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