Archive for May, 2010

Growing your own hops is the next step for many home brewers and it’s actually within reach for those looking to invest a few hours during the week to care for the hops plant. You just need sunlight, water and a trellis support structure once the hops reach maturity (which can be up to 20 feet with time). Hops grow almost like a weed and can flourish in most climates that have at least 120 frost-free days during the year.

WHICH HOPS TO PLANT & WHEN TO PLANT

Hops can easily be grown from a root segment that buds into its own hops plant. Many farms have online distribution (here is a review of the popular sites from which to order hop rhizomes) though we used Thyme Garden Herb Company in Oregon based on home brewer reviews and recommendations.

The easiest hops to grow, judging by the general consensus of both growers and distributors, are Cascade, Magnum and Nugget. Early spring is the time to get the rhizomes in the ground, though its probably safest to wait until the threat of frost is gone. Here in Cincinnati the last frost is around mid-April, though we received the shipment in late March … what to do? It was recommended by the grower to seal the hops in a zip bag with a few drops of water and store in the refrigerator until ready to plant. While in cold storage, I started to see a bud growing on the root and got worried that this guy was ready to get in the ground and the cold treatment might stunt his growth. Most forums say the hops will be fine for up to 6 weeks in the fridge with light water moisture periodically added. In retrospect, the smarter approach would have been to plant them in a pot and kept indoors (though rewarded with outdoor sunlight for good behavior), transplanting once the threat of frost had passed.

THE ECONOMICS OF GROWING HOPS

Cost savings is also a driving factor in deciding to grow your own hops. A typical rhizome will cost you $8 – $10 with shipping and the expected annual yield will be 1.0 – 2.5 pounds of dried hops. For comparison, a pound of dried Cascade hop leaves will cost you about $20. Keeping in mind that your hops plant will provide this yield year after year, the economics of growing your own hops can really cut down on the cost of brewing materials.

HOW TO PLANT YOUR HOPS

Though the neighbors gave me strange looks for photographing a hole in the ground, I have included a step-by-step guide to planting hop rhizomes. Caring for the hops and dealing with a trellis support system will have to be covered in a future post, assuming these initial experiments survive. For now we’re just concerned with properly getting the hop rhizomes in the the ground and on their way to maturity.

Home brewers have been debating the merits of all grain brewing vs. malt extract for years, each side claiming their method is superior. We examine the benefits of each in terms of cost, time and flavor profile. The point of difference is that malt extract brewing uses processed malt (dried malt or syrup) while all grain, as the name implies, only uses grain and counts on the home brewer to mash the starch into sugar himself. Just an extra step but one that makes quite a difference. The malt extract is created by evaporating the mash in vacuum conditions to remove almost all water and then drying/packaging for preservation. Some brewers report flavor differences while others stridently stand by their extract brews. Many beer competitions have even been won by extract brewers. Let’s take a look at the benefits of each brewing method:

BENEFITS OF MALT EXTRACT BREWING

• The most commonly cited reason for extract brewing is the time advantage. Total brewing time is typically around 90 minutes to boil, chill the wort and pitch the yeast. Compare this with up to 4 hours for lautering and mashing, in addition to the boiling, chilling and pitching. Busy brewers with busy lives might opt for this time efficiency.
• The flavor of the eventual home brew has been noted to be more consistent, brew after brew. I think this is due to less factors at play, and thus less room for error, with malt extract. There are quite a few steps involved to mash grain and even an experienced brewer might inadvertently mess up the process along the way.
• Cost is a factor that both sides claim to their own benefit. The Malt Extractors out there claim the core equipment does not get more complicated than your brew pot and trusty stirring spoon, while All Grainers must invest around $75 to create the mashing equipment. It is also worth noting the energy costs that are saved by not boiling as much liquid.

BENEFITS OF ALL GRAIN BREWING

• Again the issue of cost comes into play. While the initial cost of buying equipment for the lauter mash tun can be steep (between $40 and $100 depending on your setup), the raw ingredients are more affordable after that. Buying grain in bulk is typically cheaper than a can of malt extract because the cost of preparing the extract has to be added to the bill in some fashion. There is a good article here that compares the relative cost of ingredients.
• Brewing with raw ingredients from the beginning allows you to experiment with new recipes and affect the final product in a variety of ways not possible with a can of extract. So maybe you want to add an extra 1/2 lb of chocolate malt to the grain bill and see what happens … by all means, throw it in the mash and lets see what happens! With more control over the process from start to finish, you have more room for experimentation (though also more room for error).
• Some brewers report better flavor with all grain, a fact harshly contested by loyal Malt Extractors. The mythical “extract twang“, or subtle sweetness, is reported by many as the reason they switched to mashing. The All Grainers claim to have better control over the “malt backbone” of the beer, though for the life of me I can’t understand what exactly that means.
• Home brewing is a labor of love. The time involved and attention to detail makes it hobby for a loyalist. All grain brewing affords the average Joe Homebrewer the chance to convert starch into sugar (magic!) and, with the help of the yeast, convert that sugar into alcohol. Really pretty cool if you think about it. As well, all grain brewing allows you to be involved with more of that awesome process and understand what is happening with your brew.

CONCLUSION: ALL GRAIN FOR ME, BABY!

That final bottle of home brew you hold in your hands represents the brewer as much as the ingredients that went into it. We all know too well the room for error during the brewing process and important role the brewer plays each step of the way. I see all grain brewing as a way of better understanding what is happening during this magic sugar-starch conversion and how those grains you brought home in a bag will magically transform (!) into an alcoholic and tasty beverage. Also important here is the ability to experiment with new flavors and ingredients. What if that Bell’s Oberon clone had just a bit more Munich Light malt, how would that taste? A bit more work but certainly worth the effort.

“This isn’t one of those fake holidays…No, this is officially sanctioned by congress, as of 2006. Which in my book makes it the equal to the separation of church and state.”
–Steven Colbert, May 18, 2008

May 17-23 2010 marks the 5th annual American Craft Brewers week. Organized by the Brewers Association, the week long event celebrates small and independent craft brewers with charity events, homebrew events, beer tastings, festivals, tours, dinners, and Declaration of Beer Independence signings among other things. Support for the week long celebration is very strong, evident by House Resolution 1297 – which supports the goals and ideals of American Craft Beer Week. To find out what is going in your area, click here. So take this opportunity to celebrate all the greatness that is good beer. Cheers.

WHAT”S TO CELEBRATE?

Beyond good beer, this is a time to celebrate the diversity and entrepreneurial spirit that makes this country great and makes our beer great. It’s that same spirit that that pushes us homebrewers to spend a bunch of money on equipment, drive our wives crazy (love you Cara / Amie), concoct new recipes, make up stupid names for those recipes, and share our homebrews with our friends. It’s also time to celebrate the momentum craft beer has seen over the last few years. It’s great to have the ability to purchase and brew such variety and declare our independence from commercial breweries who seem to brew solely for profit without regard for art and craft. The rise of craft brewing is evident in a few statistics from the American Craft Brewers Association website.

• Growth of the craft brewing industry in 2009 was 7.2% by volume and 10.3% by dollars compared to growth in 2008 of 5.9% by volume and 10.1% by dollars.
• Overall, US beer sales were down 2.2% in 2009.
• Craft brewer retail dollar value in 2009 was an estimated $6.98 billion, up from $6.32 billion in 2008.
• 1,595 breweries operated for some or all of 2009, the highest total since before Prohibition.

So take pride in what you create and drink. Celebrate your diverse palate. Have a homebrew – or a craft brew.

Sanitizing your home brew bottles is tricky business … after all, the same bottle had once been filled with liquid, drank by someone else and most likely not immediately rinsed and cleaned. So why do home brewers continue to reuse bottle and endure the stares of friends when collecting up used bottles after a party? Because its a free method of storing and sharing home brew and some of us haven’t experimented yet with kegging.

TO CLEAN, SANITIZE OR STERILIZE?

The constant mantra of home brewers is that clean, sanitized bottles and equipment are important factors in avoiding infection and brewing a successful beer. Oddly enough, we use yeast in the most important part of the brewing process, which itself is a controlled infection of sorts. Cleaning a bottle involves a surface-level removal of debris and noticeable items in the bottle. Sanitizing a bottle starts to remove the microbes hiding below the surface, which is the goal here. Taking this one step further, to sterilize a bottle is to remove 100% of the microbes, a task rather difficult and probably not absolutely vital to home brewing.

TO BLEACH, CHEMICAL RINSE OR USE THE DISHWASHER?

We have tried a few methods of cleaning home brew bottles over the past few years. We started with “Easy Clean” no-rinse solution from LD Carlson and didn’t have any problems. When that ran out, we neglected to buy more and started using bleach to sanitize. This may have sanitized properly but we always worried the bottles were not rinsing completely clean of the bleach and may be affecting the taste of the home brew and lack of carbonation on a few batches. Through all this we have used the dishwasher (on regular wash cycle with no detergent) after cleaning the bottles and using bleach. The theory here was that all the bottles fit nicely into the dishwasher and this was much easier than another rinse (yes, we call that laziness). Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear possible for water to be sprayed accurately into each and every bottle, given the limited range of the dishwasher arm. Smelling a few bottles after the wash cycle still gave off a smell of bleach, which had use worried.

DISHWASHER ON SANITIZE CYCLE

What is home brewing about if not learning from your mistakes? We have since moved away from the bleach in favor of Star San chemical rinse and no longer use the dishwasher for our final rinse. Instead, I think we will utilize the “Sanitize Cycle” option, which blasts hot steam at 160 degrees for over an hour.  Other brewers on HomeBrewTalk agree that the sanitize feature can only help if proper sanitation has already been achieved in advance. I also found a rather in-depth scientific study of bottle sanitation and the amount of bacteria removed through different methods. His findings show that immediate rinsing and proper chemical sanitation are the best method to remove the majority of bacteria. He also recommends covering the bottle tops with tin foil after sanitizing and before bottling, which is a method I had not heard before. But he’s a scientist and I’m not, so it’s definitely worth a try.