The Dilema of Scale--to brew 12 gallons or 6

In a previous post, I made the assertion that some beers should be brewed in 12 gallon batches and others should be brewed in 6.  That was at a time when I brewed exclusively 6 gallon batches.  I thought of them as "half batches" on my equipment, and brewed half batches by choice.  Who needs more than two cases of beer from a batch?  Not me, I thought.  But the 12 gallon batch thing was prompted by the discovery that the less headspace I left in the mash tun, the better the mash held temp.  Since that realization, brewing 12 gallon batches has helped a lot with my sub-1045 beers--Blonde Ale, Cream Ale, 70/-, and Patersbier--holding them to the degree for the entire 90 minutes.

I should probably be honest with myself and accept the fact that brewing 6 gallon batches of most of my brews is plenty.  However, after bottling two 12 gallon batches recently (about 4 cs each of Cream Ale and Patersbier), on Thursday I bottled a six gallon batch of Simcoemech (a Simcoelicious APA modeled after Russian River's Row 2 Hill 56).  It smelled so freaking good.  I found myself standing over two full cases of this obviously amazing beer and regretting not having more.  Not a single bottle had been consumed--won't even be ready for at least two weeks--and already I was lamenting the fact that they will be gone far too quickly.

It got me thinking.  Could I brew a 12 gallon batch of Simcoemech?  Problem is, this is a 1.048 OG beer, and I have always considered 1.045 to be the upper limit for 12 gallon batches.  This is because, a 1.045 beer requires about 17.5 lbs of grain for 12 gallons, and that amount of grain plus 22 quarts of water (1.25 qts/lb) fills the cooler all the way to the top.  So how can I fit this 18.5 pound grain bill in my 10 gallon cooler?  I really really want to.  But at 1.25 qts per gallon, the infusion of water with the grain would overflow the mash tun.

Why does the water:grain ratio need to be 1.25?  This is what all my recipes are formulated to.  But it's not an absolute.  The only absolute is that my cooler holds 10 gallons and no more.  What if I play with this ratio a little?  General guidance is that it should be between 1.10 and 1.25 quarts per pound.  So with this in mind, and with Beersmith's "mash volume needed" calculation, I did a little exploring and came up with some theoretical limits.

Turns out, at a water to grain ratio of 1.10 qts/lb, I can brew 12 gallons of up to a 1.051 OG beer.  This assumes 87% efficiency, which is usually what I get on my 12 gallon batches.  That's 19.5 pounds of grain and 21.5 quarts of water, which according to Beersmith will produce a mash volume of 9.95 gallons and fill the cooler.  Pretty tight, but it can be done.

 This includes a mash out at 168, also not an absolute.  If we drop the mashout infusion, looks like we can go up to a 24 pound grain bill at 1.1 qts/lb before overflowing.  That's a 12 gallon batch at up to 1.063 without a mash out!  Wow!

I don't think I'll test any of these limits in reality, but the good news here is that I should be able to brew a 12 gallon batch of Simcoemech with relative ease, just by adjusting my water to grain ratio.

Here are some stats on the brew:

Batch size:  12 gallons
Original Gravity:  1.048
Total grain:  18.5 pounds
Total water in mash:  34 quarts
Ratio:  1.1 qts/lb mash in; 1.84 qts/lb mash out
Mash volume:  9.95 gallons

Of course this is all hypothetical until I actually brew it.  Wish me luck!

Maggie--Berliner Weisse 1.0

Maggie is almost fully carbed and looking sexy as hell in my Konings Hoeven goblet.  Smells and tastes phenomenal.  Noticeably tart on the nose with a bit of malty sweetness confessing the fact that it did not attenuate fully.  Nice refreshing tartness on the palate, again with some residual sweetness.  Very crushable on a hot afternoon in spite of a mouthfeel that's slightly too heavy for the style.  Color is also off--way too "golden."  A proper Berliner Weisse needs to be much more light and much more white.

So this beer is far from perfect, but as perfect rarely wins the day, I'm declaring this a huge success.

My next go at this beer will be drier, lighter, and hopefully much more sour. Version 2.0 is already on the drawing board, and hopefully I will get a chance to brew it soon. Just a few changes:

1. Increasing white wheat to 50% of grain bill. This should hopefully lighten the color a bit.
2. Cooling only to 120 before pitching unmilled grains. This should give the mash more time in the lacto temp zone, and I should be able to extend the souring rest to 72-96 hours for a hopefully more puckering tartness.
3. Pitching a slurry of Kolsch yeast instead of Cal ale. Also over-pitching slightly. I used an appropriately sized slurry for a 1.032 wort, but based on multiple comments on HBT, that may not have been enough in this acidic wort.
4. I've also dialed in the recipe as much as I could in Beersmith. In particular, if the software is accurate, then the second temperature infusion should take the temperature of the mash directly from 149 all the way down to 120 in a matter of minutes.

Hopefully Maggie 2.0 will be sour enough to warrant some fruit syrup additions in the glass. Only time will tell.

Packaging my Beers--A Journey of Iterations

I've put a hold on kegging until I have a proper setup, so last week, I bottled fifteen gallons of beer.  That's roughly six cases.

Packaging, for me, has been a journey of iterations.  Like most homebrewers, in the beginning I bottled.  It was a chore.  Tedious.  Laborious.  Messy.  I actually preferred the task of cleaning over that of bottling.  After a few years, I purchased a kegging setup (tank, regulator, picnic tap and one Cornelius keg).  A few batches later, I made the decision to keg exclusively.  The more I listened to Jamil Zainasheff on the Brewing Network, the more I heard the message repeated that kegging was necessary if I wanted to improve my beer, dial in carbonation, clarity, etc. If I wanted, I could always fill a few bottles off the tap, but no more mass bottling of 48-96 bottles at a time.  Already predisposed to abandon the dreaded chore of bottling, all I heard was:

"kegging > bottling"

And I bit.  Hook, line, and sinker.  Every batch I brewed in the past 18 months went into kegs.  The vision was to build a four tap keezer with chrome faucets.  A proper way to store and dispense my beers.  That will happen some day, but it hasn't yet.  The 7 cubic foot chest freezer that was originally purchased for that project has been promoted to the much more important role of fermentation control.  Kegs of homebrew went into our basement side-by-side fridge (a few shelves and drawers removed) to be dispensed via picnic tap.  Functional enough, but I know it was an eye-sore for my wife.  Add that to the fact that I didn't have any bottled beers to share outside the house.  Wasn't happy with the carb level from the DIY beer gun, and growler fills were the same story.

Turns out it's not quite as simple as the formula above.  Kegging may be better than bottling in some cases, but bottling may be better in others.  I realize that when Jamil says "kegging > bottling" (you do know I'm paraphrasing), that's really part of his "how to win at competitions" theme.  If you have the proper equipment and master the technique, you can bottle already-carbonated beer from the keg and send it off to comps without fear of yeast sediment being shaken into suspension from poor handling by others.  Sounds great, but I don't need to worry about that right now.

Truth is, some styles should be bottle conditioned, and many styles actually benefit from it.  Don't get me wrong; I don't like a ton of yeast sludge in the bottom of any beer, but that is easily dismissed with proper patience in the fermenter, cold crashing, possibly even fining, and good racking technique.

So I'm bottling again.  The day will come when I will package my beers both ways:  bottle conditioned and force carbed in kegs.  But until I have a basement bar with a 4 tap keezer, I'll have to be content with bottle conditioning all of my beers.