Your videos always make me grateful that I have a simple and inexpensive set-up! It seems like these super expensive solutions always bring more problems than it solves 😅 I mean this in the nicest way possible, really enjoy watching your vids! :D
I love the new gadgets, and with anything new it takes time and trial and error to get it right. I continue to upgrade when I can afford it. It is the fun part of the hobby, and can make brewing more fun for me. But to each his own🙂
Bière de Garde is one of the most underrated beer styles out there. I am glad you decided to brew one to (hopefully) change that. I made a Bière de Garde Ambrée myself last year and it was spectacular. Hands down the best beer I ever made. Malty like a Munich Lager, pintable like a dark Weizenbier and with the punch of a Tripel. And the commercial example on which I could get my hands was equally great. So thanks for this video. The world needs to know about Bière de Garde :D Cheers from Germany.
You can dry out a farmhouse ale without adding honey or sugar. I use a mash schedule of 63C (145F) 30 minutes, 68C (154F) 15 minutes and a 5 minute 74C(165F) mashout to aid sparging (I know you don't sparge). Beer finishes between 1.002 and 1.004 usually. The sweetness you taste after the beer dries out is glycol produced by saison yeast.
For anyone looking for a large whisk like that, check restaurant supply stores. I got a nice stainless one a bit smaller than the one Martin uses and it wasn’t expensive. The XL ones are also fairly common at stores like this.
1.25 The Restaurant Store in Bensalem Pa. has a few Different Sizes of Whisks. I would think that are other Restaurant Supplies Stores would have them.
So... funny you post this this week. I brewed a SMaSH on the weekend. My OG was significantly lower than where it should have been. I too used the condenser lid from Spike. The profile I was using had a boil off rate of 1gal/hr. I have now adjusted it lower to 0.3. We shall see how it works next week. Also, I tried recycling the cooling water. Same bucket to the lid and then back. I kept it cool with a series of ice pack changes. I've been collecting all the meal kit ice packs from my neighbours...
Oh that is interesting. Will be interested to hear if you dial in the correct boil off rate. And who needs glycol when you’ve got the neighbors ice packs 🙌
@@18centwood You can get them in a bunch of different lengths. Looks like a 2' whisk (24" or 60cm). You can get them for $5 usd on restaurantsupply (dot) com if you search whisk. They're not exactly a specialty item I found one like that in under 2 mintues you might even be able to find one cheaper.
Just threw my take on this one in a fermenter. Pretty similar recipe but I went with some Victory rather than Aromatic, no honey, Hallertau Hersbucker (bittering and aroma) and Blanc (aroma) for the hop schedule, and Belgian rather than French saison yeast. Slightly higher opening ferm temp, too, but I'm planning on 'lagering' around 60F after most of primary fermentation is done in the initial yeast rush. Looking forward to it and thanks for the inspiration! If it goes well, I'm planning a paler bretted version for the fall.
Very surprised by the sweet comment with 3711. I've probably used that yeast the most since 2009 and I don't think I've ever had a beer finish above 1.010. That yeast is super dry and attenuation is around 80% so a sweet comment with added honey that will also dye things out seems weird. Another good video sir. Keep up the good work.
Amazon for the whisk. I bought mine there. It's Soo much better than a mash paddle or spoon. Brought up my efficiency just by stirring every 15 minutes during the mash using the whisk over the spoon and paddle.
The water coming out from your diffuser may be leaking into the kettle. There should be a tiny downward angle on your horizontal pipe coming out from your lid.
Another fantastic video. Thanks for always having fun with these new processes! It's very interesting, and even though you're brewing literally every week, the videos always have something new to offer. A+ Content Creation right there. About to brew my first all-grain batch! Planning a (hopefully) yummy Cherry Wheat. Can I ask your opinion; ferment on Cherry puree, or just use Cherry extract?
You have all your brew gear listed except the whisk. Where did you get a whisk that can handle a big grain bill and not fold under the pressure? That looks so much easier to break up dough balls with than my paddle. Thanks!
Can’t you use a bucket with the coil in it instead of your fermenter for a cold water tank? I would agree that you should put the pump at the bottom. Someone said it down bellow.
I love a good Biere de Garde, its hard to find true "Biere de Garde" yeast, so its hard to make them. My dad made one as a SMASH, 100% Vienna Malt, Sterling hops I believe, and wYeast Biere de Garde (3725). 8% ABV but it was smooth so you drink a few and you're on the floor. One warning if you use that yeast, it can have a funky smell from the yeast, so lightly dry hopping is recommended. Also that whisk any good restaurant supply shop should have one that size.
You have to age beers with honey for quite a while to remove that "funny" taste. 3 months and it will have a lovely mellow flavour. After a year it will be something spectacular.
But if you know the volume BEFORE the boil and then the volume AFTER the boil, you should know exactly what the boil-off amount is with/without the lid ? 🤔
How well does the steam condenser lid fit on the 10 gallon clawhammer kettle? In one frame of the video it seems that it was raised on the right edge. I’ve been looking into one for a while. I have a spare 5000 BTU window unit I can convert to a water chiller to recirculate the water similar to what you were doing.
Interested to see this one, I have this beer on my 'to-do' list (along with about sixty others!). Just wondering, does that metal table get hot with the kettle directly on it? I note the Clawhammer guys put a bit of foam or cork under theirs to stop the table acting as a heat sink, but I think they're on 110v so restricted that way. Hopefully third time's the charm with the condenser lid and you get your figures dialled in :) my steam solution isn't as shiny, it's a large desk fan screwed upside down to the shed roof to blow it all out the door!
I made a Bierre de Garde last year with 9.58%abv.. After this video, I am inspired to make a medium gravity Saison, around 6%abv maybe😄 By the way, Turkish figs taste great.. Try to find some dried Turkish figs there, and you will see the difference😁
@@TheHomebrewChallenge It is strong, but doesnt make you feel till you finish the bottle, then softens your senses slowly😄 I only have left two bottles😁
Hi Martin...Great video as always. How come you've set the mash efficiency on beersmith so low, Is this because it's a high gravity beer? Also has this had detrimental effect on your brewhouse efficiency? What do you normally get? Cheers
@@TheHomebrewChallenge Thanks for answering. I asked that question exactly because this week I was looking for an immersion pump and I noticed that one on your equipment. An unpretentious question. I'm a big fan of your channel and I wish you a lot of success. Cheers.
@@TheHomebrewChallenge 1. You are not able to find all the right ingredients from US. That's right you did your best :D. Nearest cararye you may be able to find is weyermans cararye. 2. Start mash in at 35-45 Celcius (betaglucan break) to avoid stuck mash. Do not underestimate the potential of cara rye to turn out complete dick and make your mash unmanageable goo. 3. Do not boil the wort. Sahti is raw ale. To be sure you have no bugs in your wort you may want to rise wort temperature to 75-80 Celcius for 15mins. You should not get any DMS issues if you don't go over 85 Celcisus. 4. YES you should put and keep sahti cold while fermentation is not completed. Theoretically yeast could attenuate until 1.005 but put it to cool place when gravity is more like 1.030. Sahti is still living organism when you drink it but all the yeast should be settled out while cold conditioning 2 weeks. Finnish bakers yeast taste profile is actually pretty near hefewizen yeast, and if I hadn't access to finnish bakers yeast i would use hefewizen yeast. Even tough product is not technically sahti anymore, it tastes more like real sahti than one made with wrong kind of bakers yeast that could technically be called sahti. 5. Do not store Sahti neither warm nor longer periods even in cold. It will get sour after 1,5-2 moths after brewing due the bacteria in used bakers yeast. So drink it fast, that's why sahti is traditionally made only for weddings etc. where whole batch will be drunk at once. 6. Sahti is supposed to be drunk flat. Do not carbonate or serve from keg. Read this and additional information in comments and links before starting. In some degree (on lautering technique and mashing schedule at low temperature range mostly) I disagree with writer of this blog post but it is near enough. www.brewingnordic.com/farmhouse-ales/sahti-recipe/ Good luck. It will be needed
It would be good if you could McGyver a 0% ABV or less than 1% ABV version of a beer and then compare the two. I think the difference is that you mash in at a very high temp. It would be interesting.
Covering boiling wort will lead to DMS (an off flavor) making it into your finished beer. The steam should be exhausted somewhere - either through an extraction fan , a condenser lid or... well just brew outside 😃
I’ve enjoyed them both. There’s just a little bit less “stuff” with the Clawhammer which makes for a simpler brew day. But you can’t go wrong with either.
That's a good point. I count how much is going into the fermenter which is probably not what I should be counting. Obviously it's a bit less making it in the keg.
@@TheHomebrewChallenge Good to know. I used to count what goes into the fermenter but have just started counting what gets packaged, because that's all that really matters after all.
He used a saison yeast but made a biere de garde. They are both farmhouse ales, but it doesn't mean that they are the same, if you can try examples of both you will get the diferences even better
This is not a steam slayer however... the steam slayer comes with a 6GPH or 9GPH sprayer so it should be 6 gallons or 9 gallons of water for a 1h boil. The spike condenser lid does seem to use an awful lot of water. I'm waiting on the steam slayer to be back in the shop to order one myself. I'm going to get the 6GPH sprayer, I hope i'll get good performance for 6 gallon of water used.
Weird audio part-way in. Sound got hashy and loud all at once. Martin, I know you are a tech savvy guy, but can it be that you aren't able to adjust a sound envelope on a given piece of video? Nah, must be foreign interference.
Your videos always make me grateful that I have a simple and inexpensive set-up! It seems like these super expensive solutions always bring more problems than it solves 😅 I mean this in the nicest way possible, really enjoy watching your vids! :D
Dialing this stuff in is part of the fun for me. But yeah nothing wrong whatsoever with a simple repeatable stress free brew day
I love the new gadgets, and with anything new it takes time and trial and error to get it right. I continue to upgrade when I can afford it. It is the fun part of the hobby, and can make brewing more fun for me. But to each his own🙂
Bière de Garde is one of the most underrated beer styles out there. I am glad you decided to brew one to (hopefully) change that. I made a Bière de Garde Ambrée myself last year and it was spectacular. Hands down the best beer I ever made. Malty like a Munich Lager, pintable like a dark Weizenbier and with the punch of a Tripel. And the commercial example on which I could get my hands was equally great. So thanks for this video. The world needs to know about Bière de Garde :D
Cheers from Germany.
You can dry out a farmhouse ale without adding honey or sugar. I use a mash schedule of 63C (145F) 30 minutes, 68C (154F) 15 minutes and a 5 minute 74C(165F) mashout to aid sparging (I know you don't sparge). Beer finishes between 1.002 and 1.004 usually. The sweetness you taste after the beer dries out is glycol produced by saison yeast.
For anyone looking for a large whisk like that, check restaurant supply stores. I got a nice stainless one a bit smaller than the one Martin uses and it wasn’t expensive. The XL ones are also fairly common at stores like this.
1.25 The Restaurant Store in Bensalem Pa. has a few Different Sizes of Whisks. I would think that are other Restaurant Supplies Stores would have them.
My first beer was a local biere de garde. Love this style. Something I really need to brew soon.
That's quite the introduction to brewing.
So... funny you post this this week. I brewed a SMaSH on the weekend. My OG was significantly lower than where it should have been. I too used the condenser lid from Spike. The profile I was using had a boil off rate of 1gal/hr. I have now adjusted it lower to 0.3. We shall see how it works next week. Also, I tried recycling the cooling water. Same bucket to the lid and then back. I kept it cool with a series of ice pack changes. I've been collecting all the meal kit ice packs from my neighbours...
Oh that is interesting. Will be interested to hear if you dial in the correct boil off rate. And who needs glycol when you’ve got the neighbors ice packs 🙌
warning for headphone users at 9:46 ...
WHAT DID YOU SAY ????
LOUD NOISES
Opps sorry about that!
Beat me to it lol.
We had a whisk like that at the pizzeria we worked at. You'll find them in restaurant supply stores.
Do you know what lengths those whisks might be? Martin didn't mention it either
@@18centwood You can get them in a bunch of different lengths. Looks like a 2' whisk (24" or 60cm). You can get them for $5 usd on restaurantsupply (dot) com if you search whisk. They're not exactly a specialty item I found one like that in under 2 mintues you might even be able to find one cheaper.
You should look into sourcing and selling Homebrew Challenge wisks… I’d totally buy one. It’s kind of your signature.
😆
Just threw my take on this one in a fermenter. Pretty similar recipe but I went with some Victory rather than Aromatic, no honey, Hallertau Hersbucker (bittering and aroma) and Blanc (aroma) for the hop schedule, and Belgian rather than French saison yeast. Slightly higher opening ferm temp, too, but I'm planning on 'lagering' around 60F after most of primary fermentation is done in the initial yeast rush. Looking forward to it and thanks for the inspiration! If it goes well, I'm planning a paler bretted version for the fall.
Awesome! Hope you enjoy it.
Very surprised by the sweet comment with 3711. I've probably used that yeast the most since 2009 and I don't think I've ever had a beer finish above 1.010. That yeast is super dry and attenuation is around 80% so a sweet comment with added honey that will also dye things out seems weird. Another good video sir. Keep up the good work.
Amazon for the whisk. I bought mine there. It's Soo much better than a mash paddle or spoon. Brought up my efficiency just by stirring every 15 minutes during the mash using the whisk over the spoon and paddle.
Whisk FTW!
Love the brews week over week - keep them coming!
Thanks for the video! I also have the spike steam condenser lid and wondered about recirculating the water, cause it does use a lot!
The water coming out from your diffuser may be leaking into the kettle. There should be a tiny downward angle on your horizontal pipe coming out from your lid.
You could try putting your pump at the bottom of the fermenter, water at the top could be much hotter than on the bottom.
Good point.
Keep em coming, great channel
Thank you!
Another fantastic video. Thanks for always having fun with these new processes! It's very interesting, and even though you're brewing literally every week, the videos always have something new to offer. A+ Content Creation right there.
About to brew my first all-grain batch! Planning a (hopefully) yummy Cherry Wheat. Can I ask your opinion; ferment on Cherry puree, or just use Cherry extract?
Thanks so much. Funny you should ask about purée. I’ve never used it in beer but looking at including it in an upcoming brew.
The last brew I made was a biere de garde, so here I am, enjoining the video while drinking a garde
💯
You have all your brew gear listed except the whisk. Where did you get a whisk that can handle a big grain bill and not fold under the pressure? That looks so much easier to break up dough balls with than my paddle. Thanks!
Can’t you use a bucket with the coil in it instead of your fermenter for a cold water tank? I would agree that you should put the pump at the bottom. Someone said it down bellow.
Yep totally. A bucket would be just as good.
I love a good Biere de Garde, its hard to find true "Biere de Garde" yeast, so its hard to make them. My dad made one as a SMASH, 100% Vienna Malt, Sterling hops I believe, and wYeast Biere de Garde (3725). 8% ABV but it was smooth so you drink a few and you're on the floor. One warning if you use that yeast, it can have a funky smell from the yeast, so lightly dry hopping is recommended. Also that whisk any good restaurant supply shop should have one that size.
So many SMASH beers really do hit the mark...
You have to age beers with honey for quite a while to remove that "funny" taste. 3 months and it will have a lovely mellow flavour. After a year it will be something spectacular.
Martin...LOVE the videos. Not a fan of this style; however...but I always say, drink what ya like! Cheers! 🍻
Lauren has the best job EVER!
Thanks Norm! Post pandemic I'd be honored to have you on as a taster.
But if you know the volume BEFORE the boil and then the volume AFTER the boil, you should know exactly what the boil-off amount is with/without the lid ? 🤔
How well does the steam condenser lid fit on the 10 gallon clawhammer kettle? In one frame of the video it seems that it was raised on the right edge. I’ve been looking into one for a while. I have a spare 5000 BTU window unit I can convert to a water chiller to recirculate the water similar to what you were doing.
It’s just ever so slightly too big, as you spotted. Still closes enough to form a seal but it’s not quite flush
Interested to see this one, I have this beer on my 'to-do' list (along with about sixty others!). Just wondering, does that metal table get hot with the kettle directly on it? I note the Clawhammer guys put a bit of foam or cork under theirs to stop the table acting as a heat sink, but I think they're on 110v so restricted that way. Hopefully third time's the charm with the condenser lid and you get your figures dialled in :) my steam solution isn't as shiny, it's a large desk fan screwed upside down to the shed roof to blow it all out the door!
Haha hey if it does the job! I don’t find the table getting hot but the Clawhammer guys did recently give me a little mat to put the kettle on.
I made a Bierre de Garde last year with 9.58%abv.. After this video, I am inspired to make a medium gravity Saison, around 6%abv maybe😄 By the way, Turkish figs taste great.. Try to find some dried Turkish figs there, and you will see the difference😁
Sounds like I need to give them a try. And wow that’s a strong Biere de Garde.
@@TheHomebrewChallenge It is strong, but doesnt make you feel till you finish the bottle, then softens your senses slowly😄 I only have left two bottles😁
Hi Martin...Great video as always.
How come you've set the mash efficiency on beersmith so low, Is this because it's a high gravity beer?
Also has this had detrimental effect on your brewhouse efficiency? What do you normally get?
Cheers
I typically set brewhouse efficiency at 68%. A bit lower for higher gravity beers.
Probably a common question but who’s drinking all these fabulous beers that you’ve made?
It’s a problem. Would you like some? 🍺
@@TheHomebrewChallenge a very generous offer!....alas.. I’m in Australia ..😞
Hey Martin, could you please tell me what is the immersion pump manufacturer you are using? :)
Excellent configuration you are working with btw
I'm using a little mini pump that came with the glycol chiller. Not sure why it was running so noisy... not usually the case.
@@TheHomebrewChallenge Thanks for answering. I asked that question exactly because this week I was looking for an immersion pump and I noticed that one on your equipment. An unpretentious question. I'm a big fan of your channel and I wish you a lot of success.
Cheers.
For a beginner brewer using brew in a bag. Which style of beer from your series do you think is best? Keep up the great work!
I'd recommend picking something simple. My first beer was a Pale Ale - easy enough to make and quite forgiving.
Why do you have a baseball cap with the year I started brewing? Did you start then too?
Are you planing to do Sahti when you get into a historical beers?
I am. Any tips?
@@TheHomebrewChallenge
1. You are not able to find all the right ingredients from US. That's right you did your best :D. Nearest cararye you may be able to find is weyermans cararye.
2. Start mash in at 35-45 Celcius (betaglucan break) to avoid stuck mash. Do not underestimate the potential of cara rye to turn out complete dick and make your mash unmanageable goo.
3. Do not boil the wort. Sahti is raw ale. To be sure you have no bugs in your wort you may want to rise wort temperature to 75-80 Celcius for 15mins. You should not get any DMS issues if you don't go over 85 Celcisus.
4. YES you should put and keep sahti cold while fermentation is not completed. Theoretically yeast could attenuate until 1.005 but put it to cool place when gravity is more like 1.030. Sahti is still living organism when you drink it but all the yeast should be settled out while cold conditioning 2 weeks. Finnish bakers yeast taste profile is actually pretty near hefewizen yeast, and if I hadn't access to finnish bakers yeast i would use hefewizen yeast. Even tough product is not technically sahti anymore, it tastes more like real sahti than one made with wrong kind of bakers yeast that could technically be called sahti.
5. Do not store Sahti neither warm nor longer periods even in cold. It will get sour after 1,5-2 moths after brewing due the bacteria in used bakers yeast. So drink it fast, that's why sahti is traditionally made only for weddings etc. where whole batch will be drunk at once.
6. Sahti is supposed to be drunk flat. Do not carbonate or serve from keg.
Read this and additional information in comments and links before starting. In some degree (on lautering technique and mashing schedule at low temperature range mostly) I disagree with writer of this blog post but it is near enough.
www.brewingnordic.com/farmhouse-ales/sahti-recipe/
Good luck. It will be needed
It would be good if you could McGyver a 0% ABV or less than 1% ABV version of a beer and then compare the two. I think the difference is that you mash in at a very high temp. It would be interesting.
Agreed! I’d like to try my hand at a low alcohol beer at some point. Cool idea with the comparison.
I’m not sure I understand the advantage of the steam condenser lid?
So your home doesnt get filled with steam when you boil
Yeah remove the steam instead of using an extractor fan or similar.
Why not just add a normal lid and reduce boiloff to zero??
Covering boiling wort will lead to DMS (an off flavor) making it into your finished beer. The steam should be exhausted somewhere - either through an extraction fan , a condenser lid or... well just brew outside 😃
@@TheHomebrewChallenge thanks for the explanation. Makes sense.
Love the videos keep going
Thanks man!!
Oi! Oi! Oi! What's all this then? new episode?!
Keep up the awesome work! Question - what’s the name of that pop-punk song you used when you were adding the honey? Really liked it!
Castlefield - Best Laid Plans
@@SandstormCloudwave cheers!! 🍻
What's your opinion on the clawhammer and unibrau systems? I'm looking at both systems and noticed you used both. Thanks
I’ve enjoyed them both. There’s just a little bit less “stuff” with the Clawhammer which makes for a simpler brew day. But you can’t go wrong with either.
Thank you. I appreciate the reply. Love the videos too.
Hi Martin, what do you mean by batch size? Do you count what goes into the fermenter or what goes into the keg?
That's a good point. I count how much is going into the fermenter which is probably not what I should be counting. Obviously it's a bit less making it in the keg.
@@TheHomebrewChallenge Good to know. I used to count what goes into the fermenter but have just started counting what gets packaged, because that's all that really matters after all.
what power are u running your system at? I run mine at 25% and condenser out put is around 85F and that is coming in from ground temp water
I was running around 30% which I think was probably a bit too high.
@@TheHomebrewChallenge its definitely something you have to play around with a few times before you can dial in #s.
iv been calling a Biere de Garde a Saison for years am i wrong. or am i right because you used a Saison yeast?
They are certainly related. The BJCP lists them separately hence I brewed something else as my saison.
He used a saison yeast but made a biere de garde. They are both farmhouse ales, but it doesn't mean that they are the same, if you can try examples of both you will get the diferences even better
🤔...but did you like it?
YES from me... SO-SO from Lauren.
I just discovered that all my brews are so much better if I leave them at least 3 months in bottles, 6 months even better
How much water does the steam slayer use? I'm trying to keep my brewing green.
I used about 4 gallons recycled. Without that trick I think it's closer to 15 gallons/hour.
This is not a steam slayer however... the steam slayer comes with a 6GPH or 9GPH sprayer so it should be 6 gallons or 9 gallons of water for a 1h boil. The spike condenser lid does seem to use an awful lot of water. I'm waiting on the steam slayer to be back in the shop to order one myself. I'm going to get the 6GPH sprayer, I hope i'll get good performance for 6 gallon of water used.
9:46 RIP Ears
Yeah sorry headphone users, weird mic issue
Am I dreaming, Southampton lost 9-0 to Man U. ?
There’s a chance when I wake up tomorrow that will all have been a bad dream??
Ah, my freakin' ears!
Yeah sorry
Weird audio part-way in. Sound got hashy and loud all at once. Martin, I know you are a tech savvy guy, but can it be that you aren't able to adjust a sound envelope on a given piece of video? Nah, must be foreign interference.
Must have clicked the wrong button before export. Sorry about that.
@@TheHomebrewChallengeNo worries. I know you are a craftsman, and so just mentioning it. Carry on Merlin... uhhh, Martin.