Blackstrap Brown Ale

Indeed, at least for the summer months, my operation and setup has moved outside! Tired of boilovers on the stove and turning our apartment into a beer steamed sauna, I bought my own propane tank today (so as not to use up the grill propane that we all share) and broke out the remaining parts of my turkey fryer set to take advantage of the calm and beautiful day outside.



By wrapping some aluminum foil around the base of the stand, I made a fairly windproof stand for my burner, which pumps out (according to the Chinese manufacturers) 165,000 BTUs of heat. Skeptical at first, I just had to adjust the flame to find a good middle road between heat and fuel economy, and this sucker proved to be able to bring my beer to a boil in about 25% of the time it has previously taken on my stovetop, which made my brew day nice and short by cutting it down by about an hour and a half...



Lots of homebrewers do exactly this, especially those who do large batches, because a household stove just isn't strong enough to bring that much liquid to a boil. It is generally agreed upon that a good, vigorous, rolling boil is necessary for brewing the best beer possible, as it releases harmful compounds (like DMS -- dimethyl sulfate, for one) that will negatively effect the taste of your finished product. My stove, the hoss that it is, boiled 6 or 7 gallons, but barely, and the boil could hardly be considered "rolling." This setup, however, proved to be much stronger and time efficient, and when necessary, I was able to crank up the heat to bring colder liquid to a boil incredibly fast (at the waste, of course, of more than the necessary amount of propane), which was very nice to have in a pinch.

Beyond the new experience of outdoor brewing, I am proud to say that, though it has taken me batch after batch after batch, I have finally figured out my own personal brewing system. In previous posts, I have had complaints about my low efficiencies, which refers merely to how many sugars I extract from my grain in comparison to the amount of sugars possible to extract. No brewer ever extracts 100%, but most homebrewers have efficiencies of about 70 to 80 percent. Previously mine have been far too low, sometimes below 50% but more often between 50% and 60%, and efforts to improve that number had failed time and time again. I did some serious reading on the topic, took some good notes, and stuck to what I knew today when mashing, instead of my occasional "fuck it" comment when things don't go according to plan. Mainly by paying close attention to water volume variables, including the thickness of the mash and by carefully maintaining exact volumes in the mash and sparge (mash=sugar extraction and sparge=grain rinsing to extract more sugars), I hit a better than expected efficiency of 75%.



Now that I can maintain such an efficiency, I can finally call myself an all grain brewer. That liquid pouring out is wort, a syrupy sugar liquid extracted directly from barley when it "cooks" in a solution at the right temperature. And I'm proud to say that I finally made it myself correctly.

The beer itself is a mild ale style, an old English session beer of relatively low alcohol and great drinkability. Most commercial examples are burnt orange to medium brown, and about 3 to 4 percent alcohol, about the strength of a light beer today. Expecting a low effieciency once again, I scaled up the recipe with some extra grain, hoping to, in the worst case scenario, screw up my mash once again and still end up with the correct beer strength. As it turns out, the beer is about 5 percent, which expressly places it outside the range of a typical mild ale, so it may have to be considered a brown ale instead, even if I've made already. But instead of being very roasty and carmelly like Eva, this beer (as of yet unnamed) should have the body of an Irish ale, being very dry and exceptionally light in body for its color, with a kick of richness due to an addition of one cup of blackstrap molasses. If the character of the molasses fails to shine through after fermentation, I will add an extra dose upon carbonating the beer (about 3 weeks from now, likely) so that flavor is recognizable. Ultimately, this beer should end up much like Bass Ale, yet slightly darker and a bit more flavorful, but not like your typical brown.

In other news, Annabelle is in the secondary. She fermented out very cleanly, and a preliminary taste exhibits a very strong alcoholic presense, much like the first tastes of her first batch. Strangely enough, the dark malts failed to turn this beer completely black, but the flavor shouldn't suffer. I may try to fix the color issue with the addition of some adjunct grains, but more likely, I'll just settle with a dark brown beer that tastes like the familiar Annabelle I love and say screw it. I wouldn't want to ruin it for something as insignificant as color.

Lastly, I officially declined the job I was offered at Arcadia. To make a long story short, I was unable to work for both Bell's and Arcadia simultaneously, as it was a conflict of business interests. I am anticipating my current job at Bell's will place me in good stead to work in the Bell's plant in the near future, and my employers are aware and cognizant of my interest. I'd be happy to talk about the whole situation in detail, but this isn't the place to do so.

Anyway, looking for a name for the new beer, as well as the Kolsch. Ella, by the way, is excellent, if not a bit strong, and will do well to age for several more months, and even years. Thanks to Rachel and Brandon for enjoying one with Molly and I on our six month.

Cheers,
Sam