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August 8, 2013

Belgium Pale Ale Recipe – Perfect For Hot Days

Everyone has heard of American Pale ales, but what about Belgium Pales…? They tend to be a bit different. One of the first things that you’ll notice is that they are less hoppy. Also to state the obvious you don’t use American hops. I tend to like them, using Belgian yeast brings some fruity tones to the beer makes it a bit more unique. This particular beer has a bready back bone to it and nice head retention because of the oats added to it. Also this will make the beer a bit more, “Silky”. Really a nice light refreshing beer for the weather.

Ingredients

1 lbs Biscuit Malt

.5 lbs Oats

6.5 lbs Pils Light LME

1.5 oz Saaz (60min)

1 oz Saaz (5min)

WLP 550 or T 58

Specs

OG: 1.051

FG: 1.012

SRM: 7.67

IBU: 26

ABV: 5.2%

Directions

Heat 2.5 gallons of water up to 150
Steep grains for 30 min
Take grains out
Add malt extract
Bring to boil
Add 1.5 oz Saaz
Boil for 55 min
Add 1 oz Saaz
Boil for 5 min
End boil, cool down, put in fermenter, fill up to 5 gallons
Pitch yeast
Ferment for about 7-14 days
Bottle using .75 lbs of corn sugar
Let it stay in bottles for 2-3 weeks before drinking

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July 31, 2013

Buying Bulk Honey

Some mead makers are really trying to get there honey in bulk. Over here at Jay’s Brewing I can’t order it and stay in competitive pricing. If you are a mead maker though and are looking to make a lot of mead then buying in bulk is usually the best option that you can do. The only site that I know that can do this is this one. They will sell 60 lbs at a time. With the shipping it’s really not too bad if you ask my opinion just because you are getting shipped essentially a weight in the mail.

July 18, 2013

Super Easy Belgium Blonde Ale Recipe – ISON BREW!!!

This brew is a refreshing one, but maybe not one for when it’s extremely hot out. Think of this beer as one of those that will be amazing for the first cool breezes in October when at night you can start to see all the stars again. For that reason, I will dub this recipe my ISON Blonde. Sorry I’m an astronomy nerd. If you don’t know about ISON make sure to do a quick search on it, you won’t be able to miss it when it comes (big comet)!

Back to the beer though, this is going to be a silky beer that is light in color clean hoppyness and does pack a punch since it comes in at 7.7% ABV. For those doing all-grain here is the conversion chart.

Ingredients

7 lbs Liquid Pils Light

1 lbs Oat

2 lbs Table Sugar

.5 oz Magnum Hops (60min)

WLP 545, WLP 530, WLP 550, WLP 500 or T-58

Specs

OG: 1.064

FG: 1.006

SRM: 4.2

ABV: 7.7%

IBU: 22.3

Instructions

Heat 2.5 gallons of water up to 150
Steep oats for 30 min
Take grains out
Add malt extract and sugar
Bring to boil
Add hops
Boil for 1 hour
End boil, cool down, put in fermenter, pitch yeast after filling to 5 gallons
Ferment for 3-4 weeks
Bottle using 3/4 cup of corn sugar
Let sit in bottles for 2-3 months before drinking

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July 17, 2013

Breweries Popping Up All Over The Place – A List

I get asked a lot about different breweries that coming to the Virginia area. I know of quite a few actually. So here is what I know, or better said this is the list that I can talk about (more coming). If you see that I forgot some or any that are new or coming, just put it in the comment section below.

Bad Wolf Brewing

Just opened. Jeremy Meyers is the head brewer. Great beer and really puts his personality into the beer that he makes. Here is their webpage.

Heritage Brewing Co.

This one is right next to Bad Wolf and myself. Well kinda, right across the street. Met these guys. Super nice guys and very ambitious – like them already without having any of their beer. Website

Forge Brewing

This one is over in Lorton. Head brewer use to be a homebrewer and is going to hold a bunch of competitions over at his place. Website.

Crooked Run

This is going to be out towards Leesburg. I really don’t know too much about this one. Website.

Beltway Brewing

This is over in Sterling. I’m to sure if they are going to sell or just do contracting. But regardless, website.

Adroit Theory Brewing Co.

My impression is that they do bold beers. But I haven’t heard too much about them. It’s a nano – got to support them. Website

Old Ox Brewing

This one is going to be out in Loudoun. It doesn’t seem to have too much information on their webpage but it looks like a nice set up they got going on.

CasaNoVa Brewing Company

This one I’ve heard about but don’t know where it really stands. It’s suppose to be in Arlington. I’ve actually met Paul the brewer back when we were at Clifton. Wish them the best of luck! Website.

Portner Brewhouse

This one should be over in Alexandria. I don’t know too much about this one either. Website.

Old Bust Head Brewing Co

This one is going to be pretty big. 30 barrel system big! Charles was a customer at Jay’s Brewing, so of course I would love to see much success for his endeavors! Article about it all.

Adventure Brewing

This is going to be over in Stafford. I can’t really tell if they are open or going to be open. I think going to be open. Website.

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May 29, 2013

The World Of 1-Gallon Brewing – My Thoughts

A customer passed along an article about 1 Gallon brewing. It’s defiantly a good read. Until recently I never really heard about 1 gallon recipes. Now it seems like the more authentic option to get into brewing compared to the Mr. Beer kits. This style of brewing has defiantly picked up speed as well.

I do like some aspects of 1 gallon recipes and in others I really don’t like them at all. 1 gallon recipes are nice because they are in fact small and you can do an all-grain recipe on your stove. So if you live in a small house, or an apartment and you enjoy to brew but just don’t seem to have the space for it at the moment – this could be the option.

The type of brewer that this appeals to the most is also the type that likes brewing more than drinking their own beer. I’m included in this category, so it’s not meant as an insult. I give away a lot of beer compared to what I drink. Also if you are getting into brewing and want something a bit more, “Legit” then Mr. Beer, 1-Gallon recipes are great options. At least you get the fundamentals down and know what air locks and siphons are and also are using ingredients that are tangible rather than just some stuff in a can.

I however really don’t think that 5 gallons of beer is a lot. Just think football season and some friends coming over. But I understand that to some 10 bottles is more than enough. Different strokes for different folks.

Also if you are planning on doing 1 gallon batches, I would plan on getting your own digital scale. The reason being is that it’s a pain to measure out .67 or .93 oz of hops. It’s just hard to be that exact, so you would want to double and triple check your measurements. Truthfully I would actually switch over all the recipes to grams so you can be exact. And if you were to design your own recipe, I would design for a 5 gallon batch then do the math to work it down to a gallon. That method would just seem a lot easier. Which leads me to this point, the author of this article states:

If 5-gallon batches are your ultimate goal, I still think it’s worthwhile to start with 1-gallon batches. These 1-gallon batches are a great stepping stone — they’re more satisfying than brewing extract beers and they teach you all the fundamental steps you’ll need to up your game to 5-gallon batches. Also, it’s easier to experiment with a 1-gallon batch to get a beer where you like it, and then you can scale it up to 5-gallons with confidence in the result.

This is kinda a true statement, but not. It’s true if you go to grams not oz or pounds. Since you are working with such small numbers with 1 gallon recipes and measurements are very small, if you aren’t correct in your measurements you won’t be making the same recipe at 5 gallons, because most likely you didn’t start off exact (unless you go to grams). It’s like the analogy of being off course in the beginning of boat ride, the longer you go the more off you will be. So an experiment batch may not be exactly what you will get at 5 gallons. Also I don’t knock extract homebrewing (author does). There are reasons to switch to all-grain but don’t expect the beer to taste enormously better. We do have a whole series on how to make the switch if you are interested in that though.

At the end, I would say that it’s a cheaper way to get into brewing. Personally I would just recommend doing half batches of beer instead of 1 gallon because the math is easy and the container size is just a 3 gallon which doesn’t take too much space up either. For a pretty long time that’s all I did too, half batches of beer. While you might need a bit bigger of a pot of on the stove, and it may take just a bit longer to bring it up to a boil, it’s not that much more. And if you are concerned about bottles building up I would go the keg route and it would save a lot of problems that you have if that is an option that you have in the future.

With everything said, I like 1 gallon batches more than some other options and I think that brewing beer is brewing beer at the end. It doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks, as long as you are happy with it at the end – that’s what matters. Let me know what you think.

Cheers

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Homebrew Clubs In The Area

Homebrew Clubs

In the homebrew world it can be difficult to learn on your own. It’s always great if you be part of a community of some sort so you can bounce ideas back and forth.

Homebrew clubs are a great outlet for just that. What a homebrew club is essentially, is a group of homebrewers that meet up and you make beer together or try beer together or just have beer related activities… together. It’s very common to have some dues for being part of a club because, well things aren’t free in this world so there you go. Depending on which club you go to, you’ll have different groups of people. Some are extremely, “Beer nerded”, up and others are more like the, “Chillax“, brewers.

I've had so many beers! — I’ve had so many beers!

One of the biggest benefits to joining a homebrew club though is feedback on your beer that is constructive from other homebrewers. This is usually done by having some type of competition or just passing your beer around at meetings.

If you are just thinking about homebrewing and haven’t gotten into it yet, homebrew clubs are a great place to go as well. It’s common for a homebrew club to let you sit into a meeting or two to get a feel for the group of guys (and ladies) as well as the atmosphere. Since brewing is what they do, it’s also a great venue to ask to sit in a brew session and see how it all works if you’ve never brewed before or want to try something new like all-grain.

Here in Prince William near our shop there is a homebrew club called, DOH. If you’re interested, they are a good group of guys and they have a wide range of experience. So if you are just starting out you’ll have plenty to learn from these guys and they are used to, “Beginner Questions”, and if you’ve been brewing for a while there is still room for you as well. Like I said, wide range of experience. They are a pretty new club only being around for year but have grown tremendously in that past year.

Homebrew clubs are a great way to further your knowledge in homebrewing and also hang out with some pretty cool cats that have the same hobby as you. I can also think of more painful things to do during the week than shooting the breeze and tipping back some bottles of homebrew. So if you are the area, make sure to check out their website and stop by a meeting!

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May 20, 2013

What “L” Means Next To Crystal Malt

It’s a pretty common thing when getting into brewing and to see crystal malts and get kinda confused. Hopefully in this post I can clarify some things about it.

Crystal malts are found in a lot of beers, and when starting out is a great specialty grain to use because you can get two very dependable results by using it. 1) You will end up changing the color of the beer 2) You will make the beer a bit sweeter. So to not make a beer boring you can use some crystal malt in your beer and now you’ve just added a different dimension to it.

The malt can be used by itself or it can be used in conjunction of different specialty grains. At the end of it, though you’ll see all these different numbers next to the grain. So what do these numbers mean? The, “L” stands for Lovibond. All that means is color. Concerning crystal malt, the most popular ones are, 20L, 40L, 60L, 80L, 120L. The lower the number the lighter the color impact as well as flavor. The higher the number is the darker the beer and the sweeter the beer flavor it. We have a post that goes into some pretty big detail about it all if this interest you.

For a rule of thumb with crystal malt no matter what type you are using, I would not use over a pound of it at a time. Eventually if you keep adding more and more to a recipe, it will stick out like a sore thumb. After a while using it for the purpose of only adjusting the color you might find that you get burnt out of the grain. At that point I would start to learn how the different specialty change color and you’ll be able to make a wider variety of beer styles.

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May 14, 2013

Domino Session IPA Video

This was a beer that I did with Proper Hops. Make sure to like and spread the love!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNxNNktyADQ&feature=share&list=UUjagtMoiBQTqZgpAOmTfrew

The recipe that we used is:

OG: 1.045
FG: 1.009
ABV: 4.7%
IBU: 53
SRM: 8.48
3.3 lbs Munich LME
2 lbs Pils DME
.25 lbs Carapils
.25 lbs Victory
.5 lbs Aromatic
.5 lbs Honey Malt
.5 oz Columbus (60min)
.25 oz Warrior (30min)
.5 oz Amarillo (20 min)
.33 oz Amarillo (10 min)
.33 oz Centennial (10 min)
.33 oz Simcoe (10 min)
.33 oz Amarillo (5 min)
.33 oz Centennial (5 min)
.33 oz Simcoe (5 min)
.33 oz Amarillo (0 min)
.33 oz Centennial (0 min)
.33 oz Simcoe (0 min)
.5 oz Amarillo (7 days)
.5 oz Centennial (7 days)
1 oz Simcoe (7 days)
YEAST: danstar bry 97

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Easy Honeysuckle Wine

When I go on hikes and can start to smell the honeysuckles in bloom, I know that it is time to make this wine. Honeysuckle wine usually turns out to be a pretty dry wine. Over the years I have ended up making it more of a mead then anything else. This one is pretty easy to make though.

It’s best to use the flower part of the honeysuckle not the stem.

One suggestion that I don’t include in this recipe is that you might want to back sweeten this wine with more honey.

Yield: 1 Gallon

6 cups honeysuckle flower petals (loosely packed)

7.5 pints of water

2 lbs Honey

2 tsp acid blend

1/8 tsp tannin

1 tsp yeast nutrient

Champagne wine yeast

Directions

Take flowers and rinse off
Put flowers in a small pot
Add 1 quart water and bring to a simmer.
Let pedals steep for 3 hours
Bring water and honey up to boil (2 parts water 1 part honey)
Remove from heat and cool.
Add honey mixture and flower mixture into primary while straining out flower pedals
Add all remaining ingredients
Let wine ferment until vigorous fermentation is completed
Rack into secondary and fit airlock
Let wine sit for 30 days, rack
Set aside for 6 months
Rack again in 3 months
Bottle and put into wait for 6 months to drink

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Session Beers – Step 8 – Scottish 60L

The last recipe that I wanted to go over for this series is the, Scottish 60 Schilling. For a long time this actually use to be my favorite style of beer out of all the beers. In my opinion Scottish beers are a completely under served beer style today. I don’t really see to many of them and of course you won’t find the light ones. This is the light type of Scottish beers. The 60 schilling was one of the originals as far as session beers go. Now today when people talk about Scottish beers they are referred to normally as, “Light, Heavy, Export”. This style of beer would go under the, “light” category.

This style of beer has a nice mouthfeel to it, and is quite malty. The hop characteristics are quite low and normally pretty floral. Usually you get a smoked flavor that comes out of the beer as well. For this particular beer, its got a malty flavor with floral hops. This beer is light all around though. For all-grain make sure to use M.O or Golden Promise. Either or will give you a malty flavor that you are looking for.

Ingredients

8 oz Crystal 60L

8 oz Munich Malt

2 oz Roast Barley

4.5 Light Liquid Malt Extract

.75 oz Fuggle Hops (60min)

WLP 028 or Saf 04

Specs

OG: 1.034

FG: 1.009

SRM: 13.2

ABV: 3.3%