Hop Update

With the days lengthening all our hop plants have decided it's time to grow.

These 4 hops (Golding back left, Fuggles back right and front right, Nugget front left) were all planted at the same time. They are all first year hops and the only difference is that the rhizomes on the front 2 were only about 100mm and as thick as a pencil, compared to the back ones which were 175 - 200mm long and as thick as your thumb. I don't expect to get anything off the front 2 this year but hopefully next year they will be big enough to crop, and needless to say - I won't be using that seller again.

These are 2nd year Cascades and each bed has at least 20 shoots.

These are 1st year Hallertau and Saaz.

So it all seems to be looking good for a reasonable crop this year, so long as we can keep the water and fertiliser up to them.

MALE - Macarthur Ale and Lager Enthusiasts

Based in the Macarthur area of Sydney, MALE (Macarthur Ale and Lager Enthusiasts) are a group of mates who share a common interest in - yep- you guessed it Ale and Lager. They meet on the first thursday of each month at a pizza shop in either Picton or Narrelan.

                                                                                               

With everyone being a homebrewer, there's always loads of styles to try. This last thursday just happened to be the Cerny Pivo challenge night, so along with the normal beers there was 14 Pivo's to try and rank.

               And the WINNER is .......  Mark

and Marks secret........ a fresh wort kit from Pat Casey's shop Absolute Homebrew in St Mary's.

Drinking beer and eating pizza was not all that happened.  We were given a demonstration of the latest innovation in bottle capping by Rene, (See photo below.)

Unfortunately the photo's not real clear, but if you look closely you will see the green bottle is capped with I'm sorry to say .....  cling wrap.  Hey, when needs' must.

Take your sense of humour with you, along with any beer or brewing questions as all the guys are more than willing to lend a hand.

Thanks for a great night out guys and we see you next time.

N.B : Cerny Pivo is a Czech style black Lager

Australian Example : PinchGut's Black PLZ

4C. Schwarzbier (Black Beer)
Aroma: Low to moderate malt, with low aromatic sweetness and/or hints of roast malt often apparent. The malt can be clean and neutral or rich and Munich-like, and may have a hint of caramel. The roast can be coffee-like but should never be burnt. A low noble hop aroma is optional. Clean lager yeast character (light sulfur possible) with no fruity esters or diacetyl.
Appearance: Medium to very dark brown in color, often with deep ruby to garnet highlights, yet almost never truly black. Very clear. Large, persistent, tan-colored head.
Flavor: Light to moderate malt flavor, which can have a clean, neutral character to a rich, sweet, Munich-like intensity. Light to moderate roasted malt flavors can give a bitter-chocolate palate that lasts into the finish, but which are never burnt. Medium-low to medium bitterness, which can last into the finish. Light to moderate noble hop flavor. Clean lager character with no fruity esters or diacetyl. Aftertaste tends to dry out slowly and linger, featuring hop bitterness with a complementary but subtle roastiness in the background. Some residual
sweetness is acceptable but not required.
Mouthfeel: Medium-light to medium body. Moderate to moderately high carbonation. Smooth. No harshness or astringency, despite the use of dark, roasted malts.
Overall Impression: A dark German lager that balances roasted yet smooth malt flavors with moderate hop bitterness.
History: A regional specialty from southern Thuringen and northern Franconia in Germany, and probably a variant of the Munich Dunkel style.
Comments: In comparison with a Munich Dunkel, usually darker in color, drier on the palate and with a noticeable (but not high) roasted malt edge to balance the malt base. While sometimes called a “black Pils,” the beer is rarely that dark; don’t expect strongly roasted, porter-like flavors.
Ingredients: German Munich malt and Pilsner malts for the base, supplemented by a small amount of roasted malts (such as Carafa) for the dark color and subtle roast flavors. Nobletype German hop varieties and clean German lager yeasts are preferred.
Vital Statistics:
OG:     1.046 – 1.052
IBUs:   22 – 32
FG:      1.010 – 1.016
SRM:   17 – 30
ABV:   4.4 – 5.4%
Commercial Examples: Köstritzer Schwarzbier, Kulmbacher Mönchshof Premium Schwarzbier, Samuel Adams Black Lager, Krušovice Cerne, Original Badebier, Einbecker Schwarzbier, Gordon Biersch Schwarzbier, Weeping Radish Black Radish Dark Lager, Sprecher Black Bavarian

Courtesy of Beer Judging Certificate Program (BJCP) guidelines

P.S : Here you go "Pumpy", thats there just for you!)

The HOPS are Coming

To my surprise some of our hop plants have started sprouting already

These are the Golding, with 3 shoots

And the fuggles with 9 shoots. Both of these are new varieties for us, along with Saaz, Nugget and Hallertau they join the Cascades from last year. It will be interesting to see which is the best producer and fastest grower.

Making My own Kegerator

The time had arrived where by we were finally sick of continuously washing bottles.

We decided it was time to make the move to using kegs. This meant we needed a way to dispense the beer from the kegs, hence the need for a kegerator.

The choice was then: buy a ready made one, or make one ourselves.

Several factors came into play here, the first being price.  A new kegerator is about $600 with twin taps, and takes 3 kegs.

We bought a 200L chest freezer for $300, a twin tap font for $120, a temperature controller for $80 and hoses and fitting for $40. Total price $540.

We could have cut the controller price to $35 if we wanted to just replace the freezer controller, but we opted for an external unit which still allows us to use it as a freezer if needed.

The second factor was space.  The freezer can fit 4 19L kegs, plus 2 9L kegs on the motor shelf.

The last factor is the running costs or efficiency.  The chest freezer running at fridge temps, and because it has better insulation, hardly runs at all.  And because it is top opening, you retain all the cold air when you open it - unlike the kegerator which is more like a small bar fridge and needs to run quite often to hold its temperature.

So how did we do it?

We started off by marking out and drilling 2 holes through the lid to take the beer lines.
We then used rubber grommets to line and seal the holes around the beer lines.

                  We then feed the beer lines through, and screwed the font to the lid of the freezer.

                                                      The keg lines were then connected

And after a couple of hours to cool down the first beers were ready to be poured.

You will notice that we placed the taps to one side rather than in the middle, this gives us room to mount a second set of taps at a later date.

We haven't mentioned the gas bottle...at the moment it lives inside the freezer as we have only 2 kegs in there. As we get more the gas bottle will be outside the freezer, and the gas line run over the lip between the lid and the body.

Disclaimer : we are not knocking the kegerator brand,

this will just give us more of what we were looking for.

Designing A Beer

Many a time we sit drinking commercial beer thinking to ourselves, “We can make better than this.” Or drinking our own brew thinking, “It needs just a little bit more of something.”  Well there is a way, and all it’s going to take is a little bit of time and brain use.

The trick to it all is the starting point – which in some cases is actually the end result. Do you want a particular style of beer? Are you looking for a session beer, or something big to warm you up on a winters night? The starting points are endless, here’s a few to think on:

-Style e.g.; Kolsch, Amber Ale, Stout

-Taste; matching a commercial beer, bitter, sweet, dry, pairing with food

- Using a particular ingredient; fruit, vegetables, type of malt or hop

-Alcohol level; session beers, a few with the mates, one drink wonders (10% and above)

-Equipment; all grain, extract, kits, fridges to brew lagers in

Each choice will take you down a narrowing path…say we choose one drink wonders as our starting point. This cuts down our available styles to about 7, ( Double/Imperial IPA’s; Imperial Stouts; US Barley Wines; Abbey Quadrupels; Strong Pales/Darks and Eisbocks ).

Let’s start with a style - IPA’s are popular now so let’s go with that. First choice is British (big hops and plenty of malt) or American (more hops less malt).  Choosing British, first we want to use one of the specialty malts such as Rye, Smoked, Vienna etc. - our choices here are limited to the lighter malts, so no chocolate or black malts (they add too much colour even in small doses). We are going to use some Vienna malt in this one along with some Pale Crystal and some Pale Ale malt.

So our recipe as it stands so far is –

British IPA

Pale Ale malt 75%

Pale Crystal 15%

Vienna malt 10%

The percentages are of the total grain bill, and allow you to scale up or down the amounts to suit the volume. We are looking at a finished volume after the boil of 25L with a Starting Gravity of 1.060 and a Final Gravity of 1.006 as we want it to finish on the dry side. This puts the alcohol at about 7 – 7.5% and this allows us to work out the quantities of grain needed. While doing this we will also work out the colour.

Ok, cue the hold music here, while I grab the books and calculator - or you could use Brewmate to work it out - right we need a total of 6.5kg of grain total. Broken into percentages it looks like this.

British IPA   25L

SG 1.060   FG 1.006   Alcohol 7 – 7.5%

Body – Crisp, dry with a bit of malt sweetness

Colour – 7 to 12*SRM

Pale Ale malt 75%   4.9kg                   4 -6.2 SRM

Pale Crystal 15%    0.95kg                   2.9 – 4.3 SRM

Vienna malt 10%   0.65kg                    0.6 – 0.8 SRM

Now…the hops.  Do we want a single hop IPA? (Only one type of hop used for both bittering and aroma)  Or multi hops? And here we are limited to obviously: British hops.

We will start with bittering: we want about 60 IBU’s so a relatively high alpha acid hop like Northdown (7 – 10% AA) early in the boil, then some Challenger  (6.5 – 8.5% AA) later on, and then East Kent Golding’s (4.5 – 6.5% AA) to dry hop with. So our hop bill and schedule look like this:

90 min 20gm Northdown 8.5% AA =15.4 IBU

60 min 30gm Northdown 8.5% AA =21.5 IBU

30 min 30gm Northdown 8.5% AA =16.5 IBU

15 min 20gm Challenger 7.5% AA =6.3 IBU

5 min 25gm Challenger 7.5% AA   =3.2 IBU

0 min 15gm E K Golding 5.5% AA   =0 IBU

Fermenter 15gm E K Golding 5.5% AA =0 IBU

1^st Racking 15gm E K Golding 5.5% AA = 0 IBU

Total IBU = 62.9 IBU

Ok so our hop bill has also given us our boil time – 90 minutes, and we have a fair amount of grain to convert, so we will give it 90 minutes in the mash.  To finish dry, we will mash fairly low at about 63*c.  As for volumes, we want to end up with 25L.  We will lose 10% an hour in the boil, so we need to recover about 30L from the mash and sparge. We mash in at 3.5L per kilo of grain - so 23L. As I batch sparge I can work out my sparge water after I have drained the mash. If I recover 19L I will sparge with 11L to get 30L.

The last thing to work out is what yeast to use and for this one it’s a no brainer:  English Ale Yeast.

So now our full recipe looks like this:

TinRoof IPA, a British IPA - 25L

SG 1.060   FG 1.006   Alcohol 7 – 7.5%

Body – Crisp, dry with a bit of malt sweetness

Colour – 7 to 12*SRM

Pale Ale malt 75%   4.9kg                   4 -6.2 SRM

Pale Crystal 15%    0.95kg                   2.9 – 4.3 SRM

Vienna malt 10%   0.65kg                    0.6 – 0.8 SRM

3gm calcium carbonate

1gm calcium sulphate

90 min mash at 63*c with 23L of water

Batch sparge to make up 30L

90 min boil

90 min 20gm Northdown 8.5% AA =15.4 IBU

60 min 30gm Northdown 8.5% AA =21.5 IBU

30 min 30gm Northdown 8.5% AA =16.5 IBU

15 min 20gm Challenger 7.5% AA =6.3 IBU

5 min 25gm Challenger 7.5% AA   =3.2 IBU

0 min 15gm E K Golding 5.5% AA   =0 IBU

Fermenter 15gm E K Golding 5.5% AA =0 IBU

1^st Racking 15gm E K Golding 5.5% AA = 0 IBU

Total IBU = 62.9 IBU

Yeast – English Ale Ferment at 20*c

Now all we need do is brew it - stand by, that brew days coming up.

Homebrewland is here

No it's not a theme park. But thats a pretty good idea. Mmmmm...a homebrew theme park.  I think the only rides you would need would be golf carts.

Anyway 'nuff of that. Back to the reason for this post: http://www.homebrewland.com/ has arrived.

The aim of homebrewland is to promote - you guessed it - homebrew! As well as homebrewing clubs throughout Australia. We aim to have contact details for all of Australia's homebrewing clubs.

We would also like to promote homebrew tourism. "What's homebrew tourism?" Well it goes like this: You're away on holidays or a trip of some sort, you check out homebrewland for the area you're in, find the closest brew club thats on that night and go along and join in. It's not hard, all of the clubs welcome new people and at the very least you will get to imbibe some great beer.

To make it work, we need all the homebrew clubs to send us their details, or a link to their site, and we will publish them on homebrewland.

We are also calling for homebrewers to send us in a small bio of their brews as well as photos (limit 2),  to be published as the "homebrewer of the week".

We are also looking for reviews on various bits of kit, how good they are, are they worth it and what would you change, all that sort of stuff.

So get on it, folks, and help grow our homebrew community.

How NOT to Succeed in Business

I was in a homebrew store recently, one that changed hands only a short time ago ( no names ), when 2 blokes walked in and asked about kegs.

From memory this is how the conversation went -

Customer : Hi we're after some kegs.
Owner : Sorry we don't sell kegs  -  hang on, here they are ( pointing to plastic fermenters ).
Customer : Aren't they fermenters? We're after kegs, you know the things you put beer in.
Owner : Yes sorry over here ( pointing to distillers ), they are double skinned and rated to ....
Customer : Aren't they distillers? We're after kegs the things you gas up.
Owner : Sorry we don't have them.
Owner ( to spouse ) : Do we sell kegs?

This was where I walked out.

This was a real exchange, the shop involved is a " My Keg On Legs " distributor, and the owners have been selling home brew products for years in another shop.

Glad it's not my shop.

A Slimming Beer ?

From the Sunday Telegragh 10th June 2012

Forget the bulging beer gut - drinking the amber ale can actually make you stronger, slimmer and healthier.

It even has the ability to improve muscular performance and prevent diabetes, according to a new study.

Researches have found beer may contain a vitamin which can fight obesity and improve muscle strength.

The "miracle molecule", which has been found in milk, is also believed to be in beer and could lengthen lifespan.

The catch is, the molecule called nicotinamidemriboside, is extremely small, difficult to find and expensive to synthesise.

Head of Ecole Polytechnique Federale in Switzerland Johan Auwerx said mice on a high-fat diet that were fed NR gained significantly less weight.

The Best invention since Sliced Bread - BrewMate

For those of you that have been struggling to formulate new recipes or just wont to know what the result will be with any combination of grains;  ie : colour, specific gravity, bitterness, even down to the amount of water needed to sparge out - well, here's the program for you, and it's absolutely free.

http://www.brewmate.net/

Brewmate lets you build a recipe from the ground up, by using the drop down menus you can quickly and easily add different grains, hops and yeasts. All come with their relative data - like their potential extract values for grains, alpha acid levels for hops and fermentation temps for the yeasts.

With loads of variables you can tailor BrewMate to your system, changing mash temps and times, boil duration, even loss during boil. There is also a mash timer and a boil timer with pop up alarms to tell you when to make additions, along with a brew day sheet containing water amounts and temps and expected losses and...too much info to list here.

There is an "add notes" section which allows you to put additional info on the end of the recipe but wont be included in the actual recipe make up.

All your recipes can be saved in BrewMate and even uploaded to the site if you wish to. Currently there are over 500 recipes you can download, all of which have been added by BrewMate users.

The BrewMate pages are all fully printable and take a lot of the headaches out of crafting beers.

I highly recommend it.

Is it the Beer or the food and exercise

From The Telegragh UK 13 January 2011

Moderate drinking of ale and lager can cut the risk of diabetes and high blood pressure and even help people lose weight, doctors say.

The Spanish researchers suggest combining beer with exercise and a healthy Mediterranean diet high in fish, fruit and vegetables and olive oil.

Beer contains folic acid, vitamins, iron and calcium and has the same health benefits already attributed to moderate wine drinking, researchers found.

And they blamed fatty foods like chips, a lack of exercise and binge drinking for beer bellies in Britain.

Dr Ramon Estruch, the lead researcher, said: “Moderate beer consumption is associated with nutritional and health benefits.

“It does not necessarily mean weight gain since it has no fat and calorie content is low.”
He contrasted the culture of drinking small glasses of beer with tapas in Spain to binge drinking in Britain.
He said: “Beer drinkers here do not resemble Britons, who drink large quantities, almost without moving from one spot, while eating chips and sausages.”
The joint study was carried out by Barcelona University, the Hospital Clinic in Barcelona and the Carlos III Institute of Health in Madrid.
Dr Estruch and Dr Rosa Lamuela tested 1,249 men and women over 57 years old.
They found that those who regularly drank moderate amounts of beer were less likely to suffer from diabetes and high blood pressure and had a lower body fat content.
Those with a Mediterranean diet who drank up to a pint of beer a day “not only did not put on weight, but in some cases even lost weight.”
Beer provides a 'protective' effect on the cardiovascular system and has a relatively low alcohol content compared to other drinks, they concluded.

What's YOUR Brew Campbelltown's new Brew shop

Located on Queen St Campbelltown in Sydney's south west, What's YOUR Brew is run by Michael and Irene Guest. With a work history which includes time at Tooheys and a smaller brewing supply store in Tahmoor, alongside countless years as a homebrewer, this seems like the natural step forward for them.

Bringing a fresh look to the store has helped to liven up the image, making it more inviting, and the small dogs that sleep on the counter are very kitsch. Alongside this Michael and Irene have introduced some new product lines including glassware and cigars with more to come.

The store range includes Muntons, Morgans, Coopers and Mangrove Jacks in the canned kits and the full EZY Brew 15L range as well as canned malts. Alongside these there is the full Copper Tun range of inclusions and cleaners, as well as fresh hops and yeasts.

What's YOUR Brew also stocks the full range of Spirit essences, along with Edwards and Essencia with the best seller being the Smoky Malt, as well as the other ingredients needed for making fine spirits.

With plans to hook up with the local brew clubs in order to better tailor stock lines we look forward to seeing  What's YOUR Brew grow and expand in the local market.

          ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Formerly Macarthur Brewing Supplies, Manfred has retired and sold the business.

The Brew Shop

Located in Sydney's southern suburbs at Peakhurst, The Brew Shop started trading in the late 60's and has become the mecca for homebrewers and occasionally a life (batch ) saver for some of our craft breweries. The Brew Shop is run by brothers Colin and Dave, with Colin's son Mark and former head brewer at the Lord Nelson, Damien.

Working in conjunction with ES Brewing, The Brew Shop stocks everything you could ever think of needing for anything to do with brewing and distilling. From the tiny o-ring for a kegs poppet valve up to dual tap kegerators. It's not just equipment either, one wall is full of extracts and kits while another is full of essences.

While The Brew Shop look after the retail side of things, selling not only through the store but also online and over the phone, ES Brewing look after the importing of hops and malts, the manufacturing and exporting of wort kits and extracts, and the wholesale supply to brew stores Australia wide.

The most popular items being bought at the moment are the Coopers kit and kilo cans, along with ES Brewing 3kg extract can range and the 4.5L Ezi Brew versions of craft beers. Also very popular at the moment ( possibly the fastest growing sector of the homebrew market ) is distilling spirits, and The Brew Shop has everything you need for that as well.

$75 gets you a homebrew starter kit which includes everything you need ( fermenter and beer kit and odds and ends ) to make your first beer - bar the bottles.

With so much of his time taken up by the shop Colin doesn't get a lot of time to brew anymore and when he does he is more than likely to be working on development batches.  Currently they are working on a gluten free beer using sorghum but it's not going so well. They are finding it hard to replicate the malt taste that goes with a good beer.

The Brew Shop and ES Brewing both support the local home brew club, hosting the meeting on the last Friday of every month and often donating prizes for the competitions.

YULLIS The Best Craft Beer Menu by Far

I was told the other day about a bar / cafe called YULLIS in Surry Hills. “So what,” I hear you say “there’s a billion of them there.” Well this is one with a difference and I will tell you why. It has one of the most extensive Craft Beer menus I have ever seen in a restaurant, let alone a bar.

Here is their Beer and Cider list

The seasonal beer was Iron lung Black Imperial Pilsner by Doctor’s Orders brewing.

Stone and Wood    - Pacific Ale
                              - Pale Lager
                             
Little Brewing Co   - Wicked Elf Witbier
                              - Wicked Elf Pale Ale
                              - Mad Abbot Tripel

Brothers Ink           - Skinny Blonde

4 Pines                   - Kolsch
                              - Hefeweizen
                              - Stout

St Arnou                - Pilsner
                              - Light

Bowral Brewing      - Pigs Fly Pilsner
                              - Pigs Fly Pale Ale

Murrays                 - Whale Ale
                              - Punch and Judy Ale
                              - Dark Knight Porter
                              - Grand Cru

Red Oak                - Organic Pale Ale
                              - Honey Ale

Ekim Brewery        - Viking IPA

Dalgety Brewery    - Red Ale
                              - Smoked Porter

Lord Nelson          - Old Admiral

Happy Goblin        - Strong Ale
                             - Ginger Beer
                             - Pale Ale

O'Brian                 - Gluten Free Lager

St Peters Brewery - Greenstar Lager
                             - Cinnamon Girl Spiced Ale

Pipsqeak Cider - Little Creatures
Napoleone and Co Apple Cider - Punt Road Wines
Napoleone and Co Pear Cider - Punt Road Wines
Batlow Apple Cider - Batlow Brewing
Lobo Apple Cider - Lobo Juice and Cider
Somerset Still Trad. Dry Cider - Small Acres Cider

You can see why I am impressed; you just don’t find a beer menu like this very often.

Now for the other stuff, the food is great but, be aware it is vegetarian. We can highly recommend the curry puffs, the grilled haloumi and the toasted bagels with haloumi, mushrooms caramelised onions, tomato and avocado.

It’s quite a funky / hip little place with student housing used as the theme for decoration and furnishing but it works well.

Prices are reasonable with 2 entrees, 2 mains and 4 beers costing us $90

 Yullis

417 Crown St Surry Hills

 http://yullis.com.au/

Session Beer it's almost un - Australian

We Australians love to have a Beer. In fact we love to have lots of beers according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. As a nation we rank number 5 on the list of beer drinkers, consuming 103.3L of beer per person over the age of 15. This is down from 107.65L in 2005.

If you look at the tables on the ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics) site,

http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/4307.0.55.001main+features42009-10

you will see that it's actually the low alcohol beer area where the reductions have come from (in 2005 it was 14.11L per person down to in 8.06L per person in 2010). These figures are all commercially sold beer plus 2.2% added for homebrew.

The ABS defines alcohol levels as;

Low Alcohol - under 3%

Mid Strength - between 3 - 3.5%

Full Strength - over 3.5%

You might be asking why am I giving you all these figures. Well its because we really need to look at Session Beers. Now I'm not talking about full on booze ups. I'm talking about the times you just want to spend an afternoon bending your elbow with your mates, watching footy or cricket or having a yarn whatever without ending up completely rat arsed and not being able to function. This is where session beers come in, designed to be low in alcohol (under 4%) and light in body these beers wont make you feel bloated or knock you on your arse after a couple.

For example Midgee by Hopdog is a spectacular red ale that comes in at 2.9%.

With most Australian commercial beers in the 4.6 - 5.5%, and craft beers trending higher still we need to change our habits, keep our favourite full strength beers for when we are having 1 or 2 and move to the lighter Session Beers for those long arvos. 

So start asking your local craft brewer or pub for a Session beer and check out the difference.

Beer Excise Changes - Finally

For some time now, microbreweries have been lobbying the federal government to amend the excise rebate scheme. Currently a microbrewery needs to produce less than 30,000L a year (around 770 long necks a week) to be able to claim the $10,000 excise rebate.

After June 30th, 2 things will change, firstly the production cap has been removed allowing microbreweries to grow without losing the rebate. Secondly the rebate has been increased to $30,000. This means that they can now claim a rebate of 60% of the excise paid up to a maximum of $30,000.

What does this mean for us?  It means that we will see most microbreweries increasing their production and hopefully their distribution range further than just their local area.

We need to focus now on breaking the Tap Lockout that is happening at the moment. The big 2 (Sab - Miller and Lion Nathan), lock in pubs and clubs to having only their beers on tap, and putting clauses in the contracts making it a violation of that contract to have other beers on tap. Sounds to me like restraint of trade and gives a very limited choice to the drinkers.

Barley, Water, Hops and finally Yeast

     Barley, Water, Hops and finally, Yeast. These are the only 4 things that for centuries could be used in German Beers. Why? do you ask. Well this is price that Bavaria made the other German states pay for it to join them in a unified Germany in 1871. Introduced in Bavaria in 1516, it was called the Reinheitsgebot ( the German beer purity law).
     The Reinheitsgebot made it illegal to use anything but Barley, Water and Hops (yeast not having been discovered yet, wasn't included till the 1800's). Brought in supposedly to stop competition for grains between bakers and brewers and to keep the cost of a loaf of bread affordable, it's actual effect was to remove the diversity and originality from the rest of Germany. Outside of Bavaria the Germans brewed much like their Belgium cousins, lots of adjuncts, wheats, sugars, fruits and spices. Belgium today brews over 1500 different types of Beer, many of them available only in the pub where they are brewed. Imagine where Germany would be today without 200 odd years of constrictions, instead of being dominated by Pilsners and Kolsch's, Abbey ales and Lambics may have evolved even further but we will never know.
     Interestingly enough the Reinheitsgebot was also introduced into Greece in the 1800's due to a Bavarian prince, the first Greek king.
     The Reinheitsgebot is still in force today but only for beers produced in Germany (imported beers can use anything also used in making food) having transitioned through the West German Biersteueergesetz (beer taxation law) to the Vorlaufiges Biergesetz, an expanded Reinheitsgebot to include different malts and sugars for top fermenting beers (ales and the like), and for yeast to be used in bottom fermenting beers (lagers etc).
     Many home brewers and breweries  like to boast that they follow the Reinheitsgebot and that because of this their beers are better than anything else, but I thinkpersonally it's more just a way to limit their creativity. Imagine if every beer had to be brewed by those rules, it would be a pretty boring old selection. Now thats not to say there isn't a place for Reinheitsgebot, it's just not for everyone.

What makes it LOW Carb

     Low Carb Beer, is it just an advertising gimmick to get more ladies to drink beer?  are they using it to tell people they can drink more for the same kilojoule cost? does it actually even exist? Unfortunately we have to answer yes to all three of these questions. Shall I explain, bear in mind I have nothing against Low Card Beer.

      The first two can be can be summed up in 2 words Increased Sales. Lets face facts, beer drinkers are predominantly men nothing new there but like the NRL and AFL, beer companies have just recently discovered there's a whole other sex out there that are not naturally inclined to like their products and this has them scrambling to grab as much of this emerging market as they can. This is why we are seeing pink beers, brewery's owned, run and marketed by and to women and the real reason behind the emergence of Low Carb Beer.
     Lets not forget the section of the population that are actively dieting, watching their figure or have been fooled by advertising into thinking they can drink Low Carb Beer because it has less kilojoules than regular Beer. Unfortunately this is only partly true, while yes they have less carbs they generally have the same or higher percentage of alcohol and this is where they kilojoules are coming from. This also leads to people drinking more as they  think 1 full strength beer = 2 or more Low Carb Beers.
     Now here's the figures, Low Carb Beer has between 1 -2gm of carbs per 100ml, normal Beer has 3- 3.5gm carbs per 100ml soft drinks average 10gm carbs per 100ml. This answers our third question, yes they exist but are they better for you, you will need to decide that for yourself. As for me if I was going to choose on a health basis it would be full strength beer in moderate amounts.

     So how do they make Low Carb beer, well there are several options the brewer can use and to understand these we need to go Beer nerd for a minute. It's all to do with the mash temperatures but it starts with malting the grain, barley or wheat kernels are soaked in water and allowed to start to germinate, before the plant breaks out of the kernel it is heated up and the germination is halted. At this stage the kernel has turned all the food available to it inside itself into starches. The malt is then roasted to different degrees, a light roast lots of fermentable sugars, a dark roast less fermentable sugars and lots of unfermentable sugars.
     We then use this malt in our brews,we place the malt into the mash (really just soaking the malt in hot water for anything up  to 90mins) and if we mash low 60 - 63*c we get mostly fermentable sugars and if we mash high 67 - 70*c we get mostly unfermentable sugars. Now as it suggests fermentable sugars are eaten by the yeasts and turned into alcohol, therefore the more you turn into alcohol the less there remains in the Beer as carbs, and its the same the other way round. Most brewers strive for a balance as those unfermented sugars are generally what gives a beer its body or fullness. So a Low Carb Beer is one that will have fermented all the way out and generally be a bit thinner in mouth feel / body than full strength. Some brewery's have been known to add fungus derived enzymes to the mash to convert any left over starches into fermentable sugars to help get rid of those carbs.

    Now I ask myself, is it really worth it. Well as home brewers we can produce Low Carb Beers but I don't think they are as nice as normal beers but for the big brewery's it obviously is, Low Carb Beers outstrip all other beers in sales growth and unfortunately that's all they care about.

Go on brew your own

cheers and beers

Why We Homebrew

     We home brew for a number of reasons, the first and foremost is that we brew to our tastes. Because we control the ingredients and the process we can brew to a set result, if we want more or less bitterness we lengthen or shorten the boil time and amount of hops. If we want a very clean taste we leave it on the yeast longer and control the temperature by brewing in a fridge and if we want a smoother taste we lager the brew for longer ( up to 8 months ).
     This allows us to tailor our beers and keep them properly, they don't sit in warehouses or trucks in the summer sun.
      We brew in small batches (23L), this makes it easy to experiment and pretty cheap, your not risking much usually maybe $30 - $50 depending on your grain, yeast and hop bill. By brewing this way and even splitting batches with different hops and yeast we are able to produce a large variety of tastes, alcohol content and body fullness/ mouth feel. For exaple at the moment we currently have 6 different Pale Ales, 2 IPA's, a Double IPA, 3 Meads 2 Saison and a Cider. All this from a home brew set up.
     All this helps to broaden our tastes and means that now the only reason we buy beer is to try new types on the market and when visiting craft breweries.
      We also brew for the fun of it and enjoy the social aspect of the various brew clubs, events and competitions that most local areas seem to have. For those willing to ask, advice and help is everywhere, home brew stores clubs and forums are only to willing to help sort out any problems and most will even demonstrate new techniques for you.
     Most clubs will have a full range of home brewers, from the kit and kilo people all the way through to the exclusive all grain people. Be aware there's always some who think that unless you brew all grain, grow your own barley and hops, brew in a fridge, culture your yeast and keg your beer in 300 year old oak barrels your not really brewing. I say let them have their ideas and we will just get on and brew and have fun.
     Enjoy your brewing we sure do.

Changing of the Seasons

     With summer starting to draw to a close it's time to turn from brewing the Summer Ales like Saison and fruity Pale Ales, those light tangy thirst quenchers and move to the heartier more robust Stouts, Double IPA's and Barley wines. Something to put a bit of fire in your belly and warm you up on those cold winter nights.
     It may still be February but we are gearing up to brew a big Russian Imperial Stout which should come out at about 9% and have lots of roast caramel and coffee tastes and aromas. As the alcohol content is quite high it's going to need 6 - 8 weeks in the fermenter and a good 2 months at least in the bottle, may be longer if so it will be great for next year.  We plan for this beer to be pitch black and to this end we will be using a good whack of chocolate malt and maybe some extra espresso coffee. As this is going to be a big beer we are looking for a final gravity of about 1.020, slightly high by some standards but it should leave a nice fullness to it.
  
 Our name for this beer will be Siberian Crude (black as night and twice as thick).

     After that we are looking for a good Oatmeal Stout to bring a bit more rich creamy texture with not so much alcohol as the Imperial and a shorter brewing time, something you can drink on a week night without feeling it too much the next day. We will still be brewing Hoptastic and the Meads, Hoptastic as it's such an easy drinker it never lasts long and the mead as it needs such a long lagering stage.

     Autumn is a good time to get all your brew gear clean and ready for a full winters production as the colder weather keeps brew temps down and slows the ferment a bit, both will help to keep beer nicer as it won't develope the phenol / estery taste that comes with fermenting at high tenps (above 21 - 22*c).  Now is also the time to plan out your brews and to add together the grain bills for all your recipes, this allows you to buy in bulk and save a bit of money you will just need some decent scales at home to break it back down.

Making my new Mash Tun / Wort Boiler

     Finally all the components have arrived and now I can upgrade from my old stove top stock pot to a purpose built Mash Tun / Wort boiler. It started life as an old 50L Beer keg and I've cut the top out with a 4" grinder leaving the top ring and handles.

     Next I need to use a 25mm hole saw near the base to make 2 holes one for the thermometer / thermocouple.

     And the other a bit lower for the tap and bazooka ( the wire mesh screen which goes inside the keg attached to the tap to filter out the hops after the boil.). Both of these use weldless connections making them easy to remove and clean.

     I will be using a 3 ring propane burner for heating and at the moment all brewing will need to be done under the car port providing my neighbors with a good show. With it all set up it's time for the test boil, just water the first time and with all going well it's time to buy the ingredients for the first batch in the new system.

     A Belgium Saison or Russian Imperial  Stout.  I think we'll go Belgium, as its still summer and the higher brewing temps will help. Stand by for the brew post and photos in the next week.

Cheers

Hairy Back Brewing