This post is less of a “How To” and more of a rant/epiphany, which is coming from a discussion I had with Mike and thoughts I have had about this subject over the past few weeks.

When I started brewing, I thought it would be fun to brew with things like Molasses and Brown Sugar…because I like the taste of both those ingredients.  They taste great in cookies and other baked goods; they should taste great in beers too.

What I didn’t initially understand was that all the sweetness in the sugars would be fermented away, leaving only flavors of the sugar cane processing. 

I can say without a shadow of a doubt that I do not like beers brewed with brown sugar.  I’ve made brown ales and Old Peculiar clones and they have a cidery, winey flavor…and not in a good way.

Molasses has had the same effect on the beers that I have brewed. 

I have had good experience with maple syrup, but the maple porter recipe I came up with needs some modifications. 

I think the next sugar to try will be honey.  I have had great beers brewed with honey.

There must be a correlation between sugars with a large amount of unfermentatbles and weird flavors. 

Inevitably when we dream of great summer beers we start to think of FRUIT BEERS!

A good lawnmower beer is a great beer to have on a hot day after working in the yard or playing with the dog.  However, when the temperature climbs a little touch of fruit in a well made crisp beer can really slake the thirst… and keep you coming back for more.

Getting fruit into your beer can come in three general ways: Raw fruit purchased fresh, fruit flavored extracts, or prepackaged fruit products.  Each one has its pros and cons.

Raw Fruit:
If you are fortunate to live in an area with a unique source of fruit in ample supply there can be great pride taken in making your own beer with local produce.  Depending on location you can often get raw fruit at the peak of freshness for maximum impact on the beer.  The down side to natural raw fruit is that from a beer stand point it is dirty.  If you want to keep wild yeasts and bacteria out of your precious brew this can be a challenge with raw fruit.  Secondly, the fruit likely needs to be processed in some way, such as a food processor or other mechanical mashing, to release its goodness into the beer.

Fruit Extracts:
The largest advantage that extracts have is the extremely low likely hood of a microbial contamination. These things are often made as alcohol based extractions of fruit flavors and they are easily filtered free of microbes.  Second to that is the ease of use.  You can easily control the amount of flavor you get by adding a little at a time to a keg or bottling bucket.  Just add an ounce at a time, stir and taste.  When its just right you are done.  The disadvantage with extracts is that many people complain they tend to taste like….extracts.  Something is just missing from the flavor profile that you can only get with fresh fruit.

Prepackaged Fruit Products:
Namely I am referring here to fruit purees.  With these products you get the advantage of whole fruit fully processed to expose the fruity characters and you get cutting edge packaging and handling technology.  Many fruit purees are flash pasteurized so the microbial contamination issue is eliminated.  The only minor disadvantage is how much to add.  You’ll need to add a puree in a secondary fermentor like you would raw fruit and let it ferment out to prevent overly carbonated beers at bottling time.

Overall, I think that Fruit Purees are the way to go.  You get pre-processed fruit that is sterile and packaged at its peak of freshness.

A common variety is the Oregon Fruit Products brand.  I have seen these a many a homebrew shop.  So give them a try next time you are looking for a fruit addition.  I know the next Strawberry Wheat I make, I am going to try it out.

Brew On!

I thought of this post to help newer brewers understand the types of hops they can buy. During the current hop shortage; storability is the most important thing to keep in mind when you finally find a precious ounce of your favorite hop. I hope this is mildly informative and entertaining.

Hop Pellets:

Pellets are ground up whole hops, that are then pressed into a pellet form. The pressing creates a hop product with significantly less surface area than whole leaf hops. Therefore they have superior storage properties to other hops. The fact that they are ground up, means that once the pellets dissolve in the wort, the hop utilization goes up significantly because of the increased surface area of all the little bits. As a result you can’t just sub 1:1 pellet from whole leaf. Utilization can be improved from 10-25% with pellets over whole hops. So using more whole hops is required than pellets to get the same results.

Hop Plugs:

Hop plugs are whole hops that have been pressed (no grinding) into discs that are about a 1/2-3/4 inch thick and have a diameter slightly larger than a quarter. When they are plopped into the wort they slowly expand and will look like whole leaf hops in the kettle. The advantage to plugs is that the storage is improved (not as good as pellets) and there is less manipulation of the hop flower (again, no grinding). Plus, their hockey puck design is ideal for pick up games on the frozen lake down the street. I’m just kidding about that last point, but I thought I would try to sneak one by you.

Whole Leaf Hops:

Whole leaf hops are just virgin picked hops dried and put in a bag, hopefully vacuum sealed. This is where plugs and pellets start from. Whole leaf are great when they are freshest, but will have the shortest shelf-life. When using whole leaf hops its important to plan the brew carefully so that an open bag of while leaf is used rather quickly. Once exposed to air whole leaf hops degrade faster than the other two forms.

Personally, I am a pellet fan. The main reason for this is storage benefits. In the past I would buy hop pellets by the pound. They come in a airtight bag that is nearly impervious to gas exchange. Once opened I press and seal the bag the best I can, often with a binder clip or two. Then I put the bag in a large ziploc bag, pressed and sealed to remove more air. I store these double bagged hops in the freezer. I have found that I can use a bag of hops and still have fresh hop character within 6-9 as long as I am careful each time. I have used hops that are over a year old with this storage methods and detected little change in quality. Being sure to rotate the stock of hops and plan out the brew session to use older hops first keeps me from letting the hop pellets get too old.

FYI

The Brewing Network interviewed Ralph Olsen of HopUnion and Ian Ward of the Brewers Supply group on 12/02/07.
The current status of the shortages for Hop and Malt was covered in great detail.  If you are interested in knowing what is going on you can download the show in MP3 format from the website on the BN Archive page.  Just search for the 12/02/07 show.

I found the show very informative and useful for future planning and you are getting the information directly from two guys most involved with the supply situation.

I still have some EKG and Cascade Pellets in my freezer to hopefully last me through a few sessions next year. (I’d be happy to sell you some for $400 an ounce)  But I look forward to trying some newer varieties of hops while the old standards are hard to find.  I am particularly interested in looking for some Palisades in the future.

As for malt prices, I think I am going to just have to eat the cost increase.  Or try and find some clubs that do bulk purchasing and get in on that to save some money.

I know some homebrewers get friendly with their local brewpub and buy a sack from the brewers large pallet bulk orders.  This can give significant savings.  Unfortunately, my most local pub has closed/moved… very sad.

I was reading more of John Palmer’s How To Brew book last night.

(I have been skipping around and reading chapters out of order. Maybe over the holidays I’ll make a concerted effort to read the whole thing all the way through.)

I flipped through his chapter on water, which is a very important ingredient in beer. Heck, it makes up 95% percent of the finished beer.

It does take a back seat to the other ingredients…well…because….it’s water and water isn’t as fun as say a new strain of yeast.

I’m no chemist so I don’t want to type at great length about ions and parts per million, but if you are beginner and you want to increase your chances of making a good beer the first few times around…you can do what I did.

I bought spring water. I bought five gallons of the cheapest (store brand) spring water I could get at the grocery store.

I know the credo is “if it tastes good enough to drink, then you can brew with it”…so using the water out of my tap probably would have been fine (and it has been) but I wanted to buy as much insurance as possible to make something enjoyable.

I think anytime you start up something new, you want to have some success right away to keep you interested and motivated to keep trying to get better. If you are a beginner, try using spring water. It was the advice of my late uncle and I am happy I took it.

We can get into water additives and getting an analysis of your municipality’s water supply later.