Expedition Stout: as a Mixer

In preparation for an eventual project, adding a variety of liquors to a homebrew in secondary, I decided to try out mixing selected liquors into an Expedition Stout (thank goodness Bell's now distributes in Virginia!).

I did this off 1 bottle so the samples were pretty small and I just added a few drops of each liquor. I was surprised by how much that small amount of a liquor can completely change the character of the beer.

Here are the results in order of tasting:

Plain: chocolate, soy, a hint of alcohol, moderate bitterness

Makers Mark: Alcohol, wood, marshmallow

Godiva: chocolate, smooth, coffee

Frangelico: Nutty, wood, chocolate

B & B: Herbal/mint, fruity, bitterer

Kahlua: Coffee, roast, bitterer

Jagermiester: Licorice, muddy, herbal

Chamboard: Raspberry, chocolate, non-complex (dull)

Remy Martin Grand Cru: Booze, concord grapes, coffee

Malibu: Tropical/coconut, lacking, chocolate

Clearly I'll have to make a Nutella (Frangelico/Godiva) sweet stout at some point. I may also take to making my own "bourbon barrel aged" beers from time to time.

More Liquors will be added as I try them out.

The $8 Homebrew Barrel

First off I need to credit Raj Apte. Certainly one of my fermentational inspirations and a pioneer (or would it be a re-pioneer?) in many home fermentation media including ginger beer plant and sour beers.

His website is: http://www2.parc.com/emdl/members/apte/

After reading about and listening to his description of the “$1 Homebrew Barrel" I decided to make two and use them on a Flanders Red and a Lambic I brewed last summer. Those two beers still have a few months/years of aging in front of them so I can't give a definitive evaluation of their flavor, but the last time I sampled them they were both doing well.

The “$1 Homebrew Barrel" is pretty simple, take a tapered piece of oak (like an unfinished chair leg from Home Depot) cut it off, toast it over a flame, wrap the middle with Teflon tape and jam it through the neck of the carboy and into your beer. According to tests Raj has run the oxygen transfer rate of this system is similar to that of the large (20,000 L) tanks Rodenbach uses to age their sour red. Because of how large these tanks are their surface to volume ratio is very low meaning that they transfer less oxygen to the beer than smaller (55-65 gallon) commercial wine barrels and far less than the (5-15 gallon) barrels some homebrewers use. The other advantage of the system is that they are far cheaper to make and require virtually no maintenance.

However, I ran into several problems while using the system:

1. The wood swells after absorbing wort/beer. This makes removing the oak from the neck of the bottle very difficult, and dangerous since you are stressing the glass carboy. In my case I actually cracked the neck of the carboy that the Flanders Red in in, rather minor so I just left the beer in there and wrapped the neck with electrical tape for reinforcement. Picture

2. When pressure builds up faster than it can diffuse out of the wood beer is forced out through the wood. This can happen either because of a strong secondary Brettanomyces fermentation or because the temperature of the carboy rises causing CO2 to come out of solution faster than it can diffuse through the wood. This is an annoyance and can also lead to poor sanitation, in my case after some liquid got out it allowed mold to start growing on the bottom of the fridge that the carboys were stored in.

Despite these difficulties I think that this is a good system that could be great with just a couple of tweaks.

My Solution:
I have personally stopped using glass, it posses the risk of suddenly breaking and it can be pretty heavy when full of beer. As a result I now use Better Bottle, so that is what I used for my project. The manufacturer of Better Bottles claims that they are impermeable to oxygen, but that claim is still up for debate in the homebrewing community.

The larger stopper Better Bottles use also allows room for a wooden peg and an airlock to be put through it. Having the wood wedged into the stopper will make removal easy and the airlock will prevent pressure from building up by allowing CO2 to escape much faster than it can diffuse through the wood.

I started with a trimmed and toasted oak chair leg prepared just as Raj described (cut to about 7 inches and toasted over the flame from my turkey fryer). I then took the rubber stopper and used a knife to cut a new hole near one edge for the airlock. I then used the knife and slowly whittled/twisted/gouged a large hole starting near the other edge and going just passed the original airlock hole. This took about 20 minutes, but really wasn't that difficult once I got the hang of it. There is a small gap in one spot between the stopper and the wood, I will seal this with some food grade silicone sealant.

All in all the project cost me about $8. About $5 for the oak, and $1.5 each for the stopper and airlock. Not bad when you consider a new homebrew scale barrel is at least $150 and would let in far more oxygen and would impart too much oak character to the first few beers that were aged in it.

This system is now in use aging my Funky Pale Ale

Hop Experiment

Last summer I wanted to teach myself about the flavors and aromas that different American hops can contribute to beer. After watching an episode of Basic Brewing Video about I devised an experiment to test five hop varieties with just one batch of beer.

The mash was:
9 lbs Maris Otter
.75 lbs Vienna
.75 lbs Crystal 40
@153 for 60 minutes
then I did a mash out @ 168 for 15 minutes

After the sparge I boiled all of the wort I collected for 60 minutes. After the main boil was complete I repeatedly took one gallon out of the boil kettle and brought it back up to a boil and added a single variety of hops (all leaf hops from freshops.com) in an attempt to hit around 46 IBUs to balance out the 1.062 OG.

1st Cascade 6.5% AA 1 oz @ 13 min = 45.3 IBU
2nd Amarillo 9.5% AA .875 oz @ 10 min = 47.1 IBU
3rd Centennial 10.7% AA .75 oz @ 10 min = 45.5 IBU
4th Columbus 15.8% AA .625 oz @ 8 min = 46.5 IBU
5th Simcoe 11.1% AA .75 oz @ 10 min = 47.2 IBU

The human palate is only accurate to about 5 IBUs (plus the formulas we use are just estimates), so you just have to get close to eliminate any impact that different IBU levels would have.

Each batch was then chilled and poured into its own jug with some dry US-56 yeast.

After a week of fermentation each jug got 3/8 oz of the same hop used in the boil as a dry hop.

Results:
Cascade: Pine, citrus, a classic
Amarillo: Big citrus, smooth
Centennial: Tastes a bit oxidized or something, almost English
Columbus: Herbal, dank
Simcoe: Pine, fruity

This experiment also marked my first appearance on Basic Brewing Radio give the show a listen for more detailed tasting notes here.

If you are too lazy to do this experiment yourself here is a list I have compiled of list of some beers that use either just one hop or are predominately hopped with one variety.

Goldings
-Fuller's 1845

First Gold
-Adnam's Broadside

Crystal
-Rogue Brutal Bitter

Centennial
-Bell's Two Hearted

Cascade
-Anchor Liberty

Chinook
-Arrogant Bastard

Northern Brewer
-Anchor Steam

Amarillo
-Mojo IPA

Saaz
-Pilsener Urquel

Fuggles
-George Gale's Prize Old Ale

In addition some brewpubs will do single hop IPA/APAs series to educate people on the different hops varieties.

Sauerkraut 101

This is my first try at making sauerkraut and my first time playing with spontaneous fermentation. I've been interested in doing sauerkraut for awhile not only because I think it's delicious but also because I have a family history of home sauerkraut making. My mother's grandfather, a German immigrant, used to keep a huge weighted barrel in his basement filled with fermenting sauerkraut.

Sauerkraut seems like it is easy enough for just about anyone to try. At its core it only requires two ingredients, salt and cabbage and about 10 minutes to prepare. In the right ratio salt draws moisture out of the cabbage and protects the good lactic acid bacteria (including our friends Lactobacillus, and Pediococcus which are both used in the production of sour beers) from other microbes that want to invade. After the cabbage is salted you simply apply a weight to the top of the cabbage and wait a few weeks for the magic to happen.

Other spices (juniper, caraway), fruits (apples) and vegetables (onions) can be added to the sauerkraut for flavor or texture, but for this first try I'm going to stay basic.

I sliced up 2 heads of regular green cabbage (3 lbs, after removing the stem and outer leaves) and mixed with 34 grams of kosher salt (2.5% by weight). Then I pressed the salted cabbage into a large Tupperware container put the lid from a smaller container and used a water filled mason jar to weigh it down.

I used Iodophor on the container and lid, but only soap and water on the knife and cutting board. Sanitation is important in making sauerkraut, but it is not as crucial as when making beer because the cabbage is covered in natural yeast and bacteria anyway and the salt is there to protect the fermentation.

After 24 hours the liquid drawn out by the salt was only half way up the cabbage. So I poured a brine made of 2 tsp of kosher salt and 1 pint of water onto the cabbage.

After another 48 hours the mixture was putting off enough sulfur aroma to cause me to move it out of my room and into a cabinet in the kitchen. I wish I had a cellar.

After about a week the distinct smell of sauerkraut was apparent. I had to top off with more brine because it had started to evaporate. I suspect that my rig is getting caught and not efficiently putting pressure on the kraut.

After another week I took a look at the kraut and there were several small, blue colonies of mold floating on top of the brine. This is not a serious issue as they are simply on the surface. I took the weight (mason jar) out and skimmed off the mold, replaced the weight and put the rig back on its shelf.

Belgian Sugar Experiment

There are so many different ingredients that can go into making the perfect batch of beer that I like to isolate one at a time so that I can see how it impacts the beer. In this case I chose to look at how different specialty sugars can impact the flavor and color of a Belgian style Dubbel.

My process was rather simple, I made 6 gallons of pale, moderately-hopped wort, that I then chilled and put into separate fermenters. I then took five interesting sugars (Dark Soft Candi, Dark Candi Syrup, Amber Candi Rocks, Homemade Caramel, and Muscovado) along with white table sugar as a control, each sugar was boiled with a little bit of water (to sanitize and make it easier to incorporate) and then added to the wort in its own fermenter. I then fermented, conditioned and bottled each batch. The result was six surprisingly different batches from one mash.

The only big disappointment from the group was the white sugar, because I did not have enough room in my fermentation fridge or enough small fermenters the beer ended up tasting boozy and rather unpleasant. In general there is nothing wrong with adding refined white sugar to your beer, I have used it as up to 20% of the fermentables, with good yeast management and temperature control the beers did not come out cidery or unpleasant.

The homemade caramel was made using instructions from the great book Brew Like a Monk. It was easy enough, heat one bottle of light Karo Corn Syrup with 9 grams of Diammonium Phosphate (DAP, a yeast nutrient) until the desired color and flavor are reached. While the batch containing the caramel did end up tasting pretty good the caramel did not ferment (.009 gravity from the sugar, finished .009 higher than the other batches) leaving the beer too sweet for my tastes. In a future sugar experiment I am planning on trying other methods for making caramelized syrups at home.

James at Basic Brewing Radio was kind enough to have me on to discuss this experiment and taste the beers. If you have any interest in listening to James, Andy, Steve and me drink and talk about the individual batches give the podcast a listen here or www.basicbrewing.com/radio or search for it on iTunes.

Basic Tasting Reults:

White – Cidery, hot, rather unpleasant
Dark Soft Candi Sugar – Complex, rummy, caramel
Dark Candi Syrup – Dark, rich, full, thicker, complex
Amber Candi Rocks – Clean, fruity, lets the base shine through
Homemade Caramel – Sweet, full, dark, caramel
Muscovado – Rummy, brown sugar

Sugar Experiment (Dubbel)

Recipe Specifics
----------------
Batch Size (Gal): 6.00
Total Grain (Lbs): 12.47
Anticipated OG: 1.062
Anticipated SRM: 11.9
Anticipated IBU: 23.7
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72 %
Wort Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Grain/Sugar
-------------
9.00 lbs. American Pilsener
1.22 lbs. Experimental Sugar
0.75 lbs. Cane Sugar
0.75 lbs. Maris Otter
0.50 lbs. Aromatic Malt
0.25 lbs. Vienna Malt

Hops
-----
1.50 oz. Hallertau Hersbrucker @ 85 min.
0.63 oz. Hallertau Hersbrucker @ 17 min.

Yeast
-----
White Labs WLP530 Abbey Ale

Mash Schedule
-------------
Dough In 15 min @ 135
Sacc Rest 45 min @ 145
Intermediate 14 min @ 163
Mash out 15 min @ 168

Notes
-----
7/2/06 3 cup starter made with DME and nutrient, no activity the next morning. Full activity by the following day, a bit concerned how long it took, but it should be fine.

Brewed 7/5/06 by myself

Briess Less Modified Pils used as the base as B3 was out of Belgian Pils

1 base beer with 6 different sugars added to make 6 one gallon batches: .75 lbs of cane sugar added to boil and 3.25 oz (16.25 oz/5 gallons) of each sugar boiled with water and added to one fermenter for each batch.

OGs:
Amber Hard Candi 1.056
Dark Candi Syrup 1.058
Dark Soft Candi Sugar 1.060
Homemade Caramel with DAP 1.057
Muscovado 1.056
Table Sugar 1.056

Brew went well, had some minor temp issues during the mash. The white sugar and candi rock batches got more trub in them than the others. Beer turned out a bit under gravity, probably as a result of not boiling down to a low enough volume.

All 5 special sugar batches were fermented in 1 gallon jugs in a 66 degree fridge, while the white sugar batch was in a 5 gallon fermenter in my approximately 72 degree closet. 30 second shoot of O2 added to each batch (except white which just got a good shake) 4 hours in. All 6 with activity by the next morning.

The next day up to 68, the following 70

7/12/06 Syrup down to 1.012 (79% AA) (I assume the others are similarly done fermenting) not a particularly good flavor, sort of grainy with some spicy/banana flavors, not much contribution from the sugar. I lowered the fridge to 50 degrees to drop yeast/crap out of suspension.

8/4/06 Bottled with 5/8 oz corn sugar per batch.

FGs:
White 1.009 (White)
Dark Soft 1.009 (Soft)
Dark Syrup 1.009 (Syrp)
Amber Rocks 1.008 (Rock) (Forgot the priming sugar syrup on this batch so I added 1/2 tsp corn sugar per bottle added)
Caramel 1.018 (Carm)
Muscovado 1.008 (Mus)

Kombucha 101

I realize that many people have never heard of kombucha, I certainly hadn't until I spent a couple of weeks in Denver (where the local Whole Foods carried 5 brands of it) awhile back. It originated in China and can best be described as a slightly sweetened tea that is soured by a jelly fish like cluster of microbes.

Kombucha appeals to me because it is much faster and easier to make than funky beers, in addition it has almost no sugar and less than .5% abv, so I can feel good drinking it whenever I want. I grew my culture (left) from a bottle of what I felt to be the best kombucha I had in Denver (Tea Chi), but there are commercially available cultures that require less work if you are so inclined or if you can't get a bottle locally.

The finished product can vary greatly depending on your culture. Some are clean and sharply acidic, but it should come as no surprise that my favorite brand had plenty of funk (in particular our old friend Brettanomyces). The tea doesn't have too much impact on the finished drink, it serves primarily as a nutrient source for the culture (and as such it can't be left out in favor of other flavorings).

Here is my basic recipe:

1. Bring 1 qrt of water to a boil

2. Take it off the heat and soak 2 tea bags or 2 tsp of the tea of your choice for 15 minutes (the longer brew time extracts more nitrogen and nutrients),

3. Dissolve 2.5 oz of white sugar into the tea

4. Cool to 70 degrees

5. Pitch your culture and about 10% of the previous batch to lower the acidity.

6. The culture needs oxygen, so just put a paper towel over your container and hold it in place with a rubber band.

7. After two weeks of fermenting in the high 60's the kombucha is ready to bottle

8. I generally put it into old plastic soda bottles with a 1/2 tsp of sugar, screw the cap on and wait for the bottle to feel pressurized (normally about 4 days)

9. At that point I put the bottles into the fridge and they are ready to go

Sanitation is not as important as it is with beer fermentation because with kombucha not only do you already have multiple microbes working together in the culture but also it is open to the air so some microbes are going to get in there regardless of your sanitation.

The next step in my process is to build up a big enough mother culture so that I can start splitting off daughter cultures to begin playing with. In particular I hope to find out if the culture is able to do its thing in the presence of hops...