Long Time, no Post

So, it's been a while, huh? Well, a quick update for now then back to more brewing type things. So, now that the prime competition season is over and all of my scoresheets are returned, how about some reflection. I will say I learned a ton specific to my own brewing and learned that quantity rarely trumps quality. That is to say that a few really well made beers with intent will always trump making tons of different beers. I also learned that I need start my brewing much sooner. This is evidenced by the fact that my Dunkel is just now rounding into form. The same Dunkel that started as a low 20s beer finished out with a 34 in the last competition I entered it into. It just reinforces the idea that time really does cure a lot of ills in beer.

Specific to this season, I only managed two ribbons: a second for my Duesseldorf Altbier at BABBLE and a first place for my American IPA, which was my first use of WY1272, which is the Anchor Liberty strain, I believe, a very cool strain that I plan to use more of in the future. This was a beer that I focused on using Citra & Ahtanum hops to develop a juicy layer of flavor in it.

Coming up this weekend, I'll be retaking the tasting portion of the BJCP exam in preparation of retaking the written portion of the exam next fall. This will allow me to continue to progress through the ranks and gain more clout and ability to judge at a higher level. We'll see what the future brings.

Speaking of future, my next few topics will be quite varied to reflect the different experiments and products that I have going right now/recently. I've been delving into mead and cider lately, as well as brewing syrup production as well. I've done a Belgian Dark Strong using candi syrup and will be brewing a Best Bitter using Invert No. 2 this weekend. Also this weekend, I'll be producing a triple decocted Bohemian Pilsner, for which I presently have a gallon starter going. This beer is to be entered in a competition with Pilsner Urquell for a chance to win a trip to Prague. We'll see how this goes. With that being said, I have plenty to share and will do my best to get it out!

What is the BJCP/Competition Update

So what is the BJCP? Well, it is the Beer Judge Certification Program and was basically created to interject some objectivity into beer judging by promoting beer literacy and the appreciation of real beer, and to recognize beer tasting and evaluation skills. They are also creaters of the style guide that is used by virtually all homebrew competitions in the US. I have placed their link to the right in the link list if you're interested in learning more about the program. A large number of the membership of my homebrew club, HoPS!, are currently engaged in a class with Steve McKenna for the exam in mid May. I believe that we will have 10+ members involved in the BJCP once this happens.

As for me, I'm officially up to Certified rank in the BJCP now! I 'officially' have 5.5 points on my judging record (though I am still due 2 other points, and I'll be gaining 2 more from BOSS & NHC First Round). 5 points are needed for Certified level, as well as a score of 70 or better on the BJCP Exam (which I just squeaked by without really studying).


The next available rank will be National, which requires 20 points and a score of 80 or better, followed by Master, which requires 40 points and a score of 90 or better. Grand Master (or Dungeon Master, as I like to call it) is the acme of the program, requiring 100 points, judging of at least 50 exams and serving in a service capacity for the BJCP. A score of 90 or better is also required. For every 100 points, you gain a level to your Grand Master status.

Points are gained through experience, either judging or stewarding, as well as through grading exams. Regarding judging/stewarding points, you will receive a minimum of 1pt if you judge in a competition, up to a maximum of 1.5pts per day. In order to get the .5 pts bonus, you will need to judge three flights in that day. If a competition is more than one day, you will receive at least 1 pt per day. For instance, I judged at the Upper Mississippi Mash Out over two days and received 2.5pts as I judged 3 flights the first day (1.5pts) and 2 flights the second day (2pts). Most interesting, I stayed basically sober throughout the competition because of the way in which it was ran, limiting flights to 8 beers or less if possible. I wish every comp was run so efficiently!

Now that I'm on about Competitions, a quick update. I've had all pretty decent scores, some in the thirties, some in the twenties and I picked up a second place with my Altbier at BABBLE in a combined category of Bocks & Alts. Not too shabby. Hopefully I'll have more good news in a couple weeks when I get the results from BOSS!

Munich Dunkel - A Comedy of Errors

So, another of my early beers, my Munich Dunkel, did not come out perfectly. I did several things new to this one that I haven’t done previously. This was my first formal lager (I’d only ever used California lager yeast previously) and I had a couple of issues with that, mostly because of a death in the family. This was also the first time that I’ve done multiple decoctions on a beer. For this beer, I did a double decoction. I have explained the process previously in my Duesseldorf Altbier post, so I won’t get into that here. The beer turned out okay, but it hasn’t performed as well as I’d like in competition but I think I know what I can do to fix it in the future. At any rate, here we go.
So, for this, I had the intention to use 100% Munich malt, though I did use a small cap of Carafa Special III, which is the darkest of the german dehusked coloring malts. I also only did a bittering charge of Hallertauer hops in this as well. Colorwise, this came out a touch on the lighter side, even with the color adjustment, but it’s not that huge of an issue. As I stated, I utilized a double decoction and I mashed in around 143F for a Beta-Amylase rest, which aids in breaking down the longer chain sugars into easily fermentable shorter chains such as maltose and glucose. I then pulled the decoction after ~10 minutes and raised to boiling. I generally don’t hold the temperature for long (if at all) in my decoctions because, as the temperature raises, it progresses through the saccharification temperatures and continues until the enzymes are denatured. Aside from this fact, the decoction is very thick and inefficient for conversion anyway and the mash liquor is fairly rich with enzymes for conversion once the decocted portion is returned to the mash. I boiled for 15min then returned to the mash, bringing the temperature up to the Alpha-Amylase rest temperature, around 158F. The purpose of the Alpha-Amylase rest is to continue to break down the long chain sugars at random intervals, yielding maltotriose, maltose & glucose. The former is a tri-saccharide and difficult for yeast to digest and contributes to mouthfeel, as do the limit dextrins that are produced in the conversion process. After an additional 30 minute rest, an additional decoction is pulled in order to contribute additional color and complexity and to raise the temperature to mash out temp.

One mashing is complete, and the slow runoff, the boil and chilling take place. For this beer, I made a gallon starter of yeast to ensure I had sufficient healthy yeast to ferment this beer. It’s not a large beer, but at the lower temperatures of lager fermentation, it is needed as the growth phase is slowed. By pitching a large count of healthy yeast, you ensure a healthy start to fermentation. I decanted the starter beer from the top of the slurry and pitched directly into the wort at ~50F. I maintained this temperature utilizing a swamp cooler technique involving a tub of water, a t-shirt to wick the water up the sides of the carboy and several ice packs to hold the water at the primary fermentation temp of 50F. The problem arose when I learned that my grandmother had passed and I had to make a decision. It was bitterly cold outside, so I opted to open the window in my brewing room and closed the door. Upon returning 5 days later, I found the swamp cooler system completely frozen, along with parts of the beer. Rather than throw it away, I let it thaw back down and see if the yeast was still active as the cake hadn’t frozen. As it turns out, it was still working (albeit slowly) and it finished out the beer. The main issue initially was that it was a bit diacetyl laden, which subsided after a diacetyl rest at ~66F and a long lagering period. It has steadily improved, but is far from the beer I had envisioned. I think next time I’ll better monitor the fermentation temps to ensure full yeast health and I may also change the yeast as well. I utilized the Munich Lager yeast for this, but there is something that I don’t particularly care for too much in this one. At any rate, I think the mash process was successful at least!

Beer Number 2 for 2011 - Longview Mild Ale

So, my current tendencies are leaning towards lower ABV beverages. Again, this is to improve my technical brewing. Given that these generally have less ingredients, there is more of a challenge to make full flavored and robust beers. There are a number of techniques that can be utilized, either by kettle additions, mash temperatures or grain choices.

My Second beer of the year was an English style mild, utilizing the Ringwood strain from Wyeast. I had never utilized this strain before and thought it would be a good strain to utilize in my mild ale. It is a very characterful strain, sending lots of ester notes. One of the big concerns with this strain, however, is that it is incredibly flocculant. Basically, it’s a quitter. It doesn’t like to finish or clean up after itself. It works very fast to convert sugar to alcohol and esters, but it has a tendency to not reabsorb its diacetyl. One of the main remedies for this is to continually rouse the fermenter to ensure that the yeast is driven back into suspension and that it works to reabsorb its mess, in this case the diacetyl. One small problem is that this strain has a low tolerance for reabsorbing the diacetyl. As a result, my mild does have some butterscotch notes to it, but it is far from unpleasant. In tasting, I, as well as others, have found the slight buttery note to be a welcome addition, another layer of complexity to this beer. And the yeast character is, well, interesting. Like I said, tons of esterification. And, the beer is quite bright because of the highly flocculant nature of the yeast.

So, obviously the yeast is a big component of the beer, but here are the rest of the details:

For a 6 Gallon Batch

7lbs. Maris Otter
9oz. Crystal 80L
7oz. Crystal 60L
6oz. Pale Chocolate Malt

.75oz. US Fuggles (5.1%) – 60min.
1oz. US Fuggles (5.1%) – 15min

Mashed at 155F for an hour.
OG: 1.033
FG: 1.011
ABV: 2.86%
Color: 15.4SRM

First Brew of the Year - Mein Lustig Freund Düsseldorf-style Altbier

No, I didn't just brew this beer. In fact, I technically brewed it on the last day of 2010 but I'm considering it a 2011 beer in everything but exact date. It was the start of my German beer series. It was my Düsseldorf Altbier.

I have decided recently (back in November 2010) that I was going to refocus and become a better technical brewer. This would allow to effectively get to a point where I could produce a beer exactly as I intended. The first beer to be brewed under this mantra, unfortunately, wasn't until 12/31/10. Fortunately, however, it was my altbier for which I utilized a decoction and a protein rest for the first time. In review of Dornbusch's Classic Style series book on Altbier, he states that a protein rest is imperative to get the correct mouthfeel for this beer, so I employed a rest at 122F for 15 minutes, after doughing in at 1.25qts/pound for this. I then added an infusion to raise the temp to 128F and then pulled a decoction to raise the mash to saccharification a temperature of 153F. I held the mash here for 60 minutes to achieve enzymatic conversion before mashing out.

On looking back at this beer, I feel that it actually has ample body to it, my biggest issue I have with mine is that I went high on the IBUs and hit a calculated 43.1, which didn't seem high. However, in tasting this one, the bitterness is pretty high, though not unpleasant. I'll be interested to see how this one scores. It fermented very clean with a hint of dried fruit and some pleasant hop notes from Hallertauer, though traditionally one would utilize Spalter Spalt hops for this style. There is also a pleasant bready note about the aroma as well. On tasting, there is a great malt character that really props this one up and holds it own against the assertive bitterness. A nice level of hop flavor is present. This is a very solid beer and I'm excited to get some feed back. The lagering has helped this one become more refined as well. This would seem to be a sign of good things to come for my brewing, for sure and this will have to become a staple in my rotation.

Recipe:

5lbs German Munich Malt

4lbs German Pilsner Malt

1.5lbs German Wheat Malt

.1lbs Carafa III Special Malt (for color adjustment)

3oz Hallertauer (4.1%) 90minutes

1oz Hallertauer (4.1%) at KO

Irish Moss for kettle finings

1 Quart Starter of German Ale Yeast (Wyeast 1007)

OG: 1.049

SG: 1.012

ABV: 4.82%

Fermented at 58F

A Fresh Start

So, I've tried, and failed, in the past to start blogging. I'm hoping that, at least for now, I'll be successful in keeping up to date and active. I've been brewing for about 3 years now and have slowly refined and reined in my techniques through much reading, much practice and through competitive brewing, judging and being actively involved with my home brew club, HoPS! (see the link on the side of the page for more information.)

My interest in beer goes back further, however. I made the decision early on that if I was going to drink beer, it was going to be real beer. Of course, at the time, real beer meant Guinness or Amber Bock. Funny how times change. I first learned about beer and it's variety and spleandor when I discovered ratebeer.com. I make an effort to try a vast variety of commercial beers, both good and bad, in an effort to expand my palate and to enrich my beery knowledge. At this point, I've reached a place where I'm over rarity and just want to find quality beers worth drinking. Which has led me down my road of homebrewing.

At this point, I've decided that if I want to do interesting beers, I need to know what the hell I'm doing. As a result, I've reined in my whimsy in exchange for focus on a refined and more technically proficient product. So, naturally, I've been on a German style kick lately. I'll outline my last few brew days in the near future, but for now let's just say that I'm brewing the best beer of my short brewing life right now!