Brew Dudes Homebrewing Blog

This year I got on the ball and signed up to submit my beers, mead, and cider to the New England Regional Homebrew Competition also known as the NERHBC.

In 2012, they limited the number of total entries and entries per homebrewer so it only took a few days before all the spots were filled.

I was left with a whole bunch of beers but nowhere to send them since I misjudged how long the window was going to be open.

Not that having a large variety of beer is a bad thing but it did cause me to plan better for the 2013 edition of the competition.

The NERHBC has been the one of the two these brew dudes have focused on since the beginning of the blog. I personally have had some success in it but not enough for my liking. If I can get a few of my beers to place in this year’s competition, then I would feel validated that I am improving on my beer brewing skills.

With the limit of 7 entries per homebrewer, I had to make some decisions on what I wanted to submit. In a way, it was a good thing because I had to whittle my submissions to the ones I thought were the best overall, the ones that were the closest to the style guidelines.

So I have my labels, my elastics to keep those labels on the beer bottles, and my drop off point. The nice thing about this competition is that it also has a two bottle per entry rule as well which means less work for me to get things ready and a chance to drink the third bottle. 🙂

As with this competition and any homebrewing competition, I wish everyone the best of luck. I hope you get good feedback and good scores.

Brew On!

Saison Throwdown Lowdown

By Mike

On September 25, 2013

In Videos

We finally dive into the tasting portion of our Saison Throwdown. John and I both brewed up some Saisons, taking our own approach and using different ingredients.

John went with a Whitelabs Saison blend of yeast while I went with Lallemand’s Belle Saison, a dry strain.
John followed the path that many brewers take and pitched his yeast in the low 70s and let it free rise up into the lower 80s. Many brewers find it necessary to do this with certain Saison strains to get them to finish out. And perhaps to help develop some of the characteristic flavors of Saison.
I went with a milder regimen. I pitched at 65F and let the yeast churn away for 2 days at the temp. After that I ramped it up to 68F for another couple days. After that I set the thermostat at 74F and decided to see what would happen. I think the beer go up there for a little bit but for most of the remainder of fermentation (2 weeks) it stayed at 72F.

Interestingly, my beer had more characteristic citrus and lemon aroma and taste.
John’s yeast blend and fermentation created more of a mild black pepper and slight clove signature. The beer was more reminiscent of something between German Hefe and a Belgian Pale ale. Not unpleasant, just not really citrus or ester enough to really seem like a great Saison.

We’ll be sure to get both complete recipes up on the site.
Decide for yourself what route is for you. For me I’d definitely like to experiment more with the Belle Saison strain. Play with temperatures and more or less O2 levels.

Brew on!

Rubin Hops

By John Krochune

On September 23, 2013

In Hops

I have done a number of Czech hop profiles over the past few months. These hop varieties have one thing in common, they were bred from Saaz hops.

Along with Agnus and Kazbek hops, Rubin hops are another new variety from the Czech Republic for you to try out in your next homebrew.

Rubin has stronger bittering characteristics than its Saaz parent. It is not as refined as Saaz but it does last longer.

Registered in 2007, these hops are branded as a dual purpose hop to be used throughout the boil. This hop variety could give you bigger spiciness than you would get from using Saaz. It has the same range of alpha acids as Agnus hops have but it isn’t grown as much as that hop from the stats I was able to find on what hops are grown in what region of the Czech Republic. That fact is worth noting especially if you are looking to find Rubin hops in your local homebrew shop. If they are not available, try Agnus instead. Maybe in a few years, they will be as prominent in stores as their Saaz-bred brothers and sisters

Origin: The Czech Republic

Aroma/Flavor: Spicy, earthy. Once source stated that it did have some aroma similarities to Strisselspalt hops.

Alpha Acid: Typical ranges started at 9% and ended at 14%

Typical Usage: Dual Purpose. Rubin would be a good one to use in a Bohemian or Czech Pilsner. If it is stronger but a little more wild than plain old Saaz, you may want to experiment with them first before using them in your next world class lager.

If you don’t want to experiment, you could bitter with these hops and use Saaz late in the boil or as a dry hop addition to get the traditional flavor and aroma in your beer.

Brew ON!

How To Use A Digital Thermostat Controller To Keep Your Beer Cool

By John Krochune

On September 20, 2013

In Equipment

When we put up a video about how to change the jumpers in a Johnson Controls thermostat controller, there was a comment on YouTube that asked if we could show how this piece of equipment works for keeping your fermentating beer cool in the fridge.

Thinking that was a valid question for someone who may not understand the concept of a thermostat override and how it works, I put together this video to show the different features of the controller.

The thermostat controller itself has a few main features. It has a few cords coming out of it. One is an electrical plug with three prongs that you plug into the wall a socket of your choice.

The other large cord has a female plug on it and this is where you plug your fridge or chest freezer plugs into so that the unit can controls when to turn on or shut off the motor on your fridge/chest freezer.

The last thin cord coming out of the controller is a temperature probe and it looks similar to one you would find on a digital thermometer. At least it does to me – we had a big weather tracking device when I was growing up that reporting on the temperature, atmospheric pressure, and humidity but it had a probe that looked just like the one on the thermostat control to measure the outside temperature.

The settings on the unit takes some reading to understand what they are and how you can modify them. There are a few settings that I do not really use but the two that are important are the set point and the differential.

Set Point – This setting is for the temperature you would like the unit to control your fridge/chest freezer to maintain.

Differential – This setting controls an acceptable range plus or minus around the temperature you selected for your set point.

For instance, if you inputted a set point to 50° F and a differential of 1, the control would turn on your fridge if the internal temperature rose to 51° F or above and would shut off if 49° F was detected.

I like keeping my differential tight since a degree is a big deal to a small yeast cell.

If you are thinking about buying a thermostat control, go for it. They are easy to use and will come in handy from brewing lagers.

Spiced Mead Video

By Mike

On September 18, 2013

In Videos

This is a video that just sort of happened spontaneously. We had finished tasting a few beers, and started to dig into my beer fridge for some odd ball stuff that I just had in there for who knows how long. We found this bottle of “Ancient Spiced Mead”. This bottle of mead came to me a couple years ago through a homebrew swap with some online friends.

I exchanged some homebrew with some guys at BrewingKB.com. The best I can remember this mead came from either Hogarthe or RuralBrew over at that site. If I can get in touch with them, I’ll re-edit this post.

John and I were feeling pretty good. I was blowing off steam from a couple rough days prior. We just had a good time tasting this mead. Enjoy it for what its worth.

I’d strongly recommend being a part of an online community somewhere. If you’ve never shared beer before through and online swap it can be a great way to get some feedback and to give some feedback. I still have a handful of good local guys I met on brewingkb.com. As much as you think you might learn more about your beers from entering them into a competition, the swapping on homebrews is better since more information is disclosed between someone you are sharing your brew with rather than trying to understand what a judge wrote on your score sheet. Many times a scoresheet leaves much to be desire. Chatting it up with other homebrewers gives you a chance to learn from someone else. Outside of brewing more often, learning from other homebrewers is the best way to brew better beer.

To either one of those dudes that I got this from, it was a great mead and it certainly had held up very well for the time it spent aging in my beer fridge.

Cheers!

Brew Dudes

Homebrewing Blog and Resource

Submitting to the 2013 New England Regional Homebrew Competition

Saison Throwdown Lowdown

Rubin Hops

How To Use A Digital Thermostat Controller To Keep Your Beer Cool

Spiced Mead Video