Duvel Clone or Belgian Golden Strong

 One of my favorite styles of beer is the Belgian Golden Strong, and the classic commercial example is Duvel. When operating the brewery in San Miguel, I always tried to have this beer in the rotation, and as delicious as this beer is, the ingredients are as simple as you can get.

Pilsner malt and refined sugar.

You could complicate it if you want to by producing some inverted sugar to replace the refined white sugar, but I haven't found it to improve the beer, and I like to keep things simple if the results are good. The best yeast I've found over the years that comes the closest to mimicking that unique flavor of Duvel is White Labs WLP545 yeast, and I won't brew this beer if I don't have any to pitch.

Now, as simple as I like to keep this recipe, I was forced to use some acidulated malt in my latest batch in order to drop the mash pH to 5.3.

One other caveat: I didn't get the efficiency from my mash that I calculated the recipe based on. I was expecting to be in the low 80%, but ended up with 78% and was forced to add some additional sugar to make my preferred original gravity. Then, rather than do math, I just dumped in 2.2 pounds of sugar when in fact I only needed 1 pound. Soooo... my O.G. came in at 1.079 instead of the 1.074 that I was shooting for. Sooo... the alcohol came in higher. If I'm not mistaken, Duvel is 8.5% ABV, and this beer came in at 9.3% ABV. Not quite as drinkable at that higher percentage, but it will still be a crowd-pleaser for those that like their Belgians boozy.

The following is my recipe as intended, and I've included the discrepancies in parenthesis for your reference.

Recipe:

I brewed an 11 gal. post boil batch anticipating 2 full 5 gallon kegs after fermentation. I referenced Bru'n water yellow bitter water profile and used 100% reverse osmosis water.

Efficiency 84% (actual 78%),  Attenuation 87% (actual 92%),  ABV 8.5% (actual 9.3), SRM 4.5, IBU 35, OG 1.074 (actual 1.079), FG 1.008, PH 5.3

23 lbs. Pilsner malt (Weyermann)

.75 lbs. Acid malt 

4.4 lbs. or 2 kilos (actual 3 kilos) refined sugar at start of boil

Mash in at 152f. in 6 gal. h2o for 60 minutes.

Sparge with 10 gal. for 45 minutes with 170f. h2o 

Boil 90 minutes with:

60 min. add: 65 gram Warrior 13% a/a est. 34 ibu's

20 min. add: 20 gram Tettnang 2.1 a/a% for est. 1 ibu's

Chilled down to 68f., transfer to fermenter and pitched 3 pkgs WLP545 yeast. 

After 3 days raised temperature to 72f.

After 3 more days raised temp. to 75f.

After 3 more days lowered temp. to 62f. for 1 day.

Transfer to kegs and lagered in kegerator for 2 weeks at 40f.

Lessons learned - Add sugar to achieve gravity a little at a time if needed, checking gravity as I make the additions.

Cheers!

Krausen

Small Batches Of Beer

 
   For the most part, brewing commercially is a series of repetitive motions that mostly involve cleaning.
In the midst of it all I occasionally get to brew some special batches of beer to keep my spirits alive. The first picture below is a five gallon batch of Belgian Strong Ale fermenting away happily.
   We have been brewing multiple large batches of this beer for the Cerveceria Dos Aves anniversary beer to be released in late November so I took the occasion to pull off enough wort to re-pitch a different yeast that I salvaged from a beer that was brewed last year that I really liked. This is a very pleasant Belgian yeast Wyeast Belgian Ardennes but some of the bottles ended up with some acetobactor and these bottles I expecially liked. I want to try and duplicate the results and I'm making an assumption that the entire batch was infected and that the salvaged yeast includes some of the bacteria I want but that's a big assumption. Chances are it was a single keg or maybe just some bottles. With any luck, the bacterial infection that improved the beer is present and I'll have a nice stash of an awesome albeit personally enjoyable sour beer.

Special yeast for a Belgian strong

   The three other seen below are a trial batch that I brewed to see if it's possible to get a viable small beer from the second runnings off an imperial stout. The idea was to gain five gallons of mild (in this case an English brown ale) after pulling 10 gallons of R.I.S. from the mash.
The process I used was mashing in as normal for our R.I.S. but only collecting until the runnings were reading 15 brix. I was able to collect 9 gallons of wort. I then topped off the kettle with enough water to achieve 11 gallons total at the beginning of the boil. This would allow for a one gallon boil off in 60 minutes to achieve our normal starting gravity which will result in a 9% abv. stout.
In the mean time I continued to sparge and collect for the second (small) beer harvesting 6 gallons that I would boil down to 5 for a starting gravity of 9 brix.
   This technique worked for the most part but I will need to fine tune it in the future so that when we brew a large batch we can be precise in our collection quantities and gravities
After chilling and aerating I pitched an English yeast in the small beer and Whitelabs 001 in the imperial stout.

Two Imperial stouts and a mild

   The following day I had activity in each fermentor and am anxious to find out the results on the mild. I'm hoping that the English yeast doesn't ferment down too far as this lower gravity beer (o.g. 1.036sg) will need some body to be enjoyable. I'll keep you posted on the results of this one.

English yeast on far right

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Cerveceria Alquimia Beer Review

One of the greatest challenges I'm finding as I grow my small brewery is consistency in the product. Producing beer of high quality that tastes, smells, looks and feels the same from batch to batch keeps me vigilant in my efforts.

The grain bill is easy because I have access to all I need, but the hop schedule sometimes has to change occasionally because of the difficulty in getting hops here. So, I find myself adapting recipes based on what I have on hand at the time. The same can be true of yeast. But the hardest part of staying consistent for me is that I can no longer experiment with my beers like I've done in the past as a homebrewer. I like changing up the yeast for instance to see what the results are simply to try something new that could possibly 'wow' me.

Case in point. In the recent past I'd been brewing my Belgian Tripel for sale here which is quite popular. I always use my favorite tripel yeast Whitelabs WLP500. I've been making this beer for years and it's one of my favorite styles. Well, I just happen to have a pouch of Wyeast's Trappist high gravity 3787 and with the spirit of experimentation and to satisfy my need as a brewer to change things up, I pitched it in one batch. After aging and going to market it quickly came to my attention that the usual customers that were selling the tripel at their restaurants and stores were unhappy with the new beer. "Where's the original tripel you were making?" they'd ask. "We liked it, and our customers are confused by the taste of this new one. It's not the same."
As a person that has tasted a lot of beers and in particular the Belgian Tripel ,I happen to really enjoy what Wyeast brought to this classic style and was ready to switch permanently to this new yeast. I ended up going back to the WLP500 for the sake of satisfied consumers but only because I agreed with them that it is a great beer to begin with.

Another hurtle is getting the carbon dioxide level the same for each keg. I'm force carbonating and can normally get close to where I want the volume of pressure but it can vary and I'll end up with bottles that vary. I don't like this. This brings me to the point.

In Mexico, where the craft beer movement is in it's infancy and breweries are small, the normal procedure is to bottle condition the finished product. Since a lot of the 'professional' brewers here are new to brewing they make some common mistakes that often times lead to over-carbonated bottles of beer. The beer is either under attenuated when the bottling sugar is added and or gets infected with a spoiling bacteria. Often, an otherwise decent beer is ruined by gushing out of the bottle, stirring up the yeast sediment at the bottom of the bottle and if any beer is left to drink it detracts from the flavor by stinging the palette with a harsh co2 mouthfeel.



Alquimia Scotish ale

A couple weeks ago I sampled two beers by Cerveceria Alquimia (alchemy), another commendable attempt by a Mexican craft brewer that comes up short. I don't like to start a review like that but there are more criticisms than praise for Cerveceria Alquimia. I received a couple of their beers from my friend Antonio at The Beer Company here in San Miguel. From what I can gather, Cerveceria Alquimia was started in 2011 and is currently brewed in Hidalgo where they boast of using only natural ingredients (I don't know what un-natural ingredients they decided against but there you have it). They feature a selection of classic styles of beer including an Alt, what they're calling a Nut Brown ale, Scottish ale (spelled with one 't') and Porter. I tasted the latter two starting with the Scottish ale.

I just have to say up front that drinking their Scotish(sp) ale was not a pleasant experience. No offence Alquimia but the bottle I had was tart and sour, two components that I never want to taste in a Scottish ale. The aroma was of mildew and locker room sweat. The beer lacked carbonation and the head fell flat almost immediately. Maybe I got a bad bottle from this batch, it's hard to imagine all of their Scottish ales are in this condition and continue to sell but in any case, I didn't like it at all.

On the up side, the Porter was better considering this beer was extremely over carbonated. I could tell this was the case even before opening since the cap was bent up into a dome shape ready to give up it's grip. I took it to the sink to open it and it continued to foam over  and down the drain until half the content of the bottle was gone. It's a shame too because the beer was flavorful and enjoyable. Malty and rich with a hint of smoked malt and burnt sugar. A good dark amber/black color and lingering head. Naturally, still a bit bright on the tongue because of the high level of carbonation but over all I enjoyed the beer.

I still remain optimistic about the Mexican craft beer movement. I just think that these new breed of brewers need a few more years of brewing experience and access to more of the great beers of the world to compare their attempts to. As the market in Mexico opens up, there should be more opportunities for that to happen.

If you want to find out more about this brewery don't bother with their website because it's still under construction but you can go here to visit their facebook page. Cheers!

Nano Brewery Equipment

I'm making some brewing progress down here in San Miguel despite our limited budget and I have to tell you that it feels good to have some beer kegged and bottled with more in the fermentors as we speak.

First I want to follow up on the Trappist Ale that I brewed using a kit that I got from Midwest Homebrewing Supply. Turns out that my impatience got the better of me regarding this beer. Even though I pitched 2 vials of the Whitelabs WLP500 Trappist yeast (one that was supplied with the kit and another that I brought down with me) in a 5 gallon batch, there was no sign of activity after 24 and still after 36 hours. Of course I jumped to the conclusion that the yeast was no good and so I pitched a packet of dry US-05 yeast. Soon after, I began to see signs of life from the Trappist yeast and then along with the help of the dry yeast there was plenty of fermentation happening within another 12 hours.



Trappist ale with honey

Unable to leave things well enough alone I decided it would be a good idea to add a kilo of honey directly to the primary (and only) fermentor after several days of activity. My desire was to include the honey flavor to the beer thinking it would be tasty and also to increase the amount of alcohol in the final product. This I was successful at and the beer has all of the phenolic characteristics that come with this beer style but with the added flavor and a decent amount of aroma from the honey. I tasted it for this review but will allow the beer to age in the bottle for a few months before I would consider it ready to drink. This beer is a beautiful yellow/gold color with a creamy white head. The aroma is bold with honey, malt and tropical fruit. The flavor is spicy with pear, honey, alcohol and it has a mouth feel that is full despite the dry 1.010 final gravity (after the honey the o.g. was 1.067).  I want to thank Midwest for providing me with the ingredients for what turned out to be a great beer.

Bottle filler at rest

Bottle filling station

In the mean time, I thought you like to see a couple pictures of the make-shift bottling procedure. I bottled the above Trappist ale, a German hefeweizen and believe it or not homemade root beer which was a challenge because of the high volume of CO2 in solution. I used a spring loaded bottling wand that I stabbed into a cobra tap that was attached to 8' of 3/16" beverage line. You can see this counter-pressure bottling device here for a better description.



At this point I'm still fermenting small (10 gallon) batches in order to have a selection of beer styles to take around and market to a few possible outlets here in town. Other good news is that a major distributor here is interested in having our beers as part of their inventory and we'll be sitting down to taste beers in the next few weeks. Tomorrow I brew a Dry Stout followed by an Imperial IPA.

 Next on the agenda: Creating a brand logo and getting some labels printed for our bottles. I don't think our possible clients will be too impressed pouring from a bottle with masking tape across the front that says 'beer' written in magic marker.

Yeast Inventory

While cleaning out my brewing area I set aside all of the empty yeast vials that I accumulated over the years. Although I've thrown away many more vials than I've saved and as a standard practice I use a lot of US-05 dry yeast, never the less, the remaining collection revealed some telling statistics about my brewing habits.

The first and obvious is how often I brew wheat beers and my preference for Whitelabs hefeweizen yeast WLP300. As you can tell from the picture below, I have far more empty vials of that yeast then any other. I use it for my standard German hefe and also a dunkelweizen recipe that I brew without changes at this point. Besides the great flavor I get from this yeast, I've discovered over time that fermenting with it at low ale temperatures (low 60's f. in this case) has a considerably influence in increasing the amount of phenols in the finished beer, a flavor component that I really enjoy.

Empty vials of Whitelabs yeast

The other clear indicator from my stack of vials is how often I attempt to brew classic English style ales. I've gone through a number of those type of yeast on multiple occasions trying to find that perfect combination of fruity ester by products, malt dominance and great flocculation. Some I like better than others but they all contribute an unacceptable level of diacetyl for my tastes. But all those trials led me to try the WLP013 London ale yeast on the last couple of beers I brewed. An ESB and most recently an Irish red ale. The WLP013 came through with the esters, malt presence and excellent clarity and with the added reward of being a very low diacetyl contributor. Finally, I've discovered my 'go-to' English ale yeast.

As I spent some time peeling the labels off of these vials to send in to Whitelabs to redeem for some free yeast I remembered back to when I first started brewing. My brewing buddy and I would try to save some money on yeast by salvaging from previous batches.  The funny thing was that we tried to put the salvaged yeast back in those tiny tubes to re-pitch! I don't know what we were thinking. Now, I save yeast in wide mouth mason jars or juice jars and dump the entire content into the fresh wort for the new batch.

Easy to pitch, salvaged English ale yeast

Also revealing but not surprising is how few lager yeasts I've gone through. With high temperatures here where I live in California and the fact that I'm gone to Mexico in the Winter prevents me from fermenting too many lagers at proper lager temperatures. But, I still try to get a few lagers brewed in November before we head south for the Winter. I reluctantly leave them to lay up for several months in the kegs waiting for my return.

Another favorite beer of mine is the classic Belgian tripel and I use the WLP500 for that purpose but for the most part I'm brewing American pale ales, IPA's and Imperial IPA's and for those I pitch dry yeast, Safale US-05 which is like the work horse of ale yeasts. It gets the job done with good attenuation, moderate flocculation and a clean finish.

As the Fall approaches, I'm gathering what I need to brew in Mexico this year and I'll be taking a couple different types of liquid yeast. Chances are I'll stow away some of my favorites and hope they don't get to warm on the trip south. I'm also planning to culture some Belgian yeast from bottles of imports that I can get pretty easily in San Miguel and of course I'll bring a fist full of US-05 to get the job done.

Lager Yeast Starters

It's time once again for me to get ready to leave the country for a few months and in preparation for my absence I want to have forty gallons of lagers in kegs by December 1st. to begin aging. They will stay in cold storage during the cool California winter months. My plan is to return to enjoy a Schwarzbier, Dunkel, Bock and Doppelbock when I return for the spring season in April.

This meant that I needed to create some yeast starters that would get the beer fermented in a reasonable amount of time so I can keg and get them aging by December 1st. (departure date). I'm using White Labs WLP830 and WLP833 lager yeast for this years beers. Each vial is stepped up two times to achieve what I believe will be about 200 billion cells per pitch. This I will use for the Schwarzbier and the Dunkel.  Lower cell counts than what Mr. Malty probably recommends but I've had good success with this pitch rate in the past. Once those two beers are fermented I will pitch the yeast cake from each into the two bigger beers, the bock and the Doppelbock.

Brewing lager's in the strict sense of the word is difficult and requires refrigeration and temperature controls for the fermentation that I don't have at this time. Additionally, slowly lowering the beer temperature after fermentation a couple degrees every day until the beer is at the freezing point and later ramping the temperature back up before lowering it again is not something I even want to mess with. So, I will be going about this as I've done before and have every confidence that the results will be good.

First, there are two schools of thought about the beginning fermentation temperatures. One is to begin warm (70f.) for a short period of time allowing the yeast to develop a large colony, then lower the temperature down for the fermentation period. The other idea is to ferment at lager temperatures from the beginning until fermentation is complete and this is the method I will use. Because I can't cool the beer in the fermentor I have to get the wort down to lager temperatures to begin with by chilling with a plate chiller and with the support of my post immersion chiller that I've written about in the past. You can see it here, or watch a fuzzy video of it here. Since I am writing this after the fact, I can tell you that I got the wort down to 54f.

Secondly, I'm relying on the cool temps. in my storage unit to maintain that temperature for the duration of the ferment which I expect will be about ten days. Again, having looked at the fermentors today I can say that this temp. has only gained two points to 56f. In my book this is still an acceptable lager temperature. Judging by the thick krausen it looks as though the pitch was enough for this beer gravity.
Finally, I'll be using recipes from Jamil Zainasheff and John Palmers 'Brewing Classic Styles' book to brew these beers. Of course they will be modified to suit my needs and accommodate the ingredients I have on hand so I can use them up before departing. Don't tell Jamil.

Washing Yeast

I keep things pretty simple when in comes to using yeast, pitch a large, healthy amount. I feel confident in the beer quality if I can get a quick and vigorous ferment to occur within twelve hours. If I'm using the dry packets like Safale, which are inexpensive enough to be generous, I pitch three packets directly into ten gallons of aerated wort. I don't bother re-hydrating the yeast. If  I use Whitelabs liquid yeast I step the colony up a couple of times to about 200 billion cells for ten gallons.

I have a plan in mind for subsequent beers to ferment that will get racked directly onto the yeast cake of the previous beer. Generally, I rack to the yeast cake two or three times. Subsequent batches ferment out withing three to four days because of the size and health of the yeast cake in the fermentor.

If I decide to salvage the yeast after fermentation, I will use a sanitized utensil (Pyrex measuring cup) to scoop the yeast from the bottom of the fermenter into a sanitized jar for storage. Or, as seen here in a previous post, I will pull out a liner bag and drain they into a sanitized container. Keep in mind that I ferment in open fermentors and that accessing the yeast is very easy. I'm comfortable storing the yeast in the fridge this way for as long as six weeks. Then, when ready to re-use, I take the yeast out at the beginning of the next brew session to acclimate to the warmer temperatures. After the new batch of wort is chilled and aerated, I will simply pitch the entire content of the jar into the wort. I don't concern myself with the hop debris, protein coagulates and general sludge that is mixed in with the yeast, and I will repeat these steps in salvaging and re-using yeast as often as is convenient.

Having said all that, there is a way of cleaning up the yeast or washing/rinsing out the spurge material. It is a series of steps that involve diluting the yeast sludge with sterile water and pouring off the foreign debris that rises to the top and that settles to the bottom of the mixture. The middle area contains the healthy, viable yeast cells.




Normally when I save yeast it looks
 like this (unwashed), and I would
typically just pitch it as is



Pouring off the liquid
that is at the top of a
container of salvaged yeast







 





Agitate and watch as it starts to seperate





Adding sterile water to the
salvaged yeast slurry



In any case, here are the steps to washing your yeast:
Pour off the excess liquid from the top of the container of salvaged yeast

Fill the container with sterile water (in my case I boil and cooled filtered water)

Agitate the jar until completely mixed, don't leave any lumps intact.
Let mixture rest until there is a clear separation of the three layers (you should be able to see a lighter layer in the middle that is formed by healthy yeast.

Once the separation is clear (20 to 30 minutes) gently pour off (discard) the top layer, then pour the middle layer (yeast) into another sanitized container and discard the bottom layer



A clear seperation of the three areas, the
light middle area is the healthy yeast and you
 can see it congregating at the bottom (light area)

 





Again, pouring off the excess liquid



This is a look after a second seperation is complete



With the yeast now in a new container repeat the process to clean even further.

Repeat as many times as you wish but keep in mind that the probability of introducing contaminates like bacteria and wild yeast will increase with each step.




This is the final results.
Pretty clear liquid covering
a healthy yeast cake









After a third repeat filling with
sterile water and agitating











I hope this was helpful and although I don't personally use this technique I can see the value in it. You could probably store the yeast longer under these conditions and it would be easy to step up a culture from washed yeast to create a very large and healthy colony. Any feed back on this subject is definitely welcome. Cheers!



Easy Yeast Harvest

One of the great things about fermenting in open containers is the ease in which I can harvest yeast. In an earlier post I showed how you can salvage the yeast by fermenting in a bag lined, open fermenter and in the future I'll show how you can top-crop the yeast. But today, I show in this finely edited, high quality video how getting the yeast cake off the bottom of the fermenter is quick and simple and a good way to cut costs on yeast by saving for re-use in the future. I typically try to re-pitch this salvaged yeast within a few weeks but have had good results even after a month of storage in the fridge.

English Ale Split Batch

In the fourth class of the five class series of brew school, the students brewed up a ten gallon all-grain batch of English ale. Because the wort is split into two five gallon fermenters (for ease of transport from school to the area that the beer ferments) it is a perfect opportunity to try out a couple different types of yeast. In this class we fermented one half with Whitelabs WLP002 English ale yeast and the other WLP004 Irish ale yeast. I just sampled the finished beer and I've got to say that the class did an excellent job of preparing the wort for the yeast as the attenuation reach 80% for both yeast types and the quality of the beer is excellent.

Irish or English

Each yeast imparted distinctly different characteristics to the beer. WLP002 is malt forward accentuating the crystal 40 that was used in the grain bill. The WLP004 has some apple/pear flavors with a crisp and dry mouth feel. Both beers are very enjoyable. It's surprising to experience such remarkable differences in a beer based solely on the type of yeast used. I was so impressed with the results that the Imperial IPA that I brewed yesterday was split with half getting some salvaged English ale yeast from class beer and in the other half I pitched the yeast I normally use for the recipe, Safale US05. I think I'm going to make this a regular part of my brewing practices and experiment with some yeasts that I haven't tried yet. I can't believe that I've waited this long to break out of my yeast preference routine.
For those interested in the class project, here is the recipe:

English/Irish Ale
Attn: 80%
Eff. 80%
ABV. 5.6%, SRM 8, IBU 38, O.G. 1.052, F.G. 1.010/1.008

18lbs 2-row
28oz. crystal #40

mash for 60 min. in 5.5 gal. water with 1 tsp. gypsum at 152f.
fly sparge for 45 min. collecting 13gal. at start of boil

Boil for 60 min. with
2.5 oz. Willamette 5% aa 60min.
2.0 oz. Willamette 5% aa 20min.
1.0 oz. Willamette 5% aa 10min.
Chill to 66f. aerate and transfer to two fermenters.

Pitch English ale yeast in 5.5 gal.
Pitch Irish ale yeast in 5.5 gal.

Ferment for 7 days, rack to kegs and force carbonate. Condition for 2 weeks at 45f.
If you have any questions about this recipe, leave it in the comment section.

Proper Yeast

I've gotten into the habit of relying on Safale US05 to ferment several of the ales I like to have on tap at all times. This is a work horse of a yeast that attenuates in the low 80 percentile with a clean profile (minimal phenol and ester by products) and performs well in temperatures in the low 60's f. I normally use it for several of my pale ale recipes, along with my India pale ale, imperial pale ale and American brown. Having said that, though I'm not real strict about this, I think it is important to use the proper yeast for the style of beer you're brewing.

As homebrewers we now have available to us a multitude of yeast strains that are specific for the numerous commercial beer styles. Using the proper yeast is important if you want to call the beer 'to style'. If you use US05 for you're German hefeweizen it won't taste like a hefeweizen but will fall into the american hefeweizen catagory which is fine but shouldn't be considered or refered to as German.

This leads me to explore what has been a growing concern in my own mind. I've sampled beers from many brewpubs that use the same yeast strain on a whole string of the varying styles of ales that they brew, sometimes even using this same ale yeast for their lagers. This results in beers that are called one thing but because of the yeast selection do not live up to the name. The beer may taste fine and I have enjoyed many on their own merit, but I always leave with a nagging desire to suggest to someone (anyone) that the beer be labeled correctly. Besides being rude to the brewer and appearing anal retentive, is it wrong of me to ask for this kind of accuracy?

For instance, a brewpub in a nearby town that I occasionally frequent has on tap what they call an 'English ale'. It is in fact not an english ale because they don't use an english ale yeast and so the resulting beer doesn't taste like an English ale. I suspect that it is fermented with Whitelabs 001 or Wyeat 1056 based on the samplings I've done in the past. My suspicions about their limited use of yeast are further supported after trying their other selections from the line up of beers on tap with names ranging from British pale ale, Irish dry stout and Pilsner that again have the same yeast characteristics dispite the obvious difference in the grain bill and hop regimen. These beers are unable to live up to the names applied to them.

Obviously, a small operation like a brewpub needs to be concerned about costs and one way to do this is by re-using a single yeast strain for multiple batches of beer. By re-pitching over multiple generations, transfering the same yeast from the pale ale to the English ale and then on to the stout results in huge savings for the brewery, so it's hard to hold this against them.

They also need to move a lot of beer by producing beers that are popular and easy to drink and appeal to the general public which means not only of good quality and flavorful but also produced quickly and available at the tap as soon as possible. As a result, they are less inclined to brew beers that require longer fermentation periods or the expense of a lot of different yeast strains. It's no surprise that you don't often see sour beers on tap or beers of unusually high alcohol that require high gravity performing yeast and long lagering times or blends of yeast that include bacteria.

On the other hand, I suspect that it could be possible economically to produce quite a number of styles of beer with just four types of yeast on hand. For instance, a variety of English ale yeast would be appropriate for not only English or British styles pale ales but also a wide selection of Irish, and American ales. One lager yeast for all styles of lagered beer. A German hefe yeast for all wheat beers and other ales that benefit from a phenolic character or maybe a Belgian strain to produce a golden, or tripel style.

Having an assortment of taster samples in front of me that vary in color, texture and aroma is an enticing vision that gets my taste buds to stand up and pay attention and it's all the more gratifying when the flavors are unique because of the unique strains of yeast as well as the grain and hops used in brewing them.

When Your Yeast Quits

This is an often experienced occurance in the homebrew world and has happened to me a couple of times. In fact, I presently have a German hibiscus/wheat beer that has stopped dead at 1.020 when I expected it to finish at about 1.012, the original gravity was 1.050. This is a German style hefe weizen with the addition of hibiscus flower. I used the Safeale S-33 Belgian ale yeast from MoreBeer to ferment. There are a number of reasons that stuck fermentations happen. Yeast viability, lack of adequate aeration, high mash temperatures, low fermentation temperatures, you could probably name a few others. The point is that the beer has not fermented completely and you've got five or ten gallons of under-attenuated beer sitting in the fermenter looking up at you with an expression of defeat.

An under-attenuated beer can be problematic for a couple of reasons. The main reason is that the taste will be sweeter than you may want considering that you hopped with an expectation of a drier beer and the mouthfeel fuller as a result of the remaining sugars in solution. The second problem effects those that are bottling the beer. Normally you would add approximately half a cup of bottling sugar for a five gallon batch (48-12oz. bottles) to achieve the carbonation that you want in the finished beer but with all that residual sugar in solution to begin with, you may just be creating bottle bombs caused by the over carbonation of the additional sugar.

In the case of this beer, my expectation was for a final gravity of around 1.012 and so I am a little dissapointed but determined to get the rest of those points out of it one way or another. My belief is that the temperature got too cold and I may not have oxygenated the wort well enough causing the yeast to drop out of solution assuming a dormant state. My solution?

1.)pitch a fresh pack of US05 ale yeast

2.)gently stir up the yeast cake with a sanitized spoon to get it back into solution

3.)warm the beer up to 75f. with a 60watt light bulb placed strategically near the fermenter

Not real dignified but I have high hopes for success here, I have to.

In the past, US05 has been successful in getting a couple more points out of the gravity and I've read of others using Champane yeast with good results. The other part of this equation is patience. It may take an extra week or even two for the yeast to slowly do their job. I have to remind myself of this regularly as I tend to want the beer done quickly and into a keg or bottle to prevent any additional exposure to the elements since I basically 'open ferment'.

Finally, if the beer doesn't ferment any further after all these efforts then I will reduce the amount of bottling sugar I use. Additionally, I will plan to increase the amount of hibiscus flower that I add because it causes a distinct sense of dryness to the mouthfeel in this recipe.

If you've got more solutions to this common problem, please leave a comment.

How To Make A Yeast Starter

Besides fermenting ales at cool temperatures, I would rank pitching a large yeast colony near the top of my 'most important steps' list in brewing good beer.

Making a yeast starter is a pretty uncomplicated procedure with the great advantages of quick fermentation starts and the added benefit of good attenuation. The quicker you can get a dominant colony of your chosen yeast in the wort the better your odds of preventing unwanted wild yeast and bacteria from getting a foot hold in the environment. Here are the steps to amp up your yeast culture and get you the results you want.

1. bring to a boil, 900 ml. of water on your stove top
   
2. turn off the heat and add 1/2 cup of dry malt extract


3. stir extract into solution


4. turn the heat back on and boil solution for 15 minutes


5. remove from heat, cover and cool to 70f. (I place the boil pot in a ice bath in the sink)


6. aerate


7. add yeast
   

The yeast colony will grow in the new sugar environment and is ready to pitch in about three days. You could also, step this culture up again growing the colony to an even greater population. To do this, repeat the process above and add to the yeast colony that you already started. First, pour off the excess liquid from the original starter, then add the fresh batch of boiled and cooled malt extract. The yeast will go through the same process as before, growing and consuming the new sugars. After several more days you will have an even larger yeast colony that will go to work quickly to ferment your next batch of beer. If you're not ready to pitch when the starter is complete then place it in the refrigerator until ready to use.

Some brewers will pitch the entire content of the starter but I usually decant the liquid off the top of the yeast leaving enough liquid to swirl the yeast into solution so that all of the yeast pours out easily.

Man's Best Friend...Yeast!

When it comes to creatures great and small, I consciously avoid the tendency to anthropomorphise. But I have to admit that the lowly brewers yeast has a special place in my heart that makes me change my reference from 'that' to 'them'.

Sometimes I include myself in their ranks and refer to a colony of yeast as 'us'. Weird, I know. But we are a team right? Doing a job side by side like shipmates, me the Skipper and them, little Gilligans.

As I consider the workings of the yeast that ferment my beer, I have to give them a lot of credit as co-creators. For possesing what appears to be a collective intelligence that directs the part they play in my quest for good beer. The behavior that I refer to is that which seemingly recognizes and responds to its environment by taking into account the volume and sugar gravity of the wort. This ability would seem to require a thinking brain to formulate the needed calculations for projected colony growth. But with an intellegence not like ours the yeast exhibit a unique knowledge of the microscopic world that they occupy. It is outside my understanding and I am impressed with it's perfection.

When I introduce a colony of yeast to my freshly brewed wort, a syncronistic pattern of co-existent partnership falls into place. I play my part on the macro level as a brewer creating a source of sugar and the yeast carry on the process doing their part to transform the sugars ending with a final product that is our combined artistry. The mutually beneficial development of this collusion of man and yeast is ancient and symbiotic. This relationship is one that can only be described as 'divine'.

I feel I owe yeast a dept of gratitude because they are my partners and because they were here first. They deserve my respect at least, if not reverence. But how do I repay my dept to them? I use them and then pour them down the driveway and hose them off into the gutter, or worst still, simply dump them down the drain of the kitchen sink.

Do I feel shame for these acts? Sometimes, along with regret for not being a better partner, not living up to the bargain I struck with them to work together, forever. Unfortunately, the ugly cycle is repeated almost every week and the abuse continues. I know, I could avoid this disservice by salvaging them or washing clean and storing them for future work together, but they grow so quickly. I am only one man, they are billions of souls multiplying exponentially with only one mission, to ferment my beer. Do they love me? I don't think so, I think they selfishly yearn to be fed without regard for my feelings and maybe in spite of them, so I tell myself. I rinse them down the drain, partly out of laziness and also because I don't think they care that much, maybe not at all.
But they are smart and yes, a little bit cute. They know enough to propagate their colony to just the right size to match the volume of sugar in a batch of wort. They know how long to multiply and how long to ferment and when to relax and settle to the bottom of my fermenter. They know these things.

Sometimes I imagine them looking up from the bottom of my fermenter into my face as I stare down at them after racking the beer off. A beer that they so obediently fermented. They have no eyes but I believe they see me and whisper amongst themselves "will he feed us or will he kill us!". It saddens me that they can read my mind when I decide to kill them. Kill, it sounds so horrible, I'd rather say 'throw them away' but even that doesn't quell my guilt. Normally I don't anthropomorphise, this is true, but with my good friends the yeast, I have to be honest, they are like brothers. Brothers I end up killing.

Mexican bottling system

Drilling a hole by hand

with a paddle bit.

Using two packages of the Safale s-33 created quite the fermentation fury doing its job and settling out after only four days so I was able to bottle two cases of beer today. I once again have renewed sense of appreciation for kegging as the process of getting the beer into bottles was very labor intensive. Soaking the bottles over night, removing the labels, scrubbing inside and out, rinsing and sanitizing. Then racking the beer into another bucket with preboiled sugar, bottle filling and finally capping left me exhausted and thirsty for a good ale. Alas, I settled for another, you guessed it... Barrilitos.

Now for two weeks of patience before I can enjoy the fruits of my labor. Of course I did some tasting during the process and I think this will be a good beer. The hibiscus addition was most evident with a tart dryness and since it is so young the flavor of yeast and residual sweetness is up front. The phenolics that I was expecting is very subdued. I can't wait to taste this after it has conditioned for awhile.
In the mean time I've got another couple of batches to brew and I can't waste any time so I plan to do my Agave Pale Ale tomorrow. I'll be using 50 ounces of Agave syrup this time and Centennial hops throughout.

High kraeusen

What we have here my friend is my Bavarian Weizen during high Kraeusen. As you can see, I ferment in a 13.5 gal. plastic container. This one originally had malt extract in it and I got it from my local homebrew shop. I use food grade plastic liners for the ease of clean up and I also find it very easy to salvage the yeast by pulling the bag out of the fermenter and poking a hole in the bottom, letting the yeast drain into a sterilized jar. I can then just pour the jar into the next beer I make that requires the same yeast. At the moment I have a jar of california ale yeast in the refridgerator and when this is done I will have a jar of Whitelabs hefeweizen IV, http://www.whitelabs.com/ . I usually repitch yeast eight to ten times before buying new yeast and I typically have on hand a hefeweizen, california ale and southern German lager yeast. For the most part these yeast will suffice for most of the beers that I like to brew (drink) but occasionally I will have others for special brews that I don't make regularly. I want to note here that the outer container in the picture is to contain ice for keeping the ferment to an acceptable temperature. It's difficult to see, but I believe the temperature is 66f. at the time of the picture. I would like to get a large phenolic (clove/spice) flavor with this brew and the word in the brewing world is that a cool fermentation promotes these flavors more so than the ester type (banana) flavors. I'm hoping 66f. is low enough, we'll see. As I stated earlier, this is a repeat recipe using 13lbs. of wheat and 6lbs. of domestic 2-row barley. The difference this time is that I have used 8oz. of Crystal #60 instead of #20 because that is what I had on hand. And if the truth be known, I used Centennial hops for bittering and flavor. Not traditional but during these times of hop shortages I again went with what I had on hand. Besides, I think centennial may impart an extra flavor dimension in terms of the citrus quality that could enhance this style of beer. Maybe more refreshing/quenching. Maybe.