Steam Beer by Matt Miller
This is my first attempt at brewing an all-grain batch of beer. All-grain brewing is essentially making beer from scratch (malted grains, water, yeast and heat) as opposed to using packaged malt extracts that are diluted with water to create the wort. It’s more work, but should result in a much better beer, let’s hope… The recipe we’re using is a slightly modified version of one I found in John Palmer’s How To Brew Brewer’s Publications 2006 for a California Common, or Steam Beer. Here’s what Palmer has to say about the style:
This is the most well-known historic American beer style; it was developed in the San Francisco Bay area in the mid-1800s. The “steam” name most likely refers to the high degree of carbonation that the beers were reportedly served with, as well as its then-high-tech sound. San Francisco has a moderated climate year-round, typically cool, cloudy, and about 60 deg F in the winter months. Using (typically cold-loving) lager yeasts at these relatively high temperatures caused the beer to develop some of the fruity notes of ales while retaining the clean, crisp taste of lager beers. (231)
If you’ve ever had Anchor Steam beer, then you know what were shooting for: a brew beautiful in its balance of hop aroma and bitterness and malt sweetness and showcasing the best attributes of the lager and ale styles. Hopefully we’ll come close to this high bar.
Here’s a shot of malted grain we will be using. Mixed together is 9 lbs of Marris Otter pale malt (a high-enzyme British barley variety), 1lb of Carastan, a specialty barley malt that is kilned slightly to add a caramel color and body to the finished beer, and a ½ lb of Carafoam, another specialty malt that adds body and aids in head retention when the beer is poured. The grain has been coarsely milled so our mash water can extract all of the fermentable sugars and malty goodness that lies inside (more on this later).
The malted, crushed grains have been added to the mash tun (in this case a standard water cooler with a filter screen at the bottom and a ball valve at the spout to release the wort or unfermented beer) and mixed with hot water to reach a stable temperature of 153 deg F. This process is called mashing, and it will last for one hour. After mixing, the lid is screwed down and we cover the mash tun with blankets to retain as much heat as possible.
Once the hour is up, it’s time to drain the sweet liquid from the grains into our brew pot, a process called lautering. After the initial runnings are collected, we add more hot water to the grains, mix, then drain into the pot until we collect 6+ gallons of wort (the final amount after boiling should be 5 gallons).
It’s time to boil! Our Northern Brewer hops are measured out into a bowl as the wort comes to a boil. Once we’re good and rolling, it’s time to add one once of hops. These will add bitterness to the beer and counterbalance the sweetness of the malt. It’s important to stir constantly at this point to avoid boilovers, a frustrating and messy consequence of boiling a protein and carbohydrate rich liquid.
Once 45 minutes have elapsed, it’s time to add one more once of hops. These are added toward the end of the boil to impart hop aroma and emphasize the subtle flavors and oils that are boiled out of the bittering hops.
An hour has elapsed, and the boil is finished. We shut off the heat and carry the pot outside to cool in the snow. (Please note: this method is not recommended. Usually, all-grain brewers use an immersion wort chiller – a coiled copper contraption that cold water flows through – to rapidly cool the wort, which allows the 5 gallons of liquid to be safely cooled on the stove. Hopefully, we’ll have one set up for the next brew day!).
Once the wort has reached the 75 deg F range, I take a gravity reading using my hydrometer. A hydrometer measures the amount of dissolved solids in a liquid — in the case of beer, the amount of dissolved, variably fermentable sugars – and, when compared with the reading taken after the beer is fermented, allows the brewer to calculate the alcohol by volume ratio of the finished brew. After recording the reading, it’s time to pour it into the fermenter (in our case, a six-gallon food-grade plastic bucket with a sealing lid and a small hole drilled in the top for an airlock). The wort should be poured vigorously to properly aerate it. After it’s in the fermenter, the yeast is added, the lid and airlock are secured and mother nature goes to work.
*Note: Matt Miller is a good freind, jazz musician, and connoisseur of life.
