Brewmaster bucket challenges

Almost looks too good to be true.  However, as most NEIPA brewers know: oxygen is the enemy.  My previous batch turned out quite excellent, and held it’s straw yellow color until the keg floated (just yesterday actually).  This batch tested out a different grain bill, moar hops, of course, and replacing the Huell Melon hop (which is very melon focused, no doubt) with some flavors I prefer:  Mosaic, Meridian, Amarillo, Azacca.  I wanted a more citrus focus.

This was my second batch in the brewmaster bucket with FTSS2 connected to the glycol chiller.  The fermentation process went just fine as with the first batch.  I’d pull a sample every day for the first seven days.  I was a bit paranoid that the previous batch had some bit of diacetyl because I kegged the thing after 6 days.  This batch I was determined to avoid this and employed the forced diacetyl tests and held the beer at 71F until I was certain there was nothing left.  After crashing, I dry-hopped the batch with another 4 ounces of hops and things were tasking _amazing_.   Then came transfer day.

Yeah.  I could not get any flow out of this bucket.  You can’t pressurize it.  That is possible with modifications and replacing the lid but that isn’t easy when using the FTSS coils, and even if I switched it would expose the beer to tons of O2!  I worked the the sample value until it started leaking and was about to come out.  With nothing left to help the transfer all I had left was to _pour_ the beer from the bucket into the keg.

The bucket definitely could not handle that amount of hops and yeast.  And rotating the sample value wasn’t helpful as it became loose.  And I had to guess if I had the tube facing upward or down.  No fun at all.   The beer in the end came out alright but the color is full of oxygen now and it’ll drink OK but won’t last.  I’ve already found a replacement for this bucket and looking forward to the first beer out of it. For now, here’s the recipe. I’ll need to repeat this on the new equipment to compare.

Recipe Details

Batch Size Boil Time IBU SRM Est. OG Est. FG ABV
6 gal 60 min 69.4 IBUs 6.0 SRM 1.064 1.019 6.0 %
Actuals 1.064 1.017 6.2 %

Style Details

Name Cat. OG Range FG Range IBU SRM Carb ABV
American IPA 13 2 1.056 - 1.075 1.01 - 1.018 40 - 70 6 - 15 2 - 2.8 5.5 - 7.5 %

Fermentables

Name Amount %
Brewers Malt 2-Row (Briess) 6.5 lbs 44.07
Golden Promise (Simpsons) 5 lbs 33.9
Carafoam 1.5 lbs 10.17
Aromatic Malt (Briess) 1 lbs 6.78
Acidulated (BestMälz) 8 oz 3.39
Dextrose (Briess) 4 oz 1.69

Hops

Name Amount Time Use Form Alpha %
Columbus/Tomahawk/Zeus (CTZ) 0.35 oz 30 min Boil Pellet 15.5
Apollo 1 oz 20 min Aroma Pellet 18
Azacca 1 oz 20 min Aroma Pellet 15
Citra 1 oz 20 min Aroma Pellet 14.4
Idaho #7 1 oz 20 min Aroma Pellet 13
Citra 1 oz 14 days Dry Hop Pellet 12
Idaho #7 1 oz 14 days Dry Hop Pellet 13
Idaho #7 1 oz 14 days Dry Hop Pellet 13
Meridian 2 oz 7 days Dry Hop Pellet 6.5
Mosaic 2 oz 7 days Dry Hop Pellet 11.6

Miscs

Name Amount Time Use Type
Calcium Chloride 5.28 g 60 min Mash Water Agent
Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) 2.64 g 60 min Mash Water Agent
Phosphoric Acid 1.20 ml 60 min Mash Water Agent

Yeast

Name Lab Attenuation Temperature
German Ale/Kolsch (WLP029) White Labs 75% 65°F - 69°F

Mash

Step Temperature Time
Saccharification 158°F 35 min
Mash Out 168°F 15 min

Notes

Calcium Cloride @ 1g / Gal. , Gypsum @ 0.5g / Gal

Houston, we have Haze

#NotHoustonHaze #IBrewedThat

Two-story Nor’Easter IPA — looking quite hazy!

Has it really been almost six months since the last brew? Yes. Yes it has. It turns out that life, including moving your house does happen to take up precious brewing time. We moved, not far, in April and it was a crazy time with getting the old house in order, buying a new house, selling the old and figuring out what to do with all of the things… (#kondotime).

#leverage

New garage/brewery layout. I used some of the shelves from the shed and I’m looking forward to using hooks and a pulley to add/remove kegs from keezer.

It does bring a small tear to my eye that I no longer have a BattleShed, as it was affectionately called for some time. Good friends of mine worked many hours to help insulate and prepare the shed to perform as a beer cellar. There were many ups and downs with the shed. I won’t forget the first time I tried to roll at 15 Gallon barrel up into the shed; I eventually got it in there. I also remember walking out in the morning and hearing the AC unit “announce” that it had frozen the coils again. After nearly 4 years of shed-life, one thorough cleaning of the AC unit to restore full functionality and a quarter of the floor being destroyed due to water leakage from a said AC unit it was time to say goodbye.

#leakfree

Brewbucket water leak test. Definitely needed. Had to swap where o-rings were and check fittings.

With the shed gone and new new replacement it did mean some hard decisions on future brewing. Upgrading to the half-barrel Chronical was a massive improvement in beer quality (not to mention quantity). However, during experimentation phase, it did punish the budget (NEIPAs are super pricey when making 15 gallon batches), and mean that even successful batches didn’t get completely consumed soon enough to avoid going bad. So, I’m transitioning back to five or six gallon batches. I picked up a SS Brewtech Brewbucket with the cooling attachments which work perfectly with the existing glycol chiller loop I have. And later this summer I’ll also switch to electric brewing; looking forward to the easier mash temp control. More on that later.

#ElectricBrewer #WhenWillThenBeNow #Soon

Brewstand still holding up. Put the 30G up for the HLT and moved the 20G back to boil kettle.

What to brew for a first batch then? I had stepped away from NEIPAs while I worked out more details on recipes, techniques, malt bills, pH, hop creep, yeast strains; the whole nine yards. I’m a huge fan of Scott Janish’s blog which explored so many aspects of NEIPAs that I found to be critical to producing a really excellent beer of the style. The recent recipe from Scott caught my eye and I decided to start there. The other area of interest that I’ve been chasing down was a local brew pub (Pint House Pizza) which makes some really top-notch NEIPAs in our area has mentioned in several interviews that their house strain is not as affected by diacetyl and hop-creep as other well known strains. Joe Morhfield of PHP is very open about recipes and providing feedback to homebrewers; but on this point they keep their house strain to themselves. I don’t know definitively but I’m making an educated guess and for this batch I picked up White Labs German Ale yeast (WLP 029). I’ve seen several threads about a “fruity” ale yeast which finishes fairly dry.

Let’s see how this one comes out.  The recipe follows after some brewday pics!

Enjoy!

#granola

Milky Oatmeal with that Flaked Barley

#Heady

Where was my larger nylon bag? #IHateMoving

#swatter

Fly sparge!

#NoFilter

Transfers are really simple with gravity and no poppet valves.

#SmellTheHops

Co2 Blanket added to source and destination

Recipe Details

Batch Size Boil Time IBU SRM Est. OG Est. FG ABV
6 gal 60 min 62.8 IBUs 4.0 SRM 1.061 1.018 5.6 %
Actuals 1.05 1.012 5.0 %

Style Details

Name Cat. OG Range FG Range IBU SRM Carb ABV
American IPA 13 2 1.056 - 1.075 1.01 - 1.018 40 - 70 6 - 15 2 - 2.8 5.5 - 7.5 %

Fermentables

Name Amount %
Brewers Malt 2-Row (Briess) 7 lbs 51.85
Barley, Flaked 3 lbs 22.22
Wheat - Red Malt (Briess) 3 lbs 22.22
Acidulated (BestMälz) 8 oz 3.7

Hops

Name Amount Time Use Form Alpha %
Columbus (Tomahawk) 0.35 oz 30 min Boil Pellet 14
Cascade 1.98 oz 30 min Aroma Pellet 5.5
Citra 1.98 oz 15 min Aroma Pellet 12
Columbus (Tomahawk) 1.76 oz 15 min Aroma Pellet 14
Citra 0.99 oz 14 days Dry Hop Pellet 12
Galaxy 0.99 oz 14 days Dry Hop Pellet 14
Huell Melon 1.98 oz 2 days Dry Hop Pellet 7.2

Miscs

Name Amount Time Use Type
Calcium Chloride 5.60 g 60 min Mash Water Agent
Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) 2.40 g 60 min Mash Water Agent
Lactic Acid 1.20 ml 60 min Mash Water Agent

Yeast

Name Lab Attenuation Temperature
German Ale/Kolsch (WLP029) White Labs 75% 65°F - 69°F

Mash

Step Temperature Time
Saccharification 157°F 35 min
Mash Out 168°F 15 min

Notes

Calcium Cloride @ 1g / Gal. , Gypsum @ 0.5g / Gal
Huell Melon @ 2nd day
All the rest @ 7th day
https://scottjanish.com/headspace-hazy-ipa-oxidation/


Mash pH was a bit lower than anticipated, resulting in 10 point
gravity loss. Partly due to adding 2.5mL of Phosphoric Acid
rather than the 1.2mL as listed. However, the resulting beer is
quite excellent so not a terrible issue. Maybe lowering efficiency
numbers and adding a pound or two of malt to adjust.

Hop combo isn't my favorite; I like a bit more grapefruit. Next time
I'd toss Azacca and some El Dorado or Eukonaut in place of H. Melon.
Would also entertain some Simcoe for an orange direction as well.
Galaxy was sorely missed but out of stock.

Fatal Flaw: Finish him!

The last brew was well on its way to being _the_ one.  A flawless brew day, no hiccups during fermentation.  I even used a forced diacetyl test and ended up raising the temp a few days during the last dry-hop (no thanks to hop creep) to clean things up.  

Hazy, juicy, crisp, with a hint of malt.  Exactly what I wanted.  Until…

 To package beer I used purged corny kegs, purged jop strainer and then force-push with CO2 to fill each keg.  Flawless process right?  Two days later this is what’s pouring from the tap…

Right side is sample from conical; Left side is two days in the keg.

What a huge letdown.  But I’ve seen this before.  Oxidation.   But from where.  I’ve brewed about 12 batches of beer with this equipment and I’ve only used the hop strainer (extra large one) on exactly two batches of Nor’Easter.  The previous one turned color which I assumed was related to the infection I found in my pump but with that now hyper cleansed the only remaining element is the strainer.  I also brewed a pilsner which turned out fantastic and it’s still pale as straw on the tap today.  What difference?  No dry-hop which mean no use of the strainer.   This is super frustrating, not to mention costly; hops for NEIPAs aren’t cheap. 

I did the only thing I could do: brew another batch and remove the fatal flaw.

Operation Hop Stand
Hazy Hop Particles
Here’s the next iteration, this time with a 60/40 split between regular T-90 pellets and pelletized CryoHops.

Recipe Details

Batch Size Boil Time IBU SRM Est. OG Est. FG ABV
15 gal 60 min 50.5 IBUs 5.7 SRM 1.068 1.014 7.1 %
Actuals 1.061 1.014 6.2 %

Style Details

Name Cat. OG Range FG Range IBU SRM Carb ABV
American-Style India Pale Ale 56 1.06 - 1.075 1.012 - 1.018 50 - 70 6 - 15 2.2 - 2.8 6.3 - 7.6 %

Fermentables

Name Amount %
Brewer's Malt, 2-Row, Premium (Great Western) 14 lbs 36.84
Vienna Malt (Weyermann) 14 lbs 36.84
Oats, Flaked 4 lbs 10.53
White Wheat Malt 4 lbs 10.53
Carapils (Briess) 1 lbs 2.63
Honey Malt 1 lbs 2.63

Hops

Name Amount Time Use Form Alpha %
Cryo - Simcoe 0.28 oz 60 min First Wort Pellet 23
Mosaic (HBC 369) 2.1 oz 10 min Aroma Pellet 12.3
Simcoe 1.98 oz 10 min Aroma Pellet 13
Eukanot 1.83 oz 10 min Aroma Pellet 14
Citra 1.78 oz 10 min Aroma Pellet 14.4
Cryo - Mosaic 0.78 oz 10 min Aroma Pellet 22
Cryo - Simcoe 0.74 oz 10 min Aroma Pellet 23
Cryo - Citra 0.68 oz 10 min Aroma Pellet 25
Cryo - Eukanot 0.67 oz 10 min Aroma Pellet 25.5
Cryo - Citra 1 oz 3 days Dry Hop Pellet 25
Cryo - Eukanot 1 oz 3 days Dry Hop Pellet 25.5
Cryo - Mosaic 1 oz 3 days Dry Hop Pellet 22
Cryo - Simcoe 1 oz 3 days Dry Hop Pellet 23
Citra 1 oz 2 days Dry Hop Pellet 12
Eukanot 1 oz 2 days Dry Hop Pellet 14
Mosaic (HBC 369) 1 oz 2 days Dry Hop Pellet 12.3
Simcoe 1 oz 2 days Dry Hop Pellet 13

Miscs

Name Amount Time Use Type
Calcium Chloride 7.30 g 60 min Mash Water Agent
Epsom Salt (MgSO4) 2.70 g 60 min Mash Water Agent
Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) 2.40 g 60 min Mash Water Agent
Phosphoric Acid 1.20 ml 60 min Mash Water Agent

Yeast

Name Lab Attenuation Temperature
San Diego Super Yeast (WLP090) White Labs 80% 65°F - 68°F

Mash

Step Temperature Time
Saccharification 154°F 60 min
Mash Out 168°F 10 min

Notes

Adjust cl:s04 to 1.5 ratio
Use 60/40 pellet/cryo hops throughout
Single dry-hop
1:1 GU:IBU ratio
Swap in 50% base with Vienna for additional malt backbone
Welcome Simcoe to the Hop Club
Gravity bump to 1.071

Dessert Beer: Humble Pie

No, I’m not really making a dessert beer NEIPA.  However, making a NEIPA that can stand-up to some of the great examples in and around town has been quite the challenge. My last brew was another round of corrections to address the overly-bitter result. Not Grapefruit Juice was a step in the right direction but it had several issues.

Before I get to that, I do have to mention that the past few NEIPAs that I’ve done have ended up getting a rather nasty diacetyl flavor days after kegging. I’m particularly sensitive to the off-flavor and really prevented me from drinking any amount of the beer.  I’ve several friends for whom the level was not something they could detect and they still enjoyed the beer and commented that it was an improvement over the previous version.  Tracking down this problem was quite the challenge.  I first attacked the keg and keg lines.  I didn’t find anything of concern and each keg is fully broken down, cycled with hot PWB via Mark’s Keg/Carboy washer, sanitized and flushed.  The keg lines use a recirculating PWB line cleaner followed by hot water rinse and sanitizer.  I really was stumped until I ran across this post out on Brülosophy where a long time friend of the site was tracking down a similar issue and worked out some experiments to track down the issue.  The discovery was that the ball-valves on the boil kettle weren’t getting direct heat due to the burner design.  This matched my setup, but I had recently switched to a new 30 gallon boil kettle with only a hand full of brews under its belt.  However I have two ball valves on the March pump used for recirculation.   I started the process of breaking those down and let’s just say it was *NOT* pretty.  I also broke open the pump itself and found bits of sponge.  I was quite furious with myself.  After switching to a new Chronical which requires a complete break down after each use I just couldn’t believe that I hadn’t applied that same effort to the post-boil path.

I don’t think the diacetyl flaw impacts the bitterness issue so I knew that after tasting Not Grapefruit Juice that something else was going on with the bitterness.  While I was scrubbing away at all of the post-boil parts I did quite a bit more reading on the recent studies around flameout and dry-hop additions imparting bitterness.  Reading through all of those blog posts and papers left me a distinct impression.  Massive dry-hops definitely have a bitterness impact in two ways.  First, additional dry-hopping can result in lower pH which increases perception of bitterness.  Second the non-iso-alpha acid components of hops can contribute actual IBUs to a finished beer.  A deeper look into those studies reveals that hops which do not store as well (these hops have a higher HSI value) result in more IBUs being imparted into the final product when used in dry-hopping.  With this new information in mind, I’ve put together three new NEIPA recipes to try out.  Taking in all of the change from Not Grapefruit Juice, the biggest change moving forward is a much reduced amount of dry-hop;  the rate of dry-hop previously resulted in bumping the final product by several tens of IBUs.  I’ve also continued to adjust the malt bill upwards, this time blending with Vienna and targetting 7.5% and a higher overall final gravity; this was featured in the very first recipe I tried.  The next two variants keep the same quantities of hops and gravity bill but will try two different things.  One will re-introduce cryohops but at a 60/40 split between pellet and cryo, accounting for the higher AA in cryohops.  Joe Mohrfeld at Pinthouse Pizza presented early results when using cryohops/powder and found that they get the best results with a blend of pellets and powder.  The last experiment looks to identify hops with fruity, tropical properties but have the lowest HSI value.  The expectation there is that these hops will further reduce the introduction of IBUs into the final product.

Lastly as a side-note I have been mostly avoiding use of Simcoe for quite some time.  Beers from five or six years ago had massive amounts of Simcoe and had a nice piney almost “cat pee” element.  These memories of flavors do not excite me and I’ve felt they don’t have a place in the softer, juicier IPAs I really like.  I’ve had several recent NEIPA beers which feature Simcoe as a hop that drives perception of Oranges and Tangerines and have not found these beers to have any of those piney or cat like qualities of the past.  I’m looking forward to giving Simcoe a place in a future NEIPA once I’m on the other side of this battle with bitterness.

Here’s the next experiment towards that pillowy soft and juicy beer I crave:

Recipe Details

Batch Size Boil Time IBU SRM Est. OG Est. FG ABV
15 gal 60 min 63.7 IBUs 5.7 SRM 1.068 1.016 6.9 %
Actuals 1.068 1.016 6.9 %

Style Details

Name Cat. OG Range FG Range IBU SRM Carb ABV
American-Style India Pale Ale 56 1.06 - 1.075 1.012 - 1.018 50 - 70 6 - 15 2.2 - 2.8 6.3 - 7.6 %

Fermentables

Name Amount %
Brewer's Malt, 2-Row, Premium (Great Western) 14 lbs 36.84
Vienna Malt (Weyermann) 14 lbs 36.84
Oats, Flaked 4 lbs 10.53
White Wheat Malt 4 lbs 10.53
Carapils (Briess) 1 lbs 2.63
Honey Malt 1 lbs 2.63

Hops

Name Amount Time Use Form Alpha %
Columbus (Tomahawk) 1.5 oz 60 min First Wort Pellet 15.3
Amarillo 2.5 oz 10 min Aroma Pellet 9.2
Citra 2.5 oz 10 min Aroma Pellet 14.4
Mosaic 2.5 oz 10 min Aroma Pellet 11.6
Columbus (Tomahawk) 1.5 oz 10 min Aroma Pellet 15.3
Amarillo 2.67 oz 3 days Dry Hop Pellet 9.2
Citra 2.67 oz 3 days Dry Hop Pellet 14.4
Mosaic 2.67 oz 3 days Dry Hop Pellet 11.6
Columbus (Tomahawk) 1.5 oz 3 days Dry Hop Pellet 15.3

Miscs

Name Amount Time Use Type
Calcium Chloride 7.30 g 60 min Mash Water Agent
Epsom Salt (MgSO4) 2.70 g 60 min Mash Water Agent
Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) 2.40 g 60 min Mash Water Agent
Phosphoric Acid 1.20 ml 60 min Mash Water Agent

Yeast

Name Lab Attenuation Temperature
San Diego Super Yeast (WLP090) White Labs 80% 65°F - 68°F

Mash

Step Temperature Time
Saccharification 156°F 60 min
Mash Out 168°F 10 min

Notes

Adjust cl:s04 to 1.5 ratio
Use columbus
Single dry-hop
1:1 GU:IBU ratio
Swap in 50% base with Vienna for additional malt backbone
Welcome Amarillo to the Hop Club
Gravity bump to 1.071

Everyday Drinking Pils

I can’t quite remember when but this hoppy pilsner, Real Ales’ Hans’ Pils somehow took over as my go-to beer on any night of the week.  It has a mild malt sweetness tempered with a heavy dose of an herbal Nobel hop, Tettnanger.  The rush of hops over the malt, peaking and then slowly fading for a long, dry finish is just fantastic.  And here is the clencher; it’s so reasonably priced that it is now my benchmark.  If I can get a 12-pack for a little over $1 a can; why would I pay double or triple that unless the beer is offering something new.

I’m not interested in replacing Hans Pils in my fridge; I’m pretty sure Real Ale is just going to keep knocking this one out consistently and I want to do my part to keep it coming, however I am interested in if some of my newer equipment and process won’t help me get pretty close to an excellent pilsner.   To that end, I’ve pulled in a few new things for me.  I’m giving the Brülosophy’s lager fermentation schedule a try.

I always use a yeast starter, so that part isn’t new.  But for this lager, I decided that I’d boost the pitch rate significantly.  My favorite starter tool is over at Brewer’s Friend.  I selected the Pro-brewer lager rate, or 1.75 million cells per mL per degrees plato.  What that meant was a two steps of 5L each, using 1lb of Dry Malt Extract each go.  I hope that the extra effort to increase the amount of yeast when pitching will result in a super clean yeast profile.

Here’s a walk through some of the brew day today.

After an uneventful 75 minute mash at 148F, I’m sparging with 180F water into the mash tun; I had already recirculated the mash to raise the temp to 168F to stop conversion.  When I lauter, I usually go fairly fast; I’ve never really wanted to wait that long and my efficiency hasn’t been so low that I’m looking for ways to increase things.

All pilsner malt comes into the boil kettle looking just perfect.

I measure pre-boil gravity, usually with both a refractometer and my hydrometer for comparison. Today the hydrometer showed 1.047 S.G and the refractometer had 1.049 S.G. Good enough for me.

One other change for me was to skip the use of my silicone-based anti-foamer both in the yeast starters as well as the boil. I’m seeing if this has a meaniful effect of head retention once the beer is finished. That meant I did have to wrangle the hot break at the start of the boil when I normally don’t even have to look once.

My favorite part of switching to a conical with glycol chiller is no longer having to recirculate ice water to get fermentation temperature. I just use ground water which gets me to 80F and then connect and start the glycol loop to bring it down to the target temperature. In this case, I’m pitching at 48F.

I’m really excited to see how this one comes together. Here’s my take on my favorite hoppy pils, Hans Pils:

Recipe Details

Batch Size Boil Time IBU SRM Est. OG Est. FG ABV
15 gal 90 min 44.3 IBUs 3.4 SRM 1.050 1.009 5.4 %
Actuals 1.055 0 0.0 %

Style Details

Name Cat. OG Range FG Range IBU SRM Carb ABV
German Pilsner 3 2 1.044 - 1.05 1.008 - 1.013 25 - 45 2 - 5 2.4 - 2.6 4.4 - 5.2 %

Fermentables

Name Amount %
Pilsen (BestMälz) 29 lbs 100

Hops

Name Amount Time Use Form Alpha %
Magnum 1 oz 60 min Boil Pellet 14.1
Tettnang 6 oz 30 min Boil Pellet 3.7
Tettnang 4 oz 5 min Boil Pellet 3.7

Miscs

Name Amount Time Use Type
Phosphoric Acid 20% 33.60 ml 60 min Mash Water Agent
Epsom Salt (MgSO4) 3.00 g 60 min Mash Water Agent
Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) 0.70 g 60 min Mash Water Agent

Yeast

Name Lab Attenuation Temperature
Copenhagen Lager (WLP850) White Labs 75% 50°F - 57.2°F

Mash

Step Temperature Time
Saccharification 148°F 75 min
Mash Out 168°F 10 min