Beer Updates – Apple and Pub Ales

This morning I spent some time cleaning kegs and kegging a couple of beers for the Brew-N-Que. 
The first beer I kegged was my Pub Ale.  I had brewed a second batch of this because the first batch didn’t attenuate nearly as much as I’d hoped.  I tested it again one last time today and the London Ale III yeast must have kicked back in.  The gravity had dropped 12 points from my last test and the beer is perfect at 4.6% abv.  Looks like the second batch that I brewed last weekend will be 5 extra gallons of beer to drink.
The second “beer” I kegged was my Apple Ale. This ale turned out pretty well.  My hydro sample had a week amount of apple flavor to it, which was more than I was expecting.  Usually when I use apple juice in anything the apple flavor completely ferments out.  This session ale clocks in at 3.6% abv and I added 3 cans  of Old Orchard 100% Apple Juice concentrate to the ale to boost the apple flavor.  I might only use 2 cans next time but the extra sweetness will probably go over well with the non beer drinkers in the crowd.  The beer had a very fizzy carbonation now that I hope carries into the finished beer.
I plan to give the Belgian Single another week in the fermenter and keg it next weekend.  This beer didn’t have any simple sugars added to it and I usually ferment all of my beers a minimum of 4 weeks to allow the yeast to clean up the beer and for any solids to settle out.

British Pub Ale – Take 2

 

My first Pub Ale turned out a bit on the sweet side.  My wife said it was still tasty, and I liked it …but it wasn’t what I was looking to brew.  This next beer will be used to either blend with the first one or be served as a second beer.  I bumped up the gravity a bit and gave it a “church mash”. 

“Church Mash” -  Mashed in with the grains and let it sit while I went to church.  I started the mash early and got to it a bit later after church so the mash was 3 hours.  At the end of the mash it was pretty thick.  I added my first sparge water just above the mash temperature to bring the grain bed back up to 152* and then vorlof’d the beer and then drained.  My second edition of sparge water was at mash out temperature. 

I found some old Goldings in my freezer from last year.  They still smelled passable so I adjusted their AA rating down from 5.8% to 5.2% and used them as my bittering hops.  I used my fresh EK Goldings as my flavor and aroma hops.  This years batch seems to be quite a bit better than last years.

The beer is sitting in a corny keg in my garage and will be fermented either tomorrow or Tuesday.  I haven’t checked on the original pub ale in a week or so.  Maybe I’ll check on it and be surprised.  I can think of worse problems than having 10 good gallons of beer on hand!

Malt Bill
Pounds	Type
8	Maris Otter
.5	Crystal 90
.25	Honey Malt
Hops
IBU	Type	Time
26	UK Kent Golding	60
7	East Kent Golding	15
1 Oz	East Kent Golding	5
Mash Schedule
Temp	Time
152F	180 minutes
155F	Batch Sparge
170F	Batch Sparge
Yeast	Safale S-04
Stats
5.5 gal	80% efficiency	IBU: 36

Belgian Single/Apple Ale

 

This is the second beer that I have brewed for the Brew-n-Que event.  I brewed a larger batch of this beer to split and make a second beer with will probably be for my own use.  I recently tried a new ale on the market, Redd’s Apple Ale.  Although this beer was a little sweet, I liked it quite a bit.  I am hoping to make something similar to Redd’s with the second half of the batch.

For the Apple Ale I am going to take 2 gallons of Mott’s apple juice and 3.5 gallons of the Belgian single.  I am going to ferment this with S-04 and keg.  I am going to add apple juice concentrate to to the beer when I keg it to give it additional apple flavor and some sweetness.  Kegging seems my best option since the ale will be back sweetened but I don’t want it to continue to ferment.

The Belgian Single is a beer that I have brewed before.  This beer is a great session beer and should go over real well.  People who usually aren’t beer drinkers like this beer.  It is low on the bittering side, malty, and slightly sweet.  I brewed a bit extra to be able to do a real wort starter which is currently on the stir plate with the wlp400.  I have two 5 gallon kegs currently in the garage cooling down with the wort in them.  My no chill beers so far have been great.  I haven’t had an infection with them yet and my beer always clears really well after a couple of weeks in the kegerator.  Another plus with doing no chill is that when I rack my beer to a fermenter I leave a TON of break material in the bottom of the kegs.  I get very clean beer going into the fermenter which helps keep the beer clear through out the whole process.

 

Malt Bill
Pounds	Type
11.75	Pilsner
1.75	Honey Malt
Hops
IBU	Type	Time
16	Tettnanger	60
Mash Schedule
Temp	Time
154F	60 minutes
175F	Batch Sparge
170F	Batch Sparge
Yeast	White Labs WLP400 – Belgian Wit
Stats
10 gal		IBU: 16

1st Annual Brew-n-Que and British Pub Ale

 

This year I am starting a new tradition.  I am going to have a homebrew sampling and I am going to make some of my pulled pork.  People have been invite with a Facebook invite.  The Que part will be run as a potluck.  I am hoping that we will have a backyard full of people …Rain or Shine (I have large popup tents).   The first beer that I made is my British Pub Ale.

This pub ale is a higher gravity version that then session version I usually brew for myself.  This recipe was one of the first beer recipes that I created when I started brewing.  I actually had a year and a half old sample that I found over at my Grandpa’s house (he is an avid Old Milwaukee Light drinker and couldn’t bring himself to drink something else).  This beer was still great after all of this time.  I usually add Fuggles to this brew but have changed it for only East Kent Goldings.  I opened up a brand new package I got from HopsDirect.com and it smelled so good I decided to only use them.

I am doing this batch as a No Chill brew with a Real Wort starter.  The last few beers I have done like that I have really been happy with.  I don’t have to waste a ton of water chilling the beer down and I don’t have to keep DME in stock to make starter wort with.  It is a win/win situation

 

Malt Bill
Pounds	Type
9	Maris Otter
1.25	Crystal 60
.25	Honey Malt
Hops
IBU	Type	Time
24	East Kent Golding	60
6	East Kent Golding	15
1 Oz	East Kent Golding	5
Mash Schedule
Temp	Time
152F	60 minutes
175F	Batch Sparge
170F	Batch Sparge
Yeast	Wyeast London Ale III
Stats
6 gal		IBU: 32

Belma Session Blonde Ale

 

I recently found a new hop while I was ordering from Puterbaugh Farms …Belma Hops.  Belma Hops were breed onsite by the Puterbaugh staff.

Description - A very clean hop, with a very orange, slight grapefruit, tropical (but not mango/guava, more like pineapple), strawberry, and melon

I have been looking for a hop that would be good in a session ale that I will keep permanently on tap as my every day drinking beer.  Belma’s description sounded really good, and at $5.25 a pound I threw this one in with my order.  I have a suspicion that next year once the word spreads this hop won’t be $5.25 a pound.

I burst hopped this beer and will dry hop it so I get the most out of the Belma’s.  I have heard recently this is a good accent hop to other hops, but I want to see how this hop does on its own.  I may use it with Citra or some other tropical flavored hop.  Try as I might I have never really developed a taste for Cascade or other C based hops.  I am usually more of a English/European hop guy.

The last batch of Mild that I No Chilled turned out great.  I am going to try again on this beer.  I’ll see how a lighter colored beer does with this.  I know when I siphoned my last batch out of the Corny keg and into the fermenter their was a lot of break material and hops that had settled out just like they do when I use my chiller.

Malt Bill
Pounds	Type
6	2 Row
.5	Crystal 20
Hops
IBU	Type	Time
10.5	Belma	20
6.5	Belma	10
1 Oz	Belma	Dry Hop
Mash Schedule
Temp	Time
150F	60 minutes
170F	Batch Sparge
170F	Batch Sparge
Yeast	Safale US-05
Stats
5.5 gal	75% efficiency	IBU: 17

British Session Beer–No Chill

 

I generally have a low strength session beer as one of my taps and I thought I’d try an easy recipe and try to make the process as quick as possible.  I’ve been following a thread on Home Brew Talk about No Chill brewing.

It always bothers me how long my chiller takes and how much water I waste when I am chilling my beers.  The only thing that was holding me back was not having Winpak containers.  Since Corny kegs are stainless steel I am going to try my no chill in one of those.  I am not going for anything long term, like storing wort for weeks at a time.  I just need a place for the wort to cool naturally over a day or 2 and not get infected before I pitch the yeast.

I brewing this beer now and plan on pitching the yeast on Sunday.  Next on my list of things to buy is some fermcap and a Bleeder Valve so I can ferment directly in the Corny and carb my beer as it ferments.  This will give me some beer from grain to glass in 7 days for some of my session beers.

Malt Bill
Pounds	Type
5	Maris Otter
1	Crystal 80
Hops
IBU	Type	Time
18	Kent Golding	60
Mash Schedule
Temp	Time
158F	60 minutes
170F	Batch Sparge
170F	Batch Sparge
Yeast	Safale S-04
Stats
5.5 gal	80% efficiency	IBU: 18

Bottle Processing–From Start to Bottle Day

 

Even though I have a have a kegging setup I still bottle a lot of beer.  Mostly I bottle beer to take to places with me or to give away.  For most batches of beer I’ll make 5.5-6 gallons and bottle a gallon or 2 and then keg the rest.  This gives me good kegged beer to drink at home and some bottles that are easy for transport.  It took me awhile to come up with a solution that made this as painless as possible.  First by two 5 gallons buckets.  I ended up getting mine from the bakery of a local grocery store.  They get their basic icing colors in them.  If you talk to them ahead of time and bring in a homebrew they are pretty easy to get.  The added homebrew even got mine cleaned out.

I have a coworker who goes through a lot of craft beer and he brings me in all of his bottles.  He drinks good stuff like Schafly and Founders which both use good, heavy bottles.  As payment I bring him in the occasional growler to take home.

I rinse all the bottles out, put them in the bucket, and fill with hot tap water. 

After the bucket is full I use a half scoop of Oxy Clean.  You can buy this in bulk at places like Sam’s Club and it is pretty reasonable.  I also use it in my laundry.

(Make sure you get the Unscented kind!)

After two days of soaking in the Oxy Clean water most of the labels fall off when you pick them up out of the bucket.  Sometimes there will be a bit of glue stuck to the bottle.  If that happens I put it bottle under running water and hit is with a scrubby pad.  After the two day soak the glue just falls off.  Once they are clean they get a trip through my dish washer.  If you want to use these right away don’t add any soap or other dishes to the load.  I usually store mine and run them with whatever else will fit in the load.

After the load is done you can store you bottles however you want.  On bottling day I run my bottles through the dishwasher again without soap or any other dishes in the machine.  I run a short cycle and make sure that you drying cycle is set to high.  Once the bottles are cool to the touch you are ready to bottle**.  I have a mobile dishwasher so I just put a crate on top of the dishwasher and set my bottle bucket on the crate.  I then grab the bottles as needed and fill, set a cap on top of them and put them on the cabinet.  Once I have a dozen or so I cap the down and do another dozen.

**As long as you don’t open the dishwasher your bottles will be just fine if you leave them in there for a few hours.  Sometimes I run them in the morning before work and bottle when I get home.  I have never had an infection or any other issue.  I have been using this method for over a year!