Beer Feeds

"If you see a beer, do it a favor, and drink it. Beer was not meant to age." -- Michael Jackson

Fact: Budweiser goes from grain to bottle in 28 days.

Source: Modern Marvels, History Channel; USA Today

Fact: Many microbreweries and pubs serve beer brewed less than a month ago.

Source: Mount Shasta Brewing; Various personal visits to small breweries

Myth: Homebrewers cannot achieve the same short turnaround as larger scale operations without complex equipment and filters.

Many of the more experienced homebrewers who frequent HBT constantly repeat the "age it longer" mantra. Am I suggesting that they're wrong? Am I telling you not to condition your beer? Not at all. However, I find that I can consistently produce not just a drinkable product, but a very good beer in well under the oft quoted 6 week (1-2-3) timetable. Lately, I've even been able to get great results without resorting to all the crazy gadgetry that you see posted all over the DIY forum and plastered across my gallery. I've been brewing 6 gallon batches of all grain, single infusion mashed, batch sparged beer. I've never filtered my beer, I'm not doing anything complex, and I'm convinced that anyone can replicate the process. From my experience, here are the keys:

Keep the recipe simple. Heaps of spices, large amounts of strong flavored malts, hefty hops schedules, and non-traditional ingredients can force you to condition the beer for an extended period. There's nothing wrong with big, complex recipes, but don't expect a quick turnaround when brewing them.

Use good water. I noticed a HUGE improvement in the quality of my wort when I moved from New Mexico to Texas. In New Mexico, I was constantly futzing with water chemistry, and it was very difficult to get it exactly right since I was starting with very hard water (or very pure water, when I elected to use RO). The tap water here is slightly hard, a little high in carbonates, but generally very good for brewing. I get a REALLY good break, and every beer I've brewed here has become brilliantly clear in a short period of time (except the hefeweizen).

Mash by the numbers. Hit your temps, hit your volumes, and don't try anything crazy. A solid single infusion mash with complete conversion is all you need for most recipes...so long as those recipes are fairly simple (see tip #1).

Use Irish moss or Whirlfloc. The beer will clear faster and better. It's that simple.

Pitch a lot of yeast, and pitch it right. As long as you're brewing a style that doesn't call for esters, fusels, or other yeast-produced flavors, give the yeast a little help. With liquid yeast, make a big starter. Step it up to nearly one gallon (for a five gallon batch), decant the starter beer, and pitch the slurry. Always rehydrate dry yeast in clean water, and pitch a little extra if you have it (I've been using 15g of S-04 or US-05 per six gallon batch). Pitch the yeast into wort that is within 5°F of the intended fermentation temperature. Note that I've mentioned nothing about aeration. That's because I don't worry about it. I just pitch lots of healthy yeast so they won't have to reproduce much. It works...I promise.

Keep the fermentation temperature in check. Mid 60's to low 70's (F) works for nearly every ale. The hotter you ferment, the more you risk an estery flavor profile, and that might mean a longer conditioning period.

Secondary? Maybe. I haven't been using one lately. I've been fermenting in a 6 gallon Better Bottle and kegging straight from it without racking at all. Just be careful not to disturb the yeast cake when kegging.

Cold crash. When the yeast have completed their tasks (including "cleaning up" the twangy taste of "green beer"), bulk chill the beer to below 40°F. Assuming you've done everything correctly to this point, the beer should drop clear very quickly.

Sample. The beer is ready when it tastes good. If it's bready, yeasty, cloudy, chunky, twangy, too bitter, unrefined, etc, it's not ready. If it's clear and tastes good, keg it.

Force carbonate. Chill the beer to less than 40°F (it's already there if you cold crashed), set the CO2 at 30 psi, and start shaking the keg. Every 2-3 minutes, carefully bleed the pressure and pour a sample. It should only take two or three iterations before you have perfectly carbonated beer.

Know when aging is appropriate. Big flavors, big beers, lagers, etc need time. Let them have it. Brew a quick ale in the meantime.

Practice makes perfect. Brew more. Do I have to twist your arm?

But, I bottle condition my beer! Well, my friend, you have to wait an extra 2-3 weeks. There's no getting around that. Yeast work slowly when under pressure in an alcoholic environment. Patience is still a virtue.

Proof (you'll have to take me at my word for now): I've got a STOUT on tap that was brewed exactly two weeks ago. It's clear, clean, and tasty. Friends came over yesterday and claimed that it's one of the best stouts they've ever had. My buddy's wife said, "I usually dislike dark beer like this, but yours is fantastic!"

Discuss.

I added Wyeast Cal Lager yeast to 4 gallons of wort 36 hours ago IAW the instructions. Fermentation has started but it appears to be slow or inactive. There is foam on the top and I have observed a few bubles escaping from the fermentation lock. but The temperture of the wort is approximatley 52 degrees F which is in range of the Wyeast instructions. Should I stir the wort or bring it insided for a higher temperature.

Thanks

I was thinking about doing a Blind Pig kind of IPA, very strong, straddling the Single and Double lines, but throughout formulation, I think it landed squarely as a Double.

The malt is fairly straightforward; I'm using Rahr because I like the restrained nuttiness of it over Briess's relative lack of character. I mixed 120 and 40 because I was thinking the deeper, darker notes of 120 might add some neat interplay with the strong hops, but now I'm concerned the dark fruit-malt might fight with the dark-fruit hops.

14# Rahr 2-Row
.37# Carapils
.31# Crystal 120
.31# Crystal 40
1# Corn Sugar
80% efficiency and a strong WY1056 should get around 8%+ with a very dry finish.

For the hops I was shooting for was Piney and Dank, and I guess I'm also trying to integrate some like, dense, rich fruitiness to bridge the gap. I say densely fruity cause I didn't wanna use Centennial, I guess mainly to see if I could hit that fruity mark without it.

90 Minutes
Magnum 1.5 oz
Chinook .5 oz
60 Minutes
Chinook 1 oz
Simcoe 1 oz
30 Minutes
Zeus .75 oz
Simcoe .5 oz
10 Minutes
Simcoe .75 oz
Zeus .75 oz
0 Minutes
Willamette 2 oz
Zeus .5 oz
Amarillo .5 oz
Simcoe .5 oz
Pacific Gem .5 oz
Dry Hop (Adding half at first, then the second half at day 7; 12 days total)
Zeus 1.5 oz
Chinook 1 oz
Simcoe 1 oz
Amarillo .75 oz
Pacific Gem .75 oz

I was thinking that Chinook dry hopping would give the strong Pine, Zeus would lend the Dank, Simcoe would supplement the Pine and provide the lighter fruitiness, with Amarillo and Pacific Gem layering the fruitiness with medium and strong intensity, respectively.

As far as Willamette, I though it would provide a nice, fruity basic hoppiness for the others to work around. Of course, that dry hop is bound to overwhelm it. And for the record, the 0 minute addition will sit for at least 15 minutes then go via tubing into an ice bath; it won't be quite as good as whirlpooling/counterflow chilling, but hopefully I won't lose too much aroma.

I know Pacific Gem isn't too popular around here, and my concern with it is that it could overplay its role. Also, as far as bittering goes, Chinook gives that distinct, strong, peppery bitterness which I think is good, but how much Simcoe do you think I would need to integrate the smooth, lighter, pine in with the pepper?

If so you can find me under brewrob.

https://twitter.com/brewrob

As we lead up to the holidays, we’ll be offering some gift ideas for that person in your life that loves Flying Dog.

Know someone who likes to drink some Flying Dog beer, read Hunter Thompson books and save information on those handy USB drives?  Then a Hunter S. Thompson themed USB drive would be the perfect gift for them.  Click here or on the image below for the full story on CNET.

Technorati Tags: flying dog, usb drive, hunter thompson, hst, gift idea

Just got my keg system going so know I will have kegs to use. My question is, do you modify your lid for an air lock or go with out an air lock? If anyone can explain there procedure for using a keg as a secondary vessel I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks,
jml.

I brewed Jami's sweet stout about a week and a half ago and overshot my gravity by 10 points (1.070). My 2 L starter of Wy1099 took off well, but seems to have pooped out at about 1.030, which is too high even for a sweet stout. I have raised the carboy temp to 72F and been swirling the carboy twice a day for 4 days and I'm not seen any lower gravity....maybe 1 point.

I am thinking of pitching some more yeast. I have some S-04 that would be appropriate (US-05 also, but don't think that would be the right stuff). My question is should I just rehydrate it and pitch it, or should I do a 1L starter so that it can be at high krausen when pitched. I know you don't normally do a starter with dry yeast, but it is sticking in my head that you need to be at high krausen to unstick a stuck fermentation.

Does anyone have extensive experience with this yeast strain? It's tolerance for lower temps interests me and I'm wondering if anyone here has used it multiple times and, if so, what your experience was. I'm a little confused by the Wyeast description which lists a moderately low attenuation (69 - 73%) but several of the styles they suggest are, in my experience, relatively dry. Any information/descriptions would be much appreciated. Thanks!

I've been lurking for awhile. I brewed my first batch about 3 weeks ago and I am brewing another batch tomorrow. I used White Labs yeast for my first batch pitched directly into the wort. I am using a WYeast Activator smack pack for the next batch. Do I need to make a starter with this yeast?

Many thanks for the help!

Just tasted a German Pils while kegging (at 35 F). GACK! hot alcohol and hop bitterness and nothing else. Very thin, no maltiness or sweetness AT ALL. No off-flavors really, just sorta like you mixed some cheap vodka in a flat Michelob Ultra. The 6-gal recipe was 9.5 lbs of Pilsener malt with a pound of munich and a half a pound of carafoam.I mashed at 149 for an hour. I pitched a 2-liter starter (stir-plate) of WLP830 and fermentation at 50 degrees seemed normal if a bit slow.. I let it warm up to the mid 60s for a couple of days to try to get it to finish after 4 weeks of slow bubbling at 50. When I finally crashed it to 35, it threw a slight haze (had been clear at 50). I'm pretty sure it's undrinkable, and I was gonna re-pitch. Dammit!

I calculated FG from a refractometer reading and the OG and came up with 1.007.

What on Earth happened? Wild yeast?

I also have a severe cold. Could this just be a problem with my taster?

We had a great time at Flying Dog Night at Max’s on Broadway last Thursday.  Not only did they have NINE Flying Dog beers on tap, but they were also pouring samples of our new Dog Schwarz Smoked Double Lager and had a firkin of our Snake Dog IPA brewed with our homegrown Centennial hops.

If you’re ever in Baltimore, make sure you stop by Max’s.  They have a great beer selection - both on draft and in bottles.  And it’s not just a beer bar - they have tasty food and lots of screens to watch sports - although the crowd that gathered that night wasn’t in much of a “sports-watching” mood that night as the Terps got their ass handed to them by the Hokies.

Best of all, they have friendly bartenders that know just how to say hello to their valued patrons as they did for us as we walked in the bar that night.  Same to ya!

Technorati Tags: flying dog, max’s, on broadway, craft beer, baltimore, on tap

Some of you might have read about one of our members looking for beta testers for a PLC he designed to be used for homebrewing, I was one of three selected to do a beta for him... and will post my findings as i experiment along the way.

I had to understand the concepts of State Machine programming and it did not take too long surprisingly as I haven't done anything like this since Uni, almost 25 years ago.

OK, so the unit arrived Wednesday from Embedded Control Concepts and I finally got to play late Saturday night.
http://www.embeddedcontrolconcepts.com/ for more info.

The owner has agreed to let me post my experiences as I go through them and I will also add these to my blog.

The unit is packaged into a Black 6x4x1" Alu container,(Pics to follow)

The I/O is all on one side - very neat for a beta box.



First out - the Ethernet port is self sensing , and even if directly connected does not require a cross over cable (I spent 30 minutes looking for the one I know I have and never found)
The system will auto fail to DHCP and self assign it's own IP address after 20 secs if directly connected.

I tried networking it through my wireless router and had no luck finding the assigned IP address, (I later found out the WIFI router has a table of all asigned addresses and I could have looked it up - DUH)

I had to force my Local Connection ethernet port to a fixed IP in the end, as the WIFI kept setting its IP config to same as WIFI. This is something that will be looked at during the beta. I will also attempt to look at connecting this to more than one PC to see how easy / difficult the first connection is. We will also look at using a WIFI Print router to connect it remotely, but this will be later on.

The external items needed and sold on the site are the Immersion temperature probe, 10K ohm NTC thermistor input. 6" (15 cm) or 4" (10cm) 304 SS stem and 1/4" NPT brass adaptor with compression sleeve for adjustable insertion length. Accuracy of 0.2°C,
You will also need Solid State Relay's - rated for switching 15-40 amps, these are the ones that are switched with a 3-8v input
The system allows for 4 inputs and drives up to 6 outputs.

For my first test , I programmed a simple RIMS mash, and did a dry run, to confirm the parameters and switching of everything. A hot water test was supposed to follow , but we ended up having people visit yesterday afternoon, so that will happen later today.

The gas control valve has also arrived , just need the pilot burner to be able to test that. I will use it with a temp probe to heat and keep to temperature the HLT water , both strike and later sparge water.

So I have started programming for the day I can get the system to start on its own, firstly a delay till on, then gas valve will fire and HLT water will start to heat and keep its temp within 2 deg for strike water.
This means I can go to bed the night before after lighting the pilot light on the gas system and wake up with Strike water ready for me.
Next will be mash in (could do this automatically with a water valve), mash stirrer ON for 5 minutes, and then into mashing for 60 minutes and RIMS will take care of hitting and maintaining the mash temp. This program is running dry at present, with two bugs which I am working on, not sure if me or the sw yet , more fun later tonight to do more tests.

Will post some pics and screen shots later.



http://zenzele-brewery.blogspot.com/

I have been wanting to build a corny keg washer for a while now. One of my most hated tasks is washing kegs (almost about as much as I hated bottling). I finally decided to commit to building one, but am on a tight budget these days. Was curious to know how much lift (head) the pumps are capable of doing and how much GPH they are to see if I can find an adequate pump on my budget.

I know harbor freight has a sump pump that is about $40, but I am one of those instant gratification people who will never follow through if I have to order an item versus walk into a store and buy it. (Also less of a paper trail for the wife to follow if I can go into a store and buy it.) So I am hoping for some specs to try and find a similiar priced, or cheaper, in store item that has enough force behind it that the spray is more "abrasive" when it is sprayed out at about a 4 foot head.

Thanks

As the title says, my last three batches have had an infection. I notice it when I crash cool..everything drops but there are still some bubbles at the top and a whitish transparent layer on top. The first of these three batches I didn't think was infected, I thought it was a mash temp issue, however now that I think about it, it makes more sense that it was an infection. The second batch I thought was a dirty oxygenation hose and stone however they both were boiled. This last batch was oxygenated with just filling the head space and shaking it around so I know it wasn't the hose (and I am using a sterile filter) I was thinking last night...you know..these last three batches have used my stir plate, so what am I doing wrong with it? Or is it my fermentation vessel (glass carboy) I see some scratches on the outside of my carboy from where it was dropped when cleaning, but cannot tell if there are any on the inside. With my starter; I do drape a wet washcloth around my flask when its on the plate to keep temps down and from fluctuating. I've heard about the gas exchange with a stir plate, so could I be bringing in "dirty" air into my starter? This needs to stop, I cant stand spending two weeks on a batch just to crash cool it and see an infection. I have not tasted this last one yet, but I'm thinking it will taste bone dry and have little residual sweetness as the others did. Your input it greatly appreciated! I would post pics but the dried krausen covers the carboy and you can only barely see from the very top*

Thanks,
John

When it comes to light beers, grain brewers have the advantage to have a wide selection of base grain available. For us (extract brewers) we face a challenge when it comes to this issue. I usually use beer can kits to get the extra flavors you won't get from plain DME. The problem with this is that most of the premium ones comes already hopped which takes the fun out of brewing and also the flexivity of hop usage per your preference and style. Another way of adding complex flavors is to use 1 to 3 pounds of base grain and do a partial mash before adding regular DME or LME for the boil.


I am really not meant to be a grain brewer and surely do not have the money and space to become one. After all that said, I am hoping that others extract brewers here have a few other tricks in regards to this matter that will like to share.

Posted: by errantnight (15 hours ago)

Yesterday I brewed up a Belgian Dubbel and all turned out great. My SG was 1.076 and I pitched an appropriate starter of 3787 according to MrMalty.com. I pitched my yeast last night and I have had a very healthy and vigorous fermentation since this morning. I have a temp controller and freezer and am currently fermenting at 64 degrees. Here is my question, does anyone have a suggestion on how I should let this yeast do its thing going forward. Should I raise the temp in a couple days? what sorta successful fermentation schedule have you used to ferment using this yeast. Thanks for the advice and time.


Mash on,

Mike

Ok, this summer I picked up one of the Banjo burners from Bayou Classic. worked great for my first few brews. Lately however, it seems to be losing pressure as my boil goes along. It starts out full blast but the flame drops and drops until it will barely keep a boil going. At first I thought it was because my tank was low, under 8-9 lbs, so I got a full one and tried that, same thing. I can't figure out why the pressure seems to drop off so bad. I had this happen last week, used the same tank today and the same thing happened. Anyone have a similar problem? Could it be the regulator or the tank valve?

I have the good fortune of going to Belgium in a couple of weeks and have been very anxious about the timing of the sales of the 12. I am giddy with anticipation as they just posted that the one day I will be in the area the Westy wil be for sale!!

Now I have to get up at 2:15a on Tues to reserve my spot to buy 2 crates...and I have to get planning on my beer transporter luggage box to get this babies home safely...thinking of one of those Target plastic trunks lined with foam.

Any ideas on protecting these things? Was actually wondering if I took a can of "great stuff" and a heavy trash bag...put the beers in the trunk...sprayed the "great stuff" in the bag and before it set pushing it in and around the tops of the bottles....sort of like a custom foam lid....thoughts?

Little confused by how the Blichmann beer gun works. To my understanding you can only take carbonated beer from a keg and transfer it to a bottle all while purging with co2. My question is, can you use it to take finished beer from a secondary fermenter and transfer it to a bottle. Then bottle condition as usual. I have noticed oxidation when using a regular bottle filler and I thought the beer gun would be the solution.

Ok I put some hot water in my tun to warm it up. I put in 14lbs of 2 row and 1 lb of briess 60 and poured in 3.75 gallons of water at 168degrees. Let that sit and stirred for about 60 minutes. emptied that in my keg and sparged with 170degree water until i filled it up to the 6 gallon mark. brought that to a boil and put in my hop schedule and by the time i was done, i was only able to put in 3 gallons of wort in my fermentor. did I screw something up? there may have been about 1/2 gallon in the bottom of my keg. Could i have had a 2.5 gallon boil off?

any help or direction would be awesome!

North

Back in early Oct I brewed up a pumpkin dubbel and a stout. I had reviewed several recipes and finally settled on a mixture of a few different stouts for what I figured would taste best to me....any rate had both kegged up by mid Oct and had my neighbor and his wife over for some beers and a few select "marinated" cherries. His wife was impressed with the pumpkin but Jim was extremely impressed with the stout. So much so that tonight I am brewing up a batch for uhm, a donation(grains/hops and yeast), for him and his parents that are coming in from out of town next month.
I'm keeping everything crossed that I can in hopes that it comes out the same and is as good as the 1st batch, mash is done and boil is starting.

Posted: by Bitterbill (1 hour ago)

We're about to head to Chattanooga for a long weekend and I need some good beer to bring home. About the best we can get where I live is Stella, Warsteiner and Terrapin Rye. I saw a thread asking about Nashville that talked about some places in Chattanooga, but I couldn't tell for sure where they all were in Nashville or Chatt. We used to go to the aquarium all the time when we lived in Atlanta, but I never had to worry about looking for beer when we went since I could find good stuff at home. Now that we're in AL, I NEED SOME GOOD BEER (besides my own). We'll be there through Monday evening, so if anyone sees this tomorrow, you might still make suggestions. We have a couple of full days planned, but I can probably get away some time. Is the brewery/restaurant still down by the aquarium, if so, we'll probably eat there tonight.

I am new to the world of scottish ales, and though I've tried several, I've never brewed one. I am looking to make a scottish ale that is balanced between hop and malt character leaning toward the malt (the hallmark of scottish ales). I would like the malt character to have a discernable nut character to it, but not dominate the overall maltiness. This is why I opted to use a small proportion of brown malt instead of a larger amount of victory. I hope that gives a fair description. I will be using a single batch sparge system and will perform a protein rest at 122 followed with a sacc rest at 154. 6 gallons.
Using beertools, I get the following:
OG: 1.053
FG: 1.014
SRM: 16.39
IBU: havent figured out yet, but single bittering addition with EKG to reach ~22 IBU
ALC: 5.1%
Efficiency: 73%

Golden Promise 5lb
Ashburne Mild 3 lb
Light Munich (Briess) 3 lb
Brown Malt .25 lb
Melanoidin .5 lb
Chocolate Malt .25

Wy 1728 Scottish Ale (will use a large starter and ferment in low 60's followed by a cold conditioning period)

Thanks for the input. Again, this style is new to me so I'm interested to hear tips from some of the more experienced scottish ale brewers. Last thought....though i don't have a water report, i know my water is pretty soft, so I figure it'll work for this style.

Are there any suggestions on how much malto dextrin to use per gallon?

Would the use be the same for beer as with soda?

Thanks

Would it be crazy to use a mix of 7lbs pale and 5lbs light munich as the base for a porter?

Posted: by allagashfan (12 hours ago)

Posted: by Taelec (21 hours ago)

Anyone brewing this weekend? I didn't see a thread posted.

I am going over to a Homebrew Club members house tomorrow early morning. He is hosting a Brew in and there should be about 4 of us bringing our systems and brewing up some various batches. I personally am brewing my first Belgian beer doing a Belgian Dubbel. Hope everyone has a great weekend.

On Sunday my friend is coming over and we are bottling up an Amber Ale that he made two weeks ago. I keg he bottles so I offered to carb his beer. We are going to us the BeerGun to bottle his whole batch. Should be fun. I gave the gun a run couple of nights ago for the first time and it rocks.

Mike