My copy of “Brew Your Own British Real Ale” arrived in the post yesterday (thanks to the wonders of Amazon Prime and free 2-day shipping). I got an early start at the book after finding the ONLY chair at the YMCA in Hanover put out for parents to watch their little ones hit (or not) tennis balls at each other around the court.
My first impressions of the book are positive. The science is thorough, the technique is strong and I am learning new stuff on every page. I also like the use of quotations at the beginning of every chapter, something I have never seen used in a homebrew book before. A couple made me stop and reflect and I thought I would share.
From the beginning of the “About” chapter:
There is a nice old-fashioned room at the “Rose and Crown” where bargees and their wives sit of an evening drinking their supper beer, and toasting their supper cheese at a glowing basketful of coals that sticks out into the room under a great hooded chimney and is warmer and prettier and more comforting than any other fireplace I ever saw. There was a pleasant party of barge people around the fire. You might not have thought it pleasant, but they did; for they were all friends or acquaintances, and they liked the same sort of things, and talked the same sort of talk. This is the real secret of pleasant society. – E. Nesbit, The Railway Children, 1906
and finally the quotation used at the beginning of the first chapter:
Cenosilicaphobia – The fear of an empty glass. -Anonymous
a horrible thought and something I may need to get tested for, this is why I have the ESB in the keg.
…for those that make beer and those that love to drink it.
In my daily reading of the blogosphere I came across a cool post and some great books I wanted to highlight.
First up a post from ex-pat beer scholar, zythophile, a pint pot that solves the problem of a beer getting overly warm in the palm (or for those who like it chilled, condensation getting on your hands).
classic quote here:
The pint glass is normally a triumph of function over form, being, too often, an extremely ugly container for a very fine product.
I have asked santa for a couple myself but for those that cannot wait Amazon has some in stock, check it out here.
I am always researching techniques and recipes and there is a wealth of knowledge online and in books. One big source of ideas comes from homebrew recipe books. I already have one called “Clone Brews: Homebrew Recipes for 150 Commercial Beers“. This is not only a great source for brewing techniques but also provides guidance on crafting your own unique recipes. As the title suggests it the pages are filled with 150 recipes drawn from all over the world including the infamous Famosa Lager from Guatemala, the Maccabee Premium from Israel, and the Ngoma Awooyo Special from Togo. It has a great list of British Ales(Fullers, Courage), Irish (Guinness) and some US favorites (Magic Hat, Red Hook, Sam Adams) with some of the more famous Belgium brews thrown in (Duval, Chimay Red).
I was surfing around yesterday and came across this gem, “Brew Your Own British Real Ale“. If there was a book the BritishBrewer should own it would be this one. It has actually been out of print since 1998 but due to the rise in popularity of homebrewing the book is being re-issued next year. I looked it up on Amazon, and from the sample pages Amazon provided I noted an extensive knowledge-base on techniques and tips for brewing authentic Brtitsh real ale. Most importantly it had a 100 recipes including all the beers I used to love, and yes I have drunk every single one on the list. My long suffering parents can attest to this fact mainly due to the existence of probably one of the best pubs in the world ever just 5 min walk from my house growing up in New Malden called “Woodies“. Had 7 real ales on tap and rotated them constantly. Always something new to try and sometimes I would somehow manage to get through all 7 in a session, would be rude not to.
I digress, these recipes are priceless as a number of these breweries are no longer in business. I cannot wait to brew a Wadsworth 6X or a Flowers and write back here with my findings. Check out the book here, used copies are available (I have ordered one) and you can pre-order the new edition.
I have just received delivery from Northern Brewer of all the ingredients I will need to start my next couple of brews. (Look for an “On Tap” update in the coming days) Since I bought a second carboy I like to use one for a regular session brew and the other for some more experimental ales that often require longer conditioning times, like the 90 minute IPA I have cold conditioning right now.
Well the delivery reminded me I need to post the Part 2 (out of 3) in my “Getting Started” series. Now we have the equipment we need to create most styles of ale its time to review the basic ingredients. This post is meant to be an introduction and we will be getting into the details and varieties as our journey progresses.
English Marris Otter
The major ingredient in homebrew is malt. Malt is a significant factor in colour (it is British Brewer after all), taste, and alcohol level in ale. Simply put malt is the product of soaking grains in water until they begin to germinate. The grains are then heated to halt the germination process. This 2-stage “malting” process causes the grains to produce essential enzymes required to modify the grains starch into sugars and enable the yeast to do its job. Different varieties of grain are used each with a specific flavour or colour characteristic. Certain varieties are toasted or smoked to produce darker, nuttier or smoked flavour characteristics. We will get into the various types of grain some other time, especially when we review recipes and the types of malt they are based on. Basically there are two categories – the Base Malt, and Specialty Malt. Base malts make up the bulk of the a batch and are typically based from one of 2 types of barley, either 2-Row or 6-Row. These grains are very efficient at breaking down the starches into sugar. Specialty malt provides a small amount of sugar but its main function is to provide, colour, flavour and body to the finished ale.
Ale made by the professionals is based on an “all-grain” process using hundreds of pounds of malt in the process. Modern homebrew technology has evolved over the years to enable us mere mortals to create all-grain based brews but the process is long, complex and requires a relatively large quantity of grain. As yet I have not attempted an all-grain process (time, money, space reasons) and instead use a combination of malt extract and a smaller amount of specialty grains.
Malt extract comes in two varieties, Dry Malt Extract (DME), and Liquid Malt Extract (LME). Both replace the need for a large quantity of base malt grains. Most suppliers provide malt extract manufactured with some flavor and color characteristics required to produce most of the popular ale styles today. Most of the recipes we will be working with will use a combination of specialty grains and malt extract.
Fuggle Hops
Another significant ingredient are Hops which contribute significantly to the taste and aroma of an ale. Hop resin is made up of alpha and beta acids. Alpha acids are responsible for the bitter taste in the ale and tend to be put in at the beginning of the brew process. The higher the alpha the more bitter. Beta acids have little effect to the flavor of an ale instead providing the aroma characteristics and are added to the brew in the middle and end of the brew process. Hops are supplied dried or as pellets. I prefer pellets as they have a longer shelf life. Popular English hop varieties include Kent Goldings and Fuggles.
Dried Yeast
Finally the magic ingredient, the bacteria that converts the sugar from the malt into alcohol during the fermentation process, the brewers yeast. Yeast is also a significant contributor to the taste of an ale. There are two main types of brewers yeast, top-fermenting and bottom-fermenting. Top-fermenting yeast causes a foam to form on the top of the brew (wort) during the fermentation process, prefer higher temperatures (61 – 75 F), produce a fruitier flavour, and a higher alcohol content. These yeasts are typically used in ales. Bottom-fermenting yeast works at lower temperatures, ferments more sugars, creating a dry crispier taste and is commonly used in lagers. Yeast requires oxygenated wort in order to produce healthy yeast cells. Today yeast is sold to homebrewers in either a dried or liquid form with hundreds of different strains replicating many of the strains used all over the world by professional breweries.
There are other ingredients used in a brew, from sugar, irish moss, to speciality additions such as oak chips, spices and fruit. There are infinite possibilities of colour, taste, aroma, and strength. This is what makes homebrewing so much fun and if you can boil water on a stove and follow a simple recipe you can make great tasting ale. Next time we will introduce a basic brewing process following a simple recipe to create a British staple – Best Bitter.
Why brew? I started for 2 reasons. One because college buddy Chris Penner and I brewed at college and I seem to remember it tasting pretty good. But my memory of these times in none too clear and there are some VERY good reasons for that. So maybe I just want to see if we were any good or if it was all in my head. I do remember brewing a couple of ales back home in good old New Malden, but was that just beginners luck? My tastes have matured over the years so will I still like the beer today? Only one way to find out.
Second reason is the money. Like so many people in this current economy we are having a tough time. I have been out of work for most of this year and am actively seeking employment. So budgets have been slashed and we are always looking for ways to save money. So I made a spreadsheet, for those that know me this will come as no surprise, I have spreadsheets for almost everything. I figured out the ROI on the equipment I would need to buy, including ingredients, and figured that after 6 batches of 5 gallons I would pay back the money I spent. We will get into the equipment in my next post.
So how cheap is it? For a batch of Best Bitter, a solid session brew of medium strength and taste, the cost of a simple extract based recipe is ~$32. If you aren’t lucky enough to live near a good homebrew supply store you would need to add shipping also. I use Northern Brewer for almost everything these days and their fixed shipping price of $7.99 per order works well for me as I tend to order over 20lbs of ingredients at a time. So this adds up to $40 for 5 gallons of high quality ale.
Using $40 as a benchmark lets see what the savings work out to. In theory a typical homebrew batch of 5 gallons yields 40 pints of ale. In reality once you have racked the ale a couple of times to remove the sediment you tend to have about 35 pints or approx 560 fl oz.
So what is 560 fl oz of premium Best Bitter worth to me (Best Bitter is a form of English Pale Ale)? My favorite London Best Bitter is Fullers London Pride. I can buy a 6 pack of 12 fl oz London Pride at Blanchards for ~$12 or $2 per 12 fl oz bottle. Multiply this up to 560 fl oz (~46 bottles of Pride) and you get a price tag of $92, over 56% savings. You will find the pricing works out for the lower end ales which tend to require less ingredients = less money. If you can remove shipping from the equation then high quality ale really can be enjoyed on a budget.
So I hear “homebrew really isn’t as good as the real-thing?”, “what about the choice?”. I can honestly tell you that homebrew is the real thing, it does taste better, you have infinite variety thanks to sites like Hopeville, and you can even clone your very favorite beers and compare just how different they are.
The only real issues come when you run out and have to go to the store and pay double for a weaker brew (and don’t forget the sales tax). Another issue is time, you cannot just run down the road a buy a six pack whenever you feel like an ale, you need to plan ahead. Patience is definitely required to make great ale, something we will discuss next time.
So what are we waiting for, next post we will get into the basic equipment required and cover the basic ground rules of the road. Time for a draft pint pulled fresh from my own tap 🙂
So my wife suggested I start a blog. Of course it helps having a wife who runs her own digital media agency helping companies and artists get their message online. Her company is called B4South case anyone needs some work done. She comes highly recommended.
I spend a good amount of time brewing, researching recipes and ingredients, drinking the fruits of my labor, and spreading the word about the joys of brewing ale that she thought it was a great idea if I spent time writing about it also. So here goes. I intend to share recipes, techniques, successes and disasters, resources, and suppliers. I look forward to sharing my love of all things hops, yeast and malt. For more on my reasonings check the about page.
Right now I have nothing in the primary (but ingredients are on order), London style ESB in the secondary, and a 90 minute IPA cold conditioning for a few months (influenced heavily by the awesome Dogfish Head 90 minute IPA). I have Old Ale in the bottle and some stout in the keg.
“. This is not only a great source for brewing techniques but also provides guidance on crafting your own unique recipes. As the title suggests it the pages are filled with 150 recipes drawn from all over the world including the infamous 
