Have you had your yeast today?

Since my last post the Bohemian "Pilsner" I had aging in bottles has completed that process.  Time to drink it!  But wait...what is up with the quotation marks placed around 'Pilsner'?  After trying my most recent brew, a friend of mine pointed out that although the beer was good, it was no pilsner.  Remember the old standard from high school algebra:  "All squares are rectangles but not all rectangles are squares"?  This is one of those kind of things.  Let me explain.

Pilsners are lagers.  All lagers are beer, but not all beers are pilsners.  Therein lies the issue.  Even though I followed a recipe for a pilsner, I ended up with something else.  Why? because I changed one, singular ingredient, yeast.

In the world, there are innumerable strains of yeast.  As far as I know, only two major types of yeast are used in food preparation:  bakers yeast, and brewers yeast.  These two types can be thought of as cousins in the yeast family tree.  Brewers yeasts can be subdivided again into two more specific categories:  ale yeast, and lager yeast.  Ale and lager yeasts can be thought of as siblings within the yeast family tree analogy.

Within the two categories of brewers yeast there are many, many different strains of each that provide various characteristics to the beer they ferment.  Ale yeasts are top fermenting yeasts.  They float to the top of the beer during the fermentation phase of the brewing process.  Ale yeasts produce malty, robust beer full of esters.  Esters are chemical compounds that, in beer, impart fruity or spicy flavors.  For instance:  the German Weiss beer that I have aging in bottles has very strong banana and clove flavors even though the ingredient list is wheat malt extract, hops, and yeast.  The yeast strain was cultivated to produce the banana/clove flavors.  Ale yeasts ferment at room temperature 58 F - 65 F.  The warmer the fermentation, the more pronounced the esters become.

Lager yeasts are bottom fermenting yeasts that actively ferment at much cooler temperatures than ales, typically 32 F to 55 F.  They also take much longer than ales to ferment and age.  This longer, colder fermentation reduces esters in the finished beer.  Lagers are typically described as "lighter", "crisper", and are clearer in appearance than ales.

Since I don't have a way of maintaining the temperatures required to lager I was forced to adapt the Bohemian Pilsner to use an ale yeast.  This resulted in a great tasting brew that I will refer to as a Blonde Ale.  It is lighter in color and body but still exhibits fruity esters from the yeast.

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Primary Fermenter:  N/A
Secondary Fermenter:  American Pale Ale
Aging in Bottles:  German Weiss Ale
Currently Enjoying:  Amber Ale, Blonde Ale

Did you miss me?

Alright, alright.  I know, it's been a while since my last post.  I have a loose goal of posting at least once a week and I haven't kept close to that over most of the last month.  The good news is, even though I didn't post about it, I have been brewing quite a bit.

I honestly can't document each and batch of beer I brew.  First off:  you (the reader) will get bored very quick since the procedure to brew is straight forward and repetitive.  Second:  with a full time job and a busy personal life, I can make time to brew but have a harder time blogging about everything I do in the brewing process.  Finally:  my goal for this blog is to help answer questions and inspire knowledge about brewing techniques and history.

With all that being said, I do want to stress that posting to the blog is important to me and I will do better updating it in a more timely manner.  In an effort to keep you in the loop with what I've been brewing, I will close most of the rest of my posts with a run down of beer that I am currently working on...or enjoying as the case may be.  It will look something like this....

Primary Fermenter:  American Pale Ale
Secondary Fermenter:  German Weiss Ale
Aging in Bottles:  Bohemian Pilsner (with Ale yeast)
Currently Enjoying:  Amber Ale

DIY Wort Chiller

Young, sugary wort, freshly finished boiling is like an attractive woman in a hot outfit at a night club.  On the other hand, wild yeasts, bacteria, molds, and other contaminates are like every sex deprived man, marinated in alcohol, and basted with cologne and desperation out looking for a good time.  Your job as brewer is to be your wort's 'big, fat, friend.'  Control the surroundings, keep intruders at bay, and get your girl home safe.

One of the most vulnerable times for wort is after the boil.  Wort must be cooled down from boiling temperatures to yeast pitching temperatures as quickly as possible.  The longer it takes wort to chill the more opportunity for contamination.  On my first two batches of beer I used the poor man's method of chilling wort:  put the covered boiling kettle in a bath of ice water and wait it out.  For 2.5 to 3 gallons of wort this took me about 30-45 minutes.  I'd heard of immersion chillers and decided to try and make my own with amazing results.  **Spoiler Alert!!**  I used my homemade wort chiller on the next patch of beer and was able to cool the boiling liquid down from 208 F to 75 F in about 15 minutes.  Here's how I made my wort chiller.

First, you need to go to the hardware store.  You will need to get the following items:

• 20-25 feet of 3/8" O.D. (outside diameter) copper tubing
• enough 3/8" I.D. (inside diameter) vinyl tubing to go from your sink to your kettle and back again with some extra.  I purchased 20'
• 2 hose clamps adjustable from at least 3/8" to a little larger then the O.D. of your vinyl hose
• faucet adapter to change the threading on your faucet end to garden hose threads.  More on this later.
• 1/2" female garden hose repair kit.

I got all of this material from The Home Depot for under $50.

I started by wrapping the copper tubing around a coffee can with a circumference about a third smaller then my boiling pot.  I left about 1.5' to 2' extra  on each end.

Next, I removed the coffee can and carefully bent the longer of the two ends up through the center of the coil.  Take time bending the copper and try to use hard objects (ex. soup cans) to bend around.  If you think you are kinking the copper, stop and try making your bend in another place.  Don't kink the copper because you will run the risk of developing a hole in the tubing which will contaminate your wort.  Here's a hint, the tighter the bend the greater the chance of developing kinks.

 I bent the two ends of the coil into hooks to hang over the edge of the kettle.  This way, if the connection with the vinyl hose ever fails the leak won't contaminate the wort.

Cut the vinyl hose in half and attach to the chiller with hose clamps.  The chiller has to ends:  the supply, and the return.  In order to utilize convection currents created within the wort, I made the supply end the top of the coil and the return the bottom.  This way the coldest water circulating through the chiller is at the top of the kettle.  As the cooled wort moves to the bottom of the kettle, warmer wort will take it's place at the top next to the coldest part of the chiller.  Method to the madness.

The hose repair end goes on the supply side of the vinyl hose.  The smallest hose repair kit I could find was for a 1/2" hose.  Since the I.D. of the vinyl hose is 3/8" it was a tight fit.  Heating up the vinyl hose with hot tap water helped a bit.  Finally you have to adapt the faucet you will use for cold water to accept the garden hose threaded end.  This will depend on your faucet.  If you have questions as to what you need, unscrew the aerator (small cap on the end of the faucet) and take it with you to the hardware store.  Ask for help adapting your particular faucet to accept garden hose threads.  Be careful to not lose any parts from your faucet's aerator or you will need to get parts for that as well.

Once everything has gone together, set the chiller in your empty kettle, attach the supply to the faucet, place the return in the sink, weigh it down by placing something heavy on the end of the hose, and turn the water on.  Water should be flowing through the chiller and you can now check for leaks.  If everything is snugged down you should be golden.  Make sure to clean the chiller before and after each use and to sanitize it by placing it in the still boiling wort 15 minutes prior to the end of the boil.  Monitor your chiller while it is in the wort and keep the vinyl hose away from the heat of the cook-top or you will be replacing it.  When you start water flowing through the chiller, keep in mind that the water coming out of the return end will be hot until the wort cools down.  Don't burn yourself!

There you go, a fun do-it-yourself project all in the name of beer.

Amber is the color of your energy

With the tainted wheat beer poured out I began the process over.  Going to the home brewing store and buying supplies for a new batch a beer seemed to give me a renewed zest for brewing.  I decided to try my hand at an American amber ale.  I also picked up some tools to make brewing easier:  an auto siphon to easily siphon liquids, and a bottle rack for drying bottles as I clean them.  I wonder if I can set up direct deposit from my pay check to The Beer Nut?  I'll have to check in to that.

After cleaning the ever-loving crap out of my fermenter, I put two and a half gallons of spring water in my boiling kettle and set the oven range on high.  Upon opening my new box of ingredients I discovered a surprise:  this recipe required the addition of specialty grains.  I've mentioned before that home brewing has been made easy with malt extract, but let me recap.  A commercial company will do all the leg work steeping the beer grains at very specific and controlled temperatures.  They then concentrate the mash and reduce it to a sugary syrup or a dry powder.  Those products are malt extracts.  Since mashing grains is such an exacting process, brewing by way of malt extract is a great way to get a handle on the brewing basics while still achieving drinkable beer.

When a person steeps specialty grains at a controlled temperature then brings the brew to a boil adding extract and hops, they are partial mash brewing.  I was happy for this new challenge even though I'm still new to brewing.  As uncle Roommate can tell you, I tend to watch the temperature of the brew very closely as is, so keeping the specialty grains withing a few degrees of 155 F was not too much of a task.

Aside from the partial mash component of the amber ale, this batch followed the same basic steps as the last.  As before, I focused on sanitizing everything that might come in contact with the wort.  I did decide to do a few things different this time around.  First, I agitated the wort after pitching the yeast to try and mix it throughout the brew.  Second, uncle Roommate and I put vodka in the air lock instead of water as an extra step in sanitizing.  Finally, I covered the fermenter with a cardboard box to shield it even better from light.  I'm hoping these steps will result in a drinkable end product.

Check back soon for an exciting "Do-It-Yourself" project complete with directions and pictures!

All that was missing was Taps on a bugle.

Two and a half weeks had passed with my beer in the fermenter.  Everything I had read or watched on home brewing beer said that two weeks was standard time for ale yeast to do its thing.  By the end of two weeks, the yeast should have gone dormant, fallen to the bottom of the fermenter, and sedimentized.  My brew, however, had a different plan.  Half a week late and there was still considerable yeast activity on the surface of the beer.

I closed up the fermenter and decided to give it the rest of the week to hopefully right itself.  In the meantime I kept myself occupied by going to the local home brew store to get my next ingredient kit and some other home brewing tools.  As I approached the counter to make my purchase I decided to forfeit my Man-Card and ask the employee for advice on my troubled brew.  He said that it was strange that my beer would continue to ferment for almost three weeks and advised me to just let it be a little longer.  He also cautioned me against throwing it out unless it was too disgusting to drink.

Which brings me to the following weekend.  Three weeks in the fermenter and there was still yeast growth on top of the brew.  I also noticed a white film on the surface; a tell-tale sign of infection.  The beer had lost much of the sweet flavor it had begun with.  Uncle Roommate described it best as "tasting like vinegar."  Sour, acidic, and still actively fermenting....I broke one of the cardinal rules of home brewing and poured out my beer.  It was disappointing but that's part of the learning process.  By pulling the plug on my troubled brew, I could free up the fermenter for my next batch.

Sample this

During the week and a half after I had placed the beer in the fermenter there wasn't a whole lot to do but sit back and let the yeast do it's thing.  I did need bottles for bottling my brew so I lit up the Bat Signal and informed my beer drinking buddies that I was in need of their help.  Talk about a good job:  "I need you to drink beer and save me the bottles.  Then, I will use your bottles for my home brew that I will give you some of."  Its win-win!

The type of bottle I needed was fairly specific.  The best bottles are brown and must have the pry-off type caps.  Twist-off type bottles don't seal well enough to hold the pressure built up during the carbonation process.  Brown bottles limit the amount of light that can reach the beer inhibiting spoilage.  I started buying Dos Equis Amber Lager and began a stock pile of bottles.

After ten days of fermenting, the bubbling in the air lock had greatly subsided.  I needed to check the specific gravity of the beer to see if it was on track to be bottled in a few days.  I was expecting to see that the yeast was beginning to fall to the bottom of the fermenter and sedimentize.  Instead I found that the yeast still seemed to be very active.  Using a sanitized baster, I extracted a sample of my brew.

Wheat beer hydrometer reading

First thing's first:  I needed to check the specific gravity of my brew.  My hydrometer reading indicated that there was still too much sugar in the beer.  This told me that the fermentation was still very active and probably wouldn't be ready to bottle for about a week.  I decided to test everything again in 3-4 days.  That just left me with one final task:  tasting the beer.

I put the sample to my nose and gave it a sniff.  It smelled of wheat and yeast, a good sign since this was a wheat beer.  The taste, however, seemed off to me.  Yes it was yeasty, but it also tasted very sour and acidic.    I was now fairly concerned about my brew.  Perhaps I hadn't been careful enough with my sanitation during the early brewing process.  Back to the waiting game again to see what the coming week would bring.

Recognize when you sanitize!

When brewing beer, one of the easiest mistakes to make is to not sanitize enough.  Sanitizing is quite easy during the boil since the temperature of the boiling wort will kill pathogens and wild yeasts.  These tiny invaders are drawn to the sugary wort like teenage girls to a vampire love story ("They sparkle in the sunlight!" - gag).

Given the chance any number of bacteria or wild yeast would love to get at your brew.  Especially before the brewers yeast has had a chance to turn the wort alcoholic naturally inhibiting infections.  If however, your brew does get an infection there are a couple of outcomes you can expect.  Best case scenario:  a possible discoloration or a harmless white film on the surface of the fermenting beer.  Worst, and more probable scenario:  mold growth, off flavors, and sour beer.

Even if you are not a controlling person by nature, its important to control the conditions in which you brew to minimize the chances of infection.  This can be accomplished through diligent use of a no rinse sanitizer during the brewing process.  Everything that comes in contact with your brew MUST be sanitized, especially after the boil.

I learned quickly during my first batch of beer that life is better when you brew with a friend.  I'm lucky enough to live with my uncle who shares an interest in beer and brewing.  Uncle Roommate spent years working in kitchens so he has great kitchen intuition.  In order to keep things sanitary, we followed the directions of the container of sanitizer and filled a large Pyrex dish with the solution creating a cleansing bath for all the cooking utensils we would use.

Twelve hours or so after I sealed the fermenter, I checked on it.  No bubbling in the air lock yet so I checked the fit on the lid and noticed that the rubber grommet that the air lock fits into was not seated properly.  I messed with it, paying careful attention to keeping the fermenting beer from any contamination.  Once the grommet was properly in place and the lid was back on the fermenter the air lock began to bubble releasing CO2 from the fermentation process.

I know that the first couple batches of home brew can be difficult to get right.  I couldn't help but wonder if contaminates had gotten into my brew before the fermenter was properly sealed.  Only time would tell, and with the better part of two weeks left before bottling, I had plenty of time to worry about the health of my brew.

But why bore you with the details...

Alright, I wrote a post the other day that went through the procedure I used for my first attempt at brewing beer. It was infomative, honest, and quite a bit boring. So far, no one is even following my blog and already I feel compelled to entertain you.

But I am no Giada. Seriously! I'd be up in the night if I thought anyone would be into a play-by-play of the brewing process as told by yours truely. I am a lot of things, but a cooking show host, unfortunately, I am not.

I have decided instead to focus this blog on my observations and experiences with home brewing beer and not on the entire process "Food Network" style. I will point you in the direction of some great resources in future posts so hopefully I can entertain and inform at the same time.

Ok, now that that is settled; I made my first wort on New Year's Eve 2010. The ingredient kit I purhased was for a wheat beer. This recipe was very straight forward: boil the malt extract with the bittering hops (German Perle) for 45 minutes. Then, add the finishing hops (Czech Saaz) continue to boil for 15 minutes, chill, place in the fermenter, pitch the yeast, seal the airlock, and let nature take its course.

The hops that I used were pelletized for longevity in storage and ease in use. I only had one fabric steeping bag as supplied in my ingredient kit. I cut it in half so that I could make two 'teabags': one for the bittering hops and another for the finishing hops. I noticed that this made for tight little bundles of hops, not quite what I would have hoped for. I decided in the future to have extra bags on hand for hops or to just let them float free in the wort. I really value hops flavor in my beer and I think these are the best options to achive that.

Since I needed to measure the specific gravity (more on this to come) I was able to taste test some of my wort. It was sweeter then I expected it to be. Perheps do to poor hops dispersal? I guess I will have to experiment and see.

So there sat my fermenter. Full of wort waiting for yeast to grow, colonize, and eat the sugars converting them to alcohol and CO2. I watched with anticipation for the first tell-tale signs of fermentation: bubbling water in the airlock. Oh, I can't wait!

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World Peace and Malt Extract

Ah, Christmas!  The season of happiness and cheer, where the hope for peace on Earth and goodwill to all is a dream shared by many.  Now don't get me wrong, I think that peace on Earth would be just swell.  Probably, as attainable as a hen that lays golden eggs and almost as cool as a having a cat that you trained to pull romex through an attic.  Never-mind all that.  The point is that my Christmas experience is divorced from much of the cheery, gushy, holiday spirit that normally stalks you from the seedy dark corners of Christmas carols.

One holiday sentiment that I DO agree with is that it is better to give than to receive.  But even this old favorite was ripped away from me this year when three of my sisters went in on a home brewing kit for me.  The outlook for world peace is improving.  Imagine the sheer glee I felt when I unwrapped the gift.  My eyes filled with wonder, and I was speechless.  Talk about the gift that keeps on giving!  It totally blew the year I got an EZ-Bake Oven for Christmas right out of the water!

I spent the next few days reading everything I could about home brewing online and in books.  My brew kit came equipped with an instructional DVD about home brewing beer that I watched with the same earnest attention that a toddler would give to Finding Nemo.  By New Year's Eve I felt ready enough to try my hand at a brew.  A visit to the local home brew supply shop (I know, how progressive that we have one IN Utah!) and I was armed with the ingredients I needed to begin.  I decided on an American wheat beer.  It seemed to be a fitting choice since the first beer I ever had was a wheat.

One of the great things about brewing your own beer is that the whole process can be kept fairly simple.  Until you are ready to use more advanced brewing techniques, extract brewing is the way to go.  Basically, the process of mashing the grains (more on this later) has been done for you.  You are therefore free to focus on the basic mechanics of beer making without getting hung up on the more complicated aspects of beer until you are ready for them.  In my next post I will describe my first experience brewing beer by way of malt extract.

In the beginning...

Homer Simpson once said:  "Beer!  The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems."  I grew up in a home where I was taught that consumption of alcohol is a sin.  Oh how my parents would hate to find that, even tangentially, they share common ground with Homer Simpson a.k.a. The Yellow Devil.  Ok, maybe they never called him that out loud, but I know that their feelings for The Simpson clan as a whole are forever mired in disgust.  Whatever. My parents were just trying to raise their family right and I won't fault them for that.

The truth is, I decided to not drink until I was old enough to do so legally.  Before my 21st birthday, I had only had alcohol on two occasions and neither one of those instances motivated me to continue drinking.  Shortly after I turned 21, I went to dinner with my older brother Josh and had my first beer.  It was a locally brewed Hefeweizen that he suggested I try.  I remember the flavor being similar to bread.  It was crisp and earthy at the same time.  Although I didn't love it at first, I didn't hate it either.

Fast forward five years and I've come a long way from that first pint.  I've enjoyed sharing a brew at local bars with friends, relatives, and even strangers.  Beer is a historically significant drink with a rich heritage that is often overlooked.  With all the big commercially available beers on the market, its no surprise that most people find a draft or two they like and never branch out.  But there are so many varieties out there, and each time I try a different one, I find something else I can appreciate about beer.  Its this curiosity that has brought me to try my hand at home brewing beer.  I want to experiment with flavors, techniques, aromas, and methods.  I want to create beer that is enjoyable and unique. 

I decided to write this blog so that I can document my experience, so that I can learn from others that read it, and so that I can help others avoid mistakes in their own home brews.  I hope that reading this blog will be insightful, as well as fun to read.  I'm going to enjoy sharing my interests with readers and having some home brews along the way.