Paul’s Brewsletter

Today I began brewing the cranberry holidaze beer.

Something unusual happened with the Cranberry Holidaze beer.  While in the middle of primary fermentation, some cranberry pulp made its way up into the airlock, clogging it up.  Keep in mind the beer is still in primary fermentation, which means carbon dioxide is being produced regularly.  This CO2 must be released from the fermenter, so the built up pressure ended up pushing the cranberry pulp into the airlock!  Not to worry, there is a quick fix here.  I removed the airlock and rinsed it out, then replaced it on the fermenter.  The fermentation continued from there.  This happened a second time and the fix was the same: clean out the airlock, replace and the fermentation continued.

The things we do for homebrew

This is the Cranberry Holiday beer I’ve been talking about.  I’ve made this for several years and it always goes over well.  After all, if we can have blueberry, raspberry, and cherry beer…why not have a cranberry one?  Use this to wash down your turkey

Ingredients

3 gallons of your favorite bottled water
1 package of Booster
12oz package of cranberries
1 can Whispering Wheat Weizenbier
Liquid Yeast (German Ale Yeast works pretty well #1007 from Wyeast) - this is optional.  A lot of beer mixes come with a packet of dry yeast, but the liquid yeast makes for a better taste.  I’ve tried both and prefer liquid yeast.

Directions

1) At least one day before brewing, put one of the gallons of water in the refrigerator to chill it.  Also, if you’re using the liquid yeast smack pack, take the packet out of the refrigerator and break the inner pouch by placing the packet on a flat surface and pressing down on the packet with your hand until you feel the inner pouch break.

2) Sanitize the beer barrel (preferably with One Step).

3) Put six cups of water (from one of the bottles you didn’t put in the refrigerator) into a pot (2-3 gallon size is preferable, so you have room).  Add the Booster to the water.

4) Stir with a spoon until the Booster is blended.  This will take a little while, as the Booster can get a little thick when it hits the water.  I usually press the Booster against the side of the pot with a spoon, rubbing back and forth to get the Booster to dissolve.

5) Once the Booster is completely dissolved into the water, bring the mixture to a boil.

6) Puree the Cranberries in a blender or food processor while the water/Booster mixture is being heated to a boil.

7) As the mixture gets close to boiling, take the gallon of water from the refrigerator and pour it into the Beer Barrel.

Once the water/Booster mixture gets to a boil, remove from the heat and add the Whispering Wheat Weizenbeer and cranberries.  Stir until mixed and let this sit for 5 minutes.  This is now known as your wort (Pronounced “wert”).

9) Pour the wort into the beer barrel.  Add water until the water level reaches 8.5 gallons on the barrel.

10) Add the yeast.  Wait five minutes, and then stir the wort thoroughly.

11) That’s it - you’re done until its ready to be bottled!

Greetings and a happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.  The liquid yeast arrived yesterday.  Since it is the smack pack variety, I needed to activate it and wait until today before it was ready.  The beer is now in primary fermentation, which I hope will take no more than about a week.  I’ve got a part on order for my other homebrew kit so I can have two batches going at the same time.  Lot of parties coming up and time is running short!

The initial specific gravity for this batch comes to 1.036.  According to the potential alcohol content,  we’re looking at possibly 5%.  Woohoo!

Here’s a running total of what I’ve spent on this batch so far.  The Beer Mixes and Yeast prices include shipping costs:

Beer Mixes:    $76.20
Yeast:           $46.32
Cranberries:   $9.95
Water:          $12.44
                 ———–
TOTAL:       $144.91

As far as costs go, the beer is about $0.09 per ounce.  Pretty comparable in cost to some of your imported beers (At $0.09 an ounce, a six pack of 12oz beers is about $6.48).  Well, I didn’t get into this to make cheaper beer — just tastier beer :)  Still, you can see what kind of money you are looking at for this hobby.  Its not a huge investment (keep in mind, those totals are for 12 gallons of beer…the Mr. Beer kit does 2 gallon batches, so you can start a lot smaller than that).

I’ll blog again as the batches progress!  Check the recipies portion of this blog for beer recipies from me and others!

Happy brewing!
Paul

Hello - I have everything on hand except the liquid yeast to start the holiday cranberry wheat beer.  The liquid yeast should be arriving by next week. 

I’ve got a tall order in this time around: 6 batches of beer, which totals approximately 12 gallons!  This should last through several holiday parties including New Years!  I’ll keep you all posted as I start brewing.

This time, I will be calculating the cost of making these batches of homebrew beer.  To keep things simple, I’ll try and figure out the cost per ounce so I can show you what it would cost to make a six pack of 12 oz bottles of homebrew beer.

Speaking of cost, I was able to buy 6 beer mixes from Mr. Beer for the price of 5!  They throw the 6th one in free when you order online — check it out!  Happy brewing!

Bottling their first batch of homebrew is a big step in the lives of novice homebrewing enthusiasts. While the beer still will not be ready to drink for several weeks after bottling, there is definitely a strong sense of satisfaction that can be gained from finally moving the brew from the fermentation container into the bottles. While this step is often a great deal of fun, it is important to keep some basics in mind when priming and bottling to create the most successful final product possible.

The first step in bottling your homebrew is, obviously, to obtain the bottles. Many homebrew supply shops will sell bottles that you can use in homebrewing, and you can also obtain them from bars and restaurants. Bottle caps can be picked up from homebrewing supply shops.

Perhaps the most difficult part of bottling for the homebrewing novice is discerning when to bottle. The bubbling that serves as a visible indicator of fermentation typically stops after only a few days, but fermentation is not complete at that point. It is important to wait some time after the visible signs of fermentation have disappeared to ensure that the process has run its course. A couple of bad things can occur if the beer is bottled before fermentation has completed. The quality of the beer will certainly suffer, since many of the unpleasant tasting precursor compounds will not have been metabolized by the yeast and will remain in the final product. Another, much more spectacular, problem that can occur is that the fermentation process may continue in the bottle which causes excess amounts of carbon dioxide to build up until the bottle finally explodes. Many homebrewing veterans have at least one “exploding bottle” story from their early days of homebrewing. The amount of time required for fermentation to complete varies according to recipe, strain of yeast used, temperature, as well as other factors. It is therefore important to carefully follow fermenting instructions if you are using a recipe, or ask other homebrew hobbyists for advice.

Once you are certain that fermentation has completed, it is time to begin the bottling process. Since the beer will be left in the bottle to age and prime, it is important that all bottles and caps be thoroughly sanitized prior to use. Be sure to thoroughly rinse with boiled water if you use a bleach based sanitizing agent.

Once the bottles and caps are ready, it is time to prime and bottle the beer. Priming is an important step since it adds a small amount of sugar which allows a limited amount of fermentation to occur in the bottle, thereby carbonizing the beer. The best way to prime the beer is to boil sugar and water together in a sanitized container and transfer them to the sanitized bottling bucket. After the primer sugar is in place, you can then siphon the beer from the fermenting container into the bottling bucket. If you do not have a bottling bucket, you can also add the primer directly to the fermenter prior to bottling.

Once the beer has been primed, it is time for that big final step - bottling. It is important to fill the bottles slowly to avoid any aeration, which can destroy the flavor of the final product by adding too much oxygen to the beer. After the bottle has been filled, it is time to add the sanitized cap and then repeat until all bottles have been filled.

Of course, the real hard part comes next, which is waiting for the beer to age and prime. This can take up to a month or more, depending on the type of yeast used. However, if you simply must have a taste before then, the beer should be serviceable within one week, but you should wait at least a month before consuming more than a few bottles.

Bottling and priming is the final step of the homebrewing process and great care should be taken to ensure that you don’t destroy your hard work by allowing unwelcome microorganisms to contaminate the brew. Be sure to sanitize every piece of tubing, every bottle, and every bucket that comes into contact with the beer. If all goes well, you will be enjoying your creation in a few weeks.

The Bewitched Red Ale was a success — the beer tastes great and everyone I gave it to so far has liked it.  I brought a 2-liter bottle to a rehearsal for a band I belong to and the bottle lasted about 5 minutes!
 
I’m gearing up now for the holiday beer.  I will make a fruit flavored beer using cranberries.  I’ve made this one over the years and it usually brings a great beer.  I use a variation of one of the Mr. Beer recipes for this.  I’ll upload the recipe to my recipes file on this blog in a few days.
 
In the meanwhile - a quick word about water.  Keep in mind; water can have a good or bad effect on your beer’s taste.  The rule of thumb is “if the water tastes good, the beer will taste good.”  My suggestion is go with bottled water that is available in your area.  Keep in mind; you’re going to need at least 2 1/2 gallons, so buy in larger bottles than your 12/16/32 oz variety.
 
I use Abita Spring Water, since I live in New Orleans and I try to support the local businesses here especially since Katrina.

I am hoping to make 6 batches of this holiday beer.  That’s 12 gallons!!!  Wish me luck.  I’ll keep you updated on my progress.

So what do the pharaohs of ancient Egypt and modern-day fanatical football fans have in common? Why, they all love to drink beer of course!

Beer is the oldest recorded alcoholic beverage in history, with origins dating back to ancient times, even as far back as ancient Egypt. Beer has been the drink of choice of many people, for a very long time.

So what exactly is beer and how is it made? Beer is basically an alcoholic beverage made from fermented starches. It main ingredients consist of water, malted barley (or other starch sources like wheat, cassava, etc.), hops, and yeast. They are then fermented through a process called brewing. After brewing the beer is ready to be consumed, though further processes like aging and carbonation can be practiced to improve the taste and quality.

Throughout the years, many different types of beer have been created around the world. These types of beers can vary in things like flavor, color and aroma. Various different cultures have invented their own distinct take on this famous beverage.

Beer is generally classified into two types or styles based on the yeast used for fermentation. These two types are ales, which uses top-fermenting yeast, and lagers which are brewed with bottom-fermenting yeast. These yeast give the beer their own unique characteristics, which can affect how the beer looks and tastes.

Ales along with using top-fermenting yeast, are fermented at a warmer temperature than lagers. They’re fermented at about 15 to 23°C, 60 to 75°F and usually take a shorter amount of time to ferment. Ales tend to have a stronger more pronounced taste as well as a fuller body. Ales can also have a somewhat nutty or fruity taste that are the result of the warmer fermentation temperatures.

Some common varieties of ales include:

Pale ale - Pales ales are ales that use pale malts, usually barley. They all tend to have similar characteristics, such as a strong hop taste and low to medium malt levels, though many countries have their own versions of pale ale like the English Bitter, Saison, and India Pale Ale each with their own slight variations.

Porter- A porter is a dark ale ranging from dark brown to black in color. It was originally created in the 1700’s in Britain. A combination of three different kinds of ale, it was very popular among the porters of old London, hence the name. It was made from roasted malt barley giving it a rich aroma and full body.

Stout- Stout is a dark ale derived from porter. Like a porter it has a very dark coloring. This results from roasting the malted barley, used for brewing, until black. Irish dry stout like Guinness or Murphy’s are known for their bitter, roasted taste. The ale’s black color topped with distinctive creamy head gives it it’s nickname the “priest’s collar” and goes well with oysters.

The other type of beer are lagers. The word lager is derived from a German word “lagern”. “Lagern” translated means “to store” and alludes to a time when brewers used to store beer in caves to ferment in cooler temperature.

Lagers are made with bottom-fermenting yeast at temperatures ranging from 8 to15 degrees C or 46 to 59 degrees F. At these cooler temperatures, the beer will generally take a longer time to ferment. Lagers are known generally be lighter in color than ales. They also have a distinctively clean and crisp taste that makes them very popular to the masses. They also tend to have a lower alcohol content than ales and are best served cold.

Some beers categorized as lagers are:

Pilsner- Considered the most popular type of beer in the world. Pilsners are generally light yellow to golden in color and usually well balanced in flavor, with a clean, crisp taste.

American style lagers- The common, mass produced type of beer in America is a type of pilsen. Light in color and flavor, it is also high in carbonation.

Bock- Bock is a dark lager originating from Germany. It’s high in alcohol and malt making it a strong, full-bodied beer.

There are many more kinds of beers, each with their own distinct style and taste. There are enough choices to satisfy just about anyone’s taste.

Beer has been around since even before people could write! With so many kinds of beer to choice from, and even more being invented all the time, there is no doubt that beer will be here to stay.

Lee Dobbins writes for http://beer-making.leisure-webzone.com/ where you can learn more about beer making procedures and supplies.

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