Milling and Harvesting

It was a big weekend for homebrew production. I built a malt mill and harvested my cascade hops! I based my malt mill on the barebones version of Jack Schmidling's MaltMill.
Barebones Malt Mill (from Jack Schmidling Productions, Inc.)

I had to build the table and the hopper, but the money I saved in doing it myself, I was able to buy an electric drill to motor the whole contraption. I used medium density fiberboard for the table and the sides of the hopper. I used a lightweight smooth fiberboard with staples for the hopper. I added dropped edges on the table so it fits snugly on top of a bucket. I bolted the mill onto the table with 1/4" bolts and the hopper attaches to the top with 1/4" bolts.
This malt mill holds 12.5 pounds of uncrushed grain.

Gorilla glue sealed the edges inside the hopper where I narrowed the chute.

The hop harvest was outstanding. We clipped the vine down and brought it over to the deck where we began picking. There were so many flowers it was quite a chore for two people. I did not expect this quantity! The net product was half a paper grocery bag.

To dry them out we first cut paper bags in the shape of a bin and covered them, leaving plenty of breathing room.

It was a long weekend, so I decided to put together a proper hop bin, with a screened bottom for faster drying. They will sit in the sun room for 3 days or so and then be packed and frozen.

Raisin Abbey Dubbel

My best Abbey Dubbel yet! I have it on tap for special occasions. This will knock you out.

Recipe
10.0 lbs 2-row
2.0 lbs wheat
2.0 lbs cara-pils
1.0 lbs crystal 60L
1.0 lbs brown malt
1.0 lbs rauch malt
1.5 lbs brown sugar
1.5 lbs raisins (puree with hot wort, steep 15 min)
1 pk 1388 Wyeast Belgian Strong Ale
1.5 oz Kent Goldings (60 min)
0.5 oz Saaz (20 min)

On a side note, I was up in Madeline Island for the 4th of July, and I went kayaking through a sea cave, check it out!

Dunkin Coffee Stout

In honor of the drink that America runs on, I made a delicious coffee stout using 2 cups of fresh Dunkin Donuts Original Blend coffee beans, ground with a burr grinder. I used a nylon sack as an extra large tea bag, and just dipped for a period of 5 minutes, immediately after shutting down the boil. The coffee taste in the final product is less than subtle, but delicious and sweet. You know the roast flavor is coming from the coffee and not the roasted barley.

Recipe:
13.0 lbs 2-row
2.5 lbs crystal 60L
0.5 lbs roasted barley
0.25 lbs black patent
0.25 lbs chocolate malt
1.5 oz Northern Brewer (60 min)
0.5 oz Willamette (10 min)
2.0 cups whole Dunkin coffee beans
1 pack Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale

Second season Hops

I planted my Cascade hops last year, so this is the second growing season for them. They are monsters compared to last year, with about three times the growth. They outgrew my fence so I built a makeshift trellis, allowing them to keep growing tall.

Look at these beauties!


To build the hop trellis, I ran some garden twine from one tree to another above the fence they were growing on, about 10 feet from the ground. Then I hung smaller pieces of twine from it and tied them to the fence. The result was a very inexpensive hop trellis. The vines immediately attached to the twine, and are already maxing out the trellis!

Compare the growth from last year!

Latest cash in from the fermentors: Vanilla Stout and Pale Ale

My first decoction mash

18 hours

I read an article in this month's Beer Advocate magazine that was basically a recipe and guide for brewing a terrific Marzen but without going through the procedure of a decoction mash. It called for one pound of melanoidin malt, which is a special kind of malt containing highly extractable levels of melanoidin. Melanoidin is found in Munich and Vienna malt and is a key in giving German Oktoberfest beers their authentic flavor. I called both brew shops, neither one had melanoidin malt. There was only one thing to do: learn how to do a decoction mash.

Decoction mashing is basically the procedure of heating up a portion of the mash to a boil and then mixing the heated portion back into the mash, raising the temperature of the mash to the next "step." The boiling of the mash results in a distinct malty flavor due to the Maillard reaction which causes a non-enzymatic browning of the sugars in the malt.

Recipe:
5.5 lbs 2-row
5.0 lbs Munich
3.5 lbs Vienna
0.75 oz Tettnanger (add during sparge)
0.33 oz Hallertau 40 min.
0.50 oz Hallertau 20 min.
Wyeast 2308 Munich Lager

Decoction mash:
Mash at 130F with 1.5 quarts of water per pound of grain. After 20 minutes, take one third of the mash and heat to 170F. Add back to mash; the mash temperature should level off to 150F. If it does not, stir the mash around and take another one third of the mash and repeat the first process. In actuality the more times you perform this step the better decoction you will have. When the mash reaches a temperature of about 153F, maintain for 60 minutes. After that sparge and proceed normally.

0 hours

18 hours

Peach Pear melomel

My parents came to visit this weekend and I wanted to brew something quick and easy with Dad since he hasn't made a brew with me before. He's a big fan of the cyser I've made in the past so I thought I'd do a mead to show how easy it is to start one, plus I don't have a mead going currently. A general rule of thumb is always have at least one mead going (they take forever so why not?). I decided on a peach/pear/apple melomel.

Recipe:
15 lbs. honey
2 gallons apple cider
2 gallons peach puree
2 gallons pear puree
3 teaspoons pectic enzyme
Wyeast 4184 Sweet Mead

Instructions:
Smack yeast. Bring 2 gallons apple cider to boil, slowly stir in 15 pounds of honey to create must. Boil for 15 minutes, using metal strainer to pull out honey comb and other impurities. Drop the must to 70 degrees with cold bath, add 2 gallons peach puree, 2 gallons pear puree, 3 teaspoons pectic enzyme, and yeast. Store and rack as desired until mead reaches your preferred level of attenuation.


My carboy couldn't fit the volume of mead I had, so I poured the leftover must into some growlers. Notice the pectic enzyme floating on top of the puree in the carboy. The layer of pectic enzyme is slowly dropping to the bottom of the carboy as it extracts the juice from the pectin. The fact that I added the puree after the boil means the pectin was not damaged, so the enzyme will be able to get a good extraction of juice, resulting in a fragrant and strong finished product.

Taking it up a Notch

Muktesh, Kevin, Pete, Eric, Ashley (Eric's girlfriend... wait, Eric has a girlfriend??) and I were on a mission. Brew 25 gallons of beer, the equivalent of around 250 bottles of beer. This was the first use of my two 15.5 gallon keggles. Let's get started.


I started the mash for the first batch, which was 10 gallons of Oak-aged Cascade IPA, 26 pounds total grain bill.


Meanwhile, Pete was starting his mash for a 5 gallon Shackleton porter clone.


After the Shackleton was complete, we prepared for another 10 gallon batch, this time a Dark Licorice Stout, 33 pounds total grain bill. Today we totalled a 50 pound sack of 2-row, impressive!


Hard work will pay off when these gems are ready... Here are the recipes (5 gallon measurements):

Oak-aged Cascade IPA
10.0 lbs. 2-row
2.0 lbs. crystal 60L
1.0 lbs. Victory (toasted) 2-row
1.0 oz. Perle 60 min.
0.5 oz. Cascade 30 min.
0.5 oz. Cascade 15 min.
1.0 oz. Cascade dry hopped during rack to secondary
3.0 oz. Oak chips during rack to secondary
1 Wyeast 1098 Brit Ale

Dark Licorice Stout
13.0 lbs. 2-row
2.5 lbs. crystal 60L
0.5 lbs. black patent
0.5 lbs. roasted barley
3.0 oz. Willamette 60 min.
1.0 oz. Licorice root 20 min.
0.5 oz. Willamette 10 min.
0.5 oz. Willamette 0 min. (end of boil)
1 Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale

Shackleton Porter (Beware this fantastic recipe)
9.0 lbs. Marris Otter 2-row
2.0 lbs. 2-row
2.0 lbs. wheat malt
2.0 lbs. peat-smoked malt
1.0 lbs. Rauch malt
1.0 lbs. chocolate malt
1.0 lbs. roasted barley
1.0 oz. Cascade 60 min.
1.0 oz. Perle 30 min.
1 Wyeast 1028 London Ale

30 gallons of brew in my basement!!

Yeast Culturing

Some beer recipes I will be posting soon include:
Rye Lager
Shackleton Smoked Porter
Smoked Chili IPA
Ginger Saison
Cherry Trippel
Franziskaner Hefe-weisse clone

So... I decided that I need another brew on tap, my kegerator has been dry for some time now. I've been experimenting with different wheat brews, trying to get something that tastes like a Franziskaner. Wyeast just doesn't come close. So I've decided to culture some yeast from the bottom of a Franziskaner Hefe-weisse.

How to culture yeast from your favorite beer.

Equipment:
two 12 oz. empty beer bottles
2 bottle caps and capper
2 rubber stoppers that fit an airlock and a 12 oz. bottle
2 airlocks
grain alcohol or vodka
cotton swabs
a lighter
one-step cleaning solution
2 quarts of wort
2 bottle conditioned beers that have yeast to culture

It is important to note that this process must take place 2 days in advance of the brewing day that you wish to use this yeast with.


The first step is to buy a couple (2) bottles of beer that were bottle conditioned or have a yeast build-up on the bottom of the bottle. Set the beers out at room temperature.

Put the rubber stoppers and airlocks in a bath of one-step cleaning solution. Fill the two empty bottles with one-step and water. Set aside.

Put two bottle caps in the grain alcohol, or boil caps to sterilize.

Next step is to get a hold of some wort. You can either set aside 2 quarts of wort from your latest brew, or make a small batch of wort. To make 2 quarts of wort, boil 2 quarts water with 6 oz. of dry or liquid malt extract, and a small handful (1/4 oz. or so) of hops for a preservative quality.


Boil wort for 30 minutes then strain out the hops and turn off the heat. Pour the cleaning solution from the bottles, dip a cotton swab in the grain alcohol or vodka, and sterilize the mouth of one beer bottle. Heat the mouth of the beer bottle with the lighter. Using a funnel pour the hot wort into the bottle. Repeat process with the second bottle. Immediately cap with the bottle caps that were soaking in grain alcohol or boiling.




Let hot bottles of wort cool at room temperature for one hour. After one hour, you may refrigerate the bottles to rapidly cool them or to store them for future yeast culturing. They will need to be 70 degrees before you can use them for yeast culturing.


When bottles of wort are at 70 degrees (about room temperature), open the bottles of beer that have the yeast you wish to culture. Pour the beers into drinking vessels for your enjoyment but leave 1.5 inches in each bottle. Swirl the yeast around in the bottom of the bottle to loosen it.

Uncap the bottles of wort, swab with grain alcohol and heat mouths of bottles, then dump the 1.5 inches of yeast from each bottle into each bottle of wort. Attach the rubber stoppers and airlocks that were sanitizing in the bath of one-step.


Let the bottles ferment for 1 day between 60-70 degrees with the airlocks attached. After that you can put the bottles with airlock attached in the refrigerator for at most 4 weeks before they must be pitched into your latest batch of 5 gallon wort. Make sure there is active fermentation before putting them in the refrigerator. Sterilize the mouths of the bottles before pitching, using the swab of grain alcohol and a lighter.