Smoked Porter, November 23, 2010

I've brewed up a couple of Smoked Porters earlier this year with great success.  The first was an Agave Smoked Porter utilizing the agave as an adjunct, great beer.  The second time, I tried a different approach on Smoked Porter with fantastic results.  Although I felt the second beer was nearly my ideal Smoked Porter, I changed it up based on my current holdings.  As with many beers, recipe formulation is often limited to what's in stock at home and/or what's available at my local homebrew store.  The one element we didn't like from the last Smoked Porter was the flavor profile imparted by the yeast, WLP007 Dry English Ale.  In my opinion, you simply can't go wrong with WLP001 California Ale and I always feel that most ale recipes need a try with this strain (here's just another good reason I'd like to upgrade to a 10 gallon system, experimenting side-by-side [same wort split into two carboys each fermenting with different yeast strains] would be insanely fun!).
As far as competition is concerned, luckily I don't really need to follow any specific guidelines.  Quoted below is the category guidelines for smoked beer.  Since this homebrew recipe does not follow any classic styles, I can easily blanket the underlying style as a "Porter".

IF THIS BEER IS BASED ON A CLASSIC STYLE (E.G., ROBUST PORTER) THEN THE SPECIFIC STYLE MUST BE SPECIFIED. CLASSIC STYLES DO NOT HAVE TO BE CITED (E.G., “PORTER” OR “BROWN ALE” IS ACCEPTABLE). THE TYPE OF WOOD OR OTHER SOURCE OF SMOKE MUST BE SPECIFIED IF A “VARIETAL” CHARACTER IS NOTICEABLE.

On another note, I've been having a great time utilizing the Wort Chiller with Recirculation Combination.  With cooler weather in San Diego, there has also been a significant drop in tap water temperatures.  Today, I was able to reduce a boiling wort to 63°F in 20 minutes using slightly less than 20 gallons of water (I use this hot/warm/cool effluent for washing and rinsing).  At the end of chilling, I pump out the wort rather quickly to a carboy.  Check it:

After chillindamos, the March Pump and recirculation arm quickly transfer the wort to a carboy.

Pumping wort is not only fast, it seems to do a fairly decent job of aerating as well.

Smoked Porter
BJCP 22B. Other Smoked Beer
5 Gallons, All Grain, Single Infusion Mash, 90 Minute Boil

9 lbs. Domestic 2-Row
2 lbs. Red Wheat
2 lbs. German Rauch Malt
0.7 lbs. UK Chocolate Malt
0.75 lbs. Crystal 20
0.25 lbs. Crystal 60
4.5 oz. Carafa II
2.5 oz. Dark British Crystal

Single Infusion Mash
(1 qt./lb. raised to 167°F)
Saccharification Rest at 148-150°F for 70 minutes
Fly-sparged 5.5 gallons at 170°F

1.5 oz. Homegrown Chinook 60 min.
0.75 oz. Spalt 20 min.
1 Whirlfloc Tab 20 min.
0.5 oz. Spalt 10 min.

White Labs WLP001 California Ale Yeast   2 vials (thanks Kara)

OG: 1.063 @ 62°F
FG: 1.013 @ 66°F
ABV: 6.7%

Vienna Lager, November 7, 2010

The last Vienna Lager I made was great!   I also brewed up an interesting Vienna Agave Lager last year that was well received.  I'm hoping that this beer will be an instant hit with our New Year's party crowd and I'd like to bottle out some for evaluation.
On another note, I'm still dialing in the recirculation immersion wort chiller.  The biggest problem was with the Quick Disconnects (QDs) which were clogging the pump system.  In both sides of the QD components, a cross-hair structure would collect hop matter and slow the March pump to a trickle. 

QD's for the March Pump.

Shown is the tubing end of the QD but there's also two other components that are attached to the pump. They also have the same structure imposing on the flow.  A total of four blocking points have been reeking havoc on the recirculation flow during wort chilling.  Using a Dremel tool, I drilled and sanded out all four flow restrictions.

Left QD shows the original "hop blocker".  Right, rough drilling.

After cleaning them up with a sanding bit, I could easily tell the flow rate will have significantly less interruption.  The only restriction points are now the 1/2" barbs.  After testing this out today, no small hop matter and trub was locked up at any point along the recirculation route.  I'm chillindamos again.

Using a dremel, both QD's are opened up for business!

The only other frustration, and restriction point, on the recirculation pump system has been with the kettle spigot.  I took the spigot over to Home Depot and Lowe's during the summer to try and find a replacement with no avail.  It seems the threading was not standard.  Larry over at Home Brew Mart and Ballast Point Brewing identified the pot with the spigot to be an Italian design with its own spec.  He suggested some options including simply taking out the spigot tip (I had managed to squeeze in a narrow barb that hasn't been working very well - the tightest restriction point at the moment) and finding some 1/2" ID tubing to stretch right over it.  We also talked about drilling a new hole and replacing the spigot.

With heat left over from the boil, the tubing molded easily to the Italian spigot.

 Since the contours of the kettle spigot are thicker on the end, the tubing seemed to create a good seal without the use of any clamps.

Tubing leaving the kettle to the March Pump.

 I thought this tubing was high temp and originally thought I might have to leave it on the kettle at all times.  I had to remove it when it started showing signs of melting, yikes!  At least I was able to cut off that section and found that it was really easy to remove and reinstall the tubing with a tight seal whenever I wanted.

Immersion Chiller combined with Wort Recirculation.

Further modifications have led to even more chillindamos!  The circulation happening in the pot was significant compared to before the dremel work and tubing makeover.  I went through even less water and reduced more time to chill the wort.   Now back to beer.

Vienna Lager
BJCP Category 3A. Vienna Lager
5 Gallons, All Grain, Step Infusion Mash, 90 Minute Boil

6 lbs. Vienna
3 lbs. Munich
3 lbs. Belgian Pilsner
4 oz. Caramunich
4 oz. Caravienne

Protein Rest at 122°F for 7 minutes
(0.9 qts/lb. raised to 135°F)
Saccharification Rest at 148°F for 60 minutes
(0.5 qts/lb. raised to 212°F)
Fly-sparged at 170°F

1.5 oz. Tettnanger 60 min.
1 Whirlfloc tab 20 min.
1 oz. Spalt 10 min.

White Labs WLP830 German Lager Yeast   (100ml of fresh slurry thanks to Kara!)
Currently in ferment at 52°F

OG: 1.053 @ 73°F
FG: 1.013 @ 40°F
ABV: 5.6%

Recirculation Immersion Chilller

...and now, for some chilling.  Literally.

I got this idea from Jamil Zainasheff on his website MrMalty.com.  Jamil shows his Whilpool/Immersion Chiller in great detail on his site.  He's also discussed this modification to his homebrewing system on his internet radio show, The Jamil Show.  While many others go to fancy counterflow chillers or plate chillers, there's actually some good benefits to using an immersion chiller (see Jamil's website for a good discussion on the pros and cons).  The biggest downsides, however, is that it takes longer and uses lots more water.  Adding a recirculation element or whirlpool allows the wort to constantly be moving inside the kettle while the chiller is in the process of heat exchanging.  This increases the surface contact of wort to the chiller, effectively improving chilling time and water efficiency.  Adding a recirculation element to an immersion chiller can bank on the benefits while strongly chiseling away the downers.  Today, I improved upon my wort chilling system to increase water efficiency and to decrease the time needed to take wort from 212°F to less than 80°F.

I made a bigger wort chiller about 2 years ago with 50 feet of 3/8" OD copper.  While it looks like a job well done, I've had some minor issues.  First, 50 feet is a long distance and you need to have decent pressure to push water through that much restriction (maybe 50 feet of 1/2" OD would have made this better?).   I've attempted to use a pump to recirculate ice water through the chiller with limited success (works for several minutes at a time but stalls often).  The pump simply experienced too much back pressure.  Second, while I attempted to make good bends in the copper using a spring bender, I ended up making a few kinks which drastically increased restriction on an already overly distant length of 3/8" copper.  Here's a couple of pictures when I had just finished building a larger chiller.  Notice the kinks from too sharp of bends on the upper image.

Immersion Chiller built 2 years ago.

The new chiller keeps hop trub in the center while cooling much of the column of wort.

So the first order of business before adopting Jamil's whirlpool idea is to remove those kinks!  With a pipe cutter, I was able to remove the kinked locations and ended up taking off about 3-4 feet of copper.  Even though only a few feet, every little bit of restriction helps.

Several of my previous bends caused kinks in the copper pipe that limited the flow of water.

After a couple of chops, all kinks were eliminated.

After cutting out the kinks, the next challenge was to carefully bend the pipe to meet the kettle lid's notch without creating too sharp of angles or additional pipe.

Spring pipe benders are really useful for creating the curves on your wort chiller.

I found using a spring pipe bender (available at hardware stores near the copper tubing) useful to avoid making kinks.  You simply need to be patient and have enough pipe for leverage when bending.  Over bend each time and bend back to desired position.  Bends close to one another can be very challenging.  Just know that its tough to make different curves in a close sequence.

Refurbished and kink-free immersion wort chiller.

After trying this out with today's Kölsch, it works so much better.  At the end of chilling, I usually blow out the excess water and it was drastically easier to blow it out this time.  Also, the back-pressure on the tubing usually causes a leak on the IN-tube.  This didn't occur!  I suppose I can try pumping ice water again with my March Pump.

Onward to adding the recirculator/whirlpool:

I took about a foot section of the removed copper pipe and worked some angles so that beer can be pumped from the kettle spigot, through the kettle lid notch, and directed to flow alongside the immersion wort chiller.

This length was cut from my wort chiller and reshaped to direct circulating wort flow.

Using the spring pipe bender makes bending easier on the most part.  At least, it help you avoid kinking.  I would suggest working with pipe sections several inches longer than you anticipate.  Otherwise, its nearly impossible to bend near the end of the pipe.  You can always cut off excess later using a pipe cutter (about $10 at the hardware store).  Also, you should keep some sand paper on hand (220 grit sandpaper and a 400 sanding sponge seemed to do the job well) for sanding down those rough edges after cutting.  Don't forget to wash and rinse well before using! 

Immersion wort chiller with recirculation arm to move hot wort circular around the immersion chiller.

Here's how I do my wort chilling.  At the end of my brewing session, I stir the wort with a large spoon and get the wort moving fairly quickly in a circular fashion.  While stirring, I slowly move the stirrer towards the center of the kettle to create a whirlpool.  After waiting several minutes to allow the whirlpool to come to a halt whilst center settling the hop and trub, I slowly add the clean wort chiller to the center of the pot (most of the hop trub will remain in the center of the chiller's coils).  I allow the chiller to "bake" for several minutes for sanitation purposes.  At the same time, I arrange the pump to draw from the spigot and return to the kettle via the recirculation arm.  You can see this crafty shaped piece in the picture above.  As soon as possible, I begin recirculation prior to chilling to also "bake" the high-temp lines, pump (this pump handles high-temps), and copper pipe.  After sanitation is complete, I turn on the chiller using hose water.  Today, I think I cut my chilling time and water usage in half.  Not bad considering that summer temperatures have increased the temps of tap water and my black hose soaking up the summer heat isn't helping either.

Here, you can see the pump setup.  The bucket collects heated water from the immersion chiller.

During the summer months around here, the process of chilling the wort can take longer than the rest of the year and a better solution is needed.  I bought this pump towards the end of last season so that I can recirculate ice water through my immersion chiller.  It seems that the recirculator arm is more useful.  If I had two pumps, I could do both recirculation of wort and utilizing ice water.
Jamil's setup has two exit points for the wort though I'm not sure its necessary for a 5 gallon setup.  Click Here to see Jamil's Whirlpool/Immersion Chiller for some more info.
Only one potential issue to address.  I did notice that some hop fragments managed to collect at the incoming pump connection.  I have a QD here (quick disconnect) that has a plastic + going through the center of where the wort flows.  This cross hair of plastic picked up some hop matter and likely slowed the flow at some point.  I might need to add a filter element in the kettle or along the line to deal with this.
The pump was very easy to clean.  While the pump was running, I slowly closed the kettle valve and slid off the tubing.  The pump returned the remains to the kettle and then the pump was shut off.  I removed the recirculator arm.  I put the incoming tubing in the water bucket and pumped fresh water through the system.  I took off the QDs and dipped them in water to remove the hop matter that collected.  Last, I put the incoming tubing in a bucket of sanitizer (StarSan) and pumped that through for just a bit.  Finally, I removed the tubing for air drying.  Very minimal effort for a huge increase in chillindamos!