Metric Infusion Ratios

Just a super-quick post; mostly so that I'll have this table handy for when I need it. Here is a table of for inter-converting between US (qt/lb) and metric (l/kg) infusion ratios. This is a simple calculation - multiply US units by 2.086345096 to get metric & vice-versa; you can multiply by 2 for simplicity...

qt/lb	L/kg		qt/lb	L/kg
0.75	1.56		1.65	3.44
0.80	1.67		1.70	3.55
0.85	1.77		1.75	3.65
0.90	1.88		1.80	3.76
0.95	1.98		1.85	3.86
1.00	2.09		1.90	3.96
1.05	2.19		1.95	4.07
1.10	2.29		2.00	4.17
1.15	2.40		2.05	4.28
1.20	2.50		2.10	4.38
1.25	2.61		2.15	4.49
1.30	2.71		2.20	4.59
1.35	2.82		2.25	4.69
1.40	2.92		2.30	4.80
1.45	3.03		2.35	4.90
1.50	3.13		2.40	5.01
1.55	3.23		2.45	5.11
1.60	3.34		2.50	5.22

Making Belgian Candi Sugar

The Belgian Candi Sugars
Left: Attempt #1, Right: Attempt #2

With the Krampus Kristmas Ale transferred to the secondary & spiced my thoughts have turned to the next big beer - probably not to be brewed for a few months (some stouts & porters are in my new future) - but I like to think ahead.

One style I've always enjoyed, but rarely brewed, are the strong Belgian (trappist-style) ales. With lots of fruity esters and spicy phenolics, these beers are flavourful & well balanced. Their high-alcohol & dry finish makes them easy to drink, with the dryness deceptively hiding their strength.

The key to making these beers strong (7-12% alcohol) with a dry finish is the use of Belgian candi sugar - beet sugar which is heated & otherwise treated to create a candi (or syrup). Depending on how it is prepared, this candi can be anything from a light-amber with little flavour through to near-black candis with flavours of coffee, chocolate and dark fruits (e.g. plums & dates). It is the cost (often over $16/kg), and difficulty finding this product in Canada which has largely held back my ability to brew & explore Belgian strong ales.

So imagine my joy when finding out that it may be possible to produce Belgian candi sugar at home. Armed with one youtube video & a short write-up I embarked on my first experiment. After nearly two hours of heating, with little colour formation, I started reading further. It turns out I - and many other brewers out there - are doing it wrong!

Below the fold is my attempt to fix my mistake, and perhaps establish a method others can employ...

EDIT: I have solved some of the crystalizaiton issues people have been reporting when making candi sugar. Details can be found in this blog post.

Krampus Kristmas Ale

Krampus probably should have
visited me more at xmas...

Its September 2nd, the time of the year the brewers thoughts turn to cool fall evenings, pints of ESB after racking the leaves . . . and Christmas. Yep, it is time to start brewing those over-strength ales that we all love to enjoy around yule-time.

Over the past 12 or so years I've brewed a variant of my "Bad Santa"; a light-coloured, light body strong beer with hints of honey, ginger & cinnamon. Every year I tweak it slightly, aiming to make it ever better. Around 2008 this recipe hit its peak and has been on a downward slide since. Indeed, last years batch was a mild disappointment, as chronicled over these posts: 1, 2 &3. Needless to say, it is well-neigh time for a new Christmas beer.

Enter Krampus Kristmas Ale - which is everything Bad Santa isn't. Instead of a light-colour, this beer should have a deep-red hue provided by a mix of melanoiden & caramunich malt. In place of a honey-induced dryness, this beer uses a hot mash to provide a thick, sweet, malty finish. In place of subtle ginger & cinnamon tones, this been has a kick-in-the-face spiciness provided by ample amounts of of cinnamon, allspice & nutmeg. What better name for Bad Santas darker brother than Krampus - the demon who drags naughty children to his lair for punishment?

Recipe & brewnotes below the fold...

Tasting Notes: Droit du seigneur Blonde

Its been a while since I brewed my Droit du seigneur Blonde. In fact, its been in the keg for over a month and the keg is nearly empty. While it may appear that I've been tardy in my tasting notes, this is not the case. Instead, I've been waiting for it to improve.

Yep, this batch is a rare miss. And a miss for two now-obvious reasons. But lets step back for a second and talk about what this beer is supposed to be. US-style Blondes are the homebrewers response to the "light lager" brews that are all too common (Bud, Molson, Coors, etc). Light in body, minimal maltiness and a mild hoppiness, these beers are nice for a hot summers eve, and are an entry point regular brewers into the world of home brewing. In many ways I achieved this end - the beer is light, clear, refreshing & has a soft but enjoyable hop character.

My problems stems from the light flavour of this beer - sadly, due to a renovation I'm performing in my basement, the usual 18C temperature my basement reliably stays at increased to over 23C. At these temperatures the yeast produced more esters than is appropriate to this style. The esters add a fruity note that is not unpleasant; but unfortunately it is accompanied by a stale/rubbery phenolic note - likely due to topping-up the fermenter with raw tap water. The chlorine in the water would make chloroamines, which have a rubbery flavour to them.

Lesson learned - pay more attention to volumes while brewing & control your fermentation temperatuers; doing so can save you a lot of headaches!

Brew Day: Dog Days ESB

Beautiful day to brew!

It has been a while since I last posted a recipe. This is simply because I try not to brew much over the summer - its too hot to stand over a boiling pot of water, and lacking proper temperature control, results are not always as good as I would hope. Indeed, my attempt at a Blonde had an overly estery finish (tasting notes coming soon), largely due to the heatwave that decided to break out hours after the brewday was complete! So my normal approach is to brew a bunch of beer in the early summer, and hope against hope that it lasts the summer.

As you would expect, the archived beer never lasts the summer. So its time for a brew day - and today I'm brewing a beer that is fit for both cooling down on a warm summers eve, and is fit for those early fall days. Crisp, refreshing and modestly bodied, with a bracing but not overpowering bitterness, an extra special bitter is just the beer for the dog days of summer.

HOPS!!!!

I'm also taking this opportunity to try two new things - well, one new thing plus bringing back a thing I used to do religiously. The new thing is going to be an attempt at first wort hopping - based on Denneys notes, I have moved all my bittering additions to FWH addition (you add the hopes to the brew kettle before your collect the sparge - that way the hops soak in the wort prior to boiling). This is supposed to give a smoother bitterness.

Mash outs are a classical part of brewing, but something that many batch-spargers have done away with. My mash efficiencies are consistently low (65%-ish), so I'm going to try adding adding the first sparge water (5L) at boiling (update: this upped my efficiency to 72%, bu I under-collected the sparge water by ~3L, so this could have been better). This may improve the liquefaction of the mash, thus improving efficiency.

Recipe and notes below the fold...

Welcome Visitors!

So without me noticing it the 1-year anniversary of my blog has come and gone (for the record, it was July 6th).  Over the past year my traffic has grown exponentially - from a few hits per month for the first four or five months (most of which were probably just me) to the past three months where I've averaged 1500-2500  per month (most of which may still just be me).

Hits aside, the sources of my traffic have been a surprise, and have identified a number of cool brewing resources that I had no idea existed.  I thought I'd do a bit of a shout-out; both as a way of thanking the people at these sites for their readership, and to share some cool resources that may be of interest:

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Blogs:

• Bootleg Biology: An attempt to create an "open-source"  wild yeast resource for home brewers.  While in the early stages, bootleg biology is seeking to create a "library" of local yeasts from across the USA (and perhaps beyond?).  Includes a mix of blog posts & information pages.  A project worth following, and to join.
• BKYeast: A blog by Dimitri - a man with a very similar background to my own (cell biologist, home brewer).  Lots of information on brew science, wild brewing, and a yeast collection I'd love to get my hands on!
• DC Yeast Lab: A great blog on brewing science & wild brewing.  This blogger and I have enjoyed a successful yeast exchange.
• Eureka Brewing: A blogger with similar goals to my own.  This was one of the blogs that motivated me to start my own.

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Sites:

• Homebrew Talk: To my knowledge this is the largest discussion forum on the 'net for homebrewing, and a site I am an active member of.  A fantastic resource.
• Canadian Home Brewers: Another web forum I participate in - and apparently in which I self-promote a little too much...
• Reddit: I get a lot of hits from reddit; and often from odd sections.  My #1 source is a reddit thread on. . .Why do we have different sized dogs but all the domestic cats are (roughly) the same size?  Yep, I don't get it either.
• http://hobbybrauer.de/: A German homebrew forum.  My German is quite rusty, but my limited Germanic capacity makes me believe that it is an active & interesting forum.
• BeerBorg: A beer-brewing forum with a Star Trek bent.  I'm not sure if this is a regional group or a more general board.

Mailing Yeast Part II

The original "lab-based" mailers in action

I am happy to announce that my post on mailing yeasts has been well received and has led to a number of productive exchanges with other yeast ranchers. But aside from greatly expanding my yeast bank, these exchanges have also identified a few flaws in the mailing and recovering methods I described in my original post.

These flaws appear to stem from the modification I made to the mailing protocol. A modification I had meant to 'convert' the method from a method intended for use in a biology lab to a method that the average home brewer could use. In this post I will discuss how to optimize the sending and receiving process, in order to maximize your chance of a successful yeast exchange. In addition, at the end of the post I will go over the original (lab-based) method, for brewers interested in trying it.

Its worth mentioning that the lab-based method is likely superior for two reasons, although the modifications I'm describing here for the home brewer method may eliminate these advantages:

1. Because the lab-based method works by transferring colonies of yeast off a plate onto the mailer, much larger numbers of yeast are transferred to the paper compared to the original home brewers method.
2. The lab method uses yeasts growing on an agar plate - these yeast are better adapted to being dried on paper, as they are already growing in (and thus adapted to) a non-fluid, high-yeast-density environment.

As always, the details are below the fold...