The latest batch of beer at the CaBrewery was to honor Mrs. Brew Meister and her affection for Kulmbacher Mönchshof Schwarzbier. This brings back memories of sitting in a middle-eastern restarant, watching German MTV, eating falafel, and smelling the hookahs burning.
The beer is a dark-as-night brew, with lower alcohol, foamy beige head, and has a very low roasted taste. It is a smooth lager, with noble hops in the mid taste, and an incredible finish. I agree with the Mrs.--it is a great beer, so I decided to try to make it.
I could not find any clear recipe for the style, so I took an all grain recipe, translated it into a partial mash, and used whatever I had left from the last few batches of beer, and here is what I have left:
Schwartz Beer
1/2# chocolate malt
1/2# roasted malt
1/2# crustal 40
3.52# BierKeller Dark German DME
3.3# Briess Pilsen Light
60 minutes 1/2 oz NZ Hallertau 6.2AA
15 minutes 1/2 oz NZ Hallertau 6.2AA
Heated water to 160F, added the crushed grains and put the heat on simmer for 50 minutes.
I hang a basket with the specialty grains on my 40qt boil pot and rinsed the grains for a few minutes.
I added the DME and brought up the water to 20L. Brought everything up to a boil and did the hop on schedule.
Cooled to 72F, pitched White Labs WLP830 German Lager Yeast and kept in a warm room (70F) for the night. By morning, the yeast was chugging along. I moved the primary to the basement where it settled to 62F for three weeks. I kegged it and let it sit in the beer fridge for a week. It turned out awesome!
Try it out and let me know what you think. I am going to make another batch next week!
Saturday, February 21, 2009
May the Schwarz Bier With You (Kulmbacher - Mönchshof Schwarzbier clone)
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Beer Hackers For Sure (clone recipe)
The first batch of beer for 2009 was a quick and easy Hefeweisen. My wife is a big fan of many German style wheat beers. She was very fond of Paulaner Natural Wheat, but has recently been turned on to Hacker Pschorr. She now prefers the HP because it has less of the banana notes than from the Paulaner yeast. So I was on a mission to make an extract beer with some specialty grains that fit the description.
While at the brew shop buying a new boiling pot (Note from Mrs. Brew Meister: he decided the larger pot would eliminate boil-over and that the basement brewery will require time and budgeting), I thumbed through a copy of Brew Your Own that had 150 top clone recipes. I patched together an ingredient list that I thought would do the trick, and I changed my yeast from the normal White Labs WLP300 Hefeweizen Ale yeast to WLP351 Bavarian Weizen yeast. I think it will create a spicier less banana/bubble gum flavor.
- Start the 4 gallons of water boiling in the main boil pot
- In a separate pot, bring ¾ gallon of water to 160F. Add 1.5# of pils malt
- Steep at 150F for 50 minutes
- Pour water and grains through a strainer into the larger pot
- Ladle hot water through the grains in the strainer for a few minutes.
- Bring everything to a boil for a total boil of 60 minutes.
- Add 4# Muntons wheat dry malt extract 60 minutes
- Add 1oz Spalt hops 2.4AA 60 minutes
- Add ½oz Tradition hops 5.2AA 60 minutes
- Add 3# liquid wheat malt extract 15 minutes
- Add 1/2 oz Tradition hops 5.2AA 15 minutes
With an immersion chiller, I cooled the wort down to 74F in 15 minutes.
I pitched the White Labs Weizen WLP351 and stored it on a first floor room until fermentation started about 10 hours later.
It is now in the basement bubbling away at 64F. So far, so good.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
The Hefty Hefe
Although there are many reasons I would like to forget about the last batch of beer I brewed, something fun may have come from it all (besides an "ah-ha" moment).
My original idea was to make my super simple and tasty Paulaner clone even better. I had been kicking around the idea on an Imperial Hefeweizen for a few weeks, as that would satisfy Mrs. Brew Meister's love of summer beer and my love of strong, unusual beers...
I remember the first description of an Imperial beer by some local brewery that said, "We doubled everything but the water." That sounded like the type of reasoning I could use. So I tried the following:
8oz Munich Malt 30 minutes at 152F
8.8lbs DME 55% Wheat 45# Barley
1 oz Hersbrucker for 45 minutes
1 oz Cascade for 15 minutes
As stated previously...it boiled all over the place and caused the world's largest mess. After that, I transferred 3 gallons to the primary fermenting bucket. Then I went off the reservation...
I was unable to cool the wort, as my wort chiller plumbing would not fit the sink of the new house. I decided to throw in a couple of trays of ice, a gallon of lukewarm distilled water, and put the whole mess in the basement. It was still 100F at 6PM. I decided to set the lid on the bucket, but not fill the airlock. With the cooling wort, I knew the vacuum in the bucket would pull the water from the airlock into the bucket.
In the morning, around 5AM, the wort was around 77F in my 67F basement. I pitched White Labs Liquid Hefeweizen Ale Yeast (WLP380) and a pack of Dry Ale Yeast. I figured one would kick in, and the sooner the better. Fermentation started within a few hours and chugged along for 5 days at 65-67F.
After ten days, we kegged the results. Initially, it smelled a bit bitter. The Cascade hops were very present, but blended well with the malt and some caramel aroma. We decided to pull some of the liquid from the bottom of the fermenter. It tasted REALLY GOOD! It is a good sign when Mrs. Brew Meister is filtering the dregs with a cheese cloth into a pint glass. It was also really strong. I had two cups and felt the warm contentment set in.
I am force carbonating the beer now and will drink it over the next 2 weeks. I would let it age a little longer but:
a. It already tastes really good.
b. I think the beer may begin to taste oxidized if I wait too long. It spent too many hours in the relative open before fermentation started.
I will post a full review next week.
Cheers
Monday, July 7, 2008
FINALLY! A recipe (or more) for White Beer
We were inspired to create a Belgian Wit beer that would be ready around our anniversary. Mrs. Brew Meister always enjoyed Blue Moon Belgian White. We also just drank a bottle of Unibroue - La Fin Du Monde. Holy cow is that a good spicy beer; and at 9%, one bottle is the perfect size.
I took a recipe from a book at the local brewshop and adapted it to fit what the store had in stock, and the modifications I wanted to make. In honor of the anniversary, I give you...
White Wedding Beer
- 1# Belgian Biscuit Malt in 2 gallons of water @ 160F for 30 minutes
- Sparge with 1 gallon of water @ 168F
Bring the water to a boil
- Add 6.6# of 55/45 Wheat DME, 1oz crushed coriander seeds, and 1oz sweet orange peel
Boil for 5 minutes
- Add 1oz Saaz hops
Boil 40 minutes
- Add 1oz Cascade hops and 1# clear Belgian candy sugar
Boil 15 minutes; cool to 75F
- Add White Labs Belgian White Yeast
It has fermented for a week, I am moving it to the secondary today. It will probably be there for five weeks before bottling.
Here are some other Belgian White Recipes I found on the Interwebs. I have not tried these yet, but they sound good, and have various skill levels.
Partial Mash From BYO: Blanche de Chambly (look halfway down the page)
All grain from jrhomebrewers: Leffe Blonde clone
An extract recipe from BYO: Celis White Clone
Cheers!
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Ginger Beer to the Rescue
As a brewer, I occasionally get to share my hobby with more friends and family. For some reason, not everyone is a fan of Real Beer. I could go into the many scientific and behavioral theories on this affliction, but I don’t want this blog to be mired in the political and cultural war that would result from this debate. The short answer is to brew up some soda.
There are many nice kits that exist where you add water, cane sugar, and yeast--if bottling. Then bottle or keg the creation and enjoy a wide variety of flavors where you can modify and perfect the family recipe.
There is one major downfall in the world of extract soda kits: GINGER BEER. This is a special brew for those who like Extreme Soda in place of their Extreme Beer. Only a few brands really add the ginger required to make a strong, biting, ginger beer, and it is always more fun trying something different.
So here is my recipe for Ginger Beer:
Boil 2.1 gallons of water
After boiling for a few minutes, turn down the heat
- Add:
- 2 oz of fresh ground ginger
- 2 lbs of sugar
- The juice of one whole lemon (make sure its FRESH)
Simmer the concoction for 20 minutes
Remove from the heat and allow the whole thing to cool to 70F
Strain all the liquid into another large pot, making sure to capture most of the loose ginger
- Stir in one package of champagne or ale yeast
Funnel into 4 CLEAN 2 liter bottles
After 1-2 days of sitting on the counter, the yeast will grow enough to add C02 to the bottle, but no discernible alcohol. The bottle will be firm to pressure, like buying a new bottle of soda.
Put the bottles in the fridge so they don't over carbonate (rupture), and drink after 2 days in the fridge. Drink all of it within a few weeks.
Modify future batches based on your own tastes. I have thought of adding pineapple juice or cranberry juice. There is also an alcoholic version of Ginger Beer waiting to be made. Maybe I will experiment with that in a few weeks...
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Helluva Hefeweizen (Paulaner clone)
With the increased travel I have been doing lately, I had the need to come up with a fast batch. Ales are great for making a wide variety of beers with a large range of time requirements. This time, we decided that a good hefeweizen would fit the bill. It usually has a fast, vigorous fermentation, didn’t require crystal clarity, and with the use of the recently acquired kegs, the whole thing could be done easily.
I found a recipe at the local HBS with the available ingredients that day:
Helluva Hefe:
4oz Munich Malt
6.6# DME 55% Wheat 45# Barley
1oz Hersbruker 3.8AA
White Labs Liquid Hefeweizen Ale Yeast (WLP380)
Steep the Munich malt for 30 minutes at 152º in 2 gallons
Add one gallon of water bring to a boil
Add the DME for 60 minutes
Add hops for 45 minutes
Bring water volume to 5.2 gallons
Cool to 74º
Add yeast
My OG was 1.052. I planned to ferment for 5 days. It was so vigorous that my air lock filled with wort and blew out after 2 days. I left off the airlock for 2 days and put the fermentor in a bucket to catch any overflow. After a messy 5 days, the bubbling slowed to a crawl. It was at FG 1.012.
I kegged the beer with 1 cup of priming (corn) sugar. I boiled 2 cups of water with the priming sugar and added it to a clean keg. I then added the 5 gallons of beer to the keg. I let the keg sit for five days and added the CO2 at 8psi. 3 days later, all was well.
The beer was the exact Paulaner clone I was looking for. It poured a very thick heady, cloudy yellow. Lots of spice, bubble gum, citrus, wheat nose. Lemony taste, yeasty, tingling bubbles. Light body, smooth, balanced with mild bitterness.
Overall, a great beer that was an easy (11 days from start to drinking) uncomplicated batch that created one of our favorite beers.
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Belgian Epiphany
I have always been a hophead, inspired originally by British Bitters and IPAs. Then I moved on to West Coast ales with insane amounts of hops and a higher-than-normal ABV. Moylan's Triple IPA and Rogue Brewery's Brutally Bitter (among others) were my choices. Everything went off without a hitch. Primary fermentation lasted 6 days, secondary fermentation lasted 8 days. At the end of secondary, the beer tasted a bit fruity in the nose, with banana or apple, followed by a warm tongue-coating maltiness. The hops were still surprisingly apparent in the taste. The alcohol was pronounced as it went to the belly. It finished with a sharpness reminding me the beer is still too young. The batch was primed with corn sugar and bottled in an assortment of glass and Brew tap bottles.
However, my wife traveled to Europe several times for work when we first married. She would go to England, the Netherlands, and Germany, and come home talking about some of the great European beers she was trying fresh off the tap. While I did enjoy a Hefe or Bock, she never really brought home any of the Belgians. My only real experience was local sources of Lindeman's Kreik and Framboise. Not good samples in trying to convince me of the Belgium brewing magic.
I have since traveled several times to the Netherlands and once to Germany, but never made time to research or find good beers. It was usually whatever they served in my isolated Dutch hotel, or the one local Irish establishment in the heart of Schweinfurt.
During an extended work trip last year, Mrs. Brew Meister and I methodically sampled every variety possible. We started with the grocery store close to our lodging. Grolsch Kanon, Le Chouffe Blond, Paulaner Naturtrub, Hoeggarden's Grand Cru and Verboten Vrucht...oh, there will be more on beer travel later.
I was fascinated with the complexity of these brews. Many were malty, vinous, yeasty, heady, and downright delicious. After we returned home, my thoughts were still with these styles. In fact, the first batch for 2008 was a Belgian Dubbel based on a "Joy of Homebrewing" recipe. I was probably inspired by time spent in Europe drinking as many new dubbels, trippels, witbiers, schwartzbiers, hefeweizens, farmhouse ales--and anything else I could try.
When I visited the Local Brew Shop, and asked, I was recommended the "Joy" version with a few minor alterations:
I had a few friends over to show them the joys of homebrewing. It was also an easy sell, as we sampled a few beers from the style
I forgot to check FG, out of practice. Still, all and all, a great way to kick off the Brew Year.
