Saturday night on may 12th I brewed up my Munich Smash recipe.   My wife had the weekend away so I seized the opportunity to brew on a Saturday night.  Of course, when an opportunity to brew presents itself on short notice you tend to forget things.  I violated the true Smash recipe because I used two different hops.  I used magnum to bitter and then did Hallertau as planned for my other addition.  I don’t care too much about that because this beer was all about the Munich Malt (10L) anyway.

The wort aroma in my garage was very intense.  Munich certainly has a lot of grainy, bread like aroma to it.  I hope that continues to hold true in the final beer’s aroma.  I tasted a bit of the first runnings of wort and man was it melanoid-rich.  Almost to a scary level.  After I tasted it I thought for sure I had over done it and was certain I was going to hate the brew.  I carried on though and after all the sparging was done I tasted the more appropriately diluted full wort and the assault on my palette was much less.  The flavor still didn’t make me jump for joy as I think it really needs some fermentation character to remove the sweetness.  Full on Munich malt sweetness unfermented smells great, but is too much for my palette.  The color however in the fermentor and kettle was pretty dark.  Much darker than I would have expected.  I think in the glass this will be a deep golden color with reddish hues.  At least that’s what I dream it would be.

This is my first brew in our Master of Lager series as well.  I pitched WLP830, the seminal German Lager yeast from White Labs.  My OG for the batch was 1.056.  I quick look at Mr.Malty Pitching Rate Calculator told me I needed two WLP vials into 1.5L of wort when using a stir plate.  That assumes 97% viability of the starting yeast.  So to be safe, I used two stir plates and split my total starter volume across the two.  I did two 1.2L starters.  The additional total volume will ensure a truly adequate pitch of yeast.

My yeast management and fermentation procedure for this lager was as follows.  I made the yeast starters the night before I brewed (because that’s when the wife left, so Friday night).  They sat on the stir plate until Sunday morning.  Yep the day after I brewed.  This was to ensure they completely fermented out.  I then transferred them to the fridge to crash cool and settle the yeast.  On brew night (saturday), I chilled the wort to 70-72F ish.  I could have gone longer but didn’t need too.  Reason being is that I then put the carboy full of wort in my fermentation chest freezer set to 48F.  Because I wasn’t planning on pitching the yeast until the next day, I knew I could use the chest freezer to chill the beer the rest of the way and not waste more water trying to do it with the chiller.

Sunday got a little hectic for me after the wife came home and I failed to pitch my yeast that day.  I pitched on Monday night, a full two days post brew day.  This is where confidence in your cleaning and sanitation come in.  The wort was sealed up with an airlock and still looked good in the freezer.  (The cold 48F temps helps to suppress wild microbe contaminants too.) Monday night I oxygenated the wort.  Decanted my spent start wort from the flasks and pitches the yeast in.

Tuesday night I had the first early signs of krausen forming.  A good sign things were coming along.  I adjusted my temp controller to 52F to allow it to warm to my desired ferment temp as it became more active.  Wednesday night I cam home to a very nice inch or so of healthy Krausen, a bubbling airlock and an reassuring yet unpleasant sulphur aroma from the yeast.  The temp was 51F.

So off it goes. My first lager in the series.  My plans for the next two are  Helles and an Oktoberfest.  Bock might tempt me too if I get a chance to do one of those too.

I conducted some research into a hop variety that I have not used yet in my homebrewing sessions but this one caught my eye since it was an English variety. I present this information as our profile of First Gold Hops.

Bred by Wye College in Kent, they are the first dwarf hop variety that was specifically created for aroma additions in the English market.  Other dwarf hop varieties that we have examined on this site are:

• Summit Hops
• Pioneer Hops
• Pilot Hops

Dwarf hops are ones that do not have tall bines, which makes them easier to harvest.  Believe me, hand picking hops cones for one plant was challenging.   I can understand how tough it may be to harvest a whole field, especially if you are doing with machines and trying to preserve the delicate cones.

They are a mix of the Whitbread Golding Variety, AKA WGV, and some unnamed dwarf hop variety.

Here are the typical specs that I write up:

Origin: UK  (see above)

Aroma/Flavor: Spicy, cinnamon, orange peel

Alpha Acid: 6.5% to 8.5%

Typical Usage: Aroma

Beer Styles: Extra Special Bitters, other English pale ales

I have a few big events coming up this summer. My wife and I are having a big party at the house at the end of July. We’re also going to a wedding.

For the party, I would like to label some brews so that people knew what they were drinking without asking me. For the wedding, beer makes a good gift and homebrewed beer makes an excellent gift but it should look nice too.

Coincidentally, James at Zumula.com wrote to me to tell me more about what his site has to offer.

They make custom labels where you can upload your images or die cut designs to make them or use templates to help you make your own design.

They have plenty of options to choose from including:

• Rounded or square corners
• Matte or glossy finishes

They are launching more features this year, so take a look now and check back later on to see what they have to offer.

Talking with Mike this weekend, we agree yeast management is becoming the most important aspect of our brewing practice.  If we were to go back in time and tell new homebrewers what to work on to improve their beer,  we would suggest practicing making mighty yeast starters for their brews.

For this lager series, I want to replicate the amount and the vitality of yeast that one would have after they brewed a few 5 gallon batches with the same strain.

Noted homebrewer Jamil Zainasheff talks about making yeast starters for all his brews, and big ones especially for lagers or beers with high starting gravities.

My yeast starter is going to be mighty for the Bohemian Pilsner.  The recipe already calls for the equivalent of 4 liquid yeast vials or packets.   Now with the one vial I bought, I need to create a 9 liter starter to get the yeast cell count to match that of 4 vials.

My plan is to do that – create enough wort to make a 9 liter starter and add the yeast vial to it.  Once the fermentation is done for the starter, I will drain the “beer” off of the yeast cake in the fermenter (I will need to use a carboy to create a yeast starter this big).  Then, pour another starter wort on top of the yeast cake – this time it will be 4 gallons strong.

Once fermentation is over for round two of the starter,  I can have my Bohemian Pilsner brew day.  I think think procedure will give me the number of yeast cells I need and in the healthy state they need to be in to make an excellent beer.

Well, this is where is all begins –  The Master of Lagers series.

This summer, these Brew Dudes will be brewing up lagers and trying their best to make excellent examples of specific style.

The first one is the Bohemian Pilsner.   Let’s dive right in, shall we?

So I ordered the ingredients for this recipe.  It has a fairly simple grain bill and a good number of hops by weight.

There’s one ingredient that isn’t on the recipe post but I ordered it – extra light dry malt extract.

I am going to make a few mighty starters for this brew.  The yeast are going to be plentiful and ready to rock.

Let’s drink a few of these this summer.

For my April 2012 brew I hemmed and hawed quite a bit over what to brew.   I have some Stout and a Brown that are drinking nice right now; I wasn’t ready to brew another dark beer.  I just brewed a Pale ale that’s ready to start drinking  this weekend. I have a cherry wheat beer that I finally resurrected from the dead. I have an American Cream Ale that is about 2/3 empty.  I know that I want to rebrew the stout, brown and cream again this year with minor tweaks; but I really wanted to brew something different that all that this time around.

Eventually, I settled on a Hefewiezen.  Then I started to think well how much do I really like a hefe? If I don’t drink it, will my in-laws??? Should I brew the Cream ale for the in-laws (they all live next door too)??

I figured I’d brew an american Hefe because I don’t like clove flavors.  Then I thought I’ll add some orange peel that sounds nice.  They I realized I was just heading down the road to my Harpoon UFO white clone I made a two years ago.

So with all that story out of the way, tonight I’ll gather the equipment up, measure the water and start the yeast for my Orange Wheat recipe (only 5 gallons instead of 10 in the recipe). I’ll be making some modifications and dropping the corriander, just to focus on those orange citrus flavors.  Normally, I’d use the Belgian WLP400 Wit Beer strain, but to satisfy that curiosity without committing to a true Hefe I am using the American Hefe Yeast WLP320.  Much less clove and banana than a WLP300 German Strain. So I am calling it an American Wit Beer…shoot me.

Not as creative but I really like this recipe.  I am trying not to buy too commercial beer much as I am brewing regularly now, so I better get some UFO White like beer in a keg to keep me from buying some.

I’ll toss up some comments tomorrow night as I brew on the Twitter feed and maybe a pic or two as I go.

BREW ON!

I used Brewer’s Friend to create this Bock recipe.  Pretty sweet!  Here’s the output of the recipe generator (with a few tweaks by me):

HOME BREW RECIPE:
Title: Traditional Bock
Author: Brew Dude John

Brew Method: All Grain
Style Name: Traditional Bock
Boil Time: 90 min
Batch Size: 5.5 gallons
Boil Size: 7 gallons
Efficiency: 70%

STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.071
Final Gravity: 1.019
ABV (standard): 6.76%
IBU (tinseth): 22.22
SRM (morey): 17.81

FERMENTABLES:
3.5 lb – Pilsner (23.3%)
10 lb – Munich  (66.7%)
0.25 lb – Melanoidin (1.7%)
0.5 lb – CaraAroma (3.3%)
0.25 lb – Caramel / Crystal 150L (1.7%)
0.5 lb – Munich – 60L (3.3%)

HOPS:
0.5 oz – Magnum (AA 13.5) for 60 min, Type: Pellet, Use: Boil

MASH STEPS:
1) Infusion, Temp: 154°F, Time: 60 mins

YEAST:
White Labs – German Bock Lager Yeast WLP833
Starter: Yes
Form: Liquid
Attenuation (avg): 73%
Flocculation: Medium
Ferment for at least two weeks at 50°F

Lager at 34°F for 2 month before bottling/kegging

Single Malt and Single Hop, it’s nothing new but it’s new to me.  I have read about SMaSH brewing in many forums and brewing blogs over the years.   As I mentioned in my Munich Lager Recipe post for the Master of Lagers series, I am going to employ the SMaSH technique with that beer.

The point of SMaSH brewing is to plainly put one base-malt right out in front, naked if you will, and subject it to the brewer’s skill to showcase it’s nuances of structure and flavor.  OK,that last part may oversell it a bit, or oversell my skills as a brewer.  SMaSH brewing showcases the one malt and one hop.  It’s a great way to first understand how a particular base malt tastes all on it’s own.  Once you have a good feeling for the base malt of your liking, then you can really start to vary your hops.

While it’s not my focus for the Munich Lager, I think the real power of SMaSH brewing is exploring hops.  You can quickly get a sense of all the aspects of a hop’s properties by using a standard 60, 30 and 0 min additions.  It allows you to explore the hop’s flavor and aroma.

You can answer questions like:

• Is the bitterness harsh or smooth?
• What do the flavors appear to be?
• How does that all compare with the aroma from the late additions?

Although this method can give you a great perspective on hops, for my Munich Lager I want to really get a sense of what Munich malt tastes like.  I normally only use it at a rate of 10-25% in most recipes so using it in a SMaSH format seems to make sense.  I am pretty familiar with the properties of Hallertauer hops so I am not concerned about those getting in my way when trying to focus on that malt.  However, I did leave out a late addition because I do want to be able to focus on the aroma of the Munich malt as well.

Time will tell how it turns out.
BREW ON!

If you follow along regularly, you may remember John and I are planning an epic lager “marathon” through the late Spring and Summer.  Our Master of Lagers series is rapidly approaching (although we haven’t set the date yet to start).

For my first lager round I’ll be attempting to accomplish a couple goals at once.  I want to focus on Munich Malt so  I can really understand its flavor profile. As a result, I am going to do a SMaSH beer (second long term goal I have had).  SMaSH stands for Single Malt and Single Hop.  I’ll talk more about SMaSHing soon.  For now this is my first lager recipe for my end of the 6 part lager brewing series.

Munich Lager SMaSH

Batch 6.5 gal final
Eff: 70%
OG 1.055
IBUs ~30

15lbs Munich Malt
1.5oz Hallertauer 60min
1.0oz Hallertauer 30min

Yeast WLP830 German Lager Yeast (or WLP838)

Pretty short and clean.

The hop rhizomes that I bought through Northern Brewer arrived earlier this week. I stashed them in the fridge until I decide where to plant them. There’s only a few places in my backyard that get a ton of sun in the summer time. The trees shade most of the area so it’s going to be a bit of a challenge, but it will be worth it.

I got a bine of Willamette and one of Cascade hops.

If you look real close you can see the shoots pushing out of the bags. Ok, not really.