Beer nerdery – have we gone too far? I suspect some of you will find the above video hilarious and others will find it a little too close to reality for comfort. I stumbled across it on the interwebs earlier today and I admit, I was laughing.
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March 16, 2012 by tphelan
March 15, 2012 by cwalton
Yeast junkies – you’ve hit the jackpot! Owen Lingley from Wyeast Laboratories visited our Northern Brewer Minneapolis store in early 2012. Here he discusses the following (in loose order): Wyeast’s history, new yeast strains for 2012, Activator “smack” packs, yeast starter recommendations, pitch rates, temperature and flavor/ester influence, harvesting and reusing yeast, approximating yeast count by percent solid by volume, aeration, attenuation, force-ferment test, VDK testing, yeast strain selection, flocculation, and collaborations with Northern Brewer Homebrew Supply.
Link to pitch rates and harvesting:
http://www.wyeastlab.com/hb_pitchrates.cfm
Yeast strain info:
http://www.wyeastlab.com/hb_yeaststrain.cfm
March 13, 2012 by tphelan
Converting a Chest Freezer for Science (and Beer)
Keezer, Kegerator, Breezer, Corny Chest, Freezerator. These are all words one could use to describe the beer dispensing system that was in need of building at Northern Brewer Minneapolis up until early afternoon today. Let me explain how important and helpful this magical device that we just built will be. Like any of you who might brew frequently, we have a lot of batches of beer that need to be kegged and drank. Trying to accomplish this in a basic chest freezer with plastic picnic taps running from Corny kegs was just not cutting it anymore. Some sloppy pouring from plastic picnic tap lines and one sighting of a bit of mold was more than enough to encourage us all that we needed Perlick faucets and organized, clean beverage lines a.s.a.p.
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March 9, 2012 by cwalton
Brewing TV received two bottles of The Maharaja Imperial IPA from Avery Brewing Company in Boulder, CO. Here is our tasting notes and an extra-special bonus for homebrewers, the recipe for the beer!
The Maharaja (Imperial India Pale Ale)
Recipe courtesy Avery Brewing Company
5-gallon batch
OG: 1.090
FG: 1.012
Grist:
- Pale 2-Row — 93.8%
- Victory Malt — 3.1%
- Crystal 120 — 3.1%
Hops (pellets):
- 1.09 oz Columbus (13.9%AA) @ 60 min
- 1.09 oz Columbus (13.9%AA) @ 30 min
- 2.18 oz Centennial (13.9%AA) @ 0 min
- 2.18 oz Simcoe (11.4%AA) @ 0 min
- 4.38 oz Simcoe – dry hop
- 2.18 oz Centennial – dry hop
- 2.18 oz Chinook – dry hop
Yeast – California
Fermentation Temp: 74F
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BTV Note: No direct reference to length of fermentation or mash temperature… we’ll look into it – for now, use the FG and test-tastes as a guidepost.
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UPDATE – March 26, 2012
Per Avery head brewer Matt “Truck” Thrall
As you very well know, the %AA levels change from year to year, crop to crop. Currently the hops we are brewing with have the following numbers:
Columbus – 16.3 %AA
Simcoe – 12.2 %AA
Chinook – 12.9 %AA
Centennial – 11.4 %AA
We never change the end of boil hop amounts so if we have a higher/lower %AA than the year before, we make adjustments to the first addition and either increase or decrease the amount to nail our overall IBU spec.
As for the actual weight of malts, I would have no clue where to start. Everyone has a slightly different mash/lauter tun efficiency and this will play into the amount of grain used. I also haven’t used less than 2000 pounds of malt on a brew in almost nine years…
Finally, I would like to finish with saying brews don’t scale up or down perfectly. My question though: Why clone anything? Play with the existing recipe and make something of your own. I believe this is the spirit of homebrewing and professional brewing.
To which, we at Brewing TV would like to say: “Damn straight, Mr. Thrall!”
March 5, 2012 by tphelan
After brewing a hundred or so batches of beer, the brew day is not very challenging anymore. You don’t need to look at the instructions. You know your system well enough to hit all your temperatures and not spill any wort. At this point, some folks get into more complicated decoction brewing, develop a little lager obsession, or maybe start honing in their efficiency or expanding their brewery. I’ve gotten into multitasking.
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