Maggie Helles - Monday, November 30, 2020
Mr. Robobrew
Brewing a lager which I really didn't want to brew at this time. No over build this time, as I am concentrating on Kolsch beers. I did buy 2 sachets of 34/70 I will use at a later date. For now. Wyeast Pils 2007 is just about ready to use.
11 lbs. GTA Pils Malt
8 ozs. Wheat Malt
4 ozs. Acid Malt
28 g Saaz at 60 min.
5 g Magnum at 60 min.
56 g Hallertauer Mittelfruh at 10 min.
Wyeast Pils 2007
Water Profile - 75/25 RO/Spring
3.75 gallons RO in mash and sparge
1.25 gallons spring in mash and sparge
O.G. - 1.052
F.G. - 1.014
% - 5
SRM - 3.4
BU - 22
I will do a fast ferment on this batch. I hope that using an aromatic malt ( which Weyermann described ) I can still get a good Pils malt taste. If not, it will be a good clean lager. These beers using this new malt are tasting just like those Polish lagers I buy at the LCBO. I would like to use the Polish hops they use if I can find them. I found them but maybe next spring or early summer. If I can keep these beers tasting fine, it will be a good summer. I assume we will still be in lock down, so may as well brew beer.
PITCHED 2007 ON TUES DEC 1
Day 2 - Started late today. Kind of slow, but it is a lager.
Day 3 - Has picked up some.
Day 4 - Krausen coming out of the blow of hose.
Day 5 - D rest today ( fast ferment ). Cool downstairs so this may take awhile. It will be lucky to get up
to 64 F, more like 63 F. It may if you account for ambient temp + fermentation.
Day 17 - Sampled and checked the gravity. Nice beer and very clean. I think this is the beer I am going
to brew primarily next year. I would like to get it a little darker with some slight notes of a
specialty malt. Not sure which one though. Victory? Whatever it is, it will be a small amount.
KEGGED ON DEC 25
GELATIN ON DEC 26
Kind of surprised at the higher final gravity ( 1.014 ) but it tastes good. Maybe I can get this ready for New Years if we are not all in Covid 19 jail for having a boxing day meal.We never had a big crowd here for boxing day. The covid fines are just too high, but the odds are quite high that we would of been okay.
Transferred to a couple of 2 L pop bottles for Dec. 31.
Taste is pretty good. Not sure if I want to keep adding a 10 min addition. I never did with the December lager, so compare beers and make a decision then. Looks like I will be using 12 ozs. of Munich malt in my next Helles in late January. Okay beer as of Jan. 3, but it needs some specialty malts to give it some sort of flavour. I will use my lager yeast I ordered for awhile, but when spring comes, well, it is all Kolsch beers.
2020 Brewing Thoughts
It wasn't a good year. I just can't brew lighter beers using brewing salts and RO water. There always seemed to be an odd taste which I just didn't like. No idea what was the cause of it. On the other hand, dark beers like my Mild tasted great and I used brewing salts along with 100% RO water. I am going with lagers in 2021 using 75% RO and 25% Spring or City water which I can use campden tablets to take out the chlorine. I am confident that I can fill this house with nice and light lagers instead of dumpers. I have 4 cases of 500 ml bottles I have never used and they are going to be filled with summer lagers. 2021? bring it on. 2020? Go to Hell and stay there.
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