Returning to Homebrew Competitions

Tuesday, July 6th, 2021

Homebrewing as a Hobby Series

by Jim Vondracek

In the last year-and-a-half, the pandemic and all its repercussions impacted all of us. For me, as a homebrewer and BJCP (Beer Judge Certification Program) judge, the loss of competitions hit me unexpectedly hard. I aim to volunteer as a judge in about 15 competitions a year and found that I sorely missed those opportunities. Prior to the pandemic, I last judged at a competition in March 2020, at the IBU Open in Des Moines.

Last week, in a remarkable coincidence, the first post-pandemic competition I judged at in-person was also the IBU Open, the 2021 version! I cannot overstate how great it was to be back with other homebrewers, tasting and evaluating beers. I enjoy that process (and the beers), but perhaps more importantly, homebrewers form a great community and one that I missed. Hanging out for two days with a few dozen other homebrewer-judges lifted my spirit!

Keeping It in Context

I don’t mean to imply that somehow the loss of homebrewing competitions over the past sixteen months amounted to a tragedy. It didn’t. The unnecessary Covid-19 death of a friend from my congregation was a tragedy. My 93 year old father-in-law being unable to visit his wife in her nursing home for the last two months of her life because of Covid-19 was heart-wrenching. Her death alone, without family and hastened no doubt by the absence of her husband, was deeply sad.

None of what I’m writing today reaches that level – as a fellow BJCPer said at the beginning of the pandemic, “It’s just beer.” If you suffered economic hardship, loss of employment, social or family upheaval, isolation, anxiety, sickness or any of the many other serious ways the pandemic hit us, please know that I’m not in any way comparing that to homebrew competitions.

But I did want to share my absolute joy at being back with other homebrewers, at a well-run competition!

What About Virtual Competitions?

I participated in a couple of virtual competitions during the pandemic. I’ve heard from some judges how much they enjoyed them, but, for me, I found them lacking, and have identified two reasons.

First, I enjoyed connecting with my judge partner via Zoom at a virtual competition. But, overall, virtual competitions lacked the sense of community you get at an in-person competition. At a competition, you sense a community of homebrewers coming together, for an event focused on our hobby. In short, I missed people. Connecting with one fellow homebrewer lacked the impact of being in the room with dozens of them. I missed chatting during the breaks, sharing lunch with other homebrewer judges and chatting about their last beer flight.

Secondly, I don’t think the quality of virtual competitions matches in-person competitions. Multiple bottles per entry presents an issue, but I think the quality issue revolves more around focus. It might be particular to me, but I suspect it impacts other judges, also.

One of the key qualities of good judges relates to their ability to focus on the beer in front of them. I think in-person competitions tend to help judges do that. It’s an event, you travel to it, you dedicate a day to it, it’s a big deal. Judges at in-person competitions work as part of a team of scores of volunteers all making it work together. This encourages you in subtle ways to do a good job, to focus. At home, I found it to be more casual and, perhaps, easier to make it through a flight without laser focus.

Obviously, this isn’t black-and-white and I’ve stated this too absolutely, to make my point. But, bottom-line, I prefer in-person competitions.

The 2021 IBU Open

I drove 335 miles from my home in Chicago to Des Moines, about a 5.5 hour trip. Arriving at Confluence Brewing in time for a judging session on a Thursday evening. Two other out-of-town friends also drove in that day – Ted from St. Louis and Sandy from Indianapolis. What a delight to see them again! That evening, I evaluated a flight of six beers, on a table described as Pale European Beers.

On Friday, I judged at two sessions and then two more on Saturday. After one of my assigned flights, the competition organizer asked if I could help out on another table, evaluating NEIPAs. That table included too many entries, so I and another judge helped with four of the entries.

All the flights I had were reasonably sized, so it appeared they had a nice ratio of judges to entries. The competition director, Zach Rice, who did a great job, had limited entries to this first post-pandemic iteration of the competition. Back in the winter and early spring, Zack couldn’t know how quickly vaccination would happen and its impact on the number of judges who would volunteer. Thankfully, the vaccine became widely available before the competition, leading to a good turnout of judges and stewards.

Slide Scoresheets, Medal Rounds and Best of Show

Two interesting aspects of the organization of this competition: 1) the use of the ‘slider’ scoresheets and 2) having the medal rounds (sometimes called mini-bos) for each category determined by a different set of judges than those who evaluated the beers.

I like the slider scoresheets, But, it also feels like it’s been a long time since I filled out a traditional, long-form scoresheet. Honestly, I’m kind of looking forward to doing that again! The medal round issue seems a little more complex. Good reasons exist to organize a competition this way, but you also lose something. Specifically, the competition loses the benefit of judges calibrating their palates to a style.

For the Best of Show round, five of us comprised the panel, including two brewers from our host brewery, Confluence. The organizer presented us excellent gold-medal-winning beers. In the end, we selected an American Strong made with rye as the Best of Show beer. Entered in the Alternative Grain category, this beer delighted us! If you’d like to brew an American Strong, search for recipes here.

Confluence Brewing Company

The competition was held in the packaging area of Confluence Brewing Company on the southside of Des Moines. Founded by John Martin – who joined us at the Best of Show along with Confluence’s production manager, Josh Maxon – Confluence boasts a fun taproom and a large taplist, with over thirty beers available. I enjoyed their version of a Czech Pilsner, called Over the Ivy. Coming in at less than 5% abv, I thought this beer made a great post-judging beer.

The taproom boasts both indoor and outdoor spaces and service at the bar. With no no kitchen, the brewery hosts occasional food trucks and patrons may bring in dinner from other restaurants.

The Iowa Brewers Union

The Iowa Brewer’s Union, a homebrew club based in Des Moines, annually organizes the IBU Open. The club meets every third Monday of the month. Besides the annual competition, the club also supports charities and events across the states. According to their Facebook page, the club also runs its own homebrew serving night (Jimmy Carter Happy Hour) at its meeting location, El Bait Shop. On Thursday nights, at the Jimmy Carter Happy Hour, IBU members use the club jockey boxes to serve customers samples of their own local home brew.

I hope, in this post-pandemic world, you share my joy at getting back to homebrewing not just as something you do at home, as an individual, but as a hobby, something you enjoy with a great community of other homebrewers.

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Beer Styles Series: Belgian Golden Strong

Monday, June 14th, 2021

by Jim Vondracek

One of my favorite beer styles is the Belgian Golden Strong – effervescent, pale, dry, and complex with aromas of fruit, herbs and flowers.  If you’ve had Duvel, Piraat, or Delirium Tremens, you know what I’m talking about.  This article looks at the colorful history of the style, its parameters and components, brewing it (with a recipe) and ends with a conversation with a commercial brewer, Kevin Lilly, who crafts an excellent US version of the style for Lo Rez Brewing.  

History

Duvel became the iconic representation of the Belgian Golden Strong style, originally developed by Brouwerij Moortgat in Breendonck, Belgium.  The lore of its genesis revolves around Albert Moortgat obtaining some of the Edinburgh strain of Scottish yeast from McEwan’s or Younger’s breweries.  Exactly how Moortgat obtained the yeast remains unclear. Some swashbuckling accounts have him smuggling it out of Scotland in a milk canister. More likely, perhaps, is the more pedestrian version that he propagated it from a bottle of Scottish ale he bought.  In any case, Moortgat used Scottish yeast to create the precursor of Duvel, immediately after the end of World War I, called Victory Ale.  

Victory Ale had little to do with current day Duvel, except for its strength.  It was a dark, flavorful beer.  An aficionado referred to it as a ‘real devil’ or duvel in Flemish, and the name stuck, soon being officially re-named Duvel.  

The tale takes a dark twist with the German occupation of Belgium, when Albert Moortgat served as mayor of Breendonck.  Evidence amassed afterwards points to Albert’s growing embrace of authoritarian ideology.  As head of the local government, he served as a leader of the Flemish National Union party. This fascist party welcomed and collaborated with the German occupiers.  During that time, Moortgat’s advertising slogan was “One People, One Nation, One Beer”, chillingly echoing the Nazi slogan “One People, One Nation, One Leader”.  

Following the liberation of Belgium from the Nazis, Albert was arrested, convicted and served five years in prison for his crimes as a Nazi collaborator.  After his release, the family decided having a Nazi at its head was bad marketing. In response, the next generation of Moortgats, Emile and Leon, took over.  In the decade following the war, they strengthened the brewery generally. Starting in the 1960s, they changed it forever.  

At that time, they partnered with the leading Belgian beer scientist of the era, Jean De Clerck. A university professor, De Clerck authored the highly-influential two-volume tome Textbook for Brewing. Earlier, he created Chimay Blue, the iconic Dark Strong Trappist Ale, at the Abbey of Notre Dame de Scourmont.  Now, working with Moortgat, he lightened Duvel’s color, using malts specially kilned for the brand, and dried it out.  Most influentially, he isolated strains from the beer’s original Scottish yeast, honing the distinctive herbal and floral aromatics of the style.  The result was what we now consider the Belgian Golden Strong style, soon emulated by other breweries.  

Style Characteristics

Today, the Golden Strong is an effervescent, complex, pale, dry, strong, fruity and floral ale.  An unusual combination of easy-drinkability and high abv, it bears significant similarity to the Trappist Tripel style but with some important differences.  Tripels, although dry, often do not end up as dry as the Golden Strong style and possess a somewhat fuller mouthfeel.  Most strikingly, the Golden Strong style favors pomme esters – apples and pears – over the phenolic spiciness that partially defines the Tripel.  

Hallmarks of the style include both high carbonation and an impressive, long-lasting white head.  This effervescence combines with the beer’s dryness and lack of heavy alcohol flavors to make the style remarkably easy-to-drink.  

A soft malt aroma and flavor floats through a tasting of the style, supported by a firm but not assertive bitterness.  

Floral and herbal aromas also mark the style, lending a sense of delicacy to this style, another surprise from this big, strong and complex beer.  

The style finishes dry – a critical component of the style that enhances its easy-drinkability.  Some alcohol may be perceived, but nothing harsh, hot or solvent-like.  

The Numbers

According to the BJCP style guidelines, the Belgian Golden Strong comes in at:

• Bitterness 22-35 IBUs
• Color 3-6 SRM
• Original Gravity 1.070 – 1.095
• Final Gravity 1.005 – 1.016
• ABV 7.5 – 10.5%

Brewing the Belgian Golden Strong

The challenge in brewing this style lies in making a flavorful, complex, high abv beer that at the same time is dry, easy-to-drink and delicate.  

As with many Belgian styles, the use of sugar in brewing helps dry out the beer.  Homebrewers often add it to the boil – you’ll read below about the alternative process that Kevin Lilly at Lo Rez uses.  The addition of sugar gives the yeast something to eat that they can easily process. This addition adds strength and abv without adding body, sweetness or final gravity points to the finished beer.  While Belgian candy sugars may be used, I think that table or cane sugar works well, because you are not looking for any flavors or even color from the sugar addition.  

In addition to adding sugar, mashing in low also helps reach the goal of a dry beer.  Mashing in the 148 – 150F range activates enzymes which break down the starches and proteins into smaller strands compared to higher mash temperatures.  Shorter strands lead to a more fermentable wort which leads to a drier beer.  Brewers also sometimes encourage this process by mashing for longer than the standard sixty minutes.  

Typically, Pilsner malt makes up most or all of the grain bill for a Golden Strong, lending its typical soft maltiness and breadiness to the beer.  Because of the Pilsner-forward grain bill, some brewers will boil for ninety minutes or more to drive off the precursor to DMS, a canned corn off-flavor, which is present at higher levels in Pilsner than in other malts.  

Some of the style’s delicateness, floral and herbal aromas come from hops.  Noble or English type hops usually make up the hop bill, but an American variety that traces its lineage to Hallertau, such as Mt. Rainier, makes an excellent choice, also. 

Yeast selection plays a critical role in this style.  While both esters and phenols are present in most Golden Strongs, they tend to emphasize the fruitiness over the spiciness.  Some homebrewers purposefully underpitch yeast for Belgian styles, to stress the yeast and encourage the production of esters and phenols.  Others think it unnecessary, because Belgian yeasts have been developed over the years to produce significant esters and phenols.  Underpitching may lead to other off-flavors and, in the worst case, an under-attenuated beer. 

Ramping up the temperature during fermentation is another approach – it both encourages the production of esters and for the yeast to fully attenuate the beer, making the final product more fruity and drier. I often start the fermentation off at 65F with the other ales in our temp controlled ferm room, then will put the fermenter on a heating pad that raises the temp to 70 – 72F, then will move it out of the temp controlled ferm room and let it free rise to 80+F for the final phase of fermentation.  

For homebrewers who keg, the Golden Strong may be an excuse to bottle condition – for a change of pace, because it’s traditional, and because carbonation impacts the style so critically.  If you can find small champagne bottles, they make ideal bottles for bottle conditioning this style.  But in any case, bottle conditioning can add a creaminess to the final beer.  In any case, whether you bottle condition or keg, it’s critical that the brewer make their beer effervescent.  

Recipe

Cherub Nectar, Gold Medal Belgian Beers, Silver Medal Best-of-Show, Door County Homebrew Competition, Brewer’s Friend Recipe Here

Grain Bill

• 12.5 lbs Pilsner Malt
• 2.5 lbs Table Sugar
• 1 lb Wheat Malt
• Mash the malts at 148F for sixty minutes, single infusion and batch sparge method

Water Chemistry

• Chicago municipal water
• Add 8 ml lactic acid to the mash

Hops

• 1 oz Mt. Rainer (6% aa) for 60 minutes
• 1 oz Mt. Rainer for 10 minutes
• 1 oz Challenger (8% aa) for 10 minutes

Yeast

• White Labs WLP 570 Belgian Golden Ale or
• Omega OYL-056 Belgian Golden Strong or
• Wyeast 1388 Belgian Strong Ale
• Dry yeast alternatives are Lallemand’s Abbaye Belgian or Fermentis’ Safbrew BE-256 Belgian although the liquid yeast alternatives are preferable for this style

Other

• Whirlfloc or Irish Moss towards the end of the boil
• White Labs Clarity Ferm pitched with the yeast

Numbers

• Batch Size 5.5 gallons
• Brewhouse Efficiency 60%
• Original Gravity 1.075
• Final Gravity 1.004
• ABV 9.3%
• Bitterness 35 IBUs
• Color 4 SRM

Commercial Golden Strong Ale – Lo Rez Brewing’s Daemon

Among the very best US-produced Golden Strong’s I’ve tasted comes from Lo Rez Brewing in Chicago.  Thanks to Lo Rez brewer Kevin Lilly for visiting with me about their offering, aptly named Daemon.  Daemon is a programming term (meaning a program that runs in the background), a theme Lo Rez uses throughout their lineup.  But it also references Duvel – as an archaic spelling of ‘demon’.  

Daemon leads the Lo Rez lineup – its flagship beer, in terms of sales.  While I found that unexpected, it may not be surprising that a light colored, dry, strong but easy-to-drink and flavorful beer sells well.  “It’s super-drinkable like a lager,” according to Lilly, “but it has so much more flavor and aromatics.”  

Lilly and his Lo Rez co-founder, Dave Dahl, began brewing the precursor to what became Daemon as homebrewers.  Dialing in the yeast character challenged them as they developed the beer.  Eventually, they settled on the Ardennes strain, which they still use today.  For the homebrewer, that strain is available from White Labs as WLP545 (Belgian Strong Ale) and Wyeast as 3522 (Belgian Ardennes).  

To lighten the beer, Lilly adds sugar to the recipe, but not in the boil kettle, which he found occasionally led to a stalled fermentation – the yeast would mow through all the simple sugar and give up.  Instead, he adds a sugar syrup to the fermenter, over three days.  He begins to add the sugar when the beer’s gravity nears 1 degree plato (about 0.004 brewer’s gravity points) above the target final gravity.  

From tasting the beer throughout these final days of fermentation, Lilly found that the yeast created many of the aromatics he seeks after the sugar additions.  He finds those aromatics critical and fine-tuned them after working with the Ardennes yeast over and over, learning its subtleties.

He makes the simple syrup in a 50:50 ratio (by weight) of sugar to water, which he never boils but does pasturize at 165F.  The only other fermentable he uses is Pilsner malt, with 80% Pilsner to 20% sugar.  

Usually, he uses a European malt, depending upon availability.  When he can get it, he prefers PIlsner malt from The Swaen, a craft malt house inThe Netherlands.  

For hops, he adds Chinook at 60 and 20 minutes, and finishes with a dose of Zuper Saazer (a Michigan variant of the Saaz) at whirlpool.  

For Daemon, fermentation starts at 68F and free rises to 75F within 24 hours, and Lilly maintains that temperature until fermentation completes.  

I drink Daemon often, and like the best examples of the style, it hides its high abv well and its dry finish enhances its drinkability.  It combines complexity and delicateness in a compelling way, with an appealing herbal and floral aroma.  

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Homebrewing Your First Extract Batch

Saturday, May 29th, 2021

Beginning Brewing Series – Sweet Stout

by Jim Vondracek

Congratulations, you stand on the precipice of a remarkable hobby – brewing – one practiced by over one million homebrewers in the US! Making something by hand appeals to many of us – baking bread, building a bookshelf, growing a garden, cooking. Similarly, brewing a handmade beer brings a sense of satisfaction, combines craft and science, and in the end you get beer! For me, some of my favorite memories involve sharing a handmade beer with friends and family.

The satisfaction we get from sharing something we made, with our own hands, enhances our lives. Nothing wrong with drinking professionally-made craft beer, it’s great, but to be able to say “I made this” elevates your spirit. For many brewers, they love the satisfaction of handcrafting and sharing their beers. It makes the process of enjoying beer more intimate, more personal.

Further down this article, you will find the recipe and step-by-step explanation for brewing a Sweet Stout using malt extract. Before we get to that, let’s go over a few preliminaries.

So Many Choices!

Many years ago, I brewed my first batch of beer using malt extract.  At that time, most brewers began brewing that way and I continued to brew extract batches for two or three years before switching to all-grain brewing using Denny Conn’s basic batch sparging method. 

That being said, extract brewing represents only one of the possible methods to use for your first batch. Since I began brewing, the advent of brew-in-a-bag changed the landscape for new brewers significantly, by removing many of the equipment hurdles.  Keep an eye out here for a future article about brew-in-a-bag for beginning brewers.  I’ve helped many brewers at my club (CHAOS in Chicago) learn to brew all-grain using batch sparging.  In addition, the development of electric all-in-one breweries like Grainfather, Brewzilla and Brew Easy offer new brewers another appealing (if somewhat costly) option.  

This article in no way implies or argues that your first batch *should* be brewed with malt extract – today, beginning brewers have lots of options.  Instead, this article intends to walk the aspiring brewer through their first batch if they choose to use a traditional entry to the hobby – extract brewing.  

Extract Brewing

For many brewers, brewing their first batch with extract offers a simplified, accessible approach to get into brewing.  The equipment costs can be low, so they can metaphorically stick their toe in the water and see if they like the hobby before making a more substantial commitment. 

By eliminating mashing, extract brewing eliminates a significant piece of equipment and an hour or more of time from your brew day.  Essentially, malt extract is the result of mashing.  Using extract, you lose some flexibility in creating your wort, but that can be made up for by steeping specialty grains, a remarkably simple process that adds layers of complexity and flavors to your beer.  

You may read that malt extract beers are inferior – don’t believe it.  Many brewers make excellent extract beers and win medals at competitions.  Focusing on sanitation and fermentation, instead of mashing, helps beginning brewers make better beer.  

This Sweet Stout recipe was among the first beers I brewed, probably my third or fourth, and it won a silver medal in the stout category at a four hundred entry competition.  

Why a Sweet Stout for My First Brew?

A style that is full of flavors may cover up some off-flavors that typically appear in a brewer’s first few batches – I think stouts generally are great for beginners and the sweet stout is especially good. It’s got both nice roast and chocolate, a little caramel and dark fruit, finishes off-dry and presents a medium to medium full mouthfeel.

Equipment

Many of us have a five-gallon stock pot in our kitchens, if not you’ll need to buy one (and will use it for other things, in any case, like making stocks or cooking big batches of chili). You’ll also need a whisk or spoon long enough to stir the batch, which you probably already have. A kitchen or cooking thermometer also comes in handy – using an instant read electronic thermometer or candy thermometer you already have works great.

You’ll need a fermenter – most of us won’t have anything in the kitchen we can repurpose for that, so you’ll need to buy a plastic fermentation bucket, lid and airlock.

Looking ahead, when it’s time to bottle, you’ll need a bottling bucket (similar to your fermenting bucket, but with a spigot towards the bottom), an auto-siphon and plastic tubing (to get the fermented beer from your fermenter to the bottling bucket), a bottling wand and hand capper. A future article in this beginning brewing series will go through bottling step-by-step, but for now, if you want to buy everything you’ll need at once, add those bottling supplies to your list.

This list represents the bare-bones approach – you need these items, but you can buy many other helpful pieces of equipment, for example, a hydrometer.

If you have a homebrew store near you, great – go there and get what you need, plus your ingredients (listed below). If not, there are lots of excellent online homebrew stores to choose from.

Ingredients

The recipe we’re using for the Sweet Stout is here on Brewer’s Friend. When you buy your equipment, you can also pick up the ingredients you’ll need for this five-gallon batch:

• Fermentables
  • 6 lbs Extra Light Dry Malt Extract or 7 lbs Pale Liquid Malt Extract
  • 1 lb Lactose Powder (Milk Sugar)
• Steeping Grains
  • 1 lb Black Patent malt (500L) (crushed)
  • ¾ lb Crystal 80L (crushed)
  • ½ lb Chocolate malt (200L) (crushed)
• Hops
  • 1 oz East Kent Golding Hops
• Yeast
  • 1 pack of Nottingham or US-O5 Yeast
• Other Items You’ll Need
  • 1 muslin or grain bag
  • 1 container of Star San or Iodophor sanitizer

Required Reading

You should read this thorough explanation for beginning brewers here at Brewer’s Friend.  It is one of the strongest, clearest articles I’ve seen for beginners.  This article compliments it, it doesn’t replace it.  Go read it! 

Your First Brew Day!

First, review your recipe on Brewer’s Friend here.

Plan to allocate three or so hours for your first brew day. A very important thing to remember – don’t stress out as you follow these steps, if you get something wrong, take it in stride. Likely, you didn’t ruin your batch. And if you did, well, stuff happens. Think of it like cooking – most of us don’t bake the best batch of bread ever or make an excellent roast chicken on our first attempt. Relax.

Steeping the Specialty Grains

To start with, fill your pot with three to four gallons of water and heat it on your stove to 150F to 160F. When it reaches temperature, put the black patent, crystal 80 and chocolate malt in the muslin or grain bag and securely tie it closed (see the ingredients above for exact amounts). Dunk it in the hot water, like you would a tea bag.

Once the grain is wet and starts to expand in the bag, just drop it in. Maintain the water at the temp – you may cover your pot, or occasionally add heat. Do not let it rise to 170F – it is better to keep it cooler than too hot (which may cause your beer to be tannic). Steep the grain like this for approximately 30 minutes. Using tongs, a sturdy cooking spoon, or a sieve with a handle, lift the bag of steeping grains out of the wort (liquid) and let the contents drain into the pot. Throw the bag and grains away – they’ve done their job!

Start the Boil and Add Hops

Turn the heat under the pot up and bring the wort to a boil. Watch carefully, you don’t want this to boil over. If your stove has trouble getting it up to boil, you may cover it, but when it begins to boil, remove the lid. Maintain a steady, gently rolling boil.

When your wort is boiling, toss in your hops. Let them boil for 45 minutes (without a lid)

Add Malt Extract and Lactose

After 45 minutes, add the dry malt extract and lactose. Both of these will clump up and form a cement-like substance that will burn on the bottom of your pot if you just dump them in, so don’t do that! Rather, get a large mixing bowl and scoop out some of the boiling wort, then slowly add a portion of the extract and whisk or stir like a mad man until it dissolves. Pour the liquid back into the pot and repeat as needed until you have added all the extract and lactose. You likely will have lost the boil during this procedure, bring it back up to a boil and then let it boil another 15 minutes. Turn off the heat.

Chill the Wort, Sanitize the Fermenter and Top Off

Partially fill your sink with water and ice and put the pot in the ice water to cool. You may need to replenish the ice water from time to time.

Make a batch of sanitizer (Star San or Iodophor) following the directions on the package. Sanitize the thermometer – anything that will be touching the wort at this point forward (post-boil) needs to be sanitized. Take the temperature of the wort – when it has cooled to around 80F, you’re ready for the next step.

Using the Star San or Iodophor, sanitize your fermenting bucket and pour the wort into the bucket. This recipe calls for a five gallon batch, so now top off the wort with cold water to bring the total wort in the bucket to five gallons – your fermentation bucket will have markings on the side indicating volume. Stir or rock the bucket to mix and add some oxygen to the wort.

Pitch the Yeast and Ferment

Open the yeast packet and pour in, on top of the wort. Sanitize the fermentation bucket’s lid and close it. Fill your airlock with sanitizer and insert in the lid’s grommeted hole. Stash the fermenter somewhere coolish – if you have a space that stays in the mid to low sixties, that’s perfect. If not, wherever is coolest in your home will work. Let it sit for two or three weeks. Resist the temptation to open the lid, nothing good comes from that! Amuse yourself by watching the airlock bubble for a few days, don’t fret if it takes a day or two to start!

Woohoo, You’re Making Beer!

Congratulations, you’ve completed your first brew day – well, after you’ve cleaned up the mess you made! Enjoy a beer and get ready to bottle your beer in three weeks!

Posted in Brewing, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Ingredient Series: Gene-Edited Beer Yeast

Thursday, May 13th, 2021

by Jim Vondracek

Homebrewers use their creativity, building recipes and brewing processes using new or novel ingredients, pushing the boundaries of new flavor profiles. Similarly, those who produce ingredients and products also innovate, using both cutting-edge science and brewing knowledge to create these new ingredients and products for homebrewers.

A few months ago, Omega Yeast released two new strains, Bananza and Sundew, both available now to homebrewers, created using CRISPR gene-editing technology. Conversations with brewers interested in pushing the upper limits of esters and fruitiness in their beers led Omega to the create these new strains. Thank you to Omega staff Bianca Alley (Lab Manager), Keith Lacy (Research and Development Lab Technician) and Laura Burns (Director for Research and Development) for visiting with me about these new yeasts and the high tech process of creating them.

Omega Yeast’s POF- Project

When Laura, who earned a Ph.D from Vanderbilt, joined Omega in 2019 to lead the research and development efforts, she pushed ahead with what Omega calls its POF- Project. POF- stands for Phenolic Off Flavor Negative. Phenolic flavors due to brewing yeast, according to Laura, are the result of the work of the yeast’s FDC1 gene. This gene enables an enzyme which in turn produces a compound called 4-vinyl guaiacol (4VG). Most people perceive the 4VG compound as spice and clove phenolic flavors – in beer and other products, like baked goods.

Historically, through selection by brewers, many brewing yeasts developed naturally over time to be phenolic negative. Exceptions include Belgian and German Weizen yeasts, where the spice and clove phenolics eschewed in other styles are seen as positive attributes. These yeasts also developed strong ester characteristics, to compete with the phenolic flavors. It was these esters that sparked the POF- Project.

According to Bianca, Omega was interested in “eliminating phenol flavors produced by these strains so that the ester characteristics can come through, giving way to a new beer character.” The phenolics, Laura said, “tend to mask some of the hoppy character of the beer” as well as other flavor profiles. “In the absence of the phenols,” she continued, “other characteristics are emphasized and come through in new and interesting ways in the final character of the beer.”

CRISPR Gene Editing

Both Laura and one of Omega’s founders, Lance Shaner, previously worked with CRISPR gene editing, in graduate school, so they were well situated to take on this project. According to Laura, the limitations on using CRISPR are not equipment related – the equipment needed is readily available and affordable. What is needed is the knowledge of how to use it, experience, and the perseverance to go through the robust licensing process required for CRISPR created products.

In sum, CRISPR offers scientists a way to find a specific bit of DNA inside a cell and then alter it. CRISPR has been adapted to do other things too, such as turning genes on or off without altering their sequence. Prior to this technology, editing the genomes of some plants and animals was possible, but the process was both prohibitively expensive and took years. Today, CRISPR makes the process of gene editing affordable and available to small companies like Omega.

Already widely used for scientific research, many of our food stuffs have been altered via CRISPR gene editing. CRISPR is also being used to transform medicine, both in the treatment and prevention of diseases.

GMO Yeast?

In the grocery stores, we see many items labeled as Non-GMO, responding to concerns about the long-term environmental and health impacts of industrial farming of genetically engineered plants and animals. These concerns infuse the active conversations and debate about GMO products in scientific, environmental, regulatory and consumer circles.

According to Laura, Omega’s gene-edited yeasts are not best described as GMO. She said “There are no added materials introduced to the yeast, just taken out. We took a minimalist approach so that it was approachable and brewers wouldn’t be hesitant to use the yeast.”

Ramp Up the Fruitiness: Bananza and Sundew

Omega’s POF- Project grew from conversations with professional and homebrewers about wanting yeast that amplify the fruity characteristics of their beers. “We had an ear to what our customers were looking for,” according to Laura, “and some of these strains were obvious choices to offer.”

The first two yeasts released that were produced using CRISPR technology are Bananza and Sundew. Bananza has prominent banana aromas and flavors, much like a hefeweisen yeast, but more pronounced and tropical, because of the lack of competing clove and spice aromas and flavors in the typical hefe yeast. Sundew features strawberry, tropical fruit and stone fruit esters, again amplified by the lack of phenolic characteristics, which combine interestingly with fruity hops.

Laura, Keith and Bianca all brew – Laura did so professionally at two breweries and Keith and Bianca are active homebrewers. “It was kind of surprising how much a little underpitch of Bananza really enhanced the banana flavors,” according to Keith. This is a common technique for homebrewers with Hefeweizen and Belgian yeast strains, but can be tricky – the fermentation character can go from pleasant to a hot mess quickly. But Bananza works well with a slight under pitch, Keith said, “it didn’t produce any weird off flavor and it didn’t struggle to finish up.”

For Sundew, according to Keith, temperature was more key. Fermenting in the low to mid seventies enhanced the ester quality, while still being pleasant and enjoyable.

Both Bianca and Keith brewed multiple batches with these new yeasts, using Brewer’s Friend to craft the recipes, and each generously shared one of their favorite recipes.

Sundew Stout Recipe by Keith Lacy

Sundew Stout Recipe in Brewer’s Friend

With the berry sensory notes that Sundew Ale (OYL-401) produces, it naturally fits many pale, fruity styles. I wanted to see how the yeast pairs with the flavors of a dark beer (dark chocolate, dried fruit, toffee, coffee, and roasty goodness!) and settled on a stout. By design, this recipe sits in the middle of various stout subclasses and with a few simple adjustments can be tailored to the personal tastes of the brewer. For example, mash with less grain at 148°F for higher attenuation and a drier finish to make a dry Irish stout, or increase the amount of oats to 10-20% to make an oatmeal stout.

The higher mash temperature gives body without being overly sweet, the dehusked and debittered Carafa III adds beautiful roasted color without the astringency, and the flaked oats help with a nice stable head. You may substitute Maris Otter for the Golden Promise. Other possible substitutions include honey malt or a medium crystal malt for the Golden Naked Oats (or whatever you prefer – it is your beer!)

First Gold reflects the more traditional English hop character and also adds some fruity character with a touch of spice. The Ariana hop choice brings a higher alpha acid percentage to the recipe, and also lends some blackcurrant notes. When added to the whirlpool, the hops don’t make the beer overly bitter or overpower the other aromas. For a more traditional English take, I’ve always been a fan of East Kent Golding or Fuggles.

Recipe

STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.058
Final Gravity: 1.016
ABV: 5.48%
IBU: 29
SRM: 38

FERMENTABLES (5 Gallon Batch):
10 lbs: Golden Promise (77%)
1.2 lbs: Chocolate Malt (9.2%)
0.4 lbs: Carafa III (3.1%)
0.7 lbs: Flaked Oats (5.4%)
0.7 lbs: Golden Naked Oats (5.4%)

HOPS:
1 oz: First Gold, Type: Pellet, A.A.: 7.5, Use: Boil for 60 min
1 oz: First Gold, Type: Pellet, A.A.: 7.5, Use: Boil for 5 min
1 oz: Ariana, Type: Pellet, A.A.: 11, Use: Whirlpool

MASH GUIDELINES:
Infusion, Temp: 154°F, Time: 60 min
Boil for 90 minutes

YEAST
OYL-401 Sundew. The temperature range is relatively broad, from 64-78°F. We recommend slight overpitching or a fresh starter for more berry notes. Sundew will shine at fermentation temperatures in the mid-70s.

Even though the boil is 90 minutes, add the first hops at the 60 minute mark. I prefer this method, so that I open a 1 oz packet of hops and dump it into the kettle as opposed to weighing it out or ending up with partial packets lying around.

Sundew Strawberry Puckerade, Fruited Kettle Sour Recipe by Bianca Alley

Sundew Strawberry Puckerade in Brewer’s Friend.

To highlight the robust strawberry jamminess of Sundew™ Ale (OYL-401), I built a recipe that would complement the Belgian and berry characteristics. Balancing the acidity and fruity berriness presents the key challenge to pairing Sundew with a fruited kettle sour

Using a basic malt bill of 50-50 wheat and 2-row, I chose to do a protein rest that helped to break down the beta-glucans and long protein chains adding to the body and making the lautering a little bit easier.

The finished product pushed fruit forward on the nose, with a nicely tart finish. The flavor profile highlighted a melding of strawberry puree and lemon zest to accentuate the aromatic berry yeast characteristic. A sure thirst quenching crowd-pleaser.

Recipe:

STATS:
Original Gravity:1.048
Final Gravity:1.015
Starting pH:5.6
Final pH: 3.18
ABV: 4.3
IBU:4.1
SRM:2.8

MALT (five gallon batch):
7 lbs 2-row
6 lbs White wheat

HOPS:
0.25 oz Tettnang (A.A. 4.3) dry hop after lactic acid production

FLAVORING ADDITIONS:
8 oz Vintners Harvest Strawberry Puree
2 lemon peels steeped in 0.5 liter of 212℉ of hot water

MASH:
Protein Rest: 122℉, 35 minutes
Saccharification: 148℉, 45 minutes
Mash Out: 168℉, 10 minutes

Boil for 20 minutes

SEQUENTIAL FERMENTATION:
Knock out at 95°F and allow the lacto to sour for 24 hours. The wort should be sufficiently sour (pH 3.2-3.4), at which point pitch Sundew and dry hop 0.25 oz Tettnang hops. After 1 week (or once fermentation is complete), add strawberry/lemon flavor and leave for an additional 48 hours for refermentation prior to kegging.

YEAST:
OYL-401 Sundew. The temperature range is relatively broad, from 64-78°F. We recommend a slight overpitch or a fresh starter for more berry notes. Sundew will shine at fermentation temperatures in the mid-70s.

LACTIC ACID BACTERIA:
OYL-605 Lacto. Blend of Lactobacillus plantarum and brevis. Sours across a broad temperature range.

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Rebooting

Saturday, April 3rd, 2021

by Jim Vondracek

This spring, the Brewer’s Friend blog is rebooting, to augment the resources and tools the site offers homebrewers. 

We will be posting new content for brewers weekly.  Initially, our content will focus on six areas:

• Styles – an indepth look at a particular style, including one or two recipes
• Ingredients – a look at hops, malts, yeast, and water
• Beginning brewing advice, tips and equipment
• Advanced brewing advice, tips and equipment
• Interviews with brewers and experts
• Brewing as a hobby – homebrew clubs, events, competitions, stories

Check back soon for an article on a seasonal style – the Helles Bock or Maibock, traditionally drunk in May, fitting in the old German brewing calendar between the Doppelbocks of early spring and the Fest beers of autumn. 

I serve as editor and writer for the blog.  From Chicago, I brew with the CHAOS homebrew club, am a BJCP National and Cider judge, an assistant representative for the BJCP in its midwest region, have taught about homebrewing at the City Colleges of Chicago and regularly lead tastings, off-flavor, pairings and other brewing-related workshops.  I enter competitions and, like most brewers, sometimes earn a medal and sometimes don’t.  I love the community of homebrewers, it is a great hobby!  

If you have ideas for articles, or any feedback, please contact me at editor@brewersfriend.com  Would love to hear from you as the blog develops over the coming months.  

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Check out our New Features on our Changelog!

Tuesday, April 2nd, 2019

April 2019 brings updates, new features, and support for more wireless hydrometers.

https://docs.brewersfriend.com/changelog

2019-04-02
Added

• Fermentation chart BPM for Plaato.
  
  
• Additional API stream fields for MyBrewBot and Fermentrack.
  

2019-04-01
Fixed

• Recipe Builder pH prediction showing with no water profile selected.
  
  
• Recipe Builder, Inventory & Shopping custom brands now showing up prior to being approved.
  
  
• Recipe View can now show fermentation chart from multiple brew sessions.
  
  
• Recipe Builder water calc sometimes missing acid additions from the recipe.
  
  
• Inventory & Shopping can now enter yeast temp in °F or °C.
  

Added

• Recipe Builder drag and drop photos!
  
  
• Plaato Wireless Airlock support.
  
  
• Brand Settings turn off brands that do you use or care about.
  
  • https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/profile/brand_settings
    
• Shopping option to hide mashed column in print view.
  
  
• Brew Step Cool wort down to ~70F / 20C will now show the fermentation temp set in the Recipe Builder from the Yeast block.
  
  
• Recipe Builder ability to add custom yeast.
  
  
• Bar unit to keg carbonation calculator.
  
  • https://www.brewersfriend.com/keg-carbonation-calculator
    
• Complete list of Crisp and Briess malts to BF catalog.

Check it out today, and let us know what you think!

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New Brewing for Beginners Tutorial Available Now!

Tuesday, December 4th, 2018

Have you wanted to homebrew, but never knew where to start?  Or have a friend who does?

Designed for beginners, this illustrated article can help you, from choosing the equipment you will need as well as give you step-by-step directions through the brewing and fermenting process.

Check it out now!

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Beer Styles – Original Gravity and Final Gravity Chart – 2017 Update

Sunday, May 7th, 2017

We've updated our popular OG/FG Range Graphs with the latest BJCP beer styles. This chart shows the BJCP beer styles and their original gravity (OG) and final gravity (FG) ranges in bar graph format.

Original gravity (OG) measures how much sugar is present in the wort before it is fermented. The final gravity (FG) is how much sugar is left over when fermentation is done. For a beer to fit into a certain style, each of these numbers must be within the specified range as the chart depicts.

A lower final gravity indicates a dry or crisp flavor, while a higher final gravity indicates a sweet or malty flavor.

The size of the gap between OG and FG can be used to calculate how much alcohol the beer contains.

Ranges of OG and FG by Style

Data for these charts come from the the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP).

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Brewer’s Friend Recipe of the Week!

Wednesday, August 12th, 2015

We’re starting a new feature here at Brewer’s Friend, Recipe of the Week!

This is going to be based on views so only public recipes will be considered. If your recipe is selected as the week’s top recipe you will receive 1 year of supporting membership here on Brewer’s Friend! We’re going to do this once a week so that’ 52 chances a year to win a supporting membership!

If you posted your recipe anonymously and it is chosen for Recipe of the Week please be sure to contact me. I can see who submitted them, but since you might have decided to keep that private I’m going to respect your wishes, but I’m happy to upgrade you.

So, for the first Recipe of the Week we’re taking a look at Zombie Dust Clone submitted to us via an anonymous member.

Image courtesy of skeeterpleezer of HomeBrewTalk

The original recipe was originally submitted to HomeBrewTalk, but made it’s way to Brewer’s Friend in no time!

Zombie Dust Clone – ALL GRAIN
Method: All Grain
Style: American IPA
Boil Time: 60 min

 

Image Courtesy of Hockyplr of HomeBrewTalk

Batch Size: 6 gallons (fermentor volume)
Boil Size: 7 gallons
Efficiency: 70% (brew house)
Source: skeezerpleezer on Homebrewtalk.com

Fermentables
Amount Fermentable PPG °L Bill %
11.75 lb American – Pale 2-Row 37 1.8 81.7%
1.13 lb American – Munich – Light 10L 33 10 7.9%
0.5 lb German – CaraFoam 37 1.8 3.5%
0.5 lb American – Caramel / Crystal 60L 34 60 3.5%
0.5 lb German – Melanoidin 37 25 3.5%
14.38 lb Total

Hops
Amount Variety Type AA Use Time IBU
0.75 oz Citra Pellet 11 First Wort
1.25 oz Citra Pellet 11 Boil 15 min
1.25 oz Citra Pellet 11 Boil 10 min
1.25 oz Citra Pellet 11 Boil 5 min
1.25 oz Citra Pellet 11 Boil 1 min
3 oz Citra Pellet 11 Dry Hop 7 days

Mash Guidelines
Amount Description Type Temp Time
22 qt Temperature 155 F 60 min

Yeast: Fermentis / Safale – English Ale Yeast S-04
Attenuation (avg): 72%
Flocculation: Medium
Optimum Temp: 59 – 75 °F
Starter: Yes

 

Image courtesy of Skeeterpleezer of HomeBrewTalk

So what makes this recipe so popular? Aside from being a clone from a very popular commercial brew this is a dead on clone. Many, many brewers have noted how their finished Zombie Dust clone taste like it was straight from the 3 Floyds Brewing Company itself. Although not an original recipe anyone who’s ever developed a clone will tell you that getting all the little nuances of a beer as popular as Zombie Dust is a challenge and one that SkeeterPleezer took on with great results.

From everyone at Brewer’s Friend I would like to thank you for being a member and checking out our newest feature, “Recipe of the Week!”.

 

 

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New Brewer’s Friend Android Apps!

Friday, June 12th, 2015

Fellow Brewers,
We’re very excited to announce that we’ve released 2 new Brewer’s Friend apps for Android!

Brewer’s Friend Premium
Our full-featured recipe builder, brewing calculators, brew session manager, etc. Sync your recipes with the cloud and your BrewersFriend.com account. Unlimited recipes and brew sessions so you can make unlimited delicious beer.

Brewer’s Friend Free
The Free version of our recipe builder, calculators, and brew sessions. All the features of the premium version, but limited to 2 recipes, 2 brews, and without cloud-syncing. Get a taste of the full version before purchasing.

Both apps feature:

• Complete recipe designer with pre-populated list of grains, hops, and yeast. Ability to add your own custom grains.
• Fully supports metric units!
• Work in Specific Gravity or Plato.
• OG/FG/IBU/SRM, yeast attenuation automatically calculated.
• Supports All Grain, Extract, Partial Mash, BIAB.
• Tells if recipe matches style.
• Pick the equations and units you prefer.
• No Chill – Extended Hop Boil Time Supported.
• Target ‘to the fermentor’ or ‘to the kettle’ batch sizes.
• Journal for tracking events like gravity readings, volume collected, dates, and tasting notes.
• Tracks what phase the brew is in.
• Brew timer feature supported.
• Supports hop stands (whirlpool and hopback hop uses), recipe CO2 level field, milliliters as unit in other ingredients section.
• Stand alone calculators.

The apps are now available on the Google Play store. This is a major set of new features for us, so we’d be happy to hear any feedback or ideas you may have. Feel free to reach out to us at mail@brewersfriend.com.

Looking forward to continuing to make great beer together,
The Brewer’s Friend Team

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