Bitters Brew Day

The warm days of summer seem to call for an easy drinking, low ABV beer. In addition to the Kölsch I brewed on May 25th, on the 26th I brewed a Bitter - a sort of British pale ale with firm bitterness but not a lot of hop flavor or aroma. The British malts are supposed to shine through. And, since it's a fairly low gravity ale it should be ready within a few weeks, unlike the Kölsch

Ordinary Bitter
3.25 gallons

4.812# UK Pale 2-Row
4oz Crystal 120
2oz Special Roast

.825oz Kent Goldings, 5%AA, 60 min
.25oz Kent Goldings, 5%AA, 30 min
.25oz Kent Goldings, 5%AA, 5 min

WLP002 - English Ale

Brewed on 5/26/13

Mashed at 151F for 75minutes, added mashout water and held for another 10 min. I was aiming for a mash temp of 152F. Collected 2 gal of 1st runnings. Added sparge water and collected another 2.05 gal of 2nd runnings. Got a pre-boil OG of 1.035, for about 73% efficiency. Again, better than I've usually gotten in the past. According to my calculations, this will get to a post-boil OG of 1.045 @ 3.25 gallons, which is a little higher than intended but oh well.

Got 3 gallons into the fermenter. Pitched the yeast when the beer was around 62F and placed in an area at 65F ambient. Two days later and the beer was fermenting vigorously in the 3 gallon Better Bottle. I'll leave it at room temp for another week, then transfer to the cooler basement where it is around 62F. I plan to bottle after two weeks of fermentation.

Bottled on 6/8/13, going for 1.6 volumes of CO2. Let the bottles sit in the basement, where the temp is around 63F.

Kölsch Brew Day

Summer is coming up, and although the weather is getting warmer in the Boston area the basement of my parents' house is still staying a fairly constant 60F. That's a bit too cool for most ales but a "hybrid" yeast would do well at that temperature. So, I decided to go for a Kölsch. It's a nice, easy-drinking summer beer. Brewing Classic Styles says that it should be lagered to clear the yeast, which doesn't flocculate well. I can't do lagering at this point, but the guys at the LHBS suggested using some Isinglass instead.  I'm planning to keep it in primary for 3 weeks, add Isinglass for 1 week, and then bottle.

Sorry, none of my brilliant photography for this one.

Kölsch
3.25 gallons
6.13# German Pilsner Malt
6.1oz Weyerman Vienna Malt

1oz German Hallertau, 4.1%, 70 mins

Wyeast - Kölsch

Anticipated OG/FG/IBUs: 1.052 / 1.013 / 24 IBUs

Brewed May 26, 2013

Prepped a starter, pitched around 11am. It was bubbling by about 3pm. That was fast.

Performed a 90 minute mash at 150F, added mash-out water, waited 10 mins and collected 2 gallons of first runnings. Second runnings  were another 2.3 gallons.

Pre-boild OG was 1.043 @ 4.3 gallons, about 74% efficiency. Higher than usual. Yay!

Boiled 90mins to drive off any DMS formation. Ended up with slightly less than 3 gallons after cooling, but with the starter the total volume in the fermenter was exactly 3 gallons. That's a little more wort boiled off than usual. I'm not sure why.

Pitched at 60F and placed in some cold water.

Two days later it appeared as though some krausen had formed and subsided but there was no bubbling in the airlock, I suspect because my fermenting bucket isn't what it once was and has an airleak. I really gotta get a 5-gallon BetterBottle with one of those big orange caps.

6/31/13
Bottled today, aiming for 2.6 volumes of CO2. Final gravity was 1.012, about as expected. Yay! That sample tasted OK but a bit "green."