The Campaign For Dos Aves

Please check out my new platform for raising money for the new brewery project Cerveceria Dos Aves. If I can make my goal I know this project will be successful. Thanks for all your support in the past.

Two Factors For Better Attenuation

I enjoy my beers on the dry side and regularly use well attenuating yeast to ferment with for the most part. My go-to's are Safale US05, and Whitelabs Wlp001 and Wlp500, but on occasion I will still end up with beer that is under-attenuated as the yeast leaves behind unfermented sugars when it drops out of solution and goes dormant.

I scratch my head confused and frustrated by these results after feeling like I made sure I did everything right. My fermentation temperatures were within the optimum range and consistent and the wort was well aerated. I'm convinced that all of my brewing practices were perfect for a complete conversion only to be disappointed when the yeast wasn't able to complete its task. But there were a couple lessons that I had not learned yet and they needed to be addressed.

Two main reasons that under attenuation occurs that I wasn't considering with the seriousness that it deserved was the accuracy of my mash temperature and the level of my mash ph.

The importance of strike temperature

 

 

I often took a careless approach to the important effects of mashing at either too high or too low a temperature which can either limit the effectiveness of one of the essential enzymes and or denature and stop other enzymes from effectively breaking down starches into simple sugar molecule chains, something the yeast is relying on us as brewers to execute well, for their ease of metabolism.

 

I am now very careful about getting my mash temperature to within a degree or two at the beginning of the mashing time. My strike water temperature for the grain to water ratio that I use is 166-168f. which leaves me with a consistent rest temperature of 149-151f. Knowing this, I can achieve a slightly more fermentable wort by lowering my strike temperature by a couple degrees or raising the temp. for a slightly less fermentable wort. But I still regularly confirm a proper mash temperature after thoroughly mixing in the grist. I do this by comparing my mash tun thermometer for accuracy on occasion to make sure I'm getting proper readings. This is achieved by taking the temperature of the mash with another thermometer, one that I know is accurate. I stab down into the mash from above, moving around to different areas of the grist, I then compare this reading with the built in thermometer, essentially getting a consensus from the two readings.

The importance of mash ph.

 

 

The other factor that effects yeast and one in which I paid little attention is mash ph. A mash ph. that is alkaline or above the optimum 5.2 to 5.7 range will again effectively leave you with long chains of sugar in the wort as the beta amylase enzymes work best is an acidic environment. An alkaline environment limits this enzyme activity thus leaving the yeast with a difficult time of metabolizing.
When brewing with hard water, relying on the grain bill to lower the mash ph. may not be enough and so other steps must be taken. A couple simple solutions would be to dilute the brewing liquor with distilled or reverse osmosis filtered water essentially softening the water, adding calcium in the form of gypsum and/or adding acid to the mash.

A dry beer ready to be drunk

 

The importance of these two influences in starch conversion should not be overlooked and if you are finding that your beers are coming in with low attenuation, should be considered as primary factors to investigate.

Now that I carefully manage these two areas during my brewing session I have been able to consistently achieve proper attenuation from my yeast and effectively manage the outcome of the remaining sugars depending on the style of beer I want. Cheers!

Bottling Beer

I've been very busy the last couple of weeks. Besides recovering from the worst flu known to man, I taught the first brewing class of the year in San Miguel and brewed, got a logo designed, bottled and labeled several batches of beer.

The brewery logo - thanks Susan!

I've realized that I will need to schedule and get attendance for regular beginner and all-grain brewing classes if I'm going to be able to afford to stay here permanently. Although I'm brewing a lot of beer and working hard to get people interested in buying it, it's a slow battle and from my projections, will not afford me a living for quite a while. So, I have to be realistic about this project and put more emphasis on getting Beer School attendance.

The first all-grain class only had two students but they were enthusiastic and seemed to have an enjoyable experience. We brewed together, an IPA that when complete I'm hoping will be for sale at The Beer Company in San Miguel. The brew session went fine with the exception of a stuck sparge. Together we managed to dump the wet grain into a couple of buckets at which point I switched out the braided hose for a slotted manifold. This solved the problem and we continued on with the brew.
Both students spoke English which was a good thing considering my Spanish is no bueno. Fortunately, I met an interpreter that wants to help with the Spanish speaking students in future classes. Next class up will be a beginner (malt extract with steeping grains) class scheduled for January 20th. and I'm looking forward to having Mexican students in the class and having the experience of working through an interpreter. Naturally I'm studying my Spanish and should be able to go it alone by next year.

Students eager to learn the all-grain process

There are other things I've managed to accomplishment  in the last couple weeks while enduring what could only be referred to as the Mexican flu from hell. I brewed two more batches of pale ale and an IPA which are now in kegs and I've got another pale ale in the fermentor from a batch in which I acidified both the mash and the sparge water. Oh yeah, I've got a reverse osmosis water filter limping along that could provide the brewery with soft water at a rate of about five gallons a day. This I'll use to dilute the extremely hard water. We've got a water sample sent off to Ward Labs as of today and next week I will be able to use the information from that report to determine the dilution ratio needed for the tap water in the brewery.

Beer! Bottled, labeled and ready for shipping

Oh, by the way, if you pledged money for the Beer School project during my Kickstarter promotion last year and were disappointed that we didn't make the goal and you're still itching to donate, I'm totally open to accepting it anyway. Just click on the Donate button on the side bar. It'll be put to good use, like the purchase of a white board. Cheers!

Beer School San Miguel

The first brewing class scheduled since my return to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico is for January 6th. from 11am until 4 or 5 pm depending on how the brew session goes and how much homebrew we drink while learning. If you are in this area or want to fly down from the states for this specific class send me an email so I can get you registered. This will be a limited class size since we will be brewing at the new brewery which is tortuously small.

Beer School Mexico

The class format is designed around learning the basics of brewing will all-grain. The fundamentals of mashing, sparging, hop bittering and the related math. Future classes will delve deep into the science and include packaging and strategies for brewing in Mexico. Hope to see you in class. Cheers!

Nano Brewery Update

Today was test batch number 2 at the smallest brewery in the world. I'm still waiting on grain and hop deliveries but I had some pre-milled grain for a 10 gallon batch of hefeweizen. That along with enough bittering hops to get the job done.

This hefeweizen is the first brew to go into the rotoplaz fermentor as a test to see if there will be any plastic flavors or smells carried over into the beer.

For those interesed:
German Hefeweizen (all-grain) Kit
Batch size 10gal.
Eff. 81%
o.g. 1.052
Ibu's 22

Grain Bill:
Mash at 152f. for 60 min. add candi sugar 15min. prior to end of boil
10 lbs. malted wheat
6 lbs. 2-row
1 lb. light Munich malt
1 lb. oats

Boil for 60 mins. with:
.75 oz. Warrior (pellet) for 60 min. 15.5% aa (The only hops I have at the moment)

Chill to 68f. and pitch salvaged wlp500/ US-05 ale yeast blend.
 
In any case, I'm not married to the outcome from this recipe, again, we're mainly concerned with confirming that we won't get any plastic tastes before committing to loading the rotoplas up with 40 gallons of pale ale. I installed an additional valve several inches above the yeast dump valve and tilted the tank to about a 40 degree angle in an attempt to cause the yeast to settle down near that lower valve. With any luck, we'll be able to salvage yeast in this way for re-use.

I also installed casters on the metal platform that the fermentor sits on so that once the wort is transferred into it and oxygenated it can then be rolled back towards the cooler area of the brewery.
Along with these modifications, I installed a faucet on the new refrigerator, so that a couple of kegs can be tapped along with storing hops and salvaged yeast.

In the mean time, I'm scheduling Beer School classes for January to be held in the brewery. This will be necessary in order to earn a little money since I'm burning through my savings on the brewery project pretty quick. If you're thinking of visiting San Miguel, plan to fit a brewing class in as part of your activities. See you soon with more updates and beer reviews as the batches come to fruition. Cheer!

Cerveza Patricia

Here I write about a beer that I care nothing about. I didn't enjoy the flavor and am suspect of the character of the beer for the fact that they use artificial coloring as a listed ingredient on their label.
I tasted Cerveza Patricia and found it to be heavy, cloying and with a lingering chemical quality that I could attribute to the artificial coloring and flavoring that is adding during the brew. This is a dense black beer with a quickly dissipating tan head.



Cerveza Patricia

 

I investigated further on the interweb after sampling this beer and found that they don't have a website except for their facebook page. From that site and with the help of my Google translation button, I was able to garner some information about the brewery. I was amused to find that although Patricia was established in 1936 they started shipping two 'flavors' of beer, clear and black (clara y negra) in the 1950's but the site doesn't define those types of beer any further. The label on the beer I tasted claimed to be a porter. The beer is produced by the FNC or Factories National Beer located in Uruguay and part of the ABInbev group and I found a couple bottles of it at The Beer Company.



I will say in their favor, the packaging very cool. A large embossed P on one side of this thick glassed, weighty bottle and a large dent on the opposite side that makes it easy to handle. I was sorry to rate this beer "No me gusta".


In the mean time, I've located a Beer School/nano-brewery site in the San Antonio neighborhood of San Miguel de Allende and am about to make a deal with the leasing agent for a month to month contract. Hopefully, there will be no glitches and my socio and I can start moving our equipment into place and making the modifications needed to start brewing some beer. I've got six pounds of this years hops coming down via a courier shuttle from Loredo and plans to order the grain very soon. I'm getting so exited I can't stop my brain from running through all of the possible scenarios of success. I'll post a few pics once we're moved in. Cheers to that!

Brewing Beer In Mexico 2013

So, where was I?
Oh yeah, I'm heading back to San Miguel on Monday and with the help of friend and fellow homebrewer/business partner Francisco, I have managed to relocate most of my brewing equipment for use this year. Naturally some of the larger equipment I'll get manufactured locally but the hard to get parts like plate chillers, food grade tubing, high temperature pumps and such I've packed to bring with me. Most of this has fit into two large 70 lbs. suitcases. This is the beginning of a project that hopefully will develop into a means of earning a living so that I can stay longer this time around.


I feel as empty as a stripped keezer

I'm experiencing a certain amount of kegerator separation anxiety as I dismantle the well worn keezer. Stripping off some of the parts I may need in Mexico and arranging for a friend to utilize the rest while I'm gone. As I pack my bags I keep going back and forth in my mind about what this year's journey will look like. Since I didn't reach my Kickstarter money goal to start the Beer School I'm working with a very limited amount of funds which makes every purchasing decision critical. I'm also conflicted about choosing the best course of action. I want to continue trying to realize the idea of the Beer School and I also want to produce beer for sale. I'm struggling to prioritize these options in order to focus my direction, whether it be towards the school, a brewery or both simultaneously.
I did come up with a list of tasks to move me further along in the process and all of the tasks are essential for both projects but the emphasis is on brewing beer for sale.

1. Lease space

2. Set up brewery (purchase additional equipment)

3. Homebrew some beer to dial in the system using grain purchased from retail source

4. Create brewery name and logo and develop website and copyright name and logo

5. Brew, bottle and label sample beers while continuing to use grain purchased from retail source

6. Apply for my FM3

7. Apply for beer school bus. lic. (beer school is not necessarily located at brewery)

8. Establish account with wholesale ingredient supplier using beer school lic.

9. Purchase initial ingredients

10. Apply for Mfg. and retail sales lic. for 6% or less beer

11. Create space at brewery or rent space for direct sales to the public

11. Establish local accounts and help set up draft systems

12. Apply for over 6% beer lic.



All that remains



Kegs say good bye



In the mean time I've used Google's awesome language tool to translate all of the Beer School teaching material to Spanish and after glancing over the results I can see I'll be spending a bit of time correcting grammar errors and a lot of the math that got scrambled in the transition. But, over-all I've saved myself a huge amount of time if I tried to do this translation by hand.


As I consider my future in Mexico I experience a multitude of mixed feelings. Excited at the possibility of succeeding at creating a new life doing what I love to do in a place that I've come to think of as a second home. Energized by the thought of re-connecting with the local homebrewers and being involved in developing a larger and more active brewing community. At the same time I feel uncertain about the steps I'll need to take to make my vision a reality and compounding that, the fear of complete failure that taps endlessly in the back of my mine like some kind of Chinese water torture. Cautious and fearless equals crazy.

I plan to post updates as I go along about how I'll make this happen and give some insight into what goes into making a beer school and/or a nano-brewery a success (or failure) in San Miguel. Also, I'm open to and would appreciate any suggestions, information or experiences by those in Mexico who've gone down this path before. Cheers and we'll see you South of the border. Salud!

Escuela de Cerveza Casera

I've been very busy the last couple of weeks getting ready to return to San Miguel de Allende. This year I'm feeling enthusiastic about my new mission to create a homebrewing school and hopefully brew a lot of tasty beer. I am not discouraged by my recently unsuccessful Kickstarter promotion but recognize my financial limitations. Consequently, I'm attempting to bring down a lot more brewing equipment than I'd planned before but will still have to find the needed larger pieces of brewing equipment in or near San Miguel. I'll return to the same welder I used last year to fabricate my brew sculpture and I've located a resourse in SMA for gas, a place called Oxigenos San Miguel. I'll need to lease or buy co2 and o2 tanks from them.



Brewing gear for the trip

Another step is applying for residence status or an FM3 and then a business license to open the school and I will relay the process here for any that want to try this same thing in the future. The legalities in Mexico are similar to those in The States regarding starting a business and brewing beer but I think I have a better chance in Mexico of bending the rules a little in terms of quantities of beer brewed and under-the-table sales. (Let's keep this to ourselves o.k.?) Another task is finding an affordable place to rent that will make it possible to teach classes with a dozen or so students at a time and enough additional room to ferment, store and bottle beer.

The space will need to have smaller rooms equipped with air conditioners to keep temperatures down for fermentation and another room with lower temps. for storage. Of course I'll also have to purchase some kind of freezer and convert it in order to dispense and bottle. A large kegerator of sorts.
Friend and fellow homebrewer Francisco who lives part time in San Miguel brought down with him on a previous trip 8 corney kegs for me and will take an additional 8 in the next couple of weeks not to mention a bunch of miscellaneous brewery pieces. This amount of kegs should allow me to condition my ales for several weeks before bottling at which point the kegs can them be rotated back to receive freshly fermented beer to age.

Packing for SMA again

In the mean time while I search for this perfect or not so perfect space, the brew sculpture will be fabricated and I'll either find stock pots large enough to use as brew kettles or have some made. You don't see to many kegs laying around so converting some of those are out of the question besides I may decide to brew 20 gallon batches (80 ltrs.)

Finally, I'm looking into using the Rotoplas water tanks as fermentors and will investigate that possibility when I get down there.

Anyway, as you can tell there is much to do and I'm chomping at the bit to get started. If anyone reading this has suggestions for saving money or getting this done in Mexico please leave a comment and like I said before, I'll keep you posted on my progress and how I achieve my goal of brewing beer in Mexico. Cheers!

Brewing For Students

Today I'm getting ready for next weeks beginner's homebrewing class. This means doing a little advanced brewing. I want to give the students all of the information they will need to brew an easy extract batch of beer at home and an important part of that lesson is the bottling process. So, in order to have beer to bottle next week, today I'm brewing 11 gallons of a simple German hefeweizen.

In class we'll brew a dry malt extract hefeweizen recipe which consists of 4 lbs. of More Beer's Bavarian Wheat (DME 40C, 60% malted wheat and 40% malted barley) along with 1 lb. of cane sugar to help dry it out and a single addition of bittering hops for a 5 gallon batch. Then we'll bottle 5 gallons of the beer that I'm brewing today and each student will get to take home several bottles of the beer to condition at home and then after a couple weeks enjoy the fruits of their labors from class.

yeast starter
 

The recipe I'm brewing today is very straight forward and since one of my favorite styles of beer is the German hefe I brew it often with good results. The secret is pitching a large starter and fermenting in the low 60's.F. This time of year it's difficult for me to keep the temperature consistently low during the high krausen period of fermentation but with my wort chiller and post chiller set-up I'm able to begin with a pitching temperature of 60-62f. which gives me a good starting point while still allowing for a few degrees of temperature rise.

brewer's journal
 

The following is what I'm brewing today:

Beginner Class Hefeweizen
Eff: 85%
Attn: 75-80%%
Abv. 5.5%
Srm 6
Ibu's 15
O.g. 1.051
F.g. 1.011

9lbs. 2-row barley
9lbs. malted wheat

Mash in 5 gallons of h2o at 150f. for 60  min.
Sparge with 10 gallons of h2o at 170f. for 30 min.

Boil for 60 mins with:
1.5 oz. Gr. Hallertau 5.5% a.a. (1.5 x 5.5aa x 27% util. x .75)/ 11 gallons for 15 IBu's

Chill to 62f. and pitch Whitelabs WLP300 starter
Ferment in low 60'sf. for 7 days.

Wish me luck. This beer needs to be racked to a secondary by Sat. 9/22 in order to be ready to take to class on the 23rd.

Beer School Project Launch

Today I launch my Kickstarter Beer School Project. Please follow the link to find out what I''m trying to raise funds for. There is a short video that best explains my plan. I am hoping to raise enough money through your generous support to make my dream a reality. I am also asking that you forward this post or the Beer School link to all of your email, Facebook and Twitter friends. The more exposure the better the odds of reaching my goal. I really appreciate your help and thank you in advance. Any amount helps!

Click here:

The Kickstarter Beer School Project

Beer School Project

I'm not very comfortable asking for help. I get the feeling that I come across as weak or that it may cause the people in my life to distance themselves from me. It's not rational, but still, it's how I roll and I spend most times trying to get by on my own. But, I'm very enthusiastic about a venture that I'm taking on right now and so I'm making myself move past my anxiety as I try to realize a dream.

While in Mexico this last year I came up with an idea to develop a homebrewing school. Once this idea was fully formed I decided to move forward with a plan, the first part of which is to generate some funding. Over the last several months I've been extremely busy getting ready to launch my Beer School project with Kickstarter. (Kickstarter is a funding platform for creative projects.) My focus has been on the creation of a video, story line and graphics that explain what I'd like to do.

This posting is to give all of the Beer Diary... supporters an advanced notice that I will be launching my Kickstarter "Beer School" project once it's approved. Naturally I'm excited and scared about this process but I will be calling on you for support in making Beer School a reality.
A full explanation of my beer school idea will be outlined on the Kickstarter page and I hope you will visit the site when I post it here. In the mean time I will plan to continue writing on other subjects in Beer Diary... along with updates on the progress of the Beer School project. Thanks for any support you can give to this idea!

To Teach Brewing

When I left California for Mexico in December I had no intention of teaching homebrewing down here like I've done in past years. I brought enough hops, yeast and specialty grains with me to brew a couple batches of beer for myself. After teaching some exhaustive five week courses at Cabrillo College, I just wanted to relax and give myself a break. Shortly after arriving in San Miguel, I discovered that's not what I wanted. I really enjoy sharing what I know about brewing with other people. It's very satisfying for me to teach a skill that I have a passion for and at the same time make connections with strangers who share in a love of brewing. What I really wanted, was to do it (teach) differently. What I came to find is that it's the way that I conduct classes that needed to be changed.

20 peso beers about $1.40ea.
A caguama is slang for the
large bottles of corona,
literally means
large turtle

After just a few weeks of warm weather, cheap food and drink and a lot of socializing I was ready to gather some students together and make a batch of homebrew. In the mean time, I forwarded my new class plans and got approval to do it differently at Cabrillo. I decided to cancel the five week course. The reason for this is that it is too cumbersome to manage since I can't leave my materials at the school during the course. Shuttling equipment and fermentors full of beer back and forth between the school classroom and my home and storage unit where fermentation takes place is problematic. I was wearing myself out especially when I needed to haul the 3-tiered brew sculpture, vessels and a ton of other stuff. Along with this challenge, I spent a lot of time worrying that I would forget (which I did on occasion) some vital tool, instrument or ingredient. Finally, (to stay on schedule)  moving primary fermentors around in the back of my van caused the settled trub and sediment to end up mixing back in solution not to mention the possibility of developing a spoiled batch through exposure. Instead, I will be teaching a 1-day introductory brewing class for the beginner and a separate 1-day advanced all-grain class for those with some experience. My plan is to bring fermented beer into class for bottling (kegging for the advanced class) that has been able to spend some time in a secondary fermentor that I hope to have free of sediment.

On another note, I'm excited to tell those people reading this from over the hill, West Valley Community College has asked me to teach these same two classes at their school in Los Altos and I'm eager to get started in a new facility. I'm also working to provide classes at a cooking school in Santa Cruz and will let you know about that once we work out the details.

Mexican homebrew

I feel a lot better about this new approach to teaching but I have to say, even though the five week course was difficult and had it's drawbacks, as a class we sure accomplished a lot and I received a lot of positive feedback from those that graduated.




I promise this, when I can find a school or facility in which I can leave the equipment in place along with the fermenting beer, I will start the five week program up again and probably expand on the idea. I'm working on that plan at this very moment while I enjoy an inspiring bottle of homebrew from my most recent Mexican homebrewers class.
Cheers!

For those interested in attending brew school this spring, here are the links with details.
West Valley College in Saratoga
Cabrillo College in Soquel

More Brewing Disasters

Part I
As a homebrewer, you come to expect a certain number of brewing hassles, tragedies and disasters to occur as time goes on, but when you experience a long string of successes it seems to suddenly comes as a shock when things get screwed up. Case in point for me: this whole week.

Let me start with lessons learned in brewing school. I've taught a five week course here at the local community college for a few years now and although I've dreaded the day, have never had a spoiled batch of beer come out of it all. The day finally came this last Sunday and the experience took me down a few notches. I've always stressed the importance of sanitation but also suggested that it was not at the top of my homebrewing concerns, opting instead for emphasis on several other critical elements in brewing that you can read about here. I may have to re-visit this list after discovering that the German hefeweizen came out of the fermentor with an extreme case of sour. Not just a mild, 'what's that I'm tasting in here?' off flavor, but a full on excessive lactobacillus attack, an in your face kind of taste. A blend of unsweetened lemonade and balsamic vinegar like a cross between a Berliner weisse and Flanders red except with out the dark malt character. I'm owing the vinegar quality to the acetobactor bacteria. 'Oh how I loath you new friend.'

Even with my personal brewing I've never had a infection as bad as this and standing before a class of eager students, their open and curious faces looking up at me asking "why teacher, how could this happen to us?" I had no answer. I wasn't sure how to react and finally suggested that sometimes in homebrewing it's necessary to accept a spoiled beer as a learning experience. Which sounds like a fair statement but I couldn't take my own advice and have spend the better part of two weeks feeling shame and disappointment in myself as a teacher. This is how I imagine a boat building teacher would feel as the class canoe project sunk while his students paddled out towards a setting sun. Along with those feelings I've spent many hours in my head replaying the brewing and fermenting of that beer trying to discover at what crucial point in the process that I allowed this tragedy to play out. I want to blame a contaminated or miss-labeled vial of yeast to ease the burden but I won't buy that excuse either. We still kegged the beer and I may be able to use it for something in the future, I don't know.  I wrote LACTIC on the side of the keg as a warning and I ended up discarding the plastic fermenting bucket, spigot and transfer hoses that came into contact with the beer as a precaution although I suspect that wasn't needed except to exorcise my demons. I wonder if this sour beer is a sign that it's time to move away from teaching an extensive course like this. As a side note, I personally like the flavor and bought a bottle of Beliner Weisse to compare and found that it is very similar. Oh! is that a bright side?

Berliner weisse on left and school beer on right

Part II
In the mean time back at my house I decided to brew a pale ale and got up early to start the process. In the spirit of multi-tasking I started the sparging process and after getting the proper flow thought I had time for a quick shower. When I returned to the task of brewing I found, to my dismay, I had left the valve open on the boil pot and that a couple of gallons of sweet, sweet wort had drained onto the patio and halfway down the parking lot flowing towards the storm drain. This loss was after only collecting a few gallons which meant that I'd lost the really high gravity portion of wort from this simple mistake. As a result my efficiency was naturally low and the brew required a pound and a half of cane sugar to make up for the loss.

Somewhat discouraged, I shouldered on as any proper brewer would, accepting that these things happen and soon I was preparing to chill the wort. Only now, in a fit of distress, I discovered that the property management had turned off the exterior water for landscape maintenance, consequently I had no water. For a moment I panicked and spun in circles then ran from my patio in search of the problem. Around the corner from my apartment was a maintenance worker sawing through a main water line with serious intent.
"I told you yesterday that I would need water this morning!" I exclaimed.
"Yeah, I don't remember that." was the response.
"I did!"
"Never heard it."
We went back and forth like that for awhile and I pleaded my case, he finally agreed to turn the water on but pointed out that a geyser would be spewing from his partially severed pipe for the duration. I'm not sure but I think his face had the expression of contempt.
 "I only need a few minutes." I stated before dashing back to start the chilling process.

Writing this post has been a cathartic excercise for me. Thank you for your patience.

P.S. On a completely separate subject, please help me reach 70 followers by the end of the year. If you haven't already done so, Click on the Follow button in the sidebar and if you follow on twitter and/or FB please also click on the follow button. Why? Ego really, mine needs help.

Fall Homebrewing Class Sign-Up

This is an update to announce the Fall homebrewing classes I conduct in Santa Cruz, California. The Fall extension brochure has not been mailed out yet but the Cabrillo website is up and taking registrations.

This five week intensive course fills up quickly this time of year and I would encourage early sign-up to participate in this class. The maximum number of students that can attend is 18. You can find out all of the details for the class by going to my website
here.

Or, you can go directly
here to register on-line at the Cabrillo College extension program website.

I'm looking forward to another exciting class of eager homebrewers. I hope to see you there.
You can contact me directly with any questions about these classes. Cheers!

Beginner Brewing

Earlier this month a couple of students attended a beginner brewing class at my house to learn the fundamentals of beer making. This particular class is structured to be three to four hours long and so we needed to jump right in to get things going and accomplish a successful brew in the limited time. We started by going over the basic equipment needed to brew a first batch of beer and the ingredients that we would use that day, including hops, dry malt extract and steeping grains.

I teach a slightly modified version of a the full boil method with steeping grains. The modified part is that we placed our bag of steeping grains in the boil kettle just as we began heating the water. Thus allowing the grains to leach their flavors and colors into solution during the water temperature rise from 65f. (my tap water temp.) to 170f. At 170f. we pulled the grain bag and continued the temperature rise to boiling. I have not found a good reason to use the typical technique of bringing the water to a temperature of 150f. and then placing the grains in the hot water for a twenty to thirty minute rest. My purpose here is to steep the grains in order to extract color and flavor and I am not concerned with the sugar potential. Consequently,  I have found that I can accomplished the results I desire faster using this method.

I prefer dry malt extract when I brew extract type beers and in this batch it consisted of 6lbs. of the light version of DME. I find that it is easier to work with and provides a slightly lighter color wort than the light liquid extract. We also used a 20% addition of cane sugar. With malt extract beers, I have found that a 15% to 20% amount of very fermentable sugar is needed to ferment down to the preferred attenuation or dryness that I like in my beers. For those concerned about the supposed 'cider' flavors that are associated with the addition of cane, beet or corn sugar, don't worry. It doesn't have that flavor impact, in fact I did a test on this concern awhile back and you can read about it here.

For hopping, we used a couple of standards that I normally have in the freezer with the exception of the final or one minute hop additions which was a new one for me called Galaxy. This high alpha acid hop has a great flavor and aroma component that I suggest you try in any West coast style ale.

The brew went along well with only a minor boil over but we got that under control and took time to sample some homebrews from my kegerator. As the boil progressed we covered a number of homebrew subjects that are important to the beginner starting with the vocabulary and ending with some of the basics of malting.

The brew session ended successfully as we achieved our desired original gravity and pitched two packages of US05 yeast into the chilled wort. The students stated they got a lot out of the class and looked forward to tasting their beer in a few weeks.

I pulled a sample from the keg today and for an extract brew this is a pretty impressive beer. Nice fruity malt backbone with a great citrus and apricot hop character and balanced bitterness. It's difficult to tell this is brewed with extract and I think the students will be very happy with the results when they open their bottle conditioned samples that they took home.

The following is the recipe we brewed and I would encourage you to brew your own, with extract even!

Brew Class IPA

Attn: 82%
AbV 6.6%
SRM 9
IBU's 57
O.G. 1.062
F.G. 1.011

Full boil method -
In 7 gals. water steep:
8 oz. 2-row
8 oz. Munich #35
8 oz. Crystal #15

When water reaches 170f. turn off heat, remove steeping grains and stir in:
6 lbs. Dry Malt Extract (light)
1.5 lbs. cane sugar
Bring to boil for 60 minutes.

Hops:
Bittering - 60min 1.25 oz Chinook @ 11aa
Finings - 15min. Irish Moss
Flavor   - 10min. 1 oz. Cascade @ 5.5 aa
Aroma  - 1 min. 2 oz. Galaxy @ 13 aa

Chill to 65f. , aerate and pitch 2 packages of US05 ale yeast.
Ferment to completion, keg and enjoy.

Beginner Brewing Class

This Summer's five week comprehensive brewing course at Cabrillo College was cancelled, not enough students. I don't think this was caused by a lack of interest in the community, the Spring class filled to capacity with a handful of students on a waiting list. The lack of students seems to be directly related to the economy. Because of budget cuts at the college, Cabrillo did not publish or mail the catalog listing the extension program. This has a big impact on registration as most students signing up for the brewing class are finding the course by way of the catalog. Hopefully, the fall catalog will be printed as usual and I expect to fill the class again. In the mean time, I have students signing up on-line for the private classes that I offer and I just happen to have five Sunday's in a row in which to teach from home. If you're in the area or will be visiting Santa Cruz during the month of July, consider a one day class with me. Each class will be designed with consideration of your brewing experience. Go here for more details.

On another note, a couple of beer event will be taking place here that might interest you.
First: Homebrewer and Zymurgeek member Tom Lopez will be showing his 'plastic camera' photography at The Parish Publick House through the month of July. Come down and have a pint with Tom and me Saturday July 9th, between 3pm. and 6pm. while we gander at it. His photography is displayed within easy access of a nice line up of beer on draft not to mention a lot of specialties in bottles.

On July 15th at the old Wrigley building on the West side, New Belgium Brewing will be hosting an event called Clips of Faith where there will be beer for sampling and movie shorts projected on an outdoor screen. The clips will start at sundown naturally but the beer is available starting at 7:30pm.
According to clips of faith:
Project Bike Trip is teaming up with New Belgium Brewing to bring their second annual”cLiPS of FAiTH” BEER & FILM TOUR to Santa Cruz, CA. This 18-city tour travels the country pouring handmade beers while featuring independent, handmade films and raising money for local non-profits."
I'm curious about this event and will try to check it out and get back to all those that don't make it.

Finally, the California Beer Festival will be going on the following day. Saturday July 16th at the Aptos park. Our local brewers along with 60 or so more will be serving from 12:30 to 5pm. You can find out more about this event by going to the link.
I'm still trying to get a press pass into this event and If I do, you'll see me there.

Homebrewing Class Structure

I've received requests for the syllabus of my five week brewing course that I teach here in California. I want to make the course available to those that would like to duplicate the system that I use by publishing the hand-outs that I provide the students when conducting the classes. These hand-outs contain all of the information that is covered during the classes, but it is up to the teacher to bring the experience, knowledge and confidence in brewing to the equation to make the class successful.

The plan I've developed is a comprehensive course from the beginning brewer level and then builds on that information to the advanced methods of homebrewing. I have spent some time developing the curriculum and over the years, have honed it down to a very usable process and I feel it is complete at this point in time. I want to make it available to anyone interested in teaching a brewing class in this format or using the information to develop their own criteria. Keeping in mind that I use my own personal brewing procedures when teaching this class, the instructors that utilize this information may need to modify it to suit their particular brewing style.

Students taking a break

The idea is to engage the students with hands-on utilization of equipment and ingredients used for homebrewing. The outline that follows, lays out the basic agenda I use to give the students the tools they need to begin brewing at home with confidence and also provides an opportunity for them to test the waters so to speak without having to make the initial investment in equipment and ingredients. During the course of these lesson the students participate in brewing four batches of beer (25 gallons) of which three are ready to sample by the final day of class.

As you can see from the student outline, we begin the process with extract only, followed by partial mash and finally the all-grain methods and kegging. This outline gives a clue as to the methods I use to teach the class.

Student Course Overview.

Class 1.

Introduction to extract brewing

1. Sanitation
2. equipment
3. ingredients
4. brewing demonstration

Class 2.

Partial mash Brewing and packaging

1. grain conversion
2. yeast types
3. hop varieties

Class 3.

Partial mash brewing cont. and packaging

1. grain conversion
2. yeast propagation
3. hop utilization
4. packaging

Class 4. 

All-grain brewing

1. equipment set-up
2. mashing
3. history
4. recipe formulation
5. basic water chemistry

Class 5.

Results and tasting session

1. beer evaluation and review
2. kegerator explanations
3. beer and food pairing

If you are interested in obtaining the complete course material, you can place an order through the PayPal form located on the side bar of this page, or send me an email with questions regarding this post. Cheers!

Beer Diary... Radio Interview

Click on the link below to listen to the radio interview I did last week with Your California host Randy White. We discuss the origins of teaching homebrewing at Cabrillo College. He gets to the actual interview about five minutes into the show, be patient.

I recommend using the Firefox browser as I couldn't get IE to work with the Quicktime player.

Your California Radio Show

Beer Diary... In Brew Your Own Magazine

Just received my latest addition of Brew Your Own magazine and was happy to see the 'Last Call' article about the brew school I teach at Cabrillo College. For those that don't have a subscription to BYO you can order one through this blog by clicking on the link at the bottom of this page. In the mean time read the unedited version of the article here.



Students studying the basics of brewing

Homebrewer takes his passion to the classroom

Ten years ago I caught the homebrewing bug after attending an afternoon demonstration at the local homebrew supply store here in Santa Cruz, California. It was a beautiful spring day and grain was mashing in the tun when I arrived at Seven Bridges Cooperative. A small clutch of us gathered around a modest brew rig, asking simple questions and taking in the aroma of malt and hops. Remembering back on that day I don't think I understood much from the explanations we were given and attributed my fascination with the days events to be a combination of the artistry on display and what seemed like sublime alchemy. I immediately bought a beginners kit and the basic equipment to brew up an extract batch of beer. I haven't stopped since, expanding on my knowledge and abilities from one batch to the next. Most of what I've learned over the subsequent years has come from getting involved in my local homebrew club, the Zymurgeeks, reading brewing literature, participating in on-line forums and diligently practicing the craft.

A couple of years ago it occured to me what a benefit it was to have been introduced to this great hobby in such a hands-on way, and that others like myself could benefit from the structure of a classroom environment to learn to brew. I noticed a gap between schools for the professional brewer, like Siebel Institute and U.C. Davis, and the occasional local homebrew store demonstrations. It also seemed like it would be an asset to the community plus a chance for me to share my knowledge and passion for homebrewing.

Based on this premise I developed a curiculum for a comprehensive yet practical program, a five day course for teaching homebrewing that could be offered through community college extension classes. Once my idea was developed, I mailed out application letters with my proposal to half a dozen nearby schools.



Class photo



Cabrillo College in Soquel showed an interest after some initial reluctance over a concern that the subject would not draw the needed interest, but the class soon filled with eager students and I scheduled the first series. The course is scheduled for five Sundays in a row utilizing the week between classes for beer to ferment and the students to integrate the lessons and/or practice on their own at home. Each lesson builds upon the previous, taking the students from the basics of brewing with dry malt extract and steeping grains, continuing through the more advanced knowledge of partial mash brewing and finally brewing ten gallons of an all-grain batch. All participants get the chance to have hands on experience with the equipment and materials used in brewing, chilling, fermenting, bottling and kegging, along with the academics of the basic calculations used for testing efficiencies, attenuation, alcohol content and much more. In addition, consideration of the malt bill, hop utilization and yeast selection for developing their own recipes beyond the introductory kits available at the local homebrew store is studied. As a class, we also sample beer styles, homebrew and commercial examples, with an emphasis on sensory evaluation techniques. On the fifth and final day of class the students bring in food to pair with three of the four beers that they brewed in class, enjoying the satisfaction of sampling the results and to critically evaluate the 'fruits' of their labor.

I have been teaching this class for three years now and it continues to be popular and well received, getting good follow up reviews from the students. This is partly due, I believe, because it gives them an opportunity to directly experience the brewing process, a chance to test the waters, so to speak without a commitment to the hobby or to the initial costs of equipment and materials. Many students continue with the hobby and become actively involved in the local brewing community.
I feel proud to be able to offer this class through an organization that recognizes the value of homebrewing.

Student testimonial-

"That was a great class. You did such a good job of making the process of brewing at home comprehensible without oversimplifying, and showing us we could all do it. The more brewers in the world, the better! Thanks for sharing all your knowledge and experience with us."

English Ale Split Batch

In the fourth class of the five class series of brew school, the students brewed up a ten gallon all-grain batch of English ale. Because the wort is split into two five gallon fermenters (for ease of transport from school to the area that the beer ferments) it is a perfect opportunity to try out a couple different types of yeast. In this class we fermented one half with Whitelabs WLP002 English ale yeast and the other WLP004 Irish ale yeast. I just sampled the finished beer and I've got to say that the class did an excellent job of preparing the wort for the yeast as the attenuation reach 80% for both yeast types and the quality of the beer is excellent.

Irish or English

Each yeast imparted distinctly different characteristics to the beer. WLP002 is malt forward accentuating the crystal 40 that was used in the grain bill. The WLP004 has some apple/pear flavors with a crisp and dry mouth feel. Both beers are very enjoyable. It's surprising to experience such remarkable differences in a beer based solely on the type of yeast used. I was so impressed with the results that the Imperial IPA that I brewed yesterday was split with half getting some salvaged English ale yeast from class beer and in the other half I pitched the yeast I normally use for the recipe, Safale US05. I think I'm going to make this a regular part of my brewing practices and experiment with some yeasts that I haven't tried yet. I can't believe that I've waited this long to break out of my yeast preference routine.
For those interested in the class project, here is the recipe:

English/Irish Ale
Attn: 80%
Eff. 80%
ABV. 5.6%, SRM 8, IBU 38, O.G. 1.052, F.G. 1.010/1.008

18lbs 2-row
28oz. crystal #40

mash for 60 min. in 5.5 gal. water with 1 tsp. gypsum at 152f.
fly sparge for 45 min. collecting 13gal. at start of boil

Boil for 60 min. with
2.5 oz. Willamette 5% aa 60min.
2.0 oz. Willamette 5% aa 20min.
1.0 oz. Willamette 5% aa 10min.
Chill to 66f. aerate and transfer to two fermenters.

Pitch English ale yeast in 5.5 gal.
Pitch Irish ale yeast in 5.5 gal.

Ferment for 7 days, rack to kegs and force carbonate. Condition for 2 weeks at 45f.
If you have any questions about this recipe, leave it in the comment section.