Brewer's Friend Home Brewing Software

Brewer’s Friend Supporting Membership and More Giveaway!

We’re quite happy with the progress we’re making into new features, and to help celebrate our newest feature, the ability to add photos to recipes, we’re giving away five (5) one year supporting memberships, and 5 (five) Critter Cutter beer bottle openers to five lucky members!

Brewer’s Friend supporting membership provides you with Unlimited Recipes, Unlimited Brews, Recognition in the forum, and a totally ad free experience. Here’s a link with more information on all the great benefits of our supporting member program!

Rules and Entry:
Update one of your recipes with photos. Photos must be related to the beer recipe it is attached too.

On February the 9th I will do a search pulling in everyone who updated a recipe and enter them into a random number generator selecting five winners to receive one year of Brewer’s Friend Supporting Membership and a Critter Cutter. Winners will be contacted directly to let them know they’ve won.

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Add Photos to your Brewer’sFriend Recipes!

“Brewing with Total Confidence” is at the heart of all we do and we just added a new feature that will add to that sense of confidence as we all brew better beer. You can now include photos to your Brewer’sFriend recipes!

Brewer’sFriend is already the greatest resource online when it comes to recipes, but with the implementation of this new feature we’ve taken it to a whole new level.

Being able to see the beer we’re brewing in all it’s phases can only help us improve our brewing, and the brewing of others. This also allows brewers of all levels to compare and contrast as they make their way to the next level of their brewing lending itself to our motto “Brewing with Total Confidence”.

This also works retroactively, so if you want to go back and update your recipes with photos of the brew you now have the ability.

If you have any questions or issues using this new feature please be sure to follow up in the forum.

Thanks for being a member of the greatest beer recipe site on the planet.

Brewer’s Friend Team

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

BrewPrint.com and BrewersFriend.com have Merged!

It is with great pride we announce the merging of BrewPrint.com and BrewersFriend.com.

What were once two great brewing resources can now be found under one domain, BrewersFriend.com, and this means a lot of great things for our two platforms.

First, we are combining the recipes databases to produce one of the largest collections of beer recipes online.

Second, BrewersFriend gets a full time technical administrator in the form of Josh Smith from Brew Print. He has spent the last few months now combing over the code and the features of BrewersFriend and I can say with absolute certainty that he will be on top of every issue, every fix, every suggestion that he decides to implement. Furthermore Josh will also be heading up server administration as we migrate to newer, faster servers meaning better response times and faster page loads.

BrewersFriend members will also see more comprehensive information pages on ingredients, techniques, and styles, along with the ability to purchase recipes in an easy to use format.

For Brewprint members this means a new larger community to be part of, which in turn means more brewing knowledge, which leads to better beers from better brewers. The goal from the beginning has been to “Brew Better Beer”, and that goal lives on in the merging of our two great platforms. Once the merge is complete, Brewprint members will be able to access their recipes and accounts on BrewersFriend.com using the e-mail addresses and passwords they previously used on Brewprint.

As we move into the future I know great things are in store. From both Josh and myself, it’s an honor and a privilege to serve our independent communities and to continue on in the spirit of brewing legacy and tradition makes our communities so great. Apart we are two great communities. Together we are a huge brewer’s resource, better than the sum of our parts.

So if you will, please join me in raising a glass to the merging of BrewPrint and BrewersFriend.

Salud!

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Yeast Pitch Calculator for iOS 7 launched

Our popular Yeast Pitch Calculator is now available in the App Store for iOS7!

This is a port of our popular web based Yeast Pitch Calculator, now available for iPhone iOS7.

Pitch your yeast like the pro’s do with this easy to use calculator that supports dry yeast, liquid yeast, slurry, and starters. Calculates liquid yeast viability based on manufactured date. You get to choose your desired pitch rate in million cells / milliliter of wort / degree plato. Also calculates how big of a starter to make and how much DME to add to that starter. Up to three step-ups are supported, so you can even start from a yeast slant! Two different growth curves are supported. The first comes from recently published research at Braukaiser, and the second from a study by Chris White.

Posted in Announcements, Yeast Cultures | No Comments »

Q&A session with brewing author Stan Hieronymus

After reading and reviewing For the Love of Hops, I had some follow up thoughts.  Stan Hieronymus was very nice in replying to all my questions promptly in this interview style blog post.

Stan has authored several books on beer and home brewing and runs an informative beer brewing blog. He can be found on twitter as @StanHieronymus.

Hops Varieties:

Q: Do you think the number of new hop varieties that come out each year will continue to grow? When will we reach a saturation point and why?
Stan: In the short term I would expect the number to rise, because there are so many unique varieties under development and there is such demand. However the logistics of production will cap the number at some point. What may add to choice is the realization there are differences between varieties grown in different location, so there’s every chance brewers will begin to talk about the difference between Cascade grown in Oregon from that in Washington, then on a smaller scale in Michigan. The breadth of what is available will surpass the number of new varieties.

Q: Do new hop varieties go through any FDA approval, given all the exotic complex oils they contain? Aren’t the new hops tested heavily in brewing trials before they would ever make it to market for home brewers?
Stan: There is no FDA approval process for hops, but they go through a long trialing process before they are released (see the next answer). Brewers who dry hop, particularly with whole hops, should be concerned how those hops are processed. That’s just one of the reasons the craft brewers who have banded together to form the Hop Quality Group are important. They want to make sure, for instance, that hop kilns have netting so that birds are not, pardon my French, crapping your hops.

Q: How long does it take for a new hop strain to be available?
Stan: At least 10 years, usually a few more, to make sure a) the variety can be grown economically, b) that it is relatively disease free, c) it has aroma and flavor characteristics brewers want, and d) it remains consistent from one growing season to the next.

Q: Given the recent BRCA gene Supreme Court ruling, I was wondering if the patent on Amarillo hops might be technically invalid because it was “naturally occurring”?

Stan: I’m not expert in the law, everybody I talked to in Washington (the state) is certain the patent remains intact.

Hops for Home Brewers:

Q: What is the most accurate way to calculate IBUs for first wort hops? Our calculator currently treats it as a 20 minute addition, but we are considering changing this.
Stan: Like a 75 minute addition.

Q: How can home brewers get the most bang for their buck in terms of making hoppy beers?  Hop stands, dry hopping, double dry hopping, hop bursting? Which techniques require extra equipment, and which techniques can be done on a budget?  Pellets vs whole leaf hops?
Stan: All of the above. Seriously, first it depends what you are gunning for. Dry hop a beer and serve it fresh, that’s pretty dang efficient. Want something you can put in a bottle and enter in competitions, then late additions may be more effective because they are more stable. I love beers made with whole hops added to a hop back, and your can build one of those at home pretty cheaply (much more cheaply than your local brewery), for some hard to pinpoint quality and their stability. But they are not as efficient, or consistent than pellets.

Q: In terms of yeast’s impact on hop flavor aroma and bitterness, which yeasts mute this and which yeasts accentuate it?  Does yeast pitch rate or fermentation temperature impact this to any extent?
Stan: You might be asking about the next hop frontier. Or at least one of them. These are all experiments that need to be done. It isn’t just a matter of a yeast muting or accenting hop aroma, but how they change the odor compounds. Same with pitching rate and what oils yeast may drag out of solution during floculation. It is great to get laboratory analysis, but there’s a lot than can be done through sensory evaluation- and that means it can be done at the homebrew club level. Use the same hop-forward recipe varying only the yeast strain, for instance.

How Pro Breweries Do It:

Q: Do you have pictures you can share of the Sierra Nevada Torpedo setup and a HOPNICK? They sound pretty cool!

Stan:  Here is a photo of the Sierra Nevada Torpedo setup:

Here is also a link to the ROLEC DryHopnick brochure: https://www.rolec-gmbh.de/_engl/gfx/Info_ROLEC_DryHOPNIK_E.pdf

Interview text and photo used with permission of Stan.

Post by Larry

Posted in Brewing | 1 Comment »

Controlling Fermentation Temperature with a Fermentation Chamber

Controlling fermentation temperature is a key factor in making repeatable high quality beer. You’ll be amazed at how much your beer will improve by focusing on consistent fermentation temperature, and a related component the yeast pitching rate.

Yeast give off different flavor profiles depending on the temperature the fermentation takes place at. Consider US-05, a widely used dry yeast that is considered neutral in flavor. When fermented cool (around 62F), it leaves almost no flavor signature. When fermented high (above 68F) it can impart a peachy profile. Similarly many English ale strains will be somewhat neutral at the cooler end, but give off strong ester and fruit notes at the higher end. Belgian strains call for a higher temperature, because in those styles the fruitiness is desirable.

So, how can a home brewer guarantee temperature control during fermentation?

The answer is a fermentation chamber, which is made up of the following:

• An insulated chamber.
• A two stage temperature controller.
• A cooling source – typically a freezer chest or mini fridge (which can double as #1).
• A heat source – a lightbulb in a can works great.

Most temperature controllers come un-wired. If you know a little about electrical wiring, this makes a good DIY project. There are also a few models that come pre-wired, and some home brew stores provide this as a service.

Spending the extra $50 for a 2 stage controller with heating and cooling is well worth it. That way you can do lagers and ales, at whatever temperature you want, year round! It also gives a lot of flexibility. With a lager, the diacetyl rest is just a matter of turning up the set point to 65F for 48 hours. Want to cold crash that ale, no problem turn it down to 33F a few days before bottling. Just make sure to fit an airlock before cold crashing. If a blowoff tube is still set, the drop in pressure inside the fermentor will suck some of the fluid in the catch bucket back into the beer (yuck!).

My controller is a Control Products TC-9102D-HV Dual Stage High Voltage Digital Temperature Controller, product sheet and wiring diagrams can be found here. This model tends to change in price a lot. I got mine for $60 last year. There are cheaper options out there, but this one looked like the best compromise of build quality and price.

A note about the TC-9102D-HV and short cycling: make sure to set the differential on the cooling side to a value of 2. The thermometer tends to wobble between values (eg flip between 67 and 68 several times) before it will stay at the new value. Thank you to Foster82 for helping me out in the forum.

My heat source is an incandescent 40W light bulb in a paint can. The idea comes directly from brewstands.com. Incandescent light bulbs are being phased out, but lizard lamps or a low watt ceramic heater would work fine too.

Build Pictures:

Other options:

• Build an extended chamber around a mini-fridge. This has its advantages in terms of capacity and ease of loading.  The door can be setup very close to floor level, so there is no heavy lifting in and out like with my chest freezer. I wound up building a pulley system to save my back.
  • Building a fermentation chamber with a mini-fridge as the cooling source does take some skill. Parts include foam panels, 2×4’s, hinges, caulk, and all the little details to fit it all together.
  • The mini fridge is definitely cheaper than the freezer chest, but if you add in the cost of the materials, and the time it takes to build, it is about the same.
• Build a pool of water and use aquarium heaters. Good for ales in the winter, but may not work for lagers very well.
• Heating pads, heating wraps. Again these are okay for ales in the winter when the ambient temperature is below 50, but if you want to lager you need a dual stage controller with ability to heat and cool.
• Canonical fermentors with built in heating / cooling.These are awesome but very spendy.

Make sure to size your fermentation chamber according to how much beer you want to be fermenting at once. My brew rig can do 11 gallon batches. My fermentation chamber can accommodate two 6 gallon fermentors. This is great for doing a split batch with different yeast! Also great if I want to fill up two corny kegs in a matter of a week or two!

Dialing in a specific temperature and pitching yeast at professional rates will take your home brewed beer to the next level. The recipe editor’s yeast section has fields for fermentation temp and yeast pitch rate, both key components to taking your beer to the next level!

Posted in Equipment, Lagering | 4 Comments »

September 2013 Release Live – Inventory and shopping list updates

This month we tuned up the inventory and shopping list features so the data flows more smoothly and gives more flexibility at the same time. This was based on user feedback in the feature request forum – thank you for the input!

Recipe Tools -> Add To Shopping List improved:

The Add Recipe to Shopping List screen now shows inventory levels, and allows changing the actual amount to add to the shopping list. Lines can be unchecked, which means they will not carry into your shopping list. Please note that hops require an exact match between hop name, hop AA, and hop form to line up.

Shopping List now groups related items and shows the total:

Shopping list lines for the same ingredient are now grouped together and the total is displayed. This works for brewers buying in bulk (for example a 50 pound sack used for several recipes), and brewers who plan to build up each recipe’s grain bill individually. I do it both ways. Sometimes at my LHBS I put the entire grain bill for a recipe into a paper bag, ready to mill on brew day. While other times I’ll buy a 50 pound sack of Pilsner or 2-row and use that over the course of several brews. Buying in bulk does save a little money though.

Shopping List -> Convert to Inventory screen improved:

The amount in your inventory is displayed and the amount purchased can be overridden.

For a given line on your shopping list, if you convert less than the full amount the line will be kept but the amount converted will be subtracted from the original amount. Eg – you wanted to buy 10 pounds of honey but they only had 4, so now your shopping list has 6 pounds of honey.

Ever been to the home brew store wanting 14.8% AA Magnum hops, only to come home with 16.4% AA? Everytime I buy hops the AA values are slightly different. The convert to inventory screen allows the actual AA value to be provided.

This screen is also a good place to compare what is in your shopping list vs your inventory.

Deduct from Inventory:
Deducting from inventory can now be done in a Brew Session after the Brew is created. Look for it on the Brew Session -> Edit tab. I often create my brew session when I make my yeast starter. For yeast starters I log the day I started it, the starter size, and the amount of DME (which the yeast pitch calculator tells me). However, at that point I’m not quite ready to deduct from inventory.

Other updates:

• Add Gervin English Ale Yeast – GV12
• Brew session page ‘back to …’ button improved so it understands where you came in from, instead of always pointing back to the dashboard.
• In the recipe editor, snapshot recipes now show a large banner above them indicating they are a snapshot and not a regular recipe.

Posted in Announcements | 1 Comment »

Book Review – For the Love of Hops

Great book about hops. I learned something every page. Made my mouth water at times… Covers the entire range of hop related topics, from hops breeding, to farming, to drying and packaging, to brewing techniques, and even the complex sensory perception that is the enjoyment of a hoppy beer.

For The Love of Hops: The Practical Guide to Aroma, Bitterness and the Culture of Hop
by Stan Hieronymus

An appreciation of what Pro Brewers go through:
The book talks a lot about the relationship between farmers and brewers. It makes sense that the hop industry is focused on commercial brewing, since they are the largest consumer of hops. As a home brewer, buying at most a couple pounds of hops per year, it was neat to get some insight into what pro brewers face. Selecting hops for a brewery, planning ahead for an entire year, and working to keep the beer consistent year to year is quite a challenge.

New World Hops, a key part of the birth of Beervana:
The book covers the history of hops, going all the way back to the beginning when hops grew wild and were harvested at random.

Had it not been for Cascade hops Oregon would not be called Beervana. In fact, Beervana wouldn’t even exist *shudder*. Back in 1956 Cacade was discovered at the Oregon State University hops breeding program. Cascade was released to the public in 1971. Slowly brave and bold brewers, including Sierra Nevada Brewing Company started using it, and this kicked off the craft beer revolution! There were many other new hops breeds in the pipeline at the time, but nobody expected how far the revolution would go.

Hops breeding on the rise:
The book talks in detail about hop breeding programs around the world. I had no idea how aggressive hops breeding programs are – over 100k starts are created every year to be whittled down to a select few candidates that might make it into the kettle someday. As brewers and beer drinkers, we owe these breeding programs a lot. Up until the new world varieties came along there wasn’t much that could be done to make a beer distinctive. The choices back in the day were Fuggle, Goldings, Cluster, and maybe a couple others.  In today’s world we are sort of spoiled by the wide array of hops we can choose from. Take Citra, which imparts fruity tropic notes, or its polar opposite Magnum the clean bittering hop perfect for amping up bitterness without imparting flavor.

Hops in the Brewery:
The other thing this book brings up is just how different brewing practices are when it comes to the use of hops. Ask 10 brewers about dry hopping and get 11 answers. Macro breweries use more and more hop extract, while micro brewers do everything from whirlpools to hops stands to dry hopping to double dry hopping to hop torpedoes. The use of hops in beer is truly an art form!

Sensory Perception and Hops:
One chapter provides an in-depth look at how we as humans perceive hop flavor and aroma. This is done mainly with our sense of smell. It turns out hop flavor is partially processed by our sense of smell.

I was amazed to learn that our genes play a role in how we experience beer. It turns out, 1/3rd of people cannot detect the odor from an essential oil in Saaz giving it its hallmark smell and flavor. Instead of color blindness, this is a form of hop oil blindness, and is not fully understood by science.

A Good Reference:
The book has a complete listing of all the main hop varieties.

If you are looking brew some super hoppy beers, there is a chapter with a couple dozen home brew recipes from award winning breweries. The recipes are detailed in terms of quantities, times and amounts.

Definitely got a renewed appreciation and curiosity for hops!

Post by Larry

Posted in Book Reviews | 1 Comment »

Drying Hops Using a Food Dehydrator – Great Results

This year for drying my home grown hops I commandeered the household food dehydrator. It works like a charm. Makes the shed smell AMAZING!!!

In previous years I used a window screen and box fan but I don’t see myself going back to that. The window screen and fan approach can take days and days to finish drying. The dehydrator was done in 8-9 hours on the lowest setting of 95F (35C).  This approach is faster and gives the hops a more uniform level of dryness.

Dry your hops at the right temperature:

At first I was worried a food dehydrator would be too intense in terms of heat and airflow on the delicate hop cones and essential oils.

After doing research about what temperature hops are dried at and double checking what temperature settings my food dehydrator had, there was no risk at all.  The lowest temperature I found mentioning hop oil vaporization was 100F [1]. On professional scale, hops are kiln dried between 130F (54C) and 145F  (63C). In the kiln they are layered up to 28″ high. The hops are then blended and dried for another 24-36 hours before being packaged [2].  Based on that, the 95F (35C) temperature sounded pretty safe.

How long to dry for?

Every few hours I checked the cones to see how dry they were. After 4 hours many were still damp when I squeezed them.  After 8 hours all but one or two were completely dry.  Right around 9 hours in the dehydrator was perfect for this year’s hops harvest.

Other DIY approaches:

As I mentioned above, the window screen drying approach works but takes time. If you have a lot of hops to harvest it starts taking up way too much space.

Braukaiser has a great article on building a hop drying oast, which is a DIY 2×4 frame with a box fan built into it.  He says it takes about 3 days to dry the hops that way. He also points out that some essential hop oils actually vaporize at temperatures as low as 100F (40C). Drying the hops at cooler temperatures is beneficial.

How much can it hold?

This food dehydrator can fit a pound of wet hops comfortably.  After drying the weight was about 6 ounces. This was from one Chinook plant that grows vigorously up the front of the shed.

How to store and inventory the hops?

After drying I vacuum seal the hops into 2oz packages and store in the freezer. I also update the My Inventory section of my Brewer’s Friend account. I put the AA level at the low end of the spectrum for the variety. Since I’m flying blind in terms of AA levels I’m conservative.  Besides I generally use home grown hops for flavor or aroma additions only so the IBU impact is not that critical.

A fresh hop brew would have been another awesome way to use up a pound of wet Chinook hops, but alas all my kegs are full and the fermentation chamber is occupied with a lager right now. Not a bad problem to have.

Post by Larry

[1] Source: https://braukaiser.com/blog/blog/2012/12/09/hop-drying-at-home/

[2] Source:  Hieronymus, Stan. For the Love of Hops : The Practical Guide to Aroma, Bitterness and the Culture of Hops. N.p.: Brewers Publications, 2012. Print.)

Posted in Hops Growing | 5 Comments »

August 2013 Release Live

Multiple equipment profiles supported, new yeasts added, updates to extract/partial mash calculations and more.

Multiple Equipment Profiles:

The system now supports up to 5 equipment profiles under each account. To manage your equipment profiles click the gear icon in the upper right and then on Equipment Profiles. The equipment profile is used by the water requirements feature and more heavily in the brew feature.

One of the profiles may be set as the default. The default profile is used unless a recipe overrides it. To point a recipe at a specific profile, in the recipe editor click on the ‘More…’ button and look for the Equipment Profile drop down that appears. The More… section was rearranged a little in this release to make room for the extra field (sorry to change things!). For more, see our FAQ entry on equipment profiles.

I already have an equipment profile setup for my IPAs where I squeeze out the hops, vs my standard profile where I don’t bother. This does make a difference when it comes to hitting the target batch size exactly. I will soon setup a profile for 2.5 gallon batches in the kitchen. Makes me want to brew more already!

New yeasts and yeast manufacturers added:

This release includes over 70 new yeasts! New brands include East Coast Yeast, Mangrove Jack, Real Brewers, Siebel Institute, and Brewferm. The Wyeast list adds a few extra private collection strains. The White Labs list adds a few lambic strains. The White Labs list also gets whiskey yeasts which can be used on beer to produce interesting profiles.

Given the yeast list is pretty long there is now a drop down to filter by yeast brand. There is also an option to sort the list by product ID or by name (a profile option determines the default yeast sort).

We felt it is better if we maintain the yeast list, since it is published by the manufacturers and doesn’t change too often. We are always open to making additions and corrections. Contact us anytime.

Note to iPhone users about the yeast list: We have an iPhone release due out very soon that will incorporate the new yeast list. If you setup a recipe with a new yeast and sync it down, the current iPhone version (1.6) will switch it back to the default yeast since it doesn’t have the new yeasts yet. Look for the update in the App Store in the next few days. We’ll announce it on our social media channels when it is released.

Extract and Partial Mash recipes get more in depth options:

This release enables the concept of batch size targets for extract and partial mash recipes.

Batch size target can be kettle or fermentor. To the ‘kettle’ is how much wort is in the kettle at the very end of the brew (corrected for temperature). To the ‘fermentor’ is how much wort made it into the primary fermentor. Previously only BIAB and All Grain had this option.

Enabling this option gives extract partial mash brewers doing full wort boils much more control. The water requirements section includes kettle dead space for extract and partial mash brews.

The following FAQ entries were clarified. If you haven’t read up on batch size and the definition of efficiency (there are really four types), make sure to check into that.

• How is batch size defined by the recipe editor?
• How is efficiency defined by the recipe editor?
• How is efficiency calculated in a brew session?

Brewer’s Friend GrogTag store:

We now have a GrogTag store that gives you an exclusive 10% off on professionally printed beer labels. These guys do a great job of making high quality labels. Way better than our DIY label generator. We’ll be following up with a complete review next month.

Other updates:

• Recipe editor will display a warning ‘are you sure you want to leave this page?’ if you try to navigate away when the recipe is in an unsaved state and the page has been loaded for more than 30 seconds. Does not apply to Internet Explorer.
• Inventory section allows sorting by yeast year.
• Priming calculator – fermentation temp vs bottling temp clarified.
• Users with browser plugins that force SSL should have a better time using the site in 100% SSL mode.

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