Brew Dudes

Homebrewing Blog and Resource

The hobby of homebrewing beer

American Cream Ale Without Corn

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On November 24, 2016

In Videos

I love American Cream Ale. But for some reason each time I brew it I just keep messing with a good thing. This time I substituted flaked barley for the flaked corn!! Is it still a Cream Ale? Check it out.

I had heard a podcast of a commercial brewer (in England I think) that looked took a different approach to American Cream Ale and chose to substitute flaked barley in place of the corn. Knowing that traditionally perhaps flaked barley (of which they already had access to malted barley) would have been easier to source than flaked corn.

Anyway, I was looking for a recipe other than Galaxy Pale Ale to keep calibrating my process and system with post my high final gravity woes. I thought this sounded like a simple way to do something different and give it a go.

The beer looks just like my normal Cream Ale. There is a slight lack of grain sweetness on the nose that I think the corn sort of drove in other recipes. But the aroma is still pleasant. I use Liberty hops throughout the beer, but the alpha was a bit low (4%) and I should have used more. I think this beer could use a little late Cascade to make it smell more American too… but thats just me.

The flavor is easy and clean. There is a definite change in the mouthfeel with the barley substitution. Its fuller. Not full like a bigger beer per se, but fuller than a corn adjunct beer. Dare I say even Creamier than Cream Ale??? More experimentation is needed but its s good beer. I need to brew a traditional Cream Ale now so we can do a side by side before this one gets too old.

The basic recipe:
9lbs Rhar 2-row
1lb Briess Flaked Barley

1oz Liberty 60min
1oz Liberty 20min
10z Liberty 5min

US05 Fermentis dry yeast (Rehydrated)

CHEERS!

Brew Dudes Homebrew Swap Exchange 12

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On November 16, 2016

In Videos

This weeks Homebrew swap is a great one. Matt has sent us a blueberry sour wheat. He performed a kettle souring using probiotics. A very popular approach growing within the home brewing community. Made popular by many foils over at Milk the Funk on Facebook.
Check out the color on this one!!!

Here is the recipe and the process from Matt:

OG: 1.045 FG: 1.014 ABV: 4% IBU: 1
Blueberry Wheat Sour
5lbs Pale 2-row
4lbs Wheat Malt
5oz Acid malt
12 oz Acid malt (cap the mash and bring PH down)
1/3 oz Lambic Blend Hops @ 60min
1 pack US-05
1 lb per Gallon fresh but frozen first Blueberries
1L starter of Lactobacillus Rhamnosus, Casei, & Acidophilus cultured from probiotics

Mashed @ 154F (BIAB)
Boiled for 10min
Soured in Carboy (sour worting) @ 100F for 30hours, turned down fermentation chamber to 70F and pitched yeast @ 48hours.
Aged for 2weeks in primary then racked onto Blueberries for a week then bottled.

//END AMAZING RECIPE

Everyone should try this out. Get ahold of some probiotics that have active lactobacillus and start give this a try on small batches of wort. You can just go for minimally boiled extract worts to make it simple.

This beer poured a very cool light ruby hue with pink highlights. The aroma was definitly sour along with the taste. But the totally acidity wasn’t terribly strong or off putting. The fermentation character was super clean as well. This blend of probiotics obviously put out nothing more than clean acid character, which is great! The blueberry fruit came through nicely softening the beer a bit too I suspect. An easy drinking and easy to brew sour brew.

Thanks to Matt for the chance to try this one. An exceptional example of quick kettle souring gone right!

BREW ON!!!

Lowering Oxygen in your Brewing

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On November 3, 2016

In Videos

I’ve been reading about a new set of methodologies evolving in the brewing scene to greatly reduce the amount of oxygen ‘damage’ to your beer. This week we talk a little about the extremes some folks are employing as well as discussing some more practical ways for lowering oxygen in your brewing.

Boiling your mash water, CO2 infusing your mash tun and close transferring to the kettle are just a few of the steps being taken by some brewers to lower the amount of O2 in their beer. Claiming that the beers get better or have better shelf stability. I don’t know much about those things and it will certainly be interesting to see how this technique continues to evolve. Only in home brewing I suppose.

For me I am mildly concerned about O2 pick up in my process. The main area, I think at least, to be concerned with the O2 issue is post ferment. I’ve been thinking about trying some closed transfer set ups that I might try. I have in the past used CO2 to push the beer out of my carboy and up a fixed racking cane out of the carboy cap. The only real issue to watch here is to not over pressurize a glass carboy as they aren’t intended to hold pressure. However, the carboy cap is likely to pop off before that happens… thankfully.

Another way to go to closed transfer is to ferment in a corny keg. Using a trimmed dip tube you should be able to transfer well settled beer without too much of the yeast cake to another keg. If you use a black to black jumper set up you don’t even need to open the keg of fermented beer. I have read about filling a receiver keg full of sanitizer and then pushing it out with CO2 to completely purge it of O2. Using the gas out connector in a pitch of water you create a breathable one way airlock so that as the keg fills the gas can escape. Using corny kegs in this manner greatly reduced many other parts of the transfer process like racking cans etc etc because the are built into the kegs themselves. The only sacrifice is a smaller batch of beer.

Have you experimented with closed transfer of finished beer? Ever fermented in a corny keg?
Let us know about it!!!

CHEERS!

Automated Electric Homebrewing Systems

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On October 26, 2016

In General, Videos

We have come to a time in the age of this hobby that there are many options for homebrewers to buy off-the-shelf machines to brew beer. For a few hundred dollars, you too can purchase the one piece of equipment that you will need make batches of beer. In this video, we discuss the idea of getting an automated electric homebrewing systems and what that means for the hobby.

Buy a System – Lost Your Homebrewing Soul?

A few years ago, I wrote a post that expressed my initial feelings about these devices. Now, I was coming at it from a perspective of someone who had bought a home brew kit with buckets, a bottle capper, and a sad siphon. From there, I save my pennies and bought other pieces of equipment over time so I could brew better beer. There was a real need for patience and some satisfaction from building a system yourself. I saw the first countertop system as a cop out. I felt like it would cheat other homebrewers from going through the same process as me. Since then, I have come around to seeing a different perspective.

Technology Makes Brewing Better

My favorite parts of the hobby is the math and the science behind it. Who am I to criticize the innovation of homebrewing equipment? If you have the funds, these systems can jump start your home brewing skills to a level that many people take years to get to. Smart people putting more energy into building better systems is not a bad thing at all. After thinking about it, I have come to realize that people should have a choice to brew the way they want to at home.

Which Homebrewing System To Choose?

In the issue of BYO magazine that I am flipping through in the video (Nov. 2016), there are seventeen different systems that were on the market at the time. By the time you are reading this post, there are probably many more. I would research many of them. The article had a good a great matrix of the different features that each one came with. Some of the big questions you should ask yourself when researching are:

  • How much are you willing to spend?
  • How large of a batch size do you want to brew on the system?
  • Do you want to have the flexibility to brew all-grain, partial mash, and extract on the system?
  • Do you want it to have other cool stuff like a mobile app or for it to be WiFi enabled?

With the price you are willing to pay, you may need to make compromises with the feature the system provides.  I think with the number of options out there, you will be able to find the automated brewing system for you.

If you want to search for some of the models available, here are some of the names:

Counter Top Models

  • BeerDroid
  • BrauMeister
  • Brew-Boss
  • Brewcrafter25
  • Brewie
  • Grainfather
  • High Gravity BIAB Electric
  • iGulu
  • Minibrew
  • Pico
  • RoboBrew
  • Zymatic

Floor-sized Models

  • Brewbot
  • BrewEasy
  • BREWHA BIAC
  • BrewMaster – Freestanding
  • Unibrau Pro

Let us know if you have any of these – we’d like to know more about your experience.

Thanks and Brew ON!

Northern Brewer and AB InBev Acquisition

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On October 24, 2016

In Videos

The big news last week was the purchase of Northern Brewer/MidWest Supplies with the giant brewery AB InBev. We lay down our thoughts on it in this video.

John and I have both on and off ordered from Norther Brewer. John has a slightly higher frequency with them than I do. I order there when I can’t find what I need at other stores. I have always liked their slightly better grain selection than the places. And to be totally honest, I usually wait until they send me special “please come back” coupons for 20% of my next order. Then I’ll order something big or stock up on cleaning supplies etc etc.

Neither one of us are sure what to make of this whole move by AB InBev. Nor are we sure what to think about NB/MW motives. You can look here for the NB press release.

On the one hand you may think that it puts AB InBev and its partners in a better position to monitor data from NB users. I can’t see how that data isn’t really captured else where. On the other hand two, I can’t understand what NB really gets out of such a deal unless they are getting capital for expansion and/or access to nationwide marketing and distribution (which I thought NB already handled pretty well).

Regardless, I think all we can do is wait and see what comes next with this move. I doubt however, we’ll see any really transparent change in how we interact with NB. Only time will tell.

What say you?
What do you think of this partnership?
Good for home brewing?
Good for mega beer?
Will you still shop at Northern Brewer?
How much of your shopping to you split between NB and your local shop (provided NB isn’t your local shop)?

So many questions so little time…

BREW ON!!!

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