If there’s anything that smells better than Rauchbier wort, I don’t want to know what it is.
I know I say that about a number of different worts, but this time I mean it.
Rauch-Hell
33
Tag Archives: pils malt
brew day: Saison sans Merci
Time is utterly without mercy, fleeting by in blur until there’s just a midden heap of brew days, barbecues, and fishing trips that could have been. This is about closing down summer and the thirties, about getting back on the blog horse, grabbing what’s left of the daylight in the midst of transitions. A silent brew session in anticipatorily fall-like weather. Porter that isn’t quite ready to be porter, a saison turning dark for autumn.
Well, at least I’ll have some damn beer on tap.
Saison sans Merci
Target OG: 1.055
Grist:
- 90% Pilsner
- 5% Oats
- 5% Patagonia Perla Negra
Mash:
- 152°F for 75′
- 170°F for 10′
Boil:
- German Brewer’s Gold (pellet, 6.2% aa) at 60′ to 30 IBU
Fermentation:
- Chill to 85°F, O2 and pitch with Wyeast 3724 Belgian Saison – for that classic flavor
- After ~48 hours, pitch Wyeast 3711 French Saison – for quicker attenuation, because time is without mercy
.
brew day: Wies’n-Märzen
Wiesen/Wies’n
Among several words that are confusingly similar to the non-German speaker, this one means “meadow”. It implies a beer brewed for a carnival or festival (an Oktoberfest beer may be described as a Wies’n Marzen) or a rustic speciality.
– Michael Jackson, beerhunter.com
“There is a popular myth that there is one distinctive style of beer brewed for Oktoberfest – but historical evidence shows there have been many changes in the beers served at the festival … in the first 60 or so years the then popular Bavarian dunkel seems to have dominated … up until World War I, Bock-strength beers dominated the Wiesn. For decades reddish-brown Marzenbier ruled the tents, but … since 1990 all Oktoberfest beers brewed in Munich have been of a golden color … with medium body and low to moderate bitterness.”
– Conrad Seidl, The Oxford Companion to Beer
Well then. Continue reading
tasting notes: Schäferpils Zwei
A sunny tulip of this German-style pilsner on a recent late winter afternoon: Continue reading
brew day: Schäferpils Zwei
Partly because I’m a sentimental git, but mostly (I tell myself) because the selected Czech strain was still a couple propagations away from prime time, and also because there was a raging pitch of 2042 just sitting there with a gleam in its collective eye, this – and not the forthcoming Czech dark lager – was the first batch with Brew Dog 2.0.
It’s a revisit to, and slight revision of, the first recipe brewed in the absence of Brew Dog 1.0: a straight-up north German-style Pils with a blend of noble hops. Continue reading
German IPA, Polaris, 1217, process, self-righteousness – must be an October brew day
There I was, citizens: I was enjoying the last gasps of Minnesota summer while brewing outside, I was drinking something from Maine Brewing Co., I was trying out some new hops and new yeast, I was smelling the roast happening at the coffee shop downwind, I was gristing some malt and heating some water and ruminating on a recent conversation with friends. Continue reading
study in blonde
On the left, Helles (90% Pils, 6% Bohemian dark, 4% Carafoam – multi-temp step mash); on the right, Czech pils (97.5% Pils, 2.5% Acid malt – triple decoction).
Weiße 4.1
I really wanted a half-liter of Hefeweizen the other night … but it’s not quite carbed. Here’s the recipe from the aforementioned brew day followed by some preliminary, unofficial tasting notes: Continue reading
Svetlé 12°
Decoction is a meandering path to take to arrive at a beer; you can get a fermentable wort (not the same wort, though) into the boiler with less time and effort, but I think it’s safe to say that for most homebrewers, this whole thing we do is about the journey at least as much as it is the destination. Continue reading
prep day: nerds up, temps down
Czech pilsner: the OG single malt-single hop beer. It’s caramelly, it’s malty, it’s hoppy, it’s a lager but it’s got some yeast character; it’s demanding to brew but it’s so, so easy to drink. It’s been too long since I’ve made one. Continue reading
the beer engine 