mashani--Brewer Of The Month December 2015

[MrBandGuy]

Congrats!

[mashani]

Thanks everyone. I'll do my best to answer the questions. Here goes:

1) When did you start brewing and how did you become interested?

I'm a German/Sicilian/Slavic/English/Scottish/Viking (almost all of them had Viking in their history says my genetics) hybrid. All of those people made booze of various types.

So I started out brewing Meads and Wine in the 1990s. Also some maple wine (mead made with maple syrup). And then moved on to beer as well. Everything I did back then was all grain because extract was always ancient canned stuff and tasted bad. And the dry yeast back then wasn't so hot either. Ultimately I had an infamous carboy explosion which I've described on the old Mr. Beer forum and here a few times. But lets just say that a 6.5 gallon carboy exploding in your closet, embedding glass in the walls, and leaking through the floor being the last straw in a bad marriage, and leading me to live in a tiny apartment for many years put a disruption in my brewing. I had to sell all my stuff because I needed the money and had no space for it anyway. So had a 10 year brewing hiatus.

Then some years ago I got a Mr. Beer kit, found that extracts and dry yeast didn't suck so much anymore, and started brewing again. I expanded that to I think 6 active LBKs at one point. I discovered I liked to drink beer more then mead and wine, and it turns over so much faster, so beer is mostly what I brew now. Although I do have a desire to brew some mead again, so that will happen soon as I get an appropriate fermenter. I'm afraid of big glass things now (see above), so I think I'll do my mead in little mouth bubblers and 1 gallon jugs for secondary. So now I brew a mix of AG (BIAB), Partial Mash, Steep + Extract, and all extract batches. All extract "sounds bad" but you can make might good Belgians from nothing but fresh Pilsner extract (I like the stuff MoreBeer sells), some candi sugar, some hops, and some yeast, with minimal effort. So I do that a lot in the summer. It all depends on how much time I have. I don't care as long as it makes good beer.

2) Who would you most like to share a beer with?

That's difficult. But in the Viking tradition, I would have to say that I like to drink beer often to honor my departed ancestors, my father, my grandfathers, and grandmothers, and especially all of my old German ancestors who helped found my country. That would be these people if interested.

http://vexillog.wordpress.com/antes-family/

also see:

http://www.latrobefamily.com/genealogy/ ... ree=mytree
http://www.latrobefamily.com/genealogy/ ... ree=mytree
http://www.latrobefamily.com/genealogy/ ... ree=mytree
http://www.latrobefamily.com/genealogy/ ... ree=mytree

That's as far back as I can trace any side of my family outside of genetic tests. The Slavic and Sicilian sides are later immigrants and the records more sketchy. But it's far enough. And you will see why I would like to share a beer with these people. If I could time warp. I'd love to share a beer with any of them. Even the ones who didn't drink LOL. (some of them would not approve of my heathen like method of honoring them with drink. But I think enough good beer would convince them that it was ok LOL).

3) What is your favorite beer?

Westvleteren 12. But that's hard to come by. Abt 12 is close but not the same mostly due to subtle yeast differences (different slightly mutated/adapted version of Westmalle strains used by each brewery) IMHO.

4) Do you have a beer recipe you'd like to share?

Closest I've ever come to Westvleteren 12/Abt 12, this was a collaboration between me and the guy I called "my crazy Belgian brewer friend" on the old Mr. Beer forum. This was for 5 gallons target. Ended up with a less due to blowoff. 3787 is like that.

8.0# Belgian Pilsner malt
5.0# Belgian Pale malt
2.0# D-180L candi syrup
0.5# D-90L candi syrup

Step mash, 15 @124, 60 @147 via decoction, 170 mashout, sparge to boil volume. Use a decoction calculator with your mash volume to figure accurately for yourself. We used around 9 pints of wort I believe.

90 minute boil.
D-90L went into the boil.

1oz 7.0% Northern Brewer @60
1oz 4.5% Hallertauer @30
1oz 4.0% Styrian Goldings @15

A full 2 liter starter of 3787 pitched at high krausen. Pitched it at 64 degrees. Let if free rise up to 78, D-180L was fed in 2 1# feeding's during fermentation. One was 4 days in the second was 7 days in. Then let it go up on its own into the lower 80s (think it hit 82 at one point) after second feeding, then let it fall back into the 60s once fermentation was complete and let it sit for a week on the yeast cake to clean up. Once bottled and fully primed (IE after around 1 month), I put the whole batch in the fridge for 12 weeks. Then pulled out and stored in a cool corner of my basement and let it sit for 6 months before even thinking about opening one. You could "lager" it in a secondary for 12 weeks instead of after primed in the bottle, but if you do so I'd add fresh yeast at bottling time.

This batch kept getting better and better all the way to 2 years of age, at which point it was gone.

[Pudge]

Congratulations...

[FedoraDave]

Congratulations!

[Knightmare]

Congrats!

[Inkleg]

Great read Dave! Congratulations

[mashani]

Great read Dave! Congratulations

As a brewer, I somehow find it very amusing that the oldest ancestor I can trace to this country was a Catholic abbot in Germany who ran a monastery, but "went wrong" and hooked up with an abbess, converted to Protestantism (Moravian), and ran off to 'Merica before it was 'Merica to escape the angry mob. Could have been brewing good beer back in the hood with quality ingredients, but noooooooooo..... had to come here where they brewed with molasses. Yuuuuuuck.