Ghetto Brew: Affordable advanced brewing! The mash tun.

This is the beginning of a new series on counterbrew about affordable Advanced Brewing.  In this series well try to show you all some common sense affordable methods for advanced home brewing.

Ok... I get it...I've said it before... I understand... you want the shiny bling...the mirror polished stainless $15,000.00 brewing system and the 14 gallon glycol controlled uni-tanks... I get it... really I do.  You've drooled over photos of some basement in some far off state or province that has been turned into a miniature temple of fermentation.   You imagine (wrongly) that if you just had that level of brewing equipment, you would win 5 Ninkasi awards in a row, and the whole world would know of your brewing excellence.

Brewhardware's pre wired rims tube
set up. Just add a pump.

And you can call me a grumpy old curmudgeon... but I don't really want any of that stuff any more. ( Maybe I should say I don't want more of that stuff...In full disclosure I have a gas fired, mirror polished, medical grade welded, 10 gallon recirculating system with a pump, tri-clover valves, built in thermometers, acid etched sight gauges, and false bottoms...I rarely use it. It is in fact in storage right now. Part of it may be at Jakes... I may change it over to a Rims Tube  system in an effort to continue to minimize oxygen ingress with out the use of chemicals.  There is a follow up post on LODO coming soon. )

For the most part I brew small batches on the stove top.  So when I think about a brewing system, I only want easy to clean equipment that improves my final product.   And I want to continue to brew a lot.   Which means small batch.   I want variety.   Which also means small batch.  Basically, I want to brew a lot.  And again that means stove top small batch.

Don't get me wrong I like shinny brewing equipment as much as the next guy.  I've spent literally hundreds of hours over the years drooling over systems.  I am especially attracted to the High Gravity brewing systems, Blichman Engineering, Brausupply, Clawhammer Supply, and especially to Colorado Brewing Systems.  But alas, I have yet to win the lottery.  And even if I did win the lottery, I'm not convinced I would buy one of these systems (see above, I would probably just add a Rims Tube from brewhardware.com to my 5 gallon system). Heck, I may add one of those anyway.   But unless I win the lottery, I'm not buying more expensive brew gear.     Especially, when I can make advanced gear at home for a fraction of the cost.  On our brew crew we are very proud of focusing on what really matters, and we can make the equipment we need for advanced home brew mashing.  That's right, I can make great equipment, and you can to. 

Fancy Gear, is no substitue for experience and
knowledge.  No amount of money spent on
equipment can make good beer if you don't
know how to brew!

You see i know the truths...I have read the secret ancient tomes... I possess the ethereal mystical knowledge of the brewing art... and I will share it with you. 

• Its the brewer not the equipment. 
• There is no substitute for sanitation,
• Fermentation is eminently more important than wort production.  
• Fresh quality ingredients are more important than recipe design. 
• Simple is usually better
• Packaging matters, oxygen can ruin finished beer.
• Brewers make wort yeast makes beer, yeast vitality and health are of paramount importance. 

These are the things that matter.   If you are focused on wort production above all else, your beer will suck, well maybe not suck, but it wont be as good as someone who focused on sanitation, yeast health / vitality, and on fermentation control. 

So how do I go about making great beer on the stove top, or with out spending a fortune?  Well I think I have figured out what will work for me, and I will share it with you in hopes that it will work for you as well.  Or in hopes that it will inspire you to create your own small batch system.   I also have figured out what I can afford, and what any serious brewer can afford.  (in follow up posts I'll be showing you how to make a boil kettle, a fermentation chamber, and a stainless fermenter...affordably.

My goals.  Super easy to clean.  Minor infections are the bane of the home brewing world.   I can not tell you how many times I've tasted a beer that was slightly off.  Still pretty good, but just not everything it should be, not the taste the brewer was trying to produce.  The brewer would swear it was due to stale malt or a change in the recipe, or a slightly different mash temperature...   But you and I both know the real flaw was probably a lack of complete cleaning and sanitation.  Some minor infection didn't ruin the beer but certainly competed for the resources of the desired outcome.  Or there was some weird flavor left over from poor cleaning.  In an effort to keep the system easy to clean I am eliminating pumps and limiting valves.  I know this may sound shocking to you all, but when you think about it you don't really need a pump. Pumps are convenient, pumps are kind of cool. But pumps are also places where minor infections can hide. And I don't know any of the world's great large breweries that use recirculating Mash systems (although they do all use pumps to move wort around). I do know a ton of them that use mash paddles.  The whole point of stirring or recirculating is making the enzymes more effective, enzymes are proteins they only work when in contact with starch.  So stir your mash.  It really doesn't matter if you stir or recirculate.   And please don't give me the clear wort argument.  Numerous studies, prove that (with the exception of light lagers)  crystal clear wort is meaningless.  If you are producing a light lager or a beer that needs clear wort, there is no law that says you can't vorlauf (even when you are doing biab style or no sparge.) 

Other goals for the system are that it hold temperature well, reduce oxygen ingress, and that it will allow me to step mash.   I am generally a no sparge brewer.  And I am often a step mash brewer ( at least with my Belgian Inspired beers).  So I need an easy way to step mash as well.  

For me the best solution is a 5 gallon cooler as a mash tun.   I use a brew bag as a filter, which allows me to crush finer, which means I maintain decent efficiency even with no sparge brewing, usually 76.4% (which I think you would agree is awesome for no sparge in a cooler)

But there is a problem with a cooler mash tun.  You have to open it to stir.  And you have to open it to do an infusion step Mash. Well have no fear brewing nerds, Old Uncle Dave has the solution for you. I'm going to show you all how I modify a cylindrical cooler mash tun in order to accomplish all of the goals set out above.  And you probably own 90% of the tools you'll need.  And the materials you need are cheap at your local big box hardware store.  Here is what you need.

• A 5 gallon (or 10 gallon) cylindrical mash tun with a screw on lid (they're thinner)
• 1 1/2" PVC Female Trap Adapter with Nut and Washer, Hub x Socket $2.59
• a 1 1/2" hole saw.  (any big box hardware store will have this)
• A large funnel  or better yet Your LHBS
• A worm clamp - Your LHBS
• 2' of  1/2" inside diameter silicone tubing - Your LHBS
• a #10 stopper - Your LHBS
• A large brew bag, I have lots of these from Wilser, BrewBag, and my LHBS 
• A stainless steel 8" drip pan as a false bottom ( make sure it is stainless steel not chromium or painted, stainless won't be quite as shiny as chromium)  Any big box will have these. 

So here is the finished mash tun. With the port on top. The port has a mash paddle sticking out of it... with foil wrapped around it.  A waterproof digital thermometer probe goes down into the wort.  My awesome daughter bought me a 13" fast read long probe, so I can take temps at different places in the mash as well through the port.  So far so good.  I'm on my 16th brew with it and it is performing well.  We are getting right at 76% ever time.  If I extend my mash to 90 minutes I get over 80%.  Despite what you have heard; iodine is not a good test of mash conversion, and mash length does matter somewhat.  With apologies to the short and shoddy crowd (who I really enjoy), a 90 minute mash will always create more conversion and fermentability (thinner beer).  Well be posting on using time of mash as a component in excellence soon. 

Here's how it works.  I strike at 12 degrees above my target temperature.   Every 15 minutes i stir...with out opening the lid, that's it.  If I need to step mash I add a funnel with a silicone tube attached and I pour boiling water through the port.  It fits even with the mash paddle in place.

When I am done... I drain into the boil kettle.  Shocking right?  If I'm making a very high gravity beer I have to sparge. When this is the case, I lift the bag, set it into a colander, squeeze/press, and then rinse the grains.  Simple affordable mashing without temperature loss.   You don't need a $5k brewing system, you just need common sense. 

I realize I am kind of a knucklehead, but I think I am right on point with this one...We are focused to much on things that don't really matter.   We are focused on the active part of brewing, we are focused on those halcyon days in the garage with friends brewing beer.   And that is great, but we need to be focused on cleaning, and on making good healthy yeast starters.  (I have some crazy theories about the absolute importance of yeast health that well be tackling soon).  We need to be focused on fermentation temperature control, and proper aeration of wort at yeast pitch.  If you can't make a yeast starter and you want a $1000.00 wort production machine your priorites are wrong.  If you can't control fermentation, and you want a $1000.00 wort production machine, you're nuts.   If you aren't kegging yet... well that comes before fancy wort machines.  If you aren't fermenting in stainless steel, that comes first.  You get where I'm headed here... there's lots to handle before a wort machine.

I'll close by saying, as always, there are no homebrew police, brew how you want to brew.  It is all about having fun making beer.   Cheers!

On our next brew I'll post a picture of the funnel in place during a step mash.

Room Temperature Marzen with Cargill Idapils and Meusdoerffer Munich

Sorry for the lapse, life got busy. Have
no fear we're back.

One of my favorite things about home brewing is that there are no rules.   You can brew the beer you want to brew, the way you choose to brew.  You can add hot peppers to cream ale, or use all Vienna malt for a pale ale. You can even add ridiculous ingredients to a stout... like lobster or oysters. It's your beer, do what you want.  And although there are always opinionated trolls on the internet who are more than willing to tell you that you are doing something wrong, there are no brewing police.

A couple of weeks ago we set out to make a Marzen for consumption later in winter.  I realize we were late to the party and that we should have made it a long time ago.  But like you, our lives get busy.  Like you we have jobs and families and sometimes we don't get around to brewing something, or at least posting about brewing.   But things are settling down now, and we should be posting again weekly.  We will be starting a series on advanced ghetto brewing soon.  In it we will show you easy and more importantly affordable ways to step mash, decoct, control fermentation temperatures, aerate, make starters, and naturally carbonate your beer.

Yeast produces CO2, Ethanol, and Glycerol.
But also lots of esters in different combinations
Depending on it's own genetics. Ethyl acetate,
Isoamyl acetate, Isobutyl acetate
Being prominent in fermentation. 

Right now my fermentation chamber is full of tailgate beer.   Cream Ale, Centennial Blonde, and Dry Stout.   So we are making and fermenting this one at Mark Anthony's place.   And MA doesn't have a fermentation chamber.   So we are fermenting at room temperature.   A lot has been said over the past couple of years about lagers at room temperature.  Let me assure you, this is not a best practice.   If you can ferment in cool controlled temperatures, you should.  But if you can't that doesn't mean you shouldn't brew a lager.  It won't be gross, a lager yeast puts off less ppm of esters than an ale yeast, even when you ferment at higher temperatures. They just happen to be lager esters.  In fact, I often use 34/70 at room temperature for a blonde ale, cream ale, and even some IPAs. So just go ahead and make the damn thing, and use a lager yeast that can handle room temperatures, there are many of them on the market.

With the growth of German styles there has been an increased demand for and discussion about malt selection.  Remember, the most important thing in malt selection is freshness.  And when most of your malt comes all the way from Germany... that means most of your malt was subject to the harsh conditions of shipping all the way from Germany... on a boat, on a train, and on a truck.  So malts that have been shipped from overseas have been subject to all kinds of temperature swings.  Not a huge deal for malt, but still an area of concern.  Foreign Malts... they may be awesome, they may be crap, you just don't know until you brew with them.  So for my base malt, in every recipe that calls for Pilsner, I always use at least half North American Malt.  I like Idapils  by Cargill.  I just want to make sure that a good portion of the grist is fresh.   In truth, for lots of recipes, Idapils is my base malt.   I can't explain the bready, slightly sweet aroma and cracker like taste.  You really need to try this one for your self.  So while I do use some European malts, they never make up the majority of my grain bill. I'd rather use fresh North American Malts, where I know I will get good conversion and great flavor. 

So if you don't have fermentation control, don't let that stop you, go ahead and make a lager at room temperature, or just make a swamp cooler with a laundry tub, some frozen 1 and 2 liters, a fan and some dish towels.  Easy lagering, no big investment. In truth a used mini fridge and controller will be about the same price as the other items I just described, but you probably have most of the stuff you need for a swamp cooler.)  Alternatively, find a cool place in your basement.   A swamp cooler with a fan can easily hold your fermentation down to lager temperatures.   

The key to brewing a a room temperature lager is yeast selection.  Any yeast that is called a "steam beer" yeast, or a "california lager" will work just fine.   Personal favorites are WY2112 and wlp810.  I have made many lagers over the years with steam beer yeast.  And they all turned out just fine.  You can also use Saflager 34/70 or WY2124.  I haven't tried the L05 by Imperial yet, but I may at some point.  In truth, I generally just use Fermentis 3470. It is crazy reliable, and a great attenuator.  I know the guys at Brulosophy have done several xbrmnts with 3470.  Their most famous, they fermented it at 70 F.   But in truth we were doing the same thing in the 1990's.   Full disclosure, we didn't really know any better.  We knew we needed more lager yeast to get a good healthy fermentation, but most of us didn't know we needed specific temperature control.   And the beers turned out just fine. 

Digression warning - I for one believe that the home brew world has gone crazy with expensive gadgetry. You can literally spend thousands on brewing equipment. But before you do, ask yourself, should you? My brewing mentor used to say,  "it's the brewer... not the equipment, and if it is hard to clean...it sucks...no matter how cool it seems" (miss that guy and his wisdom).  We are about to embark on a series called "advanced brewing ghetto style"  In that series we'll be showing you that you can brew even the most advanced styles with out spending a fortune.
equipment. I know guys that have spent over 10K on their home brewery.  And their beer... isn't any better than ours... In truth not usually as good as what we brew.  Which brings me back to the word's of my brewing mentor...

But today, today we were making a "steam marzen", here is how we did it.  We chose Liberty for the hop because it is so similar to a noble hop and we had lot's of it on hand.   We also are trying the Mangrove Jack's yeast for the first time.  We'll let you know how it turns out.   The malts are all Cargill. 

The recipe:

Method: All Grain 
Style: Märzen
Boil Time: 60 min 
Batch Size: 3 gallons (fermentor volume)
Boil Size: 3.75 gallons 
Boil Gravity: 1.043 (recipe based estimate) 
Efficiency: 75% (brew house)
Source: Counterbrew 

Original Gravity:

1.053

Final Gravity:

1.011

ABV (standard):

5.53%

IBU (rager):

18.47

SRM (morey):

13

Mash pH

5.57

Fermentables

Amount	Fermentable	PPG	°L	Bill %
3 lb	American - Munich - Light 10L	33	10	49.2%
3 lb	American - Pilsner	37	1.8	49.2%
0.1 lb	American - Chocolate	29	350	1.6%
6.1 lb	Total

Hops

Amount	Variety	Type	AA	Use	Time	IBU
0.6 oz	Liberty	Pellet	4	Boil	60 min	18.47
0.2 oz	Liberty	Pellet	4	Boil	0 min

Hops Summary

Amount	Variety	Type	AA
0.8 oz	Liberty	Pellet	4
0.8 oz	Total

Mash Guidelines

Amount	Description	Type	Temp	Time
3.6 gal	Strike at 165	Infusion	154 F	60 min
Starting Mash Thickness: 2.4 qt/lb

Other Ingredients

Amount	Name	Type	Use	Time
0.6 tsp	Yeast nutrient	Other	Boil	15 min.
1.2 each	Whirflock	Fining	Boil	10 min.

Yeast

Mangrove Jack - Californian Lager M54

Amount: 1 Attenuation (avg): 79.5% Flocculation: Med-High Optimum Temp: 64 - 68 °F Starter: No

Target Water Profile: Recipe: Lunatic Fringe

Ca+2	Mg+2	Na+	Cl-	SO4-2	HCO3-
150	10	80	150	160	220
Kcmo water.  1 Camden 5 g calcium chloride .5 table salt acidify to 5.6 pH before dough in.

The day began with water adjustments, like always.   We can get away with using city water for any amber to dark beer, Mash in was spot on.   The mash went as expected.  By the way, do you like our ghetto advanced mash tun?  An up coming post will show you how to make one.  We are averaging 75% mash efficiency with it on a 60 minute mash and 82.5% on a 90 Minute mash.  On this brew day we decided to do a decoction for the mash out step.  Decoctions are not strictly necessary.  But they are fun and we are among the brewers who are convinced that decoction adds a certain flavor that you just can't get from a normal brewing process.  We also enjoy some of the traditional processes.   We are guys who find brewing to be relaxing.  We don't stress out while we brew.   We have all brewed enough batches that we really know what we are doing and how to react to anything that may come our way.   On this day our mash fell by 4 degrees over 60 minutes... no big deal we'll just do a decoction.  

The boil was uneventful.   No boil over or other shenanigans to report.   A lot of you turn your brew kettle in to a magma like cauldron... boiling hard and always at full power.   To you I say... why?  You don't need to boil at full power, just above a simmer is just fine, it will still evaporate and concentrate your flavors, it will still break down proteins, and hop utilization will still be fine.  In fact there is a phenomenon called boil shock, which we will cover in a subsequent post.   It takes a while to get used to a gentle boil but once you do, you will never go back.   This beer is currently lagering.  Can't wait to try it soon.     When it is done, we will of course post updates with tasting notes.     The good news, we're back, and should be posting regularly again.   Sorry for the lapse. Up next a couple more brew days, and then we will all embark on Advanced Ghetto Brewing. 

MC2 IPA with Cargill 2 row

John and I set out to make an ipa using two of our favorite hops and some of our favorite grains... On a week night.  On a stove top.  Yup we brew small batch to.  I know you're all more accustomed to seeing us brew 10 gallons in the garage, but we enjoy brewing and stove top makes it possible to brew any night of the week.  From the time I got there till we were all cleaned up was. Just over 3 hours.   Not too shabby. And we watched basketball, and we tried some sours.  All in all a good week night.

Our goal was to make an ipa with much of the flavors we enjoy from an New England ipa, but with out the cloudy murky appearance of the same.   We wanted a flavorful malt background but The Malt would not be the star of this recipe. We chose a combination of 2 row malt,  Cara/Crystal 40 and a little bit of wheat malt. But not enough wheat malt to make it cloudy or murky. The Malt we chose was all Cargill.  

Cargill Two Row Barley is a blend of Metcalfe and Copeland Barley.   Some Maltsters want you to believe that barley from a single plant (Harrington) species is superior to a blend.  But think that through sports fans.  Harrington is a 22 year old varietal.  Newer and better grains have come along. Metcalfe and Copeland are just as enzymatic and field hardy as Harrington, but they simply taste better.  Harrington is very neutral.  No doubt Harrington is still excellent for producing lager.  But we find that the flavors from Cargill two row are superior and we continue to have fantastic conversion and extraction from the Cargill grains.  Our mash efficiency was excellent.  John got a fancy new gas stove, so we were off on our brew house efficiency, no big deal we added 1 lb of extra light dme, and we ended up with an extra .23 gallons of wort.  Our IBUs will be a little lower, but this thing is 79 IBUs and almost all of it late.   We can afford to give a little there.  The moral? These things happen your first time using new equipment.  But we are experienced and prepared, and we knew what to do.

Here's the recipe. 

Style - 21A American IPA

2.75 Gallons at 75% efficiency

1.058 OG

1.011 FG

9.67   SRM - Morey

79.49 IBUs - Raeger

The grain:

4.00 lbs  Cargill Two Row

0.25 lbs  Cargill Wheat Malt

0.25 lbs  Cargill  Cara 40

10 ounces of Cane Sugar

The Hops

.4 ounces of Columbus at 40 minutes

.5 ounces of Citra at 5 minutes

.5 ounces of Mosaic at 5 minutes

.5 ounces of Citra Whirlpool for 15 minutes starting at 180 F

.65 ounces of Mosaic Whirlpool for 15 minutes starting at 180 F

Yup thats' the super cool small
batch mash tun with a port for
stirring the wort!

.5 ounces of Citra Dry hop for 3 days

.5 ounces of Mosaic Dry hop for 3 days

Yeast 

Brew day starter of Fermentis S04 - 9 g of yeast in .5 liter of water with 50 grams of DME.  Or just rehydrate during brew day with goferm. 

Mash 

152 F for 60 minutes - stir every 15 minutes

168 F for 10 minutes - stir and let rest for 10 minutes

Ferment at 65 F for 7 days then raise to 70 F to let it finish strong.  Dry hop with 3 days to go!

Fermentis s04
100% of the time, it works
every time!

Small batch is a great way to spend an evening.  Brewing small batch gives you more variety.  Yes, you will need some different equipment, no it isn't expensive. Check back for upcoming posts on Affordable Advanced Home Brewing.  If you haven't tried Cargill, let your home brew shop know they should get some.  If you haven't used Fermentis S04 in a while, give it another try it is excellent stuff.  The dry yeast from Fermentis gives us consistent reliable performance.    

Make wine... because chicks dig it... Master Vintner Pinot Noir

Happy Big Brew Day 2018... I'll be posting about Big Brew in a subsequent post!

I know most of you come here for beer knowledge.   I know most of you love beer.  Hey, I love beer to.  I've been in this hobby for 28 years.   But this hobby is not really just the beer making hobby.  It is the fermentation hobby.  The skills you have learned making beer apply to other fermentables as well.  With the skills you have learned brewing you can make world class Bread and Pizza,  Fermented Pickles, Cheese, Cider, Mead... and Wine. 

Most of you also make Mead, and Cider... but not Wine.  And I think I know why.   Wine has a certain je ne sais quoi, an unidentifiable aura.   There are entire libraries of books dedicated to wine.   There are people who spend their entire life studying wine.  They enjoy tasting wine and smelling wine and trying to pick out the subtle flavors and aromas.  You can make a fortune, by finding words to describe wine in a way that others have never thought to say.

 If you like to try to pick out the subtle fruit flavors of a NEIPA, you would probably enjoy doing the same with a Pinot Grigio, a Pinot Noir, or a Syrah.  There are so many people who love wine, and who enjoy tasting different wines.  And there are a whole bunch of snobby idiots who think "wine love" is a symbol of refinement, achievement, and fine breeding.  They are quite simply Jerks.

Wine making and trading doesn't have to be snobby.  Making wine doesn't mean you have to join the local snooty patooties at some expensive exclusive club and argue about the merits of the 1961 Petrus vs. the 1982 Latour.    You can still be a beer guy and enjoy wine as well.  The best thing about home brew... there are no rules.   

And there is a benefit.   Chicks dig wine!  It's a fact.   Most chicks (forgive me ladies) enjoy wine more than beer.    In my scientific research (wine tastings) your SWMBO will find you significantly more attractive and even tolerable if you make some wine.  Alas, my SWMBO is gone.  It's my fault, I should have made more wine...

Over the years I have made hundreds of batches of wine and over 800 batches of beer.  I've also made some cider, and some mead, and pickles. I have made wine from fruit, and from grapes.  And it is always fun.   Making wine from grapes is a once a year thing for me.   I go to the LHBS and order 90 - 120 lbs of grapes.  I use their destemmer and crusher.   There are 30 to 40 other wine makers there, there are horderves, and loads of beer and wine to try.   The rest of the year, I make wine from Fruit (frozen berries) and from Kits.   I have used every major manufacturer.   I have settled on two manufacturers.  One by preference (Master Vintner), and one because it is what my LHBS carries (winexpert)  Both make excellent wines.   

My preferred wine Kit manufacturer is Master Vintner.  Every single wine I have made by them has been excellent.  The customer support is fantastic.  If you post a question, Tim (the curator)  will actually get back with you.   The website is great, and loaded with information.  And the prices, are much more reasonable than other manufacturers (about $70 for a basic kit). 

Now compared to most people I am an advanced wine maker.  I have the gear to test for sulfites, and acid (not pH actual acid), I have a pump and filter (somewhere in storage).  I have a large primary fermenter dedicated to wine, big mouth bubblers with spigots, and loads of glass carboys. (you don't need all this stuff it's just fun).  Compared to my sister and brother in law I am a GOD OF WINE...I am Bacchus himself.  But they wanted to learn to make wine and so, being a beneficent wine god... I agreed to teach them.  I contacted Tim at Master Vintner just looking for advice on teaching others to make wine, and he said "why don't I send you a Weekday Wine Pinot Noir. You can make it and tell me what you think."   What do I think?  Free wine and the fun of making wine... hell yeah, that's what I think.  And so the adventure began... teaching my sister and brother in law how to make wine.  I should point out that the Weekday Wines kits are only about $50 bucks.  So they are as affordable as the lesser quality kits that you see on Amazon. 

The kit arrived, we already had all the gear we needed.  But if you need gear to, they have a $99 starter kit,   The kit instructions are easy to read and very straight forward.   Much better than the others I use (although in fairness the other major producer has "reimagined" their instructions recently, and they are now much better).  

There is nothing super difficult about making wine.  It really is easier to do than extract brewing.  If you are reading this you are probably a brewer.  You already know how to be clean and sanitary.  The only difference in the production of wine is that you have to be clean and sanitary from the beginning.   Many wine makers use sulfites to sanitize, but your regular Starsan will work just fine.  Although, with wine I usually rinse it out after it does it's voodoo.

Master Vintner Kits come
with everything you need!

The next step,  Add the bentonite.  Make muddy water.   Yup, the first step in making crystal clear wine is almost always making muddy water.  Bentonite is a gray, clay powder.  It is used in wines as a clarifier. It has a negative electrostatic charge. (static electricity) This negative charge along with hydrogen bonding, causes suspended particles in the wine to cling to it as it settles to the bottom of the fermenter.

After that the process is easy.   You add the juice concentrate, fill to the specified amount with water, add your oak (sawdust), pitch your yeast, add your air lock, and wait.  That is it.   You just made wine.  

Now unlike beer you will need to rack the wine once or twice.   For making wine, I always use fermenter's with spigots.  But a sanitized auto syphon will work as well.   

The instructions tell you when to rack off of the lees (trub for you brewers).  This kit was started at 1.089, we racked the first time at 1.020.  The wine was already clearing up nicely.  Now there is one small change we made,  we wanted an off dry "young pinot" So when the wine hit 1.009 (the next night) we went ahead and stabilized it and began the degassing and clearing (fining).   But again, I am a little more advanced and I knew exactly what to do to get the result we wanted.   The kit instructions tell you to ferment it all the way out (.998) WHEN YOU ARE JUST STARTING IT IS ALWAYS BEST TO FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS.  

So I mentioned degassing.  That is one specialty piece of equipment you may need to get.  You have seen them before at your local home brew store.  You just sanitize, and attach them to a drill.   They knock the CO2 out of the wine, which helps it clear up and stabilize.  

We then waited another 2 weeks and bottled.  A corker is included in a basic kit.  I happen to have an italian floor corker, which can do wine or champagne bottles.  It is a minor investment if you make a lot of wine.  Mine was $50 bucks 20 years ago, but you can still get them for about $70.  My niece likes to make and apply labels to our wine.  She called this one "Peace out Pinot".  I call it awesome.  

Testing, recording, and
evaluating is part of
the fun!

The color is garnet to purple, it is ruby to garnet in the light fading to violet at the edge. Beautiful.  The wine would fade to a brick red if it aged, as the blue compounds denatured.  But this wine won't be aged.  Awesome aromas of berry jam (blackberry and ripe raspberry).  The flavor is also vigorous berries, balanced by a nice oak presence and good mouth feel. exactly what you want from a young Pinot Noir.  There is no chocolate or tobacco aroma or flavor in this one, but that is ok, that is what we were going for all along.   It will be perfect for sitting by the lake and watching boats go by.  

So, start making wine.  It is fun, and delicious, and it makes you a much better brewer.  The things you learn making wine apply to brewing more than you probably realize.   And remember chicks dig wine.  

Pineapple Milkshake NEIPA - Brew Night

So last night Mark Anthony and I gathered at his place to take another shot at a NEIPA.  This recipe and brewday night were informed by our past attempts including our recent hazed and confused brew session.  In our hobby learning and developing as a brewer are best informed by trial and error.  You can and probably should read about the hobby.  This and other blogs give lots of great information.  There are hundreds of books that inform you about the hobby.  Certainly, there are two really excellent magazines about it.  You can and should watch videos about brewing.  There are lots of great videos on brewing on youtube.  Some of them are actually by really excellent brewers who actually know what they are talking about.  Some of them should be avoided.  But nothing will inform you like actual experience brewing- both with success and failure.   And there is no substitute for lots and lots of practice.  Practice is the main reason I am such a fan of 2.5 - 3 gallon stove top batches.


I love this hobby.  I have for years.  And over the years, I have developed some best practices that work well for me.  Many have been learned through trial and error, many through study.  Many in my case by having a mentor who taught me so very much.

So why am I digressing about learning and experience on a brew night post?  Where the hell are the photos of the grain and wort?  Where's the freaking recipe?  Well, because we nailed the brew night last night.  It wasn't perfect, but our experience and knowledge was able to overcome the problems that we had with the brew day.

Last night we brewed a session pineapple milkshake NEIPA with centennial, citra, and mosaic.  3.3 gallon batch.  Here is the recipe.

3 gallon batch
1.048 OG    1.013 FG  ABV 4.63  IBU 47 Rager   SRM 10 Daniels  65% Efficiency

Fermentables
3 lbs 6 Row - Cargill (love this malt)
8 oz Flaked Oats - Quaker
8 oz Cane Sugar (late) - C&H
5 oz Cara 60 - Cargill
4 oz Wheat Malt -  Cargill Malted White Wheat
1/4th LB - Lactose
(the sugar from the 46 oz of pineapple sugar, for me the calculation was about 6.6 ounces of sugar)

The Hops
1 oz at 15 Centennial 10% AA
.5 oz Whirlpool CITRA 12 AA% 15 minute whirlpool starting at 175 F
.5 oz Whirlpool MOSAIC 11 AA%15 minute whirlpool starting at 175 F
.5 oz Dry hop CITRA CRYO 25.2 AA% at high krausen
.5 oz Dry hop MOSAIC CRYO 24.2% AA% at high krausen
.5 oz Dry hop CITRA CRYO 25.2 AA% days
.5 oz Dry hop MOSAIC CRYO 24.2% AA% 3 days

The yeast - Wyeast British Ale 2 1335 - why? Several friends have reported excellent results for this yeast in this style.  We are aware it is a departure from London Ale 2.  We'll report back on results. going to ferment at 66 F.

The mash - Full volume, no sparge at 153 F

The water - NEIPA profile- balance the calcium and the chlorides for us we were about CA 125 and Chloride 175.  That gives the desired "soft mouth feel".

The brew night was really relaxing and pretty much free of any major problems.  We made our water adjustments and heated the water to the strike temperature recommended by Brewersfriend.  But somehow I screwed up my settings on my equipment profile.  Rather than telling the software that I loose 7 degrees F upon mash in, I told it I loose 3 degrees F on mash in.  So we were sitting at 149 rather than 153 F.  What do you do?  Well you have a couple of options.  You can do nothing or you can bring the temperature up somehow.  With our cooler mash tun, increasing the temperature by flipping the switch is not an option.  So we did what we do when we miss; we used the calculator on brewersfriend to calculate an infusion.  And used the water that would have been for the mash out addition to bring the temperature up to the correct rest temperature.  No big deal.  We were only planning on 65% efficiency and no sparge so skipping the mash out is really not a big deal for us.  We also could have pulled a decoction, something you have seen us do many times.


Here is the point: experience and knowledge are your real tools on a brew day.  Not fancy fancy equipment.  Not your computers (although they are really important). Experience and knowledge.  And you get those by brewing... brewing a lot.

Other best practice steps we took?  Well we used a brew bag as a mash filter.  We used 1 camden tablet to remove chlorine and to scavenge off additional oxygen.  We used aluminum foil as a mash cap.  When we stirred, we stirred gently.  As you all know I am skeptical about oxygen's effect on mashing, but on the other hand I am not going to invite extra oxygen into the game.  We also bagged our hops.  There is no reason to increase hop debris in your wort.  We chilled this one in the sink with ice water.  We knew it would chill quickly with the addition of the frozen pineapple juice.   We were at pitching temperatures in 20 minutes.

And most importantly we are getting the 2.5 - 3 gallon no sparge system dialed in for upcoming contest season.  Can't wait to taste this beer.  The wort samples were amazing.

The beer is now happily fermenting at 66 F.  The beer should be ready for packaging in under a week.  It is a session beer.  So I will wait 24 hours after it reaches terminal gravity, and package immediately. 

Next Up?   John and I have something up our sleeves for this weekend.   Stay tuned.  Then in about 2 weeks I will be showing you all how to make an apple ale, easy partial mash delicious...Graff.  The LODO part 2 post is coming soon.

That's all for now brew nerds.