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July 16, 2008
17:20
An Interview with Dan Listermann (of Phil’s fame)
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This week we feature a short interview with Dan Listermann of Listermann Manufacturing. You may not instantly recognize Dan’s name, but most home brewers have seen Listermann’s line of products including his innovative “Phil’s” line including Phil’s Phalse Bottom, Phil’s Lauter Tun and Phil’s Sparger. Dan now runs a full homebrewing store featuring a line of homebrewing kits as well as his home brewing equipment business.
How did you get started?
I first brewed in 1973 at college. It was a disaster and did not get better. 15 years later, my old roommate suggested that we give it another go assuring me that things were better. He was right and I was off making my own beer. I noticed that bottle fillers displaced their own volume when withdrawn. This bothered me so I sat in a bar one night and designed a filler that would not do that.

The next day I bought the tubing to make one and when I was finished, I thought that, “that was not hard.” The wife and I decided to start making them in the basement that year - 1991. Eventually we added other products and moved out of the basement into a business incubator. By the spring of 1993, the business had grown enough that I quit my quality / manufacturing engineering job to devote full time to it.

In 1995 we decided that Cincinnati was ill served from a homebrew perspective. We found a building where we could both manufacture and sell retail. It has worked out great. The manufacturing has been scaled down in light of the growing retail business and we recently received a brewing license for the next phase of our fun.
I’m sure lots of us are wondering - who is Phil?
Phil is our oldest son. He is 28 now and has a son of his own!
You have been in the homebrewing business since 1991 - how has it changed over the years?
It has grown and become more technical. The old can and a kilo kits are becoming a smaller and smaller share of the trade with properly designed kits based on fresh bulk extract and specialty grains taking their place. There are few real excuses to not go all-grain anymore.
Many of us dream of pursuing our hobby full time - what is it like?
First I count myself as very lucky that this has happened to me. I got a lot of good breaks and wonderful support from the homebrew community. So far it has not hurt my own hobby’s urges. I am brewing a 15 gallon batch now. I also have other interests to occupy myself - pigeon racing is my latest obsession.
How do you keep coming up with new innovative products?
I pretty much quit doing that when we scaled the manufacturing back. When I get an idea, I consider the effort and payout compared to other things - commercial brewing mainly - and seem to lose interest, but never say never.
Where do you see homebrewing as a hobby going in the next few years?
More all-grain producing better beer. Very few brewers that catch the bug are willing to remain extract brewers. The hop shortage is going to change things a lot for a while. I think that homebrewers are going to start exploring the not so bitter side of the spectrum.
What new ideas are you working on now?
Since I got my brewing license, commercial recipes!
Is there anything you would like to add?
If you don’t brew your own beer, you will have to drink someone else’s beer.

Designing extract kits after all-grain brewing was a real eye opener. It was real neat to be able to take the experience of making beer from scratch and applying that experience it to extract. Very probably few brewers get this opportunity. Extract has some real advantages that are really not discussed much.

Thanks to Dan Listermann for granting this interview. For more great beer brewing articles, consider subscribing for regular free delivery.
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July 09, 2008
22:11
Brown Ale Recipes: Brewing Styles
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Brown ale is a distinctively English style that has also become popular with microbreweries in the United States. Today we’re going to look at the origins of this classic style, how to brew Brown Ale at home and also a sampling of Brown Ale recipes.
The History of Brown Ale
Brown Ale is a English style without a clear starting date. Many of the earliest English ales were likely brown ales, as most malts were kilned over hardwood fires leaving a distinctly brown color as well as a smoky flavor. Brown malt, though almost extinct today, formed the major part of English ale’s for at least 800 years.

The formal use of the term “Brown Ale” is tied to the introduction of Porter in the early 1700’s. Brown ale was likely known simply as “Ale” before that since almost all English ales would have been brown prior to 1700. The term “Brown Ale” was also used interchangeably for the next 100 years to describe both Porters and Stouts. Brown was in fact a generic term used to describe the insanely popular Porter of this period. [Ref: Daniels]

In the early 1800’s, some distinction was being made between Stouts, Porters and Milds. In many cases Brown ale was produced by making a Stout or Porter with the first runnings and then collecting the second runnings of the Mash to produce Brown ales. However, throughout the 18^th century “brown” was still used extensively to describe Stouts, Porters and other dark beers brewed primarily around London.

The distinct style of “Brown Ale” we know today is a relatively recent invention, though the close relative “Mild Ale” was very popular in the late 1800’s and early 20^th century. Brown ale emerged in the 20^th century as a stronger and sometimes darker version of English mild.
Brown Ale Styles
There are at least three major distinct styles of brown ale, excluding Brown Porter which is a variation of Porter. Northern or Newcastle brown ales have an original gravity between 1.040 and 1.052, dark amber color between 12 and 22 SRM and bitterness of 20-30 IBUs. Both malt and bitterness are present in moderate levels, and caramel/malt flavor adds some sweetness. Newcastle Brown Ale is the obvious example, though a number of Nut Brown Ales also fall into this category.

London or Southern Brown ales are malty with relatively low bitterness. They have a sweet caramel flavor, very dark color and some dark fruit (raisin) flavors. They are made with an original gravity between 1.035 and 1.042 and low bitterness level of 12-20 IBUs with dark color of 19-35 SRM.

American Brown ales are brewed with a higher starting gravity between 1.045 and 1.060 with higher bitterness of 20-40 IBUs. Like London Brown, they have a dark color between 19 and 35 SRM. They have medium maltiness and body, are slightly dry, and have higher bitterness and aroma than their British counterparts. Not surprisingly, American hop varieties are often used.
Brewing Brown Ales
Many brewers take an “everything but the kitchen sink” approach to brewing browns, but Ray Daniels argues that superior results can be obtained by focusing on a few key ingredients along with proper yeast and water selection.

Brown ales are made from a base of English pale malt. Crystal malt is almost always used in brown ale, averaging about 10-15% of the total grain bill. Chocolate malt, too, is used but sparingly - making up from 3-6% of the grain bill. Black and roasted malts are seldom used in brown ales, and if used make up as little as 2% of the grain bill.

Homebrewers use a variety of specialty malts to add character including aromatic malt, biscuit malt, wheat malt, toasted malt, special B, oatmeal and others. In some cases these specialty malts can make up as much as 5-15% of the grain bill. However commercial browns typically take a simpler approach using only 1-2 dark malts to provide the bulk of color and character.

A single infusion mash in the 152-154F (67C) range targeting a medium body beer is appropriate for all brown styles.

English brown ales have low bitterness and are therefore lightly hopped. Popular English hops such as Goldings, Fuggles, and sometimes Tettnanger are often used. American browns are much more highly hopped, in some cases approaching levels twice that of typical English browns. Cascade is most popular, though Perle, Williamette and other American hop varieties may also be used. For American browns, hops are often added at several different stages including occasionally dry hopping.

Yeast selection also depends on the style of brown you are brewing. American browns are typically made with dry American Ale or German Ale yeast with a high attenuation. English browns use the full range of UK ales including London, Irish Ale, and other full body English Ale yeasts to add character, esters and the unique mix of English complexity.

Water high in carbonates is desirable, especially for the English styles. London was the home of dark ales for the past 250 years largely due to its high carbonate water. Sulfates, however, are undesirable so minimize the use of gypsum. American browns often use lower carbonate water than their English cousins.
Brown Ale Recipes
Here is a selection of brown ale recipes from the BeerSmith Recipe Site:
- Black Out Brown Ale - Partial Mash
- Brent’s Brown Ale - All Grain
- Farmhouse 1870 - Extract
- Spotted Dog Brown - All Grain
- Jay’s Crowd Pleaser Brown - All Grain
- Brown Derby Ale - Extract
- Dan’s Brown Nuts Ale - Extract
- This Nut - All Grain
- London Brown - All Grain
- Matrimoni-Ale - All Grain
- Visit our Recipe Site for more Brown Ale Recipes
I hope you enjoyed today’s article on Brown Ales. Thanks again for visiting the BeerSmith Home Brewing Blog. Please consider subscribing for regular weekly articles on beer styles, recipes and a range of home brewing topics.
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July 04, 2008
11:26
5 Ways to Improve your All Grain Beer Efficiency
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All grain brewers can be obsessive about the efficiency of their brewing system. This week we will look at 5 methods you can use to improve your overall brewhouse efficiency.

All grains in a beer recipe have a potential ideal yield, usually expressed as the find grain dry yield or potential. The fine grain dry yield is typically measured in laboratory conditions by powdering the grain and measuring the maximum possible extract. In the real world, only a fraction of the ideal yield is achieved due to mash inefficiencies, sparging limitations, deadspace and trub losses.

The overall percentage of the potential grain sugars absorbed into the finished wort is called the brewhouse efficiency. Achieving higher efficiency on a consistent basis lets you use less grains to achieve a target original gravity.

All grain brewers, particularly those who are inexperienced, often have low efficiency numbers. Lets look at five ways to increase your efficiency number:
1. Improve the Milling of your Grains
The crush of your grains makes a significant difference in the efficiency of your mash and sparge. Grains should be finely crushed, but the milling should leave the hulls largely intact to act as a filter bed. A dual roller mill such as the Barley Crusher is ideal for achieving this. Note that if you crush your grains too finely you will plug up your filter bed resulting in a “stuck mash”. If you get a stuck mash, your filter bed will clog up and the wort will stop flowing.
2. Mash Out or Sparge with Hot Water
Hot water during the mash out and sparge helps the sticky wort flow more freely. Ideally you would like to raise the mash temperature to about 178F and then use 178F water to sparge. A mash out infusion addition can be used to help raise the temperature of your mash as you sparge.
3. Sparge Slowly
Most beginners attempt to sparge their mash much too fast. Sparging too quickly leaves insufficient time for the hot water to extract the sugars in the grain bed. Limit the flow out of your mash tun to just above a trickle. It should take 30-50 minutes to fully sparge a 5 gallon all grain batch (about 6 gallons of wort).
4. Minimize Losses in your System
Losses anywhere in your brewing system, including deadspace in the mash tun, transfer lines, pumps, and trub at the end of the mash result in lost wort. The lost wort takes sugars with it, reducing your overall brewhouse efficiency. Use a properly sized mash tun, and work to eliminate deadspace in the system.
5. Pick a Properly Designed Mash Tun
The design of your mash tun and false bottom or screen can have a huge effect on the efficiency of the mash process. A round, cylindrical mash tun is generally considered best, as it leaves the depth of the grain bed about equal to its width. This is one reason cylindrical water coolers are popular.

The false bottom ideally will cover the entire bottom of the mash tun but have minimal deadspace underneath it. This will provide an even flow across the entire grain bed giving better efficiency.

If you have your own suggestions on how to improve brewhouse effiency, feel free to leave a comment below. Thanks again for visiting the BeerSmith Home Brewing Beer Blog. Don’t hesitate to subscribe for regular delivery. Have a great holiday and happy brewing.
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June 26, 2008
0:24
Enhancing Beer Head Retention for Home Brewers
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An important characteristic in homebrewed beers is the ability of the beer to retain a nice foamy head for a long period of time. Commercial brewers go to great lengths to improve head retention by a variety of additives. However homebrewers also have access to ingredients and additives that can help your foam last until the last drop.

Note that enhancing head retention is closely related to enhancing the body of the beer. Foam is the result of CO2 bubbles rising through the beer. These bubbles attach themselves to substances in the beer and form a skin around the bubble. Obviously the more CO2, the more bubbles, but the goal of the brewer is not bubbles but stability of the head. As foam collapeses, evaporating bubbles tend to solidify the beer near the surface, allowing more beer to be poured with less foaming after a few minutes have passed.

Head stability depends on the presence of substances with low surface tension in the beer which can form stable elastic bubbles. The two primary contributors to head retention are certain high molecular weight proteins and isohumulones (alpha acids from hops). Therefore beers with more proteins that are highly hopped will have higher head retention.
Methods for Improving Head Retention
We will explore the following possibilities:
- The use of body and head enhancing malts such as crystal, wheat, or carafoam
- The altering of the mash schedule to enhance head retaining proteins
- The use of heading agents - additives that enhance head retention
- Addition of high alpha hops - which will increase bitterness, but also increas isohumulones that enhance head retention
- Limiting the use of household soaps on drinking glasses and homebrew equipment
- The use of a nitrogen and CO2 mix for carbonation and serving
- The shape of the glass used to serve the beer
Head Enhancing Malts
The inclusion of proteins and dextrines enhance the body and head retention of finished beer. Unfortunately when used to excess, proteins and dextrines can interact with tannins and reduce clarity and promote cloudiness, so a proper balance must be struck. Crystal malts to include the light Carapils and Carafoam, and caramel malts.

These are the most common body and foam enhancing additives that enhance head retention primarily by adding dextrines and other complex proteins. The overuse of such malts can result in proteins reacting with tannins to create a chill haze. Similarly, other grains high in protein such as flaked barley and wheat can be used to enhance head retention, though again at the cost of clarity.
Mashing Schedule
Since head retention depends on the level of high molecular weight proteins, any step in the mash that breaks down proteins is undesirable. For example, a protein rest in the 50-60 C (122-140 F) range would not be desirable. To improve head retention you would generally favor a full bodied, higher temperature mash, with main conversion in the 158 F (70 C) range, and avoid intermediate protein rests.
Heading Agents
Homebrew shops sell a variety of additives, usually under the generic title heading agent. Some are intended to be added at bottling time, while others need to be added at the end of the boil. Follow the instructions included with the agent to determine what is required. Many heading agents are derived from an enzyme called pepsin that is derived from pork.

Other popular heading agents include iron salts, gums, and alginates. All heading agents will alter the flavor of the beer, in general making the character softer. In general, heading agents are not necessary for homebrews that are made from 100% malted barley and wheat. Heading agents are more commonly used in commercial beers that have high rice and corn content, lacking the necessary proteins of an all-malt beer.
Hops
As mentioned in the introduction, isohumulones which are a form of alpha acid also will enhance the head retention of beer. Alpha acid is the primary bittering agent in hops. Therefore highly hopped beers will have better head retention. Obviously overall malt-bitterness balance is still required, but one can use higher levels of hops, particularly in darker full bodied beers to enhance head retention.
Limit the Use of Household Soaps
Household soaps such as common dish soap and dishwashing soap have a significant detrimental effect on head retention in beer. You should not use household soaps on either your brewing equipment or your main bar drinkware. Detergent washed glasses in particular will quickly reduce the head on even a well constructed beer. Instead use a beer-friendly cleaning agent from your local homebrew supplier.
A Nitrogen Mix
Some beers, most notably Guiness Irish Stout, are carbonated and poured with a mix of nitrogen and carbon dioxide. CO2 is relatively soluable in beer, and therefore does not promote the formation of gas bubbles as well as non-soluable gasses. Nitrogen dissolves less easily in beer, and provides a better base for forming a stable head. However, nitrogen alters the perceived character of the beer, and use of pure nitrogen would result in an unacceptable mouthfeel and carbonation.

A mix, therefore, is always used. The mix varies depending on the style of beer - a low carbonation stout might be served with a mix of 25% carbon dioxide and 75% nitrogen, while ales and lagers might include more CO2 - perhaps 60% CO2 and 40% nitrogen. Low carbon dioxide mixes (25/75) can be applied by mixing the gases in the cylinder, but higher mixes generally require two separate tanks - one of CO2 and one of nitrogen. A high precision blending device either at the tap (i.e. a stout tap) or inline are needed to blend the two gasses for dispensing.
Shape of Serving Glass
The shape of the glass is also a determining factor in both head formation and head retention. A tall narrow glass enhances the formation and retention of the head, while short wide glasses do not. This is the reason many Bavarian wheat beers and Pilsners are served in tall narrow glasses. Use the proper glass for the style of beer you are pouring to enhance the overall presentation.

I hope you enjoyed today’s tips on improving head retention. Thank you for joining us on the BeerSmith Home Brewing Blog. Please be sure to subscribe for weekly delivery of the latest articles.
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June 18, 2008
22:46
Beer Yeast, Fermentation, and Home Brewing
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I started brewing in the 1980’s, which was the modern equivalent of the wild west days of home brewing. We simply did not have either the technical knowledge or access to the high quality ingredients that brewers have today.

Yeast, in particular, was one ingredient that improved dramatically in the last 20 years. When I started, the only yeast available was dry packet “bread-style” yeast. It came in two flavors - ale and lager. The quality of these two yeast strains was questionable, resulting in significant variation in flavor and character.

In the early 1990’s Wyeast and White Labs introduced high quality liquid yeasts to the US homebrewing market. Companies like SafeAle also brought high quality dry yeasts into the picture. This revolutionized homebrewing in a way that is difficult to explain today.

Brewing Yeast

Brewing yeast is a single cell microorganism (technically a fungi), and both ale and lager yeasts are members of the family Saccharymyces Cerevisiae. Lager yeast was earlier classified as S. Uvarum, but a recent reclassification put it in the S. Cerevisiae family. Ales are traditionally called “top fermenting” for the yeast layer that forms at the top of the fermenter, while lagers are called “bottom fermenting”

Ale yeasts ferment in the range 10-25C and produce beers high in esters and often lower in attenuation, both distinctive characteristic of ales. Ale yeast strains are often mixed together to aid in attenuation and flocculation. Lagers ferment in the range from 7-15C and produce a cleaner beer with lower esters.

The Fermentation Life Cycle

Yeast goes through four overlapping phases when fermenting beer into wort. After pitching, yeast starts in the “Lag Phase”. During the lag phase, the yeast strives to reproduce as fast as possible. The key ingredient during this phase is Glycogen, an sugar stored internally in the yeast, which is broken into glucose to fuel yeast reproduction. If an insufficient amount of yeast is pitched (or the yeast itself is low in glycogen), you will get an excess of dicytl (buttery or butterscotch flavor) in your finished beer. A properly sized Yeast Starter is critical.

The lag phase is followed quickly by the respiration (also called the growth) phase. In this phase the cells grow logarithmically (usually one to three doublings) by cellular division. In this phase the critical ingredients are oxygen and a variety of yeast nutrients. The cells will continue to grow until the oxygen or nutrients have been depleted.

Once all of the oxygen has been scrubbed from the wort, the fermentation phase begins. Yeast cells convert simple sugars into carbon dioxide, alcohol and beer flavors. As the sugars are consumed, the gravity of the beer will rapidly drop. Fermentation normally takes 3-7 days.

Sedimentation is the final phase of fermentation. Yeast will begin to form into clumps and settle to the bottom of the fermenter in a process called flocculation. In this phase, yeast will also store the glycogen needed for future reproduction as it prepares to enter a dormant state. Some yeasts will settle (flocculate) much more rapidly than others, so settling can take from days to weeks depending on the yeast variety.

Understanding Yeast Characteristics

Selecting a yeast appropriate for a given beer involves some knowledge of key yeast characteristics:
- Attenuation: Refers to the percentage of sugars converted to alcohol and CO2. A high attenuation yeast will result in a clean, dry finish. Low attenuation yeasts typically leave ester, malt and other flavors behind leaving a more full bodied complex beer flavor.
- Flocculation: Flocculation refers to the ability of yeast to form clumps (flocs) at the end of fermentation and rapidly sediment (or be skimmed) from the finished beer. Low flocculation yeast is often called “powdery” yeast. High flocculation yeasts tend to fall out of the beer before completing fermentation, leaving a more complex, higher gravity beer. Low flocculation yeasts such as lagers will completely ferment, leaving a cleaner finish but it can then be difficult to separate the yeast from the beer.
- Temperature Range: Different yeast strains have differing temperature tolerances. Ales ferment at a higher temperature. Higher temperature fermentation is associated with higher ester production, and lower temperature with clean dry flavors.
- Alcohol Tolerance : Many yeasts are sensitive to alcohol content, and will have trouble fermenting very high original gravity wort. Champagne, Wine, or other alcohol tolerant yeasts are frequently used either for primary fermentation or as a second yeast addition to assure full fermentation of very high gravity beers such as barley wine.
- Beer Flavor: Individual yeast strains can add widely varying flavor profiles to your beer. A good example is Hefe-Weizen, where a significant majority of the clove and banana beer flavor comes directly from the yeast. Matching the yeast strain to the style of beer is a the best way to provide proper flavoring.
An Examples of Yeast in Beer Design

In most cases, brewers tend to select the Wyeast or White Labs yeast that matches their beer style. Lets look at a few examples where varying from the script might pay off: One example is brewing an Irish Stout. Irish stout has a very dry roasted character derived from roasted barley.

A traditional yeast choice might be an Irish Ale yeast such as White labs WLP004. However, looking at WLP004, it has a modest attenuation of 71.5%, which will produce a more fruity finish. One could experiment by picking WLP007, “Dry English Ale” yeast. This yeast has a much higher attenuation (75%) and will leave a drier finish on the beer, while still retaining some of the English esters needed for the stout.

At the other extreme, I know several brewers that use a single strain, White Labs California Ale WLP001 for just about every beer they brew. Their justification is that this yeast is relatively flavor neutral for an ale yeast, has a very high attenuation and leaves a clean finish on any beer. It ferments rapidly and flocculates quickly from the beer minimizing storage time needed. Personally I don’t subscribe to this “one size fits all” approach, but a number of brewers have demonstrated great success with it.

The above are just examples, but the key to great beer design is to understand the ingredients you are working with. Knowledge of the characteristics of yeast, and its significant effect on your beer will help you to become a better brewer.

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June 11, 2008
23:05
Steam Beer and California Common Recipes: Beer Styles
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Steam Beer brings to mind visions of the California gold rush, the Sierra Nevada mountains, and San Francisco. Today we’ll look at the history of California common beer (aka Steam Beer) and how to design steam beer recipes and present a collection of Steam Beer recipes you can brew at home.

History of Steam Beer

Steam beer was originally made by dozens of breweries in the California from 1850-1920, particularly around San Francisco. After prohibition, Anchor Steam Brewing Company continued to brew steam beer and eventually trademarked the term “Steam Beer” for use with its famous brew. Since “steam beer” was trademarked by Anchor Brewing Company, brewers adopted the name “California Common” to refer to this unique beer style.

The key distinguishing feature of steam beer is that it is a lager beer fermented at high temperatures (between 60-65F) and often well hopped. The precise origins of California Steam Beer is somewhat ambiguous. Daniels notes that “One Hundred Years of Brewing” provides conflicting information on precisely where the first steam beer was made (Los Angeles and San Francisco being candidates), but says that at least 25 California breweries made steam beer in the period from 1850-1903. The origins of the term “steam beer” are also shrouded in mystery, but one source cites the escaping gas when a keg of steam beer was tapped.

Anchor Brewing started making steam beer in 1894 and was the sole producer of the beer through the 1960’s after prohibition closed its competitors. The original steam beer was cask fermented and conditioned, and often delivered to the saloon in a “young” state.

A historic beer may or may not have used adjuncts, was hopped between 28 and 40 IBUs, and was run through a “clarifier” after a very short fermentation directly into the keg. Krausen was used to carbonate the kegs, often to very high levels of carbonation (as high as 40-70 psi before tapping!). (Ref: Daniels)

Designing a California Common Recipe

The modern California Common beer remains remarkably true to the steam beer heritage. California Common has an original gravity between 1.048 and 1.054, and a moderate hopping level of 30-45 IBUs according to the BJCP Style Guide.

It is brewed with a medium body, and the distinct flavor of Northern Brewer hops. It is typically amber to light copper in color, between 10 and 14 SRM. The modern beer is more highly attenuated than its predecessor, and has a mix of ale and lager character. This leaves a clean finish with low fruitiness, ester and diacytl.

California Common uses a pale malt (usually 2 row or pale extract) base for the bulk of the malt bill. Crystal malt in the 40-80L color range makes up an average of 10% of the remaining malt bill and is selected to achieve the desired beer color. Additional ingredients such as Munich/Vienna, Cara Pils, Chocolate and Special malts are occasionally added to homebrew versions, usually in quantities of 5% or less.

The mash schedule should target 152-156F to produce a medium body beer. Hop aroma and bitterness are desirable for this style, so multiple hop additions are the norm. Northern Brewer hops is traditionally used for bittering with an aroma hops such as Cascade added near the end of the boil for flavor/aroma. Dry hopping is often used. The water used historically for this beer is soft in character.

A distinguishing feature of California Common is clearly its fermentation and yeast strain. California Common lager yeast is most often used, though many brewers have had great success with high attenuation lager yeasts or even high attenuation ale yeast. Steam beer should be fermented between 60-68 F (16-20C). Conditioning homebrew at 50F for 3-4 weeks after fermentation will aid in clearing the beer. (Ref: Daniels)

Sample California Common (Steam Beer) Recipes
- Anchor Clone - All Grain
- Brewer’s Best Steam - Extract
- California Steaming - Extract
- California Dreamin’ Lager - All Grain
- Full “Steam” Ahead - Extract
- Sailor Steam - Extract
- Sepulveda Steamer - All Grain
- Steam-Powered Toaster 2.0 - All Grain
- Steamroller Baby - Extract
- Engine 97 Steam Beer - All Grain
California common beer is a very popular style that is not difficult to brew at home. The lager style finish, distinct hoppy flavor and copper color make it a favorite of many visitors. Give your favorite steam beer recipe a try today!

Thanks again for joining us on the BeerSmith Blog. Please consider subscribing or leave a comment if you enjoyed this article!
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June 04, 2008
1:54
Converting All Grain Recipes to Malt Extract
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This week we take a look how you can convert an all grain recipe to malt extract (or back). The majority of brewers (perhaps 70%) brew with malt extract recipes, though most serious enthusiasts have made the switch to all-grain. Yet it is the small percentage of expert brewers who write all of the brewing books and publish a large portion of recipes online. This can leave many extract brewers out in the cold.

The basic process for converting an all grain recipe to extract is as follows:
- Convert the base malt (usually pale malt grains) to an equivalent amount of extract
- Adjust the color of the beer down to match the original color
- Dial the hops up to match the IBUs of the original recipe
Converting a recipe is best done with the aid of brewing software or a good spreadsheet since you need to be able to adjust the original color, IBUs and original gravity estimates. At the end of the article, I will cover exactly how to do this using our software in a single step. However, I believe it’s important to understand what’s going on under the hood.
Converting Grains to Malt Extract
For the first step, convert your base malt to extract. The base malt is easy to identify as it is the largest ingredient in the beer - typically 5-10 lbs of pale malt. For example, let’s look at an all-grain ale with 8 lbs of pale malt and 1 lb of crystal malt. The simplest base malt conversion is to just multiply the number of pounds of pale male by 0.75 to get the pounds of liquid extract. Therefore 8 pounds of pale malt becomes 6 pounds of liquid extract.

An equivalent conversion for dry extract is 0.6, so 8 pounds of pale malt becomes 4.8 pounds of dry malt. A more accurate conversion would actually take the potential of the grain and extract into account when converting malt, but I will leave that topic for a future article.

To simplify things, we leave the specialty malts (1 lb of crystal) alone and switch to steeping them instead of mashing them. Some specialty malts (notably wheats, Munich malt, flaked and terrified grains) cannot be steeped and need to be replaced with a reasonable substitute. For example, those grains listed in our online grain listing as “must mash” should not be steeped. The same is true if you have a large proportion of specialty malt.

A good rule of thumb is you should steep no more than 3-5 lbs of specialty grains in the final extract recipe. Obviously you want to choose your malt extract to match the original color and style of the beer. If you are converting a wheat beer, choose a wheat extract. Beers with large amounts of Munich malt require a Munich extract. If you are making a light colored beer, pick the palest extract you can find. Pale extract is always a good starting point.
Matching Beer Color
Once you have your base malt converted, the next step is to match your color. Malt extracts are almost always darker than the equivalent pale malt due to darkening in production and storage, so you will need to reduce the color and quantity your specialty malts to match the same color as the original beer.

To manually calculate the color of both your original beer and the final beer you can view our article on beer color. However, I recommend using your favorite brewing software or a spreadsheet to simplify the process.

If you don’t have home brewing software, the best way to come up with the same color as the original is really by trial and error. You can swap the existing specialty grains with lighter color grains (try 40L Crystal as a substitute for 60L Crystal malt for example), or you can reduce the amount of your darker colored specialty grains until you match the color of the original recipe.

Some very light colored beer styles such as Koelsch may be impossible to precisely match using malt extract simply because commercial malt extracts are much darker than equivalent pale malt grains. In these cases, try to get as light as you can and consider using malts such as Carafoam (if appropriate) to replace crystal malts if appropriate to further reduce the color.
Adjusting Bitterness
The last step is to match the bitterness (IBUs) of the original beer. When going from all grain to extract this involves adding more hops because partial batch boils result in lower hop utilization than full batch boils used by all grain brewers. Some use a rule of thumb such as “add 20% more hops” but it is far more accurate to calculate and match the IBUs for both versions.

Again a spreadsheet or program is needed to calculate the International Bitterness Units (IBUs) of the original beer and final beer. Don’t use HBU’s (Home bitterness units) here since the boil sizes between all grain and extract brews are much different. Before starting, make sure you have the correct boil size both for the original beer and converted recipe set correctly when calculating IBUs. All grain brewers use full size boils (6+ gallons for a 5 gallon brew), while extract brewers use much smaller boils (perhaps 2-3 gallons for 5 gallons of beer). This has a large effect on IBU calculation.

Once you have both calculations set up, simply increase the hop additions incrementally until you reach your target bitterness. You now have an extract beer recipe that will closely match your all grain recipe.

You can use the above three step guide with any brewing software or well designed spreadsheet to manually perform the three steps (convert base malt, adjust color, adjust bitterness). If you wish to convert back (extract to all grain), you can follow the same three steps, but this time divide by the conversion factor (6 lbs of pale extract/0.75 = 8 lbs of pale malt).

BeerSmith has a nice conversion wizard built in to do all three steps in one shot. Open the recipe you want converted, click on the ‘Convert Recipe’ toolbar button (or “Convert Recipe Wizard” on the “Actions” menu). Select the type (All Grain, Extract, Partial Mash) of conversion you wish to perform. Pick the target equipment profile you wish to convert to (since your extract equipment likely has a much smaller boil pot) and press the OK button. The program will perform all three steps and give you the finished recipe. It is a very handy feature if you have recipes from a book or the web that you wish to convert quickly.

Thanks for tuning in to the BeerSmith Home Brewing Blog this week - I appreciate your continued support of the blog. Please consider subscribing for regular weekly delivery of articles by RSS or email if you enjoyed our blog.
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May 30, 2008
2:31
Home Brewing Social Sites: Beer and Web 2.0
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Sifting Through the World Wide Web
The web has become incredibly large. The Great Library at Alexandria, the main repository of the ancient world, numbered a half-million volumes. The Public library in New York City today holds an impressive 42 million items. However the World Wide Web now contains over 100 billion public pages, all of which were created in the last 18 years. Pages related to home brewing alone number in the millions.

Web 2.0 helps you sort find the gems in this huge pile of web debris. After several months experimenting with many popular sites such as Digg, Delicious, and others I’ve found relatively few of these new “Web 2.0″ sites have a significant brewing presence.

When making this short list, I purposely left out discussion forums, blogs and some of the discussion based brewing community sites as I intend to feature these in future articles. I have limited myself to just four web 2.0 sites I have personally decided to participate in:
BrewPoll.com Home Brewing and Craft Beer News

BrewPoll is a “digg-like” social news site that we helped to start a few months ago that ranks stories based on the number of votes they receive. Registered users can submit articles and web sites from around the web, and anyone can vote on stories. The site has over 170 stories and 100+ members in its first 2 months of operation. If you want the latest home brewing or beer news, this is a great place to start.

New stories appear on the “Upcoming News” page first until they accumulate enough votes to reach the front page. Be sure to visit the “upcoming news” tab and drop some votes there, as this is the only way that top stories will reach the front page.

The beer blogging community has embraced BrewPoll over the last two months and many of the most popular bloggers now have Brewpoll vote count buttons on their site, and there is even a wordpress plugin for it. It is an enjoyable way to get regular updates on a variety of stories on craft beer and home brewing from around the web. You can subscribe to regular delivery via email or RSS feed from the main page.

Twitter
Twitter is another unique Web 2.0 site. Twitter is based on the concept of microblogging - sending really short text messages out to a list of friends. In fact, each twitter entry is limited to 140 characters. You can link twitter to your cell phone text message system so you can also twitter on the go.

Twitter also lets you follow anyone you want, and posts from those you follow will show up on your twitter home page. The power in twitter is the ability to pick who you wish to listen to and get instant updates from them. In my case, I follow fellow brewers and beer bloggers to get the latest information and news stories quickly.

My twitter feed if you wish to follow me is: beersmith. Check out my list of followers and followed to find fellow brewers who twitter.

BrewWiki.com Brewing Encyclopedia

BrewWiki is a site we started about 2 years ago as a dedicated Home Brewing Encyclopedia. For those unfamiliar with the “Wiki concept” (see Wikipedia), a Wiki is a user-editable set of pages where any member can edit or add content to the site. The site therefore becomes a collection of knowledge created and updated by its members.

Wikipedia is an example of a comprehensive Encyclopedia. BrewWiki attempts to provide the same service, and in fact uses the same underlying software, but is much more narrowly focused on home brewing. Several other brewing Wiki’s have been set up by others including notables such as the Home Brew Talk Wiki, but BrewWiki is well organized, and has an excellent collection of brewing reference pages.

The main page on BrewWiki has a series of portals listed for major brewing topics and articles leading to hundreds of pages of user-submitted content. If you are looking for some great external resources on home brewing, try the brewing references page on BrewWiki. The club listing and supplier listing pages are also quite popular.
Stumbleupon

Stumbleupon is another interesting site with a significant home brewing presence. The basic concept is that you can “thumbs up” any web site you visit using a toolbar you install from the site. Another button lets you “stumble” to sites based on topics you are interested in. For example, stumbling from the Homebrewing page will take you to a number of pages on homebrewing. Popular sites (measured by thumbs up) get visited more frequently.

While I’m not in love with the whole “random stumbling” concept, more popular sites are featured more frequently. The reason I included Stumbleupon is that there are a number of active “homebrew stumblers” on the site that post fresh content and actively vote on sites. Also they have a separate tag/topic listed for “Homebrewing” which serves as a central place for homebrewers to submit stories. This blog has had quite a bit of traffic as a result of stumblers voting positively on our pages, and it appears it has more people interested in home brewing than I’ve seen on other major social sites. Here is my stumbleupon profile.

If you know of other useful Web 2.0 sites that are focused on home brewing, please leave us a comment. I plan to do additional articles in the future on top brewing discussion forums, brewing communities, blogs and useful brewing web sites in the near future. Thank you for joining us on the BeerSmith Home Brewing Blog. If you enjoy our articles, you can learn more about our free email and RSS subscriptions here.
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May 22, 2008
0:15
Dry Hopping: Enhanced Hops Aroma
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Dry hopping is a great way to enhance the hoppy aroma of your home brewed beer. Real hopheads will tell you that in addition to boil and late hop additions, adding dry hops is a preferred technique for preserving a burst of delicate hop aroma for IPAs and other hoppy beers.

Hops are normally added during the boil to extract alpha acids that provide the bitter flavor needed to offset sweet barley malt in beer. Brewers also use late hop additions in the last 5-10 minutes of the boil to enhance aroma, but even this technique loses some aromatic oils that evaporate rapidly in the boil.
Dry Hopping
Dry hopping involves adding hops to the fermenter or keg after fermentation. Dry hops add no bitterness to the beer, but the technique does add fragile aromatic oils that are normally lost in the boiling process. Dry hops are allowed to soak in the finished beer for anywhere from several days to several weeks. The result is a burst of hoppy aroma.

Commercial craft brewers use dry hopping to enhance their beer including Anchor Liberty, Samuel Adams Pale Ale and Sierra Nevada celebration. Many drinkers prefer the distinctly floral hop aroma that dry hopping adds. On the con side, some drinkers perceive a “grassy” or “oily” flavor from dry hopping. The technique is appropriate for brewing beer styles with high hop rates such as IPAs, Pale Ales, some Stouts and California Common (Steam) beer.
Dry Hop Selection
The first question that arises when dry hopping is which hops to use? Aromatic hops with low alpha rates (6% or less) are considered preferable because these hops have a higher percentage of fragile aromatic hop oils needed for dry hopping. All of the noble hops as well as most of the low alpha aromatic varieties are appropriate.

Examples include: Saaz, Tettnanger, Hallertauer, Goldings, Fuggles, Cascade and Williamette. You should select a hops that matches the origin and beer style - an English Goldings hops might be appropriate for an English Ale or India Pale Ale for instance.

The next question is what form of hops to use: pellets, plugs or whole hops? Plug or pellet hops are generally preferred, especially for those using a glass carboy with a narrow neck. Getting whole hops in and out of the fermenter can be difficult. Pellet hops can cause some foaming when adding because, much like diet coke and mentos, the pellets have a large surface area that promotes nucleation of the CO2 left from fermentation.

Some purists prefer plug hops as they fear that the extra processing and compression of pellet hops may have an effect on the delicate hop oils and aroma. Personally I have noticed no significant difference between plug and pellet hops when dry hopping.

The amount of hops to use is largely a matter of preference. Between 1 and 2 oz (28-55g) per 5 gallons (19 L) is considered a moderate amount. Less can certainly be used if you are shooting for a mild floral aromatic, and true hopheads use as much as 4 oz of hops for 5 gallons for a burst of aroma.
Dry Hopping Methods
When should one add hops to the beer, and for how long? Some brewers add dry hops during primary fermentation, but most agree this can result in loss of precious hop aromas due to the steady stream of CO2 bubbling out of the fermenter.

The appropriate time to add dry hops is after primary fermentation has completed. Adding dry hops to the secondary maximizes the exposure without risking volatile aromas. A third option is to add dry hops directly to the keg, but this can result in some “grassy” flavors from overexposure as the hops may remain in the keg for months.

Some brewers use a mesh bag to make it easier to contain the hops and make them easier to separate from the beer later. Others merely separate the beer from hops carefully when siphoning later. Pellets tend to sink after a while, while whole hops and plugs tend to float. Obviously a bag is required for kegging your hops to keep the hops from plugging the keg.

The duration of dry hopping also varies widely. An exposure of several days is the minimum needed to extract aromatic oils. Most brewers dry hop for between 5 and 14 days. Those that add hops to a keg may leave the hops in contact with the beer for months. Some fear overexposure will add a “grassy” flavor, but I’ve never had a significant problem with this. I personally recommend 1-2 weeks in the secondary.

In these hop starved times, dry hopping has become a bit of a luxury, but an extra ounce or two added to the secondary can add a great burst of flavor for IPAs and other hoppy styles. Thanks again for visiting the BeerSmith Home Brewing Blog. Have a great brewing week.
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