dalthauser

Today I'm brewing a BIAB all-grain batch based on a recipe for Reissdorf Kolsch I found in the book Beer Captured.

Here is my Recipe and Pro
This is for a 3 Gallon Batch

4.35 Gallons Water to start with

4.5lb German 2 Row Pilsner
.75 lb German Wheat
.5 lb Munich Malt 10L

Mash Step 1: Brought water to 126F and added grain to bag in pot - let rest at 122F for 20 minutes
Mash Step 2: Brought water to 148F and let rest for 90 minutes
Mash Step 3: Brought water up to 168F and let rest for 10 minutes

Removed grain and squeezed as much as possitble out.

Took a pre-boil Hydrometer Reading: 1.04 and Refractometer Reading: 12.5 brix

Brought water up to the 3.96 gallon mark in the pot and brought to a boil

Boiled 60 minutes

Hop Schedule:
.75 oz Tettnanger 4.0 at 60 minutes then .
.30 oz Cascade at 15 minutes
1 tsp Irish Moss at 15 minutes then
.30 oz Cascade at Flameout

Post boil Hydrometer Reading: 1.062 and Refractometer Reading: 14.5

Icebath cooled in order to conserve water (besides, it's summer - the hose water is about as warm as the wort) I was going to to No Chill, but I am leaving on vacation tomorrow - so I wanted to get this into the fermenter today.

Pitched the yeast I saved from the previous batch Wyeast 1007 German Ale

Batch went into the fermentation chamber at 63F

This was a BIAB batch This was my first "No Chill" batch

My goal with this batch is to make an "easy drinking" non-threatening homebrew for my friends. My group of peers tend to be Bud Light and Miller Lite drinkers. They don't appreciate more sophisticated styles, and they really don't seem to want to. Instead of having hurt feelings that my brewing efforts aren't appreciated by people other than my husband, I decided to try and brew some things that my friends would like.

Kolsch is an ale exclusively brewed in Cologne Germany. It is lightly fruity/floral and tastes a lot like a lager. It is probably my favorite style of beer when it is made by someone who understands the style and can brew it properly (it's not an easy brew). I honestly haven't consumed one brewed in the U.S. that passed muster. Sunner Kolsch is my favorite German Kolsch (sadly there is an issue with importing it - so getting one that isn't out of date is kind of hard).

I don't call my brew a Kolsch since there are a few things about it that are very un-Kolsch like. First of all I am not using a dedicated Kolsch yeast. I'm using the Wyeast German Ale 1007 yeast. It wasn't my preference, but got my yeast at the local homebrew shop instead of mail order due to the time of the year (I didn't want my yeast dying in the heat in transport). The 1007 was the only yeast close to what I wanted. Also, I'm using 1 ounce of Fuggles hops in my recipe. There isn't a real reason for this except that I was one ounce short on hops - and this was the only one I had that would work.

Here is the recipe

10lb Pilsner Malt (German)
.50lb German Munich Malt
1 ounce Fuggles Hops (added at 60 minutes)
1 ounce Saphir Hops (added at 30 minutes)
9 gallons of water (my recipe asked for 9.16, and I wished I would have trusted it because I came up just short of 5 gallons in the fermenter)

This was the first time I did a 5 gallon BIAB batch. I usually do 3 gallons. It was a little tricky. My boil pot wasn't big enough, so I had to mash and boil 2 gallons on the stove. Kind of a pain, but it was doable.

I mashed at 147 for 90 minutes - brought the wort back up to 160 then strained all the grains.

I boiled 90 minutes adding hops per the recipe.

At the end of the boil I poured the wort into a No Chill "Jerry Can" and sealed it pushing out as much air as possible.

Left the wort in the container overnight to cool down.

The next day I racked the wort into the fermenting bucket, pitched the yeast, and aerated the wort.

It is currently fermenting at 62F in the fermentation chamber - I would go lower but I'm also fermenting my Loquat Mead in that chamber, and I don't want to crash it since it is fermenting with Champagne yeast.

Sadly I forgot to take Hydrometer readings. I'm really mad at myself for this. I guess with the new procedures (5 gallon batch, new type of yeast, no chill process) it slipped my mind. This is really going to screw up my calculations for ABV, but it is what it is :-/

June `19, 2015 - Bottled today. Netted equivalent of 46 twelve ounce bottles. The bottles went directly into the refrigerator for "lagering". I'm kind of wondering if carbonation will take place at these temps. Maybe I should have lagered before bottling since it is an ale yeast. The reason I didn't is because I still have Mead in the fermentation chamber, and it would hav crashed had I dropped to lagering temps. Well, this is all a learning process so..... Side notes: I saved the yeast from the batch. I'm going to brew al Altbier when I get back from New England (which will give me enough time to get it fermented and bottled before leaving for Germany Sept 1st). I tasted the finished beer - definitely NOT a Kolsch; however, it was mighty tasty even before any lagering etc. Super excited to see what we get in a month.

June 27, 2015 - Began tasting today. I was just curious to see what's up not expecting even carbonation since the beer is now under refrigeration. Well, the carbonation was there. So was a kind of strange boiled egg like aroma. I am not sure if this is the yeast or an infection. The beer is drinkable, but the aroma is not really pleasant. It is possible that this aroma will fade as the yeast cleans things up since the live yeast is still in the bottles to some extent. Will be tracking it.

A few weeks ago I (with some help from Marcel and my niece Jerrica) harvested Loquats from a tree my friend has in her backyard and the tree of her neighbor down the street. This is a first for me. While I see these trees all the time in our area, I've never tasted the fruit. The fruit also are not for sale at the supermarket for some reason. It seems like, while lots of people have these trees, nobody is very keen on harvesting and eating the fruit.

Loquats have the texture of a firm grape and the taste is a combination of grape/lemon/apple. They are the size of a jumbo grape with a firm skin (kind of th like the skin on a passionfruit. They have large seeds inside - usually two...sometimes one or three. They skin tannins will stain your fingers kind of like the husks of pecans will do if you aren't careful.

I processed the fruit by peeling and seeding it. What a HUGE PAIN IN THE BUTT.

The first thing I made was a few pints of preserves. Then I was going to make juice from the rest, but I finally decided I would make a batch of Mead with the juice (I think Mead made with honey and fruit is a Melomel - or something like that).

Here is how I did it (this is my own recipe adapted from a basic Mead recipe)

Batch Size 2.5 gallons

Ingredients

1 gallon and 16 ounces of juice from Loquats
5 pounds (80 ounces) Honey
80 ounces water
1 Campton Tablet
1/2 tsp Yeast Nutrient (I will be adding more nutrients as the fermentation continues)

To juice the Loquats I ran them through a food processer and then strained through a jelly bag. I thought about just fermenting the pulb puree, but I didn't want to have to keep a super close eye on it while it ferments - the juice won't require constant monitoring.

I added the campton tablet to the juice as I was making it

I heated the honey just enough to make it very fluid then I added the juice. I let it all cool down to room temp.

While waiting for it to come to room temp I dissolved the yeast in a little water to get it ready to add to the must.

After adding the must to the fermenter I rocked it to add oxygen.

I pitched the yeast and added 1/2 tsp yeast nutrient.

I am going to put it in the Fermentation Chamber at 68F for now. I will be doing a Koelsch beer in the next few days and when I put that in the chamber I'll lower the temp to 66F.

This is really just a batch I did in order to further use the ingredients sitting in the beer fridge.

I originally bought the wheat malt to make a Hefeweisen, but I never did. I can't now because I don't have the proper yeast.

I don't think the Beer Gods were with me on this one because I made process mistake after mistake. I will be grateful if this beer ends up infection free. Especially since I cooled the wort in the bathtub - and was stupid enough to get some of the cooling water into the wort (I don't even want to explain how that happened).

Here are the ingredients and the process in case it actually comes out good :-)

Dried Light Malt Extract 2 lb (I added 3 additional ounces after the boil to bring the OG up to what the recipe predicts)

Canadian Wheat Malt 2 lb

Crystal Malt 70/80 12 ounces

Perle Hops .50 oz 60 min

Perle Hops .50 oz 15 min

Muntons Ale yeast (dry)

Using BIAB method I mashed the grains 60 minutes at approx 148F - then raised to 160F and set 7 minutes. Removed grains (squeezed as much wort out as possible) - brought wort up to a boil. At this time I added the DME and first hops. Added the 2nd hops with 15 minutes left. At the end of the boil I took a refractometer reading, and it showed I was a little shy of the estimated original gravity. I added 3 more ounces of DME.

Due to poor planning I ended up cooling my wort in the bath tub (comedy of errors involing not remembering to check prior to brewing that I had enough cooling ice bottles, the chilling coils were leaking, and the kitchen sink too small to use the 5 gallon pot - not necessarily in that order).

While wort cooling I rehydrated the yeast After cooling I rocked the carboy for aeration then added yeast, bung, airlock.

Original Gravity Brix 13 (1.053)

May 17th - bottling today from primary. Shooting for carbonation volume of 3.5. Used 4.25 ounces of corn sugar for priming.

Ending Hydrometer reading: 1.02 (abv calc: 4.3%) Ending Refractometer reading: 7.5 (abv 4.95 estimate)

Batch probably has an Alcohol By Volume contest of 4.5% (I was shooting for 5.4%, but I'm not disappointed - taste is more important; we'll have to wait and see how the final batch tastes)

Beer pre-bottling tastes

It's been several months since I brewed last. Now that we are settled back in somewhat, I feel like I can take on brewing some batches. I still had odd quantities of malt, hops, and yeast - so I am creating some recipes that will use most of it up. I will be able to get two 3 gallon batches I think.

I did the first batch yesterday. It's a Brown Ale modified from a Brown Ale I did previuosly. The modified recipe uses the same weight of grains, but the makeup of the grains is somewhat different. The hops are different. The yeast the same.

The previous batch only gave me an actual final ABV of 3.1 even though the recipe on paper estimated I would get a 6.8%. The previous batch was sluggish in fermentation I remember, but I couldn't find another reason for the discrepancy. It remains to be seen what this batch will do.

RECIPE

Batch Size 3 gallons

3 lb 2 Row Pale Malt
2 lb 2 Row German Pilsner Malt
1 lb Caravienne Malt
1 lb Munich Malt
3 oz Black Barley Malt
.5 oz Crystal Hops (in at 15 min)
.12 oz Chinook Hops (in at 60 min)
.12 oz Styrian Goldings Hops (in at 60 min)
.12 oz Willamette Hops (at flameout)
1 Pkt Safale US-05

ORIGINAL GRAVITY REFRACTOMETER 11 BRIX (1.044 specific gravity)
ORIGINAL GRAVITY HYDROMETER 1.05 specific gravity
(note: forgot to do the reading and did it the next day with the leftover trube - so I am guessing the refractomter OG reading is more accurate)

Notes:

4/16/15 Brew Day - see above for recipe and readings. Note that I chilled using a combination of coil chiller and sanitized frozen 1 liter bottles. I "rocked" to aerate. I let the yeast bloom in water before adding to wurt. Primary fermentation is in a 3 gallon carboy. Wow, this wort is CLOUDY - yikes! Hope it settles out.

4/17/15 There is activity in the airlock. Next Check in about a week (unless something out of the ordinary happens)

4/25/15 All is going well. Beer is settling out nicely. Airlock is silent. I did not need to install a blow off tube even though the Krausen came right on up to the top. I kept a close eye on it. I plan to leave well enough alone. I don't plan to rack this beer to a secondary. I'm going to let it go 3 weeks in primary then bottle. I'll take a reading and record at bottling time.

5/7/14 Bottled today. Had some issues with the capper and my german bottles. Thank goodness there were lots of Flensburger bottles handy. Final gravity 1.012 on the Hydrometer. Refractometer showing 5. Alcohol by volume approx 5.1 give or take. The beer tastes good - I'm looking forward to seeing how it carbonates (used corn sugar as usual). This isn't a true brown ale - it's too light (color, mouthfeel); however, I think it's going to be good drinking.

5/30/15 First taste today. Carbonated nicely. Head is creamy and long standing. Color is good for a Brown Ale. The yeast settled out nicely (US-05 never seems to disappoint) - the beer is clear. Flavor ...... First of all it tastes good. It doesn't taste like a brown ale though. It's more clean and the Crystal and Chinook hops are on the nose and palate (which probably overpowers any maltiness?). I like it though!

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dalthauser

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Brewday: Cascade Kolsch
Brew Day: Kewl-Ale (German Ale in the Style of Kolsch)
LOQUAT MEAD
WHALE (Wheat Ale) #1
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Brewday: Cascade Kolsch

Brew Day: Kewl-Ale (German Ale in the Style of Kolsch)

LOQUAT MEAD

WHALE (Wheat Ale) #1

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