The All-Grain Evangelist: A Beer Brewer's Blog

Podcasts I listen To

2010-01-06T08:10:00.000-07:00

When podcasting was new, a whole slew of beer and wine podcasts cropped up. I originally subscribed to all of them. However, I soon realized that the quality of information was severely lacking in most of them. Over time I stopped listening to many of them. Now, there is only a handful I listen to. These are as follows:

Sunday Session -- This is a three plus hour show that usually focuses on interviewing people from a specific brewery, though it covers technique as well. This is a live show Sunday nights.
Brew Strong -- This is strictly a technique show, with two powerhouse hosts: Jamil Zainasheff and John Palmer. This is a live show.
The Jamil Show -- This is really two shows, old and new. Older shows cover a specific style of beer, walking over the BJCP guidelines over time. After they ran out of styles, they started focusing on cloning commercial beers. This is a live show.
The MoreBeer! Monthly Podcast -- This short podcast covers the happenings at MoreBeer, one of the premier online brewing supply houses.
Lunch Meet -- Pure hedonistic pleasure -- very explicit, and wrong in so many ways. Not particularly about beer. This is a live show that occasionally happens at noon on Fridays, whenever they feel like it, which these days is every couple of months.
Basic Brewing Radio -- This covers a wide range of subjects, including legislation, techniques, brewing experiments, and so on.
GrapeRadio -- This covers wine and wineries from around the world.

Happy New Year!

2010-01-01T08:16:00.000-07:00

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-25T08:12:00.000-07:00

Quick Tip: Don't Over Pitch

2009-12-16T08:24:00.000-07:00

We always talk about under pitching. However, over pitching can be just as bad. According to the Lagering/Aging episode of Brew Strong, the Brewing Network's technique show staring Jamil Zainasheff and John Palmer, if you over pitch, the yeast can produce too much acetaldehyde, which is characterized by a green apple or cut grass flavor in the final product.

Running an SCA Brewing Competition

2009-12-09T08:22:00.001-07:00

Last time, I talked about judging an SCA competition. This time, however, I'm talking about running the whole thing. I have only done it once, a number of years ago, and this how it went.

I had gotten tasked with running the Highland's War competition. Starting months before the competition, I contacted the Highland's War autocrat, to see about setting it up. I had gotten the contact information off the website. They put me in contact with two people: the person in charge of the gate book, and the merchant autocrat. The gate book person was needed to get the competition in...well...the gate book (obviously). The merchant autocrat, on the other hand, was needed to set aside some space in merchants' row for the competition.

The next thing I had to prepare for was prizes. Now, I had entered in competitions before and gotten equipment as prizes. Unfortunately, in all those cases, I already owned the equipment. As a result, I did not want to do that. What I wanted to do instead, is give some sort of trophy. I looked at all sorts of things, including ribbons, and etched glassware. None of it was cost effective. What I settled on was this: I found an SCA member who was willing to sew and embroider favors for a small fee. That was perfect.

In addition, I needed volunteers for judges. I found who I needed on the Atenveldt Brewers' Guild Yahoo group. I was set in that department.

Finally, the day of the competition arrived. I had brought with me a borrowed shade tent, some tasting glasses, a wash tub, crackers to clear the pallet, judging forms, clip boards, stickers to write numbers on to stick to bottles, and so on. In addition, I had made arrangements to meet the nice lady who had made the favor. That went without a hitch.

I did have a small conflict with the merchants' autocrat on where to put my tent. When I met her, she claimed that she had never heard of me. Fortunately, I had printed out all our email correspondence. When I confronted her with that, she suddenly remembered me. As a result, that got all squared away. All was going to plan.

Starting at 10 o'clock in the morning, we collected entries. That went till about 12:30 PM. At 1 PM, all the judges showed up. We began judging.

The first real hiccup happened at that time. I had forgotten to bring a cork screw. So, I ran back to camp. After asking around, we found one. Unfortunately, it was one of these fancy lever types that did not work very well on hand corked bottles. It kept pushing the corks all the way into the bottle. This only proved to be an issue for people who wanted their bottles back at the end of the competition.

Judging was done by 5 PM, and competitors returned for their results. I made it a point to have judges available in case people wanted to discuss the results.

All was well and good. Unfortunately, the second issue popped up that evening. At court that night, we gave out the awards. I, being the competition autocrat, had the great honor of doing that. Sadly, though, I screwed it up. As I called out names and presented the awards, I gave the wrong favor to the wrong winners. Two of them got mixed up. Crap.

After the event, one of the winners, who was a good friend of mine, gave back his favor right away. The other one, unfortunately, was not so easy. I was lucky in that I had made each competitor give contact information on the entry sheet. After contacting the person, I sent them the correct favor, and a large vanilla self address stamped envelope for them to send theirs back. Nothing. Nadda. It was like they disappeared. Years went by, and I had written it off.

Strangely, one day I got a large envelope in the mail. I had long since forgotten about it. To my surprise, when I opened it up, I found a blue cloth favor inside. It finally had returned. I gave it to the other winner right away. Problem solved.

That is about it for my one and only autocratted brewing competition. I hope that it gives you a little insight as to what goes on.

Judging In a SCA Competition

2009-12-02T08:19:00.000-07:00

I have never judged in a AHA sanctioned competition. In fact, I have never even taken the BJCP exam. However, I do have some experience judging brewing competitions. That experience is in the SCA.

The SCA, in case you are not a regular reader, is a worldwide medieval re-enactment organization. In the SCA, I belong to and hold a rank in the Atenveldt Brewer's Guild, and have judged many Atenveldt Brewer's Guild sponsored competitions.

Typically, a competition is split into three categories: beer, mead and wine, and cordials. I often enter in the beer category, so I generally get recruited to judge meads.

When judging, usually, there are at least two, sometimes three, judges for each category. The meads, in our case, are assigned a number, so that judging is blind. We judge them in order, first to last.

We judge the meads on a standard judging sheet, that has been assembled by Atenveldt Arts and Sciences, on categories such as taste, appearance, periodness, and so on. Judging is done on a scale of one to 10.

More important than the numeric score, however, there is a comment section of each category. Often times, when someone enters a brew, they are looking more for judge's comments than actually winning a competition.

Judging is not perfect, however. Here are common problems with judging: First and foremost, palette fatigue is common. With up to 40 to 50 entries in a category, the last entry does not have the same chance as the first entry. Also, along those lines, judges do not spend as much time on the last entry verses the first, especially when time is short and the judging results are supposed to be in. Another issue: because there is a discussion by the judges for each entry, another judge can bias an otherwise blind contest (this step, though, is important for new judges, who are learning). This can also make it so the comments are simliar between judging sheets.

I hope that this post gives some insight into an SCA brewing competition. Though, not perfect, it is all we've got, and it works pretty good.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-26T07:22:00.001-07:00

Choices at Disney Parks in California

2009-11-18T08:12:00.001-07:00

So you are going to Disneyland, and you think that you might be out of luck beer-wise. You might be right; as far as I know, there is no alcohol in that park. However, you are not necessarily that out of luck. You see, there is a California themed park right next door: California Adventure.

As it turns out, California is known for something: wine. To celebrate California's wine industry, California Adventure has a small section devoted to wine. There they have a small vineyard, and a bar that serves -- you guessed it -- California wine.

While there, I tasted a couple of California Syrahs. It was quite nice.

It does not stop there, though. Not far away from that, they serve craft beer from one of California's most famous microbreweries: Karl Strauss. I guess that is would have been nice to have beer from all over California, like The 21st Amendment, Russian River, San Diego Brewing Company, and so on. Even so, I was not about to complain. It was nice to have something -- anything -- other than an American macro-lager.

I stopped in and had an Amber Lager.

So, you do have some choices at the Disney parks of California.

Quick Tip: Adjust Mash pH not Water pH

2009-11-11T08:28:00.000-07:00

I was listening to the second Brew Strong episode on water, for the Brewing Network, and they mentioned something interesting. Water pH is simply a balance of the chemicals in water. John Palmer, in the episode, said the following:

You can look at [water pH] as a balance, like on a seesaw, of your positive ions to negative ions. You can have two kindergarteners on that seesaw, or you can have two gorillas, and you can have the same pH.

In other words, you can have a lot of minerals and a little bit of minerals and have the same pH. The pH of the water will not directly affect the pH of the mash. When you make adjustments, you should read a water report for your area and look at the ions rather than the pH of the water.

Mash pH should be between 5.2 and 5.6. When you add minerals or acid, that is what you are aiming for. In fact, those additions should be made to the mash, not the water.

A Short History of Porter and Stout

2009-11-04T08:21:00.000-07:00

I brew a kick ass oatmeal stout. Early on, it has been one of my favorite styles. That is when I also became interested in the history of porter and stout.

As is turns out, porters predate stouts. Porters began their existence in London in the 1730s. The term porter was used to describe a dark beer that became popular with street and river porters of London. The beer got its color and flavor from the roasted malts used in its making. By today's standards, the early porters of London were quite strong, around 6 or 7 percent ABV.

The term, stout, came into usage to describe stronger versions of the popular porter beer. They were described as "stout porters." Eventually, porter got dropped from the name, and the beer was simply called stout, becoming its own style.

Popularity continued. However, during WWI in Britain, shortages of grain caused the strength of the beer to drop. It also caused countries like Ireland to take over the production of stouts, as they did not have the same grain restrictions of Britain.

After WWII, the two styles fell out of favor, until the 1970s, when the beer writer, Michael Jackson, began writing about the style. That caused a resurgence of the beer, becoming what it is today.

As I mentioned above, it is one of my favorite styles to brew. Here is my recipe:

5.0 lbs Munich Malt
2.0 lbs Pale Malt, 6-row
1.25 lbs Flaked Oats
1.0 lbs Roasted Barley
0.25 lbs Black Patent Malt
1.0 lbs Crystal Malt, 90 L
0.5 lbs Chocolate Malt
1.7 oz Fuggle Hops, 5.0 AA, 60 min, 37.1 IBU
White Labs, English Ale (WLP002)

1.055 OG, 11 lbs, 37.1 IBUs, 55.9SRM, 83% Extract Efficiency, 5.5 gallons

References:

http://hop-talk.com/2007/02/28/the-history-of-stout/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stout
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porter_(beer)

Happy Halloween!

2009-10-31T07:13:00.000-07:00

What I Thought Lagering Was, and What It Actually Is

2009-10-21T08:08:00.001-07:00

I have professed my love for the brewing Network for a long time. Really, it is unmatched when it comes to beer related podcasts and live shows.

I was listening to The Brewing Network's Brew Strong show on lagering/aging, and it blew my mind. For years, I was taught that the whole purpose of lagering was to clean up a beer, that the yeast remained active as the temperature was dropped and it cleaned up byproducts of fermentation, like diacetyl and acetaldehyde. During the process, the temperature is dropped slowly, to insure the yeast is not shocked into submission, not doing its job of cleanup, even as the the temp drops to just above freezing.

Apparently, I was wrong. Diacetyl and acetaldehyde are cleaned up at the end of fermentation, before lagering. In fact, lagering is simply used for clarification of the beer, dropping the yeast out of suspension. I was surprised when both Jamil Zainasheff and John Palmer, the hosts of the show, said that they crash cool their lager beers, rather than the gradual temperature drops that I've done.

That is not to say that there is not cleanup going on, though it is not by the yeast. Not only does lagering drop the yeast out of suspension, but polyphenols do as well, which can give a beer a cleaner flavor.

You learn something new every day.

Progression of Sanitizers

2009-10-14T08:06:00.000-07:00

Sanitization is important to homebrewing. You have to use something to kill all the bugs and critters in your fermentation vessels, siphon hoses, anything really that comes in contact with the cold side of brewing. Over time I have used a whole host of sanitizers.

When I started out in brewing, I used to use bleach. What I would do is soak everything, and then rinse it off. This was bad for two reasons. First, rinsing introduced more bugs and critters to the things I had just sanitized. Second, there was the risk of chlorophenols. In fact, I did get a nasty medicine/band-aid flavor in my beers.

I then moved two One Step. The brew shop I went to recommended it. It worked pretty well. My band-aid flavors when away and all was well and good. I liked the fact that I could use the same product for cleaning and sanitization, hence the name, One Step. However, I read on the Homebrew Digest (HBD) that One Step was not rated as a sanitizer. I also read some anecdotal evidence of infections using One Step.

Even though I never did get an infection from Open Step myself, I switched again. This time I used Star San, and still use it today. I liked Star San, because it was rated as a sanitizer. I use two products now, one for cleaning, and one for sanitization. (By the way, the one I use for cleaning is PBW). It has treated me well. I have had only one infection, and I believe that that one was a from a ball valve that was not cleaned properly.

So, there you go. Things change over time, and it has with me as well. As things progress, your brewing process just gets better and better.

Quick Tip: Calculate Mineral Additions Pre-boil

2009-10-07T11:04:00.001-07:00

I was listening to The Brewing Network's Brew Strong show, their episode on water, part IV, and they dropped a good tidbit. When calculating the mineral additions to add to your beer, do this for pre-boil volumes, especially when trying to mimic water from a classic brewing area. The reason for this is that even when looking at the numbers for a classic brewing area, you are looking at them pre-boil. These will get concentrated post-boil and the numbers will be quite different. Things happen during the boil that change the numbers.

Lagering in a Corny Keg

2009-09-30T08:42:00.000-07:00

I've only done one lager: a Marzen. Even so, it turned out quite nice. When I did it, I only had one refrigerator that I had temperature control on. That was my kegerator.

My kegerator was big enough to hold two corny kegs, and I had an ale going already. My only choice was to lager in a corny keg, next to the ale.

Now, I had read in Noonan that you can't lager under too much pressure*, so I decided to attach an airlock to my corny keg. That way, there would not be pressure in the keg, especially in the beginning as I was making the transition from fermentation to lagering, when fermentation was still a little active.

That left me with a dilemma: How do I attach it? I considered many options, but what I settled on was this: I would use a ball lock connector hooked up to a hose -- the same hose I used to dispense beer, just with the picnic faucet removed. That hose would then lead to the airlock. The stem of the airlock would be pushed into the hose. I would then only have to keep the airlock upright to hold water, which I did by scotch taping it to the side of the keg. Bingo! I had attached my airlock to my keg.

Lagering went well. I dropped the temperature from 60°F (my diacetyl rest temp) to 32°F at 2 degrees a day, and kept it there for 6 weeks.

It was funny. During that time, the ale froze that I had in the keg next to it, but my Marzen did not.

In the end, I brought the beer to Estrella, and it was a big hit. I have not done it since, but plan to again.

* Noonan actually says two conflicting things about lagering under pressure. In Brewing Lager Beer, on page 202 he says, "Do not lager over five pound per square inch." On the other hand, New Brewing Lager Beer, his revised edition, on page 194, he says, "Where tank construction permits pressurization, and the tank is fitted with a pressure relief valve, it is common to lager the beer under .2 to 2 atmospheres (3 to 28 psi) of pressure...." At the time I lagered my beer, I only had the earlier edition. If I had the later edition, I do not know if I would have used the airlock.

Church Key

2009-09-23T09:09:00.003-07:00

One of the funniest names for a beer related item is the term "church key," given to a simple bottle opener, stamped from a single piece of metal. I find the name so odd that I thought that I'd do some research into where it came from. I had to look no further than Wikipedia. There they mention are three possible origins.

The first possible origin is this: In Medieval Europe, much of the brewing was done by monks. The lagering cellars where the beer was stored were locked and the key to these cellars were kept on their cinch or belt. It is thought that these keys are where the term "church key" originated.

Another possibility was thought to go back to the repeal of Prohibition. Some suggest that the name "church key," used to open a then newly legalized beer, came about as a way to stick it to religious groups that backed the Temperance Movement, which lead to Prohibition in the first place.

Finally, there is one more possibility. Back in the day, churches were rarely locked, because, for the most part, someone was always there, there was little of value to steal, and to steal from a church anyway was -- well -- bad joojoo. As a result, according Wikipedia, "[a] 'church key' referred to something wholly unnecessary, and naming this new – and oddly shaped – thing a 'church key' made a certain sardonic sense."

So that is it. Choose your favorite. Thank you for tuning in as I explored this oddly named item.

"Research"

2009-09-16T09:04:00.000-07:00

Ever since I started homebrewing, I've been doing (air quotes) "research." "Research" is important for any hobby.

In fact, years ago, when I was honing the craft, the company I used to work for would invade this little outdoor bar called Brew and Vine. There I did my "research."

They had a good supply of offbeat beers and imports. At the time, I was perfecting my oatmeal stout. It was there I discovered Young's Oatmeal Stout. I drank that at the bar in the name of "research."

When I was to brew my first lager, a Marzen, I tried a lot of beers imported from Germany, at that bar. I did that in the name of "research."

Last Estrella, I did not bring any homebrew. I brought a lot of imported beer instead. It was there that I did a lot of "research."

I enjoy "research" so much that I think I will do some this weekend. Here's to "research."

Our Quick Visit to Rocky Point, Mexico

2009-09-09T08:00:00.001-07:00

Okay, I did not take any pictures, because we forgot to bring the camera. However, we went to Rocky Point the weekend before last.

I am not a big fan of Mexican beer. Yes, I know, they have the Vienna lagers and all that, the Negra Modelos, and so on. However, we've been to Mexico many times over the past couple of years, so I wanted some different beer. Since we drove there, we simply brought beer over the border.

When packing up, I emptied the fridge of all my left over beer, putting them in a cooler. This is what I brought:

Spaten Dunkel
Hoegaarden Witbier
Boulder Beer's Hazed and Infused
Young's Double Chocolate Stout

When you cross the border into Mexico, you pull up to a stop light looking thing. If it flashes green, you can go. If it flashes red, they search your car. For us this time, it flashed red. Crap.

My first thought was, "What if they confiscate my beer?"

They had us pop the trunk. Back there, we had a suitcase and the cooler. I expected them to pull them out and search both. However, they didn't. They simply looked in the trunk, closed it up and waved us on.

When we got to Rocky Point, we stayed at a condo on Sandy Beach. It was hot and humid, so we spent a lot of time in the pool. I can tell you that having a cold Hoegaarden while floating around in a pool is a wonderful thing.

Other than go to the pool and drink beer, we got eaten by mosquitoes, went fishing, played poker, and basically hung out.

Okay, okay, I did have one Pacifico while I was there. So, I did not escape the whole weekend in Mexico without having Mexican beer. I mean, it is Mexico, for Christ's sake.

There you have it, our weekend in Rocky Point. Thanks for tuning in.

Quick Tip: Support Your Local Homebrew Shop

2009-09-02T08:55:00.001-07:00

Nothing is worse than finding out on brew day that your yeast starter is dead, or that you've run out of Whirlfloc. What do you do? Well, you run down to the local brew shop and pick some up, sometimes even in the middle of your brew session. What would you do if they were not there? You would be out of luck. That is why I buy most everything I can from my local brew shop, even though they can be a little more expensive than say a mail order place. I make sure that they get my business, so that they stay in business.

Diagnosing Band-aid Beer

2009-08-26T08:01:00.000-07:00

It is funny. Recently, I was at a party over at a friend's house, and another friend showed up with some homebrew: a Scottish ale. When I tasted it, it tasted like I was chewing on a stinky old band-aid; it was very phenolic. In fact, he had said that all his batches recently had been band-aidy. We then had a discussion where we tried to diagnose the problem.

The first thing I asked was what he was using for sanitation. My thought was that what the problem was due to chlorophenols. Chlorophenols come from chlorine. According to Wikipedia, "chlorophenols are produced by electrophilic halogenation of phenol with chlorine." Yeah...okay. All I know is that it is a common problem when people use bleach as a sanitizer in brewing.

When I asked him about it, he said that he had not used chlorine bleach. He had in fact used One Step (which I question whether is a sanitizer or not, but that is beside the point).

The next thought is that it still could be chlorine, but it was the chlorine or chloramines in the water from the tap. He said that it had been filtered, so that was not likely the problem.

Continuing down the line of possible causes, we then discussed the possibility of infection. He claimed that he was very rigorous about it, but then he mentioned something that caught me ear. Apparently, during his cooling process, he added ice to the cooling wort -- not soaking the pot in an ice bath, but rather, adding ice directly to the wort. Bingo. That was the possible problem. He had an infection from using unsanitized water into his cooled wort. In fact, I thought that maybe it had taken hold, and infected his siphon hoses, so every batch had the problem.

That was when he mentioned that the water for the ice was unfiltered, and he thought that maybe there was chlorine or chloramines in that. Hmmm. I was not sure. I guessed that it was possible.

Anyway, the discussion gave him some possible solutions, and, in fact, seemed to point to the ice he used to cool the wort. We left it at that.

Yeast Ranching

2009-08-19T06:22:00.000-07:00

What exactly is yeast ranching? To be honest, the sound of it evokes the image of being on a horse, rounding up yeasty beasties, and putting then in a corral. The reality, though, is a little more lab coat than cowhand. It is culturing yeast from a source such as a bottle of brew that you like, or a previous batch of beer you brewed, so that you can grow the yeast and use it in a new batch of beer.

Simple yeast ranching can be done by skimming yeast from the krausen of a currently fermenting beer. However, this cannot be used to, say, culture yeast from a bottle of your favorite commercial beer that is bottle conditioned. That is a little more involved.

Many years ago, I took a class on yeast ranching. Soon thereafter, on one of the SCA brewing forums, someone asked about yeast ranching, and this is what I wrote:

I have never actually done it, but took a class on it a while back from the local brew club here in Tucson. This is what I remember. The proper way is something called "sterile technique."

To do it properly, you need some petri dishes and slants prepared with agar-agar medium in a pressure cooker, an inoculation loop, a heat source, like an alcohol lamp, and a series of flasks, stepping up in size.

First you heat your inoculation loop to red hot. Then you cool it on the agar of your petri dish. Next, you dip the loop in your yeast medium, and scratch it on your petri dish, covering it back up quickly.

Next, you heat up the loop again, and quickly open the petri dish and scratch a "W" shape in the original scratch, followed by closing up the dish again very quickly. The idea is to expose it to the air as little as possible. You do that one more time, making another "W" off of the last "W" you made.

You then set the petri dish aside at fermentation temperature for a couple of days. The best way is to handle and store the petri dishes upside-down, so nothing settles on them. The yeast will grow in round spots on the dish.

After a couple of days have passed, you look at the dish and find a perfectly round, off-white spot on the agar medium, in the last "W" you made. Avoid oddly shaped or oddly colored spots.

You heat up your loop, and inoculate it with that round spot only, and quickly inoculate a slant. The whole idea is to be very quick and sterile. You want to hold your breath every time you open a dish or slant.

You can repeat this technique for every type of yeast you want to keep. Just remember to store them at fermentation temperature. Slants will keep couple for several months before they have to be redone, using the same method.

When you want to use a slant, you have to step up from a small flask, not more than 10 ml, up to a 1000 ml to 2000 ml flask. I think the ratio is 1/10 in that each time you step up to a size 10 times bigger. You cannot use a slant without making a starter.

That is it in a nutshell. It is a bit of work. Often times, though, a club will maintain a ranch for the whole club. People will simply ask for a slant of the style they need.

There are books on the subject that explain it better than I just did. I recommend picking one up.

This is always something that I've wanted to try. However, every time I mentioned it to my wife, she thought I was crazy and gave an emphatic "NO!" She is okay with me brewing beer, but culturing yeast is a little too "mad scientist" for her. To her credit, she puts up with a lot when it comes to my homebrewing, so I am fine with that.

Romulan Ale

2009-08-12T07:36:00.000-07:00

This should bring out your inner geek. I was going through the fridge today, looking for a beer, when back behind all the bottles, I found something that I had not seen in years: a bottle of Romulan Ale.

This is what Wikipedia says about Romulan Ale in the Star Trek universe:

Romulan ale is a popular blue alcoholic beverage which was illegal because of a Federation trade embargo (and possibly also due to extremely intoxicating effects and, possibly, severe and perhaps even potentially deadly side effects of such intoxications as well, as was the case on Earth with the ban on absinthe) in the late 23rd century (per Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country) through the late 24th century (per Star Trek Nemesis). Despite this, it was often traded openly. During the alliance with the Federation because of the Dominion War, Romulan ale was briefly legalized, even though it was later outlawed again after the war, as stated by Geordi LaForge in Star Trek: Nemesis.

Many years ago, when in Las Vegas, I picked up a six pack of a blue beer marketed as Romulan Ale, at the Star Trek Experience, a Star Trek themed ride, bar, and museum, at the Las Vegas Hilton. My God, I think that that was seven or eight years ago. Anyway, I brought it to Estrella, the medieval re-enactment event I go to every year. Since medieval re-enactment folk are also often Star Trek geeks, it was a big hit. I must have had a bottle left over.

I remember the beer itself being quite terrible: a corn based light lager that made Budweiser seem like a finely crafted craft brew. The beer was never really about taste, however. It was all gimmick.

I did some digging. Not surprisingly, the beer is not made anymore. That makes sense since the Star Trek Experience is long gone.

I don't think that I will ever drink it. I will just set it away in the fridge until I find it again eight years from now. I'm sure that I'll enjoy the trip down memory lane then too.

Four Years of Blogging

2009-08-08T08:50:00.000-07:00

I have been doing this for four years, today. Unbelievable! I keep thinking I am going to run out of things to say. In fact, I have been thinking that for four years. That is not to say that there haven't been dry spells. To be honest, I feel like I am in a dry spell right now.

Because of this, recently, I made the decision to cut back a bit. For the past year or so, I've kept up a pace of at least a post every five days. About a month ago, I cut back to once a week. I simply could not keep up the pace.

Part of the issue is that I have not brewed anything for a long time. It is hard to have a brewing blog when you are not brewing. The reason? First, my equipment has gotten old and is in disrepair. I have been attempting to update it, but have not completed the project, which brings me to the second reason. That is this: I have been focusing on other hobbies like painting and art. In fact, that has been my main focus for the past year.

Brewing is not alone. I have other hobbies too that I have been neglecting. Some of them I have written about here in the past, like bicycle riding, and music. Some I still do, maybe once or twice and year, like medieval re-enactment. I travel a few times a year, too, and have written about that on this blog.

I don't wish this anniversary to be a downer. I mean, four years is a long time. I still plan to keep writing as long as I can. Hopefully, like I said, it is just a dry spell, and I will get past it and get back to the hobby of brewing. Until then, I have enough past brewing experiences to have things to write about for a while.

Keep reading. I plan to keep writing. Cheers.

Quick Tip: Adjusting the Malt-bill

2009-07-29T08:34:00.000-07:00

I was listening to the Brewing Network's Brew Strong episode on mouthfeel the other day, and they dropped a good tip. When adjusting a recipe for volume -- say you are adjusting a five gallon recipe to a six gallon recipe -- you adjust all the grains in your malt-bill, keeping the same percentages. However, if you are adjusting your malt-bill to dial in your efficiency, you adjust only your base malt, keeping your specialty grain amounts the same. I thought it was a good tidbit, so I am sharing it.

What Do You Do With a Bad Brew Club?

2009-07-22T07:30:00.000-07:00

I remember when I joined the local brew club. I became very excited. The reason: I felt like I had joined a brewing community, and felt that it was a good way to learn.

In the beginning, it lived up to my expectations. They had classes on advanced subjects, such as the chemistry of the mash, and yeast ranching. These seminars were lead by a chemist working on his doctorate at the university here. When this person graduated, however, he got a job overseas. Unfortunately, that is when things went downhill.

After this person left, the first thing to happen was that the information seminars just stopped. Month after month, when the brew club met, it became more of a beer drinking club. That is not to say that I do not like to drink beer. I do. However, people started to bring more commercial beer than homebrewed beer. That bothered me.

The next thing that happened is that they moved the meetings to a loft of a local microbrewery, in the bar. At first, this did not seem like a bad thing. However, it meant that, where people used to bring equipment for demonstrations, and such, after the move, it was not really possible. Also, it was loud in the bar, so it was hard to even hold a discussion. Again, people would only go to hang out and drink beer. It felt more like a happy hour rather than a brew club. I mean, where were the discussions about entering competitions, studying for the BJCP exam, or brewing beer styles? They were nonexistent.

Another thing happened that really bothered me. They renamed the club, and not just any name.

Let me digress for a second. For those who do not know, brew club names generally are made up of acronyms. For instance, the famous brew club, QUAFF, stands for Quality Ale and Fermentation Fraternity. It is a common practice throughout the country and the American Homebrewer's Association.

When our club looked at names, they played with a bunch of acronyms. Well, the acronym they settled was purposely named after one of the key chemicals in -- you guessed it -- weed, you know, reefer, the cousin. Now, I know that some people, including some homebrewers, smoke the cousin. That does not bother me; people can do what they want on their own time. What did bother me, however, was that, with the new name, it was like they were institutionalizing drug use as part of the club charter -- not my scene. For the record, I do not smoke the cousin.

That all went on for months. Eventually, I stopped going, but kept up online in the club's Yahoo group. That is when the final straw broke the camel's back. On this discussion board, they began bashing the all-grain brewers. I am proud of the fact that I all-grain brew and work pretty hard at it. Against my better judgment, when the extract brewers and non-brewers laid into the all-grainers, I piped in, and got into the middle of the argument. It was pretty heated, and was lead by the brew club's leader, which irked me even more. How can a brew club, whose sole purpose is to promote the art and craft of brewing, bash people involved in -- oh let's see -- advanced brewing?! That was it. I was done.

The whole experience soured my interest in clubs. Now, I am pretty much clubless -- well, sort of. I kind of consider The Brewing Network as my club. I have learned more from them than I have ever learned from the local brew club (except maybe in the beginning, before the chemist left).

There you go: my experience with brew clubs. Your mileage my vary.