Some notes on clarity

Clarity is something I've always struggled with over the years, but it seems that for the past couple of years, my beer has become quite a bit clearer. There are a few changes I've made to my process that I think accounts for this:

1. Vorlauf, or recirculating, the mash. I've been doing at least 10 minutes and as much as 15 minute per each sparge. So when the mash is done, or close to done, I start recirculating, just pumping the wort out of the bottom of the mash tun and pouring it back into the top. I've used a variety of methods to not splash the wort on the top, so as to keep the grain bed undisturbed, but usually there is enough liquid already above the top of the grain that it really isn't an issue. Really, the idea is to scatter the wort as it enters the top so that it doesn't create a single channel through the grain bed. This does add some time to the overall brew day, but not a lot, and it seems to be worth it.
   
   
2. Ditto with the boil kettle. I almost always use whole hops, so I set up my pump to pull from the bottom of the kettle, through the chiller, and back into the boil kettle. Rather than scatter, since it really isn't necessary, I clamp the output hose to the side of the kettle so it makes a whirlpool. It's not a strong whirlpool by any means, and the whole hops are going to cover the entire bottom of the kettle anyway, so it doesn't have to be. This process usually takes 15 to 20 minutes to get the wort down below 120F (in the kettle, the chiller puts it out at 60f - 70F, whatever I set it at), and the hop bed does the same filtering action as the grain bed did in the mash tun. Once below 120F, I move the output hose to the fermenter. There is practically zero trub transferred from the boil kettle to the fermenter, which means I also get very clean yeast to reuse when fermentation is complete.
   
   
3. After fermentation is complete, I try to be careful when filling the kegs. I usually do 10 gallon batches, and both of my fermenters are large enough to hold the entire 10 gallons. I use my pump to fill the kegs, being careful not to suck up too much yeast if I can help it. After the kegs are filled, they generally get a couple of weeks of lagering at 35F. Regardless of how long they lager (could be as short as a couple of days, could be as long as several months for lager style beers), I don't move the kegs out of the fridge until after I've transferred the beer to clean kegs. I use a jumper hose like this:
   
   
   
   
   
   The first bit of liquid out of the hose goes into a bucket, it almost always sucks up some sediment off of the bottom of the keg. Then watch carefully, as the last little bit of liquid will also suck some sediment off of the bottom of the keg. Once transferred, it is as clear as I can make it, without filtering anyway.
   
   

That's it. With these few changes, my beer is much clearer, as clear as you'll find in most breweries, style-dependent, of course.

Update, 12 Sep 2017 -- I brewed yesterday and realized one other thing I've been doing is extra Irish Moss. I always put in 2 tsp in a 10 gallon batch, the label on the bag says to use 1/4 - 1/2 tsp, so I'm putting in at least double.

Update, 31 Jul 2019 -- one other thing I've started doing again (and haven't done in a long time) is using gelatin for fining. With all the things above, plus gelatin, my beer has been coming out spectacularly clear .

How to make a starter

I always have to look this up, is it half a quart of water and half a cup of DME? A quart and a half cup? It seems there is conflicting info, Palmer says the later, Wyeast says the former. I'm going with Wyeast on this one, I've copied their starter recipe here:

Starter Recipe:
The optimal media for cell growth and health require using a malt based media (DME) fortified with nutrients. Gravity should be kept near 1.040 and cultures should be grown at 70°F.

Recipe

0.5 cup DME (100g, 3.5oz)

½ tsp Wyeast Nutrient

1qt.(1L) H2O

Mix DME, nutrient, and water.

Boil 20 minutes to sterilize.

Pour into a sanitized flask or jar with loose lid or foil.

Allow to cool to 70°F.

Shake well and add yeast culture.

Timing of Starter:
Because starters are inoculated at high cell densities, growth is usually maximized within 24-36 hours. The gravity of the starter should always be checked prior to inoculation into wort to assure proper cell growth . Cultures should be used immediately, or refrigerated for up to 1 week before using. Cell viability will decrease rapidly if culture are left at ambient temperatures for extended time.

Beer Shed

I moved to Lisa's house at the end of April, and with all the pre-move prep and the actual move, I haven't brewed in quite a while. I was astounded at how much brewing stuff I had -- 26 cornie kegs, 6 sanke kegs, 6 6.5 gallon fermenter buckets, 6 5.5 gallon buckets for this and that, 16 gallon jugs for specialty grain storage, 3 beer fridges and a chest freezer, and more. After seeing all the crap I have for brewing, Lisa generously gave up the garden shed for a brew shed. It was mostly being used for storage, so we sorted through all the stuff, which was mostly pictures and mementos from her parents. After getting it all cleared out, I had an electrician wire the shed for 110V and put in some outlets and lights. Then I insulated the walls and put up peg board on 3 sides. The 4th side has built in shelves, so I didn't put peg board behind them. Now it's a rather sweet brewing place.

To top it all off, Lisa had a friend of hers make an awesome sign. The color matches the trim on the shed, and it was sized to fit nicely on the door.

There is still some gardening stuff in the shed, which makes sense since the garden is right on the side. There is a water faucet outside on the corner of the shed.

I did the first brew in the shed yesterday, and it went well. Brewing inside with propane is a little dicey, but I opened the windows and ran a big box fan, so the shed stayed reasonable for temperature and there was plenty of fresh air to dissipate any carbon monoxide or other nasties from the burners. I'm going to do a few more modifications. I'm going to add an exhaust fan at each end in the existing vents. That will help pull the heat out and pull in more outside air. I'm also going to get a carbon monoxide detector just to be safe.

I have a little more work to do for moving in. I have a better conroller for the freezer, one that will do heat and cooling. Right now I have an old Johnson analog controller, which works fine for one or the other, but since this freezer is now my only fermentation area, I want to be able to heat as well as cool. At my old house, I just hauled the buckets to the basement for ales, since it was always right at 65F. So now I have less space, but I don't have to haul full buckets up and down the stairs.

Awesome sign that Lisa had made. Dick has some sort of a cutter that he feeds an svg file and it handles up to a 4' x 4' sheet of metal.

Water is on the left, power comes into the shed on the right by the rose bush. Garden is to the right.

Almost moved in in this picture. Lights, storage, pegboard, pretty sweet set up. I built a cabinet for the grain mill and to hold the 3 drawers. Chest freezer is for fermenting, fridge is for hops storage and lagering. No taps in here, need to fix that.

Equipment Upgrade

It all started because I stacked things up precariously when cleaning up, and my pump took a fall and broke.

This isn't something that is fixable, so I bought a new pump head. I'd read on my home brew club form about Chugger pump heads, they are stainless steel and are designed to fit on to March pumps, so I bought this one:

Since it's all stainless steel, I needed to get some stainless fittings for it. I went whole hog.

This sure looks nice all assembled.

 

Then I thought I'd go ahead and get some tri-clover fittings and some high-temp hose:

Since I needed tri-clover connectors on the other end, I got those, plus bought three complete sets of stainless valves, pipes, and false-bottoms. 

Bock photo

I was drinking a glass of the Bock I made back in October. It is one of the clearest beers I've ever made. I've been working on clarity, and it turns out there are a few things that really help that I hadn't been doing until recently.

1. Use Irish Moss. I've used it every now and then in the past, but it really does help.
2. Lagering, of course, is a big help, even for ales.
3. Transfer several times. From primary, I transfer to a keg and leave it at fermentation temp for a few weeks. Without moving the keg, transfer to a conditioning keg. This is the same as a bright tank. Put this keg in the fridge until a tap is empty. Without moving the keg, transfer to a serving keg.
4. When tranferring, run the beer into a bucket until it runs clear. The first pull will suck up some trub, which goes into the bucket.  Connect to the transfer keg when that first bit of trub is gone and the beer is clear. Watch as it gets near the end, and stop immediately when the murky beer appears as more trub will be sucked up at the end.

Here is a picture of the Bock in front of a copy of the Northwest Brewer's News.

To Partigyle

Some notes on the process for making a partigyle.  I did a couple of things wrong and a few things right on Batch 100, so I thought I'd write down what should have happened for future reference.

Partigyle is a way of making 2 beers out of one batch, one strong, one weaker. This is a great way to get more beer out of a high gravity beer recipe. The basic idea is to add enough water to the mash to get out enough wort for half a batch, run that into one kettle, then add enough water to the mash to get out enough wort for a second half batch, and run that into a second kettle. You can either keep them as they are, so one strong beer and one not-so-strong beer, or blend as appropriate to get just what you want. This does require some extra equipment, you'll need 2 boil kettles and 2 fermenters.

First, create a recipe of some sort, then enter the recipe OG into the calculator below. This will tell you the OGs of the two beers. The most common use cases are making a strong beer out of 1/3 and a somewhat smaller beer out of the other 2/3, or go half and half. Pro brewers in England often do 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 to get three beers, and blend a little to get exactly what they want, so they'll get a 6% beer, a 5% beer, and a 4% beer out of a single mash.

Partigyle Calculator

Recipe OG:

1/3 - 2/3 method

First runnings (1/3):

Second runnings (2/3):

Half and half method

First runnings (1/2):

Second runnings (1/2):

3 thirds method

First runnings (1/3):

Second runnings (1/3):

Third runnings (1/3):

You might have to adjust the recipe to get the individual OGs that you want. I have only done the half and half method, where I end up with 5 gallons of strong beer and 5 gallons of not-so-strong beer. For example, my recipe for a 10 gallon batch of End of the World has an OG of 1.070, I'll get 5 gallons of 1.093 End of the World beer and 5 gallons of 1.047 brownish beer.

Use both the HLT and BK to heat water.  Heat just enough in the BK for mash in.  Use whatever is appropriate for the recipe, but usually 1.25 - 1.5 quarts per pound of grain.  This will leave your BK empty and ready to receive the first runnings. Pay attention, if you try to mash with all the water necessary for the first runnings, you might overfill the mash tun. You can use somewhat less water, run some off, then add enough to complete the necessary volume.

Calculate 0.125 GALLONS per pound for grain absorption.  Use hot water from the HLT to get enough for the first running.  Example:

28.25 lbs grain
1.5 qts/lb x 28.25 = ~42 qts = 10.5 gallons

28.25 x 0.125 g/lb = 3.5 gallons lost to grain absorption

10.5 - 3.5 = volume of first running = 7 gallons.

Heat 10.5 gallons of water in the BK to mash in temp.  Use all of this water to mash in - or not, pay attention to your MT volume.

That should be about right for a 5 gallon batch with a 90 minute boil.  If it is more than you need, make the mash a little thicker by adding less water for mash in, maybe use 1.25 qts/lb instead of 1.5 qts/lb.  If it's not enough, add water from the HLT at the end of the mash (and maybe after running off some of the wort) to get exactly what you need.

Heat water for small beer in HLT at the same time water is heating in BK for mash in.  Heat a couple of gallons extra in case you need it to top off the first runnings.  Make sure there is at least enough for sparge for the small beer since the HLT is going to be the boil kettle for the small beer.  Better is to heat a couple of gallons extra, just in case you need it.  You don't need to account for absorption on this sparge since the grain is already wet, so just add exactly the amount of water you want in the kettle for the small beer.

Drain any remaining water in the HLT to a bucket.  You might want it in case you come up short after collecting the wort for the small beer.  If you get more wort than you wanted, collect it all and boil it down to the right volume (need a 3rd burner).  Otherwise, the beer will be smaller than you planned. Or use it to make a cider or for a yeast starter.

One mistake I made was I used whole hops and don't have a SS screen on my HLT, so the valve clogged right away when trying to drain into the fermenter.  I used a scrubby on the end of my racking cane and siphoned.  Next time, I'll either add a screen to the HLT or put the hops in nylons. (Update, I have screens on all 3 of my keggles now.)

Note: here are the formulas used in the calculator above:
1/3 - 2/3 method:
    1st Run 1/3 = 1 + (3 / 2) * (og - 1)
    2nd Run 2/3 = 1 + (3 / 4) * (og - 1)
Half and half:
    1st Run 1/2 = 1 + (4 / 3) * (og - 1)
    2nd Run 1/2 = 1 + (2 / 3) * (og - 1)
3 thirds:
    1st run 1/3 = og * 1.5
    2nd run 1/3 = og
    3rd run 1/3 = og / 2

Filtering beer

I was less than impressed with the clarity of the Oktoberfest beer I'd made back in May, so I thought I'd try filtering.  It turns out I had almost all the parts necessary.  The only thing I had to buy was the filters themselves.  I got them at Lowes for about $7 for two filters, so it seems like a pretty cheap solution -- if it actually works.

I started with the water filter housing I already have.  I use a carbon filter in it for filtering the tap water for brewing.




I also had the ends I'd cut off of my immersion chiller a while back. I don't use the immersion chiller as a chiller so much as a heat exchanger for keeping my mash at a constant temp.  These are garden hose fittings, so they screw together and screw right into the water filter.





These are the filters I got at Lowes.  They were about $7 for the pack of 2.  They are 5 micron sediment filters, no charcoal.  1 micron filters would be better, but Lowes doesn't carry them and the prices I found online are significantly higher.  The research I did on the internet says 5 microns should do a pretty good job.





The other piece of equipment I had on hand was a "jumper" hose.  This connects 2 kegs from the out of one to the out of the other.  This is a handy hose for transferring from one keg to another, either by siphon or with some CO2.





My plan is to replace the hose on the jumper hose and insert the filter housing in the middle.  I still want to be able to have a jumper hose without having the filter, though.  No problem!  Here is the new hose attached to the disconnects and to the garden hose adapters from my immersion chiller.  The garden hose adapters screw together, so I still have a plain jumper hose.





This is not a "before" shot, it's a nice Amber beer that I was drinking while assembling this.  Total assembly time was about half an hour, and most of that was spent looking for hose clamps.





Here is a shot with the filter housing.





And all set up to filter:





The pictures don't show the whole process.  First I put about a quart or so of Starsan into the empty keg and used the CO2 to push it through the hoses and filter.  (Tip: I put a sewing thimble on my finger to push in on the poppet in the disconnect. Big time finger saver!)  Then I reversed the setup.  First I let all the pressure out of the full keg. Then I  hooked the CO2 to the full keg, hooked the "in" side of the filter to the full keg, hooked the "out" side of the filter to the "out" of the empty keg.  Then I turned the pressure up on the regulator to about 2 or 3 pounds.  That is plenty to get the beer through the filter.  It took about 10 minutes to do the filtering.


Filtering in progress:





Pretty simple, and pretty easy.  Unfortunately, I didn't think to get a "before" picture of the beer.  Worse, I had a problem with the empty keg when I was cleaning it.  The "out" poppet broke, so I replaced it with a popped from another keg.  It turns out it doesn't quite fit.  I can't get any beer out of that keg, so I'll have to buy a new poppet to fix it.

Update Sep 15: The poppet was fine the next day, I don't know what the problem was. Vapor lock, maybe? I'm still less than impressed with the clarity. I think the 5 micron filters did an okay job, and I'd use it again for transferring from a lagering keg to a serving keg. I found some cheap 1 micron filters on-line, so I ordered them. They are $2 each, and I ordered 6. They should be here early next week, so I'll try again.

Update Sep 17: The filters arrived today. These are the same filters that Northern Brewer sells, but these are considerably cheaper. I got them here: http://www.isopurewater.com/intelifil-intelifil-ifsp1001-10x25-spun-polypropylene-sediment-micron-filter-p-269.html



I poured a "before" glass, then filtered, then poured an "after" glass. Holding them side-by-side, I could see that the "after" class was somewhat clearer, but still not the sparkling clarity I was hoping for. I should have used Irish Moss in the first place...

Club meeting at TableRock

Some pics from the club meeting at the Table Rock brew pub. Bob, the brewmaster, gave us a tour through the brewery and answered lots of questions. This was an excellent educational meeting!


Steve checks out the mash tun.



Plumbing and grain auger above the 485 gallon mash tun.



In the brew house.



Bob the brewmaster and Bob the Bronco. Mash tun to the left, boil kettle behind.



Fermenters. The serving/bright tanks for dispensing to the bar area are behind the white door. Table Rock does keg beer, and will fill Corny kegs.



Fermenters, looking the other way. Notice the hose in the bucket, that is the blowoff tube for the fermenter. The people are gathered around a table with some grain and hops samples.



Close up of a fermenter full of Copperhead Red.

Massive blowoff!

I'm not sure what happened with that last batch of Panama Red. It ended up a little short on volume, so there is a lot of head space in the fermenters. Still, the yeast managed to work itself up and out of the air lock. Not a huge mess or anything, but still. The only time I've had blowoff like this was with that batch of weiss beer last summer, and that is to be expected with a weiss.

St. Brigid's Lake IPA

That 90 minute IPA I've been making -- I don't like the name. It's nothing like the DFH beer of the same name. The last batch I made was kegged and tapped almost on St. Brigid's day, so I'm changing the name to "St. Brigid's Lake IPA". The poem below explains the "lake" meaning well enough. Really, St. Brigid's day is the even older Pagan holiday of Imbolc, it's the day half way between the first day of winter and the first day of spring. Most people don't know that Groundhog Day is in fact Imbolc. There is deep history and tradition here, so it seems like a fitting name for a beer to me.

Saint Brigid's Prayer

I'd like to give a lake of beer to God.
I'd love the Heavenly
Host to be tippling there
For all eternity.

I'd love the men of Heaven to live with me,
To dance and sing.
If they wanted, I'd put at their disposal
Vats of suffering.

White cups of love I'd give them,
With a heart and a half;
Sweet pitchers of mercy I'd offer
To every man.

I'd make Heaven a cheerful spot,
Because the happy heart is true.
I'd make the men contented for their own sake
I'd like Jesus to love me too.

I'd like the people of heaven to gather
From all the parishes around,
I'd give a special welcome to the women,
The three Marys of great renown.

I'd sit with the men, the women of God
There by the lake of beer
We'd be drinking good health forever
And every drop would be a prayer.


Now, I can't claim to be a Christian, but I do like the tradition and history of it all (maybe you noticed that monk avatar?). And a "lake of beer"! That's just awesome! I'm not going to limit myself to brewing this once per year, either, but I think I'll make an effort to brew right around Imbolc next year.

Yeast 103

I got a new package of Wyeast 1272 yesterday. I have a long weekend, 4 days off, so I'm planning to brew. I want to do a 10 gallon batch, and single package of yeast won't be enough. I checked Jamil's 'Mr Malty Pitching Rate Calculator' for the quantity I'd need. This is a great calculator, although experience shows that it's generally okay to go with somewhat less yeast that the calculator says. In fact, the Wyeast package says it contains 100 million cells and is designed for a 5 gallon batch, compared to the calculator saying I should have 225 million cells. For a 10 gallon batch, which is what I want to do, the calculator says I need 450 million cells, as opposed to 2 packages containing a total of 200 million cells. I figure if I can get anywhere above 200 million cells in my starter, I'll be okay. After playing with the calculator for a while, I can get 300 million cells in 3 quarts using 1 packet of yeast. It's probably not optimal, but it'll be good enough, and I only need one packet of yeast.

I thought I had some wort saved from a previous batch in my fridge in the garage. I did, but it wasn't enough, and worse, it was old and starting to mold. I tossed it out. I didn't have any LME or DME on hand, so I ground 3/4 pound of 2-row, put it in a grain bag, and mashed it on the stove in a gallon of 155F water for about half an hour. This should get me right at 3 quarts of wort with a gravity of about 1.028, which is enough for a starter. In fact, that turned out to be just right. After mashing, I boiled the wort for about 15 minutes to make sure it was sterilized. After it had cooled to about 70F, I pitched the yeast, gave it a good stir, then split it out into mason jars. I don't have a stir plate, but just shaking the jars every now and then is good enough. After just a couple of hours, there is plenty of activity in all of the jars. I used 4 jars to hold the 3 quarts, so there is plenty of head room, which minimizes the risk of exploding jars or oozing out the tops.

As with any brewing activity involving yeast, sanitation is critical, so I make liberal use of Starsan. I keep it mixed in a spray bottle, which is real handy for sanitizing the outside of the yeast packet, the mixing spoon, and the scissors I used to cut open the packet. All the jars, lids, and rings were also liberally covered with Starsan.

I should be all set to brew tomorrow or Sunday.

Update -- I've got real strong activity, and I'm worried about the mason jars. I sanitized a 2 gallon plastic jar (food grade) and dumped all the jars into the big one. Plenty of head room in the 2 gallon jar, so no worries of foaming all over the place.

I pitched this into batch 71, Panama Red.

!@#$% No Beer :(

So I went downstairs to the kegerator last night to get a beer. I put my glass under the tap, pulled the handle, and NOTHING! Arg! I just had that CO2 tank filled about 2 weeks ago, and it was empty already. Must be a leak somewhere, and it must be a slow one since I sprayed everything with soapy water to check after I hooked it up. I got a refill at Norco today, and disassembled both kegs before I put it on. One of the kegs had a slightly shredded o-ring on the long "out" tube. That is a small o-ring, and is cranked down pretty tight, so it's a good candidate for such a slow leak. I replaced the o-ring with a new one, but for now, I'm only turning on the gas while I'm actually pouring. Maybe that will help with preventing the kegs from getting over-carbed towards the bottom?

I was thinking to brew this weekend, I think it's time. I racked the current batch (90 min IPA) from the fementer to kegs last weekend. I tossed out the yeast because it's time had come. I'm not sure if I have any fresh yeast left, it really is about time to buy a new pack. Maybe I'll brew on Sunday, maybe a nice batch of Panama Red. The last batch of PR had an odd flavor, I think from the hops. I had some Cascade from the 2007 crop that I thought were still good, and I just hate to throw them out, but I think they were the cause of the odd flavor. I think it's time for them to go, though. The beer is still drinkable, just not up to the usual "must have another" quality.

A Brew Day

Brew Day, July 14, 2006, brewing Panama Red.

This is a nice, hoppy beer. It was a nice day, so I took some pictures to show the process. Start to finish, including clean up is right at 5 hours for a 10 gallon batch of beer.

The recipe is pretty simple, but is perhaps my favorite. I made it up myself.

Grain:
20.25 lbs 2-row
1.5 lbs Crystal 40 or 60 or 80
0.5 lbs Chocolate malt

Hops:
2 oz Mt Hood, FWH
1.5 oz Nugget, 60 min
2 oz Cascade, 10 min
2 oz Cascade, 5 min
2 oz Mt Hood, 5 min

Wyeast 1272, American Ale II

Grinding the grain. This is the corona-style mill that I traded to Doug for a 6-pack of Scottish ale after I got a Barley Crusher.
The corona mill works fine, but was a little messy to use.

The grain is ground.

Brewery is set up, HLT on the left, mash tun in the center, boil kettle on the right.

Mashing in, aiming for 153F.

Hops are ready, there is almost a half pound of hops in this recipe.

First wort hops. 2 oz of Mt. Hood go in first, the rest per schedule.

Using a March pump to transfer from mash tun to boil kettle. Using a pump means I can keep all the kettles at the same height and
don't have to lift hot, heavy pots.

Putting the heat on the boil kettle. While boiling, I clean up and put away the rest of the equipment.

Good, rolling boil.

Chilling with my counter-flow chiller. The water comes out of our well at 56F, so it chills quickly.

Yeast is ready to pitch, I'm using Wyeast 1272 in this recipe.

Fermenters in the fermentation box. I use jugs of ice in the summer, the light bulbs in the winter. Red Green should be so lucky to own such a thing!

It's really just that easy!