Brewery Tours in Seattle WA

I recently took a trip to Seattle, WA for a long weekend with my wife.  One of the days we booked a brewery tour with Road Dogs.  It was a great experience as there were only 2 other people on the tour.  We were able to stop at three brewers along the way.  Our tour guide Derek was great to say the least.  He had a really positive attitude, and knew his beer.  He was able to communicate with people that know nothing about brewing to the higher level of home brewers such as me (or so I think).  One side note, no one like a know it all, so if for some reason you are on a tour and you feel you know more than the tour guide…keep it to yourself. 

Anyways back to the tour.  Our first stop was Georgetown Brewing Company.  This was a very populate brewery with the locals and was one of the larger production breweries in the city with a 60 BBL brewhouse.  The tasting area was well put together and they also sold growlers that are ready to grab out of their frig.  They bottle the growlers on a one-of-a-kind growler bottler that replaces the oxygen with CO2 so that the growlers have the shelf life of a bottle beer.  The guy we spoke to say they sold on average two thousand growlers a week. WOW!!! To say the least.

The second stop was at Pyramid Brewery.  This was a larger commercial brewery that was still making test batches in-house at their brewpub, but the main brewing was done off site.  This really was not a microbrewery anymore as it is now owned by a large conglomerate out of Costa Rica…weird I know.  Either way they still had some great beers on tap,

but would say this was my least favorite stop of the tour.

Last with hit up Hale’s Ales.  This was the smallest of the three and kind of the coolest.  The best thing about this place…well there are two things…is that they use open fermentation and a large number of their beers are on nitrogen.  It is something to order a cream ale that is on nitrogen as the nitrogen provides you with that creamy head.  Also this place had a brewpub and opened internally to the brewery that you could walk around on an elevated platform to see.  Very cool.  By this time the beer was flowing and a fourth brewery would have been pushing it as we had been touring and drinking for the last three and a half hours.

All in all this was a great use of our money and time.  I highly recommend these guys and Road DogBrewery Tours if you are headed to Seattle, WA.  Also if you are visiting another city take a look to see if there are any organized tours, as you may find out they can be a lot of fun.

Why Use Carapils?

Carapils, also called dextrin, is an unfermentable form of sugar.  The name Carapils is used by maltster Briess, but most other malt houses call it cara-pils, carafoam, or just dextrin.  This grain is used in your mash for two purposes…body/mouthfeel & foam head retention.  Along with making sure you are mashing at the right temperature you can insure a great body to your brew if you add as little at ¼ lb of carapils to a 5 gallon batch of beer.  This is great to use in low alcohol beers such as blondes or pale ales that may sometimes come out to dry or thin in the body.  The other key benefit for using carapils/dextrin is that it leads to great head retention on your beers and improved lacing on the sides of your glass.  So when you are looking for both increase body and foam head retention in you brew turn to one of my fav

my favorite grain to use is…Carapils!

Beer Body Through Mash Temperature Control

Many of us have tried a commercial or homebrewed beer that seems to be lacking in body.  Sometimes this is on purpose for the style or the “drink-ability”.  Other times with home brewers it is just a lack of understanding the beer you are brewing and how the mash temperature comes into play

Mash Temperature:  As many of us know the conversion of the grain starches into sugars happens during the mashing.  This is when you combine the hot water with crushed grain and let it sit for an hour or so as the grain’s enzymes convert starch to sugar.  Many home brewers stick to the standard 154 degrees Fahrenheit mash temp for conversion.  This is a great place to start and many styles will turn out great using this temp, but there is more to the range than 154.  Also on a side know I am only going to talk about beta conversion temps and not go into such things as protein rest.  So back to it…Let’s talk about two very different beers and the mash temp that suits them the best. 

First off a Blonde Ale, or as many of you call it a lawnmower beer.  This beer is best in the range of 154-156.  Since the ABV on this beer is relatively low you do not want to complete ferment out all of the sugars, and then end up with a thin dry beer.  By keeping the range at 154-156 you are allowing some of the long sugar chains to remain and by doing so the yeast will have a hard time converting them into alcohol thus leaving you some sugars for the body of the beer.

Now let’s look at the other end of the spectrum a nice big Imperial Stout.  We are talking about a beer that will end up with an ABV of 8%+.  So you know this is going to take a lot of grain to make and the first runnings of the wort are going to be extra sugary, but what temp should the mash be at.  For this style of beer you want a lot of the sugars to be converted into simple sugars that the yeast will not have a hard time processing into CO2 and booze.  A range of 147-150 should be the sweet spot for this.  Because of the large about of sugar in the wort the yeast will be working overtime just to get the simple sugars converted.  So even though there are more of them you will still expect some to remain to leave you with a nice body to the beer.   If you were to mash this out at 156 degrees you would end up with a beer that was overly sweet and thick as there would be too many complex sugar chains remaining that the yeast could not process.

So in summary think of mash temperature this way.  The lower the ABV on the beer the higher the mash temperature (with 156-158 being the highest you would want to go).  So the opposite end of the spectrum is the higher the ABV the lower the mash temperature (with 147 being the lowest you would want to go).

Beer + Food = Winning Combination for Small Breweries

So the Craft Beer movement has spread throughout the whole country, and you are wondering what is next.  Well here is what my opinion is and why it is good for beer. 

Looking at the current microbreweries that are in production right now you have to think to yourself...”can they continue to grow at this pace?”  It seem like every major city in America has at least 3+ commercial breweries all somewhat competing in their respective markets.  I know…I know they are not competing against each other but the macro breweries such as InBev and MillerCoors.  With that being said it comes down to the availability of taps at local restaurants and bars to accommodate these beers.  At some point in time there just are not enough taps to go around, and the commercial craft beer breweries will have to turn to heavy canning or bottling to organically grow, or accept where they are at in the market right now, and enjoy making beer. 

This is where some people see a stall in the craft beer boom of the 1990’s to current day.  I on the other hand still see a huge opportunity for craft beer to continue to grow in a different niche.  THE BREWPUB!  Think about all the new nano-breweries that you are hearing about that are starting with brew houses less than 3 BBL.  On the wholesale side of the business, keg distribution to retail accounts, there is no money to brew at this level.  Most are brewing small to show they have the skills, and then look for investment to move to a 10BBL brew house.  I see the 3BBL and under breweries as a profitable business when you get a small, but high quality menu involved.  Food will help bring customers in and help your sell directly at retail pint prices to your customers.  Just think if you are brewing 3BBL of beer a week, but able to sell it at full retail price to your customers.  This would be comparable to having a 10 BBL brew house and selling wholesale. 

So in this model you get a lower cost of entry with the 3 BBL brew house which equates to less financial risk on your part.  Sure the cost of running a kitchen will increase the startup cost, but remember you do not want to be a Greek restaurant and offer 100 menu items.  Limit it to 10-15 and make sure they are great items.  This will keep your kitchen small and manageable by one cook.  Now if you are running your kitchen correctly you will provide yourself with the income needed to support your brewery and actually pay yourself some sort of an income.  Now I know you want specific numbers, but there are just too many variables.  You are smart people.  Look at your beer production cost and revenue of selling your beer for $4 or $5 per pint….that will be your beer profit.  Then take the number of seat you plan on having that the brewpub and multiply it by 2 (for turnover in seating per day).  Then just look at your cost of food vs. retail price….add it all together and boom there is your total revenue.  Now subtract your monthly fixed cost such as rent and utilities and payroll.  You get the idea.  Your view of a good income may be different from what others think.  Making $30K per year or $100K, just remember you are doing what you love and getting paid for it. 

I hope this article makes a case for why every down could have multiple brewpubs just like it has restaurants.  This will help continue the growth in craft beer and give a lower entry point for more people that have the passion to become professional brewers.

Carbonating Your Beer- What CO2 Volume to Use

Well it has been awhile, but I wanted to write a quick post with corresponding links to how you should be carbonating your beer.  Carbonation is a relatively simple thing to do as you really only have two options on how it is done.  You can either naturally carbonate or force carbonate.  I am not going to get into which one is better, but they each have their benefits and drawbacks. 

Real quick though natural carbonation is when you add some form of a sugar (corn syrup, table sugar, dextrose, etc…) to the beer as you put it in a keg or bottle.  The yeast that are still suspended in the beer (even though you cannot see them…they are there) take those sugars and convert them into more alcohol and also CO2.  Within the sealed environment of a keg or bottle the CO2 is forced back into the beer, and BOOM it is carbonated.  The process usually take 2 weeks at room temp.

Force carbonation on the other hand is just for those who are kegging.  You take the keg of flat beer and apply CO2 pressure to your beer from your tank of CO2.  You can either set it at the desired PSI and leave for about a week, or you can give it a little shaking to speed up the absorption of the CO2 in the beer.  Just leaving it if you are not in a rush is a better idea as you do not risk over carbonation.  I will leave that chose up to you though.  If you are carbonating via a CO2 tank make sure to have the beer at the serving temperature you desire, and then apply the pressure.  This will insure when you pour your first glass the carbonation will be spot on.

Here is the good stuff I wanted to get to.  Below are some links to useful websites for naturally and force carbonating beer.  Use these charts and calculators next time you are looking to create a perfectly created pint.  One more thing, force carbonating talks in CO2 “volumes”, so I list below some quick reference volumes for specific beer styles.

Natural Priming Sugar Calculator – Priming Sugar Calc

Force Carbonating Reference Chart – C02 Volume Chart

CO2 Volumes for specific beer styles

Blonde/Cream: 2.6

American Pale: 2.4

American Amber: 2.3

American Brown: 2.3

IPA: 2.4

Double IPA: 2.2

Porter: 2.1

Stout: 2.1

Imperial Stout: 2.2

Mild: 1.8

English Bitter: 1.5

Barley Wine: 2.2

Great Tasting American IPA

I wanted to share a recipe of mine for an American IPA.  I entered this into a local “high gravity” beer competition and took first place for it.  The grain bill, with most IPAs, is pretty simple and really you are just trying to hit your mash temperature on it.  The hops used are Citra and Galaxy.  I know these can be hard to come by so I buy in bulk when I do find them.  Hope you enjoy this recipe or any IPA you may be drinking right now.  Cheers!

5.25 Gallon Batch

Grain Bill

12.75 lbs   2 Row

0.75 lbs     Crystal 60L

0.5 lbs       Carapils

Hops

Galena 1 oz (11% AU) for 60 mins.

Citra    1 oz (10% AU) for 30 mins.

Cascade  1.5 oz (6.6% AU) for 10 mins

Galaxy 1 oz dry hop (secondary 14 days)

Citra 1 oz dry hop (secondary 14 days)

Yeast

White Labs WLP001 Cal Ale

Specs:  OG 1.0716  FG 1.0179

                ABV 7%  IBU 60   SRM 8.95

Water: 5.25 gallons mashing at 152 F

                2.6 sparging at 170 F

Fermentation:

                Primary 68 F for 7 days

                Secondary 65 F for 14 days

                Cold crash to 40 F for 7 days (bottle or keg)