Agent Subterfuge on 27/10/2007 at 18:04

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Happy birthday gibbums!

Turtle on 27/10/2007 at 18:08

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Happy Birthday, GBM.
I maked you a caek, but something happensd to it. :(

Medlar on 27/10/2007 at 18:51

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Happy Birthday

Strong Ale and Ordinary Ale
(batches 2 -- 5)

Two ales, one strong and one ordinary, of between 1 1/2 and 2 gallons each, can be made thus:

Ingredients:

* 8 lbs., Hugh Baird brand English Pale malt
* 1 1/3 lbs., (Baird) Pale malt, roasted.
For darker ale, roast to amber: 30 mins. at 225 F. followed by 30 mins. at 300 F. For lighter, roast an hour at 225 F.
* around 3 lbs., oats (rolled)
* 14 to 16 qts., water (main batch)
14 will produce 1 1/2 gallons of ale; 16 will produce 2 gallons
* 6 to 8 qts., water (second runnings)
* 1 pkt, Danstar brand Nottingham ale yeast
* 1 pkt, Danstar brand Windsor ale yeast

Pre-heat the oven to 225 degrees F. Measure out 1 1/3 lbs. of pale malt, and place it in an e.g. 9 x 13 inch baking pan. When the oven is hot, place the malt in the oven and bake for 30 mins. Then increase the heat and bake another 30 mins. Or, for a lighter colored ale, simply bake 60 mins. at 225 F. Remove and set out to cool.

Sanitize an insulated tun (again, my 10-gal. Gott mash-lauter tun), and two fermentation vessels (two 3-gal. food-grade plastic buckets with lids).

Boil water for first runnings (14 to 16 qts.). Crush the malt, mixing the amber (baked) malt with the pale malt. Then mix the oats with the crushed malt well.

If your tun has a false bottom or other similar device, pour in enough boiling water to cover it. Then pour in all of the grain. Finally, slowly ladle the remaining water over the grain, pouring from some height.

Cover the mash tun and let sit 30 mins. Open and stir well, then close and let sit another 3 1/2 to 4 hours. This is a hot mash, so it will need this long period of time to mash (convert the starches into sugars).

Put the water for the second running on to boil. Set up the first fermentation vessel under the drain valve or tube of the insulated tun, and slowly run the liquor from the first mash into the first vessel. Close and set aside to cool.

After the first liquor has been drained out, and when the water for the second running has reached a boil, pour it into the damp grain. Allow to sit for 30 mins, then set up the second fermentation vessel and run this liquor into it. Close the second fermenter, and allow both to cool overnight.

In the morning, sanitize a smaller pan or ladle, a Pyrex measuring cup, and a spoon. Also boil about a cup of water and cool it, covered. Rehydrate the packets of yeast into 3/4 cup of the boiled water. Pour this yeast mixture into the two fermenters, 2/3 into the strong main batch, 1/3 into the second runnings. Use the sanitized ladle to aerate each of the batches (by picking up liquor and pouring it back in turbulently).

Close the fermenters (filling the water locks, if any) and allow to ferment.
About the recipe

Unlike the first batch, this second batch was based on the proportions used in an aristocratic household. There was probably less concern for the materials cost of the resulting ale, since it would be consumed by the members of the household, rather than being sold at a profit. So, as in other things, the aristocracy had more, and thus could afford to emphasize quality to a greater extent.

This is reflected in the recipe. It used twice as much grain as the first, Weak Ale recipe for less quantity of ale. Unlike the first batch, I measured the specific gravity of both runnings of this batch in order to gauge how well this set of techniques work. The first runnings of batch 2 had an impressive starting gravity of 1.091, about the same starting gravity one would expect in a wine. The first runnings of batch 3 were 1.085, and batch 4 were 1.090. The second runnings of batch 2 had a starting gravity of 1.051, about the same as a reasonably strong modern beer. (I did not collect second runnings from batches 3 or 4.)

This technique is not very efficient. In modern brewing, using a thermometer to carefully control the mash and carefully sparging (rinsing out) the grain, I usually expect to get at least 25 points (thousandths) of specific gravity for every pound of grain per gallon of liquid. (So if I made 5 gallons of beer with 10 lbs of malt, I would expect to get a starting specific gravity of over 1.050: 1.000 for the water, plus 0.025 * 10 lbs / 5 gallons.)

For the first runnings of batch 2, I got an efficiency of 11 points per (lbs/gal). The second runnings gave an additional 6.2 points per (lbs/gal). This improves the total up to 17.2 -- still much worse than the 25+ I can get with modern techniques. The first Batch 3 worked out to about the same, and batch 4 worked out to 2 gallons at 1.090, or 15 points per (lbs/gal).

To the modern brewer, the quantities of grain described in these sources seem extraordinarily large. However, the process seems to be so inefficient that large quantities of grain are required to produce ale of adequate strength using these older techniques.

Observations on the second batch, Oct. 31, 1998
The second batch was made with a yeast mixture of:

* 1 pkt, Danstar brand Nottingham ale yeast
* 1 pkt, Danstar brand Windsor ale yeast
* 1 pkt, Fleischmann's brand bread yeast (plain, not quick-rise)
* Dregs from 1 bottle, Cantillon brand Gueuze Lambic

Something in the revised yeast mixture was a mistake. The ale fermented out quite quickly, with much less activity on the morning of day 4 than there was the previous evening. So it fermented.

There was, however, a nasty and strong under- and after-taste, that was reminiscent of a minor taste in Lambic. My current suspicions are that adding the bread yeast to the ale yeasts was not a problem, but that adding dregs from the Gueuze was the cause of this bad taste. Other brewers have suggested that this batch should be allowed to age for a year and tasted after that. I will be doing this, but such age is strictly counter to the evidence (below) that ale was served fresh.

Observations on the third batch, Nov. 21, 1998
The third batch yeast mixture omitted the lambic, but retained the Fleischmann's bread yeast:

* 1 pkt, Danstar brand Nottingham ale yeast
* 1 pkt, Danstar brand Windsor ale yeast
* 1 pkt, Fleischmann's brand bread yeast (plain, not quick-rise)

This batch did not have some of the more subtle nasty under-tones of the second batch (with the Lambic), but still had a really nasty smell and taste reminiscent of paint thinner.

Observations on the fourth batch, Dec. 3, 1998
For the third batch, I used only the Danstar Nottingham and Windsor ale yeasts, as indicated in the full recipe above.

The nasty paint-thinner taste is gone, and the bread yeast seems to be the culprit. In retrospect this isn't too surprising - bread yeast has been raised to produce a maximum amount of CO2 gas, and any higher-order alcohols that the yeast may produce will be burnt off when the bread is baked. In ale, however, these off flavours will stay in the batch, harming the taste. So, in the end, this bread yeast proved unsuitable for brewing (which is not exactly a big surprise).

The fourth batch is strongly alcoholic, but has a pleasant, apple-like taste. All in all, it tastes like a stronger and more pleasant version of the weak ale (above).

The yeast mixture probably can be improved upon, but I have not yet found a quick-and-dirty method of substantially improving the mixture over using these two ale yeasts.

Biohazard on 27/10/2007 at 19:05

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Happy Birthday GBM!!!!!!

demagogue on 27/10/2007 at 20:46

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Happy Birthday GBMan.

Have some (http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,1737,155184-242196,00.html) Halloween Yam Pie
:D