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In 1979 the American Homebrewers Association originally claimed National Homebrew Day to be the first Saturday in May. On May 7, 1988, Congress officially recognized National Homebrew Day. So, if my calculations are correct, this Saturday (May 3rd) is the 29th annual National Homebrew Day! Here’s what it’s all about:

Every year on this day, thousands of homebrewers the world over join together with friends and fellow brewers to brew the same recipes and share a simultaneous toast at noon (Central Time). But this year the festivities will be a little different - for starters, the AHA is hosting a YouTube contest where brewers can upload their videos of their National Homebrew Day “Big Brew”. Prizes will be awarded for the most watched video and the video that best captures the essence and teamwork of the AHA Big Brew.

They’re also giving away a free book (either Brewing Classic Styles by Jamil Zainasheff and John Palmer or Mild Ale by David Sutula in honor of this year’s recipes) with every AHA membership sold this week and shipping is free.

So, what do you need to do to prepare? Read this year’s collective Big Brew recipes (both all-grain and extract versions) and, most importantly, click to find out if there is a Big Brew site in your area and join in on some homebrewed fun.

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Any Maine homebrewers wanting to grow their own hops (not a bad thought, in light of recent world hops shortages): I just received an email from Rick at Paris View Farm in Paris, ME (near Oxford Hills, for those that don’t know) letting me know that he’ll be digging and cutting hops rhizomes (the roots of the hops plants which are used to grow new vines) this week and they’ll be for sale at the farm for $10 a piece. Last year Paris View sold Chinook, Mt.Hood, Newport, Nugget, Perle, and Sterling varieties, so you can expect much of the same for ‘08.

For more information or to contact Paris View Farm to place an order, check out their website at parisviewfarm.com.

For more on how to grow your own hops, check out this “grow your own” feature from Brew Your Own Magazine.

Technorati Tags: hops rhizomes, hops, Maine, beer

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I spent some time in Borders this afternoon checking out 2008 Fantasy Baseball Draft Guides and happened across the beer section of the magazine department. To my amazement, there were six different beer-related magazines in stock (and that didn’t include either Beer Advocate Magazine or Celebrator). The magazines I saw before me included All About Beer, Draft Magazine, Beer (a publication of beer.com, I believe), Brew Your Own, Zymurgy — the official magazine of the American Homebrewers’ Association — and Beers of the World.

Although I don’t subscribe to any of them, I’ve at least glanced through all six at one point or another. But seeing all of them in one place at the same time today got me thinking - which is the best beer-related print mag out there? Well, I figured I’d put it to a vote; what do YOU think (click on the poll below or leave a comment)?

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The media has been flooded in the past 3 months or so with stories about the world-wide hops shortage – if you don’t know about it by now, you’ve been living under a rock; beer drinker or not – so I don’t want to beat a dead horse but I think this afternoon was the first time it’s really hit home for me.

This afternoon I was in Gray, Maine doing something for my day job, so on my way back to the office I stopped in to pay a visit to my favorite Local Homebrew Supply Shop (The Hop Shop in Gray) and say hi to Ed, the owner. So anyway, we got to shooting the breeze and I asked him how he was making out with the shortage (we hadn’t seen each other in a few months); he just looked at me with a completely serious face and said, point blank, “it fucking sucks!”

What hops varieties he can get (most varieties aren’t available) he’s rationed to 10 pounds an order – which is next to nothing compared to what he was ordering pre-shortage. He has to offer creative alternatives to nearly every customer through his doors because they simply cannot brew what they’re looking to brew. Ed has even had commercial breweries call him begging for a spare 10 pounds.

The good news for Ed, he explained, is that homebrewers should be fine. Experimenting and adapting recipes is at the core of homebrewing, so doing so will be embraced. And, if you’re brewing 5 or 10 gallon batches of beer, chances are you’re only adding one or two (certainly not more than four, usually) ounces of hops. And the big, commercial breweries will be fine too – they have the leveraging and bargaining power necessary to secure the hops they need at the price point which they demand. Who suffers the most are the small-time, local breweries we all know and love. They brew too much to be able to get by on homebrew rations but cannot leverage the price or pounds they really need.

Nor could Ed really offer any insight to when the madness will end. Some aid will come in the fall when its harvest season again but,

“Australia is in the midst of a 5-year drought, which doesn’t seem to be ending any time soon… I mean, it’s their summer right now and we’re not seeing anything. And any new plants that are planted around the world, take at least three years to reach maturity, so we’ll be waiting at least that long for things to return to normal”.

What it will come down to is adapting, experimenting, and creativity. But that’s really what craft beer is all about, right? That’s what sets it apart from the big boys – it’s a craft; an art form. As Ed told me today,

“It might mean fewer hop-heavy IPAs but I’m not ready to change the name of my shop quite yet”.

(image by portlandbeer)

Technorati Tags: hops, beer, hops shortage, homebrewing

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I recieved the following press release this afternoon and was too intriqued not to share it:

BrewersSpot.com, a new social networking and resource site for home brewers and beer lovers, has announced the launch of their website, allowing users to gain access to this revolutionary social networking site. BrewersSpot will serve as a unique networking resource to home brewers by providing several areas of functionality that no other online service has attempted to do. In the wake of social networking sites such as Facebook, BrewersSpot will serve as a way for home brewers to find and connect with home brewing peers in their area and around the world.

Founder James Goerke felt a need for home brewers such as himself to be able to connect and communicate, and decided to launch his own social networking site just for them,

“I’ve been home brewing for years now and realized that finding the right information, tools and people has been a challenge. I want to share my resources, as well as help people find new ones.”

The site will provide each home brewer with a personal profile through which they can utilize the sites’ other tools and resources, such a home brewing journal through which to share brewing notes and tips and an integrated, sharable brewing calendar. Likewise, BrewersSpot will include exclusive home brewing and beer related news, expert articles, home brew recipes, cooking with beer recipes, pub reviews and tours and upcoming event information. Interested home brewers and beer lovers may currently sign-up at www.BrewersSpot.com. A unique, user driven approach to site content will be taken ensuring BrewersSpot is truly a personal resource for the home brewer!

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I have signed up for the site but haven’t had much time to peruse it yet (expect a review sometime soon). If you’re a member and would like to be my friend, view my profile here. Cheers.

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Mainers throughout the Portland Metro rejoice - after years of having to travel to Gray or the internet to locate homebrewing supplies, we finally have a shop right here in our own backyard. Rob Zimmerman, a homebrewer of 10 years, was tired of facing the same problem so, to remedy this situation, he decided, along with his wife, Gaylin, to open the store he’d always wished was in Portland. Thus Maine Brewing Supply was born. The shop offers the usual spectrum of both dry & liquid yeast, bulk grains, hops, recipe kits, equipment (beginning & all-grain). Maine Brewing Supply also offers up reading material, DVDs and even a small selection of specialty and begium beers by the bomber.

The Zimmerman’s shop is located at 542 Forest Ave. in Portland, next to the Great Lost Bear (talk about marketing genius!). It’s open from noon-6 pm Wednesday-Friday, 11:30 am-5 pm on Saturday and 11 am-3 pm on Sunday. FMI call 791-BREW.

I stopped in to Maine Brewing Supply last weekend to do a little shopping of my own but wasn’t overly impressed. The shop is certainly big enough, and is much more open, clean and un-cluttered (maybe it just needs a little time) than normal homebrew supply shops - but that’s what give such shops their charm, right? Maine Brewing Supply had a great selection of hops (and Rob told me that he’d stocked up enough to hopefully make it through any supposed shortage), which they keep in a freezer on the show room floor. They were, however, a little short on the yeast selection but kept assuring me that their next shipment was due in the following day. However I, being pretty new to homebrewing after all, still use dry yeast and their dry yeast selection definitely left something to be desired.

The Zimmermans do have an excellent selection of malt grains and specialty/adjunct grains on hand (which they’ll gladly crush for you), but they won’t sell any of them in quantities under a pound. They have a great selection of recipe kits as well, but, their selection of liquid extract cans & DME was very far from even being adequate. On the other hand, the shop seemed to have a nice selection of both starter & all-grain kits and they do carry both kegs & CO2 canisters.

In the back corner of the show room is a large seating area with couches, numerous brewing publications and a flat-screen TV. Rob hopes to host classes and demos there in the future and would like the seating area to become a place for local homebrewers to come and hang out together and swap recipes & tips with one another.

While it is certainly nice to have supplies for sale so close by, and I do understand that a lot of kinks get worked out in the first few months a store is opened (Maine Brewing Supply has been open only a little more than 3 weeks), the Zimmerman’s do have a lot of work still to do.

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Popularity: 11% [?]

The results from the 2nd annual New England Regional Homebrewers Competition, which took place on November 3rd, 2007 at Milly’s Tavern in Manchester, NH are in. The competition was hosted by New Hampshire homebrew club Brew Free or Die & the Maine homebrew club Southern Maine Homebrewers and the competition was sponsored by Portland’s own Gritty McDuff’s.

The most exciting part about the results from the competition is that, if you look closely at the Fruit Beer category, you’ll notice that I (along with my dad, who is my assistant brewer) won an honorable mention award for my Pemaquid Porter (a raspberry-flavored porter named for my favorite place in Maine) recipe. The recipe is the first I came up with on my own, and the competition was the first I ever entered. A brewer from Harpoon Brewery in Boston who judged my entry said the beer’s aroma was that of,

A gorgeous raspberry chocolate truffle.

And that the beer itself was,

A very nice, creative beer.

The recipe is a 5 gallon extract (with specialty grains) brew, which even a novice homebrewer can try their hand at. It calls for both real, frozen raspberries (added to the wort) and raspberry extract (added just prior to bottling/kegging). If you’re interested in trying it for yourself, view the recipe here.

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It was brew day in the Livingston household. My dad I got to work in a 5 gallon Autumn Maple Wheat (brewed with 64oz of pure organic dark amber maple syrup, added at the boil at flame-out). We named the beer “World Series Wheat” due to the timing of the brew. Below are some pictures from the brewing process. If you don’t brew your own and would like to learn (which I highly recommend you do - it’ll bring your beer appreciation to an even higher level), might I recommend How to Brew - By John Palmer, ”a complete online book that will teach you how to brew beer at home. It covers both malt extract and all-grain brewing”. Or, if you want a real book-in-hand book (with tons of great recipes), pick up The Complete Joy of Homebrewing by  Charles Papazian. Enjoy…  

My dad adding the malt extract to the boil

Stirring the wort

I just added the hop pellets to the boil

Spent grains (it was a partial-mash brew)

The final product percolating away in the primary fermenter (note: I made a HUGE mistake and didn’t account for the fact that we ended up adding 64oz of essentially liquid sugar to the mix, so we ended up with an enormously powerful blow-off, which knocked the blow off tube pictured above clear off. It made a big mess, but I think the beer is fine; most importantly.)

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That’s right, you read correctly - this right here, these words you’re currently reading, is Blog About Beer’s 100th post. In less than a month, we’ve covered everything from the apparent health benefits of Guinness, to Paris Hilton being banned from this year’s Oktoberfest Celebrations, to the environmentally friendly steps being taken by breweries like Alaskan Brewing Co., Peaks Organic, and Sierra Nevada Brewing; pretty impressive for just a month’s worth of work. So anyway, I’ve been trying to think all evening of a way to celebrate and I think I’ve finally thought of something worthwhile: 5 reasons you should learn to homebrew. Now, I’m assuming that, if you frequent blogs like this one, you probably all ready do dabble in the art of brewing your own; but if you don’t, there’s never been a better time to learn.

1. Hey, it’s cheaper than buying (good) commercial beer. Brewing in 5 gallon (or more) batches, will cost you less than a dollar a bottle.

2. Nothing creates a greater appreciation for craft brewing, than brewing your own. When you slave over your own batch of beer, when you worry about how it will turn out, whether your friends and family will enjoy it, when you wait ever so patiently for the aging process to be over, you quickly grow to understand and respect the brewing process as a whole.

3. There’s nothing quite like drinking the fruits of your own labor.

4. There is a great sense of community among home brewers. They share recipes, stories, tips & tricks freely; they brew together and encourage the growth and learning everyone who brews.

5. Lastly - let’s face it, brewing your own beer is pretty damn cool.

Check out our links page for links to great homebrew-related sites with forums and products & kits to get you started (as well as ingredients, for advanced brewing) and get out there and start brewing. There’s no time like the present to kick start the best hobby you’ll ever have! Cheers.

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Most people know that Yeast is one of the 4 key ingredients in a beer (along with water, hops & malted barley), but do you know exactly what that yeast is doing? Unless you’re an avid brewer yourself, and you’ve done your homework (or were lucky enough to get to write a report on the topic for your college chemistry class a few years ago), you probably don’t know too much about the actual chemistry involved in making those four, seemingly unrelated ingredients into that wonderful fermented concoction we all love so dearly.  Well, here is the play-by-play on the natural science of brewing. While reading, you might crack open your favorite brew, to further appreciate the marvelous result of the process of science (and hell, it just makes it more fun). 

1. Malting: “Malting” is the controlled germination of barley (say what?). After steeping the barley in water, the grain is spread on a malting floor and allowed to grow until it is modified. Natural enzymes transform the endosperm from complex to simple starches. The grain is dried at high temperatures and milled.

2. Mashing:  Bringing the “mash” of grains to between 148 and 158 degrees activates a pair of related enzymes that liquefy and reduce the now-soluble starches into maltose and other simple sugars.

3. Lautering: Once all reducible starches have been converted, the mash is heated again to 170 degrees. The liquid is usually drained out through a bed of the original grain; the husks are then rinsed (”lautered”) thoroughly with more hot water. The collective runoff from the mash is called “wort,” and it constitutes what will become the finished beer.

4. The boil: Achieving clear beer with a firm, foamy head is largely a function of removing most - but not quite all - proteins from the original mash. Proteins, when boiled, will coagulate and settle out of the liquid (forming a gummy mass called “trub”); this action is called the “hot break.” Boiling is also necessary to extract important flavoring agents, called alpha acids, from hops. For the most part, the longer the wort is boiled, the more efficiently a given amount of hops can bitter a quantity of beer. Boiling even longer can produce caramelization of sugars in the wort.

5. The cold break: As soon as the boil is complete, the wort is quickly cooled; this removes even more undesirable proteins and tannins out of the wort. This time the process is called the “cold break,” and the residue is called “cold trub.”

6. Pitching the yeast: Perhaps the most important key to making good beer is to keep wild yeast and bacteria from gaining a foothold in your brew before the preferred yeast does. This is done through good sanitation and proper “pitching” of a sufficient quantity of carefully cultivated beer yeast. When the wort is cooled, a thick broth of cultivated yeast is added.

• A. The lag phase: The yeast immediately begins to absorb oxygen. Enzymes facilitate yeast’s intake of glucose, more complex sugars and other nutrients. This happens in a few hours.
• B. The respiration and fermentation phases: With sufficient food reserves stored away, the yeast begins to reproduce by “budding.” It absorbs all the remaining oxygen in the wort and uses it and other nutrients to produce new “daughter” cells. Once all oxygen is absorbed, reproduction halts and fermentation proper begins. In a simplified explanation, yeast turns one molecule of glucose into two molecules each of ethyl alcohol and carbon dioxide.
• C. Clarifying and carbonation: Once all available fermentable sugars are consumed, fermentation grinds to a halt and the yeast begins to go dormant. The beer is clarified by storing in a cool, still, sterile environment. It is now nearly free of clouding agents and is clear. It is also flat. During the whole fermentation process, the huge amount of carbon dioxide produced has been allowed to escape through a gas vent, while the alcohol has been preserved in an otherwise closed environment. To achieve carbonation, brewers inject carbon dioxide to the desired level. 

So, next time you sit down with a glass of your favorie beer, think about all the hard work the yeast enzymes did to produce your brew and toast one to them; you couldn’t have done it without them!

[special thanks to an article by Jim Price of The Telescope for supplying the information]

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