Homemade Beer Engine

Homemade Beer Engine

I built a simple Beer Engine last week so I could dispense beer at the Yard City Cask Festival.  I followed the basic procedure from Brew Your Own and it's essentially an 8" x 8" box made of plywood with a hole in the top for the RV rocket pump and tubing connecting to your keg.  At the last minute I ended up making the sprayer and I think it made a big difference.  The "cask conditioned" beer has a low level of natural carbonation and the sprayer helped aerate the beer a bit and form a nice head, which was good for my IPA aromas.  Pics of the actual festival to follow soon!!  

Saison Experiment

A few notes on my saison experiement:

1. Saisons

• In the words of K. Florian Klemp, "The French word for season, saison, has become a stylistic designation to distinguish a group of beers from Wallonia, the French-speaking region of Belgium. Today, these historically seasonal ales are brewed year-round. Saisons present a complex character that is both aggressive and subtle. Unmistakably Belgian and unequivocally rustic, they beckon exploration. "
• BCJP style description
• Ever since I first tried beer on my 21st birthday, porters have always been my favorite style. But over the last year or so, saisons have been giving it a run for the money.
• My idea was to do two different saisons: the first would be more traditional and get its spicy characteristics directly from a specific saison-style yeast; the second would use a more neutral belgian yeast and get flavor from the additions of spices and wildflowers
• Notable commercial examples: Boulevard Saison w/ Brett, Dupont Avec les Bons Voeux, Fantôme Saison, Moinette Biologique, Saison Dupont Vieille Provision, Southampton Cuvee des Fleurs and The Bruery Saison de Lente
  

2. Fermentation Temps

• While the general rule of thumb ale yeasts seems to be fermentation around 70 degrees on the high end, saison yeasts are recommended at 80 degrees or even higher
• That makes them perfect for summer and the higher temps should bring out the spice and fruity esters that saisons are known for
• I'm 4 days into Rêve de Wallonia and 3 days into Saison de Deux Médecine and have been keeping them in the kitchen for the most part to maximize the heat
• Ambient temps have been mostly in the 80's, reaching as high as 92 (!!)
  
• Fermentation has been strong and I will be taking samples in the next 3-4 days
  

3. Spices / Wildflowers

• Previously I've used a few spices (corriander, grains of paradise) in an Imperial Wit, but here I used several new to me.
  
• In the tradition of using local ingredients, I wanted to use wildflowers picked while on a backpacking trip. I picked a bunch, but many turned out to be inedible. Yarrow however worked. The dried yarrow I got was from Eastern Washington and the wildflower honey from Western Washington.
• I like the general idea of using wild ingredients and plan on doing a spruce tip IPA soon
  

4. Brettanomyces

• Another layer to this experiment was to use Brettanomyces wild yeast for the first time
• Vinnie Cilurzo of Russian River Brewing: Brettanomyces (also known as Brett) is feared by most brewers and winemakers alike. In fact, there are some local winemakers who will not set foot in our brewpub in Downtown Santa Rosa due to our use of Brettanomyces. Brettanomyces is actually yeast, it ferments and acts the same as every other "conventional" yeast, it just has the propensity to continue fermenting through almost any type of sugar, including those natural sugars found in the wood in an oak barrel. Brett is very invasive and if not handled properly can become out of control in a winery or brewery, but, if used properly with care, it can add rich aromas and flavors of earthiness, leather, smoke, barnyard, & our favorite descriptor-wet dog in a phone booth.
• While used for many years in classic beers such as Orval, brett has become quite popular in recent years and has been showing up in saisons as a secondary yeast
• My choice: Wyeast 5151-PC Brettanomyces claussenii - Isolated from English stock ale, this wild yeast produces a mild Brett character with overtones of tropical fruit and pineapple. It ferments best in worts with a reduced pH after primary fermentation has begun. May form a pellicle in bottles or casks. Typically used in conjunction with other yeast and lactic acid bacteria.
• Brett will certainly change the flavor of my beers and should also help them attenuate and dry out - something you want in a saison
  
• Using brett will requiring purchasing some new equipment, hoses, etc. b/c you can't rid the critters from anything that is porous; glass carboys will be fine
  

5. Batch Splitting

• I'm doing several new things with these two beers with the big one definitely being the brettanomyces
  
• In order to fully understand its impacts on each recipe, I will be only using it in part of each beer
  
• I will take each beer, split in half and only put brett in half; thus ending up with essentially four different beers
• The results should go along way in understanding not only brett, but also the high fermenation temps, use of spices, etc.
  
• This is something I plan on continuing in the future in regards to using oak again, adding fruit, etc.
  

Batch No. 18 - Saison de Deux Médecine

Saison de Deux Médecine

Brewed - July 26, 2009

Style - Saison
Source - Saison du Mont variation / Northern Brewer

Ingredients:

• 6.0 lbs. Pilsner LME
• 2.0 lbs. Vienna Malt (partial mash)
• 1.0 lbs. Flaked Oats (partial mash)
• 1.0 oz. Hallertauer (60)
• 1.0 oz. Hallertauer (15)
• 1.0 oz. Hallertauer (0)
• 1.0 lbs. Rainier Fireweed Honey (0)
• 4.0 oz. Dried Yarrow (0)
• 1.0 oz. Fresh Yarrow (0)
  
• 1.0 oz. Valencia Zest (0)
  
• 1.0 tbsp. Powdered Ginger (0)
• Wyeast #3522 Belgian Ardennes
• 750 ml starter w/ 1/2 cup DME

OG - 1.056
Primary - 7 days
Secondary - 28 days

Bottled - August 30, 2009

FG - 1.014
Attenuation - 75.0%
ABV - 5.5%

-------------------------------------------------------------------

2.5 gallons spiked with Brettanomyces Claussenii

Date - September 27, 2009
Secondary - 245 days

Bottled - May 19, 2010

FG - 1.006
Attenuation - 89.3%
ABV - 6.55%

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Notes:

• first time doing a partial-mash, which was a little tricky b/c I don't have a good strainer, second large pot or effective ways to maintain specific temperatures; it was good to finally try and with a few small improvements , should be an effective change in my brewing process and helping bring more flavor and body to my brews
  
• Yarrow is a white flowering plant that is found in Eastern Washington and many other areas; it is edible and is used in several herbal remedies
  
• some of the yarrow used was picked while backpacking in the Two Medicine area of Glacier National Park
  
• first time using a bunch of spices as well and i was nervous about quantities, esp. adding too much ginger and yarrow
• a small scale would be a good item to pick up so I can better measure the weights of the spices
  
• a hectic brewing day, including smashing my hydrometer and rushing to my buddy's place in the middle of the boil to borrow one...fun, fun
  
• fermentation not quite as vigorous as the first saison, but still going well - wort ended up being quite muddy brown and the krausen was dark green from the yarrow
  

My one shot during the mini-sparge



After yarrow was added

Summer Brewing

So last summer I basically closed shop for the warm weather months and decided not to even toy with the higher temps and slow cooling condo. Yet I've come to learn that there are several yeasts that can handle the higher temps and in a few cases, are recommended to ferment at 80 degrees or higher. Saison yeasts are good examples and I will be brewing two different types in the next few weeks.

But the wee heavy I brewed last weekend needed to stay near 70 degrees during primary fermentation. By late Sunday morning it was pushing 80 degrees, so I covered it with a wet towel, made an ice bath and tried to keep my pantry cool by covering the windows. It worked well and was just a tad below 70 degrees for several days.

First Yeast Starter

July 17, 2009

Over six months ago I purchased a simple yeast starter kit from Northern Brewer, but it had been sitting on my shelve collecting dust. In short, a yeast starter is a method of prepping your yeast to dramatically expand the yeast cell count. A healthier yeast count should speed the fermentation process and hopefully better attenuation. For stronger beers, say OG of 1.080+, a yeast starter is strongly suggested. I was planning on finally brewing my Wee Heavy on July 18th and with an projected OG of 1.083, this was finally the time to make one.

After some literature review and searching a few websites, I found that some of the water-to-wort ratios seemed quite different, but I stuck with something relatively close to my directions and used 750 ml of water with 3/4 cup of Golden Light DME.


Yeast Starter:

1. Smack yeast at least 6-8 hours before starting
   
2. Start at least 12 hours before pitching
   
3. Mix 3/4 cup of DME with 750 ml of water
4. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and slow boil for 15 mins.
5. Sanitize flask, stopper, etc.
6. Remove from boil and dump into flask
7. Cover top w/ tin foil and insert thermometer
   
8. Chill flask in ice bath to ~ 70 degrees
9. Once chilled, dump in yeast & insert airlock
10. Shake periodically & store at expected pitching temp
    

The whole process is quite simple and took just over 30 mins. A small stir plate would work wonders for a yeast starter, but minus one I did try to shake periodically. After 14.5 hours there was no noticeable activity (krausen or airlock activity), yet the starter was muddy brown with suspended yeast. Also the airlock bubbled pretty good after shaking, so some gas was built up. My flask is quite big (2 liter) compared to the actual starter (750 ml).



Covered with foil



Ice bath



All finished

National Homebrew Day @ Beacon Hill Brewing

May 2, 2009

On National Homebrew Day I had the pleasure of joining Colin at Beacon Hill Brewing to assist on two all-grain batches that would ultimately be sent to the National Homebrewers Conference (HBC) in San Francisco. Colin is a kick ass homebrewer and all around great guy who was eager to let me join in and show me the ropes.

I've been on brewery tours, but this was really my chance to see first hand the all-grain brewing process. Colin has quite the set up, which today was up on his porch to shield from some springtime rain. Not a bad spot with occasional views of the Cascades to the east. He has a tiered set up to allow gravity to feed the hot water to sparge the mash and then the wort drain into the kettle. The system may look a little rough around the edges, but every feature has been customized by Colin and it is a constant work in progress for improvements.

It was a great day and Colin always welcomed my questions as I tried to soak it all in. In between the technical chats, there was plenty of time to enjoy multiples of his homebrews that were pouring from his tap system (me so jealous!! haha). The goodies imbibed: Russian Imperial Stout, Robust Porter, Belgain Pale, Dopplebock, Cedar IPA, Still Nacht clone (11%!!) and a Belgian Golden. Also enjoyed my own Russian Lullaby with praises from both Colin and Rodney.

The brews of the day: Belgian Wit and Cedar IPA (IPA with whirlpool hop addition and aged on cedar chips)

Thanks Colin for a great day!! It gave me a lot to think about in terms of what homebrewing can be and what I want to accomplish as a homebrewer.









Ymmmmm.....dopplebock

Dry-hopping w/ Leaf Hops

Just a friendly PSA about dry hopping - using leaf hops sure looks pretty, but they are a royal pain when it comes time to siphon and bottle!!

Bottle Conditioning - Russian Lullaby

April 13, 2009

So this was the day I finally got around to bottling Russian Lullaby, my first Belgian Strong Golden Ale. With this beer I tried to do several things to improve and bring out the traditional BSGA character. The final step would be in my bottling and conditioning where I would add yeast along with sugar directly into the bottling process (the same yeast used during fermentation).

Here's a little rundown on bottling condition Belgian ales:
http://www.byo.com/stories/techniques/article/indices/14-bottling/1212-on-the-yeast-guide-to-bottle-conditioning

With some help from my buddy Colin, I was able to target my between 3.5 and 4.0 volumes of carb. This would mean that in addition to the yeast, I would also be using quite a bit more sugar than my normal bottling process. I would end up with about 16 oz. of sugar (1 cup).

Process:

1. Boil sugar for 5 mins. as normal
2. Let cool to approx. 75 degrees
3. You want to mix yeast and sugar solution at same temp)
4. Mix yeast and sugar into the bottling bucket
5. Continue bottling as normal

Another key here was to try and store the bottles around 70 degrees (or more) for at least 3 weeks to allow the yeast to do its thing. I did this next to a heater with a cardboard barrier.

All in all the process was quite easy and I am just pumped for this beer. Attenuation was fantastic and it came out to 7.5% ABV.

First taste from sample: Color was crystal clear gold (my lightest brew) with aromas of grass and apples; mildly sweet with lemons, flowers and yeasty notes; almost cidery in the uncarbed form; yeah!!!!


Photo of the sample:

First Bottling Day - oh yea!!

Date - November 25, 2007

So, four weeks in and I'm one more step to finishing my first beer!!

I don't remember too much from my first bottling experience, except for being obsessed with sanitizing. This seems to be the step where if you're not careful, you can ruin a whole batch of beer in no time.

A dishwasher here is very handy and in fact, bottling beer is the only time I use mine!! In general I use 22-oz. bombers to cut down on the amount of capping, but more and more I use 12-oz. bottles to allow for easier testing during the carbonation phase.

All in all my first day of bottling was quite smooth. Took me about 1.75 hours from start to finish and no major issues to report. That won't always bee the case...haha.

So, three weeks to carbonate - can I wait that long???

My general bottling procedure:

1. Sanitize dishwasher
   
2. Sanitize bottles - soak in bath of sanitized water; drip dry in dishwasher
3. Sanitize bottle caps and small rack for drying
4. Sanitize siphon, tubing, sample tube, bottling bucket, filler
5. Let everything have a little time to dry
   
6. Boil 5 oz. of corn sugar in 1 pint of water for ~ 10 mins.
7. Dump sugar in bottling bucket
8. Siphon beer into bottling bucket
9. Fill bottles
10. Cap bottles
11. Clean up and label caps
    

Sanitized bottles drying in my dishwasher



Getting ready to fill them up



Red Barron Capper



Two cases of beer!!!!



Sample and hydrometer

Transfer Batch No. 2

Date - November 23, 2007

The SnoPack Porter transfer was typical. Less hops resulted in less trub. Krausen never got as big, so less clean up on the primary. That might also be evidence of not enough fermentation as my attenuiation on this batach ended up quite low (55.6%).

*As time went on I took less and less photos of each brew day, but figured I share most of my earlier ones.

Second Brew Day - Full Boil

Date - November 10, 2007

The big change for batch #2 was obviously moving up to a full boil and using my new wort chiller. Not much was different from the first day and I was much more comfortable with the process, equipment, etc. This also marked my first porter, which has long been my favorite beer style.

But wow, what a long brew day compared to the first. Heating up 5+ gallons on your stove takes some serious time. On later batches I brewed with the oven on, but not sure how much that really helps.

The chiller worked pretty well; cooling the wort in about 30 minutes. Pretty good, but not that great and room for improvement. I did haven't nearly enough ice, so will stock up more next time. To sanitize the cooper, place the chiller directly into the wort during the last 10-15 minutes of the boil.




5+ gallons of boiling wort



Getting ready as the boiling nears completion



Chiller in at the end of the boil to sanitize



Chiller in and running



Finished w/ sample; nicely aerated

Transfer Batch No. 1

Date: November 4, 2007

At this point it's been 7 days since brewing.

Transferring from primary to secondary is pretty straightforward. The biggest concern here was keeping everything sanitary. I sanitized a new airlock, carboy (5 gal.), auto-siphon, tubing, funnel and thief for taking a sample. In the second photo you can see the auto-siphon taking the brew from the primary (above) to the secondary (below). Even though the auto-siphon has a protector on it, I generally hold it above the trub just to keep it from getting a little clogged and slowing down. After the transfer, you need to clean, clean and clean.

Also, it came to my attention later that not all homebrewers use an auto-siphon. This might be one of the most important items my beer kit came with - seriously!!

In this batch, I dry hopped 1.0 oz. of chinook hops in pellet form. Later one I would dry hop a beer using leafs hops. Long story short, dry hop with pellets!!



Krausen left overs



Transferring - gravity is key!!



Almost empty primary - plenty of trub



Dry hopped (pellets)



Hops starting to dissolve

First day homebrewing!!!

Date: October 28, 2007

So my first day homebrewing was also the same day the Red Sox completed a World Series sweep of the Rockies and I finished just in time to catch the game.

The temps were chilly on this fall morning, so I cranked heat for approx. 70 degree temp before starting yeast pack at 9:30 am; the inner pack seemed hard to break at first; process seemed slow to start, so shook package more and heard “crackling” inside

I PM’ed my friend Sharon w/ some final questions that now seem kind of silly:

1. Started my yeast pack a little while ago, but my place was really cold this morning and had to crank the heat first (says must be 70 degrees)....package hasn't swelled at all yet and could be a while before i can start boiling...should I be concerned?
2. My kit came with some specialty grains (that i need to smash up a little), malt syrup, DME powder and hops i need to put at 4 different times....the final being dry hop (secondary ferm)....the hops are very small pellets...do those just dissolve?
3. After pouring in the yeast, should you agitate the wort in the primary before letting it sit for fermentation?
4. I haven't seen anything in my instructions about straining...maybe b/c of my type of kit and small hop pellets, but do you recommend straining anyway, especially from kettle to primary? all I have is a strainer I use for pasta, etc.
5. Is it ok to sanitize a bunch of stuff (like what i need for today) all at once and let dry on a towel, or does sitting around for a bit still mess them up again?
6. When transferring from primary to secondary, no air should be getting into the secondary? my siphon hose doesn't fit into the rubber stopper so the top of the secondary would be open to the air during the whole transfer
   

She was helpful with answers, but also words of wisdom to relax and not worry so much.

Time to start!!!!

1. 12:00 pm - Place specialty grains into plastic bag and crush; pour grains into mesh sock; some grains escape
2. 12:15 pm – Pour 1.5 gallons into kettle and begin to cook
3. 12:19 pm – Start to steep specialty grains
4. 12:32 pm – water temp reaches 170°; remove grains (13 minutes)
5. Prep extracts
6. 12:50 pm – water reaches boil (35 minutes)
7. Remove kettle from stove
8. Add liquid extract (like sludge – next time soak in hot water first)
9. Add DME (poured too fast and formed big clumps)
10. 1:00 pm – extracts all mixed in; cloudy brown
11. 1:03 pm – Kettle put back on burner
12. 1:25 pm – Wort boiling; time for hops; 1.0 oz. chinook @ 60 min.
    
13. 2:15 pm - 0.5 oz. chinook hops @ 10 min.
14. 2:24 pm - 0.5 oz. chinook hops @ 1 min.
15. lots of foaming and lovely hop aromas; prep cooling tub
16. 2:25 pm – Boil is complete; place wort in cooling tub (some ice)
17. While wort cools, all equipment is sanitized
18. 3:10 pm – wort is under 80° (45 minutes)
19. The next steps happen in a flurry
20. Fill primary carboy w/ 3 gallons
21. Dump wort into carboy using funnel
22. Fill up to 5 gallon mark with water
23. Sanitize wort package and scissors
24. Pitch yeast (pour down funnel – ok?)
25. Stopper with lock (and water)
26. Very little trub left in kettle
27. Clean up and done by 4:45 pm
    

Steeping the grains



LME/DME mixed in



Boiling away after first hop addition



Trying to chill wort



Sanitized equipment



All finished

Prep for first brew day

Date: October 27, 2007

This biggest thing on this day was just getting used to some of the equipment and trying to figure out positions, etc. I didn't want to be totally blind on brew day.

1. For my water I decided to pick up a 5-gallon water jug and then get it filled at local markets. I don't necessarily think anything is wrong with my tap water, but figured this was a good way to keep it consistent. Not sure when or if I'll get into the pH testing, etc.
2. Unpacked stater kit, checked contents
3. Filled up each carboy and marked gallon levels w/ tape
4. Practiced siphoning
5. Cleaned/sanitized some equipment from shipping, etc.
   
6. Pickup up big plastic tub for cooling the wort
7. Reviewed instructions and beer ingredients