Do it for the Yeast! Brewing an Ordinary Bitter.

New fermentor, just after pitching.
Basically open fermenting this batch

I brewed this beer on National Learn to Homebrew Day and invited some friends over. As such, this ended up being a more-social affair than brewing typically is for me, so there's no photo evidence of the actual brewing.

As I've written before, the whole point of this beer was to grow up a pack of Wyeast 1469 West Yorkshire to be able to reuse the yeast in a number of beers. The general consensus is that a smack pack doesn't have the yeast needed to properly ferment 5 gallons of most beers, so a lot of people make yeast starters. I've done that in the past, but I broke my e flask and sold my stirplate a few years ago. I don't usually mind using dry yeast--they've gotten really good--but sometimes you want something different. One lazy-ish solution is to brew a low-OG beer (this one was aiming for 1.038) and pitch the yeast from that. It's still technically under-pitching, but the yeast isn't very stressed by the experience and the beer turns out just fine in a way a bigger beer might not. Basically, you drink your starter.

The good news is that this works. As of right now, I've harvested about 200 ml of vigorous, top-cropped yeast that I'll pitch into the next beer. The krausen on this thing came back with a vengeance, even after harvesting that yeast, letting it grow back and swirling the fermenter to beat that krausen back into suspension. And, all this is with using Fermcap S. I'll probably harvest a bit more to see how much I can get, and then let it finish up. We'll see whether I've taken too much out too early, but I bet it'll be fine. My only concern is whether, in using Fermcap S instead of just letting the giant krausen from this yeast run rampant, I am selecting for a population of the yeast that is more or less floculant than I want. I'll find out in the next beer, I guess. For now, I'm happy to not have to clean out my fermentor. My last experience with this strain involved a huge mess.

Top-cropped 1469.
This compacted down to about 150 ml of clean yeast slurry.

This was my second brew using the new mashtun and improved volume tracking, and I'm very happy with how it's going.  Beersmith appears to have a cooler mashtun's number, and the beer came out right where it should have. I ended up with a bit more extract than expected (this seems to happen with little beers), so the OG was 1.039 instead of 1.038, pretty inconsequential even assuming my hydrometer is that accurate.

Third Krausen? Fourth? I've lost track. 

BeerSmith 2 Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: Ordinary Bitter (growing up yeast)
Brewer: VAD
Asst Brewer:
Style: Standard/Ordinary Bitter
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 7.77 gal
Post Boil Volume: 6.77 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.50 gal 
Bottling Volume: 5.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.038 SG
Estimated Color: 6.4 SRM
Estimated IBU: 30.9 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 82.7 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt                   Name                                                               Type          #        %/IBU       
5.00 g                Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 60.0 mins Water Agent   2        -         
2.00 g                Epsom Salt (MgSO4) (Mash 60.0 mins)        Water Agent   3        -           
1.00 g                Calcium Chloride (Mash 60.0 mins)              Water Agent   4        -           
8 lbs                 Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM)                    Grain         5        97.0 %     
4.0 oz                Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM)     Grain         6        3.0 %       
43 g                  Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 60.0        Hop           7        28.4 IBUs   
14 g                  Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 15.0        Hop           8        2.5 IBUs   
28 g                  Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 0.0          Hop           9        0.0 IBUs   
1.0 pkg               1469 West Yorkshire (Wyeast #)                    Yeast         10       -           


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 8 lbs 4.0 oz
----------------------------
Name              Description                             Step Temperat Step Time   
Mash In           Add 3.4 gal of water at 161.3 F         152.0 F       60 min     

Sparge: Batch sparge with 2 steps (1.74gal, 4.14gal) of 168.0 F water
Notes:
------


Created with BeerSmith 2 - http://www.beersmith.com
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Tasting Broke Okra IPA

This one is going fast, so I think I need to get the tasting notes down before it's too late. As much as I profess to be an acolyte of malt, there is something about a well-done IPA that is undeniable. My plan on the brew day was to make an APA, but when I overshot the gravity and went into IPA territory, the only reasonable thing to do was load up on the hops.

It's possible I need to work on my beer photography skills. 

Appearance -  Okay, this I'm truly proud of. Despite 4 ounces of dry hops, this beer turned out to be absolutely crystal clear. To the point that I ended up texting pictures to people of text through the glass. Nothing darker than victory malt (around 8%) so it turned out a nice pale gold.  The head on this thing is just silly, persistent, meringue-like. 

Aroma - This smells great!  There's a citrus fruity floral thing with undertones of pine and danky funk that I can't help but ascribe to the Cascade and Chinook, respectively.  That said, one of the fruitiest hop notes I've ever gotten was from a 100% Chinook beer where the dry hops went in at high krausen, much like this beer. There's also a just-there bit of maltiness that I imagine comes from the biscuit and victory malts.

Mouthfeel and Flavor - Despite finishing dry (certainly dryer than Beersmith expected), this beer has a substantial mouthfeel. The first flavor on tasting is straight citrusy hops with a bracing bitterness. The bitterness is lingering and would be too much, except for a malty sweet backbone that doesn't quite balance it out, but makes it pleasant.  

Still life with microwave warranty through IPA.

Notes - A nicely-done, west-coast-style IPA in the mold of a lot of what we were (or at least I was) drinking ca. 2010, when the likes of Pliny and Firestone Walker filtered in to my consciousness. It finished super dry and clean, so it drinks very easy, which is a little scary at 6.8% abv. My only thought is that I might want to make it dryer and scarier with a touch of sugar to dry it out. The hop combo is classic early microbrew (in a good way). One thing I love about Chinook and Cascade is that you can make a beer with a ton of hops, and it doesn't cost a fortune. That said, it might be worth it to play around with varieties that have come out in the last 20 years (the Mrs., hophead that she is, is partial to Simcoe).

More considerations on Recipe Formulation

First-generation top-cropped Wyeast 1469.
This is about 8 ounces. So fresh and so clean!

In my last post on formulation, I gave a recipe for the next beer I'd planned, a standard-strength bitter that I was brewing, at least in part, to grow up some yeast. I'd ordered a 10 lb bag of Golden Promise, but that was going to make just too big a beer, both for what I wanted on tap and for the purpose of growing up a big batch of really healthy yeast without the need for a starter.

In the interim, I thought about the issue and did a little research. I saw that Amazon had a vacuum sealer on sale for less than $20, saw that at least one online homebrew retailer will sell you grain by the ounce and milled and packaged by recipe, and read an interesting Brulosophy experiment showing most folks can't tell whether beer is made from grain milled months before brewing (my own experience bears this out as well, as I restarted my recent brewing kick by using 2-year old milled malt to make a decent ESB).

So, I bought that vacuum sealer and made a lovely bitter at the gravity I wanted, for both chugging and yeast-farming reasons. I sealed up the spare grain in a bag and have ordered ingredients for the next five (free shipping, y'all!) batches, all with non-standard amounts of base malt. 

Lancaster County, PA

I recently spent a week up in Lancaster, County PA for my thirteenth anniversary, where the Mrs. and I managed a couple of pints. We stayed in a nice little B&B in Ephreta that had a small brewery attached, spent Saturday in Lititz before coming back to Ephreta for the evening, and then spent the morning and had lunch in Lancaster on Sunday before heading home to pick up the kids and rejoin the rat race.  Here's a quick review of the pubs and breweries, in order of the amount of time we spent in each (a rough proxy of quality).

Regulars at Black Forest. This was unexpected.

Black Forest Brewery
We got in to Ephreta just before closing time, so we slipped into the brewery attached to our B&B before checking in (the number one reason we spent so much time here). It's a super-cosy bar, supposedly modeled on a Bavarian hunting lodge, that always seemed to have a couple of regulars (good sign in my mind). While the I found the beer quality variable, I didn't mind too much given the convenience to our room and the fact that their best beers were some of our favorite styles. The Mrs. enjoyed their solid APA, while I enjoyed the excellent brown ale. A pint of each was a nice introduction to the property, and we went to bed early.  The next evening we were back and tried some more, including getting a tasting flight.  The very popular NEIPA wasn't bad. I thought the amber and kolsch were good, but not enough to forego getting the brown for my full pint after the flight. The standard IPA didn't have much going on (I'm guessing age or oxidation or both knocked out the aroma and flavor).

Honesty compels me to state that, at one point they put on an Octoberfest that was...well, something was wrong with that one. So, some good beer, some decent beer, some not-so-great beer, one dumpster fire, and a very excellent brown. There would be worse fates than to have this as your local.  You could pretend you were at a microbrewery in 2005 and enjoy the well-made beer while avoiding the bad ones, but you'd hope they'd get their quality control in hand before they went under. 

Bull's Head Public House

Like a moth to flame.

If I'd known about this place, I might have gone out of my way to spend so much of our only completely free day there. As it was, Providence ensured that we ended up doing just that. Super cozy with a legitimate pub setup, complete with separate rooms, from rough and ready at the bar, to chintz-and-carpet, to some place that focused on wine that I didn't mess with.  With all the tasting rooms stapled onto the side of industrial spaces these days, the atmosphere was strikingly pleasant. If I were in the area again, and wanted to stay in a smaller town, the attached General Sutton Hotel would be a top choice. Sure, it was contrived, but at some point if contrived is done well enough, it's just well done.

Amazing Cricket Hill APA in cask was the best pint of the trip. One of only a few Cask Marque pubs in the country (a visit here gets you 33% of Cask Marque pubs in the states, I think). Also had Timmermans Oud Gueze, which was perfectly kept, and a few tastes besides.

They have two casks and about a dozen rotating taps, organized by style. That's small for the amount of volume they are doing, so the kegs are fresh. They actually kicked a couple of kegs and changed the list while we were there on more than one of the taps, so I wonder if they weren't using sixtels for the less-popular styles to keep things from going stale. There's a wall of cicerone certs and the staff  is obsessed with beer. Amazing. Not joking, I signed up for a Yelp account to give them five stars. I found out when I looked them up to write this that I'm not the only one to think this.

Best, most-knowledgeable service of the trip. Wonder why?

Besides the beer, I had a solid helping of bangers and mash. The gravy was perfect, and the sausages were very well made, clearly not just some cheap sausages thrown on instant potatoes (not that I would turn my nose up at cheap sausages, but instant potatoes are the devil's work). My wife has several food allergies, and they went out of their way to find something that would work for her (turns out, pork pies are dairy and egg free). 

Simply amazing experience. My only complaint is that it's a 3-hour drive from my front door, so it'll have to be a seasonal experience.

Lancaster Brewing Company
So, peanut butter pale ale shouldn't taste good, right? Right? Why...what...why is this so good? The Shoofly Porter (presumably that buttery taste was molasses, as in the classic Shoofly Pie) was also...damn it all...excellent. If you don't spend your time wallowing in the homebrew-style experimental beers that are so well-balanced they make you question your otherwise firmly-held prejudices, you can also enjoy some quality American bar food and more-classic styles. Oh, and unless you specify something smaller, you're getting a 20 ounce Imperial Pint, like the good Lord intended.

I sorely wish I'd had a full day to spend here.  This was the last place we hit, and I was surprised to find Lancaster to be city-like, rather than small town, and I wished we'd had more time to explore. If I were to visit the area again and wanted a city vibe, a hotel nearby would be in top contention. Google maps tells me there are a number of smaller breweries that appear to all be in walking distance of downtown....hmmmmm.

St. Boniface.
So, a number of folks recommended this brewery in Ephreta, but I'm not going to. I enjoyed the Wynfred, a very tasty dark mild clocking in at 3.2% abv that's a year-round offering. So many more places need to have a well-done, roasty sub-4% crusher on hand at all times that I want to say "go there," but the spot just lacks charm.  Packed to the gills tasting room in an industrial spot, one cashier, no table service. The big pretzels were good, too. Shame. Didn't stick around for any more beer, but I hear they're quite good. To be fair, we were coming back from the Bulls Head, so the difference was shocking and I was on an anniversary trip where ambiance mattered. Romance is important, damn it. If it were more comfortable, I'd have stuck around, as the beer was good. Instead, I sucked back my Wynfred and shoveled in the pretzels as fast as possible and went back to the Black Forest to drink more of their brown and American Pale in comfort.

JoBoys
Whoa boy. Service here was ... not great. I walked up to the bar after seeing they had a cask of dark mild, and the bartender's response was "want to try it? I don't know what that is." What it was was completely flat. I don't mean American-who-expects-keg-beer-and-thinks-cask-beer-is-flat-flat. I mean completely still.  It's a shame, as I could tell the beer had promise, otherwise. After that, I got taster portions of the stout (thin and tart), porter (meh), and baltic porter (also thin...overcarbonated and cold, but also just not that well done). I'm glad I didn't try the barbecue, because there are only so many traditions a man can see butchered in one, 20-minute sitting. The only good thing about this place was that my lovely wife suggested we go to that pub with the Bull's Head sign down the way afterwards. 

Considerations on Recipe Formulation: House Bitter

The beers I brew the most are English Bitters. Looking back, I summed up my feelings about these beers in an earlier post:

To me, English pales (or British bitters, whatever) are the platonic ideal of beer.  This is my white-can-with-the-word-beer-stenciled-in-black-spray-paint beer, the beer that weaned me off the macro-lagers of my misbegotten youth, the house beer at my house beer.  There's not much better—doesn't matter if it's hot, cold, wet, dry, with food, or just a lonely pint—than an easy-drinking, well-balanced English Pale (although its Irish, Scots, and American cousins all come pretty darned close).

Platonic ideal.  As such, I've played around with my house bitter a lot. I've enjoyed the more-complicated recipes, such as the one in Jamil Z's classic styles book, but not as much as simpler recipes: base malt, crystal malt, nice hops, nice yeast. Real talk: I don't think I like the flavor of special roast. I think I like a beer that tastes like the one (good) malt and, often, the one hop and the one yeast. I'm intrigued by Rob Pattinson's recipes--especially that 1945 Tetley's bitter recipe--and I appreciate that some sugar can keep thinks drinkable, but I really can't be bothered to make invert no. 2 at the moment (it's totally on the list--maybe when it's hot out again). As much as I enjoy getting deep into the process, part of the joy of a bitter is that it can be as simple to brew as it is to drink.

Now that I no longer live around the corner from an excellent, or any, homebrew shop, I also need to take provisioning into consideration.  MoreBeer sells 10 pound sacks of pre-crushed base malts with free shipping, including Golden Promise and Maris Otter.  They also sell one-pound packs of EKG, Fuggles, and Willamette pellets and one-pound packs of pre-crushed UK crystal malts.  And the ingredients for four batches are generally enough to carry you across the free-shipping line.  So, I tend to brew all beers with about 10 pounds of base malt and 4 oz of crystal and 2-4 oz of hops--on my systems, that's generally right at the line of a big best bitter, or smallish ESB, which is just fine by me. I'm also fine with this method of determining my OG--who wants to have an odd bit of grain in a bag going slack, when they could just have a bigger beer?  I know for a fact that a number of great breweries never vary from 55 lb increments for the same reason. Given this situation, I know it makes sense to get a mill and start buying sacks (and that's in the plans) but for now it works.

With no LHBS, I've also been relying on dry yeast, like S04, but it's not my favorite. In fact, I prefer US-05, even in an "English"beer, as there's just something about S04 that I don't like. But now it's winter, when yeasts can better survive their travels through the mails, so I can start using liquid yeasts  again, and this year I'm planning to re-pitch more from prior batches (and maybe even do some yeast banking). I want to have my favorites on hand, and I'm deeply intrigued by the idea of brewing an English-style pale with some of these Norweigian Kveik strains during the warm, summer months.  For the moment, I've got a smack-pack of Wyeast 1469, their excellent Timothy Taylor strain that I've really enjoyed in the past (so long as there's enough head space in your fermenter).

So there it is. My ode to a subsistence brewer. My next beer. A recipe based at least as much on household economy (if not laziness) as on any notion of what the beer should be: 10 lbs of Golden Promise. 4 oz of Baird's dark crystal. Two or three boil additions of EKG. Pitch the smack pack, and accept that it's underpitching for the sake of using the cake going forward for the next three batches. I'm expecting Boltmaker writ large.

And it will be beer. 

Tasting the Ryed Irish Stout

Goodness, but I do love a good stout. I like them intense and heavy and sweet and even barrel-aged as much as anyone does, but I LOVE them dry and roasty and sessionable.  

A few weeks ago, I brewed what will probably be my last BIAB batch for a while, using a recipe for a Ryed Irish Stout adapted from Michael Dawson's Mashmaker book. It's a fun book, and Dawson has given a lot to us for free over the years, so get the book for the details and some decent writing (this fanboy got the signed copy!).  But, it's not giving away too much to say that the recipe is a classic dry Irish stout with flaked rye subbed in for the flaked barley (my percentages worked out to about 70% MCI Stout Malt, 20% Flaked Rye, and 10% Roasted Barley,  aiming for 1.044 OG, bittered to about 40 IBU with a single charge of East Kent Goldings, and pitched some rehydrated US-05 fermented at the cooler end of its range). 

Still life with stout on
Scandinavian-Themed Countertop.

Appearance - Black. Opaque. Like one of the more-famous marks for the style, you can tell in a strong light at the edges of the glass that it's actually a sort of intense reddish brown, but anything more than a quarter inch, it's black.  The head on this thing is also silly, with a thick beta-glucan-inspired meringue that reminds me of the ice-cream-and-soda foam on top of a rootbeer float.  

Aroma - It's got a nice clean, beery aroma that...wait, what is that? Just at the edge of perception, there's just the barest hint of that elusive-but-unmistakeable rye aroma (can something be elusive and unmistakable? Is that a thing? Is this beer gaslighting me?).  Once it warms up, the smell is definitely there, but still hard for me to describe, like an earthy, well-baked loaf of bread.  

Mouthfeel and Flavor - When straight out of the tap (where I've got the pressure too high and the temperature too low), this is pleasantly dry and roasty, with just the barest hint that something is different from the standard Guinness clone.  When it warms up  and the carbonation has dissipated, the slick, smooth mouthfeel from all that flaked rye really comes through, and the roast becomes a little less coffee and more chocolate.  Oh, and you really start to get the rye flavor. How do you describe rye in a beer?  I've heard "spicy" but to me it's earthy, tending to almost herbal.  Definitely reminds me of bread I've made with a lot of rye, but also with a flavor that reminds me of both mint and wintergreen, but without really being minty, if that makes sense. I guess it tastes like rye?  It's been years since my last rye stout, and I don't have the best palate, but the flavor was immediately familiar.  

Notes - Love this, especially when I manage to serve it at decent cellar temps, where it comes out chocolately and earthy and complex, with a satisfying creamy mouthfeel, but still dry enough to put down quite a few pints in a sitting. I like how the US-05 let the malt come through on its own terms, but in future I would definitely consider a more expressive yeast. While I'm at it, perhaps a more-complex malt bill and hopping schedule...but would it really be a dry Irish stout at that point?

Brewing Broke Okra APA...er...IPA?

I brewed the first batch of beer on my new cooler MLT, and it was a complete joy.  Batch sparging came back to me like riding a bicycle (a bit wobbly, but got there!), and I believe my efficiency woes may be over.  While my plan was to brew an American pale ale, based on an expected efficiency of around 65%, I ended up well in IPA range with 74% efficiency. The upshot is that my 1.056 APA ended up being a 1.063 IPA. Honestly, I don't think the beer will be so very different, as it was a bit strong for an APA and it's low to middlin' for an IPA, but I'm thrilled that it's once again a snap to get my extract.

Used the stove for my strike water to save on propane. 

One thing I used to hate about batch sparging before was cleaning the mash tun, but that was for 10-gallon batches.  The grist for a 5-gallon batch isn't that heavy. I even moved it around during the mash without much trouble. Dumping the spent grain on the compost heap and spraying it out took less than 5 minutes.

Now, there may be a few other explanations for this high efficiency.  One is that I used double-milled grain meant for a BIAB batch, so I may not be able to expect above 70% with regular milled grain.  That would be fine, as I had a bit of a slow, if not quite stuck, sparge.  Two is that this recipe is for a very pale beer, and the only pale beer I made using the BIAB setup had a similar efficiency.  My water is very soft, so this may be a chemistry issue.  I'm looking forward to brewing a few more times to see if I can get a predictable efficiency from this system.

This is also my first time using a hop stand.  Most of the hops went in at flameout, and then I let them sit for 30 minutes without chilling.  I'm hoping I got some bitterness and good aroma out of that addition, or this may be a fairly boring beer.

UPDATE: I went ahead and dry hopped this with 2 ounces each of Cascade and Chinook. It turned out lovely. Recipe below. Tasting notes here.

BeerSmith 2 Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: Broke Okra APA...er...IPA
Brewer: V.A. Dongarra
Asst Brewer:
Style: American IPA
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 7.77 gal
Post Boil Volume: 6.77 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.50 gal 
Bottling Volume: 5.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.062 SG
Estimated Color: 6.5 SRM
Estimated IBU: 51.3 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 73.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 86.3 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU       
5.00 g               Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate)     
2.00 g               Calcium Chloride           
11 lbs               Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)            Grain         4        84.6 %     
1 lbs                 Munich Malt (9.0 SRM)                           Grain         5        7.7 %       
1 lbs                 Victory Malt (25.0 SRM)                         Grain         6        7.7 %       
14 g                  Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min            Hop           7        10.3 IBUs   
14 g                  Chinook [11.60 %] - Boil 60.0 min          Hop           8        21.7 IBUs   
0.50 Items        Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins)            Fining        9        -           
43 g                  Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 10.0 min            Hop           10       6.2 IBUs   
43 g                  Chinook [11.60 %] - Boil 10.0 min          Hop           11       13.0 IBUs   
1.0 pkg             Safale American  (DCL/Fermentis #US-05)  Yeast         12       -           
56 g                  Cascade [5.50 %] - Dry Hop 7 Days        Hop           13       0.0 IBUs   
56 g                  Chinook [13.00 %] - Dry Hop 7 Days     Hop           14       0.0 IBUs   


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 13 lbs
----------------------------
Name              Description                             Step Temperat Step Time   
Mash In           Add 4.6 gal of water at 162.4 F         152.0 F       60 min     

Sparge: Batch sparge with 2 steps (1.13gal, 4.14gal) of 168.0 F water
Notes:
------
Decided to move all of the late hops to the end for a hop stand.  Just to see.  Dropped in everything but the first addition at flameout, propped the lid on-ish (tilted up to let steam out and bugs in, I guess, and set a timer for 25 minutes to see how this works. Stirred once about half way through to get a whirlpool rolling.

Used double crushed grain meant for BIAB in my new cooler MLT.  First runnings were 4 gallons of 1.070. Second runnings were 3.5 gallons of 1.030.  Ended up getting 1.046 starting runnings, which was about what my OG was supposed to be.  Calculated at 65%, but got around 73% efficiency.  Just going to go from calling it an APA and call it an IPA.  Hope there are enough hops in there!

Dry hopped onto a gigantic, clean looking krausen at 4 days into fermentation.  Left it for the remaining time. Cold crashed after 12 days, kegged right at two weeks from brew day.

Fined with 1/2 tsp of gelatin, came out crystal, read-the-paper-though-it clear.

Created with BeerSmith 2 - http://www.beersmith.com
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