I have been homebrewing for a little over five years now. I have been hooked on the hobby ever since the first one gallon batch I produced from a kit that contained a small can of malt extract, a rubber stopper and airlock. This hobby suits my personality. I like learning and experimenting and I like beer.
Over the years I have met a lot of enthusiastic newbie’s to the hobby that have gotten started by using a “Mr. Beer” kit or the “Beer Machine” and been disappointed with the quality of the beer and given up. Other folks have gotten poor advice from other homebrewers or even their local homebrew shop and dropped out of the hobby after a couple of batches.
It is real easy to make bad beer in homebrewing!
This hobby is a combination of art and science and it takes an attention to detail to make great beer. Another problem with new homebrewers; they meet other more experienced homebrewers and are often intimidate by the brewing system, equipment and the cost associated with making good quality beer. But the truth is that it is not a necessity to have an expensive brewing set-up to make quality beer.
My intention is to show new homebrewers that they can make an award winning beer with the most basic equipment and a well crafted recipe and an attention to the process.
The goal here is to produce 5 gallons of high quality homebrew and enter it in various homebrew competitions and get some objective feedback on the creation and pick up a ribbon or a medal for our efforts. There is nothing better than getting an award for your hard work.
First we have to have the equipment to brew our beer. As in most hobbies there is some cost to get started. Even the most basic fishing equipment and a fishing license and bait will run you a good $100 or more. Homebrewing is a hobby that you can enjoy every evening after work by pouring a tall glass of the hoppy fruits of your labor!
That being said; basic brewing kits will run you from $75 to $100 at your local homebrew shop or one of the many internet based shops. Yes that’s a considerable amount of money compared to the Mr. Beer or Beer Machines; but keep in mind we will be making 5 gallons of beer and have this equipment for years to come.
The equipment I will use is as follows:
6 gallon plastic fermenting bucket with spigot
Bucket lid with stopper and special hole for air lock
6 gallon glass carboy
Bottle cleaning brush
3 piece airlock
Rubber stopper
4' food-grade vinyl transfer tube
Plastic racking cane
Hand-lever bottle capper and 50 bottle caps
Star San sanitizer for sanitizing equipment (4oz) or
A small bottle of Iodophor sanitizer.
Reusable nylon steeping bag
Large stainless spoon
Long stem Bi-metal Thermometer
4 gallon stainless stock pot ( not included in basic brewing equipment kits )
50 recycled non-twist off brown beer bottles ( generally not included in an equipment kit )
The recipe I have chosen is an American Pale Ale extract with grains recipe. The APA is a good choice for new brewers because it is an ale and does not need temperature control for the fermentation. Secondly the APA is generally moderately hopped and the hops hide flaws in beer and it is a very tasty beer in general
Here is the ingredients list:
- 8 lbs liquid light malt extract
- .75 lbs Belgian Carapils Malt
- .50 lbs British 55L Crystal Malt
- .75 oz Columbus Hop Pellets 14.2% AA ( 60 minute boil )
- .50 oz Chinook Hop Pellets 11.6% AA ( 20 minute boil )
- .50 oz Chinook Hop Pellets 11.6% AA ( 5 minute boil )
- .50 oz Amarillo Hop Pellets ( Dry Hopped in Secondary )
- White Labs WLP001 California Ale Yeast ( 2 tubes )
- 6 gallons of bottled spring water.
- 1 tablespoon Irish Moss
8 comments:
Brewed this beer last night. Starting gravity 1.060. This is a little higher than I wanted and I also believe the color is a little darker than I calculated.
I am very concerned that I have no fermentation after 36 hours. This is a very slow start especially after pitching two tubes of yeast.
Fermentation was in full swing at less than 48 hours. This was much slower than I normally get with an all grain batch and a yeast starter. I have come to believe that a starter is a critical step in brewing a good beer.
Racked to secondary yesterday. Added 1/4 ounce of Amarillo hop pellets for dryhopping. Very cloudy and still fermenting away this morning. Much darker than I had calculated. I believe the malt extract from the LHBS was wrong. It was an amber instead of a light that I requested. This is basically an amber ale or a red ale. Since it is overly hoppy it does not fit well in any BJCP category which makes winning any medals or even scoring well very difficult.
I will go forward with my original goal and see how it does in competition.
I bottled the beer this evening and it is malty and hoppy and has a color of between 14 and 17 SRM's. It would be a dark APA and a good Amber with a lot of hops.
The first bottles have been shipped to the Bluebonnet Brew-Off in Dallas. I entered the beer as a Amber Ale. I do not expect to win at this competition but only get some feedback.
Well I opened the first bottle of the Old School Amber Ale tonight after getting home from another sucky day in the investment biz!
This is not my best effort in brewing. It is carbonated just about perfect. It is red and not amber. It has a medium hop aroma and a nice medium hop bite. Good body for a extract. Overall I would score it in the high 20's to low 30's at best.
The first thing that hits me is that it was fermented too hot.
This is not going to win at Bluebonnet, AHA or Rendezbrew. Maybe I will send it to some smaller competitions and see how it does.
I am more and more convinced that temperature control is critical to a clean beer!
It did not win at Bluebonnet but it did have an average score of 35 in the first round. It did not make it to the second round in a very competitive category.
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