Homebrewer newsletter #4

Released on March, 1987 (Circulation: 144)

eZine lover (@eZine)

Published in

homebrewer newsletter

· 9 Apr 2024

First, I'd like to apologize for the lapse in brewsletter production. I was busy having wisdom teeth extracted, buying a house, moving, furnishing, building a wine cellar, etc., etc., (insert favorite excuse here.) Now that I think about it, trying to publish the brewsletter every month is a bit too ambitious. So let me predict the next issue's appearance in June, which gives me a little more time.

Over the last few months I have received many excellent articles for the brewsletter, and I hope you find them as useful and enjoyable as I did. To all the people who contributed articles: Thank you once again for your efforts.

In this issue

The Rotokeg saga continues
Lots of good stuff from readers
A funny thing happened on the way to the brewery...

Rotokeg: The Search for Spock

This will hopefully be the last installment in the continuing Rotokeg Saga. For those who tuned in late, here is a brief synopsis: A Rotokeg is a one-gallon plastic container for bottling beer. It has a pressure valve and simple tap and costs about $25. I got one last year and have been having problems getting it to work as expected. I experienced flat beer, fire-hose effect beer, and leaking beer. After determining that the keg was defective, the factory sent me a new one. As of the last newsletter, I had recently filled the Rotokeg, and it at least did not leak after several days of holding primed beer. Now for the performance results.

I filled my Rotokeg with "Cedarwood Celebration Ale" which is a strong, outrageously hoppy beer. The Rotokeg definitely imparts a "keg" type of texture to the beer, which I find enjoyable. The beer does not seem as carbonated as bottled beer, but still retains a good head and is not flat by any means. Overall, I'm pleased with the beer that comes out of the Rotokeg. However, I'm underjoyed about _how_ it comes out. The Rotokeg is simply not designed to be able to regulate the keg pressure with anything approaching accuracy. Either the beer dribbles out, or it spurts out with great force. If there isn't enough pressure, a CO2 cartidge is used to charge up the keg. Unfortunately, you must use the whole cartidge-there's no way to add just a little pressure. After this, the beer is under way too much pressure to be useful, so you must open the little escape valve to let some of the pressure out. You alternate opening the escape valve with opening the tap until the beer emerges at a reasonable rate.

Ultimately, the beer that does emerge is good, but the effort required is huge compared to the rewards. Yes, bottling is a pain too, but since the act of bottling has already been done in the dim past, it doesn't interfere with your enjoyment of the beer when you go to drink some. On the other hand, messing with the Rotokeg when you want some beer is a definite nuisance, and interferes with your enjoyment of the beer. It is for this reason that I can't wholeheartedly recommend the Rotokeg. If it cost much less than its $25 price, it might be worth a try. Be forewarned.

Stuff From Readers

This from: hpfcla!hplsdsb!hpcsma!davea (David A Allen)

Rotokeg Saga:
I've been using a 5 gallon Rotokeg for about three years now with pretty good success. Some thoughts on your problems:
The one gallon Rotokeg may be a little harder to control your beer-making process in because of the relatively small size. You may want to add the final fermenting sugar to your entire 5 gallons of wort _before_ transferring to the RotoKeg.
I've found the seals don't hold in pressure very well. A good fix is a very light film of vegetable oil on the seal surfaces before assembling the keg. (Kind of reminds me of putting a little oil on your oil filter before installing :-)
I'd be _very_ careful about charging your keg with a CO₂ cartridge--those little buggers have an amazing amount of pressure! I've found that a cartridge will pressurize my RotoKeg very nicely when it's about half empty (or half full, depending on your point of view), that is about 2 1/2 to 3 gallons of volume. The smaller RotoKeg would have a much smaller volume to fill, and may result in much higher/dangerous pressures. In general, I've found the natural carbonation of my beer will provide enough pressure for at least the first half of the keg.
Low Carbonation of Beer:
I'm not sure, but here's a SWAG:
From my high school chemistry course, I seem to remember that gases have a higher solubility at low temperatures. To prove this, run cold water into a glass and let it stand at room temperature. As the water warms, small bubbles are seen to collect on the inside of the glass. These bubbles are a result of the gas having a lower solubility at warmer temperatures.
For beer making, this would imply that you should ferment your beer under refrigeration to get higher levels of carbonation. I suspect that the big boys ferment under refrigeration for precisely this reason, as well as being able to control their processes more closely. If you try this, you may need to switch to bottom fermenting yeast and allow the beer to ferment longer.
One other possibility: The rate that a gas dissolves is a function of the surface area of the gas/liquid interface. A beer bottle has less than a square inch to offer; the RotoKeg is much larger. You may find your beers will come out much more carbonated from your RotoKeg.

A few tips I've picked up:
When adding hops, first wrap your hops in cheese cloth to create a "teabag". Eliminates trying to strain out the hops later and is much easier!
Try bottling in champagne bottles instead of beer bottles. Champagne bottles have three distinct advantages over beer bottles:
a) They are built to withstand higher pressures.
b) They are much more rugged and won't break in a stubborn capper.
c) Since they hold twice as much as a standard beer bottle, you only have to wash half as many bottles for a given batch!!
Dave Allen

[Thanks for your comments on the Rotokeg Saga- I think they shed some light on the subject. As for "gases have a higher solubility at low temperatures," this may be, but I don't think it's relevant for beer making. The idea of primary fermentation is not to carbonate the beer, but to convert sugars into alcohol. The secondary fermentation in homebrewing produces carbonation, and the amount of carbonation depends on the amount of priming sugar, and has nothing to do with primary fermentation temperatures, since the primary is not under pressure. The commercial brewers ferment cold mostly for reasons of taste and sanitation. They carbonate their beer artificially, so they don't need to try to dissolve more gas during fermentation. By the way, in the last newsletter I wasn't complaining about the amount of carbonation- I can't stand beers that have lots of carbonation. I liked the amount of carbonation, and was just wondering how it occured, since I used plenty of priming sugar. I've finally figured out now that all the books that recommend 3/4 cup sugar to prime a 5-gallon batch do not take into consideration the altitude here in Colorado. The elevation has an effect when you bake a cake, why shouldn't it when you bottle beer? Well, it does, and I now use only 1/2 cup sugar, and this results in a properly carbonated beer when opened in this vicinity.]

This from: Darryl Richman <ihnp4!sdcrdcf!ism780c!darryl>

How I Spent My Summer Vacation
By Darryl Richman
I recently spent a month vacationing in Europe and I thought you might enjoy hearing about some of my beer related experiences while there. I visited England, France, Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands during September and October. I would have liked to emulate Mr. Jackson by concentrating exclusively on beer, but I have less opportunity (and money!) to visit these places, so I could not spend all my time investigating. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy!
I spent three days with a family on their farm in Normandy, about 300 miles northwest of Paris. Hubert has been working their farm since he took over from his father. He has a small herd of cattle, and derives most of his income from the dairy products. But Normandy is also famous for the apples grown there, and every fall he harvests his and turns them into cidre'--hard apple cider. He presses and filters the juice and then lets it naturally ferment in his barn for nearly a month. Then he bottles it into old wine bottles and lets them age for as much as a year. I had cidre with dinner every night and it is comparable with beer in strength. Since Hubert relies only on nature, he has no idea what specific gravity he starts or ends with. It is fairly dry, with the sour and cidery flavors one might expect from wild yeasts, but his product is surprisingly uniform from year to year.
A month after the harvest a pair of locals come around with a portable `still and offer each farmer the opportunity to have some calvados made from their cidre'--for a cut, of course. The French government only allows each family to have 10 liters of calvados, but Hubert has significantly more in his barn. I enjoyed the calvados he helped his father make 30 years ago. Somewhat dark in color, an incredible perfume accompanied this 120 proof drink. The coast of Normandy is named for this famous drink, and originally it was derived from the name of a Spanish sailing ship, the Salvatore, that was heavily laden with this brandy and bound for home, when it sank in a storm.
In Germany I stayed with some friends just south of Munich and, of course, I visited Oktoberfest. One goes to Oktoberfest to have a good time, not to taste beers seriously. First of all, the beer only comes in liter steins; in the evening it is nearly impossible to get a seat in one of the beer tents (and there are six to try!); the Germans (well, Europeans in general) smoke like a house a-fire; and after a few liters, who can even see straight? So who wants to be serious? Also, it has become quite a tourist trap: 6.50dm for a liter and, by the way, it is well known that they get 120 steins to the 100 liter barrel. My friends likened it to Disneyland--one never goes there unless one has relatives from out-of-town to entertain. Even so, the Bavarians do know how to party!
Not to be outdone, the Stuttgarters like to prove that they also know how to have a good time. And because the Bad Canstatt Volksfest is less well known, it is less touristy and easier to get a seat in one of the beer tents. The service is faster, too. Not only do they have the carnival atmosphere of Munich, but a livestock show and a flea market as well. Whereas Munich has 6 breweries (Paulaner, Augustiner, Hacker-Pschorr, Hofbrauhaus, Spaten, and Lowenbrau), Stuttgart apparently has but three: Dinkel-Acker, Schwaben Brau, and Plochinger.
Although I don't sprechen Deutsch, I did manage to pick up one song in particular that was popular at both fests. This is because they seemed to sing it about every second or third song, and the sheer repetition of it forced it into my brain:
Ein Pros-it,
Ein Pros-it,
Gemuetlichkeit
Ein Pros-it,
Ein Pro-o--sit!
Ge-m-ue-t-lich-keit!!
Ein, Zwei, Drei, Schuess!
In Belgium I stayed at a chateau-cum-hotel south of Brussels and west of Waterloo. Although I was not able to tour any of the breweries, I didn't have to go farther than the basement bar where they stocked nearly twenty different beers, 4 of them vam 't vas (from the vat). Many didn't appear in my (well worn) Pocket Guide to Beer, including Oud Hoegaards and Cuve'e. Of course I had to have a Chimay, Orval, Duvel, and Westmalle Dubbel and Trippel. Yum! For every beer they had a distinct glass! The Belgians are truly proud of their brewing heritage--nearly every cafe, bar, and restaurant has a beer list prominently posted.
Which is in direct contrast to the Dutch, who, in general, offer ``beer'' and ``beer in a bottle''. In Amsterdam this is either Heineken or Amstel. A glass of beer, which is only 25cl big, is poured so that some of the head overflows, but at least a fourth of the glass remains filled with foam. The bartender scrapes a plastic knife over the top of the glass to help any recalcitrant bubbles into the tray. On the positive side, the Heineken bottles are expiration dated and the beer did seem fresher to me, although I don't particularly like Heiniken.
I did have the opportunity to tour De Roskam, a traditional Dutch brewery from the Noord-Brabant district, which is just across the border from Belgium. Since the brewery was formerly attached to an inn and is no longer in service, I had to imagine the brewmaster going about his tasks. The brewery dates from the 1800's and has a capacity for about 100 gallons. All operations from gram to cask were performed in this small building. There is a tiny room used for germinating the grain, and a second for kilning the malt. An oven provides the heat needed to mash and boil, and also serves for a bakery. On top of the oven is a copper that was used to heat mash water and later boil the wort. A spillway leads to the lauter tun, which is built into the floor. A pipe leads from beneath the lauter tun up to the rafters where there are large, shallow, wooden pans that serve as holding tanks. After the lautering was finished, the pans were drained back into the copper and the wort boiled. Then through the lauter tun and back into the pans, where the beer cooled (and became inoculated). Another room contained an open fermenter, and the final room held casks while they were aging. This compact brewery fit into a building that is perhaps 40 by 25 feet.
I saved the best for last: I took the tour of Samuel Smith's brewery in Tadcaster. In case you've been wondering what that funny, 5 lobed Sam Smith's symbol is, it's the Rose of York. (Actually, the Rose of York is the outside portion--a white rose; the inside is the red rose of Lancaster. Ever since the two noble families had a marriage and settled their differences they've used the two roses superimposed.) The tour begins in the Angel and White Horse pub right next door.
Sam Smith's has just built the newest brewery in Tadcaster next to The Old Brewery. They are brewing Ayinger lager under license in the new, separate building. Sam's still employs coopers (and follows the long traditions involved in the cooperage trade) to make and repair their barrels, using no metal kegs. There are two artesian wells on the premises, one of which has been in constant use since the brewery's founding in 1769. Although they claim that this water is perfect for brewing, I did notice some bags of calcium chloride in their storage room. Perhaps it is more perfect sometimes and less perfect others?
They use a traditional infusion mash with a combination of Kent grown hops and a strain of yeast that has been constant since 1898. But the most interesting aspect of their technique is the famous (but ill-defined, in books I've read) ``Yorkshire Squares'' in which they brew. A Yorkshire Square can be described as one open-topped, slate-walled cube lying above a closed slate cube with a hole communicating between them. The cubes are perhaps 10 feet on a side and the hole is about 2 or 3 feet in diameter. The sides of the lower cube are strung with copper tubing.
After the wort is boiled for an hour and a half, it is brought into a square. The lower cube is filled to the hole. Cold water from the well is pumped through the tubing to bring the wort to the proper temperature, and then the yeast is pitched. The primary fermentation goes on for 5 days, during which a mighty foam head fills the upper cube. The ferment is held to the proper temperature by controlling the flow of water through the tubing. Occasionally beer is pumped from near the bottom of the square to the top, to rouse the yeast. Before the head falls completely, the beer is removed from below and casked.
I must recommend visiting Europe if you want to really taste their beers at their best. Over and over again I was surprised by the clean, fresh flavor that all of the beer had. Or perhaps I was just carried away by the good times. All the same, the effects are irreproducible here. Even if you have a local retailer that tries to handle his beer properly, it just can't be as good as if you are drinking it down the street from the brewery!

This from: Darryl Richman <hpfcla!ihnp4!sdcrdcf!ism780c!darryl>

As regards the discussion in Brewsletter 3 about glass v. plastic carboys: The bottled water companies out here in LA switched to plastic some time ago. The bottles explicitly state that they are not to be filled with anything but water. However, I brew in them all the time; they seem to work just fine. And I don't have to worry about scratching them because after I've used one, I rinse it out and then let the water company take it back to be refilled. So each time I start out with a new carboy.
I have noticed that I get clearer beers if I use a two stage fermentation a la blow-by: I set up a blow-by and do a primary ferment in it. When the head falls, I siphon into another carboy. This leaves a lot less junk at the bottom when I go to bottle. Also, there is less stuff to stir up when I lift the carboy into its siphoning position.

This from: hpfcla!hplabs!ames!rutgers!mordor!solaria!solaria!berry

Re: Additives (finings)
I have had good luck in using bentonite (a finely divided inert clay) to clear mead. The batch of mead I made when my son was a newborn (he's 4 1/2 now) is clear as a bell, has thrown no noticeable sediment and is still aging nicely. Honey is not a 'complete' food for yeastie-beasties, and *needs* some additives. I used the juice of an orange and some 'yeast nutrient'. (I know it's not beer but it *is* brewing!)
Re: Mr. Mellby's "What is Beer"
His fnord comments on Lite Beer explain a lot of fnord things I was fnord wondering about....
Re: Bottle Washing
For washing carboys, when I remodeled my kitchen I made sure to put in one of those extensible sprayer hoses in the sink. It's wonderful!
It's marvelous!
Re: Plastic Fermenters vs. Glass
If some poor misguided soul (doubtless an unknowing dupe of the Illuminati conspiracy) insists on using plastic fermenters, at least be sure to get "Food Grade" plastic containers approved by the FDA. They are certified not to have any of the bizarre solvents that will leak out into your brew and give you cancer, or at least a nasty hangover everyone will unjustly attribute to your brew. If a container has been used for packing food before it is most likely "Food Grade".
Contribution:
When brewing, I was always nervous about the cooling off period between the boil and pitching the wort. Since my wife is a microbiologist, she was even more nervous about the long time the wort spends at the ideal bacterial incubation temperature. If you are not following this, bacteria flourish at temperatures in the 80's and 90's, but yeast dies if it gets that hot. After boiling the hops and grains in the wort it must be cooled off before the yeast can be added to start fermentation.
Well, I had read about 'wort chillers' in various places and was reasonably handy, so I decided to build one. I went to my local Ace hardware store and bought about twenty feet of quarter-inch refrigeration tubing (made of solid copper), twelve feet of 3/8 inch Tygon tubing, and two hose clamps. I left the copper tubing in the coil it came in, split the Tygon into two halves and attached one half to each end of the copper coil with the hose clamps. I added a shut-off-the-flow-by-squeezing-the-tube gadget and was ready to go.
After the boil was done and we had sparged into the 8 gallon stoneware crock we use, I put the crockful of hot wort up on the kitchen counter. The copper coil went into the sink, with one end in the crock and the other in our glass carboy. I filled the sink with cold water and started the siphon going. (*DON'T* do it by sucking with your mouth; the human mouth is a hotbed of intriguing pathogenic bacteria) Then it was merely a matter of monitoring the temperature in the sink and adding more cold water when it got above 70 degrees F. The siphoning took about 20 minutes, a much improved figure from the eight to twelve hours it *used* to take for the wort to cool.
By reducing the time between coming off the boil to when you get the wort locked down under your fermentation lock, you can *greatly* reduce the chance of a batch going bad.
Hope you find this useful,
--berry
--
Berry Kercheval -- berry@mordor.s1.gov -- {ucbvax!decwrl,siesmo}!mordor!berry
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Special Studies Program ("O" division)

This from: hpfcla!ihnp4!rayssdb.RAY.COM!iws (Ihor W. Slabicky)

I recently received a copy of a magazine which may be of interest to homebrewers. It is called: Amateur Brewer The Micro-Brewer/ Brew Pub (TM) Magazine. It is published by Bill Owens, a general partner in Buffalo Bill's Brewpub, 1082 'B' Street, Hayward, CA 94541. The magazine has all sorts of articles about microbrweries and various homebrewers, as well as advertisements for various supply houses. The articles do not appear to be how-to's for the first time homebrewer, but are more for the established homebrewer who is looking for helpful hints, info, etc. It also gives a bit of info about various microbreweries and how they are faring. It is published four times a year. The address: Amateur Brewer, Box 713, Hayward, CA 94543.
As a question of interest to me, is the magazine All About Beer still published? I have not seen it in Newport, RI for the past six months and the newsstand tells me they can't get it from their distributor. Do you have any info on it you can send me or to the Homebrew Newsletter?
- Ihor Slabicky

[I have a subscription to "All About Beer" and the last issue was 12/86, and I have no reason to believe that they aren't publishing anymore. I have also noticed its disappearance from the newsstands, but then again, it's never been widely available. Anyway, if anybody's interested, here's subscription info: $13 for 6 issues, $19.95 for 12 issues, published bi-monthly by McMullen Publishing, PO Box 15690, Santa Ana, CA 92705-0690]

This from: hpfcla!ihnp4!drutx!homer (Jim Homer)

While I was president of the Boulder homebrew club, our local supplier wrote two articles for the newsletter. I am sending the articles for your newsletter, if you wish to use them. I have John Canadays permission to do this. Both are from The Wort Mop, of the Mile High Masterspargers.
Thanks,

HINTS ON USING YEAST
I shall speak only of the commonly available packages of dry ale or lager yeast, most commonly used by homebrewers. Some brewers chill the wort down to about 60 degrees before pitching the yeast. This is a mistake because it delays the start of ferment for up to several days, increasing the chances of contamination.
Yeast undergoes two cycles while in the fermenter. The first is respiration during which the yeast cells grow and divide until they reach a population of about 25 to 50 million per milliliter. During this process no alcohol is manufactured. This respiration cycle will be completed in a few hours at a temperature of 75 to 80 degrees. When maximum population is reached, the yeast automatically stops the respiration stage and begins making alcohol and carbon dioxide gas. This is evident by foaming on the surface of the beer. At this time low temperatures are desirable for a very good reason such as preventing the yeast from producing undesirable flavors or aromas. These low fermenting temperatures should be in the sixties for ale and in the fifties for lager. About two hours or so after pitching the yeast, the fermenter should be moved into a cool place and the proper fermenting temperature will be reached without any special effort on the part of the homebrewer.
-by Colonel John Canaday
Colonel John Malt & Brewing Supplies
Boulder Colorado
(303) 442-2789

HOPS
There are only two kinds of hops available to homebrewers, fresh and stale. There are also many varieties containing different levels of bitterness and everyone has a different aroma. On the store shelf you will see them displayed as whole leaf hops or as pelletized hops. There should be no difference in there quality and freshness if they have been kept sealed and stored in a cold place. In either form they should work equally well in your homebrew.
Among the hops used for aroma, the aromatic oils may run about 1% to 1.5% by weight. The weight of bittering resins in some hops may be as low as 2.5% while in others it may reach as high as 14%. It is interesting to note that hops are sold by the ounce, there is no difference in price for high or low bittering resin content. It is thus easy to choose which hop we may use for the boil (bittering). In the 1985 hop crop almost every variety is considerably lower in bittering resins than usual.
Detailed instructions and a definition of hop bittering units appear in the Winter 1985 issue of Zymurgy magazine. Study it carefully and you will know how to make a better homebrew.
by Colonel John Canaday
Colonel John Malt & Brewing Supplies
Boulder Colorado
(303) 442-2789

This from Mark Lund (Not reachable via e-mail)

Then again, I might add a method of getting the foil off of imported bottles. Boil them in your brewing kettle for about 5 minutes. Then the foil will come off easily if you do it while the bottles are still warm.
Mark Lund

This from: Eric Neufeld <hpfcla!gatech!watmath!watdragon!emneufeld>

SMALL is BEAUTIFUL - homebrewing in small quantities
I am already hooked on homebrewing, but I have run into the problem that brewing five gallons at a time can be a problem in more ways than one. For example:
For apartment dwellers (especially if you have a family), space is at an incredible premium. The space consumed by a five gallon carboy (or two, if you are racking your wort), plus *at least* five dozen bottles in your meagre storage room is probably a bit too much.
Unless you have lots of money (not like students), your equipment is completely tied for two weeks or so if you are making beer and worse, months, if you are making wine.
When you are starting it is a little discouraging to make five gallons of funny tasting beer. Luckily, no matter how much you drink it can't kill you, but it is a high price to pay if you are being careful, but some wild organisms just happen to get into your fermenter.
The startup cost of 5-gallon glass containers is fairly high.
Too much of a good thing: suddenly there is plenty of beer followed by a long dry spell while you are waiting for the next batch to age a little.
A solution that solves all these problems is ONE gallon jugs. I bought several from a local cider factory. Then I bought several air locks. Your local homebrew shop will have a special cap that fits gallon jugs that you can stick an airlock in.
It is easy to measure the volume of the five-gallon kits: fill a larger container with water, submerge the kit, measure the amount of water it takes to refill the larger container, divide by five to get the amount for a one gallon recipe. I think the rest is straight-forward.
Using this technique, I have three kinds of wine and two brews of beer going at once all the time, and bottle about a dozen beer a week. The wine is going to be brewing much longer than that. Another plus is that I have gotten my technique to the point where I can bottle my dozen and start my next dozen in next to no time. It is a quick chore, as opposed to a big evening of work that can be hard to schedule.
Eric Neufeld

This from: ihnp4!hpfcla!hpfcmt!jimh (Jim Haselmaier)

A recent trip to the Bay area brought me to discover a WONDERFUL liquor store: The Liquor Barn. The Liquor Barn is located at the corner of Lawrence Expressway and El Camino Real in Cupertino. They had all kinds of stuff to choose from; both imported and domestic. I also believe there is one on El Camino closer to Palo Alto.
I originally was trying to find the Palo Alto Brewery (located in Mountain View, of all places) when an HP friend directed me to the Liquor Barn. They told me the Palo Alto Brewery had just gone out of business, but they still had some of their beer on their shelves. I also picked up a few things from the Thousand Oaks brewery.
If you're in the Bay area make it a point to stop at the Liquor Barn!
Changing the subject a bit...
Yesterday a fellow from Aggie Liquor (a local store) called to fill me in on some new beers that they are getting in. (I am merely passing along information that was told to me. Take any and all info with a (large) grain of salt.)
Aggie has just received 10 cases of Thomas Hardy Ale. According to this guy there are only 120 cases in the state. A 6 oz. bottle sells for $3.99!!! And supposedly this stuff can keep for up to 25 years. And he has heard of 1968 bottles selling for $1,000!!!
They also have just received some Sama Clauss (this is probably not even close to the correct spelling.) It is supposed to be the strongest beer made; even stronger than EKU.
Finally, they hope to be getting Samuel Adams soon. WE CAN ONLY HOPE!
Jim H.

[A 4-pack of Thomas Hardy Ale is also available at the Liquor Mart in Boulder for only $10, and it looks like everybody is getting Samuel Adams around here. I Picked up a bottle of Samichlaus, but haven't had the guts to try it yet; Hope to report on it in the next issue.]

Book Review/Anecdote/Experiences/etc/Pick one

or
So you think *your* first homebrew was a disaster

I hope you enjoy the following saga as much as I did recalling it.

When someone asks me how long I've been a Homebrewer, I'm apt to tell them 2 years. Depending on your definition of homebrewer, that might be the truth. My first homebrewing experiences occurred in 1977, under rather unusual circumstances. When asked why they started homebrewing, most people will cite as reasons economy, fun, or they just like beer. Well, I liked beer too, but my principal reason for brewing was none of these common ones: I was simply too young to purchase beer. I was 15, and already was a beer snob, being weened on Lowenbrau and Heineken, and spitting out Rheingold and the like when opportunity presented itself.

Inspiration came one day while I was wandering in a book store, and came across H.E. Bravery's "Home Brewing Without Failures." I grabbed for it, flipped through it quickly, and decided to buy it. There were several things working against me from the start. First, there was the problem of obtaining supplies: Being 15 years old, with no car, I had no way of travelling to the nearest Homebrew shop, which looked to be about 30 miles away. Second, my brewing had to be a clandestine operation- my parents tolerated me drinking beer when they were the ones who served it to me, but they would have choked if I told them I wanted to make my own. And last, my motivation for making beer was not very conducive to making a good brew: I simply wanted beer, and wanted to do as little as possible to get it.

There was something else working against me, but I wouldn't realize it for almost 8 years: The British Author I was using as a guide. Bravery does a good job of making brewing sound easy and fun, but does little to actually make it easy and fun. His recipes call for lots of sugar (LOTS), and also ingredients that I never heard of and could not find in any store, like "treacle." (It's generally known in the U.S.A. as molasses, but how was I to know that? Look it up in the dictionary? That would have been bit radical!) Demerara sugar was another often-called-for ingredient. And all his recipes called for salt, citric acid and yeast nutrient. Bravery has made some attempt to "Americanize" his book, such as specifying some typical prices in dollars and cents, but it would have been better if he had made no attempt rather than a half-hearted attempt. I then would have realized what the problem was, instead of thinking it was simply my ignorance.

So off I went in search of brewing equipment. I got a large plastic ice bucket with a cover to use as a fermenter, and a piece of plastic tubing for siphoning. In a health food store, I found dry malt extract, and some hops (brown and dried), and every supermarket had baker's yeast. I saved a few Pepsi bottles with twist-off tops, and gathered up a few random jars that I found lying around the kitchen. I rinsed the dust out of the jars and bottles, and they looked pretty clean, if I do say so. Finally, I was ready to do some brewing.

Ingredients:

1 pot of water
1 jar of dried malt extract
1 jar of sugar (use the malt jar to measure it)
1 handful old brown hops of unknown variety
1 packet baker's yeast

Procedure:

Bring the water to a boil, and dump in the malt. Boil it for a couple of minutes, and dump in the hops. Boil it for a couple of minutes and turn it off. Dump it into fermenter, and add some cold water. Mix it up with a spoon, and dump in the yeast. Put the cover on the fermenter and set it in a hot place. (I kept it on top of our oil-burning furnace in the basement.) Peer into the container every few hours and sniff it. After a few days, or however long your patience holds out, it's ready to bottle. To bottle it, put a 1/2 teaspoon of sugar in each bottle or jar, then suck on the siphon tube to get the beer flowing. Fill the bottles and jars, spilling lots of beer on the floor and table. Screw the tops on. (I just twisted the twist-off caps back on to the Pepsi bottles.) Store in a warm place. (I kept the bottles hidden in the cabinet above the oven.) In a few days or whenever you run out of patience, chill a bottle for a few hours, then bring it outside (clever!) along with a glass (wishful thinking!) and open it. Don't point it at anybody.

All very proper and scientific, naturally. Well, as you might have guessed, when I opened it, there was an almighty geyser of foam that wouldn't quit. When it finally subsided, there was about an inch of beer left in the bottle, and I poured it into my waiting glass for a taste. As you might have guessed again, it was terrible: it tasted like yeasty vinegar, and I had to spit it out. Well, I just figured that my homebrew needed to "age" a little bit, so I waited a few more days before trying another one. The results were identical, and now I was beginning to worry: what could have gone wrong?

I had a few more experiences like this before I gave up, but I did manage to have at least one slightly successful brew. I followed a recipe for "ginger beer" that came out very sweet and highly carbonated, but not gushing. It was drinkable, but not enjoyable. I think that there's still a bottle of it left, hidden in a forgotten place, waiting for me to return to it and throw it away.

Many years later, when I discovered that homebrewing could be done successfully, I thought back to that very silly attempt at making beer, and had a pretty good laugh. And you thought your first homebrew was a disaster. Hmmph.