Brew Dudes Homebrewing Blog

Brew Shuffle

On July 24, 2012

We got an email a while ago – sorry I am just getting to it now – from Matt at Brewshuffle.com. He was looking to get some feedback and get more people to use his site.

The site has a few things going for it. It is a place where homebrewers can exchange information, recipes, techniques, etc but it also has a map feature that shows you where nearby homebrewers are.

There was a post that Mike put up years ago about trying to find other homebrewers in his neighborhood.

Weirdly enough once he moved into his new house, he found out the guy across the street was a homebrewer.

If Mike had this site back in 2008, he wouldn’t have to sell his house to find another homebrewer.

I can see some really great possibilities for the site. As he writes on the About page, you use the site to facilitate meetings, parties, beer swaps, etc.

Check out the Brew Shuffle site. I think that it could be a place where people can not only exchange homebrewing information online but (GASP!) offline as well. Like, in person and stuff.

Craft Brewing vs. Home Brewing

By Mike

On July 20, 2012

In General

I recently returned from a vacation in Maine. During that time I was seeking out local beer and come to some interesting comparisons between Maine Craft Brewing vs. my Home Brewing. I have been drinking Maine beer for the better part of 15 years or so. I think I have collected enough data to say that I think I brew better beer than most “mainstream” Maine breweries. I don’t know what it is about most Maine beer but there is a common hop profile in beers from Gritty’s, Shipyard, Geary’s, and Sebago that just sort of turns me off.

Sometimes it seems like they are brewing as if it’s still 1998. When hoppiness was defined by adding loads of harsh variety hops in at 60 minutes and that was it. There seems to be a lack of progression towards thinking about hop oils and late kettle additions.

I can honestly say after a week of drinking Maine beer I was really craving getting back to my kegerator to drink my homebrew. My homebrew seems much more satisfying flavor-wise than these Maine beers. I admit there are some new breweries in Maine that I haven’t really tried yet. And I didn’t spend all of my vacation sampling every brewery.

Next time I travel to Maine for a week, I’ll have to be sure to bottle up some of my own beer as a life raft midweek.

BREW ON!

Vienna Lager Ingredients Ordered

By John Krochune

On July 18, 2012

In Brew Log

The Bohemian Pilsner is still lagering away and now my sights turn to the next lager: Vienna Lager.

This beer will have a couple of learning points coming from it:

The recipe calls for the Vienna malt to make up the majority of the grain bill. We’ll get a good understanding of what that malt tastes like.
The yeast will be a repitch from Mike’s Oktoberfest. He is using WLP830 – so it should be a good quantity of healthy viable yeast.

Some more subtle learnings will be the using of a Carafa malt for the first time. It’ll be interesting to see what kind of color I can get out of 2 ounces of the stuff.

We’ll see how dry I can get this beer. Again the large yeast starter and maybe some extra time in primary should help out with that.

I put the order in and I should be able to brew this one in a couple of weeks.

Homegrown Hops Update 2012

By John Krochune

On July 17, 2012

In Hops

Just an update of the homegrown hops for the year 2012. The coveted year three is upon us and I am anticipating a big harvest this year.

For those of you who may not know, hop bines take three years to produce their full yield of hop cones. I have been lucky and have been able to collect cones every year of growing them. Last year, I had a good harvest and collected a few ounces of hops.

I am striving for a full pound this year. At least, that’s what I hope to get out of the old hop bines in 2012.

The weather has been warmer sooner this year and drier. Watering has needed to be a priority this year when in other years I have relied on some rain to help out. July has been a pretty hot and dry month this year.

There are some cones already visible, but last year at this time I feel like the cones were bursting out out all over the place.

Maybe we will see a bunch of blooming in the next month and mid-September will be the best harvest time.

Herkules Hops

By John Krochune

On July 6, 2012

In Hops

One of the hops that people search for on our site is Herkules hops. Since we don’t have a profile of it, I did some research into the variety and put this post together.

To tell you the truth, there wasn’t much information about them. I read that they were bred at Huell, the German Hop Research Institute. They are a high alpha variety and were bred for high yields, resistance to wilt, and resistance to mildew. They are a cross between Hallertauer Taurus and an unnamed powdery resistant male hop.

There were some conflicting statements about the aroma. Some sources said powerful, other said not it was average. If Herkules is anything like Magnum, it’s probably just a good high alpha acid bittering hop.

Origin: Germany

Aroma/Flavor: Spicy, floral, could be powerful, could be average

Alpha Acid: 12 – 17%

Typical Usage: Bittering

Beer Styles: From what I read, I think this variety would work best for bittering in German lagers. Give them a try if you can get your hands on some.