My Brewday: Brewing an Altbier for December

Thought I'd share some pics of my brewday from a couple weeks ago. I did an altbier and hit about 86% efficiency with my set-up! Hopefully it'll taste pretty good in a few months.

Getting everything set up:


Hooking up the water filter:


Filling and heating the hot water tank:


Another angle:


After hitting strike temp, transfer to mash tun:


Add dem grains:


Hit the target. Boom:


Vorlauf after an hour:


Fly spargin' it up:


3 oz. Spalt first wort hops:


My high-tech filtering system (yes, I've heard of HSA):


Sparging:


Dat boil:


Add the chiller:


Transfer the cooled wort:


Done and done:


Cleaned up:


A few days later:



:rockin:

Holy...why am I not doing that coffee filter thing? Must save a lot of vorlauf time...

bmick said:

Holy...why am I not doing that coffee filter thing? Must save a lot of vorlauf time...

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Heh. I still do my regular vorlauf but there are always some little buggers that make it through. This catches any strays that sneak through. Someone on Reddit mentioned hot-side aeration as a concern so my last batch (pumpkin spice alee) I extended the hose (heh) and eliminated the filter. I'm not sure how much it will affect it, but it's an easy switch.

Awesome, love the pics. I'd like to brew an altbier soon. Care to share the recipe?

Just stole a coffee filter from work (it was already mine anyways) to try that.

Hmmm I'm going to try that coffee filter thing. I tend to get alot of trub.

For my small one gallon batches, I can't imagine HSA will be that big a deal.

+1 on sharing the recipe, I'd love to brew an Alt this winter.

MetallHed said:

Heh. I still do my regular vorlauf but there are always some little buggers that make it through. This catches any strays that sneak through. Someone on Reddit mentioned hot-side aeration as a concern so my last batch (pumpkin spice alee) I extended the hose (heh) and eliminated the filter. I'm not sure how much it will affect it, but it's an easy switch.

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Yeah but then you shortened the hose after that awesome stuck sparge...REMEMBER

I'm kind of curious as to why you're doing this now for December. Admittedly, I don't know a ton about the style, but I thought Alts were one of the few German Ale styles. So, shouldn't this be ready much sooner than that?

HSA is a non issue. You would boil the beer anyway, and if you are pitching the appropriate amount of yeast its not a problem.

HSA is a concern for breweries where the wort cascades a dozen or or more feet into the boil kettle. For home brewing purposes, it's a boogeyman.

iheartcraftbeer said:

Awesome, love the pics. I'd like to brew an altbier soon. Care to share the recipe?

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coolharry said:

+1 on sharing the recipe, I'd love to brew an Alt this winter.

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Sorry for the late reply!! Here's the recipe:

8 lbs 12 oz Munich Malt
12 oz German Wheat Malt
8 oz Caramunich III
4 oz Caraaroma
3 oz German Spalter hops (FWH addition)
US-05 dry yeast

5 gallon AG batch. 60 minute mash(152F) and boil. 13qt strike water, 20qt sparge water.

Est. OG: 1.054
Est. FG: 1.012
Est. ABV: 5.5%

jfr1111 said:

HSA is a concern for breweries where the wort cascades a dozen or or more feet into the boil kettle. For home brewing purposes, it's a boogeyman.

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homebrewdon said:

HSA is a non issue. You would boil the beer anyway, and if you are pitching the appropriate amount of yeast its not a problem.

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That's the conclusion I was leaning towards, but previously had not thought about it much until someone on Reddit mentioned it. I did do a batch without the filter setup, but I don't know if it'd even be noticable in just a 5 gallon batch. I think on this small of a scale it doesn't matter. The only thing I did see an improvement in was the amount of pre-boil foam.

blaster_54738 said:

Yeah but then you shortened the hose after that awesome stuck sparge...REMEMBER

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lol yeah that sucked, but I'm gonna put the blame on the pumpkin puree!

LoneWolfPR said:

I'm kind of curious as to why you're doing this now for December. Admittedly, I don't know a ton about the style, but I thought Alts were one of the few German Ale styles. So, shouldn't this be ready much sooner than that?

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It will be ready to drink much earlier than that, but I only have one tap and I don't drink a ton, so it takes me about a month to finish a keg. September was a American wheat, October is Oktoberfest ale, November is a pumpkin ale, December is the altbier, and January is a sweet stout. I have them all brewed and kegged already.

My routine is after my primary of a few weeks, keg them, gas them for a week, disconnect, and let them sit in the fridge until it's time to hook 'em up. It's working pretty good so far.