There are two sub-styles of (genuine) pils: German Pilsner and Bohemian Pilsener. Notice the spellings, pilsner and pilsener. I'd be less inclinded to say "Please explain" if it weren't for the classic czech beer, Pilsner Urquell.(There are lots of lagers that imitate the Bohemian original, however, I don't count all those lagers as pilsner. I don't even count classic american "pilsner" as pilsner.)
Monday, January 29, 2007
Could some one please explain the following to me:
I'm working on my beer tasting skills. I taste a lot of beer, and I think I've gotten very good at it. However, I don't feel that I've gotten my tasting skills well-regimented. I'm going to try to improve that by actually completing BJCP Score Sheets for some professional and homebrewed beers. A big part of this is to get myself reporting about beer in a standard way and in a way that is informative at least to me, and I hope to the reader.
The BJCP rates beer in the usual four plus one categories: mouthfeel, appearance, aroma and flavor plus overall impression. I'm going to use their weights of 5, 3, 12, 20 plus 10 for my rating. Points in the first four categories are scored for being stylistically accurate while interesting and good, while points for overall impression are mostly about interesting and good and less about stylistic accuracy.
But there's still a question of what the points mean. The BJCP says that 50-45 points are for outstanding beers, 44-38 for excellent beers, 30-37 for very good beers, 29-21 for good beers and 20-14 for fair beers. What would I mean if I said a beer met those standards:
For appearace, I will score a beer 3 if it is outstanding, excellent, 2 if very good or good, 1 if fair and 0 if poor.
For mouthfeel, I will score a beer 5 is it is outstanding or excellent, 4 if very good, 3 if good, 2 if fair, 1 or 0 if poor. (For a style that has very particular mouthfeel characteristics, I would make 5 only for the outstand, 4 for the excellent, etc.)
For aroma, 12 is outsanding, 11 and 10 are excellent, 9 and 8 very good, 7 and 6 are good, 5 is borderline on fair, 4 and 3 are fair. The rest are poor.
For flavor, 20 and 19 are outstanding, 18, 17, and 16 are Excellent, 15, 14,13 and 12 are very good, 11, 10, and 9 are good, 8, 7, and 6 are fair, the rest are problematic.
I think I will discuss overall impression in another post..
The BJCP rates beer in the usual four plus one categories: mouthfeel, appearance, aroma and flavor plus overall impression. I'm going to use their weights of 5, 3, 12, 20 plus 10 for my rating. Points in the first four categories are scored for being stylistically accurate while interesting and good, while points for overall impression are mostly about interesting and good and less about stylistic accuracy.
But there's still a question of what the points mean. The BJCP says that 50-45 points are for outstanding beers, 44-38 for excellent beers, 30-37 for very good beers, 29-21 for good beers and 20-14 for fair beers. What would I mean if I said a beer met those standards:
- Outstanding means mind blowing, a knock-out, if you never stopped experience this beer it would be premature
- Excellent This beer exemplifies the style, and is exciting and good, whether because of the right balance, subtlty, or assertiveness. A beer that shows off the style.
- Very Good Measures up to the better portion of commercial representatives of the style. Does well with the important features of the style without any detracting characteristics.
- Good Meets the style specifications but in pedestrian ways or with flaws that detract from accomplishments. The sort of beer that you would tell your friend "Yeah, that's a beer of style x" if he didn't know any quality representatives.
- Fair A beer with flaws enough that you would deny that it really exemplified anything of the style, or perhaps simply bland and flacid in some or most respects. You wouldn't drink or purchase this beer. May exhibit noticable technical flaws.
- Poor Truly bad.
For appearace, I will score a beer 3 if it is outstanding, excellent, 2 if very good or good, 1 if fair and 0 if poor.
For mouthfeel, I will score a beer 5 is it is outstanding or excellent, 4 if very good, 3 if good, 2 if fair, 1 or 0 if poor. (For a style that has very particular mouthfeel characteristics, I would make 5 only for the outstand, 4 for the excellent, etc.)
For aroma, 12 is outsanding, 11 and 10 are excellent, 9 and 8 very good, 7 and 6 are good, 5 is borderline on fair, 4 and 3 are fair. The rest are poor.
For flavor, 20 and 19 are outstanding, 18, 17, and 16 are Excellent, 15, 14,13 and 12 are very good, 11, 10, and 9 are good, 8, 7, and 6 are fair, the rest are problematic.
I think I will discuss overall impression in another post..
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Decoction mashing is great. Well, at least it's fun. I shall see whether it produces any special results.
My plan was to dough-in at 150, rest for 20 minutes, pull 6 quarts, raise that to 158 for ten and then to boil it for thirty.
That's basically what I did. There was some pertty significant temperature loss in the main mash, but I'm not terribly concerned. What I wanted was a long low temp mash for good attenuation; I got long and low temp. The decoction didn't even come close to a mash out temp--I hit only 158 when it was returned to the mash. But that's fine; if anything, given the cool mash, it's good because it rested at that temp about ten minutes before the sparge, which ensures that any unconverted starch from the cool mash was alpha-amylased out at 158.
My plan was to dough-in at 150, rest for 20 minutes, pull 6 quarts, raise that to 158 for ten and then to boil it for thirty.
That's basically what I did. There was some pertty significant temperature loss in the main mash, but I'm not terribly concerned. What I wanted was a long low temp mash for good attenuation; I got long and low temp. The decoction didn't even come close to a mash out temp--I hit only 158 when it was returned to the mash. But that's fine; if anything, given the cool mash, it's good because it rested at that temp about ten minutes before the sparge, which ensures that any unconverted starch from the cool mash was alpha-amylased out at 158.
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Monday, January 22, 2007
On Conditioning
It's a lovely thing that a beer improves with age. This is, I'm told, only true of beers with active yeast in them; don't bother aging run of the mill commercial beers. The benefits of aging are most notable in beers of exceptional strength, in which the residual sweetness and alcoholic hotness reduce as the beer matures. Hop flavors also mellow. Sharp, even astringent, hops can become smooth and pleasing with some time in the bottle. Perhaps unfortunately, hop aromas will not survive a long process of conditioning.
Stormtrooper is conditioning well. The hop aromas are still present and the residual sugars have diminished. I carbonated in the keg and then moved that to bottles, but it has gained carbonation since then. The head stands really nicely. The hops flavors has become a little more subtle, though I'd still say the beer tastes like hops. The carbonation thing was a bit of a surprise to me. That beer sat in fermenters for over a month, so I was surprised to find continuted fermentation.
I'm planning a barley wine, which I will ferment even longer than the IPA, probably a total of two months before bottling. I'm considering bottling with no priming sugar to let the beer get what carbonation it will from continued fermentation. I'm thinking about how I will get the barley wine to clarify, as I would really like that beer to be clear.
It's a lovely thing that a beer improves with age. This is, I'm told, only true of beers with active yeast in them; don't bother aging run of the mill commercial beers. The benefits of aging are most notable in beers of exceptional strength, in which the residual sweetness and alcoholic hotness reduce as the beer matures. Hop flavors also mellow. Sharp, even astringent, hops can become smooth and pleasing with some time in the bottle. Perhaps unfortunately, hop aromas will not survive a long process of conditioning.
Stormtrooper is conditioning well. The hop aromas are still present and the residual sugars have diminished. I carbonated in the keg and then moved that to bottles, but it has gained carbonation since then. The head stands really nicely. The hops flavors has become a little more subtle, though I'd still say the beer tastes like hops. The carbonation thing was a bit of a surprise to me. That beer sat in fermenters for over a month, so I was surprised to find continuted fermentation.
I'm planning a barley wine, which I will ferment even longer than the IPA, probably a total of two months before bottling. I'm considering bottling with no priming sugar to let the beer get what carbonation it will from continued fermentation. I'm thinking about how I will get the barley wine to clarify, as I would really like that beer to be clear.
Thursday, January 18, 2007
I mentioned a dusseldorf alt earlier today. I'm decided that that's what my next beer will be.
This beer will be an almost alt. I'm not going to engage in the traditional conditioning process for the beer. In place of that, I will do an extended room temperature conditioning where the beer will be held between 60 and 70 degrees. I hope to keep it in the cooler range of this range, but we'll see what's really feasible. I'm undecided between using White Labs European Ale yeast and German Ale yeast. Anyway, I'll decide on one soon enough.
The grist will be approximately 5% melanoidin, 10% dark munich, 10% light munich, 74% pilsener malt and 1% caraffe, in quantity for a target gravity of 50. This should produce a complex maltiness that the style requires. To enhance the malt character, I'm going to use a decoction to raise the mash from the sachrification rest to the mash out. The conversion rest will be at 150 degrees. I'm going to remove approximately one gallon of the mash after 20 minutes of this rest. That gallon will be raised to 158 degrees for ten minutes to complete it's conversion and then boiled for 30 minutes, after which time it will be returned to the mash for the mash out.
I'll use traditional spalt hops for bittering, enough to achieve a about 40-45 IBU. That is a substantial level of bitterness, but I believe that the robust malt character of this beer will stand to it well.
This beer will be an almost alt. I'm not going to engage in the traditional conditioning process for the beer. In place of that, I will do an extended room temperature conditioning where the beer will be held between 60 and 70 degrees. I hope to keep it in the cooler range of this range, but we'll see what's really feasible. I'm undecided between using White Labs European Ale yeast and German Ale yeast. Anyway, I'll decide on one soon enough.
The grist will be approximately 5% melanoidin, 10% dark munich, 10% light munich, 74% pilsener malt and 1% caraffe, in quantity for a target gravity of 50. This should produce a complex maltiness that the style requires. To enhance the malt character, I'm going to use a decoction to raise the mash from the sachrification rest to the mash out. The conversion rest will be at 150 degrees. I'm going to remove approximately one gallon of the mash after 20 minutes of this rest. That gallon will be raised to 158 degrees for ten minutes to complete it's conversion and then boiled for 30 minutes, after which time it will be returned to the mash for the mash out.
I'll use traditional spalt hops for bittering, enough to achieve a about 40-45 IBU. That is a substantial level of bitterness, but I believe that the robust malt character of this beer will stand to it well.
Right now, I'm excited about brewing. I'm always pretty excited about brewing, but this is special. I'm looking for repsonsible beer adventures. I want to brew styles I haven't brewed before, some of which I've never even tasted. Here are a few things that I'm considering: a barley wine, a dubbel, a wit, an almost altbier. The "almost" in the altbier comes from the fact that I may not be able to give it the traditional conditioning.
Barley wine requires different sorts of preparation and planning than my usual brew because of it's strength. As I was first considering this brew, I was thinking that I would use extract if the gravity did not attain 110. Now I'm thinking that I should insist on making this all-grain for the extra-challenge that that involves. I will probably try to make a more english style barley wine than american style one--high bitterness, but with smaller late hop additions than one would find in the U.S. and I will probably use East Kent Goldings for all the finishing. I was thinking about doing two ounces of warrior hops (~17% AA) for bittering.
Dubbel is a lot of fun. With a Dubbel, one wants complexity. Half the complexity comes from the yeast (I will probably use White Labs Abbey Ale yeast), the other half from the choice of grain--hops to bitter only, and only mildly--which will be somthing like carapils, caravienna, caramunich, special B, aromatic and belgian pils.
Did I say wit? Oh yeah, that will probably be later than the others as it is a warmer weather beer. I will probably not add any spice etc. to this myself. Instead, I will depend on yeast and (slightly irresponisbly) a small measure of american citrusy hops.
The Almost Altbier may be the first of these responsible adventures that I make for this simple reason that it sounds like a winter time beer to me. The classic recipe for this style is 90% pils malt, 10% munich, bittered with spalt hops and having moderate to very low hop aroma, but little or no hop flavor. Since I really want complex malt, I'm going to use more munich malt (20%) and probably add some melanoidin malt as well. SRMs for altbier range from 13-17, so I may need to add something for color. I was thinking about an ounce of de-bittered black malt (caraffe) for this, but I'd rather have a low SRM and no roast character and a roasty altbier. I'm going to do a decoction mash with this beer, so it should be fun to make. I haven't planned exactly how the decoction will go. I want a low mash temperature (149 or 150) so that I hit 78%-80% attenuation and I want to use the decoction to mash-out. And I want to boil the decoction itself for about 30 minutes to get Maillard reactions. It seems rather complicated to make all this come out right.
I should be racking the oatmeal stout today.
Barley wine requires different sorts of preparation and planning than my usual brew because of it's strength. As I was first considering this brew, I was thinking that I would use extract if the gravity did not attain 110. Now I'm thinking that I should insist on making this all-grain for the extra-challenge that that involves. I will probably try to make a more english style barley wine than american style one--high bitterness, but with smaller late hop additions than one would find in the U.S. and I will probably use East Kent Goldings for all the finishing. I was thinking about doing two ounces of warrior hops (~17% AA) for bittering.
Dubbel is a lot of fun. With a Dubbel, one wants complexity. Half the complexity comes from the yeast (I will probably use White Labs Abbey Ale yeast), the other half from the choice of grain--hops to bitter only, and only mildly--which will be somthing like carapils, caravienna, caramunich, special B, aromatic and belgian pils.
Did I say wit? Oh yeah, that will probably be later than the others as it is a warmer weather beer. I will probably not add any spice etc. to this myself. Instead, I will depend on yeast and (slightly irresponisbly) a small measure of american citrusy hops.
The Almost Altbier may be the first of these responsible adventures that I make for this simple reason that it sounds like a winter time beer to me. The classic recipe for this style is 90% pils malt, 10% munich, bittered with spalt hops and having moderate to very low hop aroma, but little or no hop flavor. Since I really want complex malt, I'm going to use more munich malt (20%) and probably add some melanoidin malt as well. SRMs for altbier range from 13-17, so I may need to add something for color. I was thinking about an ounce of de-bittered black malt (caraffe) for this, but I'd rather have a low SRM and no roast character and a roasty altbier. I'm going to do a decoction mash with this beer, so it should be fun to make. I haven't planned exactly how the decoction will go. I want a low mash temperature (149 or 150) so that I hit 78%-80% attenuation and I want to use the decoction to mash-out. And I want to boil the decoction itself for about 30 minutes to get Maillard reactions. It seems rather complicated to make all this come out right.
I should be racking the oatmeal stout today.
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Having little to do the last few days, but no real space to fit more beer, I wrote an eleven page (single spaced) guide to all-grain brewing. It was pretty fun. I think it's not really finished yet but I want to give myself a day before I revisit it so that I don't overlook anything important.
This was actually a seguey into something that I wanted to say... what was it? Ah, while working on this, I was consulting John Palmer's How to Brew on the subject of decoction mashing. I've never actually decoction mashed, but I wanted to at least mention to the process in my guide, so I thought I should read up on the process. I read and I thought, "fucking hell, I could totally do a single decoction to mash out. This stuff about maliard reactions totally makes sense and I bet it works like a charm. Actually, I bet it beats the shit out of superstition crap like charms."
I spent some time working though Palmer's equations for decoction calculations and discovered, to some delight, that it would take only about 1.25 gallons of the mash to move from 151 degrees to 167 degrees (for a mash of 10 pounds). The decotion math was only approximate. But I realized that all the complication of it doesn't quite register--my nacient theory of specific heat denies that it should be so complex--so I'm going to try a decoction math simplification, if I ever get to decocting. Since the only rest the decoction will be used for is the mash out, I'm not super concerned that the calculations be precise.
Here's the simplification. If you remove a fraction of the mash equal to x/y then to add one degree to the total temperature of the mash (when you add the fraction back in) you have to increase the temperature of the faction by y/x. E.g. if you remove one fifth of the mash, you have to increase the temperature of that fraction by five degrees to net a 1 degree increase in the temperature of all of it.
I own a scale, which is pretty much all that I need to figure out how much to remove (along with the mass of the mash.)
The question, of course, is on what beer to do a decoction? Maybe on a brown ale...
This was actually a seguey into something that I wanted to say... what was it? Ah, while working on this, I was consulting John Palmer's How to Brew on the subject of decoction mashing. I've never actually decoction mashed, but I wanted to at least mention to the process in my guide, so I thought I should read up on the process. I read and I thought, "fucking hell, I could totally do a single decoction to mash out. This stuff about maliard reactions totally makes sense and I bet it works like a charm. Actually, I bet it beats the shit out of superstition crap like charms."
I spent some time working though Palmer's equations for decoction calculations and discovered, to some delight, that it would take only about 1.25 gallons of the mash to move from 151 degrees to 167 degrees (for a mash of 10 pounds). The decotion math was only approximate. But I realized that all the complication of it doesn't quite register--my nacient theory of specific heat denies that it should be so complex--so I'm going to try a decoction math simplification, if I ever get to decocting. Since the only rest the decoction will be used for is the mash out, I'm not super concerned that the calculations be precise.
Here's the simplification. If you remove a fraction of the mash equal to x/y then to add one degree to the total temperature of the mash (when you add the fraction back in) you have to increase the temperature of the faction by y/x. E.g. if you remove one fifth of the mash, you have to increase the temperature of that fraction by five degrees to net a 1 degree increase in the temperature of all of it.
I own a scale, which is pretty much all that I need to figure out how much to remove (along with the mass of the mash.)
The question, of course, is on what beer to do a decoction? Maybe on a brown ale...
Monday, January 15, 2007
I awoke early yesterday morning to get started on an oatmeal stout. I started around eight am and I was done by 2pm. The recipe was just as reported. I think it might have been .8 oz. of N.B. for 60.
I had just about the best sparge ever. I crushed a little coarser than usual, and I'm going to crush just a little coarser yet next time I brew. By the way, the next brew will probably be a brown ale. However, since I just wrote up an IPA recipe, I'm not going to be surprised if I end up making one of those instead.
I had just about the best sparge ever. I crushed a little coarser than usual, and I'm going to crush just a little coarser yet next time I brew. By the way, the next brew will probably be a brown ale. However, since I just wrote up an IPA recipe, I'm not going to be surprised if I end up making one of those instead.
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Tasting Notes:
The Pilsner
Staw colored with a moderate head that's retained fairly well. High carbonation. Large, consistent bubbles. Nearly clear. Aroma is mildly hoppy and fruity with soft malt. Fruity flavor with soft malt characteristics, some banana or clove flavor. Hops and bitterness dominate the sweetness up front but the sweetness rises in the finish. Mouthfeel is light, crisp and bubbly. Overall: a very good beer but not a good representative of the pilsner style--too soft, fruity and sweet. (As the brewer, I know that the boil off was lower than expected which no doubt contributed to the low intensity of hops and the bouancy of the beer. Still, it needed at least another half an ounce of saaz in the bittering addition and probably more for flavor and aroma as well. A dryer and less fruity yeast would also be advisable.)
The Pilsner
Staw colored with a moderate head that's retained fairly well. High carbonation. Large, consistent bubbles. Nearly clear. Aroma is mildly hoppy and fruity with soft malt. Fruity flavor with soft malt characteristics, some banana or clove flavor. Hops and bitterness dominate the sweetness up front but the sweetness rises in the finish. Mouthfeel is light, crisp and bubbly. Overall: a very good beer but not a good representative of the pilsner style--too soft, fruity and sweet. (As the brewer, I know that the boil off was lower than expected which no doubt contributed to the low intensity of hops and the bouancy of the beer. Still, it needed at least another half an ounce of saaz in the bittering addition and probably more for flavor and aroma as well. A dryer and less fruity yeast would also be advisable.)
Thursday, January 11, 2007
I'm not going to get to that stout until this weekend. I didn't get up to the store to get the yeast to make a starter and consequently don't want to do it today. Instead of brewing today, I will probably head to the beer store and get my ingredients.
The pilsner is carbonated and ready to drink. I like the beer, though it isn't very characterisitically pilsner. I'm going to sit down with a glass and give it a proper tasting with notes this afternoon. I'll post them here.
The pilsner is carbonated and ready to drink. I like the beer, though it isn't very characterisitically pilsner. I'm going to sit down with a glass and give it a proper tasting with notes this afternoon. I'll post them here.
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
Well, there will be a brown ale at some point, but my next beer (probably to be brewed on Thursday) is an oatmeal stout.
Here's the recipe that I've decided upon:
6.25 lbs. Baird's Maris Otter Malt
1.25 lbs. Briess 2-row
1 lb. flaked oats
.5 lb. roasted barley
.5 lb. Munton's 60L crystal
.25 lb. Breiss 120L crystal
.5 lb. breiss Victory malt
Mashed at 154 for 1 hour with a 167 degree mash out.
.75 oz. German Northern Brewer (9.2% AA) 60 min
.5 oz. Fuggles (4.0% AA) for 60 min
.25 oz. Fuggles for 20 min
.25 oz. Fuggles for 1 min
39 IBU
White Labs British Ale Yeast
Here's the recipe that I've decided upon:
6.25 lbs. Baird's Maris Otter Malt
1.25 lbs. Briess 2-row
1 lb. flaked oats
.5 lb. roasted barley
.5 lb. Munton's 60L crystal
.25 lb. Breiss 120L crystal
.5 lb. breiss Victory malt
Mashed at 154 for 1 hour with a 167 degree mash out.
.75 oz. German Northern Brewer (9.2% AA) 60 min
.5 oz. Fuggles (4.0% AA) for 60 min
.25 oz. Fuggles for 20 min
.25 oz. Fuggles for 1 min
39 IBU
White Labs British Ale Yeast
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