Judging Beer with Grandmaster Gordon Strong – BSHB Podcast #6

Gordon Strong, the President of the BJCP is my guest this week.  He is the world’s only Grand Master Level V beer judge and also one of the top competitive home brewers in the US.  We talk about judging beer, what it takes to be a Grandmaster Level V beer judge, and how an average home brewer can use competition and beer judging skills to improve their beer.  Gordon also talks about his new book “Brewing Better Beer” which is being released this Spring.

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This week’s guest is Gordon Strong, the President of the Beer Judge Certification Program, and also the world’s only Grandmaster Level V beer judge.  Gordon also has a book coming out in April-June timeframe called “Brewing Better Beer”The focus of this week’s episode is Beer Judging and the Beer Judge Certification ProgramWe talk about the BJCP style guide and how its used for beer brewing and judgingWhat a first time competitor might see in competitionSome of the most common flaws Gordon sees in home brewed beers he judgesThe BJCP certification program, its levels, and how to become a judgeAdvice for competitive brewersGordon’s life as a jet-set rock star beer brewerGordon’s new book “Brewing Better Beer” coming out this Spring

Thanks again to Gordon Strong for taking time out to participate in the podcast.

Leave me a comment below or visit our discussion forum to leave a comment in the podcast section there.

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Tagged as: BJCP, Beer, beer judge, competition, gordon strong, judging

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Counting Calories in your Homebrewed Beer

This week, I take a look at calories in your home brewed beer, how to calculate them and where they come from.  With superbowl weekend upon us, the subject of how many calories are in your homebrew may be moot given the mountains of beer and snacks likely to be consumed on Sunday afternoon, but for those of you who are calorie or carbohydrate conscious, read on.

I’ll start with the good news first – an average 12oz commercial beer has slightly less calories than a comparable soda or even a glass of juice.  An average American lager (say Budweiser at 5% ABV) has about 145 calories for 12 oz.  A Coke classic runs about 155 calories for a 12 oz can and orange juice is about 184 calories.

If you drink light beer, they generally run from 100-112 calories per 12 oz and have slightly less alcohol (average of about 4.2% alcohol), placing them well below regular sodas or juice.  Premium beers run a bit heavier – a Sam Adams Lager or Boston Ale has about 160 calories and high alcohol beers like New Belgium Trippel (7.8% alcohol) contain 215 calories in a single 12oz serving.

Not surprisingly the calories in beer comes from alcohol and carbohydrates – both from the malted barley (or other grains) used to brew beer.  During fermentation, yeast breaks down the simple carbohydrates and converts them into ethanol (ethyl alcohol).  The longer chains of carbohydrates that the yeast cannot break down remain in the finished beer, contributing additional calories.  Full bodied and all malt beers tend to have more residual carbohydrates.  Roughly 60% of the calories in an average beer come from alcohol and 40% from residual carbohydrates.

Despite the term “beer belly”, very little of the alcohol you consume is converted into fat.  In fact, your liver converts most of the alcohol into acetate which is then released into your bloodstream and consumed directly to produce energy.  The bad part is that when your body is burning alcohol/acetate, it is not burning fat, so you will tend to retain the fat you already have, plus your body may convert some of the residual carbs from the beer into fat.

Adding to the effect is the fact that alcohol tends to be an appetite enhancer – so if you drink a lot you will likely eat more than you would with water or even other carbohydrate drinks.  Not that all news is bad – in fact several studies have found that drinking in moderation (1-2 drinks a day) can actually have a positive effect on overall health if combined with a healthy diet and exercise.  However, clearly moderation is the key.

Calorie conscious brewers can estimate the number of calories in 12oz of homebrewed beer from the starting (OG) and ending (FG) gravities.  BeerSmith also will show you the calories if you use the Alcohol/Attenuation tool.

Calorie_from_alcohol = 1881.22 * FG * (OG-FG)/(1.775-OG)Calories_from_carbs = 3550.0 * FG * ((0.1808 * OG) + (0.8192 * FG) – 1.0004)Total calories – just add the Calories_from_alcohol to Calories_from_carbs

So lets look at a sample beer with a OG of 1.048 and a FG of 1.010 which has 4.9% alcohol by volume.  Running the numbers above, we get 99 calories from alcohol and 59 calories from carbohydrates, for a total of 158 calories.  Most beers have calorie counts in this range – with the bulk of calories coming from alcohol and not carbohydrates.

Light and low-carb beers tend to be made at lower alcohol levels, and also have less malt and more adjuncts (corn, rice, etc) to reduce residual carbohydrates.  Essentially light beer makers attack the problem on both sides – by cutting the alcohol levels and also cutting the residual carbs.  Corn, rice and other non-barley adjuncts tent to ferment more fully leaving less residual carbs.  The tradeoff is that the body of the beer comes from the residual carbs, so light beers made with more rice will generally have less body than barley malt beers.  However, in very light bodied styles like American Pilsner, the effect is less noticed than it would be in a low-cal Porter or Pale Ale.

I hope you enjoyed this week’s article on calories and beer.  Thank you for joining me on the BeerSmith Home Brewing Blog.  Please subscribe to the newsletter for weekly articles on home brewing, and have a great home brewing week!

Tagged as: Beer, calculating, calories, carbohydrates, carbs, estimating, light beer

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5 Ways to Save Money Home Brewing

Compared to some buying quality commercial beer, home brewing is still relatively inexpensive, but hop and malt prices have risen the last few years as a result of the hop shortage and shortage for certain malts.  In addition the global recession has put some pressure on many homebrewers.  This week I’ll give you 5 tips on how to save a few dollars home brewing.

One of the simplest ways to save money on your ingredients is to buy in bulk.  If you are an all grain brewer, you can buy 50lb bags of pale malt locally for less than half of what it would cost if you bought it by the pound.  A 50 lb bag of pale malt goes a long way – usually 10-12 batches.

You can do the same with specialty grains and hops.  Hops by the pound is available from mail order houses for less than half the cost of retail hops by the ounce.  Many stores offer you a substantial discount if you purchase hops by the pound.

What if you don’t need 50lbs of black patent malt or an entire pound of BC Goldings hops?  Contact your local homebrew club or some brewing friends and do a group buy.  Buy several pounds of hops and a few bags of commonly used specialty grains and divide them up.  One of the best suppliers for large bags of grains is your local homebrew store – many of these sell 50lb bags of grains and also bulk hops.  If they don’t have a 50lb specialty bag of grain, they can often special order it for you with their next order and save on shipping.

Another money saving strategy is to reduce the hops you are using.  A few years back when the hop crisis first hit and hop prices doubled and tripled overnight, I wrote an article on 10 Tips for Surviving the Hops Shortage.  It contains some great tips for reducing your hop usage without sacrificing the taste or quality of your beer.

Little things like using a full batch boil, boiling your bittering hops a bit longer or using higher alpha hops for bittering can save money over time on your hop bill.    Take a look at that article if you want some creative suggestions.  Another offshoot I enjoy is growing hops at home.

Liquid yeast (and the recent crop of high quality dry yeasts) have significantly increased the quality of home brewed beers, but they are not inexpensive.  Next to malt grains, it is usually the most expensive component that goes into your home brewed beer.

One instant way to save money is to wash your yeast and reuse it for another batch.  Washing yeast is a process that lets you save yeast from one batch and store it safely in your refrigerator to use it on another batch.  Done properly, you can save yeast for several months using this technique.

Instead of buying your brewing equipment from the store, consider making your own.  Brewers are a pretty creative bunch and beer brewing gives you the opportunity to experiment with all kinds of interesting containers, pipes, pumps and other toys.  Examples include making your own mash tun, building a chiller or making a hop back.

Switching to all grain is another way to save money.  All grain batches can be brewed at prices generally 30% less than extract beers.   If you buy grains in bulk you can save even more.  Grains cost less than extract, and you achieve higher hop utilization with a full batch boil, reducing your hop usage.

Brewing all grain does require an equipment investment up front, but if you are a frequent brewer you will pay for it in the long run.  Also, brewing all grain gives you additional control over the brewing process and the ability to use a full range of specialty grains including some that must be mashed.

Those are the money saving tips for this week.  I have some great new stuff coming soon including a collection of my blog articles in book form – look for it next month.  Thank you for joining the BeerSmith blog - and please subscribe if you want to get regular weekly articles like this delivered to your inbox for free.

Tagged as: Beer, brewing, grain, homebrew, hops, money, saving, yeast

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Beer Bitterness and IBUs with Glenn Tinseth – BSHB Podcast 9

Dr Glenn Tinseth, the author of the Tinseth equation for estimating bitterness is my guest this week.  The Tinseth equation is the most widely used equation for estimating bitterness by brewers from around the world.  Glenn talks about hops, bitterness, international bitterness units, hop utilization and much more.

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This week my guest is Dr Glenn Tinseth (realbeer.com/hops)- the author of the Tinseth equation for hop utilizationI mention I’ll be attending the National Homebrewers Conference in JuneWe talk about Glenn’s introduction to brewing, and his research into hopsInternational Bitterness Units (IBUs) and his research into hop utilizationHop flavor compoundsHis thoughts on recent research that utilization may be independent of wort gravityIBU measurement vs the perception of bitternessWhy brewers tend to be focused on numbersHow engineers shaped the early focus of brewers as the hobby evolved during the mid 1990'sAromatic hop compounds and what they do for beerGlenn’s summer job at Mad River Brewing

Thanks again to Glenn Tinseth for agreeing to do the interview!

Leave me a comment below or visit our discussion forum to leave a comment in the podcast section there.

Great News! We’ve been featured in the New and Notable podcasts on iTunes.

If you are not using iTunes, you can subscribe using this feed:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/BeersmithcomHomeBrewingBlog

And finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the blog and my newsletter (use the links in the sidebar) – to get free weekly articles on home brewing.

Tagged as: Beer, IBU, glenn tinseth, hop, hops, ibus, tinseth, utilization

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