The beer is very similar to many of my previous batches:
- Will use the blend of Belgian Abby yeast and Lacto Brevis for primary I've been re-pitching on for the last couple years
- Similar grainbill with Aromatic, CaraMunich III, and Special B which give the beer a nice dark red color
- Corn for some extra body (flaked corn this time rather than corn grits)
One difference this time is that I am using about 16 IBU of hops to bitter this batch. I'm hoping this will somewhat slow the lacto in the blend as the beers are coming out a bit more acidic than is ideal
Recipe Details:
- Grain:
- 8 lb Pilsner
- 6 lb Munich
- 3 lb Flaked Corn
- 1.75 lb Aromatic Malt
- 1.75 lb CaraMunich III
- 1.75 lb Special B
- 4 oz Acid Malt
- Hops:
- Hallertau (Pellet, 3.8% AA) at 60 min
- Yeast:
- Blend of Belgian Abby yeast and Lacto Brevis (Re-pitch)
- Water:
- 9 gal spring water
- 6 gal tap water
- 2 oz CaCl
- 2 oz Gypsum
- 1 oz Irish Moss
Process Details:
- Batch Size:
- 12 gal
- Mash:
- 158 F for 60 min
- Boil:
- 60 min
- Fermentation Temperature:
- 75 F
- Primary Duration:
- 4 weeks
- Secondary Duration:
- 1-3 years
Results:
- OG:
- 1.050 (Target 1.045)
- Efficiency:
- 75% (Target 68%)
- FG:
- TBD (Target 1.000)
- Apparent Attenuation:
- TBD (Target 100%)
- ABV:
- TBD (Target 5.91%)
Brewing Notes:
- 10/21/18 - Brewday - From 11:45 AM to 4:15 PM - Including Setup and Cleanup
- Moved two jars of my yeast/lacto blend out of the fridge to warm up
- Heated 6 gal of spring water up to 180 F
- Milled my grain - added brewing salts to the grain so I wouldn't forget
- Moved 7 gal of water to the mash tun. Cycled through the grant and RIMs until the system was at 170 F.
- Added the grain and stirred in well to eliminate doughballs
- Cycled the RIMS at 160 F. The temperature at the bottom of the mash tun fell to 150 F but slowly rose up to the target 158 F over the course of the mash
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| Recirculation Device |
- Mashed for 60 min
- Heated 10 gal of sparge water up to 180 F
- Fly sparged until I'd collected 12 gal
- Started heating to wort after collecting 4 gal. Had it to a boil by the end of the sparge
- Added hops as soon as the hot break cleared
- Had to change the propane tank half way through the boil
- Added Irish Moss with 15 min left
- Added the wort chiller at the end of the boil and let the wort get back to a boil
- Chilled down to 100 F
- Mixed my two jars of yeast
- Transferred the beer into two bucket fermenters. Got about 6 gal in each. Pitched half the yeast into each during the transfer
- Measured the gravity as 1.050
- Moved the beer to the chest freezer to chill down to 75 F
- 10/22/18 - The beer was bubbling aggressively by the next morning
- 1/1/19 - Measured the gravity as 1.002. The beer is lightly sour and pretty mild in flavor. Used this to top off 6 of the Flanders red fermenters today.
- 1/19/19 - Used the remaining half to top up some other Flanders Red fermenters. This beer had also fermented down to near 1.000 and was pretty mild in flavor.
Lesson Learned:
- The yeast didn't seem too strong coming out of the fridge after probably close to a year but they really hit the ground running as evidenced by the quick start to fermentation. I had started to wonder if I was making a mistake not building a started for these but it seems that I needn't fret much about this yeast cake (Had about 5 cups of slurry between the two batches).
- 12 gal of beer produced in 4.5 hrs is pretty darn good.
