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Because it is that time of year I’m devoting this View to competitions. The season could not have started off better for the Guild, and put us back on track as being the top club in the nation by what happened in Lethbridge a few weeks ago. In that competition EHG claimed something like 12-13 medals, including a Best of Show by Glen Hanna, out of a possible 21. Frank Kuzemski was the all round best brewer taking home 3 awards. Otherwise the wins were well spread amongst those of us who competed, illustrating that once again we are on our way to having a depth of competitive brewers that we can draw on. Besides Glen taking home a well-deserved BOS, I was especially pleased to see new member Shawn Lamble taking a second place in the very tough pale lager class. Congratulations to all EHG members who competed, a very inspiring job to everyone.
Now to the future:
For those in the know, those who have been around a few years and competed in our annual ABC/MCAB qualifier, you know these are the last few weeks to squeeze in those final few brews for the competition. For those who are new to the art of competing let me draw your attention to three critical dates – May 28, April 25 and 3 June. May 28 is a critical date because it is the last day that you can enter brews into the ABC. April 25 is a critical date because it is about the last possible day to start an ale and have a reasonable chance of having it fermented, in the bottle and well- conditioned before the final critical day, 3 June, which is the first day that the stewards will be cracking open your bottles and serving them to the judging panel. So if you’ve been holding off for any reason, delay no more, get out those pots and hops and get going on that final batch!
It is now too late to brew for the other very important competition in the region, the AHA qualifier being held for the first time this year in Regina on May 7&8. However, if you have two bottles of brew of any quality at all, do not hesitate to send these beers to this competition. If you have any doubts about whether a beer should be sent on or you are wondering what style to enter them into I have two bits of advice. 1) It is worthwhile sending any beer into competition – even if you don’t medal you will get great feedback, knowledge alone is priceless. And then you can send the same beer into ABC and compare the comments from two sets of judging pools. 2) If you don’t know which category to compete in, compete in more than one. That way you will get two sets of opinions on each beer. The ALEs competition is beautifully, and craftily, designed to foster this. Why? Because after 6 entries each additional entry is only a buck per entry! Nada, not one cent more you have pay out than $1.00 each entry except for shipping. And since the EHG is paying your shipping, this should inspire you to do everything possible to send more than 6 beers to Regina.
Now if after all that you are still unsure about what to enter, feel free to bring a bottle of those borderline beers to this month’s Guild meeting. Get a few experienced beer judges in your corner and pour your brew. Listen to what they say and then go for it. Neil, Gunther, Harry and myself are always on hand to provide good advice but there are other great judges in the club so don’t limit your self to our opinions.
The final reason to compete in Regina is that Regina is our sister club. They have a similar ethos towards brewing, have a well-qualified judging team, are aggressively competitive, but have a fantastic regional spirit. Regina is one of the reasons why in the past the ABC has been so successful – Regina has piled beers into our competition. Last year they won more first place medals in ABC than any other club. It’s time to repay that favour. We want to pile beers into the ALEs, both to prove that Regina can support an AHA first round site, and secondly, so that EHG takes more first place medals than any other club. Fair is fair. But seriously, supporting Regina supports brewing across western Canada. They are a fantastic brew club and a pillar of home brewing in the nation. As a small example of their commitment to the hobby, Kelly Deis, a good friend of mine in Regina, has promised that they will match us entry for entry. That is for every entry we send to Regina, they will send at least one entry back to Edmonton. So by supporting Regina, and helping them grow, you are also helping grow the ABC. So go for, give Regina everything you’ve got, except of course for the two bottles going to our ABC!
Packing Day for Regina
To help make this all happen we are having a group shipping get together. In addition to Lethbridge and Calgary, Regina ALEs is one of the competitions where the EHG pays for all shipping costs. All you have to do is cover your entry fees.
Fees are: $6.00/entry for each of the first 6 entries, $1.00 each for every entry after that.
When and Where: Saturday 17 April at 2:00 PM we will meet at Alley Kat. If you cannot meet that day, drop off your beers to Alley Kat sometime that week. Make sure those bottles are labelled so we know what they are.
What to bring: 1) 2 bottles each for each entry – remember to keep back 3 bottles of each in case you medal and go on to the AHA finals. Black out the caps. 2) filled in labels attached to each bottle with an elastic band (if you can’t do this we will have entry forms on hand). 3) A cheque with your entry fees. 4) Optional but helpful – an empty partitioned wine box. If a few of us bring boxes it will really help.All other packing materials including bubble wrap and brown paper will be available at Alley Kat.
I will have a sign up sheet at the meeting. It would be very helpful for planning purposes if you could let me know how many beers you plan to ship to Regina so I can organize supplies.
Bob Boufford modified the PDF entry form for Regina that will make filling out the forms much easier. For the computer challenged, you can just print the form and fill it out with pen. Further information on ALEs competition can be seen at: http://www.alesclub.com
Call for judges/stewards- Regina
Regina is expecting 300 or so entries this year. They need help from out-of-town judges to expediently get through this event. Full scale judging starts in the late afternoon of Friday 7 May at Bushwakker. There is an awards banquet with guest speakers being held at Bushwakker on Saturday – banquet tickets are $25.00. So far we have three judges Ken Nyback, Kevin Zaychuk and Roxy and one steward, Bob Boufford who will be travelling to Regina to participate. If you are interested in helping out please contact Roxy at roxanneih@shaw.ca or John Gray (ALES President) at damntasty@accesscomm.ca
If you are planning to attend as a judge, send John an email telling him what styles you are entering so they can make sure they put you into non-conflicting flights. Do this ASAP.
The days are getting longer and at times warmer. That means the brewing season will be winding down as we sit back, relax and watch the long sunsets while sipping brews we made during the cold winter. Of course, I hope to keep brewing as much as possible during the nice cool Edmonton summer. Compared to summers in the States south of the Great Lakes from Toronto, it will be still nice enough to brew a few Belgians.
As Roxy has noted and you will see from other articles, we are in the middle of the competition season. Besides the knowledge gained from feedback provided by the judges from sending your beers to an event, I am finding my "network" of homebrewing colleagues is expanding beyond Edmonton. With the upcoming 1st Annual Conference of the Western Confederation of Brew Clubs, this is a prime opportunity to expand your own network of homebrewing colleagues. Mark you calendars and plan to attend. Also, set aside some time to help with the conference. We want to make this a success and show all of Canada that the Western Provinces have the best homebrewers in the country out to make the best beer possible by any means, be it all-grain, extract or boxed wort.
Extract mini-competition for April
You will notice that there is no Style of the Month for this month. Our monthly theme tasting and mini- competition is Extracts – All Classes so we can select the best beer made from extracts to send down to the AHA Club Only Competition. The competition is open to entries with extract making up at least 50% of the fermentables in the recipe. So, if you have any beers sitting in the closet that meet the AHA requirements, bring them to the meeting on Monday. It should make for an interesting and fun time.
BURRP! Two
Also, the second club-only BURRP! Competition is near. The May meeting will be big tasting of the results of adding cold breakfast cereal to a brew. Later in the newsletter, you will find the details of the new "best-dressed bottle" contest.
See you on Monday…
Details on the conference can be found later in the newsletter and on the EHG website, http://www.ehg.ca. The important note I want to make here is - Bring your chequebook to the April 5th club meeting - so you can take advantage of the early bird savings. There are several good speakers lined up for the conference along with a great dinner with lots of homebrew from not only EHG members but also our sister clubs in Regina, Lethbridge and Calgary. It will be an opportunity to meet other Western Canada homebrewers.
Sign up Sheet:
I will have a sign up sheet at the April 5th club meeting for those interested in volunteering their time at the ABC 2004 at Alley Kat and the Hot Break Conference at the Capilano Community Hall. To reiterate, we will be judging the short flights on the Thursday night from 5:00pm till 8:00-9:00pm, the remaining flights on the Friday from noon till approx. 6:00pm followed by a brewpub get-together at Brewster’s Brew Pub and the BOS & wrap up on the Saturday from 10:00am till noon before heading over to the community centre. Areas we could use help in are: judging (of course), stewarding, set-up, take down, Saturday lunch and registration at the conference. Please give it some thought. Your help is greatly appreciated.
T – Shirts:
I will discuss briefly T-shirts we are planning on having made up for this special occasion.
Glasses for Sale:
EHG gold embossed beer glasses $5/each. They would look great in your hands at the ABC 2004 & Hot Break Conference. Show ‘em off to the outta-towners. I’ll have some for sale at the April 5th club meeting. Please support the club.
See you at the April Club Meeting!
As announced at the February meeting and in the previous issue of The Worthouse News, the second annual BURRP! - Brewing Under Really Ridiculous Parameters! - an in-house competition to see who can brew the best beer under challenging conditions, is bubbling to the sweet end. The alcohol and CO2 levels have increased greatly over the homes of several EHG members. Global warming be damned, they are out to make some beer!
Best-dressed bottles
As announced in the February issue, there is a new category of Best-dressed Bottles. For this competition, an award to be judged by your peers for the best-dressed bottle and maybe carton that epitomizes the BURRP! competition.
What constitutes a "best-dressed bottle"? It can be something as basic as a unique beer label such as the labels seen in Brew Your Own magazine's Label Contest, to the extreme of the finest BURRP! cold cereal glued to the bottle complete with a spoon!
And for a little more fun, how about bringing a best-dressed beer carton! Buy a six-pack of Alley Kat Buffalo Beer from Neal, drink the beer and decorate the white cardboard carton. For those who did not get a chance to brew, this may be your opportunity to help the BURRP! brewers by contributing your artistic or crafty talents.
A quick "google" on the Internet will bring up several sites for artwork besides the cereal boxes you had when you brewed your BURRP! Beer. If you tossed out your boxes, the Web is the place to find inspiration.
It will be interesting to see what the KGB reveals from their secret brewery. And rumour has it that some Cuckoo smuggled cereal from south of the border with boxes that will blow the corny Puffs away.
Introduction
Unlike using malts where there are a number of methods: e.g. all-grain, partial mash and extract, and strategies within methods: infusion mash, step mash, decoction mash, when it comes to hops we are all in the same pot. No matter how you created your basic wort all brewers are faced with identical hopping strategy problems. For any given beer style you have to consider the bitterness, flavour, and bouquet (commonly caller hop aroma) that are appropriate for the style. All beers have at least some hop bitterness (although that may be hard to believe with most piss-water industrial lagers) but a number of styles do not require flavour or set it at a low level and this is also true for bouquet. Since flavour and aroma are intimately connected we usually use the phrase “hop character” to mean the combined affects of flavour and bouquet.
Hoping Strategies
In terms of hop presence beers fall into three broad groups: 1) hop bitterness only with no hop flavour or bouquet e.g. Dry stout, 2) beers with low hop flavour and light bouquet, e.g. Oktoberfest and Scottish Ales, and 3) beers defined by hop presence being bitter with lots of flavour and aroma, e.g. IPA and American Pale Ales. Some classic styles of beers are very narrowly defined and will fall into only one of these categories, e.g. Dry Stout where hop flavour and aroma are never acceptable, whereas others can occupy all three groups e.g. British Bitters where beers can be just bitter with no hop character through to beers that are blazingly hoppy with hop flavour and aroma steaming out of the pint glass. No one interpretation of bitter is inherently better or more traditional.
Group 1 – Hop bitterness only
In this group of beers we can have styles ranging from very bitter due to hops, e.g. British Bitters, bitter due to a combination of hops and dark malt e.g. Dry Stout, and beers that have low bitterness with either lots of malt character e.g. Bocks or low malt character, e.g. American Lagers.
For all these types of beers there is basically a single hopping strategy. That is a single hop addition for 60 minutes. Some early homebrew publications suggested that the 60 minute addition was for bitterness only. The reasoning was that having boiled for 60 minutes all the hop resins would have evaporated, and hence they would not contribute to hop character. Therefore, the variety of hop chosen was felt to make no difference. Experience over the past decade has proven otherwise; you are well advised to choose a hop whose flavour you would enjoy if it were being used as a character hop. Sixty minute hops additions do provide a background flavour – usually too subtle to overtly detect, but none-the-less important on the palate. So choose a nice tasting hop like Kent Goldings for these styles of Bitters or Mt. Hood for American Lagers rather than say a bland Cluster.
Group 2- Low, just noticeable hop character
These beers almost always tend to be malt dominated. Hop bitterness can be very low, as in Scotch Ales where there is just enough hops to make the beer not cloying, to more commonly well balanced, such as Oktoberfests where the beer is well balanced with a drying finish and a hop character that you just notice as being slightly spicy. It is always a challenge to get the hop character just right for these types of beers. There are two basic strategies. Most commonly brewers put something like 75-85% of their total hop bitterness in at 60 minutes and then put the remaining 15-25% in at 20 minutes. The latter being just to give a bit of character. I prefer another approach and that is to make a single hop addition for 45 minutes. Since you want some character from this addition you can go ahead and split the addition between two hops or you can use a single variety. If you are splitting your hops between 60 and 20 minutes you might as well stick with a single variety because the amount of hops being tossed in for 20 minutes is very small and will need some of the residual flavour from the bittering addition to be affective. However, getting variety into hop additions is not the main reason I use the 45- minute strategy. I’ve simply found this to be the most effective method for getting that subtle but noticeable hop character into these types of beers.
Group 3 – Hop head beers
For this group of beers there is pretty much only one way to go. And that is hops all the way through: bitter, flavour and nose. No beer tastes right having lots of hop bouquet and flavour and being low on bitterness. In fact most people feel a bit cheated if they get a big hop nose and then there is no follow up. Beer judges in competition are very hard on that type of presentation. For these types of beers there is a classic hopping pattern that always works well. Spilt your hops up with 60-65% of the total bitterness going in for 60 minutes and 35-40% going in for 20 minutes. That combination assures a good balance between bitterness and plenty of hop flavour. Calculate your total bitterness based on these two hop additions. Then if you are making a European lager throw in 28-42 grams for the last five minutes or if you are making an ale then dry hop in the secondary with a similar amount. Actually I dry hop my lagers as well as my ales but purists insist on late hopping their lagers. It does give a softer approach that is more classic and commercial, but I like my Euro lagers to have lots of in your face hop bouquet. It’s your call. Either way do not worry about the contribution of this addition to calculated bitterness. Late hopping can give a perception of bitterness but it actually isn’t there.
Calculating Hop Bitterness
The only real way to measure hop bitterness in beer is in a food science chem. lab. Since most of us don’t have access to such facilities we do it by guessing – commonly called “calculating hop bitterness.” There are probably at least a dozen ways to calculate IBUs in beer. Frankly despite the proliferation of hop formulas produced by all sorts of beer geek gurus I find that a simple formula published by Jackie Rager way back in 1990 to still be the best. I’ve actually had one of my beers tested in a food science lab and the predicted IBUs where pretty darn close to what was measured.
According to Rager only two factors have significant effects on bitterness, length of boil and density of wort.
To use the formula, you as the brewer have to make a creative decision and decide how many IBUs to put into the beer and what the breakdown will be for the various hops. Use the BCJP guidelines to get basic IBU information and a sense of how much hop flavour you are looking for. Put the beer into one of the groups defined above. The formula will tell you how many grams or oz you need of each hop to hit that target.
grams = [ liters x (1+gravity adjustment) x IBU x .001 ] ÷ [ % Utilization x % Alpha acid ]
oz = [ U.S gal x (1+gravity adjustment) x IBU ] ÷ [ % Utiliz x % Alpha acid x 7462 ]
60 min = .3
45 min = .27
20 min = .1
Gravity adjustment = [ O.G. – 0.05 ] ÷ 0.2
Yes, these are the simple formulas! If you want to take into account your elevation above sea level and the age of your grandmother when she had her first kid there are formulas to help you along. For the rest of us, stick with Jackie.
Let’s do a 5 U.S. gallon India Pale Ale. Given the groups above that means we will be using a group three hopping strategy. That means two boiling hop additions, one at 60 min and one at 20 min and a third addition in the secondary. Lets just throw in one variety at each time, although in practice you can divide the IBUs between several varieties. We’ll have an O.G. of 1.070 and a total hop bitterness of 60 IBU (chosen using BJCP style guides). All 5 gallon carboys actually hold 5.25 US gallons so I calculate to have a full carboy of beer in my secondary (that is I actually make 5.25 US gallons of wort).
Notes: 1) There is no way to calculate hop bouquet. General guidelines are 1.5 oz –42 gms for high aroma, 1.0 oz – 28 gms for medium, 0.5 oz-14 gms for low. This assumes you are using high resin hops such as Cascade, Centennial, Bramling Cross, Mt. Hood or Santiam. 2) Be sure to boil your wort for 15-20 minutes before your first hop addition. This assures that hot break has occurred. Otherwise this break will remove some of the hops from the boil and reduce your IBUs.
Hop Combinations
Having gone through all the technical stuff now we get to the artistic, the non-quantifiable combinations of characters that work together to create wonderful hop character. Certain combinations of hops just seem to work wonderfully together. Some of these lead to absolutely classic profiles while others simply lead to great tasting beers that won’t fit into a well-defined category. Below is a highly opinionated rendition of some awesome hop combos.
American Ales
Centennial-Cascade. For American Ales it’s hard to beat the classic combination of Centennial and Cascade. I recommend using Centennial for bittering and a mix of Centennial and Cascade for character. Great for IPAs, American Pale Ales, American Amber Ales, American Browns and American style Porters.
Centennial-Cascade-Mt. Hood. Although a classic lager hop, Mt. Hood adds a nice spicy complexity to the mix. Substitute for about 1/3 of your Cascade. Works especially well for really hoppy beers like IPAs, American Pale Ales and American Brown Ales.
Cascade. Being the definitive North American hop, using Cascade throughout works just fine for all American Ales. It’s distinct citrusy signature defines all American ales and by using it exclusively you guarantee that you’ll be making a statement.
British Ales
Kent Goldings-Bramling Cross. These two floral hops just seem to feed off of each other when put together. Great for British style IPAs, Pale Ales and Bitters – any Brit. beer that has definitive hop character.
Bramling Cross- By itself Bramling Cross gives a pungent floral-herbal character. It can stand alone just fine in any bitter but becomes a bit one dimensional for complex beers like ESBs, Pale Ales and IPAs. By itself it is absolutely wonderful for Group 2 Ales because its low co-humulone content puts it into the noble hop category. These hops have a soft character that blends exceptionally well with rich malts and yet Bramling has enough punch to make itself known at a 45 minute addition.
Bastard Ales-IPAs
For this article I’m calling beers that don’t fit any national boundaries Bastard Ales.
Bramling Cross-Cascade. The combination of the floral and citrus qualities of these two classics is just unbeatable. It’s a perfect Anglo-American marriage. But it won’t fit any BJCP style except for IPAs. For a fine drinking ale not going into competition this is a perfect homebrew combination. However for competition what I do is mix in something like 10-20% of the countervailing hop just for complexity. Cascade is more aggressive so use it at the lower level and use Bramling at the higher. So for example, in an American Pale Ale you can mix in about 20% Bramling.
Bramling-Cascade-Mt. Hood. Hell while we’re at it why not go all the way and bring in the German Americans? While too muddied for Bitters this combination is fantastic in really big hoppy beers like IPAs and American Style BarleyWines.
Euro Lagers-Classic American Pils
Santiam-Mt. Hood. This is an American powerhouse combo that just knocks the socks off of any traditional European Pils duo. Santiam is a tetraploid cross between Hallertauer and Tettnanger. It has oodles of spiciness coupled with a deep earthiness. Mt. Hood is a North American Hallertauer, very much in the Old World style, but often being literally fresher and always with a crisper, palate. It is intensely spicy. While either hop can stand alone, when used in combination they are awesome. Santiam is an excellent bittering hop with lots of flavour to lay down a dynamite palette. Then use Mt. Hood as your flavour and dry hop to intensify the spicy character. Use for all pale German Lagers and for Classic American Pils.
Sterling-European Saaz. Sterling is an American version of Saaz and quite true to the style. The big advantage is that it is about 2-2.5 times as bitter as Saaz while still retaining a lot of flavour. Use Sterling as your bitter base and then dump in loads of European Saaz for flavour and late hopping. This will give you a classic Bohemian Pils character. (Note: American Saaz is generally too candy-like and is not a good substitute for Euro Saaz. If you cannot get real Euro Saaz stick with Sterling.)
Sterling-Santiam. Gives a great combination of spicy herbal character and deep earthiness. Great for German lagers defined by their hop character.
Santiam. Used by itself as a 45 minute hop addition this wicked hop makes itself subtly known in Amber and Dark lagers and in Boks. Being a combination of Hallertauer and Tettnanger you get both classic Germanic hops in one package. This also lends itself well to being the only hop for multiple additions in all German Pils.
Good Reads
Garetz, M. 1994. Using hops. The complete guide to hops for the craft brewer. HopTech. California. 222 pp.
Rager, J. 1990. Calculating hop bitterness in beer. Zymurgy 13(4): 53-54.
Zymurgy 1990 13(4) Hops and Beer. Special Issue.
Zymurgy 1997 20(4) The Classic Guide to Hops. Special Issue.
HopUnion website http://www.hopunion.com/ click on “information about hops”
This website is a gold mine of information about hops. It includes a 56 page PDF document describing every type of commercially available hop in the world. Anyone planning to take the BJCP exam would be advised to take a look at the basic hop information available on this website. No, you don’t have to memorize the 56 pages. (just 48 of them ☺)
Most of the beer lovers out there have a great appreciation for smooth roasted chocolate flavors of a brown ale and the citric American hop flavors of an American Pale ale. Some brilliant Texan home-brewers decided to mix the two flavors together and thus the American Brown Ale was born. Brewers of the ABA beware! This style of ale is a huge crowd pleaser, so plan to have it consumed quickly after it is ready to drink. I brew about 3 batches of this style every year in order to keep up with the demand of my friends and brothers in law. Making this beer has a few tricks to it that I’ve learned over the years, and being that it is the one style that I have brewed many times over, I finally feel confident writing an article about a beer style.
Ingredients:
For the extract brewers out there, this style is perfect for you. Dry malt extract works well with the American brown ale, but I would recommend a pale extract with specialty grains rather than using dark extract. For the all grain brewer, use West Can malt for the base. It has awesome diastatic strength and therefore can handle a simple single infusion mash with no problems. There is no need to use special base malts like Golden Promise, because the subtle flavors of these malts would be lost in the hops and roast. Specialty malts include crystal and chocolate – and feel free to experiment. I use about 10 pounds (4.53 kg) of West Can (extract brewers can substitute about 6 pounds or 2.72 kg of DME), one pound (453g) of Crystal, and 6 ounces (170 g)of Chocolate malt.
For hops, I recommend any American hop variety such as Columbus, Cascade, Centennial, or Amarillo. For the big alpha hops, add them early in the boil, say for 60 min and put the low alpha guys in later to get the huge hop flavor and aroma.
Any European or American ale yeast will probably do the trick, but I’ve had the best results using Wyeast London Ale and/or British Ale.
The Brewing Process:
The Mash:
As I’ve already stated, this is an easy brew day from a mashing perspective. A single infusion at about 67 °C (153F) will do nicely for body and starch conversion. If you desire more body in your brown ale, mash a little warmer. Lauter for 20 minutes at a rate of 2 cups (0.5 L) per minute and sparge at 75 °C – 80 °C but a tad slower – at 1.5 cups (0.35 L) per minute for about an hour or so.
Hops:
You need a well balanced hop bitterness against the malt along with a good blast of hop flavor and aroma. Plan to get between 50 – 60 IBU if you have an original gravity of 1.060. For hop flavor and aroma, GO BIG. The lower the alpha acid in the hop the better, because more hops can be used and the flavor/aroma will be bigger. Without a doubt, this style requires you to dry hop or use a hop jack. A hop jack is for those who have an automated system with a pump and a counter flow wort chiller. It is an air tight vessel that holds hops as boiling wort passes through on its way to the CFWC. For those who are like me and have a simple brew set up, dry hopping works really well. Simply add hops to the secondary fermenter after racking. Let the hops soak in the beer for a week or two then siphon the beer into bottles. How much hop do you add? That depends on whether you have the hops in a hop bag or if they are loose. I like to go loose and add about 0.13oz (45g) of hops. The beer will taste grassy at first, but wait a few weeks and the vegetal flavors mellow right out.
Fermentation:
Use a healthy, active starter and ferment at 18 °C for as long as it takes.
When you open the first bottle and pour it, ask yourself – is the hop aroma big? If not, then next time add more flavor/aroma and dry hops. All of the flavors should balance nicely with the roasted flavors.
Good luck!