English Mad Mild

Fermentification

So you like beer but feel trapped in a world of high ABV extreme craft brews? Me too. I've been on a very brief quest (barely left the Shire) for a good low ABV beer to accompany days of lawn mowing, snow shoveling, etc.

After cruising around the forums at HomeBrewTalk.com I came across this little recipe from a poster named Orfy. His Mild Mannered Ale has received 33 pages(!) of reviews and recommendations. I decided it's a shoe-in for my next brew. Low ABV beers also lend themselves well to the Brew In A Bag (BIAB) method so it works well with my small setup. Let's get on with it, shall we?

Mad Fox's Ale Yeast

My first step on my low-ABV journey led me to Mad Fox Brewing Company, in Falls Church, VA. I've been enjoying their <4% Mason's Mild for some time now and ordered one on a particular Saturday in November. Fortune smiled upon my wife and I when our server asked if we'd like a behind-the-scenes tour of the brewery. Hell yes!

Our tour guide, Charlie Buettner, asked if there were any homebrewers in the crowd and I sheepishly raised my hand. I had been brewing for about three weeks at this point and could barely tell a ball valve from a bung hole. Charlie mentioned they regularly dispose of 40lbs. of yeast per batch and would rather give it to homebrewers than dump it down the drain. After taking him up on this offer I went home the proud parent of billions of little ale yeast cells.

The Grist + Willamette Hops

Now with an English yeast in hand and most of the ingredients in inventory it was time to craft a recipe. I was able to obtain all of the grains from my local homebrew store but had to substitute Willamette hops for the Fuggles called for in the recipe. Since I've never used an English style hop before I imagine I won't taste much difference.

After noticing a bit too much trub in the fermenter from my last brew I decided to increase the mill gap to 0.028" from 0.025". The BIAB method lets me use a finer crush than a traditional mash and lauter system because there's no worry of stuck sparges.

Makeshift Mash Tun

The BIAB method isn't all upsides though. One problem we have with this method is retaining heat during the duration of the mash period since the brew kettle serves as our mash tun. One great suggestion I found online was to wrap the brew kettle in an old sleeping bag (remove from stove first...).

Over the course of the 60 minute mash I lost only four degrees and that includes stirring the mash every 15 minutes. This brew was mashed at 158 degrees to promote a more dextrinous wort to give this low ABV mild a little substance.

Fancy Cooling System

After mashing I ended up with a pre-boil gravity of 1.048, waaaay over what I was shooting for with this 1.037 OG mild. Future brews will need to account for these epic ~95% BIAB efficiencies. After calculating a 1/2 gal. water addition during the chill phase I ended up with a 1.037 OG on the money! That also helped reduce my chill time which is pretty... chill.

At the end of the day my 4 gal. recipe ended up yielding 5 gal. after overestimating evaporation and low-balling my efficiency estimate. Free beer!


Recipe: Orfy's Mild Mannered Ale

Brew Date: 1/27/2013
Style: English Mild
Batch Volume: 4 gal.
Type: All grain
Boil Time: 60 min.
Color: 21.6 SRM
Target Bitterness: 24.7 IBU
Target OG: 1.037
Target FG: 1.009

4.5 lb. Maris Otter Malt Recipe
1 lb. Crystal 60L
4 oz. Chocolate Malt
0.75 oz. Willamette Hops (Bittering)
0.75 oz. Willamette Hops (Flavor)
8 oz. Ringwood Ale (Wyeast 1187) yeast slurry

Brew Notes
Mash Temp: 154 - 158
Mash Efficiency: 96%
Pre-Boil Volume: 4.75 gal.
Preboil OG: 1.048
Post-Boil Volume: 4.5 gal.
Post-Boil OG: 1.044 (Why is this lower than pre-boil? Measurement error?)
Water Added: 0.5 gal.
Dilluted OG: 1.037
Dilluted IBU: 19.1
Brew Time: 4h50m (1 hour to heat mash liquor)
Actual FG: 1.012
ABV: 3.3%
Calories: 123

2/2/2013 - Pulled a sample to test gravity. SG is 1.013. Mash temp was a little high so not surprised if this is about as low as it gets. Plan to bottle next weekend regardless. Tastes pretty good, a little chocolaty and sweet. Julie detects a coffee aftertaste but she's a coffee bloodhound.

2/10/2013 - Pulled a sample. SG reading 1.012.

2/16/2013 - FG finished out at 1.010. Collected 4.75 gal. from carboy, yielded 47 bottles. There was a lot of flour/grit on the side of carboy after racking. Probably need a coarser grind. Not much appeared to transfer into the bottling bucket though. The roasty finishing character mellowed out a bit. Julie finds it a little more pleasing. I'm leaving these bottles on the main floor where it's a little warmer for one week to carbonate then plan to cellar.

American Amber Ale

American Amber Ale
January 6, 2013
3 gal.

5 lb. 2-Row Pale Malt (Rahr)
1 lb. Crystal 60L
1.5 oz. Cascade Hops
¾ oz. Cascade Hops (Dry hopping)
1 pkg. Munton’s Dry Ale Yeast
½ cup Corn Sugar (Priming)

1/6/13 - My buddy John helped brew today. Crushed at 0.028” gap to reduce flour created. Used hot water from faucet to fill boil kettle to 5 gal. Started at 120 deg. Heated to 162 and added grains. Temp came down to 158. Used sleeping bag to insulate kettle during mash. Had to remove bag to drop temp down to 153 halfway through mash. The sleeping bag insulates very well! Did not use hop bag in boil because it smelled bad. Ended up getting leaf hops caught in auto siphon. Will probably use hop bag from now on or some other mechanism to separate hop material.

After grain absorption and boiling still ended up with 4.25 gallons in pot. Probably got 4 gallons in carboy because of what was absorbed by the hops. Looks like we can regularly do 4 gallon batches on this stove. OG was 1.042 because of the extra gallon of water that wasn’t absorbed or evaporated.

1/13/13 - Gravity reading is 1.011. 4.3% ABV. Seems ready to be bottled. Tastes a little hoppier than last AG. More amber color too. Doesn’t taste much sweeter but that might be more apparent in a side-by-side with the previous AG.

1/16/13 - Gravity reading is still 1.011. Dry hopped with 0.75 oz of Cascade hops filled with Go marbles. Boiled the bag for 8 minutes to sterilize. Was hard to put the hops in the carboy with all the marbles in there. Maybe no marbles next time. Still tastes good.

1/25/13 - Fixed auto siphon by putting dime in bottom to replace one way valve. Bottled today. Collected 3.5 gal of beer after dry hop absorption. Exactly 36 bottles. Final gravity 1.010. Marbles were in hop bag so couldn't pull out of carboy. Destroyed bag. Dry hop without marbles. Total time 1.5 hours. Used 5/8 cup priming sugar to bottle. Leaving bottles upstairs in warmer air to carbonate. Acceptable amount of trub. Maybe try 0.030" grind next time.

2/10/13 - Tastes and smells really good. Got a little over carbonated. One bottle foamed out the top after opening. Left upstairs to carb for two weeks. Maybe that was too long before chilling? Labelled bottles and put in the cellar. Designed some sweet labels.

Belgian IPA

Brewer’s Best Belgian IPA (The Belgian Julie)
January 5, 2013
5 gal.

6.6 lb. Pilsen LME
1 lb. Soft Candi Sugar
8 oz. Caramel 40L
4 oz. Flaked Wheat
0.5 oz. Millenium Hops (Bittering)
1.0 oz. Nugget Hops (Flavoring)
2.0 oz. Chinook Hops (Aroma & Dry)
1 pkg. Sachet Belgian Style Dry Yeast
½ cup Corn Sugar (Priming)

1/5/13 - Brewing with new 7.5 gal pot. Raised 5 gal of water to 156 to steep/mash. Mashed specialty grains for 45 min. Wrapped sleeping bag around kettle. Only 3 degree drop over mash duration! Removed grains and brought to boil. Taking a long time to boil, may reduce batch size in the future. Used calibrated wooden dowel to measure final yield of just over 5 gal. Took an hour to cool to 85 in sink full of water. Rehydrated and pitched yeast at 85. OG is 1.060. Total brew time 5 ½ hours...

1/12/13 - Dry hopped with remaining Chinook hops. SG reading was 1.020. ABV 5.3%. Had a super thick krausen, had to punch through with wine thief. Tastes pretty good, very Belgian-y. Fermentation smell is thick with sulfur. Slight smell in sample pulled for gravity reading. Hopefully will dissipate over time.

2/3/13 - Bottled today. FG: 1.006, 7.2% ABV. Collected 5 gal. from fermenter and exactly 50 bottles. Used 3/4 cup of priming sugar. Lowest finishing gravity of any beer I've made yet. It did set in primary for a month so maybe that's why. Tastes reallly good, like a bitter Belgian. Can't wait for this one to carb.

2/8/13 - Cracked one open today and it tastes wonderful. Like a bubble gummy Belgian with an extra bitter finish. Not much of the Chinook dry hopping coming through but definitely some hop bitterness. Designed a label based on Julie's favorite wedding photo.