Back in the saddle

Before you begin reading, this post was written to music. I ask that you hit play on this youtube video and then read below.

It's been a while. Why you ask? I believe I had brewer depression. Last time I brewed was Sep 9th, 2012. Besides the quality of the people around me, nothing went right. Nothing went right with the brew I did before that either. What's wrong you ask? Brewing efficiency. Brewing efficiency is a percentage number that most, if not all brewers watch. It's a percent of converted sugars from the grain. Basically, if you put in 10 lbs of grain, how much of that actually converted to sugar, which then makes alcohol. Most homebrewers shoot for around 75%. Why not 100%? Not even the "big boys" shoot for 100% because at that rate you're starting to introduce off flavors from the process to convert that much sugar. Plus it would add time to the brewing process which is already at around 3 to 4 hours (at least for me). So, I set my sights a bit lower at 72%. My last two brews were 61% and 54%. That's not bad, that horrible. Something was wrong, very very wrong.

I felt like for the most part I had my all-grain brewing process down pretty well, but I just couldn't get over the fact that I consistently hit low numbers. Something I was doing was not correct and I needed to figure out what. I talked to my normal sources of information (Ted and Paul) and I also searched the internet. I came up with a lot of answers but one kept showing up, the crush.

The crush is cracking the grain in order to get the maximum amount of enzymes to convert to sugar. I'm sure cousin Mike can go into more detail on that, but basically by crushing the grain at the right amount you can pull off the most sugar. This would make your brewing efficiency go up. I had always crushed my grain at the local homebrew store, Midwest Supplies. I never really paid super close attention to the setting of the mill. I figured hey, they're crushing hundreds of pounds of grain for customers everyday, it must be set correctly. I couldn't be any farther from the truth. Both Ted and Paul own their own mills, but they did tell me they would always run their grain through twice at Midwest because people mess with the settings of the mill. I think my other problem was that I didn't know what a proper crush looked like. The main thing I kept hearing was "You don't want to crush it too fine because you'll get stuck sparges". A sparge is where the water goes through after sitting on the grain. If the grain is too fine, it will clog up the mesh bottom. Being afraid of having this happen, I think I always though the crush was fine.

I was at Midwest talking to one of the people their and they even told me that I want to buy my own mill or pass it through a few times because people mess with the mill setting all the time. I have come to learn that it's such a problem at all of the local homebrew stores around here that Northern Brewer actually put the mill setting under some sort of lock. The guys as Midwest informed me they'll be changing the grain room here and be doing the same thing. In the end, I was tired of messing around with this and I had decided that I would buy my own mill. This was in October/November time frame. Time passed and I still hadn't bought my mill yet. It was cold outside and I didn't feel like sitting in the garage freezing. I was also still bitter about how my beers turned out and I had 2 full kegs of it. To me the beers weren't that good. My one beer, "Kitchen Sink" was exactly that. I used a bunch of hops I didn't know which were probably too old. It tasted horrible. I tried to let it age out but in the end it got the drain. I deemed it not worthy for human consumption. The other beer, hopped up Irish Red wasn't too bad.

The holidays came and went, then it was my birthday. Someone was trying to tell me something. I got 2 gift cards to Midwest Supplies. This would cover the cost of my new mill. Still, I didn't make the jump. I was just in a funk and couldn't get over it. Finally all my kegs were empty, but at this point we were working on our basement and I my brewing storage area was a mess. I couldn't even get to most of my stuff anyways. About 2 weeks ago the basement was finally finished and we started organizing stuff. I could see that there was a warm weekend coming up and Erin had plans for that whole day. Perfect. Just me, the dog, and my brewing stuff. It's time to get back in the saddle.

The morning started with emails back and forth between myself and the brew masters (I.E. Ted and Paul). Lucky for me they both have kids so not only were they up, but very quick on their emails. After a few emails back and forth I was set on the Monster Mill 2. I also figured out which recipe I was going to brew. I jumped in the car and was one of the first people in the door at 9am. Coffee in hand I went into the grain room and grabbed my grain. No milling for me my friend. I then went hunting for the mills. They have a few options there for mills, though I was rather set on the Monster. I talked with the people at the shop and they agreed that the best bang for your buck comes from the Monster. This thing is a hoss. It weighs about twice the amount of the other only real option, the Barley Crusher. Oh yeah, this was the smaller version of the Monster also with only 2 rollers. They offer a 3 roller option for you real bad asses. So I grabbed everything I need, checked out and went out to the car. I was ready to take on this brewing devil.

Everything I need, or so I thought

I get back home and I start putting it together. Just to give you an idea, those rollers are 6" long and 2" diameter. I really thought that it should have come with a "Keep hands away" sticker.

Awesome. So before I just start rifling grain through I thought I better read the manual just a little more to make sure there's nothing I'm missing. Oh yeah, how about this line. "Before milling, run 1 lb or more of grain through to remove any manufacturing residue". Crap. Back in the car, buy the cheapest 2.5lbs of grain I can get, go back home. Ok, now it's time to start putting this bad boy to work. A few adjustments and I had it pretty dialed in. I did quickly figure out that my drill can only handle so much grain at one time, which made for an interesting milling experience. Had a few mishaps but I got it figured out. I also sent a few pictures to Paul to confirm my crush was good.

Mill locked up, sending the drill spinning and grain flying everywhere. The dog loved it. 

A much better crush

With a quality crush in hand I started my brew processes as normal. The beer I was brewing was figured out while I was out skiing in Montana. There's an awesome brewery out there called Red Lodge Ales. They have a beer called "Czech Mate" which I couldn't get enough of. It was a nice well rounded beer that would be a perfect summer beer. It was great in the hot tub after a day of skiing too. My buddy Berto told me I should make a clone of it called "Czech Yourself". I thought this was a great idea. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right? Well breweries don't just give up their recipes, so I had to guess. I'm hoping that someone from Red Lodge ales reads this post and lets me know if I'm close. I really wish I could get that beer here in Minneapolis. Here was my recipe for a 5 gal batch, 90 minute boil:

10 lbs Pilsner (Weyermann)
8.0 oz Carapils (Briess)
1.50 oz Saaz - Boil 75.0 min
1.00 oz Saaz - Boil 45.0 min
1.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins) Fining 5 -
1.00 oz Saaz - Boil 15.0 min
0.50 oz Saaz - Boil 2.0 min
white labs san francisco lager wlp810

I finished up the boil and cooled down the wort. Now was the moment of truth. Did I actually fix my problem? The answer, Yes. I was so happy. I was shooting for a OG of 1.054, I got 1.062. It gave me a brewing efficacy of around 78%. I'm finally back in the saddle. My beer sits in a dark part of my basement fermenting at a cool 56 degrees. Hopefully this one will turn out to be a keeper. I'm already planning my next 2 beers to fill my 3 keg setup.

Many thanks to the people who didn't know they were pushing me to get back at it. While I drink this beer I'll be thinking about Montana.

Me at the top of Lone Mountain. 11,166 ft.

Prost!
-Ryan