With more flavoursome craft beers available than ever before, the possibilities and combinations are growing. And that can only be a good thing.

When the right food and beer are matched, the flavours of both are enhanced. The complimentary and contrasting aromas, textures, colours and flavours are worthy of your exploration!

Get out and try some great beer with some great food!

It’s the weakest link theory. Do one thing wrong and it doesn’t matter that you got the other 99 right. A near-invisible film on the carboys, and you get pickle juice where that beautiful pale ale should be, no matter how much thriving, pedigreed yeast you pitched. It can be frustrating until that last piece of the puzzle snaps into place, and then all of a sudden, your beers become much better.

Most of the homebrew I get to taste is pretty wonderful, but among the ones that are not, certain problems are fairly common. I present a few of them here. Of course, at whatever level you brew, there are always improvements you can make. Double check these before you move on.

You can’t sanitize dirty stuff.

Even professional brewers wrestle with this, but you absolutely have to get a handle on it. If not, the rest of your efforts can be a big waste of time, and no great recipe, hand-cultured yeast, or cool label can make your beer drinkable.

Vessels and tools on the “hot side” of brewing, that is, before the wort is chilled and inoculated, need to be as clean as your food cooking equipment.

But in your fermenter, every batch of beer deposits a fresh coating onto the sides and bottom regardless of what material it’s made of. This protein film can be nearly invisible but it can harbor bacteria, which may turn your beer unpleasantly sour. Eventually, the film will build up enough to be noticed, but by this point you’re in deep trouble.

Scouring with a carboy brush will not remove this film and neither will bleach. Breweries use specialized cleaning chemicals, and you should, too. Caustic soda (lye) was long the cleaner of choice for breweries. Cheap and powerful, it does have drawbacks. It is extremely corrosive to copper, brass and aluminum, as well as organic materials like skin and eyes. For obvious reasons, protective gloves and eyewear are mandatory. It also must be used with very hot water. The other downside to caustic-and this is why I stopped using it-is that with hard water, it throws a chalky deposit that requires an acid to rinse away. It’s also getting harder to find. I don’t recommend it.

Oxygenated cleaners like Five Star PBW(r) (Powdered Brewery Wash) work extremely well even in cold water, are safe, and are available through homebrew supply channels. Just mix according to directions and watch the gunk come off. I swear that the first time I deep-cleaned my carboys, it looked like there were little bats flying around in there. Don’t forget your racking hoses, bottling wand, and anything else than comes in contact with your beer. Once it’s clean, then you can sanitize it.

Avoid stale liquid extract.

The ratio of water to solids in liquid extracts is perfect for a set of chemical reactions called “Maillard” or “non-enzymatic” browning. Proteins or their subcomponents combine with various sugars to create caramel and other flavors. It sounds good, and it’s the same type of reactions that occur in malt kilning and wort boiling, but the transformation in malt extract doesn’t add anything good. It tends to morph into something stale, harsh and cardboardy.

The watchword here is to buy a brand of liquid extract that sells well, or use dry extract, which is more shelf stable.

Extract alone may not give you the flavor you seek.

Cooked sugar syrups, rather than colored malts, are sometimes used to add color to extract. While there is nothing harmful in this, some extracts lack depth of flavor. Also, the evaporation process that condenses the syrup can strip aroma.

Shop around and see which brands taste good to you and ask other brewers what they like. You can also add a pound or two of specialty malt to your brew for some fresh malty aroma and flavor. Crystal malt is perfect for this. Crush it and load it into a cloth bag, then place in the brew kettle. When the wort comes to a boil, remove the bag, then drain and squeeze it to wring out all the good stuff.

Beware of high-alpha hops.

For centuries, brewing hops were of the low-alpha type, with alpha acid (the bitter part) content ranging from 2 to 7 percent. Once it became possible to extract this bitter material and concentrate it into a cheap commodity, the race was on to find hops that would yield ever more alpha acids, as high as 16 percent in some varieties. In this race to the bottom, not much attention was paid to the subtler aspects of aroma and flavor.

There are really two different types of hop crop now: those destined for extract, and those that are valued for their high-quality flavor and aroma. Some of the high-alpha varieties-Chinook, for example-do have useful, if pungent aromas, and have even developed a cult following for their grapefruity, resiny tang, especially in American IPAs.

But in general, high-alpha hops are very assertive and not always in nice ways. Bitter as they are, they’re not always equally aromatic. It’s just not what they’ve been bred for. Using a larger amount of a low-alpha hop to get to any given bitterness level will usually contribute a lot more aroma than a smaller amount of high-alpha, and it’s usually better aroma as well.

Kit yeast is suspect.

Unless you know for sure it’s fresh, the little foil pack of yeast stuck to the top of the can of extract should be pitched directly into the trash. Dried yeast is a living thing, and sitting in a warehouse for months on end doesn’t do it any favors. If you wish to use dry yeast, buy a pack of known provenance from your retailer. Most are stamped with freshness dates. Pay attention to them.

Dry yeast should be activated properly in hot water before pitching. Heat up a half a cup or so of sterile (boiled) water, and pitch the yeast in at around 100 to 110 degrees F. Don’t add sugar or malt extract to this; the yeast has enough stored nutrients to get itself going. After it’s cooled to room temperature and is bubbling, it’s ready to pitch.

The next step up is liquid yeast. Without a doubt, this has revolutionized homebrewing, giving us access to the exact same strains that the commercial brewers of the world use. This allows you to match the strain of yeast to the beer you’re brewing, a powerful tool for controlling the flavor of your beer. Overall, the quality of liquid yeast is very high, and there are plenty of choices. Some brands require a little advance preparation, so you need to think a step ahead, but most brewers find them worth both the trouble and the expense.

Give it enough time.

It’s natural to be excited about your first brews (especially if they tasted better than my early attempts), but try not to drink them up too fast. I have heard many homebrewers say, “Man, this is really getting good. Too bad it’s the last bottle!”

Failing self-control (which I know is hard), the only solution is just to keep ‘em coming. Brew enough batches so you build up a stock, then the pressure’s off.

How long is long enough? I like to give a simple beer about six weeks, including a couple in the bottle. As gravity goes up, so should the aging time. Maybe three months for an IPA, five or six for an old ale. A year is about right for a barley wine, although I’ve had 10-year-old ones that were superb. Lagers take half again as long if you’re fermenting and lagering them at appropriately cool temperatures: two months for a pilsner or similar, four months for a bock, perhaps six to eight for a doppelbock.

This short list is all my allotment of space will allow. Perhaps in the future we can move on to intermediate techniques such as wort chilling, color calculation, and the decoction mash.

Instead, Imperial pale ale is a testament to the genius of American brewers of old, and also to American beer marketers, which, like it or not, are the most successful in the world. This willingness to inventively bend beer recipes and names to fit the times continues to this day, evidenced by the vitality of the craft beer scene

I became intrigued by the style from an old book I picked up recently, a privately published paean to Albany, NY, brewer John Taylor, printed shortly after his death in 1863. One section, entitled “A Runlet of Ale,” is a long-winded rhymed piece about the joys of Taylor’s ale. Here’s a snippet:

Among the ales most famed in story,
From Adam’s down–or old or new–
There’s none possessing half the glory,
Or half the life of Taylor’s brew.
Their amber brand is light and cheery,
Their XX is strong though pale,
But give to me, when dull and weary,
Their cream, imperial Astor ale.

John Taylor was born in England in 1790, and shortly thereafter, his family immigrated to Albany. Settled first as Beveryck by the Dutch, Albany was an important early US brewing center, with its first brewery founded in 1661 by Arendt Von Curler.

Taylor founded his brewery in 1822; by 1903, the business passed out of the Taylor family’s control. Taylor was a respected and prominent citizen, serving as mayor and in several other offices, reflecting the importance of the brewing industry to the community in those days.

It was said about him, by way of an obituary, “Full of years, in the sunset of his life, he was gathered to his fathers, bequeathing to his children the priceless legacy of a spotless name.”

The book describes the brewery pretty thoroughly, but details about the beers are maddeningly sketchy, typical of these old publications. It does describe some interesting brewing practices, including a three-hour boil in kettles fitted with a rotating chain to keep the hops from sticking and burning on what must have been a direct-fired vessel.

Interestingly, at the time of the Civil War, Taylor was using large (600- and 1000-barrel) pressure kettles, similar to those currently employed at Coors, which, like a pressure cooker, could boil at an elevated temperature. Those were some thoroughly boiled worts!

Variation on Stock Ale

Imperial pale ale is a variation of an American ale style called stock ale–strong, hoppy beers designed to be stored (stocked) some time before drinking. The Wahl Henius American Handy Book (1901) lists these at somewhere between 16 and 19 degrees Plato, or 1066 to 1079 original gravity (OG). Hopping was high at 2 to 3 pounds per barrel, or 1 to 1.5 ounces per gallon, not including the dry hops. This calculates out at about 70 to 100 IBUs–lip-peelingly bitter. As a warped point of reference, British Burton ales of the day were hoppier still, at an astonishing 3.5 to 4 pounds per barrel!

The addition of up to 25 percent sugar was the rule with stock ales. Dumped in the kettle with the last hop addition, sugar reduced the flavor intensity as well as the bottom line. This is a good thing, as some sugar in the recipe keeps strong beers from being overwhelmingly rich and malty, making them lighter on the palate, and reasonably quaffable.

Fermentation of stock ale was with ale yeast, at a fairly high 70 degrees F, which would have produced a beer with some seriously fruity aromatics.

Similar beers were routinely brewed in England during the 19th century, but I have seen no reference in any book or piece of breweriana that the Imperial designation was ever applied to anything but stouts and porters there. British beer names to this day tend to be a bit understated–quaint, even–lacking the brash hyperbole for which we Americans are so infamous. I mean, only in America could even a lowly corn-oil margarine be crowned with such a majestic title.

Imperial Brewers

Of late, this style has been re-crafted by at least a couple of small breweries in this country. Rogue, in Salem, OR, brews an Imperial India pale ale. Big, at 20 degrees Plato/1083 OG, and satisfyingly hoppy at 53 IBUs, it’s aged nine months before leaving the brewery. Rogue’s I2PA is brewed with two-row Pipkin pale malt and Saaz, Cascade and Northwest Golding hops.

Three Floyds, in Munster, IN (outside Chicago), brews a take-no-prisoners Imperial IPA called Dreadnaught. At 1096-1100, with 95 IBUs of bitterness, this beer could survive the journey to India and back again, oh, maybe 500 times. The malt bill is pale ale with just a whisper of brown malt for color and complexity. Brew master Nick Floyd cooked this one up on his own without being historically inspired. It just seemed to be the logical thing to do.

Our beer will be at the top end of the old stock ale range, the kind of first-class beer American brewers proudly showcased over a century ago, that moved their lettered friends to heartfelt verse.

Imperial Pale Ale

5 gallons at 1074 OG (calculated at 80 percent efficiency), 85 IBUs
7 pounds American 2-row lager malt
4 pounds British pale ale malt
1.5 pounds unrefined sugar (turbinado or demerara), added to the kettle with the last hop addition

Mash at 150 degrees F for an hour. Raise to mash-out, 170 to 175 degrees F, then sparge. Boil 1.5 hours, following the hop additions shown below. These quantities are calculated for pellets, so increase by 20 percent if you’re using whole hops.

1.25 ounces Cluster 1.5 hours
.5 ounce Cluster .5 1 hour
1 ounce Goldings (preferably US grown) .5 hour
1.25 ounces Goldings (preferably US grown) 10 minutes

2/3 ounce Goldings (US or East Kent), added to secondary. You may dampen and heat them in the microwave before adding if you feel the need for total sanitation control.

For an extract version, use 10 pounds of the palest American malt extract you can find, with a half pound of pale crystal steeped in the kettle as it comes up to a boil. You can skip the sugar, as extracts often have a somewhat thin character, compared to mashed grains.

Ferment at 65 to 70 degrees with your favorite British-style yeast, and add the dry hops when you rack to the secondary, or into your keg. If at all possible, try to age this beer for six months or more before consuming. A beer like this will age very gracefully and turn into something genuinely royal by about its fifth birthday.

Wheat Beer History

As wheat is one of the oldest cultivated grains in the world is would come as no suprise that it found it’s way into early fermented beverages. It is generally accepted that brewing had a rather seredipidous beginning. Stored grains became wet, the ubiquitous wild yeast fermented the resulting mixture, and people consumed it, only to discover its unusual flavor, nutritive value, and of course, its intoxicating effect. It is known that wheat was used to some extent in Babylonia thousands of years ago. Though it was eventually determined that barley was better for brewing and wheat for food, wheat no doubt remained a common if not vital component of ancient beers. This held true as brewing practices spread from the fertile crescent northward through Europe through the Middle Ages. The niche that wheat held in brewing and references to it are known from the 15th to the 17th centuries in Germany, Austria, and Bohemia.

The historical notes, and significance, of wheat beer brewing become less nebulous about this time in and around Bavaria. The first true weissebier brewery was built in the 15th century in the Bavarian village of Schwarzach by the noble family, the Degenbergers. Even after the passage of the Reinheitsgebot, which did not allow wheat malt to be used, the Degenberger clan was allowed to be the sole producer of weissebier because of it’s granfathered tenure in the brewing industry. When the last of the Degenbergers died, the control of the brewery was assumed by the ruling Bavarian dukes, the Wittlesbachs, and they set up shop next to their brownbier ( dunkels ) brewery in Munich. This is now the site of the Hofbrauhaus Munich. As the new proprietors of the wessebier brewery ( and original authors of the Reinheitsgebot ), the Wittelsbachs became the sole purveyors of wheat beer in Bavaria. After noticing that the masses were quite enamored with this notoriously noble brew, the Wittelsbachs expanded their domain and built many more weissebier brweries in southern Germany. The pubs that wre controlled the be Dukes were required to serve not only their dunkels but also wiessebier, lest their privelegdes be revoked. The beer became so popular that a road was built from a ducal brewery in Kelheim to Ingolstadt just to slake the thirsts of students at hte University! It became known as the Bierstrasse ( beer street ).

As the popularity of wheat beers plateaued, another phenomenon was fomenting in Bavaria and Bohemia that ould revolutionize the brewing world. Better malting techniques, lager-brewing refinement and microbiological advances were slowly making their way into mainstream brewing technology. By the middle of the 19th century, Munich had perfected its namesake dunkels ( brownbier ), and Bohemia and Vienna introduced their pale lagers by utilizing the above-mentioned techniques. The pilsners and Viennas were quite impressive and quickly replaced the weissbiers as everyday quaffs among the masses. Weissebier consumption fell dramatically as the novel lagers replaced them. Wheat beers in Germany may well have vanished were it not for the tenacity, vision and confidence of Georg Schneider.

Schneider became the tenant of the ducal brewery in Kelheim in 1855 and began producing his own wheat beers. He wrested the brewing rights to weissebier from the dunkels brewery next door in 1872 and effectively ended the royal control of wheat beers. His production soared and wheat beers enjoyed something of a comeback in this period. the fifthe and six generation Schneiders operate the brewery to this day.

For the next several decades, wheat beers made up a small fraction of all beer sold in Germany and it wasn’t until after World War II that they were rediscovered and sales rejuvenated by the general populace. Suddenly, and somewhat mysterioulsy, wheat beers started to attract a new generation od admirers. Sonce the 1950’s, these brews have steadily become more popular, even hip, to the point where today almost a quarter of all beer sold in Germany are wheat beers. Perhaps it is a reversion to things more matural, more traditional, or simply a rediscoery of the complexity that makes different beers unique. The same trend is occurring in North America.

Profile Of a Wheat Bier

One could be succinct and straightforward in describing a wheat beer, I suppose. They are top-fermented, hazy, highly-carbonated, low in hop aroma and bitterness, made with 50 to 70% malted wheat, and exhibit a tart, fruity flavor and aroma. This would not do a fine Bavarian wheat beer justice however, especially when pouring over the flavor and aroma components.

Wheat beers, more than any other broad style of beer, may be defined by complexity rather than a couple of distinct attributes. The use of wheat adds something to this profile, but the main contributor to the uniqueness is a very special and unusual strain of yeast which is almost never used for anything but a wheat beer. The aroma is a cacophany of vanilla, banana, clove, spices, and even apple and juicy fruit gum, all of which would be quite unwelcomed in most beers, but are quite at home in the sanctuary of a wheat beer. The malted wheat adds a tart / malty component that gives a wheat beer even more depth. A sampling of products from several different breweries would demonstrate a commonality among the various beers. There are enough subtle differences among them to find a favorite and these are great beers to compare.

Wheat beers are generally cloudy. The use of wheat, which is very high in protein, and the unfiltered, bottle-conditioned nature of the beer contributes to this. The protein precipitates readily in a wheat beer, especially when cold, and results in a “chill haze” cloudiness. The yeast in the bottle, which can become resuspended also will contribute some haze.

There is a noticeable absence of the noble hop character that accompanies most German beers. Wheat beers contain a hop ( bitterness ) rate that is about one half that of even a lightly hopped beer, barely perceptible. As the hops stand meekly in the background, the other flavors are allowed to come to the forefront. Ah, modesty.

A Weizen By Any Other Name

Mentioned in the introduction were the various siblings of the weizen family, all of which are quite distinct. There are really four types of weizenbeir; hefe weizen, kristall weizen, dunkelweizen, and weizen bock. Their pedigree dictates that they are made with at least 50% wheat, are top-fermented, subtley hopped, and aggressively carbonated. They all have the “weizen” character to some degree,

Hefe Weizenbier: This is the most common version of the wheat beers. It is bottle-conditioned and sedimented so it has the yeast either in the bottom of the bottle or in suspension, giving it a cloudy appearance. The chill haze is also evident. The prefix “hefe” simply means yeast. This is Bavarian wheat beer at its most traditional and unadalterated state. After fermentation, the beer is bottled with its original yeast or a second strain to provide a tertiary fermentation in the container. A hefe weizen is of standard strength for a beer, about 5% ABV. Draft hefe weizen should also be cloudy.

Kristall Weizen ( Weisse ): Kristall is the German word for “clear” and thus this is a filtered weizenbier. A kristall will retain the signature weizen character, but have a more mellow, refined taste, almost lager-like. Kristall weizen has had all of the yeast, and much of the chill haze removed like most beers in Germany would. This is not to say it is any less enjoyable than a hefe, just softer.

Dunkelweizen: Dunkel is German for “dark”, so this is literally a dark wheat beer. Dark malts are used to deepen the color and character of the brew, and they compliment the other weizen character perfectly. Caramel sweetness along with raisiny and chocolate notes can be detected depending on the brewery. These are roughly the same strength as a hefe weizen and most breweries include them in their portfolio.

Weizen Bock: You guessed it, bock-strength weizen. These are generally dark and are similar to dunkelweizen but much stronger. Like all versions of weizen, the retain the fruity, spicy notes. These are somewhat rare and are not to be missed if available. Rich, with loads of malty sweetness. These brews are bursting with character beyond imagination. They are perfect with dessert or as a nightcap.

Enjoying Wheat Beers

There are a couple of things to bear in mind when pouring or serving a wheat beer. They are rambunctious brews due to the higher carbonation levels and demand some attention when pouring. Like a genie, they can’t wait to get out of the bottle and if not delivered correctly will erupt effusively. They are best served in an hour glass shaped German wheat beer glass that will hold a full half litre bottle with plenty of room to spare. Wet the glass with cold water first. Method one is to quickly invert the bottle in the glass, and when the level the beer in the glass reaches the bottle, slowly retract the bottle with minimal splashing until the bottle is empty. This will also disgorge the yeast in the bottom of the bottle if it isn’t suspended already.

Method two is much less exciting. Tip the glass, and slowly decant the beer along the side of the wetted surface until the bottle is almost empty leaving a half inch in the bottle. If a yeasty glass of brew is preferred, swirl the remainder and dump it into the beer. It has become standard practice in some places to put a lemon wedge on the side of the glass, leaving its addition to the beer up to the drinker. Try it without the lemon. It would be a shame to diquise the the very things that make a wheat beer unique with a flavor as strong as lemon.

Hunting For Wheat Beers

The best place to get the full wheat beer experience, of course would be Bavaria. Breweries that produce wheat beers abound in most of Southern Germany.

Tasting Notes

Capital Brewing Company Kloster Weisse

This brewery in Middleton, Wisconsin ( near the state capital of Madison ) is perenially ranked among the best in the United States. They specialize in German style brews and their weisse is one of the finest in the States. It is made exactly to German specifications and delivers great Bavarian authenticity. They also make a seasonal weizen bock that is outstanding.

Weihenstephan Hefeweissbier Dunkel

Home of the oldest brewery in the world and the Technical University of Munich brewing school, Weihenstephan has been brewing since 1040. Their premium Hefeweissbier Dunkel is the same strength as their regular hefeweissbier but offers much more depth thanks to the dark malts. Tawny in color, the caramel background complements the fruity, spicy character nicely. Very complex and satifying without being too heavy like a lot of other dark beers.

Spaten-Franziskaner Hefe-Weissbier

A classic Bavarian hefeweizen from one of the most well-known breweries in the world. Softly fruity and spicy with banana and clove dominating. Excellent as an everyday beer or as a hot weather quencher.

Herrnbrau Kristall-Weizen

An excellent example of the Kristall version of weizenbier. The usual suspects adorn the aroma, though less so than a hefeweizen. The flavor is clean, malty and almost lager-like, and again the weizen character is there but understated. This would be a great brew to indocrinate beer lovers to the wheat styles without shocking their palate. The perfect summer quencher.

Schneider & Sohn Aventinus

This brew is as complex as any other beer, period. Layers of layers of wunderbar flavors and aromas tantilize the palate with each sip. The dark malts add caramel and raisin notes to the other familar “weizen” characteristics. Rich and malty also, this beer is brewed to bock strength and is referred to as a Weizen Doppelbock. It’s hard to believe a beer could be this interesting. Brewed by the famous Schneider family mentioned in the text, it is a true Bavarian classic.

Thanks to advertising for the mass market beer brands, most Americans believe that water is a critically important ingredient in beer flavor. Furthermore, most people think that only “pure” water makes good beer. Let’s look at the subject of water for a minute in order to better understand its importance in beer. From this, we can see how to treat water for the average homebrew.

First of all, the term “pure water” can have a couple of meanings. On one level, people connect purity with safety and potability. They expect that “pure” water will be free of dirt, bacteria and dangerous chemicals. In the U.S., all drinking water generally achieves this standard.

On a higher level, “pure water” can mean “nothing but water.” This is tricky since every natural water source — and virtually all the water we drink — contains small quantities of dissolved minerals. This includes things like calcium, magnesium, sulfur and chloride. These elements give water its hardness and even very soft water will have some mineral content. To get water that has no mineral content requires some form of serious treatment such as distillation or reverse osmosis.

It turns out that using “nothing but water” (e.g. distilled water) for making beer doesn’t work very well. During both mashing and fermentation, beer requires the natural minerals found in water. Without these minerals, the enzymes that drive the chemical reactions of brewing won’t function properly.

We can learn a lot about brewing water by looking at the great brewing centers of the world. Munich is famous for dark lagers; Pilsen for light lagers. On the ale side, the cities of London, Burton-on-Trent and Dublin are best known. Of these five, four have water with moderate to extreme hardness. Only Pilsen (in the Czech Republic) has very soft water.

So what does this tell us? First, that great beer can be made with virtually any type of potable water, from very soft to very hard. Second, it tells us that very soft water is not ideal for making most of the world’s great beer styles.

Finally, we see that different types of water are used in making different types of beer. This indicates that water minerals have an impact beyond mere chemistry — that they also affect flavor. The second article in this water chemistry series (planned for June 1997) will talk about the individual minerals and their flavor impact. But before we worry about these details, we need to cover some more basic issues.

In addition to the minerals that we have discussed, most drinking water has been treated with chlorine. This is done with either gas or with a hypochlorite solution similar to laundry bleach. In either case, the purpose is to prevent the growth of bacteria in the public water system.

Unfortunately, chlorine can produce some undesirable effects in beer. For one, it can have an inhibitory effect on the growth of yeast. Second, it has been implicated in the formation of unpleasant flavor compounds known as chloro-phenolics. These compounds taste like plastic resin or burning electrical wire. Not a good thing to include in your beer.

To avoid these effects, most brewers remove chlorine from their water before brewing. There are several ways to do this. The low-tech way is to simply boil the water for 30 minutes or so prior to adding any malt or hops. This volatilizes the chlorine to separate it from the water, but requires a bit of time prior to brewing. This approach can be awkward when you need 6 gallons of water but can only boil 4 gallons at a time. Also, if you need cold water to fill your fermenter, you’ll have to boil and then chill the water, wasting both time and energy.

The best alternative to boiling is the carbon filter. This method is routinely used in commercial breweries and by most serious homebrewers as well. Home-sized units are found in most hardware stores and come in various sizes and capacities. For brewing, it is easiest to use a unit that attaches directly to your kitchen faucet. These usually have a by-pass valve for times when you want unfiltered water for cleaning and they provide a reasonable flow-rate, usually for less than $30.

One caveat on the use of carbon filters. You should never run hot water through the filter; use cold water only. Using hot water will encourage bacterial growth inside the filter itself. In addition, it may liberate the built-up crud on the carbon matrix, releasing it into your brewing water.

With the chlorine out of your water, you might start thinking about other aspects of water chemistry. Water chemistry isn’t very complicated, but your consideration of it is entirely dependent on the character of the water you normally brew with. Before we can even begin to consider what changes you might want to make, we have to know what is in your water to begin with.

1. Siphon Starter - these devices help you get your racking tube filled with beer without committing the ultimate sin of sucking on the end. Two types, syringe or ball with one-way valves. Either way a good investment.

2. Strip Thermometer - These liquid crystal temperature indicators stick to the side of your fermenter or soda keg to give you a good indication of what the temperature is inside. Great way to monitor fermentations or check the temperature of beer before carbonation.

3. Kitchen Wizard - A kitchen calculator that gracefully converts between metric and American units (e.g.: cups to liters, ounces to grams, deg F to deg C) and calculates as well. In addition, it is useful for scaling recipes written in U.S. units. For instance, if you want to carbonate one gallon of beer, how much corn sugar should you add? The kitchen wizard will tell you that 1/5 of 3/4 of a cup equals about 2.4 tablespoons.

4. Malt/Hop Calculator Wheels - Dubbed “Doctor Bob Technical’s Amazing Wheel of Beer” and “Doctor Bob Technical’s Incredible Hop-Go-Round,” these amazing little devices allow you to determine malt and hop quantities without the use of electricity. Both devices are designed like circular slide-rules (anybody remember what those are?) so that you can quickly specify several variables in order to determine the needed ingredient quantity.

5. Homebrew Color Guide - Anyone who is interested in a more accurate understanding of beer color should pickup this simple film-based color reader. By comparing the standards on the reader to the actual color of your beer in a standard plastic judging cup, you can determine your beer’s color to within about 1 degree SRM. Useful anytime you evaluate beer whether homebrewed or commercial.

6. Stainless steel probe thermometer - If your initial homebrew setup included a floating glass thermometer, you’ve probably already figured out that it is pretty slow to adjust when you want to take a reading. Stainless steel probe thermometers react more quickly and they are practical for many applications where the larger glass model just won’t do.

7. Carbonator top - These devices can be charged with CO₂ from a standard soda keg gas fitting and they quickly screw on the top of one-liter and two-liter plastic soda bottles. With one of these, you can inexpensively take a supply of homebrew to a party without having to worry about bringing home your empties.

8. Long-neck lighter - Those with a Cajun cooker or other high-BTU outdoor burner may find it useful to keep this butane-fueled fire-starter close at hand. Available at most hardware stores, they allow you to ignite your burner with the pull of a trigger, while still keeping your hand away from the action.

9. Siphon spray or siphon aerator - These small devices fit on the exit end of your siphon tube to help you aerate your cool wort during transfer to the primary fermenter. One is a simple cone of plastic that spreads the wort into a wide spray pattern. The second provides a simple air opening on the side of the line so that air will be sucked in to mix with the passing wort.

10. Carbon Water Filter - A carbon filter provides that most basic function of water treatment, namely chlorine removal. Sure, there are other ways of doing it, but they require time and/or heat to achieve. For an instant supply of chlorine-free brewing water, attach one of these units to your brewing sink.

You love beer. You especially love that Pale Ale brewed at your local brewpub or that Kölsch brewed at the microbrewery just down the street. You want to make beer that tastes as good as that, or better. You know you can do it. You are all psyched up for that first brew day. You’ve read Papazian; you’ve read Palmer (twice); you’ve digested Brew Chem 101. You are ready to make your first batch.

For a minute or two you contemplate making some Goat Scrotum Ale just so you can hand your buddy a bottle and say, “Here suck on some Goat Scrotum,” but you start to think you need a better reason to pick a recipe than the potential for beer-belly laughs from your mates — you’re going to make 40 pints of this stuff after all and you want it to be good. What should you brew?

This is the situation one of my friends is in. He’s trying to make up his mind about what he should brew first. His wife bought him a kit a month or so ago and he is going to make his first batch of extract brew. “What should I brew?” he asked.

My first thought was to answer, “Whatever you want to brew. It’s your beer. You’re going to have to drink it.”

Then I realized that what he was asking was if there are certain beers or styles that are simpler to brew than other, styles suited for the newbie — something that was sure to come out. The truth is that there is no magically simpler beer to brew. At the extract level all your brews are going to be pretty much at the same difficulty and will have an equal probability of turning out just fine as long as you are careful, pay attention to sanitation issues, and avoid splashing your beer around too much when you move it from the fermenter to the bottle.

Extract kits are available for just about every beer style you can think of, so the beer world is yours. You just have to make up your mind.

I went into a local homebrew shop the other day and the owner had laid out two full shelves of display — row after row of extract kits. One was labeled “Newcastle Nut Brown Ale.” Another was labeled “Sierra Nevada Pale Ale”. And another labeled “Guinness Stout.” These “clone” kits were clearly being pitched at the novice brewer who’s first inclination is to brew their favorite commercial beer or something that approximates it at least.

My first brew was a “Newcastle Nut Brow Ale” kit. That first brew day gave me lots of problems. I didn’t have everything I needed in the way of equipment to do the brew and I was pulling stuff out of the kitchen cabinets to kludge together what I needed. I couldn’t get my siphon started to move the wort to the kettle and I was sure that I had infected the whole batch by sucking on the end of the siphon hose (out of desperation).

That “Nut Brown Ale” turned out okay. It was drinkable. But it didn’t have anything to do with “Newcastle Nut Brown Ale”. It wasn’t even the same color.

If you want to start by brewing a clone of a commercial beer, then that’s fine. It’s your beer. However, you might be setting yourself up for disappointment. Your extract clone isn’t going to taste exactly like that commercial beer you love so much. If you start comparing your first extract beer to that commercial ideal, you might get discouraged. Not that your beer will be bad. It might be a damn fine and tasty beer, but if you have expectations about hitting a certain mark set by a commercial standard, then your expectations need readjustment.

The number one reason that brewers stop brewing their own beer is because of discouragement and disappointment. This applies to the veteran brewers as much as the novice brewers. If you make a couple of batches of beer that you don’t like, then it gets harder and harder to motivate yourself to do another brew. If you are a first time brewer, it’s especially important that that first effort be a success; that you make a beer that you can be proud of and one that you’ll be happy to drink 40 pints of.

This is why I told my friend that he should pick a style of beer that he likes and just make a beer as opposed to making “a clone” of a commercial beer.

“I really like Sam Adams Boston Lager,” my friend said.

“You can buy gallons of Sam Adams Boston Lager,” I said. “Why would you want to brew it?”

Which brings me to my second bit of advice: you might want to consider brew something that you can’t buy a lot of easily.

If you live in the US, you will have ready access to a commercial example of just about every beer style ever dreamed of and more, so it might be a challenge coming up with a short list of rare or expensive commercial beers that fit into this category.

One of the standard beers that I make in my home brewery is a Session Saison. Now I love Saisons. My idea of a beautiful afternoon is sipping a bottle of (unskunked) Saison Dupont while reading a good novel. But sometimes I want the taste of a Saison without having to commit to 750 ml at nearly 7.0% ABV. So I formulated a Session Saison that comes in at around 4.0% ABV. I can drink a couple of pints of my Session Saison and still be fit to do other things. As far as I know there are no commercial examples of a Session Saison, at least I can’t buy any in my local beer store. My Session Saison is also a very popular beer with my friends. For most of them its the first taste of really fresh Saison style beer they’ve ever had — and they can drink three pints of it and still be standing.

Maybe you aren’t comfortable experimenting with your very first batch, but if you do want to brew your favorite Pale Ale just make sure that you go into tasting that first batch with realistic expectations. Once you’ve demonstrated to yourself that you can make great beer — beer that you enjoy and want to drink — then you can start working on hit the mark set by a commercial standard.

Here are some tips I have learned over time to help save money. These can be used by anybody to save money. You will find these especially useful if you don’t have any equipment yet, and want to get it very affordable.

- Check craigslist or even post a message asking for equipment.

Buckets, carboys, airlocks, bottles, anything. Some brewers are getting out of the hobby and want to ditch their stuff at a fraction of the price.

- Look at pawn shops, second hand stores, garage sales, and other places for things. I have seen old water jugs (carboys) sold for less than half retail price. I bought a used carboy at an auction for $7, and it already had a thermometer on it!

- Plastic buckets are much cheaper than glass. You only need 5 gallons. Ask your local bakery or deli if they have any buckets. They just throw them out! You need the lid though. DON’T USE PICKLE BUCKETS! The smell is just about impossible to remove. Another great resource for new buckets is Home Depot, Lowe’s, Walmart, paint stores, and so on. Flip the bucket over and look for HDPE 2 on it. That is almost always food grade plastic. You will need to have a 1″ round hole cut in the top for an airlock or tube later. These buckets generally only cost $5.

- Check dollar stores for extra equipment. Stir spoons, thermometers, measuring cups, or anything else that might be useful to your brewing.

- Stainless steel is pretty hard to find second hand. Look for enamel coated aluminum pots though. I have found many in used stores. I bought a 5 gallon aluminum pot for $5!

- Reuse your yeast! Dry or liquid. You will need glass jars for storage, some dry malt extract (DME), and your scavenged yeast from the fermenter. You can reuse yeast many times. This will cut down on the cost and give you healthier yeast. Also, unless you know what was in glass jars, buy them new. Someone could have put chemicals or motor oil in those second hand jars.

- Look for light weight scales at Walmart and other discount stores.

My first 1 pound scale cost me $4, and my homebrew shop wanted $7 for it.

Here is an example chart for getting basic equipment cheap, assuming you already have a brew pot for cooking and some basic kitchen utensils.

All prices are approximate:

Plastic bucket with lid - Free from bakery up to $5 Bottling bucket with spigot - $12 (Note: if you can get an extra free bucket, spigots only cost about $3, much cheaper!) Airlock - $1

4 feet of 3/8″ plastic tubing to siphon - $2 Bottle capper - $12 Bottle caps - $4 Stick on thermometer for bucket - $3 Hydrometer - $7 Bottles - get some from your friends, that’s what I did Bottle brush - $5 Basic ounce measuring scale - $5

These items can cost over $50, but again, if you use the trick with the bottling bucket, that saves you about $10.

I assume you have measuring cups, a regular thermometer, a long handled spoon, and basic cleaning supplies. This list is for single stage fermentation. The purpose of this list is to show you can get basic supplies very cheap. A $100 kit is not necessary. I recommend getting a full 2 stage kit, but is money is tight, or you simply aren’t sure if you will be staying with this hobby, brewing on a budget is definitely the way to go.

First of all you will need some additional equipment that you may or may not have and you can choose what type you will want to invest in.

• A vessel to ferment your starter in. It can be an Erlenmeyer flask that you can boil on the stove or it can be as simple as a glass jug that can be had for free (this will require a separate vessel to boil in)
• Tinfoil
• An O2 system that will allow you to introduce oxygen in your starter wort
• Yeast nutrient
• Stainless steel boil vessel (2-6 qt depending on the size of your starter and optional if you have an Erlenmeyer flask)
• Funnel
• Dry Malt Extract (DME)….
• Spray Bottle filled with StarSan (optional but very handy)
• Stir-plate and stir bar (optional)

Why Make a Starter?

Why make a starter when a vial or smack pack would do? The first thing is that although the yeast suppliers tell you that one vial or smack pack will ferment 5 gallons, they don’t tell you that the optimal amount of yeast cells for fermenting 5 gallons is considerably more that what is in one vial or smack pack. This is the reason for making a starter, to pitch the optimal amount of yeast for a given quantity of wort. There is also the idea of brewing a beer and pitching on a yeast cake from a previous batch. Just like a vial or smack pack will ferment 5 gallons so will pitching on yeast cake, still doesn’t mean that you are pitching the optimal amount of yeast cells for your batch. You wouldn’t add an extra 6 lbs of DME to a batch that calls for only 6 lbs so why would you pitch two or three times the yeast that’s needed for a batch. So how do we figure out how much yeast to pitch and how big a starter to make? Fortunately a renowned homebrewer named Jamil Zainasheff has taken the time to bypass all the microbiology classes needed to figure this out and has put out a pitching rate calculator that is available online at http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html

A Few Basic Notes

Ales vs. Lagers…..Lagers will require about twice the amount of yeast cells than Ales do. Sometimes you might have to step up your starter to get the proper amount.

DME……Why use Dry Malt Extract vs. sugar or honey? The reason to use DME over other fermentables is to get the yeast acclimated to the environment they are going to be in and to build strong and healthy cell walls and membranes. You wouldn’t put your freshwater fish in a saltwater tank so don’t put your yeast in an unhealthy environment.

Airlocks…..Airlocks are not needed when making a starter, they actually impede the process. The whole idea is to allow oxygen uptake during the process, especially if using a stir-plate. Use aluminum foil as this will eliminate the bacterial ring that will form where the stopper meets the glass. If you must use a stopper, use a foam stopper and don’t forget to flame the lip before pitching.

Sanitation….Use proper sanitation procedures as you don’t want to introduce unwanted nasties into your starter. That’s why I keep a spray bottle of StarSan on hand, as I can always just give it a spray if necessary. It also requires no rinsing and when it breaks down it is actually a yeast nutrient.

OG of a Starter…..The OG of your starter should be between 1.030 and 1.040….there is no need to make high gravity starter when making a high gravity beer as long as your pitching rate is of the proper amount. You don’t want to stress the yeast out during the starter process.

Dry Yeasts…..Dry yeast is intended to be pitched as is. Starters are not recommended when using dry yeasts but it may take more than one pack to pitch the proper amount of cells.

How I Do It

When making a basic starter for an ale with an Original Gravity of 1.040 I will need to make a starter that is right at 1 quart in size. The amount of DME needed is about 3 ounces per quart. I used to use an Erlenmeyer flask but seeing they are prone to boil over I just use a small stainless stockpot to boil my DME in. I add the 1 quart of water to my stockpot, the DME and 1 teaspoon of yeast nutrient. Bring it to a boil and boil for around 15 minutes and cool in a sink of ice water to the desired pitching temperature. Sanitize the outside of the stockpot with a few sprays a StarSan, and pour into the sanitized flask using a sanitized funnel. Next I will shoot about 15 seconds of oxygen from my sanitized O2 set up into the wort and then pitch my yeast. I then cover the starter with a piece of sanitized aluminum foil and put it in a place that will keep it until the desired time to pitch……it will be ready in 12-24 hours so making your starter the night before you brew is good way to go about it……..SO EASY A CAVE MAN CAN DO IT !!!!………………….

One thing that will help with increasing cell count is using a stir plate but if you don’t have one give your flask a swirl every time you get a chance to help keep the yeast in suspension and help with O2 uptake.

Drinking beer is very popular around the world. In Germany where the oldest and grandest beer festival is held in late September and the first week October, hundreds of home brewing enthusiasts bring their brews into the city Munich. Home brewing competitions are one of the highlights of Octoberfest. For lots of people in Germany and the United Kingdom, the yearly home brewing competition is part of a great tradition where the art of home brewing beer is passed on from generation to generation.

Why People Brew Their Own Beer

Home brewing beer is more of a hobby and is often done on a very small scale. People that practice this hobby just want to brew their beer for their own personal consumption and not really for commercial purposes. For some people home brewing their own beer and serving it to their friends during special occasions and small social gatherings is the highlight of their beer brewing activities, while others just love the idea of creating their own beer. For Whatever reason these home brewers have for brewing their own beer, the fact still stands, home brewing is something that both old and young enjoy doing.

Basic Principles of Home Brewing

Making your own beer can be very challenging and sometimes a bit complicated. Make no mistake, brewing beer is not like making lemonade where you get to drink your juice a few minutes after squeezing a lemon, adding water and sugar or honey. Brewing beer takes time and some knowledge. Making beer relies on a chemical reaction between substances and so it is very important that you know which ingredients should be mixed and in what order to get the best results.

When brewing your own beer, all you need is water, malt, yeast, and hops. Beer home brewing is the art of converting sugar from your grains into alcohol and making carbon dioxide from yeast through the fermentation process. The actual home brewing process can take about 9-10 hours and the fermentation or the aging process that makes beer taste better will take about 20-35 days.