Lug Wrench Brewing Company

Happy Memorial Day

noreply@blogger.com (Tom) — Mon, 28 May 2012 18:55:00 +0000

Jeff and I wish all of our readers a Happy Memorial Day. We hope that you will pause for a moment on this day and remember those who have sacrificed themselves so that we, as a country, can enjoy the freedoms we currently experience. Our Father and both of our Grandfathers are veterans of the armed services and we appreciate their service, as well as those they knew who did not return.

Please join us and raise a glass to those we honor on Memorial Day.

Cheers,

TW

RFP – Danish Dark Rye Beer Initial Tasting

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff) — Fri, 25 May 2012 18:38:00 +0000

I’ve never considered myself to be a very good "technical" beer judge. I can pick out flaws and what my taste buds “like” and “dislike”, but drilling the perception down into the building blocks of what makes a good beer versus a mediocre beer is a skill I have yet to refine. So when it comes time for me to critically evaluate a beer, I’m often inclined to use a “crowd-sourcing” approach and feed it to a lot of other beer aficionados.. This was never more true when it came time to evaluate my Dark Side of Denmark rye beer that was brewed for our Recipe Formulation Project (RFP).

While my beer was originally brewed back in February, it was not until almost two months later that I finally got the beer into a keg and ready for serving. Luckily, that was right around the time that Tom came up to Rhode Island for a visit, so I was not going to miss out on the opportunity. Only the base beer was available at this time, so the initial tasting was limited just limited to that.

The RFP beer presented with a great ruby brown appearance with a spicy, malty nose to it. The flavor, however, was not enjoyable. While the beer starts off with a fresh pumpernickel sweetness to it, the favor drops off in the mid-palate leaving the beer somewhat lackluster or empty. As the beer finishes out, a spicy finish arised from the rye malt that lasts into the aftertaste which I found unpleasant. The pro's of the bee good appearance and initial flavor. The con's: weak in the middle and the residual spiciness at the end.

Flash forward another two months after the beer has been sitting cold in the keg with time to mature (i.e. I had forgotten about the beer and only recently realized that I need do the dosing). With some luck, a club meeting for my local homebrewing club (RIFT) was almost upon me and it would be another opportunity to collect some valuable feedback from several other experienced palates. For this tasting, I was finally able to get a cardamom extract (purchased from here) on hand. I prepared three beers to evaluate: the base beer, a medium dosed beer (6 drops in 12 oz), and a heavy dosed beer (12 drops in 12 oz). All the bottles were capped, kept cold, and toted off with me to the club meeting.

The base beer had improved considerably since the initial tasting with Tom. The residual spicy flavor that had turned me off had mellowed out considerably. Additionally, while the mid-palate flavor was still a little lacking, because the flavors had time to meld together, it was less noticeable as when the beer was still “green”.

The cardamom flavoring was very enlightening. The savory flavor of the cardamom meshed well with the beers flavors without clashing. It was the intensity of the dosing that got the most comments - the extract was certainly potent, which was apparent once the medium-dosed (i.e. 6 drops) beer was opened. While not overbearing, I was asked if I could edge the cardamom flavor back a bit in the medium-dosed beer. The balance was in need of some tweaking. The heavy dosed beer (i.e. 12 drops) was just that – heavy with cardamom. The strength of the extract made the beer more like a cardamom drink flavored with beer as opposed to the other way around. A few tasters enjoyed this (and later admitted that they were big fans of cardamom), but it was in the wrong direction of what a spiced beer should be in my opinion (i.e. a solid beer with a hint or tease of the spice). The experiment was a great learning experience.

At the end of the tasting flight, I tallied up the suggestions on how I might be able to modify the recipe to improve beer. Below are a few bullet points with the most relevant / useful suggestions that I may consider using when I plan the rebrew.

The existing beer would do better with a dosing in the 3-5 drop range per 12 oz
The base beer needed a bit more maltiness to hold up to the cardamom flavoring as well as to support the mid-palate.
A boost in the gravity and the resulting alcohol presence may help balance the cardamom
Tone down the rye flavor a bit in the base beer so it is not so strong.

I’ll plan on rebrewing this beer sometime in the future and report back on whether the changes improved or detracted from the beer concept. Otherwise, I hope the readers find this project to be interesting and potentially educational.

Slainte!

-JW

“"I drink when I have occasion, and sometimes when I have no occasion"
-Miguel de Cervantes

Recipe Formulation Project - Reference Guide
Project Introduction, Ingredient Pool, and Kick Off
Tom's Recipe: Beer Concept Initial Recipe and Brewing Initial Tasting Revision and Rebrew Follow-up Tasting	Jeff's Recipe: Beer Concept Initial Recipe and Brewing Initial Tasting Revision and Rebrew Follow-up Tasting

Opening a Beer Bottle - Do Not Try at Home

noreply@blogger.com (Tom) — Tue, 22 May 2012 00:21:00 +0000

Life has been very busy of late, so I have not had much time to write about beer and homebrew for Lug Wrench. But I saw a post of this YouTube video on Hop Talk tonight and I was intrigued. What other innovative mechanisms have humans developed to access the insides of a sealed beer bottle (I also needed a laugh after a long day at work)? So, I typed "beer bottle opening" in a YouTube search and was entertained. I decided I had to share my favorites with the Lug Wrench audience.

Chainsaw used to open beer. The chainsaw operator has a very steady hand, but I would not recommend this method for serving any special or aged beer samples.

As the title exclaims, this has to be the most expensive beer bottle opener in the world, and one that takes incredible hand-eye coordination. But, if you have a helicopter and some duct tape, you are all set.

Interesting cultural message here, if you believe what they state - Scandinavians are supposedly taught this trick to open a beer bottle at a young age. Innovative and does not waste beer like you might think when you first watch him setting it up.

Warning from your dentist - do not try to break this record. Pretty please.

Piece of paper used to open a beer bottle. You are much more likely to have one of these handy than a chainsaw, helicopter, other beer bottle, or be willing to pay your dentist a fortune. Thus, more useful.

What are your favorite beer-related YouTube videos? Feel free to leave a comment and a link.

Cheers,

TW

American Craft Beer Week

noreply@blogger.com (Tom) — Tue, 15 May 2012 00:53:00 +0000

This week, May 14 - 20, has been designated American Craft Beer Week by the Brewers Association. Given the popularity of the concept of "beer weeks" in recent years, it seems hardly surprising that the Brewers Association would loosely organize events in a week to highlight the American craft beer industry. Several years ago, select cities in the United States with a strong craft beer industry began to promote their breweries through an organized series of events, spanning a week or more. Such beer weeks highlighted specific breweries through tastings and food pairings, as well as brewer talks, seminars and other educational opportunities. Some of the original beer week cities include San Francisco and Philadelphia, and they are still going strong. These beer weeks, along with many others, have gained popularity until they have grown to such a proportion that one could one even hope to attend even a fraction of the hundreds of events events held during the larger beer weeks (see CraftBeer.com site for listing of known beer weeks).

If taken as a general indicator of the health of the craft beer industry, I would say the growth of beer weeks is a good thing. While they seem to becoming a bit over-done, they do present an opportunity to attend events that are normally not available. If you can make time to attend an American Craft Beer event, I would encourage you to consider one of the rarer events, such as a brewer panel discussion, celebrity beer dinner, or rare beer tasting. You can find a listing of American Craft Beer events here.

But whatever you choose to attend, supporting your local craft brewery is never a bad thing.

Cheers,

TW

Local 2012 World Beer Cup Winners

noreply@blogger.com (Tom) — Thu, 10 May 2012 12:15:00 +0000

Jay Brooks, of the Brookston Beer Bulletin, recently posted information on 2012 World Beer Cup. The World Beer Cup, run by the Brewers Association, is an international beer competition that occurs every two years. The purpose of the competition is to promote the international beer culture and draw attention to the growing craft beer market. It differs from the Great American Beer Festival competition primarily in that it works hard to pull brewers in from across the globe. Admittedly, though, the great majority of entering breweries come from the United States. The World Beer Cup features a panel of internationally renowned beer judges, who evaluate over 90 different categories of beer and award a gold, silver, and bronze medal for each category.

In 2010, the World Beer Cup featured 642 breweries from 44 countries and 47 U.S states. These breweries entered 3,330 beers in 90 categories. It also saw Devils Backbone Brewing Company named Champion Brewery and Brewmaster Small Brewpub, which is of particular importance to me because they are one of my local breweries. It seemed very improbable that a small brewery from rural Virginia would place so highly on the international stage, but they did it and have continued to earn accolades.

This year, as announced by the Brookston Beer Bulletin, the World Beer Cup continued to grow. The 2012 competition evaluated 3,921 beers in 95 categories from 54 nations. The 218 judges handed out 284 awards to breweries from 21 countries, representing a 18 percent increase over the 2010 competition. As in the previous World Beer Cups, the grand majority of the awards were garnered by the United States, with California earning 55 medals and Colorado with 27 medals. The next closest country was Germany, with 23 medals and then Belgium with 8 medals. India Pale Ale was the beer style with the most entries, 150, which is hardly surprising.

Local breweries (to Jeff and I) that won medals include:

Devils Backbone Brewing Company, Roseland, VA - Gold in Vienna Lager
Blue Mountain Brewery, Afton, VA - Silver in American-Belgo-Style Ale
Hardywood Park Craft Brewery, Richmond, VA - Bronze in Herb and Spice Beer
Rock Bottom, Arlington, VA - Bronze in Coffee Beer
Great American Restaurants, Centerville, VA - Silver in Extra Special Bitter
Cambridge Brewing Company, Cambridge, MA - Gold in Herb and Spice Beer
Boston Beer Company, Boston, MA - Gold in Wood and Barrel-Aged Strong Beer
Cisco Brewers, Nantucket, MA - Silver in Belgian-Style Flanders Oud Brewin or Oud Red Ale
Wormtown Brewery, Worchester, MA - Silver in Robust Porter

It is a treat to see breweries that we have visited place highly in the World Beer Cup, in some cases with beer we have even tried. I hope our local breweries do as well in 2014.

Cheers,

Poll: How Many BJCP Styles Have You Brewed?

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff) — Mon, 07 May 2012 12:18:00 +0000

Like all our prior blog posts, this post takes a moment to memorialize the results we received on the most recent blog poll. The readers' responses to the question "Of the 80 BJCP Beer Styles, How Many Have You Brewed?" are presented below.

Total Votes: 18

More than a majority of the voters have only tried homebrewing a handful of beer styles. If we setup another poll that asked which styles people have brewed, the prototypically styles would be the most prevalent (i.e. APA, IPA, ESB, English Brown, etc). The other question that is bouncing around my mind is whether the voters who voted are relatively new to homebrewing and hence the 1-15 styles brewed, or if they are old hands at homebrewing and prefer only brewing their favorite styles.

On the other side of the coin, I was surprised that the maximum number of styles anyone who voted was 31-45. I was certain there would be folks in the 46+ range, but we never got a single vote. It made for a very skewed result.

After rolling up my own "Styles Brewed" list, the idea of expanding my styles has weighed on my brewing plans. Let us know what styles you may want to try in the near future.

Slainte!

-JW

"No soldier can fight unless he is properly fed on beef and beer."
-John Churchill

Oatmeal Stout - Three Ways - Tasting and Evaluation

noreply@blogger.com (Tom) — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 12:15:00 +0000

Back in March, I posted about using different finishing techiques to create distinctive beers from the same wort. The basic idea was that homebrewers have a limited amount of time to brew beer, given real life demands and constraints. Homebrewers also demand variety that cannot be achieved by producing multiple batches of exactly the same beer, even though producing a multiple batches are a more efficient use of time. So, why not use different finishing techiques to produce different beers from the same initial brew. I set out to try this process by creating the following beers from the same base oatmeal stout recipe: oatmeal stout with tincture of grapefruit, oatmeal stout aged on sour cherries, and oatmeal stout aged on cocoa nibs.

Kenny, the owner of my local homebrew store, The Fermentation Trap, and I sat down to evaluate the results of the different finishing techniques recently. Our goal was to evaluate each beer on its own merits and to see if the finishing methods really produced beers that were distinctive.

Oatmeal Stout with Tincture of Grapefruit: This version was used in the Charlottesville Area Masters of Real Ale (CAMRA) internal Iron Brewer competition. The base beer was blended with a tincture made by soaking grapefruit zest in vodka. Feedback from the Iron Brewer competition indicated that the beer, while well-made, lacked a strong grapefruit character. When compared to the base beer, grapefruit was definitely present, but was very subtle when evaluated on its own merits. Otherwise, the beer was very smooth and the wheat augmented the mouthfeel provided by the oats. It is a recipe modification I will use in the future.

Oatmeal Stout with Sour Cherries: This version of the stout originated from 1 gallon of unfinished beer, without the grapefruit, that had 1.5 lbs of frozen sour cherries added. After aging for 10 days, the beer was racked off the fruit and bottle-conditioned. The beer's aroma is dominated by cherries, almost to the exclusion of other characteristics. The cherries even drove the beer to have a distinctive pink tinge around the edges of the glass. The beer's entire flavor profile consisted of cherries, even down to a sour aftertaste. It was very clear that the beer had lost all evidence of its stout base and was really a cherry - beer. While not completely objectionable, we both wished that more of the stout came through in the finished beer.

Oatmeal Stout with Cocoa Nibs: This version of the stout came from 1 gallon of unfinished beer, aged on top of 1.5 ounces of cocoa nibs. Chocolate came through in the aroma of the beer, reminding both of us of unsweetened baking cocoa, blended with the smell of dry hot chocolate powder. The flavor of the beer initially reminded me of the base beer, a solid oatmeal stout with increased creamy mouthfeel. These flavors slowly transformed into dark chocolate with some medium roast coffee, while maintaining the same mouthfeel. The flavor finishes with a lingering bitterness, but one that likely came from the roasted grains and cocoa nibs, rather than from hops. This beer was our favorite by far, presenting both the characteristics from the base beer and capturing the intent of its finishing technique. The cocoa nibs provided a richer creamy character with a solid chocolate presentation. This version was definitely one I would make again on its own merits.

Playing with finishing techniques was a fun exercise a way to create three different beers. I would highly encourage our readers to give it a try, if for no reason than you can create more variety, more efficiently.

Cheers,

TW

Tasting the 2011 Sam Adams Longshot Winners

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff) — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 18:57:00 +0000

This past weekend when Tom and I were able to be in the same location (albeit for a sad occasion - a funeral), we were able to hit up a New Jersey bottle shop together and pick up some beers to try. The six-pack that quickly leapt into our hands was the 2011 Sam Adam's Longshot Beers. To be truthful, I don't remember hearing much fanfare about the Longshot Competition since they did the Category 23 competition in 2010. So it was a sure surprise when we found these three beers in the cooler.

For those that are not familiar with the Longshot competition (see the official site here), it is a competition put on by Sam Adams as a way to get back to founder Jim Koch's homebrewing roots. In the competition (which is free to enter - a rarity for most comps), the best two beers are chosen from all the entries to be brewed and nationally distributed by Boston Beer Co. In parallel to this competition, Boston Beer Co. also runs an employee version of the comp, wherein the best employee-homebrewed beer is chosen for the third slot in the sixpack.

The 2011 winners were an interesting mix of style with two hefty beers (~9% ABV) and a more drinkable table beer (~5% ABV). The selections included:

"A Dark Night in Munich", Munich Dunkel by Corey Martin
"Five Crown Imperial Stout", Russian Imperial Stout by Joe Formanek
"Derf's Secret Alt", Imperial Altbier by employee Fred Hessler

While at the check out counter of the bottle shop, I would have bet that the dunkel was going to be my favorite of the three. In many cases, the imperial beers are 'interesting', but not always drinkable. However, after trying all of them (two of which I got to try with Tom), I have to say that Joe Formanek's Russian Imperial Stout was far and away the stand-out of the group. It was awesome. Big roast, vinous, dark fruit character, but balanced well enough that it was not sweet. The alcohol, which was hardly noticeable, is tucked beautifully into the dark lusciousness of the beer. Kudos to you Joe! I'd love to get my hands on that recipe.

If you've had the opportunity to try the 2012 Longshot beers, let us know what you thought of them and which was the favorite.

Slainte!

-JW

"The cheapest beer in the bar is called premium, don't ask me why."
-Jim Koch

Unexpected Sourness

noreply@blogger.com (Tom) — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 02:45:00 +0000

As my homebrewing club, the Charlottesville Area Masters of Real Ale (CAMRA), was preparing the second batch of beer to fill our bourbon barrel, we encountered an unexpected surprise. As reported previously here, CAMRA purchased a used bourbon barrel to fill with stronger beers that would benefit with an oak and bourbon character. The first batch to fill the barrel was Denny Conn's Bourbon Vanilla Imperial Porter. After the first month, the beer tasted good, but lacked the full oak and bourbon flavors that the brewers desired. Last Saturday, after two months, the beer was removed from the barrel and a new flavor was encountered - sourness.

Souring bacteria will eventually come to inhabit almost any barrel used to hold beer. Wood is a porous material that is difficult to clean and makes the perfect environment for lactobacillus and other acid-producing bacteria. Beer, in general, is not strong enough in alcohol content to completely prevent bacteria growth in the wood. Our homebrewing club knew this, but hoped to age several non-sour beer styles in the barrel before it turned. To help ensure the initial batches were not soured, we selected a barrel that contained spirits, instead of wine, whose high alcohol content would naturally prevent bacteria growth. The first recipe we selected was also a higher alcohol beer and we hoped that between those two factors, we would limit the likelihood of sourness.

The sour bacteria could have come from two possible sources. First, the barrel was dry when we opened it, meaning that it did not contain any visible liquid bourbon. The barrel did release a strong bourbon aroma when opened, but the dry barrel staves could have started growing bacteria colonies coming in through air ingress as the barrel did not contain liquid. Second, and more likely, one of the batches of beer put into the barrel could have contained an infection. We did not taste the individual batches before putting them into the barrel, and in hindsight, we should have done that. However, even if each batch was tasted, the initial stages of bacterial infection might have gone unnoticed. Once mixed in with the rest of the beer, the infection would continue to grow and then lodge itself in the barrel staves. This would be slowed by the alcohol concentration in the beer, but it would proceed regardless.

So, now the barrel is soured, the question is what to do. Some of the brewers of batch two have already started fermenting their wee heavies, the style selected for this batch. Most of us agreed that a soured wee heavy did not sound ideal, so that recipe has been discarded, leaving those brewers to complete the batch without the barrel. The main problem is that we might not have enough interest is sour beers in the club to generate the 50 gallons of wort required to fill the barrel, regardless of recipe. If that turns out to be the case, then the barrel may well become a planter.

Has your homebrewing club encountered the problem of an unexpectedly soured barrel before? If so, what did you do about it?

Cheers,

TW

A Toast to Family

noreply@blogger.com (Tom) — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 11:39:00 +0000

Jeff and I are getting together again this coming weekend, but this time under more somber circumstances. Our grandfather passed away and the family is gathering in New Jersey to remember him. In thinking about my grandfather and his life, I am struck by the importance of my family in my life. They provide context for the things I enjoy most and, in many ways, define who I am. I am grateful for what I have learned from my grandfather, both directly from him and through the example that he set for my father. I am also glad to share the writing of this blog with Jeff, as it gives us a means to connect over a shared effort and hobby, despite the 500 miles that separate us.

So please raise a glass and say a toast to family and its importance in our lives.

Cheers,

TW

Designing Recipe Kits - Quikie Kits

noreply@blogger.com (Tom) — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 01:48:00 +0000

I heard an interesting concept on Basic Brewing Radio several months ago about making a very quick batch of beer when the brewer is pressed for time on brew day. The idea combined several innovative techniques to cut the total brew day time down to approximately an hour, or maybe a little more. The batch of beer would be created using extract and some steeping grains, added late in the boil, along with a large volume of hops, all with the goal of finishing the boil in approximately 15 minutes. The method features the following:

Steeping Grains Added to Heating Water - Steeping grains can be added to the brewing water in a muslin bag while the water is cold. Once the water heats up to around 160 F, the bag can be removed, thus having steeped the grains fully and potentially even converting some sugar. All with no time added to the brew day, given that the water had to heat anyway. This can be done in concentrated wort boils, to save more time, or in full volume boils too.

Dried Malt Extract Added Late - Malt extract is concentrated wort that has already been boiled. It does not need to go through the full boiling cycle to coagulate proteins and generate break material because it has already done that. However, malt extract needs to be sanitized, especially dried malt extract. Thus, adding the malt extract to the boil for 15 minutes is sufficient to properly sanitize it and minimize any color darkening in concentrated boils

Hop Bursting - One of the major reason why wort is boiled for an hour is to isomerize the alpha acids in hops and generate the necessary bitterness in the beer. This length of time efficiently uses the hops, minimizing the amount of hops needed to create the bitterness. However, alpha acids isomerize during the entire length of the boil, so the required bitterness can be generated from a 15 minute addition, but a much larger volume of hops is required. The larger volume of hops also generates increased hop flavor and aroma. Large later boil additions of hops are called hop bursting.

These ideas can be combined into a method that massively reduces brew day time, especially if doing a concentrated boil. After the steeping grains are removed from the brewing water, it is heated to a boil. At that point, add the malt extract, hop charge, and whirlfloc/Irish moss and the boil can finish in 15 minutes. The rest of the brew day proceeds as normal. I have even used this method to make an entire extra beer during a normal all-grain brew day, with only extending the all-grain mash by 30 minutes.

I presented this idea to the owner of my local homebrewing shop, The Fermentation Trap. Kenny was very interested in the concept and we set about developing some recipe kits around the idea. The recipes needed to feature hops significantly, due to the hop bursting, but could range all over the beer style universe. The main draw of the recipe kits would be how quick they could finish a brew day, thus we named the series "Quikie." To date, we have developed an American Pale Ale, which is currently available. We also have a red IPA that is almost complete, and several more in the pipeline including an American Red Ale, an American Stout, and a normal IPA.

Working on the recipe formulations has been very entertaining, and resulted in surprisingly tasty beer. It reminds me that while most homebrewers aspire to all-grain brewing and complex and controlled brew days, there can be other driving forces as well. Time is a precious commodity that we all have little of and any way that we can save it, while still enjoy the hobby we love, is something worth pursuing.

Cheers,

TW

Lug Wrench Brew: Frosty Fool, Eisbock

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff) — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 20:38:00 +0000

After an 18 month hiatus, Tom and I were finally able to strike up the propane burner together and brew our latest collaborative beer. The prior collaborative brew was our Wheatwine Braggot, which was made back in November 2010. So once all the kids and wives were asleep, we brewed up the base beer for what will become our Eisbock.

Aptly named after the April Fool's Day brewing session, this beer will represent the first collaborative beer where we did not pick the beer style - the readers did. Three to four weeks prior to our planned brew session, we narrowed our interests down to six potential styles and then put it to a vote on the blog. The idea was somewhat of a whim, but after we put the poll up, both Tom and I were incredibly energized by the number of participants that took part in the decision. For a while, it looked like we might be brewing our first sour beer, but the Eisbock style made a surge and ultimately had the most votes. The whole process might seem a little gimicky from the readers' perspective, but for Tom and I, it was very entertaining and enlightening to 'crowdsource' the style decision. I would expect that we will do it again the next time we do a collaborative beer (although hopefully it won't be 18 more months away).

After the style was decided upon, choosing the recipe was somewhat a no-brainer. Jamil Zainasheff's recipe and process is the only notable recipe for Eisbock that I have come across. The grain bill and process described below should look familiar to anyone who is a disciple of Jamil's book. However, accommodating the ~25 lbs of grain in my 5 gallon mash tun was going to be a problem. Luckily, I was able to barter with another homebrew and friend (thanks Jeff H!) to score a larger capacity mash tun to get the deed done in.

At the time of this writing, the base beer is still bubbling away through primary fermentation. Once its complete, I'll rack it to a corny keg and let it lager for 4-6 weeks before doing the icing process. Assuming I remember to take some pictures, the icing process will most likely be the subject of a future blog post, which I will link back to here.

Below are the notes and recipe for the collaborative eisbock. The notes will be updated as the beer continues to ferment, lager, get iced, aged, and be tasted.

Frosty Fool, Eisbock
(recipe modified from Jamil Zainasheff's Brewing Classic Styles)

Recipe Specifics
-----------------
Batch Size (Gal): 5.0
Total Grain (lbs): 24.5
OG: 1.086 (target: 1.088)
FG: 1.022 (before icing)
SRM: 14.9 (calculated before icing)
IBU: 28.0 (Rager)
ABV: ~8.5% (before icing)
Brewhouse Efficiency: 60% (dropped it to accommodate lower efficiency with big beers)
Wort Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Grain / Extract / Sugar
----------------------
13.5 lbs. Bohemian Pilsner Malt (Weyerman)
9.5 lbs. Munich Malt 10L (GlobalMalt)
1.25 lbs CaraMunich 40L

Hops
-------
0.5 oz Warrior Pellet Hops (15% AA) at 60 minutes
0.5 oz Hallertauer Pellet Hops (4% AA) at 30 minutes

Extras
-------
1.0 Tab Whirlfloc at 30 minutes
28 drops of Foam Control in the boil

Yeast
-------
Saflager S-189 (from a local brewpub), propagated up through two 2L starters

Mash Schedule
---------------
60 minutes at 152° F
Batch sparged to get 7 gallons in brew kettle

Notes
---------
Brewed on 4/1/12 by the Wallace Brothers. Seventh collaborative session brew

Aeration was accomplished via an aquarium pump and diffusion stone, run for 30 minutes. Foam Control was added to the carboy as needed during aeration.

Beer was about 53° F after aeration, so the carboy was placed inside the fermentation fridge (set point at 45° F) for ~8 hours before pitching yeast.

Pitched entire 2L starter when carboy was 43° F and placed the setpoint of the fermentation fridge to 46°F.

Activity kicked off in the carboy 48 hours after pitching yeast.

In order to help drive fermentation of the lager, I will be ramping the temperature up using Mike McDole's technique for driving lagers. Also, given the OG of the beer, I will keep the initial fermentation temperatures lower than normal, as this sucker is going to throw off a lot of heat.

4/4/12 - Fermentation activity started with kreuzen forming. Temp set at 46° F

4/6/12 - Fermentation going strong. Raised temp set point to 48° F

4/7/12 - Fermentation still going strong. Raised temp set point to 50° F

4/9/12 - Fermentation slowing slightly. Raised temp set point to 52° F

4/11/12 - Fermentation slowing more. Raised temp set point to 55° F

4/20/12 - Fermentation continues to slow. Raised temp set point to 60° F

4/26/12 - Fermentation almost complete. Raised temp set point to 70° F

5/3/12 - Fermentation has been complete for a few days. Cold crashed the beer by dropping the set point temperature down to 35° F. The beer remained in the carboy until I got the chance to rack it off the lees and into a keg.

5/26/12 - Finally, I was able to transfer the beer off the yeast and into a sanitized keg (after ~3 weeks of lagering in the carboy). The beer tastes very clean and has a stong malt intensity paired with a warming alcohol sweetness. No detectable hot alcohols at all, which I am very pleased with. The color, on the other hand, is fairly light - lighter than I would have wanted. The icing should darken it a bit, but perhaps if we ever brew this again, we'd add in some coloring grains to darken it up a bit. I'll let the beer lager for another 2-3 weeks before icing it.

New Belgium to Brew in North Carolina

noreply@blogger.com (Tom) — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 01:50:00 +0000

A few days ago, Jay Brooks at the Brookston Beer Bulletin posted that New Belgium is going to open a brewery in Asheville, North Carolina. According to the press release, New Belgium plans to have the 400,000 barrel brewery completed by 2015, which will generate 50 jobs in the Asheville area. The brewery was drawn to the area for its beer culture, environmental surroundings, and the opportunity to work with a brownfields site in the downtown area.

In some ways, New Belgium's decision represents a bit of a disappointment for me. Around a year ago, a co-worker of mine told me that Kim Jordan, CEO and co-founder of New Belgium, was in a local bike shop asking about biking trails in the area. She also inquired about the local culture and the housing market and seemed to hint that she might be interested in moving to the area. This is, of course, the type of information that fuels rumor mills around the world, regardless of topical area. But, it still led to day-dreams of a New Belgium brewery in central Virginia and was a fun topic of speculation among friends over a beer.

New Belgium is not the only brewery to decide to expand to Asheville in recent months. Back in January, Sierra Nevada announce plans to build a brewery in Asheville. Like New Belgium, Sierra Nevada had been looking for an east-coast site for several years to help expand production and decrease shipping costs. The incredibly fact that they both choose Asheville puts a growing beer town on the map as a major beer destination.

With a large number of breweries and beer bars already, I hope to make a trip to Asheville sometime in the not-to-distant future. Even if it means that New Belgium did not pick my hometown.

Cheers,

TW

Session #62: What Drives Beer Bloggers

noreply@blogger.com (Tom) — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 12:20:00 +0000

Welcome to The Session - a collaboration of bloggers writing on a common beer-related topic. For the month of April, members of Brewpublic chose "What Drives Beer Bloggers?" as the collective topic to explore. A round-up of all the blog posts will be posted in the near future. You can read more about Beer Blogging Friday ("The Session") over at the Brookston Beer Bulletin.

This Session topic immediately grabbed my interest. The large majority of beer bloggers do not write posts to generate income, as only the largest of blogs pull the traffic that allows advertisements and donations to earn substantial revenue. I would venture to guess that the major beer bloggers pull in larger chunks of their income from guest columns and articles that their blog's popularity allows them to garner. But, these individuals are few and far between. I think the majority of beer bloggers are fueled by passion. Passion and enjoyment of the beverage and, more importantly, for the craft beer culture.

The craft beer culture is an unique place to immerse yourself in these days. With interest in craft beer skyrocketing over the past few years, more and more people are drawn to its interesting flavors and the back-stories of the companies that make it. Beer is a very social beverage, with roots in the working class, and it has long been more approachable than wine or spirits. Beer is associated with pubs and larger social events, with drinking sessions and joy in the company of friends and peers. While the craft beer movement is elevating beer's status and the limits of what the beverage can be, the common socially-binding nature of beer can be seen in the collaborative nature of the craft brewing industry. Stories of breweries going out of their way to help other "competitors" abound in the industry and collaborative beers are all the rage. Many beer bloggers, too, believe that they are sharing information and contributing craft beer's good and this collaborative culture is what drives them forward.

Here at Lug Wrench Brewing, that basic cooperative tenant is true, but with a focus on a shared hobby and a homebrewing bent. Jeff and I are brothers who grew up in Upstate New York. We have long shared hobbies and interests together and have been close since childhood. With both of us living far apart and having families of our own, it has become more difficult to maintain this bond. We both discovered we have a love of homebrewing and craft beer and randomly thought that it would be great to share the hobby across a distance of more than 500 miles. The internet allowed us a free mechanism to write about our interests and co-author a blog, so Lug Wrench Brewing Company was born. In addition to writing about beer, we also collaboratively brew a batch of beer designed to age whenever we are together, with the goal of fostering a library of interesting aged beer to try again when we next meet.

Lug Wrench has been a fun project for us, and one that we hope lasts for many years. It has provided us the opportunity to share a common interest and grow our friendship, despite the distance. In many ways, Lug Wrench embodies the cooperative spirit and enjoyment of craft beer, for two brothers, as we share our interest with others.

I would want it no other way.

Cheers,

TW

Beer Style To-Do List

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff) — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 14:10:00 +0000

In fitting with our most recent blog poll, I counted up the number of individual BCJP beer styles that I have personally brewed. After 3+ years of brewing, I had cobbled together a list of only 28 different beer styles. When considered against the 80 styles that are "official", the number of styles I've never attempted was almost twice that of what I have brewed. This made me a little ... restless.

I have heard several other homebrewers who have set their eyes on the goal of brewing every style in the BJCP catalog. I am not one of them. However, when I listed out what I have brewed, it made me realize that it can sometimes be easy to fall into a rut and brew the same 'familiar' styles over and over again. At my house, that typically comes back to American Wheats, American Pale Ales, Irish Reds, and Belgian Golden Strongs.

As a means to help spur myself to try other styles, I wanted to list out all the 'To-Do' styles that I have yet to attempt. I've copied that list below for two reasons. First, by putting it up on the blog, it will force me to be honest with myself on what I have and have not brewed. Secondly, I'll plan on referencing back to this post from time to time as a muse to inspire me to brew something different.

BJCP Beer-Styles 'To-Do"

1A - Lite American Lager
1B - Standard American Lager
1C - Premium American Lager
1E - Dortmunder Export
2B - Bohemian Pilsener
2C - Classic American Pilsner
3A - Vienna Lager
4A - Dark American Lager
4B - Munich Dunkel
5A - Maibock / Helles Bock
5B - Traditional Bock
5C - Doppelbock
6C - Kolsch
7A - Northern German Altbier
7B - California Common Beer
7C - Dusseldorf Altbier
8C - Extra Special Bitter
9A - Scottish Light 60/-
9B - Scottish Heavy 70/-
9C - Scottish Export 80/-
9E - Strong Scotch Ale
10B - American Amber Ale
11B - Southern English Brown
12B - Robust Porter
12C - Baltic Porter
13A - Dry Stout
13B - Sweet Stout
13F - Russian Imperial Stout
14A - English IPA
14C - Imperial IPA
15C - Weizenbock
15D - Roggenbier
16A - Witbier
16D - Biere de Garde
16E - Belgian Specialty Ale
17A - Berliner Weisse
17B - Flanders Red Ale
17C - Flanders Brown Ale
17D - Straight Lambic
17E - Gueuze
17F - Fruit Lambic
18A - Belgian Blond Ale
18B - Belgian Dubbel
18C - Belgian Tripel
19A - Old Ale
19C - American Barleywine
21B - Christmas/Winter Spiced Beer
22A - Classic Rauchbier
22B - Other Smoked Beer
22C - Wood-Aged Beer

Typing out the above list was humbling in that there are multiple beers listed that are common place and ones I should have brewed already. But my intent is to use this list as motivation and harness the humbling/restless feelings to help me brew in new territories.

If you have never done it yourself, list out what styles you have never brewed and you'll likely be surprised. Additionally, if you see one of your personal favorite styles on my list, please let me know - the more motivation the better!

Slainte!

-JW

"That's the problem with drinking, I thought, as I poured myself a drink. If something bad happens you drink in an attempt to forget; if something good happens you drink in order to celebrate; and if nothing happens you drink to make something happen."
-Charles Bukowskoi

Poll: Next Lug Wrench Collaborative Beer?

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff) — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 18:42:00 +0000

Like all our prior blog polls, this post takes a moment to memorialize the results we received on the most recent blog poll. The readers' responses to the question "For the next Lug Wrench Collaborative Beer, what beer should we brew?" are presented below.

It looks like we'll be lagering! The race was awefully tight between Baltic Porter, Eisbock, and Flanders Brown Ale. Just about every day, Tom and I would be checking the results and one of those three would edge up a vote, keeping it a close race. But it looks like we'll be brewing German this weekend after all.

The recipe for the beer will most likely be from Jamil's book Brewing Classic Styles, as its pretty much the only trustworthy recipe I've been able to come across (does anyone know any others)? Additionally, I've spent some time listening to Jamil's description of the style on the Brewing Network's Jamil's Show to get a better feel for how the beer will be 'iced' after the lagering process.

Wish us luck! I'll likely be posting on the brew day in the coming week or two.

Slainte!

-JW

"Nothing ever tasted better than a cold beer on a beautiful afternoon with nothing to look forward to than more of the same."
-Hugh Hood

AHA Governing Committee - Vote!

noreply@blogger.com (Tom) — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 02:08:00 +0000

The American Homebrewers Association (AHA) is currently conducting its annual election of Governing Committee members. The Governing Committee is comprised of representatives that are elected by the AHA members for the sole purpose of providing advice and guidance to the AHA leadership and the Brewers Association Board of Directors. Committee members are elected for 3-year terms and can be re-elected up to three times. They are elected on a staggered schedule, so that only a portion of the Committee turns over each year. Members help in shaping the direction of the AHA and its policies, as well as providing advice on topics ranging from the annual National Homebrewers Conference to website upgrades to interactions with homebrew shop-owners. The Governing Committee is our voice as AHA members and they volunteer their time to make our organization and hobby grow and thrive.

Please take a moment to review the candidates biographies and platforms on the AHA website. Additionally, the Brewing Network has interviewed all of the candidates on the Sunday Session show during the past two months or so. Those interviews were done live near the beginning of each show and present a candid view of each candidate, allowing AHA members to get a glimpse of their personality.

Voting ends on April 1, 2012 and can be completed by AHA members online. If you are not a member of the AHA, I would highly encourage you to become one, as the organization represents the best interests of homebrewers and homebrewing across the United States.

Cheers,

TW

More Variety and More Efficiency

noreply@blogger.com (Tom) — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 12:15:00 +0000

I have maintained an internal debate within my homebrewing-obsessed mind for quite some time - variety versus efficiency. Having a variety of beer styles available to taste keeps the hobby new and interesting. It allows the brewer to experiment with a number of different beer styles and learn new techniques. Given homebrewing's currently increase in popularity, there is no shortage of interesting ideas in the magazines, podcasts, and online forums. There is certainly no way to ever try all of those ideas, but brewing greater variety allows the brewer to at least pretend to chase that fleeting dream. Variety appeals to the creative side of the homebrewing hobby.

Brewing efficiency, on the other hand, allows a brewer to dial in their brewing process. If the brewer constantly switches recipes, it is hard to lock down the process and truly improve as a brewer. Many educated sources state that the most technically difficult brewing task to complete is to brew the same recipe several times and have the batches taste the same. This is the challenge of the professional brewer, who's clientele demand that their favorite brand taste the same or they may look elsewhere for quality beer. Efficiency can also relate to time, our most precious commodity. With the appropriate equipment, a brewer can produce significantly more beer in the same period of time that it would take to produce lesser amounts of beer in smaller batches (think 5 gallons versus 15 gallons - it does not take much longer to get triple the production volume). Consistent use of the same brewing process also provides familiarity and time-saving techniques during the brew day - see Brew Your Own magazine's March-April 2012 on Speeding Up Your All-Grain Brew Day). In many ways, efficiency is the ideal driving the technical side of the homebrewing hobby.

But, I ask, why is it not possible to strive to have a little bit of both. This question is driven primarily by an article I read in the September/October 2010 issue of Zymurgy, entitled More Beer from Your Brew Day. In the article, Drew Beechum explains that he likes the efficiency of brewing 10-gallon batches, but gets bored of drinking the same beer day after day. The boredom has driven him to explore ideas to get more beer variety out of the same base beer. The techniques he developed feature alterations of the base beer during the boil, fermentation, aging time, and packaging processes. I interested enough in his discussions of aging beer on different products, such as oak, fruit, and cocoa nibs that I decided to attempt it myself.

My local club, the Charlottesville Area Masters of Real Ale (CAMRA) have started conducting fun internal competitions using the Iron Brewer model. The latest competition featured white wheat, Chinook hops, and grapefruit. I did not want to have an entire batch of grapefruit-flavored beer, so I elected to use some of Drew's ideas. I brewed an oatmeal stout recipe with a significant amount of wheat malt and a bittering charge of chinook hops. After the beer fermented out, I transferred some of it to two sanitized and CO2-purged 1-gallon glass jugs. In one of these, I put 1.5 pounds of frozen sour cherries I had bought at a farmer's market. In the other jug, I put 1.5 oz of cocoa nibs I had left over from another beer. I plan to dose the remainder of the beer with a tincture I made from the zest of two grapefruit soaked in vodka, using a technique I outlined in a previous post.

I hope to end up with three distinct beers (one kegged and the other two bottled) from one brew day. This should give me some variety, while using efficiency gained from brewing a familiar recipe at a comfortable 5-gallon brew size.

Cheers,

Nanobrewery Interviews: Night Shift Brewing (Part II)

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff) — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 12:10:00 +0000

While many of us have toyed with the thought of starting up our own nanobrewery, there are others who have taken the plunge. To find out who these people are and what makes them do what they do, Tom and I embarked on a series of interviews with regional nanobreweris to get their stories.

Night Shift Brewing

Everett, MA

http://www.nightshiftbrewing.com/

As a follow-up to the first half of our interview with Night Shift Brewing, this post presents the conclusion of our conversation we had with the nanobrewery. Night Shift Brewing has just recently completed all its licensing, brewed their first batches, and have now launched their first commercial offerings at select locations around the Boston area.

* * *

Lug Wrench (LW): What has been the biggest challenge you have faced so far in starting the brewery?

Night Shift Brewing (NSB): Probably the biggest challenge has been dealing with how slow everything progresses. If we did not have day jobs during the initial stages, it would have been extremely tough to survive. Perhaps the next biggest hurdle is figuring out everything you need and where you are going to source it. All those minor things begin to add up. Simple tasks like choosing our bottle supplier took months to figure out. We talked with many different suppliers, emailed other breweries, compared quotes, compared shipping costs, etc. We looked at bottles from US companies, Canadian companies, and even bottles from a French company. It was often the company that showed the most initial effort and responded to our questions the fastest that got our attention – time is so important, and you value people who appreciate that.

LW: I love the visual look of the website and company logo. Where did the company name and imagery all originate?

NSB: The name “Night Shift Brewing” comes from how we started this brewery. When we first began, we all had separate day jobs, but would come together at night to brew test batches and talk about developing the business. It was like a second job, only at night. We’d often be up brewing until two or three in the morning, only to wake up hours later for “work.” In this sense, our day jobs sustained our night shift brewing, which is where our passion truly lived. Thus, “Night Shift Brewing” reflects our origins, our brewing passion, and our observation that the night shift really does seem to bring with it a sense of magic and possibility.

It’s also worth noting that we’ll continue night shift brewing at our brewery in Everett. Two of us – Michael Oxton and Mike O’Mara – work full-time for the business, but our third founder, Rob Burns, will continue his daytime job as a software engineer until we can afford to pay him full-time as well. As Rob is our de facto Brewmaster, we’ll do most of our brewing when he’s back from work, so we’re still on the night shift (day shifts will be spent selling, pouring, promoting and just contemplating about beer).

We really wanted an animal logo, something active and recognizable, but also memorable. An owl was the perfect fit – mysterious, nocturnal, apparently quite wise, and fairly unique (and, let’s be honest, owls are just cool). The final image for our logo is the hop-owl (its body has the shape and texture of a hop), which was drawn by one of our founders, Michael Oxton.

Our general branding attempts a look that’s handcrafted and rustic, but also classy. We’re small, we’re making our beers by hand, and we brew in an old WWII parts factory, so our look needs to feel a bit raw. But, we’re also making very complex, intricately flavored beer – a beverage that’s closer to wine than Bud Light. So, we also want to appear tasteful and refined, not cheap.

LW: I've noticed you guys use a lot of social networking - how has social networking and other online tools been useful for Night Shift as you started building the business. What has worked and what has been disappointing?

NSB: Online social networking is huge. It allows us to connect with fans and really interact with them in ways that wouldn’t otherwise be possible. It’s been especially interesting to learn how Facebook and Twitter can be used most effectively, and differently. At first, we treated them both the same and would simply post the same messages on both. What we’ve learned, however, is that we have two fairly different sets of people following us on each, and the manner of our interaction should be different, as well. Twitter is more about our dialogue with an online community, where Facebook is more about Night Shift news and updates. With Twitter, we try and craft interesting, relevant messages that others can re-tweet and use to generate a conversation. With Facebook, we’ve put a bigger focus on visuals and letting people learn about us through photo albums.

Our blog, however, is currently our most important and useful online tool – it just gives us so much freedom to tell the Night Shift Brewing story and share our voice. The more you can share with people, the personal and interesting your relationship with them will be. The blog is still very much in its infancy, but we’ve had great success with it so far.

LW: Where did you get the inspiration for the beers you plan to commercialize? How did you pick your range of offerings?

NSB: We draw a lot of inspiration from the culinary world – restaurant menus, cooking at home, and even non-alcoholic beverages. Quite often, a recipe idea comes from something completely unrelated to beer. One of our launch beers, Bee Tea, is a prime example. Bee Tea is a wheat ale with orange peel, orange blossom honey and green tea. Rob designed this recipe after growing to appreciate the green tea and honey combo at work. There was a challenge in translating that idea into a tasty beer, but we brewed a lot of test batches and ended up with something we really like.

As stated before, our initial range of offerings is the very best of our 80+ homebrew recipes. We did keep it diverse – a wheat ale, a Belgian-style pale ale, and a stout – but those also happened to be some of our favorites. We plan to be constantly experimenting, however, and coming up new recipes all the time. Much like what White Birch has done so successfully, we plan to release a lot of specialty batches as we move forward. It’s more fun for us to share what’s new and interesting, and hopefully it’s more fun for our drinkers.

LW: Any plans to do collaborative brews or even Pro/Am brews with other local brewers/homebrewers?

NSB: We don't have any immediate plans, but it would definitely be great to do collaborative brews with some of the local Massachusetts brewers. To our knowledge, there actually hasn’t been a collaborative brew between two MA breweries, so maybe we’ll be one of the first.

We would also like to work with homebrewers. Boston has a great club, The Worts, who have an insane amount of knowledge. We also recently featured some beers at a North Shore Homebrewers meeting, and they’re another crew with lots of interesting, experienced brewers. It would be great to support the people in groups like those, and work with them to create some special beers.

LW: Since you've started this venture, what's been the most rewarding or interesting thing that's happened to you?

NSB: Very tough to say. We’d like to think that the most interesting phase has yet to come. However, just watching the enthusiasm build around our beer and our brand has been incredibly exciting. When a friend in Maine tells us that people in Portland are talking about Night Shift, or when an account in Boston goes “Guys, customers want to know when your beer hits the shelves,” it’s really hard to not feel almost stunned. Until quite recently, our beers were only shared with friends and family, and no one outside our social circle had heard of “Night Shift Brewing.” To see this hobby (ok, maybe obsession) transform into something so much bigger, something that people care about, is just incredible. The culture of “sharing” is something all three of us seem to enjoy and embrace – now it’s become our full-time job.

* * *

If you want to find out more about Night Shift Brewing, check out their website, or better yet, if you are in the Boston area, stop by the brewery.

Slainte!

-JW

"In my opinion, most of the great men of the past were only there for the beer."
-A.J.P. Taylor, Bristish historian

Help Lug Wrench Pick The Next Collaborative Beer

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff) — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 11:34:00 +0000

It will have been almost 18 months since the last time Tom and I were able to brew a Lug Wrench Collaborative Beer. That dryspell is coming to an end, as it looks like Tom and his family will be taking the 500 mile trek to Rhode Island fir a visit at the end of March. And you know what that means - its brew time!

Like the majority of our prior collaborative beers, we've typically focused on darker, high alcohol beer styles - beers that can cellar well for long periods of time. When we are lucky enough to be in the same town again, Tom and I will often open one or two of these beers from the growing library as a way to look back at our collaborations.

In planning for this upcoming brew in March, Tom and I threw around several different options and were able to narrow the list down to these six possibilities:

Russian Imperial Stout
Strong Scotch Ale
Baltic Porter
Eisbock
Flanders Brown Ale
Imperial Smoked Porter

Of course, picking which style to brew from the list is never easy we love too many of them. So we thought - Why not let the readers decide?!? As a result, we put up a poll (on the right side of the page) and are asking all our visitors to let their voices be heard for what style of beer we should brew next. Give it some thought. Don't give it any thought. Flip a coin. Either way you do it, vote and help us out. The results will be in our brewpot at the end of the month!

Slainte!

-JW

"I'm gaining weight the right way: I'm drinking beer."
-Johnny Damon

Reusing a Yeast Cake

noreply@blogger.com (Tom) — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 13:15:00 +0000

Professional brewers reuse yeast all the time. This reuse allows them to save a substantial amount of money, rather than growing up or purchasing a new yeast pitch each time. Additionally, many people claim that yeast cultures take a couple generations to hit their stride (a generation is fermenting a single batch of beer) and that the yeast performs best after the third batch. Eventually, they yeast colony begins to mutate, alter its performance or resulting flavor profile and needs to be removed from the brewery. The number of generations a brewery uses its yeast varies by brewer beliefs, yeast strain, equipment and other factors. Many breweries maintain labs and run chemical and biological analyses of the yeast to determine its maximum generation number, while other breweries rely on experience and work processes. All things considered, yeast reuse is almost mandatory in the professional beer world.

The same is not true in homebrewing. Yeast costs are much smaller for homebrewers, so there is less incentive to try to save money by reusing yeast (if you are making your own beer solely to save money, you may be in the wrong hobby). Homebrewers also do not have much experience with saving yeast and performing proper procedures to limit bacterial load and optimize yeast health. But, the largest reason for not reusing yeast, in my opinion, is scheduling. Liquid yeast does not have a long storage life, even in optimal conditions. If a homebrewer saves a batch of yeast and does not use it within two weeks, the yeast may need a starter to revitalize it before repitching. Most homebrewers I know do not brew more than once or twice a month, so storage becomes a problem. Combine this with the fact that we rarely brew the same beer style back-to-back, often using different yeasts, so scheduling becomes quite an issue.

All that being said, I have intended to reuse a batch of yeast for more than one beer for quite some time. The easiest way to do this is to ferment a batch of beer, siphon the new beer off the cake, and have fresh wort ready to go on the yeast immediately afterwards. This method does not require rinsing the yeast; nor does it require lengthy yeast storage. It is a simple process, but requires planning to time the two batches properly and ensure they can use the same yeast (I did an Irish Red and an Oatmeal Stout with White Lab's Irish Ale Yeast).

If you consider reusing a yeast cake, keep the following in mind:

Do not use the same cake more than two or three times. Because you are not rinsing the yeast, each batch leaves trub, hop matter, and dead yeast behind. This can slowly degrade and produce off-flavors in your beer.
Do not use a high-gravity wort or very hoppy wort until the terminal batch of beer. High-gravity wort stresses the yeast and may make it less likely to fully ferment the following beer. Highly-hopped worts leave bittering compounds in the yeast cake that can over-bitter the subsequent beer.
Target a yeast that settles out well, so that it is easy to rack off the yeast cake and not have it be overly disturbed before receiving the new wort
Avoid using fining agents, like gelatin, that will be left in the yeast cake and can inhibit the subsequent fermentation.
Be prepared for VERY quick yeast activity and use a blow-off tube because of the violence of subsequent fermentations (see the picture for what my Oatmeal Stout left in the fermentation chamber)

Reusing the yeast cake has been a fun experiment for me. The stout is not done yet, so I cannot compare the yeast's performance to other batches of the recipe I have completed. But I am confident that it will have performed at least as well as previous batches. However, the difficulty and limitation of reusing the cake makes the process likely to only happen infrequently in my homebrewery.

If you have ever tried reusing yeast, leave us a comment and let us know how it went.

Cheers,

Poll: Most Important Thing for New Homebrewers?

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff) — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 13:17:00 +0000

Like all our prior blog polls, this post takes a moment to memorialize the results we recieved on the most recent blog poll. The readers' responses to the question "What is the most important thing for a new homebrewer to focus on?" are presented below.

Total Votes: 43

This was one of the more enjoyable polls that we have done in a long time. It was a real get back to basics topic. Many times, we are guilty of focusing on advanced or peripheral topics in homebrewing, but the fundemental building blocks are way more important than anything else when it comes to brewing beer.

Focusing on the poll results specifically, its really no surprise that good sanitation practices is considered such a critical element for homebrewers. Without the ability to control microbe populations in and around our beer, the resulting beer would be a crapshoot - a completely random beverage that would be more times undrinkable than drinkable. For begining homebrewers, learning to properly sanitize equipment and how to handle the wort on the cold-side is the first step in producing repeatable results. But sanitation is certainly not something just for beginers to consider. It is a concept that everyone should strive to improve. If you've been brewing for years and have a set process, ask yourself "how can I improve my brewing sanitation?". Where is the most likely place an infection might jump into my beer? Continuous improvement should be the mantra homebrewers adopt - make small improvments whenever you can and your brewing will continue to improve right along side.

We will likely return to this topic in future polls, so let us know what you think. And if you are reading this, our next blog poll is up and awaying your participation.

Slainte!

-JW

"What contemptible scoundrel has stolen the cork to my lunch?
-W. C. Fields

Bourbon Barrel Project - Barrel Fill

noreply@blogger.com (Tom) — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 13:10:00 +0000

My local homebrewing club, the Charlottesville Area Masters of Real Ale (CAMRA), is currently in the middle of a group bourbon barrel project. Some elements of the project have been covered in previous posts on organization and group brewing. After individually brewing the beers, it was time to gather and fill the barrel.

Bourbon barrels are delivered in a variety of conditions when ordered. The condition depends on a myriad of factors including their age, storage time, and method of transportation. The most important thing to immediately assess is how likely the barrel is to leak. Barrels are made up of individual pieces of wood, called staves, which are held together with metal bands, called hoops. The wood used for staves, often white oak, is split and aged and dried. When properly cut, trimmed, and assembled, the staves fit tightly together and swell to become waterproof in the presence of a liquid. If a barrel is allowed to dry, the staves can shrink and the barrel may leak. Leaks can also come from barrels that are damaged in storage or transport. In the case of the barrel used by CAMRA, we had no idea how long the barrel sat before being transported to us after purchase. We also stored it for several months before we were ready to fill it, so there was concern about potential leakage

Barrels are plugged with a wooden bung, that seals the cone-shaped hole on the top stave of the barrel. Bungs are often hammered in and can be difficult to remove. The CAMRA barrel's bung was flush with the surrounding stave. There seemed no easy way to remove it without damaging it until the club organizer thought to use coarse wood screws to attach metal brackets to the bung. Then we were able to apply leverage and twist it out.

The CAMRA barrel was empty, but smelled fantastic of Virginia Gentleman from the A. Smith Bowman Distillery, which is the bourbon it contained. If the barrel contains any liquid bourbon, it is advisable to collect it, as mixing it in with the beer will likely give an overwhelming bourbon character. There is plenty of bourbon absorbed in the wood already. The lack of bourbon in the barrel increased our fear of barrel leaks, but we decided to proceed anyway. The barrel was stored on a small barrel rack at a local homebrewing shop, Fifth Season, and we could watch underneath the barrel to catch any developing leaks early.

The barrel fill went very well and our batches of fermented beer were siphoned in rotation into the barrel. The project had nine brewers, with two of us brewing double batches. We had intended one of the double batches to provide a 5-gallon keg to top-up the barrel if beer evaporated. Having extra beer on hand was fortunate, as we needed half of the top-up keg to fill the barrel completely. It is always better to have a little more beer on hand than be short and risk increased oxidation through the barrel headspace.

The barrel is now topped up and has an airlock in case of changing pressures. The plan is to taste it in a month and see how the flavors are developing. We do not want to taste it more frequently and risk oxidation or infection. Because new barrels can quickly provide bourbon and oak flavors, it is likely we will need to change the beer out in as little as a few months.

Thanks again to Fifth Season for hosting the barrel and to Greg W. for organizing the project. I am looking forward to seeing how the beer turns out.

Cheers,

TW

Lug Wrench and the 2012 Boston Homebrewing Competition

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff) — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 01:48:00 +0000

For those homebrewers in the New England area, the 2012 Boston Homebrewing Competition took place this past weekend and appeared, at least from the outside, to be a much more organized competition than prior years. I’ve been a fan of the competition for several years and it has been nice to see the comp’s efficiency come back and it's registration levels return to the 400+ level.

After all the score sheets were tallied and refreshing my browser countless times, the results of the competition were posted. For me, my goal in any comp is simply just not to get skunked, so it was very humbling to be awarded several medals. Two of my beers that placed, in fact, have been described in one or more posts here on Lug Wrenchand I though it would be fun to point out where they have been referenced.

The Belgian Golden Strong (“Eagles Nest Revisited”) was original recipe I tried to shrink down when I posted about my attempts to create a sessionable Belgian Pale Ale with the same flavor profile. The Golden Strong recieved a bronze medal, while the Belgian Pale Ale, which was entered, did not place in its category.
The German Pilsner ("Congdon Hill Pils") was recently posted about when a local brewpub brewer saved my brewday by donating a growler full of lager yeast after my yeast starter failed. The Pils ended up winning the Pilsner category and then went on to recieve an honorable mention in the Best of Show round - a feat that is a personal best for me.

I would be remiss if I did not mention that my local homebrew club (RIFT) made me incredibly proud when the brought it strong in the competition. The club scored 13 medals across all categories, which was only topped by the hosting club, the Boston Wort Processors. An special congratulations to Tom Auer for winning Best of Show: Cider honors - 'atta boy Tom!

The scoresheets are scheduled to be shipped out sometime next weekend, which to me, is the real prize of any competition.

Slainte!

-JW

"I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me."
-Winston Churchill

Visual Brewing Charts by Lug Wrench

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 18:19:00 +0000

Ever since I posted the very first brewing chart I did, we've been getting lots of positive feedback and praise from the readers. About once every other week, I get an email from someone asking for the PDF versions of the charts, which is great. However, navigating through the site to get at all of the charts has been a mild complaint which I wanted to rectify.

Eventually, Tom and I will create a static page that contains similar information to what is below, but in the meantime, I wanted to list out all the current charts in a single post that can be used for everyone's reference.

BJCP Beer Style Visual Regerence Charts

White Labs Yeast Visual Reference Charts

Wyeast Labs Yeast Visual Reference Charts

Hop Union Hop Variety Visual Reference Charts

In addition, I have uploaded PDFs of each collection to a public folder on DropBox, which should give access to anyone who wants the higher resolution PDFs of the charts. If the link below do not work, please leave us a comment and I'll try to fix them again.

PDF Versions of the Above Collections

If you have any suggestions for future chart topics or have any feedback on the above, please let us know - we love to hear it!

Slainte!

-JW

"Mmmmm....Beer."
-Homer Simpson