Clonebrew: Bitburger

I've got a book called "Clonebrews" which has recipes for a bunch of commercial beers from around the world. Since Bitburger is my favorite, I had to take a run at it for my first batch. I had to improvise a bit due to availability of ingredients. I also had to adjust the quantities from those given in the book since the book assumes a 5-gallon batch and I'm brewing two gallons.

TYPE: Lager
STYLE: Pilsener (German)

Brew Date: 3 February 2007

Ingredients
Whole Grains
10.0L Crystal Malt (1.6 oz.)
10.0L Munich Malt (1.6 oz.)

Malt Extract
Light dry malt extract (2.4 lbs.)

Hops
Bittering: Northern Brewer hops 6.5% AA (0.4 oz.)
Flavoring: Perle (0.2 oz.)
Flavoring: Hallertau (0.1 oz.)
Aroma: Tettnang (0.1 oz.)

Yeast
White Labs Pilsner Lager Yeast #WLP800

Procedure
Started by spreading the whole specialty grains out and cracking them by running over them a few times with a rolling pin. While I was cracking the grain, I had a sauce pan on the stove heating about a quart of water to 150F. With the grain cracked, it all went into a large nylon grain bag, and the bag into the sauce pan.

Steeped the grains in the 150F water for 20 minutes (monitored the temp with a quick-read thermometer and alternately turned the flame on and off as needed to maintain 150F). Near the end of the steep, I got another quart of water in another pan heating to 150F.

At the end of 20 minutes, I removed the grain bag from the water. I folded the portion of the bag holding the wet grain over an empty segment of the bag (to minimize grain residue), then sparged the grain with the 150F water from the other sauce pan into the first pan.

With half a gallon of weak wort in the brew pot, I added the 2.4 lbs. of dry malt extract (DME) and added about another quart of water and turned up the heat to bring it to a boil. A note here about working with DME...it likes to clump up when added to the water. Be patient and keep stirring.

When the wort started to boil, I added the Northern Brewer bittering hops in a hop bag (always in a hop bag!).

At 45 minutes into the boil, I added the Perle flavoring hops.

At 50 minutes into the boil, I added the Hallertau flavoring hops.

At 55 minutes into the boil, I added the Tettnang aroma hops.

At 60 minutes, I removed the wort from the heat, letting it cool for 15 minutes.

Dumped the sanitizing solution out of the fermentation barrel and ran one gallon of cold water into it. I poured the still-hot wort into the barrel and topped to the fill line (8.5 quarts) with cold water from the kitchen sink sprayer to aerate the wort. Temperature showed just over 70F, so I pitched the yeast. Here's where I screwed up. The vial containing the yeast is intended for a 5 gallon batch, so my plan was to use a little less than half the vial. Instead I ended up using a little more than half. Shouldn't be a big problem.

The instructions on the yeast vial also called for taking it from the refrigerator 3-6 hours before pitching. I had it out for less than an hour. Oh well.

I let the barrel sit out at room temperature for about four hours before putting it in the wine fridge.

Checking the barrel the next day I saw no discernible signs of fermentation activity. So that evening (Sunday), I took the barrel out of the fridge and sat it on top over night.

Monday morning still showed no sign of fermentation, but there must have been some pretty active respiration and budding because there was a BIG layer of yeast sediment at the bottom. I put the barrel back in the fridge.

I checked again on Wednesday night, and saw a rich, thick layer of frothy yeast floating on top and noted a healthy beer smell when I opened the fridge. Fermentation must be going fine.

Friday (2/9) still had that frothy yeast floating on top (I thought lager yeast was supposed to be bottom fermenting?), so we'll leave it alone for now.

Saturday (2/10)...still got that thick layer of frothy yeast on top. Not sure what to do if this stuff doesn't start settling out.

Just re-read a portion of Charlie Papazian's The New Complete Joy of Home Brewing and was reminded that said frothy yeast on the top is called kraeusen. As long as it's there, fermentation is still active.

Sunday (2/11) Damn...still a lot of kraeusen on top. If anything it looks thicker.

Tuesday (2/13) Decided to ignore it yesterday and took a look today. That kraeusen krud shows no sign of abating. Here's a pic for context:


You should be able to make out the difference in color between the beer and the krud on top.

Thursday (2/15) OK...still way too much krud on top. I think I'm just gonna bottle this stuff up on Saturday regardless.

Saturday (2/17) Well, I bottled the batch today. I've got low confidence in the outcome. The taste was pretty yeasty, but then again I've got a cold so I can't really count on my sense of taste too much. The beer was very cloudy, but should clear up some as it conditions and lagers over the next few weeks. I primed each bottle with 1tsp. of priming sugar. Hopefully that'll be about right. Targeting Saturday, 3/10 for first taste. I'd normally give it two weeks, but I think I'll give this one three.

Friday (3/2) Decided to go ahead and try one. I put a couple in the fridge yesterday and popped one open after work today. I was careful opening it, since I was basically guessing on the priming sugar. In fact, I put the bottle under a cardboard box when I opened it. No explosions, no volcanic eruptions of foam. Cool.

So I grabbed a glass and poured it down the side letting it head just a bit. Hmmm...no chunks, nice color, fair head quality and retention. So far so good. A little whiff...pleasant malty aroma...maybe this batch isn't a total disaster after all. Now for a taste.

Holy crap! Quite possibly the best tasting beer I've ever made! No...definitely the best tasting beer I've ever made! A bit of malt sweetness followed by a good bite of hops.

I just might have to stock up on more swing-top bottles and brew larger batches of this stuff!