INTO THE BREW The Essentials


What you can’t ignore when homebrewing By Sam Tierney


will be the first to admit that I am far from knowing every- thing about the brewing process, but in the short time that I have been making beer, both at home and professionally, I have learned some important lessons. Often when getting into homebrewing it’s tough to know what you need to stress about and what you can approach more casually. Here’s what you absolutely cannot overlook if you want to create great beers:


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Sam Tierney began his love affair with great beer while studying and traveling abroad in Europe during his junior year at UC Santa Barbara. He began homebrewing shortly after, and has since won multiple awards. Sam is a graduate of the Siebel Institute, a professional brewing school in Chicago, and was hired as a brewer for Firestone Walker in April.


Cleaning and Sanitation Everything must be disassembled and cleaned prior to


sanitizing. You can’t sanitize a dirty surface. For this, Pow- dered Brewery Wash (PBW) is your friend – soak, scrub with a non-abrasive pad or brush, then rinse with hot water. After cleaning, use iodophor or Starsan, your best options for sani- tizing, in proper concentrations and contact times. If you’ve done this right, don’t rinse with water – that’s another possible source of contamination. Remember the residue these sanitiz- ers leave behind has no negative effect on your beer. Think of the boil as the great divide in brewing: anything involved prior either doesn’t need to be sanitized or will be sanitized by the heat, while anything after must be sanitized properly.


Yeast Handling


First, if you are using dry yeast, properly re-hydrate it per the manufacturer’s instructions! Pre-boiled tap water or sealed bottled water is the way to go. Not re-hydrating your yeast will lead to a high percentage of dead cells when you are pitching, resulting in under-pitching and possible off flavors. Second, when using liquid yeast, use an appropriate amount. Under ideal circumstances a pitchable package from either Wyeast or White Labs will work in a normal-strength beer just fine. However, we don’t always brew normal-strength beers, and less commonly in ideal circumstances; you cannot guarantee proper handling before purchasing, especially if it was shipped to you. Yeast starters allow you to propagate the correct amount of healthy, eager yeast. The Mr. Malty Pitching Rate Calculator is a great tool that every homebrewer should use to correctly size your starter, or how much slurry to use if you are repitching your yeast from a previous batch.


O2


Your yeast is going to need plenty of oxygen in order to synthesize sterols for appropriate growth. The best method is pure oxygen delivered via a sintered stone – one minute is all you need. An aquarium pump delivering filtered air through a stone is also good but just takes longer. The shake-method will make decent beer but will never get the oxygen levels that your yeast needs to perform optimally.


Fermentation Temperature Control


Every yeast strain works over a range of temperatures, but dialing in a precise temperature will give you much more control over the consistency and flavor of your beer. Many strains produce excessive esters and fusel alcohols at higher temperatures, or do not sufficiently clean up their undesirable byproducts if temperature drops during fermentation. The most basic system for cooling a carboy or bucket is the swamp cooler setup, which makes use of the thermal mass of water and evaporative cooling to insulate your beer from higher atmospheric temperatures. It’s cheap and works reasonably well, though can be problematic as it can bring the temperature down after the peak of yeast activity. You have to monitor fermentation and take your beer out of the cooler before the temperature drops.


Another common but more advanced method: the use of temperature controllers, which work with a spare refrigera- tor and can be purchased at homebrew shops for less than $100. Use a thermowell that lets you get the controller’s probe into your beer – that way you get the most accurate tempera- ture reading and dial in your fridge temperature. Without a thermowell you can still get accurate readings by taping the probe to the side of your fermenter and then insulating it from the ambient temperature in your fridge. If cost is no obstacle, the ultimate solution is the temperature-controlled conical fer- menter, which has the benefits of yeast dumping and harvest- ing off the cone.


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Homebrewer Kelsey McNair’s conical fermenter Be patient


Recipes will often read something like, “1 week primary fermentation, 2 week secondary fermentation and then bottle” but it is important to keep in mind that your are dealing with a living process that doesn’t have a calendar to reference. Some yeasts like the Belgian Saison strain from White Labs can take several weeks to fully finish fermenting. Most normal yeasts will be done in about a week. You are basically looking for two processes to finish before packaging: fermentation and maturation.


Fermentation is over when the gravity of your beer stops drop- ping, (use a constant hydrometer reading over a couple days to determine this) but maturation often takes a few more days and is the action of the yeast reabsorbing fermentation byproducts. If you want clear beer, you need to give the yeast time to flocculate and settle out (and remember that some strains are much more floccu- lent than others). Crash-cooling your beer down to almost freezing will greatly speed up this process. Just be sure not to chill your beer before maturation is complete because this can lead to off-flavors; a couple days cold or a week or so warm is usually fine. The generally accepted limit for primary fermentation is one month.


Avoiding Oxidation Most regular beers will not require a secondary fermenter trans-


fer. If you have a high-alcohol beer that you want to bulk age, are aging the beer with additional ingredients, or want to harvest yeast quickly, transferring to a secondary is fine. Just be sure to avoid oxygen introduction as best as possible by purging your secondary vessel and transfer lines with carbon dioxide. Otherwise, just trans- fer your beer without splashing or bubbles. When bottling or keg- ging, the same oxygen-avoiding techniques should be used. Oxygen is your worst enemy once fermentation has begun. It manifests itself as papery or wet cardboard aromas and flavors and sometimes a dry, cottony mouthfeel. Unfortunately, you will always have some level of oxidation, and even commercial brewers struggle to avoid it. My number one recommendation is to store your beer cold and drink it fresh, as oxidation gets worse over time and at higher temperatures.


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