Beer or Bust

I like beer. Tasting beer, reading about beer, drinking beer, writing about beer, and only recently, brewing beer. I live in Charleston, SC.

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So i’m beginning to not like Mr. Beer kits. The failure of my first batch can be chalked up to stale ingredients. This second batch was made with what should have been a pretty fresh kit ordered from Amazon and brewed within a week of receiving. I opened my first bottle from this batch tonight, after 2 weeks in primary and two weeks in bottle conditioning. This is the Mr. Beer American Devil IPA kit. The only modification I made was adding 1/2 oz of Chinook hops at 5 min left in the boil. What I notice right away is that there is no hop aroma. Maybe that is to be expected with the only aroma hop addition being what I added at boil end. The color is a nice amber. It pours a fantastic light brown head with ridiculous retention. I was 2/3 finished with the glass and still had a 1/2 inch of foam. The flavor is minimally enjoyable with really no hop flavor or discernible malt tones. In fact the flavor, when allowed to warm up becomes undesirable. There is a faint chemical smell that is familiar, something like paint. A burp leaves behind a faint plastic taste.

So yeah, overall not great. As I think back at the variables I can point at as possible culprits for this I think maybe the 1/2 oz of Chinook hops are possibly to blame. I used half of the pack for my first batch and poorly stored the remainder for several weeks prior to using them in this batch. So they may have been spoiled. Other than that the ingredients were fresh and my cleanliness and sterilization was immaculate. Then again, Mr. beer doesn’t sell the American Devil IPA anymore so who knows how long it sat in a hot Amazon warehouse? Oh well. Chalk it up as experience.

My next batch, which is brewed and in secondary fermentation, is a Northern Brewer kit for American Amber Ale. And because I can’t bring myself to brew a straight kit I added an ounce of Centennial hops at 30 minutes. At five gallons this stands to be a lot of beer to swallow it doesn’t turn out any better than the last two. Wish me luck.

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Picked up a growler of @TerrapinBeerCo EasyRider #IPA. A low ABV beer packed with hoppy goodness. I believe there are 7 types of hops in this one. This is apparent in the complex hop aroma and flavor. A very good IPA with sub 5% ABV. This means you can drink more of it without getting stupid. I like that. Who needs more stupid?

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Batch #2: American Devil IPA

For my second batch I opted for another Mr. Beer kit. This time I did the American Devil IPA. Reviews of the brew were good. Many I read modified the recipe with extra DME to up the ABV (it's a sub 5% beer), or extra hop in the boil. I chose to only use my last 1/2 oz of Chinook hops for a 5 minute boil. Although, in hindsight that may have been a mistake because I did not store the hops in the fridge for the couple weeks since I opened them for my first batch. So i'm afraid that they oxidized and spoiled. They smelled OK. So right now i'm just hoping they don't leave a nasty taste in the beer. I guess the simplest mistakes are the ones i'll make first.

So the American Devil is brewed and fermenting. I don't think I can do another Mr. Beer straight recipe. If I use Mr. Beer again i'm going to have to either completely devise my own recipe using their selection of extracts, maybe with a grain steep, or use another brewer's custom recipe. I want to begin the creative process of brewing very badly; creating my own grain bill, choosing my hops yeast. I've got a 5 gallon brew set-up just screaming my name. I'll give the beer away to strangers if I have to. It might make me extremely popular.

So many variables go into making a beer what it is that I do find it daunting to experiment without a fully learned palate of what grain imparts what flavor, and what each hop leaves behind. So, in the words of Charlie Papazian, "relax, it's only beer".

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Well. I brewed my first batch of beer, waited for the little yeasties to have their dinner and crap alcohol and fart CO2. Now i'm tasting the bi-product. And to be honest it kind of tastes like it traveled through the insides of fungi. Granted, I brewed the simplest beer kit available, using basic pale ale extracts. So my expectations were low. This beer has a decent amber color, drew a decent head with large glassy bubbles. The nose is a faint hop scent, thanks to the dry-hop, no doubt. Otherwise I doubt there would be any hop aroma at all. But there is a sweetness in the nose and on the palate. The sweetness is a bit too much. I finished the glass in the picture without too much trouble, and the sweetness could be enjoyable if I had a less critical mind. But I will definitely let the rest of the batch sit for another week before I give it another shot. If it is still sweet at that point I guess i'll mothball it, only to pull it out occasionally to gawk at the misshapen Frankenstein I created with my unskilled hands. Seeing that it was a pre-measured kit, I can only assume that the 18 months this kit sat in a hot garage were not conducive to making good beer. Oh well. Batch 2 is brewed and fermenting. 

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Bottled and Next Batch on the Way

So my first batch of home brew is bottled and tucked away for at least a two week nap. My only concern now is that the age of the ingredients I used, including the yeast (the kit sat in an unconditioned garage for a year and in my closet for 6 months), will play a factor in the quality. Time will tell.

I have the ingredients for my second batch on their way. Of course, I know what you’re thinking, “Dude, you totally should have had it already fermenting by now.” And you are right. But choosing what and how to brew my second batch was difficult. I searched, and found, a 5 gallon set-up so I could upgrade. But, as I thought about the beer I have bottled now, and 5 gallons of beer to come, I thought better of it. I mean after all, as much as I like beer I can only drink so much of it. And since I am a very recent transplant to a new city where I know no one, I have no friends with which to share it with. So, apart from giving it to strangers, I am the only one to consume it. And 5 gallons is a lot of beer for one man to drink….same kind….every day.

So I opted to do the 2.5 gallon Mr. Beer again. I placed an order for the American Devil IPA kit from Mr. Beer. I do love a good IPA, and with this kit being highly lauded by other Mr. Beer brewers on the forums, I’m excited about this one. A fresh kit with fresh ingredients. Bound to be good stuff. Now the question is, do I tinker with the recipe, or leave it be? Be still my hop heart.

As I watch every homemade home brewing video I can find, and read all I can about the hobby, I start to feel very inferior. Even though I am as new to this as one can get I already yearn to brew with the big boys. I feel like a kid playing scientist with a walmart starter kit. But I know a day of big batches will come. Then comes my own craft brewery. Yes. My goal is to chase down that bandwagon and push someone off for a place to sit. For every new brewery that does it right there are ten doing it wrong. And those don’t can’t last. So don’t judge me by the size of my fermenter. It’s what’s inside that counts.

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Forget Disneyland. This is the happiest place on Earth.

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After two weeks of fermentation my first batch of beer is ready for bottling. I'm cold crashing it in the fridge for 24 hours prior to bottling. Given the age of the ingredients I used and the likely amount of yeast sediment floating around I thought cold crashing might bring a little clarity.

AND, I made a big score on craigslist. I had wanted to find at least another Mr Beer keg just so I could have two batches in the works at all times. Well, it seems everyone here home brews because no one was selling any home brew equipment. Some were even posting on craigslist looking to buy.

Then I found a yard sale listing. They had a beer kit that was the next step up from a Mr Beer kit, and had it listed for $50. So for my money I got:

fermentation bucket

bottling bucket

bottling hose and nozzle

bottle capper and caps

hydrometer

6.5 gallon glass carboy

all ingredients to brew a stout

a couple hop bags

So now with my new setup, minus a few connectors and whatnot that I still need to acquire, I am much closer to some real home brewing. Hells yes. 

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Day 11 of keg fermentation. Day 4 of dry hop. The hop aroma is not yet where I would like it. A little swirl of the glass does awaken that hoppy smell I love, but it is subtle. Can’t decide whether to let it ride the final 3 days or drop another bag of hops to pump it up. I hope to be bottling in 3 days. I’ll probably let it go. The taste and smell was still not that pleasant. Let’s hope some serious magic takes place in the bottle.

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My first batch of #homebrew is now officially dry #hopped. A 1 oz pack of Chinook hops from the local home brew supply was my choice, mostly guided by the limited selection. The aroma from the pack hit me in the face immediately; spicy, piney and typical of good and hoppy IPAs. At the same supply store I picked up some sanitizer, not Star San, but cheap enough to work in a pinch, as well as two muslin hop bags.

Before I added the hops to the keg I had to taste it to see the progress so far. It was as I expected, flat, sweet and not good at all, but it did smell like beer, warm flat cheap beer.

After sanitizing the muslin bag and the bent spoon, for weight, I added a 1/2 oz of the Chinook hops to the bag, with the spoon, tied it off and gently lowered it into the keg.

7 more days and I will check it again to see if it is ready for bottling. The excitement builds.

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Goodness Does Come in Cans

With my first batch of homebrew fermenting only 7 days in, my interest in large scale brewing has increased. I suppose brewing is like anything else, once you do it you start to wonder how other people do it, especially those that do it bigger. So i'm fortunate to have several local breweries that offer tours, and of course, tastings.

My first brewery visit was today to a relative newcomer to the local brew scene, Westbrook Brewing. Opened in late 2010 this brewery has two year-round beers, an IPA and a play on a Belgian witbier, White Tai, using lemongrass, ginger and sorachi hops instead of the coriander and citrus usually found in this style. So far i've been very impressed with every brew i've tried from this brewery. A tour of the brewery was refreshing. It was small and intimate. It wasn't a complicated setup. But then, I guess brewing beer, when boiled to its essence, is a pretty simple endeavor.

What I found interesting, and what I had already noticed of this brewery when perusing the beer store shelves, is that they do not bottle their beer in six packs. The only glass they put their beer in is in 24oz single serve bottles. They are participants in a resurgence of craft brewers distributing their beer in cans.

Long stigmatized as the vessel of cheap swill, and well deserved, cans are now experiencing a comeback amongst craft beer brewers and drinkers. Cans are actually the superior vessel in which to distribute fine beer compared to their glass counterparts. It eliminates any exposure to light, provides a perfect air-tight seal, and is wonderfully portable. However, for many of the craft beers in these cans it is recommended that you dispense the beverage into a suitable glass for consumption so you get the full exposure to the senses.

So, after enjoying each beer available to me at the Westbrook Brewer tasting room, I went to the local beer superstore and browsed their Westbrook section. I decided to try my first canned craft beer. It was just a pleasant surprise that a mix six-pack of the IPA and the White Tai was on the shelf. With it being 90 degrees outside and a visit to the pool in my immediate future I thought this six-pack was the perfect choice. Once at poolside with a cold can in my hand I was assured that I was right.

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Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout is a wonderful dark stout. It is fairly light in ABV by stout standards and easy to drink thanks thanks to the oats. A personal favorite of mine and always a treat.

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Freedom to Brew Beer

With beer being firmly entrenched in the history of this country's founding, it seemed appropriate that I would brew my first batch of beer on the Fourth of July. Though the popular beer style of the colonial period was along the lines of porters and brews using sugars available to natives, like corn and molasses, my first batch is a standard American Pale Ale courtesy of my gifted Mr. Beer Kit. While not the style I would choose as my beer of choice, I do acknowledge my need to start with the basics while I build a solid foundational knowledge. I will say my desire to move past this "kit" type of brewing, using extracts, and into "all grain" brewing, only grows now with the anticipation of finished fermentation of my first batch.

First, letting my brew kit sit around for 18 months was not ideal. The "booster" pack, otherwise known as a bag of sugar, had hardened to a rock-like consistency. This required a little elbow grease, to not only break it up into manageable pieces prior to adding to the wort, but to also stir and agitate for 20 minutes just to get all the pieces to dissolve properly.

With the sugars dissolved, I bring the sugary mixture to boil, remove from heat and add the HME (hopped malt extract"). The HME pours like syrup. I add this mixture, the wort, to the provided plastic keg already partially filled with cold water. It is stirred and the yeast is added. The yeast essentially craps alcohol and farts CO2.

I now have 2 weeks of waiting before the first stage of fermentation is complete. A Mr Beer batch is bottle conditioned. This means that each batch is partially fermented in the keg. Then the batch is bottled and more sugar is added to bottle to reactivate the fermentation process, creating more alcohol and CO2. And since the keg fermentation had a gas release, very little CO2 was dissolved in the beer, leaving it flat at the time you bottle it. The CO2 created during bottle conditioning is trapped in the bottle and dissolves in the beer, giving it the bubbliness we expect.

So step one of global domination is complete. Step two is in two weeks when I bottle this stuff. Then another week after that before I taste. So now we wait. Right now, 3 weeks seems like an eternity

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The local beer store in town, Bottles, has weekly “tap takeovers”, where the taps at the tasting bar are dispensing offerings from the participating brewery, often limited edition or seasonal brews. There's usually a representative from the local distributor on hand to chat you up and answer questions about the brews. This week was something special. The Boston Beer Company was on hand. This is just an example of the visitors we have had here, such as New Belgium, Left Hand, and local darlings like Westbrook.

Considering myself pretty familiar with many Sam Adams brews I was unsure what I would be tasting; something new or some old favorites. Today's tap offerings were a pleasant surprise. They were:

Summer Ale

East West Kolsch

New World Tripel

Norse Legend “Sahti”

Grumpy Monk

Old Kentucky Ale

All were tasty but what struck me the most was the Grumpy Monk. A Belgian IPA, it features the complex profile of Belgian yeast, balanced with a generous portion of hops. Always on the lookout for a well balanced IPA, I had to grab a growler of this one. And just as a bonus, a growler fill during a tap takeover scores you a free pint glass emblazoned with the logo of the brewery in attendance. In this case, a Samuel Adams “perfect pint”. Nice.

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First There was a Christmas Gift

So on Christmas 2010 I got a Mr. Beer kit as a gift. I had expressed out loud my interest in dabbling in home brewing. Apparently the right person was listening. My excitement grew as I thought of the fun I would have brewing my own beer. After all, I was/am what I consider a Beer Snob. The highlight of my weeks are beer tastings at the local beer store and choosing what beer I would enjoy for the next week. Coors Light, Bud Light, Natural Light and their like are now beers that are left to the foggy memories of high school and college.

Let me preface this whole thing with the statement that, though I love to drink good beer, I do not claim to know a lot about it. I don't know the technical differences between all the styles, what their origins are or the science of brewing. That's pretty much what this blog will be about; my education on beer, from learning the differences in styles, how to really taste beer, and of course, homebrewing.

It began in 1996 when I moved to a small in town in Southern Ohio. I turned 21 shortly after moving and immediately began to thoroughly enjoy the liberty of purchasing my own libations. This liberty was assisted by conveniently living across the street from a 24 hour gas station. And as you can imagine, their selection left a bit to be desired. Having been my staple for many a year to that point, Coors Light no longer held my attention. My next small step in beer evolution was a move to Coors Original, Coors Light's ever so slightly more sophisticated brother. Still a pretty thin pale lager, but a long way from the Natural Light I was frequenting in high school.

Now, one pretty important stone in my path to beer nirvana is the geographic location of this town in southern Ohio. It was an hour south of Cincinnati. It just so happens that Samuel Adams beer was being brewed under contract at the Hudepohl-Schoenling brewery in Cinci. The proximity to this brewery gave me access to Samuel Adams beer, to this point an unknown commodity to my palate. This was mid 1996 so I'm pretty sure the Boston Beer Company's distribution was not quite as widespread as it is now. So for the first time in my short beer drinking life I had access to honest to goodness good beer. And I was hooked from there.

Of course there are a few more steps after that, about 16 years worth, but i'll save those for another post. Just know this. 18 months after that exciting Christmas day i'm going to break the seal on that Mr. Beer Kit. But first, some book reading. I ordered my first home brewing book, The Complete Joy of Homebrewing by Charlie Papazian. Amazon should be delivering this tome of beer brewing knowledge to my door in two days. As soon as I can get far enough into it to make sense of the basics, i'm putting Mr. Beer to work. More to come.