Brew Day

The supply company sent me out some replacement German ale yeast (which proved to be alive, thankfully) so today was Brew-day! It was rather a good one actually. I decided to brew a recipe out of my Altbier bible Altbier-History, Brewing Techniques, Recipes. Not just any recipe, but one contributed by Herbert Enderlein,  the brewmaster of the Schumacher brewery Dusseldorf - the oldest Alt brewery in the city. It's a a great recipe - because it's one of those classic beers that uses one type of malt and one type of hops (the other one I know is Hopback Summer Lightning (another beer classic). Enderlein's Alt uses Munich malt as the malt, and Halertau Mittelfruch as the only hops (Summer  Lightening is Marris Otter malt and East Kent Goldings hops).

The thing about full-mash home brewing is that there's a lot to do and a lot to remember, over the course of 4 hours or so. At any given time, you're doing one thing, while also trying to remember the things you have to get started to prepare for the next step down the line - like getting water heated ready to sparge (rinse the suger off) the grain. It's quite an intense few hours work - and there's always stuff that goes wrong. This time I nearly muffed the run-off - but thankfully I sorted the problem out and no harm was done. The mistakes get less each time, anyway, and its getting less stressful as I get the hang of it.

Anyway - it turned out well. I used the full Altbier mash recommened in the book - which is:

• 20 mins at 40 degrees (Celsius - this is Europe after all)
• 30 mins at 50 degrees
• 30 mins at 62 degrees
• 20 mins at 70 degrees
• Mash out (i.e. finish up before we run the finished wort off) at 76 degrees.

I tried (for the second time) the big pot on the stove method, stirring all the time with the big brew paddle my canoe building friend Rob made for me. This is more of a continental mash method (not many Brit homebrewers use it) but for me it works a dream and its pretty easy if you don't mind stirring a bit and you have a big paddle. The really pleasing thing was the mash efficency came out at 76% - which is really good for home brew. The Munich malt was pretty slow to drain, and I forgot the trick of cutting little lines in the grain layer to speed things up. But all in all, a good day's brewing. Can't wait to try this one - it came out this amazing amber colour.