Today is MLKJ Day which means that the classroom is in recess for the day in observation. This is a time to reflect on the Civil Rights movement with Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr and the Little Rock Nine being familiar key players – along with many others. It is also a great day to put some heat on the bottom of the brew kettle. Especially since it is a 37° F rainy day at the brewery.
Past MLKJ Days have been used to brew a stout of some sort. Today’s brew is of a slightly different character and make up – not diverting too far from the standard – but different nonetheless.
The reason for the diversion is because this beer was intended to be brewed Monday, January 02 – at the end of the school Christmas break. However, it was put on hold until today for a good reason. That reason being that I had the privilege of being the assistant brewer for the day at Littleport Brewing of Racine, WI. (See previous post.)
So, today it is Tall, Dark & Bready – a German Wheat Beer / Dunkles Weissbier. I had one of these at a beer garden last summer. I don’t recall the name of the garden but it is located along the bike trail that leads north from Milwaukee along Lake Michigan. I remember it being a tasty number and I wouldn’t have minded to have another. However, I was biking and needed to cover some more distance. This was on the return trip but I’m not up to challenging my bladder capacity while on longer rides. Although a full bladder does inspire one to peddle faster.
I do hope this beer turns out being close to the Dunkles at the beer garden. If so, I think it may be a regular on tap at Fieldpointe Brewery.
Since I’m going solo today – Mark decided he was lacking in his leadership qualities and is attending a 3 day conference in Chicago starting today – and I don’t have Dorothy Doors at Fieldpointe HQ to report the status of, on with all things Tall, Dark & Bready.
Grains
- 5.0 lb White Wheat Malt
- 3.0 lb Munich Malt
- 2.0 lb Vienna Malt
- 0.5 lb Special B Malt
- 0.25 lb Chocolate Wheat Malt
- 1.0 lb Rice Hulls to keep the grain bed from compacting
Hop
- 1.0 oz Tettnanger @ 4.5% AA – 60 minutes
Yeast
- 1.0 (11.5 g) sachet Ferments SafAle WB-06 – starter was made
Brewing with Mark (Littleport owner Mark – not the other one who bailed on me today) inspired me to pull out my refractometer after many brewing sessions of non-use and take some readings. I explained to Mark that I haven’t been taking OG or FG readings for quite some time because it really doesn’t matter to me. The beer is what it is. Then again, I am brewing for personal consumption and don’t need to know “the numbers” in order to enjoy it. Since I do have a refractometer and, as Mark pointed out, doesn’t take much time or effort to use, I dusted it off (dug it out) and am using it on this brew.
The pre-boil SG was 8.5 brix – which is a reading on the amount of fermentables in a solution of wort – which is what refractometers are used for. The post-boil brix was 13 – which equates to an original gravity reading of around 1.052 (according to my simple conversion spreadsheet). If I remember, I’ll take a reading sometime during fermentation and again at the end to see what has happened. I have another SG spreadsheet that uses periodic brix readings to track the fermentation and ABV. It contains all the conversion / adjustment formulas one needs to do the real science. I don’t recall where I got this from but I think it was referenced in one of the brewing magazines some time ago and was downloaded from the WWW. Most likely, it was either Zymurgy or Brew Your Own. Anyway, I’ll see if I can pretend to be a master brewer and track the readings with the refractometer on this batch – just to see what is going on.
Once again, here is the projected (not fully measured – at this time) analysis of Tall, Dark & Bready:
Projected Analysis
- OG – 1.047 at 75% efficiency. (Looks like I did a bit better than 75%.)
- FG – 1.012 at 75% attenuation. (Need to wait and see how this turns out.)
- Color – 17.5 SRM
- 4.6% ABV
- 14 IBU
Happy MLKJ Day!
Update 02/16//23
Upon some encouragement by Mark from Littleport Brewing, I took actual OG and FG readings via refractometer and entered them into a conversion spreadsheet that has the commonly used formulas to give reasonably accurate results – I think.
The OG reading was 13.0 brix or 1.053 on brew date.
The FG reading was 5.0 brix or 1.001 today – one month later.
According to the conversion calculator, this ends up being a 6.7% ABV beer – slightly higher than the anticipated 4.6% ABV.
If all this is accurate, then my system is more efficient than 75% and the yeast did a very good job at what they do!
Of course I neglected to take my refractometer for Super Brew Sunday II so I don’t have the actual OG reading to use for that beer. I’ll try to remember to take it for the Spring Break Maibock next month.
