Everyone, everyone! Homebrewjunkie.com has finally arrived! It's taken a little effort to get it up and running but it's my personal blog. So much of my blogging will be done on that website, if anyone is interested. Check it out to see what it's all about. It's still in its infancy but it's going to kick some serious ass!
And don't worry, I'll still be dropping by from time to time to check in on all of you.
It is not necessary to secondary ferment. However, if you plan on adding anything to your beer like dry hopping, oak chips, coffee, fruit or anything else I highly recommend adding that to a secondary fermenter. It allows the yeast to clean up any by-products and doesn't blow out any flavors.
If you are making a high gravity beer that is above 1.070 then it is a good idea to rack off of the primary and let it settle and clear up in the secondary and to allow it to finish fermentation, for another 2-3 weeks. If you are doing a barley wine then you may want to secondary for up to a month and possibly bulk condition in a tertiary for a few months.
For all average beers that fall around 1.050-1.055 then it's usually not necessary. Maybe give it an additional week in primary to settle out and keg or bottle as usual.
Sure, why not? It will add a nice "dry hopped" kick to the beer. The only thing, though is that you run the risk of a gusher when you open it up. Why? Because the co2 will have more contact area to produce more gas. So if you do this chill it down good and then open it up over the sink. It adds a nice touch to the finished beer and it's cool to show your friends, "Hey, check out this beer I made; it even has a hop floating in it. Isn't that awesome?!"
When I began all-grain brewing I started out doing five gallon batches.Six hours later I had five gallons of wonderful homebrew.However, I found that five gallons just wasn't enough to sustain a healthy supply of homebrew on tap at all times in my house, especially when I was only brewing once a month, if that.And, I found that trying to schedule a brewing session around running a business and raising a family was not as easy as I had first thought.I had to figure out how to brew more in one session with the equipment I already had on hand and I didn't want to go back to doing extract brewing. What I had been using was a 7.5 gallon aluminum pot (turkey fryer) and an additional five gallon stainless steel hot liquor tank (HLT).After a few homebrews and some more quiet pondering a light bulb clicked in my head *ding*: Double-Concentrated all-grain batches is conceived.
What is a double-concentrated batch?Basically what you are doing is brewing up a concentrated batch of all-grain (think partial boil brewing from the extract days) and splitting that between two fermenters and topping up to five gallons of finished wort in each fermenter.
When brewing concentrated batches, generally speaking, all you need to do is double your grain bill for two batches.Now, because you are doubling your grain bill you must also have a mash tun that can handle the extra grain.The best part about double concentrated brewing is that you're only doing a five gallon post boil volume.This means that if you batch sparge, you can still do it.All I had was a five gallon HLT and the 7.5 gallon pot and it worked great.I have a 12 gallon rectangular cooler which holds a maximum amount of 28 lbs of grain.Depending on your efficiency, this can yield you a final gravity (after dilution) of 1.060.Not bad!
Figuring IBUs
The tricky part with brewing is figuring out how much hops you need to attain your IBU (International Bittering Unit) range within the style your making.An easy way to get around this is using brewing software like Beersmith, Beer Tools or Promash.As your sugar concentrates in the wort, your hop utilization decreases.In other words, the more sugar you have in your wort, the harder it is to chemically break down (isomerization) the essential oils in the hops that impart bitterness and flavoring to your beer.Doubling the amount of hops doesn't necessarily mean you're going to get the same IBU's that you would get from a full wort boil.If you don't have a software program but have internet access, there are plenty of free sites that have IBU calculators:rooftopbrew.net and realbeer.com are just two of many.
With a concentrated batch, the IBU's will be limited.Given that our palates only perceive 100 IBU's, we need to factor this into our recipe and since we are boiling one batch of beer and splitting it in half, logic tells we will only have a maximum of 50 IBU's into each batch of beer. Now because our senses only perceive a maximum of 100 IBU's, that does not mean that you can't add more to your wort.The sky is the limit when it comes to homebrewing.
Here is how it breaks down. Collect 6.5 gallons of wort, boil that down to 5 gallons over 60 minutes and split that between two fermenters. Dilute this by half by adding 2.5 gallons of water; leaving you with 50 IBUs in your final product.
Keeping in mind the bitterness limitations inherent with double-concentration brewing, it is not always the best choice. If you want to brew an Imperial IPA, this technique is not the way to go.However, one can brew plenty of other styles that fall under the 50 IBU range:Pale ales, Lagers, Milds, Browns, Stouts, Porters . . . really, the list is long.
Here is a simple recipe that has become a standard must-have on tap at all times in my house.You'll see the high gravity readings; bitterness this is your final Starting Gravity BEFORE dilution.In order to understand your final Original Gravity, just divide that number in half and you'll have it.Concentrated S.G.:1.125/2 = 1.056.That's the original gravity of your beer.
21 lbs 2 row 1 lb carapils (For head retention) 1 lb 40L crystal malt .40 lb chocolate malt 2 oz amarillo First Wort Hop (more on this later) 2 oz cascade 60 min 2 oz amarillo 10 min 2 pkgs US-05
Batch size: 5 gallons
Boil size: 6.5
Efficiency: 75%
Est Original Gravity: 1.125After you dilute: 1.056 Est Final Gravity: 1.031After you dilute: 1.015 Bitterness: 80.8After you dilute: 40 Color: 23.4After you dilute: 11.7 Mash in 7.3 gallons of water at 166 degrees Batch sparge with 2 ¼ gallons of water. So, the next time you do an all-grain batch, why not try a double-concentrated batch?It takes the same amount of time as a five gallon batch, and your yield is twice as much.Why settle for one, when you can get two for one in a single batch!
With the recent hop shortage I've come to realize that Homebrewers are the true pioneers when it comes to craft brewing. Take a look at Sam from Dogfish Head started out doing 12 gallon batches of beer at home. Jim Koch from Sam Adams started brewing from his grandfather's recipe that he found. Vinnie from Russian River started out as a homebrewer. I think you see my point that many of the fine craft breweries out there started from brewing at home. And as homebrewers we've been presented with another challenge: the hop shortage. I've realized that many of the micro breweries and larger craft breweries have been able to secure a large majority of hops that were available to homebrewers last year. Many of the high alpha acid hops like: simcoe®, amarillo®, columbus, nugget, magnum and a variety of others, are just not available now. What have we been left with? How about these: galena, sterling, santium, vanguard, glacier, spalt and argentinian cascade (which doesn't even remotely resemble US cascade hops). I know I've never used any of these and all of them are not high alpha acid hops. They are mainly dual-purpose hops ranging in alpha acids from 4-8%. Duel-purpose meaning that they can be used for bittering and aroma hops.
So, once again, homebrewers need to rise to the occasion and check out what these hops can do for us. Just because they are different doesn't mean that they aren't worthy of brewing. Many hops in the past that are popular today have come to be popular because of shortages in the past. This is a chance for us to shine again and bring out the best beer we can with these new hops. I know I'm up for the challege.
So if you see a new hop on the shelf you've never heard of, instead of reaching for the standby hop you intended to use, go ahead and try out something new. Who knows, you may be surprised at what you find and be well rewarded! Raise a pint to the new hops and the new homebrewing pioneers! Let's see what we can make!
I don't know how many people are aware of the global hop crisis that is going on right now but it is huge and it is real and it is affecting not only the world of homebrewing but the world of craft beer and beer in general.
Why or how did this happen. It's really quite simple. Over the past 15 years hop growers have abandoned growing hops in order to grow something more profitable. Because of this neglect the amount of acreage went from 200,000 in the world to 115,000 acres of hops! Couple that with the incredible expansion of the craft beer industry and hop bombs coming out of every single brewery's ass; you have, a hop shortage.
So now what? Well, the hops are more expensive. Not only because there is such high demand but because the buyers are willing to pay more in order to entice the growers to put in more acres of hops so that we don't have to suffer through another hop shortage again. Hops have gone up 200-500% in the past year.
I know homebrewers are going to not be happy this year. Last year I was carrying over 20 varieties of hops, now I'll be lucky if I can stock a dozen all year long. Hell, I'll be happy if I can get through this year with the supply that I have. It is that serious, have I mentioned that before? I may end up having to sell my own home grown hops if it gets too bad.
But, there is hope . . . at least for Ben's Homebrew. I recently met a head brewer for a micro brewery and I discussed with him in length my situation. After listened attentively and realizing that all I want to do is make sure I can provide my customers with hops so that they can keep brewing, he offered to supply me with some hops himself! That is simply amazing. All I can say is that the brewing community is pretty fucking cool and almost family-like. Hell, Jim Koch of Sam Adams is selling 20,000 pounds of hops that they don't need to the brewing industry at their cost: only $6 a lb! Hats off to Jim for that. You won't see Bud, Miller or Coors doing anything like that.
We will probably experience this hop shortage for the next two to three years. And even then we may see it last longer. It generally takes 2-3 years for hop plants to mature. And as with everything that goes up in price we may never see hops as cheap as $1.25 an ounce ever again. Reason being is that hop growers need to make money and we need to pay them well in order to ensure a hop supply. I personally don't mind paying $2-$3 for an ounce of hops. I still think that's really cheap.
Don't be surprised if you can't get that local IPA on tap anymore. Many local micro breweries are cutting back on the amount of hops they use in their beer just to make sure they can last the year. And many people aren't going to be happy with buying a pint of Hop Devil for $6. The great part about this hop shortage is that you'll start seeing new styles of beer emerging so that you can taste different things. I'm doing it myself. I'll probably brew up a couple IPA's this year but not as much as I did last year and I'll start hitting up some session beers like English Milds or simple Pale ales.
Embrace the shortage, DON'T HOARD! And everything will level out and be fine. Breathe, too.
After being in business for more than 2 years this is what I've figured out, at least some of it: "Sometimes it's easier working for someone else than working for yourself."
Ok, I can't really call it lethargy because I've been busy updating the new website and working on the forum, but I can say that I haven't posted here in a while. It's not that I'm not checking in with MS, it's just that I have nothing much to contribute at the time.
In time I'll start posting some recipes and such but at this point in time there's not much going on.
Oh, the home brew club Ales and Lagers Carbonated with Yeast (A.L.C.Y.) is having a brewing session next week at a members house and it's going to be a lot of fun. Brewing beer, drinking beer, watching the game and eating some good BBQ, you can't beat it.
Any interest in the club, just check out the forum.
Ben's Homebrew now has a forum for anyone who wishes to ask questions or who have suggestions for people. Check it out and check out the new website, too. http://benshomebrew.beerforum.org/
I'll be more active in the forum than on here. I think my Myspace days are dwindling down with this address. It's time to create a personal one.
awake