Samba Pale Ale

Yesterday I brewed 21l of Samba Pale Ale. This is a recipe I got from http://maischemalzundmehr.de. It is based on a recipe that came from a german guy living in Brazil. The goal is to brew a light summer beer, which is not too bitter (relatively low IBU) and which has a bit of sweetness left after fermentation. The ingredients are fairly standard to a point (Munich malt, Pilsner malt, Cara Hell) but there is also oat flakes, polenta and corn flakes in the mix - meaning this is not a beer you could say was brewed per the Reinheitsgebot.

I had spectators for the first hour, during the mashing. Wolfi and Edith wanted to have a look at the procedure. The mashing went quite well - mainly due to the recipe's simplicity. Heat water to 68°C and chuck in all the malt in one go. Keep it heating for 90 minutes, then do an iodine test and heat up to 78°C. After 90 minutes, my iodine test was fine, so I heated to 78°C and kept it there for 10 minutes. Then I transferred everything from the Silvercrest to the Läuterbottich.

There were some comments to the recipe which said that Läutern did not go well - probably due to the polenta. I had absolutely no issue with Läutern, however. After about 4l, the wort was clear. It looked a bit watery, but otherwise fine. It tasted very sweet. Läutern took about an hour, after which I had 24l of wort back in the Silvercrest, on top of 17g Amarillo hops. The 24l were at 10.5 brix - which was a bit lower than anticipated, but I did use 15l of water for mashing instead of 13l, and I used about 14l of water for läutern as well, so this was to be expected.

I boiled the hops for 90 minutes, after which I had about 21.5l of wort left. I did add a further 3g of Amarillo hops 10 minutes before I switched the heat off. I then put the lid on the Silvercrest and left it alone for 15 minutes. After the rest period (where convections die down), I did a whirlpool and piped the wort into the fermentation tank. I was surprised that the Trubkegel at the bottom of the Silvercrest was so small. Once in the fermentation tank, I saw I had forgotten to run the wort through the Sputnik filter, so I piped back into my filling bucket. I used the opportunity to cool the wort down to 22°C as well, then I piped it back into the fermentation keg, through the sputnik filter.

Then I added the yeast, which I had rehydrated that morning and put the keg into the guest room, which was about 23°C. This was probably not the best idea - the core temperature of the beer was then about 25°C, which is too high. The yeast can still thrive in it, but at that temperature it will produce too many sweet, fruity aromas. Today (16 hours later), I moved the keg down to the cellar, at about 18°C. Before doing so, I took a sample with the refractometer. The raw reading was 9.8 brix, which - using the Terril formula is:

Scheinbarer Restextrakt:	5.9°Plato
Tatsächlicher Restextrakt:	6.9°Plato
Scheinbarer Endvergärungsgrad:	49%
Tatsächlicher Endvergärungsgrad:	40%
Alkoholgehalt:	2.4 Gew.% bzw. 3 Vol.%

After one week cooling

This is what the beer looks like after one week in the fridge. It looks ready and it tastes quite good already. I still think it will benefit significantly from more time though. It still has a bit of a 'wild' aftertaste. The foam is good at the start but it starts to dissipate quite quickly. Having said that, I noticed that the standard Taufkirchner beer has a foam that also falls away quickly too. I'm not too concerned about it. A Klosterbier isn't renowned for having a lot of stable foam anyway. Drinking it out of the bottle actually seems to produce a better taste, which I can't explain. Possibly because of the CO2 bottleneck.

Speaking of CO2, the beer has settled a lot since last week - where it was fizzy like coke. This week it is much more like a beer. I'm still hoping it'll settle a bit more. We'll see next week. In the meantime I bought a PartyStar Deluxe keg dispenser for the 5l kegs (a tap that uses small CO2 cartridges - you can see it in action here) and a couple of empty 5l kegs. Filling the kegs goes much faster than filling bottles. I reckon per 20l brew I could easily fill 2x5l into kegs and put the rest into bottles. 

Bottle fermentation over - time for cooling

After 48 hours at 6°C

The beer has now been bottle fermenting (what you'd call Nachgärung in german) for a week at about 22°C (in my office). In case you missed the previous post, the idea of the bottle fermentation is that the beer builds up CO2 in a closed environment. The CO2 can't escape (it's in a bottle), so the beer gets fizzy. And how do you create the CO2? Well, when yeast is fed with sugar it breaks the sugar down into alcohol and CO2 (in about equal parts). So when the main fermentation (in the keg) is over, you basically have flat beer (as the CO2 escapes). When bottling each bottle gets a little sugar and the remaining yeast (in suspension) in the beer takes care of the rest. The aim is that you can decide beforehand how fizzy the beer should be (Weizenbier is typically fizzier than, say Kellerbier) and going on the temperature you can figure out how much sugar you need per litre of beer. More experienced brewers don't use sugar at all - they tap off Jungbier before it is finished fermenting (i.e. there is still sugar in it which can be coverted to alcohol and CO2) and keep it separately, in the fridge. In german it is called the Speise. Before bottling, the Jungbier is piped onto the Speise and mixed in. This is actually how it is supposed to be done. The method with sugar is a bit of a workaround (incidentally, the new Reinheitsgebot actually allows this for top fermenting beers). There is also a method called Grünschlauchen, which means bottling before the beer is finished fermenting in the keg. Grünschlauchen means you really have to keep an eye on the rest sugar though - and you run the risk of either flat beer or (worse) bottle bombs (where there is too much sugar left in the Jungbier).

My beer is now in the fridge since yesterday, at about 6°C. One bottle was in since the day before, for testing. I tried some of it last night (the glass in the picture is 100ml - perfect for testing). It still has a bit of a wild taste and definitely needs a couple of weeks in the cold. I was also quite surprised to see how much CO2 it had developed. I'm not sure that a Klosterbier should be fizzy - it seems like a beer that should be drunk out of a Steinkrug and shouldn't have that much gas. It was good to see that between yesterday and today the foam got a bit more stable. It's too soon yet to decide if the foam didn't work out (I'd need to check the log of the mashing to see why).

Other than that, there is now nothing to do except wait. From the 500ml bottle I kept as a sampler, I'll try 100ml every night. Next weekend, the beer should have settled down somewhat, though I expect it will be at least two weeks before it will be properly 'drinkable'.

Bottled and ready

Yesterday, we bottled the beer that had been fermenting since the previous Sunday. The rule of thumb to adhere to before bottling is that the main fermentation should be over as evidenced by no activity in the fermentation keg for at least three days. 'Activity' could be seen as CO2 escape (the blubbering) or, to be more exact, the rest sugar level. To determine the rest sugar in the beer you can use either a hygrometer (the archimedes principle) or you can use a refractometer. I bought a refractometer because it means you lose less beer. If you use a hygrometer you have to tap off 200ml of beer every time (a couple of times a day). With a refractometer you only need a drop or two. The refractometer measures how refraction of light as it passes from one material into another. It is measured in Brix (after the guy who invented it). Since last Wednesday my rest sugar level was 7.2 Brix (which works out at about 2,4°P after a rather complicated mathematical excursion which eliminates the effect that the alcohol in the beer has on the refraction).

So, there you have it - about 20l of home made beer "Klosterbier". It turned out to be a darker kind of beer (probably because I dumped the Farbmalz in right at the beginning rather than 10 minutes before the end of the mashing) - not full a 'dunkles' but certainly in that direction. It will also be Naturtrüb (cloudy) - I don't think it is possible to get a really clear Klosterbier. Now, the beer ferments again at 20°C in the bottles, for about a week. This "recreates" the CO2 in the beer (I want about 5g/l). Then the beer goes into the fridge at as close to 0°C as possible, to diffuse the CO2 into liquid (the colder, the better). After at least a week, (the longer the better), the beer can be moved into a normal fridge, somewhere around 6-8°C.

Spindelprobe after one day

Yesterday, after consultation with one of the colleagues at work who has been brewing beer for a couple of years, I decided to stretch the beer. You might have seen from the previous post that I had a Stammwürze of about 15,6° Plato before the yeast went in. That is a bit too high. The recipe said that it should be about 13° Plato (which tends to end up as a beer with about 5,2% ABV). If I didn't intervene I'd end up with about 19l of a strong Vollbier - almost Bockbier. There's nothing bad to be said about a good Bockbier, but 19l of it is too much. I wanted a more standard beer - around 5% or 5,2% ABV and nicely rounded. Not 8% ABV and too sweet.

So, I decided to use the high gravity procedure - by coincidence really. High gravity means you deliberately brew to a high Stammwürze and then stretch the amount by adding cooked water. That way, you can expand how many litres you get, depending on your storage. In my case, my fermentation keg is 60l and my filling buckets hold 34l. This means I could theoretically fill over 30l of beer with no problem. My limiting factor is my Silvercrest cooker. That can only hold about 26l - less if you want to cook at 100°C. For the first Sud it was actually the SIlvercrest that limited the volume. I could have added at least another litre of wort. Anyhow, by coincidence I'll be using the high gravity method - not to increase the return of finished beer, but to reduce the ABV of the beer. Essentially, it is diluting. However, by diluting while the yeast is still active, I'll be changing the fermentation process itself, rather than just diluting the Jungbier when it's finished.

The Spindelprobe of Jungbier had 7,2% leftover sugar, meaning the fermentation is nowhere near finished. Right now it is still blubbering away - though the C02 concentration is certainly nowhere near where it was yesterday (expected). The beer tastes a bit wild - the underlying taste is good, but it is too fizzy (expected) and the flavour isn't rounded yet. The hops/bitterness was good, so I'm hoping the 2l of water won't take the edge off that. I'll tap another Schnappsglass this evening to see how it's coming along.

First Sud is in the pot

19l of cooked wort

So, finally the first Sud is in the pot. It's about 19l and it is now fermenting happily (I hope) at 21°C in the guest room. I started yesterday, by checking the equipment, sterilising and generally getting everything ready. This morning at 07:00 I heated 13,5l of water to 38°C and then added the malt mix (Münchner and Wiener malt). After heating up to 48°C for a twenty minute protein rest, I added the colour malt. It is supposed to be added only 10 minutes before the end of mashing, but I figured I'd dump it in early to get more colour into the beer. After the protein rest, I heated to 64°C and kept it there for a good forty minutes. This is the maltose rest, where fermentable sugar is released into the wort. Then, up to 72°C for another thirty minute rest. This is where the non-fermentable sugar is released. After a quick check with iodine, to make sure there was no starch remaining in the mash, I heated up to 78°C and then spooned the mash into the Läuterbottich.

Läutern

The läutern was a bit of a chore. The idea is to separate the wort from the mash - i.e. what you want is the liquid. What happens is that the solid skins of the barley/wheat form a filtration layer at the bottom of the bucket. The liquid filters through and is decanted out through a tight spiral called a Läuterhexe. The liquid is then gathered and put back into the Einkocher for cooking hops. While läutern, you use all the mash and then add (in this case) 18l more water (the Nachguss) which is heated to 78°C before being added. I'm going to see about getting a second Einkocher to keep the 18l ready - constantly heating 1l amounts in a kettle made the whole thing a bit tedious.

In the end I filled the Einkocher to max (probably about 27l). The wort was heated up to boiling and then the hops got added (in a cloth hops bag). About 30g of Hallertauer Perle came in when the wort boiled (and stayed in till the end). This is for the bitterness. Another 14g came in about 12 minutes before the end of the cooking. This is for the aroma. Once I was finished boiling, I whirlpooled the boiling wort and piped it from the Einkocher into the fermentation keg - via another filter (to ensure none of the solids (hops) got into the fermentation keg). When finished I had about 19l. The rest evaporated during cooking.

Cooling the wort to 22°C

Shortly before the end of cooking I got the yeast ready. I added boiling (sterilised) water to a jam jar and then cooled it down to 26°C (the ideal temperature for 'starting' the yeast). After about half an hour the dry yeast powder had formed a kind of a frothy cream in the jar. Once the wort was cooled down to 22°C using the spiral cooler, I added the yeast mixture, sealed the fermentation keg (except for the CO2 escape) and carried the keg up to the guest room. Then, I cleaned all the equipment and called it a day. Currently, I'm still waiting to see when the yeast 'takes' and starts creating 50% alcohol and 50% CO2. Below are some of the other photos.

Heating and stirring the mash

The motor did it's work just fine

The iodine test shows there is still starch in the mash

Now the iodine test shows all the starch has been converted to sugar

Transporting the mash into the Läuterbottich

Clear 'Würze' after läutern

Hops added to the boiling wort

This was a much nicer ball after the whirlpool but broke up while piping

Stammwürze (a bit higher than expected)

Rührwerk in action

The propeller arrives!

Today I picked up the stainless steel propeller from Grasser and fit it to the motor. It fits perfectly! It hangs down to about 5mm above the temperature sensor of the Silvercrest - I was a bit wary when measuring, that the rod would be too long and might touch the sensor. It was perfectly built, though. There is about 10mm space between the outer edge of the blades and the Silvercrest wall. This should be perfect. One thing I have to check out is whether the motor is bi-directional. If it only goes in one direction, a problem might arise that the propeller rod would screw itself out of the M8 socket. If I can make the motor go the other way, this won't be a problem as the rod would tighten itself.

Yesterday, I faxed the brew registration to the Hauptzollamt in Landshut - 23l of 13°P wort. So everything is set up and ready for Sunday.

Ready to brew next Sunday

The last order from Hopfen und Mehr was delivered by GLS today. I ordered the basic Klosterbier malt kit, a beer paddle, 5m of silicon tubing, a plastic tap for the second bucket, some bags for boiling hops and an emergency spare yeast packet. I'm hoping I won't need that spare packet of yeast.

If successful, the Klosterbier should looks something like the picture on the left (which is part of the picture documentation here). I'd rather a clearer beer, but with the Safale yeast, I don't think that will be possible. Even on the back of the packet it says "high sedementation". I'm thinking I might whirlpool in the Silvercrest after cooking and then - instead of lifting straight into the fermentation keg - I could lift into an empty bucket and whirlpool a second time. Then, lift into the fermentation keg via a Sputnik filter. When the fermentation is finished, I could lift into a bucket (to avoid disturbing the sediment at the bottom) and then fill the bottles from that. Even with that, I think the Safale S-04 will have so much in suspension that it is pretty much a waste of time. The naturtrüb (cloudy) beer isn't too bad though. The main thing is the taste. This has a Stammwürze of 13°P - I'd say it will work out at about 5,3% ABV.

Once I get the Klosterbier done, I want to try a Samba Pale Ale. This is a bastard form of India Pale Ale (IPA). I want it to have a relatively low Stammwürze (10°P if possible) and corresponding relatively low ABV (3 - 4%ABV). The main advantage of the Samba Pale Ale is that from brewing to drinking it only takes four weeks.

Dry run

Heating to 100°C

I'm hoping to get the first Sud done next Saturday or Sunday. I still have to register it at the Customs Office and they were supposed to send me the information on how to do it by post today. Hopefully it'll be there on Monday and hopefully I'll be able to do the registration electronically. As well as that, the package from Hopfen und Mehr is due to arrive on Monday. My malt is in the package as well as a silicon tube (for lifting the beer) and another tap for the second bucket (the bottle filler fits directly on to this tap). It's going to be a Klosterbier - a top fermenting beer with a small bit of a red/dark colour and (probably) a deal of malt aftertaste. We'll see.

To make sure there are no nasty surprises on Saturday, I did a dry run today. Before I started, I managed to get my mixer motor working properly. I don't think that Grasser will have my mixer ready by next weekend so I'll probably have to stir the mash by hand. What I wanted to test were (a) whether the Einkocher (the Silvercrest) would manage to boil the water properly, (b) whether the cooler works properly and (c) whether the tap on the Läuterbottich is (still) leaking. I started off with the Einkocher, which - you may remember - is now insulated with a double layer of foam mat. I heated about 18l of water from 12°C to 98°C in about forty minutes. The good thing was that it did boil the water this time (the insulation made the difference). It wasn't a really 'violent' boiling, but enough to make sure the alpha acids are dissipated into the Würze.

Cooling the water

As soon as the water was boiling, it was time to cool it down to about 24°C as soon as possible. The reason for this is that the Würze (which is basically sugar water) becomes very attractive to all kinds of bacteria - especially once it gets below 40°C. Once the yeast gets into the Würze and gets active, the danger from external bacteria is not as high, because the yeast cells are aggresive and don't leave much room to other bacteria. In order to get the temperature down fast, I got a beer cooler. This is basically a long spiral of stainless steel pipe. I connected this to the tap on one side and the other side went into the drain. I put the spiral into the Einkocher (the water was about 95°C) and turned the tap on. I was amazed at how fast the temperature dropped. It went from 95°C to 25°C in nine minutes! This was much better than I expected - I think the spiral is meant for a bigger pot, but it fit perfectly into the Silvercrest.

Once the temperature was at 25°C, I decided to drain the Einkocher into the Läuterbottich to test the tap. You might remember that the tap was leaking - not much, but enough. I don't want to lose any of the Würze to leaks. All I did was tighten the the whole contraption. With the 18l of water in the Läuterbottich, it didn't leak - I tested for about ten minutes. I emptied the water into the drain, dried the Silvercrest and declared the dry run a success. Which means, come Saturday, I should be ready to brew.

Putting together a mixer for the mash

Part of brewing beer at home seems to be to be constantly on the watch for household machines/items that might be usurped into brewing aids. On the hobbybrauer.de forum one of the most common motors for mash mixers is the classic windscreen wiper. This makes sense. In the 20-30l Einkocher class, the Einkocher needs to heat about 25l of a thick stick mash mix. With the heat coming from the base of the pot, some convection currents will be created but there is always the danger that (i) the mash burns on the bottom and (ii) the temperature reading that the Einkocher's digital display shows is a point reading and doesn't reflect the overall temperature. This is why you are advised to stir, stir, stir.

Now, stirring doesn't sound like that much of a problem. Like stirring a cake mixture I suppose. However, I'm thinking that in the hectic of trying to remember everything for the first mash attempt, it would be relatively easy to overlook something. I can see myself browsing in the hobbybrauer.de forum or in the web chat and then smelling something burning - for forgetting to stir. This is why a mixer is probably not a bad idea. It doesn't seem too complicated. I'm getting Grasser Schlosserei to weld me a stainless steel mixer and I'll fix it up to the motor. The motor itself is a 12V motor with incredible torque (it needs it for e.g. icy windows) and a relatively slow speed (otherwise I'll be painting the walls with malt mash). I'm using a PC power unit for providing the 12V (and the 50W the motor uses). I don't want a PC power unit around the cooking pot - or anywhere where there is a chance that water will get near it. That's why I'm experimenting with having the power unit much further away, providing power through a long cable.

Other than that, I'm waiting on the malt mix from Hopfen und Mehr. I ordered the Klosterbier Obergärig (top fermenting). The yeast that it gets delivered with likes temperatures of around 20°C. Down in the Partyraum I have a constant 14°C temperature, which is ok for brewing but would be far too cold for a top fermenting yeast. Once the fermentation keg is filled and is in action, I'll take it upstairs to where it is a bit warmer. 14°C is probably a bit too warm for Untergärig but I may be able to use the other cellar as well - where it is a bit colder.

So I'm going to brew some beer

Insulated boiler with a cooling spiral

I wanted to brew beer for a long time. I even got a birthday present of a beer brewing course in Erding. The course was cancelled due to (believe it or not in the land of beer) lack of interest. In the meantime I was otherwise occupied and had no time for anything else. So when things started to quieten down a little bit, I decided to do some more reading on how beer is actually made, with the short term aim of brewing a first 'Sud'.

The first thing I saw was that (irrespective of what many forums say), you need a lot of equipment. Many "brewing for idiot" guides say you can brew with things you happen to have lying around the house. In fairness, you probably can. You can also dig foundations for a house with a teaspoon. Some jobs need the right tools. Especially for the first Sud, I didn't want to be leaving everything up to chance. Which is why I ordered equipment and am now in the process of getting it set up.

What I have at the moment is the Silvercrest Einkocher from Lidl (the forum hobbybrauer.de gives this very high ratings - it is apparently one of the only Einkocher in this - or any sub €200 class - which can accurately hold temperature (critical when mashing). I also have a Bierspindel (for measuring saccharin) with a sampling cylinder, a fermentation keg (60L), two 30L plastic buckets, a Läuterhexe (with tap), a contraption for putting lids on bottles and some other bits and pieces.

To get ready for mashing/brewing, I needed to make some modifications to some of these purchases. The first thing that needed to be done was to mark up the litres on both plastic buckets. This will be important when measuring how much Bierwürze I get from filtering the mash. To mark the litres I added a litre of water, marked the height, added another litre, marked the height etc. The buckets can actually hold over 34 litres despite being sold as 30L buckets. I'm not complaining about that. I also had to drill a hole towards the bottom of one of the buckets to fix the Läuterhexe. The hole was not the issue - getting the contraption watertight was and still is an issue. I think I have it fixed now - but I'll try with a full bucket before actually chancing a filtration procedure.

The Läuterhexe is installed

Finally, earlier on I insulated the Lidl Einkocher. From what I read on the forum, the Einkocher itself is great, but it reaches its limit when you try to boil hops at 100°C for 60-90 minutes. For boiling hops, the water really has to boil hard - not just bubble lightly, but properly boil. Otherwise the alpha acids in the hops don't get released into the Würze. I insulated it with two layers of a foam exercise mat (again, a tip from the forum). I'll try boiling 27l of water in this as well before I use it to boil hops.

The next step are a cooler for the Würze (once the hops has been boiled, it is important to get the Würze down to about 30°C as quickly as possible, so the yeast can be added. I also need to get something organised to stir the mash constantly. I used a windshield wiper motor from a 1996 Audi. It is a 12V/50W motor which should be well able to deal with the heavy, sticky mash. I asked the fitter who installed our balcony to weld a rotor/propeller which I can hook up to the motor to do the stirring for me.