LODO Festbier: Split Batch Experiment

My first attempt at low dissolved oxygen (LODO) brewing was lackluster... generously (I dumped the last gallon of that Pilsner). I wanted to try the intensive process again, replicating both wort production and fermentation as close as I could to what is prescribed in the second version of On Brewing Bavarian Helles. Rather than brew ten gallons of LODO festbier, I split the batch pre-boil aerating half of the wort as a control. I boiled this "HighDO" wort harder and with a copper immersion chiller. The LODO half I gently simmered and then chilled through a stainless-steel Blichmann plate chiller (although it was brazed with copper). Post-chilling I treated the beers identically from cold fermentation through spunding.

At the start of the January meeting I roped 20 members of DC Homebrewers into a blind triangle tasting of these two beers (poured from growlers I had counter-pressure filled 90 minutes prior). Only 7 of 20 (P=.52) correctly selected the odd (LODO) beer out of the three samples. That is a number perfectly consistent with random chance, suggesting that my LODO and HighDO beers were indistinguishable to the average beer nerd. Of the seven who correctly identified the aberrant sample, only one preferred it (four preferred the HighDO, and two had no preference).

After a month of drinking the two beers, I was able to select and identify the beers in my single attempted triangle test. They are similar, but the LODO does have an ever-so-slightly maltier aroma to my nose. Flavors are nearly identical.

As a disclaimer, I intended this test to explore whether my kluged-process LODO made an incremental improvement to this pale lager. I'll say "yes" if you know what to look for, but in the barest of terms. What I’d love to see is someone with a dialed-in system try the same experiment!

A single experiment can’t prove or disprove anything. That's why replication is an essential (if unsexy) part of science. Even under rigorously controlled conditions statistics like this only provide a confidence interval that suggests that the results are not due to chance. Compound this with variability introduced by brewer, brew house, tasters, conditions etc. and you sometimes produce false positive and negatives. That said, blind taste tests are the best way to insulate results from expectation and bias. Triangle tests are a pain to conduct, and put a target on you from people who can swear they can taste the difference. I have a lot of respect for what the Brulosophy folks put themselves through for data (especially after participating a couple times)! Looking forward to hanging out with Marshall in New Zealand in a couple months between talks at NZHC 2017!

As a side note, Audrey got me this tube wringer for toothpaste, but it works perfectly to extract the last few billion cells from PurePitch packages. White Labs should probably license it and sell an official version!

LODO Festbier

Smell – Clean bready malt aroma. Pleasant waft of sulfur, although a few tasters felt it considerably stronger than I do. Faint grassiness of noble hops.

Appearance – Slightly-hazy deep yellow. Dense white head sticks around until the bottom leaving patches of lacing down the sides of the glass.

Taste – Malt flavor is well rounded. Crisp, but the 5% crystal malt adds a mild honey-like sweetness. Pleasant herbal hop flavor in the finish. Clean balancing bitterness. Retro-nasal brings the appropriate lager-light-egginess back. It had a flavor that reminded me of the doughiness of a no-boil Berliner weisse when it was young, but that has faded.

Mouthfeel – Medium body with moderately prickly carbonation.

Drinkability & Notes – One of the better lagers I’ve brewed. Malty without being heavy. The sulfur is at the top of the my range, likely a result of the cold fermentation and spunding rather than the sulfite.

Changes for Next Time – Unlike my first attempt where the primary issue was double-dosing metabisulfite, this is a pleasant beer! Next time I’d reduce or eliminate the Carahell, and save the effort and brew it with the standard wort production (and warm up the fermentation towards the end)!

Festbier Recipe

Batch Size: 10.00 gal
SRM: 5.3 SRM
IBU: 17.5 IBUs
OG: 1.055
FG: 1.013
ABV: 5.5%
Brewhouse Efficiency: 65%
Boil Time: 65 Mins

Grain
-------
75.5 % - 17.1 lbs Weyermann Pilsner
17.5 % - 4 lbs Weyermann Vienna
5.4 % - 1.2 lbs Weyermann Carahell
1.7 % - .4 lbs Weyermann Acidulated

Mash
-------
Sacch Rest - 30 min @ 152F

Hops
-------
4.40 oz Hallertauer Mittelfrueh (Pellets, 2.00 % AA) @ 60 min
1.60 oz Hallertauer Mittelfrueh (Pellets, 2.00 % AA) @ 10 min

Yeast
-------
White Labs WLP833 German Bock Lager

Notes
-------
Brewed 11/14/16

Recipe above is the ingredients for the entire 10 gallon batch.

Made a 5L stir-plate starter. Fermented at room temperature for 36 hours, then crash chilled.

Boiled 18 gallons of water (8 distilled, 10 filtered DC) added 12 g of CaCl. Preboiled water, then added 7 crushed sodium campden tablets. Underlet mash after purging with CO2.

Mash pH 5.28.

Collected 7.5 gallons of wort as is, 4.5 aerated and left in an aluminum pot until the remainder came to a boil.

Adjusted 2.4% AA hop pellets down to 2%. Bagged.

LODO, 2.75 oz @ 60 min. 1 oz @ 10 min. Plate chiller. 1.056. Slightly sweeter, maybe could pass for maltier. A shade lighter.

Aerated, 1.65 oz @ 60 min. .6 oz @ 10 min. Immersion chiller. 1.054.

Chilled both to 46F, shook to aerate, pitched the decanted starter. Left at 48F to ferment.

11/20/16 Down to 1.032 (43% AA).

11/21/16 Started dropping 1F per day. Until it reached 43F.

11/24/16 1.024, still pretty yeasty with a small krausen.

11/27/16 1.019 (66% AA). Kegged into quadruple-purged kegs. Purged and pressurized head space. Left at 48F to carbonate. Both have some sweetness, so hopefully drops below 1.015 (73% AA).

12/3/16 Good pressure on both, 15 PSI. Removed spunding valve and began dropping 2F per day.

12/18/16 Attached to gas and dumped yeast from both. FG 1.013 (76.8% attenuation) on the LODO, 1.012 (77.8%) on the HighDO.

I get a commission if you click the links to MoreBeer/Amazon and buy something!

Low Dissolved Oxygen (DO) Brewing Lager

Every few years there seems to be some radical underpinning of the brewing word that comes under assault. Remember olive oil instead of oxygen? Saisons fermented above 80F? Dark candi syrup the key to dark Belgian beers? Dry hopping during fermentation? After the debate calms down sometimes brewer's shift their process en masse, and sometimes most of them say it isn't worth the expense/effort/trade-off.


Two things I love about homebrewing are the passion it stirs up, and the flexibility it allows for testing novel techniques. After my friend Trevor talked my ear off about it, I read the German Brewing Forum's collaborative treatise on low dissolved oxygen (Low DO) brewing, The elevator pitch is that to mimic the character of large/classic German breweries (who steam purge equipment and deaerate brewing water) homebrewers need to go to great lengths to limit oxygen pickup on both the hot and cold side. This includes pre-boiling water, dosing oxygen-scavenging sodium metabisulfite, underleting the mash, and spunding their kegs. The supposed payoff is a near mythic German “it” maltiness that Ayinger, Paulaner, Weihenstephaner et al. create that you never taste from craft-brewed examples of helles, dunkel, bock etc.

I decided it was worth a try!

The problem with the method is that, according to the authors, even slight deviations may render the rest of the effort worthless. As little as 1 PPM of oxygen for a few minutes is enough to destroy all of that hard work! I did my best, but didn’t have the effort to go entirely on-method. On the hot side, I used a copper wort chiller (cleaned with StarSan to remove most of the tarnish) instead of stainless steel. On the cold side, I did a more modern lagering method warming rather than cooling towards the end of fermentation to ensure complete attenuation.

The other problem was that I misunderstood the amount of metabisulfite to add. I executed a no-sparge mash as suggested to avoid the risk of aerating during the sparge. The problem was that I dosed my entire mash volume with the rate of campden that they called for (100 mg/L), without accounting for the lower rate (10-25 mg/L) suggested for the sparge. Apparently I wasn't alone because version #2 of the treatise suggests 55 mg/L metabisulfite for no-sparge brewing.

To throw another variable into the mix, I used Weyermann Barke Pilsner for the first time (a sample from BSG, thanks!). This is a new release, an heirloom malt that is lower yielding in the field, but supposedly fantastic to brew with. It is said to replicate some of that elusive maltiness that is difficult to capture for non-German brewers.

The recipe is somewhere between a Pilsner and a Helles (with the other half currently fermenting as a Brett/beet saison, more on that some other week...)

Low DO Pilsner-Helles

Smell – Mostly clean aroma, just a hint of gentle yeasty-apple-fruitiness. Nose isn’t especially malty, I might have confused it for an American Premium if I didn’t know what I was being served. Appropriate waft of sulfur, not out of place. Luckily a "peanut butter" aroma it had early in lagering is gone.

Appearance – Pretty white head, good retention and lacing. One of the palest beers I’ve brewed given the avoidance of Maillard reactions in both malting and brewing. Moderate haze, not off-putting.

Taste – First wort Saphir hops provided a pleasant bitterness with some faint herbal notes. The finish exhibits big doughy malt, more reminiscent of a no-boil Berliner than anything else I’ve brewed. Finish has a hint of chemical-bitterness.

Mouthfeel – Light and crisp, as expected given the low OG. Firm carbonation.

Drinkability & Notes – A solid beer? Sure. Unique? I think so. Worth all the extra effort? Not for this batch anyway! It’s actually one of the lagers I’ve enjoyed least from my last few years of brewing. Not that I brew many, but the lingering flavor isn’t one that calls out for another sip.

Changes for Next Time – Adjust the sulfites to be more in line with the clarified suggestions reduce by 50%). Try going all-in on the Helles recipe, including some caramel malts to see if their flavor shines as noted.

Low DO Barke Pilsner Recipe

Batch Size (Gal): 11
SRM: 2.9
IBU: 21.8
OG: 1.043
FG: 1.009
ABV: 4.4%
Brewhouse Efficiency: 63%
Wort Boil Time: 65 Minutes

Malt
------
100.0 % - 20 lbs Weyermann Barke Pilsner

Mash
-------
Sacch Rest - 30 min @ 152 F

Hops
-------
4.00 oz Saphir (Pellet, 3.00 % AA) @ First Wort

Extras
--------
1.00 Whirlfloc Tablet @ 5 mins
1.00 tsp Yeast Nutrient @ 5 mins

Yeast
-------
Saflager W-34/70

Notes
-------
Brewed 8/7/16

Boiled 18 gallons of water (half distilled, half filtered DC) added 12 g of CaCl and 1 tbls of 10% phosphoric acid. Chilled to 160F, added 15 campden tablets (6,600 mg sodium metabisulfite for 68 L, about the 100 mg/L suggested), crushed. Underlet mash after purging under false bottom with CO2.

Poorer than expected efficiency, likely thanks to a less vigorous crush, brief recirculation, and no sparge.

Chilled to 72 F and transferred 6 gallons out and pitched the Bootleg Biology "Mad Blend." Left at 65 F to ferment. Not aerated initially. 15 seconds of pure O2 after 3 hours, and 6 hours.

Chilled the remaining to 58 F (underestimated the amount of ice needed) and pitched 34/70 (rehydrated, then given an hour on a stirplate with 2 L of diverted wort, and then another hour in the fridge at 48F to acclimate. Not aerated initially. Left at 48F. 15 seconds of pure O2 after 3 hours, and 6 hours. Upped to 52F after 18 hours to ensure it starts quickly.

8/11/16 Moved Saison out of the cold room, to ambient ~75F to finish out. Super sulfury.

8/15/16 Slowly started warming the lager portion 3F each day.

8/20/16 Kegged (well purged) the lager portion with 5.75 oz of Light DME. Left at 65F with the spunding valve set to 30 PSI to carbonate to mid-2s volumes. FG 1.009.

10/8/16 Added 14 oz of shredded beets to the saison secondary. Still pretty sulfury, hoping this helps!

February Kegged.

German Pilsner and Brett Saison (Same Wort)

Netting 12 gallons of wort from each brew day I’ve had to get creative with my recipes and fermentation (parti-gyling, staggering hop additions, and doctoring). This split batch of Pilsner and Saison was pretty straight-forward, identical worts (including dry hopping) with two diametrically-opposed yeasts: one a lager (WLP800 Pilsner Lager), the other a Belgian mixed-culture (3031-PC Saison-Brett Blend). No better example of the old adage that “Brewers make wort, but yeast make beer!”

German Pilsner

Appearance – Clear (nearly crystal) bright yellow, just a shade darker than my Berliners for palest. Fantastic head retention, dense sticky white, with a full covering down to the last sip.

Smell – Nose is clean, the herbal-lemon hoppiness comes through fresh and energetic. The best nose on any Pilsner I’ve brewed. Maybe a hint of diacetyl as it approaches room temperature, although my wife (and chief diacetyl tester) has yet to note it.

Taste – Flavor is similarly clean, no yeastiness or yeast character. The hop bitterness is firm, but not rough or lingering. Malt adds a faint fresh-baked white bread flavor in the middle, not grainy. Hop flavor is saturated, without being grassy like noble hops tend to be when used for dry hopping.

Mouthfeel – A hair full for than a classic German Pilsner, perhaps mid-way to Bohemian (thanks to the yeast, and/or higher chloride). Still medium-light and pleasant for my palate. Slightly stinging carbonation, but nothing approaching the carbonic bite of my least favorite pale lagers.

Drinkability & Notes – Chock another one up for Firestone-Walker, Saphir will be my new go-to for Pilsners! A wonderfully drinkable beer that doesn’t cross into being an India Pale Lager with a distinctly American-hop character and assertive bitterness.



Brett Saison

Appearance – Appears a shade golder thanks to the haze (and wider glass). Head retention is slightly lower, but the lacing is clingier.

Smell – The hop aroma doesn’t come through nearly as clearly. It’s hiding behind the yeasts’ green apple skin, peppery-spice, and melon. The Saphir does add a delicate herbal-liveliness that too many “Bretted” saisons lack, especially as it warms. A bit more ethanol too, thanks to higher attenuation (and a warmer fermentation).

Taste – Apple is there again, although a bit more bruised than in the nose. Typical French Saison-type tropical fruit and spice. The Brett finally shows up in the finish, all leather and horse blanket. This blend does a lovely job balancing the “saison” and the Brett, not going fully wild-funkmotron as too many Brett Saisons do. Mild acidity, not enough to clash with the solid hop bitterness. The maltiness from the Pilsner is obscured. Bone dry.

Mouthfeel – Leaner mouthfeel, not tannic or drying though. Same carbonation, thanks to the manifold.

Drinkability & Notes – I’m reasonably pleased with the Wyeast Saison-Brett Blend given the relatively short turnaround on this batch! The Brett provides depth without dominating the saison-iness. I think the Saphir does well here, although not in a starring role like the Pilsner.

Saphir-Hopped Pilsner (and Saison)

I often daisy-chain similar batches by harvesting the yeast from one and repitching into the next. While this can be convenient and cost-saving for any strain, it is especially valuable for 100% Brettanomyces and lagers where the pitching rates are higher than ales. After brewing this tmavé, I wanted to brew a brighter and hoppier lager.

Pilsner has long been my favorite pale lager. Clean, hoppy, and delightfully drinkable. I've brewed more of the rounder-maltier Czech-style than the bitter-crisper German-style, but I enjoy both. I've been looking for the right hop (Saaz, Perle, etc.), but traditional European varieties don't have the high aromatic oil content that IPA drinkers are accustomed to (hops like Citra and Simcoe have total oils over 2% compared to many noble-leaning cultivars which hover around 1%). Compound that with no dry-hopping, and you get a Pilsner that doesn't have the hoppy aromatic profile that I'll aiming for!

Pilsners don't travel well, so I tend to buy American when I don't have my own on tap. Firestone Walker Pivo is one of my favorites (along with Victory Prima Pils and Hill Farmstead Mary). I decided to take a cue from Firestone-Walker's Matt Brynildson and dry hop with Saphir (they add Spalt for late-boil additions, but I wanted to feature the new-to-me variety). Saphir has a total oil content of 0.8-1.4%, not bad considering alpha acids are under 3%. The aroma reminds me most of Crystal, with some citrus mixed in with the herbal.

Rather than imitate the classic water profile or techniques used by German brewers, I employed a similar water profile and hop timing that I would for an IPA. Although rather than blend sulfate and chloride, I focused on chloride as advised by the December BYO story Firestone Walker Fever, which included the recipe/process for Pivo. I dry hopped at 50% apparent attenuation, the same time I started ramping up the temperature.

One of the advantages of blogging is that occasionally I get free stuff! I received a Javelin Pro thermometer (order on Amazon and I get a cut) courtesy of LavaTools! It is a more reasonably priced ($55 compared to $99) alternative to the Thermoworks Thermapen. It even has a few added features like magnets embedded on the back, and a back-lit display. Sadly it shares the Thermapen's hinged design, which I find to be an annoying less-sanitary two-handed mechanism to turn the unit on and off (despite being splash-resistant a hinge is also a liability where sticky wort is involved - which killed my Thermapen). In comparing the Javelin Pro side-by-side to my five-year-old $19 Thermoworks Super-Fast Pocket the response time is slightly faster going from room to mash temperature, although the saved second is more valuable for finding the coolest spot in the center of a roast. Luckily the readings of the two were within a couple tenths of a degree; accuracy is by far the more important factor when it comes to brewing! If you have lusted after a Thermapen, the Javelin Pro is a nice budget pick, but I wouldn't suggest either if you are buying it specifically for brewing. (Post-script: the Javelin Pro's hinge snapped after about a year of use).

The wort (pale, hoppy, and fermentable) seemed perfect for a funky saison as well, so I pitched Wyeast 3031-PC Saison-Brett Blend into the other half. I even did the same dry hopping. Should make for an interesting tasting later this week!

Saphir German Pil/Belgian Saison

Recipe Specifics
--------------------
Batch Size (Gal): 6.25
Total Grain (Lbs): 10.38
OG: 1.052
SRM: 2.9
IBU: 34.3
Brewhouse Efficiency: 82 %
Wort Boil Time: 75 Minutes

Grain
-------
98.8% - 10.25 lbs. Weyermann Floor Malted Bohemian Pilsener
1.2% - 0.13 lbs. Weyermann Acidulated Malt

Hops
------
0.93 oz. Magnum (Pellet, 11.00% AA) @ 60 min.
2.00 oz. Saphir (Pellet, 2.60% AA) @ 0 min.
2.00 oz. Saphir (Pellet, 2.60% AA) @ Dry Hop

Extras
--------
0.50 Whirlfloc @ 5 min.
0.50 tsp Yeast Nutrient @ 5 min.

Yeast
------
White Labs WLP800 Pilsner Lager
or
Wyeast 3031-PC Saison-Brett Blend

Water Profile
----------------
Profile: Washington, Hoppy

Mash Schedule
-------------------
Sacch 1 - 20 min @ 146 F
Sacch 2 - 30 min @ 156 F (Direct)

Notes
-------
11/14/15 1.25 L stir-plate starter of two-month-old Wyeast 3031-PC Saison-Brett Blend.

Brewed 11/15/15 - Brewed 12.5 gallons, but all ingredients/process details scaled so it can be brewed as is for 6.25 gallons of Pilsner or Saison wort at the end of the boil.

Mash: 2 gallons distilled, 2 gallons spring, 3 gallons filtered tap. 7 g CaCl. Weyermann Floor-malted Bohemian Pilsner. Measured pH at 5.27 five minutes into the mash. 2 gallon cold/distilled untreated sparge water. Collected 7.5 gallons of 1.045 runnings. pH=5.45 five minutes into the boil.

Allowed the flame-out hops to whirlpool for 10 minutes and settle for 20 minutes before chilling.

Saison: Chilled to 72F, settled for 10 minutes post-chill, ran off 5.5 gallons. 30 seconds pure O2, pitched the entire starter, and left at 71F ambient to ferment.

11/19/15 Dry hopped with 2 oz of Saphir, fermentation was beginning to wane

11/26/15 Keg conditioned with 3 oz of table sugar.

12/20/15 Moved to kegerator. FG 1.002 (96% AA, 6.6% ABV)

1/28/16 Tasting notes, nicely balanced between the yeast, Brett, and hops. Not a wow beer, but solid.

Pilsner: Switched to recirculating with 10 lbs of ice, chilling to 48F. Settled for 10 minutes, and ran off 5.5 gallons. 60 seconds pure O2, pitched a little over 1/2 cup of thick slurry from the Tmave Pivo (WLP800) which had been settling at 32F until the morning, then allowed to warm closer to pitching temperature. Fermented at 52 F ambient to start.

11/19/15 Only down to 1.036 (31% AA). Nice krausen, surprised it is so high. Upped temperature to 53F to make sure it doesn't stall.

11/21/15 1.026 - 50% AA, added dry hops (2 oz of Saphir) pellets and upped fridge to 59F.

11/22/15 24 hours later, up to 64F ambient.

11/29/15 Kegged into flushed Corny, moved to 50F to begin crashing. Gravity 1.012 (77% AA, 5.3% ABV). Held at 32F after dropping 10F every 12 hours.

1/12/16 Hooked up to gas.

Managed to plug the poppet immediately on the first pull. No issues after that.

1/28/16 Tasting notes, wonderfully hoppy, crisp, clean, lager!

Tmavé Pivo (Czech Dark Lager)

Lagers can be more interesting, quicker, and easier to brew than they are often given credit for! Every time I brew a lager I find myself drinking it faster than I realize. Kicking the keg when in my mind it is still half full. The cleanliness of lagers showcases malts, hops, and other ingredients better than characterful ale yeasts are able. Balanced, versatile, and hard to find from craft breweries!

One of the first commercial lagers I really loved was Sprecher Black Bavarian. It is marketed as a "Kulmbacher style lager" (AKA schwarzbier), but because it was formulated in the early 1990s it is brewed with inauthentic dark malts (chocolate and black patent). The result is a dark lager that is halfway to English porter. Like cold-brewed coffee: smooth, roasty, moderate bitterness, and no astringency.

In the January/February 2013 issue of Brew Your Own Nathan Zeender and I wrote Dark Lagers: The New Possibility. In addition to Baltic porter and weizen tripelbock, we covered tmavé pivo (Czech for "dark beer"). It is sometimes called černé (black). Our friend and DC beer-historian extraordinaire Mike Stein had returned from Prague with actual examples of the style (most were a bit bland/sweet) to share. We also got context from Czech-located beer writer Evan Rail, and Nathan brewed one with Jason Oliver at Devil’s Backbone – Morana. I never got around to brewing one for myself though!

Earlier this year, I bumped into a recipe courtesy of Horst Dornbusch for Flekovský ležák 13° the hallmark example brewed by U Fleku (founded in 1499, the oldest still operating brewpub in the world). It has since been deleted from the Brewer’s Associations website, but is preserved in this BeerAdvocate thread. However, the ensuing discussion only served to catalyze confusion about the accuracy of the recipe, especially the roasted malt.

So I started digging: 2015 BJCP Guidelines for Czech Dark Lager, Stan Hieronymus’s For the Love of Hops has a recipe from Evan Rail, Gordon Strong's Modern Homebrew Recipes, and of course rereading our BYO article. The result was that I came to assume the U Fleku recipe likely should call for Carafa Special II (in place of the Carafa II), but I wanted to err on the roasty end, so I only replaced 1/3. The 13% CaraMunich seemed high, but I occasionally brew recipes that I wouldn’t write to help break me out of routine. I had originally intended to use Munich as prescribed, but an order SNAFU resulted in a free sack of Weyermann Floor Malted Bohemian Dark… similar SRM and "well suited for classic Czech Dunkel lagers," so why not?

I employed the Brulosophy Quick Lagering method for the first time for this batch. Results were good, but the WLP800 was in no mood to be rushed even finishing with a week sitting at 65F. The batch was about twice the size stated below, with most of the first runnings going to a similar “special” higher gravity Baltic porter-esque version at 7% ABV. Sadly I also learned that two 30L Speidel fermentors won’t fit in my fermentation fridge together, so the Czech-tic porter fermented at ambient-fall-basement temperature.

Coincidentally I was at the Rockville, MD Gordon Biersch brewing a collaborative wine-barrel-aged Flemish Red last week and brewmaster Christian Layke happened to have his Tmavé Pivo on. Much closer to the original style (without being bland): less roasty, a few shades lighter, and slightly less sweet allowing the hops to be more present. More on our beer another time!

Tmavé Pivo: U Fleku Style

Appearance – Dark brown, but with clear red highlights. The dense off-white head exhibits tremendous retention. Good lacing. The body is a few shades darker than I hoped for, would be nice to see highlights without holding it up to a lamp.

Smell – Hints of coffee, bready malt, and some dark fruit. Really intense maltiness for the style. "Spicy" Saaz hop aroma doesn’t come through. Clean fermentation, glad the quick lagering method worked!

Taste – Smooth French-roast coffee, and caramel cookies. Clean fermentation, but the malt obscures most of the other characters. Light bitterness, enough to balance the sweetness. Fermentation is clean again in the flavor, although I'm not sure how much I'd notice if it was a little fruity.

Mouthfeel – Full, rounded, and well carbonated. Smooth.

Drinkability & Notes – It’s a good beer, but a true Tmavé Pivo it is not. Richer, roastier, and fuller than classic examples of the style. Turns out my instincts were right on the recipe. To get closer to the real deal, I’d back down the CaraMunich to 7-8% and go all Carafa Special II at 5%. I need to buy a bottle of Black Bavarian to remind myself of how close I ended up!

Tmavé Pivo U: Fleku Style

Recipe Specifics
--------------------
Batch Size (Gal): 6.00
Total Grain (Lbs): 11.57
OG: 1.053
SRM: 25.8
IBU: 29.4
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75 %
Wort Boil Time: 70 Minutes

Grain
-------
51.9% - 6.00 lbs. Weyermann Floor Malted Bohemian Pilsner
29.6% - 3.43 lbs. Weyermann Floor Malted Bohemian Dark
13.0% - 1.50 lbs. Weyermann CaraMunich II
3.7% - 0.43 lbs. Weyermann Carafa II
1.9% - 0.21 lbs. Weyermann Carafa Special II

Hops
-------
1.13 oz. Sterling (Pellet, 7.50% AA) @ First Wort
1.00 oz. Czech Saaz (Pellet, 3.50% AA) @ 5 min.

Extras
--------
0.50 Whirlfloc @ 5 min
0.50 tsp Yeast Nutrient @ 5 min

Yeast
-------
White Labs WLP800 Pilsner Lager

Water Profile
-----------------
Profile: Washington, DC

Mash Schedule
-------------------
Protein Rest - 15 min @ 126F
Sacch I - 30 min @ 145F (direct)
Sacch II - 20 min @ 158F (direct)

Notes
-------
Two stage starter made a week in advance (1.25 L to 3.5 L). Second stage was mini-mash of Bohemian Dark. Crashed in fridge prior to brew day.

Brewed 10/25/15

5 g CaCl added to the filtered DC tap water for the mash. Started with only the two Bohemian grains (no CaraMunich or Carafa). Added specialty malts as I heated to the second Sacch rest to ensure conversion, but reduce intensity/astringency.

Collected 8 gallons with a 5 gallon cold sparge at 1.042 for the Tmavé.

Added 1.125 oz of 8% AA Sterling adjusted down shortly before the start of the boil. 1/2 tsp Wyeast nutrient, 1 whirlfloc. OG 1.053. Chilled to 51F, shook to aerate, pitched 1/2 starter. Left at 48F to ferment.

10/29/15 To 1.033 (38% AA), upped to 52F.

10/31/15 AM, started ramping up 5F every 12 hours. Topped out at 65F.

11/3/15 Gravity at 1.019 (64% AA). Still a few more points to go. Remnants of the krausen remain. Would be nice to see 1.016!

11/6/15 Still a little krausen, but I got my wish, 1.016 (64% AA, 4.9% ABV). CaraMunich caramel shines, no diacetyl, ready for kegging and lagering tomorrow.

11/7/15 Into a flushed keg and into the fridge at 60F for the slow ramp-down (5F every 12 hours). Looked pretty yeasty and there was a dense persistent krausen. 1 extra liter into a growler with 1.25 tsp of sugar.

American-Ingredient Pilsner Recipe

Homebrewers often talk as if brewing a lager is a completely different process than an ale. In fact, neither requires decocting, filtering, krausening, spunding, or really anything else the other does not. Producing a great lager demands extra attention to a few key areas (e.g., temperature control and yeast pitching rates) to produce the cleanest yeast profile possible, but many ale yeasts have their own quirks too. Making accommodations for a demanding yeast strain is easier if you have specialized equipment, but if you have a temperature controlled fermentation chamber, you’re most of the way there. A larger vessel for starters, and a more effective wort chiller are optional, but helpful.

There are some brewers for whom any added effort isn’t worth the loss of ale yeast’s aromatic esters and/or phenol. More flavors doesn’t always result in more complexity though. Lager yeasts stay out of the way, allowing a fuller expression of both malts and hops. When you brew a lager lacking substantial “wort” character, you’ll end up with a quenching if bland result. However, many wonderful lagers are brewed with assertive malt and hop bills. For example, the recent wave of IPL (India Pale Lagers) from The Bruery, Jack’s Abby and other craft brewers often beat many American IPAs at their own hoppy game.

This recipe is my second batch inspired by Moonlight Brewing's Reality Czeck (I never posted the first). It's a bright Pilsner, grainy, and assertively hopped with US grown Perle. Achieving a really saturated hop aroma with classic “landrace” varieties like Czech Saaz or German Hallertau can be difficult because of their low essential oil content compared to modern varieties. Perle isn't exactly an “exciting” hop, but it's a refreshing spicy/herbal break from the usually citrusy/fruity varietals that are so popular now. I was using American hops, so I decided to stick with the theme and used American malted Pilsner malt as the base.

If your ground water isn’t colder than your target pitching temperature, you have a couple options. Sometimes I attach my immersion chiller to a submersible pump to recirculate ice water to chill the wort the last bit. An easier option is to get the wort as cold as I can and then just stick it in the fermentation chamber and pitch a few hours later. Either way the fermentation character will be much cleaner than pitching the yeast while the wort is still warm and then lowering the temperature.

This batch also served as an excuse to deploy my HopRocket (hop-back) on a batch that won't be dry hopped (with my setup/recipes dry hops tend to overwhelm the aroma gained from a hop-back). I find dry hopping with European (and related) varieties imparts grassy flavors, so hopefully the hop-back is a good alternative. The HopRocket has the side-benefit of filtering hot break, which results in clearer wort and higher yields.

After two weeks in the primary fermentor, tasting to ensure there was no diacetyl, I transferred the beer to a purged keg and allowed it to settle for a day at 35 F before fining with gelatin. It is important to have the beer cold before adding the gelatin to gain the maximum clarity boost. I'm not normally a clarity snob, but yeast itself can lend a flavor to a beer as delicate and crisp as a Pilsner. I used a similar process to good effect in the Urquell-inspired Czech Pils I brewed a couple years ago.

Looking forward to drinking this real American Pilsner on the porch this summer!

Reality Czeck Inspired#2


Recipe Specifics
-------------------
Batch Size (Gal): 5.50
Total Grain (Lbs): 10.25
Anticipated OG: 1.046
Anticipated SRM: 2.9
Anticipated IBU: 44.4
Brewhouse Efficiency: 67 %
Wort Boil Time: 75 Minutes

Grain
-------
92.7% - 9.50 lbs. Briess Pilsener
4.9% - 0.50 lbs. Briess CaraPils
1.2% - 0.13 lbs. Weyermann Acidulated
1.2% - 0.13 lbs. Weyermann Melanoidin

Hops
-------
1.00 oz. Perle (Whole, 8.25% AA) @ 45 min.
1.00 oz. Perle (Whole, 8.25% AA) @ 15 min.
2.00 oz. Perle (Whole, 8.25% AA) @ 0 min.
2.50 oz. Perle (Whole, 8.25% AA) @ Hop-Back

Extras
--------
0.50 Whirlfloc @ 10 min.
0.50 tsp Yeast Nutrient @ 10 min.

Yeast
------
SafLager W-34/70 

Water Profile
----------------
Profile: Pilsen

Mash Schedule
-----------------
Sacch Rest - 60 min 153F

Notes
-------
Brewed 4/12/14 with the final Modern Times Kickstarter group

Half distilled and half spring water. 2 g CaCl and gypsum added to the mash and sparge water (plus 1 tsp of phosphoric acid to the sparge).

Mash pH 5.3 at room temperature.

Collected 6.5 gallons of 1.040 runnings from a batch sparge.

Added .5 gallons of spring water as volume was a bit lower than anticipated.

Put wort into fridge set to 45F to chill the rest of the way. 6 hours later rehydrated 2 packs of Saflager W-34/70 in 85 F water for 30 minutes. 75 seconds of pure O2 in the wort then pitched. Set fridge to 52F.

Up to 54F after 24 hours without activity. Finally activity around 44 hours, dropped temperature to 50F to absorb the added heat of fermentation.

Up to 55F 4 days after the first signs of activity

4/21/14 Up to 60F

4/23/14 Up to 65F for diacetyl rest.

4/27/14 Kegged, already pretty bright. Left at 35F, not hooked up to gas. 1.012 (74% AA).

4/28/14 Poured off the first pint to remove any settled yeast. Added 1/2 packet of Knox gelatin to 1/3 cup of filtered tap water. Added 2/3 cup of boiling water 10 minutes later. Mixed into the cold beer. Topped off with CO2 a few times and shook it in. Returned to the fridge to lager at 35F.

6/18/14 Tasting notes posted! It is clear-ish, but I think the beer may not have gotten down to 35F before adding the gelatin. Head is terrific. The herbal hop aroma is solid, but I don't taste a big contribution from the hop back compared to adding a similar total amount of hops (4.5 oz) at flame-out.

Wheat Triplebock - Final Tasting

Always hard to convince myself to open the last bottle of any batch, but I had a good excuse to pop the final Wheat Tripelbock tonight (I still have one bottle of the bourbon-soaked oaked version left). BYO wanted a better picture of the finished beer, which Nathan and I featured in an article we submitted about dark lagers for the February issue (which will be my first cover story I'm told!).

Wheat Triplebock

Appearance – Very dark brown, bordering on black in the wide bowl of my snifter. It has red highlights when held at an angle to the light. Unsurprisingly after a few years in the bottle, the beer is crystal clear. The thin tan head has big bubbles, but still maintains excellent retention.

Smell – Rich and complex. Dominant caramel, but it doesn’t smell burnt. Dark fruit as well, but not as one-note RAISIN like Special B can be. As it warms there is a whiff of alcohol occasionally, but otherwise it is very clean. Despite its age I don’t pick up any oxidation.

Taste – Starts with the caramel and plums from the nose. The middle is dominated by dense bready/toasty malt, Munich especially. Hint of unsweetened cocoa in the finish, a nice twist on the standard dark German beer. Still tastes remarkably fresh for a beer brewed in 2008. Plenty of sweetness, but the alcohol and light roast cut through it well.

Mouthfeel – Thick and full, with soft carbonation. Really rich.

Drinkability & Notes – Much gentler and more balanced than it was a few years ago. Rather than being close to cloying the beer seems drier, despite the fading hop bitterness. This batch appears to have a lot more color than the new version I recently racked from a whisky barrel into a keg for lagering (it has 2% less Extra Dark Crystal).

If you are interested in reading the article about dark lagers, then subscribe to BYO (through my affiliate link ideally). The article includes tips from the brewer that inspired this beer (Steve Berthel of The Livery), as well as Scandinavian brewer extraordinaire Anders Kissmeyer talking Baltic porter, and unstoppable medal winning machine Jason Oliver of Devil’s Backbone and Czech-brewing-encyclopedia Evan Rail philosophizing about decoctions and tmavé.

Malt Whisky Barrel Wheat Trippelbock

There's no shortage of bourbon-barrel-aged Russian Imperial Stouts or Barleywines at most beer bars; they seem to be about the only styles that most brewers think to age in the ubiquitous charred-American-oak vessels. I enjoy some of them, especially the smooth chocolaty stouts, but I’d prefer to see more breweries thinking of new ideas rather than jumping on something that has already been done so well (e.g., Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout, Pelican Mother of All Storms, Firestone-Walker Parabola, Great Divide Barrel Aged Old Ruffian etc.).

A couple of years ago I brewed a strong dark wheaten lager, based on The Livery’s Wheat Trippelbock (aka Trippel Wiezenbock), that I thought turned out pretty well, but the version aged on Bourbon soaked oak cubes was fantastic. The tannins from the wood helped to balance the considerable residual sweetness, and boosted the complexity. I decided to repeat the recipe (with a few minor tweaks) and age it in the five gallon Single Malt barrel from Balcones (they described the spirit to me as somewhere between Bourbon and Scotch, minus the peat smoke).

Thanks to my 70 qrt mash tun, the 25 lb grain bill wasn’t much of a challenge. Luckily I checked the gravity of the wort as it was coming to a boil and noticed it was slightly lower than I calculated it needed to be to hit the massive original gravity (~1.108). I had stopped the run off when I reached my pre-boil volume, so I collected and then boiled the final runnings on the stove until the main wort was ready for the first hop addition. The concentrated wort didn’t get thick enough to caramelize (like first runnings of my Scottish Stout) but it contained enough sugar to boost the OG of the batch by .009. The ability to make adjustments like this on the fly is one of the reasons it is a good idea to check the gravity of the wort as early as possible.

The biggest issue on this batch for me was generating enough yeast without the ability to repitch from a yeast cake. I started a single vial of WLP833 (German Bock Lager) in a 1.5 L starter on my stir-plate. After two days, I crash cooled it, let the yeast settle, decanted the spent wort, and started it back with 1.7 L of fresh starter wort. While this second starter wasn’t much larger, pitching more than twice as many cells into it allowed for a bit more growth than occurred in the first stage. In this case (according to the Mr. Malty Pitching Rate Calculator) pitching a month old vial of yeast into a 1.5 L stir-pate starter resulted in 230 billion cells. Pitching those cells into a 1.7 L starter got me all the way up to 540 billion cells. Not quite the “ideal” 830 billion cells the calculator calls for in 5.75 gallon of 1.108 lager, but not that far off. Despite under-pitching, the chilled starter was enough to produce a good krausen within 12 hours in the 46 F wort.

I had initially planned to lager this beer pre-barrel-aging, making it the second beer into the malt whisky barrel, but  lagering after it soaks up some booze should provide time for it to mellow. Yesterday I brewed a 1.080 rye stout that will go into the barrel as soon as the Weizen-Trippelbock has enough character... I'm not against the classics!

Whisky Weizen Trippelbock

Recipe Specifics
-------------------
Batch Size (Gal): 5.80
Total Grain (Lbs): 25.75
Anticipated OG: 1.108
Anticipated SRM: 22.9
Anticipated IBU: 35.0
Brewhouse Efficiency: 66 %
Wort Boil Time: 135 Minutes

Grain
------
31.1% - 8.00 lbs. German Wheat Malt
23.3% - 6.00 lbs. German Dark Munich Malt
21.4% - 5.50 lbs. German Pilsener
19.4% - 5.00 lbs. German Vienna Malt
3.9% - 1.00 lbs. Simpsons Extra Dark Crystal (160L)
1.0% - 0.25 lbs. Simpsons Dark Crystal (75L)

Hops
-------
1.75 oz. Hallertauer Tradition (Pellet, 6.00% AA) @ 75 min.
2.25 oz. Hallertauer Mittelfruh (Pellet, 3.00% AA) @ 15 min.

Extras
--------
0.50 Whirlfloc @ 15 min.
0.50 tsp Yeast Nutrient @15 min.

Yeast
------
White Labs WLP833 German Bock Lager

Water Profile
----------------
Profile: Washington, DC

Mash Schedule
-----------------
Sacch Rest - 60 min @ 154F

Notes
------
9/18/12 Made a 1.5 L starter on my stir-plate at room temperature.

9/20/12 Appears finished, crash cooled to drop yeast.

9/22/12 Decanted and made a new 1.7 L starter to get the yeast rocking for tomorrow's brew. Quick aggressive fermentation.

Brewed 9/23/12 by myself

Weyermann Heritage Floor Malted Wheat was used, even though I doubt it will add much in such a flavorful recipe.

Collected 8.25 gallons of 1.082 runnings with a batch sparge. Collected an extra gallon of final (1.055) runnings to boil down as I was a bit under-gravity. Added the now 1.100 reduced runnings back at the same time as the first hop addition.

Chilled to 85 F with ground water, then used recirculated ice water to get it down to 47 F. 90 seconds of Pure O2, and pitched the un-decanted starter which had been sitting in the fridge at the intended fermentation temperature. Left at 46 F to ferment.

9/26/12 60 hours after pitching, raised temperature to 49 F to ensure continued strong attenuation. Raised 1 F each day after that until it reached 54 F.

10/2/12 Moved out of the fridge to 62 F for a diacetyl rest and strong finish to fermentation. Gravity only down to 1.043, but still some activity evident.

10/8/12 Racked to the five gallon Balcones whisky barrel, first use after swirling around a few ounces of Knob Creek. Gravity down to 1.029 (73% AA, 10.6% ABV), still some yeast in suspension. It would have been nice to give it another week to settle, but it will have a few weeks at cellar temp for the yeast to finish out anything they were working on. Left at 66 F to age.

10/28/12 Racked to a keg, dropped the temperature to 35 F for a couple months of lagering. Big boozy character, hot, but not rough.

1/16/13 Down to 1.025 (small drop from the liquor in the barrel, or final attenuation while warm). Warmed to 64 F a few days before bottling. Made a starter of WLP833 24 hours in advance, left on the stir plate for 12 hours, then turned it off to ensure no oxygen would be left. Added 2.75 oz of table sugar to the 5 gallon yield. Aiming for about 2 volumes of CO2.  Left at 64 F to carbonate, hopefully.

2/18/14 Tasting notes, with a comparison to the original batch. Carbonation was slightly lower than I intended. Not sure if the yeast stalled, or if that is 2.0. Otherwise pleased with it, probably would go 5.0-5.5% Extra Dark Crystal next time and leave the Dark out to boost the dried fruit character.

German Session Lager Tasting

On a muggy summer evening there aren't many beers that are more refreshing than a cold low-alcohol lager.  The clean yeast character (lacking the fruitness of an ale) makes lagers easier to drink in quantity and means they don't lose as much from a sub-40 F serving temperature.   Apparently my batch of second runnings session lager was too refreshing; we went through it in just three weeks, way faster than I was expecting. 

The wort for this beer came from the same mash as the English barleywine that we brewed for the anniversary of DC Homebrewers.  So it was ironic that the keg kicked while I was trying to fill a growler for the July "session beers" meeting (luckily I still had enough to fill a bomber).  Luckily I've still got a few gallons of Czech Pils on tap to get me through the rest of summer.

Hallertau Session Lager

Appearance – Slightly hazy, pale yellow body that supports dense white foam. It had been brilliantly clear, but this was the end of the keg (I'd neglected taking a picture until after it kicked),

Smell – Herbal hops and toasty malts, very clean (no diacetyl or sulfur).  The aroma is restrained at first, but grows bolder as the beer warms.

Taste – Has a firm minerally hop bitterness, that is crisp and clean. Nice classic noble hop flavor balanced with the bready malt, although it doesn't have the sweetness that you'd associate with the malt profile.  Despite the complaints I've heard about the dried lager yeast I used, S-23, the fermentation character is really clean (I don't get any of the fruitiness that other homebrewers report).

Mouthfeel – Certainly thin, but not harsh or grating. Medium-high carbonation adds to the spritzy refreshing overall feel (almost like some seltzer water was mixed into a standard lager). I always think that second runnings beers are a bit lighter than their OG/FG suggests, but I'd love to do an experiment to see if there really is a difference.

Drinkability & Notes – Really great hot weather beer, super drinkable, but not lacking character.  This is the sort of beer that might convert a macro-drinker (although the bitterness might stop some people).  I really should brew lagers more often.

Homebrewed Czech Pilsner vs. Urquell

I'll admit it, brewing great pale lagers requires an almost completely different skill set than sour beers.  I'm not saying that one is harder than the other, just that you have to focus on different parts of the process and use different parts of your brain.  Sour beers are all about creativity and instinct, the best brewers are rarely technical masters, they have great palates and learn by experimenting.  Conversely to brew great pale lagers the keys are in the details; the best brewers tend to be meticulous and strive for control over every aspect of their process. 

For this attempt at a Czech Pilsner I tried to use the most traditional ingredients and techniques to get the same flavors that the Czech brewers do.  While overall I was happy with the way brewing and fermentation went, this was only my second try at putting it all together and it will take a few more attempts to dial this process in.

The yeast I used (WY2001) is know for leaving some diacetyl (and it didn't dissapoint), but the odd thing was that this batch didn't taste buttery at all after a week held warm between 10 days of cool fermentation and two months of cold lagering. There are only a handful of styles for which the BJCP considers above threshold  diacetyl to be acceptable, and luckily Bohemian Pilsner is one of them.  While not a requirement, a low level of diacteyl adds fullness to the mouthfeel, and complexity to the malt.  The real question is, what is the "right" amount?  For me this beer is slightly more buttery than I wanted, but I tend to be more sensitive than most. 

I'm debating whether to add a Saaz hop tea for a more noticeable spicy hop aroma, which would also contribute obfuscation for the diacetyl.  My conern is that a hop tea could mar the beautifully clear golden body that fining with gelatin provided.  Clarity isn't something I normally concern myself with, but this one is destined for competition in just three weeks.

Bohemian Lager

Appearance – Pours with a one-finger creamy white head (which lasts longer and leaves better lacing than the bottle of Urquell). The body is golden/yellow, maybe a half-shade lighter.  My beer is very clear, but compared to the real deal it isn't as brilliant.

Smell – Fresh bread, some herbal complexity, and a touch of butterscotch (nowhere near artificial butter popcorn). The hop aroma could be a bit more assertive, but it is nice to really smell that decocted Pilsner malt profile that took so much effort. The original is a bit past its prime and has an aroma that is mostly cardboard (the sale at the supermarket should have been a tip-off).  As the glass of Urquell warmed up I got a bit of diacetyl, but only about 50% of what mine had.

Taste – Smooth and rounded despite the high level of IBUs, thanks to the low mineral water. The crisp Pilsner malt comes through in the middle, not as strong as it was in the aroma. The diacetyl is in the finish, slightly stronger than I'd prefer, but not over the top.  There is a lingering malty sweetness, not quite as dry as Urquell (despite finishing at 1.012 just below the low end of the guidelines for FG).

Mouthfeel – Not as much carbonation and a bit fuller than the original (which could be the diacetyl), but it still needs a bit more time for the force carbonation to work.

Drinkability & Notes – When you put as much time and thought into a beer as I did for this one it is hard to be totally satisfied with the results, but I can't say I'm disappointed either. I'd guess that the diacetyl will standout too much in the competition, but I don't think its worth screwing with at this point. 

Triple Decocted Czech Pilsner Recipe

A few months ago my first Czech Pilsner stumbled out of the starting blocks, with the yeast failing to start fermenting. After pitching lager yeast for a second time I ended up resorting to a pack of US-05 to get it going.  It ended up being a solid beer, but since then I’ve been looking for an excuse to brew the recipe again. When I found out that Pilsner Urquell was putting on a Czech Pilsner homebrewing contest in DC I was ready to go.

Other than pitching active yeast... I tweaked the process/ingredients in a couple places to try to improve on my first attempt. I swapped out the "regular" Weyermann Bohemian Pilsner malt for the floor malted version which is supposed to impart greater maltiness (and added 1% acid malt to ensure proper conversion pH with the soft water). I also stepped up from a double decoction to a triple using the mash schedule suggested by Weyermann (which surprisingly did not include a protein rest). My final alteration was to add a flameout hop addition to bolster the spicy Saaz aroma, especially because this beer will spend 8 weeks lagering before I put it on tap.

The contest isn't being held until August 10th, but I’d like to get the beer on tap a few weeks before then to give me time to dial in the carbonation. At that point I’ll also decide whether it is worth fining the beer with gelatin, and/or adding a Saaz hop tea to boost the aromatics. Hopefully all the effort pays off and I win the grand prize (a trip for two to Prague), but with 50 entries I'm going to need a lot of luck.

This was also my first time using my new submersible pump to chill the wort.  I used ground water to knock the temperature down to 80 before switching over to pumping ice water through my immersion chiller.  It worked really well allowing me to get the beer down to pitching temperatures despite my 70 degree tap water.  I'll be using this pump for ales as well this summer as my tap water climbs up into the 80s.

Anyone else enter in DC? Chicago? New York?  The event requires that the brewers show up with their entries, so I'm hoping everyone brings extra to share with the other contestants.  I'm also hoping Pilsner Urquell brings some of their more traditional beers that are usually only available in and around the brewery.

Bohemian Lager

Recipe Specifics
-----------------
Batch Size (Gal): 5.75
Total Grain (Lbs): 10.13
Anticipated OG: 1.052
Anticipated SRM: 4.0
Anticipated IBU: 42.0
Brewhouse Efficiency: 78 %
Wort Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Grain
------
98.8% - 10.00 lbs. Weyermann Floor Malted BoPils
1.2% - 0.13 lbs. Acid Malt

Hops
------
1.50 oz. Czech Saaz (Pellet, 3.90% AA) @ 75 min.
1.25 oz. Czech Saaz (Pellet, 3.90% AA) @ 30 min.
1.25 oz. Czech Saaz (Pellet, 3.90% AA) @ 10 min.
1.25 oz. Czech Saaz (Pellet, 3.90% AA) @ 0 min.

Extras
-------
0.50 tsp Yeast Nutrient @ 15 min.
0.50 Whirlfloc @ 15 min.

Yeast
-----
WYeast 2001 Urquell Lager

Water Profile
-------------
Profile: Washington DC diluted with 66% distilled

Mash Schedule
-------------
Acid Rest 90 min @ 101 (Infuse)
Sacch I 45 min @ 148 (Decoction)
Sacch II 30 min @ 162 (Decoction)
Mash Out 10 min @ 170 (Decoction)

Notes
-----
4/23/11 Made a ~3 qrt starter with a 2 month old smack pack. Good activity within 24 hours. Fermented out in 5 days, at which point I crash cooled it to drop out the yeast.

Brewed 5/1/11

Decanted yeast and put it in the fermentation fridge at 45 F to start bringing it up to fermentation temp.

6 gallons of Distilled water to cut 2 gallons of DC water. Mashed with 3 gallons distilled, plus 1 gallon filtered DC. Added 2 pints distilled plus 1 tap to the first decoction (pulled 10 qrts of mostly grain). A bit over the temp target on my first rest ~155, so I left it for 25 minutes and then proceeded to the boil. A few degrees low on the Sacch rest ~147.5. Added an extra 5 min.

Collected 6.75 gallons of 1.047 runnings with a batch sparge, great efficiency due to decoctions, mash-out etc... Added a bit of extra filtered tap water at a few points to dilute the boil.

Chilled to ~50 F, strained, allowed to settle for 10 minutes before racking to the fermenter. Left quite a bit of trub/hop residue behind. 60 seconds of pure O2, then pitched the starter, which I had fed 2 pints of wort once it had been brought to a boil. Boiled 2 qrts of water to add the following morning to get the gravity down to the target gravity.

24 hours later some activity at 45 F ambient.

Four days into fermentation I started raising the ambient temp by 1 F a day to prevent the yeast from cooling as the slowed down. Four days in 46, five 47, six 48, seven 49, eight 50.

5/11/11 Moved out of the fridge for a diacetyl rest. Ambient temp ~65 F. Fermentation appears to be about complete.

5/17/11 Moved to a keg, gravity down to 1.012. Just a hint of sulfur. Dropped temp to 33 F to lager for a couple months before serving.

7/11/11 Moved to the kegerator and hooked up to 10 PSI.  Really murky/yeasty on the first few pours, hopefully just the yeasty trub kicked up from moving it.

7/12/11 Added 3/4 pack of Knox gelatin hydrated in 1/2 cup of room temperature water and then dissolved with 3/4 cup of boiling water. Already tastes much cleaner/crisper after settling overnight.  Still waiting on the hop tea...

7/21/11 The gelatin did a great job clearing it, although it is not quite as brilliant as Pilsner Urquell.  The flavor, and the malt in particular is great, but it is slightly more buttery than I wanted.  We'll see if that changes over the next few weeks before the competition.

7/27/11 Steed 1 oz of hops in 1 pint of water just off the boil. After 10 minutes strained through cheesecloth and added the hop tea to the keg.

8/10/11 Made the final round at the Pilsner Urquell Master Hombrewer Competition (top 6), but failed to medal.  Really happy with the way it turned out, cleaned up nicely, and has a great hop aroma.

Hallertau Tradition Session Lager

I view parti-gyle wort a lot like leftovers, it may not be ideal, but  it can be delicious when prepared correctly (not to mention it's free).  Unless the big beer is high gravity there probably will not be enough fermentables left in the mash for a second batch, but there is almost always enough to do something with (like make a starter or a small experimental batch).  Extracting the second runnings is easy, after the wort for the first beer is collected just continue sparging into another vessel.  It may seem like a chore to tack on an extra couple hours to a brew day, but think about it as saving a few hours compared to a second complete brew.

Like cooking leftovers, one thing to consider is taking the small beer in a different direction rather than making a smaller version of the big beer.  With food there are a few dishes that are magnets for leftovers: sandwiches, frittatas, fried rice, and quesadillas; learn a few template recipes and you'll never throw out a hunk of roast or extra grilled vegetables again.  In the same way if you keep some spare hops and yeast on hand you'll always be prepared to put second runnings to a good use.

In the case of 6.5 gallons of 1.032 wort harvested from the mash of the DCHB English Barleywine, the easiest thing to do would have been to turn it into a bitter, but I had just put my Styrian Golding Bitter on tap (not to mention that I was out of English Ale yeast).  Instead I decided to open a pound of Hallertau Tradition (a higher AA% Mittelfrüh replacement) that had been sitting in my freezer for a few months and a pack of S-23 dried lager yeast to turn it into a pale session lager.  I had good luck with another dried lager strain (W34/70) in a Smoked Dunkel last summer, but this was my first time using S-23.  I am hoping that the toastier pale and Munich malts add some complexity in place of the clean/sweet pilsner malt that pale German lagers are usually built upon.

Hallertau Session Lager

Recipe Specifics
----------------
Batch Size (Gal): 4.80
Total Grain (Lbs): 25.00
Anticipated OG: 1.042
Anticipated SRM: 14.0
Anticipated IBU: 42.5
Brewhouse Efficiency: 22 %
Wort Boil Time: 80 Minutes

Grain
-----
62.0% - 15.50 lbs. Maris Otter
18.0% - 4.50 lbs. American Pale "2-row"
20.0% - 5.00 lbs. German Munich Malt

Hops
----
0.50 oz. Hallertauer Tradition (Pellet, 6.50% AA) @ 40 min.
1.00 oz. Hallertauer Tradition (Pellet, 6.50% AA) @ 20 min.
1.00 oz. Hallertauer Tradition (Pellet, 6.50% AA) @ 10 min.
1.00 oz. Hallertauer Tradition (Pellet, 6.50% AA) @ 0 min.

Extras
------
0.50 tsp Yeast Nutrient @ 15 min.(boil)
0.50 Whirlfloc @ 15 min.(boil)

Yeast
-----
SafLager S-23 W. Euro Lager

Water Profile
-------------
Profile: Washington DC

Mash Schedule
-------------
75 min @ 154 F

Notes
-----
Brewed 5/8/11

Added 6.5 gallons of 175 degree water to the DCHB 2nd Anniversary Barleywine mash, stirred and left for quite awhile before draining.

Chilled to 50 F then pitched 1 pack of rehydrated S-23. Put in fridge at 50 F ambient to ferment.

After 24 hours it seemed to be barely starting, I gave it a shake, 12 hours later it was going strong.

5/17/11 Moved out of the fridge, ambient basement temp ~65 F to finish fermenting and reduce any diacetyl. Attached an airlock.

5/29/11 Racked to a CO2 flushed keg for secondary. Clean, nice hop character, should do well. Put in the fridge at 34 F to lager for a few weeks.

7/4/11 Put on tap at 10 PSI to carbonate.

7/30/11 Great summer lager, with enough hop and malt to keep it interesting.

Bohemian Ale Tasting

Sometimes (despite your best efforts) a batch goes wrong, but being prepared you can still salvage it.  My Bohemian Pilsner failed to start fermenting after two yeast starters failed.  US-05 to the rescue, fermented cool, the result is surprisingly lager-like (it even needed a diacetyl rest).  I'll certainly try this recipe again in a few months with a few minor modification (and some healthier lager yeast).

Bohemian Ale

Appearance – The gold-yellow body is not quite crystal clean, but it is getting pretty damn close. The white head is sticky, tight, and long lasting.  The head is thick enough to stand up above the rim of the glass, perfect.

Smell – The aroma isn't as powerful as I expected, but what is there is right. Bready malt, slight sulfur, and a touch of spicy hops. It smells surprisingly clean and lager-like despite the ale yeast.

Taste – The smooth, rounded bitterness meshes well with the fresh maltiness (not biscuity or intense). Nice balance between bitter and sweetness, more in line with the Czech examples compared to some of the hoppier American craft pilsners. I'd actually take a bit more of the hop volitiles, although the hop character isn't too far off something like Pilsner Urquell.

Mouthfeel – Solid carbonation, but not quite as high as the style often has (I've had it off gas for a couple days while another beer is carbing...). The body is almost creamy, a great match for the flavors.

Drinkability & Notes – Despite the problems I had initially with the fermentation this beer turned out really well. Certainly the sort of beer I would have no trouble drinking in quantity, especially if it was a bit warmer out. Next time I would use the floor malted Weyermann BoPils malt, and go with an additional ounce of Saaz at the end of the boil.

Bohemian Ale (Czech Pilsner Fail)

I've written in the past about batches of beer that failed to turn out well due to poor recipe design, and microbial invaders, but those aren't the only ways to screw up a batch...

For a few months I'd been thinking about brewing a traditional Czech/Bohemian Pilsner.  I ordered Saaz hops and Weyermann Bohemian Pilsner malt (although I didn't get my hands on their traditionally floor malted stuff) the only two ingredients needed for the clean/pale/spicy beer style.  I spent considerable effort researching/calculating water adjustments (to soften my water I cut it with distilled) and a decoction mash schedule (I attempted the Hochkurz Double Decoction).

Five days in advance I made a big yeast starter with a smack pack from Wyeast, it took three days to get going and when it did it looked/smelled a bit off.  No problem, I ran out to the homebrew store the day before I wanted to brew to pick up two fresh vials of lager yeast from White Labs.  I made a new starter, but 24 hours later it wasn't showing much activity when I pitched it into the 50 degree wort; at that point I wasn't too worried.  Two days later with no drop in gravity or pH I decided to cut my losses and pitched a packet of clean ale yeast.

I'm still expecting this to be a drinkable beer, but it won't be quite as clean/crisp as I was anticipating.  Lesson learned, I'll keep a dry yeast on hand that can sub in for whatever I'm brewing (American, English, Belgian, Wheat, Lager etc...).

Bohemian Fail

 Recipe Specifics
----------------------
Batch Size (Gal): 5.25
Total Grain (Lbs): 10.00
Anticipated OG: 1.052
Anticipated SRM: 4.2
Anticipated IBU: 44.0
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72 %
Wort Boil Time: 105 Minutes

Grain
-------
100.0% - 10.00 lbs. German Pilsener

Hops
-------
1.00 oz. Czech Saaz (Pellet, 3.50% AA) @ First Wort
1.00 oz. Czech Saaz (Pellet, 3.50% AA) @ 75 min.
1.00 oz. Czech Saaz (Pellet, 3.50% AA) @ 23 min.
1.25 oz. Czech Saaz (Pellet, 3.50% AA) @ 10 min.

Extras
-------
0.50 tsp Yeast Nutrient @ 17 min.
0.50 Whirlfloc @ 17 min.

Yeast
-------
Safale US-05

Water Profile
-----------------
Profile: Pilsen

Mash Schedule
-------------------
Protein Rest 15 min @ 127 (Infusion)
Sacch I 45 min @ 144 Infuse (Infusion)
Sacch II 20 min @ 150 (Decoction)
Sacch III 30 min @ 158 (Infusion)
Mash Out 15 min @ 169 (Decoction)

Notes
-------
12/1/10 Made a 2.5 qrt starter with a ~3 month old smack pack. No activity after 24 hours. Starter never really took off.

12/4/10 Made another starter with tubes of WLP800 Pilsner Lager Yeast and WLP802 Czech Budejovice Lager Yeast. ~2 qrts, put in fridge at 46.

12/5/10 Heated up 2.5 gallons of distilled with 2 gallons filtered DC tap. Added 1 g each CaCl and CaSO4 to the strike and sparge water.

Weyermann Bohemian Pils, I believe it is the non-floor malted type.

First decoction did not raise the temp as much as expected, only 150 instead of 158.  Added boiling water to get it the rest of the way.

Batch sparged with 174 degree water. Collected 7.5 gallons of 1.046 wort.

Year old 4% AA hops adjusted down.

3.5 gallons into the fermenter at 57 degrees. Put into fridge at 47.

Topped off with 1 gallon of chilled spring water and the starter to make 5 gallons. Starter looked less than active, but it seemed to be producing a small amount of CO2. Shook to aearate. Left at 48 ambient to get fermenting.

No activity after 48 hours, shook several times and upped temp to 55.

12/7/10 Gravity and pH stable. Pitched a pack of rehydrated US-05.

Good fermentation within 24 hours. Upped ambient temp to ~60.

12/19/10 Fermentation appears finished, most of yeast flocced out. Racked to a keg, dropped temp to 45, then 24 hours later to 35 to lager.

12/28/30 Sample was a bit buttery, so I pulled it out of the fridge and roused the yeast once a day for a few days.  Four days later the diacetyl was gone.

1/10/11 Back into the fridge until a tap frees up.

1/13/11 Put on gas to carbonate at ~20 PSI.

2/9/11 Turned out pretty well despite the fermentation fail.  Next time around (beside active lager yeast) I'm planning on switching the malt to the floor malted variety, and adding an addition ounce of Saaz at the end of the boil.