Tasting - LowTech Blonde v3

A rare request from the Missus and some seasonably warm weather meant this light weight Blonde Ale jumped the recipe queue.  I can see it becoming a regular year round in the keg fridge.

Appearance

Pours golden orange with a light foamy head which is fairly substantial for a beer of this gravity.  Considerable lacing throughout the pint.  Considering the age of the beer and the lack of cold conditioning, the clarity is superb.  No finings post boil were used, this is all WLP007.  I increased the Vienna malt with respect to the original BierMunch Centennial Blonde recipe, the result is this more Orange Gold than Blonde.

Aroma

Aroma has subtle Cascade hops but Pils malt is the star here.  There is a really nice toastiness as well, again thanks to the 15% Vienna Malt.  Very inviting.

Taste

I get subtle crackers and bread.  Mild bitterness but very well balanced, I can see why BierMuncher chose Centennial for bittering, there's just something "right" about it.  Just a touch of hops with some toast on the back end.  Again, considering the original gravity (1.040), the body and mouthfeel are very pleasant!  Carbonated well, finishes dry and crisp.

Drinkability

Light, refreshing, very fresh and lively.  Goes over well with the lady of the house.  Low AVB makes this a thirst quenching summer ale!  As far as light beers are concern, this is near perfect!  9/10

Tasting - LowTech Best Bitter v1

LowTech Best Bitter v1

Not a terrible first attempt, I do plan on some future changes, first being the yeast selection.  I would also drop the amount of chocolate malt used for colouring or perhaps use a different specialty malt all together.

Appearance

Pours darker than the software estimated 9 SRM.  Closer to a deep copper.  The picture (right) wasn't taken in the best lighting and appears darker then is actually is.  Suffers from chill haze which is surprising since I got a real nice chill on this beer plus my hop screen did a bang up job of filtering out cold break.  I used whirfloc as well.  Not sure what else I could do besides using some post boil finings (gelatin).

Head retention is alright.  Hangs around for a short while before settling back to a 1/4" lacing.  Carbonation medium-low, a touch too high for the style.

Aroma

Nice kettle aroma, more than I anticipated!  I also get a very slight fruitiness but would like to smell more yeast esters on my next attempt.  Very, very slight breadiness.  Overall, very pleasant.  I might need to add EKG to my next hop order.

Taste

LowTech Best Bitter v1

There is a slight mineral flavour that I do not care for.  I believe this is quite indicative of English yeast's.  The ale is weighted towards hops and thus the caramel flavours from the crystal malt have been somewhat masked.  Mouth feel is what I'd consider medium, too heavy for the style.  When I brew again, will reduce late hops to try and bring malts forward a touch  The bitterness is about right, perhaps a touch high but not much.

Drinkablility

Definitely a step in the right direction.  The OG was too high for a Best, I'd like the hops and malts to balance better.  The colour is too dark and I might need to consider some finings post boil.  However, the beer drinks quite nicely, it passed the wife test!  For my next attempt, I'll up the crystal malt slightly and change up the colouring malts (chocolate) to lighten the colour a touch.  6/10.

Update April 24th

Not sure if we had been drinking this particular ale a little too young, but I began noticing significant improvement over the past few days.  The reported breadiness from the WLP022 started to really come through.  It did a stellar job of accentuating the maltiness of the MO not to mention enhancing the caramel notes from the English crystal.  It also dropped clear as a bell.  The sad part is, I served the keg at a birthday party this weekend past and only manged to save three pints before the keg blew!  Thankfully I have a second batch of 20L still in the primary... gotta love 10 gallon batches!

LowTech Blonde v3

A summertime fav.  At the Missus request (!),  I brewed up a batch of Blonde Ale.  Based on BierMunchers Centennial Blonde recipe, this light ale goes down easy with just the right amount of hop profile to keep things interesting.

LowTech Blonde v3

OG 1.040/ IBU ~22/ SRM ~3.5/ ~41L

76.9% CMC Superior Pilsner
15.4% Gambrinus Vienna Malt
07.7% Weyermann CaraHell (11L)

4.55 AAU of Centennial @ 60 minutes
4.55 AAU of Centennial @ 30 minutes
6.40 AAU of Cascade @ 12 minutes
6.40 AAU of Cascade @ 3 minutes

WLP007

Brewed April 14th

Mashed in at 150F, mashed for 60 minutes before collecting 46L pre-boil volume.  Boiled for 70 minutes adding hops as scheduled above.  Whirlfoc added at 5 min remaining in boil.  Chilled to ~72F.  Collected 38L into two fermenters.  Pitched 8 fl oz of thin yeast slurry (~60ml solid cake) into each fermenter.  This is the first pitch on this yeast.  Brought it out of storage on April 1, added to 1L starter, chilled decanted and pitched to a 2L starter which fermented out on April 4th before being added to a mason jar with boiled and cooled water.  Returned to fridge to await use.  1 tsp Gypsum, 2 tsp Calcium Chloride, 1 tsp Epsom Salts, 65g Acid malt, added to mash for a pH of 5.48.  Final water numbers: 
Ca 60, Mg 10, Na 18, Cl 66, SO4 100 

Update April 15th

Both fermenters have krausen. Ambient temperature 17c, fermenter temp probe reads 17.3c

Update April 16th

Both fermenter showing high krausen.  Ambient temperature 16c, fermenter temp probe reads 18c

Update April 17th

Fermentation is wrapping up.  Temperatures have dropped back to ambient, Krausen has fallen.  Gravity reads 1.011.

Update April 24th

First 20L racked to keg, pressure set to 36psi.  Second 20L placed in lager freezer set to 4c

Update April 25th

First pint served, gets a satisfying nod from the Missus.  Beer need more carbonation but it otherwise very drinkable.  Surprisingly clear as well.  Tasting notes to come.

Update May 16th 

After 20+ days of cold conditioning, the second fermenter was racked to keg.  Pressure set to 38psi.  Yeast reserved for future repitch (now used 1x).

Update May 17th 

Keg vented, pressure set to 12psi (serving).  Nicely carbed, great clarity!  Tasty. 

Tasting - Throwdown APA

Appearance

Throwdown APA

Pours from the tap with a deep orange hue.  The head is whipped and fluffy.  There is a slight haze with is likely attributed to the dry hopping, it should diminish with further cold conditioning.  I have my keg fridge set to ~5c with the pressure regulator set at 12psi.  I normally disconnect the gas once the desired carbonation has been reached.  Carbonation is on the lower side for an APA, maybe 2.2 vols.

Aroma

Citrus with some Amarillo dank.  Centennial is present but takes a back seat to the Amarillo which dominates the aromatics.  2oz per 5 gallons @ 7 days does a nice job.

Taste

Nicely attenuated,  Finishes somewhat dry.  A firm bitterness stands up to the caramel sweetness thanks in part to the moderate amount of CaraMunich III.  Nice and hoppy.  Malts provide backbone but citrus hops once again dominate.

Drinkability

Very sessionable!  Easy drinking, very aromatic and flavourful.  Could use a touch less caramel malt sweetness.  Next time will experiment with using wheat malt rather than CaraFoam which might provide more of a dry graininess. 8/10!

Update May 15th

The APA did not fair well at the Throwdown.  Was dinged heavily for oxidation and some acetaldehyde.  I was very surprised as I didn't pick these up at all!  Funny enough, in a blind tasting of 11 beers, I selected my own 3rd place overall...  unfortunately I was the only one LOL.  Somethings to work on for next time...  looking forward to trying one of these little competitions again.

New Malts! Amber, Brown and Pale Chocolate

I've received some unique malts, Amber, Brown and Pale Chocolate, all Thomas Fawcett & Sons.  I am really anxious to put them to use.  Here's what the Maltser has to say...

Amber	90 - 110	Bitters - Pale Mild
Brown	110 - 140	Milds and Darker Bitters
Pale Chocolate	500 - 600	Dark Milds - Stouts Small quantities used for flavour and colour enhancement on dark beers

Not a heck of a lot to go on.  I turn to OBK for a more info...

Amber Malt

Colour test.  Amber Left, Brown Right.

Amber Malt. This is a very rounded, biscuit like malt. Warm, pleasant, toffee, biscuit, bready notes with subtle coffee undertones. Great addition to red ales, Belgian ales, porters, IPA's, etc.

Brown

Brown Malt. Adds a mild roastiness flavour and bitterness to a beer. Great for use in many English ales, brown ales, porters, milds, stouts.

Pale Chocolate

Pale Chocolate Malt. A milder roasted grain than the typical chocolate malt. Adds colour and smooth chocolate, coffee, and nutty flavours to your beer. Great for use in milds, porters, stouts, brown ales, barleywines.

...  Looks like I'll have some Porters, Milds and Stouts in the upcoming rotation!  With summer fast approaching, I am not sure I want to have so many dark beers on tap, I may need to work in an IPA and a Red as well.

First order of business, Dark(ish) Mild.  Here's what the recipe is looking like.

OG 1.036 / IBU 13 / SRM ~20 / ~41L

69.0% Maris Otter - Muntons

08.6% Crystal 240 (90L) - Muntons

08.6% Flaked Barley

05.2% Amber Malt - Thomas Fawcett

05.2% Pale Chocolate Malt - Thomas Fawcett

03.4% Carafa II Sp - Weyermann

4.8 AAU of Willamette @ 45 min

3.9 AAU of Styrian Goldings @ 12 min  

WLP022 Essex Ale yeast

I really want to play on the bready/biscuit flavours from the Amber and Maris Otter malts and incorporate some nutty chocolate without going roasty (ie. Pale vs standard Chocolate  Carafa vs Black Malt).  The yeast should do well to further develop bready flavours.

Flavorful British style yeast. Drier finish than many British ale yeast. Produces slightly fruity and bready character.   

While my intent is a malt driven ale, the hop selection should bring a subtle spice and earthiness to the party.

I'll use a medium-high mash temperature, perhaps somewhere in the 153-154F range since there is quite a bit of unfermentables in the purposed grist.  The WLP022 is a decent attenuator, if I can get it to finish somewhere in the 1.012-1.013 range (~3% ABV), I think that would work really nicely.  

The hop schedule isn't completely locked in, I may decide to move the Goldings closer to flame-out which would mean a slight increase to the bittering addition or perhaps an additional charge somewhere in the middle of the boil.

Tasting - LowTech Brown Porter v4

The Mrs' and I have tasted several pints of the LowTech Brown Porter v4 brewed with WLP005 and I can say with certainty, the changes haven't been great.

Appearance

Pours from the tap very dark, with a light beige, somewhat airy head.  The head hangs around for a minute or so before settling back into the glass with a fine lace.  Subtle lacing throughout the pint. When held to light, beautiful garnet highlights shine through, on the fringe of being opaque yet very clear. 

LowTech Brown Porter v4

Having brewed this Porter on several occasions now, I've become accustom to the appearance.  I'd say it's on par with previous attempts, perhaps a touch darker on account of the crystal malt change.  For v4,  I dropped CaraMunich 1 entirely, subbing in a larger percentage of CaraAoma. 

Aroma

Very disappointed.  v3 had aromas of toasty bread, carmel and chocolate.  For v4, the Chocolate is very slight, mainly roast/coffee with perhaps some raisin?  The lovely toasty bread is gone gone gone.  I am guessing this quality was from the Melanoidin Malt used previously and dropped from the v4 grist?

Yeast brings nothing to the party here, completely washed out by the brew's roastiness, more Stout like than Porter.  Overall, quite generic.

Taste

To keep carbonation low, I intentionally pulled the Co2 on this early.  Carbonation is low and appropriate. At it's warmest setting, the keg fridge pours @ 5 degrees Celsius.

The flavours are young, quite generic.  Roast is prominent with just a hint of sweetness on the back end.  On a positive note, the beer is well attenuated, not cloying.  Unfortunately, nothing else really jumps out.  Previous versions have had a toasty bread quality that I absolutely loved, I am not getting this anywhere. The caramel notes have also been replaced with a harsher coffee like flavor, the Chocolate is present but somewhat muddled.

I think that the Chinook hops were a poor choice, the beer is too bitter, too harsh.  I need to drop the IBUs on the next version and stick with a hop lower in cohumulone content.

Drinkability

Not much more to say other than generic.  I think I need to go back a version on this brew!  5/10

$3 Kettle Filter

I picked up a couple of grease splatter screens from my local dollar store, removed the frames and double folded the edges to form a pancake type shape with a small opening to pass the dip tube through.

I performed an over night soak and series of tests to confirm the material was in fact stainless steel, I am confident it is but you can never be to safe.

Here are some shots of the filter in action

As you might be able to see in the photos above, the orientation of my dip tube is down and  to the side.  I found that part way through transfer from boil kettle to fermenter, the filter became caked in hops and break material which greatly diminished flow.  I use my pump when transferring.  The pump never did lose prime but this process ended up taking near 1hr.  Way too long.  I found out near the end of the transfer that if I used my brew spoon and scraped off a portion of the filter, regular flow resumed, doh!

Moving forward, I have shortened the dip tube slightly, it can now sit upright which forces separation of the two screens.  I am hoping this makes better use of the filters surface area and delays the amount of time it takes for the flow to slow.

Update April 3rd

Last evening I observed what appears to be rust (iron oxide) beginning to form in areas at the edge and center of the kettle filter.  This means that either the material is not stainless steel, perhaps carbon steel, or the acidic environment of the wort was enough to remove the passive layer of chromium.  I disassembled the filter and gave it a good scrub with a nylon brush, baking soda and vinegar.  I will report back if the rust has returned.

Update April 5th 

Pretty much status quo.  Nothing had progressed.