Crafter by Night

Oh, no! I forgot the beer!

Haha – remember the beer I was supposed to tell you about? Well, I forgot to say how the beer turned out after it had fermented for a week.

The beer was, in fact, bad. My dad and I are going to have to make another batch! He and I figure that the beer-making-equipment needs sanitizing in a major way.

I thought it tasted like vinegar, but Jeff thought he detected a hint of ammonia. Not precisely like what we were hoping for!! Ah, well, if at first you don’t succeed, make more, right?

Day 8 – Is it ready yet?

There are really only three active days in making beer in small batches like this: cooking day, bottling day and tasting day. These days are a week apart. So for a week now the beer has been thinking about itself and being active on its own. But it’s done with all that, at least for now.

Today we prime and bottle. And that over there –> on the right is an example of the equipment you need to do it. A lot of beer bottles have plain metal caps, and the contraption in the front is a capper. Place cap on bottle, put capper over it, and push down on the arms until you feel it squeeze tight (before you break the glass).

You can also buy screw-top bottles – but make sure you buy the kind made for this purpose, because they are made of extra-thick plastic. Try this in a Coke bottle and your bottle will explode. Remember – you’re creating CO2 here! The bottle is going to try to expand over the next week.

The green bottle is a different kind of cap that’s sort of like a cork attached to the bottle. Some beers actually corked in different ways, but usually with a metal “cage” over the cork like champagne has. Many beers, like champagne, have the last of their fermentation done in the bottle, and the cage is necessary so the corks don’t go popping prematurely from the pressure in side the bottle.

Step One, Prime your Bottles:

In this particular type of brewing we don’t filter the yeast out of the beer after it’s done. It’s really your choice, but it’s simpler if you don’t. This type of brewing, as mentioned above, completes the last of the necessary fermentation right in the bottle. That’s why you have to prime them.

All you do when you prime them is put approximately 3/4 tsp brewing sugar per 12 oz in your bottles. As the picture to the left shows, use a funnel so you don’t create a giant mess.

Step Two, Pour in the Beer:

The beer that’s been fermenting comes next. My dad’s kit has a convenient spout on it for pouring. Quite nice, and I recommend it. I tried imagining ladling the beer out or some other suctioning method, and it didn’t seem as good.

Pour beer into each bottle kind of at an angle so the beer doesn’t foam so much and you can see how high you’re filling each bottle. If it foams, let it sit for a moment before topping it off. Fill longnecks about halfway up the neck (see illustration, right).

For ALL bottles just be careful not to fill too much so that the continuing fermentation has room to expand. If you don’t leave room, your bottles will explode, and my, won’t that be a mess.

A Note About Yeast:

The beer you’re pouring into bottles right now contains yeast. Over the last week your yeast that you initially added has been Livin’ Large – it had all the sugar it could eat, and the alcohol content wasn’t high enough to kill it. So it multiplied and there’s now more of it in your vat than you put into it to begin with.

That yeast will continue to ferment using the sugar you primed your bottles with.

As you’re bottling your beer, when you get toward the end of your vat you need to make sure that the bulk of the yeast solids (the gross white stuff at the bottom) don’t start pouring into your bottles. You just need a little yeast in each bottle, not a cupful of gooey stuff.

Step Three, Cap the Bottles:

After the beer has settled, just cap each bottle off and set it aside. That’s me there workin’ the bottle capper, left. Exciting stuff.

And voila – a bevy of bottles (right), which I put in to a box and covered in a quiet corner of my house. Over the next week, the yeast will continue to produce CO2 and alcohol. This time, though, the CO2 isn’t released and carbonates the yummy contents.

Well, that’s it for my Week O’ Beer. I hope those that have read have enjoyed the process. In a week, I’ll report back about the end result of this batch of beer, show you how the color came out, etc. I don’t know about you, but I’ve been inspired to make more beer.

I like brewing for the same reason I always like crafting — I get to go through the process of making something, and I enjoy the (useful!) end result more because it was the work of my own two hands–and my dad’s two hands in this case!!

Cheers, Miriam

Day 6 (and 7, oops)

Again I missed a day in this process, however, it’s no biggie.  Exactly one thing happens on both days 6 and 7 – nothing.  The beer looks like the day it began.  The foam has dissipated because the fermentation is complete – the yeast is just seeking out a few last sugar molecules to eat and the rest of the CO2 is dissipating.  During this whole week, of course, the barley and hops and yeast are continuing to meld flavors.  Although the primary flavoring occurs when the malt and hops are boiled, it certainly doesn’t stop there.

Beer Chemistry

I can’t remember if I mentioned, but my dad is a biochemist.  No, no kidding.  So now is the fascination with the chemical process of beer-making becoming clearer?

My dad had a few lessons in beer chemistry to impart to me.  I haven’t really seem much that was good about the chemistry on the web, so I’m going to try to share some of it here in hopes it will do someone some good.

Q:  Why is beer bottled in brown and green bottles?

A:  The darker green and brown bottles protect beer from UV light.  Beer is a chemical process with the primary agent being yeast.

If you thrown in sunlight (i.e. UV radiation) then you create chemical processes that make products you really don’t want through photochemistry (i.e. chemistry caused by light).  Primarily, light might burn the yeast and kill it.  It can also create vinegar, or even worse, something toxic. (see below)

It’s really important to keep your beer away from things that can interfere with the brewing process.  Store your brewing beer at room temperature, away from direct sunlight.  And make sure to sterilize your equipment before you use it so that you don’t get bacteria or toxins in your beer that produce chemicals you don’t want!

Q:  What chemicals does brewing produce?

A:  Yeast (a single-celled animal) eats sugars (glucose) and secretes (yeah, I meant that) ethyl alcohol (also known as grain alcohol) and CO2 (carbonation).

Q:  Is that all that yeast can produce?

A:  No, different kinds of yeast can produce different alcohols – ethyl, or grain, alcohol is the only kind of alcohol you should ingest.  As the name indicates, it’s derived from fermented grain.  Yeast can also produce acetic acid, ethyl acetate and acetaldehyde.

Q:  WTF are those last ones?

A1:  Acetic acid is an acid – and when in a 2-3% solution (i.e. 2-3% acetic acid, 97-98% water) is known as vinegar.

A2:  Ethyl acetate is what’s called an “ester” – and is a combination acid + alcohol.  It’s toxic.  It has no everyday name.

A3:  Acetaldehyde has no common name either.  It’s what’s called a “reduced acid.”  You also really don’t want to drink this – toxic.

Ew!  These do not go under Martha Stewart’s “Good Things” category.  Good thing we’re brewing right, eh?

Day 3 – Staring at Beer

So – what happens on Day 3 in the beer-making process? Mostly foam.

On Day 2 we “pitched the yeast,” and closed it up. Toward the end of the day foam began to appear, and by Day 3, there was thick foam all over the top.

So what is foam? It’s the sign of fermentation. The yeast is creating alcohol and CO2 as it munches on the sugars. During this first week the process will only retain the alcohol created and the wort vat will vent the CO2. Only in week 2 will the CO2 be retained, and create the fine bubbles of carbonation that are associated with beer.

That’s it for today’s update – easy? All I had to do was look at it! It’s really great having a semi-see-through wort vat to view the process. It’s about the transparency of a brown beer bottle, just plastic. The picture here to the left shows a considerably more complex set of beer-making equipment, more on the professional side. Link to source.

Cheers, Miriam

Day 2 – Makin’ Beer

Beer Fact O’ The Day: Hard cider is really a type of beer (a malt beverage) that may or may not have apple flavoring in it.

Instructions, Day Two:

Compared to day 1 (which wasn’t that hard), day 2 is just a piece of cake. So – are you ready to pitch your yeast?!

1. Prepare your wort vat – sterilizing it is probably a good idea, and companies make products for this. Your wort vat can’t just be any old barrel. During this first week your wort vat will need to be capable of (a) being dark enough that light can’t affect the process and (b) able to vent the CO2 created in the process. Read-made vats are available for purchase.

2. Pour in the cooled beer.

3. “Pitch your yeast.” Actually, you’re pretty much just going to dump in about 1/16 to 1/8 tsp of yeast. No stirring necessary – the yeast will be able to find the sugar to eat it. “Pitching” is a term from larger breweries, when brewers would sort of gently fling the yeast across the top of the barrels.

I should mention here we were using Coopers ale yeast. I think I mentioned before that using bread yeast isn’t a very good idea – my dad tried it (he tries everything) and it turned out poorly. Also you’ll need to make sure your yeast is still alive (e.g. active). Keeping it in the fridge is a must.

4. Screw on the top (or close it up however) and put it away in a place that’s out-of-the-way and doesn’t get too much sunlight.

What’s so hard about this anyway?

So far the process hasn’t been too complicated, and wait until you see the next few days… makes you wonder why you didn’t try this before! So far I haven’t seen much that’s really complicated. So what’s difficult about beer-making?

In a word: ingredients. There are a dizzying array of options for your beer-making pleasure. All different types of grains in different stages of the malt process, hops to use for three different purposes, different yeasts, additives, sugars. And you’ll get a different beer with each try.

Unfortunately, even if you come up with a recipe you like, it’s still possible that because beer-making is an uncertain process that you’ll get a different beer every time.

What Is Malt? This is my quick explanation of malt. Malt is the foundation of beer – it’s what you get when you take a bunch of grain and then let it sprout (you’ve seen bean sprouts – like that). Once it’s sprouted all the way and has used up all the “food” inside the grain, you roast it to capture all the sugar.You can buy plain malt like this, or you can begin to let the “experts” take it further for you. At this point you can go on and boil the malt, which dissolves all the grain sugar into water. Once dissolved, the grain husks can be strained out. If you’re doing all this malt preparation yourself, this is the point at which you can start hopping the malt. Everything’s dissolved – you just need to bring it to a boil. (Go to Step 2 from yesterday.)

This liquid state is a malt “tea.” You can also buy it as a syrup, which is the same thing as a tea except that it’s been boiled down. It’s just thick sugar in this state and is called “malt extract.” Finally, you can purchase “DME” or “dry malt extract.” This is made by spray drying the malt syrup – spray drying being literally spraying it with air until it dries. You end up with sugary powder that can be dissolved.  (The picture to the left is 3 stages – barley roasted to varying degrees, the malt extract syrup it produces, and the resulting beer. Link.)

Malt with Hops. Some DME and presumably other malt types can be purchased pre-hopped. This means that the flavoring from hops is already in it. You can either add to this flavor or just go with it.

So given the many types of malt to choose from, I asked my dad…

Q: If you could only purchase one type of malt, what would it be?

A: DME. It’s easiest.

Cheers, Miriam

Makin’ Beer – Part One

This week’s craft is: Beer!

In the last week I’ve been discussing the craft and process of beer-making with my dad. What started out as a few questions ended up with making a batch of beer just to demonstrate the process. So, every couple of days for the next two weeks until the beer batch is done, I’ll give some of his answers about beer-making, throw in some trivia, and actually go through the beer process as it unfolded. (The image to the left is a glass of my dad’s homemade wheat beer.)

The Interview:

Q: How long have you been making beer, and how did you get started? (the image to the right is my dad “cooking” a batch of beer wort in his kitchen.)

A: I’ve been making beer about 4-5 years since I came upon a Mr. Beer kit in a shop in Kemah, Texas. I like beer, so I thought I would get it and try it.

Q: Why did making beer appeal to you – why did you start?

A: It was an opportunity to make something with grain and with yeast. I also like making bread, but the process of making beer is more interesting, and it takes longer. In addition, I was interested in learning about beer because it is one of the most ancient foods.

Q: What has turned out to be the most interesting aspect of beer-making? (Barley grains pictured to the left.)

A: I like it because it is a process. There are a number of steps in making beer, and it is interesting to prepare and watch each step in the process. Sometimes you have to do something, but a lot of it is watching as it prepares itself. That’s interesting.

In addition to the process, it is more fun than other things you can make because it creates a food product in the end. It’s not something you just throw away or can’t use.

Making Beer, Day One:

(Follow the link to see the ingredients and the directions for the first day of beermaking.)

Continue Reading Makin’ Beer – Part One…