From now until April 12th 2012, every time you use Danstar Premium yeast, you can use the empty package to enter for a chance to win a professional brewing course! In the “Beer School 2012” contest, Danstar will sponsor one lucky winner in a random draw for fully-paid tuition in the 2012 World Brewing Academy web-based Concise Course in Brewing Technology. A $3,200 value, the Concise Course offers intermediate-level training that will build on your brewing knowledge to give you a complete understanding of the commercial brewing process. Whether you want to build your homebrewing skills or build a career as a professional brewer, this course will change the way you think of beer & brewing.
A-B InBev has purchased Budjovicky Mestansky Pivovar (BMP), the smaller of two breweries from the Czech town of Ceska Budejovice. Both have long claimed that they — and not A-B InBev — own the right to sell a beer called Budweiser on world markets. No purchase price was disclosed, and the only assets A-B InBev bought was BMP’s Budweiser trademarks – its parent company transferred the actual brewery and employees to a different firm prior to the sale. Still, the deal could have big ramifications.
The “forced wort” test basically tells you whether your wort is stable and free from contamination. You take a sample from the run-in to your fermentor, before you pitch any yeast. You need a properly sterile flask for this – merely sanitised probably won’t do the job (although I haven’t tried) and could well give false positives – and you need to take the sample in as sanitary a fashion as possible. Then you simply put the flask somewhere safe and warm (on a shaker if you’ve got one – I haven’t) and check it every day for haze, bubbles, or off smells or tastes, for the next few days to see if anything grows in it. Ideally, it should still be clear and stable at least 7 days later. Don’t put it on a stir plate, as constant stirring will make the remaining proteins go cloudy (I know, I’ve done it).
It is important that a brewer regularly check the fermentability of the wort produced. A very simple and effective method is a forced fermentation test. This test can be performed by any brewer with or without a lab. The forced fermentation test consists of aseptically pulling a wort sample (post heat-exchanger) into a sterile sample container and inoculating with a very high yeast cell count (Dried yeast works fine). Agitate the container often. Check the gravity after 36-48 hours to determine terminal gravity. This test will give you a good idea of where your fermentation should finish. If your main fermentation does not reach the same level as your forced ferment, you know you have a problem in the fermenter (pitch rate, temperature, oxygenation). If both your main fermentation and the forced ferment finish out of spec (too high or too low), you know that you have a problem on the brewing side (mash temperature, times, crush, ingredients).
With careful use, a 0–30 Brix refractometer is precise to within 0.2–0.3 Brix. As such, it is less precise than a good hydrometer. However, it can provide a quick measurement of gravity to within about one “gravity point” at times when cooling the wort for a hydrometer sample would take too much time.
I got to admit, I was shocked when I found out “real” brewing software was using the “Morey Equation.” At the time was writing my own brewing software. The original version was in Quick Basic and was really limited. I decided [I] wanted something that was executable and had editable databases, so I went to work on transferring it to Turbo Pascal. One area I was really unhappy with was color estimation. By using just the MCU value I felt my beers were usually lighter than the prediction.
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.
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.
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.
As Jamil and John do in Brewing Classic Styles, I formulated this recipe to produce five gallons (19 L) of beer for packaging. I assume a loss due to trub of a half-gallon in the fermenter and another half-gallon in the boil kettle. That will leave six gallons (22.7 L) at the end of the boil. I assume a boil-off rate of about one gallon per hour, which means I need 7.5 gallons (28.4 L) at the start of the boil for a 90-minute full-volume boil. I use bagged pellet hops for all hop additions.
This is a single step infusion mash at 1.56 qt./lb. with a batch sparge. Mix the crushed grain with 5.3 gallons (20 L) of 160 °F (71 °C) water to stabilize at 152 °F (67 °C) for 60 minutes. Vorlauf and lauter to collect 3.75 gallons (14.2 L) of wort.
Sparge with 3.75 gallons (14.2 L) of 170 °F (77 °C) water to bring the collected volume to about 7.5 gallons (28.4 L). Boil for 90 minutes. While boiling, add the hops as per the hopping schedule. Cool the wort to 68 °F (20 °C). Transfer to a sanitized 6.5 gallon (24.6 L) glass carboy fermenter.
Pitch yeast and aerate the wort. Hold at 66 °F (19 °C) until fermentation is complete. Add dry hops. Let the beer condition for one week and then bottle. Carbonate to 2.0 volumes using 3.0 ounces (85 g) corn sugar. Bottle condition for two more weeks. Enjoy your Stone Age IPA.
