Homebrew as a frugal tip @ The Simple Dollar :-)

We've heard people remark about how homebrewing can be cheaper than buying craft beer or wine. Trent posts it as #4 on his list of frugal tactics he learned so far this summer. A man after my own heart :-)

Tuesday Tidbits or I'm rambling again....

Oh that title is much too tinny. Anyway...

The remainder of the Kolsch keg is kicked. You know the one from the picnic a couple weekends ago. Never fear I have another ready to be kegged. I guess I'm calling it an IPA. What do you call beer made with pilsner base, caramel specialy malt, cascade hops and fairly hard tap water? Brother John's Ale or IPA I suppose. It was afterall the first time my brother-in-law ever brewed. Wait Jackie and Jeremy were there too. I can't remember if Brian was there. Sheesh. How about menage et cinq?

This is like a cliff hanger isn't it?

August Fermentation Friday @ The Panhandle Beer Snob and Redneck Brewery

Bunz over at The Panhandle Beer Snob and Redneck Brewery announced August's Fermentation Friday.

What, in the opinion of others, is the best beer you have ever made and why?

Prost!

July's Fermentation Friday is here!

So why do I have to go to work? :-( Ahhhh well I guess I'll read all about it when I get home over a pint of homebrew.

LINK :: Visit The Brew Dudes for the action.

July Fermentation Friday - Advice for new brewers, "Brew it Your Way"

The Brew Dudes have laid down the gauntlet for Fermentation Friday this month. On the 25th we can all jump from site to site soaking in the advice of home brewers who have been there done that. Here is my contribution.

Theme: What one tip would you give a beginner homebrewer before they brew their first batch and why?

What a great topic. I think most home brewers could go on for hours. Though, if my experience tells me one thing it would have to be, "Brew it your way." Sure there are things you just shouldn't do, but, it really is all about learning. Everybody learns in a different way. You're first step might be to read a book or perhaps watch somebody brew. Maybe you'll follow the directions that came with a kit. These days you can even watch a DVD or a video on YouTube. Oh yeah there's also podcasts to listen to. I suppose you could even persuade somebody to help you via a Skype video conference or go old school internet and look for a newsgroup about brewing. Ok...a forum if you like more recent tech. Hey, my grandfather did it in a crock in the basement. How sanitary was that? Many people have been brewing for thousands of years. I hear it used to be a common chore in many households. It ain't rocket science. So get to it. There's more than one way to start brewing. Remember my one piece of advice. Do you're own thing. Why? Because you are your own brewer. Nothing should stand in the way of your first mistake. After all this mistake could be what will likely teach you to make great beer time and time again.

Fermentation Friday @ Brew Dudes this week!

This month's theme?

What one tip would you give a beginner homebrewer before they brew their first batch and why?

http://www.brew-dudes.com/fermentation-friday-july-2008/297

Get started early and send you contributions to The Brew Dudes!

Homebrew Kolsch vs. Yuengling...

Well I'm happy to report that the Kolsch was a success. I went with ten gallons and came back with one. The Yuengling 16 gal keg was hit a little lighter. Not sure, but, I think about ten gallons are still left. :-)

The beer is kegged and the music is ready...

Tomorrow is the community party where I get to share my homebrew. I kegged the second keg last night with the help of my brother in law and its cold conditioning in the fridge right now. How did it turn out? Well I'm happy to say this Kolsch is something I'm pretty proud of so far. Definately the lightest tasting and looking beer I've ever made. Seems pretty clean not too dry. I drank it next to a Victory Hop Devil so I don't have accurate tasting notes yet. The real test will be tomorrow. Will a bunch of people drink this beer or Yuengling Lager? Should be interesting.

My wife and I are also providing the music selection (via iPod not actually playing). I hope they like that too. Otherwise I'm never going to live it down ;-)

Beer Bits 2 Readers & Me :-)

By now you know I love writing this blog and teaching people how to brew. I've written hundreds of posts about the topic here and elsewhere. So, if you like Beer Bits 2 and what I do here feel free to hit the donate button over there on the right. See you tomorrow.

Helping somebody get started in homebrewing...

When I heard my brother-in-law was getting ready to homebrew for the first time I couldn't stop offering to help. Seriously, he's probably wondering how to stop me from talking about it ;-) Well after a few conversations we landed on brewing at my house while his family is visiting. What better way to show somebody the ins and outs than to have them help you brew.

Homebrewing used to be a very private thing for me. I just wasn't very confident about my process and the results. Why would I share them with somebody if I wasn't a master? They might see I was doing it all wrong. Well, all I needed was somebody to ask me. Enter Jeremy a friend from work. As I've mention before in my online bloggings he was the reason I started brewing again. You know looking back on things he could be considered the catalyst for me to start homebrewing and blogging :-) Hmmm....anyway back to the story, he said that he was thinking of learning to brew. I of course shared with him that I knew how to do it and would be happy to help him learn. Before long we were buying supplies at the now defunct Brew By You and boiling up our first wort. We brewed a few beers together at my house with my equipment and then with his and soon he was off brewing on his own. In fact his wife is getting ready to brew her first batch soon. In fact I think they might be over to help us out too.

So, if you know how to brew, consider sharing your skill with somebody. You might not be perfect, but, who cares. You might even learn a thing or two. Some say, "The best way to learn something is to teach it." Sounds counter intuitive, doesn't it? Once you've taught something you'll understand. Get out there and teach somebody to brew!

Monday Sampler

Here's what's going on...

I'll be demonstrating the finer aspects (what does that mean?) of homebrewing to my brother-in-law sometime over the next week. Another friend and his wife might come over as a precursor to her first foray into brewing. She's shooting high for that first batch, pomegranate wheat.

Getting ready for the community party this weekend. I'll be sharing homebrew with these folks for the first time. Should be a good time if we get good weather.

The AB & Inbev thing is getting some big press. I don't really care all that much. I thought HopTalk had a funny post about it. If anything I think it will help Americans understand that we really do live in a global economy now. Even their American Beer is affected. Hey, maybe I do care. Maybe we should be listing to Jack. There's opportunity to be had.

Also, the Firefly Lights (aka Little Belgian Bastard Ale) is almost gone. There's just a bit of root beer left for some root beer floats. I'm sure the kids will appreciate that.

Fermentation Friday July 2008 announced by Brew Dudes

Brew Dudes decrees the topic to be...

What one tip would you give a beginner homebrewer before they brew their first batch and why?

Thanks John. Great topic!

What is Good Beer? Listen to Charlie Papazian...

Note: Sorry about the bad links. All fixed now. Thanks Andy for the help.

Charlie Papazian is making some great points on his blog. If you've ever thought about how to explain Good Beer, you might want to check this out. Here are links to the posts in his "What is Good Beer?" series (so far).

• What is Good Beer?
• Drink beer with your mouth, not your eyes. Prelude to revisiting “What makes good beer?”
• What is good beer? – Revisited . Capturing character.
• What is good beer? – Revisited. Lively, heart and soul.

While giving us his take on good beer he enlists our help as beer enthusiasts. Here is a quote from his most recent post.

It is quite clear to me that if beer enthusiasts reach out and “teach” others
about the variety of tastes beer can have, most light lager drinkers can extend
their beer drinking experiences to other types of beer. I know this.

He is absolutely right. I found myself doing this on the 4th of July more than once. I'm usually trying not to talk somebody's ear off about beer or homebrew, but, they just keep asking questions. They want to know more. I would venture to say that as homebrewers we have a distinct advantage. We aren't presenting some kind of fancy high falutin' expensive beer. We're sharing a homebrew!

H.G. Wheat, Picnic Tap, Brewing Legacy, Root Beer...

Checking in to say that the 10 gallons of H.G. Wheat are gone. The CO2 charger worked just fine. I have now successfully brewed beer for the 4th of July picnic just like my Grandfather and the root beer was a hit too. Really puts a smile on my face.

Now on to the next party :-) First I have to go back to work :-(

Cheers!

Drying Hops with a DIY Hops Dryer...

First of all thanks to Bryan over at TBL for suggesting this topic.

The bines are growing as are your visions of the hops harvest. You might even be planning ahead wondering about how you are going to dry all those hops so you can store them? I guess it depends on how much you have. During last year's harvest we picked about five pounds of green hop flowers (less than two five gallon buckets) that yielded 21 oz. of dried hop flowers. Keep in mind these were second season Cascade plants. I'm expecting more this year. I'll probably stick to my usual method of putting them near a dehumidifier in the basement on screens.

I'm not an expert, nor do I think you need to be. There are a variety of ways to dry hops. I have heard of these methods.

• food dehydrator - usually small amounts due to the small size of these devices
• oven - a step up from a dehydrator, not sure how well this works
• lay the hop flowers on screens in a very warm and dry area like attic or near a dehumidifier with a fan to move the air
• build your own hops dryer out of some wood and screen (usually stacked trays)
• hang whole bines in the attic

Basically you need a few things to be successful.

• large enough area for your harvested flowers
• heat
• airflow (fan or natural air currents from the heat)
• low humidity
• ability to move the hops flowers around a bit to ensure they dry evenly

I found that after a day or two in my basement with the dehumidifier running the hops were ready to be packaged and stored. I use the vacume seal food saver bags (Amazon Link), because I happened to have them around.

Prost!

Hops Drier

Pause

Take time out and just "be present in the moment". I recall the words a wise and kind person once gave to me. I guess the idea of being present wasn't new to me. People who know me would quickly agree, I imagine. Yet, even I need to be reminded that things can move too fast. So fast that one might not understand what they mean. Of course all this is subjective. Sometimes getting things done is just what you have to do. Just remember sometimes momentum has you needlessly careening forward at break neck pace.

Right at that moment take pause and look around. What is happening? Are you surrounded by people? What is the scenery like? Are there animals? Can you see the Sun or the Moon? What about the stars?

Just take pause and be present. I'm here in our sun room after the sun went down with the windows open. Coldplay is playing, Firefly Lights homebrew in my cup, kids in bed trying to sleep and the dogs are waiting for my wife to come home. I have things to do. I shouldn't really be writing this self indulgent essay. I should be preparing for the 4th of July.

I can't pass up this time. I want to be in it. I want to be reminded of the times when I was small. When I wasn't careening toward nothing. When I was waiting for the fireworks to start or running through the dark playing ghost in the graveyard. More importantly I want to remember what happened tonight.

Making some Gnome Root Beer

Last night I made some root beer with my kids. They had a ball. It was so easy. Northern Brewer has this concentrate they sell for making root beer from Gnome Soda. I bought a four ounce pack and had the kids help. Here's how I made and kegged about 8 or 9 gallons (can't be sure).

1. get two corny kegs ready
2. get some one step ready
   
3. Heat 1.5 gallon of water to 130 degrees
4. add 5 lbs of table sugar to water
5. empty 4 oz packet of Gnome root beer concentrate into pot
6. split evenly between the two kegs
7. top off keg with tap water to 4 or 4.5 gallons each (to taste really)
8. we could use less sugar next time (need to experiment)
9. pressurize keg to 35 psi constantly in fridge (or shoot, shake, shoot, shake)

Took about thirty minutes to an hour. It would be faster without the kids and the explanations. Next time I hope to forgo the concentrate and find a good recipe like the one Ted posted. One step at a time ;-) Then after that maybe I could get the recipe my grandfather used. Somebody stop me!

I think I'm set for the 4th of July weekend. Just a bit of cold conditioning and carbonation left.

Cheers!

CO2 Charger & Corny Keg to dispense beer at a picnic or party...

NOTE: I have since used this method at a real live picnic :-) and it did work. I'll post about my experience and post it soon.

How do you serve cold beer at a party without a bulky CO2 cannister, regulator, etc? With one of these CO2 keg chargers of course. I read in forums that people have used these things with success, but, wasn't quite sure what to expect.

It worked pretty well actually. Here is how I did it. First, I recommend the beer already be carbonated in a soda keg using a regulator and a CO2 cannister. I found the Cornielius Keg CO2 chargers (left) at Northern Brewer. I ordered one with a cornelius keg gas disconnect with MFL fitting (top right) and a pack of twelve 12 gram CO2 cartridges (right bottom).

You can also find the charger here...

Amazon: Cornelius Keg Charger

The CO2 charger came with one 16 gram cylinder and the adapter. Here is how I put it all together.

1. unscrewed the casing for the cylinder
2. removed the instructions from the casing and read them (really I did)
3. put the 16 gram CO2 cylinder in the casing
4. screwed the casing on quickly (no sound of gas or anything)
5. went to my keg
6. realized that the pressure would need to left out completely if I were to follow the directions
7. decided to not do that
8. connected the keg charger to the disconnect (against the warning in the directions)
   
9. made sure I didn't pull the trigger until it was connected to the keg (that's what would make the disconnect fail possibly)
   
10. connected the disconnect to the keg (already pressurized to about 15 PSI)
11. pulled the trigger
12. voila, it worked

I imagine this will work just fine. Somebody wrote in a forum that it takes about five or so cartridges to dispense a whole keg. I'm armed with a portable dispensing solution now :-)

Oh yeah, I bought a bleeder valve with a low pressure gauge on it so I could check the CO2 pressure if I needed to while dispensing. I don't think it was necessary. I'll probably use that for testing other things at a later date.

Cheers!

Keg + CO2 Cartridges = Portable Tap

Yep, I bought one of those CO2 cartridge gadgets to dispense beer with. I'll have to try it out tonight. The 4th of July picnic is coming soon. The two kegs of H.G. Wheat are carbonating and cold conditioning right now.

I'll be back with the results.

Prost!