WindRiver Brewing April 1999 Internet Newsletter

WESTSIDE HOMEBREW CLUB MEETING THURSDAY 4/15/99 ! For everyone living in the Minneapolis/St Paul Metro area. Meeting schedule of the Western branch of the MhBA: 5/13, 6/17, 7/15, 8/12, 9/16, 10/14, 11/11, 12/16. All meetings begin at 7:00 pm at WindRiver Brewing.

Bring a glass or mug and some homebrew (or unusual commercial beer if you're in a bind). Hope to see you there. A map to WindRiver is here.

Style of the month: Scotch & Scottish Ales

These cold fermenting ales are a good style for the early months of spring, when fermentation temperatures can sometimes drop to cooler than ideal. For this reason, a true Scottish ale yeast, which can ferment at both cool and moderate temperatures, is a good choice.

Scottish Ales:

This time of year, when Mother Nature has not entirely decided whether to warm up or cool down, Scottish ales are great beers to make. The reason for this is that the yeast used in producing Scottish ales are able to ferment at cold temperatures (50 - 60 F.), so if your basement is still a little chilly, a good Scottish yeast will still be able to perform the fermentation with good results.

The history of Scottish beer is as old as Scotland itself, dating back to well before even the Anglo Saxon invasion. Archaeology has revealed that the earliest inhabitants of Scotland (the Picts) were brewing by 6500 BC Their brewing had such a reputation that the Irish king and adventurer Niall of the Nine hostages, began slaughtering the Picts so as to gain their recipe for heather ale. But the Picts refused to give him the recipe, even down to the last survivor. The beer style itself still survives, and dried heather is actually now available to homebrew stores for those seeking to duplicate this early beer style.

Out of this long brewing tradition, two principal types of beer emerged: the Scottish Ale and the Scotch Ale. Scottish ale is generally lighter in body and alcohol than Scotch Ale. A Scottish ale is usually similar to what we think of as a brown ale: amber to dark in color, some roasted notes, and, like English brown ale, very low in hop aroma and bitterness, and a starting gravity somewhere between 1.045 and 1.060. Scotch Ale is a heavier and more alcoholic version of the more quaffable Scottish Ale. It has a deep red to dark brown color, no hop aroma and only enough hop bitterness to balance out the intense malty sweetness, a very rich flavor from unfermented sugars, and a very high starting gravity (1.080 and above). Scotch ale is a more richly flavored version of an Old Ale or Barley Wine style beer.

One of the crucial aspects of Scottish and Scotch ales are the clean maltiness and lack of fruitiness (another characteristic differentiating it with English ales). Low fermentation temperature is the chief cause of this flavor. Scottish ales are generally fermented between 50 and 60 degrees F. This low fermentation temperature also produces beers with a relatively high finishing gravity, particularly Scotch Ales who often have final gravity readings as high as 1.030!

If you are planning to try this at home, you will want to make a large starter culture (2 liters for Scottish ales and 3 - 4 for the stronger Scotch Ale). You will have to start the fermentation temperature at 60 degrees F., at the warmest, and lower it down to 50 F. as soon as you observe signs of fermentation. It is also advisable not to overly aerate the wort before you add the yeast, as this can produce unacceptable high levels of esters. Finally, make sure to use a Scottish and not an English yeast, or your beer will not ferment at all. We have successfully used European Ale, German Ale American Ale 1056 and Irish Ale 1084 as alternatives to the Scottish Ale 1728 Wyeast. Finally, if you make a Scotch ale, it is a good idea to cut way back on the priming sugar. Scottish and Scotch ales were traditionally not primed with any sugar, and were not fully conditioned for 6 months or longer. If you expect the conditioning temperature to exceed the fermentation temperature, this practice should work fine, but will take awhile. Or, you can add some priming sugar, and then refrigerate the bottles when an adequate amount of carbonation has developed. This will happen much more quickly than relying on the yeast to ferment the residual sugar left over after fermentation ended. In either case, make sure to store the bottles in a cool place to avoid overcarbonation and to preserve the smooth flavor.

Like Scotland, Minnesota has a very long cold season and is located in northern latitudes, although Scotland is farther north. In many ways, Minnesota and the upper Midwest is a perfect place to brew this smooth beer style.

KITS ON SALE: BAGPIPE ALE & TARTAN STRONG SCOTCH ALE BOTH 15% OFF!!

Bagpipe Ale - Equivalent to an 80-shilling ale (the strength of Scottish ales are noted by the number of shillings, a strong Scotch ale is normally 120 - 140 shillings). This number refers to the value of one barrel of beer, including the tax levied on it. At any rate, our Bagpipe Ale uses brown sugar to give the hint of a rich, molasses flavor to the beer. This is an exceptionally smooth beer, great for those who find overly hoppy beer objectionable. Recipe: 6 Lbs WindRiver Amber malt extract, 1 lb dark brown sugar, 1 oz Willamette bittering hops, 1 oz Fuggles aroma hops, grain blend: 1/4 lb Chocolate malt & 3/4 lb Carapils, yeast and priming sugar:

Bagpipe Ale w/Dry Yeast WAS $20.95, NOW $17.81. $17.81

Bagpipe Ale w/liquid yeast with Scottish Ale 1728 Wyeast, WAS $24.95, NOW $21.21 $21.21

Tartan Strong Scotch Ale- This one is about 90 - 100 shillings, meaning that it has a wonderfully smooth and rich flavor. The alcohol content (7 - 8%) also gives this beer a warming effect. If you like, you can bottle this beer in the traditional way (without any priming sugar), but it will take several months for the beer to be ready. It could worth the wait, though. This beer is an ale version of a German dopplebock. Recipe: 6 lbs WindRiver Dark malt extract, 6 lbs WindRiver Gold malt extract, grain blend: 1/2 lb Hugh Baird peated malt & 1/2 lb Scottish Crystal 50 L., 2 oz East Kent Goldings bittering hops, yeast and priming sugar.

Tartan Scotch Ale w/Dry Yeast WAS $31.95 w/dry yeast, NOW $27.16 $27.16

Tartan Scotch Ale w/liquid yeast With Scottish Ale 1728 Wyeast,WAS $35.95, NOW $30.55 $30.55

Tartan Scotch Ale w/liquid yeast With Wyeast 1728 XL (3 times the size, highly recommended if you will try to ferment the beer at a cooler temperature or do not have time to make a starter culture)WAS $39.95, NOW $33.95 $33.95

Ask Dr. Zoot

Q. Dr. Zoot, With warmer temperatures coming, can you go over some of the basics on making quality beer every time?

1. Always Boil Your Priming Sugar. Some brewers carbonate their beer by just dumping the sugar directly into their bottles. Not only does this tend to produce uneven carbonation, but will also cause the beer to foam out of the bottle, making capping the bottles an adventuresome experience. For a much smoother bottling experience, Dr. Zoot always boils his priming sugar in 1 - 2 cups of water, and then adds the liquid solution to his bottling bucket. Then, just stir the primed beer GENTLY for 1 - 2 minutes and then fill your bottles and cap them. Bottling in this manner will greatly reduce the messiness of bottling.

2. Control Your Fermentation Temperatures. Many times homebrewers think that they have made a beer that has become infected with a wild yeast or bacterial culture, when they ferment their beers well above ideal fermentation temperatures. For ales, Dr. Zoot recommends keeping the temperature between 62 and 68 degrees F and between 50 and 58 degrees F. for lagers. You can ferment at a warmer temperature during the first 24 - 48 hours or until you see fermentation begin (i.e. the airlock starts bubbling or you notice that the beer is frothing and foaming). This is especially important if you using liquid yeast. If you lower the temperature before the onset of fermentation, your beer can sometimes turn out with an overly sweet flavor (particularly when brewing lagers, ales you can probably safely do either way).

3. Keep Notes. Sometimes even a brewing professional like Dr. Zoot gets sloppy with recording the specifics of each batch. Invariably, the beers that the doctor just throws together without noting the ingredients used, turn out the best. So, if you want to duplicate your results, especially when doing experimental batches, make sure to note the type and quantity of ingredients used, the fermentation temperature, the length of fermentation, the type and quantity of yeast used, any water treatment (e.g. pre-boiling water, adding mineral salts, acids or other pH treatment etc.). Although it is usually pretty difficult to exactly duplicate previous batches, with accurate notes you can at least come close. Even artistic brewers can benefit from keeping track of their batches.

4. Avoid procrastination. Try to avoid allowing your beer to remain in fermentation any longer than necessary. If it ain't bubblin', you should be bottlin' or keggin'. Some of Dr. Zoot's beers that have had kind of an odd flavor were the result of allowing them to remain in secondary fermentation for too long. This is doubly true when temperatures exceed 65 degrees F. This is triply true when fermenting in plastic buckets. A good rule of thumb is primary ferment for no longer two weeks, and secondary ferment no longer than four weeks. Most beers should be done by that time and will benefit from being transferred off of their sediment.

5. Chill it quick. Dr. Zoot noticed that his beers turned out much better when he started force chilling the wort after he had finished boiling. The low tech way to go about this is to immerse you covered brew pot in a sink of cold water. You can put chunks of ice in the sink to make the cooling more efficient. Or, when you notice that the water in the sink is warm to the touch, drain the warm water, and refill the sink with cold fresh water. Your wort should be cool within 45 minutes. If you want to go high tech, you can purchase 25 feet of 1/4 - 1/2" OD copper tubing at a hardware store (which generally comes in a loose coil) and then bend it around a cylindrical object to create an even curve. At the same hardware store, you can also purchase tubing to fit the chiller and garden hose attachments. After you have constructed the chiller, and tested it with WATER for any leaks where the tubing connects to the copper, and at the garden hose connections; just drop the wort chiller in your boiling wort during the last 10 minutes of the boil. This will sanitize the copper. Then, after the boil, run cold water through the wort chiller, and your wort should be cool within 30 minutes.

6. Find a cool place to store your bottles after they are carbonated. Once your bottles have attained an adequate level of carbonation, try to find a cool corner in your basement to age the beer. If you will be consuming the beer within 1 -2 months after it is carbonated, this is not a huge concern. But for beers that you want to store for longer than that, moderate temperatures will help the beer to age gracefully and actually improve over time! The warmer the aging temperature, the faster your beer will age and eventually deteriorate. A good rule of thumb is to store the bottles at a temperature about 5 - 10 degrees cooler than the fermentation temperature. If you store the beer at temperatures higher than the original fermentation temperature, you may also notice that the beer will tend to become overcarbonated.

7. When bottling strong beers, spike them with extra yeast. This is something Dr. Zoot has only recently discovered. He always wondered why his butt-kickin' brews always came out on the flat side, even when Dr. Zoot added plenty of corn sugar. After doing a little research, Dr. Zoot discovered that the yeast in his high alcohol beers was pooped out! They just didn't have the energy left after fermenting these very strong beers to produce adequate carbonation. To combat this, you can add about 1/4 of a small package of dried yeast to the beer along with the normal amount of priming sugar just before you bottle the beer or about a 6 - 7 oz. starter if using liquid yeast. The starter is ready use when you see about 1/4 inch of foam on the starter culture. If you will not be bottling for awhile, you can refrigerate the culture once it is ready. Adding this fresh dosage of yeast will produce adequate carbonation.

8. Experiment with hopping schedules. When brewing beer styles that call for a hoppy flavor, try experimenting with when you add the hops. In other words, don't feel restricted to just add your bittering hops at the beginning of the boil and aroma hops at the last 10 minutes. By adding hops throughout the boil (AKA step-hopping), you will actually build a bolder and more complex hop flavor. Hops which are boiled for 20 minutes or less will add some hop bitterness, but will mainly impart a hop flavor to the beer with little to no aroma. The shorter the hops are boiled, the more aroma they will impart. For this reason, when Dr. Zoot wants to brew a beer with a lot of hop aroma, he usually adds at least 1 extra ounce of hops after he shuts off the heat. You can also dry hop with 1 - 2 ounces of your favorite aroma hop when you transfer the beer for secondary fermentation (Dr. Zoot does not recommend dry-hopping during primary fermentation).

Q. What are your recommendations for clarifiers?

A.The following is based on our experience in using clarifiers.

Irish Moss: For pale (golden) type beers: 1 tablespoon last 15 minutes of the boil. Amber beers: 2 teaspoons last 15 minutes of the boil. Dark beers: 1 teaspoon 15 minutes before the end of the boil.

Gelatin: Temperature must be under 60 degrees for most effective clarification. Gelatin will only remove yeast and not protein from your beer. Use 1 tablespoon per 5 gallons of beer. The bad part about using gelatin is that it requires preparation. You should first allow it to sit in warm water for 10 - 20 minutes, or until you can see it expand. Then, you want to gently heat WITHOUT BOILING the gelatin until it has melted. It is crucial that the gelatin not be boiled, as that will destroy it. After it has melted, you can add it to your beer.

Polyclar: Use 2 teaspoons per 5 gallons of beer. Polyclar has been one of our favorites because, unlike gelatin, Polyclar removes tannins as well as yeast. Polyclar also will work at any temperature, but will be much more effective below 65° F. Polyclar only requires a few hours to work, but I like to leave it for a few days right before bottling. Polyclar does cause a very fine settlement to form, so be careful when moving a fermenter after adding Polyclar, so as the settlement is not excessively stirred up.

Sparkoloid: We have not used this, but have heard promising reports. I can tell you that it cleared up a stubbornly hazy mead within days.

Cheers and Good Brewing!!
WindRiver Brewing
windrvr@bitstream.net