Brewing with Nick

I stopped in on Nick's double batch brew day last night. He was making a Scottish for the Empyrian Beer Quest competition and a blonde for himself.

For the Scottish he pulled done of the running from the mash and boiled then separately to caramelized before adding it to the rest of the wort. Unfortunately a tough lesson in scorching using a non-clad pot was learned abd the process was started over. Well it was started over after putting done serious elbow grease into chiseling of the burnt ring of sugar. The batch went on otherwise without a hitch.

The second batch was mashed in around 11:30 pm. Yes, this is how it goes when you do a Friday night double batch after work.

Here's a few pictures of Nick's setup. Notice the hammer drill which allows site rpm crushing and provides for an excellent crush.

Whirlpooling

Here's a look at the new copper plumbed and pump assisted brew stand getting it's whirlpool on.

 

Cognac Stout II

Here is a sneak peak of the Cognac stout wood chips we are preparing. In about a week we will add threes chips into secondary fermentation. Then we will sample the beer frequent as data pass until it tastes perfect. We are using 1 ounce of light American oak chips with a bottle of Cognac. The Cognac and chips will be separated before addition. This is the sequel to DeJuan's original that took 3rd place at the Benson Homebrew festival in October of 2013.

Kombucha & Kvass

I have never disclosed on here that I new Kombucha, but it's true. Today I was in a natural food store and couldn't resist browsing the selection of fine fermented and low alcohol drinks. Now, I thought Kvass was made from old bread... what is this stuff?

Update [1/17/14] : The store I was at is on Dodge street in Omaha near 80th on the south side of the street. Follow this link to learn more. I highly recommend this store. They have an incredible selection of all things wonderful. I walked out with a bottle, an organic apple and some organic tahini.

Oh Crap

I was surprised less than 24 hours after pitching British ale yeast into a cherry wood smoked porter to find such a mess. I switched from a bubbler to a blow off tube and filled a gallon jar in about an hour. This was all at a controlled temperature of 70 degrees F. I wasn't expecting this and I'm hoping not to much viable yeast was lost. If you haven't used Yeast 1098 before, proceed with caution. And, lots of head space!

Pulling Some Yeast

Last night I pulled some yeast from my conical fermentor and racked off 8 gallons of Kolsch. This strain doesn't style quickly (low flocculation). It's been cold conditioning for 2 weeks already and it still looks quite cloudy in secondary.

Anyway, I'm going to give it time to settle and I'm the meantime I'll be re-pitching this yeast into a Dusseldorf Alt Bier. Here's a few pictures and a video of the yeast pull.

Malt Substitution

Today I was looking at a recipe that we will be brewing next weekend and saw amber malt on the bill. I've been brewing since 2006 and somehow amber malt never appeared in my brewing world until the last month or two.

A friend of mine made a dogfish head clone and used amber malt. I asked him to save me a handful of the malt so I could taste it. I sample each component of a beer from grain to glass and I'm always excited to taste another malt or smell new hops.

The short story is that this malt tasted something like victory malt to me. It's a little nutty and dark but not sweet. The other thing is that the brew stores around here do not typically stock this malt for some reason. Perhaps because this malt is underutilized? Well, now that I have a recipe that calls for this malt, I am looking for it. And, then I thought about substitutions.

When it comes to hops I am weary of substitutions. I remember as a new home brewer walking into Steinbarts in Portland and finding out that they did not have the hops I was looking for. They were quick to offer alternatives based on a substitution chart. Little did I know at the time just how different hop varietals can be. I now have a full appreciation for the differences in hops mostly because IPA is one of my favorite styles. But, what about malt?

I know the basics when it comes to malts in terms of base malt versus crystal versus roasted. The color ratings are helpful too. Overall all I think I understand malt, but the more I think about it I realize that I don't really know that much at all. It's a little crazy how much focus in brewing goes to hops and yeast. I recently became infatuated with water chemistry so the last frontier is malt for me.

Where is the malt book? How do you substitute malts? Hmmm.... I don't have the answers.... yet. I have a simple substitution chart that I found online, but I know there is a lot more to learn about malt. Stay tuned for a future series on understanding malt. Until then it looks like victory malt is a reasonable substitution for amber malt according to this chart.

 http://www.brew.is/files/malt.html