Strong blond ale - yet again

[Laripu]

I make this strong blond ale every year, it seems. There are always slight variations in the recipe, but the two main ingredients are always the same: German pilsener malt and Kölsch yeast. I guess you could think of it as a Kölsch-bock, if such a thing existed. I've always called it "Cats and Myces".

Note: I've copied my recipe from an email I sent to an American friend, so the quarts and gallons mentioned are American gallons. Six American gallons = 5 UK gallons = 23L, approximately, and sorry about the confusion. (And °C = (°F-32)/1.8 ... sorry again.)

Grain bill:
Weyermann 2-row Pilsner malt 12 lb
American Crystal Malt 10L 1 lb
Flaked Maize 1 lb
Hops:
Cascade (USA) First wort hopped 1 oz
Liberty (USA) 30 minutes 1 oz
Saaz (Czech) 15 minutes 1 oz
Yeast:
White labs WLP029, Kölsch yeast, recultured from the dregs of my last batch. I made and pitched a 1.5 quart starter.
Water treatment:
De-chlorinated, filtered, soft water with MgSO4 (Epsom salts) 1 teaspoon per gallon and Ca SO4 (gypsum) 1 teaspoon per gallon
Mash:
Protein rest: 130°F, 20 minutes
Saccharification: 150°F, 90 minutes
Sparge:
4 gallons of treated water, 1 hour.
Boil:
1 hour. ½ teaspoon of Supermoss added at the last 15 minutes.

[CestrIan]

What does flaked maize bring to the recipe. I've just bought a kilo by mistake and I've never used it before. Not sure what to do with it! It's not very common in recipes on this side of the pond.

[DeadFall]

You missed the oz to gram conversion, you're sacked!

[Chicken Dipper]

I've used it in a couple of clone brew recipes...

Spitfire

4kg Pale
540g Flaked Maize
400g Crystal
150g Torrified Wheat
270g Brewing Sugar

30g Target
16g EKG 90m
16g First Gold Last 15m
16g EKG Last 1m

WLP002

And...

Bishops Finger

4KG Pale
540g Flaked Maize
450g Crystal
400g Torrified Wheat
136g Amber

25g Target 90 m
16g EKG Last 15m
16g Styrians Last 15m
34g EKG Last 1 m

WLP002

Both 23l

To answer your question (ha)! It gives a light corn grain flavour, both of these were really great beers and it added an extra dimension that I really enjoyed

[Laripu]

What does flaked maize bring to the recipe. I've just bought a kilo by mistake and I've never used it before. Not sure what to do with it! It's not very common in recipes on this side of the pond.

It's use here is traditional. American barley, compared to UK or Euro barley, is higher in both protein and diastatic power. Use of maize (which is low in protein) brings the total protein down to UK/Euro levels, and the extra diastatic power allows the conversion of large amounts of unmalted adjuncts. This makes American factory beer very pale, and also cheap to make, since maize is less expensive in quantity than malted grain.

But maize isn't as tasty as barley, so you shouldn't use it for more than about 10% of the fermentables. Unless you're big stupid profit-driven American mega-swillery. Then it's up to 40%.... for beer that accountants love to sell, and people working outdoors in very hot weather like to drink.

For me, it's useful in a big beer, where there is already lots of barley malt, to keep the mouthfeel from being too overwhelming. Belgians use sugar for that purpose. Also, if I do a Canadian-style golden ale, 10% maize is true to style, for a delicate light flavoured beer.

I have seen flaked maize in UK recipe books by Graham Wheeler, and in old ones by Dave Line. But not often, as you say.

[Laripu]

You missed the oz to gram conversion, you're sacked!

Hmmmm, if I meant Australians, do I get my job back? ....and of course by lb, I meant a unit of currency.

You guys gave your units to the world, then said "no, sorry, but the French were right after all!". Finalement, on est pas tout des français, n'est pas?

[YeastWhisperer]

What does flaked maize bring to the recipe. I've just bought a kilo by mistake and I've never used it before. Not sure what to do with it! It's not very common in recipes on this side of the pond.

Flaked maize increases the O.G. without increasing the F.G. Maize is my "go to" adjunct when I want to produce a beer with a crisp, clean finish. I also perform a double mash using corn grits from time to time when I do not have any flaked maize on hand.

Flaked maize is more popular with commercial British brewers than you realize. In fact, flaked maize is primarily a British adjunct. Americans have historically used corn grits and a double mash. If you dig deep enough, you will discover that many of the larger British breweries use a percentage of maize in their products (usually around 10% of the grist).

[DeadFall]

You missed the oz to gram conversion, you're sacked!

Hmmmm, if I meant Australians, do I get my job back? ....and of course by lb, I meant a unit of currency.

You guys gave your units to the world, then said "no, sorry, but the French were right after all!". Finalement, on est pas tout des français, n'est pas?

The origins of the metric system is based on work by a Dutchman, an Englishman and a few other people. Then the French scientists really liked it and started to adopt it (actually, it was to stop a lot of arguing amongst themselves ) and eventually the rest of us caught up. Us Europeans quite like to work together when we're not killing each other.

I've seen some very funny and quite scary comments by Americans about not wanting to convert over to the metric system. Common sense and blind-patriotism don't really go hand in hand.

[Laripu]

I've seen some very funny and quite scary comments by Americans about not wanting to convert over to the metric system. Common sense and blind-patriotism don't really go hand in hand.

True. I grew up with the British system in Canada. Then Canada went metric, and so did I. Years later, at age 40, I moved to the US, and went back to the British system.

The result? I'm more comfortable describing cold Canadian temperatures in Celsius, but hot Florida days in Fahrenheit. Heavier weights, like grain, in pounds, but hops and spices in grams. I like volumes in litres... But everything around me is in US gallons and quarts....I'd be ok with UK gallons and quarts, but that's not what I live with.

That spaghetti-mess of units is what I pay for having days that are 30°C = 86°F in May, and days no colder than 10°C = 50°F in January.

Anyway, I'm a software engineer modeling physical processes, so we're using different units ask the time, depending on the customer. However, under the hood it's all metric.

As long as my car's speed isn't described in furlongs per fortnight, I'm ok.

[WalesAles]

Finalement, on est pas tout des français, n'est pas?

Wee, Wee, Monshewer

WA

[YeastWhisperer]

I grew up with English units of measure. However, I was taught the metric system in elementary school in the sixties. Most Americans younger than sixty-five know the metric system.

While I perform all of my yeast culturing work using the metric system, I absolutely detest having to work with the metric system while brewing. Points per pound per gallon as an extraction rate is a much more intuitive unit of measure than points per kilogram per liter. It is significantly simpler to formulate and scale recipes using points per pound per gallon than it is using points per kilogram per liter. For example, my extraction rate hovers in the 31 points per pound per US gallon +/- a point range. If I want to produce a batch of 1.056 wort, all I need to do is to divide 56 by 31 to determine the number of pounds of grist that I need per gallon of wort. I can perform this calculation in my head.

Example 1

56 / 31 = ~1.81 pounds of grist per gallon of wort

When working with the metric system, I have to first determine the volume that I want to brew in liters before I can determine the number of kilograms of grist that I need to achieve a given gravity based on my extraction rate in points per kilogram per liter.

Example 2

Wort Volume = 23 liters
O.G. = 1.056
Extract Rate in kg/l: 8.345 x 31 = 258.695 (the value 8.345 is the product from multiplying the number of pounds in a kilogram by the number of liters in a U.S. gallon)

Grist in Kilograms = 23 x 56 / 258.695 = ~4.98 kg

Kilograms of Grist Per Liter = 4.98 / 23 = 0.217

The numbers do not work out perfectly due to rounding errors, but the grist in both instances is just shy of 11 pounds. While both equations are easy to use, the English measure is much easier to scale.

[CestrIan]

Brewing is all in metric for me; kg of grain, litres of wort, grams of hops and degree celsius of mash temp, but outside brewing; I am 6 foot 1 inches tall, weigh 13 stone 7 ounces and my car does 55 miles per gallon. We are a mix of imperial and metric in the uk. It's funny how certain measurements stick for certain things though. I imagine future generations will become more metric. My parents still talk about the weather in farenheit and I honestly haven't got a clue what they are talking about. I just can't think in farenheit.