Queso Fresco Take II

For me, the prospect of delving deeper into cheesemaking, with all the equipment needs and techniques to learn, has seemed enticing but also a bit scary.  It is sort of like diving into a cold swimming pool on a hot day - you know you'll ultimately be happy you've done it but it will not be without a bit of discomfort initially.  To carry the analogy further, I've been content to wade around in the knee deep water so far (making basic cheeses meant to be consumed fresh) but there comes a time where you have to go all in if you want to progress.

My lovely wife, like she did with Beer Making initially, has given me the friendly push I needed by  purchasing me a cheese press and a Mini-Fridge to convert into a Cheese Cave.  The door has now opened to progress further into the world of cheesemaking!

Last year I attempted to make a cheese that required some pressing (Queso Fresco).  I used water bottles balanced on a wood box to apply the pressure.  This made for a pretty unstable pressing method and the whole thing toppled a few times before I decided to give up the task.  It was rather disheartening and I dared not attempt it again.  I'm going to go for some redemption today and, hopefully, do a Queso Fresco properly.

 Last time I mixed in some dried Chipotle peppers.  Will just do plain this time. 

I've been watching a lot of cheese making YouTube videos by Gavin Webber which I've found to be inspiring and informative.  Still pictures can't really do the process justice.  Here is his Queso Fresco video.  I have attempted to follow it as well as his blog post about the cheese.

Ingredients:

• 1 gal Lucerne Whole Milk
• 1/8 tsp CaCl diluted in ~2 Tbs of spring water
• 1/8 tsp Mesophilic Culture
• 1/2 tsp Liquid Rennet in ~2 Tbs of spring water
• 1 Tbs Kosher Salt

Process/Notes:

• Diluted CaCl in a bit of spring water and then mixed into the milk
• Heated 1 gal of milk in a water bath to 90 F

• Sprinkled Culture on the surface.  Let it hydrate for 5 min and then stirred in.
• Added Rennet and stirred in for 60 s
• Let set for 1 hr at 90 F
• After an hr I verified that there was a clean break (phew)
• Cut the surface into quarter inch grid with the knife held at a 45 degree angle

• Let set for 5 min
• Raised the temperature of the water bath up to 105 F to raise the temperature and stirred for the next 20 min.  It had gotten close to 95 F in that period

• Let it sit for 5 more min
• Drained off the whey into a cheesecloth lined colander.  Let it drain for 5 min

• Moved the curds back to the pot in the water bath - there was still quite a bit of whey left in the curds
• Mixed in the salt.  Turned over the curds by hand to accomplish this.
• Let sit for 30 min at 95 F (lowered the water bath temperature back to 95 F for this as well)
• Poured the contents into a cheese cloth lined colander to drain off the whey.  Left it to drain for a few minutes
• Poured it back into the pot.  There was still quite a bit of whey left in the cheese at this point.
• Added salt and mixed by hand
• Let rest for 30 min in the 95 F water bath
• Moved to a cheese cloth lined form and then to a cheese press.  Pressed at full spring strength.

• Left pressed for 5 hours
• The cheese was well formed by the end of this period

• Moved it to a Tupperware and stored in the fridge

Impressions:

• It is a very soft and moist cheese.  The texture has gotten creamer over time.
• The flavor is very much like the milk used.  There is only a light saltiness to the cheese.
• Initially, there wasn't much in the way of flavor contribution from the culture.  After 5 days or so the culture has started to have an impact.  It has a flavor and aroma similar to sour cream now.

Lessons Learned:

1. The water bath approach for maintaining temperatures made for a much less stressful event.  It felt like a much more controlled way to heat the milk/cheese.  I think I'll use this approach going forward.  I'm thinking of getting a Suse Vide heater to use for this purpose.
2. Really happy with the new cheese press.
3. Learned some things about the exposure levels in my camera which helped me get some better pictures this time - low light and bright white cheese aren't that great a combo for default camera settings it turns out.
4. 1 gal of milk seems like a good amount for a fresh cheese like this - don't know that I could eat twice this much in a timely manner

American Pale Wheat Take II

I've decided to do a re-brew of one of the best beers I've made up to this point:  American Pale Wheat.  Like last time, I will be using one of the Mad Fermentationist's recipes developed for the Modern Times brewery in San Diego which became Fortunate Islands.

I was amazed by the intensity of the hop character of the beer back when I brewed in 2014.  I have been able to try the Modern Times beer a few times since, both fairly fresh and not so fresh, and it turned out the real deal didn't hold a candle to what I'd remembered from the homebrew.  I think the freshness factor that you get from homebrew can never be touched by the pro's

I'll be sticking with roughly equal hopping rates for this batch provided at fairly similar intervals.  I expect this will get me similar levels of hop character to what I achieved last time.  The original recipe called for a lot of Citra and Amarillo in a support role.  This provided a really striking and lovely citrus flavor to the beer.  This time I'll be using Citra along with Galaxy which is an Australian hop which I haven't used before.  It is reported to provide citrus flavors similarly to Citra.  I'm excited to be using it.

This batch will have 9 oz of hops.  I imagine this will cost me quite a bit of efficiency due to absorption.  I'll be experimenting with putting my hops in muslin sacks for this batch to see if that cuts down a bit on losses.

I'm sticking with roughly the same grainbill as last time with roughly 50% wheat malt.  Also staying with the neutral Chico yeast strain for this batch.

Right before the start of brewday I discovered that the false bottom of my mash tun has gone missing.  I had to use a brew in the bag sack to perform the mash.  I had just placed an order for a new stainless steel mash tun the day before so this will be my final brewday with my cooler mash tun - it's served me well but has become too annoying to deal with.

Recipe Details:

• Grain:
• 5 lb and 8 oz White Wheat
• 5 lb Pilsner
• 12 oz Crystal 20L
• 3 oz Acid Malt
• Hops:
• 0.75 oz Citra (Pellet, 13.2% AA) at 60 min
• 0.5 oz Galaxy (Pellet, 15.5% AA) at 10 min
• 0.5 oz Citra (Pellet, 15.5% AA) at 10 min
• 0.5 oz Galaxy (Pellet, 15.5% AA) at 0 min
• 0.75 oz Citra (Pellet, 13.2% AA) at 0 min
• 1 oz Galaxy (Pellet, 15.5% AA) added once temp is down to 180 F (stand for 30 min)
• 1 oz Citra (Pellet, 13.2% AA) added once temp is down to 180 F (stand for 30 min)
• 2 oz Galaxy (Pellet, 15.5% AA) Dry Hop after 7 days for 7 days
• 2 oz Citra (Pellet, 13.2% AA) Dry Hop after 7 days for 7 days
• Yeast:
• US-05
• Water:
• 11.5 gal spring water
• 1 oz CaCl
• 1 oz Gypsum
• 1 oz Irish Moss at 15 min

Process Details:

• Batch Size:
• 5.5 gal (Target 6 gal)
• Mash:
• 155 F for 60 min
• Boil:
• 60 min (Target 60 min)
• Fermentation Temperature:
• 65 F
• Primary Duration:
• 2 Weeks
• Secondary Duration:
• N/A

Results:

• OG:
• 1.048 (Target 1.048)
• Efficiency:
• 61% (Target 67%)
• FG:
• 1.010  (Target 1.010)
• Apparent Attenuation:
• 79% (Target 79%)
• ABV:
• 4.99% (Target 4.99%)

Brewing Notes:

• 9/10/17 - Brewday - 1:00 PM to TBD - Including Setup and Cleanup
• Heated 11.5 gal of spring water in the HLT.  Cycled through the system until everything had settled out to 165 F.  1:16 to 2:00
• Ended up with 6.5 gal in the system
• Milled my grain

• Added CaCl and Gypsum to the mash tun
• Added my grain and stirred well to eliminate doughballs
• Mashed for 60 min.  Stirred at 15, 30 and 45 min. 2:06 to 3:06

• While waiting I measured out the hops for each addition.  Added them to muslin hop bags.
• Heated 4 gal of sparge water to 185 F
• Fly-sparged 3:06 to 3:48
• Started heating the wort after collecting 4 gal.  Had it near a boil by the end of the sparge
• Collected 8.5 gal of wort
• Boiled for 60 min.  3:55 to 4:55 
• Added the bittering hops once the hot break cleared.  Quite a bit of the hop matter got out of the bags in the process

• Added Irish Moss at 15 min
• Added the 10 min hops
• Added the wort chiller to sanitize with 5 min left in the boil
• Added 0 min hops and killed the burner
• Chilled down to 180 F - had the chilling water go to my boil kettle this time
• Moved the wort chiller to the boil kettle and heated this up to close to boiling for sterilization
• Added the "whirlpool" hops.  Stirred the beer to form a whirlpool.  Let it sit for 30 min with the lid on. 5:03 to 5:33
• Rehydrated my dry yeast in 100 F water
• After 30 min I added the chiller back to the boil kettle and chilled down to 80 F - 5:33 to 5:50
• Transferred to the fermenter - wort dropped a couple feet or so to aerate.  Pitched the yeast during the transfer.  Lost a quart or so from the hops even with the bags.

• Collected 5.5 gal of wort.  Measured gravity as 1.048.
• Moved to the chest freezer set to ferment at 65 F.  This will be an open ferment (as I don't have an airlock to spare currently.
• 9/11/17 - Fermentation was going pretty strong the next day
• 9/18/17 - Added the 4 oz of dry hops in 2 bags weighed down by stainless steel nuts.
• 9/22/17 - Cold crashed the beer down to 35 F
• 9/24/17 - Fined with gelatin
• 9/25/17 - Bottled with 4 oz of priming sugar.  Ended up with 5.5 gal which got me 50 bottles of beer.  The gravity ended up at 1.010 (right on target).  The beer has a really nice fruity hop character.  Can't wait until this is carb'd up.  Will give it about a week.
• 9/28/17 - Cracked open the first beer - was nicely carbonated already.  The hop character is very nice as I assumed it would be.
• 10/14/17 - Tasting Notes - A really flavorful hoppy beer with a light but pleasing bitterness.  I'm happy with how the large amount of hops used for this beer present themselves.  I think this is a really nice recipe - the malt bill provides a great base for a hoppy beer.

Lessons Learned:

1. The hop sacks held the late hops pretty well but the boil hops were jostled around for so long that most of them worked their way out of the bad.  I think I'll skip bagging the bittering hops next time but will continue for late hops.

Flanders Red Blend #2

It has been about a year since I blended and bottled my first batch of Flanders Red beer from my large stockpile.  After assessing the 15 beers I have at my disposal I found that they were all good but that some were more complex and flavorful than others (read about this tasting here).  For this straight blend (will produce a second blend this year that will age on Cherries) I am going to try for the most flavorful and complex beer I can produce.

So far, in my brewing, I have used the Wyeast Roeselare blend for 9 of the 15 batches I currently have available.  These beers vary quite a bit in terms of intensity of flavor but are all have similar flavor achieved - all have basically the same fruity and musty Brett flavors.  From my tastings, I felt that Flanders Red 1.5.2 (a 23 month old beer) was one of the most pleasant batches.  I have decided to use this as half the blend.  I should note, there were quite a few others that were just as good - my choice was partially influenced by there being a second beer (1.5.1) of the same age that will continue to mature for use in a future batch.

Here are my tasting notes:

• Earthy and fruity aroma.  Pretty rich.  Get a bit of leather as well.
• Orange/red and clear
• Light sourness.  Bold fruity character.  A bit of Brett funk in the finish that is earthy and leathery.  Some malt comes through on the finish
• Good bold flavors with nice complexity

My first blend was all Roeselare aged beer. I'd really like to mix in a beer made with some other culture to bring something new to the table with this blend. So far, I have brewed beers with Yeast Bay Mélange, a culture built up from Rodenbach Foederbier, some Russian River and Jolly Pumpkin bugs, as well as East Coast Yeast's Flemish Ale Blend.  Many of these are youngish beers and haven't developed a whole lot of flavor yet. The Yeast Bay Mélange beers are getting close to a couple years old now and the second pitch has developed some fairly bold flavors.  I have to decided to use Flanders Red 2.2.1 as the second half of the blend as a result.

Here are my tasting notes:

• Bright fruity aroma mixed with earthy leather from the Brett.  Very rich
• Orangish red and a bit cloudy
• Light sourness.  Has a nice fruity character.  Also a smooth bit of bready malt in the finish.
• Pretty good set of flavors that pop nicely

I think these two beers should produce an interesting Flanders Red.  Both were definitely sour but they are restrained in their sourness levels.  It's enough sourness to give it a good balance but not so much that it becomes overwhelming.  I imagine this blend will be less sour than my first attempt - which I don't believe would detract from the beer.

I am going to mix the beers 50/50 and let them age together in a bucket fermenter for a month or so to stabilize (if it happens that there's something left in one that the microbes in the other are capable of eating).  The remaining half of the 1.5.2 batch will be added to the 2.2.1 glass carboy for further aging.

Blending Notes:

• 9/4/17:
• Transferred half of 2.2.1 into a bucket fermenter (about 3 gal)

• Transferred half of 1.5.2 into the same bucket fermenter (about 3 gal)
• Racked the remaining beer from 1.5.2 into 2.2.1
• Set this batch up with a lid with a Vented Silicon Bung for aging.  Letting it age at ambient basement temps
• 3/3/18:
• This beer conditioning for just about 6 months now.  I am going to bottle today.
• I did a side by side comparison with my previous Flanders Red blend and a Rodenbach Grand Cru.  My beer seemed much dryer than the Rodenbach and had a more pronounced Brett character.  The sweetness of the Rodenbach definitely makes for a more pleasant drinking experience.
• I measured the gravity of the Rodenbach Grand Cru at 1.010.  My beers finish between 1.000 and 1.004 in most cases.
• Rodenbach Grand Cru is a blend of 2/3 old beer that has aged 2 years in foeders with their resident microbes and 1/3 "young" beer that has been soured by lacto.  The beer is then pasteurized for bottle stability.  Here is a nice process chart:

• Per The Oxford Companion to Beer Rodenbach adds some sugar to sweeten the beer:
• "The 6% Grand Cru is mostly aged beer, with a little young beer added, then slightly sweetened with sugar."
• I decided to play around with back-sweetening some of my own beer.  I made some Invert Syrup #3 and blended 1/2 an ounce into 1 12 oz bottle of beer.  This raised the gravity of the beer from 1.004 to 1.012.  I found this added a nice bit of sweetness and body to the beer that balances the acidity a bit and makes it bit easier to drink.
• I've decided to bottle this beer with Invert Syrup #3 to raise the gravity up to 1.010.  I will let this carbonate for some time and then pasteurize the bottles with a hot water bath (150 F for 10 min - previously done with a hard apple cider).
• First I made Invert Syrup #3 (2 lb based on my 6 gal of beer) using 2 lb of Demerara Sugar, 2 cup of water, and 1/4 tsp of Citric acid.  Heated this at medium low until it got to 290 F and got to be a rich amber color.  Added a cup of boiling water after it had cooled down a bit to get a syrup like consistency.  The syrup has nice caramel flavor with a bit of dark fruit and some toasted marshmallow.
• Transferred the beer to the bottling bucket and added the syrup during the transfer.  Stirred well at the end to mix the sugar in.

• I got 61 12 oz bottles out of ~6 gal of beer.  Sacrificed one of the first and one of the last bottles to measure gravity.  They were both around 1.014.  I'd expect them to take it down a couple points carbonating
• The beer has a lovely red color, a rich aroma, and complex range of flavor with pretty restrained sourness.  I think the extra sweetness softens the flavor nicely and rounds out the edges.
• These will carb at normal basement temps (low 60s).  I'll crack one open every couple days to evaluate carbonation levels.
• 3/17/`8 - I have been opening one of these every 2-3 days to check on carbonation levels.  None have had more than a slight hiss.  I decided to open them all to add some fresh Champagne yeast (Premier Cuvee).  Rehydrated the yeast in a cup of water and used my bottling wand to suction it out.  Put in a tsp or so for each bottle.  Will give this a few days to work before I check the first one.

• 3/28/18 - These beers finally have a good level of carbonation.  Pasteurized them by putting them into a 150 F water bath.  Found that the temperature fell to 140 F when I added 2 dozen bottles so I had to heat it back to 150 F.  Had a bottle of water in the kettle to allow temperature measurement.  Heated for 10 min at 150 F.  I used my boil kettle to do this.  Had one bottle pop during this process.  Moved the hot bottles back to their cases to cool down naturally.

• 7/26/18 - Tasting Notes - The beer has really bold aroma and flavor and has a very pleasing complexity.  Compared with my last batch (2016 Flanders Red) this beer is softer and smoother around the edges which makes it a more pleasant beverage.  I think the slight sweetness from the back sweetening is responsible.  Maybe lose a bit of Brett complexity using this method but overall I'd say it is an improvement.
• 6/26/20 - 2020 Vertical Tasting:
• Aroma:  Fruity character dominates along with a slight bit of vinegar.  Also has a bit of caramel character.  Maybe get a bit of vanilla oak and wine character.  A bit of Brett earthiness kind of rounds things out but it is in the back ground
• Appearance:  Brownish red and quite clear.  Poured with a thin bit of foam that lingered for maybe 30 s
• Flavor:  Very fruity flavor up front which is cherry like.  The sourness (medium level) hits next.  It is balanced by a sweet, malty, and caramel character - the finish is a nice mix of the sweet and sour with a hint of vinegar.  A bit of Brett character in the finish as well.  Maybe a bit of chocolate mixed in too.
• Mouthfeel:  Medium-light bodied and slightly sweet.  A bit of pricking acidity.  Pretty easy drinking.
• Overall:  Very complex beer with lovely bold fruit flavors.  The balance between sweet and sour flavors is very nice.