Further adventures in Homebrewing
Making beer is this wonderful intersection of science and art and cooking that is more fun and rewarding than I ever expected it to be. It’s so easy, and so rewarding, if you like art and science and cooking (and beer) you should totally make some of your own.
Think about the classic white shaker on every restaurant table. Most of the time we look right past it or ignore the invisible flavor in the small packets stacked next to the pepper. But stop for a moment, and consider salt’s history and presence — how far it traveled, what form it originally started in, how many people were involved just to get it to your table. It gets more interesting. Salt has inspired wars, funded the Great Wall of China, it’s been considered divine, it’s the name of cities, it has been used as currency. Today, it has over 14,000 uses and is considered a luxury in some parts of the world, while Americans just consume about a teaspoon and a half a day.
The most famous stout in the world uses a liquid extract, called Guinness Flavor Essence (GFE), to convert pale lagers and ales brewed by licensed Guinness producers around the world into Guinness Foreign Stout. GFE, reportedly a mixture of roasted barley extract and special beer, is only made in Dublin and is used by breweries in the Caribbean, Africa and Asia.
What can 1 gallon carboys be used for?
When I drain my kettle after whirlpooling, there’s always a gallon or two of gunk down there. I siphon it into a one gallon jug or two, pop it in the fridge, let the gunk settle out, then use the wort for starters. You can freeze it in ziploc bags or chiney foo soup containers. I also use my one gallon jugs for starters, test batches, or experiments with oak, fruit, or dry hops.
This is another in the ever-evolving Brush Valley Brewing House Ale. This one is largely driven by ingredient availability.
I formulated this recipe to produce five gallons of beer for packaging. I assume a boil-off rate of about one gallon per hour with a full-volume boil. I use bagged pellet hops for all hop additions. I assume a loss due to trub of a half-gallon in the boil kettle and another half-gallon in the fermenter.
Recipe: Brush Valley Brewing House Ale v 1.5
BJCP Style: 14B — American IPA
Brewhouse Efficiency: 74%
Pre-Boil Volume: 6.44 gallons (24.4 L)
BG: 1.054 SG (13.3 °P)
Original Volume: 5.5 gallons (20.3 L)
OG: 1.062 SG (15.2 °P)
FG: 1.017 SG (4.3 °P)
ADF: 73%
Bitterness (Tinseth): 50 IBU
ABV: 6.1%
Color (Morey): 11 SRM (22 EBC) — Deep amber
Boil Duration: 55 minutes
BU:GU 0.80
Calories per 12-ounce Serving: 216 — 119 from Alcohol, 96 from Carbs
| Grains | Quantity | Percent |
|---|---|---|
| Crisp Maris Otter Malt (3.5 °L) | 11.0 lb. (4.990 kg) | 88 |
| Crisp Light Crystal Malt (45 °L) | 1.5 lb. (0.680 kg) | 12 |
| Hops | IBU | |
| Citra 11.4% AA, 55 min. | 1.5 oz (43 g) | 46.7 |
| Citra 11.4% AA, 5 min. | 0.6 oz (17 g) | 3.8 |
| Citra 11.4% AA, dry | 1.7 oz (48 g) | 0 |
| Yeast | ||
| Wyeast 1099 Whitbread Ale™ (Manufactured 11/9/11; 60% viability) | Want 229B; Have 120B | |
| Other | ||
| Irish Moss, 15 min. | 2.2 g | |
| Brewer’s Choice™ Wyeast Nutrient Blend, 10 min. | 2.2 g | |
| Water Treatment | Mash | Boil |
| Gypsum (CaSO₄) | 9.4 g | 6.4 g |
| Calcium Chloride (CaCl₂) | 1.4 g | 1.0 g |
| Baking Soda (NaHCO₃) | 0.9 g | — |
| Canning Salt (NaCl) | 0.5 g | 0.3 g |
Adjusted Mash Water Profile
| Sodium (Na): | 26 ppm |
|---|---|
| Calcium (Ca): | 191 ppm |
| Magnesium (Mg): | 3 ppm |
| Sulfate (SO₄): | 301 ppm |
| Chloride (Cl): | 57 ppm |
| Total Alkalinity (CaCO₃): | 148 ppm |
| Residual alkalinity: | 10 |
| Chloride to sulfate ratio: | 0.19 (Very Bitter) |
| pH: | 5.2 |
Continue reading “(33) Saturday, December 31, 2011 Brew Day — BVBHA1.5”
“An obsession with brewing protocol is generally the mark of an amateur — that pitiable person who makes a simple thing complicated in the futile hope of feeling kinship with the professionals. Nevertheless, if you are making coffee you might as well make it well.” — Kelefa Sanneh
(Via Boing Boing.)
It is a quote about brewing coffee, but it seems to me to equally apply to brewing beer. Something I struggle with at the moment is trying to decide how much of what I know is how to use brewing equipment or brewing techniques and how much of it is how to brew beer.
Here is a way to get custom bottle caps to go with your custom beer bottle labels. The good folks over at BottleMark™ — Cameron and HER Cooper — will let you upload your own design, or use one of theirs, and print and ship you any number of caps (even just one).
They even have magnets if you want to stick them to your kegerator.
The start of the journal entry for my most recent batch of dry stout lists the changes from the previous batch. I did not expect much impact from the changes, so I felt comfortable changing five things at a time. Now that the new batch has fully conditioned and I can really appreciate it, I can say it is significantly different from the first. There are no overt flaws, but
I want to look at the changes to see what I might want to do next time.
I took a drive down the valley to the Bald Eagle Brewing Company today. Tom Sweet, the owner, seems like a friendly and knowledgable guy. He has a nice variety of beer and winemaking ingredients and equipment. Tom offers his own beer kits, grains and extracts from Briess and Muntons, yeast from Wyeast and Fermentis, and a nice range of what I think are Hopunion hops. I picked up a few things. His prices are within a few pennies of the best prices I can find online. I do not have to pay shipping. I do not have to wait days to get my ingredients. I think I will go back the next time I brew.
I am going to have to get myself over to the Bald Eagle Brewing Company. They are less than 40 minutes away.
View Bald Eagle Brewing Company in a larger map.
Continue reading “Local Home Brew Store”
