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When we started brewing, we basically did a lot of research and figured things out independently. Fortunately, Mike and I are good at researching and were able to find products and processes that worked well. Unfortunately, we felt like we were spending a lot more time researching and troubleshooting than brewing. When we decided to try our hand at making our own recipes, we were at a loss for how to do it. We had read books that included complicated calculations to determine mash temps, but we wanted something simpler. We came across Beersmith, purchased the software, and have been happy ever since. Below is a video tutorial of how to save a recipe in Beersmith and make some changes. I highly encourage anyone who wants to use Beersmith to not only watch our video but to also take advantage of the Beersmith tutorials. The tutorials are embedded throughout the program and cover every aspect of the program. Some topics covered in the video: - How to save a Beersmith recipe to your recipes - How to make changes and substitutions in Beersmith - How to setup a water profile - How to make pH changes - How to keep session notes - How to make a folder and move recipes into the folder - How 2JBC uses versions to keep track of changes to recipes PRO TIP: Every hop pack you buy has a AA% listed. If you want to make sure you have your IBUs accurate, change the AA% for the hops to the actual hops you are using. If you need to adjust the IBUs, Beersmith will adjust the IBUs for you and adjust them throughout the recipe to keep it balanced. This is a great way to ensure you have consistent IBU readings across recipes. We hope you enjoy the video. Cheers! 2JBC
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The first time Mike and I brewed a recipe from a kit, we were a bit confused. I clearly remember reading the hop additions and checking what was included a thousand times. The recipe asked for the same hop to be included at different intervals. I don't remember the exact hop that was used, but let's use Citra as an example. The recipe said use Citra Bittering and Citra Aroma hops. I thought these were two separate hops, so I kept looking for two separate packages of hops. I finally realized Citra was one hop, and the timing of the hops dictates whether it is used for bittering or aroma. We chuckle about this today. My hope is that anyone new to brewing can look over this blog on recipes and feel comfortable on their first brew day and not feel as overwhelmed and confused as I did. Disclaimer: This blog references Beersmith software. We paid for a subscription to Beersmith and have been using it for many years. This is not an endorsement of one beer recipe software over another. We happen to include Beersmith because we use Beersmith. The overall way you read a recipe is the same regardless of what program you choose to use. Also, we have not been compensated for using Beersmith in any capacity. Sample RecipeBelow is a free recipe you can obtain through Beersmith and not created by Two Jacks Brewing Company. We are using this recipe solely to share how to read the recipe. The recipe is sectioned off from top to bottom to discus each portion of the recipe. Name & Batch size The information on the top of recipes shares some key information to the brewer. First, we get the name. In the example above, the name of this beer is "Sierra Ale" and created by Brad Smith on 8/21/2003. From the information above, we know this is an all grain recipe and will create 5 gallons worth of beer. We also learn that this recipe requires a 60 min boil and uses a 6 gallon (or larger) brew pot and uses an Igloo cooler for mashing in. The equipment used becomes important because your equipment may very significantly from what was used by the recipe creator. For example, at 2JBC, we do not mash in an Igloo cooler, and our Brewhouse Efficiency is 90% not the 72% listed above. Because of these differences, I would need to adjust this recipe to work with my equipment and efficiency. These changes can be made within Beersmith, but this particular blog is only focusing on the basics of how to read the recipe. Next week, we will go a bit more in depth in how to change a recipe. Ingredients Just like a cooking recipe, ingredients are listed for everything you need for the recipe. For brewing, these ingredients are usually listed by type of ingredient--grain, hops, additions, and yeast. You'll notice that the grain is weighed by the pound. Please note that the grains need to be milled. Homebrew shops will typically weigh and mill the grain for you. For example, you can email Windsor Homebrew Supply in Costa Mesa, California your recipe (for all ingredients) or your grain order, and they will pull all the ingredients and mill the grain for you BEFORE you come to the shop. The grains above have an SRM listed after the grain. This refers to the color the grain will impart in your beer (we will go more into this next week). Hops are usually weighed by the ounce. If you look above, there are two hop additions in the boil--Pearle at the beginning of the 60 minute boil, and Cascade with 5 minutes left in the boil. The third hop addition is during dry hopping. This particular recipe states that Cascade will be dry hopped for 5 days. The yeast in this recipe is a liquid yeast from White Labs; however, you can substitute a dry yeast such as Safale US-05. A note on hops additions: recipes are written by boil times. If a recipe lists a hops addition at 60 minutes, it means the hops are added with 60 minutes left in the boil. You can really think of it as the hops need to boil for 60 minutes. A 30 minute hops addition means the hops will boil for 30 minutes. This can become a bit confusing the first time you make a recipe that requires a 90 minute boil. Just remember, if the hops state the addition is at 60 minutes in a 90 minute total boil time, that means that hops only need to be in the boil for 60 minutes. Just boil for 30 minutes and add the hops. Flame out hops will be listed as 0 minute hops addition because there is no additional boil time left. My honest opinion on dry hopping is not to really try it until you have accomplished a few brews. The first few batches you make, there is too much going on. If you do dryhop, remember that dry hopping happens AFTER fermentation ends. Let the yeast do their job and then add your hops. I time it so that I am racking out into my keg after the dryhop is completed. Beer profile The beer profile provides you with information on specific gravity readings before (original gravity) and after (final gravity) fermentation. For our first recipe, honestly, we struggled with finding the gravity. Reading a hydrometer takes time. I think Mike and I double and triple checked our readings until we could both agree on the same number. Now, we use a refractometer for our original gravity reading (actually we take a brix reading and convert the reading to an original gravity using an online calculator). This recipe has the potential to have 4.72% ABV; the actual alcohol by volume is estimated at 4.3%. This discrepancy is due to the fact that this recipe was written for a brewhouse efficiency of 72%. This means that some of the sugars are not fully extracted from the grains. The final gravity is taken AFTER the yeast has finished attenuating (i.e., fermentation is complete). To find the ABV, I use an online calculator and input my original and final gravity to find the ABV. Last, you'll notice above that the recipe also includes information on bitterness (IBUs), color (SRM), and calories per pint. Some personal advice: I always have a pen and hardcopy of a recipe handy to take notes during a brewing session. I note any issues we encountered (i.e., flame that was blown out, propane tank that went out, stuck sparge, etc.) along with any minor changes made (i.e., extra hops added, a hop substitution, change of yeast, etc.). While brewing, I also take a pH reading of the mash and keep track of my BRIX readings. For more complicated recipes, I also check off where I am in the recipe so that I don't accidentally miss anything (it can really ruin your day when you realize you forgot to include a hops addition...not that I would know from personal experience, of course!). Mash profile The mash profile section is really where the directions of how to mash are included. In this recipe, water needs to be heated to 170.5 degrees (called strike water). Once heated to the correct temp, the grains will be mashed in to the water. Note: ALWAYS add the grain to the water and then stir the grain in. Doing this prevents the formation of dough balls which can lower your efficiency and prevent some of the sugar conversion. If you notice, the temperature once the grains are mashed in should be held as close to 158 degrees as possible for 45 minutes. You may be thinking to yourself, why do we have strike water at 170.5 degrees to then hold the temp at 158 degrees? Excellent question! The difference of temperature accounts for the lowering of the water temperature once the grains are added to the water. The beauty of using beer recipe software is the software takes the guessing out of what temperature to make the strike water and provides you with the temperature. Since this recipe uses a mash cooler, typically the grains would be mashed in and let to sit in the cooler for 45 minutes and then vorlaufed (i.e., recirculated) before lautering or rinsing the grain. Our 2JBC setup is a bit different as we use a temperature controlled recirculated mash. In Beersmith, you can make changes to the recipe to account for your equipment and brewing style. After mashing, remember that you will be boiling the wort. In this recipe, you need to look back to the section on Name & Batch size to find that the wort will boil for 60 minutes. Also, you will need to look back to the Ingredients section to see the hops schedule for the recipe. Recipes DO NOT include information on chilling the wort (at least, I have never seen one that does). Just remember, you need to chill your wort as quickly as possible and then introduce yeast once the temperature of the chilled wort is cool enough for the yeast. Note: You will notice that this recipe is in Imperial measurements, some recipes may be listed in metric measurements. While I am a dual citizen of the UK and the USA, I am not ashamed to admit that my ability to convert from Imperial to metric measurements is lacking (much to my British mum's dismay). So, be prepared that some recipes from European countries may require a bit of conversion from metric measurements prior to brewing. CArbonation & STorage Carbonating the beer is really Mike's area of expertise. However, every recipe includes some information on storage temperature, how long to age a beer, and temperatures for storing a beer. Some recipes will suggest racking out to a secondary for conditioning your beer before service. Personally, I omit this step. In all the beers we have made, we have never racked over to a secondary. I suppose this is more of a brewer's personal choice. As with everything today, I'm sure brewers have strong opinions one way or another. After our beer is done fermenting, we rack over to kegs. Occasionally, we may need to add Silafine (some brewers use gelatin) to clear out a beer. Most of the time, we just tap the keg and enjoy. The only time I could think of racking over to a secondary is if I was adding an ingredient while dry hopping that I felt would be bad for my fermenter. In all of our brews, this hasn't happened yet. Also, I have never bottle conditioned beer...it's just not my thing. Cleaning and sanitizing bottles is very unappealing to me. However, I have tasted homebrews that were excellent and bottle conditioned. My point is, there is no write or wrong method...you will find the method that works best for you. Next week, I will be sharing a video blog on how everything looks in Beersmith and what features we use to help us create recipes.
Cheers! 2JBC Now that the you've made wort from the grains and boiled it with hops, it's time to move the wort to the fermenter. At 2JBC, we have spent a lot of time on the cold side of the brewing process. Brewers spend a lot of time fielding questions about RIMS tubes, mashing techniques, and hop spiders; however, it is the cold side that really stands out to us as the game changer. Cooling the wortOnce the time is up on your boil, most people begin cooling their wort as fast as possible. However, at 2JBC, we take an additional step to Whirlpool our beer for 10 minutes and let it sit for another 10 minutes to coagulate the proteins in the wort and separate the trub from the clear wort. After the whirlpool is complete, we then begin to cool our wort as quickly as possible and lower the temperature for fermentation to begin. We have tried many types of wort chilling including ice baths, immersion chiller (a copper chiller that uses water to chill the wort), plate chiller (water runs in one direction over the plates while wort runs over the plates in the opposite direciton to cool the wort), and a counterflow chiller (similar to a plate chiller but there are coils instead of plates the water and wort pass over). All have pros and cons, but we have settled on the Brutus Counterflow chiller from Exchilerator. Using the Exchilerator, we have been able to cool down our wort in 10-15 minutes and get the wort to pitching temperatures very quickly in a closed system (i.e., the wort leaves the kettle and no longer touches air). Once the wort is cooled and in the fermenter, we connect either the SS Brewtech Chronicals or the Sanke fermenters to the glychol chiller. We then pitch our yeast, hookup a blowoff tube, and then wait for fermentation to start. The blowoff tube is a piece of silicone tube attached to an opening in the fermenter that allows C02 created during fermentation to escape the fermenter. I know, I know. You heard that oxygen is bad for beer. No...you haven't? Well, oxygen is bad for beer. Oxidized beer creates an off flavor that tastes and smells like wet cardboard or old wine (yeah, there is a guy that probably tasted cardboard to know the flavor). Well, the reason the beer doesn't become oxidized is that the other end of the blowoff tube is put into a bucket filled with sanitizer. The C02 from the fermentation mixed with the closed end in sanitizer creates an environment that prevents oxygen from reaching the wort. When fermentation starts, the sanitizer will actually bubble due to the C02 created during active fermentation. After fermentation ends, the beer is transferred to either kegs or bottles.
fermentersWhen we first started brewing, we transferred our beer to plastic buckets to ferment in a dark spot in our garage. We quickly realized that beer likes a constant temperature, so we upgraded to a fermentation chamber (i.e., a temperature controlled freezer) and glass carboys. However, Mike got tired really quickly of lifting glass carboys with 5 gallons of liquid into a freezer, so we upgraded to SS Brewbuckets. After buying our brew buckets, we decided to find a way to brew lager beers that require colder fermentation. We settled on Sanke kegs that we modified with 6 inch ferrules (easy to clean) with Cool Zone wraps. At first, we pumped cold water through the wraps and changed out ice constantly. When we moved to a glychol chiller, we were able to really "set it and forget it" with our fermentation. We are now fully transferring our beer in a closed system to minimize oxygenation of the beer. We now have six Sanke fermenters and two 1 barrel Chronicals to ferment in. We have since gotten rid of our glass carboys and plastic buckets; however, we still have our 7.5 gallon SS Brewtech Brewbuckets that we have since added a thermowell to help monitor the temperature (we use the Cool Zone wraps for these). Today, we use our fermenters to brew 5, 10, and 20 gallon batches. How to serveAt 2JBC, we have not bottle conditioned beer where priming sugar is added to the bottle so that the beer can develop C02 (i.e. bubbles!). Instead of bottle conditioning, we have always transferred to a keg and force carbonated beer with a C02 tank. Once the keg has enough C02 dissolved in the beer, the C02 is used to push the beer out of the keg and into your glass. At 2JBC, we made keezers to transfer our beer instead of using a purchased kegerator. We also have a storage chamber that allows us to store beer under C02 pressure to be ready to serve when one keg taps out. We also now have several other service types--an Oktober canning machine so that we can easily bring our homebrews camping or golfing and a jockey box that allows us to serve at competitions. Now that we are entering competitions, we need to learn how to bottle beer (from the keg, not bottle conditioned) so that we can ship our beers to competitions which seems to be the preferred method for judging competition beers. This is a beginning guide to our process. If you have any questions, please reach out. We are always happy to help fellow or future brewers and provide any help we can.
We'll see you next week when we go over how to read a recipe! Cheers! 2JBC After going over the basics, it's time to dive into how we go about using our kettles to make delicious beer. By now, you know that our goal is to extract the fermentable sugars from grains and create clear WORT that the yeast will enjoy eating. equipment we use:1. Recipe, pens/pencils, & ingredients (water, hops, grain, water additives) 2. pH meter 3. Brew Paddle (ours is stainless steel) 4. 3 propane burners 5. 3 Brew pots (we have two 50 gallon Brew Built pots and one 50 gallon SS Brewtech pot) 6. False bottom for the Mash Tun 7. RIMS Tube w/ sight glass 8. 2 Chugger pumps 9. An assortment of silicone hoses with Quick Disconnect Fittings 10. Whirlpool 11. Hop bags (we have tried a variety of options, but we prefer using hop bags) 12. Refractometer 13. Brewing gloves (heat resistant and help when moving hoses with hot liquid) 14. Small pitchers/buckets to hold the silicone hoses, hot liquid, etc.
 In the picture above, you can see our brew cart setup. Traditionally, the three vessels are setup from left to right as the hot liquor tank (HLT), mash tun (MT), and boil kettle (BK). However, we setup our cart in a different order to accommodate the rolling cart that holds our RIMS tube. Our HLT is actually setup in the middle of our cart. You can see that we have two carts for pumps. We attached our pumps to furniture dollies purchased at Harbor Freight for under $20. This is a very inexpensive way to make your carts more mobile. If you look closely, you'll see that our pumps have outdoor faucet attachments. Those faucets allow us to purge the silicone tubing of air bubbles so that the hot liquid can easily flow through the pump. Also, if we get a stuck mash, we can open the faucet and have any small particles of grain dump out before hitting the pump and clogging it. This system has worked out well for us. Also, the reddish orange (they were once bright red) mats on the wood cart are BBQ mats that we repurposed to stop hot liquid from getting into the wood. The mats have worked out well and keep the cart from becoming sticky from spilled hot wort. In the future, we hope to build a stainless steel cart that will have pumps in a permanent location; however, we don't see the need to spend the money on that as this cart is working well for us. When we brew, there are several steps that we take before we even begin to heat up water. The night before we brew (or several days before), we "make" water by filtering our water through our reverse osmosis system. We also print out our recipe and reread it to make sure we have all ingredients on hand--we started doing this because we have brewed a few times and realized, oops! we forgot the yeast! Currently, we are dialing in our larger system, and we decided to stop making yeast starters and focus on yeast starters and harvesting yeast once we feel more comfortable in the rest of our setup. So, for now, we are using dried yeast which has been working out fine so far. In the morning, Mike and I divide up the brewing tasks. Mike sets up the cart and RIMS tube while I measure out the water additives and hops needed to brew. When it comes to the actual brewing, I focus on the mash pH, the Brix & gravity readings, the timing of the mash, watching the recirculation & boil, and hop additions. Mike focuses on setting up the silicone tubing and pumps, prepping the wort chillers and fermenters, and all things related to cleaning and sanitizing. Having separate duties while brewing has created a more efficient brew day that gives us each a clear purpose/direction for the day and keeps us from running into each other. We each take part in the cleaning after brewing with me focusing on cleaning the kettles while Mike focuses on cleaning the pumps, RIMS tube, and hoses. The video above shows the transfer of water heated to strike temperature in the HLT and pumped to the MT. You can see the water come up from the bottom of the MT and through the false bottom. Once the water is completely transferred over, we recheck the temperature of the water and once it reaches the temp required, we mash in our grains. Unfortunately, we don't currently have a video of us mashing in. Basically, Mike starts slowly adding grains to the water while I stir the water with a brew paddle to prevent the formation of dough balls. The strike temperature is always slightly higher than the mash temperature as adding the grains to the water will cool the temperature. The false bottom keeps the grains off the bottom of the MT and helps to prevent a stuck mash (i.e., the grains preventing the liquid from leaving the MT).
After we mash in the grain and break up any dough balls, we begin to recirculate the liquid in the MT. A ball valve on the bottom of the MT is opened up and the liquid flows to the pump and through our RIMS tube. The rims tube has a heating element that keeps the liquid at a set temperature and then pumps the liquid through a sight glass to the sparge arm. This process of moving the liquid from the bottom of the kettle and back to the top makes the wort crystal clear and cleans out any leftover debris from the grain. This process continues at a set temperature until the desired amount of Brix is reached (i.e., the desired amount of sugar is extracted from the grain). Typically, this takes 60-75 minutes, depending on the grains used and style of beer created. After 10 minutes, we take a pH of the mash to determine if we need to make any adjustments to the mash. In the videos above, the left video shows the recirculating mash process; however, the video uses water to demonstrate the process. The video on the right shows how the sparge arm works. We leave the valve on open to start the recirculating process and then lower the amount of liquid coming out of the sparge arm to more of a trickle. After we finish the recirculating mash process, we begin to sparge or rinse the grains and transfer the liquid wort over to the BK. First, we reheat water in our HLT and then pump the water through the RIMS tube and sparge arm. This water rinses the grain bed. As the water trickles over the grain bed, the MT is opened and the liquid flows into a second pump that pumps the liquid into the BK. The trick is to keep an inch or two of liquid above the grain bed through the process. You continue to rinse the grain bed until the required amount of liquid is in the BK. The video above shows the sparging process. Once the liquid is transferred into the BK, another Brix reading with the refractometer is taken along with another pH reading. The liquid wort is then brought to a rolling boil. At this point, it is critical to watch the BK as a hot break happens where proteins and polyphenols coagulate and cause a boil over. To prevent the dreaded boil over, you can turn down the flame on the burner or spray water on the foamy top of the boil to cause the proteins to coagulate and fall back into the pot. A typical brew day consists of a 60-90 minute boil depending on your recipe and type of beer being brewed. During the boil process, hops are added at various intervals to add flavor to the wort. In the last 15 minutes of the boil, we typically add either Whirloc or Irish Moss to the kettle to help clear out the wort from any debris. Once the boil ends, we turn off the flame and begin a 10 minute whirlpool followed by a 10 minute rest. During this time, the liquid in the BK is pumped out of the kettle and through the whirlpool to force the liquid to move in a circular pattern. The circular motion of the whirlpool causes the debris from the hops and grain to congregate in the center of the BK and remain in the pot while clear wort is transferred to the fermenter.
The picture on the left shows the boil. You can see the foam towards the left and the foam on the right that has dissipated. This is from the hot break. In the right picture , you can see the tube used for the whirlpool and the leftover sediment left in the BK after racking over to the fermenter.
And this concludes our hot side brewing process. Next week, we'll show you our cold side process. Cheers! 2JBC |
AuthorTwo Jacks Brewers Archives
May 2024
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