BrewWiki - User contributions [en]

Craft Beer

2013-07-20T12:34:30Z

Bonjour: /* Craft Breweries */

__NOTOC__
{{Portal|name=Craft Beer}}
'''Craft beer''' is beer sold to the public that is produced by a brewpub, microbrewery or regional brewer. Craft beers are typically all-malt beers that started in microbreweries or brewpubs. The success of these small brewers eventually led some to expand to regional breweries, and the term '''craft beer''' was coined to distinguish the distinctive products of these new micro- and regional breweries from the products of traditionally large breweries.

Prior to prohibition, thousands of small breweries existed throughout the United States. Post prohibition, beer brewing was dominated by just a handful of major brewers making a small selection of beer styles - usually Pilsners with large amounts of rice and corn added. After President Carter lifted the prohibition on homebrewing in 1978, the resurgence of homebrewing brought with it a new demand for beer styles from throughout the world. To meet this need, microbreweries and brewpubs started to pop up in the 1980's and 1990's throughout the country providing a huge selection of beer styles. Some of the more successful small breweries eventually expanded to become regional breweries.

==Craft Breweries==
Please include city, state and country if appropriate.
* [http://www.boldcitybrewery.com/ Bold City Brewery] - Jacksonville, FL
* [http://www.intuitionaleworks.com/ Intuition Ale Works] - Jacksonville, FL
* [http://www.7bridgesgrille.com/ Seven Bridges] - Jacksonville, FL
* [http://www.rivercitybrew.com/ River City Brewing Company] - Jacksonville, FL
* [http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=5931883908/ Niagara's Best Beer] - St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada
* [http://www.airdalebrewing.com/ Airdale Brewing Company] - San Diego, CA
* [http://www.anchorbrewing.com/ Anchor Brewing Company] - San Francisco, CA
* [http://www.sierranevada.com/ Sierra Nevada Brewing] - Chico, CA
* [http://www.stonebrew.com/ Stone Brewing Company] - San Diego, CA
* [http://www.russianriverbrewing.com/pages/about.html Russian River Brewing Company] - Santa Rosa, CA
* [http://www.calderabrewing.com Caldera Brewing] - Ashland, OR
* [http://www.rogue.com/ Rogue Ales] - Newport, OR
* [http://www.cambrew.com/ Cambridge Brewing Company] - Cambridge, MA
* [http://www.greatlakesbrewing.com/ Great Lakes Brewing Co] - Cleveland, OH
* [http://www.shipyard.com/ Shipyard Brewing Company] - Maine
* [http://www.smuttynose.com/ Smuttynose Brewing Company] - Portsmouth, NH
* [http://www.arborbrewing.com/ Arbor Brewing Company] - Ann Arbor, MI
* [http://www.arcadiabrewingcompany.com/ Arcadia Brewing Company] - Battle Creek, MI
* [http://www.bellsbeer.com/ Bells Brewing Inc] - Kalamazoo, MI
* [http://www.darkhorsebrewery.com/ Dark Horse Brewing Company] - Marshall, MI
* [http://dragonmead.com/ Dragonmead Microbrewery] - Warren, MI
* [http://www.foundersbrewing.com/home.php Founders Brewing] - Grand Rapids, MI
* [http://www.jollypumpkin.com/ Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales] - Dexter, MI
* [http://www.newhollandbrew.com/ New Holland Brewing Company] - Holland, MI
* [http://www.lbbrew.com/ Lake Bluff Brewing Company] - Lake Bluff, IL
* [http://www.newglarusbrewing.com/ New Glarus Brewing Company] - New Glarus, WI
* [http://www.wigrambrewing.co.nz/ Wigram Brewing Company] - Christchurch, New Zealand
* [http://www.emersons.co.nz/ Emerson's Brewery Limited] - Dunedin, New Zealand
* [http://www.threeboysbrewery.co.nz/ Three Boys Brewery] - Christchurch, New Zealand
* [http://www.yeastieboys.co.nz/ The Yeastie Boys] - Wellington, New Zealand

==See Also==
* [[References]]

==External Links==
* [http://www.beertown.org/craftbrewing/about.html Brewers Association] - US Craft Brewers Association
* [http://www.craftbeerradio.com/ Craft Beer Radio] - Podcast
* [http://www.beertown.org/craftbrewing/statistics.html Beertown Craft Beer Industry Statistics]
* [http://www.realbeer.co.nz/ Real Beer New Zealand]- Premier NZ Home-brewing and craft beer website
* [http://www.drinkupsandiego.com Drink Up San Diego] - Complete guide to San Diego Microbreweries

[[Category:Craft Beer]]
[[Category:Glossary]]

Suppliers

2013-02-21T14:42:15Z

Bonjour: /* Minnesota */

{{Portal|name=Suppliers}}
A variety of shops, online stores, and wholesale suppliers are available to help you create your favorite homebrew or craftbrew. This article includes just a few of the thousands available.

==Online Suppliers==
A listing of suppliers with online catalogs and order forms. Listed alphabetically.
* [http://www.homebrewing.org Adventures in Homebrewing]
* [http://www.austinhomebrew.com/ Austin Homebrew Supply]
* [http://barleyhaven.com/ Barley Haven]
* [http://www.morebeer.com/ Beer, Beer & More Beer]
* [http://www.beersmith.com BeerSmith Recipe Software]
* [http://beertobrew.com Beer To Brew]
* [http://www.bvrgelements.com/ Beverage Elements Kegging Equipment]
* [http://www.bxbeerdepot.com/ BX Beer Depot]
* [http://www.freshops.com/ Freshhops.com]
* [http://www.highgravitybrew.com/ High Gravity Homebrewing & Winemaking Supplies]
* [http://www.store.homebrew4less.com/ HomeBrew4Less.com]
* [http://www.homebrewheaven.com/ Homebrew Heaven]
* [http://www.homebrewing.com/ Home Brewing]
* [http://www.homebrewmart.com/ Home Brew Mart]
* [http://www.thehomebrewstore.com/ Home Brew Supply, LLC]
* [http://www.hopsandberries.com/ Hops & Berries]
* [http://www.kegcowboy.com/ Keg Cowboy Brewing & Dispensing Equipment]
* [http://www.leeners.com/ Leeners Homebrew Supply]
* [http://www.maltytasking.com/ Malty Tasking, LLC]
* [http://www.midwestsupplies.com/ Midwest Homebrewing and Winemaking Supplies]
* [http://www.northernbrewer.com/ Northern Brewer]
* [http://www.paddockwood.com/ Paddock Wood Brewing Supplies]
* [http://www.thebrewhut.com The Brew Hut]
* [http://www.williamsbrewing.com/ Williams Brewing]
* [http://www.jaysbrewing.com/ Jay's Brewing]

==Brewing Software Suppliers==
Software for formulating recipes and performing brewing calculations.
* [http://www.beersmith.com BeerSmith Brewing Software]
* [http://brewtarget.sourceforge.net/ Brewtarget]
* [http://www.promash.com ProMash Brewing Software]
* [http://www.strangebrew.ca StrangeBrew Brewing Software]
* [http://www.usermode.org/code.html Qbrew] - Cross-Platform, Open Source Brewing Software

== Local Brewing Suppliers by State & Country==
Listed by state and city or country if appropriate.
===California===
* [http://www.brewsupply.com/ Culver City Home Brewing Supply] - Culver City, CA
* [http://www.morebeer.com/ Beer, Beer & More Beer] - Concord
* [http://www.morebeer.com/ Beer, Beer & More Beer] - Riverside
* [http://www.morebeer.com/ Beer, Beer & More Beer] - Los Altos
* [http://www.homebrewmart.com/ Home Brew Mart] - San Diego, CA
* [http://www.osheabrewing.com/ O'shea Brewing Company] - Irvine, CA
* [http://www.sfbrewcraft.com/ San Francisco Brewcraft] - San Francisco, CA
* [http://www.steinfillers.com/ Stein Fillers] - Long Beach
* [http://www.williamsbrewing.com/ Williams Brewing] - San Leandro, CA

===Colorado===
* [http://barleyhaven.com/ Barley Haven ] - Lakewood, CO
* [http://www.thebrewhut.com/ The Brew Hut] - Aurora, CO
* [http://www.whatsbrewin.biz/ What's Brewin'] - Boulder, Co
* [http://www.oldwestbrew.com/ Old West Brew Supplies] - Colorado Springs, CO
* [http://www.myhomebrew.com/ My Home Brew Shop] - Colorado Springs, CO
* [http://www.beerathome.com/ Beer and Wine at Home] - Englewood, CO
* [http://www.hopsandberries.com/ Hops & Berries] - Fort Collins, CO
* [http://www.beerathome.com/ Beer and Wine at Home] - Westminster, CO
* [http://stompthemgrapes.com/ Stomp Them Grapes] - Denver, CO
* [http://stompthemgrapes.com/ Hop To It!] - Boulder, CO
* [http://stonicllc.com/ Stonic Home Brew Supplies] - Eastern Colorado
* [http://www.tomsbrewshop.com Tom's Brew Shop] - Lakewood, CO

===Florida===
* [http://www.flagala.net/ Flagala Hardware] - Panama City Beach, FL
* [http://www.bxbeerdepot.com/ BX Beer Depot] - Lake Worth, FL
* [http://justbrewitjax.com/ Just Brew It] - Jacksonville, FL
* [http://www.boothsbrewing.com/ Booth's Brewing] - Tampa, FL

===Georgia===
* [mailto:savhomebrew@comcast.net Savannah Homebrew Shop] - Savannah, GA

===Indiana===
* [http://www.greatfermentations.com Great Fermentations of Indiana] - Indianapolis, IN

===Kentucky===
* [http://www.liquorbarn.com/ LiquorBarn] Louisville and Lexington, KY

===Maryland===
* [http://www.flyingbarrel.com/ The Flying Barrel] - Frederick, MD
* [http://www.mdhb.com/ Maryland HomeBrew] - Columbia, MD

===Minnesota===
* [http://www.northernbrewer.com/ Northern Brewer] - St Paul, MN

===North Carolina===
* [http://www.ebrew.com/ Alternative Beverage] - Belmont, NC

===New Jersey===
* [http://www.brewapp.com/ Brewer's Apprentice] - Freehold, NJ

===Ohio===
* [http://www.hopsshack.com/ The Hops Shack] - Bucyrus, OH
* [http://www.thegrape.net/ The Grape and Granary] - Akron, OH
* [http://www.leeners.com/ Leeners Homebrew Supply] - Cleveland, OH

===Oklahoma===
* [http://www.highgravitybrew.com High Gravity Homebrewing & Winemaking Supplies] - Tulsa, OK

===Pennsylvania===
* [http://www.benshomebrew.com/ Ben's Homebrew] - Tarentum, PA
* [http://www.store.homebrew4less.com/ HomeBrew4Less.com LLC]- Chambersburg, PA 17202
* [http://www.homesweethomebrew.com/ Home Sweet Homebrew] - Philadelphia, PA
* [http://www.mrsteves.com/ Mr. Steves Home Brew Supplies] - York, PA
* [http://www.keystonehomebrew.com/ Keystone Homebrew Supply] - Montgomeryville/Bethlehem, PA
* [http://www.winebarleyandhops.com/ Wine Barley & Hops Homebrew Supply] - Feasterville, PA
* [The Brewlab] - Allentown, PA

===Tennessee===
* [http://www.CreateaWine.com/ Create-a-Wine & Brew Too]- Tullahoma, TN
* [http://www.allseasonsnashville.com/ All Seasons Garden and Brewing Supply Co.] - Nashville, TN
* [http://www.rebelbrewer.com/shoppingcart/ Rebel Brewer] - Goodlettsville, TN
* [http://www.fermentstation.com/ Ferment Station] - Knoxville, TN

===Texas===
* [http://www.austinhomebrew.com Austin Homebrew Supply] - Austin, TX
* [http://www.kegcowboy.com/ Keg Cowboy Brewing & Dispensing Equipment] - Houston, TX

===Virginia===
* [http://blueridgehydroponics.com/ Blue Ridge Hydroponics and & Home Brewing] - Roanoke, VA
* [http://www.fermentationtrap.com/ Fermentation Trap] - Charlottesville, VA
* [http://www.jaysbrewing.com/ Jay's Brewing] - Clifton, VA

===Washington===
* [http://www.homebrewheaven.com/ Homebrew Heaven] - Everett, WA
* [http://www.yakimavalleyhops.com/ Yakima Hops and Brew Supply] - Yakima, WA

==Commercial and Wholesale Suppliers==
Listed alphabetically:
* [http://www.blichmannengineering.com/ Blichmann Engineering] - The finest Brew Pots, Fermentors and Accessories.
* [http://www.brewerssupplygroup.com/ Brewers Supply Group]
* [http://www.briess.com/ Briess Malt & Ingredients Company]
* [http://www.schreiermalt.com/home.html Cargill Malt]
* [http://www.coopers.com.au/ Coopers]
* [http://www.hopsdirect.com/ Hops Direct]
* [http://www.hopsteiner.com/ Hopsteiner Hops]
* [http://www.hopunion.com/ Hop Union]
* [http://www.listermann.com/ Listermann Manufacturing]
* [http://www.muntons.com/ Muntons PLC]
* [http://www.polarware.com/ PolarWare Brewpots]
* [http://www.weyermann.de/usa/index.asp?sprache=10 Weyermann Malts]
* [http://www.whitelabs.com/ White Labs Yeast]
* [http://www.wyeastlab.com/ Wyeast Labs Yeast]
* [http://www.yakimavalleyhops.com/ Yakima Valley Hops]

==See Also==
* [[References]]
* [[Equipment]]
* [[Ingredients]]

[[Category:Suppliers]]
[[Category:Glossary]]

Suppliers

2012-12-29T13:57:45Z

Bonjour: /* Minnesota */

{{Portal|name=Suppliers}}
A variety of shops, online stores, and wholesale suppliers are available to help you create your favorite homebrew or craftbrew. This article includes just a few of the thousands available.

==Online Suppliers==
A listing of suppliers with online catalogs and order forms. Listed alphabetically.
* [http://www.homebrewing.org Adventures in Homebrewing]
* [http://www.austinhomebrew.com/ Austin Homebrew Supply]
* [http://barleyhaven.com/ Barley Haven]
* [http://www.morebeer.com/ Beer, Beer & More Beer]
* [http://www.beersmith.com BeerSmith Recipe Software]
* [http://beertobrew.com Beer To Brew]
* [http://www.bvrgelements.com/ Beverage Elements Kegging Equipment]
* [http://www.bxbeerdepot.com/ BX Beer Depot]
* [http://www.freshops.com/ Freshhops.com]
* [http://www.highgravitybrew.com/ High Gravity Homebrewing & Winemaking Supplies]
* [http://www.store.homebrew4less.com/ HomeBrew4Less.com]
* [http://www.homebrewheaven.com/ Homebrew Heaven]
* [http://www.homebrewing.com/ Home Brewing]
* [http://www.homebrewmart.com/ Home Brew Mart]
* [http://www.thehomebrewstore.com/ Home Brew Supply, LLC]
* [http://www.hopsandberries.com/ Hops & Berries]
* [http://www.kegcowboy.com/ Keg Cowboy Brewing & Dispensing Equipment]
* [http://www.leeners.com/ Leeners Homebrew Supply]
* [http://www.maltytasking.com/ Malty Tasking, LLC]
* [http://www.midwestsupplies.com/ Midwest Homebrewing and Winemaking Supplies]
* [http://www.northernbrewer.com/ Northern Brewer]
* [http://www.paddockwood.com/ Paddock Wood Brewing Supplies]
* [http://www.thebrewhut.com The Brew Hut]
* [http://www.williamsbrewing.com/ Williams Brewing]
* [http://www.jaysbrewing.com/ Jay's Brewing]

==Brewing Software Suppliers==
Software for formulating recipes and performing brewing calculations.
* [http://www.beersmith.com BeerSmith Brewing Software]
* [http://brewtarget.sourceforge.net/ Brewtarget]
* [http://www.promash.com ProMash Brewing Software]
* [http://www.strangebrew.ca StrangeBrew Brewing Software]
* [http://www.usermode.org/code.html Qbrew] - Cross-Platform, Open Source Brewing Software

== Local Brewing Suppliers by State & Country==
Listed by state and city or country if appropriate.
===California===
* [http://www.brewsupply.com/ Culver City Home Brewing Supply] - Culver City, CA
* [http://www.morebeer.com/ Beer, Beer & More Beer] - Concord
* [http://www.morebeer.com/ Beer, Beer & More Beer] - Riverside
* [http://www.morebeer.com/ Beer, Beer & More Beer] - Los Altos
* [http://www.homebrewmart.com/ Home Brew Mart] - San Diego, CA
* [http://www.osheabrewing.com/ O'shea Brewing Company] - Irvine, CA
* [http://www.sfbrewcraft.com/ San Francisco Brewcraft] - San Francisco, CA
* [http://www.steinfillers.com/ Stein Fillers] - Long Beach
* [http://www.williamsbrewing.com/ Williams Brewing] - San Leandro, CA

===Colorado===
* [http://barleyhaven.com/ Barley Haven ] - Lakewood, CO
* [http://www.thebrewhut.com/ The Brew Hut] - Aurora, CO
* [http://www.whatsbrewin.biz/ What's Brewin'] - Boulder, Co
* [http://www.oldwestbrew.com/ Old West Brew Supplies] - Colorado Springs, CO
* [http://www.myhomebrew.com/ My Home Brew Shop] - Colorado Springs, CO
* [http://www.beerathome.com/ Beer and Wine at Home] - Englewood, CO
* [http://www.hopsandberries.com/ Hops & Berries] - Fort Collins, CO
* [http://www.beerathome.com/ Beer and Wine at Home] - Westminster, CO
* [http://stompthemgrapes.com/ Stomp Them Grapes] - Denver, CO
* [http://stompthemgrapes.com/ Hop To It!] - Boulder, CO
* [http://stonicllc.com/ Stonic Home Brew Supplies] - Eastern Colorado
* [http://www.tomsbrewshop.com Tom's Brew Shop] - Lakewood, CO

===Florida===
* [http://www.flagala.net/ Flagala Hardware] - Panama City Beach, FL
* [http://www.bxbeerdepot.com/ BX Beer Depot] - Lake Worth, FL
* [http://justbrewitjax.com/ Just Brew It] - Jacksonville, FL
* [http://www.boothsbrewing.com/ Booth's Brewing] - Tampa, FL

===Georgia===
* [mailto:savhomebrew@comcast.net Savannah Homebrew Shop] - Savannah, GA

===Indiana===
* [http://www.greatfermentations.com Great Fermentations of Indiana] - Indianapolis, IN

===Kentucky===
* [http://www.liquorbarn.com/ LiquorBarn] Louisville and Lexington, KY

===Maryland===
* [http://www.flyingbarrel.com/ The Flying Barrel] - Frederick, MD
* [http://www.mdhb.com/ Maryland HomeBrew] - Columbia, MD

===Minnesota==
* [http://www.northernbrewer.com/ Northern Brewer] - St Paul, MN

===North Carolina===
* [http://www.ebrew.com/ Alternative Beverage] - Belmont, NC

===New Jersey===
* [http://www.brewapp.com/ Brewer's Apprentice] - Freehold, NJ

===Ohio===
* [http://www.hopsshack.com/ The Hops Shack] - Bucyrus, OH
* [http://www.thegrape.net/ The Grape and Granary] - Akron, OH
* [http://www.leeners.com/ Leeners Homebrew Supply] - Cleveland, OH

===Oklahoma===
* [http://www.highgravitybrew.com High Gravity Homebrewing & Winemaking Supplies] - Tulsa, OK

===Pennsylvania===
* [http://www.benshomebrew.com/ Ben's Homebrew] - Tarentum, PA
* [http://www.store.homebrew4less.com/ HomeBrew4Less.com LLC]- Chambersburg, PA 17202
* [http://www.homesweethomebrew.com/ Home Sweet Homebrew] - Philadelphia, PA
* [http://www.mrsteves.com/ Mr. Steves Home Brew Supplies] - York, PA
* [http://www.keystonehomebrew.com/ Keystone Homebrew Supply] - Montgomeryville/Bethlehem, PA
* [http://www.winebarleyandhops.com/ Wine Barley & Hops Homebrew Supply] - Feasterville, PA
* [The Brewlab] - Allentown, PA

===Tennessee===
* [http://www.CreateaWine.com/ Create-a-Wine & Brew Too]- Tullahoma, TN
* [http://www.allseasonsnashville.com/ All Seasons Garden and Brewing Supply Co.] - Nashville, TN
* [http://www.rebelbrewer.com/shoppingcart/ Rebel Brewer] - Goodlettsville, TN
* [http://www.fermentstation.com/ Ferment Station] - Knoxville, TN

===Texas===
* [http://www.austinhomebrew.com Austin Homebrew Supply] - Austin, TX
* [http://www.kegcowboy.com/ Keg Cowboy Brewing & Dispensing Equipment] - Houston, TX

===Virginia===
* [http://blueridgehydroponics.com/ Blue Ridge Hydroponics and & Home Brewing] - Roanoke, VA
* [http://www.fermentationtrap.com/ Fermentation Trap] - Charlottesville, VA
* [http://www.jaysbrewing.com/ Jay's Brewing] - Clifton, VA

===Washington===
* [http://www.homebrewheaven.com/ Homebrew Heaven] - Everett, WA

==Commercial and Wholesale Suppliers==
Listed alphabetically:
* [http://www.blichmannengineering.com/ Blichmann Engineering] - The finest Brew Pots, Fermentors and Accessories.
* [http://www.brewerssupplygroup.com/ Brewers Supply Group]
* [http://www.briess.com/ Briess Malt & Ingredients Company]
* [http://www.schreiermalt.com/home.html Cargill Malt]
* [http://www.coopers.com.au/ Coopers]
* [http://www.hopsdirect.com/ Hops Direct]
* [http://www.hopsteiner.com/ Hopsteiner Hops]
* [http://www.hopunion.com/ Hop Union]
* [http://www.listermann.com/ Listermann Manufacturing]
* [http://www.muntons.com/ Muntons PLC]
* [http://www.polarware.com/ PolarWare Brewpots]
* [http://www.weyermann.de/usa/index.asp?sprache=10 Weyermann Malts]
* [http://www.whitelabs.com/ White Labs Yeast]
* [http://www.wyeastlab.com/ Wyeast Labs Yeast]
* [http://www.yakimavalleyhops.com/ Yakima Valley Hops]

==See Also==
* [[References]]
* [[Equipment]]
* [[Ingredients]]

[[Category:Suppliers]]
[[Category:Glossary]]

Suppliers

2012-12-29T13:57:01Z

Bonjour: /* Commercial and Wholesale Suppliers */

{{Portal|name=Suppliers}}
A variety of shops, online stores, and wholesale suppliers are available to help you create your favorite homebrew or craftbrew. This article includes just a few of the thousands available.

==Online Suppliers==
A listing of suppliers with online catalogs and order forms. Listed alphabetically.
* [http://www.homebrewing.org Adventures in Homebrewing]
* [http://www.austinhomebrew.com/ Austin Homebrew Supply]
* [http://barleyhaven.com/ Barley Haven]
* [http://www.morebeer.com/ Beer, Beer & More Beer]
* [http://www.beersmith.com BeerSmith Recipe Software]
* [http://beertobrew.com Beer To Brew]
* [http://www.bvrgelements.com/ Beverage Elements Kegging Equipment]
* [http://www.bxbeerdepot.com/ BX Beer Depot]
* [http://www.freshops.com/ Freshhops.com]
* [http://www.highgravitybrew.com/ High Gravity Homebrewing & Winemaking Supplies]
* [http://www.store.homebrew4less.com/ HomeBrew4Less.com]
* [http://www.homebrewheaven.com/ Homebrew Heaven]
* [http://www.homebrewing.com/ Home Brewing]
* [http://www.homebrewmart.com/ Home Brew Mart]
* [http://www.thehomebrewstore.com/ Home Brew Supply, LLC]
* [http://www.hopsandberries.com/ Hops & Berries]
* [http://www.kegcowboy.com/ Keg Cowboy Brewing & Dispensing Equipment]
* [http://www.leeners.com/ Leeners Homebrew Supply]
* [http://www.maltytasking.com/ Malty Tasking, LLC]
* [http://www.midwestsupplies.com/ Midwest Homebrewing and Winemaking Supplies]
* [http://www.northernbrewer.com/ Northern Brewer]
* [http://www.paddockwood.com/ Paddock Wood Brewing Supplies]
* [http://www.thebrewhut.com The Brew Hut]
* [http://www.williamsbrewing.com/ Williams Brewing]
* [http://www.jaysbrewing.com/ Jay's Brewing]

==Brewing Software Suppliers==
Software for formulating recipes and performing brewing calculations.
* [http://www.beersmith.com BeerSmith Brewing Software]
* [http://brewtarget.sourceforge.net/ Brewtarget]
* [http://www.promash.com ProMash Brewing Software]
* [http://www.strangebrew.ca StrangeBrew Brewing Software]
* [http://www.usermode.org/code.html Qbrew] - Cross-Platform, Open Source Brewing Software

== Local Brewing Suppliers by State & Country==
Listed by state and city or country if appropriate.
===California===
* [http://www.brewsupply.com/ Culver City Home Brewing Supply] - Culver City, CA
* [http://www.morebeer.com/ Beer, Beer & More Beer] - Concord
* [http://www.morebeer.com/ Beer, Beer & More Beer] - Riverside
* [http://www.morebeer.com/ Beer, Beer & More Beer] - Los Altos
* [http://www.homebrewmart.com/ Home Brew Mart] - San Diego, CA
* [http://www.osheabrewing.com/ O'shea Brewing Company] - Irvine, CA
* [http://www.sfbrewcraft.com/ San Francisco Brewcraft] - San Francisco, CA
* [http://www.steinfillers.com/ Stein Fillers] - Long Beach
* [http://www.williamsbrewing.com/ Williams Brewing] - San Leandro, CA

===Colorado===
* [http://barleyhaven.com/ Barley Haven ] - Lakewood, CO
* [http://www.thebrewhut.com/ The Brew Hut] - Aurora, CO
* [http://www.whatsbrewin.biz/ What's Brewin'] - Boulder, Co
* [http://www.oldwestbrew.com/ Old West Brew Supplies] - Colorado Springs, CO
* [http://www.myhomebrew.com/ My Home Brew Shop] - Colorado Springs, CO
* [http://www.beerathome.com/ Beer and Wine at Home] - Englewood, CO
* [http://www.hopsandberries.com/ Hops & Berries] - Fort Collins, CO
* [http://www.beerathome.com/ Beer and Wine at Home] - Westminster, CO
* [http://stompthemgrapes.com/ Stomp Them Grapes] - Denver, CO
* [http://stompthemgrapes.com/ Hop To It!] - Boulder, CO
* [http://stonicllc.com/ Stonic Home Brew Supplies] - Eastern Colorado
* [http://www.tomsbrewshop.com Tom's Brew Shop] - Lakewood, CO

===Florida===
* [http://www.flagala.net/ Flagala Hardware] - Panama City Beach, FL
* [http://www.bxbeerdepot.com/ BX Beer Depot] - Lake Worth, FL
* [http://justbrewitjax.com/ Just Brew It] - Jacksonville, FL
* [http://www.boothsbrewing.com/ Booth's Brewing] - Tampa, FL

===Georgia===
* [mailto:savhomebrew@comcast.net Savannah Homebrew Shop] - Savannah, GA

===Indiana===
* [http://www.greatfermentations.com Great Fermentations of Indiana] - Indianapolis, IN

===Kentucky===
* [http://www.liquorbarn.com/ LiquorBarn] Louisville and Lexington, KY

===Maryland===
* [http://www.flyingbarrel.com/ The Flying Barrel] - Frederick, MD
* [http://www.mdhb.com/ Maryland HomeBrew] - Columbia, MD

===Minnesota===
* [http://www.allsafe.net/ All Safe, Inc. Wholesale Equipment] - Wyoming, MN
* [http://www.northernbrewer.com/ Northern Brewer] - St Paul, MN

===North Carolina===
* [http://www.ebrew.com/ Alternative Beverage] - Belmont, NC

===New Jersey===
* [http://www.brewapp.com/ Brewer's Apprentice] - Freehold, NJ

===Ohio===
* [http://www.hopsshack.com/ The Hops Shack] - Bucyrus, OH
* [http://www.thegrape.net/ The Grape and Granary] - Akron, OH
* [http://www.leeners.com/ Leeners Homebrew Supply] - Cleveland, OH

===Oklahoma===
* [http://www.highgravitybrew.com High Gravity Homebrewing & Winemaking Supplies] - Tulsa, OK

===Pennsylvania===
* [http://www.benshomebrew.com/ Ben's Homebrew] - Tarentum, PA
* [http://www.store.homebrew4less.com/ HomeBrew4Less.com LLC]- Chambersburg, PA 17202
* [http://www.homesweethomebrew.com/ Home Sweet Homebrew] - Philadelphia, PA
* [http://www.mrsteves.com/ Mr. Steves Home Brew Supplies] - York, PA
* [http://www.keystonehomebrew.com/ Keystone Homebrew Supply] - Montgomeryville/Bethlehem, PA
* [http://www.winebarleyandhops.com/ Wine Barley & Hops Homebrew Supply] - Feasterville, PA
* [The Brewlab] - Allentown, PA

===Tennessee===
* [http://www.CreateaWine.com/ Create-a-Wine & Brew Too]- Tullahoma, TN
* [http://www.allseasonsnashville.com/ All Seasons Garden and Brewing Supply Co.] - Nashville, TN
* [http://www.rebelbrewer.com/shoppingcart/ Rebel Brewer] - Goodlettsville, TN
* [http://www.fermentstation.com/ Ferment Station] - Knoxville, TN

===Texas===
* [http://www.austinhomebrew.com Austin Homebrew Supply] - Austin, TX
* [http://www.kegcowboy.com/ Keg Cowboy Brewing & Dispensing Equipment] - Houston, TX

===Virginia===
* [http://blueridgehydroponics.com/ Blue Ridge Hydroponics and & Home Brewing] - Roanoke, VA
* [http://www.fermentationtrap.com/ Fermentation Trap] - Charlottesville, VA
* [http://www.jaysbrewing.com/ Jay's Brewing] - Clifton, VA

===Washington===
* [http://www.homebrewheaven.com/ Homebrew Heaven] - Everett, WA

==Commercial and Wholesale Suppliers==
Listed alphabetically:
* [http://www.blichmannengineering.com/ Blichmann Engineering] - The finest Brew Pots, Fermentors and Accessories.
* [http://www.brewerssupplygroup.com/ Brewers Supply Group]
* [http://www.briess.com/ Briess Malt & Ingredients Company]
* [http://www.schreiermalt.com/home.html Cargill Malt]
* [http://www.coopers.com.au/ Coopers]
* [http://www.hopsdirect.com/ Hops Direct]
* [http://www.hopsteiner.com/ Hopsteiner Hops]
* [http://www.hopunion.com/ Hop Union]
* [http://www.listermann.com/ Listermann Manufacturing]
* [http://www.muntons.com/ Muntons PLC]
* [http://www.polarware.com/ PolarWare Brewpots]
* [http://www.weyermann.de/usa/index.asp?sprache=10 Weyermann Malts]
* [http://www.whitelabs.com/ White Labs Yeast]
* [http://www.wyeastlab.com/ Wyeast Labs Yeast]
* [http://www.yakimavalleyhops.com/ Yakima Valley Hops]

==See Also==
* [[References]]
* [[Equipment]]
* [[Ingredients]]

[[Category:Suppliers]]
[[Category:Glossary]]

MediaWiki:Deletereason-dropdown

2011-05-05T20:30:25Z

Bonjour: Created page with "*Common delete reasons ** Author request ** Copyright violation ** Vandalism ** Sex Promotion"

*Common delete reasons
** Author request
** Copyright violation
** Vandalism
** Sex Promotion

English Barleywine

2011-05-05T20:25:05Z

Bonjour:

__NOTOC__
'''English Barleywine''' is traditionally the strongest of all English ales. Often it is well aged (perhaps for years) and has low bitterness or hop aroma and low carbonation. Barleywines are often associated with the winter season or particular holidays.

==History==
The English Barleywine is simply the strongest possible of all ales. The history of barleywine has no precise starting point, as many traditional barley brews throughout history had high gravity to fight off possible infection.

==Description==
Full to wine-like chewy body. High hop rate, but low aroma and bitterness due to age. Alcohol warmth present. Fruity and malty. Gold to dark amber color. Caramel aroma. Low to moderate carbonation. Strongest of all English ales. Highly alcoholic, malty and estery. Wine like in alcohol content and flavor. Well aged - often a year or more.

==Characteristics==
* Color Range: 10.0-22.0 SRM
* Original Gravity Range: 1.080-1.125 SG
* Final Gravity Range: 1.018-1.035 SG
* Bitterness Range: 35.0-70.0 IBU
* Alcohol by Volume Range: 8.0-13.0 %
* Carbonation Range: 1.6-2.5 vols
* [[BJCP]] Style Number: 19 B

==Ingredients==
* Lots of well modified pale malt with moderate caramel malt
* Little or no darker malts
* English hops such as Northdown, Target, EKG or Fuggles
* High gravity English ale yeast
* Moderate to hard water

==Examples==
* Bass No 1 Barley Wine, Anchor Old Foghorn, Fuller's Golden Pride, Thomas Hardy's Ale, Burton Bridge Thomas Sykes Old Ale, Robinson's Old Tom, Young's Old Nick, Whitbread Gold Label, Heavyweight Old Salty

==See Also==
* [[Styles]]
* [[American Barleywine]]

[[Category:Styles]]

Attenuation

2008-04-17T19:38:53Z

Bonjour: /* Attenuation */

==Attenuation==
===How To Improve your Attenuation===

Those that know me know that I have a knack of brewing outside the box. A few of my beers are under 4% abv, Those I call Starters, They usually have real big flavor and have even won awards, but a disproportionate number of my beers are big beers, 7-8% seems to be a “normal” gravity and very frequently (about 1 out of every 3) make what I call “Century Beers” or beers over 10% abv or over 1.100 OG.

Why do we even care about attenuation? Attenuation is a measure of how much of the sugar in the wort is converted into alcohol. The lower the attenuation, the more sugars are not fermented and the sweeter the resulting beer though we definitely want to avoid the dreaded cloyingly sweet beer. In a small to normal strength beer fairly big swings in attenuation, while noticeable, are not going to push the beer into what many would consider an undrinkable category. The same percentage change will have a significantly larger impact of a big to monster beer. To get the beer we truly want we must control attenuation to hit a desirable, and targeted, FG.

These are guidelines, intended only to aide you in your recipe design and brewing process. It is important to see how your system and your procedures react to what I suggest below. We are about to enter the Art of Brewing because where science stops, Art begins.

When you brew a large number of “Century Beers” it is important to have some concept of how to predict your Final Gravity. The caveats, There are many variables that impact FG, and thus attenuation, (which we will discuss later) and very little is written on how to do this. None of the brewing software packages do this and no literature that I have found really goes into the prediction of FG. I intend to present a common sense approach to predicting FG, especially for big beers.

As with most things with brewing I am relying on consistency to keep many of the factors the same. Certainly by not being consistent repeatability suffers. Each of us brews on our own system and that system, including the procedures we follow, determines the characteristics of the beer we produce. By maintaining that consistency and altering specific parameters we can manipulate results. Below is a graph from Noonan’s book.

Every strain of yeast will perform differently, and that yeast will react somewhat differently to different systems, but by graphing our results in a similar fashion we can learn to predict what attenuation we will get under a given set of circumstances. Is it fool-proof? No, but over time you will learn produce beer much closer to what you predict than you do now.

The first step is to look at your grain bill, or rather just the grain portion of the grain bill, no sugars or extracts as we will address them later.
Let’s assume that these grains give us an estimated 1.080 contribution to our OG. We will also assume that our selected yeast and mash profile will yield an attenuation of 75%. Given this, the contribution the FG contribution would be 1.020, [((1-.75)*(1.080-1))+1]. We could decrease this attenuation by about 10% by raising the mash temp from 149°F to 158°F. This would give us a predicted FG of 1.028, [((1-.65)*(1.080-1))+1] These calculations are based on numbers contained in Noonan’s book.

This chart is an interpretation of attenuation in an infusion mash from Noonan’s book. With a single infusion mash at 149°F Noonan says in New Brewing Lager Beer an attenuation of 75-80% usually results.

[[Image:NoonanAttenuationChart.gif]]

I also find that if I step mash a normal grist (the same 1.080 OG used above), that is one without a lot of carapils, crystal or dark malts, a 146°/156° F step mash gives me about a 10% increase in attenuation. This would give me a 1.013 predicted FG, [((1-.85)*(1.080-1))+1]. I would suggest that you verify this with your own brewing setup.

One important factor is that as the beers get bigger, your attenuation must improve to keep your beers in balance. Attenuation and fermentability go hand in hand.

There are four main areas where we can impact our attenuation. The Grain Bill, The Mash, The Yeast, and the Fermentation. By manipulating these portions of our process we can alter the attenuation we get.

====Grain Bill====
*Grain Bill: Keep highly dextrinous malts such as Carapils, Crystal, and Roasted grains low, keep low fermentable extracts (Laaglanders) low.
*Use Highly Fermentable Sugars: such as corn sugar, table sugar, brown sugar, raw sugar, candi sugar, honey, maple syrup, molasses, etc. These sugars boost alcohol without increasing FG. Estimate your FG without any sugar added.

====Mash====
*Single Infusion Mash at a low temp (i.e. 149°F): This is the temp where starch is100% soluble and the enzymes have complete access. For that reason it is the minimum temperature that Noonan recommends for a mash.
*Mash longer (up to 2+ hours): It doesn’t necessarily take this long to “convert” the starches to sugars, but by continuing the mash beyond “conversion” some of the non-fermentable complex sugars will be broken down by the enzymes into fermentable sugars resulting in a more fermentable wort.
*Step Mash (i.e. 146°/156°F): This puts the enzymes into their optimum performance temperatures, and usually results in a longer mash. I have gotten up to a 10% boost in attenuation doing this.
*Use a Thinner Mash: A thin mash (>2 quarts/pound) results in a more fermentable mash because the sugars are less concentrated and thus there is less inhibitation on the enzymes. If you are performing a multi-rest mash a thicker mash is better because the enzymes are not denatured as quickly when you step the temperature up. This is because of the lower heat capacity of grain as compared to water.

====Yeast====
*Yeast Choice: Yeasts are normally chosen because of flavor characteristics for the style of beer to be brewed. Additionally we need to look at attenuation. One key characteristic of yeast is their ability to ferment Maltotriose. Many studies have indicated that this is the primary factor in attenuation. Maltotriose is a trisachride and the second most common sugar in wort (13-19% of fermentables). Most yeast can consume about half the Maltotriose present. Interestingly Lager yeast does a better job of utilizing Maltotriose than does Ale yeast. In general, use a yeast rated for the degree of attenuation that you require.
*Yeast Quantity: Use a Starter, better, use a yeast cake. Per George Fix for an ale, you want to pitch around 0.75 million cells of viable yeast, for every milliliter of wort, for every degree Plato, lagers double that. Under pitching can result in “tired” yeast that is unable to finish the job. It is difficult to over-pitch a Big Beer.
*develops strong yeast during their growth phase allowing them to completely consume all the fermentable sugars. Oxygen is necessary for yeast to produce lipids which act as a growth factor in the growth stage of the fermentation and protect the yeast from alcohol toxicity near the end of the fermentation. Perform this step at the start and at 12-14 hours for very big beers.
*Yeast Nutrients: Now that we have oxygenated the yeast, does the yeast have everything they need to grow and multiply before they start fermentation and alcohol production? Adding yeast nutrients ensures that they do. This may be important, depending on wort composition, to maximize attenuation.

====Fermentation====
*Ferment Temp: We do not want to ferment at temperature that are optimum for the yeast, we want to ferment at temperatures that are optimum for the beer that we wish to produce. The yeast will be much “happier” at higher temperatures. Too low a temperature will cause the yeast to slow down, go dormant, flocculate out of solution. Near the end of fermentation the character of the beer, esters and phenolics that are characteristic of the beer will have been formed. We can raise the temperature of the wort toward the high end of the band. Danstar Nottingham is “rated” 57° to 70°F for beer production, we would raise the wort temp in this case to approach 70°F to help the yeast through the last few points.
*Ferment Time: A big beer will frequently, not always, drop its last few points over a period of months. That is why we will frequently say “when the beer is ready it will be done”. There are a lot of things that may hinder fermentation especially at the later stages of brewing a big beer. Many of these are issues are addressed here. All I can say is that when all else fails, be patient.
*Rouse the Yeast: Lets try to keep as much yeast in suspension as we can to ferment the remaining sugars, especially with highly flocculent yeast strains. Lacking continuous agitation I like to rouse my yeast 3 times a day. When I get up, when I come home from work, and when I go to bed.
*Supplemental Yeast: A way of restarting a stuck fermentation, or helping out a weakening one is to all an active starter of either the same strain or a different strain of yeast. Since we perform this step frequently when we perceive that the fermentation is in need of help, the alcohol levels are elevated, etc. and so on, we want to pitch active working healthy yeast. Resist the urge to mage the starter wort over 1.060 “so the yeast gets used to the high alcohol levels” because this will actually slow down and/or hurt the yeast culture. For the same reason I do not recommend directly pitching dry yeast. Carefully re-hydrate dry yeast and make a starter, pitch the starter at high krausen, the peak of activity, 12-18 hours after you make it.
*Beano: aka enzyme additions, the “ultimate” solution is to generally be avoided if at all possible. This product breaks down, and continues to break down complex, non-fermentable sugars in your wort into simple fermentable sugars thus increasing attenuation. There is no problem adding enzymes to your mash, just make sure you understand the results you get. But if you are trying to correct a situation such as you mashed too high and you discover this when fermentation stops well before you wanted it to and add it to your “Secondary”, the problem is stopping it. Nuff said!!

[[Category:Glossary]]

Attenuation

2008-04-17T19:35:28Z

Bonjour: /* How To Improve your Attenuation */

==Attenuation==
===How To Improve your Attenuation===

Those that know me know that I have a knack of brewing outside the box. A few of my beers are under 4% abv, Those I call Starters, They usually have real big flavor and have even won awards, but a disproportionate number of my beers are big beers, 7-8% seems to be a “normal” gravity and very frequently (about 1 out of every 3) make what I call “Century Beers” or beers over 10% abv or over 1.100 OG.

Why do we even care about attenuation? Attenuation is a measure of how much of the sugar in the wort is converted into alcohol. The lower the attenuation, the more sugars are not fermented and the sweeter the resulting beer though we definitely want to avoid the dreaded cloyingly sweet beer. In a small to normal strength beer fairly big swings in attenuation, while noticeable, are not going to push the beer into what many would consider an undrinkable category. The same percentage change will have a significantly larger impact of a big to monster beer. To get the beer we truly want we must control attenuation to hit a desirable, and targeted, FG.

These are guidelines, intended only to aide you in your recipe design and brewing process. It is important to see how your system and your procedures react to what I suggest below. We are about to enter the Art of Brewing because where science stops, Art begins.

When you brew a large number of “Century Beers” it is important to have some concept of how to predict your Final Gravity. The caveats, There are many variables that impact FG, and thus attenuation, (which we will discuss later) and very little is written on how to do this. None of the brewing software packages do this and no literature that I have found really goes into the prediction of FG. I intend to present a common sense approach to predicting FG, especially for big beers.

As with most things with brewing I am relying on consistency to keep many of the factors the same. Certainly by not being consistent repeatability suffers. Each of us brews on our own system and that system, including the procedures we follow, determines the characteristics of the beer we produce. By maintaining that consistency and altering specific parameters we can manipulate results. Below is a graph from Noonan’s book.

Every strain of yeast will perform differently, and that yeast will react somewhat differently to different systems, but by graphing our results in a similar fashion we can learn to predict what attenuation we will get under a given set of circumstances. Is it fool-proof? No, but over time you will learn produce beer much closer to what you predict than you do now.

The first step is to look at your grain bill, or rather just the grain portion of the grain bill, no sugars or extracts as we will address them later.
Let’s assume that these grains give us an estimated 1.080 contribution to our OG. We will also assume that our selected yeast and mash profile will yield an attenuation of 75%. Given this, the contribution the FG contribution would be 1.020, [((1-.75)*(1.080-1))+1]. We could decrease this attenuation by about 10% by raising the mash temp from 149°F to 158°F. This would give us a predicted FG of 1.028, [((1-.65)*(1.080-1))+1] These calculations are based on numbers contained in Noonan’s book.

This chart is an interpretation of attenuation in an infusion mash from Noonan’s book. With a single infusion mash at 149°F Noonan says in New Brewing Lager Beer an attenuation of 75-80% usually results.

[[Image:NoonanAttenuationChart.gif]]

I also find that if I step mash a normal grist (the same 1.080 OG used above), that is one without a lot of carapils, crystal or dark malts, a 146°/156° F step mash gives me about a 10% increase in attenuation. This would give me a 1.013 predicted FG, [((1-.85)*(1.080-1))+1]. I would suggest that you verify this with your own brewing setup.

One important factor is that as the beers get bigger, your attenuation must improve to keep your beers in balance. Attenuation and fermentability go hand in hand.

There are four main areas where we can impact our attenuation. The Grain Bill, The Mash, The Yeast, and the Fermentation. By manipulating these portions of our process we can alter the attenuation we get.

====Grain Bill====
#Grain Bill: Keep highly dextrinous malts such as Carapils, Crystal, and Roasted grains low, keep low fermentable extracts (Laaglanders) low.
#Use Highly Fermentable Sugars: such as corn sugar, table sugar, brown sugar, raw sugar, candi sugar, honey, maple syrup, molasses, etc. These sugars boost alcohol without increasing FG. Estimate your FG without any sugar added.

====Mash====
#Single Infusion Mash at a low temp (i.e. 149°F): This is the temp where starch is100% soluble and the enzymes have complete access. For that reason it is the minimum temperature that Noonan recommends for a mash.
#Mash longer (up to 2+ hours): It doesn’t necessarily take this long to “convert” the starches to sugars, but by continuing the mash beyond “conversion” some of the non-fermentable complex sugars will be broken down by the enzymes into fermentable sugars resulting in a more fermentable wort.
#Step Mash (i.e. 146°/156°F): This puts the enzymes into their optimum performance temperatures, and usually results in a longer mash. I have gotten up to a 10% boost in attenuation doing this.
#Use a Thinner Mash: A thin mash (>2 quarts/pound) results in a more fermentable mash because the sugars are less concentrated and thus there is less inhibitation on the enzymes. If you are performing a multi-rest mash a thicker mash is better because the enzymes are not denatured as quickly when you step the temperature up. This is because of the lower heat capacity of grain as compared to water.

====Yeast====
#Yeast Choice: Yeasts are normally chosen because of flavor characteristics for the style of beer to be brewed. Additionally we need to look at attenuation. One key characteristic of yeast is their ability to ferment Maltotriose. Many studies have indicated that this is the primary factor in attenuation. Maltotriose is a trisachride and the second most common sugar in wort (13-19% of fermentables). Most yeast can consume about half the Maltotriose present. Interestingly Lager yeast does a better job of utilizing Maltotriose than does Ale yeast. In general, use a yeast rated for the degree of attenuation that you require.
#Yeast Quantity: Use a Starter, better, use a yeast cake. Per George Fix for an ale, you want to pitch around 0.75 million cells of viable yeast, for every milliliter of wort, for every degree Plato, lagers double that. Under pitching can result in “tired” yeast that is unable to finish the job. It is difficult to over-pitch a Big Beer.
#develops strong yeast during their growth phase allowing them to completely consume all the fermentable sugars. Oxygen is necessary for yeast to produce lipids which act as a growth factor in the growth stage of the fermentation and protect the yeast from alcohol toxicity near the end of the fermentation. Perform this step at the start and at 12-14 hours for very big beers.
#Yeast Nutrients: Now that we have oxygenated the yeast, does the yeast have everything they need to grow and multiply before they start fermentation and alcohol production? Adding yeast nutrients ensures that they do. This may be important, depending on wort composition, to maximize attenuation.

====Fermentation====
#Ferment Temp: We do not want to ferment at temperature that are optimum for the yeast, we want to ferment at temperatures that are optimum for the beer that we wish to produce. The yeast will be much “happier” at higher temperatures. Too low a temperature will cause the yeast to slow down, go dormant, flocculate out of solution. Near the end of fermentation the character of the beer, esters and phenolics that are characteristic of the beer will have been formed. We can raise the temperature of the wort toward the high end of the band. Danstar Nottingham is “rated” 57° to 70°F for beer production, we would raise the wort temp in this case to approach 70°F to help the yeast through the last few points.
#Ferment Time: A big beer will frequently, not always, drop its last few points over a period of months. That is why we will frequently say “when the beer is ready it will be done”. There are a lot of things that may hinder fermentation especially at the later stages of brewing a big beer. Many of these are issues are addressed here. All I can say is that when all else fails, be patient.
#Rouse the Yeast: Lets try to keep as much yeast in suspension as we can to ferment the remaining sugars, especially with highly flocculent yeast strains. Lacking continuous agitation I like to rouse my yeast 3 times a day. When I get up, when I come home from work, and when I go to bed.
#Supplemental Yeast: A way of restarting a stuck fermentation, or helping out a weakening one is to all an active starter of either the same strain or a different strain of yeast. Since we perform this step frequently when we perceive that the fermentation is in need of help, the alcohol levels are elevated, etc. and so on, we want to pitch active working healthy yeast. Resist the urge to mage the starter wort over 1.060 “so the yeast gets used to the high alcohol levels” because this will actually slow down and/or hurt the yeast culture. For the same reason I do not recommend directly pitching dry yeast. Carefully re-hydrate dry yeast and make a starter, pitch the starter at high krausen, the peak of activity, 12-18 hours after you make it.
#Beano: aka enzyme additions, the “ultimate” solution is to generally be avoided if at all possible. This product breaks down, and continues to break down complex, non-fermentable sugars in your wort into simple fermentable sugars thus increasing attenuation. There is no problem adding enzymes to your mash, just make sure you understand the results you get. But if you are trying to correct a situation such as you mashed too high and you discover this when fermentation stops well before you wanted it to and add it to your “Secondary”, the problem is stopping it. Nuff said!!

[[Category:Glossary]]

Attenuation

2008-04-17T19:34:34Z

Bonjour: /* How To Improve your Attenuation */

==Attenuation==
===How To Improve your Attenuation===

Those that know me know that I have a knack of brewing outside the box. A few of my beers are under 4% abv, Those I call Starters, They usually have real big flavor and have even won awards, but a disproportionate number of my beers are big beers, 7-8% seems to be a “normal” gravity and very frequently (about 1 out of every 3) make what I call “Century Beers” or beers over 10% abv or over 1.100 OG.

Why do we even care about attenuation? Attenuation is a measure of how much of the sugar in the wort is converted into alcohol. The lower the attenuation, the more sugars are not fermented and the sweeter the resulting beer though we definitely want to avoid the dreaded cloyingly sweet beer. In a small to normal strength beer fairly big swings in attenuation, while noticeable, are not going to push the beer into what many would consider an undrinkable category. The same percentage change will have a significantly larger impact of a big to monster beer. To get the beer we truly want we must control attenuation to hit a desirable, and targeted, FG.

These are guidelines, intended only to aide you in your recipe design and brewing process. It is important to see how your system and your procedures react to what I suggest below. We are about to enter the Art of Brewing because where science stops, Art begins.

When you brew a large number of “Century Beers” it is important to have some concept of how to predict your Final Gravity. The caveats, There are many variables that impact FG, and thus attenuation, (which we will discuss later) and very little is written on how to do this. None of the brewing software packages do this and no literature that I have found really goes into the prediction of FG. I intend to present a common sense approach to predicting FG, especially for big beers.

As with most things with brewing I am relying on consistency to keep many of the factors the same. Certainly by not being consistent repeatability suffers. Each of us brews on our own system and that system, including the procedures we follow, determines the characteristics of the beer we produce. By maintaining that consistency and altering specific parameters we can manipulate results. Below is a graph from Noonan’s book.

Every strain of yeast will perform differently, and that yeast will react somewhat differently to different systems, but by graphing our results in a similar fashion we can learn to predict what attenuation we will get under a given set of circumstances. Is it fool-proof? No, but over time you will learn produce beer much closer to what you predict than you do now.

The first step is to look at your grain bill, or rather just the grain portion of the grain bill, no sugars or extracts as we will address them later.
Let’s assume that these grains give us an estimated 1.080 contribution to our OG. We will also assume that our selected yeast and mash profile will yield an attenuation of 75%. Given this, the contribution the FG contribution would be 1.020, [((1-.75)*(1.080-1))+1]. We could decrease this attenuation by about 10% by raising the mash temp from 149°F to 158°F. This would give us a predicted FG of 1.028, [((1-.65)*(1.080-1))+1] These calculations are based on numbers contained in Noonan’s book.

This chart is an interpretation of attenuation in an infusion mash from Noonan’s book. With a single infusion mash at 149°F Noonan says in New Brewing Lager Beer an attenuation of 75-80% usually results.

[[NoonanAttenuationChart.gif]]

I also find that if I step mash a normal grist (the same 1.080 OG used above), that is one without a lot of carapils, crystal or dark malts, a 146°/156° F step mash gives me about a 10% increase in attenuation. This would give me a 1.013 predicted FG, [((1-.85)*(1.080-1))+1]. I would suggest that you verify this with your own brewing setup.

One important factor is that as the beers get bigger, your attenuation must improve to keep your beers in balance. Attenuation and fermentability go hand in hand.

There are four main areas where we can impact our attenuation. The Grain Bill, The Mash, The Yeast, and the Fermentation. By manipulating these portions of our process we can alter the attenuation we get.

====Grain Bill====
#Grain Bill: Keep highly dextrinous malts such as Carapils, Crystal, and Roasted grains low, keep low fermentable extracts (Laaglanders) low.
#Use Highly Fermentable Sugars: such as corn sugar, table sugar, brown sugar, raw sugar, candi sugar, honey, maple syrup, molasses, etc. These sugars boost alcohol without increasing FG. Estimate your FG without any sugar added.

====Mash====
#Single Infusion Mash at a low temp (i.e. 149°F): This is the temp where starch is100% soluble and the enzymes have complete access. For that reason it is the minimum temperature that Noonan recommends for a mash.
#Mash longer (up to 2+ hours): It doesn’t necessarily take this long to “convert” the starches to sugars, but by continuing the mash beyond “conversion” some of the non-fermentable complex sugars will be broken down by the enzymes into fermentable sugars resulting in a more fermentable wort.
#Step Mash (i.e. 146°/156°F): This puts the enzymes into their optimum performance temperatures, and usually results in a longer mash. I have gotten up to a 10% boost in attenuation doing this.
#Use a Thinner Mash: A thin mash (>2 quarts/pound) results in a more fermentable mash because the sugars are less concentrated and thus there is less inhibitation on the enzymes. If you are performing a multi-rest mash a thicker mash is better because the enzymes are not denatured as quickly when you step the temperature up. This is because of the lower heat capacity of grain as compared to water.

====Yeast====
#Yeast Choice: Yeasts are normally chosen because of flavor characteristics for the style of beer to be brewed. Additionally we need to look at attenuation. One key characteristic of yeast is their ability to ferment Maltotriose. Many studies have indicated that this is the primary factor in attenuation. Maltotriose is a trisachride and the second most common sugar in wort (13-19% of fermentables). Most yeast can consume about half the Maltotriose present. Interestingly Lager yeast does a better job of utilizing Maltotriose than does Ale yeast. In general, use a yeast rated for the degree of attenuation that you require.
#Yeast Quantity: Use a Starter, better, use a yeast cake. Per George Fix for an ale, you want to pitch around 0.75 million cells of viable yeast, for every milliliter of wort, for every degree Plato, lagers double that. Under pitching can result in “tired” yeast that is unable to finish the job. It is difficult to over-pitch a Big Beer.
#develops strong yeast during their growth phase allowing them to completely consume all the fermentable sugars. Oxygen is necessary for yeast to produce lipids which act as a growth factor in the growth stage of the fermentation and protect the yeast from alcohol toxicity near the end of the fermentation. Perform this step at the start and at 12-14 hours for very big beers.
#Yeast Nutrients: Now that we have oxygenated the yeast, does the yeast have everything they need to grow and multiply before they start fermentation and alcohol production? Adding yeast nutrients ensures that they do. This may be important, depending on wort composition, to maximize attenuation.

====Fermentation====
#Ferment Temp: We do not want to ferment at temperature that are optimum for the yeast, we want to ferment at temperatures that are optimum for the beer that we wish to produce. The yeast will be much “happier” at higher temperatures. Too low a temperature will cause the yeast to slow down, go dormant, flocculate out of solution. Near the end of fermentation the character of the beer, esters and phenolics that are characteristic of the beer will have been formed. We can raise the temperature of the wort toward the high end of the band. Danstar Nottingham is “rated” 57° to 70°F for beer production, we would raise the wort temp in this case to approach 70°F to help the yeast through the last few points.
#Ferment Time: A big beer will frequently, not always, drop its last few points over a period of months. That is why we will frequently say “when the beer is ready it will be done”. There are a lot of things that may hinder fermentation especially at the later stages of brewing a big beer. Many of these are issues are addressed here. All I can say is that when all else fails, be patient.
#Rouse the Yeast: Lets try to keep as much yeast in suspension as we can to ferment the remaining sugars, especially with highly flocculent yeast strains. Lacking continuous agitation I like to rouse my yeast 3 times a day. When I get up, when I come home from work, and when I go to bed.
#Supplemental Yeast: A way of restarting a stuck fermentation, or helping out a weakening one is to all an active starter of either the same strain or a different strain of yeast. Since we perform this step frequently when we perceive that the fermentation is in need of help, the alcohol levels are elevated, etc. and so on, we want to pitch active working healthy yeast. Resist the urge to mage the starter wort over 1.060 “so the yeast gets used to the high alcohol levels” because this will actually slow down and/or hurt the yeast culture. For the same reason I do not recommend directly pitching dry yeast. Carefully re-hydrate dry yeast and make a starter, pitch the starter at high krausen, the peak of activity, 12-18 hours after you make it.
#Beano: aka enzyme additions, the “ultimate” solution is to generally be avoided if at all possible. This product breaks down, and continues to break down complex, non-fermentable sugars in your wort into simple fermentable sugars thus increasing attenuation. There is no problem adding enzymes to your mash, just make sure you understand the results you get. But if you are trying to correct a situation such as you mashed too high and you discover this when fermentation stops well before you wanted it to and add it to your “Secondary”, the problem is stopping it. Nuff said!!

[[Category:Glossary]]

File:NoonanAttenuationChart.gif

2008-04-17T19:31:28Z

Bonjour: Data from Noonan's book, Brewing New Lager Beer

Data from Noonan's book, Brewing New Lager Beer

Attenuation

2008-04-17T18:40:37Z

Bonjour: /* Attenuation */

==Attenuation==
===How To Improve your Attenuation===

Those that know me know that I have a knack of brewing outside the box. A few of my beers are under 4% abv, Those I call Starters, They usually have real big flavor and have even won awards, but a disproportionate number of my beers are big beers, 7-8% seems to be a “normal” gravity and very frequently (about 1 out of every 3) make what I call “Century Beers” or beers over 10% abv or over 1.100 OG.

Why do we even care about attenuation? Attenuation is a measure of how much of the sugar in the wort is converted into alcohol. The lower the attenuation, the more sugars are not fermented and the sweeter the resulting beer though we definitely want to avoid the dreaded cloyingly sweet beer. In a small to normal strength beer fairly big swings in attenuation, while noticeable, are not going to push the beer into what many would consider an undrinkable category. The same percentage change will have a significantly larger impact of a big to monster beer. To get the beer we truly want we must control attenuation to hit a desirable, and targeted, FG.

These are guidelines, intended only to aide you in your recipe design and brewing process. It is important to see how your system and your procedures react to what I suggest below. We are about to enter the Art of Brewing because where science stops, Art begins.

When you brew a large number of “Century Beers” it is important to have some concept of how to predict your Final Gravity. The caveats, There are many variables that impact FG, and thus attenuation, (which we will discuss later) and very little is written on how to do this. None of the brewing software packages do this and no literature that I have found really goes into the prediction of FG. I intend to present a common sense approach to predicting FG, especially for big beers.

As with most things with brewing I am relying on consistency to keep many of the factors the same. Certainly by not being consistent repeatability suffers. Each of us brews on our own system and that system, including the procedures we follow, determines the characteristics of the beer we produce. By maintaining that consistency and altering specific parameters we can manipulate results. Below is a graph from Noonan’s book.

Every strain of yeast will perform differently, and that yeast will react somewhat differently to different systems, but by graphing our results in a similar fashion we can learn to predict what attenuation we will get under a given set of circumstances. Is it fool-proof? No, but over time you will learn produce beer much closer to what you predict than you do now.

The first step is to look at your grain bill, or rather just the grain portion of the grain bill, no sugars or extracts as we will address them later.
Let’s assume that these grains give us an estimated 1.080 contribution to our OG. We will also assume that our selected yeast and mash profile will yield an attenuation of 75%. Given this, the contribution the FG contribution would be 1.020, [((1-.75)*(1.080-1))+1]. We could decrease this attenuation by about 10% by raising the mash temp from 149°F to 158°F. This would give us a predicted FG of 1.028, [((1-.65)*(1.080-1))+1] These calculations are based on numbers contained in Noonan’s book.

This chart is an interpretation of attenuation in an infusion mash from Noonan’s book. With a single infusion mash at 149°F Noonan says in New Brewing Lager Beer an attenuation of 75-80% usually results.
[[Image:AttenuationChart.jpg]]
I also find that if I step mash a normal grist (the same 1.080 OG used above), that is one without a lot of carapils, crystal or dark malts, a 146°/156° F step mash gives me about a 10% increase in attenuation. This would give me a 1.013 predicted FG, [((1-.85)*(1.080-1))+1]. I would suggest that you verify this with your own brewing setup.

One important factor is that as the beers get bigger, your attenuation must improve to keep your beers in balance. Attenuation and fermentability go hand in hand.

There are four main areas where we can impact our attenuation. The Grain Bill, The Mash, The Yeast, and the Fermentation. By manipulating these portions of our process we can alter the attenuation we get.

====Grain Bill====
#Grain Bill: Keep highly dextrinous malts such as Carapils, Crystal, and Roasted grains low, keep low fermentable extracts (Laaglanders) low.
#Use Highly Fermentable Sugars: such as corn sugar, table sugar, brown sugar, raw sugar, candi sugar, honey, maple syrup, molasses, etc. These sugars boost alcohol without increasing FG. Estimate your FG without any sugar added.

====Mash====
#Single Infusion Mash at a low temp (i.e. 149°F): This is the temp where starch is100% soluble and the enzymes have complete access. For that reason it is the minimum temperature that Noonan recommends for a mash.
#Mash longer (up to 2+ hours): It doesn’t necessarily take this long to “convert” the starches to sugars, but by continuing the mash beyond “conversion” some of the non-fermentable complex sugars will be broken down by the enzymes into fermentable sugars resulting in a more fermentable wort.
#Step Mash (i.e. 146°/156°F): This puts the enzymes into their optimum performance temperatures, and usually results in a longer mash. I have gotten up to a 10% boost in attenuation doing this.
#Use a Thinner Mash: A thin mash (>2 quarts/pound) results in a more fermentable mash because the sugars are less concentrated and thus there is less inhibitation on the enzymes. If you are performing a multi-rest mash a thicker mash is better because the enzymes are not denatured as quickly when you step the temperature up. This is because of the lower heat capacity of grain as compared to water.

====Yeast====
#Yeast Choice: Yeasts are normally chosen because of flavor characteristics for the style of beer to be brewed. Additionally we need to look at attenuation. One key characteristic of yeast is their ability to ferment Maltotriose. Many studies have indicated that this is the primary factor in attenuation. Maltotriose is a trisachride and the second most common sugar in wort (13-19% of fermentables). Most yeast can consume about half the Maltotriose present. Interestingly Lager yeast does a better job of utilizing Maltotriose than does Ale yeast. In general, use a yeast rated for the degree of attenuation that you require.
#Yeast Quantity: Use a Starter, better, use a yeast cake. Per George Fix for an ale, you want to pitch around 0.75 million cells of viable yeast, for every milliliter of wort, for every degree Plato, lagers double that. Under pitching can result in “tired” yeast that is unable to finish the job. It is difficult to over-pitch a Big Beer.
#develops strong yeast during their growth phase allowing them to completely consume all the fermentable sugars. Oxygen is necessary for yeast to produce lipids which act as a growth factor in the growth stage of the fermentation and protect the yeast from alcohol toxicity near the end of the fermentation. Perform this step at the start and at 12-14 hours for very big beers.
#Yeast Nutrients: Now that we have oxygenated the yeast, does the yeast have everything they need to grow and multiply before they start fermentation and alcohol production? Adding yeast nutrients ensures that they do. This may be important, depending on wort composition, to maximize attenuation.

====Fermentation====
#Ferment Temp: We do not want to ferment at temperature that are optimum for the yeast, we want to ferment at temperatures that are optimum for the beer that we wish to produce. The yeast will be much “happier” at higher temperatures. Too low a temperature will cause the yeast to slow down, go dormant, flocculate out of solution. Near the end of fermentation the character of the beer, esters and phenolics that are characteristic of the beer will have been formed. We can raise the temperature of the wort toward the high end of the band. Danstar Nottingham is “rated” 57° to 70°F for beer production, we would raise the wort temp in this case to approach 70°F to help the yeast through the last few points.
#Ferment Time: A big beer will frequently, not always, drop its last few points over a period of months. That is why we will frequently say “when the beer is ready it will be done”. There are a lot of things that may hinder fermentation especially at the later stages of brewing a big beer. Many of these are issues are addressed here. All I can say is that when all else fails, be patient.
#Rouse the Yeast: Lets try to keep as much yeast in suspension as we can to ferment the remaining sugars, especially with highly flocculent yeast strains. Lacking continuous agitation I like to rouse my yeast 3 times a day. When I get up, when I come home from work, and when I go to bed.
#Supplemental Yeast: A way of restarting a stuck fermentation, or helping out a weakening one is to all an active starter of either the same strain or a different strain of yeast. Since we perform this step frequently when we perceive that the fermentation is in need of help, the alcohol levels are elevated, etc. and so on, we want to pitch active working healthy yeast. Resist the urge to mage the starter wort over 1.060 “so the yeast gets used to the high alcohol levels” because this will actually slow down and/or hurt the yeast culture. For the same reason I do not recommend directly pitching dry yeast. Carefully re-hydrate dry yeast and make a starter, pitch the starter at high krausen, the peak of activity, 12-18 hours after you make it.
#Beano: aka enzyme additions, the “ultimate” solution is to generally be avoided if at all possible. This product breaks down, and continues to break down complex, non-fermentable sugars in your wort into simple fermentable sugars thus increasing attenuation. There is no problem adding enzymes to your mash, just make sure you understand the results you get. But if you are trying to correct a situation such as you mashed too high and you discover this when fermentation stops well before you wanted it to and add it to your “Secondary”, the problem is stopping it. Nuff said!!
[[Category:Glossary]]

File:AttenuationChart.jpg

2008-04-17T18:35:30Z

Bonjour: uploaded a new version of "Image:AttenuationChart.jpg": Data from reliable sources, Noonan, Fix, Palmer (Evans), and Danstar

Data from reliable sources,
Noonan, Fix, Palmer (Evans), and Danstar

Attenuation

2008-04-17T18:26:27Z

Bonjour: /* How To Improve your Attenuation */

==Attenuation==
===How To Improve your Attenuation===

Those that know me know that I have a knack of brewing outside the box. A few of my beers are under 4% abv, Those I call Starters, They usually have real big flavor and have even won awards, but a disproportionate number of my beers are big beers, 7-8% seems to be a “normal” gravity and very frequently (about 1 out of every 3) make what I call “Century Beers” or beers over 10% abv or over 1.100 OG.

Why do we even care about attenuation? Attenuation is a measure of how much of the sugar in the wort is converted into alcohol. The lower the attenuation, the more sugars are not fermented and the sweeter the resulting beer though we definitely want to avoid the dreaded cloyingly sweet beer. In a small to normal strength beer fairly big swings in attenuation, while noticeable, are not going to push the beer into what many would consider an undrinkable category. The same percentage change will have a significantly larger impact of a big to monster beer. To get the beer we truly want we must control attenuation to hit a desirable, and targeted, FG.

These are guidelines, intended only to aide you in your recipe design and brewing process. It is important to see how your system and your procedures react to what I suggest below. We are about to enter the Art of Brewing because where science stops, Art begins.

When you brew a large number of “Century Beers” it is important to have some concept of how to predict your Final Gravity. The caveats, There are many variables that impact FG, and thus attenuation, (which we will discuss later) and very little is written on how to do this. None of the brewing software packages do this and no literature that I have found really goes into the prediction of FG. I intend to present a common sense approach to predicting FG, especially for big beers.

As with most things with brewing I am relying on consistency to keep many of the factors the same. Certainly by not being consistent repeatability suffers. Each of us brews on our own system and that system, including the procedures we follow, determines the characteristics of the beer we produce. By maintaining that consistency and altering specific parameters we can manipulate results. Below is a graph from Noonan’s book.

Every strain of yeast will perform differently, and that yeast will react somewhat differently to different systems, but by graphing our results in a similar fashion we can learn to predict what attenuation we will get under a given set of circumstances. Is it fool-proof? No, but over time you will learn produce beer much closer to what you predict than you do now.

The first step is to look at your grain bill, or rather just the grain portion of the grain bill, no sugars or extracts as we will address them later.
Let’s assume that these grains give us an estimated 1.080 contribution to our OG. We will also assume that our selected yeast and mash profile will yield an attenuation of 75%. Given this, the contribution the FG contribution would be 1.020, [((1-.75)*(1.080-1))+1]. We could decrease this attenuation by about 10% by raising the mash temp from 149°F to 158°F. This would give us a predicted FG of 1.028, [((1-.65)*(1.080-1))+1] These calculations are based on numbers contained in Noonan’s book.

This chart is an interpretation of attenuation in an infusion mash from Noonan’s book. With a single infusion mash at 149°F Noonan says in New Brewing Lager Beer an attenuation of 75-80% usually results.
[[Image:AttenuationChart.jpg]]
I also find that if I step mash a normal grist (the same 1.080 OG used above), that is one without a lot of carapils, crystal or dark malts, a 146°/156° F step mash gives me about a 10% increase in attenuation. This would give me a 1.013 predicted FG, [((1-.85)*(1.080-1))+1]. I would suggest that you verify this with your own brewing setup.

One important factor is that as the beers get bigger, your attenuation must improve to keep your beers in balance. Attenuation and fermentability go hand in hand.

There are four main areas where we can impact our attenuation. The Grain Bill, The Mash, The Yeast, and the Fermentation. By manipulating these portions of our process we can alter the attenuation we get.

====Grain Bill====
#Grain Bill: Keep highly dextrinous malts such as Carapils, Crystal, and Roasted grains low, keep low fermentable extracts (Laaglanders) low.
#Use Highly Fermentable Sugars: such as corn sugar, table sugar, brown sugar, raw sugar, candi sugar, honey, maple syrup, molasses, etc. These sugars boost alcohol without increasing FG. Estimate your FG without any sugar added.

====Mash====
#Single Infusion Mash at a low temp (i.e. 149°F): This is the temp where starch is100% soluble and the enzymes have complete access. For that reason it is the minimum temperature that Noonan recommends for a mash.
#Mash longer (up to 2+ hours): It doesn’t necessarily take this long to “convert” the starches to sugars, but by continuing the mash beyond “conversion” some of the non-fermentable complex sugars will be broken down by the enzymes into fermentable sugars resulting in a more fermentable wort.
#Step Mash (i.e. 146°/156°F): This puts the enzymes into their optimum performance temperatures, and usually results in a longer mash. I have gotten up to a 10% boost in attenuation doing this.
#Use a Thinner Mash: A thin mash (>2 quarts/pound) results in a more fermentable mash because the sugars are less concentrated and thus there is less inhibitation on the enzymes. If you are performing a multi-rest mash a thicker mash is better because the enzymes are not denatured as quickly when you step the temperature up. This is because of the lower heat capacity of grain as compared to water.

====Yeast====
#Yeast Choice: Yeasts are normally chosen because of flavor characteristics for the style of beer to be brewed. Additionally we need to look at attenuation. One key characteristic of yeast is their ability to ferment Maltotriose. Many studies have indicated that this is the primary factor in attenuation. Maltotriose is a trisachride and the second most common sugar in wort (13-19% of fermentables). Most yeast can consume about half the Maltotriose present. Interestingly Lager yeast does a better job of utilizing Maltotriose than does Ale yeast. In general, use a yeast rated for the degree of attenuation that you require.
#Yeast Quantity: Use a Starter, better, use a yeast cake. Per George Fix for an ale, you want to pitch around 0.75 million cells of viable yeast, for every milliliter of wort, for every degree Plato, lagers double that. Under pitching can result in “tired” yeast that is unable to finish the job. It is difficult to over-pitch a Big Beer.
#develops strong yeast during their growth phase allowing them to completely consume all the fermentable sugars. Oxygen is necessary for yeast to produce lipids which act as a growth factor in the growth stage of the fermentation and protect the yeast from alcohol toxicity near the end of the fermentation. Perform this step at the start and at 12-14 hours for very big beers.
#Yeast Nutrients: Now that we have oxygenated the yeast, does the yeast have everything they need to grow and multiply before they start fermentation and alcohol production? Adding yeast nutrients ensures that they do. This may be important, depending on wort composition, to maximize attenuation.

====Fermentation====
#Ferment Temp: We do not want to ferment at temperature that are optimum for the yeast, we want to ferment at temperatures that are optimum for the beer that we wish to produce. The yeast will be much “happier” at higher temperatures. Too low a temperature will cause the yeast to slow down, go dormant, flocculate out of solution. Near the end of fermentation the character of the beer, esters and phenolics that are characteristic of the beer will have been formed. We can raise the temperature of the wort toward the high end of the band. Danstar Nottingham is “rated” 57° to 70°F for beer production, we would raise the wort temp in this case to approach 70°F to help the yeast through the last few points.
#Ferment Time: A big beer will frequently, not always, drop its last few points over a period of months. That is why we will frequently say “when the beer is ready it will be done”. There are a lot of things that may hinder fermentation especially at the later stages of brewing a big beer. Many of these are issues are addressed here. All I can say is that when all else fails, be patient.
#Rouse the Yeast: Lets try to keep as much yeast in suspension as we can to ferment the remaining sugars, especially with highly flocculent yeast strains. Lacking continuous agitation I like to rouse my yeast 3 times a day. When I get up, when I come home from work, and when I go to bed.
#Supplemental Yeast: A way of restarting a stuck fermentation, or helping out a weakening one is to all an active starter of either the same strain or a different strain of yeast. Since we perform this step frequently when we perceive that the fermentation is in need of help, the alcohol levels are elevated, etc. and so on, we want to pitch active working healthy yeast. Resist the urge to mage the starter wort over 1.060 “so the yeast gets used to the high alcohol levels” because this will actually slow down and/or hurt the yeast culture. For the same reason I do not recommend directly pitching dry yeast. Carefully re-hydrate dry yeast and make a starter, pitch the starter at high krausen, the peak of activity, 12-18 hours after you make it.
#Beano: aka enzyme additions, the “ultimate” solution is to generally be avoided if at all possible. This product breaks down, and continues to break down complex, non-fermentable sugars in your wort into simple fermentable sugars thus increasing attenuation. There is no problem adding enzymes to your mash, just make sure you understand the results you get. But if you are trying to correct a situation such as you mashed too high and you discover this when fermentation stops well before you wanted it to and add it to your “Secondary”, the problem is stopping it. Nuff said!!

Attenuation

2008-04-17T18:23:55Z

Bonjour: /* Grain Bill */

==Attenuation==
===How To Improve your Attenuation===
By Fred Bonjour homebrew@wideopenwest.com

Those that know me know that I have a knack of brewing outside the box. A few of my beers are under 4% abv, Those I call Starters, They usually have real big flavor and have even won awards, but a disproportionate number of my beers are big beers, 7-8% seems to be a “normal” gravity and very frequently (about 1 out of every 3) make what I call “Century Beers” or beers over 10% abv or over 1.100 OG.

Why do we even care about attenuation? Attenuation is a measure of how much of the sugar in the wort is converted into alcohol. The lower the attenuation, the more sugars are not fermented and the sweeter the resulting beer though we definitely want to avoid the dreaded cloyingly sweet beer. In a small to normal strength beer fairly big swings in attenuation, while noticeable, are not going to push the beer into what many would consider an undrinkable category. The same percentage change will have a significantly larger impact of a big to monster beer. To get the beer we truly want we must control attenuation to hit a desirable, and targeted, FG.

These are guidelines, intended only to aide you in your recipe design and brewing process. It is important to see how your system and your procedures react to what I suggest below. We are about to enter the Art of Brewing because where science stops, Art begins.

When you brew a large number of “Century Beers” it is important to have some concept of how to predict your Final Gravity. The caveats, There are many variables that impact FG, and thus attenuation, (which we will discuss later) and very little is written on how to do this. None of the brewing software packages do this and no literature that I have found really goes into the prediction of FG. I intend to present a common sense approach to predicting FG, especially for big beers.

As with most things with brewing I am relying on consistency to keep many of the factors the same. Certainly by not being consistent repeatability suffers. Each of us brews on our own system and that system, including the procedures we follow, determines the characteristics of the beer we produce. By maintaining that consistency and altering specific parameters we can manipulate results. Below is a graph from Noonan’s book.

Every strain of yeast will perform differently, and that yeast will react somewhat differently to different systems, but by graphing our results in a similar fashion we can learn to predict what attenuation we will get under a given set of circumstances. Is it fool-proof? No, but over time you will learn produce beer much closer to what you predict than you do now.

The first step is to look at your grain bill, or rather just the grain portion of the grain bill, no sugars or extracts as we will address them later.
Let’s assume that these grains give us an estimated 1.080 contribution to our OG. We will also assume that our selected yeast and mash profile will yield an attenuation of 75%. Given this, the contribution the FG contribution would be 1.020, [((1-.75)*(1.080-1))+1]. We could decrease this attenuation by about 10% by raising the mash temp from 149°F to 158°F. This would give us a predicted FG of 1.028, [((1-.65)*(1.080-1))+1] These calculations are based on numbers contained in Noonan’s book.

This chart is an interpretation of attenuation in an infusion mash from Noonan’s book. With a single infusion mash at 149°F Noonan says in New Brewing Lager Beer an attenuation of 75-80% usually results.

I also find that if I step mash a normal grist (the same 1.080 OG used above), that is one without a lot of carapils, crystal or dark malts, a 146°/156° F step mash gives me about a 10% increase in attenuation. This would give me a 1.013 predicted FG, [((1-.85)*(1.080-1))+1]. I would suggest that you verify this with your own brewing setup.

One important factor is that as the beers get bigger, your attenuation must improve to keep your beers in balance. Attenuation and fermentability go hand in hand.

There are four main areas where we can impact our attenuation. The Grain Bill, The Mash, The Yeast, and the Fermentation. By manipulating these portions of our process we can alter the attenuation we get.

====Grain Bill====
#Grain Bill: Keep highly dextrinous malts such as Carapils, Crystal, and Roasted grains low, keep low fermentable extracts (Laaglanders) low.

#Use Highly Fermentable Sugars: such as corn sugar, table sugar, brown sugar, raw sugar, candi sugar, honey, maple syrup, molasses, etc. These sugars boost alcohol without increasing FG. Estimate your FG without any sugar added.

====Mash====
#Single Infusion Mash at a low temp (i.e. 149°F): This is the temp where starch is100% soluble and the enzymes have complete access. For that reason it is the minimum temperature that Noonan recommends for a mash.

#Mash longer (up to 2+ hours): It doesn’t necessarily take this long to “convert” the starches to sugars, but by continuing the mash beyond “conversion” some of the non-fermentable complex sugars will be broken down by the enzymes into fermentable sugars resulting in a more fermentable wort.

#Step Mash (i.e. 146°/156°F): This puts the enzymes into their optimum performance temperatures, and usually results in a longer mash. I have gotten up to a 10% boost in attenuation doing this.

#Use a Thinner Mash: A thin mash (>2 quarts/pound) results in a more fermentable mash because the sugars are less concentrated and thus there is less inhibitation on the enzymes. If you are performing a multi-rest mash a thicker mash is better because the enzymes are not denatured as quickly when you step the temperature up. This is because of the lower heat capacity of grain as compared to water.

====Yeast====
#Yeast Choice: Yeasts are normally chosen because of flavor characteristics for the style of beer to be brewed. Additionally we need to look at attenuation. One key characteristic of yeast is their ability to ferment Maltotriose. Many studies have indicated that this is the primary factor in attenuation. Maltotriose is a trisachride and the second most common sugar in wort (13-19% of fermentables). Most yeast can consume about half the Maltotriose present. Interestingly Lager yeast does a better job of utilizing Maltotriose than does Ale yeast. In general, use a yeast rated for the degree of attenuation that you require.

#Yeast Quantity: Use a Starter, better, use a yeast cake. Per George Fix for an ale, you want to pitch around 0.75 million cells of viable yeast, for every milliliter of wort, for every degree Plato, lagers double that. Under pitching can result in “tired” yeast that is unable to finish the job. It is difficult to over-pitch a Big Beer.

#develops strong yeast during their growth phase allowing them to completely consume all the fermentable sugars. Oxygen is necessary for yeast to produce lipids which act as a growth factor in the growth stage of the fermentation and protect the yeast from alcohol toxicity near the end of the fermentation. Perform this step at the start and at 12-14 hours for very big beers.

#Yeast Nutrients: Now that we have oxygenated the yeast, does the yeast have everything they need to grow and multiply before they start fermentation and alcohol production? Adding yeast nutrients ensures that they do. This may be important, depending on wort composition, to maximize attenuation.

====Fermentation====
#Ferment Temp: We do not want to ferment at temperature that are optimum for the yeast, we want to ferment at temperatures that are optimum for the beer that we wish to produce. The yeast will be much “happier” at higher temperatures. Too low a temperature will cause the yeast to slow down, go dormant, flocculate out of solution. Near the end of fermentation the character of the beer, esters and phenolics that are characteristic of the beer will have been formed. We can raise the temperature of the wort toward the high end of the band. Danstar Nottingham is “rated” 57° to 70°F for beer production, we would raise the wort temp in this case to approach 70°F to help the yeast through the last few points.

#Ferment Time: A big beer will frequently, not always, drop its last few points over a period of months. That is why we will frequently say “when the beer is ready it will be done”. There are a lot of things that may hinder fermentation especially at the later stages of brewing a big beer. Many of these are issues are addressed here. All I can say is that when all else fails, be patient.

#Rouse the Yeast: Lets try to keep as much yeast in suspension as we can to ferment the remaining sugars, especially with highly flocculent yeast strains. Lacking continuous agitation I like to rouse my yeast 3 times a day. When I get up, when I come home from work, and when I go to bed.

#Supplemental Yeast: A way of restarting a stuck fermentation, or helping out a weakening one is to all an active starter of either the same strain or a different strain of yeast. Since we perform this step frequently when we perceive that the fermentation is in need of help, the alcohol levels are elevated, etc. and so on, we want to pitch active working healthy yeast. Resist the urge to mage the starter wort over 1.060 “so the yeast gets used to the high alcohol levels” because this will actually slow down and/or hurt the yeast culture. For the same reason I do not recommend directly pitching dry yeast. Carefully re-hydrate dry yeast and make a starter, pitch the starter at high krausen, the peak of activity, 12-18 hours after you make it.

#Beano: aka enzyme additions, the “ultimate” solution is to generally be avoided if at all possible. This product breaks down, and continues to break down complex, non-fermentable sugars in your wort into simple fermentable sugars thus increasing attenuation. There is no problem adding enzymes to your mash, just make sure you understand the results you get. But if you are trying to correct a situation such as you mashed too high and you discover this when fermentation stops well before you wanted it to and add it to your “Secondary”, the problem is stopping it. Nuff said!!

File:AttenuationChart.gif

2008-04-17T18:18:00Z

Bonjour: Data from reliable sources, Noonan, Fix, Palmer (Evans), and Danstar

Data from reliable sources, Noonan, Fix, Palmer (Evans), and Danstar

File:AttenuationChart.jpg

2008-04-17T18:14:58Z

Bonjour: Data from reliable sources, Noonan, Fix, Palmer (Evans), and Danstar

Data from reliable sources,
Noonan, Fix, Palmer (Evans), and Danstar

Attenuation

2008-04-17T17:59:51Z

Bonjour: New page: ==Attenuation== ===How To Improve your Attenuation=== By Fred Bonjour homebrew@wideopenwest.com Those that know me know that I have a knack of brewing outside the box. A few of my beers ...

==Attenuation==
===How To Improve your Attenuation===
By Fred Bonjour homebrew@wideopenwest.com

Those that know me know that I have a knack of brewing outside the box. A few of my beers are under 4% abv, Those I call Starters, They usually have real big flavor and have even won awards, but a disproportionate number of my beers are big beers, 7-8% seems to be a “normal” gravity and very frequently (about 1 out of every 3) make what I call “Century Beers” or beers over 10% abv or over 1.100 OG.

Why do we even care about attenuation? Attenuation is a measure of how much of the sugar in the wort is converted into alcohol. The lower the attenuation, the more sugars are not fermented and the sweeter the resulting beer though we definitely want to avoid the dreaded cloyingly sweet beer. In a small to normal strength beer fairly big swings in attenuation, while noticeable, are not going to push the beer into what many would consider an undrinkable category. The same percentage change will have a significantly larger impact of a big to monster beer. To get the beer we truly want we must control attenuation to hit a desirable, and targeted, FG.

These are guidelines, intended only to aide you in your recipe design and brewing process. It is important to see how your system and your procedures react to what I suggest below. We are about to enter the Art of Brewing because where science stops, Art begins.

When you brew a large number of “Century Beers” it is important to have some concept of how to predict your Final Gravity. The caveats, There are many variables that impact FG, and thus attenuation, (which we will discuss later) and very little is written on how to do this. None of the brewing software packages do this and no literature that I have found really goes into the prediction of FG. I intend to present a common sense approach to predicting FG, especially for big beers.

As with most things with brewing I am relying on consistency to keep many of the factors the same. Certainly by not being consistent repeatability suffers. Each of us brews on our own system and that system, including the procedures we follow, determines the characteristics of the beer we produce. By maintaining that consistency and altering specific parameters we can manipulate results. Below is a graph from Noonan’s book.

Every strain of yeast will perform differently, and that yeast will react somewhat differently to different systems, but by graphing our results in a similar fashion we can learn to predict what attenuation we will get under a given set of circumstances. Is it fool-proof? No, but over time you will learn produce beer much closer to what you predict than you do now.

The first step is to look at your grain bill, or rather just the grain portion of the grain bill, no sugars or extracts as we will address them later.
Let’s assume that these grains give us an estimated 1.080 contribution to our OG. We will also assume that our selected yeast and mash profile will yield an attenuation of 75%. Given this, the contribution the FG contribution would be 1.020, [((1-.75)*(1.080-1))+1]. We could decrease this attenuation by about 10% by raising the mash temp from 149°F to 158°F. This would give us a predicted FG of 1.028, [((1-.65)*(1.080-1))+1] These calculations are based on numbers contained in Noonan’s book.

This chart is an interpretation of attenuation in an infusion mash from Noonan’s book. With a single infusion mash at 149°F Noonan says in New Brewing Lager Beer an attenuation of 75-80% usually results.

I also find that if I step mash a normal grist (the same 1.080 OG used above), that is one without a lot of carapils, crystal or dark malts, a 146°/156° F step mash gives me about a 10% increase in attenuation. This would give me a 1.013 predicted FG, [((1-.85)*(1.080-1))+1]. I would suggest that you verify this with your own brewing setup.

One important factor is that as the beers get bigger, your attenuation must improve to keep your beers in balance. Attenuation and fermentability go hand in hand.

There are four main areas where we can impact our attenuation. The Grain Bill, The Mash, The Yeast, and the Fermentation. By manipulating these portions of our process we can alter the attenuation we get.

====Grain Bill====
#Grain Bill: Keep highly dextrinous malts such as Carapils, Crystal, and Roasted grains low, keep low fermentable extracts (Laaglanders) low.

#Use Highly Fermentable Sugars: such as corn sugar, table sugar, brown sugar, raw sugar, candi sugar, honey, maple syrup, molasses, etc. These sugars boost alcohol without increasing FG. Estimate your FG without any sugar added.
The Mash

====Mash====
#Single Infusion Mash at a low temp (i.e. 149°F): This is the temp where starch is100% soluble and the enzymes have complete access. For that reason it is the minimum temperature that Noonan recommends for a mash.

#Mash longer (up to 2+ hours): It doesn’t necessarily take this long to “convert” the starches to sugars, but by continuing the mash beyond “conversion” some of the non-fermentable complex sugars will be broken down by the enzymes into fermentable sugars resulting in a more fermentable wort.

#Step Mash (i.e. 146°/156°F): This puts the enzymes into their optimum performance temperatures, and usually results in a longer mash. I have gotten up to a 10% boost in attenuation doing this.

#Use a Thinner Mash: A thin mash (>2 quarts/pound) results in a more fermentable mash because the sugars are less concentrated and thus there is less inhibitation on the enzymes. If you are performing a multi-rest mash a thicker mash is better because the enzymes are not denatured as quickly when you step the temperature up. This is because of the lower heat capacity of grain as compared to water.

====Yeast====
#Yeast Choice: Yeasts are normally chosen because of flavor characteristics for the style of beer to be brewed. Additionally we need to look at attenuation. One key characteristic of yeast is their ability to ferment Maltotriose. Many studies have indicated that this is the primary factor in attenuation. Maltotriose is a trisachride and the second most common sugar in wort (13-19% of fermentables). Most yeast can consume about half the Maltotriose present. Interestingly Lager yeast does a better job of utilizing Maltotriose than does Ale yeast. In general, use a yeast rated for the degree of attenuation that you require.

#Yeast Quantity: Use a Starter, better, use a yeast cake. Per George Fix for an ale, you want to pitch around 0.75 million cells of viable yeast, for every milliliter of wort, for every degree Plato, lagers double that. Under pitching can result in “tired” yeast that is unable to finish the job. It is difficult to over-pitch a Big Beer.

#develops strong yeast during their growth phase allowing them to completely consume all the fermentable sugars. Oxygen is necessary for yeast to produce lipids which act as a growth factor in the growth stage of the fermentation and protect the yeast from alcohol toxicity near the end of the fermentation. Perform this step at the start and at 12-14 hours for very big beers.

#Yeast Nutrients: Now that we have oxygenated the yeast, does the yeast have everything they need to grow and multiply before they start fermentation and alcohol production? Adding yeast nutrients ensures that they do. This may be important, depending on wort composition, to maximize attenuation.

====Fermentation====
#Ferment Temp: We do not want to ferment at temperature that are optimum for the yeast, we want to ferment at temperatures that are optimum for the beer that we wish to produce. The yeast will be much “happier” at higher temperatures. Too low a temperature will cause the yeast to slow down, go dormant, flocculate out of solution. Near the end of fermentation the character of the beer, esters and phenolics that are characteristic of the beer will have been formed. We can raise the temperature of the wort toward the high end of the band. Danstar Nottingham is “rated” 57° to 70°F for beer production, we would raise the wort temp in this case to approach 70°F to help the yeast through the last few points.

#Ferment Time: A big beer will frequently, not always, drop its last few points over a period of months. That is why we will frequently say “when the beer is ready it will be done”. There are a lot of things that may hinder fermentation especially at the later stages of brewing a big beer. Many of these are issues are addressed here. All I can say is that when all else fails, be patient.

#Rouse the Yeast: Lets try to keep as much yeast in suspension as we can to ferment the remaining sugars, especially with highly flocculent yeast strains. Lacking continuous agitation I like to rouse my yeast 3 times a day. When I get up, when I come home from work, and when I go to bed.

#Supplemental Yeast: A way of restarting a stuck fermentation, or helping out a weakening one is to all an active starter of either the same strain or a different strain of yeast. Since we perform this step frequently when we perceive that the fermentation is in need of help, the alcohol levels are elevated, etc. and so on, we want to pitch active working healthy yeast. Resist the urge to mage the starter wort over 1.060 “so the yeast gets used to the high alcohol levels” because this will actually slow down and/or hurt the yeast culture. For the same reason I do not recommend directly pitching dry yeast. Carefully re-hydrate dry yeast and make a starter, pitch the starter at high krausen, the peak of activity, 12-18 hours after you make it.

#Beano: aka enzyme additions, the “ultimate” solution is to generally be avoided if at all possible. This product breaks down, and continues to break down complex, non-fermentable sugars in your wort into simple fermentable sugars thus increasing attenuation. There is no problem adding enzymes to your mash, just make sure you understand the results you get. But if you are trying to correct a situation such as you mashed too high and you discover this when fermentation stops well before you wanted it to and add it to your “Secondary”, the problem is stopping it. Nuff said!!

Sparging

2008-04-16T04:49:03Z

Bonjour: /* The Sparging Process */

'''Sparging''', also called '''lautering''' is a step at the end of the mashing process where hot water is run through the grain bed to extract a sweet liquid called [[wort]]. The wort is later boiled and fermented to produce beer.

==The Sparging Process==
After the [[mashing]] process is complete, the grains, water and sugar are still in suspension in the mash container, called the ''[[Mash Tun|mash tun]]''. The sugars are separated from the grains in a process called ''sparging''. The mash tun typically has a false bottom or screen at the bottom with a spigot that allows the brewer to draw run-off from the bottom of the grain bed. Hot water at approximately 178 F is slowly added to the top of the grain bed, run through the bed, and drawn off the bottom through the false bottom and out the spigot to the boiling vessel. This extracts sugars from the grains and produces sweet liquid called [[wort]] for boiling. The initial runnings (first few quarts) drawn during the sparge process are recirculated back through the grain bed, as the early runnings often contain grain husks, crushed material and other undesirable elements. After the initial runnings, the grain bed will act as a filter and reduce the cloudiness of the runnings. Sparging is best done slowly so that a maximum amount of sugar can be extracted from the spent grains. The sparged wort is transferred to a boiler where hops is added and the mixture boiled before cooling for fermentation.

=== Sparging De-Mystified ===

First things first, The Mash. Mashing is the process where starches are converted to sugars so that we may make good beer from them. There are infusion mashes, step mashes, and decoction mashes. Sparging does not change them. Sparging starts when the Mash is complete. So use volumes, ratios, etc. and so forth to Mash as you wish.

All sparges work on the basic principle of moving “stuff” (we are looking at sugars here) from places of higher concentration (the crushed malt) to places of lower concentration (the sparge water). How we manipulate this determines the sparge technique that we use.

==== Continuous Sparge ====
The most common sparge method in commercial use today is the fly or continuous sparge. The properly performed continuous sparge is generally recognized as the most efficient sparge method in use today, that is a continuous sparge extracts the most (fermentable sugars) from the mash. A continuous sparge works by continuously introducing water (very low, or NO sugar concentration) at the top of the mash. This water then percolates down thru the mash bed increasing in sugar concentration as it goes. We can impact the efficiency of the sparge process by several means that we are familiar with, particle size of the crushed grain, grain depth, speed of draining, temperature of the process, pH, etc.

'''What are the advantages?'''
*Efficient extraction of the fermentable (and non-fermentable) sugars.
*Cost effective based on reducing the inputs (grain) into the process. (important for a commercial brewer, not important for a home brewer).

'''What are the disadvantages?''' Why doesn’t anyone ever talk about the disadvantages?
*When the gravity of the wort drops below 1.019 (some say 1.010) tannins from the husk are extracted. In the continuous sparge process the grain at the top of the grain bed, being continuously introduced to plain hot water, becomes depleted early in the process, thus the gravity at the top of the grain bed is meeting the requirements for extraction of tannins, hot, low gravity, and elevated pH. The pH increases (especially with base/light malts) as the pH buffering ability of the malt falls off with the extraction of the sugars (the SG of the wort drops). The gravity of 1.019 (1.010) is to ensure that the extraction of tannins has not occurred enough to significantly impact the flavor of the resulting beer. Please note that many excellent beers are produced using this method.
*Complex Procedure, must monitor to ensure the grain bed stays covered and the flow rate is appropriately slow for the efficiency produced.
*Requires special equipment, a false bottom or manifold designed to not allow channeling of the grain bed.

'''How To Fly Sparge'''
Start by draining the cloudy wort slowly and returning it to the top of the lauter tun. When the wort runs clear, start collecting the wort slowly (2 cups every 90 seconds) while adding additional sparge water to the top of the grain bed. I let the wort level drop just to the top of the grain bed and then add sparge water to the top of the grain bed to maintain a level up to several inches above the grain bed. I do this with a “high tech” ½ gallon plastic pitcher dipping into my HLT and pouring into a colander on top of the grain bed to prevent the sparge water from drilling into the grain bed and causing channeling.

==== No Sparge ====
This is the simplest and least common of the sparging techniques. After mashing you simply drain the grain bed. Then add water (makeup) to the wort in your boil kettle to your boil volume.
'''Advantages:'''
*The simplest of the sparging methods, just fill, mix, and drain.
*Does not require special equipment because channeling is not a concern. Any apparatus that will drain the liquid without allowing “chunks” is acceptable.
*Does not typically extract tannins
*Speed, it is a fast procedure potentially shortening your brewing day
*Makes a maltier beer, there is quite a bit of discussion on enhanced maltiness of the beers produced with this and the “batch sparge” method below. Here is a quote from George Fix ( http://hbd.org/hbd/archive/977.html#977-3 ) “I have found that to get a very high malt flavor the sparge must be omitted as well. This is an expensive way to brew since the amount of grains needed must be increased by a factor ~4/3. Nevertheless, some of the world's great ales and lagers have been brewed this way, and I have found it works in homebrewing as well for special beers. Clearly this is not the way to brew our standard beers.”
'''Disadvantages:'''
*Brewing efficiency is decreased as a good fraction of the potential fermentable sugars are not extracted. (See quote from George Fix above).
*Is not practical for big beers, requires a very significant increase in grain bill for high gravity brews.
*Not suited for a beer that should not have a malty profile.

OK, let’s offer a compromise solution between getting all the potential extract out (continuous sparge) and leaving a sizeable portion of the potential extract behind.

==== Batch Sparge ====
This is basically performing a No-Sparge twice recovering half of the kettle volume with each pass. Similar to No-Sparge above it goes like this:
You have 10 lbs of crushed grain and you want a 1.3 qts/lb mash ratio (use what you need for your mash) you need 13 qts (3.25 gal) of mash water. The grain will absorb about .13 gal/lb so the grain will absorb 1.3 gal. This leaves 1.95 (3.25 – 1.3) gal, for a 7 gal kettle volume you need to add 1.55 gal to yield 3.5 gal (half of 7gal) for the first batch. You then mix all this so the entire volume is at the same potential gravity. Start by letting the lauter tun settle for a few minutes (10-15) then drain the cloudy wort slowly returning to the top of the lauter tun. When it runs clear start collecting wort slowly for a couple of minutes then open it up. For the second batch add half the desired kettle volume of 7 gal or 3.5 gal since the grain has absorbed all the liquid that it can and the grain bed is drained, then follow the same procedure. Again, unlike continuous sparging, flow has no impact on efficiency, only on how fast you finish.

'''Advantages:'''
*The not the simplest of the sparging methods, but a good compromise and a close second.
*Does not require special equipment because channeling is not a concern. Any apparatus that will drain the liquid without allowing “chunks” is acceptable.
*Does not typically extract tannins
*Speed, it is a fast procedure potentially shortening your brewing day
*Makes a maltier beer, there is quite a bit of discussion on enhanced maltiness of the beers produced with this and the “batch sparge” method below. Here is a quote from George Fix ( http://hbd.org/hbd/archive/977.html#977-3 ) “I have found that to get a very high malt flavor the sparge must be omitted as well. This is an expensive way to brew since the amount of grains needed must be increased by a factor ~4/3. Nevertheless, some of the world's great ales and lagers have been brewed this way, and I have found it works in homebrewing as well for special beers. Clearly this is not the way to brew our standard beers.”
'''Disadvantages:'''
*Brewing efficiency is decreased as a good fraction of the potential fermentable sugars are not extracted. (See quote from George Fix above).
*Is not practical for big beers, requires a very significant increase in grain bill for high gravity brews.
*Not suited for a beer that should not have a malty profile.

==== Parti-Gyle ====
A Parti-Gyle is a modified Batch Sparge. Its purpose is to make multiple brews form the same wort, with each “batch” contributing fermentables to successively smaller beers.
Making more than one beer from a mash. The principle is to
#Make a big mash, then
#Batch Sparge the first runnings to brew a strong or “stout” beer, Then
#Batch Sparge the second runnings to make an ordinary beer, Then
#Batch Sparge the third runnings, usually after freshening the Mash with some additional malt/grain.

{{Stub}}
('''Editors Note''' - I've marked this as a stub. This article should detail the different types of sparging (fly sparging, batch sparging, stuck mashes, etc...)

==See Also==
* [[Processes]]
* [[Mashing]]
* [[Boiling]]

==External Links==
* [http://www.beersmith.com/blog/2008/03/09/how-to-batch-sparge-a-guide-for-batch-sparging-and-no-sparge/ How to Batch Sparge: A Batch Sparging Guide]

[[Category:Processes]]
[[Category:Glossary]]

Sparging

2008-04-16T04:38:26Z

Bonjour: /* The Sparging Process */

'''Sparging''', also called '''lautering''' is a step at the end of the mashing process where hot water is run through the grain bed to extract a sweet liquid called [[wort]]. The wort is later boiled and fermented to produce beer.

==The Sparging Process==
After the [[mashing]] process is complete, the grains, water and sugar are still in suspension in the mash container, called the ''[[Mash Tun|mash tun]]''. The sugars are separated from the grains in a process called ''sparging''. The mash tun typically has a false bottom or screen at the bottom with a spigot that allows the brewer to draw run-off from the bottom of the grain bed. Hot water at approximately 178 F is slowly added to the top of the grain bed, run through the bed, and drawn off the bottom through the false bottom and out the spigot to the boiling vessel. This extracts sugars from the grains and produces sweet liquid called [[wort]] for boiling. The initial runnings (first few quarts) drawn during the sparge process are recirculated back through the grain bed, as the early runnings often contain grain husks, crushed material and other undesirable elements. After the initial runnings, the grain bed will act as a filter and reduce the cloudiness of the runnings. Sparging is best done slowly so that a maximum amount of sugar can be extracted from the spent grains. The sparged wort is transferred to a boiler where hops is added and the mixture boiled before cooling for fermentation.

Sparging De-Mystified

First things first, The Mash. Mashing is the process where starches are converted to sugars so that we may make good beer from them. There are infusion mashes, step mashes, and decoction mashes. Sparging does not change them. Sparging starts when the Mash is complete. So use volumes, ratios, etc. and so forth to Mash as you wish.

All sparges work on the basic principle of moving “stuff” (we are looking at sugars here) from places of higher concentration (the crushed malt) to places of lower concentration (the sparge water). How we manipulate this determines the sparge technique that we use.

Continuous Sparge
The most common sparge method in commercial use today is the fly or continuous sparge. The properly performed continuous sparge is generally recognized as the most efficient sparge method in use today, that is a continuous sparge extracts the most (fermentable sugars) from the mash. A continuous sparge works by continuously introducing water (very low, or NO sugar concentration) at the top of the mash. This water then percolates down thru the mash bed increasing in sugar concentration as it goes. We can impact the efficiency of the sparge process by several means that we are familiar with, particle size of the crushed grain, grain depth, speed of draining, temperature of the process, pH, etc.

What are the advantages?
• Efficient extraction of the fermentable (and non-fermentable) sugars.
• Cost effective based on reducing the inputs (grain) into the process. (important for a commercial brewer, not important for a home brewer).

What are the disadvantages? Why doesn’t anyone ever talk about the disadvantages?
• When the gravity of the wort drops below 1.019 (some say 1.010) tannins from the husk are extracted. In the continuous sparge process the grain at the top of the grain bed, being continuously introduced to plain hot water, becomes depleted early in the process, thus the gravity at the top of the grain bed is meeting the requirements for extraction of tannins, hot, low gravity, and elevated pH. The pH increases (especially with base/light malts) as the pH buffering ability of the malt falls off with the extraction of the sugars (the SG of the wort drops). The gravity of 1.019 (1.010) is to ensure that the extraction of tannins has not occurred enough to significantly impact the flavor of the resulting beer. Please note that many excellent beers are produced using this method.
• Complex Procedure, must monitor to ensure the grain bed stays covered and the flow rate is appropriately slow for the efficiency produced.
• Requires special equipment, a false bottom or manifold designed to not allow channeling of the grain bed.

How To Fly Sparge
Start by draining the cloudy wort slowly and returning it to the top of the lauter tun. When the wort runs clear, start collecting the wort slowly (2 cups every 90 seconds) while adding additional sparge water to the top of the grain bed. I let the wort level drop just to the top of the grain bed and then add sparge water to the top of the grain bed to maintain a level up to several inches above the grain bed. I do this with a “high tech” ½ gallon plastic pitcher dipping into my HLT and pouring into a colander on top of the grain bed to prevent the sparge water from drilling into the grain bed and causing channeling.

No Sparge
This is the simplest and least common of the sparging techniques. After mashing you simply drain the grain bed. Then add water (makeup) to the wort in your boil kettle to your boil volume.
Advantages:
• The simplest of the sparging methods, just fill, mix, and drain.
• Does not require special equipment because channeling is not a concern. Any apparatus that will drain the liquid without allowing “chunks” is acceptable.
• Does not typically extract tannins
• Speed, it is a fast procedure potentially shortening your brewing day
• Makes a maltier beer, there is quite a bit of discussion on enhanced maltiness of the beers produced with this and the “batch sparge” method below. Here is a quote from George Fix ( http://hbd.org/hbd/archive/977.html#977-3 ) “I have found that to get a very high malt flavor the sparge must be omitted as well. This is an expensive way to brew since the amount of grains needed must be increased by a factor ~4/3. Nevertheless, some of the world's great ales and lagers have been brewed this way, and I have found it works in homebrewing as well for special beers. Clearly this is not the way to brew our standard beers.”
Disadvantages:
• Brewing efficiency is decreased as a good fraction of the potential fermentable sugars are not extracted. (See quote from George Fix above).
• Is not practical for big beers, requires a very significant increase in grain bill for high gravity brews.
• Not suited for a beer that should not have a malty profile.

OK, let’s offer a compromise solution between getting all the potential extract out (continuous sparge) and leaving a sizeable portion of the potential extract behind.

Batch Sparge
This is basically performing a No-Sparge twice recovering half of the kettle volume with each pass. Similar to No-Sparge above it goes like this:
You have 10 lbs of crushed grain and you want a 1.3 qts/lb mash ratio (use what you need for your mash) you need 13 qts (3.25 gal) of mash water. The grain will absorb about .13 gal/lb so the grain will absorb 1.3 gal. This leaves 1.95 (3.25 – 1.3) gal, for a 7 gal kettle volume you need to add 1.55 gal to yield 3.5 gal (half of 7gal) for the first batch. You then mix all this so the entire volume is at the same potential gravity. Start by letting the lauter tun settle for a few minutes (10-15) then drain the cloudy wort slowly returning to the top of the lauter tun. When it runs clear start collecting wort slowly for a couple of minutes then open it up. For the second batch add half the desired kettle volume of 7 gal or 3.5 gal since the grain has absorbed all the liquid that it can and the grain bed is drained, then follow the same procedure. Again, unlike continuous sparging, flow has no impact on efficiency, only on how fast you finish.

Advantages:
• The not the simplest of the sparging methods, but a good compromise and a close second.
• Does not require special equipment because channeling is not a concern. Any apparatus that will drain the liquid without allowing “chunks” is acceptable.
• Does not typically extract tannins
• Speed, it is a fast procedure potentially shortening your brewing day
• Makes a maltier beer, there is quite a bit of discussion on enhanced maltiness of the beers produced with this and the “batch sparge” method below. Here is a quote from George Fix ( http://hbd.org/hbd/archive/977.html#977-3 ) “I have found that to get a very high malt flavor the sparge must be omitted as well. This is an expensive way to brew since the amount of grains needed must be increased by a factor ~4/3. Nevertheless, some of the world's great ales and lagers have been brewed this way, and I have found it works in homebrewing as well for special beers. Clearly this is not the way to brew our standard beers.”
Disadvantages:
• Brewing efficiency is decreased as a good fraction of the potential fermentable sugars are not extracted. (See quote from George Fix above).
• Is not practical for big beers, requires a very significant increase in grain bill for high gravity brews.
• Not suited for a beer that should not have a malty profile.

Parti-Gyle
A Parti-Gyle is a modified Batch Sparge. Its purpose is to make multiple brews form the same wort, with each “batch” contributing fermentables to successively smaller beers.
Making more than one beer from a mash. The principle is to
1. Make a big mash, then
2. Batch Sparge the first runnings to brew a strong or “stout” beer, Then
3. Batch Sparge the second runnings to make an ordinary beer, Then
4. Batch Sparge the third runnings, usually after freshening the Mash with some additional malt/grain.

{{Stub}}
('''Editors Note''' - I've marked this as a stub. This article should detail the different types of sparging (fly sparging, batch sparging, stuck mashes, etc...)

==See Also==
* [[Processes]]
* [[Mashing]]
* [[Boiling]]

==External Links==
* [http://www.beersmith.com/blog/2008/03/09/how-to-batch-sparge-a-guide-for-batch-sparging-and-no-sparge/ How to Batch Sparge: A Batch Sparging Guide]

[[Category:Processes]]
[[Category:Glossary]]

Estimating Bitterness

2008-04-16T04:23:06Z

Bonjour: /* AAU */

==AAU==
Alpha Acid Units is a quick way for brewers to estimate how much bitterness hop additions will add to their beer. It is calculated by multiplying the amount of hops added (in ounces) by the alpha acid content of the hops. The drawback to this is that it takes neither boiling time nor wort gravity into account, both of which affect the utilization (conversion of alpha-acids to iso-alpha acids) of the hops.
For example, if you added 1 oz of 4% alpha acid Fuggles, you would have 4 AAUs (4 x 1)
if you added 1.5 oz of 13.25% Simcoe you would get 19.875 AAUs.
The AAU format is helpful for sharing recipes but does not give an accurate prediction of final bitterness.

AAUs are the easiest to calculate, but most brewers use IBUs. For normal strength beers you can approximate the IBUs in Tinseth simply by multiplying the AAUs by 3.5. Using the above example 4 AAUs x 3.5 = 14 IBUs.

==Tinseth==
[http://www.realbeer.com/hops/ Glenn Tinseth] developed a method to calculate bitterness in beer based on his research.
Glenn found that many factors affected the conversion of alpha-acids to iso-alpha-acids (boil time, wort gravity, volume of wort in boil)
Glenn developed the following formula to calculate bitterness in [[IBU]]s:<br>
IBU = (U * ozs hops * 7490)/Volume (in gallons)
U represents the utilization of the hops (conversion to iso-alpha-acids) based on boil time and wort gravity.
U = [http://www.realbeer.com/hops/research.html bigness factor * boil time factor]

==Rager==

==Garetz==

==First Wort Hopping==

==Bitterness Ratio==
The preceived bitterness expressed in a ratio of IBUs to gravity.
This is frequently seen expressed as BU/GU. That is Bitterness Units/Gravity Units. This is used as a comparator and for checking balance (or lack thereof) in a recipe. The Gravity Units are the decimal portion of the original gravity. A 1.060 OG wort would have a GU of 60. If this recipe called for 30 IBUs, then the ratio would be 30/60 or 0.5
It is with this method that a brewer can estimate whether bitterness or malt will dominate the flavor profile.

Organizations

2006-12-19T04:04:19Z

Bonjour: /* Local Brew Clubs */

{{Portal|name=Organizations}}
A large number of national, regional and local organizations and clubs exist to support homebrewing. See the links below for some of the larger organizations.

==US National Organizations==
* [http://www.beertown.org/homebrewing/index.html American Homebrewers Association]
* [[Beer Judge Certification Program|Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP)]] - ([http://www.bjcp.org home page])
* [http://www.beertown.org/craftbrewing/about.html Brewers Association] - For microbreweries & [[Craft Beer]] breweries

==Non-US National Organizations==
* [http://www.homebrewers.ca/ Canadian Amateur Brewers Association]
* [http://www.craftbrewing.org.uk/ UK Craft Brewing Association] - UK Homebrewing
* HomeBrewers International Grid-Computing Team (brewing is discussed in the team forum) http://home.alltel.net/billvelek/team.html
* BrewingEquipment - Yahoo mailing list - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BrewingEquipment

==Local Brew Clubs==
A listing of local brew clubs - Listed by state and city (or country if not US). Editor note: This may need to be a separate article once it gets larger.

===CANADA===

===Alberta===
* [http://www.ehg.ca Edmonton Homebrewers Guild] - Edmonton, AB
* [http://marquisdesuds.wort.ca Marquis de Suds] - Calgary, AB

===British Columbia===
* [http://www.meadworks.ca Meadworks] - Vancouver, BC

===Manitoba===
* [http://www.winnipegbrewbombers.ca Winnipeg Brew Bombers] - Winnipeg, MB

===Nova Scotia===
* [http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Recreation/BrewNoser/ Brewnosers] - Halifax, NS

===Saskatchewan===
* [http://www.alesclub.com Ales & Lager Enthusiasts of Saskatchewan (ALES)] - Regina, SK

===Quebec===
* [http://www.montrealers.ca MontreAlers] - Montreal, QC

===US===

===Alaska===
* [http://www.greatnorthernbrewers.org Great Northern Brewers Club] - Anchorage, AK

===California===
* [http://www.bayareamashers.org/ Bay Area Mashers] - Berkeley, CA
* [http://www.brewcommune.com BrewCommune] - Orange County, California
* [http://www.maltosefalcons.com The Maltose Falcons Homebrewing Society] - Los Angeles, CA

===Colorado===
* [http://www.foamontherange.org/ Foam On The Range] - Aurora, CO
* [http://www.liquidpoets.com/ Liquid Poets Society] - Ft Collins, CO

===District of Columbia===
* [http://burp.burp.org Brewers United for Real Potables (BURP)] - Area around DC, MD, VA

===Florida===
* [http://www.tcbrewmasters.org/ Treasure Coast BrewMasters] - Stuart, FL
* [http://www.palmbeachdraughtsmen.com/ Palm Beach Draughtsmen] - West Palm Beach, FL
* [http://www.saaz.org/ Space Coast Associates for the Advancement of Zymurgy] - Brevard, FL
* [http://www.cfhb.org/ Central Florida Home Brewers] - Orlando, FL
* [http://www.dunedinbrewersguild.com/ Dunedin Brewers Guild] - Dunedin, FL
* [http://www.hbd.org/mash/ Miami Area Society of Homebrewers] - Miami, FL
* [http://www.tampabaybeers.org/ Tampa Bay BEERS] - Tampa, FL
* [http://www.hogtownbrewers.org/ Hogtown Brewers] - Gainesville, FL
* [http://www.nfbl.org/ North Florida Brewer's League] - Tallahassee, FL
* [http://www.browardhomebrewers.org/ Fort Lauderdale Area Brewers] - Fort Lauderdale, FL

===Illinois===
* [http://www.chibeer.org Chicago Beer Society] - Chicago, IL

===Kansas===
* [http://lawrencebrewers.org/ Lawrence Brewers Guild] - Lawrence, KS

===Michigan===
* [http://www.CRAFThomebrewclub.org/ CRAFT (Clinton River Association of Fermenting Trendsetters] - Macomb (N. Detroit subs), MI

===New York===
* [http://hbd.org/nychg/ New York City Homebrewers Guild] - New York, NY

===North Carolina===
* [http://www.carolinabrewmasters.com/ The Carolina Brewmasters] - Charlotte, NC

===Texas===
* [http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SAbeergroup/ San Antonio Area Zymurgists (SAAZ)] - San Antonio, TX
* [http://www.foamrangers.com/ Foam Rangers] - Houston, TX
* [http://groups.msn.com/NorthTexasHomeBrewAssociationHomePage North Texas Homebrewers Assn] - Dallas, TX

===United Kingdom===
* [http://www.scottishcraftbrewers.org Scottish Craft Brewers] - Scotland, UK

===Virginia===
* [http://www.worthogs.com/ Wort Hogs] - Reston, VA

===Wisconsin===
* [http://www.rackers.org/ Green Bay Rackers] - Green Bay, WI
* [http://www.mhtg.org/ Madison Homebrewers and Tasters Guild] - Madison, WI
* [http://www.beerbarons.org/ Beer Barons of Milwaukee] - Milwaukee, WI

==See Also==
* [[References|Brewing References]]

==External Links==
[http://www.beertown.org/homebrewing/listings.asp AHA Homebrew Club Listings]

[[Category:Organizations]]

Recipes

2006-07-04T21:59:39Z

Bonjour: /* External Links */

__NOTOC__
{{Portal|name=Beer Recipes}}
This article is intended as a repository listing homebrew beer recipes.

===Contributing a Recipe===
If you wish to contribute a recipe, please create a new page and title it with the recipe name. See the [[Amazing Wit|sample Wit recipe]] for an example of what should be included. Once your recipe page is complete, edit this page and add it to the listing of recipes below.

==Recipe Listings==
Listed alphabetically by name.
* [[An American Ale]]
* [[Amazing Wit]]
* [[Brawny Burton Ale]]
* [[Doc's Irish Stout]]
* [[Robust Porter]]

==External Links==
* [http://www.beersmith.com/recipes.htm BeerSmith Recipe Archive]
* [http://beerrecipes.org/ beerrecipes.org]
* [http://www.beerdujour.com/AwardWinningRecipes.htm Fred's Award Winning Recipes (Beer du Jour)}
[[Category:Recipes]]

Brewing Your First Beer

2006-06-29T02:59:41Z

Bonjour: /* Ingredients Needed */

==Brewing Your First Beer==
Brewing at home for the first time? This simple guide takes you through your first batch of beer including what's needed, how to brew and how to bottle. A short guide for the new homebrewer on how to brew your first extract beer!

===Equipment Needed===
You don't need a large set of fancy and expensive equipment to brew your first batch of beer. Many brewing supply stores sell starter kits for $75 or less. It can cost much less if you can borrow some or all the equipment from a friend. Here's a quick summary of what is needed:

* '''A Large Pot''' - at least 3 gallons in size, though a larger one will generally result in fewer spills
* '''Tubing & Clamp''' - to siphon the beer - most is 3/8" ID food grade plastic tubing. Clamps are available at your brew store.
* '''An Airtight Fermenter''' - a 5 gal plastic bucket with lid, or a glass carboy. If you can afford it, purchase a glass carboy as they are easier to clean and don't leak. If you get a carboy you may need a large brush to clean it
* '''An Air Lock and Stopper''' - sized to fit your fermenter
* '''A Bottle Filler''' - available from your homebrew supplier - should be sized to fit your tubing
* '''A Thermometer''' - with a range of 0-100 C or up from 32-220 F
* '''Bottles''' - You need just over 2 cases in 12 oz bottles to bottle your beer. Do not use twist off bottles - get the bottles that you have to pry the lid off.
* '''Bottle Brush''' - While not absolutely required, you usually need a good brush to get your bottles clean
* '''A Bottle Capper''' - a hand driven device to cap your bottles
* '''Bottle Caps''' - New bottle caps sold at your brewing supplier - you need about 50 caps for a 5 gal batch
* '''A Sterilizing solution''' - Household bleach can be used, but it must be thoroughly rinsed to prevent contamination. Your brew store may also have other alternatives such as iodophor and starsan that also sterilize well.

===Ingredients Needed===
The list below assumes you want to brew 5 gallons of a simple ale. You can use BeerSmith to formulate your own recipe or download recipes from our recipe page if you are looking for a different style.

* '''6-7 lbs of Unhopped Pale Malt Extract''' - Usually this comes in cans that are 3-3.3 lbs each. Malt provides the sweet base that the yeast will feed on to make alcohol. Available from various manufacturers.
* '''2 Oz of East Kent Goldings Hops''' - Hops add bitterness to your beer. Pellets are most common and easy to store.
* '''1 Package of Wyeast American Ale liquid Yeast (#1056)''' [ or White Labs California Ale #WLP001 or US-56 dry yeast]
* '''2/3 cup Priming Sugar''' - such as corn sugar. Also available from your brew store or grocer.

==The Extract Brewing Process==
Extract brewing consists of five stages:

# Brewing the Beer - The pale malt extract and hops are boiled together with water for about an hour to sterilize the extract and release the bittering qualities of the hops. Frequently grains are steeped in the mixture prior to the boil to add additional color and flavor complexity.
# Cooling and Fermenting - The hot mixture (called wort) is cooled to room temperature and siphoned or transferred to a fermenter where it is combined with additional water to achieve the desired 5 gallon batch size. Once the mixture drops to room temperature, yeast is added to start the fermentation process. Cleanliness and sterilization are very important since the wort can be easily infected by bacteria while in this state. An airlock is used to keep the fermenter sealed during fermentation. Your beer will ferment for 1-2 weeks.
# Priming and Bottling - Once the beer is fully fermented, it is usually siphoned to another container to prepare for bottling. Here priming sugars such as corn sugar sugar are mixed with the beer, and then it is siphoned into bottles and each bottle is capped with a bottle capping device.
# Aging - Once the beer has been bottled it needs to age for 2-6 weeks. During aging the yeast will ferment the remaining sugar you added and create carbon dioxide. This carbon dioxide will naturally carbonate your beer so it is nice an bubbly. In addition, undesirable sediments such as excess yeast and proteins will drop out of the beer during aging and this will enhance the flavor of your beer. In some cases it may take several months to reach peak flavor, though it is usually drinkable after a month.
# Drinking - When the beer is properly aged - just put the bottles in the fridge and enjoy! There's nothing quite like a great beer that you made yourself.

==Extract Brewing==
Brew day is my favorite part of the process. The smell of sweet wort bubbling away stirs something primeval in the human psyche. Since we are brewing a relatively simple extract beer, there is not much to set up. You need a clean pot large enough to hold 2 gallons of water plus the two cans (6 lbs of extract) and boil it (I recommend a 4-5 gallon pot if you can find one). Put 2 gallons of water into your pot and begin to heat it over your stove. Once the water has heated up a bit, open your cans of extract and slowly start mixing them into the warm water. The malt extract will have the consistency of heavy syrup, and you may need some hot water to get it all out of the sides of the can. The combined water and extract mixture is called "wort."

As you are adding the malt extract to your wort, you need to continuously mix it. If you do not mix it, the extract syrup will have a tendency to settle at the bottom of your pot where it will heat and caramelize, leaving a hardened caramel mess at the bottom of your pot. This carmelization can also alter the color and flavor of your beer, so it is important to mix well while heating.
Once you have all of your extract mixed in, the next step is to bring your wort to a boil. This is best done slowly, as your wort will tend to bubble up a lot when it first starts to boil. The water you used for your brew has a lot of air in it, and these small air bubbles will be released as it comes to a boil creating foaming and a high potential for a boil-over. The best way to avoid a boil-over it to turn the heat down a bit as the wort just begins to boil, and then very carefully manage the heat during the first 15 minutes of the boil until you have a steady boil with minimal foaming. Also, do NOT use a cover on your pot! While a covered pot will come to a boil quicker, the first time you open the pot it will boil over immediately - making a huge mess of your stove.

Once you achieve a steady boil it is time to add the hops. Weigh the proper amount and drop it in the hot wort. Some brewers use a mesh hops bag to reduce the mess later, but if you can cool your beer quickly most of the hops will drop out after the boil. Stir occasionally during the boil to reduce the chance of extract settling to the bottom and carmelizing. I recommend you boil for 60 minutes. Boil time will affect your hop utilization and beer bitterness, but this particular batch is sized for a 60 minute boil time.

==Cool and Ferment==
Once your boil has finished, you want to cool the hot wort to room temperature as quickly as possible to reduce the chance of infection. Many beginning brewers immerse their pot in a cold ice bath. Adding very cold water to the wort to bring it up to your target batch size (usually 5 gallons) will also help. More advanced brewers will use a chiller such as an immersion coil that runs cold water through a coil of copper tubing to quickly cool the beer. If needed add water to the wort when you transfer it to your fermenter to achieve the target volume of 5 gallons.

The wort at this stage is very vulnerable to infection so you need to make sure that your fermenter, airlock, siphon tubes and anything else that touches the wort or yeast are thouroughly sterilized. I use a solution of 5 gallons of water and small amount of household bleach to sterilize my equipment. However if you use bleach you must carefully rinse everything with hot water or you risk leaving your beer with a chlorine taste.

Your wort must be fully cooled to room temperature (72 F or so) and siphoned or dumped into your fermenter before you add (pitch) your yeast. Don't worry too much about all of the gunk (hops and proteins) in the wort - most of it will fall to the bottom during fermentation. Pitching yeast in hot wort will probably kill it off, so wait until your wort has fully cooled before adding yeast. I highly recommend the use of liquid yeast as it is far superior in quality to dry yeast. Liquid yeast comes in either a plastic tube or smack pack. The plastic tube type can be added directly to the wort. The foil smack-packs require you to pop an internal pouch containing the yeast several hours before pitching it to allow the yeast to grow in a self contained starter. Follow the instructions on your yeast pack to prepare it and then carefully add it to your fermenter. Once the yeast has been added and mixed in, close the top, fit your airlock (which needs a little water in it) and set your beer in a dark cool place where the temperature is steady.

Your airlock should begin bubbling within 12-36 hours, and continue fermenting for about a week. If you see no bubbles from the airlock, check the fit on your plastic pail and airlock. Often plastic fermenters have a poor seal on the lid that leaks. The bubbles in the airlock are CO2 produced by the fermentation, and will slowly tail off as fermentation nears completion. Assuming you have a good seal, the bubbles should slow to one every minute or two before you consider bottling. As a minimum I would ferment for a week before considering bottling a beer.

==Priming and Bottling==
The final step before bottling your beer is called priming. Priming consists of mixing sugar in with the beer to promote fermentation after bottling. A small amount of priming sugar will ferment and carbonate your beer.

Before you can prime and bottle, you again need to sterilize everything the beer will touch. Though your beer has fermented out, it still can be ruined by bacteria or by adding too much oxygen to it (i.e. don't splash it around). Most brewers use a large plastic bucket or carboy to make it easy to mix the priming sugar in evenly. Sterilize the bucket thoroughly, and also sterilize your siphoning equipment, tools and of course your bottles. Make sure your bottles are clean of debris before sterilizing - use a bottle brush to remove any deposits. Some people sterilize bottles by soaking them in a weak bleach solution and then rinsing well. I've also had some success with sterilizing my bottles in the dishwasher, but you need to run it several times with no soap and hot water to avoid leaving a soap residue that will ruin the head retention on your beer.

Siphon the finished beer into your priming bucket, trying very hard not to splash it around or mix any air in with it. Add 2/3 cup of priming sugar (I recommend corn sugar) to your beer and very gently mix it in. Next siphon the beer into your bottles using your bottle filler. Be sure to leave at least an inch or more of empty space at the top of your bottle to aid in fermentation. Put the caps on each bottle as you go and use your bottle capper to secure them.

==Aging==
The most difficult part by far is waiting for your beer to come of age. While most beers are drinkable after a few weeks, the average homebrew reaches peak flavor anywhere from 8 weeks to 15 weeks after brewing. Most homebrewers simply can't wait this long. During the aging process your beer will carbonate and excess yeast, tannins and proteins that create off flavors will fall out of your beer and settle to the bottom of the bottle. This will substantially improve your beer. I personally recommend waiting about 3-4 weeks after bottling before sampling your first brew.

Store your bottles in a cool, dark place. Unless you are brewing a lager under temperature controlled conditions, do not store your beer in the refrigerator for the first two weeks. Give it two weeks to fully carbonate at room temperature. After the first two weeks, refrigerating the beer will help it improve more quickly because the tannins, yeast and protein will sediment faster at cold temperature.

==Drinking==
The blessed day has finally arrived to sample your creation. During the aging process excess yeast, tannins and proteins will settle to the bottom of your bottle. Get a clean glass, open your brew, and gently poor most of your beer into the glass leaving only the sediment and a small amount of beer in your bottle. Don't worry if you take a little sediment into the glass - it won't hurt you though it may not improve the taste of your brew. Smell the fresh beer, admire the frothy head, and then sip (don't guzzle) your first homebrew and enjoy! As always, please drink responsibly.

==See Also==
*[[Processes|More on the Brewing Process]]

==External Links==
* [http://www.howtobrew.com/ How to Brew by John Palmer]

[[Category: processes]]

Brewing Your First Beer

2006-06-29T02:54:39Z

Bonjour: /* Ingredients Needed */

==Brewing Your First Beer==
Brewing at home for the first time? This simple guide takes you through your first batch of beer including what's needed, how to brew and how to bottle. A short guide for the new homebrewer on how to brew your first extract beer!

===Equipment Needed===
You don't need a large set of fancy and expensive equipment to brew your first batch of beer. Many brewing supply stores sell starter kits for $75 or less. It can cost much less if you can borrow some or all the equipment from a friend. Here's a quick summary of what is needed:

* '''A Large Pot''' - at least 3 gallons in size, though a larger one will generally result in fewer spills
* '''Tubing & Clamp''' - to siphon the beer - most is 3/8" ID food grade plastic tubing. Clamps are available at your brew store.
* '''An Airtight Fermenter''' - a 5 gal plastic bucket with lid, or a glass carboy. If you can afford it, purchase a glass carboy as they are easier to clean and don't leak. If you get a carboy you may need a large brush to clean it
* '''An Air Lock and Stopper''' - sized to fit your fermenter
* '''A Bottle Filler''' - available from your homebrew supplier - should be sized to fit your tubing
* '''A Thermometer''' - with a range of 0-100 C or up from 32-220 F
* '''Bottles''' - You need just over 2 cases in 12 oz bottles to bottle your beer. Do not use twist off bottles - get the bottles that you have to pry the lid off.
* '''Bottle Brush''' - While not absolutely required, you usually need a good brush to get your bottles clean
* '''A Bottle Capper''' - a hand driven device to cap your bottles
* '''Bottle Caps''' - New bottle caps sold at your brewing supplier - you need about 50 caps for a 5 gal batch
* '''A Sterilizing solution''' - Household bleach can be used, but it must be thoroughly rinsed to prevent contamination. Your brew store may also have other alternatives such as iodophor and starsan that also sterilize well.

===Ingredients Needed===
The list below assumes you want to brew 5 gallons of a simple ale. You can use BeerSmith to formulate your own recipe or download recipes from our recipe page if you are looking for a different style.

* '''6-7 lbs of Unhopped Pale Malt Extract''' - Usually this comes in cans that are 3-3.3 lbs each. Malt provides the sweet base that the yeast will feed on to make alcohol. Available from various manufacturers.
* '''2 Oz of East Kent Goldings Hops''' - Hops add bitterness to your beer. Pellets are most common and easy to store.
* '''1 Package of Wyeast American Ale liquid Yeast (#1056)''' [ or White Labs California Ale #WLP001 ]
* '''2/3 cup Priming Sugar''' - such as corn sugar. Also available from your brew store or grocer.

==The Extract Brewing Process==
Extract brewing consists of five stages:

# Brewing the Beer - The pale malt extract and hops are boiled together with water for about an hour to sterilize the extract and release the bittering qualities of the hops. Frequently grains are steeped in the mixture prior to the boil to add additional color and flavor complexity.
# Cooling and Fermenting - The hot mixture (called wort) is cooled to room temperature and siphoned or transferred to a fermenter where it is combined with additional water to achieve the desired 5 gallon batch size. Once the mixture drops to room temperature, yeast is added to start the fermentation process. Cleanliness and sterilization are very important since the wort can be easily infected by bacteria while in this state. An airlock is used to keep the fermenter sealed during fermentation. Your beer will ferment for 1-2 weeks.
# Priming and Bottling - Once the beer is fully fermented, it is usually siphoned to another container to prepare for bottling. Here priming sugars such as corn sugar sugar are mixed with the beer, and then it is siphoned into bottles and each bottle is capped with a bottle capping device.
# Aging - Once the beer has been bottled it needs to age for 2-6 weeks. During aging the yeast will ferment the remaining sugar you added and create carbon dioxide. This carbon dioxide will naturally carbonate your beer so it is nice an bubbly. In addition, undesirable sediments such as excess yeast and proteins will drop out of the beer during aging and this will enhance the flavor of your beer. In some cases it may take several months to reach peak flavor, though it is usually drinkable after a month.
# Drinking - When the beer is properly aged - just put the bottles in the fridge and enjoy! There's nothing quite like a great beer that you made yourself.

==Extract Brewing==
Brew day is my favorite part of the process. The smell of sweet wort bubbling away stirs something primeval in the human psyche. Since we are brewing a relatively simple extract beer, there is not much to set up. You need a clean pot large enough to hold 2 gallons of water plus the two cans (6 lbs of extract) and boil it (I recommend a 4-5 gallon pot if you can find one). Put 2 gallons of water into your pot and begin to heat it over your stove. Once the water has heated up a bit, open your cans of extract and slowly start mixing them into the warm water. The malt extract will have the consistency of heavy syrup, and you may need some hot water to get it all out of the sides of the can. The combined water and extract mixture is called "wort."

As you are adding the malt extract to your wort, you need to continuously mix it. If you do not mix it, the extract syrup will have a tendency to settle at the bottom of your pot where it will heat and caramelize, leaving a hardened caramel mess at the bottom of your pot. This carmelization can also alter the color and flavor of your beer, so it is important to mix well while heating.
Once you have all of your extract mixed in, the next step is to bring your wort to a boil. This is best done slowly, as your wort will tend to bubble up a lot when it first starts to boil. The water you used for your brew has a lot of air in it, and these small air bubbles will be released as it comes to a boil creating foaming and a high potential for a boil-over. The best way to avoid a boil-over it to turn the heat down a bit as the wort just begins to boil, and then very carefully manage the heat during the first 15 minutes of the boil until you have a steady boil with minimal foaming. Also, do NOT use a cover on your pot! While a covered pot will come to a boil quicker, the first time you open the pot it will boil over immediately - making a huge mess of your stove.

Once you achieve a steady boil it is time to add the hops. Weigh the proper amount and drop it in the hot wort. Some brewers use a mesh hops bag to reduce the mess later, but if you can cool your beer quickly most of the hops will drop out after the boil. Stir occasionally during the boil to reduce the chance of extract settling to the bottom and carmelizing. I recommend you boil for 60 minutes. Boil time will affect your hop utilization and beer bitterness, but this particular batch is sized for a 60 minute boil time.

==Cool and Ferment==
Once your boil has finished, you want to cool the hot wort to room temperature as quickly as possible to reduce the chance of infection. Many beginning brewers immerse their pot in a cold ice bath. Adding very cold water to the wort to bring it up to your target batch size (usually 5 gallons) will also help. More advanced brewers will use a chiller such as an immersion coil that runs cold water through a coil of copper tubing to quickly cool the beer. If needed add water to the wort when you transfer it to your fermenter to achieve the target volume of 5 gallons.

The wort at this stage is very vulnerable to infection so you need to make sure that your fermenter, airlock, siphon tubes and anything else that touches the wort or yeast are thouroughly sterilized. I use a solution of 5 gallons of water and small amount of household bleach to sterilize my equipment. However if you use bleach you must carefully rinse everything with hot water or you risk leaving your beer with a chlorine taste.

Your wort must be fully cooled to room temperature (72 F or so) and siphoned or dumped into your fermenter before you add (pitch) your yeast. Don't worry too much about all of the gunk (hops and proteins) in the wort - most of it will fall to the bottom during fermentation. Pitching yeast in hot wort will probably kill it off, so wait until your wort has fully cooled before adding yeast. I highly recommend the use of liquid yeast as it is far superior in quality to dry yeast. Liquid yeast comes in either a plastic tube or smack pack. The plastic tube type can be added directly to the wort. The foil smack-packs require you to pop an internal pouch containing the yeast several hours before pitching it to allow the yeast to grow in a self contained starter. Follow the instructions on your yeast pack to prepare it and then carefully add it to your fermenter. Once the yeast has been added and mixed in, close the top, fit your airlock (which needs a little water in it) and set your beer in a dark cool place where the temperature is steady.

Your airlock should begin bubbling within 12-36 hours, and continue fermenting for about a week. If you see no bubbles from the airlock, check the fit on your plastic pail and airlock. Often plastic fermenters have a poor seal on the lid that leaks. The bubbles in the airlock are CO2 produced by the fermentation, and will slowly tail off as fermentation nears completion. Assuming you have a good seal, the bubbles should slow to one every minute or two before you consider bottling. As a minimum I would ferment for a week before considering bottling a beer.

==Priming and Bottling==
The final step before bottling your beer is called priming. Priming consists of mixing sugar in with the beer to promote fermentation after bottling. A small amount of priming sugar will ferment and carbonate your beer.

Before you can prime and bottle, you again need to sterilize everything the beer will touch. Though your beer has fermented out, it still can be ruined by bacteria or by adding too much oxygen to it (i.e. don't splash it around). Most brewers use a large plastic bucket or carboy to make it easy to mix the priming sugar in evenly. Sterilize the bucket thoroughly, and also sterilize your siphoning equipment, tools and of course your bottles. Make sure your bottles are clean of debris before sterilizing - use a bottle brush to remove any deposits. Some people sterilize bottles by soaking them in a weak bleach solution and then rinsing well. I've also had some success with sterilizing my bottles in the dishwasher, but you need to run it several times with no soap and hot water to avoid leaving a soap residue that will ruin the head retention on your beer.

Siphon the finished beer into your priming bucket, trying very hard not to splash it around or mix any air in with it. Add 2/3 cup of priming sugar (I recommend corn sugar) to your beer and very gently mix it in. Next siphon the beer into your bottles using your bottle filler. Be sure to leave at least an inch or more of empty space at the top of your bottle to aid in fermentation. Put the caps on each bottle as you go and use your bottle capper to secure them.

==Aging==
The most difficult part by far is waiting for your beer to come of age. While most beers are drinkable after a few weeks, the average homebrew reaches peak flavor anywhere from 8 weeks to 15 weeks after brewing. Most homebrewers simply can't wait this long. During the aging process your beer will carbonate and excess yeast, tannins and proteins that create off flavors will fall out of your beer and settle to the bottom of the bottle. This will substantially improve your beer. I personally recommend waiting about 3-4 weeks after bottling before sampling your first brew.

Store your bottles in a cool, dark place. Unless you are brewing a lager under temperature controlled conditions, do not store your beer in the refrigerator for the first two weeks. Give it two weeks to fully carbonate at room temperature. After the first two weeks, refrigerating the beer will help it improve more quickly because the tannins, yeast and protein will sediment faster at cold temperature.

==Drinking==
The blessed day has finally arrived to sample your creation. During the aging process excess yeast, tannins and proteins will settle to the bottom of your bottle. Get a clean glass, open your brew, and gently poor most of your beer into the glass leaving only the sediment and a small amount of beer in your bottle. Don't worry if you take a little sediment into the glass - it won't hurt you though it may not improve the taste of your brew. Smell the fresh beer, admire the frothy head, and then sip (don't guzzle) your first homebrew and enjoy! As always, please drink responsibly.

==See Also==
*[[Processes|More on the Brewing Process]]

==External Links==
* [http://www.howtobrew.com/ How to Brew by John Palmer]

[[Category: processes]]