Numerous places around the web have reported that famed beer author, Michael Jackson, also known as the Beer Hunter, passed away this morning at his home in England. This is sad news for the world of beer. He will be missed.
As I mentioned last time, the easiest way to drop your fermentation temperature is using the t-shirt method, where you put your carboy in a tub of water with a t-shirt over it, and evaporation cools the fermenter. The problem with this method is that it only drops the temperature; it does not control the temperature.
The reason why temperature control is important is that most yeast strains have a ideal temperature that they work at. These temperatures can vary from yeast strain to yeast strain. For instance White Lab's California Ale (WLP001) yeast has an ideal fermentation temperature of 68-73°F, while White Lab's English Ale (WLP002) yeast's ideal fermentation temperature is 65-68°F. Both of the yeasts mentioned above are ale yeasts. It gets even more strict when you get to lager yeasts.
Using the t-shirt method you cannot set the temperature you want to ferment at. You are still at the whim of the environment to set the temperature. The temperature can change depending upon ambient temperature and humidity. For instance, if you are fermenting say an English bitter at 65°F, but a storm moves in pushing up the humidity causing the fementer to warm up to 71°F, you could end up with off-flavors. This is where the ice comes in.
A homebrewer could simply add ice to the tub of water mentioned above, but that is similar to the t-shirt method in that is does not control temperature. What you really need is a way to set a temperature.
There is a method that is popular among homebrewers that uses ice that can strictly control temperature and it works like this: Using an insulated box with two chambers, the brewer places the fementer in one chamber and the ice in another chamber. He or she can then rig up a system that blows air into the ice chamber, cooling it, and then through the fermenter chamber, via a computer fan hooked up to a thermostat. This can keep the fermenter's chamber at an exact temperature set by the thermostat.
Ken Schwartz, a homebrewing gadget pioneer, published plans on the internet for building such a contraption in the late 1990s, which he called Son Of Fermentation Chiller. Homebrewers around the world built this chiller box according to his plans, giving them exact temperature control for the first time, including myself. I used it for several years before moving to refrigeration.
Below are pictures of the thing:
A picture of the fermentation chiller closed up, facing the left side. You can see the thermometer and running LED mounted on the upper right corner.
Another view of it closed up. The plans called for dowels to hold the thing shut. However, I never did that. I used books to weight it instead.
This is a close-up to the thermometer and running LED on the outside. The thermometer is an indoor/outdoor thermometer from Radio Shack. The LED indicates that the fan is running.
This is a view of it with the top and front removed.
This is a view from the top and behind, showing the ice chamber. The ice is kept in bleach bottles filled with water which are then frozen.
This is a picture of me placing a bleach bottle filled with ice in the ice chamber. The ice needed to be changed every three or four days.
This is a view from the front with a carboy sitting in it. You can see the thermostat and fan above the carboy.
This is a close-up of the computer fan and thermostat. Unlike the directions, I use a digital thermostat that is battery powered. The plans called for an analog thermostat, which I found not to work well.
This is a picture of the thing in use. Here, I am pitching yeast into the carboy.
One of the things that will greatly increase quality of your homebrew is fermentation temperature control. If fermentation temperature gets too high, it will increase the ester profile and produce fusel alcohols, affecting the taste of your homebrew. If it gets way too high, it will even kill your yeast. If it goes too low, it can put your yeast to sleep, causing a stuck ferment.
There are several ways to effectively control your temperature. The first one is quite simple. If your temperature it getting too high, you can put the fermenter in a tub of water. You can then throw a t-shirt over it, which will wick up the water. The evaporation will cool the fermenter down up to 10° F, or more. For even better cooling, a small fan will get air moving over the thing.
I used to do this, not with a t-shirt, but rather with a white towel. One thing that I noticed, however, is the towel would get slightly discolored with tan water spots after a while. It would also smell kind of mildewy, like clothing that was left wet in the washer for too long before drying. As a result, I started putting a little chlorine bleach in the water so it would keep it fresher longer. The odd smell never affected the brew, though it always concerned me every time I'd do it.
Using this method, I was able to get the fermentation temperature down to about 65° F. This was down from about 78° F ambient temperature of the room it was in. This made summer brewing possible, even in the desert, where I live.
NEXT TIME: Part II, Using Ice to Control Temperature.
All-grain efficiency is all the rage. People always seem to want to squeeze as much fermentables out of their system as possible, with efficiencies running 85% or more.
Much more important than high efficiency, though, is consistent efficiency. This allows a homebrewer to formulate recipes without guessing what efficiency to calculate them at. Even if a efficiency is low, it is better if it is consistently low. As homebrewers, the amount of grain that needs to be added to make up for lower efficiency amounts to maybe a dollar or two per batch.
In addition, one of the issues that can result from pushing the sparge too much to boost efficiency is that one runs the risk of the runoff going below 1.010 SG. If this happens, the brewer can extract tannins from the grain husks. There is a reason the brewing software like ProMash sets their extract efficiency at 75%.
Here is a short YouTube snippet of our Pink Jeep Tour in Sedona. In this 25 second clip, we are climbing up a hill. All along the way, our driver regaled us with stories and facts about the area. In fact, you can hear him talking about geology as we climb the hill in the video. The camera shaking during the clip is no joke. There were climbs like this that were quite jarring, but fun. Enjoy the clip.
The second leg of the trip took us to Sedona, one of the most beautiful places on the planet. One of the best ways to see Sedona is with a Pink Jeep Tour , where they take you to remote places via -- you guessed it -- a pink Jeep. We took such a tour, on the Broken Arrow trail, named for the Jimmy Stewart movie with the same name, filmed at that location.
The following are pictures that we took on that tour:
Well, we've returned from northern Arizona with about half a case of wine in tow. This is what we found. We stopped at three wineries, two of which we bought stuff at. Those two wineries were Alcantara Vineyards and Page Spring Cellars.
Our first stop was Alcantara Vineyards, near Camp Verde, Arizona. The grounds were surrounded by vines ripe with fruit, all covered in netting to keep the birds out. The tasting room itself looked a little like an Italian villa. As we wandered inside, we were greeted by a young woman who ushered us over to the tasting counter. There, we tasted eight wines. The whites were nothing to write home about. However, some of the reds were quite good, particularly the Syrahs, which were lush a spicy, the way we like them. We bought four wines there: a 2004 Syrah, a 2005 Syrah, and two bottles of Chaparral, a blend of Syrah, Mourvedre, Grenache, and Pinor Noir.
The young woman working there was very friendly, and spent a great deal of time with us. In fact, after the tasting she followed us outside and took our picture. She even encouraged us to try a grape or two growing on the vines near the tasting room.
Julie and I standing in front of the Alcantara Vineyards tasting room. 
Julie and I at the edge of the vineyard near the tasting room at Alcantara Vineyards (Yes, I'm wearing a AHA t-shirt)
Julie and I are taking a little trip this weekend. We are off to red rock country: Sedona. On our trip we will be hitting a couple of wineries along the way. Until then, sit tight. I hope to have a trip report when we come back. Cheers.
While listening to The Brewing Networks Sunday Session podcast, from June 11, 2006, they mentioned the German tradition of drinking out of a glass boot. I became fascinated by that and did a little research on the web about it. This is what I found.
The history of the beer boot -- called a Bierstiefel in Germany -- is mixed. Different sites around the web give different histories. For instance, in the above mentioned podcast, Dan Gordon, of the Gordon Biersch breweries, gives a short history saying that the tradition of the drinking out of a boot dates back to 1400s, in Heidelberg, Germany. There, fraternities would duel each other with sabers. Afterwards, the two fraternities would get together and drink out of their boots, starting the tradition.
However, according to a True Beer blog post, entitled "The History of Beer Boots," the beer boot only dates back about 100 years. Soldiers would drink out of their boots while on leave, mostly in the beer gardens of Bavaria.
According to that tradition, it is said that a Persian general promised his troops that he'd drink beer from his boot after they successfully sacked a particular town. When success was achieved, not wishing to drink out of a stinky leather boot, the general cleverly had a local glass maker fashion a boot out of glass to fulfill his oath.
Digging further, though, True Beer gives slightly conflicting histories. According to another place on their website, where they sell the glass boots, the tradition only dates back to World War I, which I guess is close enough to 100 years ago that it does not conflict too much with the blog entry mentioned above. That section of the website states that soldiers would pass around a leather boot filled with beer before engaging the enemy. The tradition dictates that one should flick the boot before and after drinking from it to bring good luck. A glass version of the boot was employed during World War II where American soldiers were introduced to the tradition.
Regardless of the history, the real trick to the boot is drinking out of it. If one is not careful, because of its odd shape, the beer trapped in the toe of the boot can rush out quite quickly, often spilling on the drinker. In fact, often times in German pubs, a full boot is passed around in a circle where people attempt to drinking out of it quickly without spilling.
So, there you have it: all you ever wanted to know about drinking out of a boot. Those kooky Germans.
