Thanksgiving is coming and there’s still time to brew my Cranberry Zinger. The Cranberry Zinger is a dry, fizzy beer with a tart taste and puckering mouthfeel from cranberry relish. The base beer is an American honey wheat beer.

Fresh whole cranberries are what I use.

The interesting part of the beer is the fruit mixture — the standard mixture for cranberry relish as it is usually prepared for Thanksgiving except for the sugar. Cranberries are tart and strongly flavored, with a relatively high amount of tannins. This, combined with the bitterness from the orange pith, gives the beer a slightly bitter, somewhat puckering quality even though the hop bitterness is low. The combined cranberries, oranges, and Granny Smith apples produce a very fruity aroma, which is enhanced by the high degree of carbonation. 

Don’t attempt to sanitize the fruit mixture. It’s not needed. The pH of the beer and relish mix, plus the alcohol in the beer, won’t support the growth of most brewery contaminants. I usually add two packets of dried yeast to ferment the 5.0 gallons (19 L) of beer, but that’s not strictly required. I like the base beer to ferment quickly and end up maximally dry, though, so I add the second packet to help with this.

A 2-gallon (left) or 3-gallon (right) beverage cooler can hold up to 4.0 lbs. or 6.0 lbs. of grain, respectively. This can yield 2.6 gallons or 3.9 gallons of wort at SG 1.044.

This beer is extremely straightforward to make and turns out great every time. It’s one of my most foolproof recipes. Everyone who has made it says it turned out great and was a crowd-pleaser.

Cranberry Zinger

by Chris Colby

Partial mash; English units

DESCRIPTION

This my cranberry beer that I think goes well with Thanksgiving. It is a honey wheat beer is flavored with cranberry relish — cranberries, Granny Smith apples and Navel oranges (zest, rind, pulp and all). The beer is fairly dry and somewhat tart due to the cranberries. The orange pith lends some bitterness and the cranberry skins give the beer a dose of astringency that keeps the beer from seeming like alcoholic fruit punch.

INGREDIENTS (for 5 gallons)

Water

carbon filtered tap water, preferably low in bicarbonate ions (<50 ppm) 

Fermentables (for an OG of 1.045, not including sugars from fruit, and an SRM of 4)

2.0 lbs. Pilsner malt

2.0 lbs. wheat malt 

1.0 lbs. wheat dried malt extract

2.0 lbs. honey (your choice of variety), at knockout

Hops (14 IBUs total)

Willamette hops (14 IBUs)

1 oz. (of 5% alpha acids), boiled for 30 minutes

Fruit (makes the “virtual OG” roughly 1.046)

4.0 lbs. cranberries (whole, preferably not frozen)

2 medium Navel oranges

2 medium Granny Smith apples

Yeast (for an FG of 1.007 and 4.9% ABV)

22 g (two 11-g sachets) Fermentis Safale US-05 dried ale yeast

Other

1/4 tsp. yeast nutrients (15 mins) 

1/2 tsp. pectic enzyme (in secondary fermenter) 

6.0 oz. cups corn sugar (for priming to 2.8 volumes of CO2)

PROCEDURE

Line a 2-gallon beverage cooler with a large nylon steeping bag and place crushed malts in it. Heat 1.5 gallons of water to 164 °F and pour into grains, stirring as you proceed. Place lid on cooler and drape with a heavy towel, to retain heat. Let grains mash undisturbed for 40 minutes. Then, lift lid and stir mash and let it mash for another 5 minutes. Recirculate the wort by drawing off 1 or two cups at a time and returning the liquid to the top of the grain bed. Heat 2.0 gallons of water to 180 °F. (Yes, this is hotter than most homebrew sources would recommend. Trust me. Or don’t.) Draw of 1–2 cups of wort and place in brewpot. Then, add that same volume of hot water to the top of the grain bed. Repeat until you have collected 2.5 gallons of wort. Begin heating as soon as the first few cups of wort are in the brewpot. Ideally, the wort should come to a boil right as you are adding the last runnings of the wort to the brewpot. Boil for 45 minutes. Add boiling water, if needed to prevent boil volume from droping below 2.0 gallons. With 30 minutes left in the boil, add the hops. With 15 minutes left in the boil, add the Irish moss. With 5 minutes left in the boil, stir in the dried malt extract. At the very end of the boil, stir in the honey and let the wort sit for 5 minutes before cooling. After the boil, chill wort with wort chiller or by placing the brewpot in a sink of tub of cold water. Drain hot water and replace with cold water every 5 minutes. Add ice after the first 3 water changes. Transfer wort to a fermenter, aerate, and pitch the yeast. Ferment at 68–70 °F. When fermentation is complete, make cranberry relish. Do this by rinsing the fruit in water, then combining cranberries, apples (minus the cores) and whole oranges (rind and all) in a food processor. Blend to the consistency of cranberry relish, Place fruit in sanitized bucket fermenter and rack beer onto it. (You can put the fruit in a nylon steeping bag to keep it contained.) Add pectic enzyme. Let fruit contact the beer for 7–10 days, then rack beer to bottles or keg. Carbonate to 2.8 volumes of CO2.

Cranberry Zinger

by Chris Colby

Partial Mash; metric units

INGREDIENTS (for 19 L)

Water

carbon filtered tap water, preferably low in bicarbonate ions (<50 ppm)

Fermentables (for an OG of 1.045, not including sugars from fruit, and an SRM of 4)

0.91 kg Pilsner malt 

0.91 kg wheat malt

0.45 kg wheat dried malt extract

910 g honey (your choice of variety), at knockout

Hops (14 IBUs total)

Willamette hops (14 IBUs)

28 g (of 5% alpha acids), boiled for 30 minutes

Fruit (makes the “virtual OG” roughly 1.046)

1.8 kg cranberries (whole, preferably not frozen)

2 medium Navel oranges

2 medium Granny Smith apples

Yeast (for an FG of 1.007 and 4.9% ABV)

22 g (two 11-g sachets) Fermentis Safale US-05 dried ale yeast

Other

1/4 tsp. yeast nutrients (15 mins) 

1/2 tsp. pectic enzyme (in secondary fermenter) 

170 g cups corn sugar (for priming to 2.8 volumes of CO2)

PROCEDURE

Line a 8-L beverage cooler with a large nylon steeping bag and place crushed malts in it. Heat 5.7 L of water to 73 °C and pour into grains, stirring as you proceed. Place lid on cooler and drape with a heavy towel, to retain heat. Let grains mash undisturbed for 40 minutes. Then, lift lid and stir mash and let it mash for another 5 minutes. Recirculate the wort by drawing off 1 or two cups at a time and returning the liquid to the top of the grain bed. Heat 7.6 L of water to 82 °C (Yes, this is hotter than most homebrew sources would recommend. Trust me. Or don’t.) Draw of 1–2 cups of wort and place in brewpot. Then, add that same volume of hot water to the top of the grain bed. Repeat until you have collected 9.5 L of wort. Begin heating as soon as the first few cups of wort are in the brewpot. Ideally, the wort should come to a boil right as you are adding the last runnings of the wort to the brewpot. Boil for 45 minutes. Add boiling water, if needed to prevent boil volume from droping below 7.6 L. With 30 minutes left in the boil, add the hops. With 15 minutes left in the boil, add the Irish moss. With 5 minutes left in the boil, stir in the dried malt extract. At the very end of the boil, stir in the honey and let the wort sit for 5 minutes before cooling. After the boil, chill wort with wort chiller or by placing the brewpot in a sink of tub of cold water. Drain hot water and replace with cold water every 5 minutes. Add ice after the first 3 water changes. Transfer wort to a fermenter, aerate, and pitch the yeast. Ferment at 20–21 °C. When fermentation is complete, make cranberry relish. Do this by rinsing the fruit in water, then combining cranberries, apples (minus the cores) and whole oranges (rind and all) in a food processor. Blend to the consistency of cranberry relish, Place fruit in sanitized bucket fermenter and rack beer onto it. (You can put the fruit in a nylon steeping bag to keep it contained.) Add pectic enzyme. Let fruit contact the beer for 7–10 days, then rack beer to bottles or keg. Carbonate to 2.8 volumes of CO2.

Yesterday, I started a discussion of how to use “contest karate” to win medals at homebrew contests. And, I gave the two most obvious pieces of advice — brew high-quality beer and brew as many entries as you can manage. Today, let’s begin to delve into some slightly less obvious aspects. Keep in mind that nothing in this article is the equivalent of a knock-out blow that works every time under every circumstance. Rather, this is a set of advice that — if heeded — puts you in a position where you have a better opportunity to seize victory.   [Read more…]

I learned to homebrew back in graduate school. At first, I used bleach as a sanitizer because it was cheap and effective. Later, as I became aware of bleach’s potential to cause off flavors (and pit stainless steel), I switched to iodophor and later Star San. In my lab, however, as in biology labs worldwide, there was a sanitizer I used almost every day — 70% ethanol (sometimes written 70% EtOH). It didn’t occur to me until recently that this could be used in a brewery.

Ethanol, combined with a little water, is an effective sanitizer. Scientists have figured out that it is most effective at a concentration of 70% ethanol (v/v, with the remaining 30% being water) — although it is almost as effective throughout the entire range of 40–95%. The water helps the ethanol penetrate bacterial cells better. In biology laboratories, 70% ethanol is most often used to wipe down lab benches. (Glassware is generally sterilized by being autoclaved.) When sprayed on a clean surface, it kills bacteria in a manner of seconds. [Read more…]

The grist of this batch included around 10 lb. (4.5 kg) of malt and roughy 8 lb. (3.6 kg) of beer bread (bappir) made from crushed malt and honey. 3.0 lb. (1.4 kg) of honey was also added to the boil.

For my Ancient Sumerian Happy Juice brewday, I was all set have a relaxed brew day where I just winged everything. After all, I’ve brewed before. I could deal with things on the fly, right?  And, the beer I was brewing was my interpretation of the English translation of a poem written by ancient Sumerians. So, no living person — including me — would ever know if my recipe and approach was right or wrong. As it turns out, I rediscovered why I normally never wing things on brew day. [Read more…]

Cookies! Actually, “logs” of bappir (beer bread).

The first step in making Ancient Sumerian Happy Juice is making the wine. I’ve done that, it’s bubbling away, and it smells like wine. I also added some beer yeast to the mix, just to cover all the bases. The second step in brewing “the juice” is baking the beer bread, called bappir.  [Read more…]

Here are the answers to the quiz I posted on Tuesday.

[Read more…]

In the previous installment of this article, I advocated that brewers keep their wort or beer covered whenever it is not in a sealed vessel and to minimize the amount of time that it is exposed to the open air. Both of these things should reduce— although not eliminate — the amount of airborne contamination in your beer. It’s my contention that, even when you normally produce beer that does not taste overtly contaminated, further reducing the level of contaminants further benefits your beer. In this post, I’ll cover a couple of minor details, and one important — but frequently overlooked — aspect of sanitation. [Read more…]

Just as there are elements that contribute to the formation and stability of beer foam, there are also elements that accelerate the rate at which foam collapses. Brewers tend to think of these foam negative elements as something to be avoided. If they are in excess, they are — of course — undesirable. However, if beer contained no foam negative elements, foam would continue to form as the beer released carbon dioxide bubbles. And if this foam were not collapsable, it would soon be an impediment to drinking the beer. As such, I would argue that foam negative elements are just as important to foam as foam negative elements, when present in the right quantities. [Read more…]