Never Saw it Coming: the Simo Hayha Brown Ale

So, it has been an extremely eventful few weeks. I left one job, and got another at a homebrew store. So far its going great, and its always a pleasure going to work. When things get boring I just plan what to brew next. Life is clearly not sucking. To top things off, I checked the gravity on the Cascadian Ancestral after my week in Seattle to discover the yeast had an intergalactic kegger while I was away (or perhaps a reverse kegger?). I didn’t believe the reading so I tasted the sample I took. Turns out, 8.7% is the legit abv. MUCH higher than I intended, but this now confirms that my FG readings were not ‘hogwash’. It’s a bit bitter, so it seems Beersmith was telling the truth about the IBU’s. I’m pretty sure the carbonation will balance things out though, because otherwise its tasting fiiiine.

The beer this week was entirely unintended until yesterday. Working at a homebrew supplier has its perks. While the endless grain, hop, and yeast supply is good enough for anyone, the place I work also teaches classes. This means that they have brewing equipment on hand that can be used. This also means that, on really boring days, when all the work is done, the employees need something to do…

Que Mad-Scientist-Maniacal- Laughter 

Well, it was a really slow Thursday at the store, and the one manager’s bitching reached its peak with him addressing the empty room with a loud, ‘FUCKING HELL THIS SUCKS’. I thought I should calm him down with some light humor, so I suggested we should brew since we’ve got all the equipment to do it. He looked me in the eye for a moment then said,

            ‘Ok, bring in a recipe tomorrow, and we’ll do it.’

After a few moments of trying to gauge the level of sarcasm and finding none, I spent most of my energy trying to act nonchalant rather than a giddy 10 year old on Christmas morning. So that is how I got access to a brilliant range of devices and utilities to brew. And since I could now do and use essentially whatever I wanted for ‘work-related purposes’, my mind went straight to the most complicated recipe I hadn’t yet brewed. Imperial Brown Ale it was.

For those that have not experienced god’s love, Nogne O Imperial Brown Ale is perhaps the epitome of brown ales. In its prime it is flawless (in my opinion as well as many many others).  The recipe I used is one that is supposedly a clone of the Norwegian beer. I actually cannot remember where I found the recipe, but since the Nogne O brewer himself seemed to think the yeast and hop additions were good I’ll assume it is to be at least an honorable tribute to his glorious creation.

In the process of the day, I finally got to take advantage of the grain wall. The amount of imagination that poured out of my skull when I first saw that beautiful structure was nauseating. Most homebrewers would need a change of pants after seeing it, and I was told to choose what I needed, and have at it. Pay? Nope. It was time to get eight kilos of grain on the house. Fuck. Yes.

Thats not the wind. Just the sound of a thousand glorious beergasms

On top of the wall-o-grains, I was introduced to my new lover. Her name is the Blichmann boilermaker and burner. 20L of COLD water brought to a boil in 10 minutes (roughly enough time to help two customers). So much brewing porn; too good to be true.

After today I’ve also decided that I’m going to brew with more people more often. Everyone has their pet-peeves and their habits, and what they think works best. For me, I get my jollies off of learning mashing techniques. Today’s was one I never heard of before; a sort of tweaked decoction. My coworker began describing it to me and I just went along with it, bowing to his experience, as well as succumbing to my urges for unorthodox mash-study.

Added the hot water to the Gatorade-cooler mash-tun first, and then stirred in the grain in small amounts. Instead of letting it sit for an hour, we left it for a mere 30 minutes. In the meantime, we boiled about a half gallon (nearly 2 liters) of water, and then scooped out 8liters of the mash mixture into the boiling water—grain and all. That concoction was then brought to a boil, and then transferred back into the mash tun, where it was mixed in once more. This then rested for another 15 minutes. The time complete, we opened the valve and drained the entire liquid contents of the tun into the kettle.

As for sparging, we had another cooler filled with another 5 gallons of hot water, which we added to the ‘dry’ mash tun. This rested for 15 minutes, and then was drained/added to the kettle up to the desired boiling volume.

The first 'sparge' into my new lover. You know you like it

Though my coworker advocated using seven gallons, I followed my own judgment and went for six gallons instead. The guys at the shop are not incredibly wild about the gravity recording idea, which I find insane. Maybe its my kiwi (brewing) upbringing, or that I’m just all about being able to repeat things I do (or possibly the fact that making this hobby a profession isn’t completely out of the question), but recordkeeping is something I’m anal about. Regardless, the gravity was testing lower than desired at six gallons, so I called it quits there.

The boil, again, was easy enough. Chinook at the start of the 90 minutes, heaps of US Golding at 10, and some Columbus at 5. Used a gorgeous wort chiller AND an ice bath to cool the beast down, and then tucked it in with some Dry English Ale yeast in a 30L glass carboy.

Just a taste of the mind-blowing selection i had to choose from 

Overall, it was a super easy brew day. The thanks must definitely be extended to the fact that I didn’t have to drop a penny for anything, and had access to near-professional equipment. As for the new mash technique, it worked well, but I’m not fully convinced. The hands-down, best mashing process I’ve used so far still has to go to the wheat wine-mash. Though it was a nearly two-hour process, it prevented a 100% wheat mash from getting stuck, and—had I not diluted the bastard—would have produced a perfect gravity.

I plan on using this mash technique again with my next beer. I’ll be doing one more before my second attempt at a pumpkin ale, which will be a Summer ale. It will be attempting to reproduce something along the lines of Coronado’s Saison By the Sea. After that, however, there are two competitions coming up that I will be entering. The first is the Maryland Oktoberfest homebrew competition, which I will be working with my good friend to produce three entries. It will be a 50L mash, split into three 15ish liter batches. The plans are up in the air, but one will likely be the pumpkin ale. As for the other competition, that is a PA-based venue, and I may have to conceive my long-contemplated Fenrir for that one.

Lesson of the day: 30L of beer should not be moved alone. My right bicep is seared medium-rare.

Simo Hayha Brown Ale (Nogne O Imperial Brown Ale clone)

Maris Otter, Belgian Wheat, Munich, Crystal (20L), Amber, Brown, Chocolate
Chinook, US Golding, Columbus

Dry English Ale (WLP007)

Cascadian Ancestral

First Stateside beer! It turned out to be quite the adventure today. Though I began the process around 10am, I didn’t get any fire lit until about 2pm. A lot of unexpected things happened, and a lot of improvisation occurred. Thankfully, the next beer will be much easier thanks to the pioneering that was performed today.

The ingredients  

The day started off with coffee and cleaning. The first thing on my list was to clean the brew equipment I got while I was home visiting over the holidays. It seemed that during the move to the new home, some of the yard maintenance guys decided my brewing buckets would work really well for transporting excess weeds and dirt. Put simply, I spent a lot more time getting things prepped for brewing than I originally anticipated.

British and Russian hops, with American soil. Tastes like Liberty 

The cleaning done, it was onto heating up some mash water. I had a bit of trouble lighting the burner, and quickly realized that the valve on the extension hose wasn’t open. The burner has a piping input, not a propane input. After some panic I hopped in the car and drove to find something to open the valve, and free the gas for the burner. Success? No such luck. I got nothing but strange looks when I presented the dilemma, so I thought I’d run to the local brew shop.

Turns out, I ended up buying a backyard turkey fryer. I used the pot that was included to heat up sparge water later on in the day, but the point of the purchase was a good burner. It ended up working really well, came with a solid stand that provided good flame ventilation. It gives off great heat, but it chars the bottom of the pot. I spent a good portion of time wiping black soot off of damn near every surface of the back porch later in the day.

Not bad for a Wal-Mart $30 

The beer was a mash of about 6 kilo of grain in 20litres of water. I held it at a (at least) solid 58C. The thermometers I had were pretty old fashioned, and not the most accurate of instruments. I could have mashed a bit hotter, and next batch I definitely will be doing so. The beer was mashed for an hour holding that temperature, and then I moved the equipment outside where the weather was gorgeous.

Since I was using the 37L pot as both a mash tun AND kettle, I had to sparge into a cooler, rinse the kettle, remove the stainless threaded filter, then transfer the wort back into the kettle. It was a bit easier than I thought it would be, and was much more surprised to find that my mash almost stuck. I did a beer with 100% wheat malt and it went flawlessly, yet a pilsner/caramalt mash nearly sticks. The grain may have been a bit too finely crushed, and I do remember seeing some of it be nearly powder-like. I’m thinking a grain mill might not be too bad of an investment soon.

Speaking of that 100% wheat malt beer, it’s worth noting that accidently diluted that beer during the sparge. I sparged too fast, and the gravity was pitiful. Since then I’ve been incredibly paranoid about my sparging, and today, I believe I tested the gravity every few minutes. The pre-boil gravity was decent, 16L at 1.056. I didn’t get 18/20 L because of the last gravity test from the mash tun dropping down to 1.052. In retrospect, I probably could have gotten another 2 litres without much effect on the overall product, but again, I was paranoid after the last experience.

The boil is what I know. It’s pretty hard to mess up as long as you keep an eye on the clock. The Fuggles was my bittering, and starting at 40 minutes I did a Dogfish-esque continual hopping of Serebrianka. Adding a bit at a time of the leaf hops gave it a gorgeous smell, and I’m pretty excited to find out how this hop works within the beer. In total, the hop count came to 350g. They’re both pretty low alpha hops, so I plan on dropping a few more Serebrianka for dry hopping. Beersmith is claiming the IBU’s are going to be a bit high, but I’m mildly skeptical since it also claimed the same of the beer I did with Greg, and that wasn’t hoppy enough.

Around the final addition of Serebrianka 

And if the final gravity is correctly measured, it should be fine. I measured it at 1.076. I did a second measurement because that was just too good for me. After getting the same result, I began checking other things, and soon came across the realization that I was at a volume of 10 liters. I boiled off nearly 6 liters, which made things a lot more believable. Since I was using leaf hops, they may have absorbed some of the liquid as well. Either way, I’m currently sitting 10ish liters of beer in a fermenter. I even got some bubbling starting already.

As for potential issues that may arise, the airlock on the fermenter keeps dropping in liquid level. It plateaus eventually, but it’s below the ‘fill line.’ It may be cracked but there should be enough water to do the job right. I also dropped the thermometer in the kettle after the boil. Most of it was sanitized, but not the top, so there is potential for contamination there. The pre-boil gravity was below the Beersmith prediction, but the OG was slightly over the prediction. I’m still a bit wary of the OG, though. I feel it may be too good to be true, but we’ll see.

Overall, while it’s a bit less in volume than I usually like, I’m pretty satisfied so far with this as a first beer. Considering all the damn trouble I had to go through, it definitely worked out well. Lesson learned from today: Test the shit BEFORE brew day. 

Improvising with anti-buoyancy, and rain to cool down the beer

'Cascadian Ancestral' (Parent Hops to US Cascade)
Pilsner, 20L Caramel
UK Fuggles, RU Serebrianka
US-05

An Introduction to the Beginning

When one takes part in a practice requiring fine attention to detail, it is crucial to keep equally fine records.

I normally do not consider myself a perfectionist.  However, when it comes to brewing, I've found I am at my most meticulous. This isn't to claim I'm a flawless craftsman, but that if what I create is not what I imagined, I will search relentlessly for the answers as to why it fell short.  I develop a concept in my head, and that is what I seek to create. It is about bringing an idea into reality. It is creation, and nothing pleases me more than to witness the existence of something that was once nothing more than a simple thought.

The purpose of this blog is simply a public notation on my records, and projects. I prefer to type rather than write when it comes to 'thinking on paper', and so I decided to use this medium among other options.

To lead into things, I have been slowly gathering equipment for what I need. I can't resist following Shiggy's (the one who taught me to brew) influence in terms of hardware, and will eventually be upgrading the mash tun to a stainless steel model. For now, i've just converted an old Igloo cooler to meet the needs for all-grain mashing. The kettle came in today as well, an approx. 40L stainless with a ball-valve. Dont think I'll be using the ball valve much unless i can find some plastic tubing to fit snugly over it for clean transfers.

Also invested in a 23-head burner that should move things along nicely. Other than that, I'll be making use of the basic homebrew kit items. Next on the buy list is a quality carboy. This first beer will be the last one in a bucker fermenter. I haven't had any problems with bucket fermenting, I'm just not fond of them. It doesn't feel secure enough for me.

The first beer is going to be a fusion of research and gimmick. Ever since I read an article in a Beer Advocate, I've been obsessed with trying to find and use Serebrianka hops. It's the only "Russian" hop variety that is now US grown. It is hard to find, low alpha acid, and doesn't store well--Its a very un-American hop. The story behind it, is that it was a parent hop to US Cascade (along with UK Fuggles). I always thought it would be fun to make a beer that had Cascade's parents together, and luckily, I managed to find a grower that sells the elusive Serebrianka.

As for the malt profile, I'm choosing to embrace simplicity. Most of the process will be hands-off since I'll be in Seattle for most of the fermentation period. This beer is going to be all about the hops. Not a hop-head beer, however, but more a middle-road pale ale that showcases hop characteristics. To do this, I'll be using a combination I learned from a Kiwi at a homebrew tasting, essentially going heavy on the Pilsner malt, while keeping a 20L Crystal below 20% of the profile. And thats all there is to it.

Continuing with the simplicity, I'm just going with US-05. It's cheap, reliable, but I'm sure I'll change the yeast if the recipe goes well.

It'll be bottle conditioned, but I plan on kegging soon (hopefully before I hit beer number three).

Ingredients are on the way, and the brewing will probably be Wednesday or Friday this week.

-L