Hope every continues to have a good holiday season. For those whose season has been less-than-stellar, here's to hoping that 2011 is leaps and bounds better than 2010.
-Aaron
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Christmas brewing thoughts
I've been trying to get time to brew - but more and more it's seeming like that won't be a possibility till some time after christmas. I'm hoping to brew a lighter ale and get a good springtime lager going. For the ale, it would likely be either an IPA or a milder EPA. Currently, my hops selection is nobles + Amarillo + Cluster.
My plan is for the lager to be a riff on the SA noble pils and will use 4 styles of noble: mittelfruh, true hersbrucker (for which I paid a premium), tettnanger, and saaz. I technically could add the spalt, since I have some available for use - but I'm worried about bumping the IBUs too high (original Noble Pils is roughly 35 IBUs). As-is, with the quantities I'm using, I'm looking at 38 IBUs, but I'm using german pilsner malt, and american pale malt. My original desire was to use honey malt for a sweeter flavor to balance the bitterness, but this change will give a nice distinct characteristic to set me apart from the SA. I'll likely dry-hop with more Saaz than any other noble since Saaz is absolutely beautiful as an aroma hop.
My ale will likely be a "truer" form of an IPA. No - not a DIPA. Not an Imperial IPA. Not "I threw every hop I had in here" IPA - just a good 2-row + pale malt IPA. I might use carafoam/dextrin for head retention. All Amarillo, likely with some older Cluster I have at the end and dry hopped to give a good hoppy nose. I wanted to save the cluster until I got some fuggles and could make a beer called "ClusterFuggles," but flavor and time trumps humor.
My plan is for the lager to be a riff on the SA noble pils and will use 4 styles of noble: mittelfruh, true hersbrucker (for which I paid a premium), tettnanger, and saaz. I technically could add the spalt, since I have some available for use - but I'm worried about bumping the IBUs too high (original Noble Pils is roughly 35 IBUs). As-is, with the quantities I'm using, I'm looking at 38 IBUs, but I'm using german pilsner malt, and american pale malt. My original desire was to use honey malt for a sweeter flavor to balance the bitterness, but this change will give a nice distinct characteristic to set me apart from the SA. I'll likely dry-hop with more Saaz than any other noble since Saaz is absolutely beautiful as an aroma hop.
My ale will likely be a "truer" form of an IPA. No - not a DIPA. Not an Imperial IPA. Not "I threw every hop I had in here" IPA - just a good 2-row + pale malt IPA. I might use carafoam/dextrin for head retention. All Amarillo, likely with some older Cluster I have at the end and dry hopped to give a good hoppy nose. I wanted to save the cluster until I got some fuggles and could make a beer called "ClusterFuggles," but flavor and time trumps humor.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Success can be measured by weight
Success of a product is generally directly tied to the weight of it's brand. A well branded product, which easily identifies it's "values" to the consumer, and delivers on that implicit promise, will succeed. It's two parts - convey values; deliver on the value promise. You can see a lot of products which failed because they missed the target on one or both of those propositions. Look at the breweries which are wildly successful - you'll see that they all generally have an easily conveyed value proposition and all deliver on the promise they make to generate that value.
Let's pick on Sam Calagione's brand and company Dogfish Head, first. The name is an interesting, and strange image. Let me explain, in case someone out there doesn't think so. A dogfish is a generic term used to describe certain families of shark which hunt in packs. So-called, because, well.. they appear to be dog-like (hunting in packs) even though they're fish. The name itself implies a somewhat familiar, although peculiar, merger of animals - most people have HEARD of 'dogfish'. The addition of the second name, 'head' is a play on the already strange play of words. Literally, stringing the three together, 'dog' 'fish' 'head' - you can make two familiar, and related words: 'dogfish' and 'fish head'. That one might ascribe this to their beer company, an implicit value proposition might be:
- Strange
- Creative
- Unique
- Playful
The brewery reinforces these value propositions with the tagline: 'Off-centered ales, for off-centered people'. Again, we can take the words and the values can plug right in. For instance, 'Off-centered' = out of the ordinary; strange; creative. 'ales' = a promise not to deliver lagers ('duh'!). See if there are other values you can ascribe to the taglines, and title 'Dogfish Head' and 'Off-centered ales ...'
That study is interesting, but only part one of the two part branding equation. We need a second part - they need to deliver on the promise that they hold those values. Looking at their line of products, we see products which continually try to push the envelope, as far as beers can be pushed. 'Chicha', 'Bitches Brew', even their 120, 90, and 60 all use methods, recipes, ingredients, and techniques unique to the beer world. They are "strange" (for the 120-60, continuous hopping is not a traditional method), creative, unique and playful. The beer delivers on this promise, and reinforces the brand at the same time. You can bet, if Dogfish Head came out with 'Generic Pale Ale' people would be quite disappointed with it. It clashes with the brand. It might be a perfect example of the beer, too. But it breaks the promise the brand has with the public.
Take, again just an example, Samuel Adams now. The brand conveys tradition, defiance, rebellion, history, thoughtfulness. When Sam Adams came on the scene they were the rebels. They were defying the major three brewers. Their beers are traditional examples of the styles they brew. They adhere to historic styles, rigidly, while making slight changes to set themselves apart. They promise these things, and deliver on them. If Samuel Adams released, "Oddball Green Beer", no one would want it. If they released, "Traditional Example of Flemish Sour Ale," it would be successful (or at least, more successful than the first).
Stone - "Arrogant Bastard", "Ruination", their flagship beers.
The list can go one. Try it out, yourself. Pick a corporate brand, pick their flagship products. Do the products reinforce the brand?
Heck, the products don't have to be particularly GOOD. BMC type light lagers are not, shall we say, the most flavorful of beers. But they don't promise that. They promise a party in a can. They promise a fun time. And you can certainly have a good time drinking BMC - especially since it's cheap compared to most beers with different promises.
At least, this is my Socratic take on "Building a business 101." Maybe I'm dead wrong.
Let's pick on Sam Calagione's brand and company Dogfish Head, first. The name is an interesting, and strange image. Let me explain, in case someone out there doesn't think so. A dogfish is a generic term used to describe certain families of shark which hunt in packs. So-called, because, well.. they appear to be dog-like (hunting in packs) even though they're fish. The name itself implies a somewhat familiar, although peculiar, merger of animals - most people have HEARD of 'dogfish'. The addition of the second name, 'head' is a play on the already strange play of words. Literally, stringing the three together, 'dog' 'fish' 'head' - you can make two familiar, and related words: 'dogfish' and 'fish head'. That one might ascribe this to their beer company, an implicit value proposition might be:
- Strange
- Creative
- Unique
- Playful
The brewery reinforces these value propositions with the tagline: 'Off-centered ales, for off-centered people'. Again, we can take the words and the values can plug right in. For instance, 'Off-centered' = out of the ordinary; strange; creative. 'ales' = a promise not to deliver lagers ('duh'!). See if there are other values you can ascribe to the taglines, and title 'Dogfish Head' and 'Off-centered ales ...'
That study is interesting, but only part one of the two part branding equation. We need a second part - they need to deliver on the promise that they hold those values. Looking at their line of products, we see products which continually try to push the envelope, as far as beers can be pushed. 'Chicha', 'Bitches Brew', even their 120, 90, and 60 all use methods, recipes, ingredients, and techniques unique to the beer world. They are "strange" (for the 120-60, continuous hopping is not a traditional method), creative, unique and playful. The beer delivers on this promise, and reinforces the brand at the same time. You can bet, if Dogfish Head came out with 'Generic Pale Ale' people would be quite disappointed with it. It clashes with the brand. It might be a perfect example of the beer, too. But it breaks the promise the brand has with the public.
Take, again just an example, Samuel Adams now. The brand conveys tradition, defiance, rebellion, history, thoughtfulness. When Sam Adams came on the scene they were the rebels. They were defying the major three brewers. Their beers are traditional examples of the styles they brew. They adhere to historic styles, rigidly, while making slight changes to set themselves apart. They promise these things, and deliver on them. If Samuel Adams released, "Oddball Green Beer", no one would want it. If they released, "Traditional Example of Flemish Sour Ale," it would be successful (or at least, more successful than the first).
Stone - "Arrogant Bastard", "Ruination", their flagship beers.
The list can go one. Try it out, yourself. Pick a corporate brand, pick their flagship products. Do the products reinforce the brand?
Heck, the products don't have to be particularly GOOD. BMC type light lagers are not, shall we say, the most flavorful of beers. But they don't promise that. They promise a party in a can. They promise a fun time. And you can certainly have a good time drinking BMC - especially since it's cheap compared to most beers with different promises.
At least, this is my Socratic take on "Building a business 101." Maybe I'm dead wrong.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Brewmasters - mixed feelings
I've watched all 3 episodes of the new Discovery Channel show "Brewmasters," which airs on Sundays and Mondays @ 10:00pm. Let me just say, I have some mixed feelings on the show.
First, I would be kidding myself if I didn't say that the premise is somewhat of a let-down. Part of what makes craft beer so interesting is the variety of stories behind the breweries. Dogfish Head actually started on a 10gal SABCO BrewMagic system in 1995. One of their first beers (Punkin' Ale) was actually a homebrew that won at that years Punkin' Chunkin' food contest (being from Delaware, of course Sam would have gone to early Punkin' Chunkin' competitions). I was hoping that the show would be traveling to different breweries and getting to hear those kinds of interesting stories. The struggles, the victories, the one or two crazy beers.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not a huge fan of DFH beers, but they're not awful beers. I like the Punkin' Ale. I like the 90 IPA. But, the beers aren't "Oh My God, WOW!" Sam Calagione seems to be a fun, off-the-wall kind of guy. I guess I'm just not that interested in the DFH brewery, specifically.
However, the show does something that I think is good - namely, educates the public on the Craft Beer Movement. It's a movement that has been building a strong following, one consumer at a time, over the past 25 to 30 years. With the mainstreaming of one of the more mainstream craft breweries, hopefully people move away from the Big Two (AB-InBev, and MC) and get back to local product (and that's what nanobrewers are all about). It's one of the reasons why I avoid stocking anything that traces back to the Big Two (for instance, Blue Moon is an MC brand).
I guess what I'm saying is, the beer geek in me wishes that they spent more time talking about why crystal 60 or 120 gives more body. The 2 billion yeast cells thing from the pilot is laughable (pro-tip: I pitch hundreds of times more than that for my 10 gallon batches).
The craft beer advocate in me wants to hear about the other 1400+ craft breweries that exist - their stories and their beers.
So, I'm disappointed on that front.
On the positive side though, I might now be able to talk about my latest brew with someone and have them be interested in trying it without their first reaction being "Oh, this must be terrible." I might be able to offer them some of the craft beers I keep handy without a "Oh, there's no bud? Nevermind."
So, there you have it. Mixed feelings.
First, I would be kidding myself if I didn't say that the premise is somewhat of a let-down. Part of what makes craft beer so interesting is the variety of stories behind the breweries. Dogfish Head actually started on a 10gal SABCO BrewMagic system in 1995. One of their first beers (Punkin' Ale) was actually a homebrew that won at that years Punkin' Chunkin' food contest (being from Delaware, of course Sam would have gone to early Punkin' Chunkin' competitions). I was hoping that the show would be traveling to different breweries and getting to hear those kinds of interesting stories. The struggles, the victories, the one or two crazy beers.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not a huge fan of DFH beers, but they're not awful beers. I like the Punkin' Ale. I like the 90 IPA. But, the beers aren't "Oh My God, WOW!" Sam Calagione seems to be a fun, off-the-wall kind of guy. I guess I'm just not that interested in the DFH brewery, specifically.
However, the show does something that I think is good - namely, educates the public on the Craft Beer Movement. It's a movement that has been building a strong following, one consumer at a time, over the past 25 to 30 years. With the mainstreaming of one of the more mainstream craft breweries, hopefully people move away from the Big Two (AB-InBev, and MC) and get back to local product (and that's what nanobrewers are all about). It's one of the reasons why I avoid stocking anything that traces back to the Big Two (for instance, Blue Moon is an MC brand).
I guess what I'm saying is, the beer geek in me wishes that they spent more time talking about why crystal 60 or 120 gives more body. The 2 billion yeast cells thing from the pilot is laughable (pro-tip: I pitch hundreds of times more than that for my 10 gallon batches).
The craft beer advocate in me wants to hear about the other 1400+ craft breweries that exist - their stories and their beers.
So, I'm disappointed on that front.
On the positive side though, I might now be able to talk about my latest brew with someone and have them be interested in trying it without their first reaction being "Oh, this must be terrible." I might be able to offer them some of the craft beers I keep handy without a "Oh, there's no bud? Nevermind."
So, there you have it. Mixed feelings.
Monday, November 29, 2010
Brew day in the coming weekend
I'll be brewing this weekend. I've decided that I'll brew a cream-ish pale ale. If there's time to brew the following weekend, I'll do the Bohemian Pils that I've been formulating in my brain.
The pale ale I'll be doing will be brewed with mostly Pale Ale malt, plus a bit of Cara Foam and Pilsner malt. I'm hoping that the clean flavor will balance well with the Cascade or Amarillo (haven't decided which yet) hops I'll be adding.
I've chosen to use Safale-05 yeast. It's clean fermenting, efficient, and has desirable flocculation characteristics. 12 gallons of it should polish off quickly. Since I'm aiming for a 5% beer, this should easily be sessionable. We'll see how it turns out. With the Brown Ale being so well received, it and this pale might become my house ales. Then the focus can be on seasonal brews.
The pale ale I'll be doing will be brewed with mostly Pale Ale malt, plus a bit of Cara Foam and Pilsner malt. I'm hoping that the clean flavor will balance well with the Cascade or Amarillo (haven't decided which yet) hops I'll be adding.
I've chosen to use Safale-05 yeast. It's clean fermenting, efficient, and has desirable flocculation characteristics. 12 gallons of it should polish off quickly. Since I'm aiming for a 5% beer, this should easily be sessionable. We'll see how it turns out. With the Brown Ale being so well received, it and this pale might become my house ales. Then the focus can be on seasonal brews.
Monday, November 22, 2010
My brewery ... new and improved
Wanna see some sweet schwag?
Yeah, that's 3 Blichmann Engineering 20gal pots. The one in the middle has the ball valve removed for cleaning, along with the auto-sparge and false bottom.
On the ground, you can see 2 809 march pumps, and 1 Blichmann Engineering Therminator. I'm psyched to use them.
In addition, I have 2 15.5 gal. fementers which have racking cane arms. Not as sweet as a true conical, but they allow me to pipeline 12+ gal batches to keep the beer flowing.
Yeah, that's 3 Blichmann Engineering 20gal pots. The one in the middle has the ball valve removed for cleaning, along with the auto-sparge and false bottom.
On the ground, you can see 2 809 march pumps, and 1 Blichmann Engineering Therminator. I'm psyched to use them.
In addition, I have 2 15.5 gal. fementers which have racking cane arms. Not as sweet as a true conical, but they allow me to pipeline 12+ gal batches to keep the beer flowing.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
What home brewing looks like
I figured that I'd give an overview of what brewing looks like.
My brew day started at 9:00 am - visual inspection of the equipment. The following items were cleaned, and sanitized:
- blichmann 20g hlt/mlt/bk
- Latrobe 15.5g keg, outfitted as a fermenter
- 48qt cooler (transfer vessel)
- Mash paddle
- Boil kettle spoon
- Immersion Chiller
- Various Tubing
- Various Gaskets
At 10:30, everything was cleaned and ready - with one minor hiccup. We had no propane. Our journey takes two hour and a half side-track.
@1:00 pm - dough in.
MMM.... look at all that grain. Dough in was at 122F for 15 minutes, with a quick (emphasis on this) direct heat step to 150F.
Looking at the grain here, you can see the coloring has already begun. This was as I was stepping to 150F.
@2:30 pm - Mashout and Sparge.
Here we see the transfer of the first sweet-wort to the 48-qt cooler. Transfer from the cooler back to the kettle is a bit nightmarish, however, the cooler would not have allowed us to get the kind of gravity we were looking for from this brew.
@3:15 pm - Boil this bad larry
(NOTE: the picture below is not of the boil)
@5:30 it was chilled down and in the fermenter. The yeast were firmly establishing their hold on the deliciously sweet wort that would become beer.
... One and a half months later ...
A rich creamy head, with a hazy brown body.
And of course,
AHHH! Delicious.
My brew day started at 9:00 am - visual inspection of the equipment. The following items were cleaned, and sanitized:
- blichmann 20g hlt/mlt/bk
- Latrobe 15.5g keg, outfitted as a fermenter
- 48qt cooler (transfer vessel)
- Mash paddle
- Boil kettle spoon
- Immersion Chiller
- Various Tubing
- Various Gaskets
At 10:30, everything was cleaned and ready - with one minor hiccup. We had no propane. Our journey takes two hour and a half side-track.
@1:00 pm - dough in.
MMM.... look at all that grain. Dough in was at 122F for 15 minutes, with a quick (emphasis on this) direct heat step to 150F.
Looking at the grain here, you can see the coloring has already begun. This was as I was stepping to 150F.
@2:30 pm - Mashout and Sparge.
Here we see the transfer of the first sweet-wort to the 48-qt cooler. Transfer from the cooler back to the kettle is a bit nightmarish, however, the cooler would not have allowed us to get the kind of gravity we were looking for from this brew.
@3:15 pm - Boil this bad larry
(NOTE: the picture below is not of the boil)
@5:30 it was chilled down and in the fermenter. The yeast were firmly establishing their hold on the deliciously sweet wort that would become beer.
... One and a half months later ...
A rich creamy head, with a hazy brown body.
And of course,
AHHH! Delicious.
Monday, November 8, 2010
A weekend of brew
I'm getting everything for my new single-tier stand this weekend, so I'm hoping to brew a quick session ale. Perhaps a cream, or a simple pale. The grain bill will probably include some wheat and either pale ale, or 2-row. Not sure which yet. I'm excited to brew on this stand and calculate my efficiencies. Plus, it'll feel awesome having a pretty well controlled system. I'm hoping that regardless of the extreme cold that will abound, I'll get really steady temps. The only thing that can help with that is spending a few hours messing with the burners and learning what the pots want to "let go of" as far as heat goes. Since the MLT will be direct fired, I can use the HLT to pre-heat the water, spray over the grain-bed to get close to the approximate temps, and direct fire to the exact infusion temp I want. I can then fill the hlt with more water and be heating that while the system mashes. This should shave about 1-2 hours off of my normal brew day.
I'm also pumped because for the first time ever I'll be possibly treating my water to get an optimum mash. Again, since I'm shooting for an OG of somewhere between 1.050 and 1.065, I'll want to monitor the mash, and perform a proper mash-out.
All in all, I'm pumped about brewing this weekend. Hopefully I'll get the chance.
I'm also pumped because for the first time ever I'll be possibly treating my water to get an optimum mash. Again, since I'm shooting for an OG of somewhere between 1.050 and 1.065, I'll want to monitor the mash, and perform a proper mash-out.
All in all, I'm pumped about brewing this weekend. Hopefully I'll get the chance.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
MMM... beer
In regards to yesterdays post, Question #1 passed. Oh well.
In the past few weeks I've managed to ferment and keg a sweet sweet brown ale. I'm calling it an "India Brown Porter" - it's more hoppy than your standard brown ale, supported by a large backbone of malt and alcohol. The end recipe looks like:
Boil Time: 60 min
Batch Size: 8.5 gal
O.G.: 1.077
F.G.: 1.018
Eff.: 68-72%
IBUs: XXX (To be calculated)
Yeast: Safale US-05
15 lbs Maris Otter
10 lbs German Munich, light
4 lbs Crystal 60L
1oz Czech Saaz (60)
1oz East Kent Goldings (60)
2oz Czech Saaz (30)
2oz East Kent Goldings (20)
Mash: Because I have a stainless mash tun, I can do "proper" step mashing, so I gave it a 15 minute protein rest, followed by 45 minutes at 150 and 20 minutes at 156. No mashout. Were I to make this using only single infusion, 152 would be fine. I don't think the malts really benefitted from the protein rest, but it did let me clean out the fermenter and get all my stuff together.
This beer is a simple recipe, that comes out just brown enough to look like the local leaves. You'll notice the lack of a clarifying/protein binding addition. That was intentional. I wanted this beer to be hazy. The head retention is spot on; mouth-feel after sufficiently carbonated is incredible. Next time I'll probably dry-hop with some Czech Saaz to give that beautiful floral hop aroma. As it stands, it has a strong malty aroma with barely a hint of the hops within.
I find MO to be a great base malt, and the melanoidin content from the munich malt really complements this beer. The addition of the crystal helped to bump it into the 7%+ area, which means it's definitely not a session ale. Overall, I'm really happy with how this recipe turned out and will probably be making it in the future again. Once I start sharing it around, I know it's going to go quickly.
I'll probably do 12 gal. the next time I make it - but since my bottleneck is fermentation space, I'll have to choose when this beer is made. I'd also like to try about 10lbs less grain overall and see if the less syrupy mouth-feel makes a better difference.
Stay tuned for pics of the brew process and the resulting glass.
In the past few weeks I've managed to ferment and keg a sweet sweet brown ale. I'm calling it an "India Brown Porter" - it's more hoppy than your standard brown ale, supported by a large backbone of malt and alcohol. The end recipe looks like:
Boil Time: 60 min
Batch Size: 8.5 gal
O.G.: 1.077
F.G.: 1.018
Eff.: 68-72%
IBUs: XXX (To be calculated)
Yeast: Safale US-05
15 lbs Maris Otter
10 lbs German Munich, light
4 lbs Crystal 60L
1oz Czech Saaz (60)
1oz East Kent Goldings (60)
2oz Czech Saaz (30)
2oz East Kent Goldings (20)
Mash: Because I have a stainless mash tun, I can do "proper" step mashing, so I gave it a 15 minute protein rest, followed by 45 minutes at 150 and 20 minutes at 156. No mashout. Were I to make this using only single infusion, 152 would be fine. I don't think the malts really benefitted from the protein rest, but it did let me clean out the fermenter and get all my stuff together.
This beer is a simple recipe, that comes out just brown enough to look like the local leaves. You'll notice the lack of a clarifying/protein binding addition. That was intentional. I wanted this beer to be hazy. The head retention is spot on; mouth-feel after sufficiently carbonated is incredible. Next time I'll probably dry-hop with some Czech Saaz to give that beautiful floral hop aroma. As it stands, it has a strong malty aroma with barely a hint of the hops within.
I find MO to be a great base malt, and the melanoidin content from the munich malt really complements this beer. The addition of the crystal helped to bump it into the 7%+ area, which means it's definitely not a session ale. Overall, I'm really happy with how this recipe turned out and will probably be making it in the future again. Once I start sharing it around, I know it's going to go quickly.
I'll probably do 12 gal. the next time I make it - but since my bottleneck is fermentation space, I'll have to choose when this beer is made. I'd also like to try about 10lbs less grain overall and see if the less syrupy mouth-feel makes a better difference.
Stay tuned for pics of the brew process and the resulting glass.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Alcohol Tax
There's a vote today on the Alcohol Sales tax - I hope it doesn't go away. That's probably a good chunk of change that Massachusetts needs. The justification "Alcohol already has an excise tax paid" is silly - that tax is paid by the brewers when they manufacture or import. It's paid to the feds and to the state of manufacture. Since the majority of alcohol sales come from non-mass locales, we lose out on a lot of alcohol revenue. Plus, it almost guarantees that the $10,000 bond paid by a brewer will either stay the same, or increase. This makes creating new breweries and brewery related jobs even more difficult to establish for those of us who are "little guys."
Just some musings.
Just some musings.
Friday, October 15, 2010
Farm Brewery
In MA there's a farmer-brewer and farmer-brewery classification / designation. I'm certainly no lawyer, but I'm taking away from it that if you meet a few simple criteria, and aren't producing a whole heck-uv-a-lot, you can get a license to brew from the ABC for a $3k bond (one time) plus $22 / year. The amount per year can change depending on your excise volume (IE: the amount that you produce for your tax determination tank(s)), but it never truly gets outrageous.
I've talked a bit with some folks about forming an LLC, and taking this thing to the big-time. I'll need to get my recipe's in killer condition (I just started developing one that seems good enough to get dialed in -just- right) and have a strong whisper campaign. But, if everything lines up correctly, the brewing company could see real revenue (beyond a few hundred dollars a month) in a few years without accruing much (if any) debt. All the while, it could grow organically.
Ok, head-in-the clouds thinking, I know. But the ABC + Fed costs aren't that high, the equipment cost can be managed. Like everything, it will all come down to location and dedication. 3 AM brew days, here I come.
I've talked a bit with some folks about forming an LLC, and taking this thing to the big-time. I'll need to get my recipe's in killer condition (I just started developing one that seems good enough to get dialed in -just- right) and have a strong whisper campaign. But, if everything lines up correctly, the brewing company could see real revenue (beyond a few hundred dollars a month) in a few years without accruing much (if any) debt. All the while, it could grow organically.
Ok, head-in-the clouds thinking, I know. But the ABC + Fed costs aren't that high, the equipment cost can be managed. Like everything, it will all come down to location and dedication. 3 AM brew days, here I come.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Brew chem 101
I was thinking about water this morning. Water is not just that clear, life-giving substance that comes from the faucet. It's actually pretty critical to brewing. In fact, sometimes the difference between an amazing beer and a terrible beer could be the water (I kid you not!). When I brew there are two different types of water I have access to:
Good 'ol Dracut, MA water.
Good 'ol Dracut, MA well water.
I haven't sent either out for any kind of real analysis, but I'm betting that the well water is quite soft, as compared with the stuff from Dracut (Town of). This can be important, as most of the enzymatic action that a brewer is looking for is somewhat lower on the PH scale (between 4.5 and 5.5). Truely pure water is a 7. Think about that.
Ok, why is this even that important? So what if the water is softer? What are these enzymes? What do they do? Why are you confusing me?
Let's back up a bit. The basic process of beer making is pretty straight-forward. We are looking to make alcohol. Alcohol is made by feeding yeast a bunch of sugar. Plain and simple. Ancient brewers got the yeast by just hoping they'd land in the sugar-water mix they had. But where did they get the sugar? Grain. Huh?! Grains are starchy, right?
Grains are seeds. They are the "next generation" of a stalk of wheat, barley, oats, or corn. In essence, they are self-contained baby plants. What do all living things need in order to grow from initial state to adult? Energy. How do seeds get this energy? It's locked away in large-chain starch molecules. The cells of the seed can't digest these molecules on their own, though. The chains are just too long. However, they CAN digest sugar to create energy. So, locked in there with the "baby" plant are enzymes which break long-chain starches into medium and short chain sugars.
Think of it like this:
You are building a shed and need a bunch of 10-ft and 5-ft length 2x4s. Instead, you have a pile of 100-ft planks. In order for you to get these planks the right size, you are given some power tools.
The power tools have some pretty specific rules though. If there's too much heat, they'll overload and break. If there's not enough heat, they won't turn on. If the environment is not absolutely correct, they'll work inefficiently and you'll have some pretty rough-cut planks.
This is why the water is so important. It's important to control the temperature so that the enzymatic actions you need can happen. It's important to control the PH because that action will be slow and inefficient (and possibly not even work) as compared to what it could be.
With me so far? Good. If not, drink less beer next time you read this post.
Adding salts and minerals to the water can have a nice buffering effect on the ph, and give those enzymes (power tools) the absolute best environment for production. With a larger supply of short-chain sugars to eat, the yeast will be less stressed. Less stressed yeast produce cleaner flavors, and attenuate better. Sometimes, you want to stress out the yeast a bit. Those off flavors can lend some interesting characteristics to a Belgian or a lambic. Otherwise, you generally want to avoid off-flavors. Esters, dme's, diacetyl, and phenols are generally not good in something like a lager, which wants clean and crisp malt and hop flavors.
This all goes back to the water I have access to. Ideally, distilled water allows me to buffer the water any way I want. Since I don't have access to a real production quality still (I do have a still that could process about 6 gallons of water, but I've only used it once - it's really for emergencies) I'd have to either buy distilled water (expensive) or more realistically, test all of the surrounding area water to figure out exactly what the chemical and mineral composition looks like.
oi vay.
Good 'ol Dracut, MA water.
Good 'ol Dracut, MA well water.
I haven't sent either out for any kind of real analysis, but I'm betting that the well water is quite soft, as compared with the stuff from Dracut (Town of). This can be important, as most of the enzymatic action that a brewer is looking for is somewhat lower on the PH scale (between 4.5 and 5.5). Truely pure water is a 7. Think about that.
Ok, why is this even that important? So what if the water is softer? What are these enzymes? What do they do? Why are you confusing me?
Let's back up a bit. The basic process of beer making is pretty straight-forward. We are looking to make alcohol. Alcohol is made by feeding yeast a bunch of sugar. Plain and simple. Ancient brewers got the yeast by just hoping they'd land in the sugar-water mix they had. But where did they get the sugar? Grain. Huh?! Grains are starchy, right?
Grains are seeds. They are the "next generation" of a stalk of wheat, barley, oats, or corn. In essence, they are self-contained baby plants. What do all living things need in order to grow from initial state to adult? Energy. How do seeds get this energy? It's locked away in large-chain starch molecules. The cells of the seed can't digest these molecules on their own, though. The chains are just too long. However, they CAN digest sugar to create energy. So, locked in there with the "baby" plant are enzymes which break long-chain starches into medium and short chain sugars.
Think of it like this:
You are building a shed and need a bunch of 10-ft and 5-ft length 2x4s. Instead, you have a pile of 100-ft planks. In order for you to get these planks the right size, you are given some power tools.
The power tools have some pretty specific rules though. If there's too much heat, they'll overload and break. If there's not enough heat, they won't turn on. If the environment is not absolutely correct, they'll work inefficiently and you'll have some pretty rough-cut planks.
This is why the water is so important. It's important to control the temperature so that the enzymatic actions you need can happen. It's important to control the PH because that action will be slow and inefficient (and possibly not even work) as compared to what it could be.
With me so far? Good. If not, drink less beer next time you read this post.
Adding salts and minerals to the water can have a nice buffering effect on the ph, and give those enzymes (power tools) the absolute best environment for production. With a larger supply of short-chain sugars to eat, the yeast will be less stressed. Less stressed yeast produce cleaner flavors, and attenuate better. Sometimes, you want to stress out the yeast a bit. Those off flavors can lend some interesting characteristics to a Belgian or a lambic. Otherwise, you generally want to avoid off-flavors. Esters, dme's, diacetyl, and phenols are generally not good in something like a lager, which wants clean and crisp malt and hop flavors.
This all goes back to the water I have access to. Ideally, distilled water allows me to buffer the water any way I want. Since I don't have access to a real production quality still (I do have a still that could process about 6 gallons of water, but I've only used it once - it's really for emergencies) I'd have to either buy distilled water (expensive) or more realistically, test all of the surrounding area water to figure out exactly what the chemical and mineral composition looks like.
oi vay.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
I'm going to start a brewery
I've been thinking about it more and more. Brewing is something I'm intensely passionate about, and it's something I enjoy. Hello, my name is Aaron, and I have fun.
There's always some reason to not jump into this. The cost to entry, lack of market experience, no customers. Heck, I don't even have an AHA award. That doesn't matter. What matters is this: I like brewing; I like beer.
I don't even mind the drudgery that goes along with brewing. Sanitize, scrub, disassemble, reassemble. It's not a bother to me (although, my wife probably isn't too thrilled about it when it takes about 8 hours to get a brew done). That's why I think I am going to start a brewery. Even the part that isn't fun, is fun.
But there's a lot more to starting a brewery than just "Here's my recipe and my bottles, lets find a store!" There's licensing, inspections, fees, approvals, and vast array of process. At the federal level, it's not a huge amount of work. It can be banged out in a few weekends, as far as the paperwork goes. At the state level there's a bit more work to do. But the costs at the state level is huge in MA. It can cost up to $10k USD to setup a brewery. With that kind of cost, starting a small nanobrewery to serve the local community (and I can think of a few places that would probably be eager to serve up some backyard brown ale) is pretty much out of the question.
Still, I'm going to start a brewery.
There's always some reason to not jump into this. The cost to entry, lack of market experience, no customers. Heck, I don't even have an AHA award. That doesn't matter. What matters is this: I like brewing; I like beer.
I don't even mind the drudgery that goes along with brewing. Sanitize, scrub, disassemble, reassemble. It's not a bother to me (although, my wife probably isn't too thrilled about it when it takes about 8 hours to get a brew done). That's why I think I am going to start a brewery. Even the part that isn't fun, is fun.
But there's a lot more to starting a brewery than just "Here's my recipe and my bottles, lets find a store!" There's licensing, inspections, fees, approvals, and vast array of process. At the federal level, it's not a huge amount of work. It can be banged out in a few weekends, as far as the paperwork goes. At the state level there's a bit more work to do. But the costs at the state level is huge in MA. It can cost up to $10k USD to setup a brewery. With that kind of cost, starting a small nanobrewery to serve the local community (and I can think of a few places that would probably be eager to serve up some backyard brown ale) is pretty much out of the question.
Still, I'm going to start a brewery.
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