Category : Homebrewing

The Beer Hacker: Brewing on the cheap: Revising estimates

February 11th, 2010

Returning to the series of articles about the economic impact of homebrewing, we re-examine previous cost estimates based on new information.

When I started this series, hops at the local Brew Shop were selling for $5 to $6.50 per two-ounces of whole flowers, and that was what the various estimates were based on. Since then, the price of whole hops has dropped to $3.25 to $3.95 per two-ounce package, so here I present some updated figures.

(Note: the online prices of hops are still averaging around $5-6 per two ounces, so it’s possible that hop prices in your area—if you have a local homebrew shop—are still similarly priced as well. But there is currently a hop surplus (a reaction to the hop shortage several years back), so I would expect to start seeing those prices go down sooner rather than later.)

Without further ado, here’s our updated pricing chart:

Ingredient	Price	Price (online)
Malt extract syrup – 7 lbs.	$18.00	$16.50
Malt extract – dried – 3 lbs.	$11.00	$11.25
Malt extract – dried – 1 lb.	$4.25	$4.40
Grains – per pound	$1.90	$1.45
Specialty grains – per pound	$2.25	~$2.00
Hops (whole leaf)	$3.25 – 3.95	$5.50+
Liquid yeast	$6.50	$6.00 – 10.00
Yeast – dry	$1.25 – 3.95	$1.20 – 4.00
Corn sugar – 1 lb.	$1.25	$1.00 – 2.00

And, here’s an updated table of costs by style:

Style	Price
American Pale Ale	$31.15
English Bitter	$34.77
India Pale Ale	$43.35
Double/Imperial IPA	$54.92
Brown Ale	$31.07
Porter	$37.09
Stout (basic)	$34.40
Imperial Stout	$71.17
Hefeweizen (basic)	$29.95
Cream Ale	$29.15
Belgian Witbier	$35.93
Barleywine	~$70

Not a huge difference from the original estimates, but every little bit adds up.

Thanksgiving Week: Homebrewing

November 24th, 2009

One event in particular is worth special note to be thankful for: when President Jimmy Carter signed the bill in February 1979 that made homebrewing legal in the U.S. This effectively launched a (home)brewing renaissance in the United States that can be traced in large part to Charlie Papazian’s influence.

Today, 30 years later, homebrewing is a flourishing cottage industry, with supply shops and clubs and classes all over the country enabling people to brew great beer at home. One of the more appealing things about the hobby is that there truly is no limit when it comes to brewing: it can be as simple or as complicated as you want; you can brew clones of your favorite brands of beer, or invent completely new recipes; you can brew any style of beer you want—even “lost” or rare styles from around the world that might be impossible to otherwise experience.

For all the appeal the artisan aspect of homebrewing presents, I’m also thankful for the practical knowledge it has afforded me. Brewing beer is a hugely practical skill! I’ve joked that when the world goes post-apocalyptic, knowing how to brew will be the new currency—but it’s true!

(Of course, I’m not in any hurry to test that theory… the “Road Warrior” was a good movie and all, but I’d rather not have to boil the wort in a cracked toilet bowl over an open flame…)

It’s a hell of a hobby, one that lets me indulge in creativity and science with the best results of all: beer!

Tasting early homebrew efforts

November 17th, 2009

Last night I opened up three very old bottles of my homebrew that I had squirreled away. Truth be told, I didn’t really expect them to be drinkable but I was very curious as to their condition, and it was an educational opportunity as well.

All of these beers date back to the mid-to-late 90s, and while I tried to keep them stored somewhat decently, I’m sure there were times which they were kept under less than ideal conditions… but what is beer if no one ever drinks it?

Here are my notes on the beers, along with some pictures. (The glass is a Ballast Point Brewing tasting glass my brother gave me.)

Original Beer: The first beer I ever brewed, it was from a kit and is more-or-less to an Amber Ale style. For a detailed and cringe-worthy story of brewing this beer, you can read this post; it still turned out to be a successful beer and launched me on this (ongoing) homebrew journey.

It’s really clear and is a really nice chestnut brown color. There’s still a little bit of carbonation in it, but any head is pretty much non-existent. Heavily oxidized, with a woody, pungent, almost oily, almost medicinal flavor that is “wet cardboard” taken to an extreme. Even so, I can still pick out a touch of caramel, maybe some diacetyl (butterscotch), and some vinous sherry character.

Honey Wheat: I think this was the third beer I brewed, but it might have been the second; I also brewed a Porter around this time but the order of the two escapes me. I used a wheat malt kit and added real honey to the brew—quite a step up for such a novice brewer.

Oxidation is the primary component here, but not in an overpowering way. The beer pours remarkably clear with a decent head—no kidding! The carbonation is still there, 13 or 14 years later. It’s rather nice-looking. The nose is kind of a combination of a mead-y aroma and sherry-like oxidation, kind of a light fruity-tart honey aroma. It’s thin on the tongue, more of that tart honey character with wet paper, though I’m happy to give it the benefit of the doubt and call it “sour berry sherry”.

Oktoberfest: I have less detail on this beer than the first two; in fact I have to take my own word (a note on the cap) that it’s an Oktoberfest at all because it’s darkened up considerably—it’s more the color of a Porter.

On the nose it’s pretty neutral, but there is the oxydized character along with something that could be “sharp” (metallic?). The taste itself is the sherry-like cardboard, but somewhat mild, and there’s both a bit of a tang and—at first blush—something I’d call licorice. It’s higher alcohol than the first two—you can feel it rather than taste it, almost a dry quality—and there’s a touch of roasted or maybe chocolate malts in there too. If it is was an Oktoberfest (probably was), I wouldn’t have guessed it tasting it blind.

Recipe: Harvest Apple Ale

November 9th, 2009

Actually I’m leaning towards calling this beer “Hood River Harvest” because all of the apples came from Hood River; we went apple picking in September and came back with a ton of both apples and pears. Looking for more uses for the apples (we canned a lot of applesauce) I found a recipe in The Homebrewer’s Recipe Guide called “Apple Brown Betty Fall Ale” and decided to brew up a variation.

As usual, this recipe is extract-based for five gallons.

• 7 lbs. light malt extract
• 0.5 lbs. chocolate malt (350°L)
• 1 cup molasses
• 1.5 oz. Fuggles hops for 60 minutes
• 0.5 oz. Hallertauer hops for 5 minutes
• 1 tsp. Irish moss
• 2 tsp. cinnamon (steep at end of boil)
• 4 lbs. apples, diced (steep at end of boil for 30 minutes)
• 4 lbs. apples, 1 cinnamon stick, 1 vanilla bean for secondary
• Wyeast 1272 American Ale II

The end goal is a brown(ish) fruit ale spiced with cinnamon.

About the hops: I actually substituted two ounces of my own home-grown hops for the Fuggles and Hallertauer the recipe calls for. In fact I have no real idea what variety of hops they are (I suspect Cascade or similar) or what their alpha acid content is, so it’s all guesswork.

The four pounds of apples at the end of the boil are steeped for 30 minutes (remove the pot from the burner), then I strained them out and made malted applesauce with them: purée the cooked apples (pick out any hops stuck with them), add sugar, allspice, nutmeg, and vanilla to taste, and bring to a simmer on the stove (five minutes at a nice simmer should do it). Eat it soon, or can it; it’s a surprisingly different character, with hops playing a prominent role—but I find it goes very well with beer.

For the secondary fermentation, I found that shredding the apples seemed to work pretty well, though the original recipe calls for puréeing them. Either way, bring to 150° in a pot with some water for 20 minutes to kill any bacteria, let cool and add to the secondary.

Just this weekend I racked the beer off the apples (and cinnamon stick and vanilla bean) to clarify an additional seven or so days before bottling; I want to minimize any leftover chunks getting into the process.

Thus far the original gravity was 1.053 and the gravity at this most recent racking was 1.012, which gives an alcohol by volume of about 5.3%. It tasted pretty good, too, and a bit different. I’ll be interested to taste the final results.

Recipe: Ginger Wheat Ale

August 13th, 2009

This is the recipe for the latest beer I’ve brewed, a light summertime-style wheat ale with candied ginger. It was a bit spontaneous as my goal was originally to brew Randy Mosher’s “Summer Ale, What-If Version” from Radical Brewing (though the recipe first appeared online here), but the Brew Shop was out of the dried wheat extract I needed. So I switched gears and the result is my Ginger Wheat Ale.

It actually turned out quite nice, a good, light beer (4.33% alcohol by volume) with sweet ginger notes—not unlike a ginger ale. I used candied ginger from Trader Joe’s (something like $1.99 for an eight ounce bag), and it gives a good result I think.

As always, this recipe is for a five gallon extract batch.

• 7 pounds liquid wheat extract
• 0.5 pounds 10°L Crystal malt
• 1.5 ounces Willamette hops (5.1% alpha acid) for 60 minutes
• 1 ounce candied ginger (chopped up) for 5 minutes
• 0.25 ounces coriander for 5 minutes
• Yeast: 1 package Munton’s dry yeast

Pretty easy recipe. Additionally, when I racked this to the secondary, I added another ounce of chopped up candied ginger and let that sit for another two weeks before bottling.

Original gravity was 1.048, final gravity was 1.015 for an alcohol (as I mentioned) of 4.33% by volume. Loose estimates of other numbers give a color of 4 SRM (not accurate, it’s darker than that) and 28 IBUs.

The Beer Hacker: Brewing on the cheap: Costs by style

July 18th, 2009

This is the second part in a series of articles about the economic impact of brewing your own beer at home.

In the last (introductory) article, I set out baseline prices for ingredients and established a base price for an American Pale Ale. In this article let’s expand on that and figure out some base prices for a variety of other styles.

Bear in mind there are always ways to shave costs off the estimates I’m giving here. Switching from liquid to dry yeast, for example, can save you $5 or so. Different varieties of hops vary in price, and you may save money buying hop pellets rather than whole flowers. If you only use one ounce of hops from a two-ounce package, you can use the other ounce in another recipe and split the cost of the hops between two batches. And so on.

Also keep in mind these are all estimates, both in price and approximate recipe for the style. Your mileage may vary. Read the rest of this entry »

The Beer Hacker: Brewing on the cheap

July 9th, 2009

This is the first part in a series of articles about the economic impact of brewing your own beer at home. This first article is an introduction and sets up our assumptions and base numbers to work with; later articles are going to look at the relative costs of brewing different styles of beer, extract versus all-grain, and exploring if it’s possible to brew quality beer for $20 or less.

It’s no secret that beer prices have been rising in recent years: unless you’re drinking macrobrewed lager or have a local, large-ish microbrewery, you’re likely paying in the neighborhood of $7 to $12 for a six-pack of beer, maybe more if the beer is harder to get or exclusive somehow. (Dogfish Head, for instance, sells four-packs for $11 to $12.)

Enter homebrewing. The prospect of brewing your own quality beer for far less than what you’ve been paying retail has huge appeal, particularly these days. But is it true? There’s been some debate lately over whether brewing your own beer is truly cheaper (in the long run).

Personally, I think homebrewing is the cheaper alternative—but I’ve never taken the time to fully explore that assertion. I want to definitively answer the question, “Is homebrewing really a more economical way of keeping you supplied with beer?” Read the rest of this entry »

Recipe: Cream Ale

June 15th, 2009

Here’s a recipe for an “Old School Cream Ale”, with a little something extra: toasted oats and a dash of salt. Both were ideas I got from Randy Mosher’s Radical Brewing, which is a superb homebrewing book and one that you must have on your bookshelf if you brew beer.

I’m not kidding. You must have that book.

Anyway, I wanted to keep this very light, which can be tricky for an extract-based recipe as this is, so I used only dry extracts (no liquid this time) and only boiled for 30 minutes to minimize caramelization. It’s a five gallon batch.

Ingredients:

• 3 pounds light dried malt extract
• 1 pound dried wheat extract (Briess)
• 1 pound corn sugar
• 8 ounces 10°L Crystal malt
• 8 ounces toasted rolled oats
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ¾ ounce Crystal hops (4.6% alpha acid) for 30 minutes
• ¼ ounce Crystal hops (4.6%) for 15 minutes
• Yeast: 1 package of Cooper’s Ale dry yeast

I toasted the oats in the oven for 1 hour at 300°F. Mosher in his book recommends toasting until you get a cookie aroma, so I was shooting for something like that. After an hour the oats had a nice toasted nutty flavor to them.

Add the toasted oats and the Crystal malt to the water as it heats and remove them before boiling. Add salt at the time of the malts and sugar; another Mosher trick, salt can be used to add (the illusion of) body to the mouthfeel, so I thought I’d try it.

Remember, only boil for 30 minutes.

Also, the yeast: I normally use Wyeast liquid yeast these days, but I wanted to go “old school” here too and I haven’t tried dried yeast packets in ages. (Also, I’m exploring inexpensive brewing, and the Cooper’s dry yeast was something like $1.50 for the package, while the Wyeast these days runs for $6.50 or something.) I actually made up a starter for the yeast to be sure: 500ml water-corn sugar mixture, nothing fancy.

It sat in the primary for 9 days, with a very vigorous fermentation, and then in the secondary for 14 days before bottling. I primed it with ¾ cup of corn sugar.

My original gravity was 1.046, and the final gravity was 1.005, which astounded me, as I can’t recall ever having a beer ferment out that low. This yields an approximate alcohol by volume of 5.4%, which is a good percentage point higher than I was expecting.

Recipe: San Diego Pale Ale (by way of Bend)

June 7th, 2009

Time for another recipe. This one doesn’t actually have a name yet, but I brewed in the style of an Imperial IPA—also informally known as a San Diego Pale Ale—for my brother, who lives in San Diego and whom we’re visiting later this month. (And taking most of it with us.)

So, here’s my take on a San Diego Pale Ale style. Extract-based recipe with a few grains, brewed to a five gallon batch.

Ingredients:

• 7 pounds light malt extract syrup
• 1 pound amber dried malt extract
• 1 pound dried wheat extract (from Briess)
• 1 pound Turbinado sugar (organic brown sugar, basically)
• 8 ounces 10°L Crystal malt
• 4 ounces 20°L Crystal malt
• 1 teaspoon gypsum
• 2 ounces Chinook hops (13% AA)
• 2 ounces Cascade hops (7.2% AA)
• 1 ounce Galena hops (14.2% AA)
• 1 ounce Crystal hops (dryhopping, 4.6% AA)
• 2 teaspoons Irish moss
• Wyeast 1272 American Ale II

The grains were steeped in the water as it heated to a boil, and removed before adding malts and sugars. The boil was for 60 minutes, and the hop schedule looked like this:

• 1 ounce of Chinook for 60 min
• 1 ounce of Galena for 45 min
• 1 ounce of Cascade for 45 min
• 1 ounce of Chinook for 30 min
• 1 ounce of Cascade for 5 min (aroma)
• 1 ounce Crystal dryhopping in secondary

In sat in the primary for 14 days, then in the secondary for 27 days. I bottled with ¾ cup of corn sugar for priming.

Original gravity was 1.084, final gravity 1.014—giving an estimated alcohol by volume of 9.19%(!). A rough estimate of IBUs is 126.

I tasted it at bottling time (of course!) and I really liked it. I’m anxious to see how a finished bottle turns out, and get my brother’s Professional San Diego Drinker’s opinion of it. Not to be too self-congratulatory, but based on the preliminary tasting I think it’s a big winner.

Recipe: Coconut Cream Stout

June 2nd, 2009

Back in April I brewed up a coconut cream stout after being inspired both by the version periodically offered by Bend Brewing Company, and our spring break trip to Baker City. It’s drinkable now, and I’ve had a bit and shared a bit, and I have to say, I was very pleasantly surprised with how well it turned out. So I’m sharing the recipe for anyone who wants to brew some.

This recipe is for a five gallon batch, and it’s essentially a Sweet Stout that’s extract-based with specialty grains. (If you do all-grain brewing, I’ll leave it to you to convert.) What I’m reproducing here is the recipe as I brewed it in April, though for future batches (there will be future batches), I may well tweak it.

Ingredients:

• 7 pounds amber malt extract syrup
• 0.5 pounds 40°L Crystal malt
• 0.5 pounds Belgian Special B 130°L
• 0.5 pounds roasted barley 300°L
• 0.25 pounds Black Patent 525°L
• 0.25 pounds chocolate malt 350°L
• 1 pounds lactose (milk sugar)
• 1 pound toasted shredded coconut (for the secondary)
• 3 tsp. gypsum
• 1 oz. Galena hops (14.2% AA)
• Wyeast 1968 London ESB yeast

This is a full-boil batch, that is, I boiled six gallons of wort for a five gallon result (I typically lose about a gallon to a one-hour boil).

Steep the grains in the water as it heats, and remove them before boiling. I only used the hops for the full 60-minute boil, with no finishing or aroma hops; I wanted a suitable hop bitterness (and Galena contributes sweet, floral, candy-like notes) but I didn’t want to interfere with the coconut contribution later on.

About the coconut: do not use pre-sweetened baker’s shredded coconut, it’s full of artificial preservatives and such that you do not want tainting your beer. Instead check your organic or bulk-foods store for natural shredded coconut; I found organic shredded at Whole Foods. You’ll want to toast it in the oven before adding to your secondary—I spread the coconut on a cookie sheet and put it in a 325°F oven for 10 minutes, just until it started to turn golden.

Add that to your the secondary; my beer fermented in the primary for six days, and then I racked it onto the coconut and forgot about it for two weeks. In fact, two weeks is probably the minimum you’ll want to get a good result; if you let it go longer, it’ll be even better (probably).

Bottle with ¾ cup of corn sugar for priming and you’re good.

Here were my stats:

• Original gravity: 1.062
• Final gravity: 1.026
• Approx ABV: 4.75%
• Approx IBU: 48

As far as tasting notes go… it’s good. When I tasted the base beer early on (during racking), the roasted barley gave it a noticeable coffee flavor, and it was sweet enough to remind me of Kahlua. The final coconut-infused version has those sweet coffee notes but to a lesser extent, with a delicious coconut presence. One person remarked “Almond Joy”, while my wife said it was “cola like”.

Personally, I think it’s delicious and could almost be a dessert beer. Definitely worth brewing again, and my mind is already casting ahead to variations (like an “Imperial” version). And I’m wondering what other styles I might put coconut in…

Spring Beer Week: Homebrew!

April 24th, 2009

Tonight I opened up a bottle of the Belgian-ish homebrew I made back in March (which I bottled almost two weeks ago). I’ve taken to calling this a “Belgian-style amber ale” though if you recall, I didn’t follow any particular guidelines beyond what ingredients struck my fancy as I browsed the Brew Shop.

Why would this post qualify for Spring Beer Week, you may ask? Well, my original intent for this beer was to end up with a somewhat-light, drinkable springtime beer—and it being mostly ready to drink coincides nicely with Theme Week this month.

After two weeks in the bottle is about the earliest you can open homebrew and expect some carbonation and drinkability (my own rule-of-thumb). Even so, they’ll be fairly green, and more time will allow the bottle to condition more fully and mellow a bit.

Anyway, you can see from my picture that there’s a skiff of foam from the pour, but not much yet. It also came out much darker brown in the picture that it really is—it’s really a bit lighter and more amber in color.

The aroma is bright and full of coriander with some spicy phenols brought out by the Belgian yeast and, I think, the coriander; at times I’d swear there was white pepper. On the tongue it has a somewhat surprising hop bite, spicy and different—kind of that American-ized love of hops going on, which is a bit of what I was hoping for by using Crystal hops.

The malts are sweet and a bit roasty. Almost a burnt-rye kind of “roasty.” Throughout there is the ever-present spiciness of the Belgian yeast and the Crystal hops playing against each other.

Overall it’s not too heavy, it’s spicy and crisp and bright, if still a little under-carbonated from being so young yet. As it bottle conditions further, some sweetness will disappear and it will get livelier.

Spring homebrew: mission accomplished! I suppose I should name it…

Blog updates and homebrewing

March 23rd, 2009

The blog is mostly upgraded now, and though there are still theme issues to work out and plugins to play with, overall the WordPress install is running good enough for government work, as they say. Good enough to resume regular blogging while I tweak with things, anyway.

Even found some time to brew a batch of beer this weekend, the first I’ve done in a while. I wasn’t following any particular recipe, other than knowing I wanted to do a Belgian-style pale something-or-other, so I simply picked up ingredients at the brew shop that seemed to fit what I was thinking.

Here’s what I ended up working with:

• 7 pounds light malt extract
• 1 pound dark Belgian candi sugar
• 1 pound 20L Crystal
• 4 ounces Belgian Special B (130L)
• 4 ounces Honey malt
• 2 ounces Chocolate malt (350L)
• 1.5 ounces Crystal hops (4.6% AA), 60 min.
• 0.5 ounces Crystal hops, 5 min
• 1 ounce coriander, 5 min
• Wyeast 1214 Belgian Abbey yeast

Original gravity came in at 1.058.

With the grains I tried something different, a sort of “mini-mash” where I heated up two quarts of water and infused it with the grains to steep for about an hour, while the main five gallons of water gradually heated to boiling. I then added that into the main pot (straining the grains, too, after they came up to heat)–rather than putting the grains in the main pot from the get-go to steep.

This is also the first beer, I believe, where I’ve used coriander. So the results should be interesting; if I had to pin down a style, I think it would fit with “Belgian Pale Ale”, which according to my quick calculations on the Beer Recipator, seems to fit just fine.

Homebrewing in Washington

March 3rd, 2009

Here’s an interesting story I plucked from the OPB News feed:

[In Washington state] Home beer makers have to consume what they brew on their own property. Taking home brew across the street to share with neighbors is illegal under current state law.

The tiny exception is one gallon may be taken to a competition where only judges can drink it.

Democratic state Senator Ken Jacobson crafted a bill to allow homebrewers to take as many as twenty gallons of beer off their property for private non-commercial use. He says that change could lead to more microbreweries in Washington.

Learn something new every day: I had no idea the homebrewing law just to the north was so draconian. I’m quite sure while I lived in Spokane that I transported my homebrew off my property more than once, and many others did the same. Let’s hope they pass this bill will all due haste.

The article ends with a contrasting note about Oregon homebrew: as long as you don’t sell it, you can do what you want with it.

Fermentation Friday: Homebrewing Horror Stories

October 31st, 2008

This month’s Fermentation Friday (a group blogging meme that revolves around homebrewing) is hosted by Rob at Pfiff! and is appropriately Halloween-themed: Homebrewing horror stories.

It’s time for y’all to whip out your best homebrewing horror stories. Extra points for tales of woe told in true campfire fashion, and head straight to the front of the class for a bonus handful of candy corn if there’s a deliciously ironic twist in the end. If there’s one experience we’re certain is common to anyone who’s ever homebrewed, it’s a disastrous tale worth sharing in order to scare the hell out of other homebrewers.

I’d wager to say homebrewers have all experiences (at one time or another) the dreaded boilover, or an overcarbonated bottle (or three), or even the feared exploding bottle… but I wonder how many have encountered the infected batch?

I’m not talking about infection in the form of horsey aromas or sour flavors or even that explosive overcarbonation… rather, something so creepy that it defies and logic and sanity.

It started out innocently enough, with an amber ale or something equally innocuous. Sure, there was that boilover on the stove, but one incident out of an otherwise good brewing session didn’t raise any red flags.

Even after the beer was bottled, there was no sign. Those first few bottles were even drinkable, with no indication in either flavor or aroma that something was about to go horribly awry.

For I noticed that after several weeks something began… growing inside the bottles. Something viscous, and pale; it clustered near the bottom, like some hazy, fungus-laden mucous that settled out of the beer. The bottom two inches of each bottle was incubating this stuff. And the beers turned foul; the worm had turned.

I saved it long enough to show it to the local homebrewing club, in hopes that someone would have some idea of what it was—what had happened. My friend Paul even went so far as to open a bottle and taste it—and I’ll never forget the site of him leaning over the sink, spitting the beer out, and claiming—ominously—that it was botulism.

The rest of the batch was dumped forthwith, though one bottle went with a club member who could have it tested to find out conclusively what it was… to this day, all I know for sure is that it wasn’t botulism.

What was it? What caused it?

I’ll never know.

(Actually, I suspect poor sanitation led to a Pediococcus infection.)

Another pumpkin ale recipe (Pumpkin Spice Ale)

October 28th, 2008

Interestingly, my recipe for pumpkin ale from way back in 2004 is the number one result on Google for the search “pumpkin ale recipe”—this time of year I always see the search numbers spike (for good reason). I’ve bragged about this before (yes, I do that from time to time) but I certainly don’t mind pointing to other recipes on the web that sound good.

Thus, the posted Pumpkin Spice Ale recipe over on Kegerators.com. It’s similar to my own, though they use less pumpkin, and they have more detailed, exacting directions on the mashing of the pumpkin and grains together. (Mine are a bit vague in this area.)

I also like the use of whole cloves in this recipe. I don’t have cloves in mine. I may have to steal that one.