Monday, April 23, 2012

Going All-Grain or: How my garage smells like puke

posted by Jon

Thanks to a substantial investment by Ryan W, KSB has made the jump to all-grain. I've got pictures of the whole set-up that I will post at a later date.

Last week Saturday we brewed our first all-grain batches, Sorry to Say DIPA and Ponzi Scheme Berliner Weisse.

We started with the Ponzi Scheme, but we'll get to that later. Sorry to Say is going to be a. Hop. Bomb.

4/14/12
4:00 6 gal water heated

4:30 Water @ 173°. Water added to 16 lb American 2-row, 1 lb Crystal 40°L, 1/2 lb CaraPils grains, mash @ 153°

5:30 Mash sparged with 180° water

6:30 Sparge complete, wort heated

7:30 Boil started

7:40 2 oz Warrior and 2 oz Citra hops added

8:25 1 oz Amarillo, 1 oz Simcoe, 1 oz Columbus hops, 5 tsp yeast nutrient, 1 Whirlfloc tab added

8:35 1 1/2 lb amber invert sugar added

8:40 Flameout. 1 oz Amarillo and 1 oz Simcoe hops added

9:30 WLP001 starter pitched @ 66°

O.G. = 1.082

4/20/12
Racked to secondary, dry-hopped with 1 oz Amarillo, 1 oz Simcoe, 1 oz Centennial hops

This bad boy has a theoretical IBU of 200! It will be bottled in a week and distributed in a few weeks.

The Berliner Weisse. Ponzi Scheme. This one's a weirdo.

4/14/12
1:30 2 3/4 gal water heated

2:00 Water @ 162°, added to 5 lb Pilsener and 4 lb wheat grains. Mash @ 148°

3:58 2 1/2 gal 200° water added to mash

4:08 Bucket of mash brought outside to chill

6:30 Bucket brought inside. Mash @ 120°

This is the weird part. At this point I tossed in a handful of grains. The husks of the grain naturally contain a bacteria called Lactobacillus. Lacto is what spoils milk and is used to make yogurt and kefir by producing lactic acid. Once the grains were tossed into the beer, it sat for 6 days (with plastic wrap on top to prevent oxygen from getting in.

After 6 days it was ready to brew. It smelled like vomit. Puke. Upchuck. Thunder Chunder Rainbow Parfait. My house smelled like it. The entryway smelled like it. The garage smelled like it. My wife refused to come out to the garage to brew with me. She just stayed in the living room with her scented candles.

4/20/12
6:50 Mash heated to with 1 oz Hallertauer hops

7:40 Mash @ 172°. Poured into mash tun

8:15 2 1/2 gal 174° water added to mash

8:30 Sparge started

9:00 Sparge done, wort heated

10:00 Boil started, flameout

10:45 1 pack Safale US-05 pitched @ 76°

O.G. = 1.042

The basic idea of a Berliner weisse is to infect it with lacto which sours the beer. After a few days you heat it to kill the lacto, sparge to remove the sugars and then brew. Some of you may have had Bell's Oarsman before. Oarsman is a Berliner weisse. It is a very light, refreshing, sour beer. In a couple of weeks we'll all find out if this is a light, refreshing, sour beer or something completely different.

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