An Argument For SMaSH Beers

I look around the brewing community today and I see a lot of crazy innovative beers with ingredients that I have never heard of let alone ever tasted. The beer profiles can get so complex that they can start to intimidate the drinker. But there is good news, SMaSH beers. SMaSH stands for Single Malt and Single Hop and begins to simplify the brewing and the tasting process.

Microorganisms In Your Beer?

 Bacteria and fungi are two words that make home brewers around the world cringe. However, what would you say if I told you that there are good bacteria and fungi in the brewing world? Most of you would think that I am absolutely insane, but I know there are a few fellow microbiology oriented home brewers out there that have a grin on their face. Now let me tell you why.

Make your own Counter-Flow Wort Chiller

     Okay, so you're interested in making your own home-brewing station and you've got most of the equipment all sorted, but you're running into a wall with how to chill your wort. Just going to your local home-brewing store and buying the setup would be the easiest thing to do, but let's just say you want to pinch a few pennies and make your own wort cooling system. Here's where we come in. With a small trip to the local hardware store and a budget of under $50, my brother and I have created a basic but effective wort chilling system that works like a charm. Here's what you'll need:

You Can Have Whatever You Want

   Our mission statement says that we want this to become an interactive blog between the writers and the readers. So I have had a novel idea, you are going to give us a new topic! Ask any question about home brewing or beer in general, the best part of this is that it can be anything! The more questions you ask the more questions we will answer.
     I will leave you with a little taste of what the future will hold. Plans are in the working to build a mash tun so that we can change our system to a full grain, these plans and hopefully photos of us building this will be put on here within the next few months. I am also going to post a step by step brew from start to finish in the most simple form. Hopefully by seeing this, you will be inspired to go out and try home brewing as well. Big things are happening in the home brewing world and we will be bringing them to you every week. Until next time, keep your glasses full!

Lager Lager Lager

     Now that we have covered the ales, we must now turn our focus to lagers. Remember that I mentioned earlier that the main distinction of lagers is that they use bottom fermenting yeast that ferment optimally at colder temperatures. Until the invention of refrigeration (mid 1800's), lagers were brewed during the winter in caves. Large chunks of ice were cut from the local water supply and then taken down to the caves and used to keep the cold temperatures in there for very long periods of time. Needless to say this was time consuming and not too efficient. Refrigeration allowed brewers to brew lagers year round in their lagering cellars and allowed consumers to consume these beer in mass quantities.

Brewing Technologies: Cooling your wort

     One of the main obstacles that you will encounter while home brewing a batch of beer is the need to cool your boiling wort (approximately at 180 to 200 degrees Fahrenheit) to a much lower temperature (around 75 degrees Fahrenheit) in order to be able to pitch the yeast. Initially, one may think that simply dunking the pot into an ice bath would work, but this method is archaic and inefficient, not to mention time consuming. Here's where most home brewer's have to make a major decision with what way you should cool your wort. The two most common options available are the immersion or the counter-flow wort chiller, and both have their ups and downs.

A Tale of an Ale

                Alright now that you are in deep and already reading the second posting of this blog, we need to establish one extremely important ground rule. This is the only rule I will ever make about the reading of this blog; while you are reading this you must be in the process of enjoying a beer. It doesn't matter what kind of beer it is as long as you are enjoying it to the fullest.

                Now that we have the ground rules established it is time to expand on the topic of last time; ales and lagers. Today let’s focus on the ale side of the family. Now your typical styles might include Brown Ales, Amber Ales, and Indian Pale Ales. What gives it away that they are ales? That’s right the name! But there are plenty of other beer styles that are considered ales without the word incorporated into the name. A few that we will discuss today are going to be Wheat Beers, Porters, and Stouts.