Maggie Helles - Sunday, May 7, 2023

I want to get in another brew before baseball starts. Hopefully I figured out the correct amount of mash water for Mr. Robobrew. You still need to take a look at the pump inside it to see if there are some foreign materials inside it like the pics I have see on the internet. Clean the Robobrew valve or at least take a look at it. I took it apart and it did have some hop sludge in it. The lower white valve ring was damaged. Seems if you don't get it in just right, it drags on the ss ball and warps or gets some marks on it. I had to hammer it in to use it. I will try to order a few more but have never seen one online. Cannot find one in Canada. Gee, a surprise there.

                                                                 WLP830

I should never of used this yeast. Sulphur bomb. I read about it and thought I could do an early D rest. I did and it still has sulphur. Brewing Kolsch now. I will give Nova Lager yeast a try though. Lallamand claims that if you ferment at 54F, you will NOT get a lot of sulphur. They still recommend a D rest and I will do one if I use it. I have decided to let this lager sit in the carboy until July. May as well do it as a precaution for sulphur reduction. Keg it July 1st and go from there. I don't need the carboy at all.

Ingredients

11 lbs. Pils Malt

6 ozs. Munich I

6 ozs. Vienna

45 g Hallertauer at 60 min.

WLP830 German Lager ( made a one step starter on May 1st )

Mash Water - 5.75 gallons

Sparge Water - 5.00 gallons

Water Profile - 4 Dog Brewery

CA - 21

MG - 8

S04 - 31

CI - 39

Mash

Eps - 1.7 g

CI - 1.3 g

Lactic Acid - 3 ml

Sparge 

Lactic Acid - .2 ml

Boil

Eps - 1.5 g

CI - 1.1 g

O.G. - 1.046

F.G. -  1.008

% -   5

SRM - 4.4

BU - 20

                                                                  BREW NOTES

Starter done on May 3. Saved a litre to a mason jar. Did some research on WLP830 and yes, it does throw a ton of sulphur when fermenting and even the starter. This is normal for this yeast. The resulting beer is quite good as the same people quoted after the beer was kegged and served. Age future batches more than this one. Mashing in now. It seems to be working pretty good. The mash level has not risen at all. So, never adjust the mill. Make one beer only and I hope this is it. I noticed a lot of trub unless it was just clearer than usual in Mr. Robobrew. A normal brew day, no screw ups so far.

Well, there was one screw up. I noticed around the 4 gallon mark the wort from the boiler to the carboy was not clear anymore. I filled it up and started to clean up. The lower screen was ajar. Now, was it my circulating to clear it or was it the fine screen that had the gasket on it acted like a kind of suction and when I lifted up the malt pipe it made it go ajar. No idea. I think I will stop using the gasket for the next brew and see how it goes. Of course I will be more gentle when I circulate the wort just before leaving it for 45 minutes to clear. There is like 4 inches of trub in the carboy that should not be there. Hope it doesn't alter the flavour or I will be just pissed. I saw around 2 inches of trub. Someone on the beer forums had 3 inches of trub and said the beer was fine. I will see...

                                                                WLP830 AT 8:30 

Next Day - Pitched yeast at 8:30 AM.

Day 1 - Off to a slow start but I think it will get going. Remember this is a lager and a slow start does 

             not mean I under pitched. I did pitch at 50 F even though the strip said 52 F. This strip is

             not accurate. I need to buy a better one from the wine store. I can't trust the STC1000. It

             needs re-calibration.

Day 2 - Going good on May 10. Slow and steady. 54F. No fart smells yet. On Monday, May 15

             I will start the d rest but this time I will do a slow ramp up because I have lots of time

             to do it because my next brew isn't until around June 11. That is using the Conical.

Day 3 - May 11. Even though I made beer 4 - 5 days ago, I start my actual fast ferment days

             when I see activity in the fermenter. Still going good. However, the temp strip is all

             over the place. 54F down to 50F. No matter, 50F is pretty well where I want it.

Day 4 - Same. The controller is not 2F -+. It is 4F. But that is okay since I fermented the 

             previous Helles and it is good, so leave it and walk away.

Day 5 - Same. No fart smells yet. The trub is swooshing around and I don't see a lot of bubbling.

             No big deal, d rest on day 6.

Day 6 - See below.

                                                       DAY 6 - May 14 ( ramp up )

First thing you do is to remove the temp probe and tape it to the inside wall.

Set temp to 13 C for 12 hours.

Set temp to 15 C for 12 hours

Set temp to 18 C for 12 hours

Set temp to 19 C for 12 hours

If it is too cold down there you may have to move it upstairs so it can get to 68F. Do not let it

get too warm though. We are having cool nights and warm days at the moment. Once it gets to

66F, leave it there until it is completely done.

                                                          RAMP DOWN

When it is completely done, do the opposite of the ramp up. 5F to 8F every 12 hours until it gets down to 5C to 7C. Watch for suck back in the blow off hose. You can let it sit longer if you don't need the carboy for anything. It doesn't have to sit for 3 weeks like a regular lager as this is a fast ferment. Keg and clear. Hopefully when June gets here it will be easy to do this as you will be using the Conical and it can't be moved. Remember when we are going to Nashville, you can't do any of this so do the math and maybe you can get another one in and just let it sit in the conical at low temps which will be just fine.

                                                               TOO COLD DOWNSTAIRS

I could not get it to 66 F. Just too cool. Had to move it. Moved it. Now it is at 68F and I indeed smell beer farts which is a good thing. Letting it finish. Heat on in the sump pump room and it is now at 68F. Still bubbling away about every 15 seconds. ( May 17 ). Frost here now. Glad I turned the heat on in the beer room. First time ever having the fireplace on this late in May. Gotta love global warming... Nothing has changed since yesterday. Keg on day 18.

                                                     AVOIDING SULPHUR

Incase I get sulphur in this beer like the last one, do not keg this beer too early. Let it sit even though there is no activity in the air lock. Let it go at least 3 weeks, maybe longer. I got some sulphur, not a lot compared to what I have read online and seen on You Tube. However, some sulphur is too much. This d rest was on day 6. I think it should of been earlier, like day 4. I do remember my Creemore Springs clone beer and it was absolutely flawless, no off flavours at all. Need to get back to making lagers like that. 

                                                        MOVED THIS TO THE SHOWER ROOM

There is some activity in the air lock. No hurry to keg this as I want it to ferment out fully and hopefully blow out all sulphur compounds. My last lager and if I ever do another one, it won't include WLP830. I should of paid more attention to the reviews of this yeast being a sulphur bomb. WLP833 never, ever had sulphur. Learned something here. Kolsch beers are way easier to ferment and if fermented cool, they are almost as good as a lager.

                                                       STILL SOME ACTIVITY ON JUNE 2ND

Leaving this in the shower room until July 1st. Keg it and give it a good taste. If sulphur is present, dump the shit as it will never ever get any better and move on to your Kolsch beers. Looks like I am moving on to Kolsch beers anyway, so just forget about these 2 beers as a lesson learned...

                                                 SAMPLED ON JUNE 6

Noticed the air lock needed topping up, so I am going to sample it to see how the sulphur is doing. Still letting it sit for awhile because Frank brought over 60 cans of Coors Light from Quebec so I there is not a hurry to keg this. 

                                                             NO SULPHUR BUT...

Now to let it sit longer until the hot weather comes and then keg it, clear it and carb it. Not sure what I will do with it though. Should save it for July 28. I may CPBF it in the plastic bottles I have never used. Put them in the fridge. Kegged on June 9. Not sure about this beer. Should be drinkable but definitely not to my liking. Maybe the gelatin will pull something out but it didn't on the sulphur bomb before this one. Last lager so let sleeping dogs lie. I did notice a sulphur smell when I kegged this. Will sample after gelatin and see how bad it is then. No use carbing it up and then tossing it out. Carb up a 2 L pop bottle and try that. If too much sulphur, toss it and finally move on.

               WHEN RACKING OFF THE GELATIN, TOSS SOME IN PET BOTTLES. 

               LET THIS KEG SIT IN THE FRIDGE FOR AWHILE IT MAY IMPROVE

This is as good as it gets. No as much sulphur or dms, or whatever the last one had, but, still has something in it that shouldn't be. Moved it down stairs and carbing it up just to not get into the last of the Coors Light because I live with a booze cop.

                                   MOST LIKELY MY LAST LAGER I AM MAKING

I will be making a variation of British styles of beer this winter and into 2024. Not sure what yeast

I am going to use though. Whatever Escarpment Labs sells I will buy. I do like the English IPA.