The original and final density readings of this brew were 1039 and 1007 g/L, respectively. These reading correspond to an alcohol concentration in brew 80 of approximately 5.1 % (v/v), or 1.7 standard drinks per schooner.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Fox Place Brew 80: Lager
A "yeast-starter" was produced from the tailings of the previous lager brewed at The Fox and was pitched into brew 80. Despite the weather having turned cool last week, this lager strain was again a steady performer. A graphical representation of the course of the fermentation is shown below.
Fox Place Brew 78: Cider
Brew 78 was kegged after brew 79 because of this cider's lengthy fermentation. Our experience has been that relatively nutrient-poor brews such as ciders and ginger beers undergo a slower fermentation that a malt beer. This effect may have been exacerbated by a lack of external heating in this instance. The development of this cider during fermentation is shown graphically below.
The Black Rock "Cider" kit was augmented with dextrose (1kg) and produced a wort with a density of 1034g/L. The final density was 1000g/L and equates to an alcohol concentration of approximately 4.4% (v/v). This brew is currently being force-carbonated and I intend to report back with some details of the finished product.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Hydrolyzed corn products in brewing
Phil was considering using corn syrup as a brewing adjunct. Corn is a cheap source of starch and from it a range of hydrolyzed products can be obtained. To avoid confusion, I consider it useful to briefly describe to use of corn derivatives in homebrewing. As an introduction, I will mention the processing of barley required prior to brewing.
A grain of barley is largely an energy source for the germinated seedling that it will nurture. The energy in a grain of barley is stored mostly as starch. Starch (polysaccharides) must be cleaved into smaller units such as maltose (a disaccharide) by enzymes in the germinated grain to make useful fuel. Enzymes from within the grain perform this function when barley is warm and moist. Artificially raising the temperature after germination speeds up enzyme activity and is called "malting". The malting process converts most of the tasteless starch into sweet maltose.
Barley is easily malted because it is rich in those enzymes that hydrolyze starch and generate maltose and some other dextrins. The enzymes from barley are sufficiently active that additional sources of starch such as corn or potatoes may be added to a mash containing barley. The barley enzymes will go work on corn starch and potato starch thereby generating extra fermentable sugars.
The use of starch derived from sources other than barley has become entrenched in brewing. The use of corn or rice in brewing tends to generate a beer with less body and flavour than its all-malt brother. Most of the commercial beer kits in Australia are made from malted barley and, to a lesser extent, wheat. Adding corn or potato starch when making up your wort will be ineffectual as active enzymes will not be available to hydrolyze starch. (The starch will harmlessly silt out in your fermenter).
To replicate those beers which may have incorporated corn, or simply to be economical, a variety of hydrolysed starches are available. These products are prepared via the controlled action of acids and/or enzymes on corn (or wheat or potato) starch. If partial hydrolysis has taken place, the starch will have been converted into an assortment of dextrins (oligosaccharides). Complete hydrolysis of the starch will yield dextrose (the monomer of corn starch).
Those dextrins derived from corn are called maltodextrin or corn syrup solids. These oligosaccharides are, unlike starch, soluble in water. However, they are mostly inaccessible to yeast as a food source; thus maltodextrin adds body to a beer (suggestively described as "mouth feel") and little else. Although yeast cannot access maltodextrin as a food source, you can! In this way maltodextrin can add a little to your body too.
Dextrose (also called corn syrup or glucose) is also soluble in water but is readily and completely digested by yeast. This monosaccharide increases the alcohol concentration of the brew as it is consumed. As alcohol is less dense than water, simple sugar adjuncts such as dextrose also effect a thinning of the beer. Likely, this is why dextrose and maltodextrin are often used in conjunction with each other.
A grain of barley is largely an energy source for the germinated seedling that it will nurture. The energy in a grain of barley is stored mostly as starch. Starch (polysaccharides) must be cleaved into smaller units such as maltose (a disaccharide) by enzymes in the germinated grain to make useful fuel. Enzymes from within the grain perform this function when barley is warm and moist. Artificially raising the temperature after germination speeds up enzyme activity and is called "malting". The malting process converts most of the tasteless starch into sweet maltose.
Barley is easily malted because it is rich in those enzymes that hydrolyze starch and generate maltose and some other dextrins. The enzymes from barley are sufficiently active that additional sources of starch such as corn or potatoes may be added to a mash containing barley. The barley enzymes will go work on corn starch and potato starch thereby generating extra fermentable sugars.
The use of starch derived from sources other than barley has become entrenched in brewing. The use of corn or rice in brewing tends to generate a beer with less body and flavour than its all-malt brother. Most of the commercial beer kits in Australia are made from malted barley and, to a lesser extent, wheat. Adding corn or potato starch when making up your wort will be ineffectual as active enzymes will not be available to hydrolyze starch. (The starch will harmlessly silt out in your fermenter).
To replicate those beers which may have incorporated corn, or simply to be economical, a variety of hydrolysed starches are available. These products are prepared via the controlled action of acids and/or enzymes on corn (or wheat or potato) starch. If partial hydrolysis has taken place, the starch will have been converted into an assortment of dextrins (oligosaccharides). Complete hydrolysis of the starch will yield dextrose (the monomer of corn starch).
Those dextrins derived from corn are called maltodextrin or corn syrup solids. These oligosaccharides are, unlike starch, soluble in water. However, they are mostly inaccessible to yeast as a food source; thus maltodextrin adds body to a beer (suggestively described as "mouth feel") and little else. Although yeast cannot access maltodextrin as a food source, you can! In this way maltodextrin can add a little to your body too.
Dextrose (also called corn syrup or glucose) is also soluble in water but is readily and completely digested by yeast. This monosaccharide increases the alcohol concentration of the brew as it is consumed. As alcohol is less dense than water, simple sugar adjuncts such as dextrose also effect a thinning of the beer. Likely, this is why dextrose and maltodextrin are often used in conjunction with each other.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Washing Bottles, Not lucky enough to own a keg system.
Well after stuffing around for ages finally got around to washing out bottles which probably has to be the most tedious part of brewing, apart from waiting for it being ready to drink.
The things i have found here are that you can never scrub as hard and fast as you want especially if the bottles are hot from the water being added. So to overcome this problem get a good quality bottle bruch and chop the wired top so that has no handle and attach to a power drill, preferable keyless chuck drill with multiple settings. This prove a highly effective and through way of ensuring that the bottles get cleaned on all surfaces.
Second ensure the bottle brush bristles don't melt! This happened with the new brush purchased recently when had almost boiling water in bottles to sterilise, place brush in bottles and removed and bristles had shrunk to half the size. Not sure if this was type of brush that was purchased as old bottle brush never had this problem.
Anyway now to wait a month or so and will have a batch ready to go.
The things i have found here are that you can never scrub as hard and fast as you want especially if the bottles are hot from the water being added. So to overcome this problem get a good quality bottle bruch and chop the wired top so that has no handle and attach to a power drill, preferable keyless chuck drill with multiple settings. This prove a highly effective and through way of ensuring that the bottles get cleaned on all surfaces.
Second ensure the bottle brush bristles don't melt! This happened with the new brush purchased recently when had almost boiling water in bottles to sterilise, place brush in bottles and removed and bristles had shrunk to half the size. Not sure if this was type of brush that was purchased as old bottle brush never had this problem.
Anyway now to wait a month or so and will have a batch ready to go.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Fox Place Brew 79
All kegs were, until this morning, empty at the Fox. This called for immediate action. I am shown below shaking a keg sterile.
The brew I kegged today is an approximation of the Rooftop Red Lager.
I loosely followed the recipe suggested at the Country Brewer.1
Ingredients:
- Cooper's Lager, 1.7kg
- Cooper's Dry Light Malt Extract, 0.5kg
- Corn Starch, 0.25kg
- Dextrose, 0.25kg
- Cracked Crystal Malt, 0.3kg
- Hersbrucker Hops, 12g
- Saflager Yeast, 10g
The 21L brew had an OG of 1.039 and FG of 1.007. The final alcohol concentration is approximately 4.2% (v/v), or 1.4 standard drinks per schooner. (The genuine article is 4.7%, or 1.6 standard drinks per schooner). The development of this brew is exhibited graphically below.
Brewing is often a learning process, and in this brew I learnt another new item. Corn starch is not equivalent to maltodextrin. Maltodextrin can be manufactured from corn starch by breaking some of the very long starch (carbohydrate) polymers down into smaller fragments. Maltodextrin is water-soluble and partially accessible to yeast as a food-source. Corn starch, which I mistakenly included in this brew, is insoluble in water and inaccessible to yeast. As such, is fell from suspension and was discarded from the vat while cleaning.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Double Up No. 2
I spoke with the attendant at the Brew shop and asked for a little advice on something fast to make and having a bit of malt with a light hop. I have gone with a Rapid Creek Pale with a brew booster and Amarillo hop. It smells pretty good and seems like it will make a nice beer. I will have to get a bit more organised for brewing the double batches and buy my mixes in advance. I am thinking for my next batch a Little Creatures Pale Ale.
Thankyou to Dave, Mixy, Louie and Jen who made the trip down for the squash games and beers on the Grand Final weekend. The beers seemed to go down a treat after a few hours of squash, especially that we downed 1 1/2 kegs. I hope you enjoyed the beers and I am sure I will have to make a trip down to CanB to taste test a few of Dave's creations in the near future.
The single batch that will be kegged in the following week is just a Cooper's Canadian Blonde with Brew Enhancer #2. This was one of the easier beers to drink back in the day of bottling so it will be interesting to see how it come out in kegging.
Thankyou to Dave, Mixy, Louie and Jen who made the trip down for the squash games and beers on the Grand Final weekend. The beers seemed to go down a treat after a few hours of squash, especially that we downed 1 1/2 kegs. I hope you enjoyed the beers and I am sure I will have to make a trip down to CanB to taste test a few of Dave's creations in the near future.
The single batch that will be kegged in the following week is just a Cooper's Canadian Blonde with Brew Enhancer #2. This was one of the easier beers to drink back in the day of bottling so it will be interesting to see how it come out in kegging.
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Twin Taps
Mixy helped me install a second tap today. Currently pouring is a two-row lager (brew 76) on the left tap and a pilsener (brew 75) on the right.
I also started brew 79, a red lager. This recipe called for cracked crystal malt grain. A picture of this grain, on a roiling boil, is shown below. It made the house smell wonderful!
Brew 77
I brewed and then kegged another batch of my popular Hoegaarden mimic. It smells spicy and fruity just like the original. The alcohol concentration has concluded at about 3.4% (v/v), or 1.1 standard drinks per schooner. (The genuine article is produced at about 5.0%, or 1.7 standard drinks per schooner.) The fermentation record is presented graphically below.
Brew 77 ingredients:
- Black Rock "Whispering Wheat", 1.7kg
- Morgan's "Wheat Malt", 1.0kg
- Cracked coriander seeds, 50g
- Zest of one orange
- Safbrew WB-06 yeast, 11.5g
The total volume was 23L. Original and final gravity readings were 1.034 and 1.008 g/mL, respectively.
News flash from Sunday 12 Oct 2008:
We tapped the keg on Friday and indulged ourselves and a bunch of (I think) satisfied chemists in the evening. A sip on Saturday and a couple on Sunday and the keg was gone. In two days! I will have to make a clone again very soon. I would really like a 60L fermenter sometimes.
Jenny and Puss are sharing a couple of Hoegaardens on Saturday afternoon.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Inspiration
I am trying to think of the next double up to go and I need a bit of help trying to decide. I would like a beer that is reasonably palette friendly but not too subtle in flavour compared to our mass producers. I would like a simple yet easily drinkable with robust flavour. Please lend me your input.
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