ChooChoo Steam beer

Covrich · Jan 27, 2017

Pathetic name I know..

Anyway my first ever go at a steam beer

4.7KG Lager malt
170g crystal
75 torrified wheat

23 grams Northern Brewer 60 mins
15grams Northern Brewer 15 mins
25 Grams Northern Brewer 0 mins flame out and steep

MJ California Lager yeast

Seemed to have a touch more wort this time (I did add a little bit too much water when I put in my pot last night but left it)

I got nearly 24 L @ 1049 so thats nearly 77% efficiency which given full BIAB isn't bad at all imo.

Pitched at 20 and now sitting at 18 in my cool brew bag fingers crossed it all goes off..

Does anybody have an opinion on lagering these?? I would lager in the bottle.. Or does it not matter?

MickDundee · Jan 27, 2017

I lagered my last batch (not intentionally, just by it sitting in the shed trough some cold weather) and it has turned out like a really nice pseudo lager rather than an Anchor style steam beer. That might have been related to my recipe tweak and the horrendous efficiency I got on that brew rather than anything to do with the lagering though.

MyQul · Jan 27, 2017

I used this yeast for a challenger steam beer/pseudo lager then a lite lager. I lagered 5L of the 20 odd litre batchof the challenger lager in my domestic fridge for three week and bottled it today. Seems to have smoothed it out quite a bit. Tastes nice

For pseudo lagers I'm going to switch to notty as I've read good things about it for this use. The MJ Calilager only attenuated to low 70s for me both times now. Although my lite lager has only been the the FV for a week but it's only 1.034 so it might be done already. It does taste nice and clean tough. I fermented at 16C/17C as that's what my kitchen floor has been at for the past 6 weeks.

Change the name to Steam Punk! :mrgreen:

Covrich · Jan 27, 2017

Interesting.. I have a pusedo solvenian pilsner lagering in the bottle now (this turned out brilliantly with the lagering last time)

But what you say almost suggests (and I dont mean to over analyse what you say) that it will perhaps be less of a steam beer or gives it s diminishing effect in favour of a crisp pilsner??

Covrich · Jan 27, 2017

MyQul said:
I used this yeast for a challenger steam beer/pseudo lager then a lite lager. I lagered 5L of the 20 odd litre batchof the challenger lager in my domestic fridge for three week and bottled it today. Seems to have smoothed it out quite a bit. Tastes nice

For pseudo lagers I'm going to switch to notty as I've read good things about it for this use. The MJ Calilager only attenuated to low 70s for me both times now. Although my lite lager has only been the the FV for a week but it's only 1.034 so it might be done already. It does taste nice and clean tough. I fermented at 16C/17C as that's what my kitchen floor has been at for the past 6 weeks.

Change the name to Steam Punk! :mrgreen:

low 70s.. hmm that does seem odd it claims to be a high 70s early 80s..

I just wanted to try a steam beer this was actually based on an Anchor clone... I have never had an anchor beer so I dont have much to compare it too.

You seem quite taken with these psuedo lagers.. my last one was US05 and whilst I do not get the peachy thing at all I think Nottingham might be the way to go on them, probably better at those temps (now I have the cooler bag).. it flattens out better aswell..

MyQul · Jan 27, 2017

Covrich said:
low 70s.. hmm that does seem odd it claims to be a high 70s early 80s..

I just wanted to try a steam beer this was actually based on an Anchor clone... I have never had an anchor beer so I dont have much to compare it too.

You seem quite taken with these psuedo lagers.. my last one was US05 and whilst I do not get the peachy thing at all I think Nottingham might be the way to go on them, probably better at those temps (now I have the cooler bag).. it flattens out better aswell..

The first time used it it took about 3 days to get going then it stuck so I had to rouse it. I think it might have been an older pack of yeast. I got 73%AA. This time I got 70%AA but it's only been in the FV a week. I found the krausen to be a bit weird. Even though it was only about a cm thick, it was REALLY dense on top. A very thick layer of yeast on top. Perhaps thats why I've only got 70% so far. I stirred it back into the wort this morning. I may get more points out of it. I was expecting more attenuation too. I think MickDundee said he got 83%.

Yeah, I'm really enjoying pseudo lagers. My kitchen floor temp only needs to drop 2C for the bottom range of notty, so I can use the brew bag. I'm going to buy a 25kg sack of lager malt in a week or so's time

MickDundee · Jan 27, 2017

Covrich said:
low 70s.. hmm that does seem odd it claims to be a high 70s early 80s..

I just wanted to try a steam beer this was actually based on an Anchor clone... I have never had an anchor beer so I dont have much to compare it too.

You seem quite taken with these psuedo lagers.. my last one was US05 and whilst I do not get the peachy thing at all I think Nottingham might be the way to go on them, probably better at those temps (now I have the cooler bag).. it flattens out better aswell..

Im surprised at that. Your hopping seems spot on, but most recipes I've seen use around 10% crystal so yours seems quite low.

Covrich · Jan 27, 2017

MickDundee said:
Im surprised at that. Your hopping seems spot on, but most recipes I've seen use around 10% crystal so yours seems quite low.

You might well be correct on that

I wouldn't have a clue, I didn't pick it as a basis to cloen it, I never even had one before..

In fact I tweakedit, The original only called for 130ish I think

MyQul · Jan 27, 2017

Covrich said:
Interesting.. I have a pusedo solvenian pilsner lagering in the bottle now (this turned out brilliantly with the lagering last time)

But what you say almost suggests (and I dont mean to over analyse what you say) that it will perhaps be less of a steam beer or gives it s diminishing effect in favour of a crisp pilsner??

It will always be a steam beer no matter how it turns out because your using a lager yeast at ale temps is what defines a steam beer.

What hops did you use for your slovienian pilsner btw?

Covrich · Jan 27, 2017

MyQul said:
It will always be a steam beer no matter how it turns out because your using a lager yeast at ale temps is what defines a steam beer.

What hops did you use for your slovienian pilsner btw?

First time around which was last year I used Savajnski Goldings an Styrian Bobek.

This is the first brew of mine I have ever done again although time around it was Styrian Bobek and Styrian Goldings..(I ordered Styrian by mistake not that it makes a huge difference).

Just having a bottle now its been in the cold for 2ÃÂ½ weeks this one and its just starting to crispen up..

The hops are just that delicate floral a little piney.. Its amazing how clean these beers are (even when we cheat with ale yeast) compared to glassy dirty ones you can get at the shop

MyQul · Jan 27, 2017

Covrich said:
First time around which was last year I used Savajnski Goldings an Styrian Bobek.

This is the first brew of mine I have ever done again although time around it was Styrian Bobek and Styrian Goldings..(I ordered Styrian by mistake not that it makes a huge difference).

Just having a bottle now its been in the cold for 2ÃÂ½ weeks this one and its just starting to crispen up..

The hops are just that delicate floral a little piney.. Its amazing how clean these beers are (even when we cheat with ale yeast) compared to glassy dirty ones you can get at the shop

I just put an order in for some styrian goldings (amongs other things) for bitters but reading around I think styrian bobek might have been better.

Covrich · Jan 27, 2017

MyQul said:
I just put an order in for some styrian goldings (amongs other things) for bitters but reading around I think styrian bobek might have been better.

Should be fine though, neither are the citrusy in your face type, Strian goldings are supposed to be a little lemony which I can sort of detect without being the citrus bomb type, more delicate and floral and a bit piney I find.. I have used it a few times now. I find them (and Bobek) more subtle, they share that noble hop qualities

MyQul · Jan 31, 2017

Covrich said:
low 70s.. hmm that does seem odd it claims to be a high 70s early 80s..

I just wanted to try a steam beer this was actually based on an Anchor clone... I have never had an anchor beer so I dont have much to compare it too.

You seem quite taken with these psuedo lagers.. my last one was US05 and whilst I do not get the peachy thing at all I think Nottingham might be the way to go on them, probably better at those temps (now I have the cooler bag).. it flattens out better aswell..

As I mentioned my lite steam lager using the CaliLager yeast had a really dense krausen after one week so I stirred it back into the wort. I then left things a few more days and have just taken another gravity reading; 88% attentuation now. I was aiming for as higher attentuation as possible to really dry things out and make it lager like, so I mashed at 64C and added 10% table sugar. Seemed like it worked :)

Covrich · Jan 31, 2017

MyQul said:
As I mentioned my lite steam lager using the CaliLager yeast had a really dense krausen after one week so I stirred it back into the wort. I then left things a few more days and have just taken another gravity reading; 88% attentuation now. I was aiming for as higher attentuation as possible to really dry things out and make it lager like, so I mashed at 64C and added 10% table sugar. Seemed like it worked :)

Krausen was like yours not big but it was going like a steam train on the airlock (at 16-18 degrees) I let it yesterday slightly rise on day 4 to help it , only just starting to show signs of slowng down..

I am really surprised how well that cooler bag works with a single 2L Frozen pop bottle

MyQul · Jan 31, 2017

Covrich said:
Krausen was like yours not big but it was going like a steam train on the airlock (at 16-18 degrees) I let it yesterday slightly rise on day 4 to help it , only just starting to show signs of slowng down..

I am really surprised how well that cooler bag works with a single 2L Frozen pop bottle

I'll think you'll be pleasantly surprised how clean this yeast is at those temps.
The cooler bag is really effective but I found in summer you need twice as much ice to drop the temp by each 1C than you do in winter

Covrich · Jan 31, 2017

MyQul said:
I'll think you'll be pleasantly surprised how clean this yeast is at those temps.
The cooler bag is really effective but I found in summer you need twice as much ice to drop the temp by each 1C than you do in winter

Thats fine.. chucking 2x2L to keep things under 20 is no great shakes (normally I used to struggle with 22 ish in the summer)

MyQul · Jan 31, 2017

Covrich said:
Thats fine.. chucking 2x2L to keep things under 20 is no great shakes (normally I used to struggle with 22 ish in the summer)

Thats fine then as I found that anything over about 22C you need 4L to drop 1C so you'll be ok. I can get up to 26C or so in my kitchen, where I brew, during summer

Covrich · Feb 27, 2017

3 weeks in the FV and one in the bottle, really promising

needs a bit of time and gets a bit hazy when chilled.. but this is nice, has a bit more malt character than your straight crispy lagers

MyQul · Feb 27, 2017

Covrich said:
3 weeks in the FV and one in the bottle, really promising

needs a bit of time and gets a bit hazy when chilled.. but this is nice, has a bit more malt character than your straight crispy lagers

I found it was nice and malty too. I wonder how the CML steam beer yeast compares?

ChooChoo Steam beer

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