Brewer's Friend Home Brewing Software

Brew Shed Update

The shed is taking its final shape. The roof is on, skylight is in, and gutters installed. The electrical is in and the inspection passed!

The paint job is just primer right now. It was all done by hand with rollers or by brush so it soaked in good. I was told by a friend who is a home inspector that spraying paint on T-111 will cause problems later. I plan to paint the trim brown for an exposed timber look. Painting T-111 is hard work, especially in the grooves. It took 4 gallons to get two coats of primer on the entire shed.

The entire shed is insulated. Before I insulated, I air sealed all the seams with caulk. For larger gaps I used expanding foam. I am working on getting the metal panels in place for the brewery section under the loft. I’m not that happy with how the corrugated panels line up at the seams. I might go with tile, or even metal tile, but that gets expensive fast.

The loft is good for storage and also forms a natural vent hood. The opening for the intake on the exhaust fan is visible on the left.  I looked into the expensive stainless steel kitchen hoods. Damn those things are spendy (minimum $600). This is an experiment on my part but I think it will work out fine.

The electrical panel has some spare circuit breakers and plenty of juice. I went with a 50 amp service installed by a professional signing electrician. To save money, I dug the trench and crawled under the house to run the wire. With 50 amps there is room for electric brewing in the future. To make it even easier when that time comes, I ran a wire inside the wall of the shed. If I ever want to switch to electric, all I need to do is buy a breaker and outlet.  My kettle and HLT will need adjustments too. That project will likely take 12 trips to the hardware store. I’m waiting on that adventure for now.

Next steps:

• Sheet rock.
• Exhaust fan.
• Finish metal section for brewery.
• Brew!
• Then deal with all the little cosmetic details like interior paint and a nice trellis for the hops.

I’ll warn you, this project may look cool, but it has been a lot of work. It gets complex and expensive. So far I am in about $7,000. There is a lot of over head work up on ladders. I have skinned my knuckles many times, and cussed out loud many more. My beer supply is dwindling as I have not had time to brew. My wife has been just great about the whole thing and has helped on many sections. Without her I could not have done this.

I will be glad when this is completed and I can brew again!

Posted in Equipment, Fun | 6 Comments »

Alcohol By Volume Calculator Updated

The Brewer’s Friend ABV Calculator was just updated to include not one, but now two formulas for calculating ABV.  There are two popular formulas out there for calculating ABV.  You can pick the one you prefer for use in your brewing notes.   If you don’t like math, or don’t care that much, just stick with the basic formula. If you are super into math, and want to use the advanced formula (which is supposedly more accurate for high gravity beers), then the alternate equation is now there for you.

Standard Formula:

Most brewing sites use this basic formula:

ABV = (og – fg) * 131.25

This equation was created before the computer age.  It is easy to do by hand, and over time became the accepted formula for home brewers!

Variations on this equation which report within tenths of each other come from The Joy of Homebrewing Method by Charlie Papazian, Bee Lee’s Method, Beer Advocate Method. Some variations use 131 instead of 131.25. The resulting difference is pretty minor.

Alternate Formula:

A more complex equation which attempts to provide greater accuracy at higher gravities is:

ABV =(76.08 * (og-fg) / (1.775-og)) * (fg / 0.794)

The alternate equation reports a higher ABV for higher gravity beers. This equation is just a different take on it. Scientists rarely agree when it comes to equations. There will probably be another equation for ABV down the road.

The complex formula, and variations on it come from Ritchie Products Ltd, (Zymurgy, Summer 1995, vol. 18, no. 2) -Michael L. Hall’s article Brew by the Numbers: Add Up What’s in Your Beer, and Designing Great Beers by Daniels.

Why don’t calculators all agree?

1. The relationship between the change in gravity, and the change in ABV is not linear. All these equations are approximations.
2. Some calculators round internally as they go. The Brewer’s Friend calculator rounds only at the very end, which means significant digits are kept along the way (making it more true to the equation).
3. Other online calculators should be close to one of the two equations reported by the Brewer’s Friend ABV Calculator. If not, they are doing their own thing which warrants inquiry.

What equation should I use?

Your home brewing friends probably use the basic equation. If you don’t like math, go with the basic equation.

If you are a really tech heavy brewer, and want to brew a lot of high gravity beers, or prefer Daniels over Papazian, use the advanced equation.

Either way, they are close for beers below 6% ABV.   The difference does get larger as the gravity increases.   For a brew with OG 1.092, and an FG of 1.021, the standard equation reports an ABV of 9.32%, while the alternate equation reports 10.17%, that’s a difference of 0.85%.  At that alcohol level, after a few beers, maybe it doesn’t matter so much… hehe ;)

Prost!

Legal Disclaimer: The Brewer’s Friend ABV calculator is for entertainment purposes and should not be used for professional brewing. No warranty or guarantee of accuracy is provided on the information provided by this calculator.

Posted in Brewing | 12 Comments »

Beer Wagon Deployed

The latest do it yourself (DIY) home brew project is complete! This is nowhere near as cool as my shed, but it does help save the back when it comes to brewing.

While my brew shed is underway I brew in the garage and ferment in the spare bedroom. This means I have to lug a full carboy up and down the hall. Carrying a full carboy sucks. I use carboy straps to help make it easier but it is a pretty long way. I built this beer wagon to make life easier.

The wagon measures 16.5” x 16.5”, 11.5” tall. That is plenty of room for a 6.5 gallon carboy. I used a 16”x16” 3/4” plywood base and some scrap wood I had left over for the rails. The white wood is aspen, 1/4” thick. The vertical supports are 1.25” wide. The horizontal rails are 2.25” wide. The trim is walnut and mahogany same dimensions. Any hard wood will do.

For mobility and load capacity it has 3” casters. Wheels are fixed in the back, and swiveled in the front for steering. A gallon of water weighs 8.35 pounds, so figure if you want to move seven gallons plus the carboy you need to be able to support 65 pounds. Most 3” casters support over 100 pounds easily.

Posted in Equipment | 2 Comments »

Brew Shed Is Framed and Sided

With the brew shed foundation poured and cured the project continued forward. It takes about a month for concrete to cure. It also takes about a month for spring to kick off in Oregon.

Reminder to our readers: You know you are seriously addicted to home brewing when you start making plans for a brew shed!

Three of us bolted down a pressure treated sill plate, then put up all four walls in one afternoon. The framing of the roof and sheathing took another two afternoons. One more solid day should finish off the roof and trim. Then it will need a couple coats of primer and paint. After that I will turn my attention to the electrical panel.

Details about the shed:

• Walls are just under 8 feet tall. This way the siding overlaps the concrete a little.
• I went with 5/8” T111 siding, which works both as sheathing (like OSB), and siding (like lap boards). I found this was the best bang for the buck in terms of appearance and price.
• The 12′ x 12′ size feels roomy enough for a brewery without hogging the back yard.
• The height at the peak is 11′ 6”.
• Total cost was about $2200 for all the materials, delivered.

(Roof framing completed).

Recommendations:

• Use a qualified contractor who has experience building houses. There are a lot of little details that go into framing I had no idea about. You want your brew shed built solid with the help of a professional.
• Check with local city / county building codes before getting started.
• Get the materials delivered. A local place only charged me $80 to have everything delivered at once.
• Charge it and get credit card mileage points / rewards.
• Keep natural lighting in mind. This shed has a skylight and two windows.
• Design in a big door that is easy to get items like kettles, keezers, and drunk friends in and out.
• Keep your dimensions in units that work well with basic lumber sizes. Multiples of four are good.
• Consider going with 2×6 construction for added insulation value. It my case it wasn’t worth going past 2×4 walls, but it might be in yours.
• Add in a loft. Mine has one in the back at seven feet high. The brewing equipment will fit nicely under there.

(Framed and sheathed, ready for shingles).

(Lots of natural light are a good thing).

More articles to come on the subject of brew sheds.

Posted in Fun | 10 Comments »

My New Tool – The Carboy Cleaner

Carboy Cleaner LLC has made life better by building a better carboy brush. Unlike a better mouse trap (which nobody cares about), the Carboy Cleaner really is a time saver and does a better job than my old ‘L’ shaped brush. Thank you capitalism.

You know, I didn’t have a good relationship with old ‘L’ anyway. ‘L’ was always spraying me in the face. I was on my second ‘L’, as the first one rusted. Now I can say goodbye and good riddance to ‘L’.

The Carboy Cleaner is a metal rod attached to two padded brushes at one end. It has a rubber gromet that fits in the neck of a carboy. Once you see how it works, it is a no brainer. You need a cordless drill to make it work. If you don’t own a cordless drill, buy the Carboy Cleaner first, then you have an excuse to buy a cordless drill. The product website has a great video demonstration. Ryan is an enthusastic presenter. https://www.carboycleaner.com/

The Carboy Cleaner can also be used to sanitize a carboy. Just soak the brushes in sanitizer solution, and add some of the sanitizer solution to the carboy, then go for it with the drill for minute or so.

Practicallity aside, it’s a great excuse to get out a power tool and fire it full throttle! I hooked up my 18V cordless drill and let it rip. Here’s how it went:

Start it off in the bottom slowly.

Spin it up to 100%.

Raise and lower the brush to cover the entire inside.

Nice and sudsy.

Brewer’sFriend received a complimentary Carboy Cleaner.

Posted in Equipment | 9 Comments »

Recipe – Golden NW Extra Special Bitter

This a wonderful tasting British ale that uses Zeus bittering hops. More of a NW + British hybrid really. This Golden NW ESB has a nice balanced malt to hop ratio. A bread like biscuit flavor rolls into medium bitterness over the tongue. It finishes smooth and has drinkability – in that you will want to take another sip of this brew right away. Extra Special Bitter is traditionally served in British pubs, and would cost extra compared to the house ale.

Target Volume: 5 gallons

Grains:
5.25 lb Pale 2-Row
4 lb ESB Malt
0.5 lb Mild Ale Malt
(at 75% efficiency)

Extract brewers:
Steep 1 lb ESB Malt, 0.25 lb Mild Ale Malt
Use 5.75 Light Dry Malt Extract, or 7 lb Light Liquid Extract

Hops:
0.75 oz Zeus, 60 min
0.75 oz Goldings, 20 min
0.75 oz Goldings, 10 min

(Extract brewers may want to use 1 oz Zeus to get correct IBU level.)

Yeast:
Wyeast 1098 British Ale Yeast (aka White Labs WLP007 Dry English Ale Yeast)

Water Chemistry:
Calcium 116
Sodium 89
Sulfates 214
Carbonates (HCO3) 226
Chloride 46
(all numbers in ppm)

My tap water is practically mineral free. I added approximately 1 tsp CaCl, 3 tsp Gypsum, and 2.5 tsp Baking Soda to get these concentrations.

Procedure:
Mashed at 158F for 60 minutes, standard batch sparge. Fermented for 10 days between 62F-68F, racked and let sit for 12 days. Bottled and primed with 3.5oz dextrose.

Batch Stats:
OG: 1.051
FG: 1.011
IBU: 60
ABV: 5.35%

(Freshly filled and capped batch of ESB).

(Nice foamy head on this ESB).

Posted in Recipes | 5 Comments »

Brew Shed Slab Is Poured

The brew shed has gone from the drawing board to reality. The slab has been poured! Late into the evenings last winter I had been making plans for this project. Now it is underway! Next step is to frame and roof it. That will be happening soon and I will post pictures.

May I remind our readers: You know you are seriously addicted to home brewing when you start making plans for a brew shed!

Details about the slab:

• 12′ x 12′
• Mono pour
• 4” thick
• 6” wide footings around the edge 8” deep, reinforced with rebar
• Vapor barrier
• Wire mesh
• J-bolts (achor bolts), three per side, which the treated sill plate will bolt to.
• Made space for door jamb
• 4 hops plants already added out front.
• Total cost: $1200.

You can get the price down on the slab if you do it yourself. The bill from the concrete ready mix truck was under $300. Be prepared to dig and level the area first. Then add a base of gravel and tamp. Then install the forms, haul in more gravel, tamp, etc… It adds up to many hours of hard labor. Not being an expert at this, or knowing anybody who was willing to help, writing a check was the simplest solution. I plan to use my wood working skills and help out with the framing in the next phase.

Ideas for an over the top brew shed foundation:

• Go with stamped and dyed concrete pattern. It is amazing what can be done with decorative concrete. This was more than double the price. Someday I might cover my basic gray floor in tile, but I don’t have immediate plans.
• Acid stain over the concrete – this looks good too, and is more affordable than a stamped pattern.
• Polished finish, again for looks more than anything. My concrete guy said it would cost about $300, or I could rent the machine.
• Add in your plumbing pipes ahead of time – floor drain, sewer line, supply line. I opted out of these for cost reasons.
• Add insulation underneath the slab. This can really help if you plan to make it climate controlled.
• Design the layout of the building with hops in mind. Plan to cover the shed in hops! I have already planted 4 new rhizomes on the southern exposure.

Alternative Designs:

I considered doing posts supporting a wooden floor. Ultimately a wooden floor is just about as much work as a slab. The slab will perform better and last longer. With a suspended floor animals can tear up insulation from underneath. Oregon is really wet too, and I figured the concrete would hold up better.

Stay tuned for more from Brewer’s Friend!

Posted in Fun | 1 Comment »

Racking Tutorial with a Built In Spigot

Racking beer is made easy if your primary fermenter has a spigot. Note that this piece of equipment is essentially a bottling bucket with a good lid. They are cheap and easy to use with only a few drawbacks.

Racking beer is not required, but it can add clarity in the final beer. I only rack my ales about a third of the time. If you are going to dry hop, doing a very strong beer, or fermenting for more than 3-4 weeks, then racking is a good idea. There is an exception, I always rack my lagers before cooling them down to 33F for 4-6 weeks.

Here is how I racked my latest batch of Oktoberfest:

1) At least one day before, lift the primary fermenter up to a table. This will give the yeast time to settle back down.

2) Sanitize secondary fermentor, hose, cork and airlock. I like StarSan for this purpose. Have your hydrometer and a sampling cup on hand.

3) Get the hose hooked up and dropped into the secondary. Turn on the hose. Minimize splashing if possible. Depending on how low the spigot is some yeast will come through, but not a lot.

4) About half way through I stop the hose, and take a sample for gravity and taste. I make sure my hands are VERY clean for this step.

5) Continue draining. Tip the bucket at the end. Make sure to fill it to the top.

6) Record your hydrometer value and note the flavors.

Primary fermentation in a bucket is easy for the following reasons:

• Easy to sanitize the bucket. Those 90-degree brushes for cleaning carboys can be a pain to use.
• Easy to clean the bucket after fermentation.
• When fitted with a spigot, draining is a breeze. No siphon is needed. There is less equipment to sanitize and clean up.
• Stopping the flow to take a sample is easy.

Knocks against using a plastic buckets as a fermenters:

• Odors can remain behind in plastic, especially strong dark beers.
• There is concern for oxygen penetration.
• The seal can fail around the spigot. Never had this happen, but it would be a major mess. I fitted mine with a double set of washers on the inside and outside. This did involve a trip to the hardware store, and I bought extra. I keep a habit of only turning the spigot clockwise, so I don’t accidentally loosen the thread.

The real solution to this issue is to buy a stainless steel canonical fermentor. This is how commercial breweries do it. Compared to a carboy or plastic bucket they are fifteen times the price! Figure spending at least $500 on one.

Notice there was no head space in the secondary. That was 100% on purpose to avoid oxidation. Check out information in this article about why topping of the secondary is important.

Update 11/12/2011: Check out the article on Infected Batches to see why you might want to tear down your bottling bucket now and then, since the spigot can get pretty gross without you knowing it.

Posted in Brewing, Equipment | 1 Comment »

Beat Oxidation Problems by Topping Off

From my recent experience making wine, I was reminded of the importance of completely filling up the secondary fermenter to the top. A sure way to get a spoiled batch of wine is to leave a lot of head space in the carboy after racking.

In beer oxidation can lead to wet card board flavors, low shelf life, and other nasty defects. Leaving head space in the secondary is a sure way to trigger oxidation problems. Wine books say to top off the secondary with a similar style of wine. With beer that is not as easy because of the wide variation between beers even in the same style. The beer could be diluted with water but that doesn’t feel right to me if it is more than 1-2% of the total volume.

The best solution is to take the size of the secondary fermenter and add half a gallon to determine your batch size. For example if I will rack into a 5 gallon carboy, I would target 5.25 – 5.5 gallons for my batch size. Figure one to two quarts will be left behind in yeast and trub. Five gallons is a good size, easy to move around, and fits into a corny keg. I never use a bucket as a secondary fermenter because of the head space issue. Only carboys fitted with a stopper offer an easy way fill to the very top and prevent oxidation.

(5 gallon batch of lager, primary fermentation complete.)

(5 gallon batch of lager racked into the secondary.)

How do you get exactly the amount of wort you want?

For extract brewers, this will be easy because you are topping off with water. Just adjust your recipe for the target OG and water volume and top off to that level. Your fermentation vessel should have water volume marks established on it ahead of time (either by you, or labeled by the manufacturer).

For all grain brewers it is not as easy because of mashing, the full wort boil, and no topping off allowed. It takes some practice in knowing your equipment. I have been referring back to this article lately to dial in my water volume.

Note this head space issue only applies to secondary fermentation (if you are racking). Oxygen is good for wort that is going into the primary. Fermentation will drive oxygen out of the airlock. Oxygen is only harmful after the wort has fermented (green beer and afterwards). You need head space in the primary because the foamy krausen head will rise as fermentation happens (both for ales and lagers).

I also do bigger batches, using my 8 gallon plastic primary and then racking form there to glass. Be careful on that one. I recently found out I have a 7 gallon carboy, thinking it was a 6.5, and wound up with head space I was not counting on! In that case, I slowly vented the head space with CO2 for about a minute. A full seven gallon carboy is pretty heavy too. Ultimately doing an 11 gallon batch and splitting it in half is the best way to make a large amount of home brew in one go.

Posted in Brewing | 4 Comments »

Time to order Hops Rhizomes 2011

It is time to order hops rhizomes for spring planting. The sooner you plant hops rhizomes, the sooner you can start growing hops vines and enjoying home grown hops in your beer. This year I will plant a few new varieties around the site where my brew shed is going up.

Hops Rhizomes Ready to be Planted

Hops are propagated by a root cutting called a rhizome (as opposed to seeds or starters). The rhizome is planted in the ground and grows to become a complete hops plant. The new plant is essentially a clone of the mother plant. All rhizomes come from female plants which produce hops cones for brewing. Male hops plants have seeds in their cones, and are not the best for brewing with. It takes at least two years to get to full cone production. In the first year there will not be much of a harvest, maybe a half ounce of dried cones at best (in my experience). In the second year, get a bucket when picking the cones! The best time to plant a rhizome is right now, in late winter / early spring.

If you are going to buy rhizomes this year, make sure to check out:

The Thyme Garden

I ordered from The Thyme Garden before and have had good experiences. Here is a link directly to their hops page. They are an organic nursery and herb farm in the coastal range mountains of Oregon. They can’t ship to Washington because of a quarantine, but they do ship everywhere else in the US except Hawaii. Their prices are very reasonable, especially when you consider you are getting high quality organic hops.

I would plan the hops yard and dig the holes for the rhizomes the first nice day after you place your order. That way when the rhizomes arrive you can get them in the ground quickly, rain or shine. The surest way of killing the rhizome is to leave it in the fridge for weeks.

These Brewer’s Friend articles should be of interest if you have never grown hops before:

Planning Your Hops Yard for Home Brewing

How To Plant Hops for Home Brewing

I highly recommend growing hops. It is really fun and satisfying all around. Everybody loves to talk about hops even non-drinkers. The vines look great crawling up the house, shed, or custom designed trellis. Hops vines on the house, yeah, that is how life should be. Not to mention, beer made with your own hops is something to be proud of. Enjoy!

Brewer’s Friend received hops rhizomes from The Thyme Garden for review as part of this article and link exchange.

Posted in Hops Growing | 2 Comments »