Posts Tagged “Homebrewing”

I have really come into some good practices in my brewing the last couple or three beers.  I am getting a system down, trying some newer things and having some success.  The Christmas Stout turned out really nice (IMHO) and I will actually get to taste my Rogue Dead Guy clone next weekend.  On Thursday I did a partial mash Rye IPA using a sparge bag and a new method for rinsing the grain and mashing out.  I had issues keeping the mash temp just right, but didn’t lose much on the original gravity.  The Pacman yeast has been bubbling away since Friday afternoon and I look forward to seeing what it has done when I go to dry hop later this week.  This week when I brewed, I started noting some things in my mind that I wish I had known originally, but am very glad I learned.

Sanitation – This is one of the most important things.  Period.  I knew this.  However, what you have to do is get your method for sanitation down.  Know that you are going to make a bad beer when you are starting and the odds are that it will be because you sacrificed something in sanitation.  The best thing to do is get into habits quickly when it comes to sanitizing and cleaning your equipment.  Boil the things you can boil and keep sanitizer handy.  It only takes 15-30 seconds in the sanitizer to re-ready something, so don’t skip it.

Experimentation – Do not ever be scared to try something.  I am not a kit guy.  Kits are absolutely wonderful things and make incredible beers, however, I would rather formulate the recipe myself.  I like the idea of putting different things in beers and I like the thought of hopping beers in a different way than I have had before.  I am not that far along in this area, but I have little fear when it comes to throwing an ingredient in as long as I do my research and learn the ramifications first.  There are tons of places to feed the experimental drive of anyone.  Use Google to your advantage.  Find active communities on the internet that allow you to learn from other brewers.

Software – Speaking of the internet…use it to find some good beer recipe software.  I have used both Strangebrew and Beersmith.  Of the two, Beersmith is far and away a better tool.  Strangebrew is a great tool, especially for beginners because the learning curve for the software itself is not that steep.  The downside to Strangebrew is that it doesn’t seem to be updated anymore.  It feels dated (putting on my software reviewer’s cap here).  Each time you reinstall, for whatever reasons, you have to email the owner in order to get a new code.  It happens quickly, but it’s still a pain.  Beersmith, on the other hand, is sleek and very tight as applications go.  It is easy to use and has a huge database of ingredients from which to build recipes.  Neither application is that expensive, so go buy one now.  You can try both, if memory serves me correctly, for a limited time.

Your System – No two brewers do things the same way.  One of my brewer friends sanitizes the floor, just in case he drops something.  Another started immediately with  a conical fermenter, completely jumping past the typical bucket and carboy setup.  Both have found success, regardless of the differences in methods in comparison to mine.  Everyone will do it different, create different things and inevitably, unless they are just not good, will brew good beer.  The devil is in the details and he can drive you nuts if you worry about how others do their brewing.  Find what works for you.

Perhaps more than anything I have learned was stated in the first book I ever read on the subject.  Charlie Papazian states clearly “Relax.  Don’t worry.  Have a homebrew.”  No truer words have been said when it comes to the wonderful art that is homebrewing beer.

Recently I have turned my attention towards the next inevitable step in a homebrewer’s life.  I have brewed with solely extract kits, delving into partial mashes or steeped grains in the last 3 beers I have created.  I feel I do a good job as far as recipe creation and execution.  I have learned quite a bit recently and made some friends that are incredible resources.  Based on all that, I feel I will be moving to all grain brewing very soon.

I got an interesting call last week, after considering the progress I am making for about a month, and a friend let me know that a local guy had a mash tun for sale for quite a good price.  I immediately headed to meet this guy and spent $30 on a 5 gallon mash tun with a sparger, false bottom and all the needed connections.  I also cashed in some Amazon gift certificates and ordered a small wort chiller.  Combine that with the turkey fryer and pot I have had in my garage for about 2 years and all of a sudden, I am already planning the recipe for my first all grain brew.

Because I like to learn all I can before jumping into things (laugh if you know me), I decided to do some research.  All grain, for someone who has been in what could be considered the “easy” world of extracts, is actually quite daunting.  It is an added degree of difficulty and this in itself makes the threat of making  a bad beer come to life before the first grain is crushed.  There is nothing a newer homebrewer fears more than making a bad beer.  I have made a couple, so it doesn’t bother me as bad as it might others, but I do have some trepidation with moving forward like this.

Luckily, I found some good information on the intertubes to share with anyone who wants to read it.  In theory and in writing, the process is actually pretty easy.  After doing my due diligence, I am truly looking forward to my Frisky Valley Sweet Sassy Molassy IPA.

Please enjoy!

You Wanna Mash?

A “Cooler” Way to Ease into All-Grain Brewing

All Grain Brewing Guide

I haven’t posted here in some time.  I admit that I have neglected both of my blogs.  To be honest, more times than not I just want to drink beer and not think about the taste, smell and all of that so that I can write a post.  I have given into that feeling pretty often.  As well, life, work and everything else has come along and kept me too busy to post here or on QuadrantRush.com.  I sorely want to make this site bigger than it is, but I have had very little contact from people who want to write with me.  This site may dry up completely, but I will do my best to keep it going.

In the meantime, I have had time to do quite a bit of research on homebrewing and food/beer pairings.  In the last month I have really been focusing in on what I want to do as far as homebrewing.  It has been casual for about 2 years with it kicking up to a more serious state the last few months.  I brewed the Irish Christmas Stout that I mentioned previously and tastings so far have revealed that I really did this one right.  I am very happy with it.  That doesn’t mean too much given that I am biased, so I look forward to others trying it out.

My wife took a bigger role in brewing a small batch and is claiming our Blackberry Red Ale as her own.  It is in primary fermentation this week.  I will move it to secondary this weekend and add the blackberries.  It is already sweet because of the honey we added during the boil, so I expect it to be quite tasty when we are finished.  In the pipelines I am trying to decide between a Double IPA, using some of the 4 ounces of whole leaf cascade hops I was given OR a Cranberry Wit.  I do know that in January or February we are considering a mead.  So any suggestions there would be cool.

I attended my first meeting of the State of Franklin Homebrewers club last night.  It was truly enlightening and one of the most interesting nights I have spent discussing beer and, in general, getting to know some new people.  I look forward to future meetings and plan on joining the group next month.  I look forward to brewing in the coming year just because I know I will have a wealth of knowledge I can draw from going forward.  If you are local to the Tri-Cities, I would suggest you follow the link above and check the group out.

Again, if you are reading this and feel the need to write about beer, brewing or food pairing, please email me at ernpacATgmailDOTcom and I will add you to the site so you can start posting immediately.

I am a huge fan of homebrewing my own tasteful delights.  I currently am priming an apple cider and a Dunkel-Weisse.  I am secondary fermenting about a gallon of the Dunkel-Weisse after adding about 4 oz of honey to it.  It should push the yeast into producing a little more of an alcohol kick and provide some sweetness.  2 weeks from now I will get to open the DW and taste it in its bottled primed glory and it just might suck, but I always enjoy making them.  If the yeast works well, I will bottle it in a couple weeks and am a little over a month away from seeing what the experiment rendered.  Again, it could suck completely…who knows!

There are a couple things that people like me forget to tell people when they ask that inevitible question “So…can I homebrew?”  Our answer is always “Yes!  Anyone can!” and it’s true.  However, there are some strict caveats that you must consider before you decide to get in on the goodness of brewing your own beers.  Whether you start out with a Mr Beer or go the way of straight extract brewing with a kit or whatever, you have to consider these things before you start doing it.

1.  You have to enjoy cleaning.  Well, not really enjoy, because I HATE it, but you have to be willing to do it.  It is tedious, monotonous and sucks.  Cleaning the equipment, boiling this and that, sanitizing everything that will touch the beer and keeping it all laid out on the counter so you don’t knock crap over while working is very important.  If you don’t clean it right and keep it clean and then sanitize it, the beer suffers.

2.  You need room to move both on brewing day and on bottling day.  I have done this in tiny kitchens and now in the largest kitchen I have had and I still find myself struggling for space.  I understand why hardcore homebrewers create an area in a garage or elsewhere to do this.  Bottling requires you be able to put your bottling bucket above the level of the bottles so that the siphoning works and it requires that you be able to lay out enough bottles for your batch.  This is one reason I moved to smaller batches until I can put a sink and some counter space in the garage.

3.  You have to be both deliberate and patient.  Being deliberate in measurements, watching temperatures and preparing things for the boil is necessary and what you end up boiling isn’t a drinkable beer, so you have to be patient.  Some beers can take 3 months or more to be ready to drink.  The quickest you will have a beer is 3 weeks or so.  Be ready to wait.

It doesn’t matter if you have a Mr Beer kit (which by the way is a great way to learn and does produce some decent results) or whether you are an all grain mash brewer with top of the line equipment.  You will have these same expectations.  The only way it changes is that the bigger your rig gets, the more you can make, experiment and clean.