Brew #1 - Daril's First Brew
The Daril Brothers' first brew was made on Sunday afternoon (2/23/97) at Shannon Burgess' house in Apex, NC. This was a brew session, whose purpose was to demonstrate two procedures for homebrewing beer ("all-grain" and "extract"); and to demonstrate how beer may be kegged instead of bottled.
Throughout the day, we sampled three of Shannon's homebrews: A Stout; an Octoberfest; and a Rauchbier. ALL were excellent, though my personal palate can't seem to get used to the Rauchbier (smoke-flavored). We also tasted some homebrewed Mead - again, excellent. This provoked a discussion about "hard cider", which is also easily brewed. I'll post some instructions for it's creation later.
These notes will generally describe what we did during this session. However, there's a very good, detailed description for first-time homebrewers on this page: "How To Brew Your First Beer".
The main pieces of Shannon's brewery equipment consists of:
- Two converted 1/2 barrel steel kegs with lids: One used as a brew kettle; and the other as a mash tun.
- A 7-gallon plastic barrel w/spigot for sparging.
- A custom-built, two-tiered table, similar to the one shown in the picture on this page: "Constructing A 1/2bbl 3 Tier Brewing System"
- A "camp cooker" type, propane burner that sits about 1 foot off the ground.
All the supplies used for both methods were purchased at Brewbetter Supply, in Morrisville. I split the cost of the new brewing equipment with four friends in my neighborhood. We bought Brewbetter's "Ultimate Brewing Kit", which consists of: a 5-gallon glass carboy; a 7-gallon plastic bucket w/spigot; all of the necessary paraphernalia (from racking cane & tubing to bottle caps & hand-held capper); and a copy of Charlie Papazian's new, revised book - "The Complete Joy of Homebrewing" - ($99.00 total). We also bought the ingredients to brew a classic Scottish Brown Ale (about $17.00). And, at Waccamaw in Raleigh, I picked up a 21-quart, green-enamel pot for brewing ($20.00); and at Kroger I got a large funnel with a screen insert for about $4.00. So, for about $40.00 apiece, my three neighbors and I are outfitted for homebrewing "extract" beers.
At 3 p.m., the water for the all-grain Belgian Ale was put in the brew kettle, and heated to 170 degrees Fahrenheit. On that propane burner, it sure doesn't take long!
I didn't take note of the exact proportions and types of mixed grains & malts used for this recipe. Suffice it to say that the grain needed to be milled before being added to the water. This was done with a small hand-mill. If you don't own a milling machine, your brewing supply house will do it for you at time of purchase. Milling cracks the outer husks of the grains, exposing the inner kernels so that boiling may release their inherent sugars & starches.
The milled grain & specialty malts (pale malts) were added to the 170 degree water, creating the "mash" - a soupy, oatmeal-looking mixture. After adding the grains & malts, the water temperature drops. So, the mash water was heated back up to 155 degrees, and the whole mix was then allowed to "steep" for a while. The brew kettle was removed from the burner; covered; and set aside on the first tier of the table. At this point, we were able to forget about the brew kettle for a time. Due to the insulating qualities of the steel keg, the mash just maintained a fairly steady 155 degrees or so, and continued to cook/steep on its own.
At about 4 p.m. or so, with the burner now available, we started in with the extract brew - a Scottish Brown Ale. We had decided on this type because it's a very simple and great-tasting brew.
At Brewbetter, we simply picked up a bag of grains that was labeled "Scottish Brown Ale". It listed the ingredients on the package - all the necessary grains & flavorings for this type. At the counter, we got the second part of the necessary ingredients, which included the yeast, pelletized hops, and corn sugar needed for priming. We also picked up a 6 lb. container of liquid "Gold" malt extract. Dry extract is also available, but liquid works just as well.
This was the part of the day's session most significant to me personally, since this was my batch :-). We used the brand-new 21-quart green-enamel pot (which worked out very well); and the end result went into our new glass carboy for transport home for fermenting.
One side-note: I had two stainless-steel "boil-over" disks that my wife had bought from a "Pampered Chef" demo. These sit on the bottom of the pot and disperse the large bubbles formed during boiling, helping to control boil-overs. They seemed to work well, but were by no means necessary to the procedure.
We started out by heating about 2.5 gallons of water. As we did with the all-grain recipe, we milled the bag of mixed grain & malt, and put the result into a medium-sized, fine, nylon-mesh bag. This created sort of a giant "tea-bag", which would leave the resulting "tea" more free of debris - bleached out husks & such. We brought this back up to 170 degrees and let it steep for a bit.
We turned off the burner before adding the bag of malt extract. If you add the extract on a hot element, the extract will fall to the bottom of the pot and scorch. Move the pot off to the side first, then add the extract.
Once the extract was added and well-stirred, we put the pot back on the burner and maintained a good simmer for about an hour. We had to monitor it closely to avoid boil-over.
What we were looking for at this point was the "hot-break". This is the point where the wort starts to foam and wants to boil-over. What's happening here is that the proteins coagulate and fall out of solution. We want this to happen, but we need to control it by turning down the heat, and stirring the foam back into the mix. This should now stay at a simmering boil.
Once the hot-break has occurred, we add the first of 3 portions of pelletized hops. We used small-sized nylon-mesh bags to hold the hops, for the same reason we did earlier - to keep the bleached out debris to a minimum. Hops are added to the boil at specific intervals. 30 minutes after adding the first bag of hops, add the second bag.
In between the second and last bag of hops, we added 1 Tablespoon of "Irish Moss". This is a type of dried "seaweed" that helps clarify the wort. It attracts to itself the particles that would cause haziness. It works best if it's re-hydrated before being added to the mix. This is something that can be done at the outset of this procedure, just as you put the initial 2.5 gallons of water on to boil. The packaging and/or recipe sheets may call for 1 Teaspoon, but it's recommended that 1 Tablespoon be used instead. Add the 1 Tablespoon of Irish Moss to about an ounce or so of water, and let it sit until you're ready to use it. At about the same time you're doing this, you can also "start" your yeast. More on this later.
At 10 minutes before the end of our boil, we added the last 1/3 of the hops in a nylon-mesh bag.
When the boil was done, we took the pot off of the heat and set it aside. We carefully retrieved the spent bags of hops. At this point we really have to worry about CLEANLINESS. While the wort is boiling, sanitation is easily maintained. Once it stops, and we chill the wort before pitching the yeast, we need to be VERY careful.
At this point, we would put the cover on the pot, and immerse the pot into a sink full of ice cubes, the object being to chill the boiled wort down to about 70 degrees. This is the way I'll be chilling at home. However, Shannon had a copper coiled, submersible "chiller" that we used. Cold water running through the submerged coils brought the temperature down to the desired level in very short order.
We cleaned the carboy, funnel, gas trap, and rubber cork in "B-Brite" - a chlorine sanitizer - in preparation for transferring the cooled wort to the carboy. Then, we added about 2 gallons of cold water to the carboy. This is necessary to prevent the possibility of breaking the glass from the shock of hot liquid hitting cold glass.
We then carefully poured the contents of the brewpot into the carboy, through the funnel; and topped off the carboy with about another gallon of water to bring it up to the 5-gallon level.
The correct time to "pitch" the yeast is when the wort (now in the carboy) is at about 70 degrees. Ideally, it's best to "start" your yeast ahead of time so that you know you've got active yeast, and to help prevent weak fermentation. However, you can just pour the dry yeast directly into the carboy - which I did. You'll want to agitate the carboy a bit at this point, to stir the yeast around. Since I knew that the carboy was going directly to my car, for a ride back to Durham, I knew that it would slosh around on the way, so I didn't worry about it.
Now we turned our attention back to the Belgian Ale that Shannon was brewing. The mash was done and now needed to be converted to an "extract". Basically, the resulting liquid is what we STARTED with after adding the malt extract to our "tea" when making the Scottish Brown Ale above.
Getting to that point first involves "sparging", or rinsing the grain bed to extract as much of the residual sugars from the grain as possible, without extracting unpalatable compounds from the husks. You can read more about the details of all-grain brewing in the Papazian book, and on various pages on the Internet. For instance, see "What is Mashing", and "Producing an All-Grain Wort is Easy!"
Basically, once the sweet wort has been collected, and other recipe ingredients added, it is cooked a while longer; chilled; and transferred to a carboy for fermentation - the same as we did above for the extract.
My partners & I were the last ones to leave Shannon's house at about 7 p.m. He was just finishing up the Belgian Ale extract boil - perhaps another hour to completion.
Shannon's Belgian Ale is reported to be "merrily bubbling away". Our Scottish Brown Ale is now fermenting quietly at my neighbor's house. In about two weeks, we're looking forward to bottling, and ultimately drinking our first batch.
Many Thanks to Shannon Burgess for hosting this event. It was a great success!
Cheers!
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