Archive for Homebrewing

2011 Samuel Adams Longshot American Homebrew Contest

July 10, 2012 Homebrewing, Reviews No comments

Samuel Adams LongshotBeer and baseball. We aren’t too far removed from the 4th of July and what could be more American than the Home Run Derby and a couple of beers that celebrate the creativity and ingenuity of the common man. That was my poetic way of saying I have nothing to do on a Monday night and I recently picked up two of the three winning beers from Samuel Adams‘ 2011 Longshot American Homebrew Contest.

Samuel Adams has been running a yearly homebrewing competition since 1995. The competition was founded by Jim Koch with the hope that it would “be a springboard for aspiring brewers, bring attention to the quality of homebrewing, and perhaps launch a career or two.” Samuel Adams’ Longshot competition is closely tied to their Brewing the American Dream program that provides small business loans to start-ups. I think both programs are great for beer and business and I think it’s really great the Jim Koch is giving back and recognizing people brewing in their kitchens like he once was.

The three 2011 winners had their beers produced and distributed in six-packs together. The three winners are Derf’s Secret Alt, A Dark Night in Munich, and Five Crown Imperial Stout. Unfortunately I picked these up at a mixed six-pack store and they did not have Five Crown Imperial Stout. I’ve written my tasting notes for both Derf’s Secret Alt and A Dark Night in Munich below. If you see these beers at your local distributor, pick some up to support these homebrewers and this program. If you get a chance to try Five Crown Imperial Stout, let me know how it is!

Derf's Secret Alt

Derf’s Secret Alt by Fred Hessler (9.3% ABV)- Samuel Adams’ website describes Derf’s Secret Alt as a ”full-bodied ale [with] a big, malty character balanced by subtle orange and grapefruit notes from the hops.” I found it to have a dark amber color with a cream colored fizzy head. It has a malty dark aroma with a strong, potent malt flavor with fruit and alcohol tones in the finish which, at 9.3%, is to be expected. This one packs a punch. To be honest, I didn’t check the ABV before I tried these beers and the alcohol flavors in Derf’s turned me off at first sip. I think when you know what you’re getting into the flavors are much more expected and aren’t as jarring. For a high alcohol content beer, Derf’s really does hold on to some amber ale flavors. It is strong with a distinct sweetness. If you are into high alcohol content, malt infused beers, this one won’t let you down.

 

A Dark Night in Munich

A Dark Night in Munich by Corey Martin (5.9% ABV)- Samuel Adams calls A Dark Night in Munich an “amber, medium-bodied brew. With a nice malty backbone, this lager has roasty, slightly spicy notes and a traditional doughy character from the yeast.” I couldn’t agree more with that assessment. Corey Martin’s brew has a dark copper color that is slightly darker than Derf’s. It has a light brown frothy head with raisiny (copper) malt tones in aroma. It has a frothy mouthfeel and a nicely malted flavor. The flavors are actually similar to Derf’s, but with much more subtlety. Its frothy carbonation cleanses the palate quicker and eliminates some of the lingering flavor. A Dark Night in Munich leaves just a nice amber ale finish on the tongue. Martin has made a tasty, drinkable Munich-style Dunkel that I would really reccommend grabbing while you still can.

Big Papi Approves

Big Papi Approves

Cheers!

Tim Meyers (Tim@GoodHopBadHop.com)

 

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Quick Tips on Dry-Hopping

June 13, 2012 Homebrewing 2 comments

Some friends and I brewed our most recent batch of home brew early last week. We are making some tweaks to our last recipe and the time has come to dry-hop our new brew. Our last beer was a dry-hopped American IPA that we affectionately called Otay IPA due to our use of Buckwheat honey in the recipe. This most recent home brew is a rendition of Otay IPA with some secret special changes.

Otay IPA was my first try at dry-hopping, a process that sounded very intimidating and ended up being as simple as can be. I thought it might be helpful to do a quick step-by-step rundown of the dry-hopping process with some helpful hints and tips.

To put it simply, dry-hopping is a lot like steeping a tea bag in your carboy. All you’ll be doing is soaking some new hops in the carboy in a muslin bag. From what I’ve read, you usually want to wait until your fermentation has slowed down to introduce your dry hops. The last batch I brewed used dry yeast packets which lead to a more vigorous fermentation. As a result, I was ready to dry-hop in 5 days. I used liquid yeast in my most recent batch. The fermentation was a little more slow and steady than with dry yeast so I waited a full week to dry-hop. Any hops added after your boil will only influence the aroma of your beer. An extra day one way or the other probably won’t make any catastrophic changes to your beer, but added aroma adds to perceived flavor. So, if you are looking for a little something more dry-hopping can be beneficial. In the end, I think it is totally up to your judgment when to introduce your hops and how long to leave them in for.

 

To start the dry-hopping process you will need some new hops, a muslin bag, and some marbles (optional). I like to use three ounces of hops. In this particular case I went with one ounce of Amarillo, Cascade, and Palisade because I’m going for a more floral feel. Feel free to use all pellet hops, all whole leaf hops, or a mixture of the two.

 

 

Boiling Marbles

 

When you add the new hops to your beer, the muslin bag will have a tendency to float on the top of the liquid. To combat this you can add some glass marbles to the bag to weigh it down a little. Like I mentioned before, this is a totally optional step, but I found some marbles for $2 at A.C. Moore and I figured it couldn’t hurt. If you are going to use marbles, be sure to sanitize them in some boiling water or Star San.

 

 

 

Next, add all of your hops and marbles to your muslin bag and tie a knot above the hops to keep any from sneaking out.

 

 

 

 

 

After your muslin bag is ready to go, simply crack the lid on your carboy and toss the bag in. I try keep this processes quick to allow as little air into the carboy as possible. Don’t freak out and race through the process, but the less possibility for bacteria the better. Once your lid is back on, you’ll want to agitate your carboy to move the liquid around. This will make sure the muslin bag gets covered in the carboy.

 

 

Try to agitate your brew enough to cover the bag and get things moving without shaking it so vigorously that liquid comes up your airlock. If a little comes back up it won’t kill your beer. As another precaution I like to fill my airlock with vodka rather than water to keep things as clean as possible. A nice cheap bottle like Lairds won’t set you back much and you’ll be able to use it for quite a few batches.

 

That’s it! You’ve successfully dry-hopped your home brew and it’s time to put your carboy back in the closet, cellar, or wherever you keep it for the rest of your fermentation time. You should notice a little spike in your fermentation after the new hops have been added. In other words, your air lock will start to bubble a little more vigorously following the dry-hopping and then settle down again. I hope these little tips are helpful and if you try dry-hopping after reading this let me know how it goes!

 

Cheers!

Tim Meyers (Tim@GoodHopBadHop.com)

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Barley Creek Home Brew Competition – Otay IPA

May 18, 2012 Features, Homebrewing 3 comments

We will be entering our very first home brew competition tonight at Barley Creek. in Tannersville, PA. In celebration of American Craft Beer Week, Barley Creek is holding the competition along with a family BBQ tonight from 6-9pm. If you are in the Tannersville area or just looking for something to do, bring a grill, some beers, and some friends. For more information about tonight’s event click here.

Otay IPA labelTonight we will be entering the ale category of the competition with our latest home brewed concoction, Otay IPA. Otay is an American IPA made with buckwheat honey, hence the Little Rascals reference. We are really looking forward to getting some opinions on our brew, meeting some Tannersville area hopheads, and enjoying this weather. We will be sure to do a full write-up about the event. Special thanks to Tiffany Mulhern for the label artwork. Wish us luck!

Cheers!

Tim Meyers (Tim@GoodHopBadHop.com)

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Local Homebrewing Competition at Andy Gavins

February 17, 2012 Homebrewing No comments

Attention local homebrewers! Looking to show your stuff? Win cash prizes? Andy Gavins Eatery and Pub at 1392 N. Washington Ave. in Scranton is holding a homebrewing competition this Sunday Feb. 19th. For more information check out their website or give them a call at (570) 346-8864. Unfortunately, I don’t have any current hombrews to enter, but if you do make sure to support this local event and promote hombrewing locally!

Cheers and Good Luck!

Tim Meyers (Tim@GoodHopBadHop.com)

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Nine Lessons Learned From My First Batch

February 6, 2012 Homebrewing No comments

They say that you never forget your first… batch of homebrew of course! Mine was a simple lager pre-packed ingredient kit made with nothing but the equipment in the starter kit. Bringing the water to a boil, and steeping the grains I admit I felt unsure about what I was doing. I had the instructions; however I am not a good cook. My day job (when I am not brewing, or fighting crime in the evenings) deals with absolute numbers. Cooking terms like a “dash” or “pinch” I don’t know how to deal with. But for me, that is the great thing about starting to brew on your own. You can simply learn the science of it and follow instructions. Now THAT I can do! Of course, as you brew more you will need to become less reliant on such exacts and “craft” more of your personal tastes- but for the first time, if you follow the company’s instructions you will be fine. After getting my new wort into the fermenter and adding the yeast I did what most newbies do and checked the airlock twice a day at least to make sure that the fermentation was active. Of course if you ask my wife I was probably checking it fifty times daily! Of course that doesn’t expedite the process any. And that conveniently leads us to:

Lesson Learned #1- Be patient. Check the airlock and temperatures at night just to be sure, but relax. Let the process work.

Lesson Learned #2- Get all your equipment for either the brewing/ fermenting stage, or bottling stage set up and organized in advance. It will save you much aggravation to take the time in the beginning.

Lesson Learned #3- Replace the double bubble airlock with a 3 pc airlock. I learned this one after attempting to clean the little bugger after the first batch. Wow. It is much better to just shell out the dollar and make your life easier from the beginning.

Lesson Learned #4- Set alarms for hops/ additives/ etc. If you are brewing at home I will assume that this is not your primary source of income. As such, things can distract you easily and could impact your batch. Watching a game and having a drink while brewing is great, but if you get so caught up in things that you miss the time to drop in your second hop batch- you’ll regret it. Just set a reminder on your phone or stove to be sure.

Lesson Learned #5- Make sure that the temperatures are correct at each step. If the directions say add the yeast at 64-70 degrees and the actual temp is still 90+ degrees, this will counteract what the yeast is meant to do.

Lesson Learned #6- Do your bottle prep as early as possible. If you have friends that give you bottles to use (non-screw off, and hopefully brown)- after you thank them of course- soak them and remove the labels when you can. This is arguably the least enjoyable phase of brewing your own beer, however you don’t want to get to bottling day and find that you still have to go through this step.

Lesson Learned #7- Clean everything when you are done. I know, I know cleaning is a pain. But if you do it now, it won’t all of a sudden be a week later when everything is caked on and you need a power washer to clean up. Trust me. Work smarter, not harder.

Lesson Learned #8- Have fun with it. When I was opening the very first chilled beer that I made it was much like the old adage about throwing a football. Three things can happen and only 1 of them is good. As I extended my arms to open it I figured a) it would do nothing [carbonation not enough]; b) explode (!); or c) I would hear that beautiful sound of a crisp, well carbonated beer. As my oldest son and I laughed at how ridiculous I looked, I was fortunate that it opened fine and tasted even better. And finally

Lesson Learned #9- Share. I know we all learned this in kindergarten, but it bears repeating here. Unless you are a recluse or misanthrope I assume that you have some friends. Maybe some that enjoy beer? They can give you valuable feedback both positive (as my craft beer-loving brother-in-law gave me some pretty rave reviews on mine!) and negative that can help you in the future. Also who knows, you may even discover someone that had an interest that was waiting to come out and now wants to share in the experience.

 

OK, that is all for now, I have a fresh batch that I will be rolling out for the Big Game- I hope you do too!

Until next time…

Cheers!

Joe

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Homebrewing Recipe – Samuel Adams Clone

February 3, 2012 Homebrewing No comments

We thought we would add some homebrewing content to our “Super Brews” theme for the week. Our Homebrew Guru Joe Drelling sent me a link from his local homebrew shop’s website with lots of great clone recipes. I’ve copied the recipe for New England’s own Samuel Adams Boston Lager. If you follow the link here you can find other clones for Sam Adams’ Oktoberfest, Magic Hat varieties, Long Trail, and many others outside of our New England focus. Happy Brewing!

 

Samuel Adams Boston Lager Extract & All Grain Recipe Clone (5 Gallon/19L)

Extract:

1/2lb Crystal (60L) Malt

Steep at 155°F for 30 minutes

Boil

3.3lbs of Briess Amber Liquid Extract

3lbs of Briess Golden Light Dry Extract

1oz Tettnang 60 Minutes

1oz Hallertau last 20 Minutes

1oz Hallertau last 10 Minutes

1oz Hallertau 0 Minutes

Wyeast 2035 or 2112 if you can not lager

All Grain:

10lb 2 Row Malt

1/2lb Crystal (60L) Malt

Mash at 155°F for 60 minutes

Boil

1oz Tettnang 60 Minutes

1oz Hallertau last 20 Minutes

1oz Hallertau last 10 Minutes

1oz Hallertau 0 Minutes

Wyeast 2035 or 2112 if you can not lager

 

Cheers!

Tim Meyers (Tim@GoodHopBadHop.com)

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Homebrewing Introduction

January 30, 2012 Homebrewing One comment

Hello and welcome to the Homebrewing section of GoodHopBadHop! In this area I hope to tell a few stories and share the ups and downs of brewing beer at home. If you are reading this site (and we thank you for doing so!) I assume that you either already brew or have an interest in doing so. For this initial post I will give a bit of background on myself and what led me to brewing my own beer. In upcoming articles I will talk more about what I have found that may work (or at times not work) to make your brewing experience that much better! That is after all what we are all here for right? So, why did I start brewing craft beer? To be honest, there are many reasons that homebrewers begin. One is to cut costs. After you buy the initial start up kits (generally around $80-$100 or so) the ingredients can cost as little as $30 for a prepackaged kit. Since most 5 gallon batches yield around 56 – 12oz beers that is roughly .54 cents per beer! Even if you shell out the money for a more expensive kit (let’s say $48) your per beer cost is still only .86/ beer. Less than a dollar per beer? Not too shabby! Another reason is the camaraderie. As you’ll find, the more into brewing craft beers at home that you get, the more you find out about others that do as well, clubs in your areas, etc. It can be a great way to network. Websites, message boards, your local home brew shop are all great ways not only to meet fellow brewers, but to get new recipes and ideas as well. In future articles I will put out lists of links, apps, books, etc that can help you in your brewing that have helped myself. Also, taste is a great reason to get involved in the hobby. As most craft aficionados progress past the run of the mill swill with tasting and testing craft beers from all over you’ll notice that craft beers simply have more flavor! For me however it was a simpler reason that led me down the path to homebrewing. As a married guy with 3 kids I wanted to take on a hobby that kept me closer to home. So one day, a little under a year ago, I found myself with about 4 hours with nothing to do on a Saturday. If you know me- you know that is a rarity! So I popped onto a few websites and my interest in brewing was piqued again. This time however, I felt I was in a much better place to make a legitimate go of it. Off to the local home brew store I went! Let me tell you too- most of the people that work in homebrew stores are incredibly helpful and more focused on getting you into brewing long term, aside from making the higher sale now on things that may not be necessary or too complicated for a novice. In all honesty, I found this refreshing! When I returned home with my equipment and ingredients kit, I was ready to go. Now here is this difference in why I stuck with it this time around as opposed to 10+ years ago: I now have the patience and knowledge on how crucial sanitizing is to this process. You can have the best/ freshest ingredients, top of the line equipment- but still make undrinkable beer if you cannot keep everything that comes into contact with your beer sterile. If there is one thing that I want to leave you with in this first article, it’s that. Take the time to keep anything that will come into contact with you beer sterile. StarSan is phenomenal. And its no-rinse so it saves you time there too! Obviously you do not need to use that with your brew kettle while brewing since that process sterilizes the contents already. There is nothing worse than waiting a month to taste your new batch only to discover that the 5 minutes you cut out by not sterilizing a piece of equipment ruined your brew!

So there we go. I hope to keep you informed and entertained in this space in the upcoming articles about homebrewing. Please let us know what you think, and if you have any questions do not hesitate to ask. I will read all responses and try to incorporate your queries into future articles. Thank you for reading, and remember to have fun- you’re making beer!

Cheers!

 

Joe Drelling

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