The last "How to Brew" post dealt with single infusion mashing.  The single infusion relies on one temperature of water and grains.  Simply stated, you put the water into the grains, stir well (and a couple times during the conversion), and wait.  Most grains are good enough for this method to be the primary means of mashing for most types of brews.  Of course, there are reasons for "step mashing" your beer. What is step mashing?  Step mashing is a variable temperature method of converting your grain's sugars.  Step mashing requires you to have more than one mash temperature.  There is some debate about what it actually accomplishes.  Some people do it to help with the head retention or for a more thorough conversion of sugars via the longer wetting and stepping of grains.  There are those people who argue that modern malts are of such a quality and modified well enough so as to not require step mashing.  But certain styles lend themselves to step mashing.  Really, it seems based more on grain type than style of beer...whatever the case may be.  Also, it can be used as a viable alternative to decoction mashing (I'll write on that one later). Certain ...

It's funny how quickly things change in the beer world.  Just 3 months ago (or thereabouts), Brewdog was releasing Tactical Nuclear Penguin.  I wrote an article against Roger Protz to defend the achievement, and we talked a bit about the brew. Now, just a couple months later, the record of 32% has been surpassed twice, and a third record is on the way. I thought I had more time.  What do I mean?  When Brewdog released their beer, I thought to myself, "Why can't I, as a homebrewer, go after the record?  Even if I don't beat it, it will be fun to try."  So, I embarked on the arduous task of making a huge Chocolate Vanilla Bourbon Imperial Stout and vacillated between the two names above as a fun tongue-in-cheek reference to taking down a Tactical Nuclear Penguin. Go for the gold, right? Well, where did I end up?  The answer is still in the wings.  I didn't get quite the yeast performance I wanted, but I'm still in the process of finding out.  I suppose the record seems a little moot at this point because a German company is about to release a 45% beer.  However, I had fun and ...

As our readers know, I homebrew.  Not only do I homebrew batches, I experiment often.  I might add a whole new dimension or a subtle change to a brew.  For instance, the other day I posted about roasting my own cocoa beans at home—not an easy thing—so I really appreciate good chocolate even more.  For my part, I like to take one gallon of my brew aside and experiment with it.  Recently, I added some blueberries to an oatmeal stout I had recently brewed with some pretty nice results.  I bottled it the other day, but then I thought, "What about these blueberries?" My wife and I don't like wasting anything.  We cook carrot tops, beet greens, broccoli stems—basically anything that is edible and is subsidiary to the actual vegetable or fruit.  Everything gets used, so I speculated that the blueberries might have more life in them.  I also had some wort I had frozen from a hydrometer reading of a brew.  I figured it was sweet and sugary, so I could find a use for it. I also had some cocoa beans left from roasting.  The result?  Beer wort jam. I took some fresh-squeezed lemonade we had made and used it ...

Frequently, I reflect on the fact that, as humans, we are recipients of a long line of trials and errors.  Whether we recognize it with tacit actions, implicit understanding, or vocal acknowledgment, most everything we take for granted is a result of failed attempts or raging successes that have gone before us.  With the increase of technologies and the results of industrialization, this fact is, at the same time, truer and more illusive than ever.  There is simply more and more for us to take for granted.  Sometimes late at night a thought like this will occur to me.  Often times, thoughts like these come home to roost when I'm doing something that involves beer. While roasting my own cocoa beans the other night, I realized that it was not an easy thing to do.  That chocolate bar that we grab is not easily processed.  I wanted to put some cocoa beans in a brew that I was making, so I heated the oven and started going.  (I read up on it, so I'm over-simplifying.)  I worked on those things for about 30 minutes or so and realized that I over-cooked them slightly.  The cocoa flavors were there but so was ...

Many people who brew or want to brew are often somewhat hesitant about mashing.  It seems like a step that could easily get out of control.  This generates a feeling of consternation for the extract brewer.  I waited a long time to make the leap, but I'm so glad I made it that I'm hoping you make the leap soon.  I've personally noticed a marked improvement in my beers, so much so that I haven't brewed an extract beer since I've started mashing.  Honestly, if you do a little more work, you get a great reward. The most unfortunate part when I learned to mash--in fact, for my whole brewing career--is that I never really had anyone to offer me a guiding hand along the way.  Perhaps this is why I feel compelled to be that guiding hand for those who wish to navigate the world of mashing.  Here we go: this promises to have a fair amount of expatiation. There are several types of mashing that can be performed on the basis of beer style.  Wheats, for instance, call for a more intense process than an IPA. If you want to mash, it would behoove you to get a book like ...

Of all the doors that are flung open by that which we love, beer and brewing, the most gratifying is the  fellowship that occurs amongst like minded individuals.  A classic example occurred on a Sunday not too long ago in which myself and a few other beer bloggers, under the organization of Peter, from Simply Beer, all brewed the same recipe, each with one minor alteration.  As is the case with our Sip With Us Saturday, it was nice knowing that a few friends were partaking in the same experience at the same moment in different areas of the country. After our beers fermented, conditioned, and carbonated, we sent two bottles out to each of the other five participants: Aaron – Captain’s Chair Derek – Luther Public House Erik – Top Fermented Joseph – Hopfen Treader Peter – Simply Beer Last Friday, we all connected vis Skype, a first for this technologically backwards beer geek, and sampled each others beer.  I was quite surprised how it nearly seemed as if we were all sitting in one of our kitchens or a quiet pub.  Even more surprising, was the profound difference between the beers.  Remember, each beer was identical in recipe, save one alteration, addition, or subtraction. Our brews ...

Websites and blogs that are theme specific such as Thank Heaven for Beer can often come across as abstract, in the sense that they appear separated from reality.  Day after day articles are posted, pictures go up, and comments are exchanged, all with a singular topic in mind; but how often are the personal lives of the interlocutors considered? I intentionally try to keep my article somewhat ambiguous to my personal life.  It seems that our society is increasingly shunning privacy.  We've gone from the snail mail standard, to the email standard, to watching your friends' marriage implode on FaceBook status updates.  While this is cultural shift bugs me from time to time, it does not keep me from participating in such socially integrated sites, I just do so in moderation, just as I do in beer. This week as I was catching up on some unread articles over at Seen Through A Glass, Lew Bryson's Beer Blog, I found myself choking up as I read through a very well written and seemingly non-beer related article, Growing Up, in which Lew reminisced over fathering his son, now a senior in high school.  The well written piece made me a even bigger fan ...

In my pursuit of making an authentic British style ESB, I chose this yeast.  It's known for some diacetyl production, which gives the butterscotch, nutty, or even bready quality to some classic british ales (although some of the malt depth is difficult to achieve).  Also, the strain is tolerant to 10% ABV, which is more than enough to handle a strong ESB.  Of course, with the attenuation levels given by Wyeast, you may end up with a touch of sweetness in the brew.  At any rate, here are the specifics for what I experience while using this yeast. Yeast Type: Wyeast 1968 London ESB Yeast. As the usual specifications for Wyeast and White Labs recommend, I allowed the 3-6 hours (I went 5) for the smack pack to expand and start yeast activation. Yeast Uses: Because of its alcohol tolerance, this yeast has a multiplicity of uses.  Wyeast list anything from a Mild to an Old Ale to an IPA and even a Barley-Wine.  I feel this strain is especially conducive to making Barley Wines, ESBs, and IPAs, all of which are very nice with a residual amount of sweetness in their character.  Provided a rest is done at 64 degrees for short ...

If you are a home brewer, you are already a do it yourselfer to a degree.  I mean, you are making the beer you drink.  But maybe you are still using extracts.  Simply said, extracts are primarily made of maltose, which is the byproduct of saturating grains at set temperatures to convert starches (complex sugars) into simple sugars (mostly malt sugar).  When you are using extracts, the process of that conversion has already been done for you. The choices are really pretty scant.  You can buy light, amber, dark and wheat malt...which is pretty much it.  Any character that you wish to add to your beer must be done through the purchase of specialty grains, sugars, or other adjuncts.  Often these can be found via kits or fairly simple recipes.  Let me say, without equivocation, that there is nothing wrong with extract brewing.  However, you are able to maintain more control, better quality, and more creative spirit in the world of all-grain brewing. How do I know this?  I started with extract brewing. All grain brewing is easier than you might believe.  The description of the process sounds harder than the practice, so don't be discouraged by terminology.  Remember that if you ...

I try to have adventures in homebrewing.  I've never done a recipe clone and rarely brew the same thing twice...at least in close proximity.  I vacillate between brewing a good classic style, a classic with a tweak, and something big, crazy, and experimental.  At any rate, wondered to myself about the use of carrots in a beer.  I thought that if beet sugars are used in Belgian brewing, why couldn't I use another root vegetable? So, I set about making some carrot sugar for an ESB I was doing at the time.  I think I had great results.  Here are some pictures and the process behind the carrot sugar. The first thing I did was buy three pounds of carrots.  The reason I chose carrots was because they are already a little sweeter, so I knew that there were plenty of sugars and starches to be had.  Having peeled the carrots, I shredded them with coarse grater.  Near the end of my grating, I put a pan of water on the stove and got it to boiling.  Once the carrots were done, I put them in a separate pan and poured the boiling water on top, just covering the surface of ...