Archive for January, 2010

Before jumping head first into the world of all grain brewing, we tried a partial mash recipe with both grain and malt extract. The resulting home brew will hopefully be a hoppy India Pale Ale to get us through the rest of winter. The complete modified recipe is located on the following page for those wanting to make the leap away from brew kits with us — India Pale Ale partial mash recipe.

Modifying a recipe from The Complete Joy of Home Brewing by Charlie Papazian, we stocked up at Listermann’s supply shop and set to work. The recipe calls for Centenial whole hops for boiling and Amarillo pellet hops for finishing. New to us was the technique of “sparging” the grain bags after the initial boil. This involves pouring boiling water over the mash bag and is a modified version of a true sparge in a “lauter tun” container which has a false screen bottom and collects runoff wort as hot water is applied.  So, baby steps on the sparging, but we’ll get there.

This was the first time we used Irish Moss in a home brew. This stuff is actually red algae grown on the rocky shores of the Atlantic and is added near the end of the wort boil (a rather important fact that this be added near the end and not early in the boil as debated in this discussion on the RealBeer.com forum).  The Irish Moss attracts proteins and other solids in an attempt to clarify the beer later down the road and avoid the stereotypical cloudy home brew.  If you’re interested in the exact chemistry of this clarifying agent, Eric has a great blog on the chemistry of home brewing and wrote extensively on the topic of Irish Moss.

While we modified the recipe to include additional hops, credit must be given to the original recipe found within The Complete Joy of Home Brewing by the venerable Charlie Papazian.

“I was determined to know beans.” Henry David Thoreau

Homebrewers, like Thoreau, are on a quest for self-reliance. Popular homebrew literature provides the foundation for that knowledge, but is certainly only the beginning. So please use these posts as a base, a springboard into greater discovery. We ask that you add perspectives, add new reviews, or just browse through and take what you can from those who have done this before us. You don’t need to be an expert homebrewer or book critic (As you will be able to tell, I’m not) to add value here. We at DrinkHomeBrew value your perspective more than your credentials.

The Complete Joy of Homebrewing – 3rd Edition – Charlie Papazian

Relax. Don’t worry. Have a homebrew. This is probably the best and worst part of the book – a great mantra but highly overused. It’s on every other page. I’m relaxed, I promise.

Charlie Papazian, founder and president of the American Homebrewer’s  Association and Association of Brewers, provides a very comprehensive guide starting from the basic equipment and ingredients needed, to more complex recipes for all grain brewing and mashing. I recommend this book to beginners or those looking to advance beyond kits or malt extract brewing. He makes homebrewing seem very easy and it is if you understand the basics, which he explains very well. The book is broken into 3 sections – Intro, Intermediate, and Advanced and is easy to follow for the first time homebrewer or somebody who has not done advanced brewing. At time of this read, we at drinkhomebrew.com have not tried all grain brewing, but feel very comfortable giving it a whirl after reading this book.

We also appreciated that he does not take a condescending tone throughout the book. Let’s face it, beer connoisseurs can be a cynical bunch. Papazian does not exalt all grain brewing/mashing as the only respectable way to brew. He mentions that he brews using malt extract just as much as he does all grain – it just depends on the amount you want to invest.

Lastly, this book is a great reference for homebrewers to return to when needed. The book provides hundreds of great recipes, brewing techniques, and easy to assemble equipment for the practical homebrewer. Charlie Papazian provides the fundamentals to brew great beer and begin exploring more complex brewing techniques. Remember … Relax. Don’t Worry. Have a homebrew.

Three key takeaways:

1. Zapap lauter-tun – A cheap and easy way to separate liquid from spent grain when mashing. All you need is 2 buckets. For more info, buy the book, or check out this post: http://www.mainebrews.com/news/2009/04/zapap-lauter-system/.
2. Great mash extract recipes to ease into the mashing experience. You don’t need to go from kits to all grain in one brew – but go for it – you got nothing to lose but $35. Our upcoming IPA used one of these transitional extra/mashing recipes that Charlie provides.
3. Conversion metrics for using pellet hops verse whole hops.

After the resounding success of our Imperial Stout, we wanted the next home brew to be seasonally appropriate with the cold weather but maybe a little tamer on the hops.  Armed with the ingredients from our pals at Listermann’s, we got the pot boiling and jumped in.

This was the last of the home brew kits I think.  The simple malt extract recipe did not provide much in the way of the challenge.  We followed the usual temperature requirements, added our hops near the end, and that was that.

Of interest is that we did not see fermentation on Day 1 and 2. The fermenting bucket was in Brady’s basement, where our Ohio winter was giving chilling the  concrete floor to a brisk 55 degrees. Instructions had called for a range more in line with 60-65 degrees. We brought the bucket upstairs to a warmer part of the house for Day 3 and fermentation started right away.

Flash forward to bottling and tasting a few weeks later. The brew came out malty with a surprisingly caramel finish. The delayed fermentation might account for less yeast activity and some off-flavor esters. The final product came out with an (unofficial) low APV of around 2% by taste alone (we never got a FG reading) with a flat taste and some caramel sweetness at the end. We’ll call this one a learning experience and say goodbye to the kits.