What was I thinking

Crash Test Dummy Pale Ale-ish

When was kid I made a batch of beer that i used a heating pad underneath to accelerate the yeast growth. It made drinkable beer, but I think the thin harsh product as probably fairly low alchohol content.

OK, I pitched Nottingham's on two pots of Ed Wort's Haus Ale. I underutilized the grain though. No third rinse with clear hot water.

My brainstorm - inspired by a friend and fellow board member - was to do a sour mash. I heated up more water and steeped the grain after it had sat in the mash tun (cooler) for 24 hours. I mashed the skunky smelling wort for another hour and then boiled the resulting wort for almost an hour before my family started questioning my mental state complaing about the stench.

It's pretty cold in my local this time of year. I covered the pot and set it on the back deck to cool. A day and a half later I brought the pot in. It resembled a really large barley flavored slushy. I poured as much of it as wasn't frozen to the side into another pot, dry hopped it and scavenged a couple large table spoons of wort from the regular ale batch to start the fermentation.

It was still cool to the touch tonight, a day and a half later. If it warms up and there is still no activity I may add a little more of the regular wort to the skunky wort.

I've been doing some reading and I sampled a thing called New Glarus "Unplugged". It was not to my liking. It could be described as a mix of wine, coffee, beer, and a touch of Sour kraut juice.

When I started this I was looking at it as a new and different thing. I've also been reading the threads on "Don't dump that beer". If I bottle a skunky batch and leave it on the shelf (who knows what will happen between fermentation and time of bottling), what will the final product potentially end up like? I can't be the first guy to try this.

I'd like opinions please. BTW - I've tried Fat Tire and wasnt enamored to it. It was drinkable though. That's kind of where I think this might end up.

Man, that's pretty far out. I do a fair amount of sour/wild brewing, and I have a few questions/comments about your process.
1 did you add more grains to your sour mash? There couldn't be very much leftover sugar in there (remember first third of the runoff contains 2/3rd of the sugar)

2 That was a long time to leave the wort in the pot before you moved to primary. You might get some funny bugs in there, but since it was pretty cold, not much chance of REALLY bad ones (*like acetobacter)

3 A few teaspoons of actively fermenting beer is probably not going to give you a good start. It would probably take a WHILE for it to get cranking, letting all the before mentioned bugs get a foothold. Maybe pitch some more yeast?

Anyway, some great beers have happened in some weird ways, just don't get your hopes too high.


And I dont think there is any worry that this will turn out like Fat Tire.

Well, I was kind of hoping the frozen water would drop the specific gravity of the wort. The mashed semi-dri grain sat in the house in a Coleman Extreme cooler and by the next evening it was still fairly warm to a hand held above it, but not wat I would call hot.

I was kind of thinking - If yeast takes hold it should follow the lambic style and the yeast will have a good first go before the other bugs take hold. Also if it's good for yeast, it should be OK for me.

I posted this down here because I was expecting either this bunch to tell me I was making Old Lace, or that if the yeast liked it - so would I. I didnt do a search to see if anyone else had previously done this. It sounds crazy to me and I did it!

Dynachrome said:

It sounds crazy to me and I did it!

Click to expand...

Yep, can you imagine the first person to see a Pedio infection, or brett for that matter, and said, "Hey, you know, I bet that tastes good!"

You never know what will work.
i didn't see that you had removed some of the frozen wort. It might, might bump up the OG. Did you take a reading?

Crash test batch looks like very little activity...It's cold in the closet.

Got out the Star San and the hygrometer. sterilized a mesuring cup and the hygrometer. Took readings of "Ed Wort's Pale Ale" first. Both pots are now down to about 1.003 if I'm reading that dang thing right. poured a cup and a half of good" wort into the crash test batch to see if I could accelerate it.

OG I'll say is tidge over 1.04, fairly light. Tastes like sweet hoppy tea and leaves a very upbeat fizzy aftertase much like Sprite - actually pleasant at this stage. Would like some bitter - should have boiled it.....

Wow, A pale ale at 1003? It's gonna be very dry. How did it taste?
And 1040 on the Crash test, not bad. I wouldn't have guessed that.
instead of adding fermenting wort a little at a time, could you sanitize a big metal spoon or turkey baster and grab some of the yeast that has settled on the bottom? Might give you a quicker finish (with such a low pitching rate, the Sacc might not attenuate very much.)

Maybe to get more bitterness (I've never done this, only read about it) take an ounce of hops in a quart or two of water and boil it for 20-30 min, cool and strain, and add it to the wort. Might work, who knows?

Potter1 said:

Maybe to get more bitterness (I've never done this, only read about it) take an ounce of hops in a quart or two of water and boil it for 20-30 min, cool and strain, and add it to the wort. Might work, who knows?

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Bad idea. Just sayin.

You'd be better off SLOWLY adding lactic acid (you can buy from your LHBS). You should check out http://www.themadfermentationist.com/ he has a TON of great info on all things wild brews and sours.

Just make sure on "experimental batch" that your gravity is seriously stable and LOW before bottling because wild yeasts and beasts seem to take them down to really low gravities.

I had thought of making a bittering tea and cooling it down - then adding it to the wort. Please expand - what is the problem with this?

(I went and took a peek - it's foaming nicely like the other two pots)

I looked around - there were some very technical discussions with no real "I did this" type data. Then I found this thread.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/any-disadvantages-using-hop-tea-technique-85222/index3.html

I had dry hopped with 2 oz bag of Cascade. Smelled very nice. I tasted it though and found it to need some bittering.

I hve taken about a quarter of the rehyrated whole hops off the top of the wort with a sterilized spoon. I am boiling it and it smells correct to me. I also added two tablespons of sugar per another discussion re: "fixing the resins with sugar". What the heck - this was throw away at one time.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/big-hop-flavor-1-3-hops-55721/index13.html

By the way, does anyone else taste test their wort after the boil and also at the time of bottling? I like to do that - I'm thinking I could develope a sense of what a beer will turn out like ahead of time.

I brought the pot out to work on it. I had it out for about two hours. As it sat and warmed up, the yeasties really took off. I may not have enough head room. 80

I added about 2/3 oz boiled hops (45 min) in about three cups of water. It smelled good and had a thin film on top. I put it back closet - maybe it'll cool down.

The thirteen year old asked "What smells like bananas?" this morning.

It smells good like fresh baked banana bread.

Esthers, right?

I did a search. Please - Do any of you brew something on purpose that has an esther component. What are it's drinkinng characteristics?

Any hefe/wit will have some banana, clove esters. Banana usually means it was fermented warm (like above 68) and cloves will be formed a little lower (62-64), but that's with specific yeasts. The taste carries over well in those styles.
It doesn't really sound like you fermented too hot, however, so it might be from a wild yeast contaminate. Could still be ok, in fact it probably is. Good to know that there is some signs of fermentation now, that will raise the temp as it ferments

The kids really stoked the fire up last night. The closet is n extreior on the north side of the house, but they managed to warm it up to about 70 degrees F by this morning. The thirteen-year-old mentioned the smell again. I bottled the pale ale BTW. Tooka sip. Tates pretty good. Quite light - not to hoppy either - at least for my palate.

Thanks for the encouragement.

Bill

Capped it today. I tasted the last 1/4 bottle - it tastes like just good beer. No bananas...

FG was 1.010 BTW

Twice as much priming sugar as I should have in hind sight... Bottle bombs this evening...

More alcohol abuse on the horizon. Uncapping and placing it back into brew pot. I'm going to let it go flat - then use only about 1.5 oz corn sugar for approx 3 gallons. It smells like a Belgian - smells good but has some character too.

Poured it back into a SS pot and waited a few days. Rebottled it with a propper amount of priming sugar a couple weeks ago.

I was downsized a couple days later. Anyone looking for CAD help Mechanical Design?

Opened a bottle last night, it has a nice head, VERY mild banana boquette. Wife says its acceptable. I like it.

I still need to get a grain crusher.

man, sorry to hear about the downsize. At least you have a nice batch of homebrew to sooth your soul. good to hear that you where able to take care of the bottle bomb potential and ended up with good beer. just goes to show, you never know what will be great!

This case of beer is going to disappear fast. The foam is crispy white and light, the beer is really clear. I'm baffled. I majorly abused this stuff.

I should keep a few just my friends to try - it's just so darn unconventional...

I was describing this whole sorted thread to my LHBS guy today down at Bull Falls Home Brew Depot. He listens patiently while I carry on about what I doing with my recipes.

I mentioned that I had given him a bottle of this along with a couple bottles of my attempt at Ed Wort's Haus Ale. He asked if it had been in a brown bag. I said yes. He had stored it away in his refrigerator and it was still there.

He said he'd give it a try tonight and let me know what he thought of it.

I ordered the stuff for my first porter tonight. I'm going to try an Edmund Fitzgerald Porter clone.

I entered this in the Bull Falls Home Brew Club - "Golden Growler" competition - no-one even noticed it was there.

I think it was ay too light. It really drank like Bud.

awesome narrative in this thread

I was working in the lab, late one night, when my nose beheld an erie odor.....

Bwhahahah.

Are you familiar with the psychology I’d like to give you a phrase and see what is the first item to pop into your head. It’s a game of semantics.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prototype_theory

For instance, what is the first image you see when I say bird? Is it a robbin, a blackbird, a duck, a penguin? (I don’t need to know the answer to that one BTW)

I’m concocting this years Bill' Lambic, Crash Test Dummy 2012.

Small beer. It is the grain bed from the “Boddington’s Pub Ale” with the grain bed from my “Cabin Fever International Wheat” on top of it. It’s about 20lbs worth of spent grain. I’m going to re-sparge with about 6 gallons of water. It has been sitting for 24 hours. I can boil and hop tomorrow or Wednesday.

OK, here is the word: hops.

Did you have anything pop into your head? Northern, Fuggles, Cascade, Willamette?

I’m looking for generic, primordial – stock, not fancy. I’m going to use bread yeast. I might mash some flaked corn on top for adjuncts. Would that make it corny?

….or you can just tell me to go check myself in at the Health .Care Center.

Thanks,
Bill

My local home brew store had some expired yeast and some Hallertau that was on the older side, and another package that was unidentified. No idea on the AAU...

The yeast was Coopers - one package had a date on it 9/9/9. I told him to hold the pcakage upside down and read it. He started suggesting other names for the batch.

This batch should be almost free of cost.

I'm boiling right now.

1 oz Hallertau(?) @ 60
1 oz Hallertau @ 45
1 oz Hallertau @ 15
1 oz Hallertau @ flame out

I will cool it overnight on the back deck again. Strike that - rain tonight - its goin' in the garage.

I plan on doing some kind of secondary with a small fermentable addition.

Yaaaaah Hey.

My OG measured at 68 deg F was 1.02. That was too small.

I had a can of Biess CBW Traditional Dark liquid malt extract laying around, stirred that in, and my new OG is in the proximity of 1.045 now.

It smells like regular wort with the hops added and boiled.

The spent grain actually smells worse today than the last couple days.

I'm going to send in the yeast and see what they do.

EDIT

I added a little water with the yeast and took a new specific gravity - 1.042.

It should finish about 1.008-ish - I calculate about 4.5% alcohol by volume.

Hmmm, There is still some kreusen floating on top. Its usually dropped after about ten days.

I have no familiarity with Coopers yeast.

...also the way I did this, I don't have any idea what final gravity should be. I'd guess a little on the high side due to the malt extract....

It was still bubbling and churning.

I'm going to leave it for a couple more days. The SG as measured today was 1.016.

Well now - the bubbles have left. It smells fine.

I asked my wife how much foam she'd like - she said a little more....

I used a couple table spoons more than 2/3 cup for 4.8 gallons.

I popped it into a Rubbermaid basket just in case - I don't think I'll have any issues though.

We'll wait and see - preliminary projections are that I'm going to like this better than the dark wheat I had going at the same time.

This was drinkable. I've wiped out most of my pipeline.

I'm having one of these right now. It has a fizzy kind of a small flavor somewhat like the "Bottle Caps" candy that only gets handed out for Halloween.

It is light in flavor pretty darn clear and dark in color. I have a friend, Joe, who owns a restaurant. I drop off beer for him and the crew occasionally. I may have to have them empty the bottles for me. Joe says the crew will drink anything. (It's not that, ...just not that good either.)

Dynachrome said:

Crash Test Dummy Pale Ale-ish

...OK, I pitched Nottingham's on two pots of Ed Wort's Haus Ale. I underutilized the grain though. No third rinse with clear hot water...

...I heated up more water and steeped the grain after it had sat in the mash tun (cooler) for 24 hours. I mashed the skunky smelling wort for another hour and then boiled the resulting wort for almost an hour before my family started questioning my mental state complaining about the stench...

Click to expand...

I was just reviewing this first post. The EDIT button goes away after a while.

I wanted to point out that the first batch I ever did like this was not sparged enough. I also wanted to highight how long this sat before I sparged for this batch after the relatively spent grain had sat.