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Glen and Kelly both have goals. In fact Glen and Kelly have pretty much the same goal. They both want their respective homebrew competitions to hit 300 entries this year. Now as you well know Glen Hanna is our competition chair, and Kelly Dies? Well Kelly is one of the organizers for the Regina Ales competition. Both men have invested long hours to helping their clubs grow to be the top two clubs in the nation. And now the parallel path both have taken leads us to the point where both clubs have the potential to hit the 300 entries mark.
Over the last few years these two powerful western-based clubs have been helping each other along. How? In large part by competing against each other, by sending a lot of beers to each other’s competitions and by sending beers to the Canadian Amateur Brewers Association first round competition in Toronto. We’ve also sent brews and judges to other regional events all in the hopes of fostering brewing in western Canada. And we’ve been pretty darn successful. Both clubs are at the peak of their game and other regional clubs from Saskatoon, Calgary and Lethbridge are picking up steam.
Last year CABA pretty much crashed and burned with the way they ran their AHA qualifier. In fact it was the last straw in a long series of years of poor judging from central Canada. The AHA had finally had enough and this month they pulled the site. But instead of taking it away from Canada, a group from Regina along with myself, Tim Oborn from Calgary and Steve from Paddock Wood in Saskatoon convinced the AHA to award the site to Regina.
So this spring, for the first time in Canadian brewing history, the two most prestigious events in amateur brewing are both going to be held in Western Canada. Edmonton of course will continue its fine tradition of being Canada’s qualifying site for the Masters Challenge of Amateur Brewing and Regina will now take over as the first round site for the American Homebrewers Association National competition.
Of course we can talk all we want about how prestigious a competition is, but there are two measures of great competitions: lots of beers and outstanding judging. From having judged at homebrew shows across much of western Canada the past year, and comparing what I’ve seen with my results from competitions I’ve entered across the continent, I am absolutely confident that we have the latter. That is to say, the overall quality of judging in western Canada is second to none anywhere on the continent.
So now we come to the lots of beers parts. Well I can’t really complain here because both Regina and Edmonton have hit the low 200s, making them the biggest in the nation. That’s pretty good but it’s not great. All the US first round shows in both events are about 300 entries, a big show is 400- 500 hundred, The Foam Rangers’ Dixie Cup in Houston this year got 1000. So why shouldn’t Canada be able to hit 300? Why shouldn’t we be able to match the Yanks? In fact, given that the Edmonton and Regina shows are so close, why can’t we both hit 300? Well people, that’s our challenge this year. Let’s prove to the rest of Canada, the Americans, but most of all ourselves, that not only can Western Canada put on a big show, but by God, both clubs are gonna continue to work together and we’re going to push each other over the top!
Annual Holiday Potluck
In addition to a fine sampling of Belgian Strong Ales, the December meeting of the Guild will feature our annual potluck dinner. This meeting is open to all your family and friends and is usually one of the most popular meetings of the year. This year’s executive revived a tradition of producing an off-the-wall executive brew for the evening. As many of you already know we produced a strong (1.100 OG) spiced Belgian Dark Ale. One of the reasons to consider bringing a spouse or a friend is so that someone from your group will be able to safely drive home.
So while the executive and the guild are providing the beer and the cutlery, it is up to the membership to provide the food. You are encouraged to bring a casserole, salad or some dessert item. In the true tradition of potluck, we never organize who is bringing what, so if we all bring chicken wings, we all eat chicken wings. But we’ve never failed to have a great turnout out of wonderful food so this will continue to be a smashing event.
Belgian Strong Ale Tastings
The theme style for the December meeting is Belgian strong ales. That would be doubles, triples, strong goldens, strong darks and Belgian strong specialties. So we will be running our standard mini-competition with a group of judges leading the membership through the structured tastings. Then Roxy and Neil will lead a special tasting of a flight of Belgian Strong Dark Ales that were brewed by Roxy as an experiment in Belgian yeast. A report on the results of the experiments can be read found on page 7 of this issue. There will be a tasting of these brews with a group discussion about the qualities or lack there of each strain.
Hop Order
The European pellet and plug hops have arrived and will be available at the December meeting. Ray Duperon will be in charge of distributing these hops. We ordered an extra ½ lb of some varieties to top up the order to even pound increments. These extra hops will be available to the first persons that get to Ray with the cash at $10.00/half pound.
With the writing frenzy of Roxy and Greg, I’m going to take a break this month and just focus on editing the wealth of articles from those two. But just as we like lots of different beers, we would also like to hear from other members. So while you are sipping that winter warmer, jot down a few notes and let us know what you are up to. I’ll even take handwritten articles and type them up at no charge.
Because of holiday travels to the south by the editor, the January issue of The Worthouse News will be out by Dec 24th. So, if you would like to do an article for the upcoming issue, please send any articles for the newsletter by Dec 20th.
Congratulations to Roxy, EHG President, on her Brewer Profile in the December 2003 issue of Brew Your Own magazine.
Congratulations to Regina Ales for securing the first round site of the AHA for Canada. After a series of poor performances from first round competitions run by the Canadian Amateur Brewers Association in Toronto, the AHA had decided to pull the site out of Canada. A committee struck by Regina, and including representatives from other western brew clubs, lobbied the AHA to give the site to Regina rather than Canada losing the site completely. CABA gave up the site, and then the AHA awarded it to Regina. We can now look forward to having a big AHA first round site in Canada and improved judging quality. Of course the success of this competition depends on the membership of the western clubs entering lots of beers into this event and out of town judges going to Regina to help with the judging. We’ll be going all out to organize club shipping and will be setting up transportation for EHG judges to travel to Regina for the event.
Edmonton Homebrewers Guild First Annual Brew House Brew-Off
February 21-22, 2004
The Edmonton Homebrewer’s Guild in co-operation with Southside Brew Crew and Harvest Brewing Co. are having the first annual contest for the Best Brew House Brewer!
Competition Deadlines
Entries are due on Friday 13 February 2004.
The competition brochure and entry form can be printed and downloaded from the EHG website, http://www.ehg.ca. Encourage any homebrewing friends and neighbours to enter the competition.
Lethbridge – competition is set for 6 March 2004. No details yet, probably a two bottle entry this year as they were encouraged to do so by both Regina and Edmonton. Veryl Todd tells me he is looking for more out-of-town judges this year. I know Regina plans to send a few - we should not let ourselves be outdone.
Regina – the AHA has awarded the Regina Ales the first round site for Canada in their national competition. Date has yet to be set but probably in mid-April. We will want to flood this competition with entries to help get them to the 300 mark and prove that the west deserved the site. With that many entries Regina is going to need a lot more judges than they have on hand and we are the best source to provide them with that commodity. Ken Nyback has committed himself to going and he has a van that can get about 5 of us down. That’s a good start.
Edmonton – 3-5 June 2004. Our competition has been growing steadily and we see no reason for it not to hit 300. Regina has been sending us a lot of entries and promise to continue to do so. Additionally, because our show is an MCAB qualifier it is available to Americans and interest from them has been steadily increasing. Of course we don’t want to be over run by out-of-towners so we encourage all Edmonton members to send in every darn beer you’ve got. Remember you can enter the same beer in multiple categories and you can enter more than one beer in the same category. We highly encourage both practices, as it not only bumps up our numbers it’s a great way to learn about your brews.
First Annual Western Confederation of Brew Clubs Conference.
This year we are also hosting the now evolving Western Confederation of Brew Clubs first annual conference. In anticipation of the extra brews, and the time needed for the conference we have added another evening onto the judging. We will now start on Thursday. The conference will be held on the afternoon and evening of Saturday 5 June. We plan to have a BBQ banquet and an awards ceremony at the end. Regina has suggested that clubs brew kegs of brew and bring them to the event. I must say, we fully support that idea!! Right now we are lining up the educational sessions but they will include 2 BJCP seminars, one on how to prepare for the exam and a second one on detecting faults. Other suggested topics have been: advanced homebrewing equipment, extract brewing and meads. There will also be organizational sessions to help formally set up the Western Confederation.
It’s going to be one hell of a party. Details will follow. Membership participation is going to be required to help pull off this dream.
Calgary – date not set yet but these people are committed. They are almost certainly going to go to a two-bottle entry format, hoping to bump up their numbers. The popular Lawn Mower beer event is promised to make a comeback.
Saskatoon – I just came back from this relatively small, but sure to be growing event. There were about 80 entries. Ken Nyback and myself represented the Edmonton Homebrewers Guild and I had the honour of being appointed Chief Judge. Jim Beebe made sure things ran as smoothly as possible for what was effectively a first time event. I got to stay at Jim’s place for three nights and was treated to some of the finest Scottish Export that I had ever tasted. Strangely, although Jim loves his Golden Promise and Peated malts, and makes some of the finest Scottish beers in the land, he does not like Scotch whiskey. Go figure.
Given that there were only between 4-6 judges at any one time we were kept very busy with those 80 beers. Both Ken and I got to judge a whole bunch of beers. I had the pleasure of judging with Rod Savoie, who wrote his BJCP exam in Edmonton, but who now lives in the Yukon. Rod is a fine judge who has perfected his skills judging in homebrew competitions in Alaska. Rod told us he has access to a good supply of several years worth of vintage dated Alaskan Smoked Porter. Ken and I immediately suggested that he come down to the Edmonton conference and lead a vertical tasting! I must say, that Rod seemed rather taken by the idea, and so who knows.
Anyways, Edmonton did very well bringing home a total of 12 awards including Best of Show. I took a first in Strong Ales, a second in Dark Lagers, and two third place in European Pale Lagers and Strong Belgian. The strong ale also took BOS. Frank Kuzemski, continuing to make up awards to compensate for all his years of rough brewing (sorry Frank, you know I love you ☺) also picked up four medals including two firsts, in Kolsch and Wheat Beers, a second in North American Lager and a third in British Bitters. Jason Foster, who returned to our club this year after spending a year doing graduate work in Hamilton proved he continues to brew a mean dark ale by taking first in Brown Ales and third in Stouts. And finally, the sweetest win of them all, new EHG member Shawn Lamble took first place in specialties with his hot jalapeño American Pilsner! Shawn was highly encouraged to enter this brew by several Guild members at our last meeting and I’m glad he followed through. This was the most talked about beer at the competition and will certainly be the most memorable. BOS judges all ranked it highly, somewhere in the top 5. And this was a modified Brew House kit beer, brewed without refrigeration. You don’t need any more information than that to know that you don’t need to be brewing all grain to make some marvellous brew. Way to go Shawn, you did us proud and I hope you continue on the path of competitive brewing.
Many thanks to Saskatoon for putting on a great show to kick off the brewing season. I’ll be back!
You know I often hear the excuse, “I don’t make enough brews to be competing.” Well I gotta tell you that’s a pretty miserable excuse. Maybe the problem is that you’re not practicing enough to be making those brews.
Look, let’s get a few facts straight:
Homebrew competition unlike many other competitions, provide a lot of feedback on your beer. It’s a valuable learning experience that’s not to be missed. So set aside a six+ pack for each batch you brew with no excuses of not having any beer to enter into competition!
The July-August 2003 issue of Brew Your Own magazine had two excellent articles on entering your homebrew in a competition. The second article “The Heavy Medal Man – ten more ways to earn points and win awards” by Ed Meason, is the one that best fits the Master’s words of wisdom and several members of EHG.
For most of my brewing career I had little interest in Belgian ales. I didn’t particularly like the commercial versions that were available and most homebrew just seemed to be overstated big beer. Because I wasn’t brewing any I got stuck with judging the class year after year. Over the past few years I noticed that a larger and larger portion of the brews were just getting better and better. Finally I decided that these beers were worth a go. Last year I started by brewing Saison. Saison, being the closest to British Pale Ales I figured I couldn’t go to wrong. My efforts were rewarded with a brew that won several medals including 3rd place in the AHA nationals.
After that positive experience, I have decided to move on to doubles and Belgian strong dark ales. And there I faced a problem. Unlike Saison where there is only one Wyeast yeast to choose from, there is a whole range of Belgian Ale strains to try. Where to begin?
Knowing very little about any of the strains I decided to experiment with three of what seemed like the most commonly used strains. I set up a test, that while not statistically valid would provide some insight into each strain with as fair a method as possible.
I obtained a Wyeast XL smack pack for each of three strains of Belgian Ale. I had Paddock Wood order them directly from Wyeast with the stipulation that all packs had to be dated within two days of each other. I decided that I would make a 3 US gallon base batch and split it between three 1 Imp. gallon fermenters. I poured the wort into each fermenter 1/3 gallon at a time to make sure there was no difference in the runnings. To avoid any possible contamination or inconsistencies in the way the yeast was handled I did not culture them – I pitched directly from each pack. I decided that I would ferment each one until all had finished their primary, even if some were done ahead of the others (5 days primary). Therefore, they were all racked and bottled on the same days. I noted how long each took to inflate the smack pack, how the ferment went, what they tasted like going into the secondary, into the bottle (2 weeks in secondary) and of course the final product. I had Neil Herbst join me for an evaluation after they had been in the bottle for 37 days. The results are as follows:
All beers were a Belgian Strong Dark Ale that started at 1.085 O.G. All ferments were started at 70F and then were maintained at 65F.
1214 Belgian Ale - Abbey-style top-fermenting yeast, suitable for high-gravity beers. Estery. Flocculation medium; apparent attenuation 72-76%. (58-68° F) Rumoured to be Chimay.
Pack Inflated: 3-4 days.
Ferment: slowest start, least vigorous
Final Gravity: 1.023 = 8.0% ABV
At bottling:
At 37 days:
Overall: the best Belgian Abby of the group, does not taste like Chimay, much more flavourful. (A starter from this yeast was used for the executive strong spiced Belgian.)
1388 Belgian Strong Ale - Robust flavour yeast with moderate to high alcohol tolerance. Fruity nose and palate, dry, tart finish. Flocculation low with apparent attenuation 73-77%. (65-75 F)
Pack Inflated: within 1 day
Ferment: quickest start (< 8hrs), vigorous
Final Gravity: 1.030 = 7.1%
At bottling:
At 37 days:
There may have been something wrong with this pack because did not attenuate well. It should not have been dry and tart under any circumstances
1762 Belgian Abbey Yeast II - High gravity yeast with distinct warming character from ethanol production. Slightly fruity with dry finish. Flocculation medium; apparent attenuation 73-77%. (65-75 F) Rumoured to be Rochefort.
Pack Inflated: about 1.5 days
Ferment: quick start (<8 hrs), vigorous, needed blowoff tube, huge head
Final Gravity: 1.023 = 8.0%
At bottling: improved a lot between secondary andbottling
At 37 days:
The results of this experiment were quite revealing. The first thing I learned was that Wyeast’s descriptions was not exactly accurate. The 1388 especially seemed to be off the mark. It was described as having a robust flavour, and being dry and tart. I found it to have the most neutral flavour; it ended decidedly sweet and rich, and seemed almost too mellow for an Abbey. Maybe that’s why it’s called “Strong Ale” and not “Abbey.” But it was not the strongest of the three. However, given that I only pitched from one pack, thereby invalidating statistical comparison, this could have been due to pack-to-pack variation.
However, Wyeast was pretty much on the mark with 1762s ethanol character. Wyeast’s description of 1214 was so sparse that I really had no idea what to expect. Paddock Wood, not Wyeast, provided the suggested origins of these two strains.
In terms of choosing a classic Belgian Strong Dark Ale yeast there was no doubt that the 1214 was the best pick. This yeast had a huge banana clove character that defines all Belgian Ales styles. It had a great malt presence but its finish was dry enough not to be cloying. The 1762 yeast was the surprise of the works. It was the best brew on the table of the three homebrews plus Chimay Red. Too clean for a classic Belgian Ale, its soft maltiness, coupled with a subtle but clean phenol character would lend itself well to a large malty beer, particularly a Scotch Ale when coupled with a bit of peated malt which would take its phenol character from being a fault to an asset.
At 37 days all these beers were a bit flat. The 1762 showed the most promise in terms of carbonation and creaminess. Given another few months and the 1762 would probably pour a deep, rich and dense head with enough carbonation to satisfy the palate. Both the 1214 and the 1388 were pretty flat at 37 days and seemed unlikely to improve without help. These beers needed the addition of clean lager yeast at bottling to bring out the carbonation character. Even 1762 could have benefited from the addition of bottling yeast.
The final thing I learned was that this was a fantastic way to learn about the qualities of various yeast strains. It is only through relatively controlled experiments like this, that allow us to taste beers brewed under identical conditions except for one variable can we truly understand the influence of that character. Yeast is the easiest variable to control because we can use a smack pack and it is the last stage of the process. I would like to see other experiments being done on groups of strains. Ideas that easily come to mind: 1) London Ale 1028, American Ale 1056, Scottish Ale 1728; 2) German Ale 1007, Kolsch 2565, California Lager 2112; 3) Bohemian Lager 2124, Czech Pils 2278 and Steropramen.
I suggest that the club pay for the yeast of anyone who is willing to take on such a brewing experiment as I have done. Neil and I both suspect that 1388 did not perform as predicted and so a 2x2 experiment where two packs of each yeast strain are used for 2 separate ferments would vastly improve the accuracy of comparisons between the yeast strains.
Do you sometimes produce beer that has rough flavours such as vegetal, sour, sulphury, or solvent-like? Is your beer too fruity? Perhaps the gravity of your beer is still too high when bottling. Does it still taste a bit like wort? Is your beer chronically under-carbonated? Is it over-carbonating? Perhaps your beer tastes cardboard-like or papery. Do you have long periods of time between pitching yeast and the visible signs of fermentation? All of these problems are 100% preventable if you take the time to treat your yeast properly. With proper yeast management, your beer will be stunning to say the least.
Brewing is such a unique hobby in that we have to wait for such a long time to determine if we did a good job or not. Cooks can taste their creations immediately. When an artist’s work is done, he or she needs only to look up at the masterpiece to evaluate it. We spend a day making the wort, and then have to wait weeks before we can taste the final product. The wort may smell and taste great going into the fermenter, but that doesn’t guarantee success once fermentation is over. Sometimes the beer is as we expected, sometimes it is surprisingly better than expected, but far too often there is disappointment. As it turns out, it is simply not worth our time to make an entire batch of sub standard beer. For this reason, too many home brewers give up, believing that they lack the ability to make great beer. Truthfully, you CAN make great beer. If you need proof ask any experienced home brewer that too has made crappy beer in their past. As a brewer, you have far more control over fermentation then you may think. Making good wort is your job. How good the beer is depends on the type, amount, and health of the unicellular micro-organisms that you put into the wort. Therefore, good yeast management is the ultimate key to making great beer. This article will focus on the procedures that ensure a healthy addition of pure yeast culture to wort.
What causes the “off flavours”?
Vegetal flavours such as cooked corn is caused by the presence of the chemical compound dimethyl sulphide (DMS). DMS can accumulate in beer if the wort isn’t boiled enough, if boiled with the lid on the brew kettle, or if the wort was cooled too slowly. If this volatile chemical is properly blown off during the boil, then the only way to acquire it in beer during fermentation is by unwanted micro-organisms in the wort. Presence of these microscopic creatures is usually facilitated by a long “lag time”. The lag time is the period from when the yeast is pitched to when the wort begins visible signs of fermentation. During this time, the yeast cells are busy consuming oxygen in order to make molecules of glycogen. When enough glycogen has been reserved, the yeast cells will use it to build new cell membranes during cell division. The cell division phase is noticeable in the fermenter. A thick layer of protein and yeast cover the top (called kreusen) and carbon dioxide is released constantly. When the yeast are great in number, they prevent these unwanted organisms from surviving in the wort by competing with them for nutrients. The longer the lag time, the more opportunity there is for other competing micro-organisms to take hold and add their off flavours to your beer permanently. The best way to reduce lag time is to add adequate amounts of healthy active yeast to a well oxygenated wort.
Sour flavours are typically caused by bacteria. Acetic sourness (like vinegar) and lactic sourness (like yoghurt) are both typically caused by bacterial contamination. To prevent these flavours, there are two things for the brewer to focus on. First of all, replace all plastic equipment and sanitize everything that comes into contact with the wort using a strong sanitizer such as iodophor. Next, make sure that you add an adequate amount of healthy yeast starter.
If you notice a strong fruitiness in your beer, but you haven’t added any fruit, it’s due to a family of chemical compounds called esters. Some strains of yeast such as “Weihenstephan Wheat” are well known for producing these compounds and their ester production is desired, but most beer styles, especially lagers, call for restrained fruitiness. In general, yeast cells produce esters in abundance when there is too little oxygen in the wort or if the temperature of fermentation is too high. Be sure to aerate the wort by agitating it prior to or just after pitching the yeast and allow fermentation to occur at the recommended temperature for the strain you have chosen.
Solvent-like flavours are caused by a family of chemicals called fusel alcohols. These are alcohol molecules with a greater number of carbon atoms than two. Yeast produce these molecules during cell division, therefore all beer contains fusel alcohols. However, if an inadequate amount of yeast is added to the wort, then more cell division must take place after the lag phase, thus increasing the amount of these higher alcohols in the finished product. Again, this problem is solved by adding plenty of healthy active yeast to the wort.
What causes the fermentation to stop prematurely?
“Stuck fermentation” and slow fermentation are caused by a variety of things. It is no surprise that the most common cause is the addition of an inadequate amount, inactive, and/or unhealthy yeast to the wort. Another possible cause is failing to oxygenate the wort enough. Perhaps it is the choice of yeast strain. Some strains of yeast are highly flocculent (that means that they drop out of suspension easily and sit at the bottom of the fermenter) and therefore the wort doesn’t attenuate completely. Lagers need to ferment and condition at colder temperatures than ales, therefore yeast flocculation occurs more readily in these beers. (Don’t talk about this too loudly with your friends though. People will draw their own conclusions when you say that you’ve been experiencing premature flocculation lately.) When brewing high gravity beers such as dopplebock and barleywine, it is common for the yeast to quit early. Therefore, when brewing lagers or bigger beers, always add more yeast to the fermenter than normal.
The problem with under-attenuation is that the beer tastes worty – kind of sweet – and if the yeast kick starts again in the bottle, you could end up with a real explosive situation. Nothing could be more depressing than spending the day cleaning the sticky remains of dried beer off the cellar floor, walls, and ceiling. It’s also possible that the exact opposite situation could happen. If the yeast has given up, you may not be able to get the yeast active again to carbonate the beer.
The best thing about stuck fermentation is that it is a really easy problem to solve. Simply add some fresh active yeast to the fermenter and stir gently. In no time, the wort will continue bubbling away as if nothing was ever awry. Don’t agitate the beer after adding the wort unless of course you want your beer to taste old and stale by the time it has carbonated. At this point of fermentation, adding oxygen to wort will have a negative effect. Oxidized compounds will make your beer dull and papery.
How do I avoid all of the problems mentioned?
The beautiful thing about this is that so many problems in brewing can be solved by doing the following four things:
It seems unbelievable that by changing four small procedures in your brewing, that so many problems can be prevented. However, I can assure you that the first time I used a healthy starter of pure liquid yeast, it was the first time that I made beer that I really enjoyed. If you plan to put the effort into combining top quality ingredients for making a great wort, then it’s lunacy to not put the same effort into making a healthy yeast starter. I look forward to tasting more great successes at future EHG meetings from beginner brewers. There is no greater feeling than seeing the look on a beginner brewers face after you say, “Wow, that was really well made”. Good luck, and happy brewing.
by Roxy Hastings and Frank Kuzemski
Five US Gallons; OG=1.097
11 lbs Pilsner Malt
4 lbs Munich Malt
20 ozs crystal malt 75°L
8 ozs cararoma malt
8 ozs chocolate malt
Wyeast 1214 Belgian Ale yeast
45 gr Progress 6% AA 60 minutes
Mash 125°F for 20 minutes, 155°F for 60 minutes
Boil wort for 75 minutes
1 lb amber sugar candy for 30 minutes
1 tsp Irish moss (rehydrated) for 25 minutes
Zest of 3 large oranges for 10 minutes
6 gr coriander (fresh crushed) for 10 minutes
Primary 1 week at 70°F
Secondary 2 weeks at 70°F