Anchor Steam

[bellboys backyard brew]

Right,
I've been googling myself into a frenzy without success regarding a simple Anchor Steam clone recipe for a dumb ass such as myself. I am not a Full Masher, or even a Partial Masher.... I saw on a post, Trough Lolly had directed us to a page which had this recipe:

Full Mash
4kg Lager Grain
250 gm Hugh Baird Crystal (145 EBC)
400 gm Flaked Barley
200 gm Flaked Wheat
100 gm Rolled Oats

Hops
20 gms 9.7 AA% Northern Brewer 1 hour
30 gms 9.7 AA% Northern Brewer 5 mins


This Beer ended up at OG 1.050 with an estimated 37 IBU's

Yeast White Labs San Francisco Lager


Partial Mash Option:
Replace the each kilo of Lager Grain from above with 0.8kg liquid malt extract.

If you replace all the pale grain you will also need to omit the flaked barley, wheat and oats.

Ok people, can anyone simplify this thing even more and get me something close to a Kit and Kilo recipe for this stuff? Even explaining to me what the "pale grain" means re: omitting the flaked barley, wheat and oats.... Help??

[earle]

I'm not a masher but I'll take a stab. From what I understand the barley, wheat & oats don't have enough/any enzyme to convert themselves into something fermentable. The recipe relies on the enzymes from the pale malt to do that, so if you omit the pale malt, you need to omit the other as well. The crystal doesn't need mashing (only steeping) so it can be left in when you convert this to a extract + specialty grain recipe.

I would replace the pale malt (lager grain) with malt extract and keep the crystal or if you're not into steeping replace it with some appropriate Morgans MB - maybe caramalt if your not into using part tins as the MB crystal is quite dark)

Not sure what to do about replacing the barley wheat and oats though.

[bellboys backyard brew]

Thanks Earle,
That makes sense,
so,

3.2kg Liquid Malt Extract
250gm Hugh Baird Crystal (or whatever the homebrew shop reckons)

Hops:
20 gms 9.7 AA% Northern Brewer 1 hour
30 gms 9.7 AA% Northern Brewer 5 mins

Does anyone know what should I do to replace the Barley, Wheat, Oats, if anything?

[Trough Lolly]

Your recipe will make a nice beer, but I'm afraid it won't be a Steam Beer....It's the use of these non base malts that allow us to vary styles of beer, along with the range of hops and yeast that we can use. A steam beer or California Common, needs to have the silky mouthfeel and fullness that the flaked barley, wheat and oats provide.

My clone attempt on Aussiehomebrewer called Full Steam Ahead depends on these grains. In your instance, I would go with the LME and Crystal, cutting back the LME to around 2.5kg and do a partial / mini mash with a six pack esky and two stock pots from the kitchen...it's easy:

Trough Lolly's partial mash in the kitchen method!
Just 1/2 fill the mini esky, with 74C water that's been pre-heated in a stock pot on the stove (or boil the kettle and tip it in and add warm tap water to get to 74C). Gradually pour in a kilo of pilsener malt, 400g of flaked barley, 200g of flaked wheat and 100g of flaked oats, stirring gently as you go. You eventually want the mixture to have the consistency of soft porridge and a temp in the esky of around 66C - use the coffee kettle or cold water tap to adjust but it's not the end of the world if you're a few degrees either side of 66C. Cover the mash and let it sit for 60 mins, stirring every 15 minutes - ignore the inevitable temperature drop - most of the conversion will occur in the first 30 mins anyway.

As you near the end of the one hour mash, heat about 3L of water in the first stock pot to 70C. Place a colander over the second stock pot (which will be the kettle). Ladle grains into the colander from the mash esky and drizzle 300ml of hot sparge water over the grains allowing the sweet liquor to accumulate in the kettle. Eventually you should have collected around 4-5L of sweet liquor (remember we half filled the mash esky and heated up 3L of sparge water) and you can boil that liquor with half your hops in that pot and use the now empty hot water pot to boil up the LME and crystal with the other half of the hop bill.

Chill both pots in the sink / bath / swimming pool etc and you've got a batch ready for the California lager yeast....
It won't be long before you'll wonder what all the fuss is about and you'll be making all grain beers.

Cheers,
TL

[bellboys backyard brew]

Thanks so much TL. I've been reading heaps about all you blokes with your grain recipes, thinking to myself "where and how the hell am I going to start?" I think once I have the first experiment out of the way, I'll be full "steam" ahead (pardon the pun)

That's made my day, thanks so much for the instructions too, absolute gold.

I will try that recipe and report back how I fared.

[bellboys backyard brew]

Ok, I have all the ingredients ready to go.

Q1 - My grain (pilsner malt) has come whole. How should I crack 250g? Mortar and Pestle? I don't have a grain mill and don't think the HBS does. I do have one of those ancient butchers meat grinders....

Q2 - Couldn't find wheat grain so have bought "puffed wheat" - is this the same?

Q3 - I have saflager S23 yeast, (me and my wallet haven't graduated to liquid yeasts yet) will this work as a steam beer yeast (20deg)?

[rwh]

Q1 - My grain (pilsner malt) has come whole. How should I crack 250g? Mortar and Pestle? I don't have a grain mill and don't think the HBS does. I do have one of those ancient butchers meat grinders....

Hmm... the original recipe calls for 4kg of base malt... I'm assuming that you're going to make up the rest of the fermentables with extract? Perhaps post the recipe your updated recipe?

As for cracking the grain, go right ahead with the mortar and pestle. It takes a while but works pretty well.

Q2 - Couldn't find wheat grain so have bought "puffed wheat" - is this the same?

Nup. Might give you the same kind of result though if you mash it properly with your 250g base malt.

Q3 - I have saflager S23 yeast, (me and my wallet haven't graduated to liquid yeasts yet) will this work as a steam beer yeast (20deg)?

Should be fine.

[bellboys backyard brew]

Updated Recipe: (as suggested by TL)

Mash:
1kg Pilsener Malt
400g Flaked Barley
200g Flaked Wheat (I'm using puffed wheat)
100g Flaked Oats

Boil:
2.5kg LME
250g Crystal

28g Northern Brewer 60 mins
20g Northern Brewer 20 mins
20g Cascade 2 mins

22L final volume. Yeast: Saflager S23 @20-22c

[drsmurto]

I'd be mashing the crystal with the rest of the grains rather than boiling it......

[bellboys backyard brew]

OK,
I put the recipe on 2 days ago, first mash ever.
Used a new 10L esky (thankyou Kmart), (slightly bigger than a 6pack esky).
Added a splash of boiling water every 15 mins to keep it at 66C.
My sparging technique was to strain the grains out using a large kitchen mesh strainer. Took about 15-20 lots to empty the 10L esky.
I then threw the grains back in the esky and added 4L of water at 66C and strained it all again. What a wonderful smell!!
Due to packaging of the hops (brewcraft), they were all 25g lots, not 28 and 20,20.

After the boil I cooled the pots down to about 40C and then strained into the fermenter, topped up to 23L with cold water. The only problem there was that it was at 30C in the fermenter!!!
I threw it in the sink, with some iced water but got no-where fast. Due to being worried that the wort was pretty vulnerable, I pitched the Saflager S23 anyway and threw the fermenter in the shed beer fridge after removing some marines.
A couple of hours later, and 22C was my friend. It is now kicking along threatening to blow the airlock across the room.
OG was 1054.
Standby for further updates.

[Trough Lolly]

Congrats 3B's - welcome to the dark side!!

It looks like you had it all under control, except for the pitching temp, but that'll come with practice. When you do the top up in the fermenter, boil some water and then put it into clean PET bottles the day before. That way, you'll be adding chilled water to the fermenter and you should get below 25C without any probs.

Cheers,
TL

[bellboys backyard brew]

Ok,
Final Updated Recipe:

Mash: (using TL's mash in the kitchen technique)
1kg Pilsener Malt
400g Flaked Barley
250g Crystal
200g Flaked Wheat (I'm using puffed wheat)
100g Flaked Oats

Boil:
2.5kg LME

25g Northern Brewer 60 mins
25g Northern Brewer 20 mins
25g Cascade 2 mins

23L final volume. Yeast: Saflager S23 @20-22c

OG: 1054
FG: 1009

The hydrometer sample tasted fantastic. You can really taste the fruitiness caused by the lager yeast at ale temperature.

With these gravity numbers, that will make my brew according to
brewcraft calculator : 6.5%
brewhaus calculator: 6.0%
brewers calculator: 5.88%

Phew, that's a bit higher than I was hoping for.....
Does that mean my mash efficiency was a touch too good?

[Trough Lolly]

I have an AG batch of Steam Beer in primary right now - I doubt you'll get it down to 1.009...I usually expect it to drop down to 1.012 thanks to the dextrinous adjuncts in the recipe. It's what makes it so nice - a rich malty amber lager with plenty of mouthfeel.

Cheers,
TL

[bellboys backyard brew]

sorry TL, I didn't explain that very well, those gravity readings were what I measured!!
That WAS the FG! (oops? good/bad/ugly?)

I have no idea what this means as I don't have beer software.

Am just reading articles about mash efficiency calculation now.

[Trough Lolly]

No probs B3,
I checked the batch last night - it had an OG of 1.061 and is currently at 1.012 and still actively fermenting with krausen - I managed to pick up a White Labs tube of California Lager yeast that was shipped out of the US last week!

Cheers,
TL

[bellboys backyard brew]

Ok chaps, I must now make a few points after tasting what I believe to be something made by a higher power than me. It has only been in the bottle for 10 days, but tastes like christmas.

I did not rack the brew. It was bottled after 2 weeks in the fermenter at approx 20deg.

1. Trough Lolly's mash in the kitchen method has made the BEST home brew I have ever tasted. Complex, interesting tasting beer with no homebrew aftertaste. Best I've ever made after 20+ brews.

2. I must encourage everyone to try this VERY easy partial mash in the kitchen method, you'll think the beer's been made by a microbrewery.

3. My Anchor Steam recipe made in the "final updated recipe" post is one for the books and I will be partial mashing EVERYTHING from now on. Thankyou to everyone who made suggestions for this recipe.

[Trough Lolly]

Sounds good B3!! It should smoothe out a bit further in a couple of weeks - the fresh grains and hops will certainly help keep the flavour profile up and you will be rewarded if you can leave the bottles alone for another month or so!

In the meanwhile, try some other partial mash recipes and see what you've been missing out on!!

Cheers,
TL