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February 19, 2013

2013 AHA Competition

I don’t know why I never know about these competitions. Every year I want to do one, but every I have nothing ready for ones. Maybe you guys have something ready for it; not so much for me. Honestly I need to find a website that has national as well as local competition’s so I can keep up to date. There is plenty of time to still register for it. Next year I’ll be on top of so I can give plenty of warning. Click here for all the details.

If you are thinking about it, I would go ahead and go for it honestly. It’s a great way to get better at the hobby, you’ll get some feedback and who knows – you could win who knows!

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February 13, 2013

English Pale Ale Recipe

A nice pale ale is always appreciated. What I like about Pale Ale’s are that they are so easy to drink and most of the time you even non, “Craft beer lovers”, still like them. This one isn’t too hoppy and just leaves you with something that is refreshing. If you make this beer now, it will be ready to drink towards the end of March. What that means is it is a perfect beer to gateway you into Spring.

Having some aromatic malt in it is going to give a malty nose to the beer. The crystal malt is of course going to give it some sweetness as well as some color. The hop profile is is well balanced giving you bittering, flavor, and aroma. All around it’s a well balanced beer.

Ingredients

9 oz 60L crystal Malt

6 oz Belgium Aromatic

7 lbs Extra Light Liquid Malt Extract

8 oz Malto Dextrin

1 oz Fuggles (60min)

1 oz Willamette (60min)

1/3 oz Perle (15 min)

1/3 oz Hallertau (15min)

1/3 Cascade (1min)

1/3 Fuggle (1min)

WLP 013

Specifications

OG: 1.055

FG: 1.015

IBU: 32

SRM: 11

ABV: 5%

Directions

Heat 2.5 gallons of water up to 150
Turn off heat, and steep grains for 30 min
Take grains out
Add in malt extract and malto dextrin
Bring to boil
Add 1 oz Fuggles, and 1 oz Willamette
Boil for 45 minutues
Add Perle and Hallertau hops
Boil for 14 minutes
Add Cascade and Fuggles
Boil for 1 minute
End boil
Cool down, put in fermenter, fill up to 5 gallons
Pitch yeast
Ferment for 7 days
Then bottle with .75 cup of corn sugar
Drink after 3 weeks in the bottle.

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February 12, 2013

Dry Ginger Wine Recipe

This wine is very much like ginger ale. It is a white wine that has a bit of spice as well as some sweetness from the banana’s. This type of of wine is really good for spring and summer. One of those that I’m sure you will never forget.

Ingredients

3 ounces of whole ginger root

1 cup white grape juice concentrate

1.5 lbs of banana

1 package wine yeast

1 teaspoon pectic enzyme

1 teaspoon yeast nutrient

1.5 cup orange juice

2 lbs sugar

Directions

Break ginger root into pieces and mix the pieces with grape juice concentrate
Put into a 2 gallon plastic container
Add 2 quarts of boiling water
Peel bananas and force them through a strainer
Add to the ginger mixture and cook
Add wine yeast, pectic enzyme, yeast nutrient, and orange juice
Add sugar and enough water to make 1 gallon
Let ferment
After 10 days switch over to 1 gallon fermenter
Fill with water 2 make 1 gallon
Ferment for 3 months
Rack necessary to clear
When fermentation is complete bottle
Celar wine and let it sit for about 6 months

February 7, 2013

Trick To Get Painted Labels Off Bottles

See an empty bottle and think, “Wait don’t throw that out, I can use that for my homebrew!”, welcome to the world of homerbewing. When homebrewing you can reuse bottles that are pop top for bottling your own beer. So that really means going out and buying some craft beer is just an, “investment” into the hobby because you can keep your beer bottles that you drank.

Sometimes though you want to make your beer bottles look like they are uniformed, you don’t want to see the old labels. Paper labels are easy enough to take off, soak them in some PBW and just go to town on them. Also make sure that the water being used is very hot – it makes life a lot easier. The real question is how do you get off painted labels off. You know, the type where the label is directly painted onto the bottle. An example of this would be, “Stone – Arrogant Bastard”.

The way to take off the paint so it doesn’t look like you are drinking a stone beer is, take a normal concentration of StarSan and water (1 oz of Starsan to 5 gallons of water), and put your bottle in a bucket of that. Let the bottle sit overnight, then most of the time you can just use the back-end of a kitchen scrubber Some people have claimed that a paper towel can be used and just wipe it off, others say that you need, “steel wool” in order to really get it off. Either way, it’s gonna come off. Honestly it’s just that easy: 1) Put beer bottle in bucket 2) Add normal concentration of water and StarSan 3) Let it sit over night 4) Scrub.

This is a nice way to get the bottle labels off with minimal effort. Yes of course you could just tell your friends, “No, that’s not Arrogant Bastard – it’s a stout I made”, but this trick is one if you want to bring your presentation up to the next level. This trick can be especially useful for those that are part of a homebrew club and need to put a label on their beer bottle, or just someone who gets a lot of their beer bottles from their other hobby, drinking craft beer.

If you have other tips on how to take off labels leave it in the comment section below and as always,

Cheers,

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February 6, 2013

Top Beers Of 2012 – I Know I’m Late

We did a post a while back on how to keep your inspiration regarding brewing your own beer. One of the ways that I’ve found a lot of inspiration for my own home brewing is to go and try some different beers out. It’s also just fun to be a critic of different micro beers.

You might find that you like some things that different breweries do, or you may hate somethings. But don’t stop there, make sure to find the recipes and see what type of grains and hops that they use. Sometimes it’s as easy as just going to their website and they will have it listed. Other times you can e-mail the head brewer, explain that you are a homebrewer and you are interested in their recipe. Make sure to send them a recipe of what you think their beer is to show that you’ve put in some effort. A lot of times these guys started off as homebrewers themselves and are pretty helpful to fellow homebrewers.

It’s pretty easy to find clones on the internet, that’s what’s cool about the homebrewing community – we share all knowledge. Just type in, “_______ clone recipe”, I’m sure you’ll find lots of results. Normally it’s hard to get the perfect clone but it does give an excellent template to work with. So with out further delay, here is the list of top beers for 2012 to make sure you try them out. The full list can be found at the AHA website. If you know of, or recommend any brew that are not on the list that is a must try let us know!

Top-Ranked Beers

For 2012, we have a four-peat! Russian River’s Pliny the Elder, a double IPA, claimed the top spot for the fourth straight year. Finishing second for the third straight year was Bell’s Two Hearted Ale, an IPA. (T indicates tie)

1. Russian River Pliny the Elder

2. Bell’s Two Hearted Ale

3. Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA

4. Sierra Nevada Pale Ale

5. Stone Arrogant Bastard Ale

6. Bell’s Hopslam

7. Sierra Nevada Celebration

8. Stone Ruination IPA

9. Sierra Nevada Torpedo

10. North Coast Old Rasputin

11. Firestone Walker Union Jack

12. Sierra Nevada Ruthless Rye

13. Bear Republic Racer 5

14. Oskar Blues Dale’s Pale Ale

15. Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA

16. Firestone Walker Double Jack

T17. Ballast Point Sculpin IPA

T17. Sierra Nevada Bigfoot

19. Stone IPA

20. New Belgium Fat Tire

21. Deschutes Black Butte Porter

22. Avery Maharaja

23. Founders Breakfast Stout

24. Left Hand Milk Stout

T25. Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA

T25. New Belgium Ranger

T25. Stone Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale

28. Deschutes The Abyss

29. Goose Island Bourbon County Stout

30. Surly Furious

T31. Lagunitas Little Sumpin Sumpin

T31. Rogue Dead Guy

T31. Samuel Adams Boston Lager

34. Troegs Nugget Nectar

T35. Lagunitas IPA

T35. New Belgium La Folie

T37. Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron

T37. Founders KBS

T37. Russian River Blind Pig IPA40. Green Flash West Coast IPA

41. Deschutes Mirror Pond Pale Ale

42. Victory Prima Pils

43. Great Divide Yeti

T44. Alaskan Smoked Porter

T44. Anchor Steam

T44. Lagunitas Hop Stoopid

T44. Samuel Adams Noble Pils

T48. Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald Porter

T48. Oskar Blues Ten Fidy

T48. Russian River Pliny the Younger

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February 5, 2013

Beet Wine Recipe

Vegetable wine is always a weird one to make. Usually when you say something like, “Ya, you are drinking beet wine” most people will raise an eyebrow. The only reason why I started to make this one is because I grow beets in my garden. I usually get so many that I don’t know what to do with them. I mean honestly there are only so many days where I can make, “Beet Soup” and still have a smile on my face (even though it’s my favorite soup – no lie). Either way, this wine is one that is red in color and not too dry. A really good one if you are a beet fan.

Yield 1 Gallon

Ingredients

3 lbs Beets with green part removed

12 oz Orange juice concentrate

2 pounds white sugar

1 pound honey

1 cinnamon stick

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

2 teaspoons fresh orange zest

1 package montrachet wine yeast

1 teaspoon pectic enzyme

1 teaspoon yeast nutrient

1/4 teaspoon tannin

Directions

Wash beets and put them in a large pot
Cover beets with water and simmer on low heat until the beets are tender and soften up
Remove beets from liquid
Add orange juice concentrate, sugar, honey and spices to liquid
Bring to boil
After boil has been reached, simmer for about 10-15 minutes
Crush the beats into a paste and put them back into the liquid
Add the orange zest and transfer into a 2 gallon fermenter
Add water and bring up to volume of 1 gallon
Add, enzyme, yeast nutrient, yeast, and tannin
Let it ferment for about 5 days
Rack into 1 gallon container
Fill up to 1 gallon.
Let mixture ferment for 3 months
Rack if it’s needs clearing
If not, bottle, and let sit for 6 months

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February 4, 2013

3rd Annual Barley Wine Festival Coming Up

Barley Wines are a pretty cool beer to have. Quickly they are turning into one of my favorite winter time beers to drink. If you have not had one before, I highly suggest that you go and buy one while it is still the season to be drinking them.

Also if you live the D.C Metro area, there is a tasting that is coming up pretty soon. So I thought I would give a heads up about it. There is a tasting that is happening over at Madfox coming up. Click here for the details.

Until then, stay warm with some Barley Wines!

Cheers,

Derek

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The World Of ESB – An Easy Recipe

A great beer to have on tap is an ESB. So what is an ESB? ESB stands for Extra Special Bitter. It’s a British style beer and one that is very much like our Pale Ale. A normal Bitter is about 3.8%, the extra special ones are above 4.8%. This particular one is 5.7%. ESB are pretty easy beers to drink.

Notes On This Beer Recipe

This beer is going to have a caramel undertone to it. This is because it has crystal malt in the recipe. Being that it has 60L it is going to give it bit of color. The malt extract is six pounds of dry malt extract, it’s pretty standard for most pale ales. Being that it is six pounds, it will give a nice malt back bone and also give the beer a higher ABV compared to a standard bitter. The hops in this beer are not too high in alpha acid, this allows for a well-rounded hop flavor and aroma (again, very much like a Pale Ale). The after taste is one that is going to be malt forward but well-balanced. This is just a beer that is easy to drink no matter what time of year it is, and one that is pretty easy to share with friends and family. Really at the end this isn’t fancy beer, but there is beauty in simplicity

Ingredients

13 oz 60L crystal Malt

6 lbs Malt Extract Light (DME)

2 oz Tettnanger (60min)

1/2 oz Willamette (15min)

1 oz Tettnanger (10min)

WLP 001

Specifications

OG: 1.056

FG: 1.013

IBU: 37

SRM: 13

ABV: 5.4%

Yield 5 Gallons

Directions

Heat 2.5 gallons of water to 150
Steep grains for 30 minutes
Take grains out
Add malt extract in
Bring to boil
Add 2 oz Tettnanger Hops
Boil for 45 minutes
Add Willamette Hops
Boil for 5 minutes
Add 1 ounce of Tettnanger hips
Boil for 10 minutes
End boil
Cool down, put in fermenter and pitch yeast
Let it ferment for 7 days
Put in bottles with 3/4 cup of corn sugar
Let it sit for 21 days
DRINK

If you are looking to do it all grain, I would use the M.O for the base malt. It will give it a bit more flavor. Then again, if you wanted to just make a cheap beer for the summer time, you can use just regular 2-Row and it would work as well

Enjoy

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January 31, 2013

How To Freeze Yeast And Save Money!

You can freeze yeast? You bet you can! This post really goes with the conjunction of the how to make starters post we did last week. Harvesting, and freezing yeast is simply a great way to save money on brewing beer which only means one thing – you can brew more beer. This post is my attempt in breaking down how to actually freeze your yeast so you can use it again in the future.

Why Would You Want To Freeze Your Yeast?

The reason why you would want to freeze your yeast is that you are saving about $7 for every tube that you pull out of the freezer. That means you can buy more ingredients and make more beer! This method is really meant to make 50-200 billion cells. With frozen vials of yeast, you would want to make a starter for them to ensure that you got a good fermentation (or double pitch).

Some General Supplies That You Are Going To Need

A large amount of yeast that you are going to want to save in the future – this will be made with a starter
Some tubes that you can keep your yeast in. The best are the white labs tubes. If you don’t have any you can always just buy the tubes online as well.
A holder for the tubes
Glycerin, food grade.
Rubbing alcohol
Sanitized Water
Cold Pack

How Do You Freeze Yeast?

*Read All Instructions Before You Start

Collect yeast by chilling a culture that you made before with our amazing yeast starter guide. – It goes into details about how to separate the wort and yeast at the end of that post.
Pour off the wort leaving enough to just allow the yeast to be suspended in a dense mixture (aka slurry).
A quart starter can usually be reduced to 1/40th the volume giving you 100 billion cells in 25 millimeters (1.5 tablespoons of yeast per baby test tube)
Sanitize the outside of the test tubes with rubbing alcohol
Take 1.5 tablespoons of yeast and put into the baby soda bottles aka white labs yeast containers (they are listed in the supplies above)
Add an equal amount of glycerol to each of the vials (make sure the glycerol is at a 1:5 ratio with sanitized water)
Cap the tube and swirl without making it frothy.
Now fill up the remainder with 10% glycerin mixture
Make sure there is enough room for expansion because it is going to freeze
Put test tubes in test tube holder
Take gel packs and surround the yeast packages with them.
The gel packs will slow down the process of the freezing for the yeast
Gel packs will help prevent the yeast thawing when the freezer cycles
When you plan on using the yeast, take them out of the freezer
Soak them in water that is about 100 degree’s. Swirl until the yeast has thawed out
Remove the tube from the water, make a starter and pitch yeast into starter

Conclusion

I know this can be confusing as you read this and may seem a bit overwhelming or intimating but if I can do it – you can do it. If you have any questions just let me know. There are some other methods to freezing yeast which I have used in the past, but this method is one that gives me pretty good results every time I use it.

Personal Note: The way to think about doing this is just make a really bit starter, or a few big starters and then freeze the yeast out of that. It doesn’t make sense to do this with every type of yeast that you use but ones you know you are going to use a lot. WLP 001 is classic as well as 1056. I usually will only freeze yeast for about a year. I don’t like going over that. In the summer time if you like wheats and know you are going to make a hand full of wheats starting from April – August freeze your wheat yeast, same goes with stouts using 004 for the fall and winter or 001 for year round, I’m sure you get the picture.

If you have any tips on how to do this or would like to share your method, please let us know in the comment section below! Cheers!

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Growing Hops In Your Yard – Some General Points

If you are interested in growing your own hops this year, it’s time to start looking for them. Here is a short article on growing your own hops which may prove to be useful. I have grown hops every year for some time now. They are honestly pretty easy to grow and a fun way to combine two of my hobbies (gardening and homebrewing)

I don’t expect to save any money with them or anything like that but, it is fun to make a seasonal beer with wet hops. Keep in mind, 4 ounces of wet hops are the same as 1 ounce of dry hops. Normally with any of my wet hops which I grow, I just end up dry hopping with them so I get an aroma. It turns into my, “Summer Beer Special” or my very own seasonal beer. The reason I do that is because I just don’t expect a lot out of my hops. I also don’t know the actual alpha acid so I figure just using them as aroma is a special treat.

I’ve found in the past the hops that work the best in this area tend to have higher alpha acids (Cascade grows like a weed here). I put my hops in a pot when I grow them. After they start to sprout I take a string and tie it to an anchor of some sort, the hops just grow up the string. But the reason why I put them in a pot is I don’t want the shoots to get break off and end up getting hops all over the yard. I’m not sure if that is possible but I know it happens with horseradish which I grow too. Just a friendly suggestion.

Enjoy, and if you are looking for a source to buy hops to grow, this is a good one! If you have any pointers or tips for growing hops, please share.

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