So you want to be a homebrewer?

by Mark Mahon

Ok maybe not, but I had to start this somehow didn't I? So where should I start? First how many of you know how many types of beer there are?

Here are the style guidelines for a 11A - Mild.

Aroma: Low to moderate malt aroma, and may have some fruitiness. The malt expression can take on a wide range of character, which can include caramelly, grainy, toasted, nutty, chocolate, or lightly roasted. Little to no hop aroma. Very low to no diacetyl.

Appearance: Copper to dark brown or mahogany color. A few paler examples (medium amber to light brown) exist. Generally clear, although is traditionally unfiltered. Low to moderate off-white to tan head. Retention may be poor due to low carbonation, adjunct use and low gravity.

Flavor: Generally a malty beer, although may have a very wide range of malt- and yeast-based flavors (e.g., malty, sweet, caramel, toffee, toast, nutty, chocolate, coffee, roast, vinous, fruit, licorice, molasses, plum, raisin). Can finish sweet or dry. Versions with darker malts may have a dry, roasted finish. Low to moderate bitterness, enough to provide some balance but not enough to overpower the malt. Fruity esters moderate to none. Diacetyl and hop flavor low to none.

Mouthfeel: Light to medium body. Generally low to medium-low carbonation. Roast-based versions may have a light astringency. Sweeter versions may seem to have a rather full mouthfeel for the gravity.

Overall Impression: A light-flavored, malt-accented beer that is readily suited to drinking in quantity. Refreshing, yet flavorful. Some versions may seem like lower gravity brown porters.

History: May have evolved as one of the elements of early porters. In modern terms, the name "mild" refers to the relative lack of hop bitterness (i.e. less hoppy than a pale ale, and not so strong). Originally, the "mildness" may have referred to the fact that this beer was young and did not yet have the moderate sourness that aged batches had. Somewhat rare in England, good versions may still be found in the Midlands around Birmingham.

Comments: Most are low-gravity session beers, although some versions may be made in the stronger (4%+) range for export, festivals, seasonal and/or special occasions. Generally served on cask; session-strength bottled versions don't often travel well. A wide range of interpretations are possible.

Ingredients: Pale English base malts (often fairly dextrinous), crystal and darker malts should comprise the grist. May use sugar adjuncts. English hop varieties would be most suitable, though their character is muted. Characterful English ale yeast.

Using this information you formulate your recipe. In my case, for a 5 gallon batch, I used the following:
5 lbs Two Row Pale Malt
1 lb Carapils malt
.5 lb Crystal 60
.25 Chocolate Malt
.25 Roasted Barley
1 oz Williamette hops (60 min boil)
1 oz Progress hops (30 min boil)
Wyeast 1338 European Ale yeast
Using my handy dandy online recipe calculator, I end up with the following stats
OG 1.037
FG 1.009
IBU 48
ABV 3.6%
So other than the bittering (IBU's) I'm within the style guidelines.

Ok, so that might confuse the piss out of some of you and maybe even deter you from preceding any further, but stick with me here, and I'll try and make sense of some of it. Come on! Trust me, would I lie to you? Here, this might be of some help.

Terms
OG - Original Gravity, is the measure of malt sugars in solution prior to fermentation
FG - Final Gravity, is the measure of sugar in solution after fermentation
IBU - International Bittering Units, A system of indicating the hop bitterness in finished beer. A light American lager may have around 10 IBU's, an English mild ale around 20 units, an India Pale Ale 40 or higher, an Irish stout 55 to 60 and barley wine 65.
SRM - Standard Reference Method, is the method beer color is measured. Water, which is clear would have a SRM of 0 , Bud-Miller-Coors 2-3, a good stout 100+.
ABV - Alcohol by Volume
Body - This describes how heavy the beer is on your palate.
Mouth Feel- This is also a term used to describe the body of the beer, i.e. the mouth feel of the beer is very noticeable. Meaning it has a lot of body.
Viscosity - This has to do with the body of the beer and how it lingers on your palate. Not the flavor of the beer but the liquid itself.
Hop Aroma - This describes the aroma detected from smelling the beer before consumption. Hop aroma will increase perceived bitterness
Hop Flavor - This is the flavor from the hops added to the beer detected on the palate.
Hop Bitterness -This term is used to describe the finish of a beer that is derived from hop additions to the beer. Hops help balance the sweet flavor of the malt.
Malt Character - This describes the flavor imparted from the different malts used to brew the beer.
Finish - This term describes the lingering flavors on your palate after you swallow the beer. The finish can be many things, dry, sweet, clean, bitter, roasty, nutty or some combination of these.
Fermentation - The chemical process by which yeast converts sugars in wort solution into carbon dioxide and alcohol.
Beer - Malt, Hops, Water, Yeast;
Malt -Barley that has been roasted to varying degrees to achieve different colors, flavor, and sweetness.
Hops - Flowering bine plant used in beer for flavoring, bittering, and as a preservative
Yeast -Living microorganism responsible for converting sweet wort into beer. The byproducts of fermentation are carbon dioxide and alcohol.
Wort - The sugary liquid in which the yeast is added to produce the product we know as beer.

So are you totally confused now? Good! now we get to the really complicated part of homebrewing.

The Equipment!

First we have what is called the Hot liquor tank (HLT). Basically this is a pot used to heat your water, and doubles as you boil kettle, to boil the wort. Next we have what is called a Mash Tun. As you can see I'm using a 10 gallon Rubbermaid drinking cooler. This is used to "mash" the grain. In other words, to convert the starches in the grain, into fermentable sugars. And some type of chiller, This is used to quickly cool the boiling wort down to yeast pitching temperature. See the copper coil structure above.

Lastly you need a container to ferment in. I use a 7 gallon plastic bucket, with a tight sealing lid
That is basically all that is needed for "all grain" brewing. Got it? See I told you there is nothing to this! Now aren't you glad you stuck with me this far?

Again I'm not going to go into much detail on what happens next. I don't want to bore you any more than I already have. After fermentation is complete you have to decide, are you going to bottle your beer, or to keg it.
In my case since I have a bar, with a two tap tower and a kegerator,

I opt to keg my beer in 5 gallon corney kegs. Later if needed I can always fill bottles with my counter pressure filler. Both can be seen here.

Ok so your thinking, is that all there is? No? Well that's what I'm thinking so you'll just have to go with the flow and see how this whole thing ends! So what do you think is next...besides drinking your beer?

Competition!

Indiana, as most states do, has an annual homebrewed beer competition. This year the Indiana State Fair Brewers Cup Competition was held July 9th at the fairgrounds. Entries were accepted June 11th thru June 25th.

I volunteered to help unpack, sort, and mark over 370 entries (3 bottles per entry). That's over 1100 bottles of beer. I arrived at 2pm and the unpacking was already in progress, we didn't finish until after 11pm.

Alot of people put in long hours for this competition, but don't get the recognition they deserve. I won't single anyone out, or name any names or any such thing, but they know who they are

So are you still with me? I promise we are nearly to the end. So where are we now? We are to the...

Judging and Awards.

On July 9th the Indiana State Fair Brewers Cup Competition got under way. I had volunteered to be a Steward at this years competition, so I arrived at 8:30am, and got my assignment.

What a Steward does is pretty simple. I am assigned a table that has two judges. Each table is assigned a style or a similar combination of styles, and that is what is judged. The table I was assigned, was style 23A Specialty beer. This is a catch all category for beer.

From there it is pretty straight forward. Each bottle is presented to the judge, prior to opening, for their inspection. Then again at the discretion of the judges, the steward will open and pour the beer, or the judges will do it themselves. This goes on till all the beers have been judged, the score sheets filled out, and the 1st thru 3rd selected.

This brings us to the final part of my long winded, article. The awarding of ribbons to the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place beers in each category.

This was the initial year for the Indiana Homebrew Club of the Year competition. This award is based on medals won at the Brewers Cup by members of Indiana homebrew clubs. The Foam Blowers of Indiana (FBI), the Indianapolis based homebrew club, rallied their members to brew some serious award winning beers for the competition and had some serious fun at the Awards Reception.

FBI members, Ron Smith, and myself, dressed as the Brews Brothers, proudly entered the Awards Reception and started pouring some of our homebrew. We ended up pouring approximately 12 gallons of beer, out of the 4 corney kegs we had.

Can the other Indiana clubs present a challenge next year?