Under pressure, that is!

For my first beer fermentation under pressure I decided to keep it simple. A SmaSh brew with Maris Otter and Nuggetzilla hops (AKA #06277 AKA Denali) that I had picked up on a whim. I had also just recently received my vial of WLP075 Hansen Ale Blend from White Labs’ Yeast Vault, so I decided to go ahead and use that as well. The blend is reported to have characteristics similar to 001, 007, and the attenuation of 090.

Recipe:



American Pale/IPA (4Gallons)

8 Lbs Maris Otter

1oz Nuggetzilla 60min

3oz Nuggetzilla Flameout/20min whirlpool

WLP075 Hansen Ale Belnd

Mashed at 153F for 45 mins / 15min re-circulation prior to sparge.

OG 1.052

FG 1.010 (80%AA)

IBU (calculated): 61

Brew Day:

I was expecting this brew day to be a breeze since I would be using pumps for the vorlauf and whirlpool for the first time. I was wrong, but not because of the pumps though, in fact, the pumps worked beautifully (bought these cheap pumps on Amazon). No, my issues were with grinding the grain of all things. I use a corona type mill and a metal washer had gotten lodged in the spiral. It took me about 20 minutes to finally figure out what was going on and fix it. But luckily once that was taken care of, the rest of the brew day went smooth.

I was shooting for 152F for the mash and actually hit 153 so I would call that a win in my book. Mashed for 45 minutes at that temp and then used my new pump to vorlauf for 15 minutes. The pump really helped clear the wort before transferring to the boil kettle. I’m personally not convinced clear wort in the kettle has any real benefit, but, it does look pretty!

After boiling for 60 minutes I killed the heat and added my remaining 3 oz of hops and started whirlpooling. Again those little pumps surprised me. Had a nice flow throughout which gave pretty good rotation. It also helped a lot after the whirlpool when I began chilling with my immersion chiller. Because there was constant rotation I didn’t have to sit there and move the chiller all around to keep it mixed. There was also a noticeable pile of hop particulates left in the center after I transferred to the keg.

Fermentation/Tasting:

This beer really surprised me. I didn’t even make a started, just pitched a vial directly (albeit a very fresh vial). Within about 12 hours we were at my fermentation pressure of 20 PSI and the PRV was hissing more audibly than in previous batches of cider. By day three it was still going strong and I was worried it might build too much krausen and start clogging my spunding valve. On day 4 it had stopped hissing.

Since it had been raging so hard before I couldn’t help but think it had stalled out or something. There’s no way it finished, under pressure, from a single vile, in 4 days. I let it go until the next morning, day 5. I took a gravity sample and lo and behold it was at 1.010. That put me at about 80% apparent attenuation.

The first thing I noticed about the sample was the intense hop aroma coming off it. It smelled like I had dry-hopped with a half pound of fruity/spicy hops. It was very intense. I told my coworker/LHBC president about the progress of the beer and he was intrigued as well, so at lunch I went and bottled one up to try with him and another LHBC member that afternoon.

Side Note: To bottle the beer I used a SS Carb Cap and a soda bottle. It’s honestly the easiest way to bottle from a keg. You simple add a length of liquid line to the barb on the cap, screw the cap on a bottle, attach CO2, and unscrew the cap slowly and let it hiss for a minute to purge. Then once its purged, you do the same process with a liquid line going from the keg. Its essentially a pressure transfer like you would do to transfer from one keg to another, it’s just a really small keg!

The two I shared it with were shocked to find out that the beer they were drinking was only 5 days post-pitch. There were no discernible off-flavors although one of them did mention there being a character to the beer that was not off putting, but, didn’t match up with anything he was used to. The big takeaway again was the hop aroma. The amount of aroma gained from just a whirlpool (especially a hot side whirlpool) led me to speculate it was due to the pressure.

My theory (and take this with a grain of salt as I am no expert and have nothing to back this up) is this; because the CO2 was being dissolved into solution during the start of fermentation (instead of being blown off through an air-lock) it was able to retain aroma compounds that would otherwise have escaped in a normal fermentation. Again, I have nothing to back that up so who knows if that’s what really happens. And, if anyone has other theories, I would love to hear them.

I’ll leave you with my score-sheets from a local competition. I’m not the best at describing a beer so hopefully these will give you a better idea of how it came out. Did pretty well overall especially considering that they received my entry only 8 days after pitching yeast into it!