Brew Dudes Homebrewing Blog

Goodnight Kegerator

On March 22, 2008

Well things have been a bit hectic and I still haven’t brewed up any beer lately as John mentioned in a previous post.

Alas however a great tragedy in the brew-house this week…my beer fridge as finally kicked the bucket. Its been with me for a good 6 years or so. It was old and tired to begin with but becoming a dedicated beer fridge gave it new life.

So for now I am in mourning while I search for a new fridge.

The saddest part of this story is that I have a keg of Oatmeal Stout and Winter Warmer fully carbed and ready to drink. I’ll have to just drink them up before the ambient temperature outside gets to high.

Next time you have a homebrew, drink one to my fridge. It was a good friend and member of the brewery for many years.

Making A Yeast Starter

By John Krochune

On March 20, 2008

In Yeast

When I started to homebrew, I visited a lot of forums to get tips about how to make the best beer possible. What I keep reading in posts was the advice of “make a yeast starter”.

It seemed like making a yeast starter was the solution to a lot of problems. I definitely understand the importance of pitching a sufficient number of healthy yeast to your wort. What I never got out of those form posts was how to make a yeast starter.

Well, here I am to let people know how to make a wort starter.

I got these instructions from John Palmer’s How To Brew:

Boil a pint of water (that’s two cups) in a pan.

Pour in a 1/2 cup of dry malt extract.

Boil the mixture for 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes, cover the pan and put it in an ice bath in your kitchen sink.

After the wort has been cooled to a temperature that is ideal for your yeast, pour the wort into a bottle like a growler. I poured mine in a nalgene bottle.

Pour the yeast into the bottle with your cooled wort

Shake the wort to aerate it well.

Cover the top of the bottle with aluminum foil, plastic wrap held down with a rubber band, or a rubber stopper with an airlock.

Put the bottle in a place out of direct light. Make sure this place stays around the temperature range that is optimal for your yeast.

After two days, it should be ready to be pitched into your larger wort on brew day.

Here are some pictures from my yeast starter night. I tried to cover my wort for the last few minutes of the boil like John Palmer tells you to do in his book. Total boil over. 🙁 (See picture 2)

Tasting Grains

By John Krochune

On March 19, 2008

In Malts

I put together the APA recipe based on grains I had done profiles on over the past few months. Now it’s one thing to read about how grains taste and it’s another thing to taste them to figure out how they taste.

I opened up my bags of grain to not only give them a taste, but also to figure out how I would best finalize my recipe.

Here are my notes:

Honey Malt: Sweet, but a light sweetness. Earthy.

Victory Malt: Bitter, I guess it was biscuity…but it did taste like the scones my mom made for St. Patty’s Day. It tasted like it would reinforce the hop flavor in a beer. To me, it had a similar taste.

Special B Malt: Yep, I tasted raisins. Definitely a nice sweet/roasty taste. I went back for seconds on this one.

Everything tasted good separately…then I tasted them together. The combination wasn’t bad either. I know it will different in the finished beer, but it’s a good start.

The actual amounts of I use of each I will figure out on brew day…it’ll be a game day decision. Since these three grains will be used in such small quantities none of them will not overpower the beer and my quest for balance will be achieved.

Hops Freshness

By John Krochune

On March 18, 2008

In Hops

As my preparations for my brew day continue, I wanted to check the freshness of the hops I have had hanging out in the freezer for the past few ~~months~~ years. I have a few US grown hops that have been in the deep freeze that I would like to use for my APA…trying to stay on theme.

I bought 2 ounces of Glacier hops last weekend, which I really want to showcase in this brew. My fear is that I won’t get the bitterness I need from the Glacier hops and I will need to supplement the brew with some other hops.

My original thought was to bitter with Cluster hops, since that’s their traditional role. My next thought was about the freshness of those Cluster hops and the quantity too (I have about a half ounce left).

I took those hops out of my freezer and gave them a few sniffs. They seemed to still smell like hops, just not as strong as they used to be. They didn’t smell cheesy like all the books keep warning me that bad hops smell like.

Just to make sure, I hydrated the hops in boiling water to see if the cheese would come through.

Don’t worry, I didn’t drink my hop tea.

The hops smelled ok. I guess I did a good job of keeping them airtight in my freezer. I probably will supplement the Cluster with some of the Glacier or maybe throw a half ounce of the Cascade I have…since they aren’t as strong as they used to be.

Partial Mashing

By John Krochune

On March 17, 2008

In Partial Mash

Since I have only done one partial mash in the past, I thought I would brush up on the technique. Here are my top 10 points I can pass on to would be partial mashers:

Get your hands on the October 2006 issue of BYO magazine. It has a great article on countertop partial mashing.
I bought a picnic cooler to mash in. You don’t need one, but it helps to keep the temperature of your mash steady.
I haven’t modified the cooler to make it easy to separate the wort from the grain like a false bottom or a manifold, so I am just going to use a grain bag. I am going to keep the bag as loose as possible to ensure I get a good soak.
There are a few different ratios of hot water to grain out there. I am going to use Chris Colby’s 1.375 quarts to every pound of grain.
I know I should heat up more water than I need and I should heat it 11-15 degrees hotter than my mash temperature.
After mashing for an hour, I will open the spigot and let the wort drain into a large pitcher. Then I will pour it back over the grains to recirculate it since the first runnings are cloudy and probably full of husks.
Then, I will drain the cooler into my pitcher again until all the sweet, sweet wort has flowed out of the cooler
I will then pour the wort gently into my brew pot.
After draining the cooler, I will fill it up again with water that will settle to 170 F and I will let it sit there for 5 minutes and then drain it again.
Not sure how much water I will need to add to the wort to get to total of 6 gallons to brew (I will need 6 gallons for the boil to end up with 5 gallons in the fermenter), but that amount is what I will put in my kettle.

If I think of other partial mashing tips, I will post them. I probably will have a bunch after my brew sessions.