Schwarzbier Brewday

I finally got a chest freezer for making lagers and generally controlling the temp of my beers. For an automatic thermostat, I got an STC-1000 which is awesome enough as it is, but a guy in the local homebrew club flashed it with the STC-1000+ ROM. That free upgrade allows you to program the STC-1000 plus with up to 9 fermentation profiles, which can each have their own series of temperature points and associated durations. Apparently one would normally have to pay $200+ for a commercially produced controller with those features.

In any case, for my first lager I decided to brew a 5-gallon batch of Schwarzbier following the recipe of p. 81 of Brewing Classic Styles.

German Schwarzbier
5 gallons
9# German Pils
1# German Munich
11oz Carafa Special II

Hallertau, 1.65oz, 4.0%, 60min
Hallertau, 0.5oz, 4.0%, 60min
Hallertau, 0.5oz, 4.0%, 60min (ended up adding .85 oz at flameout because I didn't want any leftover Hallertau hops).

Mash at 151F, boil 90 mins.

WLP830 - German Lager

Made a large yeast starter on 11/5/14.

Brewed 11/8/14 at a friends house. Didn't really check the OG etc.... but I believe I did get the right volume.

When the boiled wort was chilled to around 100F, I siphoned to a 6-gallon carboy and placed in the 45F fridge.

The next morning, the fridge and beer were at 55F. Pitched the whole starter, shook the carboy to aerate a little bit, then let it ferment.

Fermentation profile programmed into the SCT-1000+ is 2 weeks at 50F, ramp to 60F over 1 day, hold at 60F 2 days, ramp down to 50, hold for a day, then ramp to 35F and hold there.

By the afternoon of 11/11, there was a nice krausen and bubbling, By 11/16 it seemed to be at high krausen. Still bubbling and a bit of krausen on 11/19.

It doesn't smell like ale fermentation.... a little harsh. But we'll see how it ends up.

Transferred to secondary on 12/4/14, after the beer had entered the lagering period at 35F.

Bottled on 1/3/15, using table sugar as a priming solution. I will wait a bit longer before popping the first bottle, since I hear lager yeast takes longer to carbonate.



 

Brett IPA #2 Review

So I finally brewed the same beer twice. Well, almost. This recipe had only one difference from the previous version, which was the addition of the Acid Malt. But the process was slightly different too, since I let the primary fermentation go for two weeks instead of one before adding the dry hops. Let's see if it makes a substantial different in the results…..


Appearance: Golden-orange, hazy with Brett yeast. Solid white head that leaves good lacing around the glass.

Aroma: Bright with hops. Fruity like mangoes or so, but with a dank side too.

Taste: Similar to the aroma: fruity, tropical juicy, but with a solid bitterness. To me it tastes a little more bitter than the last one.

Mouthfeel: Carbonation is on the higher end of moderate. Definitely not as highly carbed as my first Brett IPA. The body is not spritzy but still light.

Overall:Very good. My brother said it tasted like a commercial-quality IPA. I'm not sure if the acid malt made any difference compared to previous batch, but I definitely do detect the lower carbonation in this one. I think for next time a carbonation level around 2.5 would be better, as would a slight reduction in the IBUs. Not sure the acid malt added anything that I can detect.

I think I prefer the previous batch, which I believe benefitted from the lighter body and the slightly lower bitterness.