Maggie Marzen, Friday August 28, 2020 - Tossed

 Maggie Marzen - Robobrew

Re-circulating Mash for 60 min.

Drinking a beer of course

Thinking on a Czech Amber lager, but could not find enough info on this style. Will keep researching and may give it a go this winter which will be mostly lagers.

Ingredients

7 lbs. Floor Malted Pils

3 lbs. Munich I

2 lbs. Vienna

1 lb. CaraMunich III

12 g Magnum - 60 min.

56.70 g Saaz at 30 min.

28.35 g Saaz at 0 min.

Escarpment Labs Isar Lager ( 3 L stepped starter,  37 days old )

Water Profile - Amber Full

PH - 5.50

O.G. - 1.048

F.G. -  1.012

% -      4.8

SRM - 8.7

BU - 27.5

I made my first good one on Oct. 31, 2018 and did a couple after that which sucked. I do think it was my yeast washing or lack of. I now do an over build of yeast which is a game changer. I need 550 billion over build cells. I am using 454 g of DME instead of 500 g which is slightly over a pound. I am still way above that so I think I am good. Having problems with the stir bar falling to the side of the flask. Usually it is the small one, now it is the longer one. I am using the small one now as it is staying in place. However, it is not doing a vortex as good as the bigger one used to.

I am going to take a few pics and a video or 2 of my brew day and after pics. May as well use my GoPro camera as I really don't use it that much. Hopefully I can upload it here as I am not very good at editing pics to this blog. 

                                          YEAST STARTER SMELLS ODD

Not sure if it is infected or supposed to smell like this. I emailed Escarpment Labs and they said the only smell may be sulphur compounds. They did say it will most likely be okay, but I am just about to add 500 ml to a mason jar for overbuild and if it does smell funky, out it goes and I will make a Marzen with US-05. I over built my starter to a 500 ml jar and they both are in the fridge cooling. It still smells funny, but no funky smell as yet. I do remember using 100% well water when I made the 1 L starter. Duh!!! I used 50/50 with the stepped up 3 L starter so we will see how it goes. I am thinking on making a Helles first because of the cheaper ingredients and if it goes south, I will either make an Octoberfest Ale or put it on hold until sometime in October. No hockey this fall until at least Xmas, so I will have lots of time to brew beer.

                                                 YEAST STARTER UPDATE

Seems okay after I did an over build and it is starting to clear in the fridge. The smell is different, but I haven't used this yeast before so I do not know what to expect. Brewing with it anyway. Game ON!!! 

Wort is cooling in the keezer so I won't know about the smell until I decant and get ready to pitch it. If it smells, toss it out and use US-05 but you have to let it warm up to ale temps.

                                                        BREW DAY NOTES

Mashed in too low. I was going to F from C and forgot about the mashing temp. It was only for a couple of minutes, I raised the mash pipe and let it get to 163 F. Took about 5 minutes, DUH!! Other than that, an uneventful brew day. Took some pics and videos for the first time to add to this blog. I found out you are only allowed 100 MB for a video. Pics only I guess, unless I lower the quality from HD to whatever, which I am not willing to do. I do have a brew day file with all the pics and videos, so all is good. I am going to take pics and videos for most things I do on brew day and after so when I get dementia, I will have something to remind of what I used to do. Cooling the wort down to 10 C at noon and going to add the yeast starter to it also so the temps will be the same.

Isar Lager pitched at 11:30 AM Saturday August 29

It smelled fine so I pitched it all and it is close to the top of the carboy. I forgot about the size of the decanted starter, duh!! I have to remember not to fill the carboy so high when I brew my Helles. I could of just poured a litre out.

Going good the next morning. Took about 28 hrs. to see a good white head on top.

                                 

August 30 - Going good. Smell of baked bread.

August 31 - Same.

Sept 1 - Same with a sulphur smell.

Day 5 - Same. No fast ferment but still keep checking and if and when it starts to slow down, shut off

             the keezer and let it rise to room temp.

Day 6 - Same. D-rest at 5 points above FG. How do I know the final gravity? I don't want to keep

             opening up the carboy to check the gravity. My hydrometer flask is bigger and I will be taking

             out too much beer and yeast of course since this is a lager. Will keep an eye on

             the bubbles to see if it is slowing down. Yes, if I think I need to do a d rest before day 10 - 12.

Day 7 - Same.

Day 8 - Slow D rest. Set at 12 C then raise to 14 C and so on until it hits 65 F.

Day 9 - Set it at 14 C. There was more trub in blow off pot this morning.

Day 10 - Set it at 16 C. Quite active now.

Day 11 - Still active. Keeping this at 16 C until done just like Escarpment Labs says.

Day 15 - Still bubbling every 3 seconds. Keg when it stops.

Day 19 - Kegging Day

                                     TASTE ON FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 17 KEGGING DAY

Nice. Better than the last one which was at Christmas a couple of years ago. It was good, but didn't have a Pils malt taste, this one does.

                                         Taste Update - Not Good  

Tasted this on Sept. 23 and it just sucks. It has a wild after taste that is very unpleasant. I am not brewing lagers anymore. Kolsch beers with WLP029. Every HB store is out of WLP029. Figures. Dumping this soon. I have the pool to finish, holes to fix and lawns to cut plus painting at Kerry's house, so I will make my AIPA which will most likely suck and wait until the bulk grain buy is here which not until Nov. 1st. I did smell something off in this yeast starter, not sure what happened. Should of tossed the starter and buy more yeast to get a good healthy start. Tossed this.