AG #2 - Steam Punk - Revisited

I will be the first to admit that one of my weaknesses as a brewer is my lack of patience. I tend to want to get my beers through fermentation and conditioning as soon as possible and never seem to allow beers to develop. Back in the first week in June I bottled my second ever All Grain beer (Steam Punk) and managed to keep back a few bottles which I enjoyed last night.

My conclusion when reviewing this beer at the end of June was that it lacked a decent level of bitterness and that if I was honest it was probably not a beer I would brew again, however 10 weeks later my opinion has changed somewhat.

The beer pours a dark golden colour with a slight red hue. The head dissipates quickly to leave a thin white head. Hops and bready malts are both apparent on the nose, light bodied with a nice level of carbonation. This has developed into a nice smooth beer, the hops have become slightly subdued but a slight pepperiness is still present. Very clean taste and immensely drinkable. This beer has certainly enhanced with age and is something that I think I would brew again. The one thing I would probably alter would be to add some citrus hops, maybe Amarillo, into secondary to give it a nice fresh citrus zing.

AG #2 - Steam Punk - First Taste Test

After only 7 days this beer had cleared
very well and fermented to 1008

I had the first taste test of my Steam Punk brew last night. This beer was brewed on the 23rd of May and it fermented very fast meaning that I transferred to a corny keg for conditioning after only 7 days. Ordinarily my beers get about 10 days in primary before being transferred to secondary or to the keg. However on this occasion the beer fermnented very fast and very low (finishing at 1008), it also was very clear after 7 days.

I had a few problems on the brew day for this beer and so I did not hold out great hope for how it would turn out. However I have to say that I was presently surprised when I had the first taste only 20 days after brew day.

Nice strong head, good colour
but quite a lot of chill haze.

It poured a lovely dark golden colour with a nice red hue. Very strong persistant white head looked great, however there was quite a bit of chill haze apparent. The aroma is of nice spicy hops with a sweet malt background. Carbonation is a little on the low side (has only been at 15 psi for three days) but the beer has a nice light and smooth mouthfeel. Light bodied and tastes a little green. Overall I am happy with this beer however I feel it is probably a bit young to get a true view of how it will turn out. Probably needs another day or two of carbonating and then a week conditioning in the fridge before the next taste.

Once I feel that the beer is at its peak I will do a comparison taste with Anchor Steam Beer. Due to the fact that the yeast I used was different I do not expect it to taste the same, however due to the fact that the grain bill and hops were the same it will be interesting to see if the two beers share any characterisitics.

AG #2 - Steam Punk - Brew Day

For my second all grain brew I decided to brew a califoirnia steam beer, I named the brew Steam Punk. So all grain #2 was brewed on Sunday in the glorious sunshine. Brewday started at 9am and I was cleaned up and finished by 2.30, so 5 1/2 hours in total, not too bad for only my second all grain brew. I took a few pictures of the brew day and thought I would share these along with some of the brew day problems that arose.

Grains weighed out and in mash bag

First thing I did was to put 20l of water on to boil in the kettle, this would be my strike water. While this was heating I had some breakfast and then started to weigh out my grain. This was the first time that I had not added any DME to the recipe and so I used just over 5kg of grain. This was made up of 4kg of Maris Otter, .75kg of Munich malt, .25kg of Crystal Malt and finally .025kg of Chocolate Malt. The grain was all weighed out and then placed in my large mashing bag. My 20l of strike water was heated to a temperature of 72c to give me a strike temperature of 67c. In the end the water ended up overheating and was at 80c within 25 minutes, I cooled this with some cold water and mashed in. My strike temperature ended up at 66c, which was close enough. After 30 minutes of the mash I put 26l of water on to heat which would be my sparge water. I calculated that I needed 19l for my sparge, however it is always good to have extra sparge water on hand just in case it is needed. The mash tun maintained 66c throughout the 60 minute mash, this was obviously aided by the fact that the outside temperature was 22c. After the mash was complete I started to recirculate the wort from the mash tun in order to clear the wort of any debris from the grains, once the wort was running relatively clear this was drained into the fermenter (At this point I was using my kettle to heat the sparge water). The sparge water was added in batches of 9 ltr of 80c water, this was given a good stir and then the wort was recirculated again to clear the grain debris and then drained into the fermenter. By the end of the mash and sparge I had 27 ltr in the fermenter, this was then drained into the kettle and put on the heat. Pre-boil wort grabity was 1042. My day had started at 9am and the wort started to boil at 12.13.

Second hop addition and Irish Moss

First running from mash tun

After three additions of Northern Brewer Hops and some Irish Moss the wort was ready for cooling. I use an immersion wort chiller to cool my wort and this had the temperature down from 75c to 23c in 32 minutes. It is improtant at this stage of the brew to make sure that your wort cools as quickly as possible, this is mainly for two reasons. 1) it will help create a cold break, and 2) this is the most vulnerable time for your brew for infections, the quicker you can get the wort cooled and into the clean and sanitised fermenter the better. After the wort was cooled it was allowed to drain into the fermenter, splashing as much as possible in order to introduce oxygen into the wort, this will create the right environment for the yeast to work in. Although quite a lot of home brewers use electric paddles and other equipment to make sure the wort is well oxegenated, I find just opening up the tap and letting the wort cascade into the fermenter does just as good a job. After the wort had drained into the fermenter I then checked my OG which was 1047. The fermenter was then moved into my brew closet and the yeast added. The yeast for this beer was Safale US-05. This was rehydrated an hour before pitching, this is poured in and then the bottle is washed out with wort in order to make sure I get all the yeast I can into the fermenter. The blow off tube is then attached, as is the temperature probe (taped to the side of the fementer), and the yeast is left in the dark to do its work. After only 5 hours there was a vigorous bubbling from the blow-off tube.

Chiller goes in 10min before end of boil

Wort getting well aerated as it is transfered to fermenter

So for the most part the day went well, however there were some brew day problems:

• 
  
  
  This was the first time that I had used a full 5kg of grain and I think that my mash bag struggled a bit with that weight of grain, when adding the first sparge the bag slipped down into the mash tun and took a lot of coaxing to get it fixed in place again. Hopefully this issue will be resolved as I am trying to source a false bottom to use with this mash tun in future.

• I found it difficult to get my wort to clear during recirculation and so quite a lot of debris entered the boiler, this may cause clarity issues in the final beer. Hopefully this issue will also be resolved by using the false bottom.
• Unfortunately I only realised when going to transfer my wort into the kettle that the tap on my fermenter (where I had collected the wort) was a little unusual and so I had no tubing that would fit to it. This meant that I needed to pour the wort into the kettle, this may have caused some hot-side aeration.
• I was aiming to get 23 ltr of 1050 wort into the fermenter, and in the end I got 21 ltr of 1047, I will need to adjust my calculations in future to try and make sure I get the full 23 ltr
  
  
  

  

  Safely tucked away in the brew closet

AG #2 - Steam Punk

Tomorrow I will be brewing my second ever all grain beer. I have decided to make a californian common beer, or steam beer as it is sometimes called. This is an american ale that is traditionally fermented with a lager yeast at ale temperatures, however I will be using an ale yeast for this beer. The most famous commercial example of a californian common beer is Anchor Steam Beer from San Francisco. The recipe below is based on a clone recipe of Anchor Steam Beer, however due to the fact that I will be using an ale yeast I do not expect it to come out tasting the same but I will do a taste comparison to see what difference the yeast makes. Here is the recipe I will be using:

Steam Punk

7-B California Common Beer
Author: Mark

Size: 22.56 L
Efficiency: 75.0%
Attenuation: 75.0%
Calories: 166.02 kcal per 12.0 fl oz
Original Gravity: 1.050 (1.048 - 1.054)
Terminal Gravity: 1.012 (1.011 - 1.014)
Color: 23.97 (19.7 - 27.58)
Alcohol: 4.91% (4.5% - 5.5%)
Bitterness: 43.1 (30.0 - 45.0)

Ingredients:

4000.0 g Maris Otter
750.0 g Munich Malt
250.0 g Crystal 60 EBC
25.0 g Chocolate 1060 EBC
23.0 g Northern Brewer (10.5%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min
23.0 g Northern Brewer (10.5%) - added during boil, boiled 15 min
15.0 g Northern Brewer (10.5%) - added during boil, boiled 5 min
1.0 tsp Irish Moss - added during boil, boiled 15 min
1.0 ea Fermentis US-05 Safale US-05

I will take lots of photo's of tomorrows brew day and post it up in a few days.