Brewing TV - Episode 42: King's Coolship

The King is in the building! NB soldier and determined yeast junkie Jeremy King (you remember him from Episode 4, right?) is back with yet another twisted yeast experiment. This time he's trying wrangle wild yeast from his environs in Milwaukee, WI for eventual commercial use. He's got a very interesting way of going about it - utilizing a coolship. Wild yeast, microscopes, fire, and fermented fish. You never know what you're going to get when you're hanging out with J-King. Prepare to be - KING'D!

Related Blog Posts by J-King:
2 Things Literature Says You Shouldn't Do That You Shouldn't
Better Brewing Through Chemistry
Beer and Your Body: The Alcohol Hangover
Eat Your Beer Like a King

The Haphazard Brewing of Free Kick EPA

*** This blog post was recently uncovered deep from within scattered brewer's notes. It's timeliness has been lost, but its moral fortitude has not. We begin in late April 2011. ***

Let me tell you about what may be the best homebrew ever brewed. Or it may be a total disaster. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Thunderbolt Pale Ale: Hop Substitution Experiment

So far, it's been a hot summer and a short summer. And that's to say summer hasn't officially yet begun. As manic as winter had been, summer crept around the Twin Cities like a lurking radioactive monster. From windy to above average hot, that was only after the tornado season began in north Minneapolis.

Settling Down

I'm the sort of brewer who rarely makes the same thing twice. I've been hopping around from style to style, recipe to recipe, technique to technique ever since I started brewing. That's been great, I feel like I've covered a lot of ground, learned a lot of basics, had a good time. I'm also the sort of brewer who often measures things in handfuls, tosses whatever is lying around into the mash or into the boil, and takes a cavalier approach to using wild yeasts. Also fun, and less work.

What's in a name?

I've read that you should never name your chickens, because it makes it that much harder to boil 'em and pluck 'em when the time comes.

Perhaps in a similar vein, I've never named my beers. They are usually referred to as something like, "that one stout with the oak in it that I brewed last fall, or was it in the winter? Whatever, it's probably that one." But friends and other recipients of my beer always want to know what a particular beer is called. I once named an all-Fuggle hops bitter "Fug 'em" but in general people don't know what Fuggle is, so they didn't really appreciate it.

Beware the Ides of Märzen

Or don't beware, that's cool too. Amber lager is delicious, whether you call it Oktoberfest or Märzen .

Short on Supply, High on Concepts

I've had a couple years' run wherein my brewing has been a gently purring animal.

Tastes have become recipes. Those recipes have met practices on brewdays, and then found their way through the cell membranes of various yeasts, until the whole was poured into pint glasses. Those glasses were emptied into dozens of parched mouths; occasionally, a few of those mouths gave coherent, positive feedback. My three & some odd years of homebrewing have led me to a fine place where the only limits have been my imagination, palate & budget.

Seasonal Ingredient: Rainbow Chard

Almost every fruit and vegetable is available year-round. Buy in-season, however, and you get produce at its peak of flavor and nutrients. In January and February, rainbow chard is readily available. Other chard tend to be available during the summer months, but the flavors do not vary much.

Am I suggesting brewing with a green, leafy beet? Yup. Sure am. Forget the Reinheitsgebot! Below is a recipe for a beer that doesn't utilize hops, instead beckoning on bitterness extracted from chard stems in a small quantity of vodka that is added to wort post boil (just kidding: there is no boil).

Eis is Nice

[editor's note: this piece originally appeared in the Brewing TV blog]

I wanted to post a blog about a process that I often try to do with my homebrews. The process of eis'ing or freezing beer to separate water (in the form of ice) from the beer, thus making it slightly more concentrated in not only alcohol, but in flavor.

Notes on a Brewday: Hopbursted Clustercream

Does everything happen for a reason? Does every batch of homemade beer have something to teach us, as brewers and as people? Must every accident be an unhappy one? Must every forgotten hop addition be ... oh, nevermind.

Now let's meditate on these mysteries and watch some yeast floccs swirl in that video up there.

Carboy Volcano

One good thing about homebrewing: it forces you to mop the floor more often.

Chip's Vlog: Coolin' Out with Chizzer Wizzer

[editor's note: this piece originally appeared in the Brewing TV blog]

Recently, I asked Dawson to concoct a recipe for me that would use some miscellaneous ingredients that I had sitting around the brewroom, freezer, and fridge. They included: Wyeast Leuven Pale smack pack, 1 oz Cluster whole leaf hops, 4 oz Centennial whole leaf hops (from Dawson's 2009 backyard crop), and some Carafa III.

When life gives you lemons and some Hefeweizen

Apocryphally invented at need by a Bavarian innkeeper suddenly beset by a horde of thirsty cyclists while beer levels im Keller were at low tide, this mixture is variously known as Radler, Russ'n, or Alsterwasser ... or "shandy" if you're Anglo.

Session Beers

Some factors have been merging recently, bringing me to write this blog post on session beers, and I'll talk about each of them in turn: brewing a run of 4-5 batches in a row of above-6% ABV beer, drinking some truly amazing low-gravity beers, checking out The Session Beer Project blog, and listening to Mark Stutrud's keynote address at the NHC this year.

Pretty fly for a Weiss guy

... or "Everything I needed to know about open fermentation I learned from NB Milwaukee."

Top 5 Ways to Improve your Wine Kit

Winemakers, free your minds from the smothering bonds of the kit box!

Wine kits may seem like a confined sort of brewing because all the instructions are laid out for you. When it comes down to it though, the kits are just a box full of good ingredients, and its up to you to determine how to make the wine. Here are five ways that you can let your creative juices flow. Above all, have fun!

Gasto Non Grata roll call

Some of the Northern Brewer crew were on hand for the most recent Gastro Non Grata show. GNG, is a local event that combines great local chefs, adult beverages, and rock and roll. During the show, we brewed a batch of beer as a demo. If you can brew beer next to a stage at a show, you can brew beer pretty much anywhere.

Jeremy's Favorite 1,892,700,000,000

1,892,700,000,000 cells is the maximum number of yeast cells ever produced in a 5 gallon fermentation. This is a magnificent number.

A Fresh Take On Soda

Now, I'm sure many of you homebrewers out there have considered making soda at one time or another. It only makes sense: those who homebrew often make a lot of things for themselves. Soda should be no different.

30th Level Beer Nerd

Brewing beer is a lot like playing pen and paper RPGs. There are numbers and things to keep track of, it is a great social activity, and you get to use your imagination a lot.