We prefer to keg (versus bottling) for a multitude of reasons but we understand how intimidating or overwhelming it can be trying to decide which type of keg is best for using because there are a ton of choices when it comes to which type of home brewing keg you can buy.
Thankfully, James Carlson from CMBecker International is here to go over the basics of the most commonly used types of kegs for homebrewers who brew in 5 gallon batches or less.
If you listen to our podcast, you already know that we’re huge fans of kegging. It allows us to more easily store our beer, serve our beer, and, most importantly, enjoy our beer even faster than conventional bottling allows.
This is due to kegs allowing the user to do a process called “forced carbonation”. What this does is literally forces the gas (most often CO2 but sometimes Nitrogen) to infuse into the beer and create the ideal carbonation levels much quicker than if you were to use priming sugar and do “natural” carbonation in bottles or other containers.
https://youtu.be/-CeCV9vGdnA
In this video, Todd shows just how easy it is to force carbonate your beer in any homebrew keg. Let us know if you have any questions or if you have feedback on what topic we should cover next!
In today’s video, Ladik Joe Ermis from Homebrew Supply goes over the brand new temperature controller from Anvil Brewing Equipment. It’s a fantastic little piece of hardware that gets the job done and is extremely budget friendly!
and we welcome you to the Homebrew Happy Hour … the podcast where we answer YOUR home brewing questions and discuss all things related to craft beer!
*REAL QUICK* if you haven’t already heard we are hosting a label contest with our friends at StickerYou and the deadline is TOMORROW (August 30th). Get your designs in NOW (click here) for a chance at winning up to $200 in custom printed labels!
On Today’s Show:
Stop me if we’ve posted this before…but… TODD IS BACK! He’s not in top shape but I did get him all set up at his home so he can work comfortably from the “barn” as well as podcast from there. Very exciting stuff!
Todd and Joe join me to discuss some upcoming things we have been preparing for you all and we also take a couple of questions on fermentation temps and taking your beer with you on the go. I had a ton of fun with these guys and I hope you enjoy the show!
We want to hear from you!
If you have a question that you’d like us to discuss on a future episode, please click on the “Submit a Question” link at the top of our website or you can now call in your questions via our questions hotline @ 325-305-6107 and leave your message after the beep. This is a friendly reminder that, if we choose your question for a future episode, we give you a $25 gift card to that episode’s sponsor!
Let us know what you think and enjoy the show!
cheers,
joshua
Today’s show is brought to you by – StickerYou.com , Brand Your Brew with StickerYou: StickerYou’s online design editor allows you to upload and design your own custom, professional-grade craft brew labels in any shape, any size and any quantity. StickerYou: Make What Matters Stick.
Don’t forget to enter our label making contest thru StickerYou (click here). Upload your original artwork for bottle labels, growler labels, kegging labels, or even your a logo you’ve made for your beer! First prize receives $200 in custom printed labels, second prize gets $175 in custom printed labels, and third prize gets $125 in custom printed labels! Contest runs now thru the end of August. Good luck!
and we welcome you to the Homebrew Happy Hour … the podcast where we answer YOUR homebrewing questions and discuss all things related to craft beer!
On Today’s Show:
James Carlson from CMBecker International is back with me as Todd is still, unfortunately, out of commission. We did get an update on his condition and it turns out that he was TWO herniated discs in his upper spine and is scheduled for corrective surgery in early September. This means a couple of things: 1) He probably won’t be on the show until after his procedure and 2) He’ll probably have some killer pain meds that might make him even goofier than usual. Yes, I will make sure to point this out if/when he’s back on the show and under the influence. 🙂
With all that said, we’ve got a fantastic show lined up for you guys! We discuss aging times for Christmas beers (is it too early to be thinking about Christmas brews? We don’t think so!) as well as pH level discrepancies in your strike water versus your sparge water.
It’s questions like these that make me thankful to have James on board because I was really just along for the ride!
We want to hear from you!
If you have a question that you’d like us to discuss on a future episode, please click on the “Submit a Question” link at the top of our website or you can now call in your questions via our questions hotline @ 325-305-6107 and leave your message after the beep. This is a friendly reminder that, if we choose your question for a future episode, we give you a $25 gift card to that episode’s sponsor!
Let us know what you think and enjoy the show!
cheers,
joshua
Today’s show is brought to you by – StickerYou.com , Brand Your Brew with StickerYou: StickerYou’s online design editor allows you to upload and design your own custom, professional-grade craft brew labels in any shape, any size and any quantity. StickerYou: Make What Matters Stick.
Don’t forget to enter our label making contest thru StickerYou (click here). Upload your original artwork for bottle labels, growler labels, kegging labels, or even your a logo you’ve made for your beer! First prize receives $200 in custom printed labels, second prize gets $175 in custom printed labels, and third prize gets $125 in custom printed labels! Contest runs now thru the end of August. Good luck!
Yes, we know – this is the HOMEBREW Happy Hour and we (yourself included, I’m sure) all love to brew our own beer especially before even considering purchasing a commercial keg of beer.
However, the reality is that many of us still do enjoy drinking our favorite craft beer from our favorite brewery/s (I’m looking at you, Founder’s!) and it’s nice to have different styles and offerings of beer on our taps at home.
One issue we consistently run in to is that we don’t always know which type of coupler will be needed to tap any given commercial keg of beer. The rule of thumb is that if it’s a domestic US beer, it’s *probably* using a Sanke “D” coupler. That’s almost a guarantee… until it isn’t.
Imported beers also have some basic generalities about them: German beers usually use “A” couplers, English beers usually use “G” couplers, Irish beers usually use “U” couplers, and most other European standards are using the “S” couplers.
REMEMBER
Again… it’s super important to double check BEFORE you buy a keg of your favorite commercial beer because, depending on where you are sourcing it from, the supplier may not know what type of coupler is needed and they may not even have that type of coupler to lend or sell you.
Purchasing your own coupler for home use is surprisingly affordable and will often help keep your keg deposit price low since they won’t tack on the “coupler charge”, assuming your keg supplier/distributor even offers couplers.
In today’s video, our friend Ladik Joe Ermis from HomebrewSupply.com goes through the various kegs that are available on the market and the different grades/qualities they will come in.
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If you’re like us, you like to start consuming your homebrewed beer as soon as possible and a process that helps achieve that is kegging (and force carbonating in the keg).
While there isn’t a definitive standard that all retailers follow, this should give you a really good idea for what’s available and what you’ll receive, especially if you’re ordering from HomebrewSupply.com or Kegconnection.com
What’s your favorite type of keg? Let us know in the comments below and also let us know what topic or products you’d like us to discuss on a future video or episode of the show!
and we welcome you to the Homebrew Happy Hour … the podcast where we answer YOUR homebrewing questions and discuss all things related to craft beer!
On Today’s Show:
James Carlson from CMBecker International graciously joins me to discuss some questions about determining when a homebrewed batch is ready to consume, and we also take a question about James’ decoction method.
Todd was unable to join us because he, unfortunately, is dealing with an excruciating pinched nerve and is trying to get better from that. I promise that I had NOTHING to do with it despite me challenging Todd to professional wrestling cage matches for many years.
Either way, we hope you enjoy this week’s episode as much as we enjoyed producing it!
We want to hear from you!
If you have a question that you’d like us to discuss on a future episode, please click on the “Submit a Question” link at the top of our website or you can now call in your questions via our questions hotline @ 325-305-6107 and leave your message after the beep. This is a friendly reminder that, if we choose your question for a future episode, we give you a $25 gift card to that episode’s sponsor!
Let us know what you think and enjoy the show!
cheers,
joshua
Today’s show is brought to you by – StickerYou.com , Brand Your Brew with StickerYou: StickerYou’s online design editor allows you to upload and design your own custom, professional-grade craft brew labels in any shape, any size and any quantity. StickerYou: Make What Matters Stick.
Don’t forget to enter our label making contest thru StickerYou (click here). Upload your original artwork for bottle labels, growler labels, kegging labels, or even your a logo you’ve made for your beer! First prize receives $200 in custom printed labels, second prize gets $175 in custom printed labels, and third prize gets $125 in custom printed labels! Contest runs now thru the end of August. Good luck!
A post-Renaissance style, doppelbock was first brewed in Munich by the monks of St. Francis of Paula who came to Germany from Italy in 1627. Due to it being less well-attenuated then the modern interpretations of the style, the original versions were much sweeter. Paulaners, as they have come to be known, would practice long periods of fasting and prayer during religious celebrations such as Advent and Lent, where they would go many days without consuming any solid foods. To help sustain themselves during these periods of piety, the monks of St. Paula used their brewing knowledge to make a higher gravity beer that was richer in nutrients. This led to the monks often referring to this beer as “liquid bread”.
This style first became publicly available in 1780 after the monastery received legal permission, under the name of Salvator, which means “Holy Father” due to it’s sustaining qualities. The term doppel in doppelbock means double in German and was coined by consumers due to it being a bigger and stronger version compared to lower gravity bock counterparts. Sadly, the monastery was dissolved in 1799, but the brewery was saved by coming under control of Napoleon Bonaparte leader of the French Republic. It was then purchased in 1813 by a local brewer named Franz Zacherl. Franz suffered many hard years of legal battles over the brewing rights and was finally given unrestricted brewing rights of the beloved Salvator in 1837. Many commercial brewers that brew doppelbock will give homage to the original Salvator by putting –ator at the end of name, such as Celebrator by Ayinger.
When you look at the 2015 BJCP style guidelines for this style, they state that it should be a strong, rich, and malty lager that can be either pale or dark. Typically, when you see examples of this style, they will be the darker of the two variants. The darker version will have a more developed malt character while the lighter version will focus a little more on hops (still not exceeding the 26 IBUs for the style) and dryness. We will be focusing more on the darker version of the style. The nose and flavor of the beer should exhibit a strong malt character with a slight toasty-ness to it. Some caramel notes present are also acceptable to style. This is optional in the dark version, but I personally like having these caramel notes because it goes very nice when drank with a little bit of dark fruit, along with some chocolate. There also should be little to no hop aroma in this beer and should not be perceived as roasty, burnt or hoppy. Since these are very alcoholic beers the alcohol notes should be smooth and warming rather than burning.
OG: 1.072 – 1.112 IBUs: 16 – 26
FG: 1.016 – 1.026 SRM: 6 – 25
ABV: 7.0% – 10.0%
Recipe: “No Bocking Around”
All Grain
OG:1.084 FG:1.020 ABV:8.6%
Batch Size 5.2 gallons
Starting with the base of this beer, I used the Full Brown water profile to help show off the malty flavors of this style. Profile for the Full Brown should be:
When brewing on my Grainfather™ system I use a total of 8.49 gallons of water for this beer. Now I have an RO system but takes a while to make up enough for this so I been going to my local grocery store and buying distilled water.
For the mash I use 6.13 gallons of water and I will add:
Mash for 60 mins at 154 degrees then mash out for 10mins at 168 degrees. This beer requires a 90 minute boil.
Boil Additions:
1oz Hersbrucker (2.75%) 60mins
0.22oz Chinook (13%) 60mins
Irish Moss 10mins
1oz Hallertauer (4.80%) 10mins
Yeast Nutrients 10mins
I used two White Labs German Lager Yeast WLP830 packs. Fermented at 52° for 12 days until it was about 8 points from the target FG, then raised the temperature to room temp (72°) until reaching target FG. Then slowly drop the temp by 5° a day until hitting lagering temperatures. Lager for a minimum of 8 weeks before kegging or bottling.
and we welcome you to the Homebrew Happy Hour … the podcast where we answer YOUR homebrewing questions and discuss all things related to craft beer!
On Today’s Show:
I want to preface this by saying that it just happened to work out that I needed a guest host this week and the absence of Todd and James on this week’s show is not directly related to how bitter I still am at them both for not sharing any of the Schlussel altbier with me and keeping it all to themselves… I know, I know – that seemed pretty bitter and WAAAAY too coincidental, but it’s true. Todd was out of town, James was still at the beach, Joe was running Homebrew Supply and I needed to record this week’s content a week early because, as you’re reading this, I am sitting on the sands of South Padre Island enjoying from Fruh Kolsch or Altstadt Alt (which is an incredible altbier but isn’t Schlussel… but I’m not bitter about it… no, really…)!
Fortunately, for us all, our buddy and long time homebrewer, Jason Chalifour, graciously joined me to help take your questions. Jason, as you may remember, also happens to be a sales executive with Muntons and so I’ve typecasted him as “the malt guy” and, again, he was nice enough to oblige. We catch up with what he’s been brewing, his set up, and we discuss a question on recipe building and choosing a base malt.
I had a ton of fun with Jason and really do hope to have him on again in the near future, especially since I hold grudges for so long and who knows when I’ll forgive Todd and James?! 😉
We want to hear from you!
If you have a question that you’d like us to discuss on a future episode, please click on the “Submit a Question” link at the top of our website or you can now call in your questions via our questions hotline @ 325-305-6107 and leave your message after the beep. This is a friendly reminder that, if we choose your question for a future episode, we give you a $25 gift card to that episode’s sponsor!
Let us know what you think and enjoy the show!
cheers,
joshua
———————-
Today’s show is brought to you by – StickerYou.com , Brand Your Brew with StickerYou: StickerYou’s online design editor allows you to upload and design your own custom, professional-grade craft brew labels in any shape, any size and any quantity. StickerYou: Make What Matters Stick.
Don’t forget to enter our label making contest thru StickerYou (click here). Upload your original artwork for bottle labels, growler labels, kegging labels, or even your a logo you’ve made for your beer! First prize receives $200 in custom printed labels, second prize gets $175 in custom printed labels, and third prize gets $125 in custom printed labels! Contest runs now thru the end of August. Good luck!
