Most all of it in a drink termed the Brandy Old-Fashioned you probably won't see anywhere else.
Posted on 01/26/2008 7:52:08 AM PST by DeaconBenjamin
Small brewers line up to pay premium prices for scarce ingredients
Double-whammy shortages of two main ingredients are threatening to send the price of beer significantly higher, just in time for the national drinking holiday known as Super Bowl Sunday.
* * *
In September, Martin paid $4 for a pound for hops. By late October, he said, it was $50 a pound. Likewise, barley prices have almost doubled in the same period.
Just a few weeks ago, George Peterson, owner of Central Coast Brewery in San Luis Obispo, Calif., spent $160 to brew a batch of beer equal to eight kegs. Last week, he was spending a staggering $920 per batch.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
I add the alcohol and let the Panty fall off on its own :)
Its all in the lubrication!
Cheers,
knewshound
All Brandy. Ever had a Brandy Manhattan? Me neither.
No. It clearly states “two seven gallon fermentors”.
Most all of it in a drink termed the Brandy Old-Fashioned you probably won't see anywhere else.
Probably more fallout from from the great ethanol boondoggle. I expect to see every available acre planted in corn this spring.
Is that a supperclub menu I spy on the table? I have never had such a fresh and tasty meal as in a Supper Club near Two Rivers, Wisconsin.
I see. So you define inflation as an increase in money supply. Then what does this chart of M2 tell you? Do we have inflation?
What is good about his method is the use of a bag of ice to cool the “wort” quickly before adding the yeast. This greatly speeds up the work and quickly gets the wort in an air locked system to protect against contanimation.
Priming puts sugar into the beer to kick up the yeast with more food to make that nice carbonation we love in a cold bottle of beer. To do this one needs to stir a mixture of corn sugar and water (that has been boiled for sterilization) into the beer just before bottling. In Alton Brown’s recipe, he uses 3/4 cups of corn sugar mixed to one pint of water. Because this is a hot water-sugar mixture, you need to get the beer stirring quickly and add in a steady stream to keep it from overheating the live yeast.
The sediment you saw at the bottom of the first fermenter is still valuable, so don’t throw it all down the sink. Save a cup of it in a jar and store in the refrigerator. It will be the yeast for your next batch of beer.
But I like my method better. Just leave the fermentor and water outside on a very cold day. You don’t need to mess around with ice. There are ways to get around the priming sugar and second bucket. You can use munton’s carb tabs. You can use camden tablets and a keg and CO2 bottle. Or you can go the barleywine route and let your brew sit in your basement for 6 months to a year. It will eventually carbonate without adding sugar if you are making higher alcohol recipes.
BTW, I don’t know why you think you need to explain to me the procedure for adding priming sugar. I’ve got 8 secondary fermentors going right now as we speak.
Here’s a better method for your priming sugar: Add the hot sugary water mixture to the bottling bucket FIRST. Then let it sit for a few minutes. THEN transfer your beer to the bottling bucket.
Good information. I’ll still prime my beer with corn sugar. I like the technique of putting it on the bottom of the priming vessel. That way you can fill it and mix it at the same time. You then minimize oxidation, which is bad at that stage.
Hops have very specific, and rather peculiar, climatic requirements. They need latitudes higher than 40 degrees, long growing seasons, and mild summers with low humidities. Ther isn’t much room for expansion among hop production, because most places on earth aren’t suitable. Hops are already grown pretty much everywhere that they can be grown.
The word is, according to brewing newspapers, that the big guys, (AB et al.) have developed a formula for using high-alpha (the most powerful/bitter) hops. These varieties were originally developed for extra-hopped craft brews (IPAs, American Pale Ales, etc.) and can actually have several times the hopping power of traditional hops. While AB & friends won’t change the taste of their (very) bland beers, this makes for very efficient hopping...in that they can use dramatically less hops for the same amount of beer.
Unfortunately this move alone has driven up the prices of high-alpha hops....the kind most craft-brewers—and home brewers too—depend on.
It seems like the “perfect storm” has conspired to make beer pricey.
Maybe I should start making mead.
Real OLD News Alert!
It’s more and more fields being dedicated to ethanol corn production. Al Gore stole your beer.
Just as the price of good red’s stay the same.
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