Home Brewing 101

On a recent Sunday, the Spy was invited to a beer brewing session with local home brewer Kevin Shertz. (Spy readers will recall he just received an award for his Belgian Tripel IPA in the Delaware State Fair’s “Battle of the Brews”.) Shertz was attempting to replicate his previous winning creation, a not insignificant challenge for any home brewer.

left to right, Kevin Shertz, Brian Thompson and Bill Dugan with #2 Batch of Belgian Tripel IPA

A large pot containing two and a half gallons of distilled water was just coming to a rolling boil as we entered the kitchen. Laid out on a  table were malted barley syrup, sugar, Yakima, Cascade and Czech Saaz hops. Liquid yeast was slowly thawing on the counter. A carefully sanitized five gallon fermenter bucket was sitting on the floor.

Shertz dumped the malted barley syrup and one ounce of Yakima hops into the pot. The recipe called for this mixture to boil for an hour; Shertz explained that the longer the hops boils, the more bitterness is extracted. Adding hops at the end gives the beer an aroma of bitterness. Timing and temperatures are crucial if the brewer is to achieve the desired style.

While the wort, was simmering, Shertz and fellow homebrewers Brian Thompson and Bill  Dugan  discussed various techniques, disasters, and the current home brewing craze – there’s an app for that !  (The beer “bible” is The Complete Joy of Home

Brewing by Charlie Papzian.) And did you know there is now hops candy?  For those of you contemplating  it, this is not an inexpensive hobby. Depending on the style, a five gallon batch of beer, the equivalent of about two cases, will cost between $25 and $75 for ingredients alone. An equipment starter kit will put you back about $100.

Shertz described being woken up in the middle of the night by a “bottle bomb,” a cap had blown off one of his home brews. The beer may have been bottled before it had totally finished fermenting. Or there was too much sugar in that particular bottle; a small amount of sugar is added when bottling to promote carbonation. Too heavy a hand and…. boom! Or there could be a flaw in the beer bottle. Brown glass is preferable as it transmits the least amount of ultraviolet light, which reacts with the hops. Shertz put a lid on the pot for one batch, thinking he could save some time, (and energy). Big mistake, he said, “….the resulting beer tasted like creamed corn, as the chemical dimethyl sulfide, or DMS, was not allowed to boil out and escape.” Apparently this taste is a common issue with home brews.

At thirty minutes, more malt was added to the wort, more hops at forty-five minutes, and again in five minute increments; the added hops responsible for the style’s distinct flavor and aroma. Shertz turned the pot off and stirred in  sugar to increase the alcohol content. Once the sugar melted, he poured the wort through a strainer into the fermenter bucket,which contained ice to bring the temperature down rapidly, topped it off with distilled water to reach the five gallon mark and agitated the liquid to melt the ice and aerate the concoction. The yeast is added once the mixture is below 75 degrees, a step called pitching.

Prior to adding the yeast, Shertz used an hydrometer to measure the specific gravity, which indicates the alcoholic content of the beer, (more sugar = higher gravity), and tells the brewer when to bottle. Fermentation decreases density; each style has a particular original and finishing gravity. The beer is measured periodically with the hydrometer until fermentation is complete, bottled and left to condition at room temperature. The whole process takes about two months.

We each had a taste of the mixture prior to the pitching. It was a lovely amber color, smelled somewhat like an ale, tasted sweet and malty initially with a bitter, hoppy finish. Interesting, but definitely not drinkable. Yet. Stay tuned.