BeerSmith™ Recipe Cloud

Taste Notes

10/10/16: This one got better with age. Malt character smoothed out/blended together and carbonation/head retention also improved. Still, not in love with this one. Great first attempt at a lager and at this style. Next time, would seriously increase the hops to get a more pronounced spiciness.

Notes

1.) Had to wrestle the 3 gallon Better Bottle into the mini-fridge and switch from a traditional air lock to a blow-off tube. At the top of the Better Bottle there are two ports. One for the blow-off tube, one for the air lock. When I switched to the blow-off tube, I neglected to re-cap the air lock port overnight. Corrected this mistake first thing next morning. 2.) After stage 1 of fermentation is completed, need to raise the mini-fridge so that I don't need to get down on the basement floor when I use it. 3.) Saaz hops smelled great during boil, classic Noble Hop character. What I'm really hoping for is the right amount of spiciness from them. 4.) Though I know it's a fault, when the Cara-Pils was steeping, it smelled like cooked/boiled corn. This smell later disappeared and the post-steeped grain smelled heavenly. 5.) Oz loves Cara-Pils grain, whether pre-soaked or no. 6.) Chooks rejoiced for the "Hot Mash!!" 7.) Took nearly an hour to cool this larger batch. Might be technique or just volume issue 5/22: 1.) Transfered Wort to 68-70F fermentation tank, continuing with blow-off tube. 2.) When I opened the mini-fridge, the thermometer read 60 degrees- not taped to side of wort, and the sticker thermometer along fermentation vessel read 54-56F. Likely no issues will arrise from this, but need to ensure accuracy of fridge temperature controller. Therefore, while the wort is in secondary, I will run a few checks using the brew thermometer inside the mini-fridge to check the accuracy of the temp control unit. 3.) Blow-off tube working well, fermentation chugging along. Yeast farts smell clean, bready. 4.) Used a turkey baster (star-san'd) to obtain the wort's SG. Next time, I need to wait for it to reach room temperature first. Still, feel relatively in the ballpark and it seems to have dropped roughly 30ish points-which is where I wanted it for roughly 50% attenuation at this point. 5.) Need to tape thermometer to fermentation vessel in the future, possibly wrapped in styrofoam like Michael does. 5/25: 1.) So good news- it appears that the minifridge w/temp controller works beautifully and that the increased temperature I was reading off of the thermometer sticker on the side of the fermentation vessel was due to the heat caused by fermentation- this trend continued in the secondary fermentation tank as well. Setting the thermostat on the tank heaters correctly for 68 and having the thermometer sticker read higher for the first day or two until the vigor of that Lager yeast fermenting at those higher temperatures finally calmed down. I had to keep lowering the thermostat on the tank heater to maintain target temp of 68-70F. Will need to account for that in the future: A.) Ensure Lager wort is completely cooled down prior to pitching yeast. This may require overnight cooling in the minifridge before pitching the yeast the next day. B.) Per Palmer in HTB, FERMENT LAGER YEAST STARTER at NO GREATER THAN 5 DEGREES WARMER THAN PRIMARY FERMENTATION TEMPERATURE. If doing a starter, refrigerate yeast starter in fridge overnight on the night before brewing and, after pouring off most of the liquid-leaving just the slurry behind, PITCH THE YEAST COLD! I'm assuming that if not making a starter, and therefore pouring straight from the liquid yeast vial/pack, just pitch it cold. Right? Makes sense. Supposedly, this practice lends itself to a cleaner yeast character/flavor in the beer and allows the yeast to work more optimally. 5/26: 1.) transfered Bo. Pils to "COLD CRASH'' in mini-fridge. SG= 7.2 Brix (uncorrected.) Plugging that into the brewersfriend refractometer calculator, this gives me an SG of 1.010 (or 7.88% ABV.) That represents approximately 97% of expected attenuation. Beer 68F prior to transfer. 2.) using a full toolbox to hold door of mini-fridge closed. AWESOME!!!!!!! 3.) will plan to add gelatin to beer tomorrow, once temp< or = 50F. 5/27: 1.) I boiled (well, 204F) 1/4 cup water in microwave, stirred in 1/2t of Knox unflavored gelatin. Sprayed all appropriate surfaces with Star-San. Maybe overly cautious. 2.) Added to Bo. Pils, which had reached 48F. 5/31: 1.) Today is bottling day, may not get to it. Still, checked the temp of the Pils in the mini-fridge. seems to be resting at about 40-42F right now. Curious to see if it will continue to drop or not. Assuming that no further fermentation occured, will check. Should have followed Michael's advise and try to "squeeze as much attenuation as possible out of that secondary fermentation phase." It is, obviously, the last phase for fermentation, the cold crash being to clear the beer. Still, will check FG at bottling. 2.) Alternate Lager Fermentation idea: A.) Kitchen fridge is 40 degrees, could make space and do primary fermentation in there. B.) Back freezer is at 4-5F, so could cold crash in there. C.) Problem: requires taking up space already totally full with family's food. D.) Best viable solution is chest freezer or regular sized fridge/freezer with temp controller. 6/8: Bottling Day! (Finally!) 1.) Temp of beer remained 40F even with the extra time in the mini-fridge. At least that's what the side thermometer sticker said. 2.) Gentle when inserting autosiphon into the beer! Stuck the dang thing straight into the trub and instantly clogged the bottling wand. This was a mistake that was costly in terms of time but was a good learning moment and good to know that my instincts about what the problems were seemed to have panned out. 3.) Always have more bottles prepared than you feel you're going to need. I ended up needing 3 extra bottles, which I rinsed and sanitized 1 handed as I held the bottling wand with the other. 4.) Start to finish, about 3 hours to bottle 21 beers. Need to streamline, but feel like I'm definately getting there. It'll get stream-lined with practice.