-Ryan Blankenship- As a home brewer at Fifth Season Gardening, I get fairly frequent requests about how to properly calculate the ABV (Alcohol By Volume) of beer/ wine. In this blog, I’ll walk through the measurements and calculations necessary to determine ABV of your brew. First let’s take a look at what these numbers mean on a standard hydrometer (an instrument used to measure the density of liquids). One side of the hydrometer shows Specific Gravity, which is the ratio of the density … [Read more...] about Calculating Your Potential ABV
brewing beer
Grain Crush
-Peter McMindes- It’s not the size of the crush; it’s how you use it. The crush of the grist results in different size particles that give the brewer the range between the speed of sugar extraction and the ability to extract overall. A small or fine crush will allow sugars to be converted faster by enzymes but can create a stuck mash or unwanted husk tannin extraction. A coarse crush will allow for a better flow of wort and lauter but will not be converted as quickly. While the degree of … [Read more...] about Grain Crush
Brewing in the Summer
-Ryan Blankenship- Summertime is usually a slow time for the traditional home brewer. Mainly because it gets so hot outside, most of us don’t want to spend 6-8 hours over a boiling hot kettle. It can also become difficult to regulate your fermentation temperatures. If you’re a diehard brewer like we are, however, you might be deciding on what beers do best during the summer. A few of my favorite summer style beers include: Belgian pale ales, Kolsch, and Saisons. Today I want to give a little … [Read more...] about Brewing in the Summer
Kveik: A Hot New Yeast Trend in Homebrewing
-Peter McMindes- Norway has been using kveik for centuries, passing it down through generations of brewing families, providing unique characteristics to farmhouse ales. Kveik (pronounced “kwike”), means “yeast” in Norwegian, and the strain has remained relatively unchanged in areas that engage in traditional farmhouse brewing. The name kveik refers to the yeast itself, not the style of beer, and it is extremely genetically diverse while exhibiting characteristics not typical in other brewing … [Read more...] about Kveik: A Hot New Yeast Trend in Homebrewing
Fining Your Beer With Gelatin
-Peter McMindes- As homebrewers, we pride ourselves on delivering delicious tasting beer to our friends, family and ourselves. While demonstrating how well-made fresh beer tastes, we also like to focus on the presentation. When seeing the brightness and clarity of other homebrewers’ beer, you may wonder how they achieve such a level in the finished product, and the answer is usually a fining agent known as gelatin. Many commercial and larger craft breweries may filter their beer and use … [Read more...] about Fining Your Beer With Gelatin
Using Enzymes In Brewing Production
-Ryan Blankenship- Enzymes have been used in beer production for some time now, whether for gluten reduction, turning some non-fermentable sugar into fermentable sugar, or increasing clarity. For brewing, enzymes can, among other things, increase starch liquefaction and saccharification, which in turn increases the production of fermentable sugars. These enzymes can also help reduce viscosity, support yeast during the fermentation process, and even extend the shelf-life of a beer. In … [Read more...] about Using Enzymes In Brewing Production
Making Beer Kits at Home with Brewer’s Best
-Gabrial House- With fall in full swing, why not start a batch of home brew? If you are new to the art of brewing and not sure where to start then you should take a look at some of our awesome beer equipment and ingredient kits! We have lots of different ingredient kits for this cooler time of year, ranging from American Ambers, to Red Ale, to English Browns and even Robust Porters. You can make up to 5 gallons of your favorite hearty beer enjoyably at home! The Brewer’s Best equipment … [Read more...] about Making Beer Kits at Home with Brewer’s Best
New England IPA Part 1: Clarifying a Murky Style
-Ethan Johnston- The saying goes that a rising tide lifts all boats, and the rise in craft/artisan beer has certainly had a similar impact on the various beer styles. Styles like Gose and Grätzer, which were bordering on extinction until recent years, are enjoying exponentially more of a market share than they ever have. However, no style has been lifted to the height of India Pale Ale and its various sub-styles. IPA has been the hottest craft beer style on the market since the most recent … [Read more...] about New England IPA Part 1: Clarifying a Murky Style
Brew Review: Blichmann RipTide Brewing Pump
There are a handful of purchases that I’ve made in my 10 years of brewing experience that stand out for their impact on the quality of my homebrew and on decreasing the effort it takes to make it. If I had to name a number one, then it would most definitely be a brewing pump. I can’t think of anything I’ve purchased over the years that has improved my all-grain brewing process to the degree my pump has. There was the expected benefit of not having to physically transfer hot liquids from one … [Read more...] about Brew Review: Blichmann RipTide Brewing Pump
All Grain Brewing: Step Mash vs. Single Infusion
-Ryan Blankenship- All great beer begins with the mash. So what actually happens when we’re mashing grain? In a nutshell, the mash is a process in which malted grains are mixed with water at a specific ratio, temperatures, and pH in order to activate the enzymes in the malt and convert the starches in the grain into fermentable sugars. If grain goes unmalted, then the starches bound in the grain are inaccessible to yeast due to the size of the molecule. This can sometimes be desirable, … [Read more...] about All Grain Brewing: Step Mash vs. Single Infusion
