here than caramunich. Furthermore the hop burst did not leave a very strong aroma in the beer, likely because the vigorous fermentation has blown it all off, so dry hopping is definetly recommended. But the hop burst has added good deep and complex hop flavour and smooth mild bitterness to the beer.

Recipe:
Malts
3900 g, Pilsner malt
2900 g, Munich I
600 g, Caramunich I
400 g, Malted Oats
200 g, Sauer malt

Hops
(13 g, 60 min; 32 g, 15 min; 21 g, 1 min) Simcoe
(65 g, 15 min) Armarillo
(33 g, 5 min; 21 g, 1 min) Cascade

Salts
5 g, Gypsum (brew water had an estimated 160 ppm SO4)

Yeast: Wyeast 1056 American Ale (made an OG: 1.040 yeast starter)

---------------------
Brew stats:
pH: 5,5 (after dough in)
Mash schedule: Did a 90 min. single infusion mash at 66-68C, with 5 g Gypsum added to the worth to increase sulfate content (enhances hop flavor) The infusion mash included mash out at 76C.
Volume: 20 liter
Malt/water ratio: 2 liter/kg malt
OG: 1062 (57% efficiency)
Color: 24 EBC
IBU: 62

Primary fermentation: 5 days at 16.5 - 17.5C

Secondary fermentation: 14 days at 18C

Bottling

The brew day:
Very bad efficiency! likely because the malt was not crushed well enough, quite many whole grains, maybe 10% . I ended up using 1 hour boiling the worth just to reach OG: 1062 and about 20 liters final worth. The IBU/SG ratio is a bit on the high side.

All Simcoe pellet and the Amarillo additions were added in hop bags. The 5 min and 1 min hop additions were left in the worth until it had cooled, so about 30 min. total. therefore maybe giving less aroma than planned.

1 liter of a 1.5 liter yeast starter was pitchet at about 21C and the worth set to ferment at 16.5 - 17.5C

Springweizen

2010-02-08T14:28:00.013+02:00

A 'standard' Weissbier or more like a Kristalweissen
This is one of the simplest, and good tasting beers i have brewed lately :-) already 3 weeks after pitching the yeast and i am able to drinking the beer with joy and after small 2 months the beer has become much more rounded and the malt flavor is more dominant.

The beer turned out to be more like a kristalweissen its very clear (but not as clear as a pilsner) but the taste is still that of a weissbier but maybe more on the malty side. The beer has been stored at 10C most of the time.

Recipe:
Malts
3000 g, Wheat malt
2700 g, Pilsner malt
250 g, Sauer malt

Hops
(30 g, 60 min) Hallertauer Mittelfruh
(8 g, 2 min) Hallertauer Mittelfruh

Yeast: Wyeast 3068 Weihenstephan Weizen
Flocculation: low
Attenuation: 73-77%
Temperature Range: 64-75° F (18-24° C)
Alcohol Tolerance: approximately 10% ABV
---------------------
Brew stats:
pH: 5,5 (after dough in)
Mash schedule: i used a double decoction mash: Mash-in (15 min) then took 9 liter for decoction (10 min, 72C and 10 min boiling), put decoction back to pot, raised temperature to 67C (40 min) then took the second 9 liter decoction (10 min boiling), put it backed and raised the temp. to 74C for 20 min.
Volume: 24 liter
Malt/water ratio: 2.5 liter/kg malt
OG: 1051 (65% efficiency)
Color: 8 EBC (likely more due to the double decoction and long boiling times)
IBU: 11

Fermenting temperature: 8 days at 17C then 2 days at 19C then bottling with 11g/l dextrose.

Bottling
FG: 1010, pH: 4.2 - 4.4. Stored the bottles at room temperature for a week then at 10-15C

Helles Bock

2009-11-23T17:45:00.022+02:00

Helles bock, 2010 edition.

After nearly 2 months the beer has a much more balanced taste and tastes significantly better than 1 month earlier! The taste is dominantly malty, slightly sweet with little hop bitterness and slight spicy/earthy aroma, diacetyl is low, but noticeable. The beer has no chill haze, which unfortunately my last 2 batches have had.
old post: After 3 weeks in bottles at 17C it has got a nice amount of carbonation, and the cara-pils has really affected the foam, it looks smooth and thick. It is amber colored and very clear. The taste is quite rough, malty, some diacetyl is present and the dextrose sugar addition has thinned out the taste a bit.

Recipe:
Malts
3600 g, Munich Malt
2800 g, Pilsner malt
700 g, Cara Pils
500 g, sauer malt

Hops
(70 g, 60 min) Hallertauer Mittelfruh
(20 g, 15 min) Hallertauer Mittelfruh

Yeast: Wyeast 2487-PC Hella Bock Yeast

Alc. Tolerance 12% ABV

Flocculation medium

Attenuation 70-74%

Temp. Range 48-56°F (9-13°C)

Alcohol: 6.9%ABV (that's including the 110g sugar added in secondary fermentation)
---------------------
Brew stats:
pH: around 5,2 (due to sauer malt, almost added to much)
Mash schedule: i used a double decoction mash: Mash-in (15 min) then took 9 liter for decoction (10 min, 72C and 10 min boiling), put decoction back to pot, raised temperature to 67C (40 min) then took the second 9 liter decoction (10 min boiling), put it backed and raised the temp. to 74C for 20 min.
Volume: 24 liter
Malt/water ratio: 2.5 liter/kg malt
OG: 1058 (63% efficiency - it is so low because i added extra water during the boil...)
Color: 16 EBC (likely more due to the double decoction and long boiling times)
IBU: 29
Fermenting temperature: 14C the first day, and likely to be about 12C most of the time. I'm using a cupboard which is cooled by air from the outside

Secondary fermentation
SG: 1018, secondary fermentation: 4 weeks,
note: added 110g dextrose and re-pitched some of the yeast to krausen and increase ABV.

Bottling
FG: 1015, pH: 4.2 - 4.4.

notes: Had a very successful lautering, in regards to beer clarity etc. But i was to eager to get my 24 liter s of worth that i only got a 1058 OG + i added to little sparge water, losing some sugar there.

6th Floor Pilsner

2009-11-14T20:38:00.023+02:00

My first pilsner (08.11.09)
The style i brewed is bohemian pilsner. It is rather hoppy, malty and light colored :D

Bottle conditioning: The pilsner has now been about 3 weeks at 10C (bottle conditioning) but very little CO2 developed and the taste did not mature much, so i put the bottle to about 18-20C for a bit over a week, and to my surprise, they developed significant CO2 and the taste really started to even out - i will now soon put them back to 10C or even 4C to condition, before the warm temperature imparts any fruity flavors.

12.12.09

One day after being bottled - already tasted good, clean and hoppy :D

----------------------------------------

top left: 8 liter decoction mash, hop pellets in kettle, my beer fridge modified to fit a carboy and transfer of the 'beer' to secondary/lagering carboy.

Recipe:
Malts
5000 g, Pilsner malt
400 g, Cara Pils

Hops
(80 g, 90 min) Saaz
(25 g, 45 min) Saaz
(20 g, 30 min) Saaz
(25g, KO) Saaz

Yeast: Bohemian lager (Wyeast 2124). Attenuation 73-77%. (Yeast starter, SG: 1040, 2 days)
---------------------
Brew stats:
pH: around 6 (too high)
Mash schedule: i used a double decoction mash: Mash-in (15 min) then took 8 liter for decoction (10 min, 72C and 10 min boiling), put decoction back to pot, raised temperature to 67C (40 min) then took the second 8 liter decoction (10 min boiling), put it backed and raised the temp. to 74C for 20 min.
Volume: 25 liter
Malt/water ratio: 2.5 liter/kg malt
OG: 1048
FG: 1008
Color: 6 EBC (likely more than 6 EBC due to the double decoction and long boiling times)
IBU: 37
Fermenting temperature: 10C (used temperature regulated fridge) Worth has been around 18C when yeast was pitched and it was put directly to the fridge)

Secondary fermentation / lagering
After 11 days at 10C it got a 2 days diacetyl rest at 15C (13 day total) After that I added it to a new fermenter and slowly lowered the temperature, about 3 C pr. day down to 1C. The beer was lagerd for 3 weeks and then bottled with 5 g/l priming sugar (dextrose) and stored at 10C for 3 weeks, but not much CO2 developed, so i gave them 10 days at 20C and that generated CO2 and mellowed the taste. Then they were put back to low temperature.

notes: Had a very successful lautering, in regards to beer clarity. I used hop pellets and they created a large green mass inside the pot, which made it difficult to pour of the worth (need to get a filter for my tab)

Import Pale Ale

2009-10-07T17:43:00.022+03:00

Bottling
The beer was bottled after two weeks in secondary fermentation together with some cascade dry hops.
This fine colored IPA tastes very good with the bitterness from the chinook hops being right on :-) and the beer is very clean and crisp with a good citrus/fresh flavor and aroma. Now all there is left is some carbonation and to drink it as quick as possible. The ABV is about 5.8%

Amber/light copper colored. Slightly murky due the low flocculating yeast.

The taste is not as hoppy as i had expected, i guess this might be because of all the oxygen that got mixed in the beer when adding it to secondary fermentation. Also the gravity was only 1004 ! so the beer is not very sweet, but it still has a full body.

* After studying more about attenuation and alcohol I found out that what I have quoted the apparent gravity (if one can call it that), but because ethanol has a density <1 g/ml. (0.78 g/ml) the real gravity is actually larger than the measured one (because it is relative to water, 1 g/ml.)
using this webpage, it calculated that my real gravity is 1013 ! exactly as expected! :-)

Lingonberry Pale Ale

2009-10-02T13:20:00.039+03:00

Sorsakoski puolukka olut
This beer has a similar malt profile to the American IPA but with less crystal malt, to make the red colour from the lingonberry jam more visible. The reason i name this beer Sorsakoski puolukka olut (Sorsakoski lingonberry beer) is because the lingonberry jam and hops from Sorsaksoki. These home grown hops were rather bitter, but not as much as Chinook and they did not have strong flavor or aroma, if anything it was mildly spicy. As hops i used some leftovers which happened to be Chinook and Cascade - I guess their citrus like taste will suit the lingonberries well :-) also i used the safbrew-33 which is a rather "low" attenuator (70-75%) and should leave the beer rather sweet.

Top left: Lauthering: a few lingonberries and the immersion chiller, reddish stuff covering the top of fermenter, after a few hours the beer was fermenting vigorously.

Recipe:
Malts
5000 g, Pale Ale
400 g, Cara Pils
550 g, Munchener
250 g, Crystal

Hops
(35 g, 60 min) Chinook
(25 g, 20 min) Hops from Sorsakoski (very mild spicy flavor)
(24 g, 5 min) Cascade
(KO) 20 table spoons of homemade lingonberry jam

Yeast: Safbrew-33 (made a small yeast starter 5 hours before pitching)
---------------------
Brew stats:
pH: 5-6
Mash temperature and time: 65-68C for 90 min.
Volume: 24 liter
Malt/water ratio: 2 liter/kg malt
OG: 1050
Color: 18 EBC (amber)
IBU: 50
Fermenting temperature: 15-18C (The temperature fluctuates with the outside temperature)

Secondary fermentation
No secondary, beer is already quite clear with very little sediment.

notes: Had a very successful lautering, in regards to beer clarity. Lost about 3 liters when adding the wort to the carboy, because i misjudged how much was left in the pot when i stopped.

Import Pale Ale

2009-09-26T14:25:00.026+03:00

Brewing an American IPA
I call this beer Import Pale Ale because it was made from American yeast and hops which were imported from USA to Sweden then to Finland, further more my brother came from Denmark to visit and brew this beer with me.

The hardest part of deciding the recipe was how much chinook hops to add, i used a few hours reading only forums etc. and some LOVED chinook and used a lot of it, while other (quite many) told that one should be very careful not to add to much, because it might ruin the beer. well, i settled with adding a decent amount, 35 g, adding up to about 42 IBU. Tasting the beer when i racket it to secondary fermentation it definitely was not too bitter, it had a strong grape fruit/citrus like taste, just perfect.

I did not get as much sugar out of the malt as i planned for so the OG was ind the lower end of the American IPA style.

Picture from bottom right: Me adding yeast starter to the 'beer', Hanna and Bergur cleaning in the kitchen while the beer cools down, Bergur helping with the brewing and finally, the beer fermenting.

Recipe:
Malts
5000 g, Pale Ale (base malt)
400 g, Cara Pils (fuller body)
250 g, Munchener (malt taste, complexity)
350 g, Crystal (color and slight caramel taste)

Hops
(35 g, 60 min) (4 g, 1 min), Chinook (bittering)
(25 g, 20 min) (20 g, 5 min) and (12 g, dry), Cascade (flavor and aroma)

Yeast: Wyeast, 1056 American Ale (made an OG: 1.040 yeast starter)
-------------------------------
Brew stats:
pH: ~5.5
Mash temperature and time: 65-68C for 90 min.
Volume: 24 liter
Malt/water ratio: 2 liter/kg malt
OG: 1051 (65% efficiency)
Color: 19 EBC (amber/light copper)
IBU: 52
Fermenation Temperature: 18-20C

Secondary fermentation
pH: 4-5
"FG": 1.009

The brew day:
Brew went smoothly except for a few annoying problems:

- After about 1 hour the brew pot became 75C for about 5 min. where after i had to add 2 liters of cold water to cool it down to 68. Happened because the pots temperature regulator does not work well! (not going to use it again!)

- When put the beer in a new carboy for secondary fermentation, the siphon broke and i had to use a funnel, this caused a lot of air to mix with the beer ! + increased the risk of infection. Due to this, i expect the beer to have a very short 'shelf-life' and maybe become stalled.

My new external thermostat

2009-07-21T21:11:00.023+03:00

External thermostat
I got the Universal Thermostat (UT200) that I ordered from ELV in Germany last week, and to my surprise it was not assembled! I found out later that it was also possible to order an assembled verison, which only cost 12 euros more.
It took me about 6 hours of soldering, using a German manual as guide - if one does it with out mistakes and using an ENGLISH manual it should not take more than 1 to 2 hours. Against my expectations the thing worked! :-) and on top of being an external thermostat for a freezer, fridge, boiler etc, it can also be used as an accurate thermometer, for example to measure the temperature in the brewing pot or even fever ;) hehe..

The price for the thermostat is 30 euro and it costs 25 euros to get it shipped to Finland :( In hind sight it is worth paying 12 euros extra for the assembled one!

here is the link to the webpage
main page: www.elv.de
link to pre-assembled thermostat, and to not assembled thermostat

Here are some pictures of it, after soldering and wiring, and out of the box.

4 Stout, Bottling and Storage

2009-07-12T09:37:00.012+03:00

Stout, bottling and storage (Mai to July '09)
The beer was bottled after 18 days (22 April - 10 May) and stored at ca. 20C.
I achieved a FG of 1012 which was exactly as planned, it means that the beer contains roughly 6.5 %ABV (OG was 1.062.)

Before bottling I added 3-4 g white sugar pr. liter and stored the bottles at about 21C.
Now after 2 months the carbonation of the beer is in the low end. I would assume that 3-4 g/l should be enough for a decent carbonation, usually is. I think the reason for the low carbonation is that during the 18 days in secondary fermentation the beer lost most of the dissolved CO2 and had to start from scratch with the priming sugar - Normally the beer should contain quite a large amount of CO2 even before priming sugar is added...
well, it surely looks good ! and the taste - it has a very good taste to start with, like a proper stout/porter, but the after-taste is quite unpleasant, a bit like wax, and is especially noticeable a few minutes after opening a cold beer, :-( The film on the carboy (mentioned earlier) might have produced some bad aromatic stuff, but it is unlikely an infection, because then I would expect a much lower FG, because the sugars should be consumed by the bacteria/wild yeast. I am therefor starting to suspect that the yeast has created or is the off flavor, as mentioned early, it was very hard to activate the yeast, indicating that it was in a bad condition, therefor the few cells that survied and multiplied have likely had unfavorable characteristics... all in all, the beer is drinkable and has no unpleasant side effects, maybe with a bit of luck the wax'ish taste will disappear with further storage. ! NEXT time it will be better ;) !

3 Stout, possible problem (2ndary fermentation)

2009-04-27T10:05:00.013+03:00

Secondary fermentation (27/4-09)
The carboy has been standing for a few days at 20-22C near the window, covered with a jacket (no light got trough) when yesterday i noticed a very thin! oily/bit slimy film covering most of the surface, its rather homogeneous. I wonder if this is due to contamination or just oily residues from the ingredients, e.g. hops, roasted barley and cocoa. I thought the transfer from primary to secondary fermentation went well, but you never know.... well, the beer has nearly 2 more weeks in the fermentation tank and if the film does not grow i assume it is OK - but only the taste will tell ;-) I have now moved the carboy to a 19-20C dark room because i presume that the temperature varies to much in the window, and this might stress the yeast and cause strange agglomerations of the beer proteins.

By the way, i found two good links on "How to spot bad beer" and "How Not to Brew"
http://www.ratebeer.com/Story.asp?StoryID=462
http://www.allaboutbeer.com/homebrew/24.4-nottobrew.html

Update: I think I found the possible source for the thin surface layer - There is a thin transparent film covering the inside of my carboy, but it has only gotten visible now that the yeast and sediments have attached to it. The film has likely come from the secondary fermentation of the previous beer. I can see it has been scratched by the brush (when i washed the carboy) but the brush, caustic soda and iodphor have not been able to remove it ! but hopefully it is sanitized! and will not spoil the brew. Next time i'll use a higher concentration of caustic soda and use really warm water!

2 Stout, brewing and fermentation

2009-04-23T16:29:00.017+03:00

Stout, brewing and fermentation (19/4-09) (ingredients are in the previous posting)
The yeast Irish Ale yeast starter was made from 75cl water and 170g malt and some hops, this gave it an OG (original gravity) of about 1.040 and after about 24 hours it was done fermenting. The Wyeast web page said i would get 6 mil. cells/ml using a 1.040 OG starter and that i needed 12 mil. cells/ml. for a >1.060 gravity worth to have a good pitch, therefor i added about 1 tbs. table sugar after 24 hours to further increase the yeast count - after 2 days i set the yeast starter in the fridge overnight so that the yeast would settle and be ready to pitch the next day.

The brewing of the 25L went smoothly, the OG was 1.062 and very nice hot and cold breaks were achieved - I'm not using irish mosh or any finning agents so those breaks were important. My girlfriend helped me during the brew, and she came up with the idea to add some high quality ecological cocoa powder, and so she got to add 1½ tbs. just to give a hint of cocoa (i did not want to risk it ruining the beer). (images: Roaste barley and dusty malt mill.)

The fermentation progressed very well! in less than 10 hours at 20-22C the fermentation was in full progress and after merely 3 days only 1 "blob" pr. min. came from the air lock! So i decided it was time to rack to secondary fermentation while there still was some activity. The Gravity reading at this point was 1.012 which indicates a nearly complete fermentation and the taste was very good, so far so good. Now I'll give it 2-3 weeks in secondary, before bottling.
(image: Worth boiling, and beer set for primary fermentation)

After primary fermentation and transferring to secondary.
(images: yeast and sediments and transfer to new carboy.

1 Stout, about the beer and yeast starter.

2009-04-16T14:27:00.006+03:00

Stout, 2 days before brewing (16/4-09)
Now that the outside temperature has risen to over 14C it is no longer suitable for brewing lager type beers, so I have decided to brew a top-fermented Stout (strong porter).
I want this to be a stong classic dry stout with a around 6.5% ABV and with a moderate bitterness of about 55 IBU (international Bitterness Units) and I'll add some Oat flakes to create a fuller body and a better foam. The recipe is the following using a 90 min. single infusion mash.

Malt:

Pale Malt 70%
*Munich malt 17%
*Cara-hell 2%
Flaked oats 4%
Roasted barley 7%
and 1½ tbs. cocoa powder.
* These are leftovers from the last brew.

Hops:
Challenger 5.4% alpha, 130 g.

Yeast:
Irish Ale (smack-pack from Wyeast)

Last night (15/04-09) i activated the Wyeast package, which was supposed to swell in 3+ hours, but in the morning almost nothing had happened! the yeast was about 5 months old, and i guess it has been stored propperly in the shop - it should last for over 6 months. well, i have now added the yeast to a 0.75 L yeast starter with 1.040 OG (made from 140 g malt and a bit of hops) and hopefully it will start fermenting soon!

cheers.

9 Hellesbock / Maibock (Almost there)

2009-04-09T11:27:00.021+03:00

Bottle lagering/storage day 42 (09/4-09)
The beer has now been lagered at 9-12C for 12 days and at ~5C for 9 days. The taste has been evolving very much, it has gone from having many distinct tastes especially a relative strong hop and fruity taste to a more balanced hop and malt taste, with the taste of alcohol now being more noticeable - this change has been interesting to follow and i expect that in a months time it will have reached its "mature" state which people normally relate to beer. I really have to stop my self from drinking them already at this stage ;) up till now i have drunk 6 beers.

About the lager process:
This beer should have a minimum of one month lagering and preferentially 2 months at low temperature, up til now it has had 21 days. I gave the beer 12 days at 10C to ensure that the yeast would be able to sufficiently carbonate the beer before putting it to 5C where the yeast metabolism is significantly slowed down. But up to this point there still is not enough carbonation in the beer, although it is still increasing (luckily!), so i hope it will reach the levels i expect for this beer style... if not, well, the beer is still very drinkable ;-) The reason to store the beer at 5c or less is to clarify it and reduce the production of potential off-flavors.

Pictures:

The beer is safely stored in a brown beer bottle, these are the best to protect the beer from light.

The color of the beer has positively surprised me.

A close up. Hopefully there will be more foam later.refreshing ;)

8 Hellesbock / Maibock (Bottling)

2009-03-23T14:27:00.016+02:00

Secondary fermentation day 21 (19/3-09)
The beer has now conditioned (been in secondary fermentation) for 14 days and I decided it was time to bottle it. In hindsight it would probably be a good idea to have kept it in the fermentation tank one week extra, but I doubt that it would have an impact on the "final" taste. The alcohol content is between 6.8 - 7.0% alc. vol. % (my measurements were not that exact) and i do not expect there to be more fermentable sugars, so this should be the final alc. vol. %
The taste is a bit "green" by that I mean that the hop bitternes and malt taste are quite separate and the beer has not gotten a smooth equal taste.

The beer bottles 33cl glass, 1.25 litre plastic. and 5 litre kegs were thoroughly cleaned ! by having them soaked in alkaline solution (Caustic soda), Sanitized with Iodophor and washed in boiling water just before bottling. The bottle caps where also boiled before use.
To carbonate the beer i added 100 g sugar to 1 dl water and boiled it - then using a syringe I added about 4 g/l of sugar separately to each bear, but for the 5 litre kegs I added no more than 2.5 g/l because they tend to get over carbonated if the regular amount is used.

The beer has a very nice colour

The beer was bottled in glass bottles, plastic bottles and kegs, and left to stand at about 10C for a week to obtain sufficient carbonation before they are set to lager in the refrigerator at 0-3C.

7 Hellesbock / Maibock (more 2nd fermentation)

2009-03-15T10:55:00.011+02:00

Secondary fermentation day 17 (15/3-09)
The beer has now conditioned (been in secondary fermentation) for 10 days and has started to
clear significantly, it was not until after about 7 days that the suspended material really started to sediment. I expect to bottle sometime within the next 4 days.

Today i found out that if your hand is held up against the glass on the other side of the yeast, then after ca. 1½ min. CO2 bobbles start to form and "explode" out of the sediments - quite a cool effect. I think it is because the increasing temperature releases the CO2 from the beer, which must be quite saturated with CO2 now that the effect is so profound, this is good thing because CO2 protects the beer from O2 and aerobic bacteria.

Because the sudden change in heat seems to disturb the sediments, i will have to bottle it quikly before the temperature rises significantly.

The beer looks rather dark, more like a dunkel bock than a hellesbock. But i am sure that as the beer clears more and if it is add to a drinking glass it will look much more amber/copper colored than the dark color seen here.

6 Hellesbock / Maibock (2ndary fermentation)

2009-03-06T09:18:00.010+02:00

Secondary fermentation day 7 (5/3-09)
The primary fermentation had slowed significantly down, giving only 1 to 2 "blobs" / min. from the air lock. I decided that this was a good time to start secondary fermentation/The conditioning, because the bit of activity left would help create a protective CO2 atmosphere in the new fermentation tank. To help reactivate the yeast activity i added 2 g sugar/l (disovled in about 2 cl boiled water cooled to 12C)

The reason to do secondary fermentation is to give the beer time to clear, reduces yeast taste, and the leftover yeast will reduce off flavours by consuming heavier sugars, fusel alcohols and its own byproducts produced during the primary fermentation phase. The conditioning phase should last for about two weeks, a good sign that it is about to be done is that the beer has become much clearer. Here after the beer is to be bottled and lagered at 0-4C

The wort after being siphoned into the new container.

5 Hellesbock / Maibock (more fermentation)

2009-03-02T17:18:00.005+02:00

Primary fermentation day 4 (2/3-09)
The fermentation has its peak activity between day 3 and 5.
I have attached a video below showing the fermentation activity , and some beautiful swirls of material moving around due to all the CO2 produced by the yeast. The swirls are dynamic and quite coherent, kind of like steam from boiling water or smoke from a cigarette.

4 Hellesbock / Maibock (fermentation)

2009-03-01T16:12:00.014+02:00

Primary fermentation (o1/3-09)
The fermentation really kicked of after 24 hours of pitching the yeast, the vessel is kept at 10C so the fermentation was expected
to start a bit later and be slower than when fermenting ales at 18-24C, but at a low temperature less esters (fruity taste) and fusel alcohols develop. But the unwanted diacetyl which is formed by the yeast the first few days, is slowly re-consumed and the beer should therefore be allowed to ferment longer or at higher temperature for a day or two.
Below are some pictures of the fermentation showing how it really makes the whole vessel come alive :-) If you have seen the pictures from the previous blog you might remember that there were unclear chunks of material suspended in the container, but now nearly all of it has sedimented or become nutrient for the yeast.

Surface of the fermentation tank

Sediments and the happily bottom fermenting lager yeast eagerly munching away on sugars and giving alcohol in return. Sometimes it almost looks like "solar flares" when air bobbles erupt from the sediments :-D

3 Hellesbock / Maibock (Brewing day)

2009-03-01T11:26:00.022+02:00

Brewing day (26/2-09)
I decided to use a single decoction mashing for the brew, this is done to extract more malt flavor, caramelize some of the sugars and darken the worth a bit.

My mashing schedule is the following:
added 7.3 kg crushed malt to 17 litres 73C water which lowered the temperature down to a comfortable 63C where from the mash was heated to about 67 C which is the temperature where a substantial amount of non fermentable dextrine sugar is formed, this gives the beer a rich and full taste (not dry). after 45 min. i took about 2 liters malt rich mash out for decoction - the decoction schedule is 10 min. at 70C and 20 min. at 100C (boiling) hereafter it is added back to the main wort which now has cooked for 75 min at 67C. The temperature is raised to 72-75C, for 20 min, this is the mash out.

Below is a picture of the mash taken out for decoction mashing at 100C:

After the mashing procedure, the malt was filtered out of the mash and 75-78C sparge water was added to wash out the rest of the sugar from the malt and to increase the volume of the brew so that there is more beer for everyone :-)
Here the wort is seen after lautering and sparge water has been added to achieve about 24 litres.

Below a picture of the lautering/filtering process is seen. The sparge water is poured through the malt which is in the white filter bag and then back into the pot, this process is repeated until the wort is quite clear and the Original Gravity (OG) in my case should be 1068 (equal to about 68 g sugar pr. liter wort) but, due to low efficiency or lack of malt i just got up to an OG of 1060 which can become about 6.4-6.8 % alc. vol. after fermentation, depending on the amount of fermentable sugars.

After this lautering process the wort is set to boiled and hops are added in 3 steps:
first bitter hops, (Hallertauer mittelfruh), after 40 min. aroma hops (Hallertauer mittelfruh) and some Irish moss was added (reduces beer haze) and after 54 min. aroma hops (Hersbrucker and a bit og mittelfruh)

After 60 min. the hops are filtered out of the wort and the wort is cooled using a wort chiller, mine is a homemade spiraled copper tube.

When the wort was about 14C (same as the yeast starter) i poured it into the fermenting vessel, which after it was filled was shaken well to air/oxygenize the worth so that the yeast will have a good start. As you can see, there is a lot of light brown particles floating in the wort, this is both protein, sugars and left overs of malt, but all this will fall to the bottom and some of it might get fermented :-)

Now all that is left is to put the fermentation vessel to the 10C cupboard and leave it there until fermentation slows down enough to start secondary fermentation.

Btw, it requires 2 persons to get that glass carboy all the way up there :-) luckely had my girlfriend to help me. Oh, on the stove the wort chiller/cooler can be seen.

Note: Some of the malt was used to bake bread with, this give you a bit more for the money.

2 Hellesbock / Maibock (Crushing the Malt)

2009-02-25T22:40:00.014+02:00

1 day till the brewing day (25/02-09):
Today the malt grains were crushed in a electric stone grinder, because crushed malt has a larger surface area it will be more accessible to enzymatic attack (e.g. α-amylase and β-amylase) which turn the starch into fermentable sugars. It is also important not to crush it to much so that the malt husks get to small, because when the wort is to be filtered from the mash they are effective as a natural filter.
Note: The reason i crused the malt one day before use is to lessen the work burden on the brewing day and because of my schedule.

I used 3 types of malt for this lager type, amber/light copper coloured beer. The types and amounts are: 49% Münchener malt, 41% Pilsner malt and 10% Cara-hell. Of these Cara-hell is the darkest or said in another way, the "least pale" one.

The crushed malt is shown on the image below. What looks like whole grains is in many cases just empty husks, especially from the Cara-hell grains because they were rather hard to grind.

After being crushed, the malt was sealed in paper bags and stored in a dark cold place for the brewing day, tomorrow.

1 Hellesbock / Maibock (Making the yeast starter)

2009-02-25T08:36:00.006+02:00

2 days till the brewing day (24/02-09):
Today i prepared the yeast starter containing 700 ml boiled water, cooled to 23C, 1½ table spoon sugar, about 3 tbl. spoons of crushed malt and 1 pack Saflager S-23 (bottom fermenting lager yeast). The yeast starer is to stand at 9-14 degrees Celsius for 2 days so that the yeast has time to multiply and grow used to the temperature and environment it is to be pitched into on the brewing day. Note: it is important to have a lot of yeast for this beer because it is high in alcohol (about 7%) and is fermenting at a low temperature (9-14C).

the image above shows the yeast starter where the water, yeast and malt layers are clearly visible - after some time the yeast will mix with the malt at the bottom. Note: it would likely be smarter to boil the malt with the water and then filter the malt away before adding the water to the jar.

The temperature is around 10-13C. This room has a connection to the outside through the lid seen on the wall in image 1. by opening and closing it, its possible to regulate the temperature quite well. It is also in this cupboard my fermentation tank is going to stand.

2009-02-22T14:58:00.001+02:00