Back to Big ... Amarillo Citra IPA

Overview of the counterbrew kitchen / brewery

John and I brewed today... I know that is no surprise since we are clearly both obsessed with home brew.  Today we brewed a Big IPA... originally I thought of it as a really big american IPA.  But during brewing we added some additional grain which clearly placed it squarely into the Imperial or Double IPA category.   We had no plans to add additional grain, but we are brewers who taste the mash while we are mashing, and that has a great advantage.

One of the many great advantages of milling your own, You
can adjust your recipe on the spur of the moment...

You see after 45 minutes the mash usually takes on a great sweet, bready, nutty flavor.  This time.. meh.... it was ok, not great, but ok.  But we knew it wouldn't stand up to our massive hop bill (3 ounces in a 2.25 gallon batch).  So we got the mill back out and added .5 pounds of C10.  One of the great advantages of buying grain in bulk is the ability to make changes on the fly.  So we capped our mash with .5 ounces of C10 and mashed for another 15 minutes plus the mash out.

The boil went well, The house
smelled amazing.

The boil went well.  This was a small batch on the stove top.  Loads of Amarillo and Citra were added through out the boil and the kitchen / brewery smelled amazing.   We chilled with the 25 ft stainless immersion chiller.   It was the coldest day of the year, and the chill was lightning fast.  We went from boiling to pitch temps in around 10 minutes.  Of course that is one of the advantages of brewing small batches.   They chill fast.


Then we aerated and pitched an entire package of US05.  A focus of our brewing recently has been achieving high yeast attenuation.   US05 is a champ for attenuation.

During the brew we tried the Cream Ale we brewed.  John wrote the recipe, and chose to go with corn and flaked barley rather than the standard corn and rice adjuncts.   It is absolutely amazing.   We used S04 ale yeast.  Next time I think well try US05 in this as well.

Busy week.  I have 20 gallons to bottle up this week.  No super secret tricks for that just a couple of hours of hard work.   10 gallons are already fining with gelatin.  Trying for super clear beer.
I should be ready for spring, hell I am ready for spring.
I have 20 gallons of light ale and lagers ready to go.

Our Saturday Double Brew Session 8 hours of brewing fun...

8 hours is a long brew day.  If you have ever dreamed of being a professional brewer... try a double batch day.   Not a partigyle.  A true double batch day.   We have been double batching for a while now, in an effort to build up stock.  But with 16 gallons fermenting, I think we're in pretty good shape.  So next weekend a single 5.5 gallon batch of beer, partial mash style.   The team understands all grain.  Now I'm going to teach them a more reliable, and in my honest opinion, better method.

On saturday we were at it again. This time two beers, a standard american lager (just for learning about lagers) and another improv pale ale.   Each week I try to add another element to our brew day. These guys are beer fanatics.  I may have finally found my championship team.  And finally, after weeks of anticipation, Jake joined the team.   It was a welcome addition.   His pallet is excellent.   He can taste a beer and describe accurately what it needs to go to the next level.   With my experience, John's passion, MA's exotic beer knowledge and Jake's pallet I think some medals are in our future.   Who knows, a medal here, a medal there, a small microbrewery... then world domination and the fall of the MBC conglomerate...(insert maniacal laughter here).

We milled our own grains this week.  There was a slight snafu in terms of grain volumes, but fortunately we have plenty of grains, so we were able to adjust.  We grind our grist fine.   We set the mill gap to the size of a credit card.  Yes this creates some flour.  But we use a brew bag so we don't care.  I haven't had a stuck sparge in years.   If you're not using a brew bag, you need to be.   Even if you are a 3 vessel guy.  It completely eliminates the need for vorlauf.
And because you can grind your grain bill smaller, your efficiency will improve. Please don't argue about this point, it is so well established.  Physics is Physics everywhere in the known universe.  More surface are = more starch in contact with more enzymes more quickly...   You can see in the photo just how fine we mill the grains. On this day, in this kitchen... we hit 91.2% efficiency... yes 91.2%.

We were brewing on this day with RAHR 2 row base malt.   If you don't know RAHR they are a major producer of brewing malts.  A lot of guys think of Rahr as the affordable choice, but affordable does not mean lower quality.   I love 2 row base malt for general all purpose brewing.  It is incredibly consistent and extracts like a champion every time.   Special thanks to RAHR and BSG for their advice and support.  If you have any questions about malt, or brewing that you can't get answered locally.   Reach out to the maltsters, and suppliers.  You think you love beer?  These guys really love beer, and they are happy to help.

We followed our normal taste and test procedure for the mash.   Tasting occasionally and testing for conversion with iodine. When it passes the iodine test and tastes right, we're done with the mash.   If we need more melanoidal malty flavors, we remove some of the mash and we decoct... oooh fancy... not really. This is just the old school stuff we used to have to do to get the flavors we wanted.

When the mash was over we drained the bag, and Jake squeezed it like it owed him money.  Then off to the boil.   The hops?  all saaz.   So this will be an americanized version of a czech saaz lager.   (we didn't use pilsner malt).  We chilled, aerated like crazy (30 minutes with an aquarium pump) and we pitched rehydrated Fermentis 34/70, my workhorse lager yeast.

Temperatures are perfect in the garage right now for lagering.  The batch is holding steady at 52 F.   Should be a great clean, american lager.

Then like crazy fools... we did the entire process all over again...

Some days... you're not on your game

So Sunday afternoon brew session.  Shouldn't have thrown us off our game.  But it did some how.  But take heart sports fans... this is not a story of defeat,  but of triumph in the face of mediocrity.  Heck, even the great George Brett struck out some times.  But today, today was not our day to fail, just our day to stumble rounding third but still make it home safe.  (like the baseball analogy? I'm still geeked up about the Royals winning the World Series).

The brew day started  at 4 in the afternoon.  And we were admittedly rushed.  The guys were returning from watching their alma mater advance in the D2 soccer playoffs.  I, as you all know by now, am just kinda an idiot.   So unlike other days, we weren't prepared in advance.  Which I think is a key thing to note.   Our hobby takes some preparation.  But still we mashed in just fine, and used our usual methodology of tasting our mash and testing for conversion.  I think the mash was done in about 43 minutes.  We stop mashing when an iodine test confirms the mash is complete, and when we taste that nutty melanoidal flavor.  

Today, just to teach about it we focused on brewing water calculations and sparging.  Not water chemistry, that may come later.  But honestly the water at John's house rules for hoppy beers, and the water at my house rules for malty beers so... we're very lucky.    We added sparging to the mix this week.  And we learned that the total volume of water is roughly the same.  I think it is fair to say everyone prefers no sparge BIAB.   

The boil was uneventful.    The Sierra Nevada Pale ale clone was first up, and it will be spot on.  We overshot our freaking OG again.  But this time only by 2 points.   I've made that recipe many times, and it is always damn good.    We sampled our Zombie Dust side by side with the real thing... and as you might expect... our tasted better to me.   This happens a lot with super hoppy beers.  

The troubles came when we partigyled off of the main batch.  We added grains to our original grains and mashed in a beer cooler with no valve.   And that is where the fun began.  We ended up using an autosyphon to transfer out, because those things are hard to pour out of, just ask John if you don't believe me.    But after that the remainder of the brew day was just fine.   The second batch was supposed to be a red imperial ale... It ended up kinda orange.   We could adjust color at bottling, but I think we'll just let it go.  It is a partigyle batch after all.    We hit our OG of 1.090 and we pitched onto the US05 yeast cake from the Zombie Dust.  There should be more than enough yeast to handle this beer.   Plus John and MA aerated the bejeezers out of it.   

Finally, Next week the anticipation ends.  Jake will join our crew.   Hopefully, unless he has another trip to somewhere, someplace more fun than brewing... but come on, what is more fun than brewing?

Double Batch Brew day... Pliny the Petulant, and a "free brew"

Saturday was a brew day.  The guys I am brewing with currently are relatively new brewers, but man are they learning fast.  John has a passion for brewing unrivaled by any but my own (and RobRaider), MA is cerebral and organized, and man does he know beer.  Next week we finally add Jake to the crew, and our assault on the brewing world begins in earnest.

Beautiful Mash.

The day started early with the Pliny inspired beer.   We were trying to make Pliny the Toddler.  When you change brewing locations, everything changes.  Your water profile, your heat source, your efficiency.   We don't really have efficiency dialed in quite yet.  Last week we overshot big time, this week... we overshot again.  So Pliny the Toddler became Pliny the Petulant.

No color change?  The mash is
complete, the mash is done. 

We doughed in at 156 F.  The mash fell to 151 F.  Perfect.  We mashed for a total of 49 minutes.  We don't follow a strict time schedule for mashing.  If you read this blog, you know I am a proponent of understanding what is going on, as opposed to just following some arbitrary time schedule.    We check our mash two ways.  First, we taste the mash... I can not stress enough the importance of tasting your mash.  Please believe me when I tell you,  You will know when the mash is done just by taste.   Second,  we check the mash with iodine.  Surely you know that trick.  But if you don't, there are hundreds of you tube videos about it.  But the basic process is put a spoon of mash liquid onto a plate, put a drop of iodine in the mash.  If it turns darker... the mash is not done.  There are still starches in the mash that need to convert.  If it stays the same color... it is done.   Technically you could start your boil then.   Just pull your bag and rock and roll.  But we wait.   We wait and we taste the mash.  We taste until the mash gets the grainy, bready, nutty, delicious taste we want.   I posted about this the other day.   Many of you read about it.  I sure hope you are trying it.   We wait until we all taste that taste.

There are alot of hops
in Pliny the Petulant

We pulled our bag, and MA squeezed it like it owed him money.   The boil was uneventful.   Added our hops.  We used our dry erase  board again to put in all of our additions. You can have 3 timers going, a kitchen timer going, you can have your recipe in hand, and you can be creating a brew log on Brewtoad.com... and you should still write down everything and follow it. Something about writing it down keeps you from screwing up.

Two batches of beer on the stove!

Right as we started the boil.  One of the guys, I think it was MA said, "Man I wish we could brew more today"  Ill be honest this statement took me back to many years ago when I said something similar to Mankind.   Ill never forget, Mankind looking over his thick glasses and saying " well we have everything we need so... lets do it" I responded incredulously "everything we need? We used all of the grains"  But ever wise, and all knowing, Mankind looked patiently at me and said... "we may have used the grains... but we certainly didn't use all of the sugar in the grains".  I couldn't help but re create this exact circumstance on Saturday.   And that is how we decided to brew a second batch of beer with our grains.   There was only one problem.  Mankind and I used to partigyle off of imperial batches.  This was supposed to be a session beer... we'd need more sugar.   So we took the grains and soaked them in 2 gallons of 155 F water.   We let them soak as we went to the boil on the first batch.

Fresh Coriander crushed
in a bag.

The brew board, MA keeps it
orgainized.  I write the brewlog, John
keeps the brews going,  We all sample
great beers. True Fun!

As we were chilling down Pliny the Petulant, we checked the gravity on the second batch.  The gravity came in at 1.022 but it was at 160 F at the time.   A quick adjustment told us the gravity was around 1.034.  We added Corn Sugar, Honey, and some brown sugar.   Our gravity came to 1.055.   We decided to follow the Belgian brewing motto... "brew what you can, where you are, with what you have"  We had some hops that were for dry hopping, and we had some bitter orange peel, and some fresh coriander seed.  We used a Belgian ale yeast that I had in my kit.  I have no idea how it will turn out, but it sure was fun.   For good practice we recorded every addition.  We created a brewlog, and we followed good brewing practice.    What if this thing is amazing?  We'll be able to recreate it. As you can see, we sampled some interesting beers during our brew session.  We tried Dogfishhead 120 minute IPA,  Boulevard "Snow & Tell"  And a sour from Anchorage Brewing called "The tide and it's takers"  Great stuff.

The brain floating in
the chilling wort.

I have to mention the "chills" for these beers.   We are getting such great breakdown of the proteins that when we go to the chill the cold break is impressive.   The cold break looks like an alien brain.   After chilling we aerated and transferred to our trusty little brown kegs.   We aerate with aquarium pumps. The pumps have heppa filters.   So we are confident that we are not pumping anything into our beer that we don't want in there.    We re hydrate our yeast.  I know they say you don't have to, but I always have.   The fermentation starts quickly and predictably.   Heard from John a little while ago,  he reports that a Krausen has started on the Pliny,  and that the "middle child'  is bubbling away.   Next weekend we will expand on the concept of partigyle.  We will be making a SNPA clone, and something with the second runnings.  What?  who knows...stay tuned sports fans.    

Another note,  we tried the Zombie Dust clone.  Yes, it is only a week old, but remember we aerated like crazy and overpitched the yeast.  It is fantastic.   Tomorrow night, John will dry hop it, and Wednsday or Thursday night the cold crash will begin.  We'll bottle it this sunday.

All Grain Mash voodoo... now this is super secret stuff... so don't go blabbing about it everywhere...

The most common questions new brewers ask on this blog and when I'm teaching all grain are... how do I mash... and when is the mash done... and should i stir the mash?  and what the heck is a sparge...

PS - the secret technique is toward the bottom, so keep reading.

These concepts are fundamental to all grain brewing, and partial mash brewing.  So, I'll try to handle them here without too much complication. As you know I hate complications.   We won't be covering multi step or decoction in this post.

Mashing is soaking grains.  Grains that have been malted.

Wikipedia  - close enough for beginners. 

Some Hipster making floor malted barley

"Malt is germinated cereal grains that have been dried in a process known as "malting". The grains are made to germinate by soaking in water, and are then halted from germinating further by drying with hot air.^[1][2][3][4] By malting grains, the enzymes are developed that are required for modifying the grain's starches into sugars, including the monosaccharide glucose, the disaccharide maltose, the trisaccharide maltotriose, and higher sugars called maltodextrines. It also develops other enzymes, such as proteases, which break down the proteins in the grain into forms that can be used by yeast. Malt also contains small amounts of other sugars, such as sucrose and fructose, which are not products of starch modification but were already in the grain."   Pretty darn good explanation from Wikipedia.

Diagram of 2 Row Malted Barley

So we use Malted base grains when we mash.   Malted base grains have enzymes in them.   The enzymes can convert the starches to sugars in a process called Mashing. 

There are really only 3 general types of grains.  Base grains, adjunct malts, and non malted grains.   That is it.   Yes there are hundreds of types of grains, but I think even the worst Tommy Knowitall would agree that all grains fit nicely into one of these categories.   Base grains have enough enzymatic power to convert their own starches and often additional starches.  Adjunct grains do not have enough enzymatic power to convert their own starches.   Other grains may or may not contribute sugars to the wort, but always contribute flavors and color.   That is the simply explanation.  Yes, it can be way more complicated, but doesn't need to be in order to brew great beer.  

Brew in a Bag - Mashing away!

When we brew beer, we soak the malted grains in water.  This makes the enzymes active.   We use specific temperatures to get specific enzymes more active.  We generally soak grains at 140-160 degrees F. (60 - 71 C).   At lower temperatures beta amylase is more active, at higher temperatures alpha amylase is more active.   In general we mash around 150 to 155.  (higher for thicker bodied beers, lower for thinner bodied beers ).   We use 1.25 to 2.33 quarts per pound of grain, depending upon whether or not we are sparging (rinsing) the grains. Sparging is just rinsing the grains.   I generally don't sparge, but you may choose to.  I generally use the grains and make a second batch of beer...That's all there is to this.   If you can make oat meal you can make all grain beer. 

But one question remains unanswered... how long do I mash.   Here is the real secret.  Ok, hold on a minute, before I tell you make sure no one is around.  This is the super secret I mentioned above.   This knowledge will dramatically improve your beer... Brewing is cooking. 

The mash has to take what ever time it takes.  Generally people mash for 60 minutes.  But that is completely unnecessary, the grains and enzymes don't know they are being mashed.  They simply react the way nature designed them to react.   Most mashes convert in 20 to 30 minutes.  If you do an iodine test, you will find that the starches are all sugars.   So, why do we mash longer?  Well experts at Briess  (specifically Aaron Hyde, the product line manager) explains it this way...

What it comes down to - basic starch is converted into sugar.  The simple sugars are converted first, these are shorter chain sugars, so the flavor isn't as complex, thus sweet.  The complex sugar, which takes longer to create is more flavorful, and thus you get more biscuit and nut flavor.  This is also from flavors leaching over time from the grain- the malting process creates melanoidins, the grain contains proteins and other compounds, and they all contribute to this more complex flavor.
So it comes down to simple sugar creation first, and melanoidins and complex sugars coming out later.

So the longer mash isn't necessarily for creation of sugar, although it will keep grabbing more starch and converting it.  The longer mash is to get that nutty, bready, melanoidin taste that comes out of the grains.   How do you know when that taste is there?

Here is the shocker... taste your
mash.   The guys I brew with and I taste the mash every 15 minutes when we stir the mash. Trust me you will know when the melanoidins have leached out. The taste will go from sweet and cloying to nutty delicious bread.  So best advice, taste your mash.   You'll have one of those "aha" moments somewhere later in the mash.

Pliny the Toddler ... One of my favorites... and I overshot... again!

Started, like always by making sure the brew
house, (ie kitchen) was clean and ready.

I love small batch brewing.   Most of my batches now are 2.25 gallons.   I can make them on the stovetop, I can easily control temperatures.   I'm not outside brewing in the cold, or the hot.   And lets be realistic.   Small batch gives you more variety, more chances to brew, and makes you a better brewer.

So Saturday, I brewed up one of my all time favorite recipes.   Drew Beechum's Pliny the Toddler.   My recipe is not exactly the same,  Drew uses Maris Otter for half of his grain bill.  I just use 2 row, and a tiny bit of carapils.  Drew's Recipe is for 5.5 gallons, mine is for 2.5.  This recipe is all about that magical combination of hops.   It isn't overly hoppy, it isn't a hop monster.   It simply features that combination of hops that you get when you drink a Pliny.  But the alcohol is low, so you can have several.   Yum.

Mash in went perfectly.   Hit my numbers exactly.  But here is where i think I goofed up.  I decided to mash for 90 minutes.   No one was home, I was watching Dr. Who and Football.   An extra 30 Minutes? Sure, why not?  Because you overshot by 12 points that's why...  Unfortunately I overshot this beer gravity by 12 points.  Trying for 1.040, ended up at 1.052.   I guess I have to accept that the 82% - 88% I keep getting is not a fluke, and just plan on it from now on.   The gravity was higher than expected, so i changed from US05 to Nottingham for this batch.  I've used both with this beer, and both come out just fine. The Nottingham won't attenuate out as much as the US05, so the alcohol content will still be where I want it.  But it will also leave a little more sweetness.  Think the hops in this can handle that no problem.   As you can see with small batch, I do brew in a bag, and I do it right on my stove top.  So simple; a couple of paint strainer bags (1.97 each) a 5 gallon pot, and a brewing thermometer.  That is all you need. To make great beer.  

So here is a cool trick that I learned.   Write your hop additions and times on the counter with a dry erase pen.   Perfect way to keep organized,   just make sure it is a dry erase pen.  Cause... well it takes a long time to scrub off permanent marker if you goof.   ONLY USE DRY ERASE.  DON'T DO THIS ON WOODEN COUNTERTOPS.

Another reason to love small batch.   It chills in record time.   With my 25' stainless chiller, and a sink of ice water, I had this batch down to pitching temps in under 10 minutes.   Now granted the ground water here is getting colder every day.   And this day was Halloween, probably mid 50s outside.  But still 10 minutes is pretty darn fast.  

Aerated the batch like crazy and pitched 1/2 of a pack of Nottingham into it.     As of monday morning a slight Krausen has formed on the beer.  Should be rocking by the time I get home.  Sounds like I'm brewing with some friends this coming weekend. Gotta figure out what to brew with them. I'm pretty sure I should teach them all grain small batch.  I'm also pretty sure they will want to make a hop monster.   That should be a great time.   Got some serious bottling to do tonight.   The Scottish Ale will bottle up tonight, and the Centennial Blonde will be bottled.   Need to dry hop the Miller the Muggle Wednesday Night. Think Ill try Saaz and Hallertauer for the dry hop. Trying to give it just a little more character. I'm letting the old school lager, lager for a while longer.   There was a slight hint of butter, more in texture than flavor.   That is Diacetyl.   Rested for 48 hours, now back into the fridge for 2 weeks of lagering.  

UPDATE: A Beautiful Krausen has formed.  creamy and thick 

Centennial Blonde All grain for the MR BEER LBK

I know I said I wasn't going to brew... but well... I'm me.  I couldn't help myself.  The grains called to me.  I have 4 beer tastings coming up.  That was my excuse.  In truth, I have plenty of beers for the tastings, but not the tastings and the holidays.  So my excuse isn't completely bogus.  I know I usually describe my self as a partial mash brewer, but I love these small batches.  Maybe I'm really a small batch all grain brewer.

So yesterday, when I ran to the home brew store.  I got the ingredients for a 2.25 gallon batch of biermuncher's Centennial Blonde. I have never brewed this recipe, but it was Home brew talks #1 recipe last year.  Another lower IBU recipe.  With the holidays coming up and lots of family and friends coming through the door in the next couple of months... I can't have enough muggle friendly beer around.  I am going to make one deviation from the original recipe, I'm going to add a hop tea it to get more aroma, at Bottling.

So I brewed a small batch 2.25 gallon batch.  On the stove top.  All grain. Started as always by organizing my stuff.

Prepped my water with 5 star 5.2 stabilizer.  There is a lot of controversy about 5.2.  It works for me but it is not the only, or even the best way to treat your water.  As for me,  my brewing water is nearly perfect, theoretically.  But something has changed recently.  So I took a sample and sent it in for testing.  As someone who brews a lot, I need to know what is going on with the water.


My computer is my constant companion on brew day.   I keep excellent records of my brew days, and since I started using Brewtoad.com my record keeping has gotten even better.   I can go back to any brew and see exactly what I did.

The beer in the rocks glass is the lager from the "Lager at ale temps"  it is fantastic.  Not even a little off.  The yeast we have today is awesome.
This one was Wyeast Czech Pils but, Fermentis 34/70 also works well.  You'll remember, I primary at ale temps then, into the fridge for 3 to 5 weeks.  Wyeast produces two yeasts that can perform just fine for the entire fermentation at ale temperatures.   2112 California Lager, and 2124 Bohemian Lager (fine up to low 60s F)

Nailed my mash temp.  I used the calculator on brewtoad.com.  It has is adjustable variables, so once you put your variables and mash ratio in it will calculate your strike temperature.  This one was 3 quarts per pound... No sparge BIAB.

Mashed for 60 minutes.  My pre boil extract was at 1.032.  Which was perfect and predicted.

Boiled for 60 minutes.  With hop additions at 60, 35, 10 and 0.   As you can see, I use coffee filters to organize my hop additions.  One had already been added.  Third from the left has 1/2 a whirlfloc tablet in it. You can see I am using Wyeast yeast nutrient again.


Post boil gravity was 1.042.  Spot on. In the photo, It may look like 1.040.   But, the wort was still warm, so I took it's temperature, 135 F.  I did an adjustment for temperature and it came in at 1.042.   Which is exactly where I wanted to be.

Cooled with my small immersion chiller, and ice water in the sink. The batch chilled in less than 15 minutes in the sink.  I don't like wasting water so this was very encouraging.   In part the chilling was made faster by the fact that the groundwater is getting cooler.  But the sink full of ice water certainly helped.


Aerated with my aquarium pump.   Aeration is one of the most important things you can do to improve your beer.

Pitched re hydrated Nottingham by Danstar.   The yeast seems to take off quickly when it is re hydrated.  Nottingham is one of my favorite yeasts.  It always performs well and it is a great flocculator.   I pitched about 6 g of the package.  Yeast calculator said I needed 3 g. So It is an overpitch.  I had used 5 g of Nottingham in my Cider the day before.

Clean up took less than 15 Minutes.  One of my other favorite things about counterbrewing and small batches. When I was done, it was time to sit down and watch some TV, and have a great beer.  In this case it was my "Gumball Drop" east coast APA.  All late hop additions.   Love it.

Updates... lager at ale temp, Oktoberfest w/wyeast 2112, session ipa

Ok I got a lot done today,  more to do tomorrow.  5 gallons to bottle up tomorrow, and Ill probably brew a small all grain batch. 

I love the small all grain batches in the Mr beer fermenters.   You can brew them on your stove top and they are easy to move, and they are easy to bottle.   I just don't love the ingredients. I truly hope Coopers continues to make the LBK.   I even love the Mr. Beer bottles, and the carbonation tablets.  Although I ran out of those a long time ago and bought the Brewer's Best tablets.  The only problem is the location of the spigot means you will inevitably pick up some protein foop, and trub when you want to bottle.  But don't worry sports fans,  I have a $10 solution.  (update there is no problem bottling in PET)

I ran to the LHBS this morning.  Now, I am lucky I have 3 home brew stores in close proximity, where they know my name.  But I most frequently shop at one close to work called Bacchus and Barley corn.  I have been buying beer supplies at this store for 25 years.  The owners Big Al ( a petite woman named Alberta) and her husband Jackie are incredibly knowledgeable.  The store is plastered with ribbons from AHA competitions they have won. I purchased 4 lft of tubing, a 2 gallon bucket, a bottling spigot, and a voile hop bag.   

For all three batches I simply transferred from the Mr. Beer LBK to the new miniature bottling bucket.  I clipped the voile bag to the side of the mini bottling bucket, and inserted the tubing.   Boom, poor mans filtering.   The voile bag is an excellent filter.  I was able to bottle all three batches in under 1 hour.  All were filtered through the voile bag.  I got clean clear beer.   Easy. 

ROOM TEMPERATURE LAGER
Update on the "You can go all grain LAGER with the Mr. Beer"    I brewed this on Sept 5th.  It fermented for 10 days at room temperatures then, on the 15th it went into the fridge at 38 F.    I has been sitting there ever since.    You may recall our not so subtle friend "Tommy Knowitall" sent multiple messages assuring me it wouldn't work.  I bottled it in 2 liter bottles today.   Two of the bottles were forced carbonated with a CO2 gun.  The final bottle got 5 carbonation tablets.  The beer is freaking amazing.

 The beer is crystal clear, the beer has no off flavors or aromas.  There is the very slightest hint of DMS (appropriate and intended)  There is just a wee touch of Diacetyl (again intended). The beer is excellent.   On the left you can see the 1 gallon that I packaged up in 2, two liter bottles.    I have covered that topic before, but by all means feel free to ask questions about it.  It is really an easy way to package your beer. These will sit there under pressure for the week getting ready for John and Beth's wedding brunch.  When you force carb in 2 liter bottles you can try your beer in a couple of hours.  But to get it truly, fully carbed up, you have to let it sit for a couple of days,  occasionally shooting it with more CO2.

I also bottled up the Oktoberfest (made with Wyeast 2112) and the Session AIPA "by grace and banners fallen"  that was originally inspired by Drew Beechum's Pliny the Toddler.  The Oktoberfest is good, not great.  The carbonation might help the malt character come out more.  To me it just tastes like a basic, non hoppy, malty, amber beer.  So Im sure it will be a big hit with the muggles.  The AIPA is fantastic.  It always it.  It is a hop monster.  Hop perception is based on a ratio of hops to specific gravity.   This one delivers.  This batch in particular is very balanced.  About 66 IBUs and only 5% alcohol it is a tongue stinger.  It is a little darker than the last batch, I'm sure that is from the addition of the biscuit malt.   But the beer needed that balance, so I'll take it.

I also made counterbrew cider.   Cider is the easiest thing you'll ever make. Definitely give it a try.  Especially if your SWMBO or SO doesn't prefer beer.   I'll cover this in another post.   Today, Church, Chiefs, a Centennial Blonde, and bottling the Belgian Quad.

UPDATE I let the quad sit for another week.  It had a slight rubber note.  That is acetyl.   As of last night... that was gone... its ready to bottle.  The lesson?   BIG BEERS TAKE WHAT EVER TIME THEY TAKE.

REAL LAGER AT ALE TEMPERATURE - FERMENTIS 34/70 The Method, and 2 additional methods.

Crazy Weekend.  But Sunday, I found time to brew a batch of beer.  Just good ol simple beer.  Shooting for 1.032 post mash... Got 1.030, I'll take it.  Shooting for 1.042 post boil and nailed it. Small batch has slightly higher boil off rate percentage.

This Batch is a light american lager.   And that is a key you have to understand with lagers.  There are hundreds of lager yeasts.   Some attenuate out great, posting impressive 83% to even 88% attenuation.   But many, if not most lager yeasts feature fairly low apparent attenuation, in the home brew realm. So unlike an ale yeast that can handle huge OG. Many lager yeasts can not, they would leave the beer too sweet.  And that is not what you want from most lagers.  Certainly not what you want from a Light American Lager. (of course you can adjust your pitch rate to accommodate higher OG, I find attenuation has way more to do with the brewer and the pitch rate than the yeast) (NOTE: I am aware that commercial lagers under, commercial brewing conditions can and will attenuate out at avery high rate.  But most lager yeast, Saccharomyces pastorianus (( S.Carlsbergenus)) can not break apart one of the carbon links in a Maltotriose trisaccharide. )

This batch is pretty straight forward
2.25 gallon batch.
Water adjustments to get to 5.2 pH
4# lager malt
.3# carapils
.7# flaked rice (or minute rice)
Mash at 152 for 75 Minutes, no mash out (got about 72.3%) not bad
Hallertauer at 60,15,0 ... .33 oz.  each addition
Hard boil to break up proteins.
No Whirlfloc
Will use Gelatin to fine this before packaging.

And now for the shocker... I'm fermenting with Fermentis Saflager 34/70.  And I'm doing the primary fermentation at 65F.   After about 10 days I will move the fermentation vessel into the garage fridge at about 36 F for 3 to 5 weeks.
Now before you get all up in arms, and start firing me comments about how this will never work.  Take a breath and ask yourself the following questions.

1. Why not? Why in the world won't Saccharomyces pastorianus ferment at 65F?  What could possibly prevent this yeast from converting sugar to alcohol and carbon dioxide at this temperature?   What part of the metabolic transformation will be inhibited?  I think you know the answer is nothing.   It works fine I have been doing it for over 20 years.
2. Have you ever tried it? are you open to new techniques?  No this is not the classic, or even best way to make a lager.  But it works.  It works just fine.   
3. Have you confirmed your point of view with the yeast manufacturer?  I have.  I have had extensive conversations with Fermentis about this technique.  They say it should work fine. Fermentis is amazing to deal with, I encourage you to check out all of their yeasts.  
   

This is how lagering was invented.
Ferment as normal then store cold.

Now I know this isn't conventional,  But give it a shot.  All you need is a fermenter that can fit in your fridge, or even your keezer.   This is not at all what the Brulosopher did with his recent xbeeriment.  Where he displayed that you can ferment lagers at 66F and not even trained judges can tell the difference.   (And by the way if you're not reading and supporting Marshal's work, start now.  He is advancing home brewing.  So buy a dang Tshirt, we need his work to continue.)  Of course, you have to choose the right lager strain to pull this off.

This is a tried and true old school method for making a lager at home.  It is how we did it in the dark ages of home brewing.

Alternate method #1.  Choose a clean lager strain and just ferment the beer at ale temperatures.  It will be fine.   If you don't believe me read the Brulosophy post above.

Alternate method #2.   Ferment it at ale temperatures, and then lager it in the bottles or keg, cold for a month or two.  We used to call this bottle lagering.

It is Tuesday morning.  I brewed on Sunday.  There is a beautiful Krausen on the beer.   Cant wait to drink this one in 6 to 8 weeks. Wednesday morning nice 1/2" creamy lager krausen on the beer.

IMPORTANT NOTE.  AERATE YOUR LAGERS LIKE CRAZY

A Pliny Inspired All Grain American IPA brew day. for the Mr. Beer Fermenter

So Saturday I had a day to my self.  The SWMBO and the hobbits were all gone.   It was just me and the animals.   College Football on the television and home brew on the stove...  relaxing.  In actuality, I had 3 batches to bottle, loads of cleaning and organizing to do.   But my main focus was on brewing my AIPA.    A 2.25 Gallon batch that I will ferment in a Mr. Beer LBK.

I posted the recipe in the last post.  The recipe was originally Drew Beechum's Pliny the Toddler. But like all of my recipes, it has kind of morphed over time.  Drew uses Maris Otter,  I use 2 row and I now add some Biscuit malt.  My hop schedule has changed as well.  This is a great way to develop a recipe.  Start with a proven recipe from a great brewer,  change 1 thing at a time until you have what you love. 

Since I was alone, I decided to really geek out. I did a full on step mash.  I doughed in low for a protein rest, then rose slowly to 152 F where I held the mash for 60 minutes, then I rose to 168 F for 10 minutes.   I'll admit it took a long time, the total mash time was 115 minutes, nearly two hours. Was it worth it?  probably not.  I haven't noticed a huge difference in step mashing vs single infusion mashing.   But it is kinda fun, and you know with out a doubt you are getting the kind of conversion you want.

We used to always step mash, but that was because we had under modified grains to deal with.   We had to.

The mash went very well.  I got a lot of cleaning and bottling done during the mash.   I bottled my Saison / Chardonay Blend (freaking amazing I will make it again and post the recipe soon).  I bottled my Bells Two Hearted clone, for this I actually used the Mr. Beer Bottles.  I figured, why not?  I have them, they're easy, I have the carbonation drops.  Let's give it a try.   You can get a lot done during a 115 minute mash.   At the end of the mash I pulled my grains and let them drain.  Perfect, after draining I had 2.9 gallons of wort.   I let the bag drip into another pot for a gravity sample.  1.032 (81% efficiency remember this is a session beer)

Started the 60 minute boil. But this time I added a hop stand at the end of the boil.  At flame out I added my hops and moved my kettle off of the heat.   Then I let it stand for 20 minutes before I started chilling. The idea behind a hop stand, or a hop burst if you prefer is that the essential oils (alpha and beta) of a hop are released into the wort, but nothing is evaporated,  So you get awesome aroma and flavor compounds with out too much bitterness.

Then I chilled it and aerated the heck out of it.   I can't stress enough the importance of aeration.  In fact, I would say that the 3 most important things you can do to improve your beer are, pitch a healthy and adequate yeast,  ferment at correct temperatures, and aerate.    It got foamy.   Then I pitched most of a sachet of US-05. (8 g)

pre boil reading
post boil was 1.032

It is Sunday morning the Krausen is already starting to form.  Really loving these, small batches.    The gravity came out at 1.042.  My recipe calls for .5 # of cane sugar to be added at High Krausen.   So that is going to boost this closer to a standard AIPA, but I need the addition to get back up to 2.25 gallons, because I took some out for a gravity reading.

Cane Sugar is 46 ppg so 23 ppg /2.25 = 10.22 so this beer is going to be about 1.054 OG... If it ferments out all the way to 1.010 it will be a 5.78 % abv beer.  Not a super high abv, but certainly not a session beer either.  I may just leave it, because, it was supposed to be a session-able beer after all.