Meet Ricardo

About a year and a half ago, I met this energetic dude with a strong Southern (that is Argentinian) accent, that was coming back to Austin after spending a few years in Munich. Ricardo engaged the Zealots, looking to get back involved. Even while shipping beers over from Germany, he was taking medals in the US. If you were at the AHA HomebrewCon (jeez I still can’t say it), Ric and his lovely bride were bopping around the Zealot’s booth in lederhosen.

Ricardo (Ric) and I have discussed low oxygen quite a bit, and it has been clear for a while that LO2 was already intrinsic to Ric’s brewing philosophy. He has been Ric-Rolling through the 2016 Lone Star Circuit, most recently winning the individual category by a respectable 38 point lead. This is no small feat in a circuit that is front loaded with great brewers!

I got the opportunity to crash a recent brew day. Ric was experimenting with sugar and yeast to reduce DO in the mash water, rather than a preboil and metabisulfite addition before grain in. He simply added 11 grams of table sugar and 11 grams of dry yeast to the mash water, and held the temperature around 90F for 30-45 minutes. Then the mash was brought up to strike temperatures for grain in.

A very small amount of sodium metabisulfite, ascorbic acid, and BrewTan B was then used in the mash at grain in to scavenge any O2 uptake. Ricardo doesn’t have a DO meter (and I forgot mine), but it appeared to work very well. There was very little (if any) darkening of the wort, and the cast wort was incredibly flavorful and delicate!

Q&A

(M) How did you get started in brewing?

(Ric) I have been a craft beer fan since a Grad School Happy hour at the late Waterloo Brewing Co (Austin, TX) in 1995. In 2007, a co-worker invited me to homebrew at his house (and take the beer with me). I chose the Austin Homebrew Supply’s American Barley Wine in mini-mash form, went through the motions and bottle conditioned the beers in 33cc flip-tops. I remember the beers being pretty good (a bit fusel-y).

I was hooked after that. I started doing whole grain after moving to Munich in 2010.

Sidebar: An interesting detail is that I never force carbonated a beer in my life. All my beers have been bottle or keg conditioned.

(M) Having come from Argentina and Germany, what is your general impression of the US’s homebrewing culture?

(Ric) I came to the US in 1991 for Graduate School, and although I returned for three years in 1999, I did not have much contact with homebrewers. The German homebrewing culture has a much longer tradition but has not experienced the exponential growth the American culture has had.

There are not as many homebrewers in Germany as there are in the US, but the level is very good. Most of them can and do brew lagers regularly. Another oddity is that the homebrewer group in Munich is at least 40-50% retired pro-brewers, most of them only drink/ like Munich beers (Helles, Dunkles, and an occasional Weizen or Bock).

(M) Describe your favorite meal and what beer to pair with it? (For the record, Ric’s wife is a tremendous cook!)

(Ric) What about me??? Third place at recent Chili cookoff, not too bad! Back to the question, my favorite pairings are those that enhance both the food and the beer. I love a good dry IPA (Pliny-like) with sweets like carrot cake; I also like Goulash (enter your favorite chili here) and Schlenkerla smoked doppelbock. Munich Helles goes well with light food, bread, and even fish or chicken if not heavily spiced. For pork and beef, a Märzen, Dunkel, Dunkelweizen or Bock.

(M) What is your position on low oxygen brewing?

(Ric) On the hot side, the scientific data shows a benefit for flavorful, light lagers (eg Munich Helles). The data is not validated at the homebrew scale but given the potential for oxidation is much higher at our scale, I think that good homebrew research is likely to show a difference in light, flavorful lagers. There is no data on other styles, and I think if any differences exist, will be much more difficult to prove.

On the cold side, the research is very clear, every brewer should be a LO2 brewer.

(M) Describe your general brewing process, including hot and cold side operations.

(Ric) I brew 5 gallon batches in a BIAB system with recirculation. I condition the malt before milling. I use RO water for light beers, and Austin water treated for chlorine/ chloramines. Most of my mashes are hochkurz (step mash), adding a protein rest for dark beers. I sparge for big beers but not for normal beers. I normally bitter via first wort hops, and boil 90 min for pils malt and 60 min for the rest of the beers.

I use an immersion-chiller, and transfer the beer to an auxiliary fermenter without much focus on the hot break. I chill this fermenter to almost freezing over 12-24 hours and then transfer to the primary. Whether starting from dry, liquid or slurry, my pitch is always active yeast.

All my beers are transferred to kegs for conditioning. I condition lagers via spunding valve. I let my ales finish fermentation and then I keg them with table sugar and gelatin. I bottle big beers without kegging them.

Conclusion

What may be lost in all of this is that Ric’s system is designed with brilliant simplicity. A single vessel with an electric element, BIAB, circulation via short lines with a pump, eliminates the potentially unnecessary complexity of a RIMS or HERMS. Even if using a cooler or other mash tun configurations, simplicity works to your advantage. This should be very clear in contrast to my post about tightening up my Brew-Magic system. Simple techniques, such as a mash-tun cap and gentle transfers, as well as fewer possible points of failure, go a long way to managing oxygen uptake.

Something that Ric and I have discussed in detail is that nearly ALL of the scientific research on oxygen’s role in brewing comes from commercial and academic research looking at mass manufacturing scales. The relevance to homebrewing, as he mentions, has not been proven, yet the principals remain. Science is science after all. So while I continue to explore in a more sloppy manner, Ric is systematically testing variables. Of course, neither of us have access to labs and equipment required to prove anything. That leaves, for now, subjective sensory evaluation.

Ricardo’s process is not as tightly rigid as proposed by many of the LODO proponents, despite his hawkish attention to detail. His process is based on sound fundamentals; proper water chemistry, mash pH management, excellent yeast and fermentation hygiene. Perhaps more importantly, his procedures are consistent and predictable, which allows Ric to experiment by changing a single variable or troubleshoot a problem. I always learn something new brewing with people!

Ric’s Go-To Helles Recipe

Recipe Details Batch Size Boil Time IBU SRM Est. OG Est. FG ABV 25 L 90 min 19.0 IBUs 9.0 EBC 1.048 1.011 4.8 % Actuals 1.047 1.01 4.8 % Style Details Name Cat. OG Range FG Range IBU SRM Carb ABV Munich Helles 4 A 1.044 - 1.048 1.006 - 1.012 16 - 22 5.9 - 9.9 2.5 - 3 4.7 - 5.4 % Fermentables Name Amount % Barke Pilsner 5 kg 78.74 Munich I (Weyermann) 500 g 7.87 Acidulated (Weyermann) 350 g 5.51 Carahell (Weyermann) 300 g 4.72 Carafoam (Weyermann) 200 g 3.15 Hops Name Amount Time Use Form Alpha % Hallertauer Mittelfrueh 60 g 90 min First Wort Pellet 2.7 Hallertauer Mittelfrueh 50 g 5 min Boil Pellet 2.7 Miscs Name Amount Time Use Type Dry Yeast 11.00 g 160 min Mash Water Agent Table sugar 11.00 g 160 min Mash Water Agent Calcium Chloride 5.00 g 100 min Mash Water Agent Brewtan B 1.50 g 100 min Mash Water Agent Ascorbic Acid 1.00 g 100 min Mash Water Agent Metabisulfite Sodium 0.50 g 100 min Mash Water Agent Immersion Wort Chiller 1.00 Items 30 min Boil Other Whirlfloc Tablet 0.50 Items 15 min Boil Fining Yeast Nutrient 3.00 g 10 min Boil Other Brewtan B 1.00 g 5 min Boil Water Agent Yeast Name Lab Attenuation Temperature Munich Lager II (2352) Wyeast Labs 71% 11°C - 16°C Mash Step Temperature Time Saccharification beta 63°C 25 min Saccharification recirculation 63°C 35 min Alpha with recirculation 71°C 30 min Fermentation Step Time Temperature Primary 14 days 10°C Secondary 4 days 10.5°C Tertiary 8 days 0°C Aging 28 days 0.5°C Notes Imperial Organing Yeast L17 - Harvest - 2 cans started in 1500 mL wort at 6.5C for two days

Mash pH 20 min - 5.08

Mash pH 40 min - 5.26



Yeast pitched 4-Dec-2016 - 6C

Temperature increased to 10C over 48h

Kegged on 18-Dec - Gravity 1.015

Download Download this recipe's BeerXML file

Only a PHD would have a rocker table for yeast! 🙂 So jealous! Carefully weighing up the grist for a 5 gallon helles batch Water is pre-heating to strike temps High Gravity EBC-SV set to bring up the temperature. This was an experiment using sugar and yeast to control DO. Malt is conditioned with 2% of it’s weight in warm water. Malt conditioning requires a good mix of the water and malt, yielding a dry malt, but with elevated moisture. A relatively fine grind (BIAB), but with good husk retention. After grain-in (added to the liquor) without a stir. Mash is capped after grain in to reduce DO uptake Kettle lidded and set for rest of about 15 minutes Mash has a little foam after grain in – settles during initial still rest. Ric’s old school pH meter pH 4.1 calibration solution Calibration of pH meter in 7.0 solution. Wort sample, goes into an ice bath Mash sample cooling in ice bath. pH testing a cooled (to room temperature) wort sample Post static rest, post mash pH test Post rest, ready to circulate Pulling the mash cap to allow circulation Setting the lid Sauergut reactor. Yep. Olde schoole. And a good beer on it’s own! Attaching the circulation hose All set to circulate Circulating the mash, after a static rest. Maintaining mash rest. Site glass showing fairly clear wort right after circulation Controlling circulation speed via ball valve Handy! a hook on the ventilation fan holds the lid Return diffusor that is buried in the mash for circulation. Simple setup, one vessel with the bag Circulation running, site glass post valve. Ah the usually useless refractometer… but this works before fermentation. Site glass is useful for seeing where conversion occurs Clear wort is a sign of conversion starting. Dismantling after the step mash Just a little hops for the boil (FWH) Super clear into the boil step Hop Soup Controlling the boil intensity Watching for hot break Coming to boil, after bag is removed FWH in the house Prepping to pull the basket Pulling the basket Gathering the bag Gathering the bag to remove Pulling the tabs on the bag Twist and lift. Standing on the clothes drier. Lifting slowly to minimize dripping Twist and lift. Standing on the clothes drier. Twist and lift. Standing on the clothes drier. Wrangling the bag on the colander Fat bag won’t settle on the colander Swing the bag to a convenient kettle Carefully move the bag out of the way Gentle boil through out

Share this: Share

Email

Print



Twitter

Facebook



Tumblr

Pinterest



Reddit



Like this: Like Loading...