Strawberry Blonde Brew Day 1.052 NO CHILL

Yup, I brewed again.   2 days, 2 brews.  So much fun.  But Today things didn't go exactly as planned. You see, today wasn't supposed to be a no chill brew day but a meeting at church cut my brew day short.   So for the first time we here at counter brew bring you... a no chill brew day.  It's a strawberry blonde ale, so I'm not worried about the hops. We'll see how it turns out.

Of course Ill keep everyone posted, and if it is great beer, I'll probably start no chill brewing when ever I can. To be honest it has always bothered me how much water is wasted in the chilling of beer.  I know the theory is sound, I know that down under guys do it all the time, but I haven't had the courage to try it yet.  But, hey, anything that makes my brew day easier...

Today was a blonde ale... in my crazy head a blonde ale is a cream ale at a little higher OG and with a little more freedom on SRM and gran bill.  I know classically I should use Windsor or an English ale yeast but I usually use US05.  And this one is destined to have strawberry flavor added, so no reason for a yeast with any complication at all. Truth be told this one is for SWMBO and her girl friends.  It is a classic summer beer.   Ill probably brew a wheat next weekend and that one too will have a flavoring added (apricot or raspberry).  Easy way to create fun summer beers.  My new fermentation chamber can hold 6, 5 gallon fermenters so... yeah, lets fill them all.  When that is done, Ill begin my Lagers and Stouts.   I know many of you brew lagers in the winter for summer, but I brew them in the summer with Wyeast 2112.  The idea is to have plenty of non challenging beers around for football season, and to build a series of beers on one yeast cake (standard lager, premium lager, bock, ocktoberfest)

Today was also a traditional brew day.  No partial mash or BIAB.  A relatively small grain bill meant it was time to use the 2, 2 gallon  beverage coolers with the bags as filters.   Using the bags as filters means you don't need to vorlauf.  A quality voile bag will create a clear grain free wort.  Nice time savings.  Even though I could't chill my beer, it was still a fun brew day, and I continued to learn a lot about the Cajun Injector as a brew kettle.  I think I actually figured out my main practices from here on out.   So regardless of how the beer turns out this was a great brew day.  Crazy as it may sound I plan on brewing Partial Mash, most all of the time. A grain bill up to 6 lbs with 2 lbs of DME means I need about 3 gallons of water for strike, 2 gallons of 170 F for the rinse, and 2.25 gallons addition.   It's the addition that makes this perfect... Into the addition, on the stove top, I dissolve my DME.  I bring it slowly to near boiling.  This weekend Ill post a step by step of how I rule the brewing world with my Janky, Ghetto Set Up.

Double Brew Sunday... All in the kitchen...

Yesterday was a big brew Sunday at my place.   It wasn't supposed to be all Sunday.   It was supposed to be Saturday and then Sunday.  But the kitchen faucet went kaput and replacing the faucet became like the struggle to re build the bridge over the river Kwai. (on a non brewing side note... who uses construction adhesive to hold down a sink faucet? who in their right mind thinks this is a good idea?)  After my sink faucet adventure brew day became Sunday.

First Brew a good ol extract Cream Ale.  I "mashed" corn and rice, 1 lb each, inspired by all of the recent posts regarding "Cream of Three Crops".   Brew day went smooth, till I realized my brew partner had the wort chiller.   Solution?   I went and bought some filtered ice, a 10 lb bag to be specific.   After brewing I sanitized everything, including the bag and poured the beer right on to the ice.   3 gallons of 190 F wort onto 1.18 gallons of ice.  Instant cool.   Well not instant but pretty quick.   Pitched US05 dry.  As of this am it isn't bubbling, but that is par for the course with US05.    Should be a good lawnmower beer.  I'm going to try to keep the fermentation cool, under 65.  Hoping it finishes clean and refreshing.

Second Brew,  A real partial mash American Pale Ale.   A frustration I have with on line forums is this... there is no control over recipe posting.  As a brewer who primarily brews partial mash brews it is very frustrating to log on line, search for a recipe and find "partial mash" recipes that are really just extract recipes written by someone who doesn't understand mashing, and who thinks that throwing more specialty grains into a recipe is the key to improving a beer.   To that end I am posting all of my PM recipes at Brewtoad.  just type in Real Partial Mash.  They will come up.  I think I have 9 or so of them posted so far.



The second brew was a blast.   I didn't want to use my big mash tun, so I went to Wallyworld and found 2, 2 gallon beverage Jugs on sale for $5.90 each.   Boom, you can mash up to 10 lbs of grain in 4 gallons.  And in reality they are a little bigger than 2 gallons, probably 2.25.  They worked like a charm, no modifications needed.  They are small enough to lift and move around, they lost no heat.   I'm not even going to add ball valves.  Although, I may add a lever lock valve to each of them.   I mashed 3.5 lbs of Maris Otter, 3.5 lbs of American 2 Row, and .5 lbs of Crystal 60.  After a 45 minute mash I vorloffed and batch sparged.  I collected about 4 gallons of wort.  Since I didn't have the wort chiller, I just did a partial boil.

The runnings were a beautiful deep orange color.  Add 2 lbs of DME and you have a 1.046 beer.  Not bad.  After boil about 1.056.  Hopped with Warrior, Cascade and Centennial.  Cooled just like above.   Aerated and pitched US05.



I did all of this in my kitchen.  In 6 hours, and you can too. I like all grain brewing.   I like extract brewing.   There are many many extracts that are great.   But extract always leaves me wanting more complexity in the taste, and all grain should really be called all day brewing.    I know you full time BIAB guys say that BIAB takes the same amount of time as a Partial Mash.  And I know, you're correct.  But I enjoy Partial Mash.  I know my results will be predictable.  Partial Mash rocks, and you can do it on your Countertop.

Let me know what you think, and if you have a recipe to convert, let me know.  I'd be happy to help.

Real Fruit in a Wheat beer... Never again!

So Tuesday Night I bottled a Raspberry Wheat beer.   For the first time ever I used Frozen Raspberries.   I had become convinced, like many of you, that real fruit was the key to explosive flavor.   I pasteurized my frozen fruit and added them to secondary, then racked the beer on top of them.   It was a 3.5 gallon batch that I made on my stove top.  

Never again.  Even with bagging the fruit, I have never had that much Trub.   I managed to bottle 2.5 gallons of cloudy, all be it delicious, raz wheat.

From now on it is extract for me, or creating my own extract by completely mashing down the fruit and straining out all solids.   Should be a tasty brew but there is a good chance I'm the only one who will drink it.

Cajun Injector worked like a charm

All these guys online talk about the need for massive BTU systems.  They tell you you can never get a quality boil with an electric Turkey Fryer.  I'm here to tell you, they're wrong.

We brewed this weekend with the Cajun Injector Electric Turkey Fryer.   IT HAD NO PROBLEM BOILING 6.5 GALLONS OF WORT.   Boiling Full Volumes of Wort is a real key to brewing better beer.

Now in fairness we did a partial mash, and heated our sparge water on the stove.   Then we did a near boiling water addition to bring our wort to volume and to temperature.  But once we were at a boil the Fryer did fine.  We left the lid on, but ajar.  This created a very large gap for ventilation of Steam and the dreaded DMS.

You can see for yourself in the video at the left.  It is boiling away.  The brew in the pot is our "Risen APA"

Even the guys who are the most scared of DMS would have to agree that is more than enough ventilation to allow for steam and DMS to escape.

Here is another video of the boil with the lid off.  Not quite as vigorous but still just fine for brewing beer.  This affordable kettle should be a tool that any brewer who wants to step up to BIAB or Partial Mash should consider.   There is just no reason to spend thousands of dollars on your brewing system.   Use your head, buy stuff that makes sense.  

A Return to Common Sense Home Brewing

It's time.  In fact, it is long past time for a return to common sense in home brewing.   It is time for a focus on the things that actually matter.  I understand this is a weird way to start a blog entry, but it sums up where I am with this hobby I love.   It is my core philosophy, and it was inspired by a conversation I had recently when getting ingredients at my LHBS.  The conversation went something like this

Me: "hey brewer X, how have you been?"
X: "good good, times are a little tight, you know we have 2 in college, and the oldest just had a baby..."
Me: "that's awesome congratulations"
X:  "Thanks,  so yeah, I have to brew up some cheap beer for a while"
Me: "How are you brewing now? all grain?  Do you still have your gravity system? Did you put your eHERMs on hold?"
X:  "No No... the Basement brewery is all tricked out... eHERMs,  super grain crusher 2000, ceiling crane for grain removal, even put up subway tiles... you should come check it out... I've spent a fortune on it lets brew sometime"
Me:  "yeah, sounds like fun"
X:  "so how are you brewing now?"
Me: " Still doing partial mash split full volume boils in the kitchen"
X:  "I don't know how you can do that man... doesn't that take forever?"
Me:  "about 3 hours"
X:  " Oh...uh... really?  3 hours? that's not too bad..."

Times are tight, and the guy just spent 10-15K on a home brewery.  To my knowledge he has never won a single award, and although his beer is very good, it was very good before he built the basement brewery.

PEOPLE LISTEN TO ME.  YOU CAN LITERALLY SET UP A 2 BBL BREWPUB BREWERY FOR LESS THAN THESE GUYS ARE SPENDING ON THEIR HOME RIGS.  AND BSG OR WHOEVER WILL COME SET IT UP FOR YOU.

I will proudly stick to the things that matter.  Full Volume Boil with common sense.  Correct Mash temperatures.  Correct Fermentation Temperatures, Correct Pitch Rate of Yeast.  I will proudly avoid weird grain or hop bills.   I will comment on each of these thing in days to come.