Fermentation Friday May 2009 Joys and Stress

Thanks Ted for hosting Fermentation Friday this month.

My stresses usually revolve around not being prepared. Right now yeast is the biggest stress for me. I want to pitch the right amount of some good viable yeast, but, I don't like to make starters. To combat this I try to pitch yeast from another yeast cake or lately I've relied on dry yeast for the first batch in a string of re-pitches.

Another way I address the preparedness problem is by purchasing in bulk. If I have supplies on hand, I will brew more often and be more successful. Sanitizers, hops, specialty malts, malt extract can all be purchased and stored for relatively long periods of time.

Of course there are those days when I get started brewing and I realize there's another problem. I'm just not quite "with it" that day. Those are the days when my boils run long, ingredients are forgotten or I try to do too much, like keg and brew a batch at the same time. This is usually compounded by having non brewer friends over distracting me with questions and conversation.

Onto the joys of brew day. Who doesn't enjoy the malt aromas, the feel of the grain running through your fingers and the pungent hops fragrances filling the room? These tangible sensory inputs contribute to something bigger. While I can say that I always enjoy brewing it isn't always for the same reasons. Brew sessions tend to fall into two categories, a means to an end and the journey is everything.

Brewing as a means to an end tends to be all about executing efficiently and effectively. Ingredients, check; Equipment, check; water heating, check...carboy sanitzed, check; wort chilled, check; transfer wort, check; aerate, check; pitch yeast, check. Store everything again and forget about it until the first taste. Most of the joy comes from knowing there's a new homebrew in the making down in the basement. Something to look forward to in the days to come.

Of course the journey can bring as much joy as the desitnation. We're talking about me time. Music playing via Pandora on the netbook and Beersmith fired up to improvise the recipe. Last minute adjustments made in a creative environment. Call around to see who wants to come over and help. Lots of talk over a beer or two. At the end of the boil and the chilling there's that moment of accomplishment, that time when you know you've done your job and what remains will be done by the yeast.

I've held off reading everybody else's post until now. It should be interesting to see what you all wrote about.

NOTE: Edited and cleaned up on 6/2/2009

Fermentation Friday May 2009...its not too late...

So in a perfect world we would all have our posts up, but, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say we're not perfect so keep them coming. Check out Ted's post. I'll have my post up tomorrow, if everything works out right :-)

Brew Magic...

Anybody dream of having one of these RIMS systems? I just checked out the specs and the videos. Wow!

May 2009 Fermentation Friday...it lives!

Ted just announced it!

Open thread: Beer Bits 2 readers speak up.

Yeah, lets talk about anything beer/homebrew related.

Did you hear about the hop crops in Germany being hit by hail storms? Glad Gavin and I planted so many hops this year.

Fermentation Friday this Friday and possible topics...

I don't see the topic yet, but, I'm sure it is coming any day now ;-) Just in case he forgot go remind him.

Just in case he's looking for inspiration why don't we give him some topic suggestions. If they're not used this time we can carry them forward to future months. Off the top of my head...

• all about late additions of malt extract
• dry yeast vs liquid yeast
• open fermentation vs closed
• everybody blog about their last brew session
• blog about your next brew session
• local homebrew clubs
• my favorite homebrew store (local or online)
• permanent brewing structure/location vs. dragging the equipment out each time
• Maybe we could use this Fermentation Friday to come up with topics?

Do you have any ideas for a topic? You can find past topics in this list of links.

Hopyard and fermentation...

The hopyard is doing well. Some rebar went in today to support the poles for the trellis. Lots of hammer drill and sledge hammer work. I'm beat.

The Belgian pale is fermenting away. Blew the airlock off one of the carboys. Actually, pulled it off as it was getting ready to blow the second time and it sprayed all over me :-)

Beautiful day today.

Brewed, tasted and hops trellis update...

Tried brewing a late extract addition beer today. You don't have to boil malt extract wort like you would boil the runnings from an all grain mash. The maltster (am I using that term correctly) already boiled it during their process.

So why did I do it? Three reasons;

• hop utilization improved
• less carmelization means lighter beer
• something new

I put twenty percent in at boil and then the rest in with 15 minutes left to go. I'm hoping it will turn out. I used the Chimay yeast from the seven percent dark Belgian. The yeast cake had been sitting there for a week or two longer than I would like. Also the wort was a tad warm at 100 degrees. So, we'll see.

Remember that batch I split and used a different yeast for each portion. I used a Belgian, German hefe and an English ale. They all turned out pretty good. The hefe is the only one that is kinda so so. I just tasted the English ale and wow. What a tasty brew :-)

If the weather works out, I'll be working on the hopyard trellis system cabling tomorrow. You'll see the update here if I do. By the way do you pronounce hopyard like "hop" + "yard" or more like vineyard? Hmmmm...

Updated the Fermentation Friday Index

Check it out here. Still need to capture all the wrap up links.

Enjoy!

Materials for hop trellis system for Hopyard

Gavin recieved delivery of the materials which include 800 feet of cable! We also have rebar, turnbuckles, connectors and who knows what else. I'll get a closer look tonight when I stop by to get started on the job. For now here's a picture.

This is for a 50' x 100' hopyard. Three rows with 30 hops plants this year, but, we're building it so he can expand next year.

Country Wisdom and Know-How: Building Beer Making Equipment

Country Wisdom & Know-How (Amazon) started as a series of Country Wisdom Bulletins back in the 1970's. I saw this on Kevin Kelly's Cool Tools website and just had to get a copy.

Little did I know homebrew topics are covered. Here are the sections...

• rolling carboy carrier
• carboy stand
• immersion wort chiller (basic and double)
• counterflow chillers (pipe and hose versions)
• mash tuns (picnic and water coolers as well as modified keg with false bottom)
• kegging (kegging system, refurbishing used kegs, cleaning soda kegs, kegerator)
• counter-pressure bottle filler
• transferring liquid under pressure
• three tier tower brewery stand

You'll find material lists and step by step instructions. I haven't used these instructions, but, they look pretty good. I'm familiar with using soda kegs and the instructions should be enough to get you going in the right direction. Credit is given to Karl F. Lutzan and Mark Stevens for writing. Randy Mosher for the illustrations.

In addition you'll find all you need to know to get started in cider making and wine making including recipes. Of course that's the point. You buy one book that can teach you how to make soap, wine, herbal remedies, homebrew equipment, breads, plant a garden, restore a hardwood floor and well you get the idea.

Fermentation Friday Index

Thanks to Ted at TedBrews for suggesting I put together an index of Fermentation Friday Posts. Watch his blog for this month's topic announcement. Here's what I have so far. This is a work in progress.

Todo
grab wrap up URLs

2009
Apr All about liquor and how you use it in your brewing!
Mar How will you grow or change as a homebrewer this Spring?
Feb Cleaning and Sanitization
Jan Your ‘brew year’s resolutions’ for 2009

2008
A look back at 2008
Dec All about the yeast baby.
Nov Your favorite brewing/homebrew pictures.
Oct Homebrewing Horror Stories
Sep What indigenous brewing ingredient have you used or would you like to brew with and what style would that beer be?
Aug What, in the opinion of others, is the best beer you have ever made and why?
Jul What one tip would you give a beginner homebrewer before they brew their first batch and why?
Jun: What is the craziest concoction you ever came up with, on the fly or prepped, to brew with: Wrap Up
May: I remember when I started homebrewing: Wrap Up
Apr: Homebrew Blogging Day Fermentation Friday: The Beginnings

Learn how to make homebrew equipment from a book called Country Wisdom & Know How?

Edit: Upon further inspection of this book I have found that making beer is not covered. Making cider, wine and making homebrew equipment are covered.

So, I'm skimming Kevin Kelly's Cool Tools feed and come across a book called Country Wisdom & Know-How (Amazon). I start reading about how to make soap, candles; stack wood, build a wort chiller. Whoah! What? Yep, that's right. There's some good beer making equipment stuff in this thing. I hope to give a better review of it, but, I wanted to get it up here before I forget.

Cool.

NOTE: Heads up! This is a referral to an Amazon book that I like. I will only refer books that I find useful.

What THE? Ooops...fixed that last post...

Check it out again here.

Brooks, Bryson, Curtin and Descartes. What do these guys have in common?

Beats the hell out of me, but, they're all here. Chalk this post up to something that made me smile this morning.

Note: More about Descartes, Brooks, Curtin, Bryson and Poetry. The beer gets throw in for free.

Edit: Got the first link wrong to begin with sorry about that. All better now.

How do you make a beer recipe?

Bryon just posted a request at his blog.

Beersmith downloaded, now what?

I'll try to summarize his post. Bryon is interested in brewing a beer for July 4th using Beersmith and hasn't created his own recipes before. I would imagine there's a bunch of people out there with questions about how to get started with brewing software and recipe generation. It wasn't too long ago I was in this same situation. So, I proceeded to just throw down my basic process in a comment to his post. Then I realized that I never shared this here in this space. So here it is in its unedited glory.

Bryon,

The beers I've had the most success with (when serving to people who are not craft beer drinkers) are beers that contain wheat. So liquid wheat extract is a good start. I don't have my recipes handy right now, but, I've used English Ale Yeasts and Kolsch yeasts with success in my "gateway" beers. Hops wise I'd say just keep the bittering down and small amounts for flavor and aroma. You aren't looking to assault somebody's palatte. Shoot for low IBU, wheat, with the English Ale yeast from white labs and you can turn it around pretty quick. 10 days with a keg. Add two weeks for bottles.

As far as BeerSmith goes. I usually just do this...

new recipe
add LME x lbs
add steeping grains (.5 lb to start)
add yeast
add
bittering hops 60 min boil
add flavoring hops 15-30 min boil
add aroma
hops 0-5 min boil

At that point you can look at the estimates at the bottom. (of the BeerSmith recipe screen)

estmated abv
IBUs

Just add more LME to increase abv (or less to lower) and add more hops (or less) to 60 min boil for IBUs. Compare your IBUs to other similar recipes on byo's recipator.

Brad Smith the developer is a nice guy too. He might just give you some tips if you email him :-)

If I remember I could send you my recipe for a wheat beer that BMC drinkers suck down every Thanksgiving :-)

So, there you have it. I'm interested to hear if others use a similar process.

All hop hills have sprouted :-0

Took a ride up there yesterday with my boy and we found that even the Magnum has sprouted. Now we have 30 hop hills with sprouts. What a great ride on a beautiful warm spring day. Next step will be the wires and the twine for the trellis.

Its Friday. 2 (5 gal) kegs to kick, two more to tap

I have two kegs that are mostly finished and two that want to be tapped. A barleywine at 1.032 and a brown fermenting with Chimay yeast.

Life is good. I feel some music and an invite to the folks in the neighborhood coming on.

Archives are over there on the right...

Yep, there they are over there. All the way back to 2007. As I click through them I realize that sometimes I'm a bit introspective. Other times I get stuff organized. Fun to walk down memory lane every once in a while.

Breaker Brewing Company gives me hope!

Just in case you missed it yesterday, I have a link you really need to check out. Here's a video of a local news channel interviewing Chris Miller and Mark Lehman from Breaker Brewing Company in their brewery...er garage ;-) Check out their website.

I'm just sitting here in my little dream.

Resources: Opening your own brewery...

A post here on Beer Bits 2 where I asked BB2 readers about opening my own brewery. Since then I've been doing some more research. Just to save you some time I've put some of this stuff together here. While this topic is hot for me I'll be updating it. If you have something to add, leave it in the comments and I'll add it.

Links of experience...
Flying Fish: Business 101 Notes from an established brewery.
Starting a Brewery Blog Some guys trying to start a brewery in a garage.
Hobby Farm Brewery Thread in probrewer forum about "starting a backyard brewery".
Breaker Brewing Company letter of variance to TTB for brewery in attached garage.
Using soda kegs in your brewery

Links of hope...
Time: Small is Tasty
Interview with Breaker Brewing founders in their brewery...er garage ;-)

Suggested links I haven't checked out yet...
The Brewers Association's Guide to Starting Your Own Brewery (Amazon) Thanks EvilchurchdOc.
Beer Institute
Beer School: Bottling Success at the Brooklyn Brewery (Amazon)
Designing Great Beers: The Ultimate Guide to Brewing Classic Beer Styles (Amazon)
Important Tips for Starting Your Own Brewery
Siebel Institute: Starting Your Own Brewery Course
Forbes article
PLCB License Search System
Pennsylvania Restaurant Inspections

Beer Bits 2 readers I have a question...

What would you say if I said I wanted to start a brewery? I've been researching it a bit and I have to say it seems doable. This is from a guy who hasn't even tried all grain yet.

So what do you think about it?

The Big Brew! Also, the AHA needs a blog.

Yeah, I sat this one out. Mostly due to the fact that I wasn't around and able to brew. Did you participate?

Hmmm...I don't know what it is, but, I'm always outta the loop wth the AHA. I think they need a blog. Don't you? I mean Charlie does a good job in his Examiner blog, but, they need somebody to focus on homebrew communications at the AHA. Maybe they would consider having me do it?

Eh, just thinking out loud. I'm sure somebody will tell me to shut up sooner or later.