Maggie Helles - Monday, June 24, 2024 - Conical -
I really need to get this going as soon as possible. My back right now ( June 11 ) is stopping
me from brewing right now. Yeast is ready, malt is ready, I am not. Going to physio in 6 days
so if this even starts to get better before then, I may get this brew in. Of course I can't do
any stupid lifting to make it worse, but if it is better I can lift kegs to clean them on the deck.
With the temp in the 30's, thunderstorms are a factor. Looks like the 19th and 21st are
storm days. Thursday is just hot, so that is brew day. Get the kegs out and into the garage
somehow and you can go ahead with your brew day.
Ingredients
22 lbs. Weyermann Pils Malt
1 lb. Munich I
20 grams Magnum @ 60 min.
85 grams Hallertau @ 60 min.
Escarpment Labs Premium Pilsner
*STARTER TOOK EXACTLY 24 HOURS TO GET GOING *
CHANGE OF PLANS
I decided to combine the starter and the over build into one brew. This will give me
enough cells to do the job. I did buy some Kolsch yeast and that will be the
brew I really want to make after this one. Gives me 2 chances to screw up.
I had big problems with foam almost spewing out of the 5 L flask which was a first.
I used around 14 drops of no foam to stop it from rising up and out of the flask. I
think unfortunately a 3 step starter will be not as foamy in the 5 L flask. At least
it will have more head space to work with. But that won't happen at the moment
cause I am switching to Kolsch beers. Now, if this miraculously turns out great, I
will wash the yeast and maybe do another one.
Make your 1st step starter on May 30. You will need a 2 step starter for sure.
Make sure the starters are completely finished. You have lots of time to do this.
It is really slow to get going. 12 hours later and no action. I see a tiny bit of foam
floating on the top. Research says to be patient because some yeast or older yeast
can take up to 3 days to get going. I have had yeast that takes that long but that
was in the carboy. Nothing to do but wait. The temp is only 64F, so that is a factor
also. Seems to be working now. Later on in the day I did get a big foamy head on
top of it. So it did work. June 1st - Foam is still there but no bubbles coming up
from the bottom. I will toss it in the fridge and decant when it has cleared and go
ahead with starter #2.
Make a 2.25 L starter. Use 227 grams of DME. = 2 L starter.
Make a 5.25 L starter. Use 504 grams of DME. = 5 L starter.
The evaporation from the boil is included in the amounts.
Basically fill up your 1000 ml mason jar from your well shaken starter wort for an over build.
After doing some more reading on starters, I am in the future going to make a lager
starter 2.25 times the size of an ale starter. BF doesn't go that high. HB Dad doesn't let
me do it my way so I can easily do it with BF but manually. No problem. It will be a
3 step starter unfortunately. Just go low at first and ramp up as high as you can. Do
not go with a 5 L starter as the foam will shoot up and out of the flask. This will be
much easier with Mr. Robobrew because the starter is 50% smaller.
When you save your slurry, do exactly the same thing as above if you have 50 B cells.
To eliminate the foam a bit you will have to make a 3 step starter with smaller amounts
of water. May work and may not, give it a try. I have never had a foam problem like this
before. Crazy... I used only tap water so that may be why. I used to go with 50/50 RO/Tap
water but decided to use just well water. No reason. Maybe it has more minerals in it
compared to 50/50. Dunno...
Starter #1 done. Tossed in fridge on June 1st.
Starter #2 made on June 4. Done.
Removed 1000ml for my over build on June 6.
The jug was almost full with a litre of starter removed. So I guess the jug is roughly around
1 metric gallon. Worked out good except for all of the star san foam in the jug. I am not
buying any more DME. I have the Rahr grains to make my own starter wort. It is only
50% cheaper than DME, but once I get the calculations down I can get this done more
quickly. Besides, I can use my old mashing system which I have hung onto for many years.
I checked my over build site and I am short 500 ml in my Conical starter. The 1 gallon jug
is not big enough to hold 4.5 L of starter wort. Therefore, I need to keep the Conical
starter in my 5 L flask which technically is over 5.5 L. I can just toss in the over build which
is in the fridge, but I am not making beer in the Conical thanks to my god dam back. I am
screwed at the moment. I can't smoke meat either. I can't do fuck all. If I wait and pitch all
of my yeast ( 2 jars ) I will just have enough yeast cells to do the job. I may wash this yeast
if I feel like making it again. I am making this beer whether my back is screwed or not. I
have to get my kegs out to the garage somehow and after that I can go ahead and get in
a brew day. I can roll them out to the deck for cleaning. Rain 2 days in a row so brew day
is now on the 24th. No matter how my back is, I am brewing on the 24th.
O.G. - 1.046
F.G. - 1.010
% - 4.7
SRM - 3.4
BU - 22
Water Profile
4 Dog Brewery
CA - 21
MG - 8
S04 -31
CI -39
PH - 5.30
Mash and Boil
CI - 2.2 g
Eps - 3 g
Lactic in Mash - 6.1 ml
Lactic in Sparge - .4 ml
Mash Volume - 10 gallons
Sparge Volume - 10 gallons
Fermentation Schedule
10C for 5 days ( this old fridge struggles to get to 50F. 52F here. )
June 30 - It slowed down a lot so I just did the Brulosophy lager method.
Set it for 17C ( 5F from where it was for 12 hours ) It is 56F.
Check temp. If it is at 62F +- set it for 5F higher. That will
take you to room temp. Get it to 66F and no higher. May have
to cool it more. Fine.
July 1st - Check temp and adjust if needed to get it at 66F. Leave it there
until done. I have always smelled sulphur at this stage and have
not smelled any sulphur yet. Of course I have never used this
yeast before. Very impressed so far. Hope it tastes wonderful...
Checked it this morning and it is still going fine. No sulphur
smell yet which is odd. Nothing I can do but to let it finish.
July 2 - Slowing down slightly. I think it is doing fine. Stay the course.
When Done: No activity - Ramp down 2F a day says Nate Ferguson ( Escarpment Labs )
He says to get it to 37F. Not sure this old fridge will do that. If not, go as low
as possible. Remember, you won't have your Kolsch ready for Sloszars, so don't
worry about this taking longer than usual. I have to get this right for a change.
Ramp up 3F every 12 hours until it reaches 66F. Takes awhile so don't rush it.
Leave it there until all activity is gone. After that, begin your ramp down. That
is when you swap your bucket with a jar of sanitizer. Watch the level in the hose.
You can use an air lock and burp the pressure relief valve a lot. I don't think it will
hurt anything, but ask the MOB first. There should be a layer of C02 over the beer
to help protect it from 02.
David Heath lagers his Helles for 4 weeks before kegging. I can't do that with the Conical
as I want to move on to a Kolsch. Keg it after a week or maybe longer, depending on
what you want to do. I will taste it along the way after it clears and make a decision then.
After the last day, start to slowly crash cool it. 3C at a time. Watch the level in the blow off hose.
Should take a few days and then get ready to keg and add gelatin on kegging day. A week later, transfer to another keg and lager it until August 8th.
I am doing everything I can with this to get a decent lager. This is definitely a beer to brew in the summer because of the fermentation schedule. May the beer gods be with me.
ESCARPMENT LABS SAYS TO BOIL THE WORT FOR 90 MIN. TO GET RID OF SMM.
I DIDN'T BUT WILL NEXT TIME I MAKE A LAGER
Brew Day - No disasters yet. Did forget to drain the mash tun before taking the grains out.
Other than than minor detail, got some perfect weather to brew. In the Conical
at 11:30. Basic cleaning after that. Have to watch suck back from the blow off hose.
It has 20F to go. Checking it every hour. Not sure when I go to bed. No suck back.
* REMEMBER NEXT TIME THE 1 GALLON JUG OF YEAST CANNOT BE USED TO
POUR INTO THE CONICAL AS THERE ISN'T ENOUGH HEAD SPACE *
Day 1 - Pitched yeast at 10.00 am on June 25. Temp - 10.2 C. I aerated with 02 for 4 min.
Day 2 - No activity yet. Not unusual. Makes me nervous though. Hate it when I get lag time.
Yea!! Started to see some activity at 11 am. Good. Still though, not a lot of activity
at all. Just started. Patience grass hopper... Checked at midnight and it is going good.
That took 38 hours to get this far.
See above for more fermentation day by day procedures.
Still letting it sit at 66F or close to it. These old temp controllers are not as accurate as they
used to be. Still using the temp strips. I will be glad when I start brewing my Kolsch beers
as I can set it and forget it.
RAMP DOWN
I have to check this often to see if there is any suck back. The hose is kind of yellow like
and hard to see in it. Toss is out when this is done.
July 6 - 1C - 17C
July 7 - 1C - 16C
July 8 - 2C - 14C
July 9 - 1C - 13C
July 10 - 1C - 12C
July 11 - 1 C - 11C
July 12 - 1 C - 10C
July 13 - 1C - 9C
July 14 - 1C - 8C
July 15 - 1C - 7C - This is where I stop. This old fridge struggles to get this far.
Keg on July 16. I can't keg it any earlier as I will be busy with Chris's Rib Fest
and clean up after that. No hurry as this is Les Beer for the Aug. 8th weekend.
I am sanitizing kegs now ( July 8 ) to make sure they don't leak and lose very
expensive C02.
RAMP DOWN TO 13C.
I only went to 13 ( 56F ). I didn't want to risk suck back. I do hear the odd blurp
the odd time so it is still working. Hope my diacetyl is gone. This way the yeast
still work at this temp so it should be gone cause it has had lots of time to finish.
Kegging on Tuesday, July 16.
KEGGED ON JULY 16
It has diacetyl after it sat in my cup for an hour when I was kegging it. Dammit!!
I hope to condition it for awhile but 3 weeks may not be long enough. I did
everything I was supposed to do and it did get down to 1.010. Shit. Oh well,
shit ribs, shit beer and shit pool. What a loser I am. 0 for 3. I should of made a
Kolsch. Now I can't brew for a month because we are going camping. So, no
beer for Les on Aug. 9th. That is the worst part. God, why do I make the wrong
decision. Kolsch beers for now on. My yeast starter is not ready yet. I may
though hurry it along.
I installed blow off hoses to both kegs and put them on the bench. Quite warm
down there to maybe do a D rest. This is a long shot, but I have nothing to lose.
This will be a dumper if I do nothing. Thank the beer gods that this is my last lager.
Checked them the mext morning and they both are bubbling away, but slow. I was
thinking on buying some nova lager yeast but not sure if there is any residual
sugar left to ferment. I don't want it to get too low, but on the other hand, doing
nothing will result in dumping it.
HOMEBREW TALK FORUM
I asked what to do and one of the long time brewers said to just let it do it's thing for
as long as it takes to get rid of the diacetyl. I definitely have time for it to do it's thing.
However, I was quite surprised to see activity in the pot. I just did it as a last resort.
If I ever make a lager again, ( which I don't plan on doing ) I will use Nova Lager Yeast.
I will go with 2 sachets using Mr. Robobrew. If just a wonderful lager, I will save the
yeast and go with a Conical brew. I would love to just brew one that is a real good lager.
UPDATE - JULY 22
Checked the activity and one keg is still fermenting slowly. The other one seems to be
done. Still, I will hook up my C02 near the end of July and take a sample to see if the
dreaded diacetyl is gone. If not, leave it there or do some more research on what to do
with it. No use tossing them in the fridge because that won't help get rid of it at all.
UPDATE - JULY 29
The bubbling has stopped while we were away camping. I will give it a taste test on
July 30 and go from there. May just transfer to another keg and add gelatin for a
week or so and give it another taste test before carbing up.
UPDATE - JULY 30
It worked. No diacetyl detected. The beer was warm though, on the floor. I put them
in the fridge and will add gelatin tomorrow. I can get 8 days with gelatin and carb up
right away. Not a Pils malt taste though when using the fast ferment method. I am
lucky to get any good taste at this stage. Quite pleased that I will have beer for Les on
Aug. 9. Touch and go there for awhile...
ADDED GELATIN ON JULY 31ST
Transfer around August 6 and carb up. Done. All in the hands of the beer gods...
TASTE UPDATE
I sampled to see how clear it is getting. Clearing very well. It tasted quite good. No Pils
taste as usual using the fast ferment, but it was very good. It tasted just like my Kolsch
beers. That is why I am going back to making Kolsch beers because they taste just like
lagers without the bullshit of making lagers. I will brew a lager just once a year for the
guests from out of town. My Kolsch beers have to be pretty good to replace this lager. I
don't think I want to brew British beers yet until I can afford beer gas. That is the king
of British beers for me. You never know, I may change my mind after New Years. I had
a taste half way through the carbing up and did taste something odd. Hope it goes away.
It tastes pretty close to 100 Acre's Helles.
BAD NEWS
It's back!!! Just like a horror movie, the diacetyl came back after it was carbed up. I
don't know how it did that. Oh well, it is my last lager ever so when company
leaves, toss it out and keg your Kolsch.
2ND KEG ON AUG. 14
I brought up the keg to the pub room. The first one kicked and good riddance.
This one isn't as clear. There is no diacetyl at the moment and that is weird. Why
not? The same batch. Needs some more carbing up. Hope it doesn't come back,
but this beer seems to have a mind of its own. You never know what it will taste
like from day to day. It's back. Had one around noon and yup, the dreaded D
is back.
Comments