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- Feb 10, 2016
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Hello fellow beer-makers,
Some of you may have seen this post I made back in July chronicling the brewing of a quart of beer. This did really happen, and the beer was perfectly adequate, but upon telling my brother of my triumphant micro exploits, he responded with a sigh, a roll of the eyes, and a fateful jeer: "what's next, a shot of beer?"
Yes, that's what's next. I took his acerbic words as a challenge and, as I'd just tested a method of mitigating the heat loss of small batch brewing, namely using a sous vide water heater, I had all the pieces I needed - a 50 mL graduated cylinder and a PET bottle with a CarbCap® were all that was needed to cook up this Frankenstein's monster of a beer
Technically speaking, the process was seamless: salt a gallon of water (see recipe below), crush some grain with a hammer, add that and hops to a sealed sous vide bag, mash at ~152˚, isomerize at ~180˚ (17% efficiency), run the tiny pouch under cold water to cool, strain into the "fermenter," place in a temp-controlled wine fridge at ~65˚, wait, cold crash, rack to PET bottle, carbonate, and enjoy. Surprisingly straightforward
As for the big question, the taste, I recorded the following notes: "Malty, round, yeasty, just a touch thin, no real off flavors besides light astringency possibly due to high temp mash, warm due to carbing method, would consider brewing a gallon of" [a gallon being my default size - stay tuned for a post on my all-electric HERMS & thermowell'd gallon setup]
Here's the recipe, and leave your hate mail below:
45 mL of Pale Kellerbier:
- 15 g Munich malt, DME to correct gravity if necessary
- 1.15 g 4% AA hops
- for the water: .6 so4, .5 cl per gal (make one gallon, divy)
- since 1 mL per g grain absorbed, use 75 mL water for mash
- mash w hops, 152˚ -> 180˚
- chill, rack to 50 mL graduated cylinder
- add .1-.2 g dry ale yeast, ferment at 65˚
- yield will be ~45 mL beer, 15 mL sediment
- carbonate at ~15 psi, 38˚, in a chilled PET bottle (the beer will, as it did for me, absorb a ton of heat and be raised into the high 50s/low 60s if you don't do this)
![2019-11-02 20.24.19.jpg 2019-11-02 20.24.19.jpg](https://cdn.homebrewtalk.com/data/attachments/594/594581-ec7bc064c522aa818d00b30af2342531.jpg)
Some of you may have seen this post I made back in July chronicling the brewing of a quart of beer. This did really happen, and the beer was perfectly adequate, but upon telling my brother of my triumphant micro exploits, he responded with a sigh, a roll of the eyes, and a fateful jeer: "what's next, a shot of beer?"
Yes, that's what's next. I took his acerbic words as a challenge and, as I'd just tested a method of mitigating the heat loss of small batch brewing, namely using a sous vide water heater, I had all the pieces I needed - a 50 mL graduated cylinder and a PET bottle with a CarbCap® were all that was needed to cook up this Frankenstein's monster of a beer
Technically speaking, the process was seamless: salt a gallon of water (see recipe below), crush some grain with a hammer, add that and hops to a sealed sous vide bag, mash at ~152˚, isomerize at ~180˚ (17% efficiency), run the tiny pouch under cold water to cool, strain into the "fermenter," place in a temp-controlled wine fridge at ~65˚, wait, cold crash, rack to PET bottle, carbonate, and enjoy. Surprisingly straightforward
As for the big question, the taste, I recorded the following notes: "Malty, round, yeasty, just a touch thin, no real off flavors besides light astringency possibly due to high temp mash, warm due to carbing method, would consider brewing a gallon of" [a gallon being my default size - stay tuned for a post on my all-electric HERMS & thermowell'd gallon setup]
Here's the recipe, and leave your hate mail below:
45 mL of Pale Kellerbier:
- 15 g Munich malt, DME to correct gravity if necessary
- 1.15 g 4% AA hops
- for the water: .6 so4, .5 cl per gal (make one gallon, divy)
- since 1 mL per g grain absorbed, use 75 mL water for mash
- mash w hops, 152˚ -> 180˚
- chill, rack to 50 mL graduated cylinder
- add .1-.2 g dry ale yeast, ferment at 65˚
- yield will be ~45 mL beer, 15 mL sediment
- carbonate at ~15 psi, 38˚, in a chilled PET bottle (the beer will, as it did for me, absorb a ton of heat and be raised into the high 50s/low 60s if you don't do this)
![2019-11-15 17.50.52.jpg 2019-11-15 17.50.52.jpg](https://cdn.homebrewtalk.com/data/attachments/594/594566-1d6941ba1ba688ca1f67bcc0b4001475.jpg)
![2019-11-15 17.50.25.jpg 2019-11-15 17.50.25.jpg](https://cdn.homebrewtalk.com/data/attachments/594/594567-70237bcaac4775d5d5ff57dc6fbcad12.jpg)
![2019-11-15 17.44.14.jpg 2019-11-15 17.44.14.jpg](https://cdn.homebrewtalk.com/data/attachments/594/594569-6766c6714a3bf8f4c3ba70f1cc8916f5.jpg)
![2019-11-02 20.30.34.jpg 2019-11-02 20.30.34.jpg](https://cdn.homebrewtalk.com/data/attachments/594/594572-85329d60a4d1b9418db9ad2d2f6df54c.jpg)
![2019-11-02 20.30.26.jpg 2019-11-02 20.30.26.jpg](https://cdn.homebrewtalk.com/data/attachments/594/594574-fc29aa71cb6a0b79cdb06146cefb93e7.jpg)
![2019-11-02 20.25.58.jpg 2019-11-02 20.25.58.jpg](https://cdn.homebrewtalk.com/data/attachments/594/594576-1546d0d6b0e6e0fd4c265e1dc00296d0.jpg)
![2019-11-02 17.19.57.jpg 2019-11-02 17.19.57.jpg](https://cdn.homebrewtalk.com/data/attachments/594/594578-e109726538e6b19cd1c46bc094d8b904.jpg)
![2019-11-02 17.12.45.jpg 2019-11-02 17.12.45.jpg](https://cdn.homebrewtalk.com/data/attachments/594/594579-99aa37f36dbc297e2515693904c61300.jpg)
![2019-11-02 17.27.18.jpg 2019-11-02 17.27.18.jpg](https://cdn.homebrewtalk.com/data/attachments/594/594580-99e1d15aa23fa587543fd6392b5ac6b7.jpg)
![2019-11-02 20.24.19.jpg 2019-11-02 20.24.19.jpg](https://cdn.homebrewtalk.com/data/attachments/594/594581-ec7bc064c522aa818d00b30af2342531.jpg)