Beer brewers of MeFi, hop(e) me!
July 17, 2019 1:26 AM Subscribe
I need to learn about craft beer brewing, both from an industrial perspective and a small batch homebrew perspective for a paper at University. I promise I’m not trying to get you all to do my homework for me, but I would appreciate a shove in the right direction. I’ve looked in the Ask MeFi archives and have found some good resources (Home Brew Talk, How to Brew, The Brewery) but I also think given the specific situation there may be other, more suitable (academic possibly?) resources for me out there.
I’m currently working toward a Food Science degree and one of my papers this semester involves a craft beer brewing group assignment. This assignment has two components. Firstly, the assignment itself which is judged on both submitted written materials (flow process diagrams, recipe, technical lab report, research etc.) and the following of correct procedures including proper sanitary practices. Secondly, there is a competition associated with it, wherein our beers will be judged and a prize awarded to the team with the best scores. Yeah, I’d like to win the competition because why not? And also free money, so I’m very motivated to get this right. However, even if the beer tastes gross, as long as the write-up and procedures are correct the outcome of the competition has no bearing on the assignment mark.
The main challenge for us as a group is that none of us like or drink beer for various reasons (health, cultural expectations, also it’s just not real tasty most of the time?) so we are truly starting from scratch with this. We have been provided with a brief and it seems that the onus is on us (heh) to come to grips with beer production and that there will be very little info coming from our lecturer. We are good with general fermentation concepts and have a basic idea of how alcoholic beverages are made (we have previously made ‘wine’ from grape juice, and yes it was awful) so it’s beer specific info we need.
We have been told that our beer can’t contain more than 10% abv, that the beer can only be made from grains and not malt extracts, that it will be bottled in 750 mL brown bottles and we need to make at least 20 L of it. We’ve been given a specific brew shop to go to so we can get a deal on ingredients and will definitely be making use of their expertise. We’ve got a limit of $50 for ingredients. All brewing equipment is supplied, which I assume includes materials to sanitise the equipment with. This will be occurring in a lab environment so we are probably limited by how much we can go and mess with our brew i.e. adding stuff at a later time.
Most of the beginner brewing info I have read so far talks about malt extracts, so that is not super helpful. I now understand that only using grain will restrict the types of beer we can make in general, e.g. no stouts. I like the idea of incorporating fruit, spices and herbs but we’ve been warned that in past years people have tended to go overboard esp. with fruit and it resulted in bad tasting beers.
So, now you’ve read the very extended preamble, this is what I am ideally after:
- Suggestions of a style that might work well with our limits that you think won’t be too complicated for a bunch of beer-numpties, so I can start researching recipes
- Suggestions of online resources including videos/documentaries or books I could get from the library that are basic and lay this stuff out. We don’t have a tonne of lead time on this, so I’d rather not endlessly pour over forums reading posts with people arguing with each other over the absolute right way to do something, I know you get what I mean
- Any rookie mistakes we should maybe watch out for?
- Any resources that deal well with the commercial/industrial side of beer brewing, and that you don’t have to be well versed in brewing already to understand
Thank you so much for reading this, and in advance for any advice you can provide.
I’m currently working toward a Food Science degree and one of my papers this semester involves a craft beer brewing group assignment. This assignment has two components. Firstly, the assignment itself which is judged on both submitted written materials (flow process diagrams, recipe, technical lab report, research etc.) and the following of correct procedures including proper sanitary practices. Secondly, there is a competition associated with it, wherein our beers will be judged and a prize awarded to the team with the best scores. Yeah, I’d like to win the competition because why not? And also free money, so I’m very motivated to get this right. However, even if the beer tastes gross, as long as the write-up and procedures are correct the outcome of the competition has no bearing on the assignment mark.
The main challenge for us as a group is that none of us like or drink beer for various reasons (health, cultural expectations, also it’s just not real tasty most of the time?) so we are truly starting from scratch with this. We have been provided with a brief and it seems that the onus is on us (heh) to come to grips with beer production and that there will be very little info coming from our lecturer. We are good with general fermentation concepts and have a basic idea of how alcoholic beverages are made (we have previously made ‘wine’ from grape juice, and yes it was awful) so it’s beer specific info we need.
We have been told that our beer can’t contain more than 10% abv, that the beer can only be made from grains and not malt extracts, that it will be bottled in 750 mL brown bottles and we need to make at least 20 L of it. We’ve been given a specific brew shop to go to so we can get a deal on ingredients and will definitely be making use of their expertise. We’ve got a limit of $50 for ingredients. All brewing equipment is supplied, which I assume includes materials to sanitise the equipment with. This will be occurring in a lab environment so we are probably limited by how much we can go and mess with our brew i.e. adding stuff at a later time.
Most of the beginner brewing info I have read so far talks about malt extracts, so that is not super helpful. I now understand that only using grain will restrict the types of beer we can make in general, e.g. no stouts. I like the idea of incorporating fruit, spices and herbs but we’ve been warned that in past years people have tended to go overboard esp. with fruit and it resulted in bad tasting beers.
So, now you’ve read the very extended preamble, this is what I am ideally after:
- Suggestions of a style that might work well with our limits that you think won’t be too complicated for a bunch of beer-numpties, so I can start researching recipes
- Suggestions of online resources including videos/documentaries or books I could get from the library that are basic and lay this stuff out. We don’t have a tonne of lead time on this, so I’d rather not endlessly pour over forums reading posts with people arguing with each other over the absolute right way to do something, I know you get what I mean
- Any rookie mistakes we should maybe watch out for?
- Any resources that deal well with the commercial/industrial side of beer brewing, and that you don’t have to be well versed in brewing already to understand
Thank you so much for reading this, and in advance for any advice you can provide.
Extract and Grain Brewers certainly brew stouts. Extract brewing uses some grains usually for flavor and coloring anyway in my experience. Eg. Extract/base malt for the sugars to ferment and dark malt for the color & flavor.
Most likely you will be limited to ales, lagers typically require more specialized equipment for temperature control to keep it chilly during fermentation and take longer to ferment.
Find out what equipment will be used for the brewing, fermenting, and where the fermentation vessel will be stored. All grain takes equipment not needed for extract brewing for example.
If you have no control over the temperature your fermentation occurs at, that should be take into consideration when a style/recipe is chosen. Homebrewers with a typical fermentation bucket/carboy left in the basement may only be able to brew when it's colder out for example, while breweries have glycol jacketed fermentation vessels with precise temperature control that can be adjusted as needed for the recipe.
Homebrew shop employees are an invaluable source of information on brewing, I would make use of that resource before buying anything.
Are there any flavor profiles that people might like? Might help you decide between a dark stout or pale ale, etc. And yeah I wouldn't go flavored, trying get the flavor concentration correct takes experimentation. The big breweries all have small pilot brewing systems to dial in recipes, before using the much larger production system.
posted by TheAdamist at 4:15 AM on July 17, 2019
Most likely you will be limited to ales, lagers typically require more specialized equipment for temperature control to keep it chilly during fermentation and take longer to ferment.
Find out what equipment will be used for the brewing, fermenting, and where the fermentation vessel will be stored. All grain takes equipment not needed for extract brewing for example.
If you have no control over the temperature your fermentation occurs at, that should be take into consideration when a style/recipe is chosen. Homebrewers with a typical fermentation bucket/carboy left in the basement may only be able to brew when it's colder out for example, while breweries have glycol jacketed fermentation vessels with precise temperature control that can be adjusted as needed for the recipe.
Homebrew shop employees are an invaluable source of information on brewing, I would make use of that resource before buying anything.
Are there any flavor profiles that people might like? Might help you decide between a dark stout or pale ale, etc. And yeah I wouldn't go flavored, trying get the flavor concentration correct takes experimentation. The big breweries all have small pilot brewing systems to dial in recipes, before using the much larger production system.
posted by TheAdamist at 4:15 AM on July 17, 2019
Since you probably won't have fermentation temperature control, I think I'd aim for a saison. The yeast is extremely tolerant to higher temperatures and, in fact, benefits from higher temperatures. Kveik yeast is also very tolerant to high temps.
Saisons also do very well with bottle conditioning for carbonation.
If you can control fermentation temperature, many other styles are possible, but not all will win a flavor contest among non beer enthusiasts. A lot of people don't like dark beer, even though dark isn't a flavor, so aim for lighter colors unless you're serving in opaque cups. I'd probably go with a pale ale, Belgian wit, blonde, or American wheat beer. California common might be a good way to go, too. Ideally you want some bitterness and late addition hops to help mask the off-flavors that might arise from less-than-ideal brewing technique. IPAs, especially New England IPAs, are particularly susceptible to oxidation and are more difficult to bottle properly. Natural carbonation in the bottles will eat some of the oxygen, but it's hard to prevent quickly losing the flavors and adding off-flavors with those styles.
If you can control water chemistry and mash temperature, all-grain is the way to go. If not, I don't see a harm in brewing an extract beer. It's very possible to brew perfectly drinkable beer with extracts. Using extracts will increase your price a bit, though will reduce the amount of equipment needed and time to brew.
Brulosophy tend to have some great recipes for their exBEERiments. Their results make a lot of homebrewers scratch their heads, but their testing environment might be closest to what you're going to experience at the end of the project. When I brewed their recipe for their Amarillo hops test, the resulting beer (in bottles rather than kegs) was by far my most loved beer among those I served it to. Add the final dry hops during high krausen.
One last thing, and it's something that I screwed up for my first few batches...wait until the wort is a little below your target fermentation temperature before pitching the yeast. I was always in a rush to pitch the yeast as soon as the wort got cooled down to temperatures that wouldn't kill the yeast. Now, I seal up the fermentation vessel after initial cooling and place it in my temp-controlled ferm chamber for 6 or 8 hours before pitching the yeast. My beer is now much better than ever before.
Lastly, I'm not sure what you're planning to use to plan your recipe. BeerSmith is one of the best tools, but it will use up more than half of your budget. The free, online KegNinja has a similar recipe building tool that will help estimate gravity, color, IBU, etc. SommBeer's recent 4-part blog series "Recipe Design for Brewers...Simplified" is a great overview of what each ingredient does to a finished beer. It's a little hard to find the links to all parts, but click around the links at the bottom of each post and you'll find them.
I now understand that only using grain will restrict the types of beer we can make in general, e.g. no stouts.
The "no stouts" bit doesn't doesn't make sense to me. What other than grain (and hops, water, and yeast) would go into it? I admit I haven't brewed a stout before, but just quickly googling some recipes, I found this one and plenty others that are all grain with no odd ingredients. American Light Lager recipes do often contain additional adjuncts such as rice and corn, if that's forbidden. Some Belgian styles also involve adding additional sugars to the wort before fermentation, so in case that isn't allowed, stay away from those.
posted by msbrauer at 6:05 AM on July 17, 2019 [1 favorite]
Saisons also do very well with bottle conditioning for carbonation.
If you can control fermentation temperature, many other styles are possible, but not all will win a flavor contest among non beer enthusiasts. A lot of people don't like dark beer, even though dark isn't a flavor, so aim for lighter colors unless you're serving in opaque cups. I'd probably go with a pale ale, Belgian wit, blonde, or American wheat beer. California common might be a good way to go, too. Ideally you want some bitterness and late addition hops to help mask the off-flavors that might arise from less-than-ideal brewing technique. IPAs, especially New England IPAs, are particularly susceptible to oxidation and are more difficult to bottle properly. Natural carbonation in the bottles will eat some of the oxygen, but it's hard to prevent quickly losing the flavors and adding off-flavors with those styles.
If you can control water chemistry and mash temperature, all-grain is the way to go. If not, I don't see a harm in brewing an extract beer. It's very possible to brew perfectly drinkable beer with extracts. Using extracts will increase your price a bit, though will reduce the amount of equipment needed and time to brew.
Brulosophy tend to have some great recipes for their exBEERiments. Their results make a lot of homebrewers scratch their heads, but their testing environment might be closest to what you're going to experience at the end of the project. When I brewed their recipe for their Amarillo hops test, the resulting beer (in bottles rather than kegs) was by far my most loved beer among those I served it to. Add the final dry hops during high krausen.
One last thing, and it's something that I screwed up for my first few batches...wait until the wort is a little below your target fermentation temperature before pitching the yeast. I was always in a rush to pitch the yeast as soon as the wort got cooled down to temperatures that wouldn't kill the yeast. Now, I seal up the fermentation vessel after initial cooling and place it in my temp-controlled ferm chamber for 6 or 8 hours before pitching the yeast. My beer is now much better than ever before.
Lastly, I'm not sure what you're planning to use to plan your recipe. BeerSmith is one of the best tools, but it will use up more than half of your budget. The free, online KegNinja has a similar recipe building tool that will help estimate gravity, color, IBU, etc. SommBeer's recent 4-part blog series "Recipe Design for Brewers...Simplified" is a great overview of what each ingredient does to a finished beer. It's a little hard to find the links to all parts, but click around the links at the bottom of each post and you'll find them.
I now understand that only using grain will restrict the types of beer we can make in general, e.g. no stouts.
The "no stouts" bit doesn't doesn't make sense to me. What other than grain (and hops, water, and yeast) would go into it? I admit I haven't brewed a stout before, but just quickly googling some recipes, I found this one and plenty others that are all grain with no odd ingredients. American Light Lager recipes do often contain additional adjuncts such as rice and corn, if that's forbidden. Some Belgian styles also involve adding additional sugars to the wort before fermentation, so in case that isn't allowed, stay away from those.
posted by msbrauer at 6:05 AM on July 17, 2019 [1 favorite]
When I was an active home brewer, Brewing Classic Styles was my go-to reference for recipes. It also has a good basic overview of the brewing process. The authors are award winning brewers, and discuss the difficulty of the various recipes.
I agree with others that you’ll want to select an ale rather than a lager. There’s no reason you couldn’t brew a stout - it’s just a matter of using more darkly roasted barley with an appropriate recipe.
Pay attention to what kind of temperature control you’ll have available during fermentation. Some styles do ok in more or less room temp, some need a cooler temp.
Msbrauer’s advice about being patient and getting your wort cooled all the way down before pitching yeast is seconded. I always found cooling the wort to the the most annoying/nerve wracking part of the process.
posted by jeoc at 6:45 AM on July 17, 2019 [1 favorite]
I agree with others that you’ll want to select an ale rather than a lager. There’s no reason you couldn’t brew a stout - it’s just a matter of using more darkly roasted barley with an appropriate recipe.
Pay attention to what kind of temperature control you’ll have available during fermentation. Some styles do ok in more or less room temp, some need a cooler temp.
Msbrauer’s advice about being patient and getting your wort cooled all the way down before pitching yeast is seconded. I always found cooling the wort to the the most annoying/nerve wracking part of the process.
posted by jeoc at 6:45 AM on July 17, 2019 [1 favorite]
I am not a brewer but my husband (not on Metafilter) is. Two resources that I know he found tremendously useful starting out, when he was just borrowing and adapting my wine-making equipment:
- The Brulosophy podcast - the episodes I've listened to on road trips consist of a series of experiments where similar beers were brewed with only one variable changed between them and then subjected to blind taste tests. It helped him decide what things were really important to worry about if you are specific about your final flavour (like, mineral profile of your water), and what things weren't such a big deal.
- An app/website called Brewer's Friend. From what I've observed secondhand, this is almost like a Ravelry for homebrewers? Helps calculate alcohol percentages from specific gravity readings, has people share their recipes and tips and whatnot.
posted by Kurichina at 6:52 AM on July 17, 2019
- The Brulosophy podcast - the episodes I've listened to on road trips consist of a series of experiments where similar beers were brewed with only one variable changed between them and then subjected to blind taste tests. It helped him decide what things were really important to worry about if you are specific about your final flavour (like, mineral profile of your water), and what things weren't such a big deal.
- An app/website called Brewer's Friend. From what I've observed secondhand, this is almost like a Ravelry for homebrewers? Helps calculate alcohol percentages from specific gravity readings, has people share their recipes and tips and whatnot.
posted by Kurichina at 6:52 AM on July 17, 2019
Knowable magazine is a publication of the Annual Reviews set of journals; here's one of their articles on beer. Also the American Chemistry Society has a paywalled webinar about brewing
posted by pH Indicating Socks at 7:45 AM on July 17, 2019
posted by pH Indicating Socks at 7:45 AM on July 17, 2019
Using fruit is a bit advanced for a first brew imo, but certain hops can impart a fruity flavour. I’d suggest you brew what is called an American Pale Ale. Use a hop like Citra for a hint of tropical fruit flavour, and dry hop a few days before bottling to punch up the fruitiness. I would typically have a grain bill that’s like 90-95% pale 2-row malt and 5-10% of a light crystal/caramel malt(10-20). Safale US-05 is a very forgiving dry yeast for this style (and most others).
The website Brewers Friend is your friend. You can design your recipe on there and twiddle with the numbers.
Good luck and have fun!
posted by rodlymight at 7:57 AM on July 17, 2019
The website Brewers Friend is your friend. You can design your recipe on there and twiddle with the numbers.
Good luck and have fun!
posted by rodlymight at 7:57 AM on July 17, 2019
If you have a home brew shop in your area you should drop in and tell them what you want to know and do. If they are anything like the shops I have been to, they will love the opportunity to introduce you to the subject.
posted by Midnight Skulker at 8:31 AM on July 17, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Midnight Skulker at 8:31 AM on July 17, 2019 [1 favorite]
I too suggest Brewer's Friend. They even have a recipe creator which is very helpful when trying to reach ABV, IBU and other targets. Looks like you have many people above with good advice, but memail me if you need more. Been brewing for about 20 years.
posted by terrapin at 9:07 AM on July 17, 2019
posted by terrapin at 9:07 AM on July 17, 2019
There are experienced, dedicated homebrewers pretty much everywhere right now, and they are almost always generous with their knowledge and will help you out. A vast trove of information and guidance. I'd search local yelp for a homebrew supplies store and ask therein for contacts with brewers who might help. Or go to the best-stocked local beer bar at off-hour, e.g. mid afternoon and find the bartender who really knows beer (some won't) and ask for a referral to a smart local homebrewer.
posted by Quisp Lover at 9:29 AM on July 17, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Quisp Lover at 9:29 AM on July 17, 2019 [1 favorite]
Saison for sure since you don't have temp control. Simply the simplest.
An odd book that might be worth your while, if you want history and recipes and science, is Radical Brewing by Mosher.
He's a mainstay author with more traditional books under his belt but I particularly enjoyed that book and have brewed a few of the things based upon his recipes and all turned out good to great. The one that turned the most heads was a braggot (read: beer brewed with honey) but was high abv which can be a challenge for newbie brewers, plus it benefits from as much aging as you can afford.
Also go to the local homebrew store and talk to the folks there and they can and will point you to the nearest brew club. You should go an help one of those folks with an all grain brew and learn and take notes. That will pay more dividends than anything we type or recommend in print or digital media.
posted by RolandOfEld at 10:22 AM on July 17, 2019
An odd book that might be worth your while, if you want history and recipes and science, is Radical Brewing by Mosher.
He's a mainstay author with more traditional books under his belt but I particularly enjoyed that book and have brewed a few of the things based upon his recipes and all turned out good to great. The one that turned the most heads was a braggot (read: beer brewed with honey) but was high abv which can be a challenge for newbie brewers, plus it benefits from as much aging as you can afford.
Also go to the local homebrew store and talk to the folks there and they can and will point you to the nearest brew club. You should go an help one of those folks with an all grain brew and learn and take notes. That will pay more dividends than anything we type or recommend in print or digital media.
posted by RolandOfEld at 10:22 AM on July 17, 2019
Response by poster: Thank you so much, everyone, for your ideas and suggestions. I'll take this to my group and we'll research the things you've mentioned.
And yes, about 10 mins after I posted this I realised my mistake about what beers I could brew from all-grain. One of the symptoms of trying to understand people's discussions about something you have no idea about, hah.
I have a lab on Friday so I'll check with my lecturer about what equipment we will have and fermentation conditions etc. It definitely seems like that will heavily influence the beer styles I can realistically attempt, so thanks for pointing that out. Happily, I found out today in one of my micro papers we will be learning about industrial beer making so hopefully that will make this easier.
Thanks again!
posted by BeeJiddy at 5:39 PM on July 17, 2019
And yes, about 10 mins after I posted this I realised my mistake about what beers I could brew from all-grain. One of the symptoms of trying to understand people's discussions about something you have no idea about, hah.
I have a lab on Friday so I'll check with my lecturer about what equipment we will have and fermentation conditions etc. It definitely seems like that will heavily influence the beer styles I can realistically attempt, so thanks for pointing that out. Happily, I found out today in one of my micro papers we will be learning about industrial beer making so hopefully that will make this easier.
Thanks again!
posted by BeeJiddy at 5:39 PM on July 17, 2019
I would suggest picking a style of wheat beer for your recipe. They're more forgiving in general and don't take overly long to brew compared to other styles that may require secondary conditioning or extra filtering. It's also going to be more palatable to the average drinker than a saison will be.
Definitely talk to the folks at your local homebrew shop, and ask if there is a brewing club in the area. There probably is. Visit the next meeting and they will be happy toevangelize educate you on best practices and anything else you'd like to know. Homebrewers on average love talking about making beer almost as much as they enjoy drinking it.
posted by kyleg at 8:34 PM on July 17, 2019
Definitely talk to the folks at your local homebrew shop, and ask if there is a brewing club in the area. There probably is. Visit the next meeting and they will be happy to
posted by kyleg at 8:34 PM on July 17, 2019
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Pick a simple recipe, probably for an ale.
The Reddit for homebrewing has some professionals and plenty of amateurs with decent knowledge.
Professor Charles Bamforth has a great set of lectures on brewing that is sold by The Great Courses or one of its competitors; your local library may have the CDs.
MeFite drewbage is a VERY knowledgeable beer-drinker and beer-thinker.
posted by wenestvedt at 3:29 AM on July 17, 2019