Maggie Marzen - Monday, June 8, 2020
I made this style back in Oct. 31, 2018. As usual, I quit making it. I hate it when I do that as this was a real nice beer. Buying some bulk grains in July, so this and the next one will give me an idea of how much grains to buy. Re-using this yeast and doing an over build with every starter. Decided to not buy the bulk grains from Chile. They are not German grains, and they most likely won't taste like this brew.
Ingredients
5 lbs. Vienna Malt
4 lbs. Pilsner Malt
3 lbs, Munich I
8 ozs. CaraMunich I
3.4 g Carafa Special III
16.20 g Magnum at 60 min.
28.35 g Tettnanger at 20 min.
56.70 g Tettnanger at 5 min.
34-70 - Fermentis Lager - 11.5 g sachets - ( 2 )
O.G. - 1.052
F.G. -
% -
SRM - 7
BU - 27.5
Water Profile - Amber Full
PH - 5.50 - I am still going with this PH as it seems to me that when I lower it with any brew to
5.2 - 5.3, it sucks, but my Amber beers seem to be fine with a PH of 5.5.
BREW DAY NOTES
Not much to tell. The wort tasted fine, subdued sample which is good. Great srm.
PITCHED 34/70 AT 12 NOON @ 58 F. (COOLING TO 53 F)
Next Day - Nothing as of 12 noon. Started around 5 pm which is normal with most of the other
lager yeasts I have used.
June 10 - Going good. Trying to keep the temp over 12 C as per instructions. No sulphur smell yet.
June 11 - Same. No sulphur smell yet, which I always get with liquid yeast. Actually there is no
smell at all. D-rest in 2 days or so. No matter
what it is doing, a d-rest will happen. I will have to move it to the fridge before I do a ramp
up because I will definitely get suck back.
June 12 - Same, except a bit lighter in colour now. Promash deleted this brew session.
June 13 - Still going great, not slowing down, but a d rest is coming soon. Smell sulphur.
June 14 - D-rest today. Open the keezer, shut it off of course and let it rip. Done. 16 C.
June 15 - Same. 17.8 C.
June 16 - 20 C. Really slowed down and will be over in a day or so. No need to crash cool as I think
I will just bring it up, toss an air lock on it and wait for a few more days and then keg it. I do
want this crystal clear, so I will give it lots of time to clear with gelatin.
June 17 - Almost done. Brought it up to sit on the keezer until I keg it. I am not doing a ramp down as
I don't want any suck back from the air lock as I don't have any height from the carboy to
the blow off bucket.
June 18 - Still going, but should be able to slowly ramp down tonight. Try to get to 50 F, but that will
be pushing it. Whatever the temp, will keg on Monday, June 22 if you want it to be ready for
Canada Day.
KEGGED SAT, JUNE 20
I didn't want it to sit any longer in 25 C temps. Just had to get it cold. Tastes fine so far. Lots of time under gelatin which is a good thing. I had this slurry of yeast in the fridge and it froze. The fridge is freezing everything, even on the lowest setting. I have to toss it out as I really don't think it will be any good after freezing. Now, I have to use my slurry from the Conical.
ADDED GELATIN - JUNE 23
I noticed an odd smell when I added the gelatin and when I kegged it. I have never smelled that in any beer before. No idea what it is. It did taste fine though. I will know in 6 days when I transfer and carb it up. It did have a 6 day D rest though. I didn't check the gravity but I should of and will do so in all future lagers. The smell may be just the darker grains I added, but I think it wasn't enough to smell. I drew off a litre or so to see how clear it was. Getting there, but may not be as clear as I want it in 3 days from now. I do have to carb it up after I transfer to another keg. There was no funny smell at all, good.
TRANSFERRED TO A KEG
Transfer to another keg and carb up for Wed July 1st. Hope it is good, or at least okay. Done, no sampling but the keg is full. Had that smell again when I racked off the trub to a pail. It smelled bad. Not an infectious smell, just a strong, dank smell. Maybe it was all the grains I used? Unlikely, will steal a sample right now. Seems fine. It does have that Craft Beer taste which you got before Creemore Springs Lager sold out to the man. Yea, this is dam close. I think I will work on it more. Needs more hop aroma though, but through the years I have had trouble achieving that. Looking at my recipe, I think I will not do any better than that. If this beer recipe, ( not this beer, Canada Day ) gets to age, I think it will be a real nice beer, maybe even my best. Sample was taken on June 30. Not fully carbed yet. I found the beer I want to brew for now on. This and my IPA. My IPA may go to the way side when I run out of Chinook hops as I will buy an 11 lb. bale of Noble hops.
TASTE ON JULY 4
Very malty, actually too malty for me. The unique malt taste is gone and now it is a malty beer which is kind of bland, but not unpleasant, but not what I want. The next lager is still in my opinion will be bland too. I have to take my lagers right to the end and keep them cold until the last day or so and then do a d rest. I am pushing it as far as lager off flavours go but it should taste better. I am going with mostly Pils malt and some Vienna and Munich, but keep it low. SRM to 5 instead of 7. I will see how it tastes leaving the PH at 5.50 instead of 5.3 or even lower, but they all sucked. This is where I want all my beers to be - 5 to 7, mostly 5. Keeps the malt taste down as I am finding it way to malty for my tastes.
Comments