Quick Tip: Adjusting the Malt-bill

I was listening to the Brewing Network's Brew Strong episode on mouthfeel the other day, and they dropped a good tip. When adjusting a recipe for volume -- say you are adjusting a five gallon recipe to a six gallon recipe -- you adjust all the grains in your malt-bill, keeping the same percentages. However, if you are adjusting your malt-bill to dial in your efficiency, you adjust only your base malt, keeping your specialty grain amounts the same. I thought it was a good tidbit, so I am sharing it.

What Do You Do With a Bad Brew Club?

I remember when I joined the local brew club. I became very excited. The reason: I felt like I had joined a brewing community, and felt that it was a good way to learn.

In the beginning, it lived up to my expectations. They had classes on advanced subjects, such as the chemistry of the mash, and yeast ranching. These seminars were lead by a chemist working on his doctorate at the university here. When this person graduated, however, he got a job overseas. Unfortunately, that is when things went downhill.

After this person left, the first thing to happen was that the information seminars just stopped. Month after month, when the brew club met, it became more of a beer drinking club. That is not to say that I do not like to drink beer. I do. However, people started to bring more commercial beer than homebrewed beer. That bothered me.

The next thing that happened is that they moved the meetings to a loft of a local microbrewery, in the bar. At first, this did not seem like a bad thing. However, it meant that, where people used to bring equipment for demonstrations, and such, after the move, it was not really possible. Also, it was loud in the bar, so it was hard to even hold a discussion. Again, people would only go to hang out and drink beer. It felt more like a happy hour rather than a brew club. I mean, where were the discussions about entering competitions, studying for the BJCP exam, or brewing beer styles? They were nonexistent.

Another thing happened that really bothered me. They renamed the club, and not just any name.

Let me digress for a second. For those who do not know, brew club names generally are made up of acronyms. For instance, the famous brew club, QUAFF, stands for Quality Ale and Fermentation Fraternity. It is a common practice throughout the country and the American Homebrewer's Association.

When our club looked at names, they played with a bunch of acronyms. Well, the acronym they settled was purposely named after one of the key chemicals in -- you guessed it -- weed, you know, reefer, the cousin. Now, I know that some people, including some homebrewers, smoke the cousin. That does not bother me; people can do what they want on their own time. What did bother me, however, was that, with the new name, it was like they were institutionalizing drug use as part of the club charter -- not my scene. For the record, I do not smoke the cousin.

That all went on for months. Eventually, I stopped going, but kept up online in the club's Yahoo group. That is when the final straw broke the camel's back. On this discussion board, they began bashing the all-grain brewers. I am proud of the fact that I all-grain brew and work pretty hard at it. Against my better judgment, when the extract brewers and non-brewers laid into the all-grainers, I piped in, and got into the middle of the argument. It was pretty heated, and was lead by the brew club's leader, which irked me even more. How can a brew club, whose sole purpose is to promote the art and craft of brewing, bash people involved in -- oh let's see -- advanced brewing?! That was it. I was done.

The whole experience soured my interest in clubs. Now, I am pretty much clubless -- well, sort of. I kind of consider The Brewing Network as my club. I have learned more from them than I have ever learned from the local brew club (except maybe in the beginning, before the chemist left).

There you go: my experience with brew clubs. Your mileage my vary.

Reasons For the Boil

The boil is an important step in the brewing process. It happens for four reasons. Can you guess them all? Cover up the answer, and see if you can. Read below to see if you got them all.

1. Sanitation: Boiling kills all the unwanted bug and critters in the wort. That way, when you cool it, you can inoculate it with the yeast of your choice and not have off flavors.

2. Hop Isomerization: Hops contain bittering compounds called alpha acids. However, alpha acids are not soluble in a liquid. By boiling them, they are chemically rearranged into iso-alpha acids, which are soluble in a liquid. The longer the alpha acids are boiled, the more of them get converted to iso-alpha acids (up and to a point).

3. Hot Break: When the proteins in the wort are boiled, they clump together and settle out, in hot and sour soup looking ribbons. This can help beer stability and haze issues in the final product.

4. Boil off DMS Precursors: Unless DMS is driven off, the beer will have a canned corn type aroma and flavor. This comes from a compound called Dimethyl Sulfide (DMS). The precursors for this compound can be boiled off. That is why it is important to boil with the lid off.

By the way, the question, what are the four reasons for the boil, is what I always ask when someone challenges for rank in the Atenveldt Brewer's Guild. So, if you are in the SCA, a brewer, reside in the Kingdom of Atenveldt, and wish to challenge for rank in the brewer's guild, use this as a cheat sheet. If, however, you have no idea what I'm talking about, don't worry about it; it does not apply to you.

Hot Side Aeration Controversy

There is a controversy in brewing about Hot Side Aeration (HSA), and whether or not it affects the brewing process. It is an ongoing thing, and people have argued for either side.

First, before I talk about the controversy, I should answer the question: what is HSA? The basic premise of HSA is oxidation. Oxidation is the enemy of beer. As beer ages, the oxygen causes it to stale, with either sherry or cardboard flavor notes. Where HSA comes in is that some people have noted that if the mash or wort is exposed to oxygen when it is warm, it oxidizes much faster, shortening the life of the beer. One who is worried about HSA is very careful not to splash the mash while stirring or mixing it, or splashing the wort while it is hot, like during the boil.

Important people in brewing have professed the dangers of HSA. For instance, the late George Fix wrote the following in his book, Principles of Brewing Science, on page 130:

Hot-side aeration is fundamentally different [than cold-side aeration] because of the speed of redox reactions that occur at elevated temperatures. For example, introducing 1 mL of oxygen per liter of wort at 70°C will start reactions that consume free oxygen in seconds. The oxidized wort constituents will ultimately cause flavor problems in packaged beer via the chemical mechanisms described in the next section. Doing the same for wort at 20°C will have virtually no effect.

He then goes on in much detail about the mechanisms of HSA.

There are some, however, that claim that HSA is a bunch of horseshit. A quick search around the web revealed several forums, discussing the other side of the issue, including here and here.

I used to be worried about HSA. In fact, I remember when I tried decoction mashing. When you decoction mash, you pull the thickest part of the mash to be boiled and then returned to the mash. Pulling the thickest part of the mash, for the homebrewer, involves taking a strainer, scooping deep into the bottom of the mash. and letting it drain into the mash. It does nothing but dripping and splashing. I remember frantically posting to the Home Brew Digest about my fears. They said, don't worried about it. But, worry I did.

Recently, I was listening to Brew Strong, a online radio show on the Brewing Network, starring Jamil Zainasheff and John Palmer. On a show specifically dedicated to HSA, they covered in detail the concept of HSA, with the head of the Brewing Science program at UC Davis, Dr. Charles Bamforth, looking at both sides of the controversy. Basically the conclusion they came to was this: Don't do anything stupid, like vigorously aerate the wort. However, there are much much worse things to worry about. Don't fear HSA using normal brewing practices.

Quick Tip: Boil Worts Made with Pilsner Malt Longer

The more pale the malt is that goes into beer, the more DMS precursors they have. Worts that are made of these malts need to be boiled longer to drive off these volatiles. The general rule is this: A typical boil is 60 minutes long. However, if you use a Pilsner malt, boil it for 90 minutes. Of course, this must be done with the lid off, and vigorously.