Here is an interesting article on brewing an antioxidant-rich beer. To put it succinctly, it is simply a set of instructions on brewing a dark, hazy homebrew--something I've been doing for quite a while. Drinking homebrew AND fighting cancer...what a wonderful combination!
Showing posts with label Beer and Brewing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Beer and Brewing. Show all posts
11.24.2007
9.30.2007
Brew Day - Belgian Strong Ale
Brewed a Belgian abbey ale Friday. Well, to be more precise, I brewed a Belgian abbey type ale Friday. It is impossible for me, or anyone else for that matter, to brew an actual abbey ale unless I am a monk in one of the five or so monasteries in the world licensed to brew what can then only be called an authentic abbey ale. But I digress.
I love these ales, particularly the dark variety, with their mahogany hue and their smooth malty sweetness, which nicely balances out their typical high gravity (i.e., high alcohol content). The yeast needed to live in the high-alcohol environment have to be especially vigorous--for this five-gallon batch I added two strains of Belgian yeast (enough to ferment a 10-gallon batch): a Trappist ale and a Belgian abbey ale yeast. These yeasts (as with pretty much any other you can buy) were liquid yeasts, coming in a sealed packet with a sugar mixture. To wake up the yeasties, which are locked away in a little sealed bubble inside the packet, you smack the yeast bubble til it bursts and shake it up with the sugar mixture. The yeast, excited at the prospect, begins to feast, making a little alcohol and CO2 in the process. When the packet gets fat with CO2, you know the yeast is good to go into the wort and start eating away at the malt sugars in your fermenter. Sometimes, to make sure you get enough yeast cells, you put what is in the fat packet into another container with even more sugar mixture and let the yeast propagate.
This is what I did for my two yeast strains; I needed enough yeast cells to eat up the very high concentration of sugar in my soon-to-be beer. One of the strains, the Belgian abbey, went into a Nalgene water bottle I had on hand, but even after a couple of days it didn't really seem to be that active. The yeast was a little old, so I chalked it up to the sluggishness of old age. I didn't screw the top down all the way, so I figured there was enough room for the CO2 to escape. Even so, I screwed it down too tightly. The Trappist yeast had been percolating nicely for a few days, so when it was time to pitch the yeast into the wort, I did that one first. When I unscrewed the top of what was thought to be sluggish yeast in the Nalgene, a volcanic eruption of yeast slurry sprayed all over the kitchen sink (and surrounding area)! I guess it wasn't so sluggish after all. After getting it under control, happy that it was out of control, I put it in the fermenter with the wort, aerated, and let it do its work.
I love watching the fireworks display of little coagulated spent hops and proteins in the glass carboys during the first days of fermentation. It looks like a little snow globe in there. Beautiful. Here is a poor, grainy movie (taken with my digital camera) that shows the activity of the yeast throwing everything around in the fermenter. Is that cool, or what?
The bubbling in the glass to the side is the CO2 escaping. It's going even faster as I write this, a little gas machine gun spitting out bubbles. Mmmm, I can't wait to try this beer in a year, when it has had plenty of time to mature nicely!
I love these ales, particularly the dark variety, with their mahogany hue and their smooth malty sweetness, which nicely balances out their typical high gravity (i.e., high alcohol content). The yeast needed to live in the high-alcohol environment have to be especially vigorous--for this five-gallon batch I added two strains of Belgian yeast (enough to ferment a 10-gallon batch): a Trappist ale and a Belgian abbey ale yeast. These yeasts (as with pretty much any other you can buy) were liquid yeasts, coming in a sealed packet with a sugar mixture. To wake up the yeasties, which are locked away in a little sealed bubble inside the packet, you smack the yeast bubble til it bursts and shake it up with the sugar mixture. The yeast, excited at the prospect, begins to feast, making a little alcohol and CO2 in the process. When the packet gets fat with CO2, you know the yeast is good to go into the wort and start eating away at the malt sugars in your fermenter. Sometimes, to make sure you get enough yeast cells, you put what is in the fat packet into another container with even more sugar mixture and let the yeast propagate.
This is what I did for my two yeast strains; I needed enough yeast cells to eat up the very high concentration of sugar in my soon-to-be beer. One of the strains, the Belgian abbey, went into a Nalgene water bottle I had on hand, but even after a couple of days it didn't really seem to be that active. The yeast was a little old, so I chalked it up to the sluggishness of old age. I didn't screw the top down all the way, so I figured there was enough room for the CO2 to escape. Even so, I screwed it down too tightly. The Trappist yeast had been percolating nicely for a few days, so when it was time to pitch the yeast into the wort, I did that one first. When I unscrewed the top of what was thought to be sluggish yeast in the Nalgene, a volcanic eruption of yeast slurry sprayed all over the kitchen sink (and surrounding area)! I guess it wasn't so sluggish after all. After getting it under control, happy that it was out of control, I put it in the fermenter with the wort, aerated, and let it do its work.
I love watching the fireworks display of little coagulated spent hops and proteins in the glass carboys during the first days of fermentation. It looks like a little snow globe in there. Beautiful. Here is a poor, grainy movie (taken with my digital camera) that shows the activity of the yeast throwing everything around in the fermenter. Is that cool, or what?
The bubbling in the glass to the side is the CO2 escaping. It's going even faster as I write this, a little gas machine gun spitting out bubbles. Mmmm, I can't wait to try this beer in a year, when it has had plenty of time to mature nicely!
11.03.2006
O, Beautiful Beer
Here is a picture of one of the last pints of my IPA. I was so moved by its beauty, that I just had to take a picture of it. I only wish I could include the intoxicating hoppy aroma in the picture. (Yes, pun intended.)
10.15.2006
Three Mile Nut Brown Island
The good news is that my nut brown is fermenting like a madman. The yeast is very happy right now eating away at all the sugars. The bad news is that I created a meltdown that I spent part of this morning and this afternoon cleaning up. You see, there are several by-products of fermentation, the most relevant being alcohol. CO2 is also released during fermentation, and this helps to gauge when fermentation is complete. Usually, an airlock (see picture) is filled with water and inserted into the top of the fermentation vessel, which for me is a 6-gallon glass carboy.
The CO2 causes bubbling in the airlock; when the bubbling stops, the fermentation is done. Another by-product of fermentation is foam; sometimes it is a lot, sometimes it is a little. I haven't had a problem with it...until now. You see, I had a LOT of beer in the carboy, but I thought it wouldn't foam enough to cause a problem. I thought wrong. I woke up this morning to the sound of a "thick" bubbling, not the sound that usually occurs in the airlock. When the CO2 enters the tube inside the airlock, it knocks the little open-ened dome-shaped thingy you see inside the airlock against the airlock cap and makes the water around the tube bubble, making a "thin" plastic ticking sound. Well, apparently there was a lot of foam produced during the night, and the pressure of the CO2 being released knocked the cap off the top of the airlock along with the dome-shaped thingy. Once it filled the airlock (which wouldn't take very long), the foam had nowhere else to go except out of the tube, down the side of the carboy, and onto the carpet, which it then decided to get drenched with its bad yeast-smelling self.
I was already pressed for time this morning, but I decided to clean up a bit before church. I put the carboy in the kitchen and inserted another (sterilized) airlock. This was not very smart, granted, since the foam would keep making its way out of the carboy, but I didn't have my coffee, had a headache, and wasn't thinking straight. This afternoon, I cleaned up what came of THAT mess, and attached one end of a blowoff hose to the airlock tube (taking out the dome-shaped thingy) and put the other end in a container of water. The hose is pretty long, so there was plenty of space for the foam to go. Silly me didn't sterilize the end of the hose attached to the airlock tube, so there is the possibility of contamination if any of the foam residue makes its way into the fermenter; but, that's not all that likely to happen at this point. I'll probably sterilize it later tonight.
This beer is really getting on my nerves. It better be good.
The CO2 causes bubbling in the airlock; when the bubbling stops, the fermentation is done. Another by-product of fermentation is foam; sometimes it is a lot, sometimes it is a little. I haven't had a problem with it...until now. You see, I had a LOT of beer in the carboy, but I thought it wouldn't foam enough to cause a problem. I thought wrong. I woke up this morning to the sound of a "thick" bubbling, not the sound that usually occurs in the airlock. When the CO2 enters the tube inside the airlock, it knocks the little open-ened dome-shaped thingy you see inside the airlock against the airlock cap and makes the water around the tube bubble, making a "thin" plastic ticking sound. Well, apparently there was a lot of foam produced during the night, and the pressure of the CO2 being released knocked the cap off the top of the airlock along with the dome-shaped thingy. Once it filled the airlock (which wouldn't take very long), the foam had nowhere else to go except out of the tube, down the side of the carboy, and onto the carpet, which it then decided to get drenched with its bad yeast-smelling self.I was already pressed for time this morning, but I decided to clean up a bit before church. I put the carboy in the kitchen and inserted another (sterilized) airlock. This was not very smart, granted, since the foam would keep making its way out of the carboy, but I didn't have my coffee, had a headache, and wasn't thinking straight. This afternoon, I cleaned up what came of THAT mess, and attached one end of a blowoff hose to the airlock tube (taking out the dome-shaped thingy) and put the other end in a container of water. The hose is pretty long, so there was plenty of space for the foam to go. Silly me didn't sterilize the end of the hose attached to the airlock tube, so there is the possibility of contamination if any of the foam residue makes its way into the fermenter; but, that's not all that likely to happen at this point. I'll probably sterilize it later tonight.
This beer is really getting on my nerves. It better be good.
10.14.2006
Nut Brown Ale Damage Control
Dadgum it. Apparently I haven't brewed enough to where the small (yet important) details don't get overlooked. There are three ingredients that didn't make it into the wort boil: bicarbonate, irish moss, and brown sugar. The first two aren't crucial for a nut brown ale; the third is. The first is highly recommended for any pale ale: it hardens the water giving the ale a nice edge. With pilsners, for example, you would want a softer beer with low hardness.
The second is highly recommended for any beer: it helps clump together all the stuff from the boil that you don't won't in your beer. If irish moss isn't used, the stuff settles out anyway, but the sediment also has beer mixed in; since what you want is a clear beer as a finished product, the beer mixed in with the sediment is lost. Usually it's not a huge loss and allowances are typically made for such, but, hey, I want all the beer I can get if I'm going to spend six hours making the stuff!
The third missing ingredient, brown sugar, is crucial for the beer to be called a nut brown ale. These ales have a nice sweetness, in addition to the nuttiness (which I took care of with my toasting experiment last night) to them that the brown sugar (or molasses) imparts. Without this ingredient, it really isn't going to be a nut brown ale. I had to have the brown sugar. When I got the beer home, before pitching the yeast, I boiled up a brown sugar concentrate, brought it down to the same temperature as what was in the fermenter, and added it to the fermenter with the rest of the beer. (Technically, it's not beer until there is fermentation from the yeast, so I'm being a bit loose with terminology here. I'm sure there is a correct term for this pre-beer, but, alas, I don't know what it is.) Hopefully this will correct the problem. It'll be a good beer, regardless. I just want it to be the beer I set out to brew.
It's just so frustrating to put precious time and effort in something only to misstep and potentially mess up the fruits of your labor. Ack.
The second is highly recommended for any beer: it helps clump together all the stuff from the boil that you don't won't in your beer. If irish moss isn't used, the stuff settles out anyway, but the sediment also has beer mixed in; since what you want is a clear beer as a finished product, the beer mixed in with the sediment is lost. Usually it's not a huge loss and allowances are typically made for such, but, hey, I want all the beer I can get if I'm going to spend six hours making the stuff!
The third missing ingredient, brown sugar, is crucial for the beer to be called a nut brown ale. These ales have a nice sweetness, in addition to the nuttiness (which I took care of with my toasting experiment last night) to them that the brown sugar (or molasses) imparts. Without this ingredient, it really isn't going to be a nut brown ale. I had to have the brown sugar. When I got the beer home, before pitching the yeast, I boiled up a brown sugar concentrate, brought it down to the same temperature as what was in the fermenter, and added it to the fermenter with the rest of the beer. (Technically, it's not beer until there is fermentation from the yeast, so I'm being a bit loose with terminology here. I'm sure there is a correct term for this pre-beer, but, alas, I don't know what it is.) Hopefully this will correct the problem. It'll be a good beer, regardless. I just want it to be the beer I set out to brew.
It's just so frustrating to put precious time and effort in something only to misstep and potentially mess up the fruits of your labor. Ack.
10.13.2006
Nut Brown Ale Preparation
I'll be brewing another nut brown ale tomorrow. I want it to have a nice, distinct nutty toffee flavor and aroma to it, and I've heard that the best way to do that is to toast the pale malt grain yourself. So, that's what I did tonight. I put about a pound of grains in a foil-lined baking pan in the oven at 350F for about 30 minutes. Let me say that my apartment smells incredible right now! I've got another one-pound batch in there right now. For this second batch, I made sure to wet the grains down better than the first batch to see what effect it might have on the outcome. I'm very much looking forward to what the toasting will do for my beer.
People occasionally ask me what the "malt" is that is used for the beer. I never know just what to say, except that it's barley malt. But that is rarely satisfying either for me or for the person asking. For those of you interested in a more in-depth, and ultimately more satisfying, answer, check out this webpage. It's got pictures and everything. The barley malt, however, is not straight-up barley from the field. It's barley that has been malted. So, here is a quickie on the malting process.
People occasionally ask me what the "malt" is that is used for the beer. I never know just what to say, except that it's barley malt. But that is rarely satisfying either for me or for the person asking. For those of you interested in a more in-depth, and ultimately more satisfying, answer, check out this webpage. It's got pictures and everything. The barley malt, however, is not straight-up barley from the field. It's barley that has been malted. So, here is a quickie on the malting process.
10.01.2006
Yes, An Award-Winning Brew
I spent my entire Sunday late afternoon at the local brew shop where the homebrew competition was held among young turks drinking beer, eating pretzels and pizza, and discussing homebrewing while three judges were tasting 15+ porters and 21 IPAs...and looking more haggard by the bottle. (Granted, they didn't taste the entire beer, but they had quite a bit, with plenty of water to ease the inevitable effects.) Please, no Sabbath-breaking observations, thank you very much. ;)
I didn't win the IPA competition, but I did come in 2nd out of 21. The certificate will be going up on the wall. (As soon as I hang all of the other pictures, paintings, and what-not that are still in boxes.)
While the judges were weaving their magic (or having the magic woven upon them) at a table in the corner, everyone was milling around and chatting it up with one another. I didn't really want to be in on the conversations in the room -- I wanted to be in on the conversations at the judges table. So, DBW and I eased over to a group sitting near the judges' table. My back was to the table, so I pretended to eye the homebrew supplies on the wall to my right as I eavesdropped on the judges' conversation, particularly when I heard them discussing my entry. I was genuinely pleased with the comments I heard and thought I had a chance to win it, but alas it was not to be. Below are the notes of the official report.
Aroma
All in all, I was pretty happy with my beer's reception!
I didn't win the IPA competition, but I did come in 2nd out of 21. The certificate will be going up on the wall. (As soon as I hang all of the other pictures, paintings, and what-not that are still in boxes.)
While the judges were weaving their magic (or having the magic woven upon them) at a table in the corner, everyone was milling around and chatting it up with one another. I didn't really want to be in on the conversations in the room -- I wanted to be in on the conversations at the judges table. So, DBW and I eased over to a group sitting near the judges' table. My back was to the table, so I pretended to eye the homebrew supplies on the wall to my right as I eavesdropped on the judges' conversation, particularly when I heard them discussing my entry. I was genuinely pleased with the comments I heard and thought I had a chance to win it, but alas it was not to be. Below are the notes of the official report.
Aroma
- piney
- earthy
- malt is in background
- resiney
- very low carbonation [I was afraid this would be a factor. I forced carbonated the beer in a keg and then bottled it using a counterpressure bottle filler to keep as much carbonation as possible. But I didn't carbonate it at high enough of a psi.]
- thin head [due to the low carbonation]
- nice color
- firm
- nice hop bitterness and flavor
- good hop choice
- rich
- toasty
- alcohol notes [a good thing for an American IPA, though I was afraid it would be too pronounced]
- nice mouthfeel
- good body
- a nice, strong IPA that could use more carbonation
- good dry hops [thank you Amarillo!]
All in all, I was pretty happy with my beer's reception!
9.24.2006
Award-Winning Brew?
I made an IPA (India Pale Ale) last month that I was planning on entering into the local Athens homebrew club's first competition. Was. Just my luck, I make great beer after great beer and just when I want to put it to the test, it doesn't turn out the way I wanted. Don't get me wrong, it's a good beer. I'm just not sure it's competition material. The longer it sits, the better it's gotten, though, so maybe I'll enter it all the same. Worth a shot, no?
1.06.2006
More Metaphors (and allusions just for fun)
I kegged the nut brown ale last night. Even though the beer is as of now like unto a 12-year old girl--flat and immature--she truly is remarkable. Once she ages, she will blossom nicely into the nut-brown beauty I fashioned her to be. (You are all invited to the coming-of-age ceremony--which will not involve mutilation, but rather consume-ation. Unfortunately, we missed Coming of Age Day this passed Monday.) I think I may have exceeded my expectations and am excited to see how my creation turns out--I just hope I haven't miscalculated somewhere along the way, only to have the monster repay me for my arrogance...
1.05.2006
In other non-intellectual news, I brewed another batch of beer last Thursday: a nut brown ale. (Similar to Samuel Smith's Nut Brown Ale or Newcastle's Brown Ale.) It's finished fermenting and is ready to be kegged, but first I need to bottle what's left of my chocolate oatmeal stout (which is not much) so I'll have a keg free. What fun! Nothing quite like a rewarding hobby...
12.13.2005
I've been quite busy lately, end of the semester and all. Gave an exam today. Giving another Wednesday. My TA is giving the exam on Friday--there's no friggin way I'm going to be there at 8:00am just to watch a bunch of punk kids take an exam while I grade some of my own. I'm with Descartes on this one: stay in bed and work in your pajamas until noon or so. (He died while living in the harsh 1650 winter in Sweden, probably from having to get up at 5 o'clock in the morning to give philosophy lessons to Queen Christina!) I've also got two sets (around 50 total) of 7-page papers to grade before Monday (when grades are due). Ugh.
I kegged about 8 gallons of my recent pale ale last Wednesday. The first batch (which I brewed a month ago), about 3-4 gallons, got messed up--I mashed at too high of a temperature, which created a lot of unfermentable malt sugars. Being unfermentable, the yeast was unable to eat them up and produce alcohol. This makes for a sweeter, lower alcohol beer that will probably just make you fatter quicker. (For those of you not in the know, "mashing" is when you mix crushed grains--mostly malt grains--with water, holding it at a specific temperature (between 148F and 158F) for a specific amount of time. During mashing, enzymes that are naturally in the malt convert the grain starches into sugars, the fermentable ones being turned into alcohol by brewing yeast. When the mash is at lower temperatures, more fermentable sugars are converted, leading to a drier, lighter, more alcoholic beer; at higher temperatures, not as many sugars convert into fermentables, which means more unfermentable sugars, leading to a sweeter, more full-bodied, lower alcohol beer.)
Did I throw my batch out? Um, no. It's in the beer fridge, and will be drunk by someone at some point. But probably not by me--I think my gut is making a comeback...
Anyway, I made another batch a couple of weeks ago, about 4 gallons. It was the same recipe as the one I messed up, except I put more malt in it in order to create more fermentable sugars and bump up the alcohol level. You see, I was thinking that I'd mix the messed up batch with this one and, hopefully, end up with a decent beer. However, I changed my mind. (I added champagne yeast to the bad batch, hoping such a robust yeast would eat up every bit of fermentable sugars that the pale ale yeast might have missed. It didn't do any good, except to give a hint of off-flavors to the beer, so I didn't want to mix it with the recent good batch. Hopefully, the off-flavors will mellow out and become nigh unnoticable with age.) So now I have a 3.5% pale and a 6.5% pale.
I kegged about 8 gallons of my recent pale ale last Wednesday. The first batch (which I brewed a month ago), about 3-4 gallons, got messed up--I mashed at too high of a temperature, which created a lot of unfermentable malt sugars. Being unfermentable, the yeast was unable to eat them up and produce alcohol. This makes for a sweeter, lower alcohol beer that will probably just make you fatter quicker. (For those of you not in the know, "mashing" is when you mix crushed grains--mostly malt grains--with water, holding it at a specific temperature (between 148F and 158F) for a specific amount of time. During mashing, enzymes that are naturally in the malt convert the grain starches into sugars, the fermentable ones being turned into alcohol by brewing yeast. When the mash is at lower temperatures, more fermentable sugars are converted, leading to a drier, lighter, more alcoholic beer; at higher temperatures, not as many sugars convert into fermentables, which means more unfermentable sugars, leading to a sweeter, more full-bodied, lower alcohol beer.)
Did I throw my batch out? Um, no. It's in the beer fridge, and will be drunk by someone at some point. But probably not by me--I think my gut is making a comeback...
Anyway, I made another batch a couple of weeks ago, about 4 gallons. It was the same recipe as the one I messed up, except I put more malt in it in order to create more fermentable sugars and bump up the alcohol level. You see, I was thinking that I'd mix the messed up batch with this one and, hopefully, end up with a decent beer. However, I changed my mind. (I added champagne yeast to the bad batch, hoping such a robust yeast would eat up every bit of fermentable sugars that the pale ale yeast might have missed. It didn't do any good, except to give a hint of off-flavors to the beer, so I didn't want to mix it with the recent good batch. Hopefully, the off-flavors will mellow out and become nigh unnoticable with age.) So now I have a 3.5% pale and a 6.5% pale.
10.18.2005
Chocolate Oatmeal Stout
That's what I made on Saturday. The little yeasties are happy eating up the malty sugars right now, turning their feast into alcohol and CO2. It should be a nice winter drink. The cider is doing well--the touch of orange and spices (cinnamon and cloves) have balanced out nicely so that they are there but are not in danger of intruding upon the apple taste. The altbier is yummy, too; however, given its smooth character, it has been the drink of choice (until the cider balanced out) and is consequently in danger of extinction. I'll let that species die out for now, but will repopulate my beer fridge with another variety soon enough...
9.04.2005
Mmmm...Hard Cider
Friday I brewed up a hard cider. It's fermenting like a good boy right now. Of the tasty adult beverages one can make, it's one of the easiest. Not nearly as labor- and time-intensive as beer or wine. I did something a little different--and risky--this time: I put some orange in it. I think I put too much. Don't ask me why I thought that would be a good thing. I'm not even sure it will be. We'll see in about a month, once it gets kegged and mellows nicely. My past ciders have been praised by cider lovers. I can only hope that this one will be of similar quality.
8.09.2005
Brew Day
I brewed a batch of German Altbier today at Eric's. (Altbier, or "old beer," is dark, dry, and bitter yet with a fairly light body and medium alcohol level , typically around 4 - 5% ABV) My Cream Ale is gone, my Czech Pilsner is running out, and I want something for September/October before I brew my seasonal hard cider and stout.
Speaking of stout, I opened one of the Imperial Raspberry Stouts I made last winter. Unexpectedly, it still retained its gorgeous khaki head. (Unexpected because I keg rather than bottle my beer. So, when I bottle it, the beer goes flat in no time. I still haven't figured out how to remedy this unfortuate state of affairs--unfortunate to those friends and family who want to try my brew and unfortunate to me when the beer isn't as good when they try it.)
Brent (a brew buddy) couldn't get his therminator ready for me to use, so the wort (unfermented malt/hops/water) has to be cooled old school. . .it's sitting in a glass carboy in my bathtub surrounded by not-cold-enough water wrapped in a towel. It'll probably take all night for it to get down to yeast-pitching temperature (80F).The German Ale yeast is just dying to start feasting on those malty sugars. But I digress. . .
Speaking of stout, I opened one of the Imperial Raspberry Stouts I made last winter. Unexpectedly, it still retained its gorgeous khaki head. (Unexpected because I keg rather than bottle my beer. So, when I bottle it, the beer goes flat in no time. I still haven't figured out how to remedy this unfortuate state of affairs--unfortunate to those friends and family who want to try my brew and unfortunate to me when the beer isn't as good when they try it.)
Brent (a brew buddy) couldn't get his therminator ready for me to use, so the wort (unfermented malt/hops/water) has to be cooled old school. . .it's sitting in a glass carboy in my bathtub surrounded by not-cold-enough water wrapped in a towel. It'll probably take all night for it to get down to yeast-pitching temperature (80F).
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