Brew Dudes Homebrewing Blog

Brewing Equipment Upgrades

On July 23, 2008

Times are tight, hops are expensive, malt is on the rise, inflation is taking its grip and your brewing dollars just don’t go as far as they used to. But who cares — you’re still a homebrew gearhead and you want that new shinny kettle or keg.

I was thinking about the next piece of major equipment I need to buy (need being a very inaccurate word). I know that first and foremost my kegs are just too warm and lonely sitting in a garage without a kegorator to house them in. So that should be where I invest my spare brewing pennies. I do, however, have a couple other pieces of equipment I have had my eye on and I thought I’d share with you what I am mulling over.

March Pump – This is one slick piece of equipment. If I purchased this I would put it to use straight away doing a recirculating-whirlpool chill technique that Jamil Zainasheff has described as a great way to maximize the potential of an immersion chiller. Getting a pump for wort and water would also facilitate maybe moving up to my next equipment want.

Plate chiller – I am a big fan of the ease of use that an immersion chill provides. But I also like my toys small and easy to store (my backpacking background). The plate chiller is just that, a self-contained slab of copper and steel chilling dynamo. The use of a pump would make its operation that much simpler. My only concern with the plate chiller is I don’t do a good job of seperating hops and break material from my kettle to my fermentor. So that would require some more kettle mods, more upgrades and more money.

Brewing stand – Getting back to my comment about my love of all things compact and easy to store, the brewing stand is large but would be a great addition. I think that getting a brewing stand together, on wheels, would make a nice permanent place for my brewing set up. I could just wheel it out, brew, then wheel it away. Nice clean and tidy set up. Now all my brewing stuff is scattered on several shelves and I have to haul it out and put it away. I never do that. My kettle and burner just sit in the garage until I get tired of tripping over it or walking around it.

Alas, good things cost money, even if I make them myself. For now I’ll just keep on keeping on with the equipment I have. I am still making good beer regardless. It’s just the equipment changes that help keep it new and fresh and easy. Ahhh, it’s fun to dream.

What’s in your bag of “must haves”?

Beer Bottle Washer

By Mike

On July 21, 2008

In Equipment

DIY is what is all about as a hombrewer and especially at Brew-Dudes.

My latest wacky idea is to build a bottle washer and sanitizer. I hate bottling mainly for the washing of the bottles. Its just so tedious and I don’t like the mess I inevitably make in the kitchen with all the soaking, brushing, and rinsing. So I tried to think of a way to “automate” the process a bit.

If you have ever brewed at one of those Brew-on-premise places you have seen they bottle washing station they use. Its basically a large box with standing tubes that the bottles go over upside down. Then the lid is closed and the machine cycles sanitizer through the tubes and up into the bottles.

I figured I could build something just like it using a large bin for the box, PVC for the tubing manifold, and then use a submersible pump for to drive the whole system. I would use a series of buckets to hold cleanser (PBW), rinse water and sanitizer (Star-San). Then all I would have to do would be to move the pump from bucket to bucket along the process. I could envision making a 12-24 tubed manifold. I think the limitation would be the head pressure from the pump. But a good quality pump might be the only real investment in the system. I wonder if a march pump people use for brewing operations has enough head pressure for this type of setup. Then I kill two birds with one stone getting a pump for brewing and washing bottles.

Anyone else seen a homemade bottle washer unit like that? Links???

Popular Brewing Literature

By Mike

On July 20, 2008

In General

Cleaning up my stacks of beer magazines and piles of beer and brewing books I was wondering what other people are reading for increased brewing knowledge.

Where do you get your “education” and inspiration from?

For me I regularly read several magazines and I refer to a couple of well read texts for reference and clarity when I have a question about what I am doing or trying to do.

Magazines:
Brew Your Own (BYO)- Well obviously I am partial to this periodical as they profiled the Brew-Dudes in there great section called “Homebrew Nation”. This is the perfect blend of basic info and advanced info. Always great recipes and always great tips. If there is only one homebrewing magazine to get this is it.
Zymurgy– This is the publication of the American Homebrewers Association. You can get this periodical as part of your membership to the AHA. I really like this magazine as it often looks at the industry’s trends, homebrew techniques and styles. Its sort of like a craft beer trade magazine for homebrewers.
Beer Advocate Magazine-While this is not strictly a homebrewing magazine it does have a small monthly section dedicated to brewing a new style each issue. I like this magazine for its inspiring articles about about brewers, techniques and highlights great beers. This magazine helps me think about what beer can be, and also helps identify great commercial examples of beer styles that I may want to brew so I can go find those beers and do very important research.

Books:
Brewing Classic Styles– This new book is a must for brewing every recognized BJCP style of beer. Whenever I want to brew a style that is new to my bag of tricks I brew up the example style in this book. I have also found utility in also comparing recipes from this book to my own established recipes and see where they are different. I have often discovered areas or ingredients that achieved desired flavor profiles that I hadn’t come up with yet.
Designing Great Beers– This book is slightly dated but it contains a great information to help you understand extract potentials and hop utilization. I also really like this book for the historical perspectives of many classic styles.
How to Brew– Its been on the market for a while, there is even a new version available. But this book is a great reference for most brewers because its available on line for free!!! Outside of that this book provides a great way to get into the science of brewing without being overwhelmed with complex scientific ideas.

Those are some of my favorites, but there are many more.

Homebrewing Thoughts

By John Krochune

On July 16, 2008

In General

I get a few email alerts a day around the topic of homebrewing. For the most part, these emails contain posts or news articles about homebrewing beer, but sometimes they are written around electronics/software. PlayStation Portable homebrew is, seemingly, a big deal.

Lately, I have been seeing articles about homebrewing fuel.

With the current economic climate, are people going to start to make more things for themselves?

Will making things by yourself for yourself become more of a necessity?

Are homebrewers of beer ahead of the game since we have the experience in learning and refining a small scale manufacturing practice?

I can foresee a future where more people are growing their own food, making their fuel, and brewing their own beer…and possible creating their own video games.

I don’t see this future as bleak.

Hersbrucker Hops

By John Krochune

On July 15, 2008

In Hops

Here’s the Brew Dudes’ hop profile for the Hersbrucker variety of hops. In my investigation of this variety, I learned more about the naming of hops and traditional hops in general.

Hersbrucker is a variety that fits into the category of a landrace hop. Landrace hops are ones that become genetically unique or classifiable due to the growing area in which they thrived in over many years. For instance, Hersbrucker hops sprung up from the Hersbruck region of Germany. Because of the area it was grown in, it became its own variety of hops.

Sidenote: The tradition of brewing beer with ingredients nearby and how those nearby ingredients are as unique as the towns that the beer is brewed in is, in a word…cool. I sometimes wonder if it is better to have access to hops from all over the world, or if it would be better to just have access to hops grown in my town to make a unique beer. I feel it would be cooler to brew with Malden Maldener hops than Glacier or Cluster…but that’s another post 🙂

In my research, I discovered that this hops was selected to replace the Hallertauer when that noble variety was ravaged by a nasty fungi called verticillium and did so in the 1970s and 1980s until there were more disease-resistant Hallertauer varieties (Hallertauer Gold and Hallertauer Tradition) developed. That’s why you may see Hersbrucker hops sometimes labeled as Hallertauer Hersbrucker. This hop is the traditional Hersbrucker variety grown in the Hallertau area of Germany…which is probably tastes different than when it’s grown in Herbruck. Apparently it’s grown in Spalt, Germany too.

Origin: Hersbruck, Germany

Aroma: Grassy, Hay, Pleasant and Hoppy were all used as describers. It has a mild to semi-strong potency.

Alpha Acid: Between 3 to 5.5%

Typical Usage: Aroma

Beer Styles: I am thinking Pale German lagers and Pilsners. Any beer that would do well with a mild, pleasant hop aroma.