Florida Lawnmower Beer - American-ish Lager

If you've been following any of my posts, you know I moved from Utah to Florida a little over a year ago. I did some homebrewing-related activities (e.g. blending barrel-aged beer), especially leading up to our move, but it's literally been 527 days since my last brew session. I'm super excited to get back to homebrewing despite feeling very rusty when it comes to my procedures and processes. Hopefully this first Florida beer doesn't turn into a disaster.

I had to leave a few things behind when I moved, including my brew stand and my mill stand. I've rebuilt my brew stand and the post prior to this one is dedicated to it.  

Regarding the brew stand, there are a few changes. Probably the biggest change is I no longer had access to natural gas, so I had to redo my boil setup. Long story short, I've gone full electric including incorporating a 240v/5500w element into my boil kettle. I also converted from my homebuilt 120v/2000w HERMS heat exchanger to a 240v/3500w Blichmann RIMS Rocket to maintain mash temps and perform step mashes. I've done one dry run on the updated system, but today is the inaugural Florida brew session. 

We live in Clearwater near Tampa and in July it's hot and humid. Tampa's claim to fame is it's never been over 100F, but the heat index definitely makes it feel over 100F; this week my phone said the temp was 93F but "feels like 104F". Because of this, I decided to brew a hoppy American-ish Lager, something that should be easy drinking and refreshing after mowing the lawn, hanging out by the pool, etc. The grain bill on this beer is super simple, considering of mostly Pilsner malt and a touch of Crystal 10. There's also some Rice Syrup Solids and Corn Sugar to help dry things out for this crispy lager. Hops-wise, I'm going with Sterling and Motueka at a much more elevated rate than is typical for an American Lager. Yeast-wise, I'm doing a split batch using 34/70 at traditional lager temps, and Lutra Kveik at warmer ale temps. Lutra is said to be very clean and can be used to create pseudo lagers. I've never tried it before, so this will be a fun experiment to compare the same base beer fermented with different yeasts at different temps. 

One other thing, I haven't been able to find an RO water supplier that doesn't add a small amount of minerals back into their RO water. I'm going to try this first batch using the RO with minerals added, while also adding my normal salt additions...and hope for the best. At some point in the future I plan to add an RO system at home (our tap water is really hard and sulfury) but I haven't had a chance to do it yet.

Target OG 14 Brix (1.056)

Target FG: 1.010

IBU: 19.3

ABV: 6.1

10 Gallon Batch

15# Weyermann Barke Pilsner

0.5# Briess Crystal 10L

2ml Hopshot (60 min)

1# Rice Syrup Solids (5 min)

1# Corn Sugar (5 min)

28g (1oz) Sterling Hops (10 min)

28g (1oz) Motueka Hops (10 min)

Wyeast Nutrient

9g BCAA (Dissolved in warm water, 5 min)

1 Whirlfloc (Flameout)

56g (2oz) Sterling Hops (Whirlpool)

56g (2oz) Motueka Hops (Whirlpool)

34/70 Yeast

Lutra Kviek

Mash at 150F. Collect 12 gallons of wort. 90 minute boil.

For the 34/70 Split - Ferment at 54F -56F for 4 days before doing diacetyl rest.

For the Lutra Split - Ferment at 70-72F.

Water Profile

Target Water Profile
Ca	Mg	Na	SO4	Cl	HCO3
58.7	8.4	0	89	62.5	0

To RO or distilled water, add:

• 0.38g/gallon Gypsum 
• 0.32g/gallon Epsom Salt
• 0.49g/gallon Calcium Chloride

Brewing Notes

Thankfully, no real issues. The biggest issue...it was crazy hot and humid today. The guys at my LHBS said hardly anyone brews in the middle of summer here, and I can see why. I was definitely moving a little slower since it had been so long since I brewed and I wanted to make sure I didn't make any mistakes. I think I'd sweated through my shirt within the first 20 minutes or so.

One thing, I knew chilling was going to be a different experience here in Florida where the groundwater temps are somewhere between 80-90F (compared to 50-60F in Utah). I acquired a Blichmann Therminator that I'm using as a pre-chiller for the hose water running through my counterflow chiller. On the pre-chiller circuit I'm recirculating ice water from a 5 gallon reservoir. It ended up taking four total bags of ice and even then I only got it down to about 73F. One mistake I think I made was starting the ice water recirc too early. In the future I think I'll take it as low as I can with ground water temps before recirculating the ice water. I also think it'll work better on a 5 gallon batch. I currently have the 34/70 portion chilling in my fermentation chamber and hopefully I'll be able to pitch tomorrow morning. 

My OG came in a couple points higher than target. I had the boil target temp set at 210 which may have been a tad high as the boil was really rolling, so that may have resulted in a little more boil-off.

Session Readings
Beginning mash pH	5.30
Ending mash pH	5.36
1st running gravity	19.4 (1.078)
Pre-Boil gravity	10.6 (1.041)
Pre-Boil pH	5.50
Post-Boil gravity	14.9 (1.059)
Post-Boil pH	5.32