If you’re a regular reader you know that I recently added a second brew assistant to my brewhouse.  With two sons now at home it becomes more difficult to find time to brew.   I have been thinking of ways to get in brewing sessions that are short and quick to slake my thirst for brewing whenever I have time.

I have been pondering the occasional dabble in extract brewing again.  I don’t plan to abandon my all-grain brewing setup as I love the process and the control.  But extract brewing would be a quick way to bang out some easier beers, experiment with ingredients and just stay active in the hobby when a 6-7 hour brew session with all-grain won’t cut it.

So this post is a call to all our extract brewing readers. What styles of beers really lend themselves to extract brewing?  I was thinking of putting together a simple Amber recipe to get myself started in the 2010 brewing season. I figure maybe a good dry Irish Stout and maybe a couple good English Brown ales, milds or other session style brews.

What is on your extract agenda these days?

BREW ON!

The stage is set for my first all grain brewing session.

It’s happening this Friday night.

We’ll have live coverage via Twitter and I will post videos as I make them to the site as soon as I can.

You can follow along or check back this week.

We’re brewing up this Pale Ale.  Calling it the Chelmsforder.

Stay tuned.

Brew On.

Another piece of equipment to convert my cooler into an efficient mash tun is a ball valve spigot.  I need to replace the spigot that the cooler came with, which isn’t made for long pours.  My thumb knows too well.

There are many spigots that are made specifically for cooler conversions on NorthernBrewer.com.  They are all under the heading of weldless so I should be able just to remove the factory-installed spigot and install the ball valve spigot.

The one I have my eye on has a half inch barb at the end of it so that I can attach tubing to the end of it.   When transferring wort to my kettle, I would like to avoid as much hot side aeration as possible.

I think with the screen and the spigot (the screen attaches nicely to the spigot), I think my mash tun would be ready to go.

If  you have been following the false bottom conversation, you will find this post is a logical follow up.

As I am looking at all of my options to enhance my brewing setup to be all-grain ready, the second option in helping me separate grain from wort in my mash tun is a Bazooka Screen (This appears to be a trademarked term of the Zymico company-you may be able to find alternatives under the term ‘mash screen’).

There is some debate on our site and elsewhere that the screen works better than the false bottom.  There is definitely a price difference.  False bottoms (most prices I saw are >$30 as of 1/9/2009) are more expensive than the screen (most prices are <$20 as of 1/9/2009).

The other factor that I am using to base my decision is the compatibility with another component I have to buy, which is a ball valve spigot that I want to fit onto my cooler.  I will write a post on the spigot later.

The screen may be the winner….although it would be interesting to get the false bottom for educational purposes and compare it to a screen.  Hmmm.

With all the encouragement from the readers, I started to think seriously about what I need to buy to upgrade my mash tun to brew all grain batches. 

I mean, I guess I could brew all grain right now but it is not ideal.

I would rather get some components that would make the process easier and set me up for brewing success rather than brewing struggles.

The first component I am investigating is a false bottom.  I need a way to separate the grains from the wort effectively after mashing. 

Since my mash tun is a 5 gallon cooler (along with many other homebrewers), there are false bottoms available that fit perfectly.

Here’s a picture from Northern Brewer:

This is one possibility since I could buy a screen as well.  What do you use?  

Here’s my post about the bazooka screen.

Extract brewing is easy, quick, and convenient; sometimes I miss the good old three hour brew-day.  But I don’t miss the increase in freshness that all-grain has over extract.

A recent discussion I had with a couple other brewers yielded these ideas which help extract brewers bring more freshness to their brews:

1. Dry malt extract is generally more shelf stable and gives a fresher flavor than canned liquid extract.  I tended to use DME exclusively over LME before I switched completely to all-grain.  A possible exception to this would be if your local shop carried bulk LME in a drum, that is routinely purged with nitrogen instead of air, and has a high turnover rate.  I have a local shop that used to have the drums but their turnover wasn’t so good because more and more folks started doing all grain batches, so then “canned” the barrels (no pun intended).  Not to mention that the barrelled LME can get pretty messy with all those people trying to fill a 1 gallon container with 1.2 gallons of extract for that little extra value!
2. While it is a common practice for some, I think the use of steeping specialty grains is under-valued for its freshness contribution.  For the most part all your caramel/crystal grains, your toasted and roasted grains, and some of your other wacky grains (acid malt and melanoidin malt) do not need to be mashed.  Using them for your color and flavor will bring a much fresher taste and value to your wort than using amber extract alone.  Not mentioned in part 1 but praised quite a bit by us here at Brew-Dudes, we always recommend the lightest extract you can get.
3. Don’t be afraid to ask your local shop folks how long any product has been on the shelf.  Don’t just go to the store and grab a 6oz bag of any old thing.  It’s tough to tell from sight how fresh a little bag of black patent is, so you have to ask.  It’s like purchasing beef at the market with a blindfold on, only to get it home and see that it’s all gray and nasty.  With brewing ingredients, you may not realize freshness issues until the beer is brewed.  You can taste a few kernels on any malt and they should have a clear crunch in your teeth.  If not, they are likely a little stale and you should find another source.

Ingredients are expensive and so is your time.  If you want to make beer that you can drink and pass out on, then I encourage you to go get the discounted extract cans at your LHBS.  However, if you are interested in making a beer that rivals your favorite commercial beer for flavor and freshness follow those practices above!

BREW ON!

Cooler temps are great for fermentation at home, but it can pose a problem when you bottle.

At my house we delay turning the heat on for as long as possible, so during the day the house may only be 60-65F.  This can lead to slow carbonation times in the bottle.  Here are some quick ideas for finding warmer places in your house to get bottles to “carb” up in the time you are used to.

1. Get bottles off the floor.  You’d be surprised to realize that the floor may be 10 degrees cooler than chest height in some places in the house.  Also, a cold floor acts as a heat sink and can suck warmth out of the cases if they sit on the floor.  Either get them up on a shelf or use a few old towels or blankets to get the bottles off the colder floor.
2. Where is your furnace?  Maybe set up some shelving nearby to take advantage of the heat given off from your furnace.  If you have forced hot air in your home, set the boxes near a vent in a spare room and drape a towel or blanket over the vent and cases to trap some hot air with the cases.  Rotate the cases daily to prevent uneven warming and carbing.  If you have radiators you can just place the cases in front of one rotating daily.  Just don’t lay them up agains tthe radiator as they can get too warm.  A 1ft distance should be fine.  Of course, none of these things work if you aren’t regularly heating your house yet.
3. Ever notice how much heat is coming out from behind your kitchen fridge?  Placing cases on top of the fridge with a blanket to make a “hood” will trap warm air rising up from behind the fridge and increase the ambient temp of the beer cases.  If space allows pull the fridge out enough to put the cases behind the fridge.  Set them up on a small bench to get them off the floor.  Push the fridge back against the cases for a week or so.  (Of course, clear this one with your spouse or roommates first.)
4. Use a heating pad as a heat source.  Sandwich a heating pad between two cases of bottles, set to low, with a blanket of the top is a great way to increase ambient temps.  Rotate the cases 90 degrees each day to ensure even warming.  You could even put two cases of bottled beer in the oven with a heating pad in there too…. just don’t forget to remove them before preheating the oven to make pizza.
5. Sit on the cases like an ostrich on an egg.  Of course this may require some time off from work and someone to fetch you food and water (or beer).