I believe my first foray into rapid lagering was a success as far as producing a very drinkable beer in two weeks. Very debatable that this is a Czech pils however. Beer is as dry as a bone so its actually tasting more like a German Pils. Reviewing my notes on the brew day I see “mash dropped to 137F so slowly ramped up to 167 to mash out.” Oops. I think I wasn’t paying attention to the mash. My tun isn’t insulated and if I start doing things and get distracted and let it slip below 148F, which by the way, I thought was a bit low to begin with in BeerSmith, I have to fire up the tun again to keep it steady. Next project – insulating that puppy.

So let’s break this method down and see what I observed.

• Cooled wort to 55 and pitched 2 packs of Saflager S-23 directly into wort.
• Let rise to 57 and held for 5 days.
• 4 hours after pitch detectable smoke on surface. Next morning fermentation going with nice krausen.
• End of day 5 noticeable slowing of fermentation and moved fermentor into house and slowly rose to 66F over 1 day and held around 66-67F for 3 days.
• End of day 8 very noticeable clearing.
• Day 9 took gravity reading 1.011 – 3 points off but thought good since OG a tad high anyhow.
• Put back in fridge and crashed to 30F.
• Day 10 added 3/4 tsp. gelatin.
• Day 11 racked to keg and turned up psi to 15 while beer at 28F.
• Day 12 pulled 1/2 pint to check clarity – still a little murky and pulling dregs off bottom of keg and dialed back psi to 11 and rose fridge temp to 39F.
• Day 13 pulled 1/2 pint with a bit of floaters and then pulled full pint(pictured) – nice and clear.

Just a hint of acetaldehyde but that could be the yeast and maybe would lager out.  Not too sure but it almost had that Mexican lager smell like Tecate or Modelo Especial. Very firm bitterness but not much hop aroma or flavor left from the Saaz additions – a dry hopping would have done wonders to this I think. Definitely not malty enough but a nice dry German pils instead. Nothing stellar but a very drinkable beer.

In conclusion I’m a believer in this quick lagering method. I think if I use a recipe designed by me with my equipment in mind instead of a NB 5 gallon premade kit (really who gets five gallons out of these!) and really keep on eye on that mash temperature, I will have my Czech pils in two weeks.

Color verging on a very dark brown. Kind of a porter type color. I think it would have been a bit more attractive a bit darker trending toward black. Clairty OK with the corn flakes probably adding a bit of haze and I just happened to run out of Whirfloc for this batch. Aroma of pears, tea, hay and a tiny bit of roast form the Carafa III which probably shouldn’t be there(lesson learned on using dehusked Carafa – it’s still a roasted malt). Dry hopped with EKG and some Willamette I found in the freezer but really not detectable in the nose. Body still a bit on the dry side even with mashing at 154 it finished at 1.014. I think the dry mouth feel is a perception of the tannic quality of this beer with so much vegetal matter from the high hopping rate and perhaps the Carafa. Taste is tannic and spicy with a just a hint roast. The corn and crsytal 120 add a touch of sweetness and complexity to balance out the bitterness but the beer definatley finishes on the dry side. Dangerously quaffable for a 6.5% beer.

First off this beer is not black. As I explained in the recipe posting my use of brewers caramel for coloring came in below SRM target by about 10 points at around 20 something. However the appearance is a nice shade of brown with a thick lingering head. A bit hazy from the massive hopping but clears a bit upon warming. A bit of burnt sugar, alcohol, and a faint hint of Goldings in the nose. Tannic and floral hops with an assertive bitterness that is long lasting. Basically a hop bomb, but not in the idea of American dankness, but in a restrained English sense. EKG is front in center throughout. A bit of marmalade and molasses with a touch of sweetness possibly from hop glycosides and alcohol.  Body is a tad thin although I upped the mash temp to 153 F and the beer finished at 1.014. Think I could of went a bit higher. I think finishing at around 18 would suit this beer. Regardless very quaffable at 7.5%.

Just got back from Seattle. Although not as happening as Portland or San Diego there is a healthy number of quality breweries and beer bars. If I had more time would have visited a few breweries but did manage to sample a few  locally made beers. I’m not going to get all Beer Advocate on you but here’s a quicky review. By the way, everything I had was good to excellent.

Elysian

Tried three different beers –

1. Space Dust IPA – 7.2% 70 IBU
   A solid and well balanced IPA. Definitely can tell it was dry hopped with Citra.
2. Tribbleation Triticale – 6% 60 IBU
   A pale ale bordering on IPA. Pretty dank for a pale ale. Might be the Mosaic.
3. Bibelot Experimental Pale – Hovering around 8% IBU unknown
   Basically an IPA masquerading as a Pale Ale. Single experimental hop used throughout. Hop had a lot of fruit and the malt backed up the alcohol. I like this the best of the three.

Pike Brewing

Pike IPA – 6.3% 60 IBU
Middle of the road IPA but well balanced. Classic American hopping. Could be a tad more aggressive.

Georgetown Brewing

Lucille IPA – 6.8% 80 IBU
Huge hop aroma and super tasty. Put down three of these easily and could of done more. Looked on their site and they use an English yeast. That might be it. Excellent beer.

Fish Tale

Soundkeeper Organic Pale Ale 5% 33 IBU
A sessionable pale ale. A bit on the thin side and pretty unremarkable however. Too bad I heard that Fish Tale’s beers are pretty good.

Poured a light hazy golden with a nice sticky head.  Beautiful lacing.  I’ve used Irish Moss for years and years and finally tried out Whirfloc. Wasn’t prepared for the mass of hot break it created and ended up siphoning quite a bit of it up not wanting to have wort loss. Even after transferring to secondary still had a lot of hot break in the bottom of the fermenter that eventually ended up settling in the bottles that was creating some haze.

A wonderfully dry beer letting the hops shine through with a crisp smooth bitterness. Even at 7.5% this beer is really dangerously drinkable. First time I’ve done a first wort hopping and I think it really was key to creating a firm smooth bittering you cant get any other way. Aroma was wonderful but I was perhaps expecting more. I had late additions and a flame out addition where I let the temperature drop below 170 before adding the hops.  I did use hop bags to dry hop so this could be the culprit perhaps limiting the hops’ contact with the beer. The bags did however help with the hop particulate in the finished beer. Overall a real winner. Will be doing this recipe again.

Well this beer has been ready since Christmas but with the holidays and work, blah, blah, I’m just getting around to having a glass of this baby in front of me and ready to roll.

Beer pours a very dark amber verging on black. Nice tan head with a small amount of retention and nice lacing.

A beautiful roasty malt flavor hits your nose. Nice and thick on the tongue at first but a surprisingly dry finish. Has to be the water here. As I mentioned before the local water is off the charts on bicarbonates, which is excellent for dark beers. Flavors of toasty malt, chocolate and maybe a hint of coffee from the roasted malt. A little bit of sweetness upfront from the high finish, the corn, and the licorice root possibly but as I mentioned before finishes quite dry with a nice firm bitterness.

In short this beer is absolutely delicious. A keeper.

I’d like to up the salt and licorice additions on the next go around. I think it would add a bit more complexity to an already great beer.

Couple things with this beer I didn’t like. First, I forgot I had run out of Irish moss so the beer is super cloudy from the oatmeal. Second, this is my first real hop bomb I’ve made with Ventura water and something wasn’t tasting quite right. I had noticed it a little with the hefe and the Belgian pale ale I brewed a few months ago –  a kind of dryness to the palette. Not unpleasant and I attributed it to the high carbonation rate.  This time I knew I had to review the water report because the upfront bitterness is a bit harsh on this beer and this is a beer that is bittered by late hop additions, which some believe add a smoother bitterness.

So after reviewing the water report, lo and behold, Ventura water is super hard, especially in bicarbonates, which will make the bitterness from hops seem harsh. Not only is temporary hardness (bicarbonate) high, the permanent (sulphate) hardness is really high which could be producing astringency because water high in sulphates causes astringency in general – an almost dry slightly metallic taste.

Appearance of the beer is a nice golden orange hue from the Vienna malt. Clarity is turbid to say the least. Hop nose is over the top and wonderful. The 11 ounces of hops were late addition, flame out and dry hops. No bittering hops were added and all the IBUs were from 15 minute additions. This contributes to the huge hop aroma and flavor. Once your nose has sucked in the aromas the bitterness whacks your tongue a bit too harshly as mentioned above. The beer was estimated at around 37 IBU but tastes much higher. Body is thin but the addition of the oatmeal gives it a bit more mouth feel and the finish is smooth with a lingering bitterness.

Good beer but not great. The harsh bitterness up front ruins it for me. I think if the water was treated appropriately it would be an awesome beer. Might have to redo this one in the near future.

Tried the XPA II today side by side with XPA I. Not as creamy as XPA I, maybe because I cranked the carbonation down and is a little bit more attenuated. Definitely a drier mouth feel. My warm room is WARM and I can literally crack a bottle 3 days after bottling. XPA II has a much more floral character in the nose because of the New Zealand Hallertau, which I am a big fan of now, added as the dry hop. Beautiful aroma to that hop. Both beers have that Sorachi ace lemon zing to them but I think with different late additions the XPA II is a better beer with less lemon overtones because Sorachi Ace is just the bittering hop and not added at multiple times. Seems that the lemon zing or as some people allude to “Lemon Pledge” is missing but mildly apparent in I. Very pleased with this beer. If your looking for a good session ale this style is awesome.

The XPA was at 24 days old. Figured the younger the beer the more hop nose I would get. Poured golden with a white rocky head. Faint hop aroma. Slight bittering up front with more towards the finish. Dry hopping evident but not at the level I was hoping for. I would probably up the dry hopping another ounce. Sorachi Ace definitely lends a interesting lemon citrus note. Cara-pils ads a nice almost creamy mouth-feel. Over all pretty pleased except for the dry hopping aromatics could have been stronger.

Actual Readings

SG 1.050
FG 1.011
ABV 5.2%

So my mash was too high by about 2 degrees at 154. Add that I’m probably sparging a tad too much and not getting the wort concentrated enough after boil because I seem to have around a 1/2 gallon of wort left over when adding the wort to the fermenter. This makes it easier to whirlpool out the dregs but I’ve been off about 5 points on my last two brews SGs. I’m thinking I need to dial back my evaporation loss when calculating sparge water and it should dial it in.

Anyhow, tasted the young beer yesterday at two weeks while bottling. I was pretty pleased with the outcome. Malty backbone but a somewhat dry mouth feel  from the sugar addition, with a hint of citrus from the orange peel and coriander. Couldn’t really detect any grains of paradise but it might be buried under the abbey yeast. A pretty complex beer that will probably get better with a bit of age. Carbonated high so it should plump up the body a bit. A couple weeks of conditioning should have this ready to go.