Chris's Cream Ale - Wednesday, September 21, 2022 ( Sulphur Bomb)

This yeast, ( WLP080 ) is not my usual Kolsch yeast, but it is all I had available at the moment. I have decided to brew just Kolsch style beers next year. I will over build this yeast until Xmas if I can and then hopefully I can buy some Kolsch yeast and go with that. 2 row for now but I am going to go with Pils malt when I start to brew my Kolsch. It has that spicey, Pils malt taste of course that you will never get with 2 row. I will get 2 kegs from this and will toss one upstairs in the pub fridge and CPBF the other one in the PET bottles I have never used. I will be doing this all fall and winter until I fill all of my bottles. I do have 60 Beaus bottles that I want to save for my Stouts. Like, just do it...

Even though some of my beers just don't taste right, I am still staying the course. If I go back to 75/25 I will have no PH control and that makes clearing the beer almost impossible. I will stay the course and see what happens. I am definitely going to give a lager another try and if that sucks, it will be off my list forever. 

I used my IPA water profile for this beer. I really have nothing to lose at this point. Nothing else has seemed to work. My House Dust seems to taste fine as in no odd taste so far. Not a lot of BU since it was bittered to 50, but that is alright. Maybe this water profile will bring out a normal beer. A shot in the dark for sure. My Valley Mill quit working. It has been a pain in the ass for a few years now. This time I could not get it to do anything. I bought a Malt Muncher from OBK. I will get yelled at for sure as the final cost was $224.00. Shipping and taxes was $75.00. It originally cost $139.00 and I got a base with it too. I hope my old screws work because the base doesn't come with any. Now, why not? I can't brew for a few days. I paid $48 for shipping and it is still going to take 6 days to get here because of Monday, Sept. 18 is a holiday for fucken federal workers. Bastards...

Ingredients

22 lbs. Rahr 2 row

4 ozs. Acid Malt

28.35 g German Magnum at 60 min.

103 g Hallertauer at 60 min.

WLP080 Cream Ale Blend  ( 3rd step made on Sept. 9 )

Water Profile - 4 Dog Brewery

CA - 109

MG - 21

S04 - 275

CI - 53

PH - 5.30

Mash and Boil Salts

Gyp - 11.7 g

CI - 2.7 g

Eps - 7.2 

Sparge

Lactic - .3 ml

Mash Water - 9 gal

Sparge Water - 9 gal

O.G. - 1.043  ( adjust the mill gap )

F.G. -

% - 

SRM - 3.1

BU - 46

When I make a starter tomorrow the yeast will be 107 days old. A 3 step starter will be used. Over build is included. This is a 3 step starter. I have to do it like this because of brewing around 13 gallons. I always make sure I have lots of yeast cells and then some. 

I MAKE .25 L EXTRA IN EACH STEP TO MAKE UP FOR EVAPORATION ON THE STOVE

Step 1 - 500 ml - Made a .75 L 

Step 2 - 1 L - Made a 1.25 L

Step 3 - 2 L - Made a 2.25 L

                                                           

                                                                         BREW DAY NOTES

Brew Day - Going fine so far. No disasters yet. I forgot to save a litre of this yeast for an over

                    build. That is fine as I do not like having 3 yeast strains on the go. The Thames

                    Valley is for my stouts and I guess I will make lagers until further notice.

                                               Yeast Pitched at 3 pm Sept. 21.

                                                       FERMENTATION NOTES

Day 1 - Going good. Like to get the temp down to 66 F.

Day 11 - Just back from Quebec on Sept. 30. Seems to be done with no activity showing.

               Only 9 or 10 days in so I will let it sit a week or so before racking. I can rack wine.

                                                                 STILL FERMENTING

Not sure about this. Checked it on Oct. 3 and it was still bubbling every 15 seconds. Do not keg until it is completely done. Smashed my finger closing the pool. Hope it is better to brew on Oct. 31st.

                                                                KEGGED ON OCT. 11

Taste is fine with a slight hop bite but you did use an IPA water profile... All in all so far, this seems to be okay but this water profile is only for an IPA.  No off flavours like that dreaded STALE MALT taste I have been getting since 2019 or even earlier. Still can't figure that out. Ever since I quit buying base malt not in a full bag my beers seem normal.

                                                              ADDED GELATIN ON OCT. 12

                                                              

On Oct. 16 I sampled this to see how the clarity is going and have a taste. Almost clear, not bright like my usual beers. Very light srm. The high mineral content ( IPA ) in this beer didn't seem to harm it. So? Do I do it again with the rest of the 2 row? I may just do that. I am tasting something like a yeast flavour. I did use 4 sachets of Nottingham, but that may not be the case. Not an off flavour just a flavour I noticed.

                                                       NOTES ON THIS YEAST

The sulphur/lager aftertaste will go away anywhere from 3 weeks to 2 months. I assume this will be a good beer, but I will see. However, if it is, I will use this yeast again when I have time to let it sit in a keg for a long period of time.

                                                        UPDATE ON OCT. 21

Sampled from the 2nd pop bottle and the sulphur is still here. Dammit!!. Some chill haze evident, but not much. I can't get a lot of C02 out of the pop bottles as my regulator only goes to 30 psi. A monetary decision to buy it, like everything bloody else in this screwed up world. Now to cool it down and punch it up with some C02 in the kegs. This will be around a month old and I assume it will be even cleaner to take to Dorchester.

                                                            SAMPLED ON OCT. 25

 I kind of doubt it. Seems to have permanent sulphur. Worse than before. God, I hate it. Move on and never use this yeast again. 

                                           LAST DITCH EFFORT TO SAVE THIS BEER

I am running C02 into each keg every morning and venting it. I am not carbing it up though. This is just hoping to get rid of the sulphur through venting it from the keg. I am doing this for 6 days and after that will keep or dump.

                                                               TASTE ON NOVEMBER 8

It seems to have a lower sulphur taste but it is still there. I am drinking from one keg and will let the other one sit on the floor if I need keg space. Not tossing this beer yet. Been kegged for a month now so may as well let it age and maybe it will be better by Xmas, who knows?

Drinkable beer but will not miss it when the last keg is empty.

                                                     TASTE BEFORE TOSSING ( Dec. 8 )

The sulphur taste has gone down a lot. Mixed up though with the trub as I moved it. Tossed it

in the Pub room just because I am too lazy to go outside and dump it and then clean it. You

never know, this may be a drinkable beer. Will sample in a day or two. If drinkable, serve it

on Xmas Eve or boxing day. This has been in the keg for 2 months now. I can brew and

drink lagers quicker than this. Another lesson learned. Not much in the keg, maybe one

third. 

                                                         FINAL TASTE

In fridge for a day or so and taking a sample. Dump and shut off fridge? Well, kind of still

there after 2 months. Lower than last sample. Needs some C02 though. Sometimes that

brings out more sulphur. Will sample more on Facetime tonight, but will toss it soon.

Still a shit beer, tossed.

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