Keystone Homebrew

Once again I am fortunate to be sent to work in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. At about 1.5 hours drive from NYC, the travel is easy and I can look forward to drinking a couple at the Bethlehem Brew Works (Today's brews: a Stumbling Monk and an ESB), to visiting the Keystone Homebrew shop after work!

This time around I had the pleasure speaking with Ray Redcay, who shared with me some of the benefit of his many years experience in homebrewing both beer and wine. Ray also shared with me some of his latest brew, Ray's Romper Room Rye! And I can heartily recommend it, should you be in the neighborhood!

In case you missed it, Karp's web site has some good general tips worth reading to supplement your homebrew recipe's instructions. Ray emphasized one tip in particular that I would like to pass along because it may help to improve the beer's flavor and will definitely save me time the next batch around.

How I did it: After brewing the ingredients on the stove, I filled the fermenter with 3.5 gallons cold water, and then poured the boiling liquid directly into the water. Since the resulting mixture's temperature was too hot, I had to wait overnight (8+ hours) until the mixture was cool enough to add yeast (below 90 degrees Fahrenheit).

Better to cool the pot of boiled wort in a sink full of ice until the mixture is closer to brewing temperature (varies by recipe), and then you can get fermenting right away rather than having to wait. Ray said he is usually able to see active fermentation about 45 minutes after brewing.

Why use this method? Because the longer the wort sits around unfermented, the more likely bacteria will grow. That bacteria won't kill you, but it could impart off-flavors. I didn't detect unpleasant flavors in my brew, so perhaps I was lucky. One possibility: by chance, I boiled my hops for a bit longer in the brew than the recipe called for. Hops, besides being tasty, have an antiseptic and preservative effect - maybe the hops made the difference? Not sure, but I liked it!

Ray also recommended a brewing book that has a good deal of technical detail, How to Brew, by John Palmer. I bought the hardcopy, and the link above has the entire first edition free online!

I am opting to delay the German Altbier for a later batch in favor of the two new kits I bought today, IPA (India Pale Ale) and ESB (Extra Special Bitter). I am particularly excited about these kits because they include fresh ingredients - liquid yeast cultures rather than dry yeast, and fresh hops rather than dried hops pellets. Fresher is better! BTW, it is no more difficult to use these ingredients - just keep them in the fridge until you are ready. Considering how tasty the beer was the first time, I can't wait to try these.

Two new magazines bought:

- The latest Zymurgy, whose headline was "Untamed yeasts and other beer beasts"
- Brew Your Own - top story "Perfect Pale Ale"

I think I will check out the new reading material. Happy Brewing!