Hello fellow Homebrewers!

The Milwaukee Ale House and the Beer Barons of Milwaukee are very pleased to announce that the second annual Midwinter Homebrew Competition will be taking place on February 18^th and 19^th, 2011. This competition is held in conjunction with the 14^th annual Midwinter Brew Fest which will be taking place at the Milwaukee Ale House on February 20^th. Proceeds from the brew fest and the competition will go towards the MACC Fund.

Registration opens on January 1^st and will be coordinated through the competition web site athttp://midwinterhbc.beerbarons.org. Entries will be accepted January 15^ththrough February 6^th at Northern Brewer in West Allis, WI.

We are also very pleased to announce that starting this year the competition will be a part of the Midwest Home Brewer of the Year circuit.

In addition to the category and Best of Show awards, one of the winning Bock entries (BJCP categories 5A, 5B, 5C, or 15C) will be chosen by the Milwaukee Ale House to be brewed commercially byMilwaukee Brewing Co. The chosen entry will then be tapped during a special event honoring the entrant at theMilwaukee Ale House.

The Best of Show Brewer will also be featured at the 2011 World of Beer Festival along with one of their creations.

Additional details can be found on the competition web site and our Facebook page. Information regarding judging and stewarding opportunities are to come. Please pass this information on to your fellow homebrewing friends and direct any inquiries to the Contact page on the registration page athttp://midwinterhbc.beerbarons.org/index.php?section=contact

Thanks and best of luck to all that enter!

MWHBC Organizing Committee

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

It's almost Halloween and I'm getting ready with my favorite Halloween recipe....
11 lbs 2 row
0.5 lbs c40
0.5 lbs c60
3 tsp pumpkin spice when chilling(add when below 100)
2 oz hallertaur 4.5% aa @ 60 min
And 8 lbs of pumpkin cubes and baked for 1 hr at 350, then placed in th
Mash.
Mash at 152 for 90 min.

After 2 weeks in primary rack to secondary and add one vanilla bean for 5 days, then keg and wait 1 week before consuming

Getting the most out of your beer

Getting the most out of your beer,

Sometimes your friends liking your beer is good enough, but sometimes you want more, sometimes you want to make something worldly and breathtaking. For those days here are some steps you can take to get the most out of your beer.

1.) Liquid yeast (healthier, and more style specific flavor)

2.) Make a starter for any beer above 1.050 gravity.
Starters are easy to do and will significantly increase the number of healthy viable happy yeast you have, which will decrease off flavors,
finish fermenting faster, and get you an overall better tasting beer.

3.) Be crazy about sanitation practices, if your positive you have over sanitized then you have done things right. (no infections)

4.) Be careful about oxydation....watch your splashing when transferring and close transfer if possible, or transfer with c02

5.) Always do a secondary. Transferring your beer to a secondary will clear out your beer, making it look more presentable along with removing excess yeast and reducing your chances of autolyses to near 0.

6.) Don't transfer too soon. Always give your beer at least 2 weeks in primary, just because your airlock has stopped bubbling does not mean that the yeast are finished, give the yeast some time to scrub clean your beer and eat some of the off flavors that they produce. ( I.E. diacytel, acetyladehyde)

7.) Make sure to aerate your pre-fermented wort very well. Get yourself a oxygen tank and a diffusion stone give your yeast the oxygen it deserves, it will help the yeast in there reproduction cycle, and aid in giving you overall healthier more active yeast.

8.) Mind your temps! Maintain the ideal temperature for each yeast and style of beer you are trying to create. healthier happier yeast = better beer

9.) Write down everything. Taking really good notes on everything you do will help you narrow down problems, repeat successes and give you a better understanding of what does what. Pen and paper are the brewers best friend.

10.) Proper aging and carbonation. Make sure you have given your finished beer enough time for all the flavors to meld together as well and make sure you have enough carbonation or not too much for the style of beer you are creating. ( I.E. High for Belgians, lower for Milds, and the only beer you should be drinking before in a month is a berlinerwiess...maybe)

Common off flavors and ways to correct them

Your brewing beer and sometimes its great and other times its not quite up to snuff, well today I am going to tell you about some common off flavors and how to avoid them.

Let start out with some of the most common off flavors.....

Astringency: this is a drying tannic taste that is like sucking on a tea leaf, almost a feeling of the water being lifted right off your tongue, it can also have a slight sour or puckering characteristic. This is normally caused by squeezing your grain sack as a extract brewer, or over sparging as a all grain brewer. It can also be caused if you grind your grain to small and end of with it in the kettle (boiling grain can cause astringency along with harsh dry bitterness and aftertaste)

Acetaldehyde: This is a taste of fresh cut green apples, apple juice can also be a cause of a wicked hangover. It is can be caused by an infection or bacteria but is most often a product of poor wort oxidation or removing the yeast from the primary too soon. Do yourself a favor and always leave your yeast in primary for at least 2 weeks, just because its not bubbling doesn't mean there not working. And for god sacks always aerate your wort, the oxygen before primary starts helps the yeast to replicate and build into larger numbers so they can eat all that sugar you made and turn it into Delicious clean alcohol.

Alcoholic: By this I don't mean that your beer has alcohol in it, I mean that it smells like alcohol (vodka, boozy) and it has a very warming sensation going down, this doesn't mean you just made a beer with more alcohol in it this means you produced high fusil ethyl alcohol, its not real pleasant. It is usually caused by too high of fermentation temperatures, but can also be caused by not pitching enough yeast and they got stressed out, also once again by not aerating your wort enough (seeing a pattern). Making a starter will greatly improve the over all flavor of your beer as well as adequately aerating your wort. MAKE YOUR YEAST HAPPY AND THEY WILL MAKE YOU HAPPY!

Overly Bitter : Harsh dry taste on the back of your tongue, lets be honest if your a beer drinker you know what bitterness is, and sometimes its overly bitter. Most commonly this is a recipe flaw, too much hops, dark malts, roasted malts etc... but sometimes it can also be a cause of high levels of magnesium sulfide or salt mineral content in your water source. One other is if your kegging or bottling not properly rinsing out all of the cleaning agent (one step, PBW) will cause a intense bitter aftertaste, so always make sure to rinse very well.

Diacetyl: Most people know this as a lager killer, it is a butter, toffee, butterscotch flavor, most people will think movie theater popcorn butter because movie theater butter uses diacetyl as the main flavor. It can also cause a slickness to the palate. If you have a butter beer this is most of the time caused by sleepy yeast, meaning that you temperature was too cold, or that you removed the beer from the yeast too soon (once again leave it alone for a couple weeks) It can also be an early sign of oxidation or over aeration (but very rarely and normally only with pure o2) So make sure your temp is not too cool and your leaving it on the yeast for the appropriate time.

Dimethylsulfide - Or as others will call it DMS, this is a sweet cooked corn flavor in your beer, can also smell like corn on the cob or vegital.
The most common cause for new brewers is leaving the lid on during the boil, DMS is produced in every beer but it gets boiled off, so if you leave the lid on your putting it right back into the beer. Another cause is not cooling fast enough, big part of making beer well is getting the temperature down from boiling to below 80 as quickly as possible for two reasons 1.) less chance of infection. 2.) DMS starts production after boiling has ended and you need to get it below production temperatures as quickly as possible before it regroups back in the beer. Wort chillers are awesome for this. It can also be caused again by low fermentation temperatures, so again take care of your yeast!

Sherry Like: This is caused oxidized members of the melanoiden family, basically you weren't careful enough when transferring, it can also have a papery or cardboard flavor to it, if your not sure what that taste like consult your local postage store and ask for a sample.

Sour/acid/horse hair: YOUR BEER IS INFECTED! Be more careful sanitizing (sanitizing is completely different from cleaning) That can be cause by skin flakes aka dust in your beer, not cooling quick enough, not enough yeast to combate the infectors, poorly washed hands. The criminals are acetobactin, brettomyces, lacto baccilus, and peddiococus. Take very good care of sanitation!

Poor Head retention: Most common is going to be low level of cabonation. If its that make sure the sugar is mixed in better before bottling and make sure your bottles are kept at room temperature for at least 2 weeks. Other reasons are most likely not enough protein in your beer. Protein is what causes head in your beer, it can be reduced by protein rests in all grain (not necessary anymore due to the highly modified malts everyone is using now, and yes that includes organic) Also by higher levels of alcohol and gravity. If you make a 14% behemoth don't expect it to have a 6" solid rock of foam!

Those are the most common off flavors that all brewers eventually run into and how to help steer clear of them, keep brewing and until next time, enjoy a pint for me!

Irish Oatmeal

As the Irish man I love a good stout and porter, so I am going to share with you one of my favorite recipes and and what I like about it.........

Malt:

7.5lbs of basic 2 row malt
1.5 lbs of Flaked oats
0.5 lbs of golden naked oats
1lbs of roasted barley
0.25 black malt
0.5 lbs of caramel 80
0.5 lbs of caramel 40

Now I like it to be dry so I mash at 151 for 75min for full conversion
There are couple really good reasons for the oats, 1.) it adds a nice creaminess to the beer. 2.) the other is that it adds a nice big body and mouth feel.
Also I only add a 1/4 of a pound of black because I don't want the acrid flavor of black malt I just want the jet black color, with a little note of coffee and a nice foamy tan head.

Hops:

2 oz fuggles @60 min

1 oz of fuggles @ 10 min

Yeast:

Wyeast 1028 London ale

This recipe is a cross between a oatmeal stout and dry Irish stout, it has a great creamy mouthfeel and full body with a hint of fresh brewed coffee and a smooth dry finish that makes you want to pour another. Its relativly low in alcohol and makes a great all day drinker. I like this one served around 44-46 degrees. I drink this all year round.

So you want to be a Brewer

So you want to be a brewer huh? Great! First and most important question is do you like beer? I don't mean Bud or Coors cause it will most likely be a long time before you can brew them and even longer before you can brew it well. 2nd question is are you wanting to brew to save money off the beer you buy like bud and Coors? You won't, you can save money brewing your own over buying some of the more expensive craft beers though. 3rd and final Are you looking for a fun and rewarding hobby that's been done for almost 10,000 years?

Lets start with the basics of what you will need to start brewing.
1.) a fermentor (glass, better bottle, or bucket with lid)
2.) A bottling bucket (bucket with a spigot)
3.) racking cane (auto siphon is best) and tubing
4.) a kettle (at least a 20qt for 1/2 boils)
5.) Capper
6.) Triple scale hydrometer and test tube
7.) a large stainless steel spoon or high heat plastic
8.) copy of John Palmers How to brew (no really get one!)
9.) Air lock & bung (get a couple they're cheap)
10.) Sanitizer (star san is my favorite)
11.) Cleaning agent (PBW)
12.) 10" funnel (i love the one with the back splash)
13.) carboy brush and bottle brush
14.) Bottles and caps (takes 48-52 for a 5 gallon batch)
15.) Thermometer (i like the ones that clamp on the side of the kettle)
16.) bottling wand
17) Ingredients!

Here are some extras that will make you life easier....
1.) Beer thief
2.) Auto siphon (no more sucking and more sanitary)
3.) Refractometer (instant brix/SG reading no test jar)
4.) A secondary fermentor for a cleaner clearer beer(5 gallon glass or better bottle)
5.) 2000mL flask and foam stopper for starters (much better beer)
6.) a wort chiller (i like immersions)

Now that you have the basic equipment lets begin on what to do.

Step one

Organize! Find a spot for all of your equipment and lay everything out to be prepared, good preparation will make everything way easier later on!
Grab your kettle, spoon, and all your ingredients and lay them out.

Step two

Take your bottling bucket and attach the spigot. Make sure it is in the off position. Now fill about 1.5 gallons cool water into bucket, pour 1 oz of star san into the water and top off to 5 gallons.
Place your spoon, airlock, bungs, funnel, and anything else you are planning on putting in your beer in the bucket of sanitizer.

Step three

Rinse out and make sure your kettle is clean (no soap or anything like that and NEVER use bleach, i don't care what your friends think!)
Fill the kettle with 2.5 gallons of cold water. (cold water from the faucet is normally cleaner and cold water heats up faster then warm)
place your kettle on the stove and turn the fire on high.

Step four

Keep an eye on your temperature, once it gets to be about 150-152 degrees turn off the flame, take your specialty grains that came with the kit(if the kit calls for them) and make sure they have been crushed. If they have not been crushed take them out of the bag and put them in a one gallon zip bag and lightly crack them with a rolling pin. Now take those grains and place them in the included muslin sock, tie off the end and place the grains in the hot water.
let these grains sit for about 30 mins stirring occasionally, just like a tea bag. After the 30 minutes is up remove the bag and throw away, do not squeeze the bag or you can cause off flavors.

Step five

Turn the fire back on and bring the water to a boil. There will most likely be instructions with the ingredients that will give intervals to add you hop additions, they will be in the form of 60 min ,30 min ,20 min etc... think of this as a count down to beer, 60 min addition means you add them right at the start of boil because you have 60 minutes left to boil. Just like a 10 min addition means that you have been boiling for 50 min and have 10 mins left. Once the water starts to boil add 1/2 of your malt extract (stir thoroughly so that nothing sticks to the bottom), and add your first hop addition (watch the temperature and your boil, hops can cause the water to jump). Continue adding your hops as to your schedule. when you have 15 min left in your boil add the remainder of malt extract as well as any nutrients you might want to add or wort clarifiers. (wyeast beer nutrients are great as well as a little Irish moss never hurt anyone)

Step six

Now that you have only 10 min or so before the wort is done boiling its time to get your carboy or bucket out and start sanitizing it. take the funnel and place it in your carboy, now carefully pour some of the sanitizer from the bucket (about a gallon) into the carboy. pick it up and swish it all around so that everything comes in contact with it and pour the sanitizer out. (don't rinse!) keep everything else in the bucket and make sure you sanitize the spoon again before stirring.

Once you hit your zero mark turn off the fire and let the boil come to a cease. Take you spoon out of the sanitizer. At this point anything that comes in contact with the beer needs to be sanitized! Take a bag of Ice and empty it into the sick and fill with cold water, place the hot kettle into the sink and start stirring vigorously. the trick to making better beer is to cool down the beer as fast as possible to minimize a substance called DMS which is dimythelsulfide which causes a gross cooked corn flavor in your beer. Keep the thermometer in the kettle and watch it.

Step 7

As soon as you get to 90 degrees, place the funnel back into the carboy and dump the wort into the carboy, careful not to spill that is precious beer. Leave about 10 oz left in the bottom to use for a gravity reading. Takes notes on everything for repeatability and to know if you made a mistake later. Now top off the carboy to the 5 gallon mark with cool water. shake the carboy back and fourth to get as much oxygen and foaming as you can, the yeast need this oxygen in the beginning to help them replicate. now take your yeast and pour it into the carboy full of beer. take the sanitized stopper and airlock out of the sanitizing bucket and fit them on the carboy. take the beer down where it is going to be fermented and let sit for at least 2 weeks.

Step 8

After the two weeks you have 2 options, take your auto siphon and siphon off the yeast into a cleaned, sanitized 5 gallon carboy and let sit for another two weeks to clear, or let it stay in the primary for another two weeks.

Step 9

after 4 weeks (depending on kit) of frermenting and aging, now its time to start the bottle process. First of all you need to clean and sanitize your bottling bucket, auto siphon, spoon, bottles and caps. Now take the auto siphon and place it into your primary fermenter and begin siphoning into your clean and sanitary bucket. Take 5 oz of corn sugar with 8 oz of water and boil for 5 mins, and pour it into the bucket of beer. Once that is done stir SLOWLY trying not to splash at all (oxygen not your friend at this point) for about 2 minutes. Once this is done attach your bottling wand and tubing to your bottling spigot. Lift the bottling bucket onto a counter and set all of your bottles up on the floor. Open up the spigot, and place the wand into the first bottle, as soon as the beer reaches the top place the wand into the next bottle and so on and so on. Once all the bottle are full start capping with your sanitized caps. Place your bottles at you room temperature for two weeks.

Step 10

Place a beer in the fridge and wait 24 hrs. Now open and enjoy your first beer!

Cheers!