STEP ELEVEN
You wait. An ale will take about a week until it’s ready, a lager about two weeks. You can always test this by opening a bottle and tasting. Put your beer somewhere cool and out of direct light. Many people use a closet, but beware, beers have been known to explode if the fermentation in the bottle gets out of hand. This is rare, but it happens, so don’t put it with your clothes or anything you don’t want beer on.
If you want to put labels on your beers, which is fun and makes the beer a great gift, try www.worldlabel.com/Pages/bottle-labels.htm, which offers printable bottle labels and a downloadable bottle label template. Now you get to name your beer and put whatever image on it you want (we hope you don’t use a huge picture of your face, ’cause that’s, well, lame).
Don’t get discouraged if your beer comes out subpar. It’s going to take a few batches before you start to understand how best to brew. Try to wait before making beers with fancy ingredients until you have perfected a simpler recipe. Once you graduate to another level, however, you can get creative, adding various spices, yeasts, and fruit. This is where the chef in you can express his or her artistry. Most breweries started out with a determined homebrewer trying different recipes and finding a true passion for the beverage. You never know, this hobby may become your new profession.
Advanced Brewing Techniques: Beer 401
If you have conquered some of the easier brewing recipes, you may be ready to get all crazy and create your own funky beer. You can do this by using advanced yeast strains, adding unique flavorings, changing up the hop varieties, and so on. Or perhaps you are ready to make your first lager and ferment at low temperatures. Once you delve into the more creative world of brewing, you will definitely end up with some pretty gross mistakes, and you have to accept that as part of experimentation and learning. But you may also end up with a truly unique brew that will give you a sense of satisfaction you hadn’t yet felt in the world of beer—the satisfaction of being a beer artist.
The following sections discuss a few advanced aspects of brewing that you may want to experiment with.
Yeast Is Complicated: Brettanomyces
Yeast is a bit hard to control, as it has a mind of its own, and using more advanced yeast is tricky. The sour yeasts can invade everything if not properly cared for, and sometimes the flavors they impart will be unbearable at first, but after some aging, they can become wonderful. There are more strains of yeast than we can count, and some breweries create their own “scientific” mix and keep vials safely stored away. Each beer style has anywhere from 20 to 40 yeast strains for you to choose from. Most recipes will ask for a specific traditional yeast strain that isn’t too complex, and these have all kinds of different names, like American Ale Yeast and Muntons Premium Gold. The more advanced recipes, however, will require some complex yeasts that can get a little funky. If you are into this and want to start experimenting, get to know this word: Brettanomyces.
Brettanomyces is the most famous of the funky ale yeasts and is affectionately called Brett for short. This is a determined and invasive little fungus that will eat pretty much any sugar, whether it be in the beer or the barrel or the floor. It’s famous for the complex flavors it imparts, which tend to conjure up these words: sour, funky, smoky, earthy, horse blanket, barnyard, dirty socks, sweaty saddle, and old cheese. Though this may sound really disgusting, trust us, it can be the perfect flavor addition to many different beers. We love earthy, funky, sour beers, and we count ourselves among those who desperately seek out Brett. Brett is notoriously hard to control, and some homebrewers will have entirely separate equipment for their Brett brews. If Brett gets loose, it could get into all of your present and future brews.
Brett beers are also a bit advanced because they require some aging. The funk of Brett can taste quite harsh if the beer isn’t allowed to mellow out and develop more complexity. Your Brett beer may need six months to a year before the sour earthy flavors become a good thing. Brett is often used as an additional yeast, something you add at the end after the original yeast is pitched. This will create a complex fermentation process that can go a bit wild, and it will no doubt take some practice for you to befriend Brett, but if you love the sour funky flavor like we do, the practice is well worth it.
Partial Mash and All Grain: Not for Kids
If you are wondering what lies beyond the world of malt extract, then get to know these terms: partial mash and all grain. As you know, using malt extract is the quick way to create your wort. Someone else has gone through all the trouble of turning grain into malt and has reduced it to a nice sweet syrup or powder you can easily dump into the boil. But if you want to get more involved with your malt, you can begin by making partial-mash homebrews. This means that you will use some of the malt extract and some dry malt, which you will grind in a grist and steep yourself (almost like tea). There are many recipes that offer this combo brew, and it’s a great way to begin to understand the complexities of all-grain or full-mash brewing, the process that most professional brewers go through. The great thing about using some quality grains in your brew is that you can add some layers of flavor that you can’t get with a tub of malt extract. You can do a mix of a pale and chocolate malt that will bring out a complexity to your Brown Ale you hadn’t had before. The quality of beer will improve greatly as you move to more and more grain. If you feel ready, and have the room to make an all-grain or full-mash beer, be prepared for a bit of a mess. This is not a popular choice for most homebrewers because it involves a lot of space for the boil. See the recommended brew books at the end of this chapter for more info on partial-mash and all-grain brewing.
Just Throw in the Spice Rack: Flavorings and Adjuncts
If you want to get super crazy with your brewing, try adding some adjuncts and flavorings. As in cooking, fruit, spices, and herbs are a huge part of brewing beer. Also like cooking, these ingredients may not turn out the way you expected them to once you taste the final product. So start out simply. We recommend using a beer you feel you’ve mastered, perhaps a Porter of some sort, then add a flavoring that isn’t too complicated and would obviously go well with the flavors of that Porter, perhaps chocolate or vanilla. It’s tempting to throw in a bunch of crazy things, but try to build up to flavorings like chai, which uses a collection of spices. After you perfect the vanilla or chocolate or cinnamon Porter, you can add nutmeg the next time and cardamom the next, to keep building complexity. Use some recipes that do a few adjuncts or flavorings and note how much the brewer recommends adding and when. Just to get your creative juices flowing, we’ve made a suggestion list of adjuncts (unmalted grains added as a supplement to malted barley for brewing) and flavorings (extras added to some beers solely for flavor) we’ve seen used in craft brewing:
Advanced Hops
When you get into brewing and drinking hoppy beers, you will, no doubt, come across these two suggestive phrases: wet-hopped and dry-hopped. They’re not as dirty as they sound. Dry-hopping is the process in brewing when dried hops are added to the wort after the boil or to the fermenter. This would be after you’ve made other hop additions during the boil. Dry hopping is not meant to add bitterness and dryness but to enhance aroma and flavor. Wet hopping (get your giggles out now), on the other hand, uses freshly picked hops that have not been dried or put onto pellet form. This process is said to impart a green flavor to your beer, a grassier, earthier taste. Wet- and dry-hopping are often used to make seasonal specialty beers seen around the holidays, as hops are harvested in September.
Here is one wet- and one dry-hopped beer to try:
SIERRA NEVADA HARVEST ALE : Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, Chico, California. This wet-hopped American IPA has the fresh grassy notes that are typical of wet-hopping. Notes of caramel, citrus, and pine; nice oily bitterness. 6.7% ABV.
OLD GUARDIAN BARLEY WINE DOUBLE DRY HOPPED: Stone Brewing Company, Escondido, California. A dry-hopped Barleywine with notes of spice and dried fruit, and an aromatic hop bitterness. 11.3% A
BV.
Hops come in many different varieties, and all of the varieties impart different aromas, flavors, and general effects on beer. You will want to gain a general idea of the flavors of different hops and experiment with them as you get into brewing. Here’s a short list of some hops that you might wanna get to know:
AMARILLO: American hop widely used.
CASCADE: Created in Oregon from a combo of Russian and Fuggle hops; extremely popular in America and made famous by the flavors it imparts to Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Named for the mountain range. Has a lot of citrus and grapefruit to it.
CENTENNIAL: Derived from a few English hops, this is a popular American hop. Bitter and floral.
CHINOOK: American hop derived from Golding. Big piney flavor and nice spice.
COLUMBUS: American hop, high acid and bitter flavor.
FUGGLE: English hop variety widely used in the United Kingdom. Not as sweet as Golding.
GOLDING: Same as Kent Golding, but not grown in Kent.
HALLERTAU: Named after the Hallertau area in Germany, a huge producer of hops. Spicy and drying.
KENT GOLDING : English hops grown in Kent and used in most English ales. Flavorful and mild.
MOUNT HOOD: Derived from Hallertau. Spicy and clean.
SAAZ: Classic Czech hops used in Pilsners. Spicy but mild.
STERLING: Floral American hop derived from several others.
TETTNANG: From Tettnang in southern Germany. Used in lighter beers. Also grown in the United States, but has stronger flavors.
WILLAMETTE: American hop known for its spicy woody aroma.
There are many more varieties of hops out there, and knowing their different flavors is essential to becoming a quality brewer. You need to know which are primarily used for bittering purposes, for aroma, and for flavor. A hop mistake can definitely make a brew unpalatable. If you can master your hops, your homebrews have great potential. See the brewing references at the end of the chapter for more information on hops.
Recipes
As you move ahead as a homebrewer, you will begin to truly appreci ate the skill of the master brewers. There’s nothing like doing something yourself to appreciate others who do it every day. You will taste beer in a different way, wondering about the grains, the hopping process, the strain of yeast used. You will fall in love with beer all over again, with a deeper understanding of how a beer is born.
We asked some of our favorite brewers to supply a few of their homebrew recipes. These are people who really know what they’re doing and have been brewing for years and years, working hard to make the greatest brews. Before you try them out, you might want to brush up on your homebrew techniques with online tutorials (for example, www.beertools.com/html/tutorial/index.shtml) or the homebrew books mentioned later in this book.
WOMAN’S WORK: FEMALE BREWERS
You may think brewing beer is a man’s job, and some women may feel that stirring the pot of mash is foreign to their sex, but oh how wrong you are! Women have always been stars of the kitchen, so it shouldn’t surprise anyone that they brew up some of the best. In fact, women were brewing beer as far back as ancient Babylon, where female brewers were considered high priestesses. Discovery of early Peruvian remains has lead archaeologists to confirm that women of that society were master brewers as well. And these female brewers were not slaves or servants but highly regarded women of the society. In medieval times, it was not unusual for the women to be the primary brewers of the household and town. Female brewers in early England and Scotland were generally known as brewsters (though this may not have been the case in certain parts of Europe, where brewster also referred to male brewers) and added beer to their list of items to make during the day. At that time, women often sat among male brewers, entrenched in the business of beer. Sometimes women inherited a brewery when they became widows. As the official Brewers Guild gained power after the 1300s, however, women were rarely allowed to be certified brewers. Men wanted this business for themselves, and this eventually took women out of the running to be professional and successful brewers.
It’s taken a while for female brewers to take their power back, and perhaps this is because beer is not marketed to the modern woman. The craft brewery world often seems to be dominated by men, but this is not true. As we write this, there are many women brewing beer in their own breweries and at home. And we’re thrilled to see women’s brewing clubs popping up all around the country. Women are embracing their history as brewsters and beer lovers, and we’re all the better for it.
To see a list of bona fide female brewers, check out the Pink Boots Society (www.pinkbootssociety.com), a group of women active in the business of beer.
CULVER CITY HOME BREWING SUPPLY
Culver City Home Brewing Supply (CCHBS) is our go-to for any of our homebrewing needs. Founded in 1994 and now owned by Kevin Koenig, Greg Beron, Craig Corley, and Tim Bardet, this store and homebrewing hub has been an invaluable resource for not only supplies but also advice, knowledge, and recipes. This store also happens to be the home and head-quarters of our homebrewers club, Pacific Gravity (www.pacificgravity.com). CCHBS now stocks over 60 different brewing grains, along with more than 20 varieties of hops.
Most of the store’s recipes have names reflecting movie titles, which is appropriate because Culver City is a center of film production. Greg and Kevin have amazing know-how and are determined to teach Angele nos how to brew. We bought our first brew kit from Greg, and he showed us the ropes. The following four recipes are great for those new to homebrewing. Find a store like his in your neck of the woods and bring your recipe in. Someone there will help you get the right equipment, pick out the right ingredients, and even measure out the smallest ounce amount for you. Your local homebrew store might even teach classes and have group brewing sessions like CCHBS. Happy brewing.
Little Mac Scottish Light -/60
Little Mac Scottish Light -/60 is a malty, flavorful beer that’s also low in alcohol. The -/60 stands for 60 shillings, which was the cost for a barrel of ingredients when the style was created.
SPECIALTY GRAIN BILL
6 ounces British Crystal 37L4
6 ounces British Crystal 77L
2 ounces CaraMunich
1 ounce roasted barley
MALT SOURCES
3 pounds Munich extract
1 pound light dried malt extract
HOPPING SCHEDULE
0.7 ounce Challenger (7.6%) hops, boil 60 minutes
YEAST
Wyeast 1728 Scottish Ale or White Labs WLP028 Edinburgh
FERMENTATION TEMPERATURE
65-75°F
PRIMING SUGAR
0.5 pound corn sugar dissolved in 1 cup boiling water and cooled to
room temperature
In a small pot, heat 3 or 4 quarts of water to around 150°F (bubbles start to form on the bottom). Remove from the heat, and stir in the specialty grains. Cover and steep for 20 to 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, fill a large brewpot half full with water, and bring to a boil. When bubbles start to rise from the pot, turn off the heat and stir in both types of malt extract.
After the grains have steeped, pour the liquid and grains through a strainer directly into the main brewpot. Add some hot water to the small pot, and rinse the grains in the strainer in the hot water to extract as much flavor and sugar as you can from the grains. This is the sparging process. Add this liquid to the main pot.
Bring what is now called wort to a full, rolling boil. Watch for boilovers! Once the foaming stops, add the contents of the hop package. Maintain the boil for 60 minutes.
Meanwhile, sanitize your fermenter, strainer, airlock, and stopper.
When the boil is done, cool the pot in a sink until the sides are cool to the touch.
Pour the wort into the sanitized fermenter, add prechilled water to bring it up to 5 gallons at about 75°F, and pitch the yeast.
Ferment in the recommended temperature range for 7 to 10 days or until bubbling in the airlock ha
s decreased to about one bubble a minute.
Bottle with dissolved priming sugar when fermentation is complete. (See Step Ten and Step Eleven on page 224.)
Yellow Brick Road Wheat Beer
This Hefeweizen, American Wheat, Fruity Wheat Beer is an easy recipe for beginners but still satisfying for experienced brewers. By varying the yeast used, it can have the qualities of either a German Hefeweizen or an American Wheat Beer, and with the addition of a fruit extract, it makes a tasty Fruity Wheat Beer, too.
MALT SOURCES
6 pounds wheat extract
HOPPING SCHEDULE
0.45 ounce Perle (8.3%) hops, boil 60 minutes
YEAST
For American Wheat Beer: Wyeast 1010 American Wheat or White
Labs WLP320 American Hefeweizen
For German-style Hefeweizen: White Labs WLP300 Hefeweizen Ale or
Wyeast 3333 German Wheat
The Naked Pint Page 22