Maggie Helles - Monday, April 20, 2020
Going to re-use my Biergarten yeast again and this will be the last time. Been using it since last August. I think I did good with this yeast, saved a ton of $$$. Using my spare German hops I had in the freezer. Will taste different, but hopefully good. The wort did taste good. Actually it was close to Pils malt. I realize it may not taste like Weyermann Pils Malt, but seems to be way better than any 2 row from Canada as of yet. This brew will let me know what is going on with my usage of Nottingham Super yeast brews. All of them had a funny taste which is unpleasant to me. I will use US-05 for my Mild just to be sure.
Ingredients
13 lbs. Proximity Malt
8.5 g German Magnum at 60 min.
28.35 g of Hallertauer Hersbrucker at 60 min.
Slurry of Biergarten Lager Yeast ( Escarpment Labs )
Water Profile - German Brewing Recipes ( Braukaiser )
PH - 5.30
CA - 21
S04 - 31
CI - 39
Mash
CI - 1.2 g
EPS - 1.7 g
Sparge
CI - 1 g
EPS - 1.4 g
Lactic - Mash - 3.5 ml
Lactic - Sparge - .4 ml
O.G. - 1.044 ( 73% )
F.G. -
% -
SRM - 3.5
BU - 19
BREW DAY NOTES
No problems today. My last brew with this malt, maybe. Depends on how long the Covid 19 lasts.
Wort tastes fine.
PITCHED YEAST ON TUES APRIL 21 @ 11 AM
April 22 - Not much activity yet. I didn't leave the yeast at room temp for very long. This slurry had
more black dots of something in it than the last Helles. So I assume it is not as clean, but
using it anyway. It did smell great though. Dumping it out after this is done.
April 23 - Going good, started last night. Took over 24 hours to get going. I am going to let this go
toward the end and do a quick D rest which is a standard German practice.
April 24 - Not as strong as yesterday, but will let it go as long as it needs to.
April 25 - D - rest. May as well do it, last one has a bit of sulphur or something. I did wait until day 7
to do a rest, so get r done now.
April 26 - Still going, but slowing down. Will be a few more days and then ramp down 1 C a day.
April 29 - Done or almost done. Will ramp down 1 C every 12 hours. Watch the water from the
hose creeping up toward the fermentor.
YES, IT IS THIS BLOODY PROXIMITY MALT
Just sampled my lager which I am ramping down the temp. Yup, same unpleasant taste which all the rest had. Now I know it isn't the Nottingham Super yeast. Tossing the rest of the bag out along with this batch. I got had. Either bad malt, or out of date. I am moving on and not buying anything from any store except OBK and maybe TB if they can get their shipping times fixed.
NOT TOSSING THIS OUT YET
Will keg it on May 4th. This is all the beer I have, so may as well keg it and clear it to see how bad it really is. This is brew 5 with this malt and they all taste like a stale cracker. I assume this malt is too old. No more buying off this store again. Do not substitute a bag of malt without asking me first.
TASTE ON MAY 4
I forgot I deleted this brew session in Promash. I did the same to the other ones too. Basically 2 for 5 so far. I have 10 lbs. of Proximity malt left and I really should dump them. TB has my paid order since April 23 and still hasn't shipped it. OBK has shipped 2 orders in that same time. Guess who I am ordering from in the future? It is not as bad as the other beers, but definitely is there. Carbing up will only magnify it. It does have the same taste as the other beers, so I just assume it is stale malt. Will toss out the malt, but not this beer yet.
Ingredients
13 lbs. Proximity Malt
8.5 g German Magnum at 60 min.
28.35 g of Hallertauer Hersbrucker at 60 min.
Slurry of Biergarten Lager Yeast ( Escarpment Labs )
Water Profile - German Brewing Recipes ( Braukaiser )
PH - 5.30
CA - 21
S04 - 31
CI - 39
Mash
CI - 1.2 g
EPS - 1.7 g
Sparge
CI - 1 g
EPS - 1.4 g
Lactic - Mash - 3.5 ml
Lactic - Sparge - .4 ml
O.G. - 1.044 ( 73% )
F.G. -
% -
SRM - 3.5
BU - 19
BREW DAY NOTES
No problems today. My last brew with this malt, maybe. Depends on how long the Covid 19 lasts.
Wort tastes fine.
PITCHED YEAST ON TUES APRIL 21 @ 11 AM
April 22 - Not much activity yet. I didn't leave the yeast at room temp for very long. This slurry had
more black dots of something in it than the last Helles. So I assume it is not as clean, but
using it anyway. It did smell great though. Dumping it out after this is done.
April 23 - Going good, started last night. Took over 24 hours to get going. I am going to let this go
toward the end and do a quick D rest which is a standard German practice.
April 24 - Not as strong as yesterday, but will let it go as long as it needs to.
April 25 - D - rest. May as well do it, last one has a bit of sulphur or something. I did wait until day 7
to do a rest, so get r done now.
April 26 - Still going, but slowing down. Will be a few more days and then ramp down 1 C a day.
April 29 - Done or almost done. Will ramp down 1 C every 12 hours. Watch the water from the
hose creeping up toward the fermentor.
YES, IT IS THIS BLOODY PROXIMITY MALT
Just sampled my lager which I am ramping down the temp. Yup, same unpleasant taste which all the rest had. Now I know it isn't the Nottingham Super yeast. Tossing the rest of the bag out along with this batch. I got had. Either bad malt, or out of date. I am moving on and not buying anything from any store except OBK and maybe TB if they can get their shipping times fixed.
NOT TOSSING THIS OUT YET
Will keg it on May 4th. This is all the beer I have, so may as well keg it and clear it to see how bad it really is. This is brew 5 with this malt and they all taste like a stale cracker. I assume this malt is too old. No more buying off this store again. Do not substitute a bag of malt without asking me first.
TASTE ON MAY 4
I forgot I deleted this brew session in Promash. I did the same to the other ones too. Basically 2 for 5 so far. I have 10 lbs. of Proximity malt left and I really should dump them. TB has my paid order since April 23 and still hasn't shipped it. OBK has shipped 2 orders in that same time. Guess who I am ordering from in the future? It is not as bad as the other beers, but definitely is there. Carbing up will only magnify it. It does have the same taste as the other beers, so I just assume it is stale malt. Will toss out the malt, but not this beer yet.
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