Session Ales

This weekend as I was cleaning my Man Cave (really it’s just a musty basement) I walked by the 5 gallon bucket where I throw all the leftover grain from ingredient orders. You know the deal. Partial bags of specialty malts, some crystal 40 here, black patent there. When I saw the bucket, I thought, I better do something with this before all this goes bad. So I sat down to do an inventory. When you inventory your leftover grain be thinking in terms of recipe. Ask yourself, “If I was reading this list of ingredients in a recipe, what style of beer would I be looking at?” If you have English pale malts and some crystal, for example, you may think, “bitter.” You can brew good bitter with either American or English hops, so don’t worry about pairing it up with English hops only. If you are looking at a bunch of Vienna malt (like I was) you may think something along the lines of a Vienna lager (or a faux lager with neutral ale yeast) or some other toasty malty beer.

I had a lot of Vienna, but I had no Munich with which to pair it, so the Oktoberfest was out. I had a few pounds of base grains left from previous batches. I saw some Golden Promise, pilsner, 2 row, various crystal malts, and various and sundry other items. I already have 5 gallons of bitter in the beer fridge, and I have been brewing those a lot lately, so I kept thinking. A quick check of the freezer revealed partial hop packets of Warrior, Horizon, and Amarillo. I had a few full packets of Centennial and Simcoe. It should be obvious what my next thought was. . .IPA, of course.

The guys in the brewing class I am teaching with Jeremy had talked about how much they love IPA. A small batch could probably be ready to drink before the 5 class sessions over the next month and a half end. Since I didn’t have quite enough base grain to to a full 5.5 gallon batch, I quickly scaled down to 3 gallons and improvised a recipe. Here is what I came up with:

4lbs 12 oz Golden Promise

1 lb 5 oz Pilsner

8 oz Crystal 15

4 oz Dark Wheat

3 oz Crystal 40

3 oz 2 Row

3 oz White Wheat

0.2 oz Horison 11.5%AA @ 60 minutes

0.2 oz Warrior 16%AA @60 minutes

0.6 oz Centennial 9.5%AA @ 10 minutes

0.6 oz Simcoe 12.5%AA @ 5 minutes

0.6 oz Amarillo 8.2%AA@ Flameout

Mash at 149F for 90 minutes, 90 minute boil, Safale US-05 Yeast fermented at 67F.

That gave me the following specs in BeerSmith: Batch Size-3 gallons, OG of 1.066, IBU-65, FG of 1.012, ABV-7.1%, 7.6 SRM.

What came next was a frenzy of compiling and crushing all the grains and a quick small batch brew day. While I was at it, I had a Super Bowl gathering to attend later in the day, so I decided I’d dry some of my spent grains and whip up some of Jeremy’s Spent Grain Buttermilk Biscuits that he blogged about here earlier. They would go well with a backwoods Super Bowl party.

Be right back after brewing. . .

Well, sometimes the brew gods give, and sometimes they take away. I missed by original gravity on this recipe by a long way. It was supposed to be 1.066, but I ended up at 1.052. I imagine the small batch size and different equipment profile threw off my BeerSmith calculations. Not to worry, it will just be one of those “session ipas” I keep hearing about. In any case, relax, don’t worry, have a homebrew.

My 90 minute boil may not been vigorous enough, but the volume hit pretty spot on. With the early Mississippi February daytime temperature today at about normal at 57F, and night time temps hitting near freezing, my groundwater is pretty cold. I was able to chill this small 3 gallon batch well below 70F with my copper immersion chiller in no time at all (ok. really about 15 minutes). That’s my favorite thing about winter brewing in the South. Quick chilling but still not bone chilling cold on the patio. There is no way you can chill with an immersion chiller and ground water in under 45 minutes or so in summer time here.

Anyway, I went straight to the fermenter, straight away pitched my US-05 yeast, and then straight to the fermentation chamber. The wort smelled fantastic, and it foreshadows a wonderful “session” IPA. I will let you know how it turns out in a couple of weeks.

BrevisAndButthead Berliner Wisses are one of my favorite styles of beer. They are tart, easy drinking, and the base beer is extremely easy to make. Based on the BJCP 2015 guidelines, a Berliner Wiesse is supposed to have a starting gravity around 1.030 and 5 IBUs of hops and composed primarily of wheat and pilsner malt in equal amounts.

The hard part about brewing a brewing a Berliner Weisse is working with lactobacillus. My first four or five trials using lactobacillus and Berliner Weisse blends from white labs did not turn out like I wanted, even after several month of aging. The big problem was that my beers would never get sour. After a year, one managed to get a little tart, but it had too much of an acetic acid quality because I let my airlock dry out. I even tried an all lactobacillus beer once. I wrapped it in a heating pad for over a month. It grew mold before it fermented out.

For a while I gave up on trying to use lactobacillus in my Berliner Weisses. I got tired of fighting with the beers not getting sour, no matter what I tried. Then earlier this year, we got a chance to have Michael Tonsmeire do a Skype call with our local homebrew club. I mentioned my problem to him and he pointed out that a lot of people haven’t had good luck with the strains I have been using. He recommend a specific strain of lactobacillus: lactobacillus brevis.

After doing some research, brevis wasn’t used in any of the white labs Berliner Weisse blends I was using. White lab typical uses lactobacillus delbrueckii (WLP677) in their blends and is the strain I have used previously. I decided to hunt down some brevis (WLP672) and give it a whirl.

Brevis and Butthead

SG: 1.030

FG: 1.005

ABV: 3.3%

IBU: 0

Batch Size: 12 gallons

Mash Efficiency: 70%

Grain Bill

7 lbs – Continental Pilsner Malt – 50%

7 lbs – What Malt – 50%

Hops

None

Yeast

Lactobacillus Brevis (WLP672) – two vials

European Ale Yeast (WLP011) – two vials

Brewday

I mashed in around 148. Due to the lower mash temp, decided to mash for 90 minutes. Mashed in with ~4.4 gallons of water. I do not remember my strike water temperature. I have been using the Green Bay Racker’s calculator, but it hasn’t been accurate for me lately. Sparged with 7 gallons around 170 degrees F.

Hit 70% efficiency.

Topped off to 15 gallons. Assuming 2 gallons/hour boil off and I am performing a 90 minute boil to drive off DMS.

Final volume 12 gallons.

IMPORTANT: These next steps I believe are critical for the Berliner Weisse. I chilled wort to 100 degrees F. Transfer to two class carboys (I don’t recommend using buckets because lactobacillus can get stuck in even the tiniest scratches. )

While wort was still warm, I pitched the lactobacillus. One vial in each batch. Kept carboys warm (above 90 degrees F) by leaving them in my hot garage. Left carboys in my garage for about 20 hours. Brought them into the house to let them cool off to normal pitching temps.

When the two batches of wort came down to pitching temps, I pitched WLP011 into both carboys. I did not oxygenate like I normally would. I was afraid of introducing oxygen with lactobacillus being in the wort already.

Put both carboys into fermentation chamber.

48 Hours after Brew Day

No sign of fermentation.

1 Week after Brew Day

Still no sign of fermentation

2 Week after Brew Day

Still no sign of fermenation. Decided to take a taste sample. Holy crap was this beer good. It’s very tart. Like holy cow tart. I got a ton of other fruity flavors. Lemon. Orange. I decided to keg one of the batches now. It’s pretty dry. I don’t have my finishing hydrometer to measure the FG, but it tastes pretty dry. Based on the lack of fermentation, I am curious if this went through an all lactobacillus fermentation.

7/11/15

Tasting notes. This beer is excelent. The flavor hasn’t changed much since I kegged it. It’s still extremely tart. Like tooth dissolving tart. Next time, I might go with only 12 hours of letting the lactobacillus do it’s thing before pitching WLP011.

10/22/2015

I have brewed this beer one more time since the last update. I brewed another double batch. One batch received a pitch of Farmhouse Sour Ale blend from The Yeast Bay and the other batch got WLP 672 (Brevis) and US-05. The Farmhouse Sour Ale blend has a mixture of Brevis and a Sacc. I pitched while the wort was still slightly warm and I let it naturally cool to room temp in my house. The other batch was left in my garage and I pitched with brevis and kept warm for 24 hours. After 24 hours, the beer was brought into the house to cool. I then pitched a single packet of US-05 and I let the beer ferment for two weeks before kegging. Both beers were very good and tart. I highly recommend folks giving lactobacillus brevis or plantarum a try. However, the key is letting them get a warm head start before pitching yeast. Another important key to brewing berliner weisse is using no hops. Lactobacillus is very hop sensitive. Keep the IBUs very low. I choose to go with no hops at all. The style calls for about 5 IBUs, but I’m willing to bet no one can taste 5 IBUs of bitterness, so I just skip the hops all together.

Leftover Ingredients? Brew with Them!

Berliner Weisse – Brevis and Butthead