I've been wanting to homebrew for awhile, but my lack of experience and lack of equipment made the activation energy insurmountably high. Matt, who joined the lab last May, has acted as a homebrew catalyst, lowering the activation energy with his experience and equipment.
We've been planning on brewing for awhile, but haven't gotten around to it until now. Since we work in a yeast lab we thought it only fitting that we brew in lab and use any useful equipment in brewing. We decided to go with an extract based ESB recipe that Matt had brewed before, with a few hop modifications. I'll give the basic protocol in the recipe, then I'll talk about the lab equipment we used later. On Wednesday Matt, Gloria and I went to Modern Homebrew Emporium in Davis Square after lunch at Chipotle. We bought the grains, malt extract, hops and yeast then.
E.S.B.
7 February 2008
On Thursday we added 50 grams of malt extract to 250 mLs hot Poland Springs Water and boiled on a hot plate for 10 minutes.
8 February 2008
The starting malt extract was reboiled for 10 minutes was allowed to cool and was inoculated with the entire volume of WLP002. The starter was placed on a 220 rpm shaker and grown overnight.
9 February 2008
Our original plan was to use Bunsen Burners for the boil. We found a metal grate in lab that we placed on some glass dishes for elevation. Unfortunately about three minutes after we lit the burners the metal on the grate was red hot and had started to bend. Either we need a more heat resistant grate, or we need to elevate it more so it contacts a cooler part of the flame.
The original setup (all photos can be clicked for full-size).
Since we didn't have another suitable surface to place the pot on we decided to use hotplates for the boil. It fit nicely ontop of two large hotplates with a smaller one behind. We put about 3.5 gallons of Poland Springs water into the pot to boil.
The bitchin' hotplate setup!
Lakefront ESB Chilling in the ice machine.
They have a grain mill at the homebrew shop so we didn't have to worry about having to mill our own grain. Matt had a large bag that we used to steep the grains.
Matt shaking out of the grains.
I was initially a bit skeptical of the ability of the hot plates to do the job, but after this round of brewing I'm sold. They got the wort up to 70ºC pretty easily, and the dials on the front made keeping the wort at 62ºC for 30 minutes extremely easy. I think they'll be nice if we decide to do an all grain batch.
Steeping the grains.
After we were done steeping the grains we added 6 lbs of malt extract, and cranked up the temperature to get it to a boil.
The wort after the extract was added.
After 70ºC the hotplates were pretty slow in getting the wort up to boiling temperature, so we used two Bunsen burners on the side of the pot to help things along. The Bunsen burners helped a lot, and got the wort up to a boil pretty quickly.
Jeremy and Matt heating the wort with Bunsen burners.
Once the wort started boiling the hotplates easily held the boil for the entire hour.
The boiling wort.
We have all sorts of neat toys for everyday yeast work in lab. So before we pitched the yeast we decided to get some info about what we were pitching. I took the optical density (OD) of the culture using a spectrophotometer. Our reading for a 1 to 20 dilution of the starter was 0.687, meaning our final OD was 13.74. For reference, a culture that's grown overnight to saturation in YPD (yeast media) is usually at OD 7 or 8.
Me taking an OD reading on the spec.
We also have a Coulter Counter, which can be used to determine the number of cells in a volume of sample. In 1 mL of a 1 to 10,000 dilution of our starter culture there were 12, 078 cells, meaning that there were about 120 million cells per 1 mL of our starter culture. We pitched our entire starter, 285 mLs, for a total of approximately 34.4 billion yeast.
Matt using the Coulter Counter.
We cooled the wort in an ice bath in the 4ºC room. It ended up taking about 15 minutes to cool sufficiently, and when we mixed in the rest of the cold water the wort was at a perfect 78ºF.
The wort cooling.
Matt pouring the cold water into the primary fermenter.
Me pouring the wort into the primary fermenter.
34.4 billion cells ready to be pitched.
Me pitching the yeast.
WLP002 on a plate for future brewing.
We also took some of the wort aside and pitched SK1 and W303, two lab strains, in about 350 mLs each. By that night there was significant bubbling in the airlock, and on Sunday the yeast were going crazy, we had to refill the airlock several times. On Monday the airlock was bubbling every 5 seconds or so. By Sunday SK1 had also started fermenting, but the W303 fermentation seemed to be stalled. W303 is auxotrophic for adenine, so we added some on Monday. We'll see if that's rescued the fermentation in the morning.
The original specific gravity was 1.050.
We're planning transferring to secondary on Friday or Saturday, and dry hopping with the remaining 0.5 oz. of Cascade hops then.
We've been planning on brewing for awhile, but haven't gotten around to it until now. Since we work in a yeast lab we thought it only fitting that we brew in lab and use any useful equipment in brewing. We decided to go with an extract based ESB recipe that Matt had brewed before, with a few hop modifications. I'll give the basic protocol in the recipe, then I'll talk about the lab equipment we used later. On Wednesday Matt, Gloria and I went to Modern Homebrew Emporium in Davis Square after lunch at Chipotle. We bought the grains, malt extract, hops and yeast then.
E.S.B.
- 6 lbs Plain Light Malt Extract (Munton's)
- 4 oz. crystal 40
- 4 oz. chocolate malt
- 4 oz. roasted barley
- 1.5 oz. Brambling Cross for bittering
- 1 oz. Cascade for finishing
- 0.5 oz. Cascade for dry hopping.
- White Labs WLP002, English Ale Yeast
7 February 2008
On Thursday we added 50 grams of malt extract to 250 mLs hot Poland Springs Water and boiled on a hot plate for 10 minutes.
8 February 2008
The starting malt extract was reboiled for 10 minutes was allowed to cool and was inoculated with the entire volume of WLP002. The starter was placed on a 220 rpm shaker and grown overnight.
9 February 2008
Our original plan was to use Bunsen Burners for the boil. We found a metal grate in lab that we placed on some glass dishes for elevation. Unfortunately about three minutes after we lit the burners the metal on the grate was red hot and had started to bend. Either we need a more heat resistant grate, or we need to elevate it more so it contacts a cooler part of the flame.
The original setup (all photos can be clicked for full-size).
Since we didn't have another suitable surface to place the pot on we decided to use hotplates for the boil. It fit nicely ontop of two large hotplates with a smaller one behind. We put about 3.5 gallons of Poland Springs water into the pot to boil.
The bitchin' hotplate setup!
Lakefront ESB Chilling in the ice machine.
They have a grain mill at the homebrew shop so we didn't have to worry about having to mill our own grain. Matt had a large bag that we used to steep the grains.
Matt shaking out of the grains.
I was initially a bit skeptical of the ability of the hot plates to do the job, but after this round of brewing I'm sold. They got the wort up to 70ºC pretty easily, and the dials on the front made keeping the wort at 62ºC for 30 minutes extremely easy. I think they'll be nice if we decide to do an all grain batch.
Steeping the grains.
After we were done steeping the grains we added 6 lbs of malt extract, and cranked up the temperature to get it to a boil.
The wort after the extract was added.
After 70ºC the hotplates were pretty slow in getting the wort up to boiling temperature, so we used two Bunsen burners on the side of the pot to help things along. The Bunsen burners helped a lot, and got the wort up to a boil pretty quickly.
Jeremy and Matt heating the wort with Bunsen burners.
Once the wort started boiling the hotplates easily held the boil for the entire hour.
The boiling wort.
We have all sorts of neat toys for everyday yeast work in lab. So before we pitched the yeast we decided to get some info about what we were pitching. I took the optical density (OD) of the culture using a spectrophotometer. Our reading for a 1 to 20 dilution of the starter was 0.687, meaning our final OD was 13.74. For reference, a culture that's grown overnight to saturation in YPD (yeast media) is usually at OD 7 or 8.
Me taking an OD reading on the spec.
We also have a Coulter Counter, which can be used to determine the number of cells in a volume of sample. In 1 mL of a 1 to 10,000 dilution of our starter culture there were 12, 078 cells, meaning that there were about 120 million cells per 1 mL of our starter culture. We pitched our entire starter, 285 mLs, for a total of approximately 34.4 billion yeast.
Matt using the Coulter Counter.
We cooled the wort in an ice bath in the 4ºC room. It ended up taking about 15 minutes to cool sufficiently, and when we mixed in the rest of the cold water the wort was at a perfect 78ºF.
The wort cooling.
Matt pouring the cold water into the primary fermenter.
Me pouring the wort into the primary fermenter.
34.4 billion cells ready to be pitched.
Me pitching the yeast.
WLP002 on a plate for future brewing.
We also took some of the wort aside and pitched SK1 and W303, two lab strains, in about 350 mLs each. By that night there was significant bubbling in the airlock, and on Sunday the yeast were going crazy, we had to refill the airlock several times. On Monday the airlock was bubbling every 5 seconds or so. By Sunday SK1 had also started fermenting, but the W303 fermentation seemed to be stalled. W303 is auxotrophic for adenine, so we added some on Monday. We'll see if that's rescued the fermentation in the morning.
The original specific gravity was 1.050.
We're planning transferring to secondary on Friday or Saturday, and dry hopping with the remaining 0.5 oz. of Cascade hops then.
We left for Belgium Comes to Cooperstown on Friday. Bennett and I left from Boston and Dave and David left from New York City. The plan was to meet at our motel in Herkimer, NY.
Bennett caught a train from New Haven to Boston Friday morning, and arrived at Kendall Square at 11:45 or so. We briefly stopped off in lab and then took the T to Davis. After lunch at Anna's we picked up the rental car, stopped at Downtown Wine & Spirits for a Magic Hat mixed 12-pack, packed up the car, and were on the road at about 1:15.
406. Albany Pump House Grand Cru
We had originally planned to stop for dinner at The Albany Pump House, but since we left two hours earlier than originally anticipated we arrived in Albany at 5:00, too early for dinner. Still, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to have a new beer so we stopped for a quick bite.
I decided to go with the Grand Cru because it was relatively low in alcohol, and because it was on the beer list for BCTC (one less new beer to worry about at the fest. I had a picture, but I accidentally erased some of the early photos from Friday. This is what the menu says:
Brewery: C.H. Evans Brewing Company
Alcohol: 5.5%
Serving: Draft, 16oz.
Style: Belgian Pale Ale, BJCP Style Guide
Appearance (3.5): Pours a lightly hazy golden-orange with a thin bubbly white head that fades quickly.
Smell (4.0): Very fruity, notes of banana as well as sweet malts.
Taste (4.0): Fruity, bananas and toasty malts. The finish is lightly spicy with a hint of bitterness.
Mouthfeel (3.5): Light to medium-bodied with low carbonation.
Drinkability (4.0): Very easy to drink, refreshing and flavorful.
Overall (3.85): Nice and drinkable, not overwhelmingly complex, a good session beer.
We left Albany Pump House at 6 and called David and Dave for an update, they were still in the rental car office in Manhattan. From Albany it was an hour to our motel in Herkimer, NY. The motel was run down, but wasn't as bad as I feared.
407. Magic Hat Batch 374
After arriving at the motel Bennett and I ran into town for snacks, then had a couple beers from the Magic Hat mixed pack and watched TV until the Daves arrived. We both had Magic Hat Batch 374, the "Mystery Beer" in the 12-pack. I brought pint glasses to the hotel for the homebrew tasting so we served the beer in that.
Beer Stats:
Brewery: Magic Hat Brewing Company
Alcohol: 5.90%
Serving: Bottle, 12 oz.
Style: American Amber/Red Ale, BJCP Style Guide
Appearance:
Thom (4.0): Pours a crystal clear amber with a fluffy beige head that recedes to a thin layer leaving patchy lace.
Bennett (4.0): Relatively clear, with a pleasant copper color. Head was a medium, beige froth, with a relatively long half life.
Smell:
Thom (3.5): Piney hops with sweet toffee and caramel malts.
Bennett (3.0): Herbal, strong.
Taste:
Thom (3.5): Light sweet malts in the center are dominated by a resiny hop bitterness in the finsish.
Bennett (3.0): Bitter. Aftertaste is the aroma, hops-dominated. Not a complex taste - straight and simple.
Mouthfeel:
Thom (3.5): Oily, medium-light-bodied.
Bennett (2.5): A little slimy. No texture. Inside Joke [Ward: "Add a little coconut?"]
Drinkability:
Thom (3.5): Drinkablitiy is okay, but could use some more balancing malts.
Bennett (3.5): Only flavor strength would stop you.
Overall:
Thom (3.6): A decent session beer.
Bennett (3.2)
David and Dave arrived at around 11:30. In addition to the homebrew stout that we'd brewed, David had also brewed a Witbier. We had the homebrews and then played poker.
Homebrew Stout
David, Bennett and I brewed this stout when I went to NYC for his birthday. He bottled it about a week later, and brought up 3 bottles for us to try.
Appearance:
Thom: Opaque black, hazy edges, thin beige head.
Dave (3.0): Quite dark, almost no light gets through.
David (4.0): Hoppy and Guiness-like - brown too, not all black.
Bennett (4.0):Opaque. Light, lacy head that lingers (khaki-coloured). Near-black.
Smell:
Thom: Roasty, with notes of coffee and chocolate.
Dave (2.7): Smells slightly acidic.
David (2.0): Must and a bit acidic.
Bennett (3.5): Caramel overtones to beer.
Taste:
Thom: Roasted malts, coffee, burnt sugar, with a little residual sweetness. Hoppy bitterness in the finish.
Dave (3.5): Rich, thick taste - resembles a chocolate stout, I want to say... Has a nice slightly bitter aftertaste with a nice bit of carbonation.
David (4.0): Porter - very pronounced hops and bark burntness. Lovely.
Bennett (4.0): Rich, full-bodied. Dominated by carbonation. Hints of caramel, but against a dark burnt background.
Mouthfeel:
Thom: Light-medium-bodied, vigorous carbonation.
Dave (4): Bold - enjoy the carbonation.
David (4.0): Feels like coffee - harsh, but good aftertaste.
Bennett (4.5): Light-bubbliness. Smooth. I like it.
Drinkability:
Thom: Pretty easy to drink.
Dave (4.5): Bold and smooth - could drink quite a few of these.
David (3.5): I've had some better, a lot worse.
Bennett (3): With food: yes. Without food: no.
Overall:
Thom: Pretty good, the residual sweetness worked well to balance the roasted and hoppy bitterness.
Dave (3.39)
David (3.55)
Bennett (3.85)
Stout Summary
We all liked the stout pretty well. We all liked the carbonation, and most of us thought it was very drinkable, with a pretty good taste. The smell was a little lacking.
Homebrew Witbier
David and Megan's brother brewed this a few weeks ago.
Appearance:
Thom: It looks like saturated YPD. An incredibly cloudy golden.
Dave (2.7): Milky, egg-yolk haziness.
David (?): Cloudy and orange.
Bennett (2.0): YPD + E. coli (12 hours) = this beer.
Smell:
Thom: Incredibly fruity, a bit much actually. There's also a hint of graininess.
Dave (3):Thick, fruity smell.
David (4.0): Very nice - fruity, but also wheaty.
Bennett (3.0): Fruity.
Taste:
Thom: Fruitiness is present, but not nearly as overpowering as the smell. The finish is grainy, with powdery yeast and a light bitterenss.
Dave (2.9): Hearty, milky taste.
David (4.0): Crisp, rounded taste of fruit and wheat. Personally can't taste much yeast/sediment in this beer.
Bennett (3.0): Disappointingly burnt aftertaste. Complex flavors, wheat dominates though.
Mouthfeel:
Thom: Light-bodied, tingly carbonation.
Dave (3.4): Enjoy the light fruity aftertaste and slight tingle.
David (3.0): Inveterate tingly nature on tongue - especially when cold.
Bennett (3.5): Eh. No good on the taste, so this is hard to judge.
Drinkability:
Thom: A little off.
Dave (2.4): Aftertaste is kind of funky.
David (3.0): Could drink very cold on hot day. Maybe a six-pack or so.
Bennett (2.0): Not good.
Overall:
Thom: Not as good as the stout, not a great witbier.
Dave (2.86)
Bennett (2.75)
We played poker for a couple hours at a $10 buy in, and then went to bed.
Bennett caught a train from New Haven to Boston Friday morning, and arrived at Kendall Square at 11:45 or so. We briefly stopped off in lab and then took the T to Davis. After lunch at Anna's we picked up the rental car, stopped at Downtown Wine & Spirits for a Magic Hat mixed 12-pack, packed up the car, and were on the road at about 1:15.
406. Albany Pump House Grand Cru
We had originally planned to stop for dinner at The Albany Pump House, but since we left two hours earlier than originally anticipated we arrived in Albany at 5:00, too early for dinner. Still, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to have a new beer so we stopped for a quick bite.
I decided to go with the Grand Cru because it was relatively low in alcohol, and because it was on the beer list for BCTC (one less new beer to worry about at the fest. I had a picture, but I accidentally erased some of the early photos from Friday. This is what the menu says:
A unique beer made from a 3/2 blend of wheat and Munich malts and fermented with a Belgian yeast strain. The nose is complex, with notes of fruit, vanilla and malt. The flavor is much the same, with little hop character.Beer Stats:
Brewery: C.H. Evans Brewing Company
Alcohol: 5.5%
Serving: Draft, 16oz.
Style: Belgian Pale Ale, BJCP Style Guide
Appearance (3.5): Pours a lightly hazy golden-orange with a thin bubbly white head that fades quickly.
Smell (4.0): Very fruity, notes of banana as well as sweet malts.
Taste (4.0): Fruity, bananas and toasty malts. The finish is lightly spicy with a hint of bitterness.
Mouthfeel (3.5): Light to medium-bodied with low carbonation.
Drinkability (4.0): Very easy to drink, refreshing and flavorful.
Overall (3.85): Nice and drinkable, not overwhelmingly complex, a good session beer.
We left Albany Pump House at 6 and called David and Dave for an update, they were still in the rental car office in Manhattan. From Albany it was an hour to our motel in Herkimer, NY. The motel was run down, but wasn't as bad as I feared.
407. Magic Hat Batch 374
After arriving at the motel Bennett and I ran into town for snacks, then had a couple beers from the Magic Hat mixed pack and watched TV until the Daves arrived. We both had Magic Hat Batch 374, the "Mystery Beer" in the 12-pack. I brought pint glasses to the hotel for the homebrew tasting so we served the beer in that.
Beer Stats:
Brewery: Magic Hat Brewing Company
Alcohol: 5.90%
Serving: Bottle, 12 oz.
Style: American Amber/Red Ale, BJCP Style Guide
Appearance:
Thom (4.0): Pours a crystal clear amber with a fluffy beige head that recedes to a thin layer leaving patchy lace.
Bennett (4.0): Relatively clear, with a pleasant copper color. Head was a medium, beige froth, with a relatively long half life.
Smell:
Thom (3.5): Piney hops with sweet toffee and caramel malts.
Bennett (3.0): Herbal, strong.
Taste:
Thom (3.5): Light sweet malts in the center are dominated by a resiny hop bitterness in the finsish.
Bennett (3.0): Bitter. Aftertaste is the aroma, hops-dominated. Not a complex taste - straight and simple.
Mouthfeel:
Thom (3.5): Oily, medium-light-bodied.
Bennett (2.5): A little slimy. No texture. Inside Joke [Ward: "Add a little coconut?"]
Drinkability:
Thom (3.5): Drinkablitiy is okay, but could use some more balancing malts.
Bennett (3.5): Only flavor strength would stop you.
Overall:
Thom (3.6): A decent session beer.
Bennett (3.2)
David and Dave arrived at around 11:30. In addition to the homebrew stout that we'd brewed, David had also brewed a Witbier. We had the homebrews and then played poker.
Homebrew Stout
David, Bennett and I brewed this stout when I went to NYC for his birthday. He bottled it about a week later, and brought up 3 bottles for us to try.
Appearance:
Thom: Opaque black, hazy edges, thin beige head.
Dave (3.0): Quite dark, almost no light gets through.
David (4.0): Hoppy and Guiness-like - brown too, not all black.
Bennett (4.0):Opaque. Light, lacy head that lingers (khaki-coloured). Near-black.
Smell:
Thom: Roasty, with notes of coffee and chocolate.
Dave (2.7): Smells slightly acidic.
David (2.0): Must and a bit acidic.
Bennett (3.5): Caramel overtones to beer.
Taste:
Thom: Roasted malts, coffee, burnt sugar, with a little residual sweetness. Hoppy bitterness in the finish.
Dave (3.5): Rich, thick taste - resembles a chocolate stout, I want to say... Has a nice slightly bitter aftertaste with a nice bit of carbonation.
David (4.0): Porter - very pronounced hops and bark burntness. Lovely.
Bennett (4.0): Rich, full-bodied. Dominated by carbonation. Hints of caramel, but against a dark burnt background.
Mouthfeel:
Thom: Light-medium-bodied, vigorous carbonation.
Dave (4): Bold - enjoy the carbonation.
David (4.0): Feels like coffee - harsh, but good aftertaste.
Bennett (4.5): Light-bubbliness. Smooth. I like it.
Drinkability:
Thom: Pretty easy to drink.
Dave (4.5): Bold and smooth - could drink quite a few of these.
David (3.5): I've had some better, a lot worse.
Bennett (3): With food: yes. Without food: no.
Overall:
Thom: Pretty good, the residual sweetness worked well to balance the roasted and hoppy bitterness.
Dave (3.39)
David (3.55)
Bennett (3.85)
Stout Summary
We all liked the stout pretty well. We all liked the carbonation, and most of us thought it was very drinkable, with a pretty good taste. The smell was a little lacking.
Homebrew Witbier
David and Megan's brother brewed this a few weeks ago.
Appearance:
Thom: It looks like saturated YPD. An incredibly cloudy golden.
Dave (2.7): Milky, egg-yolk haziness.
David (?): Cloudy and orange.
Bennett (2.0): YPD + E. coli (12 hours) = this beer.
Smell:
Thom: Incredibly fruity, a bit much actually. There's also a hint of graininess.
Dave (3):Thick, fruity smell.
David (4.0): Very nice - fruity, but also wheaty.
Bennett (3.0): Fruity.
Taste:
Thom: Fruitiness is present, but not nearly as overpowering as the smell. The finish is grainy, with powdery yeast and a light bitterenss.
Dave (2.9): Hearty, milky taste.
David (4.0): Crisp, rounded taste of fruit and wheat. Personally can't taste much yeast/sediment in this beer.
Bennett (3.0): Disappointingly burnt aftertaste. Complex flavors, wheat dominates though.
Mouthfeel:
Thom: Light-bodied, tingly carbonation.
Dave (3.4): Enjoy the light fruity aftertaste and slight tingle.
David (3.0): Inveterate tingly nature on tongue - especially when cold.
Bennett (3.5): Eh. No good on the taste, so this is hard to judge.
Drinkability:
Thom: A little off.
Dave (2.4): Aftertaste is kind of funky.
David (3.0): Could drink very cold on hot day. Maybe a six-pack or so.
Bennett (2.0): Not good.
Overall:
Thom: Not as good as the stout, not a great witbier.
Dave (2.86)
Bennett (2.75)
We played poker for a couple hours at a $10 buy in, and then went to bed.
Labels: Albany Pump House, American Amber/Red Ale, American Stout, Beer Fests, Belgian Pale Ale, Brewery Ommegang, Homebrew, Magic Hat Brewing Company, Travel, Witbier
