Are You Ready For Your Own Micro Home Brewery?

My buddy, Chuck, told me that starting your own micro home brewery is just like pursuing our music. You need to have the basic knowledge, tools, and lots of passion. And, like any hobby, you need to set aside time and gather up your patience because, I soon found out, that most first-time home beer brewers mess up a brew or two until they settle down to using the right recipe and the right equipment. Chuck made sense because messing up while learning new songs is the same.

As for equipment, I can relate to this, being a musician, like Chuck. I know what it takes to find the right guitar, amplifier, and pedals to get a kick butt sound and I know it takes the three P's - Patience, Passion, Practice - to get good at it. It's exactly the same with brewing beer at home. If you stick with it, eventually you will get good at it. You will be impressing family and friends with your own beers!

Choosing the right equipment is simple or complex or somewhere in between. It all depends on how many people you will be sharing your beers with and how much of that beer you personally intend on drinking. Now, I must say, drink responsibly and share wisely. You really don't want to go overboard especially when it comes to your guests. For obvious legal reasons, you want to limit how much beer you and they drink. No drunk driving, please, and keep all alcohol out of the reach of children!

First time home beer brewers need just basic equipment to get started. Brewing pots come in stainless steel, ceramic, and so forth. Start with a 12 quart brewing pot to allow you some room to make mistakes to tweak the recipe to perfect it.

Just like a restaurant chef, you need a measuring scale because ingredients need to be pretty exact when brewing beer. If you try to guess, you will just ruin the brew and have to start from scratch. This is the need for patience I mentioned earlier. The details can get frustrating at first. You also need a thermometer to keep tabs on the cooking cycle because you can easily ruin a batch if the mix becomes too hot or not hot enough. Also, make sure you use a stainless steel spoon for stirring. Due to possible impurities, a wood spoon will not do at all. Always make sure that your kettle and all utensils are clean so you do not contaminate the brewing cycle.

During the brewing process you will need hops and grains that will be placed in the pot during brewing. These may be available in your local area. If not, there are sources on line who sell beermaking ingredients and equipment. You will need bottles and bottling equipment as well. These likely will have to ordered on line or out of a catalog and shipped to you.

This initial investment in equipment will pay for itself in the long run because you no longer have to buy your beer at the distributor! Brewing equipment literally lasts for years so it is likely a one time expense. In fact, you can even reuse the bottles once you have enjoyed their contents. The only ongoing expense is the hops and grains. The hops and grains are pretty inexpensive, a lot cheaper than buying commercial beers.

A key consideration is what type of beer do you like? Maybe you are an ale drinker? Maybe you like dark stout beer? Maybe you prefer light beer? As a home beer brewer, you decide what kinds of brews your little home pub is going to serve. You can have a variety.

When I was at Chuck's I tried his non-alcoholic beer because I was driving. I have to say, I could not tell the difference between that and regular beer as far as taste. I do like the taste of beer but I really don't care for the "buzz" or the hangover from regular beer and I never drink and drive. Today, two beers practically put you over the legal limit as far as DUI laws are concerned. You can give your guests a choice which is always a good idea because, if they get drunk and drive, you can be held legally responsible in many states in the U.S. Of course, you should keep your beers out of the reach of children as well.

I would not hazard a guess as to how much money you will save with your own home brewed beers. That all depends on how much beer you personally drink and how many people you will be serving on a regular basis. You can brew as little or as much beer as you need. You can brew more for those Summer picnics and holiday parties and less for your own use. It's up to you. My buddy Chuck says he saves about $2,000 a year brewing his own beer.

Finally, you also need to be aware that your friends and relatives might come to think of you as their personal bootlegger. That's a term from prohibition days when people brewed "bathtub gin" at home and sold it in the neighborhood. If they start knocking on the door, make sure you charge them something to cover the brewing costs and to get your bottles back. Trust me. I am told that people, even friends and relatives, will try to take advantage of you.

There are blogs dedicated to micro home brewing where you can get helpful tips and hints. To get you started, visit The Micro Homebrewery Blog right now while you are thinking about starting your own micro home brewery.

Beer - Let's Taste it For a While

Beer, hearing the term mind directly strikes the scene of a beer pub where people are holding mugs filled with beer and the foam is coming out of the glasses. Beer is not a new term since time immemorial, world's most widely consumed and probably the oldest of all alcoholic beverages. Beer is the third most popular drink after tea and coffee. Beer is prepared by brewing and fermentation of starches which are derived from the cereal grains particularly malted barley but wheat, corn and rice are also used. Generally beer is flavoured by the addition of hops which adds a bitter taste to beer and also acts as a preservative. Apart from hops some herbs and fruits are also used for flavouring the beer. Literature from the olden times suggests that there was a Code of Hammurabi which was concerned with the laws of regulating beer and beer parlours and the Hymn to Ninkasi was a prayer to Mesopotamian goddess of beer serving both the functions of prayer as well as remembering the recipe of beer preparation. Presently, brewing industry is a multinational business providing employment to thousands of individuals in the form of small pubs to large regional breweries.

There are two categories of beer. First is the pale lager and the other regionally distinct ales which share further different varieties like pale ale, stout and brown ale. The alcohol content of beer is around 4% to 6% alcohol by volume (abv) which may be sometimes less than 1% abv to 20% in rare cases. Beer forms a part of culture of beer drinking nations and is also found to be associated with the festivals as well as with games. Beer is one of the oldest known beverages prepared since 9000 BC and has its record in the history of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. The chemical evidence of beer belongs to circa 3500-3100 BC from the site of Godin Tepe in the Zagros Mountains of western Iran. In China around 7000 BC beer was prepared from rice by malting. Any substance containing carbohydrate like the sugars and the starch usually undergoes fermentation and this laid down the foundation of beer production throughout the world. The production of beer and bread had generally resulted in the development of human civilization as well as technology but this fact is argued strongly by various scientists.

Beer was spread through Europe by the Germanic and Celtic tribes around 3000 BC back and at that time people don't call it beer. Beer produced before the Industrial revolution was on domestic scale but today beer production is a global business and according to a report of 2006 around 133 billion liters of beer is sold every year which costs billions of dollars. The process of making beer is termed as brewing. A edifice dedicated strictly for making beer is called as brewery although beer can be prepared in homes also as known from the ancient literature. A company producing beer is called as a beer company. Beer produced on domestic scale is termed as home brewing regardless of the fact how it is prepared. Beer production is strongly under the rules and regulations of the government of the country and the producers have to deposit the taxes and fulfill the necessary documents in order to run a brewery successfully.

The main purpose of brewing is to convert starch into sugary liquid called wort and later on this wort is converted into alcoholic beverage called beer which is fermented by the action of yeast. The first step in making beer is mashing where the starch source (malted barley) is mixed with hot water in a mash tun. Mashing process is complete is 1-2 hours and during this time period the starch gets converted into sugars and becomes sweet in taste. This sweet liquid now called wort is drained off form the grains. Now the grains are washed and this step is called sparging. Sparging helps the brewer to obtain as much as fermentable liquid from the grains as possible. The process of filtering spent grain from the wort and sparged water is designated as wort separation. The traditional process of wort separation is called as lautering where the grain itself acts as filter medium. Modern breweries use filter frames for this step. The sparge obtained from second and third run contains weaker wort and thus weaker beer. Brewing with several runnings is called as patrigyle brewing.

The sweet wort obtained from the sparged water is now kept in the kettle and boiled for 1 hour. Boiling evaporates the water of the wort but the sugars and other components remain as such and this allows efficient use of starch sources in beer. Boiling also inactivates the enzymes left after the mashing process. Hops are now added as source of flavor, bitterness and aroma. Hops may be added more than one time during boiling. If the hops are boiled for a longer time then the bitterness of beer increases and the flavor and the aroma content of beer declines. After boiling the hopped wort is allowed to cool and is now ready for yeast action. During fermentation the hopped wort becomes beer and this step may take a week to months depending upon the type of yeast and the strength of beer. When fermentation is over the yeast settles leaving the clear beer. In some cases fermentation is carried out in two steps, primary and secondary. Once beer is produced through primary fermentation it is transferred to a new vessel and is allowed to undergo secondary fermentation for certain period. Secondary fermentation is generally used when beer requires long term storage before packaging or greater clarity. When beer has fermented it is transferred into casks for cask ale or in aluminium cans or kegs or bottles depending upon the varieties.

The key ingredients of beer are water, a starch source like the malted barley and brewer's yeast which is responsible for fermentation and flavouring agents like the hops. Apart from malted barley other sources of starch may be used like the corn or rice and then the term adjunct is used as they serve as a lower cost substitute for barely. Other inferior sources of starch include sorghum, millet, cassava root in Africa, potato in Brazil and agave in Mexico and other nations. Grain bill is the total amount of starch source in the beer making process. The major composition of beer comes from water. Water of different regions has different mineral components so the beer prepared from different regions shares unusual taste and variety. Water in Dublin is hard so it is best suited for the production of stout, Pilzen has soft water so famous for the production of pale lager. Water from Burton is rich in gypsum so is suitable for the production of pale ale. Sometimes the brewers add gypsum to the local water for the production of pale ale and this process is termed as Burtonisation.

The starch source in beer is the key source which provides the material to be fermented and is responsible for the strength and flavor of beer. Most common starch source used for beer preparation is the malted grain. Gran is generally malted by soaking it in water and is then allowed to start germination and finally the half germinated grain is allowed to dry in a kiln. Malting process produces enzymes which are responsible for the conversion of starch into fermentable sugars. Different colours of malts are prepared from the same grain by allowing the grain to roast at different times and temperatures. Dark malts produce dark beers. Majority of beers have malted barley as starch source as its fibrous husk is not only important in the sparging process but also contains amylase, a digestive enzyme which converts starch into fermentable sugars. In the recent years brewers have produced gluten-free beer from the malted sorghum especially for those individuals who are unable to digest gluten-rich beer derived from malted barley, corn and rice.

The foremost components of flavouring of beer are the hops which are derived from the hop vine. Hops are actually the flowers of hop vine which act as flavouring agents as well as preservative. Apart from hops certain herbs and berries are also used as flavouring agents. Hops add a bitter taste as well as balance the sweetness of the malt. Bitterness of beer is measured on International Bitterness Units Scale. Hops add floral, citrus and herbal aromas and flavours to beer. Hops have an antibiotic effect and allow the use of lesser number of micro-organisms and have a preservative action. The micro-organism responsible for the fermentation of beer is the yeast. Yeast converts the sugars obtained from malted grains into alcohols and carbon dioxide and therefore turns wort into beer. It also imparts character and flavor to beer. The dominant strains of yeast used in fermentation are the ale yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisae) and the lager yeast (Saccharomyces uvarum) which produce ale and lager beers respectively. Some brewers also add clarifying agents to beer as they precipitate out of the beer along with the protein solids and are found in traces only in the finished product. These agents make beer fine and clean instead of the cloudy touch as that obtained from wheat in the olden times. Commonly used clarifying agents are isinglass obtained the swim bladders of fishes, Irish moss from seaweed.

There are many varieties of beer found all over the world but the basic concepts of their preparation are always shared among different nations. The traditional European brewing regions like Germany, Belgium, and United Kingdom have local varieties of beer. Brewers from Canada, USA and Australia are so much inspired by the European style of beer preparation that they have developed their own different indigenous varieties of beer. Apart from the different varieties beer can be classified into two major types depending upon the temperature of brewing which affects yeast activity during fermentation. Beers may be lagers brewed at high temperature and regionally available ales brewed at low temperatures. Ales may be further divided into pale ale, brown or dark ale and stout. Beers are basically classified on the basis of yeast action used in fermentation. Beers which require fast acting warm fermentation leaving behind residual sugars are classified as ales while beers utilizing slow acting cold fermentation where the yeast removes most of the sugars are lagers. Steam beer, Alt and some modern British Golden Summer Beers use elements of both ale and lager beers for their preparation.

Limbic is a variety of beer that is prepared in Belgium by using wild yeast rather than the cultivated one. Many of the varieties of yeast used for making lambic are not the strains of S.cerevisae so they impart different flavours and aroma to beer. Strains of yeast like Brettanomyces bruxellensis and Brettanomyces lambicus are used for making lambics. Lactobacillus is basically responsible for the sour taste of lambics where it produces acids. Stout and porter are dark beers prepared by using roasted malt or roasted barley and brewed by slow fermenting yeast. There are other varieties also like the Baltic porter, imperial stout and dry stout. The term Porter was used for the first time in 1721 to describe a dark coloured beer popular in the streets and river porters of London. This beer was later on got famous by the tag stout. The history of stout and porter got intertwined later on.

Another variety is wheat which is significantly obtained by the use of wheat but it also contains certain proportion of malted barley also. They are usually top fermented and the flavour of wheat beers vary considerably according to the style in which they are brewed. Ales are prepared by warm fermentation by using brewer's yeast that clumps and rises to the surface so they are called as top fermenting beers and also require higher temperatures and get fermented more quickly in comparison to lagers. The suitable temperature for carrying out fermentation of ales is 15-24?C. in this temperature range yeast produces suitable esters and flavours along with aroma products resulting in a beer with fruity touch like that of apple, pineapple, banana, plum and others. Hops were introduced into England in the 15th century and after the addition of hops in brewing the term beer was used. The term Real Ale was coined by Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) in 1973 for the beer brewed by using traditional ingredients and secondary fermentation without use of carbon dioxide.

The cool fermenting beers of European origin are termed as lagers. The pale lagers are the most popularly consumed beers all over the globe. The word lager has got its origin from a German word lagern which means to store because the brewers used to store the beers in cool cellars and caves during the hot summer months and they observed that fermentation process continued in the stored beers and this resulted in better quality of beers. The yeast used for fermentation of lagers is very much active at lower temperatures and it carries out primary fermentation at the temperature range of 7-12?C and then a long secondary fermentation at 0-4?C. After the secondary fermentation is over lagers become clear. Cooler temperature also inhibits unusual production of esters and other byproducts resulting in production of a tasty lager beer. The modern method of lager production was put forward by Gabriel Sedlmayr the Younger, who clarified the dark brown lager at Spaten Brewery in Bavaria, and Anton Dreher brewed an amber-red coloured lager in Vienna in 1840-1841. With the improvement of yeast strains modern lagers get ready within a very short time period say from 1-3 weeks.

Malt is responsible for the particular colouration of beer. The common colour of beers is pale amber which is basically produced by the use of pale malts. Pale lagers and pale ales are prepared from the malt dried with coke. Coke was used for the first time in 1642 for roasting the malt but this step was prohibited in 1703 but the term pale ale came into existence. In terms of sale and volume the majority of the beers are based on the pale lagers brewed in 1842 in the town of Pilsen in the present-day Czech Republic. The pale lager consumed in the present scenario is very light in colour passed through carbonation with alcoholic strength of around 5% only. Pilsner Urquell, Bitburger, and Heineken are the common brands of pale lager beers and Budweiser, Coors, and Miller are common American brands of pale lager beer. Dark beers are generally brewed from pale malt or lager base malt along with certain proportion of dark malt to achieve a desired colour. Caramel, roasted unmalted barley are also used for achieving a dsired shade of beer.

The alcoholic strength of beer ranges from less than 3% by volume (abv) to around 14% (abv) although this strength can be further increased up to 20 % (abv) by use of champagne yeast and 60% (abv) by freeze distillation process. The alcohol content of beer varies with style and practice. Alcohol in beers comes from the sugars that metabolized during the fermentation process. The quantity of fermentable sugars in wort and the strain of yeast used for the fermentation of wort are responsible for the alcoholic content in the finally obtained beer. Sometimes fermentable sugars and enzymes are also added for increasing alcoholic strength of beer. Alcohol is produced as a byproduct of yeast fermentation and is toxic to the yeast. Low temperature and too little fermentation decrease the activity of yeast and so as the alcoholic content of final beer. The alcoholic content of beers has increase in the last few years of 20th century and a Dutch brewery has produced the strongest beer with alcoholic content of 60% (abv).

The brewing industry is a multinational business in the modern world and it works in collaboration with regional as well as national breweries. Microbrewery is a modern brewery that produces a limited amount of beer every year around 15,000 barrels. A brewpub is a microbrewery serving beer along with some edible materials also. Draught beer from a pressurized keg is the most frequent method of dispensing beers in the bars. A metal keg is generally used which is first filled with beer and then pressurized by using carbon dioxide. Nitrogen is also used sometimes for sealing beer kegs. Cask ales are unconditioned and unpasteurized beers. When a cask arrives in a pub it is kept horizontally in a frame called stillage which is designed to hold it at 90? and then allowed to cool at the cellar temperature before being tapped and vented.

Beers are basically cleared off from the yeasts before they undergo packaging in bottles and cans. Bottle conditioned beers however retain some yeast that is left unfiltered so beers should be poured slowly. Many beers are typically sold in cans all over the world. People drink directly either from cans or by pouring into the glass. Cans protect beer from coming in contact with light and there is little of no risk of leakage. Plastic bottles are also used for packaging beers. Temperature of beer strongly influences the drinker's experience. Warmer temperature reveals flavour of beer and cool beers are more refreshing. Most drinkers prefer to consume pale lagers chilled while imperial stouts are generally preferred at room temperature.

The beer writer Michael Jackson has proposed a five level scale for serving beer. He has suggested following types like chilled for light beers, chilled for wheat beers, lightly chilled for dark lagers, cellar temperature for British ale, stout and room temperature for strong dark ales. The consumption of chilled beer began in 1870s and spread to all parts of the globe where pale lager was preferred on high scale. Chilling the beer adds a refreshing taste to it but chilling below 15.5?C reduces the taste and at 10?C awareness and taste both decline. Beers served at room temperature have a wonderful flavour. Cask Marque is a non-profit beer producing organization which has set a temperature range of 12?-14?C for serving the cask ales. Beers are served either in cans, mugs, glasses etc. The glassware used for drinking beer may influence the character and style of an individual. Many breweries offer branded glasswares for serving beer. Beer is poured in a style in the drinking glasses and opening of beer container releases carbon dioxide as it is opened.

Many social activities have been found to be associated with drinking like playing cards, pub games etc. Beer is most popularly consumed all over the world in a high proportion in comparison to the wine which the second most popularly consumed beverage. The main active key component of beer is alcohol so also affects human health. Moderate consumption of beer reduces the risk of cardiac arrest and cognitive decline. Long term effects of alcohol increase the risk of liver damage. The brewer's yeast used for the fermentation of beer is a rich source of nutrients like magnesium, potassium, phosphorus, biotin and vitamin B and therefore, beer is sometimes called as liquid bread. According to a study conducted by Japanese scientists in 2005 low alcohol beers have strong anti-cancer properties. Non-alcoholic beers reduce the risk of cardiovascular disorders. But over consumption of anything is injurious so beers must be consumed in a limit.

From the process of preparation till packaging and up to marketing the brewers put so much effort and this effort is the key of the success of breweries all over the world. One must enjoy beer at least once in his or her lifetime.

A Brief History of Home Brewing

Anybody can go to the local grocery store and buy six pack of beer of their choosing, but it takes real dedication to learn how to brew and enjoy your own homemade beer. 7,000 years ago, when it is estimated that alcohol was first discovered and brewed, most people had no choice but to brew in their own home. Eventually, commercial breweries changed that when they learned how to mass produce beer for consumption. Still, even though commercial breweries exist and beer is easy to obtain, home brewing is still practiced today by connoisseurs and hobbyists.

In the 1800's, once commercial breweries began to take root, home brewing was heavily taxed in an effort to bring more profits to the breweries. Eventually, prohibition came about and banned all forms of alcohol, again making home brewing the only way to obtain it. Although the practice was risky, it was very popular until 1933, when the prohibition was lifted because of how it enabled organized crime and beer smuggling cartels. Although wine was the first alcohol that was again legalized in the United States, it took several more decades for beer brewing to be made legal again due to an error in the way the law was written.

Now, commercial breweries have forged their way into the fabric of Western society and although home brewing is legal and still practiced, it is far less practical than it used to be. Most home brewing has been left to the beer "snobs" and fanatics that find pleasure in creating their own recipes. Some swear that no commercial beer can compare with the taste of a home brewed beer, but because of the material cost and the time necessary to prepare a home brew, most do not take the time and/or effort to do so.

However, one popular trend that has emerged from the home brewing crowd is the "micro brew," which is somewhat of a hybrid between the home brewing elite and the commercial breweries. Micro brew is generally practiced extensively in the United States and is often sold at smaller micro breweries and pubs. Although micro brews are more expensive than traditional commercial beers, they are widely popular because of the unique taste and quality of the brew, which is something that a mass produced beer cannot duplicate.

Home brewed cider is also a popular trend in home brewing because it is much easier to create and is often more potent. For those that prefer a sweet alcohol to that of a lager or stout, cider offers a perfect alternative.

Although home brewing has generally declined over the past several years, there has recently been a rise in the practice because of the ease of obtaining materials and ingredients. Readymade home brewing kits and instruction and materials have tremendously reduced the learning curve required to brew your own beer. Typically, a home brewed beer can be produced in 6-8 weeks depending on the type of beer and equipment used.

Click here to find easy to use home brewing kits that are perfect for all skill levels. You'll also get a free home brewing book with 640 free beer recipes just for stopping by!

Breweries in Suffolk, United Kingdom

Although Suffolk was not historically a prolific brewing county, we are, since the takeover of Scottish & Newcastle by the Danes, the county with two of the UK's largest remaining brewers, Greene King and Adnams. Suffolk is also home to lots of smaller breweries whose styles range from the solidly traditional Bitters and Milds (one of the last bastions in southern England of this threatened style), through to exotic beers made with wheat, fruit and spices. So find out here which one is to your taste -

Adnams Brewery

This is a highly successful, traditional brewing company, set in the lovely seaside town of Southwold. Still Chaired by one of the Adnams family, the Company was established in 1890 and last year moved into a new multi-million pound, state-of-the-art brewery in Southwold. Adnams brews a distinctive range of authentic beers from the finest of ingredients. Each has its own fresh, unique and vibrant character that will appeal to the most discerning drinkers - drinkers who cherish individuality and seek out brands with personality and style. These beers are popular throughout the country in free pubs, and range from - Mild, Bitter, Extra, Broadside, and Seasonal Ales such as Barley Mow, Old Ale, Mayday, Tally Ho..... and the latest brew, Adnams Explorer. They also run their own pubs as well as two lovely Hotels in Southwold (see Crown Hotel and The Swan Hotel), and have recently branched out with kitchenware and wine with their highly successful Cellar and Kitchen Stores

Earl Soham Brewery (ESB)

This fun, young, brewery had been brewing in Maurice's old chicken shed behind the Vic since 1985. In 2000 ESB bought a bigger shed, the Old Forge building opposite the village green. With the help of old friends, the shed was turned into a brewery and it finally became productive in May 2001. We haven't looked back since! They feature the Victoria Bitter, a fantastic light, hoppy brew, all year round. They also produce at least 7 other ales at any given time.

The Kings Head

Located in Bildeston, a 15th Century Free House with its own micro-brewery located in the old stables at the back of the pub.The owners are real ale enthusiasts, active members of CAMRA and have been brewing real ale at home from the grain (not kits) for several years. The brewery is capable of producing 4 barrels (144 gallons) of real ale each run. Malted grain is supplied by Muntons a few miles away in Stowmarket (http://www.muntons.com/), whilst the hops are sourced from various suppliers as required by each recipe. Worth checking out to taste such brews as "Dark Vader", "Blondie", and "J.J.'s Lemon Bitter".

Mauldons Brewery

In 1795 the Mauldon family of Sudbury first became involved in brewing, for in that year Anna Maria Mauldon began brewing at the Bull Hotel in Ballingdon on the outskirts of Sudbury. As the business prospered, additional pubs and hotels were purchased and in the early 1800's the brewery moved to larger premises in Ballingdon Street. The brewery is well established, and using only traditional methods and quality materials supplies a range of premium real ales throughout the country.

While the recipes remain the same, some artwork on the pump clips has been designed to include reference to Charles Dickens who has a history with Sudbury. It was in 1834 that Charles Dickens the young reporter for the Morning Chronicle, was sent to Sudbury to report on the corrupt dealings of some of the town councillors who would meet at the Rose and Crown Hotel. Sudbury was named Eatanswill in Dickens' Pickwick Papers.

The Old Cannon Brewery

The Old Cannon in Bury St. Edmunds doesn't keep it's brewery hidden away at the back--rather the miro-brewery makes a stunning central feature in the pub bar. This makes it unique in Suffolk and well worth a visit. People often assume the magnificent stainless steel mash tun and boiler are for show but they are, in fact, in use every Monday for brewing a line of regular beers including Old Cannon Best Bitter (3.8% abv); Blonde Bombshell (4.2%) and Gunner's Daughter (5.5%). In addition, Old Cannon produces various seasonal ales.

Originally known as The St Edmund's Head, the pub opened in 1845 with its own adjacent brewery - known locally as 'The Cannon' - built two years later. Brewing ceased in 1917 and Greene King subsequently closed the pub in 1995. The brewery was converted into five comfortable bed and breakfast rooms and - after a short spell as a photographer's studio - the pub reopened in 1999, restyled as The Old Cannon Brewery, complete with unique, state-of-the-art, stainless steel brewing vessels housed in the bar itself.

With such a huge range of available breweries, and a great selection of pubs that carry them, Suffolk is a fantastic place to visit for a Real Ale experience. For more on pubs, breweries, and things to do in Suffolk, check out the Suffolk Tourist Guide

Will Averill is a freelance travel and entertainment writer and administrator for the Suffolk Tourist Guide, a complete online guide to Suffolk accommodation, travel, and entertainment.

From Luxury Hotels for a romantic weekend, to days out with the children, or even office team building or client hospitality, you'll find just what you want here in Suffolk. Use the Suffolk Tourist Guide to find all you need to know and Click straight through to make a booking.

Beer Brewing Methods Have Changed Greatly Over the Years

As beer lovers, we are pretty certain that we know the beer brewing methods used by the mega-breweries pale in comparison to the love and attention we lavish on our own home brew recipes whether they be from the commercial brew brewing kits or our very own recipes.

But we owe a great debt to the commercial breweries and their history of improving the brewing process to the point where we can enjoy home beer brewing as the satisfying hobby that it is.

Way back in Mesopotamia some 50 centuries ago beer and bread were staples of the daily diet and both were produced in individual homes by the women of the time. While the process of fermentation was understood very early on, the various technologies required to centralize the brewing process into one location in greater quantities did not begin to come into use until the tenth century when European monasteries began to expand their beer brewing methods to include additional product which could be used as payment for the monasteries bills. The monks are also credited with much improving beer brewing recipes by coming up with adding hops to the process. The addition of hops was first mentioned in the eighth century and again in the tenth. This transition from primarily home brewed beer to also marked the exclusion of women from brewing responsibilities.

These early breweries were almost always built in multi story buildings and arranged so that the earliest stages of the brewing process took place on the highest floors so the brewers could depend on simple gravity to help move the product from one brewing stage to the next. The state of the brewery, with relatively few improvements such as the use of copper vats instead of wood, remained pretty much the same for several hundred years. It wasn't until the 1700s that the brewery started to take on the appearance we would be familiar with today.

The development of the steam engine in 1765 brought the ability to mechanize aspects of the brewing process including the mixing and stirring of the batch. Pumps operated by steam power were also developed which gave the brewers the ability to mix more reliably while heating which reduced the possibility of the mash scorching. Overall, steam power gave the brewery the ability to produce larger quantities of beer since they no longer had to rely on just human powered mechanisms.

The next great improvement in brewery technology was in the late 1800s when the capability to refrigerate the beer was introduced. Before refrigeration, because yeast is extremely temperature sensitive, most beer was brewed in the cooler winter months in great enough quantities to last through the warm summers. With the ability to maintain the desired cool temperatures yeast requires, beer could now be reliably brewed all year round.

The work of Louis Pasteur was to also greatly influence beer brewing methods. The discovery that yeast is a living microorganism that fermented the wort lead to the development of pure yeast cultures chosen for their fermentation ability and flavors they produce.

Today's modern brewery, whether huge or a local micro brewing operation, are almost all constructed from stainless steel which has distinct advantages over the materials used in years past. It does not flavor the beer itself in the way wood casks did, and it is very easy to clean since it doesn't react with many chemicals.

Heating is now done with pressurized steam but some smaller breweries do use direct fire methods. Cooling is achieved by installing cooling jackets on the tanks. This arrangement helps control the temperature of each tank individually and very accurately.

Perhaps the best improvement in today's breweries is the amount of testing that takes place for quality control. Not only is the batch sampled many times during the process for any impurities or unwanted variations, so also are the incoming shipments of the raw ingredients tested for compliance to quality standards.

Instead of searching the online beer sites endlessly for information about home beer making, simply download the ebook Brew Beer Bible found at Brew Beer Today.com.

The Brew Beer Bible is inexpensive, has an iron clad money back guarantee if it does not meet expectations, and offers step by step instructions on how to always get the best tasting beer out of your home brewery.

Beer Gardens

If you pay close enough attention sooner or later you are going to hear someone use the phrase "beer garden". Beer gardens have been around for quite a long time and, almost certainly, you have been in one at least once in your drinking life, even if you have been home beer brewing for a long time.

The term started in 19th century Germany. A king of Bavaria from 1825 to 1848, Ludwig I, was something of a micro manager and often immersed himself in the most mundane details. One of these details was that he decreed that the dark lager beer Bavaria was famous for could only be brewed during the cold winter months because the fermentation for brewing this beer worked best at temperatures between 39 and 46 degrees.

Of course if the brewing beer in winter means it will probably be drunk in summer when the temperatures are much higher. To solve this problem in an age before refrigeration the beer breweries of the time dug beer cellars into the banks of the Isar River. With the rivers source high in the Alps, its water is very cold and it kept the beer at the desired temperature. To help, the breweries also added layers of gravel and planted trees to provide additional insulation from the warm summer temperatures.

But no refrigeration meant that the beer really couldn't be moved very far before becoming warmer than the optimum drinking temperature so, again, the brewers had an idea; if you can't take the beer to the customers, then bring the customers to the beer. They set up tables and chairs under the newly planted trees and the "beer garden" was born. Very quickly the term was applied to any open air location where beer was served and many taverns and bars would have an attached garden.

The earliest beer garden in the United States seems to have been Castle Gardens which opened in 1824 on the site of a fort originally built to defend Manhattan from the British in the war of 1812.

New York City also hosts the oldest continually operating beer garden on 24th in the Astoria section of Queens. Known as Bohemian Hall, and operated by the Bohemian Citizens Benevolent Society, it is a catering hall with a bar and beer garden attached. This establishment has been proudly serving since 1919.

Today, the beer garden is under stress in the United Sates as land prices make it ever more expensive to set aside a plot dedicated to savoring the beer brewing arts in the great outdoors. But in areas with less population density, or more available land area, the beer garden continues to be very much enjoyed. Also, the many different beer festivals held around the country each year will almost always have a beer garden set aside within the festival boundaries.

Another country with severe land restrictions is Japan. But the beer garden is thriving there as many are located on the roofs of office buildings and apartment houses. There is something to be said about such efficient use of space!

The next time you find yourself enjoying a cold one in a park like setting, spare a thought for King Ludwig the first who started it all!

Instead of searching the online beer sites endlessly for information about home beer making, simply download the ebook Brew Beer Bible found at Brew Beer Today.com.

TheBrew Beer Bible is inexpensive, has an iron clad money back guarantee if it does not meet expectations, and offers step by step instructions on how to always get the best tasting beer out of your home brewery.

Starting Your Own Micro Home Brewing

When you are producing less than one million hectoliters of beer each year then you are considered a micro brewery in the United States, when you reside in Canada however you should not be making more than 300.000 hectoliters per year. It still is more than you are allowed for private use, having a micro brewery can be a wonderful way of living. Specially when you enjoy brewing beer and you wouldn't mind being a bit more commercial then it's perfect for you.

Always sanitize

When you want to get started with your micro home brewing you should first start by sanitizing all the equipment that you are going to use in the brewing process. After the sanitizing you should give everything a good rinse to be sure that no sanitizer is left in the system. If there is any sanitizer left then this could kill the yeast and this on it's turn will result in a poor tasting and flat beer.

Cooking and stirring

The first thing that has to be done when you are micro home brewing is to start the cooking process. Put about 2 gallons of water in the pot and bring it to a boil and when it is boiling you add the malt syrup. Now we need to start stirring this mixture can dissolve in the boiling water but be careful now and make sure that the pot does not boil over because when that happens we could lose ingredients so always keep a close eye on the pot while you stir it.

The next steps

We need to do a lot of other steps to complete the brewing process. The worth, which is the name of the mixture we created should be left alone to cool after this we need to siphon it, bottle it etc. etc. You will find out that there are many methods you can follow when you start micro home brewing. It is probably best to do a lot of testing so your beer will have a distinctive taste to it that will be your signature.

Do not fear, help is near

If you, at some point do not know how to tackle a certain problem you can always ask one of the many microbreweries that are out there, maybe give a few of them a visit to introduce yourself. If you don't know any in your region then get online and start looking nearby breweries with an online search.

If you have always liked brewing you own beer for private use and really would like to make a small living out of it then give micro home brewing a try. It will not be a large investment and you would be doing something that, because it is your hobby, will not have a high learning curve.

Keep in mind that it should be something you enjoy doing. It will reflect in the taste of the beer and if the taste is good then half of the task is done.

Drew Brown has one hobby, home made beer brewing and he loves to share it with the world. He just loves to brew his own beverages. On his website he tells you all about home brew supplies or to home brewing recipes.

The Ultimate Micro Brewery

Home brewing, that is, making your own beer at home, is an increasingly popular activity for many people. There is an absolute wealth of information, supplies, and equipment to be found on nearly every high street, and of course the internet.

Hardly surprising in this age of advertisement driven sales, where often the manufacturing costs of a particular beer are dwarfed by the advertising budget of many of the large breweries. Giving rise to a common complaint of bland, overpriced beers with little, or no taste.

So lots of people are turning to home brewing to regain the quality and taste of old. You have control over every stage of the process, and of course these days it certainly doesn't hurt that your finished product, as well as being tasty, is considerably cheaper than the mass produced varieties.

Beer has been with us for thousands of years. It can be traced back at least 6,000 years when the Mesopotamians were known to have drunk a fermented bread mash. Via various routes it eventually arrived in Northern Europe. From where it rapidly spread all over the civilised world.

Early fermented drinks, made with grain, the early forerunner of our modern beers, made use of honey as a source of sugar. These drinks were always referred to as "ale". The term "beer" did not come into common use until much later.

Most early ales were brewed from malted grains such as barley, oats, and wheat. They were simple beers. The addition of such ingredients as hops, which we now think are pretty much indispensable were only introduced in the early 1500's when Flemish settlers broght over their recipes, which rapidly proved popular.

Until then many early recipes would contain such ingredients as saltpetre, tree bark, and all manner of root vegatables. The main purpose of many of these ingredients would be to offset the often "rank" taste of the brew. Obviously were it not for the alcoholic content nobody in their right mind would drink it!

Every large household in those days would brew their own beer. It generally being safer than a lot of the untreated water, was drunk by all. They would have a brewing day once a week, producing much stronger beers than are currently made commercially and were made in quite large quantities, stored in casks.

From the late 1700's onwards small breweries started producing beer in commercial quantities, brewing excellent, good drinking beers, which were deivered to ale houses within a fairly small radius. Over a period of time, with the increase in population and improvements in transport links, many of these small breweries either amalgamated or were taken over. To be replaced by fewer, larger breweries, making a lot less types of beer.

And so we now see a swing back, consumer driven, to a lot more "micro breweries" producing a much smaller quantity of beer, but providing the variety and taste that people want. The ultimate micro brewery being of course the home brewer.

Chris Haycock is an information publisher. One of whose many hobbies is home brewing. Preferring the taste and variety of his own product to those commercially available. For more information go to: http://www.secretsofhomebrewing.com

Things To Keep In Mind Before You Start With Home Brewing

Are you ready to get started with home brewing? Maybe you and your family went to a home brewing supply store and the brewing bug got a hold of you. Or maybe you tasted this great home made beer at a friends house, it could even be that the stories you heard from some people talking about home brewing got you started to think about picking up this lovely hobby. It is true that ones you've started thinking about it, it will be hard to get out of your mind. But don't rush out to the supply store just yet. Don't go online to order that good looking brewing system and empty bottles or complete brewing kit because there are some things you should know and think about.

Does your family know about your plans?

Before anything else, first talk with your family members. Maybe in your mind the best and greatest beer is being brewed by you and probably you think that when your family members taste this they will forget about not knowing about it and cleaning up after you. Your family members won't be happy if they keep on tripping over your brewing system or when your spouse has to mop the spilled beer of the floor when you didn't involve them in the decision process. Make sure you all decide together that this is a great hobby to have.

Stick to the basics first

Once you start looking in to this new hobby you will be amazed at how many recipes there are for home brewing. You will see them everywhere, in books, on the internet and when you visit a micro-brewery you will probably get some handed out to you. But having all those recipes doesn't mean you have to try them all, at once. Don't get in over your head, start with the normal recipes, the ones that are written in such a way that you understand it. Best thing to do is to start out with a recipe of a beer that you can buy in the store. That way you can compare the brew you made with the one you can buy.

Don't be afraid to ask for help

Starting on your own is never a wise thing to do. Ask around if one of the family members is willing to help out. Better yet, try to find someone who is experienced in home brewing and is willing to help you out. Ask this person if he/she can help you out with setting up your home brewing equipment, and help you put together your first recipe. They probably will be more then happy to sample and taste that first batch and help you fine tune for the next batch of home brew beer. Have a look around on the internet and stop by some of the many home brewing websites to find some beginners recipes.

Don't give up to soon

If at first you don't succeed ..... well you know the drill, try again. Never think that the first batch of home brew beer will be the best of them all. Chances are that it will be the worst or maybe even not drinkable. If that's the case don't give up. The fun of home brewing is the fact that every time the taste of the beer will be slightly different then the time before. There will come a time that the batch turns out great and you get the hang of brewing your own beer. Then you will start thinking about the more complex recipes that exist. Or you will try out your own secret ingredient. Just don't give up.

Drew Brown has one hobby and he loves to share it with the world. He just loves to brew his own beverages. www.brewingyourown.com

What Exactly is in a Home Beer Brewing Kit

What is in a home beer brewing kit you may ask? There will be a set of instructions to explain how to use your mircobrewery kit. Along with that there will be (in most kits) the malt extracts, hops, and yeast for the first batch of beer. The first kit should be a starter kit that will have all of thing things you need to brew your first batch. You'll even get a keg that will made of food grade polyvinyl chloride. Most of the brewers kits are ready to be put to use easily. The higher end kits will come with bottles and sanitizers for the bottles.  Fermentation containers will also be included with the kits, this is where the magic happens if you ask me. After making your first batch, all you have to do is simply order and use whichever individual beer flavor kit you desire with your reusable micro brewery.

When you are first using the kit remember it is a process to be learned. Having some unwavering patience is a good idea. Understanding the ingredients and the appropriate supplies that are needed in brewing beer from home is an understandable prerequisite before you set out to purchase any home brewing kits

It is a very serious and fun hobby brewing beer and if you fall in love doing this you will want to pick up a larger home beer brewing kit.  After you have to kit you want all you have to do next time is just get the ingredients you need next time.

Do not worry about not having the right information. Everything you need is in the instructions, Mix the beer kit concentrate, sugar and water. Next, brew then add yeast and ferment. Then, bottle the brew, add carbonation drops, then store till ready to drink. Finally, enjoy the satisfaction of brewing your own beer, free from additives and preservatives.

Are you ready to get started brewing your own delicious beers the easy way? Get your free guide to homebrewing beer with 13 easy and tasty recipes for ales, lagers, stouts, and other great beers. Go to http://www.homebrewingbeerrecipes.com/

When You Make Your Own Beer This is What Happens During Fermentation

If you are relatively new to home beer brewing I am guessing that, at one time or another, you've paused to wonder what exactly is happening during the fermentation process. After all, this all happens without much input from you but is absolutely critical to the whole process. If the fermentation process doesn't happen like you want it to, all your other efforts are wasted. Even more importantly, without the fermentation process there is no beer!

For there to be fermentation there must first be yeast. Yeasts are living micro-organisms that science classifies as fungus. There are around 1,500 species of yeast that have been described and that is estimated to be just 1% of the total. The specific species used in fermenting beer and wine is "Saccharomyces cerevisiae". It is not surprising that this is the most well researched of all the currently described species.

While there are other types of fermentation processes, the one that we are interested in is called Ethanol Fermentation. In this process the yeast breaks down the sugars found in the malt into different chemical compounds. These compounds are ethanol and carbon dioxide. Once this process has begun and is in process the mixture can properly be called "beer" for the first time.

For us home brewers it's a good idea to do all that we can to get rid of the free floating yeast and bacteria that is all around us but some brewpubs that make a show of their equipment use open fermentation tanks as do some European brewers in the belief that the local wild yeast makes for a better beer.

Regardless of how the yeast is introduced to the malt, once it has metabolized the available sugars into carbon dioxide and ethanol, the fermentation process slows down remarkably and the yeast begins to settle to the bottom of the fermentation tank. Although this usually occurs in 3 to 5 days, it's a good idea to leave the beer in the fermentation tank for another week before beginning the bottling process.

Instead of searching the online beer sites endlessly for information about home beer making, simply download the ebook Brew Beer Bible found at Brew Beer Today.com.

The Brew Beer Bible is inexpensive, has an iron clad money back guarantee if it does not meet expectations, and offers step by step instructions on how to always get the best tasting beer out of your home brewery.

What is the Beer Festival All About?

There is more to a beer festival than just rounds of beer being served by tavern wenches in costumes. Such festivals are celebrations dedicated to beer, beer brewing and the making masters of this great drink. It is a chance for new brews to be unveiled and tasted by crowds before it is released in mass quantity.

This great drink festivals are also great ways to meet fellow drinkers alike and learn more about the history of your favorite brew. If you have never been to a festival before, then you are definitely missing out on a great adventure and the chance to learn more.

What is so alluring about such festivals? The fall is a huge time for these festivals to take place and areas around the country have their own versions of Octoberfest. The art of brewing beer creates many strong flavors and patrons are treated to new varieties from their favorite manufacturers. Even small micro breweries are producing different varieties to entice you to try a nice cold beer.

One of the greatest attracting factors when it comes to such festivals is that you get free beer. Sure you may have to pay an entrance fee but once you have the wrist band, the world of this great drink is yours for the tasting.

If you are looking for a beer festival near you or you simply want to find out if there is one being held in a particular month, then there is a website just for you. That website is "Beer Festivals" and it has links to festivals held each month. You also get the chance to check out destinations where you can see the masters of beer brewing hone their craft.

If you are in the mood for a great book that tells you all about Michigan breweries, then the website owner Paul Ruschmann has penned a novel all about Michigan breweries. It is definitely a must read for those who live in or near the state and want to experience all that great tasting drink has to offer.

Beer brewing is a science. It takes a lot of hard work and time. When you visit a beer festival you get the chance to taste what the brew masters have done. Check out the above website and find a time that is convenient for you. You may have to travel a bit but the journey will be well worth it to experience new blends of beers. You may be surprised and come home with a new favorite.

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First Time Home Brewer

So, to be completely honest, I am an extremely young home brewer but I am sincerely intrigued by the whole process along with the history behind brewing beer. I want to enjoy the wonderful smells of actually making the beer along with the satisfaction of the taste that I may soon create. I've watched just about every video ever made on YouTube and it has completely caught my heart

Any way...I have A LOT of questions about everything involved in brewing beer such as the vocabulary, tools, differences between tools and ingredients, what certain ingredients will do to your taste, how to distinguish tastes, etc......

For starters...is there any kind of way I should make my beer(such as extract, all grain, etc...) as a first timer, and if so, what specific flavor should I aim for...
And also...are beers made seasonally, and if so, what kind of beers are made during which seasons?

Another reason I am intrigued in this is because I would like to pursue a career in brewing beer such as a brewery or other things related to that.

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Saison Beer – Belgian Farmhouse Ale Recipes

Saison is a light, refreshing ale originally brewed in farmhouses in the French speaking regions of Belgium for field workers.  Now the beer is brewed in many locations around the world.  Its a complex style with a mix of fruity aroma and flavor, some spiciness and even a hint of tartness.  Today I’ll take a look at the history of Saison, how to brew it and some Saison recipes.

Saison originated in Wallonia, the French speaking southern half of Belgium.  It was traditionally brewed for the fall season to refresh farm workers during the harvest.  “Saison” is the French word for season, as Saisons were most frequently brewed in the fall/winter seasons and then stored for the following fall’s harvest.  It shares some characteristics with its cousin, Biere de Garde.  Saison was also moderate to highly hopped to survive the long storage period.

While modern Saison’s range from 5-8% ABV, traditional Saison had a much lower alcohol content of 3-4% ABV.  The lower alcohol content made the beer refreshing during a hard work day and kept the workers relatively sober, as some farmhouses had daily allotments of 4-5 liters per worker.

Saison’s were usually brewed locally in the farmhouse for the workers, and was bottle conditioned.  Many Saisons in Belgium are still bottle conditioned.  Some Saisons were even blended with Belgian Lambic to increase the acidity and add complexity to the finished beer.

There is a fair amount of variation with Saison – with light to darker variants, some Saisons using spices, and some blended or soured slightly.  The BJCP style guide describes Saison as highly fruity with a fruity-ester aroma reminiscent of citrus fruit such as oranges or lemons.  It may have a moderate hop aroma and some spice aroma but only from the addition of spices.

A low to moderate sour-acidity may be present.  It may have a light malty flavor with no diaceytls.

The color is golden to amber in color (4-14 SRM).  Alcohol content ranges from the traditional 3.5% to a more modern 6.5%.  Original gravity runs from 1.055-1.080 (14-19.5 plato).  Hop bitternes is moderate to moderately assertive (20-40 IBUS) and should balance the maltiness of the beer for both the lighter and heavier versions of the style.

Saison is usually bottle conditioned, and may have a slight chill or yeast haze and is highly carbonated.

The bulk of a Saison’s grain bill is based on Pilsner malt.  Vienna and Munich malts are most often added (up to 10%) to contribute color and complexity to the beer.  Wheat malt is used in some Saisons but is not always included.  Darker Saisons also sometimes include darker Crystal malt for color.  Candi sugar or honey are sometimes used to add flavor and alcohol without increasing the body of the beer.

Some Saisons are soured or acidified using acid malt, sour mashing techniques, Lactobacillus bacteria or by blending the finished beer with Lambic.

Noble hops, East Kent Goldings and Styrian hops are most often used in Saisons.  The hops should balance the malt, but not dominate the flavor of the beer.  Some Saisons are dry hopped.  Also some stronger versions of Saison do use spices of various kinds to add additional complexity.  Most brewers recommend starting without spices, but corriander and bitter orange peel are popular additions for stronger Saisons.

The use of hard water (or gypsum), which is common in Wallonia, can accentuate the dry finish and bitterness of the finished beer.

Unique Saison or Belgian yeast strains are an important ingredient for true Saison as they generates a large portion of the fruity esters and complex flavor that defines Saisons.

Body for saisons varies from light to medium, so a mash profile in the range of 148F-154F is most appropriate.

Here are a few Saison/Farmhouse Ale recipes from the BeerSmith Recipe site:

I hope you enjoy brewing your Saison.  Thank you for visiting the BeerSmith Home Brewing Blog.  Please subscribe to our newsletter to receive free weekly articles on beer styles and brewing techniques.  Also I recently added a BeerSmith facebook fan page if you’re on facebook – have a great brewing week.

Tagged as: Beer, ale, belgian, farmhouse, recipe, recipes, saison

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Yeast Starters for Home Brewing Beer Part 2

This week, I take a look at how to calculate the appropriate starter size for home brewing beer with liquid yeast.  In part 1 of this in-depth series on yeast, I covered how you can calculate the required pitching rate (number of yeast cells needed) for a given batch of beer, understanding the viability of yeast over time, and also how to hydrate and use dry yeast.  This week, I’ll finish the detailed calculations for liquid yeast as well as provide a summary on how to do the entire end-to-end calculation.

I ended part 1 on yeast starters explaining that all liquid starters are not created equally.  The growth rate of the yeast (number of ending cells divided by the number of starting cells) varies depending on the pitching rate of the yeast.  In fact if we pitch a typical liquid yeast package (vial or large smack pack) of 100 billion cells into starters of varying size we get the graph to the right.  This is extracted from “Yeast, A Practical Guide” by Chris White and Jamil Zainasheff.

What this shows is that 100 billion cells pitched into a 2 liter starter will only grow to a bit over 200 billion cells (growth rate of 2.05), while the same 100 billion cells in a 20 liter (5+ gallon) starter will grow to about 600 billion cells (growth rate of 6.0).   However, a 20 liter starter is essentially no starter at all if your batch of beer is only 20 liters.

In part 1, I covered how to calculate the ideal number of cells needed for an average batch of beer.  A sample 5.25 gallon ale at 1.048 gravity needed about 177 billion yeast cells.  So using the graph at the right, a 100 billion cell packet pitched into a starter of just over a liter would be sufficient for this beer.  However, if we factor in viability (the aging of the yeast which was also covered in part 1), a larger starter of 2-3 liters is needed, since we won’t be starting with a fully viable 100 billion cell yeast package.

Since you don’t want your starter to be so huge it is a major fraction of your beer, the practical range most home brewers operate in is really on the left end of this graph – typically 1-4 liters for a five gallon batch.  This means that in most cases, you will not achieve a growth rate above 3.0 for your starter unless you use a multi-stage starter.

The above graph is great if you always pitch a 100 billion cell starter and are always brewing a 5.25 gallon batch, but often this is not the case.  To generalize the above graph, we need to use it with larger or smaller starters and batch sizes.

It turns out this is not hard to do – since yeast growth depends primarily on the starting population and amount of wort available.  To calculate starter size for the generic case we need to introduce a new term called the “inoculation rate”.

The amount of yeast per unit volume you start with is called the “inoculation rate”.  Inoculation rate is typically expressed as millions of cells per milliliter of wort.  For example, a 100 billion cell yeast pack in 2 liters of wort would work out to 50 mil/ml (50 million cells per milliliter).  Inoculation rate is really easy to calculate, since you just take the starting number of cells and divide by the size of your starter.  The math gets easy when you realize that 1 billion cells into a liter is the same as 1 million cells per milliliter.

So if we look at growth as a function of inoculation rate (see graph), we can see the same effect as described earlier – high growth only occurs in starters with relatively low inoculation rates.  Since most homebrewers are using a 100 billion cell starter in 1-4 liters of wort (inoculation rates above 25 mil/ml) – we’re basically working on the left end of the graph at growth rates below 3.

In practice, very large starters are often not desirable for the homebrewer so often you need to start with more than one vial/pack of liquid yeast in a batch. Doing this limits the growth rate needed so you don’t end up with a starter that is almost as big as your beer batch itself.

For example, lets look at making the same 5 gallon batch from a single small size (not the large one) Wyeast smack pack.  Assuming the package is new (100% viable with 18 billion cells), the 5 gallon batch which we calculated needed 177 billion cells would give us a growth rate of 177/18 = 9.83.  No matter how large a single starter is we are not going to get a growth factor greater than 6.0.

The alternative is to use two small smack packs in the starter which gives us 177/(2*18) = 4.91 growth.  However, this is still a huge starter – since looking up a 4.91 growth on the chart gives us a starter size of nearly 4 gallons (15 liters) to make a 5 gallon beer.  Clearly this won’t work either.

In practice, you need to limit the growth of the starter generally to less than a factor of 3.0 so you don’t make a starter that is almost as large as your finished beer.  You can do this by upping the number of packets each time your required growth goes over 3.0.  So in the above example, moving to three small smack packs gives us a required growth of 177/(3*18) = 3.2 growth and four small smack packs gives 177/(4*18) = 2.45 growth.  So four small packets would be needed with (from the chart) a starter of approximately 3.5 liters.

Knowing this now, its usually best to calculate the number of packets first, adjusting the growth rate needed, and then calculating the actual starter size.

Here’s a summary of the entire yeast starter calculation from end to end as a step-by-step process:

Calculate the total number of yeast cells needed for your batch based on the starting gravity and volume of your batch.  It is typically expressed in billions of cells – and recommended you pitch 0.75 million cells per milliliter per degree plato for ales, 1.5 mil/ml-P for lagers and 1.0 mil/ml-P for hybrids.  If you are not used to working in plato and milliliters, the english equivalents would be (approximately): 0.71 billion cells per gallon per point of specific gravity for an ale, 1.42 bil/gal-point for a lager and 0.948 bil/gal-point for a hybrid.  A sample 1.050 gravity, beer would have 50 gravity points and for a 5 gallon batch need -> 1.42 x  50  x 5= 355 billion cells.Calculate the Viability of Your Yeast Packs – As covered in part 1, Wyeast and White labs large tubes/packs have a little over 100 billion cells when new, and the small Wyeast pack has about 18-20 billion cells.  However, these packages lose about 20% of their cells per month of aging.  So a 100 billion pack/vial would only have about half of its cells (51 billion) viable after three months.Calculate the Growth Rate Needed – Divide the total number of yeast cells needed by the number of viable cells in your yeast pack.  So if you are brewing the lager mentioned above which needs 355 billion cells from a single pack of yeast that is one month old (which has about 80 billion cells), the growth rate needed is 355/80 which is 4.4.Decide if You Need More Packs or a Multi-Step Starter – If you need to achieve a growth rate above 3.0, it is probably time to look at adding more yeast packs to your starter or creating a multi-step starter.  The reason is that beyond a growth rate of 3.0, the starter sizes start to get very large relative to the size of your batch of beer.  In the example we just mentioned (growth rate of 4.4) you would need to have a starter of well over 10 liters (almost 3 gallons) to get that growth level in our 5 gallon batch.  Buying a second yeast pack would cut the growth rate needed down to a more manageable level of 2.2.Look Up the Innoculation Rate – Now that we know the growth rate needed, and have adjusted it down a bit (to less than 3.0) if needed, we can determine what our initial inoculation rate should be.  The easy way to do this is by looking at the graph above and work backwards.  Find your desired growth rate on the Y axis, and then look up the needed inoculation rate on the X axis.  For example if we need a growth rate of 2.2, the inoculation rate is approximately 50 mil/ml.Find the Starter Size – Since we know how many total yeast cells we are using for our starter based on the viability and number of yeast packs, and we have the inoculation rate, we can just divide the two to get the starter size.  Divide the number of viable cells in your yeast pack by the inoculation rate to get the starter size.  For the example we’ve been tracking, we decided in step 4 to use two starter yeast packs, each with 80 million viable cells for a total of 160 million cells.  We found our inoculation rate from step 5 would be 50 mil/ml (which is also 50 billion cells/liter).  Dividing the two we get 160/50 which is 3.2 liters – so a 3.2 liter starter is ideal here.Create the Starter – Once you have the size, you need only create the starter itself.  An ideal starting gravity for your yeast starter is 1.036 (9 plato).  To create the starter, just open BeerSmith (or your favorite tool), create a blank recipe with the starter size, and add enough dry malt extract to reach a starting gravity of 1.036 for your starter.  If you don’t have the tool handy, a good rule of thumb is about 0.2 lb of dry malt extract per quart of starter (or 90 grams/liter).

The whole process is a bit complex, which is why I’ve added a separate calculator to the upcoming version of BeerSmith to make it much easier.  Thank you for joining me on the BeerSmith Home Brewing Blog – I hope you will subscribe for more great articles, and have a great week!

Tagged as: Beer, brewing, growth rate, inoculation, starter, yeast

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Yeast Starters for Home Brewing Beer – Part 1

Most brewers understand that yeast starters are important for making your beer.  If you pitch the proper quantity of yeast, your beer will ferment fully and give you a clean finish. Some time back, I wrote an article on how to create a basic yeast starter, but that only touched briefly on the important topic of starter size.  This week I dive in with an in-depth overview of yeast starters, how to properly size them and how to best use them.

Using too little yeast (under-pitching) will result in a diaceytl flavor (butterscotch) in your finished beer as well as high finishing gravities.  While far less common, over-pitching (too much yeast) can also result in off flavors as the yeast will run out of sugar before it completes a full fermentation cycle.

Recently I had Chris White from White Labs as a guest on the BeerSmith podcast, and read his excellent book Yeast: The Practical Guide to Beer Fermentation (Brewing Elements Series)(Amazon Aff Link).  I also did quite a bit of research while developing a yeast starter tool for the next version of BeerSmith.  In both cases, I learned a lot about yeast starters and how to properly calculate and size them.  I thought I might share this knowledge with you.

The amount of yeast you need (called the pitching rate) varies depending on the type of yeast you are using.  Most sources quote 1 million yeast cells per milliliter per degree plato for an average beer.  A more accurate figure from Dave Miller is 0.75 million/ml-P for ales, 1.5 million/ml-P for lager and 1.0 milion/ml-P for hybrid yeasts.  To calculate the number of yeast cells you need overall, you simply multiply the pitching rate by the volume of the beer (in ml) and gravity of the beer (in plato) to get the number of live cells you need to pitch.

So for a sample ale of 5.25 gallons and 1.048 gravity – the number (if you do the math converting to ml and plato) is 177 billion cells.  So if you pitch a starter with 177 billion cells, you will have a proper amount of yeast for fermenting the beer.

Knowing how many yeast cells you need for a given batch provides a starting point, but next you need to figure out how to meet that need.  Most home brewers use commercial liquid or dry yeast packets to prime their starter.

The two primary liquid yeast providers in the US are White labs and Wyeast.  White labs yeast comes in vials that contain from 80-120 billion cells each, with an average of about 100 billion cells for a fresh  vial.  Wyeast labs come in large and small smack packs.  The large pack is comparable to the vials, with about 100 billion cells per smack pack.  The small smack pack has considerably less – about 18-20 billion cells per pack.

Since even the 100 billion packs/vials are less than the 177 billion cells we calculated for a moderate ale, this means that most 5 gallon batches would benefit from a starter.

Dry yeast packets (Danstar, DCL SafeAle and others), which are considerably denser, contain about 18 billion yeast cells per gram.  Dry yeast packets come in small and large packet sizes of 5 grams and 11.5 grams.  Running the numbers, the 5 gram packet contains about 90 billion yeast cells and the 11.5 gram packet contains 207 billion yeast cells.

The figures above are for fresh liquid or dry yeast packets.  Unfortunately both dry and liquid yeast cells do die off as they are stored, making older yeast less effective.  The percentage of live yeast in a sample is called its viability – a brand new packet is 100% viable, but loses viability over time.  The effect is much more pronounced for liquid yeast than dry yeast.

Dry yeast has a long shelf life.  If stored at room temperature it loses only about 20% of its viability per year (<2% per month), and if refrigerated it only loses 4% per year.  So if you refrigerate your dry yeast it will last many years.

Liquid yeast, which must be refrigerated, has a much shorter shelf life.  Wyeast lists their shelf life at 5-6 months while White labs recommends 4 months.  White labs on their web site says that after 30 days, their vials have 75-85% viability, which is a loss of about 20% of viability in the first month.  If we compound this loss (20% per month), this means that the viability of liquid yeast follows this progression:

1 month – 80% viable2 months – 64% viable3 months – 51% viable4 months – 41% viable5 months – 33% viable6 months – 26% viable

Now even at 6 months, with 26% viability you can make a suitable starter, but you need to take into account the viability of liquid yeast when calculating the starter size.

Dry yeast does not by itself need a starter, as long as you pitch enough packets of yeast.  Generally all that is needed is that you hydrate the yeast with warm water for about 20 minutes before pitching.  Use lukewarm water at 105F (41C) in the amount of 10 ml per gram of yeast.  This works out to 50 ml (1.7 oz) of water per 5 gram packet or 115 ml (3.9 oz) per large dry packet.

If you are using dry yeast as the seed for a starter to step up for a larger starter, hydrate it as usual and then add the yeast to the starter.  As above, the 5 gram packet contains about 90 billion yeast cells and the 11.5 gram packet contains 207 billion yeast cells.  Age is seldom a significant factor unless the yeast is over a year old or has not been stored properly.

Liquid yeast, due to both the cell count and viability lost as it ages, often does require a starter.  To figure out how large the starter needs to be, you first want to calculate the number of packets needed.  Generally the way to start is by calculating how many viable yeast cells you have in your vials or packets.  This is done by multiplying the starting yeast cells for a packet by the viability (use the table above).  So if you have a White labs vial that was manufactured 2 months ago, you will have 100 billion x 64% which is 64 billion cells per vial.

Next calculate the growth in cells needed.  The beer in the earlier example (5.25 gallons of ale wort at 1.048) requires 177 billion cells.  If we were to use 1 vial of 2 month old ale yeast at 64 billion cells, we would calculate the growth at 177 billion divided by 64 billion = 2.77 — meaning that we need to expand the yeast 2.77 times to get to our target population.

This means our starter needs to grow 2.77 times, from about 64 billion cells to about 177 billion cells in order to create the proper pitching rate for our finished beer.  The next step is to figure out how large a starter we need to create to achieve this growth.  One might think this is a straightforward calculation, but it turns out that the growth of yeast is not linear – it depends on how many yeast cells you have to start with.

The graph to the right, extracted from a table in Chris White’s yeast book, shows the growth rate from an experiment with a 100 billion cell vial of yeast added to starters of varying size.  Obviously if you start with a very small starter, and a lot of yeast there is not much sugar to support growth and the growth rate remains low.  At the other end of the spectrum, if you pitch a relatively small amount of yeast into a large starter (approaching 20 liters) you get high growth.

However, growth rate peaks out at around 6.0, so pitching 100 billion cells is not going to get you much more than 600 billion cells total (6x growth rate), no matter how large the starter is.

This week I covered how to calculate the number of yeast cells for a given batch as well as the viability of liquid and dry yeasts.  I also explained how to calculate the number of dry yeast packs needed and how to hydrate those.  We started to look at growth rates for liquid yeast starters, a topic which I’ll continue in part two.  I’ll also take a closer look at the above graph and how it helps us calculating the actual starter size for a liquid yeast sample in part two.

Thank you for joining me on the BeerSmith Home Brewing Blog.  Hopefully you have subscribed to receive more articles and also are listening to the new BeerSmith podcast.  Also I wanted to thank you very much for your support this year and wish you a very happy holiday season as we close out 2010.

Tagged as: Beer, brewing, cells, home, homebrew, making, starter, yeast

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