Home Brew #2: Brew Day, Bottling, and Taste Test

It’s been a while since I updated you, my loyal readers, with my home brewing progress. Sometime in March I brewed my second beer, a whiskey barrel stout from Brewer’s Best. I’m still getting my feet wet so I haven’t converted to all-grain brewing just yet. These kits are easy to use and produce surprisingly good beer.

Gooey, sticky malt extract.

I began the brew by mashing in with a mixture of roasted barley malt, dark chocolate malt, and caramel malt. The smell was out-of-this-world delicious. This early on in the process, however, I got too casual and allowed the steeping water to rise 10-15° above the target of 165°. There must have been something good on TV. I brought the temperature down as best I could without removing the boil kettle from the heat, but by the time the 20 minutes was over the temperature was still too high. Was this a fatal mistake?

Once the water reached boiling (not too difficult because it was almost there a few minutes ago…), I added the malt extract and watched as the wort returned to a rolling boil. Once there, the 60 minute boil began with the addition of 0.5 oz of Magnum hops. 40 minutes later, I added 0.5 oz of Cluster hops. This is the moment during the brewing process where my house smells like a brewery and I start to wonder about the possibilities of brew-scented air fresheners.

Boiling wort makes me happy inside.

After the 60 minute boil, the wort was cooled in my make-shift wort chiller (the sink filled with ice and running cold water). If I’m still chilling wort using this method 6 months from now, somebody crack me on the skull. Deal? When the wort hit 70°, it was gently poured into the primary fermenter and the yeast was pitched. Close it up, give it a shake, and wait.

After 48 hours of fairly violent bubble activity in the airlock, all movement seemed to stop. A google search revealed that this shouldn’t be anything to worry about. The yeast may still be doing its job, there just maybe wasn’t any evidence through the airlock. I was a bit concerned, however.

After 9 days, I opened up the fermenter to add the whiskey chips. You know how I keep going on about smells? Well, you’re supposed to boil the chips to sanitize them before adding them to the beer. This quick boil in a saucepan made the house smell like the finest whiskey on earth. I never knew how much I liked the smell of whiskey until this moment. This process also relieved my fears that these were, in fact, chips from a whiskey barrel and not a piece of driftwood from the lake. After debating whether to rack to secondary and then add the chips, I decided to stick with the primary fermenter and toss the chips right in.

Whiskey chips in primary fermenter.

Now the real test of my patience began. I gave the chips over 4 weeks to work their magic. When I popped the top a month later, the pungent aroma of whiskey and beer assaulted my nostrils. It was quite a thrill. Bottling went smoothly except for two small details. One, I only got 41 bottles out of this batch. Second, alcohol by volume came in under 5%. During my first brew, I added too much water to the fermenter and I felt this watered down the fermentables leading to a lower ABV. This time, I added less water than I was supposed to (explaining the lower bottle yield) but I still came in under the target of 5.5-6% alcohol. Is this a result of my mashing temperature getting too high? I need some expert advice on this one. Either way, a quick sample revealed this beer to be rather flavourful.

Unnamed beer #2.

I gave the beer two weeks to bottle condition before cracking my first one. I have to say even though I keep making mistakes, it’s starting to feel impossible to brew a bad beer. The first sip was delicious. This stout is midnight black with a light brown head that dissipates quickly. Aromas of whiskey and dark roasted malts. Flavours of chocolate, coffee, bourbon, vanilla. It’s silky smooth in your mouth and finishes medium-dry. I love it. I’m finding that it’s improving a little bit with age as well. It’s been a month since bottling and each one is better than the last. My biased buddies seem to think it’s pretty good, too. Better than my first beer, they say. Better than some store-bought craft beers, they say. That’s high praise!

I’ve only brewed two beers to this point and it’s been such a rewarding process that the future seems to hold endless possibilities. Step #1 at this point will be to brew something light for the summertime. Most likely one last recipe kit. Then step #2 will be upping my game by moving into all-grain brewing. It’s time to go shopping for equipment! Did you just hear my wife groan?

Stay tuned for my beer-based review of sunny Las Vegas!

Mabuhay!

Review: Real Canadian Craft Beer Festival

This past weekend marked the beginning of the summer beer festival season in Ontario. Kicking things off was the Real Canadian Craft Beer Festival, an inaugural event held at the Scotiabank Convention Centre in this blogger’s home city of Niagara Falls. Not knowing what kind of turnout to expect or how much passion for beer this city actually had, we arrived mid-day without a ticket. Upon discovering two massive lines that didn’t appear to be moving, we picked one at random and began inching toward the door. Word quickly spread that the venue was at capacity so they had to be careful how many patrons they let through. Understandable. While standing in line, a sweet stranger randomly handed us two free tickets for admission. Nice! I could feel it was going to be a good day.

The organizers of the Real Canadian Craft Beer Festival had arranged for two dozen or so Ontario craft brewers to offer samples of their sweet nectar to go along with six live bands, a dozen local food vendors (including my guilty pleasure El Gastronomo Vagabundo), as well as several seminars conducted by industry-leading beer folk. What more could a guy ask for?

The venue itself was bustling with beer lovers, but the first thing I noticed was that there was room to move and breathe. Some beer festivals cram people in so tightly that you feel like you’re in the mosh pit at a Metallica concert. People inevitably bump into you and the ground ends up drinking your beer instead of you. Not here. So cheers to the organizers, security and/or the fire code that kept the place perfectly at capacity. This also made the lineups to get beer relatively short. It didn’t take long to get your cup filled. But speaking of cups, I’d say the decision to go for disposable plastic over glass was a swing and a miss. Plastic is a bit wasteful since brewers who are veterans of the festival scene have washing stations to facilitate reusable glasses. Besides, who doesn’t love adding to their souvenir glass collection? Given the turnout though, I can see them adding proper glassware next year.

As for the beer you say? Pretty good all around. First up for me was a Belgian Dubbel from newbies Brock Brewing Co. (who apparently are so new they don’t even have a website or Facebook as of this writing). For a start-up serving only one beer, I have to say a Dubbel was a risky, but effective choice. It was true to style featuring malt-forward flavours with a bit of spice and Belgian yeast notes. I gave it a solid 80/100. I followed that up by sampling Niagara’s newest brewery, Brimstone Brewing Company’s Midnight Mass Oatmeal Stout. I really enjoyed this beer’s chocolate and roast character. 88/100. Next I tried Brimstone’s Holy Grail Cranberry Dunkel Weisse. I found this beer to be really safe and not very interesting. I didn’t get any of the usual Dunkelweizen characteristics from it and the cranberry flavour was faint and a bit watery. I think they could do better. 65/100.

Moving on and already feeling a bit lightheaded, I tried a beer from Ramblin’ Road Brewery Farm called Dakota Pearl Ale. Not only does this brewery farm grow its own hops and use its own spring water, they evidently grow their own potatoes and put it in their beer! The result is a surprisingly refreshing beer with a subtle hop bite and earthy flavour from the potatoes. I’d like to try this beer again before my palate has been wrecked by more hop-forward ales. I’d give it a 75/100 for now. Having said that, I absolutely love the concept of their business and I wish them great success. Two more to go…

In my opinion, Flying Monkeys Craft Brewery produces the best beer in the province and possibly Canada. These guys constantly push the boundaries and the public seems to lap it up. Flying Monkeys will always have a place in my heart because their beer was my first real foray into the world of craft. But beyond the sentimentality of it, they consistently earn my respect and adoration with every new brew. Flying Monkeys brought 10 taps to this festival, most of which I have tried before. But fortunately for me, they brought two 10% ABV monsters that I was dying to get a taste of. First was Sonic Elegance, a Belgian Double IPA that was so hopped that a thick, oily resin flavour dominated from start to finish. I personally enjoyed it, even if I didn’t get anything inherently Belgian from it. 86/100. Last, but certainly not least and well worth the wait, was Shoulders of Giants. This Double IPA is everything I love about beer. Big grapefruit and pineapple hop notes with a balanced malt profile. 95/100. Flying Monkeys stole the show with this beer.

Free stuff!

Overall, I’d say the inaugural Real Canadian Craft Beer Festival was a huge success and I’m sure the organizers would agree. Nobody expected the turnout they had, but it certainly revealed this city’s passion for craft beer. It’s a really exciting time here in Niagara as more breweries open up every year and the reach of craft beer continues to expand.

Next up for me is the Albino Rhino Beertuberoolapolooza Festival on April 19th, a much needed vacation to Las Vegas (which should reveal itself as my most interesting beer adventure yet), and somewhere in between I’ll be cracking open my second home brew, a barrel aged stout.

Stay tuned beer lovers!

Sei gesund!

 

 

Sour Ale? That Can’t Be Right.

I recently had the good fortune of picking up a fabulous beer by the name Goudenband from Belgian brewer Liefmans. My experience with this style of beer, categorized as a Flanders Oud Bruin (Old Brown), is limited to just two. Being a newbie in this category, I began a quest for knowledge. What I found was interesting, but it also made me thirsty.

Sweet and sour. Just like me.

In order to fully understand this unusual style of beer, I had to Tarantino it. First I drank it, and then I went back to its roots. Goudenband is a dark reddish-brown with a head that fades very quickly. It smells of sour cherry, apple cider vinegar, fruity esters that I would describe as raisins or figs, with some Belgian yeast notes. If this beer was put under the nose of a non-beer drinker, they might say it had the aroma of sherry or wine. The taste closely follows the nose with sour cherries, vinegar, and sweetness in the form of raisins or figs as well as some underlying caramel. There is also a detectable trace of oakiness. The mouthfeel is wonderful, almost like champagne with crisp carbonation and a dry finish. The blend of sweet and sour is truly a treat for a beer geek like me and a very unusual combination to the uninitiated.

Given that I’m new to this type of beer, I’m writing this entry for others like myself. Therefore, the answer to the first question everybody asks is yes, it is supposed to be sour! Sour ale, according to the style guidelines of the Beer Judge Certification Program, consists of six different sub-styles. These include Berliner Weisse, Flanders Red Ale, Flanders Oud Bruin, Unblended Lambic, Gueuze, and Fruit Lambic. If the BJCP says it’s supposed to be sour then that’s good enough for me.

So what makes sour ale sour? As I’ve said in my home brewing posts, brewing in a sterile environment (sanitization) is of the utmost importance when making beer. With sour ale, there’s a twist. Historically, before the modern sterilization of the brewing process, beer was often said to be sour. Before Louis Pasteur discovered that microorganisms were the sole cause of fermentation in 1859 and sanitary procedures for breweries were developed, beer was subjected to naturally occurring yeast and bacteria in the air or wood barrels during fermentation or aging. This would ‘infect’ the beer and give it a level of acidity more commonly found in wine and normally considered a fault in beer. Of course, as Brian Hunt says in the Oxford Companion to Beer, “one brewer’s infection may be another’s complexity”.

As the brewing process was refined and sanitized, modern brewers learned to replicate the old method by harnessing bacteria such as Pediococcus and Lactobacillus or wild yeast like Brettanomyces in order to deliberately produce sour ale. Brewing with bacteria or wild yeast, unsurprisingly, is unpredictable and may end up producing beer that tastes like a dirty diaper instead of fine wine. It’s like taking a trip through history to a time where brewing was less scientific and more trial and error. It’s a risk that most commercial brewers aren’t taking. But if conditions are just right, sour ale is a real treat for the senses that completely justifies the risk. Sour ale, in this humble blogger’s opinion, has completed the modern trifecta of extreme brewing that includes Imperial Stouts and Imperial IPAs. These ales are a far cry from your dad’s Miller Lite.

Now that I understand why beer is sour and why anyone would want that, what about the one I just finished drinking? What is a Flanders Oud Bruin? It’s a style of beer that originates from the Flemish region of Belgium, otherwise known as Flanders. The ‘Old Brown’ refers to the base brown ale that is aged for up to a year in stainless steel tanks (sometimes oak barrels), and is aged again in the bottle for several more months. Typical brewer’s yeast, Saccharomyces, is used in fermentation in addition to Lactobacillus bacteria which provides the sourness. Once the beer is aged and sufficiently ‘infected’, young beer is blended with it to add sweetness and balance the sourness. It is often confused with the Flanders Red Ale, sour ale usually made with Brettanomyces, and a beer from personal experience that is much more cheek-puckering sour. Both are delicious in their own way, though.

Overall, Goudenband seems to be a pretty good example of the style based on the reading I’ve done. I’m thrilled to have tried a world class beer that led me on a journey to learn more about a section of the beer world that I wasn’t too familiar with. Now that I have a foundation of knowledge, I’m looking forward to sampling more and developing a palate for the intricacies of sour ale. It’s a really fascinating, scientific, and artful style of beer.

My hope is Canadian brewers will start to commercially produce sour ales. Or maybe I should give it a go myself? The thought scares me. But in the meantime, I’d love to get some recommendations in the comments below for sour ales I should be on the lookout for.

Skål!

Home Brewing Part 3: Taste Test

I’m not going to lie. Opening my first beer gave me butterflies. I found myself wondering “just how badly did I screw this up?”. My first wish was to hear that familiar pst sound when the bottle was cracked. If it was carbonated, and cold enough, I might be able to choke down 45 of these things. I grabbed my bottle opener and emotionally prepared myself for the big moment…

Pst.

Yes! It’s carbonated! Upon pouring my beer into the glass and smelling the sweet aroma of grapefruit hops along with some toast/caramel notes, relief washed over me. The taste was…BITTER. But it was beer. My beer. How awesome is this?

I did that.

In order to keep a level head and get some other opinions on my beer, I opened my blog up to two of my closest friends to review my beer. Let’s face it. My heart is in this beer so I am not the best person to review it. My friend Jordon, who has an awesome blog of his own, had this to say about my beer:

I poured this beer into a standard tulip shaped snifter glass and was immediately greeted with a wonderful hop aroma. I was really impressed with the size of the head – at least three fingers. The color was a murky orangish-brown.When I first tasted this, I was blown away by the hop bitterness. It ravaged my tongue with pleasure. But I was disappointed that it didn’t develop into anything else. It was very one dimensional. I also wish it would’ve balanced out at the end with a malty backbone, but it didn’t. The bitterness just lingered and became metallic. With some more malt characters or floral or citrus notes, this brew could’ve been stellar.

This seemed to be a rather simple beer recipe and unfortunately, the flavor reflected that. However, for a first batch home brewed IPA, I thought it was pretty good. After all, it was free and I had no trouble putting down six of them. If I were to grade this as a beer from a well established brewer, I would score it a 65. Which, based on my own criteria and scoring, would be considered “poor”. However, as a home brewed IPA, I would score this a 75. Which is classified as “okay”. But taking into consideration that the brewmaster is a good friend of mine and this was his very first attempt at a home brew, I am giving this beer a solid 80, which is classified as “good”. I have no doubt that with the passion and knowledge the brewmaster has for beer, that his future beers will be nothing short of awesome.

Thanks Jordon! I think he’s pretty bang-on with his assessment of the one-dimensional nature of this beer. I’m a hop head and that bitterness is truly the primary characteristic of this beer. However, there’s a pretty noticeable lack of malt character balancing out this beer. I assume the recipe is to blame unless I did a poor job mashing in. My best friend Jay, the biggest lover of bitter that I know, had these kind words to say:

After my long time best friend Mike decided he wanted to take beer enjoyment to the next level and make his very own, I was extremely excited to hear he was making an IPA. The whole experience he went through and the joy of cracking open his first beer was also felt by me when I was given 12 bottles of his very first brew. I know it might seem biased that I am writing about a best friend’s beer but I am an avid enjoyer of IPAs and can be very picky when it comes to the regular IPAs you can get from the liquor store. When I got to pour my first bottle with Mike the first thing I always do with an IPA is smell it….I will be able to tell right away if it’s going to be a nice bitter IPA. Well the smell was intoxicating. The visual of the beer holding a deep golden amber colour, the foam sticking to the cup as all good craft beers should, the slight carbonation slowly creeping up the sides of the glass, I knew right away it was going to be good.

One sip and then……….incredible.

For a first timer making a beer I have to say it was truly amazing he made something that I truly enjoy more than anything I have gotten from a store. The beer has such a strong yet subtle bitterness, enough to smack you when it hits the cheeks but small enough that it goes away after a few seconds leaving you wanting more. The flavours of extreme hops, slight citrus and even some pine or grassy flavours makes it seem like a Northwestern IPA but done so with a good balance. After about 7 bottles in now I’m still enjoying each as if it was the first. The smell and taste is truly impressive of someone who has never made a home brew before. I have already put my order in for the next batch and after watching how well my best friend made his, my interest in home brewing has now peaked and I might just have to create my very own.

Thanks Jay! My opinion, as unbiased as can be, is that this beer is for a fan of bitter. I’m choosing my words carefully when I say that. It’s not necessarily a beer for hop heads. This beer is so distinctly bitter that there aren’t too many flavours that can be pulled out of it. If you’re familiar with the hop profiles of Cascade and Columbus, you can really smell and taste their characteristics if you search for it. But at the end of the day, it’s just really bitter. Not a bad thing mind you, if that’s what you like. I’ve had no problem putting away several of them. It’s crisp, well carbonated, and has that lingering resin on the rear of the palate that just begs for another sip. The problem is the next sip pummels you in the face with bitterness and nothing more.

I would make this beer again in the future and see if I can improve on it or if it truly is brewed to recipe. But in the meantime, I feel like I accomplished something. This batch was just a small step in my brewing hobby, but it’s given me the confidence that I can produce drinkable beers from the comfort of my own home. I’ve already purchased the ingredients for my next batch, a whiskey barrel aged stout. Can I pull it off?

Stay tuned…

Salud!

10 Bitter Years

While I wait for my home brew to condition I thought I would sample and review an excellent beer I managed to get my hands on. 10 Bitter Years from Black Oak Brewing Co. is a Double or Imperial India Pale Ale and was originally brewed to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of the brewery in 2009, hence the name. The recipe is kept on the down-low by the brewery.

I first tried this beer last summer at the Roundhouse Craft Beer Fest in Toronto. The lines for beer were long and the sun was hot, but the Ontario Craft Brewers (a collection of 35+ brewers committed to brewing beer for quality, not quantity) put on a great event full of tasty beers. Craft beer festivals, in general, are a great way to sample many different styles of beer from several breweries in a short period of time. There isn’t a single person that has a bad time at one of these. It’s almost like there’s magic in the air. Or maybe it’s the alcohol? I digress…

Roundhouse Craft Beer Fest 2013

After several samples of hefeweizens, pale ales, and stouts, I was in the mood for some serious hops.  Black Oak had just what I was looking for. Due to the nature of craft beer festivals, it’s not always possible to get a good feel for a beer, particularly because the sample-size glassware doesn’t allow for any type of aroma. But with 10 Bitter Years, the hops punched you right in the face (in the best way possible). I loved this beer and couldn’t wait to try it again at home.

Unfortunately, I had to be patient. Black Oak’s two year-round offerings routinely end up in my neck of the woods. Their seasonals, however, are harder to come by. It took 6 months, but I finally stumbled upon 10 Bitter Years at my local liquor store.

Hoppy goodness.

Upon pouring this beer into my favourite sampling glass, a Duvel tulip-shape, I am greeted by a beautiful amber, slightly hazy beer with an inch of creamy off-white head. The aroma is an array of complexity derived from the hops, dominated by citrus/grapefruit with some pine and herbal undertones. Caramel malts are detectable to balance it out.

The taste is more balanced than one would expect. My initial impression last summer was that this was a hop bomb through and through. However, there is a sweetness that pushes through the hops that balances this beer out nicely. The grapefruit, pine and herbal undertones from the nose are still there, but a strong malt backbone gives it some caramel-like sweetness that keeps the hops in check. The bitterness grows with each sip and leaves a spectacular bitter aftertaste that any hophead is going to love. The mouthfeel is smooth and well carbonated with a semi-dry finish. A thick resin lingers on the rear palate after a few sips which only makes me crave another.

Overall, this is a tremendous beer. The 8% ABV is not evident whatsoever and the 83 IBUs (international bitterness units) are balanced nicely. I liken this beer to Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA, which to me is high praise. This beer has safely made it into my rotation of DIPAs. Well done, Black Oak Brewing Co.

Appearance: 9/10   Aroma: 13/15   Taste: 14/15   Mouthfeel: 10/10

Overall score: 92/100

BeerAdvocate average score: 92

RateBeer average score: 99

One of the most interesting aspects of sampling any type of alcoholic beverage is that everyone’s palate is different. If anyone out there has tried this beer I’d love to hear what you think.

Until next beer…

Slainte!

Home Brewing Part 2: Bottling Day

Well, that was the longest 9 days of my life. After 7 days in the fermenter, the airlock finally stopped bubbling and the countdown to bottling day was on. I gave the beer an extra 48 hours to make sure fermentation was complete. Horror stories of bottling too early and the resulting exploding bottles convinced me to be patient. If sanitizing is the home brewer’s #1 priority, then patience is a close second.

Christmas tree.

As much as I wanted to crack open the fermenter and see my creation, the first thing I did was clean and sanitize all of the bottling equipment. Cleaning and sanitizing 48 bottles was very tedious and I can already see some of the advantages to kegging your beer.

Once everything was sanitized, I boiled 2 cups of water and stirred in a package of priming sugar (dextrose). I boiled the sugar solution for 5-10 minutes and then poured it into the sanitized bottling bucket. This sugar is how the beer is carbonated once bottled. The yeast in the beer will ferment the sugar and create CO_2. Unlike when the beer was fermenting and the CO₂ was released through the airlock, the bottles will trap the CO₂ and carbonation will result.

Fermented beer!

Now that the sugar solution was resting in the bottling bucket, I cracked open the fermenter. I was pleasantly surprised when a beautiful Cascade hop aroma hit my nostrils and the beer looked crisp. My expectations immediately rose higher than they had been at any point during this process. I used my sanitized hydrometer and measured the final gravity. To my surprise, it was in range of the mark provided on the recipe. The beer ended up right where I needed it to be, despite my earlier reservations. It should be about 5.75% ABV.

Racking the beer.

The next step gave me butterflies. I had never used a siphon of any kind before this week. I had a strong fear of the siphon going the wrong way and completely spoiling my beer. After some helpful YouTube videos, particularly this fine gentleman, my fears were put to rest. Placing the fermenter on the counter and the bottling bucket on the floor, I used a sanitized racking cane and food-grade tubing to siphon the beer into the bottling bucket. The natural flow of the beer formed a whirlpool that mixed the sugar solution throughout the beer. Within minutes, all of the beer was in the bottling bucket with only the trub (yeast/malt/hop sediment) left behind in the fermenter. After my initial concerns, this step proved to be really easy and I won’t worry about it in the future. 

After the beer was safely in the bottling bucket, it was time to start bottling! With my bottling bucket on the counter, I put the bottle caps into a bowl of sanitizer and attached the bottle filler to the spigot on the bottling bucket using a small piece of tubing. I filled the beer right up to the rim of each bottle which guarantees a perfect amount of beer once you remove the bottle filler. I placed a sanitized cap on each bottle as they were filled and used a bottle capper to seal them in place. 45 bottles later (I ran out of beer before I hit the 48 mark) and bottling was complete! My very first case of home brewed beer.

As it turns out, bottling and capping is only a small portion of the bottling day activities. The whole thing took me 2 to 3 hours. It turned out alright, wouldn’t you say?

  

The next step will test my patience once more because I have to give the beer at least two weeks for bottle conditioning to occur. I doubt I’ll make it that long. I did take a few sips of my beer pre-bottling and I’m happy to report… It tasted like beer! All kidding aside, it tasted like a solid IPA. A flat, room-temperature IPA, but an IPA nonetheless. My wife said it was bitter. I’d call that a success! I have hope that this beer will turn out to be drinkable once it’s carbonated and chilled. Not bad for a beginner.

The process thus far has been really rewarding. It’s nice to finally get my hands dirty and get a true feel for how beer is made. My passion for craft beer has reached a new level and my respect for brewers has grown exponentially. I’m truly looking forward to cultivating my home brewing skills and sharing the results with my readers.

Stay tuned for a review of my own beer in a few weeks and many other craft beer-related posts!

Prost!

Home Brewing Part 1: Brew Day

After years of drinking delicious beer and soaking up all the information on how it’s made, it’s time to brew my own beer. To get myself started, I joined the Canadian Home Brewers forum and read some of their information for beginners. I also checked out the American Homebrewers Association and read through their beginner, intermediate, and advanced brewing guides so I had some idea of what I was getting myself into. They have a lot of helpful tips on what equipment you will need and good recipes to get you started. After some light reading, it was time to buy the equipment. I settled on a very standard Brewer’s Best starter kit that I purchased from Toronto Brewing. Their prices seemed reasonable, shipping was cheap and my package arrived in 2 business days. Most of Canada and the northern United States is experiencing a ridiculously cold winter which made it an easy decision to order in rather than brave an extra trip into the elements. I also had them ship me a brew kettle and a recipe kit for Brewer’s Best India Pale Ale (IPA). I’m hoping by picking a style that most of my buddies drink, it won’t take long to go through this batch before I can make another! The recipe kits typically cost between $30-$50 and yield roughly 50 bottles of beer for a 5 gallon recipe. What arrived in the mail looked like this:

 

The starter kit comes with:

• 6.5 Gallon Ale Pail Primary Fermenter with Drilled and Grommeted Lid
• 6.5 Gallon Ale Pail Bottling Bucket with Bottling Spigot
• Home Beermaking Book
• Cleaner and Sanitizer
• Bucket Clip
• Twin Lever Capper
• Hydrometer
• Airlock
• Liquid Crystal Thermometer
• Siphon and Bottling Set-Up
• Bottle Brush
• Equipment Instructions

Unfortunately, the hydrometer was smashed into a million pieces. Turns out I had to visit my local home brewing shop anyway. Thankfully, The Brewmonger is a nice little home brewing supply store that just opened this past year and has everything you need to home brew. I picked up a new hydrometer as well as a thermometer and more sanitizer. All of the warnings online spoke of sanitizing being the #1 priority when brewing your own beer because any microorganisms on the equipment can interact with the beer and cause serious off-flavours or ruin the batch altogether. I sure hope I sanitized enough.

Now that I had all my equipment cleaned and sanitized, I was ready to brew. I opened up the recipe kit and discovered the amazing aromas of crushed malt. Inside, I found one package of crushed Caramel malt, one package of crushed Victory malt, two cans of liquid malt extract, one package of dry malt extract, two packages of Cascade hop pellets, one package of Columbus hop pellets, vacuum sealed dry yeast, priming sugar, a muslin steeping bag, and bottle caps.

 

I began the brewing process by heating 2.5 gallons of bottled water on the stove top to between 150-165° in the brew kettle. When the right temperature had been reached, I emptied both packages of crushed malt into the muslin bag and steeped the malt for 20 minutes in the kettle. After a few minutes, my kitchen smelled incredible. It’s recommended that beginners start with an all-malt extract recipe, but I found the intermediate process of steeping the crushed malt to be simple, more hands-on and therefore rewarding.

When the 20 minutes were up I removed the bag and voila! My first batch of wort. Wort is essentially liquid extracted from grains during the mashing (steeping) process. Wort contains the fermentable sugars that yeast will turn into alcohol. Next, I brought the wort to a rolling boil of 210° and poured in two cans of liquid malt extract and the package of dry malt extract, stirring the whole time. Adding room temperature ingredients lowers the temperature of the wort, so as soon as the wort returned to a boil I added the first package of Cascade hop pellets and the 60 minute boil officially began. As a side note, I absolutely love the smell of hops. Are there hop air fresheners for your car? If there are, I want one. Hop pellets look like this (Cascade on the left, Columbus on the right):

 

30 minutes into the boil, I added the package of Columbus hops. Between the sanitizer, boiling hops and malt, my kitchen smelled like a brewery. It was glorious. Just before the end of the boil, I added the last package of Cascade hops. Adding the hops right near the end will give the beer a wonderful flowery/spicy hop aroma. As soon as the 60 minute boil was complete, it was essential to chill the wort as quickly as possible. The longer the wort is exposed to air the more risk of infection, so it’s important to get the wort chilled to 70° and get it into the fermenter as soon as possible. At some point I will spend the money on a wort chiller, but for my first brew I used the “ice water in sink” method. It took about 30 minutes to cool the wort from 210° to 70°. Here is my wort chilling:

From here, it was a simple matter of pouring the chilled wort into the sanitized fermenter being careful not to pour any of the sediment from the bottom. I think if I made any mistakes it will be here. I let a little bit of sediment splash into the fermenter, but I’m hoping it will settle and I can avoid it during bottling. I’m not sure if it’s wise to use a strainer at this juncture, but it’s something I’ll look into. Once the wort was in the fermenter, I added another 2.5 gallons of water because this was a 5 gallon recipe. Apparently this is standard procedure. I made another mistake here by pouring too much water into the fermenter. I know this because my original gravity, measured using my trusty and not-smashed hydrometer, ended up being below the target range on the instructions. The gravity, in the context of fermenting an alcoholic beverage, refers to the relative density to water. The density of wort is dependent on the amount of fermentable sugars. Before yeast is added, the brewer measures the original gravity (starting point) and measures again after fermentation is complete. The difference between original gravity and final gravity gives you the alcohol percentage through a simple calculation. So in my case, my alcohol by volume (ABV) will most likely end up lower than intended because I diluted the fermentable sugars too much. Next time, I will add water bit by bit and measure the specific gravity along the way. But hey, this is a learning process!

After the water was added, I opened up the package of dried yeast and “pitched” it into the fermenter. I don’t know where the term “pitching” came from. It’s more like sprinkling. I stirred the yeast around with a sanitized spoon and sealed up the fermenter with the lid. The lid is fitted with a small hole where you insert something called the airlock. The airlock essentially allows carbon dioxide that’s produced by fermentation to escape the fermenter without allowing air back inside causing oxidization. I was instructed to give the fermenter a good shake to provide oxygen to the yeast and then I moved it to a dark room in my house with a stable temperature between 64-72°.

Here it is, my first batch of fermenting beer:

Exciting isn’t it? Not really. I get it. After a week or so, I will measure the gravity to see if fermentation has finished and then it will be bottling time! I’ll be sure to document bottling day in another blog post. It could get messy and/or hilarious if I don’t get this siphoning thing down pat. I sincerely hope my first batch turns out, but if not, I’m fairly certain I know where to make some improvements next time.

Cheers!

Why Beer?

An excellent question. Growing up, I was never really exposed to beer unless I saw a commercial during a sporting event. My family didn’t drink it. My friends hated the taste of it. I hated it, too. We would go to the pub and order pitchers of whatever domestic beer was on special that day because it did its job as a social lubricant. But truth is, I always thought it tasted like garbage. And I don’t mean garbage in a figurative sense. I literally mean it tasted like you brewed up a pot of garbage tea using those Glad kitchen bags full of food scraps and used napkins as a teabag. As it turns out, those ingredients are preferable to what the macro companies use nowadays, but I digress…

Have you ever met that person who says all beer smells or tastes like beer? Yeah. That was me. I carried that view well into my 20s. I was raised on the comedy of Denis Leary who preached real men drink Budweiser and whiskey. Only “girly” losers drink what was then called micro-brewed beer. I was called a beer snob by my friends who were happy to swig back Molson Canadian while I drank Heineken or Corona with lime because at least it didn’t taste like Canadian. I knew I didn’t like beer, but I didn’t know I was simply drinking the wrong beer.

It wasn’t until a fateful day watching cable TV that I stumbled upon a program called “Drinking Made Easy” hosted by Zane Lamprey and his stunt drinker Steve McKenna. If you haven’t seen it, the hosts traveled around the US to take in the local drinking culture in various cities. They imbibed at bars, clubs, breweries, wineries and distilleries all while relaying valuable information about alcohol and the people that make it. It was these two lovable “every-mans” that taught me it was perfectly fine to drink micro-beer. They taught me, in layman’s terms, about the different styles, flavours, and aromas of beer. Something awoke in me. I suddenly realized that I wanted to enjoy what I was drinking. I thought if I tried enough different types of beer I would stumble upon one I liked. I also learned about things like the Reinheitsgebot (the German Beer Purity Law) and how the multinational corporate beer companies technically aren’t even brewing real beer to save on costs and maximize profits. I felt insulted as a consumer. I got angry. I vowed to never drink a domestic or “corporate” beer again.

Once I started experimenting with the various craft beers my local liquor and beer stores had to offer, I was hooked. My fridge was consistently full with various beers of all different styles. At first, I leaned toward lagers that didn’t offend my palate. Steam Whistle and Mill Street had the most widely available lager options. I was happy to order Steam Whistle when I saw it on the menu. I felt like I was being unique and helping my local economy. I couldn’t drink anything with any notable hop profile in the beginning. It was too bitter and I didn’t see the point. But the more beer I tried, the more my palate opened up. It took me about 6 months to a year before I got the taste for hops. It took weeks before I was a full-blown hophead. My local brewpub offered several “single hop infusions” which helped me to appreciate the subtleties of the different hop varietals. When winter came, I found my palate for stouts and winter warmers. Soon I was waiting with eager anticipation for the seasonal releases of all the Ontario craft brewers. I was attending festivals, touring breweries, subscribing to magazines, reading books, and keeping a list of all the beers I tried. When I discovered American craft beer, it opened up a whole new world. I can’t go across the border and come back with any less than 10 different beers to try. It amazes me that I never run out of beers to try.

What I love most about beer is the community. While there’s a thousand online resources, forums, and communities, beer is an offline experience in an ever-increasingly digital age. Beer brings people together. The happiest assembly of people on earth is a beer festival. People of all (legal) ages, sizes, colours, and creeds just love the stuff. Beer is a social lubricant, but it’s also a conversation unto itself. I don’t stop talking about it, anyway. Nowadays, my family and friends know me as the beer guy. I have successfully converted almost all of my beer drinking buddies to craft beer. There’s no going back. It’s a full-on life’s passion.

So, why beer? Beer is a cultural movement. The craft community advocates buying local, to think organically and sustainably. It allows consumers to think for themselves, to find one (or many) that’s just right for them. Beer has allowed me to open my mind to these types of philosophies in all aspects of my life. You don’t have to let a billion dollar multinational corporation tell you what you like via advertising. A product should speak for itself. Craft beer does just that.

So go ahead, crack open a fresh craft beer from your local brewery and let’s get talking about beer!

Oh yeah, I’m brewing my first beer tomorrow. That should be interesting! Stay tuned…