New Season, New Beers

Although the first day of Autumn isn't until September 22^nd this year, most people feel like the start of September is, at least, the start of the end of Summer. Days get shorter and the air is cooler, and when the seasons start to change, so do the drinks we enjoy.

Now there is certainly nothing wrong with drinking a light pale ale during the fall and winter months, but after drinking these over the long hot summer, it is nice to try something new. Here are some styles of beers that you might want to start brewing now for the months ahead:

• Pumpkin Ale – Low alcohol ready for Halloween, High alcohol ready for Thanksgiving

• Christmas/Holiday Ales – Big alcohol needs time for aging just in time for Christmas

• Bock or Dopplebock – Great to lager through Fall/Early Winter

• Scotch Ale – One of my favorite cool weather beers. Small versions can be ready fairly soon, while others will need some age

• Bitters and ESB – Great transitional beers from the big hoppy summer beers

• Rauchbier, Browns, Porters, and Stouts are nice this time of year also.

 Time to get the Imperial Oaked Pumpkin Saison started.

 

Reusing your yeast

Have you ever thought about reusing yeast instead of purchasing more every time you brew beer?

It is a great way to save a little money and get a really good pitch rate, so here are a couple of options to get you started:

The easiest way to reuse the yeast is to just pour your new beer onto a yeast cake from a batch you just moved to secondary. This of course requires you to have a beer ready to ferment at the same time you are ready to move a previous beer to secondary. This technique also creates a HUGE pitch rate, which can actually lead to off flavors, or what can be referred to as being “too clean”, meaning there is no esters at all and makes for a strange flavored ale. Use this technique mainly when lagering, where you need a lot of yeast and are trying for a super clean flavor anyway. A popular use is going from a light lager, such as a pilsner, to a big alcohol lager like a bock or double bock.

The second easiest way is to pour or scoop a quart (or so) of your yeast cake from a finished batch into a growler, mason jar, or whatever you can easily sanitize and use for collection. This technique will allow you to put the airlocked container in a refrigerator and use it up to 10 days later without any issues. You can however go longer with this technique, but much like the liquid yeast you get at your home brew supply store, the cell count diminishes over time. You should be able to do a yeast starter within about a 6 month period of packaging, but your changes diminish over time.

Notes:

-- Always move from lighter colored (less hoppy) beers to darker, so your yeast doesn't impart any color (flavor) to the new beer.

--  Only use yeast from primary fermentation any time after fermentation has dropped your O.G in half.

--  Do not use yeast from secondary fermentation because they are fatigued and contain mutations that you don't want to start in another beer.

--  Only reusing your yeast to many times can also lead to a variant strain of yeast, that might be good, but possibly not as good as the original strain, so try and limit your reuses to 6 or less.

White Labs 001, Wyeast 1056, or Safale US-05?

This is a very common question. It seems there are two types of people; those who don't know that these are 3 brands of the same yeast strain, and the others that know, but have either some kind of brand loyalty for one or prejudice against the others. This post is mainly for those who do not know these are the exact same thing.

Yep it is true. All three yeast brands are derived from Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and are, for all purposes, the same yeast. Even John Palmer, author of How to Brew references them as the same:

“American, Californian, or Chico Ale,

A very "clean" tasting yeast, less esters than other types of ale yeast. Good for just about any type of ale. This strain usually derives from that used for Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Medium attenuation, medium flocculation. Suggested fermentation temperature is 68°F.”

So is there a benefit to one over the other? Well it depends who you ask. If you ask a home brewer that has been brewing for 20+ years, they will probably tell you to stay away from dry yeast at all costs. If you ask a home brewer that has been brewing for 10+ years they will tell you that White Labs or Wyeast is the only way to go, depending on what they started out on, but if you talk to a new brewer, they will tell you that you should use whatever you would like. But who is right? Well, in my experience, nobody is really wrong.

The truth is if you home brewed 20 years ago, you probably struggled to get a good yeast, and or cultivated it yourself for something that was high quality and had predictable results. Dry yeast didn't have the quality or diversity that it has today.

According to their websites Wyeast started selling yeast almost 10 years before White Labs, but it is my impression, that for whatever reason many home brew supply stores carried White Labs almost exclusively during the late 90s, and I think this led to some brand loyalty from the home brewing community that finally had both a good supply and good variety of quality yeast.

These days most home brew supply stores carry both brands of liquid yeast, plus dry yeast strains, which have come a long way since the early 80s, both in quality and in variety, so how do you know what to pick.

Well, if the same strain is available in all three, let me give you the benefits of all the brands, so you can choose for yourself.

#1. Pitch Rate (how many yeast cells are available in a pack)

- Wyeast 100 billion (at time of packaging)
- White Labs 100 billion (at time of packaging)
- Safale US-05 200 billion (does not degrade over time)

Why you should care. Pitching the correct amount of yeast cells into your beer will help you with a few things. It will give you a good quick and healthy start to your fermentation which helps protect it from infection, helps to provide a thorough fermentation, and limits the amount of fruity esters created in your beer. The recommended pitch rate for a 1.048 starting gravity is 180 billion cells. So, since the cell count of liquid diminishes over time, by the time you get a packet or vial, you are probably around 80-90% of the viability, meaning it is a really good idea to buy two packs, or do a yeast starter. The cell count of dry yeast does not diminish noticeably over time, so you are good to go with one pack.

#2. Price (The amount of money you spend on the same strain of yeast)

- Wyeast $6-8
- White Labs $6-8
- Safale $3-5

Why you should care. Well, money doesn't grow on trees, and dry yeast is roughly half the price for twice the product.

#3. Viability (Is there live and active yeast available to start fermenting beer?)

- Wyeast smack pack (Yeast nutrient in inflatable pack will start live yeast producing CO2, which lets you know there is still viable yeast for pitching, or making a starter)
- White Labs vial (Clear vial lets you see yeast, but exposes yeast to light also. No way to tell if what you see is viable)
- Safale US-05 vacuum sealed package (Light and oxygen barrier pack keeps freeze dried yeast stable and doesn't need to be refrigerated, and will last a long time)

Why you should care. While there are dates printed on each brand, you don't know exactly what kind of conditions the yeast has been exposed to before you got it. Knowing that you have viable yeast can save you a lot of time and heart ache. There are few things worse than pitching your yeast, even in a starter, and having nothing happen.

 

#4. Flavor (This is, after all, why we brew beer in the first place)

I have personally tasted two identical beers brewed at the same time with the same kind of equipment with a similar pitch rate, fermented at the same temperature for the same amount of time, and I have tasted no difference between US-05 and 1056. I have also read countless threads of doubting brewers experiencing the same thing between all three brands. However, don't take my word for it, do a small batch of light beer yourself and see if you can notice a difference. Remember to do a blind taste test, if you are currently prejudice against other brands of yeast.

Why you should care. Because you want to have predictable and consistent results, so you can make your favorite beer again and again.

 

 

So, for my time and money, paying $7 or so for two packs of US-05 for an Imperial IPA vs, doing a two step starter, or paying roughly $35 for 5 packs of liquid, just can't be beat.

Want to save even more money and have the correct pitch rate? Just start saving some of your yeast from the trub of your last batch of beer. Use it over and over again... more on that to come.

Wine Stabilizing

Why and what is Stabilizing?
Different yeast strains have different alcohol tolerances, meaning that at some point there is too much alcohol in their environment that the cells start to die due to alcohol toxicity. Once this point is reached it is unlikely that fermentation will start up again (unless a more alcohol tolerant yeast or bacteria is introduced) however, it is possible for some fermentation to continue unless you stabilize your wine. If you want to assure that no corks start popping out of bottles down the road, or you would like to “back sweeten” your wine, stabilizing is an important step to finishing your wine.

 



What is happening?
Stabilizing consists of two steps; stopping the current fermentation, then preventing further fermentation. This is done with wine additives, starting with a sulfite, usually either sodium or potassium metabisulfite (Campden). This produces sulfur dioxide gas that will kill yeast and bacteria (although a small amount of yeast will go dormant to survive the hostile environment). Use Potassium Sorbate in conjunction with Campden. Sorbate will work better with sulfites present, and the combination works better than sulfites alone. Sorbate will stop the reproductive cycle of yeast, so any cells that may have survived both the alcohol and the sulfur dioxide have no real chance of fermenting anything.

How to do it:
Crush 1 Campden tablet along with ½ teaspoon of Sorbate, per gallon of wine, and stir up into roughly a cup of warm water or your wine. Make sure any clumps are dissolved and then add cup to your batch of wine. Stir in well. You can now sweeten to taste and bottle, or wait a week or two to allow any of the dead and dying yeast to fall out of suspension. This will make for a clearer wine in your bottle.

Back Sweetening:
Sweetening your wine to taste, or “back sweetening / back blending” is the process of adding juice or sugar back into your wine to give it more pronounced flavor, body, sweetness, or all three. Since many wine yeasts will eat enough sugar to “dry” out your beverage, you may want to add back to it. You can only do this if you stabilize first. Table sugar is common, but it is recommended to use whatever you fermented (strawberry juice for strawberry wine, grape juice for grape wine, apple juice for apple wine or cider, honey for mead, etc.) This will be to taste, so it is hard to give an amount. It is whatever YOU think tastes good. Just add a little bit to your stabilized batch of wine, taste, and repeat till you get it right. White grape juice or apple juice can be used as an all purpose sweetener and is recommended in most cases over table sugar.

Carbonating stabilized wine:
Because active, live yeast is necessary to bottle condition (carbonate naturally), once you have stabilized your wine, cider, or mead you can no longer carbonate unless you keg and force carbonate with CO2.

Next, how dry/sweet do you want it? 
The commonly accepted final gravities for each level of dry/sweetness are:
Dry:   0.990 – 1.006
Medium: 1.006 – 1.015
Sweet:  1.012 – 1.020

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.