BYO Blogs

I got a new brewery recently, the MoreBeer 1550 “Tippy.” It is a 3-tier brewery with a sturdy frame, three 15-gallon (58 L) vessels made of heavy-grade stainless steel and all stainless fittings. A pump moves liquids around the brewery. 

Some folks recommend that brewers first do a “water brew” on their system, heating and pumping the water around the brewery to find out such things as how long it takes to heat the brewing liquor, the volume of the dead spaces (under the false bottom in the lauter tun, in the tubing, etc.) and the evaporation rate in the kettle. This is a very prudent way to approach learning about a new brewery, so of course I didn’t do that — I just jumped right in. 

My first “test” brew was an IPA. I knew going in it was going to be a learning experience, and I hadn’t even calibrated the HLT sight glass or made a dip stick for the kettle. Still, I figured I could wing it and still crank out a decent brew. And, more importantly, I’d get to know the system so my next brew would go more smoothly. I ended up with a little less volume, and slightly higher gravity, than I expected, but I think the beer will be OK. (It’s kegged now, but I haven’t sampled any yet.)

OK, so the week after brewing the IPA and porter, I brewed my pale ale and a dry stout.

My pale ale recipe changes a little bit every time I brew it, but modern incarnations have been pretty close to the recipe I published as Patrick Henry Pale Ale in the March-April 2006 issue of BYO. For this round of brewing, I decided not to make any tweaks and brew it exactly as it appeared in the magazine. The brew day was very straightforward — it was the third 5-gallon (19-L) batch of moderate-strength ale I'd made in two weeks, so everything went according to plan. (Man, I love it when that happens.)

A couple days after that, I brewed my favorite dry stout recipe. This is, essentially, the Murphy's Stout clone that appears in the 150 Classic Clone Recipes book that we put out last year. Again, I stuck pretty close to what I had published because I planned on bringing a couple beers from this round of brewing with me to the NHC (National Homebrew Conference, this year in Denver). So, I wanted to brew "production" batches of beer, not experiments.

After brewing three batches of beer in a row without any problems, I was feeling pretty confident that everything would turn out fine with the stout. Brewday went according to plan until it came time to rack the chilled wort over to the fermenter. Somehow, I was three quarts over my target volume. Now, this isn't exactly the end of the world, but I was a little curious how I ended up being over volume when my last three batches had been right on. I may try to "kick save" this beer by adding some specially-engineered "kräusen" beer when I rack it to secondary. If I make the "k-beer" a little darker and a little heavier, it should balance out the slightly diluted dry stout I now have. Or maybe I'll just keg it and drink it as is. (How bad could it be?)