Toasty usually refers to a literal toasty flavor in the beer. Usually it’s either a toasted malt or adjunct (oats, barley, etc.), or it could just be that an aromatic or biscuit malt was used in the brew. I’m sure there are probably other ways of achieving a toasty flavor, but in my experience, these are the main factors in making a nice toasty nose.

I love toasty beer, but it can easily be overdone.

My second all-grain brew used a bit too much aromatic malt, and though the resultant beer was pretty damn good, it was just a bit overpowering on the toastiness.

Try Fat Tire by New Belgium; it’s got a nice biscuity toastiness.

My ingredients:

• 8lb American Pale Malt (2-row)
• 1lb Cara-Pils
• 1oz Cascade – 60 min
• 1/2oz Cascade – 30 min
• 1 tsp Irish Moss – 15 min
• 1/2oz Cascade – Flameout
• WL East Coast Ale Yeast

Mashed at 152ºF for 60 minutes

OG: 1.055

The biggest problem I encountered was getting my mash temp correct. I did all the math correctly, had my strike temperature correct, but I forgot to include the 1/2lb or so of husks I added to ensure a good sparge. (The brew store gave me a bag of husks to aid in sparging for my first few runs.)

My initial mash temp was about 146ºF. I added more hot water to achieve 152ºF, but I ended up with a pretty wet mash.

I’m using Gatorade coolers for the mash tun, and my water level + grains was nearly at the top of the cooler. I know this has some effect on the mash, but you gotta start somewhere, right?

I decided not to filter the cooled wort, as the guy at my LHBS doesn’t bother with filtering. So I wanted to give this a shot, since filtering even 3 gallons through a funnel and strainer takes so long. So I whirlpooled, waited a bit, then siphoned into my carboy. But I left the little tip on the end of my racking cane, so I only ended up with about 4 gallons in my carboy. I wasn’t thinking clearly, I suppose, since whirlpooling left a nice mound of sediment in the kettle.

In the future, I’m going to whirlpool again, and just leave the tip off the racking cane, hopefully getting a yield of 5+ gallons.

After pitching the yeast (no starter), within 24 hours the yeast were absolutely rocking! I’ve never seen such an active fermentation with any of the extract brews. I’m not sure if it’s due to the yeast or to it being an all-grain brew. But I think I like this yeast so far. No off-scents, no trace of hydrogen sulfide to my nose.

I’m planning on getting a keg set up within the next couple weeks, which should work out perfectly for this batch, since I’ll be racking to secondary in the next couple days. Might be a good draft for Christmas or New Years!

Turns out, this guy Drew actually does use this thing for making wort! He’s had to do some slight modifications, but apparently it works great. He kindly sent me some pics and info on his process, and he’s brewed at least 34 6-gallon batches with this thing! Sounds like a solid boiler!

Here’s his pics and what he has to say about it. Thanks for sharing, Drew!!!

I brewed a Hefewizen today. It takes awhile longer [to boil with the magnetic stove], but the results are almost always medal worthy.  I’ve brewed 34 6 gallon batches with it, all without problems.  It delivers just enough energy to maintain a 6 gallon boil at full power w/the fleece insulation surrounding the kettle and with the stainless steel mesh permitting DMS evaporation (always remember to do a 90 minute boil) while reflecting just enough IR back into the kettle.  Sure, it looks ghetto, but I can actually determine my energy consumption/power cost for the brewing session by keeping track of the elapsed time on and the power/wattage settings.  It works fine for me, and I’m not envious of my friends with bigger/easier to us systems.

I use this same unit as my primary heat source for my brewing system, but it required much tweaking. The frame/chassis started cracking from the weight, so I had to disassemble the unit and JB Weld in place a series of precisely cut-to-length sections of hardwood dowels serving as internal support columns (having to drill holes for the purpose of ventiliation though some dowels to promote airflow/cooling of the unit). Additionally, the heat loss via Newton’s Law of Cooling was sufficient that I had to make a fleece “jacket” that I place around my kettle during strike water heating/boil (so as to retain more radiant heat). The boil itself isn’t as vigorous as is that of a gas flame, so I raise the kinetic profile of the boil by placing ~20 marbles in the bottom of the kettle (so as to create a more turbulent boil), and I use a medium-fime stainless steel mesh overtop the kettle, so as to allow sufficient evaporation for the purpose of DMS boiloff (always do a 90 minute boil) while maintaining a sufficient boil intensity to get proper hop isomerization. All of this for 5 gallon batches, but it works great. As you have noticed, it took much work to arrive at a fully functional system, but I had no other choice, as I can have neither propane nor natural gas in my apartment building. I have won multiple medals with beers that I’ve brewed with the system. I have a 2nd identical unit that I use to perform decoction mashes, and it makes for a badass hefeweizen. One just has to learn to adjust for the relatively slow heating process (relative to gas or propane). The brew days are longer with this system, but I can cook food with the same unit AND I can put this 7 pound gem away in a drawer at the end of the day. As you may have already perceived, it’s not for everyone.

Rebuilt Induction Burner

Marbles in the pot helps the magentic stove heat better

Welded Spigot using JB Weld

10 Gallon Mashtun

Heating to boiling temperature

During the boil

Boil with stainless steel screen

It works great, and it’s a lot easier to deal with than an ice bath. But I didn’t feel like it went any quicker than an ice bath. (I’m still boiling about 3 gallons at a time, at this point.) Plus there was a lot of runoff water, wasted.

Thinking back, it’d be nice to have the water colder. I simply hooked the wort chiller up to the garden hose, and though the water’s cool, it’s not really cold. I’d like it it be icy and cold.

So I started thinking about ways this could be done, and I came up with an idea of using a large cooler to store ice water. The water can be pumped or siphoned into the worth chiller hose, run through the chiller, and then drained right back into the ice water. This will make the initial water colder, plus the water will then be recycled, re-cooled, and rerun through the chiller. Good idea. But how to make it work?

A quick google search led me to this post at Starkville Homebrew. I think this guy’s employed exactly what I was thinking of. He’s able to get his wort cooled in about 25 minutes. But he does require a submersible pump to push water out of the chiller. I figured I’d need a pump.

I think there are still a few tickets available at Barley’s or at the gates at the time of this writing, but I imagine it’ll sell out. The Brewgrass Festival, of course, sold out quicker than the Tom Waits show a few years back. Unfortunately I didn’t buy tickets in time for that Brewgrass, but I’m hoping to find some locally before September. I did make it to that Tom Waits show, though, and yes it was awesome!

We should have a pretty good selection of brews at Beer City, most likely lots of the local breweries. I’d imagine we’ll see a few other breweries representing from South Carolina, Georgia, and maybe a few other nearby states. Good music and good beer, gonna be a great Saturday.

And before I show up, I’ll be bottling a batch of my first attempt at a Black Wheat Ale. It’s looking pretty good. Should drink like a light wheat but have some the toasty flavor of dark malt and some dark grains. MMM!

The King

Even though I don’t frequent fast food places, a soon-to-open Florida Burger King will begin serving beer. It’s about time, don’t you think? They’ve been serving beer at fast food places in Europe for quite some time, but why don’t they serve it here, the homeland of fast food?

Here’s where I heard about it.

The Asheville Breweries application is free and can be found in the Android Market on most Android devices, such as Verizon’s Motorola Droid.

Screenshot

For more info, check out the app’s home page. Thanks for sharing, Scott!

I’m getting to the point where I’d like to be a bit more experimental. I’ve brewed a good handful of the recipes in my local home brew store‘s little recipe book, but I’m ready to start adding my own touches. Those brews taste generally the same, and I’m realizing that I can pick-out the flavor of the Northwestern malt syrup used in each batch.

So what’s next for me? I’m not so sure yet, but I’d like to brew something for the winter, let it condition for a good while. Maybe I’ll take on an oatmeal porter or stout, maybe an octoberfest or marzen.

I’m definitely not quite ready to start making my own malts, so I’ll just have to stick with the syrups for now.