Sunday, March 22, 2020

Hobgoblin Ale, pt III

So far, I've made two variations of this beer (here, and here), and liked them both, which is kind of odd because I would not normally choose a brown ale, nor an English ale, for myself. If I had to pick one, I'd say that the first one came out better, but that may be based more on carbonation than anything else.  Or maybe the caramel rye added just a bit of spice to the beer.  Regardless, I'm going to try one more time, and then hold off on the Hobgoblin ale clones again until fall.

I thought that this time around, I'd try a different yeast, but also do something I haven't really done yet...document the process, in pictures.  A friend has been asking, again recently, so I thought this would be a good way to document not just what equipment I'm using, but also my process.

Brew Day: 22 Mar 2020

Fig 1: Equipment
Figure 1 illustrates the equipment I use when making beer.  From left to right, there's a tray with a funnel, racking crane, and tubing.  I use the 1 gal thermos for partial mashing, and below that a digital kitchen scale and thermometer.  Next to the thermos is a 1 gal container of water with just a bit more than 1/2 oz of StarSan sanitizer, and below that is the glass fermenter.  Finally, on the far right is a two-gallon brew kettle.

To begin, I bring 3 qt of water to 160 deg F.  Once the water is up to temperature, I pour that into the thermos, and add the grain (see the "Partial Mash" section below), in a grain bag, to the thermos.  The goal is to have the water at about 144-146 deg F, so I get it up to 160 deg F, knowing that the temperature will drop 10-12 deg when I pour it into the thermos, then add the grain.

The grain stays in the thermos for at least an hour.  It can stay longer.

Fig. 2: Ingredients
Partial Mash:
6 oz caramel malt
4 oz Caramunich
2 oz chocolate malt
2 oz flaked wheat

Figure 2 illustrates the ingredients for this beer. There's the grain listed above, in a grain bag.  To the right of that are the two hops additions (see below), and then the DME.  At the bottom of the picture is 4 oz of table sugar, and the yeast packet.



Boil (20 min):
1 lb golden light DME
4 oz table sugar

Before the grain has completed processing in the thermos, I like to start heating 3 1/2 qts of water in the brew kettle, bringing it up to near boiling.  Once the grain is done, I then use thongs to remove the grain bag from the thermos, and then dunk it and remove it from the heated water in the kettle.  This water is at a much higher temperature than the water in the kettle, and as such, there won't be the extraction of sugar from the grain.  After doing this several times (I usually do so three times), I add the wort from the thermos and the other fermentables (DME, sugar) to the brew kettle and bring it up to boiling.  Once the wort begins boiling, I add the first hop addition, and begin timing the 20 min boil.  At 10 min into the boil, I add the second hop addition.

Hops:
7 g Fuggle (@ 20 min)
7 g Fuggle (@ 10 min)

When the boil is complete, I move the covered kettle to the sink, which I've partially filled with water.  I then add ice to create an ice bath, and after about 10 -15 min, begin checking the temperature of the wort...I want it to get to about 80 deg F.  Once that happens, I begin transferring it to a sanitized fermenter.

When the fermenter is between 1/2 and 2/3 full, I stop transferring wort.  I put a fermenter cap on it (the cap has a hole in the middle), and begin shaking it to add oxygen to the wort.  I generally shake it for about 5 min, vigorously, add the yeast, and agitate again for a minute or two.

Yeast: S-04

Once the yeast has been pitched (I tend to over-pitch, adding the entire sachet to the wort), I continue adding the wort until the fermenter is about full to the neck.  I then place a sanitized cap on the fermenter, place one end of a blow-off tube in the hole in the cap, and then put the other end in a Gatorade bottle with a bit of sanitizer in it...just enough to provide adequate cover for the end of the blow-off tube.

Once all this is done, I put a tag on the fermenter (beer name, brew date) and put the fermenter in the shower in the downstairs bathroom.  The temperature is pretty constant down there, and if something happens with the fermenter during fermentation, clean-up is pretty easy.

Addendum, 23 Mar: About 12 hrs after pitching the yeast, figure 3 illustrates that 'current state' of the beer.  It's bubbling quite nicely, and you can see why I like to use a Gatorade bottle as a blow-off bottle.

Fig. 3: Beer 12 hrs after pitching yeast

Addendum, 2 Apr: Bottled tonight, on 2 1/2 T of table sugar dissolved in 1/2 c boiling water.  Got 9 good bottles, and 1 partial fill of a 12 oz soda bottle.

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