Densimeter correction: Alcohol percentage

Online you find very poor informations about densimeter correction depending on alcohol content in beer, just tons of formulas about apparent vs. real attenuation with Plato and Brix scale, that are almost worthless.
If my saison FG is 997, I know it's very dry, but wich part is the alcohol, and how many residual sugars do I have in the beer?

Better answer would be: start using a rifractometer.
But I did this intead: I measured density at different dilution of cheap Vodka (37,75% Alc.), more specifically 18,87%, 9,43%, 4,72/, 2,36%, 1,18% alcohol. Then I plotted the table here, obtaining the following curve.

Here is the final table, with Alc.%, density, and the points to be added to densimeter

Qui la tabella, con la percentuale di alcool, la relativa densità in acqua, ed i punti che bisognerebbe correggere quando si legge la densità finale dal densimetro. 

Alc %	density	correction
1	998,155	1,84
2	997,11	2,89
3	996,065	3,93
4	995,02	4,98
5	993,975	6,02
6	992,93	7,07
7	991,885	8,12
8	990,84	9,16
9	989,795	10,20
10	988,75	11,25

So, my barley Wine OG 1094 that after 5 days was at a measured density of 1024, is not at 9% Alc., but if I correct according to the table it, is around 8%, and the apparent density of 1024 correspond to 1034: that means 90g/litro of residual sugars. So the fermentation is not finished and it will need some more days to get the real FG...

Bock?

Bock is a medieval style, dark and strong beers with powerful nature, in fact the name Bock means Billygoat. During Easter fast, german monks used to drink Bock as substitution for food. A good Bock needs to have a strong malty taste with caramel notes, full body and a red color. The only problem with that style is that, even if you like it, you cannot drink liters of it without getting drunk soon (unless you're a monk during Lent maybe...).
What is really good in homebrewing, is the possibility to play with malt, mashing temperatures and hops, to brew the beer that fully satisfy your tastes. In that case, who gives a shit if the beer is outside style parameters? For that reason, my last bock was made with Munich malt, 10% of Cara and Crystal to get caramel notes '1% of black malt, for a little hint of roasted taste. Mash was a decoction, and I used Hersbrucher hop up to 30 IBU. OG was 1060 (according to BJCP is too low, and the hop also is too much).

Here is the result: a great red beer, malty and full bodied with caramel notes. It's not too sweet: the bitter and hearty taste from Hersbrucker, and the black malt succeeded in balancing the malts, and thanks to the low OG and the high temperature mash (67°C), alcool is not detectable, and quite low (6%).

It's really a good point to change recipe parameters according to your taste!

Bock?

Le Bock hanno origine nel medioevo, erano birre forti e scure, che durante la quaresima venivano utilizzate dai monaci tedeschi al posto del cibo. Una buona Bock deve avere un gusto pieno e maltato, un buon corpo, note di caramello e un bel colore rosso. L'unico difetto di queste birre è che non possono essere bevute a secchiate senza sbronzarsi velocemente (a meno che non siate monaci in quaresima...).
Il bello  dell'homebrewing è crearsi la ricetta che soddisfa i propri gusti, giocare con le quantità di malto ed il mash per ottenere qualcosa che ci soddisfa. E magari fregarsene se non si rispetta del tutto lo stile. Per questo l'ultima bock che ho prodotto ha una base di monaco, il 10% di malti cara e crystal per esaltare le note di caramello, e l'1% di black, per dare un po' di gusto tostato. Ovviamente faccio un bel mash in decozione, e butto luppolo Hersbrucker in amaro per 30 IBU. OG di 1060 (un pò bassa per il BJCP, e un pò troppo luppolo, ma c'è un perchè).

Ecco il risultato: una bella birra rossa, corposa e maltata. Niente pericolo dolcione: l'amaro terroso del luppolo Hersbrucker, e la piccola aggiunta di malto tostato bilanciano le note dolci e caramellose, e visto che ho tenuto l'OG bassa ed il mash alto (do temperatura), l'alcol non è eccessivo.

A volte conviene aggiustarsi un pochino i parametri secondo i propri gusti!

India Pale Lager ?!?

Everybody loves american hops. Too much. There is an APA, IPA, blackipa, whiteipa invasion...everything can be IPAzed. Every microbrewery is putting tons of Cascade, Citra, Amarillo; mainly for Dry-hopping. Cool, you have a fresh, fruity, zesty beer: the problem is that my beer tastes like soda or Fanta, lousy body, malt not detectable. And with those beers I have the awkward sensation as when I was a child, drinking the Baby Orange Aspirin.

Personally, I deleted Dry-hopping from techincs I use: the fruity and aromatic effects just last one month, the hoppy aromas disappear; and on the other side the risks of infetions are too high. First wort hopping, is much better and reach comparable results, if combined with a giant dose (3-4 g/l) of hops at 20 minutes before the end of the boiling. And again 5 minutes before. And again at the end of boiling. To avoid the Baby-Aspirin effeect, I do a high temperature mash to increase the body, use 10-15% of Cara and Crystal malts and use a one-step decoction: that gives me a really malty and nutty taste, perfect to balance the high hoppines.

Thanks to those brewing adjustments, I get IPAs and APAs with a pleasant zesty taste, stable during months; so I decided to go a step further: low fermentation and lagering. The goal is to get a cleaner taste, to eliminate the bread-like taste given by ale yeasts and emphasize just the malt and the hops, like in a pils. Because if in a pils you can put on top the Saaz flavour, then Cascade and Amarillo will not disappear with lagering.
So, I put lots of hops at the end of the boiling, 40 IBU on 50 total in the last 20 minute (just for 10 IBU in First Wort hopping. Now, the India Pale Lager is lagering, after a primary fermentation with Saflager.

Italian version

Tabella BU/GU per stile, correzione densimetro, punti OG

In una pagina rassunto dei parametri BU/GU, per stile, correzione densimetro, attività enzimi, utilizzo luppolo:


qui in versione pdf:

Lazy Homebrewing

I'm definitely the laziest homebrewer on earth. Well, considering all the time required for this hobby, lazy is not the correct word, but is true that I adapted years ago my equipment to brew in a flat and I didn'd evolve much.

'mash tun' and mill

Since more than ten years I brew with pots on the kitchen's fires. I use a classic Marga miller for malt, a zapap flter made adapting a fermenting keg, zero automation. My batches are around 20 liters, so it's easy to deal without pumps, recirculation, counterflux etc.: I grind the malt directly in the pot, add water, heat up the mash on the fire at the right temperature and I wait for the conversion. Using pots allow me to do even complicate mash, like decoction, just moving the mash from one pot to the other.

zapap filter

A very important point in homebrewing is ph control, to allow enzymes work at the best, and maximize efficiency. So please don't imitate me, because I never measure Ph. If you use a grain/water ratio between 2,5 and 3 l/kg the Ph in your mash will adjust at the right value to allow enzymes work (5,2 - 5,6). Thanks to that I can reach an efficiency of 75% e l'80% even if I never used a litmus paper. Then, I just add toasted grains only in the last 20 minutes of the mash (for stout and dark beers): those grains are the ones that give more Ph fluctuation, and cause risk of tannin extraction, astringency etc. With a late addition in the mash I can avoid the toasty become astringency.
My mash tun has a spigot for the bazooka filter: that's the best solution for sparging I think, unfortunately my bazooka just worked for one batch. The second time I used it I went into a stuck sparge, so I had to recover my old zapap filter, a plastic basin where I made holes, and that I put on top of the fermenter. I put the mash there and start sparging, water is heated in another pot and flushed on the zapap. I recover the moist from the spigot (recirculating the first 4-5 liters) in the boiling pot, that is then put on fire.

boiling

copper cooling coil

I use a classic coil with circulating water to cool down the worth, then I put everything in the vessel. After aerating the worth and inoculating the yeast, the beer stays in the cellar to ferment!

italiano

Barley Straw Wine: about beer Maderization...

Maderization is an oxidative process tipycal of some wines during aging. Wine loses some carachteristics, and aquire an amber color and a typical Madeira flavour. In wines like Porto, Madeira, Marsala, that is a part of aging process, so it's not negative for the product.

Like many tipical food, Madeira wine was born  randomly.
Im Madeira island, since 1600 a wine was produced for local consumption and export. In some area of the island, grapes didn't reach the rght amount of sugars, so, to lower the acidity of the wine, cane sugar or alcohol from cane sugar was added: they discovered that this wine, reinforced with sugar or alcohol, could keep hisflavours and get new ones. Part of the vinification process consist in aging in barrels for some months at 50°C.
Inspired by this, I decided to make a maderized Barley wine, a high gravity beer fermented with sherry yeast and left oxidising for 6 months at warm temperature after adding alcohol:

4kg pils
1kg munich
100g cane sugar
15 g willamette (90')
15 g amarillo (90')

I used the first 7 liters from sparging for the Barley wine, adding bittering hops at the boil, 100g cane sugar. After boiling I got 5 liters at OG 1100, those were inoculated with Wyeast 4021: champagne/sherry yeast (what a shame, one pack for just five liters!).

I did an easy APA with the rest of the filtration: it was summer and I needed something fresh to drink!

After 7 days of primary fermentation, I added 20cl alcohol and left the beer in a glass carboy for six months. Here is where the oxidativeprocess took place, from june to december. Then I bottled without priming.

I tasted the beer after one yeas (6 months maderization + 6 months bottle): it has typical aromas like Porto, Vin Santo or Marsala, a strong chestnut honey smell (for the lucky ones that ever tasted it), heavy body. Perfect after dinner or dessert pairing. If you ever tasted Xiaoyu from Baladin, that's really similar: at first seems like a straw wine, but when in your mouth you notice all the fruity flavours missing.

After this experiment, I tried to add maderized notes to a Belgian strong amber ale: the beer (9% Alc.) layed four months maderizing, then I primed, bottled and put in the cellar aging three months ago. Too young now, but stay tuned!