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Pacman Yeast – Eureka!

Pacman is the name of the yeast used by Rogue Brewery of Oregon. Rogue makes Pacman available in limited quantities to home brewers from time to time.

Originally, I didn’t get the name. Were they being cute? Does it ‘pack’ a punch? No, I was not thinking literally enough. While on vacation it dawned on me. The name was inspired from the old arcade game! It helped that weeks before my vacation I had played the Pacman game on Google (https://www.google.com/pacman/). What Pacman does in the game, and what brewer’s yeast does in the wort are pretty similar.

To help us all remember, I created a somewhat crude and juvenile drawing. This makes for a basic lesson in ‘God Is Good’, aka yeast, and how they turn sugar into alcohol:

Our big hungry yellow hero ‘Pacman’ is a yeast cell (technically a fungus). Him, and thousands of his brothers and sisters eat their way through sugar molecules in sweet wort. As they consume the sugar they produce alcohol, carbon dioxide, and some sulfur dioxide. Yes, alcohol is fungus crap. Poetic. The SO2 is why if you take a sniff from the airlock it can smell a little funny. This varies by yeast strain. Normally I smell hop aroma from my airlock, but I have smelled ripe odors from Hefe and Kolsch strains in particular.

There are some oversimplifications here. Yeast need oxygen to do well. That’s why it is important to aerate! Yeast also utilize minerals and other compounds present in the wort. As the yeast eat, they reproduce faster than rabbits. Healthy fermentation is like a wild orgy on a microscopic level.

When the party is over there will still be some sugars remaining. Some brews, like dry mead, use a yeast strain that goes all the way to a final gravity near 1.000 (no sugar left). Each yeast strain has a different alcohol tolerance and capacity for digesting complex sugars. The yeast eat themselves into an environment they cannot survive in. That’s okay though, they can be harvested off the bottom and saved for another batch or immediately repitched if all was well with the fermentation.

Posted in Yeast Cultures | 1 Comment »

Hops Harvest 2010

Anybody who grows their own hops should be watching the cones carefully and preparing for harvest. I pulled the trigger on the first part of my hops harvest today, September 13th 2010. I’ll do the rest of the vines this week.

If your cones are papery, spring back when squeezed, and showing brown on the tips then pick ’em!

What I use to dry my hops:

• Window screen
• Spare room to dry hops for a couple days, omg it smells great in there!
• Fan (optional)
• Vacuum sealer
• Space in freezer

For more details on hops harvest, please see:
https://www.brewersfriend.com/2009/09/29/fall-hop-harvest-guidelines/

This year wasn’t a great growing season in Oregon, only half the tomatoes are ripe. Bah… On the upside, I’ve still got plenty of hops!

Posted in Hops Growing | 2 Comments »

German Lager Recipe All Grain

This has to be one of my favorite beers for all time. I have brewed it about 5 times, and it’s just awesome. Talk about a ‘session beer’, that is something most people can drink all evening without a problem. My uncle, who is a German Protestant Minister, smelled the beer, took one sip, smiled, and told me in his thick German accent that it reminded him of beer at home. “Now… that is a good beer!” he said. He proceeded to drink the beer over the course of dinner, and then and ask for seconds. I was completely honored. Being a German, and in the US for the first time, he was honest about his opinion of things, some not so favorable. For example, he said the beer at Rogue was ‘very British’, and he did not order seconds there. My uncle is no stranger to beer. He explained during an annual festival, the Minsters ride tandem bikes through town and people hand them beer. Must be pretty cool.

This German lager, technically a Munich Helles (translates to Munich Light), leaves no heavy flavors on the tongue, but I argue it is robust and complex. The aftertaste has an elusive bread like, smoky quality I love in German beers. I believe this attribute is imparted by the yeast and the lagering process. The aroma and initial flavor has many light, sweet, fruity qualities, which come from the Hallertau hops. The finish is clean and crisp, as it should be in a larger.

All the ingredients in this beer are German (yeast, hops, grain), and they are easy to get at your local home brew store. My Hallertau hops were grown in Oregon, but it was close enough for my uncle, definitely close enough for me.

The style is BJCP 1D – Munich Helles:

Grains:

8 lb German Pilsner
1 lb Vienna
0.5 lb CaraPils
(@ 75% brewhouse efficiency)

You can substitute towards Vienna malt to give it more honey sweetness and malt character.

Hops:

Hallertau, 2 ounces, 60 minutes

I have tried substituting to Mt. Hood instead of Hallertau – it was still a good beer, more spicy, less aromatic, I would say a lot more boring (more like Coors). Tettnanger is another option, or a mix, but I usually put Tettnanger in my Oktoberfest because it is more spicy and less fruity than Hallertau. Saaz is another popular choice but I have not tried it.

First wort hopping may be of interest.

Yeast:

German Lager Yeast
I have used only White Labs WLP830, with great success, but I want to try some of the following:

White Labs:
WLP820 Oktoberfest Lager Yeast
WLP830 German Lager Yeast
WLP833 German Bock Yeast
WLP838 Southern German Lager Yeast

Wyeast:
2007 Pilsen Lager Yeast
2124 Bohemian Lager Yeast
2206 Bavarian Lager Yeast
2308 Munich Lager Yeast

Make sure to do a yeast starter for a lager!

Style 1D stats:

OG: 1.045 – 1.051
IBUs: 16 – 22
FG: 1.008 – 1.012
SRM: 3 – 5
ABV: 4.7 – 5.4%

This Recipe:

OG: 1.050
IBUs: 24 (this is just above the guidelines, but meh..)
FG: 1.010
SRM: 3.6
ABV: 5.1%

Procedure

Mash at 150F (65.5C) for 60 minutes, then 158F (70C) for 30 minutes.

90 minute boil.

Ferment for 3 weeks in the primary, before racking, pull it out of the fridge and let it warm to room temperature for 2 days (dialectal rest). Rack it, and leave it around 36F for 4-6 weeks.

I then keg it, force carbonate, and after about 3 months it is ready to drink. The beer tastes strange when it is green. It really needs the extra time to settle down. Be patient with it!

Posted in Recipes | 13 Comments »

DIY Project – The Beer Wagon teaser

Ever get tired of lugging a full carboy around? I sure do. I bought some straps that help to lift the carboy, but it is still a chore. I brew in the garage and ferment in a spare bedroom. It is a pretty long way between the two. Then I pull the carboy out and bring it into the kitchen for bottling or racking. To make life easier, I started building a beer wagon.

Whoever invented the wheel was an idiot. Whoever invented the axel was a genius.

Here is a snap of the build so far:

It will handle a 6.5 gallon carboy with ease. All it needs is more railing, the casters, and a few coats of finish. I have a scrap of linoleum for the base so it will be easy to clean and be pretty durable.

I’ll post more pics, dimensions, and examples of it in use when I get it completed.

Posted in Fun | No Comments »

Hops Growth Progress

Judging by my amateur hop yard (out front of the house) different types of hops grow at different speeds. This makes sense based on how many varieties of apples or tomatoes there are, but the variation in my hops was more than I expected. Harvesting everything at once does not appear to be the plan according to the vines. This will make it easier to keep the different varieties organized during harvest.

#1- Hallertau

I am  amazed at the sheer number and size of the cones on this plant. It is going to be a great harvest. I have told my brew neighbors to come by with a bucket and grab some when they are ready.

#2 Cascade

This vine has probably 30 small cones the size of acorns. Not much aroma to the cones yet, they are very moist.

#3 Nugget

Nuggest was early to sprout and grows vigorously but is nowhere near the cone production of Cascade or Hallertau.

#4 Magnum

Still not quite up to the top of the rope yet. Plant looks healthy.

#5 Kent Goldings

This plant was the last to sprout. Last year it was the last to be harvested. Kent Goldings is on the far left in first image. It has not yet reached the top of the rope either.  It seems Kent Goldings is just naturally a few weeks behind the other varieties.

Harvest:

When the cones just start to turn yellow I will begin harvesting.  This will probably happen about a month from now.  The first step is to pick the cones and dry them. I use an old window screen. That process takes 3-4 days in my brewing room. By the end of the process the room smells like hops – delicious. Then I vacuum seal and freeze the hops. I will probably prepackage some for trading with my friends, in 4 oz bags.  I’m pretty sure I won’t be spending very much on hops for brewing in the future.

Brewer’s Friend has another good article on harvesting hops here.

Posted in Hops Growing | 8 Comments »

Deschutes Red Chair NWPA clone home brew recipe

Deschutes made a great beer this year, Red Chair NWPA (North West Pale Ale). Besides Ninkasi, this is really the only beer I would buy from the store again. Naturally, I wanted to make a clone recipe. I think this came pretty close for my first attempt, very drinkable beer.

1/30/2011 Update: Based on my experiments I have updated the recipe on this page.

Grains (all grain):
6.5 lb 2-row Pale
1.0 lb Crystal 20L
0.5 lb Carastan (30L)
1.0 lb Munich
1.0 lb Pilsner
0.5 lb CaraPils

(@ 75% brewhouse efficiency, 5.25 gallon batch)

Grains (extract):
Steep the following for 30 minutes at 150F
0.5 lb Crystal 20L
0.25 lb Carastan 30L
0.5 lb Munich Light
0.5 lb Pilsner

6.5 lb of Light dry malt extract
or
8 lb of Light liquid malt extract

Hops:
Zeus, 1 ounce, 60 minutes
Cascade, 0.5 ounce, 15 minutes
Cascade, 0.5 ounce, 5 minutes
Cascade, 1 ounce, 1 minute (flame out)
Cascade, 1 ounce, dry hop

Yeast:
Wyeast 1098 British Ale Yeast

Style 14B (American IPA) stats:

The beer does not qualify as a Pale Ale according to BJCP standards. The IBU’s are up around 60, clearly putting it into the league of IPAs. The gravity is just barely outside what qualifies as an American IPA.

OG: 1.056 – 1.075
IBUs: 40 – 70
FG: 1.010 – 1.018
SRM: 6 – 15
ABV: 5.5 – 7.5%

This Recipe:
OG: 1.055
IBUs: 66
FG: 1.015
SRM: 7.7
ABV: 5.6%

Fermented in the primary for 19 days at 64-68F, then bottled.

Notes:
I updated this 1/30/2011 based on my second try. The beer is much better than the first attempt.

I would highly recommend dry hopping with cascade, and maybe swapping out some of the Zues bittering hops for Cascade, keeping IBU’s the same.

The color, maltniness, and body are spot on, good head retention, and a beautiful golden amber color.

Do not use Centennial hops in Red Chair! That threw me off. Also in the last batch I had one pound of Carastan malt which added a roasted toffee flavor bite. Cutting back the Carastan helped a lot. I also switched to Wyeast 1098 British Ale Yeast (same as White Labs WLP007 English Dry). It is my new favorite yeast. I have never seen a more compacted yeast cake. The beer was drinkable in 3 weeks!

Thanks to the folks at homebrewtalk for input and disccusion on this recipe:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/deschutes-red-chair-nwpa-knockoff-recipe-construction-160178/

More information about Red Chair NWPA:
https://www.deschutesbrewery.com/brews/seasonal-ales/red-chair-nwpa/default.aspx

Posted in Recipes | 30 Comments »

The Art of Tasting Beer

Home brew is a thing to be appreciated. Guzzling is not allowed. Sucking through a hose upside down, also not allowed. This applies even to the epic “first batch” which usually tastes good only to the person who made it.

1) Pour

If the beer is coming out of the bottle, make sure to decant it. This does not apply for kegged beer. Bottled home brew almost always has sediment, unless the beer was filtered which is a time consuming expensive process.

To properly pour home brew, hold the beer and the glass at 45 degree angles and slowly let the beer ease into the glass. Do not up end the bottle. Yeast will have settled in the bottom of the bottle and you don’t want that in your glass. FYI – brewer’s yeast can be a natural laxitive. A practiced pourer can stop at the last instant and get all of the beer and none of the sediment. I keep my eye on the neck of the bottle and watch for a dark cloud heading towards the glass. Usually about a ¼” of sediment is left in the bottle. I immediately rinse and scrub out my bottles with a brush kept next to the kitchen sink.

2) Look

The first thing you want to do when drinking beer is to look at it. Note the color, the bubbles, the head. Is it hazy, cyrstal clear, is there junk floating in it?

3) Smell

Before drinking, smell the beer. Deeply inhale with your eyes closed. Do not make yourself light headed. Note the aromatic qualities, which could be fruity, earthy, roasted, etc. Some styles should have certian qualities, for example porters have a roasted quality, some may be ‘nutty’. American pale ale’s might have a citrusy note (from the cascade / centenial hops). While a German lager would have an almost floury smell from the nobel hops. Beers with a high alcohol content > 10-12% will almost burn the nostrels. If it smells like ammonia, week old dung, or goats, look out.

In competitions, judges smell the beer first, then analyze color, head and carbonation.

4) Taste

Take in an average sized mouthful. Keep it in your mouth for a few seconds covering your tongue.  Swallow then wait a bit for the next sip. In tasting there are three things to consider, the initial hit on your tounge, the finish during swallowing, and the after taste, which stays around.

For beginners, contrast an IPA with a pale ale, it should be fairly obvious how the IPA biterness first hits your tougue, how the finish is richer in the IPA, and how the bitter after taste is substantially stronger in the IPA. Another good comparison is betwen Guiness and a micro brew stout, they should be very different, though they are techncially the same style.

5) Mouth Feel

Mouth feel has a lot to do with carbonation, the types of sugars present, and temperature. For example, compare a beer on nitro with a beer on CO2, or a dunkle larger to a stout. The more sugars there are in the beer, the less crisp, and the more creamy it will feel. Nitro makes a beer extremely creamy.

6) Belch

After writing the first five steps, I realize I may come across as a beer snob. That is NOT the case. If it pleases you and your company, belch loudly. Don’t bother analyzing the flavor, unless you are also tasting that spicy burrito you had for dinner for a second time. I belch with a fist pull!

Posted in Fun | 4 Comments »

Oregon Brewing Clubs Get Screwed

This sucks! Home brew clubs in Oregon are no longer allowed to have home brew at their meetings! Public beer and wine competitions, like those commonly held at the state and county fairs are now considered illegal too. What a bummer for us home brewers… The clubs can live on, but they have to be ‘dry’. Takes all the fun out of it, and the chance to learn and share about brewing (which is the whole point). The Oregon law had been on the books for 30 years, but it was not enforced or interpreted in this way until now.

The Oregon Liquor Control Commission (OLCC) and the Oregon Department of Justice have decided to shut down beer and wine competitions, and remove home brew from home brew clubs. Excerpt from the law:

‘No person shall brew, ferment, distill, blend or rectify any alcoholic liquor unless licensed so to do by the Oregon Liquor Control Commission. However, the Liquor Control Act does not apply to the making or keeping of naturally fermented wines and fruit juices or beer in the home, for home consumption and not for sale.’” https://www.leg.state.or.us/ors/471.html

The problem with the competitions and home brew clubs is, the home brew is taken out of the home, and then consumed by the ‘public’. Sounds down right naughty doesn’t it?? People, sharing home brew and discussing it?? Under the law, even though the home brew is not sold, it is still illegal to have members of the ‘public’ drink the home made alcoholic beverages. Judges are considered members of the public under the new interpretation as well.

This means it is illegal to drink home brew anywhere in Oregon, except at home.

In order to get home brew clubs, and beer/wine competitions going again, the state legislature would have to amend the law. Oregon has some pretty big budget items to address this year, so we can only hope for the best.

Interestingly enough, competitions for canned preserves, pies, etc are still legal at fairs. It is the mystique of alcohol that causes all the trouble for brewers and vintners. If the argument is for public safety, there are more dangerous strains of diseases in improperly canned foods than in a bad batch of home brew.

For the clubs in Portland, Oregon that are impacted, I predict new brewing clubs will be formed just over the river in Vancouver, Washington!

For more details, go to:
https://www.kval.com/news/business/97335294.html

Posted in Announcements | 12 Comments »

Blonde Ale Summer Brew

This Blonde Ale is a home brew thirst quencher perfect for summer time. I plan to serve it ice cold on tap for days when it gets above 80F. I named the brew after my wife as she has the most beautiful blonde hair. The Cascade and Mt Hood are a nice light combination, with the Mt. Hood imparting a light spicyness. The Vienna malt gives a sublte honey sweetness. If you want to make it even lighter, use less hops.

The style is BJCP 6B – Blond Ale:

I bought a busshel of Pilsner malt (55 lb) about a year and a half ago. I have been using it for Lagers. I want to use up the Pilsner malt before it spoils so I made an ale.

Grains:

8 lb Pilsner
1 lb Vienna
1 lb CaraPils
(@ 75% brewhouse efficiency)

Hops:

Mt Hood, ½ ounce, 60 minutes
Cascade, ½ ounce, 30 minutes
Cascade, ½ ounce, 5 minutes
Mt Hood, ½ ounce, 5 minutes

Yeast:

American or British Ale Yeast – Kolsch would work well.

I used British II Wyeast 1335 because I had it on hand and was pitching it forward (for free). I think this yeast is better for darker beers now that I am tasting the first few samples, but time will tell.

Style 6B stats:

OG: 1.038 – 1.054
IBUs: 15 – 28
FG: 1.008 – 1.013
SRM: 3 – 6
ABV: 3.8 – 5.5%

This Recipe:

OG: 1.044
IBUs: 24
FG: 1.008
SRM: 3.2
ABV: 4.5%

Fermented in the primary for 35 days at 64-68F, then kegged.

Posted in Recipes | 1 Comment »

Water Volume Management in All Grain Brewing

How to hit your target wort volume spot on.

There are several factors that go into how much water is lost during the brewing process from mash to fermentor.

1) Grain Absorption: Figure 1/2 quart per pound of grain. This comes out to ~1 pint (0.125 gallons) / pound of grain. Some reports are as high as 0.2 gallons per pound.

During the mash process the grains soak up water. This water is not transfered to the kettle when lautering. Make sure if you do a high gravity batch to account for this. My last big batch was a little short on wort volume and grain absorption is exactly why.

2) Mash Tun Dead Space: Dead space varies by equipment. Some of the water / sweet wort is left behind because of the shape of the mash tun or location of the valve.

I estimate 2 quarts (0.5 gallon) in my cooler mash tun.

3) Boil Off / Evaporation Rate: This depends on how vigorous of a boil and the shape of the kettle. The average is around 1.5 gallons (6 quarts) per hour. If the kettle is narrow (like a keggle), expect ~1 gallon per hour, or short and wide, as high as ~2.5 gallons / hour. If you are brewing with Pilsner malt and want to do a 90 minute boil to drive off DMS (which I do on my lagers), make sure to account for the extra boil time.

4) Trub loss: Water absorbed by hops or adjuncts. I estimate 1/2 quart (0.125 gallons).

5) Wort Shrinkage: When the wort cools it looses some volume (4% is standard). This is minor in a 5 gallon batch, about 0.8 qt in a 5 gallon batch, and 1.6 qt in a 10 gallon batch.

Example Calculation 1:
How much starting water is needed to make a 5 gallon batch given, a) 10 pounds of grain, b) 60 minute boil? I shoot for 5.5 gallons of wort, to allow for samples, losses in the fermentor and bottling bucket. It is easier to work in quarts for water volume measurements.

5.5 gallons wort = 22 quarts
Grain losses = 5 qt (10 pounds * 0.5 qt/pound)
Dead Space = 2 qt
Boil off = 6 qt (1.5 gallons/ hr)
Trub loss = 0.5 qt
Shrinkage = 0.8 qt

Total input water: 36.3 quarts, or 9.08 gallons.

Example Calculation 2:
How much starting water is needed to make a 10 gallon batch given, a) 25 pounds of grain, b) 90 minute boil? Let’s go for 11 gallons total.

11 gallons wort = 44 quarts
Grain losses = 12.5 qt (25 pounds * 0.5 qt/pound)
Dead Space = 2 qt
Boil off = 9 qt (1.5 gallons/ hr)
Trub loss = 0.5 qt
Shrinkage = 1.6 qt

Total input water: 69.6 quarts, or 17.4 gallons.

Figure out your mash tun dead space and your boil off rate, and you will be able to hit your target volume spot on every time!

Posted in Brewing | 10 Comments »