Do You Even Oak, Bro?

(Oak-aging beer)

If you’re like me, you can’t get enough of barrel-aged beers.  I love drinking them and I love brewing them.  Barrel-aging adds wonderful complexity to beer.  It can impart flavors from whatever was originally aged in the barrel (i.e. Bourbon, wine, rum, etc…).  I don’t, however, have the need or an interest in purchasing and maintaining oak barrels.

We, as homebrewers, can “cheat” our way into the barrel-aging craze.  There are multiple ways to impart that woody goodness and most are simpler and faster than traditional barrel-aging.

Oak Extract and Oak Powder:  While very quick and convenient, this method is not my favorite.  It’s somewhat unpredictable what sort of oak character you’ll get and whatever character you do get, I find to be 1-dimensional.

Oak Chips:  Oak chips are nice because they’re relatively quick in extracting the oak character (about 2 weeks for full extraction), they’re affordable and there are a variety of toasts and countries of origin available.  The downside is that, again, because they’re so thin, you don’t get a whole lot of depth to the oak flavor.

Oak Cubes:  Like chips, cubes are affordable and offer variety.  The’re a bit thicker, so they tend to offer up a little more complexity.  They do take a bit longer than the aforementioned barrel alternatives (about 4-6 weeks for full extraction), but worth the wait if you have the time and patience.

Oak Spirals or Staves:  I’ve never worked with staves, but oak spirals are my favorite means of oaking beer.  The’re about 1″ in diameter so you’ve got a good level of depth to the oak flavor, but the spiraling also creates large surface area so extraction of all that depth of wood is relatively quick.  I’ve heard it said spirals can take up to 20 weeks, but I’ve gotten fantastic results with a booze tincture soak for 1 week and 6-8 weeks in the beer.  Again – you can get spirals in American, French or Hungarian oak varieties and with various levels of toast.

My Method:

As mentioned above, I typically use oak spirals, but with spirals, chips or cubes I follow the same procedure.  I decide which sort of barrel I’d like to emulate, break the spirals in halves or thirds and put them in a mason jar to soak for a week in whichever type of booze-character I’m trying to emulate.  Bourbon is typical, but I’ve done rum, port, vodka (very neutral) and tequila.

Once the week-long soak is completed, I dump the tincture (oak and booze) straight into the beer to finish extraction.

This method speeds extraction due to the high level of alcohol the wood is exposed to for the first week and it simultaneously sanitizes.

If you’re doing a smaller beer, dumping a bunch of booze in may not be an option.  In this case I would recommend steaming the oak to sanitize or brewing an oak tea where the oak is steeped in hot (160-170F) water for 20 minutes or so, then the wood and liquid are added to the beer.

See the below varieties and what my research and drunken experiments have found to be common aromas and flavors for each.

Oak Varieties:

American:
American oak tends to be “bolder” than French or Hungarian.  More coffee and smokey flavors are present.

• Light Toast – Vanilla, dill, coconut
• Medium Toast – Vanilla, honey, caramel, toast, nutty, strong coconut, coffee, cocoa
• Medium Plus Toast – Similar to Medium with more vanilla and fuller mouthfeel
• Heavy Toast – Strong coffee, caramelized sugar, smoke, vanilla

French:
French oak tends to have a perceived sweetness.  Spicy & fruity flavors are typical.

• Light Toast – Vanilla, caramel, spice
• Medium Toast – Cedar, cigar box, milk chocolate, spice
• Medium Plus Toast – Vanilla, honey, nutty, a little roasty
• Heavy Toast – Cedar, charcoal, Asian spice, dark fruit

Hungarian:
Hungarian oak is known for high amounts of vanilla and hints of leather.

• Light Toast – Vanilla, herbal, sweet spice
• Medium Toast – Strong vanilla, coffee, cocoa, black pepper
• Medium Plus Toast – Strong vanilla, cocoa, slight smoke and coffee
• Heavy Toast – Strong spice, vanilla, butterscotch, toffee, molasses

Previous Article:  “Converting All-Grain to Extract”

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How To Convert All-Grain to Extract

Below is a simple chart for converting All-Grain to Extract (or vice versa).  You’ll need to understand the make-up of the extract in question in order to get your results as close to the original recipe as possible.

Some things to keep in mind:

* Most extracts contain some dextrine or crystal malts to help with head retention and provide color.

* Specialty extracts (wheat, rye, etc…) have varying ratios of the advertised specialty malt to barley.  Check the manufacturer website for exact figures and use these numbers in your calculations.

* The below chart figures an efficiency of about 70% and uses round figures.  It is not 100% exact, but it should get you close.  You may need to adjust according to your actual brewhouse efficiency.

Next Article:  “Do You Even Oak, Bro” Guide to oak-aging beer.

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How To Make the Leap To All Grain Brewing:

(everything you need to get started)

At some point most every extract brewer considers making the leap to all grain.  And why not?  It’s cheaper, gives you more control over the end product and provides you with a real sense of having made something truly from scratch.  Did I mention no more sticky arms from adding DME to your kettle??

It can be a scary transition for some, however.  There is a lot of new equipment and science that needs to be learned… or is there?  I thought about it for several months before finally just diving in.  What I found was the processes and equipment needed really weren’t all that different.

Some of the Science & It’s Practical Application:

Below is a list of terms you’ve no doubt heard in your homebrewing studies.

Grist – Another word for grain bill.

Mash Tun – A vessel used for mashing (synonymous with “steeping”) grains.  In homebrewing, this vessel is often a converted cooler.

Mash - The process in which grains are steeped for a period of time at a specific temperature and a specific ratio of water to pounds of grain.  The temperature and ratio of water activate enzymes in your base malt (often 2-row) which break down the complex carbohydrates in the grains to fermentable sugars.  You can think of this process as turning your grains into your extract.

The generally accepted ratio of water to grains is 1-2 quarts of water per pound of grain.  The temperature range is 140F – 168F, lower temps = dryer beer while higher temps caramelize more of the sugars resulting in a sweeter end product (either end of the range would be considered extreme… rarely will you mash below 148 or above 160).  Typical mash times range from 60-90 minutes.

Hot Liquor Tank (HLT) – Simply a vessel used to contain and/or heat water (called liquor in this case… because why not take something simple and make it more confusing?).

Sparge – This process is simply rinsing your mashed grains with hotter water (typically around 168F)  in an effort to leave behind as little fermentable sugar as possible.  This can be done by gently pouring water over the top of the grain bed as the mash tun slowly drains, a device called a sparge arm can be used to automate the process or, in brew in a bag situations (I’m not a big fan of this process, but it’s effective if you have space limitations) batch sparging where the entire batch is dunked in clean water like a tea bag.

Before starting the sparge I typically gather the first gallon or so from the mash and pour it back into the tun as it tends to have a fair amount of particles from the grain.   Normally you don’t want to disturb the grain bed during the sparge.  Allow your mash tun to slowly drain into your brew kettle while gently adding your sparge water over the top.  Try to maintain an inch or so of liquid on top of the grain bed to help maintain temp.   Continue running until you’ve reached your desired volume (your full final volume plus whatever you expect to boil off).  The transfer into your boil kettle and sparge should take about 20-30 minutes for a 5-gallon batch.

Brew In A Bag (BIAB) – Pretty much what it sounds like… your mash is contained within a food safe bag (paint strainers work great).  Much like brewing a big pot of tea.  As I mentioned above, I’m not a huge fan of this particular process, but for some it’s the only option either because of kettle size constraints or space in general.

Efficiency - Your efficiency is a measurement of how effectively your equipment and process are at extracting the potential fermentable sugars from the grains.  Around 70-75% tends to be pretty average.  Efficiency will vary slightly based on the amount of grain used and the size of the mash tun (as well as the surface area of the mash).  Larger grain bills will typically result in lower efficiency.

Step By Step:

Step 1)  Select your grain bill.  Unlike your previous extract brews, you’ll need to include (usually) 60-100% base male.  The most common base malt is Pale Malt (2-row).   Base malts contain the enzymes necessary to break down the complex carbohydrates from your entire grain bill into fermentable sugars.

There are many other base malts to choose from depending on your desired flavor.  I’ll cover these as well as many of the specialty grains available to you in a later article.

Step 2)  Mill the grains.  The goal here is to have as many of the grain husks cracked open as possible without creating flour.  While a fine mill may result in a higher efficiency, it’s not all about having the most efficient brew – it’s about having a tasty brew.  Additionally, over-milling can result in a doughy mash which, in turn, can become a stuck (clogged) mash/sparge.  Most commercial breweries aim for under 80% efficiency (while they could certainly get close to 100) because beyond that you may start extracting undesired flavors.

Step 3)  Calculate the volume and temperature of your strike water (mash water).  You’re aiming for somewhere between 140-168F in your final mash temp, though likely not either extreme.  For a basic ale, lets assume a mash temp of 148F-154.   Remember, the temperature of your grain as well as the internal temperature of your mash tun will cause a reduction in the temperature of the strike water.  There are several tools available to help calculate this (I use BeerSmith).

Your volume of strike water should be about 1.25 quarts of water per pound of grain.  I like 1.25 because it allows me room to make adjustments by adding either boiling or cold water to hit my target mash temp precisely.

Your 2-row is happiest in a pH of around 5.2.  It is this pH that activates the debranching enzymes which you need to break down the complex carbohydrates to fermentable sugars.  If you want non-alcoholic grain drink feel free to ignore this… seriously though, I’ve never needed to make a water adjustments to get to my pH nor do I bother testing the pH.  The grains do a pretty good job of getting within the 5.2 range all by themselves unless your water is really basic (alkaline).

There is a product on the market called 5.2 which (through magic, I can only assume) claims to stabilize mash water at a consistent… you guessed it – 5.2 pH.  I’ve never experimented with it myself and there seem to be mixed reviews.

Another option if you’re water is too basic (meaning the pH is too high) would be a small addition of acidulated malt to your grain bill.

Step 4)  Mash in.  Infuse your strike water into your grains in your mash tun.  Make sure it is well mixed and take a temperature reading.  If your temp is low you can add a little boiling water to increase it.  If it’s high, add a little cold water to reduce it.  Mash times can vary, but 75 minutes seems to be generally accepted for most brews.  A taste of the mash now vs. 75 minutes from now should be very different.  It should taste like liquid bread now, but will turn extremely sweet once conversion has completed.

Step 5)  Prepare your sparge water.  The most common temp for sparge water is around 168F.  You don’t want to go much higher or you’ll start to extract unwanted tannins from the grain husks.  Remember you’re going to have some thermal loss when you transfer your water into your HLT (sparge tank).  I usually heat my sparge water to around 178F.  You will learn what works best for your specific equipment given a little experience.  Adjustments can always be made with boiling or cold water.

Step 6)  Once conversion is complete you can begin your sparge.  Run out the first gallon or so of the wort and gently pour it back into the mash tun.  Once the wort pours mostly clear you can allow it to slowly drain into your boil kettle.

Whether manually infusing your sparge water through a hose or gently pouring it over the top of the grain bed or using a sparge arm to automate the process, the goal is to leave the grain bed undisturbed and maintain a thermal blanket by keeping an inch or so of water on top of the bed.  The grain bed will actually act as a filter and help keep particles out of your kettle.  Continue this process until you’ve collected enough wort to compensate for trub loss and boil-off.

Step 7)  Begin your boil.  That’s it!  Now it’s business as usual except you won’t have to worry about extract additions (unless your recipe calls for them).

So to dumb the whole process down, you will be steeping (mashing) grains for about an hour, rinsing them (sparging) and then starting your boil as normal.  Not so scary, huh?

There are loads of do-it-yourself videos on the web for virtually all the equipment you’ll need.  Here is a list of what you’ll need to either build or purchase:

Mash Tun – Usually a cooler (often 10-gallon Home Depot water coolers, though I’ve converted larger, rectangular coolers as well) fitted with a ball valve and either a false bottom or stainless steel filter to keep the grain junk out of your wort.

HLT / Sparge Tank – This can be either another cooler with ball valve (no filter necessary) or a second kettle.

Sparge Arm (optional) – A sparge arm slowly and automatically spritzes your sparge water over the top of your grain bed.  You can do this manually, but you’ll need to be gentle and expect to spend some time standing over your steamy mash tun.

Thermometer – I’m pretty sure you know what this does.  One thing to keep in mind as you heat your strike and sparge water is that the temperature of your HLT & Mash Tun as well as your dry grains will absorb some heat causing it to drop in temp.  I find that BeerSmith is relatively accurate at calculating and compensating for this heat loss.

Thanks for reading!  I hope this took some of the mysticism out of all grain brewing.  Please let me know if I missed anything or if I can give further clarification.  Until next time!

Next Article:  “Converting All-Grain to Extract”

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My intro post can be found here:

>>Click here to read Intro & My First Home Beer Brewing Kit

From there you can navigate forward using the Archive on the right side of the page.

What Should I Buy?

(everything new brewers need to get started)

Since diving headlong into this new addiction, I’ve annoyed a lot of people with my constant Facebook updates. I’ve also intrigued some.  People have started asking me how to go about getting started and what is the minimum equipment they should have.

This article assumes you will be starting out brewing extract beers.  I recommend you start with extract unless you have an experienced all-grain brewer helping you as it is an easier way to get comfortable with the brew process.  Extract is faster, requires less equipment and still produces delicious beer.

If you read my first post you know that I started with a $100 kit for Christmas.  You also know I immediately began purchasing additional equipment.  I’ve since lost my job, my car, sold my house and pimped out my girlfriend to cover the costs of my “hobby”.  Okay – only some of those are true.

This post will give you my opinion of what equipment is absolutely necessary and what equipment might make life a lot easier, but you can get away with not purchasing (or building) right away.

I’ve included links to view and/or purchase this equipment from my preferred online brew supply store, Adventures In Home Brewing.

1)  Fermentation & Bottling Vessels – Buckets, Carboys & Accessories:

 

Obviously you need somewhere to ferment your beer.  The standard beginner setup would be a 7.8 gallon primary fermentation bucket and a second, smaller (6 or 6.5 gallon) bottling bucket with spigot.  While you can get away with just a single bucket, you may have some issues with the clarity of your beer if you’re bottling off the puddle to sludge (aka trub) that settles after fermentation.  In my opinion, a second vessel is required.

You’ll need a grommetted lid and an airlock for your primary to keep contaminants out.

Additionally, you may opt to purchase buckets and carboys in different sizes to act as secondary vessels and for different size batches.  The more the merrier.

When racking to a secondary, remember that oxygen is not your friend.  Reducing head space to a minimum, by racking to a vessel that holds very close to the exact volume of wort to be racked is ideal (unless continuing fermentation in secondary through adjuncts like fruit or added sugars/fermentables which will create a new CO2 blanket).

Note – I don’t generally rack to secondary unless doing long-term, bulk aging or adding new fermentables like fruit.  There is a lot of debate about the benefits of secondary, but the recent consensus seems to be that it’s unnecessary and I agree with the consensus.

Required:

7.8 Gallon Primary Fermenting Bucket (with grommetted lid)
6.5 Gallon Secondary / Bottling Bucket (hole cut for spigot)
Airlock (I use 3-piece, any standard airlock is fine)
Spigot (for bottling)
Racking Cane & Siphon Hose (for transferring between vessels)

Heat Pad (if you need warmer fermentation than your room temp)
Glass Carboys (varying sizes available)
Auto Siphon (makes racking MUCH easier)
Adhesive Thermometers (for monitoring fermentation temps)

Brewing Equipment:

At minimum you’ll need a place to boil your wort.  Any large stainless steel (or aluminum) pot will do.  Beyond that there are a lot of nifty gadgets that can save time and reduce the risk of contaminants getting into your cooling concoction and make cleanup easier.

Required:

Stainless Steel Brew Pot (the bigger the better… less chance of a boiled-over mess).  I started with a 5-gallon stock pot on the kitchen stove and pretty quickly upgraded to an 8 gallon turkey fryer pot and burner for outdoor brewing.  When I decided to go all-grain, a big boy pot was required.  The “brewery” (read: garage) currently has a keggle (which is a half barrel keg converted into a brew kettle) and (2) 16 gallon stainless steel brew kettles.  I personally prefer the commercially purchased kettles over the keggle.  They really don’t cost that much more, require no modifications and they are a lot lighter.

Long Plastic or Stainless Steel Spoon (do you need to ask?)
Muslin Bags (kinda like tea bags for hops and grains to keep the mess out of your wort)
Wort Chiller (cools your wort to pitching temp very quickly…  adapter may be needed**)
Strainer (scoop the floaties off your wort before it is put into the fermentation vessel)
Floating Thermometer (for monitoring mash/steeping temps)
Scale (for weighing ingredients)

3)  Cleaning & Sanitizing:

When it comes to brewing successfully, cleanliness is godliness.  The best beer in the world can easily be ruined with poor sanitation practices.  You will, at least, need a sanitizing concentrate for your bottles, buckets and anything that comes in contact with your beer/wort. I’m sure you’ve got sponges and rags kicking around that can be used for basic cleanup.  Spray bottles are great for misting sanitizer onto surfaces and equipment.  If recycling bottles (they aren’t cheap), there are a bunch of accessories which I think border on required, but I will list as optional.

Required:

Sanitizer (I use StarSan)

Cleanser (you don’t want to use regular soap. OxyClean Free can work, however.)
Bottle Tree (hang clean bottles upside down to dry)
Bottle Washer (blasts inside of bottles with water from your tap… adapter may be needed**)
Carboy Washer (makes it easy to spray out gunk from the bottom of your carboys)
Vinator Bottle Washer (shoots sanitizer solution into your bottles)
Bottle Brush (for scrubbing out dirty bottles… they come in carboy size as well)

4)  Bottling:

Whether you buy them or recycle and reuse them, you need bottles (unless, of course you’re kegging).  There are a few different types.  I’ll list all as optional since you may or may not opt to purchase them brand new, but rather acquire them in other ways. A typical 5 gallon batch will fill roughly 50 bottles.  As for the actual process of bottling, you’ve got your bucket with spigot above.  Otherwise, caps and a way to apply them and a bottling wand with a small piece of tubing is all you need.

Required:

Caps (varying colors available)
Bottle Capper (there are different types… I use the red one)
Bottling Wand (easily fill bottles without splashing and stop when full with spring tip)

12 Ounce Glass Bottles (brown is preferred as it keeps light out)
Growlers (varying sizes and colors)
Swing Top Bottles (I recycle Grolsch bottles)
Growler Caps (varying sizes)
Replacement Swing Tops (gaskets are available separately as well)
Cases (milk crates and empty commercial beer cases/boxes work fine)

5)  Testing & Miscellaneous:

You’ll want to be able to calculate your beer’s alcohol content and monitor fermentation progress.  While you can just drop your sanitized hydrometer right in your fermenter, it’s recommended you extract a sample to reduce the risk of contamination and to get a clearer, more accurate read.

Required:

Hydrometer (for measuring gravity and calculating alcohol content)

Brewing Software – I use Beersmith to help me with recipe formulation
Test Jar (holds a beer sample for hydrometer reading)
Thief (this nifty gadget allows you to remove a small sample from a bucket or carboy)
Stir Plate – Yeast Starter Kit

(One one thing I learned early on is that pitching a healthy yeast colony is crucial to brewing good beer.  A stir plate setup allows you to quickly build a healthy yeast colony from a yeast starter. I recommend against using an airlock with the starter, however.  You want air exchange as the colony reproduces.  A sanitized piece of foil placed loosely over the top is better or they make foam stoppers which can be pushed into the flask opening).

** Watch out for those adapters! Mine put about a dozen bloody razor blade slices in my hand before I even knew it was happening.  I now use a rubber kitchen glove anytime I need to remove or attach it.

I hope you found this helpful.  Please feel free to share with your friends.  If you think I missed something that should be on this list, please let me know!  Until next time…

Next Article:  “How To:  Going All Grain”

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My First Taste!

I’ve been reading a lot about when I can expect my first brew to be ready for drinking.  In my reading I’ve seen a number of people suggest that newbies to the beer brewing hobby (like me) should take samples along the way to get a feel for how a beer ages and matures.

As you know, my beer went into bottles about a week and a half ago.  I let them age for 1 week in a dark, cool closet in the basement.  After that week was up, they were moved into a mini fridge.

Today I finally gave in and took a sample.  Upon opening it, I was greeted with a friendly hiss and bubbles climbing up the neck.  Yay!  Carbonation!

I poured the bottle into a glass to see what my beer looks like.  You could literally float a cap on this head and the color was a gorgeous, cloudy, amber-brown.

 Or is that caramel-copper-brown??

The beer had a pleasant smell.  Not overly hoppy and a bit yeasty or bready and sweet to the nose.

The taste was bitter and earthy, though not much upfront hop flavor.  The finish (that would be a fancy word for aftertaste) was very yeasty.  Probably not a beer I would buy at the liquor store more than once, but again – it’s still very premature.

I think it’s safe to assume that over the next couple weeks my brew will continue to mature.  Some of the yeastiness will give way to other more subtle flavors and I may end up with a really tasty drink!

Edit - It didn’t last long enough to find out.  It was all imbibed within 3 weeks.  Hopefully you have more willpower than I did!

Up Next:

In my next adventure I begin my first 2-stage fermentation and create my own custom recipe for an Irish Mocha Stout!!

Please bookmark this blog and share this blog with your friends!

It’s Bottling Time!

In my last post we went over some of the things I’d learned up to the fermentation process.  The learning doesn’t stop there.  Though it sounds a simple enough task, bottling my beer became a whole new challenge.

Most home brewed beer is bottle conditioned and aged.  In this process sugar is added to the fermented wort and then sealed in bottles.  The yeast in the beer goes to town on the new supply of sugar and creates the bubbles (CO2) and clarifies the beer over the course of weeks or months.

The excessive bubbles are the only way you can tell this is beer and not pee.

1. Sanitize Tools

I mentioned previously that my “dual purpose” fermenting/bottling bucket was in fact, not dual purpose.  So, I will be siphoning the beer out of this bucket and into a new bottling bucket I ordered.

Here are the tools I’ll be using:

Racking cane
Siphon / Racking hose
Bottling Bucket (with spigot)
Bottle capper

Had I done this right, I’d be using my “Theif” to extract a bit of the beer and my hydrometer to calculate the alcohol content.  But, as previously mentioned, I neglected to take a hydrometer reading before pitching the yeast, so a more manual method will be used…. Drink until I fall down.  Then try to remember how many beers it took.  I can compare these results with those of a beer with known alcohol content and calculate accordingly.

Based on my calculations, this beer is 5.4% but the urinal cake could be skewing things.

2. Sanitize Bottles & Caps

In my last post I gave you some shortcuts.  One of those was using the dishwasher on high temp wash and sanitizing rince to easily sanitize your bottles.  Caps can be boiled or soaked in a cheap vodka or no-rinse sanitizer solution (or, if you’re me, you can forget to sanitize them altogether and hope your beer isn’t spoiled).

Edit – While I’ve found this method to be great for initial sanitizing after de-labeling and de-molding recycled bottles, I will be using StarSan no-rinse sanitizer and a vinator bottle washer.  It really isn’t much more effort and it’s the right way to sanitize your beer bottles.

This method is at least as simple and proven fail-proof.

We’ll get to my excuse for forgetting to sanitize the caps in a minute.  For now, just know that you should.

Dishes are done!

3. Prepare Priming Sugar

In most cases this is done by boiling a couple cups of water and dissolving corn (aka brewer’s) sugar in it (usually between 3-5 ounces for 5 gallons, but follow your recipe).  It was suggested to me that this solution be dumped into the bottom of the bottling bucket and the siphon hose be sort of curved or half coiled to create a whirlpool effect.  This “whirlpool” will allow the sugar to be evenly mixed with the beer as it siphons in.

Yeah.  That’s dissolved sugar.  Not every picture can be of a guy in urinal.

4. Siphon
Now we use our racking cane to siphon beer out of the fermenting bucket and into the bottling bucket.  The bottom of the cane has a little foot which is intended to hold the siphon above the nasty puddle of sludge at the bottom of your fermenting bucket.  Once I got the siphon started, this was no problem.  There was a fair amount of swearing involved in starting the siphon in a sanitary manner, however.  I’ve since ordered an Auto Siphon.  This should result in a drastic reduction of obscenities.

Splashing is bad as it introduces oxygen and potential contaminants into the beer, so your partially coiled siphon hose in the bottom of the bucket is ideal for this reason as well.

Stop looking at the box of wine… I never claimed to have class!

5. Bottle & Cap

I’ve never used a bottle capper before, so I figured I’d test this red contraption out.  At a glance it seems simple enough.  Place the cap on the magnet in the capper, place the capper on the bottle, squeeze.  Yeah… that’s how it’s supposed to work.  I spent 15 minutes without a single success before turning to internet videos for help.  They, of course, showed exactly what I was doing.

I’m pretty sure I invented some new swear words here.  Now I’ve got 5 gallons of beer that won’t make it into bottles because I don’t possess the necessary coordination to cap… wait, what’s this brass thing?

Hmm… it has a jagged piece of red plastic on it.  That’s the same color red as the cap… Damn it!  It’s broken!  (The company who sold us this kit will be receiving a not-so-nice email).

How many 4-letter words do you know?  I bet I have you beat.

 
I now know that the piece that was broken off is called the “bell housing”.  When super glue failed to have the necessary bond I opted to try just positioning the housing and cap over the bottle and guiding the capper down onto the bottle.  By the grace of all that is holy, it worked!

I don’t think there are any videos on the internet for this.

 
Yes – the above is why I forgot to sanitize the caps.  After all this, I pray that the beer gods will smile upon me and not harm my beer!  We’ll find out in a few weeks.

Edit – They did!

Anyway – At this point I’m exhausted and the lady friend is ready to have me committed.  Fortunately it was smooth sailing from here.  She bottled the beer (leaving no more than an inch and a half of air in the neck) and I capped.  We ended up with about 2 cases.

My drinking problem means she can’t afford pants without holes.

 
The beer was transported to a closet in the basement for a week and then moved to a mini fridge to continue to age for another 2-3 weeks.  I should have (drinkable?) beer just in time for the Super Bowl.

Edit – Your beer should be left for a MINIMUM of 2.5 weeks at room temp to properly carbonate and condition.

It may not look like much, but this nearly killed me!

Up Next:

In my next adventure I begin my first 2-stage fermentation and create my own custom recipe for an Irish Mocha Stout!!

Please bookmark and share this blog with your friends!

Next Article:  “My First Taste of Homebrewed Beer!“

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What I’ve Learned:

I dove headlong into brewing with no past experience and only limited guidance.
Naturally, hindsight being 20/20, I made some mistakes and I’ve learned some things.

My hope is this post will help you to:

1. Not make the same mistakes I did.
2. Learn some shortcuts and ways to save money.

1.  Learn from my mistakes!

#1  Hydrometer Readings

Take a hydrometer reading before pitching your yeast and sealing the wort up in your fermenter.  I didn’t and now I will not be able to accurately determine the alcohol content of my first beer.  Here is a great article with very detailed instructions:  http://mikesbrewreview.com/how-to-use-a-hydrometer/

ABV Calculation:
OG = Original Gravity
FG = Final Gravity

(OG – FG) * 131 = ABV%

Example:
OG = 1.055
FG = 1.010

(1.055-1.010) * 131 = 5.895%

#2 Equipment

Be sure you have ALL the equipment you will need before you get started.  I love my new equipment kit, but upon discussing my project with my new friends at www.homebrewtalk.com and what I’ve picked up from my reading it would seem I’d have a pretty nasty beer if I used the combo fermenting / bottling bucket for both purposes.  I’d have been okay if I’d fermented in the 6 gallon carboy that came with the kit, but I didn’t.  I’ve since ordered a new bottling bucket which I will siphon beer into from the combo bucket at bottling time.  It’s not a total loss, however. I intend to run more than one batch of beer at a time, so the added equipment will be useful.

Edit – There are probably upwards of 20 various, available fermenting, conditioning and bottling vessels in my garage 1 year after this was written.  Beware – this IS an addiction.

Take a look at my new “Buy Equipment” page for some great starter kits.

#3 This Is Addicting! 

 

#1  Save Money on Bottles

After paying nearly $30 for the bottles I’d need for my first batch, I decided to find a more economical route.  After all, if (when) I brew more than one batch at a time, I’ll need more bottles.  It’s also safe to assume some bottles won’t be returned or will break.

What was my trick?  I put on layers of my best filthy ripped clothes, a dirty knit hat, fingerless gloves, found a shopping cart, and walked around the city picking bottles up out of ditches and trashcans.

Will work for booze!

Actually, I just went to the local redemption center and asked them if I could buy some bottles from them.  They agreed to let me take whatever I wanted for $0.15 per bottle… roughly 1/4 of what I paid for the new bottles (you can ask at your local liquor store too or just save your empties).

UPDATE (June 2013) – As of the end of February I now have nearly 75 Grolsch Bottles and 10 cases of brown bottles all cleaned and de-labeled.  This was a combination of saving my own empties and what I was able to find at the redemption center.

UPDATE (December 2013) – I’ve pretty much stopped using the Grolsch bottles (green glass is not great at light filtering). I was able to cut a win/win/win deal with my local homebrew supply store. They gave me about $0.75 store credit per Grolsch bottle. In turn, they sold them for a decent profit, but still at a savings to their customers vs. purchasing new swing-top bottles at $2-$4 each.

Total cost savings is somewhere in the $250-$300 range (plus store credit)… not bad for a half hour here and there over 2 months.

 

#2  Bottles From The Redemption Center Are Gross!

Great, so I found a way to save money on bottles… Moldy bottles with a little bit of a stranger’s backwash in each one.  Now I have to make these something I want in my mouth.

I never liked Sam’s Oktoberfest.  Maybe it’s better this way?

Here’s how I cleaned & sanitized them:

1. Submerge bottles in deep basin sink filled with hot water.
2. Put about 1 scoop up to the “1” line of Oxy Clean per 3-4 gallons of water in the sink.*
3. Allow bottles to soak for 30-40 minutes.
4. Easily peel labels off and wipe off glue/residue with (soap-free) stainless steel scrubber pad.
5. Use bottle brush to scrub out inside of bottles.  I bent mine in the middle so I could easily spin it with my finger and hang it over the edge of the sink.
6. Rinse thoroughly (I bought a bottle washer similar to this one).

This task sucks, but if you are willing to put the effort in, you’ll have clean, reusable bottles at a fraction of the cost of new.

 

*Edit – Do not over-soak in the Oxy Clean solution or it will create a residue that is virtually impossible to get off… one more mistake of mine you can learn from.  I now exclusively use PBW for cleaning all my homebrew stuff.

Should this happen to you, a soak in a vinegar/water bath will remove the (beer stone?) residue.

Finally they went into the dishwasher (no detergent) on High Temp Wash and Sanitizing Rinse… a great shortcut if you have a dishwasher with these options.

I hear you can clean plates and stuff in here too.

 

UPDATE – There is some debate on the effectiveness of using the dishwasher to sanitize as everyones’ water runs at different temps and it can be difficult for the hot water to make it into the bottles’ narrow openings.

 

I’ve since purchased a Vinator Bottle Washer which I fill with StarSan solution and use immediately before bottling.

 

NOTE – If your bottles don’t have mold or sediment in them you can give them a 30 minute bath in a mix of baking soda and hot water and the labels peel just as easily.  This does NOT sanitize or work well with really dirty bottles, however.

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#3 Drink Grolsch

Grolsch bottles are freakin’ awesome.  They have that nifty, flip top thing, they’re fancy looking and they’re perfect for bottling a pint (just shy, actually) of home brew.  Fliptop bottles sell for $1-$2 each or you can get them for $2.50 filled with not-terrible beer.  I’ve opted for the latter.  It’s all I’ve bought for the last week and my collection is coming along nicely.

Edit – Green glass is not ideal.  It allows too much light to get into the bottle.  If you use green glass be sure to store your bottles out of the light.  I now only use Grolsch bottles for quick transport of kegged beer.

The only problem is it’s so much fun opening them I can’t stop drinking!

 

#4 Use Water Jugs As Carboys

Yep – those water cooler jugs can be re-purposed for making beer.  There is some debate on this topic, but the general consensus is that this is a safe, cheap alternative to expensive glass carboys.  The catch is you need to be sure you’re using a safe plastic.  Look at the bottom of the jug and figure out what type of plastic it’s made of (the number inside the recycling triangle thing).

Here is a link explaining the different types of plastics and which are considered safe www.wikihow.com/Identify-Food-Grade-Buckets

I grabbed a 5 gallon Nestle water jug (#1) for $5.99 + $5 deposit.  I’ll use the water to make a batch of beer, so I basically get a carboy for $5.  Your local brew supply store should have stoppers that will fit.

Edit:  I’ve heard a lot of more mixed reviews on this.  Even some links to baby boys being born with “teenie weenies” because of their pregnant mothers’ exposure to BPAs.  This terrifying thought combined with the fact plastic scratches easier (thus better harboring bacteria), has me steered me away from recycled water bottles.  That said – those numbers are on the bottles so you can determine what is safe for reuse & consumption.  If you’re on a budget, I really doubt you have too much to worry about with plastic jugs.

Okay, you can’t really see it, but there’s a “1” in that triangle.

 
The above tips can potentially save you time, frustration and hundreds of dollars.  In exchange I only ask that you bookmark and share this blog!

 

Next Article:  Bottling Time

 

 

 

 

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December 31, 2012

Bubbles = Alcohol  =

We left off with my first home brew being put into the fermeter bucket.  By the next morning the airlock was alive with activity.  Those lovely bubbles are an indication that the yeast is doing it’s job and turning the sugars from the malt into alcohol.  A good sign – I didn’t want my first brew to be O’Douls.  What good is beer if it can’t get you hammered, right?

The CO2 being forced up through the airlock (whose purpose is to allow gas to escape, but no air or outside contaminants to get in) is also an indication that my fermenting bucket is airtight.  Assuming everything was properly sanitized and the cats failed at their attempts to ruin my Christmas present, we should be on our way to a healthy beer.

 The yeast is binging on sugar and farting up a CO2 storm!

By day 3 most of the activity in the airlock has ceased.  The yeast has served it’s initial purpose and created alcohol.  (Edit – do not use an airlock as an indicator of fermentation.  Use gravity readings).  At this point, I’ll follow the guidance of the guy at the brew supply store and leave the bucket alone for at least another week.  My new friends in the forums at www.HomeBrewTalk.com agree that no harm can be done by leaving the beer this way for a while longer.  I’ve read that it’s safe to leave it for up to a month (Edit – I leave it for as long as 6-8 weeks at times with no ill side effects)… I’m far too impatient for that, though.  I could be hit by a bus in that time and never get to taste my first home brewed beer.  Then I’d be forced to walk the earth for eternity, a sad spirit with unfinished business.

Oops!

My research and help from the nice people in the home brewing forums has uncovered a few oversights up to this point.

First – the brew kit did not supply me with an adequate number of buckets.  By giving me a combo fermenting / bottling bucket, they leave me with a bunch of sludge at the bottom of the bucket which will make it’s way out the spigot and into my bottles.  I guess that’s what the 6-gallon carboy was actually for.  I’ve ordered a second bottling bucket that I will siphon the beer into at bottling time.

Second – I should have taken a hydrometer reading when the wort first went into the bucket.  This is done to determine the gravity (or density) of the beer.  A second reading should be made right before it goes into the bottles.  From these 2 numbers I would have been able to calculate the alcohol content of the beer.  It also let’s me know whether or not fermentation is complete.  Now I’ll just have to make a guess.

Edit – Extract has a known gravity.  Your OG should always be exactly or very close to what the kit or brewing software calls for.  If it’s off, you likely used too little or too much top off water.

Third – I may never stop needing new equipment.  One brew at a time is not going to satisfy my new addiction.  Having the spare bottling bucket will help, but I’m probably going to eventually need more buckets, bottles, airlocks, carboys, etc…  I may have found a way to get a lot of this stuff on the cheap, however.

I’ll cover these issues in more depth in my “What I’ve Learned” post.  Until then, happy drinking and happy New Year!

Next Article:  What I’ve Learned (Some Tips & Shortcuts – Part 1) 

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December 26, 2012

Now it’s time to brew!

1.  Equipment List

2.  Sanitizing My Equipment

Shred’s Home Brew #1

So, with the Christmas fiasco over, I’ve had a few minutes to read through some forums and skim some of the pages in my book.  I think I better understand what most of the equipment is for

It would seem the carboy (the big, glass water bottle thing) won’t be needed for my first brew as I’ll be making a basic Ale.  In my kit, the carboy would be used only when a secondary fermenting or conditioning vessel is required… like with a lager or a beer requiring special additives/flavorings.

Many people apparently use 1 bucket for fermenting then another for bottling.  My bucket doubles as both as it has a spigot at the bottom and an airlock at the top.  As I understand it, the 2 bucket system is used to help prevent sediment from the bottom of the fermenting bucket from getting into the bottles.  My spigot is about an inch off the bottom, so I’m assuming it was designed with this in mind.

Edit:  Nope – had to buy a second bottling bucket or I would have had beer bottles full of sludge.  As the yeast finishes fermentation it drops out of solution and it, along with proteins and various other materials, settles to the bottom forming what is known as “Trub” (pronounced Troob).

Many commercial breweries as well as homebrewers will wash this trub layer and repitch the healthy yeast in future brews.

Now it’s time to hit the brew store to find a boxed recipe… any of you who know me know it kills me to make anything out of the box or by strict recipe, but as this is an advanced chemistry (edit – really, it’s more microbiology) and I don’t want to blow my house up or poison anyone (well… neither of those is completely true), I’m going to err on the side of caution for at least my first attempt.

Note:  You’d have to be a complete idiot to blow your house up brewing beer.  Burning it down is another story.

I do a Yelp search and come up with a place nearby with glowing reivews, Brew & Wine Hobby.

I set my nav and head into the back alleys of East Hartford, CT.  Down at the end of an industrial area my nav tells me I’ve arrived.  I look around, turn around, look around some more, and then I see it:

I enter the store and I’m confronted by industrial shelves 100′ high, covered in boxes, and trinkets, and whosiewhatsits… okay, it’s not really that big, but I have no idea what I’m looking at.  Eventually I get my bearings and find an area in the back where they have boxed ingredient kits.  My research has told me a Pale Ale is a good way to start.

Pale Ales use warm (ale/top) fermentation (generally between 65-70F), so no special refrigeration is needed, and it doesn’t require the use of a secondary fermenting vessel.  They are bottle conditioned, meaning once the wort (gross word for unfermented beer, prounounced wert) has finshed in the fermenter, it’s transferred directly into the bottles to be conditioned – basically, to become bubbly and allow the flavors to mature and meld.  I pick one and head up to the register.

I ask the gentleman behind the counter how many other dummies he’s had come in today (the day after Christmas) with stupid questions about their first brew kit.  He warmly replies something about it being fun to help newbies.  I take this as a sign of weakness and pounce!

“Is this a good first ingredient kit?  What size bottles should I buy?  What’s that over there?  What does this do?  Oooo pointy… Ouch!”

He quickly hides all sharp objects and asks which equipment kit I have.  I pointed to the box in the store identical to mine and he informs me I have a wine making kit.  I look at the Pale Ale kit on the counter and say, “Well, I guess I’m making wine then.”

I let the patient man standing behind me go ahead and I proceed to look at the box more closely.  It seems to have different contents than the nearly identical box I received.  For one, my kit had a beer making guide in it, and a capper.  How could it possibly be for wine making?

I look up the kit on my phone and show the nice man what I actually have.  He’s surprised that they would include a 6 gallon carboy as most beer recipes call for 5 and air at the top is apparently bad.  He does, however, agree that what I have is for making beer.  When it comes time to use the carboy in a later (my next?) recipe, I’ll use that extra gallon for customizing a box recipe and make a few more bottles.

I purchase the Pale Ale ingredient kit, 2 cases of brown bottles (48) and an iodine sanitizer.  Apparently the B-Bright in my equipment kit is a cleanser, not a sanitizer (I later find that my B-Bright is actually supposed to be C-Bright… a sanitizer.  Oh well.  Thanks again, Monst….. no names).

The guy behind the counter tells me to ignore the instructions in the kit, which say to leave the beer in the fermenter for 7 days, and do 14 days.  Ahhh!  Another week I’ll have to wait.

His reasoning is that while 7 days is long enough for the yeast to munch on all the sugars in the wort (usually), leaving it longer allows it to find other things to eat.  The yeast produces byproducts as it eats the sugars, but given time, will go back and clean some of those up.  This results in a “cleaner” beer.  Basically, the yeast eats, takes a dump in my beer then, in an act of true gluttony, goes back and eats the yeast poo.  At least, that’s how I translate it.

Edit – I generally leave my beers for a minimum of 3 weeks and a maximum of 6 weeks now.  This gives the yeast time to fully ferment the beer.  Additionally, after the first 3-5 days of fermentation it’s safe to begin increasing the temp slowly to around 68F, the yeast will eat up the diacetyl created during active fermentation.  Diacetyl can create off-flavors in beer.  

Consult the guidelines on your specific yeast to determine what the appropriate temperature range is for the primary fermentation.

Naturally, they have their own instructions for proper dilution of the iodine sanitizer and tell me to ignore the instructions on that package as well.

He helps me load my car and I head home.  The anticipation of starting my first ever brew is killing me!

Stay tuned.

Next Article: Brewing  My First Beer / Wort

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