Beer Styles for the Novice Your Brew Day Sanitation

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1 Concepts for Novice Brewers Curtis Eulberg 4/2013 Beer Beer is a fermented beverage made most commonly from water, malted barley, hops, and yeast. These items when skillfully combined with proper time and temperature will yield a sublime substance that has been around for 10,000 years. This overview covers a few of the concepts that might be new to the novice brewer. Styles for the Novice Any style of beer can be made using extract ingredients. Malt companies have created a wide selection of both liquid and dry extracts for both ale and lager brewers. Ales can be fermented and stored at room temperature. Since they do not require any additional refrigeration (lagers), ales are typically the first choice for the novice. Your Brew Day Clean your kitchen well. It is important that your work area be free of debris. For safety, it is a good idea to keep pets and children away due to the hot liquids with which you ll be working. Have your recipe, equipment, and ingredients on hand. Using GOOD water is key to making good beer. If your city water is high in iron, sulfur, or is chlorinated, it is a good idea to use store bought spring water. Sanitation When wort is being chilled, prior to fermentation, it is at its most fragile state. Sanitation of all equipment and surfaces is important to making good beer. Just as yeast will feed on beer sugars, bacteria can also do the same.

2 The result is spoiled beer. Following a few standard procedures will insure good results every time. Time and Temperature Your recipe will be structured with a series of times and temperatures. These are broken into the following stages: The Steep: Specialty malts are steeped in brew water for 20 minutes at 158 F. The steeped malts are then drained and discarded. The Boil: Additional fresh brew water is then added to the water from the steep. Malt extract is also added and the whole solution is brought to a boil. Hop Schedule: Hops are then added at specific times according to the recipe being used. A typical boil time is 60 minutes. Wort Chilling: After the boil has concluded, the solution, now called wort, needs to be chilled rapidly to a temperature that is suitable to fermentation. Ale fermentation temperature is typically 70 F. Fermentation Schedule Fermentation is broken down into three phases: primary, secondary, and conditioning. Primary: (1-2 weeks) Active fermentation, wort becomes beer, most of the sugars are consumed by the yeast F Secondary: The finished beer is moved to a secondary vessel for 1 week or more depending on style F. Conditioning: The beer has carbon dioxide added in either a keg or bottle. Storage temperatures depend on style and equipment.

3 Measurements: Gravity is how home brewers keep track of fermentation. Starting Gravity (SG) is measured before fermentation starts. Finishing Gravity (FG) is the target measurement for the end of fermentation. The SG and FG are important for calculating how strong the beer is (alcohol by volume), and whether fermentation is done. Successful Fermentation Tips Yeast can be fickle little creatures, be sure to follow the manufacturers instructions. It is also vital that air is introduced to the wort before the yeast is pitched. The easiest way to do this is by pouring your chilled wort directly from your boil kettle into your fermentation bucket. This aeration is vital to getting a good start to your primary fermentation. Bottles vs. Kegs (what bout them bubbles?) Brewers have two ways to add carbonation to finished beer. Forced carbonation uses bottled CO2 and soda kegs. CO2 is added to the beer under pressure at cold temperatures. Bottle priming works by adding a small amount of corn sugar to the beer which is then bottled. Residual yeast in the bottle consumes the sugar and carbonates the beer by giving off CO2. Bottle priming is by far the most economical way to add bubbles to the finished beer. Kegging is far less labor intensive, but the equipment is more of an investment. Beer Glossary (from How to Brew by John Palmer) Ale - A beer brewed from a top-fermenting yeast with a relatively short, warm fermentation. Alpha Acid Units (AAU) - A home brewing measurement of hops. Equal to the weight in ounces multiplied by the percent of alpha acids. Attenuation - The degree of conversion of sugar to alcohol and CO2. Beer - Any beverage made by fermenting a wort made from malted barley and seasoned with hops.

4 Cold Break - Proteins that coagulate and fall out of solution when the wort is rapidly cooled prior to pitching the yeast. Enzymes - Protein-based catalysts that affect specific biochemical reactions. Esters - Aromatic compounds formed from alcohols by yeast action. Typically smell fruity. Ethanol - The type of alcohol in beer formed by yeast from malt sugars. Fermentation - The total conversion of malt sugars to beer, defined here as three parts, adaptation, primary, and secondary. Flocculation - To cause to group together. In the case of yeast, it is the clumping and settling of the yeast out of solution. Hops - Hop vines are grown in cool climates and brewers make use of the cone-like flowers. The dried cones are available in pellets, plugs, or whole. Hot Break - Proteins that coagulate and fall out of solution during the wort boil. Gravity - Like density, gravity describes the concentration of malt sugar in the wort. The specific gravity of water is at 59 F. Typical beer worts range from before fermentation (Original Gravity). International Bittering Units (IBU) - A more precise unit for measuring hops. Equal to the AAU multiplied by factors for percent utilization, wort volume and wort gravity. Krausen (kroy-zen) - Used to refer to the foamy head that builds on top of the beer during fermentation. Also an advanced method of priming. Lactose - A nonfermentable sugar, lactose comes from milk and has historically been added to Stout, hence Milk Stout. Lager - A beer brewed from a bottom-fermenting yeast and given a long cool fermentation. Lauter - To strain or separate. Lautering acts to separate the wort from grain via filtering and sparging. Maltose - The preferred food of brewing yeast. Maltose consists of two glucose molecules joined by a 1-4 carbon bond.

5 Mash - The hot water steeping process that promotes enzymatic breakdown of the grist into soluble, fermentable sugars. Pitching - Term for adding the yeast to the fermenter. Primary Fermentation - The initial fermentation activity marked by the evolution of carbon dioxide and Krausen. Most of the total attenuation occurs during this phase. Priming - The method of adding a small amount of fermentable sugar prior to bottling to give the beer carbonation. Sanitize - To reduce microbial contaminants to insignificant levels. Secondary Fermentation - A period of settling and conditioning of the beer after primary fermentation and before bottling. Sparge - To sprinkle. To rinse the grainbed during lautering. Sterilize - To eliminate all forms of life, especially microorganisms, either by chemical or physical means. Trub (trub or troob) - The sediment at the bottom of the fermenter consisting of hot and cold break material, hop bits, and dead yeast. Wort (wart or wert) - The malt-sugar solution that is boiled prior to fermentation. Zymurgy - The science of brewing and fermentation. Moving Up to Mini Mash After you gain some familiarity with extract techniques, you can start to experiment with partial mash homebrewing. Partial Mash gives the brewer greater flexibility with recipes and ingredients. Specifically, it allows for the use of malts that need more time and temperature control. Kilned malts (Biscuit, Victory, Munich, Vienna) and Base malts (two row, six row) require temperatures between F, and times between min to convert their starches into fermentable sugars.

6 Mashtuns can take a variety of sizes and shapes. Ideally, the mashtun should be made of a material that can hold in heat such as a plastic cooler. A mesh bag can be used to make adding and removing the grains easy. The size of the vessel should be dictated by the amount of malt you ll be handling. The rule of thumb is 1.13 quarts of brew water for every pound of mash. So if your malt weight is 4 lbs. then, your mashtun will need to handle 4.52 quarts of liquid with some room left over for stirring. Mash Schedule refers to the time and temperatures that are used to make wort with certain characteristics. Advanced brewers will employ multiple step mashes. Mini mash brewers can get great results with just two steps. Mash In ( F, min) Water is heated to the correct temperature. You ll need to compensate for heat loss to both the mashtun, and the mash. A mash of 158 F will need water heated to 175 F. Everyone s equipment is different so practice makes perfect. Mash Out ( F, min) Water is again heated to the correct temperature, compensating for heat loss. After the Mash Out is over, the grain bag can be removed and drained. The sweet wort from the mashtun can then be added to the extract in the boil kettle. At this point the procedure is the same for extract and mini mash.