Punch 'n' gro

I activated a 'smack-pack' of Wyeast Kölsch this morning and put it in the hall closet to swell up. I expect it will be ready by Wednesday when I can pitch it into a starter. I'd like to brew with it on Friday.


a.d. VI Id. Nov.

MPA to the fridge

Temperature in the main fermenting room held a steady 68-70 ºF for most of a week then dropped to 66 ºF over the last few days. Mark's Pale Ale should be properly conditoned by this point, so I've moved both kegs to the refrigerator at 36 ºF. I'll tap one in a week or so--check back.


Prid. Non. Nov.

Mark's Pale Ale

MPA was siphoned from the carboy today, primed with 100 grams of dextrose, and racked into two 2-1/2 gallon kegs. The beer was thick with yeast--the 1338 does not flocculate and settle very well. The fermentation stayed at 68-70 ºF, but I could detect some potent, floral aromatics which I assume are esters--this strain is known for that. They'll get reduced, I expect, in the lagering to come. It was a messy operation and the carboy required a fair bit of cleaning. I always forget that these "Continental" ale varieties are so messy. Now I remember why I like those clean Safale products! The 1338 is supposed to have an interesting flavor profile, unlike the more neutral ones I usually use, so we'll see. Plus I can't resist the 7 Bridges bargain bin!

Pilot Brew Weekend

After a layoff of several months I finally got things cranked up this weekend for the fall and winter brewing to come. Yesterday I played with my new toy--well, my second new toy (see below)--the Barley Crusher Malt Mill! Other than failing to secure the grain hopper, and knocking it over (along with a couple of pounds of uncrushed malt), it worked beautifully. I crushed up 5 kg of Gambrinus Organic Pilsner Malt without much effort. I got a full sack (25 kg) of this British Columbia-grown base malt from 7 Bridges. I weighed out some hops as well, 1/2-ounce of Belgian Admiral whole hops for bittering, and two 1/2-ounce doses of whole New Zealand Hallertaur for flavoring. I like to have things all laid out for the brew day--it saves time and I can cope better with unexpected events. That was a good thing today as the temperature probe I use to keep track of the mash stopped working in mid-brew. Not good. And I missed my strike temperature and had things a few degrees below where I wanted. I grabbed the hotplate and the 10-quart pot and drew off a gallon of the mash and brought it to boiling like in a decoction. I threw that back in the cooler with the rest of the goods and that seemed to do the trick. I got a decent final gravity of 13 ºPlato (ºBrix on my refractometer!) for the 5 gallons that went to the fermenter. With some 60 ºL Great Western Crystal and a touch of 140 ºL Briess Extra Special Malt, I'm shooting for a pale ale. I have to say I really like using the refractometer and not having to mess with hydrometers and cylinders and all that. I pitched a pack of Wyeast European Ale (1338) which ought to add some interesting character. Clean-up went smoothly, it always does when the weather is nice (and today was spectacular), and I'm feeling good about my first "exhibition game." I'm now ready for the "regular season." Mark's Pale Ale should be ready to drink by my 50th birthday.

The brewing season is nigh

I recently purchased a cool, new gadget for the brewery: a refractometer. This one (from William's) measures sugar content from 0-32 Brix. I hope it will help me keep better track of the mash run-off. I don't get anywhere near the yields I think I ought to so I need to get a better look at the process. I know I should take a little more time with the dough-in, and I could probably improve mash efficiency with more uniform mash temperatures as well. But I don't really need an excuse to get a new instrument for the lab. These things work on refraction--the higher the concentration of sugar in the solution the more the light bends. This is a regular phenomena and a measurment scale can be calibrated empirically. The Brix scale goes back to the 1800s and is an improvement on the original tables of the German chemist Karl Balling. The scale reports "% sucrose per 100 grams of solution," that is, a solution of 15 g of sucrose in 85 grams of water (100 g total) would read 15 ºBx. Beer wort is not sucrose, of course, but the malt sugars behave similarly--their concentration determines the refractive index of the solution. So a brewer can put a drop of wort on the lens (the angled part on the right side of the photo) and look through the eyepiece (on the left, with the rubber cup), and get a reading. You need to be outdoors in bright sunlight. A dark/light boundary will form on the scale marking the degrees Brix. Mine is a low-cost, made in China device, but it will be accurate (+/- 0.2%) enough for my fairly rough purposes. Stay tuned--cool weather is on the way and FSB will be back up for the fall.


a.d. VIII Id. Sep.