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Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Update 2 - Low Tech Helles

Helles brew day went into the books on Sunday past.  Full krausen within 36hrs.  Temperature holding steady at 12c/53.6F.  Starting to get the egg/sulfur smell :)

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Update - Low Tech Helles

This morning I added the final volume to the starter.  After completing the first two steps, the starter was crashed cooled and decanted.  A final 2L of wort was added to the flask this morning.  The starter sits spinning on a stir plate.  The target cell counts is in the 400B ball-park.

I checked the gravity of the decanted spent beer, it had in fact fermented out to 1.008 (75% attenuated) which is bang on for WLP833.  It had that distinct sulfur/egg smell common to lagers.  I was a little concerned as I purchased this yeast on a clear out.  The best before date was Nov 11.  I have no idea what the real viability was so I assumed 10%.  Worst case, I'll end up with slightly more yeast then I bargained for which I understand isn't such a big deal for Lagers.

Tonight I crush my grain and prepare for tomorrow evenings brew-night!

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Low Tech Helles - Brewing Soon!

Getting geared up for this weekend's brewday! I picked up a vial of WLP833 from BeerGrains which had been discounted on account of being past it's best before date.

In order to hit a suitable cell count, I opted to pitch the vial to a 1L starter which, as of last night, was stepped to another 1L starter.  Before brewing this weekend the yeast will get a final 2L step in hopes to pitch around 400B cells to my 1.050 Helles.

The recipe is based on "Chad's" internet famous 50pt Munich Helles Recipe.  Some substitutions have been made on account of inventory on hand.  Here's what I am running with:

Low Tech Helles