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.