Maggie Helles - Friday, January 21, 2022

Mr. Robobrew

Checked my posts about Helles Lagers and I made this recipe a year ago or so. It turned out very good according to my notes. I have to give more detail on every brew especially brewing salts and lactic acid or acid malt used. A new year means to brew great beer. This water profile seemed to brew a good beer and I will give it a shot. I may go back to 75/25, but not yet.

One Of Many Dog Walking Trails

Ingredients

11 lbs. Weyermann Pils Malt

10.40 ozs. Carafoam

8.30 ozs. Wheat

8 ozs. Acid Malt

61.50 g Hallertauer at 60 min.

55 g Hallertauer at 5 min.

Escarpment Labs Biergarten ( Oct. 7 2021 )

1 L starter to a 3 L starter. ( done and in fridge on Jan. 17 )

                                                      Yeast Starter

I don't know how old my yeast is yet, ( Oct. 7 ) but will do a 1 L starter and go from there. I have a 500 ml, 1000 ml and a 5000 ml flask. May as well start to use them all. I just have to maintain a high level of sanitation with 2 steps or more. Most likely will do a 1 L up to a 3 L starter just to make sure I have lots.

Older than I wanted, but can still deal with it. Just brew day delayed a bit. Made a 3.25 L starter on Jan. 15. Should be able to brew on Friday, Jan. 21. The starter took off rather quickly, almost before my eyes.

                                              YES, BREW DAY IS ON FOR JAN. 21.

O.G. - 1.050

F.G. -  1.008

% -      5.47

SRM - 3.4

BU - 23

Water Profile - German Brewing Water on the internet.

CA - 22

MG - 8

S04 - 31

CI - 39

PH - 5.31

MASH - Calcium Chloride - 1.3 grams

               Epsom salts - 1.7 grams

BOIL  - Calcium Chloride - 1.1 grams

              Epsom salts - 1.5 grams

ADDED BOIL SALTS 10 MINUTES AFTER THE BOIL STARTED, FORGOT.

                                                 FERMENTATION SCHEDULE

10 C for 5 days

13 C for 2 days - ( set temp at 13 C on Sat. Jan 29 at 8:30 am. )

17 C for 1 day

19 C until there is no activity at all which takes anywhere from 4 to 10 days.

Ramp down 2 C once a day until you get to 5 C. Takes 7 - 8 days.

This will take you 3 weeks or so to do and then go ahead and keg it.

                                              ADDED OXYGEN ON SAT JAN 22

                                              PITCHED YEAST ON SAT JAN 22 - ( 8:30 AM )

                                                                        NOTES

The fridge temp controller isn't really that accurate. Set it for 10 C and the strip is reading 54 F. I just have to lower the temp in stages until the strip reads 50 F.

                                             

                                                  FERMENTATION NOTES

36 hours after pitching yeast I saw activity in the carboy.

Monday, Jan. 24 - Normal activity for a lager. 50 F - 52 F. Set it at 13 C late this Friday night.

January 25 - Same, chugging along slowly.

January 26 - Same, perhaps slower for some reason. 

Feb. 6 - In the fridge that is not turned on. Will keg soon because I need the carboy.

                                                      STANDARD RAMP UP IN PROGESS

Took a sample to see if I have popcorn, corn taste, or any other idiot lager off taste. Most of it is gone, but not 100%. Still bubbling away but slowly so should be gone by the time it is absolutely stopped fermenting. Will let it sit as long as it wants. This is April beer. I have one more to brew and not sure if I am going to brew another one after that. I have way too much hops I need to use up for my IPA's. I am leaving this to age a bit before kegging. I will have 2 carboys available around Feb. 12 or so when I bottle the wine.

                                                      KEG ON FEB 12

Taste on kegging day - Tastes pretty good. Nice, Pils malt taste, kind of sweet for an .08 FG beer. Very low hop bitterness for a 23 bu beer. This does need some more hops.

                                                          Sampled on Feb. 28

Good beer, no lager off flavours which is everything. Good noble hop spiciness and aroma. Needs Munich I which I added to my Czech Mate. I can make another lager in a few days when my starter is done, but at this stage not sure what recipe to use. Repeat this one? May as well I guess.