Beer to make this year

Beer I'd like to make this year.

Pumpkin beer
Milk Oatmeal Vanilla Stout
SMaSH beer - Maris Otter and Amarillo
EFA with Nugget Hops

100 Day Pale Ale

Ellie has just come home. She needed to wait 100 days post transplant. Thus the name for the beer.

Recipe:
10 lbs. 2 row
1 lb Vienna
1oz Chinook 60 min
1oz Citra 5 min
1oz Citra 1 min
Whirlfloc 10 min
Servomyces 10 min
WLP060 - American Ale Yeast Blend - Lot number 1060ITH7347331

We bought the good at More Beer in LA area. While there I also bought a pump with the idea of creating a whirlpool for faster chilling. That thing was expensive. The pump is not self priming but will pump boiling things. Also there were out of WLP001 so the shop guy recommended we try something new. It is a blended strain. So there are actually multiple yeasts in there.

The brewing began the night before with a starter. Two cups water and 1/2 cup DME. Boiled for 10 mins and then cooled. Then pitched the yeast. I put it on a stir plate but it didn't stir very well. I think what I need to do is make a controller that will maintain the rate.

The next day I began around 10am. I started cleaning the gear and Kevin arrived with the water. He supplied the water from his place. He also supplied the Citra hops. We got to heating the water right away and mashed in at around 154F.

While mashing we continued to clean more stuff and we thought to try and clean the pump. Ok when they say that thing is not self priming they mean it. I plugged it in without having liquid in it and it sounded horrible. I was scared. But luckily Kevin was there. I don't know what I would do without him.

After mashing for 60min we added two gallons of boiling water and stirred. Vorlouf. And then drain. Then added four gallons of 180F water. Stir. Let it sit for 5 mins. Vorlouf and drain. Nice.

Then we get it to a boil and wait for the hot break to settle. After it did I added the Chinook hops and the whole thing boiled over. What a mess! Well, now I know. The rest of the boil was uneventful.

Now we come to cooling. I attach the tube to the boil kettle and we carry it to the basin. We get the pump going and start running tap water through the chiller. Also, we get ice water in the basin. This works but we are really clumsy about it. It's our first time doing this. I bet we get better. In 10 mins we cooled to 100F. Then I put ice in a bucket and ran ice water through the chiller. In less than 30 mins we were done. But it was an ordeal.

We then transferred to the carboy. Maybe we use the pump for this next time. Pitched the yeast. Cleaned up. OG was 1.056. It tasted great.

Mead/Helles update

Just bought a new mechanical switch keyboard. I don't like the silly looking fonts on the keys but I like the way it feels. Nothing to do with homebrew but I using it for the first time now.

First of the strawberry mead doesn't not taste good. It ended up too dry. Wanna know what honey tastes like if you remove the delicious sugary stuff. Well, it tastes like crap. Note to self, don't coddle the yeast. Let them leave some sugar. I took a bottle over to Ellie's sister's place. I tried it. Illeana tried it. Lucy might have. Everyone agreed it was bad. Poole and his wife cam over one day after a trip to Kern River. His wife mentioned it tasted like bubble gum. I gave them a bottle. There are two gallons or so in the bottom of the bar area. I hope to forget about them for a long long time. Maybe they will improve. Although I think not.

Onto the Helles. In short it's going to end up too sweet. I overshot the gravity. That means that the bittering hops got all screwed up making it too sweet. Also, it make is not longer a helles since there is too much alcohol. It ended at 1.012 which is about 6-7% ABV. So I guess it is a helles bock. Or a blonde bock.

It was cool to see the lager age. As this is my first I've learned a lot. First, I set the chest freezer to 50F but the first few days the fermenter was likely 53F. I really need to make it cooler to account for the exothermic properties of the fermentation.

After two weeks I sampled the beer. There was a lot of DMS and I believe I detected some diacetyl. While I couldn't taste it, I felt a slick feeling on my tongue. After another week I upped the temp to 60F for a diacetyl rest. I sampled the beer at this point and I couldn't taste the diacetyl anymore but I figured I do the rest anyway. There was still a strong DMS presence.

After another week I moved the beer to the keg for lagering. I put it in the chest freezer at 34F. After another two weeks it was very drinkable. I gave some to Kevin, Ellie, Tuey, Jackie, and my dad. Everyone liked it. At this point the DMS character was beginning to subside and it tasted like a good MGD.

Now another week later the DMS has further subsided and is almost undetectable. Now all the flaws are out there. I can tell it is too sweet. Somehow the DMS covered up the flaws and made it more drinkable. So, a cleaner lager lends to more detection of beer flaws. For it is worth though I was going for a very clean lager. I love the Blonde Bock from Gordon Biersch. There are no beer esters in that beer. It shows me just how good these lagers can be if they are done right.

I think I might be able to make a good lager here. I need to get the gravity right. I need to control the fermentation better. Then I think we got something good.