Today I'm Drinking: Reeb

It occurred to me that I seem to post exclusively about the brewing process, but have neglected discussing the most fun part of the process... the taste and consumption of that beer that so much blood, sweat, and tears (j/k!) went into. Hence I'll be occasionally posting a 'Today I'm Drinking' segment.

On the menu today is a beer that many of you who've followed this blog should be familiar with from the following posts: Experimental Recipe Selection, Explosions!, and Krausen Uprising. The name for this one came quite naturally: Ryan's Explosively Experimental Brew (Reeb).

To get a clear idea of what I'm attempting, take a look at the recipe selection post. It certainly turned out interesting. It has two really distinct characteristics. The first noticeable feature is that it's quite sweet. This was to be expected as I wanted a higher % beer, and they generally end up on the sweet side due to the additional malt. This flavor was pretty apparent, especially as I had leaned towards darker malts.

The other characteristic was the hoppiness, which I had attempted to cut down upon. I think I may have chosen the wrong hops and should have gone with something milder, because they were still quite apparent. And that certainly wouldn't be an issue, but the clash of sweet and hoppy is kind of strange. It's definitely still an awesome beer, but very unusual. If I had redo the recipe, I'd aim for a more guinness/stout like level of hops.

Botanical Acids

A technique I mentioned a few posts ago was finally put into practice over the weekend: dry hopping. It's the process of adding hops to your brew after the primary fermentation has taken place.

The purpose of this is to give your beer even more a hoppy aroma and flavor. If you've ever tried IPAs or other beers with a floral taste, dry hopping is probably the culprit. However a significant characteristic of drying hopping is that it doesn't increase the bitterness of your beer. Essentially you're grabbing the flavor of the hops without adding bitterness.

The reason behind this is the way in which hops bitter beer. Each variety of hops has something called an alpha acid rating, which signifies what % of the hops is alpha acids/oils. The more alpha acids, the more bitter a beer will be. However, this relates to dry hopping because alpha acids are only released when the hops are boiled. Since there is no boiling taking place with dry hopping, no alpha acids are released and the beer is not bittered at all.

Alpha acid 5.7%

Alpha acids during boil actually plays a big role in recipes. Oftentimes they'll call for multiple varieties types of hops, one boiled for a long time for bittering and then one boiled minimally for flavor. For example, the White House Honey Ale recipe (which I brewed in honor of President's Day) calls for Kent Goldings hops to be boiled for 45 minutes, then the fuggles for just the very last minute.

Anyways, back to my dry hopping experiment. I created a pretty simple pale ale as the base. My main decisions were in the hops to use. During the boil, I went with warrior hops, which have an extremely high alpha acid rating of ~16%. They are commonly used for bittering purposes, especially in IPAs.

For the dry hopping, fuggles were the hops of choice as they were one of the suggested varieties and add an will give the beer an earthy flavor/aroma. As you can see above, the alpha is 5.7%, which is significantly lower than the warrior hops; but I'm using them both for different purposes.

You can get whole hops, but the pellets work just as well

Anyways, the process was quite simple, as I just cut the bags open and threw them into the fermentor. There are other methods involving strainers, but this was fine for a first attempt.

Now just a couple final things to note. One of the first thoughts that came to my mind was sanitization, which is the most important part of brewing. Everything that ever comes into contact with the beer is sterilized via boiling or otherwise. However, we're not boiling these hops... and I'm certainly not going to soak them in a sanitizing agent; so adding them sounds like we might be asking for an infection.

However, we do have a few things going for us. The fermentation has already taken place, so the sugars consumed and an alcohol content already exists. The hops come from clean packaging conditions (taking the open photo was actually probably the biggest risk, as minimal as it may be). Importantly, hops have anti-bacterial characteristics and were initially added to beer to act as a preservative. That preservation maybe one of the main reasons IPA (India Pale Ale's; Indian climate/distance) are so hoppy. However, that's a history to explore another day. Anyways, given all of these factors, dry hopping should be safe.

A final point I should highlight is that the hops should be left in for less than a week. If longer, they apparently start to give off too much of a grassy flavor. Hence, I'll be bottling this brew in less than a week and let you know how it turns out!

Not Quite Moonshine

I'll start off with a .gif of very active fermentation. Since my last experiment (cider) non-beer experiment was completed, it was time to try something new. While browsing beer-wine.com, I found something interesting: 24-hour Turbo Yeast.

When I started brewing, I always had wanted to see what happened when I threw yeast in with sugar or kool-aid. However, after researching it, there were a few issues. First, yeast is like us... it needs nutrients. It cannot live off sugar alone. When brewing beer, this is typically not an issue as the malts contain the necessary nutrients. Also, my kool-aid idea wouldn't work either because some of the chemicals in it would hinder the yeast.

However, what was included in this Turbo Yeast packet was everything needed for fermentation except for the sugars. Nutrients included. Hence, this project was pretty easy. All had to do was boil 6 lbs of sugar and sterilize the carboy, then add the yeast when ready.

The idea is that it will be at 14% in a 24 hrs. The .gif above was taken at about 16 hrs. It's difficult to see and I didn't have too much time to setup the shot, but the top layer of the carboy is fizzing like crazy. Later on, the bubbles grew a lot larger as well.

It should be ready by now, but I don't really know what to expect. I will certainly need to add some sort of flavoring I think. The carboy was quite cloudy last time I checked, so I'm also wondering if I want to let the yeast and nutrients sink to the bottom, then harvest it. Either way, I'll taste it and make a decision soon.


PS: An interesting point on the packet instructions were to avoid using an airlock. I was trying to think of the reasons behind this. One could that it was so active, it would almost certainly cause a blowoff. The lack of an airlock brings up the thought of contamination. Typically contamination happens when other yeasts from around the atmosphere find their way into your beer. However, my theory is that this yeast is so fast acting and powerful, that it muscles the other potential yeasts out. Also, the final product is done so quickly that there's little time to become contaminated.

Shopping

One of most frequent questions I get about homebrewing is 'where I get my ingredients?' That's a reasonable question since most of the ingredients can't easily be acquired at a typical store. You could try and use bread yeast, but I've heard the results are quite terrible. Up to this point, I've only purchased supplies from 3 different homebrew stores; but they've all left lasting impressions.

About ~5 years ago, when I first attempted homebrewing I began with a Mr. Beer kit, which led to me wanting to try a second batch as well. I found my way to the nearest homebrew store, the Homebrew Emporium by Davis Square, Cambridge, MA. I was in for a surprise, as the employee I encountered was about as rude as possible. When soon as he picked up on the fact that I was a homebrew noob, that was it. I came in looking for some guidance, figuring out what I wanted to brew and how; but left with the unpleasant aftertaste of a condescending, unhelpful employee.

When I got back into brewing again 6 months ago, I certainly didn't forget the previous experience and checked yelp to see if anything had changed. However, after reading a few reviews... it sounded like I had actually been treated quite well compared to some of the other customers; so I definitely wanted to avoid going back there if possible. Luckily, I was able to find another brew store out in Woburn, MA, Beer & Wine Hobby.

It was a little bit farther out, but the difference was unbelievable. The woman who was working there was exceptionally friendly and started to help out with everything once she realized I was new. It was definitely an awesome experience, and I left a happy customer. Even the space was such a contrast in terms of clutter and visual aesthetics. Given, Woburn is much more spacious that Davis square, but the atmosphere just felt so different, so Beer & Wine Hobby quickly became my goto homebrew store. I even realized that it was one of the better and 'cheaper' online stores as well. They have a great site that's a fun to pick out recipes with. And even better, virtually everything I order from them online arrives at my doorstep within a day or two because it's just down the Mass Pike. The Beer & Wine Hobby and Homebrew Emporium sites are incomparable; although I don't think Homebrew Emporium is large enough to do a huge amount of business online. However, it still would be a wise marketing choice to rebuilt their page. Interestingly, I've heard tons of radio ads for them on WBUR( Boston's NPR station) recently.

Now, despite my reluctance I have returned to the Homebrew Emporium after having gained a bit more knowledge about brewing. The employees I've run into there recently are a lot younger and more friendly than the previous guy. Some are a little bit aggressive/overwhelming still but they definitely have the intention of wanting to help you out; so I've actually managed to learn a bit from them. In the end, if I need an ingredient or equipment quickly, I'll just drive over to Homebrew Emporium. If an item is not time sensitive, I'll order it from Beer & Wine.

Interestingly, I actually saw the employee of my previous experience featured in the following Boston Magazine article. He looks/sounds way more friendly in the article; but who knows... maybe he was just having a bad day the one time I walked in?

I've only discussed to stores up to this point, but the third is intertwined as the other two are. It's an out of state, rather large online brew store: Midwest Supplies. I'd never ordered from them previously, but their Living Social deal was too good to turn down. My friend had ordered a kegging system from them a few weeks earlier and mentioned that they had forgot some components and had to reship them. However, I figured it was probably a fluke.

Fast forward a few weeks after I purchase the deal... I'm in Boston and the massive snowstorm Nemo is getting ready to hit. Work is cancelled Friday, and I know it's going to be a long weekend indoors; so I'm about the run over to the Homebrew Emporium and pick up a recipe before I stash my car away in a garage.

However, I'm in luck... as I head downstairs, my Living Social Deal is waiting there so I now have an Irish Red Kit of theirs to brew! Later that day I'm unpacking all of the contents of the package and I look at the ingredients in the recipe. I see everything, except I can't find the yeast!!! It's pretty much the one thing you actually need to brew >_<. Not so lucky anymore...

I know that Midwest has an account on reddit.com/r/homebrewing, so I write a quick post asking whether I've just missed the yeast somewhere (although I checked pretty damn thoroughly) with the secondary goal of grabbing Midwest's attention. Within 15 minutes I have a response and phone # from a Midwest employee named Todd! I give him a call and explain the storm situation to which he happily says he's going to 1-day ship the yeast due + additional packets out to me and beat the storm.

In the end, the storm beat the yeast as the roads were completely shut down for pretty much 2 days. However, I do now have backup yeast for any similar mishaps in the future... and a Midwest Supplies hat to keep me warm for the rest of the winter.

Dealing with Midwest was a pleasant experience and I'm impressed by the fact that they are smart enough to be on reddit.com/r/homebrewing listening to the community. However, I guess they do need to pay more attention to details because an 0 for 2 count between my friend and I isn't the best. In the long run I think I will continue to use primarily Beer & Wine Hobby for my online orders as the shipping time is so quick and I want to keep them in business.

TL;DR - Don't go to Homebrew Emporium unless you already have somewhat of an idea about what your doing. Beer & Wine Hobby is great and the people are friendly; good to go to & order from online. Midwest Supplies is really friendly and community aware but need to be more careful with orders.

PS: Sorry, I didn't have any exciting brewing images this time... so have a picture of some shiitake mushrooms I grew instead.

Waiting For Fermentation

Over the recent storm, I started my next batch of beer which shall be a pretty standard IPA. This time I'm planning use a technique called dry hopping, which is the concept of adding hops in after the initial fermentation has completed for a nice aromatic flavor. I discuss it more in detail in my next post.

However for now I must wait as the fermentation works away; as is visible by the airlock below.

A Deviation Of Sugars

About a month ago I was thinking about all the cool things I could ferment and wondering about them, which eventually led me to a simple, but potentially fun shift from beer: organic apple juice and yeast.

I hand picked the yeast Lalvin EC-1118 after reading some of the of the description. A key factor was it's tolerance of up to 18%, so my hope was that it would consume all the sugar in the apple juice with ease. So off to the store I went and bought 3 gallons of organic apple juice was poured directly into the carboy (skipping any wort boiling process), followed by my hand selected yeast.

Now this concoction is actually cider; and I am not a cider fan, but it was simple and fun to try. Plus I had my glass carboy lying around unoccupied, which actually gives a cool view into the process as it's taking place.

A view inside

Initially it was quite cloudy it was working away, but as the fermentation was finishing the yeast fell to the bottom.

Layer of retired yeast at the bottom

Due to the lack of anymore activity, I decided it was time to bottle this weekend, which meant I was going to taste it as well. Not surprisingly, it tasted like cider. The surprise was its champagne like characteristic. Frankly this should not have been much of a shock due to the fact that Lalvin EC-1118 is primarily used as a champagne yeast. However it will certainly be interesting to see how it compares to champagne after the carbonation has occurred.