Category: homebrewing

Summer spiced

stoutmakerLeave a comment

I have already seen the complaining about beers being released too early for their season. I dont care about that. Irish Stout in Sept? Right on. Oktoberfest in June? Yes please. And my favorite summer beer of all…? Pumpkin Spiced!

Being nearly out of the 2019 spiced beer I needed to get a batch up before the real heat of August arrives. So I dug up my regular Amber Ale recipe and tweeked down the bitterness a tad and proceeded to brew this years batch at last months brew club meet.

8lbs Maris otter
1/2 lb 40L
1/2 lb 60L
1 oz Black Pat
1oz Hallertau @60
1 oz Saaz @ 10
2 TBS Tone’s Pumpkin Spice
Mash 152 Nottingham Yeast

Now I did call this a pumpkin spiced beer, and I used Tone’s. This blend is pretty tame and balanced,, but you could of course add more of any of the single spices,, like.. cloves. (Everything needs more cloves)

But, I could have called this an actual pumpkin beer.

While pumpkins them selves are on short supply this time of year, pumpkin flowers are not! The one pictured above was more than a foot across when I cut it and threw it in the mash,, so technically I used pumpkin.

Well its already fermented and kegged and is awaiting an the next opening in the fridge,, which should be today or tomorrow.

Stretching ingredients

stoutmakerLeave a comment

Even in the current crisis, us brewers are gonna brew. Or at least want to brew. Brew shops are busy, (if they are open) but I have just seen notifications from some manufacturers saying they will be shutting down for a while.

I don’t think it’s gonna be complete mayhem to the hobby, but a bit of long-range planning might be a good idea.

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There was a bit of talk about a hop “shortage” last year because of droughts, floods and fires. But those predicted shortages were mostly for specific varieties. So substituting might be in our future. Remember about 15 years ago during the last major hop shortage? Brewing didn’t stop. It just changed a little. So, yea, I’ll probably go back to brewing the Irish and other low hopped beers. Stretch out my supply a little.

But if there is a “good thing” this time around, it’s the fact that there are many times more varieties of high alpha hops around compared to the last time hops went scarce. Less overall volumes of hops needed to get IBUs up when you need a fix. Plus is far easier and cheaper now to find those pound bags.

Grain is easy to store, (pretty much what grain is meant to do… sit there and wait) a 50lb bag easily makes 8-9 batches of mid strength 4-5% beers. A few more if you throw some adjuncts in. Buying grain in bulk has always been the best way to go to save money. A clean cooler or a couple of buckets with lids is all you really need to store grain.

Yeast seems to be the one that is the most time sensitive… But it doesn’t have to be. Re-pitching is an option. Get your next batch ready to go the same day as you bottle or keg. After racking the first beer off the cake, use a scoop or two of it in the next batch or batches.

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A longer-term yeast option is “washing” it. (click here for a better look at it) After you rack the beer off the cake, you then take that yeast cake and separate the live yeast from the other gunk. That separated yeast can then be stored in the fridge for months. Several batches of yeast can be made from one cake. Just starter them up and pitch as normal.

Just a couple of ways to stretch your ingredients out a bit if things get a bit limited.

I’ll be posting some of my ingredient stretching brews soon.

 

Stay tuned.

The Dirty Yeast

stoutmaker

Took advantage of the weird winter warm up here in Green Bay. This time of year my basement is usually around 45F. Which is a bit too cold for a good lager ferment. But this winter it’s been sitting at 52. Perfect.

So, from a followers suggestion I brewed up a Kolsch. It was a good choice for a couple reasons. First was the temps. I could still brew while my heat box was full. Second because I am currently on a SmasH beer kick and third because I can use this beer for the Germanfest contest in Milwaukee.

Very simple recipe here.

  • 8lbs pilsner
  • 1oz Mt Hood
  • S-33 yeast

I have used the S-33 yeast before, but do not remember it being as “dirty” as this.

This is over week later after pitch. But I’m not worried about it at all. I’ve seen much much dirtier looking yeast. (Like the Kveik. That looked like I fermented a mud wrestling pit)

It will clear. You can tell from the second pic that it already is. Look at the bottom half compared to the top half. I will give it a 2 more weeks to drop and then get it moved to keg. Once in keg it’s easier to move to warm and back to the fridge to condition.

Next week I will be doing a some work on the wine side of things. And maybe another Mead?? I dunno.

Stay tuned.