British Brewer

Brewing on a budget – Borrowing Yeast

As part of the continued deep dive into specific ingredients and techniques (so far we have dug deeper into yeast and reviewed water treatment) I thought a further post on yeast was in order especially given the cost of quality yeast. Its expensive.

As I mentioned in an earlier post on why I brew, its not just the pleasure of drinking high quality fresh ale, or the enjoyment of simply brewing, but also the lower cost of home made ale that stokes my passion for homebrew.  Brewing your own real ale is very economical. I was reminded as I toured the liquor store today and noticed a 6 pack of Fullers ESB on the shelf for $12 (or $2 a bottle), and remembered I have 2 cases (48 bottles) of my own version (though still not up to Fullers quality) in my cellar that cost me approx $4.75 per 6 pack ($0.79 per bottle).  Given I like to use the more expensive liquid yeast from Wyeast or White Labs I find yeast is the most expensive ingredient in my brews. These yeasts have reliable attenuation percentages and produce very consistent results every brew. I have never had a bad batch.  But they are expensive, most being over $6 a packet.  What also doesn’t help is I am often left guessing what type of yeast to purchase for a recipe, e.g. is it a London Ale, London Ale III, or a Thames Valley strain?

But what if I could get the right yeast and pay nothing (except for the one time cost of a single bottle of beer). I could bring the price of a 6 pack of Fullers ESB down to $4 (or $0.66 per bottle) helping my budget somewhat and deliver an even closer match to the original I am trying to clone.

This brings me to the main reason for the visit to my local quality liquor store (as I rarely buy beer except for research purposes), to acquire a sample of 2007 bottle conditioned Fullers Vintage Ale.  As noted in my prior post, I am unhappy with the results of version 1.0 of my Fullers ESB clone.  As part of my research into figuring out how to improve the recipe I have been investigating how to improve the malt, hops and yeast mix.  I have managed to finally find a reliable source for the appropriate hops but got stuck on the yeast. Fullers, like most breweries, is very secretive around its yeast as so much of the flavour and character of the finished ale comes from it.  During my research I was browsing some recipe web sites and found a post on a bulletin board where a homebrewer from England was trying to replicate Fullers London Pride using some yeast grown from a yeast sample he had lifted from some bottle conditioned Fuller 1845 Ale.  Much like homebrew, bottle conditioned commercial beers are naturally carbonated in the bottle using residual yeast and priming sugar leaving a sediment on the bottom of the bottle. The sediment is rich with yeast cells and, with a little care and attention, these cells can be reactivated and grown to be used again in whatever beer you choose. In my case any Fullers clone I might make in the future.

But isn’t all beer sold in the USA pasteurized? I always thought so. So what commercial beers are out there that we could use to create our own free supply of yeast?  The answer appears to be not many.  As a rule almost all imported bottled and keg beers are pasteurized, the reason given to preserve freshness and enhance shelf life (though this point in hotly debated, I can attest to having regular gravity beers in my cellar for months and they continue to improve with age).  Furthermore almost all domestic US bottled beer is also pasteurized though domestic US keg beer is typically unpasteurized and “fresh” (with the exception of the mega-breweries such as Bud who pasteurize everything).  But recently the rules appear to be slowly changing. It is now possible to get imported and domestic bottled conditioned ales for higher gravity brews. I have noted Ringwood, Fullers 1845, Fullers Vintage Ale, and Sam Smiths Organic Ale from the UK and Shipyard Barleywine and Sierra Nevada from the US all available unpasteurized and bottled conditioned in the US market.

So how do we take a sample of bottled conditioned ale and re-culture it for use in your typical 5 gallon batch of homebrew?

1. First acquire some bottled conditioned ale that matches either the style you are shooting for or from the same brewery that brews the ale you are attempting to clone (chances are its the same strain)
2. Pour yourself a drink, make sure to save ~20% of the ale bottle, including all the sediment from the bottom
3. Assemble the following to make a “yeast starter” :
   • Sanitized 1 gal carboy or flask, stopper and airlock
   • 1/2 cup of Dry Wheat Malt Extract
   • 1/2 tsp yeast nutrient (optional)
   • A couple of hop pellets (try to use the bittering hop from the ale you are trying to clone)
4. In a saucepan bring to a boil 8 oz of water, add Wheat DME and the hop pellets and boil for a total of 10mins
5. After 8 mins add yeast nutrient (optional)
6. Cool rapidly, I partially submerge the saucepan in a sink full of ice cold water and stir vigorously, this also aerates the liquid
7. Once the liquid is cooled to 80ºF pour into a clean, sanitized flask or carboy
8. Add the remaining 20% of the bottle conditioned ale, including sediment, from the bottle you purchased
9. Insert stopper and airlock and keep at a constant 68-75ºF. The yeast should come back to life within 3-4 days.

The Equipment

Mixing in the Wheat DME

Pour drink, saving 20%

Add yeast nutrient after 8mins

Cooling rapidly in cold water

Transfer to flask, add ale with sediment

Once the yeast is active you can either use it or place in the refrigerator to sleep.  Make sure to keep some back to re-culture again for another brew.  Yeast can stay healthy for up to 3 months in the fridge, so make sure to re-culture a batch before 3 months to keep the strain alive or you will just have to go out and actually BUY beer, how does that work with the budget!

Other resources:

• For a complete list of breweries where White Labs and Wyeast strains originate you can look here.
• For a list of bottled conditioned ales capable of harvesting yeast go here.

On Tap (Jan 18th 2010)

I love it when beer that has been resting for a while in the cellar really comes together to make a killer brew.  The Sinistral Warrior IPA has been in the bottle for a month and I have been laying off the case since my birthday to let it mature further.  Well I finally cracked open another one Saturday night and WOW!!  The hops have finally come through packing a huge fruit punch.  I can still taste the fruit almost 12 hours later, it really leaves a long lasting impression.  The Fullers ESB is also finally showing some character after 4 weeks in the bottle, I may even upgrade it from my initial 5/10 score though I am still planning on altering the malt and yeast.

This week has seen another brew hit the kettle, some transfered to the keg and others simply conditioning, waiting to be opened when the time is right. Its time for this weeks On Tap Update.

Primary

• Spitfire Premium Ale Clone (2 days) – my 2nd pass at Spitfire Ale, the Shepherd Neame classic from Kent UK. Recipe taken from the Clone Brews book. The first batch was a real crowd pleasure and made the Best of 2009 list.  Batch #2 is underway and off to a great start.
• Grateful Dead Guy Ale (today) – a new special edition kit from Northern Brewer using the newly released PacMan ale yeast strain from Wyeast/Rogue Breweries. Its a play on a Maibock, a typical Spring time ale, which is why I am starting a batch now giving the ale enough time to rest for when Spring arrives, which I hope is soon, and not just because I want to drink this beer.

Secondary

• Flowers Original Ale clone (1 day) – my first brew of 2010 and first attempt at the classic Flowers recipe.  The primary finished exactly where the yeast manufacturer said it would, not bad because the attenuation range was 77-77% with no margin for error.  Colour and aroma are on the money. We have heard all this before so lets just wait and see.

Bottle/Keg Conditioning

• Draught Irish Ale (4 days) – my first attempt at Northern Brewers Irish Ale. Came out of the secondary already a wife pleaser.  It is currently in the keg force carbonated with BeerGas were it will sit for at least a week.
• Dry Irish Stout (4 days) – my second batch of Northern Brewers Guinness clone.  Went straight to the keg and force carbonated with BeerGas were it will sit until my friends poker evening.  The batch came in with a super high yield so there was some left over after I filled the keg.  The leftovers went into bottles which will rest for a couple of weeks.
• Lord Fatbottom Ale (3 weeks 3 days) – 3 1/2 weeks of a 6 month rest down. Would love to know whats going on inside the fermenter.
• Swampswill 6X (1 week, 2 days) – my first attempt at a true Wadworth 6X clone.  Following the example of my Fullers ESB I am giving this another week before cracking the sample and writing the review.  From the bottle it is extremely bright and clear.  Hope the oak balances out okay.
• Dogfish Head 90 min IPA clone (2 months) – Over half way through its 3 month rest, cannot wait. I gave in an tried a sample last night.  Its really coming along, the hops are still a little wild and crazy but the flavour is potent and fresh. Will become a favorite, though I only made just over a case I must keep a couple back to age.

Drinking

• Sinistral Warrior IPA (1 week, 3 days) – nice hoppy IPA, not quite an Imperial but its close. After slamming nearly a case with friends I left off them for a whole week before trying another bottle Saturday, the change a week extra of aging makes is amazing. It is already the top nominee for the 2010 brew of the year.
• Chiswick ESB (1 week, 1 day) – version 1.0 of my Fullers ESB clone. Again amazing what a week can do to a beer.  The burton water treatment is really coming through making for a mouthfeel lighter than air.  Its still not a Fullers ESB and the carbonation is too low but its better than the 5/10 review I gave it last week.

Recipe Update (Chiswick ESB version 1) – 5 out of 10

I finally cracked the first bottle of version 1.0 of my Fullers ESB clone I started back in early December. I am a little disappointed. The brew went well with the OG being spot on and the primary fermentation proceeded without a hitch leading to an almost clear ale with great taste potential when transfered into the secondary. The FG was perfect with the yeast attenuation at 77%, the highest point in the range provided by the supplier.

But during the secondary something happened.  The colour appears to be just a little darker when compared to the original ESB.  But the finsihed beer could be clearer, its actually not that bad, but I look for really bright, crystal clear ales in all my recipes. Given the ale shows no signs of infection I am putting this down to a little over zealous use of the Burton Salts in the water treatment.  This has happened to me before and something I shall put down to experience. Clarity may also improve with age so I will be sure to hold back a few bottles for comparison. The carbonation was way off too, the finished ale is almost flat.  But all of these little gripes still does not explain the taste.

The flavour is overly sweet and malty, not dry and balanced like the original.  Again I will hold a few back to if aging brings out a more balanced hop/malt taste.  These issues would suggest a reduction in the 120L Crystal to say a 60L and potentially the use of Black Malt altogether, hopefully taking take care of the overly malty sweet flavour. The lack of malt/hop balance could also suggest an issue with the hops. In this brew the hops were a substitute, I used Perle instead of Challenger and Northdown so I guess I need to rethink the substitution or wait until my supplier gets some Challenger and Northdown hops in stock.

The carbonation I will need to work on as it is the one area of brewing I am inconsistent on.  Right now I simply mix powdered sugar into the secondary and bottle.  The issue is dissolving the sugar.  To do so requires rigorous stirring risking aeration of the wort in the process, something I do not wish to do.  I am going to try carbonation tabs and the process of dissolving sugar/DME in boiling water and adding to the bottling bucket prior to racking. Lets see which process works best and delivers consistent, predictable levels of carbonation.

Thats it for now, so far my clones are 1-3. The Kentish was a hit, the Abbott was okay but not a Greene King and the Fullers ESB has room for improvement.  I have high hopes for the Wadworth 6X which will be bottled later today so I will keep you posted.

On Tap (Jan 11th 2010)

Its been a busy week for non-beer related reasons. The job market is really picking up and I have been interviewing like crazy.  We managed to spend some great time with friends for my birthday, spending time sampling beers from all around the world. I have very thoughtful friends.  We had a great Northern California Organic Porter that won the night but my American IPA came in 2nd. Back at home we polished off the Abbot Ale, moved some ales into the secondary and bottles and started a new batch. Its time for an On Tap update.

Primary

• Flowers Original Ale clone (1 day) – my first brew of 2010 and first attempt at the classic Flowers recipe I worked on earlier this week. OG came in as expected, the yeast is doing its job, now we wait and see.

Secondary

• Draught Irish Ale (3 days) – my first attempt at Northern Brewers Irish Ale, this one is destined for the keg. FG came in slightly higher than expected as the yeast attenuation was higher than the stated 71-75% coming in at 78%. Not complaining, the sample was sufficiently robust with nutty notes, the wife will like this one.
• Dry Irish Stout (2 days) – my second batch of Northern Brewers Guinness clone and a faithful reproduction it is.  This batch is a pre-order keg for a friends poker night though I hope to get a couple of bottles for myself. Its on the money and proceeding well in the secondary
• Lord Fatbottom Ale (2 week 3 days) – 2 1/2 weeks of a 6 month rest down and already cleared.

Bottle Conditioning

• Swampswill 6X (2 days) – my first attempt at a true Wadworth 6X clone, only doing a 2.5 gl batch as an experiment which yielded just under a case.  Still excited about this one, FG is spot on, the ale is bright and on target for colour and aroma. I will reduce the quantity of oak chips in future recipes as the oak comes through a little strong but I hope everything settles out during conditioning.  Tried some Coopers carb tabs to see if I can get a more consistent carbonation.
• Dogfish Head 90 min IPA clone – (1 month, 3 weeks) Over half way through its 3 month rest, cannot wait. Still managed not to  open a bottle.

Drinking

• Sinistral Warrior IPA (3 days) – nice hoppy IPA, not quite an Imperial but its close. Became my birthday brew, an awesome, peppery IPA by Northern Brewer. Colour is bright, with smooth mouthfeel and a bunch of peppery hops. We managed to finish off almost a case with all the birthday activities and everyone that sampled a bottle gave a strong thumbs up. Its a nominee for the 2010 brew of the year.
• Chiswick ESB (1 day) – version 1.0 of my Fullers ESB clone. I am disappointed. I cracked open the first bottle yesterday and my postmortem will be the subject of a post later this week.

Beer Wars

Kevin, a good friend, professional brewer in a former life, and a former colleague of mine at Fidelity Ventures, writes posts at a great beer review blog Beer Observer. I was on the site earlier today and found a post by Kevin I had missed from early in 2009 about a documentary made by an independent film maker and beer nut, Anat Baron.  Anat is a former LA Producer who went on to work for Mike’s Hard Lemonade and knows a thing about making it in the beverage industry and making movies.

The movie is “Beer Wars” (trailer here), a documentary on the battle ranging between the mega-breweries and the small independents. The film focuses on the US market, but the theme is eerily similar to the one I covered in my recipe post on Flowers Original Bitter. The theme is closer than I thought as one of the major mega-brewers highlighted in the movie is Anheuser-Busch, makers of Bud and a whole host of other brands.  Anheuser-Busch was acquired by InBev in November 2008 by none other than the Belgium based InBev, owners of Flowers Original, making the largest brewery in the world with over 300 brands and 25% of all beer consumed in the world.

I have nothing against InBev or Bud, it is a matter of personal taste for me and I know cost for many other people.  I happen to like Real Ale and will support the breweries and home enthusiats that brew it.  This movie is important to me for one reason (minus the corporate bad, little guy good vibe which I could live without, its a free market), it does expose what people are really drinking, the fact that adjuncts are the base ingredient used in the bulk of mass produced beers on the market, not barley, so its not beer. Its important to know what you are drinking.

One way to really know what you are drinking is to brew it yourself. Its fresh, cheaper, and in almost every case, better than the mass produced stuff at the liquor store.  Go see the movie if you can or look for it when it comes to iTunes later this year. I’m off to bottle my Wadworth 6X clone, it smells good.

Recipe: Flowers Original (version 1.0)

I have decided not to give this brew my own BritishBrewer name, it is a special ale with a rich history, similar to many of the classic British Ales covered on this blog.  But the recent history around Flowers is becoming more and more common with the growth of mega-breweries, such as InBev, as many local cask brewers are acquired and then shut down to cut costs and reduce the number of brands. I don’t know what a “brand” of ale tastes like but I do know that Flowers is one of the the classic ales which unfortunalely has a very uncertain future under its new owners.

Flowers Brewery opened in 1831 as Flower & Sons on Brewery St in Stratford Upon Avon, home of the British Bard William Shakespeare. In 1954 the brewery was acquired by J.W. Green and changed its name to Flowers Breweries and then shortly after acquired again by the growing Whitbread empire in 1961.  As part of Whitbread’s cost cutting they closed the original brewery in Stratford and moved the operations 45 miles SW to Whitbread’s Cheltenham Brewery (previously known as West Country Brewery Ltd before also being acquired by Whitbread in 1963 and becoming the Flowers Brewery). I wonder the effects the move had on the quality of the original ale given the changes ground water, equipment, and possibly ingredients.

In 2000 Whitbread, along with the large Bass empire, sold all its brewery holdings to the Belgium brewing conglomerate, InterBrew, who consolidated all of its cask brewing operations into the home of Boddingtons Beer at the Strangeways Brewery in Manchester, some 130 miles to the North (founded in 1778 and eventually sold to Whitbread in 1989 by the Boddington family), becoming the only remaining cask brewery in the Interbrew empire.  In 2004 InterBrew merged with another global mega-brewer, the Brazilian AmBev, to become InBev, the largest brewer in the world by volume.  In Sept 2004 InBev announced it was closing Strangeways and brewing for the brands they retained moved to either Glasgow, Scotland or South Wales (except Boddingtons which moved to Hyde Brewery in Manchester).

So now Flowers is an orphaned ale with no home, its heritage a tale driven by corporate cost cutting and shareholder value rather than quality and taste. It is a very popular ale with a strong following, a point not lost on InBev, who recently revived the Flower lineup (Original and IPA) and commissioned Badger Brewery (owned and operated by Dorset independent brewers and pub owners, Hall and Woodhouse, makers of the exceptional Badger ales and Tanglefoot cask ale) to brew both IPA and Original for the UK market.  So for now the ale is safe, it is a classic and maybe its heritage is something we can retain by recreating the recipe for homebrewers for generations to come.

Researching the ale was hard as InBev does not post ingredients or even acknowledge the existence of the Flowers Original on any of its web properties.  I had to rely on a couple of dedicated all-grain homebrewer’s and Roger Protz “The Real Ale Almanac” to piece together the recipe. (ingredients and process can be found here)

The Almanac provides the following tasting notes:

A strong, fruity bitter with some acidity… Fat malt in the mouth with hop edge, dry finish with some hop character with raisin and sultana notes.

The almanac lists the hops as Stryian Goldings and Target, Pale Ale base malt with Crystal and cane sugar. OG 1044.  I found the ABV listed by online retailers as 4.3%. So we should be able to calculate the FG using a brewing calculator.  SRM is up in the air.  The homebrewer’s I found who had tried an all-grain version listed the SRM as 9. This seems a little light to me, the colour reminded me more of a Fullers London Pride, i.e. a burnt gold, giving more of a 13 SRM.  I have decided to use Wyeast Thames Valley yeast for this batch given its proximity to Cheltenham and high attenuation to provide the dry finish. I used the recommendations of 2 online homebrewers for IBU and will use the hops specified in the almanac.

So given this is the least we have ever had to go on here is the recipe. (We will be following the same logic used in the previous recipes tp calculate the specific quantities of DME, hops etc to save on the words)

Flowers Original Bitter (BJCP Beer Style: Special/Best/Premium Bitter, category: English Pale Ale)

• 2.5 Gallon, 60 min boil
• OG 1043, FG 1010
• 4.4% ABV
• 30 IBU
• 13° SRM (Burnt Gold)
• Ready to drink in 6-7 weeks

Base Malt and Fermentables:

• 1 lb 12 oz Light Dry Malt Extract (60 mins)
• 4 oz Cane Sugar (at the end of the boil)

Specialty Grains:

• 6 oz Crystal Malt – 120L
• 4 oz Torrified Wheat

Hops

• Bittering Hops – 0.25 oz Target, 0.125 oz Styrian Goldings (60 mins)
• Flavour Hop – 0.125 oz Styrian Goldings (15 mins)
• Aroma Hops – 0.25 oz Target, 0.125 oz Styrian Goldings (1 min)

Yeast

• Wyeast Thames Valley Ale (#1275) (Attenuation 77%, Flocculation: Medium Low)

Other Additions

• 1 tsp Irish Moss (30 mins)
• Packet of Isinglass Liquid (to help remove any lingering proteins given the low flocculation level of the yeast)

Process

• Please follow the process guidelines outlined in my post here.  You will require all the equipment specified here.
• Primary Fermentation: 5-7 days at 65-75°
• Secondary Fermentation: 1 week in the same location as the primary
• Prime and store in the bottle for at least 2 weeks before consuming
• Peak flavour will be reached after 4 weeks in the bottle

Old Ale

I must say to have a liking for “Old Ales”, when I was a young man in England I was partial to Theakston’s Old Peculier. It was, and still is, a warm, malty ale with a big heart and fruity finish. Not a session brew by any stretch, but something to warm the bones on a chill winter night.

The Old Ale has a long history reflecting. not only the history of beer making in Britain, but a glimpse of the social history of the country also.  Back in the 1800’s, before the time of the industrial revolution, stock ales, matured in oak casks, were served as a complement to mild ales, often with the landlord serving the customer a blend of the sharper stock ale with the fruitier, sweeter mild ale to the customer’s taste.  The breweries caught on and began to produce their own stock ales, which became known as “Old Ales” due to the length of time they were conditioned in the cask. Old Ales were also considered the “top shelf” ale with the workers drinking the weaker common or mild ale during the week and then cracking the Old Ale on pay day.

To understand the process used to brew an historical Old Ale one has to understand a little of the All-Grain style of brewing, something I hope to get time for (and money for some neat equipment) later this year.  For our recipes created to date we have substituted the base malt with some form of Malt Extract, e.g. DME.  In the case of All-Grain brews the barley, typically Marris Otter or English 2-Row, are steeped in warm water for an hour or so to extract the sugars. Next the water, now called wort, is drained into the brew kettle (the first runnings) ready for the boil, a process known as “mashing“.  Imagine brewing a cup of tea but instead of using a tea bag in a tea pot you have 100 lbs of grain in a steel mash tun.  As the water is run off many of the sugars are left behind, attached to the grains, so more hot brew water (know as liquor) is used to rinse the grains and allowed to filter slowly into the kettle until enough wort has been collected to begin the boil, a process known as “sparging“. Think brewing a teabag for a 2nd time.

So back to the pre-industrial revolution brewery. To make Old Ale the brewery would take only the first runnings from the mash and brew a really strong, rich, high alcohol, brew (first teabag).  Due to the high alcohol content the ale was left to condition for long periods of time in oak casks gaining almost sour, lactic acid flavour from the continuing fermentation in the cask. The breweries would then sparge the grains with enough liquor to create a second batch of weaker ale, known at the time as “Common Ale”, a process known as “parti-gyle” brewing (the second teabag).  If the first runnings created a particularly strong brew a rinse was used to create a “Small Ale”.  This process is still used by the Belgiums today to brew the Tripel, Dubbel, and Blonde (old, common, small).

Old Ales are still brewed today but using more moden, efficient methods.  The strength and character vary widely with Old Ale filling the gap between brown ales, porters and barleywine including winter warmers, dark milds, and lower gravity barleywines. Some popular brews include Old Peculier, Fuller Vintage Ale, and J.W. Lees Moonraker.

I have brewed the New Old Ale recipe from Northern Brewer, voted my #1 brew of the year for 2009, and a VERY popular drink at my house and with friends.  I plan to investigate a couple more Old Ales over the year, starting I hope with my favorite, Old Peculier 🙂

On Tap (Jan 3rd 2010)

The kids have been off for a second week and we have had a friend over, its been a pleasant, and dare I say it, restful week.  We managed to polish off the Kentish Best to some good reviews, though I still think there is work to be done. The Greene King clone goes down really easily and the keg is almost done, looks like I will be out of ale again. At least I have 4 cases conditioning in the cellar and a healthy pipeline in the works.  Its time for the first “On Tap” of 2010.

Primary

• Draught Irish Ale (5 days) – my first attempt at Northern Brewers Irish Ale, this one is destined for the keg.
• Dry Irish Stout (4 days) – my second batch of Northern Brewers Guinness clone and a faithful reproduction it is.  This batch is a pre-order keg for a friends poker night though I hope to get a couple of bottles for myself.

Secondary

• Swampswill 6X (1 day) – my first attempt at a true Wadworth 6X clone, only doing a 2.5 gl batch as an experiment which should yield just under a case.  Primary fermentation completed with the FG on target and the taste and aroma close, but we need to wait for the secondary to complete before we can begin to get excited.
• Lord Fatbottom Ale (1 week 3 days) – This 13% beauty cleared completely in the first week. 1 1/2 weeks of a 6 month rest down
  

Bottle Conditioning

• American Style IPA (1 week 3 days) – nice hoppy IPA, not quite an Imperial but its close. Still needs another week at least but the sample showed promise after a week in the bottle. I will have a couple of six packs up for grabs next week if anyone wants some.
  
• Chiswick ESB (1 week 3 days) – version 1.0 of my Fullers ESB clone I covered in an earlier post. The 1 week sample was a disappointment, the sample has darkened and was not as bright as I had hoped.  It still seems a little sweet and the carbonation is flat. This brew is really puzzling me as the primary showed so much promise.
• Dogfish Head 90 min IPA clone – (1 month, 2 weeks) Half way done, cannot wait
  

Drinking

• Abbots Special Ale (3 days) – this is my first attempt at a Greene King Abbot Ale clone. It has proved to be a very pleasant, smooth ale, though not quite a Greene King.  Its almost done as we had friends over New Years to help us drink it, proved very popular.

Water – the forgotten ingredient

Its funny because homebrew authors and bloggers alike talk a lot about yeast, hops and malt but very little time is given to the ingredient that makes up over 90% of a brew – the water.  Water chemistry has a strong influence on the mouthfeel of an ale and has a big say in the performance of the fermentation and final conditioning of an ale.

Major brewing industries have grown up around geologically favorable sites with the right mix of rock type to filter the water from naturally occurring springs and wells and supply the optimum minerals from brew water.  Areas such as London and Burton on Trent in the UK, the Czech town of Pilsen, and the towns of Dortmund and Munich in Germany have very distinct water favorable to the brewing of specific styles of beer. In John Palmers online reference “How to Brew” he outlines how the water chemistry found in these towns is balanced with the malt and hops to make the distinctive beers such as Guiness and Pilsner.

Pilsen – The very low hardness and alkalinity allow the proper mash pH to be reached with only base malts, achieving the soft rich flavor of fresh bread. The lack of sulfate provides for a mellow hop bitterness that does not overpower the soft maltiness; noble hop aroma is emphasized.

London – The higher carbonate level dictated the use of more dark malts to balance the mash, but the chloride and high sodium content also smoothed the flavors out, resulting in the well-known ruby-dark porters and copper-colored pale ales.

Burton-on-Trent – Compared to London, the calcium and sulfate are remarkably high, but the hardness and alkalinity are balanced to nearly the degree of Pilsen. The high level of sulfate and low level of sodium produce an assertive, clean hop bitterness. Compared to the ales of London, Burton ales are paler, but much more bitter, although the bitterness is balanced by the higher alcohol and body of these ales.

There are two important ingredients found in brewing water.  The first is Calcium which helps create the acid required to balance out the alkaline phosphates in the malt.  Acidity is needed to promote enzyme activity in the wort and to promote flavour, clarity and stability to the finished beer. The second ingredient is Magnesium and important yeast nutrient in small doses.

Most homebrewers do not have access to abundant naturally purified fresh spring water or wells. We make do with the towns best, tap water. Unfortunately tap water can contain ingredients that are not favorable to the brewing process. Chlorine is used to prevent the build up of bacteria in the water supply but in high doses can lead to bitterness in beer and can kill the yeast.The good news is Chlorine is highly volatile and can be removed by simply boiling.

So how do we as homebrewers begin to think about the water we use to brew our ales?  A good first step is to grab a copy of your towns water quality report and check the level of hardness (found in the Calcium and Magnesium levels) and the level of Chlorine. In many cases the answer will be nothing, the Chlorine will come out during the boil along with any other impurities and most town water falls within acceptable levels of water hardness.

If you want to check the pH level of your brew water buy a pH testing kit from your homebrew supplier and check the level of the wort during a boil. I take a sample using a turkey baster.  Make sure the wort is properly cooled to ensure an accurate reading.  An optimal reading is in the 5.0-5.5 range.  If the levels are outside you can use calcium carbonate to make more alkaline or an acid.  The pH levels will only change between 0.2-0.3 during the boil, so you will be all set once the pH in the acceptable range.

For those who really want to optimize the water mineral content to match the style of beer being brewed consult the chart and attached spreadsheet on John Palmers site here.

Given this is the BritishBrewer and we focus on classic British ales is there an effective and simple way to replicate the water of a London or Burton?  The quick answer is yes and I have been playing around with various techniques including adding calcium and gypsum.  But I finally stumbled upon a magical little powder called Burton Salts, containing all the essential minerals in a single package.  The process is simple, for a 5 gallon batch:

• The night before you intend to start the brew bring to the boil 6.5 gallons of tap water in the kettle, this will remove all the unwanted chemicals and purify the water
• Add the recommended dose of salts, then check the pH (again ensure the water has cooled). This is a bit of a chicken and egg situation because it is hard to predict the final pH level of the wort once malt and hops have been added.  I find a pH level for the brew water of 5.8 works for me.  Remember to check the wort pH on brew day and make adjustments for your next brew. You can also adjust the pH of the wort by adding more salts.
• Now boil the water for 15 mins
• Once boiled leave the water to cool ready for brew day

Water treatment really does make a difference, the brew flavours are sharp and fresh and the colour brighter.  Have fun and over the next few weeks we will begin a review of different malt types and start a series of deeper dives into some favorite British Brew styles, their history and some classic recipes.

Top 10 Brews of 2009

I am not much into lists but it seems to be the rage around this time of year.  I thought I would compile my list of favorite brews/recipes we brewed over the last 12 months as rated by myself, my family and friends.  Despite ranking I would recommend all of the following recipes, so lets get to it.

#10 Pale Ale Kit from OakBarrel.com – This was one of my families favorites, a full bodied, full flavored Pale Ale, uses American yeast and hops and produces a very smooth ale that improves with age. I have made 2 batches over the last 18 months.

#9 Nut Brown Ale from OakBarrel.com – This was a favorite of the wife, an American style Nut Brown, really smoothed out with age, full bodied with a great nutty malty taste.

#8 London ESB from NorthernBrewer.com – This would have been higher but I some issues with the ESB yeast during the summer, it is a little fussy when the heat spikes.  We had builders coming in and out of the cellar all summer which really messed with the climate.  Once I finally got the brew right it produced one of my favorite keg beers of the year.  Its a strong ale that drinks like a session brew, be careful with this one as it creeps up on you.

#7 Peat Smoked Porter from NorthernBrewer.com – A rich porter I brewed twice this year.  You can really taste the peat in the smoked barley, adding some single malt whisky notes to the finish.  A very smooth, incredibly rich drink with strong coffee and chocolate flavour, makes a great after dinner drink.  Could have been higher but it really is very rich and not something you may want on a regular basis.

#6 Kentish Best Bitter from BritishBrewer.com – This was the Christmas brew in the house and very popular gift with friends and family.  My parents liked the fresh medium-bodied, real ale like mouthfeel that left them wanting a second glass.  It is light, well balanced ale made from a single hop variety.  I personally loved the colour, its the brightness, clearest ale I have ever made.  Its a beautiful, crystal clear light copper/red.  I did not place it higher as the recipe still needs work.

#5 Dry Irish Stout from NorthernBrewer.com – I may never need to create a Guinness recipe clone while we have this Northern Brewer kit available.  It is a very refreshing stout, clean, dry and goes down really smooth with all the coffee flavours of the original. I serve this chilled with a stout tap and BeerGas in the keg.  One of my favorite stout recipes ever and one of the most popular brews I’m commissioned to make for parties and events.

#4 English IPA from NorthernBrewer.com – This is a big ale from Northern Brewer.  A full bodied IPA, not as spicy as its American cousins. Its a refreshing, fruit laden beverage with a hoppy aroma. The malt comes through with age leading to a full-bodied ale that pairs nicely with a spicy curry in the late night hour.

#3 Sinistral Warrior IPA from NorthernBrewer.com – I have my second batch of the year bottle conditioning as we speak and I hope to crack a bottle on my birthday.  This is an ale in the tradition of DogFish Head 60min IPA, a little overly hopped, peppery with a bright rich golden colour.  Its a potent brew that goes down a little too easily.

#2 Spitfire Ale from the Clone Brews book – I brewed this for my dad earlier this year and it quickly became a family favorite.  A clone of the classic from Shepherd Neame Brewery in Kent. Its hard to describe, both an explosion of fruit and roast malt mixed up with a caramel butterscotch aroma that is both refreshing and smooth.  You want more, a lot more. It did not last long but nothing does when the family is over visiting (Happy New Year Dad). I have this recipe waiting on deck early in 2010 and will provide a full write-up for the blog.

…and the number one brew of the year is!!!!

#1 New Old Ale from NorthernBrewer.com – It is very rare when everyone, and I mean everyone, loves the same ale.  This was my most popular seller this Christmas, consumed at many a Christmas party, the overall family favorite, and my own personal fav of the year.  It is a complex dark brown ale that needs to be aged and has an ABV nearing a barleywine. I had this one conditioning in the bottle for over 2 months before consuming.  The addition of Jamaican brown sugar leads to a rum flavour at the finish to complement the full-bodied, rich toffee-like malt, balanced out by the sweet Galena hops.  The colour is a beautiful deep brown red that looks glorious in a glass.  This is an ale equally as comfortable in a brandy snifter as a pint glass.  The history of Old Ale is also something quintessentially British, it seems even more appropriate to be the first winner of the British Brewer Brew of the Year (and will be the topic of a future post).

Happy New Year one and all.  I have many resolutions and dreams for the upcoming year. I want to get a job, mainly to fund dreams two and three namely produce my first all-grain brew and perfect a recipe for Fullers London Pride and serve it from an Oak Cask in my own house.

Thanks for reading this blog, I would welcome your own lists in the comments for favorite brews both homebrew and commercial. Raise a glass to the 2000’s and welcome the new decade.