Whenever i speak with someone about homebrew and beer culture I almost always hear the same questions, What goes into it? and more directly, Where do you get supplies?
I would like to share a few of my favorite local stores and online shops for folks new to brewing or interested in some alternatives. I will say that I am a firm believer in supporting local homebrew shops and beer culture but there are some specialty items where online stores provide great services. Also, there are way too many different online shops to list, I'm simply going to highlight that ones I've had success with for one reason or another. *If you're on the mainland many shops have great deals on flat rate shipping, this unfortunately does not apply to Hawaii...
Annapolis Homebrew - Located near Annapolis, Maryland the brothers that own the store are very knowledgeable and have some great recipes. A top notch store all around, good online catalog as well.
Homebrew In Paradise - The only homebrew shop on Oahu, Hawaii and a great one at that. The inventory has steadily grown over the past few years and the store owner Mike is extremely helpful. This is where I've gotten almost all my ingredients for a long time and have always been pleased. The website is just getting started up but for Hawaii homebrewers a stop by will def inspire some great brews.
As a new contributor to the Semper Fermentum crew, I wanted to give a quick rundown of my brewing background, and then on to what is kicking in my carboys right now. I have been brewing exactly half my life now, which equals 22 ½ years (brewing, not my life). I started in 1988, when my brother returned from a trip to England with a John Bull homebrew kit purchased with the last few Pounds in his wallet. We loosely followed the directions, let it bubble for a couple weeks, paid no heed to sanitation, and bitterly sipped the fouled wort that was our finished product. Easy to say that my first batch really sucked, but I saw potential in the craft, especially given the state of brewing at the time. The big three brewers (A-B, Miller, Coors) ruled the shelves, but Anchor Steam, Sam Adams, Pete’s Wicked and a small handful of others were setting sail for what would be a great expansion over the next 15 years.
Over the following 10 years, I became a founding member of Maryland Ale & Lager Technicians, one of Maryland’s larger homebrew clubs, was a founding officer of the Freestate Homebrewer’s Guild, published many articles in the local brewing newsletter, and eventually found ways to win several local homebrewing competitions. I have had the privilege to meet some of the industry legends during trips to the Great American Beer Festival in Denver, Savor in Washington, D.C., regional brewer’s festivals, beer dinners, as well as on their home turf - in their brewhouses. I found that the community of brewers is very generous with their time and information. It truly is a love affair more than a hobby, one that will generate a passion in the craft that hopefully will last a lifetime. For some, it ends up being not only their passion, but also their vocation. I have made it my calling to share my knowledge and enthusiasm with anyone who would listen, many times successfully encouraging them to join the ranks of “Craft Brewer”. Enough about me…let’s talk Ale!
Yesterday was a beautiful Annapolis spring day. Real cool early, but sunny and with the potential to be awesome. In other words, break out the brewing gear! I have brewed using the all-grain method for about 15 years, but time restraints caused by being a business owner, Dad, soccer coach, etc., have nudged me more toward the partial-mash/extract camp for a few years. Yesterday’s batch was what I will call an India Black Ale. Think of a well-hopped IPA, but dark as night. This year’s GABF in Denver showed a couple new wrinkles in brewing. We saw a few of these black ales that were twists of traditional style guidelines. Your eyes are preparing you for Guinness, but your nose and palate tell you Dogfish Head or Sierra Nevada. It’s a fun confusion the first time someone samples the new ale. The ale darkness is caused by CaraFa malt, a very dark specialty malt that loses the bitterness associated with stouts and porters by way of a tumbling that rids it of most of its husk. We also played with the bittering by using seven separate hop additions. Fermentation is courtesy of my favorite yeast, Wyeast 1056 American Ale yeast. Wyeast 1056 is a very clean and efficient yeast with vigorous action within 24 hours. So far in the primary fermenter, it smells and tastes right on the money. I will give an update when it finishes. Here is the recipe. Happy brewing!!!
This is for 10 Gallons…size the recipe for however much you are brewing:
13 lbs. light liquid malt extract
1 lb. CaraFa malt, crushed
1 lb. 20 lovibond Crystal malt, crushed
1 lb. 20 lovibond CaraMunich malt, crushed
1 oz. Magnum hops (60 Minutes)
1 oz. Simcoe hops (30 Minutes)
2 oz. Cascade (20 Minutes)
1 oz. Tettnang hops (10 Minutes)
2 oz. UK Kent Goldings hops (5 minutes)
2 oz. Amarillo hops (1 minute)
3 oz. Cascade hops (dry hopping in secondary)
I did a 40 minute steep of the crushed grains at 160 degrees. To that I added the malt extract, brought to a boil, and began the hop additions as noted above. I used an immersion chiller to bring the 10+ gallons down to about 90 degrees, and siphoned the wort to two 6-gallon carboys. I had stepped up my liquid yeast the night before into a 20 oz. bottle with 1 cup dry malt extract in solution. Add the yeast once the wort is cool, and give it a swirl. By this morning the airlocks were clicking away with beautiful fermentation!
Next time, I will give an update of this brew, as well as a few tricks we use to ensure our hard work returns a top flight product worthy of passing out to your friends.
Nothing says St. Patrick's Day like a nice pint of Guinness, but for us homebrewers this is one beer not easily cloned. First of all it uses 3 percent of spoiled beer in every batch, who keeps spoiled homebrew? No thank you. Secondly, Beer Gas or Nitrogen infused carbonation is not a common setup for most of us. In light of this, I came up with a Dry Stout recipe, low in alcohol but with a great depth of flavor (i bought some Guinness too!)
There's no place like the Big Island. Sitting atop a mid-Pacific hot spot, the Big Island is where new earth is made. That’s hot.
March is a great time for whalewatching and the weather on the Kona Coast is as good as it gets.
And when brewers from around the country converge on the Big Island, there's no reason why we shouldn't all be there.
I attended the Kona Brewer's Fest last year with my new friend and homebrewer extraordinaire J.B. Zorn. In advance of the Festival, J.B. wanted to brew a beer with me at his homebrew garage in Lanikai. Being new to brewing, I was lucky to have such a professional to observe. Now, I used to live in Portland, Oregon - the nations preeminent locale for microbrews. While there I developed an affinity for hoppy India Pale Ales. I hung out at places like Bridgeport, Amnesia, Lucky Lab, New Old Lompoc and McMenamins to name a few. So naturally, when J.B. wanted me to choose a beer style, it was a simple choice. I wanted to brew a NW Style IPA. J.B. came up with the recipe and we went to Homebrew in Paradise to buy the Oregon hops and the rest of the supplies. We brewed on a sunny Saturday afternoon at the Zorn Homebrew Co. with his friend Paul.
I've tasted J.B.s beers before, even some of his IPAs and I would say that they are quite delicious, so I had high hopes for Zekimus IPA. I thought the hops were spot on and boy I couldn't wait to taste it. As J.B. led me through the brewing process (I pretty much stood there and stirred) I found it was not as complicated as I had thought. I looked forward to opening the packages of Hops as we put each in. When we were done, we had a nice orange Carboy of Zekimus IPA. J.B. spent the next week dry hopping the beer and we bottled it a few weeks later.
We sent off two bottles to the Homebrew contest for the Kona Brewers Fest. When the beer was ready, I shared it with some friends.Wow!This was as good as the real thing. This was better than some of the real things. J.B. was a genius!The color and the carbonation was perfect.It was the kind of beer that you could taste before you even sipped it.
J.B., Josh and I arrived in Kona on Thursday for the Brewers Dinner which took place at the luau garden of one of the Kona hotels right on the water.It was a gorgeous night and really set the tone for things to come. We ran into some folks that we new from work and also talked to a reporter who was covering the weekend (rough job).The next day Friday was a free day and we drove the high road to the far northern part of the island.We cooled off in Waimea which is a cowboy town up at about 4000 ft elevation.We stopped and found a few geocaches as we made our way to Hawi and the end of the road. On our way back south we drove down the Kohala coast which has all the nice resorts on the best beaches with the best weather in Hawaii.Everytime we looked to the ocean we saw whales. They were everywhere!Back in Kona, we stopped at the Kona Brewing Co. and ran into some more new and old friends.We talked to the brewmaster, Rich, I think was his name.
We filled up our growlers and brought some steaks back to the place to grill on our patio.The sunset was grand and later on in the night, Chris, Jake and Tim arrived from Honolulu.
On Saturday morning, we hit the road again and drove a very bumpy road across a desolate section of black lava to a beautiful oasis on the beach.The Big Island’s beaches are so beautiful as the black lava rocks are contrasted with the blue and white of the waves and water.There was actually quite a nice surf break off the point, but none of us had boards.We enjoyed a dip and headed back to get ready for the Festival.
We walked the mile or so down Alii Drive to the Festival at the King Kamehameha Hotel right on the pier at the bay.The crew was all lined up, many wearing medals from previous beer festivals and homebrew contests. There were some serious-looking brewers here.Most with beards and tie dyed shirts.I knew Zekimus was going to have some serious competition.The homebrew judging part of the festival took place on the days leading up the festival so the winners could be announced at the festival.When it was time to open we barged through the gates and hit the taps.
On tap was all professionally brewed beers from all over the country. Many of them were from my hometown on San Diego like Ballast Point, Green Flash and Stone.There were a lot from Oregon and Colorado too.Some of the biggies where there like Samuel Adams.We enjoyed tasting a bunch of the beers and waited for the announcement of the homebrew contest winners.
Low and behold, while I was sipping a cold one, J.B. came running over to me to tell me that Zekimus had placed FIRST in the American IPA division!I didn’t believe him at first so I ran over to the booth to see for myself.It was true.Zekimus was top of the list out of 22 entrants in the American IPA division.
The rest of the day and night, there were shouts of Zekimuuuuus IPAAAAA ringing through the streets of Kona. It was pretty cool.I was pretty darn proud of J.B. for winning his first Homebrew Contest.And I was pretty stoked that I had about 30 more bottles of award winning Zekimus at home.
This years Kona Brewers Festival is this weekend.I’ll see ya there!
Greetings from beautiful Yorktown. I only have one recipe to share for now until I go back home and dig out the recipe book. I've been brewing for about 2 years now, and have stuck solely with extract brewing. I dont have the time, or honestly the patience, to switch to all grain brewing. I brew on a turkey burner in the back yard with typically 7~ish (precise measurements arent my thing either) water, so I get all the usage out of the hops.
This is probably my favorite homebrew that I have made, and it is a derivative of "Deep Shaft Stout"
http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/18/21 I never had the original, I just took a stab at a stout recipe, so I have no idea if it is a clone. but its good homebrew, so who cares.
I re-named it "Nevermore" because of the black color, and put a Raven on the label. Not too many points for originality there.. so on to the recipe
1.15lb Breiss Roasted Barley 1/2lbs flaked oats Steep@150-160 30 mins in 7 gals of water
8.5lb LME (pale) .65 Lbs LME (wheat)
3oz Fuggles :60 .5oz Kent Golding :15 Safale S-04 rehydrated for 25 mins before pitching 1.072 OG
Deep black color, agressive ferment
After 13 days I racked to Secondary.
black color and very malty with lots of chocolate flavor.
Gravity = 1.020 = 6.8% ABV
I dont have any more notes on when I kegged. the beer was great, and I have brewed it a few more times, and made a "Shockalot" Stout with the same recipe, and 3 Tablespoons of Hershey's cocoa powder mixed with a bit of water to make a paste, dropped the paste and racked the beer onto it in secondary for 2-3 weeks. reminds me of a "Young's Double Chocolate Stout"
What a great weekend here in Seattle. Beautiful weather coupled with great beer makes this cool August day feel more like the fall than summer, but you will read no complaints from me. We hiked to Snow Lake about an hour into the Cascade Mountains yesterday, following this 6-mile breathtaking hike we hit the Columbia City Ale House with some friends. I decided to deviate from my ordinary search for bigger, hoppier, more extreme which paid off! Thankfully, I was surprised to find some outstanding Extra Special Bitters.
I have found that it is on rare occasion you can compare a beer style to something as authentic and true as a classic, in this case Fuller's ESB. Fortunately, I had that privilege last night with fresh kegs of both Fuller's ESB and Maritime's ESB, a local Seattle brewery. This comparison is two-fold, local vs. import and English classic vs. American interpretation.
I began with the Maritime. I found this to be a solid ESB, enjoyable and refreshing. Exhibiting a deep amber hue with practically transparent clarity. The aroma was a bit more hop assertive than I had expected but pleasant nonetheless. On first taste the dryness comes out with a substantial bitterness throughout melding the subtle toffee and caramel notes. Bitterness may have masked the complexities of malt so accustomed to the style, possibly served a few degrees to cold as well. Finish is clean and crisp. A very nice session beer although it had me yearning for the real thing to see how it really stacked up…
Second Pint was the Fuller's ESB and it lived up to my memories. The wonderful complexity of a beer you could easily quaff all night in not easily forgotten. In overall impression this classic edged past Maritime's already good example. It came out a shade darker than Amber, great clarity, and modest carbonation (classic to the style). The aroma was fantastic, notes of malt sweetness with a hop aroma that was gone before you could put your finger on it. Taste is full but not heavy, delicate flavors from the English hops surround the tongue as the malt complexities become more apparent. The taste began with the toffee, caramel maltiness so typical of the style while finishing slightly sweet from a mellow honey note that was delicate yet extraordinary. Finishes a bit fuller than Maritime, in combination with a slightly less carbonation left the beer feeling richer and more complex. This is still a classic among English beers. As Sierra Nevada is to Pale Ale, we can see Fuller's is to ESB.
If only they had both on Cask, we could all look forward to that!
After spending the last few brews experimenting with Holiday Spices, Coffee, Oak, and uberlarge Trappist Belgians it looks as if i need a little reminder of a tried and true style. Possible one of the simplest yet most enjoyable craft beer styles around, the Pale Ale! Sierra Nevada has set the standard, but I think as homebrewers the massive variety of hops and malt choices just begs for tinkering. Also, making a great pale ale can be a wonderful introduction to the none beer-geeks among us.
Fun Tip: I recently brewed a Rye Pale Ale with Galena, Chinook, and Amarillo that was a welcome change of pace from citrus flowery bombs I've grown to love. It possessed a grapefruit aroma and taste that was remarkably different than most pale ales I've brewed. That being said; the combination of Cascade, Centennial and Amarillo is my absolute favorite combination for hoppy Pale Ales and India Pale Ales.
A technique i love to employ in my hoppy monsters is combining hop varieties for the flavor, aroma and dry hopping portion of the hop schedule. I got the idea from the Dogfish head 60 and 90 minute IPA's where they continuously hop for the duration of the 60 or 90 minute boil. While i usually only "continuously" hop for the last 25-15 minutes, i think it still adds some great hop layers without adding bitterness.
I brewed this recipe with the intent to drink...it didn't last more than 3 weeks.
"Guzzle Bunny" Pale Ale below: while it is filled with tons of great hop flavor, bitterness is moderate at 47 IBUs and there are layers of malt as well. What's honey malt doing in there???...just try it. Happy Brewing!
Grain Bill: 10# Two Row .75# Crystal 40 .5# Vienna .33# Carapils .33# Belgian Aromatic .33# Honey Malt
Mash at 154F for 60 min. Extract: Replace Two Row with 8 lbs. of Pale Extract.
I used my hybrid Cali-English Yeast, but whatever your favorite Ale strain will work...I typically go with English 002. Sierra Nevada uses Wyeast American Ale 1056 or White Labs California Ale.
Kate here, I am taking charge of the Seattle portion of this club, at least for the time being. We have a few folks here who are part of local homebrew clubs and have created some really good stuff. I'm a relative neophyte to this whole business so apologies if I don't use the right jargon and whatnot.
So this is my first time actually documenting a beer brewing recipe, JB got me into brewing about a year ago and I'm still learning. He came up with this recipe on the fly after he asked me a few questions about what type of beer I wanted to brew the first time. My boyfriend likes lighter beers, I like darker beers. My boyfriend hasn't yet developed a taste for IPAs, I think they're good. (Stone IPA is my personal favorite.) As a good middle ground, JB proposed an ESB for the first beer. It was a hit. We liked it so much we keep making it. So much for variety! At any rate, I hope you all enjoy it.
Kate's ESB (Good for first-time brewers.. i.e. I managed to not mess it up the three times I've made it so far.)
1 lb. English Crystal 60 1/2 lb. Belgium Aromatic 1/2 lb. Belgium Caramunich for 30 minutes at approx. 150 degrees then add to boil with 30 minutes to go
Hops: (total measurements) 1 oz Willamette 2 oz Goldings
6 lbs. Dry Amber Malt (60 min. boil)
Add times: Add 1 oz. Willamette with 60 minutes to go Add 1 oz. Goldings and 1 tsp of Irish Moss with 15 minutes to go Add 1 oz. Goldings with 5 minutes to go.
Use Pacman Yeast.
Note: the second time I made it, I used: 1 lb. English Crystal 40 1/2 lb. english Crystal 70 1/2 lb. Belgium Aromatic and everything else was the same. It turned out different than the first time obviously, but just as good.
So this looks to be my first recipe I'm posting on the blog. I'm brewing it for my fiance Rachel who is moving in with me in Hawaii in a few weeks. We've made a few Hefeweisen's in the past with a lot of success but this will be my first stab at all-grain with wheat.
I plan on doing the standard single-infusion mash at around 152 for 60 min; but may attempt to dough in around 110 for 15 min then raise to 135 for another 15 min before a 45 min mash at 152. Also, when sparging I may add 1# of Rice Hulls to help prevent a stuck sparge.
I am brewing it Saturday October 24th, will be sure to post the results.
My favorite time of year is Fall and i can't think of a more fitting way to enjoy the season than brewing a delicious Pumpkin Ale. I have tested several commercial examples and homebrewed a few in search of the right balance of spice, malt, bitterness, and alcohol. As many of you already may know, this is one style of beer that has been bastardized more than most, with spice bombs that taste more like a bad pie than a rich, creamy, festive Brew. That being said, a few commercial style's that inspired me were "Dogfish head Punkin" and "Southern Tier Pumking."
I think this year's version really hits the mark on all of those categories. A dark brown porter weighing in at 7.5% abv that is meant to be sipped and savored as we enter the cooler months. You may think there is a lot going on in this recipe, and there is! but please don't be discouraged the proportions really work well together.
Grain: 11# 2-Row .75# Crystal 120 .5 # Roasted Barley .33# Belgian Aromatic .33# Chocolate Malt .25# Black Patent
