Lager at Ale Temps: German Pilsner Brew day STEP MASH... back in the counterbrew kitchen... by myself

Saturday Brew day in the counterbrew kitchen.  All by myself. The other members of the brew crew all had other plans.  MA is on a "beercation" in Denver.  Jake and John have valentines plans with their lovely wives.  So it was up to the old man to carry the torch.  To keep the momentum going.  So I spent Saturday doing general home brew stuff and brewing a 2.5 gallon German lager the easy way, kind of...

What is the easy way?  Is there a magic way to make a lager at home?  Is there a way to ensure that a lager comes out crisp and clean, with out all the extra fussing with pre chillers,  fermentation chambers, and months of lagering?   Well simply put, yes there is, and it is all about yeast selection.

There are a handful of lager yeasts that work just fine at ale temperatures.  Particular strains that just don't happen to throw off many off flavors even at higher temperatures.   Just last week over at Brulosophy, Marshal displayed that you can use Fermentis 34/70 at 70 F and produce a clean crisp lager.  Now this is not true of all lager yeasts.  But some of them will work just fine.  So which one?  What yeast can you turn to for reliable lagers at ale temperatures?  Note, this doesn't mean un controlled fermentation.  You need to keep these around 62 F - 65 F.

• Fermentis 34/70 - I've used it for years at 62 with absolutely no problems.
• Fermentis K-97 - technically a Kolsch yeast, but you'd never know it.
• Wyeast 2112  California Lager - Used it for years for my Champagne Lager
• Wyeast 2124 Bohemian Lager
• White Labs 810 San Francisco Lager -  Used it on Saturday! Doing great Sunday Morning.  This is a very malt forward style of yeast.
• White Labs 862 Cry Havoc
• White Labs 080 Cream Ale Blend

Began my brew day by racking a strawberry wine, and by checking on the gravity of a Belgian Strong Dark Fruit Beer... What?  you never posted about that!  Well no, no I didn't.  We do make some more advanced beers, and sours that I don't post about on this blog.    I also re dosed a Bret IPA we are working on, as of this morning there is a beautiful pellicle on the beer.  

Ground the grains fine.  I always try to mill my grains on brew day.  I don't know the science for sure, but I feel like the closer to brewing, the better.

step 1:  132 F

Today was a step mash brew day.  I was using the amazing Weyermann Barke Pilsner (TM) malt.  This is my third time using it, and now I am feeling a little possessive of it.  Planning what future brews I am willing to use it for and what I am not.  Definitely going into my upcoming Bierre D' Mars, Saison, Bierre d' Garde, and another lager.  But it's not going into the California Common, or any of the upcoming IPAs, etc.  It is just too special for that.  Too valuable. Too Yummy!

Today was all about the step mash.

The recipe for the "Die Achtung" Pilsner

2.5 gallons

1.048 OG

1.012 FG

33 IBUs

3.3lbs of Weyermann Barke Pilsner

.3 lbs of Cara/Crystal 40 Lovibond

.3 lbs of Corn Sugar Added in 1 quart of water as High Krausen is stable (improves attenuation)

1 ounce of Hallertauer  (4.5 AAU)   at 60 /70  4.5 Alpha Acid

Iris Moss

Yeast Nutrient

Gelatin Fining

Step 2:  146 F for 40 Minutes

Step Mashing is not hard, it is also not strictly necessary on many beers.  But I find it improves extraction, and flavor.  And flavor is what it is all about for me.    So I often step mash.  I brew loads of Belgian beers, and when you are brewing a Belgian, and you want lots of phenolic flavors, you have to step mash.  (More on that in another post).   The first rest was at 132-135 F.  I can get there with the 141 F water that comes out of my tap.  And that is nice.

Step 3: 152 for 15m

After 15 minutes I rose to 146 F  where I rested for 40 Minutes.   Then up to 152-154 F,  Then Mash out at 170 ish.   My efforts produced a delicious wort that clocked in at 1.039 OG.  That is 86.28% sports fans.  So you tell me if it was worth it.  There is a faster way to do a step mash too.  You can use boiling water to more quickly change the temperature of your wort.  But that wasn't an option for me on this brew day.  My other 5 gallon kettle has delicious Chili in it.   Truth told I don't mind it taking a little longer.  It makes for a leisurely calm brew day.  It also involves me more in the process.   

Nailed it.  

The boil was uneventful.  The wort was foamy so there was a lot of foop.  I always scoop the foop.  I have no need for those proteins in my beer.   Single Hop addition.  1 ounce of Hallertauer at 60 minutes.  Irish Moss and yeast nutrient at 15 minutes.   

Chilling the batch,
love the color

Chilling the batch was frustrating as always.  20 minutes is too long.  The ground water seemed to be at around 60.   But with a single coil in a sink full of ice water it still took 20 minutes. Chilling drives me crazy.  Eventually, I'll break down and buy a Jaded chiller.  But for now, I really prefer using 2 chillers at one time.   

I aerated the batch with my aquarium pump and pitched the pack of WLP 810.   Some people say 810 is too malt forward, and I am using Weyermann Barke Pilsner (TM).  So this beer could be a malt bomb. (fine by me, not what was intended but still yummy!)  Only time will tell.  But if it isn't super crisp, I'm sure I'll still love it.  I love malty beers.  As of this morning it has built a beautiful Krausen and millions of tiny bubbles are rising to the surface.   Should be another delicious German Pilsner.    As you can see, I have a fondness for crisp lagers.

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.

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.

McClouds Kilt... Scottish Export...

So, it's almost the weekend... that means brewing.  Tonight means Royals Playoff Baseball, my daughter's choir concert (can't wait they're damned good), and some bottling (the octoberfest, and old school lager), and some yeast washing and collection. So things are busy on the home brew front.

But that in a nutshell is our hobby. You can fill your downtime with something that you love doing, and that produces yummy beer.


Recently, I have fallen in love again with an old friend.  O'dells 90 Shilling. Now I know some of you pooh pooh the big craft breweries.   Some of you only drink "continuously hopped organic chocolate nib pomegranate Saison aged on french oak" and anything less is not worthy of your time. And that is fine, but I ask you to remember if it wasn't for Anchor, Harpoon, Sierra Nevada, Boulevard, O'Dells, Dogfish Head, and Boston Beer Company, there wouldn't be a craft beer revolution.    You wouldn't have your ridiculous glass of deliciousness to drink.


90 Shilling is an american take on Scottish export.  It is all about the malt with just a hint of cascade to make it American in it's interpretation.   Amber in color the beer assaults your tongue with wave after wave of malt complexity.   Perfect for a fall day or a winter's eve.   My recipe has changed over time.  I dropped the Cara 20 for Biscuit Malt.  They are both about 20 Lovibond, and the biscuit adds more malt complexity.  We may all love hop bombs, but the general public does not.  This is a perfect gateway beer for your beer muggle friends.

The recipe is here.  Let me know what you think. I'm always looking to improve my recipes.   But here it is typed out for your viewing pleasure.  Mash at 154 for 60 Minutes.  Boil for 75 minutes adding the first hop addition at 60.  Ferment at 65 F for a week or 10 days, then yes, actually rack this one to secondary, there will be a lot of trub in this, better to get your beer off the trub, not for fear of acetyls, but rather for clarity.   If you want to really geek out, you could do a partial decotion on this.  I probably will.  Just take out a quart of the mash and boil it for 15 minutes.  It adds that shinny shimmering caramel look that you just don't get with out decoction.

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.

All Grain Mr. Beer Oktoberfest Brew day "you can go all grain"

Here is my brew day for part 3 of 3 in my series on what to do with your old Mr. Beer LBK... otherwise titled "You can go all grain".  If you haven't read the other posts, you might check them out.

My next beers in the series will be called small batch partial mash / stepping stone or landing spot?... In that series Ill be arguing the benefits, and merits of doing small batches of partial mash.  The benefits are many but apply especially to; exotics that you don't really want to have a lot of,  super high ibu IPAs DIPAs and APAs , and finally as a learning tool for getting into all grain.  If you read the blog, you know I am a fan of partial mash.   In recent years partial mash has been losing ground, as more and more people are discovering the ease of BIAB.  I love BIAB, but partial mash just makes a whole lotta sense for a whole lotta brewers. I hope you'll check out that story line too.

Always be organized.   Always have your plan/recipe at your disposal.  Today was a frantic day.  My attention was divided.   It was the NFL kickoff.  I was watching the Chiefs play reasonably well.

I doughed in Low at 138 F.  which dropped me to 127 when I added the grains.   I began a slow rise to 154 F immediately.  My step mash process takes about 2 hours.  30 for the rise / protein rest, 60 for the saccrification rest, and then rise to mash out.   Squeeze the bag... and boom  2.8 gallons of yummy wort.

This beer is being brewed with Wyeast 2112 Lager yeast.   And for you nay sayers... I say YAY, it is a lager yeast.  It is a strain of Saccharomyces Pastorianus, which is lager yeast.  So quit messaging me that it is a hybrid, because you read it in your basic brewing book.   The author was just trying to help you understand... not stating scientific fact.  It is an awesome yeast.  If you have the ability to aerate it, you can make almost any type of lager with it.  You could also use Wyeast 2124, or White Labs San Francisco Lager.  (Steam beer yeasts).  There are many, many strains of lager that ferment well in the active, or primary, phase of fermentation at 65 F.  But you have to lager them cold (secondary).

As you can see in the picture on the right, the mash is rising to saccrification temperatures.

In this photo saccrification rest has been going for a while.   My thermometer reads about 2 degrees high.  So if you see that in my photos, just know that I do occasionally calibrate my thermometer.  If you haven't ever done that it is easy.  Just stick it in some ice water that is mostly ice, that is your low end.   Then stick it in some nearly boiling water.   Here where I live, water boils at 212 F.   If you live in the mountains it may be lower.

I realize the photo on the right is going to drive some of you crazy.  You have been told that leaving a lid on a boil, even if you leave it a jar, will cause DMS.  I have covered this in previous posts.   For now I will just say, hogwash.   I wont get into a long explanation again, Ill just say, that well modified grains don't contain a lot of the DMS precursor S-MS.  So as long as it can vent... you're fine.   DMS fear is a hold over from the days when malt wasn't well modified.

My pre boil gravity was 1.049... which means I got 80% efficiency.   So don't believe the knuckle heads who tell you BIAB is not as efficient as 3 vessel.  You can see the proof right on this page.

My post boil gravity was 1.059.   So this is going to be a really good 6.5% beer.   Yes only 6.5%; it's a festbier, and it is fermenting with Wyeast 2112... so it will finish around 1.014.

 I think I nailed the color.  The cold break was great.   If you look closely you can see it down in the pot... It looks like a cloud, or an alien brain...  At the right is the LBK with the aeration stone rocking. The key to the steam yeasts is aerating the heck out of them.  I aerated for about 25 Minutes.

I use a dry erase marker and write on my fermenters.  Yes, it will stain your fermenter or lid.  Yes... I don't care.   It helps me remember dates.

This has been a very fun series.  I know I am going to keep brewing small batches a lot in the LBKs.   For me the current plan is 1 or 2 five gallon batches, and 3 small batches a month.  That should be just about the right amount of beer, and it will mean I can keep brewing every weekend.

Keep on brewing,  and keep sending your comments and questions.    This was the first of two beers I brewed today...  The second a Belgian Dark Strong Ale, Partial Mash, No Chill 5.5 gallon... (wow beer nomenclature is getting long) I will post about in a day or two.

UPDATE ON THE OKTOBERFEST:

The beer was so well aerated that it developed an awesome Krausen with in 18 hours of brewing.   It is humming along fine.  I can see the bubbles popping, but I don't see new ones forming.  So I think we are reaching the end of primary in only 5 days.   But this is Wyeast 2112, it will sit here for another 16 days.  Then cold crash, then bottle.  So in 1 month, I will be drinking awesome homemade Oktoberfest... only a month later than I should have been.  

I will re use this yeast cake for a high gravity premium american lager.   Champagne lager... 1.060.