A Brewing Post: Yeasty Beer

Yesterday, on one of the brewing boards that I subscribe to, someone posted the following:

How to [sic] I get my brew to be less yeasty (no matter what the kits have a strong yeast after taste .. even though I have tryed [sic] to cover it with other flaverings [sic]

This is how I responded:

Yeasty flavor can happen for one of two reasons. First, the most obvious and common reason is that there could actually be yeast in the brew. This could be because the yeast has not fully flocculated and settled out, or that the yeast that carbonated the beer, which will settle on the bottom of the bottle, has been stirred up. Is the beer cloudy when you pour it? Are you drinking it right out of the bottle? Try and pour the beer carefully out of the bottle and leave the yeast sediment behind.

The second reason that yeastiness can occur might be an actual fault in the beer. During fermentation, having the beer sit too long on the yeast cake (the large layer of yeast sediment that accumulates in the fermenter during fermentation), after fermentation has slowed, can cause the yeast can autolyze.

When it does this, the yeast cell ruptures and taints the beer. Sometimes, this is called "yeast taint." In slight forms, it will make the beer taste and smell yeasty. In extreme cases, it can smell and taste like burnt rubber.

One thing to note is that autolysis is somewhat rare, and is not guaranteed to happen. Sometimes, you hear stories of people letting beer sit on the cake for a year or more and not having issues. However, in some cases, it might happen after a month or so. You just never know. One thing is for sure, though. The longer it sits, the more the chances of autolysis.

To reduce the risk, you can rack to a secondary fermenter after the fermentation slows. In some cases, even racking to a tertiary can help, if you get a lot of yeast flocculation and settling in the secondary.

I hope this helps.

City Slickers Syndrome

In 1991, a movie called City Slickers came out, staring Billy Crystal, Daniel Stern, and Bruno Kirby as three middle-aged friends, plagued with the inadequacies of mid-life. They go on a journey together to drive cattle from New Mexico to Colorado, bond together, and find themselves again. When I saw it in 1991, I thought that it was one of the dumbest movies that I'd ever seen.

What? Why did I think it was so dumb? Come on, who would not think it was dumb? Who wants to see a campy movie about middle aged losers? Some of the themes included ideas of a mid-life crises, middle age male bonding, a campy cowboy plot, middle age relationships, divorce -- dumb. I mean, who would bring a coffee grinder to a cattle drive. Where were the explosions, sword play, or anything that made a movie good?

Well, something happened not too long ago. City Slickers was on TV, and I watched it. You know what? I found that I understood the concepts of middle age relationships. In fact, watching the themes of divorce reminded me of people I know who are struggling with that right now. Not only that, but the middle aged male bonding didn't seem as stupid as it did in 1991, as I've had good friends that I've known for years move away. Also, the campy cowboy plot didn't bother me so much. And a coffee grinder? Hmmm, I like fresh ground coffee.

I did not need the explosions or sword play to keep my interest. As I watched it, I actually kind of liked it. Oh, it was not the greatest movie in the world, but I understood it for the first time.

That is when I realized that in 1991, I was 22, and now, I'm almost 38.

My God, I'm middle aged.

My Fat Tire Was Flat

Okay, this post is a dirty trick. Someone reading the headline might think that this is an article about being served a New Belgium, Fat Tire beer, that had no bubbles, seeing that this is a so-called beer blog. However, that is not what this post is about. In actuality, this is a post about trying to go on my second lunch time ride, only to find a flat tire on my bicycle.

It had to happen. It is simply part of owning and using a bike. I drove all the way to Freedom Park, pulled my bike out of my SUV, and checked the tires. The front tire was good; the rear tire -- flat as a pancake. The funny part of that is that I remember pulling a goat head out of my front tire, yesterday, but it is my rear tire that is flat. Go figure. As a result, I loaded my bike back into the SUV, and drove right back to work, disappointed.

Estrella War Memories, Part 13: The Sleeping Bag

This is from my very first Estrella. As a memory, it would have likely faded years ago, except that it got caught on video tape, and every now and then, it gets played.

At my very first Estrella, I had a brown sleeping bag. Unfortunately, it looked exactly like Simon's wife's -- now ex-wife's -- brown sleeping bag. When they went to bed, they took it into their tent, unbeknownst to me. As a result, when I went to bed, I had no bedding except a jacket and a pillow. Unfortunately, it dropped into the 20s that night, and I froze.

The part that got caught on tape was the next morning, when it got warm enough so that I could finally go to sleep. Lucas videotaped my tent and gave commentary on the incident.

Lunch Time Ride

I've been searching for a place near work where I can go for a nice bicycle ride.

The first place I tried was Sam Lena Park, seeing on a city bicycle route map that they had a multiple use trail. Unfortunately, when I arrived there, a big sign planted next to the trail read, "No Bicycles." I found the sign quite rude, so I left.

Looking again at my map, I found a route along Golf Links, with a nice convenient place to park my car at Freedom Park. This seemed much better, even though Freedom Park is a little further from work than Sam Lena Park. If any readers wish to see the route, see the map below; the green line represents the multi-use trail.

I took the ride today, and it was quite a good trail, paved, off to the side of Golf Links road, so that you are not riding next to traffic.

The trail skirts Davis Monthan Air Force Base. As a result, riding from Freedom Park to Kolb and Escalante took me past what looked like base housing and eventually past old moth-balled airplanes, as I reached the end of the trail.

It was mostly flat, though on the trip back, I fought the wind most of the way. Round trip, I rode about 7.5 miles, and as out of shape as I am, that was enough to make me quite winded.

Estrella War Memories, Part 12: Butterscotch Schnapps, Jägermeister, and Hot Damn

Simon was one of the founding members of the group that we camp with, Haus TageStërne. For many years, he had this amazing, intricately painted pavilion that he dressed with candles, medieval looking artwork, and hand-made wooden furniture.

At least once a year, in the evening, we would gather in his pavilion to drink fine, sweet liquors, like butterscotch schnapps, out of shot glasses shaped like goblets, and talk about the issues of the day. The experience reeked of great ambiance and elegance. This tradition continued for many years.

One day, however, Simon left TageStërne to camp with another group. Concerned, Brian and I did not want the tradition to go away, so we continued it in his pavilion, made from a giant blue parachute.

Sadly, though, we never did get the ambiance just right. Like before, we started by drinking shot after shot of butterscotch schnapps, but that always graduated to Jägermeister and Hot Damn. Additionally, the goblets were gone, replaced by plain metal shot glasses.

The biggest change, though, was that we talked very little about the issues of the day. In fact, the little talking that we did mostly included yelling "Hot Damn" at the top of our lungs after drinking a shot.

The reality was this: Our elegant tradition had turned into a hard core partying tradition.

This continued for a number of years. Fortunately, last year, Simon returned once again, and the elegant version of the tradition returned, one last time. Unfortunately, that was the last time for the pavilion as he sold it a month or so ago.

Estrella War Memories, Part 11: Brewing Classes

A number years ago, Estrella had become rather commonplace. Each year seemed much the same. To renew my interest, I started going to brewing classes, and eventually got involved in the Atenveldt Brewer's Guild. One year, in fact, I decided to teach my own brewing classes at the Estrella Collegium: a beginner's class and intermediate all-grain class.

I prepared the classes months in advance, to an amazing detail -- too much detail, really, as I often do. In doing that, I had color handouts, numbering over 20 pages a piece; I brought samples that I'd brewed; I brought all my equipment to show off; I was ready to go.

When the time came to teach the classes, however, rather than the three to five people showing up that I expected, there were more like 20. As a result, when I went to teach the classes, I froze up, and barely followed the class outlines I had set out, stumbling through.

Fortunately, my wife, Julie, and her best friend, Sarah, were there to help and hand out brew samples. With their help we pulled the classes out of the fire to present something decent.

In actuality, though, the fact that I froze up did not matter. In fact, I believe that the people attending the classes were there to simply sample free beer in the middle of the day.

On a side note, bits and pieces of material from the classes have ended up on this website as instructional posts:

• All-Grain Brewing, Part I: How to Mash
• All-Grain Brewing, Part II: How to Lauter
• Making A Yeast Starter

Second Ride

I've always been very impressed by people like Bad Ben, a fellow beer blogger, whose primary motivation in life is not beer (though he is an excellent homebrewer), but rather, it is something more healthy: running. This is a gentleman who runs 50, 100, or even more miles at a time. That has inspired me to have a more active lifestyle.

As I mentioned previously, in the interest of having a more active lifestyle, my wife and I bought bicycles. I posted about our first ride, last week. This week, we went on our second ride, increasing our distance from 5 to 7.5 miles.

That seems so puny compared to many of the people training for El Tour de Tucson, who ride 50, 80, or even 100 miles in a day, or people like Bad Ben, who run more miles than these people even attempt to bike. I guess, though, it is a start.

For us, we are training (if you can call it that) to do something as simple as go on a leisure ride with the local bike club. These leisure rides can be as long as 15 or 20 miles.

Will we ever be like the El Tour de Tucson riders, or as motivated as Bad Ben when it comes to fitness and his running? I do not know. We clearly have a ways to go. Maybe, just maybe, though, we will ride 10 miles next weekend.

Estrella War Memories, Part 10: The Toast

The oldest tradition we have had at Estrella has always been the toast. Every Saturday night, since I've been going, we have gotten the entire encampment together around the fire, poured some Kriek, a cherry Lambic, into the traditional toasting glass, and passed it around to everyone sitting around the fire.

The rules have been very simple all these years. First, when the toasting glass passed to someone, they had to toast to something. Next, they had to recall their toast from the previous year. Finally, when the toasting glass had gone all the way around, the last bit was poured into the fire in remembrance of the people who could not be with us that year.

Some toasts have been very serious, and some have been very silly. Generally, the silly ones have always been better, as the toast can be taken way too seriously.

My favorite toast, though, came a few years ago. That year, there had been a terrible flood, and Estrella was almost shut down. Water varying between a few inches up to a couple feet flooded much of Estrella Park. In our camp, six inches of water washed in, in the middle of the night, in pouring rain like I'd never seen before.

We stuck it out for a time, but eventually bailed out for higher ground, carrying anything that we did not want ruined, like musical instruments, and so on. As we fled the camp, some of us abandoned Estrella Park altogether, checking into hotels, while some of us slept in cars or U-Haul trucks in the parking lot of the event, up on a hill.

The next morning, when we returned, most tents had been filled with water, destroying the contents. Next to my tent, a dead gopher was found, that had drowned.

It had been a very serious turn of events that year, and when it was time for the toast, most of us were in a somber mood. However, when my wife gave her toast, with a big smile on her face, she simply toasted to the gopher, who gave his life that we may live. We all laughed. It was the perfect toast at the perfect time, and a great one to recall the next year.

Estrella War Memories, Part 9: The Babe Song

One of the most important traditions of Estrella for us, did not originate at Estrella. Scoonter, at an Outlands Atenveldt War, introduced us to the "Babe Song." However, I picked it up as part of my guitar playing repertoire, and it became a tradition, particularly at Estrella.

The lyrics of the babe song go like this: Babe. I love you, babe. I love you, babe. I love you, babe. Oh babe, you need to shave. Hey!

Every year, in the evening, in the glow of the fire, tankards in hand, we'd sing this song over and over again, making alterations, substituting other people's names for the word babe and coming up with new lyrics for the last line. Popular variations have included, "Julie, you smell like patchouli" and "Simon, you broke my hymen."

Many rounds of the babe song have been followed by a slow, deliberate yell at the top of our lungs until they are empty, only to refill them and yell again, all in unison, so that a continuous yell can be held for several minutes. This was often returned by a nearby camp, filling Estrella with a party-like energy, preparing us for the night's festivities.

In the last few years, we've not sung the babe song, however. In fact, the last year it was sung was in my tent, in the rain, right before the big flood, a few years ago, which will be talked about in a future posting.

Estrella War Memories, Part 8: Valentine's Day

Estrella always occurs over President's Day weekend. That, coincidently and unfortunately, coincides with Valentine's Day. As a result, since I often would go out to the event early, my wife and I have missed Valentine's Day for years.

However, I remember one Valentine's Day, at Estrella, before we were even married, when we happen to be at the event at the time. That year, I covered the bedding in the tent with rose peddles and brought Champagne.

Memories of the actual goings on of that particular event are quite vague, as we never left camp, never went to merchant's row, never wandered, and rarely left the tent (ahem).

Estrella War Memories, Part 7: The Gate

The year that Estrella moved to Schnepf Farms, a day or two before Estrella, Brian and I decided that our encampment needed a gate. We went to Home Depot and bought some fencing, some posts, two-by-fours, and hardware, like hinges and handles.

We took that all over to Brian's parent's house, and with the help of Brian's dad, we cut the fencing in half, shaped it, and assembled the thing into an incredible gate. To top the thing off, Simon made a sign to hang from the gate that said "Us" when entering and "Them" when leaving.

When the gate debuted that year, we did not have anything to keep people from simply going around the gate, so we strung up strings and rope. In fact, it looked like something out of Jurassic Park. The following years, Mark built some fencing, and together with the gate, it turned our camp into a true camp.

We've had parties, toasts, bards playing, and all sorts of revelry inside the confines of that gate. The gate always sent us out to our wanderings, and greeted us when we returned.

Sadly, though, we decided that last year was the last year for the gate, as it barely stands up on its own anymore, succumbing to weather and old age. That was a sad decision, as the gate has been a companion to the camp for many years.

Estrella War Memories, Part 6: Adults at Play

One early Estrella, a bunch of us went to the great black spot, as we did every year.

At the time, some of the traditions of the great black spot included spinning, which involved spinning around in circles until you couldn't anymore. You'd then fall down and keep spinning in your head. This, of course, involved a fair amount of alcohol as well.

That particular night, after spinning, we came across some golf carts, something that security uses to move around the park. At one point, we decided that we wanted to hijack them, but opted not to and ended up in a playground with other adults dressed in medieval clothing, playing on the equipment like school children. Keep in mind, this was in the middle of the night. They really needed a sign that said, "Caution: Adults at play."

It was one of those moments that you realize that very few people experience -- again, very anachronistic.

Estrella War Memories, Part 5: Introduction to Homebrew

As I mentioned previously, when Estrella was at Estrella Park, the battlefield, which lied in the center of the event, would become a social meeting place by night, dubbed "the great black spot."

At an early Estrella, when bonfires and belly dancers were still quite magical, one night, they built an amphitheater out of bales of hay in the great black spot, put a big bonfire in the middle of it, and filled the thing with belly dancers. It was unearthly, and truly made me feel out of place and out of time, the very definition of anachronistic.

The clincher for this moment, however, was when a gentleman pulled up his truck, filled with kegs, and began pouring glasses of his homebrew. I was completely hooked, and this inspired me in my own homebrewing adventures.

Bicycle, Bicycle, I Want to Ride My Bicycle

Life is not all beer, wine and Estrella.

Over the weekend, on a whim, Julie and I bought bicycles and went for our first ride: a five mile round trip on the Rillito Parkway in Tucson. It seemed like such a better thing that tooling around the house all day, like we do on many of our weekends. My friend Brian describes it well on his blog Brian's Bicycle Banter.

Estrella War Memories, Part 4: The King

This is an old memory of Estrella War.

Estrella War, when at Estrella Park, had a layout like this. The main battlefield lied in the center of the park, and camping occurred all around it. Battles raged by day in the battlefield. However, at night the battlefield, dubbed "the great black spot," became a social meeting place.

One night, Simon, Lorelei, and I were wandering through the great black spot. You see, Lorelei had a quest to kiss a king. We searched high and low for one, when we passed someone in a white sequined tunic.

Simon gave a courteous "greetings," to the gentleman as we passed by, to which he returned in a deep voice, "thank you, thank you very much." It was The King all right, just not a medieval one.

Later that night, Lorelei kissed her king, this one quite medieval, and went on to kiss a bagpiper, and others. She was in quite a kissy mood. We only wish she had kissed Elvis as well.

Estrella War Memories, Part 3: Styx Tunes

This tradition started not long after Estrella moved to Schnepf Farms. Brian, perhaps my oldest friend, and I are old Styx fans from high school. Suddenly, one year at Estrella, for no reason, we just started singing old Styx tunes, many of them quite obscure. It was a lot of fun. In fact, we did that for a number of years at Schnepf Farms, breaking into song for no reason at all.

That would be a great memory in and of itself, but to make it better, there was one song in particular we would sing. We would only sing that one, however, when Lorelei came by. That song, not coincidentally, is called Lorelei.

At first, I think it annoyed the hell out of her. However, after many years of doing it, I think she looks forward to it every year. In fact, we sung it to her as recently as last year.

Estrella War Memories, Part 2: Spooky Forests

As I mentioned in the previous post, Estrella War is named after Estrella Park, where it takes place. However, there were a number of years, like four or five, that it moved to Schnepf Farms, another site. Estrella Park's unique geography was made up of low lying mountains that overlooked the park, which we used to climb every year. However, Schnepf farms was not without its own unique geography. There was a dark spooky forest behind the site.

Since we no longer had mountains to climb when it moved to Schnepf farms, we did the next best thing. We used to explore the dark spooky forest by candle lantern, in the middle of the night. Imagine six or eight people, dressed up in medieval clothes, all carrying candle lanterns, poking their way through thick dense trees.

Perhaps the most famous story of one such exploration is when we split up and a bunch of us hid, trying to scare the rest. In doing that, I had put my candle lantern down, and when I went back to retrieve it, it was mysteriously gone. The irony of that is that where we were trying to scare others, we in turn got scared because someone else was there besides us, and that person took my lantern.

Estrella War Memories, Part 1: Climbing Mountains

This memory happened last year. It is a simple memory. It is one of Simon, Brian and I climbing the mountain that overlooks Estrella Park. It is not a very tall mountain, or very difficult to climb. Therefore, Simon decided to wear his wooden shoes. As we climbed, his shoes made a clippity clop noise on the rocks, like a horse, as we made our way up. At the top, we pulled out our cameras and took panoramic pictures of the site below.

What makes this memory so special is that it is something we had not done in many many years. In fact, we used to do it every year. However, Estrella War, named after Estrella Park where it takes place, moved from Estrella Park to Schnepf Farms for four or five years, where there were no mountains. Eventually, it moved back to Estrella Park, a number of years ago, but even in doing that, we had not climbed the mountain again until last year. Doing that brought back a flood of memories of the early years when we used to do it all the time.

UPDATE: Thanks, Brian, for the photo link:

Estrella War Memories, Part 0

My friends and I have been going to Estrella War, the second largest Medieval re-enactment event in the United States, for approaching 20 years. As a result, it has been something that I've been doing for most of my adult life.

This year, however, many of those friends, including myself, have been making rumblings about not going, or going for a very abbreviated amount of time. In fact, my wife stopped going last year, citing that it was simply too cold for her at night, and not much fun.

The reality is this: the institution that was once Estrella has diminished. After 15 to 20 years, we've seen and done all Estrella has to offer. As a result, for many years now, the people who have continued to go, go to see the friends, not necessarily the event. Now, many of those friends have moved, have wives, kids, or families that take priority. In the end, I feel that this means that the end is nigh for our Estrella traditions.

Part of me is very sad to see this happening, even though I am one of the ones talking about bailing out on the event. There are so many special memories associated with the thing, and to have it finally slip into the past is something that I dread. I imagine that in just a few years, those friends will drift apart, and the simple act of getting together once a year will be something that we all miss. I am sad about that already. It gives me this sinking feeling.

Perhaps I'm writing the obituary too soon. Nobody has 100% said that they are not going, and we may pull it out of the fire. Regardless, rather than the excitement I've seen in the past when the months before Estrella arrive, this year, like the last few years, the excitement is simply not there, and this one may be the one where we bail on it altogether.

As a result of all this, a flood of memories, some of them major, some simple impressions, having been haunting me from Estrellas past. I'm going to do a series of posts, expressing some of those Estrella memories.

Good Libation's "Stump the Sommelier" Segment

I've been listening to wine podcasts lately, as I mentioned in a previous post. One of those podcasts, Good Libations, based out of Pheonix, AZ, has a segment called Stump the Sommelier, a segment where listeners send in questions about wine in an attempt to stump the host.

I sent them the following email:

I really enjoy the show, and being from your smaller neighbor to the south, Tucson, I find that I am familiar with many of the shops, wine bars, and Arizona wineries, the proprietors of which you often interview. This greatly enhances my enjoyment of the show.

My stump question is really intended to test your knowledge. In actuality, the question is really two related questions. They involve wine making and wine history, subjects that a sommelier may dabble in the course of their knowledge.

The first question is this:

What is a hydrometer and how and why it is used in vinification?

The followup question is this:

What was used as a rudimentary hydrometer for similar purposes during the middle ages?

Thanks,

Dave Larsen
Tucson, AZ

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ANSWERS BELOW:

First question:

What is a hydrometer and how and why it is used in vinification?

Answer:

According to Wikipedia:

"A hydrometer is an instrument used for determining the specific gravity of liquids. It is usually made of glass and consists of a cylindrical stem and a bulb weighted with mercury or shot to make it float upright. The liquid is poured into a tall jar, and the hydrometer is gently lowered into the liquid until it floats freely.... The function of the hydrometer is based on Archimedes principle that a solid suspended in a liquid will be buoyed up by a force equal to the weight of the liquid displaced. Thus, the lower the density of the substance, the lower the hydrometer will sink. [1]"

In vinification, the density of must (unfermented wine) will vary in a direct relationship to the amount of sugar in it. As a result, a hydrometer, since it measures density, can be used to measure sugar content. The must is measured both before and after fermentation. By subtracting the two, a vintner knows how much sugar was consumed during fermentation, and that can therefore be converted to alcohol content. [2]

Followup question:

What was used as a rudimentary hydrometer during the middle ages?

Answer:

According to the writings of Kenelm Digby, a gentleman who documented, among other things, the production of alcoholic beverages in the middle ages, in his 1669 cookbook, The Closet of the Eminently Learned Sir Kenelme Digbie Knight Opened, the action of floating a hen's egg in must was used to indicate that it had a sufficient amount of sugar. For example, he says the following about the dissolving of honey into water for the purpose of making of mead (also known as honey wine):

"When [the honey] is dissolved, it must be so strong that an Egge may swim in it with the end upwards. And if it be too sweet or too strong, because there is too much Honey; then you must put more water to it; yet so, that, as above, an Hens Egge may swim with the point upwards: And then that newly added water must be likewise well stirred about, so that it may be mingled all alike. If the Eggs sink (which is a token that there is not honey enough) then you must put more Honey to it, and stir about, till it be all dissolved, and the Eggs swim, as abovesaid. [3]"

The average egg will float at a Specific Gravity (SG) between 1.075 and 1.085 [4] which has the sugar content of between 18.18 and 20.43 brix or a potential alcohol of between 9.9% and 11.3% ABV [5].

References:

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrometer
[2] http://www.eckraus.com/wine-making-hydrometer-scales.html
[3] http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16441/16441-h/16441-h.htm
[4] http://www.afn.org/~poultry/flkman5.htm
[5] http://www.honeycreek.us/SpecficGravityTables.htm

They picked up the question for their June 30th show entitled, Talking Wine with Gourmet Magazine's Michael Green. However, they only choose to use the first of the two questions, even though my second question was supposed to be the stumper. Regardless, it was still nice have something in their podcast. Thanks, Good Libations.

Welcome to the Fold

Matt, of The Prancing Tarantula, just did his first all-grain brew, citing this website as his inspiration. Two things about that are very exciting. First, it warms my heart that this blog (even as inactive as it has been lately), inspired someone to go all-grain. My original intent when starting this blog, with the name The All-Grain Evangelist, was to "evangelize" the joys of all-grain brewing. To actually inspire someone into going all-grain is amazing. The second exciting thing is -- well, to put it simply -- Matt went all-grain. It is a whole new world all-grain brewing, and I find that very exciting in and of itself. Congrats, Matt, and welcome to the wonderful world of all-grain brewing.