Screwy's Recipe # 45 - Extra Special Strong Bitter (English Pale Ale)

 While browsing around the forums this week I noticed a post for a 3.5 gallon size recipe aptly named 'Extra Special Bachelor-Party' that's based on a Brewing TV episode of Jake's ESB recipe. Since I will soon have all six of my fermenters empty, after my upcoming bottling days, I figured I would scale that recipe down to fit a 2.13 gallon Mr. Beer batch and post it.

My Pipeline Consists Of Empty Bottles Now

 This recipe stood out among the others I've seen posted recently because it used the same type of hops for bittering, flavor and aroma. The recipe also uses steeping grains and DME which I also have been using lately for my last several brews with very good results. I haven't brewed this style of beer before and I figured it'll be a nice addition to my every growing recipe library.

A little research of the BJCP Style Guidelines showed my that this bitter English pale ale can be low to moderately hopped and also low to moderately malty with a moderately to strong caramel flavor. It went on to say that the hop bitterness and flavor shouldn't overpower the malty sweetness. 

 The carbonation for this style should not be too high, it should come in between 0.75 to 1.3 volumes, something to remember when priming your bottles for natural carbonation on bottling day. Since the residual Co2 of this fermented beer will already be about .83 volumes only a little less than 1/2 a teaspoon full of cane sugar will be needed to hit the higher end of the carbonation range.

  I always buy 2 pound bags of DME and limit my use of steeping grains in the majority of my recipes to 1/2 pound or less. In order to bring up the Original Gravity a bit closer to the style's upper limit while increasing the ABV percentage and adding some alcohol warmth, I added 1/2 pound of honey to the recipe. This late sugar addition should produce a slightly dry finish and work well with the extended DME boil time to produce some needed caramel sweetness.

  I selected Danstar Windsor dry yeast for the fermentation since I like using rehydrated dry yeast, I've found that it really takes off fast if done properly, and this yeast seems to fit in well with the English style recipe. To really suppress any diacetyl production I'll ferment this ale at 65F for at least 21 days before taking a sample for bottling.

 I used qBrew's default 'Extra Strong Bitter (English Pale Ale)' style guidelines to crunch the recipe's numbers.

 Click to download Screwy's latest qBrew database

Recipe: Size 2.13 gallons: Estimated IBU=40, SRU=12, OG=1.056, FG=1.014, ABV=5.5% 

Click to download this recipe file for qBrew

2 pounds Muntons Light DME

1.0 ounce Fuggles pellet hops boiled for 60 minutes

1/4 ounce Fuggles pellet hops boiled for 20 minutes

1/2 pound Honey boiled for 10 minutes

1/4 ounce Fuggles pellet hops boiled for 7 minutes

11 grams Danstar Windsor yeast

Pitched at 65F and fermented at 65F

Directions:

Boil 10 quarts of filtered water (depending on brewpot size)
Stir in 1/2 lb. DME at rolling boil
Boil 1.0 oz. hops for 60 minutes
Boil 1/4 oz. hops for 20 minutes
Stir in 1 1/2 lbs. DME at 10 minutes then boil until hotbreak
Stir in honey resume boil for 10 minutes
Boil 1/4 oz. hops for 7 minutes
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

Yeast Expiration Dates

 If you're like me you want to make sure that your beer is made from the absolute freshest ingredients available to you. This also goes for the yeast used to ferment those ingredients into a highly drinkable beer, it has to be viable in order for it to convert enough of the fermentable sugars. For some reason or reasons unknown to me the manufacturers of yeast seem to go out of their way when it comes to printing expiration dates on the yeast they package.

Wyeast With  MFG 30Apr2010 Stamped On The Package

 I got the lowdown on the Wyeast manufacture date you can read it here on the Wyeast site.  It seems the yeast is guaranteed to be at its best when used within 6 months of the manufacture date printed on the yeast package.

 As for the Fermentis yeast expiration dates it's a little different than you might expect. The packets I have on hand have '07 2010 LTBEA' stamped on each packet, which means the yeast was manufactured in '07 2008', so for Fermentis the date is the expiration date. Fermentis claims their yeast is viable for 2 years from the date of manufacture, as long as the yeast is stored properly.

2 Packages Of Fermentis Yeast Have Already Expired

 Danstar dry yeast comes with a 2 year expiration date guaranteed shelflife if stored properly, either refrigerated or stored at room temperature, although they recommend refrigerating whenever possible to assure even better results.

Danstar Dry Yeast Guaranteed Viable For 2 Years

Recipe #40 - Classic American Pilsner

 The recipe I'm about to describe is a Classic American Pilsner extract recipe that uses an Extra Light DME and some Crystal 10L steeping grains. This style of beer had it's origins in Prohibition Era America brewed by immigrant German brewers when they settled in America. In keeping with the original style I have selected native American Cluster hops for bitterness, flavor and aroma.

I used qBrew's default 'Classic American Pilsner' style guidelines to crunch the recipe's numbers. You can download the October 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=39, SRU=5, OG=1.046, FG=1.012, ABV=4.5%

1/2 Crystal 10L

2 pounds Muntons DME - Extra Light

1/2 ounce Cluster pellet hops boiled for 40 minutes

1/4 ounce Cluster pellet hops boiled for 15 minutes

1/4 ounce Cluster pellet hops boiled for 5 minutes

11.5 grams Saflager S-23 Dry Lager Yeast

Pitched at 65F and fermented at 50F

Directions:
Steep grains at 150-170F for 30 minutes in 3.5 quarts filtered water

Boil 3.5 quarts of filtered water

Add and boil 1/2 oz. hops for 40 minutes

Add and boil 1/4 oz. hops for 15 minutes
Stir in 2 lbs. DME and boil for 10 minutes

Add and boil 1/4 oz. hops for 5 minutes

Place in ice bath until wort temperature cools to 65F

Add 4 quarts cold filtered water to Mr. Beer fermenter

Pour cooled wort into fermenter keg aerate and pitch yeast

Ferment at constant 50F temperature for 21 days

Steep The Grains For 30 Minutes At 150F

Recipe #41 - Classic Bohemian Pilsner

 The recipe I'm about to describe is a Classic Bohemian Pilsner extract recipe that uses an Extra Light DME and some Carahell steeping grains for head retention. This style of beer was first  brewed in the 1840s placing it among the newest styles of beer. In keeping with the original style I have selected native Saaz hops for bitterness, flavor and aroma.

I used qBrew's default 'Bohemian Pilsner' style guidelines to crunch the recipe's numbers. You can download the October 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=41, SRU=5, OG=1.046, FG=1.012, ABV=4.5%

1/2 pound Carahell (German)

2 pounds Muntons DME - Extra Light

1 ounce Saaz pellet hops boiled for 40 minutes

1/2 ounce Saaz pellet hops boiled for 15 minutes

1/2 ounce Saaz pellet hops boiled for 5 minutes

Wyeast 2007 - Pilsen Lager™ (Activate 3 hours before pitching)

Pitched at 65F and fermented at 50F

Directions:
Steep grains at 150-170F for 30 minutes in 3.5 quarts filtered water

Boil 3.5 quarts of filtered water

Add and boil 1 oz. hops for 40 minutes

Add and boil 1/2 oz. hops for 15 minutes

Stir in 2 lbs. DME and boil for10 minutes
Add and boil 1/2 oz. hops for 5 minutes

Place in ice bath until wort temperature cools to 65F

Add 4 quarts cold filtered water to Mr. Beer fermenter

Pour cooled wort into fermenter keg aerate and pitch yeast

Ferment at constant 50F temperature for 21 days

Recipe #42 - Oktoberfest/Marzen

 This recipe is for an Oktoberfest/Marzen that uses an Extra Light DME, some Crystal 10L, Melanoidin and  Munich grains for steeping. The Oktoberfest/Marzen style of beer has it's origins in Munich Germany around 1840 when brewed by the Spaten Brewery, soon after the lager yeast strain had been isolated. In keeping with the style I have selected Hallertauer hops for bitterness and flavor using a true lager yeast derived from the Weihenstephan strain.

I used qBrew's default 'Oktoberfest/Marzen' style guidelines to crunch the recipe's numbers. You can download the October 2010 qBrew database below and use it to upgrade your current ingredient database. This latest ingredient database for qBrew contains 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=22, SRU=7, OG=1.050, FG=1.013, ABV=4.9%

1/4 pound Carahell

1/4 pound Melanoiden Malt

1/2 pound Munich Malt (German)

2 pounds Muntons Extra Light DME

3/4 ounce Hallertauer pellet hops boiled for 30 minutes

1/4 ounce Hallertauer pellet hops boiled for 15 minutes

Wyeast 2206 - Bavarian Lager

Pitched at 55F and fermented at 50F

Directions:
Steep grains at 150-170F for 30 minutes in 3.5 quarts filtered water

Boil 3.5 quarts of filtered water

Add 3/4 oz. hops and boil for 30 minutes

Add 1/4 oz. hops and boil for 15 minutes
Stir in 2 lbs. DME and boil for 10 minutes

Place in ice bath until wort temperature cools to 65F

Add 4 quarts cold filtered water to Mr. Beer fermenter

Pour cooled wort into fermenter keg and pitch yeast

Ferment at constant 50F temperature for 21 days

Notes:

The Melanoiden and Munich malts when mashed will increase the recipe's gravity and lower the IBUs by 2 or 3 points. 

Recipe #43 - Standard American Lager

 The recipe I'm about to describe is a Standard American Lager extract recipe that uses an Extra Light DME base and some Crystal 10L steeping grains for head retention. This style of beer has little to no malt aroma and a light floral or spicy hopping, in keeping with this style I have selected Willamette hops for bitterness, flavor and aroma.

 I used qBrew's default 'Standard American Lager' style guidelines to crunch the recipe's numbers. You can download the October 2010 qBrew database below and use it to upgrade your current ingredient database, this latest database includes more yeast, fruits, extracts and other useful 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=21, SRU=5, OG=1.046, FG=1.012, ABV=4.5%

1/2 pound Crystal 10L

2 pounds Muntons Extra Light DME

1/2 ounce Willamette pellet hops boiled for 30 minutes

1/4 ounce Willamette pellet hops boiled for 12 minutes

1/4 ounce Willamette pellet hops boiled for 5 minutes

Wyeast 2007 - Pilsen Lager™ (Activate 3 hours before pitching)

Pitched at 65F and fermented at 50F

Directions:
Steep grains at 150-170F for 30 minutes in 3.5 quarts filtered water

Boil 3.5 quarts of filtered water
Add 1/2 oz. hops and boil for 30 minutes

Add 1/4 oz. hops and boil for 12 minutes

Stir in 2 lbs. DME then boil for 10 minutes

Add 1/4 oz. hops and boil for 5 minutes

Place in ice bath until wort temperature cools to 65F

Add 4 quarts filtered water to Mr. Beer fermenter

Pour cooled wort into fermenter keg aerate and pitch yeast

Ferment at constant 50F temperature for 21 days

Recipe #36 - Weizen/Weissbier - Review

The results are in, the recipe and pellicle for my Weizen/Weissbier produced the best tasting most flavorful wheat beer I have ever tasted. We all sat around a nice warm fire last night and sampled a few of my latest beers. I anxiously poured the first glasses of the Weizen/Weissbier and waited to see how it tasted to me and the others.

Try to imagine the look on our faces when we tried to describe what we had just tasted. I didn't mention anything to the others beforehand about the pellicle and my concerns that this beer may actually be terrible. I did ask them before they tasted the beer to be brutally honest with their feedback and they were.

The Best Wheat Beer I've Ever Had

That interesting lemon like taste at bottling, that not sweet but not sour flavor was still there and it somehow rounded out the taste of a really great beer. Trust me on this one there were no lemons anywhere near this recipe let alone in it. The color, body, authentic Hallertauer hopping and carbonation level all worked together nicely making this recipe hands down the best beer I've ever brewed, so far.

The four of us drank 2 litres of beer that I put in the refrigerator 2 or 3 days earlier. I fermented the beer at 60F for 18 days and raised the temperature up to 70F over the next 3 days for bottling. The beer then carbonated at 65F for 12 days and I put them in the fridge 3 days before drinking them. My advice to anyone reading this thread is if you're only going to brew 1 wheat beer this year, make it this one.

Screwy Brew Day

 Today I finished brewing the four lager beer recipes I had designed last weekend using qBrew and recommendations made by Joe Bair. Joe is the owner of Princeton Homebrew and a homebrewer with many years of experience brewing great beer. Again I left Joe's with more knowledge about brewing beer than I had when I walked in and with four completely new lager beer recipes. 

American Standard, Pilsner, Bohemian Pilsner and Oktoberfest/Marzen Lagers

  Each of the four recipes are centered around using 2 Lbs. Muntons Extra Light DME in combination with Hallertauer, Willamette, Saaz or Cluster hops and Carahell, Chrystal 10L, Munich and Melanoidin grains.

  Can You See The Guy In The Hotbreak?

 After warming up for 3 hours in One-Step the lager yeast was ready to pitch. The wort temperature was 70F at the time I pitched the Pilsner yeast.

Pitching Wyeast 2007 Pilsen Lager Yeast

Screwy's Fermentation Chamber

  Today the fermentation chamber is officially operational, here's the long awaited picture. Tomorrow I plan to start filling it up with Mr. Beer fermenters. I'm planning to brew 4 different lager beer recipes tomorrow and put all 4 into the fermentation chamber. I want to ferment all 4 at a constant 50F for the next 21 days or so.

Frozen Water Bottles Go In The Top And Fermenters In The Bottom

 The top, bottom, front, back and sides have 2 inch thick foam panels on the inside to keep the cold in. 

Fours Not A Crowd

 The cold air from the frozen water bottles on top circulates downward forcing the warmer air upward where the cycle repeats itself naturally.

Ice Tray Holds Up To 15 Frozen Bottles

Recipe #39 -Weizen-Wiessbier Wheat

 The last Wiessbier I brewed back in September was the first wheat recipe I had made using DME and honey instead of liquid extracts. As in the first recipe this recipe uses a wheat/barley mix DME base. The yeast I picked for the first brew was Safbrew WB-06 dry wheat yeast and after tasting a sampling before I bottled it tasted good so I decided to stick with it.

 This recipe I'm about to describe is a bit different than the first recipe in that it uses only the wheat/barley mix DME and some Munich steeping grains. Both recipes use Hallertauer hops but the new recipes uses different boil times and weights.

I used qBrew's default 'Weizen/Wiessbier' style guidelines to crunch the recipe's numbers. You can download the October 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 
Size 2.13 gallons: Estimated IBU=15, SRM=5, OG=1.044, FG=1.011, ABV=4.3%

1/4 Munich (German)
2 pounds Muntons DME - Wheat

1/4 ounce Hallertauer (German) pellet hops boiled for 30 minutes

1/4 ounce Hallertauer (German) pellet hops boiled for 12 minutes

1/2 ounce Hallertauer (German) pellet hops boiled for 5 minutes

11.5 grams Safbrew WB-06 dry wheat yeast
Pitched at 65F and fermented at 63F

Directions:
Steep grains at 155F for 30 minutes in 3.5 quarts filtered water

Boil DME in wort for 10 minutes

Add and boil hops in wort for 30 minutes
Add and boil hops in wort for 12 minutes

Stir in 2 lbs. DME and boil for 10 minutes

Add and boil hops in wort for 5 minutes
Place in ice bath until wort temperature cools to 65F

Add 4 quarts cold filtered water to Mr. Beer fermenter

Pour cooled wort into fermenter keg aerate and pitch yeast  
Ferment at constant 63F temperature for 21 days

Mr. Beer's Latest Product Additions

 Mr. Beer has added the Hydrometer & 10" Sample Tube , BTF Iodophor Sanitizer  and Craftmeister Oxygen Brewery Wash to their latest product offerings. I'm currently finalizing my latest Mr. Beer order now and they're already on my list.

Weizen/Weissbier- Carbonation

 It's been 6 days since I bottled the 8 1 litre PET bottles with the Weissbier recipe I brewed last month. The bottles have been sitting in my basement at 65-70F and they are getting pretty hard to squeeze already. Holding them up to the light they look light and cloudy, which is a good thing for a wheat beer. There was a layer of pellicle floating on top of the beer before I bottled it, pellicle is ofter associated with an infection.

Inside Of Mr. Beer Keg After Bottling Wiessbier

 You see the reason I mention this is that 1). I've never brewed a wheat beer using Muntons Wheat DME before and 2). I've never seen such a pronounced layer of pellicle floating on top of the beer just before bottling and 3). I've never seen a wheat beer with such bright yellow color and subtle hint of lemon flavor before. Although it looked like the residual carbonation was lower than the stout I brewed during the same time and it was cloudy which is good in a wheat beer.

Weizen/Weissbier Sample At Bottling

The pellicle covers the top of the green beer while it's inside the fermenter and prevents oxygen from reaching the yeast. Pellicle is formed by yeast that is normally not used to ferment our beer, this yeast type competes with the good yeast and can our beer to sour, or worse become undrinkable. I've done a bit of research and some information that's out there says it can introduce a sour taste that is desired in beer styles like a Lambic.

Pellicle Floating On Top Of Weizen/Weissbier

 My confusion is that the pellicle was extremely thin and feathery, practically melting away to nothing as the keg was emptied. Information that I researched was hard to find but mostly talked about string like growths or chunks found floating on top of the fermenting beer. These almost always led to really bad tasting sour beer that sometimes improved with ageor sometime just ended up tasting like vinegar.

Recipe #31 - American Premium Ale Review

 Estimated  IBU=46, SRM=8, OG=1.059. FG=1.015, ABV=5.7%

 I brewed this recipe according to Joe Bair's directions, Joe owns Princeton Homebrew my LHBS, and tonight I finally got to taste one for the first time and I loved it. Fermented at 60F for 21 days using Fermentis Nottingham yeast and then carbonated at 60F for another 21 days the conditioning was done in my basement for another 21 days at about 65-70F. This beer was well balanced, flavorful, smooth and had just the right amount of carbonation.

Recipe #31 - Sample Of American Ale

The Nottingham yeast did a good job of fermenting this recipe, maybe it was the lower temperature range, or the amount of yeast cells pitched or both. I just drank a glass or two of this beer and it looked a lot different than what you see in this picture., I wish I had remembered my camera or we could be looking at it now.

This ale reminded me of a Sierra Nevada, it was loaded up front with Cascade hops, bittered for balance with wonderful flavor and aroma! Seriously I could just drink the beer until it was all gone, but that would leave me little to look forward to, it was that good. The carbonation was calculated using my Bottle Priming Calculator and it was spot on, just enough bite to blend in nicely with the smoothness of this fine beer. Even the head was perfect consisting of nice small creamy bubbles and the foam lasted from glass to glass (okay, so I had more than one).

Click for more...American Premium Ale

Screwy's Fermentation Chamber

 I've been fermenting my ales in my home office, placing the Mr. Beer fermentation kegs on my desktop and using a window air conditioning unit to maintain 70F during the warmer months. After brewing 30 separate ale recipes and fermenting them this way I decided it was time to consider using a fermentation chamber to control the temperatures instead. 

The design criteria was simple the chamber had to hold up to 4 Mr. Beer kegs, since I usually brew multiple batches on the weekend. It also had to be very well insulated since it would be cooled using frozen water bottles. Oh and I almost forgot to mention that the wood used to construct the chamber had to be cut and assembled using only a small jigsaw, a 3/8" power hand drill and a few screw drivers.

Enjoying A Glass Of Chocolate Covered Cherries During Construction

  I sat down and spent a fair amount of time drawing out the dimensions and figuring out the construction method I would use. I wrote down the sizes of the pieces of plywood I would need for the top, bottom and sides and included some 1" x 3" pine boards to use for internal framing and constructing the chamber. 

Original Design Drawing

  Next it was off to Home Depot where I selected the 2 sheets of 1/2" plywood and had them cut into the size pieces I needed, which worked out really good for me since my only power saw was a small jigsaw and not very good for cutting large pieces of plywood. To hold the chamber together I used 1 1/2" and 3" sheet rock screws, the kind used for drilling into metal studs, after coating the joints first with wood glue.

 The Inside Is Lined With 2 Inch Thick Foam Board

 I lined the inside of the chamber with 2 inches of heavy duty foil backed foam insulation and sealed the joints with foil backed tape and duct tape to assure an airtight seal. The plan was to use frozen water bottles placed at the top of the chamber, since the cold air would naturally sink to the bottom and force the warmer air back up to the top to be cooled.

Plastic Storage Container From Walmart Collects Condensation

  After assembling the chamber, doors, hardware and insulation I filled in any imperfections caused by the screws with wood filler and sanded the surfaces smooth. The finishing touches are still waiting to be completed, I plan to give the chamber a fast coat of urethane stain to protect the outside from spills. Although this piece of furniture won't be making it's way to my living room anytime soon, it will provide me with years or worry free service and a lot of lager beers.

The Chamber Holds Up To 4 Mr. Beer Kegs

  The total cost of the project so far is under $200.00 and 4 or 5 trips to Home Depot, not to mention my time spent designing, building and finishing the chamber. The project was fun though and it gave me something to do while my current 3 batches of beer were fermenting away. The next time I post an update on Screwy's Fermentation Chamber I hope to show the finished product with 8 plus gallons of lager beer fermenting away.

Screwy's Fermentation Chamber In Progress

When I designed the fermentation chamber I had kept in mind that someday I would be using carboys or ale pails instead of the Mr. Beer little brown kegs. Today I mostly use 6.5 gallon white plastic fermentation pails for my 5 gallon batches. The chamber's inside dimensions allow it to hold two of these ale pails at a time with room to spare for the cool air to circulate.

At the time of this posting the chamber will be two years old in a couple of months and it still looks and works like the day I finished building it. I find myself using it more now than I ever imagined I would back then when I first thought of building one instead of buying a refrigerator and Johnson controller setup. Of course I did buy a small refrigerator for my beer, kegs and to make the frozen water bottles so now I have the best of both worlds. 

October Bottling Day: Dry Stout

 The last beer I bottled this weekend was the Dry Stout recipe that I brewed three weeks ago. I had fermented the stout at a constant 60F for the past 21 days, allowing the temperature to rise to the 70F bottling temperature over the last 3 days.Surprisingly enough the stout fermenter showed the least amount of krausen floating at the top of the fermenter, even though it had the largest percentage of grains compared to the Oktoberfest and the Weissbier.

Minimal Krausen Floating On Top Of Dry Stout

 I sanitized the bottles and let them soak for 10 minutes before emptying them and adding my priming sugar. used my Bottle Priming Calculator to help figure out how much priming sugar would be needed to hit the correct Co2 volumes for a Dry Stout beer style. The bottle priming calculator takes into account the temperature of the beer at bottling, the type of priming sugar used and the small amount of Co2 that is already in your fermented beer.

Dry Stout Calls For 1.6 to 2.0 Co2 Volumes Of Carbonation

 The Stout poured out of the fermenter into the bottles with ease, the trub was compacted enough in the Mr. Beer keg that it did not get into any of the bottles when I filled them. Right out of the fermenter the beer went into the bottles with no need to rack to a secondary, cold crash, mix in any gelatin or use any other methods to clarify my beer, so again I'm really happy about that.

Bottom Filling Dry Stout In 1 Liter Bottle

  I poured a sample into a small glass for tasting and the beer came out free of trub or krausen with a small amount of residual Co2 bubbles clinging to the sides of the glass. It's amazing how the hints of chocolate came through without adding chocolate or mocha powder to the recipe, it all came from the grains I used.

 Dry Stout Bottling Sample With Residual Co2

 All of my fermenters are now empty again so it's time to start planning out my next batch of brews. The lager I did came out so good that I'm going to do at least a few more on my next brew day. It's early fall here now so my next brews will have to be hearty enough for winter and I should also include a couple of long fermenters for early spring as well.

October Bottling Day: Weizen/Weissbier

  When I unscrewed the lid of the fermenter to pull out the hop sack before bottling I was surprised to see how much krausen was still floating on top of the beer. I couldn't even see the hop sack let alone remove it. So the next thing I thought of was this stuff going to end up in my bottled beer? It didn't and neither did the trub that was compacted tightly at the bottom of the fermenter in the trub tray. I had fermented this wheat beer for 21 days at 60F except for the last 3 days of fermentation when I allowed the beer temperature to rise to 70F, the temperature I would be bottling at.

Weizen/Weissbier With Thick Floating Krausen

 I poured a sample into a small glass for tasting and the beer came out free of trub or krausen with a light amber color that was cloudy, as expected for a German wheat beer. There was already a very slight hint of what I could best describe as lemon present in the samples I tasted. I imagined myself pouring this beer into a tall glass and adding a slice of lemon before drinking it.

Weizen/Weissbier Sample With Residual Co2

I used my Bottle Priming Calculator to help figure out how much priming sugar would be needed to hit the correct Co2 volumes for an Weizen/Weissbier beer style.  The bottle priming calculator takes into account the temperature of the beer at bottling, the type of priming sugar used and the small amount of Co2 that is already in your fermented beer. You look up the level of carbonation for your style of beer  according to BJCP Style Guidelines.

Weizen/Weissbier  Calls For 3.6 to 4.48 Co2 Volumes Of Carbonation

  This bottling day turned out to be a good day, I bottled up my wheat beer without incident and I now have eight more 1 litre bottles carbonating down in the basement where its nice and cool. Right out of the fermenter the beer went into the bottles with no need to rack to a secondary, cold crash or mix any gelatin or use any other methods to clarify my beer, so again I'm really happy about that.

Weizen/Weissbier Ready For Carbonation

October Bottling Day: Oktoberfest/Marzen

 To maintain the 50F temperature needed for the lager yeast, I used a large 40 quart Igloo cooler to hold the Mr. Beer fermenter keg and 4 frozen water bottles. For the past 21 days I'd go downstairs to check the temperature inside the cooler and remove the frozen water bottles that had melted and replaced them with frozen bottles. Over the last 3 days of fermentation I allowed the temperature inside the cooler to gradually rise to 65F as this would be my bottling temperature.

40 Quart Igloo Cooler Used As Fermentation Chamber

 Left completely alone in the cold dark environment the Saflager 34/70 yeast had done an incredible job of converting sugars into Co2 and alcohol and in the process deposited a significant amount of trub at the bottom of the Mr. Beer keg. The first thing I thought after seeing this was how am I going to keep this stuff from getting into my beer when I bottle it.

Thick Layer Of Trub Deposited By Lager Yeast

 I setup the keg for bottling by inserting a sanitized bottling wand in the spigot while the 1 litre PET bottles were being sanitized with One-Step™ cleanser. I was just going to go for it pouring right from the keg into the bottles and trust that the trub was compacted enough to stay in place. The last thing I wanted after babysitting this Oktoberfest/Marzen for the past 3 weeks was to have too much trub in the bottles.

Bottling Wand Used To Bottom Fill Each Bottle

 I poured a small sample into a glass to taste the beer and a small amount of trub came out with the beer, it was probably blocking the spigot inside the keg. I poured out another small glassful and this time only beer came out, the trub stayed put now and I was ready to bottle. I used my Bottle Priming Calculator to help figure out how much priming sugar would be needed to hit the correct Co2 volumes for an Oktoberfest/ Marzen beer style.

Oktoberfest/Marzen Sample Showing Residual Co2 Bubbles

 Using a bottle priming calculator is a good idea since it takes into account the temperature of the beer I would be bottling, the type of priming sugar and the small amount of Co2 that is already in the fermented beer. You then look up the style of beer you are bottling to see what the level of carbonation should be according to the BJCP Style Guidelines.

Oktoberfest/Marzen Calls For 2.57 to 2.73 Co2 Volumes Of Carbonation

  This bottling day turned out to be a good day. I successfully bottled up my first lager beer without incident and I now have eight 1 litre bottles carbonating down in the basement where its nice and cool. The beer poured clear right out of the fermenter with no need to rack to a secondary, cold crash or mix any gelatin or use any other methods to clarify my beer, so I'm really happy about that.

Oktoberfest/Marzen Ready For Carbonation

Screwy's Bitterness Balance Calculator

 The BJCP Style Guidelines state the desired number of International Bittering Units (IBU) that are needed to obtain a balance between hopped bitterness and malt sweetness in a hopped beer style. Beers that don't taste sweet or bitter are considered to be balanced, although individual beer drinkers may perceive this differently.

 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.

 Screwy's Bitterness Balance Calculator

 Click here to access Screwy's Bitterness Calculator 

  On the BJCP balance scale a traditional Bock style beer is considered to be sweet as opposed to a Stout style beer which is considered to be bitter. The addition of bittering hops are used to bring a sweeter malty beer back in balance while the addition of fermentable sugars such as malts are used to bring a bitter beer back into balance.

Oktoberfest/Marzen Lagering - Day 18

 Almost 3 weeks ago I brewed up my first Oktoberfest/Marzen recipe that used steeping grains. I had already decided to use a lager yeast for fermentation this time instead of an ale yeast. The Saflager WB-34/70 yeast I selected has an optimal temperature of 50F, so I used a large cooler and frozen water bottles to maintain this colder temperature.

Water in the frozen bottles should not be used for drinking

 Today is day 18 of the fermentation and time to begin the diacetyl rest so I will allow the temperature of the fermenting beer to rise up to 60F for the next 3 or 4 days. During this time the yeast will cleanup after themselves by removing much of the diacetyl they produced early on in the first few days of fermentation. I plan on bottling this lager beer by bottom filling 1 litre PET bottles this weekend using a bottling wand and locking spigot.

Screwy Brewings

 We've updated our page header to include images from some of our favorite posts and added a new pitching rate calculator to our powerful brewer's tool 'Screwy Calc'. 

New Screwy Brewer Header Design

 Now it's easier than ever to calculate exactly how much yeast will be needed when pitching your recipes.  Based on formulas published by award winning brewer and home brewing author Jamil Zainasheff, Screwy Calc automatically determines the amount of yeast needed to ferment both ales and lagers.

New Pitching Rate Calculator