A guide for new brewers

There are a lot of things to learn in a new hobby, some more challenging to pick up than others. One I noticed when I first started brewing was this annoying acronym being spread around, 'RDWHAHB'. I mean you can't even say it out loud properly, though it's a fun way to test someone's sobriety. Yet it really is the core of the homebrewing hobby and something that makes the community that much better. 'Relax, Don't Worry, and Have A HomeBrew' is almost a philosophy at my home that I should really have it as a plaque.

What's the big deal?

There is one key difference between homebrewing and other hobbies I have picked up over the years, and that is Time. Some like Diving takes training and preparation but the activity only lasts a few hours. While the slow process that is fermentation leaves us in the dark for weeks if not longer if doing aging. Sure we aren't actively performing any actions but in human nature waiting is one of the hardest things for us to do. Minds wonder and worry about the mistakes we have made or even if there were none, that damn brain likes making them up. The first time brewing provides many of those as everything is so alien to what we normally do.

There are many real mistakes that can be made during the brewing process. We put in time, money and some elbow grease to get a brew day done. There are so many factors that can change the flavor that comes out that it's impossible to learn on the first go. Two years in and I am still learning and making mistakes along the way. This is where the saying comes into play as you shouldn't worry about

...
[ read more... ]





Please support BrewUnited by using our Amazon affiliate link when doing any shopping there - be it for homebrewing or for your regular shopping!

Permalink
Tags for this post: Guide, New Brewer, New Homebrewer, RDWHAHB

It probably comes as no surprise to even a new reader of this blog that I am a father; I'm pretty sure that the moniker "Homebrew Dad" likely gives it away. As a matter of fact, I have seven children (ages nineteen, seventeen, seven, five, four, eighteen months, and newborn) - six of which still live at home.

When people hear that, the invariable reaction (once the dropped jaws return to a more normal position) from the brewing crowd tends to be along the lines of "how on Earth do you find time to brew?", "I can barely brew with my single child.", "what kind of lunatic are you?", and so forth.

A quick aside for those of you who just can't stand it - yes, I know what causes children (and I like to think that my wife and I must be at least decent at it). No, I'm not trying to start a reality show, cult, or new country. Thank you for your concern.

But as for brewing with kids... no, I don't get to brew as often as I would prefer, all else being equal. Unlike the single folks, DINKS, and parents of a lesser number of older (and presumably more self sufficient) kids, it's pretty tough for me to just wake up one day and decide to brew on a whim. Brewdays often have to be scheduled around various baseball schedules, birthday parties, family outings, and the like - meaning that my total...
[ read more... ]

Permalink
Tags for this post: brewing, kids, kid, brew, homebrew, brewing with kids

There is something to be said for a hobby that has held my interest for over two years now.  A closet full of equipment from different sports, adventures and mistakes alike.  It is far too easy for a voraciously curious person to burn out on these.  Homebrewing has been a wonderful break into this as there both are far too many things to learn and even then people like Brulosopher like proving those wrong.

The BrewUnited challenge is no exception to this as it pushes us beyond just brewing what we like how we like to.  For myself, that is to put into practice some techniques that I have only heard of yet, Wort Caramelization and the Long Boil.  These sound simple yet these tools are not often used with modern crystal malts and de-bittered dark malts for sweetness and color.  But they fit perfectly within the bounds of making something special for the challenge.

The Recipe

Style: 9E - Strong Scotch Ale
Type: All Grain
Batch Size: 5 gallon
Boil Time: (120 min) ~160 min
Original Gravity: (1.088) 1.084 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.027 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 8.1 %
Bitterness: 20.0 IBUs
Note: (stuff in parenthesis) out is Intended vs what mischief ensued...

Amount	Name	Type	Addition	%Bill/IBU
13 lbs	Pilsner (2 Row) UK	Grain	Mash	68%
4 lbs	Munich 10L (Briess)	Grain	Mash	21%
1 lbs

...
[ read more... ]

Permalink
Tags for this post: 2015 BrewUnited Challenge, Strong Scotch Ale, Wee Heavy, Long Boil, 120m Boil, Caramelization

Let's brew biab... with a spreadsheet. ...
[ read more... ]

Permalink
Tags for this post: biabacus, biab, brewing, math

Centuries ago, brewers did not have access to the well modified malts that we take for granted today, making it difficult to extract all of those delicious sugars from the malt. In addition, specialty malts simply did not exist... at least not to the degree that we think of in modern brewing. In the interest of creating more flavorful brews (and of the brewers getting as much bang for their buck as possible), the technique of decoction mashing came to be.

Of course, a lot has changed since that time. Today, the malts we used are, by default, well-modified. We have access to a veritable rainbow of specialty malts, with new varieties regularly coming to market. So, why then would anyone even bother with the Old World tradition of a decoction mash in today's environment? Surely our quality malts mean that that there is no need for complex processes, and our wide variety of malts mean that to achieve almost any flavor, one can just grab a pound of this, a few ounces of that?

Indeed, this is one of those nigh-religious debates in homebrewing. Some brewers will tell you that there just is no point in employing a decoction, that you can achieve an identical beer with a little melanoiden malt. Others hold that there is something special in a decocted beer, some little touch of magic that you just can't perfectly duplicate in any other way.

It probably comes as no surprise that I fall into the...
[ read more... ]

Permalink
Tags for this post: decoction, mash, mashing, tradition, melanoiden, brewing, beer

OK, so I jumped into the home brewing game just like everyone else, a total Noob.  My differentiator; I plan on going pro in 5 years.  Yup, that is a very daunting thing to say considering I have less than 20 batches under my belt and absolutely no background in anything related to brewing.  It’s a pretty daunting thing to broadcast across a community of home brewers also... You are going pro in 5 years?  Are you crazy?  Do you know what that takes and what the real world of brewing entails?  I kind of feel like someone just unexpectedly shoved me onto a stage at a talent show and I have nothing prepared whatsoever... maybe I can find a few things to juggle?  It is going to be a very challenging journey to say the least but one I am prepared for.  My buddy (we will refer to him as jlaw from here on out) and I registered an official LLC at the beginning of the year and ponied up $3K each to invest in brewing equipment.  I have about 5 all grain batches under my belt at this point and jlaw has 0.  So what you have here is two brewing noobs, a business plan, a $6K system budget and 5 years to make it work.  $6K sounds like a lot of money in terms of a spending spree on a home brew system but if you think of it like a business startup cost, it isn’t that...
[ read more... ]

Permalink
Tags for this post: half, day, homebrewer, pro brewer, electric, blichmann

The 1% Rule.
In an online community, 1% contribute content, 9% comment or participate on that content, and 90% read or lurk. When Olan asked a few months ago for someone to lend the site "a woman's touch", I took the 90% route and kind of semi offered, hoping that somebody else would step up to the plate. But with the new BrewUnited sleek look and ease of use for making blog posts, I figured it might be time to put my big-girl dress on and actually contribute.

This blog.
It's difficult to say what the aim of this blog will be. Frankly, I don't have a master plan for this blog, and at any point if there are requests for me to write about something, I probably will oblige. This blog is likely going to be a blog about how I brew beer, all of the mistakes I make, what works and what doesn't work for me, the latest thing I've wasted money on, etc. I'm actually hoping that I'll learn a lot from you guys posting responses to my blog posts here: so please, please don't be afraid to respond with suggestions, ideas, or general comments.

General brewing intro.
Just to start, I'll begin with a quick intro of my setup. I do full-volume brew in a bag. My favourite calculator is the biabacus. I suggest that anybody who is doing BIAB consider at least trying out the biabacus: I've...
[ read more... ]

Permalink
Tags for this post: blogger, woman, biab, brewer

A few weeks ago, I was contacted by Rex Slagel, owner of The Brew Bag. I had seen Rex on a Facebook brewing group or two, and knew that he had some sort of business involving brewing bags, but I'll be honest - "BIAB" has been a four letter word to me, so I had never really bothered to learn more about his venture.

You see, I've used a grain bag a few times in the past, and I had yet to have anything I would call a positive experience with one. Granted, my experiences were largely stovetop partial mash episodes, and I may have transferred negative emotions onto the poor bag from the messy splashing and poor temperature control I associate with the process. With that said, my plain Jane grain bag from Austin Homebrew has always been a pain to use - it's a nice, coarse mesh that makes cleanup a real chore (the grain bits seem impossible to fully clean out). I read tons of accounts of people who have great success with BIAB, but I love my three vessel setup with a cooler for a mash tun. Different strokes and all of that.

Back to Rex. You see, Rex had caught wind of the 2015 BrewUnited Challenge, and was interested in becoming a sponsor. In fact, he was interested in making The Brew Bag into one of our featured sponsors, as he donated six gift certificates worth a total of $240 to the competition....
[ read more... ]

Permalink
Tags for this post: brew, bag, fabric, filer, biab, brew in a bag, mash, cleanup

Three and a half years ago, I was a clueless newbie homebrewer who decided to start a blog to chronicle his new hobby. Looking back on those first few posts is truly cringe-inducing, such as when I suspected that I was some sort of brewing wizard, as I had coaxed a very high OG out of my extract (aside for newbie brewers reading this: extract yields a set amount of sugar, you can't screw it up. If your OG is high or low, it's because you didn't get a great mix of wort and your top off water). Or when I decided to change my original fermentation schedule and reduce the amount of time in secondary (I have long since abandoned secondaries altogether).

Along the way, I gained some wisdom - admittedly, most often through screwing things up - and my posts became a bit more coherent. I started applying my love of creating things with my interest in programming, and I wrote the first of my brewing utilities.

And so it went for some time. I got active on some homebrewing forums, eventually on the reddit homebrewing sub, and all was well with the world.

And then, one of my favorite hangouts seemed to get a lot less friendly. The forum seemed to shift its focus, and some of the decisions there felt designed to encourage certain major contributors to find other places to go. Everywhere I went, it seemed that there was some degree of...
[ read more... ]

Permalink
Tags for this post: homebrewdad, BrewUnited, homebrew, dad, brew, united, community

It's almost time for the official opening of registration for the 2015 BrewUnited Challenge (incidentally - we are now sanctioned by the BJCP [comp #204116] and sponsored by the AHA). If you missed the original announcement (and are wondering what exactly makes this competition any different from the typical garden variety brewing comp), you might want to check out that original announcement post. Of course, you should definitely keep your eyes open - when we open registration on July 1st, we will also post the full official rules, as well as other supplemental information about the competition.



In the meantime, though, I thought that it would be fun to talk prizes. I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that we have some of the best prize packages you'll see at almost any brewing competition around - particularly in a first year comp like ours!

For starters, we will be awarding some really nice medals to at least the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners for each of the three divisions. We will also give ribbons (if not medals) to 1st, 2nd, and 3rd for each style, as well. And, of course, the overall winner will receive a special medal.

That being said, medals are nice... but real brewing swag is something else, no? So, check it out.

One disclaimer: all prizes are subject to full participation from the sponsor in question. While...
[ read more... ]

Permalink
Tags for this post: prizes, prize, competition, brewing, comp, brew, winner, sponsor