|
robotsinmyhead posted:http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/192/123834/ Well it's definitely not thin (40% wheat) at the moment. As long as hot dog is on the right track is good. Im brewing this for a co worker, and i whipped up a 1 gallon recipe based on the style definition and how they described the beer and thats it.
|
#
?
Apr 29, 2016 02:18
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 8, 2024 00:57 |
|
|
Marshmallow Blue posted:Well it's definitely not thin (40% wheat) at the moment. As long as hot dog is on the right track is good. It's meant to be 100% oak smoked wheat malt iirc. Shouldn't be sour either.
|
|
#
?
Apr 29, 2016 03:11
|
|
|
wildfire1 posted:It's meant to be 100% oak smoked wheat malt iirc. Shouldn't be sour either. Mine is 60 rauch 40 white wheat (BIAB) and american wheat 1010. 25 or so IBUs or hellertau. I was skeptical that oak smoked wheat could be converted in a mash so i did the next best thing.
|
|
#
?
Apr 29, 2016 03:21
|
|
|
Rauchmalz is usually beech smoked which is different from oak smoked. I had one last time I was in Poland but I think I might have gotten a bad bottle. They're not supposed to taste like iron are they?
|
|
#
?
Apr 29, 2016 06:26
|
|
|
Marshmallow Blue posted:Mine is 60 rauch 40 white wheat (BIAB) and american wheat 1010. Why is that? It's malted grain, smoked just means it was dried over smoke not a clean source of heat.
|
|
#
?
Apr 29, 2016 06:53
|
|
|
robotsinmyhead posted:Honestly curious question - I know everyone has their opinions, but what's the deal with saisons? I've been drinking craft beer for years and it's easily in my bottom 3 of "normal" styles, if I ranked them, and avoid them full-stop unless we're just tasting beer a club meeting. It's my favorite style. I started out enjoying the archetypal examples as they are highly refreshing beers with high carbonation and a dry finish yet full of spicy yeast and an earthy/fruity complexity. Saison Dupont would be my go-to if you want to understand that expression of the style. It is surprisingly hoppy if you're new to stuff like Orval and think Belgian beers are all sweet yeast-bombs. I would not recommend Tank 7, it's too big and cloying. I'm sure it's a fine beer if you really fall in love with the yeast expression some saisons have, but in my opinion it sacrifices the refreshing aspect which is key to a good saison, and I can find saisons that are at least as complex and in your face while still retaining that. What made me stay with the style is how wide and innovative it has become. Some saison-fans hate that the style now encompasses more that just Dupont-clones, but for me I like that I can buy a saison, and get something exciting almost every time. There are hoppy saisons, sour saisons, yeasty saisons, saisons with fruit or saisons with wild, barnyardy brett characteristics. I like them all, as long as there is a dry finish, a refreshing amount of carbonation and a little complexity derived from either hops, yeast or spices. So, back to Saison Dupont. It's probably the most perfectly balanced beer I've ever had. The recipe is surprisingly simple, but when you drink it you kind of experience every facet of what makes beer so good in one glass. The 100% pilsner malt base is present, with a sweet grainy appeal as it hits your tongue, but gets out the way for the earthy and fruity yeast notes that people tend to focus on when they think saison. This is followed up with a surprising amount of spicy hops (32 IBUs, all late-hopped) that combine with the incredibly dry finish and lively carbonation for a great lingering appeal that makes you want to take another sip. No one part completely outshines the other, and no part ventures into "extreme" territory, but they are all there. This makes the beer pair perfectly with pretty much any food I can think of, and this is true for a lot of saisons. Some people liken the appeal to Champagne, and there are good beers out there that play to that impression (Goose Island Sofie / Mikkeller Nelson Sauvin Brut), but there are also good ones that shoot for complexity and funky weirdness (Fantome) or who blend the style with american wild or sour beer characteristics (pretty much every hip american microbrewery these days). Most you'll find in store shelves will either be attempts at cloning Saison Dupont, or "easy" saisons using 3711 French Saison yeast and a large amount of some citrusy hop. The latter does not really blow my mind or anything, and if you think saisons are lemon-pepper, sometimes with a hint of banana, this is pretty much guaranteed to be the ones you've had. There's a backlash against it in the craft-beer community now, but I'd still pick it over a generic pale ale or lager. thotsky fucked around with this message at 11:51 on Apr 29, 2016 |
|
#
?
Apr 29, 2016 11:42
|
|
|
robotsinmyhead posted:Honestly curious question - I know everyone has their opinions, but what's the deal with saisons? I've been drinking craft beer for years and it's easily in my bottom 3 of "normal" styles, if I ranked them, and avoid them full-stop unless we're just tasting beer a club meeting. So sours and saisons are the reason I wanted to get into brewing, if I can make a nice simple sour farmhouse and a good lightly hopped saison I will keeps kegs of them on hand to drink. I hate over hopped loving bitter IPAs. Despise them. I'm also tired of malty stouts and smoked coffee vanilla porters etc. I want a nice easy drinking beer with some good flavor. My first was st feuillien saison. I fell in love with it. It's not the best but it's my go to for buying a 6 pack. Errant Gin Monks fucked around with this message at 14:53 on Apr 29, 2016 |
|
#
?
Apr 29, 2016 14:51
|
|
|
Marshmallow Blue posted:Gratzer (smoked wheat ale) I made one late last year and it turned out great. It's essentially just the recipe from Radical Brews, but I was a big fan. Just make sure to actually use the oat smoked wheat malt. https://www.brewtoad.com/recipes/easy-gratzer-45ebde Mine did not smell like hot dogs though, I think it's to do with the smoked malts. If you can, go to your LHBS and smell them all.
|
|
#
?
Apr 29, 2016 15:09
|
|
|
So the craft beer scene is really small here in Germany, like teeny tiny. It's a pretty much completely different market than the US in general, but that's not stopping little US-style craft breweries from opening up. Sometimes it feels like Germany is going through those early wild-west days of craft microbrewing that the US went through twenty+ years ago. I just went to my local drink market and bought some beer from a tiny craft brewery about 50 miles away. Their labels are all written in Comic Sans, printed on normal printer paper that you would use at home and lovingly hand-glued by the looks of it, and their gimmick (they have a gimmick) is that all of their beers are dry-hopped. That's it, that's their claim to fame and what they're basing their entire brand on. They literally call their series "Hopfenstopfen", which is one of the German verbs for "dry hopping". Just cracked open a bottle of their standard pale ale at the train station on the way home from work and yeah, it tastes like it was brewed in someone's garage. Most definitely not a bad beer by any stretch, maybe a little watery, but they dry-hopped the gently caress out of it with Cascade (predictably). It's just interesting to me as a homebrewer to see how German craft breweries are still not very far past the homebrew stage in terms of development, it's kinda cute for a market in its infancy. And in German homebrew tradition (as it's part of the law that homebrewers have to label/record which specific "brew" or batch their beers come from so the authorities ostensibly know that you're keeping track of your legally-permitted 200 liters per year), their labels indicate which "number" that batch comes from during this specific year (114th brew, tyvm). It's adorbs.
|
|
#
?
Apr 29, 2016 15:32
|
|
|
There's a guy in our brewclub, a bit older than the average age of our members, that lived in Germany for about 8-10 years up until recently. The differences in his philosophy of beer and ours is stark. I believe he would be happy drinking Pilsners and Marzens all day and thinks our experimentation with hops and fruits are weird and unnecessary. He likes to wax nostalgic about the similarities of a lot of German beers and thinks appreciating the subtle difference between one town's beer and the next is much more exciting than the literal dozens of styles that we've brewed over the last year. Not that he's wrong. I would surely love to go to Germany and try this out for a while, but honestly, I have really no desire to brew traditional German styles on a regular basis. As an aside, this particular guy is well off (he's gotta be somewhere on the Autism spectrum, computer database kinda guy with some software company - super smart, but kinda weird) and recently bought a home/property in my small town that was the site of the first brewery here over a hundred years ago. Under the property are 2 connected vaulted 80ftx20ft chambers where they used to lager beer underground in these giant brick vats. It's really incredible stuff and he's beginning the process of fixing it up, possibly to re-open it in the future. If it goes anywhere, I will likely make a thread about it.
|
|
#
?
Apr 29, 2016 15:46
|
|
|
German brewing (and homebrewers) are ALL about mathematical accuracy in my experience. Like, to a ridiculous degree. Keeping a brew journal is normal, but these guys keep literal binders and protocols. There's also a distinct frowning on people with "sloppy" technique. As far as variety of beers that they brew though, I think it's largely similar to US homebrewers. While there are a lot of people who brew traditional German styles (particularly Weizen or Helles), I think the draw for a lot of people who are into beer is so that they brew a variety of styles that just aren't easily available here commercially. In Germany the general quality of beer is very high, but the variety is... eh. At least what you can easily get at the store.
|
|
#
?
Apr 29, 2016 16:30
|
|
|
^^^ That's true. I don't see a heck of a lot of beers like Munich dunkels floating around, which is a good portion of the reason why I brewed one a couple of months ago. It might be one of the better beers I've made in terms of quality actually. I'm also loving the hell out of the Yeast Bay's Franconian Dark Lager yeast. It is fantastic. robotsinmyhead posted:As an aside, this particular guy is well off (he's gotta be somewhere on the Autism spectrum, computer database kinda guy with some software company - super smart, but kinda weird) and recently bought a home/property in my small town that was the site of the first brewery here over a hundred years ago. Under the property are 2 connected vaulted 80ftx20ft chambers where they used to lager beer underground in these giant brick vats. It's really incredible stuff and he's beginning the process of fixing it up, possibly to re-open it in the future. If it goes anywhere, I will likely make a thread about it. That is cool as hell. I'm not one who is all that into living in a historic home, but if I had to, a former brewery would make it a lot more interesting to me. rockcity fucked around with this message at 16:35 on Apr 29, 2016 |
|
#
?
Apr 29, 2016 16:33
|
|
|
robotsinmyhead posted:Honestly curious question - I know everyone has their opinions, but what's the deal with saisons? I've been drinking craft beer for years and it's easily in my bottom 3 of "normal" styles, if I ranked them, and avoid them full-stop unless we're just tasting beer a club meeting. I think it's been discussed plenty but Saison Dupont is pretty much a perfect beer. I love that beer and there are really very few saisons that I even enjoy because nobody seems to be able to do them as well as Dupont. The only American saisons that are worthwhile to me are Firestone Walker's Opal and Ommegang's Hennepin. I personally haven't ever been able to make a saison at home, nor have I ever had a homebrewed saison, that had the right character. They are usually fine but don't quite get there.
|
|
#
?
Apr 29, 2016 16:37
|
|
|
rockcity posted:That is cool as hell. I'm not one who is all that into living in a historic home, but if I had to, a former brewery would make it a lot more interesting to me. Yeah, the house is REALLY loving cool, but it's a complete dump, minus some recently repaired places. For reference, my friend's parents lived there - literal hoarders 40 cats kinda people - and said friend had to shack up there for a few months to his poo poo together. I called it the Fight Club house because it was pretty much an exact replica of the Paper St. house in Fight Club. There was a sheet suspended above my friend's bed and dresser to keep the ceiling from caving in on it. That said, the new owner has enough money and free time to fix it up, and since he's the German-equivalent of a weeaboo and loves all things German (such as this house) he's going nuts on it and it's really cool. Hopefully his obsession will spill over into the brewery.
|
|
#
?
Apr 29, 2016 16:55
|
|
|
Getting my hands on some Wyermann Barke Malts and Equinox hops for some testing. Should be a good few brews. Doing a Maris Otter SMaSH for the Hops, and doing two identical ESBs with different brands of the same malt. Any thoughts on how a tasting panel should run on the ESBs?
|
|
#
?
Apr 29, 2016 20:22
|
|
|
Marshmallow Blue posted:Gratzer (smoked wheat ale) I have made one, and tried a few others. I love them personally. B: Absolutely! My first sip from a friends brew and I thought "Hot dogs" instantly, bun and all.
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2016 01:48
|
|
|
ScaerCroe posted:I have made one, and tried a few others. I love them personally. That second part sarcasm or no?
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2016 02:14
|
|
|
Not at all! I am not a BJCP certified judge by any means, but my palate picked up all the smokiness that one would get from BBQ some hot dogs, while the wheat in the beer served as the bun.
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2016 15:38
|
|
|
Ol good cause i wasn't joking either and it's like a hot dog. Smoked beers aren't in my wheelhouse really so i had no clue if i was on the right track.
|
|
#
?
May 1, 2016 00:33
|
|
|
Yummy Hotdog Ale.
|
|
#
?
May 1, 2016 11:19
|
|
|
Okay to the guy who said he doesn't understand saisons, I now have no idea why someone would drink hot dog water beer. So I guess I understand your question now.
|
|
#
?
May 1, 2016 16:08
|
|
|
I don't either, I'm brewing it for someone else.
|
|
#
?
May 1, 2016 17:58
|
|
|
Hot dog beer sounds truly awful, but after I loved beer with Moss and kelp, I would try one with an open mind. My beer shop buddy had to beg me to try it... It came across as a pleasant & refreshing umami taste and not like the dirty seawater I expected. http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/30437/176881/
|
|
#
?
May 1, 2016 20:01
|
|
|
Milk the Funk had a question recently about adding pineapple to a beer. I've had this sour in my keezer for a while, and it's good, but it's just kinda boring, so I took a page from that thread and doped my beer. Warmed up a can of 100% frozen pineapple juice concentrate and dumped it right into the keg. It's even murkier than before, but it tastes fantastic.
|
|
#
?
May 1, 2016 20:21
|
|
|
robotsinmyhead posted:Milk the Funk had a question recently about adding pineapple to a beer. I've had this sour in my keezer for a while, and it's good, but it's just kinda boring, so I took a page from that thread and doped my beer. I just pulled a sample of my sour saison from the soon to be keezer and using the Nelson hops there is a lot of pineapple on the nose. Not much in the actual beer. The beer itself is apply and citrusy. Not much like beer at all actually. Like a very tart Apple lemon cider. No idea why the cold changed the flavor like this but it's nice. I'm going do a gelatin clear next week and give it a few more days before kegging it. Waiting for my keezer equipment to come in. Errant Gin Monks fucked around with this message at 20:57 on May 1, 2016 |
|
#
?
May 1, 2016 20:27
|
|
|
robotsinmyhead posted:Milk the Funk had a question recently about adding pineapple to a beer. I've had this sour in my keezer for a while, and it's good, but it's just kinda boring, so I took a page from that thread and doped my beer. I had a kettle sour at a homebrew shop that had straight pineapple juice in it and it was pretty drat tasty. Not a complex sour by any means, but I gladly took a second pour of it. I'm planning to do a similar beer this summer and dry hop it with something tropical.
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2016 13:42
|
|
|
Speaking of saisons the one I brewed last week is dead I'm afraid. The first day or two it had plenty of gunk and bubbling at the top of the fermentor and now its pretty much all settled to the bottom. Every other brew I've done has always had foam at the top for a week at least it seems. Did I kill the yeast early or something or does saison yeast fade away quick?
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2016 14:26
|
|
|
Some strains are notorious for stalling. Have you taken a gravity reading yet? What temperature is it sitting at?
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2016 14:28
|
|
|
rockcity posted:Some strains are notorious for stalling. Have you taken a gravity reading yet? What temperature is it sitting at? Havent taken a gravity reading, temp is sitting at 70F. Should I try to sit it outside and let it warm up a bit and give it a good shake?
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2016 16:38
|
|
|
BaseballPCHiker posted:Havent taken a gravity reading, temp is sitting at 70F. Should I try to sit it outside and let it warm up a bit and give it a good shake? You don't need to shake it. Raising the temp will do well enough. What strain did you use? Because the other option is that it's actually done already. 3711 can be wicked fast, 3724 takes forever to finish. It's krausen will still fall and it just keeps working slowly. Mostly, just start by taking a gravity reading and see if it's finished or not.
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2016 17:18
|
|
|
Jhet posted:You don't need to shake it. Raising the temp will do well enough. What strain did you use? Because the other option is that it's actually done already. 3711 can be wicked fast, 3724 takes forever to finish. It's krausen will still fall and it just keeps working slowly. It was 3711! I'll take it out of the cooler bag and bring it up to about 74F or so and give it a while yet. It's due to sit for another week at least before I add in some orange zest. Which I may skip depending on its existing flavor.
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2016 17:40
|
|
|
Yeaaaah, 3711 is probably done if its been a week. Mine usually only show activity for like 24 hours. This is also a good reminder that air lock activity is a poor indicator of the yeasts progress  Take gravity readings!
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2016 18:05
|
|
|
I just brewed with 3724 last night and from what I'm gathering, this yeast strain *likes* temperatures in the 85-90 range?  I mean, I guess I'll heat up the ferm chamber, it's just weird to actually be targeting something that warm for once.
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2016 18:10
|
|
|
illcendiary posted:I just brewed with 3724 last night and from what I'm gathering, this yeast strain *likes* temperatures in the 85-90 range? It certainly can do well in that range. If you can get it up towards 80, you're doing fine. It'll likely finish quicker as well. That one can be sluggish, but it's worth the wait.
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2016 18:17
|
|
|
Good to hear that it's typically sluggish. I have my procedures locked down pretty well at this point, so I don't think I'd make the kinds of errors that might prevent a quick start to fermentation. I'm used to seeing bubbles the next morning after pitching, but this one's still quiet (and yes I'm aware that airlock activity isn't a good indicator).
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2016 18:35
|
|
|
Generally you want to be starting it around 70 and letting it free rise. I have had good luck wrapping the fermenter in blankets to contain the heat. Most saison yeasts are very exothermic and will take it up to 80 or so you need for the right flavors attenuation. I wouldn't start it at 80 ambient.
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2016 18:39
|
|
|
Was at the hardware store today to look for a faucet adapter for the kitchen sink so I can finally get a wort chiller. Also was checking out their pipe fittings to see if they have everything I'll need to convert a cooler into a mash tun -- which they do! Except the cooler, that is. So I'll have to keep looking for that, but it can wait a bit anyway. On the topic of converting a cooler to a mash tun... how big of a cooler will I need (in liters) in order to be able to do the mash for a 23 liter (5 gallon) batch of beer? My brew kettle is only 20 liters right now since I have to brew on my stovetop in the kitchen, so I've been doing 13 liter batches (I've hosed up partial boils before so I don't really care for the idea of doing those again for awhile until I work up more homebrewing experience). This is totally fine for now, but if I go through the trouble of buying and converting a cooler, I'd like to have one that is 1.) big enough to handle full-boil 23 liter/5 gallon batches when I am eventually able to graduate to that level, and 2.) is big enough that I can stick bottles in there for safe storage when I'm conditioning beer. I'm sorta deathly afraid of bottle bombs, so I imagine a closed cooler is probably one of the safer places you could put them.
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2016 18:50
|
|
|
You generally need a cooler with about double the volume of your batch if you want to be able to brew high gravity beers.
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2016 19:07
|
|
|
internet celebrity posted:You generally need a cooler with about double the volume of your batch if you want to be able to brew high gravity beers. Seconding this. Find something at least 40 liters. I do 5 gallon batches in a 10 gallon cooler. I did an imperial stout that I had all the way up to the top last year. It was 25 lbs of grain if I remember correctly.
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2016 19:23
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 8, 2024 00:57 |
|
|
rockcity posted:I do 5 gallon batches in a 10 gallon cooler. I did an imperial stout that I had all the way up to the top last year. It was 25 lbs of grain if I remember correctly. For mild beers, I use a 15-gallon tun to do 15-gallon batches. This includes my house pale ale, which I did on Saturday, getting an OG of 1.043. For "normal-strength" beers, I can do 10 gallons in a 15-gallon tun. This includes everything up to about 1.065 or so, or about 30 pounds of grain. I can also do 5 gallon batches of high-gravity beers in the 15 gallon tun, collecting 12ish gallons of runnings and boiling it down. Delicious barleywine this way. For strong beers, I swap my vessels around to make the 22 gallon pot into the mashtun. I mashed 55 pounds of grain in there a while ago, and did ten gallons of barleywine from first runnings and then ten of IPA from second runnings.
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2016 19:34
|
|
