Harvesting Arkansas Cascades

July 11, 2013 by 22 Comments
Arkansas Cascades ready to pick

Arkansas Cascades ready to pick

Northwest Arkansas is a long way from the 48th parallel, which is considered the “hop belt” – the optimum latitude for growing our favorite bitter ingredient. Unfortunately for my hop farmer aspirations, northwest Arkansas is where my tiny hopyard is. My hopyard consists of six spaces: two spaces where English hop varieties Golding and Fuggles used to reside (until they gave up the ghost), two spaces where German varieties Hallertau and Saaz barely cling to existence, and two spaces where American Cascades are loving life.

My two rows of hop trellises receive full sun, and in Arkansas that means heat coupled with typically dry conditions as summer wears on. While its European cousins have withered in the heat, Cascade is a variety that doesn’t seem to mind living in Razorback country. In fact, most years I’m able to get two harvests from the Cascade bines. I pick them using a ladder to leave the bines up until they’re done and dead-looking at wintertime. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Beer, Brewing Ingredients, Homebrewing

Barley Legal Aeration Experiment

July 4, 2013 by 14 Comments

Proper aeration at the beginning of fermentation is important in producing good beer. To simplify things, yeast need an adequate amount of oxygen to ensure a healthy growth phase before they get to work turning sugars into alcohol and CO2.

BarleyLegalHomebrewers differ on the methods they use in aerating their worts. Some prefer a simple approach of shaking the fermenter, while others employ more sophisticated gadgetry. But, which one is best?

Members of the Barley Legal homebrew club from Maple Shade, New Jersey, took it upon themselves to conduct an experiment comparing several aeration methods against each other. The results of their experiment were recorded for an episode of Basic Brewing Radio, which can be heard here. Spoiler alert! The results of the experiment are discussed below. For a more detailed look at the results and to hear the reactions of the participants as the experiment was being evaluated, listen to the show.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Beer, Brewed For Thought, Homebrewing

Fully Legal!

July 1, 2013 by 3 Comments
Outlaw Homebrew Competition

Beers at the 2011 Outlaw Homebrew Competition in Hattiesburg, Mississippi

As of today, it’s officially legal to homebrew in all 50 of the United States. Mississippi’s governor signed legislation legalizing brewing at home back in March, and the law went into effect today. Alabama was the other holdout for legalization this year until its governor signed legislation in May, which took effect immediately.

Many homebrewers say they’d brew whether it were legal or not. Regardless, legalization is important. Legalization is important because homebrew shops don’t have to worry about getting raided, with their equipment — and even books — confiscated. Brewers can brew out in the open without concern that their neighbors will report them to the police. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, legal recognition is another step in helping our communities understand that homebrewing is not equivalent to making meth or bathtub gin.

Cheers to all of the people who have worked so tirelessly over the past few years to make our favorite hobby legal across the country and to modify laws in states where brewing was legal, but restricted. Fire up those kettles and celebrate Independence Day and brewing freedom!

Filed Under: Beer News

Thoughts About Club Night

June 30, 2013 by 9 Comments

Club Night at the National Homebrew Conference is likely the most popular reason to attend, and this year in Philadelphia was no exception. According to the American Homebrewers Association site, almost 90 clubs from across the country were represented.

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Steve Wilkes with a couple of his new best friends.

Club members pulled out the stops to show off by building elaborate booths and putting on tap many delicious brews. The Barley Legal club members out of Maple Shade, New Jersey, brought in 125 kegs and were awarded the coveted Golden Urinal for their efforts.

In my experience, club night features some of the most cutting edge brewers and beers in the beer world – commercial and amateur. Brewers let their imaginations run wild to combine ingredients and techniques in daring ways. Where else can you learn that blending a maple beer and a bacon beer at the tap can result in a mind-blowing breakfast brew. Then, a few minutes later, you can be sipping an incredible no-boil Berliner Weisse and get tips from the brewer to try it yourself. Another booth featured around a dozen single-hopped pale ales. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Beer, Homebrewing

15-Minute Pale Ale

June 28, 2013 by 48 Comments

Brewing a delicious, hoppy American Pale ale is a breeze with extract brewing. Homebrewers can use the ease of brewing with malt extracts to their advantage to brew beers that are showcases for American hops during a surprisingly short brew day.

Preserve all the flavor of American hops with a quick extract ale.

Many homebrewers turn their noses up at extract beers. Once they have conquered the summit of all grain brewing, some brewers feel brewing with extract is a step back down the slope. However, brewing with extract can have its advantages.

Obviously, extract brewers skip the labor- and time-intensive steps of milling, mashing, lautering, and sparging. There is an added time-saving advantage to malt extract: the extract does not have to be boiled for a full hour.

Since the extract is essentially an all grain wort that has been fully boiled at the manufacturer and has simply had most (or all) of the water taken out, the malt extract company has done most of the work for you. All you need to do is to boil the extract long enough to sanitize it.

“But,” you may be asking, “what about hop utilization? Don’t I have to boil hops for a full hour to get the full bitterness out of them?”

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Brewing Ingredients, Brewing Recipes, Brewing Techniques

Philly Beer Tour, Part Two

June 27, 2013 by 3 Comments
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Forest and Main is home to some inspiring beers.

In the previous chapter of our story, our protagonists, Steve Wilkes, Andy Sparks and I, had just finished a tasty lunch at Victory Brewing’s pub. If it weren’t for the persistence of Bryan Kolesar, publisher of thebrewlounge.com, the day might have ended soon after with a satisfying nap. However, Bryan had three more stops planned, and he was not going to abandon his desire to show off his hometown of Philadelphia – even though the timing outlined on his spreadsheet had been blown to Hell by traffic snarls and smallish bladders.

So, off we went toward Ambler, Pennsylvania and the intersection of Forest and Main – the home of Forest and Main Brewing.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Beer, Beer News

Sunflower Ale

June 27, 2013 by 8 Comments

Should sunflower seeds move from being a prominent fixture of bird feeders and ballplayers’ cheeks to being among more traditional brewing grains in the mash tun? The jury is still out, but sunflower seeds are among the gluten-free grains that a small malting company has been experimenting with and introducing to local breweries.

SunflowerBowl

Bird seed or brewing ingredient?

Colorado Malting Company is a based on a family farm in Alamosa, Colorado. According to the company’s president, Jason Cody, before founding the malting company, his family had grown two-row malting barley for Coors for almost half a century. In 2008, with the help of a couple of experts who worked at Coors, they decided to start malting and selling their own grain.

The Cody family converted an old dairy tank to malt 500 pounds of grain at a time.  The tank had been unused since the family sold their dairy cattle in 1995. A false bottom and an aeration system were added.

The first batch of base malt went to the San Luis Valley Brewing Company in Alamosa. The malt performed well. Extract and flavor were good, and the brewery wanted more. Soon other nearby craft breweries wanted the local malt, too. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Brewing Ingredients, Brewing Recipes

A Whirlwind Beer Tour of Philly

June 26, 2013 by 6 Comments
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Steve is auditioning for a position on The Price Is Right.

Bryan Kolesar of thebrewlounge.com deserves hero status for spending 12 hours and 130 miles taking Steve Wilkes, Andy Sparks and me on an outstanding beer tour of Philadelphia, his hometown.

We all know of Philadelphia’s historic role in the founding and shaping of our country. Bryan took it upon himself to ensure that we also knew of Philly’s thriving craft beer culture. After all, it’s the home of Philly Beer Week, with hundreds of events surrounding it.

The day started with a quick stop at a marker commemorating the first lager brewed in the United States. In 1840, could John Wagner have predicted the beers that evolved from his Bavarian influences a century later or the Superbowl ads that would eventually promote them? Probably not. Steve Wilkes makes a great sign model.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Beer, Beer News

Molasses Ale and Candied Bacon Pizza

June 23, 2013 by 1 Comment

Molasses? Sweet. Candied bacon? Sweeter. Combine the two with beer? Sweetest.

Steve Wilkes and I began our little adventure in molasses tastiness after I brewed a Belgian-ish beer substituting molasses for candi syrup. After an initial beer with a fairly small amount of molasses turned out very well, I upped the amount of molasses in the recipe, also adding table sugar (recipe below). I challenged Steve to pair something tasty to eat with the molasses beer, and he answered with an incredible pizza, featuring molasses-candied bacon. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Brewing Ingredients, Brewing Recipes, Food
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