Beginning

Hello friends and would-be homebrewers!

I am writing this blog to chronicle my new hobby of brewing beer at home (now a 650 sq. ft. apartment in Manhattan). As of today, Tuesday, February 21, 2006, I have completed a single batch of all-malt pale ale, so I am but a beginner. It is my hope to amuse, perhaps to educate, and with any luck to inspire others to give home-brewing a try. I will do my best to be descriptive so that readers may learn both from my successes and setbacks. I welcome comments, questions, and corrections. I am having a wonderful time brewing, and I know you will too. Thanks in advance for posting comments!

This hobby began quite by chance. On a business trip to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania late last year, I found myself dining at The Bethlehem Brew Works Brewery & Restaurant. I had a little time to kill before my table was ready, so I wandered the shops. Downstairs I discovered The Keystone Homebrew Supply. Wow.

I had never seen a home brew shop before, so I understood little, but could not help but marvel at the variety of equipment (carboys, siphons, hydrometers...), ingredients (malt syrup, hops of many varieties, ale yeast, lager yeast...), plus signs for your favorite commercial brews - I have my eye on the Tsingtao.

Fortunately, the proprietors were very friendly and well-informed. I asked for a recommended book for the complete neophyte. While there were many a technical tome, they suggested I look Charles Papazian's The Complete Joy of Home Brewing if I really wanted to catch the bug. After reading it I fully agree that Papazian's work is a great place to begin for the enthusiast-to-be. I particularly like his Mantra, "Don't worry, relax, have a home brew!"

In addition to the book, I picked up a free copy of Zymurgy magazine, with the headline, "An Introduction to Homebrewing." With Papazian and Zymurgy for reading, I headed upstairs to sample the Imperial Stout, and the Rude Elf, a winter ale that won its makers the silver medal in the World Beer Championships in 2002.

While I have my work to thank for the initial exposure to the home brewing idea, I have my wife Lissa to thank for the True Brew Kit underneath the tree. She bought it from Karp's Homebrew Shop in East Northport on Long Island, New York. Allan is extremely knowledgeable (and patient) with new home brewers.

I began with the All-Malt Pale Ale recipe. Most ingredients were Muntons.

Hopped Light Malt Extract - 1 can
Light Dried Malt Extract - 2 lbs
Crystal Malt Grains - 6 oz
Hop Pellets - 1 oz (Cascade, I believe)
Ale Yeast - 1 pack
Dextrose priming sugar - 5 oz

Here are the email dispatches I sent to friends on the the first batches progress, plus comments:

On 1/4/06, Jeremy Wolff wrote:
> Hi all!
>
> My wonderful wife gifted me with a home brew kit this year! That means:
>
> 1) I will need your help to drink the tasty results!
> 2) I need about sixty non-screwtop beer bottles. Please donate to the cause!
>
> Starting the first batch this week. Should have something to drink by
> mid-February. And all of you are invited and encouraged to help us
> drink the results!
>
> Thanks and Viva la biere!
>
> Jeremy

There are loads of bottle types. If you want to see the historical perspective, the Bureau of Land Management has a great page.

For me, I found that bottle to cap has a distance of about 1/2" between the two indentations at the top of the bottle, creating a small tapered cylinder of glass at the top of the bottle. This 1/2" gives your hand-operated bottle capper (I have the Red Baron) the needed leverage to keep you from slipping as you cap. Other bottles work fine, but you have to pay more attention. Maybe with other types of bottle-cappers (like table-mounted), the bottle-type matters less - I don't know as yet!

On 1/19/06, Jeremy Wolff wrote:
> Hi all!
>
> The update... it took me a little longer than anticipated, but the
> first batch of beer (pale ale) went in last night. Timeline is it
> will ferment and settle over the course of a full week, and then it
> will be ready for bottling! After that, 3-4 weeks until it is ready
> to drink.
>
> The amazing thing about this homebrew process is that thus far it has
> worked as advertised. As far as I can see, the guidelines are:
>
> 1) Keep everything really clean
> 2) Follow the recipe
> 3) Relax... it's just beer!
>
> And now, the proto-beer is happily bubbling away! (bubbles in the
> airlock indicate fermentation). Very hypnotic.
>
> Bottle status: I have about half the number of bottles I need. So if
> any of you are in the neighborhood over the coming week, bring your
> empties! Otherwise, no worries, I will be able to raid a local pub I
> imagine.
>
> Y'all be well.
>
> Jeremy
>

The first brewing was very enjoyable. While there are many fine points to brewing once you know what you are doing, I wasn't burdened with that knowledge. I completely forgot initial hydrometer readings, so I have no idea what the final alcohol content of my beer would be!

But I did discover that at least with the first recipe is fairly idiot proof. The order of events should have been to boil 1.5 gallons of water, make a tea from the crystal malt grains in a steeping bag, remove the grains, add the liquid and powdered extracts and hops, boil some more, pour into about 3.5 gallons of cold water in the fermenter, cool to below 90 degrees fahrenheit, add yeast, seal the fermenter and wait for the airlock to bubble.

My first error was to think "grains" meant the hop pellets. Grains are in fact the crystal malt grains. I nearly threw out my hops after steeping them for 20 minutes. Fortunately, the recipe was very forgiving. I could still make a tea from the grains in my boiled hops-water, remove the grains and follow the recipe from there.

The beer-to-be took a long time to cool to a usable temperature. Above 90 degrees F will kill the yeast, so I waited 24 hrs before adding yeast. I have since heard that you can speed up the process by putting the 1.5 gallon boiled pot in a sink of ice for a bit. As advertised, though the fermentation lasted for about three days, and I let it settle for another four before bottling. In the meantime we held a BYOB party to get enough bottles.

On 1/25/06, Jeremy Wolff wrote:

>Hello again!

>I am happy to tell you that the first batch of beer -- all 47 bottles
>of it! -- are now bottled! Thank you to the intrepid assistance of
>Rondal and Lissa (who was kind enough to order burgers in
>celebration).

>Only one casualty, the auto-siphon, but that is easily replaced. It
>died in performance of its duty (half-moment of silence), but did not
>prevent us from bottling!

>There's a lot to learn in this process -- beyond "read the directions,
>stupid" -- for example, that certain bottles are easier to work with
>than others. At least with the bottling tool I have, the best bottles
>are longnecks with a deeper lip around the top of the bottle.
>Brooklyn beers have good bottles, and Dos Equis definitely do not.

>So, now the beer will age in the bottle in a dark place for at least
>three weeks before they are ready for consumption (to avoid "beer-pop"
>as my brother would say).

>Talk to y'all when it's ready!

>Jeremy

The most time-intensive part of this process for me was removing labels, cleaning and sanitizing the bottles. You can speed it up by using Goo Gone, or something similar to eat through the label glue after you soak off the label itself. Another time-saver is the bottle-washer - a J-shaped thin pipe and valve you connect with adapter to the kitchen faucet.

I did the above cleaning and then sanitized with B-Brite and ran fifty bottles through the heat cycle of the dishwasher. The dishwasher makes a great bottling rack too. Thank you Allan of Karp's for that tip!

Very important to bottle with a partner. Sure, you can do it on your own, but with a partner, 1) it will go much faster; 2) it is a second set of eyes; and 3) it is more social! I know that without Rondal, I would have spilled much precious wort (beer precursor), were it not for him uttering those dreaded words, "Jeremy, we're losing beer!" (open spigot on the bottling bucket)

Actually, that brings me to another point. The first fermentation happens in the fermenting bucket sealed but for the airlock to let gases escape. The yeast feeds on malt during fermentation. The first fermentation is done when the food is exhausted. When you bottle, you add priming sugar to your wort in the bottling bucket before bottling. The second fermentation happens in the bottle, the yeast (still alive!) feeding on the sugar. Unlike the fermenter, which allows gases to escape, the bottles are a closed systems. When the yeast consumes the sugar, it produces carbon dioxide. Over the course of three weeks or so, the gas dissolves to an extent in the beer, giving you carbonation, while sediment settles to the bottom.

My biggest concern after losing a small volume of beer was that I had lost priming sugar in the mix. Would I have flat beer? As it turned out, I lost too little to have any appreciable effect.

On 2/18/06, Jeremy Wolff wrote:


>Hi everybody!

>Good news - the new beer is ready! My very first batch turned out
>great! It is similar to Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, but more
>full-flavored, better body, and a little more hoppy. It has a
>pleasant finish and slight fruit overtones - of peach, Lissa thinks.

>It came out as well as I could have hoped, and then some! Very nice
>color, good carbonation. I am very pleased.

>For those who are in town, we would love to have a beer with you.
>Can't plan a party for the next couple weeks (lots of work travel),
>but on the other hand the first batch won't last long, so give us a
>call and stop in some evening or weekend. We have beer for you!

>And if you don't make it for the first batch, worry not, there will be
>another. In fact, I have the kit for a German Altbier waiting and
>ready to brew. According to the Karp's homebrew shop, this is an old
>style, copper colored, bittersweet German ale. Looking forward to
>that!

>Thanks again for the bottles, ideas, and enthusiasm for my new hobby!
>In the words of Charlie Papazian, "Don't worry, relax, have a
>homebrew!"

>Cheers,

>Jeremy

I have since had a half dozen friends over to try the beer. All agree it turned out well. The flavors are surprisingly complex! I can't wait to try more recipes. In fact, I am off tomorrow to Bethlehem again, so this time, I plan to come back with loot!

Enjoy the blog! I look forward to your comments!

Jeremy