Homebrew Junkie

Tips for the Time Constrained Brewer: Part 3

2011-01-19T08:25:00.000-08:00

The final part in this series is going to discuss the No Boil method. And if you're thinking to yourself that there isn't a beer out there that doesn't require a boil, then think again. And the one I'm going to specifically discuss is the Berliner Weisse.

The Berliner Weisse beer was originally concocted in Germany hundreds of years ago. It's not a very strong beer and only comes in at about 3% or so. Now, being home brewers we don't have to stick to those guidelines if we don't want to. With the Berliner Weisse, you typically add about 25-50% wheat to your grain bill. Now this method can only be done by brewing All Grain. Here's a recipe for a simple Berliner Weisse and how to brew it. Bittering hops are completely optional. Since this beer usually has less than 10 IBUS I sometimes find that you don't even need to add bittering hops.

Also, this is a sour beer. It's not a very sour beer, but it will give you a tart flavor in the finish. And souring all depends on how long you let it sit in order to get the sourness level you desire.

Berliner Weisse 5 gallon batch based on 75% efficiency

4 lbs 2-row pilsner
3 lbs wheat
WLP 011 European Ale yeast

Dough in as usually with 1.25 qts per lb of grain. Hit a mash temp of about 148 and let that rest for an hour or so. Then, stir up the grain so the temp falls to below 110 degrees. Once this is accomplished add a handful of crushed grain to the mash and stir well. By doing this you are naturally adding Lactobacillus to the mash and this is what's going to make it sour. Let it sit over night or for a day or two. WARNING: The mash is really going to smell like rotten trash. Don't be afraid of it, it's just fine. But it will smell rancid; that's just the Lacto doing it's job.

After you've let it sit, sparge as normal with about 200 degree water and get as much sugars out as possible. Collect in your kettle and heat the wort to about 160 degrees and pasteurize it. That's it. Cool it down and add your yeast and you're done.

Proceed with normal fermentation and bottling. And there you have it. Pat yourself on the back for making a sour beer!

Tips for the Time Constrained Brewer: Part 2

2011-01-13T10:43:00.000-08:00

The second method in this series is very simple and very easy, however, it's generally applied to hoppy beers like IPA's and Pale Ales. It's simply hop bursting. What is it? Well, hop bursting is adding a shit-ton of hops during a 15 minute boil and that's it. You boil for 15 minutes and go from there. I wouldn't recommend this method for all grain brewers because depending on the grain you're using you may have to boil off the DMS during the boil. I only recommend this for extract brewers.

The tricky part about doing this method is figuring out how many IBU's you're putting in to you beer. I'm not going to get in-depth with calculating alpha acid content and boil time, because, quite frankly, I don't know how to do that. I use software programs that help me with it because technology is great. This is the one I prefer Beersmith.

That's really all there is to it, and remember that with hop bursting you're going to be adding a lot of hop flavor to your beer, not just bitterness, so the beer should just bounce off of your tongue when you drink it.

Have fun with it! And let me know what you think if you try it.

Tips for the Time Constrained Brewer: Part 1

2011-01-07T10:18:00.001-08:00

Being a stay at home Father, running a business and taking care of a 2 year old and a 5 year old while my wife is away in Iraq, really doesn't leave me much time to brew beer. So I've come up with a few different ways to cut back on the amount of time it takes to brew beer.

The first method is what I call the No Chill method. It's very simple and can cut out at least a half hour of your time from brew day. And it's a technique that I've been doing for more than a year. The No Chill method is adding the hot wort to your fermenting bucket (being careful not to splash too much) and then adding your cold water to it to top it up to 5 gallons, snapping on the lid and leaving it sit over night to chill down and then in the morning pitching your yeast.

One good thing about this method is that if you don't practice sanitation, then usually the wort gets chilled down to about 160 degrees and that's the temperature for pasteurization. Now I'm not saying that pasteurization kills all bad bugs, because it doesn't but it does kill enough of them to prevent infection of the wort.

A lot of literature out there recommends that you chill as fast as possible and then pitch your yeast. That is an option, however, if you're looking at shaving off some time to your brew day, give the No Chill method a try. You may not get the cold break you normally get when you do a fast chill, but I've found that that doesn't matter because once you bottle and keg, the cold break drops out anyway. If anyone has more questions please feel free to leave them in the comment area.

Thanks.

Homebrew Junkie

3 Gallon All Grain Homebrewing Video

2011-01-04T10:04:00.000-08:00

In this video I walk everyone through how to brew 3 gallon All grain batches of beer. It's really simple and easy. Check it out. And don't forget, Ben's Homebrew is now selling 3 gallon all grain equipment kits and ingredient kits! http://www.benshomebrew.com/product-p/eq3gallonallgrain.htm

Pre-Orders for 3 Gallon All Grain Equipment kits

2010-11-12T11:22:00.000-08:00

Ben's Homebrew is announcing the brand new release of 3 Gallon All-Grain Equipment Kits. We are now accepting Pre-orders for the kits. They'll be available to ship out towards the end of 11/19. These kits are great and here are some reasons why:

* You can brew a variety of beer at very low cost
* You don't need to invest in a lot of bulky equipment
* This kit was made for apartment brewing, stores in a small area and easy clean up
* You have far more control over the flavor and texture of your beer
* It can be done on a stove top - no need for turkey fryers!

These are great kits for beginners or even for brewers who only brew extract and like to make the change to all grain! 3 Gallon Equipment Kits are great for gifts, too, and if your budget is tight then you can always pick up the 1 Gallon Equipment Kits to get your brewing going!

Ben's Homebrew - Relocating

2010-09-15T13:36:00.000-07:00

Homebrew Junkie hasn't been very active lately because Ben's Homebrew is currently in the process of relocating. You can get all the info here: http://www.benshomebrew.com/category-s/80.htm

During this transitional period there won't be a lot of posts going on with HB Junkie. But, we'll be back in action before you know it. We appreciate your patience. And if you have any questions in the mean time you can contact us here.

To the Readers, a question or two.

2010-07-28T14:28:00.001-07:00

Ok, so, Homebrew Junkie is in a little bit of a funk right now. I wanted to ask all the readers what it is that you have questions about when it comes to brewing beer? Please leave these questions in the comment area and I'll go through them and begin answering them in the "ass-ton" way that I do! Don't hold back and I won't either.

Can you brew with dirty socks? Hell Yeah!
What about pantyhose? You betcha. You can use them for steeping or for dry hopping in the keg!

What about using fresh rabbit? Uh, I don't know about that one.

Anyway, please feel free to respond.

Thanks.

Homebrew Junkie!

Oh, I'll be doing another video on Smoking malt soon, too.

How to Make a Yeast Starter for Homebrewing.

2010-07-08T10:00:00.000-07:00

In this video I walk you through how easy it is to make a yeast starter, how large your yeast starter needs to be and why it's important to make a yeast starter for home brewing.

Controlling Fermentation Temps in the Summer: Part 3

2010-07-06T08:39:00.000-07:00

There is another way you can really keep a tight control on your fermentation temps during the summer. It involves some more money but it's a great way to do it. And that way is to take a chest freezer and convert it over to a kegerator or a fermentation chamber. It's really easy to do. First you want to purchase the right size freezer. Once that's done then you're going to have to get a Johnson Controller; you plug the freezer into this and put the thermometer in to the freezer and it overrides the internal thermostat on the freezer. You can then dial down the temp to what you want. It's a great way to ferment lagers, too. If you're looking to convert the freezer over to a kegerator then you're going to have to take the lid off, build a simple wooden collar (I built mine out of 2x4's) and then mount that on top of the lip of the freezer and then reattach the freezer lid. You can then drill in to the collar to mount faucets for your kegerator. I'll snap a couple quick photos of mine to show everyone what I'm talking about.

And there you have it. That's all you really need to know about maintaining fermentation temps in the summer. So you don't have any more excuses not to brew beer in the summer time! So have fun brewing and I hope the tips helped.

Controlling Fermentation Temps in the Summer: Part 2

2010-07-02T09:27:00.000-07:00

If you don't want to bother with the rubbermaid bin and iced jugs method of cooling and are looking for something that has more longevity with cooling, then your second method is purchasing a large enough cooler to hold your carboy or bucket. You can then cut a hole in the top of the cooler so the airlock and rubber stopper can poke out of it. Fill the cooler half way again and then add some ice to keep it cool. Monitor the temperature every other day until primary fermenation is done. If you live in an extremely hot area, then this is one of the best options for you that isn't very expensive and can absolutely save your homebrews during the summer time and still allow you to brew during the summer! And that's what we all want to do, right?

*Please note, image taken from Ken Blair's Site.

Controlling Fermentation Temps in the Summer: Part 1

2010-07-01T08:37:00.000-07:00

During the summer, many homebrewers and wine makers are faced with high temperatures which sometimes dissuade them from brewing beer or making wine. There are a few simple, and easy methods to control fermentation temperatures for your beer or wine in the summer time and here is one of them.

The easiest way is to purchase (or if you already have one) a rubber maid storage container bin. They are easily large enough to contain either a carboy or a bucket. Fill the container up half way with regular water. Reuse some soda bottle containers or milk jugs and fill those up with water and freeze them in your freezer. Place your fermenting vessel in the bin with the water and put a frozen container in the water. This method can easily shave off 10 degrees, especially if you're fermenting in a cooler basement. Every day check the temperature of your fermenter by using a stick on thermometer (although not entirely accurate, it will give you a general idea as to what the temp is on the fermenter). Pull out the thawed jug and replace with another frozen jug. Do this as necessary until fermentation is complete.

It's really that simple and this method can be applied to doing lager beers in the winter time.

Big Brew Session June 2010

2010-06-16T09:50:00.000-07:00

Ales and Lagers Carbonated with Yeast a.k.a A.L.C.Y homebrew club had their first big brew session of the year in June 2010. We brewed up 45 gallons of stout and had a blast. Here are some pics, so enjoy!

Jim and Denny scooping out the rest of the mash water.

Sparging the grains, look at how dark that wort is! It's beautiful!

Fly sparging the wort. It smelled really good and looks like oil!

The final collection of wort in the big brew kettle

Look at that hot break! We tossed in some Northern Brewer whole leaf hops for bittering and boy did they smell delicious.

Sean (in the A.L.C.Y. shirt) and Dan enjoying good conversation and homebrew.

Some yum, yum, yummy food . . . brats and chicken on a stick with some homemade bbq sauce and honey mustard sauce.

Chilling down this bad boy with Denny's Monster chiller. It has four individual 1/4" coils running down on all sides. It took about 40 minutes to chill it all down using well water. Not bad for a warm summer day.

Finally collecting all our hard work. We'll see how everyone's turns out.

Some of the members hanging out, enjoying good company and good beer. We had a great time. Can't wait to do it again.

Fermenting in Corny Kegs

2010-05-20T09:03:00.000-07:00

I've recently started brewing more lager beers. With lager beers you need to ferment them at 50-55 degrees. That being said fermentation control is necessary in order to get good results from the yeast. The only way I have to control this is through my kegerator. I don't have a huge kegerator and using carboys is out of the question because they are a lot wider than corny kegs. So, I've started to ferment lagers in corny kegs.

Here are some points to consider when fermenting in corny kegs:

1. Since lager yeast is a bottom fermenting yeast, it doesn't normally create the huge krausen that top fermenting ale yeast does. That being said, you don't need a lot of head space when fermenting lagers in a corny keg.

2. With the above in mind I brewed up an extract lager using nothing but Zeus hops and I topped it up to 4.5 gallons . . .just to be safe so that there wasn't any kind of blow off coming out of the keg.

3. Once you pour your cooled wort into the keg and top it up to 4.5 gallons the easiest way to vent it is to either pull up on the release valve on the keg lid and keep it released or just take off the release valve pin by unscrewing it, if it unscrews and either insert an air lock or just cover up the hole with a sanitized mason jar. There's no need to put a blow off tube on the IN post of the keg. So, don't do it. Unless you have one of those release valves that can't be taken apart from the top. If that's the case, then attach a blow off tube to the IN disconnect and attach the blow off tube to it and put the blow off tube into a mason jar of water.

4. To be on the extra safe side, use some fermcap-s to keep control of any kind of krausen on the beer. You can use this if you are fermenting ales or lagers. It will keep the krausen down to about an inch. It works great.

5. You'll also want to strain out any kind of hop debris from the kettle if you are fermenting in the keg. More on this below.

6. Once fermentation is complete you'll want to pull out the keg for 1-3 days at room temp for a diacetyl rest. This will allow the yeast to clean up any kind of by-products it released during fermentation and if you leave it at room temp longer then it takes the "green" away from the lager and allows you to keg it, lager it and drink it a little faster.

7. After your rest then you'll want to "jump" the keg to another keg. Add 1/2 gallon of water to second keg to make 5 gallons before transferring fermented beer to the keg. Simply hook up an Out disconnect to another OUT disconnect with some tubing in between and set your co2 to about 3-5 psi so you can push the beer from one keg to another. Make sure you attach your co2 disconnect to the primary fermenting keg! Attach the lid to the new keg and vent the gas pressure when you see any kind of slowing down in siphoning the keg. This keeps the beer in a state of constant co2 so you don't have to worry about oxidation. You may pick up some yeast sediment from the first keg, but that's normal. This is also why you want to strain off the hops. You don't want hops going through your dip tube and clogging up your poppets when you "jump" the kegs. That's just a pain in the ass!

8. Once transferred to the second keg, "lager" it at 34 degrees for 2-6 weeks, tap it and enjoy.

Here's the recipe I used for the Zeus Pils I made.

Zeus Pilsner Summer Beer, with a bite!

7 lbs extra light liquid malt extract
1/2 lb 20L crystal malt
1 oz zeus 16% a.a 60 min
2 oz zeus 16% a.a 5 min
S-23 German Lager yeast 1 packet

Ferment for 2-3 weeks, jump to next keg and lager for 2-6 weeks, enjoy.

P.S. I've never used 100% Zeus hops in a beer so this should be interesting. Zeus, Tomahawk and Columbus are all the same hop and I've used Columbus before, so it should turn out to be a nice hoppy, crisp beer with some bitterness and great flavor.

Let me know how yours turns out if you try this out! Cheers!

Really simple.

Summer Time Orange Beer

2010-05-06T11:24:00.000-07:00

It's almost the summer. What do people really crave when it comes to summer drinking? Something that's fresh, easy drinking and doesn't knock you on your ass after two beers. So, here's a great recipe that you can tweak to your own flavors. It's really easy and it pleases the crowd and I think you'll be really surprised at what's involved with it.

Summer Orange Beer (extract only) 5 gallons; if you wish to do all grain just substitute in 8 lbs of 2 row (mash at 150 for 30 minutes and sparge).

6 lbs extra light malt (dry or liquid)
fermentis us-05, wlp 001 or wyeast 1056.
2 fresh oranges with the zest peeled only; add after primary fermentation for 1-2 weeks. The orange zest will provide some bitterness and a lot of orange flavoring.

Just boil up the malt in 2.5 gallons of water for 20 minutes, cool down (below 80 degrees) and top up with another 2.5 gallons of water, add yeast and after primary fermentation add the zest.

Primary ferment for 7-10 days, after primary fermentation is done add your zest. Don't worry about sanitizing it or getting any kind of funk from it. You'll be fine just adding it fresh straight to the fermenter. Let sit for another week to two weeks, sample if you want. Then siphon and bottle or keg.

Serve slightly chilled with a rind of orange peel and you'll enjoy this beer on a hot summer day.

I had doubts about this beer because I didn't use any hops for bittering or flavoring. However, you just have to try this because I think the hops would really get in the way of the bitterness that the orange peel provides and the flavor that the orange really allows to rip through your palate.

Note: You could also substitute lemon peel if you want.

Enjoy.

Double Concentrated Brewing

2010-04-10T08:37:00.000-07:00

Double-Concentrated All Grain Brewing

When I began all-grain brewing I started out doing five gallon batches. Six hours later I had five gallons of wonderful homebrew. However, I found that five gallons just wasn’t enough to sustain a healthy supply of homebrew on tap at all times in my house, especially when I was only brewing once a month, if that. And, I found that trying to schedule a brewing session around running a business and raising a family was not as easy as I had first thought. I had to figure out how to brew more in one session with the equipment I already had on hand and I didn’t want to go back to doing extract brewing. What I had been using was a 7.5 gallon aluminum pot (turkey fryer) and an additional five gallon stainless steel hot liquor tank (HLT). After a few homebrews and some more quiet pondering a light bulb clicked in my head *ding*: Double-Concentrated all-grain batches is conceived.

What is a double-concentrated batch? Basically what you are doing is brewing up a concentrated batch of all-grain (think partial boil brewing from the extract days) and splitting that between two fermenters and topping up to five gallons of finished wort in each fermenter.

When brewing concentrated batches, generally speaking, all you need to do is double your grain bill for two batches. Now, because you are doubling your grain bill you must also have a mash tun that can handle the extra grain. The best part about double concentrated brewing is that you’re only doing a five gallon post boil volume. This means that if you batch sparge, you can still do it. All I had was a five gallon HLT and the 7.5 gallon pot and it worked great. I have a 12 gallon rectangular cooler which holds a maximum amount of 28 lbs of grain. Depending on your efficiency, this can yield you a final gravity (after dilution) of 1.060. Not bad!

Figuring IBUs

The tricky part with brewing is figuring out how much hops you need to attain your IBU (International Bittering Unit) range within the style your making. An easy way to get around this is using brewing software like Beersmith, Beer Tools or Promash. As your sugar concentrates in the wort, your hop utilization decreases. In other words, the more sugar you have in your wort, the harder it is to chemically break down (isomerization) the essential oils in the hops that impart bitterness and flavoring to your beer. Doubling the amount of hops doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to get the same IBU’s that you would get from a full wort boil. If you don’t have a software program but have internet access, there are plenty of free sites that have IBU calculators: rooftopbrew.net and realbeer.com are just two of many.

With a concentrated batch, the IBU’s will be limited. Given that our palates only perceive 100 IBU’s, we need to factor this into our recipe and since we are boiling one batch of beer and splitting it in half, logic tells we will only have a maximum of 50 IBU’s into each batch of beer. Now because our senses only perceive a maximum of 100 IBU’s, that does not mean that you can’t add more to your wort. The sky is the limit when it comes to homebrewing.

Here is how it breaks down. Collect 6.5 gallons of wort, boil that down to 5 gallons over 60 minutes and split that between two fermenters. Dilute this by half by adding 2.5 gallons of water; leaving you with 50 IBUs in your final product.

Keeping in mind the bitterness limitations inherent with double-concentration brewing, it is not always the best choice. If you want to brew an Imperial IPA, this technique is not the way to go. However, one can brew plenty of other styles that fall under the 50 IBU range: Pale ales, Lagers, Milds, Browns, Stouts, Porters . . . really, the list is long.

Here is a simple recipe that has become a standard must-have on tap at all times in my house. You’ll see the high gravity readings; bitterness this is your final Starting Gravity BEFORE dilution. In order to understand your final Original Gravity, just divide that number in half and you’ll have it. Concentrated S.G.: 1.125/2 = 1.056. That’s the original gravity of your beer.

Batch size: 5 gallons
Boil size: 6.5
Efficiency: 75%

21.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM) Grain 89.82 %
1.00 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 4.28 %
1.00 lb Caramel Malt - 40L (Briess) (40.0 SRM) Grain 4.28 %
0.38 lb Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM) Grain 1.63 %
2.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.90 %] (5 min) flavoring 8 IBU
2.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.90 %] (60 min) (First Wort Hop) Hops 40.3 IBU
2.00 oz Cascade [6.60 %] (60 min) Hops 27.2 IBU
2.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.90 %] (10 min) Hops 13.3 IBU
2 Pkgs Safale (DCL Yeast #US-05) Yeast-Ale

Est Original Gravity: 1.125 After you dilute: 1.056
Est Final Gravity: 1.031 After you dilute: 1.015
Bitterness: 80.8 After you dilute: 40
Color: 23.4 After you dilute: 11.7

Mash in 7.3 gallons of water at 166 degrees
Batch sparge with 2 ¼ gallons of water.

So, the next time you do an all-grain batch, why not try a double-concentrated batch? It takes the same amount of time as a five gallon batch, and your yield is twice as much. Why settle for one, when you can get two for one in a single batch!

Counter Top All-Grain Brewing Part 1

2010-02-27T10:45:00.000-08:00

Brewing up an all grain IPA on the Counter Top. Check it out.

Counter Top All-Grain Brewing Part 2

2010-02-27T10:43:00.000-08:00

Brewing up an IPA on the Counter Top! It's easy to do, just watch the video.

What do I do if I have a stuck fermentation?

2010-02-23T10:39:00.000-08:00

This question seems to come up a lot with both wine makers and beer makers. There are a few simple things that you can do to get the fermentation going again in your beer or wine.

First off, you want to take a hydrometer reading. You know what a hydrometer is, right? That little glass thingy that you probably broke far too many times and have had to replace. Anyway, this is THE only way you can tell what's going on with fermentation. DO NOT rely on airlock activity. I've had plenty of people say that their wine or beer is still working after months of just sitting in a carboy because they see bubbles coming out of the airlock. Please don't rely on airlocks. What happens during primary fermentation is that there is an ass-ton of carbon dioxide being produced. Since it all can't go up and out of the airlock or blow off tube it has no other place but to get dissolved into the solution of the beer or wine. So if you see activity in your airlock months after primary fermentation I can 99.9% guarantee that it's just residual co2. So always use your hydrometer.

Now, if your hydrometer is reading above 1.000 (for wines) or higher than you expect your final gravity to be for beer, then the first thing you want to check is your temperature. If your beer (ales only) or wine is in a cooler place . . . 65 degrees or lower, then the yeast tend to slow down and possibly go dormant. So I suggest to warm up the beer or wine and gently rouse the yeast up with a sanitized spoon to get it back into suspension. Let it know that it still has a job to do!

If this doesn't work then you can add more fresh yeast to see if it will take off.

If that doesn't work either then it could be your ph, especially with wines. If your ph is too low then your yeast will automatically die. You can use ph strips to see what your ph level is. Anything lower than 3 and it's too acidic for the yeast and the yeast won't take off. You can use some acidex to help drop out some of the acid to raise your ph level or you can dilute your wine down with some water. Water usually has a ph of 8. You can also cold crash your wine. Simply place it in an area that's close to freezing for a few weeks and the tartaric acid will naturally start to crystallize and drop out of solution. You'll see it at the bottom of the fermenter; this may take a few racks to get the desired ph level. Once your ph level is above 4 then you can add some more fresh yeast.

One other thing is alcohol tolerance. Yeast have specific alcohol tolerances. That means they can only grow and produce up until a certain saturation of alcohol and then the alcohol will kill them. You're going to have to check the alcohol tolerance of your yeast and base that off of the alcohol in your wine or beer to see if you've reached the max tolerance for that yeast. If you did reach the tolerance then you can possibly add more yeast that can handle a higher alcohol tolerance. If you do this then rehydrate the yeast in water first before adding. If you add the yeast directly to the alcoholic beer or wine then the alcohol could kill off as much as half of the yeast because it can't fully hydrate itself and prep its cells walls to do their job.

If you still can't get your fermentation going after all of that, then you may just have a permanently stuck fermentation. If the beer or wine is too sweet then you can blend it with another beer or wine that's similar to cut back on the sweetness.

Good luck and I hope you don't get any stuck fermenations!

Vinator Bottle Rinser: Review

2010-02-19T11:48:00.001-08:00

If you're like me, then you probably can't stand bottling wine or beer when it comes to that time. I used to mix up 5 gallons of sanitizing solution and soak my bottles, drain and repeat the process until I had enough bottles for bottling. What a pain in the ass that was, and on top of it, it was a waste of sanitizer and really messy. Well, that's when I started using the Vinator Bottle Rinser. Boy, this device saved me a lot of time and hassle when it came to bottling.

The Vinator Bottle Rinser has a very basic design. It simply has a strong spring on the inside that, when pushed down, squirts sanitizer up into your bottles. The great thing about the vinator bottle rinser is that you don't need a ton of sanitizer to sanitize a slew of bottles. It keeps reusing the same sanitizer. Two pumps and the bottles are sanitized and ready to go. It's really that simple.

I use mine all the time, especially when bottling wine. It's easy to use, compact and not difficult to put together.

So if you're not enjoying sanitizing your bottles then the vinator bottle rinser is the way to go. It will cut down on time, money and sanitizer. Give it a shot. I'm sure you'll wish you would have purchased one of these sooner!

Fermencap - S: Review

2010-01-22T12:18:00.001-08:00

Tired of always watching the pot while you brew your beer so you don't have any boil overs? Tired of attaching a blow off tube to your fermenter just in case if it blows its top? Well, Ben's Homebrew now has a new product called Fermcap-S. Fermcap-S is an anti foaming liquid that you add directly to your brew kettle or to your fermenter in order to prevent boil overs.

I'll be honest, I was a bit skeptical when I used this stuff. I wasn't sure if it was going to work. So I brewed up a batch of beer and just to try out Fermcap-S, I decided to make sure I had a decent foam going for a boil over. I added 2 drops per gallon of wort and immediately all of the foam subsided. I was amazed at this stuff.

One other great thing about fermcap-s is that you can now collect 7 gallons of wort in a 7.5 gallon brewing kettle. Why, because you don't have to worry about it foaming up and boiling over. You can squeeze more wort into your kettle for the boil. It's awesome. And, you don't have to worry about watching it at all.

Fermcap-S also works the same way in the fermenter. Add 1-2 drops per gallon of wort, pitch your yeast and fermcap-s will hold the krausen (foam) to a 1/2 inch. That's pretty freakin' sweet if you ask me.

And if you're at all worried about fermcap-s causing issues with head retention in the final product of your beer, then don't sweat it. After primary fermentation finishes, fermcap-s drops out of solution to the bottom of the fermenter, so you can just rack right off of it.

If you don't have fermcap-s then I recommend you get some and try it out. One vial lasts a long time and you're never going to have to worry about boil overs or blow offs with your beer. I'm definitely going to be using it with every beer that I brew. No more worries for me. And that's what I'm talking about.

P.S. I'll be demonstrating how it works in an upcoming video. Then you'll get to SEE what I'm talking about!

Happy 2010!

2010-01-13T08:41:00.001-08:00

Well, after a 3 month long hiatus from blogging, I just wanted to let everyone know that Homebrew Junkie is back! So all you homebrew junkies, don't fret. I have plans for new videos and new blogs. This year I'll be focusing more on using liquid yeast and reviewing liquid yeast. On top of that I'll be writing and doing a video on How to Make a Starter for your liquid yeast. We'll be doing some other crazy stuff like smoking malt and chipotle's for a chipotle smoked porter. I'll also be building and video taping how to build a hop trellis. I moved and need to build a new set up for the hops.

So I just wanted to give a shout out to everyone that there will be new things this year and if you have any other suggestions as to what you'd like video taped or blogged about, please feel free to leave those suggestions in the comment area.

Thanks. I can't wait. It's going to be an exciting year. I hope you all will join me!

Citra Whole Leaf Hops - Review

2009-10-13T09:55:00.001-07:00

Citra Whole leaf hops are a brand new hop that's just recently reached the homebrewing world. Citra hops are grown by Sierra Nevada brewing company and have been used in their Torpedo Extra IPA. The only thing known about Citra Hops is that they contribute a pineapple, mango and citrus flavor. Very unique and very interesting.

Just the other day I brewed up an IPA using nothing but Citra hops and when it's kegged and ready I'll be sure to report back and post my results on the hops. If you're interested in purchasing some Citra Hops you can do so right here at the low price of $2 an ounce: Ben's Homebrew
Get them while they last. And before I go here's my recipe for citra hops.

Citra Hop IPA

3 lbs golden light DME (60 min boil)
3 lbs golden light DME (15 min boil)
1 lb Local Honey (flame out)
1 lb 40L crystal malt
1 oz Citra First Wort Hop
2 oz Citra 20 min
2 oz Citra 10 min
1 oz Citra Dry Hop
2 pkgs US-05 Fermentis Ale Yeast

Pretty simple. We'll see how she shines!

Revision: 10-29-09

Kegged it up and force carbed it. It was super fresh. These are my notes: Big pineapple, piney aroma with a touch of onion. Lots of front-forward pineapple flavor, rounds out to piney flavor and leaves a touch of onion in the back end of the finish. Interesting. It's almost like a mix of amarillo, simcoe and summit all in one.

A week has gone by and the onion flavor is gone. I have to say that this is one of the most interesting hops I've ever brewed with. This simple recipe could probably win a medal because the flavor in this beer completely blows away any other kind of IPA I've ever had. It's so unique. I gave a pint to my sister and she said, with no hesistation: "Wow, this is good." And it is good. The flavor blows away any 60 min IPA.

If you haven't tried Citra hops, give them a shot as a single addition to really understand how they work. It's freakin' awesome.

Five Star: Star San - Review

2009-10-03T10:58:00.001-07:00

Star san, star san, star san . . . .you are my one and only friend! Ha! That's great. Seriously, though, Star san is my go-to sanitizer when it comes to sanitizing my homebrewing or wine making products and here are a few reasons why.

One of the greatest things about Star san is that it only requires a 30 second contact time in order to sanitize. The EPA requires a 3 minute contact time for any kind of sanitizer, so that's how many sanitizers are listed. However, Five Star has done their own testing and using the appropriate amount of star san per water, it yielded a 30 second contact time.

So what does that mean? Well, it means that you can actually put Star San in a spray bottle and spot sanitize equipment as you need to when you're homebrewing or making wine. I have a bottle on hand at all times. If I need to stir something up I spray the spoon down, wait 30 seconds and then stir it up. It's great for spot sanitizing wine thiefs, hydrometers, test jars . . .pretty much anything.

On top of having a 30 second contact time, the foam (and DON'T FEAR THE FOAM) will break down in wort and aid as a yeast nutrient. Can't beat that. One thing to mention, well, I already did, is that Star San foams a lot. I mean A LOT. Don't fear it. It's good for everything. The best part is that the foam acts as a barrier from other bacteria getting into carboys or buckets because when you rack over to a carboy the foam stays on top of the beer/wort/wine.

Another great thing about Star san is that when you're done using it as a sanitizer you can actually water your plants with it. It has a lot of phosphorous that's a great nutrient for plants.

On top of that, one sure sign to know that your star san has gone bad is that it will actually get cloudy. How's that for notification.

These are just a few reasons why I've switched to Star San. It's a great sanitizer and the only one I use now. A little goes a long way.

Infected Beer: Habenero Amber

2009-09-02T10:53:00.001-07:00

Here are a few images of my latest experiment. I didn't intend for this batch to be infected, but something happened and I don't know if it came from the actual peppers or from poor sanitation or what, but, it's infected. At this point in time I'm going to ride it out for about 8 months and see how it comes along. With more time the heat will subside and I may end up with a damned good hot and sour beer. It should be pretty interesting. There's no way I'm dumping this batch. I'll see what happens.

But for all of those who have a nasty white film on the top of their fermenter and it looks like this (yeah, pics aren't that great, but you can obviously see there is infection there) then the beer is infected. Ride it out, dump it or add some campden tablets to kill off the infection and keg it up and drink it fast if you want to save it.

9-15-09 Update:

Ok, I pulled a sample of this stuff. Everything smelled fine. I couldn't smell anything funky or sour to it. I took a hydrometer reading and it's final gravity is deadpanned at 1.000. I know US-05 is not this aggressive with its attenuation so something chewed at the other sugars and dropped it that low. Surprisingly, there was no sour or funky taste to it at all. There was definitely heat to the beer but it wasn't a "burn-your-freakin'-face-off" heat. It's not a session beer but I could see someone easily sampling two pints of this stuff.

I'm really stumped as to what is infecting it. It hasn't really formed an more film on the top so it's not growing a pellicle. I'll be kegging it up soon and drinking it.

So, for anyone who is interested in doing some kind of spicy pepper beer, two habenaros did the trick for me.

How to Brew All-Grain Beer - Part 2

2009-08-05T09:12:00.000-07:00

In this second part of the series I'll discuss how to batch sparge, how to fly sparge, at what rate you need to collect your wort with fly sparging. I'll also point out what gravity you need to watch for when collecting your final runnings of your all grain batch of beer. We'll also take a little detour from the all grain brewing session and check out some yummy cascade hops.