Double Brewday: Black Walnut Mild and Mauri Weissbier

[seymour]

BREWDAY: January 19, 2013

I’ve never tried brewing two beers at the same time before, but I realized I had enough basic equipment, and not knowing when the next brew day may come, I decided to give it a shot.



RECIPE #1: SEYMOUR BLACK WALNUT MILD
all-grain recipe

6 US Gallons = 5 Imperial Gallons = 22.7 Litres

FERMENTABLES:
81% = 6.32 lb = 2.87 kg, Mild Ale Malt (improvised from blend of English Pale Malt & Vienna)
5% = .39 lb = 177 g, Crystal Malt 80°L
3% = .23 lb = 105 g, Black Malt
3% = .23 lb = 105 g, Steel-Cut Oats
8% = .62 lb = 283 g, Dark Invert Syrup (made from first-runnings & brown cane sugar)
+ 6 g black walnuts and a pinch of calcium carbonate in mash.

STRIKE 7.79 lb/3.54 kg grains ≈ 63°F/17°C with 3.5 US gal/2.9 Imp gal/13.2 L water ≈ 162°F/72°

MASH ≈ 152.6°F/67°C for 90 minutes.

DRAIN a couple pints of first-runnings into a pot, add brown sugar, a couple drops lime juice, boil-down to a dark invert syrup, eventually add to main boil.

SPARGE ≈ 170°F/76.7°C

BOIL 1 hour with a pinch of gypsum.

HOPS:
.35 oz = 10 g, Progress, pellets, 8% AA, 50 minutes
.35 oz = 10 g, Challenger, pellets, 6.3% AA, 50 minutes
.43 oz = 12 g, Progress, pellets, 8% AA, 15 minutes
.43 oz = 12 g, Challenger, pellets, 6.3% AA, 15 minutes

YEAST:
Fullers strain, ferment at 70°F/21°C

STATS (69% mash efficiency and 70% yeast attenuation):
OG: 1.034
FG: 1.011
ABV: 3.1%
IBU: 29
COLOUR: 16°SRM/31.5°EBC

I'm hoping for some delicious nutty flavours of black walnuts from my own tree. I saved a couple handfuls of dehusked and toasted nuts, but after painstakingly cracking them to discover many were shrivelled or empty, I only had a very small quantity of good nutmeat. Oh well, I ground ‘em up with the grain and added them to the mash. Hopefully they will subtly compliment the English malts.

I cracked the grains by hand which took awhile. I did the weissbier grainbill first because it had the longer mash schedule. I started on the Mild around 9:50 AM.


Cracking the grains.


Close-up of black walnuts.


Hops and yeast starter for the mild. I don't love pellets, but it seems to be the only way I can get true English hops.


Looks about like 152°F. I bought a bigger/more precise thermometer, but I keep forgetting to switch it out.


Creating the caramelly syrup.

I was done sparging at 11:45 AM, having collected 6.75 US gallons pre-boil.




The big trunk in the middle is the black walnut tree which produced the nuts for this beer.

It finally came to a gentle boil around 12:20, and I stirred-in the bittering hops, being very careful not to overflow the full kettle. At 12:50 I added the late hops and dropped-in the wort chiller in order to sanitize it for the remaining 15 minute boil.


At the end of the 1 hour boil, I chilled to 72° F (which took less than 5 minutes, thanks to very cold groundwater this time of year), poured through a strainer into a bucket to remove the hops, and measured the Original Gravity. It was quite low, a much lower efficiency than I’m used to, but okay for an English Mild. I hope that means it’ll have some nice residual body, and that the hops won’t be overpowering. Finally, I pitched my yeast starter, set the bucket aside and started sparging the weissbier into the same boil kettle.

While I was boiling and chilling, several honey bees kept buzzing around me. I’m not afraid of them, in fact I always take it as a good omen for my garden in the spring and summer, but it seems weird this time of year, right? Aren’t they supposed to be dormant in their hive?


RECIPE #2: SEYMOUR MAURI WEISSBIER

A very cheap & easy pseudo-Bavarian wheat beer fermented with Australian yeast, aiming for huge banana flavours (isoamyl acetate ester.)

4 US Gallons = 3.3 Imperial Gallon = 15 Litres

69% = 4.93 lb = 2.24 kg, Unmalted wheat
20% = 1.43 lb = 649 g, German Pilsener Malt
1% = .071 lb = 32 g, German Aciduated Malt
10% = .714 lb = 324 g, Organic Turbinado Cane Sugar (added to boil)

MASH at 122°F/50°C for 1 hour then raise to 150°F/66°C, 3 hours total.

SPARGE at 170°F/77°C to collect 4.75-5 US gallons pre-boil.

BOIL 90 minutes

HOPS:
.8 oz = 23 g, Hallertau, 90 minutes
.5 oz = 14 g, Hallertau, 15 minutes

Chill (or allow to cool ambiently), pitch Mauribrew Weiss yeast (thanks AndyCo!) when it reaches 72°F/22°C.

Use a submersible aquarium heater to hold temperature around 64°F/17.8°C

STATS (assuming 75% mash efficiency and 77% yeast efficiency):
OG: 1.051
FG: 1.011
ABV: 5.25%
IBU: 25
COLOUR: 4°SRM/8°EBC

The idea for this Weissbier was a low-fuss, lower priority batch which I could casually check-on between jobs on my primary batch. It ended up having a very long multi-step mash which was surely beneficial for a mainly unmalted grainbill.


I began at 9:25 AM. At a few breaks in my mild brew, I drained off a few gallons of this weissbier, raised the temperature, and poured it back in. Finally got around to sparging at 1:30 PM, collected 4.75 US gallons, and got it up to a boil around 2:00 PM.


Hops (thanks Anheuser Busch!) and yeast (thanks AndyCo!)


Weissbier spent grains.

I boiled it harder and longer than I typically do. Between evaporation and absorption from all the whole hops, I ended up with only 3.5 gallons of 1.062 wort. Not bad for bulk cracked wheat from the Indian grocery store! It went against every fibre of my being, but I watered it down to the target gravity. Until recently I only brewed crazy big beers, but hell, this was my plan so I’m sticking with it. I want to check-out this yeast under fairly normal circumstances. The turbinado sugar and vigorous boil turned it a really nice light amber color which I like.

I planned to use a submersible heater in order to generate lots of esters and phenols, but I didn’t think about how it won’t fit through the glass carboy’s neck until it was too late. So, I decided on the really classy mop bucket warm bath solution.


Tucked away for the night. That's the Mild on the left, and the Weissbier on the right.


All-in-all, a very laid-back brewday. No problems arose, and both beers appeared to turn out the way I wanted. I even finished and cleaned-up in time to make dinner. I'm glad to know I can brew two for roughly the same time and effort as one, and I'm really excited to taste them both.

Cheers!

[orlando]

Not tried a double brew day yet, I'm usually knackered with one but this did look fairly easy. Interested in how the "nutty" Mild turns out, keep us posted. I have brewed with the Mauribrew yeast but it was part of my 4 way SMaSH, which turned out a bit of a disaster so don't really know how well it performs, so another aspect to report on please.

[barneey]

No matter how many brewdays I read I`m always amazed at how quickly some progress, I seem to spend all day with a single brew. I must get more organised

[alix101]

A great write up seymour...you must have the patients of a saint to crack grains like that I keep meaning to try a parti-gyle I know thats not quite the same, but using the time I have to maximize production can't be a bad thing.

[seymour]

A great write up seymour...you must have the patients of a saint to crack grains like that I keep meaning to try a parti-gyle I know thats not quite the same, but using the time I have to maximize production can't be a bad thing.

Thanks! It's not nearly as time-consuming as I expected. It took about 20-30 minutes, and is a fun way to involve my kids too. It makes the whole thing feel much more hands-on and old-timey. Y'know what I mean? Like we could still brew our own beer and make our own bread flour in a post-apocolyptic hideaway or something.

[6470zzy]

Very nice pictorial Seymour, where did you purchase the Mauribrew Weiss yeast ?

Cheers

[seymour]

No matter how many brewdays I read I`m always amazed at how quickly some progress, I seem to spend all day with a single brew. I must get more organised

I used to take all day too, but for some reason, doing two beers at once meant I had none of the inevitable mishaps. Weird, I know.

Very nice pictorial Seymour, where did you purchase the Mauribrew Weiss yeast ?

I didn't. As far as I know, I can't in the US. Jim's member AndyCo very generously mailed it to me for free! What a guy, huh?

[seymour]

UPDATE: Woo-hoo, everything's all bottled up and conditioning away!

On 1/30/2013 I bottled the Black Walnut Mild: 27 x 12oz bottles and 22 bombers.
Already tasting great and true-to-style. Despite the low alcohol, it's very complex: bready, biscuity, TOASTY, slightly roasty, dark stone fruits, toffee, tart with hints of chocolate and coffee with cream, excellent resiny, orange marmalade-y English hops. There are definitely some nice nutty tannins in the palate, which you get some of from English malts, but I like to think my black walnuts amped it up slightly. Bigger and chewier mouthfeel than the FG would predict. Currently lots of distinctive, fresh Fullers yeast esters, which is cool but I'm looking forward to more carbonation, too. I kinda hate the term "session ale" but I could drink a bunch of this at one sitting, which I guess is the whole point.

On 2/5/2013 I bottled the Mauri Weissbier: 32 x 12oz bottles.
Just as I get everything setup and sanitized, I realized I didn't have enough bottle caps. Dammit! Luckily my master-naturalist friend Tim lives nearby, so he hooked me up with bottle caps and several bottles of homemade fruit wine. Thanks and thanks!

This one definitely needs strong carbonation to splash things around, but already I'm pleasantly surprised. Pretty, clear golden colour. Profoundly fruity and hoppy aromas and flavours, either my calculated 20IBU was too low (I'd swear it tastes more like 30+), or there's so little else for it to hide behind? Whatever the case, I like it. Big husky whole-grain essence, vanilla marshmallowiness of pils malt, some clove and black peppery phenols, relatively more banana esters which I was hoping for. I'll be able to discern the appearance better once it's carbonated, but the yeast seems to have completely flocculated-out, appearing more like a kristallweizen or classic pilsener lager than a cloudy hefeweizen. Who cares? It tastes great already.

In case you ever wondered if you could make high-quality, all-grain, beer-flavored-beer with only 21% actual brewing ingredients, free hops and yeast, a no-fuss, batch-sparged, stress-free brewday and still hit all your targets...the answer is YES!

I'll post pictures of both beers when bottle-conditioning is finished. Cheers!

[orlando]

Nice one Seymour, pleased it worked out for you. Your descriptions get more florid everytime I read one but it does rather stimulate the urges, if you pardon the expression.

Not familiar with the term "bombers" what are they then?

Nothing wrong with the term "session ale", "session beer" actually; no one on this side of the pond will be confused by what you mean

[seymour]

Nice one Seymour, pleased it worked out for you. Your descriptions get more florid everytime I read one but it does rather stimulate the urges, if you pardon the expression...

Thanks, I do what I can.

...Not familiar with the term "bombers" what are they then?...

Oh, sorry. A bomber bottle is just our nickname for the bigger bottles that higher-end craft beer "singles" are sold in. I think they're usually 22oz, 1 pint 9oz, sometimes more. I don't know what all gets exported to you, but I'm sure you've seen some from Stone, New Belgium, Lagunitas, Firestone Walker, Samuel Adams, etc, even Corona, Heineken and Newcastle, come to think of it... Lots of us homebrewers save em simply so that we can bottle the same batch size using fewer bottles.

...Nothing wrong with the term "session ale", "session beer" actually; no one on this side of the pond will be confused by what you mean

Yeah, I didn't think the meaning was confusing, I just think the term "session beer" sounds kinda stupid, and is meant by many people as an insult or less important or complex. I think a well-crafted Mild should be treated with every bit as much respect as a prized high-gravity whale. Plus, if it means a beer you'd want to drink several of or you'd enjoy drinking with dinner, well, I'm thrilled to do so with numerous Imperial Russian Stouts, Barleywines, etc. Tasty beer is tasty beer, and I'll have a few if I can afford it, regardless of alcoholic strength. The term quickly loses any meaning for me.

[orlando]

Nice one Seymour, pleased it worked out for you. Your descriptions get more florid everytime I read one but it does rather stimulate the urges, if you pardon the expression...

Thanks, I do what I can.

...Not familiar with the term "bombers" what are they then?...

Oh, sorry. A bomber bottle is just our nickname for the bigger bottles that higher-end craft beer "singles" are sold in. I think they're usually 22oz, 1 pint 9oz, sometimes more. I don't know what all gets exported to you, but I'm sure you've seen some from Stone, New Belgium, Lagunitas, Firestone Walker, Samuel Adams, etc, even Corona, Heineken and Newcastle, come to think of it... Lots of us homebrewers save em simply so that we can bottle the same batch size using fewer bottles.

...Nothing wrong with the term "session ale", "session beer" actually; no one on this side of the pond will be confused by what you mean

Yeah, I didn't think the meaning was confusing, I just think the term "session beer" sounds kinda stupid, and is meant by many people as an insult or less important or complex. I think a well-crafted Mild should be treated with every bit as much respect as a prized high-gravity whale. Plus, if it means a beer you'd want to drink several of or you'd enjoy drinking with dinner, well, I'm thrilled to do so with numerous Imperial Russian Stouts, Barleywines, etc. Tasty beer is tasty beer, and I'll have a few if I can afford it, regardless of alcoholic strength. The term quickly loses any meaning for me.

Interesting take on session beer. I will be interested to hear my fellow Brits view on this but we don't view a session beer as anything other than a beer of usually lower strength and by that I mean under 4%. There is no qualitative meaning to the phrase or any pejorative undertones to it, I guess this is a cultural difference, it seems to me that North American beer culture is a lot more embracing and sophisticated than over here and if it is shifting over here, and I believe it is, it is a lot to do with the influence of American craft brewing and its attendant home brewers, hence the fascination with "your" hops.

[seymour]

Interesting take on session beer. I will be interested to hear my fellow Brits view on this but we don't view a session beer as anything other than a beer of usually lower strength and by that I mean under 4%. There is no qualitative meaning to the phrase or any pejorative undertones to it, I guess this is a cultural difference...

Gotcha, that's good to know. Over here, it seems you practically have to apologize for drinking or brewing something <6% alcohol. I don't know how many times I've shared a beer I'm excited about, then receive the comment, "Pretty good, but it needs way more alcohol and hops." Why!? Could we talk about this beer, for what it is, for just a minute? Arrogant Bastard and most Lagunitas and Rogue beers, for instance, are fine and all, but that sort of imbalanced intensity shouldn't be the only measuring stick.

I've only recently embraced my enjoyment of well-crafted smaller beers (which your country excels at and I in no way view that as less sophisticated, the opposite in fact, as it takes a true sophisticate to appreciate subtleties.) Long story short: I'm aware I'm overly defensive about this.

[Matt12398]

I always find it interesting reading posts from non-English (mainly American) forum members with a love of all of the European beer styles and their quests to perfect them. Conversely you have a lot of brits chasing the ultra hopped, clean fermented pale ales.

[Jocky]

Interesting take on session beer. I will be interested to hear my fellow Brits view on this but we don't view a session beer as anything other than a beer of usually lower strength and by that I mean under 4%. There is no qualitative meaning to the phrase or any pejorative undertones to it, I guess this is a cultural difference...

Gotcha, that's good to know. Over here, it seems you practically have to apologize for drinking or brewing something <6% alcohol. I don't know how many times I've shared a beer I'm excited about, then receive the comment, "Pretty good, but it needs way more alcohol and hops." Why!? Could we talk about this beer, for what it is, for just a minute? Arrogant Bastard and most Lagunitas and Rogue beers, for instance, are fine and all, but that sort of imbalanced intensity shouldn't be the only measuring stick.

For me, session beer is something that you can spend an afternoon or evening drinking several pints of without feeling that you've had too much sugar, alcohol or hops. It's got to be pleasant, but not intrusive, and is really intertwined with British drinking culture where pubs have long been centres of communities or social clubs rather than somewhere you just go to drink. Until you've sat in a British pub and chatted away an afternoon with friends and the proper ale it can be a little difficult to grasp.

In terms of flavour, the English styles don't give you anywhere to hide off flavours or unbalanced beer - you also have to be able to serve it at cellar temperature (around 12 degrees C) in a pint, with a very small amount of carbonation, which means flavours need to be a bit more delicate or they will become overpowering. American craft beer is usually served much colder with much more carbonation, which actually subdues or hides quite a bit of flavour from the beer, making higher levels of hops and alcohol more palatable and masking badly balanced or off flavours more easily.

Overall I've come back to really appreciating the subtlety of the English Real Ale style more recently, but what the more extreme beers have taught me in terms of taste, balance etc I'm now applying to my tasting of these subtle English styles, and really starting to recognise what a 'good pint' is, and also where some brewers are just churning out lifeless dishwater.

[seymour]

For me, session beer is something that you can spend an afternoon or evening drinking several pints of without feeling that you've had too much sugar, alcohol or hops. It's got to be pleasant, but not intrusive, and is really intertwined with British drinking culture where pubs have long been centres of communities or social clubs rather than somewhere you just go to drink. Until you've sat in a British pub and chatted away an afternoon with friends and the proper ale it can be a little difficult to grasp...

Oh, I fully grasp that concept, and I totally agree with those ideals. It's like that George Orwell essay I posted, or my favorite brewpub Civil Life which I'm so lucky to live near. I'm just gonna keep calling that "beer" or even "proper beer" if it helps get the point across. "Session Beer" has too much baggage for me personally, but I don't require anyone to agree with me. Hell, I come to this site to learn about English beer culture, not to change it (well, except for trying to pull the brakes a bit on the UK's apparent race to be just like American brewing culture, but I digress...)

In terms of flavour, the English styles don't give you anywhere to hide off flavours or unbalanced beer - you also have to be able to serve it at cellar temperature (around 12 degrees C) in a pint, with a very small amount of carbonation, which means flavours need to be a bit more delicate or they will become overpowering. American craft beer is usually served much colder with much more carbonation, which actually subdues or hides quite a bit of flavour from the beer, making higher levels of hops and alcohol more palatable and masking badly balanced or off flavours more easily...

Well put. I wholeheartedly agree. And for what it's worth, there are plenty of well-crafted, well-balanced, complex but approachable table-strength craft beers in the US, too. I think the pendulum of taste is swinging back this way. Or at least the type of experimentation many American brewers are conducting is becoming less extreme and one-dimensional.

Overall I've come back to really appreciating the subtlety of the English Real Ale style more recently, but what the more extreme beers have taught me in terms of taste, balance etc I'm now applying to my tasting of these subtle English styles, and really starting to recognise what a 'good pint' is, and also where some brewers are just churning out lifeless dishwater.

That makes perfect sense, and oh how I wish there was more cask-conditioned real ale offered on this side of the pond so I could join you in that learning curve!

Thanks for the excellent commentary, Jocky.