http://www.bellplantation.com/
Posted on 11/11/2009 6:11:36 AM PST by Willie Green
PORTLAND, Ore. - Learning to brew your own beer in Portland, a.k.a. Beervana, would seem to be pointlessness personified. Yet 80 homebrewers and brewers-to-be spent a rainy Saturday morning doing just that in a stark warehouse warmed only by two boiling kettles.
"It's not pointless at all," said Michel Brown, a well-known Portland homebrewer who began making his own beer 38 years ago at the age of 17. He was teaching the advanced class in the back room at F.H. Steinbart, the 91-year-old brewers supply store. Steinbart regularly offers free classes such as the one Saturday.
"By brewing your own, you can make just the beer you want," Brown said. "When was the last time you saw an ordinary bitter on tap in a pub? When did you last see a 60-shilling Scottish ale or a peanut butter porter?"
He knows odd brews because he's made beers with ingredients such as ham and cheese; Bac-O-Bits; peanut butter and chocolate; and Nutella. His CXI Pumpernickel Ale is the 11th anniversary Widmer/ Oregon Brew Crew Collaborator beer, and yes, pumpernickel bread is an ingredient.
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
ThankYa knewshound!!!
Actually, I had in mind using PB2 (powdered pb w/o the chocolate) in a Pale Ale or similar.
and hoping the pb wouldn’t darken it too much, just leaving a mild pb flavor...
Can you make beer with just DME? It looks like Beer Tang. The stuff in my local supply store has no directions, and my “cookbook” has it listed only as an extra ingredient. Would you just reconstitute it, pretend it was malt syrup and proceed from there?
Hey man, nows your time to get a lock on the treebark/cow manure molassis.
I’m with you.
If you plop down at one of my poker games with a gay peanut butter flavored beer, you’re liable to get yourself run out of there.
Domestic only for me.
I had never heard of powdered PB but that sounds excellent since it is the oils that you need to remove since they inhibit yeast growth and tend to put off flavors with hops.
Remember, since you are removing the solids and the oils, you will need to use a good bit to get any PB flavor at all.
Let us know how it turns out!
Cheers,
knewshound
Although you CAN make it with just DME, it might be a bit one dimensional. None the less, it WILL be beer. Perhaps just not as complex as you might like.
You might want to check out my link to Brewing 1A. It will fill you in on the steps that the poorly run brew shop left behind.
http://knewshound.blogspot.com/2007/11/homebrewing-1a.html
Use the DME exactly as I use the LME in the article.
Give it a shot, all you have to lose is 25 bucks for a kit. I suspect however that you will produce a pretty tasty brew :)
Cheers,
knewshound
http://www.bellplantation.com/
I’ve made beer from kits using LME. I guess I wasn’t clear - how much DME to how much water? The bags come in all different sizes and several different kinds, even a giant pail which I’m sure I could turn into another fermenter. Do I boil the water first and then add the DME, or mix together and then boil?
What I’m thinking about is trying to do some different hops and yeast tests, and if I used just plain DME, that would eliminate one variable entirely. I’m thinking about a five-gallon batch divided into 5 one-gallon jugs. My local homebrewing club meets at a time and place that just doesn’t work for me, so I have to get all my information on line.
You will typically find that most recipes using DME call for somewhere near 6 lbs (more or less) per 5 gallon batch. Use DME in the same proportions as LME.
Add it to boiling water after you turn the heat off, stir VERY well, then put the fire to it.
Your idea of trying variations is a good one but you will have issues with the hops since the only real changes to their character happens during the boil. Adding them after will affect aroma only.
The yeast however is an entirely different matter. You will see dramatic differences in flocculation, clarity flavor and body depending on the strain you use.
I might suggest joining a dedicated brewing forum such as www.homebrewtalk.com or one of the hundreds of others for some excellent ideas and assistance.
Hope this helped.
Cheers,
knewshound
Beer Ping!
A low to medium ping list aimed at all of us who, well, love our beer…
FReepmail rzeznikj at stout or GOP_Raider to be added or struck from the list…
I was a Sam Adams Boston Ale fan (still am) but at almost $10 for a 6-pack, the American Ale is less expensive and mighty tasty. And I was ready to hate it when I first tried it.
The Coopers Bitters is in the bottle.
Pretty strong stuff, I had use some additional hops as it was brewing... I think a month or two should smooth it out very nicely.
Have 3 gallons of pasteurized, no preservative cider in the carboy now along with a London ESB yeast. Bubbling very good! Gonna let it go for another week or so, so it’s nice and dry!
Hard cider with turkey! Yum!!
An excellent beer thread - Thanks!
An excellent beer thread - Thanks!
I brewed a version of Lagunitas Brewerys Brown Shugga today. It called for more than a half pound of dark brown sugar. Naturally I added the full pound :)
The original gravity was 1.10 and it should finish about 1.025 for an AVB of over 10%.
YIKES
Cheers,
knewshound
If you are in Northern Calif by chance and would like to attend, please let me know.
***Northern Cal is a big place. Will it be near Silicon Valley?
and what flavour is yours again? stale urine?
Sacramento.
It is only semi-close :)
just ran the grain bill for my annual Holiday brew (tomorrow’s main event...)
1.10 OG?
YOWZA!
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