Brewing today

[missing link]

I'm on my third all grain brew. A Munich Helles from the Brewing Classic Styles book. I did 2 equal batch sparges this time.

Once I'm done with my last sparge I'll take a pre-boil reading and see how I did.

No real news, just recording the moment.

Linc

 

[Rick_R]

I bought and received (from amazon) Brewing Classic Styles a couple of days ago. I'm adjusting the next two brews (ingredients en route) based on the book; hope it's accurate.

Good luck with your brew.

Rick

 

[RLinNH]

Not Brewing till tomorrow. I finished up my Starter about an hour ago, and it's already going strong.


Good luck on your 3rd AG Batch today and let us know how everything went once your done.

 

[Brew-boy]

You lucky bastards- you guys brewing and stuff and I am at work.

 

[missing link]

I'm draining into the carboy now. I've got a yeast starter ready to add. The one thing that AG and Beer Smith do best is teach me what I am doing and how it affects my outcome. Measuring pre-boil gravity and volume to compare to the book, boil off rates etc, all help me understand what I am doing much beter than just following a recipe.

SO now I have 2 dry taps and three full primaries. As soon as these 3 get racked over to bright tanks, I am going to brew 3 more real quick.

Linc

 

[WBC]

I'm draining into the carboy now. I've got a yeast starter ready to add. The one thing that AG and Beer Smith do best is teach me what I am doing and how it affects my outcome. Measuring pre-boil gravity and volume to compare to the book, boil off rates etc, all help me understand what I am doing much beter than just following a recipe.

SO now I have 2 dry taps and three full primaries. As soon as these 3 get racked over to bright tanks, I am going to brew 3 more real quick.

Linc

You are brewing the beer I am going to brew this next week. I do not see many posts about brewing a Helles and that is very good beer. I am using the WLP830 yeast on a black beer (schworzbier) and it did really good at 53 F. I don't have an idea what grains you used but would be interested. I will be using this same yeast for the Helles

 

[missing link]

10 lbs pilsner
12 oz munich malt
4 oz melanoiden
1 oz Mt hood hops.

Recipe is from the brewing classic styles. It called for the WLP-830 yeast but LHBS only had the WLP-820, still a german lager yeast but not exactly what the recipe called for.

Almost 24 hours and no activity even with a 2 quart starter in it.

Linc

 

[WBC]

Keep waiting. You should see a slight foam (very thin) on the top of the beer when it gets going. Lager yeast takes longer to get going at low temps and using a starter helps a lot too. I used a starter myself and it was going after 8 hours.

 

[missing link]

It's starting now. This my first time doing a primary in a 6 gallon carboy. All previous batches have been in a bucket. I'm excited to peek in the freezer occasionally.

Does anybody here do the Jamil version of fermenting a lager? He chills to 40 degrees, pitches his yeast and puts it in the fermentor set to 50. It takes a day or 2 for the fermentor to warm up and the yeast slowly take off but he claims a much better result.

In my case, I chilled to 58, pitched the yeast and put the carboy in my chest freezer set to 54 degrees. My previous lagers I let the yeast get started at 70 degrees before chilling to 52.

Linc

 

[menschmaschine]

Glad to see more people brewing helles. I brewed a helles last weekend. 85/10/5 with Pilsen/Munich/Carapils respectively with a single decoction. I used WLP838 in a 3 qt starter, pitched it at "high-krausen" (for a starter) and had bubbles in the airlock in under 12 hours. I'm interested in Jamil's method as well. I just couldn't get my wort below 58F, so I pitched it at that temp. I'll just do a diacetyl rest. I think it will be good anyway.

One other thing I learned from Jamil... to get some bubble wrap (or other insulating material) and use it to tape the probe of the temperature control to the carboy, instead of just letting it dangle in the chest freezer. This more accurately measures what the fermentation temp is as opposed to the ambient temp in the freezer. I think with a helles especially, it's better to stay in the lower end of the range for the yeast you use. This results in a cleaner fermentation since there is nowhere for fruitiness to hide in a helles.

 

[WBC]

You did great as it is hard to have all the refrigerators to ferment all our beers at correct temps. I too only have so much room for everything and so other beer will have to wait. Once I start lagers I like to brew consecutive batches and keg them for aging which takes up less room in corny kegs than in carboys. In the past I have stacked them in the temp controlled (Ranco controller) freezer to lager. I have tried both methods of pitching yeast colder (Jamil's) and then raising to 53F and pitching at 70F and then when I see some activity going down to 53F but can't say yet that I can tell the difference between each method because they were not the same exact beer but I will try this at later brew session. What I like about Jamil's method is that I can take yeast starter right out of the fridge and pitch it into a 40 F wort and you know that it never lingered at 70 for a long period which should produce the cleanest profile. I know that a lot of brewers on this forum resist trying lagers because of the fear of temperature control but the lager beers that I have made are oh soooo good that it keeps me brewing more and the best part is that it takes less hops.

 

[Got Trub?]

I just listened to one of his podcasts where he described his technique in more detail and am set to try it myself next week with a Vienna lager. He actually leaves his wort in the boil kettle overnight in his fermentation chamber at 44F. This chills it down from what he can get from his counterflow chiller and allows the most trub/cold break to settle out. He then transfers to the primary the next day and pitches his yeast.

GT