Crushing with the Corona and a "Palace Bitter"

The famous beer writer Randy Mosher once wrote in his book Radical Brewing that "There are magicians who can coax well-milled malt from a Corona-style mill, but they are rare." Well call me a magician, Mr. Mosher. There's nothing wrong with these babies, and there's something about hand cranking that feels more fitting for this labor of love known as homebrewing. Drills are fast, and it makes sense to use them, especially at a homebrew shop or when you're whipping up a 10 pounds-plus all-grain batch, but when I'm only milling a couple pounds at a time at best, I've got a crush on a Corona mill.

It takes a few tries to find the right setting with these mills. After all, they're made for milling grains into flour. Tighten the knob too much and you've got the ingredients to make bread. But if you'll twist it back just a little bit, crank a few times and inspect your work, you're on the right path. My rule is so simple it's stupid: if your milled grains look very similar to whole grains, you don't have the right crush (like the picture below).

 If they look very different from whole grains, but not a floury mess, you've found it. I'm about to get real unscientific here, but notice the hard white pieces of the grain in the picture below this paragraph. There's a lot more in this crush than the one before. That to me is a good sign that I've done it right and the grain will yield high efficiency.

For a 3.25 gallon batch, I milled 4 ounces of 2-Row and 8 ounces of Crystal 60. The rest of my fermentables came from liquid extract. I took a Charlie Papazian recipe from The Complete Joy of Homebrewing (3rd Edition) called "Palace Bitter" and modified it as a 30 minute boil, partial-mash recipe with a few adjustments to the hop schedule using BrewTarget. For the yeast, I used a popular English strain, US-04. Here's a look at the recipe:

Palace Bitter - Special/Best/Premium Bitter (8B)
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Batch Size  3.25 gal
Boil Size   2.5 gal
Boil Time   30.000 min         
Efficiency  70%                
OG          1.042 sg           
FG          1.011 sg           
ABV         4.2%               
Bitterness  26.8 IBU (Tinseth) 
Color       9.8 srm (Morey)    

Fermentables
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Name                         Type     Amount    Mashed  Late  Yield  Color    
Briess - Pale Ale (LME)      Extract  2.300 lb  No      No    78%    6.0 srm  
Briess - Pale Ale (LME)      Extract  1.000 lb  No      No    78%    6.0 srm  
Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L   Grain    8.000 oz  Yes     No    74%    60.0 srm 
Briess - 2 Row Brewers Malt  Grain    4.000 oz  Yes     No    80%    1.8 srm  
Total grain: 4.050 lb

Hops
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Name           Alpha  Amount    Use   Time        Form    IBU 
Fuggles        4.7%   0.400 oz  Boil  30.000 min  Pellet  9.1 
Kent Goldings  4.7%   0.400 oz  Boil  30.000 min  Pellet  9.1 
Fuggles        4.7%   0.250 oz  Boil  15.000 min  Pellet  3.7 
Kent Goldings  4.7%   0.250 oz  Boil  15.000 min  Pellet  4.3 
Kent Goldings  4.7%   0.300 oz  Boil  2.000 min   Pellet  0.7 

Yeasts
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Name         Type  Form  Amount   Stage   
Safale S-04  Ale   Dry   0.39 oz  Primary 

Notes
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Joy of Homebrewing (3rd edition) by Charlie Papazian.

I'm doing a 30 minute mash (with the addition of 2-row) and a 30 minute boil.

My plan is to let this sit in the primary bucket for 10-14 days, bottle and prime for another 2 weeks. I'm expecting an amber colored beer that's balanced and very sessionable. Given all the science-based skepticism of late hopping in favor of whirlpool hopping (below 180 degrees F) that I've been reading lately, I'm curious as to just how much aroma I'm going to get from this brew, but only time will tell a lie. I'll post a picture or two of the brew in a glass when it's ready.

Brewing in the Summer - Experiment Plans

I've been planning my next brew for the past few weeks, originally thirsting for a a mild ale, but eventually deciding upon an English bitter. Naturally, there are a few risks to brewing either (if not most styles) during summer months. It's just too damn hot and my basement can get as high as 74 degrees F in July. On average, though, my basement is between 70-72 degrees F during the summer, which doesn't sound all that bad until you discover that the fermentation process is exothermic, which is a fancy way of saying the yeast in your homebrew generates its own heat, with some estimates as high as 7-8 degrees F. In other words, my yeast won't be happy at 80 degrees F. That's warmer than my parents pool right now!

One solution is a makeshift swamp cooler. Basically, put your fermenter in a beverage tub, put some cold water in the tub and drape a thin towel or t-shirt over the fermenter after soaking it and let a fan blow its way. As the water evaporates, the air gets cooler. I tried this last year and while it definitely worked, my shirt had mold spores on it after several days which worried me about them transferring somehow to the beer, so I won't be doing that this summer.

I'm not buying a fridge and I don't have a temperature controller, so those solutions are out also. So, the one solution left that I've read about we'll call fermenter immersion. Simply put: use the same beverage tub, and in one order or another, fill the tub up to the point that it reaches the level of beer in your fermenter. Check the temperature. If you're brewing an ale and the temperature of the tub's water is in the low to mid 60s, that's perfect. Check it everyday and try to keep a stable temperature (within 10 degrees of fluctuation I'd assume) for 5 days, then pull it out and let it ferment out for another 9 or 10 days.

There are a few caveats to this method. One, put some sanitizer or cleaner in the tub to keep some of the nasties at bay. Second, when you pull out to warm it up, don't let it warm beyond the yeast's temperature range. I wouldn't worry about exothermic heat, as mentioned above, as much as I would during the first few days of fermentation, but you should put the fermenter back in the cold tub if temperatures get above 70 degrees F, and given how hot it's been lately, I'm likely going to need to.

I'll post pictures and updates on this blog in a few days. Leave your comments below about your own summer brewing methods and madness. Cheers!

My House Pale Ale...Gone Bad?

If I've not mentioned it on this blog before, I'm a homebrewer. I've brewed for the better part of 12 years, with a short hiatus between 2014-16 when I lived in Virginia and never made the time. Most of my early brewing years were spent making my own recipes, rather than starting with the basics and starting with idiot-proof, tried and true recipes. Most were also probably not that good, though that was before I learned of the concept of 'green beer', or the simple truth that it takes a while for your bottle conditioned homebrew to condition.

I've since become a better brewer, utilizing excellent homebrewing books like North American Clone Brews by Scott R. Russell. But recently, I decided to try developing my own recipes again, and I believe I've gotten to the point where I can do so without any ill effects. I understand how to keep ingredients within a style's range. I use Brewtarget to calculate everything, and really love the open-source program, and can't justify paying for something like BeerSmith (love Brad Smith's articles, however).

Here's a pale ale recipe I created recently that I figure could be my house pale ale:

House Pale Ale - American Pale Ale (10A)
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Batch Size 2 gal
Boil Size   1.5 gal
Boil Time   60.000 s            
Efficiency  70%                
OG          1.047 sg           
FG          1.012 sg           
ABV         4.7%               
Bitterness  35.2 IBU (Tinseth) 
Color       5.2 srm (Morey)    

Fermentables
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Name                         Type         Amount    Mashed  Late  Yield  Color    
Muntons DME - Extra Light    Dry Extract  1.600 lb  No      No    95%    3.0 srm  
Briess - 2 Row Brewers Malt  Grain        9.600 oz  Yes     No    80%    1.8 srm  
Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L   Grain        4.800 oz  No      No    75%    20.0 srm 
Briess - Wheat Malt, White   Grain        2.400 oz  Yes     No    85%    2.5 srm  
Total grain: 2.650 lb

Hops
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Name      Alpha  Amount    Use      Time        Form    IBU  
Cascade   6.0%   0.600 oz  Boil     1.000 hr    Pellet  35.2 
Amarillo  9.5%   0.200 oz  Aroma    15.000 min  Pellet  0.0  
Amarillo  9.5%   0.200 oz  Dry Hop  5.000 day   Pellet  0.0  

Yeasts
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Name         Type                            Form   Amount     Stage   
Muntons - prehopped kit yeast Ale   Dry   7 grams - primary


I fermented in a Mr. Beer plastic barrel fermenter using left over yeast from a Muntons prehopped kit. I cooled naturally, as I still don't have a wort chiller. I've done so many times before without any bacterial infections. I usually either cool in the plastic fermenter (I cool it to below 160 F first, then pour it in the fermenter with cold water awaiting) or in the kettle with the lid on. I always pitch the yeast in these situations about 12 hours later.

Skip ahead 2 weeks later and the beer strangely smells like a hefeweizen or wheat beer with that phenolic, band-aidy aroma. I tasted my hydrometer sample and got a big smack of iron or blood flavor, like when you're out of shape and playing backyard football in the winter time; that burn that hits your throat. I've read it really could be a metallic flavor that could have come off of the kettle itself or my metal spoon, but of course, maybe I'm tasting a bacterial infection. Third guess would be that I'm just tasting the worst sample I could as it's literally the first bit of beer to come out of the barrel and through the sanitized spigot, which likely has loads of yeast. Here's to hoping 2 weeks brings me a pleasant surprise. I welcome your comments, thoughts and experiences below.