Aging Beer The Wrong-ish Way

A home renovation put the brakes on my homebrewing for several months, save for one small batch I made for a club competition. I'd get my own dedicated brew space eventually, but I'd have to pack up everything. Normally, I would stash my kegs in a cool place, but the basement was my cool place and it was being gutted. The old beer fridge got the heave-ho, so I'd have to settle for room-temperature storage of my kegs as well as several bombers of high-ABV beers. Time and heat are the enemy of beer, so I had to be careful.

Cellaring Warm-ish

The de facto storage room was our upstairs study. While I could keep it reasonably dark, it was on an upper floor and south-facing, so it got well into the 70s F during the early-summer days. I wasn't too thrilled about it, but sadly I had no choice. I gave the kegs an extra hit of CO2 before storage as a buffer against slight leaks. Sure, they might be a little overcarbed, but that's easy to fix.

The basement was finished in about a month, so I moved the beer downstairs for somewhat cooler and more stable storage (upper 60s F). I gave the kegs a quick burp and all appeared to be holding pressure nicely. The contents still smelled like beer too, so I was confident the homebrew was doing OK.

Fast-forward to December. The brew room is functionally complete and I'm getting organized. I had three kegs of finished homebrew: a stronger Dead Guy clone, a pale ale and a mystery beer that wasn't labeled. I want to cool them down for sampling, but the new beer fridge won't fit 5gal kegs without removing all the shelves. I did say it was December, so outside they go.

Kegs in the snow

 After about 6 hours, I brought them it, hooked up a picnic tap and started sampling. How bad would these brews turn out to be?

The Dead Guy clone

This beer is an iteration on a Dead Guy clone I made for my wedding. The second anniversary brew was a bit stronger (8.2% ABV) and partial mash. It went from grain to keg in 20 days. When fresh, it was a bit boozy and had a raisiny character I didn't really care for.  This one would definitely benefit from aging, and it did.

Dead Guy clone +256 days

It poured pretty foamy at first, but a quick bleed settled it a bit. The color was still good. Not as clear as before, but the kegs had been disturbed so I wasn't worried. The boozy aroma was gone and the raisiny flavor was absent as well. I didn't detect any oxidation, but it seemed it was passed its prime. According to my brew logs, this beer was 256 days old - almost 8 months. It's peak had passed, but it was still drinkable and arguably better than it was on day 0.

Verdict: Keep it around for now, but its dump date is not far off.

Blonde Ale

The next brew was a blonde ale I brewed in April for a club competition. It was a partial mash with some rye and Nelson Sauvin hops. It would eventually be served at a summer picnic, so I went light: 4.8% ABV and roughly 20 IBUs. Grain to keg in 16 days, plus an additional 5 days of dry-hopping. 

This beer was great when fresh. It scored 41 points in the judging portion of the competition. My best score yet! But when the club-wide best-of-show rolled around 6 weeks later, it tasted noticeably different. The hops didn't pop like they did before. It finished in the middle of the pack. If it was this drastic after just a few weeks, I feared it would be undrinkable after a long cellaring.

Blonde Ale +212 days

The good news: It was still drinkable

The bad news: It was also past its prime

Carbonation was still pretty good after a short burping. This keg didn't have a lot left in it. It poured cloudy, and I can only presume that some lingering sediment was stirred up. The beer still had that vinous aroma Nelson Sauvin is known for. The flavor was more grapefruity, reminiscent of Citra, which is odd since I used Magnum as the bittering charge and a bit of Sorachi Ace at flameout. No oxidation or other off flavors detected. Nevertheless, storage had not been kind to this summer gem. 

Verdict: Dump. Not worth keeping the few pints left.

The Mystery Beer

The third keg wasn't labeled and felt about half full. I wasn't sure what I'd get when I opened the tap. Out came my base amber ale, a 5.5% ABV brew upon which I built my pumpkin-pie-spice ale. It's designed to be inoffensive, lightly hopped (~35 IBUs) and slightly malty so the added flavors stand out. It's a blank canvas; so much so that one judge in a competition said it wasn't bad, but it wasn't beer.

Base amber +296 days

This was made in late February, so it had spent 296 days in the keg. Carbonation and clarity were both good. Not a lot of aroma, but it still had a slight malty flavor. No oxidation or off flavors. Still boring. Not awful, but not at its prime either. 

Verdict: Keep for now. Might be good to cook with.

Conclusion: Colder is Better, But Time Will Always Win

Keeping beer cold is a no-brainer, but its not always possible. Beer can be - and often is - kept above serving temperature. Keeping it warm will accelerate aging. In the case of the Dead-Guy clone, that made for a better beer. If I make it again, I'll give it a few weeks of aging near room temperature. Nevertheless, too much of a good thing is often bad. All three brews are on a downward trajectory after many months of warm to slightly cool cellaring. Refrigeration would have certainly kept them longer, but degradation is inevitable.

Building a Brew Room - Equipment

Brewing at my house takes place in several rooms. I mash in the kitchen, boil outside on a screened-in deck (or in the kitchen if the Mrs is out of town), chill and clean in the laundry room, and cellar in the basement. My brew gear is also kept in the basement, so I wind up making a dozen or so trips up and down the stairs over the course of a brew day. It's a bit of a bother.

When the Mrs and I started talking about renovating the house, she floated the idea of converting a basement room into a brew room. We have a mostly finished basement with a guest suite, but the previous owners had converted the roughly 11'x6' bedroom into a pantry and auxiliary kitchen. 

Guest room turned pantry/cat hovel

Over time it also became the de facto cat room, where Cellar Cat's food and litter box lived. In the picture above, she's on the counter next to the fridge, likely horking down some Fancy Feast. Any cattiness in my beers is solely attributable to ... um, Simcoe!

The room already has a (too small) sink as well as 120V and 240V power supply, so it's not much of stretch to gut it and turn it into a proper brewing space. But first things first: We had to empty the basement. This meant that my brewing would have to be put on hold. All of my brew gear is piled up onto two shelving units in the upstairs home office, and the cold ingredients (hops, yeast, starters, etc) were crammed into a cooler. To be honest, I'm surprised I could fit as much in there as I did.

Brewery (and some camping gear)
in storage

Our renovation contractor's designers had never worked on a homebrew-specific space before, so they were quite eager to learn about homebrewing and what a functional brew space would require. I wanted commercial-grade (or at least commercial-ish) equipment and fixtures, but their preferred appliance and fixture supplier didn't carry anything I wanted at a reasonable price. (Much to the supplier's credit, they didn't want to sell me something at 3x the price that won't work any better than what I could buy from a big-box store.)

I wound up doing a lot of shopping on my own. It's a bit more work than just giving the builders a model number, but I'll get a quality product at a price I can stomach. Broan and Elkay make fantastic stuff, but the sink and hood will get used maybe 1-2x/month so spending $$$ on them isn't a good idea.

New Fixtures and Appliances

Exhaust Hood

I'm adding a range hood so I can boil indoors on an induction burner. Curiously, the previous owners put in an electric range, but no exhaust hood. I bought the AKDY RH-0228, which sports a 3-speed 400CFM exhaust fan (so the Mrs won't complain about the house smelling like a brewery) and 2 halogen lights (so I can see what I'm doing).  This cost me about $250 at a well-known do-it-yourself retailer.

AKDY RH-0228 range hood

Sink

The two-basin kitchen sink is being replaced with a Regency stainless steel commercial sink. It has a 14" deep basin and is wide enough to accommodate the Mark II keg and carboy washer. The drainboard is a handy place for, well, draining things. 

Regency 600S1181818 LFT
(photo: Webstaurantstore.com)

I also bought a 8" wall-mount faucet and a twist-activated drain. One of those long dangly spray nozzles (like you see in a restaurant kitchen) would've been cool for rinsing fermenters and kegs, but probably not necessary. I also plan to put up a plastic pegboard above the sink so I can hang tubing up to dry.

Work Surfaces

For now, I have two Seville Classics stainless steel work tables. The tops are NSF certified, and the shelf is adjustable, much like the baker's racks I already have. (More on those later.)

Seville Classics Commercial NSF Stainless Steel Top Worktable
(Photo: Amazon.com)

I'd been tracking the price on CamelCamelCamel for a while. When the price hit an all-time low, I pulled the trigger. They're still in boxes, but I'm eager to get them set up. One will probably be the home for the induction burner, leaving the other for ingredient prep.

Baker's Racks

I have two racks currently: A tall one (5 shelves, ~6' high) and a short one (3 shelves, ~3' high). I bought them at Target some years ago, but Amazon has similar ones at pretty good prices. I plan to use the tall one for grain and ingredient storage. The shorter one might well go next to the sink for cleaning supplies.

3-shelf baker's rack
(Photo: Amazon.com)

5-shelf baker's rack
(Photo: Amazon.com)

These racks are pretty easy to assemble - the racks slide down the posts and are held in place by a plastic wedge-like stopper - but a bear to take apart. Gravity definitely works against you if it's standing up.

Fridge / Fermentation Chamber

I have long been wanting a fermentation chamber. A small dorm-sized fridge would be ideal, but most have a freezer compartment that takes up much-needed space at the top. More than a few people have tried to bend the compartment out of the way... and failed. The freezer is actually the evaporation coil, and handling it roughly will crack it. The refrigerant leaks out, and you're left with an expensive upright cooler.

Fortunately, someone already makes a refrigerator with the evaporation coil helpfully out of the way. The Danby DAR044A4WDD Compact All Refrigerator is exactly what it says on the box. The condenser runs down the back wall, maximizing interior space. Cut out the soda-can rack in the door and you've got enough room for a fermenter or a couple of kegs.

Danby DAR044A4WDD interior
(Photo: Amazon.com)

I've been tracking this model on CamelCamelCamel for some time. The price is pretty good currently, but I don't have a place to put it yet. I might well get a second one to store hops, yeast, etc.

Other Stuff TBD

There's still more stuff to get, but I still haven't decided what. A few things on my radar:

• A stool or chair
• Hooking up a small old LCD TV to cable or Chromecast
• Amazon Echo Dot
• A stand for my notebook computer

HomebrewCon 2017: The Last Day

It's over.

It's finally over.

Now I can dry out.

The last day was a bit of a scamper, with two seminars to hit before one last pass at the expo floor. Then there's acquiring some of the finest liquid souvenirs from the nearest liquor store. Oh, and I had to buy and mail a Father's Day card. No pressure.

The first seminar was "Recipe Development with Dangerous Man" and their three brewers, Alxndr Jones, John Leingang and Rob Miller. It was alright. They discussed how they, well, came up with recipes. Early on, it was a lot of trial and error. Their first batch of rye beer gummed up their mash tun, so maybe 40% is too much.

The next session was "Kinda Brown, Mostly Sexy: A Semi-autobiographical Account of the Actual History and Brewing of Porters and Stouts" presented by Kris England. He's head brewer at Bent Brewstillery in town and - perhaps more importantly - a BJCP Grand Master IV judge and co-author of the BJCP 2015 Guidelines. He's also a gonzo dresser. It's hard to make out in the picture, but he's wearing a blue blazer with white stars, red trousers and black wellies with a floral pattern.

Kris England, dressed to kill you with laughter

Kris said right off the bat that he's highly caffeinated, but he learned in grad school that people won't pay attention to your lectures if you're boring. "Delivery beats content," he said. And he's right.

He went over the history of stouts and porters while occasionally badgering his friends in the audience and imploring us to drink more of the beer. (Speaking of which, he was kind enough to say at the very beginning what the beers were - Bent's Nicked and Schell's Stag Series #10 Tropical Stout - so we can get our Untapped check-ins out of the way.)

If you're a AHA member, this is one of the seminar recordings you need to watch. It's simply that good.
On a completely unrelated note, I thought this shirt in the audience was hilarious:

I darted to the expo floor to meet some folks for a Northern Brewer giveaway. Everyone got one of four beer superhero trading cards in their bag. Form a superhero team and you got a small prize (a NB logo tasting glass) and entry into a drawing for a $250 gift card and a $1000 gift card. As it turns out, forming teams was probably more trouble than most people wanted to bother with, so there weren't a lot of entries. They haven't called or e-mailed me yet, so I'm guessing I didn't win. Oh well.

I nabbed some grain samples for the gang back at the homebrew shop. Then there's the pillaging of the leftover swag bags. If you want another pen or cleaner sample, this is the time.

I made it to the post office with less than two minutes to spare, and I had to jog several blocks to manage even that. On the way back to the hotel, I detoured to Haskell's ("The Wine People!") for some beer to take home. The selection at this downtown location wasn't great, but it had more than I could fit in a duffel bag.

Souvenirs. #homebrewcon2017 pic.twitter.com/jNta7O4GYm

— Zymurginian (@zymurginian) June 17, 2017

Did all the beer, grain, hops, and tchochke fit? As they say up here, "You betcha!"

Will it all fit? Yeah! #homebrewcon2017 pic.twitter.com/wrmiXlikyG

— Zymurginian (@zymurginian) June 17, 2017

And that was how my second HomebrewCon went. Hard to say if it was better than Baltimore, but I'm definitely glad I went. Next year's event is a bit later in June in Portland. There's a beer city for you. I might even get the Mrs and the boy to fly out ... and find other things to do.

Meanwhile, it's back to the real world, and getting my home brewery space built!

HomebrewCon 2017: Day 2

Yet another day at HomebrewCon. After the swag-o-rama and dickchimping of Day 1, Day 2 was more about the seminars.

The nice thing about this conference is that all the seminars are recorded, and they are posted to the AHA website soon afterwards. For some time slots, I had four seminars I was interested in. Knowing I can watch them all later frees me to pick one that might have a good Q&A or - more importantly - accompanying beers.

First up was a session on using dry yeast for bottle conditioning by Jennifer Helber, who set up Boulevard Brewing's quality assurance lab back in the 1990s. I never thought to add dry yeast to finished beer, but damned if it isn't a good idea. Boulevard  filters out the first yeast, then adds a different yeast for conditioning. The new yeast also helps clean up diacetyl and other off flavors.

Next was a historical presentation on molasses beer. The presenter was Frank Clark from Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia. He has a particularly cool job in that he researches food from a historical standpoint and tries to replicate them. Seeing as he works for a colonial-era living museum, he researches and brews colonial-era beer. And wears period clothing.

Frank Clark from @colonialwmsburg discussing molasses beer in style. #homebrewcon2017 pic.twitter.com/cktyQ2S4eZ

— Zymurginian (@zymurginian) June 16, 2017

Molasses beer was a combo of molasses, wheat bran and hops. As it turns out, molasses and liquid malt extract have the same PPG (1.036) so this was effectively the first partial-mash beer. What's old is new again. The beer itself is cloudy but pretty tasty.

Then we got all sciencey with Rahr Malting's hops wizard, Patti Aron.

@rahr_malt 's Patti Aron talking IBUs and bitterness #homebrewcon2017 pic.twitter.com/0YvuwdeYjD

— Zymurginian (@zymurginian) June 16, 2017

Good info on past research into hops, how IBUs are calculated, how aging can actually make hops better, and why isomerized hops don't skunk easily. Also plenty of molecule diagrams, which made a bit of sense to a guy who managed a C in freshman chemistry.

Phew! Time for beer! Before long I found the line for the Dickie's booth. Someone at the Briess booth told me the day before that were giving away work shirts. Sure, why not?

If there's a line, there's usually something good at the end. @Dickies #homebrewcon2017 pic.twitter.com/0uESJ2FOzg

— Zymurginian (@zymurginian) June 16, 2017

It took a while (20 minutes?), but I walked away with a navy blue Dickie's short-sleeve shirt freshly pressed with my choice of patch. They only had XL shirts left by the time I got there, but that happens to be my size (and probably a third of all convention-goers). Score.

Quick break for lunch and then another seminar on how to evaluate your beer like a beer judge. Gordon Strong gave a great presentation, and there were two beers offered (Schell's Pils and Summit Extra Pale Ale) to practice sniffing and sipping. Who knew there were eight different ways to smell beer?

Tasting beer like a beer judge with Gordon Strong. #homebrewcon2017 pic.twitter.com/NjWKFCBAiN

— Zymurginian (@zymurginian) June 16, 2017

One last turn of the expo floor to see what's up. Yakima Valley Hops did a HomebrewCon promo using plinko. One-pound bags of pellet hops were $20, and you could get a discount (up to 50%) depending on where the puck landed. First try stuck on a peg about a third of the way up from the bottom.

"That means I get it for free, right?"

"Ha! Not quite. Try again."

This time it landed on 3, so 30% off or $14/lb. Not too shabby.  I picked Medusa, a recent hybrid of a neomexicanus variety that was unlike anything I had. And since I hit the peg (or, more likely, they wanted to unload it) the guy even threw in an opened bag of Loral that had been on the counter as a sample. It weighs about as much as the sealed bag, so I'll call it 2lbs for $14. I'll vacuum-seal and freeze the Loral when I get home, but at 10.2% alpha it will have enough punch for some autumn brews.

Friday's catch

After dinner I braved Club Night. Only one other guy (that I know of) is here from my club in VA, so this might be short. I managed about an hour and a half, trying a few tasty-looking beers. Props to clubs with Randalls and beer engines.

It's a pig. Bourbon barrel stout
comes out the butt tap. 

M.A.S.H. with an IPA line split in two.
One fed into the Randall. Very tasty.

SMASH with a pretty righteous
slide-in reefer unit converted to
a trailer.

I may have gotten a shot (actually a syringe) of Maker's Mark from a guy dressed like a doctor. He looked legit. :D

HomebrewCon 2017: Day 1

Day one of HomebrewCon began quietly for your humble blogger. The morning sessions were for industry types, so I had a leisurely breakfast and wrote the prologue post before heading over to hit the expo floor. I learned from last year that there's a lot of swag handed out and many good products to check out, so I made a point to spend several hours checking out the booths. I work part-time at a homebrew shop so I was also on the lookout for products that might do well there. Just because I wouldn't buy some gizmo doesn't mean our customers won't.

I picked up the swag bag and it was already heavy. This year there's a commemorative beer by Surly called Walezbrah. It's an auburn-colored beer (7.5% ABV) and maded with an oaked pale wheat wort. "Whalezbrah! is tart, funky, wheaty, and contains waves of weird wood throughout," says Surly's webpage about the beer. "We’re never brewing it again, so it’s truly a whale. Brah." I managed to get extra bottles of last year's Airwaves, so maybe I can bag a second bottle later on.

This year we also got Beeginnings, a small (6.3oz) bottle of blackberry/raspberry/black currant mead (12% ABV) made with orange blossom honey. Three meaderies and a local homebrew club collaborated to make this clear, raspberry-colored gem and mead. There's also a small bottle of fruit puree (I got blood orange). Then there's a few stickers, a pen, two lip balms, a bottle opener, and some other small tchochke. On to the expo floor!

Weyermann's Axel Jany

Weyermann brought in Axel Jany from Germany to talk about the company and some of their products. He's a great speaker and quite entertaining. He passed around small samples of their various products so folks could do a little chew-testing. At then end, they gave away 10lb bags of a new floor-malted grain. They brought 100 bags, but there were way more than that at the demo. Yours truly missed out. Oh well.

I asked him afterwards what made floor-malted grain different (aside from the price). He chuckled and said there wasn't a huge difference. He said brewers were mainly interested in it for the "story:" It's how grain used to be malted, and some brewers want that old-school product. He said the Czechs can't get enough of it.

Later on I found myself at the Briess booth to get my free pound of Carapils Copper malt and to try some new (for me) varieties. I asked Bob Hansen how I could best use their Extra Special malt, and I got a 10-15 minute discourse on the various caramel malts and how Extra Special is different. The color in the Caremel malts is linear (1oz of Caramel 90 will give you the same color as 9oz of Caramel 10) but the flavors will be quite different. Extra Special is a 130L hybrid that has qualities of both caramel and dry malts. It's less roasty, and Bob said it would be excellent in an Irish stout like Beamish.

Then I got the lowdown on their CBW Rye, which I've used before and rather like. It was originally made for a customer to include in a beer kit, but Briess was later allowed to sell it separately. It's 20% rye with 10% Caramel 40 and 70% base malt (normally 2-row). Bob can talk your ear off, but that's enthusiasm for you. That's also why I come to these things.

Denny Conn, Marshall Schott, Drew Beechum
and Malcolm Frazier

After trying many tasty beers (Bent Paddle's amber ESB is fan-frickin-tastic!) I finally took in a seminar. The guys behind Brulosophy (Marshall Schott and Malcolm Frazier) and Experimental Brewing (Denny Conn and Drew Beechum) did a session on "citizen science" and their efforts to do experiments in the realm of homebrewing. It was a fun and enlightening session.

Then they said "dickchimp."

The "dickchimp" slide

Dickchimp is a verb meaning "to make a mistake, screw up." Denny hopes it will make it into the homebrew lexicon. I think we can make that happen.

Aside from being a hilarious word, the point was that you can learn a lot from your mistakes. Science involves a lot of mistakes, goofs and happy accidents. Also, YMMV: Your process may lead to different results than they got, so don't take their results as gospel.

I accumulated a lot of stuff on this day so I could spend more time in the seminars. The bag was almost full by the time I was done and boy were my arms tired.

Swag bag

And here's what I picked up:

The big contents

The flat stuff

This year seems to be the year for trucker hats. I was offered several, but politely took just one. Also, Spike Brewing is giving away a conical Friday and Saturday to someone wearing that bright green shirt. Guess what I'm wearing?

Surly's Omar Ansari gave the keynote speech. Very entertaining and passionate guy. After some good stories about him building hs brewery (and giving himself carbon monoxide poisoning in the process) he ended with a call to promote and protect craft beer.

The beer they poured was also tasty, but I have no idea what it was. Guessing a Surly brew. Maybe the commemorative beer?

Next time - Day 2.

HomebrewCon 2017: Prologue

I'm attending the 2017 National Homebrewer's Conference (aka HomebrewCon) in Minneapolis this week. I was sitting on a bunch of airline miles and hotel points, so why not? 😁
I flew in on Wednesday to give myself a little time to explore a new city... and drink its beer. I'm not going to write a blow-by-blow travelogue here. I'll keep it something akin to long-winded tweets on a page.
After checking in to the Hilton Minneapolis, I followed a tip from my Lyft driver and hit a place called Hell's Kitchen for lunch. Their marquee item is a cheese-filled burger called the Juicy Lucifer. It's tough to eat such a thick patty, but it is delicious. The cole slaw was the real surprise with a true-to-theme spiciness to it.

Hell's Kitchen's Juicy Lucifer 

Practically next door is the Angel Food bakery. (They're at street level, while Hell's Kitchen is in the basement. The ironies were not lost on me.) The have an outpost at MSP and man their stuff looked fantastic. I hit them up this morning and got their crullers. Mmmmm. I didn't know crullers could be so airy.

Angel Food cinnamon sugar (L)
and plain cruller

Just across the street is Haskell's Wine. It's the closest liquor store for local beer purchases. Other stores probably have better beer selection, but being less than two blocks away wins out.
And just up the street from there is Target, the hometown big-box retailer. Perfect place to get some cheap lunchable-type food and B-complex to survive several days of drinking.
All this convenience is within two blocks of the hotel. I may never leave. Well, I would when winter comes.
The Minneapolis Convention Center is about two blocks away. It can be reached using the city's extensive Skywalk system of pedestrian corridors, but the weather up here is fantastic, so I might as well walk on the street.
I took the Hoppy Trolley's hop-on, hop-off shuttle to Near Northeast to hit some breweries up that way. It's $1/ride, which is a bargain at twice the price if you're leaving or returning to the Convention Center.
I hit 3 breweries: Able, 612 Brew and BauHaus. They weren't too busy so I managed to chat with some of the brewers. 612's rye IPA was fantastic (17% rye, per the brewer), and BauHaus's "belgo-american" ale was superb.
Last night I hoofed it up to Target Field to watch the Twins play the Mariners. The home team lost 6-4, but they do have a nice roomy stadium that feels very social.
The expo floor opens shortly, so I get to kill some time there while waiting for the first round of homebrewer seminars this afternoon.
Follow me on Twitter! I'm @Zymurginian
Cheers!

Review: Blichmann Beer Gun 2

I still had some tax-refund money burning a hole in my pocket, so I bought a Blichmann New BeerGun from Home Brewing Warehouse. I had been using a macgyvered beer gun made up of a picnic tap and bottling wand to bottle beer for competition. It seemed to work OK, but the judges consistently pointed out the carbonation was low. The time had come for a purpose-built beer gun.

The New Beer Gun in its case

What's In the Box?

Blichmann has a reputation for making quality stuff, and it was evident the moment I unboxed it. Inside the plastic case is the New Beer Gun, a roughly 6' gas line, a cleaning brush a 10ft beer line with a MFL attachment on one end, a liquid MFL quick disconnect and the ever-important instructions. Most of these small parts were sold by Blichmann as a separate kit, but they've been included here.

The New Beer Gun with gas line, beer line, cleaning brush
and liquid MFL quick disconnect

The New Beer Gun looks more like a gun. It has a molded plastic grip that reminds me of a semi-automatic pistol. It's comfortable to hold, with an ambidextrous thumb lever for CO2 and a trigger for beer. The previous model had exposed pipe, so the operator's hand would slightly warm the beer during filling and cramp up during long bottling sessions. The gas line runs from your CO2 tank to a connection at the bottom of the handle (or - sticking with the semi-auto pistol metaphor - where the magazine well would be). The beer line goes from your keg and slips over the back end of the fill tube (or the breech of the barrel). At first, this seems like a bad idea, but the gun is meant to be used at low pressures (<4 PSI).

Gas attaches at bottom of handle, while beer
line simply slides over end of fill tube

The barrel is two pieces, with the fill tube running inside a larger diameter gas tube. Pressing down on the CO2 lever opens a valve and sends gas down to purge the barrel. (The guys at Brulosophy recently did an experiment putting the older Beer Gun up against bottling with a picnic tap. They purged the bottles for 45 seconds.) Pulling the trigger pulls the beer tubs back from a small rubber ball clipped to the end of the gas tube.

"Muzzle" of Beer Gun barrel with the trigger fully open.
Photo: Blichmann Engineering

Filling bottles

I hooked everything up and started filling 6 bottles for an upcoming competition. I first hooked the Beer Gun up to my keg of Star-San and ran a quick blast through it to sanitize. Mechanically, the Beer Gun worked great. I had the pressure up too high, so I got more foaming than I would have liked. Blichmann recommends slowly releasing pressure on the keg, then putting on just enough pressure to push the beer. I chill my bottles before filling to reduce foam, so I also recommend chilling the Beer Gun and tubing before filling to reduce foaming.

Cleaning Up

This thing breaks down easily for cleaning and requires no tools. The back end of the trigger slips into a notch on the beer tube. Simply pop it out, and then slide the barrel off the handle. The rubber stopper pops off easily. The gas parts stay put, but something would have to go horribly wrong to require cleaning. The cleaning brush is just the right size for cleaning the barrel. Blichmann advises against long soaks in PBW-like cleaners as it can damage the steel.

To Sum Up: It's a Buy If You Bottle A Lot

Like so many brew toys, the New Beer Gun is great if you need it. If you keg and rarely bottle, save your coin. But if you pull off many bottles for competitions or giving away, it's well worth a look.

Small-Batch Brewing with an Induction Burner

Starting the boil

Since the IRS was kind enough to refund some overpaid taxes, I spent a bit of it on some new brew gear. I bought the Secura 9100MC 1800W Portable Induction Cooktop and the Cook n Home 8-quart stockpot from Amazon. These would allow me to make small batches outside (or inside if the Mrs allows). This cooktop isn't quite strong enough to handle my larger batches: Its weight limit is 25lb, which isn't enough to support my current kettle and 3-gallon extract boils. Nevertheless, it is excellent for small BIAB batches and heating up mash water.

Initial Impressions

The cooktop is pretty easy to use. There's a simple power setting (1-10) and a temperature setting where you can pick from

The first job was to figure out how much the new pot-and-cooktop combo will boil off in an hour. I put one gallon in the pot and set it on 10 power.

My first check was to see how quickly it could get up to mash temperature (~170°F). The burner got it there in about 12-13 minutes. I say "about" because I was double-checking my Polder thermometer with my ThermaPen instant-read thermometer and they didn't agree. The Polder hit 170F in just over 12 minutes, but the ThermaPen didn't hit that mark until 13 minutes and change. Not too bad for mash water, but I'm starting to question the accuracy of my old Polder.

Thermapen: 211F
Polder: 237F

Onward to boiling.  And it didn't take that long.

The Thermapen recorded 212°F after 21 minutes of heating. The Polder recorded 237°F! Even more worrisome since this was the thermometer I was using to monitor my wort cooldown in previous batches. The probe is replaceable, but this is the second one and it's probably better to replace the whole thing.

Now that we've achieved boil, it's time to set the timer for an hour and let it steam away. After the timer went off, I cut the heat and carefully poured the water into a large glass measuring cup. I had just over 4 cups of water, so roughly half a gallon boiled off. Not too shabby.

Mashing and Boiling

A week later, I prepared a small BIAB recipe to test how well I can mash with this setup. This particular cooktop can be set to a certain temperature, which suggests it could possibly hold at mash temperature. The cooktop's temperature sensor is in the cooktop itself, so it's regulating that temperature, not the temperature of the pot or what's in it. Also, you can only select one of several preset temperatures. The only settings close to mash are 140°F and 170°F, so I tried 170°F to see how well it worked.

Mashing in

Like the previous test, it got the water up to 170°F and did a good job holding it there. I turned the cooktop down to 140°F, but it took a while for the water to cool down. My grain bill was pretty light, so it didn't bring the temperature down very much. It eventually held at 154°F, though I was doing this test outside on a cool and breezy April afternoon. While the temperature setting is convenient, it'll take some tinkering to figure out how to make it work for mashing.

Once I was done mashing, I cranked the temperature setting up to 235°F, which was what my Polder indicated as boiling in previous worts. It got the wort up to a slow boil and held it, but it eventually turned itself off due to overheating. At that point, it had been running for well over an hour between mash and boil. After a short cooldown and reset, the boil was back on. I wasn't that impressed with the boil ferocity based on temperature, but it was getting the job done since I could smell the DMS in the vapors. In the future, I'll just use the power setting to get a rolling boil going.

Last month, I did another mash for a competition beer using this set-up. It was a hot mess. Instead of just letting the mash temperature drop, I tried to use the cooktop to hold temperature. It was way too hot (170°F) and knowing it takes a while to cool, I added a few cups of cold water. Then it was too cool (140ish°), so I tried warming it up. It got to about 150°F, but I wasn't happy with the rollercoaster. Despite this (and a lovely late boilover) the blonde ale tied for first in the competition with 41 points.

Verdict: It works!

I managed to make one pretty good beer with this combo, so it has earned a place in the new brewery. But like a lot of new gizmos, it will take a little while to figure out how to get the most out of it. It works great for strike water and the boil, but I'll need to keep tinkering with it on the mash.

National Homebrew Competition: Thanks for Playing

I got my NHC scoresheets in the mail last week. Two of my beers (Fruitcake Ale and amber rye ale) scored in the low 30s and earned a silver certificate. My other entries (an attempted Black Butte clone and the autumn seasonal Oktober Surprise) did quite a bit worse in the low 20s, thus earning a womp-womp.

NHC scoresheet for Amber Ale. Judge's info
redacted (poorly).

Even though the NHC version of the score sheet is abbreviated - lots of checkboxes - I got more feedback than I was expecting. One judge even offered a few pointers on mash pH and fermentation temperatures for my acetone-tinged Black Butte clone. The most cutting comment was on the lack of hop character in Oktober Surprise: " It's not bad, but it's not beer."

I made one rookie mistake with my flavored beers by listing what I put in it rather than what can actually be detected. You're more likely to get dinged for something you say is there but isn't apparent to the judges.

The Fruitcake Ale has a lot of stuff in it, which I documented in this blog. The citrus and apricot were drowned out. Ginger, cherry and allspice have been the most prominent flavors in several judges' eyes (or tongues and noses). I'm entering Fruitcake into at least one more competition, so I now know what to declare.

I Won Something!

I recently got results back from the Spirit of Free Beer competition and hot damn, I won something! The fruitcake ale took second place in the Spice Beer category, which included autumn and winter seasonals.

My second-place swag bag and medal 

I entered this beer mainly because I had a ton of it left over, but I'm always eager to get feedback on a fairly complex tincture recipe.

For this winter seasonal category (30C), entrants have to declare the base style and what fruits/spices were included. I made the rookie mistake of saying what I put in it rather than what someone is likely to taste. While there is citrus zest and a tiny bit of spice in there, it's not apparent so I hobbled myself by declaring it. That said, the cherry and ginger do come through. Nevertheless, the judges had good feedback (it scored a 35) and I'm already thinking how to tweak this for next year.

So what does one get for placing in a category? I got a 8oz bottle of StarSan, a pound of PBW, a triple-scale hydrometer (whose merits and drawbacks I recently discussed), a bottle of Oskar Blues hot sauce and some random tchotchke. Not too shabby.

Oh, and there's the medal. Shiny!

I also entered my amber ale base beer, which is tough since it's designed to be tinkered with when its finished and wasn't intended to stand on its own. It scored a respectable 32 and the judges raved about its appearance, but it did not place.

BURP put on an event last weekend to award the prizes and - living up to the name - drink up all the leftover free beer. Despite the cool and rainy weather, it was good to meet a new bunch of homebrewers and get some live feedback on my beers. Also a good opportunity to scoop up some empties for later competitions.

Free beer in the rain

Some empties, and a few leftover entries from Category 11

My lone entry into DC Homebrewers' Cherry Blossom competition - Snowzilla oatmeal milk stout - did not place. The two judges were a bit at odds over the beer. One thought it was alright, but said it would be a lot better if I just took out the lactose. The second judge couldn't taste the lactose and didn't think much of the brew in general. Huh? This is why you enter the same beer into multiple competitions if you want meaningful feedback.

Also, none of my NHC entries advanced out of Austin. The national comp uses a streamlined scoresheet which won't contain any narrative, but I hope to get some useful info.

Happy National Beer Day!

There's a day for everything, and that includes beer. There is a National Beer Day, which is officially observed on April 7th. Even the Governor of Virginia says so.

So why April 7? That was the day in 1933 that the Cullen–Harrison Act went into effect. It allowed the production of low-alcohol beer, which it defined as 3.2% ABW or the more modern 4.0% ABV. This was the first legislative blow against Prohibition in the US, which would be fully repealed with the ratification of the 21st Amendment later that year.

After signing the bill into law, President Franklin D. Roosevelt famously said: "I think this would be a good time for a beer."

Indeed it is.

Measuring Specific Gravity

Homebrewing can be as precise as you want it to be. But even if you're brewing by the seat of your pants, you still need to measure things: temperature, volume, weight/mass, pressure, and density (as specific gravity). This last one is important since it tells us where our batch started, its potential for ethanol creation  and where/when it is finished.

The Gravity of the Situation

Specific gravity is the ratio of the density of a given liquid to a reference liquid, usually water. This value is expressed as a number to three decimal places, and each 1/1000th is called a point. Water has a specific gravity of 1.000 and a solution registering 1.025 is 25 points denser.

If you've ever used brewing software like BeerSmith or Brewer's Friend, you'll see that it lists a PPG (points per gallon) value for malts and adjuncts. This means that using brown sugar or caramel 20L malt will add X points of sugars to your wort per gallon of water.

These programs calculate your starting gravity (SG) using these PPG values. This is sometimes referred to as original gravity (OG). It then extrapolates how many of those points can be consumed by the yeast and gives you an expected final gravity (FG) as well as an expected percentage of alcohol by volume (ABV).

These are calculated values based on the grist bill you input. But that might not be the gravity you get. If your mash is too warm, your SG/OG will probably come in a little low.  If you lost count and put in an extra pound of brown sugar, your SG/OG will come in high. (True story: I built a recipe with a pound of honey, but input the same PPG value as LME. The actual SG/OG came in 30 points high at 1.084. Oops!)

Displacement: Glass Hydrometers

Triple-scale (left) and
FG hydrometers

For the homebrewer, there are two methods for measuring specific gravity: refraction and displacement.

The simplest, most direct way to measure specific gravity is by displacement. Weighted glass hydrometers are calibrated to float at a certain level in water at a certain temperature. You read the gravity by looking at the bottom of the meniscus in a sample and read the value on a paper scale inside the hydrometer.

The most common hydrometer is a triple-scale, which covers a wide range of gravities (mine goes from 0.982-1.060) and has scales in points as well as brix and potential alcohol. This is the kind that often comes in beginner homebrew kits. There are also more sensitive hydrometers that have narrower scales.

PRO:

• Cheap - The triple-scale costs only $7, which is a good thing. More sensitive FG versions can run up to $30.
• Reasonably accurate - For the money, a hydrometer is hard to beat in the accuracy department. You can get much better accuracy in a lab-grade device, but these are well over $100. 
• Versatile - The triple-scale can be used for SG and FG readings of beer and wine.  

CON:

• Low sensitivity and hard to read - This is my biggest knock on hydrometers, the triple-scale in particular. The broad scale means the markings are pretty close together, so it can be hard to read. I spend a lot of time staring at the meniscus trying to figure out if it's 1.044 or 1.046. I bought a second hydrometer with a much shorter range (0.990 to 1.020) to measure FG. If nothing else, it's much easier to read. 
• Waste of wort - It takes a fair amount of liquid to float them. Not a big deal with pre-boil wort since you can just pour it back into the pot, but it can be a waste of finished beer. 
• Fragile as all get-out - They are very fragile, and there's many a homebrewer that's broken one. HomeBrewTalk has an Official Broken Hydrometer Count thread going, and the grim tally is over 2,200. I did say they were cheap, so replacing won't pinch your wallet.
• Sensitive to temperature - Hydrometers are calibrated to water at a certain temperature, usually 60F. If your sample is considerably warmer or colder, the reading will be off. There are plenty of online calculators to correct the reading, but it's another step to take and you'll need a thermometer.
• Scale can drift - I did say they were accurate, and they are pretty good considering they cost under $30. But the paper scale inside can shift, especially if it's handled roughly. A 1.040 now might look like 1.036 if the scale slides down.  

Displacement: Electronic Hydrometers

The Beer Bug uses a float to measure
specific gravity from inside
your fermenter (Photo: MoreBeer)

In recent years, some clever folks have come up with electronic hydrometers that take readings constantly inside the fermenter. The Beer Bug and the Tilt float in the wort and tilt as the gravity changes. They transmit their data to a nearby computer, so you can see minute by minute how fermentation is going. These new devices eliminate all of the cons of glass hydrometers, but they have their own drawbacks.

PRO: 

• Easy to read - These are the digital watch to the glass hydrometer's sundial.
• Continuous readings - If you just love data, you can see how fermentation is going by the minute.
• Won't disturb primary - It takes its readings inside the fermenter, and you can check on its progress remotely. 
• Saves beer - No need to draw off samples, so you won't waste any beer.

CON:

• Expensive - $120-140 new, or what you'd spend on a handful of glass hydrometers.
• Requires some technical proficiency and extra electronics - These devices need another computer/tablet/smartphone to record data, and it'll be up to you to set it up. If you have an old smartphone with Bluetooth, great! Otherwise, you'll need to shell out for a compatible device.

Refraction: Analog Refractometer

My analog refractometer

The other method is to measure how much light bends - or refracts - as it passes through a liquid sample. Refractometers only need a few drops to get a reading, so they work great for checking the gravity of your mash or wort while boiling.  

OG of 1.057

PRO: 

• Easier to read - The scales can be pretty tight, but much easier to see where the blue stops than determine where the meniscus is in a turbid wort sample.
• Automatic temperature correction - The sample doesn't need to be room temperature, though I suspect it cools down very quickly when dropped onto the prism.
• Saves beer - Just needs a few drops of wort.
• Relatively inexpensive - They can be had for $20-30, though nicer ones will cost more
• Easy to calibrate - Add two drops of distilled water, then turn the adjustment knob or screw until it reads 1.000

CON:

• Cheap ones aren't very accurate - This is simply "you get what you pay for." I wouldn't be surprised if cheapo models need  constant adjusting. For what it's worth, I bought mine off of Amazon for $25. The picture on the right is an OG reading I took from my amber ale. It matched the expected value form Brewer's Friend and was pretty close to triple-scale hydrometer.
• Can be knocked out of calibration - Dropped it? The you'll want to re-calibrate. That said, I imagine they're far more durable than glass hydrometers.
• Wider scales are hard to read - Mine goes from 1.000 all the way up to 1.130 (or 0-30+ brix). This is fine for wine making, but it's is ridiculous for home brewing. A scale topping out at 1.060 with a more sensitive prism would be much easier to read.
• Dissolved solids make for fuzzy readings - Refractometers work best with simple sugars in solution. Wort is more complicated, sugar-wise, so readings can be a little off. Samples with any bit of cold-break proteins will make the line fuzzy and hard to read. 
• Alcohol skews readings - If you're sampling after fermentation has started, the ethanol will distort the readings. You'll need to use a calculator to correct the readings. 

Refraction: Digital Refractometer

Hanna digital refractometer
(Photo: MoreBeer)

These are laboratory-grade electronic devices. Definitely the most accurate tool, but you will pay $$ for it.

PRO: 

• Easy to read - Spits out a number on a digital display.
• Precise - Readings are +/- 1 point.
• Saves beer - Just needs a few drops of wort.

CON:

• Expensive - The cheapest one I've found is $200 from MoreBeer, and it only displays brix, which means you have to convert it to points. Meters that will display points go for $350-450. IMHO, these are overkill for home brewing, but hey, it's your money!

Which is Better: Hydrometer or Refractometer? Yes!

As we've seen, both methods have their drawbacks. You can stick to using one or the other, but I've embraced the notion of using both by playing to their strengths and using the best tool for the situation.

Refractometer for Pre- and Post-Boil, OG

Since there's no alcohol yet, I don't need to adjust my mast or wort readings. I can also get a reading quickly, which is handy if you're trying to boil down to your OG target. It can take a while to cool down a sample jar's worth of wort to get a hydrometer reading.

Hydrometer for Fermentation, FG

Triple-scale (left)
FG hydrometer (right)

Once alcohol is in the solution, the refractometer is at a disadvantage. I don't want get a reading and then convert it, so the hydrometer is the way to go. The best choice, however, isn't the triple-scale but a hydrometer specifically for FG. While they are a bit more expensive ($15), they are considerably more sensitive and easier to read.

I put my FG hydrometer next to my triple-scale with 1.000 marks lined up to show you the difference in ranges. The triple-scale covers 54 points (in two-point increments) in the same space as 10 points (in one-point increments) on the FG hydrometer. Since I only need to be accurate to one point, the FG hydrometer is much easier to read.

It will take a fair amount of beer to float the hydrometer, and you can't pour it back when you're done. But you can give it a taste. And if you have a carbonation cap and an empty plastic soda bottle, you can blast carb the sample to see how it tastes when it's all nice and fizzy.

Citizen Science with a Free Water Test

A researcher from my alma mater is part of the Showerhead Microbiome Project, which is enlisting people to swab the insides of their showerheads to see what lurks within. I thought it was quirky but interesting - I've always wondered what that gunk was - so I signed up. Last week, my collection kit came in the mail. It included a collection swab, nitrile gloves, and some water test strips. Cool, I get to profile my tap water!

Science!!

After swabbing the showerhead (which was cleaner than I expected), I held a 5-in-1 test strip under tepid water for a few seconds. I noted the values for total chlorine, free chlorine, total hardness, total alkalinity and pH, then repeated the process with a second strip to record nitrate and nitrite levels. The third strip checks for iron, so I had to add a small amount of a buffering powder to a vial then dunk a test strip.

I sent the results and swab in, and I hope to find out what's living in my showerhead. Meanwhile, I have a decent profile for brewing.

pH: 6.8
Total Alkalinity: 120 ppm
Total Hardness (CaCO3): 15 grains per gallon = 257 ppm
Free Chlorine: 0 ppm
Total Chlorine: 2 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 2 ppm
Iron: 0.15 ppm

The water is a bit more acidic (7.7) and slightly harder (7.5 grains) than the average reported by Arlington County. Many all-grain brewers here just grind up a Campden tablet to neutralize the chloramine and mash away. I use some distilled water for partial mash batches, but this profile is pretty good for mashing (minus the chlorine). That said, I really ought to check the pH of my mash. This is all new to a mostly extract brewer. :)

The other cool thing is that these test strips even exist. I plan to get some test strips to test how well my big carbon block filter does with chlorine and minerals.