Finally got to brew and bottle

[monsteroyd]

Hey,

I've been lurking but not posting because things have been pretty busy at work and at home. But this last Sunday I put life aside and said "I am doing brewery stuff this weekend"

So my basement is a little brew pub kind of thing, not really but it's fun. Anyway I had an LBK of my famous Pink Saison to bottle, and another of Plain Ole Pilsner. So I got those 2 bottled, but decided that my carbonation is too high at 1 3/4 tsp sugar per liter bottle (3.5 sugar cubes), so I went with 3 cubes to each bottle to see how that works.

The Pink Saison was, well, Pink. Its just a Blonde ale (2.34 lbs golden dme+ 3oz maltodextrin) with 1/4 lb of steeped red hibiscus flowers and good old Belle Saison yeast with a german noble Herburker I think boiled for maybe 10 minutes. The sample tasted great with a nice hibiscus tart flavor. However lately I have been doing them in the fermentation chamber at about 65F and you get a nice mild saison (more like a dupont). The other batch was 2.34 lbs pilsner dme and Nottingham yeast and Tetnanger. Should be a nice session lawn mower type beer.

Then I started another batch a boiling, 2.34 lbs dme, 3 oz malto-dextrin, and 1oz Tetnanger for 15 minutes and then some BRY-97 lallemand yeast. Rehydrated as per the instructions, and placed in 'The Fermentator'. That I call 'West Coast Blonde' (hey the names are better than the old blonde ale 23)

After that I decided to get to work on a special request. I have a couple of friends of mine that like my beer, I think cause I keep the IBU's down. Anyway they both independently asked for a stout. So I steeped 6 oz roasted Barley with 1 lb of Carared (all I had) for about a half hour in a gallon of 160F water in a cooler and got 1 gallon of very dark juice, added 2.34 lbs dme, 3 oz malto, and 1.5 oz of Belma for 10 minutes for ~40 IBU. Kind of high, but it was a dark wort, so I have high hopes. That went in to 'The Fermentator' as well. Called 'Simple Stout' but may turn out as 'Possibly Porter'

I hope to post more as work seems to calm down a bit. I'm just an extract guy, but I make some pretty good beer according to me.

Bottling 2 LBKs and making 2 LBKs took about 4.5 hours yesterday.

Monty

[John Sand]

I think it was time well spent. I'm impressed how much you accomplished. I used 4 hours making a BIAB 3 gallon APA last week. I was glad to get it done, need it for a meeting next month. I had been delaying it due to back pain. I have an extract IPA in my near future.

[mashani]

I've never made a pink saison, but how could that not be awesome?!

[BlackDuck]

Yea really...that Pink Saison does sound good. Where did you get the Hibuscus flower from and how exactly did you go about using them?

[monsteroyd]

The hibiscus flowers I think I got them through Amazon. They are just dried red hibiscus flowers. They are used for tea (and have more antioxidants than green tea by the way, a lot more) I just steeped 6oz like I would any cara-pils or whatever. Makes a very red juice, then put in the boil just like steeped grain juice. Very simple, tasty, and well, pink

Monty

[monsteroyd]

I think it was time well spent. I'm impressed how much you accomplished. I used 4 hours making a BIAB 3 gallon APA last week. I was glad to get it done, need it for a meeting next month. I had been delaying it due to back pain. I have an extract IPA in my near future.

Yeah but you did a mash, I did not mash anything. I buy pre-mashed malt power

Also my boils are just a gallon and I only do short hop boils as I like low ibu beers. so 5% AA hops for 10 minutes in 1 gal of water and 1 pound of dme, gives like 25 IBU or so (I'd need BeerSmith to know exactly) So I can do a complete boil to LBK in like about 60-90 minutes (depending on how much beer I drink) cause no mash and no 1 hour boil.

Monty

[BlackDuck]

Thanks....since I do all grain recipes, I wonder if you would get the same effect if the flowers are put in the mash. I don't see why not.

[monsteroyd]

Thanks....since I do all grain recipes, I wonder if you would get the same effect if the flowers are put in the mash. I don't see why not.

I would think it would be the same. Except for the spent grain being pink

Monty

[mashani]

You don't need or want a lot of IBUs with Bella anyways, it's plenty dry/tart when it ferments out to 1.003 or < regardless. And that hibiscus adds some tartness to I'm sure. So sounds like a good plan. I like to do short/untraditional hop boils myself whenever possible. I get good results. There are some styles you just can't do that in and get "correct" results, so it just depends on how "correct" I want to be. But saisons are hard to make "incorrectly" as they are all over the map, so your good to go.

[monsteroyd]

I agree. I've been doing the short boils now since I went extract/pm (away from HMEs), and have had great results. makes for a quick batch too. I think this is about the only clear advantage of extract over AG, you don't need the 1 hr boil to get rid of dms etc. DME has already had the one hr boil. Anyway, this is let's see at least the third hibiscus Saison. Next one will be Orange, standard blonde ale with 1 can of frozen orange juice for sugar and Belle Saison. That's real good too.

Monty

[jimjohson]

I've been doing the short boils now since I went extract/pm DME has already had the one hr boil.

Don't the PM still needs an hour boil? It has not had the dms driven off.

[monsteroyd]

I've been doing the short boils now since I went extract/pm DME has already had the one hr boil.

Don't the PM still needs an hour boil? It has not had the dms driven off.

Maybe, but I don't. Pretty stupid, actually because I know that you should. I haven't tasted creamed corn yet though. I think the modern malts are so 'converted' that maybe you don't need that long? I don't really know, but you are right you should probably boil partial mashes for 60 minutes.

Monty

[mashani]

I have read reports of people out there doing full on AG recipes with a 20 minute boil for ales and not having DMS issues using 2-row and specialty grains.

So it could be alright.

I've personally done as short as 30-40 minute boils without issue for a PM. I've never tried the short boil for full AG. But I might now that I read such reports. Just boil vigorously, and pitch a lot of yeast. Very active fermentation takes care of DMS too.

I'm not even sure if boiling vigorously matters really. Some of those new fangled automated AG brewing devices don't actually boil the wort at all, they just hold it at 190... and they don't make DMS apparently.

For lagers using pilsner... well maybe that's not such a good idea though... someone was going to try this but I didn't see feedback yet.

When I hopstand I put a lid on my pot when the wort is still really freaking hot and I don't get DMS from that - but supposedly you should...

I think DMS from these causes might be over-rated. Or the reasoning over-simplified. IE like HSA and other rumored problems, we know what we know because that's how it's always been passed down by people who had it passed down by people, and nobody but the crazy aussies are willing to push the limits because they have to conserve as much water as they can in drought season.

[BlackDuck]

My Fruit Salad Session IPA is all grain and I do a 30 minute boil with that. I've brewed it twice now. The first time it had really good remarks from those that have had it. The second batch is in the fermentor right now. And it will be entered into the Ohio State Fair Homebrew Competition at the end of May. I figure that will be a great way to determine if it matters. If the judges don't pick up any DMS, then it worked.

Here's an interesting read regarding a 30 minute vs a 60 minute boil experiment: http://brulosophy.com/2015/03/11/the-im ... t-results/

[jimjohson]

I'm not even sure if boiling vigorously matters really. Some of those new fangled automated AG brewing devices don't actually boil the wort at all, they just hold it at 190... and they don't make DMS apparently.

I can agree with the not needing vigorous boil. Using my stove I can't get above a low boil yet no corn.