Brewer's Log - 8.29.2010: Dry Hopping the C'z IPA

WHAT I DID

- Dry hopped a 4-gallon batch of "C'z IPA" that had been in primary since 8/7/2010 and was transferred to a Better Bottle carboy for secondary fermentation on 8/23/2010.

WHAT I LEARNED

- After having underwhelming results from dry hopping a beer in the past, I did some homework this time. I read posts I found via a Google search, I listened to the Dec. 8, 2009 episode of the "Brew Strong" podcast about dry hopping techniques and I read an article in Brew Your Own magazine's September 2010 issue in which brewer Mitch Steele of Stone Brewing Co. offered tips for "amplifying your hops." While there are multiple valid methods for dry hopping a beer, I settled on one that varies from the IPA recipe I was given. Instead of 10 days of exposure to 1 oz. of Bravo hops (as the recipe stated), I'm splitting the additions to be roughly .5 oz. of Bravo hops for five days, then siphoning the beer off of that initial 5 oz. and into a clean, empty Better Bottle, and adding the remaining .5 oz. of Bravo to this new vessel and letting it sit for five more days. The goal here is to avoid any grassy or vegetal off-flavors that could possibly be contributed by prolonged exposure to hop material.

PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED

- I find myself wishing I had a couple smaller vessels and another 1 oz. of Bravo hops so I could split this batch and experiment a little: compare the taste and aroma of 1 oz. of hops in the vessel for 10 days with the taste and aroma from two five-day sessions with .5 oz. of hops. Undoubtedly they will taste at least slightly different. The question is which would be better. I plan to acquire some 3-gallon Better Bottles to allow for such experimentation (with hops, yeasts, other additives) in the future.

PERSONAL BESTS ACHIEVED

- Nothing, aside from improved quality/production value for the associated video.

My Coincidental New Belgium Kick to Culminate With Nashville's Clips of Faith Beer & Film Event

I'm late for everything. I'm serious. Everything. I was even a little late to my wedding. (Don't worry, I didn't miss anything important.)

So it was pretty much par for the course on June 29, 2010, when I rolled up to a bar called Brewhouse 100 about a mile from my house only to learn that I was nearly an hour late for the New Belgium Brewing Company beer tasting I came for. Thanks to some help from New Belgium's Tennessee "Beer Ranger," John Gartner, I was able to double-time it (mostly responsibly) through a couple rounds to catch up with the group, which was tasting a total of five beers.

Brewer's Log - 8.23.2010: Beer Transfer, Belgian Wit & C'z IPA

WHAT I DID

- Transferred a 5-gallon batch of a Belgian witbier (Unibroue Blanche de Chambly clone) that had been in primary since 6/28/2010 (eek!) to a keg for carbonation.
- Transferred a 4-gallon batch of "C'z IPA" that had been in primary since 8/7/2010 to a Better Bottle carboy for secondary fermentation and dry-hopping with 1 oz. Bravo hops.

WHAT I LEARNED

- Make time to keep up with beer fermentation schedules. Pay closer attention to the calendar and the signs of fermentation and transfer the beer as soon as it is ready.
- Having said the above, I noted no off flavors indicative of autolysis (which is, in essence, decaying yeast cells altering the flavor of your beer). Certainly these flavors may surface as the beer ages but for now I would say leaving a beer in primary (especially a light beer such as this witbier) for two months will not ruin it.

PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED

- I need more room for brewing and cleaning, but that's a given.

PERSONAL BESTS ACHIEVED

- Created the first Fledgling Brewer video (see above). Plus a great drinking game if you drink every time I say "um" in the video.

DETAILS

Here are some more technical details about these two beers in their current states.

The Belgian witbier (p. 135 of Clone Brews, 1st edition) is a 5-gallon all-grain batch. It was brewed solo on 6/28/2010 and had an estimated original gravity of 1.050. (The initial reading was 1.055 but I used my BeerSmith brewing software to calculate that I could at .5 gallon of boiled water to dilute the gravity to 1.050--the expected original gravity indicated in the recipe.) It was fermented using a 1-liter starter of Belgian Witbier yeast (Wyeast Labs #3944) and remained in the primary fermenter for a total of 56 days--roughly 12 days in my 65-degree basement and the remainder at around 75 degrees in an upstairs closet. The gravity reading on 7/21 was 1.017. When transferred to the keg, the beer had a final gravity reading of 1.012.

The IPA (recipe given to me by Ozzy Nelson of Mayday Brewery) is a 4-gallon all-grain batch that was brewed with friend Eric K. on 8/7/10. It had an original gravity of 1.073 (well short of the 1.080 expected on the recipe). It was fermented using Danstar Nottingham dry yeast and remained in the primary fermenter for 16 days before being transferred to secondary fermentation for dry-hopping with 1 oz. Bravo hops (11.3 alpha acid percentage). When transferred to secondary, the gravity reading was 1.024. The Bravo hops will be added on 8/24/10 and will remain in the fermenter for 10 days.

Music City Brewer's Festival 2010: A Quick Look Back

2010 Music City Brewer's Festival, afternoon session

Every time I go to a beer event or festival, I have the best of intentions. I plan to keep notes and have a record of what beers I liked and what beers I didn't. But of course it never happens like that. This held true for the 2010 Music City Brewer's Festival, which took place July 31 in downtown Nashville.

And since dozens of beer samples are involved, I usually start growing forgetful about halfway to three-quarters through the event. The one time I did keep notes, my writing grew progressively less legible during the session and I lost my notes on the way home. (I found them several days later; that's how I'm able to verify the legibility part.)

So with no notes from this year's session, I'm left with general recollections. Here they are...

Brewer's Log - 8.7.2010: Brew Day, C'z IPA

My friend Eric during some downtime. I supplied the beer;
he supplied lunch. He was a big help throughout the day.

WHAT I DID

- I brewed a 5-gallon, all-grain batch of C'z IPA with friend Eric K.

WHAT I LEARNED

- For the summer months, investigate using a pre-chiller (either sending the tap water first through another chiller immersed in an ice bucket before hitting the main chiller in the wort, or at least coiling the garden hose in some ice water) to help get the wort temp lower.
- After trying this batch with no hop bag (in other words, simply tossing the loose whole hops and pellets into the boil) and later having difficulty with the wort transfer as a result, I may return to hop bags in my next batch.
- Having a friend around to assist you really does make the brew day go faster.

PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED

- Getting a consistent temp reading of my mash before I close it up still seems to be a challenge. Despite a lot of stirring to mix the mash and break up dough balls, the temperature readings vary considerably depending on where I place the thermometer within the mash.

PERSONAL BESTS ACHIEVED

- This is the first IPA I've brewed.
- With seven ingredients, this is the most varied grain bill I've used to date.
- I (we) finished this all-grain batch in a record time of just over 6 hours.

DETAILS

Finding time to brew in 2010 has been a struggle for me. With a busy 3-year-old son, freelance copyediting work and a long list of home projects, I almost feel guilty dedicating six or seven hours of a day toward an all-grain batch. In fact, I've had ingredients for several beers on hand for a few months now—so long that two vials of White Labs yeast I purchased have expired!

Well, at last, the stars finally aligned on Saturday, August 7, when my friend Eric came over to brew an IPA with me. My very first IPA brew, in fact.

Breaking the All-Grain Barrier: Blichmann BoilerMaker Follow-Up

My trusty 15-gallon
Blichmann BoilerMarker

It's been a while since Part 1 of my series on all-grain equipment. I'll have Part 2 up soon but in the meantime, the bonus is that I've brewed a few more batches and am more familiar with my setup. The 15-gallon BoilerMaker brew kettle and the Hurricane burner continue to be a great combination. There are, however, a few minor negatives with the kettle that I will mention for the sake of others shopping for a large boil vessel.

The boil filter screen can be
easily removed as needed.

First, I've had mixed results with the standard boil filter screen that comes with the BoilerMaker. Each time I've used it, there seems to be a lot of good wort left in the bottom of the kettle after draining the contents through the ball valve. (I should note that I do create a whirlpool after chilling and let the full kettle sit for 15 minutes so the majority of the hop and trub particles collect in the center, away from dip tube.). Not sure if the lack of pickup is the fault of the screen (which doesn't seem to clog--it's only meant for whole hops, by the way) or the dip tube. On my last batch I forgot to put the dip tube in before the boil and used an auto siphon to remove the wort instead. There was noticeably less "lost" wort remaining at the end of the transfer.

These two pesky tools love to hide
when it's time to clean the sight gauge.

While the kettle's glass sight gauge is a fantastic tool to have to accurately determine the volume of water or wort inside the kettle, it is a small pain to clean. It comes with a specialized brush and an Allen wrench. If you are occasionally unorganized like me, tracking down these two smallish (read: easy to lose) items can put a real dent in your brew day preparations. The brush, once you find it, does make the job much easier. Just be careful not to displace/lose the small O-ring at the top of the sight gauge assembly when cleaning, and don't crank down too hard on the screw when you are sealing the tube back up. Instructions say to tighten only until you feel the slightest bit of resistance. While the glass is well-protected by metal on three sides, I do fear a worst-case scenario of accidentally breaking the glass and bringing an abrupt end to the brew day. Still, the benefits outweigh the negatives here.

Notice how the thermometer
probe enters the kettle near
the midpoint--too high for
five-gallon batches.

Finally (and least important to me since I have a good, digital thermometer--namely a Thermoworks Mini Handheld Thermocouple with a PTFE/FEP tip probe) is the fact that the nice Blichmann Brewmometer that comes installed is indeed located too high on the kettle to be effective for 5-gallon batches. I've been collecting extra wort--about 7.5 gallons or more--since learning how much volume was lost to the boil filter screen/dip tube during my first all-grain batch. With that much wort, the built-in thermometer's probe is covered. As liquid evaporates during the boil, though, the surface level drops below the probe and readings are, obviously, no longer accurate.

Let me emphasize that these issues are minor and that I would definitely buy this brew kettle again. The benefits (sturdy construction, smart design, easy to clean, seems to heat up quickly, versatile, aesthetically pleasing) outweigh the negatives by a wide margin. I do, however, remember agonizing over my decision, searching the Web for all the information I could find. Hopefully this will give you a few more details if you are facing the same decision, so you can make a more informed choice.

The well-constructed sight gauge is a
handy feature to have when collecting
wort during an all-grain batch.

Welcome to Nashville Beer Week!(And By 'Week' I Mean Two Days)

Well, it's no Philly Beer Week or Great American Beer Festival but for two days the Nashville beer community has a damn-near cornucopia of promising beer-related events from which to choose. It's all based around the Mafiaoza's 9th Annual Music City Brewer's Festival, which takes place in downtown Nashville Saturday, July 31 over two sessions, noon-4 p.m. and 6-10 p.m. Here are the highlights:

Friday, July 30
Cask-Stravaganza at 12South Taproom: I've always enjoyed the vibe at 12South Taproom and have attended a cask event there before (a quad-hopped Hopsecutioner from Terrapin Brewery), but this four-cask blowout promises to be stellar from a Nashville perspective. Representatives from Stone, Rogue, Bluegrass Brewing Co. and Schlafly will be on hand with unfiltered and unpasteurized versions of their beers that have been naturally conditioned. I'm not sure what all the selections are, but I do know that Bluegrass Brewing Co. is bringing Oak-Aged Rye 75. The event starts at 4:30 p.m. 12South Taproom is located at 2318 12th Ave. S. in Nashville.

SweetWater Pub Crawl: I've been a fan of Sweetwater Brewing Co.'s 420 Extra Pale Ale since my friend Luke introduced me to it a few years ago. And their IPA's not bad either. I've tried to keep an eye on what this Atlanta-based brewery is doing and I'm happy to see that they are making a pre-Music City Brewer's Fest splash with a charity pub crawl in downtown Nashville. According to SweetWater, you pay a $5 donation for a wristband and "all donations go to the Red Cross to help local flood victims." The event takes place over the course of four hours and four downtown watering holes--Broadway Brewhouse Downtown, 8:30-9:30 p.m.; Buffalo Billards, 9:30-10:30; Beer Seller, 10:30-11:30; and Riverfront Tavern, 11:30-12:30. SweetWater promises $3 SweetWater drafts and giveaways at each stop, with the night culminating at the SweetWater "Money Machine." The participants who grab the most "fish" within their allotted time in the tank will get prizes.

Yazoo Taproom Festival Pre-Party: I don't have many details about this one but Music City Brewer's Fest is like a home game for this Nashville brewery. It only makes sense that they'd throw a celebration to make everyone feel welcome. Yazoo's Sales and Marketing Manager Neil McCormick reports via his Twitter account that members of the Americana band Kelsey's Woods will be "breaking in our stage/loading dock," in the first live music event at the brewery's new location. This event runs from 6-8 p.m. in the side parking lot of the taproom, 910 Division St. in Nashville.


Saturday, July 31
Mafiaoza's 9th Annual Music City Brewer's Fest: This is the main event. Split over two sessions (the popular evening one sold out long ago... check with Mafiaoza's or Corrieri's Formaggeria for your last chance at tickets for the early session), the festival hosts over 50 breweries on the plaza of  Music City Walk of Fame Park in downtown Nashville (bordering Demonbreun St. between 4th and 5th Ave. N.). In addition to interacting with the familiar names that they find in bars and beer stores across Tennessee, attendees will get to sample the offerings from some relative newcomers to the Nashville market, including Birmingham's Good People Brewing Company, Novato, Calif.'s Moylan's Brewing Co., and Adamstown, Pa.'s Stoudt's Brewing Co. [Correction: Good People products will be arriving in Nashville around the end of the year/beginning of 2011.] Sessions run from noon-4 p.m. and 6-10 p.m. Designated driver tickets are also available at a discounted price. And on top of it all, 15 percent of net ticket sales benefit the Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee.

I'm looking forward to chatting with some friends and making some new ones over the course of what promises to be a great weekend. It may only be two days, but it's a start.

Patience Is a Virtue: A Homebrewing Lesson in Listening--and Hearing--Your Peers

I have a lot to catch up on in this blog, including reports on my great beer trips to Montreal, Philly Beer Week and New York City this year. But first, a homebrewing success story.

Even as a new brewer, you've already undoubtedly had experiences when you wondered if you totally screwed up your beer. (Does the panicked exclamation, "It's been 24 hours since I pitched my yeast and the airlock on my fermenter still isn't bubbing!?" sound familiar?) And what's the advice you always hear in response? "Relax, don't worry, and have a homebrew." Right? Or, "Beer is very forgiving," or something along those lines. Whether it's homebrew guru Charlie Papazian in the book that lit the fire in me, The Complete Joy of Homebrewing, or a helpful stranger on the homebrewtalk.com forum, the mantra is always that patience is a virtue in homebrewing.

The thing is, that advice hadn't really paid off for me in my first two years of homebrewing. (Quick aside: June 7, 2010 marked my two-year homebrewing anniversary. Seems longer.) Sure, I'd seen firsthand how forgiving beer can be amid fluctuating fermentation temps and questionable chilling techniques, but I'd never had a beer essentially cure itself of off-flavors over time. I'd heard about it happening, but as far as I was concerned it was just a brewing myth.

Well, I'm a believer. My most recent batch of beer--an all-grain Rogue Dead Guy ale clone from the book Beer Captured--emerged from fermentation tasting very alcoholic or solventy. I presume this was a factor of me accidentally mashing at too low of a temp (low to mid-140s F) and creating a highly fermentable wort with less body. I thought I must be tasting the so-called fusel alcohols notorious for headaches and hangovers and that supposedly don't mellow in homebrew over time. It was so strong that I almost poured the batch out right then. No joke. I never took a final gravity reading and I stopped taking notes on the batch.

But the ubiquitous patience advice--mixed with the fact that I didn't really have time to deal with the beer right then--convinced me to let it sit in its secondary fermentation vessel (a 5-gallon Better Bottle carboy) for a while. Roughly six weeks, in fact. Which brings us to last weekend... the moment of truth for this batch. Well, as you can guess by now, I sampled the beer and that solventy taste had subsided to reveal a fine tasting beer. I'm currently keg carbonating what is quite likely my best batch yet.

So let me add my voice to the many that have said so before me: If you're ever on the fence about an in-progress homebrew batch, give it some time. Chances are you'll be glad you did. I've seen it happen.

Drink What Ya Like

A couple of months ago I watched Beer Wars. Twice. It's an entertaining and enlightening documentary film about the U.S. craft beer industry and its challenges in an environment dominated by the macrobrewers. The film paints the contrast between "corporation" beers like Bud Light, Miller Lite and Coors Light—relatively flavorless, tough to distinguish from one another and propelled by huge marketing budgets—and "craft" beers like Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA that are brewed on a much smaller scale to suit niche tastes.

While at times infuriating, it's a theme that's common throughout nearly every industry: the well meaning upstart vs. the faceless, established power. Beer Wars pretty much let's you draw your own conclusions from the facts and experiences shared in the movie, but it has certainly been the catalyst for much discussion. And that discussion has opened my eyes to an element of the craft beer world that I really don't like: beer snobs.

Don't get me wrong. I love craft beer. I love the flavor and the variety and the heart that goes into these brews. And I don't make a practice of drinking any of the aforementioned macrobrews. That said, I'm not the kind of guy that's going to tell you that beer X, style X, or brewery X is the one you should drink. Yet some people seem to get a thrill out of the prospects of converting the supposedly unenlightened masses to craft beer, even mocking others on podcasts or in articles simply for wanting to order a Bud Light. As if they are a lesser person for it.

Oddly enough, I imagine these same beer evangelists would bristle if some religious zealot informed them that his or her religion is the only perspective by which one can truly live one's life. So let's dial it back a little, craft beer community. Don't stop offering your friend a taste of a great new beer you just ordered. Don't stop pointing out your favorites to inquisitive newcomers at your local pub. Don't hesitate to suggest something from your top five to that person in the beer aisle who is clearly looking for something new. Be proud of your knowledge and love of craft beer. But by the same token, take time to learn a little something about these peers and their tastes. Stop trying to be cool among your craft beer friends at the expense of others. Be welcoming, not cliquish.

In other words, just try to be decent about it.

Homebrewer, Heal Thyself: The Wort Stability Test

On the odd chance that I have any readers left after my four months without a post (sorry), I've decided to get back into the swing of blogging with something really basic. I haven't been doing nearly as much brewing as I would like—I had planned to brew each of the last three weekends, for example, but life got in the way—but I have been reading several beer-related books, magazines and tweets, and listening to some informative podcasts. I wanted to highlight something I heard on Basic Brewing Radio about a method for testing your sanitation skills. Since I have yet to be completely happy with a beer I've brewed, I'm going to give it a try next time.

First, I should mention that Basic Brewing Radio has archived all of its podcasts dating back to its debut in July of 2005. The titles for these weekly podcasts referenced the most foundational topics in homebrewing—yeast, hops, the malting process—so I started from the very beginning. I'm almost to 2006 now and have learned a lot from host James Spencer's discussions with representatives who are very knowledgeable about their respective fields.

For example, Spencer spent three episodes (Oct. 27, 2005; Nov. 3, 2005; Nov. 10, 2005) talking about yeast with David Logsdon, a co-founder of Wyeast Laboratories, Inc., who among other things invented the "smack packs" that so many homebrewers use as their source of yeast for a beer. Logsdon shared a ton of great information on yeast and its use in a homebrewing setting, but he also shared the following very generic tip as well. Something so simple that I wondered why I hadn't thought of it myself.

He suggested that anyone suffering off-flavors in their beer, or otherwise concerned about their sanitation practices, conduct a "wort stability test." Here's how:

Wort Stability Test

1. In addition to your normal brew day routine, clean and sanitize a jar or flask.
2. Make your beer as usual but take a sample (in this case, a couple ounces of wort) before you add yeast to begin the fermentation process. Add this to the flask prepared in step 1.
3. Cover the jar or flask with foil and set the sample on your counter.
4. According to Logsdon, the wort sample should remain stable for three or so days if the wort is free of bacteria. Otherwise it will ferment on its own, producing phenolic odors and a cloudiness in the sample. If the latter happens, you need to reconsider your cleaning habits and think about pitching some bacteria-harboring buckets or tubing.

I consider myself a pretty thorough cleaner and I just purchased a brand new (read: scratch-free) plastic six-gallon bucket for fermentation, but this simple test could turn out to be pretty enlightening. Or just plain embarrassing.