My First Recipe

So I thought we'd make an Oktoberfest for the season. Problem is that I should have lagered something up in March. Oops. I figured we'd use similar ingredients and make an ale. We'll call this Shane's Oktoberfest Ale. I found a wedding march recipe on the interwebs. I then used the ingredients I could find from MoreBeer and substituted as best I could the ones I couldn't get. Lastly I did some homework and picked a suitable yeast. Below is the recipe:

4.5 lbs. Pilsner 2 row (German)
2.25 lbs. Vienna Malt
2.25 lbs. Munich Malt
0.5 lbs. White Wheat Malt
0.5 lbs. Victory Malt
0.5 lbs. Special Roast
0.5 lbs.Biscuit Malt

0.5 oz Liberty (60 mins)
0.5 oz Tettnang (60 mins)
0.5 oz Liberty (15 mins)
1 oz Saaz (15 mins)

WLP036 - Dusseldorf Alt Yeast

I did my best to follow my process. Ellie came along part way through and kept me company. I did remember the 5.2 in the mash and the vorlof so I think I will put more effort into the documentation of the process to look at during the brew day. I used Beer Smith to help me out with the recipe. It claims I should have OG of 1.058. It turned out to be 1.055. I need to figure out how to bump it up a little. I only let the mash sit for 60 mins. Maybe I should let it sit 90 mins. Also, I should try to stir it up a little more during the mash.

The mash temp was 152F. I think ideal thing to do is to warm up 2.5 gallons to 190F and mash it in. Then use the extra gallon to dial in the temp I want. I know that 190F seems like a like but I transfer the water twice and seem to loose a lot a heat in the process. I would have a cool gallon next to me and heat up the rest of the water to boiling and use the two of them for the dialing in. Also, I came up short on the amount of beer. So, I should keep in mind to sparge more than I think I will need.

I noticed that the carboy during the first few days really heated up. So I had to lower the temp more than I normally would to get the carboy temp down to 70F. The fermentation was active. The krausen was good and foamy. The foamy part was not as contiguous as I am used to seeing. It was uneven like the Rocky Mountains. But smooth Rocky Mountains. Also, it was a slightly different color. More grey. With a hint of green. It smells good.

Phat Quail Ale Final Post

So about 1 week before I bottled the Phat Quail Ale I needed to dry hop it. This is my first crack at dry hopping. I made sure to clean and sanitize the new carboy and racked the beer over to it. Now I was not particularly careful about making sure not slosh the beer around too much. The beer ended up with a wet cardboard type taste. It's drinkable but not as good as it should be. It may have also been from the air lock which dried out a little bit and perhaps allowed some air to get in.

But I digress. After I transferred over I threw in the hop pellets and left it for another week. After the week was through I bottled the beer as normal and let it be for about 10 days. It carbonated great. Kevin loved the beer. He thinks it's the best ever. I think it could be if not for the one flaw. I guess Kevin gots skills and can look past the flaw and see the diamond underneath. I think I might give some to David for his birthday.