Aaah, the good life. I could wax poetically about the thrills of bringing in hand raised heirloom tomatoes, the joys of red peppers so hot you should be careful about using one hand for handling peppers and the other for taking out contact lenses, or of wearing a homemade item out in public and getting compliments on it, but tonight my contentedness comes from something else – beer. Yes, beer. That poison to the liver, not to mention the budget, brain, and moral compass. There is something so satisfying about the hiss of a blackberry wheat being opened on a warm October evening. Even more satisfying is that it cost only about $0.50 and was made by none other than yours truly.
The beer in the picture is one blackberry wheat I crafted not long ago from 5 gallons of wild blackberries that I picked over the course of two Saturdays and the standard equipment in a brewing kit. I used only $30 of additional ingredients, and could have gone cheaper had I been willing to work more, but I was feeling inordinately lazy and self-indulgent after 10 hrs in the sun picking blackberries. Brewing is a craft, an art, and a science, but its surprisingly easy for the beginning homebrewer to pick up. You can pick up the essentials for your first of many brews for around $100 at your local brew supply or online. You’ll recoup your investment quickly, as the ingredients are generally around $30 a batch. A batch is 5-6 gallons, which is around 4 cases of beer, and if you’ve seen the $15 and higher prices for cases of decent craft brews, you’ll understand what I mean. An added benefit is that you can tailor your beer for your palate. You like hefeweisen and IPA? Brew an extra hoppy wheat. You like dark ales and fruit beers? Make your own combination of peach and stout. The possibilities are endless! If you make your initial investment in the basic equipment, it will most likely come with basic brewing instructions and an assortment of recipes, so I won’t even try to go into them here. Instead, I will share a few things I wish someone had pounded into our heads from the start:
Temperature Control
We began brewing in the basement of DH’s frat house about 6 years ago. We thought in the New England summers, the basement would have the most regulated temperature below 80 F. We were wrong, the closet we chose was too close to the boiler and we had a batch of beer we had to pay someone to drink. They had a hangover well before they got drunk. However, a caveat to this is that if you’re in a dry enough climate or one where mold spores are low enough to not immediately inoculate a brew, you might be safe up to 95 F. I tried a batch about 3 years ago in Oklahoma where it got up to 110 F all week. I stuck the beer in the storm cellar, because we had the AC set to 95 F. However, I checked the temp in the storm cellar, and it was the same as indoors. At night. I named it the “Clambake” because, well, of the obvious. It was still one of the best beers I have brewed, and I blame it on good yeast and lack of competition.
Good Air
Based on the above statement, you’d think our move to coastal Northern Cali where the temps are always between 50 F and 80 F would lead to the best brews ever. You’d be very hungover for thinking so. There is a lot of mold on the coasts, due to humid ocean breezes. When we finally moved inland, the carpet and walls were black with mold under the furniture. Our beer improved dramatically, as well. So far we’re operating at 100 % success rate in the dessert interior, and 100 % failure rate in the humid coastal. My guess is that the yeast just couldn’t hold its own against the severe mold spore inoculation it was exposed to just from transfer between containers.
Good Water
Rhode Island was excellent for brewing beer. Municipal water tasted great, and made excellent beer. Oklahoma was excellent for brewing beer. Untreated well water does wonders for promoting yeast development. California has had mixed results, coastal water being too mold-infested for decent brews, and inland water being so chlorinated it takes a fair bit for the yeast to take hold. If I had money, I’d only use distilled water for brewing. As is, I’ll use city water and complain about it. When we move, if we have serious issues getting a decent brew, I’ll probably try distilled water first just to rule out this possibility.
Good Oxidation Control
I’m probably at least an “intermediate” brewer at this point. You think I wouldn’t do everything wrong when I brew a batch. But I did. I picked 10 gallons of wild blackberries (yay!), but then I just washed and froze them without blanching to kill off bad bacteria. Then, when I brewed, I was too lazy to chill the wort with my wort chiller. I was also too lazy to even stick it in a bathtub of cold water. I blame this on DH being gone and my slipping while washing the fermenter, hitting my head and not remembering the rest of the night, but that’s another story. Then the seal on the airlock fell into the brew and disappeared for eternity. For all you brewers – duct tape and saran wrap just won’t cut it. When I moved the brew into the secondary, I neglected to boil the added water and to blanch the hops, and there was a leak in the tubing so lots of bubbles were introduced. However, it still turned out really darn good, and I’m enjoying the fruits of my labors tonight. The take-home message is: if something beyond your control goes wrong, don’t panic. There’s a reasonable chance you’ll get beer worth drinking in the end anyway.
Conclusions
Brewing is worth more than dollars saved on a batch. It’s about crafting a brew to your tastes, about enjoying the process of creation, and enjoying the friends who will drink anything no matter how terrible it is and even complimenting you on it. My blackberry wheat is wholly enjoyable this evening, and hopefully my next batch will be even more so. I don’t think I mentioned anywhere in this that I positively despise blackberries…. I just love to pick them. But that’s another story!
No comments:
Post a Comment