On Fri, Oct 01, 2004 at 09:15:56PM +0200, Frank Lund wrote:
> Som jeg skrev i en tidligere mail, så er jeg kommet i gang med at
> brygge "min første ale", det var søndag aften.
Welcome to the world of brewers!
> Min første rigtig grimme fejl jeg lavede, var da min første urt skulle
> hældes over på min første gærspand, hvor jeg spildte noget af urten ud
> på gulvet i stedet for ned i spanden. Det var nok ca. 4dl ud af næsten
> 15L.
You *have* to sacrifice a wee drop to the Gods, if you want to have a
good beer. 4 dl may be in the lower end of the scale, but if you haven't
upset them Gods too badly, you can still get a good beer out of it!
> Næste fejl i forhold til det spørgsmål jeg snart kommer frem til,
> var at jeg spædede op med vand indtil 25L i alt (der står 25L på
> håndbryg.dk og 22L på brygladen.dk). Min oeschelvægt viste 1042
> (<-hvad er enheden?) lige inden jeg tilsatte gæret, som jeg havde
> rehydreret i 30 grader varmt vand under kogningen af urten.
The unit is grams per liter, or if you preferi, tons per cubic meter.
The easiest way to look at it is to add a decimal point to make it
1.042, drop the 1 and the point, and see that the stuff is 4.2% heavier
than water.
> Spørgsmålet er nu 1042 - er det ikke lige i underkanten af hvad man
> kunne forvente, men dog forståeligt, når man tager spild og vandmængde
> i betragtning?
Well, if you go and add water in your brew, it will be a bit weaker. But
1.042 is a decent staring point. As a first approximation, you can
expect a 4.2% beer out of it. Plusminus 2, depending mostly on your
yeast. if you wanted to produce Belgian knock-out drops or Prohibition
Barley Ales, you ain't gonna make it. But if all you want is a good ale,
you are right on the track!
> Allerede mens jeg rydede op efter slaget, gik gæringen så meget i gang
> at hatten på gærrøret begyndte at løfte sig.
See, the Gods were happy with your wee drop. The sooner they make the
beer bubble, the healthier it is, and the better prospects there are for
it!
> På det tidspunkt kl. 00:45 var der 18 grader i min kælder. Næste
> morgen (mandag) ved 7-tiden var der 17,5 grader og gæringen var
> så godt i gang, at der kom skum ud af gærrøret.
Never mind the half degrees up and down. People have been brewing great
beers for thousands of years before the invention of precise
thermometers.
> Hvor nøjagtigt skal det overholdes og hvor store udsving må der være i
> temperaturen?
If all you want is a decent beer, you shouldn't worry too much about 5
degrees up or down. If you want to produce a chemically indistinguisable
clone of some commercial donkey piss, you have to be more careful... If
the temperature gets too low, nothing much happens. Both good
fermentation and infections slow down... if it gets too hot, your beer
gets a bit different flavours, more towards Belgian beers, with
banana-clove-like esters, chewing gums, and what have me. A more rich
and complex taste that many go out of their way to achieve...
> Mine målinger af sukkerindholdet viser, at det onsdag, torsdag og i
> dag fredag var 1016. Så ville jeg umiddelbart tro at gæringen var gået
> i stå, men det er ikke mit indtryk, for hatten på gærrøret løfter sig
> stadig op efter at jeg har aftappet til dagens måling.
trust your feeling here! 1016 is pretty high, from 1042. There are
still things going on in the bucket. Actually, it is now that the good
tasting stuffs are produced, once the simple-minded yeasts have made the
booze.
> at det onsdag og torsdag havde en god smag, men med en sur gærsmag
> oven i. Men i dag fredag er der næsten ingen gærsmag - det smager
> faktisk allerede rigtigt godt!
See, what did I say!
> Ud fra min første antagelse om at gæringen var ved at gå i stå, havde
> jeg indtil i morges den tro, at jeg skulle til at tappe øllet over på
> mine mini kegs i denne weekend. Men så snakkede jeg med Torben Lund,
> som sagde at jeg skulle vente en uge mere og have tålmodighed.
Listen to that man, he knows what he speaks of. Let the stuff rest for
another week or two, and if you feel like it, dump it into a secondary
fermenter (fine name for another bucket) for another few weeks or
months. Nothing bad will happen to it, and it will keep you from
drinking it before it is ready.
> I opskriften står der at øllet skal gære 1-2 uger og selvfølgelig tror
> jeg på Torben, men jeg vil alligevel gerne have lidt input til hvilken
> udvikling jeg kan forvente og hvordan jeg kan konstatere at gæringen
> er stoppet?
You can't! Even after 6 months in a bucket, and another 18 in a bottle,
the stuff still lives and develops. Well, now your stuff is not so
potent, so you ought to drink it before it gets *so* old, but for the
first beer, a good advice is to wait as long as you can, and a bit more.
usually that adds up to a month or so.
> En af mine kollegaer har brygget øl i 25 år, men efter hans
> beskrivelser, så følger han ikke de gængse regler. Han bruger
> mælkejunger på et gasblus og en trækæp til at røre med - ingen
> desinficering - ingen gærrør, det er blot at sætte låget lidt på skrå.
> Men han er for nylig (efter 25 år med undergær) begyndt med overgær.
> Han tager hver anden dag og rører rundt i øllet med trækæppen for at
> "få lidt mere gang i gæringen".
>
> Er det blasfemi?
Not really, that's how beer has been made for centuries! If his stick
happens to carry so much yeast that no other bacteria gets a good hold
of it, there isn't much of a risk. Until some day, when some old woman
looks at his house with crossed eyes, and the beer will turn bad ever
after. Or another form of infection kicks in. That's the way things have
been for centuries, if not milennia, up to 1850's or thereabouts.
> Min bror bor i Hamborg og er også lige begyndt at brygge. Hans
> brygvenner siger at man med overgær skal fjerne det skum, der ligger
> på overfladen af øllet under gæringen.
> Det har jeg ikke læst noget om - er det nødvendigt?
There is only One Right Way of brewing beer. Unfortunately it depends
whom you ask first - thereafter everyone elses One True Way must be
wrong. In more general terms, nothing is necessary (except perhaps to
keep your beer relatively free of infections). The rest is matter of
style. I woud never advice a beginner to go and much too much with the
bucket, for every time you open it, you increase the risk of
infection...
> Det var de første 9 spørgsmål. Så er der kun 9.999.991 tilbage, men
> dem tager vi en anden aften.
feel free to ask here. This list is full of helpful people (not
including grumpy old myself). The more you ask, the more different
advice you get... Then it is up to yourself to make up your mind...
Don't worry overly much, for
It will be beer anyway!
Heikki
--
Heikki Levanto "In Murphy We Turst" heikki (at) lsd (dot) dk
