Building an Immersion Chiller

I seem to be slowing down again on the brewing and blogging fronts.  Hopefully that will change soon as I am gearing up for a couple more brew days before the summer hits.  In the meantime, I just thought I'd share some info about building a copper immersion chiller.

As most homebrewers probably do, I started out cooling my wort in a sink filled with ice.  But as I learned the importance of chilling the wort down as quickly as possible, I decided I needed a better process.  Chilling the wort quickly accomplishes a number of things, including:

1. Prevents the formation of DMS:  DMS (dimethyl sulfide) smells and tastes like cooked corn and is something you usually don't want in your beer.  It forms naturally from SMM (s-methyl methionine), which is found, in various quantities, in malted barley.  SMM is converted into DMS at temperatures above 140°F, so quite a bit of it can be formed during the mashing and boiling stages of brewing.  Fortunately, boiling drives off most of the DMS.  Once the boil is ended however, SMM will continue to be converted into DMS, but now the DMS is no longer boiled off.  So, the quicker you can get your wort chilled, the less DMS you get in your beer.
   
2. Produces clearer beer:  When wort is chilled, haze-causing proteins coagulate and drop out of solution.  The faster the rate of chilling, the more these proteins coagulate and drop out.  The more these proteins coagulate and drop out, the fewer there will be in your finished beer.  The fewer of them in your finished beer, the less your beer will exhibit chill haze.  So, faster chilling leads to clearer beer.
   
3. Gets you to yeast-pitching temps faster:  Once wort drops below about 140°F, it is susceptible to bacteria and wild yeast.  The quicker you can pitch the your yeast, the quicker you can get a controlled fermentation underway and the less likely you are to have bacteria or wild yeast take hold in the beer (as fermentation proceeds, the pH of the beer drops and the alcohol level increases, creating an inhospitable environment to unwanted microbes).

An immersion chiller is a great way to cool your wort down quickly.  It works on the same principle as the radiator in your car - by circulating a liquid though a set of metal coils in contact with a heat source you want to cool down.  The heat will be conducted by the coils into the cooler liquid and the circulation of the liquid will move the heat out of the wort (or engine), thereby cooling the wort (or engine).  Immersion chillers tend to be made out of copper since it is an excellent thermal conductor.  Since copper is so malleable, making your own immersion chiller is relatively easy.  Here's what I used to build a chiller to fit my 3 gallon kettles:

• 20' of 1/4" (ID) x 3/8" (OD) flexible copper tubing
•  10' of vinyl tubing
•  2 hose clamps
•  faucet adapter

All total, I spent less than $30.  Though with the price of copper today, you can expect to pay a little more.  As you would also, obviously, if you needed to make a bigger chiller to fit your system.  Here are a few photos of my build:

It works great - with this chiller I can get my wort cooled down to pitching temps in 15-20 minutes.  If I were to do this over again, however,  I'd raise and bend the input and output so that they would be out of the kettle.  The way it is now, if the hose clamps ever loosened up, I'd end up dripping straight tap water directly into the wort.  As it is, I just make sure the clamps are fully tightened before each use.

Funky Oatmeal Stout - a mixed culture fermentation

Way back in September 2011 I walked out of my LHBS with the ingredients to make a simple oatmeal stout for the Fall weather that was going to be settling in.  However, as I posted earlier, life got hectic, brewing and blogging was put on hold, and the oatmeal stout never saw the inside of a fermentation bucket.

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago.  I had the time and I had already brewed up the batches I wanted to get done between January and March (a Belgian Tripel, an Altbier, a Kolsch, and this year's Empirical Series brew) and I had this bag of grain sitting in my cellar.  Seemed like a waste not to use it.  But it also didn't seem right to brew an oatmeal stout with the warm weather settling in.  So, inspired by Jolly Pumpkin's Madrugada Obscura and a previous successful experiment of mine with souring dark beer (a tale for another day), I decided to try something different and funkify it.

The base grist is similar to the oatmeal stout I brewed in Fall 2010 with a few tweaks (I can't seem to leave well enough alone).  To that I decided to add some molasses and grains of paradise (available at my favorite spice retailer - the Spice House).  The molasses added some additional gravity and will give the beer a little more depth and character.  The grains of paradise should impart a nice peppery tone.  As if that wouldn't be enough (like I said, I can't leave well enough alone), I opted to ferment with a mixed culture that included a Belgian yeast (WLP500, harvested from my Belgian Tripel), an English strain (WLP023, which was the intended yeast for the original oatmeal stout), the dregs of one bottle of Jolly Pumpkin's Madrugada Obscura, and the dregs of one bottle of Russian River Consecration.  All these cultures were put into the same starter, so were pitched into the beer all at the same time.  How this will all play out is anyone's guess.  I'm just going to keep it in a dark corner of my cellar and patiently wait to see how things proceed.

Oh, and as luck would have it, the "Word of the Day" on the day I made my mixed culture starter was "selcouth"

Selcouth Stout
brewed on 3/26/12

Recipe Specifications
Batch Size: 3.75 gal
Estimated Color: 38.4 SRM
Estimated IBU: 30.8 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
OG: 1.062 SG
FG: TBD
ABV: TBD

Grist
5.5 lbs Maris Otter - 66.7 %
12.0 oz Oats, Flaked- 9.1 %
8.0 oz Melanoidin Malt - 6.1 %
4.0 oz Chocolate Malt - 3.0 %
4.0 oz Chocolate Wheat - 3.0 %
4.0 oz Crystal (56L) - 3.0 %
4.0 oz Roasted Barley - 3.0 %
8.0 oz Molasses - 6.1 %

Hops
26 g EKG [4.50 %] - 60.0 min
10 g EKG [4.50 %] - 20.0 min

Misc
1.00 g Seeds of Paradise (Boil 5.0 mins)

Yeast
Mixed culture
 - Trappist Ale (White Labs #WLP500)
 - Burton Ale (White Labs #WLP023)
 - dregs of Madrugada Obscura
 - dregs of Consecration


Mash Schedule
Single Infusion, 152°F, Batch Sparge

Beer Blog as Digital Identity

I recently discovered Beer Blogging Friday (aka The Session) and thought it would be fun to start participating in it. Basically, the idea is that on the First Friday of each month beer bloggers all post on the same topic. The topic is determined by pre-identified organizer for the month. That same organizer collects all the links to the posts on their blog into single collection. I've done this sort of thing before on other blogs I used to write (but, sadly, have let languish) and found it a great way to connect with a community that shares similar passions. It's also a great way to discover other great blogs.

This month's Session is hosted by Brewpublic who has provided a topic of "What drives beer bloggers?".

For me, the obvious answer is that my passion for homebrewing drives my blog. It is after all nothing more than an journal chronicling my brewing adventures. At first, I though I would respond to this promt by writing about why I enjoy homebrewing and why I design my own recipes and brew the way that I do. But that's really what drives my beer brewing, not what drives my beer blogging, so instead I thought I'd concentrate on why I decided to take my brewing to the blogosphere.

I don't have a homebrew club or a group of fellow homebrewers to brew with, so, other than my local homebrew shop (Blackstone Valley Brewing Supply, a truly excellent shop) my brewing community is completely virtual. I'm a regular over at HomeBrewTalk.com, I listen to a number of beer-related podcasts on my way to and from work (particularly most anything from The Brewing Network), have struck up a number of friendly correspondences with other bloggers (all through email, of course), and have even done a few beer swaps with folks I've only ever met via the internet. So, in a lot of ways, this blog is my identity within the virtual homebrewing community. You can learn a little about me every time you read one of my posts - what do I like to brew? what is my approach to brewing? what are some of the brewing ideas rattling around in my head? Both my brewing and writing style reveal something about me. For example, you can probably glean quite a bit about my worldview and general philosophy from the fact that I named an entire series of my beers "The Empirical" series, with each one given a name in Latin and honoring some important figure from the Enlightenment. Hell, even the fact that I even have a named series for some of my homebrew tells you something.

Blogging lets me share part of my identity and lets me be part of a larger group. We all want to feel valued by others within whatever community with identify with. I like to think that blogging about my recipes and my techniques and my successes and my failures provides value to other homebrewers out there. Perhaps something in my blog will help a new homebrewer figure out some brewing-related problem, or perhaps a recipe will spark an interest with an experienced brewer and lead them to try something they hadn't before. Like any sort of public demonstration of a creative pursuit, narcissism certainly plays a role (why wouldn't everyone want to read my blog?), but I think the larger driving force is the desire to be part of a community and to interact with others who share similar passions. So, I raise a (virtual) pint to you, my fellow beer drinkers and blog readers. You drive me to blog!

Aged Homebrew - Scottish Light (60/-) Tasting

This is the second tasting from my aged homebrew "collection". This time, I have a Scottish Ale (a 60 Schilling or 60/-) named #38. This was brewed a couple of years back as a birthday gift for my dad (no, not his 38th birthday). He read the description of the style and it intrigued him, so I surprised him with a case of it (I kept a case for myself...). If I recall correctly, this was my last full 5 gallon batch. Even though I was doing partial mashes, I wanted to minimize the amount of extract I had to use, so I switched to smaller 3.5ish gallon batches on all subsequent brews.

I remember thinking that this beer turned out pretty good - certainly seemed to style - light, easy drinking, malt-forward, dark copper-colored, some fruity esters. Over two years later, it has held up very well and I think it is still a nice example of the style, though perhaps a little too light on the hops. Shortly after I discovered my forgotten stash, I learned that my dad still has some bottles of this left, so I was thinking it might be fun to enter it in a competition or two and see how it stacks up.

Appearance - Pours a dark copper, almost brown, with a thin white ring of bubbles. Clarity is excellent.

Aroma - Very mild aroma. What little aroma there is is definitely all malt - no hop aroma whatsoever. I pick up some toffee and light caramel. Maybe some oxidized quality as well.

Taste - Follows aroma. Very mild, almost entirely malt - toffee, caramel, a hint of roast. Definitely some oxidized flavors as well. A little hop spiciness. Bitterness is barely there - just a touch at the end. Finishes fairly dry. Some sweetness, but not at all like the aged Irish Red I reviewed a little while back. No signs of infection.

Mouthfeel - low carbonation, almost still. On the thin side. Definitely an easy drinker, though a little more body would make it better.

Overall - Yet another successfully aged beer. This beer is very mild, but tastes good. And at 3.4% ABV, it makes for a nice session beer. I could definitely drink several of these, though I think I would want to move onto something with more flavor. This kind of reminds me of a Bass or a Smithwicks - it has that same level of mildness and thin body. So far, I'm enjoying this stroll down beer memory lane. I can't wait to try the remaining aged brews!

#38 Scottish Ale (60/-)
Partial Mash
OG 1.040
FG 1.014
IBUs: 23
SRM: 16

17% Maris Otter
17% Crystal 40L
7.5% Crystal 120L
7.5% Honey Malt
7.5% Munich Malt
2% Chocolate Malt
42.5% Extra Light DME

East Kent Goldings hops @ 60min

WLP004 Irish Ale yeast

Wheat Wine - Empirical Series 2012

"Resolve, resolve, and to be men aspire...
Let godlike reason, from her sovereign throne,
Speak the commanding word I WILL, and it is done."

I was a little late getting this year's Empirical brew done. I want to get these done in February of each year, but I couldn't quite squeeze this one in. Early March isn't too bad though I suppose. This year's edition is inspired by Harpoon's Triticus, a dark wheat wine. My wife and I tried this during a brewery tour in Boston a couple of years ago and were both instant fans. Almost immediately I began searching for info to help me design a homebrewed version. The original Triticus was actually the concept of the Alstrom brothers (of Beer Advocate fame) for Harpoon's 100 Barrel Series, and, as luck would have it, they had made available some blog posts about their experience brewing this, including some details about the recipe. I can't seem to find those posts now, but before they disappeared I took down some notes, but hadn't gotten around to brewing it until now.

As is probably self-evident a "wheat wine" is a high gravity wheat ale - basically the wheat version of a barley wine. With this recipe almost half of the grist is wheat, including specialty wheat malts like Cara- and Chocolate wheat. Staying true to the Triticus recipe, the hops are German. Somewhat surprisingly the yeast is a neutral American strain (e.g. WLP001). I thought about using a more characterful strain, but, in the end, decided to remain true to the inspiration.

Unfortunately, brew day did not go as planned. Basically, my efficiency sucked. Normally, I am in the 72-74% range. For this batch I only hit 55%. The only other time my efficiency was this low was also my only other time using this large a percentage of wheat. I've come to the conclusion that because of the smaller size of the wheat grains, my LHBS's mill doesn't crush them as well as it does the larger barley. Luckily, I had some DME around, but, unfortunately, it wasn't the wheat DME I thought I picked up when I bought the ingredients for this batch - I must have grabbed the wrong bag off the shelf. So, a pound of Extra Light DME went into the kettle. I wanted the OG to be higher still (was shooting for the mid-1.090s), but didn't want to use any more extract or simpler sugars, so I decided to leave it in the 1.080s. I just hope it ferments out well. The pound of demerara sugar should help with that (with these high gravity beers, I like to use up to 10% simple sugars).

It is now fermenting away in the basement. I'll let it go for probably a month and then rack it into a glass carboy for extended aging before bottling it sometime this summer. The first tasting will happen sometime around Halloween or Thanksgiving, if I can hold off that long. At the moment, I am toying with the idea of adding either oak cubes and/or cacao nibs when I rack to the carboy. Guess I'll wait to see how it tastes when I get to that point.

UPDATE: I decided to go with the cacoa nibs and skipped the oak

Bene Victum (aka James) - Empirical Series 2012
Brewed on 3/12/12

Recipe Specifications
Batch Size: 3.75 gal
Boil Size: 5.00 gal
Estimated Color: 24.8 SRM
Estimated IBU: 65.5 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 55.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes
OG: 1.084
FG: 1.012
ABV: 9.4%

Grist
5 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) UK - 38%
4 lbs Wheat Malt, Pale - 30.4 %
1 lbs Munich I - 7.6 %
6.0 oz Carawheat (50L) - 3%
6.0 oz Chocolate Wheat (450L) - 3%
6.0 oz Wheat, Flaked - 3%
1 lbs Extra Light Dry Extract - 7.5 %
1 lbs Dememera Sugar - 7.5 %

Hops
20 g Magnum [13.10 %] - 60.0 min
10 g Hallertauer [3.80 %] - 20.0 min
10 g Saaz [4.00 %] - 10.0 min
15 g Saaz [4.00 %] - dry hop

Yeast
California Ale (White Labs #WLP001)

Mash Schedule
Single Infusion, 149°F

Misc
aged on 6 oz cacao nibs

Sour Brett & Cranberry Ale Tasting

I brewed this beer, Vaccinium, over a year ago (part one, part two, part three). It was inspired by Ithaca Beer Company's Brute, a beer with Brett and soured only with acidulated malt. Putting my own spin on this idea, I used a wine yeast for primary fermentation and added local cranberries in secondary. It's been in the bottle for about 5 months. Overall, I probably shouldn't be disappointed in this beer given how experimental and off-the-wall it is, but I am. In general it lacks complexity and is missing a certain "brightness" and fruitiness that I was hoping for. Honestly, and unfortunately, it's just not that exciting of a beer.

Appearance - Pours a hazy orange-rose. Not quite as pink as I would have thought with using the cranberries. I think the beer would actually pour clear, but the high carbonation caused the sediment in the bottle to kick-up. Next time, I'll chill the bottle down (this one was probably only chilled down to about 50°F - the temp where I've got these bottles stored in my cellar). A large foamy head quickly subsides to a thin layer. No lacing is left on the glass.

Aroma - Slightly fruity with oak and a phenolic Brett component. Not at all overly funky or barnyard-y, most likely from using Brettanomyces claussenii, which is known to be the most mild species of Brett.

Taste - Sour, but not nearly as much as I would have thought given that acidulated malt made up 13% of the grist. Definite carbonic bite from the high carbonation. Much less fruit flavor than I had hoped for, though really, I wonder how fruity I should have expected using cranberries. Probably, unreasonable expectations on my part. The Brett seems to be coming through as plastic-y, for lack of a better descriptor. There's also an astringency - probably from the tannins in the cranberries and/or oak.

Mouthfeel - Thin and highly carbonated (both as intended). The high carbonation prickles the tongue. There's also a drying sensation on the tongue and throat, presumably from the tannins in the cranberries - my mouth feels the same way it does when drinking cranberry juice (shocker, I know). I suppose it could be the oak tannins as well.

Overall - Unfortunately, I am disappointed by this beer. It has more tannic astringency than acidic sourness. It is lacking the complexity and brightness that I thought it would have. I suppose it is still young and the Brett character may continue to develop over time, so I'll leave it alone for a while and come back to it. Not sure cranberries were a good choice. Or maybe it was a bad idea to add oak cubes. I'll probably try cranberries in another beer at some point - I like the idea of using such a local and native fruit - but I'm not sure I'll try to make a sour beer with just the acidulated malt. Instead, I'd probably go the traditional route of using Lactobacillus and Pediococcus bacteria.

Sonnenstrahl (Kölsch-style bier)

My original idea with this brew was to use a simple Kölsch-style recipe, but ferment it with my local wild yeast. However, the slurry I kept was pretty old and I wasn't sure how great an idea it was to use it anymore. Besides, I liked the idea of brewing up an authentic style I hadn't tried before, So, I ditched the "Wild Kölsch" idea and instead decided to go pretty much traditional with this one. I harvested some WLP036 yeast when I bottled Frühlingstraum, this year's altbier, so this kölsch will be a sort of sister beer to the alt - the Sunbeam for my Dreams of Spring. I was going to use the left-over Spaltz hops I had from the alt, but thought that might make the two beer too similar in flavor profile, especially with using the same yeast. So instead I decided to try out some German Opal hops I picked up from Northern Brewer. These aroma hops are described as spicy with tones of citrus, so I think they'll be good used judiciously in this light hybrid beer.

Sonnenstrahl Kölsch
brewed on 3/7/12

Recipe Specifications
Batch Size: 3.50 gal
Estimated Color: 4.4 SRM
Estimated IBU: 30.2 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 72.0 %
Boil Time: 65 Minutes
OG: 1.045
FG: 1.010
ABV: 4.6%

Grist
3 lbs Pilsner malt - 51.4 %
2 lbs Pale Malt - 34.2 %
8.0 oz Munich Malt - 8.6 %
4.0 oz Wheat Malt, Pale - 4.3 %
1.5 oz Acidulated malt - 1.5 % (for mash pH)

Hops
8 g Magnum [13.10 %] - 60.0 min
10 g Opal [6.30 %] - 15.0 min

Yeast
Dusseldorf Alt Yeast (White Labs #WLP036) - reclaimed from 2012 Altbier

Mash Schedule
Single Infusion, 151°F, Batch Sparge