Screwy's Do It Yourself Stir Plate

 I've been thinking about how important yeast is to my brewing process and how much I've spent on buying yeast over the past year or so. Yeast can account for as much as 25-30% of the total cost of ingredients that go into a beer recipe and after brewing 45 batches of beer that adds up to a lot of money. I've been reading more and more lately about brewers who have published interesting ways of reducing the amount of money they spend on buying yeast for their recipes.

 Watch Stirplate In Action

  One of the ways to stretch my liquid yeast dollars is to create a 'starter' to ensure that the yeast I plan to use is viable and to increase the number of yeast cells before pitching them into my wort. Some brewers buy a liquid yeast strain for a recipe and use 25% of it to make a starter, then save the additional yeast grown from the starter in jars for use in their next recipes.

  One of the things I find my self doing when all my fermenters are full of fermenting beer is building some clever new beer device to use and eventually work it into my brewing process. This month I found myself thinking about stirplates, either buying one or building one from scratch. I came home from Radio Shack with a plastic project box, 4 small rare earth magnets and a 12 volt dc cooling fan and set out building my very own DIY stirplate.

 Stirbar Components Plastic Shrink Wrap And Rare Earth Magnets

 To make my own waterproof stirbar I first cut a 1 inch long piece of plastic heat shrink tubing and stuffed 4 small rare earth magnets inside until they were in the center of the tube. I then used a hot glue gun to seal both ends of the heat shrink tubing with glue, this will keep the magnets from moving or rusting while helping the stirbar to spin smoothly.

Heat Shrink Tubing With Magnets Inside

  The tubing is pretty small so it doesn't require much glue to seal up the ends once the magnets are centered inside the tubing.

Fill Ends Of Tubing With Hot Glue

 Mounting the fan to the cover of the project box was also done using hot glue. The fan produces almost no torque so it doesn't take much to secure the block of wood to the plastic box cover or the fan to the block of wood. The block of wood is a 3/4 x 1 x 3 inch drop off left over from my fermentation chamber project and when glued to the box cover it provide just the right amount of space needed between the magnets and the top of the case.

3/4 Inch Wood Spacer Positions Magnets To Top Of Box

 * Note: The white splatter on the inside of the fan housing was caused by turning the fan on when the superglue used to fasten the magnets to the fan was still wet.

 The large rare earth magnets I salvaged out of an old 40GB. hard drive I had lying around my workshop. These magnets are very powerful and they required a bit of persuasion to get them out of the case where they were located.

Two Arc Shaped Rare Earth Magnets Taken From Drive Head

 The type of hard drive I had used arc shaped magnets which were positioned underneath the drive head, the movable pointer shown in the upper left hand corner of the hard drive pictured above. After removing them from the hard drive I used super glue to secure them to one side of the 12 volt dc fan.

Radio Shack Parts List:
273-243 - 12 VDC Cooling Fan - 3 Inch
270-1806 - Project Enclosure - 6 x 4 x 2 Inches
64-1895 - 3/16 Inch Rare Earth Magnets - (2 Packages)

 I used the variable voltage power supply I have in my workshop to power the fan and adjust it's speed. The stirbar began spinning slowly when about 6 vdc was applied directly to the fan. I slowly increased the voltage to 12 vdc and the stirbar began spinning faster. You can hook up a 6, 9 or 12 volt dc power converter to power the fan directly if you have either of them lying around the house, or you can buy a variable voltage DC power converter.

  The glass vessel I used for the demo video was simply a 1 quart flower vase that I had on hand but the stirplate will also work with a standard Erlenmeyer Flask and an optional Teflon coated stirbar available at brewing supply houses such as William's Brewing.

Screwy's Recipe #38 - Barley Stout

 The last stout I brewed back in September was the first stout recipe I had made using DME and steeping grains. In this first recipe I included 6 different types of steeping grains added to a dark DME base. The yeast I picked for that brew was Safale S-04 dry ale yeast and after sampling before bottling it tasted good.

 The recipe I'm about to describe is a bit different than the first recipe in that it uses only 3 different types of grains added to a light DME base this time. Both recipes use Kent Golden UK hops but the new recipes doubles the boil time to a total of 60 minutes to add more bitterness.

Kent Golden UK Hops Boiled For 60 Minutes

I used qBrew's default 'Dry Stout' style guidelines to crunch the recipe's numbers. You can download the latest qBrew database below and use it to upgrade your current ingredient database. This latest ingredient database includes more yeast, fruits, extracts and other helpful entries then ever before.

 Click to download Screwy's latest qBrew database   

Recipe:
Click to download this recipe file for qBrew 
Size 2.13 gallons: Estimated IBU=37, SRM=31, OG=1.049, FG=1.012, ABV=4.7%

1/8 pound Carapils 
1/8 pound Crystal 10L
3/8 pound Roasted Barley
2 pounds Muntons DME - Light

1 ounce Kent Goldings (UK) pellet hops boiled for 60 minutes

11 grams Danstar Windsor British Ale yeast
Pitched at 65F and fermented at 65F

Directions:
Heat 10.5 quarts of filtered water to 160F
Add grains and steep for 30 minutes between 152-157F

Remove grain bag and add hops then boil wort for 60 minutes
Rehydrate yeast in 90F sterile water with 30 minutes left to boil
Add DME to wort with 15 minutes remaining in the boil
Add 1/8 tab of Whirlfloc with 10 minutes remaining in the boil
Remove from heat and remove hop sack

Use Screwy's Cooler until wort temperature cools to 65F
Pour cooled wort into fermenter keg and pitch yeast  
Ferment at constant 65F temperature for 21 days

The primary fermentation took off really fast and it produced a lot of trub. I am determined this time to pour a beer as clear and clean as I can without resorting to filtering of any kind. I figured it was time to rack the Barley Stout over to a secondary fermenter where it will finish out the rest of the fermentation. 

 Router Table Used As The Racking Platform

 I found an old discarded metal router table that was just perfect for the job, it was sturdy and just the right height for moving beer from the primary fermenter to the secondary fermenter. I put the primary fermentation keg on the top of the racking stand and inserted a length of rigid plastic tubing inside the locking spigot of the primary.

 The rigid tubing was cut from an extra bottle filling want I had ordered when I ordered the locking spigots from the Mr. Beer website a while back. The tubing is cut long enough so that the bottom of the tube is about 1/2 inch up from the bottom of the secondary fermenter to eliminate splashing when the beer flows into the secondary. Excessive splashing can cause oxidation of your beer and introduce unwanted 'wet cardboard' flavors, you want to reduce or eliminate splashing whenever possible.

Racking Fermented Beer To A Clean Sanitized Secondary

I rack my bigger beers that tend to have a lot of malt, hop debris and fallen out yeast to secondary fermenters to keep them clear and free of trub. The idea is to leave all the debris behind in the primary fermenter so very little of it ends up in the bottled or kegged beer.

qBrew - Homebrewers Recipe Calculator

 qBrew is the beer recipe calculator of choice for homebrewers looking for a free software program that's intuitive and easy to use. qBrew comes installed with it's own beer style, grain and ingredients database and is ready to use right away with minimal setup. qBrew will automatically calculate the gravity, color and bitterness of your recipe as you add in grains, extracts, adjuncts and hops, it works for both ales and lagers as well.

 ** Special considerations: The qBrew application was written by David Johnson, last updated May 25th, 2008 and is also available as an open source download from his original qBrew Site. While the original .qbrewdata database file did not contain ingredients for Mr. Beer products users of qBrew have added them and other hop varieties, yeast types and fermentables.

 Many brewers, myself included, have devoted their time to researching and adding updates to the original qBrew database so that we can share it with other brewers. I would like to thank  EricG at the Mr. Beer Community for providing additional ingredients and explaining how to get the most out of your recipes. Finally thank you to the countless other brewers out there who have shared their understanding of the inner workings of the qBrew formulas and how they are used to calculate your recipe's characteristics.

 qBrew lets you to override any of the numbers associated with a given recipe ingredient, in case your current supplier has a different alpha acid percentage for the hops your using or for differences in grain or brewing efficiency. The default recipe numbers are loaded into qBrew from the database and can be changed in your recipe to match your actual numbers without changing the database default numbers.

 The upper section of qBrew is where you enter the recipe title and brewer name and select the style of your recipe. The characteristics of the style are then displayed showing the minimum and maximum numbers for the Original gravity, Bitterness and Color. As you enter your ingredients into the lower section of qBrew the characteristics of your recipe are calculated and displayed in bold letting you know how the ingredients can influence your expected results.

qBrew's Grain/Extract/Adjunct Entry Screen

Download the qBrew recipe calculator program installation

      Click here to download qBrew 4.1 for Windows

      Click here to download qBrew 4.1 for Mac OSX


Download the latest qBrew database (Includes Mr. Beer/Coopers and BrewDemon refills)

Updated November 12, 2014   ** Includes 10 Favorite Recipes Inside**

 The November 2014 qBrew database has been greatly expanded to include new beer styles, an expanded selection of yeast strains and a more detailed reference of grains, including malt flavor characteristics to help you craft your next recipes. Keep your qBrew recipe calculations, ingredient lists and much more up to date with this easy to install database update.

** Includes the new BrewMax (LME/DME) SoftPacks and Deluxe Refills like Classic American Light Deluxe, Porter Deluxe and many many more existing new recipes!

** Includes the new BrewDemon Basic, Plus and Signature HME refills like
American Prophecy Ale, Hellfire Deep Red Ale and Shedu Oatmeal Stout!

 ** For the new Mr. Beer/Coopers extracts enter them as 1.87 pounds for Grains and 1.00 ounce at five minutes for Hops, see sample recipe included in this update

Ingredient Database Installation For Windows XP/Vista Users:


      Click here to download Screwy's latest qBrew database (.qbrewdata) 

The November 2014 Ingredient Database Zip File

Locate the .qbrewdata file in the C:\Program Files\qBrew\ folder and rename it to .qbrewdata-orig.  Unzip the .qbrewdata file from the screwy-qbrewdata.zip file you downloaded and copy it to the  C:\Program Files\qBrew\ folder, qBrew will load this latest database file when it runs.

Ingredient Database Installation For Windows 7 & 8 Users:

Locate the .qbrewdata file in the C:\Program Files\qBrew\ folder and rename it to .qbrewdata-orig.  Unzip the .qbrewdata file from the screwy-qbrewdata.zip file you downloaded and copy it to the  C:\Program Files\qBrew\ folder, qBrew will load this latest database file when it runs.

** Special thanks to Andrew (hindey19) for the Windows 7 instructions **

There's a directory called C:\Users\your_user_name\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files (x86)\QBrew. Delete the .qbrewdata file in there and open up QBrew again. The updated file will be used from the QBrew folder.


Ingredient Database Installation For MAC Users:

      Click here to download Screwy's latest qBrew database (qbrewdata-MAC) 

 Extract the compressed qbrewdata.MAC file from the screwy-qbrewdata-MAC.zip file you downloaded and rename it to qbrewdata (remove the .MAC extension).

 Open a new Finder window, go to your Applications folder and Ctrl+click the qBrew application. Select 'Show Package Contents' then navigate to Contents->Resources and rename the qbrewdata file in this folder to qbrewdata.orig.

From the original Finder window, drag the new qbrewdata file into the Resources folder in the new window. Restart and qBrew will load this latest database file when it runs.

You can also copy and paste the file into the new directory using Command-C and Command-V respectively instead of having to jump between windows.

 
Setup qBrew Defaults:
  Run qBrew and select Configure from the Options menu then the Recipe tab.

Select Pellet for Hop type and enter 2.13 gallons for the Mr. Beer keg size

  Verify that the default settings are setup on the Calculations tab. 

.75 Mash Efficiency Default Calculations Setting

Example Mr. Beer based recipe:

Mr. Beer Extracts Weigh 1.21 Pounds

 Grains: Enter fermentable grains, extracts, sugars and fruit.

 For creating recipes you first enter a new line on the grains tab by right clicking in the lower section and selecting 'Add Ingredient'. Left click on the default grain inserted into the lower grid and select the type of extract you are using in your recipe. You then enter the weight of the extract by left clicking in the 'Weight' column and adjusting the default value to match your recipe, for instance Muntons extract cans weigh 3.3 pounds while Mr. Beer extract cans weigh 1.21 pounds. Both unhopped malt extracts (UME) and hopped malt extracts (HME) are available for entry on the grains tab.

For Hopped Malt Extracts (HME) Use A 5 Minute Boil Time

Hops: Enter the variety of hop, weight, alpha acid, boil time and type.

  Insert a new line and change the default hop variety to add to your recipe by selecting it from the drop down list and adjusting the weight, alpha acid, boil time and type to match your recipe. The hops tab saves your hop variety and their current percentage of alpha acids as well as the boil times used for this recipe. Screwy's .qbrewdata database file contains the full list of Mr. Beer HME values.

Example: If you were going to add more bitterness to this extract recipe you might add a new line for 1/2 ounce of Cascade hops boiled for 30 minutes. For flavor add another new line for 1/4 ounce of Cascade hops boiled for 12 minutes and a new line for 1/4 ounce of Cascade hops boiled for 5 minutes for aroma.

Special Note When Entering Hop Additions: If you want to add up all the IBUs for your hop additions enter all your hops before adding in your grains. As you add in your grain additions qBrew's built in formula will begin subtracting the malt's sweetness from the hop's bitterness in order to indicate the balance of the recipe. The formula qBrew uses to calculate this balance is the same one used by my Bitterness Balance Calculator to display the recipe's overall balance between hopped bitterness and malt sweetness in a hopped beer style.

The formula takes into consideration the beer's original gravity, actual attenuation and bittering level but does not take into account phenol, ester or other complexities. The beer drinker should use the desired IBUs as a reference point and decide for themselves what they consider to be balanced.

Select The Type Of Yeast And Quantity

Miscellaneous: Enter the type of yeast used for fermentation

  Insert a new line and change the default yeast value to add to your recipe by selecting it from the drop down list and adjusting the weight if necessary.

Enter Recipe And Batch Notes For Future Reference

Notes: Type in any recipe and batch related notes for the recipe, this will come in handy in the future when you try to reproduce the great beer you just drank. All brewers should take notes and keep records of the beer recipes they brew, including the brewing process that was used. If you're like me you will want to tune and tweak your favorite recipes and brewing processes trying to improve on them each time you brew.

Calculated Characteristics For Your Recipe

Characteristics: We setup qBrew to use a realistic mash efficiency of .75 as this is an  acceptable average efficiency for most home brewers. Any differences in the percentage of alcohol by volume (ABV) calculations performed by qBrew and those stated by any extract supplier are related to differences in efficiencies used when determining the extract's rated ABV.

  Good brewers rely on consistency when calculating their recipes and during their brewing process. qBrew lets you to create recipes based on beer's key ingredients and then calculates the expected characteristics of the beer using formulas widely accepted by homebrewers. As you brew your recipes some fermentable volumes or boil times may need to be tweaked as needed to match your brewing process.


Hop Calculation Tip: When entering all your hop additions on the 'Hops' tab before entering any ingredients on the 'Grains' tab qBrew will calculate the IBU for those hops. Record this number in the 'Notes' tab for later reference as this number will change when ingredients are entered in the 'Grains' tab.

Hops, Grains And Water

Click for more...Hops In Your Beer

Recipe #35 - Irish Stout

 This recipe marks a turning point for me for two reasons, it's my first recipe using grains and Dry Malt Extract (DME) instead of canned extract and it was given to me by a really experienced brewer, Joe Bair at Princeton Homebrew. As Joe explained it when using canned extracts like Un-hopped Malt Extracts (UME) you don't know what is actually in the extract, the amounts and types of ingredients are never published by the manufacturer. The same is even truer for Hopped Malt Extracts (HME) with the added mystery of not knowing what type or quantity of hops were used for bittering, flavor and aroma.

Stout Bottling Sample With Residual Co2

 Brewing beer using DME allows a brewer to put their mark on the beers they brew since the bags are clearly marked with which types and percentages of grains were used to make it. Using DME also makes your recipe's hop selection and schedule easier to figure out since DME has no hops already added to it. This allows your to be more creative in selecting the type of hops and boil times needed to get the right flavors, aroma and bitterness into your beer.

  The addition of the freshest specialty grains to the recipe's base malt provides the color, flavors and caramelized sugars that add the depth and complexity needed to produce a superior beer. The English Ale yeast was selected for its ability to form a compact sedimentation that produces a beer with improved clarity and the use of traditional English hops add the authentic Stout taste. 

I used qBrew's default 'Irish Stout' style guidelines to crunch the recipe's numbers.

 Click to download Screwy's latest qBrew database   

Recipe:
Size 2.13 gallons: Estimated IBU=38, SRM=34, OG=1.047, FG=1.012, ABV=4.5%
Click to download this recipe file for qBrew
1/8 pound Black Patent
1/8 pound Carapils
1/8 pound Chocolate Malt
1/8 pound Crystal 60L
1/8 pound Roasted Barley
2 pounds Muntons DME - Dark

1 ounce Kent Goldings (UK) pellet hops boiled for 30 minutes

11.5 grams Fermentis Safale S-04 yeast
Pitched at 65F and fermented at 65F

Directions:
Steep grains for 30 minutes at 155-165F in 5 quarts filtered water

Heat wort to rolling boil

Add and boil 1 oz. hops for 30 minutes

Stir in DME and boil for 5 minutes

Use wort chiller or ice bath until wort temperature cools to 70F

Add 3 quarts cold filtered water to Mr. Beer fermenter

Pour cooled wort into fermenter keg, aerate and pitch yeast

Ferment at constant 65F temperature for 21 days

 Stout Wort Boil With Kent Golding Hops

Screwy's Recipe #44 - Weizen/Weissbier

 As promised I brewed two more 2.13 gallon Mr. Beer sized batches of my Weizen/Weissbier recipe today. I used the same exact ingredients that I had used back in September when I brewed this recipe for the first time. At that time the recipe was published as Recipe #36 - Weizen/Weissbier and the pellicle it caused to form as it fermented cleared up a lot of the mysteries surrounding infections and great tasting beer.

 Screwy's Weizen/Weissbier Unbelievable Lemon Flavor

 I chose to brew these two new batches using the exact same ingredients and brewing processes that I had used for the very first batch I made. In 21 days I'll know if the beer from today's 2 batches tastes the same as that first batch or not. Duplicating this recipe at will is really my goal for today's brewing session. If all goes according to plan I'll soon be drinking my fill of the most awesome wheat beer I've ever had, proving to myself that I can duplicate that amazing wheat beer whenever I want.

Hallertauer Hops, Muntons Wheat DME, Golden Blossom Honey And Safbrew WB-06 Yeast

 I set aside some time before pitching my yeast to rehydrate the 11.5 grams of Safbrew WB-06 yeast that I selected for this recipe. It was pretty easy to do I just sanitized two bowls, poured 4 ounces of 80F wort into each of them and then sprinkled on the WB-06 yeast. After 15 minutes I stirred the yeast and wort mixture and then stirred them occasionally over the next 30 minutes before pitching them. The yeast cream that developed from this mixture had a nice layer of foam floating on top and at this point I knew it was ready to pitch.

Optical Illusion: The Wort Is Really Level With The 8.5 Quart Mark

I boiled the Hallertauer hops for bitterness and flavor without adding any DME to the boil first, I actually followed Muntons directions on this. They say their DME and LME never need boiling since it's already pasteurized during their spray drying process and it would ruin some of the delicate malt flavor.I boiled the hops alone then added in the honey and with 5 minutes remaining on the boil I poured in the DME and boiled it for another 5 minutes.

Hallertauer Hops Before Sinking Into Wort

 Once I had aerated the wort enough I pitched the yeast and aerated the wort again. When I felt the wort and yeast were aerated enough I tossed in the finishing hops, they were put inside a sanitized hops sack earlier. Once the pellets absorbed enough wort they became heavy enough to sink the hop sack down to the bottom of the fermenter.

Screwy's Cooler Lowers Wort Temperature To 65F

 I was able to use my new 12 quart brew pot today for the first time and it looks like it turned out to be a worthwhile investment. Screwy's Cooler fit this larger pot perfectly and I used to cool my wort down from 212F to 65F in less than 20 minutes. I can't even begin to tell you how much more convenient using a wort cooler is over using an ice bath. I brewed 2 batches of beer one weekend and I used an ice bath to cool the wort down to pitching temperature for them both, I went out and built Screwy's Cooler the very next day.

Boiling Hallertauer Pellet Hops In Hop Sacks

 The larger brew pot allowed me to use 5 quarts of filtered water instead of the 3 quarts I had to use with the old 6 quart pot. So instead of adding 4 quarts of filtered water to the Mr. Beer keg I only added 2 quarts, since the new pot was going to hold more wort I had to subtract 2 quarts  from the keg so it all would fit. When I poured in the DME the wort stopped boiling for a minute or so as I stirred it into the wort, when it began boiling again I timed it for 5 minutes and then turned of the heat.

Hallertauer Hops And Wheat DME At Hotbreak

 Both batches are fermenting nicely at 60F in the basement now, I'll check them at least once a day to make sure the temperature stays pretty constant. The kegs are sitting inside coolers alongside 2 frozen water bottles which keep the temperatures low enough for fermentation.

This Weissbier Will Ferment For 21 Days Before Bottling

I used qBrew's default 'Weizen/Weissbier' style guidelines to crunch this recipe's numbers.

 Click to download Screwy's latest qBrew database   

Recipe:

Click to download this recipe file for qBrew

Size 2.13 gallons: Estimated IBU=17, SRM=4, OG=1.050, FG=1.013, ABV=4.9%

2 pounds Muntons Wheat DME

1/2 pound Golden Blossom Honey

1/2 ounce Hallertauer pellet hops boiled for 30 minutes

1/4 ounce Hallertauer pellet hops boiled for 12 minutes

1/4 ounce Hallertauer pellet hops finishing

11.5 gram Fermentis Safbrew WB-06 yeast

Pitched at 65F and fermented at 60F

Directions:

Boil 6 quarts of filtered water

Boil 1/2 oz. hops for 30 minutes

Boil 1/4 oz. hops for12 minutes

1/2 pound Honey boiled for 10 minutes

2 pounds DME at 5 minutes boil until hotbreak

Boil DME for 5 minutes

1/4 ounce Hallertauer pellet hops finishing

Use Screwy's Cooler to lower wort temperature to 70F

Add 2 quarts cold filtered water to Mr. Beer fermenter

Pour cooled wort into fermenter keg, including 1/4 oz. finishing hops and pitch yeast

Ferment at constant 60F temperature for 21 days

Fermentation Day 6 With Floating Hop Sack

Six full days of fermentation and there is still quite a lot of activity going on, which is a good thing. There's nothing like the sweet smell of fermenting wheat beer every time I open the coolers to check the internal temperature and to peek in and see first hand how the fermentation is progressing.

Temperature Probe Add On For Mr. Beer Keg

 I remember reading once or twice where the ambient air temperature in a room can actually be several degrees different than the beer fermenting inside a Mr. Beer keg. Some brewers liked or didn't like relying on those self stick bar type thermometers, since the thermometers were stuck to the outside the keg and the displays weren't always easy to read.

 So the next time I went out shopping at my local food store and while I could still think of it, I bought 6 of those instant read probe type thermometers shown below. For a total spend of just over $20.00 I took home a thermometer that was not only accurate and instant reading it was also made out of stainless steel and the probe length was just the perfect length to fit inside a Mr. Beer keg.

Taylor Instant Read Probe Thermometer

 The dials are clearly marked and very easy to read and they're also waterproof. The next thing to do after unwrapping the thermometers was to find out a drill bit that was about 1/32 inch smaller than the diameter of the probe. After drilling one small hole in the center of the Mr. Beer keg's top, and then forcefully pushing the temperature probe through the fermenter top until the back of the dial was less than 1/2 inch from the tops surface, my installation work was done.

Instant Read Thermometer And Keg Top

 For this part you'll need to have a small variable speed drill and a drill bit that is 1/32 inch smaller than the diameter of the probe. You want to have a nice tight fit so the thermometer doesn't move around but more importantly so no foreign matter like moisture, dust, etc. can get inside the keg and spoil your beer.

Mr. Beer Keg Top And Thermometer

Before I did anything with the new thermometers I spent a week monitoring them under different temperatures in order to make sure all six were reasonably within the same temperature readouts. I did this by placing them in nearly boiling water, in nearly freezing water and in room temperature water then noting which if any of them were more than 1-2 degrees out of range as compared with the other thermometers.

Mr. Beer Keg With Instant Read Thermometer

 I found out for myself that it was true, the beer fermenting inside the kegs was actually 2-3F degrees warmer than the room's ambient temperature. I had always read that this was the case but now I was able to confirm it for myself. So during the warmer months I resorted to using the wick method for cooling the kegs down in order to maintain the optimal temperature for the yeast I had pitched.

Krausen Floating On Top Of Mr. Beer Keg

 I think the relatively little amount of work that's required to install the thermometer is well worth it. I like having the tools in place that are needed for maintaining good temperature control.

Classic Bohemian Pilsner - Wyeast 2007 - Pilsen Lager™

 My LHBS didn't have my first choice of yeast in stock so at the last minute I had to switch from using Wyeast 2124 to using Wyeast 2007 lager yeast.  The liquid yeast package was rated at 5 gallons so according to the OG of this recipe I knew it would be sufficient for my 2.13 gallon batch. I was using my new fermentation chamber for the very first time so I didn't know what to expect. The other 3 fermenters in the chamber had already shown some visible krausen after only 3-5 days but they were all using different lager yeasts types.

 Day 8: No Visible Krausen Floating On Top

  The two fermenters located in the lower half of the fermentation chamber had developed their krausen the fastest so after only 3-4 days I could see it already forming on the tops of both fermenters. I wasn't sure if it had something to do with the fact that they were further away from the 'frozen water bottle rack' and didn't have the really ice cold air falling directly on them.

 Day 9: Some Visible Krausen Floating On Top

  The two fermenters located at the top of the fermentation chamber were the closest to the frozen water bottles and they had the ice cold air falling directly down on them. This may have possibly explained why they took a few days longer to show any krausen on top of the beer.

Day 10: Even More Visible Krausen Floating On Top

By day 10 the two fermenters located on the top half were actively showing krausen while the two fermenters on the bottom now seemed to have slowed down on the levels of krausen. I guess if my plan was to prove whether or not the locations of the fermenters inside the chamber made a difference in the visible display of krausen during fermentation I should have used the same yeast type.

 Day 11: Still More Visible Krausen Floating On Top

 By now the 3 other yeasts have really slowed up on the amount of visible krausen that can be seen on the top of their fermentors.

After 28 days of fermentation at 50F I bottled all 4 batches and used my Bottle Priming Calculator to figure out how much priming sugar to use for each style.

Lager Styles And Fermentation Notes

Mr. Beer's Novacaine Recipe!!!

 I first brewed this recipe in early June 2010 and really didn't get around to drinking it for at least 4 months or so. Last night we drank 2 liters of Novacaine, as well as a bunch of other home brews, and everyone really liked this Barley Wine a lot. I remember opening the shipping box and pulling out what seemed like an endless amount of ingredients that would eventually go into making the Novacaine recipe.

 This recipe was then and still is the most expensive single batch brew I have ever made. The recipe included 5 cans of extract, liquid yeast and four packets of pellet hops and cost over $50.00 to buy not including shipping. I followed the recipe's instructions carefully and noted that there were a few things worth remembering for the next time I brewed it. 

I used qBrew's default 'American Barelywine' style guidelines to crunch this recipe's numbers. You can download the November 2010 qBrew database below and use it to upgrade your current ingredient database. This latest ingredient database includes more yeast, fruits, extracts and other helpful entries then ever before.

 Click to download Screwy's latest qBrew database   

Recipe:
Click to download this recipe file for qBrew 

Recipe: Size 2.13 gallons: Estimated IBU=48, SRU=36, OG=1.102, FG=1.026, ABV=9.9%

1 Can West Coast Pale Ale HME

1 Can St. Patrick's Irish Stout HME

1 Can Golden Wheat UME

2 Cans Pale Export UME

2 Packets Sterling Pellet Hops

2 Packets Northern Brewer Pellet Hops

1 Pouch Ale Liquid Yeast

2 Packets Dry Brewing Yeast (not used)

2 Muslin Hop Sacks

1 Packet One-Step™ Sanitizing Cleanser

Residual Co2 In Bottling Sample

 

 The first thing to remember is to use a pot larger than the standard 3 quart pot recommended in the instructions as this recipe calls for twice the volume of ingredients normally used in other recipes. This isn't an issue for me today as I had already switched to using a 6 quart stainless steel pot a few months ago. 

Bottom Filling Bottling Wand

 I had let the wort ferment for 21 days at a constant 70F temperature prior to bottling it in 1 liter PET bottles. Mostly all of the krausen was gone by then with only a few small islands of foam remaining at the top of the beer. There was a 3/8-1/2 inch layer of trub lying at the bottom of the 2.13 gallon fermenter but the fermented beer itself was very clear, thick and very tasty.

I Highly Recommend You Give Novacaine A Try