DIY1G

 



Do It Yourself projects are growing in popularity, partly because people are getting a little tired of mass produced homogenized products that appeal to a mass market, and partly because it feels good to... well, so something yourself. With a very long standing history home brewing may arguably be the first DIY home project, but it is now being drowned out by the recent movement to do things yourself. So how do we help people start into the rewarding hobby of home brewing? Make it simple.

While there is a trend in 1 gallon beer kits, we at Salt City Brew Supply didn't want to limit people to just beer or just wine or even just alcohol for that matter. We decided to put together equipment that would span the needs of all fermenting into a small one gallon kit.

Maybe your just realized that you can actually make alcohol from all the fruit or vegetables in your yard, or maybe you even already brew beer or wine at home but want to try something new, like Mead or even Sauerkraut. Our new DIY1G kits let you test out whatever it is you would like to make, then adjust it till you get it just how you want it. We have Beer Recipes along with Mead and Cider, and we will soon add Fruit Wine, Vegetable Wine, Kavas, and Sauerkraut Recipes, with things like Kombucha and Kimchi down the road.

We will be supplying these kits to small stores around town who share a love for DIY projects, and already have a presence at the Wasatch Front Farmers Market Store and the Honey Stop, but we are planning to grow, so keep your eyes open.

Hydrometer Readings

When you are brewing beer, wine, mead, cider, or anything else with alcohol a hydrometer is as close to a necessity as you can get. Sure, we have all brewed a batch or two without one, just waited till the airlock stopped bubbling, then waited a little longer, but this is not ideal. Without reading your specific gravity, you can't really be sure that your beverage has fermented all the way, and you wont be able to tell what your alcohol level is. A hydrometer is the least expensive way to read your specific gravity. 

 

Specific gravity is a measurement that shows you the density of your liquid. The illustration below demonstrates how to read your hydrometer. Fill the container it came in, or a test jar with the liquid you would like to measure (at room temperature). The Hydrometer will float in the liquid. Read the number at the top of the liquid. Surface tension will try an pull up on the liquid touching the glass, but make sure you read the number where the liquid would be if it were a perfectly flat surface. The diagram to the right is illustrating a Specific Gravity of 1.046, which could be the Original Gravity (density before fermentation) of a 4.6% ABV beer.

Brewing Jargon
We home brewers refer to a gravity of 1.010 as "ten ten", and 1.020 as "ten twenty, and so on.

As a rule of thumb

<1.010 = Very Dry finished beverage

  1.010 = Common F.G. for finished beverages. Well fermented, slightly dry finish.

  1.011 - 1.020 = Still OK. Finishing a little sweet.

  1.021 - 1.030 = Super sweet. Possible stuck fermentation.

 

Alcohol Content

Take your O.G. and Subtract your F.G (1.045 - 1.010 = 0.035)

For Alcohol by Weight "ABW" Multiply by 105 (0.035 x 105 = 3.68% ABW)

For Alcohol by Volume "ABV" Multiply your "ABW" by 1.25 (3.68 x 1.25 = 4.6% ABV)

 

For a quick gauge of ABV just take the last two digits of your OG and move the decimal. In the above example you started with 1.045, this is approximately a 4.5% beverage.

Stuck Fermentation
If you have determined that your Starting Gravity should be at 1.050 and your Final Gravity should be at a 1.010 but your airlock has stopped bubbling for a  week or more and you have only fermented down to 1.030 you probably have a stuck fermentation. Here are some trouble shooting tips:
1: Make sure your beer/wine temp is between 65 and 75 degrees. If it is on the lower end, try and move it somewhere warmer and see if fermentation starts up again.
2: Try some yeast energizer. It is possible that the yeast has only consumed the simple sugars in your beer or wine and need some help getting to the harder stuff, energizer has essential nutrients to help get them going again.
3: Try re-pitching yeast. Yeast can fall out of suspension before they are really done working, some strains are more likely to do this than others, but any of them can do this. Putting the same yeast you started with can be a good way to start fermenting again, or using a highly attenuate neutral yeast like champagne will definitely eat left over sugars, but could leave your beer a bit more dry that you wanted 

 

 

 

 

 

Citra Pale Ale Partial Mash Kit

What better way to celebrate Independence Day than brewing this American Pale Ale. It is our first pre-made partial mash kit on the shelf, but has been one of our most popular recipes for some time. Light and refreshing with bright citrus flavor from Citra hops, it is a great way to beat the heat this summer.

Try adding some Citra leaf hops to your secondary fermenter for 7 days. This will give this already bright beer a citrus/malty aroma that is refreshing all on its own. 

Grain to Extract Conversion Chart

Alcohol is an important part of beer, arguably the most important part, not just because it's mind altering affects have undoubtedly helped to shape the world, but because it adds depth and flavor to beer that can't be duplicated without it. The amount of alcohol in your beer is dependent on the fermentables, or fermentable sugars, in this case from malted grain. Many people use malt exclusively, but many others use malt extract or a combination of both for their fermentables. However, beer recipes often only come in one version (all grain, or extract), so converting the recipe to your desired method of brewing can sometimes be a source of confusion. No need to worry. Use this chart to help you with the conversion and it will get you very close. Save your brain power for choosing which beer to drink while you brew your next beer.

Brewing For Competition

On June 27th our store will be hosting a "Brewing for Competition" class. Aaron Selya from Epic Brewery will be speaking about how to brew to style and how to classify your beer for competition. This Free class will be at Salt City Brew Supply, but space is limited so you must call us and RSVP.

As the Beer Nut's Beehive Brew Off and Grace Lutheran's Bier Brauen Competitions grow closer (registration is already open for the Beehive Brew Off) it is important to know what category you should choose to enter your Oaked Wee Heavy Smoked Scottish ale.

These competition are AHA sanctioned competitions and follow the BJCP Style guidelines. The style guidelines are really interesting to flip through when you are making your beer (or tasting it), and there is a free PDF download here. So download the style guide, set aside some of those awesome beers that you haven't been sharing (because they are just too good), come to the class, and try your hand at being a competitive brewer this year... or next.

 

Homebrewing Jargon - The Sequel

This is the extended Jargon list from the last post, enjoy:

Alpha Acid - the acids in hops that affect their bitterness. Shown as a percentage.

Beta Acid - the acids in hops that help inhibit bacterial growth and spoilage. Not usually a big factor in most home brews.

Hop Utilization - how efficiently your wort is dissolving the alpha acids from your hops into solution.

AAU/HBU – the potential bitterness from hops derived from the Alpha Acids in the hops. One ounce of hops with 1 percent alpha acids contain 1AAU. One ounce of hops with 2 percent alpha acids contain 2AAUs. Similarly, HBUs can be used the same way. Two ounces of hops with 10 percent alpha acids would equal 20HBUs. Because the Alpha Acids change with every harvest, most beer recipes will specify how many HBUs or AAUs of hops are needed.

IBU - International Bittering Units is a measurement gauging the bitterness of your final beer. If you know your boil time and potential hop utilization you can predict your IBUs form the total AAUs/HBUs in your recipe. For a quick understanding of the IBU scale, Blondes can be 10-20 IBUs, Pale Ales can be 20-40 IBUs, IPAs can be 40-80 IBUs, and Imperial IPAs can be 60-120+ IBUs. 

Wet Hops - fresh hops right off the vine. You need 6 times the amount of we hops to equal that of dried leaf or pellet hops.

Dry Hopping - adding hops to your secondary fermenter to boost the hop aroma of your beer.

ABV/ABW - alcohol by volume and alcohol by weight. The alcohol in most beer in most parts of the world is measured by volume. ABV is the easiest and most popular way to measure alcohol in home brewing also. Utah measures alcohol by weight which is a bit confusing for many since it appears lower than when measured by volume. 3.2%abw beer in Utah is the same as 4.0%abv beer everywhere else.

Grain Bill - the type and amount of grain used in your beer. The grain part of a beer recipe.

Lovebond - this is a measurement of the color of grain after it is kilned or roasted.

SRM - this is a measurement of color in your final beer.

Trub - the gross and often smelly stuff at the bottom of your beer after fermentation. This is a mixture of yeast, hops, and grain particulates along with heavy proteins that have been pulled or fallen out of suspension over time.

Cold Crashing - cooling down your fermented beer for a short period of time, usually less than 24 hrs, before bottling with the intention of forcing more particulates to fall out of suspension making for a clearer final product.

Fining - making your beer, mead, cider, or wine clear.

Lagering - cold aging beer.

Ale - warm fermented beer.

Lager - cold fermented beer.

Sour Beer - this refers to beer that has been intentionally infected with specific strains of bacteria or wild yeast to impart a sour or tart flavor.

Pellicle - a lumpy, or slimy film that looks much like mold that forms when wild yeast or bacteria like brettanomyces is introduced to your beer. This can be intentional or by accident, but either way you will want to isolate any equipment you use with this contaminated beer and use it only for sour beers.

Diacetyl Rest - the act of warming your cold fermented beer just before lagering to reduce the amount of diacetyl (butter flavor) in the final beer. Raising the fermentation temp at the end of primary fermentation to 60°F for a couple days before cold aging your beer gives yeast a chance to consume the diacetyl.

Primary Fermentation - the aggressive yeast activity that does much of the work converting sugar to alcohol.

Secondary Fermentation - transferring your beer to a different vessel after primary fermentation. This is where your beer will age and clear in the absence of most of the trub that is produced during primary fermentation. This can also be the time to dry hop or start another kind of fermentation by adding either fruit or other fermentables or by adding bacteria.

Tertiary fermentation - a fancy word for Third fermentation, this is where you age and clear your beer if you started up fermentation again during your secondary fermentation.

Homebrewing Jargon

Just as there is with any hobby, there are a lot of words and terms that are thrown around in the homebrewing world that cause some confusion to people just starting out or are looking to progress in the hobby. Some of these are old words intended specifically for brewing, but I'm fairly certain some are just used so people in the know can feel smarter than the people just starting out. Well, here is a list of words and phrases that will familiarize you with the hobby so you can go into a conversation with a seasoned home brewing veteran and hold your own. Because of the length, I will be splitting this into two posts. Here is part 1:

Crush/Mill - to get at the sugary goodness inside the barley kernel it is necessary to crush it first using a mill to crack open the barley making sure not to crush it into fine powder.

Malt - the sugary goodness inside the grain is only starch when it is harvested, so the grain must be malted by soaking in warm water and tricked into sprouting. This process starts the natural enzymes in the grain to start converting starches to sugars. By drying them quickly the enzymes are halted and you get malted grain, also just called malt.

Steep - just like tea, in order to get the flavor and color from your grain in an extract/grain batch of beer, soaking the grain in warm water will get you much of the character of your beer.

Mash - when you ad your hot water to your grain it is called your mash. If you have ever made Oat Meal, Grits, or Cream of Wheat, you have made a mash before, you probably just never used too much water and collected it to drink later.

Single Infusion Mash - the strike water is added at the beginning of the mash time and the temperature is held during the entire mashing process.

Step Mash - a more complex mashing program where the strike temperature is low and gradually increases over time during the mashing process. For instance you may start at 113°F for the first 15 min, then increase the mash temp to 150°F for the next 50 min and finish the last 10 minutes at 168°F. When viewed on a temp over time chart this looks like steps.

Protein Rest - part of a step mash program. There are different proteins in your beer that will breakdown at certain temperatures during the mash and reduce haziness. Although most brewing grain these days are modified well enough (meaning the starches have already been turned to sugar and proteins have already been broken down), there are circumstances where a protein rest may still be needed.

Sparge - this is just a fancy word to describe the process of rinsing you grain in order to pull out more sugar, color and flavor. If you pour warm water over your bag of grain in a partial mash or grain/extract recipe it called sparging. Draining (Lautering) your mash while you add water at the same rate you are draining is called fly sparging. Draining your mash, then adding a bunch more water, then draining again is called batch sparging.

Strike water - this is the preheated water you add to your grain in the mash.

Hot liquor tank (HLT) - this is a bit misleading since there is no alcohol involved. It really should be called a hot water tank. It is any vessel that holds your preheated water to be used for you mash or your sparge.

Boil Kettle - a big stock pot for boiling your wort and adding hops and other adjuncts such as coriander, orange peel, pumpkin, etc.

Lautering - draining the liquid from your mash.

Mash/Lauter tun - a mash tun is any vessel (commonly a kettle or a cooler) that holds your mash. A lauter tun is any vessel used to drain the liquid from your mash, which in homebrewing is the same vessel as the mash tun. These names can be used interchangeably or combined. It is often referred to as an MLT. Most MLTs use either a false bottom (shown below) or manifold to separate the wort from the grain.

 

Wort - often pronounced wert, it is the sugary liquid that will eventually turn to beer after yeast is added and it is fermented.

Racking - transferring your beverage by siphoning.

Pitching - referring to yeast it just means adding.

Pitch Rate - the ratio between the amount of yeast you are adding to the density and volume of your wort.

Flocculation - how much yeast will stay in suspension.

Attenuation - how much sugar the yeast will eat before falling out of suspension.

Specific Gravity - a measurement of density of liquid. Hydrometers are an inexpensive and reliable way to read your Gravity.

Original gravity - the density of liquid before fermentation. Abbreviated O.G.

Final gravity - the density of liquid after fermentation. Abbreviated F.G. This number will be lower than the O.G. since alcohol is less dense than water.

Plato - another measurement of density similar to Specific Gravity. Often used to yeast pitch rate calculations.