First All Grain Batch

We have finally made our first all grain batch of beer. This picture is the inside of our mash tun which is holding all of the grain and about 4.5 gallons of water. The water is at a specific temperature for about an hour to extract the fermentable sugars from the grain. Differences in temperatures will effect the body of the wort and the overall alcohol potential. Higher temperature mashes will produce beers with a fuller body from increased amounts of unfermanatble sugars. Lower temperature mashes produce more fermentables sugars and an increased alcohol potential; but as a result, the body of the beer will be comparitively less. We brewed a brown ale, and chose a mash temp of 153 F, which is about the middle of the road. Mash temperatures can range from 146 F to 165 F. Low=146-150, mid=150-155, high =156-165. The specific mash temperature is picked based on the type of beer being brewed, but you can do experiement "outside the box" which I am sure we will do in the future.

After the mash is completed, the wort is run out of the cooler in the boil kettle. Since we want to have a preboil of volume of 6.75 gallons, a sparging step is needed to obtain enough wort.

The volume of water that is needed to reach our target volume is heated to about 180 F and then poured into the mash tun on the grains. It is stirred once more and then wort is drained into the boil kettle. Since this was our first attempt, everything did not proceed as smoothy as planned. We had some mashing issues in which all of the wort could not be drained from the mash tun into the boil kettle as efficiently as possible. As a result, a decent amount of wort was left in the mash tun and never made it into the kettle. So instead of having 5 gallons of finished beer, we only ended up with 3.5 gallons. Hopefully we can get a better handle on our system and not have this problem next time.

For our next batch we are going to start experimenting with belgian yeast strains. We are going to make a batch of IPA and split it in half. One half will be fermeneted with a traditional california ale yeast, and on the other half we are going to pitch a beglian strain of yeast to make a belgian IPA. It will be interesting to see how much the overall flavor of the beer is a reslut from the yeast alone.

Going All Grain

We have finally made the jump to all grain brewing. Previously, we have been using liquid malt extract (LME) to get our fermentable sugars and specialty grains to get flavor and color. LME is made by taking malted barely and soaking the grains in water. After a period of time, sugar has been extractd from the malt and the water is then dehydrated into a thick syrup. All grain brewing does not use LME, instead, we will be the ones soaking the malted barley and specialty grains in warm water for about an hour (it will be done in the red cooler from the picture above) and then lautering, or draining, the sweet wort into the boil kettle. A large part of our step to AG was buying a new boil kettle. Our previous kettle had only a 5 gallon (20 quart) capacity. We could only start with about 4.5 gallons of water and after an hour of boiling only 3-3.5 gallons of wort would remain. To reach our target volume of 5 gallon, additional water would have to be added, much to the detriment of the overall flavor of the beer. Now, we have a 12.5 gall (60qt) boil kettle. We will be able to drain about 7 gallons of sweet wort from the cooler and after the 60-90 minute boil, will have the 5 gallons we need. Being able to do full boils will help with the flavor and body of the beer.

AG is a little more complicated than extract brewing because temperature control of the mashing stage is crucial. The usual temperature range is 148-158; the higher the temperature the more body and less alochol the beer will have, the lower the temp, the more potential for alochol but you lose some body with it. Mash temperatures are then selected based on the style of beer being brewed. A good diagram of the mashing process can be seen if you click here.

The first few batches will proably not be our best beer, but it will still be good. But now, we have much more control over the flavor and body of the beer, and eventually will be making beer as good as commerical breweries. With the giant boil kettle we also have the possibility of making 10 gallon batches in the future.

We were able to buy the boil kettle and mash tun used from a local homebrewer for $40 and 2 beers at a brewpub. We want to thank Dennis for helping us out and selling us his old equipment for such a good deal.

Before we can brew our first beer we have to make an immersion chiller to be able to cool 5 gallons of beer from 200 F to 60 F as quickly as possible. This is done by running cool water through copper tubing immersed in the beer; here is a picture of what one looks like. Cold water is fed into one side and cylces through the tubing and the heat is transferred from the beer to the water and the hot water comes out and is drained away. We are going to attempt to build it ourselves which should be intersting to say the least. This is an exciting step for us and we cant wait to brew our first AG batch.

Winter Warmer

We have finally pulled the winter warmer out of the garage and it taste delicious. It is sweet and has a nice warming alcohol finish. Since it has been sitting in the garage for about 2 months, the spice flavor has really mellowed out and allowed the brown sugar sweetness to come to the front. We are glad to finally taste what we brewed 3 months ago, and happy to see that all our work has payed off. We had planned to wait until after Thanksgiving to try it, but temptation got the best of us. It has been nice drinking it though with all of the snow we have gotten the last 24 hours, and you realize why they are called "winter wamers."

IPA and Brown Ale

Sunday night we bottled our newest IPA and it came out a better color than our first IPA. The darker carmel malt gave the beer the richer copper color we were looking for. First taste was good, a nice sweetness balanced by the bitterness from all the hops we added, and it should turn out better than the first. Elise's brown ale is ready, and it tastes good. Elise would like it to be more malty, but for writing the recipe herself, it is a very good first attempt. The dry hopping added a nice hop aroma, and I think we will definately experiment more with dry hopping in the future. Depending on the time of day and day of week that you ask her, she either likes the color or thinks that it isn't dark enough; but I think that it is a very good color for an american brown ale. In a couple of weeks when the IPA is ready, we will have a pretty decent supply of beer to drink with the Stout, Brown, and IPA available. We are still a month away though, from cracking open the Winter Beer, but that time should help the spice flavors in the beer mellow and round out the beer.

First Taste of Our Winter Warmer

We have finally bottled the Winter Warmer, and had the opportunity to taste it for the first time. This is the first recipe that we made ourselves, and I have to say we are extremely pleased with the results (even without the carbonation). It is our strongest beer we have made so far at 8% ABV. It is dark amber in color, a perfect color for the winter season. The spices are a great addition to the beer, adding just enough spice profile without over powering the beer. Our goal was to create a beer that truly captured the flavors of the Christmas season, and we really hit the nail on the head with this one. We can't wait to crack our first one open on Thanksgiving!

Cheers!

High Krausen

So yeast starter is fermenting so well, that the krausen has spilled out of the airlock. We haven't had anything close to this yet, so I guess the yeast in the starter was pretty healthy. I have heard people say top croppped yeast are like "super yeast" and now I know what they mean.

IPA

We successfully brewed an IPA today that I wrote the recipe for myself. For most of the beers that we had made, the actual color has been turning out much lighter than estimated by our brewing programs. So for this one, I purposefully tried to make it darker than a "traditional" IPA. Normal ranges for IPAs are about 7-10 SRM. This one was estimated to be about 11.6 SRM. Not much darker, but hopefully it turns out to be a nice deep amber color. We also had 3 hop addtions with a total of 4 ounces used. Chinook, Cascade, and Willamette were used during the boil, and after fermentation we are going to dry hop with 1 oz of Cascade as well. We have also intentionally tried to make a higher alcohol beer, and this one should be around 6.6% if everything goes well.

As for using the yeast starter, we pitched today at ~1pm, and as of 730pm, there is already some activity in the airlock. Usually it takes between 12-24hrs to start seeing activity, so the yeast starter has really taken off in the beer and should make for a full and well attenuated beer.



love and hoppyness

Top Cropping and Yeast Starters

With the brown ale, we fermented it in a bucket in order to try a yeast recycling technique called "Top Cropping." With ale yeast, during fermentation, they gather on top of the beer and form a foam called krausen. So, after about 24 hours of active fermentation, I went an scraped some of the yeast off the top of beer and put it into a mason jar and after a few days in the fridge, the yeast had settled out of the liquid. You can save the yeast in the fridge for up to 6 months, as long as you make a starter before you pitch it again.

For the IPA that we are going to brew on Saturday, we are going to use the yeast that came from the brown. To do this we must make a starter to grow and "wake up" the yeast to ensure viability and proper pitching rates in number of yeast cells. Each normal gravity beer needs about 200 billion yeast cells in order to ferment sufficiently. A small batch of beer (OG 1.030-1.040) is made using dry malt extract and about 2L of water. Once the wort has cooled, I transferred the yeast from the mason jar into the growler with the fresh wort. After about 20 hours, you get a nice fermentation and krausen (above, you can see the krausen on top), and on Saturday we will simply pitch the whole growler into the wort to provide the yeast. For our first attempt at top cropping and making a starter, everything is turning out well so far, but we won't know for sure how viable the yeast are until we see how they react in the IPA.

This top cropping method is very useful in situations where unique yeast strains are used, such as Belgian and Irish ale strains. Normal, all around, dry yeast cost about $3/batch of beer. The unique strains come as a liquid and range anywhere from $7-9/batch. So top cropping and reusing these strains for future use will save a good amount of money in the long run.

Beer and Food

As most of you know, Elise likes to cook with beer whenever she can. Tonight, she made a southwestern chili using our oatmeal stout. It is cool to see something we made being used in food.

Brown Ale

Last night we brewed a brown ale that Elise wrote the recipe for herself. We are trying to make a clone of a cross between Brooklyn's Brown Ale and Avery Ellie's Brown. We are trying to emulate the sweetness and balance of Avery's, and the hoppyness of Brooklyn's. There were 3 hop additions to this beer, Centenial, Willamete, and Cascade. This will be our first beer that we will start experimenting with dry hopping. After fermentation is complete, about 3 days before we bottle, we will add 1 oz of Cascade hops to give the beer a more hoppy aroma. Because the Winter Warmer beer is still in secondary, the Brown will just be in primary for about 2 weeks and then bottled.

Denver Beer Week

In honor of the Great American Beer Festival which starts Thursday the 24th, Denver is having a beer week. There are events every night at local restaurants and bars all week ranging from 5 course beer inspired dinners to keg rolling races. Breweries from across the country are bringing special limited release beers to bars and having special release parties and chances to meet the head brewers. Elise and I attended an event on Friday at Great Divide. They unveiled their Claymore Scotch Ale which was aged in Stranahan's Whiskey barrels for about 6 months. Stranahans is a local whiskey distillery only a few blocks away from Great Divide. The whiskey barrels will impart a whiskey-like aroma to the beer, as well as a subtle bourbon taste. The barrels also impart a nice blend of vanilla and oak flavors to the beer. The beer was dark, sweet, and fairley strong at ~9% abv.
Next week they are also unveiling a Sour Whisky Bourbon Barrel Aged Claymor Scotch Ale. The "sour" comes from the addition of lactobacilus, a bacteria that is usually thought to spoil beer, that is innocculated into the barrel and imparts a sourness to the beer.

Winter Warmer in Secondary

Yesterday, we racked and spiced the Winter Strong Ale. We made a concentrated spice tea to add to the beer to give it a hint of spice flavor in the background. The spice tea contained traditional winter spices: cinnamon sticks, cloves, nutmeg, and ginger. We added ~3/4 cup of the spice tea to the 5 gallon batch, which should give it a very subtle spice flavor without over powering the beer.

The Winter Warmer will sit in secondary for about 2 months now before bottling it towards the end of October. The beer will be ready to drink following the Thanksgiving holiday, so we have quite some time before we find out whether our first winter ale was a success!


Love and Hoppyness

We Have Head.........

The waiting is finally over, we cracked open an IPA today and it was nicely carbonated. We are both really excited and relieved that the beer is carbonated and not infected. Some of the hoppyness has gone down a little bit, but that is to be expected because the beer has been sitting for a while. IPAs and other highly hopped beers need to be drank in about 2 months before the hop flavor/aroma starts to decline. All in all, we are very impressed with our first homebrew and are looking forward to trying the oatmeal stout soon.

love and hoppyness

Oatmeal Stout

Well, the Oatmeal Stout has finally been bottled. It could have been bottled a while ago, but we didn't have enough bottles for all 5 gallons. We yielded 47 bottles, just like the IPA, and it should be ready in 2-3 weeks. It tasted really good though; nice and roasty, dark, but not too heavy. It should be better than the IPA.

love and hoppyness

Winter Warmer

Over the weekend our Winter Warmer was finally brewed. It is a strong ale that should have an alcohol content of around 8.5%. The addition of 1 pound each of dark brown sugar and clover honey will impart a sweet flavor to the beer and keep the alcohol content up. Dried sweet orange peel was added during the boil as our first spice addition for this beer. Cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove will be added once the beer is racked to secondary. Becuase of the high gravity of this beer, it will take much longer to finish. It will sit in primary for the normal 1-2 weeks, but will then settle in secondary for 2-3 months. Because of the high alcohol content, it takes much longer for the beer to mellow out and lose some of those harsh "hot" alcohol flavors. We did sneak a taste of the beer before it went into primary and it was very sweet. The brown sugar flavor was very noticeable, but should mellow in the finished beer. As of now, we are very hopefull that this will be a great beer to have during those cold winter nights.

love and hoppyness

Busy Day

Today we have bottled our IPA, and it was a lot less painful than I expected. We had to siphon the beer from the carboy into a bottling bucket, and then mix in 2/3 cup of corn sugar. Bottling buckets have a spigot on the bottom so we can hook up a bottling wand in order to actually fill each individual bottle. I took the job of filling and Elise took the job of capping the bottles. In all, it probably took about 20 minutes to fill, cap, and store the beer. Out of the original 5 gallons, we got a total of 47 beers. We did get to taste the IPA, and it was better than last time. Some of the hop flavor has decreased a bit, but the sweetness and overall taste of the beer has improved. In about 2-3 weeks, we will be having our first homebrewed beer.

With the secondary carboy available, we also transfered the oatmeal stout from the primary bucket into the secondary. We could have bottled the oatmeal stout today, but didnt have enough empty bottles; we are still about 35 bottles short. But, the oatmeal stout can sit in secondary until we get enough bottles without any ill effects.


love and hoppyness

Racking

Today we racked the IPA into its new home: secondary fermentation. With fermentation being complete the beer is siphoned into a second carboy for another week in order to further condition and clear the beer. It is moved from the primary becuase if the beer sits on the yeast for too long the yeast can impart off flavors to the beer. The IPA will be in secondary for another week before it is bottled. We also siphoned off a taste for ourselves, and as you can see the beer looks much lighter in the glass than it does in the carboy. It has a very hoppy aroma and as of right now, it tastes decent. Once it is carbonated and chilled down it is going to be a pretty good IPA.

Oatmeal Stout

Today we successfully brewed an oatmeal stout. We did a much better job of cooling the wort down this time and were able to pitch the yeast at ~66 degrees. We did not have to rehydrate our yeast today because we bought Wyeast yeast that comes as a liquid. Overall, the second brew day went a little smoother than the first, with the exception of a broken thermometer, but at least our skills and comfort with making beer are improving. We are at full capacity for fermentation right now, so we will not be brewing anything new for at least a week. Next step, secondary fermentation and then bottling. We should be enjoying our first homebrew in about 4 weeks.

-love and hoppyness

Fermenting!

We have great news....our IPA is fermenting! We were a little worried since we decided to pitch the yeast dry instead of hyrdrating it prior to adding it to the carboy. However, this morning we woke up and saw the airlock bubbling meaning that the yeast is active and releasing CO2! In the future we will definitely be hydrating the yeast prior to pitching, to make sure fermentation begins as soon as possible. We had such a great time making the IPA, we are going to go back to the Brew Hut tomorrow to get ingredients to make a stout. We will have to buy another fermenter since the IPA is still in its primary fermentation container and needs to go into its secondary fermentation in about a week. Brewing is addictive! Love and Hoppiness, Elise and Scott

Our First Homebrewing Experience

T-Minus 29 Days!

Apparently I like updating this blog on the 15th of each month? Anyways, we are so close to being back home (T-Minus 29 days)! I can almost taste Scotty's home brews right now! We have started picking out work space furniture and shelving for our brewing area, and it is going to look awesome in there! The minute we move in, I am sure that will be the first room we set up! Since I most likely will not blog again before the 15th of next month, the next blog will be filled with pictures of our brewing area! Cant wait!!!

Waiting...

Less than two months until we are back in Denver!! We are extremely excited not only to get back home, but also to start homebrewing, finally! Scotty is still trying to figure out the exact supplies he wants to purchase, as well as deciding on which type of beer to experiment with first. He has continued reading up on homebrewing, making sure he has as much knowledge on the process as possible. It is an exciting time, and we can't wait to start blogging about our experiences with homebrewing! Hopefully time will fly by here, and before your know it we will be back in the great state of Colorado! With love and hoppiness....Elise and Scott

Beer Wars Movie

Beer Wars Movie is a one night event being shown live via satellite in over 440 theatres across the country on April 16th! Click the link provided below to buy tickets to this one night EVENT!

By attending this event you are showing your support for the craft beer movement. Beer Wars LIVE is a documentary film exploring the U.S. beer industry that ultimately reveals the truth behind the label of your favorite beer. The film shows how corporate powerhouses are being challenged by small, independent brewers who are transforming the beer industry by creating innovative new beers. This is a contemporary David and Goliath story that provides unexpected and surprising turns and promises to change the world’s opinion on those infamous 99 bottles of beer on the wall.


Buy Tickets Here!

Denver...Gorgeous!

Only a few more months until we start our journey back to Denver! We could not be more excited or more prepared for the move. After all, we have done it quite a few times. While Tampa has shown us a good time, and surprisingly a few good beers, it is time for us to part ways. Scott and I are both extremely grateful to the local Total Wine for their extensive beer selection. Our stay in Tampa would have been painful without them.

A couple other places we would like to mention are Tampa Bay Brewing Company and The Wine Exchange. Tampa Bay Brewing Company, located in Centro Ybor, has a nice selection of beers (brewed on site) as well as a great menu which gives you beer pairing suggestions. One of our favorite places to visit was The Wine Exchange in Old Hyde Park Village. While the beer selection is limited, the beers on tap are GREAT beers at a good price. In addition, they offer a nice food menu at very reasonable prices. It's always a pleasant experience dining there.Before we leave, we have made it our goal to try some of the beers at the new Cigar City Brewing. Since our arrival, we have read numerous articles about this new brewery in Tampa, but the opening continued to be pushed back. Well, finally, Cigar City Brewing is having their launch party on March 28th at the Oldsmar Tap House. I hope their beer is worth the wait!

We will finally be making our way back to Denver on July 14th, and will begin our homebrewing very soon after. Scott is extremely well-read on the process of homebrewing so hopefully the process will go smoothly.

-Elise