I was reading a post that Adam at Beer Bits 2 had written about brewing during this economic volcanic meltdown of biblical proportions.  It got me to thinking…should I be thinking of ways of cutting back my homebrewing spending?

Then, we received a comment today on a post that was happy we weren’t writing about the economy or the election.

If people are here to escape, I can morph this post into something less doom and gloom and more happy go lucky.  No problem.

The Brew Dudes have many friends…most of them are dudes…just not brew dudes.

Homebrewing was/is Mike’s thing.  I thought it was cool and I took the plunge too.   No other dude has.  Not sure why.  Probably a number of reasons….but all the dudes like homebrewing…they just don’t know how to start.

My idea to help open the gate into the world of homebrewing was to plan a homebrew day for some non-brew dudes.  Nothing fancy, just dudes around the brewpot.

The one thing I would ask of my invitees would be to pay for a portion of the ingredients.  That way, I could save money and get more people into homebrewing. 

Whatever we brewed, they could take home whatever portion they paid.  In the past, they would probably get some portion of the brew…so now they can work for it a little bit.

Not a revolutionary idea, more of a “working within the framework of my friendships” idea.  Plus, it’s a good time no matter what the news is telling you.

The hop profile series continues with an examination of Northern Brewer hops.  The Brew Dudes have used these hops in pre-packaged recipe kits but never took the time to learn more about them.  Come with us as we learn more about Northern Brewer hops. 

Origin: All sources state that this variety was bred in 1934 in England.  It is a hybrid of English and American varieties.  There is some confusion on which country’s hop was the daddy…

Aroma: Some descriptors included: Medium-strong with some wild tones (which means nothing to me), woody with evergreen and mint overtones, Ted said: mild or very soft citrus and fruity quality.

Alpha Acid: Between 6.6 – 8.0% 

Typical Usage: It was made for a dual purpose of both bittering and flavoring.  I think typically it is used as bittering.  Northern Brewer hops are the signature variety in Anchor Steam, so if you were to make a California Common beer you may want to use them.  I think they can be used in all types of English ales.  We posted a brown porter recipe that calls for them.

Check out some other hop profiles:

Liberty Hops

Ahtanum Hops

Apollo Hops

It’s coming up in a few weeks…the 2008 Main Brewers Festival.  The Brew Dudes have been going to it since 1999.  It’s a great time.   I think it might be sold out, but you can check here to be sure.

Maine Brewers Festival

Last year, we had a good time.  Take a look at the recap we made last year.

This year, we plan to twitter from the event.   That should be fun (ultra-geeky fun).  We will be posting stuff from the fest, so if you can’t go…we’ll let you know how it is.

I am sure the typing will get less intelligible as time goes on. 

Harvest time brings thoughts of what to plant next year.  I hope to be growing hops when the time is right.

When clicking around the ol’ homebrewing blogosphere, I saw posts from other homebrewers who were harvesting the hops that they had grown on their own.  I have to say I was a bit envious.  The photos revealed what seemed to be bushels of light green beauties all ready for brewing.  Take a look as some posts out there:

Jason’s Hops

Travis’ Hops

Man, I gotta get to growing hops this coming spring.  Now that I have a back yard (my family and I just moved to the ‘burbs*), I feel like I have no excuses to not grow hops.  The one thing I would like to have before I buy and plant some rhizomes is to get tips from people who have done it before.

BYO and BeerSmith have good primers but if you have some tips or would like to share anything about your experiences growing hops, please leave a comment.

Now I need to choose what hop variety to grow.

I would like to take pictures of my harvest next year…like this one!

*We are not looking for a bailout.

We are knee deep into Autumn, so here is the result of our Fall Beer Poll.

The beer style you are most looking forward to drinking this Autumn is: Oktoberfest!

Thanks for making our poll a success.  If you don’t like the winner, the poll is still open.  Click here for the Autumn Beer Poll!

Brew On!   Hopefully you have some Oktoberfest nearby.

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.  Als,o 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 the 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).

How soon is too soon to make the jump from extract to all-grain brewing?
This is my checklist for this you should be comfortable with before making the big move.

• Full wort boils
• Capability to chill that wort using a chiller of some sort
• Handle some basic math for calculating mash-in volumes, wort dilution, and concentration to hit final gravities and mash efficiency
• Confidence in your sanitation practices
• You can afford the addictive nature of adding more toys to your brewhouse as you get more and more involved in the all-grain process (like larger kettle and propane burners)
• You’ve read some of the popular texts and websites about sparging and mashing and have a good mental picture of how the process is going to go.

Moving up to a few mini/partial mash batches is a helpful way to get a good idea of what the issues are with trying to mash-in, hit strike temps, and sparge.  If you’ve mastered those things and feel pretty confident in your skills, then moving to all-grain should be an easy transition.  Always remember that brewing all-grain is just making really fresh diluted wort extract, but you have much more control over the final product.

BREW ON!