Spalt Vs Saaz/Halertau Pilsner

With summer coming in I wanted to get some lighter, refreshing beers on tap. I decided to make another pilsner because I didn't have the time to think about something exciting or plan a new recipe. However, since I have an abundance of organic spalt hops I wanted to do an experiment. One mash, split to two boils and hop with either a spalt only schedule or a more typical Saaz --> Halertau schedule.

The described Spalt characteristic: Many include it in the list of noble hops. Some describe it as a very fine, pleasant spicy hop. I've seen "earthy" and a little "woody" used as well. Mine are a little old and might have tended to the earthy, a little musty end.

So the recipe is for 11 gallons, plus a little extra that I used to make and can yeast starters. Target 1.045 with an 78% mash efficiency.

for beer geeks. 17# pils malt, 1.5# vienna malt, 0.5# crystal 10 degree. No water additions to my filtered water. Mash in at 118 (a tad low) for thirty min, raise to 150 for 60 min mash out at 170 for 5 min. Wanted 2.5 gallons of starters @ 1.030 so I took out 1.6 gal wort + 0.8 gallons water for starters. Split remaining wort evenly to 2 kettles. Kettle schedule: 70 minute boil, 60 min: (kettle 1) 1 oz Saaz (kettle 2) 1 oz Spalt. 45 min (1) 1 oz saaz (2) 1 oz spalt. 30 (1) 1 oz halertau, (2) 0.9 oz spalt. 15 min (1) 1 oz Halertau, (2) 0.7 oz spalt. + irish moss. Note, I was on autopilot for the boil, times were intended to be 60, 30, 15, and 5. Oh well. Chill and pitch 2206 - bavarian lager. Only had about 4 gallons post boil so I added ~ 1 gallon water to make up volume. Ferment at cellar temp - 52-54 degrees.

Well, I hit the target gravity pretty well (1.044 for both). Fermentation took ~ 36 hours to start. :-( After the boils, I boiled up the starters with some yeast nutrient and did two rounds of canning. I should have plenty for awhile! Any Seattle based brewers are welcome to one in exchange for ..... beer stuff. :-)

And after the starters, it was off to clean up the basement. This was a sad, sad time. Apparently, after changing all of my lines a few days earlier, I didn't screw one of the fittings on tight and I of course put that on the 10 gallon carboy that was just filled to the brim. The result? A slow leak depositing the 10 gallons of beer all over the freezer floor, just noticed today! Beer foul in the highest degree! So I spent over an hour figuring out a way to clean up the disaster from the freezer, making a long day that much longer. So in the end, bitter sweet. 10 gallons of pilsner created, ten gallons IPA lost. Hopefully the Pils will turn out a be an acceptable replacement!

March comes in like a lion

... as the saying goes, "March comes in like a lion." Is that a good thing? ... i guess it depends. This year the lion came in and appeared to bite my head off. This is why there have been few (i.e. zero) posts recently, and I need to vent one last time, so excuse the verbosity and melodramatics. So the story goes like this....


Because the yard and carport were full of fallen trees I was parking on the street. After a fine Friday soccer game (we beat our nemesis!) I parked and walked to the bar for some celebratory beverages. Life was great. Unfortunately I woke to a call on Sat morning more or less informing me that my car was stolen. The worst part (well, that's debatable) is that my bike was in the hatchback. So both means of transportation were gone ... like that. A moment for the bike - it was my first road bike and it was a fun ride. I thought it was a fun little toy and everyone that worked on it thought it was cool for what it was. So now it's gone with the car. So insurance, blah blah blah. The worst part is that I literally felt my disposition to fellow strangers changed overnight. Now instead of looking at everyone and assuming good, it's the opposite and I am much more guarded. It's not really how I want to live, but the few rotten apples in the bushel have gotten to me. ok, enough philosophizing and all in all, I know that this is insignificant and worse things happen to tons of people everyday, but it just yanked my confidence in society right out form me.

And then it was like all the tiny things that could go wrong went wrong. ... well, not all of them, but enough of them! I got sick and felt miserable for a month. There was a leak in a keg and 10 gallons of freshly made yummy homebrew spewed all over the freezer (holy mess batman, and holy beer foul batman), spending way too much time/stress in the yard taking care of the trees, insurance crap, dryer broke, coffee carafe decided to jump off the drying rack (life without coffee!?!!?!?!??!), dealing with the end of the seattle winter waiting for su, so on and so forth. So I spent much of March moping around and dealing with those issue. So yeah, all pretty minor, but cumulatively they took a toll. boo hoo hoo. So yeah, I should stop my whining and get over it. I guess it's time to get out in the mountains again and start writing about it. Will do!

So the car will come back, but the bike will be gone. I found it posted on craigslist the following morning. Sucked seeing it being sold right under my nose. it was a fun little toy. Hopefully the new owner will enjoy it as well, and karma will be just to those that deserve it.