Adventures in Brewing a Dunkel Inside in the Canadian Winter:
A Photo Essay

or...

How to Brew With Two Small Pots on an Electric Stove

 Want to get into all-grain brewing, but you can't afford big pots, fancy burners, your own grain mill, or even a temperature controlled fridge or freezer?  Read on and see how one brewer has no shame in using the cheapest techniques possible to brew 5 gallons / 20 litres of yummy yummy homebrew.

Background: if you've taken my other tours, you're probably wondering "why would someone with all that equipment go back to small batches on the stove?"  I'm wondering that myself, but suffice to say 1) the Ottawa valley is much colder than Calgary and 2) my garage has big holes in the walls.

So back to my roots of small batches in 2 pots on the kitchen stove...

To start things off, I plan out a brew using my brewing software (StrangeBrew 1.6) and formulate a simple Dunkel - my favourite lager.  Check out the recipe below.

I keep all my grain in the spare room - you can see the sacks of 2 row & munich, and my new super cheap lager-box at the right. (More on the lager-box later...)

The super-cheap scale is a Canadian Tire special.

 

The adventure continues with a visit to Alan McKay's house in Kemptville, 20 km away, so that I can use his infamous Valley Mill.  Hey Alan, you sure you're not a Valley Mill Marketing Manager?

Alan's mill is mounted on a wooden cabinet, with space for a large bucket below to catch milled grain.

This is the second time I've used Alan's Valley Mill - it has worked great each time.

Lesson # 1 for cheap brewers: never buy what you can borrow from gullible friends and neighbours.

Sunday morning: brew day!  I use cold Merrickville village water straight from the tap.  It's yummy water, and it makes yummy beer.  I don't have an analysis yet, but I don't really care at this point.

The dough-in.  My beautiful partner Vanda uses the plastic spoon to keep the phalse bottom from phloating while I stir like a madman.

Tip #2 for cheap brewers: even if you're as cheap as me, you'll never regret getting a 10 gallon gott cooler instead of a smaller version.  Look at the space I have for adding boiling water for infusions.  If you're going to skimp, skimp on the pots (more on this later).

 

While the mash is underway, I pour off the spent wort in the starter and add a booster (2 cups of water and 1/2 cup of DME boiled and cooled).  This ensures that the yeasts are happy and active when it's time to pitch them in a few hours.

What you're looking at here is some Wyeast 2308 Munich Lager, which isn't my favourite lager yeast, but it was all there was at the brew shop.

Snow Falling On Dunkel: Ingredients for 20 litres (5 US gallons)

Grain:

  • 7 lb Canada Malting 2 row
  • 4 lb Canada Malting Munich (dark)
  • 1 lb Hugh Baird Crystal (70-80L)

 

Hops:

  • 50 gr Hallertaur (~3%) - FWH
  • 25 gr Hallertaur (~3%) - 30 min
  • 25 gr Hallertaur (~3%) - 5 min

Mash:

  • 154F for 90 minutes
  • Add 6 litres boiling water for mashout (168F)
  • Sparge and collect 26 litres, top up with 5 litres
  • Boil 60 minutes

Yeast:

  • WY 2308 (Munich Lager) stepped up in a 1 litre starter. Primary ferment at 52F.

Specs:

  • OG: 1.052
  • FG: 1.016
  • IBU: 25
  • Colour: 19 SRM

Tasting Notes:

Very smooth, malty lager. Noticable hallertauer hop character, slightly sweet finish.

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