Homebrewing
Mmmm...Beer! I like beer. I have been to Germany twice and those visits woke me up to what real beer really is. German beer is so much better than the yellow water that is sold in America, but I couldn't afford to buy it while in college which eventually led to my home brew adventures. Most native Texans, unless they live in a college town, pretty much only drink American swill. That is what they grew up with, that is what they know. They are not used to a full bodied craft beer and usually do not like them when they first try them. In otherwords, craft beers are an aquired taste. The first time I went to Germany, I was warned that I would not like the beer until I got used to it. They were wrong. From the first sip, I was in hog heaven. I have never looked back and try to avoid American mass produced beers: They are weak, taste aweful (that is why the beer companies recommend serving them at 32 degrees - to shock the taste buds), and they have additives (surfactants and foaming agents) to make a foamy head because there is not enough malt to do this naturally. These additives either upset my stomach or give me a headache, depending on the brand. Know how they can say their beers have no additives? A loophole: the additives are added to the hops, then the hops are added to the beer. The FDA does not require the beer manufacturers to declare these additives. The hops have additives, not the finished product. The funny thing to me is: it is harder to make an American ale than to make a craft beer. In other words, not only does American beer taste bad, they have to work harder to make it that way.
I started homebrewing in 1995 after returning from my second visit to Germany in June of 1994. My roommate did a little homebrewing in the past so he taught me. Fortunately, College Station had a home brew supply store at that time. I probably made about 45 five gallon batches by the time I graduated vet school in 1999.
Soon after I started making beer for myself, I saw an ad in the college newspaper for a new club devoted to homebrewing. It was called the Texas Aggie Brew Club, or TABC for short (TABC also stands for Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, the state regulatory agency). Thanks to the members of that club, I soon started making wine and mead. There were a couple of professors who joined, one was a microbiologist who supplied us with specialty yeast cultures. The other was a member of the Society of Creative Ananchronisms and was a mead maker for his group. He translated some 17th century mead recipes and I have a copy that I use (see my mead page for more on meads). We had meetings at local restaurants such as Double Daves Pizzaworks, Harvey Washbangers, and Cafe Excel a couple of times a month and would bring samples of our creations to share and critique, if the business allowed us to bring our own beverages.
The Texas Aggie Brew Club is no longer in existance, but it was a fun and informative experience being a member. Unfortunately there is no home brew supply store in my area, but with the increasing popularity that handcraft and microbrew beers have seen over the last 10-15 years I can find good beer in my local stores - Southeast Texas was a little slow in stocking them but now several stores have good selections.
For those new to homebrewing, here is a link to a site that gives instructions: http://www.howtobrew.com//.
I really believe that water is the most important ingredient in home brew and I was fortunate to rent a farmhouse that had a 400 foot well tapped into an aquifer. The water made excellent beer and wine. I have not made any as good since moving.
One other pointer: You can scorch the wort and get off flavors if you cook it on an electric stove. If possible, boil the wort on a gas stove or on a propane burner such as a Cajun Cooker.
September 2011: I have started to order ingredients and supplies from Austin Homebrew Supply in Austin, Texas. They offer a flat rate shipping of $7.99, free shipping on orders over $100.00. Malt extract is heavy, grains are bulky, so I have not brewed much in the past few years because of high shipping costs. They offer malt extract in 40 lb. bulk, base grains are offered in bulk too. Specialty grains are not listed as being available in bulk, but they will sell them to you in 50 lb. bags, if you need that much of one type of grain.
For yeast I use liquid yeast such as White Labs or Wyeast brands. You can buy these with each beer kit you order, they usually cost about $7.00. If you want to save a little money, consider keeping a culture of the yeasts you commonly use. You can take a little of the wort from your beer and put it into a sterile bottle with a loose fitting lid (to keep pressure from building up - the yeast will slowly ferment the wort even in the refrigerator). Instead of using my wort, I use Malta. Malta is unfermented beer and is available at the grocery store on the international foods aisle, especially in areas with large Caribbean or Latino populations. A few hours before you start your brew, simply remove the bottle of the appropriate strain of yeast from the fridge, let it come to room temperature, add a bottle of Malta (flame the top after removing the bottle cap to ensure sterility), let it sit while you brew and cool your beer, swirl the yeast bottle to mix well and pour most, not all, of the yeast culture into the wort in the primary fermenter. Add another bottle of Malta to the yeast bottle and return it to the fridge.
Below are a few of my favorite beer recipes. The beer recipes are from Home Brewer's Supply, later renamed BrewStuff, the now defunct supply store in College Station. I modified the basic recipes to suit my tastes. I like to brew my winter beers starting in August since they usually taste better if aged several months. Lighter beers only need to age about one month or so. One recipe not listed below is Jamil Zainasheff's Chocoalte Hazelnut Porter. I highly recommend this recipe, it is one of the best beers I've ever had. You can find it by doing a search of the web. I didn't put it here because it is copyrighted.
The first two recipes are good if you have friends who only drink American beers. Most of my Bud and Miller drinking college buddies liked these:
American Wheat
1 lb. Wheat Malt, steep
4 lb. Weisen extract
2 lb. Pale extract
1 oz. Cascade hops, boil
0.5 oz. Liberty hops, finish
American ale yeast
Bohemian Pilsner
1 lb 10L Munich malt, steep
7 lb Superlight extract
1 oz Cluster hops, boil
1 oz Saaz hops, finish
American ale yeast (original recipe calls for Bohemian lager yeast)
Irish Stout
This is modified from the original. I have received many compliments on this one, several of my friends like it better than Guinness. Often, I also add 1 pound of cooked oatmeal (Quaker Oats) and it turns out great.
1/4 lb chocolate malt, steep
1/4 lb black barley, steep
1/2 lb 90L crystalmalt, steep
7 lb Dark extract
1.5 oz Bullion hops, boil
0.5 oz Willamette hops, finish
Irish ale yeast
Bullion hops can be hard to find, substitute Brewers Gold hops if you can't find Bullion.
Russian Imperial Stout
1 lb special B malt, steep
0.5 lb choclate malt, steep
0.5 lb black barley, steep
12 lb Dark extract
2 oz Chinook hops, boil
0.5 oz Cascade hops, finish
American ale yeast
Octoberfest
1 lb 10L crystal malt, steep
7 lb Munich extract
1.5 oz Northern Brewer hops, boil
1 oz Hallertau hops, finish
American ale yeast
Holiday Beer
1 lb 30L crystalmalt, steep
6 lb Amber extract
1" licorice stick (hard "candy")
3/4 tsp nutmeg
2 tbsp cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp ginger
1 oz Chinook hops, boil
1 oz Cascade hops, finish
American ale yeast
Strong Scotch Ale
1 lb Special B, steep
0.5 lb Special Roast, steep
10 lb Pale extract
1.5 oz Perle hops, boil
0.5 oz Fuggle hops, finish
Scottish ale yeast
Smoked Porter
1.5 lb Rauch malt, steep
0.5 lb Chocolate malt, steep
4 lb Dark extract
4 lb Amber extract
2 oz Bullion hops, boil
1 oz Willamette hops, finish
Irish ale yeast
Bullion hops can be hard to find, substitute Brewers Gold hops if you can't find Bullion.
Strong Old Ale
8/5/12 - My brew club made this 13 years ago and I just found the recipe in my files, so I made it yesterday. By December it should be a very good beer.
1 lb Caramalt 40L, steep - My supplier doesn't have this, I used 40L crystalmalt
1 lb Special B, steep
0.5 lb Chocolate malt, steep
3 lb Dark extract
5 lb Pale extract
1 lb Treacle
1/2 cup molasses
1 oz Northern Brewer hops, 90 minutes
1 oz Fuggle hops, 75 minutes
0.5 oz Fuggle hops, 7 minutes
British ale yeast - I used Irish Ale Yeast
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Updated August 5, 2012