Homebrew Odyssey

Hanoi blog

2008-02-07T08:40:00.000-05:00

My wife and I took a trip to Vietnam and I blogged about it. There's mention of beer in there but it is mainly about our experiences in Hanoi. Please have a look!

Homebrewer Hegira to Hanoi

Bottled!

2008-01-14T22:34:00.000-05:00

The nut brown ale is bottled. 4.5 gallons, or 44 bottles worth at FG - 1.014, pretty much on target. Looking forward to drinking it in a month!

Brewing Again!

2008-01-07T10:17:00.000-05:00

I celebrated the completion of my MBA studies by brewing a nut brown ale (brand new kit!). The recipe (Keystone):

6.6 lbs. Muntons Amber Malt Extract
1/2 lb. Munton & Fison Crystal Malt 60ºL
1/2 lb. Munton & Fison Carapils Malt 20ºL
1/4 lb. Munton & Fison Chocolate Malt 338ºL
1/2 lb. Briess Victory Malt 25ºL
2 oz. Willamette Hops (Bittering)
1 oz. Willamette Hops (Finishing)
Wyeast #1098XL British Ale Yeast

Planned: OG - 1.052 FG - 1.013 Alcohol content 6.0% w/ five gallon yield

The original gravity was on target. The brew went in on January 2 and continues to happily ferment in the glass carboy at 68ºF. Planning to bottle this weekend.

I learned the hard way over the past year of inactivity several obvious (but nonetheless heartbreaking) truths about old brewing supplies:

Weevils eat specialty grains
Liquid yeast dies, and dry yeast can too
Liquid malt goes stale
Hops in the fridge smell like the fridge

So the solution is... never stop brewing!

Chinese Telecoms offer free beer!

2007-08-29T09:24:00.000-04:00

These folks (link) have a great understanding of human nature.

Great new beer blog!

2007-07-17T18:32:00.000-04:00

Check out My Life On Craft by my friend Mary! Mary is an accomplished beer judge and very informative writer. Well done, Mary!

Beer poetry

2007-07-10T20:01:00.000-04:00

Great indeed the reputation of the ancient beer --
Said to make the feeble hardy,
Famed to dry the tears of women,
Famed to cheer the broken-hearted,
Make the timid brave and mighty,
Fill the heart with joy and gladness,
Fill the mind with wisdom,
Fill the tongue with ancient legends,
Only makes the fool more foolish.

- The Kalevala

A few links to begin anew

2007-03-19T11:24:00.000-04:00

Life is a little slow on the brewing, and therefore the blogging of late. But I am reading and drinking beer, so I'll share. For beginners, it never hurts, of course, to wiki.

Recent reading:

Libations of the Eighteenth Century: A Concise Manual for the Brewing of Authentic Beverages from the Colonial Era of America and of Times Past, by David Alan Woolsey
Fermenting Revolution: How to Drink Beer and Save the World, by Christopher Mark O'Brien
More Homebrew Favorites, by Karl F. Lutzen and Mark Stevens
Brew Ware: How to Find, Adapt, and Build Homebrewing Equipment, by Karl F. Lutzen and Mark Stevens

IPAs I am enjoying drinking lately (it's all about the hops):

Long time, no brew

2007-02-04T09:44:00.000-05:00

Holidays have passed and it is Superbowl Sunday. The ginger brew is nice and mature now (a ripe, old two months in the bottle), so that will be my gift to the party.

Went to a nice new little place a week back - Against the Grain, in the East Village. Unassuming little bar that would be crowded with 30 people in. Great snacks, great beer list with the less-usual selection: Old Engine Oil, Old Chub, and Otter Creek (though not all selections start with "O."

Ginger to bottle

2006-12-02T17:30:00.000-05:00

Brief break on my way to bottling. The ginger brew is decanted. There is a little tang to it, but next time I might have to boil the ginger in there longer. As it is, it adds a refreshing bite to the beer.

Different tastes

2006-11-30T19:19:00.000-05:00

After a bit of a Thanksgiving break, I am very much back in the swing of things. Hoping to both bottle and brew this weekend. I would be bottling the ginger if the ginger taste is sufficiently strong - otherwise secondary with more ginger, and I would be brewing the porter - with coffee and cardamom (that's the plan).

In the meantime, I have been reflecting a bit on different tastes folks around me have. The most common beer in the US (and in Asia too, but it is different) is a light lager. One can certainly argue the merits of different styles, or the effectiveness of long-term marketing campaigns on the taste of the populace, but it is very interesting to me to listen to people's impressions of beer.

Many do seem to want it to be a light, cold, crisp relatively unobtrusive companion to a meal. Some people consider an amber to be adventurous, and stout to be too heavy. I wonder how much has to do with associations. Perhaps because a beer is opaque in color, it is is considered filling. Something lighter is seemingly less filling.

The funny thing is that different colored beers do not necessarily differ in the weights of ingredients of which they are comprised. Certainly lagers by virtue of longer (and cold) storage might have fewer suspended solids, but a pale ale and a porter, brewed with similar technique are both ales and should be similarly filling.

I wonder if it has to do with the flavors of different malts added. That is where the color originates after all.

Well, I will have a chance soon enough to compare brews side by side. Saison, Ginger (Pale) Ale, and Porter.

Ginger brew recipe

2006-11-20T23:07:00.000-05:00

It's a pale ale, but with 5 oz. fresh ginger, sliced and added to the last ten minutes of the boil.

8 lb. Alexander's Pale Malt Extract
1/2 lb. Briess Crystal Malt 20ºL
1/2 lb. Munton & Fison Carapils Malt 20ºL
1 1/2 oz. Northern Brewer Hops (bittering)
1 oz. Cascade Hops (flavoring)
1 oz. Cascade Hops (finishing)
Wyeast # 1332XL Northwestern Ale Yeast

The recipe optionally dry hops another 1 oz. Cascade to the secondary. If I do a secondary, it will probably be to dry-ginger it.

Ginger brew: batch #7!

2006-11-20T20:55:00.000-05:00

Every time I brew is different. I am using a glass carboy for the primary for the first time this go around. Also, I discovered that the glue on the malt cans is pretty pernicious once it gloms onto the hands -- softening the malt cans in boiling water softened the glue.

Added ginger in the last ten minutes of the boil. I plan to taste it after the primary and maybe do a secondary fermentation with additional ginger. We'll see how strong it is.

Sweet. OG of 1.057, at 68ºF -- just about on target.

What is brewing?

2006-11-13T21:04:00.000-05:00

A friend recently describing brewing as "canning for men." I can deal with that.

Saison bottled!

2006-11-12T23:22:00.000-05:00

With a final gravity of 1.016, the Saison clocks in at about 6.5% alcohol by volume. Biggest beer I have made yet. The new beer tastes good. In a month we'll see what the final results are! On to the ginger brew!

Ate Georgian food in Brighton beach tonight accompanied by Slazy Melnick (Yuri says it is like the Russian "Miller"), which was a pleasant light lager. Light ws good, because the food was very hearty!

Trois Pistoles

2006-11-07T22:04:00.000-05:00

I want to brew beer like this. I have mentioned Unibroue before, but I rediscovered it this evening as I ate in a lovely little spot, Le Tableau, in the East Village. Yum.

Beer news

2006-11-06T14:36:00.000-05:00

An article that grabbed my attention:

Globeerization

Also, this week in the Times there is a multimedia piece on Porters:

New York Times

The marvel of fermentation

2006-11-04T07:09:00.000-05:00

One of the great things about homebrewing is that you get to observe every part of the brewing process. As my fermenter continues to bubble (less often now) behind me, I was thinking of the marvel of fermentation. Funny that an organism (yeast) can change one substance (sugar) into another (alcohol), making it so much more interesting!

Anyway, Unibroue has a nice high-level description of beer fermentation, for anyone unfamiliar. Of course, Wikipedia is a good amalgam of brewing experience on the web to help with basic terms.

Best to look at Bodensatz too.

Beer Weather!

2006-11-03T10:23:00.000-05:00

One good reason to love the winter: it's beer weather!

And I don't just mean for drinking. Once the seasons change, our building turns on the thermonuclear radiators. This is a plus for we apartment denizens because we don't freeze. I find I can regulate the temperature of my fermentation by how close the fermenter is to the radiator and how wide open the window is nearby. Right now the saison is happily fermenting along at 71ºF. We had unseasonably warm temperatures Halloween night, so I was briefly concerned, but with the temperature in the low 40's out right now, no worries!

And now to coin a phrase to a phenomenon already well-understood by homebrewers: beer diversification. I have now a second primary fermentation vessel (the 6.5 gallon carboy), so that means I can (and will) have two beers in development at a given time. This provides at least the following advantages:

Variety: the contrasting options abound - light and dark, big and small (but not too small), different flavors.
Opportunity to experiment - I can do an old standby like the ESB which I know I like and has turned out well in the past, but try something new, knowing either way I will have beer around.
Less delay between brews - when I am in a brewing mood, sometimes I just want to keep going and brew twice in a day or twice in a week. Can't do that when I have to wait for one to finish fermenting.
Sharing the fun: I have friends who want to brew their own batch, but don't have the equipment yet. With a second vessel, I can do one, and they can brew their own.

Also, the glass carboy has one definite advantage over the bucket: you can see the fermentation happening from start to finish. No need to rely on the airlock alone. I am really looking forward to that.

I wonder if I have time to brew Monday night....

A good day at the homebrew shop!

2006-11-02T20:58:00.000-05:00

I went a little overboard at the shop. The original plan was to buy replacement yeast for the Porter recipe (Wyeast # 1028XL London Ale Yeast), and perhaps to replace the yeast for the American Pale Ale recipe (Wyeast # 1332 Northwest Ale). I always end up with some odds and ends - extra bottle caps, maybe a book - but this time... the list:

one 6.5 gallon carboy (YES!) plus airlock, stopper, funnel, carboy brush, carboy handle
one lever-arm table-top bottle capper
American Brown ale kit
ESB kit (we really liked the first one)
one bottle iodophor (never, ever go without)
four rubber wine stoppers (yes, we drink wine too)
a gross of bottle caps
Wyeast # 1332 Northwest Ale Yeast
Wyeast # 1028XL London Ale Yeast

The carboy is the key purchase. The significance here is that I can homebrew TWO batches simultaneously! I fully intend to take advantage of this. Four recipes waiting... My goal is to brew one dozen batches this year. I have done six.

Going to need a lot of bottles...

Old yeast

2006-11-02T06:34:00.000-05:00

Bummer when you delay brewing until the ingredients get old. Liquid yeast cultures last about six months. According to the packaging, this is because in cold storage yeast slowly consumes its nutrient reserves. That also may be why it took some time to get the Saison started - older yeast.

I am heading to Bethlehem today - and planning a visit to the Keystone homebrewing shop - so I decided to check my remaining kits in case anything needs replacement. The Porter's yeast was manufactured in April! Good thing I am making the trip.

Craft Brewers recognized by the US House of Representatives!

2006-11-01T14:38:00.000-05:00

Resolution here. (this is a pdf document)

Holiday brews

2006-11-01T14:23:00.000-05:00

Twelve beers of Christmas.

The sweet smell of bananas

2006-11-01T13:35:00.000-05:00

I have smelt fear, and it smells like... bananas!

As I may have mentioned at some point, our apartment is small, and so we always have to shuffle a bit to find a place for the fermenter. I opted to put it in the bedroom today because the weather has been unseasonably warm, and it is always a little cooler in the bedroom. My wife was taking a nap at midday, and she turned on the fan. This isn't particularly unusual, but she had the fan turned around so it was blowing the air out rather than in. She said the smell of bananas in the room was overpowering.

WHAT!

My recollection from reading Papazian was that a banana smell was due too high presence of esters in the fermenting beer, an undesirable situation caused by fermenting at too high a temperature. It is on the high side right now (about 77ºF), so I was concerned.

So I called Ray. He laughed. He said it isn't a problem - it's the yeast (Wyeast # 1214XL Belgian Abbey Ale Yeast). This yeast tends to produce more esters, and I should expect banana and perhaps clove (phenol) aromas. As I looked around I learned also that this yeast has a high alcohol tolerance (shouldn't we all), and is very suitable for high-gravity beers. From Wyeast:

Wyeast 1214XL Abbey Ale
Abbey-style top fermenting yeast suitable for high gravity beers, dubbels, trippels, and barley wines. Medium flocculent strain which clears well.
Apparent attenuation: 72-76%.
Flocculation: medium.
Source: Chimay.

Not sure I am looking for the "Banana Frubee," though....

It seems that these aromas and flavors are pretty common in weizen beers.

Beers of the season

2006-10-31T19:50:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm inspired. The great thing about homebrewing is that you can choose to make as interesting a brew as you like. For Christmas, I plan to make a ginger beer, of the alcoholic variety. Ray made a good suggestion: take a pale ale recipe and either add ginger to the boil early for a mild ginger flavor; or add some 10 minutes before the end for an intense ginger flavor. I'm thinking intense!

By chance, I have all the ingredients I need, already on hand. So, as soon as the saison is bottled, its time for ginger beer!

Bubbling and musings about temperature

2006-10-31T08:31:00.000-05:00

A sigh of relief. The fermenter started bubbling early this morning. That's 40-some-odd hours before a visible sign. It may be that this will tip me over the edge to buying a 6.5 gallon glass carboy. The nice thing about carboys vs. the plastic bucket is that you can see fermentation (or infection) activity long before the bubbles start.

This is the longest time it has ever taken (in my illustrious 10-month, six-batch beer career) for vigorous fermentation to begin. Besides the vacuum factor, I wonder if the five degrees of cooling by the window shocked the yeast into inactivity. I would have thought it would take a greater temperature variance, but who knows? After all, the desired range is 60-75ºF, so a five degree shift could well be significant.

Of course, while I am thinking about carboys, some people really have it figured out with the kegerator. (here too) Definitely something to look forward to.