Label Making

Completely unnecessary, yet so fulfilling. Making labels for my latest porter was a project and a half considering I have no photoshop skills, however, i think they turned out marvelous. I put about 85-90% of the work into and my soon-to-be wife took care of the kinks. I managed to do things with the software that she never figured out for herself. The difference between her and I is that she does it for work and I just clicked around and accidently ended up doing unwanted things.

Being that my graphic design skills are so basic, I stuck with a black and white design. Next time of course I will work on adding color, etc. I've been looking at labels from all types of beers and found some common components in many of them. Almost all are color, some utilize clear labels, but almost all have some facts, descriptions, and origins of the beer/brewery itself. In comparison, mine is black and white with some color, uses a white label, and has descriptions of the beer and some homebrew notations. For example, I have a statement that states, "Please recycle by returning empty bottles to Halbe."

I am doing this for pure enjoyment and that's it. Labels cost money, printer ink cost money, and bottles cost money. I can reuse the bottles in two ways. If I do the same batch again I can reuse the labels too. They hold fairly well. If I decide to do a different batch I can apply some heat and carefully remove the label and insert a new one. I could even half-ass it by just smacking a new label over top of the old. Actually, that brings up a funny point. Lagunitas Brewery in Cali decided to get very daring with their commercially available brews and started creating very whacky labels, infringing the copyrights of famous songwriters and remarks about LSD, jail, etc. Needless to say, the Cali government stepped in and they had to cease. Instead of pouring beer down the drain (Lagunitas brews about 50,000 barrels of beer per year), they just stuck duct tape over the infringement, crossed it out with crayons, markers, etc. People were buying good beer that came in a package that looked something like a moonshine bottle.

Anyway. Here is my first label. I may make some changes before I print them all out. I have to make sure the beer turns out well before I label 3 cases of porter. If it doesn't, then I will brew again. I am confident though. I hit my numbers and the beer tastes great pre-carbonation. I have come a long way in brewing over the past 3 years. What's really interesting is the palate and nose I am developing for beers. Take a look at the label and you will see that I already have a description of the beer and it's not even ready. This is in part because a pre-carbonation taste gives off the obvious flavors (nut, roast, etc) and the grains and hops tell me how it is going to pan out as well. So here's to it.

The holidays are gonna be great as I will have a keg of belgian dubbel on tap, a keg of porter on tap and 3 cases of porter to be consumed. On top of that, it looks as if we are brewing something between xmas and new years, so even more beer to come in the next few months. Let me know what you think.

The Belgian Dubbel Experiment

Brewed 10.20.10
Fermentation: Primary 3 weeks, Secondary None
Kegged/Bottled: 11.14.10
Drinking: Now, but beer is a little green still

So we put the brewery to the test with this one, and it looks as if it is panning out as planned. After having worked out many of the kinks with my system and successfully brewing my biggest and most complex beer to date one can live by the notion that anything is possible. Sitting at a respectable 9.83% ABV and utilizing a complex grain bill, this beer enters my bloodstream as anticipated. The biggest challenge with a beer this high in alcohol content is masking the alcohol itself with the subtleties pulled through from the grain bill. Here's how it went down.

11.50 Gallon Batch
OG: 1.085
FG: 1.010
Color: 21.6 SRM
IBU's: 20.5
Calories: 375 cal/pint
Yeast: Trappist Ale WLP#500
Yeast Starter: Yes, 2 Liters

19.71 lb Pilsner 2-row (Belgium)
6.57 lb Munich Malt (20 L)
1.10 lb Caramunich Malt
1.10 lb Special B Malt

3.28 oz Saaz Hops (FWH, 90 Minutes)
2.74 lb Dark Belgiam Candi Sugar

Mash @ 150F 90 minutes, Boil for 90 Minutes

Double Batch Sparge

Ferment at 68F

There you have it. So if you took a close look you can see some very interesting things going on here. First, I had no secondary fermentation occurring here. Belgian beers and wheat beers tend to have a cloudy appearance as part of their character and style. Secondary fermentation assists in removing any haze by filtering out additional sediment. Depending on the beer, secondary fermentation may be required or may not. In this case it was not, but in the case of my recent porter it was mandatory.

Also, look at the brew date and the drinking notes. This beer was brewed almost two months ago and is considered green. A beer this complex requires aging to mellow out. I mentioned that it tastes a little green. This is for 2 obvious reasons, the first being that I can still taste the alcohol. It takes some aging to get the flavor in the grains to pull through and override any alcohol taste. Note that it wont entirely mask the alcohol but more so than it currently is. Secondly, the aging process assists in the removal of any yeast flavors and aromas. I mentioned that I used Trappist Ale Yeast and increased cell count with a 2 liter yeast starter. That is a lot of yeast, but it is needed to convert massive amounts of fermentable sugars over to alcohol, all 9.83% of it. My first swig a week and half ago was very yeasty in flavor. Since then, that unwanted flavor has subsided. I planned this beer just right because I wanted to drink some good beer just in time for the holidays. Looks like I will be.

Take a look at the calories in this recipe. The software I use, Beersmith, calculates the amount of sugars and starches possible to yield of each grain and converts that to calories through a formula I am unaware of and uninterested in learning. 375 calories is no Mich Ultra, it's more like a cheesecake dessert. I am not worried though because this is 2 beers and out. I don't see myself drinking 6 in a session, but you never know.

The hop schedule is the only simple thing about this recipe. The recipe calls for first wort hops @ 90 minutes, Saaz hops. This makes perfect sense. It's lower in the IBU scale, bitterness at 20.5. You don't need any aroma hops because all aromas will be coming from Special B and munich malts. You don't know any less or additional hop bitterness because quite frankly, you can't even taste it. Plus, the mellow notes coming from the special b and munich malts allow for quite the taste, especially when combined with the sweetness coming from the belgian sugar. Too much bitterness would downright kill a beer this tasty.

Conclusion

Great beer at 1/4 of the cost. 4 cases for $95. Not bad, considering a case of Chimay would be $100. That's the beauty of homebrewing. No marketing, taxing, and overhead to pay for. To end this topic I would like to thank bucky for helping me out. It was a long arduous process, but will definately be a repeat. I don't know what else I would change. I'll have to see how this mellows out and revisit the thought. I invite you to come over and drink a few with me. Hail a taxi on your way out the door, you'll need it.

cheerios!

Efficiency Mods: The Results

So going back to a story previously told in regards to measuring efficiency, I now have some results to share. Disappointed with how poorly I missed my target volume efficiency, I went about some new modifications. Simple, yet elegant. I put a few things into the sytem just tonight alone.

First, I installed a sight glass into the boil kettle. This sight glass protudes out of the keg and runs parallel on the outside of the keg in a vertical position. Picture this as the handle to a milk carton. The handle on the milk carton shows the level of milk equal to that of what is in the container. The sight glass serves the same purpose as a keg is non-transparent. It measures up in increments of 1 gallon, starting at 3 gallons and ending at 15 gallons. I can use a ruler to get half gallon, two-third gallon increments, etc if need be.

The installation consisted of drilling a 9/16" hole near the bottom of the keg, inserting a threaded elbow, washer, and silicone gasket. It took all but 10 minutes to install and already serves a timesaver. Now when I have to put 13.3 gallons of mashed wort into the boiler, I just look over and turn off the pump as needed.

My second test was to conduct an evaporation rate experiment. I put in about 11 gallons of water and heated to 150F. I then shut off the flame, and pumped out 1 gallon so my remaining volume equalled 10 gallons. I stopped at 150F because normally when I mash i am in the 150-155F range. I adjusted and recorded 3 various gas valves to maintain consitency on future brewdays.

1.) Opened propane tank valve to 'full open'
2.) Opened boil kettle burner valve to 'full open'
3.) Opened adjustable propane regulator 1.5x and even took a picture to eyeball it up next time.

After that, I let her rip and get to a full rolling boil for about 1 minute. This is when I will add hops and start my 60 minute, 75 minute, or 90 minute boil timer. For this experiment I set my 60 minute timer. I had exactly 10 gallons and had been maintaining 212F for 1 minute. It just so happened to be 8:54 PM. Needless to say, at 9:54 PM I put the flame out. I had just under 8.5 gallons remaining. According to Beersmith (software I use), my evaporation rate is at 12%.

12% is a little on the high side, but it may be something I work on down the road. I may have to do another experiment where I crank the heat from mash temp levels to boiling and then adjust the flame to maintain a very soft, gently rolling boil. It may make a difference, it may not. We may never know.

At least I know I have a 12% evaporation rate. I adjusted my equipment profile on beersmith to calculate for that. Last bacth we brewed started with 13.3 gallons of beer and ended up with about 8.5 -9 gallons in the fermenter. My target was 11. The equipment profile was set up for 9% evaporation, hence the loss. Now, the same recipe says start with 14.4 gallons in the boil to end up with 11 in the fermenter. I can and should be able to achieve that now.

The third modification was those dreaded pumps on the wort chiller. After I boil, my goal is to get the boiled beer from 212F to about 65F as fast as possible to prevent infection/bacteria, etc. My first two batches ever went fine, but the last 4 batches gave me nothing but problems. Some of the connections used are stainless steel couplers (threaded with teflon), some were non-teflonned, and some couplers were even plastic. I had leaks in multiple spots. This is where the problem was. Where there is a leak, air gets in. When air gets in, pumps can't prime, etc.

I swapped out every plastic couple for new ss ones and taped every connection. The flow rate increases dramatically and the pumps primed instantly. Batch 1 and 2 cooled from 212F to 65 in about 15 minutes. Batches 3-7 took about 45 minutes. Tonights test run took 11 minutes.

212F - 100F took 5 minutes

100F- 90F took 90 seconds

90F- 80F took 90 seconds

80-68F took 150 seconds

I couldn't believe it. Rarely do I attempt 3 things and achieve them all. I was perplexed and surprised with joy after successfully making all 3 modifications tonight. They went as planned. Now I am planning on making a nice, creamy porter to get me through these cold days of winter.

Take care......until next time

Efficiency: Why and What You Need to Know

Ok, so you already saw the prequel to this post The Yeast Starter. The good news is that the 2000ml yeast starter was sufficient in handling the fermentation associated with this Belgian Dubbel/Trippel Chimay Clone. The funny thing is that on brewday we overshot our OG and ended with a higher gravity than anticipated.

This is due to several factors:

1.) Set my efficiency too low at 75%.

2.) Increased the grain bill to make up for an anticipated lower efficiency at 68%.

3.) Increased Dark Belgian Candi Sugar to make up for an anticipated lower efficiency at 68%.

4.) Boiled hot an heavy and evaporated too much water.

So basically, while this beer is going to be great, it taught me that I still have to determine my efficiency on my system. I'd be happy by all means with an efficiency in the 80 percentile, but would be astonished and dumbfounded if I could get an efficiency in the 90 percentile.

Efficiency is determined by calculating the total grains available for brewday and calculating how many possible fermentables were converted. Evaporation rate also plays a factor in the calculation. Essentially, if I set my evaporation rate at 9% per hour and boil off exactly 9% per hour; and if I have 30 pounds of grains and extract all the possible sugars from these grains, then I have 100% efficiency. It raises a good question that I'd like to know the answer for. What are commercial brewery efficiencies like? I'd be willing to bet they get 85-94% efficiency (possibly more), while homebrewers get anywhere from 60-90% efficiency, depending on the setup and equipment used.

I thought my efficiency would be determined over the last 5 batches, but the factors keep changing batch after batch. Number one being, I brew something different and a different quantity every time. I will do a dry run with evaporation rate. I will transfer water to the boil kettle at 150F as that is a safe mash temp and begin to boil. The second the first bubbly boil rises I will record how many turns my propane regulator is open and determine my true boil off at 60 minutes and 90 minutes being that these are the two most common boil times. This will assist me in my entire 'brewhouse efficiency.' Then I will do a cheap 1 gallon batch of just 2-row pale malt to see what my yield is, by calculating the mash/sparge process to my preboil gravity. This will determine my mash efficiency.

By default, Beersmith (the software I use to handle all my brewing calculations) is set at a 75% efficiency. Therefore, the grain bill, water quantities, etc is assuming a 75% efficiency. If I undershoot that 75% efficiency, then I have a beer with lower alcohol content than intended. Yep, that would be very disappointing. However, If I overshot the default 75% efficiency, then I would have a stronger beer. While that doesn't seem bad at all, it has its consequences. It actually tells me that I depending more on chance than pure science. Proper note taking allows one to make the same beer over and over again, just the way that one Budweiser batch after the other taste exactly the same. If you have various factors on different brewdays, its harder to replicate that. The more you control, the better off you are. The more you leave up to chance, the more risk you ensue.

So, let's take a look at what happened to me on this particular brewday.

We will look at Target Volume, Efficiency into Boiler, and Actual Volume Efficiency.


Brewhouse Efficiency Based on Target Volume

Actual OG: 1.083
Estimated OG: 1.075
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00%
Actual Efficiency: 84.56%




Efficiency Into Boiler

Volume into Boiler: 13.27 gallons
Planned Boil Volume: 13.27%
OG into Boiler: 1.067
Estimated OG into Boiler: 1.067
Efficiency into Boiler: 78.09%


Efficiency Into Fermenter

Actual Batch Volume: 9.50 gallons
Planned Volume: 11.50 gallons
Efficiency calculated from Volume: 68.16%


So, after reviewing the above, you will see I overshot OG by overcompensating my grain bill. I hit my OG into the boiler and the 13.27 as planned so I ended up with 78.09% efficiency. That's great. Where I failed is the efficiency into the fermenter because I planned for 11.50 gallons but only ended up with 9.50 so I had a 68.16% efficiency. That means I definately boiled off too much. I had the flame set too high. Once I determine my evaporation rate, it looks like my brewhouse efficiency would be 84.56%. That'll be something to be proud of. I'll send updates once I work on that.

Once I do that, I can set beersmith to calculate everything from grain bill to hop quantities to water needed to everything else at 85% and won't have to adjust anything. Like I said earlier, I assumed a 68% efficiency so I added more grains and more belgian candi sugar, and as a result ended up with an 84.56% efficiency in regards to Alcohol Content but underscored in regards to my final volume at 68.16%. I was supposed to have 11.50 gallons of beer to ferment, but ended up with 9.50 gallons.

Going back to the fact that I need to take good notes correlates with the fact that I am relying on chance. If this beer turns out phenomenal, I'll never be able to duplicate it without some sort of noticeable difference in character and taste, unless by chance I end up with all the same gravities and efficiencies mentioned above.

So now you know what Efficiency is when discussed in the homebrew community. By now, you should have some better understanding of how it affects your brewing process. Essentially, it affects the cost of the beer if you have to buy more grains than what would be needed on a more efficient system. You can utilize less of every ingredient with better efficiency and end up with more beer at the end of the day if you do it right. Needless to say, I am disappointed because I could have/should have had this all determined months ago. I have some work ahead of me and will report back.

Two new discussions in the works: 1.) The Chimay Clone Outcome and 2.) Using pumps and how to prevent wasted time from day 1.

VIDEO LINK: Just a quick shot at the brewing process. At this point, the mash tun (middle keg) is steeping 30 pounds of grains in 8 gallons of water at 149F. The HLT (right keg) is filled with 9 gallons of water and is in the process of being heated to 167F to use for sparging.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmwlmxfPmZs

Teaser: The Chimay Clone finished fermenting out at 1.008 from 1.083. Subtract 1.008 from 1.083 and multiply by 131 to get ABV. In this case, we're looking at a 9.82% beer. One and buzzed, two and drunk, three and you'll regret it.

The Yeast Starter: Chimay

I'm preparing for one of my biggest beers yet. It is big in all ways- Big alochol content, big grain bill, big cost associated with it, and big chance of disaster. I am making a Chimay type beer, the closest thing to Chimay I know of, given what is available to the public. The only thing that is off for sure, is the second, proprietary yeast strain that Chimay uses when they bottle. I can't access that because it's, well.....proprietary to them.

In order to prepare for this beer I needed to create a yeast starter. Simply put, a yeast starter is an effective way to increase the cell count of viable yeast to better assist in the fermentation process. As i previously stated, this is a big beer, and by that I mean high alcohol, large quantities of grain needed. Going back to one of my previous posts, mashing the grains at specific temperatures allow conversion of the starches into fermentable sugars. Therefore, the more starches (grains), the more sugars can be extracted through enzymatic conversion (mashing the grains, aka steeping the grains) at specific temps. I've quickly bumped up from 5 gallon batches to 10 gallon batches, so I will use a 10 gallon batch in example. A typical ale, say a nice summer hefeweizen will maybe contain 16-18 pounds of grain for a 10 gallon batch. Each type of grain has an estimated 'output' of fermentable sugars. So 16 pounds of grain x may produce more fermentable sugars than 16 pounds of grain y, etc. Start utilizing 3 or 4 grains into a batch and you have to rely on software to do some calculations for you.

Since I am attempting to replicate Chimay, I thought of a few funny names, but chose the more appropriate one. Chimay Be Preggers, Chimayde Me Excited, and Chimay Be Back Belgian Dubbel. I went with the latter. Aside from rambling and back to the topic at hand, this 10 gallon batch doesn't require 16, 17, or even 25 pounds of grain. We're going to go ahead and use 29 pounds of grain for 10 gallons of beer.

What does 29 pounds of grain do to gallons of beer?

Well, it does a couple of things. One, it creates a high alcohol content. Two, it brings out the malt flavors as it goes into your belly. Part one is a no brainer based on what I just said above. Not only is it a no brainer, it's well received amongst my drinking friends. Part two is the tricky part. Beer isn't really supposed to be strong and it's not really supposed to taste like a shot of 151. With that being said, grain selection is critical in masking the high alcohol content. There are many malts that can do this, so let me share with you the recipe that Gook and I are cooking up this weekend.

GRAINS

19.7 lbs Belgian Pilsner

6.5 lbs Munich Malt 20 Lovibonds

1.10 lbs Caramunich Malt

1.10 lbs Special B Malt

HOPS

3.30 oz. Saaz @ First Wort Hop

MISCELLANEOUS

2.75 lbs Belgian Dark Candi Sugar

YEAST

White Labs WLP500 Trappist Ale

Original Gravity: 1.075

Final Gravity: 1.017

ABV: 7.59%

Continuing on.

We have 4 grains totaling just about 29 pounds, plus 2.75 pounds of belgian candi sugar. Is this starting to make sense now? If not, let me quickly walk through it. 29 pounds of grains will convert to more fermentable sugars than 15 pounds (which could be used for a summer hefeweizen or the like), plus there is 2.75 of dark candi sugar boiled too to add to the amount of fermentable sugars going into this beer. This is why I was saying all along how big of a beer this is. The original gravity is @ 1.075, my hefeweizen was like 1.048 and my orange pale ale was at 1.060.

Because there is so much fermenting that needs to occur in order to produce the alcohol content that we want, we need to make a yeast starter. One vial or packet of yeast just won't cut it. There are not enough viable cells to eat the sugars and nutrients and allow for proper fermentation, so we are going to increase the cell count through yeast reproduction. If you thought Ant Farms were cool, we heck, you can double, triple, quadruple, etc the size of your yeast colony. Go nuts!

So here's what I did tonight, and here is what all of you soon to be professional brewers can do as well.

HOW TO MAKE A YEAST STARTER

Items Needed

Stove

2 -4 quart pot for boiling

DME (Dry Malt Extract)

Water

Thermometer

Yeast

Flask or bottle or something to put liquid in.

aluminum foil

measuring cups

funnel

Sanitizer

Preparation

Sanitize flask/bottle, thermometer, aluminum foil, funnel (if applicable).

Take yeast out of fridge and allow it to hit room temperatue 70F or so.

This is a real simple process.

1.) Mix 2 cups of water with 1/2 cup DME or use this ratio to achieve desired quantities. 2 cups is in fact 500ml. I made a 2000ml starter so I used 4 cups water and 1 cup DME.

2.) Boil for 10 minutes and stir constantly, keeping heat controlled to avoid boil overs. Sugar (DME) and boiling water allow for a sticky mess.

3.) After boiling is complete (at this point the boil is now Wort), place stove pot in an ice bath in your sink or put the pot in your freezer. Use a sanitized thermometer to keep an eye on the temp.

Never pitch yeast above 90 F, you will straight up kill those little yeasties.

4.) Wait until wort is 75 or 70 and pour into sanitzed flask/bottle.

5.) Shake it around and get some oxygen in there.

6.) Pour vial or packet of yeast in sanitized flask/bottle.

7.) Loosely cover the top of flask or bottle with aluminum foil. Dont seal it or no oxygen/co2 can get in/out.

8.) Put it on magnetic stir plate and use it for brewday 12-36 hours later.

or

8a) If you dont have a magnetic stir plate, shake the crap out of it every 30 minutes (seriously) or it will just begin to proof and rise like a loaf of bread. You want the yeast to swim around in a frenzy and feed on the nutrients you just gave it, not sit around and die off.

That's it. So, the rule of thumb is typically if a beer is bigger than 1.060, you should create a yeast starter. Usually, the yeast package labeling will have some sort of guidelines.

There is more interesting stuff to come on this Chimay recipe. I have good reason to believe it very well could be 1.090 or 1.10, being a 10% beer. We'll save that for the next one.

cheers!

The Truth Behind Hoegaarden, If You Dare to Care

Hoegaarden is and has always been an enjoyable beer for me, among one of my favorite beers. I had no idea the truth until just a few weeks ago. You have to enjoy wheat beers to enjoy this beer. Comparable beers would be Blue Moon (which is actually owned by Coors, though they do their best to keep that secret from you), Weihenstephaner Witbier (The world's oldest brewery, founded 1040), and Celis White (which we'll get to).

So what's the scoop on Hoegaarden?

First, it hasn't been around long at all. It was all started in the 1970's by belgian brewer Pierre Celis. He named it after the town of Hoegaarden, which was producing wheat beers since the 1400's. The town of Hoegaarden had about 13 breweries and numerous distilleries at one point, the last brewery closing it's doors in the 1950's. Wheat beers were the prinicipal beer of this area, with common ingredients of Water, Yeast, Wheat, Hops, Coriander and Orange Peel. This style beer was on its way out until Pierre Celis stepped in during the 1970's.

His operation grew very quickly and he set up shop in an old factory in the town, now able to meet the demand of the customers. To his misfortune, a fire broke out and burnt his brewery inoperable. InBev (under a different name at that time) offered up loans so Celis could buy another building nearby to continue operations. InBev happens to be the largest beer conglomerate in the world now, which also owns Anheuser-Busch.

Celis worked to put his brewery back up in operations, but with ownership (significant loans) from InBev, Celis was under pressure to modify his beer to become more of a mass-market style wheat beer. Based on Celis's actions soon thereafter, I deem him an honorable man; a man of pride. He decided it was best to sell his Hoegaarden brewery to InBev and move on. Sure enough, InBev modified the recipe to make it more commercial to the masses, just as you would drink it today.

Don't get me wrong, I like the Hoegaarden I buy today. It's actually the only recipe I knew since i first had one in.....let's say 1996. The fact that it is owned and operated as a part of InBev doesn't affect any future purchase decisions. I buy mass-marketed beers and authentic microbrew beers. What matters most to me is, 'Do I like this beer'? If I enjoy it, then I'll buy it, or attempt to brew it myself.

But this whole series of events really got me thinking. What did the original Hoegaarden recipe taste like? Was it vastly different than the Hoegaarden we know today? My answer is, 'I don't know, but I'm about to find out'.

Pierre Celis decided to open up a brewery in Austin, Texas during the late 80's, early 90's and brew the beer he knew best. He set up operations quickly, under the name Celis Brewery. He manufactured his beers and contracted distribution to Miller for shares of his brewery. His recipe for the original Hoegaarden was branded Celis White. It didn't last many years, because when it came time to buy back his shares from Miller, he opted to sell the brewery to them. Miller took over ownership of the Celis Brewery, and then closed its doors due to weak revenues sometime in 2001.

That leaves me in a bit of a debacle. The Celis Brewery in Austin, Tx no longer exists. I previously stated that I'm going to try some Celis White soon. I have two ways to go about this, but which will give me a more authentic taste.

1. Attempt to search online for an old, unopened case of Celis White dating back almost 10 years. Would it last? My guess is no, considering the high sedimentation of yeast that wheat beers have. You never know though, if it's stored in the right conditions then it could be like drinking a fresh homebrew.


2. My other option is to find Celis White at a specialty beer store (Canal's in Jersey would probably have it), now revived from Michigan Brewing Company.

Soon after Miller closed the doors of the Celis Brewery in Austin, Michigan Brewing Company bought the Celis brand and continued operations. In late 2002, Celis hit the shelves and pubs in bars all over Michigan. Now, it's all over the place, just hard to find. The question remains, 'Does it taste the same as it did 40 years ago?' Did the Michigan Brewing Company obtain the actual recipe from Pierre Celis, or from Miller for that matter? We're not so sure about that.

I was perusing the web site http://www.michiganbrewing.com/ and they make a claim of "belief" that their Celis White brand represents the authenticity and natural flavors that were used by Pierre Celis 6 decades ago. Also according to the website, Pierre Celis visited the Michigan Brewing Company and agreed that its version was similar to the very original.

I could just continue to drink Hoegaarden, because I do like it, but at the same time I have a strong interest in trying the original Celis White from Austin, Tx. I don't see that happening, so I may just have to try Michigan Brewing Company's version of Celis and bellieve in the claim they make on their website. I may never know the truth.

Fermentation & Yeast

Fermentation & Yeast: The Do's and Don't's of Each




So what's the big deal about fermentation and yeast? Not much really, but if you don't follow these simple tips you ruin your batch of beer. Every batch of beer costs money whether you are brewing 5 gallons or 500 gallons, therefore a loss is a loss. Being that beer takes on average of 6 weeks from start to finish, every ruined batch is 6 more weeks longer you have to wait for the next.

Fermentation is a simple process, and is where the yeast 'feeds' on the fermentable sugars in the wort, converting the sugars into alcohol. During this process co2 is released from the fermentation vessel. A proper airlock with keep any bacterias from entering the fermentation vessel, preventing infection, all the while allowing the escape of co2, allowing the sugars to convert to alcohol. It's a beautiful thing really and without it it would be proof that God hates us all and doesn't want us to be happy. Lucky for us, he does want us to be happy, so this simple phenomena can occur (even at the homebrew level!).

Chronilogically, here is what happens during the brewing and fermentation process: in simple terms.

1.) Steep the grains at the ideal range of 145-158 F. This allows the grains to convert the starches to fermentable sugars. The result of this conversion is called wort.

2.) You then take the wort (malt extract) and add water to your desired batch size, boiling it for 60-90 minutes. A 90 minute boil will allow for a more crisp, dry taste (like a pale ale), versus a 60 minute boil resulting in a creamy, smooth stout (guiness). It affects the body of the beer. This is also where you would add hops and any other additions such as flavorings.

3.) After the boil, you must immediately cool down the wort as fast as possible to about 68 F for ales and 40 F for lagers and then transfer it into your fermentation vessel (typically a closed-lid bucket or carboy).

4.) Once your beer is cooled, you can pitch the yeast (aka, dump the yeast in) and let the fermentation begin. Fermentation can take anywhere from 3 days to weeks and months, depending on the beer.

5.) After fermentation is complete, you then transfer the fermented beer to bottles, adding sugar for carbonation, or to kegs, where you would force carbonate it with co2.

6.) Drink and Enjoy.

As you can see, there are really only a few steps involved in this process. It's because of the simplicity of this process that allowed people to drink beer for thousands of years. Don't be fooled though, it wasn't that easy long long ago. You'd be lucky to have 2 different styles of beer back then. This of course, was long before yeast strains and barleys became part of the international trade system. When thinking about this, think about your regional beers. Germany has a lot of wheat beers, because Germany is home to wheat. England is known for its English Ales because England has Pilsner malt, etc. You get the idea. Each style beer was the only option for beer hundreds of years in that particular part of the world.

And even though it's a simple process we tend to get caught up in the complexity of it all. Take make crazy homemade brewery I have going. I used to make beer using a $40 kit, now I use a handbuilt $.... system. So please, keep these tips for your own success. I've ruined batches before, so I can at least help others from doing it too. However, I'd still bet you my home that you will mess up one time or another.

Tips to Live By:

- Cool down the beer as fast as possible after the boil. The longer it takes to cool down, the more opportunity for bacteria to enter and cause infection. Some people use ice baths to cool down the beer. It can take hours in this process, but sometimes that's the only option. You can buy an immersion chiller http://morebeer.com/view_product/8766//B3-500_Immersion_Chiller_Option for under $60. This will cool the beer down in about 10-15 minutes. You want to cool it down in regards to the yeast you are using. When you transfer the beer to a fermentation vessel, get some oxygen in there, as oxygen help yeast multiply. Pour the beer back and forth from one bucket to another once or twice. That will allow for adequate aeration.

- Use a hydrometer and take a sample of the beer using a sanitized siphon or something of the sort. This is the Original Gravity (OG). Ex. 1.052. You use this number to determine alcohol content and to determine if your beer fermented or not.

-All yeast packages have ideal fermentation temperature ranges, so follow that. Most ales like to ferment between 60-75 F. Most lagers like to ferment at 34 F to 48 F.

- Do not pitch the yeast outside of this range. You can risk killing what were viable yeast cells. A typical dry packet of yeat contains about 200 billion cells, just enough for a 5 gallon batch.

- My personal preference is to ferment in a glass carboy versus plastic buckets. Plastic is porous, and the lids are not airtight. Plus, residues such as soap rinses from glass easier than plastic. You don't want any off-flavors in your beer do you? Oh yeah, you can't see through a white plastic bucket, but can see through glass. I like to watch fermentation from start to finish.

- Look for a layer of krausen (foam) to form within 4-24 hours after pitching the yeast. At this point you MAY or MAY NOT see bubbling occuring in the airlock. It's ok if it does not bubble. DO NOT use bubbling as a source to determine if fermentatin is active. DO NOT!

- After a week or two, take a sample of the beer (with a sanitized utensil!) and check the hydrometer reading again. At this point, the layer of krausen usually recedes and thins out and all airlock activity comes to a halt. The hydrometer reading should be much lower now. Ex. 1.012. This is your Final Gravity (FG).

- Determine alcohol content. Take your OG - FG * 131. In this case, it would be 1.052 -1.012 * 131 = 5.24% ABV. Use your head now. If the ABV is 2.3% then you did something wrong. You have never bought a beer that has that little alcohol, which means your beer is crap. Most beers are 4% or more.

Ok, I could write a whole book on fermentation alone, as well as yeast. So, I have to come back and revisit this topic again. There is too much to talk about, but for the beginner, this should help. We can talk about yeast starters, culturing, harvesting yeast, washing yeast, etc, all at a later time. Just know the key takeaways mentioned above.

Let me know if you have any questions though at any time. Facebook or jkhalbe@gmail.com.

cheers!