fermentarium

Wanna start a brewery?

DJ Spiess — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 02:54:02 +0000

Starting a new brewery can be cost prohibitive. Buying equipment, renting a space, navigating the permitting fees, and buying supplies can quickly make your new adventure a non-starter. Finding investors can be quite difficult and they would most likely want a significant stake and possible control over your brewery. So what do you do?

One trend I’ve seen lately is asking the Internet to help “kickstart” your brewery using a web site called Kickstarter. The way it works is you set a money goal, like $20,000, and ask for donations. If you reach your goal by your set date, Kickstarter charges everyone’s credit card for their donation and your project is under way. If you don’t reach your goal, no one gets charged and I’m really not sure what happens next. Maybe change your name and try again?

They want to start a brewery, you have money. You two should talk! (Image from Lucky Town Brewing)

One brewery doing this is the Lucky Town Brewing company. They’re a startup brewery in Mississippi who’s looking for $20,000 and they have 33 days left as of this writing. So far they have a little under $10,000, so this looks like it’s working for them. They are looking to raise the money to “to help cover some of our up front costs such as license fees, insurance costs, keg expenses, and ingredients costs among others”. If you want to help a new brewery out, check out their Kickstarter page.

This sounds like an interesting way to raise capital for your brewery. What do you think? Leave your thoughts below!

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Great American Beer Festival 2011

DJ Spiess — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 16:49:53 +0000

Here’s some of the better photos from this year’s Great American Beer Festival in Denver, Colorado. If you don’t see your picture here, you might look at all of the photos on the flickr page. All in all, there’s 189 pictures from this year’s festival, and 490 photos from over the years. Of course there’s still the constant battle from the yellow light, but if you see a picture you’d like fixed let me know.

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Happy Rapture Day!

DJ Spiess — Sat, 21 May 2011 02:00:46 +0000

I think there’s been some type of clerical error upstairs. I should have been left behind with my beer.

I guess I should have listened to the prediction more. The guy predicting the rapture has experience predicting raptures.

Happy Rapture Day!

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Why Apple allows DUI checkpoint apps

DJ Spiess — Fri, 20 May 2011 07:01:43 +0000

Let’s get it out at the start, drinking and driving is a monumentally stupid idea. If you’re extremely lucky you’ll get home only hitting the mailbox on the way in your driveway. Most likely, you’ll hit something bigger on the way and not only ruin you day, you could take the lives of innocents who had the unfortunate luck of crossing your dumbass path.

Don't drink and drive and none of this applies at all

DUI Checkpoints Legal?

With that said, DUI checkpoints really skirt the edge of what is legal.
The United States Constitution (your country’s rules may vary) states a citizen cannot be stopped without probable cause. DUI checkpoints assume guilt before proven innocent.

DUI, there’s an app for that

There are phone applications, like Buzz’d and Fuzz Alert, which help you know where the DUI checkpoints are in your area. This can help you avoid an unnecessary delay when driving somewhere, but lets be honest, you’re using it to avoid getting your sorry ass caught.

Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) is demanding answers from Apple and Google as to why these applications are allowed. Apparently the Senator doesn’t know the law very well. No surprise there. I’m convinced most of the representatives in Washington have never looked at the Constitution.

DUI Checkpoints History

For those who don’t know the history of DUI checkpoints, years ago some guy named Sitz (as in he should have sitz instead of driving his drunk ass around) sued the state of Michigan police department (Michigan Dept. of State Police v. Sitz) claiming the DUI checkpoints were a violation of the Constitution. The Michigan Supreme Court agreed, but the Supreme Court overruled the decision. Get this: Chief Justice Rehnquist admitted the checkpoints were probably a violation of the Constitution, but it was a minor violation so it was ok. If you violate the Constitution only a little bit, its ok. Yeah, the stoopid, it burns.

To make up for the “minor violation” of the Constitution, the rules were later refined for everyone by the California Supreme Court in Ingersoll v. Palmer. In that ruling, the court decided in order to minimize the intrusion, police had to notify the public in advance. That’s right. These apps are getting their information from the police who are required to publish the DUI checkpoints in advance.

No one should ever drink and drive, but you can't violate the Constitution to stop stupid people

DUI Checkpoint locations public info

Now the police would love to publish this information someplace where no one looks, like a newspaper, but a few companies had the bright idea of publishing the PUBLIC information in a phone app where someone might actually see it. That’s the real problem here. The police are required to publish the information so DUI checkpoints can get around the stickiness of the Constitution. They just don’t want anyone to know.

You might not like the phone apps, but they are legal. It’s like the First Amendment. There might be lots of opinions you don’t want to hear, but the amendment is there to protect the speech you don’t like. So do you want to allow DUI checkpoint applications on phones, or do you want to toss out the Fourth Amendment? As to why Apple and Google allow the DUI checkpoint applications, the Senator from NY should do a little reading before asking stupid questions.

(Source: DUI Blog and AppAdvice)

UPDATE (06-08-11) : Apple is no longer accepting DUI checkpoint apps

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Samuel Adams and glass maker settle over 2008 recall

DJ Spiess — Thu, 19 May 2011 23:04:56 +0000

Remember back in 2008, when Samuel Adams was recalled because of glass chips in their beer? Yeah, I forgot about it too.

According to a press release by Boston Beer Company, makers of Samuel Adams, “The Boston Beer Company, Inc. (NYSE: SAM) and its former glass bottle supplier have today entered into an agreement to settle all claims regarding the recall implemented by the Boston Beer Company in 2008”. The former glass bottle supplier? Yeah, that one. The one who shall remain nameless (they don’t mention them by name in the press release – who can blame them). They don’t mention “fault”, but it’s clear who’s coming out on the winning side of this dispute.

The recall was a big deal in 2008, but forgotten soon after (probably the next week)

Boston Beer gets a settlement of $20.5 million dollars, and both parties promise to never speak of it again. The whole fiasco cost Boston Beer $22 million resulting in a spiffy minus $1.5 million bonus. Yea American Justice System! Given the legal fees and the years of fighting in court, only losing $1.5 million in the deal is pretty good.

(Source: Boston Beer Company)

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The longest dry spell ever

DJ Spiess — Wed, 18 May 2011 02:10:41 +0000

There is a gene for something called alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH). ADH is a protein and it’s important because it is an enzyme we use to break down alcohol. Some research suggests people who don’t produce enough ADH or produce the slower acting enzymes ADH2 and ADH3 are more susceptible to alcoholism. ADH is part of what helps you sober up.

Scientists have long postulated the gene evolved when humans started creating liquor. Then they later found the enzyme in animals, so the theory was changed to animals developed ADH to break down ethanol from fermenting fruits of flowering plants. Fruits appeared about 140 million years ago. There are studies demonstrating some animals, like the fruit fly, evolved ADH between 70 and 135 million years ago.

Alcohol Dehydrogenase - It looks just like you thought it would (image courtesy wikipedia.com)

Then scientific progress went boink again. Héctor Riveros-Rosas at National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City thinks animals got the gene even earlier. By analyzing the DNA sequences from animals, he estimates ADH first appeared 450 million years ago. For those counting at home, that’s 310 million years before we needed it.

Riveros-Rosas’ new theory suggests animals evolved the gene to break down dopamine or other naturally produced hormones. ADH works faster on dopamine, and we probably got lucky it works on ethanol too. Unfortunately animals had to wait 310 million years before we could use the enzyme for our fun. Now that is a dry spell!

(Source: New Scientist)

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BeerCon 2011

DJ Spiess — Tue, 17 May 2011 02:32:05 +0000

Once while in San Diego I stumbled upon Comic-Con. I thought the idea was cool, bought a ticket, and walked in. That was obviously many years ago considering this year’s event in July sold out in January. Back when I went it was just starting to become the wild event it is now. Time to look for a new event…

And suddenly in my fermentarium suggestion email box there was one. It’s not comics though, it’s Beer-Con, a craft beer conference in San Diego! How cool is that?

From the website, you can rub elbows with the big names in brewing and attend several talks on homebrewing, starting a bar or brewery, and beer styles. Of course there will also be beer drinking! Can’t have a beer event without downing a few pints. There will also be big names like Greg Koch and Anat Baron.

Beer-Con 2011, a craft beer conference for beer geeks!

I have no idea if this conference will turn out to be the festival Comic-Con has become, but it sounds like a fun conference to check out. Unfortunately I’ll be elsewhere in August 27th, 2011, but if you’re in San Diego you might want to check the one day conference. It’s open to the public, not just industry leaders. They also said in their email if you use the code “BARLEY”, you’ll get $50 off the ticket price. If any of you go, please let me know if it’s everything advertised and hopefully I can attend next year.

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6 tasks you need to start for your home brewing season

DJ Spiess — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 16:17:12 +0000

Despite my best plans, I do little brewing in the winter. I might make a batch for Christmas parties and the SuperBowl, but from February to April there is little brewing activity for me. The summer months are non-stop brewing months. Here’s what I’m doing to prepare!

Clean the carboys

I hate finding out on brewing day that the fermenter I plan to use is also the fermenter I said I’d clean later. The best way for me to avoid this situation is to clean everything in advance. Go figure! Part of my preparation is to run a cleaner (like PBW) through all my fermenters. I’ll still sanitize the fermenters on brewing day, but making sure they are all clean in advance makes future brewing sessions go easier.

Every year I clean these out throughly, replace the seals, and test the pressure

Prepare the kegs

On the same line of thinking, the kegs need to be prepared too. This means cleaning and sanitizing the kegs, replacing all the o-rings, and testing the pressure on each keg in advance.

Test equipment

Somehow tubes that never leaked before, leak the following year. Seals on my larger fermenters never seal as well the following year. I check my wort chiller for leaks at the start of the brewing season by running water through it for about 10 minutes. This includes checking all the tubes for leaks. I also fill my larger fermenter with water to make sure it’s not leaking at the spouts.

Clear the hops

Hops are like kudzu, and they leave a ton of dead vines and leaves each year. I leave this in place over the winter to help insulate the roots, but it’s spring time. The dead stuff has to go. It’s also a fun excuse to see if any shoots are coming up, and cull any shoots your don’t want growing. My hops are trying to take over the yard in their yearly endeavor to choke me in my sleep, so there are always shoots to cull. This is also a good time to dig up any rhizomes you want to share with friends, or use to start new vines.

Inventory supplies

At any point during the brewing season I know what supplies I have on stock. This information falls out of my head as soon as the season ends. Check up on what grains you have left, how much sanitizer and PBW you have, and any other recurring supplies you need. This includes keg lube, Irish moss, carboy labels, and yeast nutrients.

Plan a list of brews

This is the fun part. I look over what beers I want to make, what beers needed improving, and the dates I need the beers. I make beers for park parties, office parties, an Oktoberfest party at the end of the summer, and a big Fourth of July party. Some beers take longer than others to make, so planning a schedule helps to insure you have the right beers at each party. For example, you might want a lager and an ale for a party in a month. If you can only make one beer at a time, you’ll need to schedule the lager first. If you’re making lots of beer for different event, a schedule becomes very important.

So what things do you do to prepare for brewing?

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The All-in-One Personal Brewery

DJ Spiess — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 02:17:17 +0000

Invented by New Zealanders Ian Williams and Anders Warn, the WilliamsWarn Personal Brewery makes homebrewing very simple. You simply add ingredients, boil, add yeast and wait for beer. How is this system different? Everything happens in one machine. The WilliamsWarn comprises of a brewing tank, refrigeration system and a dashboard panel to control the system.

This truly is a personal brewery. In a normal homebrew setup, you boil your wort, transfer it to a fermenter, then transfer it again to bottles or kegs, and finally you carbonate the beer. This mini brewery never transfer the beer.

It's easy to see which system would impress, but is it better?

There are several advantages to not transferring your beer. First you won’t expose your beer to oxygen or infections. Every time you transfer your beer, you run the risk of ruining your beer. Second the WilliamsWarn system is a closed system which will help your beer last longer. According to their site, “The oxygen pickup in this system is the lowest in the world as we have no beer transfers and it is oxygen pickup during beer transfers that ages beer.” Third, since the beer is fermented under pressure and never transferred, you do not need to carbonate the beer later. The system keeps the CO2 from carbonation in the beer. They claim you can go from wort to glass after 7 days.

The downside to the system is it is a bit spendy. The price is $4500 ($5600 NZ). The price and functionality may seem to be better suited towards a small pub than a homebrewer, although I’ve seen many systems like the B3 sculptures which can easily be more expensive. Your budget mileage may vary.

This is a very cool and stylish setup, but you are always serving beer directly from the brewery.

I think I’d also like to see an option to transfer the beer directly to keg. It looks like the beer stays in the system until it’s empty. The serving tap for the beer is on the side of the brewery. It would be nice to be able to connect the system to an external keg, and transfer the finished beer under pressure.

So what do you think? What changes would you make to it?

(Source: WilliamsWarm Personal Brewery)

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Idaho vs the Ethereal Enigmatic Euphoric Movement Toward Civilized Hedonism

DJ Spiess — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 21:14:22 +0000

Philip H. Mockli is fed up with republican conservatives in Franklin County, Idaho. Current statutes forbid the sale of hard alcohol in Preston, Idaho bars. Mockli claims these laws are religiously based, and therefore a violation of his First Amendment rights. In his formal complaint submitted to the U.S. District Court in Pocatello, Mockli claims “by use of the Idaho statues, [state Republicans] are allowed to force their morality on those of us who don’t believe in their religion”.

To press his point Mockli formed his own religion, the Ethereal Enigmatic Euphoric Movement Toward Civilized Hedonism which advocates a sacred right for it’s members to consume hard alcohol. Finally a religion I can believe in! The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster may lose a convert. Mockli filed the lawsuit with his church listed as the plaintiff.

This is a strategy that has worked for many religions. For example peyote is a banned substance, but its use is allowed in Native American ceremonies under the First Amendment. This approach is used often to defend behaviors which are otherwise illegal, so I don’t see why it would not work for him. The First Amendment says nothing about how long the religion must be practiced, or by how many. Of course I’m not a lawyer, so their might be some catch.

Mockli’s goal is to make the liquor laws consistent across the state of Idaho. “I want the liquor laws to change,” he said. “I want them to apply universally.” Amen brother!

(Source: HJNews.com)

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Fan Page on Facebook

DJ Spiess — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 04:49:36 +0000

So I finally got around to creating a Facebook Fan page. This will give you yet another way to keep up to date with Fermentarium articles. It’ll also give you a way to have your say, without having to post to a particular article.

Right now the fan page consists of a few popular homebrewing articles, but in the future it will contain all new articles, interesting articles from other sources, and anything everyone wants to share.

If you’re a fan of Fermentarium, you will want to hit the like button below. And be sure to share any articles you like. This is a great way to spread the word about Fermentarium.

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Beer + Cake = AWESOME!

DJ Spiess — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 04:31:35 +0000

A friend of mine, Erin Schaefgen, makes very cool cakes. These cakes are so cool in fact, she should have her own TV cake show. Her cakes could easily compare to Ace of Cakes or Cake Boss. She just started her own cake business called Three Little Blackbirds, and as you can see from her cakes, she is going to be VERY successful.

It's like Willie Wonka decided to become a brewer! (Image from Three Little Blackbirds Cakes)

So, how could you possibly top one of her cakes? Add beer of course!

Check this cake out! This was one of Erin’s recent cakes for a Guinness fan. The glass of Guinness beer, napkin, and even the wooden bar top are all edible. She also has a really cool cheeseburger cake she made for her husband complete with fries.

She recently won three ribbons, two first place and one third place, in the Sugar Art Show in Denver, Colorado. Go check out all her cakes now at Three Little Blackbirds Cakes! When you’re done drooling over the cakes on her website, remember to send her some digg/twitter/stumble love!

It's a burger cake! Yum! (Image from Three Little Blackbirds Cakes)

(Source: Three Little Blackbirds Cakes)

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Beer in spaaaace!

DJ Spiess — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 04:00:46 +0000

There’s no beer in space, yet, but an Australian non-profit space research corporation called Astronauts4Hire is working to change that. We need refreshments for space tourists after all.

The problem with beer on space stations (besides driving a billion+ dollar space station drunk) is the gas from CO2 makes astronauts very gassy. On Earth gas bubbles rise causing you to belch, but in microgravity the bubbles stagnate making it very uncomfortable for the drinker. To make beer better for space travelers they are making stout beers. The reason they chose stout beers is these beers often have less carbonation than other beers. For the space travelers, they will most likely need as little carbonation as possible.

The other reason cited by Ben Corbin, PR director for Astronauts4Hire, is astronauts can’t taste as well in space. I’m not sure how true this is. Some astronauts have reported sinus swelling which causes a reduction in taste (no smell = no taste), but others have reported no difference in their ability to taste foods. Either way, Astronauts4Hire chose the richer chocolatey beer just in case.

I'm not sure the Vomit Comet is the best place for a beer party... (image courtesy Wikipedia)

Ironically they began testing the beer on Boeing’s zero gravity plane, aka the Vomit Comet, in November 2010.

(Source: PopSci.com)

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Wine scanner used for TSA explosives screening

DJ Spiess — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 03:04:14 +0000

It’s not quite a porno-scanner (backscatter x-ray), but it’s still awesome wine science.

Right now you can only bring 3 ounces of a liquid in your carry-on. The reason is it’s too difficult for airport screeners to determine what liquid you are really carrying. It could be water, or it could be some chemical that created chlorine gas when mixed with something else. There’s no quick way to determine what it is you have in your bag.

So what does this have to do with wine?

According to New Scientist, “in 2002 Matthew Augustine, a chemistry professor at the University of California, Davis, US patented a device to determine whether wine had spoiled without opening the bottle. It works in a similar way to the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners used in hospitals, combining a pulse of radio waves and a strong magnetic field to determine the chemical structure of the wine.“

This silly rule for boarding airplanes may soon be a rule from the past! (from tsa.gov)

They are now investigating how to use the device to determine the chemical structure of any liquid. The device can tell the difference between toothpaste and gasoline (or some bad wines). The hope is within a year or two we can start using these devices to scan any liquids we’re bringing on a plane. Maybe in the future we can bring samples of our homebrew and wine in our carry-on, instead of putting it in our luggage and hoping for the best.

(Source: New Scientist)

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The German Beer-pocolypse continues

DJ Spiess — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 17:43:33 +0000

The trend for consuming less beer in Germany continues. Beer sales in Germany have declined since the reunification in the 1990s, and every year since German beer sales decline by about 1.7%. For the first time ever, German beer sales have dropped below 100 million hectoliters. Domestic consumption dropped even lower, with the average German drinking 101.8 liters per person per year. In 2007, the average German consumed 112.5 liters per year.

Most industry analysts believe this is because of Germany’s aging population. Older Germans are drinking less and reproducing less. Marc-Oliver Huhnholz, spokesperson for the Association of German Brewers (DBB) told Deutsche Welle, “The number of German beer-drinkers is going down, and in the last ten years, another 500,000 weren’t born – so to speak – who could take their place? Meanwhile, the older age groups – who used to drink a lot of beer – have got older, are working less and drinking less. German government figures expect there will be twice as many people over 60 than under-20 in 2050.

If German beer continues to decline, we may only see the large breweries survive

Another possible reason for the decline is the changing tastes and habits of the younger generation. In the past Germans would drink a beer after work, but more people are hitting coffee shops after their desk job. Germans don’t hit the bars for a beer after work, like their counterparts in Britain. Some breweries are experimenting with variations on alcoholic beverages, but it can be very expensive to create and market new drinks.

(Source: Deutsche Welle)

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Canada rules: 23 strikes and you’re out

DJ Spiess — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 03:09:07 +0000

Really? His twenty-third drunk driving offense, and Terry Naugle is complaining about a 8 1/2 year sentence.

His lawyer, Luke Craggs, thought the sentence was 3 1/2 years longer than Naugle should get, since the maximum sentence is 5 years. I’m pretty sure law makers didn’t think someone would have 23 drunk driving offenses when they were constructing the law. If the maximum sentence is 5 years, I think he’s been getting off lucky in the past. 23 x 5 is 115 years.

Not only was he arrested for drunk driving for the 23rd time (did I mention he’s been arrested 23 times?!?), he fled the scene of the accident, and had no license since he just got out of jail three weeks ago from his 22nd offense. The cops know him as “Super Naugle, because he’s super at what he does – drinking and driving”.

I think after 3 arrests, you should never be allowed near a car again. The guy clearly has a problem and is a danger to society. However, it’s clear jail isn’t working either. What would you suggest as a punishment for Super Naugle?

This guy gets the beer nut designation for “lifetime achievement”.

(Source: The Globe and Mail)

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The ultimate system for your beer cave

DJ Spiess — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 04:19:22 +0000

Imagine a video game system with Joust, Defender, Gauntlet, Cyberball 2072, Mortal Kombat 1 through 3, and over 60 other games all in one machine. To make this game system even cooler, you can add any game originally on the Nintendo, Sega Genesis, NeoGeo or other game systems. You’re drooling already, aren’t you. How could you possibly make this better you ask?

Add beer. (the answer should have been obvious)

The Arkeg Drink n’ Game system has all the game features listed above, the ability to hold and play over 15,000 games and it has a keg system built in. It even has the game Tapper! This is sooo added to my home bar must have list.

On the side of the game cabinet is a chrome faucet serving beer from a 1/6 Keg (corny keg size), which is perfect for homebrewers. The Arkeg website even suggests you try making your own beer (say Old Fortran?), because it is homebrew compatible. The keg system inside includes refrigeration and a CO2 system. This is the ultimate kegerator.

The control panel itself contains a pair of joysticks matched with a 6 button layout, perfect for Mortal Kombat matches. All of this is matched with a 24” hi-def LCD screen, a hidden keyboard, and 2.1 surround sound. This arcade system of pure awesome can be yours for $4000. I think I’ll need to save up a bit.

The cabinet holds one corney (1/6) keg so you'll never have to leave your game to get more beer!

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Whiskey-a-can-can

DJ Spiess — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 03:31:51 +0000

When I first saw this can, I thought it was a mixed drink or malt beverage similar to a wine cooler. Jack Daniels sells drinks like what I was expecting.

This isn’t one of those.

While this probably isn't the best whiskey, why should the container dictate the quality of the whiskey?

Someone at Scottish Spirits, a Panama-based company, got the idea to sell hard alcohol, specifically whiskey, in a can. This is somewhat an interesting idea. Cans are recyclable, lightweight, portable, and great for places where glass is unacceptable (like a pool). You can find whiskey in a small plastic bottle on any airline, so why would a can be less desirable?

The Scotch Whiskey Association said they might try to ban the whiskey for breaching International labeling rules. They are concerned consumers might confuse this product with real Scotch. The can does say blended whiskey across the top, and below the label, but the company’s name “Scottish Spirits” might be considered confusing. My guess is the Scotch Whiskey Association is just horrified someone might try selling whiskey in a can.

The real objection is the backlash that plagued beer for a while. There is a weird romanticism which believes alcohol is cheaper if it’s not in a glass. Only recently have microbreweries overcome the perception beer in the can is cheap. This is no different. A can should have no affect on the flavor, since aluminum cans are usually lined on the inside with a thin polymer.

Scottish Spirits is testing their canned whiskey in the Caribbean and South American markets, but if it takes off you might see it near you soon!

What do you think? Can quality whiskey be served in a can?

(Source: Daily Mail)

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ND proposal may allow homebrewers to sell beer

DJ Spiess — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 02:20:00 +0000

This could be an early picture of a major brewery operation someday!

In North Dakota, there is a bill proposed by Dan Ruby (R) to allow homebrewers to apply for a “domestic brewery license”. This would allow homebrewers to sell their beer, offer beer tastings, or even sell their beer to wholesalers to get their beer in stores. The bill will be heard by North Dakota House’s Industry, Business and Labor Committee. You can bet I’ll be watching this closely.

Wow! How do we make this happen in Colorado? You’d think with a governor like Hickenlooper, owner of Wynkoop Brewing Company, this might be possible.

(Source: Bloomberg.com)

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Happy birthday to the beer can!

DJ Spiess — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 01:51:35 +0000

January 24th, 1935, the first beer in the can was sold in Richmond, Virginia. The first beer can was manufactured by the American Can Company for the brewer Krueger. The American Can company actually had to convince Krueger to try the cans by offering the caning equipment for free. If it didn’t work out, it was the American Can Company who’d have to pay. The cans were a huge success, and by the end of the year many breweries were selling their beer in a can.

Cans had been around long before, as far back as 1909, but it wasn’t until 1935 the can could withstand the pressures from carbonation. These first cans were more like canned soup which had to be opened with a can opener.

Recently premium beer breweries like Avery started selling their beers in a can

Somehow canned beer later became associated with cheap beer. This might be because eventually most macro brewery beers were sold in a can. Ironically cans are much better for beer, especially with microbrewery beers which use real hops instead of hop extract. Hop extract is usually light stable, but beer made with real hops can become “lightstruck” making the beer taste and smell skunky. Cans protect the beer from light, but still brewers were reluctant to use anything other than glass because of the can’s bad image. It wouldn’t be until very recently microbreweries like Oskar Blues changed the can image and used cans to sell premium beer.

(Source: Wired.com)

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How to make a Stella Artois homebrew clone

DJ Spiess — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 23:04:26 +0000

A friend of mine was planning a big celebration for her daughter’s one year birthday and she wanted me to make the beer for the party. If you’ve been to a birthday party for a one year old, you’ll understand why you need the beer. Of course I said yes because I like making beer for large groups.

“What kind of beer would you like,” I asked with thoughts of flavorful Belgian beers, rich porters, or maybe a strong IPA.

“My favorite beer is Stella Artois. Can you make Stella?” she asked. That wasn’t the Belgian beer I was expecting.

Stella Artois is a lager you can find in most stores.

If you haven’t had a Stella Artois, you probably haven’t tried looking. It’s a very common plain lager ironically from Belgium. Well it’s originally from Belgium, but most of it is made in the U.K. Either way, it’s a mass produced beer from Anheuser-Busch InBev. Basically it’s Belgian Budweiser, even though Budweiser is technically Belgian and Stella is made in the U.K. I’m sure I’ll get some argument on that… but I digress. You can find it in every liquor store and many pubs.

“Sure,” I gulped wondering how I’d make it. While Budweiser, Stella Artois, Heineken, and other similar beers get a bad reputation for being bland, it really is difficult to make a beer taste that… well… bland. Bland really isn’t fair for these beers. They produce a very crisp and clean lager, which can be very difficult to reproduce at the homebrew level. While the style may not be every homebrewer’s favorite, it’s a very popular style for everyone else. I was up for the challenge.

The first thing I did was look to see what others have used for a recipe. I was shocked to see the number of recipes I came across which added wheat malt to the beer. The beer has a very clean profile, and wheat malt just seemed a bit too Hefeweisen to be a part of Stella Artois. Others added a touch of Munich malt, dextrin malt, Vienna malt, Cara Pils, corn sugar and a bazillion other variations. Nothing sounded right. I decided to do more research.

Then I stumbled upon a post from a brewer in Melbourne who claimed he worked at the Stella Artois brewery in Australia (can’t find the original post, but if you know the post I’m talking about, let me know and I’ll link it here). His recipe was exactly what I suspected. He said it was just pilsner malt and Saaz hops. That’s it! He didn’t know the yeast used, but I doubt the yeast used would be commercially available. Stella Artois uses a house yeast like most other major brewers.

Since the beer is 5% ABV, it was very easy to determine the malt bill. Using 9 lbs, 8 ounces of pilsner malt gives you an ABV of about ~5.1%. That’s close enough for me but if you want to shave an ounce or two, go for it. There are no other grains in the beer.

I used a single infusion mash at 150 F and let it go for 60 minutes. You want a very fermentable wort, since this beer is really crisp. Any warmer and you’ll get a beer which is maltier that Stella Artois.

The hop flavor and nose are very subtile, so there shouldn’t be too much hop to the beer. Most reviews I found put the beer in the low 20s for IBUs. I went with 22 IBUs. I’m adding 1.5 ounces of hops at the beginning of the boil, and then another 0.5 ounces 5 minutes before the end of the boil.

You'll want to make a good starter for this beer.

Yeast is the “trickiest” part of this beer. As I mentioned before, their yeast isn’t likely to commercially available. I made a guess and went with your basic German lager yeast (White Labs WPL 830 German Lager Yeast). You might try the WPL 850 Copenhagen Lager yeast if you can find it. Either way I’d ferment on the lower end of the yeast’s temperature range, about 50F – 52F. This will give you a cleaner flavor.

You will also want to make a good starter for this beer. While the beer isn’t high in alcohol, you don’t want any off-flavors creeping into your beer. A good healthy starter for this lager will go a long way to perfecting your Stella Artois.

The final recipe was

9 lbs 8 ounces German Pilsner 1.5 oz Saaz (@60 min) 0.5 Saaz (@5 min) Irish Moss WPL 830 German Lager Yeast 7.0 gal pre boil, 5 gal

Since this beer is so light in color, you’ll want to make sure you use finings to help the beer clear. I always use Irish Moss when making this beer, and I add it for the last 10 minutes of the boil. After fermentation, I also let this beer lager for a month. This helps the beer clear even more.

Ultimately I ended up with a good approximation of Stella Artois. The keg didn’t last very long, and everyone agreed it tasted like Stella Artois. Mission accomplished!

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Photos from 2010 Great American Beer Festival

DJ Spiess — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 21:40:13 +0000

This year at the Great American Beer Festival, there seemed to be many more oak infused, oak aged, and oak fermented beers. Most of the beers were very strong and aged in whiskey barrels. I think this might be why the night seemed to go like this:

sober
buzzed
buzzed
buzzed
who turned out the lights?!?

Luckily I took pictures of the brewery banners for the beers I liked, because I’d never remember them otherwise.

Me sporting my pretzel necklace before the GABF

I do have to give a special shout out to Kristen at Baby Brewing for giving me an awesome “Daddy needs a beer t-shirt” in exchange for one of my pretzels. We found each other on twitter before the Great American Beer Festival when I posted pics of my pretzel necklace. I found her booth during the night, gave her a pretzel based on the awesome pretzel recipe from BeerSmith’s website, and I scored a cool t-shirt. Who says Twitter isn’t great for networking!! If you haven’t seen her shirts, you should go check them out. They also have very cute shirts for the girls too!

Most of what you remember in past years was still there. They continue to have the Silent Disco (a cute joke years ago). They also had cooking presentations, but the festival is so large I had difficulty finding anything other than beer. Luckily the beer is what I was there for!

I laughed hard when I saw this ad.

I thought this was the most unique form of advertising I saw at the show. I don’t think too many of the women saw this one, unless they were hitting the whiskey barrel brews more than I was! Kudos to Cascade Lakes Brew for this clever ad.

The costumes at the show are getting fewer and fewer. I’m not sure why this is. My guess is the number of attendees is growing each year, which makes it harder to find the people wearing costumes.

Well these are better late than never, right? Here’s what you missed at the 2010 Great American Beer Festival.

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Review: Newcastle Summer Ale

DJ Spiess — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 03:06:53 +0000

I got an email a few weeks ago from Newcastle asking if I’d like to try their new beer. Of course I said yes, never turning down a free beer, and they shipped one out to me right away. The beer has the familiar Newcastle logo, but brighter summer colors. So here’s what I thought.

Looks

The Newcastle Summer Ale has a clear gold color. The beer is very clear, so clear it almost looks like a lager. The beer had a slight head, but the foam dissipated very quickly. I had troubles keeping enough head in the glass to take a picture. The carbonation was quite strong, like champagne, which might be why the head disappeared quickly. The bubbles were quite large.

Newcastle's new offering: Summer Ale

Aroma

The Newcastle Summer Ale has a very faint hop aroma. It’s actually very faint, but you can pick up slight smells of grass, and maybe caramel? It was hard to tell what kind of malt was coming through. The label of the beer says “Hops and Glory”, but the hops weren’t really dominant in the aroma.

Taste

The beer is very crisp and clean, again more like a lager than an ale. The Newcastle Summer Ale is very thin, but I think it’s supposed to be that way. The beer is only 4.4% ABV, and it’s supposed to be more of a session beer. There is a good bitter aftertaste to the beer, but I couldn’t pick out the hop type. It was just a solid bitterness. The beer also was quite carbonated as I noted in the looks section, almost soda like. The Summer Ale had a champagne mouthfeel.

Results

Overall I thought the beer was ok. It’s not going to be as popular as Newcastle Brown Ale, but it does make a good lawnmower beer or a good session beer for a hot day. I guess that’s why they call it “Summer Ale”. It will quench your thirst, but you won’t feel too tipsy to mow the rest of the lawn after knocking back a few of these bitters. I’d give the beer 6 sunny days out of 10.

Brewery: Scottish & Newcastle UK Ltd.
Country of Origin: United Kingdom, Scottland
Style: English Bitter
ABV: 4.4% ABV
Serving Type: 12oz Bottle

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Wordless Wednesday: Drinking in Boulder

DJ Spiess — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 03:56:42 +0000

So where was I? Leave your guesses down below in the comments!

Where am I drinking?

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Liquor Love

Petra Spiess — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 03:46:45 +0000

Humans are the only species on Earth known to voluntarily consume ethanol. The vast majority of other species have evolved an avoidance for what is essentially a biological poison. Drunk animals are more likely to die and therefore less likely to reproduce, so a trend towards sobriety echoes down the ages in most species. Except us. We will not only go to great lengths to obtain alcohol—even when it is illegal—but we will also consume so much of it we can become ill or die. Why?

It’s Chemical

For most people, drinking small to moderate amounts of alcohol is a pleasurable experience. The pleasure we humans derive from drinking is thought to be due to the effect of alcohol on the brain. A 2009 study conducted in rats found small to medium amounts of alcohol stimulate the release of endorphins—brain “feel good” chemicals. The mechanism is thought to be the same in humans and could be responsible for the slight euphoria many people experience after drinking. Interestingly, the high doses of alcohol were not associated with a greater release of these feel good chemicals.

As many studies can attest, humans will do all sorts of crazy crap to feel good, especially if we can get away with it without being eaten by a predator. Seeing as we are on the top of the food chain essentially and can rely on fellow humans to help us when we are impaired, the potential evolutionary costs of drinking are mitigated for our species. Hence frat parties.

It’s Social Bonding

Alcohol is not referred to as a “social lubricant” for nothing. The consumption of alcohol is known to decrease anxiety and to lower inhibitions in humans, leading sometimes to easier and more enjoyable social interactions. Anecdotally, this is most certainly the case at holiday dinners with otherwise barely tolerable family members. Many important human celebratory events frequently involve alcohol: weddings, birthday parties, holiday parties. Culturally, social drinking is highly acceptable and encouraged—solitary drinking however, is not. Alcohol consumption by humans is closely tied to the fact we are social species.

The use of alcohol in social bonding situations is heavily influenced by culture, even how people behave when drunk is culturally determined and varies from place to place. There is social significance even, to the type of alcohol consumed, it communicates social status information. For example: wine = higher class, educated consumer. Pabst Blue Ribbon = lower class, less educated or ironical hipster (depending on context).

The socializing aspect of drinking alcohol is perhaps the reason for its enduring persistence across most human cultures and most human times—even in the face of its potentially negative biological effects (but perhaps positive theological effects e.g. holding onto the toilet praying you will never drink again if you will stop puking).

It’s a Hobby

Generally speaking, the consumption of alcohol is not considered a hobby unless you happen to be a wine or beer connoisseur. Wine drinking and collecting has become a very popular pastime in the U.S., and a similar situation is occurring with craft beer. There is entire culture and product market surrounding these drinking related hobbies (especially with wine). In addition to the hobby of drinking alcohol, there is a huge hobby related industry for making it at home, both beer and wine. A significant aspect of both types of alcohol related hobbies (the collecting/consuming and the making) is also social as evidenced by the many beer and wine festivals held around the country each year.

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Wordless Wednesday: Hops are on the way

DJ Spiess — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 03:59:27 +0000

My hops are getting close to harvest. These are my Spalt hops, and I use them mostly for lagers.

These are my Spalt hops!

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Beer makes you more attractive… to mosquitoes

DJ Spiess — Thu, 27 May 2010 05:04:58 +0000

After several beers, you tend to think you’re a bit better looking than you are. Now researchers have scientific proof, you really are more attractive to females when you drink beer. The bad news is you’re more attractive to female mosquitoes.

How mosquitoes find dinner

Mosquitoes use olfactory cues to find their victims. Every person smells a bit different due to different hygiene, diets, or general health conditions. The more attractive the smell, the more likely you’ll be mosquito bait. Some studies have shown pregnant women attract mosquitoes, but I’m not sure what pregnant women and beer drunks have in common. Finding out why some people are more attractive to mosquitoes than others is important, because mosquitoes are vectors for diseases like malaria or West Nile virus. Determining what attracts mosquitoes and neutralizing the attracting scent can play an important role in preventing the spread of diseases. In a study titled Beer Consumption Increases Human Attractiveness to Malaria Mosquitoes by Thierry Lefèvre et al, researchers found people who drink beer smell better to mosquitoes. I guess the mosquitoes know a party when they smell one.

Beer makes you attractive to mosquitoes

25 of the human subjects were asked to drink a liter of beer, while 18 unlucky (or possibly lucky) subjects were given a liter of water. The researchers placed 50 adult female mosquitoes (Anopheles gambiae Giles sensu stricto) who had never eaten blood (read “very hungry”) in a cup downwind from both a subject and an open air vent. At a point in their flight, the mosquitoes have to choose between open air or human stink. The mosquitoes showed a preference for the subjects who drank beer.

This is the setup for the experiment. One of the paths led to the beery subject, the other led to fresh air. No beer drinkers were harmed in the experiment. (image from paper)

The mosquitoes were counted by the number motivated enough to fly upwind, and those smart enough to pick the path which led to a stinky human. Beer consuming subjects significantly motivated more mosquitoes to fly upwind. 47% of the total number of mosquitoes flew upwind for beer drinkers, compared to 38% flying upwind for water drinkers. Of the mosquitoes who flew upwind, 65% picked the correct path to the beery victim compared to 47% picking the path to the water drinking subject. For beer drinkers (and the mosquitoes), that sucks.

All of the subjects were tested before and after drinking their beverage, so it wasn’t just luck that the beer group smelled better. The increase didn’t happen until after they pounded the beer. Their CO2 production (breathing) and body temperature had no effect on attracting mosquitoes. The big question is “why beer”?

Why beer might make you more attractive

The study really doesn’t say why the mosquitoes prefer beer drinkers. It would be interesting to see if the results are the same after consuming a shot of vodka. Since they mention pregnant women are more attractive to mosquitoes than other human snack bars, I wonder if the attraction is hormonal. There are hormones in hops, so that could be a link. A test with vodka could rule out this possibility. It is also possible multiple factors make some humans tastier than others, and hormones are just one attractant.

Lesson learned: when your at your next beer picnic, bring the DEET (N,N-Diethyl-meta-toluamid).

(Source: Lefèvre T, Gouagna L-C, Dabire KR, Elguero E, Fontenille D, et al. (2010) Beer Consumption Increases Human Attractiveness to Malaria Mosquitoes. PLoS ONE 5(3): e9546. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0009546)

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Proof beer and video cameras exist in Europe too!

DJ Spiess — Thu, 20 May 2010 20:07:05 +0000

This actually looks fun (minus the end part), but I’m sure the idea was conceived after a few pints!

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What you need to know about adding oak to beer

DJ Spiess — Tue, 04 May 2010 04:32:13 +0000

Oak is commonly used in winemaking, but lately there is interest in putting the oak in beer. Oak can give your beer different flavors from vanilla to whiskey depending on the type of oak used.

Oak barrels are lots of work, but you can carbonate the beer at the same time.

Types of oak for your beer

There are many different types of oak. Oak usually comes in three varieties, American, Hungarian, and French. The American oak gives the strongest oak flavor, while French oak gives subtler notes with other sweeter flavors like vanilla. Hungarian oak is in the middle between these two extremes.

Each of these oak varieties can also be toasted to different levels (usually light, medium, or heavy), but I’ve also seen medium-heavy and other combinations of toasting classifications. The darker the oak is, the heavier the oak is toasted. Toasting brings out some of these flavors and changes other flavors. For example, heavy toasting will give more carbonized or caramelized flavors.

Other than the origin and toasting of the oak, the oak also varies on the shape and form of the oak. You do not necessarily need to use a barrel, since your beer will not care where it gets the oak flavor. Each form of oak does have it’s advantages and trade-offs.

Oak Chips

The most common oak additive sold is oak chips. These chips look like wood shavings. They have the most surface area, so they will deliver oak flavor to your beer very quickly. This can be an advantage, or a disadvantage depending on your goals. The other problem with oak chips is they are very messy. You best bet is to use a sterilized bag with these, otherwise you’ll need to find a way to separate the chips from your beer. And don’t make the mistake I did and assume the garbage disposal can chop them into a fine pulp. It can’t.

Oak Cubes

Cubes are also common. The wood cubes have less surface area than the wood chips, so the oak flavor is delivered slightly slower. The advantage of cubes is the cubes are much easier to separate from your beer.

These oak spirals give great flavor and are very easy to clean and reuse.

Oak Spirals

Sprials or staves are becomming more common, but not all homebrew stores have them. Oak spirals are a mix between chips and cubes. The spiral has a large surface area so they quickly provide flavor like wood chips, but they are even easier than cubes to use. There is only one stick you add and remove from your beer. The disadvatage is the spirals are much more expensive than the chips or cubes. You can reuse the sprirals, but they lose their flavor quicker than barrels.

Oak Barrels

Barrels are a mixed bag. The barrels provide the most surface area, but they can be difficult to work with. Barrels can leak, contain bacteria, and are difficult to maintain. Barrels are also expensive. You can however get the most reuse from barrels. Barrels also allow some oxidation, which is usually a bad thing, but in this case it is the flavor you’d looking for.

Used barrels can provide unique flavors. A used whiskey or sherry barrel can impart whiskey flavors to your beer. You do need to be careful with used barrels. A whiskey barrel usually isn’t a problem, but wine barrels must be sanitized before you use it. When you pick a used barrel, make sure it originally housed a flavor you want in your beer.

Ways to add the oak to your beer

You could add your oak to the primary, but I add my oak to the secondary because it’s easier to monitor the oak flavors after the beer has already fermented. You need to taste your beer at different intervals (usually every few weeks) to make sure the oak flavor is where you want it.

Boiling the oak will quickly extract oak flavor into a tea and sanitize the addition at the same time

There are a few ways to add the oak flavor to your beer. You can add the oak directly to the beer, make an “oak tea”, or infuse the oak in an alcohol. Adding oak directly to the beer is the simplest way, and I’ve had good results doing this.

Another way is to make an oak tea. Boil the oak chips covered in an inch of water. Add a bit of the water to your beer and taste it. Continue to add the oak tea until you reach the flavor you’re looking for.

If you are looking to add a bourbon or whiskey flavor, infuse your oak chips in the alcohol of choice for a week. Again add a bit of the alcohol to your beer until you reach the flavor you’re looking for.

The advantage of the second two techniques is you can taste your beer as you add the oak flavor. The first technique requires you to take samples as you go, but it is good for beers which require aging over time such as a barley wine. Allowing your beer to slowly soak in the oak flavor can give it more complex flavors. Beers with shorter aging times, like the IPA, would be better off with the second two techniques.

More Oak Tips

To prepare the oak, do not soak the oak in sanitizer solution. This will just transfer the sanitizer flavor to your beer. Your best bet is to steam the oak chips, cubes, or spirals. Oak barrels require something like Barrel-Kleen, sodium sulfite, or campden tablets.

If you decide you want to use a barrel, make sure it’s a whiskey or sherry barrel. The flavors in your barrel will be in your beer. You don’t want a wine flavor in your beer, so don’t use a wine barrel. (If you’re not sure, pour a bit of a strong red wine in your beer and see what you think).

Personally I recommend you go the cube or spiral route. These have worked the best for me. Barrels are difficult to maintain. Remember the beer doesn’t care where it gets the oak flavor, so it does not matter if you add your beer to the oak (barrel), or if you add your oak to the beer.

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PSA: Don’t drink beer in a police car

DJ Spiess — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 16:20:33 +0000

Another drunk who is gosh darn happy to be arrested

Tasha Lee Cantrell’s, 19, friend had just been arrested in Fort Walton, FL. for a DUI, so she asked the arresting officer for a ride home. On the way to her house the officer heard a can crack open. You’re thinking “oh no she didn’t”, but oh yes she did.

Apparently she was so overcome with thirst, she decided to crack open a can of Steel Reserve (classy choice) right in the back seat of the squad car. The officer heard the can open, and noticed she was drinking something. He stopped the car, found the beer can, and arrested her. Not only was she rewarded with a quenched thirst, she also received an express ride straight to the police station for underage drinking. All of this was captured on the squad car video system. (will this be on the next episode of COPS: Ft. Walton?)

When Tasha was asked by the officer why she thought she could drink the beer in the back seat she replied, “I have no right answer for you.” I’m pretty sure the correct answer is “because I’m stupid”.

She was having a great time in her first mug shot, but it looks like the evening wore as she sobered up. It’s a great beer nut story, but I’m not sure the “guess how stupid I was the night I was arrested” story is really one she’ll want to tell her friends.

(Source: TheSmokingGun)

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Striking for an all-day happy hour

DJ Spiess — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 04:01:25 +0000

I’ve heard of many people getting fired for drinking on the job, but this is the first time I’ve ever heard workers going on strike because they can’t drink on the job. You read that right, Carlsberg workers went on strike yesterday because they can no longer drink beer outside of lunch. The story gets even better. It’s not just the warehouse staff striking, it’s also the drivers.

The drivers for Carlsberg can still drink 3 beers a day at what might have been the best place on Earth to work. Why am I learning about this now?!

Apparently the drivers claim a very old brewery rule stating, “workers can have 3 beers outside lunch hours”. During lunch workers can have as many beers as they want as long as they do not get drunk. The non-driving workers claim they share the right, so when the rule was removed April 1st the warehouse workers went on strike. The rest of the staff, including the drivers who are exempt from the new rule, also went on strike out of sympathy (or they joined the strike because they know an off-site party when they see one).

Carlsberg brewery isn’t disputing the drivers’ right, just the right for the rest of the workers. Drivers can still have three beers “to go” since they do not have time to eat at the cafeteria. The brewer did note the Carlsberg trucks have alcohol locks so the drivers cannot drink too much and drive. Remind me to never drive near a Carlsberg truck if I’m ever in Denmark. Maybe that’s why they have universal health care?

My last job had explicit rules stating you could have one beer at lunch, but you could not return to work for the afternoon and you had to claim it as vacation time. I don’t know what the current policy is at my new job, but I’m pretty sure I can’t have 3 beers during the work day. I’d be ecstatic if they allowed one beer at lunch.

(Source: Sky.com)

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Beer run in a “mow rider”

DJ Spiess — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 01:19:35 +0000

Apparently when trying to avoid a DWI, several beer nuts out there think it’s ok to drive a lawnmower instead of a car. It’s not.

It doesn’t matter what alcohol you’re buying either. Last time it was a wine run, this time it’s a beer run. Both ended with the same results – an arrest.

Joseph Simme of Lancaster, NY, lost his license for previous DWI convictions (that’s plural). You’d think he’d learned his lesson by this point, but it seems he still doesn’t get it. He knew he couldn’t drive his car so he allegedly moved on to his next vehicle of choice, a lawn mower.

After attempting to cross a busy street in his “mow rider”, police caught up with him and arrested him for driving under the influence. According to police reports, Simme blew a 0.14 which is well over the legal limit.

Law says you can't drive one of these drunk. Even bicycles are out in most places.

His only comment was he didn’t know it was illegal to drive a lawnmower intoxicated. When later questioned by a judge, he only replied “no comment”. When you’re caught driving while intoxicated on a lawn mower, I guess there really isn’t anything you can add.

There seems to be some confusion about whether a lawn mower should count. The reasoning is you do not need a license to drive a lawn mower. Still you can cause damage and put yourself and others in harms way if you’re driving a mower drunk. What do you think? Does Simme get his DWI hat-trick in his grass Zamboni?

(Source: WIVB.com)

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Building a recirculating wort chiller

DJ Spiess — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 04:33:01 +0000

I decided I needed to find a better way to chill my beer, so I altered my immersion chiller to recirculate the water.

The problem

For wort chilling, I have always used a counter-flow wort chiller. It worked well and usually reduced the temperature from boiling to about 100 F (38 C). While this was a huge difference in temperature, the temperature was still too warm to pitch yeast.

I also didn’t like the counter-flow chiller because I could never be 100 percent sure the inside of the copper coil was clean. There is no easy way to clean the inside of the wort chiller. I wanted to switch to an immersion chiller since I can see the outside of the coil, but I really didn’t want to waste more water. Counter-flow chillers usually are more efficient with water. It seemed either way I was hosed.

Then one day I saw somewhere on the Internet the idea of just recirculating the water through the immersion chiller. It seemed so obvious, I decided I needed to try it.

The idea behind the recirculating wort chiller is to recirculate an ice bath through the coil until your wort is the correct temperature. The water exiting the coil is hot, but it is not boiling. Toss the used over ice, and it’s cold again to reuse. This method uses significantly less water than if you just ran a hose through the chiller.

Building the recirculating wort chiller

Here’s what your need to recirculate your cooling water:

a pump (I used a march pump)
a reservoir (I used sweater box from Target)
an immersion chiller
tubes to connect the pump, reservoir, and chiller
1/2" nylon barb and nylon connectors
clamps
sealant

I used nylon barbs because they were cheaper than the metal ones, and the nylon ones are all I really need here

To build the connections on the reservoir, I used a nylon barb connected to another nylon connector. You can find these parts at any home improvement store – I got mine at Home Depot. I placed o-rings between the reservoir wall and each nylon piece to help make the connection watertight. The actual parts are not that important as long as everything connects together. I used 1/2″ tubing and connections to increase the flow of water.

I added quick disconnects to ends of the tubing to make it easier to connect to and disconnect from the pump and chiller. The hose connections should be tightened with band clamps.

The flow of the water should go from the reservoir to the pump to the chiller and then back into the reservoir. I put the pump next in line to the reservoir to make it easier to prime the pump. You’ll want to put the input low on one side of the reservoir, and the output high on the other side of the reservoir.

If you use quick disconnects, make sure you get different ones for each side of the wort chiller. I bought two female garden hose connectors by accident, so I needed to get an adapter to attach all the quick disconnects.

I used clamps on all my connections. They are cheap and make the connection tight.

Make sure you test the recirculating wort chiller with water outside before you use it. I tested mine inside first, and quickly discovered I had built a very large sprinkler on my wood floor. After sealing all the leaks, the chiller was ready for gametime.

How the wort chiller worked

The recirculating wort chiller worked very well. While there was ice in the reservoir, the temperature dropped very quickly. I went from 200 F (93 C) to 160 F (71 C) in a few minutes. Getting the temperature to yeast pitching temperatures took longer, but it was because I quickly ran out of ice.

What I’d do different

The wort ran thought all my ice in my fridge and all these ice packs. I need to make more ice next time.

I should have placed the water input and output on different sides of the reservoir. The warm water tended to pool too much on one side. I was able to overcome this by simply stirring the water as the wort chiller did it’s work. If I had placed the input and output on different ends, I would not need to stir the water.

I also ran out of ice very quickly. In the future I think I will freeze blocks of ice to add to the reservoir as needed. I used several ice packs to keep the water cold, but ice worked much better. The ice packs are great to supplement the ice, but they had troubles keeping the water cold on their own. I think the plastic housing of the ice packs was insulating the ice inside.

If you’d like to see more details and pictures, check out the flickr photos!

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In space, no one can hear you peep

DJ Spiess — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 04:43:30 +0000

This is why I should never be left alone with the Easter candy.

Ever. If you want to see bigger versions of the images, click on them.

In space, no one can hear you peep

I wish I could tag the names of the characters, but you all know which one is Veronica Cartwright.

Here comes the face-hugger!

Only click on the next one if you are NOT religious. Otherwise you’ll be on the fast train to hell sitting next to me in the front seat. The picture summons demons and stuff…

HAPPY EASTER!

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Police: Our bad, here’s some beer

DJ Spiess — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 18:55:21 +0000

Beer seems to solve all kinds of police problems. Here in the USA, when police arrested a Harvard professor in his own home the policeman, the professor and President Obama settled the differences over a beer. Now in the UK, Hampshire police are using beer to smooth over one of their own screw ups.

The police busted down the front door of Kayleigh Hill and Anthony McVey in a drug raid gone wrong. The drug peddler they were looking for had long since moved out, and the couple now lived there with their two young children. Apparently someone hadn’t done their detective work.

The officers later returned with flowers and a nice beer worth about £1.79. They also offered to pay for the door.

I would have been happy with the nice bottle of beer and I thought it was a nice gesture, but apparently things are different in the “nanny state”. The officers were given a stern talking to about the “inappropriate” gift. I’m not sure why that was inappropriate, unless they expensed a whole case and the other 23 beers went missing?

(Source: bbc.co.uk)

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Brandy missing from time capsule

DJ Spiess — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 03:16:56 +0000

Where in the world is Somerton, AZ. Yeah I had to look it up too.

A time capsule from way back in 1985 contained letters, photographs, something called a VHS tape, and even a picture of the late President Reagan. The time capsule in Somerton, Arizona was however missing a bottle of Mexican brandy.

Pancho Soto, the Somerton street and solid waste supervisor, says he was part of the crew that buried the time capsule and he expected the bottle to be there when they dug it up from Main Street. He was surprised it was missing.

I’m surprised that

They dug up a “time capsule” 25 years later. What was the rush?
Mexico has brandy? I thought Mexico was tequilla-land.
There’s a Somerton, Arizona?! I went to high school in Scottsdale, AZ, and I’ve never heard of the city. Hooray for public school education!

(Source: Arizona Daily Star)

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Craft brewers need your help

DJ Spiess — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 02:28:52 +0000

H.R. 4278

Federal legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives, H.R. 4278, is a bill which you want to bring to your representative’s attention. The purpose of the bill is to lower taxes on beer produced by smaller brewers.

New legislation like H.R. 4278 could really make a difference in your local craft brew community

The new legislation will reduce the taxes on the first 60,000 barrels to $3.50. The next 1,940,000 barrels will be taxed at $16. According to Harvard University’s John Friedman’s study, Economic Impact of Small Brewers Excise Tax Reduction (H.R. 4278), the new law should create 2,700 new jobs the first 18 months and 375 new jobs each of the following years. It creates new jobs because the money the brewery would be spending on taxes can go to hiring more help and improving their breweries. It’s a win-win situation. H.R. 4278 creates jobs, and it supports the local brewers we love so much.

This new beer law won’t affect the major brewers, but that’s not it’s intent. This bill is designed to help the smaller breweries and brew pubs. Brewers who produce more than 6,000,000 barrels a year cannot take advantage of the new rules. To give you an idea of scale, A-B InBev produces over 300 million barrels of beer a year. H.B. 4278 supports the beers from your local brewery that none of your friends outside your state have heard of. The bill will also help the medium sized brewers making less than 6 million barrels of beer a year. Hopefully it will reduce the price of local beers, and encourage beer lovers to drink locally too.

How to help your local brewer

You never know, this bill could help you start your own small brewery in the future!

Unfortunately this bill is still just a bill sitting on Capitol Hill (Gen-Xers can thank me later for getting that annoying ditty stuck in their heads). This is where you come in. If you want to see this bill become a law, you should contact your local represenative. The Brewer’s Association has created a resource page to help you locate your represenative. On the resource page, you will find a link to a list of current sponsors of H.R. 4278. If your Representative DOES NOT appear on this list, please take a moment and email your Member of Congress to ask them to cosponsor H.R. 4278.

Hopefully we can all help the brewer that gives us the craft beer we love so much, and push this bill into law.

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11 bizarre beers you probably won’t find at your pub!

DJ Spiess — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 05:01:39 +0000

Smoked beer (bacon beer)

When I was at the Great American Beer Festival this year, I only came across one smoked beer. There may have been other smoked beers, but it’s easy to get lost among the thousands of other beers. The funny thing was, the server did not want to pour the beer for me. He said the beer tasted like an ashtray. I already knew what I was in for and requested a pour.

Actually I thought the beer tasted much more like bacon than ash. The beer was a smoked Märzen, similar to the Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Märzen from the 500-year-old brewery in Bamberg, Bavaria, Germany. It’s made with Rauchmalt (smoked malt). If you haven’t tried this beer, it has a VERY smokey flavor and will remind you of bacon. People either love this beer, or they hate it. I haven’t met anyone who didn’t have a strong opinion of this beer.

Lambic

Lindemans Framboise goes great with turkey

Lambic really isn’t that unusual until you’ve seen it ferment. Normally you would ferment a beer with yeast, but lambics also include any random bacteria that happens to be floating by. The bacteria creates some very ugly and scary looking fermentations. The resulting beer is sour and often is accentuated with tart fruits like raspberries or cherries. Many people have tried Lindemans Lambic, which I think tastes like liquid sweet tarts, but other lambics have a more unique flavor (sometimes good, sometimes not so much).

Fish Beer

Drink like a fish, not drink a drink that tastes like a fish!

This is as horrifying as it sounds. Usually when I’m thinking of interesting ingredients to add to beer, fish is not the first ingredient to come to mind. I’m not sure it’s on my list of top 100 ingredients to add to beer. Tosa Kuroshio Karyudo Beer, located in Konan City in Japan’s Kochi Prefecture, created a beer only the Japanese could love.

The fish beer is a 5% ABV beverage created with rice flour and hops in a 4 to 1 ratio. The brewers then added dashi, a fish stock also used in miso soup. I’m not sure if they decided to create this beer after drinking too many normal beers, or as a challenge from Iron Chef Brewer Edition. The dashi is made from dried konbu seaweed and dried Bonito, a fish similar to tuna. So if you like the aftertaste of fish in your beer, this beers for you!

Beer for kids!

It's a beer for kids. It's not alcoholic, but it still would never fly in the USA

The Japanese will remarket just about anything for kids. In a move which would shock the alcohol control boards in most countries, Japan’s Sangaria Beverage Company introduced a beer for kids. It’s not alcoholic, but the beer was designed so children could join in the fun while their parents were getting hammered. Sangaria has a whole line of the fake alcoholic beverages sold individually or in 6-packs, and marketed for children. Some of the “near beers” are golden in color while others are dark brown, and both produce a nice head of foam.

Blue beer

I’ve seen green beer served at St. Patrick’s Day celebrations, but that beer is usually some light beer like Budweiser with green food coloring added. This beer (again created by the Japanese) starts out blue. They also have a lime green and bright red beer. These beers are brought to you by the Abashiri microbrewery located Japan’s northernmost island of Hokkaido. They are also the came company which brought you great beers like Scallop Beer and Bilk.

Bilk

Speaking of Bilk , this beer might turn your stomach a bit. I think when Abashiri thought of this beer the conversation went something like this:

“We need more women buying our beer. What do women like drinking?”

“My wife drinks a lot of milk.”

“Lets make a beer that tastes like milk!”

“What do we call it?”

“BILK!”

And after the conversation bilk was born. Bilk is a beverage one-third milk and two-thirds beer. The idea actually was suggested by a liquor store manager who sought to use large surpluses of milk from a local dairy. The drink is reported to have a sweet flavor, probably from the lactose in the milk which brewer’s yeast cannot ferment.

Boza for boobies!

There’s a rumor going around that beer will increase the bust size of women. One beer called Boza beer from Bulgaria claimed to be the best beer at turning “sweater kittens” into “watermelon-sized cats”. There is no science behind the claim, but it didn’t stop European men making the drive to Bulgaria for the breast-enhancing beer. I guess they figured, “just in case”.

Pizza Beer

Someone orders a few too many beers at a pizza joint, and the next thing you know someone at the Pizza Beer Company is throwing pizza into the beer. Mamma Mia! Pizza Beer includes oregano, basil, tomato and garlic as adjuncts in the beer. The reviews seem to be quite mixed for this beer, ranging from “very pizza-like” to “pizza flavored Pringles”. I’d love to hear what others think of this beer.

“The Thing” beer

You’ve probably heard of aging beer. How about making beer from old yeast – really old yeast? The Fossil Fuels Brewing Company, having never seen a sci-fi movie about reviving ancient micro-organisms, harvested yeast from inside a Lebanese weevil covered in ancient Burmese amber which lay dormant for up to 45 million years. That is some very old yeast! Tasters say the beer is actually good, and has a very spicy aftertaste.

Cock Ale

I once made a clone beer of Old Speckled Hen and called it Old Freckled Cock. Luckily this beer isn’t what it sounds like. Not that cock. Cock Ale is made with chicken. It starts out sounding innocent, adding hops, malt and sugar. Then you take a third of a well-crushed chicken, presumably the meat parts, and add it to your fermenting beer on the second day. The recipe does specify the chicken should be cooked. I can’t imagine this tastes anything other than fowl.

OPB – Original Pussy Beer

This beer is what it sounds like. Put enough drunk guys together, they will eventually try to merge their two favorite things. Scary thing is it was a girl’s idea! A Seattle woman donated a small amount of her own yeast for the fermentation of the beer. Her site claims ancient Sumerian beers made by women inspired her to add her crotch yeast, but her added yeast isn’t even the same family let alone the same genus or species as beer yeast. A completely different yeast is used for beer and bread. It is likely her yeast was quickly out-competed by the brewer’s yeast. I don’t think her yeast would give it that ‘tang-y taste you’re expecting. Still it’s very odd someone would even consider this. Is this a beer you’d want to try?

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Great AZ Beer Festival Pub Crawl

DJ Spiess — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 04:59:35 +0000

WHAT: The 2nd annual Light Rail Pub Crawl by The Great Arizona Beer Festival features some of the Valley’s best destinations for craft beer, food and drink specials and prize drawings for tickets to the upcoming Great Arizona Beer Festival presented by azcentral.com, as well as other merchandise. Participation in the pub crawl is free. Guests must be 21 or over. Participants ride the Light Rail to each designated location. A food or beverage purchase at each venue during Pub Crawl hours qualifies guests to enter the raffle. One pair of General Admission tickets to the upcoming 22nd annual Great Arizona Beer Festival presented by azcentral.com will be drawn at each location. The Grand Prize of VIP festival tickets will be given away at the final destination.

The VIP Experience at The Great Arizona Beer Festival is presented by 944 magazine. Festival tickets are ordinarily $40 in advance/$50 at the gate for general admission, $80 in advance/$90 at the gate for VIP admission, and $20 (or $30 in VIP) for designated drivers. Festival tickets are also available for purchase at advance prices at each location along the pub crawl as well as at other participating pubs and retail outlets and at www.azbeer.com . The annual Great Arizona Beer Festival presented by azcentral.com is the primary fund-raising event for Sun Sounds of Arizona, a reading service for people who are blind or whose disability prevents them from reading printed material, such as newspapers, magazines and best-selling books.

Follow the Great Arizona Beer Festival on Twitter at GreatAZBeerFest and also on Facebook and MySpace for pre-event contests and opportunities to win free Light Rail passes for the Pub Crawl.

WHEN: The Great Arizona Beer Festival’s Light Rail Pub Crawl will be held on Saturday, Feb. 20th from 2:00 – 7:30 p.m. with the following schedule of stops.

WHERE: First stop: 2 – 3 p.m. @ SunUp Brewing (f.k.a. Sonoran Brewhouse) – 322 E Camelback Rd, Phoenix, AZ 85012, (602) 279-8909 Second stop: 3:30 – 4:30 p.m. @ Coach & Willie’s – 412 S 3rd Street, Phoenix, AZ 85004, (602) 254-5272 Third stop: 5 – 6 p.m. @ Gordon Biersch – 420 S Mill Ave # 201, Tempe, AZ 85281, (480) 736-0033 Final stop: 6 – 7:30 p.m. @ Dave’s Electric Brew Pub – 502 South College Avenue, Tempe, AZ 85281, (480) 967-5353

PUBLIC CONTACT: For more information visit www.azbeer.com or e-mail gazbf2010@gmail.com

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LA St. Patricks Day Charity Event

DJ Spiess — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 04:53:37 +0000

St. Patrick’s Day meets Hollywood at the 2010 LA St. Patrick’s Day Festival in Hollywood.

Live music, folk dancing, sing-a-longs plus great food and entertainment, and did we mention the Beer, Wine and Spirits!

When: Sunday, March 14, 2010 2pm – 7 pm

Where: Taglyan Complex 1201 N. Vine Street Hollywood, CA

What: A Beer, Wine and Spirits festival in the heart of Hollywood at Sunset and vine. Featuring Beers, Wines, and Spirits from all around the world paired with cheeses, sausages and other great foods. Great entertainment including Beer Pong and Live karaoke band, 80’s bands and more…

Why: St. Patrick’s Day Festival is produced by Barcelona Enterprises to raise funds for the Children’s Tumor Foundation and the Irish Center of Los Angeles.

LA St. Patricks Day Charity Event

Breweries, wineries, spirits and great snack foods…. A selection of Sausages, Cheeses, Gourmet deli Meats and breads to recreate a typical Irish meal

Tullamore Dew Irish Whiskey
Feckin Irish Whiskey
New Belgium Brewing Company
Asahi
Asahi Black
Ventura Limoncello Company
Feckin Irish Whiskey
Firestone DBA (Double Barrel)
Firestone Pale 31
Buckbean Beer
RND Vodka
Marani Vodka
Barefoot Wine & Bubbly
Fireman’s Brew
Hamilton Cellars (wines, champagnes, and dessert wines from California Italy and France)
Cabot Cheeses
Edison Beer and Moonshot
Ballast Point Brewing Company
Karl Strauss Brewing Company
ARGCA Imports (Argentinean Malbec)
Krol Vodka
Pacifico Sur Tutunjuan Wine and Talin Cellars
Pig N’ Whistle
Tequila Capaz & Tequila 55
Angel Bendito Tequila
See’s Candies
Teteo Tequila
Boar’s Head
Nakhon Beer
Everybody’s Nuts Pistachios
Pyramid Breweries
For more information on the many special activities planned for the weekend, visit www.StPattysfest.com or call (213) 915-8003

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Party animals – Do animals get drunk?

Petra Spiess — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 05:02:55 +0000

Pissed Pacyderms

Stories of drunk wild elephants have a long history in Africa. Supposedly elephants get sloshed by eating the fermented fruits of the marula tree. Hilarious footage of an elephant purportedly doing just that is included in the 1974 animal documentary “Animals are Beautiful People” but in 2006, researchers showed plowed pachyderms are just a myth. In the paper “Myth, marula, and elephant: an assessment of voluntary ethanol intoxication of the African elephant” published in Physiological and Biochemical Zoology, researchers calculated an adult African elephant would have to consume an unrealistic number of overripe marula fruits to get the job done and concluded “there is no clear evidence of inebriation in the field”. What explains the persistence of drunk elephant stories then? The lead author, when discussing the paper with National Geographic, explained: “People just want to believe in drunken elephants”—undoubtedly one of the funniest quotes ever in scientific journalism.

Drunk elephants are funny, but are there drunk elephants? (image from Olivier Delaere)

Elephants may not become intoxicated under natural conditions, but there is evidence elephants can develop a taste for human alcoholic beverages and turn into mean-ass drunks. There are many reported incidents of elephants in India seeking out and drinking human made rice beer. They subsequently tear shit up or even join the not so exalted ranks of drunken Darwin award winners by getting themselves killed. In 2004, a group of elephants reportedly drank rice beer in a remote Indian village, started getting rowdy, and knocked down an electrical pole on themselves, killing 4 of them (God who had to clean that up?).

Blitzed Birds and Skunked Shrews

The only thing more dangerous than driving while drunk is flying when drunk. There are many, many reports of birds —cedar waxwings in particular—getting smashed figuratively and literally on berries that have fermented. Getting drunk for birds often ends the same way it can for humans, that is to say, badly. The most common reports are of drunk birds flying right into buildings/windows or passing out, falling from trees and dying from the impact. I could find little evidence that birds ever get drunk for fun; it happens by accident when berries ferment under certain conditions and the birds are unable to distinguish a fermented berry from a normal one. Symptoms of drunkenness in birds can mimic symptoms of sickness from illness such as the bird flu, which as you can imagine, really freaks people out.

There is very little evidence that the vast majority of animals seek out and consume ethanol when it occurs naturally. This makes sense as animals do not have the infrastructure to protect them from their own bad decisions—such as police officers, ambulances, hospitals, and stomach pumps. If Jonny roadrunner eats fermented cactus fruit, gets smashed and passes out in the middle of Southern Ave in Tempe, Arizona, there won’t be any cadre of his fellow birds picking him up, he’ll be killed. Contrast that to the college student that once shared an emergency room with me with a near fatal blood alcohol content of 0.4 found under the same circumstances—he lived—thanks to the diligent work of his fellow humans. Animals don’t have that luxury. There are studies in fact, that show when fruit bats get accidentally intoxicated, they seek out a type of sugar that helps them sober up faster. We know that’s not the case with frat boys.

Despite this, there are a few animals that have been found to naturally consume ethanol, in particular a Malaysian treeshrew that likes to drink the fermented nectar of the bertam palm tree. However, the tippling treeshrew does not show any observable signs of drunkenness (where’s the fun in that?). Researchers theorize that the ethanol still has some type of pleasurable neurological effect the shrew gets in exchange for acting as a pollinator for the tree.

Sober Primates (excluding us)

So what about our closest relatives, other primates? Turns out they are part of the temperance movement. Katharine Milton, a researcher looking into the evolutionary history of human fondness for ethanol, conducted a survey of primatologists covering 22 different primate species. Specifically she asked at what stage of ripeness monkeys preferred to eat fruit. Not one out of 22 species preferred overripe fruit (fruit with the most ethanol), and it appeared all species in fact, studiously avoided the ethanol containing fruit. Asked if any primatologists had ever observed what appeared to be intoxicated behaviors, only two incidents out of combined thousands of hours of observations were reported, leading the researcher to hypothesize that drunkenness in primates happens very infrequently. This makes sense as a drunk monkey is more likely to end up a dead monkey.

So what does sobriety in our closest relatives have to say about the human predilection for drinking ethanol till we puke? Alcoholic consumption is most likely cultural instead of biological. “As cultural animals, humans have little innate nutritional wisdom,” says Milton, “and for this reason may have unusual difficulty in determining when it is prudent to quit ingesting ethanol”. No shit, right? See prime example above of drunken- passed-out-on-Southern Avenue Arizona frat boy. Our fondness for the stuff, according to Milton, is also apparently fueled by existential angst. “Humans also appear to be the only animals with a highly developed sense of self-awareness and thus they may be the only animals that might wish to escape from their own consciousness”. Having on more than one occasion used alcohol for this exact reason, couldn’t have said it better myself.

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Beer bottles vs. the sun

DJ Spiess — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 05:04:52 +0000

When light strikes beer, the beer can become skunked. This flavor and aroma is described as tasting like onion and smelling like the nasty stuff that shoots out of a pissed-off striped mammal. The skunky flavor comes from the compound 3-methylbut-2-ene-1-thiol, or MBT for short. MBT is formed by the degradation of iso-α-acids in the presence of a photosensitizer (like riboflavin) and some source of sulphur. Simply put if you expose your beer to light, a photochemical reaction happens and produces the skunky stuff. It doesn’t take much MBT either. Sensory tests demonstrate the olfactory threshold for MBT is only a few parts per billion. So how do brewers prevent MBT formation?

The simplest way to stop the reaction is keep out the light, hence brown bottles. So why brown and not green bottles?

Green bottles vs. brown/amber bottles

Glass is made from silica (sand) and other substances. The other substances added during the glass production determines the color of the glass. To make a green bottle, you add metals such as iron, chromium or copper to the molten glass during production. Brown bottles are made adding nickel, sulfur and carbon. The other substances “block” different light wavelengths. Green bottles are more effective at blocking certain wavelengths, while brown bottles work better for other wavelengths.

Does it matter what kind of glass the beer bottle is made of?

Bottles obviously do not block out all light. If the bottle did reflect all light, the bottles would be solid white and you could not see the beer inside the bottle. The bottle could also be another color and completely opaque to block all incoming light. Beer makers do not use opaque bottles due to cost, although some brewers are experimenting with aluminum “bottles”. The question here is: which wavelengths of light do you want to block from your beer?

Light with more energy accelerates the reaction which forms MBT and thus causes more damage to beer. Lower wavelength light has more energy, so a bottle which is more effective at blocking lower wavelength would be better at protecting beer. As you’ve probably guessed, brown glass is more effective at blocking lower wavelengths. Brown glass is better than olive glass which is better than green glass which is better than clear glass. Clear glass offers no protection at all. That’s why many brewers use brown glass for their beers.

Why would you use green or clear beer bottles?

Many beers still use clear or green glass. The knee-jerk response for an explanation from many beer lovers is “only the crappy macro swill comes in clear glass, it ships skunked”. Well yes, but there are many good beers in clear glass too – Newcastle Brown Ale and Old Speckled Hen are notable examples. There are many good beers in green bottles too. So why are these beers not light struck?

Blocking light is the easiest way to prevent skunking beer, but it’s not the only method nor is it the best method. Remember MBT forms from the degradation of iso-α-acids in the presence of a photosensitizer. Brown bottles remove the light, but you could also remove the unstable iso-α-acids. Many larger breweries use a hop extract which is modified so it cannot become light struck. This process is costly, but it works and it’s more reliable because even beer in brown glasses will form MBT within a few hours if exposed to direct sunlight. Another method patented by Busch adds 1,8-Cineole (Eucalyptol) to the beer to prevent MBT from forming. Using these techniques, it doesn’t matter what color bottle is used for the beer.

Love in the can

The best package for beer is cans. In the past there was some resistance to cans, again because “only the crappy macro swill comes in cans”. Now that many craft brewers are discovering cans will keep their product safer much longer, this resistance is quickly disappearing. Unfortunately, canning beer is still out of reach for the homebrewer.

Cans are the perfect beer container!

If you’re planning on bringing your homebrew beer to the pool or beach, your best option is to use a keg. It’s as close to a can as you can reasonably get. If you are stuck with bottles, make sure to use a beer cozy and drink fast.

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The Grand Days of Prohibition

DJ Spiess — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 17:19:37 +0000

When you hear about prohibition (in the USA during 1920-1933 alcohol was illegal) , people tend to glamorize how the sneaky partiers were always one step ahead of Johnny Law. You hear about the glamorous secret parties, the underground tunnels between establishments, and the bathtub homebrewers. It was a time where the little guy thumbed his nose at the law. Unfortunately it was not all fun and games. Prohibition was serious business.

The Italian Job

My great-grandfather, Louis Circo, was a poor Italian worker living with his family in Garcia Plaza (the tent city near Trinidad, Colorado). He had worked in the coal mines, but at the time he was out of work. Like so many others, he was desperate to make ends meet for his family. Circo was approached by another Italian man for a “job”. This story almost sounds like something out of a Godfather movie.

Louis Circo didn’t tell his family what he was doing. My great-grandmother Josephine knew something was up, because men would come to the door and my great-grandfather would leave with them. Josephine did not like the men and could tell they were up to no good. She wasn’t happy about the situation, but stayed quiet.

My great-grandfather was going up into the foothills to make bootleg whiskey. To this day, no one in the family knows exactly how the transactions went. We know there was one man who was the contact, and two other men who were not seen. The trio and Louis Circo were making bootleg whiskey in the foothills, but we’re not sure who was buying it. It was most likely the local underground bars in the neighboring towns or possibly organized crime. One day while travelling to the foothills, the bootlegging business did not go as planned.

The Aftermath

My family thinks Louis Circo was sold out to protect a bigger operation. He might have just been unlucky. It’s a piece of the story we will never know. For some reason, the police followed him to the whiskey site. He was the only person arrested, and the only person of the group convicted of illegal bootlegging. Louis Circo spent six months in Canon City Penitentiary.

Naturally my great-grandmother was very upset and horribly humiliated. She was left to fend for herself during the depression with three children. She stayed with my great-grandfather, because no one divorced back then. My grandmother remembers going with her brother and sister to visit her father once a week while he was in prison.

When Louis Circo got home, things changed. He stayed at home and did the cooking and caring for the kids. My great-grandmother would work all day because it’s hard for ex-cons to find work, especially during this harsh period of American history. When she came home she would leave soon after. Their marriage didn’t end in divorce, but for all concerned it was over. The crime, the shame of the arrest and prison, and prohibition wrecked the family.

I can’t say he would not have run afoul with the law if prohibition did not happen, the times were hard. Prohibition provided the situation, and Louis Circo made a poor choice. I can see how the seriousness of the crime could be trivialized when the amendment banned alcohol. I do not believe I would give up homebrewing, especially since I’ve brewed for so many years. It is hard to think of alcohol as a crime.

When you raise a glass today, celebrate your right to a drink. Also remember the lives Prohibition harmed because someone thought to cure a headache with decapitation. The right to drink is a serious right, so make sure no one takes it from you ever again.

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Zythophile’s response

DJ Spiess — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 16:17:00 +0000

Here’s Zythophile’s response to my Is the IPA myth a myth? article. It was in the original comment system, and I didn’t want to lose it.

Response

An excellent attack on my theory, which probes a number of weaknesses, for which I thank you. However, there are a number of points I’d like to respond to (which I’ve had to split into several parts, as the whole thing is apparently too long for your blogging software to cope with:

“A beer can make it (and many did), but the chances are not in your favor. Because other beers can make the journey (in some percentage) is not a reason to claim there is no problem to solve.”

But a book called The East India Vade Mecum, a guide to people going out to India to work for the East India Company, and published in 1810, said: “Porter, pale ale and table beer of great strength are often drank after meals: all these are found in the utmost perfection, for indifferent malt liquors do not stand the voyage; and, even should they arrive in a sound state, would meet no sale.” So it wasn’t just pale ale, but, indeed, porter and table beer that were making it to India successfully. This quote also counters your claim that IPA couldn’t possibly be strong because “high alcohol beers cause dehydration when over consumed” – the British in India were evidently very happy to consume “beer of great strength”. (All the same, I don’t believe IPAs sold in India were any stronger than those sold in Britain, that is, about six to seven per cent abv.) My idea in introducing very strong October beers into the discussion, though, was to show that before the arrival of IPA, brewers already knew how to make well-hopped beers that would last for years. But not all October beers were very strong, although they were generally “stock” ales, that is, made to age, with plenty of hops, and what I was trying to show was that IPA was in no real way different from”stock” bitter beers being produced by many other brewers.

“To show Hodgson did not create the style, you would need to show another true IPA existed before Hodgson’s India Ale and was sold as such.”

Well, no, my thesis isn’t that Hodgson didn’t invent IPA, my thesis is that Hodgson sold an already existing style of beer, stock pale bitter ale, to the East Indiamen captains, and that this later became known as India Pale Ale. And Hodgson’s pale ale was not marketed as “India Pale Ale” until the 1830s, only as”pale ale”, with nothing to indicate it was different from other pale ales. Indeed, the name India Pale Ale did not come into being until the 1830s, four decades at least after pale ale was being exported to India. Even the expression “pale ale as prepared for India”, used before the name India Pale Ale arrived.

“while the market was shipping only 9 to 10 thousand barrels a year, nearly all of it was by the Bow Brewery”

No, it wasn’t, even in 1813 the Bow brewery was only shipping 4,000 barrels of beer a year to the east.

“Only a small time brewer could take this market. Larger brewers would not be interested in the market until there was a higher demand for the product.”

But Barclay Perkins, Guinness and other big brewers were exporting beers from the late 18th century, to both the West and East Indies.

“[Hodgson's] beer had two qualities other beers shipped to India did not. His India ales were hoppier and much drier.”

I don’t believe we have any evidence to say that about Hodgson’s beer as opposed to bitter stock beer in general. It certainly seems to have been drier and more bitter than the beer the Burton brewers had been brewing before they turned to the India market. But there is no commentary in any brewing book that I am aware of that would indicate that Hodgson had invented anything special.

“IPAs probably succeeded other beers in India because it was lighter and dryer, both good qualities of a warm season beer (who likes porter on a hot summer day?).

Errr, large numbers of people, actually, which is why stout is still very popular in places such as the West Indies, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Indonesia. As indicated above, there was certainly a market for porter in India: Whitbread continued exporting porter to the East through much, if not all, of the 19th century. And adverts show Hodgson itself was exporting porter and stout. “Hodgson’s beer was known through lore and legend to be the first true India Pale Ale, if not actually documented anywhere. But Hodgson was not credited with the invention of IPA until William Molyneaux in 1869, in a book called Burton-on-Trent, its history, its waters and its breweries, made the claim, and Molyneaux was writing more than 80 years at least after pale ale had begun being regularly exported to India. The Bow brewery itself never made this claim, which surely, if it thought it could get away with the idea, it would have. Michael Jackson, incidentally, was the king of beer writers, but he wasn’t a beer historian: and when he wrote the World Guide to Beer in 1977 there had been little serious investigation into the accepted version of beer history, so he had no reason to doubt what had been repeated for more than a hundred years.

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A very cool hop chart!

DJ Spiess — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:15:41 +0000

I posted this earlier on twitter and it was very popular. This is a very impressive hop chart. It looks like it was done by a designer named Zeke Shore. You can see more about him on his web page, after you’re done drooling over the pretty hop chart. Enjoy!

A very cool hop chart!

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Thanksgiving Day dinner alcohol ideas

Petra Spiess — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:08:40 +0000

Really, pretty much everyone needs or wants a drink at Thanksgiving. It’s the unfortunate truth that a little tipple helps you tolerate old Uncle Bob who will insist on regaling the table with his crazy conspiracy theories for hours on end. Thanksgiving is a holiday notorious for forcing people to be around others they would not normally tolerate but are regretfully related to, so a little alcohol can lubricate normally painful interactions. The key however here, is the word LITTLE—otherwise mixing alcohol and people you can’t stand is bound to end poorly with horribly hurt feelings and/or the cops. The following is a list of good alcohol choices or uses for Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving isn't just for eating turkey!

Lambics

Lambic beers are a specific style of beer with several types but the fruit added lambics are some of the most commonly seen and excellent choices for Thanksgiving drink companions. In particular, the raspberry and cherry lambics go great with turkey. Samuel Adams offers a cranberry lambic every year that might be fun to offer guests. Lambics are known for their somewhat tart and sour taste. Combined with the fruit additions the beer is very sweet and sour, although some brands such as Lindemans are much more sweet than others (I’ve heard Lindemans framboise (raspberry) described as “liquid sweet tarts”). Lindemans’ lambics also have very nice looking labels and can add to a Thanksgiving tablescape or buffet.

Lindemans Framboise goes great with turkey

Basting Turkey with Bourbon

Bourbon is an excellent addition to a Thanksgiving meal and can come in handy in many holiday situations. Basting a cooking turkey with bourbon gives it a very nice flavor. Just have a cup of bourbon next to the oven and when you baste the turkey with pan juices, throw a few tablespoons of bourbon in too. Of course, the baster may need some for themselves as well. A little for Tom, a little for you. Makes cooking turkey a hell of a lot more interesting. Bourbon is also a common ingredient for turkey glazes and gravies.

Pumpkin Beers and Cider

There are quite a few different pumpkin beers on the market. Most use spices reminiscent of pumpkin pies such as allspice, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. Some brewers add pieces of pumpkin to the mash, others add a puree of pumpkin, no matter how it’s made, pumpkin beer is a fun and unusual fall themed drink for this fall holiday. There are few drinks more associated with fall than cider. Shockingly many people have never had alcoholic cider and think of it only as a non-alcoholic fall kiddie drink. Hard cider is actually very easy to make if you wish to deeply impress your guests—although if you haven’t made it before, do a test batch a few months ahead of the holiday. There are excellent brands of bottled cider at any liquor store as well such as Woodchuck and Woodpecker.

Thanksgiving cooking with beer and wine

Beer and wine can add a great flavor to many elements of the Thanksgiving meal. The first use is before the turkey is even cooked as an addition to a brining solution. Brining a turkey means creating a solution of salt and spices which is used to soak the entire turkey (a thawed or fresh one) for up to 36 hours—24 hours is the usual recommended time—before cooking. Brining is kind of pain in the butt, especially if you don’t have extra refrigerator space because the turkey needs to be kept cool the entire soaking time, BUT it produces unbelievable results. To use beer, substitute a dark beer for water in the brining recipe. Brining produces a super moist turkey utterly unlike those dry stringy birds you remember from nearly every Thanksgiving. It may be a pain, but brining produces a transcendent turkey. Wine makes an excellent addition to gravy. Many chefs use a few tablespoons to cups (depending on how much gravy you are making) to “deglaze” a pan while making gravy. Deglazing basically means pouring a liquid—in this case wine—into a pan that has been used to cook something and still has all the little brown tasty bits (called “fond”) in it. The wine dissolves the fond or gets it unstuck from the pan and adds a tasty note to the resulting gravy. You can use either white or red wine for making gravy and port also works well.

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Quick Shots: Chimay Brewery Tour

DJ Spiess — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:43:11 +0000

Apparently this video has been around for over a year, but it’s the first time I’ve seen it. If you haven’t seen it, check it out!

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Monster storm brewing over beer and energy drinks

DJ Spiess — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 21:51:37 +0000

Does this look anything at all like the Monster drink labels?

The story

Yesterday Monster Energy drinks fired a shot at a Rock Art Brewery over their Vermonster beer. Monster Energy drinks says the name Vermonster beer is too close their Monster Energy drinks line of energy sodas. They sent a cease and desist letter to Rock Art Brewery. Apparently they think consumers might confuse Vermonster beer with their Red Bull knock off soda.

The Monster Drink Battle

Matt Nadeau, the owner of Rock Art Brewery, isn’t taking the fight lying down. He’s mobilized the internet, which is typically against corporate bullying. He’s posted more info about the battle on his website. His Web site calls the battle “Rock Art Brewery vs. Corporate America.” Here’s the story in his own words!

The battle is now all over twitter and facebook. #monsterboycott is quickly becomming a trending topic on twitter. To show your support for Rock Art, join the Facebook group Vermonters and Craft Beer Drinkers Against Monster!

If you’re a blogger, feel free to leave links to your article about this story in the comments.

(Source: Google)

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Making hard cider at home Q&A

DJ Spiess — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 05:23:41 +0000

Is my cider fermenting?

Many beer homebrewers panic when first making cider. When you make beer, you see lots of activity in glass carboys. Cider doesn’t do this. Cider does not have the active fermentation you see in beer. If your fermenter isn’t airtight, you may not see much activity at all. This isn’t a problem. The best way to see if your cider is fermenting is to check the specific gravity. Measure the specific gravity of your cider, wait two days and then measure the specific gravity again. If your cider is fermenting, the second specific gravity will be lower.

Why does my cider fermentation smells like ass?

Yes. Cider often produces lots of hydrogen sulfide while fermenting. Unfortunately for us, hydrogen sulfide can be detected by smell in quantities as low as 2 parts per billion. Cider fermentations can make your fermentation room smell awful. Some describe the smell as rotten eggs, farts, or wet dog rolled in swamp water. In time the smell will dissipate, and your cider will be fine!

Can I use the apple juice from Target/Wal*Mart etc…?

Yes. You’ll hear lots of debate about the quality of the apple juice from grocery stores, but if you buy 100% apple juice with no sulfites you will get a good cider. I’ve used Mott’s apple juice, Archer Farms apple juice, and several other commercial brands with great success. I’ve also used organic apple juice and freshly squeezed apple cider. The fresher apple juice makes a better apple wine, while the commercial stuff is great for making Hornsby/Woodchuck-style ciders.

My cider is VERY dry? How do I sweeten it?

To back sweeten the cider, you can use Splenda, lactose, or other non-fermentable sugars. Another option is once the fermentation is complete, you can add potassium sorbate to stabilize the cider. After stablizing, you can add honey, sugar, more apple juice, or a can of frozen apple juice concentrate. I usually keg my cider, and before I’m ready to serve it I’ll add the frozen concentrate. This way I don’t need to add the sorbate or worry about renewed fermentations. This won’t work if you bottle your cider.

Can I use pasteurized cider?

Pasteurization does not affect the fermentation. Pasteurization kills most of the bacteria in your cider by heating the cider to a point where the harmful bacteria cannot survive. This does not affect the fermentability of the cider.

Should I use apple cider or apple juice?

Both are pretty much the same thing. Cider is unfiltered apple juice, and usually very cloudy because of the unfiltered apple particles. Apple juice is clear. Both apple juice and apple cider will make an exellent hard cider.

Can I naturally ferment my cider?

If you got your cider fresh directly from apples and it isn’t pasteurized, you probably can ferment your cider without adding yeast. If it’s from the store, you need to add yeast. Apples contain wild yeast naturally, so it should start fermenting.

Many people use this technique with great results. Some also produce an undrinkable beverage using this technique. This is too unpredictable for me, and I use wine or cider yeast every time. Using known yeasts give you more predictable results and fewer failures. This doesn’t mean you can’t produce a great cider using a natural fermentation. The choice is up to you.

Can I use beer or wine yeast for the cider?

Yes, but beer and wine cider yeasts tend to strip the cider of its apple flavor. Your best choices are WLP775 English Cider Yeast or WLP720 Sweet Mead Yeast. These will leave more apple flavor in your cider.

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Russian swig swine flu (H1N1) non-cure

DJ Spiess — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 01:27:42 +0000

The Russian H1N1 flu remedy

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Kingdom has 16,556 confirmed cases of the H1N1 virus (can I still call it the swine flu). Models by UK’s Health Protection Agency estimates there are currently 110,000 people infected with the swine flu (+/- 50,000 people). The Russian soccer team is traveling to the UK next month for the World Cup qualifying round. How does the Russian soccer supporting organization, VOB, feel about this?

“We don’t want our team to be without any support for such an important match so we urge our fans to go to Wales despite the health warning,” spokesman Alexander Shprygin said.

Good plan.

Maybe the soccer organization should focus on soccer and less on anti-science

The soccer organization [read NOT a health organization] does offer suggestions for their soccer fans to prevent infection from the virus, a virus to which humans currently have no immunity. They suggest drinking Welsh whiskey. The irresponsibility of this suggestion does not stop there. VOB head Shprygin also goes on to say drinking the whiskey “should cure all symptoms of the disease.” People around the world are dying from the H1N1 virus, and the Russians were holding out on a cure all along. Just drink Welsh whiskey.

“Russian fans don’t fear anything or anybody so this virus will not stand in our way of supporting our team.”

The Russians will bring home some interesting souvenirs with this attitude, most notably the H1N1 virus.

Does alcohol prevent colds?

Well, sort of. If you are rubbing it on your hands it will help prevent colds. Drinking Welsh whiskey, however, is not likely to help you. An alcohol-based hand cleaner will probably work better (as a hand sanitizer, not as a beverage!).

This belief probably comes from your grandmother’s remedy of a hot toddy. The idea is the alcohol destroys germs in your bloodstream. Unfortunately, there are no scientific studies showing alcohol will help you repel cold infections, however, there are plenty of studies demonstrating too much alcohol will make a cold worse. Too many drinks will weaken the immune system, making it much more difficult to fight off your infection.

There are some studies showing positive effects from moderate drinking of alcohol, but nothing conclusive. There are many studies showing alcohol has a negative effect as well. Alcohol dehydrates your system, which could prolong your symptoms. Until a study comes out with rock solid evidence, I’d abstain from alcohol when you are sick.

Is there anything red wine can’t do?

Red wine seems to be an exception. Moderate amounts of red wine will help keep you healthy (2 glasses a day), but it is not the alcohol helping you. Red wine contains high amounts of antioxidants, which help to keep you healthy. Of course you could also drink grape juice or some other beverage with high amounts of antioxidants, but that is not nearly as much fun.

(Source: Reuters)

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