Tag: beer brewing

March 10, 2022 – Brewing a Second Batch

March 10, 2022 /

I know the dust hasn’t settled yet on my last one but I have enough bottles to do another batch. And, I wanted to do another lager while the temperature is cool to prove to myself this wasn’t a fluke. Third, I am going to re-pitch the yeast from my Mexican beer so it will save me $13 on this batch.

I ordered a Mai Bock kit. I know, another kit but I am not quite ready to go full fledged grain brewing yet. I need to prove to myself that I can do things consistently and to my expectations before I take the next step. I don’t think it will be too long at this point. I envision kits and extract brewing to be miles simpler and quicker as well. I certainly don’t need more complications to add to my life.

Mai translates to May in German. It is sometimes called helles as well and is know as a festival beer. Think the spring counterpart to Marzen (or Octoberfest). I feel like celebrating the change of seasons. Mostly, I wanted a different style that uses the same yeast as my Mexican lager and this was it.

This one is going to be even simpler than the last one. There is only one hop addition at the beginning of the boil. Maybe I should back up a quick minute on brewing in general. I know that I haven’t talked about it a whole bunch, only aspects of brewing.

You start with boiling some water. The books recommend half of the overall water. I generally do less because of pot size and I can add hotter wort to colder water and spend less time cooling. It does come with downsides because the more concentrated the wort, the less of the alpha enzyme (hops) transfer. I have tried to add additional hops in the past to the boil to try and compensate.

As I was saying, boil some water, add some malt extract, add some hops if using adjuncts (other grains and flavorings) and boil for the time the style dictates. Cool down to pitching temperature, top off with additional water for the total batch size and add yeast. That is it for brewing. Bottling or what to do with it when it is finished is a whole separate topic.

My Mexican lager is now ‘lagering’. Lagering is a rest and clarification period that occurs after brewing. I will hold it in the keezer around 35 degrees for a month and then it will be ready for kegging. If I do my math correctly, that means it should be ready somewhere in early April. This means that my fermenting carboy is open, I have bottles ready to go and I have one more secondary carboy for lagering. Sounds like an invitation to brew again.

End Your Programming Routine: This is how I get myself into trouble. I have a tendency of having too many experiments going without having results yet. Using reloading as an example, I have loaded all of my empty brass without really shooting any of it. Right now, I don’t know if I have to make any tweaks yet. This is one reason why I haven’t pushed it too hard because I need a chance to observe what I have done. But, if we are not challenging ourselves, then are we really continually learning?

February 22, 2022 – Making a Yeast Starter

February 22, 2022 /

I dont have my old notes anymore. They sent them with my original set of brewing equipment when I sold it. However, from what I remember, it was an Octoberfest (or Marzen style) and I used a liquid yeast. I struggled with getting the fermentation started.

It was summertime in South Carolina; so it was hot. When my yeast arrived, the icepack had melted and the package was hot and bloated a little. I think my interpretation of the instructions were to pitch the yeast around room temperature and then take the temp down to fermenting temp over the course of a day.

I had a temperature controlled refrigerator so I pitched the yeast and hoped for the best. It did start fermenting, so I put it in the refrigerator and fermenting stopped. I think I tried it two or three more times to the point where I gave up and let it finish out at ale (room) temperature.

I guess to be technical, the brew didn’t fail. It just didn’t ferment at lager temperatures. It certainly didn’t result in what I wanted, because of the temperatures and I contrasted liquid versus dry yeast yesterday. This time, I thought that I would make a yeast starter to kick start my anticipated sluggish start.

Just like making bread, you get the yeast hydrated and give it some food. This in theory makes it ready to take off when pitched. So, I thought I would give it a shot.

Making a starter is a micro beer batch.

  1. A container with lid
  2. Yeast
  3. Malt Extract
  4. Sanitizer
  5. Water

This is probably a place where using Malt Extract makes sense even if you are doing whole grain brewing. In fact, yeast can be re-used if you are going to immediately start brewing the same style of beer. It can be stored in the refrigerator, in a sanitary container for a couple of weeks. I have never had enough space or bottles to do sequential brewing but it is a place to save $12 a batch if you were going to do such a thing. Maybe with this new kegging system I will speed up production volume?

Heat up water to boiling, pour into a sanitized container. Add 1/2 cup of malt extract and dissolve. Cool the liquid down to pitching temperature. Add the yeast and top the container with a sanitized lid (that will let CO2 out). Do this two up to two days before brewing and that is it. I did it the day before I brewed.

End Your Programming Routine: The reality is, I don’t know if this was the trick or the fact that the yeast was dry, not cooked or the brewing temperature is a little warmer than my Marzen attempt. The wort was fermenting the next morning. I won’t concretely say this is the way to go but I am pretty sure this is the fastest I have ever seen fermentation kick-off. Usually, it really starts going day 2.