This is the second in a series of posts about how to get started with brewing your own beer.Last time, I talked about how to select a kit of equipment and ingredients, and how to make wort from malt extract, hops, and water. The next step in brewing is to add the yeast and ferment your wort, turning it into beer.
As a reader of this blog, you probably already know that there are two major classes of beer, generally categorized by the type of fermentation and yeast used to make them.
Ales typically have yeast that ferment floating on the top of the wort, and ferment at about 60-65 °F, close to room temperature. Primary fermentation in ale typically lasts a period of 7-10 days.
Lagers, on the other hand, typically have yeast that ferment on the bottom of the wort, with a preferred fermentation temperature of around 45 °F – substantially colder. Lagers also take longer to ferment, with a typical primary fermentation lasting for several weeks (or longer). Read the rest of this entry »
In order to truly appreciate beer, you first have to learn how it’s made. And there’s no better way of getting to the heart of the malt-matter than by diving head-first into the addictive world of home-brewing. Doc and The Professor review the basics with Brother Barley in this two-part Maltercation (Part 2 will be up in a couple of days). The trio also simultaneously samples some suds as they crack into Sam Adams 2009 Longshot brews and offer up some tasting notes.*
*Longshot is Sam’s home-brewing competition where the winners get their submissions scaled up for commercial sale.
Legends often disappoint. My father tells the story of meeting one of his favorite Red Sox players as a kid and getting a handshake like a dead fish. I remember the first time I went to a Smashing Pumpkins concert in high school (I worshiped them back then) and finding out that Billy Corgan was actually a pretty shitty singer.* Everyone has stories of meeting celebrities and politicians and finding out that they’re mostly insincere assholes. The bubble bursts and you’re left with the sad realization that the heroes we’ve championed all our lives are the same douchebags as everyone else. Read the rest of this entry »
Napoleon complex? Are you trying to say I'm sophisticated? Merci, Monsieur Alehead!
Let me take you back a few months to a conversation I had with Nurse Van Drinkale.
Nurse: “Love O’Mine, light of my life, what say you to a European adventure of culture and sophistication? “
Doc: “Huh?”
Nurse: “Dearest, I’m talking about France, the land of enchantment and whatnot”
Doc: “Will there be beer? I like Germany, they have beer. I like Belgium, they have beer”
Nurse: ”I haven’t a fucking clue. What are you gonna do, blog from there? Awesome, why don’t you do just that and play on your stupid computer after you get drunk every night. Are you in? Does that sound fun to you?”
Tasting Notes 5 and 6 (of 7) from Doc and Barley’s Killer Beer Night…
There are over 1,500 breweries in America today. How can they all remain financially solvent? Some crush the competition with clever advertising and volume (Bud), some produce a time-tested winner that never goes out of style (Anchor, Sierra Nevada), some become so intimately connected with a particular region that their beers become the drink of choice for locals (Sam Adams, Yuengling)…and some simply become synonymous with high-quality products (Rogue, Stone, Dogfish Head). Good marketing is important, of course. A killer flagship. A charismatic CEO. A little bit of luck. All of these are helpful in keeping a small brewery afloat. But there’s another way to stand out from the crowded marketplace: Brew something “different”. Read the rest of this entry »
Tasting Notes 3 and 4 (of 7) from Doc and Barley’s Killer Beer Night…
The Baron expounded on the Aleheads’ love-hate relationship with Dogfish Head in an earlier post. To sum up his elegant prose, DFH represents everything we collectively love and loathe about craft brewing. They experiment and push the envelope better than almost any other American ale factory today. That is to be lauded. But DFH also has a maddening inability to self-edit. Not EVERY beer concocted in the fever dreams of a brewer’s imagination need be foisted upon the Aleheads of the world. Read the rest of this entry »
We here at Aleheads have been known to expound at some length on the myriad joys of Dann Paquette’s outstanding Pretty Things Beer and Ale Project. With apologies to Cormac McCarthy, a shot for the common man it is not. Pretty Things produces a small collection of seriously quirky brews inspired by times, people, places, and ingredients. The result is existential, daring, and completely transcendent. Paquette eschews the boundaries of both traditional brewing as well as the too-often exaggerated zeal of the contemporary haute beer movement. Inspiration alone comprises the foundation of the Pretty Things enterprise and, in turn, proves itself inspirational. Babayaga American Stout? Outstanding. February 27th, 1832 Mile Ale? Sublime. Paquette’s brews are too curious, too mysterious, too compelling to be left on a stockroom shelf. It was with this sense of wide eyed obsessive compulsion that the Baron tucked into a Pretty Things trilogy and, in so sipping, rediscovered the soul of beer. Read the rest of this entry »
Now it’s time to get started on your first extract kit. This post will cover how to get started and brew, and my next two posts will cover fermentation and bottling. One of my personal favorite “starter” kits is Northern Brewers’ Breakfast Stout kit — it’s relatively inexpensive, and you get a great beer that’s relatively tough to screw up. According to Northern Brewer:
“Beer for breakfast? This smooth, low alcohol stout is good for lunch and dinner too. If we had to pin it down, it’s a cross between an oatmeal stout (a high proportion of flaked oats creates a silky texture) and a sweet stout (lactose gives sweetness and a full body) with the coffee-like flavor of roasted barley. A buttery note from the yeast completes the impression of a complete meal in a glass..”
Stouts are some of my favorite beers, and “complete meal in a glass” is a tough recommendation to pass up. It is well liked by Northern Brewer’s customers, getting 4/5 stars from the online reviews. It’s a little light for a stout, but I assure you: you won’t be disappointed. This beer will be appealing to a large crowd and is a great beer to share with friends. As with all good breakfast beers, it makes fantastic Beerios™. Read the rest of this entry »
So I’m not actually Canadian, nor can I profess to be an expert on Canadian beer, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night. Actually, I’m married to a Canadian, which means I find myself trekking to the great white north to spend all sorts of special occasions with in-laws…which means I drink a lot of Canadian beer (for obvious reasons). After nearly a decade of abusing my radials on I-89N to Montreal, I can safely say that Canadians are quite good at:
Skating
Smoking cheap cigarettes
Drinking
Smoking while drinking.
Paying taxes
Failing to use those taxes to improve infrastructure, and therefore their economy.
Doc has written about Alesmith before, so I won’t elaborate too much. As brewers, the Alesmithees aren’t too flashy or extreme. They make a little over a dozen standard offerings and they make them quite well. Their IPA is outstanding. Their Speedway Stout is one of the best dark beers in America. And if you want a great Belgian Pale Ale, try their Horny Devil. I was able to sample most of their offerings during a brief stint when Wifey and I lived in the Golden State. But one brew that had eluded me forever was their Belgian Dark Strong Ale offering…the Grand Cru.
While wandering through my old favorite package store during our recent jaunt to New England, my eye quickly fell to the bottom shelf in the beer aisle. That’s where I caught a glimpse of a little green frog and realized that I would finally get a chance to sample B.O.R.I.S. The Crusher. With such a treat available, I figured there might be other goodies awaiting me on the dusty lower shelves. I quickly scanned for Alesmith offerings and I soon spied their IPA and the Yulesmith before spotting an understated, red-foil topped, black bottle with gold script writing. The Grand Cru! At last. Read the rest of this entry »
Each year The Aleheads shuffle off modernity’s mortal coil and descend upon an unsuspecting metropolis to imbibe the best beers we can find, scampering about and pillaging the environs like Prawns through the streets of Johannesburg. This year the lucky host city is Philadelphia, and through not-all-that extensive research we’ve narrowed down some Alehouses we’d like to visit. If you read our site, you’ll know we are for the most part insufferably douchey beer snobs with a penchant for complex and hoppy brews. If not, please see previous sentence when formulating recommendations.
We look to you, gentle reader with knowledge of Philadelphia-proper, to advise where to spend these, our precious drinking hours. And if you’re an Alehead that would like to hoist a few pints and shoot the shit with us June 4-6 we’d be happy to make your acquaintance. Read the rest of this entry »
OK…this has absolutely nothing to do with beer. But the Aleheads and our readers tend to come from the same demographic…a demographic with fond memories for the original NES.
I mean seriously…haven’t you always wanted to take on the Koopa Troopas with one of the badasses from Contra? Or blast Goombas with Mega-Man? I thought so.
If the link doesn’t work, dear readers, just copy and paste: http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/534416 Read the rest of this entry »
I arrived at Doc’s lair on Thursday night with Wifey in tow and a bag full of goodies. Doc and his Doclings were awaiting us…and Nurse Van Drinkale arrived shortly thereafter with various artery-clogging (albeit delicious) foodstuffs. We talked of the things that folks our age discuss…child-rearing, the fates of our favorite sports franchises, the quality and quantity of our bowel movements. Standard stuff. For most couples, it would have been a delightful, pleasant evening amongst friends. Perhaps a glass of wine…maybe a round of Trivial Pursuit or Cranium. A few laughs. Rehash some memories. Lovely.
Unfortunately for our respective spouses, Doc and I are Aleheads. And with that power comes great responsibility. Namely, the responsibility to excessively drink obscure beers every time we find ourselves in the same general region. Needless to say, we take our duties seriously.* Read the rest of this entry »
OK, so you bought the deluxe starter kit and you’re ready to begin homebrewing. You’ve convinced your wife that it’s a good idea to make a mess in the kitchen. Where do you go from here? What type of ingredient kit should you get? How do you go from water, grains, hops, and yeast to that nectar of the gods that gives us white men the bravery to dance, and leads to all sorts of revelry and “I love you, man”‘s? In this post, I’ll talk about some of the basics of what you do in the process of brewing beer.
To understand what’s going on in beer making, check out our “Beer 101″ section on our website for a short intro on beer ingredients and a few terms. The translation of this into practice is a different story. There are basically three different ways to go about homebrewing, with varying levels of complexity and control over the outcome. They are, from simplest to most complex: extract brewing, extract plus specialty grains, and whole grain (or all grain) brewing. For the beginning homebrewer, I’d recommend going with extract plus specialty grains. This will give you the flexibility to try out a large variety of beers without the cumbersome and occasionally expensive equipment needed to do all grain brewing. Once you’re hooked, it’s trivial to move over to all grain and you can turn up your nose at those hacks who waste their time with extracts. Losers. Read the rest of this entry »
Brother Barley and the McHops crew is currently on a brief jaunt to the motherland (aka New England). My posts will be sadly sporadic during the trek (although most of you will probably enjoy the respite from my inane blather). But ‘pon my return I will have a slew of tasting notes from an epic night of suds-sampling with the Good Doctor. Look for posts on:
Me love you long time. Sorry, that was the immediate thought when I pulled a bottle of Sweetwater Brewing Co. Happy Ending out of Brother Barley’s care package the other day. Even prior to tasting anything from this Atlanta, GA brewery I knew they were notorious in the catchy name game. 420, Dank Tank, Motorboat, Hummer – Subtle in their efforts these gentle folk are not. There’s even the illustrious Donkey Punch, which made it to # 5 in Brother Barley’s Top 50 Beer Names contest. I think Happy Ending trumps all others though since every good Alehead wants to come through in the end with an explosive finish. Read the rest of this entry »
Over the next several weeks, I’ll be doing a series of posts for people interested in brewing their own beer. We’ll talk about where to start, how to make some of your own equipment, and how to impress chicks by flexing your new beer gut. Read the rest of this entry »
There’s been a great deal of talk by The Aleheads on the “Who can make a boozier beer” phase that the industry is going through. To be quite honest, I don’t give a rat’s ass who makes the strongest beer in the world. BrewDog, Dogfish, Sam Adams, Schorschbrau – You all make a bunch of high ABV beers, good for you. I suppose it’s a cool concept, but at the end of the day, it’s simply a pissing contest that’s gone way too far and has become a silly little game. If you really want a “Beer” with a ton of alcohol that will knock you on your ass, why don’t you just belly up to some Beer Schnapps? No games, no gimmicks, just good old-fashioned distilled beer. Now that’s a concept! Read the rest of this entry »
1. Owns a IPhone, Android, Blackberry, or Palm WebOS mobile device with data plan.
2. Would listen to “The Maltercation BeerCast” on Aleheads.com but:
a) too lazy
b) don’t know how
c) too lazy to learn how
d) some or all of the above.
If this sounds like you, get thy ass to your phone’s app store and download the awesome, totally free Stitcher mobile application. Search “beer”. Make “The Aleheads” a favorite, and voilá…
The latest episode of “The Maltercation” streaming live on your phone, no downloading or syncing required. Listen whenever/ wherever you want. Tune out friends and family. Waste time at work. Feel less femme on the treadmill. Make the mornings’ beer shits more tolerable. Tell me, why would you not do this? How can you be so obtuse? Is it deliberate?
This is the second in a series of posts about how to get started with brewing your own beer. Last time, I talked about how to select a kit of equipment and ingredients, and how to make wort from malt extract, hops, and water. The next step in brewing is to add the yeast and ferment your wort, turning it into beer.
Posted by Professor pH Lager 
