Another Brewers Blog

So Much About Beer In One Post, This One Is Only Headlines And Links...

2011-11-29T23:01:00.001-06:00

From last Friday till today there have been a lot of beer news from my corner of the world so I'm going to highlight most of it here and go from there....

Friday I had 2 beers from Augusta Brewery in Augusta Missouri. The Brewery is along the Katy Trail and the Missouri River right across the bridge from Washington MO in the wine country hills. If you find your self in the area I recommend the Blonde Ale for a light and refreshing trail beer and the 1856 IPA for the Hop Heads out there.

Hibiscus Wit

Lunch on Saturday took us to Somebody's in downtown New Haven MO where besides the great burger I had the Hibiscus Wit by 2nd Shift Brewery that is the local New Haven Brewery. If you can ever come by this beer on tap, I LOVED it.

After that we went to Hermann Mo to drive around the old German wine country of Missouri and to visit the Tin Mill Brewery that is one of the first places to stop once you get into Hermann.

the brew system


my case of beer

some of the smaller fermenters

I bought a case of their beer while I was there and even took some bad camera phone pics of the place. I also tried their Oktoberfest on tap which was pretty tasty but I had 4 six packs already so I decided to hold off before I bought more. ( I already had another case in the trunk so I tried to limit myself a bit)

From there I went to a wedding reception at the old Washington Brewery. This was the actual reason to be in the area but still couldn't pull myself away from the history. An interesting little fact about this building "In 1854, John B. Busch, an older brother of the famous Adolphus Busch, established a brewery in Washington, bottling the first Busch Beer." While it is not an active brewery today, as a brewer my self, I couldn't help but put my hands on the walls and hope my German roots absorbed a little of the amazing history of the place.

My Score

Sunday was a travel day, 2 cases of beer in tow I headed back to Springfield. During the 3 hour ride home my main study was washing and freezing strands of yeasts. I read 3 great articles on the subject and would be happy to share them with anyone that wants to really get into the crazy side of the biology of brewing....

After a long shower and some laundry, I decided to try out a a beer that I just helped a friend bottle about a week before and see how it was coming along. Elise McCracken bottled her first beer, an amazing Double IPA that turned out bigger than life! She may not know this but I'm glad she moved to Nashville because as she comes into her own brewer, I'm glad I I wont have to compete against her on a local level!! She has an amazing pallet for beer and as long as I can keep her under the (delusion) that I know more than she does, the better off I'll be :) Love ya girl... I also cracked open a bottle of another friend of mines beer. Ben Stange is an established brewer that has his own weekly talk show about beer on the radio called Beer Buzz through Tag Magazine.
Ben was also one of the Judges of our last big Brewing Comp at Creekside and we have been talking about studying together taking the BJCP and Cicerone certifications over the next year. If you don't know the difference in between the two, BJCP is a style program for Home Brewers and Brewers alike and Cicerone is made more for the Buisness, server/bartender, brewer/beer master, and then the final level is the "Master of Beer" (my terms not theirs)...

now to Monday...

Springfield Brewing Company is bought by local investors which amount to the Master Brewer and his team of brewers and business partners. I see this as a very good move for the business and can't wait to see how the beer improves from the sale.

Along with the breweries of the area, a link from Ben's page sent me to the Horseshoe Bend Brewery
This Brewery is starting around the Lake of the Ozarks and has some fun ways for you to donate a small amount and help them in a big way! Visit the link and imagine what it's like to get one of these brewery's up and going and give if you can....

Last but not least... if you like beer, work with beer, brew beer, or just want to understand beer.... you need to read Tasting Beer
I cannot stress enough on how I needed this book right when it came recommended by a friend. I open it and after the first chapter, felt like I already read it. Then chapter two and three came along and all of the sudden I felt like I knew nothing about beer. It got 5 out of 5 stars for a reason...

if you made it this far I'll have you know I got my hair cut last night and really have to question your motive for reading past this point...

Cheers

Keeton

Anyone From Ireland Out There? (Updated)(

2011-11-13T01:55:00.001-06:00

I'm starting to form my Spring brewing game plan and first think to get done or at least started is a recipe for a true Irish beer. Being not from Ireland I'm looking for a little help to get the ball rolling. I like the idea of going with something like Ohara's Celtic Stout or Kilkenny Irish Cream Ale to represent my beer. 

Seeing that I have never had either beer but hear good things I'm hoping the the brewers of Ireland can help direct me what's fun and traditional or just the best beer maid over there right now..... I was thinking about Beamish  too or to get right down to it any good Irish beer that I haven't had before. That could be a local favorite or a big name.... Please tell me your Irish thoughts and opinions and together we'll build my Irish beer!! Thanks for the help in advance

Mead Update

2011-11-08T10:34:00.005-06:00

After 13 months and way too much honey, the fermentation of the metheglin "citrus mead" has stopped fermenting. The picture is a draw I bottled about 3 weeks ago unfiltered to try tonight and all I can say is it's well worth the wait! The stats on it ended up as this, SRM 4.3, ABV 14.41%, Batch 5 Gallons, Mouth feel is light on the front but quickly coats the tongue. It's a ride, but a fun one!

New Books to check out and other stuff

2011-11-04T14:11:00.000-05:00

My network of home brewers and beer geeks has grown greatly over the last year which means I've had an opportunity to learn all kinds of new fun stuff. I just finished reading The Brewers Apprentice by Greg Koch & Matt Allyn and now I'm starting Tasting Beer by Randy Mosher, both excellent books to pickup if you are wanting to expand your knowledge in the craft or if you work for the industry side and need to learn a little more on the who's, why's, and how of the beer world. I have also decided that I'm going to try and get Cicerone Certified this coming year and study to take my BJCP test some time next year too. Time to go stick my head in a bottle and get studying, thanks for reading!

New Lesson Learned About Mashing (EDITED)

2011-11-04T13:45:00.001-05:00

The new Mash Tun I built a few months ago works Great and we're still using the heck out of it! Last Sunday I was making a batch of spiced winter ale off a recipe I made up and mashed in my grain the same as I always do. Smelled wonderful, not to thick, to to thin, I had nothing to worry about.... or so I thought. after the sixty minutes were up, I opened the bottom valve to start recirculation before I started my sparge and all I got was a trickle. I had a stuck Mash. A VERY stuck mash. which brings me back to a question I asked someone about 3 years ago while reading an all grain recipe. "why do I always see rice hulls as an ingredient on all grain beers and never on extracts?" and if I would have remembered the answer while I was constructing this recipe I probably would have tossed in half a pound and not had my problem. What I had learned and since forgot is that rice hulls help separate the mash and provide the room needed for the water to run through, collect the converted sugars and make it to the bottom valve without turning into a solid mess.

We did finally get a flow started and got the 5 gallons of sweet wort out that we wanted but it took about two hours after everything. It was a simple reminder of how important cleanliness is and all those little things you may sometime forget while tossing together a recipe. The rest of the brew went great and the primary just finished so it turned out to be a nuisance and nothing else but if you have the ability to avoid it, I recommend doing to.

New Mast Tun A SUCCESS!!

2011-09-14T11:56:00.000-05:00

In my last post I showed pic of the newest piece of our brewing family. We have now brewed an IPA and a Brown Ale using the new mash tun and I have to say I am very impressed with the simplicity and functionality of the design. Also, it has to be the cheapest piece of brewing equipment I have ever made! If you are looking for a inexpensive way to switch to all grain brewing, I highly recommend you build one of these!

Next on my list I am going to tackle the half barrel keg modification. I'm already a couple weeks into the research and so far what I have learned is do your research on this before you start cutting. There are a couple of really good YouTube videos that show different ways to do this correctly and safely. A plasma cutter appears to be the easiest method but a grinder or even a Dremel can be used. so far a pretty good link looks to be here www.homebrewing.com/. I'll post pics as soon as I have a finished product.

A Cheap Simple Mash and Lauter Tun

2011-07-29T18:29:00.000-05:00

A brewing friend found this link and gave it too me last week. I had wanted to make one of these for a while but I had never seen this article and had no clue how easy it was! I'll let you follow the link and read it yourself but this was a really fun and simple project to do and the instructions were spot on. If you're a brewer and don't use HomeBrewTalk.Com this is an awesome place to get ideas and find all kinds of mods to make your equipment work more for you. Here where to find this build http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/cheap-easy-10-gallon-rubbermaid-mlt-conversion-23008/ It's going to get it's first true mash run in about a week. I'll let you know how things go!

Brewing Day!!

2011-07-25T00:32:00.002-05:00

Thomas and I brewed 10 gallons of witbier in 2 batches and I put my ESB in a keg this afternoon. The witbier recipe was a partial mash. We modeled 5 gallon like a traditional witbier with hints of coriander and orange and made the other 5 gallons as a basic wheat base for a Lambic style that we are going to add fresh raspberries in the secondary. I'm hoping the one of the two is a high enough caliber to enter into the fall brewing competition. I used iBrewmaster to to figure and track my recipes, I just can't say enough about how much I love that iPad app...

Our next project is making a mash tun and adding a ball valve and thermometer to the brew kettle. Then I should be all set to brew all grain! I'm very excited about this!!

A New Brewers Ball Game

2011-07-20T00:50:00.000-05:00

This weekend marks a lot of new advances in my brewing system. I'm upgrading my brew kettle to a 7 gallon from a 3. I'm moving from electric to gas for my brewing. AND I'm kegging my first beer this weekend. We are going to brew 5 gallons of Belgium Whitbier and then, take out a few ingredients and tweak a few others and make the same recipe for 5 gallons of a Lambic style beer. Basically the idea is to take the same base recipe and make two totally different beers out of it. Besides the 18 websites that I dug info out of , I basically wrote down all the specs of both and started poking around. I used iBrewMaster to take all the info I had collected and organize it into a recipe that looked like what we were shooting at!! Sunday will be a big day for us!! As you can see by the picture its about time to get some going!!!

talk to you all again soon!!
Keeton\

Many cool new pics to follow....

A Busy 14th Coming Up

2011-05-09T00:27:00.000-05:00

For all the beer lovers in Springfield MO, Saturday the 14th "6 days from now" is a big day in beer for all of us. Starting at 1pm there is the First Annual Spring Brewing Competition at Creek Side in Galloway. Judging will be at 2pm "I think" and I think we have 14 entries. Call Creek Side at 417-893-8131 to find out more details. It should be a great display of what is brewing up around town! I'm going to enter my Chocolate Bock AND my Honey Cream Ale, I'm hoping maybe one will pace. Worse case no one likes it and I have to drink it which is A-OK with me.

After the competition Mother's Brewing Company is having there First Ever Mother's Day Festival. $5.00 at the gate and they'll take care of the rest. Local music, Local Food, and Local Art. It's going to be an All Ages event. The Brewery will also have their beer on tap and will release their summer seasonal then too. The link above has all the specific details I just fumbled through. Make sure you bring a blanket and some friends and keep that number to Yellow cab close at hand.

All this said, next Saturday should be a huge weekend for craft brewers, hobbyist, and all of the beer connoisseurs of the area. If you see me at either event, stop and say HI, I'm Keeton!

Twitter!

2011-04-03T20:32:00.001-05:00

follow me on twitter at @ABrewersBlog

OK, it's been a while...

2011-04-03T16:36:00.000-05:00

I could give you a bunch of excuses on why I haven't been updating lately, but I won't... Brewing hasn't stopped though, The Chocolate Bock was bottled and turned out delicious! My two Meads are still bubbling along. I just started a Honey Cream Ale. and ESB is still aging. I have some big aspirations for the rest of this year with the ultimate goal of making a Vintage Ale and aging in in an oak cask. I'll be back on here more often throught this spring and summer! Thanks for reading!

A problem with Consumption Vs. Production

2010-12-23T00:01:00.000-06:00

I pride my self in using some decent equations in order to hit my numbers on my beers. Science is a big part of being able to produce the same product (or know what you did wrong) in each batch. While I don't feel I've compromised any batch of beer, my Dirty Snowman Ale was prepped for this weekend for consumption. The next beer I started was my Choco-de-Bock-Ale which I projected at about 6-7 weeks fermentation. Then I recently started an ESB that had about a 3-4 week ferment time. Of course when I planed them out I didn't have the foresight to plan when the two would be done. With several bottles in use with my ale, two ales ago, I guess I have no option but to drink up and free up some bottles! That and maybe recycle a few more from the Christmas Cheer.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Kwanzaa, and Hanukkah or any thing else you celebrate! Just be safe and enjoy!

Growing Hops At Home

2010-12-19T20:01:00.000-06:00

I always think about this around mid summer which is way to late to plant around here. But this year, I want to grow my own hops. As you can find very quickly, there are countless articles on this subject all over the net. I'm going to link the one from BeerSmith just because it is a easy to read, simple place to start. http://www.beersmith.com/ I'll add more to this if I get the ability to do this in the spring and will get you some pics of how it goes!

Smiles All Around

2010-12-18T02:26:00.001-06:00

Today was the day that I took my Dirty Snowman Ale to the select Masses for a taste of an idea. And the over all was it was great! out of the 20 people I had taste this young beer. 50% said they would buy it out of a store, 20% said it wasn't too bad but not great, and the final 30 % said it wasn't to their liking. I'll take this as a HUGE success! I had three people ask me when they could buy it in the market which is the highest compliment you can receive! It really needs another week to mellow then I'll post another update :)

Beer of the night!

2010-12-16T22:38:00.000-06:00

Tonight I'm trying Lagunitas Hop Stoopid Ale. 8% ABV and a ridiculous 102 IBU or International Bitterness Unit (i.e. Hops) The top of the stale of IBU is technically 100 making this beer "technically" impossibly Hoppy. Tasting it would make you believe the above statement. From the aroma, the beginning, end, and the mouth feel, pretty much all you get is hops. All of this said, I'm really enjoying it, and Bamforth says hops are good for you. just be prepared. It has a bite!

A Quick Review on a Great Beer Book

2010-12-16T00:07:00.000-06:00

Just finished this book and highly recommend it. It shows Charles Bamforth on only as the scientific brewer but also the philosopher of malted barley and hops. It was a refreshing look of the spirit of what beer is, and isn't. My next book I'm reading of his is Beer, Taping Into The Art And Science Of Brewing then I'm reading Grape vs Grain. I'll let you know how those turn out but if they're anything like what I've read so far. I'm sure I'll love them.

I'm hopefully starting an ESB on Friday, I'll post the progress on here as soon as I have any!

Cheers

Copper Run Distillery, Bringing Moonshine Back To The Ozarks

2010-12-11T23:17:00.001-06:00

I had the privilege of meeting Jim Blansit, the Owner and Distiller at Copper Run Distillery yesterday. I won a prize from US97 (a local radio station) from the distillery and ran down too Walnut Shade MO to check it out. What I won? The grand prize, a 1 gallon cask and 5 bottles of moonshine (corn whiskey). But really so much more. It was wonderful seeing a micro-distillery first hand and to taste corn whiskey on it's first run dripping straight out of the still. Being an old brewer himself it was great to talk about the difference between between brewing a mash of beer and mash for whiskey. After a full tour we went to the tasting room to taste the difference between an unaged whiskey and a one year whiskey. I also got to try some of the rum he makes there, it was delicious! Then, my prize.... I brought everything home along with a gallon of filtered water, and filled the cask with the water for the past 24 hours to "condition" the cask. Then this evening, I drained it and the moonshine. If your from the area or happen to be passing through the Ozarks, defiantly go check out these folks. Just make sure you bring a DD if you plan on spending too much time in the tasting room!

IBallz to the Rescue!

2010-12-11T18:35:00.000-06:00

Beer, baseball, and technology are pretty much my life. Granted there's a little more to me than that but... And they all go pretty well together, I can watch a game while taking notes on my iPad and enjoying a frosty beverage. The only problem I've ran into with my iPad has been in transportation. I have been known to be pretty hard on my gadgets so I'm always looking for the best way to protect my little investments from, well, myself. I also use the iPad for brewing and keeping all my brewing information with iBrewMaster. So being that the iPad goes with me everywhere, my picking of a proper case was extremely important. After being totally unsatisfied with three cases I have purchased over the past 6 months, I ran across the iBallz page. It looked to solve some of the issues that I was having with the other cases I didn't like. I think what really sold me was the modular feel of it. You can use just the "ballz" to protect the edges and incase of dropping or spillage around it (very handy when brewing). Then for an extra layer of protection they sell cases that work with the ballz and are made to where there's no fumbling and taking everything apart just to use it. I was extremely impressed of the quality of the case. It far exceeded any other case I have purchased at a fraction of the price. If you have an iPad you really need to try this system. The picture above was from the coffee house yesterday with the iLid case folded behind it. And I just went to the website and they have everything on the site on sale which means everyone I know will be getting them for Christmas. Great job of a high quality product at a very reasonable price.

Paradigm shifts and randomness

2010-12-10T16:44:00.000-06:00

Watch out, this is going to be random. I don't get sick very often, but when I do, my life gets uprooted, I'm not my self, my environment changes, and the fan on my laptop is SO loud! But simple things like a glass of water taste sooo good. I find this is the best time to contemplate major situations and decisions. I always have a chance to take a totally different look at things I've been thinking about. Like deciding I might want to change my direction and become a microbiologist or almost putting a $400.00 brew pot on my card at 3am under the influence of NyQuil. I'm pretty sure I was looking at the air at one point wondering how my breathing was affecting all of the millions of particles surrounding me. Kinda analyzing my carbon foot print on a microscopic level.

Now granted, that alone didn't change my life, but it did flag a few questions on how I can make my beer better. So decided to start with the very basics, air and water. At our local Mama Jeans I can buy some pretty decently filtered water for 35 cents a gallon, a small price to pay to get away from chlorinated tap water. The whole air think might be a little trickier but I've heard something as simple as a "mini-max" system can make a big differen. I'm going to do a bit more research into the whole air and water before I make a final decision but I think I'm headed in the right direction.

And Now, What Not To Do.... Kinda

2010-12-08T23:03:00.000-06:00

Every once in a while, things don't go as planned. Every once in a while equipment fails you. If you are a home brewer or a major distributor, something, sometime, will go wrong. It is your fundamental understanding of the process of brewing that will save a batch or wash one down the drain. I say all of this because such a problem with equipment did indeed happen last night.

For those that don't know the reason why you use a bucket style container as your primary fermenter and a carboy as your secondary is all simply about headroom and air. A primary fermentation is very active and produces a lot of Co2 and a lot of foam in the process. Up to 3 or 4 inches of foam on top of the brew and even more than that in some situations. You need room for this and you aren't as concerned about the air that could be in the bucket, since the Co2 is going to continue to keep positive pressure on the "Primary". WELL.... when your Primary doesn't keep a good seal and you have a young brew in it, you worry about any contaminates possibly getting into the batch, so I made the executive decision to move it to a secondary "Better Brew" container. So like I explained earlier, not nearly as much room in the top of a carboy which means not as much room for your brew head. so it can come out the trap, as long as you keep the trap clear of debris, not really a problem, Makes a little mess but the gas still escapes and you still keep everything good.

Here's the FYI... IF you are making a Chocolate Bock and you have roasted Chocolate Nibs that are floating in the top of the brew, those nibs MAY float on the foam and into the tiny neck of the of the fermentation trap and clog the escape route for all the gas produced. If and when this happens, duck, you have two possible outcomes. One. the nib is forced into the first chamber of the trap and the brew goes on. Two the Co2 pressurizes the carboy and you have a possible fermentation trap missile on your hands. The second of the two happened. It missed me but it popped had enough that it dug a grove in the ceiling. The picture above is actually what you hope for if you ever have to make this call. As long as it's still bubbling and foaming, it may not be ideal but its better than the alternative. Just make sure you keep the trap clean and it should be just fine in this stage. Right now that's about every 6 hours. Make sure you put a towel underneath it because it will make a mess!

Dirty Little Snowman Ale is Bottled and ready to Carbonate!

2010-12-07T23:05:00.000-06:00

DLSA is in the bottle and awaiting it's fate around Christmas. The aroma is awesome and the flavor is Great! I'm the proud dad of 5 gallons of beer! It will probably mellow a little in the bottle but like an anxious father, I'm waiting to get the final grade card of their kid in the mail... Bottling took about an from cleaning out the first bottle to capping the last. I'm beginning to use more of the PET plastic bottles which I have has good success with so far. They are NOT dishwasher safe just in case you were curious. They turn shapes non-conducive to refilling with beer! I fill at least 1 bottle of each batch with them because they are a very easy great way to gauge how well a batch is conditioning once bottled. I also love my flip top bottles. They are easy to use and clean and they have a fun look to them. This will be the first batch that I've used my printable labels I mentioned in a previous blog. I'll post pictures and a review as soon as I have some bubbles!

I also had a primary fermenter malfunction and went ahead and moved the Choco-de-Bock-Ale into a Better Brew Bottle to insure that the seal is good. I look forward to buying a new Primary on Friday. Not sure where the air leak was but I'm confident that the amount of Co2 being produced in it's first days would have kept positive pressure in the primary until I moved it today. I went ahead and added 2 more ounces of the cocoa nibs since this is kinda sorta not really a secondary? But as far as color goes, it's chocolate through and through! And I just checked on it and it seems to be very happy with it's new home. It may blow out it's trap tonight....

Augmented Reality, the beer label?

2010-12-06T00:31:00.001-06:00

I found this video on Facebook and it blew my mind! Being an aspiring brewer I would love to come out with the first beer label that incorporated this technology! But I probably wont have the resources to pull it off so I'll just say it here! Very cool Tech, watch for it coming to a beer bottle soon!

Here's to My Readers

2010-12-05T15:09:00.000-06:00

My blog just went over 1000 page views! That's actually a pretty small number as far as blogs go but being only 2 months old, I'm thrilled. So I decided to list my favorite beers in the list of the most page views on the blog by the country.....

Pageviews by Countries

United States

-917 There's too many craft breweries to list here

Canada-

21-Fosters! HAHA it's an old joke, actually Unibroue

Australia

-14-We don't get too many of yours here, VB?

United Kingdom-

14-Fullers, but there's a lot more great beers

Spain

-12-San Miguel maybe, not sure

German-

7-Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier look it up before you try this one! :)

Singapore

-6-I would like to try Tiger Beer

Denmark

-4-Carlsberg is about the only one I've tried

Italy

-4-Birra Moretti

Russia

-4-Not sure but I want to find out the brand if this Beer can if you might know(sexy beer cans)

Thanks to everyone who stops by to read! If you need my mailing send me a six pack of your favorite beer to try, email me at itskeeton@gmail.com and I'll make sure you get it!

Cheers!

The Choco-de-bock-ale Is Fermenting Away.

2010-12-04T21:21:00.000-06:00

My latest beer creation went into it's primary fermentation yesterday after about 3 hours of cooking and prep. I went with a partial mash on this one per Todd's recommendation from the Home Brewery in Ozark. Todd is the only guy I have ever bought ingredients form and there's one simple reason, customer service. I didn't have my recipe for this beer at all nailed down before I got there yesterday. I knew what I wanted to make, just not real sure how to get there. Todd took my ideas and turned them into something real, had everything in stock that I needed, and went through the steps that I needed to follow which were slightly more technical than the brew style I've done in the past. If I'm buying a plastic case for my iPad, I usually shop on the net. but when I'm buying ingredients for a brew I buy local from a brewer that knows whats going on! That's Todd...

After I mashed in and got the the DME dissolved, (note to self, need a much larger brew kettle to dissolve 10 pounds of dry malt)... I brought the sweet wort up to a boil and immediately boiled over for 1 brief second but I got it under control. Everything else went like clockwork. I also racked all the other brews, The Snowman Ale is in it's secondary and is about a week away from bottling. The two meads have about 7 more months to go. Now to come up with my next brew idea...