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.

The dreaded vacuum

2006-10-30T05:41:00.000-05:00

No disasters apparent! With enough experience, I imagine that the initial 48 hours in the fermenter go by with a bit less worry, however, I still get concerned when the fermentation isn't obviously bubbling along after 12 hours.

Paying attention to the basics probably helps too. I freely admit that I am a trifle paranoid with cleaning and sanitization. I may need to get a bit more strict about temperature control too, just for peace of mind.

Here's what I did. I cooled my wort down to about 65ºF, poured it into the fermenter and topped it up to 4.5 gallons, then took a hydrometer reading. It was about 1.075. While making a beer that big would be amusing, I was trying to stick to the recipe, so I diluted that up to 5.0 gallons. However, I had run out of spring water. So I used boiled water. Well, even a 1/2 gallon of 212ºF water heats up 4.5 gallons of 65ºF water. In fact, it went up to 78ºF!

I figured, who cares? The place I put the fermenter in the winter is nearby the window, so it would cool down anyway, right? I didn't have any vodka, so I poured a little of the boiled water into the airlock.

Well, the fermenter has cooled down now. All the way to 73ºF. So it occurs to me that this created a vacuum in the fermenter, since cold air takes up less space than warm air. No big deal, except that the vacuum sucked some of the airlock water into the bucket. And, since the pressure is lower than it started, the fermentation will not be obvious for a while longer: the yeast have to produce more gas than usual before any can escape.

So I imagine fermentation has begun, but I won't know until later.

OG 1.065 and five gallons!

2006-10-29T15:04:00.000-05:00

That Saison should be nice and strong. :-)

Events everywhere!

2006-10-29T13:58:00.000-05:00

Just thought I would post a few event calendar listings while I wait for the wort to cool. Check out:

Ale Street News, in particular for locals to NYC the Brazen Head Real Ale Cask Festival

And on a completely random note, please have a look at the Catholic blessing for beer. Thanks to the Home Brewers Journal for that link.

Beer and Cheese

2006-10-29T13:36:00.000-05:00

Jimmy's at 43 E. 7th Street Manhattan has Beer and Cheese tastings every Wednesday. We went this past week and were treated to some lovely cheese (goat cheese, smoked gouda, and an aged cheddar I believe).

Anne Saxelby (Saxelby Cheesemongers) and her New England artisanal cheeses can be found at the market at Essex and Delancy. The cheddar was decidedly a winner - fruit and nut tastes, and just a little crunchy (because of the aging).

The beers were the Black Bear Porter, Sunday River Lager and 420 IPA from Stone Coast Brewery, Maine and the Red Rice Ale, Weizen, and Japanese Classic Ale from Hitachino Nest.

All beers were good. I get up to Maine about three or four times a year, so I will have to look up Stone Coast. Hitachino Nest was interesting because they brew the beer using traditional sake brewing techniques.

Batch number six - Belgian Saison

2006-10-29T10:41:00.000-05:00

Brewing again! Today's is a Belgian Saison. The original inspiration for this beer was a saison that I drank in Bethlehem. The citrus flavor really grabbed me. Recipe:

6.6 lb. Munton's Light Malt Extract
1 lb. Munton & Fison Wheat Dry Malt
1 lb. Light Belgian Candi Sugar
1/2 lb. Weyermann Cara-Helles Malt 9º L
1 oz. Northern Brewer Hops (Bittering)
1/2 oz. Kent Golding U.K. Hops (Flavoring)
1/2 oz. Bitter Curacao (orange peel) (Flavoring)
1/2 oz. Kent Golding U.K. Hops (Finishing)
Wyeast # 1214XL Belgian Abbey Ale Yeast

The folks at Keystone say to expect:

OG 1.054-1.060
FG 1.010-1.015

I will likely write more on this, but I have to buy some ice!

Beerfest on the Pier in NYC

2006-10-05T11:28:00.000-04:00

Beerfest has come to New York City. Looks like quite a party!

Brewtopia in a couple weeks.

Gotta brew!

2006-08-19T05:59:00.000-04:00

"Beer is proof that god loves us and wants us to be happy." - Ben Franklin

Been a busy time, but the plan is to brew sometime this weekend. In the meantime, you must read this.

Wow.

Competition bound?

2006-08-09T20:37:00.000-04:00

Well, besides my Mom's birthday, I have other good news today. Ray suggested I enter my latest brews (Alt, Nut Brown) in competition.

Never even occurred to me really. There are a few competitions that our club plans to participate in, but I haven't seriously considered it. But Ray has been brewing for a long time, and if he thinks it is worthwhile, I might just give it a try. More on that as I have it.

While I was in Bethlehem, I picked up a Saison (it's got orange peel!), so it might be time to give that a try while we still have some summer left. Had a great Zomerbier in Bethlehem that inspired me.

Burp Castle with my Dad

2006-07-28T17:55:00.000-04:00

Well, if I am not going to brew in the heat, I can at least drink!

Burp Castle (check the link for a review), is one amusing bar. I have been there twice for the Homebrew Guild meetings, but this was the first time showing up during the off-hours (Tuesday evening). Even better, I had my Dad visiting!

While one can't help but notice the partying monks painted on the walls, the first thing that hit me was the generous air-conditioning, a blessing in the recent NYC heat wave. Great beer list, from local Six Point ("Sweet Action"), to Houblon Chouffe -- 12 beers on draft. I am sure there are great things in the bottle, but I never got to it. The bartender, Liz, was very nice to my Dad and gave him tastes of many.

Great place, very quiet, so it is easy to converse at a normal speaking volume.

Hot weather brewing

2006-07-19T14:13:00.000-04:00

I am itching to brew again, and that's a challenge with the summer heat. I asked around, and I got a few recommendations.

Choose a style whose yeast can operate at higher temperatures. As I mentioned in a comment on a previous post, a fellow I know swears by saison yeast - it has a high fermentation range (70-85 ºF)
Choose a style whose yeast can handle a wide range of temperature -- e.g. Belgian (58-78 ºF) or Scottish (55-75 ºF), and place fermenter near air conditioner
Insulate the fermenter to minimize temperature shifts -- wet t-shirt over primary in a bucket

Here are a couple online references on the subject:

I may take a chance and brew the porter kit I have. If I keep it near the air-conditioner, I feel good about my chances for success.

Hints on extract brewing

2006-07-17T11:15:00.000-04:00

Homebrewer's Livejournal has a good thread on how to get the best out of extract brewing that hits many of the points I have discovered over time and adds a few more.

Considering that NYC is heading for 98ºF today, the idea of a kegerator is sounding better and better. Not sure it is even worth trying to brew at all during the hottest summer months otherwise.

I am definitely thinking more and more about temperature control of late. Planning to purchase a wort chiller. Doing the full boil just makes an ice-bath impractical to get the temperature down fast.

Spuyten Duyvil is hosting a Beer & Chocolate tasting event on Wednesday, 7/19, at 7pm. Two great tastes that go great together!

Taste test two -- Nut Brown and Altbier

2006-07-14T16:13:00.000-04:00

My wife and I had a wonderful and educational experience last night. We tried the Nut Brown and the Altbier for a second time. They have both conditioned two weeks in the bottle now. A few thoughts:

Brewing to the gravity is definitely the way to go. Ideally my technique will improve to the point where I can the right volume regardless, but for now I will be satisfied with slightly less beer but the right strength of flavor. Both Nut Brown and Altbier are richly textured, satisfying draughts, complex at the start, middle and finish.

Serving temperature matters! I have read many an article about the importance of hot cold one serves various alcohols, whether wine, beer, or liquor. In the past, with commercial beers, I have always preferred the drink as cold as possible, just short of freezing. In fact with a clear, crisp lager, this is still my preference.

But with both these darker ales, serving too cold stifles the flavor overall, and worse, seems to emphasize less pleasant aspects of the beer. In the case of the nut brown served very cold, there is a bitterness and a bit of an oily texture; the Alt, conversely, tastes overly sweet. However, let the beer warm a bit to the room ("cellar temperature"), and the entire taste profile changes, and both taste and feel wonderful: the Nut Brown goes from oily to velvety, bitter to complex like a fine espresso; and the Alt's former treacle taste is subsumed by the hops. Very pleasantly surprising. I will have to read up a lot on serving temperatures.

The taste test results are in, and...

2006-07-08T08:33:00.000-04:00

Both the Altbier and the Nut Brown are very good. But, not ready for prime time. After a week in the bottle, the carbonation is still soft, and the finish is a little weak. But, the intial flavor when you take the first sip of either is marvelous. The Nut Brown is like a stronger, richer version of New Castle Brown Ale, and the Alt has a little bit of smoke, and reminds me of dark German beers I have had -- Hacker Pschorr Dunkel or maybe Aventinus.

In another two weeks I think they will be great.

PET plastic secondary -- MELTED??

2006-07-06T09:22:00.000-04:00

Back from the beach to discover something a bit odd: my Better-Bottle five gallon secondary was misshapen. It looks like it melted, but I am not sure exactly how. I had my Altbier in cold conditioning in the fridge using that vessel. After bottling a week ago, I cleaned and sanitized the fermenter as I would always do, and then upended it to drip dry, open, on the drying rack. I went away to the beach for the week, came back and found the bottom of the fermenter had buckled.

Checking their website there is a note about not cleaning the bottle with hot water and then sealing it, because that would cause a vacuum as it cools, damaging the fermenter. I understand that, but since the bottle was open, the one leaves me a little at a loss.

On the good side, since the Nut Brown and Alt have been in the bottle for a week, I plan to try them tonight.

Nut Brown and Altbier bottled last night

2006-06-29T04:33:00.000-04:00

Nut Brown FG 1.016
Altbier FG was 1.013

...meaning that that alcohol is in the 5-6% range for both. Both beers taste great. Looking forward to the carbonation!

Dogfish Head Brewery tour

2006-06-26T10:46:00.000-04:00

Over vacation in Delaware last week we managed to visit the Dogfish Head brewery for a brief tour. While I am fond of many Dogfish brews, clearly the 60-minute IPA is by far the most popular.

The special sauce in the 60-minute is created by "Sir Hops-a-lot," a device that circulates fresh hops on a constant basis for an entire hour post-brew. That brewery uses a heck of a lot of hops! In fact, their supplier asked them if they have a hop-theft problem. ;-)

The result is a light, crisp brew with an intensely floral, fresh hop taste. We had a fresh keg for the tasting, and while I usually favor darker beers, I definitely understand the popularity.

Other brews tried: the Zwaanend Ale which celebrates the 375th anniversary of the original Delaware town, Lewes, and the Immort Ale which is probably one of the most unusual beers I have tasted. It was peaty, with tastes of vanilla, maple, and oak. I found it intellectually fascinating, and I am glad I tried it, but the combination of tastes didn't work for me.

One of the plusses of going on vacation for a week when you have some beers on the way is that you are that much closer on the return. I will be bottling the Nut Brown this week, and I may even bottle the Alt as well. Wow, that would mean I would have two home brews available at the same time! Three, if I still have IPA left. Time for a party!

Nut Brown is batch #5

2006-06-16T08:47:00.000-04:00

I feel very good about the nut brown ale I brewed last night. The main difference between this and the previous brews is that I decided to aim for the best utilization of ingredients possible. In practical terms, that meant:

a nearly full boil in a 21-quart pot
specialty grains loose in a strainer rather than in muslin bags
hops thrown directly into the boil and strained out later.

The recipe:

6.6 lbs Munton's Amber Malt Extract (liquid)
1/2 lb. Munton & Fison Crystal Malt 60ºL
1/2 lb. Munton & Fison Carapils Malt 20ºL
1/2 lb. Briess Toasted Malt 25ºL
1/4 lb. Munton & Fison Chocolate Malt 338ºL
2 oz. Kent Goldings U.K. Hops (bittering)
1 oz. Fuggles Hops (finishing)
Wyeast # 1098 XL British Ale Yeast

The OG was 1.052, 4.75 gallons.

Every time I brew a learn a little more. I credit the higher gravity to better use of the specialty grains. I heated the water over the course of an hour from cold to about 168ºF with the grains loose in a strainer mostly submerged. During that hour I stirred the grains often and poured the water over top. The result: a nice dark malt tea.

It occurs to me that since extract brewing with specialty grains is an early step in the continuum from extract to all-grain brewing that I may do a mini-mash some time soon. From what I have read, that would mean just increasing the proportion of grain to prepared extract, and controlling temperature a bit more carefully. More grain, less extract, fresher tasting product.

The rolling hop boil has got to make a huge difference in the flavor of the final product. The hop plugs rehydrated and broke into individual flowers and leaves, recirculating freely. It was hardly more trouble than using the muslin bags -- I just strained out the hops at the end.

Heating and cooling were the real challenges in this batch. I have a small stove, and it took a long time to heat up the water. The pot was so big it crossed partway onto a second burner. So I turned on that burner to speed things along.

Usually I cool the brewpot in an ice bath. It turned out that 20 lbs of ice was barely enough to bring the wort from 212º to 80º. It may be time to invest in a wort chiller if I am going to do full boils.

Probably the most exciting thing is that I will bottle two brews at once in ten days - the Alt and the Nut Brown. That will be the first time I will have two brews available at the same time. And available in time for my anniversary! Definitely time for a party.

Actually, it's an English IPA

2006-06-12T17:01:00.000-04:00

Another quick note from Ray: the IPA I made turned out to have been an English IPA recipe, as opposed to an American IPA recipe. It turns out that these are rather different. American IPAs are considerably hoppier. I'm not sure I would recognize the taste of a commercial English IPA if I tasted one. Time for a taste test!

Unintentional Diacetyl rest

2006-06-12T16:18:00.000-04:00

Well apparently I may have done a good thing by letting the Altbier warm up before putting it in the secondary. Ray at Keystone said that it is a good idea to let a beer sit for a couple days at room temperature between primary and secondary fermentations/cold conditioning. The function of the "diacetyl rest" is to minimize the presence of sulfur odors/flavors in your beer. I read also that the butterscotch flavor is caused by diacetyls.

Well, the beer in the fridge is at about 41 degrees, and I plan to leave it for a couple weeks before bottling. If I smell anything amiss, I will warm it up for a couple days and then back in the fridge it will go for another week or two. The nice thing is that even if I do smell the diacetyl, that doesn't mean that the beer is ruined -- it just may take a little longer before it is ready.

Another piece of advice from Ray had to do with the low original gravity. He said that maybe I am not getting good utilization on my specialty grains. One way to improve that would be to skip the muslin bags and to use a strainer instead. Start with cold water, put the grains in a strainer in the water. Gradually raise the temperature from cold to 168 degrees over the course of 45 minutes, stirring the grains in the strainer on occasion. That way the grains are loose and one can extract more from the grains themselves. In the muslin bag, the water may never reach the center of the grain ball.

Will have to try all this out with the nut brown ale I will make Wednesday.

In other news, I now have a 21 quart brew pot and I'm going to do full boils (or close to it) from now on!

Altbier in the secondary

2006-06-11T11:52:00.000-04:00

As of yesterday I racked the Altbier to the secondary. Its temperature during the last week was fairly constant in the bucket between 65-68 F but spiked to 75 near the end (phooey). It is now in the fridge at about 41, and will cold condition for at least two weeks before I bottle. The main question I have is whether I need to pitch any new yeast to bottle. I'll pose the question to one of the homebrew shops next week. The beer looks pretty good though. Dark, caramelly, and clear.

One of the hazards of the bucket cooling method is mildew (humid of late). I may add a small bit of bleach to the cooling water to take care of that.

Now, the real question is, to brew today or not! (Nut Brown and Porter await!)

The Altbier

2006-06-03T22:53:00.000-04:00

After months of hemming and hawing, the Altbier is brewed. The challenge is to keep it cool enough to ferment at the proper temperature, 55-65 degrees Fahrenheit. The recipe:

1 lb. Cara Munich Malt
2 oz. Chocolate Malt
3.3 lbs. Amber Malt Extract
2 lbs. Amber DME
1 oz. Hallertau hop pellets (bittering)
1 oz. Tettnang hop pellets (aroma)
Munton's dry ale yeast
1/2 tsp gypsum
1/2 tsp Irish moss

We're doing the wet towel around the fermenter, bucket of water, and fan trick, and hoping that will get the temperature right. If not, then ice in the bucket. I am not worried about the primary. It is the secondary for two weeks "as cool as possible" that will be the challenge.

OG of 1.045 on 4 gallons. Gotta figure out how to get better yield.

Tom's first brew

2006-05-29T12:36:00.000-04:00

"Whatever you do, don't squeeze the bag!" (quote of the evening)

Last night, Tom and I brewed his very first beer. He purchased a similar beginner's kit to mine (single fermenter) and used a pale ale recipe. If you happen to be near Tempe, the Brewer's Connection shop had a very knowledgeable and pleasant staff. The recipe:

6 lb. Plain Light DME
1/2 lb. Carapils Grains
1/2 lb. Crystal 60L Grains
1 oz. cascade hop pellets (bittering)
1 oz. cascade hop pellets (aroma)
1 Package SafAle Yeast
1 tsp gypsum
1 tsp Irish Moss
1 lb. Dextrose

The main differences for me in this brew were:

a nearly full boil (about 4 gallons) - helps to bring out the flavors better because they have more room in the pot to roll around
heating to 160, and steeping the grain bag at that temperature for 25 minutes and not squeezing the grain bag - to avoid leeching too many tannins into the brew
gypsum (to harden the water for the purpose of better suspending particulates)
Irish Moss (a clarifying agent)
Brewing to the gravity, not the volume (to make sure the concentration was right)
iodophor as a sanitizer (instead of C-Brite)
a big kitchen to work in

Every time I brew, it gets easier and I learn something new. The gypsum and Irish Moss made the break proteins coagulate FAR more quickly and completely. I'm definitely going to place and order for some of that.

Tom's observation on the finished wort:

"It is bold! I like it!"

Almost forgot to mention the tub

2006-05-17T12:53:00.000-04:00

Not sure that the IPA is a success. To me it tastes a little sour, and it has little of the hop bitterness character that defines an IPA.

As I mentioned in the previous post, Sean helped me to identify the probable reason for the IPA's low OG. As to the taste, he was able to put to rest my concerns that the beer might be infected, however, he did think it may have been fermented at too high a temperature. That could account for off-flavors.

This is timely information, because I am about to brew the Altbier, and I have heard that it is even more sensitive to brewing temperature than my previous brews. Apartments get hot, so I am going to try a low-tech system I have heard many people say works well for cooling the fermenter a bit:

place the full fermenter in a tub with water (not so much that the fermenter floats)
cover the fermenter with a wet towel or t-shirt with the bottom of the cloth in the water
run a fan on the setup

The idea is that as the water evaporates it cools the fermenter like perspiring cools a person. I am told to expect up to a five degree drop in temperature. This method may not work well in a humid environment, but my apartment is pretty dry. This method also insulates the fermenter a bit against changing temperatures. With the IPA, I know that the temperature rose above 78º F and got as far down as 68º at one point.

I still have hope that the IPA will improve with time. In the meantime, on to the next brew!

Burp Castle and the truth behind OG

2006-05-17T09:28:00.000-04:00

The last couple days have been very good for my beer (and mead) education. Monday night we visited Petite Abeille to sample their belgian beers, of which there are many. A few of the notables:

Triple Karmeliet
Rochefort 11.3%
La Chouffe
Grimbergen Triple

And last night I went to my first meeting of the New York City Homebrewers Guild over at Burp Castle. This was mead night, and Vicky Rowe of gotmead.com shared her knowledge and her mead. The meeting was incredibly well-attended. Got to try traditional mead, Christmas mead, vanilla-ginger mead, among others (lost count). I even met a bee-keeper from Poughkeepsie!

On the education front, one of the NYCHG members, Sean, may have determined the true cause of my low OG measurements on my brews. He tasted my IPA and said he found it quite drinkable, but the mouth-feel is a bit thin, and it didn't have good head-retention. He asked what the OG was - I said about 1.037.

He said he made an IPA and the OG was about 1.058, and definitely had more body to it. So it could be that the hydrometer reading is correct, and my beer is too dilute. Sean said I should brew to the gravity not to the volume. I had been assuming that I should always make five gallons in a recipe, but on reflection, that measurement is a little arbitrary. Better to have the right concentration than a particular volume. Also, it is possible that the gallon markings on my fermenter may not be correct either. I'll have to check that.

The other useful feedback he gave me was to let the hops boil free rather than in a muslin bag. You get better hop utilization that way. No big deal if you can't strain them all out and some get in the fermenter. Since my IPA is not so hoppy, it tastes more like a pale ale. Thanks for the help, Sean!

Sean introduced me to a new resource: Brew Commune.

Ended the night at Hop Devil, to try beers from Southern Tier, Sixpoint, and Smutty Nose, comparing their summer beers, porters, and IPAs. I must admit a fondness for Sixpoint since going on their brewery tour, but all the beers were good.

Lessons from Bethlehem

2006-05-08T12:32:00.000-04:00

Last week I was in Bethlehem, and I made my regular pilgrimage to Keystone Brew Supply. Always a pleasure to see Ray. As I mentioned in the previous post, I picked up Radical Brewing, a great read.

I bought my next two beer kits as well (as long as I was there...) -- a Porter and a Nut Brown. More importantly, however, I picked up a little extra insight from Ray.

As I have mentioned, I have been struggling with what I felt were incorrect measurements on my hydrometer. Well, it turns out that the hydrometer case was never intended as a beaker to take hydrometer measurements. Besides being very easy to knock over, the walls of the vessel are too narrow. The hydrometer therefore does not have the room to float freely. Maybe surface tension sucks it to the side? Who knows. In any case, for $2 and change, I have a nice, slightly wider, infinitely more stable vessel to take those original and final gravity measurements.

Also, I may end up going over to the dark side (sooner than I expected) -- kegging. While I have no problem with working to get a good result, bottling seems like misspent energy. Why spend the better part of a day de-labeling, cleaning, sanitizing, individually filling and capping bottles when most of the beer gets drunk at home anyway?

I could see at some point going to a system where I bottle a six-pack or two per batch (for sharing, picnics), but keg the rest. Of course, I can also see going to all-grain brewing, but all in good time.

While I am on the festival circuit, maybe I should check out the Long Island Beer Festival. It would be fun to talk to the Smutty Nose guys.

Must put in the Altbier soon.

Sixpoint Brewery tour

2006-05-08T09:05:00.000-04:00

Do yourself a favor and take the Sixpoint Craft Ales brewery tour in Red Hook, Brooklyn. I had the pleasure of meeting brewmaster Shane Welch at TAP New York last weekend and he said come on by. So I did, joined by my wife and her mother to celebrate her birthday.

He began the tour by saying that he normally takes people into the brewery, shows the equipment, talks about how everything works... but "that's boring - it's a nice day, so why don't you get your complimentary beer now, meet me on the roof, and I'll tell you a few stories first."

The man is a natural storyteller, but he has clearly had some great experiences starting a small business from a dream. Fifteen months going strong.

First time I ever had beer right out of cold conditioning in a brewery. Wow. Try the IPA.

I wouldn't dream of ruining any of the stories. Just take the tour. And find places to drink their beer.

Very social day. In addition to the three of us, we ran into Michael from The NYC Homebrewer's Guild, who was every bit as enthusiastic about the people, the brewery and the beer that is Sixpoint.

I am reading Radical Brewing! Very well-written. Every so often you need a pick-me-up, and inspiration for your brewing. Good book for it.

TAP New York!

2006-05-01T15:28:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was a great day. Lissa and I joined several members of the New York City Homebrewers Guild for a day up at Hunter Mountain. A dozen of us made the 2 1/2 hour drive each way. Tap New York is the first event I have attended with the club, and I
am happy to say that they are a great group of people.

We sampled from thirty or so microbreweries, most from the New York area, though New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Quebec each had one to show the colors for the state. Should you see them, I suggest trying the following breweries:

Brewery Ommegang (Cooperstown, NY) - Rare Vos
Southampton Publick House (Southampton, NY) - 10th Anniversary Ale
Legacy Brewing Company (Reading, PA) - Euphoria
Unibroue (Chambly, Quebec) - Fin du Monde (not making this up).

Unibroue had several great Belgians, and I would happily recommend Don de Dieu and Maudit in addition to the very tasty Fin du Monde.

All this and good food too. Definitely planning to go next year too!

Great new homebrewer Q&A post on Homebrewers' LiveJournal.

Sanitize well!

2006-04-27T20:29:00.000-04:00

No disasters yet (cross my fingers), but I am pretty careful with sanitizing my equipment and bottles. Good thing too because the bottles I used this time were from a friend's uncle's bar. I hadn't looked at the bottles too carefully -- figured I would use them when I needed them. Next time I will pre-clean any bottles I get. Not only did the bottles smell moldy, but several had pea-sized furry lumps growing in the bottom. Ugly.

I cleaned every bottle with dish detergent and the bottle brush, blasted them with the bottle washer, sanitized with C-Brite, and then used the dishwasher (wash/dry, heat cycle). Maybe overkill, but I figured better play it safe.

The folks at the Homebrewers' Livejournal coincidentally have a discussion today about different sanitizing techniques. The oven method sounds intriguing.

Bottled be the IPA

2006-04-25T22:40:00.000-04:00

Remember how I said that I planned to use the secondary fermenter for the IPA? Well, it didn't happen. If I had racked to the secondary immediately upon my return from California Saturday, it might just have been possible. But, as it is, I realized that after 13 days in the primary fermenter, I might as well bottle.

FG of 1.006, making it just about 4% alcohol by volume. Planning to crack open the first bottle the week of May 9th.

Going up this Sunday to Hunter Mountain for the Tap New York craft brewers festival. This will be my first festival, and I am excited to be going with the NYC Homebrewers Guild. This will also be the first time I will attend an event will my local group (been traveling every other time).

The next beer will be the Altbier. Secondary fermentation and lower temperature fermentation (55-65 F) required. That will be a challenge. I think that if I use a wet towel over the fermenter plus a fan it should be cool enough.

Reading and Festivals

2006-04-18T10:42:00.000-04:00

When I have a bit more space at home, I will get multiple beer batches going at the same time. In the meantime, I can read, and marvel at how many creative options there are for brewing beer. Home Brewers' Journal continues to be a great source of information. This recent post on all-grain and extract brewing received loads of comments with interesting book recommendations. Time to expand my brewing library!

Time to plan a trip to a beer festival as well. Beer Advocate has a good calendar of upcoming events. Brazen Head's ninth cask ale festival is this weekend in Brooklyn. The following weekend may have to be at Hunter Mountain for Tap NY. I guess I know my plans for the next two weekends!

The IPA has begun!

2006-04-12T21:08:00.000-04:00

Good to be brewing again! Managed to shorten the time to only three hours start to finish this time. I had actually planned to wait until tomorrow to brew, but circumstances turned out to be extremely favorable to brew tonight.

My original plan was to activate the yeast smack pack (Wyeast # 1028XL London Ale) early in the day, and let it warm to room temperature and then pitch it into a starter. I figured that if the yeast grew with a starter overnight, I could get brewing tomorrow early evening with a healthy amount of yeast.

At noon I activated the smack-pack by bursting the internal pack of nutrients so the yeast had food to grow (at room temperature). By 3 p.m. the pack was completely inflated, so I guess the yeast was plenty active. I decided to call Ray at Keystone to ask if I needed a starter. He said that he does not use a starter with the smack-packs unless the yeast is old or he is brewing something high-gravity, like a barleywine. Since the yeast seemed very active, I decided to begin tonight.

The recipe ingredients: 6.6 lbs. Munton's Extra Light Malt Extract, 3/4 lb. Munton & Fison Crystal Malt 60º L, 1/2 lb. Munton & Fison Carapils Malt 20º L, 1 1/2 oz. Kent Goldings U.K. Hops (bittering), 1 oz. Kent Goldings U.K. Hops (Flavoring), 1 oz. Fuggles Hops (finishing), Wyeast # 1028XL London Ale. I used Poland Spring water this time (to save time).

One special ingredient I tossed in addition to the recipe: 1 cup Montana wheat. As I mentioned in the previous post, this is the wheat my brother gave me for my birthday, celebrated in Bozeman, Montana.

Again, Ray from Keystone came to my aid and gave me the right proportion. He said he always throws in a cup of wheat in his beer. It promotes good head retention, and a smoother texture ("mouth-feel"). Sounds good to me! Ray suggested I come in to get the wheat milled at Keystone (it comes in uncracked grains). Since I could not make it out there today, I asked if there was any way I could do it myself.

The answer was yes, a rolling pin could do it, but that is pretty tedious. Some people use a blender, but if you grind the wheat too finely, all you have is flour, and that makes a gummy mess. I decided to use a new coffee grinder (never had coffee in it), and grind very lightly. Then I sifted the results to get the smaller particles out. I added the cracked wheat in a muslin bag with the other specialty grains.

As I said, everything went quickly this time. The only surprising thing was again the low OG of 1.037. I remembered to take the gravity before adding yeast, and I made certain to knock bubbles off, but it seems low all the same. Maybe the problem is that I am using the plastic hydrometer case for the as the container in which I take the measurement? Don't know. The alcohol content of the Pale Ale and the ESB were good, so I may just have to take it on faith that this one will be as well.

The plan is to let this stay in the primary for a week or more until the fermentation has slowed, and then transfer to a secondary. First time racking to a secondary, so I am excited to see the results!

Only minor issue in procedure this time: I opened the freezer and a tub of ice cream fell into the sanitizer bucket, splashing me and the kitchen. No damage done, but that is some really clean ice cream!

Speaking of well-traveled...

2006-04-08T11:41:00.000-04:00

Since the last post I have been traveling nearly non-stop - four towns in seven days - Bozeman, MT, New York, NY, Bethlehem, PA, Herndon, VA and back home early this morning. But I am excited to catch up and brew my first IPA (and my third batch!).

Part of what makes me enthusiastic about this brew is I plan to add some real specialty grain from Montana! My brother Ewan and sister-in-law Meredith gave me a Wheat Montana 5 lb. bag for my birthday! Not certain about what proportions I will use yet, but I am really looking forward to the results.

I get to use my brand new PET plastic secondary fermenter for this batch too! I am really curious to see how much of a difference a secondary fermentation will make to the taste. One advantage would be to have a couple batches going at once. (hmm...) The main reasons are to clarify the beer and condition it as well. One can condition the beer in a secondary for up to a couple months I understand. Longer if cold!

Congratulations to my friends Rondal and Tuly on the birth of their first son! I may have to name a beer after him. :-)

Well-traveled = yeasty; plus removable labels

2006-04-01T13:16:00.000-05:00

Writing today from Big Sky country celebrating my birthday weekend. The NYC ESB made the long trip from its hometown to visit my brother and sister-in-law. Several car and plane trips later, the yeast was quite well re-suspended in solution and did not noticeably settle after several hours in the fridge. I imagine that given time it will, but we didn't wait and polished off four of the six last night.

No one minded the yeast flavor, and no one experienced any unusual calls of nature - I am starting to think that is a myth. While I prefer less yeast in my beer, I had to admit it was still quite good.

All hail Avery no. 6464! Lissa had the inspiration to use removable labels for both the NYC ESB and whatever was left of the Midnight Pale. They come off clean so there is that much less to do come bottling time.

BTW, the ESB goes very well with barbequed emu and bison!

NYC ESB - A Resounding Success!

2006-03-30T19:31:00.000-05:00

I suppose I need not have worried, but nonetheless I am very pleased to report that the ESB has matured to the point where it is quite drinkable. It has been conditioning in the bottle for twelve days now, and I believe it will become better still. At this point I cannot taste any residual sweetness that I interpreted as leftover priming sugar when I tasted it last weekend. The flavor has become more bitter (in a good way), more full and complex (both fruit and nuts), and a pleasant finish with no aftertaste. It is also a bit more carbonated.

A few archived BYO articles I read recently:

The specific gravity one in particular helped me understand one possible cause for the low OG. I measured after adding yeast. While I would be surprised if that accounted for all of the discrepancy, it could be a factor. Either way, I can guarantee that the new batch has good alcohol content!

I take my hat off...

2006-03-28T11:13:00.000-05:00

...to this fellow's work. Super photos as well.

Interesting Knews Hound article on beer making from Monday as well.

Young beer

2006-03-25T17:21:00.000-05:00

Well, Lissa and I tried a taste of the ESB today, only one week after bottling, just to see what it would be like. A couple things I noted:

It tasted a little sweet, like there was still some priming sugar in there unfermented
Very soft, light carbonation
I think I detected a bit of the green apple tartness (aldehydes, alcohol precursor) that indicate it needs further conditioning.

I guess the question I have is whether somehow the beer wasn't conditioned enough in the fermenter (which would surprise me - two weeks should be sufficient), or if it just needs more time to age in the bottle. Since I don't have much choice, I am going to age it a bit more (try it next week), and see what I have.

My kit's recipe was:

6.6 lbs. Muntons Light Malt Extract
1/2 lb. Munton & Fison Crystal Malt 60º L
1/2 lb. Briess Toasted
1 1/2 oz. Northern Brewer Hops (Bittering)
1 oz. Fuggles Hops (Finishing)
Wyeast #1275XL Thames Valley Ale Yeast

The interesting thing is that recipes vary quite a bit. ESB recipes from other sources follow:

John Palmer (page down a bit to find recipe)
Stout Billy's
Steve Murphrey
Gambrinus' Mug Evergreen ESB
Skotrat
Tasty Brew
Beertown.org (choose from drop-down)

Given all the variation above (hops, malt, grains, procedure), I am having a little trouble putting my finger on what the unique characteristics of ESB are exactly. Strong hops finish could be part of it. Palmer mentions a butterscotch flavor - which I did not observe in drinking this one, but frankly, I didn't know to look for it.

Have to check for that in a week when I try it again!

Ropey Beer (bad) - secondary fermenter good!

2006-03-23T21:29:00.000-05:00

May we never experience this:

Certainly it is justification for keeping everything really clean. I have the Home Brewers' Journal to thank for reminding me of that article in BYO.

I just bought a secondary fermenter today. Keystone is sending me a new PET plastic carboy tomorrow. The IPA should get brewed tomorrow, and I figure I will rack it to the second fermenter in a week. Should make it a crisper brew because none of the break proteins will be there in the secondary. I might even harvest the yeast for the German Altbier.

Whole new world... :-)

Hydrometer measurements

2006-03-20T15:48:00.000-05:00

I have been wondering about the low original gravity (OG) for the ESB - 1.035. I did not have a specific figure in the recipe for the OG , but given that the wort had six pounds of malt syrup in there, I expected an OG something more like 1.045-1.050 - based on insight from reading backed up by expertise from Karps and Keystone. They said the final gravity (FG) of 1.010 sounded about right. From my reading, 1.015-1.005 is normal for a medium strength beer.

Allan at Karps suggested that the OG measurement might have been thrown off if the sample was well-aerated (which it was). All the bubbles in the solution could have lightened the reading. More to consider for the future - letting the sample settle before taking the OG.

John Palmer's How to Brew has a good appendix on using hydrometers that I will re-read before the next time, but there isn't much troubleshooting info there. Bodensatz has some good hydrometer info in one of their FAQs as well.

Bottling the ESB!

2006-03-18T16:34:00.000-05:00

The bottle-washer is the best invention ever! $9.95 attachment to a faucet (plus $1 hose to kitchen faucet adapter), and you eliminate the effort cleaning bottles. Love it.

And the whole process start to finish took about 3.5 hours. This included 45 minutes for heat sanitizing the bottles. I can credit a few factors for the relatively short time expenditure this second effort:

As always, a great brew-buddy - this time Lissa
Bottles de-labeled in advance - much less exhausting
Better organization, more familiarity with procedure
Bottle washer! (deserves second mention)

I had a little scare with this batch. As with the first, I sanitized everything with C-Brite, according to instructions. When chatting with Keystone, erroneously I mentioned B-Brite, and they said, that is a cleaner, not a sanitizer - and I thought I had not sanitized at all!

That would have been bad. But if it were true, why did the first batch work? The answer is, that I had done it fine after all, but I was scared for a moment that I would open up the ESB to find a massive bacterial infection. Nope, it looked great.

Final Gravity: 1.010 - so alcohol 3.5% - less than expected, but it should be yummy anyway. One week to find out!

Akkadian Beer

2006-03-13T09:46:00.000-05:00

My parents sent me an article from Archaeology Today that includes an ancient beer recipe. Scholars reproduced the brew with fine results!

Good overview on fermentation of alcoholic beverages in Mesopotamia here.

Bodensatz FAQ & BYO 20 Tips for Better Brewing

2006-03-10T15:13:00.000-05:00

Following links from the Homebrewer's Journal, I came across Bodensatz Brewing whose comprehensive Frequently Asked Questions would benefit any beginner brewer.

Brew Your Own magazine's featured article, 20 Tips for Better Brewing has great info as well.

Removing commercial bottle labels

2006-03-09T23:00:00.000-05:00

I have Tony to thank for the following hint to getting bottle labels off: some glues melt better soaked in hot water, and some better in cold. Bottle labels from Dogfish Head, Brooklyn Brewery, and Sam Adams come off fairly easily after soaking for an hour in cold water.

And if anything is really stubborn, a Goo Gone product should do the trick.

Great Homebrew Livejournal

2006-03-09T22:37:00.000-05:00

Found this Home Brewer's Journal during a random search. Very creative and knowledgeable community. Worth a read!

A little about fermentation

2006-03-09T17:18:00.000-05:00

I spoke a bit with Judy from the Keystone Homebrew Supply and she recommended that I leave the ESB in the fermenter for two weeks, and bottle-condition for a minimum of two more weeks.

That surprised me, since with my first batch the pale ale recipe suggested one week in the fermenter and 3-4 weeks of bottle conditioning. So I checked Palmer, and I'm going to go with two weeks in the fermenter this time. In fact, I recommend that anyone extract brewing for the first, second, or hundreth time who has questions on hows and whys, have a look at Palmer Section 1. Once I get around to all-grain brewing, I will likely recommend all the other sections as well.

Palmer's chapter on fermentation (linked above) gives a very clear description of the three phases of fermentation: To make clear the reasons for fermenting for at least two weeks rather than just one, I will summarize the phases briefly here:

Lagtime/Adaptive: In the first 12-24 hrs, yeast will multiply rapidly in an aerobic reaction (aerate your wort well! but only when it is cool!). 24hrs with no activity? Pitch new yeast.
Primary/Attenuative: Once the oxygen is used up, the yeast will anaerobically metabolize sugars to alcohol. This phase lasts 2-6 days for ales, and longer for lagers. In addition to making ethanol the yeast creates several byproducts including carbon dioxide (bubbling in the airlock), acetaldehyde, esters, amino acids, ketones, dimethyl sulfide, fusel alcohols (hangover material) as well as precipitate of wort protein, hop resins, and dead yeast.
Secondary/Conditioning: 1-2 weeks more. Now the yeast converts the remaining sugars and also metabolizes byproducts that could give off smells/flavors (e.g. acetaldehyde - green apple); or cause the beer to go stale quickly (diacetyl and pentanedione - buttery and honey flavors). Fusel alcohols are converted to esters (fruity flavors). Yeast flocculates out, and the beer clears. Time to bottle!

Note: One can choose to rack the wort to a secondary fermenter in the conditioning stage - away from the trub, the exudate in the bottom of the primary (full discussion in Palmer - I'm not doing this yet).

So bottling after only a week means missing out on all the benefits of the conditioning phase. However, do not to leave the wort in the primary fermenter more than three weeks at the outside because the yeast will undergo autolysis. This means the yeast cells themselves break down and release their innards into your beer, ruining it. Very potent rotten egg or burnt rubber smell when you open the fermenter.

I may look into secondary fermenters before I put in my IPA. Certainly the German Altbier kit I have requires it, so I could get some practice!

Belgian

2006-03-08T10:11:00.000-05:00

In NYC at the Chelsea Art Museum on Friday, March 24, 2006 from 6:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. will be the Ultimate Belgian Tasting! Belgian beers are fascinating. A few facts:

Belgian Wit, for example, derives part of its unusual character from dried Curacua orange peel and coriander.
Belgian ale yeast has low flocculation, meaning that yeast tends to stay more in solution; and it has high attenuation (~75%), meaning that relatively more of the fermentable sugars will be converted to alcohol.
Belgian ale yeast is characterized by cherry and banana flavors (esters), and some clove-like tartness (phenols). Fermentation ideally should be at relatively cool ale fermentation temperatures (66-72 degF) with plenty of aeration (or it may taste like bubblegum!).
One unusual Belgian kilned malt, Special B, can add a sweet, roasted nut flavor to beer. More than a 1/2 pound in five gallons can make the beer taste of plum.
Brewing Belgian Lambics requires the unusual step of introducing two strains of carefully cultured lacto-bacteria in the brew. The author on the linked site is clearly quite experienced (and technically proficient) on the subject of yeast culture.
There are many, many varieties of Belgian yeast and beer, so this description really only scratches the surface!

A new general fact I learned recently - you can culture yeast from commercial beer! It is a good way to acquire difficult-to-find yeast strains. My understanding of it is you need three or so bottles, and once drunk (the bottles or you - your choice), sanitize the top of the bottles, extract the yeast sediment (by swirling with water) and pour it into a yeast starter. Voila, you have your Trappist Ale yeast! More info on that when I try it!

Almost forgot to add, here is a great article on Trappist Breweries in the Ale Street News.

Beer can be good for you!

2006-03-06T23:19:00.000-05:00

Check out Scriptorium Scientifica on 3/6/06 to read good news for beer fans! Actually, check it out in general because it is a well-written, informative blog.

ESB brewing lessons learned

2006-03-06T15:37:00.000-05:00

Well, since the ESB's fermentation has been going for over 48 hours now, I know now that there will be beer. Sweet.

Most of my lessons learned have to do with timing. The job took about eight hours, when it should take about half the time or less.

Prepare the water in advance - boiling and cooling take time, but not much baby-sitting.
Activate the yeast at beginning of the brew (or earlier).
Use more ice! I used two 10-lb bags for both brew and water.
Always employ brew buddies! Lissa and Annette made a long job much shorter!
RTFM! Read the directions often! If I had, then I would have remembered the activation bit. It also keeps you from forgetting ingredients. It didn't happen this time, but it might have.

I am surprised at how quickly the beer goes away. No, I didn't drink it all myself - many friends helped. Only twelve bottles left, though. Therefore, I am planning to put in the IPA almost immediately after bottling the ESB. And in 4-5 weeks, there's going to be a lot of beer around here!

ESB - the fermenter is bubbling!

2006-03-04T15:22:00.000-05:00

I have to admit that I was a little worried that the yeast might not have been alive enough to work. The night I bought the ingredients in Bethlehem, I left them overnight in the car (no fridge in the room). If the yeast had frozen, game over. However, the packaging claims 100 billion active cells, so I guess enough of them lived. It took about 5-6 hours, but now the fermenter is happily bubbling away at 75 deg F.

Time to define some terms that I glossed over last night:

Hot break: proteins that clump up and precipitate out of solution during the boil (that foaming the first time the wort comes to a boil)
Cold break: proteins that clump up and precipitate out of solution when the wort is rapidly cooled.

Besides being milestones (i.e. they are supposed to happen), these breaks are the outward signs of chemical changes that are good for the brew. Part of the reason you boil the brew uncovered is to allow this escape of sulfur compounds released in the boil. These compounds (dimethyl sulfides) can lead to off-flavors like cabbage or eggs. The hot break is an indication that some of the bad stuff is boiling out of your beer-to-be.

The cold break is the result of the thermal shock of rapidly cooling the wort from 212 degF to below 80. Slow cooling will not cause the same phenomenon. If the proteins remain in solution, this can lead to "chill haze," (fog when you chill bottled beer). No affect on the flavor, but the cold-break proteins continued presence in solution means the beer may go stale more quickly.

Observing break formation is a good sign because these proteins will eventually settle out of the solution before you bottle, giving a clearer beer.

Technical measurements on the ESB

2006-03-04T04:29:00.000-05:00

Ok I remembered to take initial measurements with the hydrometer this time:

Original Gravity: 1.037 (1.035 @76 degF)
Potential alcohol by volume: 5%
Sugar by weight (balling): 10%

The hydrometer is calibrated for 60 degrees Farenheit, so we add 0.002 according to the chart.

I will have to take a measurement at the end of fermentation, subtract that from this measurement to get the final alcohol percentage. I don't have expected figures in this recipe. So we'll see.

One other thing I am doing differently this time is using vodka for the airlock rather than water. More protection from impurities.

Of course, I forgot to activate the yeast...

2006-03-04T03:58:00.000-05:00

Not a big deal, but I could have saved some time by following the directions in the recipe and activating the yeast at the beginning of this process.

The liquid yeast package has an activator inside the package. You feel around the package to find the activator (a lump within the yeast pack), place a hand over it and smack it to make it break (you will no longer feel a lump). Shake up the yeast to mix in the activator.

In the next 1-3 (or more) hours, the package will swell if the yeast is alive. Cut a corner of the package and pour it into the cooled water waiting in the fermenter. Then pour in the cooled wort ("aggressively" is the advice) to mix.

This is the only time it is good to aerate the beer. Helps the yeast distribute. You could even pour a bit of the wort back into the brew pot and repeat the process (I did).

NYC ESB - The Second Batch!

2006-03-03T23:40:00.000-05:00

It is official! The second batch is in. This batch is an ESB (Extra Special Bitter) and, as I mentioned in previous posts, differs in several respects from the first batch. The recipe contains light malt extract, crystal malt, Briess Toasted malt, Northern Brewer hops for bittering, and Fuggles hops for finishing, plus the requisite water and yeast.

Ingredient differences from the last batch:

Malt syrup only - no malt powder
Crystal and Briess grains were cracked rather than whole
Hops were fresh (whole or plugs), not pellets
Two types of hops, bittering (boiled a long time), and finishing (boiled briefly)
Liquid yeast culture (Wyeast ale yeast)
NYC tap water (filtered, boiled, then cooled) instead of Poland Spring

The brewing methods differed a bit as well. For example, I used twice the steeping bags for grains and hops. Since the ingredients expand a bit, it is better not to crowd them - that means more surface area available to the boiling brew so more flavor can diffuse into solution.

Also, the grains were in the brew for longer this time. Rather than adding the grains once the water had boiled, I added them to the cold water and heated the grain tea slowly to a boil. It took about 45 minutes (the recipe recommended 20-30 minutes).

The finishing hops are a new beast. I am guessing that they are MUCH stronger that the bittering hops, given how little time they spent in the brew pot. Actually, I tasted a little of the liquid that drained from the Fuggles bag and it was a little astringent.

Unlike the first batch, this time I iced the brewpot immediately before adding it to the water in the fermenter. The idea is to minimize the possibility of introducing impurities. The shorter the time between the end of the brew and the beginning of fermentation, the better. I got two bags of ice, but that may not have been enough!

Once the wort is cool enough (less than 78 deg F), I will sanitize the yeast bag and add the yeast.

I think I see the "break" in the wort as the brewpot cools in the ice bath. I remember that there is a hot break and a cold break, and I think that this is the cold break, meaning that there is some precipitation. This is meant to be a good thing, but I don't know why as yet. More later once the fermentation begins.

Historical beer recipes and beer history online

2006-02-26T15:52:00.000-05:00

I am on the tradeshow tour this week, and amusingly enough, our booth has a sound presentation that begins with someone cracking open a brew. In the time between sessions I may have time to post now and again, if not to brew. My wife and my ESB extract brewkit are waiting for me back home. In the meantime, here are some informative websites I have discovered. For example:

The Medieval/Renaissance Brewing Homepage - I particularly like the link to an English beer recipe from 1503!

The American Brewery History Page has plenty of good information on the story of beer in the New World.

More to come!

Beer club web sites

2006-02-25T17:52:00.000-05:00

I have been reading my BYO magazine, and I am really impressed with all the imaginative beer clubs out there. Here are a handful, as mentioned in the March/April issue:

The Urban Knaves of Grain
The Antioch Sud Suckers
The Maltose Falcons Home Brewing Society

Besides having great club names, these guys take real pride in their work, and clearly want to advance the hobby. Lots of accumulated knowledge to be read.

However, for the combination of sheer brilliance AND a sense of humor, check out the Beer Belly. I was left speechless (but chuckling).

2006-02-23T22:38:00.000-05:00

Check it out!

Home Brew Digest

Keystone Homebrew

2006-02-22T21:02:00.000-05:00

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!

Beginning

2006-02-21T17:31:00.000-05:00

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