My first Homebrew...Start to Fermenter

Finally, number 3 in my 5 Year Plan to Start a Craft Brewery is under way; home brewing!

I'm labeling this Start to Fermenter because the beer is still fermenting and I have not yet bottled. So, I'll walk you through what I did start to finish and you can see my successes and failures (though that could largely depend on the end product...).
First, I set out my Porter recipe and mash extract kit. This picture is incomplete because I had already started the next step when I took the picture. I'll get to that. What you see is two bags of dry ground malt extract (added to the boil), pellet hops, one of priming sugar (used in bottling) and one of maltodextrin (to add body), nitrogen vacuum packaged yeast, and some other equipment (auto-siphon, not open yet, crown bottle caps, spout, hydrometer tube, bottling device, instructions and under the priming sugar is a fermometer which you probably cannot see well).

Next I took a pot, filled it with a gallon of warm water, about 120 degrees (hottest my faucet would go) and put C-Brite solution in to create a sterilization solution. I put my tools that I would need sterilized in this (stainless steel spoon, hydrometer, infuser bag and measuring cup for yeast). I also used a rag to wipe down everything that I would need sterilized (kettle, fermenter and strainer). 

You can see in this picture a nice bottle of Shipyard Export, my sterilizing pot (on the right) and the malt extract soaking (in the left pot, this was the next step I was referring to earlier).

First thing was to get 2.5 gallons of water up to 150 degrees F, then added the specialty grains using the infuser bag for 15 minutes to get the dark color and smoky flavor.

After the 15 minutes I removed the infuser and raised the water temp to a boil. I think it was at this point I had the pot covered because a book I read told me to, but I wasn't watching carefully enough for boil overs and, yes, I had a boil over. Minimal damage though, I hope. I was under the impression that boil overs only occurr while adding the hops, well learned that lesson. Cleaned that up and when the water was at a boil I added all the malt extract and dry malts while off of the heat with help from my wonderful wife, stirring as I added. Then 45 minutes of boiling, stirring occasionally so the syrup wouldn't stick to the bottom (it did a little in the end where the burners were).

Once the 45 minutes was up I turned off the heat and added the pelletized hops. I then covered my nice 5 gallon stainless steel Polar War pot and put it in the bath to cool the wort down to 75 degrees F. I had to keep draining and adding cold water and stirring because the water around the pot would cool and the whole tub would warm up.

I also added a couple ice packs in for good measure, the faster the wort cools the better, and slightly vented the top at first. The ice packs melted pretty quick, but I did manage to cool the wort in 45 minutes to an hour, so that is decent. This is the step where the wort needs to be completely sterile and infections are most likely to occur I'm told so hopefully I didn't do something stupid. After cooling to just 75 degrees F (I had trouble waiting for it to get lower I admit) I pitched the yeast. To prepare the dry yeast I put it in 1/3 cup of 100 degree F temperature to help it get started. After 15 minutes I stirred the yeast and then pitched it immediately into the cooled wort. Final step of fermentation was adding the wort into the fermenter. I had already filled the fermenter with 2.5 gallons of cool water to make up the rest of the 5 gallon batch.

Shutting the fermenter bucket posed one problem, when I put the airlock on the o-ring popped off into the wort and I had to go fishing with my sterilized arm for the rubber o-ring. Another misstep that hopefully won't hurt my beer with infection. The little black strip on the bucket above "Select Ingredients" is the Fermometer. It's a really cool thermometer that sticks to the bucket and tells me the temperature of the room. Just about 72 degrees, we keep our house at 71, which is fine for ales though on the upper side of fine. Bubbles started coming out the airlock rapidly after less than 12 hours it seems and it has slowed to 2-3 a minute at this point. So,  either my beer will be at it's final gravity in a day or two or the yeast isn't doing its job. I may be jumping to conclusions. I also know how to take a hydrometer reading now. I originally tried after cooling the wort, but I couldn't figure out how to use it and just gave up. That reminds me of another potential flaw, the wort we removed with a (hopefully) sterile jar was returned to the fermenter (which is a no no).

Oh well, here's to drinking beer in 3-4 weeks. Will finish this when I can take you from Fermenter to Drinking!

Beer Books

Took a trip to Barnes & Noble the other day. Not a good idea. Starting to not like going there, because I leave without the 30+ books that I wanted to leave with. I haven't even done extensive searching on the internet for other choice books, but there is bound to be some (that and magazines).

Here's a list of all the other awesome books I'd love to add to my collection over the next 5 years:
1) Brewed Awakening, by Joshua Bernstein - I think this goes into the craft beer explosion and how brewing has since evolved.
2) The Beer Trials, by Robin Goldstein - a compilation of blind taste test thoughts and ratings on some of the worlds most popular beers, there is a website here.
3) Vintage Beer, by Patrick Dawson - all about aged and aging beers, the fun high alcohol content beers!
4) Radical Brewing, by Randy Kosher - details how brewing has become more than 5 ingredients and what some of the "radical" brews are that now exist.
5) Great Beers, ed. by Tim Hampson - 700 beers from around the world, novelty.
6) Great American Craft Beer, by Andy Crouch - journalist and beer snob, his book takes you on a tasting tour of American breweries, he has a website here.
7) Home Brew Beer, Greg Hughes - picture heavy basic home brew guide with lots of recipes.
8) Starting Your Own Brewery, by Dick Cantwell - BP (Brewer's Publications) so should be a good guide.
9) The Craft Beer Cookbook, by Jacquelyn Dodd - I wanna learn more about cooking/pairing food with beer.
10) The Beer Book, ed. by Tim Hampson - has a blog, here, and
11) World Beer, ed. by Tim Hampson - this name keeps coming up a lot, an encyclopedic book of over 800 beers from around the world.
12) The World Atlas of Beer, by Tim Webb and Stephen Beaumont - goes country to country in an interesting guide of sorts.
13) The Illustrated Guide to Brewing Beer, by Matthew Shaefer - comprehensive guide to home brewing, might be one of a couple good guides that I could choose from.
14) Home Brew Beyond the Basics, by Mike Karnowski - taking home brewing to the next level, this could be a good choice, all grain brewing included.
15) Extreme Brewing, by Sam Calagione - owner of Dogfish Head, Calagione shows how brewing is going to the extremes and using unusual ingredients and high alcohol levels.
16) The Brewers Apprentice, by Greg Koch & Matt Allyn - craft brewing according to the leaders of today's art, enhances the average knowledge of brewing with master tips.
17) 300 Beers to Try Before You Die! by Roger Protz - top beers according to Protz and his tasting notes, sounds good to me!
18) How to Brew, by John Palmer - one of many, will have to compare this home brewing guide to others.
19) Beer: What to Drink Next, by Michael Larson - a cool novelty book about different styles of beer, specific ones to try and all with cool graphics to help you along, even has a periodic table of beer.
20) Sustainable Home Brewing, by Loftus - I think this talks a lot about yeast and home grown ingredients.
21) Water, by John Palmer & Colin Kaminski - a PB, more in to the science of pH and what makes good beer water.
22) The Brewmasters Bible, by Stephen Snyder - another home brewing do-it-yourself book with lots of recipes.
23) Craft Beer for the Home Brewer, by Michael Agnew - real brews from real breweries adapted for the home brewer, would be really interesting to try some of these someday.
24) The Brewmaster's Table, by Garrett Oliver - every microbrewery needs a brewpub, this book is by the brewmaster at Brooklyn Brewery.
25) 1001 Beers You Must Try Before You Die, by Adrian Tierney-Jones - cool novelty reference book that's fun to have sitting on your coffee table and pore over for hours.
26) Yeast, by Chris White & Jamil Zainasheff - gotta learn about yeast and types and keeping it sterile and vibrant.
27) Make Some Beer, by Erica Shea & Stephen Valand - their journey to several breweries around the country and subsequent recipes of inspired brews for home brewing.
28) IPA, by Mitch Steele - IPA is probably America's number one craft brew style of choice, gotta learn my stuff.
29) The Pocket Beer Companion - novelty quick reference, don't know if I really want this.
30) The Homebrewers Journal - or something like this, to keep track of successes and failures and data along the way.

See? 30 books, and that was at first just a guess until I started number listing them. Anyway, this is also just a hypothetical list and hopefully over the course of a couple more visits to Barnes & Nobles I can spend some time in each book to figure out which I'd really like and those I can let fall to the wayside. If and when I do pick up some books I will try and give a review on this blog. The only book I currently own is Tasting Beer, by Randy Mosher which is a really good broad based introduction to the history of styles, how to taste and suggested brews (to give a brief example of its contents). Also I've been reading one of the guides to home brewing by Dave Miller. I got three out of the library but have not quite gotten through one yet in just over a week.

Read any of these books? What do you think?

Board Games and Beer

What's better than board games and beer?
Maybe this is a subjective rhetorical question.
Last night was my friends last day in town before shipping off to a dry community in Alaska to teach. He and I have been enjoying a number of beers lately and went to Beers of the World about a month ago to stock up. We didn't quite get through everything we bought, but were able to try a number of great beers and play the grand-daddy of all board games: Twilight Imperium 3rd Edition. My favorite game of all time.
My wife, Brynn, joined us, the more the merrier, and we played from about 7-8 p.m. to 4-5 a.m. the next day when they all gave in to my 9-7 lead (game is normally played to 10 VP). To most people this would be a night from hell, but to me it was epic glory.

Here's all the beers we tasted along the way:

This time I managed to order them left to right in the order we tried them, so it will make this a little easier.
(1) Heavy Seas Holy Sheet,  a Belgian style ale aged in brandy barrells. I wasn't the biggest fan, but I would be interested in trying this in a snifter instead of a pint glass and seeing if I like it more. Anyway, it was a little on the sweet side and lacked complexity as a result. The oak didn't shine and the sucre on top of the brandy must made it too one note, sweet. See more info here.
(2) Fuller's London Pride, an English bitter that for its 4.7% ABV is quite tasty and would be a good session beer choice, malty in character with caramel notes. Also slightly flat because that is what a good English brew is about. See more here.
(3) Breckenridge SummerBright Ale, a competitor of Shock Top in that the flavor profile is similar, perhaps less wheat and cleaner. Despite being a step up from the fore mentioned, not my group's favorite, as it contained a somewhat burnt, rotten or heated fruit flavor, owing to the orange and lemon peels. More here.
4) Shiner White Wing, brewed at the Spoetzl brewery in Shiner, TX, this had a nice coriander addition with a tinge of citrus peel in the aroma that again we were not fond of but in this case it wasn't as bad. Overall, the witbier base was scrumptious. More here.
5) Weyerbacher White Sun Wit. We were on a belgian witbier kick and it was fun to compare similar beers. This had added complexity because it had anise, just a tad, but did not show off the coriander as well. Sharing between three glasses the pour left two of us with a haze that swirled and then clouded our beer, while the third's was perfectly clear. Must have been the pour as it is a proclaimed cloudy Belgian. It is worth noting that this beer used to be called Blanche and was changed in 2012 while the beer remains identical. More here.
(6) Mendocino Talon Extra Select Double Smoked Porter, living up to its long winded name, complex, as smoky as I've ever had, with chocolate, coffee, creamy notes, it lingers and warms. It actually reminded me of kalua or Irish cream in a way. Great info here.
(7) Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron, one of my favorites, a super complex, rich, robust brown ale aged in Palo Santo wood barrels with vanilla and caramel. An aroma like you've never smelled before, this is a heavyweight coming in at 12% ABV! More here.

No surprise here, my favorite was the Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron. I've had that beer quite a few times in the past 5 years or so since I've gotten into craft beer and it will probably always be one of my favorites for its complexity and uniqueness.

My First Beer Tasting

OK, obviously I've tasted beer before.

What I'm talking about is starting a monthly group of beer connoisseurs like myself (admittedly I'm the biggest beer snob/geek...). With plenty of help from my wonderful wife, Brynn, we hosted a fairly successful first event. There were seven of us in attendance (at one point we were supposed to have 12! but a few had to back out) and everyone was instructed to bring at least two 12 oz. bottles of the same beer to share. We provided a couple of mild to the palate snacks like pretzels, popcorn with just a touch of salt and butter for cleansing our palates between beers. And we also had pigs in a blanket for soaking up the beer as the night went on.

Here's all the beer we tasted! Actually, the Night Frost was a little pre-game action on the part of my wife and I. Made by Custom Brewcrafters in Honeyoye Falls, NY, it is an exclusive brew for Beers of the World, the best beer store in Rochester. I made up some score sheets too that people could write down information about each beer on and keep for their records. This is a good practice that I want to continue, because, for example, I've had the Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald before, but I did not remember anything about it. Now that I have record, I can always go back and see what I think of it, try it again and compare and see what new things I might notice.

Some notes and thoughts:

The order we tasted these was: (1) Newcastle Cabbie Dark Ale, (2) Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald Porter, (3) Koźlak Bock Beer, (4) Guinness Extra Stout, (5) New Planet Rasberry Ale, (6) Źywiec Porter, (7) Źywiec Pale Lager, (8) Sam Adams West Coast Rebel IPA

A couple notes about the order. The New Planet was brought later by someone who couldn't be there right when we started or it probably would have gone first since it is a gluten free beer. Also, the Źywiec Pale Lager is obviously a lighter beer and would have gone earlier as well, but it was not planned and we just decided to throw it in there midway through because we were on a Polish kick.

Thoughts on these beers:

(1) Newcastle Cabbie, 4.2% ABV, a little too light for my taste, very balanced though.

(2) Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald Porter, 5.8% ABV, a sort of complexity to this that did not give away many secrets in terms of aroma and taste, wish I liked it more than I did. Really nice details here.

(3) Koźlak Bock Beer, 6.5% ABV, this was interesting and I don't know if it was truly fresh because it is imported, but it was sweet like a beer wort and almost to me had a medicinal taste. See more here.

(4) Guinness Extra Stout, 5-6% ABV, a really interesting sweet/sour, smokey, burnt, nutty flavor. This beer is not imported from Ireland, but brewed and bottled in Canada by Labat hence the unknown ABV, also compared to Guinness Draft it is bottled with CO2 instead of nitrogen so it is not as flat.

(5) New Planet Rasberry Ale, 5% ABV, lighter, very drinkable, cider/wine aroma with grapes, apples/pear flavors. See more here.

(6) Źywiec Porter, (probably an imperial, 9.5-9.8%) my favorite on the night and one I've had once previous, caramel, toasty, toffee and brown sugar notes, not super carbonated so I wonder if it is bottled with nitrogen.

(7) Źywiec Pale Lager, 5.6% ABV, honey and dough, yeast perhaps, also a bit skunky because I think the bottle isn't quite as dark as the Porter.

(8) Sam Adams Rebel IPA, 6.5% ABV, a west coast IPA with pineapple aroma and rasberry or strawberry notes, very long hops that bitters as it lingers. A blend of five kinds of hops, see more here.

Let me know your thoughts on these brews in the comments!

My 5 Year Plan to Start a Craft Brewery

I've decided to start a craft brewery somewhere in Rochester, NY (location TBD). Here's my 5 Year Plan to Start a Craft Brewery:

I think a 5 year plan requires a number of goals and deadlines and such, so I'm going to do my best to lay that out here and probably along the way I'll end up revising it many times...
Anyway, here are some long term goals I want to accomplish:

1) Enlist the help of several friends as partners, co-workers and/or advocates. 

My friends Tim and Matt would be my ideal partners. Tim is an innate people person and would be a great "face of the brewery". He knows a lot of people in the Rochester, NY area and has the perseverance to go after anything he is truly passionate about. Matt has been a beer connoisseur longer than I have and is an engineer. I would rely heavily on him with construction of beer production equipment and he would be the scientific mind behind creating awesome brews. Me? I'd hopefully be the creative mind behind the awesome brews! But, there's a long way to go from here if I want to meet that goal. For co-workers, I already know one of the friendliest most lovable guys around, Sean, who would be my tasting and bar manager. My bro, Aaron would be a perfect advocate for a craft brewery. He is a hop fanatic (lately) and musician in a couple of bands and would spread the word of our products wherever his talents have taken him already.
Ultimately I hope to encourage the right people to jump on board with me, they can start learning the trade a bit and their talents and mine can take this idea to the next level.

2) Find a location.

If you don't have a great location, forget about it. 10 years ago a lonely little place called Rohrbach's Brewing Company only survived in the middle of nowhere Chili because it was practically the only craft brewery in Rochester (plus it has excellent brews!). Walking traffic in Rochester is important. But, people will go the distance for good brews too. I don't know if I necessarily want to start a microbrewery restaurant first either or just a bar where I can brew and have tastings at. One thing at a time. I'd love for food and beer to come together some day though.

3) Start home brewing.

Check. Well, I've bought a kit with just two 6.5 gallon pails and my first recipe, a porter. Now I've got to simply pump out some brews and see what I can learn. I hope to brew my first batch this week and I'll definitely know let you know how it goes.

4) Get a job/internship/apprenticeship at a brewery with someone who knows what they are doing.

Basically, I need to learn the trade. I hope to go to some local breweries and beg them to follow around a brew team and learn as much as I can about ingredients, brewing methods and equipment as possible. This will probably not be easy, but maybe if I nag someone enough they'll give in!

5) Taste and study.

Half the battle of creating excellent brews is knowing what you are doing. I plan to taste some of the best brews available over the next 5 years, start a tasting club, and take in as much knowledge about brewing and beers as I can.

6) Come up with a name.

Every good company needs a stellar name. This one will not be the exception. Lots of brainstorming required.

I think that is all for now. Just big goals that I plan on picking apart and reorganizing as time goes on. You the reader will be front and central to all I learn here on this blog and can cheer me along whether I succeed or fail. Wait, no, failure is not an option. Oh, one last necessary goal: find a job in the meantime. Did I mention I went to school for music ed and horn performance and have no current job besides substitute teaching? Yeah, it sucks. But, what else should I do than find something I am passionate about and pursue it?

My name is David and I plan on starting a craft brewery in Rochester, NY in 5 years. Look for me then.