Big Lou's

Too full of beer and pizza from Big Lou's to blog about the new beer. More tomorrow.

Early Brew Morning

Had to get up early this morning for the brew day.  Mrs and I are meeting friends for pizza and beer at Big Lou's later today.  Go figure.

Storage problem

In my bottles post I thought I had it covered,but I forgot something.  Where in the world am I gonna store all this beer? The Mrs and I went on a trip to Home Depot today. I'll have more once I reorganize the brew room tomorrow.

Beer Word Wednesday

I'm starting something new this week.  In order to give me buds a more clear understanding of beer terminology I plan on explain a word related to beer brewing every Wednesday.

This week's word is: Wort


Wikipedia defines it here.

My definition is a little less intense. Wort is the ingredients of beer in liquid form (kinda like a soup) before it's fermented into beer.  It's that simple.

Bottles and bottles and bottles. Oh my!

A friend of mine figured out that if I'm going to complete this goal of 52 brews in a year I'm going to need about 2,700 12 oz bottles.

Houston. We have a problem. I don't have 2,700 bottles.  I don't even have time to sing "Twenty seven hundred bottles of beer on the wall', but I do have lots of friends who drink beer.

Thanks to the generosity of my beer drinking buddies I now have a somewhat steady supply of bottles coming in. This may be due to the fact that I negotiated homebrew for bottles.  More on that in a later post. I still had to clean the bottles and strip the labels before I can use them.

Okay, a word to the breweries of the world.  What's is up with your label glue?

Some labels come off easy (thank you Sam Adams), other labels you gotta scrap to get off (Dos Equis), and yet some labels you can get off, but the glue will remain to the end of time (Heineken).

Brewery dudes. Get a grip. We will drink your beer.  But please have some mercy on the home brewers of the world. Make a label that is easy to get off. There's gotta be a happy balance between marketing and adhesiveness.

Long Brew Day

Beer number 4 of 52 and what turned out to be the longest brew day I've had so far.  From beginning to end it took over 7 hours. No bees this time. I did find out out that traditional Celtic music is great for a long brew day.  It was then the Mrs reminded me that, "...Celtic music is all about places, drinking and women..."  I'll brew to that!

Beer Nerd Stuff: 

Beer Style: 4C Schwarzbier
 
Batch Size: 5.75 Gallons

Grains:

• 6.50 lb Pilsner (1.7 SRM) 
• 2.00 lb Munich Malt I (5.6 SRM)
  
• 1.00 lbCarafa Special III (470 SRM)
  
• 0.25 lb Aromatic Malt (26 SRM)
• 0.25 lb Munich Malt 20L (20 SRM)
  

Hops:

• 0.50 oz Northern Brewer [10.60 %] (90 min)
• 0.75 oz Hallertauer [3.8 %] (90 min)
• 0.50 oz Hallertauer [3.8 %] (30 min) 
• 0.25 oz Hallertauer [3.8 %] (5 min) 

Misc:

• 0.58 oz Burton Water Salts (Mash 90 min)
  

Yeast:

• SafLager West European Lager (DCL Yeast #S-23)
  

Mash Type:

• Temperature Mash, 2 Step, Medium Body
  

OG:

• 1.047 SG

Comments:

Sparging took forever. Wort tasted so good the Mrs would have been willing to have a full glass before fermentation. Wow! First time I did a temperature mash.

Helles Bees

Munich Helles this week. I burned a rubber hose on my wort chiller this week in a most perculiar way.

It's pretty dead here in south Texas. The only things alive during the winter months are weeds and the occasional hovering insect. I think that why I was surprised to see bees.  Yes bees...and they were big honking muthas.

I was at the end of my boil about ready to start chilling the wort and then...they came.  I guess with nothing blooming my wort seemed like a delicate flower ready to be pollinated. I wasn't about to have a couple of bees ruin my wort, so I did what any self respecting beer maker would do.  I grabbed my brewpot and moved with a purpose to save my beer, at all costs. Hmmm, what's that smell?  It nothing. I have to save my beer!

The hose from the exit side of the wort chiller melted in half. Luckily, it didn't melt on me. No real harm done except for about a buck worth of rubber hose. It could have been much worse. The bees could have hurt the beer.


Beer Nerd Stuff: 

Beer Style: 1D Munich Helles
 
Batch Size: 5 Gallons

Grains:

• 8.75 lb Pilsner (1.7 SRM) 

Hops:

• 0.50 oz Hallertauer Hersbrucker [2.80 %] (60 min)
• 0.63 oz Hallertauer [4.50 %] (60 min)
• 0.50 oz Hallertauer Hersbrucker [2.80 %] (30 min)

Yeast:

• Pilsner Urqell (Wyeast Labs #2001)

Misc:

• 14 grams of Gypsum (Mash 60 min)
  
• 6 grams Epsom Salt (Mash 60 min)
  

Mash Type:

• Double Infusion

OG:

• 1.047 SG

Comments:


Good on style. I added a couple of things to try and match the water profile for Munich.

Not Feeling My German

Okay, the German Pils is turning out alright, but my venture into a Vienna Lager was somewhat of a disappointment. I did learn a couple of things though.  First, you really gotta watch your temperatures in your mash.  I didn't get all the sugars out and I believe it's because my temps were too low in the mash. I must be more patient with my beer, in both drinking it and making it.

Beer Nerd Stuff: 


Beer Style: 3A Vienna Lager
 

Batch Size: 5 Gallons


Grains:

• 5.50 lb Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM) 
• 3.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) (2.0 SRM) 
• 0.75 lb CaraMunich Malt (75.0 SRM)  
• 0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt 20L (20.0 SRM)

Hops:

• 1.38 oz Hallertauer [4.50 %] (60 min)

Yeast:

• Bavarian Lager (Wyeast Labs #2206)
  

Mash Type:

• Double Infusion

OG:

• 1.041 SG

Comments:

Temp too low at saccrification. Not enough sparge water. Both resulted in a not to style OG. Darn it. Had to brew inside today. Too cold outdoors.  The gas company is gonna love me.

I Forgot to Drink a Beer

Okay, for those of you who are following.  Anytime I make a new beer I'll be posting the beer nerd related stuff (recipe, OG, ABV, tasting notes, etc.) down below my blog post. I think it'll make for a more interesting read, plus, once you see one OG reading you've seen them all.

My lovely, wonderful, and beer loving Mrs decided to get me all grain brewing equipment this Christmas. Today was the first day I got to try it out.

First lesson...all grain brewing is time intensive especially when making your first lager.

Second lesson...when brewing on a cool day outside you will always need more hot water. Always.

Third lesson...I forgot to drink beer while I was brewing.  No really. During the creation of all my other batches I always had time for a cold one. I was so concerned on how the batch would turn out I forgot to grab a cold one. Oh, how one suffers for the arts.

Beer Nerd Stuff: 


Beer Style: 2A German Pilsner
 

Batch Size: 5 Gallons


Grains:

• 5.00 lb Lager Malt (2.0 SRM) 
• 3.30 lb Pilsner (1.7 SRM)

Hops:

• 1.00 oz Tettnang [5.10 %] (60 min)
• 1.00 oz Crystal [2.72 %] (30 min)
• 1.00 oz Crystal [2.72 %] (10 min)

Yeast:

• Pilsner Urqell (Wyeast Labs #2001)
  

Mash Type:

• Double Infusion

OG:

• 1.045 SG

Comments:

OG and IBU were spot on for the style. We'll see how everything does after the lagering.