Brew Dudes Homebrewing Blog

2011 NERHBC Entries

On October 7, 2011

The New England Regional Homebrew Competition is coming up on October 29th. I think between the two of us, Mike and I have 8 beers to submit.

I think that’s a good number. I guess the goal is to submit beers to every category. Until then, I think increasing the number year over year is good progress.

This year they are accepting two bottle per beer entry. I set at least three 12 ounce bottles aside for the competition so it might be good to drink along when I get the scoresheets back.

Submissions are due on the 14th by 5PM at one of the dropoff locations or to the mailing address.

Good luck to all. Brew on.

First Time Mead Making

By John Krochune

On October 5, 2011

In Brew Log, General

Yep, this Sunday I put a little mead together. I don’t really know how else to put it. I didn’t brew at all. I mixed some ingredients together and pitched some yeast. It was pretty quick and easy. It is easier than extract brewing.

For this Raspberry mead or melomel, I really focused on cleaning my fermentation bucket. I hadn’t used it in a while and I wanted to protect my mead from infection, so I washed it with a cloth and some Oxyclean solution.

Then I repeated the process with Star San solution. I put a little elbow grease into it, trying to get into any little scratches that may be in the bucket.

I choose to use the bucket because of all the raspberries I was using. I just didn’t want to have to deal with the cleaning of a carboy with pounds and pounds of raspberry goo left over.

I sanitized everything else using solution in a spray bottle; the yeast pouch, the bags of fruit, the honey bottle, etc.

I poured everything in together, mixed it well with a power drill and paddle set up, and pitched my yeast.

I didn’t take a gravity reading because I forgot. I did put in the yeast nutrient and energizer and have been following the schedule pretty closely.

This mead could turn out fine or a complete disaster. It should be fun to find out.

Bravo Hops

By John Krochune

On September 30, 2011

In Hops

I was looking at hop varieties that people were searching for on our site and there was one variety that had a good number of queries but we hadn’t written a post yet.

Today, I bring you a post on Bravo Hops!

Developed by the Hopsteiner Breeding Program along with Apollo hops, this variety was bred from Zeus hops and a couple of unnamed hop variety.

This variety was used prominently during the hops “crisis” a few years back. They are another one of these high alpha acid US hop variety.

Origin: USA – Released in 2006.

Aroma: Pleasant, aromatic. I am guessing that means they don’t have any strong aroma that can be defined as anything but “hoppy.”

Alpha Acid: 14 to 17%

Typical Usage: Bittering – it’s a clean bittering. Smooth.

Beer Styles: American Ale and Strong German lagers.

Local Homebrew Shop

By Mike

On September 29, 2011

In General

Support your local homebrew shop (or LHBS). That is a common statement I hear sometimes. I like the spirit of the saying for sure, but I think I have met the end of my time at my local shop. Wednesday I went to my local shop and I was pleasantly surprised. Usually, they are missing several ingredients that I’d like to put into my recipe. (To make it worse, they often suggest things as substitutes that personally I don’t think will really work.)

Two things they came up short on. I wanted some Crystal 80 for an Oatmeal Stout recipe. They don’t carry C80, they had some sort of C150 (cara-red I think?, so its not even a crystal malt). I looked in there little malt guide they have hanging on the shelf and they closest thing I could find to it LISTED was a Cara-Munich III 65-75L. But when I picked up the one pound bag of the stuff, it was 53-63L. Well, I have never used Cara-Munich so I figured I’d suck it up and use the Cara-Munich III in place of C80… ugh.

The second thing they didn’t have was American 2-row malt. This they normally carry but they were out of it at the time. She said it would be in the next day…but I was there now. So instead I went with something they called Pale Malt. I don’t even know if it’s an English Pale Malt or Briess’s Pale Malt.

On the ride home, I started thinking about this more. Why don’t they put the origin of the malts on the bulk grain bins? They have bins labelled Pilsner, 6-row, 2-row, Wheat, and Pale Malt but what does that mean? I know I could have asked but they are super busy with Grape season and no one was coming out from behind the counter as I scratched my head in front of the bins. (I should mention the bins are right in front of the counter where no one was spurred to help me. I know I should have asked!)

I did actually get someone’s attention and asked about the “2-row” situation. When I said I would just sub the other malts for my needs, I asked if they had any pre-bagged 5lb lots left. She said “No, but there is plenty of 1lb-ers available.”

I said I was looking for 16 lbs of 2-row, again she said there’s plenty of 1lb bags if you want. When I asked if there was a price difference she said, “Well the self service stuff is cheapest of the 1lb, 5lb, bulk options.” Congrats on trying to up sell me to the bags at $0.30 more per pound or whatever it is.

At least they had all the hops I wanted, but they were out of WLP002 and like the 2-row I won’t hold it against them – I just went for WLP005 (same flavor a little more attenuative). I picked up some tubing and caps as well.

All said I spent just over $98.00 (I got ingredients for a wheat beer as well, so two beers total).

So here is the local part: I know I can get all the ingredients I want the first time if I ordered online at one of the big online guys. Then factor in my drive time and gas money…shipping is actually cheaper. Not to mention my local has prices about 10% higher then anywhere else. Depending on where I order from, shipping might even be free! Oh well. The local shop is nice to have mainly in the summer when shipping yeast across the country isn’t a good idea but for the most part doesn’t this global-internet economy make any shop my local shop???

Stay tuned for an Oatmeal Stout Brew log and a Wheat beer brew log from me… and maybe a few online orders as well.

BREW ON!

Revolution Hops

By John Krochune

On September 28, 2011

In Hops

I started seeing this variety available for purchase at a number of online homebrewing shops. Revolution hops are grown by the Rogue Brewery in their own hopyards. They are GYO certified – grow your own.

Revolution was the first variety they harvested this year according to their crop report. If you are able to get your hands on some, you may be able to brew cloned Rogue recipe or at the very least brew with hops grown by a brewing company.

Origin: USA – Independence, OR to be precise

Aroma/Flavor: Noble in aroma and flavor. Many different descriptors from the beers they brew themselves: spicy, piney, some citrus notes.

Alpha Acid: 5.4%

Typical Usage: Rogue categorizes all the hops they grow as aroma hops.

Beer Styles: American ales and German style lagers.