In preparation for a brew day, homebrewer Brian Haslip has a slightly different routine than most homebrewers. After gathering the malt, hops and yeast he’ll need for his all-grain recipe, he drives a few miles outside Troutdale, Oregon, where along the roadside at the bottom of a hill, a pipe emerges from a leafy bank. A steady stream of cool, clear spring water flows from the pipe. While many people collect drinking water from the spring, Haslip has other plans. He fills a half-dozen food-grade plastic buckets with the water that he’ll use to brew two 5-gallon batches. Haslip learned of the spring more than a year ago from a member of his homebrew club. He’s been using the water for his beer-making ever since. “Once I tried it,” says Haslip, “I didn’t look back.”

The practice of collecting spring water for homebrewing may not be widespread, but it’s hardly new. Just as naturally occurring springs have long been used as a source of drinking water, so too have they attracted homebrewers who prefer to brew with untreated spring water over tap water for a variety of reasons. For some, there’s a satisfaction, or even romanticism, to creating something consumable made with ingredients gathered from the wild.

For others, using spring water for brewing is a practical consideration. In some locations, tap water has unpleasant flavors that are either inherent in the water source or derived from disinfectants at a treatment plant. While some undesirable flavors may boil off, others may not. The disinfectant chloramine, for example, may trigger reactions in brewing that can harm beer flavor. Since beer is predominantly water, brewing with aesthetically inferior water is likely to produce less-than-stellar beer.

Before you gather a collection of plastic jugs to fill at a local spring for your next homebrewing session, consider several issues. It will be helpful to take a quick look at water as an ingredient in beer before discussing spring water specifically. Although beer consists mostly of water, water tends to be the least understood and most ignored brewing ingredient for homebrewers. Many take the attitude that “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” This laissez–faire approach isn’t necessarily a problem. “In general, a fresh-tasting, potable water source will produce good beer,” says John Palmer, co-author of Water: A Comprehensive Guide for Brewers and author of numerous articles on the subject.

That doesn’t mean, from a brewer’s perspective, that all water is created equal. Without getting into a technical discussion of brewing water chemistry—there’s a wealth of literature available on the subject—it’s important to understand that the concentration and proportion of certain minerals in brewing water, as well as variables such as pH, hardness and alkalinity, can impact beer flavor and accentuate different flavor attributes. “Chloride accentuates the malt character of the beer. It makes the malt character a little sweeter, rounder, fuller,” Palmer explains. “Sulfate accentuates the hop character of the beer. It accentuates the bitterness. It makes the beer seem a little drier. A water with high alkalinity is most appropriate for dark beers because the natural acidity of the dark malts will balance that alkalinity in the water. For pale beers, you want low-alkalinity water because the pale malts are only weakly acidic.” While this is an overly simplified explanation of a complex topic, it illustrates the point that the water you brew with is not a neutral entity. It’s also worth noting that, since components of brewing water produce interactions in the mash, water chemistry is of much greater concern to all-grain brewers than to extract brewers.

With the addition of various salts, brewers can modify their water profile to increase its suitability for different beer styles. The more you know about your water, the more you know about its favorability for brewing specific types of beers. By extension, familiarity with your water profile provides a basis for adjusting it for brewing a particular
beer style.

This brings us to spring water. For our purposes, let’s simply define a spring as a location where groundwater flows to the surface. This frequently occurs on a slope where an impermeable layer that sits below a permeable layer is exposed. In some places where springs have convenient access, pipes have been placed, or more elaborate structures have been constructed to make it easier to collect the spring water.

The biggest concern with using spring water for homebrewing is that you really don’t know what you’re dealing with unless you get the water tested. With untested spring water, there may be a risk of contamination. The presence of disease-causing organisms is a greater concern for those collecting spring water for drinking than for homebrewing since these organisms are likely to be killed off during the boil of a brewing session. Of more concern for homebrewers are contaminants such as nitrates, arsenic and other pollutants that pose health risks. Nitrates can enter groundwater from fertilizer runoff, animal feedlots, industrial waste and other sources. Nitrates don’t boil off and can’t be detected by smell or taste. Be especially leery of springs located near farms and gardens, golf courses or industrial facilities. It should also be noted that the composition of groundwater can change, with concentrations of impurities fluctuating over time. While there are risks, many springs are safe. People collect and consume untreated spring  water regularly without ill effects.

As was mentioned previously, theconcentration and proportion of certain minerals in brewing water can impact beer flavor and accentuate different flavor attributes. “Groundwater is typically high in dissolved minerals,” Palmer says. “If you have a groundwater source, the chances are these minerals are already there, but one or more of them may be at a less-than-ideal level for the style of beer you want to brew. For somebody who wants to brew with a local spring water source, step one is to get the water tested for mineral content. Then you can make the decisions on, ‘Is this water appropriate for malty beers? Is it appropriate for hoppy beers? Is its alkalinity high?’”

Haslip, who brews mostly pale ales and IPAs, has been pleased with the results of the beers he’s brewed using water from the local spring. Even so, he’d like to get the water tested. “The reason I want to do the testing is I want to get an idea of the mineral levels in it so I can start making some modifications to really amp up the [hop] aroma and flavor.”

Simple water-testing kits, such as Taylor Technologies pool and spa water chemistry kits, are useful for obtaining water properties such as pH, total alkalinity and calcium hardness. Ward Laboratories offers more in-depth water testing services specifically for brewers at a very reasonable cost. Other private labs, as well as some local municipalities or colleges, may offer water testing services including tests for contaminants.

To be fair, many homebrewers who use municipal tap water exclusively for their beers never bother to seek out information about the profile of their brewing water, even if that information is readily available. Many of them make perfectly good beer. However, they lack the information required to fine-tune their brewing water for a particular beer style or know what styles are best suited to their brewing water. To many homebrewers, these are nonissues, no matter what their water source.

Natural springs are widely dispersed throughout North America, with the largest concentrations in Pennsylvania, New York and California. The website findaspring.com provides information on hundreds of springs and includes valuable input from people who have visited each spring. For homebrewers with access to good-tasting, potable spring water, using this water for brewing can be both an interesting experiment and a gratifying experience.

Sugarfoot Belgian Table Beer

The following recipe was generously provided by Denver’s Spangalang Brewery. The beer was the 2016 World Beer Cup bronze medal winner in the Other Belgian-Style Ale category. This low-ABV Belgian ale will provide plenty of interest without masking the qualities of your brewing water.

Batch size: 5 gallons

OG: 1.032
FG: 1.005
ABV: 3.5%
IBU: 15
SRM: 3.5

Malts:

Standard 2 Row Malt: 68%
Rye Malt: 9%
Spelt Malt: 9%
Carafoam: 2%

Hops:

German Magnum: 12 IBU (75 minutes)
East Kent Golding: 3 IBU (end of boil)

Other:

Belgian Candi Sugar, Soft, Blond: 11% (added to the boil)

Spices:

Sweet Orange Peel: 1/8 ounce
Coriander: 1/3 ounce
Dried Lemon Peel: 1/3 ounce

Yeast: Spangalang uses a blend from a local source. Comparable yeasts available to homebrewers are Wyeast Belgian Ardennes 3522/White Labs Belgian Bastogne 510 and Wyeast French Saison 3711.

Mash: 148 degrees F (64 degrees C) for 1 hour
Boil time: 75 minutes

Allow to ferment to completion, transfer to secondary, then steep the spices for about 5 days (a hop sack is recommended).

The post Homebrewing with Natural Spring Water first appeared on All About Beer.

Steinbier, which means “stone beer” in German, refers to a brewing process dating back to the Middle Ages, wrote Fred Eckhardt in a March 2001 column for All About Beer. The method, he explains, involves adding superheated stones to beer wort to effect mash conversion temperatures. The type of stones chosen usually consist of sandstone or granite because of their ability to store and radiate heat well, as well as to not explode during the warming process.

Eckhardt goes on to describe modern stone brewing’s resurrection on a commercial scale in its homeland of Germany in 1982 by Gerd Borges of Rauchenfels Brewery in Neustadt, Bavaria. Nearly a decade later in 1993, steinbier made its debut in the United States when Boscos Restaurant & Brewing founder Chuck Skypeck released the first iteration of what would later become the brewery’s signature Flaming Stone Beer. According to the brewery’s website, the stone-brewed Oktoberfest-style lager soon became a tap staple for the Memphis, Tennessee, brewery, making Boscos the first North American brewery to regularly make a stone beer.

Both breweries’ steinbiers were created using, for the most part, modern methods, including an exact-temperature-controlled mash. Hot stones were incorporated either at the beginning of the wort boil, as in Boscos case, or at the very end, as Rauchenfels did.

Jason Henkle, homebrewer and steinbier recipe designer of Bridger Brew Crew’s steinbier experiment, recalls tasting Boscos Flaming Stone Beer for the first time during a visit to Boscos now-closed Nashville location in the late ’90s.

“The predominant character of the beer was a caramelized flavor from the superheated stones scorching the sugars in the wort,” Henkle says.

Using this memory as his baseline and staying true to homebrewers’ exploratory nature, Henkle crafted a malt-forward beer recipe for a gruit, modeled after the grain bill of an English brown, for the homebrewed steinbier.

Much like the steinbier process, gruits also have medieval origins predating the use of hops in brewing, which began somewhere around the 11th century. Contrasting to hopped beers, gruits use a combination of herbs such as bog myrtle, mugwort, yarrow and sweet gale to bitter and preserve beer.

Henkle and his fellow homebrewers used hot stones, consisting of soapstone, as the primary and only heat source throughout the entire brewing process for their “steingruit.” The soapstone, also known for its heat-holding properties, was sourced by another homebrew club member from leftover masonry supplies at a local construction site. Four to five fist-sized, cube-shaped rocks—which were heated on a campfire—brought the cold, filtered creek water to strike temperatures (around 163 degrees F) in five minutes. After a standard single-infusion mash and sparging, hot stones were again used to heat the wort to boiling. A stone was added about every 10 minutes to maintain the boil for an hour.

After the boil, the brewers took advantage of a nearby mountain stream, using it as a natural wort chiller to cool the wort from boiling to yeast-pitching temperature. The cooling took an impressively short five minutes.

All in all, Henkle describes the final product, named Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, as an easy-drinking, medium-bodied, well-balanced beer with herbal and caramel notes. Despite the name, there was no smoke present, and no ash or stone fragments made their way into the fermenter, making for a very clear beer.

While still a rarity in today’s beer scene, for the most part, commercially available steinbiers tend to be lagers. Breweries like Port Brewing Co., of San Marcos, California, see the brewing method as a way to meld New World beer styles with Old World processes.

Port Brewing’s co-founder and director of brewery operations, Tomme Arthur, explains he used four kegs with holes cut into the bottom and top to hold the granite stones used during the brewing process. The rocks were heated over a propane burner for about two hours, reaching a temperature of nearly 800 degrees F. The kegs containing the superheated stones were then lowered into an open-top brew kettle via a forklift at the end of the boil to take advantage of the caramelization that occurs from the wort running over the hot rocks.

“It’s not the easiest beer to produce,” says Arthur, “but it’s one that ultimately is a great vehicle and storytelling starter.”

Hot Rocks Lager has been available in bottles in the past but is currently out of production. Port Brewing brought the seasonally brewed lager back as a spring draft-only release at the brewery this year.

Steel & Oak Brewing Co. of New Westminster, British Columbia, produced a collaboration steinbier with Germany’s Freigeist Bierkultur in the summer of 2016. The brewery, which is in a suburb of Vancouver, has seen tremendous growth since opening its doors in June of 2014.

When it came to the style for Steel & Oak’s steinbier, head brewer Eric Moutal also went with a lager. His brew process was similar to Port Brewing’s, using kegs as colanders to hold the hot granite stones. With the help of a forklift, the stones were lowered into the kettle to immerse them in wort. In a departure from Port Brewing, Steel & Oak introduced stones into the wort on not just one, but two occasions—once during the lauter and again during the boil. Wort was pumped into a separate kettle for the process and run over the hot rocks.

“As soon as the wort hit the rocks, it started sizzling! It was like a steam bath,” Moutal says. “It smelled amazing, and you could just pick up the aroma of the caramelization happening!”

Like many breweries, Steel & Oak Brewing has its flagship beers, Moutal says. But, due to the rave reviews received for its steinbier and the quick sellout of the bottled and draft beer after its release, he expects the style will be back on tap in the tasting room soon.

“People are asking us to brew it again,” Moutal says. “So we may start doing it once a year in small batches.”

Recipe

“Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” Stein Gruit
(5 gallons, all-grain)

Ingredients:
6 pounds American two-row malt
5 pounds Munich malt
1 pound Caramel / Crystal 120L malt
8 ounces Caramel  / Crystal 60L malt
4 ounces CaraPils / Dextrine Malt
1.5 ounces Bog Myrtle
1.5 ounces Rosemary
1.5 ounces Yarrow
1 teaspoon Irish Moss
Starter of Wyeast English
Special Bitter yeast (WY1768)

Instructions:

1. Start a hardwood fire in a fire ring or large grill. Spread the hot coals out to form a bed at least 1-inch deep. Initially, place rocks (preferably sandstone or granite) in the coals for approximately an hour to heat. Depending on preference, stones may be used as primary heat source for the entire brewing process or a propane burner can be used to speed the process along.

2. Mash grains in 4.25 gallons of water in a single infusion mash at 152 degrees F for 60 minutes. Sparge with 170 degree water to collect 7 gallons. (Note: Using a kettle slightly larger than the desired amount of beer to be brewed is highly suggested as rocks will cause displacement of the wort. In this case, a 15.5 gallon keggle (keg converted into a kettle) was used.)

3. When all the wort is collected in the boiling vessel, remove 3-5 superheated rocks from the fire. Use heat-resistant metal tongs to pick rocks out of the embers and place in wort. If desired, a stainless-steel colander can be used to hold rocks and submerge them in the wort or rocks can simply be placed directly into the wort. Repeat this process for the entire boiling period, adding a stone about every 10 minutes to maintain the boil. (Note: The same procedure can also be used to heat water for the mash and sparge steps.)

4. Thirty minutes into boil, add gruit herbs. Total boil is 60 minutes. Chill to 65 degrees using wort chiller or mountain stream if one is nearby and pitch one-quart starter of yeast. Ferment at 70 degrees for approximately 10 days. When krausen drops back, check specific gravity. Rack into secondary (on top of “caramelized” stones if desired) when gravity hits 1.017. Age at cellar temperatures (or lower) for three to five days. Bottle and prime. Condition in bottle for 14 to 21 days.

OG = 1.061     FG = 1.017
IBUs = unknown due to absence of hops

The post Homebrewing with Hot Stones: How to Brew a Steinbier first appeared on All About Beer.

Add the lengthy process of sanitizing each constituent piece before getting to the “fun” stuff, the manual labor involved in hauling 30- and 40-pound buckets to and fro, and the unavoidable wreck of any room in which you choose to homebrew, and it becomes very apparent why plenty of people who love beer demur from making their own—or try homebrewing, but only once.

An emerging series of automated brewing devices, though, is bringing down those barriers. And as a testament to how desirable these machines are, their manufacturers raised over $2 million in crowdsourcing campaigns to date. The systems may appeal to novices or master homebrewers.

Drew Beechum and Denny Conn are co-authors of the books Homebrew All-Stars and Experimental Homebrewing—Mad Science in the Pursuit of Great Beer. They also run the “Experimental Brewing” podcast and blog. Both have homebrewed for roughly 18 years and are well-versed in the labors of conventional brewing. And both also regularly use the Zymatic automated brewing device made by PicoBrew out of Seattle, where they have featured recipes.

“I’ve heard people say, ‘Oh the Zymatic, that’s not really brewing,’” says Conn. “Who the hell are you to try and tell me what brewing is?”

Beechum echoes Conn.

“There are some people out there who would look at anything short of how they did it 300 years ago with manual labor and sweat dripping into the beer as not being real brewing,” Beechum says.

Critics may have a hard time faulting the Zymatic out of anything but philosophy, for the machine is one of the more brewer-directed automated brewing devices on the spectrum. Users can select from a bevy of preprogrammed recipes drafted by 2013 American Homebrewers Association Homebrewer of the Year Annie Johnson or create their own for the system—setting mash and boil types, rates, timings and hop additions.

After inserting their choice of grain and hops (up to four types of hops, and each can be programmed for separate additions), homebrewers can walk away from the machine. Via internet and smart devices, the Zymatic provides updates on the “vital statistics” of the beer—graphical representations of time and temperature—as it brews. Users only have to return to pitch yeast and then ferment the beer in a keg.

“I’m not a process guy … I’m more sort of flavor- and culinary-motivated in terms of my brewing,” says Beechum. “The Zymatic is perfect for me because it allows me to still brew while I’m doing 5,000 other things, but it still allows me to make a product that I really like.”

Conn loves the machine’s ability to control for variables so that he can methodically test the effects of slight changes in a recipe, from yeast strains to hops.

“What I like about the Zymatic is it makes things absolutely repeatable,” says Conn.

Though PicoBrew (of which ZX Ventures, a venture capital team backed by Anheuser-Busch InBev, has a minority stake) sponsors the pair’s podcast, both hosts insist that the relationship came after they tried and fell for the Zymatic on their own accord. Conn says the two had no interest in the device at first. “After I tried it, I became addicted,” he says.

Ray Daniels, founder and director of the Cicerone Certification Program and a contributor to All About Beer Magazine, is a little more skeptical of such systems.

“I brewed four batches with [the Zymatic] in February last year and didn’t really find the results to my liking,” he says. Daniels admits, however, to modifying the setup to his own specs, adding a long downtube on the “return” side of the keg to try to reduce aeration.

“I certainly wouldn’t praise it, but I’d also be reluctant to damn it on the basis of my experience alone,” he adds, noting that a friend homebrews on it “fine.” (As an unadvertised bonus, the friend also successfully cooks sous vide in the machine.)

PicoBrew’s latest machine, the Pico, is for enthusiasts who want less to do with the brewing process and don’t care to pay $1,999 for the Zymatic. The machine comes purchasable with sets of ingredient cartridges (PicoPaks) that correspond to preloaded recipes, some of which come from a bevy of well-known brewers that include Dogfish Head Craft Brewery and Abita Brewing Co. Others come from established homebrewers that include Conn and Beechum.

With the Pico, all homebrewers have to do is put in the PicoPak and add water to brew. Then, as with the Zymatic, pitch in yeast and transfer the beer to a serving keg afterward (fermentation takes place under pressure within the Pico to abbreviate the process). The device lists at $799. The Pico device raised more than $1.4 million on Kickstarter in November 2015, and the first devices recently began shipping to backers.

The Brewie, based out of Hungary, is another automated brewing system that also had a successful crowdfunding campaign, raising $719,922 on Indiegogo by February 2015. It lies somewhere between the Pico and the Zymatic in terms of user direction, though the Brewie sort of falls more on the latter’s side.

“We were shocked how crazy everyone got about the idea,” says Mark Schiller, former marketing manager for Brewie.

With the Brewie, users can brew preloaded recipes that correspond to prepackaged Brewie Pad ingredients or input their own recipes and/or ingredients. And, like the Zymatic and Pico systems, Brewie is compatible with smartphones. Via Brewie’s social platform, brewers can connect to exchange recipes, organize events and share brewing experiences.

So far the 600-plus pre-ordered Brewies are scheduled to start going out this year—almost two years after the close of its crowdfunding campaign and numerous delays. Schiller says this lapse resulted from the company’s decision to improve the machine before distribution. Some of the updates the Brewie has undertaken: improved heating and cooling capabilities and four automated hop additions (rather than the original two).

The Brewie lists for $2,199, but for 2016 its price hovered at a cool $1,899.

Swinging away from the PicoBrew paradigm, the Grainfather is one of the most manual of the devices on the market. Listing at $890, the system, which comes from New Zealand, basically combines multiple parts of the homebrewing process—pots, siphons, strainers, filters, etc.—into one machine.

Recipes for the Grainfather are not preloaded. And though mashing and boiling temperatures are controlled digitally, timings, sparging and hop additions are not.

With the Grainfather, a homebrewer can’t just put in the ingredients and walk away like with the Zymatic and the Brewie, though a Bluetooth control box update for the machine allows partial automation. Ingredient kits and recipes available for the machine were developed in coordination with New Zealand breweries such as Panhead Custom Ales, North End Brewing Co., Behemoth Brewing Co. and Fork Brewing.

“It’s perfect for advanced and novice brewers,” says Kelsey Davis, a representative for the Grainfather. “Advanced [homebrewers] have the opportunity to be creative and involved in the process, but it’s simple and easy to use for newbies, too.”

Twelve thousand Grainfather systems had been sold as of summer 2016, after its inception in August 2014.

Big companies, too, are working to cash in on the heightened consumer interest in automated homebrewing machines. SodaStream’s recently announced “Beer Bar” combines carbonated water with beer “concentrates” to “brew” beer. And Whirlpool Corp., best known for its kitchen and laundry appliances, placed its new Vessi device on Indiegogo in May.

Headed up in development by Whirlpool Corp. master model maker and homebrewing enthusiast Bob Schneider, the Vessi isn’t a brewing system but a fermentation system. All the pots and pans and siphons for brewing—those are still on the consumer to provide. But the Vessi does carbonate and fully ferment beer, and does so with temperature and pressure controls, as well as the ability to clear sediment. It also dispenses beer and can bottle or keg beers to accommodate more than one batch.

For a simple picture: Think of Vessi as the fanciest kegerator you’ve ever seen (or rather, a kegerator fused with a temperature- and pressure-controlled carboy).

Early bird specials on Indiegogo offered the device for $1,399. It is currently priced at $1,899. “If the consumer tells us we’re crazy, we could adjust,” says Noel Dolan, senior manager behind the project.

When asked why a company with $20.9 billion in annual revenue would turn to crowdfunding, Nolan says it gives Whirlpool Corp. an “opportunity to validate that there is a market out there of consumers who want it [the Vessi].”

As of January 2017, the Vessi’s campaign had raised more than $240,000, far in excess of its original $100,000 goal. The campaign is listed as “flexible,” meaning Whirlpool receives all funds raised for the device, regardless of whether they fall above or below the crowdfunding goal. Early donors of $1,399 will receive the device itself, as will later donors of $1,899 or more. Whirlpool Corp. began delivering devices ordered through the campaign in December.

Editor’s Note: This story is part of a special section on the future of beer, which appears in the March 2017 issue of All About Beer Magazine.

The post Automated Homebrewing Systems Flood Market first appeared on All About Beer.

The voice of Ron Popeil came into my head as I hit the button on the Pico. “Set it and forget it!” The familiar refrain from the kitchen appliance TV pitchman is apt for this steam-generating homebrewing machine from PicoBrew that is user-friendly if not a little impersonal. I’m not a homebrewer, although I have made my own beer exactly once (it was OK, not great) and been present for a few brew days at friends’ houses. I prefer to let the professionals and true enthusiasts tackle the task. I’m happy to buy and drink pints once the work is done.

The Pico intrigued me, however. Thanks to its partnership with reputable breweries, it allows the user to make tiny batches—5 liters—of clone brews with only a few easy-to-follow steps, a few turns of a knob and a push of a button. Because it connected to my home Wi-Fi, I could monitor the whole brewing process from my laptop, including actual time and temperature.

 The unit, which retails for $799, was sent to All About Beer for a review. It included a kit for Half Squeezed, a session IPA created by Oregon’s Deschutes Brewery. Malt and hops are in a biodegradable basket that fits into a drawer on the front of the machine, the entirety of which is larger than a microwave but smaller than a mini-fridge. Connect all the pieces, add water, and you’re ready to “brew.”

This is where the Pico gives you the illusion of control. Settings preloaded into the machine correspond with each recipe. You can simply use the default setting and hit go, or you can fiddle with the SRM color or ABV, but only within parameters set by the brewer and manufacturer. This removes the creativity from a creative process. (PicoBrew does make a professional version of the machine that gives the user complete control over ingredients. There are breweries around the country using that model to refine recipes before creating large-scale batches.)

It’s loud. For the two hours that it’s brewing, the machine emits a grinding and pneumatic noise, not unlike a dishwasher. The instruction book and online tools make it easy to follow along, much like assembling IKEA furniture or painting by numbers. The result is very much the same. I felt like I accomplished something productive, but didn’t create something myself. Over the course of the next few days, I dry-hopped the batch, then transferred to and carbonated the keg. A few days later I had beer that was ready to drink.

Those into technology and convenience will likely appreciate this. Dedicated homebrewers, including the ones I tested this with, will be skeptical and likely long for their existing kit and control. Refill packages are about $25 each and available on the Pico website, or you can just head to the store and buy a case of the genuine article. 

Tasting the First Batched 

The Half Squeezed IPA that I made on the Pico came out orange and hazy, similar to a New England IPA (although this may be attributed to user error) with yeast in suspension. Aromas of juicy pineapple, mango, orange toffee and wort. Flavors matched the aromas, and overall it’s an enjoyable beer, better than some homebrew I’ve had, even better than some pro-brewer recipes. The carbonation was more akin to cask ale (again, possible user error) and at 6.2% this is far from the “session” beer it claims to be and only 0.2 away from the Fresh Squeezed IPA the recipe is based on. Side-by-side with Fresh Squeezed IPA, there’s no comparison. The professionally brewed version is vibrant, clear and crisply grapefruit-pith hop forward. 

Editor’s Note: This story is part of a special section on the future of beer, which appears in the March 2017 issue of All About Beer Magazine.

The post Testing the Pico: An Automated Homebrew System first appeared on All About Beer.

Lager to most means the ubiquitous pale golden brew that arose from the original pilsners of the 1840s. But by that time, the Bavarians had likely been honing bottom-fermentation and cold-conditioning since at least the 14th century, and possibly as early as the 11th century. Those original lagerbiers were dark, as pale malted barley didn’t come to the region until the early 19th century. The style today is known as Münchener dunkel (Munich dark).

Dunkel is essentially the ancestor of all bottom-fermented beers, derived from cool seasonal brewing, fermented with carefully culled, cold-tolerant yeast and aged in icy caves at the foot of the Alps. The Reinheitsgebot purity law of 1516 ensured that those beers would be all-barley. Dunkel is a seminal brew, an icon of Bavaria’s heyday, which laid the foundation to perhaps the most significant movement in the history of brewing when brewers in Bohemia, who had already begun using the Bavarian bottom-fermentation methods, combined the technique with their newly minted pale malt in 1842. For homebrewers, dunkels offer a chance to dig into the roots of lagerbier brewing, while showcasing the malt that made Munich a brewing epicenter.

Malt

When brewers had limited resources and raw materials to work with, those available ingredients often came to define older, classic styles that we still see today. In Munich, toasty melanoidin-rich malt was preferred and became the key, definitive ingredient in dunkel. Typically, dunkels were made as a single-malt brew.

Munich malt is full amber to brown in color due to relatively high kilning temperature, yet is fully capable of self-conversion, making possible an authentic historical single-malt brew. Most brewers employ more diverse grists, but still feature the unique footprint of Munich malt. This according to Michael Jackson, who mentioned grist composition in his Beer Companion, and a perusal of recipes given online by various breweries. With that strategy in mind, we can exercise some flexibility to achieve desired color and flavor.

Excellent dunkels can be made with two or three malts. My preferred recipe is equal parts light (about 6 degrees L) and dark (about 9 degrees L) Munich malt for 95 percent of the bill, and 5 percent Cararoma (150 degrees L). This formulation will provide a healthy dose of maltiness, red-brown color (23 SRM), suitable fermentability and a sweetish, caramel background. Other common formulations use pilsner and Munich malt combinations for the base and Caramunich (30 degrees to 60 degrees L) and Carafa or Carafa Special (300 degrees to 560 degrees L) for color and depth. Dunkel color is typically 18 to 28 SRM.

To round out the rich, malty profile and enhance the mouthfeel, use a two-step infusion mash with a protein rest at 113 degrees to 122 degrees F for 20 minutes, followed by saccharification at 152 degrees to 153 degrees F for one hour. Single-step infusing will work, but two-step will more completely break down the protein-rich continental malt. Decoction mashing, while not necessary, may be attractive to the diehard traditionalists. Original gravity should be between 1.048 and 1.055.

For extract brewers, fine, authentic dunkel is easily within reach. Liquid malt extract labeled as Munich is a 50/50 blend of pale or pilsner and Munich malt, a perfect ratio for the style. The steeped specialty malts mentioned above combined with this extract are all that is needed. Partial mashers can stay on point with this extract as well.

Hops

While hops take a back seat to the malt in this style, dunkels nonetheless rely on a dose of bitterness (20 to 25 IBU) sufficient to balance their soft sweetness. For later kettle additions, it is critical to note that however mild the flavor and aromatic components, it is this subtle character that helps define the origin of the beer. In this case, that distinctive German accent should be noticeable.

Noble German hops—Tettnanger, Hallertauer Mittelfrüh and Spalter—are, naturally, the best option, with the spicy, floral notes and rounded bittering contribution associated with low-alpha acid cultivars.

Fermentation

There are no shortcuts or secrets to making great lagerbiers, and all of the work put forth in the mash tun and kettle would be wasted if proper bottom-fermentation and lagering techniques were not followed. The best yeasts come from breweries in Bavaria or, more specifically, Munich. These allow the malty flavors and aromatics to flourish, and they attenuate fully under proper conditions with a good mouthfeel and clean, crisp finish. Wyeast Munich 2308 and Bavarian 2206, and White Labs WLP838 Southern German and WLP920 Old Bavarian are the best in my opinion. Fermentis offers two dried lagerbier yeasts that are highly regarded, Saflager S-23 and Saflager W-34/70, and perform as well as liquid yeast.

The recommended yeasts will do yeoman’s work between 48 degrees and 56 degrees F with proper aeration and sufficient cell counts at pitching. Pitch and ferment at the lower end of the range, to eliminate the risk of exceeding the upper limit of the suggested temperature range for fermentation during the initial burst of activity and the formation of off-flavors. Always perform a diacetyl rest, 60 degrees F for 48 hours, to scrub the wort clean before cold-conditioning. Lager at 30 degrees to 40 degrees F for 6 to 8 weeks before packaging and serving.

Czech Dark

The Czech Republic is known for excellent pilsners, the revolutionary beer that combined German brewing methods with innovative pale malt in Pilsen in 1842. Some of its breweries also offer dark lagerbier, a creative interpretation of the style that I find as delicious and fun as the Munich version.

Design a grain bill that leans toward the dark end of the stylistic spectrum and dose with Saaz hops throughout, with an extra measure of late kettle hops. Try Moravian malt if you can get it. Ferment with Wyeast 2000, 2001 or 2278, or White Labs WLP800 or WLP802, all of which come from renowned Czech breweries, and stamp a malty, dryish, slightly fruity footprint that favors an aromatic, robust profile.

Münchener Dunkel 

All-Grain, 5 gallons
OG 1.053, IBU 25, SRM 23

Mash at 153 degrees F
Base malts: 5 pounds light Munich malt, 5 pounds dark Munich malt
Specialty malt: 8 ounces Caramunich III, 4 ounces Cararoma or 2 ounces Carafa I

Hop schedule:

20 IBU German noble hops
1/2 ounce German noble hops, 20 minutes
1/2 ounce German noble hops, 5 minutes

Ferment with your preferred Bavarian/Munich yeast at 50 degrees F, perform diacetyl rest and cold-condition using standard bottom-fermentation schedule

Notes: Pilsner or Vienna malt can be substituted for light Munich for a crisper finish, and a blend of hops for the flavor and aromatic additions. 

Czech Dark

Extract, 5 gallons
OG 1.055, IBU 28, SRM 25

Steep 12 ounces Caramunich III, 6 ounces Cararoma or 3 ounces Carafa I
Add 7 pounds liquid Munich malt extract to wort after steeping grains

Hop schedule:

25 IBU Czech Saaz
1/2 ounce Saaz, 20 minutes
3/4 to 1 ounce Saaz, 0 minutes

Ferment with Czech yeast recommended above at 50 degrees F, perform diacetyl rest, and cold-condition using standard bottom-fermentation schedule.

Notes: For partial-mash brewing, mash 3 pounds each light and dark Munich malt, and add 3.3 pounds liquid Munich malt extract to the collected wort

The post Münchener Dunkel first appeared on All About Beer.

Have you run the table on brewing strong beers? If imperial everything, barley wine and quads no longer excite you, how about taking a stab at eisbock? For the uninitiated, eisbock is bock subjected to freezing, creating a fraction of ice that is then removed, concentrating the beer. Eisbock is a rarity, made by scant few commercial brewers and not often attempted by homebrewers. For those proficient in making German lagerbier, specifically doppelbock, it is a mere procedural step beyond. Eisbock is made to intensify the inherent malty depth and potency of bock, making it a beer without peer.

It is said that eisbock was invented at the Reichelbräu brewery in Kulmbach, Upper Franconia, around 1890 when some kegs of bock were unwittingly left outside on a particularly frigid night. While salvaging the beer, the unfrozen portion was found to be potent and profoundly delicious. This serendipity inspired the brewery to make eisbock a regular offering. The original Kulmbacher Eisbock is still brewed and can be cloned at home.

Base Recipe

Eisbock is elusive, rare, expensive and a bit challenging to make, but can a similar beer be made without freeze concentration? Under perfect circumstances, yes, but the formidable strength, 9% and well beyond, tests the performance limits of most bottom-fermenting yeasts when used within their comfort zone.

Flirtation with the alcohol tolerance limit can result in underattenuated beer, while pushing the temperature limit can produce off-flavors, risks I’m not willing to take. Well-crafted eisbock is malty-sweet but not cloying, properly attenuated, mildly estery and clean as a whistle.

When cobbling doppelbock recipes together, I always recommend considerable reliance on base malts, especially melanoidin-rich Munich, as the optimal strategy. I find excessive amounts of character, coloring or roasted malts and grains (more than 10 percent of the total) unnecessary, as the high-gravity wort, kettle caramelization/Maillard reactions and contribution from toasted malt provide plenty of richness, aroma, flavor depth, body and appropriate coloration. Freeze concentration will enhance those attributes. Your mileage may vary; go with your best doppelbock recipe.

Extract brewers should use Munich malt extract, a convenient 50/50 blend of pilsner and Munich malts, in lieu of base malts.

Mash at 152 to 154 degrees F for medium to full body, and aim for OG 1.074 to 1.085. Use noble hops at 20 to 25 IBUs with low aromatic additions. My favorite strong lagerbier yeast strain is Wyeast 2308, as it produces malty brews and ferments worry-free up to 62 degrees F and 9%, adding a welcomed technical buffer under most circumstances. Any flaws will also be exaggerated in the finished beer.

Robust fermentation and yeast health are critical, so begin with a strong yeast starter and ensure good aeration at pitching. Finish fermentation with a diacetyl rest (65 degrees F for 24 hours), then rack and lager at 32 degrees F for 6 to 8 weeks, or until the wort is brilliantly clear.

Icing

After cold-conditioning comes the step that separates, quite literally, eisbock from other beers. The objective is to freeze 20 to 40 percent of the total volume at temperatures just below freezing. Use a freezer set at 25 to 28 degrees F, a refrigerator cranked to its highest setting, or the au naturel method of setting the container outside if the weather cooperates. Carboys, lidded buckets and corny kegs all suffice.

There is no decisive way to determine when the proper amount of ice has formed, so keep in mind that visual and physical inspection during the freeze process is key. Ice will float on the beer, so swirling and stirring will not only help to assess the volume of ice and degree of freezing, but also help separate the frozen and liquid fractions.

The water in the beer should begin to freeze and get a bit slushy within 24 hours. Keep close watch on it over a couple of days. If it is overfrozen, allow thawing to readjust. Carboys allow easy visual inspection, but could potentially crack. Siphoning is the only option for transfer post-freezing.

Lidded bottling or fermentation buckets are the best option in my opinion. The wide opening allows easy inspection and manipulation. Ice can be stirred easily and scooped out if desired. Beer and ice can be separated by either siphon or bottling spigot.

Corny kegs offer the same advantages as buckets, but the opening is smaller and visual inspection a bit more difficult. Swirl or rock the keg as freezing progresses to break up the ice and estimate the volume of ice without breaching the opening. For a fully closed system, rig up a “trans-corny” jumper tube, from liquid to liquid fitting, and push the beer with light CO₂ pressure, leaving the ice behind.

One could also distribute the beer among several gallon jugs for freezing if the other methods aren’t feasible or only a regular refrigerator freezer is available. Save the residual ice and allow it to thaw to estimate the degree concentration by correcting for volume.

Conditioning and Aging

Carbonation always adds a bit of life and aromatic enhancement, but with strong beers, it is not imperative, and low carbonation is preferred. To bottle, underprime to offset the potential fermentation of residual sugars, and add a dose of fresh yeast since the freezing and high gravity will conspire to cripple the primary yeast. Test for flavor and carbonation after one month. This beer will continue to mature and improve for months if made and archived well.

Kegged eisbock has some advantages, as it permits optimal carbonation control and allows sampling over a long period of time as the beer matures and evolves.

Editor’s Note: This story appears in the March 2017 issue of All About Beer Magazine.

The post Brewing Eisbock first appeared on All About Beer.

Cider-making, like brewing, caters to the minimalist, mad scientist or culinary artist, and presents unlimited dimensions of creativity. This synopsis will outline keys from which to build a solid, successful framework. I’ll refer to the finished product as cider and the raw material as juice.

Apples and Juice

Excellent apple cider begins with high-quality, fresh apple juice. This can be regular market juice, bulk from orchards or apples milled and pressed at home. The boom of micro-orchards, natural grocery stores, farmers markets, roadside stands and heirloom and organic apple varieties has greatly expanded the opportunity for making top-notch cider. The array of apples available today is amazingly vast, and those gallon jugs of juice are tailor-made for experimentation, small batches and blending.

Look for varietal information when selecting apples or juice. Blends of sweet and tart apples (including crab apples) are preferred for juice with rangy complexity, but single-variety cider is also worth exploring.

Store-bought juice must be free of preservatives (potassium sorbate or sodium benzoate). Usually it is pasteurized and will indicate as much. At farm stands or orchards, inquire about the condition, sanitary state, preservative content or lack thereof, and composition.

Preparation

Apples must be washed, cleaned and milled (scratted) before pressing. Soak the apples in water and rinse to remove any detritus. Seconds (apples sold at discount because of imperfections) are perfectly suitable here. Cut away major bruises, rot or large blemishes to eliminate unsavory flavors. After inspecting and cleaning, pass them through the mill. Milling maximizes extraction from the pulp (pomace) when pressing. A fruit mill is optimal if you can get your hands on one, but otherwise, use a grinder or food processor, or chop by hand. There’s no getting around the labor intensity of this task.

Apple (fruit) presses can be pricey, but if you’re serious about cider-making, purchase one or have your homebrew club get one as a communal unit.

Unpasteurized juice must be sanitized to kill wild yeast, mold and bacteria. Pasteurization (160 degrees F for 6 seconds) is one option, and it won’t have an appreciable effect on flavor or aroma.

Campden tablets (potassium metabisulfite) or granular sodium metabisulfite is better than pasteurizing for sanitizing juice, slaying wild yeast, mold and bacteria quite effectively and effortlessly.

Fermentation

When the juice is ready to ferment, aerate well and add yeast nutrient or energizer and pectic enzyme (optional, for impeccably bright cider) before pitching yeast. Wyeast and White Labs offer liquid cider yeast culled from commercial makers and perfectly suited for the task. Wine, champagne or mead yeast is preferred by many makers, including professionals, since it performs gallantly in the fruity, nutrient-diminished environment and can be selected for dryness, residual sweetness, attenuation and flavor/aroma expression. Dry and liquid yeasts are equally effective.

Allow complete primary fermentation, followed by a cleansing secondary fermentation for a few weeks to sediment the particulates and smooth out the edges. Cider made in the fall usually takes at least a couple of months before it is mature enough to drink.

Apple juice has an original gravity of about 1.050, and will finish at about 1.000 with sound fermentation. Gravity and attenuation can be manipulated by some of the suggestions below.

Post-Fermentation

Once fermentation is complete, cider can be clarified by cold-conditioning (like lagerbier) or fining. Sparkolloid and bentonite, both natural, inert agents, will leave cider crystal-clear and minimize particulate carryover to keg or bottle.

For sweeter cider, wine conditioner (invert sugar and potassium sorbate) can be added. The sorbate will halt further fermentation, but also nix the chance to bottle-condition sparkling cider. Kegged, force-carbonated or still-bottled cider is still very much in play, though. You can also “backsweeten” with any sugar or juice, and add wine stabilizer (potassium sorbate) to prevent refermentation. Again, it will prevent primed carbonation.

Fermenting with sweet wine or mead yeast will leave a marginal amount of sweetness as residual sugar, though it will not be very pronounced.

For bottle-conditioned cider, prime with ¾ cup sugar, add a dose of fresh yeast and condition for at least one month.

Extra Dimensions

Cider juice fairly begs for additional, character-enhancing ingredients. Sugars, such as honey, natural cane, dark (turbinado, panela, jaggery), maple syrup, malt extract or wort and steeped specialty malts add a decisive and desirable component.

Spices, flavorings and hops are also useful for seasonal character or accents. Apple dessert spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, clove) are an obvious perk, but any culinary herb or spice is fair game.

Fruit additions (juice, macerated fruit, canned purée) are a perfect complement to apple juice. Use fruit juice at a rate of 20 percent of the total volume to start. Pear, peach, apricot, berry, pomegranate and cherry juices all happily marry with apples.

Apples are as autumnal as pumpkins, football and Märzen. Fall is a favorite season for many. Learn to make great apple cider, and you’ll have a reminder at hand year-round.  

Recipe: Sparkling Cider

This is my foolproof dry sparkling cider recipe, made with juice from local orchards. It is quite amenable to substitution or additions of spices, botanicals, fruit, sugar and nearly any type of cider, wine, Champagne or mead yeast. Further experimentation is encouraged.

5 gallons, OG 1.062, 7.5%

1. Dissolve 1.5 pounds turbinado sugar in 5 gallons of blended or single-variety apple juice.

2. Pasteurize and chill to room temperature or sanitize overnight with metabisulfite.

3. Rack to sanitized fermenter and add pectic enzyme and yeast nutrient.

4. Pitch hydrated yeast of choice (I prefer Lalvin EC-1118 wine yeast).

5. Ferment until primary is finished, then rack to secondary.

6. Leave in secondary fermenter for at least one month (add finings to secondary).

7. When clear, prime with ¾ cup corn sugar and bottle with a dose of fresh yeast or keg and force-carbonate.

8. Allow one month for bottle-conditioning.

The post Autumn: Made for Cider first appeared on All About Beer.

This inquisitive itch often comes early to homebrewers, and once a solid foundation of skill is built, there’s no reason not to expand the creative horizons. The desire to tinker should never limit your creativity. As the hobby has matured, very few stones remain unturned, so even the wildest ideas probably have sound and guiding precedence.

Brewing with unconventional ingredients requires consideration for the ingredient itself, proper fit within a recipe and sound implementation. Adjunct grains, fruit, sugars and syrups and flavorings like spices and botanicals can be pesky to use, but are most effective with standard, simple methods. That’s the beauty; no matter how common or outlandish, there is an optimal, familiar way to use different ingredients.

Know Your Medium

Experimental brewing is more complex than just adding something to the mash, kettle or wort. Every entity has unique flavors and properties, so put some thought into what you’re working with. What exactly does the particular ingredient contribute on its own? Are the merits a feature, a background note, an effect (wheat as heading and body-building agent) or a combination of those? Build some knowledge of each ingredient, eccentric or standard. There is no reason to venture blindly, given the information available these days from websites, literature and brewers (both pro and amateur).

Marry Well

Another consideration is the fit, either within a stylistic or personalized brew. A perfect, harmonious ratio of ingredients can make for a sublime creation, but a simple miscalculation can result in a hot mess. A seamless complementary ingredient that enhances an earthy and herbal saison, for example, may fall flat elsewhere. As we all know, even the commercial beer world is full of poorly executed and bad combinations. I find some newly hybridized styles to be mostly hit and miss, because certain marriages are bad from the start.

Integrating ingredients can be tricky, and more does not always translate to better. Beers that are too busy do not necessarily showcase good complexity. Complexity often comes from the nuance of singular ingredients first, and then their complementary effect. Most great brewers are expert at making stellar products with a minimum of ingredients. Unless you have sound, trustworthy advice or have tried something before, resist the urge to overdo things. There will be second chances, and another reason to dabble and refine.

Apply Yourself

The final step in integrating offbeat ingredients, and perhaps most important, is proper handling and application. Timing and dosage are vexing enough, but some require more attentive, unique manipulation. Solving these three issues (timing, dosage and application) will add both finesse and complexity to any brew, experimental or otherwise.

Properly dosing the wort is perhaps the stickiest problem. Spices and botanicals can be quite potent and should be used sparingly and with discretion. My rule of thumb for them is to use no more than 1 ounce of dried or 2 ounces of fresh per 5 gallons. Hot ingredients like cayenne should be used in even smaller quantities, while delicate, floral ingredients like heather or honeysuckle can stand higher doses.

Sugar and syrup additions should be between 1 and 2 pounds per 5 gallons, and bear in mind that excessive amounts may thin out the beer. Sweeteners range in effect from subtle (light honey, dextrose) to medium (raw sugar, maple syrup) to quite aggressive (molasses). Adjust the addition based on wort gravity, desired effect and aggressiveness of flavor. Consider the delicacy of the sugar/syrup and whether or not it will get lost in stronger-character beer.

Raw and flaked grains are excellent for flavor, body and heading, but cannot be used by extract brewers. Unless properly converted by diastatic base malt, they contribute nothing but haze and starch. If you do mash, use between 10 and 25 percent of the grist, with 60 to 90 percent base malt as the remainder. Retro-popular amber and brown malt, requisite in some historical English brews, also need to be mashed.

Spices, botanicals and honey should be treated like late-addition hops, as they are prized for flavoring and aromatics, attributes easily compromised with prolonged boiling. Honey is essentially an aromatic sugar, used like late-addition and dry hops. Most sugars and syrups can withstand more kettle time, but really only need to be dissolved near knockout. This will leave them in a “natural” state.

My rule of thumb for fruit is to start with 2 pounds per 5 gallons of wort. Since the aromatics are too coveted to squander, add to the kettle late, or pasteurize and dose the primary or secondary fermenter. Also be mindful of the fermentation that will kick in from the sugar in the fruit.

If you are unsure about quantities, err on the low side. It is better if the ingredient is underexpressed rather than overbearing.

Try side or split batches. Ferment a gallon of wort from a larger batch and scale down the ingredient(s) to figure out the dose. Or split a batch into two fermenters to test a recipe. If there is a miscue, the two beers can be blended to even out the miscalculation. Splitting will also produce two different beers. This is an excellent strategy for brewers who make 10 gallons at a time.

Experimental brews can be made to fit any season, be it with stylistic tweaking or a brainstorm of whim and alchemy. From historical ales to sour cherry brews, all great beers evolve from intelligent design.  

The post Homebrewing: Experimental Design first appeared on All About Beer.

While one of homebrewing’s most engaging elements is its broad creative latitude, clean, sanitary techniques and conditions are two things that cannot be compromised. The two go hand in hand: Clean equipment sanitizes easily and sanitary equipment eliminates the nuisance of contamination.

Clean and sanitary are distinctly different, but symbiotic, things. Thorough cleaning eliminates the inevitable buildup of fouling chemicals or intruder-friendly fermentation residue, and proper sanitization rids your equipment of microbiological contaminants. A spoiled batch is bothersome, but a persistent systemic infection can snuff one’s brewing passion. There are a few excellent, all-purpose products that will see you through the brewing process to eliminate these headaches. A basic, versatile arsenal of products and a strategy of diligence, vigilance and elbow grease go a long way toward brewing contaminant-free beer.

Cleaning

The optimal solution to cleaning is to keep your equipment in a clean condition. Don’t let residue accumulate or dry between batches or during storage. Equipment is easier to clean after it has been used for boiling, fermenting, racking, bottling, kegging or brewing. Rinse with water (or sanitizer) when the surfaces are still wet, purging wort, beer, trub and yeast. Allow equipment to drain and air-dry before storage to discourage further microbial growth.

It is good practice to thoroughly clean (rather than simply rinse) equipment, if not between every batch, then every few. Fermenters, and sometimes kegs, will need it after every use. Beerstone (calcium oxalate and protein) is bound to build up on any surface that comes in contact with wort or beer. It can be removed with a long soak in a brewing cleanser and some scrubbing.

The most effective and versatile product for this is Powdered Brewery Wash (PBW). It is an alkaline detergent suitable for plastic, glass and stainless surfaces, an excellent cleaner for all items. It is effective in any type of water, environmentally safe and relatively cheap. After the soak, get busy with brushes or scrubbers if needed, then rinse thoroughly. B-brite and Oxygen Wash (brewing products) and plain Oxiclean are good substitutes.

Sanitizing

Obviously, all brewing equipment except the kettle must be sanitary. If everything is clean to begin with, then sanitizing should be a snap. 

No-rinse sanitizers are the best and only option, in my opinion. The most effective and commonly used are iodine (BTF iodophor, Five Star IO Star) and acid agents (Star San and Saniclean). They require short contact time (minutes), eliminate the risk of rinsing and can be used on any surface without harmful effects when used at proper concentrations.

They are not, however, caveat-free. Iodine solutions lose effectiveness over time and should be used relatively fresh. The fading color is a clue to their degradation. Acid sanitizers will retain antimicrobial properties for a longer time, but cannot be used with hard water, as they will precipitate the active ingredients, rendering them useless. If the solutions are cloudy, they are ineffective.

Iodine solutions should be drained completely (drip-dried), as they will leave some residual flavor. Star San foams easily, but leaves no residual flavors. Since it is stable for a longer time, it can be used repeatedly on pre-cleaned equipment. I keep a gallon with distilled water to use as a quick surface rinse in fermenters before storage.  

Sanitary Secrets

Since those opportunistic microbes are lurking everywhere, here are a few tips to stay clean and sanitary:

• Keep a spray bottle of 70 percent isopropyl alcohol or acid sanitizing solution handy for instant sanitization of surfaces or hands.
• Disassemble kegs periodically and soak the parts. This extra effort pays off. Few things are more aggravating than spending all that time carefully crafting a beer, only to have it spoil in the keg.
• Keep kegs clean by flushing with hot water and cleaner or sanitizer under pressure from your CO2 tank. Piggyback them by rigging gas and liquid fittings and tubing and run the solutions from keg to keg. BLC (Beer Line Cleaner) is specifically designed for this.
• Soak grungy bottles in any of the cleaners. Brush, rinse and dry well before you use them. When bottling time comes, a simple 2-minute sanitization will suffice.
• Use only bottles without visible residue. Rinse them right after use to prevent a buildup of contaminants, especially at the bottom.
• Pay attention to what you’re doing at all times. Sanitizing becomes a breeze once you establish a good routine and learn to minimize potential hazards.
• Invest in an auto-siphon. It will make your life a lot simpler and make racking risk-free.
• Keep your kettle spotless. That heat-induced buildup of wort, hops and burn spots during the boil may not seem like much, but it can discolor or contribute off-flavors. Bar Keepers Helper scrubbing powder is an excellent option for kettles.
• Invest in bottle, tubing and carboy brushes.
• Wild yeast is a problem, but so is carryover of yeast from previous batches. If you like to use Brettanomyces or any bacterial cultures, consider dedicating some equipment to those brews and be extra vigilant cleaning and sanitizing after using them.
• Diluted bleach is an effective cleaner and sanitizer, but needs extensive rinsing and is best limited to glass equipment and bottles.

The post Unblemished Brewing: Basic Cleaning and Sanitizing first appeared on All About Beer.

German beers often get lost in the shuffle among the craft crowd. They are neither flashy nor overdone, just solid brews made from simple recipes with distinctive German ingredients. But there are three that break that mold: gose, Münster altbier and dampfbier. They are obscure outliers, stylistic survivors of the dozens of regional styles that have largely been lost to history (although gose is back in fashion with brewers and drinkers alike).

Unusual and easy to brew in authentic fashion, they can be made as all-grain, partial-mash or extract beers, with a starting gravity of 1.050-1.055. These quirky beers present an opportunity to shuffle the ingredients a bit, brew something historical and unconventional, and expand your horizons.

Dampfbier

Dampfbier (meaning “steam beer”) was largely brewed in the rural Bavarian Forest region, where Germany and the modern Czech Republic share a border. It is a vestige of farmhouse, home and village breweries that resourcefully made basic utilitarian beer. Dampfbier was a fairly common brew into the early 20th century, when the influx of pale lagers, supplanted the local rustic brews of the day.

Dampfbier brewers used malted barley from Bavaria and fermented with weizenbier yeast. That’s right: an all-barley brew of Bavarian malts and estery, spicy weizen yeast. Weizen yeast would have been easy to obtain and easily propagated, and being top-fermented, no special conditions were necessary. Dampfbier was born of necessity and frugality, an example of a regional specialty that became popular and evolved into a style. Today, a few commercial German dampfbiers remain, none of which are exported, to my knowledge, and American brewers take a stab at the style on rare occasion.

The modern commercial template consists of pilsner and Munich malts, the ratio favoring pilsner malt, about 20 IBUs and traditional Bavarian weizenbier yeast. It is brewed to OG 1.050, give or take, making it a versatile, characterful beer—relatively light, malty, rich and aromatic. Historical recipes would have varied some from locale to locale.

Dampfbier is light amber to copper in color, allowing a bit of leeway and creativity with the grain bill, depending on your preferences. Munich malt can be replaced with Vienna, a flavorful base malt. Vienna would make an excellent lighter single-malt dampfbier. Otherwise, blends of pilsner, Vienna and Munich malt in whatever ratio you prefer would fit the style well. Munich malt comes in at least two Lovibond ratings; the darker toast, used for dunkels and bocks, would craft a superb, malty dampfbier.

The weizen yeast is the no-compromise aspect of dampfbier, but you can control the aromatic and flavor influence of the yeast nonetheless. Fermenting at the lower end of the temperature range will greatly reduce banana esters, while the higher end will enhance those same qualities. Wyeast 3056 is a blend of neutral ale and weizen yeast, and is an excellent option for tempering the influence of the weizen portion. It is my preference for this style. Use only traditional German noble hops.

My favorite homebrew recipe consists of 1/3 dark Munich and 2/3 pilsner malt, 20 IBUs with a dose of aromatic hops (Tetnanger or Hallertauer) and Wyeast 3056.

Gose

Gose has gotten some attention from American brewers in recent years (with great artistic liberty), and a few brands are imported from Germany (including Gosebrauerei Bayerischer Bahnhof’s, Döllnitzer/Ritterguts and Freigeist). It is the indigenous beer of Goslar, named for the River Gose.

The water from the Gose was used to brew the original gose beers, and is said to have had a salty flavor from the local mines. When the mining industry faltered in the 15th century, gose brewing shifted 100 miles east to Leipzig, where it was copiously brewed until the early 20th century.

Briefly, gose is made of roughly half wheat and pale barley malt with salted water, has a low hop rate (10 IBUs) and noticeable lactic sourness, and is laced with coriander. Fermented with North German top-cropping yeast, it lacks the intense aromatics of Bavarian wheat beer. Primed conditioning will retain and enhance its natural texture and profile.

The basic recipe is wheat malt (60 percent) and pilsner malt (40 percent), German noble hops (10 to 15 IBUs) and altbier or Kölsch yeast. But it is the three other components—coriander, salt and lactic acid in combination—that make this beer unique.

Coriander should be added during the final minutes of the boil, in keeping with brewing aromatic rules of thumb, at a rate of ¾ to 1 ounce per 5 gallons of wort. Salt can be added to the boil or mash, ¾ to 1 ounce per 5 gallons. Avoid iodized salt, as the iodine may interfere with fermentation. Plain sea, varietal or kosher salt is appropriate.

Achieving proper background lactic sourness is tricky, and there are three ways to approach it: sour mashing or acidulated malt, Lactobacillus inoculation and an addition of lactic acid. If a sour mash is part of the equation, seek an extensive explanation, as it is an involved undertaking. Only a portion of the grain bill, up to 15 percent, will include sour mash.

The alternative is acidulated malt, available at any homebrew shop. Acid malt is used to lower mash pH for brewers who have to contend with alkaline brewing liquor, but is also handy in lending mild lactic character. Use it at no more than 10 percent of the total grain bill, and add after the mash has fully converted, after the first 30 minutes, to prevent the low pH from stalling conversion. If used as suggested, residual starch will be essentially unnoticeable.

The best and most authentic method is to inoculate the wort or finished beer with a Lactobacillus culture. White Labs WLP677 (L. delbrueckii) and Wyeast 5335 (L. buchneri) are perfect candidates, offering moderate sourness that develops slowly over time. This will allow sampling periodically for sourness until the preferred level is reached and give a range throughout the life of the beer. Pitch with regular brewing yeast or add during secondary fermentation or bottling. The first strategy will result in more intense sourness. Wyeast 5335 is stunted somewhat by hop rates higher than 10 IBUs, so keep that in mind.

Liquid 88 percent lactic acid can be purchased at any homebrew shop and is added directly to the beer during bottling or kegging. It will give a more one-dimensional flavor than the other methods, but is a good shortcut. Use up to 2 ounces per 5 gallons.

Münster Altbier

This beer is a representative of the old Münster style: top-fermented, cold-conditioned beer made of pilsner (60 percent) and wheat malt (40 percent). It is fermented with Düsseldorf altbier or Kölsch yeast.

Münster altbier is hopped with German noble hops at a rate of 25 IBUs, giving it a fresh and moderately hoppy character. It also has lactic acid background at a subdued level, enough to add complexity without competing with the malts and hops. Use the same strategy as gose for the lactic component. Pinkus Organic Alt is imported by Merchant du Vin and worth trying to get an idea of what this beer is about. American wheat beers are similar but usually lack the lactic highlight.

Münster altbier is sometimes consumed with a dash of fresh fruit syrup stirred into the beer in the manner of Berliner weisse, making this an excellent option for summer refreshment.   

Dampfbier

Extract, OG 1.055, 5 gallons

Dissolve 3 pounds light DME and 4 pounds Munich LME in brewing water

Bring to a boil and add 20 AAUs Tetnanger or Hallertauer hops

Boil for 50 minutes and add 1 ounce Tetnanger or Hallertauer hops

Boil for 10 minutes and turn off the heat

Chill the wort and pitch Wyeast 3056

Gose

All-grain, OG 1.050, 5 gallons

Mash 5 pounds malted wheat and 5 pounds pilsner malt at 150 degrees F for 60 minutes

Collect wort, bring to a boil and add 1 ounce salt and 1 ounce Tetnanger or Hallertauer hops

Boil for 55 minutes and add 1 ounce freshly ground coriander

Boil for 5 minutes and turn off the heat

Chill wort and ferment with Wyeast 1007 or 2565 or White Labs WLP003 or WLP029

For lactic sourness, pitch White Labs WLP677 or Wyeast 5335 before primary, secondary or packaging, or add 1 pound acidulated malt 30 minutes before the end of the mash

For extract brewers, substitute 4 pounds wheat DME and 2 pounds light DME for the malted grains and sour with Lactobacillus culture as described (don’t use acidulated malt)

Münster Altbier

All-grain, OG 1.050, 5 gallons

Mash 6 pounds pilsner and 4 pounds wheat malt at 150 degrees F for 60 minutes

Collect wort, bring to a boil and 6 AAUs Tetnanger or Hallertauer hops

Boil for 55 minutes and add 1 ounce Tetnanger or Hallertauer hops

Boil for 5 minutes and turn off the heat

Chill the wort and ferment with Wyeast 1010 (alternatively Wyeast 1007 or 2565 or White Labs WLP003 or WLP029)

Use the same lactic strategy as that used for Gose above

Extract brewers can substitute 4 pounds wheat DME and 2 pounds light DME for the malted barley and wheat

The post Brewing German Rarities first appeared on All About Beer.