Yeast Starter for PNB

The next batch I make will be PNB (Practice Nut Brown). I'll use the 11-year old malt extract and yeast that I recently obtained, so my expectations have been set to a realistic level. I figured I may as well use these ingredients instead of trash them, if only to gain experience/practice.

Anyway, since the yeast is 11 years old, it will definitely be very asleep, and quite possibly dead. So I decided to make a yeast starter last night. I followed the instructions at http://www.breworganic.com/tips/yeast_starters.htm.

I have a nice 1 gallon glass jar, so I used the recipe for 1 quart of starter. I found a lid for the jar that I could drill a hole in for an airlock.

I opened a bag of Light Malt Extract. This stuff is really goopy and almost black, looks like tar! Anyway, it didn't taste or smell bad, so I figured it should be OK. I poured what I didn't use into a glass container and put it in the fridge.

By the time I boiled the wort mixture, it was getting late, so I didn't have time to pitch the yeast before bedtime. I just poured the hot wort into the sanitized glass jar, sealed it, and let it sit overnight. I pitched the yeast this morning, and put the whole shebang in the warm, dark downstairs bathroom.

I guess this should be ready in 1-3 days...

Malt kilning and TBM bottling

On Thursday, I started kilning the wheat. I put the oven on its lowest setting, which seemed to vary the temperature between 80 and 150 deg F. Recommended for wheat is 100 to 125. Anyway, I left it there for 24 hours. At the end, the grain was definitely dry, and all roots and shoots were brittle. Rubbing the grain between my hands removed most of the roots and shoots. The malt smells great, and definitily has a sweet taste, compared with the raw grain. I did the same with the barley, with similar results the next day.

Yesterday, I bottled the remaining TBM. After 2 weeks of secondary fermentation, it is much darker, and much clearer, though not completely clear. The colour is probably about that of Newcastle Brown.

Have corn sugar now, that I primed with. 1.5 gallons of beer, and 2.5 volumes of CO2 required 38g of sugar. I boiled the sugar in couple of cups of water for 10 minutes, then poured it in my sanitized bucket.

Syphoning from the carboy to the bucket was a bit of a challenge. Part of the problem is I don't have the best tubing. What I have is reinforced PVC, which is quite stiff, and a very tight fit for the racking cane and bottling wand.

I ended up assembling the siphon before sanitizing. Running the ends of the hose under hot water helped soften the PVC enough to force the cane and wand in. Next I filled it as much as possible out of the sink by emersing the tube and wand. The water in the tube and wand was enough to start the syphon and fill it. Next I syphoned santizer, and put the whole thing in the sanitizer bucket. Then I rinsed in boiled water, and syphoned boiled water. After that I uncapped the carboy, and syphoned beer. I let all the water drain out to waste, then beer into the bottling bucket. I was unhappy with the slow rate at which the beer flowed through the bottling wand, so I decided to remove it. This was difficult, and hopefully I managed to keep the end of the tube sanitized.

Anyway, I got all beer and no sediment in to the bucket, with the priming solution. Stirred a bit with a sanitized spoon, then filled my bottles.

I only got 6 bottles worth, though they are big bottles: 2x1L, 2x650mL and 2x500mL, and small half bottle.

I'll try the half bottle in a week, but don't expect it really to be ready for 2 weeks.

I'll store at room temp for 3-4 days, then put it in the crawl space.

Lots of new equipment

Yesterday I struck a deal with a guy at work. He is getting out of the homebrew business, and I am getting in, so for $50, I got a good deal of (dusty) equipment.

6.5 Gallon carboy
6 gallon bucket with tap
airlock
hydrometer
carboy brush
bottle brush
Bottle capper
caps
bits of tubing
bottling wand
5x24 cases of empty bottles
4 swing top bottles
1.8 Kg (4Lbs?) Can of Muntons Nut Brown Ale hopped extract + yeast sachet (this is 11 years old!!!)
3.3 Lbs bag of Light Malt extract
Corn sugar
Gypsum

This very nicely complements the equipment I already have. I think I now have everything I need to do a 5 gallon batch (extract), without even going to the homebrew store.

Not sure if the 11 year old ingredients will be much good, but I'm going to try anyway, since I already have them.

The cases of bottles are made fro a sturdy cardboard. They should last well, provided they stay dry. Unfortunately, they have a mothball odour to them, but I guess this doesn't really matter, so long as I put sealed bottles in them. The other thing I'm unhappy about is the bottles have mostly Bud, Miller or Natural light labels (and it says so in the cases too). Hopefully the labels will come off, and I guess I can scribble over the boxes.

This weekend is lining to be pretty busy:
- Bottling of TBM
- drying of modified barley and wheat
- cleaning of new equipment
- Start 5 gallon batch

The barley and wheat are both continuing to germinate nicely. All shoots are between 50% and 75% of grain length. This should definitely be ready for drying by the weekend, if not before.

Continuing germination

Yesterday I soaked the grain for a second 8 hour stretch. At the end of this soak, I spread the grains out on baking trays and sealed airtight in trash bags (clean!). This is to keep moisture in. The instructions I'm using say I need to leave the grain for 4-6 days, until the main shoot of each grain is 75-100% the length of the grain. I'm following http://byo.com/feature/284.html.

Well, 12 hours after bagging, the shoots seem to be ahead of the schedule, especially the barley. Most shoots are at least 25%.

This is pretty exciting. I was somewhat skeptical that I'd see any germination at all with this grocery-store grain, but at this stage, both the barley and the wheat appear to be very-much alive! Maybe I'll get some usable malt out of this yet!

The remaining TBM is still secondary-fermenting in the glass carboy. It looks like a lot of yeast has dropped out of suspension - the colour is darker, and much less hazy. I plan to bottle this next weekend.

I got a used Warsteiner mini-keg at a party this weekend. It is 5 litres / 1.3 gallons. I might use this for ultra-small test fermentations. It has a nice tap at the bottom, and a cored rubber stopper at the top, which should take an airlock or blow-off tube. Unfortunately the empty mini-keg has a persistant solvent smell, something like turpentine. I'm not really sure what is causing this. I think the beer in it was OK. I've tried sokaing it in dishwashing soap, baking soda and oxiclean to get rid of the smell. The oxiclean diminished it, but it's still there.

Malting Barley

Today I found some barley in Wholefoods, that apparently hasn't been pearled or mucked about with. It's even organic! So I'm going to see if I can malt it. I got a pound of barley and a pound of soft wheat berries.

Both have been washed, and are soaking for 8 hours.

At the end of this soak, I drained the grain and let stand for another 8 hours (overnight). There are already signs of germinatation in both the wheat and the barley - a small bulge on one end of the grain.

TBM Bottle tasting

My curiousity got the better of me. I decided to taste one of the refridgerated TBM bottles.

I'm pretty underwhelmed. It doesn't taste bad, but it doesn't taste good either. It is flat (both in carbonation and taste), a slight hoppy aroma, rather watery taste and body. There are some slightly cidery sour notes. A very short-lived head. On the plus side, I was expecting it to taste more yeasty, after my tasting direct from the fermenter, but this is not the case. There is a pretty thick layer of sediment in the bottle, so I guess we did get some clarification.

This beer tastes a lot like some of the cheaper, nastier beers I drank when I was a student.

Analysis:
I used the help of http://www.mrgoodbeer.com/ to troubleshoot:

1. Too much sediment: Hopefully the racking I did today will help with this.

2. Cloudy/Hazy: I suspect I bottled too soon after the end of the primary fermentation. Hopefully the secondary fermentation will help this.

3. Small, short-lived head: I guess I need to increase the quantity of priming sugar.

4. Cidery flavour: Apparently acetaldehyde is the culprit. Secondary fermentation, and longer bottle conditioning should fix this.

So I'll put this down to gained experience. I might drink the other bottles, or I might not...

Hopefully I can salvage something a bit better from the second fermentation.

Racked remaining TBM

Today I racked the remaining TBM into the carboy. It's still pretty cloudy.

I sanitized again with oxiclean (actually Sun Oxygen cleaner - picked up 0.75 gallon from Dollar General for $5). This time I used about 0.5 scoop (1 ounce) per gallon.

Their is no easy way to rack from te TBM fermenter spigot, so I basically just poured into the carboy. I tried to run the beer down the side of the carboy, instead of a stream to reduce airation. Not sure if this is good or not.

Regretably, I allowed some sediment into the carboy. Still, I've considerably reduced the sediment.

The TBM instructions say that if the fermenter remains closed, it can be reused for more brews. So I just left it. Maybe I'll try another batch.

All bottled TBMs are still pretty cloudy.

1st Taste of TBM

So the TBM instructions say that the fermenter should be left in the fridge for 3-5 days. Its now 6 days since I put it in, so time to try.

The beer still looks pretty cloudy, though I think it has probably clarified a bit since it's been in the fridge. I poured a small glass. Slightly hoppy, and very yeasty aroma. Taste is similar. Carbonation almost non-existent, though that is to be expected, as I don't want to expend the C02 cartridge at this stage.

I don't think this is beer ready yet, and I'm skeptical that just sitting it in the fridge is really helping much. All bottles (room temp. and refridgerated) are still cloudy too. The sample doesn't taste bad, per se, so I don't think all hope is lost yet.

Having done a bit of research, I think a secondary fermentation might help things out here. Since I now own a nice 5-gallon glass carboy, I am going to try racking into that for a week or so, then bottling. Since it's already late, and I have nothing to sanitize with, I'll probably do this tomorrow evening.

I feel let down by the TBM instructions. I was very careful to stick to them (what I could figure out, as the were vague and badly ordered)

TBM bottles

The bottles of TBM are showing no signs of clarification, so I put 2 in the fridge, with the fermenter to see if that makes a difference.

Home Brew stores

I've been recommended the following stores:

Americanbrewmaster.com
Capital Blvd, Raleigh

Homebrew Adventures, Charlotte
http://www.homebrew.com/index.shtml

The Brewmaster Store, off Miami Blvd
http://www.brewmasterstore.com/

http://www.morebeer.com/
California, apparently market leader online store

Beer Machine bottling

TBM: < 0.1 bubbles/second. Bottling day. TBM kit doesn’t give bottling instructions – just says put fermenter in fridge for 4-5 days for clarification. So I decided to try both their instructions and bottling.

I started a quest a few days ago to find swing top brown bottles. About $3-4 each online (empty), so I found some beers at Weaver Street Market instead for about the same – may as well get some beer thrown into the deal! The following were available in brown swing tops:

Fischer Amber – a fairly dull amber biere d’alsace

Highland Brewing Cold Mountain Winter Ale – interesting spices – root beer??? Nice big 1L bottle

Schwartz – Dark Bavarian lager – pleasant, dry.

I also have a clear 750ml French lemonade bottle

I cleaned the bottles by thoroughly shaking with washing-up liquid and hot water, and rinsed 3 times with hot water. I sanitized with oxiclean. 1 scoop per gallon solution. Oxiclean produces a lot of gas (oxygen) when shaken in solution. I rinsed the oxiclean several times.

I primed with cane sugar. I used http://www.indata.com/collectionsoft/mybrewcollection/bp0.html to calculate weight of sugar to put in my bottles (500ml, 650ml, 750ml and 1l). I decided to try to obtain carbonation volume of 2.0, and guessed average priming temp to be 70degF. According to http://www.joyofbaking.com/sugar.html, 1 tsp of cane sugar is 4g, so we have the following measures for each bottle:

Bottle size (ml)	Priming sugar (g)	Priming sugar (tsp)
500	2.23	0.5575
650	2.89	0.7225
750	3.34	0.835
1000	4.45	1.1125

Feeling homesick, I went to Total Wine and bought some Fullers (London Pride, ESB, London Porter) and a Young’s Special London Ale. Ooh I love the subtle dry hoppiness of British beer!

First ever posting!

Well, here we go, I've been using the internet for ooh, about 11 years now, and never started a blog until now. Well now I've got a good reason. I've always been interested in trying home brewing, and in the past couple of months, I've been experimenting...

The primary purpose for this blog is to keep a record of any home brewing that I do, that I can look back at. It may or may not be of any use to anyone else. Of course, if there are any posts that interest you or you feel you can add to, then please add comments.

All posts that appear chronologically before this one were added retro-actively.

TBM fermentation complete

<1 bubble/second – TBM Fermentation complete

New Carboy!

TBM: Marked decrease in fermentation rate – down to about 2 bubbles/second.

Loren kindly donated some brewing equipment he no longer uses to my cause. A nice glass 5 gallon carboy, a 23L plastic tub with tap near the bottom, and various bits of pipes, tubing and siphons. The plastic tub will need careful cleaning, as it still has aromas of wine that Loren made. All was pretty dusty, as it had sat doing nothing in his basement for >5 years.

TBM: Active fermentation

TBM: Very active fermentation – peak of 4-5 bubbles/second

Exploded bottle

Woke up this morning to a loud bang! One of the two remaining bottles of WCPA had spontaneously exploded! I had moved the bottles the night before. I guess the movement + heating coming on in the morning + maybe an already week bottle caused this. Put the other bottle in the fridge for Jeremy!

Move TBM fermenter

Decided to move fermenter to downstairs bathroom – warmer and darker. TBM has a bubble airlock system, so it’s easy to check fermentation rates. At this stage we get about 2-3 bubbles/second

Start Beer Machine Kit

Started TBM kit with Mo’s help. Confusing, incomplete instructions. Chlorine-based sanitization. Left fermenter in loft.