Altbier

[Norsman]

Hey, just racked my first Altbier to secondary after 2 days...! That Nottingham is a real beast of a yeast. Tasted the hydrometer reading and got punched in the mouth by a beautiful chocolate-caramel maltyness. It tasted almost as if I were sucking on a mouthful of grain. This definately has the potential to end up being one of my best beers.

On the downside though, this morning my temp was at 25*C and I can definately taste some fruityness as a result of this. After racking to secondary I placed the fermenter in a 15 Liter ice bath at 5*C. Would this be too cold for my yeast and temp shock them? My beer is still only at 1.013, and I'm expecting it to get down to 1.011 or lower.

 

[mika]

MY limited understanding being that esters are produced early on in the yeasts life, so cooling it now might not make that much difference.
The Ice bath isn't going to stay @ 15deg. By the time it's tried to cool the fermenter down, you may reach a happy medium somewhere in the high teens. Without liquid nitrogen I don't think you could get the brew cold enough quick enough to shock the yeast. Different story when it's the yeast by itself.

 

[jayse]

snipped>
...... and got punched in the mouth by a beautiful chocolate-caramel maltyness.

That would be a fault in a altbier.

It tasted almost as if I were sucking on a mouthful of grain.

Same goes here.

On the downside though, this morning my temp was at 25*C and I can definately taste some fruityness as a result of this. After racking to secondary I placed the fermenter in a 15 Liter ice bath at 5*C. Would this be too cold for my yeast and temp shock them? My beer is still only at 1.013, and I'm expecting it to get down to 1.011 or lower.

Pretty much what mika said..


Alcohol fueled brewtality.
Jayse

 

[Norsman]

I realize that Alts are supposed to have a low malt taste and be more on the dry side, but I had to double decoct after falling below my sacc. rest after the first decoction. This is probably where I ended up accentuating the malt flavour. It doesn't matter to me in the end, the beer still tastes great, and is not overly fuity. I will cold condition it and drink it and still call it an alt. BTW, I love BLS and used to play in a band where we did several covers.

Edit: The beer is still only at 1.013, and will probably get down to 1.010. So it will likely end up tasting more on the dry side.

 

[jayse]

All sounds cool, alts can be quite malty as long as they still finish reasonably dry. The reason I said fault is you described the malt character as choc-caramel which would be a little out of place.

Glad to find another beserker who brews :super:

Cheers
Jayse

 

[Norsman]

All sounds cool, alts can be quite malty as long as they still finish reasonably dry. The reason I said fault is you described the malt character as choc-caramel which would be a little out of place.

Glad to find another beserker who brews :super:

Cheers
Jayse

Hey Jayse, I should have re-worded what I said earlier. Its not overwhelmed by choc-caramel malts, it has noticable hints of them, but an overall general maltyness likely due to my double decoct. On a side note I really love Nottingham dry yeast. After switching from kit brews to AG I swore off dry yeast, but I think Nottingham will definately be a house favorite for now. Here was my recipe:

4.0 Kg Canadian 2-Row
1 Kg Dark Munich (Canadian)
0.5 Kg CaraMunich III
0.085 Kg Carafa III

56 g Spalt 3.3% 60 min
28 g Spalt 3.3% 40 min

2 Packets Danstar Nottingham

On a side note, I wish I had been able to adequately control my primary ferment temp, and I wish I had never needed to double decoct my mash.

 

[Batz]

Hey Jayse, I should have re-worded what I said earlier. Its not overwhelmed by choc-caramel malts, it has noticable hints of them, but an overall general maltyness likely due to my double decoct. On a side note I really love Nottingham dry yeast. After switching from kit brews to AG I swore off dry yeast, but I think Nottingham will definately be a house favorite for now. Here was my recipe:

4.0 Kg Canadian 2-Row
1 Kg Dark Munich (Canadian)
0.5 Kg CaraMunich III
0.085 Kg Carafa III

56 g Spalt 3.3% 60 min
28 g Spalt 3.3% 40 min

2 Packets Danstar Nottingham

On a side note, I wish I had been able to adequately control my primary ferment temp, and I wish I had never needed to double decoct my mash.

Looks ok to me
Hope it turns out well,I love my Alts and Jayse was to one who introduced them too me.
I still remember a brew day at Jayse's with plenty of Alts being drank

Batz