Craft Beers, Microbreweries and Homebrewing

  • Thread starter Astronuc
  • Start date
In summary, Bell's Brewery is a good brewery. Some American beers are brewed with top or bottom yeasts, but ultimately it depends on the style.
  • #141
Insanity said:
Pick the one that knows the alpha acid % (AA%) of their hops and that the hops are refrigerated. Any place that doesn't know the AA% shouldn't be open in many brewers opinions. A good place also has a grain mill to crush the grains there. Crushing grains without one is quite difficult.

Find a local club.
Code:
http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/pages/directories/find-a-club

Find a local supply shop
Code:
http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/pages/directories/find-a-supply-shop

Again, thanks for helping.

I thought I would try to get over to the Topeka supplier later this week and have a little talk with them. So I'm putting these questions at the top of the list. I do think they have milling services but I'll make sure.
 
Physics news on Phys.org
  • #142
When I've gotten 55# bags of pale malt, is usually comes crushed, but specialty grains are usually sold in 1#, 3#, 10#.

There has been occasions where I forgot to get the grains crushed, and as I don't yet have my own mill, the alternate to use a rolling pin, and even 2# is rough.

Having a variety of hops, grains and yeast is nice. The yeast is what really makes the beer. You can use the same amount of grains and hops, but use two different yeast and each beer will differ.
 
  • #143
Insanity said:
When I've gotten 55# bags of pale malt, is usually comes crushed, but specialty grains are usually sold in 1#, 3#, 10#.

There has been occasions where I forgot to get the grains crushed, and as I don't yet have my own mill, the alternate to use a rolling pin, and even 2# is rough.

Having a variety of hops, grains and yeast is nice. The yeast is what really makes the beer. You can use the same amount of grains and hops, but use two different yeast and each beer will differ.

Mmmm... yeast... truly a wonderful organism(s)... MOST of the time.
 
  • #144
I think the yeast is more important in brewing then most people realize, and there are many different strains of yeast used in brewing aside from the broad ale and lager categories.

White Labs and Wyeast Labs are pretty much the top two labs for producing yeast for fermentation of beer, ciders and wine. Both have about 50 different yeast strains, that can differ in alcohol tolerance, attenuation, flavor profile, etc...

Which is great, because if you want to make a dry irish stout, you can use an irish yeast.

Code:
[PLAIN]http://www.whitelabs.com/beer/homebrew_strains.html[/PLAIN] 
http://www.wyeastlab.com/hb_yeaststrain.cfm

I have read that the Belgium trappist breweries are so particular, that when they will select their yeast cell by cell under a microscope to choose which ones are used to establish their "base".
 
Last edited by a moderator:
  • #145
Insanity said:
I think the yeast is more important in brewing then most people realize, and there are many different strains of yeast used in brewing aside from the broad ale and lager categories.

White Labs and Wyeast Labs are pretty much the top two labs for producing yeast for fermentation of beer, ciders and wine. Both have about 50 different yeast strains, that can differ in alcohol tolerance, attenuation, flavor profile, etc...

Which is great, because if you want to make a dry irish stout, you can use an irish yeast.

Code:
[PLAIN]http://www.whitelabs.com/beer/homebrew_strains.html[/PLAIN] 
http://www.wyeastlab.com/hb_yeaststrain.cfm

I have read that the Belgium trappist breweries are so particular, that when they will select their yeast cell by cell under a microscope to choose which ones are used to establish their "base".

That does make sense... much the same issues with starter for bread.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
  • #146
nismaratwork said:
AFAIK you're right about hops, and I think some true Lambics are also unhopped. 18 inches though? Fantastic!

What kind of soil do you need to grow them, and how does it effect flavor and aroma? You seem to really know your stuff!

I asked my friend about what he does for his hops each year, and he says he throws a heaping pile of fresh compost from his compost pile and then uses a light 1/5 strength miracle grow when they start to flower.
 
  • #147
Insanity said:
I asked my friend about what he does for his hops each year, and he says he throws a heaping pile of fresh compost from his compost pile and then uses a light 1/5 strength miracle grow when they start to flower.

Well, that sounds pretty easy! The vine mangement... not so much, but possibly fun. Thanks Insanity!
 
  • #148
The more I think about it, the more interested I would be in getting into homebrewing.

The only reservation I have about it is trying to regulate the temperature during fermentation. How do people typically do this? I doubt my wife would let me do the fermentation in the house... My house is horribly insulated anyways. Wild temperature variations in winter when I turn the heat way down while we are at work. I don't have a basement and my garage is not connected to the house nor is it heated.
 
  • #149
Norman said:
The more I think about it, the more interested I would be in getting into homebrewing.

The only reservation I have about it is trying to regulate the temperature during fermentation. How do people typically do this? I doubt my wife would let me do the fermentation in the house... My house is horribly insulated anyways. Wild temperature variations in winter when I turn the heat way down while we are at work. I don't have a basement and my garage is not connected to the house nor is it heated.

Bathtub.
 
  • #150
There are brew belts and other electric devices to keep things warm. There are also thermostat devices to keep freezer and/or fridges at the ideal temps for cooler fermentations, such as lagers.

Code:
[PLAIN]http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewing/brewing-equipment/fermenting-equipment/fermentation-temperature-control
[/PLAIN]

Ideally, the temp must be around 70-74F to allow fermentation to start, but afterwards, keeping it around 60F is fine. Lagering can be done down to as low as 35F. It all depends on the beer being made. Belgium styles sometimes ferment in the mid 80s.

Unless your house is constantly in the 80s in the summer, or in the 50s in the winter, I wouldn't be too concerned. I don't use any temp control devices myself, but I do have a large basement where I place my fermentors after the primary fermetation has started.

It is important that it is in a dark area though, sunlight will inhibit fermetation and skunk beer quickly. Wrapping a heavy blanket or towel around the fermentor will help that.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
  • #151
nismaratwork said:
Bathtub.

I've placed my fermentors there too, just in case the fermentation got over active, which happens. My wife requested not to do this anymore. It was easier then carrying 5 gallons in a large glass jug up and down the basement stairs.

A friend dropped one of his 7 gallons filled with apple raspberry wine, quite the mess. Loss of wine too.
 
  • #152
Insanity said:
I've placed my fermentors there too, just in case the fermentation got over active, which happens. My wife requested not to do this anymore. It was easier then carrying 5 gallons in a large glass jug up and down the basement stairs.

A friend dropped one of his 7 gallons filled with apple raspberry wine, quite the mess. Loss of wine too.


Ooooooh... 7 gallons?! Damn... was that a Lambic too?!
 
  • #153
nismaratwork said:
Ooooooh... 7 gallons?! Damn... was that a Lambic too?!

Nope, he makes wine, he has 4-5 acres and has several (1000 or so) strawberry, raspberry, blackberry plants, some grape vines and apple trees. So he makes wine with it all, he made a very good blueberry wine last season, think he hit 19% ABV. When you had a glass, you knew you had a glass.

We are in the process of cross training each other, I am teaching him beer making, he will be teaching me wine making. All my attempts at wine have failed, except the pineapple I did from a concentrate. Fresh fruits have failed, though might be decent grape vinegar.

I had used his raspberries in my raspberry wheat beer that I got 3rd place in a local competition. Has a nice hawaiian punch color to it, bit tart, but aging I think it removing that. Not my personal favorites of what I made, but good first attempt at a fruit beer.
 
  • #154
I have Concord grape vines climbing all the trees on the back side of my garden. I have juiced the grapes for my wife (she likes mixed juices and smoothies) a couple of years, but lately invasions of Japanese beetles have decimated the grape crop. I'd consider making wine with them, but there aren't enough good grapes left after the beetles are through with them. I have seeded my lawns with milky spore ($$$$) in an attempt to stop the beetles, but only one other organic-gardening neighbor has done the same, so we both get beetles from other neighbors' properties. We refuse to use poisons on our trees, berry bushes, gardens, etc.
 
  • #155
Try a bird feeder, or several, throughout your property, and near your grapes. Maybe even a bird bath without a short distance from the grapes. Birds are way more effective than you or I and getting rid of insects. Starlings will eat adult beetles, and robins, cardinals and catbirds may as well. Chickens would too I guess.

I know ladybugs are good against aphids, but I doubt japanese beetles. Praying mantises might be, I've seen egg cases for them sold at garden shops before.
 
  • #156
I have a bird-bath, a very large backyard pond, a smaller pond near the garden, seed feeders under the eaves, etc, so no shortage of birds. Somehow, the birds don't seem very effective at controlling Japanese beetles, though. Maybe they don't taste good. I know that they stink to high heaven if I don't change the soapy water in my "drowning bucket" for a day or so.
 
  • #157
Insanity said:
Nope, he makes wine, he has 4-5 acres and has several (1000 or so) strawberry, raspberry, blackberry plants, some grape vines and apple trees. So he makes wine with it all, he made a very good blueberry wine last season, think he hit 19% ABV. When you had a glass, you knew you had a glass.

We are in the process of cross training each other, I am teaching him beer making, he will be teaching me wine making. All my attempts at wine have failed, except the pineapple I did from a concentrate. Fresh fruits have failed, though might be decent grape vinegar.

I had used his raspberries in my raspberry wheat beer that I got 3rd place in a local competition. Has a nice hawaiian punch color to it, bit tart, but aging I think it removing that. Not my personal favorites of what I made, but good first attempt at a fruit beer.

Wow... 7 gallons of WINE... he must have wept. I love that kind of fruity stuff, lambics, as well as the "bread-like" and hoppy bears.

@Turbo-1: You have many good options, ranging from chemical to... well.. still chemical, but in a biological form.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_beetle
Wikipedia said:
During the larval stage, the Japanese beetle lives in lawns and other grasslands, where it eats the roots of grasses. During that stage, it is susceptible to a fatal disease called milky spore disease, caused by a bacterium called milky spore, Paenibacillus (formerly Bacillus) popilliae. The USDA developed this biological control and it is commercially available in powder form for application to lawn areas. Standard applications (low density across a broad area) take from one to five years to establish maximal protection against larval survival (depending on climate), expanding through the soil through repeated rounds of infection, in-vers can be used to exclude the beetles; however, this may necessitate hand pollination of flowers. Kaolin sprays can also be used as barriers.

Research performed by many US extension service branches has shown pheromone traps attract more beetles than they catch,[3][4] Traps are most effective when spread out over an entire community, and downwind and at the borders (i.e., as far away as possible, particularly upwind), of managed property containing plants being protected. Natural repellents include catnip, chives, garlic, and tansy,[5] as well as the remains of dead beetles, but these methods have limited effectiveness.[6] Additionally, when present in small numbers, the beetles may be manually controlled using a soap-water spray mixture, shaking a plant in the morning hours and disposing of the fallen beetles,[4] or simply picking them off attractions such as rose flowers, since the presence of beetles attracts more beetles to that plant.[6]
 
  • #158
turbo-1 said:
I have a bird-bath, a very large backyard pond, a smaller pond near the garden, seed feeders under the eaves, etc, so no shortage of birds. Somehow, the birds don't seem very effective at controlling Japanese beetles, though. Maybe they don't taste good. I know that they stink to high heaven if I don't change the soapy water in my "drowning bucket" for a day or so.
They apparently taste offensive to bird. The stinky smell is from decomposition and bacteria.
 
  • #159
Astronuc said:
They apparently taste offensive to bird.
That was my assumption. We can be inundated with Japanese beetles, and insectivorous birds don't seem to eat them, though they are a very abundant and massive food source. Those beetles are pretty big, and are not real nimble, but our phoebes, yellow-throats, and other insect predators don't touch them. There are phoebes that nest under our deck and raise a couple of broods a year, and they are constantly on the hunt for food for their babies. Also, the brushy south border of the cleared part of this lot is a favorite nesting site for yellow-throats. They will helpfully come to my garden and patrol tomato plants, pepper plants, etc for bugs, but they don't go after the Japanese beetles. I would try mantises again, though the season here is so short that the mantises don't attain a size capable of tackling very large beetles.

My wife and I are greatly expanding our flower gardens in front of the house, and that may help. The most effective natural control on Japanese beetles is a parasitic fly that lays its eggs on the beetles, so their larvae can eat the beetles from the inside out. The flies look similar to common houseflies, but they are vegetarian and consume pollen and nectar. We intend to plant many varieties of flowers and flowering plants so that the flies have a very long season of abundant food and no reason to leave the property.

BTW, the milky-spore is at least somewhat effective, as evidenced by the paucity of mole and vole tunnels in the spring when the snow melts. Our neighbors have lots of mole/vole tunnels in their lawns, as the rodents dig along in search of beetle larvae.
 
  • #160
perhaps a flamethrower against the beetles?
 
  • #161
Insanity said:
perhaps a flamethrower against the beetles?
I have a very potent LP torch, but since the beetles seem to congregate on our plum trees, cherry trees, raspberry bushes, etc, there is a down-side to the practical approach.
 
  • #162
turbo-1 said:
I have a very potent LP torch, but since the beetles seem to congregate on our plum trees, cherry trees, raspberry bushes, etc, there is a down-side to the practical approach.

Do you have cattle? I usually associate an LP torch with singing hairs on live-stock, (worked on a farm in NY as a kid).
 
  • #163
This place has a good list of domestic and foreign craft beers.

One can browse by brewery, region, nation, or type of beer, and they have various give packages.

http://www.halftimebeverage.com/
 
  • #164
Astronuc said:
This place has a good list of domestic and foreign craft beers.

One can browse by brewery, region, nation, or type of beer, and they have various give packages.

http://www.halftimebeverage.com/

MMmmmmmmmm...
 
  • #165
So far have indulged in 2 local beers out here in Montana:

http://bozemanbrewing.com/bozoneBeer.php" - pretty decent American style hefeweizen. Missing the depth of nuance in the citrus you get from the top tier German Hefeweizens, however.

http://www.bigskybrew.com/Our_Beers/Moose_Drool" - a quality american brown ale. Didn't have much time to savor it, was eating and chatting. I will have another.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
  • #166
Recently had Abita's Purple Haze, a raspberry wheat. The hint of raspberry is just there, but not overwhelming as is the aroma. Quite good, though personally I would prefer a bit more of the raspberry to come through.

Also had Samuel Smith's Nut Brown Ale, from Yorkshire, a Northern English brown ale. The brewery still draws its water from the original well put in place in 1758. Deep red-brown, but clear beer, toffee and caramel flavors there, but not strong. Another good one.
 
Last edited:
  • #167
Samuel Smith's from Tadcaster makes some great beers and ales.

I had a bottle of Rogue Chocolate Stout last night, and it tasted like bittersweet chocolate in a stout beer. The chocolate taste was actually more like cocoa taste. It was certainly the most chocolaty tasting Chocolate Stout I've ever tasted.
 
  • #168
Indeed, and their yeast strain is about a 100 years old, the oldest in its region.
I also heard that they caused some controversy by removing all tvs and such from their pub, attempting to bring the old real pub feel back.
 
  • #169
It's a little further from me (Topeka, KS), but they make some really good unfiltered wheat beer.

http://www.blindtiger.com/ales.html"

What does unfiltered really mean? I know it's much "heavier" but the taste is awesome.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
  • #170
dlgoff said:
It's a little further from me (Topeka, KS), but they make some really good unfiltered wheat beer.

http://www.blindtiger.com/ales.html"

What does unfiltered really mean? I know it's much "heavier" but the taste is awesome.

Filtering means literally passing the beer through a filter after fermentation. It removes the yeast and larger solids from the beer. Filtration requires a forced carbonation of the beer.

The removal of the yeast and solids changes the flavor, nutritional value, and texture in the mouth of the beer.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
  • #171
the leftover yeast is supposedly high in vitamins and minerals.
 
  • #172
Insanity said:
the leftover yeast is supposedly high in vitamins and minerals.

Plus, it's yummy...
 
  • #173
Insanity said:
the leftover yeast is supposedly high in vitamins and minerals.
That is the basis of Vegemite.
 
  • #174
Astronuc said:
That is the basis of Vegemite.

Indeed, but also the basis for really good pita bread!

Vegemite... that's... just evil.
 
  • #175
Insanity said:
Recently had Abita's Purple Haze, a raspberry wheat. The hint of raspberry is just there, but not overwhelming as is the aroma. Quite good, though personally I would prefer a bit more of the raspberry to come through.

Also had Samuel Smith's Nut Brown Ale, from Yorkshire, a Northern English brown ale. The brewery still draws its water from the original well put in place in 1758. Deep red-brown, but clear beer, toffee and caramel flavors there, but not strong. Another good one.

Abita has a few good brews. Normally I would completely shy away from a fruity beer, but a friend had some of their Strawberry Harvest Lager, so I tried it. I was really impressed. It had just a hint of strawberry. My suggestion is to stay away from the Satsuma though. I couldn't finish one bottle. I've also got one or two Samuel Smith's Nut Brown Ale in my fridge.

Astronuc said:
I had a bottle of Rogue Chocolate Stout last night, and it tasted like bittersweet chocolate in a stout beer. The chocolate taste was actually more like cocoa taste. It was certainly the most chocolaty tasting Chocolate Stout I've ever tasted.

I definitely liked Rogue Chocolate Stout. I picked it up on a whim a few months ago. I think I could enjoy that one as "dessert" almost any time. I really enjoy the Hazelnut Brown Nectar and the Irish Lager was, although nothing special like most of their brews, very easy to drink. I personally didn't care for the Chipotle Ale, although I don't remember specifics.
 
Back
Top