Experimental brew #2

Going off the beaten path here I decided to make something super bready & malty with some estery character so came up with this recipe for myself:

Grain:
5 Lbs Ashburne Mild
4 Lbs Aromatic (Yes it's a lot, but this is liquid bread after all)
1 Lb 15 oz White Wheat (Leftovers)
1Lb Crystal 20 (Leftovers)

Hops:
1 oz Calypso
1 oz Meridian

Yeast:
WLP300

Batch size: 6.00 Gallons
OG: 1.062
FG est: 1.018
IBU: 23.7
SRM: 12.5
ABV est: 5.5%
Carb to 2.7 volumes
Ferm Temps: Start 70°F End 74°F

Method:

7-27-15
1) Grind all the grains in my mill style coffee grinder
2) Heat strike water to 169°F
3) Add grains to strike water
4) Maintain 157°F for 90 minutes
5) Pour mash into my homemade BIAB bag
6) 90 minute boil (evap rate of .5 GPH)
7) Add hops at flameout
8) Using the no-chill method overnight

7-28-15
9) Grabbed a gravity reading of 1.062
10) Pitched WLP 300 at about 7:00 PM (Busy day)

7-29-15
No airlock activity as of 9:00 AM
Peeked inside the fermentor - No signs of activity
Got my WLP500 going in as soon as I get it warmed up in a couple more hours...


EDIT:

I should add that the vial of yeast that I used yesterday geysered upon opening, I'm now thinking that they died from various issues like CO2 poisoning coupled with excessive pressure at the very least. The date was Aug-13-15 on the label and there was only a tiny brownish film on the very bottom with the rest of the liquid looking normal, I have now (11:15 AM) pitched the WLP500 and we shall see how that goes...

Youve got over 50% specialty malts in there along with a higher mash temp than ive ever seen. Im guessing you are going to have to drink this beer using your teeth if it ever ferments properly

Yup, that'll be a nice chewy beer with enough residual sugars to get my palate over the bitterness that usually overwhelm my poor little taste buds most times. Don't get me wrong, I do love a well made hoppy beer that has more going for it than bitter, bitter, & more bitter, but sadly a lot of them that I can get where I live are just that, bitter. The temp is to adjust enzyme activity for more unfermentable sugars, that way I get a bit lower ABV & more body/mouthfeel. I'm not one that likes to get smashed, plus I've gotta watch my ETOH intake because of a lowered tolerance. So a thick chewy beer shake sounded kinda good to me. Plus this is an experiment, we'll see how it goes then I'll adjust from there.


Anyway, within 1 hour of pitching the new yeast I got some airlock activity. Now at 6 hours out I've got a steady stream of bubbles.

m00ps said:

Youve got over 50% specialty malts in there along with a higher mash temp than ive ever seen. Im guessing you are going to have to drink this beer using your teeth if it ever ferments properly

Click to expand...

I'm interested on how this comes out as well. I will add that Aromatic is kinda on the fence of being a specialty malt. It needs to be converted... just like munich and other rich base malts. I've heard it referred to as the "English Munich" before.

Well, they do say beer is liquid bread.

The Ashburne Mild is used as both a base & high percentage specialty, the Aromatic like you said is kinda between the lines, so I used the Aromatic as a high percentage specialty malt this time around. The hops will be interesting to taste & find out how they express themselves, I'm hoping that just tossing them in at flameout will help preserve the aromatics more. I'll be getting some more of the same hops to dry hop with when the time comes, that way I can really bump up the hops unique character!

If the malt makes the bread then my choice of hops & yeast make the fruit jam going on top, maybe I should work some diacetyl for the butter & call it "toast with butter & jam in a bottle"...

WARNING RANT IN PROGRESS:
Well even though he watched & listened to me the entire two days it took to get this into the fermentor, then the yeast debacle yesterday, so I asked him not to leave any doors/windows open so the A/C will keep my brew brewing cool. So last night (the most critical one) he leaves BOTH his office window & the back door open all last night, that made the A/C not work as well (DUH!) so that my temps went into the 76°F+ range . Needless to say I'm ticked and he just said "uh, why didn't you tell me, it feels fine to me, must have left the door open a little and the cat opened it, oh well" :smack:. While our cat CAN open the door (but only if not closed all the way in the first place), she can't open his window AND I TOLD HIM THREE TIMES LAST NIGHT TO MAKE SURE THEY BOTH STAYED CLOSED!!! It just seems like every time I make a batch of mead or beer he is there to try and ruin or make sure that I need at least 2-3-4+ years of aging! I can make a mead so that it's ready to drink in months NOT years, but only IF the temps aren't messed with!!! I get the aging of a barley wine, etc, but not a 5% ABV brew that needs 6 months to a year before the fusels age out, if ever! I still have a batch of mead he messed with, over 2 years and it still needs more aging, thank GOD it was only a one gallon batch!
/END OF RANT

Ok now that's outta my way I can get on with the fun part of my day. Temps are at 76°F and I hope will be dropping back to 74°F in the next few hours. Provided I don't end up with a fusel bomb this should be interesting, the smells coming from the airlock are quite delicious (Yes! I admit it! I AM AN AIRLOCK SNIFFER!). It's starting to get some of that fruitiness I am looking for in the nose, I just hope that translates as well into flavors for me as well. Not getting much of the bready/toasty/malty, but those usually come across better in the sample not through the airlock. Once this has had a chance to sit for another couple weeks I plan on bottling in 500ml European wheat beer bottles.

is "He" your roomate? sucks dude. There just isnt enough awareness about caring for homebrew. I had 25 gallons of mine dumped by my neighbors once when I was hospitalized. We need like some of those ribbon bumper stickers but made out of grain or something...

I was going to say that you would have a sickly sweet brew but looking at the malts, both the Aromatic and Ashburne can be used as base malts. The mash temperature seems really high though.

White Labs vials ALWAYS have to be opened carefully. This doesn't mean the yeast is bad.

Burp them like you would a root beer bought from a vending machine. At any rate you should look into making starters. The one vial was underpitching even before you lost some. Pitching one vial into a 1.062 wort I wouldn't have expected any activity for at least 24 hours and maybe several days.

Interesting experiment. Keep us posted.

The high mash temp was to shift the enzymes to produce more long chain dextrins & reduce fermentability retaining more residual sweetness & increasing mouthfeel. I also purposely underpitched so as to shift the yeasts phenol to ester ratio to the ester side of the equation, coupled with the fermentation temp of 74°F to reinforce the shift to esters over the phenols. I should hopefully have a real ester bomb by the time that this is done fermenting in a couple more days (the airlock sniffing confirms this so far). That and my choice of hops & hopping techniques will bring out more fruits, both stone & citrus with some tropical, that's the plan anyway... So until the time when this is safely bottled aged for 2 to 4 weeks (4 to 6 more weeks), I'll just have to enjoy the process and plan the next one for a week or two from now, time to get a small pipeline laid down until the mead starts to mature a bit more...

The vial was hissing just a little as I slowly cracked it, then the whole tube was foam and shooting out all over before I could close it, I've seen soda bottles react less after being shaken when warm than that thing!! Also after 24 hours there was no action in my fermentor, I cracked it dipped my sterilized mix-stir in and swished, nothing so I gave a tap on the drill, nothing, then a burst, nothing. So at that point I called it a failure & warmed up my next in line and pitched after waiting 4 hours to warm the beasties up. Two hours later there was positive pressure in the airlock, a few hours after that the airlock was blipping every minutes or less, a few hours later it was an almost steady stream when I called it a night.

As of almost Noon here the airlock has slowed & the temps are dropping from the steady 74°F to a room temp of 72°-73°F (it's 103°F outside, best our window A/C can do), so it looks like the yeastie beasties have finished off the majority of the sugars already.

Just grabbed a sample at 3:00 PM and got a SG of 1.018, so it looks like things have finished fermenting. That means that I'm now at the clean up phase lasting until say, August 14th... That way I can get my shipment from MB by Friday the 7th next week, then get another batch ready to be banged out with my old grains (3 months isn't that old I guess) & some of the new goodies coming in.

I had planned on getting in a new yeast in, but with the temps here in the high 90'2 fading to the mid 80's over the next week, I am now deciding against that for the time being. I do have some Wyeast 1388 (Belgian Strong Ale) that needs to get used up immediately, so will see what strange brew I come up with next...

If your only hop addition is at flameout, you can save a ton of time / gas by boiling for 10-15 minutes

I use the no-chill method where I just leave it alone overnight to cool off instead of using a lot of water to chill it quickly (we are in a drought here), also if I don't do the 60 to 90 minute boil I can get a lot of DMS because of using the Aussie no-chill method. Another reason that I boiled this so long is for the Maillard reaction to occur in large amounts, making more unfermentable sugars, color & flavor compounds.

Another issue that has recently been on my mind is that in the Summer here our water supply can go from hard to chipping off a chunk of water to write on the board with. I am not sure just how hard the water here is (other than chipping my teeth a few times) as I have not sent in a test kit, yet. The problem is that I would have to take a sample every 3 months or so to find out where it's at just for that moment. I also know that my water is hard because beers that should have been mildly bitter have been rather pungently bitter, this is a function of Ca/Mg I have been reading (Fix & Fix IRRC)...

Bottled this with 144g honey dissolved in 200ml water & boiled for 10 minutes, cooled then added to 5 gallon fermentor. Racked beer on top of the honey/water priming sugar, then bottled into 500ml European bottles. I'll let this sit for an additional 14 days minimum to carb up properly then crack one open and find out if we have a winner.

Tasting notes on the final partial bottle: Bready & malty A la Mack & Jack's African Amber, a middling amount of bitterness (this is 23 IBU with rather alkaline water) with a nose of banana with bubblegum highlights & some tropical kind of notes going on.

Guess I'll be back in a couple weeks for the victory toast, then I may have to sit on this to bring out the hops better, maybe another 14+ days for that. Does 30 days to carb up & bring out the flavors better sound unreasonable??

what was the FG?

FG of 1.018...

This has been sitting for the last 15 days to get carbed up, now the fun begins! Brought a bottle to my friends house to have him sample some, these are the notes from that:

Cracking open the bottle and the first hit you get is fruity, banana & bubblegum, followed by bready maltiness.

On the pour it's medium dark & somewhat viscous, making a large head of foam that does not want to go down, the bubbles are tiny & make their way up the side of the glass a bit slowly.

Nose from this in the glass is different form the bottle, you get the malt & bread first, followed by some bubblegum & banana, almost no other fruit aromas.

The carb level is ok, BUT, I'm thinking a tiny bump up next time to 3 volumes instead of the 2.7 volumes for this batch. I don't use regular bottles, I use only 500ml Euro bottles, Franziskaner style, so a 3 volume carb level is not a problem.

Last is an alcoholic bite that needs another week or two to mellow out completely.

Next time I'm thinking of tossing in a banana instead of relying on the yeast, it needs much more banana than the yeast can produce. I'm also going to look into using some walnuts, I've got a friend with an old tree that's dropping them like crazy.