There are thousands of craft breweries out there making great beer. There's no way to taste them all. Some have been around for a while, some are new on the scene. I'm shocked at how few of the "great" beers according to BeerAdvocate I've actually been fortunate enough to try. So, I've created a craft beer bucket list for myself. This will be an ever evolving list, as I am able to try some, and as I find new beers to add. As befitting a self-described hophead, this list will be heavy on IPAs, but I've mixed in several other styles, as well. Where available, I took the availability from the brewery's website. Otherwise, it's from BeerAdvocate, so I can't attest to the accuracy.
So, here it is, in alphabetical order:
1. Alchemist Heady Topper
American Double IPA
BeerAdvocate Score: 100, Ranking: #1
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/27039/16814/
Availability: Year-round, only in Vermont
2. Ballast Point Sculpin IPA
American IPA
BeerAdvocate Score: 98, Ranking: #61
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/199/29619/
Availability: Year-round
3. Bell's Hopslam Ale
American Double IPA
BeerAdvocate Score: 100, Ranking: #23
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/287/17112/
Availability: Winter, limited distribution area
3. Bell's Two Hearted Ale
American IPA
BeerAdvocate Score: 95, Ranking: #200
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/287/1093/
Availability: Year-round, limited distribution area
4. Deschutes The Abyss
American Imperial Stout
BeerAdvocate Score: 100, Ranking: #19
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/63/34420/
Availability: Winter
5. Goose Island Bourbon County Brand Coffee Stout
American Imperial Stout
BeerAdvocate Score: 100, Ranking: #3
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/1146/57747/
Availability: Rotating
6. Lagunitas Sucks
American Double IPA
BeerAdvocate Score: 97, Ranking: #83
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/220/74986/
Availability: Winter
7. New Belgium La Folie
Flanders Oud Bruin
BeerAdvocate Score: 95, Ranking: #237
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/192/1917/
Availability: Yearly single-bottling
8. North Coast Old Rasputin
Russian Imperial Stout
BeerAdvocate Score: 96, Ranking: #141
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/112/412/
Availability: Year-round
9. Ommegang Three Philosophers
Belgian Quadrupel
BeerAdvocate Score: 92, Ranking: NR
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/42/3457/
Availability: Year-round
10. Prairie Bomb!
American Imperial Stout
BeerAdvocate Score: 99, Ranking: #52
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/30356/94350/
Availability: Rotating
11. Russian River Pliny the Elder
American Double IPA
BeerAdvocate Score: 100, Ranking: #4
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/863/7971/
Availibility: Year-round, very limited distribution area
12. Russian River Pliny the Younger
American Triple IPA
BeerAdvocate Score: 100, Ranking: #2
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/863/21690/
Availibility: Year-round, very limited distribution area
13. Sierra Nevada Celebration
American IPA
BeerAdvocate Score: 93, Ranking: NR
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/140/1904/
Availibility: Winter
14. Stone Enjoy By IPA
American Double IPA
BeerAdvocate Score: 98, Ranking: #54
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/147/84596/
Availability: Rotating, availability varies based on when it's brewed
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
Thursday, February 27, 2014
Going to All Grain with a new Brew Kettle
Last weekend I brewed for the second straight weekend, with the help of a hockey buddy who wants to get into homebrewing, Josh. We did a Magic Hat #9 clone from Austin Homebrew Supply. To make room in my primary fermenter, I racked the Imperial IPA over to a secondary. It was at about 1.032, so it still has some work to do, so I made sure to take some of the yeast cake with it. Probably not the best idea in the world, but it took all of a few hours to be back at it with a nice thick krausen, so all is good. We ended up not getting nearly as much boil off as I expected, so almost 6 gallons of Magic Hat went into the fermenter. I still hit my OG, though, so it should be fine, just more of it! We'll see after it's bottled and conditioned when we do a blind, side-by-side taste test! I have them both fermenting happily away upstairs in the guest bathroom in swamp coolers. With the cooler weather the last few days, I haven't even needed to add frozen water bottles to keep them both around 64-66 degrees!
The next day I was musing about moving on to all grain using the Brew in a Bag method, but knowing I probably need a bigger kettle than my current 8 gallon one. My totally awesome wife started browsing through stock pots on Amazon and gave me a few ideas. I eventually settled on a 16 gallon Bayou Classic stainless steel kettle with ball valve spigot, and she ordered it! This is going to be awesome! I have a couple of 5 gallon paint strainer bags from Lowe's that I was going to use as brew bags, but now I'm afraid they might not be big enough for the 16 gallon monster that's supposed to arrive on our doorstep today. I'm going to Homebrew HQ after work today to get a new hydrometer (the old one got accidentally dropped, and they're extremely fragile) and a few other things, so I might see what they have there. There's also a guy who makes custom BIAB bags and charges pretty reasonable amounts. We'll see on that.
Another thing I want to get into is making yeast starters. It seems easy enough, and I won't have to buy two vials of yeast for the high gravity beers like I did with the Smoked Porter and Imperial IPA. I've been working on some all grain recipes recently. I've got ideas for an ESB, a Kolsch, and a Belgian Trippel. I'll probably start with the Kolsch, since it will be the simplest and cheapest.
Speaking of beers, I've been trying to come up with catchy names for all my beers. Originally, I was thinking of using artillery terms and slang for all the beers I make, since I'm an FA officer in the Guard. That led to Charge 8 Imperial IPA and Willy Pete American Wheat. Lately, though, I was thinking maybe I should stick to the theme of the brewery name, and go with Texas-based names. I had the idea of using figures from the Texas Revolution and have beers like Jim Bowie Blonde and Juan Seguin Stout. I expanded to Texan military heroes from all eras and wars, to be able to do something like a Chris Kyle Kolsch or an Audie Murphy IPA. If anyone actually reads this blog, I'd love some input! Naming beers is half the fun of brewing them (the other half being the drinking part, of course....ok, maybe its more 20/80 naming/drinking, but you get the point!)
The next day I was musing about moving on to all grain using the Brew in a Bag method, but knowing I probably need a bigger kettle than my current 8 gallon one. My totally awesome wife started browsing through stock pots on Amazon and gave me a few ideas. I eventually settled on a 16 gallon Bayou Classic stainless steel kettle with ball valve spigot, and she ordered it! This is going to be awesome! I have a couple of 5 gallon paint strainer bags from Lowe's that I was going to use as brew bags, but now I'm afraid they might not be big enough for the 16 gallon monster that's supposed to arrive on our doorstep today. I'm going to Homebrew HQ after work today to get a new hydrometer (the old one got accidentally dropped, and they're extremely fragile) and a few other things, so I might see what they have there. There's also a guy who makes custom BIAB bags and charges pretty reasonable amounts. We'll see on that.
Another thing I want to get into is making yeast starters. It seems easy enough, and I won't have to buy two vials of yeast for the high gravity beers like I did with the Smoked Porter and Imperial IPA. I've been working on some all grain recipes recently. I've got ideas for an ESB, a Kolsch, and a Belgian Trippel. I'll probably start with the Kolsch, since it will be the simplest and cheapest.
Speaking of beers, I've been trying to come up with catchy names for all my beers. Originally, I was thinking of using artillery terms and slang for all the beers I make, since I'm an FA officer in the Guard. That led to Charge 8 Imperial IPA and Willy Pete American Wheat. Lately, though, I was thinking maybe I should stick to the theme of the brewery name, and go with Texas-based names. I had the idea of using figures from the Texas Revolution and have beers like Jim Bowie Blonde and Juan Seguin Stout. I expanded to Texan military heroes from all eras and wars, to be able to do something like a Chris Kyle Kolsch or an Audie Murphy IPA. If anyone actually reads this blog, I'd love some input! Naming beers is half the fun of brewing them (the other half being the drinking part, of course....ok, maybe its more 20/80 naming/drinking, but you get the point!)
Tuesday, February 4, 2014
Next Beers, Jester King, and Beer Labels
It was a good Super Bowl weekend in Austin. Dad's birthday was Super Bowl Sunday, so we went out to eat with Mom and Dad Saturday night. Since Austin Homebrew Supply was on the way to their house, we made a stop there. We also went out to the Jester King Brewery for a couple of hours first, since it's not far from their house, either.
At AHS, we picked up some supplies for my next two batches. After asking for the wisdom of my Facebook friends in helping me come up with the next beer to be brewed, I settled on an Imperial IPA (also known as a Double IPA). I did some googling on IIPA recipes, and found this article by Vinnie Cilurzo on brewing Double IPAs. Vinnie is the owner of the Russian River Brewing Company in Santa Rosa, CA, the makers of the Pliny the Elder Double IPA, which has the top ranking on Beer Advocate. So, a good guy to get beer brewing advice from. In that article is his all-grain recipe for a 5-gallon batch of Pliny the Elder. I decided that I'd start with that recipe and tweak it some, to reflect my own hop preferences. First, I had to convert it to extract, since I haven't gone to all-grain yet. With the help of Beersmith 2, I came up with this:
Grain Bill
11lbs Extra Pale LME
10oz Crystal Malt 20L
10oz Carapils Malt
3/4lb corn sugar
Hop Schedule
4oz Chinook - 90min
.75oz Chinook - 45min
1.25oz Simcoe - 30min
.75oz Centennial - 0min
2.5oz Simcoe - 0min
1oz Chinook, 1oz Simcoe, 1oz Centennial dry hopped for 12-14 days
.25oz Chinook, .25oz Simcoe, .25oz Centennial dry hopped for the last 5 days
Yeast
While Labs WLP001 California Ale Yeast
Basically, I substituted Chinook for Columbus and messed with the amounts to come out with even numbers, so I wouldn't be short or over by getting 1oz bags of hops at AHS. I'll be sure to report back once it's ready to drink in a couple of months.
We also got AHS's Magic Hat #9 clone kit, since that's my wife's favorite beer. Hopefully it turns out good!
After the homebrew store, we met my parents at their house and headed out to the Jester King Brewery. It was not at all what I expected. I've been to several small breweries for tours, and I was expecting more of what I had seen at those. 50 people at most, more there for the free (or cheap) beer at the end of the tour than the tour itself. At Jester King, there were a few hundred people out there. It must be the "in" place to go for Austin-area hipsters, because I was surrounded by them! For as many people there were, though, the people pouring did a great job cycling everyone through the tap room. We were in line for maybe 15 minutes before we walked away with 10 different beers between the four of us. You can get anything from a 4oz sample all the way to a 175ml bottle. They also had an outdoor pouring station with a smaller selection of their beers. The outside area has a bunch of picnic tables, and it was a beautiful day, so we found an empty one and started testing out beers.
Now, not only is it not your normal brewery as far as tours go. They are a farmhouse brewery, and their beers are not your normal everyday beers, even for craft beer lovers. They ferment with farmhouse and wild yeast strains, as well as souring bacteria in many of their beers. They also use local well water and all organic grains and hops. The result is a wide spectrum of flavors, many not found in more "traditional" beers. Some of their beers can be quite sour. You really need to go in with an open mind! I liked pretty much everything I tasted. The Noble King, Black Metal, and RU55 were my favorites. My parents and wife all liked Mad Meg. They also sell bottles to go, so if you find something you like, you can pick up some to take home!
Once we got back to my in-laws' house Saturday evening, I started playing around with beer labels on http://www.grogtag.com/. Erin had seen a display setup for them at AHS, and grabbed a card that had a code for a 10% discount. They produce custom, reusable beer bottle labels. You can pick from any of their pre-made labels, or design your own. I used one of their pre-made labels where you can upload your own background and came up with this for my IIPA:
At AHS, we picked up some supplies for my next two batches. After asking for the wisdom of my Facebook friends in helping me come up with the next beer to be brewed, I settled on an Imperial IPA (also known as a Double IPA). I did some googling on IIPA recipes, and found this article by Vinnie Cilurzo on brewing Double IPAs. Vinnie is the owner of the Russian River Brewing Company in Santa Rosa, CA, the makers of the Pliny the Elder Double IPA, which has the top ranking on Beer Advocate. So, a good guy to get beer brewing advice from. In that article is his all-grain recipe for a 5-gallon batch of Pliny the Elder. I decided that I'd start with that recipe and tweak it some, to reflect my own hop preferences. First, I had to convert it to extract, since I haven't gone to all-grain yet. With the help of Beersmith 2, I came up with this:
Grain Bill
11lbs Extra Pale LME
10oz Crystal Malt 20L
10oz Carapils Malt
3/4lb corn sugar
Hop Schedule
4oz Chinook - 90min
.75oz Chinook - 45min
1.25oz Simcoe - 30min
.75oz Centennial - 0min
2.5oz Simcoe - 0min
1oz Chinook, 1oz Simcoe, 1oz Centennial dry hopped for 12-14 days
.25oz Chinook, .25oz Simcoe, .25oz Centennial dry hopped for the last 5 days
Yeast
While Labs WLP001 California Ale Yeast
Basically, I substituted Chinook for Columbus and messed with the amounts to come out with even numbers, so I wouldn't be short or over by getting 1oz bags of hops at AHS. I'll be sure to report back once it's ready to drink in a couple of months.
We also got AHS's Magic Hat #9 clone kit, since that's my wife's favorite beer. Hopefully it turns out good!
After the homebrew store, we met my parents at their house and headed out to the Jester King Brewery. It was not at all what I expected. I've been to several small breweries for tours, and I was expecting more of what I had seen at those. 50 people at most, more there for the free (or cheap) beer at the end of the tour than the tour itself. At Jester King, there were a few hundred people out there. It must be the "in" place to go for Austin-area hipsters, because I was surrounded by them! For as many people there were, though, the people pouring did a great job cycling everyone through the tap room. We were in line for maybe 15 minutes before we walked away with 10 different beers between the four of us. You can get anything from a 4oz sample all the way to a 175ml bottle. They also had an outdoor pouring station with a smaller selection of their beers. The outside area has a bunch of picnic tables, and it was a beautiful day, so we found an empty one and started testing out beers.
Now, not only is it not your normal brewery as far as tours go. They are a farmhouse brewery, and their beers are not your normal everyday beers, even for craft beer lovers. They ferment with farmhouse and wild yeast strains, as well as souring bacteria in many of their beers. They also use local well water and all organic grains and hops. The result is a wide spectrum of flavors, many not found in more "traditional" beers. Some of their beers can be quite sour. You really need to go in with an open mind! I liked pretty much everything I tasted. The Noble King, Black Metal, and RU55 were my favorites. My parents and wife all liked Mad Meg. They also sell bottles to go, so if you find something you like, you can pick up some to take home!
Once we got back to my in-laws' house Saturday evening, I started playing around with beer labels on http://www.grogtag.com/. Erin had seen a display setup for them at AHS, and grabbed a card that had a code for a 10% discount. They produce custom, reusable beer bottle labels. You can pick from any of their pre-made labels, or design your own. I used one of their pre-made labels where you can upload your own background and came up with this for my IIPA:
Charge Eight refers to the max charge on a M119A2 howitzer. I thought it was a fitting name for an in-your-face Imperial IPA.
Hope everyone had a wonderful Super Bowl weekend. Is baseball season here yet?
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
Overdue Update - Christmas Goodness
So, since my last post, I've brewed, bottled and started drinking an AHS Belgian White; and I also brewed and bottled an AHS Smoked Porter that I got for Christmas. The Belgian White turned out great. It's brewed with bitter orange peel and cracked coriander. I over-carbonated it just a bit, so it pours with quite a bit of head, but it still tastes awesome. The Smoked Ported I bottled this past weekend, so it still has a couple of weeks of bottle conditioning before it's ready to drink. I made sure to use the Priming Calculator over at Northern Brewer to calculate how much priming sugar to use, so I don't over-carb again. I forgot to do that for the witbeer, and just used the whole package that came in the kit from AHS.
Speaking of Christmas, it was very good to my homebrewing hobby this year. In addition to the Smoked Porter, I also got a new bottle drying tree, and vinator bottle sanitizer, and a wort chiller! The wort chiller cut down the process of cooling the wort after the boil tremendously, just using water from the spigot outside. In the summer it might be different, but right now, the water is plenty cold coming out. The bottle drying tree and sanitizer also saved alot of time during the bottling process. Maybe next year I'll see about trying to start getting all the stuff I need for all grain brewing. In the meantime, I might start trying out doing Brew In A Bag all grain.
As you can tell from above, I've started using recipe kits from Austin Homebrew Supply. They have a great selection of beers to choose from, and I'm not quite to the point where I can craft my own recipes. My wife and I are headed down to Austin for a Super Bowl party, and plan on making a trip to AHS to get stuff for my next batch(es). I would like to do another IPA next, my first one turned out so good. I might ask the guys at AHS to help me convert my extract recipe to all grain, and see what it would take to do a BIAB brew. After that, who knows. I'll see what they've got while we're there.
Also while we're in Austin, we're going to try to swing by the Jester King Brewery. I've heard great things about their beer from friends who live in Austin, and from people over at HomebrewTalk.com. From looking at their menu for this weekend, looks like they're going to have some good stuff available in their tap room. My parents live out near there, so they might join us as well.
This is a short one, but remember....relax, don't worry, and have a homebrew!
Speaking of Christmas, it was very good to my homebrewing hobby this year. In addition to the Smoked Porter, I also got a new bottle drying tree, and vinator bottle sanitizer, and a wort chiller! The wort chiller cut down the process of cooling the wort after the boil tremendously, just using water from the spigot outside. In the summer it might be different, but right now, the water is plenty cold coming out. The bottle drying tree and sanitizer also saved alot of time during the bottling process. Maybe next year I'll see about trying to start getting all the stuff I need for all grain brewing. In the meantime, I might start trying out doing Brew In A Bag all grain.
As you can tell from above, I've started using recipe kits from Austin Homebrew Supply. They have a great selection of beers to choose from, and I'm not quite to the point where I can craft my own recipes. My wife and I are headed down to Austin for a Super Bowl party, and plan on making a trip to AHS to get stuff for my next batch(es). I would like to do another IPA next, my first one turned out so good. I might ask the guys at AHS to help me convert my extract recipe to all grain, and see what it would take to do a BIAB brew. After that, who knows. I'll see what they've got while we're there.
Also while we're in Austin, we're going to try to swing by the Jester King Brewery. I've heard great things about their beer from friends who live in Austin, and from people over at HomebrewTalk.com. From looking at their menu for this weekend, looks like they're going to have some good stuff available in their tap room. My parents live out near there, so they might join us as well.
This is a short one, but remember....relax, don't worry, and have a homebrew!
Thursday, December 19, 2013
Brew Day
North Texas Beer week was last month. Unfortunately, I didn't get to participate in any of the events, I just had too much going on, including having drill on one of the weekends. That didn't stop me from keeping up with the goings-on via Facebook. Apparently, I "liked" something or signed up somewhere, because a couple of weeks ago, I get an email from The Ticket saying that I had been selected as the Brewer for a Day winner at Franconia Brewery in McKinney. I got in contact with Dennis at Franconia and we worked out a day for me to come in and be a brewer. That day was yesterday.
Their brew days usually start at 5:30am, so I got up really early to make the 45 minute drive up toSouth Oklahoma McKinney. Apparently there was a miscommunication somewhere, because the head brewer didn't know I was coming that day (I had originally scheduled for Monday, but had to reschedule) and didn't get there until 6:30. No worries, though. He got there, and we got right to work.
The brew schedule called for a Kolsch to be brewed in the morning, and an Amber in the afternoon. The grain was already ready for us, so we got the mash-in process started. Up to this point in my homebrewing, I've been doing all extract brewing, and haven't gotten into all-grain at all, so this was a good learning experience for me. Their setup is basically a very large-scale homebrew operation, at least on the brewing end. Once all the grain was in the mashtun and the mash started, we started prepping the grain for the afternoon brew. They use alot of grain! We got it all milled and into the chute ready to go.
Once the mash was complete, we started moving the wort to the brew kettle while fly-sparging to get as much of the sugars out of the grain as possible. Once the brew kettle was full, the water was just about at boiling. Added hops throughout the boil, and once it was all done, let it whirlpool for 5 minutes to get all the trub to the center, then started moving it to the fermenter. Or course, during the boil process, we had to clean out the mashtun. The fun side of brewing! :-)
Once the boil was done, but before moving the wort to the fermenter, the other two brewers started their mash-in process for the Amber. Once it was done, we started moving the Kolsch wort. We also moved 4 finished batches from the fermenters to the cooler to prep for kegging/bottling. They naturally carbonate their beers in the fermenters, so everything is moved under pressure.
While waiting for the wort to transfer into the fermenter, we tasted some samples of the beer we had just moved into the cooler. They also had a handful of kegs in the cooler that weren't labelled, so they weren't sure what was in them. Of course, we had to hook them up so they could get them properly labelled, so I got to sample a few more beers!
We finished up the transfer of the Kolsch wort to the fermenter and cleaned out the brew kettle. By this time, the mash on the Amber was done, so they were ready to mash out. I hung around for a bit longer to help with that before heading home for the day.
All in all, it was a great day as a brewer. I got to see firsthand how a commercial brewery works, and to talk to some experienced brewers. I got a lot of good tips for my homebrew setup, and will hopefully put some to use on my next batch!
Merry Christmas to all my readers (all 4 of you!)
Their brew days usually start at 5:30am, so I got up really early to make the 45 minute drive up to
The brew schedule called for a Kolsch to be brewed in the morning, and an Amber in the afternoon. The grain was already ready for us, so we got the mash-in process started. Up to this point in my homebrewing, I've been doing all extract brewing, and haven't gotten into all-grain at all, so this was a good learning experience for me. Their setup is basically a very large-scale homebrew operation, at least on the brewing end. Once all the grain was in the mashtun and the mash started, we started prepping the grain for the afternoon brew. They use alot of grain! We got it all milled and into the chute ready to go.
Once the mash was complete, we started moving the wort to the brew kettle while fly-sparging to get as much of the sugars out of the grain as possible. Once the brew kettle was full, the water was just about at boiling. Added hops throughout the boil, and once it was all done, let it whirlpool for 5 minutes to get all the trub to the center, then started moving it to the fermenter. Or course, during the boil process, we had to clean out the mashtun. The fun side of brewing! :-)
Once the boil was done, but before moving the wort to the fermenter, the other two brewers started their mash-in process for the Amber. Once it was done, we started moving the Kolsch wort. We also moved 4 finished batches from the fermenters to the cooler to prep for kegging/bottling. They naturally carbonate their beers in the fermenters, so everything is moved under pressure.
While waiting for the wort to transfer into the fermenter, we tasted some samples of the beer we had just moved into the cooler. They also had a handful of kegs in the cooler that weren't labelled, so they weren't sure what was in them. Of course, we had to hook them up so they could get them properly labelled, so I got to sample a few more beers!
We finished up the transfer of the Kolsch wort to the fermenter and cleaned out the brew kettle. By this time, the mash on the Amber was done, so they were ready to mash out. I hung around for a bit longer to help with that before heading home for the day.
All in all, it was a great day as a brewer. I got to see firsthand how a commercial brewery works, and to talk to some experienced brewers. I got a lot of good tips for my homebrew setup, and will hopefully put some to use on my next batch!
Merry Christmas to all my readers (all 4 of you!)
Monday, November 25, 2013
Beginner tips from a beginner...
So, a friend of mine recently told me that he's wanting to get into homebrewing, and asked me for a few tips to get started. I had planned on just giving him a couple of pointers, but ended up with a long email when I was done. I thought it acutally ended up pretty good, so I decided to share it here, and made it more generic. Enjoy!
Here’s the starter kit I got:
I got the plastic carboys, but glass may be easier to
clean. You also get a recipe kit with it. I did the Irish Red for
my first beer.
Get a propane burner. Trust me, your wife will appreciate you brewing outside rather than in the kitchen. Any messes will be easier to clean up, too! You’ll want at least a 6 or 7 gallon stockpot, so you can
eventually do full boils, but to start, a 5 gallon will work. I have an 8
gallon aluminum seafood pot that I use. Works perfectly. Stainless
steel also works, but it’s more expensive. If you don't little
clip on thermometer already, get one, it will
help you monitor the boil temperature.
A couple of things that you’ll want that don’t come in the
kit are a hydrometer to measure the specific gravity with and a wine thief to
take samples from the fermenter to test. You can get both at Northern
Brewer or any other homebrew place. Specific gravity readings are used to
calculate your ABV, and also to help you determine when fermentation is done
and it’s time to bottle.
You’ll need 50 or so bottles, as well. I used old
(well cleaned out) Sam Adams bottles. Any brown, long-neck, non-twist off
12oz bottles will work. You’ll have enough bottle caps in the starter kit
for your first batch. You can always buy more (or a different style) as
you need to, they’re super cheap. When you drink a beer, clean it out
with soap and water, then set it some place to dry, and store it until ready to
bottle. I have a couple of boxes full in the garage ready for my next
bottling day.
A great place to order stuff is also http://www.austinhomebrew.com/.
They’re in Austin (obviously), and all their recipe kits are free
shipping, and they have a ton. I ordered a Belgian White (think Blue
Moon) from them a few weeks ago, and I’m going to brew it this weekend.
The forums at http://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum.php
are a great place for info and to ask questions. I’ve gotten a bunch of
questions answered there without even having to ask. Someone else has
generally already asked whatever it is that you’re asking.
Some tips I have from my meager experience so far:
Sanitization is the most important part of brewing.
Your starter kit will come with a small bottle of sanitizer. You’ll use
it up pretty quickly, so you’ll want more for your second and following
batches. Sanitization will keep your beer from becoming infected.
I’ve made sure to sanitize everything that the beer is going to touch after
boiling, and have had zero problems.
Fermentation temperature is extremely important. For
most ales, you’ll want to ferment between 65-75 degrees. Any higher and
you risk creating off flavors. While it won’t ruin your beer, it will
make it taste a little “hot”. My first batch fermented close to 80
degrees, and there’s a bit of a funky “hot alcohol” taste to it. It still
tastes pretty good, but it could be better. I used a tub of cold water
and bottles of ice to keep my second batch around 62-68 degrees, and it is much
better.
The instructions that come with most kits are just a guide.
It’s may take longer or shorter for your fermentation to be complete. I
usually leave mine in the fermenter for three weeks before I think about
bottling. Patience is the key. After two weeks, take a hydrometer
reading. A couple of days later, take another. Then a couple more
days and take another. If it’s steady, and close to the expected final
gravity (will be listed in the instructions), then you’re ready to bottle.
When you’re bottling, ignore how much priming sugar the
instructions say to use, it will probably be way too much and result in
over-carbonation. I ended up with beer that takes a while to pour,
because I have to wait for the head to go subside to finish pouring. Use
a priming calculator like the one at http://www.northernbrewer.com/priming-sugar-calculator/
to determine how much sugar to use. I did that for my second batch, and
the carbonation level is perfect.
I generally let them sit bottled at room temperature for 3
weeks to carb up and properly condition. I will, of course, sample the
product during that time. Usually I’ll put a bottle in the fridge after a
week, then try it a couple of days later. After 3 weeks, I’ll put them
all in the fridge. For each of my first two batches, I’ve kept a 6-pack
back, and not refrigerated. I’m going to let them sit for 6 months or so,
and see how the longer conditioning time does.
Thursday, October 3, 2013
First Taste and Next Brew
Got a couple of updates in this entry...
Back on the 25th, I put a bottle in the fridge to test the carbonation and taste. Pulled it out and opened it up the next night after work. Sounded like it was well-carbonated, so into the pint glass it went. It's possible that it might be a tad over carbonated, since I had a difficult time pouring into the glass without getting overwhelmed with head. I did eventually get it all in the glass though.
My taste of my very first homebrew was awesome. It tasted like beer! I was so happy, I ignored the little bit of "hot" flavoring I got. I was expecting that, anyway, since I fermented on the warmer side. Still, I was pretty pleased with the results, knowing that I can only get better in the future. Since it had only been conditioning for a week, I left the rest at room temperature to continue conditioning.
On Friday morning, the 27th, I put 4 more into the fridge to prepare to take with me to Arkansas on our boys' road trip to the A&M-Arkansas game. That night, while cooking out and playing dominoes in the parking lot of the Super 8 in Springdale, we opened them and I shared my concoction with Jeff, Kyle, and John. Universal praise was given. It seemed like it was a little bit better than the first one, but that could have just been the previous beers we had before that point killing my taste buds. Either way, I'm still happy about it.
I'll probably let them sit another week or so, then move all but 6 into the beer fridge. Going to save a 6-pack and let them sit out for a few months, then come back to and see how sitting that long changes anything.
So, on to the next part of this update, brew day!! Since we weren't leaving until noon on Friday (the 27th) for Arkansas, and I was up anyway, I decided it would be a great day to brew! I went over to Walmart to grab some bottled spring water (it's cheap, and I won't have to worry about chlorine in the city water). After my first brewday, and the long time that it took to boil just 2.5 gallons on my electric stove top, we looked into getting a propane burner. Ended up getting this bad boy from Home Depot. It has the added advantage of getting me to brew outside, thus not having to have the Scentsy in the kitchen over powered by the wondrous smell of boiling wort. My 5 gallons was up to the 160 degrees for steeping in about 5 minutes. After 30 minutes steeping my grains, I removed the bag and discarded the grains and turned up the heat. It took all of 10 minutes to get those 5 gallons to boiling. The propane burner is well worth it, and I recommend any budding home brewers get one as one of your first purchases.
Turned the heat off and added in my malt extract and stirred it in until it dissolved. Relit the burner and turned the heat back up to full blast. Again, only took a few minutes to get back to boiling, and wow was it a roaring boil. I had to turn the heat WAY down to keep it at a rolling boil and prevent boilover. Got the brown sugar and bittering hops added at this point, and started prepping my ice bath for cooling the wort down. Since my boil pot won't fit in the sink, I used a large Rubbermaid storage tote filled with water and 2 10lb bags of ice. After the 60 minute boil and the addition of the flavoring and finishing hops, it was into the ice bath with pot went. Took 10 minutes or so to get down to 100 degrees.
Here's where my lack of proper planning comes in. It was nearing noon, and there was no way the wort was going to cool fast enough to get the yeast pitched before we needed to leave. Plus, I didn't have my temperature control solution ready to go yet (more on that in a bit). So, I decided to take a little bit of a risk, and went ahead-with the help of my brother-transferred the wort through a strainer into the sanitized carboy. Capped it off with the airlock, and put it into the beer fridge in the garage.
Skipping ahead to Sunday, after going to the Rangers game right after we got home from Arkansas, I got the carboy out of the fridge so it could start warming back up to pitching temperature (60-70 was the ideal range, according to the yeast package) while I setup my swamp-cooler. Over the weekend, while the wort was in the fridge, alot of trub dropped out. Not sure how that's going to effect the finished product. I guess we'll find out in a few weeks.
On the swamp cooler, I used the same Rubbermaid storage tote and filled it about halfway or so with warmish water and a small dash of Oxyclean. Got the carboy in there so it would help bring the wort up to temperature. Once it was up to 55, I started putting frozen water bottles in to bring the water temp down so it would stabilize around 65. It actually worked, and the water temp was about 62, and the wort temp about 65. After sanitizing the yeast pack and a pair of scissors-and after aerating the wort for 5 minutes-I pitched the yeast and replaced the re-sanitized cap and airlock. Got an old Army-issue moisture-wicking tan t-shirt out of the garage and soaked that in the water, then draped it over the carboy to add a little evaporative cooling.
Checked back in that night before bed, and the temp was up a little, so I replaced the now thawed water bottles with some fresh ones from the freezer and went to bed. Checked again the next morning. No activity, but I wasn't really concerned, since it will probably take 24-48 hours to see anything. Temperature wasn't bad. Swapped out the bottles for fresh ones, since during the day it would probably get up above 80 in the upstairs bathroom which has become my fermentation chamber. After work, I switched out bottles again, and then again before bed. I've got a good system going, and keeping everything between 62 and 68. By Tuesday morning, I had a good inch of krausen formed, and pretty much constant activity in the airlock. This morning, it was closer to 2 inches of krausen. I'm going to leave it alone-only switching out frozen water bottles-through the weekend, and see how it's doing. Once the krausen falls back in, and airlock activity slows way down, I'll put in the last 1/2oz of Centennial hops for dry hopping. I'll leave that for at least a week, then start taking gravity readings. Once I hit a consistent FG over several checks, I'll be ready to bottle! By that time, I should have plenty of empties from my first batch!
Back on the 25th, I put a bottle in the fridge to test the carbonation and taste. Pulled it out and opened it up the next night after work. Sounded like it was well-carbonated, so into the pint glass it went. It's possible that it might be a tad over carbonated, since I had a difficult time pouring into the glass without getting overwhelmed with head. I did eventually get it all in the glass though.
My taste of my very first homebrew was awesome. It tasted like beer! I was so happy, I ignored the little bit of "hot" flavoring I got. I was expecting that, anyway, since I fermented on the warmer side. Still, I was pretty pleased with the results, knowing that I can only get better in the future. Since it had only been conditioning for a week, I left the rest at room temperature to continue conditioning.
On Friday morning, the 27th, I put 4 more into the fridge to prepare to take with me to Arkansas on our boys' road trip to the A&M-Arkansas game. That night, while cooking out and playing dominoes in the parking lot of the Super 8 in Springdale, we opened them and I shared my concoction with Jeff, Kyle, and John. Universal praise was given. It seemed like it was a little bit better than the first one, but that could have just been the previous beers we had before that point killing my taste buds. Either way, I'm still happy about it.
I'll probably let them sit another week or so, then move all but 6 into the beer fridge. Going to save a 6-pack and let them sit out for a few months, then come back to and see how sitting that long changes anything.
So, on to the next part of this update, brew day!! Since we weren't leaving until noon on Friday (the 27th) for Arkansas, and I was up anyway, I decided it would be a great day to brew! I went over to Walmart to grab some bottled spring water (it's cheap, and I won't have to worry about chlorine in the city water). After my first brewday, and the long time that it took to boil just 2.5 gallons on my electric stove top, we looked into getting a propane burner. Ended up getting this bad boy from Home Depot. It has the added advantage of getting me to brew outside, thus not having to have the Scentsy in the kitchen over powered by the wondrous smell of boiling wort. My 5 gallons was up to the 160 degrees for steeping in about 5 minutes. After 30 minutes steeping my grains, I removed the bag and discarded the grains and turned up the heat. It took all of 10 minutes to get those 5 gallons to boiling. The propane burner is well worth it, and I recommend any budding home brewers get one as one of your first purchases.
Turned the heat off and added in my malt extract and stirred it in until it dissolved. Relit the burner and turned the heat back up to full blast. Again, only took a few minutes to get back to boiling, and wow was it a roaring boil. I had to turn the heat WAY down to keep it at a rolling boil and prevent boilover. Got the brown sugar and bittering hops added at this point, and started prepping my ice bath for cooling the wort down. Since my boil pot won't fit in the sink, I used a large Rubbermaid storage tote filled with water and 2 10lb bags of ice. After the 60 minute boil and the addition of the flavoring and finishing hops, it was into the ice bath with pot went. Took 10 minutes or so to get down to 100 degrees.
Here's where my lack of proper planning comes in. It was nearing noon, and there was no way the wort was going to cool fast enough to get the yeast pitched before we needed to leave. Plus, I didn't have my temperature control solution ready to go yet (more on that in a bit). So, I decided to take a little bit of a risk, and went ahead-with the help of my brother-transferred the wort through a strainer into the sanitized carboy. Capped it off with the airlock, and put it into the beer fridge in the garage.
Skipping ahead to Sunday, after going to the Rangers game right after we got home from Arkansas, I got the carboy out of the fridge so it could start warming back up to pitching temperature (60-70 was the ideal range, according to the yeast package) while I setup my swamp-cooler. Over the weekend, while the wort was in the fridge, alot of trub dropped out. Not sure how that's going to effect the finished product. I guess we'll find out in a few weeks.
On the swamp cooler, I used the same Rubbermaid storage tote and filled it about halfway or so with warmish water and a small dash of Oxyclean. Got the carboy in there so it would help bring the wort up to temperature. Once it was up to 55, I started putting frozen water bottles in to bring the water temp down so it would stabilize around 65. It actually worked, and the water temp was about 62, and the wort temp about 65. After sanitizing the yeast pack and a pair of scissors-and after aerating the wort for 5 minutes-I pitched the yeast and replaced the re-sanitized cap and airlock. Got an old Army-issue moisture-wicking tan t-shirt out of the garage and soaked that in the water, then draped it over the carboy to add a little evaporative cooling.
Checked back in that night before bed, and the temp was up a little, so I replaced the now thawed water bottles with some fresh ones from the freezer and went to bed. Checked again the next morning. No activity, but I wasn't really concerned, since it will probably take 24-48 hours to see anything. Temperature wasn't bad. Swapped out the bottles for fresh ones, since during the day it would probably get up above 80 in the upstairs bathroom which has become my fermentation chamber. After work, I switched out bottles again, and then again before bed. I've got a good system going, and keeping everything between 62 and 68. By Tuesday morning, I had a good inch of krausen formed, and pretty much constant activity in the airlock. This morning, it was closer to 2 inches of krausen. I'm going to leave it alone-only switching out frozen water bottles-through the weekend, and see how it's doing. Once the krausen falls back in, and airlock activity slows way down, I'll put in the last 1/2oz of Centennial hops for dry hopping. I'll leave that for at least a week, then start taking gravity readings. Once I hit a consistent FG over several checks, I'll be ready to bottle! By that time, I should have plenty of empties from my first batch!
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