perfidy

I recently took up homebrewing as a way to give myself even more burns on my hands and arms; bread baking just hasn't been doing the trick. From time to time I am going to post the results of recent brews as a way for me to archive recipes and procedures.

My first brewing attempt, two weeks ago, was a clone of Bass Ale. Saturday I will bottle it and about three weeks later will know if I'm a hack or a god. Water into wine? Pah! I'm turning water into beer! I didn't bother doing a lot of the usual rigamarole associated with brewing the first time around: I didn't write down how many IBUs (international bittering units... seriously) of bittering hops I used, much less what varieties were used (though I can make an educated guess at East Kent Goldings); I didn't take a specific gravity reading of the unfermented wort (that's "raw beer" to you); and I didn't keep any kind of journal. I mainly just wanted to do a test run and focus on a-b-c procedures so I could work out a system that will serve me down the road.

My second attempt took place this last weekend. (If any of you are brewers, you just said 'wait, Johno... your fermenting bucket is fulla beer... what are you doing? Well, see, I bought two fermenting buckets so I could do two batches at once - I'm wicket smaaht.) I'm a fan of porter in general, but I tend to like drier (less sweet) examples more. My all time favorite is the Edmund Fitzgerald Porter at the Great Lakes Brewing Company in Cleveland, and I'm chasing something like that. Their porter is actually quite sweet with chocolate and various estery flavors, and with 37 IBUs it's pretty darn hoppy. I am after something a little lighter but with a similar hop assertiveness. Details below the fold.

August 28 2005
Brew #2
All Thumbs Porter

2 cans (6.6 lb) Coopers Amber liquid malt extract
1 lb crystal malt, 40L
1/4 lb chocolate malt
1/4 lb black patent malt
bittering hops: 1 oz Eroica
finishing hops: 1 oz Hallertau Mittlefrueh
yeast: 1 packet Safale 33 dry yeast reconstituted in 1.5 cups 90 degree water

Steeped grains in ~3 gallons filtered tap water from room temp to boil, removed grainbag at boil. Added malt extract, returned to boil and added bittering hops. I don't know IBUs... too bad. Boiled uncovered 1 hour. Finished with the Hallertaus for last 5 minutes of boil time. Covered pot and moved to bathtub and waiting ice water. The ice water cooled the wort to about 95 degrees in less than 1/2 hour, and I added cooled distilled water to bring wort to 69 degrees and 5 gallons total volume before pitching the yeast. Removed to the basement to ferment at 73 degrees.

OG 1.048

Now a word about my thumb. I cut the hell out of the back of my right thumb adding the malt extract (can lids are sharp!!!), but managed not to bleed in the wort. Nevertheless, immediate medical attention was required; I could see veins and tendons down in there. I didn't go for stitches, but my ever forbearing wife went to the drugstore for some "steri-strips," which work just fine in a pinch. I finished the brew session trying to use only my left hand for everything, which is a fairly challenging prospect.

After 48 hours there was no evidence of fermentation. I was sure I killed the yeast.

After 72 hours, I popped top on bucket to re-pitch a new batch of yeast and found happily fermenting beer with yeast flocculating happily. Huh. Guess I need a new bucket lid that doesn't leak. Primary fermentation done in 72 hours: check. Drew off a bit with sterilized spoon and tasted- great! Very dry with nice hop flavor and aroma, a good astringency that will mellow with conditioning and good medium body. Detected a fair amount of fusel alcohols that need to condition away but they will. Not sure how final brew will taste... I didn't detect much residual sweetness; maybe that will reemerge as the astringency mellows. As long as I didn't contaminate when I peeked, this should turn out well. I may use some more chocolate malt next time to add a little more body, but I'm very happy with the roasted notes the black malt is providing and the way that plays with the rather thin spiciness of Hallertau hops.

[wik] A note to my compatriots: I am a good shot and a former Boy Scout with a strong survival instinct. I will do what I can when the zombies come to make sure that we get to the Catastratorium alive and well. But I'm thinking in the long term. What good is a secret zombie- and bomb- proof bunker if you can't eat well and get hammered while you're in there?

[alsø wik] Final gravity: 1.014.

[alsø alsø wik] The beer turned out delicious... a good session beer, dry, crisp, malty, maybe a little husky thanks to too-hot steeping? Next time I might use Fuggles instead of Hallertau Mittlefrueh for finishing hops, and juuuust a few more.