I have noticed that one of the most frequently asked questions by new and old brewers is, is my beer done fermenting? Well, there are a few ways to answer that; varying from pitching more yeast to be sure, comparing the expected attenuation from the yeast manufacturer with the actual attenuation, or moving the beer to a warmer spot. I have never been a huge fan of any of these options because of loss of flavor from overpitching or the creation of esters from warming the whole batch.

The fast or forced fermentation test is a way to circumvent that process to analytically determine what you final gravity should be. The way that I like to go about this is to create a starter that is slightly larger than is needed, and to save about 8oz or so of unfermented wort. I then take a hydrometer reading (or brix), aerate, and then use the extra yeast to overpitch this small batch, and allow it to ferment in a slightly warmer area. You can also aerate this small batch throughout its fermentation because there is no worry about oxidation. After a few days the fermentation will be done and you can take a final gravity reading. This final gravity reading is what you would expect out of your larger batch based the yeast strain, particular batch, and optimal conditions for your yeast.
As a side note, you can also use a variation of this after fermentation has seemingly ended, but you are unsure if it is fully attenuated. All you need to do is take an aseptic sample from you wort, large enough for a hydrometer reading, and place it into a santized beer bottle with an airlock. I then place that sample (which was likely aerated from the transfer) in a warmer area and then check its reading about two days later. By doing this, you can tell whether your brew is finished fermenting.

P.S. This method is also useful in finding the expected attenuation of harvested yeast strains.

Most of what you read or hear says to clean out your keg lines every 2 weeks. I know most restaurants are required to do this, (whether they do or not I can’t say), but that is the recommendation.

Now I feel that at the homebrew / homebar level that is probably overkill, and a way that the manufacturers of cleaning products can scare you into using more product (strictly opinion here). That being said, waiting a year to clean out your keg lines may be on the opposite end of the extreme timetable, if this is you, get them cleaned!

Much like anything else (for me that is) when it comes down to cleaning periodically, procrastination is very easy to set in, and the mentality of “I’ll get it done next opportunity” seems quite relavent.

Now this method is not a replacement for a necessary deep clean that a system may need every now and again with caustics or hard cleaners, but is a very easy way to keep your stuff up to snuff.

 First your liquid lines will require being attached to the quick disconnects by using a barbed swivel nut at the end of each line  http://www.midwestsupplies.com/products/ProdByID.aspx?ProdID=4533 this will allow you to exchange quick disconnects. The second thing you will need is a carboantor cap    http://www.midwestsupplies.com/products/ProdByID.aspx?ProdID=4537 

This is the assembly process:

1. Disconnect liquid line from keg, then open faucet to remove any pressure from the line.

2. Spin off the liquid quick disconnect (black if ball lock) and spin on a ball lock gas quick disconnect (grey).

3. Fill a 2 liter soda bottle with cleaner of your choice- BLC, PBW, bleach solution, etc

4. Fill another 2 liter bottle with hot water.

5. Screw the carbonator cap to the top of the bottle with the cleaner

6. Attach the quick disconnect to the carbonator cap.

7. With the faucet forward and open, squeeze the bottle to force the cleaner through the line and out of the faucet into a waiting catch basin.

8. Unscrew the cap from the cleaning bottle and reattach to the rinse bottle.

9. Sqeeze the rinse water through the line and out of the faucet into a catch basin.

10. Reattach the liquid QD to the line, reconnect the keg, dump off the first pint or so.

Again, I am not recommending that a thorough routine clean should not be performed, however for those of us who procrastinate but are looking for some peace of mind, this is a cheap, quick way to blast your lines out periodically.

Ulterior Motive Brewing

Beer and men go together.  This is an accepted, immutable fact which cannot be changed without dire threat to life in this universe as we know it.  Since the very balance of our existence hinges on this combination, then it stands to reason that most hobby brewers are men.  This isn’t to say that there aren’t female brewers out there (I’m one of them) but I think we can all agree that garage brewing is a man’s hobby.

Something I see over and over on the boards are chivalrous brewers who selflessly seek to brew up something which appeals to the women in their lives.  (I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt here guys, and assuming its chivalry or a noble attempt to care for your woman, not because she’s been scowling over the cost of the new equipment or the smells coming out of the garage).  Don’t get me wrong; I know that there are lots of women out there who like beer and who have refined palates for the ultimate expression of grain, but there are also a lot of women who like things which are a little fruiter, a little sweeter and a little… well, girly-er.

So, whether it’s chivalry or an effort to get the brewing allowance increased, whether it’s to get her to stop glaring at you when you make a mess in the kitchen, or an attempt to include her in your hobby that makes you brew up “something for the ladies” I thought I’d share a recipe with you all.  It’s not too expensive (at this time of year), and I’ve gotten rave reviews on it (from men and women both).  Yeah, it’s kind of a pain in the rear and it takes a while, but isn’t she worth it? Trust me, she’ll like it.  And she may even agree to that stainless steel conical you’ve been drooling over.

The SG on this is going to vary wildly depending on the natural sugars in the berries, but the average ABV on this is going to be around 12%-14% (and I am going to let you in on a little secret here guys, we know why you like to give us alcohol and we’re okay with it).

Sweet Blackberry Wine (1gal)

4 lbs blackberries (slightly overripe is best)
1 Campden tablet (kills off bacteria and wild yeast found on fruits)
1 tsp pectic enzyme (optional) (helps keep down pectin haze)
1 pkg Champagne yeast
1 tsp yeast nutrient (blackberries don’t have sufficient nutrients for a good ferment)
2 lb clover honey
2-3 cups cane sugar (yep, regular table sugar)

Naturally, sanitize anything that’s going to be touching your must.

Wash berries well. Crush them in 2 gal fermenter (2 gal HDPE plastic bucket and cover @ Home Depot is approx $3.00, look in the paint section), add 1 campden tablet, cover and let stand 24 hours, giving fermenter a shake every once and a while.  (This is the sanitizing process for the berries; if you boil them you’re liable to get jelly.)

Pour 2 quarts of boiling water over mixture and let cool then add pectic enzyme and yeast nutrient.

Sprinkle the dry yeast evenly over the top of the must (or you can make a starter with orange juice and a little honey) Airlock it and ferment approx 1 week.

Strain through cheesecloth into secondary (use another air locked bucket unless you have a way to stir a 1 gal glass jug). Mix honey and sugar into juice and add water to top off to one gallon. Ferment till clear.

When clear (2-4 weeks generally) rack over to tertiary (necessary because blackberries are fuzzy). At this time, taste for sweetness only (it won’t be good wine at this point).  Add up to ¾ lb sugar more if necessary (stir gently).

When wine has cleared again (about 2 months), rack off into a glass container being careful not to disturb the sediment, and bottle it up (and yes, it’s okay to use beer bottles and caps.  They work fine and you can store them upright.) Condition a min of 4 months (although 6 is better).

Home Brewers Ultimate Recipe Book

Clara Bell

So, I was scrolling through my copy of the Home Brewers Ultimate Recipe Book (also known as the Best Cookbook Ever) looking for a nice refreshing summery beer when I came across the recipe for Clara Bell. I decided to make it mainly because I noticed it called for citric acid and I thought it might give the beer a nice refreshing tang, but having all the ingredients on hand didn’t hurt my decision making process either.

Making this one was tough and I am still not sure I did it right. The ingredient list is not complete. The instructions call for ingredients which are not listed and I am not sure that the call for 2 tablespoons of Irish Moss isn’t a typo. Because of the extremely poor directions, I had to make some judgment calls when brewing this one up.

I was absolutely astounded when this one came out so well. It’s a medium gold with a thick white head of dense bubbles. It’s very slightly cloudy but that could be due to the nonstandard boil time of the Irish Moss. The initial taste on the tongue is somewhat sharp easing into a full flavored beer with a crisp clean taste. It is light in the mouth with a tangy lingering aftertaste. As a bonus, this beer matured quickly and only required about 8 days of bottle conditioning for its full flavor character. During my official “tasting” of this beer, 9 out of 10 tasters raved about it. The tenth person liked it a lot and drank several glasses, but indicated that he preferred darker beers.

This was an outstanding beer. The only problem with it is that I am not certain I made the beer the author intended due to the extremely poorly written recipe. If you are interested in making my version of Clara Bell, I have listed the modifications I made below.

MODIFICATIONS:

½ lb Cara-Pils

½ lb Crystal

1 T. Irish Moss

¾ tsp yeast nutrient

SG 1.052

FG 1.016

ABV 5%

Fermenting Temp 68º -74º F

1 week primary

2 weeks secondary

14 days bottled (very good at

Tired of cleaning out your bottles? Maybe it is time to start kegging your beer! Like anything else there are certain advantages and disadvantages to almost every process that can be done more than one way. Let’s face it, our goal as homebrewers is to have a full glass of the highest quality homebrew you have the ability to make. How it gets in your glass can be a tale of two methods.

We all know the painstaking procedures (labor of love- right?) that comes with bottling your beer. If this process could be avoided, most would say, sure- sign me up! The alternative to the process is to keg your beer. The major disadvantage that may scare some away is the initial investment. Now, cold keg beer can be had and served for less than a $100 initial investment. Here is how.

The first thing you need is a refrigerant. Within one week many quality options can be found on craigslist for $25-50. When choosing one, think of the future: is this just going to be strictly to chill one keg and space is a concern, or will this be the base of a constantly upgraded system? If you are planning on starting simple but know you will be slowly collecting parts to add for future upgrades, then your choices can range from a small dorm fridge, to an upright refrigerator, to a chest freezer.

The next thing you will need is a keg of beer and a tap. A used and refurbished cornelius keg can be purchased on the internet from several sources for between $30-40. Without getting into many details (previous blog), keg your beer, and put it in the fridge. Now to dispense. A picnic tap can be purchased for approximately $9, and will hook up directly to the outpost of your keg. To pressurize and serve, a portable CO2 canister ($20) can be connected to the in post and voila! You are ready to serve cold beer. If you snag the bargains the parts add up to about $95.

The next upgrade would be to add a gas source. CO2 tanks can be purchased for about $80 for a 5lb tank to $150 for a 20lb tank. A 5lb tank should last approximately 10 kegs and will cost an average of $15 to fill /exchange. All that needs to be done is hook a line up to the gas regulator, (approx $60) and connect a quick disconnect to the other end. The QD will then be hooked up to the in post of your keg (ball lock or pin lock). Now you can carbonate, condition and serve under constant CO2 pressure.

That is the inexpensive version. Now lets say you want to upgrade this party to serve out of a faucet. Simple. All you need to do is select a placement for your faucet’s shank to be located, (usually the door of the fridge- but depending on model and configuration can be any accessible location from inside, as long as coolant lines are not present). When selecting faucet location, think of the future and what upgrades to additional faucets you may add on later, so a symmetrical look can always be maintained.

Now all you need to do is install the shank. You will of course need a shank, a faucet to connect to the shank, a tailpiece to connect your serving bevline to, and a quick disconnect to match your kegs out post. Start by locating your faucet shank placement on the fridge (again making sure no coolant lines are there- never any on a door). Next drill a 1/8″ pilot hole all the way through, making sure the drill bit entry is completely level both up and down and side to side, this will insure the exit hole is an exact match to the entry. Now widen the entry hole with either a 7/8″ hole saw, or the preferred 7/8″ stepped drill bit. Now widen the exit hole the same way and remove any insulation that is between the two. Assemble your faucet to your shank, (if you have a vanity collar for the shank do not forget to slide this on), and push through the hole from the front side. Secure the shank in place with the shank supplied back nut, and attach the tailpiece. Connect the bevline (usually 3/16″) to the tailpiece, and the other end to the outpost of your corny keg. All gas and bevline connections should be secured with hose clamps, (oetiker or ear styles are preferable, worm styles will work- just avoid overtightening). Screw the tap handle on the faucet and crank the gas up to 10psi and pour your beer! [IMG]http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc314/thirsty_02/FRP.jpg[/IMG]

Want multiple lines? Easy enough. Repeat the above procedure for each faucet, the only thing you need to add is more gas lines. This can be done by connecting your main gas line to a distributor manifold. These can be purchased with multiple splits with their own shutoff and check valves, and each of those lines can be split as well. The distributor can be mounted to the fridge interior wall. Now just connect a gas line to each gas barb that you need to attach a keg to. Easy as that!

A few upgrades that you may want to consider:

-Drip collection trays- mount below the faucet(s)

-Custom platform for fridge interior to keep multiple kegs on single level

-Temp controller (Johnson or Ranco type) for exact kegerator temp (necessary on freezer type)

-CO2 bulkhead- allows CO2 line pass through keeping tank on outside, allowing more interior fridge space (maybe another keg?)

-Gas and liquid in line QD’s to toggle between a corny keg and sanke keg attachment, this will allow you to also pour a commercial keg off the same system

-Moose antlers (again optional)

So if bottling is getting too tenuous and you do not want to wait 2 months to drink your new favorite brew, serving from a keg can be done for less overhead than many think is possible. If you are even thinking if it is worth it or not- just my humble opinion, go for it! You will not be disappointed.

Prost!

So you have made the jump to all grain brewing. Your mash tun has the kinks worked out of it, your sparge methods are pretty sound, and your efficiency is consistant. There is no need to change a thing with your process right?

Well that is a matter of opinion. For most everyone in the AG world, we do not have direct fired msahtuns. This makes temperature control possible by only two means. One is infusion of more water to the mash at a higher or lower temperature to adjust the overall mash temp, or transferring the heat from another source to the mash.

Why is this even necessary? Well many recipes call for a certain mash temperature to be held. A lot of mash tuns can lose heat over the course of the mash, mashtun efficiency can vary but a swing of 3 to 5 degrees during the duration is not uncommon. The lower end of the temperature window will produce a higher fermentable wort with a thinner body, more alcohol and less mouthfeel. The higher end of the window will produce a less fermentable wort, with a thicker body and provide more mouthfeel. Knowing this, many of us want to have a target mash temp and stick to it.

There are also advantages to a stepped mash. The starch to sugar conversion happens within two seperate ranges. Without getting into chemistry and keeping this simple the optimal ranges are 142-145 degrees, and 153-156 degrees. Most who do a single infusion mash will pick a temperature of say 150 degrees and try to get the best of both worlds, but are not hitting optimum circumstance. To do this a mash rest at 144 deg for an hour and 155 deg for 1/2 hour would be better. Some pilsner malts also benefit from a protein rest at 122 deg as well. Almost all other malts are “well modified” and the maltsters say a protein rest is not necessary.

So how do you get complete control over your mash without a direct fire tun? You could start with a thick mash at your first target temp, then add another infusion of near boiling (200 deg) hot liquor. How much to add can be tricky, I’ve played with this a bit and need far more than recommended to move the temp, failed attempts and definately not pinpoint accurate. That leaves us with the other option which is heat exchange.

There are two methods that are widely used in the homebrew world, A Heat Exchanged Reciculated Mash System (HERMS) or a Recirculating Infusion Mash System (RIMS). The latter of the two incorporates a heat source (usually electric) element that is included in the plumbing of a recirculating system. The wort is drained slowly out of the tun and passed through plumbing which heats the wort to a higher temperature then pumps it back into the tun. A HERMS does pretty much the same thing except the wort stays contained amd the heat is transferred to the lines by an out of plumbing source, usually hot water.

This is my simple design. A 25 foot immersion chiller works great. If you do not have an immersion chiller you can take a lesson out of a previous blog well written on how to make one. If you use your immersion chiller to do your actual chill then quick disconnects might be a good idea. You want to set the circuit up to go from your mashtun drain valve, to your pump inlet, pump outlet to your IC inlet, Your IC outlet to your mash tun inlet. The IC you want to place into a boil pot, (I use my keggle). The wort will then be pumped out of your mashtun, into the IC, (which is now doing the opposite of its intended use- it is heating the wort not cooling) then re-introduced back into the mash thus raising the overall temp.

A typical mash cycle may include striking the grains with 159 degree hot liquor getting an initial mash temp of 144 deg. After 1/2 hour a drop of 1-2 degrees may occur, that is when you would recirculate and have the water surrounding the IC (your new heat exchanger) at 170 deg. When this loop runs for a few minutes the mash will go back up to 144 or 145, shut down or restart the loop to maintain within a couple degrees your target. After an hour, have the exchange water heated to 180 deg, and turn the loop on again, depending on the coil diameter, coil length and mash volume, you should be able to raise the temp from 144 to 155 in about 8-12 minutes. Then after it rests at 155 for 20-30 minutes, crank the heat exchange water up to 200 deg. Run the loop again and a mashout temp of 168 deg should be reachable in another 8-12 minutes. After playing with the system some you can figure out how long it takes to raise the exchange water temp up so it is ready when your mash is.

Besides absolute control over your mash temp to within 1-2 degrees of accuracy, there are a couple of other benefits. Because of the constant recirculation, a nice clear wort will be produced making vorlauf unnecessary. When it is time to drain and sparge, open your drain tube and fill your kettle with clear wort void of husks. The second is improved efficiency. With a proper conversion temp, a proper mashout temp, and constant grain rinsing, just about every bit of soluble sugar is collected. A higher efficiency means less necessary grain making life easier and brewday a little cheaper.

A couple of quick tips. First, there should be some type of sparge manifold or diverter above your mash during the re-introduction of the wort. If not, like fly-sparging the new wort can cause channelling and not be raising all of the grains’ temp. The other is to clean out the IC, by disconnecting the line from the mashtun and reconnecting it to a hotwater source, then pump the hot water through to clean out any wort back into the tun, when it runs clear, you’re clean!

This may not be a must have for everyone, but I figure if you are doing 10 gallon batches or larger, a pump is probably already in place, why not add some more control to your fingertips.

Prost!

So there is no argument, most everyone will agree that a proper yeast count will yield a healthy fermentation, which will lead to proper attenuation as well as yeast performing in a comfortable lower stress environment. This equates to the most accurate flavor profile of your beer. Some may say that underpitching stresses the yeast and leads to a different, sometimes desirable flavor (some Belgian practices), however at the homebrewing level I can’t see a way to regulate this. That being said it is very hard to “over-pitch” your yeast when you look at the optimal pitching rates. The hobbyist go to cheat sheet http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html is very accurate and makes the adjustments necessary for how much yeast is needed.

Without getting into a long winded discussion on starter techniques and efficiencies, there are a couple things all starters must possess: a sugar/malt concentration of 1.030 to 1.045 gravity, and a sterile environment. Both of these can be accomplished in many different ways, but most will include an addition of Dried Malt Extract (DME) to healthy water and then a boil for solubility and to sanitize everything that your yeast will be in contact with.

If most are like me, different methods have been tried to minimize transferring from pot to starter vessel with varying advantages. If you boil in a pot much larger than your starter/fermenter, you will need to transfer from the boiling pot, after cooled to the new vessel, possible contamination, but little chance of boilover. If you boil in a heat safe starter/fermenter like an Erlenmeyer flask, there is less contamination chances but a high risk of boilover. If your starter requires large capacity say 3-4 quarts, a very large flask is necessary but becomes expensive, and still needs to have a hawkeye kept on it throughout the boil to avoid a messy mishap. A compromise may be the necessary solution.

My solution is to use sanitary ingredients in a sanitary container. My vessel of choice is Carlo and Rossi’s 1 gallon wine jugs. Either dump the wine out (yeah right) or use it as you wish, but when empty give it a good PBW (powdered brewer’s wash) soak and then fill with sanitizer. When you are ready to build your starter just dump out your sanitizer (no rinse preferable) and swish to rinse it clean with a cup or so of distilled water. If I need a huge starter 1-2 gallons, I just split my yeast/slurry into 2 of these jugs. You can buy glass 1 gallon jugs at many places for around $5, I like to pay the extra $5 and get some wine out of it. Any other clean and sanitized container will work, I happen to find these the best. A screw cap top is also great and allows you to shake things up periodically safely, then the cap can be loosened to allow for escaping CO2.

Now we need some contents. Malto Goya can be purchased at most mega-marts. Mine sells them for $.40 per bottle. The drink is a sanitary malt beverage that holds a gravity of about 1.075. I dillute it with distilled water at the rate of 1 12oz bottle to 1 cup of distilled water. This provides you with a starter wort of a 1.040 gravity.

Most of the time I build 3 quart starters. To do this I open 5 bottles of the Malto, sanitize the top with some spray no rinse, then dump it into my sanitized jug. There is a small amount of bottled CO2 (not really carbonated) so when you first pour in it will have a foamy head. Swish it around to degas it and wait a few minutes, once the head dies down it will not come back up, then add your distilled water to desired solution, (I usually pour a little extra to get a 1.035 wort less yeast stress). Then add your yeast. Simple as that!

I have done this method many times and have always had normal starter activity and the yeast settles out fine. There is one caveat- if you pitch the whole starter without chilling and decanting, the malto may add 1-2 SRM to the finished color of your beer. It would be up to you to decide if that is acceptable. I pitch the whole thing into stouts, porters even darker IPA’s, but for belgians and beers I try to pay attention to color, I choose to chill for a day and decant off the spent wort.

If you are using specific equipment and have a routine down that is fool/fail proof, then good for you. I on the other hand was able to accomplish a boilover regularly and cursed out the day of the week when I would need to make my starter wort, chill, clean off the stove, etc. Now it is pretty pain free and costs about $2.50 each time. This is a necessary pre brewday task that I do not mind doing anymore. Hope this little tip is helpful and can save you time and money in the future- for more beer!

Prost!

The mash tun is a piece of equipment used by the “all grain” brewer. Put simply, it is a vessel, in which the milled, malted grain is placed with hot water to release the sugars necessary for fermentation.

The mash tun is one of the easiest, yet most confusing pieces of equipment to the new brewer. There are so many configurations, it would be impossible to nail down the “best” way to mash your grains. One person may say the round cooler, another may go the route of the 5 day Wally world special. The simple answer, is even more confusing.

Your mash tun is a direct reflection on how you brew… If you are a quick and easy bewrer, you most likely have a 5 or 6 gal round cooler with a false bottom. This is a great way to mash. You can buy the whole set up, no fuss no muss. However, it does however have some limitations.

Another option is the rectangle cooler or as I call ‘em, the 5 day’er. It is just another shape of the concept of the round cooler. It has the same benefits and limitations of the round cooler, with the added benefit of a greater capacity. To the naked eye, its benefits stop there. However, I would like to point out, with the larger surface area available to the “grain bed”, I think that sparging is more efficient in this type of setup than the round cooler. There by getting more sugars / alcohol out of your grain.

OK, here is where the metal meats the road. the cooler is fine for simple, fixed temperature mashing. You add hot water to reach a “strike” temperature, and let it sit for a prescribed amount of time. Then you sparge. That’s about it. It works really good too. Generally, you can achieve 70% to 75% “efficiency”. Scenario…10# grain, add 2.5 gal of 170*F water, your temp stabilizes at 154*F. you let that sit for 60 Min’s and sparge with 3.5 gal 170*F water for a yield of about 5.5 gal wort, boiled down to 5 gal, racked to the primary. Original Gravities around 1.052. Actual results may vary depending upon too many variables to mention.

Now, lets get really confused. I don’t use either. I mash in my brew pot. I have made an insulated cover that fits nicely around it. (my better half quilts so I had the raw materials). In reality, all you need to do is fashion a way to insulate the pot. (it doesn’t take much). Now, I don’t have a spigot, that would be nice, but it is just a regular 30 qt turkey fryer, Stainless steel. I step mash, bringing up my temps +/-…130*F, for 30 Min’s, to 155*F, for 6o Min’s. to 170*F,to complete conversion. All of my temps are a combination of hot water and direct heat. I even vary my temps to adjust the particular brew I want to achieve. This type of mashing is impossible to achieve with the cooler. I like the option of adding direct heat when necessary. When conversion is complete, I dump the whole mess into a “Lauder tun” (a cooler with a filter attached to the valve. (also serves as a hop back) this is where I sparge. I use the same big rectangle cooler mentioned earlier. ( 5 day ‘er) I generally reach 78% to 83% efficiency. Its a small increase for the amount of trouble, I am just particular that way. By the way, I started single temp mashing, and moved over to step mashing because I was bored just waiting around for conversion to finish. I just recdedicated my equipment.

Everyone has style, when it comes to their beer. Your method is simply a reflection of your style.

Face it, making beer can make you paranoid. Everything has to be spotless and sanitary. The boil has to be watched carefully to ensure that the new brew isn’t scorched or doesn’t boil over. Hops have to be added at just the right time. Temperatures have to be monitored so that the delicate new yeast can catch hold, grow and thrive. We worry about oxygen levels. The temperature needs to be consistent. Sunshine is the enemy.

So, after cleaning, sanitizing, boiling, cooling, oxygenating and pitching, we find a warm, dark, safe spot for the immature beer, and we lovingly seal it away hoping that all is well. At this time, the thing most likely to horrify us is the thought of bacteria, because we know that bacteria are evil little freeloaders who have a sadistic desire to get into and destroy our delicate, helpless beer

After the brewing is done, after the pots are scrubbed and the cooking tools put away (and after we check the airlock even though we know nothing is happening yet), we sit back, relax, and have a home brew. We check the airlock (again) before going to bed and feel relieved satisfaction to see the beginning stages of fermentation. But the next day, when we get out of bed and check our fermenter, our cautious satisfaction crumbles. We experience a moment of stunned disbelief when we see that krausen has crawled out of the bucket! The lid has blown off of your fermenter (or the airlock has shot out of the top) and there is a gaping hole between the safe confines of the fermenter and the bacteria infested air.

We immediately assume that at some time while we were sleeping, bacteria climbed into our fermenter and is now merrily slaughtering the yeast and altering the taste of our beer. We become frantic to find a way to save our beer even though we are secretly convinced it is doomed.

You already have all the facts regarding this particular fiasco, you just haven’t realized it. Now is a good time to take a deep breath and review the basics (right after you frantically snap the lid back on the fermenter). Your beer is going to be fine.

yeast + sugar = alcohol & carbon dioxide.

When carbon dioxide is being produced at a rapid rate, it sometimes pushes the top of the fermenter off or blows the airlock out of the lid, but just because there has been a breach in fermenter security does not mean that the yeast has stopped doing its thing. The yeast is still munching away, growing, thriving, multiplying and most importantly (at this point) producing more carbon dioxide. That means that there is still a light but persistent push away from your beer and out of the fermenter. Most of the time this is sufficient to protect your beer. Why? Because bacteria floats, and the carbon dioxide breeze moving away from your beer is a very effective barrier.

Also, it’s important to remember that yeast and bacteria are natural competitors; they both eat the same things. Bacteria generally multiply at a much faster rate than yeast which is why protecting against bacterial exposure is especially critical in the beginning stages of the process. But if the yeast has managed to blow off your lid or airlock, you can be confident that at this time the yeast is strong, healthy, well established and multiplying like crazy. Billions of yeast have a pretty good chance of making sure that a couple of stealth bacteria cannot establish themselves sufficiently enough to affect your brew.

So if you discover that the top of your fermenter (or the airlock) has blown off, try not to worry too much. It’s unlikely that any spec-ops bacteria have managed creep past the defensive barrier of air-flow and carbon dioxide. Even if a couple of particularly diabolical bacteria have managed to use ninja skills and avoid the carbon dioxide barrier, you can comfort yourself knowing that the yeast has effectively claimed your beer as its territory and it won’t be taking kindly to strangers.

One final note: Just because your yeast may have managed to discourage the growth of bacteria in this instance, do not assume that your beer is safe forever more. Once high krausen is a thing of the past, bacteria can easily invade and overtake your brew. Your yeast has partied hard and will again become too weak to protect itself so continued protective measures (ie sanitization) remains critical.

After reading many posts over several months on various forums, there seems to be one thing evident with this hobby/obsession that I share as many others may. I thought I could dive in with the basic start up kit and make some OK beer to satisfy my craving for a hobby that produces an end product which I have adored for many years.

My conclusion is that I could make the OK beer, and I bet with experience even really great beer with the equipment I had, which included the “optional” glass primary and glass secondary carboys. I am sure there are many homebrewers out there that do just that, and with experience, (albeit a lot) anybody can make toe curling beer even with these basics. I on the other hand wanted it now, and was willing to pony up a little to do it. Not to say my beer is better than anyone else’s, however with a lot of research and upgrades the quality definately improved rapidly.

After 3 or 4 batches I realized that All Grain brewing may be the thing for me. My brewpartner was faithful and contributed to every batch thus far, and we agreed let’s make the jump to AG. With the new processes added to brewday and my 5 gallon rubbermaid mashtun and 5 gallon rubbermaid hot liquor tank, seemed like all the bases were covered.

Then I realized that you can only mash so many pounds of grain in a 20 quart MT, so I needed a bigger tun! Got a nice 60 quart MT, and figured once again I am all set to brew even the biggest of beers if I would like. I of course needed to also upgrade from my 20 quart aluminum brewpot to a stainless 40 quart pot. All was well for a few batches.

Then we realized that with two of us brewing each week, and the mashtun had the capacity to do 10 gallon batches (would of course need another brewkettle to handle the volume) it would make sense to finish the day each having our own carboy filled. So naturally I needed more primaries and more secondaries as well as my brewpartner getting well invested. So up to 10 gallon batches and 15 gallon boils we went.

Now the old equipment was building up somewhat like a homebrew graveyard of extra stuff. We figured out a way to incorporate all these extras into the cycle of a normal brewday, whether it is hauling water out in an old pot or using the old mash tun as a second HLT. Keep everything. I have so many spare parts of stainless braid, bazooka tubes, rubber hosing, (old immersion chiller turned into a HERMS), never know what you may need when upgrading your process or equipment.

Now with that all being said is the point to my article. When choosing an upgrade from your basics that you thought were all you needed, keep in mind that it is exactly that- an upgrade. When making the decision to invest the question you need to ask is “will this upgrade support future needs and upgrades?” Then the more important question, “is this a permanent or trial upgrade?” If it is a trial upgrade, then the beer forum is a great place to check out advice on other’s trials. If it is permanent then advice is always great but make sure you get exactly what will fit your application.

Now budget always seems to come up as well. Although there are many items that are just plain and simple come one way, there are also many things like a mashtun or chiller that you can spend $20-$400, then another big question needs to be asked, “if I do not get the better or bigger one, will I eventually wind up replacing it?” Some items in my process I know will never change, so I know when it comes time to replace, get the best available. A burner would be a great example.

 All of this comes down to the level of passion and commitment to this hobby/obsession. Again some seem happy with brewing a few times a year and like to keep hauling out the “brewday gear” as simple as possible. Others may brew with the frequency of several times a month or even week, and look at the operation in a different point of view.

The last thing to think of is equipment that truly will enhance the quality of your beer. These may include water filtration, oxygenation systems, yeast starter and propegation equipment, counterpressure or beergun fillers, etc, etc.

The list can go on and on, if I knew all this when I first started buying eqipment, I would have wanted to look at a catalog of equipment to try to prioritize and simplify my future upgrades. Fortunately many of these catalogs exist and most are free when making an online order, many things I laughed at before thinking “why would I ever need one of those”, I now find I can’t live without. (i.e. march pump)

I shared this again because I see so many posts asking things like “should I select fermentation buckets, glass carboys or better bottles?” Is there really an answer? You can look at everyone’s advice, or you could get one of each and try yourself. Extra brew equipment never goes to complete waste and may wind up in a future project!

Whatever your passion level may be, make sure it is always fun on brewday, and always keep dreaming of great beer!

 Prost!