Better Beer Blog

For as many times as I’ve written about my homebrews, I have never review any of my beers on this site. Part of me thinks that I can’t be objective. I don’t necessarily think that I’ll rate myself undeservedly high, it’s the opposite, in fact. I think I just might be more strict when judging my own beers that that of others. That being said, I had it all lined up where I’d review both my Märzen and my Altbier but something happened on the way to the homebrew store. Well, not on the way, more like, at the homebrew store.

I was purchasing ingredients for next home brew when Rich, the owner of Beer and Winemakers of America, told me about the upcoming Bay Area Brew Off (BABO) homebrew competition held by the Draught Board homebrew club. On a whim, I dropped off my two entries.

It seemed to take forever but the BABO winners were finally posted on the Draught Board website. Draught Board President Roger St. Denis sent an email out to all the participant earlier in the week but I hesitated posting how well I did until Draught Board updated their website as well.

Now that they’re up, I can proudly say that my Märzen took 3rd place in the Amber Lager category while my Altbier took 1st in the Amber Hybrids category!!! Now I can add “Award Winning Homebrewer” to my short list of achievements, ha, ha, ha! Then again, I probably shouldn’t toot my horn too much as not only did my Märzen had an average score of 21 points (Misses the mark on style and/or minor flaws), there were (it would seem) only 4 entrants into the category. My Altbier fared better scoring an average of 30.2 points (Generally within style parameters, some minor flaws) with also 4 entrants in the category. It was an ugly win but a win nonetheless.

Jon from Beer Obsessed once emailed me to say that should I place, I would be bitten by the homebrew competition bug. I would be lying if i didn’t say I am more inclined to enter more of my beers into competition. On one hand, I would’ve been happy just to place but for one of my beers to take 1st in a category is pretty good. On the other, when you start at the top, it’s a long way down. Granted, I didn’t win BOS (Best of Show) but it’s a good feeling nonetheless.

It validates to me that I am a decent homebrewer. It also raises a valid question, do I brew for myself (as I have been) or do I brew for competitions? One would think that both are the same thing but in reality, it’s not, it’s a completely different mindset. For now I think I’ll continue to brew for myself and as competitions come up, I’ll send in whatever I have on tap at the time.

Tomorrow is the start of the Alameda County Fair. The fair runs from June 20th through July 6th making the duration of the event a little over two weeks. I’m almost ashamed to say that this will be my very first county fair. For whatever reason I never visited the Santa Clara County Fair and, for the foreseeable future, it doesn’t seem like I ever will as the fair has gone the way of the dinosaur and the Champ Car race.

Looking at their website, the Alameda County Fair promises to have a variety of activities and entertainment. There will be horse racing, concerts, parades, fireworks and distractions for the kids. My main interest for the fair and the sole reason I’m even writing a post about it is because of the homebrew competition.

The Bay Area Brew Off (BABO) is sponsored by the folks from the Draught Board Home Brew Club based in San Leandro. Their membership is mainly made up of East Bay folks but isn’t restricted to just East Bay folks. BABO is in it’s 21st year and I entered in two of my beers, a märzen and an altbier on a whim. I’ve been chomping at the bit to see how well I did but the results won’t be up until tomorrow. Hopefully I did well and entered the correct bottles for the correct categories. I should consider labeling my beers in the future.

There is a first time for everything and this is my first attempt at brewing a Belgian Witbier style. Despite it’s light, very pale color, this is a beer chalk with flavor. Yet, it’s effervescent and light on the palette. It’s a favorite style of mine, the best known example being Hoegaarden (pronounced who-garden). A popular commercial example that’s starting to make its way into more and more bars is Blue Moon’s (Coors) Witbier.

I picked up an extract beer kit from the More Beer! store in Los Altos, this being the last of the beer kits I’ve purchase from them. I was a bit nervous about brewing this beer. One reason is that it’s a lighter colored and light bodied beer. Typically, the lighter the beer, the more difficult it is to brew because there’s no place to hide your defects in technique or sanitation. The main reason though is because this was a mini-mash kit. Basically, a mini-mash is a scaled down version of an all-grain brewing technique. With all-grain, the homebrewer extracts all of the sugars he/she will need from the grain directly without the use of malt extracts. I have always thought about going all-grain but hesitated because everything I’ve read about the process makes me believe it’s long and complicated. After going through the process, I can say it is longer but not as complicated as I believed it would be.

Here is my ingredient list:

Malt:

• 6 lbs ultralight liquid malt extract

Grain:

• 2.5 lbs 2-row malted barley
• 1.5 lbs flaked wheat
• 1 lbs flaked oats

Hops:

• 1 oz Santium (4.6) - Bittering
• 1 oz Sterling (5.0) - Finishing

Yeast:

• White Labs WLP400 Belgian Wit

Adjuncts:

• Zest from 1 orange, 2 tangerines, 2 grapefruit (star ruby), 1 big grapefruit (red pummelo)
• 1 oz coriander seed - ground
• 1 oz bitter orange peel

Original Gravity: 1.052

Final Gravity: 1.012

ABV: 5.25%

Tasting Notes:

• Wort - Strong citrus characteristics. Sweet malt aromas. Honey notes. Tastes sweet with bitter orange peel flavors. Very reminiscent of Fruit Loops in both aroma and flavor.
• Primary - Very cloudy, gold with white bubbles. Yeast is “mit hefe” or in suspension. Fruity (Fruit Loops) characteristics with sweet aromas. Sweet, slight citrus fruit notes with grainy/bready finish. Light body, moderately low bitterness.

After going through the mini-mash process, I was excited to see my wort was the correct, pale color most witbiers are supposed to be. At this point, I was confident I would do a decent job with this beer. I was feeling pretty good until I added in my liquid malt extract. The package I had said “ultralight malt” but when I poured it out, it was this rich, toffee/caramel colored liquid extract. After mixing the extract into the wort thoroughly, I noticed the color of the beer was off. It ended up several shades darker than the style parameters. I was pissed.

As far as I’m aware of, the More Beer! kits all primarily use liquid malt extract. I have bought three kits from them, all using liquid malt extract and with the exception of my altbier, the rest of my beers ended up darker than what they were supposed to be. In addition, liquid malt extract has this very distinct flavor to it that ends up in your final product. With the exception of my altbier, I have been decidedly unsatisfied with the quality of the More Beer! beer kits. As a result, I plan on visiting my original homebrew store from now on. Rich, the owner, uses dry malt extract (DME) exclusively. I’ve never had a problem with the beer kits from his store that was the result of the ingredients. It’s usually operator error. In addition, he has 30 years experience in the beer industry. It’s not that I don’t like the people or the stores of More Beer!, I just don’t like the use of liquid malt extract in their beer kits. Plus, Rich’s shop is much closer to my place than the More Beer! shop is.

I just tapped this beer last night and I think I have the beer carbonated to the correct level. The next couple of days are going to be pretty busy so I’ll get to review my altbier, kölsch and witbier next week. These, by the way, were made from the beer kits I purchased from More Beer!. It’ll be interesting to see how they’ve stacked up.

It took some time but my kegerator has arrived and is now up and running! I purchase the Haier HBF05EBSS-2 Dual Faucet Kegerator with Stainless Steel Door from the Beverage Factory and so far, so good but as always, it didn’t start off well. Chalk it up as a learning experience.

I researched a few places online for the best deals, mainly through Google. I knew I was going to inherit a chest freezer from my mother-in-law and I originally planned to convert that but then I went out and bought a three Cornelius (corney) kegs and found I could only fit one keg in the freezer. I really wanted a two keg system so I started to look at my many options. In the end, my wife just said, “Just buy the stainless steel, two tap system from that website. It’s not like you’re actually going to build one anyway!” So with a credit card in one hand and my shattered ego in the other, I made the phone call.

Just days later, I notice that FedEx has left a little note saying they came by and attempted to deliver the parts. To keep a long story short, my wife ended up going to FedEx to claim the refrigerator portion while the tap lines, tower and CO2 equipment were delivered separately. The day I put most of the kegerator together, I realized Beverage Factory forgot to ship the CO2 regulator. I called them the next day and they shipped the part to me within a couple of days later.

After purchasing the CO2 from a local provider (Carbonic Service), I finally set up my system. No one told me I needed to agitate the keg once hooked up. This explained why I had low pressure and flat beer for a few days. Needless to say, the system works well now. In my earnestness, I brewed two new batches of beer in consecutive days. I’ll write about these and my other homebrews soon enough. There’s a lot to say.

My experience with Beverage Factory was satisfactory, if that means anything. I was neither impressed nor disappointed by their service. For every action that bummed me out, there was something to offset. For example, they forgot to ship me the CO2 regulator but shipped me a new one without question the next day when I got a hold of them. Below is a small pro/con list.

Pros:

• Timely service – They shipped out my kegerator within a couple of days. Had anyone been home, I would’ve been up and going much sooner.
• Competitive prices – They were cheaper than the More Beer! people and some retail options as well (BevMo and Fry’s Electronics)
• Customer Services- When I explained to Customer Service that they forgot to ship me the CO2 regulator, they shipped one to me without question.

Cons:

• Understaffed – When I called to place an order or to follow up on the missing CO2 regulator, I had to wait quite a while for a live body to answer the phone. When ordering, I think I was on hold for maybe 10 minutes. That’s a bit too long to wait, in my opinion.
• Delivery options – Because of the cost/size/content of the shipment, Beverage Factory requires a signature upon delivery. Great, I like that. I appreciate that. I just wish they could’ve had a “Pick-up from FedEx” option. I have a truck and it’s no big deal for me to pick things up.

At the end of the day, would I recommend Beverage Factory? Yes, I would. Take my “endorsement” with a grain of salt as my experiences will differ from yours. As soon as my next two beers are done, I’m having a “Grand Opening” party… assuming of course the beers I made taste any good, ha!

AHA National Homebrew Competition at Devils Canyon click to view gallery

This coming Saturday, May 3^rd, is the day I take my test to become a recognized BJCP beer judge. I’ve been studying a little but like most folks, I wait until the end to cram. Having already taken the BJCP preparatory classes, I got a small sense of what beer judging would be but not having been at a homebrew competition, I’d never know for sure. That was until last Sunday.

The American Homebrewers Association held their National Homebrew Competition, West Regional Event at Devil’s Canyon Brewing Company in Belmont, CA. I signed up for this event partly because I’ve never been to a competition and I wanted to see what they are really like. And partly because it people who served at this event will get priority for the Samuel Adams Longshot Competition in San Francisco late May.

Not having ever been to Devil’s Canyon Brewing Company (Devil’s Canyon), I assumed that it would be like most brew pubs. Meaning, it would mainly be a restaurant with a brewery. What Sammy and I found was nothing of the sort. Devil’s Canyon is located in the middle of an industrial park and is more of a production brewery.

Since I haven’t taken my BJCP test just yet Sammy and I signed up to be stewards. The job of a steward is fairly simple: we bring beers to the beer judges and double check their scores. According to the BJCP, the steward’s job is as follows:

A program participant who assists judges, obtains entries and supplies, handles paperwork, and manages the competition logistics at a judging table.

While I was initially a little nervous, once we got into the flow of things, being a steward was actually fairly easy. There’s a lot of standing around and paying attention to the judges. As soon as they begin to engage each other in a debate, that’s when you know they’re ready for the next beer. We take away the old beer and score sheets but not before asking if the most recently judged beer should be capped for a mini-Best of Show (mini-BOS). Nothing too exciting but as someone who is passionately interested in beer, I found it very interesting to listen to the judges go back and forth with each other.

Usually, a more experienced judge (national level or higher) is paired with a less experienced judge (apprentice, recognized or certified). It’s kinda like the whole Jedi/Padawan relationship only without the lightsabers, the force, and mind tricks. Also lacking were the Jedi robes, the hair braids and spiritual philosophies. Okay, it’s nothing like the Jedi/Padawan relationship.

I joke, of course. It’s actually a very good system that fosters honest debate and open dialogue. One pair of judges (a national level and a recognized level) were often at opposite ends of the spectrum with their beers. The national level would rate a beer highly and the recognized level lower or vice-versa. If the difference between scores is greater than 7, discussion is supposed to take place between judges and, hopefully, compromise.

At the end of the day, I didn’t get any scores or winners because this was a regional event with the winners moving to the next round. By the end of the day, I got a really good sense of how a homebrew competition works. All-in-all, a very good day and I’m looking forward to this weekend’s test hoping to join the ranks of other BJCP judges.

I mentioned it some weeks ago but the Bay Area Mashers is in the midst of their World Cup Homebrew Competition. Preliminary judging started last week and the final judging will be held at Trumer Brauerei. Here are the specifics:

Preliminary Judging: March 22, 2008
Final Judging: March 29, 2008
Party: 1:00 PM, Awards at 3:30 PM

Trumer Brauerei Berkeley
1404 Fourth Street
Berkeley, California 94710

A number of my classmates from the BJCP study group will be there along with BJCP Grandmaster Judge John Watson. Hopefully we’ll be able to make it but I didn’t put it on the calendar.

This past week the class covered the Amber Hybrid and Belgian ale styles. I forget now but at the time, I remember contemplating whether or not I should go to class. I am very glad that I decided to go as the Belgian ale portion of the class was really enjoyable. Talk about complexities! There’s a lot of beer going on in the Belgian ales. You could, literally, take an entire college semesters going over just Belgian ales. While there are a few broad categories, the sheer number of variations within those categories is staggering.

We’re talking about a country where beer is as much a part of the national diet as soda is for the United States. Sure, Germany has long been known for being the “beer capital” of the world but I think the ales that Belgium produces have so much going on and are consistent. There’s the subdued malts and hop flavors, the fruity esters and spiciness, the aromas and flavors… wow. Good stuff.

I know I used to do do individual beer reviews but they took a lot of time and effort. I get… reviewed out by the end of class and by then, I just really want to crack open a cold one for the sake of enjoyment and not because I have to work on it. I’ll bring the individual reviews back after the BJCP classes are over but for now, here are my tasting notes from class.

This is the calm before the storm that is the spring season of beer. As spring approaches, brewers everywhere are starting to brew up their spring seasonals. Expect to see a variety of the lighter beers coming out like witbiers, hefeweizens, pale lagers, blondes and kölschs. In keeping with the seasonal brewing trend, and being inspired by my latest BJCP class, I have decided to brew a kölsch.

Put plainly, a kölsch is an ale version of a pale lager. In many brewpubs that brew only ales, the kölsch is considered their “entry-level” beer that would be most similar to an American standard lager or premium lager. This is my first attempt at a lighter style beer and I am interested to see how it goes for a variety of reasons.

Brewing a lighter style beer is much more difficult than a darker style. The process isn’t any different but lighter styles will definitely test how well a brewer sanitizes his (or her) equipment as well as how well they can keep to a process. The reason for the increased difficulty is because lighter beers have less to hide behind. Stouts, for example, have huge roasty, chocolatey, and coffee flavors that can easily mask subtle mistakes. Lighter beer on the other hand can’t really hide anything as the flavors are more subtle.

In any event, here is my ingredient list:

Malt Exctract/Additions:

• 4 lbs German pils
• 2 lbs light DME (dry malt extract)
• 4 oz maltodextrin*

Grain:

• 8 oz Crystal 15L

Hops:

• .5 oz Glacier hops (6.0)** bittering hops
• 1 oz Vanguard hops (4.4)*** finishing hops

Yeast:

• Wyeast 2565 Kölsch

Original Gravity:

• 1.050 - Curiosity may have killed the cat but I hope it didn’t ruin the beer. I couldn’t help myself and took a reading. I have this wine thief (that I sanitized before hand, I always have sanitizer ready) that I used to steal some wort (wort is what beer is called before the yeasts have converted the sugars to alcohol) in order to take a hydrometer reading. I just bought the wine thief this past weekend and it’s already paid dividends! Anyway, the reading I took was 1.050 but kräusen had already formed and the air lock had started to bubble so it may have been even higher initially.
  TBD - Yeah, I screwed up on this one. In my rush to cool the wort down and pitch the yeast, I forgot to take a hydrometer reading. I can tell you that the recipe I am using lists the O.G. to fall within the range of 1.045 - 1.052. I bought the altbier recipe from the same place and my O.G. for the altbier was right on the button. With that in mind, I have a feeling the kölsch O.G. should fall right into place.

* Maltodextrin is used by brewers to add mouthfeel, body and head retention without affecting flavor.

** Bittering hops - As the name suggests, bittering hops gives beer it’s signature bitter backbone. The number I have listed next to it in parenthesis is a measurement of the alpha acid content (the primary chemical responsible for bittering). Not all hops are the same as some varietal yield higher alpha acid than others. The higher the number, the more bitter the hop.

*** Finishing hops - Are usually added in the final minutes of the boil. Boiling hops releases the alpha acids, or isomerizes them. Adding finishing hops is not intended to add more bitterness but to add aroma and flavor.

My homebrew altbier has been in primary fermentation for a solid week now and I just racked it to secondary fermentation this past Sunday. Actually, that’s a bit misleading. While there still may be some fermentation taking place with the residual yeasts still in suspension, what I actually did was rack the altbier to a secondary container in the hopes that it’ll clear up a little bit more. Once I bottle it, then the altbier will undergo a secondary fermentation that will result in carbonation.

One of the things you can do though while racking your homebrew to a secondary container for clarifying is to take another hydrometer reading. A hydrometer measures the amount of residual sugars still within the liquid. I took a hydrometer reading before fermentation that gave me an Original Gravity of 1.060 (aka ten-sixty) with a Final Gravity of 1.016. After running the numbers through a simple formula, I calculated my altbier to have a 5.895%ABV. For those who are really curious, here’s the formula:

(O.G. - F.G.) * 131 = %ABV (alcohol by volume)

I got to taste it before carbonation and the beer has an initial malt-forward flavor that is a little sweet with dark fruit undertones balanced out by a medium intensity hop bitterness and flavor. There’s not much on the nose of this beer but that might change a bit after the beer gets carbonated. Although I am not expecting it to.

I did have a picture of the altbier still in primary and I wanted to post it but I am having trouble connecting to the server BetterBeerBlog is hosted on. I’ll have to shoot out an email tonight and see if I can get that resolved.

Most of my beer knowledge comes from my homebrewing background. I initially got interested in homebrewing after reading about it in my college newspaper. It seemed like a cool thing to do and I have always been interested in making my own things. Eventually I’ll get to the point where I’m roasting my own coffee beans and making my own soap.

I finally had time this weekend to brew. Usually I set up my canopy and brew in the backyard but because of the rainy weather, I was forced to do so in my garage. Interestingly, I found brewing in the garage to be really enjoyable. This gives me reason to clear the garage out of all this crap my wife and I have managed to accumulate over the years living single.

The style of beer I decided to brew is an altbier. While there are two different styles of altbiers, based upon my ingredient list, the beer I have fermenting in my dining room is a Düsseldorf Altbier. You can read up on all the specifics of this beer on the BJCP website but as it was explained to me, it’s similar to an english pale in malt and hop flavor but without the aroma. This is an older style ale that is fermented on the cooler side of the ale spectrum and allowed to mature like a lager in order to produce a clean, crisp and smooth beer. Ironically, I used the term “lager” when describing this beer style but historically speaking, lager yeasts weren’t yet isolated so this beer predates lagers.

I decided to brew this beer as I am interested in brewing things I haven’t done before. To decide what style of beer to brew, I asked Phil over at More Flavor! what would be a good beer to brew for the upcoming season. I suggested a maibock but he countered with the altbier style. Because the weather is still cool, I could ferment this at lower temperatures. Also, it’s still a bit early to be brewing for maibocks.

Here’s the ingredient list:

Malt Extract/Additions

• 8 lbs. Ultralight Malt

Grain

• 1 lbs. Crystal 40L
• 4 oz. Chocolate (Not using real chocolate. Chocolate is just the adjective used to describe the color of the grain, not the flavor)

Hops

• 1.5 oz Northern Brewer Hops (These are my bittering hops. As the description implies, these are the hops that will give my beer it’s bitterness. Normally hops are packaged with their IBU rating but I don’t recall any rating for these. These are boiled for 60 minutes.)
• 1 oz Hallertauer Hops (Added during the last 5 minutes for flavor and aroma.)
• 1 oz Hallertauer Hops (Added during the final minute for aroma only.

Yeast

• Wyeast 1007 German Ale yeast (Some yeasts are dry, this is a liquid. Unlike other liquid yeasts that are bottled in test tube like things, these are in a “smack pack”. The advantage of a smack pack is the little package of yeast nutrient inside. You smack the nutrient packaging to release the nutrient about 3 hours before you need to add them to your wort. In essence, the smack pack is a mini-yeast starter in a bag.)

For those uninitiated with the world of homebrewing, I’m sure I am using a lot of terminology you may not be familiar with. I will be putting up a homebrew section in a couple of weeks. Homebrewing in itself is enough to base an entire blog (book, magazine, career) off of so I will be relating everything to my own homebrews. I’ll break things down into easier to understand chunks as well as explain the lingo as I go along.In any event, once this beer is finished, I’ll put it through a BJCP style review instead of my own review process. In fact, I still have a few homebrews left so I’ll put those on my list of beers to review.