Czech Pils

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Brew day is getting started very early this time. I picked up a stir plate at the brew shop yesterday because I wanted to make yeast starters. I’m not sure it’s necessary for this beer, but here we are.

I checked online for suggestions on making a starter, and I got confused by all the talk about yeast cells and parts per billion and such.

I added 2 oz (57g) dry malt extract to a 2l Erlenmeyer flask and then added a liter of tap water. I gave it a few swirls to mix it up, but there were still clumps. Covered the mouth of the flask with aluminum foil, put it on a gas stove, and brought it to a boil. Foam started to build up as it began to boil and I turned off the gas. Foam went up to the top of the flask but somehow didn’t overflow. I let it boil for 15 minutes, then I let it cool down on the stove for a bit before transferring the flask to the fridge.

Once the wort was cool, I pitched the yeast along with the contents of the smack pack. Added the stir bar and placed a foam stopper in the mouth, both rinsed with star san. Topped it off with the foil, and set it on the stir plate. The two inch stir bar I first tried seemed to not line up well with the magnet in the stir plate, and it didn’t spin well or at all. I checked that the stir bar was centered in the flask when I put it on the plate, but not much success. I’ll have to test it out with plain water so I can see what’s going on. The wort with yeast was too murky to see. I ended up using the 1 inch stir bar that came with the plate, and that seems to work fine, although it does rattle around a bit at higher speeds.

Coming back the morning after, the liquid seems to be lighter in color and more opaque, so I assume the yeast are doing their thing. I’m going to run the plate all day today and tomorrow, so it will be a full 48 hours. Then I’ll put the flask in the fridge to let the yeast fall out and I can pour off the wort or keep it.

Starter has been going for about 10 hours at this point. Used Wyeast 2278 Czech Pils

Brew Day

Matt made 9.5 gallons of reverse osmosis water, so we’re starting from a clean slate. I saw a forum post that suggested adding 0.7 grams of calcium chloride per gallon, so I rounded up and added 7 grams to the water.

I read about a decoction mash. It sounded like the traditional way to add some color and flavor to the beer, but it also seemed very involved. After mashing in, we pulled out maybe a quart of grain and boiled it for a while, 15 minutes or so. After it started to get pretty dry, we added in a few more cups of wort and continued boiling. We added this boiled mix back into the mash tun.