Brew Day. Ocean House Coffee Porter. Batch 2

Good Morning

Starting a new series called Brew Day on the blog today.  Will be an overview and (hopefully) play by play of a brew session.

Today is batch 2 of Ocean House Coffee Porter.  Batch 1 had to be dumped do to an unfortunate error on my part. Without going into details, suffice it to say that when weighing materials for additions to the water, one should confirm the scale is in GRAMS not OUNCES… Pretzel Porter anyone?

Even with the excess salt, the base beer was excellent. Good color and body. Background flavors seemed pretty good.  That being said, there was no way John and I were going to get through 5 gallons of that stuff. So, onto the driveway on a rainy day it went.

Learning as we go, it’s time to try again. This time, we leave the water alone.

The Grain Bill

9#      Pale Malt
1#      Munich Malt
.5#    Crystal Malt (30l)
.5#    Chocolate Malt
.25# Black Malt

This bill is designed to yield 5 gallons of a dark auburn beer with an ABV of 5.5%. The pale malt is the back bone. It is most of the alcohol and a bit of the body. Munich adds a smooth body. Crystal gives nut and sweet characters to the flavor. Chocolate brings roasted and coffee notes to the nose and flavor. Black gives color and roasted notes.

The Mash

The above grains will be milled into the Mash/Lauter Tun. They will be infused with 3.5 gallons of 165F water and well stirred. This should yield a mash temperature of 153F. The mash will last 60 minutes.
After 60 minutes, we will perform the Mash Out. This involves stirring in 2 gallons of 200 degree water into the mash and allowing it to sit for 10 minutes. This stops the mash.

Lautering

This is the process where in the sweet wort is removed from the Mash/Lauter tun and the sugars are washed from the grains. This is a seemingly simple step but it is fraught with potential problems.
The goal is to slowly drain sweet wort from the bottom of the Mash/Lauter tun whilst adding 168F water back in at the top. This is called Fly Sparging. When done right, the grain bed is never exposed to the air or allowed to settle onto itself.  Exposure to air can lead to oxidation of the final brew and settling of the bed can lead to stoppage of the flow or a ‘stuck’ run. Our sparge volume is 2.5 gallons. We will stop the run when we have 6.5 gallons of sweet wort in the kettle.

Typically, this process takes about 45 minutes to an hour.

The Boil

Now it gets interesting. Here we take the sweet wort and bring it to a rolling boil for one hour. This concentrates the sugars and allows us to add the hops and other spices.

For this recipe, the goal is a slightly full bodied Robust Porter. Hopping is used primarily to balance the malts and keep the finished beer from being cloyingly sweet. Any hops aroma would detract from the malts and coffee character of the final beer. To achieve this there will be 3 hops additions during the 60 minute boil. They will be as follows: (it should be noted that addition times are time left on the boil, ie: T-60)

1.5 ounces of Willamette at 60 minutes
1.0 ounces of Willamette at 20 minutes
.5 ounces of Willamette at 05 minutes

It should be noted that all of the hops used in this brew were grown by the brewer.

There will be an addition of 1 tsp of Irish Moss at 10 minutes. This is used as to clarify the beer.

At 15 minutes we will insert the chilling loop into the kettle to allow it to be sanitized by the boiling process.

The Chill

This is the point where we rapidly cools the wort and prepare it for transfer into the fermenter. Also is a good time to open another brew cause it is pretty smooth sailing from here.

The chilling loop that was inserted in the kettle at 15 minutes is connected to a pump which rests in a cooler full of ice water. After the boil is complete, the pump is switched on a chilled water is circulated through the loop and back into the cooler. The intentions here are several. The simplest is to speed the process along. But, there are more important reasons at work.

The first is called the Cold Break. This is a process where the proteins in the wort are solidified or coagulated. The proteins have yielded all the sugars and will now just cloud the beer.  By reaching the Cold Break as fast as possible, we maximize the effect. The Cold Break is also improved by the Irish Moss. This happens around 110F.

Second is Kettle Break. This is when most of the solids like the proteins and hops will drop from the solution.This usually happens around 70F. As above, the quicker we can get here, the better the effect.

Finally, there is Free Rise. This is the period when the yeast has been pitched and is acclimating as the wort is warming to it’s final fermenting temperature.  Again, the sooner we are here, the sooner the session is done.

Whirlpool and Rack

A simple step where the kettle is rapidly stirred to create a whirlpool. The resulting centrifugal force pushes the liquids out and leaves the solids in the middle of the kettle. Clear liquid is siphoned into the fermenter.

Aerate and Pitch

Time to bring in the yeast. Most of the efforts so far have been done with the finished beer in mind. At this time, we are going to do something for the little critters who do the work.  We want to create the perfect environment for them to multiply and turn the sugars into alcohol. To do this, we are going to give them a bunch of oxygen to consume and be fruitful shall we say.Then they can eat the sugars mostly all up.

We will pump oxygen into the wort via a air pump.Some home brewers and most commercial brewers, use oxygen. We are cheap. An air pump running through a HEPA filter does the job.  We usually go for about 10 minutes of bubble time. This is spread out to allow the wort to settle and reduce foaming.

We then pitch the yeast. In this case, Wyeast 1028 London Ale Activator Pack.

Fermentation

At this step, the yeasts will consume the sugars and create alcohol and cO2. The cO2 will be vented from the fermenter via an air lock. Primary fermentation will be at 70-75F and take 7 to 10 days.
At this point, most of the alcohol conversion is done. There are some chemical conversions still taking place that effect flavor, aroma and stability. These will continue into secondary fermentation.

Secondary fermentation is something of a finishing stage. A few days rest to let the chemical process work out. We will also use this step to add the coffee. We will add 1 cup cold espresso to the keg and transfer the beer into it. This will be allowed to set at 70F or so for three days.

Carbonation, bottling and aging

We now have the finished beer. All that remains is to carbonate, bottle and age.

Carbonation will involve attaching the keg that has been holding the beer in secondary fermentation to a gas bottle and applying pressure to it for about 4 or 5 days. This will carbonate the beer to the desired level. As carbonation is easier at cooler temps, the keg and gas will be put in the fridge and held at 40F.

When the beer is carbonated, we will place sanitized bottles in the fridge and allow them to chill to the same temp as the beer. During this time, we will assemble the bottling equipment and when everything is well chilled, we will transfer the beer to bottles. The bottles will be moved to the cellar and allowed to age 5 or 6 weeks before serving.

Be sure to check back for updates and look for more Brew Day posts to come.

Related:
Hops Growing
More on the yeast
Where we get pale malt
Where we get specialty grain
Where we get espresso
How we made the espresso

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