Archives for January 2014

10 Gallons (38 L) of Beer from a Stovetop Boil? (Part 2 of 2)

January 16, 2014 by Leave a Comment
DSCN0021

Brewing beer on your stovetop is convenient — and you can yield over 5 gallons (19 L) of beer in some circumstances.

This is the second part of an article on yielding 10 gallons (38 L) of beer from a stovetop wort boil. The first part dealt with the wort density during the boil and bitterness. 

Color

When you boil a dense wort, the amount of ingredients alone will make it darker than many pale beers — deep golden at a minimum, if it is an all-malt beer. However, darker worts also pick up more color during the boil. There’s no way (that I know of) to calculate how much color will develop. However, if you were trying to brew a pale beer by boiling a very dense wort and diluting it, it would likely turn out too dark. This would also limit the number of BJCP styles that could be brewed with this level of dilution in the fermenter. At a minimum, I assume that the beer would turn out a light amber (although I haven’t tested this). So to be safe, we’ll only consider beers that are amber or darker.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Brewing Techniques Tagged With: , ,

Ordinary Bitter (Partial Mash Formulation)

January 15, 2014 by Leave a Comment
British_dimpled_glass_pint_jug_with_ale

Ordinary bitter — great for extraordinary beer drinking sessions with good friends.

Here is another example recipe using the countertop partial mashing method. This is an ordinary bitter, an English session beer, presented in a 5.0-gallon (19-L) homebrew recipe formulated for either partial mashing with a 2-gallon cooler (main recipe) or a 3-gallon cooler (see option). Compared to a bitter made with an extract-with-steeping-grains formulation, this beer has more aroma from the pale malt. Compared to some other partial mash methods, this uses more grains and less extract. Roughly 70% of the fermentables in this recipe come from the partial mash.

This original version of this recipe appeared in an article about going grain-to-glass in 7 days.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Brewing Recipes Tagged With: , , ,

10 Gallons (38 L) of Beer from a Stovetop Boil? (Part 1 of 2)

January 15, 2014 by Leave a Comment
DSCN0014

You can make 5 gallons (19 L) of beer by boiling wort on your stovetop, but what about 10 gallons (38 L)?

Typical homebrewing practice for stovetop extract brewers is to boil a few gallons (perhaps 8–11 L) of wort and dilute it to 5.0 gallons (19 L) in the fermenter. But if what if you wanted more beer? Could you boil a thicker wort and dilute it to 10 gallons (38 L)? In some cases, this might be possible. To understand when this might be possible, let’s look at the numbers associated with attempting this. Specifically, let’s look at the wort densities, bitterness levels, and wort colors that would result for trying this.

 

This Could Work (in Limited Situations)

If you could dilute a few gallons (11 L) of wort to 10 gallons (38 L) and make good beer, wouldn’t everyone be doing it, at least every once in a while? The time spent making 5 gallons (19 L) of beer could yield 10 gallons (38 L). As we’ll see, there are good reasons why this would yield substandard beer for most beer styles. However, there are perhaps a few types of beer that could be brewed this way — and I’ll give away the punchline by saying that the beer would have to be low gravity, not very bitter, and amber or darker. Here’s why.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Brewing Techniques Tagged With: , , ,

Winter Grilling

January 14, 2014 by 1 Comment
DSCN0035

Fire!

Homebrewing and grilling go together like, well, homebrewing and grilling — which is to say quite well. In the dead of winter, however, many backyard chefs let the snow pile up on the grill or smoker, waiting for spring. However, there’s no reason you can’t cook outdoors during the winter. Here’s how.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: FAQ Tagged With: ,

Patrick Henry Pale Ale (Countertop Mash Formulation)

January 14, 2014 by Leave a Comment
496px-Patrick_henry

Patrick Henry

Here is an example recipe for countertop partial mashing. This is my pale ale, presented in a 5-gallon (19-L) homebrew recipe formulated for either partial mashing with a 2-gallon cooler (main recipe) or a 3-gallon cooler (see option). Compared to a pale ale made with a straight extract-with-steeping-grains formulation, this beer has more aroma from the pale malt. Compared to some other partial mash methods, this uses more grains and less extract. Over 70% of the fermentables in this recipe come from the partial mash. Other recipes on this website formulated this way include Colby House Porter, Beelzeboss (“saison” brewed with Mt. Dew), Fimbulvinter Øl (winter warmer), and “Freya’s” Eyes (golden ale). Since this is a hoppy beer, I’ve also linked to some tips on dry hopping in the recipe.

 

Patrick Henry Pale Ale

American pale ale

by Chris Colby

Partial mash (countertop); English units

 

DESCRIPTION

This is my basic American-style pale ale. I’ve brewed (the all-grain version of) this recipe — slightly tweaking it every time — over 30 times and it’s a great “go-to” beer. I really like the combination of Centennial, Cascade and Amarillo late hops and I use this combo in most of my other pale-ale-like beers, including my sweet potato ESB. The only non-standard part of this recipe is the tiny amount of chocolate malt added. This changes the hue of the beer slightly, and can be omitted if you want.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Brewing Recipes Tagged With: , , ,

Partial Mash Methods (Countertop Partial Mashing)

January 13, 2014 by Leave a Comment
DSCN0039

A 2-gallon and a 3-gallon beverage cooler. The 2-gallon (~8-L) cooler can be used to mash 4.0 lbs. (1.8 kg) of grain. The 3-gallon (11-L) cooler can be used to mash 6.0 lbs. (2.7 kg) of grain.

There are many different ways to approach a partial mash. In two previous articles, I discussed the rationale for partial mashing and one method of performing a partial mash — “steeping” the grains in a grain bag, then placing them in a colander over the brewpot and rinsing them. This works well for partial mashes with amounts of grain up to about 4 lbs. (~2 kg). Above that amount, the colander method becomes more difficult. Unless you have an enormous colander, the bag will overflow it and you’re more likely to drip wort everywhere. For larger partial mashes, I like to use what I call countertop partial mashing. Countertop partial mashing uses either a 2-gallon (~ 8-L) or 3-gallon (~11-L) beverage cooler as the lauter tun, the vessel that holds the mash while the sweet wort is separated from the spent grains.

An insulated beverage cooler — the type with a spigot at the bottom, for holding cold or hot drinks at outdoor events — can be used as either just the lauter tun or as both the mash and lauter tun. For coolers up to 5 gallons (~20 L), simply lining them with a large steeping bag is sufficient to separate the wort from the spent grains. (If you want to get fancy, you could install a manifold, as with a full-sized cooler-based lauter tun.) This method delivers between 3 and 4 gallons (~10–15 L) of wort, to which malt extract can be added. This wort can be boiled on a stovetop, the chilled, transferred to a fermenter and diluted with cool water to 5 gallons (19 L) of wort.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Brewing Techniques Tagged With: , ,

This Week’s Beer News (January 6–11, 2014)

January 11, 2014 by 3 Comments
St_Josephs_Abbey,_Spencer_MA

St. Joseph’s Abbey, Spencer, Massachusetts. Home of the Spencer brewery, the first Trappist brewery in the US. (Photo by John Phelan, via Wikipedia, under Creation Commons license.)

The United States is poised to get its first Trappist brewery. The brothers at St. Joseph’s abbey in Spencer, Massachusetts are brewing and Spencer Trappist Ale and is due out this week. Meanwhile, in Iceland, a brewery is coming under fire for releasing a beer brewed with whale meat.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: , ,

A Contest for a Cause

January 10, 2014 by Leave a Comment

2012headerThe entry deadline for the Upper Mississippi Mashout — a large homebrew competition run by Minnesota homebrewers — is January 17. This year, all of the proceeds go to help Kathy Stock, a homebrewer who was diagnosed with brain cancer. Kathy and her husband Curt are longtime homebrewers whose beers and meads have won many medals at competition. So, if you’ve got some beer you’d like critiqued, a shot at winning a medal, and the chance to help a homebrewer beat cancer, send some beer to the Upper Mississippi Mashout.

 

 

 

Filed Under: Announcements Tagged With:

Copper Ale

January 10, 2014 by 10 Comments
IMG_2105

It looks like this, although this isn’t it.

This is the recipe for my copper ale. The name is simply a reference to the the color of the beer. I designed this beer to be an “everyday” beer that I would enjoy, and other people who have tried it have really liked it. I’ve brewed it eight or nine times now, and everytime I’ve mucked with the recipe a little bit. But, it’s always hovered around the same basic idea.

I started with a blank canvas, so to speak. I didn’t start with an existing beer style and tweak the beer from there. Instead, I just thought of one combination of ingredients that I believed would go well together and started brewing. The grain bill started with pale malt blended with Munich malt, for a solid, malty base. A little bit of aromatic malt and Victory malt round out the malt character. (In previous versions of this recipe, Victory malt was the only (non-color) specialty malt, but I like the addition of aromatic malt.) I didn’t add any crystal malt — mostly because I wanted the beer to finish fairly dry, but secondarily because so many homebrew recipes contain crystal malt that I wanted to try something different. The color is tweaked by adding a small amount of roasted malts, chocolate and black malt. These add color, but there isn’t any roast flavor in the beer to speak of.

The beer’s malt character is offset by bitterness from Northern Brewer hops. These hops lend a faint mint-like character to the beer. In my most recent versions of this recipe, I added some Fuggles finishing hops, for that nice, “earthy” Fuggles character. The American ale yeast strain ferments cleanly and really lets the malt and hop character take center stage. The beer finishes around FG 1.010, so it’s relatively dry, which I think highlights the malty/biscuit-like/”husk-y grain-y” malt character of the beer. (In my next version of this, I might try adding some wheat malt, for some bread-like notes. This is my only recipe that has gotten more complex over time. I may also split batch it and try some English or Belgian yeast strain.)

I started thinking about the beer without any reference to existing beer styles, so it’s not surprising that it doesn’t really mimic any classic beer style. It fits the numbers of an altbier (BJCP category 7A) fairly well, but doesn’t really taste like an alt. Overall, it’s just a great “everyday” beer — balanced and drinkable, but with enough flavor to be still be interesting.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Brewing Recipes Tagged With: , , ,

My Brewing Plan for 2014

January 9, 2014 by 3 Comments
photo

It’s a beer recipe written in the notes program on a tablet computer. It’s like spending $200 for a piece of paper — and you can’t make a paper airplane out of it.

A couple days ago, I posted my “brew year’s” resolutions. One of the resolutions was to make a brewing plan (that I would later ignore when I come up with a better one). So . . . here it is, my brewing plan for 2014. I’m starting the countdown clock for when I deviate this . . . now.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Brewed For Thought Tagged With: , ,
« Previous Page
Next Page »