Beer Bits 2

Darrell the Barreler, I like it :-)

2009-07-14T09:54:00.002-04:00

Now I'll have to try it. Brewvanna tells us about Darrell.

The General Lafayette Inn & Brewery needs you.

2009-07-13T09:42:00.003-04:00

The General Lafayette Inn & Brewery is a wonderful place to visit. I don't get there often enough. Stop over at The Brew Lounge and/or Jack Curtin's website for more info about their financial situation. It doesn't look good.

dark momemts

2009-07-11T23:50:00.004-04:00

rain pounding on the bricks out front with a splatter
distant booms
animals lying close
wet air washes by
funky sour malt flavor in the glass

ringing guitar
steady drum
thoughts of the dark
vocals bringing me closer to the night
reaching out into oblivion

I'm looking forward to Ommegang BCTC

Important information...or not you decide. (odds and ends)

2009-07-10T10:10:00.003-04:00

What's happening?

I'm going to Begium to Comes to Cooperstown 2009. Picked up some VIP tickets last minute!
The two coil immersion chiller seems to work pretty well for summertime brewing. One coil in icewater, one coil in the wort, run tap water through cold side first. Less water used, but, had to buy bags of ice and required more equipment. I like that it used less water. By the way I try to reuse as much water as possible. Right now we use it for watering our plants :-)
Pickup tube in the 16 gal kettle worked OK. I added this so I can grab as much wort from the bottom of the kettle as possible without using a separate siphon. Flexilbe copper tubing was used with a stainless steel scrubber on the end as a screen. I realized I need to clamp the scrubber onto the tube somehow. Nice to empty the kettle by just opening the valve.
Hops at Gavin's are doing well. Some Japanese Beetles are appearing and eating leaves. Something he'll have to monitor.
Bought a Brew Hauler for lugging around those carboys. Work very nicely. I would recommend it.

TODO

Don't even ask about the brew basement.
Three tier system is next up. Need to start brewing all grain.
The three tier system will also serve another purpose. I'm interested in creating a brewing station that I can wheel out of my garage. Tired of all the bits and pieces scattered all over the place.
Hops drying racks.
Waiting to see how many hops we'll have at Gavin's.

Never a truer work spoken about you! ;-) Yes, you.

2009-07-10T09:33:00.004-04:00

Some fun for a Friday. Sent to me by Josh, that bastard. Lovely little piece on people like you (the beer bits 2 reader). An excerpt...

"The Beer Geek
The beer world equivalent of a Trekkie, this fan is forever making pilgrimages to far flung festivals and conventions, will belong to any number of beer associations (and wears the T-shirts to prove it) and has never had sex with a woman where there wasn’t money involved. Beards are common and they have a powerful fetish for steins. " Read the full article.

Not me of course, I'm just one of those normal beer bloggers on whom family members employ their active listening skills. "Uhuh, really, uhuh, of course...not to be rude, but, can we talk about something other than beer?" ;-)

Carbon Dioxide is significant in brewing.

2009-07-09T10:28:00.004-04:00

Sure its in those little bubbles that tickle your nose. Sure it helps spread the flavor of the beer around your mouth making those big heavy beers foam like fizzy pop rock candy. Of course it carries aromas to your nose enhancing the flavor perception of beer. You might even enjoy the burping, but, carbon dioxide is so much more than that.

Carbon dioxide is the protector of beer, especially its flavor. That's right CO2 plays a large role in keeping your beer fresh from the moment fermentation starts to the moment it is dispensed from a keg or bottle. Some things to think about...

Why does a keg of beer go bad when you use a picnic tap to pump air into it?
Why put airlocks on our fermenters?
Why evacuate the air from a bottle or keg before packaging?
What does oxygen do to a finished beer?

What would beer be like if we didn't have CO2? It wouldn't retain its fresh flavor for very long. Here's why. Beer and oxygen don't get along very well. When beer comes into contact with air the oxygen changes the flavor of the beer. CO2 can help protect your beer from air.

CO2 and beer are inseparable. Any time brewer's yeast is involved, CO2 follows. When fermentation starts and CO2 is produced it is released into the atmosphere. Where does it go? That largely depends on where it can go. Imagine a dinner plate full of beer fermenting. I know it seems kinda silly, but, bear with me. CO2 is heavier than air so think of it running off of the plate of fermenting beer. Now, let's consider one other item that helps CO2 do its job, a vessel such as a cup, bowl, fermenter, bottle, anything that can hold the fermenting beer. Now imagine the fermenting beer filling three quarters of the vessel. What occupies the remaining headspace during active fermentation. CO2 of course. It is that headspace filled with CO2 which preserves the beer even in the early stages of fermentation. Comparing the plate full of beer and a deeper vessel we see that the deeper vessels have an advantage. They have a place to hold a blanket of CO2 over the beer.

Once fermentation is complete and the beer is finished we proceed through all other activities such as racking, bottling and kegging risking oxidation at every turn. This is why we should do our best to eliminate air from our packaging process. I presume bottle conditioning helps this by creating a closed environment for fermentation where the oxygen is used by the yeast.

I'm rambling a bit here so let's wrap it up. Yeast eats the sugars. Carbon dioxide is released into the beer. CO2 floats to the top of the fermenting beer and lays on top of the beer filling the vessel's headspace and displacing the air. This blanket of carbon dioxide protects the beer. Beer fermented without this CO2 blanket wouldn't taste the same. It makes you wonder how important earthen vessels were to the earliest brewers.

So, is Carbon Dioxide the most important thing about brewing?

Note: Edited for clarity and readability 7/10/09. I'm sure I'll be yet again.

"Are you a homebrewer? Do you have a dream?"

2009-07-08T13:38:00.004-04:00

"Are you a homebrewer? Do you have a dream?" That's Bryan's post title which leads us to an MP3 over at Basic Brewing. In that MP3 you'll find a recording of Ken Grossman's keynote for the National Hombrewers Conference. I gave it a listen and found it inspiring. Any story I hear about how somebody stepped up to the challenge, stalled and somehow kept it going really resonates. Check it out.

July 2009 Fermentation Friday at Pfiff! : Homebrewed doppelgangers

2009-07-08T11:12:00.003-04:00

Real quick, Rob's on for this month :-) Here's the announcement.

I'll get the schedule updated soon thanks to all volunteers. We could still use more.

Carbon Dioxide is the most important part of brewing, but why?

2009-07-07T11:22:00.004-04:00

Ok, maybe it isn't the most important thing, but, I think it is just as important as barley, hops, water and yeast. Do you?

barley is grown, harvested and dried
hop flowers are grown, harvested and dried
barley is malted and cracked
hot water extracts fermentables
boiling begins
runnings are made into wort
hops added here and there
wort cooled
transferred to a fermenter
yeast pitched
yeast takes up residence in the wort
carbon dioxide created along with other things

What function does the carbon dioxide serve in the fermentation vessel?

Edit: To read my attempt at answering this read this.

How important is carbon dioxide to brewing?

2009-07-02T14:01:00.003-04:00

I think its the most important thing about brewing, but, I'm curious about what you think. Why is carbon dioxide so important?

Edit: Read my attempt at an answer.

Brewing with Honey...

2009-07-02T12:12:00.002-04:00

Today Brew Dudes posted some interesting reading about brewing with honey. The simple vs. complex sugars thing never occured to me. Hmmm...

I do have pics of 18 foot hops :-)

2009-07-01T17:22:00.004-04:00

Wow! Rain & sun, rain & sun...really gets these puppies growing.

1, 2, 3, Hop bines over 18 feet tall
4. And we have burrs!

Edit: Not spurs, but, burrs...heheh.

Bleeder valve...

2009-06-30T22:59:00.004-04:00

I use this bleeder valve with a pressure guage to check the pressureof my beer when its carbonating in the keg. Connect it to the gas in side of the cornie. I let off excess pressure every so often until it stabilizes close to serving PSI. Good for over carbonated beer.

If you prime your kegs to carbonate them you can use this to help monitor that fermentation. No more increase in pressure, means it must be close to finished.

Of course that's just me. Maybe I like things with guages.

Note: Photo from Norther Brewer website.

Helping a friend convert a kegerator!

2009-06-30T22:29:00.005-04:00

Stopped by Jeremy's with some homebrewed barleywine in tow. We modified the fridge, connected the hoses and voila! :-)

Perlick faucets with Anchor Steam and Sly Fox tap handles. Yards Brawler and Jackie's Belgian Style Imperial Wheat on tap. Mmmm...

No more ads on Beer Bits 2

2009-06-30T09:29:00.001-04:00

I made my millions. Now I'm gonna retire. I wonder if I can live on a dime a day?

I have no pictures of the 18 foot hops.

2009-06-30T00:19:00.003-04:00

I really don't have pictures yet, but, I have to tell you I am amazed at these first year rhizhomes cut from my backyard cascades. Some of them are 18 feet tall. Wow!

How many flowers will Gavin's first year plants get? I guess I'll have to wait for those spurs. Maybe we'll have too many for us to deal with and we'll have to hold a hop picking party.

I wonder if there are any other hopyards with eighteen foot trellis systems in Pennsylvania.

Video: The Science of a Good Beer

2009-06-29T22:49:00.003-04:00

Dave McLean of Magnolia Pub & Brewery details the science of brewing, from the perspective of a craft brewer. I have to meet Dave some day. I enjoyed this video immensely.

Backyard hops pictures...

2009-06-26T13:24:00.002-04:00

1: Hops growing on the shed
2: New hop flowers hiding behind the leaves
3: Young Chinook hop flower
4: Cascade hop flower spur

Summertime brewing, beating the heat...

2009-06-25T23:59:00.003-04:00

I'll be very direct since I'm pressed for time. Here's my June 2009 Fermentation Friday write up. With regard to fermentation temps...

temp controller in old fridge
I have a basement so its easier to find a cool place, but, not always good enough
wet towel or t-shirt over glass carboy (haven't done this since I got the temp controller)
choose styles that like the heat (haven't done this much, saison)

And then there's the chilling of the wort. Well summertime increases the time it takes an immersion chiller to chill the wort. This is due to the temp of the tap water. I've decided to build a chiller with two separate coils. One side gets immersed in ice cold water, the other in the wort. I have the coils, now I have to put it to good use. Less water wasted and less time spent.

How do you beat the heat of summer time brewing? FF@BrewDudes

2009-06-25T13:28:00.002-04:00

Come read the answers homebrew bloggers share with us at Brew Dudes tomorrow.

Yikes! Its the end of the month already. Also, any readers out there who want to help with next months topic?

More Hopyard Pictures...

2009-06-24T22:45:00.001-04:00

Hopyard picture...

2009-06-23T10:17:00.007-04:00

Thanks for the picture Gav.

If you look closely, you can see the bines are well over halfway up the twine (18' trellis ;-). Not bad for first year plants. Will be nice to see them fill out with arms/side shoots and then see how many flower spurs start poping out.

An idea for homebrew bloggers. Are you interested?

2009-06-18T11:46:00.003-04:00

I'd like to create a sidebar widget for Fermentation Friday that others could use. Would you be interested? Here's what I'm thinking...

light weight and loads quickly
automatically updated each month by me (no wise cracks) *New!
basic info, Fermentation Friday, Date, Host site, link to site
something that would blend into any site (wonder what that would take?)

The goals would be...

encourage attendance by making people aware
promote a group blogging activity and build community

I'm open to suggestions. I may have started the homebrew version of the session, but it belongs to all of us.

!yadirF noitatnemreF

2009-06-17T14:27:00.014-04:00

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Remember Brew Dudes is up this month on the 26th. I'll update my sidebar to reflect this.

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Note: Matt, Jason, Rob and Travis I've noted your requests. Still looking for a reader who might want to volunteer a topic. I think it would be cool to have a reader take a crack at it. Anybody want to advertise on their blog.

Edit: Oops got the date wrong. Its the 26th not the 28th.

I'm not dead yet.

2009-06-16T23:38:00.001-04:00

I think I'll go for a walk.