The beer is now in the tank and the fermenter itself is in the fermentation chamber and it’s at 65 degrees. London Ale yeast was pitched. One jar was a yeast harvest from the previous beer, Jack Amber. The other jar was a small, small slurry divided from the original liquid yeast pack.
Clean up was done during the brew day progression. Therefore, after transfer to the fermenter all that was left to clean out was the boil kettle, wort chiller and the brew day work table. The complete brew day was five and a one-half hour in duration.
The boil commenced quickly. I added the Sabro extract hops. They smelled wonderful. The regulator needed to be adjusted to a lower setting as the boil was slightly too vigorous. In winter it needs to be cranked all the way up but not so as summer shoulders its way into the local climate.
Specific gravity increased to 1.051. The target was 1.052 so I will consider that a success.
Now there will be a dad joke: this beer is chilling. This is the portion of brew day that is the most challenging with my set up. Also because it’s hot outside. The water from the backyard hose is at 86 degrees.
My wife and I recently went to Maine, for our 30th anniversary. While there I did not find any porters. The first beer I had upon return was a porter.
After forty-five minutes I drained the mash tun and collected three gallons of sweet wort. It had a gravity of 1.068. I had forgotten to start heating sparge water so there was a delay of approximately 15 minutes while I heated up the water to 182 degrees. Once I added the spare water I let the mash stand for ten minutes then commenced draining once again. The end of the sparge gravity was 1.027.
Five gallons were collected from the sparge and added to the boil kettle for a total volume of eight gallons and a pre-boil gravity of 1.043. Since the first segment is now complete I shall treat myself to a home-brew. I have two on tap: Mucker Light, an American Light Lager made with British grains and Jack Amber, an American Amber Ale also made with British grains and some South African hops. I go to get my glass now and decide.
I like English beers but have never made a porter (not in recent memory, at least). A few years ago I purchased Terry Foster’s book Porters & Stouts: Origins, History, and 60 Recipes for Brewing Them at Home Today. I used it as reference for a couple of stouts and today used it for my own English Porter. The recipe I designed hits the boundaries of the BJCP 2015 style guidelines for English Porter. If I had black malt to add I suppose I could call it a Robust porter. Here’s the recipe:
8 lbs Maris Otter
2 lbs Briess mild malt
1 lb Viking caramel 200
12 oz Briess chocolate malt
1.5ml Sabro hops extract
1 oz English Goldings
White Labs 013 London Ale Yeast
Our puppies awakened the household at 6 am. They were persistent. Therefore, I laid out the home brewery in the back yard and milled the grains. Using BeerSmith I calculated the volume and temperature for my mash. The mash hit 151 degrees and I sealed the mash tun and set a timer for forty-five minutes.
The last few years have been spent doing more craft beer consumption than home-brew production. But after a few home-brew club meetings I was motivated to buy a large bag of pale malt. It will serve as my base grain for many future home-brews.
In past decades I’ve always ordered my grains milled, or cracked, by the home-brew supply shop. This bag of malt is unmilled. Unwilling to wait for the grain mill I’d ordered I decided to experiment a little. I hand milled five pounds of the grain, one pound at a time. The grain was in large resealable plastic bags and I used a rolling pin. It took approximately fifteen minutes.
Such was the extent of the grain bill for this beer, five pounds of pale malt. The recipe was completed with a quarter of an ounce of Galena hops and Safale 05. The total volume was 3 gallons. I guess that’s a blonde. Since one of my favorite home-brew recipes is a Belgian blonde named “Marilyn,” it seemed appropriate that this blonde be named “Norma Jean.”
BJCP Characteristics
An American blonde ale is in the same category as the American pale ale. It should be pale in color and tend towards a malty character. The hops will be much reduced in a blonde. The aggressiveness of the pale ale is not present. It’s a gateway beer.
Norma Jean does a have a nose full of grain, but it doesn’t seem bready or caramelly. No discernible fruitiness or hops. It is a pale yellow color but is not brilliantly clear. It was in primary for fourteen days, no secondary fermentation. Perhaps that would have helped clarity? It’s a pasty yellow and resembles a wit beer more than a blonde. It does possess an adequate white and rocky head.
The body is light, medium carbonation which I think was done very well. But it does seem to have a harsh, grainy texture. I actually doctored it with two teaspoons of grenadine to make it more palatable. One week later and the grainy astringency remained but was much more moderate. Perhaps some more time will further reduce this. Once past that taste there is some sweetness from the malt and an enjoyable softness on the palate.
It would still garner a low score, I think. I made it and I’d give it maybe 30/50. If that harshness continues to abate it may improve.
Comments
At first I thought the harshness was due to the hand milling of the grain. I thought perhaps I’d not gotten a good enough crush and all I was tasting was barley husk. Additionally, while I anticipated a starting gravity of 1.040 I only achieved 1.024. Bad mill again? Brewing publications I read noted that a husky/grainy flavor can come from overcrushing the grains. This might cause sparging obstructions, if I understood everything correctly, thus not rinsing the mashed grains enough. To be sure, my final boil volume was lower than I expected.
So I’m not sure about the cause of the harsh flavor but it is slowly going away. Still a fun experiment.
The grain mill did arrive and I used it for the next batch I made, an English dark mild.
Lost Cause 