Birth of a Dragon….. part 2

 Beer Recipes, Brew Sessions  No Responses »
Jul 232012
 

This is the second part of this brewing session. Please read part 1 if you haven’t already as it explains a lot about this beer and how to make it.

On day 2, we are on the actual brew day itself. Already completed are the Candi Syrup and the starter (let the starter spin on the stir plate until it’s time to pitch). Now it’s time to break out all the brewing equipment and make sure everything is clean and ready to go. As most readers of my blog know, I use the Brew In A Bag (BIAB) method of all grain brewing. It’s no better or worse than any other method of all grain brewing, it’s just a different way to reach the same goal. If you haven’t tried it, give it an honest shot before dismissing it.

I guess to begin with here, you’ll need the recipe. This was 2 years in its creation and recently I looked over a couple “award winning” tripel recipes. Guess what, mine is real similar to those. Here’s the recipe.
12 lbs               Pilsen Malt 2-Row
2 lbs                 Munich II
8.0 oz               Cara-Pils/Dextrine
2 lbs                 Invert Sugar
2.00 oz             Hallertauer Mittelfrueh [3.90 %] -Boil 60 minutes
1.00 oz             Saaz [5.40 %] – Boil 15 minutes
1.00 oz             Styrian Goldings [3.40 %] – Boil 5.0 minutes
1.0 pkg             Trappist Ale (White Labs #WLP500)
Keep in mind that since we’re using Pilsen malt that means we’re going to boil for at least 90 minutes in order to boil off any DMS. The above recipe is formulated assuming 75% efficiency. The Original Gravity (OG) should be 1.090 with 5.5 gallons as the batch size. The color should be 4.5SRM and it should have 28 IBU’s. Feel free to adjust the recipe as you see fit for your tastes and equipment. If you do use my recipe, please give proper credit to my blog.

On brew day I started out by weighing out my base grains and adding my specialty grains. Once everything2012-07-21 20.22.50  was weighed I loaded up my trusty Barley Crusher. I know that some people don’t like the Barley Crusher, for me it was an affordable mill that to date hasn’t let me down. Would I like to have a motorized 3 roller monster mill? Of course I would! Can I afford one? Nope. Hey now… If anyone wants to buy me a birthday 2012-07-21 20.35.13 present now you know what to get me! Since I use the BIAB method I can crush my grains real fine without worrying about a stuck sparge (no sparge in BIAB). With that comfort in mind I normally run my grains twice just to make sure there are no uncrushed grains. The results look something like this.

OK, so far we have checked and cleaned all brewing equipment, we weighed and crushed the grains. Now it’s time to get down to brewing this beer. With the amount of grains I 2012-07-22 17.18.51was using, knowing my boil off rate, the absorption amount and the amount lost to trub (absorption+boil off+batch+trub loss = total water needed) I knew that I needed 8.25 gallons of water. I also knew that with  that much water and 14lbs of grain, I was going to be pushing it for space in my 10 gallon kettle. I could have used my 15.5 gallon keggle, but since I’d have just enough room, the thermal mass would be greater and heat loss over the 90 minute mash would be minimal.

I heated my 8.25 gallons of water to 155F, then inserted my grain bag 2012-07-22 17.24.25 (thanks CustomBIAB) and slowly added my grains. After stirring the grains to make sure there were no dough balls (dry clumps of grain) I checked my mash temperature. Perfect! 149F I wasn’t kidding when I said the pot was going to be real full. I maybe had enough room for another .25 gallons of water or another pound of grain. Keep in mind that I needed room for the lid. Once the lid was in place I wrapped the pot in my old sleeping bag and set my timer for 90 minutes.  While waiting for the mash to 2012-07-22 17.26.10 complete I was getting everything ready for the remaining portion of the brew day including running to grab a 16lb bag of ice that will be used during the chilling phase.

Once the 90 minute mash was complete it time to remove the bag. Now normally I would grab the bag and lift it out and wait for it to drain. However, lately I have been suffering with De Quervain’s Tendonitis which makes it difficult to lift and hold the bag for extended periods. So instead of my normal 2012-07-22 19.03.00 method of lift, hold, place in second pot with colander to drain. I used a hook and pulley and simply suspended the bag over the pot for 20 minutes. I then squeezed the bag to get as much good sweet wort out as possible. Yes it’s OK to squeeze the grains, No you won’t extract tannins that way.

Now I don’t know why I never used a hook and pulley before. Quite frankly it makes the brewing process easier. Sure it limits me to one location for my brew pot, but that’s not really a bad thing now is it?I was even able to 2012-07-22 19.03.13suspend my hop sack from it instead of tying it off to the handle. While  waiting for the bag to drain I did fire up the burner to start heating the wort. I did leave it on a low flame setting as I didn’t want a boil going before the bag was completely drained.

Soon after the bag was drained and squeezed, I was nearing a boil. Once I got a good roiling boil going and was past the point of hot break (Hot break is when the proteins in the wort form a thick foam and if you don’t pay attention and manage your heat will boil over creating a huge sticky mess) ( set my timer for 90 minutes. Now if you have an Android Smart Phone there’s an app that will read Beersmith files as well as BeerXML files. That app is called BrewAide its free and it works great. of course you can read my review of it here. 2012-07-22 19.35.00

From here it was pretty much a normal brew day. The one exception would be adding the Candi Syrup with 15 minutes left in the boil. I added my hops as per the recipe starting at 60 minutes left in the 90 minute boil. At 15 minutes left I added the Candi Syrup, my second addition of hops, and then placed my immersion chiller in the kettle. At 10 minutes I added a Whirlfloc tablet. With 5 minutes remaining I added my last addition of hops.

At 0 minutes it was time for flame out. I turned on the water for the chiller and let the cooling process begin. Now here’s where I differ from some people. I do a 2 stage chill. The first stage is 212F –115F, this is all tap water. Now in order to get the most cooling for my tap water I do have it barely running so it’s not gushing 2012-07-22 22.37.51out the other side. Slower moving water has a better chance of doing it’s heat exchange thing and the temp  drop faster. Once we hit 115F I added 16lbs of ice to a cooler, fill it with water and connect my immersion chiller to a pond pump in the bottom of the cooler. the exit water goes back into the cooler. This recirculates until I reach pitching temps. Why waste water if you don’t have to? The reason for waiting till I reach 115F is so the ice doesn’t all melt in the first 5 minutes of cooling.

While waiting for the wort to cool I clean and sanitize a carboy using my Carboy Cleaner and Starsan. Once I reached pitching temps I transferred the wort to the carboy and added the yeast. During the transfer to the carboy the wort get aerated pretty well (I pour the wort into a big funnel and it drops into 2012-07-23 08.55.02 the carboy). As always I fitted a blow off tube (good thing too since after 12 hours it was blowing lots of foam). Starters are always a good thing and for a big beer like this it is a requirement. I had signs of fermentation within 4 hours and by 12 it looked like this.

There’s part 2. When the fermentation is complete I’ll move on to part 3 (there’s that number three again) which will be bottling in Belgian bottles complete with corks and cages. Until then if you have ANY questions, please feel free to ask.

Prost!
MM

Birth of a Dragon…. part 1

 Beer Recipes, Brew Sessions  No Responses »
Jul 232012
 

One day I woke up with the thought running through my head that in a few years I’ll be 50 years old. While some might think of that as a young age, others may think of it as holy crap that’s old! The age itself isn’t that important, but it is a milestone that sadly few ever see. I asked my friends to make sure to throw me a hell of a birthday party that year. One that would not fade from memory quickly like so many birthdays before it have done. That gave them 5 years to plan this party.

I of course wanted to do something special for that day as well. I wanted to be able to provide a beer that was truly deserving of a party celebrating me reaching the half century mark. I initially thought of a barley wine. BIG in alcohol and strong in …well alcohol! There are very few barley wines out there that are really any good for the masses. Either you like it or you don’t. The same goes for a Russian Imperial Stout. You’ll either love it or you won’t. That led my thoughts towards a Belgian Tripel. A beer that was big in flavor. Partially from the malts and Candi Sugars, the remainder from the yeast. Not a lot from the hops, which means that even non-beer drinkers wouldn’t be turned off by a bitter drink. Of course it would also have to pack a hell of a punch.

I sat down and started reading up on the beer style, then I started looking through my grains database (thanks Beersmith). Over the next couple years I worked on designing this recipe, tweaking it here, changing it there. Until I felt that I had the perfect Tripel recipe sitting before me. As I looked over my recipe the name for it rushed into my head shouting, Three Headed Dragon! The recipe was born, next came the planning of the brew day.

Knowing that a well made Tripel would need time to age (it would be around 10%abv) I knew that I would need to get this beer brewed with plenty of time to spare. I decided that three years in advance would be a good number. After all, Three is in it’s name. Three is present in just about every religion since the beginning of time. The Greek’s the three Fates, three Graces, three Gorgons and the three Furies. Even Apollo’s Pythia sat on a three legged chair (tripod) and Cerberus was a three headed dog. Multiples of three also seemed to be used such as the nine Muses and the twelve Olympian gods.

The Ancient Celts saw the number Three as The Maiden, Mother and Crone representing the three stages of life for a woman (women were equals in their religion). It was their representation of the Mother Goddess. In Celtic stories Heroes traveled in groups of three. Oak, ash, and thorn were called the faery triad of trees. Where they grow together,it is still said that faeries live.

The number three is represented in the triad or trinity symbol  triad which can be seen on many things in many cultures. It was on the swords of the noble Samurai, it adorned the shields and coat of arms for the Templars. Tibetan monks had the symbol on their rings and it is even on the coat of arms for popes. Three is a powerful number so, My Tripel would need to age for three years. Which of course meant I needed to get busy!

The day before brew day I made a 1 liter starter and added a tube of Whitelabs WLP500 Trapist Ale yeast. I put the starter on the stir plate and let it do its thing. I then turned my attention to making the Candi Syrup for the beer. Most commonly the Candi sugar comes in a rock candy form. Lately the Syrups have been popular since they dissolve pretty much instantly. However, finding a clear Candi Syrup is both hard to do and very expensive. Even an amber or dark amber syrup is costly, normally running $7.25 for a 1lb bag at my local homebrew store. A clear Candi Syrup is not much different than an invert sugar syrup so that’s what I made. 2012-07-22 09.59.31 Sugar is made of sucrose which while it can be converted by yeast, it’s not a simple sugar and takes more time and energy. Inverted sugar is sucrose that is broken down into fructose and glucose, which as simple sugars are more easily consumed by yeast.

I added 2lbs of sugar, beet sugar is best for this but cane will work as well (if the bag doesn’t say cane sugar, it’s probably beet sugar) to a pot along with 1 cup of water. I SLOWLY heated the sugar and added 1/2 tsp of Cream of Tartar, which will aid in the conversion process. Do not stir as it’s heating (good reason to heat it slowly) as natural convection will gently stir it and not cause crystals to climb up the side of the pot. At first the sugar is cloudy looking and well, just looks like wet sugar.

2012-07-22 10.02.23

That soon changes though as the heat increases. It’s a good idea to keep a cup of water handy during the part as it will be needed to control the temperature.  A good candy thermometer is essential. As the sugar boils water is evaporating. Since sugar boils at a much higher temperature than water converts to steam rapidly. As water evaporates, the temperature rises. If it goes to high, the sugar will scorch and that leaves you with a mess to clean and some useless sugar.  Add a little water at a time being careful because it will convert to steam quickly. Now is a good time to stir making sure teh water is well distributed. Holding a temperature between 240-260F for 20 minutes will allow the sugar to fully convert to an invert sugar. Add water as needed to keep the temperature in check.

While you’re holding the temperature it’s a good time to preheat a 1 quart mason jar. To do this I fill the jar 2012-07-22 01.11.14with water and place in a pot of boiling water. This will bring the jar up to near 212F preventing a shock to the glass breaking it leaving you with a huge mess to clean up, oh yeah and boiling hot sugar searing itself to your skin! So please pre-heat those jars and avoid a painful and costly trip to the hospital. Once you have held the sugar at 240-260F for 20 minutes add some water stir the water in carefully as it’s going to  again convert to steam. The temperature will drop quickly below 240F. Allow it to heat again and just as it reaches 240F remove it from the stove and pour it into the pre-heated mason jar (empty the water from the jar first of course). Secure the lid and ring and sit it someplace to cool. You should end up with a jar of a nice 2012-07-22 10.57.30golden syrup that once cooled is about as thick as honey.  There you have it. a simple Clear Candi Syrup. For an Amber syrup do the same thing except after conversion heat it to 290F and hold for 10 minutes. Keep watching it as the color darkens then add  more water to cool and then heat back up to 240F. Then pour in your jar. The darker the syrup, the more flavors you’ll get. They can range from a caramel, to a plum/raisin/toffee. Just be careful as once it burns, you have to start over. If you notice I use 240F as a reference temperature. That’s the softball stage in candy making and its what allows the sugar to remain as a syrup. Since this was the end of day one for me, I think this is a good spot to stop and I’ll continue in part 2.

Prost!
MM

 

 

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