It's hard to believe that we've circled the sun twice since the last time I posted to this site, but the calendar doesn't lie. I suppose that having a child, changing jobs, and living through the coattails of a pandemic will have that effect. At any rate, there are some new additions to the brew house which will put some goals of mine a little closer to reality. The thoughts of including more tech in my brewery have been swirling my mind for years, but I had never come across a home brewer platform that would allow me to implement anything into the hot-side of the brewery. The cold-side of the brewery has been running on tilt and fermentrack for years, but aside from building a 3 vessel E-Herms...nothing I had come across would allow for more precision/automation. Enter...BruControl. Towards the middle of 2022 I came across several threads on HomeBrewTalk that showed off some very impressive "home breweries" that seemed to be running off of software...from mash-in to cold-crashing. After several weeks of lurking on the "Brewery control & automation software" forum, I figured out that the breweries I had come to admire were running on BruControl. This application was a proprietary software stack created by Peter Bruno. I also found that he (and I assume a small team) built and sold an all-in-one solution that would allow a brewer to connect the requisite valves, sensors, meters, etc required to automate hot-side brewing to the software. Having relatively recently embarked on the E-herms controller build...I was less apt to building my own interface to control all of the input/outputs so I dropped an order with BruControl for their "Uniflex" (hardware/software interface) and a couple dozen motorized valves. Having been in contact with Peter only days earlier describing what I was looking to achieve in my brewery, I assumed that the order would land on my front porch in the next 4-6 weeks. Let's just say, I slightly underestimated the timeline... The short version of this story is that it took 10 months to receive my Uniflex. I'm not going to throw shade towards Peter because he did provide updates periodically, he sent me a demo unit, and even upgraded my Uniflex with some additional input/output ports...but the whole process was definitely frustrating. With that said...on to the automation. The Uniflex (silver box in photo below) will control the pumps, heating elements, and temperature sensors in the brewery. I am building the control box that will receive signals from the 18 two-way valves, 2 proportional valves, and the volume sensor...which will then pass the data to the UniFlex via WiFi...ultimately allowing for full control of the brewery (hot-side). I've only just tonight laid out the control box and fastened components in place for a photo. I may need to move things around or reconfigure after I get a better handle on the wiring schematic.
But for now, I'm pleased to say that the Weiss Brewery is on the path to crafting fine beers with precision, consistency, and automation.
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To close out the Standard American Beer section of the BJCP I brewed both a Cream Ale and an American Wheat Ale on the same day. This was mostly driven by the fact that the "Best of the Bay" competition is fast approaching and I didn't have enough time to space these two brew days out. The details of the Cozy Bear Cream Ale are over here. The Wicked Panda American Wheat Ale is named after the Chinese state-sponsored espionage group also known as APT41. This group is known for targeting healthcare, telecom, technology, and video game industries in 14 countries. BJCP Style: 1D - American Wheat Ale BJCP: "Refreshing wheat beers that can display more hop character and less yeast character than their German cousins. A clean fermentation character allows bready, doughy, or grainy wheat flavors to be complemented by hop flavor and bitterness rather than yeast qualities." Brewday 07.04.2021 Recipe: The grain bill for this beer is a 50/50 blend of 2-row and wheat malt. After a ride through the grain mill Mash salts Sparge salts This mash is sitting at 152F/67C. I checked the pH 10 minutes into the rest and was showing 5.6. To get the mash closer to an ideal pH of 5.2 I added 7.2 mL of lactic acid. The hop charge for this brew is a combination of Willamette and Centennial. 29g Willamette @60 and 8g of Willamette and Centennial @0. Sparging in the Mash & Boil Brewery manager and mommy pitching hops. Post-boil gravity is showing somewhere around 11.1P (1.045SG). Adding O2 No yeast cell counting for this brew, just pitching a full sachet of Voss Kveik and fermenting at 90 degrees F.
To close out the Standard American Beer section of the BJCP I brewed both a Cream Ale and an American Wheat Ale on the same day. This was mostly driven by the fact that the "Best of the Bay" competition is fast approaching and I didn't have enough time to space these two brew days out. The details of the Wicked Panda American Wheat Ale are over here. The Cozy Bear Cream Ale is named after the widely known threat group Cozy Bear or APT29. This group is considered responsible for the DNC e-mail hack in 2015 as well as the supply chain attack on SolarWinds. BJCP Style: 1C - Cream Ale BJCP: "A clean, well-attenuated, flavorful American “lawnmower” beer. Easily drinkable and refreshing, with more character than typical American lagers." Brewday 07.04.2021 Recipe: The grist was a 50/50 blend of 2-row and Pilsner with a dash of flaked corn. I planned to brew this in the Mash & Boil, but I mistakenly setup BeerSmith as a 7.5 gallon recipe so I would eventually have to transfer the Cream Ale from the Mash & Boil to my E-Herms system. Milled grain Mash water salts Sparge salts I checked the pH of the mash 10 minutes in and saw that I was hovering around 5.6. To bring the pH down to about 5.2 I acidified the mash with 8.1 mL lactic acid. The hop charge is 31 grams Liberty at 60 and 15 grams Liberty at flameout. E-herms and Mash & Boil chugging away Hop quality inspection by the Brewery Manager Post-boil gravity 1.055/13.6P Adding O2 No yeast cell counting for this brew, just pitching a full sachet of Voss Kveik and fermenting at 90 degrees F.
In support of my homebrew club's barrel project I'm jumping ahead on the BJCP list to the Flanders Red Ale. I've never brewed a sour before so this is uncharted territory for me and in addition to brewing a beer style I don't have experience with I also absolutely maxed out my brewery's capacity. This beer is named after the cyber espionage group Fancy Bear which is associated with the Russian military intelligence agency GRU. BJCP Style: 23B - Flanders Red Ale BJCP: "A sour, fruity, red wine-like Belgian-style ale with interesting supportive malt flavors and fruit complexity. The dry finish and tannin completes the mental image of a fine red wine." Brewday 05.23.2021 Recipe: This recipe will have a primary (Wyeast 1968) and secondary (Wyeast 3763) fermentation. I propagated a 2L starter of the Wyeast 1968 24hrs prior to pitching. Grist: 2row, Vienna, Special B, & Flaked Corn Brewery manager checking the quality of the grain Sparge and Mash salts Milled grain This particular mash was scheduled to have a 20 min rest @120F/49C, a 40 min rest @145F/63C, and a 40 min rest @162F/72C. However with such a large volume of liquid I struggled to change the mash temp in a quick and meaningful way so I just bumped the temperature up on the control box and the let the mash temp free rise to 168F/76C over the course of 2 hours while I rode my indoor trainer. Mash pH after about 10 minutes I had to get creative with the sparge arm/mash tun lid for this sparging session (arm is upside down with a kettle lid sitting on top to control the overspray) Transferred into the boil kettle and crossed my fingers in hopes of preventing a boil over. Pre-boil gravity is showing somewhere between 17.9P (1.073SG) and 17P (1.070SG) Hop charge for the Flanders is pretty negligible considering its a 15 gallon batch. Most of the character for this beer should come from the secondary Brettanomyces yeast and the lactic acid bacteria present in the Roselare Blend. An extremely calm boil that STILL almost resulted in boil overs several times. My post boil measurements came in way over what I expected, but I also got pulled away a few times during the boil so my the boil duration was extended a bit...21.1P (1.087SG). Assuming a normal-ish fermentation this will put me well beyond the ABV for style which is 6.5 at the top end. I also don't know how the two yeast strains will handle a 9+ ABV beer...we'll see what happens :) Transferring to two separate fermenters (CF10 & CF5) after being chilled in the counterflow. Adding O2 before placing in the fermentation chamber. The wort was little warm still so I let the chamber cool both down to about 65F/18C before pitching yeast. I ran into another snag with this beer when I conducted a yeast cell count...I was only seeing 1-2 cells in each quadrant of the hemocytometer (even after extended time on the plate shaker) which would mean that my yeast cell count was .05 Billion cells/mL...far below any reasonable pitching rates. I believe this was due to strange coagulation in the erlenmeyer flask (based on how the slurry looked). Since I wasn't able to determine an accurate yeast count I decided to pitch the entire slurry into the two fermenters (approx 70-30 split between the two). 05.24.2021 (+24hr): Wyeast 1948 is off and running 06.12.2021 (+20): Hydrometer reading is showing about 1.024 SG/6.0P That puts this Flanders Red around 8.27% ABV This batch was split between the one of our NorWa club barrels and my cellar. The barrel definitely had a strong vinegar aroma so I assume there was a fair bit of acetobacter present. Several members brewed their own version of a Flanders Red and contributed to the barrel as well. I pitched a full pack of Wyeast 3763 Roselare Belgian Blend into the portion of the brew I kept. I'll check the carboy from time to time over the next year to see if/when a pellicle forms. I also plan to add some oak cubes/spirals a few months before packaging this brew.
The second brew for the BJCP Project is an American Light Lager. This beer is also named after Iron Liberty, a cyber espionage group that targets the energy sector. BJCP Style: 1A - American Light Lager BJCP: "Highly carbonated, very light-bodied, nearly flavorless lager designed to be consumed very cold. Very refreshing and thirst quenching.." Brewday 05.02.2021 Recipe: I propagated a 2L starter the day before I had planned on doing a 80/20 2row-flaked rice recipe, but when I came up about 9 ounces short on the flaked rice so I subbed in 9 ounces of pilsner malt Milled 2row/pilsner Now that I have a better idea of how to use Bru'n water I'm using it to calculate my salt additions. I also purchased a cheap scale that shows thousandths of a gram to make it a little easier to weigh out the salts. Pre-boil gravity 1.030SG/7.5P Hop charge Into the boil kettle Post-boil gravity 1.044SG/10.9P Chilling down to ground water temp (about 60F/15.6C) Adding O2 My yeast cell count showed .38 Billion cells/mL. So I pitched 820mL of yeast slurry to get about 1.5 million cells/mL/Plato 05.10.2021 (+8): Hydrometer reading is showing about 1.015 SG/3.8P (1.014 SG/2.5 P corrected) 05.14.2021 (+12): After a few days at cold crash temps the hydrometer reading is showing about 1.006 SG/1.5P (1.005 SG/1.3 P corrected) 05.15.2021 (+13): Transferred to keg for 6 week lagering in the keezer.
To prepare for this year's hopyard growth I took some soil samples and sent them to my local soil testing facility, "Simply Soil Testing" to see what kind of amendments were suggested. The results showed a lack of nitrogen and a pH that was just a touch low. While waiting for my soil test results a Spring snap of warm weather really got the bines reaching for the sun and made a mess of the hopyard. I cut back the undergrowth and kept the two strongest bines from each box segment for the stringers. I applied about 1/2 lb of 21-0-0 fertilizer as suggested by my soil testing and gave the beds a good water soaking. I haven't adjusted the pH yet, but plan to follow the recommended Lime addition. and we're off... 05.14.2021 (+16): 2 weeks of growth after adding soil remediation and a shot of my Willamette plant that I planted in 2018. I didn't think the Willamette was still alive after it was mauled by the backyard chickens in it's first year.
I suppose this is the official kick-off for the BJCP Project. This first beer is an American Lager and as always, the name is derived from a TTP (Tactic, Technique, Procedure) or an APT (Advanced Persistent Threat). Iron Liberty is cyber espionage group that targets the energy sector. BJCP Style: 1B - American Lager BJCP: "A very pale, highly-carbonated, light-bodied, well-attenuated lager with a very neutral flavor profile and low bitterness. Served very cold, it can be a very refreshing and thirst quenching drink." Brewday 04.11.2021 Recipe: I propogated a 2L yeast starter for this brew 24hrs in advance. 2-row and flaked rice Milled 2-row I used the Beersmith water calculator for this brew. I'm running a baseline of reverse-osmosis water so building up the salt profile is a little easier and consistent. Pre-boil gravity 1.039SG/9.9P The entire hop charge for this batch is a measly 20g of Hallertau...a far cry from the 100s of grams I would typically be using for other beers. Post-boil gravity 1.055SG/13.9P I conducted a serial dilution (1:100) of the 2L yeast starter and found that the yeast density was higher than I expected. Based on my math I'm showing that to pitch a 1.5 million cells/mL/Plato I need to pitch about 130mL of the starter. This seems like a tiny amount of yeast, but I'm going to trust the math here and see what happens. I also made some mistakes in my water calculations...again (I blame the new kettle configurations...more on that later) so I only ended up with 4 gallons of wort in the fermenter. 04.14.2021 (+2): After a little more than two days with essentially zero change to gravity I've revisited my pitch rate and it turns out...math is hard and it's really important to place your decimals in the correct position. Below (Left) was the pitch rate from my initial inoculation and (Right) was the appropriate pitch rate. Both of these are based on my cell counting which was 2.45 million/mL/Plato cell density. Looks like I was only off by about 260 BILLION cells. Since I still had the remaining slurry on the stir plate (definitely should have had this in cold storage) I went ahead tossed that into the fermenter. We'll see how it turns out considering the circumstances. The silver lining here is that I've refined my process for yeast counting/calculating pitch rate so this sort of situation can be avoided in the future. It's ok to make mistakes, just try not to make the same ones over and over. 04.26.2021 (+14): Looks like the additional yeast was able to kick-start the fermentation. Here's the fermentation curve after adding the yeast slurry.
Easter dinner with friends plus brew day...who could ask for more? It's always a pleasure to brew with friends especially when you're training up the greenhorn (pictured here blowing bubbles). This brew is a sMasH (single malt & single hop) Hazy IPA that will be testing out some new-to-me hops (Jarrylo®). BJCP Style: 21B - Specialty IPA:New England IPA BJCP: "An American IPA with intense fruit flavors and aromas, a soft body, and smooth mouthfeel, and often opaque with substantial haze. Less perceived bitterness than traditional IPAs but always massively hop forward. This emphasis on late hopping, especially dry hopping, with hops with tropical fruit qualities lends the specific ‘juicy’ character for which this style is known." Brewday 04.04.2021 Recipe: Brewing in the all-in-one "Mash & Boil". This unit is really ideal for mobile brewing...maybe even for a trip to a national monument (more on that at a future date). Pre-boil wort is showing 1.040 (Left) Post-boil wort is showing 1.050 (Right). I was expecting about 1.060 for post boil, but I was using a rough calculation for water volumes and probably over-sparged. Brought the un-innoculated wort home and transferred into the conical to bring everything up to a balmy 95F before pitching the revived Kveiking yeast. >>> Fermentation Statistics <<< Full Tilt Report/Chart 04.05.2021 (+8hrs): After just 8 hours the Kveik yeast has pushed all of the StarSan out of my first keg, and is fermenting so aggressively that I've had to cap the second keg to prevent further mess. I'm redirecting the CO2 to a standard blow off. .04.05.2021 (+2): The revived Kveik yeast is flexing its muscle and has essentially completed fermentation in less than two days. 1.010 (1.012 temperature adjusted). 04.08.2021 (+4): And just 4 days later we're cold crashed and getting ready for kegging. .04.05.2021 (+15): Easter Brews: canned and enjoyed on a Family trip to Winthrop.
I've had some 2nd generation Imperial Kveiking yeast cakes taking refuge in the keezer since mid-2020. I figured I'd warm them up, feed them, and see if they come back to life in the incubator. I'll do some yeast viability/vitality testing to see how lively these old yeasties are after 9 months. 03.20.2021 (+1): After 24hrs on the stir plate I cold crashed the 1 Liter starter and stowed it away in the keezer. 04.03.2021 (+15): Stepped up the Kviek yeast slurry into a 2 Liter starter. 200g DME for 2000mL H2O Ready to go back into the incubator for another 24hrs.
The first voyage for this new CF5 is the Iron Liberty Lager-ish. This was planned to be the first of several brews in the month of January as well as the kickoff for the BJCP Project...but life happens. I used up some old Hallertauer and Northern Brewer hops I had in the keezer for this brew and relied on a couple of smack packs of Wyeast 2007. The original recipe I had created called for a 2L starter of SafLager W-34/70 and a pure hop charge of Hallertauer, however this wasn't feasible with my timeline. BJCP Style: 1B - American Lager BJCP: "A very pale, highly-carbonated, light-bodied, well-attenuated lager with a very neutral flavor profile and low bitterness. Served very cold, it can be a very refreshing and thirst quenching drink." Brewday 03.07.2021 Recipe: >>> Fermentation Statistics <<< Full Tilt Report/Chart 03.15.2021 (+8): For reasons that I've yet to figure out my Tilt hydrometer stopped functioning on the 9th so I'm taking manual gravity readings for the remainder of this ferment. I pulled a 250 mL sample and tested it with my hydrometer (1.020 SG (1.019 temp corrected). I also gave the sample a taste and whoa, diacetyl bomb. I've never tasted a lager mid-ferment and don't think I will again. 03.19.2021 (+12): 250 mL sample, tested it with hydrometer (1.010 SG (1.009 temp corrected). I probably missed the ideal window for a diacetyl rest, but I've bumped up the fermentation temperature from 50F to 65F in hopes of cleaning up all that artificial butter flavor. 03.27.2021 (+20): I dropped the fermentation chamber down to cold crash temps (35F) a few days ago and have closed-transferred into Keg#4 for lagering. Hydrometer is showing about 1.008 which adjusted for temperature is 1.007. 05.26.2021 (+74): After lagering for six weeks I pulled a sample of my first american lager and it was still cloudy so I added two Tbsp of Biofine Clear (silicic acid (SiO2)) and pumped some CO2 through the keg diptube to rouse the beer. I gave the sample a sniff and taste and definitely detected dicetyl. After another month of lagering and clarifying I pulled a second sample and again, detected dicetyl. Sadly this is a dumper, but it looks great in a glass.
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Jamie WeissHomebrewer, Recognized BJCP Judge, aspiring Certified Cicerone Archives
November 2023
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