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Micro Brews And Dip For Football Game

With the super bowl around the corner, if you don’t have a homebrew made for the occasion I don’t know how else to tell you – you’re out of luck.  I did however find this article and it was very well done on pairing micro brews for the big game.  It was done well enough I really can’t and won’t add anything to it.  The link is here if you would like to see from the original post but like I said, Sean Paxton did an amazing job.  Enjoy!

Pairs: Beer & dip

Pair an old-standard dip with a worthy beer.

pairings by Sean Z. Paxton

Seven-layer taco dip & Ayinger Ur-Weisse

A classic seven-layer taco dip is packed with richness, earthiness and heat, all of which require a beer that can showcase the dip’s quieter flavors and lighten up the heavy ones. Ur-Weisse’s pepper and clove accentuate the salsa’s jalapeño heat and cilantro bite; meanwhile, the beer’s subtle banana marries with the sour cream’s sweetness, drawing out the dip’s lighter side. Hearty, earthy refried beans are an ideal match for this dunkel’s similarly low earthy tones. The beer’s creamy carbonation has just enough spritz to lift the dip off the tongue. ALSO TRY: Gordon Biersch Dunkelweizen, Hacker-Pschorr Dunkle Weisse

Mango salsa & Flying Dog Raging Bitch

Red onions and jalapeños give a spicy kick to this salsa’s tropical mango sweetness, while this Belgian-style IPA explodes with citrus flavors and a peppery edge courtesy of the Belgian yeast. Pair them, and you get a perfect marriage of flavors: The dip’s mango syncs with the beer’s grapefruit, orange and banana notes, while the beer’s white-pepper spice tingles alongside the dip’s heat. In the end, an herbal, minty hop thread draws out the cilantro’s earthiness and helps cool the tongue. ALSO TRY: Houblon Chouffe Dobbelen IPA Tripel, New Belgium Brewing Lips Of Faith Belgo IPA

Ranch & Sierra Nevada Kellerweis

A good ranch is a little aggressive, with sharp chive, onion and garlic knocking against a sweet and sour buttermilk tang. This hefeweizen injects clove into the mix, adding a soft herbal note to the more acute flavors, while bright lemon and orange flavors enliven the buttermilk’s thick, creamy sweetness. Sharp wheat notes bolster the grain in whatever chip you’re dipping with, gently countering the pointed flavors of the dip; coupled with Kellerweis’ crisp carbonation, the result is a clean finish. ALSO TRY: Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier, Widmer Hefeweizen

Spinach artichoke dip & New Glarus Spotted Cow

Aggressively hopped beers typically don’t mesh with delicate garden greens, so subtlety is the key to this pairing. The mayonnaise in this dip slathers the tongue with creamy tang, while salty spinach and artichoke lend vegetal flavors to the palate. A cream ale’s gentle grainy sweetness draws out the mayo’s similar sweetness, while the spinach and artichoke speak loudly before melding with the beer’s round, agrarian wheat flavor. Full, creamy carbonation ushers all of the tastes off of the tongue, giving an ultra clean finish to each bite. ALSO TRY: Lagunitas Sirius Ale, Thomas Hooker Blonde Ale

Queso & Goose Island Nut Brown Ale

This warm dip benefits most from a beer that imbues flavor on its buttery, salty Cheddar profile, not one that pushes against it. This English-style brown ale does exactly that: The beer weaves toasty, nutty and chocolaty hints through the gooey cheese, adding gourmet nuances to an otherwise straightforward flavor profile. Meanwhile, the beer’s quiet earthy bitterness cuts through some of the thickness and harmonizes with the dip’s perky jalapeño spice. ALSO TRY:Samuel Smith’s Nut Brown Ale, Smuttynose Old Brown Dog Ale

Published January/February 2011

http://draftmag.com/features/pairs-beer-dip/

 

 

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Easy Pineapple Wine

Pineapple wine is a pretty nice wine to have in the summer time when you are hanging out pool side.  While it may be hard to think that about the summer when we’re are in the midst of winter, the wine itself will have to age so doing it now will put you in perfect timing for that particular time of the year.

So below is a nice pineapple wine, easy to make – delicious to drink.

Pineapple Wine – 1 gallon Recipe

Ingredients

3.25 quarts of water

2 lbs sugar

2 16 oz cans of Pineapple

1 tsp acid blend

1 tsp yeast nutrient

1 Campden Tablet

1/2 tsp pectic enzyme

1 packet Champagne Yeast

Directions:

  1. Put water and sugar in pot and bring to boil.
  2. Drain Pineapples from juice and rinse in cool water.
  3. Put fruit in nylon bag and place in primary fermenter
  4. Squish Pineapples with clean hands or potato masher
  5. Pour hot sugar-water over the crushed Pineapples
  6. Add acid, tannin and yeast nutrient
  7. (If you add campden tablet let it sit for 24 hours with top and air lock)
  8. Add pectic enzyme and yeast then add top and air lock
  9. Let ferment for 2 weeks then remove the nylon bag
  10. Rack into secondary fermentation (glass jug)
  11. Let it sit for 2 – 4 months
  12. Add campden tablet, and stabilizer (1/2 tsp per gallon) wait until air lock  has shown no more fermentation
  13. Add 6 ounces of sugar boiled in water
  14. Then bottle

 

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Danstar Yeast Profiles

In the past I’ve been a huge advocate for liquid yeast over dry yeast.  I’ve been on this dry yeast kick with my brews though.

I wanted to put together a quick profile page for some danstar yeast.  Hopefully I can get around to some other types of dry yeast as well this week.  Everything that is here can be found on there webpage too.

While dry yeast may not be as specific as white labs or wyeast strands I’ve been turned on to them just because of the ease of them.  I do recommend all brewers to an emergency kit put together in case their brew goes to hell and usually an arrangement of dry yeast is a must in that kit.  Maybe in the future I can put up a post on how to build a, “Save Me” kit…

If you had nothing extra though, I would say extra yeast would be very good start.  Here is the list though:

Nottingham

  • Brewing Temp: 57F-70F degrees
  • Good tolerance to low temps
  • High alcohol tolerance
  • High attenuation
  • Quick fermentation (can be as little as 4 days)
  • Shows flocculation at completion
  • Slightly reduces the bitterness level of hops
  • Low estery levels and high attenuation

Windsor

  • Authentic English style yeast
  • Full-bodied
  • Can complete fermentation in as little as 3 days
  • Non flocculant
  • Aroma is estery
  • Windsor yeast has found great acceptance in producing strong-tasting bitter beer, stout, weizen and hefe weizen.

Munich

  • Quick fermentation
  • Fermentation rate
  • Non flocculant
  • In classic open fermentation vessels, the yeast can be skimmed off the top
  • Banana notes

These are all danstar yeast profiles. Hope it helps when you make your choice in the future for yeast.

 

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Brew Pic Of The Day

This is from a customer that was kind enough to share his carboy explosion. When I see these I just think one thing, “epic”.  If you are curious to what type of beer it was, it was an Irish Red with WLP023.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hope it brings a smile to your day.  If you are curious on how to prevent this read the post that we put up about blow off tubes.

 

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Belgian Candi Sugar Vs. Table Sugar – For Beer

What is the big difference between Belgian Candi Sugar and sugar cane from the store?  I mean it’s sugar right?  Well there are some differences, and at the end of this I hope to bring some clarification to this discussion.  Also I hope not to ruffle to many feathers on this discussion.   But at the end the real question is can you use table  sugar to replace Belgian Candi sugar?  Before we get there, lets get the background set so you can explain this to friends/family.   That is my goal, clarify to the point where you can explain.  Lets begin!

The first main difference between the sugar which you buy in the store and the sugar which is named, “Belgian candi sugar” is where it comes from (Captain obvious is here).  I’m not referring to the country, but rather the product of it.

Belgian candi sugar comes from beets while the sugar which you buy in the store comes from sugar cane.  Now this isn’t profound really, but Belgians just get their sugar from beets in general, and in general we get ours from sugar canes.  The reason is the climate I believe.  Other places around the world get there’s from maple, dates, etc.  It’s whatever is available.

If you were to claim that you could taste the difference between the two sugars in a taste test I would say you have amazing taste buds.  Most people can’t tell the difference if it isn’t told which is which.  Beet sugar and cane sugar taste almost identical.

The manufacturing of these two products are also about the same, as far as the process goes.  So what is the real difference then?  The biggest difference between the two is what they are.  Let me explain…

Belgian candi sugar is fructose and glucose while sugar which you buy in the store (table sugar) is  sucrose.   Belgian candi sugar has been inverted (they split the sucrose into fructose and glucose).  So you may be asking, “And that means what to me?”.

This is where the difference lies, it is easy for yeast to digest fructose and glucose but it is harder for yeast to digest  sucrose.  In order to digest sucrose, yeast need to take an additional step.  That additional step is they create an enzyme to help break down the sucrose into fructose and glucose.   I’ll just leave it at that.  If you are really curious about the biology and want to learn more about the enzyme Google, “invertase enzyme”.  I’m hoping you are still picking up what I am throwing down, because in my mind this is where it gets interesting.

Now people claim, and I will put a strong emphasis on the word claim, that when yeast create this enzyme it will leave a cider flavor to their beer.   I don’t believe this, haven’t had this problem – ever.

This is an old myth that needs to be debunked.  In fact I would go as far as to say, people will tell you this myth blindly because they have taken someone’s word for it on a forum or where ever they heard it.  They are wrong. Very, very – wrong.

Sucrose is a disaccharide made of fructose and glucose (inverted sugar is broken down into fructose and glucose)  and there are 2 ways that I know of on how to break it down so yeast can eat it with ease.

  1. You can break down sucrose with an enzyme (discussed earlier)
  2. You can break down sucrose with acid and heat

Hmmm, that’s odd.  So if your wort is acidic (which it usually is about 5.2 in pH) and it’s boiling (boiling = heat) then it should break down the sucrose so you will have a lack of this off flavor…

I mean you can keep buying the Belgian Candi Sugar, and we’ll keep selling it but just trying to save you a buck where you can save one.

(The look of a homebrewer after he realizes how much money has been spent on unnecessary Belgian Candi sugar)

Now I can understand why you wouldn’t bottle with regular sugar and you use corn sugar instead.  But that was never the argument.  The argument was why you should feel the need to buy Belgian candi sugar for $7-$9 instead of going to the grocery store and getting regular sugar.  Other homebrewer’s have been telling you a lie that’s why!  I’m just half-joking.  Some people don’t know, others have been told wrong information.  We’re here to try to help ya out that’s all.

Lets say you just wanted to make a hell of a lot of Belgian candi sugar so you are good for a while.  Well this is the way to do it.  This is what I do for making 1 lb of Belgian Candi sugar. And you can make it light, dark, or amber using this method.

HOW TO INVERT SUGAR

  • Take 2 cups of water and desired sugar (1 lb)
  • Put in sauce pan
  • Add 1-2 teaspoons of lemon juice (it has citric acid in it or use citric acid if you got it)
  • Bring to boil and start stirring
  • Around 275 degrees it will turn yellow, if not add a bit more lemon juice
  • If you want light Belgian candi sugar stop here once it turns yellow
  • Next color it will change to is red (amber Belgian candi sugar)
  • Next color is brown (dark candi sugar)
  • Keep adding water to keep it at a good consistency – thick
  • Stop once your color has been reached
  • I would not boil past 300 degrees
  • Once you get the desired color you take the pan of sugar-water, throw it on some wax paper and let it cool.
  • It will harden
  • Break up and then store it for future uses

You might want to practice a few times in order to get your method perfected.  It normally takes between 25-35min.  I do suggest try making it before you need it so you’re not scrambling.

Hope it helps.  Also hope it doesn’t ruffle to many homebrewing feathers.  Leave your comments below.

Cheers,

 

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Saint Patrick’s Day Beer Recipes

If you are like me, the week before Saint Patrick’s  Day I’m making my beer because of bad planning.  Well not this year!  I’ve been planning out this one for a while.

This year is different.  I’ve marked this beer down for a while thanks to the brewing calendar.  If you want to know, Saint Patrick’s Day is March 17th this year, a Saturday.  Pretty much my favorite holiday along with Fat Tuesday (Feb 21st this year) but I digress.  Everyone is Irish on Saint Patrick’s Day, as seen in the picture below.

(Guy lost in woods with weird hat trying to be accepted as Irish on Saint Patrick’s Day)

So getting back to it, we need to be thinking about the beer that we are going to be making.  It really gets easy for this holiday, you either have and Irish Red, or a Dry Stout.

For the Dry Stout I already have a recipe up about this one.  Just don’t use the whiskey and it’s still going to be pretty stand up.  Or use Irish whiskey instead. Also if you are going all-grain, use the conversion chart and just convert the LME or the DME.

(Skills)

But what I can tell you is that I am going to be making this Irish Red.  I love this recipe.  It’s one of my classics that I make.  What I really like about this recipe is that in the stores, it’s really hard to get a good Irish Red.  This recipe makes the Sam Adams Irish look like it’s amateur hour.  A little cocky? Try the recipe and I’m sure you’ll agree.  If you don’t, well, I’m one man –  I can’t save the world…

Irish Red:

OG: 1.056

FG: 1.011

SRM: 16

IBU: 33

ABV: 5.9%

Ingredients

6.6 lbs LME Golden Light

1.0 lb Biscuit Malt

2 oz Chocolate Malt

8 oz CaraMunich

8 oz Cara Foam

1 oz Fuggle (60min)

1 oz Fuggle (30min)

.5 oz Kent Goldings (15min)

.5 oz Kent Goldings (5min)

WLP 004 or WLP 002 WLP023 Safale 04 – any of these work

Directions 

Take the grains and steep in 2.5 gallons of water at 150 degrees for 30min.  Take out after 30min.  Add malt extract and bring to a boil.  At the begining of the boil add 1 oz of Fuggle hops.  Boil for 30min then add 1 oz of Fuggle hops.  Boil for 15min then add .5 oz of EKG boil for 10 min then add .5 oz of EKG.  Boil for 5 min then kill the boil.

Cool down, pour into fermenter, fill up to 5 gallons and then pitch yeast.

Primary: 1-2 weeks

Bottles: 3-4 Week

Total Time: 6 weeks

Flavor Profile

The biscuit malt really is added to this recipe to mimic that of Maris Otter.  Maris Otter is a base malt that is English, super clean and has a bready flavor to it.  Has a great mouth feel.  Biscuit malt taste exactly as the name describes, like biscuits.

The chocolate malt is added for the color, this will make the beer, “red” in color.

Caramunich, again another bready and sweet type of specialty grain.  This will add some color to the beer.

Carafoam, this is for head retention.

The hop choices are fuggles and east kent goldings.  Both of these are English style hops.  Having this recipe at 33 IBU really doesn’t over power the flavors that come with the beer.  I use these hops in some way in almost all of my beer recipes that are European ale’s.  Love, love, love these hops!

Conclusion:

This recipe is one of my favorties as well as one of the most requested ones that I do.  If you are looking at doing it all-grain, just use the conversion table that is in our blog.  

This is just a fantastic beer to make.  And if you start thinking about it now, you won’t be in a rush for Saint Patrick’s day.

Good luck and if you have any comments or suggestions leave them in the space provided below!

 

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What To Do If Your Glass Carboy Has Scratches

This will be a short post but a post that is well  needed.  Recently a few customers have come up to me with a question about if their carboy has scratches can they still use it.  Yes, yes you can.

Many people are concerned about bacteria or other micro’s dwelling in the scratches.  I don’t think you need to worry too much about that.  But if you are, my suggestions are as follows:

  1. Use it for your primary if possible. Having your beer not sit on the scratches for a long period of time will help in not getting contaminated.
  2. Sanitize well.  I would use iodophor, or star san.  2 minutes of contact time will normally suffice.
  3. Bake it in the oven.  I do this with all of my glass hardware.  Maybe I have a large oven but my carboy has no trouble fitting into it.  I have a post about how to do that.   It describes how to do it with bottles but same thing for carboys.

So if you come across an old carboy and it has some scratches don’t dismiss it.  You may just need some aid in getting it in tip top shape for your brew.  Hope it helps.

Leave your comments in the space below.

Cheers,

 

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No Sparge All-Grain

In the world of all-grain when it comes to sparging there are two main ways to do it: 1) Fly sparge 2) Batch sparge.

Well there is a 3rd way to do it, it’s called no sparge.  The way that this is done is, you add all of the water you need to your mash tun while you mash in.  The benefits to this is really simplicity.

The beer itself will turn out richer and have  bigger malt flavor (because it is your first running).  You are also avoiding getting all of the tannins from the husk into your beer.   The pH will change less when compared to fly sparging or batch sparging as well.

This method is really unorthodox in today’s world of homebrewing because of the grain to water ratio that is implemented.  I’ve also heard that if you are going to do a no sparge technique, use about 20% more grains (particularly base malts)  when looking at the recipe you normally would make.  Adding more grains is to help insure you are getting the proper amount of fermentable sugars for the recipe.  The no sparge technique can be used with smaller grain bills (browns, milds).

Just another thing to consider when thinking about your next all grain batch.

Cheers,

 

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Tip And Trick To Get A Rubber Stopper Out Of A Carboy…

It’s happened to many home brewers and home wine makers, your rubber stopper falls through the neck of the carboy.  When it happens to you, you can feel desperation in your belly.  Well there is a way to get your stopper out of the carboy easily.

I actually learned this trick for when wine a cork gets stuck in the wine bottle but it’s the same exact thing for a carboy.  Done it with both a carboy and plenty of wine bottles – this trick is completely and ace.

NOTE: When you do this in front of either family or friends you look extremely cool.

Watch And Learn:

For carboy’s with fallen stoppers it’s the same exact thing.  But if you would like it in words it goes as follows:

  • Empty out the contents of the vessel.  For a carboy, siphon liquid.
  • Move the stopper to the ledge of the carboy next to the neck.
  • Take a clean plastic bag, push the bottom part of the bag through the neck of the carboy holding on to the end where the handles are.
  • Once 90% of bag is in the carboy blow into the bag (where the handles are) as much as you can.  You are trying to make it take up as much space as possible with the bag.
  • The end of the bag should be past the rubber stopper.
  • Slowly start to pull the bag towards you.
  • The objective is that the bag will grab the rubber stopper.
  • Apply even and slow sturdy pressure to the bag (especially as it gets into the neck of the carboy).
  • Pull until the rubber stopper comes out.

This bag method works like a charm.  So try it with fallen corks in wine/beer bottles or rubber stoppers in your carboy’s.

Hope it helps!

 

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Banana Wine

Honestly, I’ll come out right and say it.  I was inspired to find this recipe after watching the show on the Discovery Channel, “Moonshiners”.

They made banana brandy which I have never tasted.  Brandy is distilled wine for those that don’t know.  I can tell you this, I’ve never had banana wine either.  My curiosity got to me and I will be  trying banana wine with this recipe.

With all of that said, I haven’t made this recipe – yet.  I’m going to though.  I found this one in one of my uncles recipes books that he lent to me.  Looking at his chicken scratch I came up with the recipe below.  It looks pretty legit, and pretty standard as far as it goes with recipes.

Banana Wine – 1 gallon Recipe

Ingredients

3.25 quarts of water

3 lbs sugar

4.5 lbs fresh banana’s

2 tsp acid blend

1/8 tsp tannin

1 tsp yeast nutrient

1 Campden Tablet

1/2 tsp pectic enzyme

1 packet Champagne Yeast

Directions:

  1. Put water and sugar in pot and bring to boil.
  2. Peel and slice banana’s, rinse in cool water and drain
  3. Put fruit in nylon bag and place in primary fermenter
  4. Squish banana’s with clean hands or potato masher
  5. Pour hot sugar-water over the crushed banana’s
  6. Add acid, tanning and yeast nutrient
  7. (If you add campden tablet let it sit for 24 hours with top and air lock)
  8. Add pectic enzyme and yeast then add top and air lock
  9. Let ferment for 2 weeks then remove the nylon bag
  10. Rack into secondary fermentation (glass jug)
  11. Let it sit for 4 – 6 months
  12. Add campden tablet, and stabilizer (1/2 tsp per gallon) wait until air lock  has shown no more fermentation
  13. Add 6 ounces of sugar boiled in water
  14. Then bottle
  15. Keep for a year before you drink

 

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