Nick Larson and Jake Devincenzi
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Kinesiology senior Nick Larson and aerospace engineering senior Jake Devincenzi are Mustang News beer columnists.
The hardest part of anything is starting. Brewing beer is no exception. We talked for months about getting our brewing equipment until we finally researched everything we needed. Then, we made our way to Doc’s Cellar, the local hub for anything ‘home-brew.’
Doc’s has a pre-set starter kit with about everything you need to begin. In addition to the starter kit, we also bought a glass carboy, (which houses the beer during fermentation), a 5-gallon pot and a pale ale starter recipe. The pot and carboy are necessary, and we’ll delve into the recipe situation soon.
There are alternatives to Doc’s online, but if you’re in SLO, it’s a great option as you don’t have to pay for shipping, and they can answer any questions you may have.
When it comes to picking your recipe, there are basically three options: Use a base recipe from a place such as Doc’s or any online vendor, find a “clone” recipe online of any beer you know you like or, if you’re feeling brave, make your own recipe from scratch.
We used the pale ale recipe from Doc’s our first time brewing. Long story short, it was our first time brewing and it was awful. It tasted like watered down crap, or what we imagine that would taste like. It was great watching most of our friends and family trying to tell us it wasn’t bad, but we knew better.
Now, it was our fault, not the recipe’s. We made multiple mistakes through the process to get to that point. However, we tend to stay away from pre-made recipes, favoring the “clone” recipes which can easily be found online. We highly recommend this method, as you can have an idea of exactly what your beer should taste like. It’s easy to obtain the contents of the recipe at Doc’s, where we walk in, tell them what they need and they put it together for us. Another benefit of this is having a reference point, as you’ll be able to taste the difference between your beer and the one you attempted to copy. It’s a great way to gauge your skill (or lack of) as a brewer. This is the way we learned what we needed to improve on and what we were doing well — it’s a lot of trial and error at first.
Once you’re confident in your brewing prowess, you can start making your own recipes. We began by tweaking recipes of clones, and even at this point, we only have one recipe we have made fully from scratch. This method is for the brave, but it can pay off. It’s a very rewarding feeling to know you crafted something great.
Beginner’s guide to brewing
Much like any craft, brewing your own beer is half direction-following and half ingenuity. And half funding. And half desire to consume copious amounts of alcohol. Screw math. Basically, you could follow the best directions in the world, but without your own understanding of the nuances of beer, your brews will taste like cardboard. Similarly, you could know all about beer’s secrets, but without the fundamentals of the brewing process, your beer probably won’t even qualify as beer. Throughout this year, we hope to educate you about the subtleties of the beer world we have come to love, but for now, let’s just go over the basics of the brewing process. Note that there are two types of brewing: all-grain and extract brewing. This will cover how to brew with liquid malt extract.
Sanitize your equipment
Brewing beer isn’t the most difficult thing in the world. Your 8-year-old sister could brew a batch on par with Coors Light if given a list of instructions and permission to use the stove. However, no matter how much you know, if your brew gets contaminated, it will taste like crap. Invest in some good sanitizing solution (we recommend Star San) and make a 5-gallon solution of it to sanitize all of your brewing equipment. (By the way, the correct ratio is 1 oz of Star San to 5 gallons of water … We didn’t know this our first time and, well, we don’t give away any of that batch).
Steep your grains
Add approximately 2.5 to 3 gallons of water to a 5-gallon pot and bring it to between 145 degrees and 155 degrees. “Oh, Jake and Nick, what if it gets out of that temperature range?” NO! Brewing beer is not a spectator sport. Monitor the temperature of your water as you steep your grains. Please. Once you reach 150 degrees (yes, that is Fahrenheit, for the less scientifically-inclined), place your grains in a grain sock, tie off the top of a sock and set the sock in the water. Let them steep for 30 minutes, and be sure to monitor that temperature.
Extract addition and the boil
For anyone who enjoys craft beers, this is where things get exciting. The boil is where you get to add all the tasty ingredients that will make your beer yours. It’s also where hopheads like Jake get to enjoy the fresh aroma of nature’s air freshener. Once your 30-minute steeping is done, pour in your liquid malt extract (LME). As we noted earlier, there are two types of brewing: all-grain and extract. Basically, extract brewing means the sugars of the grains have already been extracted into a caramel-like liquid, ready to be added to your wort (beer that has not been turned alcoholic).
As you pour in your LME, make sure your heat is turned off and you stir the LME so it does not burn. Failure to do so will result in burning. Remember that first batch we brewed? We didn’t have this tip … It tasted a little bit, shall we say, smokey.
Once the LME is mixed in, pump up the gas and bring your wort to a boil. This will take a while, so be patient. Bubbling means your wort is boiling and your boil time has started. Most boils last 60 minutes, and ingredients (hops, fruit, honey, etc.) are added at different times. Add your ingredients at the times denoted on the recipe, making note that the time is the time remaining, so 60-minute hops are added at the beginning, 15-minute hops are added 45 minutes in, and 0-minute hops are added as you turn off the heat (called flameout).
Freeze
After any tough workout, it’s important to ice. Your beer is no different. Cover your wort and move it to an ice bath, or some other cooling area. We usually use a 10-gallon garbage can, filled with an ice bath solution of 40 lbs of ice. Be sure to cover the wort to prevent contamination. Leave the covered pot in the ice bath until the wort has reached 72 degrees. Note that the faster you cool your wort, the less chance it has to become contaminated. If you elect an option other than an ice bath, make sure it is quick.
Let’s get alcoholic
Once your wort is properly cooled, you will need to transfer it to your fermenter. There are many methods to doing this, but we like to first transfer it to a bottling bucket, then use a funnel to move it to the fermenter. Don’t forget to sanitize everything.
After your wort is added to the fermenter, you will add what is called the “top-up” water. Add additional water until your mixture equals 5 gallons. Since some of your initial water will have evaporated in the boil, we recommend marking off a 5-gallon level on your fermenter. After you reach 5 gallons, cover the fermenter with sanitized aluminum foil, then shake it vigorously for five minutes. This will oxygenate your wort. Why do you want to oxygenate your wort? We aren’t scientists, but we believe the scientific formula is sugar + oxygen + yeast = alcohol. Pitch your yeast into the fermenter, add your air-lock, let it sit for 30 minutes, give it a couple spins to activate the yeast and place your fermenter in a dark room for primary and secondary fermentation.
Finishing up
Congratulations! You have brewed your first batch. There are a lot of factors that go into the fermentation process, but they are specific to each recipe. Do some research and look up the following things for your specific brew:
– Fermentation time
– Fermentation temperature
– Dry hopping
And do not worry, we’ll talk about all of those in future columns.
Weekly beer recommendations: Stouts
Manly men drink dry ones, we drink chocolatey ones and there are endless possibilities in between. Stouts tend to be creamier than other types of beers, and have the most variation in alcohol content. Guinness, as most people may not know, is less than 4 percent alcohol by volume. That’s less than the light beers with which we are currently playing beer pong (side note: do not play beer pong with Guinness). Other imperial stouts top 12 percent abv, utilizing creamy chocolate and coffee notes to neutralize the heavy alcohol content. Here are a few of our favorites.
Jake’s stout recommendations
$: Guinness, Dublin. “Guinness Draught.” It’s Guinness. ‘Nuff said.
$$: Green Flash Brewing Company, San Diego, Calif. “Double Stout.” This stout is phenomenal. The first stout I ever enjoyed, Green Flash, delivers yet again with this 8.8 percent alcohol by volume behemoth. Notes of chocolate and honey, coupled with the sweet alcoholic yeast taste make for a great introductory stout, worthy of a nod from any beer snob.
$$$: AleSmith Brewing Company, San Diego, Calif. “Speedway Stout.” I may be a NorCal native, but I’ll admit that San Diego breweries make hella good beer. This stout is imperial, which is the classy way of saying “contains a truck-ton of alcohol.” It clocks in at more than 12 percent alcohol by volume, and will accompany any classy meal or fireside sitting. Tread lightly with this one. For a delicious beer mix, try mixing one part Speedway Stout with three parts AleSmith India Pale Ale for a “Speedy Indian.”
Nick’s stout recommendations
$: Samuel Smith Brewery, Yorkshire, England. “Organic Chocolate Stout.” This may be the best-tasting set of recommendations I’ve had so far. This beer is amazing. It’s made with tons of chocolate, and after one sip that will be clearly apparent. The aftertaste is comparable only to chocolate milk, and for less than $5, it’s a steal.
$$: North Coast Brewing Company, Fort Bragg, Calif. “Old Rasputin.” I’ve had this Russian Imperial Stout on tap at a few places, including Eureka!Burger downtown, and it is delicious. It’s best when served on nitro, which makes it smoother and bar-none the best stout you’ll commonly find along the California coast. At 9 percent, it’ll start (or end) your night with a bang.
$$$: Clown Shoes Brew, Ipswich, Mass. “Porcine Unidragon.” Perfection. Pure, dark, bourbon barrel-aged perfection. I’ve had this beer once, and will never pass on the chance to drink one. It’s a barrel-aged version of Clown Shoes’ normal stout, which allows the full flavor to come out. Also, it’s aged with Beechwood Smoked malt (no actual meat included), which is a testament to its amazing taste, because I am a vegetarian. At 12.5 percent, it’s not for the faint of heart.