3.18.2012

Haiku #5

Haiku #5 was a recipe from The Best of Brew You Own magazine and was an Anchor Steam Clone.  My desire was to brew something known so I could do a taste comparison.  It was made with the following ingredients:

1) 2.0 lbs 2-Row, Rahr
2) 0.2 lbs Crystal Malt (60 deg L) **As you can see from the color I obviously used the wrong malt**
3) 0.4 oz German Northern Brewer Pellet Hops (9.6%AA)
4) 1/2 tsp Irish Moss
6) White Labs WLP820 Octoberfest (Liquid) [change]

Used StarSan sanitizer.

The Mash
Heated 2.5 quarts (10 cups) of water (refrigerator water which is carbon filtered) to 160 deg F.  Add grain and mixed.  Cooked for 60 minutes at 154-160 deg F.  With 5 minutes to go raised temperature to 168 deg F for 5 minutes.

The Sparge
Heated additional 4 quarts of water (refrigerator water) to boiling then transferred to gallon fermentation jug.  Set up the strainer over the second pot and added the hot grain mash.  Then poured the heated water from the jug over the grains and into the second pot.  Once done recirculated the wort back through the grain once more into the original pot.

The Boil
Heated the wort until it began to boil at approximately 210 deg F.  This was done with just the middle heat on the inside burner on my stove.  Boil lasted 90 minutes with 0.2 oz of Hops at the 60 min to go for the boil then added 0.1 oz at 15 minutes and then 0.1 oz with 0 minutes to go.  Also at 15 minutes to boil added Irish Moss.  Tasted the wort and it was very sweet.

The Fermentation
Placed the brew pot into the sink with ice allowing the temperature to decrease to 70 deg F.  Allowed the mix to settle this time using the principle of stirring it until the sediment formed a cone in the center of the brew pot.  Siphoned from the edges into the fermentor.  After the fermentor is full, the yeast was added and throughly mixed to aerate the liquid.  Note:  Liquid yeast is designed for 5 gallon batches.  This time did not shake the yeast but opened slowly and mixed with a tooth pick.  Still difficult to determine exact amount of yeast was added.

The yeast began fermentation and a fairly consistent burp began.  Primary fermentation lasted for about 36 hours.  Transferred beer to the basement and put in the airlock.  Allowed to sit for 2 weeks.

The Bottling
Used bottling sugar and dissolved this in 1/4 cup of water, I siphoned the beer into a pot and then bottled into 4 x bomber bottles (~650 mL).  Allowed to sit for another 2 weeks.

The Tasting
Opened and tried on 3/18/12. Good carbonation.  See photo.  Good flavor although not the Anchor Steam taste I was expecting.  Flavor was kind of nutty.  This nutty flavored deepened in later bottles I drank.  

Oops used the wrong grain
A light and nutty flavor
Have to try again

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