Build Your Own Stir Plate

When it comes to DIY project, I really look for the easiest ones that look the most pratical. This one is for building your own stir plate. If you don’t know what what a stir plate is, it helps with making a yeast starter. Yeast starters can be helpful for bigger beers or lagers, increasing your cell count which will help insure a strong fermentation.

So this is is from a blog that I read and the link is below but the instructions are excellent. You can build a stir plate for $25.00!

Parts

12v computer fan (can be salvaged from any old computer, or purchased at RadioShack for a $10-15 bucks. I found a free one in a computer power supply by the dumpster)
6v power supply (old cell phone chargers are perfect. Anywhere from 5-7.5v will work. I am using a 5.1v supply)
Rare earth magnet (can be salvaged from a computer hard drive. For instructions on harvesting one from a hard drive, check out this post. You can also purchase them online or at RadioShack. Just don’t get one that’s too tiny, as some of the RadioShack ones are.)
Stir Bar (various sizes available. 1 or 1.5-inches is probably best, and run $4-8 at your local homebrew shop, or online)
Power toggle switch (optional. You could just plug it in to go, unplug it to stop, but a switch is nice to have. I used this one from RadioShack)
Rheostat (potentiometer) 25ohm 3watt (RadioShack for about $4. Allows you to dial down the speed of the fan to a reasonable stirring speed)
Control knob to place on rheostat to control the speed. (Plenty of options in the $2-4 range at RadioShack)
A few wires and connectors to hook it all up. (20 gauge wire works great for this, and a sample pack of various electrical connectors will give you plenty of options)
Project box (any box will work. I’ve seen everything from cigar boxes to Tupperware boxes. I used a conduit box from Lowes for about $9)
Bolts and nuts to attach the fan
Rubber washers (optional to space the fan, leaving room for the magnet, and providing cushion to reduce noise)

I was able to get a free computer fan and power supply, and already had the wires and connectors I needed (I soldered some of the connections as well, but that’s totally optional), so my total out of pocket cost was about $25-35. A new stir plate retails for $80-100+ at most stores, so this was a HUGE cost savings and it’s really easy to build. Instructions 1) Drill holes in your box for your power switch, control knob, and power wire. I also drilled a couple of extra holes in the back to allow for some air intake for the fan, so it would keep air moving. Probably not necessary, but I hate to have electrical items in a closed container without any way to get rid of the heat they produce.

2) Install the switch and knob in the front of the box 3) Cut off the end of the power supply that would normally connect to your phone, and strip the outer coating several inches down, exposing two wires. Run those wires into the box and strip the ends. 4) Glue the rare earth magnet on top of the fan (make sure it’s the side that spins!) in the center. The more precisely centered it is, the more even stirring motion it will have, which will result in less shaking. 5) Bolt the fan to the center of the top of the box, using the rubber washers for spacing, and leaving enough room for the magnet to spin above the fan without being wedged against the lid of the box. 6) Wire it all up. Instead of describing the process, I have provided a simple diagram below. Obviously, you could vary this if you weren’t using a on/off switch or if you wanted to include an LED light or other indicators.

7) Close up the box, plug it in, and take it for a test drive. Place the stir bar in your erlenmeyer flask (or other flat bottom container) you use for your starters, fill it up with water, and see if it provides a good stir.

Remember, it doesn’t need to create a vortex that runs all the way to the bottom of the flask. It just needs to provide enough disruption to keep everything moving. As long as the yeast stay in suspension, then you’re in good shape. You will not get better results by slinging the yeast around like the teacups at the state fair! Obviously there are many variations on this, so let your imagination run wild. Here are a couple other good basic examples, of which helped me plan out this build: http://www.donosborn.com/homebrew/stir_plate.htm http://onebeer.net/sp_howto.shtml I’ve seen some sleek cigar box stir plates, double starter stir plates, illuminated transparent box stir plates, and more. So have fun – it’s an easy upgrade so make it to fit your style!

Original Post

Hope that you enjoy!

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September 12, 2012

Why It May Be Time To Move Away From Kits And Make Your Own

I’m a huge advocate for making your own recipes and not going by recipe kits. I have many reasons and honestly, one post would not do enough justice (but I’ll keep it to one). So I’ll try to keep this short and sweet.

It’s best to start this off by knowing what I see in the homebrewing culture. There are 3 different types of brewing as of today: 1) Extract brewing 2) Extract brewing with specialty grains 3) All-grain brewing. There are also a variety of different kits that you under each category. Also you can make a variety of different sizes from kits, some make 1 gallon, some make 2 gallons, others make 5 gallons.

If you are getting into brewing, it can seem confusing on where a good starting place – there are a lot of options. This is my ten cents on the matter, anything less then 2.5 gallons of beer is a lot of labor for a little fruit. The juice really doesn’t seem worth the squeeze.

Moving on from that you might be thinking, “Should I do recipe kits, or use a recipe book or make my own?”. This is where I kinda get disturbed by the chatter that’s on the internet. The reason is, a lot of people think that following a recipe from recipe book is harder then getting a kit. I see this as a major problem. Just read that again, following a recipe is harder then just getting a kit… Homebrewing is moving towards, paint by numbers.

Why do I find this odd, well it’s probably because of my personal history with brewing. When I first got into brewing we really didn’t have a big variety of homebrew kits, in all honesty before having a shop I never even did a beer kit. Now I’m not saying this to thump my chest or anything but that’s just my background, I never really understood why people did kits ever. To me the natural progression of brewing was make different styles of beer from recipe books, then know what styles you like, then make my own recipes based off the style of beer that you like.

The best part of homebrewing is that you can be creative, you can make what you want and do your own thing. Buying recipe kits to me makes just about as much sense as this analogy, you know someone that said, “I want to get started in making cakes.”, you would most likely say, “Oh that’s pretty cool – sounds like fun.”. But then you find out that every time that they make a cake they just go over to safeway and buy a cake recipe kit from mccormick. Would your reaction be the same?

Sorry to say, but in my opinion – the same goes for beer and beer kits. I can understand that the first couple times that you do a beer recipe there is the urge not to screw anything up and a beer kit is the safer way to go. With that said, if you continue to only make beer from beer kits, doesn’t that get old? It just seem like the, “paint by numbers” route. But that’s my personal opinion.

So rather then just sit hear and be critical, I wanted to give some suggestions. First off, buy a book. There are plenty of homebrewing books out there and a lot of them tell you how to build your own recipes or give you different recipes in general. The book that I would recommend to any homebrewer is, “The Joy Of Homebrewing”. It goes from really simple to more complicated and has great recipes in there as well. If you decide to get that book, you’ll actually learn the process of brewing and why you are doing certain things. It’s not a hard read at all, and by all means if you are currently in homebrewing or are interested in homebrewing this is probably the only book you NEED to read to become a very good homebrewer.

If you don’t feel like reading a book just check out some blogs. I say blogs and not forums because there are many things that forums can provide, a common voice is not one of them. Also if you don’t feel like having a recipe book go and try free recipes on the internet. There are plenty of websites that have great ones, one of my websites is, www.beertools.com.

Once you start doing your own recipes you’ll see that every beer has the same format. This format is the same with pretty much every beer unless otherwise specified. The format is, Heat 2.5 gallons of water up to 150, then steep your grains for 30 minutes. Take them out. Add you malt extract in, bring to a boil. Then add your hops when they are specififed to be added in the boil. Afterwards, cool down, fill up to 5 gallons pitch yeast. Every single time that is going to be the process unless it is otherwise told.

When looking at recipes on the interent, they tend to not be so wordy because they assume you know this format. So here is an example

The grains for this are: Pils, melandoidin, and aromatic. So you would steep those in 2.5 gallons of water for 30 min at 150 degrees. Take them out then.

It calls for 6 lbs of malt extract. You would add that into the pot then bring it to a boil.

Now the hops for this have numbers next to them, that referes to the boil times. 60 minutes means that it is a 60 minutute boil and the hops are added in the begining of the boil . 20 mintues means hops are added with 20 minutes left in the boil.

Afterwards you end up cooling down, filling up to 5 gallons and pitching your yeast.

Conclusion

I really think that it’s a good idea for homebrewers to leave the kits behind and start doing there own recipes if you want to stay excited about homebrewing. Don’t be scared to start messing around with beer ingredients or doing your own recipes either. If you go to a homebrew shop just run the recipe by someone that works there and I’m confident that they can help correct it or give some suggestions. But in my opinion, you really don’t learn that much by just ordering a kit or getting a kit. Have fun with the hobby, it’s suppose to be a hobby where your creativity shines. Also finding recipes on the internet or recipe books, the possibilities are endless rather then confined to just a few different recipes.

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September 6, 2012

Pumpkin Ale Recipe

Pumpkins are in season, it’s time to do a pumpkin ale. All a pumpkin ale is, is a lighter beer that you will put pumpkin and spices in. With that said, you don’t typically want to make a beer that will take away from the pumpkin. We do have a pumpkin ale recipe that we posted up last year. This recipe listed below can substitute the one from last year also. In general this beer is a light amber beer with a little bit of orange color. Its got a white head and a light aroma. The hop aroma is limited but if you could call it anything it would be, “earthy”.

Ingredients

10 oz 80L Crystal Malt

6 oz Munich Malt

5.75 lbs DME Extra Light

.75 oz Columbus hops (60min)

1 oz Styrian Goldings (15min)

1 oz Styrian Goldings (2min)

WLP 001 or Safale 05

Directions

Heat 2.5 gallons of water up to 150 degrees
Steep grains for 30 minutes
Take grains out and add DME
Bring to boil
In begining of boil add, columbus hops
Boil for 45 min add 1 oz of styrian goldings
Boil for 13 min
Add 1/2 oz Styrian Goldings
Boil for 2 min
End boil, cool down, pitch yeast

OG: 1.050

FG: 1.012

IBU: 28

SRM: 14

ABV: 4.8%

Conclusion:

I think that less is more when it comes to adding the spices to the pumpkin ale. If you buy a premade pumpkin ale recipe kit, you are the mercy of how the manufacturer put in the spices and in my humble opinion usually they over do it. When making your own pumpkin ale recipe, if you are going to go big with something, go big with the actual pumpkin not with the spices.

The last thing is, I heard this from a customer and thought it was a very clever idea. When you go and buy your pumpkin, go and buy two of them. Take the extra one, and freeze it. That way next year you can get your pumpkin ale recipe started early!

Cheers

Pumpkin Pie Ale Recipe

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September 5, 2012

9 Steps To Culture Yeast From A Bottle

Every once in a while I get asked how to culture yeast from a bottle of beer. It’s not that hard, but it is time-consuming. If you are interested in culturing your own yeast this is the post that you need to read.

Which Beers Can Be Culture

When choosing the beers that you want to culture yeast from, know that there are some that are going to be off-limits; or impossible. If there was pasteurization before bottling, it’s just not going to happen. Commercial beers, ya don’t even waste your time – there will be no yeast. The easiest ones are if they were bottle conditioned, easiest way to tell if it was bottle conditioned is, see if there is any yeast sediment. If there is sediment, assume yes.

Different Yeast Strain In The Bottle

Another thing that some breweries do is that they use a different yeast strain when they are the bottle conditioning. The yeast will be different from the one which they used for the fermentation process. You will find this with a lot of hefeweizens with an exception of Schneider Weisse. If it’s a British beer, generally they are bottled with the same yeast strain as what they were fermented with. This is something to consider because you may culture yeast, but just not the yeast which was intended to be cultured.

Multiple Yeast Strains For Fermentation

Some breweries will use multiple strains of yeast in the fermentation process. So when you culture, you may not be getting the same exact yeast that you want. I’ve heard that Saison Dupont is an example of this, they have 3 strains of yeast. Just something to consider.

Stack Your Odds

If you want to increase your odds of getting a good culture, you want to get a beer that isn’t stored too cold or is extremely alcoholic.

What You Are Trying To Do

Essentially when you are culturing yeast you are trying to get yeast at the bottom of the bottle which is in poor condition to wake up, and then grow into something that you can use. Sanitation is a must on this because the yeast is weak and you don’t want other critters growing when your feeding this weak yeast. Once it grows to viable numbers then you can use it! So this is how you can culture your own yeast in just 9 steps.

http://www.legendswebdesign.com — 9 Easy Steps

Step 1

Sanitation is a must for this process. For myself, I’m really not a bit sanitation nut, but if you decide to go a culture yeast you’re going to have to find some OCD in you or it’s going to be a waste of time. So with that said, before you even open the bottle you want to sanitize the outside of the bottle. You don’t want any bacteria touching this bottle in process.

Step 2

Pour most of the beer into a glass, and leave the bottom part of the beer so that the yeast in not disturbed At this point, take a lighter and flame the rim of the bottle a bit. It should kill any bacteria that is present. Any bacteria that was under the lid of the bottle cap is now dead.

Step 3

Take the bottle and set it down. Put foil over the top to prevent any contamination and let it warm up to room temp.

Step 4

Pour a bit of wort into the bottle. 2ml or 3 ml is plenty at this point. Once that is done flame the lid of the bottle again and put a stopper in it with an air lock. It’s gonna take a little of time for the yeast to wake up depending on how much viable yeast there really was. I recommend putting it on top of your refrigerator for about 3 days. After 3 days of so you should start to see some signs of fermentation (foaming of a little cloudy is acceptable).

Step 5

Now that there is fermentation or that 3 days has passed, it’s time to transfer it and add fresh wort. You will use about 15ml of wort for this process. Just sterilize another 12 oz bottle and add the 15ml of wort to it. To transfer, just flame the bottle with yeast in it and pour into the new bottle. Flame the tip of the new bottle and repeat with the stopper and air lock.

Note: If you are wondering what 15ml looks like, it’s a bout .5 of a fluid ounce.

Step 6

In about another 3 days you should see some signs of fermentation. If you see this, we’re in the clear. At this point, you can really start to step it up and will be ready for the next big culturing part before you can use it.

Step 7

You are going to do another step up for this step. This time you are going to get your wort to have a gravity of 1.030 for 5 fl oz (150ml). So make more wort, put it into another 12 oz bottle, add 1/2 tsp of yeast nutrient and then proceed with the same sanitation steps as listed before. You will pour transfer the yeast once again. This time wait about 5 days.

Step 8

At this point it’s time to figure out if the yeast that you have is actually good enough to use. I know, all this time you are going on a hunch that you can use it. But this is the big moment. Look to see that there has been kraeusen that has risen and fallen (that’s the head), that’s a sign that the yeast actually worked. What is in that bottle should taste very much like beer. If it does, we’re good, if not – well it failed.

The way that we figure this out is, put your bottle into the refrigerator over night. The yeast will seperate from the wort over night and then pour yourself a little t glass or a small container. Taste it, if it taste like beer kinda then you’re good. If not it’s time to try again. If it taste good, on to the next step.

Step 9

Time to make a big starter if your beer is good. I use a 1 gallon glass jug for this with a #6 stopper. You will want to sanitize the jug and the stopper, that’s a must. Then make a big starter, half a gallon.

Since your yeast has separated because it was in the refrigerator, I pour off the liquid and only add the yeast to the bigger starter. The reason that I do this is because I don’t want to pitch any mutant yeast, or yeast that hare not flocculant.

Once the half-gallon starter shows some activity it is ready to pitch in to you beer that you want to make!

Conclusion:

I know there are plenty of other ways to do it out there, but this one has worked for me pretty well. I really don’t do too many yeast cultures from bottles anymore, I use to when I first got into homebrewing. It’s a bit of work but if you are aiming to use a yeast strain that you like, this is the method that has worked best for me.

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September 4, 2012

Strawberry & Kiwi Wine

This wine will be a bit lighter in color. It’s as very tropical tasting wine. In general it’s a bit dry and also carries a great flavor. If you are looking at changing up your strawberry wine, this is the way to do it.

Yield 1 Gallon

2 pounds kiwifruit, peeled and chopped

2 pounds fresh strawberries hulled and chopped

2.5 pounds white sugar

Juice of 1 lemon

Juice of 1 orange

1 teaspoon orange zest

1/4 teaspoon tannin

1 teaspoon yeast nutrient

1 teaspoon pectic enzyme

1 campden tablet

1 package of montrachet

Directions

Put the kiwi and strawberries into a 2 gallon plastic bucket.
In a saucepan boil both 1/2 gallon of water and add the sugar.
Pour the sugar water over the fruit.
Add lemon juice, orange juice, orange zest, tannin, yeast nutrient, pectic enzyme and campden tablet. Let it sit for 24 hours.
Add yeast and let it ferment for about a week.
Rack and let it ferment for 2 months.
Rack again, then bottle, cork and cellar it.
Let it sit for 6 months

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August 28, 2012

Grape Melomel

This is one of those wines that is just amazing. Very wimple to make, taste delicious, you really can’t ask for more. Grape melomel was pretty popular back in the times of ancient Egypt. If you make it and take off the grape skins then it will be light purple, if you leave them on the wine will be it dark purple. Not to dry of a wine and very easy to drink.

Yield: 1 Gallon

3 lbs Concord Grapes

3 lbs Light Honey

1 Teaspoon Acid Blend

1 Teaspoon Pectic Enzyme

1 Campden Tablet

1 Package Champagne Yeast

1 Teaspoon Yeast Nutrient

Directions

Crush grapes in a 2 gallon plastic container.
In a pot boil water and honey (1 part honey to 2 parts water)
Pour the honey mixture over the grapes and let it cool.
Add the acid, pectic enzyme, and enough water to make 1 gallon.
Add the Campden tablet, if desired and let the mixture sit for 24 hours.
Add yeast, yeast nutrient.
Allow the mixture to ferment, once the mixture is done with the most vigorous part of the fermentation…
Rack into a 1 gallon fermenter
Rack again after 3 months
Let sit for 2 months
Bottle and let it sit for 6 months before drinking.

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U.S Drought – Higher Price For Grains – Beer Price Will Go Up

A pretty short post and also an opinion, but it’s relevant to the hobby. As you may well know, the midwest is getting hit pretty hard by the drought that is going. Here is a link to get a visual check it out:

As you can tell, it’s pretty bad. So I’m mentioning this because it kinda effects homebrewing. Right now we are on last years harvest but when we get the up coming harvest I can pretty much guarantee that you’ll see malt prices move up a bit. The same is going to go for malt extracts.

So why I say this if there isn’t a lot you can do about it?

I only mention this because if you were thinking about getting a recipe for a gift in the near future, it may be wise to start looking now. Like I said, I’m not exactly sure when the prices of everything will go up but you figure if nothing else fuel will go up because of the ethenal (corn) prices going up and breaking records.

Either way just a heads up, and hope all gets better over there in the midwest.

August 21, 2012

Easy Way To Build Immersion Chiller

When it comes to hardware, I generally try to save money where I can. Wort chillers are pretty easy to make, and if you have the time, I would give it a go for building your own. That’s why I wanted to put up instructions on how to make a wort chiller! Using a wort chiller will help drop the temperature of the wort. The significance of that is, the faster you can drop temperature for your wort, the quicker you can pitch your yeast. The quicker you can pitch your yeast, the better chance your beer has in regards of avoiding off flavors.

I’ve read this post before personally and also posted it up our facebook page a while ago. For what ever reason I’m not really sure why I never posted it on our blog. That changes today! This is the guide on how to build a wort chiller, on the bottom of the page you will find a link to the original blog posting.

Building an Immersion Wort Chiller

As a home brewer, you are probably already aware of the importance of cooling your beer as quickly as possible. It creates a better cold break, helps reduce hazyness, and decreases the chance that Diacetyl will be introduced, which can provide an off-flavor to your brew.

But there are many ways to cool beer down to the optimum temperature. Most beginning home brewers start by using the “ice bath” method of simply putting their brew kettle into a sink full of ice water. However, with a little elbow grease and a small investment, anyone can create an affordable and very effective immersion chiller.

Immersion chillers work by allowing cold water to pass through a copper coil that is placed into the boil kettle. The rate at which it chills the wort is based on the surface area of the chiller, the temperature of the chilling water, the rate of flow through the chiller, and the amount you agitate the wort while it is chilling. For a detailed description of how and why chilling is important, you can check out this Brew Your Own article.

What You Will Need

1) 25-50 feet of either ⅜” or ⅝” OD copper coil. The longer and wider, the more it will cost, but the faster it will cool your beer (more surface area). Can be found at any hardware store. (Sears has some great prices right now!)

2) 4 stainless steel hose clamps (Hardware store)

3) About 6-10” tubing with the same inner diameter as the outer diameter of your copper coil (Local home brew stores have plenty of this)

4) adaptors to connect the chiller to a hose or faucet. Also at the hardware store. I used an adaptor that had a hose barb on one end and a garden hose connection on the other. You can also get the same thing that will connect to your sink.

How to Build the Wort Chiller

1) Find something to wrap the copper coil around. I used a 5-gallon corny keg, as this was about the size I wanted my chiller to be. You could also use a 5-gallon bucket or any other cylinder, as long as it has a diameter smaller than that of your brew kettle.

2) Wrap the copper around your keg (or other cylinder) in a tight, uniform pattern. It should go pretty easily.

3) Once the coil is formed, then take both ends and pull them through up to the top. Be careful not to kink the copper, as it is VERY hard to un-kink. The ends just need to be tall enough to reach the top of your boil kettle. No need to make them longer, as you want as much of the copper as possible to be in the wort when you use it.

4) Connect the plastic tubing to the ends of the copper using the hose clamps and tighten them down with a screwdriver.

5) Attach your hose connections to the other ends of the plastic tubing using the remaining hose clamps. Then test it all for leaks.

I then cleaned it with some PBW or B-Brite and sanatized it, but it doesn’t have to be perfect, because you will place it into your wort with about 15 minutes left in the boil, allowing the boiling wort to sterilize it.

And there you have it. A simple immersion chiller. You can usually make one yourself that is 50 feet of ⅝” for the same price you would pay for a 25-foot and ⅜” from the store. Definitely a worthwhile investment, in my opinion!

Original Post


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August 17, 2012March 1, 2013

New Video – Russian Imperial

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtyQW1-63cY&w=853&h=480

The guys from Proper Hops came by shop and did a Russian Imperial. Super nice guys and truly was a treat for me to work hang out with them.

Part 2

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August 14, 2012

Apricot Wine

Apricot wine is one of those wines that is really good for certain seasons, I enjoy it in the summer. This wine has a yellow/orange color to it. Apricot wine has tart flavor to it in my opinion but is pretty good as a spritzer.

Yield 1 Gallon

Ingredients

3 lbs Fresh Apricots

1.5 lbs Sugar

1 lbs Honey

1 lb dried apricots

juice 2 lemons

1 teaspoon lemon zest

1/4 teaspoon tannin

1 teaspoon yeast nutrient

1 teaspoon pectic enzyme

1 package wine yeast

Directions

In a large pot, boil Apricot, lemon, sugar, and honey in 2 quarts of water for 1 min.
Cool down to room temp and put into 2 gallon bucket.
Add acid blend, pectic enzyme, tannin and enough water to make 2 gallon.
Stir very well
Add yeast and yeast nutrient
Cover and put an air lock on top.
Rack after strong fermentation is complete
Let it sit until the wine is clear, and then cork
Don’t drink for 6 months

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