Working on a recipe - Harvest Ale

Two years ago about this time I tried my first lager, an Oktoberfest.  Last year, a pumpkin beer.  This year I'm calling it a Harvest Ale.  As the autumn approaches I get the urge to brew a seasonal beer.

This beer will be an American Amber (for those who care about styles).  The objective is to get something smooth and malty, with some caramel notes and a little spice.  Neutral to earthy hop bitterness and flavor.  The color should be on the deep red side (SRM 17 is what the recipe is calling it).

This is for a 4.5 gallon batch, to fit in my 5 gallon carboy...keeping it simple for this one.

8.5 lbs Mild Malt
1.5 lbs Victory Malt
0.5 lbs Crystal 150
0.5 lbs flaked rye
1.5 oz Willamette for 60 min (5.5%)
0.5 oz Willamette for 5 min (5.5%)
American Ale II yeast

Brewing it this weekend.  We'll see how it comes out.

Here is the Brewtoad link also for the recipe.

IPA Brewing - 3 part plan for dry hopping

It's Thursday, so might as well "throw back" and see what I was blogging about last year.  Oh, dry hopping.  I'm pretty sure I haven't dry hopped since that post was published.

Check it out here first, then come back.  Dry Hopping.

Afraid of the mess and residual hop particulate (using pellet hops) I've always put them in a little mesh bag.  It tends to float, so I've put little pebbles in it to get it to sink to the bottom, and then the problem is removing it afterwards.  It's been too much of a hassle to do.  But dang if I'm able to get the same hop aroma without it...not going to happen.

I'm brewing an IPA this weekend.  I've gotta dry hop it during the fermenting process.  And this is my three step plan.

1. Rack to secondary and dry hop in secondary.  I'm going to leave in primary for 3-5 days (keeping an eye on activity and when active fermentation completes), then rack over, and leave for about 2 weeks.

2. Dump hops straight in the carboy.  I've always used pellet hops (for better of for worse).  Risk the mess, dumping straight in.  Swirl lightly to break the surface tension so even the smaller pieces get wet.  Let dry hop for 1 day before going to part three.

3. Cold crash.  adjust the temperature or put the carboy in a refrigerator and get it cold, for 2 days.  This will help clarify the beer and bring the hop residue to the bottom.

After 2 days cold, rack to keg of bottling bucket and bottle.  Be sure to leave the hops at the bottom of the carboy.  Don't suck them up.

That is the plan.  Cheers!

Super Simple Mead in 7 Simple Steps

Fermented honey, honey wine, mead.  It can be quite simple to make.

Here are the steps.

1. Sanitize the following.  1 gallon glass carboy or food grade PT jug, screw cap lid, funnel, stopper and air lock.
2. Add about 1/3 gallon filtered or spring water to the carboy.
3. Add 3 pounds of honey, through the funnel (if you don't want to risk making a huge mess).
4. Close the carboy and shake, shake, shake until the honey is mixed in with the water and forms a solution.
5. Add more water, so the carboy is about 3/4 full and shake some more, before filling to the gallon mark.  Be sure to keep some head space in there.
6. Add 1/2 tsp of yeast energizer and 1/2 tsp of yeast nutrient.  If you do not have, emptying a small box of raisins into the carboy I am told will work the same.
7. Add yeast, shake again, cover with the airlock and wait.

Once the yeast go to work the airlock should pulsate with bobbles for close to a week or more.  It will slow steadily over time, and in about 2 weeks you can rack the mead to another sanitized carboy.  This will get the mead off the yeast bed which will have formed at the bottom and into a new vessel, and will help in clearing it up visually.  I will plan to do the same in another 2 weeks.  Test the gravity with a hydrometer when you rack it each time.

Depending on the yeast and whether you are aiming for a sweet or dry mead, the timing and gravity can be important.  I've used champagne yeast and it will ferment seemingly every last bit of sugar, leaving it ultra dry.  With this batch, I am using ale yeast slurry which came straight from a carboy fermenting beer.  (We'll see how this works.)

At the point where the mead reaches the desired gravity and sweetness, you can kill the yeast to stop further activity.  You can do this in one of two ways.  Pasteurize the mead, by bottling and then raising the temperature to 160 for 20 minutes through a water bath on the stove.  Be careful with this approach.  Or, by adding some Potassium Metabisulphite to kill the yeast.  Let settle for a few weeks, then rack to the bottles.

With this batch, I'm controlling the fermentation temperature by leaving it in the fermentation fridge with the setting at 60 degrees.

Long term storage will improve mead, but once complete and if it tastes good, it is ready to drink.

Cheers!

A Beginners Guide - Homebrewing Video

This is a nice overview covering the process of brewing beer at home.  It is neat to see how the process varies slightly from person to person, and each time I get another idea or two for consideration.



Your thoughts?

Save 4 steps in bottling your beer

Bottling can often be a dreaded component to brewing.  A lot of people will switch away from bottling to kegs and never look back.  Yet even with kegs, there are times when bottling may be necessary, be it for a competition, aging the beer, or even to free up kegs for future batches.

Here is a way to ease some of the bottling pain.  But first, lets look at the steps to bottling... let's examine the pain.

Steps involved with bottling the traditional method.

1. Clean and sanitize all the bottles and caps.  I usually put in the dishwasher without soap on the sanitize setting.
2. Mix the priming sugar and boil the solution for 10 min.  Cool it to the temp of the beer.
3. Get out the bottling bucket from the top of the closet and sanitize it.
4. Sanitize the racking cane, hoses, and bottling stick.
5. Add the priming sugar to the bucket.
6. Rack the beer into the bottling bucket.
7. Clean the carboy, racking cane and hose.
8. Attach the bottling stick to the faucet on the bucket, open the faucet and begin filling
9. Cap bottles after filled, label and put away.
10. Clean the bottling bucket.
11. Clean the carboy, canes and hoses.

There is an alternate way through utilizing the kegging system.  It will save time, hassle and up to 4 steps in the process.

In preparation, first rack the beer from primary fermentation directly to a keg for secondary, and purge remaining oxygen.  During secondary, pull the air release pin once a day to relieve any large/moderate build up of pressure.  A little pressure is fine.  Since active fermentation will be mostly complete, there won't be too much pressure if managed well.

And here are the steps in this alternate method.

1. Clean and sanitize all the bottles and caps.  I usually put in the dishwasher without soap on the sanitize setting.
2. Mix the priming sugar and boil the solution for 10 min.  Cool it to the temp of the beer.
3. Get the keg and CO2 tank, put 2-3lbs pressure on the keg, and drain off the settled layer of yeast from the bottom through your picnic tap.
4. Open the keg and add priming sugar to it.  Close, pressurize 2-3lbs and purge any oxygen that may have crept in.  Swirl and lightly shake the mix in the sugar solution..
5. Attach the bottling stick to the picnic tap and fill bottles
6. Cap bottles after filled, label and put away.
7. Clean the keg, cane and picnic tap

You can also carbonate the beer in the keg and then lower the pressure to fill bottles with carbonated beer. Pay attention to temperatures and CO2 volumes with this method.  It is advised to make the bottles the same temp as the carbonated beer to avoid a lot of foaming (thanks Bionic Brewing).  I've found it is easier to bottle flat beer than carbonated beer.  Plus I think there is nice aspect to naturally carbonating the beer.

Bottling only for competition or to give a few away to friends?  The method above will work great too.  Stop after you fill the desired number of bottles and keep the remaining beer in the keg.  You will have priming sugar in the keg, so let it naturally carbonate, keeping an eye on the pressure and adjust later as needed.

Happy bottling!

Was 2013 a wasted year? 14 ways it wasn't.

I believe most people want to make a difference with their lives.  After all, if there is no reason or motive for your existence, then what is the point?  Right?

I recently found myself bemoaning another year gone by without doing anything worthwhile.  Another wasted year.  I didn't conquer the world in 2013.  We are still in this same house, same job, same city, same school, same routine.  (About the only thing different is that the Gators aren't playing in a bowl game this year...ugh.)

Then my wife stopped me in my tracks.  "Wait a minute, you sold over $1M dollars at work this year," she began.  "Yeah, I guess.  Plus I started the Brew Club," I continued.  Maybe it wasn't a complete waste.  I got to thinking some more.

If we don't stop to count our successes, we will never now far we've come.  Here are a few successes from 2013...somewhat in chronological order.

• In February I met some great people while volunteering for the Deland Craft Beer Festival.  I shared homebrews with the guests at the event.  Seeing people enjoy your creations can be quite fulfilling.  Check out these posts from earlier in the year.  Part 1 and Part 2.
• One of my beers won the Valentines Inspired brewing competition.  This was a partial collaboration with a Twitter friend form Australia, who supplied the original recipe on which the beer was based...though this had different hops, yeast and was all grain (and in English units rather than Metric).  More of the story can be found here.
• I took the brewing on the road for the first time and brewed on location at the Sanford Homebrew Shop for the AHA Big Brew.  There I met some additional new friends.  More of the story here.
• My son had a dream a few years ago of bringing Archery as a sport to his small private school.  At the time, I didn't think there was a mechanism to make this happen.  Long story short, our family is now all certified coaches with OAS (Olympic Archery in Schools) and our little school will have a team in this year's spring session.  And only because a 14 yo (at the time) had a dream and desire.
• I started a homebrew club.  In August, the first meeting of the Brew Club of Seminole County was held.  Each month we've averaged about 20 people per meeting and participated as a club in three public events and held two group brewing sessions.  Check out the Facebook Group and the story here.
• The Belgian Dubbel I brewed in July won Bronze at the Sunshine Challenge competition in November.  This is one of the largest homebrewing competitions in Florida.
• I also was able to participate in the judging at that competition (though not for the styles my beers were entered, of course).
• In November, my wife brought home here metal for the 5K event, my son brought home a metal from a State Archery Competition, and me with my little bronze metal.  We are all successful in the things we set out to achieve.
• My son and I began making our own cheese.  Just a few batches of Mozzarella so far, but we are getting better.  And the important thing is we do it together.
• At work, I exceeded my sales goal for the year by more than 10% and sold over $1,000,000, with profitable margins. 
• This year, I brewed 15 different beers, at roughly 4 gallons each.
• We've been able to have "Family Time" on multiple occasions at Disney this year.  Some of our favorites are the Food and Wine Festival and the events surrounding the holiday season.
• The Facebook Page was created for Dunerbrew and this blog has been maintained (to a decent extent).  Check out and "Like" the Facebook Page.
• I realize this list is very beer-centric.  Well, that is what this blog is all about.  Perhaps better than than the beer itself, this hobby have given me the opportunity to meet some wonderful people, whom I now call friends.  We help each other and are better as a result of knowing each other.

Am I just patting myself on the back?  Not really, rather reminding myself that things do get accomplished when you set out to do them.  We may not have conquered the world, but are on a pathway to making some sort of difference in the world.

What will 2014 bring?  Hmmm.  We'll see.

Cheers!

What to brew next...

I once made a goal to brew a beer from each of the major style categories, so I printed out a chart and have filled in the blanks where applicable with each beer I brew.  In the 2008 BJCP Style guidelines there are 28 categories, each with multiple subcategories.  Realizing it will take awhile to brew each subcategory, I decided to focus on the main categories only...and even this seemed daunting at the time.  Some categories I really don't have much interest in, such as Light Lager.  Actually, if I limited the scope to just the ale categeries, I'm well on the way to completion.

Why do this?  It's a great opportunity to learn about the styles.  When you build a recipe for each style, you can literally touch and feel what goes into the style.  As they say, learn by doing.  As I set out to brew a particular style I will first read up on the style and then look at the ingredients and processes used for that style.  Recipes for beers in that style will be compared.  Grains, IBUs, water, yeast, fermentation temp, etc. all play a role...so there is a lot of opportunity to learn and experiment.

Note that I don't do this at the exclusion of brewing what I like or experimenting with different ideas.  It is simply a good way to expand my knowledge and experience.

Let's break out the styles a little.

The first 5 are Lagers.  So far, I've brewed 2 lagers.  These take time and temperature control.  I have only a small amount of interest in making lagers, so 2 for me is a very good start.  The next 18 categories (6-23) can be classified more or less as ales, and the remaining 5 (24-28) as mead and ciders.

Where am I on with the ale list?  14 of the 18...wow.  The un-brewed categories are (8) Scottish and Irish Ales, (11) English Brown Ale (technically my first ever kit was a brown ale, but I'm not counting it), (15) German Wheat and Rye and (17) Sour Ale.

So what is next?  A Scottish style ale.

What is fermenting now?

It's a busy time of year and we've managed to squeeze in some time for brewing.  As I sit here I can hear the occasional bubbling of the Imperial Stout in the fermentation refrigerator three feet away.

In what used to be called the linen and game closet sits 5 gallons of Robust Porter.  This will be ready to keg this weekend.  My first ever kegged beer.  We are determined to make good dark beers, without them coming out too acidic and/or astringent.  This has a nice maltiness to it.  Brewed on 11-17-2013.  It should finish up at 6.6% ABV.

Next, we have a single gallon of mead still pulsing away after a week and a half (???).  It's slowed down and I'll check it out this weekend, but want to let it continue to sit alone for awhile.  Once it ferments out, we'll add some of the "yeast killer" stuff (I forget what it is called and don't want to get up at the present to check) and then back sweeten with some additional honey.

On Thanksgiving day we brewed the Imperial Stout.  This was the most expensive beer to date, with a hefty 21 pound grain bill.  We decided to do a "no sparge" with this one, to get only the best runnings from the grain and not risk getting all the tanins and lowering the pH too much.  The dark grains still scare me somewhat and I want to keep an eye on the pH, especially with the dark beers.  It was checked last night and seems to be just right.  The gravity is down to 1.026 after 4 days fermenting and I've held the temps cool at the 66 degree range for most of it.

Finally, we decided to experiment with the lemons off the tree in the back yard to make a hard lemonade.  I have no idea how this will turn out.  I guess we will see.

What are you brewing this month?

A split batch experiment... the impact of yeast in beer.

Do you want to see how yeast impacts the favor of beer?  Take the simplest recipe of a beer, split it into two fermenting containers and pitch a different yeast in each.  In a few weeks, you can bottle the beer and try it.  Or, if that is too much trouble then relax, I've done the work for you.

A few weeks back we talked about the Munich Malt and Spaltz hops simple recipe beer.  Read the background here and then come back.  

This was a solid 5 gallon batch, and my largest carboy is 5 gallons, which doesn't allow for much headroom.  Plus, I wanted to do something different, so I split the batch, pouring 2.5 gallons into two 3 gallon carboys.  In one carboy, a dry packet of US-05 yeast was pitched and in the other Wyeast Kolsch yeast with a 800ml starter was pitches.

In the end, there is a distinct difference in the flavor of the beer, which we can get into in a bit.  Both finished at 1.010 (with the US-05 maybe pushing more toward 1.011).  Both have about the same color at the end.

The process was interesting too, as the Wyeast carboy began fermenting, much quicker, while the dry yeast took longer to get to active fermentation.  The photos below do a nice job of illustrating this.

After pitching.  US-05 on the left, Kolsch on the Right

After about 10 hours.  Activity on the right.

Day 2, about 36 hours.

Day 3, about 60 hours, activity on the left now.  Right is beginning to settle down somewhat.

Day 7, gravity check and color comparison.

Gravity on day 7, 1.012  (This was the Kolsch.)

Kolsch FG - Day 19.

US-05 FG, Day 19

Flavor?  The US-05 American Yeast is a cleaner yeast, which gives the beer a little sharper mouthfeel, and "cleaner" taste.  The hop bitterness is right there, along with the malt background.  A nice clean simple beer.

The Kolsch yeast yielded a higher ester profile.  The beer is more round on the mouthfeel, more fruity notes come through.  At bottling time the yeast character come through, which should subside someone.  Being a low floculating yeast, there is more still in suspension.  With time in the bottle, and additional chill time, the yeast will continue to drop out, clearing up the beer more.  Even in the two photos above, you can see that the Kolsch is more cloudy.  

Note also the activity level of the yeast.  The liquid yeast with starter was much more ready to go to work than the dry pitched yeast.  There were probably more cells in the dry packet, but I didn't bother to re-hydrate them.  I bet that would have made a difference too.  It's funny, because everyone will say to re-hydrate the dry yeast.  The packet itself says to pitch directly to the wort.  Go figure.

Now the questions remains, which will taste better?  Or is there a true definition of better in this sense?  They simply are different.

With the underlying style aiming for an Altbier, the Kolsch yeast will give that character more than the US-05.  The true malt and hops character will shine more with the cleaner US-05 yeast.  Hmm.  This seems to have been a good experiment.

Cheers!

Ever think about kegging? A little how-to can be found here

A friend had a good deal on some used kegging equipment, and while we were going to wait for Christmas to "upgrade" to kegging, the opportunity seemed good.  I drive home the other night with keg, CO2 tank, regulator, hoses, attachments, etc.  Hmm, how does it work?

Of course, it's not rocket science, but I knew little of how it all worked, what parts were involved or what they were even called..  It's a new thing for me.

So I went to another friend YouTube and spent several hours this week watching videos on kegging.  Some good, some bad, some so shaky that they'll make you ill just watching

Craig Tube, as he calls himself has a series which I've found helpful.  He tends to keep it simple and I like how he talks about how to do it while at the same time actually doing it.  Check out the 4 part series (I still need to get through some of these).









Word of caution: Like all things, don't trust solely on what Craig has to say.  Check out other sources and compare what you hear with what others say as well as what your own common sense tells you.  Everyone has a different method, and most actually are pretty good.  Inevitably some could be called "better" than others, but those distinctions may or may not be so clear.  One persons "better" is another persons "different".  Keep it fun and keep it real.

Happy kegging!

The XXX Tripel Recipe (by demand)

By popular demand, the Tripel recipe is below.  This was my 30th homebrewed beer.  It was only fitting to make it a Belgian Tripel, named and indicated historically with the XXX label on the barrel.  After only 3 months in the bottle, it is one of my favorites.  I'm very pleased with the way it turned out.

Recipe for a 4 gallon batch.

8 lb Pilsner Malt

1 lb Maris Otter Malt

1.25 oz Tettnang for 60 minutes (4.7%, 28.63 IBU)

.5 oz Saaz for 30 minutes (3.2%, 1.56 IBU)

Wyeast 1214 Belgian Ale yeast

This resulted in 1.061 OG on brewday.

Add 1 lb Belgian Candy sugar (15 L) on day 3

Add 1 lb Turbinado raw cane sugar on day 5.  Boil for 10 minutes, then cool.

Turbinado sugar.  It will get very dark while boiling

Cumulative OG = 1.081

FG 1.010

ABV - 8.6%

How does it fit with the BJCP Guidelines for a Tripel?

OG: 1.075 - 1.085 (this recipe 1.081)

FG: 1.008 - 1.014 (this recipe 1.010)

IBU: 20 - 40 (this recipe 30.19)

SRM: 4.5 - 7.0 (this recipe is in the 6 zone)

ABV: 7.5 - 9.5 (this recipe 8.6)

We call it Brew Club: A Story

I still refer to it as new.  In fact it's not much more than an infant yet.  But we've had good times with the three monthly meetings and two group brew days.  Our first upcoming "public" events (totaling three in the next two months) are sure to be fantastic.  Yes, I'm talking about the Brew Club of Seminole County.  It's the real deal.

In good company on the patio wall at Buster's Bistro in Sanford.

If you are local to the Orlando area, I invite you to check it out.  if not, then you are wondering why you even care about this post.  Don't go away yet!

This is a story about starting something new.

A few of us knew a few of each other.  Now most of us know a good number of each other.  As homebrewers we'd stop at the fairly new Sanford Homebrew Shop to pick up supplies, talk about our brewing experiences and ask questions.  There are often a few other homebrewers in the shop with whom you can strike up a conversation.  I would plan on spending 10 minutes there and leave after about 40, always learning something new from the experience.

I'd come back home with my new stuff and prepare to set up for brewday.  Just me in the back yard (or kitchen for the first several batches) brewing away, hoping some friends (or my wife) would be interested one day in drinking the latest concoction in creation.

There was a time when I became tired of being a 'lone brewer" and decided to check out a Homebrew Club.  There is a large group that meets in Orlando (about 40 minutes from my house to the location) and one in the opposite direction (north) that meets in Deland (about 35 minutes and an easier drive).  I met a guy from the Volusia County Homebrewers Guild (VCHBG), as it's called, at a beer festival that prior February, and he was nice enough.  I decided to sign up on their Facebook Group and attend my first meeting.  It's amazing what you can learn by just hanging out with other brewers and tasting other homebrewed beer.  It was a good time, and I continue to be part of those meetings today.  It's a smaller group, with a geographical divide which makes it a challenge (I never knew there was such a division between East and West Volusia County).

I found a brewing home, of sorts.  But what about the other lost souls I see frequent the Brew Shop?  I haven't myself made the journey to the Orlando group, but have heard it may be overwhelming for a newbie brewer.  An established large group with many talented and seasoned brewers.  Those lost souls had no place to call home.  "Yeah, people have mentioned interest another club here in Seminole County, but no one has seemed willing to coordinate one," said Gary at the Sanford Homebrew Shop one day.  Ding! Ding!

How hard could it possibly be?  A little time and a little effort.  I'm already spending time and  effort on social media and blogging.  What's a little more time?

First Brew Club meeting, Aug 1, 2013

So a name was selected.  I designed a logo for the club.  (Every good club needs a logo.)  I printed a few fliers.  Prior to that I got a friend of mine and brewer who manages at Buster's Bistro (a local Belgian Beer Bar) to commit his location for our meetings.  It's a win-win because I've seen how our group can drink.  More revenue for him.  He was excited and had ideas for Group Brew Days at the bar, etc.  The Homebrew Shop was excited about it, and I got another brewing friend to commit to actually attend the meetings.  It was all set, and the Brew Club of Seminole County was about to launch.

Four Fliers were distributed to two locations and a Facebook Group was created.  Within 48 hours we had over 20 members ask to join the group.  By the time of our first meeting (Aug 1, 2013, IPA Day) we had close to 40 members.

18 people attending the first meeting.  Another 18 were at the second meeting, but a different group of people (at least about half of them).  The third meeting saw 23 brewers in attendance.  The meetings start with some brief introductions and news about upcoming events, etc.  (It's important to get the news and meeting portion of the meeting done prior to starting to drink.)  We would shift into breaking out the homebrews and sampling each others beers and then talk about them.  People get to know each other, learn from each other.  We really become "better when we brew together."

Team Wit.  One of the 4 teams brewing that day.

We scheduled our first Group Brew day right away in in August (not a great idea in Florida to be brewing outside in the afternoon in August by the way.)  Three people brewed and we had a handful of people show up and hang out for awhile.  Our second Team Brewday was just the other weekend in October.  We had 4 different teams brewing, with close to 20 club members at the event.

A friend of mine posted some additional details and photos from this event.  I'll point you now to Gary at  Bionic Brewing for more on the latest Team Brewday.  Check it out.

What is next?  I'm glad you asked.  The club has a table at the upcoming Sunshine Challenge Beerfest, part of the Central Florida Homebrewers annual brew competition and festival.  After that in Sanford there is a Couch Race and Beer Festival, featuring racing couches created by different bars in the area.  At both events we'll have a table to serve our homebrewed beer and talk about the club.  In December, there is a tour of homes for the holiday in the historic Sanford area.  Holiday lighting is the key feature for this even (I think) and we'll be able to serve beer at this location and talk about the club as well.  And them we'll participate in the Deland Craft Beer Festival and the Mad Monk's Mash-up homebrew competition in February.  (Did I tell you who won the Valentine's Inspired beer competition last year?)

And this is just the beginning.  Do you brew?  Are you in a club?  Brewing can be fun and rewarding, and you can multiply that enjoyment by about 5 times when you are part of a brewing community... part of Brew Club.

Cheers!
Darren U

Keep calm and chill the wort quickly.

That uncomfortable feeling when you realize you've just spend an hour writing a blog post on the exact topic on which you've already written a post.  Ugh!  I knew it sounded familiar.  Oh, well.

At least this time I've got photos as proof of the efficacy of the new wort chilling system.  Check out the photos, and to prevent myself from scrapping an hours worth of work, the remaining post will follow.  Read only if you want to.  Kinda like a rerun, of sorts.

Preparing the ice bath in the mash ton.

Ice water is gravity fed to the wort chiller in the boil kettle.

Cold water in, and hot water out.

115 degrees after 5 minutes.

86 degrees at the 10 minute mark.

After 20 minutes, down to 70 degrees
and it aerates as it transfers to the carboy.

Now for the work I began earlier this morning...

Chill the wort.  No, this is not a post about epidemiology.  To the brewer, it is known that after boiling the wort  (it isn't called beet yet at this stage) during the brewing process, it is best to chill it quickly to the temperature at which you can add the yeast and begin the fermenting process.

The period of time from the boil to pitching the yeast (at a temperature of 65-72 degrees) is when the wort is the most susceptible to infection.  At boiling temps nothing can live in it and once alcohol is present, it will assist in killing any bad things as well.  But the in between stage...

The objective is to chill it quickly to limit this time.  Additionally, when chilled quickly the protiens will collect upon themselves and fall out of the solution.  This is called the "cold break" and will help to result in a clearer beer.

At the homebrewer level, some of us don't have expensive chill plates and pumps or other cooling mechanisms.  One thing you will want to invest in is an immersion wort chiller.  This is a copper coil that is to be placed in the hot wort while cool water flows through it.  The heat in the wort transfers to the cool water in the chiller, ultimately removing the heat form the wort.  The problem is that sometimes the tap water isn't cold enough (at least in Florida).  With this method alone, I could not get it chilled to below 80 degrees.

For me, this meant, headaches and worries.  I would wait for 30 minutes or so with the chiller flowing water and then siphon the wort from the kettle to the carboy to avoid exposing to oxygen until I could put it in the refrigerator and then finally aerate after it got closer to 70 degrees.  This was additional time, and equipment to wash.  I also had to have room in the refrigerator (and not the fermentation refrigerator as that would take way too long).

The Solution:  (Yeah, I know, finally.)

20 lbs of ice.  During the hour of the boil, I will clean out the mash ton, dumping the spent grains into plastic bags and rinsing it out thoroughly.  That same mash ton will then be filled with ice and water, making an ice bath.  It gets set onto the rack and the inflow attachment to the wort chiller gets attached.  Instead of flowing tap water through the chiller, flow ice water through it.  This is gravity fed, so some adjustments in positioning of the kettle and the ton may need to be arranged, depending on your setup.

With this method, I brought the temperature from boiling to 72 degrees in 20 minutes.  It was at the 86 degree mark at about 10 minutes, less than half the time of the previous attempts.

Oh wow, you brew your own beer! How do you do it?

It's fun to see the responses from people when they first find out I brew my own beer.  Most think it is cool.  After all, it is cool.  Some will ask if it is good.  Some will ask if it is like Mr. Beer.  Others will ask how the process works.  This last question I like the most.

My response usually begins with a, "if you really want to know, I can talk about this for hours..."  It's true, I'm happy to talk for endless hours about brewing and I'm also aware that people really don't want to know all of that detail.  I also feel like a conversation hog when spouting off all the information, only to find that they weren't really that interested and in fact were simply trying to be nice.  I do think it interests people.  How do you do that?

So, for most conversations the nutshell version should suffice.  I do think people are interested from a 50 yard distance, without wanting to get into the details.  How do you bake a cake?  Mix flour and water and bake for 30 minutes...Right?

Here is the nutshell version.

1. Barley seeds are watered and allowed to germinate (begin growing), and then the process is halted after little sprouts begin to be seen.
2. This is dried (kilned) and now known as barley malt.  The grain now carries inside it a lot of starches.
3. The grain is crushed (milled, but not into flour consistency) and these starches are extracted from the grain through a warm bath in water.  This is called the mash.
4. Not only are they extracted from the grain, but the warm water also breaks the long strands of starches into smaller strands of more simple sugars during this process.
5. This new sugary pre-beer, called wort, is now boiled for usually an hour, and hops are added to the wort at this time as well.
6. Hops are little cones from a growing vine type plant, and they add the bitterness (and flavor and aroma) to the beer.
7. After boiled and cooled yeast is added.
8.  (This is my favorite part) Yeast eats the sugars in the wort and converts them to alcohol.  They poop out alcohol and fart out carbon dioxide.
9. After several weeks, the beer is ready to be bottled, and usually a little bit of sugar is added at bottling time which will continue to ferment in the bottle.  Without anyway for the carbon dioxide to escape, it gets absorbed into the liquid and functions to give the beer its head and bubbles in the final product.

Wow.  9 steps only.  How can we make this even more simple?  Let's give this a shot.

The real Nutshell Version.

1. Malted barley contains starches which are broken down into simple sugars, through the mash process
2. The sugary wort is boiled and hops are added during this stage, which will impart bitterness, additional aroma and flavor
3. This is now cooled and yeast is added, which eats the sugars and spits out alcohol and carbon dioxide.
4. After 3 week, it is ready to bottle, and after 2 more weeks it will be sufficiently carbonated and ready to drink

Aha.  Beer making in 4 east steps.

A chronicle of the first 30 home brewed beers.

The first 30 beers. It's a good milestone, and falls right near the dawn into my the third year of brewing. Let's see, what did I brew?  Do you care?  This list is really more for me than for you.  It's one place where everything will be together.  I keep the details of each recipe (well most anyway) in a notebook, but don't really have a complete single list outside of this one.

Links within this blog are provided where applicable, which will lead to additional information on the beer, labels and often the recipe used.

1. Brown Ale - from a Muntons Kit. - I did the priming sugar wrong and it ended up flat (brewed Sept 29, 2011).  There is a single bottle of this still and I plan drink it on the two year anniversary of it's brewing.
2. IPA - Still nervous about the steps involved and this time I even steeped some specialty grains and added my own hops.
3. Brown Ale, Norther English style - This turned out way darker and thicker than intended.  It was very bad.
4. ESB - Bellatrix Bitter - The first beer that people complimented me on.  Maybe they were just being nice.  I could sense an off flavor, but couldn't put a name to it.
5. Imperial IPA - An attempt at something similar to the 90 Minute IPA
6. ESB - Bellatrix Bitter #2
7. DFH Midas Touch Clone attempt - It actually did improve with age, and was good.  I'd like to do something similar again.
8. Belgian Wit - Lunargaarden - This was a nice beer.  I crushed my own coriander for this one, and sliced the skin (peal) off of an orange. Felt like a true artist while brewing this one.
9. Imperial IPA - Isis Imperial - I'm usually underwhelmed with the amount of hops.  Can I blame the hop bag?  This turned out OK, and I was determined to improve upon it.
10. Brown Porter - This didn't turn out too well.  Dark beers have been a headache for me.
11. American Pale Ale - Independence Ale 2012 - Late Citra hop additions.  This was a good beer.
12. Imperial IPA - Another try at the Isis Imperial - Initially this was great overall, but oxidized very badly.  I was almost told that I should give up brewing and take up knitting.  High hopes, shattered.
13. Brown Porter - Apotheosis Porter #2 - This was the winner of the 2012 Daytona Beerfest Competition.  "The perfect Porter," was how it was described to me.  Very happy and proud.
14. Oktoberfest Marzen - First lager.  I enjoyed this one very much.  Held together nicely.
15. Maibock - Maibock My Homebrewed Lager - The first experiment with the new turkey fryer equipment.
16. Saison - Saison Du Ner - First ever all grain. (The above are all extract with specialty grains, below are all grain brews.  After one year of brewing, I made the switch to all grain and haven't looked back.) (brewed 09-22-2012)
17. All grain version of the Apotheosis Porter - Bad beer. Ugh.  What is so great about all grain again?  And what is all this trouble with the darker beers?
18. Strong Ale - Severus Strong.  This was an attempted Arrogant Bastard clone, only with higher gravity, and the hops weren't as severe it turns out.  After aging, this one was nice.  I still have a few.  I had 12 pounds of grain in a 5 gallon mash tun.  Somehow I still found room for water.
19. Foreign Extra Stout - Dunerbrew Stout - This turned out OK.  Improving some with age still.
20. Wheat Ale - #FF Hopped Wheat aka Hoppy Valentines Bouquet - This was based off a recipe given to me from a Twitter friend from around the world, a clone of an Aussie beer called Mountain Goat Steam Ale.  It won the Valentine's Inspired Beer award at the Deland Craft Beer Festival 2013.  LIght in color, hoppy on the flavor and aroma side, and nicely effervescent.
21. Winter Ale - Inkling's Ale, a strong version of a British ESB.  This turned out only OK.  Some are still around and I'm hoping for minimal improvement yet with age.
22. English Style Barleywine - Anal Retentive Dishrag.  To date only a few have been touched.  Aging this one for the winter.  High hopes.  This one is designated for some upcoming competitions.
23. Single Malt and Single Hop (SMaSH) - Maris Otter and Centennial
24. SMaSH - Mild Malt and Simcoe - These were fun to do and of the two, this was the better.  Both were nice 
25. IPA - Hold Your Fire - Centennial and Simcoe hops, Maris Otter Malt with Crystal 15.  Kept it simple.  This was a good beer, and if I remember, most disappeared at one of my tastings.
26. Belgian Blonde - AHA Big Brew 2013, More Fun Blonde - one of the recipes for the brew day.  This turned out to be a very nice beer.
27. American Pale Ale - Give Me Liberty Ale 2013 - Mosaic hops as late addition.  A very sessionable beer.
28. Belgian Dubbel - Steam Monk - Brewed with the Mad Monk's Mash-Up in mind.  I drank one only so far, after 2 weeks in the bottle.  This is going to lager for quite awhile and be savored in the coming months
29. Oatmeal Stout - 4Shel - My fear is that the mash is getting to acidic with the darker malt beers.  This may be terrific, but if not, then I'll have to work on PH balance.
30. Belgian Tripel - XXX - Read all about it here.  The label hasn't been released at the time of this writing. (brewed 08-17-2013)

A lot of these beers have the recipe listed on the Recipes page.  A lot of the labels are also listed on the Labels page.  Neither are fully inclusive lists...I do have a life besides making sure everything is perfect and complete here.

So, what does this list say about the brewer?  Classic Styles.  Nothing real crazy or outlandish.  Mostly safe recipes, with a tilt toward higher alcohol volume.  No spices in anything, only the coriander and orange in the wit, and some grape juice as additives.

At this milestone of 30 beers and two years of brewing, I realize there is a lot more to learn.  Always!  I'm not saying I'm a pro or anything even close to it.  I can safely say I'm a step up from a Novice now.  I always want to view others as better and more knowledgeable, so I can learn from them.  Heck, in the process others may even learn a bit from me.  I do know a few things about brewing now, and more importantly can make beer that I and others enjoy.

I wonder what to do next.  Maybe something crazy.  Something zany.  Something to make the homebrew club go, "wow! what courage and insight into something wild and wacky!"  Or maybe something very drinkable...and classic.  Ideas?

And here is to brew #31 and beyond.  Cheers!

The 30th Homebrew

Brewed at Buster's Bistro as part of the Brew Club of
Seminole County's first Group Brew Day, Aug 17, 2013.
It was a hot August day.  It worked well, as I was able to
put the carboy into their Chiller Room, which brought
the temp down to a nice pitching temp by the time I
got home.  A few beer more, a failed attempt at the
Jenga Tournament victory, and a few hours of chill
time... upon arrival at the house it was perfect for
pitching (pitching the yeast, that is.)

With the 30th home brewed beer fermenting away like clockwork in the refrigerator next to me, I'm going to go out on a limb.  This will be an excellent beer!  This beer has all the promise in the world.  And rightly so!  Consideration, planning, smart techniques, temperature control, and a few strategic tricks will be some of the reasons why.

This is a Belgian Tripel, a first for me.  Some of the best Tripel recipes can be quite simple and this isn't too much different.  Pilsner malt as a base is the rule with Tripels, and Belgian Pilsner is even better.  Most recipes I've seen will have that and only one or two specialty grains (in small amounts), and up to 20% cane or candy sugar.

This one isn't too different.  The malt bill (for a 4 gallon batch) consist of 8 lbs. of Belgian Pilsner malt and 1 lb. of Maris Otter Malt.  The Maris Otter may be unconventional here.  Normally an Aromatic malt or something with more zip will be used, but in a much smaller quantity.  The Maris Otter should impart some flavor, a little color, and leave the beer with a little bit of body.

I'm looking for a smoothish Tripel, not a harsh one nor an overly spicy, controlled esters.  So, I'm monitoring the temperature and trying not to stress out the yeast, I've started fermentation only with the grains listed above.  Mashed at 149 F, give or take a degree of two.  The original gravity was at 1.061 (low for a Tripel, but hang with me here).  Fermentation started at 66 F and rose to 70F over the course of 48 hours.

I know, it's upside down.  I claiming artistic license on this.

At the 48 hour mark, I boiled 1 pound of Turbinado raw sugar.  Pure cane sugar, squeezed straight from the stalk and then dried.  Let's not let any of that processed sugar stuff get into this beer.  I was surprised at how dark this became as it dissolved and boiled.  I had it quite thick, not wanting to add too much water.  This was cooled and then added to the carboy for fermenting.  The simple sugars in the Tripel will ferment out, providing for a dry beer and adding a high alcohol content.

The cane sugar contains 46 gravity points, which basically means that in a gallon of water (1.000 gravity) a pound of cane sugar will raise the gravity to (1.046).  With these added fermentables going into my 4 gallon batch of beer, that 46 will get divided by 4, resulting in an additional amount of .0115 to the overall net gravity.  1.061 + .0115 = 1.0725.  This is getting closer to Tripel strength.  But that isn't all.

Turbinado Sugar boiling

With the cane sugar added at 48 hours, I had a pound of Belgian Beet sugar syrup yet to add.  This went straight to the carboy at 72 hours into fermentation.  I dialed down the temperature control, bringing it to 66 degrees again, just to keep it slow and steady.  Don't want those yeast getting too excited.  This ads 32 gravity points per gallon, adding an amount of .008 to the overall net gravity.  1.0725 + .008 = 1.0805.  This is exactly where we want to be for this Tripel.

The books will say to let the temperature raise as fermentation commences, so I'm again dialing up the temperature control and will bring it back to around 70 degrees and maintain...at least that is the plan.

It will get transferred to secondary after a full week, the stay there for at least three more weeks before bottling.

Babbling Brewer - Bottling a stout, brewing a tripel in the heat, and other stuff

As I sit here typing, the heartbeat of an ale is buh buh bubbling away in the fermentation refrigerator to my left.  With every bubble, CO2 is released as sugars are broken down and converted to alcohol.  This one will become a Belgian style Tripel, my 30th beer brewed.  It's hard to imagine 30 beers, and to think I thought I was a decent brewer at beer # 6, 8, or even 14.  Experience is sure to have an impact on the final product.

My latest beers have turned out nice, and some of the higher gravity brews from earlier this year are starting to come of age.  The English style Barleywine should go down nicely in the cold winter weather here in FL.  It gets down to the 50s sometimes... brrr.  If even freezes every now and then.  I only wish it were that cool yesterday.

I'm tired and still partially dehydrated from the hot afternoon brewday yesterday.  90 degrees, sunny, humid...a bottle of water for every two beers drank.  Yeah, that will work well.  It was the wort of the Tripel, of course, boiling away in the August heat here in Central Florida.

I have a great plan for this beer too.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.  Let's back up to Friday night and go through a brief overview on the weekend of brewing activities.

The Oatmeal Stout was bottled Friday night.  1.014 FG, exactly as hoped for... I think it was 14 22oz bottles and 15 12oz bottles total.  Just over 4 gallons...how does that math work out?  (The 22oz bottles are easier and speed up the process.  I usually split it between the two sizes.  12oz available for competitions, if relevant.)

While in the bottling mood, with all the stuff everywhere, I decided to bottle up the single gallon of the Dubbel which had aged three additional weeks in the carboy with Bourbon soaked American Oak chips.  Mmm, this one is nice tasting.  9 bottles in all, of this very limited edition beer.  Time will benefit this one also, and after 4 weeks conditioning, I'll lager in the refrigerator for a couple of months.

While working in the kitchen, I made the yeast starter for the Tripel.  The next morning, activity was evident.

Saturday was the group brew day, which means hauling all the equipment to brew off site.  The difficulty level is elevated every time I travel to brew.  It can get easier with practice, but there is something nice about the simplicity of doing it at home.  In the end it worked out well and I had a good time.

So, I have a good simple recipe for this Tripel, and a good plan for staged fermentation, to keep it dry, clean, and awesome.  Come back later in the week to hear all about it.  :-)

Harvesting and drying home grown hops - Hops in Florida

The first hop harvest is in!  Before getting too excited, it was a rather small crop (but some are still growing, I think).  And perhaps is just a well this way, as it gave me the chance to go through the motions of picking, drying and now storing them.

This site has featured several posts about these backyard hops (Search for Hops in Florida) as we've followed the growth of these hops here in Central Florida throughout this first growing season.  Back in the spring we purchased two rhyzomes to bury in the ground.  One was Centennial and the other Chinook.  While the Chinook started off slowly, it ended up the winner this year.  Centennial produced perhaps two cones a few weeks ago, and I pulled 13 off the Chinook the other day...with more small ones in formation still.  I know it's not a lot, but stay with me here.

Note: If you have dogs, take care not to let any hops get away or fall on the ground or get lost.  I haven't tested the theory but have heard that hops are lethal to dogs.  We have a small fence protecting the plants in the yard.


Let's look at some photos.  This first one shows the growth of the hops about a week before harvest

Warning:  I watched a You Tube video on drying the hops, and followed directions, and then did it.  Not quite sure that makes me an expert.  But I can tell you what I did and how it turned out, so far.

Here is the photo of the 13 cones pulled off the plant.

Exciting, huh?  Yep, that is 13 cones.  Let's see what they weigh.





Drying hops:  The You Tube video presented a great idea.  Get some air-conditioning filters and a small box fan.  You can layer the hops between filters, attach to the face of the fan with bungee cords, and then blow the air through the filters, drying out the hops inside.  Seemed easy enough.  We had a box fan around the house and a couple filters couldn't cost but $5 each or so... and theoretically we could still use them in the AC unit.  (If I had actually bought the right size, that is.)

Parts needed: Box fan, two (at least) AC filters, bungee cords

Lay the fan flat with the filter on top, and place hops on filter. The grooves work well here.

Place the second filter on top of the hops.  This will help keep them in place.

Attach bungee cords to keep the filters in place across the front of the fan.

Set up at an angle, to allow for air flow.  Turn on the fan and wait 24 hours.

Here are the 13 cones after drying.  Lost 2/3 of the original weight.

Overall, the process is quite simple.  It obviously worked too, with the weight difference as testimony.  From here, I wrapped them in some plastic wrap and then placed that into a zip lock bag.  Squeeze out most of the air and place in the freezer until ready for use.

This small amount is almost laughable.  .07oz won't add much to any recipe.  It did allow me to go through the process, which was worthwhile.  I could always rack the next batch to secondary and split it up, placing some in a single gallon carboy and dump these in for dry hopping.  It would give a change to taste and smell the flavor somewhat.

Credit where credit is due.  Here is that You Tube video for additional reference.

Oatmeal Stout - New Label and Name

Yep, it's time to bottle the Oatmeal Stout.  This is the closest to a collaborative brew I've done.  My wife assisted with the recipe (she bought the oats), but more importantly loves the style and thus the inspiration for this beer.  There is no chocolate in this one, but Moo Hoo better watch out.  This has promise to be great.

Aptly named 4Shel, the label too is the most personal to date.  Brewing and the enjoyment of beer should be a family thing, right?  At least we all have our passions.  Here is the new label, and a few photos of the beer in action.

Hops in Florida - New Photos

Hops in Florida.

Chinook - Photo By Dunerbrew

It's getting close to harvest time for the first season hops here at the Dunerbrew Farms (backyard) in Lake Mary, Florida.  Earlier in the year we documented some of the growth from rhizome to climbing green vines, and now we have some additional photos.

Chinook hops - photo by Dunerbrew

It's been said that growing hops in Florida is tough.  Truth be told, I did very little, except water on those early weeks where we didn't have the every day afternoon rains.  Bugs?  We dumped a box of lady bugs in the yard this past spring, which I attribute to keeping a lot of the bad bugs away.  Anyway, fingers were crossed and it looks like a modest harvest is in store.  The Chinook ended up winning the race over the Centennial.  Both did OK though, and I'm pretty pleased overall.

The sequence of photos below were taken within the last few weeks.  Note the dates on the captions.

July 20, 2013

July 24, 2013

July 28, 2013

Aug 4, 2013

Check out the other posts on this blog regarding these Hops in Florida.

Hops in Florida?, from April 2

Hops in Florida, from April 22

Hop Update, from April 28

And the June Update, from June 22 (Notice how short they were even just a month ago.)