Brewsci.com

This week marked the 50th anniversary of the aluminum beer can, as reported by packagingdigest.com.

The can has come a long way

Cans are not just the home of Bud, Coors, and PBR.  In fact, cans are seeing a renaissance in craft brewing with breweries like Maui Brewing and 21st Amendment choosing to can over bottling their product.  I poured for both of these breweries at the GABF.  They touted cans for their superiority in weight, light blocking, and cooling down once placed on ice or in a fridge.

-Matt

This is the first installment of a series of blog posts that will help our readers get to know the ingredients found in beer.  According to the Classic German beer law 4 ingredients are found in beer: Grains, Hops, Yeast and Water.  The first ingredient we will share with you is Hops.  Hops are the natural preservative that is found in beer that also provides the bitter taste that, when properly balanced (sometimes not so balanced) with the the malted grains, produces an amazing craft beer.  In addition to giving the the beer its bitterness, hops do a lot more for the profile of a beer and hopefully this series of posts will showcase just that.  Each post will be structured with a short intro similar to this one outlining some sort of fun hops information and then a short description of a particular hop used in brewing.

Seasoned brewers may be able to understand all of the information in this hop description right from the start.  But for most of us this is not the case.  The goal of this series is turn each of us into a true scientifically informed hop head.

Kent Goldings

Pedigree The Goldings are the traditional Old English hop.
Cone-Structure Fairly loose and lax, medium to large in size.
Lupulin Quite small amounts, pale yellow in color.

Flavor profile:  spicy/ floral, earthy

Aroma Gentle, fragrant and pleasant

Alpha Acid 4 – 5.5% w/w
Beta Acid 2 – 3.5% w/w
Cohumulone 20 – 25% of alpha acids
Storageability 65 – 80% alpha acids remaining after 6 months storage at 20°C
Total Oil 0.6 – 1.0 mls/100 grams
Myrcene 20 – 26% of whole oil
Humulene 42 – 48% of whole oil
Carophyllene 12 – 16% of whole oil
Farnesene <1% of whole oil
Use: The classic English Ale hop which has been used extensively in kettle hopping and for dry hopping.
Possible Substitutions US Golding, Whitbread Golding, UK Progress
Typical Beer Styles All English style Ales, Belgian-Style Ales
Typical Hop Use Aroma

Information taken from brew-monkey.com

I think I might hate capitalism.   I know this is ‘unamerican’ and all.  But the constant desire to increase next quarters profits doesn’t seem to ever get us anywhere.  Strive to make a better product and money will follow.   Strive to to make more money and you end up with the current financial situation and screwing over the people that helped your company stock pile cash.  Apparently the same happens at breweries, too.  It sounds like Budweiser might take a few steps down (if that is possible) thanks to the InBev buyout.

I think that the goal should of any company should strive to make the best X or do X better than all others.  Not do X for 6 cents less than the other guy.  But what do I know?  I’m probably just drunk.

This past Sunday we brewed our first Saison, which shall henceforth be referred to as the White Flag French Saison in ‘honor’ of the great nation of France.  Here’s a quick recap of the days events:

9:30am get Joe out 0f bed

10:00am head to Beer, Beer, and More Beer in Concord to load up on supplies

11:00am stop at Bakesale Betty’s for vittals (if you ever have the chance to eat here do it)

12:45am start brewing and set goal of not spilling or breaking anything

12:49am spilled several gallons of water on the floor

1:15pm placed 7 lbs pilsner malt, 6lbs Belgian Pilsner Malth, 1lb Munich Malt into Mash tun.  Fill with 152 degree water for 1 hour

2:15pm transfer wort into brew pot.  Add more water (sparge) into mash tun to remove the remaining sugars

2:30-3:30pm Boil for 1 hour to reduce total amount of liquid and get a higher sugar content

4:30pm Added first hops addition

5:00pm Added aroma hops and irish moss to increase clarity.  Nearly had a boil over as we left the pot unattended to deal with moving a car from the driveway

5:12pm start chill with our homebuilt wort chiller

5:48pm into the carboy with a blend of two Saison yeast strains

Hey guys,

Joe and I are kegging our second batch of the zeke chocolate stout.  If you want a glass, drop a comment telling us just why you love it so much.