The Brew Times
How to brew with DME?
{{widget type="Solvature\VideoSlider\Block\Widget\VideoSliderWidget" video_embed1="kci5Gx-UF2k" video_title1="How to brew with DME?" video_cta_color1="white" video_cta_color2="white" video_cta_color3="white" video_cta_color4="white" video_cta_color5="white"}} Brewing with DME can be a little challenging especially if you have never used it before. I think the 1st time I tried it I had a big overflow in my pot and sickly liquid got all over the place, it took forever to clean up. After a few times, you get more use to it and it just becomes pretty easy to use. DME is just liquid malt extract that has been all the way dried out into a powder form. Some of the benefits of DME are that it can be stored for a long time and that it will not darken your beer during a boil like liquid malt extract can. The main downfall of DME is it can be hard to work with. So I thought it would be useful to go over some simple steps to make the process a little easier. Whenever the instructions tell you to add your DME you want to do this very slowly. To turn the heat on and start to warm your water. Cut just the corner of the bag of DME. If you open the whole bag and just dump it all in you will have a plume of sticky dust and it will be hard to mix up. Once your bag is open you just want to slowly sprinkle in the DME and while you are sprinkling it in you want be consistently mixing it into the water with a whisk. If you don’t get it all mixed or you get some clumping that is fine, the yeast will still break that down in your fermenter. Now if you are going to do a hop boil with DME you want to make sure that you get to the hot breakpoint. After you mix your DME and it is starting to boil you will notice the foam will start to rise. If you do not keep the foam in check until you reach hot break it will overflow. As the foam rises you can remove the pot from the heat for a few so it slows down then put it back on, you can also keep stirring the mixture or use a spray bottle with water to keep the foam back. You will notice that when you hit the hot break the majority of the foam will go away, and it will just look like a boil or some people say it looks like Egg Drop Soup. It can take anywhere from 5-20 minutes to reach this point. Now you don’t always need to wait to reach hot break before adding your hops, you can add them once you start boiling, you just want to keep an eye on it to prevent boil overs. Hope this helps improve your DME brewing processes! These are the steps I was taught when I first brewed with DME and I have never forgotten them. Cheers, Robert
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Can you add more yeast to your already bottled beer?
{{widget type="Solvature\VideoSlider\Block\Widget\VideoSliderWidget" video_embed1="8qyQH2_dqLY" video_title1="Can you add more yeast to your already bottled beer?" video_cta_color1="white" video_cta_color2="white" video_cta_color3="white" video_cta_color4="white" video_cta_color5="white"}} You have bottled your beer and let it sit for 2 weeks. You go to check on your bottles and they are still flat! Can you add more yeast to save them? We break it down in this episode of BrewTalk with Mr. Beer. Imagine that you bottle your beer and then you go to grab one and put it in the fridge and the bottles are soft, it feels like there is no pressure in the bottles at all. Worse yet, you put one bottle in the fridge and then you go to drink it and its either super flat or it has a slightly off-flavor that tastes like butter or cider. What do you do? You can add more yeast to the rest of your bottles to either add carbonation to your brew or to help clean up an off-flavor in your beer. There are a few considerations that you need to examine before you do this. Make sure your bottles aren’t leaking. If C02 is escaping, adding more yeast won’t fix the problem. In these cases, sometimes you can try and rebottle, which is not really recommend as it opens up an entire doorway to infection and oxygenation if not done properly. You also need to add more sugar as what was in there was consumed by the yeast. So, if you have leaky bottles adding more yeast will not help create any more C02 in your beer. The other factor is that if your beer has an anaerobic infection adding more yeast won't help. This is basically anything other than that butter or cidery taste in beer that you get from diacetyl or aldehydes in your beer. If those are not a consideration, then you want to follow this process to add more yeast to your bottles. Get a packet of fresh, unopened yeast that is the same as the yeast you brewed the beer with Sanitize and dry a small saucer or plate Wash your hands VERY well Sprinkle some yeast in a thin layer on the saucer Open the bottle and firmly press your fingertip onto the granules so that they stick. (your fingertip should be pretty consistently covered with yeast) Sprinkle what was lifted by your finger into the bottle Quickly reseal the bottle and give it a gentle squeeze to assure there are no leaks Move your bottles to a warm area for 2-3 weeks. That’s it. Now this might not always work as we listed out the other factors that could be at play when you go to do this, but it never hurts to try. Cheers, Robert
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Alternative Yeast Options for Mr. Beer Refills
If you are looking for an easy way to jazz up your Mr. Beer refill, we have an easy solution for you! Just change out the yeast! Yeast imparts a lot of the flavor that you get in your beer so doing a simple change of yeast can create a dramatically different beer. Below we break out all the best options for what yeast to add to each refill. Each yeast will add bring about its own characteristic and flavor to your beer. Cheers! Classic American Light Possible alternative yeast options: Safale US-05 – This yeast ferments clean, with low off-flavors, and finishes relatively dry. It’s a great all-around ale yeast. Safbrew S-33 – This is a Belgian yeast style. It is fruity and bright in character, perfect for creating blondes, Dubbel, Tripel, and Quad styles. Also great for heavily hopped or fruity beers. Safale S-04 – This is a broad spectrum English ale yeast. Typically suited for milds, stouts, browns, porters, and heavily hopped IPA. Provides great precipitation of yeast and creates a tightly compacted trub layer, helping to produce clearer beer. This yeast favors malt flavors and is great for beers that are malt centric, but works well for certain hoppy styles as well. Lallemand Belle Saison – This is a spicy and fruity Saison style yeast of Belgian origin. This yeast has a strong character and allows you to brew beer at temperatures up to 85 degrees! American Lager Possible yeast alternative options: Saflager S-23 – This is a true, bottom-fermenting lager yeast that requires a standard lager fermentation temp of 54-59 degrees but can be brewed up to 75 degrees for certain styles like California Common. This is a fairly estery and fruity lager yeast. It can be used to turn your refill into a “true” lager. Saflager W-34/70 - This is a true bottom-fermenting lager yeast. This yeast comes from the original Weihenstephan strain used by the German brewery. This yeast creates relatively neutral flavors on the lower end of the temperature spectrum and becomes a bit more estery with higher temps. Brews a beautiful, clean bohemian lager beer. Safbrew S-33 - This is a Belgian yeast style. It is fruity and bright in character, perfect for creating blondes, Dubbel, Tripel, and Quad styles. Also great for heavily hopped or fruity beers. Safale US-05 – This yeast ferments clean, with low off-flavors, and finishes relatively dry. It’s a great all-around ale yeast. Safale S-04 – This is a broad spectrum English ale yeast. Typically suited for milds, stouts, browns, porters, and heavily hopped IPA. Provides great precipitation of yeast and creates a tightly compacted trub layer, helping to produce clearer beer. This yeast favors malt flavors and is great for beers that are malt centric, but works well for certain hoppy styles as well. American Ale Possible yeast alternative options: Safale US-05 – This yeast ferments clean, with low off-flavors, and finishes relatively dry. It’s a great all-around ale yeast. Safale S-04 – This is a broad spectrum English ale yeast. Typically suited for milds, stouts, browns, porters, and heavily hopped IPA. Provides great precipitation of yeast and creates a tightly compacted trub layer, helping to produce clearer beer. This yeast favors malt flavors and is great for beers that are malt centric, but works well for certain hoppy styles as well. Safbrew S-33 - This is a Belgian yeast style. It is fruity and bright in character, perfect for creating blondes, Dubbel, Tripel, and Quad styles. Also great for heavily hopped or fruity beers. Safale T-58 – This yeast is selected for its strong fermentation character, intensely fruity, and phenolic flavors – especially banana, clove, and peppery notes. Suitable for a great variety of wheat-based beers and fruity-spicy oriented styles. This yeast prefers to be brewed at 59-70 degrees. Lallemand Belle Saison – This is a spicy and fruity Saison style yeast of Belgian origin. This yeast has a strong character and allows you to brew beer at temperatures up to 85 degrees! American Porter Possible yeast alternative options: Safale S-04 – This is a broad spectrum English ale yeast. Typically suited for milds, stouts, browns, porters, and heavily hopped IPA. Provides great precipitation of yeast and creates a tightly compacted trub layer, helping to produce clearer beer. This yeast favors malt flavors and is great for beers that are malt centric, but works well for certain hoppy styles as well. Safale T-58 – This yeast is selected for its strong fermentation character, intensely fruity and phenolic flavors – especially banana, clove, and peppery notes. Suitable for a great variety of wheat-based beers and fruity-spicy oriented styles. This yeast prefers to be brewed at 59-70 degrees. Safale US-05 – This yeast ferments clean, with low off-flavors, and finishes relatively dry. It’s a great all-around ale yeast. Oktoberfest Lager Possible yeast alternative options: Safale S-04 – This is a broad spectrum English ale yeast. Typically suited for milds, stouts, browns, porters, and heavily hopped IPA. Provides great precipitation of yeast and creates a tightly compacted trub layer, helping to produce clearer beer. This yeast favors malt flavors and is great for beers that are malt centric, but works well for certain hoppy styles as well. Saflager W-34/70 - This is a true bottom-fermenting lager yeast. This yeast comes from the original Weihenstephan strain used by the German brewery. This yeast creates relatively neutral flavors on the lower end of the temperature spectrum and becomes a bit more estery with higher temps. Brews a beautiful, clean bohemian lager beer. Saflager S-23 – This is a true, bottom-fermenting lager yeast that requires a standard lager fermentation temp of 54-59 degrees but can be brewed up to 75 degrees for certain styles like California Common. This is a fairly estery and fruity lager yeast. It can be used to turn your refill into a “true” lager. Safale US-05 – This yeast ferments clean, with low off-flavors, and finishes relatively dry. It’s a great all-around ale yeast. Safbrew S-33 - This is a Belgian yeast style. It is fruity and bright in character, perfect for creating blondes, Dubbel, Tripel, and Quad styles. Also great for heavily hopped or fruity beers. St. Patrick’s Irish Stout Possible yeast alternative options: Safale S-04 – This is a broad spectrum English ale yeast. Typically suited for milds, stouts, browns, porters, and heavily hopped IPA. Provides great precipitation of yeast and creates a tightly compacted trub layer, helping to produce clearer beer. This yeast favors malt flavors and is great for beers that are malt centric, but works well for certain hoppy styles as well. Safale US-05 – This yeast ferments clean, with low off-flavors, and finishes relatively dry. It’s a great all-around ale yeast. Grand Bohemian Czech Pilsner Possible yeast alternative options: Saflager W-34/70 - This is a true bottom-fermenting lager yeast. This yeast comes from the original Weihenstephan strain used by the German brewery. This yeast creates relatively neutral flavors on the lower end of the temperature spectrum and becomes a bit more estery with higher temps. Brews a beautiful, clean bohemian lager beer. Saflager S-23 – This is a true, bottom-fermenting lager yeast that requires a standard lager fermentation temp of 54-59 degrees but can be brewed up to 75 degrees for certain styles like California Common. This is a fairly estery and fruity lager yeast. It can be used to turn your refill into a “true” lager. Safale US-05 – This yeast ferments clean, with low off-flavors, and finishes relatively dry. It’s a great all-around ale yeast. Safbrew S-33 - This is a Belgian yeast style. It is fruity and bright in character, perfect for creating blondes, Dubbel, Tripel, and Quad styles. Also great for heavily hopped or fruity beers. Canadian Blonde Possible yeast alternative options: Safbrew S-33 - This is a Belgian yeast style. It is fruity and bright in character, perfect for creating blondes, Dubbel, Tripel, and Quad styles. Also great for heavily hopped or fruity beers. Safale US-05 – This yeast ferments clean, with low off-flavors, and finishes relatively dry. It’s a great all-around ale yeast. Safale S-04 – This is a broad spectrum English ale yeast. Typically suited for milds, stouts, browns, porters, and heavily hopped IPA. Provides great precipitation of yeast and creates a tightly compacted trub layer, helping to produce clearer beer. This yeast favors malt flavors and is great for beers that are malt centric, but works well for certain hoppy styles as well. Safale T-58 – This yeast is selected for its strong fermentation character, intensely fruity and phenolic flavors – especially banana, clove, and peppery notes. Suitable for a great variety of wheat-based beers and fruity-spicy oriented styles. This yeast prefers to be brewed at 59-70 degrees. Lallemand Belle Saison – This is a spicy and fruity Saison style yeast of Belgian origin. This yeast has a strong character and allows you to brew beer at temperatures up to 85 degrees! Saflager W-34/70 - This is a true bottom-fermenting lager yeast. This yeast comes from the original Weihenstephan strain used by the German brewery. This yeast creates relatively neutral flavors on the lower end of the temperature spectrum and becomes a bit more estery with higher temps. Brews a beautiful, clean bohemian lager beer. Bavarian Weissbier Possible yeast alternative options: Safale Wb-06 – This yeast provides fruity and phenolic character, varying with the fermentation temperatures. Produces well-attenuated beers and it is ideal for wheat base beers, such as Belgian and German Styles (Ex. Wit Beers and Weizen Beers). Produces typical phenolic notes of wheat beers, including clove and banana. Safale T-58 – This yeast is selected for its strong fermentation character, intensely fruity, and phenolic flavors – especially banana, clove, and peppery notes. Suitable for a great variety of wheat-based beers and fruity-spicy oriented styles. This yeast prefers to be brewed at 59-70 degrees. Lallemand Belle Saison – This is a spicy and fruity Saison style yeast of Belgian origin. This yeast has a strong character and allows you to brew beer at temperatures up to 85 degrees! Safbrew S-33 - This is a Belgian yeast style. It is fruity and bright in character, perfect for creating blondes, Dubbel, Tripel, and Quad styles. Also great for heavily hopped or fruity beers. Aztec Mexican Cerveza Possible yeast alternative options: Safale US-05 – This yeast ferments clean, with low off-flavors, and finishes relatively dry. It’s a great all-around ale yeast. Safale S-04 – This is a broad spectrum English ale yeast. Typically suited for milds, stouts, browns, porters, and heavily hopped IPA. Provides great precipitation of yeast and creates a tightly compacted trub layer, helping to produce clearer beer. This yeast favors malt flavors and is great for beers that are malt centric, but works well for certain hoppy styles as well. Safbrew S-33 - This is a Belgian yeast style. It is fruity and bright in character, perfect for creating blondes, Dubbel, Tripel, and Quad styles. Also great for heavily hopped or fruity beers. Golden Ale Possible yeast alternative options: Safale Wb-06 – This yeast provides fruity and phenolic character, varying with the fermentation temperatures. Produces well-attenuated beers and it is ideal for wheat base beers, such as Belgian and German Styles (Ex. Wit Beers and Weizen Beers). Produces typical phenolic notes of wheat beers, including clove and banana. Lallemand Belle Saison – This is a spicy and fruity Saison style yeast of Belgian origin. This yeast has a strong character and allows you to brew beer at temperatures up to 85 degrees! Safbrew S-33 - This is a Belgian yeast style. It is fruity and bright in character, perfect for creating blondes, Dubbel, Tripel, and Quad styles. Also great for heavily hopped or fruity beers. Safale T-58 – This yeast is selected for its strong fermentation character, intensely fruity, and phenolic flavors – especially banana, clove, and peppery notes. Suitable for a great variety of wheat-based beers and fruity-spicy oriented styles. This yeast prefers to be brewed at 59-70 degrees. Safale US-05 – This yeast ferments clean, with low off-flavors, and finishes relatively dry. It’s a great all-around ale yeast. Long Play IPA Possible yeast alternative options: Safale US-05 – This yeast ferments clean, with low off-flavors, and finishes relatively dry. It’s a great all-around ale yeast. Safale S-04 – This is a broad spectrum English ale yeast. Typically suited for milds, stouts, browns, porters, and heavily hopped IPA. Provides great precipitation of yeast and creates a tightly compacted trub layer, helping to produce clearer beer. This yeast favors malt flavors and is great for beers that are malt centric, but works well for certain hoppy styles as well. Safbrew S-33 - This is a Belgian yeast style. It is fruity and bright in character, perfect for creating blondes, Dubbel, Tripel, and Quad styles. Also great for heavily hopped or fruity beers. Bewitched Amber Ale Possible yeast alternative options: Safale S-04 – This is a broad spectrum English ale yeast. Typically suited for milds, stouts, browns, porters, and heavily hopped IPA. Provides great precipitation of yeast and creates a tightly compacted trub layer, helping to produce clearer beer. This yeast favors malt flavors and is great for beers that are malt centric, but works well for certain hoppy styles as well. Safale US-05 – This yeast ferments clean, with low off-flavors, and finishes relatively dry. It’s a great all-around ale yeast. Northwest Pale ale Possible yeast alternative options: Safale US-05 – This yeast ferments clean, with low off-flavors, and finishes relatively dry. It’s a great all-around ale yeast. Safbrew S-33 - This is a Belgian yeast style. It is fruity and bright in character, perfect for creating blondes, Dubbel, Tripel, and Quad styles. Also great for heavily hopped or fruity beers. Safale S-04 – This is a broad spectrum English ale yeast. Typically suited for milds, stouts, browns, porters, and heavily hopped IPA. Provides great precipitation of yeast and creates a tightly compacted trub layer, helping to produce clearer beer. This yeast favors malt flavors and is great for beers that are malt centric, but works well for certain hoppy styles as well. Diablo IPA Possible yeast alternative options: Safale US-05 – This yeast ferments clean, with low off-flavors, and finishes relatively dry. It’s a great all-around ale yeast. Safale S-04 – This is a broad spectrum English ale yeast. Typically suited for milds, stouts, browns, porters, and heavily hopped IPA. Provides great precipitation of yeast and creates a tightly compacted trub layer, helping to produce clearer beer. This yeast favors malt flavors and is great for beers that are malt centric, but works well for certain hoppy styles as well. Safbrew S-33 - This is a Belgian yeast style. It is fruity and bright in character, perfect for creating blondes, Dubbel, Tripel, and Quad styles. Also great for heavily hopped or fruity beers.
Read moreCan you take your beer out of the refrigerator to further condition it?
{{widget type="Solvature\VideoSlider\Block\Widget\VideoSliderWidget" video_embed1="PYoMDhDIzvY" video_title1="Can you take your beer out of the refrigerator to further condition it?" video_cta_color1="white" video_cta_color2="white" video_cta_color3="white" video_cta_color4="white" video_cta_color5="white"}} This is a subject that is often debated amongst brewers, once you put your beer in the fridge can you take it out to let it condition for any off-flavors you might have. We break it down for you in this week’s episode. Now there is not a definite yes or no answer with this question, it really does depend on some factors. It most certainly can work, and it is something I have personally done before but you do have some time constraints that can affect it as well as overall yeast health. That is why in any of our instructions we always recommend that you put 1 or 2 bottles in the fridge first to try it before you add the others. This is a good way to gauge if the rest of your batch is ready to be chilled or if it needs some longer conditioning time. So let’s talk about the time constraints first that can affect this. The safe range we have found for taking a beer out of the fridge to let it further condition would be 7 days. At this stage, the yeast is most likely not dead, but just dormant. So as it warms up the yeast should wake back up and get back to work. If you are in the range of 7-14 days, there is a strong possibility that taking the beers out of the fridge will not do anything. By this point the yeast is starting to die, so once it warms back up you might not have enough viable healthy yeast cells left to get back to work. So, it could work still but most likely it will not. Anything longer than 14 days the yeast is pretty much dead at that point, so you won’t get any benefit from taking the beer out of the fridge. The other factor in this is yeast health, you want to make sure that you are following the brewing directions very closely as this helps promote yeast health. Make sure you are sanitizing everything thoroughly, you are adding cold water to your LBK to cool down the wort, and that you are aerating the wort extremely well prior to pitching the yeast. All of these will help promote healthy yeast growth. This will give you more viable yeast so if you do have to take your beer out of the fridge to condition it, as long as your time frame is good, you should have enough healthy yeast cells to clean up any lingering off-flavors. Again, I can’t stress enough, that is why we do suggest that you just put 1 or 2 beers in the fridge at first and see if you like them. If they taste good, then put them all in the fridge and enjoy it! If you have off-flavors in the one you try, let the beers condition for another week or two and then try it again. Please comment with your thoughts on this subject as we want to hear what you guys think as well. This is not a set-in-stone brewing rule and is based on everyone’s experience. Cheers, Robert
Read moreHow to store malt, hops, yeast and grains if you are not brewing right away.
{{widget type="Solvature\VideoSlider\Block\Widget\VideoSliderWidget" video_embed1="yRVvOPTHgww" video_title1="How to store malt, hops, yeast and grains if you are not brewing right away." video_cta_color1="white" video_cta_color2="white" video_cta_color3="white" video_cta_color4="white" video_cta_color5="white"}} In this video, we break down the best ways for you to store your homebrewing ingredients in-between brews, Cheers! Often times things come up and you are not able to brew right away, or we have such an awesome sale going that you stock up on a few different brews. Now unless you have built out an awesome brewhouse and you have 4 LBK’s going at any one time it could take a few weeks or months to move through 3 or 4 different recipes depending on what you are brewing, so it is critical that you ingredients are stored properly. This will help them last longer and also stay fresh. For this, we will tell you how to store your cans of malt, hops, yeast, and grains. When storing your cans of HME or packets of LME it is pretty easy to store. You want to store them in a cool place that does not have huge fluxations in temperature. The best place is typically somewhere in your house. Now if you are to store malt in your garage for example and the temperature goes up and down a lot and gets hot, that is okay, but you don’t want to do pro-longed storage like that. A few weeks tops. The best place is inside your house. Now looking at grains, you also want to keep these in a nice cool place. All of our grains come milled already and sealed in a bag. If you are going to be storing these grains for a long time you can put them in an airtight container and leave them someplace cool and dry. Humidity is not good for grains. For hops and yeast, you will want to store those in your fridge and if you are looking at long term storage you can put them in your freezer. The cold will help prevent the hops from going bad as well as the yeast. Just remember to pull them out of the fridge or freezer an hour or so before you start brewing. Alright so to recap, malt in a nice cool place, preferably inside your house, grains in a nice cool place preferable in an airtight container and hops and yeast in your refrigerator or your freezer. Cheers, Robert
Read moreDo I need to use a hop sack when adding hops to my beer?
{{widget type="Solvature\VideoSlider\Block\Widget\VideoSliderWidget" video_embed1="77gFyG0PcqA" video_title1="Do I need to use a hop sack when adding hops to my beer?" video_cta_color1="white" video_cta_color2="white" video_cta_color3="white" video_cta_color4="white" video_cta_color5="white"}} One of the common questions that we hear a lot is about if you should use a hopsack when adding hops to your beer. On our answer as with most things is, it depends! Depending on the recipe you are brewing we will have you use or not use a hopsack at certain stages of the process and there is a reason behind that. When we have you use a hop sack, it is usually because there is a large number of hops that you are adding to the beer. If you put in a large number of hops with no hop sack during bottling time those hops can clog the spigot which can make it difficult to fill your bottles. Another reason is when you are mixing different hops together, it is often just easier to group them into a hopsack. We have certain recipes where you will mix ½ a packet of a few different hops together. If you do happen to find yourself in a situation where you add hops without a hop sack and you are concerned that it might clog the spigot if you give the beer a nice cold crashing that will help everything solidify to the bottom. When doing this prop up the front of the fermenter slightly which will help the sediment settle away from the spigot. Now, when we have you not use a hopsack there are also a few reasons behind that. The first is if you are just adding a packet or two or three you don’t need the hop sack and it just adds an extra step that is not needed. Plus if you are dry hopping using a hopsack you need to make sure you sanitize your hopsack. So adding that hopsack adds an extra element to deal with and is another variable that can lead to an infection if it is not properly sanitized. Also, if you go back to a video we did on bittering hops the greater surface area the hops have, the more bitterness you can extract from those hops. So when doing a hop boil just tossing the hops in with no hop sack can help you get more bitterness in your beer. Alright, so those are the reasons why we have you add or not add a hopsack during brewing. Always remember to sanitize your hopsack if you are dry hopping or not adding it to a hot liquid. If you are concerned about getting a clogged spigot during bottling give it a little cold crash and that will help all that sediment solidify. Quick side note always leave the hop sack in your brew unless we call for you to remove it. Cheers, Robert
Read moreWhy you should ferment your Mr. Beer refills for no longer than 14 days
{{widget type="Solvature\VideoSlider\Block\Widget\VideoSliderWidget" video_embed1="8VdSNmNcO-k" video_title1="Why you should ferment your Mr. Beer refills for no longer than 14 days" video_cta_color1="white" video_cta_color2="white" video_cta_color3="white" video_cta_color4="white" video_cta_color5="white"}} This is a common point of differentiation between brewers. Some people are avid 3-week brewers while others are on the shorter side of brewing in the 10-14 day range. For all of our Mr. Beer Refills, we recommend a brewing time of 10-14 days and we do that for good reason. It is a common misconception that leaving your beer in the fermenter for an extra week, beyond the initial fermentation will make it better the opposite is true. When your yeast is eating away all those sugars in your beer, it is producing C02. Once the C02 is produced it will race to the top of your fermenter and push its way out through the air ventilation notices that are cut into the lid of your LBK. What this is doing is creating positive pressure in your LBK. This is creating a protective barrier that prevents oxygen from getting into your fermenter and ultimately your beer. Oxygen creates an awfully bad off-flavor in your beer. Your beer will come out tasting stale and often taste like cardboard. So when you let your beer go longer than the 14 days, for example, 21 days you are increasing the risk of getting your beer oxidized. Once the yeast has eaten up most of the sugars that are in your beer, it will be creating less C02. Thus, reducing that positive pressure in your LBK and opening up the risk of oxygen getting in. So that is why we suggest all refills be brewed in 10-14 days. Now we know there are exceptions for everything. If you are brewing at much colder temperatures than the 68-76 degrees that we recommend your yeast will work slower and it may need more time to ferment. If you are adding a ton of extra fermentables to your beer such as honey, or brown sugar or extract booters, etc. It may take longer to ferment all those sugars out. That is why on some of our bigger recipes that we create we do recommend you brew it for 21 days. The more sugars that are added, the longer the yeast will need. If you are brewing any of our refills just as is, then you only need to brew them for 10-14 days. Cheers, Robert
Read moreThe Life Cycle of a Yeast Cell, and Yeast Management
{{widget type="Solvature\VideoSlider\Block\Widget\VideoSliderWidget" video_embed1="tJp4n-ROK4s" video_title1="The Life Cycle of a Yeast Cell, and Yeast Management" video_cta_color1="white" video_cta_color2="white" video_cta_color3="white" video_cta_color4="white" video_cta_color5="white"}} If you want to learn all about yeast then this video is for you. Part of our new advanced education series this video covers everything about yeast! In order to understand yeast, it’s health, management, and how that affects our beer, we first must understand how yeast lives out its life, within your beer. First, we will discuss “What is yeast?” Yeasts are eukaryotic, single-celled microorganisms classified as members of the fungus kingdom. You can see here in my illustration of a yeast cell. We can see here on the outside, this is the “cell wall”, it provides protection and shape to the cell and is also a valuable indicator of a yeast cells health and how much it has reproduced, as it begins to scar We also see here, the “Periplasm” This is the location of the enzymes and Mannoproteins, these provide some of the primary catalysts for the fermentation process Next, we look at the “Cell Membrane” Responsible for selective transport, metabolism, and communication. You could almost compare it to a nervous system of sorts. Now we move onto the “nucleus” This is where the yeast cell holds its genetic material, which are the blueprints for its future offspring. Yeast cells also contain a “Vacuole” Seen here *points* This is where Your yeast cell breaks proteins down to their amino acid building blocks, basically working like tiny disassemblers We have also the “Mitochondria”, This is responsible for functions such as respiration ATP production. ATP stands for “Adenosine triphosphate” which is the primary source of fuel for every living thing on earth, and very important. After that, we have the Ribosome Which is responsible for protein production Lastly, we see the ER, Golgi, and Vesicles. These handle secretion and protein processing/trafficking The yeast we use for brewing belongs to the class “Saccharomycetes” and we use two primary species of this yeast: Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Saccharomyces Pastorianus (also known as Saccharomyces carlsbergensis) Saccharomyces cerevisiae is what we know as Ale and wheat yeast. These yeasts are referred to as “Top fermenting yeasts” and this yeast is typically associated with warmer fermentation temperatures, compared to Lager or bottom-fermenting yeast varieties. Saccharomyces Pastorianus is what we know as “Lager” yeast, which is considered bottom-fermenting and is associated with colder fermenting temperatures. Obviously, the difference is important due to their different fermentation characteristics and requirements. You can see how they differ physically. Figure A Saccharomyces Pastorianus and figure B is Saccharomyces cerevisiae, you can see the differences of how the cells group together between the two. Depending on the species you are using, you will need to make considerations about your specific brewing environment, as we will discuss later, these environmental parameters dramatically impact the health of your yeast, and the overall success of an alcoholic fermentation. It’s very important to keep in mind that yeast is, indeed, a living organism and like all living organisms, it has needs! Now that we understand yeast a little better, and what it is… Let’s talk about its life cycle and as we move through that, I will talk about points of yeast health and management that apply to that stage. In this talk, we will mostly be discussing these subjects, in terms of dry yeast. Everything here will apply to hydrated yeast starters as well, with some subtle nuances. Let’s start where our yeast first meets our wort, the pitch! When your yeast is first pitched into your wort, it enters something called the “lag phase” This is when your yeast is acclimating to its environment. This period lasts typically, anywhere between 3-15 hours respectively. During this time, the yeast begins to uptake the essential minerals and amino acids that it will use as protein building blocks. Whatever the yeast cannot get from the wort, it will attempt to manufacture itself, like any other living organism, yeast needs a full spectrum of nutrients to perform its job and basically live a happy life and complete a healthy fermentation. As the nutritional needs of the yeast are met during the lag phase, the yeast begins to manufacture necessary enzymes. Oxygen is also extremely important to yeast during this period, as yeast cells require it to build up the cell walls and create adequate yeast vitality, and better vitality and viability generally mean cleaner tasting beer in the long run. Let’s take a moment and talk about why this lag phase is important when it comes to the entire process of our fermentation. During the initial hydration, if you are pitching dry yeast, or even initially making a starter, yeast can lose on average, 30-50% of its viability, and that is in ideal conditions, that number can be higher if the yeast is already in bad shape (which is usually because it’s old or expired) or if we are introducing the yeast to an environment that is not ideal, such as wort that is too warm, too cold, or lacks the appropriate nutrient profile or oxygen content, or if your pitch was simply too small, to begin with. If you are working with a low number of viable cells during the LAG, or your wort does not contain the required nutrients, vitamins and oxygen, yeast can struggle to move through this phase and into its exponential growth phase (log which we will discuss next), This because the yeast is under stress and stressed yeast takes longer to start budding and making it’s catalyzing components in order to begin the process of fermentation. If the wort is too cold, this can also impede the lag phase. Our goal when we brew is to move through the lag phase successfully with adequate nutrient uptake so that we maintain many viable mother cells. Without viable mother cells, our yeast can not produce the number of daughter cells needed to reduce the total stress and properly distribute the labor of fermentation to keep up, as older cells begin to die off, later. In my opinion and the option of many other brewers, having an adequate number of initial yeast cells is even more critically important if you are naturally carbonating your beer, using priming sugar. If our yeast pitch is too small or has low total viability due to the earlier mentioned factors, it can also give wild bacteria and pathogens an opportunity to become the dominant organism in the beer, right out of the gate. Leading to infection. Basically, you are leaving a door open. If your yeast cells are damaged or stressed during LAG, your production of off-flavors can potentially be much higher, which can follow you all the way to bottling! What do we do about this as far as yeast management is concerned? As a brewer, I always look first at my pitch rate, Followed by the initial parameters of your starting wort. This includes temperature, oxygenation, and wort nutrient profile. As far as pitching is concerned to keep in mind, in homebrewing it is difficult to truly overpitch to a detriment, so if you are getting off flavors routinely, upping your yeast may be in order, especially if you struggle with temperature management, or your lag times seem to be longer than that 15-hour window. It’s important to note that while very long lag times are not ideal, neither is the opposite in all cases, because this a critical acclimation stage, so we want to give the yeast enough time to build strong cell walls, and uptake everything it needs to be healthy. An hour-long lag might be exciting, but precocious yeast tends to not be quite as happy long term. You can think of your Lag phase as the “formative” stage of your yeast, so it’s important to set yourself up for success, from the very beginning. I cannot stress enough, AERATION. It is so critically important to make sure your wort contains ample oxygen before pitching. I mention this because in my experience the two most common reasons for high, unwanted ester production early on, are under pitching, and under aeration. Again, these are not the only possible negative variables, but they are the most common especially within extract and partial mash brewing. Also, when it comes to yeast, it loves an all-malt wort because of the full spectrum of nutrition it provides, some examples of necessary vitamins are riboflavin, inositol, and biotin. Important minerals are phosphorous, Sulphur, copper, iron, zinc, potassium, and sodium. So, if you are brewing a wort that has a high amount of adjuncts like corn sugar or cane sugar, these tend to lack the nutrients needed for proper yeast health, leading to stress and off-flavor production. Therefore, beverages fermented with cane sugar or corn sugar like seltzer, are usually dosed with extraneous nutrients as yeast cannot live well off these simple sugars, alone. So now that we have covered the Lag phase, let’s talk about our yeast as it transitions into Log, otherwise known as the exponential growth phase. This phase can last anywhere between 1-4 days This is the phase where we visually see the fermentation start to take off by way of the Krausen layer. As the yeast comes out of the lag phase, it starts to consume the sugars in solution. And large amounts of CO2 are produced. The term Log stands for Logarithmic because the yeast is increasing its activity and rapidly budding, creating additional exact copies of itself, called Daughter cells. This is a form of vegetative growth, is asexual and ideal when it comes to brewing as it allows the mother cells nucleus to split and provide the daughter, or bud, with an exact copy of the parent's DNA. The yeast will quickly and aggressively consume the available wort sugar and start to convert them into ethanol at this time. This is usually the time you will see large amounts of turbulence occurring within your fermenter, almost like it was being stirred. That is the intense and aggressive metabolic action of the yeast occurring on a visible level. The exponential growth phase is made possible by the rapid consumption of wort sugars by yeast. It’s important to note that wort sugar is consumed by yeast in a certain pattern. Glucose is used first, then fructose and sucrose. These are simple sugars and can be quickly shuttled into metabolism, giving a quick burst of energy. The glucose concentration in wort is roughly 14 percent of wort sugars. Next, the wort will go after the more complex Maltose which accounts for up to more than half of your wort sugars Maltose is an incredibly important contributor to flavor, it’s what gives you perceptible grist notes and even influences the flavor that yeast contributes. Maltose is important also because it has the ability to turn on 5 of the genes found in a yeast cell's DNA, this is what sends the message to the yeast cell that it’s time to start fermenting. Maltose is taken up into the cell via a transport mechanism. Since Maltose is a more complex Disaccharide, it is taken up by something called a Proton Coupled symport mechanism. This is more labor-intensive for the yeast, but this is where your yeast is really going to get it’s fermenting power. The monosaccharides that your yeast used first, like glucose and fructose are transported more simply by something called facilitated diffusion. After the Maltose has been taken in, it is converted into glucose using Maltase enzymes. After this process, the yeast now has fermentable glucose to munch on and turn into alcohol. Lastly, your yeast moves onto the trickiest sugar to digest called maltotriose. It is important to remember that some yeasts are better at fermenting this carbohydrate than others, and some can not ferment it at all. The ability of a strain to ferment Maltotriose is what contributes to its individual attenuation rage. And when we talk about attenuation we are basically talking about how fully a yeast will ferment, available malt sugars within our wort, including maltotriose. You may hear some yeasts described as very dry, this is referring to their high attenuation potential. So let's discuss some important yeast management parameters to consider during the LOG phase before we move on. As we have mentioned, LOG is the most active stage of fermentation, this is the high-intensity workout portion of the process for your yeast cells, and the height of their metabolic activity. Because of this, you may notice that your yeast generates quite a lot of heat. Because of this added heat, some brews can benefit from being fermented a couple of degrees lower during log to offset this heat production and slow down the yeast growth just a bit, in order to mitigate the production of too many esters, primarily the undesirable ones. This is another instance where surprise surprise, pitch rate is again, vitally important because starting with an adequate pitch means your yeast has to grow less and has lower stress put on it, to get the job done… helping to maintain the integrity of your flavors and prevent your brew from stalling out as well. Now let’s move to the final stage of your fermentation process. Enter the stationary phase: This can be anywhere from 3-10 days depending on your yeast, but in most cases with typical brewing yeasts (excluding certain fast fermenters like kiviek). At this point, yeast growth slows down, and yeast enters the stationary phase of growth. Most of the flavor and aroma compounds have been produced, including fusel alcohols, esters, and sulfur compounds. The beer is referred to as green because it does not yet have the acceptable balance of flavors. If you had brewed a batch or two, you have probably noticed your beer tastes different before it is conditioned and this is where that green apple or butter flavor can usually be most apparent, especially if the yeast has been under stress and or there has been a significant amount of yeast growth because the batch was under pitched. We will discuss that in more detail, shortly. We mature and condition beer in the stationary phase. At this point, Krausen has fallen, and yeast begins to flocculate. This is the time that yeast really starts to clean up after themselves. They intracellularly reduce undesirable compounds, into their more acceptable reductive chemicals. A very notable compound that is reduced during this phase is the ketone, Diacetyl. So let’s talk about Diacetyl for a moment. Diacetyl is a byproduct of yeast; they ALL produce it to certain varying degrees and it’s almost always considered an off-flavor with some very particular exceptions, like the ESB style. Diacetyl is characterized by a butterscotch or buttered popcorn flavor in your beer. The flavor threshold for Diacetyl in home-brewed beer is about .05 ppm to 1.0ppm, but some pallets can detect it at even the most minute levels. Diacetyl can become noticeable in your beer when one of the precursors within the yeast cell, acetolactate is leaked from the yeast cell, instead of being converted to Valine, within the cell. That Diacetyl that leaked into your beer can be reduced during the stationary phase of fermentation. The yeast reabsorbs this ketone and uses enzymes to break it down into it’s reductive, and less offensive chemicals, Acetoin, and butanediol. So what do you do if you find yourself with a beer full of diacetyl during your stationary phase? You have probably heard the term “Diacetyl rest” at one point or another. The concept is pretty simple. Diacetyl reduction slows way down at cooler temps. That is why it’s usually more of an issue in cold fermented Lager style beers, but it can also show up in heavily dry-hopped ales, as well. In these cases, we employ a diacetyl rest procedure to reduce that. For lagers, we usually raise the temperature to 65-68 for the last two or so days of fermentation or about 2-5 specific gravity points from the target terminal gravity. For ales, the reduction of diacetyl is much the same, except for different temperature parameters, so if you are fermenting your ale at say 70, you may only need to bring your rest temp up a degree or two. Here we can see a general depiction of the expression, of diacetyl, and the beginning of its reduction It’s worth noting that Diacetyl can also be caused by a bacterial infection usually by Either pediococcus or lactobacillus bacteria, this is a whole subject on its own, so for the sake of time we will save that for an episode on infections. So let’s go back to that green apple flavor we mentioned earlier, what chemical causes that? The culprit is Acetaldehyde! Brewing yeast produces acetaldehyde as an intermediate compound during the conversion of glucose to ethanol. This chemical is produced in every beer, usually during the earlier fermentation stages. In a healthy fermentation, the yeast is usually able to the convert the majority of acetaldehyde into alcohol so that it can no longer be tasted, but if you had factors earlier on in your fermentation process like off temps, under pitching, poor aeration, or overexposure to oxygen after the wort has become beer, your acetaldehyde will fail to fully convert to alcohol, and BOOOOYYYY will you taste it! Speaking of oxygen exposure, this can become even more complex if, during that exposure, your beer is also exposed aerobic bacteria, and those bacteria covert your Acetaldehyde into acetic acid, which you guessed it… that’s vinegar. Gross! Acetaldehyde is the most common indicator, in my experience of a stressful fermentation, and the number one cause for most homebrewers that I see is under pitching or untimely exposure to oxygen. Are you starting to notice a pattern here with pitch rate? What do we do if we are beyond that point, and we can’t go back to the beginning? The answer is usually time and conditioning. That’s where natural conditioning and carbonating can come in very handy! First, if you have completed fermentation, meaning that there are no longer gravity drops occurring in your beer, bottling it and adding priming sugar, acts to wake the yeast back up, and send them back to work. Not only will they have the ability to consume some additional sugars to make C02, but they will have an opportunity to reabsorb more of those off-flavors and convert them into more desirable compounds. Speaking of our LBK for a moment, it can be tempting to leave it in there for a longer amount of time, thinking this flavor will clean up…. You’re not entirely wrong in that thinking, but you are overlooking a critical factor…. Over oxygenation encourages the expression of Acetaldehyde, if your ending SG has been reached, there’s not enough C02 being produced to push oxygen away from your beer anymore, effectively making the problem worse. By bottling, you stop that unwanted exposure. Then your beer is left to condition and clean up in a far more controlled environment. Now, this can apply to other fermenters too, but it is important to remember especially in fermenters that are not using a traditional bung and airlock system. BUT as I touched on earlier, it’s a little bit of a catch 22, Because a lack of good aeration during our LAG phase, will also set us up for Acetaldehyde expression later as well. A good rule of thumb I always try and keep in mind is Oxygen is great for wort, not so great for beer. It can also be helpful to condition your bottles, at a warm enough temperature at least initially, so that your yeast is able to work quickly and efficiently, conditioning too cold can cause further stress on already tired, old yeast cells, and further complicate your green apple flavor, and other “off” indicators. Alright, guys so let’s go over some of what we have learned today…. I think it’s become very clear that proper yeast management from beginning to end, is tantamount to be a successful brewer. Some of the most critical factors being Yeast pitch rate, temperature, and wort quality. You can think of a yeast pitch like a construction crew, the more healthy, viable workers that are on that crew, the better, and faster the job can be accomplished. If we provide the yeast with enough environmental support, through proper temperature, mineral and nutrient base, and aeration…. Those incredible little cells will pay you dividends. I hope you enjoyed this, and I hope it helped to enrich your knowledge and understanding of yeast, it’s life cycle, and its contribution to your beer. Believe it or not, there’s still lots about yeast we didn’t get a chance to cover, but hopefully, this will inspire you to continue to bolster your knowledge and understanding of yeasts. Thank you for nerding out with me on one of my favorite subjects, and please come back and join us next week for another episode of “Brew talk with Mr. Beer” with Robert! I hope to do these advanced education talks as often as possible, as long as there’s a demand. If you have suggestions on topics for a future Advanced education talk, please let us know. Cheers guys, and happy brewing! Ashley
Read moreWhy you should not boil hopped malt extract
{{widget type="Solvature\VideoSlider\Block\Widget\VideoSliderWidget" video_embed1="-LLSxdTFMJM" video_title1="Why you should not boil hopped malt extract" video_cta_color1="white" video_cta_color2="white" video_cta_color3="white" video_cta_color4="white" video_cta_color5="white"}} Hopped malt extract is already preboiled, so what happens if you accidentally boil it again? Find out on this week’s episode of BrewTalk with Mr. Beer. This is one of the mistakes we see quite often, especially from new brewers. We also see this when people want to go mad scientist from the get-go and boil their HME with all kinds of hops or other flavors. When most people think of brewing beer for the first time they think of this boiling liquid and all kinds of different complex processes. While that is true when brewing from all-grain, it is not true for brewing with Mr. Beer. Since we used hopped malt extract all of that boiling and the complicated process has already been done. So if you do boil your hopped malt extract then that can lead to bad off-flavors in your brew. It should be noted that hopped malt extract and malt extract are two completely different things. For this purpose, we are only talking about hopped malt extract. You never want to boil your hopped malt extract can. The can of hopped malt extract contains isomerized hops. This means that the hops in the can have already been exposed to a certain amount of heat to achieve a specific level of bitterness for that style of extract. If you decide to boil your can of HME it will cause off-flavors in your beer. Plus it will make your beer much darker than it should be. When you boil your can of hopped malt extract you run the risk of over-isomerizing the hops. What this can do is lead to an extremely bitter beer and also create a medicine like flavor in your beer. This is not a flavor that will condition out. So it is best to remember, that when brewing with hopped malt extract you never want to boil the contents of the can. Cheers Robert
Read moreDo you add your priming sugar before or after you fill your bottles?
{{widget type="Solvature\VideoSlider\Block\Widget\VideoSliderWidget" video_embed1="v1IBFB9_q6Q" video_title1="Do you add your priming sugar before or after you fill your bottles?" video_cta_color1="white" video_cta_color2="white" video_cta_color3="white" video_cta_color4="white" video_cta_color5="white"}} A question we see quite often, when should you add your priming sugar? We break it down in this week's episode of BrewTalk with Mr. Beer. A question we see people asking quite often, do I add my priming sugar before or after I fill my bottles? I think a good second question to that would be do I shake my bottles once they are filled and the priming sugar has been added? So, let's tackle the first question. We do think and recommend in our instructions that you add your sugar or carbonation drops before you add the beer to your bottle. A few reasons for this, it does make it a little easier to handle your bottle when it's empty vs when it's full of beer. Also, adding carbonation drops or sugar to your bottles when they are full, could kick up very small splashes of beer which can lead to the protentional of oxygenation. As we have mentioned in past videos that is one of the most common off-flavors people get when bottling, so you always want to be careful to not kick up the beer. Now, this brings us to the second part of this, shaking your bottles. This is something that you do not want to do. All this will do is create oxygen in your beer which will lead to off-flavors. When bottling your beer, you want to be as gentle as possible. Treat it like a newborn baby and make sure to always handle your brew with care. So to recap, add your priming sugar or carbonation drops before you fill your bottles and never shake your bottles. Cheers, Robert
Read moreThe Different Stages of Fermentation
{{widget type="Solvature\VideoSlider\Block\Widget\VideoSliderWidget" video_embed1="so3z-g2mzFI" video_title1="The Different Stages of Fermentation" video_cta_color1="white" video_cta_color2="white" video_cta_color3="white" video_cta_color4="white" video_cta_color5="white"}} If you are a first-time brewer you are most likely unsure what to expect for your first batch. We thought it would be helpful to break down the different basic stages of fermentation in this week's episode of BrewTalk with Mr. Beer. The first stage would be right after you pitch your yeast. Most people expect to see something right away but you usually won't. You will get some action with in the first 24 hours of pitching your yeast but not a lot. And you won’t see anything happen right away, so just be patient. The second stage is what is usually referred to as high krausen and is the most active stage of fermentation. This is during the first 72 hours of fermentation. So, during the first 3 days, you will see some good action in your beer and foam on top. This is when the yeast is eating up most of the simple sugars first and just going crazy. After this stage, the fermentation activity will slow and can even sometimes look like nothing is happening, but don’t worry, those yeasts are still doing their thing. During this phase, they are breaking down more of the complex sugars, so they are not as active, but they are still fermenting away. Your beer will remain this way until it is done. So the majority of the sugars are eaten up in the first 72 hours then the yeast works on the more complex sugars for the remaining time of fermentation. It is important to note that when you bottle your beer you will get a slight secondary fermentation activity. The yeast will be a little more active due to the sugar that you added to your bottles. This is what will create the C02 in your beer. You will also see the same thing if you add fruit for example later in fermentation. So if you add fruit on day 10 of fermentation the yeast will go crazy again and look like high krausen all over again. One more thing to keep in mind, the more fermentables you have in your beer the more active of a fermentation you will have. So if you are brewing a big beer or something with fruit or added sugars, you will see a lot more active fermentation that you normally would. Cheers, Robert
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Trub Bread Recipe
Once you're all done with the brewing process and your beer has fermented and been bottled, you have this layer of sediment or Trub at the bottom of the fermenter. Most people would just clean out their fermenter and think nothing of it. Did you know that you can make your own beer bread or trub bread from this? It’s fairly simple and easy to do. Plus, it makes some awesome tasting bread. So now you can be a homebrewer and a baker! To make this it requires you to do your Trub starter the night before. Ingredients for Trub Starter: ½ cup Trub ¾ cup flour 1 Tablespoon Sugar Instructions: Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl, then cover with a kitchen towel and let it sit overnight. The mixture once mixed, will look like a liquid paste. That is the start of the bread now let’s dive into the part of the actual bread making. Ingredients for Bread: 2 cups flour 2 tablespoons Sugar 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon dry bread yeast 1/3 to ½ cup of warm water Instructions: In a mixing bowl mix together 2 cups of flour, 2 tablespoons of sugar, 1 teaspoon of salt, and 1 teaspoon of dry bread yeast. Once that is well mixed, make a well in the center and add in the Trub Starter and a little bit of water. Stir this mixture until it is all mixed well together. You may need to add a little bit of additional water during this time until the dough comes together. Not too wet, not too dry, you want it just right. Be careful not to overwork. Once it is all combined and forms a uniformed ball, place it in a buttered pan or bowl, cover with a damp kitchen town and let it rise until it doubles in size. Once it has doubled in size punch down the dough like your Bruce Lee, then form it into a loaf and bake it at 400 degrees for around 30 minutes or until the top of the bread is golden brown and it sounds hollow when you tap it. Once removed you can cover the top in melted butter if you so choose. That’s it! We hope you enjoy your awesome and delicious trub bread, make sure to post your pictures on social media, and tag us! We want to see those awesome loaves your baking. Cheers! Robert
Read moreOur thoughts on brewing with tap water
{{widget type="Solvature\VideoSlider\Block\Widget\VideoSliderWidget" video_embed1="q-dM5ggevBs" video_title1="Our thoughts on brewing with tap water" video_cta_color1="white" video_cta_color2="white" video_cta_color3="white" video_cta_color4="white" video_cta_color5="white"}} Water is the most important ingredient when it comes to brewing, so how does brewing with tap water affect your beer, and is it safe to brew with? One of the most common water questions that we get is, can I use tap water? Most people don’t want to run out and buy filtered water for brew day or as we learned earlier this year it may be hard to come by bottled water sometimes. So, you can use tap water on your brew day. A general rule of thumb is if you drink your tap water than you can brew with your tap water. However, if you have water that is high in chlorine than we would suggest not to brew with it. Chlorine is added to water in treatment facilities to make it portable and safe to drink. But chlorine can have negative effects on your beer. According to our Brewmaster and resident brewing scientist Ashely, chlorine can bond with low molecular malts to create “Chlorophenols”. These will translate a flavor to your beer which will taste like medicine or band-aids. Which no one wants in their beer! If you want to be safe on brew day, then make sure you have good quality water. Use either bottled spring or drinking water or you can use filter water in your house. We use RO water in our brew room. So to sum it up, you can use tap water but beware of high levels of chlorine that is in your water. Cheers, Robert
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