burnthesheep
Member
- Joined
- Jul 29, 2015
- Messages
- 17
- Reaction score
- 4
I followed the below recipe as close as possible. I did BIAB using a paint strainer. Seemed to work wonderfully compared to some stories I've heard about issues with the method. I hit most of the temps below, however the major difference was that I did not heat/add to hit temps but instead used a thermocouple to just measure and heat to the target. I guess I'll be on the side of the debate of "bag squeezers", I did and it seemed to turn out well. I did the method of heating water, lifting the bag out, and pouring the water over the bag to get the rest out.
When I was done I had a sink full of salty ice water I put the pot in to cool it. Put the contents of the yeast baggie into the bucket, poured on top, shook the tar out of it. Let er rip.
Did get some krausen in the air lock tube, but settled back.
I bottle carb'd with table sugar. The picture below is after only a week. I took a "peek" from 2 bottles to make sure pressure wasn't too high and could make it another week.
It was good. A decent carb for only a week. Tastes great. I don't have the bitterness/hop it describes in the recipe though. I probably didn't do that step correctly or something. I put the hop pellets in a smaller paint strainer baggie tied off. I didn't squeeze those guys pulling them out. I ended up with less volume finished than the recipe calls for below after the boil. My pot ended up being a gallon smaller than I thought. I put it in the fermenter and thought it looked short. Looked on bottom of pot after washing it the next day and sure enough. I bet this altered the flavor somehow.
I was wondering, is this the right color? It says altbier is this color, I assume the recipe I followed is that version instead of the golden color.
I guess it matters most that it tastes great to me. I guess only thing I'd do different is get more hop flavor like the recipe describes if possible. Not sure how though. It does taste a little little bit sweet to me.
It's lighter in color than the pic looks if you put it in better lighting, looks identical in color to a picture if you google "altbier".
Recipe:
It’s probably common knowledge among the educated beer-drinking and brewing community that Germany is best known for a wide range of lagers. Beers brewed at colder temperatures, using a yeast strain that generally ferments at or near the bottom of the vessel. That’s about the only common characteristic among lagers, though, as they range from light to dark, mild to strong, sweet to bitter… Just like ales, which are, of course, brewed generally at warmer temperatures with a top-feeding yeast strain. Generally. There are, of course, exceptions.
In the world of German beer, too, there are exceptions. There are two classic styles of beer still brewed in Germany which predate the lager revolution of the 19th century and which are considered ales,. Not because of their color, their hop profile, or their strength, but merely because the yeasts used to produce them are top-feeding warm-tolerant strains.
I am referring, of course to the golden Kölsch and the copper Altbier, pride of Köln (Cologne) and Düsseldorf, respectively. Altbier, in particular, is such a traditional and culturally-rooted style that even its name (“Old Beer”
is significant. It’s not “old” as in sitting around for a long time, nor particularly “old-fashioned”, but it is simply an old style, a style that has been brewed in the Düsseldorf area for a long time.
This recipe is pretty close to Horst Dornbusch’s “Altstadt Altbier” in his AHA Style Series book “Altbier”. I have adapted the hops and yeast, and added just a hint of dark malt to enhance the reddish color. Fermented warm initially, it gets almost lagered in the secondary to produce a crisp, clean malt profile with substantial bitterness and hop flavor.
Altschule Altbier
5 gallons, all-grain
Ingredients:
• 6 lbs. 2-row pale malt
• 1.5 lbs. dark Munich malt
• 1.5 lbs. Vienna malt
• 1 lb. 60°L crystal malt
• 1 oz. black malt
• 1 oz. Perle hop pellets (@8% aa)
• 1 oz. Spalt pellets (@5% aa)
• 1 oz. whole Hallertauer hops (@2.5% aa)
• White Labs Düsseldorf Altbier yeast (WLP036)
• 3/4 cup corn sugar for priming
Procedure:
Crush grains. Heat 10 quarts water to 130°F. Mash in grain (the mash will be VERY thick) and hold at 124°F for 20 minutes. Heat another 10 quarts water to 165°F, add to mash and mix well. Hold at 154°F for 70 minutes. Heat another 13 quarts of water to 170°F, begin runoff and sparge. Collect 28 – 30 quarts sweet wort. Heat to boiling. Boil 45 minutes with no hops. Add Perle hops, boil 30 minutes. Add Spalt hops, boil another 30 minutes. Add Hallertauer hops, boil 2 minutes (107 minutes total) and remove from heat. Steep covered for 10 minutes. Remove Hallertauer hops, chill wort to 80°F. Take a hydrometer reading, pour into a sanitized fermenter, splashing well to aerate. Pitch yeast, seal and ferment at 65 – 70°F for eight to ten days. Rack to secondary, age cool (45 – 50°F) for two weeks. Prime with corn sugar, bottle and condition three to four weeks at 50°F.
OG: 1050
IBU’s: 48
Note on mash: The first part of the mash, at a low temperature, is a traditional German technique designed to promote better clarity and fuller body in the beer by enabling proteolytic enzymes to convert large-chain proteins. Or so I’m told. More science than I can wrap my head around…
Note on volume: the wort from this mash is at a higher volume than most of my brews, designed as such with a longer boil in mind – another piece of the traditional alt brewing process is a long boil, to promote the Maillard reaction which deepens the red/copper color; naturally, the longer the boil the more evaporation, so to end up at the 5.25 gallon mark you need to start with a greater volume…
When I was done I had a sink full of salty ice water I put the pot in to cool it. Put the contents of the yeast baggie into the bucket, poured on top, shook the tar out of it. Let er rip.
Did get some krausen in the air lock tube, but settled back.
I bottle carb'd with table sugar. The picture below is after only a week. I took a "peek" from 2 bottles to make sure pressure wasn't too high and could make it another week.
It was good. A decent carb for only a week. Tastes great. I don't have the bitterness/hop it describes in the recipe though. I probably didn't do that step correctly or something. I put the hop pellets in a smaller paint strainer baggie tied off. I didn't squeeze those guys pulling them out. I ended up with less volume finished than the recipe calls for below after the boil. My pot ended up being a gallon smaller than I thought. I put it in the fermenter and thought it looked short. Looked on bottom of pot after washing it the next day and sure enough. I bet this altered the flavor somehow.
I was wondering, is this the right color? It says altbier is this color, I assume the recipe I followed is that version instead of the golden color.
I guess it matters most that it tastes great to me. I guess only thing I'd do different is get more hop flavor like the recipe describes if possible. Not sure how though. It does taste a little little bit sweet to me.
It's lighter in color than the pic looks if you put it in better lighting, looks identical in color to a picture if you google "altbier".
Recipe:
It’s probably common knowledge among the educated beer-drinking and brewing community that Germany is best known for a wide range of lagers. Beers brewed at colder temperatures, using a yeast strain that generally ferments at or near the bottom of the vessel. That’s about the only common characteristic among lagers, though, as they range from light to dark, mild to strong, sweet to bitter… Just like ales, which are, of course, brewed generally at warmer temperatures with a top-feeding yeast strain. Generally. There are, of course, exceptions.
In the world of German beer, too, there are exceptions. There are two classic styles of beer still brewed in Germany which predate the lager revolution of the 19th century and which are considered ales,. Not because of their color, their hop profile, or their strength, but merely because the yeasts used to produce them are top-feeding warm-tolerant strains.
I am referring, of course to the golden Kölsch and the copper Altbier, pride of Köln (Cologne) and Düsseldorf, respectively. Altbier, in particular, is such a traditional and culturally-rooted style that even its name (“Old Beer”
is significant. It’s not “old” as in sitting around for a long time, nor particularly “old-fashioned”, but it is simply an old style, a style that has been brewed in the Düsseldorf area for a long time.This recipe is pretty close to Horst Dornbusch’s “Altstadt Altbier” in his AHA Style Series book “Altbier”. I have adapted the hops and yeast, and added just a hint of dark malt to enhance the reddish color. Fermented warm initially, it gets almost lagered in the secondary to produce a crisp, clean malt profile with substantial bitterness and hop flavor.
Altschule Altbier
5 gallons, all-grain
Ingredients:
• 6 lbs. 2-row pale malt
• 1.5 lbs. dark Munich malt
• 1.5 lbs. Vienna malt
• 1 lb. 60°L crystal malt
• 1 oz. black malt
• 1 oz. Perle hop pellets (@8% aa)
• 1 oz. Spalt pellets (@5% aa)
• 1 oz. whole Hallertauer hops (@2.5% aa)
• White Labs Düsseldorf Altbier yeast (WLP036)
• 3/4 cup corn sugar for priming
Procedure:
Crush grains. Heat 10 quarts water to 130°F. Mash in grain (the mash will be VERY thick) and hold at 124°F for 20 minutes. Heat another 10 quarts water to 165°F, add to mash and mix well. Hold at 154°F for 70 minutes. Heat another 13 quarts of water to 170°F, begin runoff and sparge. Collect 28 – 30 quarts sweet wort. Heat to boiling. Boil 45 minutes with no hops. Add Perle hops, boil 30 minutes. Add Spalt hops, boil another 30 minutes. Add Hallertauer hops, boil 2 minutes (107 minutes total) and remove from heat. Steep covered for 10 minutes. Remove Hallertauer hops, chill wort to 80°F. Take a hydrometer reading, pour into a sanitized fermenter, splashing well to aerate. Pitch yeast, seal and ferment at 65 – 70°F for eight to ten days. Rack to secondary, age cool (45 – 50°F) for two weeks. Prime with corn sugar, bottle and condition three to four weeks at 50°F.
OG: 1050
IBU’s: 48
Note on mash: The first part of the mash, at a low temperature, is a traditional German technique designed to promote better clarity and fuller body in the beer by enabling proteolytic enzymes to convert large-chain proteins. Or so I’m told. More science than I can wrap my head around…
Note on volume: the wort from this mash is at a higher volume than most of my brews, designed as such with a longer boil in mind – another piece of the traditional alt brewing process is a long boil, to promote the Maillard reaction which deepens the red/copper color; naturally, the longer the boil the more evaporation, so to end up at the 5.25 gallon mark you need to start with a greater volume…
