[The Beerery]

Quality control checks, it's a bear. 




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[JT]

Zythos, Oats, German & English Pale Malt, C40 and Cararye.

The foam is great, a bit hazy though (even without all that condensation on it)

Sounds tasty and looks it too.  I'm a fan of Zythos hops. 

  "If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world."

[HoosierBrew]

Quality control checks, it's a bear. 




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Gorgeous color and foam!

[brewinhard]

Hoppy Blonde Ale.

This was my first LO batch. Came out well even with 55ppm SMB.

This is also the batch I had which the malt was chewy (moist from sitting in humid garage for a month).  I don't notice any negative effects. Maybe the malt wasn't moist long enough to have a noticeable impact.

Awesome!  Did you notice any improvement/difference in overall malt flavors/aromas on this one?  For your next LO batch, try reducing your SMB amounts to around 30 ppm. You should still be pretty well protected provided you are also integrating other good process points (underletting mash, mash cap, low vigor boil).

[tommymorris]

Hoppy Blonde Ale.

This was my first LO batch. Came out well even with 55ppm SMB.

This is also the batch I had which the malt was chewy (moist from sitting in humid garage for a month).  I don't notice any negative effects. Maybe the malt wasn't moist long enough to have a noticeable impact.

Awesome!  Did you notice any improvement/difference in overall malt flavors/aromas on this one?  For your next LO batch, try reducing your SMB amounts to around 30 ppm. You should still be pretty well protected provided you are also integrating other good process points (underletting mash, mash cap, low vigor boil).

Actually, I have a a keg of German Pilsner which was LO brew #2. I did reduce to 30ppm SMB for that one and LO batch #3 which is in the fermenter.

I am good on most steps. I have not separated trub from wort successfully yet. I have only tried once in #3. It went terribly. I bought an Anvil Kettle Strainer. That thing clogged in the first 5 seconds.

Anyway, both beers are very good. Both are fairly hop forward so malt flavor specifically is hard to say much about. The German Pilsner is really excellent. I was trying for something like Sierra Nevada Summerfest. I think I nailed it.

Eventually, I will brew a Helles to try to judge the malt flavors. Certainly, there is nothing wrong with the malt flavors on the two beers I have brewed.

Another thing I will add is this: the process is fairly easy to follow. I do BIAB (switched recently from batch sparge.) I don't think it adds much more time to the brew day. Really, I tried it for something different to do. I don't always want easy any way. Brewing is a hobby and I like to try new things.

A few notes LO brewing:
1. For my first LO batch, I followed instructions from this page (http://www.winning-homebrew.com/low-oxygen-brewing.html). The site recommends 100ppm SMB for spargers and 55ppm for no-sparge. I didn't realize this was out of date until after my first batch. But, in my case, no harm no foul. This site is 3rd party, not from the LO creators, but the LO creators do link to it from lowoxygenbrewing.com.

2. I want to try the trifecta blend but can't find clear instructions. The low oxygen site has a Methods link. It says "As a starting point, 45/45/10 can be used as percentages of Meta/AA/GT or BB respectively." Not sure what that means. German brewing has lots of acronyms. Acronyms drive away the masses.

[HoosierBrew]

Tommy, as for trifecta blend, it's 45% SMB/45% Ascorbic Acid/10% Brewtan B. A few months back, the recommendation was for .37g/gallon of the mixture (per gallon of water used) for lagers, .25g/gallon for ales. I had no issues and good luck with these amounts.  Since then, recommendations are to back off the SMB a tad, to around 30ppm SMB for beers. I jave used nothing but 1056, 2206, and Rustic/3726 in my lodo beers so far and can vouch no sulfur in the final beers. Hope this helps.

[tommymorris]

Tommy, as for trifecta blend, it's 45% SMB/45% Ascorbic Acid/10% Brewtan B. A few months back, the recommendation was for .37g/gallon of the mixture (per gallon of water used) for lagers, .25g/gallon for ales. I had no issues and good luck with these amounts.  Since then, recommendations are to back off the SMB a tad, to around 30ppm SMB for beers. I jave used nothing but 1056, 2206, and Rustic/3726 in my lodo beers so far and can vouch no sulfur in the final beers. Hope this helps.

Thanks, Jon.

For my last 2 batches, I used 0.4g of SMB and 0.4g Brewtan-B. I used WLP029 and Mangrove Jacks M76. The MJ M76 threw a lot of sulfur in the fermenter, but, I don't taste any in the beer.   

I bought some Absorbic Acid. I'll try that next time.

[HoosierBrew]

Tommy, as for trifecta blend, it's 45% SMB/45% Ascorbic Acid/10% Brewtan B. A few months back, the recommendation was for .37g/gallon of the mixture (per gallon of water used) for lagers, .25g/gallon for ales. I had no issues and good luck with these amounts.  Since then, recommendations are to back off the SMB a tad, to around 30ppm SMB for beers. I jave used nothing but 1056, 2206, and Rustic/3726 in my lodo beers so far and can vouch no sulfur in the final beers. Hope this helps.

Thanks, Jon.

For my last 2 batches, I used 0.4g of SMB and 0.4g Brewtan-B. I used WLP029 and Mangrove Jacks M76. The MJ M76 threw a lot of sulfur in the fermenter, but, I don't taste any in the beer.   

I bought some Absorbic Acid. I'll try that next time.

And I know the math is probably obvious to you - I brain farted and had to have it spelled out initially. (embarassment ensued).

If you mash with say 8 gallons of water for ales, it's 8 X .25g per gallon, or 2g total of the mixture. Then .45 X 2 for both SMB and AA is .9 g of each. Obviously 2 X .1 = .2g of Brewtan B. Sorry for any potential insult by spelling out the obvious  - like I said, I asked to have it spelled out for me and felt silly immediately for missing the obvious. 

[tommymorris]

Tommy, as for trifecta blend, it's 45% SMB/45% Ascorbic Acid/10% Brewtan B. A few months back, the recommendation was for .37g/gallon of the mixture (per gallon of water used) for lagers, .25g/gallon for ales. I had no issues and good luck with these amounts.  Since then, recommendations are to back off the SMB a tad, to around 30ppm SMB for beers. I jave used nothing but 1056, 2206, and Rustic/3726 in my lodo beers so far and can vouch no sulfur in the final beers. Hope this helps.

Thanks, Jon.

For my last 2 batches, I used 0.4g of SMB and 0.4g Brewtan-B. I used WLP029 and Mangrove Jacks M76. The MJ M76 threw a lot of sulfur in the fermenter, but, I don't taste any in the beer.   

I bought some Absorbic Acid. I'll try that next time.

And I know the math is probably obvious to you - I brain farted and had to have it spelled out initially. (embarassment ensued).

If you mash with say 8 gallons of water, it's 8 X .25g per gallon, or 2g total of the mixture. Then. 45 X 2 for both SMB and AA is .9 g of each. Obviously 2 X .1 = .2g of Brewtan B. Sorry for any potential insult by spelling out the obvious  - liked I said, I asked to have it spelled out for me and felt silly immediately for missing the obvious. 

Thanks. No insult. You addressed the part I was missing in your first post; 37 and 25g/gallon. Without that the percentages are meaningless.

[tommymorris]

LO beer #2 - German Pilsner
Excellent beer. Great malt and hop flavors. Not much head as you can see. But, I pour very slowly so that's fairly normal for me. It's very difficult to make myself drink the hoppy blonde in my other keg. This beer is always my first choice.

This beer has not touched oxygen post boil. I spunged then transferred under pressure to a sani-purged keg. No Gelatin or other clarifiers after boil. Still very clear.

PS. I have been using Mangrove Jack's M76 Bavarian Lager yeast. I really like this yeast. Good attenuation, clean, crisp, malty beers. At 48F from start to finish the beer fermented in about 7-8 days.

The rest of the recipe: 3G batch 1051 OG.
45.5% German Pils malt
45.5% US 2-row pale
9% Bohemian Dark Malt
27 IBU Magnum @ 60
0.25 oz Mittefrueh @ 1
0.25 oz Tettnang @ 1
0.25 oz Mittefrueh @ 0
0.25 oz Tettnang @ 0

[brewinhard]

Awesome!  Looks great. Did you treat your water for this one with any gypsum to bump up the sulfate levels?

[tommymorris]

Awesome!  Looks great. Did you treat your water for this one with any gypsum to bump up the sulfate levels?

No. My water already has 33ppm Sulfate and the SMB added about 27ppm more. I added CaCl to get 1.3 SO4/Cl ratio and 50ppm Ca.

[brewinhard]

Awesome!  Looks great. Did you treat your water for this one with any gypsum to bump up the sulfate levels?

No. My water already has 33ppm Sulfate and the SMB added about 27ppm more. I added CaCl to get 1.3 SO4/Cl ratio and 50ppm Ca.

Cool! Bet that batch doesn't last too long! 

[coolman26]

Finally have Homebrew back on tap. I did infusion steps on this Saison. Body is a little thin, but really tasty. Split with 565 and Rustic.  Man buying beer is expensive!!  Thinking my HERMS will help with the body. Guessing you miss out on the gradual temp rise benefits. The foam is improved and stays. All changes take time.


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[HoosierBrew]

Looks great! How do you like/compare the yeast character?