Shoddy Pale Ale Take II (Batch 294)

It's August in the Denver area. Hot. The highs have reached into the 90's pretty consistently for quite some time now.

As you know, if you remember my Lithuanian Farmhouse posts ... I go a Lithuanian Farmhouse yeast from a local brewery and have been propagating for over a year.

This yeast loves hot fermentation temperature. High 80's into the 90's are just fine.

Shoddy Pale Ale (Batch 288) used this Lithuanian yeast. I mentioned in that post that the beer is designed to make for a quick brew day.

As I mentioned in that blog post, I thought I could cut the brew day down even more by using my propane brew kettle for the boil (in addition to the overnight mash and half hour boil I used in that batch)

So ... on Sunday, I brewed up this batch with this small change to the process

Shoddy Pale Ale

2021 Q2 SheppyBrew Stats

Q2 of 2021 is already over, which means its time to report our brewing stats for the year so far.

I didn't brew quite the ridiculous amount that I brewed last quarter, but still quite a bit.

I brewed 6 batches and 31 gallons of beer.

Helles in a Hand Bock-sket

I'm not nearly on the same pace of last year's total, but I am on pace for the 2nd most batches and gallons I've ever brewed. Currently, I'm on pace for about 140 gallons in 2021.

Shoddy Pale Ale (Batch 288)

I am a big fan of the Brülosophy's podcasts. I am endlessly fascinated by the experiments they perform.

One of my favorite concepts from these podcasts are the "Short & Shoddy" series. 

Basically "Short & Shoddy" involves taking whatever brewing shortcuts a brewer can to save time on brew day and/or getting the beer from grain to glass faster.

The idea is to figure out what shortcuts can be made and still produce a high-quality delicious beer.

The most obvious and most-used shortcuts are mash time and boil time.

Ever since I got my Foundry, I've really been thinking about shaving time off the brew day. As I use the system at 120 volts, heating water takes much longer than when I used my propane burner.

Playing around with the mash-times, I've decided that I don't want to cut my mash time very much because I don't want to reduce my brew house efficiency too much.

Big Brew Day ... Lithuanian Lovin' Wheat

Saturday, May 1st was another Big Brew Day. First Saturday in May.

The Beer Model and I traveled up North to brew a with my buddy "Du". We decided to brew a Lithuanian Lovin' Wheat.

Friday, I made a yeast starter that had been harvested last time I brewed with the Lithuanian Farmhouse yeast ... about 6 months ago. That is a longer time than is generally suggested to re-use yeast (by a bunch), but I was pretty sure it would be ok with a starter.

I also packed up brewing equipment based on the list I made last time I traveled with my brewing equipment (see Traveling Brew Checklist). If I'm honest, it was nice to have the checklist. (Don't tell the Beer Model )

Lithuanian Autumn vs. Falling Leaves

When I kegged Lithuanian Autumn Ale, and tasted the sample of the beer, I thought "Wow ... that really tastes a lot like Falling Leaves Autumn Saison".

A couple days later, on election day, I thought I'd run a blind triangle test on myself between these two beers.

Lithuanian Autumn Ale (Batch 270)

If you've been following the blog over the past few months, you may remember that I've been playing with a Lithuanian Farmhouse yeast that I was able to harvest from a local brewery.

The awesome thing about this yeast is that it ferments fairly clean beers when fermented in the 80's and 90's Fahrenheit. 

I've brewed Sveikas Lithuanian Farmhouse Ale, Lithuanian Lovin' Wheat and Lithuanian Strong Pale Ale in the heat of the summer.

But, Denver weather has been cooling down. I still have some harvested Lithuanian Farmhouse yeast. I thought it would be interesting to see how the yeast performed in Autumn weather.

And, so I designed an Autumn Ale recipe ...

Lithuanian Autumn Ale

2020 Q3 SheppyBrew Stats

As you may know, the Brewery likes to post quarterly updates on how much we have brewed. You can see all these updates (including the one you are reading right now) by following this link: Sheppy's Blog: Brew Stats.

On Your Left

Just like Q1 and Q2 we brewed a bunch in Q3, and I am on pace to brew over 150 gallons in 2020 ... significantly more beer than any year in the past. 

In the third quarter, I had 8 brew days, 9 batches, 47 gallons of beer.

Lithuanian Farmhouse Yeast

So ... if you've been following along on this blog, or SheppyBrew's Facebook Page or SheppyBrew's Instagram Page, you know that the brewer / owner of one of my local breweries, Great Frontier, pulled some  Lithuanian Farmhouse Yeast off his fermentor and gave me a quart of slurry.

That was certainly nice of him. I really appreciate that he did that for me.

So far, I've brewed 3 batches of beer using this yeast.

• Sveikas Lithuanian Farmhouse (262)
• Lithuanian Lovin' Wheat (263)
• Lithuanian Strong Pale Ale (265)

The radical thing about the Lithuanian Farmhouse Yeast is that it ferments hot and fast with a fairly clean flavor. I fermented all three between 80 and 90 degrees for basically 2 days. 

For reference, most of the ales I brew at between 60 and 66 degrees, and are ready to keg in about 2 weeks. Most yeasts would kick out off-flavors if fermented in the 80's.

The yeast-derived flavors that I'm getting from these Lithuanian Farmhouse beers are real subtle. There is a little saison-like peppery flavor, and some citrusy lemony esters in these beers, but not overpowering at all, and in fact, I probably wouldn't notice these flavors if not "looking" for them.

Lithuanian Strong Pale Ale (265)

So ... if you've been following along on this blog, or SheppyBrew's Facebook Page or SheppyBrew's Instagram Page, you know that I've been playing around with Lithuanian Farmhouse Yeast. 

The brewer / owner of one of my local breweries, Great Frontier, pulled some off his fermentor and gave me a quart of slurry.

It is one of those yeast strains that has evolved to handle hot fermentation temperatures with a fairly clean profile.

I've brewed a couple times with it, fermenting beer in the 80's and 90's (Fahrenheit). With that hot fermentation, the yeast rips through the sugars very quickly, and I've been able to get beers into the keg in 3 or 4 days.

The yeast produces a really subtle pepper flavor, similar to saison strains, but much more restrained. It also has a really nice citrus ester.

I thought the citrus of the yeast would compliment traditional American hops in a Pale Ale or IPA, and thought I'd give it a try in my homebrew version of Colorado Strong Pale Ale. 

Lithuanian Strong Pale Ale

Lithuanian Lovin' Summer Lovin' (263 and 264)

So, you may remember that I procured some Lithuanian Farmhouse Ale Yeast from one of my local breweries.

My first batch using it was Sveikas Lithuanian Farmhouse (262).

I decided to follow up fairly quickly with another batch ... mostly because out of town guests helped reduce my beer inventory.

Because I am likely to kill a few kegs soon, I decided to brew a double batch of beer this past weekend.

I decided to brew up 11 gallons the base beer of my Summer Lovin' Wheat. I split up half to be fermented with the standard US05 and half to be fermented with the Lithuanian Farmhouse Ale Yeast.

To be honest, I reduced the amount of wheat in the batch to help reduce the likelihood of a stuck sparge with a larger than usual mash. I also decided to reduce the boil time to half an hour in the spirit of the Short and Shoddy philosophy. This helped save some time.

You can see the recipe at ...

Lithuanian Lovin' Summer Lovin' Wheat

Sveikas Lithuanian Farmhouse (262)

If you follow the SheppyBrew Facebook or Instagram pages ... you may have seen that I was able to pick up some yeast from Great Frontier Brewing Company.

Great Frontier makes a beer called "Lithuanian Farmhouse Ale". 

It is my favorite beer they make, and I was interacting with the brewer / owner on facebook. He offered to pull some yeast from one of his tanks and let me play with it.

Of course, I didn't need to be asked twice. 

I stopped by the brewery and as promised, he got me a mason jar full of the Lithuanian Farmhouse yeast.

The yeast apparently comes from a local Denver yeast lab, but isn't something they offer to just anyone.

I'm told they literally collected it from a farmhouse in Lithuania. 

This Lithuanian Farmhouse yeast is similar to Kveik strains in that it ferments real hot (80's / 90's / 100's) and finishes in 2 or 3 days. Even at these ridiculous hot fermentation temperatures, it ferments (fairly) clean.