Cleanliness is Godliness

“Sanitizing your equipment is one of the easiest and most fundamentally important things you will do. If you do not take caren to clean your equipment, the best recipe in the world will result dissapointment.” –Charlie Papazian, “The New Complete Joy of Homebrewing“

If I have only learned one thing in my homebrew quest, it’s that you can’t make a good beer with dirty equipment.

Though it’s nearly impossible to prevent some bacteria from finding their way into the brew-stew, improperly cleaned equipment can literally change the chemistry of the beer and produce a yucky taste nobody will enjoy. Each ingredient we add should be done intentionally so that the flavors come out just right.

But good tasting beer doesn’t just come from the ingredients. How you clean your equipment and store your freshly-brewed beer matter almost as much as what you’ve lovingly added into your batch. If you don’t clean and store with care, you may invite other “friends” into your brew that could change the beer for the worse.

Yeast, one of the four main ingredients of beer, plays a big role in the fermentation process. Not only do the tiny microorganisms eat the sugars from the malted barley, they also add flavor to the beer. There are thousands of yeast strains in the world; but they don’t all make good beer. They are all over the place, on our bodies and in the air–everywhere.

Over the years, brewers have developed a special yeast just for brewing, much the way bakers have developed their own yeast for breads. Conveniently named, brewer’s yeast is really the only yeast you want in your brew, which is why sanitation is crucial in the brewing process. If you don’t clean your equipment and cover your beer as it ferments, yeast from the air or bacteria from the equipment can spoil your brew.

There’s no one sanitizer that works the best, I’ve found–people seem to use what works for them. When my Dad brewed beer, he always bought “B-brite,” a bleach-free powder that he added to his cleaning water. Other people swear by a diluted bleach-water mix, while still others use sterilizers made from an iodine base.

Whatever the cleanser may be, use it it often and carefully clean your brewing materials. Once you’ve brewed up your beer in your sparkly-clean equipment, keep your brew properly covered and stored, and the yeast will do the rest for you!

In the meantime, you can relax with confidence, knowing you have the right yeast in a clean brew that will make the perfect batch of beer.

Cheers!

Independence! (of a homebrewer)

Like our forefathers, homebrewers are an independently-minded lot. After all, George Washington and his fellow Patriots made sure they had American-made brew around, and some even brewed themselves.

After Prohibition nearly destroyed the craft brewing industry, American beers became lighter in color and taste. Dissatisfied after years with little or no other options, homebrewers struck out to create their own craft brews.

Homebrewing didn’t really take hold in the U.S. until the late 70s and early 80s when the few craft beers available were expensive and usually imported.

Creating a beer takes ingenuity and a certain independent spirit. As Bruce Stott, a Cape Cod resident and master homebrewer showed me, homebrewers often have to fabricate their own equipment and tweak recipes in order to come up with just the right brew.

2006 Sam Adams Longshot Homebrew contest winner Bruce has learned a lot from his trial and error over the past 13 years. He has developed and designed a few tools to help him in the brewing process.

Above is a wort chiller made from copper tubing. Bruce bent the pipe into a spiral, then added fittings to attach a hose. He sets the wort chiller in the hot wort, running cold water through the pipes to cool the brew down and get it ready for the next step in the brewing process. He told me he couldn’t find one in any homebrew supply stores near him, so he just made his own.

See more of Bruce’s homemade equipment in a video of Bruce brewing up a batch of beer coming soon.

Until then–relax and have a homebrew (hopefully your own)!

Thousands of Beers but Only Two to Choose From

Stout, Pilsner, IPA, Belgian, Porter, Weisse, Bock, Dortmunder, Witbier, Lambic…..the list goes on. Brewers throughout history have graced beer aficionados with a wide variety of beer types, from dark and creamy, to bitter and amber, to crisp and light.

I sat down for a few minutes with Mac, a bartender at the Sunset Grille and Tap in Allston the other day to talk about just how many types of beer there are. I figured, what better source on beer than a tender at a bar that serves more than 110 beers?

What he said surprised me.

“There are really only two,” he told me.

TWO? Then why does the Sunset have such a huge menu?

That’s because most beers fall under the category of ALE or LAGER. It all depends on how the yeast (that little microorganism that creates the alcohol content) is fermented. Any brew that falls under these two categories has been subsequently named to distinguish it for its taste, hue, and other factors like the country it was brewed in.

ALES are a beer that are fermented at warmer temperatures (between 60-75 degrees Farenheit, according to Beer Advocate,) with the yeast fermenting at the top of the batch.

LAGERS are fermented at cooler temperatures (closer to 34 degrees Farenheit. Thanks Beer Advocate guys!) and the yeast ferments on the bottom of the batch.

Mac went on to tell me that lager beers are relatively new, considering the fact that people have been brewing ales for thousands of years. The reason lagers are “new” (created in the past few hundred years) is the fact that they are fermented at cooler temperatures. Before pasteurization and refrigeration were invented, brewers could only ferment beers that could withstand warmer temperatures without becoming “skunked,” or bad. Those are the richer, darker, stronger- tasting ales we know and love.

Since lagers are brewed at cooler temperatures, they come out “crisper” and “cleaner,” according to Mac. Many of the mass-produced American beers fall under the lager category.

Judging from the Sunset’s menu, there are far more ales to choose from than lagers. Yum! I’m getting thirsty just thinking about it!

So if you’re in the area, stop by the Sunset Grille and Tap, have a chat with a very knowledgeable bartender and enjoy a cold one. Good luck trying to pick your sampler from all those beers!

Cheers!

Like Making Soup

Today I visited with Roger of Modern Homebrew Emporium, a brew supply store in Cambridge MA, to learn more about what ingredients are needed to make a brew of my own at home.

I have only made home brew beer from kits like “Coopers,” and was curious to see how I might concoct a brew of my own with the raw materials. Roger assured me that brewing beer is simple and fun, and is much like making soup. According to Roger, you take the four basic ingredients: barley, yeast, hops and water, and if you can follow a recipe, you can brew a beer.

Roger has been brewing beer for years and loves to brew for the season. Today we sampled a smooth chocolate porter, brewed up by one of the Emporium’s employees. Good stuff!

The beer was dark in color, like coffee, and had a light head. Unlike some major stouts, this brew was smooth and not at all bitter. Of course Randy, the brewer of the beer we sampled, said he is trying to perfect the recipe, and is experimenting with adding the ingredients at different stages of the process. Even though we liked it, he said he’s not there yet with what his vision of the perfect chocolate porter should taste like.

In addition to selling all kinds of beer-making ingredients and supplies, the shop also has cheese-making and wine kits. For any brew novice, there is a wide selection of books and kits to get started, in addition to the raw ingredients for a brew master to concoct the next great American beer.

An audio slide show of the ingredients that make a great brew will be available when I launch my site in a few weeks.

Until then, sit back, relax, have a homebrew, and Cheers!