Homebrew Beer Blog

I'm changing things up a bit here. I'm having a heck of a time getting predictable oxygenation with the oxygen stone. It's just not that consistent. So, the new idea is instead of oxygenating the wort, lets try oxygenating the fermenter head space.

I picked up one of these drill mixers things. It's kind of spiffy. It's folds down to fit inside the carboy and fans out when spinning. This thing really whips up the liquid. I did some tests with water.

Water just splashing into the fermenter from the faucet came in around 3-3.5 ppm. Note you brewers who just "fan" the wort into the fermenter. That's probably not doing the job. I then used my cordless drill at ~600 RPMs to stir. I put a stopper on the stirrer to seal up the fermenter. The thinking here is to avoid sucking in a bunch of air to contaminate the beer, but also an attempt to control the O2 levels. I don't want to get a bunch of O2 into solution to just have it degas out if I can help it.

After about two minutes, I got about 8 ppm in the water, which is about spot on. This should be perfect for ales. Note that this is just water, and could be lower with wort. With that stopper holding things back, I think the head space only holds enough O2 to do about 6-7 ppm, so I did it twice one minute each. Between spins, I pulled out the stirrer. That seemed to get me my 8 ppm the quickest.

I then emptied the carboy and started again. This time I put the O2 hose into the neck of the carboy and gave it 10 psi for 15 seconds. I stirred for 30 seconds, and it was 20+ ppm. That was fast...

I tried few more times, and came down to using 5 psi for just a second or two w/ 30 seconds of stirring gave me 12 ppm. Perfect. If I did the same spurt of O2, but did 8 ppm with just air first, that gave me 14 ppm. I did this a few more times and was pretty consistent. Again, this will likely change with wort, but I think I've got my ball park solution.

What's remarkable is how very little O2 is needed to get oxygenation. Just a spurt is all it takes.

Oh, and this thing is great for cleaning kegs too! I fill with cleaner, swirl it up and let it sit.

04-15-08 UPDATE: I used this on wort tonight. Two batches of German Pils at 1.044. I used just aeration for 2 minutes, and that gave me 8.3 ppm. I then gave the second fermenter my 1 second whiff of 5 psi O2, and stirred for 30 seconds. That gave me 11.6 ppm. I wanted to go a just a little higher, but I called it good. Next time maybe try two seconds of O2.

I'm pretty happy with this solution. It's pretty consistent and gets what I want on my first try. No fussing around.

04/29/08 UPDATE: I ran this on the recent Flanders Red, which was about 1.068 or so. I got 7.7 ppm, so we're starting to see the affects of original gravity on dissolved O2. At this point, the yeast should also have higher O2 requirements, so we have inverse conditions working against us. For my own brewing, I might call 1.065-1.070 the break point for aeration on ales. From there, I may want to start giving some O2 to the head space.

06/29/08 UPDATE: Just a quick update on the technique. I'm having great results doing this. Since I first tried this, I've got 13 batches in. What I've settled in with is I shoot for 12-16 ppm on all beers, just to make things easy. I'm not seeing anything negative on ales or lower gravity ales at those levels, so I'm going with a unified technique. What I do is I give the wort 3 seconds of O2 at 5 psi, then mix for 20 seconds or so. That gives me somewhere between 14-15, with some variations on wort gravity.

This is kind of an interesting book. It seems a little inconsistent in its depth. Some topics are extremely detailed, others are kind of shallow. It kind of reads as an undergrad 100/200 level text book. Nothing wrong with that, but it's not really geared towards the homebrewer, and maybe a little more so for the craft brewer, which might be the intended career path of those reading it.

The first 1/4 or so of the book talks of brewing history and background of the brewing industry. If you never heard this before, it may be more interesting. The rest breaks down various parts of the process and digs into some sensory information. There were a few eyebrow-raising sections and a few others worth citing. There is also an industry outlook at the end, and an interesting crash course in biology and chemistry.

All in all, this is a nice supplemental book to clarify and reinforce stuff already laid out. There are a few things that I don't think I've seen before, or at least presented in a way that I never grasped.

Beer from Amazon

Downtown Grand Rapids has a new tap room called the HopCat. It opened earlier this year. We made a trip over there to check things out.

The place is pretty cool. Check out the . The owners obviously put a lot of work into the place. Even the bathrooms have tons detail. HopCat features 48 beers on tap, and 150 in bottles. And no, the selection isn’t dominated by light lagers. They have great selection of Michigan beers, with other domestics and international selections. I tried a bunch, and settled in on a Rodenbach. Gotta love Rodenbach on tap. I had an email that said they had also Aventinus on tap, but unfortunately they did not.

The Rodenbach was Rodenbach Klassiek, and I’ve been wondering what to do with my Flander’s Red. I think I like the Grand Cru Rodenbach much more, the Klassiek is blended with fresh beer, and it got pretty sweet half way through the pint. I like the tart refreshing Grand Cru better, so I think I’ll leave my Flanders unblended.

Anyway, they are also planning an in-house small batch brewing system for guest brewers. At the end of May they’re running a homebrew competition for a spot on their lineup. When I was there, I saw the glassed off room toward the back where I assume the brewing system will reside. This is a pretty cool feature/promotion.

They offer free tasters of beers on tap. Karl at the Red Salamander told me they offer small 4oz tasters for a fee, but only offered the free shots. The little shots are nice to pick out a pint, but I kind of like the flights of mini glasses to experience as much as I can without falling off the stool.
So yeah, HopCat is should be a stop for any beer lover.

04/03/08
German Pilsner

11.5 gallons
OG = 1.048
IBU = 35
Efficiency = 80%

18.5# Dingeman’s Pilsner Malt
0.375 # Acidulated Malt

1.3 oz Magnum 12.9 AA @ 60 minutes
1.0 oz Liberty 4.4 AA @ 15 Minutes
1.0 oz Liberty 4.4 AA @ 1 Minute

WLP833

60 minute, 148-degree single infusion

This is starting to look familiar!

I overshot my OG a little and got 1.052. I also messed up my oxygenation, which really sucks since that's basically the point. Both batches were oxygenated to 20+ ppm. One is probably right around there, the other is likely more so. I tried degassing one, but it didn't work out so well. It just got away from me. So we'll see what happens.

I picked this up as a prep for the BJCP exam. Holy cow... This isn't a beer book, it's a text book.

This book is out of print, and when Michael passed away, used prices spiked. I'm linking to the second edition, but there are first edition prints for cheap. As I write this, many sellers are asking close to $100 still, although there are now more selling in the $25 range.

I thought about getting this book for some time, but never did. Most of my reading to date has been about brewing, not about beer itself. I really enjoyed this book. There's plenty there for anyone interested in beer, whether drinking, brewing, or just learning. I know I'll go back to reference this as I brew specific styles, and certainly this is required reading for anyone interested in beer judging.

I enjoyed the history and background of the many styles and breweries I know, and learning about many others I've never heard of. Jackson also includes many interesting personal tidbits. Each style contains some basic info for recipes, and a nice section of each classical brewers. The book wraps up with beer and food items.

This is a great reference book for any beer lover or brewer, and absolutely required for beer judging.

Michael Jackson's Beer Companion from Amazon