Bubblegum Tap Build!

I’ll be the first to admit. I’m a large bearded child. So when it came time to build a tap I wanted to do something that was fun and childish. At first I thought a fishbowl tap would be cool. But after some research it seemed like a little much of a time investment and riddled with all types of leak issues. Discussing it with my girlfriend (who I am so lucky to have and doesn’t mind if I build taps in the home) her first thought was a gum ball machine.

At first I wasn’t sure it could be done. But the idea of dispensing two treats at once got my glutinous side so excited I had to find a way. And a way I did find. Here’s a link to the full project in detail if you’d like to build one yourself! I’m sure there is plenty of room for enhancements. But here’s a lot of groundwork for you. Enjoy!

Bubblegum Tap Machine

Cavitation

I’ve been brewing on the Brew Magic system for a couple months now and it’s been great. I’m hitting ~83% efficiency every time now but the more I read the more I see I can still do things better. A big one that I just resolved is “Cavitation”. Which is the fancy term for meaning there is air stuck in the system and it stops the RIMS capability that is so precious with this system.

The key factor here is a proper prime. Which I was not achieving. I typically would just move the liquid from the HLT to the Mash Tun via the RIMS system. Priming the pump via the HLT valve and closing the lower valve to the Mash Tun. Having cleaned the system prior to using it my assumption was there was still water in the lines to retain suction. The fool I was!

My high efficiencies had made me drunk on power and blind to the other flaws I could be creating along the way. Well I have woken up and seen the light! Out with you damned cavitation! Out!

More readin’

https://www.brewmagic.com/blog/prime-pump-blues/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavitation

Save The Protein For The Gym

I love working with adjuncts. I think finding the different qualities fruits, vegetables and obscure grains can bring to your beer is amazing. The only issue with that is some of those malts or other little fellas can up the protein in my mash. Possibly leading to off flavors or bad conversion.

That’s when I need to take a little more time to enjoy some more homebrew and go with a protein rest. A protein rest helps to breakdown proteins into smaller proteins and amino acids, plus it’ll let you get at more of those starch strains letting your saccharification have more potential for a good efficiency.

While it does add to the brew day, it’s going to also add to the quality of your final product. Along with making you an amazing homebrewer that makes you the envy of the species… well at the very least be able to drink tasty beers.

More readin

http://www.howtobrew.com/section3/chapter14-4.html

http://realbeer.com/spencer/FAQ/Fix-mash.html

Brewing With Fruit

I use a lot of adjuncts in my brewing and there are a ton of ways one can go about adding fruit to their brew. I don’t like to mess with extracts and I don’t really like the way juices work in beer. However adding a little juice to your beer till you get the flavor you want is a good way to test how much you may need to add without spoiling a whole batch. You just want to be sure to use something that doesn’t have added sugars because it will completely through you off.

There are all sorts of considerations when talking about what to do with different fruits but if you’re just looking to get started I have a few recommendations for you.

1. Use whole fruits. A lot of the flavors you want from the fruits are in the skin.
2. Freeze your fruit first. Freezing burst a lot of the cell walls in the fruit allowing access to more sugars. Whether you’re putting it in the boil or in the fermentor it’s just going to benefit from this. A
3. Prepackaged puree/concentrated is just fine. Just don’t get any with added sugars or preservatives.
4. If you’re going to add it during fermentation do it in the secondary. The beer environment at this point is a low pH, less oxygen and has alcohol. Which is not a very good environment for other bacteria and yeasts to grow in.
5. Don’t squeeze your bags. If you’ve put your juice mush into a muslin bag or similar, just lift and let it drain when you take it out. Squeezing will impart more bitterness than you want to get out of fruit.
6. Compliment with hop profiles. I find there are a lot of similarities in hop profiles and fruits. Finding hops that compliment your fruits really help the flavor come across. But don’t overdo your hops!

More readin’

http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2010/05/best-way-to-add-fruit-flavor-to-beer.html

Brewing At 508

After a couple of weeks of kicking around some recipe ideas with Chris and finding the best time to brew we finally were able to collaborate on a new batch of beer. I got to brew into the wee hours of the night with Chris on his 2 bbl system to create Navidad Voyage. A recipe I based on a story that compliments some of the fare you’d find on their menu.

The story behind the beer is based on the third voyage of theSanta Maria, which we all know as the first ship in Columbus’ fleet to land in this great country now dubbed the U-S-of-A. Basically Columbus was not happy that he never really got to explore the West Indies like he had intended and wanted to take a crew down there to check it out. Well it just so happened by the time they got there it was Christmas Eve. And like a bunch of good Americans they decided to celebrate by breaking open the ale barrels.

As the crew started to celebrate more and more they were getting past the ability to steer the ship. So the duties passed off to the lower and lower crew mates until eventually the ship was being guided through the sea by the cabin boy. Not being very experienced at steering a ship he ended up running it into some rocks and damaging it beyond repair. The crew woke up to found they had crashed on Haiti and not being able to salvage the boat they decided to strip the timbers and turn it into a fort. He dubbed it La Navidad. And there it lives to this day. The boat that started it all crashed by a bunch of beer drinkers sitting on an island in the Caribbean.

Using this story we came up with a recipe for a standard English Bitter that they would most likely have on board. But decided to add some local flare with some Guava and All Spice. And being that we had so much fruit in the recipe we decide some salt would be a good addition to bring out the sweetness. Knowing that salt is a tricky substance to work with in beer this seemed like a prime opportunity to play around with it.

The beer is chugging along right now and we’re hoping to have it on tap end of the month. But if you’re not busy anyway why not stop by 508 for any of the other delicious brews on tap and come meet Charlie Papazian Oct 28 while you’re at it! If you can’t catch him at 508 head over to his book signing at Bitter & Esters Oct 29.

Chris has an amazing brewing system that he retrofitted in the restaurant basement. Not originally being thought of as a location to brew beer it’s amazing what one can do with a little creative energy. Just like any NYC homebrewer this system is something that’s unique and you wont find similar builds listed on r/homebrewing. I was super excited and lucky to brew on this set up even the cleaning didn’t seem like a chore! Thank you Chris for giving me the opportunity!

More readin

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Mar%C3%ADa_(ship)

°Lintner

The more and more I brew the better and better I try to get at my efficiency. The first couple of batches I was plugging away into brewing calculators and getting amazing potential gravities from my recipes. The only problem was every calculator I was using was thinking I was getting 80% efficiency. As I failed to hit the ABV I wanted I read more and more on honing in on your brew setups efficiency.

One thing to check out is the °Lintner or Diastatic Power of your grain bill.  Lintner and Diastatic power both translate to the ability of your malts to convert starch into sweet-sweet sugar (maltose!). They need a minimum of 35 °Lintner to properly convert your starches.

This is where you need to make sure you check the Diastatic Power of your TOTAL grain bill. If you’re using some type of malt that has less than 35 °Lintner then it’s affecting the overall total of your Diastatic Power. If you’re getting poor efficiency on some brews vs others this could be a big reason why. This is why there are so many typical base malts. They contain the Diastatic Power you need to convert your starches to sugar.

It’s also another reason why barley is so heavily used in beers. It’s just got what it takes to get things going. I recently mashed some Malted Millet from CMC all by it’s lonesome. While I did get some conversion out of it the amount of sugar I got for 5 pounds of grain was only 1.017. HARDLY FERMENTABLE! I guess that’s why there is Sorghum syrup.

More readin

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degree_Lintner

http://beersmith.com/blog/2010/01/04/diastatic-power-and-mashing-your-beer/

NY Pro AM Brew PIT – And The Winner Is…

ME! I couldn’t have been more excited for this event and the fact that I took home first place was amazing. I’m still shocked! I huge shout out to Bitter & Esters for putting on the event with the help of Robert and Xavier who were the catalyst for procuring the amazing location Covenhoven. And another huge shout out to Singlecut and Brian Dwyer for taking the time to collaborate with me as well as letting me brew on their pilot system. FIRST TIME WEARING BREWER BOOTS!

The event was a lot of fun. All the homebrewers turned out with great interpretations of beers for their partner breweries. I had my own favorites as well but I’m still glad I was able to take the win. Next up going to brew at 508 with Chris Cuzme on his 2 bbl system in the basement of a Manhattan Restaurant. Couldn’t imagine a better prize!

More readin’

http://bitterandesters.com/new-york-pro-brew-p-t/

https://carpecervisiam.wordpress.com/2014/07/07/ny-pro-am-brew-pit-recipe/

Tasty Brew

Tasty brew is a great resource for starting recipes. I like to use it to find the base of a style I might be aiming for from time to time. There are also several tips and tricks on the site you can use to find out how to be a better Brewer. Check it out here www.tastybrew.com.

508 Gastrobrewery

I was lucky enough to go check out the 508 Gastrobrewery system the other day. (And more lucky because I’ll be brewing a batch of beer with it in a couple weeks!). It’s a pretty amazing set up. The brewery was kind of an afterthought for the restaurant and what you can find in there right now is little more than what you might expect to find in an overzealous homebrewer’s garage.

In the end it gets the job done and Chris Cuzme knows his setup well. Producing unique beers like THE BACON CHEESEBRÜGER. Where they actually smoke the malt over some delicious bacon burgers. Unfortunately they were out of the beer when I came in so I never had a chance to enjoy it but I’m sure it was delightful.

I did try everything else on the wall and some of my favorites were the M.V.B. and American Wheat Beer that doesn’t really drink like a wheat beer at all. It had a great body with a hint of having a wheat past but really reminded me more of an summer ale. I also really enjoyed the Rice Cream Ale a tribute to “The King of Beers”. So tasty it makes me wonder why Bud can’t get their S together and make a better brew themselves.

Also, Tuesday nights are $5 beer nights and Chris leads a live Jazz session on the sax. A great night to stop by and enjoy some music, great beer and delicious food.

Website

http://508nyc.com/beers/

Cayenne Pepper

I recently created a beer that included cayenne pepper in the mix. I used about 1.5 ounces for my 5 gallon batch and I was pleasantly surprised with the outcome. It didn’t leave the traditional sting on my mouth most oils from other peppers do when I have them in beer.

It may be because I used the powdered version. I did supply some nice heat to the beer but was only present after you had a complete swig of the beer. It was a nice compliment to the sweet flavors coming across in the beer and definitely gave me more hope for future explorations with peppers in my recipes.

I added it at flame out which was plenty of time of it to build into the wort without overpowering everything. What surprised me most is how apparent it was when I tasted the wort, then almost completely gone right before the cold crash. By the final tasting though it was right about where I wanted it to be.

More readin’

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/add-cayenne-pepper-chocolate-stout-129253/

https://byo.com/recipes-tag/item/859-hot-hot-hot-brewing-with-chili-peppers

Photo: Pink Sherbet Photography

Bottling Beer From A Keg

If you’ve ever tried to move your beer over from a keg to a bottle or growler you’ve probably noticed that it’s tough to keep the carbonation up in the bottle. That’s because when you move it over from the keg at the standard PSI you basically shake out all the CO2 on it’s way into the bottle.

A good way to keep the bubbles in your suds is to use a beer gun. You can buy these if you want but they’re fairly easy and inexpensive to make. Some big things to keep in mind are, keep the PSI low when bottling, pre-chill your bottles to prevent foaming, and push out as much oxygen as possible during the process.

More readin’

http://www.brewersfriend.com/2009/08/26/how-to-bottle-beer-from-the-keg/

Photo: Alison Benbow

Pre-heating Your Mash Tun

I have a converted 10 gallon igloo cooler for my mash tun and I have tried preheating vs higher strike water temperatures to maintain a consistent mash temperature several times.

With all the times I’ve tried this in my set up it seems that preheating the tun is the way to go. It may seem small if the temperature only varies in a few degrees but those few degrees have screwed up my efficiencies on several batches.

All I do to heat mine up is heat about a gallon of water to 200°F and toss it in the tun and let it sit for about 20 mins with the lid on. I don’t heat it to the boiling point as to reduce wear and tear on my cooler, the boiling temp is a bit too high for it and can potentially warp it.

This works well for me anyway since I’m waiting for the other 6 or so gallons of water to hit the right temperature I’m looking for.

More readin’

http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/do-you-pre-heat-the-mash-tun.85864/

Mash Out

Mashing out is an important step of the process that has all kinds of science built into it. I’ve done plenty of brews where I didn’t mash out due to not enough time and have still made many a tasty brew. But why not continue to control your brewing methods? It means more repeatable tasty brews down the line.

Here’s the key things to know about mashing out.

1. It protects your fermentable sugar profile by stopping any enzymatic actions.
2. It makes the grain bed and wort more fluid. Meaning better clarity in your brew!

What is a mash out? Essentially it’s raising the temperature of your mash to 170°F to stop the enzymatic reactions.

How much water you use depends on batch size and grain amount so be sure to do your calculations for a mash out ahead of time!

More readin’

http://www.howtobrew.com/section3/chapter17.html

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/mashing-out-igloo-cooler-64179/

http://www.brew365.com/mash_sparge_water_calculator.php

Photo: Kelly Teague

NY Pro AM Brew PIT Update

I don’t need to say much on this one, just check out this post!

http://bitterandesters.com/passion-inspiration-and-technique/

PPG (Points/Pound/Gallon)

Look Barley I like you. I love you, you might even say. But sometimes… sometimes I just need somebody else to sweeten things up if you will. And sometimes I get all CRAZY and I need somebody that not even my Brewer’s Friend will know about. I just want to get WILD and try something different. But don’t worry Barley… you’re still invited to the gig.

PPG! Points! Pound! Gallon! PPG is what we use to measure the amount of solubles in our wort to gauge our final yield in a brew! It’s easy to know what the PPG is of most grains as the malters will provide a malt profile that includes the PPG for us. Making it all easy to understand and create recipes.

But how do we solve for when we want to create a brew that uses something like Pomegranate juice? Well the easiest way is to take a gravity reading of the juice itself. One pound of sugar in a gallon of water will have a SG of 1.046. Which is great! But what’s the PPG of that?

Well friend lets do some math!!!! To calculate in terms of PPG, multiply the number of gallons of wort you collected (1 gallon of water) by its gravity (46 Note: I’m still learning why they move it two decimal places, but just do that and you’re fine) and divide that by the amount of malt that was used (1 pound sugar).

1 (gallon of water) X 46 / 1 (pound of sugar) = 46 PPG!

More math

http://www.howtobrew.com/section2/chapter12-3.html

http://www.howtobrew.com/section2/chapter12-5.html

Photo: Jimmie

Whirlpooling

If you were a fan of crating whirlpools as a kid you’ve got yet another reason to love brewing! Whirlpooling is a technique used to separate trub and leftover hops from the wort. It’s a very simple concept, essentially you make a whirlpool by circling your spoon in your finished wort, let it sit for awhile as the whirlpool slows on it’s own and rack as normal.

Breweries usually have a separate vessel if they’re using this technique. They shoot the wort into the whirlpool vessels at a high velocity to create the whirlpool opposed to using a very large spoon.

So if you’re looking for ways to clear up you’re beer, maybe get your whirlpool on. Be careful not to add too much oxygen to your wort though. NO SPLASHING IN THE POOL!!

More Readin’

http://byo.com/stories/issue/item/1581-what-does-whirlpooling-your-beer-mean-and-how-do-you-do-it

Photo: David O’Hare