British Brewer

Tips and Tricks: Check your hops alpha acid

This tip may seem obvious but I have only just started doing it. If you have a brew you like to make over and over this tip is essential in order to produce consistent quality and taste every time.

I recently re-brewed my Flowers Original Clone (updated the recipe to a Partial Mash).  In the original recipe we used 0.5oz (.25oz for  a half batch) of Target hops. The alpha acid for Target is typically in the 9-12% range. In the original recipe the hops I used had an alpha acid value of ~10%.

So when I came to re-brew 6 weeks ago I noticed my new batch of Target hops were 11%. So I decided to go back to BeerCalculus at Hopville (and my spreadsheet) and recalculate the IBU’s.  At 11% alpha acid for the bittering hops I calculated I needed to reduce the amount of the Target hops from 0.5 to 0.4oz. Good job I did because the ale is in the keg and it tastes absolutely fantastic 🙂

Tips and Tricks: Straining Wort

Once wort is cooled and you are ready to transfer into the primary it is a REALLY good idea to strain to the wort to separate the hops out.  Historically I have done this by carefully pouring the contents of the kettle through the funnel trying to leave as many hops in the bottom of the kettle as I can.

If you strain the wort the resulting ale will have greater clarity and reduction in bitterness caused from the wort sitting on the now spent hops.  I use a regular kitchen strainer locked into a funnel.  There are also purpose built strainers and screens for those who enjoy convenience. Alternatively you can place hops inside a purpose built container during the boil.

Tips and Tricks: Buying Hops

So as everyone knows by now I like to brew beer, lots of it, and I like to keep my costs down. I did a post on reusing yeast and here is another tip for reducing costs even further.  Buy your hops in bulk on eBay.  Yep, eBay.  You can get 1lb vacuum bags of your favorite hop pellets or cones for VERY cheap prices.  I recently acquired a 1lb bag of Target pellets for a $1. That is a substantial discount to either $2.50/oz or $21 for a lb at most homebrew stores.  Shipping is comparable to other online homebrew stores but make sure to check.

Tips and Tricks: Cooling wort in a kitchen sink

We covered cooling the wort in the “Getting Started” series. This is a more detailed description of how to easily cool the wort in two steps and get consistent results (assuming a 3 gallon boil). 1) Once the boil is finished place kettle in the sink, if you do not have a sink then a large plastic bucket.  Fill the sink with cold tap water up to the level of the wort stirring with a spoon to aerate the wort for 60 seconds.  Empty the sink and refill to the same level stirring for 2 minutes this time.  This will bring the temperature down to 110ºF every time, I do not even use a thermometer anymore, its that consistent.  2) Now fill the kettle with cold water to the 5 gallon level and the temperature will be ~75-80ºF and perfect for pitching the yeast.

Tips and Tricks: Pots and Pans

When boiling a high OG ale make sure you have a kettle capable of holding double the capacity of the liquid in the boil. E.g. If you have 3 gallons of liquid make sure you are using a 6 gallon kettle. High OG means lots of malt and lots of malt leads to a large hot break (think thick creamy foam) in the kettle. When I brewed my 1123 OG Barleywine with over 14 lbs of DME I could barely keep it inside a 7.5 gallon kettle with only 3 gallons of liquid. Be warned.

Tips and Tricks: Cleaning Bottles

After cracking open a bottle and pouring a drink ensure to empty the bottle of sediment and rinse the inside in HOT water a couple of times.  Experience has shown me that if you do this all that is required to clean the bottle in the future is a tiny amount of dish soap and a bottle brush. You save time and money by not having to use sanitizer.

Tips and Tricks: Carb Tabs

When using Coopers Carb tabs to carbonate your bottled conditioned ale do not open a bottle for at least 4 weeks. Coopers takes double the time of cane sugar or DME to carbonate an ale.