Supercharged Steam

This 1999 BJCP style 6c beer is being brewed on this day to join with the American Homebrewers Association 6th annual Big Brew in celebrating National Homebrew Day. I used the Anchor Steam Clone All Grain recipe.

I was joined by Mike Uchima and Joe Formanek.

Recipe: California Common Beer
Volume: 3 gallons
Dates:

Brew date: May 3, 2003
Transfer to secondary: May 18, 2003
Bottling: May 31, 2003

Ingredients:

Water source: basement utility sink filtered dispenser - additional sparge water from filtered fridge dispenser using 2 qt pitcher.
Yeast: White Labs WLP810 San Francisco Lager (pitchable vial)

Grain bill

	Potential sg pppg	Points per gal
5.5 lbs Briess Pale Ale Malt 8.5 oz Briess Carmel 80L Malt	1.038 1.034	209.00 18.06
6.03 lbs	Ideal: Pre-boil: Target:	227.06 227.06 227.06	/ 3 gal = 75.7 >>> 1.076 * 70% / 4 gal = 40 >>> 1.040 * 70% / 3 gal = 53 >>> 1.053

Hops

5/8 oz. Northern Brewer bittering hops - Alpha Acid 8% Utilization: 60 minutes @ 1.040 = 25.2%	*IBU = 0.625 8 * 25.2 * 0.75 / 3 = 31.5**
3/8 oz. Northern Brewer finishing hops - Alpha Acid 8% Utilization: 15 minutes @ 1.040 = 12.5%	*IBU = .375 8 * 12.5 * 0.75 / 3 = 9.4**
	Total IBU = 41

Activity Log

Yeast Starter:

About 24 hrs before brew, boiled 2 oz of pale malt extract in 20 oz of water in flask for 10 minutes. Cooled in cold water bath in small pot. Pitched vial of yeast and fitted stopper and airlock.

Mash/Lauter/Sparge:

On kitchen stove, infused 2 gallons of 159 f water onto grain. Mashed at 150 f for 60 minutes, maintaining temperature by stirring over small flame.

Joe's tip: check for conversion earlier using a drop of Iodophor.

Scooped into lauter tun, recirculating until relatively clear.

Joe's tip: don't turn valve on and off for recirculation

Sparged with ~1.5 gallons of 170 f water.

Joe's tip: in order to avoid tannins, etc., don't oversparge - stop when run-off falls below 1.015 at sparge temperature.

Added water to kettle to bring to 4 gallons and took pre-boil gravity reading of 1.037 (65% conversion).

Boil:

Boiled through first break then added bittering hops. Boiled for 48 minutes then added finishing hops. Boiled for 12 more minutes adding cooling coil for the last 9 minutes to sterilize. Cooled to ~70 f and siphoned to fermenter taking OG reading of 1.050. Aerated by rocking carboy on folded towel and pitched yeast starter. Fitted stopper with airlock and put on basement floor for lower temperature fermentation.

Fermentation:

The temperature of the carboy on the basement floor is ~61 f.
Observations of primary stage:

17 hours: 3/4 inch foam, 1/2 bubble per second
25 hours: 1 1/4 inches foam, 2/3 bubble per second
40 hours: 2 inches foam, 1/2 bubble per second
76 hours: 1 1/2 inches foam, 1/3 bubble per second
88 hours: 1 inch foam, 1/4 bubble per second
184 hours: surface foam, 1/10 bubble per second
221 hours: surface foam, 1/15 bubble per second

Transferred to 3 gallon carboy and fitted with stopper and airlock.

Bottling:

Washed, rinsed and sanitized bottles. Took FG reading of 1.010. Siphoned into a 2 liter bottle until 4/5 full, put carbonator top on, squeezed the air out and put aside in fridge for forced carbonation. Boiled 3/4 cup of pale malt extract in 2 cups of water. Put priming solution in bottling bucket and racked beer into bottling bucket. Bottled, capped and labeled 27 12 oz bottles. Put bottles back on basement floor to condition. See Supercharged Steam labels here.

Results:

We drank the 2 liter bottle the next couple of days after it was force carbonated. It is mild and tasty. We look forward to tasting it after bottle conditioning.
After 2 weeks of conditioning we opened 2 bottles for tasting. The carbonation was low, probably due to the pseudo-lager yeast and temperatures. We'll allow another week of conditioning to see if the carbonation improves.