English Bitter

After taking a trip to the UK a few years back I became a big fan of the London Pub scene and their delicious cask conditioned ales.  My brother and I would have 5 or 6 beers in a session and somehow never got a hang over.  I'd really like to go back but the dollar to pound conversion rate is quite unfavorable at this point.  So, as the next best thing I will brew my own version.  If I like how this turns out I plan on trying to cask condition some beers.

I chose this recipe from homebrewtalk.com (Common Room ESB).  I liked that it had a very simple and traditional grain bill and the classic UK hops (East Kent Golding and Fuggle).  I followed the recipe almost exactly and had a relatively smooth brew day.  I really enjoy the smell and flavor of the Maris Otter.  The recipe calls for first wort hopping which replaces the 60 min bittering hop addition.  It is reputed to create a smoother bitterness than normal hop scheduling and somehow also preserve more flavor and aroma.  I'd like to test this theory myself some time down the road.

 I think this is going to turn out to be a pretty good batch.

Recipe Details:

• Grain:
• 10 lbs Maris Otter
• 12 oz Crystal 60 L
• 4 oz Crystal 120 L
• 3 oz Acid Malt
• Hops:
• 1.5 oz East Kent Golding Hops in First Wort
• 0.25 oz East Kent Golding Hops at 20 min
• 0.25 oz Fuggle Hops at 20 min
• 0.25 oz East Kent Golding Hops at 0 min
• 0.25 oz Fuggle Hops at 0 min
• Yeast:
• S-04
• Water:
• 10 gal RO water
• 2 tsp 5.2 pH Buffer
• 1 tsp Calcium Chloride
• 1 tsp Gypsum
• 1 tsp Irish Moss at 20 min

Process Details:

• Batch Size:
• 5.5 gal
• Mash:
• 154 F for 60 min (Target 154 F)
• Boil:
• 60 min
• Fermentation Temp:
• 63 F

Results:

• OG:
• 1.055 (Target 1.054)
• Efficiency:
• 74% (Target 72%)
• FG:
• 1.015 (Target 1.014)
• ABV:
• 5.25% (Target 5.21%)

Brewing Notes:

• 4/27/14 Brew day - 6 AM to 11 AM including setup and cleanup
• Added calcium chloride and gypsum to 5 gal of bottled water
• Brought 4.5 gal of RO water up to 192 F in my small pot - took 17 min
• Added 13.75 qt to the mash tun for a 1.25 water to grain ratio
• Let sit for 10 min to settle down to strike temp of 166 F - was 177 F after 10 min - stirred for a bit and got it down to 166 F
• Added the 11 lbs of grain - stirred well to eliminate dough balls

• After 5 min the mash was at ~154 F which was the target - the mash measured anywhere from 152 F to 158 F in spots - I let it go as I figured it would even out over time.  I measured pH as less than 4.6.  Added 2 tsp (unplanned) of 5.2 pH buffer and let sit for 5 more minutes.  pH was around 4.6 when I measured again.  This isn't what I wanted but I wasn't sure I could trust my pH measurement strips so I let it go rather than taking further action.
• After 60 min the mash was down to 151 F.  I did an iodine starch conversion test and the iodine turned a reddish brown which told me that the starch had been converted.
• Added 8 qts of mash out water at 190 F, stirred the mash, and then drained the first runnings
• Added the first wort hops to the kettle while draining
• Double batch sparged with 2 gal each of 198 F water.  I stirred the mash, let it settle for 5 min, and then drained
• Brought the ~8.5 gal of wort to a boil - took about 15 min

• At 30 min I rehydrated the yeast

• At 20 min I added hops and irish moss
• At 15 min I put in wort chiller to sanitize
• Added flame out hops at the end of the boil - let it sit for 10 min
• Chilled to ground water temps (~80 F) - took about 20 min.  Got a very nice cold break this time

• Transferred to fermentor - avoided hops and much of the break material.  Mixed the yeast in half way through.  I only ended up with 4.5 gal
• Added 1 gal of RO water to get up to 5.5 gal
• Shook to aerate
• Put into the fermentation chamber at 63 F
• Measured the OG of the 4.5 gal concentration as 1.062 at 83 F.  Per my hydrometer calibration this measurement is under by 6 points so my actual OG was 1.068.  With the additional 1 gal of water my diluted OG is 1.055

• 4/28/14 - 18 hrs later the airlock is bubbling
• 5/8/14 - Moved into 80 F house while cold crashing my previous batch
• 5/10/14 - Moved back into the 63 F fermentation chamber
• 5/15/14 - Increased the fermentation chamber to 70 F to allow my next batch to finish up fermentation
• 5/21/14 - Cold crashed down to 33 F
• 5/22/14 - Added gelatin for fining
• 5/24/14 - Bottled with 3 oz of priming sugar.  Ended up with 35 12 oz bottles and 14 17.25 oz Russian River bottles.  Got about ~5.25 gal of beer in total - yeast cake was very nice and compact due to the gelatin.  Measured final gravity as 1.010 at 73 F which is 1.015 per my hydrometer calibration - right about on target.  The sample was a very nice golden color and had a pleasant balance between hops, malt, alcohol, and ester.  It seems like it's going to be a nice easy drinking beer.

• 6/6/14 - First Tasting - the beer has a nice balance between malt sweetness and hop bitterness.  It does not have the same alcohol burn I detected in my Oatmeal Stout even thought I basically followed the same yeast pitching process.  This is a big relief.  It will be pretty easy to finish this batch.  The one negative is that it is a bit richer/fuller bodied than I'd like.  Might be worth trying something a bit different if I brew this again to try to address this.
• 10/1/14 - Drank the last bottle.  The hops had faded quite a bit in last 5 months but it still had a really nice malt character which was fine compensation.  Sort of sad to not have any more - I'll have to make another English Bitter fairly soon.

Lessons Learned:

1. I have been working to get a better handle of my gravity readings and efficiency.  I believe I now have things pretty well understood on that front - last two batches I've gotten efficiencies of ~72%.  My understanding and control of mash pH still has a way to go though.  This was the first batch I used acid malt to try to keep the pH in the optimal 5.2 to 5.5 range.  Somehow it didn't end up where I thought it should be.  I wasn't planning on using pH buffer but I threw it in there anyway - not sure if it helped (didn't impact my measured pH anyway).  I ended up with pretty good efficiency so I'm not sure that I'm actually getting an accurate measurement of pH.  I think next time I will try a batch without checking pH but with acid malt to see if my efficiency is still okay - might not be worth worrying about.
2. Still trying to get my water usage dialed in - last time I used 9 gal and ended up with 5.5.  Somehow this time I ended up a gallon short at the end.  I really need a sight glass.

Oatmeal Stout

For my second all grain batch I decided to try my hand at a stout.  I made an extract version of a Dry Irish Stout that I really enjoyed and I don't have many bottles left so brewing some more made sense.  The extract beer had roasted barley for steeping which produced a very dry and somewhat astringent taste that I could have done without.  I chose another recipe from homebrewtalk.com (Smooth Oatmeal Stout) based on its stated goal of keeping astringency to a minimum.

As you'll see below it's a pretty complex grain bill.  Percentage wise it's not a lot of roasted grain.  I wonder how much the various specialty grains actually will be noticeable in the final product.  If it turns out well I will probably come back to this and make some minor tweaks.

The brewday went fairly smoothly.  From my last batch I was concerned about my water loss rates.  This time I started with a bit more water (9 gal) and I ended up with about 5.5 gal at the end of the boil which is nice.  I also had very good luck hitting my mash temperatures.  Unfortunately my efficiency was off a little bit.  The original recipe called for 6.5 lbs of base malt with an efficiency of 80% to get an OG of 1.055.  My last batch with less than a 75% efficiency told me I needed to add more base malt (or so I thought) so I went with 7 lbs.  Doing some more reading about efficiency and taking a closer look at my hydrometer I have discovered that the reading needs to be based on a 60 F sample.  I didn't take a temperature of my gravity sample unfortunately.  I believe it was around 80 F.  At this temperature, using water, my hydrometer appears to be under measuring by ~0.005 gravity points which would make the sample ~1.050 rather than the 1.045 I read so that is what I will run with.  Need to do more experimentation on this.

The wort is a muddy brown rather than the black I would associate with a stout.  I wonder if I should have upped the roasted grains a bit to compensate for the extra 0.5 lb of 2 row.  Will be interesting to see where the color ends up when fermentation is complete.

Recipe Details:

• Grain:
• 7 lbs 2 Row
• 8 oz Roasted Barley
• 12 oz Chocolate
• 8 oz Crystal 40 L
• 8 oz Crystal 120 L
• 12 oz Victory
• 1 lb Flaked Oats
• Hops:
• 2 oz of Willamette Hops at 60 min
• Yeast:
• S-04
• Water:
• 9 gal RO water
• 2 tsp 5.2  pH Buffer
• 1 tsp Calcium Chloride
• 1 tsp Irish Moss at 20 min

Process Details:

• Batch Size:
• 5.5 gal (Target 5.25 gal)
• Mash:
• 156 F for 60 min (Target 156 F)
• Boil:
• 60 min
• Fermentation Temp:
• 65 F

Results:

• OG:
• 1.050 (Target 1.055)
• Efficiency:
• 71% (Target 78%)
• FG:
• 1.014 (Target 1.018)
• ABV:
• 4.73% (Target 4.86%)

Brewing Notes:

• 4/13/14 Brew day - 6:00 AM to 10:30 AM including setup and cleanup
• Brought about 5 gal of water up to 185 - took about 20 min
• Added pH buffer to the mash tun
• Added 13.75 qt to the mash tun for a 1.25 ratio of water to grain
• Let the temperature settle for 10 min
• Strike temperature ended at 172 F which is what I wanted
• Added the 11 lbs of grain - made a really focused attempt to ensure I didn't have any dough balls - I don't think this is likely to be a cause of my low efficiency
• After 5 min the mash was at 160 F - the target was 156 F so I stirred vigorously until the temperature dropped.  Measured pH using test strips as between 5.0 and 5.4 (was closer to 5.0)
• Mashed for 60 min - final temp was still 156 F
• Drained first runnings

• Double batch sparged, roughly 2.5 gal for each, at 170 F.  Stirred each and then drained almost immediately.  I tilted the mash tun this time to increase the amount of wort collected.  I don't have a barb or tube on my mash tun (as shown in the picture above) so the wort falls about a foot into the brew kettle when draining.  This results in a lot of splashing of the wort.  I am concerned that this will lead to some off flavors due to hot side aeration.  Hopefully the boil reduced the amount of oxygen in the wort.
• Added calcium chloride to the kettle
• Brought kettle up to a boil - I think I had about 7.5 gal at that point (would be nice to have a sight-glass) - took about 20 min
• Added hops at the start of the 60 min boil

• Re-hydrated the dry yeast after 30 min of the boil
• Added irish moss for the last 20 min of the boil
• Put the wort chiller in the kettle to sanitize for the last 15 min

• Chilled wort - took 15 min to get to tap water temperature (80 F)
• Got a whirlpool going after removing the chiller and drained from the side - managed to leave behind a majority of the hops - Pretty good cold break on this one (Irish Moss worked for me) which I avoided transferring for the most part
• Mixed the yeast in at the start of the transfer
• Shook to aerate
• Put into 65 F fermentation chamber - due to larger than planned volume (5.5 gal) I decided to go with a blow off tube rather than normal airlock

• 4/14/14 - No bubbling yet but based on the carbon dioxide smell (burn) in the fermentation chamber that wasn't there yesterday I can tell there is some fairly active fermentation underway
• 4/16/14 - Three days in I took a gravity sample - we are now at 1.015 at 65 F - it was still bubbling away but the kroisen is gone.  I could taste the alcohol in the sample but it was still pretty sweet.  Color was basically black now that it's cleared up a bit.  I don't feel 100% comfortable opening the fermenter at this stage but I wanted a picture.

• 4/24/14 - Moved into the 80 F house while cold crashing my previous batch
• 4/26/14 - Moved back into the 64 F fermentation chamber
• 5/8/14 - Cold crashed down to 33 F
• 5/9/14 - Added gelatin for fining
• 5/10/14 - Bottled with 3.5 oz of priming sugar.  Ended up with 50 12 oz bottles.  Measured final gravity as 1.009 at 72 F.  Per my hydrometer calibration this is actually 5 point off so my actual FG is 1.014.  The sample tasted very good - it has a really nice chocolaty flavor with subtle sweetness.  Looking forward to this one conditioning up.
• 5/23/14 - First Tasting - A harsh alcohol flavor has taken center stage in this beer and it's made it difficult to drink at this point.  Decided to give it a couple months to mature a bit and do another tasting at that point to see if it has mellowed.  I'm not holding my breath.
• 6/21/14 - I have had a few more bottles since the initial tasting.  Some of the bottles have had the nice chocolaty and roasty flavor dominate as was the case in the tastings prior to bottling and some have still been dominated by alcohol.  The ones that tasted good had spent the last month in the refigerator rather than at room temperature - I wonder if that could be a factor.  I am feeling more optimistic that the beer was still green at the first tasting and that it will mature into a tasty beer.
• 7/15/14 - Second Tasting - The beer is much improved after two months of aging - the strong alcohol flavor has faded significantly.  It's a tasty beer but it doesn't have a whole lot going on besides a dry roast flavor.
• 9/11/14 - Drank my last bottle of oatmeal stout today.  This was probably the best bottle I'd had.  It was very smooth and dry but had a nice subtle roasty/chocolaty finish to it.  I didn't get any of the alcohol flavor that I got in earlier batches.

Lessons Learned:

1. My understanding of how to use a hydrometer was incorrect - I did not factor temperature of the sample into my initial readings unfortunately.  Next time I need to take that into account when taking my reading.
2. As stated above, I may be aerating the wort and causing off flavors when transferring from mash tun to boil kettle.  Only time will tell on this.  For my next batch I need to buy a hose barb and some rubber tubing so that avoid the possibility of hot side aeration and the associated oxidation off flavors
3. I think I got the water volume behavior of my system basically understood.  I used about 8.5 gal of water to get 5.5 gal of wort at the end of the boil.  It would be very nice to have a sight glass on my boil kettle so that I could have more specific measurements of my volumes.
4. I think I could save some time on my brew day with a larger HLT - using my 5 gal pot is okay but since I need 8 gal I end up having to heat up a couple patches of water for strike and sparge.
5. I came dangerously close to running out of propane before the boil was complete.  The burner was sputtering for the last 20 min of the boil (I suspect this was due to pressure reduction in the tank).  If I'd run out of gas it would have been a major inconvenience to go and get more.  A second tank would be a worth while purchase
6. My practice of pitching the yeast into the wort at ~80 F and then chilling down to fermentation temperature is not recommended by the yeast manufacturers and seems like a strong potential cause for the heavy alcohol off flavor in this batch.  Going forward I will not pitch the yeast this high to eliminate one possible cause for these off flavors.  

Dark English Mild - First All Grain Beer

After 3 batches of extract beer I decided it was time to take the next step and try an all grain recipe. For this first beer I selected a Dark English Mild recipe I found on homebrewtalk.com - Reaper's Mild. This seemed like a good first all grain beer as it is low alcohol and lightly hopped which made it cheap to brew.  It also called for a high mash temperature to get a higher final gravity which is control one would not necessarily have brewing an extract beer.

I like to have a beer or two in the evening after work and with lunch on the weekends. I typically drink Sierra Nevada Torpedo IPA which is 7.2% ABV. After a couple of these I feel somewhat impaired and sometimes wake up the next morning a bit hung over. This English Mild will, in theory, come in at around 3% ABV but still have a lot of flavor and body. Hopefully it will turn out to be a good session beer to keep in stock for weeknights and for doing work around the house on the weekends. If this goes well I plan on trying my hand at some low ABV pale ales, IPAs, and maybe a Berliner Weisse.

My AG Setup

Recipe Details:

• Grain: 
• 5 lb 8 oz Maris Otter 
• 1 lb 8 oz Crystal 60L 
• 6 oz Chocolate Malt 
• Hops: 
• 1 oz UK Fuggle at 45 min 
• 1 oz UK Fuggle at 15 min 
• Yeast: 
• Nottingham 
• Water: 
• 9.0 gal RO and Carbon Filtered Water 
• 1.5 tsp 5.2 ph Buffer 
• 2 tsp Burton Water Salts 

Process Details:

• Batch Size: 
• 5.0 gal (Target: 5.5 gal) 
• Mash: 
• 158 F 
• Boil: 
• 60 min 
• Fermentation Temp: 
• 65 F 

Results:

• OG: 
• 1.031* (Target: 1.035) 
• Efficiency:
• ~57% (Target: 71%)
• FG: 
• 1.010 (Target: 1.012) 
• ABV: 
• 2.63% (Target: 3.02%) 

* Unfortunately my reading of the hydrometer was likely incorrect - at 80 F, which I likely took this sample at, the hydrometer is under measuring by ~0.005 points.  So, this could actually be an OG of 1.036.

Brewing Notes:

• 3/30/14 - Brew day - Lasted from 7:00 AM to 12:00 PM 
• Brought 3 gal up to 185 F in small pot - took about 15 min 
• Added pH buffer to mash tun 
• Added 10 qt of 185 F strike water to mash tun for a ~1.25 to 1 ratio of qts of water to lbs of grain 
• Waited 10 min for temp to settle - shooting for 172 F - Came in at about 174 F 
• Added grain to mash tun 
• After 5 min the mash temp was 159 F (Close enough to the 158 F I was shooting for). After 30 min the mash was at 158 F 
• Added cleaner/sanitizer to fermentation bucket 
• 60 min mash - ended at 157 F 
• Drained the first runnings 
• Added 2.5 gal batch sparge at 170 F - let sit for 10 min - drained 
• Added second 2.5 gal batch sparge at 170 F - let sit for 5 min - drained 
• Brought brew kettle up to a boil - took about 25 min 
• Added Burton water salts to kettle 
• At 45 min added 1 oz of hops 
• Re-hydrated yeast 
• Sanitized racking equipment 
• At 15 min added 1 oz of hops 
• At 10 min put in wort chiller to sanitize 
• Chilled down to 80 F (ground water temp) - took about 20 min 
• Transferred to fermentation bucket (manage to avoid transferring most of the hops, no clear cold break was formed). Pitched the yeast at the start of the transfer 
• Short by 1.5 gal - topped off with RO and carbon filtered water 
• Shook to aerate 
• Moved to 65 degree fermentation chamber 
• 3/31/14 - 18 hrs later active fermentation underway 
• 4/2/14 - Increased temp to 68 to finish out fermentation 
• 4/6/14 - After 7 days the gravity is down to 1.007 F - no off flavors in the sample - I think it needs a bit more time to mellow (the main flavor was alcohol burn) - I will check on it next week
• 4/10/14 - Moved into the 80 degree house while cold crashing my previous batch
• 4/11/14 - Moved back into fermentation chamber at 64 F
• 4/24/14 - Cold crashed to 33 F
• 4/25/14 - Added gelatin for fining (I did not use Irish Moss for this batch and didn't really see the cold break - not sure if the gelatin is going to help clarity at this point)
• 4/26/14 - Bottled with 3 oz of priming sugar.  Ended up with 45 12 oz bottles.  Could have had a bit more but I left a half gallon at the bottom of the fermentor in an attempt to avoid disturbing the yeast bed.  Measured final gravity as 1.006 at 68 F.  Per my hydrometer calibration this is actually 4 point off so my actual FG is 1.010.
• 5/7/14 - Tasting Notes - I am very relieved to find no off-flavors in this batch.  I think this was a good recipe and that the final product is probably very close to what was intended - it certainly meets my expectations for what this beer should have been.  I'm encouraged that my current process is capable of creating beer of acceptable quality.
• 5/23/14 - I have noticed some variability between bottles in the amount of alcohol flavor that was present.  In some of the bottles the alcohol flavor seems very balanced where in others it is the dominant flavor.  Those alcohol dominated ones are quite unpleasant to drink.  It doesn't seem to be based on how I've stored them at this point as not all the ones that conditioned together have the same flavor.  It could be that the alcohol isn't being distributed evenly between bottles.  Need to try to sort this out.  I suspect that maybe pitching into 80 F wort contributed to this.
• 7/9/14 - Drank the last of the Dark English Mild.  It stayed pretty consistent over time.  I am very happy with my choice of this as a first beer - I wish I had made more of this.

Lessons Learned:

1. Water loss during mash and boil was higher than expected - planned on 0.5 gal loss from mash and 2 from boil. I ended up using 9 gal. Not sure where the loss came from - I'm pretty sure the 2 gal of boil off was correct. There is some loss at the bottom of the mash tun where the manifold doesn't reach. For the next batch I will tilt the mash tun and plan for more loss. 
2. My efficiency was a bit off - the original recipe got 5.5 gal of 1.035 wort (at 75% efficiency) and I got 5.0 gal of 1.031 wort. I don't think I had any dough balls. All I can think of is that maybe my mash pH wasn't within the optimal range and that the enzymes weren't allowed to do their job as well. For the next batch I will have pH test strips so I'll know if I need to add more or less pH buffer (or if the pH buffer is ineffective). 
3. I had some problems with green rust on the mash tun's copper manifold that came off during my first attempt adding the strike water. I dumped the water and started over. It turned out I didn't have enough RO water to top off the last 1.5 gal so I had to scramble for some carbon filtered water. I think my 5 hr brew day could be shortened a bit (probably to about 4 hrs) if things go smoother next time.
4. A 10 gal batch of this would be a good idea next time.