Apparent and Real Attenuation for Beer Brewers – Part 1

Attenuation is a term often thrown around by home brewers at parties to impress non-brewers, but understanding the different forms of real and apparent extract and attenuation can help beginning and advanced home brewers alike.  So in this two part series on the BeerSmith blog we take a look at beer attenuation in all of its various forms, and how you can use it in recipe design.

What is Attenuation?

So you are at a party looking to impress the non-brewing muggles, but instead a brewing geek comes up and starts talking about original extracts, apparent extracts, and ABVs.  Here’s how to tell if he really knows what he’s talking about:

Attenuation is nothing more than the percentage of the original extract that has been converted via fermentation to CO2 and alcohol (and a few lesser compounds like esters in small quantities).  Recall that the basic brewing process for all grain starts with the mashing process, which converts your barley grain into sugary wort.  If you are an extract brewer, then you just start with sugary wort syrup.

You boil the sugary wort, cool it, add some yeast, and fermentation starts.  During fermentation a portion of the sugary wort is converted to alcohol (primarily ethanol).  That portion of the sugar, expressed as a percentage, is the attenuation of the beer.   Apparent attenuation is very easy to calculate as follows:

Apparent_Attenuation_in_% = 100 * (OG – FG)/(OG – 1.0)

where OG is your original gravity and FG is your final gravity.  So if you have a beer with an original gravity of 1.050 and it finishes with a gravity of 1.010, the math works out to be  100*(1.050-1.010)/(1.050 – 1.000) which is exactly 80%.  So for this example, 80% of the available extract in the wort fermented to become alcohol and CO2.

What is Apparent Extract and Real Extract?

The gravity of beer is most often measured using hydrometers.  However, hydrometers are calibrated to measure the sugar content of a solution of water.  Finished beer, however, contains alcohol (ethanol) which skews the hydrometer reading because alcohol is less dense than water.  Therefore, a hydrometer reading taken on finished beer will show lower (less extract content) than the beer actually contains.

Apparent extract (often written as AE) is the measured hydrometer reading for the finished beer, usually expressed in degrees plato by professional brewers.  For a homebrewer, this is the same as your final gravity (FG), but convert it from a specific gravity to degrees plato if you want to sound like the pros.  To  do a rough Plato calculation in your head, one degree plato is approximately 4 points of specific gravity, so a finished beer with a specific gravity of 1.012 (1.012 is “12″ points) is approximately 3 degrees plato.  If you want an exact calculation you can use a tool like BeerSmith or an online converter.

Real extract (often written as RE) is the real extract content of the finished beer, accounting for the actual alcohol content and imperfect nature of hydrometers.  Real extract can be calculated from the starting gravity and apparent extract (final gravity) as follows:

Real_extract = 0.188 * Original_extract + 0.8192 * Apparent_extract

where Real_extract, Original_extract (which is just your OG) and Apparent_extract (your FG) are all in degrees plato.

Now you know enough to be dangerous at dinner parties.  Please join us next week for part two of this article, where we explore real attenuation, and also how to make proper use of attenuation when designing your own beer recipes.  Thank you for joining me on the BeerSmith Home Brewing Blog.  Don’t forget to subscribe to our weekly brewing newsletter, and have a great brewing week!

• Beer Yeast, Fermentation, and Home Brewing
• Famous Beer Quotes
• Malt Extract Beer Brewing
• Making Full Bodied Beer at Home
• Calibrating your Home Brewing Equipment

Labor Day Sale on BeerSmith – 4 Days Only!

We’re having our once-a-year four day sale on BeerSmith Home Brewing Software this Labor Day weekend. Purchase an electronic key to register your copy of BeerSmith for $16.49 (25% off the regular price which is $21.95) this weekend only if you order via paypal (all major credit cards accepted).  The sale runs from late Friday night (3rd Sep) until midnight Eastern time on Tuesday September 7th – four days only.  You can download BeerSmith here, and if you don’t know much about BeerSmith, you can learn more here.

Happy Labor Day to all and have a great holiday! — Brad

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Trappist Dubbel and Tripel Beer Recipes

Trappist ale is a beer brewed originally by Trappist monks.  The style and its substyles (Enkel, Dubbel and Tripel) have also been popularized by many microbreweries over the last 30 years.  This week, we take a look at the popular Trappist style and how to formulate recipes to brew this beer at home.

History of Trappist Beer

Trappist ale has its clear origins with Trappist monasteries.  From the early middle ages, monastery brew houses produced beer throughout Europe both to feed the community and later for sale to fund other church works.  The Trappist order, which took its name from La Trappe Abbey in France, was founded as part of the Cistercian order in 1663, though it did not formally separate from the Cistercian order until 1892.  The La Trappe Abbey had its own brewery as early as 1685.

Today there are only seven Trappist monasteries that brew beer and six of them are located in Belgium while one is in the Netherlands.  The six in Belgium are the most well known, which is why Trappist ales are categorized as Belgian ales.  In the late 20′th century, many breweries worldwide started labeling their beer as “Trappist” in response to the popularity of the ales, forcing Trappist abbeys to form the International Trappist Association who’s goal is to prevent non-Trappist commercial companies from using the name.  They created a logo and convention for true Trappist beers, which must be brewed within the walls of a Trappist abbey by monastic brewers, and the gains must go to charitable causes and not financial profit.

Due to the popularity of Trappist ales, many commercial brewers still brew similar style beers which are typically sold under as Belgian Dubbels and Tripels.  (Ref: Wikipedia).

The Trappist Style

Trappist beers may be divided into four sub-styles.  By tradition, most of the true Trappist ales are bottle conditioned.  These include:

• Patersbier – “Father’s beer” which is brewed for the monks and intended for consumption by the monks within the abbey walls.  Occasionally this may be offered on site to guests.  It is a relatively weak beer in the tradition of Trappist austerity.
• Enkel - “Single” beer which was traditionally used to describe the brewery’s lightest beer.  This is a very close relation to the Patersbier.  Currently the term is rarely used, and I am not aware of any abbeys that currently produce this style for commercial sale.
• Dubbel – “Double” beer.  Dubbels are a strong brown ale with low bitterness, a heavy body, and a malty, nutty finish with no diacytl.  These beers have a starting gravity of 1.062-1.075 and 6.5-8% alcohol by  volume.  Color runs the range from dark amber to copper color (10-17 SRM) and bitterness from 15-25 IBUs.  This style is also widely brewed by commercial brewers.
• Tripel – “Triple” beer.  Tripel’s are the strongest Trappist ales, running from 7.5-9% alcohol by volume with a starting gravity of 1.075-1.085.  They are highly alcoholic, but brewed with high carbonation and high attenuation yeasts to reduce the taste of alcohol.  Color runs lighter than Dubbels in the range of 4.5-7.0 SRM and bitterness from 20-40 IBUs, though most Tripels have 30+ IBUs.

Brewing Trappist Style Ales

I’m going to focus on the Dubbel and Tripel styles as these are the only ones brewed commercially today.  For both Dubbel and Tripel, Belgian pilsner malt makes up the base ingredient.  For Dubbels, sometimes Belgian pale malt may also be used as a base.

For Dubbels, the grain bill can be complex with Munich malts added for maltiness (up to 20%), Special B malt to provide raisin falvor and CaraMunich for a dried fruit flavor.  Also dark candi sugar is used both to boost alcohol and add rum-raisin flavors.  The sugar also allows for a cleaner finish and less alcohol flavor than would be possible with an all-malt beer.  Despite the complex spicy flavor of the finished beer, spices are not used.

Tripels being lighter in color typically use a less complicated malt bill.  Starting with a pilsner malt base, they add up to 20% white candi sugar but typically lack the complex array of malts used for Dubbels.

One of the main ingredients that makes Trappist ales unique is the yeast.  Both Dubbels and Tripels use special Belgian yeast strains that produce fruity esters, spicy phenolics and higher alcohol.  Often the Trappist ales are fermented at higher than normal temperatures for an ale yeast which increases the array of complex flavors from the yeast.

For hops, noble hop varieties or Styrian Goldings hops are commonly used.  Occasionally low alpha English hops may also be added.  Despite the hop rate of Tripel needed to balance the malt, hops is not a major flavor in either finished beer style.  Large amounts of finishing and dry hops are not typically used for this beer for the same reason.

Water used for brewing is typically soft – without a large quantity of hard minerals present.  Both styles are traditionally bottle conditioned with medium to high carbonation which adds to the beer’s presentation.

Mashing is typically done with a medium to full bodied mash profile, as Trappist beers are full bodied.

Trappist Style Recipes

Here are some Trappist style recipes from the BeerSmith Recipe Site:

Dubbels:

• da Tubble wi Dubbel – All Grain
• Trappist Style Loud Mouth Soup – Partial Mash
• Dubbel Dog Dare You – All Grain
• Bastogne - All Grain

Tripels:

• She Devil – All Grain
• Brian’s Big Belgium – Extract

Do you have a favorite Trappist recipe or thoughts on how to make a great Trappist style beer?  Leave a comment below.  Thank you for joining us on the BeerSmith Home Brewing Blog.  Please don’t hesitate to subscribe for many more great articles on home brewing.

• Russian Imperial Stout Recipes
• American Amber Ale Recipes and Beer Style
• Cream Ale Recipes – Beer Styles
• How to Brew Big – Making High Gravity Beers
• Brown Ale Recipes: Brewing Styles

Filtering Home Brewed Beer

Almost all commercial brewers filter their beer to rapidly improve flavor and clarity.  Yet few home brewers filter their beer, either because they lack the equipment or prefer the raw flavor of unfiltered beer.  However filtering is a good option for intermediate to advanced brewers who want crystal clear, smooth flavored beer.

Why Filter?

Filtering removes yeast, tannins and some large proteins from the beer that contribute both to off flavors and haze.  While many of these impurities will eventually precipitate out of the beer through lagering and aging, filtering accelerates the process by removing them in minutes instead of weeks or months.  This is a big reason why commercial brewers use filters – time is money and it is much cheaper for them to filter the beer than store it for weeks or months.

Filtering also has the advantage that it can remove very small impurities from the beer – even those that would not fall out of suspension in the natural aging process.  Filters can remove particles as small as 1 micron or even smaller.  This can result in a cleaner flavor and much better clarity than is possible with natural aging.

A question many new brewers ask is if they can filter their beer to eliminate the sediment in the bottom of the bottles?  The answer is unfortunately no, unless you have some kind of kegging/carbonation system.  Filtering the beer removes the yeast from it, so if you filter and then bottle with priming sugar you will just get flat beer.

The only way to filter and bottle beer is to filter your beer into a keg, then artificially carbonate it, and then bottle it from the keg using a counter-pressure bottle filler or beer gun.  Also having a pressurized keg makes it much easier to use an inline filter, as gravity works very slowly with typical beer filters.

Choosing a Filter

First, you need to choose a filter size.  The filter should be fine enough to filter out tannins and yeast cells, but not too fine or it could alter the flavor of your finished beer.  Around 1 micron is the sweet spot for filter size – smaller than 0.5 microns and you risk filtering out some flavor, while larger ones (5 micron and up) may leave yeast in the beer.  To filter out bacteria which some commercial brewers do for shelf stability, you need to go to 0.3 microns or below.  I don’t recommend going below 0.5 microns for home brewing.

Another factor when choosing filter size is how fast your filter may clog.  Many commercial brewers actually use a two stage filter.  They start with a 5 micron filter to eliminate the large particles and then use a smaller 0.5 micron filter inline as a second stage to filter small particles.  If you have a large budget you can do the same, but for a single filter 1 micron is fine.

The most popular beer filters are inline canister filters with a replaceable filter element.  These are inexpensive and work well if you have high quality filter cartridges.  Some wine filters come in a plate format which offers a larger surface area that is less prone to clogging.  I do not recommend using household water filters as these are slow and prone to clogging.  Purchase a filter designed for use with beer and change your filter often as the small inline filters clog quickly.

Filtering Your Homebrew

Despite the fact that filtering can be used to accelerate the aging of your beer, you don’t want to filter your home brewed beer too early.  Some important chemical changes take place during the later phases of fermentation and early aging.  If you halt these too early by filtering you will end up with poor flavor balance.  Commercial brewers use a additives and techniques that allow them to filter earlier.

Allow the beer to fully complete fermentation and then sit in the secondary for at least 2-3 weeks before filtering, then move it to your keg.  The filtering process is very simple if you use two kegs.  Place your inline filter in between the full and empty kegs and use low CO2 pressure to transfer the beer from one keg to the other through the filter.

Once the filtering/transfer is complete, close the top on the second keg, purge the air from the top several times and you can refrigerate and force carbonate it as you normally would with any keg.

Filtering home brewed beers is not always required or even desired, but when you want that extra bit of clarity and clean finish it is a nice alternative.  Do you have thoughts or experience with filtering?  Leave a comment below.  Thank you for joining us on the BeerSmith Home Brewing Blog.  Subscribe for more articles as well as the latest news on my upcoming brewing book and other BeerSmith products.

• How to Brew Beer – 5 Steps for Making Beer at Home – Part 3
• Avoiding a Stuck Sparge for All Grain Beer
• How to Brew Beer: 5 Steps for Making Beer at Home – Part 1
• 6 Tips for Crystal Clear Home Brewed Beer
• Aeration for Home Brewing Beer

Aluminum vs Stainless? Best Beer Brewing Pots

A perpetual debate among home brewers and on various discussion forums is the merits of aluminum vs stainless steel pots for brewing beer.  This week we look at the pros and cons of each to help you make your own educated decision on your next beer brewing pot.

Aluminum Pot Pros and Cons

Aluminum pots are widely available and inexpensive because aluminum cookware is widely used for preparing foods.  Inexpensive Turkey pots in the 36 quart range can be found at your local Walmart, particularly right after Thanksgiving at great prices.  Aluminum pots cost considerably less than stainless steel – often half as much.  Aluminum is a better conductor of heat than steel, so your pot will come to a boil faster and also cool down faster after you are done boiling.

The only major disadvantage of aluminum is that it will oxidize, so you can’t use oxygen-based or caustic cleaners such as Oxyclean.  This is the major reason why professional brewing equipment is made of stainless steel and not aluminum – the stainless steel is easier to clean with caustic cleaning agents.    Also, over time aluminum will get an oxide layer over it which can discolor the aluminum and give it a grey tone.  This is not a cause for concern – the layer of aluminum oxide actually protects the pot, but it is not as pretty as stainless steel.

I feel it is important to address a number of myths about aluminum.  First, aluminum pots are not linked to Alzheimer’s disease.  A number of medical studies since the 1970′s have found zero link between Alzheimer’s and the use of aluminum.  Keep in mind that every day you drink soda from aluminum cans (though most are lined) and eat food prepared in aluminum cookware – it is safe.

A second myth is that aluminum will react with acidic content of the wort and either add off flavors or eat away at your pot.  This is also untrue – water has a pH of7.0, your wort has a pH of around 5.2, while spaghetti sauce can run as low as 4.6 and the most acidic diet sodas you drink run as low as 2.5.  For comparison, battery acid has a pH of 1.0.  Your wort is simply not acidic enough to react with your aluminum pot.

Stainless Steel

Stainless steel pots are the “Cadillac” of brewing pots, with designer pots running into the many hundreds of dollars in price.  They are more expensive than comparable aluminum pots, but are a favorite of serious brewers.  Stainless steel will remain shiny, as the passive oxide layer is not visible – so its easy to tell when your stainless pot is truly clean.

An advantage of stainless steel is that you can use oxygenated cleaners on it, which makes it a favorite with professional brewers who need to clean large vats.  You should avoid long term exposure to bleach based cleaners as these can pit your stainless steel pots and vessels.

Stainless steel is stronger than the softer aluminum metal, so it is less prone to denting and scratching for a comparable wall thickness.  However, you are unlikely to outlive a well made stainless or aluminum pot in either case.  Stainless has a strongly bonded oxide layer, so it is less susceptible to attack by acids, though again the acidity of wort is not a concern for either metal.

The major disadvantage of stainless steel is that it does not conduct heat as well as aluminum, which means a longer time to reach boil and also longer cooling times after the boil.

Which to Choose?

If you select a well made heavy-duty pot, large enough for a full boils that is heavy and conducts heat well, you can’t go wrong with either stainless or aluminum.  I look for a heavy pot with thick walls as it will conduct heat better and also hold up well to the occasional nicks and dings.  An ideal pot has a diameter approximately equal to its height.  A well made aluminum or stainless steel pot will likely last a lifetime.

If you are a brewer on a budget, you can’t ignore the large price advantage of aluminum – often it costs half as much for a comparable pot.  Stainless steel has a “cool factor”, but it also has a price associated with being cool.  Now I personally use stainless steel, but I’ve also been brewing for 25 years and started out using a cheap kitchen pot.

Do you have your own thoughts?  Leave us a comment below. If you want to support us, you might want to consider a pot from Adventures in Homebrewing, a BeerSmith Supporter here.   Thank you for reading this week’s BeerSmith Home Brewing Blog, and don’t hesitate to subscribe if you want more great brewing articles on a regular basis.

• Cleaning and Sanitation for Beer Brewing
• Ten Top Tips for Home Brewing Beer
• 5 Home Brewing Tips to Avoid the Dreaded Bottle Bomb
• How to Brew Beer – 5 Steps for Making Beer at Home – Part 2
• Chilling Your Brew: Building an Immersion Chiller

Calibrating your Home Brewing Equipment

Professional brewers will tell you that consistency is the the key to great beer.  Most competitive home brewers are religious in their measurements and processes to ensure consistently great beer.  However, most homebrewers take their measurements at face value without bothering to calibrate them.  This week we look at how to calibrate your equipment to make sure you have accurate measurements.

Hydrometers

Accurate hydrometer readings are important for measuring your original gravity, understanding your brewhouse efficiency, and determining when fermentation is complete.  Unfortunately some inexpensive brewing hydrometers are not very accurate.

The standard hydrometer is calibrated to read 1.000 when it is placed in distilled water at 60F (15.6 C).  Some laboratory hydrometers are also calibrated to 68F, but these are rare.  You can usually find the calibration temperature in small letters in the corner of the hydrometer scale.

To test your hydrometer, you need some distilled water in your sample tube or a vessel large enough to float the hydrometer.  Place the water sample in your refrigerator until you reach the calibration temperature of 60F.  Then immerse the hydrometer, shake off any bubbles from the hydrometer surface and take the reading.

To read the hydometer properly, you should get your eye at the same level at the water, and find the line where the air and water meet.  If your hydrometer reads precisely 1.000, you have a calibrated hydrometer.  Otherwise you will need to write down the value and subtract the difference from future readings.  For example, if your hydrometer reads 1.002, you will need to subtract the difference (.002) from future readings when using this hydrometer.

Thermometers

Accurate thermometers are important, especially during the mashing process when accurate temperatures are critical.  Again, many inexpensive brewing thermometers can be off by several degrees.  Fortunately thermometers are also easy to calibrate, using the same distilled water you had for your hydrometer calibration.

Start by freezing some distilled water in a cup.  Then break up the ice into chunks and immerse it in some distilled water.  Let it sit for at least 8-10 minutes to reach equilibrium and then drop the thermometer in and read the temperature.  If your thermometer is at 32 F (0 C), you have a properly calibrated thermometer.  If it is high or low, you will again need to make an adjustment by that amount every time you use the thermometer.

Vessels

Knowing at a glance the volume of your vessels (boil pots, fermenters, mash tuns) makes brewing much easier and more accurate.  If your vessel does not have its own marks on it, you can add your own by using a smaller measuring vessel to accurately measure volumes.  You can start with a large measuring cup or gradated water bottle to measure quarts or liters.  If you don’t have a quart/liter size measure, start with a small measuring cup and disposable 2 liter soda bottle and make your own quart or liter measure by filling the bottle using the measuring cup and marking the outside of it with a permanent marker.

Once you have your quart or liter measure, you can fill your larger fermenter or boil pot slowly and accurately to create your measuring marks.  For a plastic vessel, you can mark the outside of it using a permanent pen.  For a metal vessel you can score or etch it.  If you don’t have an easy way to mark the vessel, you can create a dip stick from a small dowel and mark volumes with notches on it.  Some brewers even notch their large spoons.

Consistency is critical for great beer, so take a few minutes to calibrate your equipment up front.  Thank you for joining us on the BeerSmith home brewing blog and don’t hesitate to subscribe if you want to receive more of my articles on homebrewing for free.

• Apparent and Real Attenuation for Beer Brewers – Part 1
• Making a Yeast Starter for your Home Brew Beer
• Decoction Mashing for Beer Recipes
• All Grain Beer Brewing With An Infusion Mash Setup
• Ten Top Tips for Home Brewing Beer

American Amber Ale Recipes and Beer Style

American Amber Ale, also known in the Pacific Northwest as Red Ale is a uniquely American beer that is robust, rich and enjoyable.  A fairly recent style, Ambers have become very popular with mainstream beer drinkers in the US.  This week we take a look at the American Amber style, how to brew it at home and some examples of American Amber recipes.

American Amber became popular in the Pacific Northwest before spreading nationwide, primarily through microbreweries and small regional brewers.  These beers are also called Red Ales or West Coast Ales in some regions, and the style itself overlaps somewhat with American Pale Ale.  However Amber ales have a stronger caramel flavor, more body, are darker and color and have a balance between bitterness and maltiness, where Pale Ales tend to have a stronger hop flavor.  Amber ale is also popular in Australia, with the most popular being from Malt Shovel Brewery (James Squire Amber).

The American Amber Ale Style

The Amber style is considered somewhat richer than pale ale, and is recognized by the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) as its own style (10-B).  Ambers can have moderate to high hop flavor, but the hops should not be dominant.  American hops are most often use which can result in a somewhat citrusy flavor.  Malt sweetness and a caramel flavor are desirable, but Amber should not have the roasted character of a brown ale.  Few esters and no dicetyl is desirable.

Stronger versions may have some alcohol warmth, but the finish should be smooth.  Medium to full body for the beer is normal, with moderate to high carbonation.  The BJCP specifies an original gravity of 1.045-1.060 and final gravity of 1.010-1.015 giving 4.5-6.2% alcohol by volume.

Bitterness is between 25-40 IBUs, giving an average bitterness ratio of 0.619 BU/GU which places amber ales slightly on the malty side as far as overall balance.  Color is amber to copper brown, with an SRM of 10-17, though some mass produced ambers run at the low end of the color range.

Ambers are moderate to highly carbonated – and typically have good head retention.

Brewing an Amber Ale

Amber Ale is traditionally made with American two row pale malt as the base, making up 60-85% of the grain bill.  Medium to dark crystal malts are used to provide color and caramel flavor, typically making up 10-20% of the grain bill.  Small amounts of other specialty grains such as a tiny amount of roast malt (for red color versions), aromatic malt, carafoam, munich or victory malts may be used to add unique character to the brew.

There is no fixed water profile associated with Amber ale, so a variety of waters can be used.  However, as the water does not add significantly to the flavor for this style, a moderate water profile (not too high in sulfates or carbonates) is desirable.

American hops are traditionally used, with citrus varieties such as centennial being popular.  Like pale ale, it is not unusual to use multiple hop additions during the boil as well as a moderate amount of fresh dry hops to provide some hoppy aroma, though overall the beer should be well balanced, with the balance slightly to the malty side.

As a full body Amber is desirable, one generally uses a full bodied single step infusion mash with the conversion step at 156-158F for approximately 45 minutes to an hour.  Since the beer is generally 100% barley malt, no special techniques are needed.

Most amber ales are fermented with American ale yeast, which provides a fairly clean finish with high attenuation.  Some of the more robust and rich Ambers may also feature use of lighter English ale yeasts that can contribute low to moderate esters and complexity to the beer without unbalancing it.  Ambers are fermented and aged at normal ale temperatures (64-68F), and should be bottled or kegged with moderate to medium-high carbonation.

Amber Ale Recipes

Here are a few Amber Ales from our BeerSmith recipe archive:

• Awesome Amber – Extract
• Max’s Last Call – All Grain
• No Sense of Decency Amber – Partial Mash
• Oatmeal Amber – Extract
• Full Sail Ale? – Extract
• Libertyish Cascade – Extract

I hope you enjoy your American Amber!  Thank you again for joining us here at the BeerSmith Home Brewing Blog.  Please subscribe for many more free articles, news, and the latest in homebrewing.

• Brown Ale Recipes: Brewing Styles
• Cream Ale Recipes – Beer Styles
• English Pale Ale Recipes
• Brewing India Pale Ale Recipes IPA Beer Styles
• Scotch Ale Recipes: Beer Styles

Conditioned and Wet Grain Milling for Beer

Have you ever had a problem with finely crushed malt creating a stuck sparge when home brewing?  This week we look at how wet and conditioned milling can help reduce the chance of a stuck sparge by creating a more porus grain bed.

Why Wet Mill?

I knew little about wet milling or its variants until a recent article (Mar-Apr 2010, BYO Magazine) highlighted the technique.  While rarely used in the US, this technique attempts to raise the moisture content of the grain by 20-30% using steam or a hot spray of water.

The wet grain is then run through your malt mill at a narrower than usual gap to split the interior from the grain husk.  Done properly, you will get larger segments of intact grain husk.  The advantage is a more porus grain bed without the dusty grain particles produced by dry milling.  This can make a stuck sparge less likely.

Conditioned Milling

I do not recommend trying this unless you have a two roller grain mill such as the Barley Crusher, as other types of grain mills could get gummed up by the wet grains.  Even then, one must be careful not to overexpose the grains, as grains that are two wet will gum up the mill.

Pure wet milling is difficult to duplicate in a home environment, but two practical conditioned milling options exist for the homebrewer.  One is to use a short exposure to steam, while the second method requires spraying with hot water for a short period of time.

The steam options requires a large pot of boiling water and a false bottom.  Put the grains in a large grain bag and set it aside.  Then bring the pot to a boil.  Once you had a strong boil going, place the bag over the steam rising from it for about a minute and a half.  Then pulled the bag out, stir  it a bit and quickly mill it.

A second option, described in the BYO article, involves sprinkling hot water at 158F over the grains.  Here it is best to treat a smaller amount of grain at a time over a lauter tun or false bottom, so the spray can reach all of the grains.  Heat water to 158F and put it in a spray bottle or watering can, and lightly spray the grains for 60 seconds, allowing excess water to drop off.  Allow the malt to sit for a minute or two to absorb as much water as possible and then mill it.  Reportedly this technique results in a slightly higher water content than steaming.

The milling itself should be straightforward, but start as quickly as possible.  Set the malt mill at a slightly narrower gap than normal, and proceed to mill.  If the mill starts to get gummed up with wet grain, then stop as you have probably gone too far with the water.  You want the husks to come out slightly wet and intact, but the inside of the grains to be largely dry.  If too wet, let the grains dry for a a bit before proceeding.

If you compare some dry milled malt to the conditioned malt you should see a marked difference particularly in the larger pieces of husk and reduced amount of grain dust.   I will note that this is not a technique you should need for every batch.  A properly set malt mill should produce a great dry mill crush and normal sparge for most beers.  However, if you are brewing a beer with a lot of sticky adjuncts such as wheats, unmalted barley, etc, you may want to consider giving this a try.

Run some dry malt through your mill at the end to help clean up any mess you have left, and then dry the entire mill.  Its best not to leave gobs of wet malt sitting on your steel rollers.

Thanks for joining us on the BeerSmith Home Brewing Blog.  If you don’t have a high quality malt mill you may want to check out the Barley Crusher, and don’t hesitate to subscribe to our newsletter for regular delivery of our best articles.

• Avoiding a Stuck Sparge for All Grain Beer
• 5 Ways to Improve your All Grain Beer Efficiency
• The Barley Crusher Malt Grain Mill Review
• Win a Barley Crusher! – BeerSmith Drawing
• Who Won the Barley Crusher? Giving Another One Away!

Who Won the Barley Crusher? Giving Another One Away!

At midnight last night (15 June), I closed out the Barley Crusher drawing, consolidated all of our email subscribers, and randomly drew a winner.  The winner of the 7lb Barley Crusher drawing for 15 June is:

• John Koop of Draper, Utah – Won the 7lb Barley Crusher Malt Mill

Congratulations to John, who was kind enough to give me permission to publish his name.  I’ve also picked 10 people at random to receive free registration keys for BeerSmith, though I have not yet received confirmations from all of them to publish their names.

Another Barley Crusher Giveaway – 15 September 2010

Since the first drawing was very well received, I thought I would give another one away!  I’ll have another 7lb Barley Crusher drawing on 15 September 2010 to one person selected at random from our email subscribers list.

How Can You Enter this Drawing?

Simply subscribe to our newsletter and stay on the list until September 15th 2010 – you’ll get a newsletter about once a week with home brewing articles, tips and links as well as notifications when we post a new article here on the blog.  You’ll also get a chance to win one of the prizes.  Unfortunately we can only offer this drawing to email subscribers, as we need your email to contact you if you win!

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Drawing Rules: The drawing will be made at random from the list of verified email subscribers on 15 September 2010.  Winners will be contacted via their subscribed email address.  If a selected winner fails to respond to our email notice within 7 days they will forfeit the prize in its entirety, and another winner will be selected at random.

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An Interview White Labs Yeast President Chris White

This week it is a distinct pleasure to feature Chris White, the President of White Labs Inc – one of the world’s premiere providers of brewing yeast for both commercial and home brewers.  White labs is a pioneer in providing commercial quality yeasts to home brewers.

1.  When and how did you get started in brewing beer?

I was in college at UC Davis in the late 80’s, and one of my roommates made a beer in our kitchen.  He left the beer sitting for months in the carboy, so finally another roommate mine, Pete (now a veterinarian), and I bottled and drank it.  We soon decided to try home brewing on our own.  Thanks Pete for helping me to start home brewing!

2.  You started White Labs in 1995 – what made you decide to start the business?

I moved to San Diego in 1991 for graduate school.  I had stored my homebrewing equipment in a closet until I went into a shop that had just opened, Homebrew Mart.  Visiting the shop sparked my interest again and I started homebrewing with Yuseff Cherney, the first employee of the store and now Head Brewer of Ballast Point Brewing.  One day he mentioned the need for liquid yeast that is ready the day homebrewers come into the shop.  I was doing my graduate thesis in a yeast lab, so I started to make yeast for our personal homebrew, and soon began making yeast for customers of Homebrew Mart.  I decided to start White Labs soon there after.

3. In the 1990′s we saw a huge increase in the quality of ingredients available to the home brewer.  How did the widespread availability of liquid yeast change homebrewing?

I think that liquid yeast allowed homebrewers to make a great commercial quality beer and it also gave them the opportunity to try to make beers they really liked as well as experiment with styles from around the world.  I know when I was homebrewing actively, before White Labs, the different yeast strain options kept me excited with the hobby.

4.  You pioneered the introduction of prepackaged yeast vials for homebrewers – what are some of the advantages of this system?

We wanted to make a quantity of yeast that homebrewers could use the day they bought it from the homebrew store.  It took a lot of work and a lot of yeast it get it dialed in, you need a lot of yeast in a packaged vial to properly start a 5 gallon homebrew batch.  The goal was to achieve a lag phase of approximately 12 hours, this way home brewers would have a short lag time, and if they wanted to do a starter or a larger size, it is easy to build up further from a large starting size.  Another advantage was to have a variety of strains available to choose from in the store and the convenience of having the product ready to go when you are ready to brew.

5.  You also sell professional beer and wine yeasts – what are the differences between your professional and homebrewing line?

Most of the yeast we produce goes to commercial breweries, but the yeast cultures are exactly the same.  There are advantages for both the homebrewer and commercial brewer.  The homebrewer gets the same high quality yeast that has been designed to fit the fermentation standards of a commercial brewery.  The commercial brewer gets the benefit of the multiple strains we produce from the homebrewer.  We package approximately 50 strains for the homebrewer.  Commercial breweries regularly buy about 20 of these.  We start new cultures from slants every 2 days, this keeps fresh yeast in the pipeline for their 3-week production cycle.  When commercial brewers want the other strains, it is easy for us to start them.

6.  What are some of the changes in homebrewing you have seen since you started?

I think homebrewing has become a real American hobby.  When I started, most of the books were foreign, usually from the UK.  The focus was not so much on crafting great quality beer, and it was also difficult because of the availability ingredients.  Now home brewers in the US have really made it a distinct hobby, and produced a demand for high quality ingredients and revolutionized home brew equipment.  Homebrews are getting better all the time, it’s pretty amazing that a beer of commercial quality can be at home.

7.  What sets White Labs apart?

Our goal is to be become the best yeast production company in the world.  With everything we do, we ask ourselves “Are we being the best we can be?”, and use that to make decisions and to constantly push ourselves to be the best.  We are also always on the look out for new ways to improve yeast and fermentation, so we add new products and testing as often as we can and have a lot of fun doing it.  White Labs is not a typical lab, our team is really passionate about what they do, if someone doesn’t like beer or brewing, they won’t enjoy working at White Labs.

8. What advice would you offer to homebrewers looking to improve their next beer?

Experiment and be consistent.  It is great to experiment, that is what makes home brewing so much fun, but also do things to improve your consistency.  That is what makes you a better brewer.  Use a scale to weigh out your ingredients.  Measure and record the volumes and temperatures.  Learn more about fermentation at look at yeast with a microscope.  Adding some laboratory methods can be fun and can really improve your brews!

9.  Where do you see homebrewing going in the near future?

I think homebrewing will keep growing and improving, many new people are starting to homebrew every year.  We need to continue teaching them how to make great beer, and in turn learn from their new ideas.  Home brewers are always creating new equipment and pushing the envelope of beer styles.  It’s a great community and I’m excited for the future.

10.  Is there anything else you would like to add?

My first brewing book was Charlie Papazian’s classic, “The Complete Joy of Home Brewing.”  The humor in that book was great for me as a beginner and I continue to suggest it to everyone who has an interest in homebrewing.

I would like to personally thank Chris White for taking time out of his very busy schedule to interview with us here on the BeerSmith Home Brewing Blog.  Thanks for joining us and don’t hesitate to subscribe for more great brewing articles.

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