Beer Diary...

We finished the summer five week brewing classes here in sunny California with a fantastic day of homebrew/food pairings and tastings using the beer we brewed in class. Bottles of Hefeweizen , along with a keg of Pale ale and a keg of Stout were on tap. as we spent the early part of the day going over the mechanics of building a kegerator from a chest freezer and forced carbonation techniques. My co-instructor Dave brought in his computer and spent some time reviewing brewing software like beersmith and promash. Soon we were evaluating the beers that were brewed in class and finally matched those beers up with food that the students brought. Assorted cheeses, sushi, pizza, chocolate, tri-tip steak and bread pudding were some of the fare that we enjoyed. All was washed down with the beer, the results of our labors in class over the past five weeks. I believe the classes were a success and that the students took away all the information that they would need to start brewing at home...

I'm not a big fan of the Belgian sour beers. Although I have, over the years gained an appreciation for the unique qualities that they offer, I still find that it is a rare occasion that I imbibe in the funky offerings of that region of the world. As a new brewer I was perplexed at the pure joy that would appear on the faces of fellow brewers that considered these beers to be among the best the world had to offer. I would turn up my nose in disgust at the thought of sampling a bottle and beg them for a simple explanation for their odd preference. At the time, they couldn't provide me with a satisfactory answer. Mostly because I wouldn't listen. Now, I think I understand. Over time I have sampled an odd assortment and what I like about the sour beers is the complexity of the flavors, the unique dimensions that the bacteria brings to the blend and how these beers surprisingly satisfy and quench my thirst. In the case of the subject of this post, the Duchesse De Bourgogne , I...

Besides fermenting ales at cool temperatures, I would rank pitching a large yeast colony near the top of my 'most important steps' list in brewing good beer. Making a yeast starter is a pretty uncomplicated procedure with the great advantages of quick fermentation starts and the added benefit of good attenuation. The quicker you can get a dominant colony of your chosen yeast in the wort the better your odds of preventing unwanted wild yeast and bacteria from getting a foot hold in the environment. Here are the steps to amp up your yeast culture and get you the results you want. bring to a boil, 900 ml. of water on your stove top turn off the heat and add 1/2 cup of dry malt extract stir extract into solution turn the heat back on and boil solution for 15 minutes remove from heat, cover and cool to 70f. (I place the boil pot in a ice bath in the sink) aerate add yeast The yeast colony will grow in the new sugar environment and is ready to pitch in a bout three days. You could a...

The homebrewing classes I'm conducting at Cabrillo College are off to a good start. On the first day of class we brewed two, five gallon batches of beer to get things rolling. Since the classes are only five weeks long, it is important to get beer brewing early so that the students can taste, analyze and appreciate their brewing efforts during the remainder of the course. We start out with a couple of batches of beer. A German hefeweizen using only malt extract and one addition of bittering hops, 6 lbs. DME 60/40 wheat and barley 1 oz. Saaz (AA 8%) for 60 min. for 33 IBU's Original gravity at 1.052 and Final gravity at 1.012 Attenuation 77% and ABV 5.5% and along side that we brewed a pale ale using 1/2 lb. of steeping grains and dry malt extract with three additions of hops. 6 lbs. DME and 12 oz. Crystal #60 1 oz. Amarillo for 60mins., 1 oz. Sorachi for 15mins., 1 oz. cascade for 1 min. Original gravity 1.054 and Final gravity at 1.012 Attenuation 78% and ABV 5.6% As I write t...

I like to keep accurate notes on the batches of beer I brew. Primarily to use as a reference to repeat recipes I really enjoy and also to modify those recipes that I think need a little tweeking to get just right. To help me do this, it is important for me to know a couple of things that occurred during the brewing and fermentation of the beer. The following are 3 calculations I use in my process. 1. Efficiency - how effective I was at extracting the grain sugars 2. Attenuation - how well the yeast fermented those sugars in the wort 3. Alcohol by Volume - percentage of alcohol in the beer by its volume The efficiency is important to know because it tells me the sugar extractions that I normally get from my mash and then I can use that information when making ingredient quantity changes. The following formula will tell me how much of, or what percentage of available sugars from the grains that I should expect to get from my system. For instance, 1 lb. of 2-row has the potential for a ...

I have to say it was a totally different and exciting experience attending a beer festival from behind the booth rather than lining up to be served a sample. Having said that, I want to also say that I won't include here the down side of attending a beer festival from behind the booth. It would be to ugly. Along with fellow Zymurgeeks, I rolled out the brew sculpture to brew up 10 gallons of Rye IPA to demonstrate our homebrewing skills and field questions about the art of homebrewing beer to the curious observers. What better a place to exhibit the process than at a beer festival in our own back yard, the Monterey Beer Festival . On hand to serve up samplings of their finest beverages were many west coast breweries. Right next to us was Santa Cruz's own , Uncommon Brewers serving a delicious Baltic Porter and Belgian ale. Conveniently located right next door to our booth, we could simply hand our glass over for refills, avoiding the extensive line. The fairgrounds filled qui...

When it comes to creatures great and small, I consciously avoid the tendency to anthropomorphise . But I have to admit that the lowly brewers yeast has a special place in my heart that makes me change my reference from 'that' to 'them'. Sometimes I include myself in their ranks and refer to a colony of yeast as 'us'. Weird, I know. But we are a team right? Doing a job side by side like shipmates, me the Skipper and them, little Gilligans . As I consider the workings of the yeast that ferment my beer, I have to give them a lot of credit as co-creators. For possesing what appears to be a collective intelligence that directs the part they play in my quest for good beer. The behavior that I refer to is that which seemingly recognizes and responds to its environment by taking into account the volume and sugar gravity of the wort. This ability would seem to require a thinking brain to formulate the needed calculations for projected colony growth. But with an intelleg...