Saving Wine

By now, I’ve talked about my oak leaf wine a few times. It’s been fermenting for close to 9 months, and it is still horribly sweet. OK, it’s not really horrible, but it’s way too sweet. I’m guess in the Montrachet yeast is pretty much finished.

After talking to some other brewers, I came up with a plan to try to kick the fermentation into high gear again. Pitching dry yeast right into the carboy isn’t going to do much, since there isn’t enough oxygen to allow the yeast to reproduce and the alcohol will kill the yeast before it can get going.

In order to overcome those challenges, you need the yeast to be super active and chowing down when it goes into that high-sugar/high-alcohol environment.

I sanitized this half-gallon jar,added a cup of water and the champagne yeast to start the re-hydration process.

After that, I got the starter solution going. I mixed 13 ounces of sugar with 3 pints of water and brought it up to a boil. Once it boiled for a couple minutes, I took it off the heat and added a teaspoon of yeast nutrient.

I put a cover on the pan and cooled it down in a cold water bath. Once it got down into the mid-80s Fahrenheit, I added the liquid to the jar and shook it up. Once it get going (tonight or tomorrow morning), I’m going to pitch it into the the carboy of wine and hope for the best.

Stay tuned, and I’ll let you know what happens in a few months.

Don’t Dump It – 3 Ideas to Save Your Beer

When you make beer, you will probably end up with batches that are mediocre or bad. There will be times when the only thing you can do is dump it. You may need the bottles or the keg the beer currently inhabits. But don’t be too quick to let the sewer drink it. Here are 3 things to try first.

1. Be Patient

I get really excited to try my beer. I usually drink all my hydrometer samples, even straight out of the boil kettle: trub and all. When I’m bottling, I’ll usually pour myself a glass out of the fermenter just to see how the beer tastes at this point. Even flat, it usually tastes pretty good.

When I bottle condition, I usually start sampling the beer after about 5 days. With most beers, this works out well, but I have had some batches with unpleasant flavors at this point. I had a porter that tasted like sucking on a penny, a pale ale that was just harsh and unpleasant. I think this is because the yeast haven’t completely fermented out the priming sugar, and there are still some intermediate byproducts the yeast clean up after a while.

Both of the beers mentioned above turned out to be excellent once they sat for another week. So, be patient. Flavors change quickly, especially at the beginning. A matter of a few days can allow a beer to mellow, fill out and become fully carbonated.

Getting to sample your beer isn’t a race. Even though you want to try it as soon as possible, don’t write it off as a lost cause the first time you try it. Be patient.

2. Change It

Sometimes you can tell when a beer isn’t going to be what you wanted from the recipe. Your sample as you transfer from the kettle tastes flat and lifeless or doesn’t have the base flavor you wanted for your beer.

Don’t despair, there are nearly-infinite possibilities at this point. Was that pale ale lacking the hop flavor and aroma you wanted? Dry hop in the fermenter. Heck, dry hop any beer and see how it turns out. Does the beer seem to lack complexity? Add molasses or Belgian Candi to the fermenter.You can even add spices to complement and change the flavors in your beer.

If you don’t like it, change it.

3. Cook With It

Some beers are good, but they can be a bit overwhelming. I made a ginger stout for a competition. It was a good beer, but even twelve ounces started to feel like work by the time you got to the bottom of the bottle. It was a milk stout, and the lactose made the finished beer feel heavy in the mouth. The ginger flavor was strong, and enjoyable for the first few sips. It quickly took on the role of palette-abuser.

The strong roast notes and overpowering ginger flavor made a great braising liquid. Beer contributes bitterness, which is not found in many recipes, so a dose of beer can really brighten up a dish or add a new dimension to it.

If you’ve made a good beer, but it’s a bit much on its own, try adding it to your cooking. Pick a dish it will meld with, and see how it can transform the flavor and the experience of that meal.

When to Dump

If you’re thinking about dumping your beer, try these three tips to save it. Do all three on the same batch to see if there is any hope for your beer. The learning will be worth it.

If your beer was just bad, you’ll probably want to dump it. If it is unpleasantly contaminated or you just can’t stand the flavor at all, don’t be ashamed to dump it down the drain. That is part of the learning process.

Making Crystal Malt at Home

What is Crystal Malt?

Crystal/caramel malt is used to add color, body and sweetness to beer. Commercially-produced crystal malts are sold at specific color levels ranging from 10 Lovibond to over 150 Lovibond. Common levels are 10, 40, 75, 80, 120 and 130 (also known as Special B).

I took my first shot at making crystal malt at home recently. The result came out pretty well, thought I was a bit heavy-handed with it in the beer I made. The flavor was much subtler and sweeter than any of the commercial crystal malts I’ve tried so far. It could be due to its freshness, as I brewed with it six days after making it.

Commercial producers start with green malt, immediately after it is germinated to produce base malt. The temperature is raised to mashing temperature to allow the starches to convert to sugar, then the temperature is raised again to roasting temperature to allow the sugars to caramelize within the grain husks.

Once the desired roasting/color level is reached, the grain is removed from the roaster and cooled.

Rehydrate the Grain

Since I did not have green malt available, I started with pale ale malt. I measured out three pounds of grain, placed it in a bowl and added enough cool water to cover the malt.

I pressed plastic wrap against the surface of the grain to prevent the top from drying, then allowed the malt to rest for six hours to rehydrate. About three hours in, I noticed the water level had dropped so I added water so it was level with the top of the grain again.

Mashing / Converting

What makes beer sweet is the process of mashing. This allows the enzyme within the grain to convert all of the starch into sugar. This happens in nature to provide sugar to the growing plant until photosynthesis can begin. Brewers take advantage of this to produce the sugars in beer to feed the yeast, which results in alcohol and carbon dioxide.

The base malt filled a 9×13 pan. After covering the pan with aluminum foil, I inserted a temperature probe to monitor the temperature at the center of the mass of grain.

I set our oven to 170 degrees Fahrenheit using the convection setting to allow a more even temperature distribution. Once the grain rises to 145 degrees, I set a timer for one hour and monitor the temperature. When it reaches 155 F, I turn off the oven and allow the temperature to coast to 160 F.

Dry the Malt

In order to roast the malt effectively, you need to remove most of the water you added to activate the enzymes. At this point, I transfer the mashed grain into trays in our food dehydrator and set the temperature for 165 F. The dehydrator ran for about 9 hours (overnight and into the morning).

In order to increase airflow, and still catch any of the sweet, sugary goodness that might drip from the grains, I alternated solid trays to catch the drippings with mesh screens to allow the air to flow up through the grain.

With the proper ratio of water, meaning there wouldn’t be any extra liquid in the mashing vessel, I would recommend using only the mesh screens for maximum airflow. This would allow your grain to dry more quickly and efficiently.

Roast the Malt

As you can see, this batch had a bit too much water in it, which resulted in large caramel pieces in the dehydrator trays. This means a lot of the sugar created above leaked out of the grain. Next time, I won’t worry about the second water addition.

The final stage would be to roast the grain in an oven, if you desire. I skipped this step and wound up with a light-colored caramel malt. Set your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and roast your malt from 10-60 minutes. The longer you roast it, the darker the malt will become.

Darker crystal malts will impart a deeper red color and a stronger flavor. As colors darken, the flavors will change from sweet caramel to raisin, dark fruit flavors.

Try creating your own crystal malt customized for your next recipe. It’s an interesting spin on mashing.