Beermann's

[BretBeermann]

 

 

Equipment:

IKEA Induction Hob
5 Gallon Igloo Cooler with Brew Hardware True Bulkhead, Ball Valve, and Dip Tube 

Voille and Organza bags for filtration (can replace dip tube with bazooka tube for vorlauf without bag)
Fridge Fermentation Chamber // Kegerator

3 x 19 L Gallon Fermentation Kegs with Cut Diptube or Floating Diptube

3 x 9 L Gallon Slimline Torpedo Kegs
Custom Hopper on AustinHomebrewSupply DIY Malt Mill Base
22 L Hendi Stainless Stock Pot

12 L Stainless Pressure Cooker for Wort Canning

Homemade Magnetic Stirrer with 2 L Erlenmeyer Flask

 

Personal Recipes Brewed in Poland:

English Dark Mild #1
Christmas Ale #1
Stout #1

Amber Ale #1

Nut Brown #1

Amber Ale #2

English Dark Mild #2

Imperial Porter #1

Americal Blonde #1

Belgian Dark Strong Ale #1

Amber Ale #3

Hoppy Blonde #1

80 Shilling #1

Wee Heavy #1

Munich Helles #1

Peated Session Lager #1

Munich Dunkel #1

Dry Stout #1

Belgian Blonde with Montmorency Cherries

Festbier #1

Doppelbock #1

Session Dunkel #1

Foreign Extra Stout #1

Belgian Blonde #2

Belgian Single #1

Ordinary Bitter #1

Extra Strong Bitter #1

Northern English Brown #1

English Barleywine #1

Non-alcoholic Ginger Ale #1

American Pale Ale #1

Vienna Lager #1

Rauchmarzen #1

Munich Dunkel #2

Baltic Porter #1

 

Process Posts:

 

Bottling Off The Keg

Converting U.S. Shanks for Cobra Tower

Pressure Canning Starter Wort

IKEA Cabinet Kegerator Construction

Recirculating Line Cleaning

Edytowane 18 Stycznia 2023 przez BretBeermann

[Mariusz_CH]

Gąsiors: 25 L, 15 L, 10L, 4 x 5 L

[BretBeermann]

English Mild #1

 

2,5 kg Marris Otter

700 g Caramunich III

170 g CARAFA I

 

25 g Fuggle at 45 minutes

25 g Fuggle at 15 minutes

 

Nottingham Dry Yeast (Lallemand)

 

Single Infusion at 70^o C.

 

 

 

 

I mashed this beer in my 30 L aluminum kettle while working on the rest of my equipment and waiting for some supplies to arrive from the States. I used a cheap (under 15 PLN) curtain to line the pot and filter the grain from the wort. I dunk sparged in a smaller stainless kettle to reach my desired volume as 30 L was too small for no-sparge. I boiled it an hour and hit fairly close to my desired 5-gallon batch size. OG was 1.034 and FG was about 1.012 for just under 3% ABV. I fermented this in ambient temperatures around 20^o C.

 

Tasting it you can detect a slight watery nature to the beer but as it warms there is nice toasty malt flavor. This beer is a pleasant and easy drinking beer exactly as I was hoping.

Edytowane 13 Października 2014 przez BretBeermann

[Shooter]

Gąsiors: 25 L, 15 L, 10L, 4 x 5 L

ten pierwszy gąsior jest najstarszy 25l ciekawe ile młóta zjedzą te młode 5l

 

Fajny wątek, jeszcze admin mógłby dołączyć zakładkę do translatora.

[KosciaK]

The Gąsiors - that would be an awesome name for punk rock band!

[BretBeermann]

You play the drums KosciaK?

Edytowane 13 Października 2014 przez BretBeermann

[KosciaK]

You play the drums KosciaK?

 

Well... can't play drums, but I don't think that would be a problem in a true punk rock band

[Makaron]

Gąsiors: 25 L, 15 L, 10L, 4 x 5 L

ten pierwszy gąsior jest najstarszy 25l ciekawe ile młóta zjedzą te młode 5l

 

Fajny wątek, jeszcze admin mógłby dołączyć zakładkę do translatora.

Gościnność zawsze była najważniejszą cechą piwo.org mam nadzieję że tak zostanie. Prawdę mówiąc przykro mi, że muszę o tym przypominać.

[BretBeermann]

Christmas Ale #1

5 kg Munich
1 kg Pilsner
230 g CaraMunich III
225 g Special B
115 g Wheat
95 g Carafa I
0,5 kg Honey

50 g Fuggle 60 minutes
30 g Galena 30 minutes

Safale US-05 (2 Packets)

Single Infusion Mash at 67^o C.

At bottling:
1 Cinnamon Stick
1 Tablespoon Fresh Ginger
1 Tablespoon Grapefruit Zest
1 Tablespoon Vanilla Extract

I mashed this with strike temperature of 73.5 C and hit right around my target. My first running showed at 1.065. I dunk sparged with 8 L then pour-over sparged with another 3 L to hit my preboil volume. Honey was added during the boil. I ended up with 20 L in the fermentor at 1.075 gravity (18 BLG). I no-chilled this beer as I did not have my immersion chiller then. I fermented it around 20 C ambient and bottled it 8 days later. I wanted this done and labeled to take with me as I visited my family. I took 3 L worth and lost 500 mL to a broken bottle in my luggage. It finished out at 1.012 (8 BLG on refractometer) for around 8.25% ABV. The spices were made into a tea in a French Press and added with the priming sugar.

This beer was not good when it was green. After a month the spices were still subdued. I've let it sit now for over 2 months and it is starting to come around. The spices are beginning to stand out and it shows itself as a holiday beer. Great malt character, but at times I wish it was not as bitter. I think that I over-extracted slightly using the no-chill method. As the bitterness is mellowing with time the beer is improving.

Drank almost all of it over the holidays, but am unhappy with the spicing. I plan on cutting out the ginger and grapefruit zest next year.

 

Edytowane 10 Września 2017 przez BretBeermann

[BretBeermann]

Stout #1

 

25 Liter Batch

 

4 kg Munich

450 g Flaked Oats

300 g Carafa II

300 g Roasted Barley

 

20 g Nugget for 60 Minutes

 

Danstar Nottingham Yeast

 

Single Infusion Mash at 69^o C for 60 Minutes. Mash out for 10 minutes. Pull first runnings, and batch sparge at mashout temperatures to 29 Liters volume. Boil 60 minutes with only bittering addition. Boil down a portion of the wort in a second pot for carmelized flavors and add back to main batch. Ferment with 1 packet of Danster Nottingham.

 

Roughly 12 BLG.

 

 

 

I brewed this on 29.11, and bottled it a month later carbonating at 2.1 volumes. I let it sit 11 days and it wasn't quite ready. After 2 weeks some bottles were getting towards good carbonation. Slight astringency to the roasted malts from mashing them instead of adding to sparge. Complements the coffee flavors well. Low bitterness, great roast aroma with no hop aroma. Overall, a fine stout. Will need to brew another stout soon as this won't last long.

Edytowane 10 Września 2017 przez BretBeermann

[BretBeermann]

Garbage Red Ale

 

Brewed up the last of my pre-milled grain from Browamator purchased before I had my mill. Left out the kilogram of roasted barley for obvious reasons. 

 

5 kg Pilsner

900 g Wheat

450 g Marris Otter

115 g Carafa I

95 g Caramunich III

60 g Carapils

 

40 g of 8.1% Challenger at 60 Minutes

 

Mashed at 67 C for 70 Minutes. Brewed with BIAB. No-chill overnight. Pitched Nottingham in the morning.

 

Didn't take many measurements as this beer was not terribly important to me. Figured I'd simply use up the grains before they went bad. Came out like my recent Nut Brown, with some issues with yeast flavor in the beer from Nottingham not dropping. Figured since this was a big beer (7+%), I could wait on it. After a few months this beer began to turn around. Beautiful red color (truly a red). Great foam stability and feel. Really malty beer with a flavor similar to Komes Ciemne Podwojny. A beer I may actually brew again with adjustments.

Edytowane 7 Kwietnia 2015 przez BretBeermann

[BretBeermann]

Nut Brown #1

Brewed 28/02/2015

 

4,1 kg Pale Ale (Weyermann)

450 g Cara Gold 60

450 g Flaked Oats

225 g Victory

115 g American Chocolate (700 EBC)

 

13,5 Expected BLG

 

23 g Willamette (5,4)

27 g East Kent Goldings (4,4)

22 Calculated IBU

 

Mashed in with 14 L at 74 degrees C. Hit 67,2 degrees C and rested for 60 minutes. Sparged with 16 L of water at 75,5 degrees C. Fermented with a rehydrated package of Danstar Nottingham.

 

Ended up having issues with this yeast flocculating. Haven't had this problem with Nottingham in the past. Possibly due to the age of the sachet. Too yeasty to drink presently. Ended up never clearing and the yeast cake infected the next two batches. Gushers developed even after prolonged primary and stable gravity. First time I've run into a bad pack of dry yeast, but it doesn't seem to have persisted in my gear after cleansing it all.

Edytowane 25 Kwietnia 2016 przez BretBeermann

[BretBeermann]

Amber Ale #2

Brewed on 15/03/2015

 

20 L Batch

 

4 kg Pilsner (Bruntal)

75 g Pale Chocolate

500 g Caramel 60 L

225g Caracmel 10 L

 

Expected OG of approximately 16 BLG

 

25 g Goldings (First Wort Hops)

30 g Mittelfruh (25 minutes)

25 g WIllamette (15 minutes)

 

1 Whirlfloc tablet (7 minutes)

 

Double crushed grain. Mashed in with 16 L at 72,5 degrees C to hit 66,5 degree C mash temperature. Rested 60 minutes. Mashed out with 9 L of boiling water to hit 76 degrees C. No-chill.

 

Rehydrated 1 package of US-05. 

 

Brewed this Amber to build up a yeast cake for my porter. Came out with great tropical notes and good hop flavor/aroma. Nice beautiful color, closer to a Pale Ale. Luckily this one wasn't using the slurry from the infected series of beers in my other fermentors. Thus, I was at least spared one great beer to drink over the summer.

 

Edytowane 10 Września 2017 przez BretBeermann

[BretBeermann]

English Dark Mild #2

Brewed on 21/03/2015

 

23 L Batch

 

3 kg Pale Ale (Weyermann)

750 g Caramel 60 L

150 g Chocolate (1200 EBC)

 

Expected gravity of 9,5 BLG

 

25 g Willamette (30 minutes)

20 g Golding (15 minutes)

 

Expected IBU 15

 

Mashed in with 11 L of 81 degree C water to hit 70 degrees C. Rested 60 minutes. Sparged to 30 L of volume. 

 

Threw this one on the Nottingham cake after the Nut Brown. Unfortunately had the same issues. After 2 weeks in the fridge, I drank one last weekend. Great chocolate notes, with ample body. Carbonated to 2,5 volumes. Amazing summer beer, exactly as I wanted it. Batch eventually showed signs of infection from using the Nut Brown cake. Dumped the last half out in the process of purging the beer and cleaning up the equipment.

Edytowane 25 Kwietnia 2016 przez BretBeermann

[BretBeermann]

Imperial Porter #1

 

20 L Batch

 

5,9 kg Pale Ale (Weyermann)

1,135 kg Munich II

680 g Brown Malt

450 g Special B

565 g American Chocolate

200 g CaraAmber

25 g Cara Gold 120

 

15 g Nugget 14,5% (60 minutes)

30 g Challenger 8,1% (55 minutes)

15 g Challenger 8,1% (10 minutes)

 

Mashed in with 26,5 L at 74 degrees C. Mashed at 67 degrees C for 60 minutes. Sparged with 11,5 liters of cold water.

 

Threw this on the US-05 cake after my amber. Let it sit in primary for 2-3 months. Added 250 mL of Bourbon (Jim Beam) and 2 Tablespoons of Pure Vanilla Extract prior to bottling. Carbonated within a week. Bourbon notes sit at the front with minor vanilla notes presently. Much better than the commercial porters I've been drinking lately, but as a young beer needs some age under it. Based on my high efficiency, estimate the ABV to be between 13-14%.

 

Edytowane 29 Czerwca 2015 przez BretBeermann

[BretBeermann]

American Blonde #1

Brewed on 30/04/2015

 

30 L Batch

 

4,875 kg Pale Ale (Weyermann)

525 g CaraPils

340 g Vienna

240 g Caramel 10 L

 

Overbrewed this so I could package some started wort in the pressure cooker. Mashed in with 11,5 L to hit 65,5 degrees C for 60 minutes. Mashed out with 6 L of boiling water. Pulled 11,5 L of first running at 19 BLG. Sparged with 19 L of cold water. Took 11 L of 7 BLG runnings and topped the batch up to 30 L before the boil. Rest of runnings went to starter wort.

 

This batch unfortunately got caught up in a month of brewing that ended up with an infected dry pack ruining 3 batches. Started off funky and drinkable but got progressively worse as it aged.

Edytowane 25 Kwietnia 2016 przez BretBeermann

[BretBeermann]

Amber Ale #1

Brewed 27/12/2014

 

20 L Batch

 

4 kg Pilsner (Bruntal)

75 g CARAFA I

340 g Cara Gold 120

225 g CaraBelge

165 g CaraMunich II

 

25 g Golding (FWH)

30 g Liberty (25 minutes)

25 g Willamette (15 minutes)

 

Whirlfloc Tablet (7 minutes)

 

Mashed in with 14 L of 74 degree C water. Mashed at 67 degrees C for 60 minutes. Added boiling water to hit 76,6 degrees C mashout. Ended up bottling 17 L on 28/02/2015 carbed at 2,5 volumes. No-Chill on the balcony at -5 degrees C overnight.

 

Great hop balance with the malt. Great amber color. Overall nice beer, but didn't age well. Picked up some signs of oxidation over the months and turned the lat few into mulled beer. One of the wife's favorites when young.

 

 

 

Edytowane 10 Września 2017 przez BretBeermann

[BretBeermann]

Hoppy Blonde #1

 

17 L Batch

 

2,9 kg Pale Ale (Weyermann)

450 g Vienna (Weyermann)

 

50 g Amarillo (7 minutes)

 

Aiming to use up some Amarillo with a quick brew, I mashed in with 9 L of water to hit 65 C target temperature for a 40 minute mash. Drew off first runnings, and did two sparges with cold water to hit 20 L into the kettle. Boiled for 40 minutes before chilling and putting into the keg to ferment.

 

Brewed 04.04

Time to brew: 150 Minutes

Bottled 23.04

 

 

Picture before and after adding gelatin for 5 days.

 

 

Nice light beer, typical of a blonde. Amarillo aroma and flavor are the primary elements of the beer, with a subtle bready background from the grains. Nice head leaves ample lacing and keeps a nice white cap on the beer the whole way down.

Edytowane 25 Kwietnia 2016 przez BretBeermann

[BretBeermann]

Amber Ale #3

 

15 L Batch

 

3 kg Pale Ale (Weyermann)

60 g Pale Chocolate

125 g Caramel 60L

250 g CaraGold

170 g Caramel 10L

 

53 g Centennial (7 min)

 

Hothead Ale by Omega (Startered)

 

Mashed in with 12 L of water to hit a 66.5 C target mash temperature. Mashed for 30 minutes. Sparged once. Boiled for 30 minutes before chilling and putting into the keg to ferment. Fermented it at ambient for 7 days primary before racking to keg. Force carbed for one day at 30 PSI, then dropped to 20 PSI until carbonated.

 

 

Time to brew: 2 hours

Brewed on 28.03

Bottle 12.04

 

 

Got this quick and dirty batch into the keg as fast as possible and straight into bottles without a prolonged cold crash or fining. Needed something to drink and wanted to check the ester produced for the yeast. Nice fruity ester was pretty front and center, complimenting the Centennial hops well. I can see myself using this yeast a lot in the future, especially due to its temperature tolerance. 

Edytowane 10 Września 2017 przez BretBeermann

[BretBeermann]

Belgian Dark Strong Ale #1

 

15 L Batch Size

 

3 kg Pale Ale (Weyermann)

500 g Carapils/Dextrine Malt

1 kg Homemade Amber Brewer's Caramel

 

15 g Hallertau (60 min)

 

FM26 Belgijskie Pagórki (Startered)

 

Wanted to try out this yeast and made some brewer's caramel to mimic Candi syrup in a Belgian-style ale. My efficiency was a lot higher than expected, so I added additional brewer's caramel to bump it up to Dark Strong Ale levels. Fermented it at high ambient (24 C) to check out the yeast at high temperatures. Came out hot and will age it as long as possible. After having some issues with adjusting my gear, and drinking a portion out of the keg, ended up with only about 8 x 750 mL bottles for aging.

 

Brewed 07.11

Edytowane 7 Stycznia 2017 przez BretBeermann

[BretBeermann]

Scottish 80 Shilling (80/-) #1

 

17 L Batch Size

 

2.6 kg Pale Ale (Weyermann and Fawcett's Golden Promise)

205 g Caramel 20 L

205 g Caramel 80 L

165 g Caramel 120 L

100 g Munich I

 

30 g East Kent Golding (30 min)

 

FM12 W szkocką kratę (Startered)

 

Making a batch as a "starter" for a Wee Heavy. Startered FM12 at 1 liter for 24 hours. Mashed in with 12 L of water at 80 and overshot my mash temperature by 2 degrees. Added a little bit of cooler water to get down to 70, and mashed for 90 minutes due to a storm rolling through. Pulled 7 liters of 20 Plato runnings, sparged with 8 liters of cool water. Sparged one more time to volume. 22 liters of preboil volume, boiled for an hour and collected at 11.5 degrees Plato. Chilled and poured into sanitized keg to ferment. Let cool to 15 C in keg before pitching.

 

Brewed 03.05

 

 

Closed up the keg after 5 days of fermentation. Pressure when checked with spunding valve tight a few days later was 14 PSI. Should be around 2 volumes at the temperature it was in the cellar. First glass off showed it hazy due to how young it is, but with a beautiful malty profile. My wife would like me to carbonate it a bit higher so she'll sit on the gas for a few days then I'll probably let it sit for a bit while I work on my new apartment.

 

 

Edytowane 10 Września 2017 przez BretBeermann

[BretBeermann]

Scottish Wee Heavy #1

 

15 L Batch Size

 

4.75 kg Fawcett's Golden Promise

70 g Roasted Barley

 

50 g East Kent Golding (60 min)

 

FM12 W szkocką kratę (Slurry)

 

Used my slurry from the 80 Shilling to brew this beer. Drew off the first 4 L of runnings and boiled it down to 250-500 mL (hard to determine how much) before adding in more wort to prevent scorching. This boil-down was used to mimic the kettle carmelization from either a long boil or copper kettle. 

 

Brewed 15.05

 

Tons of blowoff on this beer with active fermentation for weeks. Lot of trub in the blowoff before sealing it up and letting it carbonate naturally. Cleaned the yeast from above the cut off dip tube in my fermentation keg and transferred it on 25.06 to a keg for aging. Initial tastes show it a bit hot and I don't plan on trying it again until late fall.

 

Edytowane 23 Września 2017 przez BretBeermann

[BretBeermann]

Munich Helles #1

 

16 L Batch Size

 

2.65 kg Barke Pilsner

250 g Munich I

100 g Melanoiden

 

25 g Tettnang (60 min)

 

Saflager 34/70

 

Brother is visiting and was looking for some German styles, so I decided to make a sessionable version of a Munich Helles. I will come in a bit under the style's gravity (1.038) but it should be a good summer drinker. Mashed for 30 minutes and then double sparged to hit 20 L boil volume. Boiled at a low simmer before dumping hot into a keg and purging it for no-chill. 

 

Brewed 26.06

 

Will ferment this beer under pressure (aiming for 15 PSI)

 

Turned out well. Little bit of sulfur early which quickly aged out. Nice drinkable beer which went well for a party my friend was throwing. Most of it got drank a few weeks after brewing.

 

 

Edytowane 10 Września 2017 przez BretBeermann

[BretBeermann]

Peated Session Lager

 

20 L Batch Size

 

3 kg Castle Whisky Malt

19 g East Kent Goldings (FWH)

 

Slurry of Saflager 34/70

 

Brewed up this session lager for good summer drinking. Mashed in with 78 C water to hit a 70 C infusion rest with 9 L of water.  Let sit 20 minutes. Pulled off runnings and boiled for an hour. Roughly 8 BLG with 20 L into the fermentor after chilling. Siphoned yeast straight out of the Helles keg using a picnic tap to innoculate in a demijohn.

 

 

 

Edytowane 1 Grudnia 2017 przez BretBeermann

[BretBeermann]

Munich Dunkel #1

 

17 L Batch Size

 

3 kg Bruntal Munich Malt

300 g Caramel 20 L

300 g Melanoiden Malt

150 g Pale Chocolate

 

50 g Tettnang (30 min)

 

Mashed this beer at 65.5 C, then boiled it short (30 minutes) before chilling and throwing it on some Saflager 34/70 slurry. Fermented well at 12 C for a few days before I warmed it up to room temperature for a diacetyl rest. This beer was intended to collect some slurry for an upcoming doppelbock, in a series of four lagers I'm making using a single packet of yeast before starting with fresh yeast.

 

Nice chocolate on the aroma. Smooth, clear beer with great amber coloration. Wouldn't change a thing.

 

 

 

Edytowane 10 Września 2017 przez BretBeermann