Krausen Rising

11:22am
I’ve decided to live blog my brew day, since I’m on-call today, working a half day, so I need to come check emails every now and then.

Today I’m making a strong porter. I started heating the mash water (five gallons) at around 9:00am.

Here are the ingredients:

• 10 lbs. 2-row
• 2 lbs. Munich
• 1 lb. Rauch
• 1 lb. Special B
• 1 lb. Brown malt
• 3 lbs. Belgian candi syrup
• ?? DME
• 1 pint starter made last night with WLP530
• 2 oz. Centennial pellets at 10.4% AA.

At the moment, I’m in the midst of sparging. Earlier, there was a disaster I’ll write about in a minute, once I go check to be sure no other disasters are coming up or have arrived.

11:38am
The mash went okay. I was aiming for about 150 degrees F, but couldn’t get it above 149. By the end of the hour, it was at 148, despite a few hot water additions, the last of which was boiling, added about 12 minutes before sparge. I used my igloo 48 quart cooler for the first time, because of the cold, and because I’m mashing 15 pounds of grain. I thought it would keep the temperature steady, but it’s only about 50 degrees in the house.

To sparge, I transferred the mash into a plastic bucket lined with a large grain bag. After I finished the transfer, as I turned on the spigot on the bucket to start recirculating the wort, it made a little popping noise - more like a klunk, maybe - and wort starting leaking out of the side. The seal was broken. The nut on the other side had come loose. Fucking plastic! I held the spigot down and shouted for Jen until she wandered in. She held the spigot tight against the bucket as I picked the grain bag up out of the bucket and plopped it back into the cooler. There was still about 2 gallons of wort in the bucket. I reached in and tightened the nut. It was a bit hot, and I had to do it a couple times, but finally the seal was back, and I could start the sparge. Yar!

Of course, I’d forgotten to start heating the sparge water until about 10 minutes before the end of the mash, but that’s par for the fuckin course.

I’m worried about temperature. I had the yeast starter in the oven, where the pilot light keeps it somewhat warm, and it started up. I took it out now that I’m using the burner on the stove so much. All these changes in temperature are worrisome. At least I won’t have to worry about high-temperature fermentation by-products.

1:07pm
I ended up with about six, maybe seven gallons of wort, at 1.057. Perfect amount of wort for a full boil. I put about 4.5 gallons into my 5 gallon kettle and the rest into a 3 gallon kettle. I added 3 pounds of dark Belgian candi syrup, which should bring the SG of the five gallon brew up to about 1.076. That should be enough, as it’ll get me about 8-8.5% ABV. My worries about boiling at such cold ambient temperatures have proven unfounded - I narrowly averted a boil-over about 20 minutes ago.

I can’t taste any smoke in the wort, which isn’t too surprising, having used only 1lb of it. The syrup tastes great. It reminds me of some of the flavors in Trappist beers like Achel or Rochefort. I’m refraining from adding cocoa for this version. Only the syrup makes this beer un-Reinheitsgebot. Not that I care about that shit. I’m wondering how the Centennial’s going to do. I’m only using it for bitterness, not for flavor or aroma - no hops there - so I’m thinking it won’t be too noticeable. Just a bit of a hop bite.

2:54pm
Cooling down took a bit less than an hour. I only used ice after it’d reached 120 degrees.

I’m disappointed in the starting gravity. Once again, I misjudged the amount I was boiling. I thought I ended up with about 4 gallons at 1.082, but it was actually 3. I added a gallon and a half to that three, and ended up with about 1.055 as my SG. I was going for .020 more than that. I’ll end up with a regular strength porter, most likely, though the candi syrup, the Belgian yeast, and the abnormal grain bill should make it a special regular strength porter. I say “most likely” because I measured the SG by taking a hydrometer reading from the kettle right before I racked it to the primary carboy, then adjusting that reading based on the amount of water I added. I added 1.5 gallons, and appear to be about half a gallon short of 5 gallons in the carboy. The gravity out of the kettle was 1.082. (Gravity * Volume) / Final Volume gets a final gravity of 1.055. Of course, if any of my measurements are off (and they aren’t very exact), I could end up with an SG of 1.057 to 1.067. This goes to show how important it is to upgrade my kettle. Regardless, though, I’m excited about this beer.

Ramblin’ Todd

Since my last post, centuries ago, I have been out of town twice, and was once again thwarted in my attempts to brew my “Belgian” “Porter”. First, The Lady and I made our way down 101 to Buellton, where we stayed at Anderson Pea Soup Best Western Inn and had their godawful namesake. We also visited the newish Firestone Walker Pub and had a sampler, and took some time on the way down to visit what used to be SLO Brewing, now Downtown Brewing. We were lucky enough to meet the brewmaster. The beers at Downtown are very solid. The IPA was an excellent cross between a malty, sweet, somewhat hoppy British IPA and a malty, very hoppy West Coast IPA. I tried my first ever Honey Wheat. Or maybe it was a Honey Pale. I’m not sure, and their website is such an incredible piece of suck that I won’t know until I look at the notes I took (oh yeah, I’m a nerd). Anyway, for a light beer meant for consumption by beer-wimpy jock types (I assume), it was very tasty.

Shortly after our trip to the Central Coast, I took off for my mom’s 60th birthday party in Indiana, and to visit my dad in Michigan. Checked out Mishawaka Brewing Company. It was what I’d anticipated. Not bad - somewhere between Triple Rock in Berkeley and Magnolia in San Francisco. The beers were pretty much exactly what you’d expect from a brewpub in California about 10 years ago, and can still find in some of the older brewpubs in the Bay Area. Unfortunately, their IIPA was out, but I did try the Imperial Stout. It was a very interesting Imperial Stout. Not sure I’d want another, but a good experience.

In Michigan, I went out searching for anything from Short’s Brewing, which I’d read about in Teri Fahrendorf’s blog. She makes it sound like Short’s is the Russian River or Lost Abbey of Michigan, and I couldn’t be so close and not try to find something. Unfortunately, the brewery is in the wilds of far northern Michigan, a four hour drive from my dad’s house in Battle Creek, and I was visiting in the midst of an ice storm. Fortunately, my dad’s wife works at a University, and was able to easily find a beer nerd’s liquor store in Battle Creek. Therein, I found a bottle of the 2006 Short’s Mystery Stout, an Imperial Stout brewed with cocoa and molasses. Without thinking twice, I paid the $20.00, then spent another $10.00 mailing it back home. It wasn’t until later I realized that there’s no fucking way that beer was worth $20.00. Or at least, if I lived in god damned Bellaire, Michigan, it wouldn’t be. As it is, I doubt I’ll be seeing another bottle of special beer from Short’s any time soon, so fuck it. I popped the cap on that bottle on Christmas Eve. Doran seemed to hate it a bit, but he managed to get it down. I thought it was wonderful. Hints of oxidization, maybe, but not too strong. Something about it was very similar to some of the awesome beers I had at the Barrel Aged Beer Fest, though I don’t think it was barrel aged. A very complex and satisfying beer, probably best reserved for small glasses with dessert and a group of about four. Or for me, watching Deadwood with Doran and Jen.

The Return, and the Opening of The Trappist

When I finally made it home from Michigan, The Trappist, Oakland’s answer to Toronado, had opened, along-awaited event. Scottr chose it for his birthday locale, which happened to coincide with new friend and bartender at the Trappist, Nicole’s birthday. Her boyfriend, Nate, an awesome homebrewer, brewed up a hoppy amber ale for her birthday, a bottle of which I managed to get my grubby paws on. It was awesome. The Trappist has an incredible beer selection. St. Bernardus Wit and Trippel, Achouffe’s LaChouffe, Stone’s Double Bastard, and a book’s worth of reasonably priced bottles. Unfortunately, it’s pretty much packed from the minute it opens. Hopefully, that’ll ease up a bit when the holidays are over.

But even before the Trappist, there was my work’s Christmas party.  Every year, one of the co-owners hosts the party at his house, where loads of food, wine, and hard liquor (as well as some unmentionables) are consumed.  Sometimes a jam session starts up in the living room (though that hasn’t happened in a while).  Eventually, one group ends up playing poker, another upstairs playing video games (the underage set), and another out in the shed, playing pool (that’s where I always end up).  This year, we had a pony keg of Russian River IPA.  It lasted until 10:40.  I was there when it sputtered its last, and it was a sad, yet glorious moment.  Next year, two pony kegs.

Beercraft!

All that drinking, but that wasn’t the end. Beercraft’s first show was on the Solstice (the Reason for the Season), Saturday the 22nd. Steve, our drummer, rented a bouncy room shaped like a tank. I think that helped quite a bit in contributing to the great, fun atmosphere at the party. People were bouncing all night long, watching the bands from the screen windows in the bouncy tank. And we managed to suck down two full kegs (Moonlight’s Death and Taxes and Sierra Nevada Pale) by midnight or so. Beercraft was supposed to go on first or second, so we could drink and be merry after, but as seems to always happen with parties, more bands than expected ended up on the bill (six in all), and none of them wanted to go last, so we ended up headlining. Four songs to our 15 minute set, and we headlined! Doran and Jen were there, and almost didn’t make it, but they managed. There was a strange Fucking Champs-inspired duo called Night Flight, then a couple more bands I forget, then a great hardcore band called You Die. I’m not much of a fan of hardcore post-1987 or so, which maybe gives an idea what constitutes a great hardcore band to me. Hellhunter played two slots before us, and they were great, as always (mid-tempo NWOBHM-inspired black metal). Finally, Steve’s main band, Million Dollar Itch played, and then, around 12:45am, we were on (all of us worse for wear after having drunk and been merry regardless of our position in the night’s set). Four songs went by very quickly. It was cold as Christ’s Love, but for me at least, nervous energy made up for it, and I was able to play the fastish parts okay (the next morning my hand was sore from the exertion, though, even though we play the set several times during any given practice). The crowd seemed very stoked, and from the stage at least, the sound was great. I even managed to do most of the backup vocals I’m allotted, which I’d been worried about beforehand. Afterward, we had a Beercraft bouncy session in the bouncy room while one of the bands that couldn’t make it (Rebel’s Advocate, who played that night at Gilman) played an impromptu set at everyone’s urging. If that bouncy session qualifies as a post-show band meeting, then our meeting went well.

Damn You, Baby Jesus!

Yesterday, Baby Jesus Day, I was supposed to brew my Grand Cru, the Porter with Belgian Aspirations. I procured 10lbs. of 2-row, a pound of brown malt, a pound of special B, a pound of rauch malt (labeled “roach” at Beer, Beer, and More Beer), and two pounds of munich. Add to that two bottles of belgian candi sugar syrup and six pounds of DME for backup, so even if I was super inefficient, I was looking at a starting gravity near 1.1. However, I forgot to brew up a yeast starter the night before, and I really, really want this beer to come out right. I don’t need panicked, overworked, oxygen-starved yeast byproducts in my beer. So I put off the brew. Personally, I blame Baby Jesus for my forgetfulness. I’m hoping to make it out to Beer, etc., in the next couple days and use some of my KillChristmas money to upgrade to a larger kettle and an immersion chiller, which will allow for a full boil. Then, I brew.