Nut Brown and Altbier bottled last night

Nut Brown FG 1.016
Altbier FG was 1.013

...meaning that that alcohol is in the 5-6% range for both. Both beers taste great. Looking forward to the carbonation!

Dogfish Head Brewery tour

Over vacation in Delaware last week we managed to visit the Dogfish Head brewery for a brief tour. While I am fond of many Dogfish brews, clearly the 60-minute IPA is by far the most popular.

The special sauce in the 60-minute is created by "Sir Hops-a-lot," a device that circulates fresh hops on a constant basis for an entire hour post-brew. That brewery uses a heck of a lot of hops! In fact, their supplier asked them if they have a hop-theft problem. ;-)

The result is a light, crisp brew with an intensely floral, fresh hop taste. We had a fresh keg for the tasting, and while I usually favor darker beers, I definitely understand the popularity.

Other brews tried: the Zwaanend Ale which celebrates the 375th anniversary of the original Delaware town, Lewes, and the Immort Ale which is probably one of the most unusual beers I have tasted. It was peaty, with tastes of vanilla, maple, and oak. I found it intellectually fascinating, and I am glad I tried it, but the combination of tastes didn't work for me.

One of the plusses of going on vacation for a week when you have some beers on the way is that you are that much closer on the return. I will be bottling the Nut Brown this week, and I may even bottle the Alt as well. Wow, that would mean I would have two home brews available at the same time! Three, if I still have IPA left. Time for a party!

Nut Brown is batch #5

I feel very good about the nut brown ale I brewed last night. The main difference between this and the previous brews is that I decided to aim for the best utilization of ingredients possible. In practical terms, that meant:

• a nearly full boil in a 21-quart pot
• specialty grains loose in a strainer rather than in muslin bags
• hops thrown directly into the boil and strained out later.

The recipe:

6.6 lbs Munton's Amber Malt Extract (liquid)
1/2 lb. Munton & Fison Crystal Malt 60ºL
1/2 lb. Munton & Fison Carapils Malt 20ºL
1/2 lb. Briess Toasted Malt 25ºL
1/4 lb. Munton & Fison Chocolate Malt 338ºL
2 oz. Kent Goldings U.K. Hops (bittering)
1 oz. Fuggles Hops (finishing)
Wyeast # 1098 XL British Ale Yeast

The OG was 1.052, 4.75 gallons.

Every time I brew a learn a little more. I credit the higher gravity to better use of the specialty grains. I heated the water over the course of an hour from cold to about 168ºF with the grains loose in a strainer mostly submerged. During that hour I stirred the grains often and poured the water over top. The result: a nice dark malt tea.

It occurs to me that since extract brewing with specialty grains is an early step in the continuum from extract to all-grain brewing that I may do a mini-mash some time soon. From what I have read, that would mean just increasing the proportion of grain to prepared extract, and controlling temperature a bit more carefully. More grain, less extract, fresher tasting product.

The rolling hop boil has got to make a huge difference in the flavor of the final product. The hop plugs rehydrated and broke into individual flowers and leaves, recirculating freely. It was hardly more trouble than using the muslin bags -- I just strained out the hops at the end.

Heating and cooling were the real challenges in this batch. I have a small stove, and it took a long time to heat up the water. The pot was so big it crossed partway onto a second burner. So I turned on that burner to speed things along.

Usually I cool the brewpot in an ice bath. It turned out that 20 lbs of ice was barely enough to bring the wort from 212º to 80º. It may be time to invest in a wort chiller if I am going to do full boils.

Probably the most exciting thing is that I will bottle two brews at once in ten days - the Alt and the Nut Brown. That will be the first time I will have two brews available at the same time. And available in time for my anniversary! Definitely time for a party.

Actually, it's an English IPA

Another quick note from Ray: the IPA I made turned out to have been an English IPA recipe, as opposed to an American IPA recipe. It turns out that these are rather different. American IPAs are considerably hoppier. I'm not sure I would recognize the taste of a commercial English IPA if I tasted one. Time for a taste test!

Unintentional Diacetyl rest

Well apparently I may have done a good thing by letting the Altbier warm up before putting it in the secondary. Ray at Keystone said that it is a good idea to let a beer sit for a couple days at room temperature between primary and secondary fermentations/cold conditioning. The function of the "diacetyl rest" is to minimize the presence of sulfur odors/flavors in your beer. I read also that the butterscotch flavor is caused by diacetyls.

Well, the beer in the fridge is at about 41 degrees, and I plan to leave it for a couple weeks before bottling. If I smell anything amiss, I will warm it up for a couple days and then back in the fridge it will go for another week or two. The nice thing is that even if I do smell the diacetyl, that doesn't mean that the beer is ruined -- it just may take a little longer before it is ready.

Another piece of advice from Ray had to do with the low original gravity. He said that maybe I am not getting good utilization on my specialty grains. One way to improve that would be to skip the muslin bags and to use a strainer instead. Start with cold water, put the grains in a strainer in the water. Gradually raise the temperature from cold to 168 degrees over the course of 45 minutes, stirring the grains in the strainer on occasion. That way the grains are loose and one can extract more from the grains themselves. In the muslin bag, the water may never reach the center of the grain ball.

Will have to try all this out with the nut brown ale I will make Wednesday.

In other news, I now have a 21 quart brew pot and I'm going to do full boils (or close to it) from now on!

Altbier in the secondary

As of yesterday I racked the Altbier to the secondary. Its temperature during the last week was fairly constant in the bucket between 65-68 F but spiked to 75 near the end (phooey). It is now in the fridge at about 41, and will cold condition for at least two weeks before I bottle. The main question I have is whether I need to pitch any new yeast to bottle. I'll pose the question to one of the homebrew shops next week. The beer looks pretty good though. Dark, caramelly, and clear.

One of the hazards of the bucket cooling method is mildew (humid of late). I may add a small bit of bleach to the cooling water to take care of that.

Now, the real question is, to brew today or not! (Nut Brown and Porter await!)

The Altbier

After months of hemming and hawing, the Altbier is brewed. The challenge is to keep it cool enough to ferment at the proper temperature, 55-65 degrees Fahrenheit. The recipe:

1 lb. Cara Munich Malt
2 oz. Chocolate Malt
3.3 lbs. Amber Malt Extract
2 lbs. Amber DME
1 oz. Hallertau hop pellets (bittering)
1 oz. Tettnang hop pellets (aroma)
Munton's dry ale yeast
1/2 tsp gypsum
1/2 tsp Irish moss

We're doing the wet towel around the fermenter, bucket of water, and fan trick, and hoping that will get the temperature right. If not, then ice in the bucket. I am not worried about the primary. It is the secondary for two weeks "as cool as possible" that will be the challenge.

OG of 1.045 on 4 gallons. Gotta figure out how to get better yield.