Acceptable Off-Flavors in Beer and Homebrew

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Did you detect an off-flavor in a recent homebrew? Don’t worry just yet!

There are a number of off-flavors in beer that are acceptable at certain levels in certain styles, and in some instances may even be desirable according to the Beer Judge Certification Program. Let’s take a look at three common off-flavors that may be allowable, but keep in mind there are other instances where off-flavors are an acceptable trait.

Notes: All the styles mentioned below are based on the 2015 BJCP Style Guidelines.

Acetaldehyde

Have you ever noted cider or green apple aroma in your beer? Chances are the compound acetaldehyde is present, which is formed during fermentation as a precursor to alcohol. While it typically increases during fermentation and then decreases during conditioning and aging, sometimes it sticks around for good. Often it is a sign that beer is still young, or the fermenting beer was removed from the yeast too early not allowing a full and adequate fermentation.

However, in some instances acetaldehyde is an acceptable component of a beer’s aroma. American light lager, American lager, international pale lager and kellerbier can all exhibit low levels of apple-like quality in the aroma and still be considered to-style. In this instance, the apple aromas are categorized as yeast character and can be quite desirable in a clean-fermented American lager, though an example of any of these styles without apple aromas is acceptable as well. Lagering often times remedies beers with lots of acetaldehyde character, but sometimes a bit is left and that’s okay.

Diacetyl

The hallmark of a dreaded “diacetyl bomb,” as beers stricken with a bad case of the off-flavor are referred to by beer judges, is an aroma and flavor reminiscent of buttery, movie theater popcorn. Diacetyl is most commonly caused by stressed yeast that leak the compound during amino acid synthesis and ultimately cause the butter character to prevail. In other instances, diacetyl can also be a sign of bacterial infection or simply dirty keg lines.

Diacetlyl can also come across as butterscotch-y, though rarely are overt examples of the compound’s flavors and aromas desired. That being said, there are many styles that allow small amounts of diacetyl, including Czech lagers, bitters, some stouts and porters and Scottish/Irish ales. In the case of Flanders red ale and Oud Bruin, small amounts of the buttery aroma are actually acceptable, and to some desirable, to compliment the complex, sour-fruity nose.

Dimethyl Sulfide (DMS)

Dimethyl Sulfide, more commonly referred to as DMS, is an aromatic and off-flavor that comes across as a vegetal quality. In lower levels, DMS creates a sweet, cooked corn character. At higher levels, it starts to tread into something reminsicent of celery and cabbage, and can even start to take on shellfish-like qualities.

DMS is created when S-methyl-methionine (SMM) is reduced during the boil. SMM is most common in pale malts, since it is reduced during the malting process. The DMS is evaporated off during the boil, which is why it is crucial to not cover the boil kettle, and in some cases to extend the boil beyond an hour. In other instances, DMS can be a sign of poor sanitation, contaminated and/or underpitched yeast and oversparging with water that is too cool.

Since SMM, the DMS precursor, is more prevalent in paler malts, beers brewed with large quantities of pilsner malt are particularly susceptible to DMS character forming in your homebrew. Lagers include large percentages of pilsner malt and DMS is allowable in small quantities, though not necessarily required, in many cold-fermented styles. American and international lager styles, as well as some helles and pilsners, may exhibit low levels of DMS in the aroma and in some isntances the flavor, which some prefer, but generally these styles are suggested to be as clean fermented and free of DMS as possible.

http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/how-to-brew/acceptable-off-flavors-in-beer-and-homebrew/
Sources: Tasting Beer by Randy Mosher; 2015 BJCP Style Guidelines; 2008 BJCP Style Guidelines; BJCP.org.

What to Age in Your Beer Cellar

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Cellaring is the process of allowing a beer to mature under specific conditions to achieve nuances, particularly in its flavor and aroma, that often can only be achieved with aging. What you’re left with after aging beer successfully is what is called “vintage beer.”

Choosing a Beer Cellar Location

Before jumping into some tips on what makes a beer optimal to age (because not all of them are!), it is important to understand the beer cellar environment that is ideal for aging beer for an extended time.

1. Temperature

Arguably the most important aspect of a beer cellar is the temperature. 55°F (12.8°C) has become a widely accepted temperature for aging most ales. Lagers aren’t usual suspects for cellaring, but a good rule to follow is to aim to keep beer cellar temperatures about 10°F below the temperature at which the beer is fermented.

Generally, ales are fermented around 65°F (18.3°C) and lagers at 50°F (10°C). Being able to maintain a temperature in this range with little fluctuation will allow the beer to mature at an appropriate rate. If it’s too cold, the maturation period slows significantly, and if too warm it can speed things up and cause off-flavors.

2. Darkness

The second thing to keep in mind is light. Keep your cellar dark! UV light interacts with hops in beer to create the dreaded light-struck flavor, otherwise known as “skunked” beer. Keep your beers shielded from light in any way possible, especially if they are packaged in clear or green bottles. A cheap way to prevent light-struck beer is to stick them in a sealed box or paper bag.

Those are the basics, but the trickiest part for cellaring is deciding which beers are suitable for aging because, after all, some just aren’t up for the task.

Tips for Picking a Beers to Cellar

1. The more alcohol, the better

When aging beer, it is crucial that there is a preservative present, which will essentially slow the aging process. A good rule of thumb is to aim for a beer that has at least 8% alcohol by volume (ABV). You may think speeding up the aging process is desirable, but in the case of cellaring beer the best technique is a slow-and-steady approach. A preservative like alcohol makes beer more resilient to potential staling flavors, which are typically caused by oxidation. And keep in mind that the booziness that is often present in fresh beers with high ABVs will typically mellow over time, allowing other flavors to come to the forefront.

All of that being said, there are some exceptions to the “more alcohol, the better” rule. The lactic acid in sour beers and the smokey phenols in smoked beers also act as preservatives, lessening the importance of the level of alcohol.

2. Body by beer cellar

During the aging process, the malt proteins present in beer will drop out. This reaction causes the body of beer to reduce over time, and the result is often a very thin and some cases overly-dry beer after it’s been aged. Wheat-derived proteins tend to fall out exceptionally quick, making wheat-based styles very tricky to age successfully. Because of this, it is important to cellar beers that are very full-bodied when they are fresh. This allows the malt proteins to drop out while still retaining some of the body and overall balance.

If a beer seems to thicken, becoming almost syrupy over time instead of thinning, it most likely means the alcohol character has decreased (as mentioned in #1) to the point where it creates the impression that the body thickened.



3. Mind your esters and phenols

The yeast-derived character of both esters and phenols will evolve and change over time, which may or may not be desirable depending on the base style of the beer.

The fruity esters—reminiscent of pears and other tree fruits—commonly found in Belgian and some British style ales will develop into more dark fruit-like character (think raisin and figs). Banana esters, like those common in German hefeweizens, tend to disappear altogether in a fairly short span of time. Esters from Brett will take much longer period of times to change, but have the potential to achieve interesting flavors like pineapple and grapefruit.

Phenols—the spicy yeast flavors that come across as clove or pepper—will evolve into much different flavors, including vanilla, tobacco and leather. In instances where earthy phenolics are present in the fresh beer, there is the potential to achieve complex flavors that are all but impossible to achieve unless done with aging.

4. More hops isn’t always best

Remember when we said beer needs some sort of preservative to be a good candidate for cellaring? Well, despite hops reputation as being originally used for its antibacterial utility, hop bitterness and flavor/aroma are not well suited for aging. Simply put, the presence of hops fades over time, and this can drastically affect the balance of a beer. After all, if a hoppy beer style like IPA was brewed to a desirable balance of malt and hops, then reducing the presence of hops can throw this harmony out of wack.

In some instances hop character not only diminishes but can result in unfavorable flavors left behind. For example, American hop varieties with high levels of alpha acids can leave behind stale, paper-like flavors. On the other hand, English hop varieties with high beta acids, which are said to have a better chance of retaining bitterness, can impart fruity notes similar to pineapple and cherry as they age.



5. Sours

Sours can be a tricky beast when aging, and the results may not be what you expect. First off, the tart, lip-puckering character that puts the “sour” in “sour beer” will lessen with time, diminishing that typically-dominant characteristic. This softening of the sourness can be either a good or bad thing depending on the balance of the cellared beer at the time it’s consumed.

It’s important to note that while the sour character mellows and in some instances evolves (as with Brettanomyces) at a very, very slow rate, it is not uncommon for some sour beers to become even more sour in the first few years it’s being aged. It’s also not unusual for sour beers that have been aged for extended periods of time to appear more sour due to other characters, particularly the malt, diminishing.

Brett (short for Brettanomyces), though slow to evolve in the cellar, can undergo very drastic evolution when aged. Brett is a slow-acting yeast but a hungry one, and it will basically eat through all available fermentable sugars slowly but surely. This means extensive aging can often leave Brett beers bone dry, which can throw off the balance. During this process, the esters can evolve as mentioned in #3, but there is also the potential for aggressive phenolics to develop, which can be undesirable.

6. Keep the yeast in the bottle

Beers that are bottle conditioned, unfiltered and/or unpasteurized are generally better-suited for aging. By having yeast in the bottle, the beer is essentially a living entity that can consume residual oxygen and continue to condition slowly. This opens up a wider possibility of aging produced cellar character that a beer without yeast otherwise might not be able to achieve.

Filtered and/or pasteurized beers can still exhibit character evolution from aging but to a much lesser extent.

http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/how-to-brew/what-to-age-in-your-beer-cellar/
Sources: This post is based on the 2015 National Homebrewers Conference seminar “Crafting Cellarworthy Homebrew” presented by Patrick Dawson, author of Vintage Beer: A Taster’s Guide to Brews That Improve over Time. Download the audio/visual presentation of “Crafting Cellarworthy Homebrew.”

How to Photograph #Beer

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There’s no way to put this gently: Your beer pictures suck. Yeah, you, with the beer blog, and the Facebook albums loaded with dimly lit, weird-angle bottle shots that all have that same, bright-white flash reflection. For your sake, we coerced our eagle-eyed art director, Kevin Robie, to spill the beans on how to take beer photos like the pros.

Step 1: Choose a backdrop. “When you shoot one bottle, it’s easiest to shoot it on a plain, white background,” says Robie. “But when you’re shooting multiple bottles, do it in an environment; otherwise, it’s hard to control so many reflections.” In an environment—say, on a table, against a wall—the lighting likely won’t be as severe, and reflections may add some aesthetics to the shot. Robie adds, “If you’re in a bar, shoot it with a short depth of field, meaning only the bottle should be in focus; the background should go blurry.”

Step 2: Adjust your camera’s settings. Select an ISO—the number indicating the camera’s sensitivity to light—between 50 and 100. Those are low settings, meaning you’ll need bright light (see step 3), but never use your camera’s flash—just turn it off. If possible, set the F-stop (which determines the size of the lens opening, and thus the brightness of the shot) to low, which will let in a lot of light; if your camera’s less advanced, switch to an indoor setting. Bottle shots also require a slow shutter speed, so you’ll need to use a tripod, or the images will likely blur.

Step 3: Remember, you’re shooting glass, and whatever you aim at the bottle—bright bulbs, or even the camera—will reflect on its face. For the same reason, Robie advises against using photo tents; usually, the opening of the tent will be visible on the bottle. “First, you need to diffuse a bright light into a square shape,” says Robie. “Go to a craft store and get a frame you’d use for stretching a canvas, stretch a piece of vellum over that; it will diffuse the light.” Then, with the beer label facing you, stand over the beer: At the four o’clock position, place the vellum with a bright light behind it (that’ll be just over your right shoulder when you’re shooting). Place a white card upright at seven o’clock, which will bounce light from your right side back onto the label. At 10 o’clock, place a black card, which will yield a single refection on the right and a bit of darkness to the left—much better than the 20 reflections you’re working with now. And be sure those ceiling lights are off, too.

Step 4: Skip the crazy angles and position the camera directly in front of the bottle. “For a straight-on shot of a 12-ounce bottle, I usually line up the camera to the top of the label on the front.”

Source:

http://draftmag.com/how-to-photograph-beer/

Style decoder: Hoppy Sours

#sourbeer #brewboss Brew Boss Electric Homebrew Equipment www.brew-boss.com




Hopped sours are the new frontier, melding two of the hottest styles of beer right now (IPAs and sour beers). But not all are alike; look for these clues to decipher what’s in the bottle:

Dry-hopped sours: Traditional sour styles like lambics and Berliner weisses get new life with a healthy dose of hops added late in the boil; they’ll impart big aromas ranging from tropical fruit to pine to citrus. Those same hop notes can surface on the tongue, but hop bitterness

Sour IPAs/pale ales: Brewers spike their hop-forward beers with souring yeast or bacteria … results may vary. The sip can lean hoppy, sour or some balance of the two, but usually features pronounced bitterness (at 100 IBUs, Trinity’s Red Swingline IPA Primitif is a good example).

Brett IPAs: IPAs fermented with Brettanomyces are outliers; they will not be as sour as beers dosed with lactobacillus or pediococcus bacteria. Instead, they display a variety of funky flavors like must, earth or barnyard.

FLAVOR FUSIONS

Citrusy, floral and fruity hops are best bets for hopping sours, says Chad Yakobson, owner/brewer at Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project: “The dank, herbal, piney hops come off a little strong and can mingle in a weird way with the flavors from the Brettanomyces and souring bacteria.” He brews Progenitor, a dry-hopped golden sour, and the Hop Savant series of Brettanomyces IPAs and pale ales.

RAISE A GLASS

Because of its flared mouth, a tulip glass is your best vessel for experiencing all of dry-hopped sours’ gorgeous aromatics.

FOUR TO TRY

Almanac Simcoe Sour: This sour blonde ale, aged in wine barrels then dry-hopped, beautifully embodies the hoppy sours trend; hop character offers a nice counterpoint to the acidity. The aroma bursts with bold pine, garlic and onion woven with a hint of musty blanket and a cedarlike note. Lemon and traces of fresh pine bounce along assertive tartness before a bone-dry finish.

Grimm Rainbow Dome: Sharp hay, rose hips and citrus drive the nose of this American wild ale brewed with apricots and then dry-hopped with El Dorado, Columbus and Cascade hops. Flavors of passion fruit and apricot skin peek through briefly before a sour bite and clean bitterness sweep it all away. A bright, grassy flavor emerges as the palate adjusts to the tartness.

Breakside La Tormenta: This dry-hopped wild ale’s bouquet overflows with juicy pineapple and mango, along with fresh-mown grass; heavy funk hums beneath. A steady acidity transitions to mint and grass with guava and grapefruit at the sip’s tail. Sour and hop notes pile atop each other, creating a super cohesive swallow.

New Belgium Le Terroir: The grandfather of American dry-hopped sours, Le Terroir matures for three years in oak foeders. Vibrant clementine, light lemon juice and wildflower scents mingle with earthy woodiness. The sourness builds quickly throughout the sip, cresting along with the hops’ dankness, mint and light passion fruit before oakiness initiates a dry conclusion.

Source:

http://draftmag.com/hoppy-sours-beers/

Video: Brew Boss Tips and Tricks Brew Boss Software Manual vs Automatic Brew Mode

Brew Boss Tips and Tricks Brew Boss Software Manual vs Automatic Brew Mode

Explanation of how the Automatic and Manual BrewModes operate in the Brew-boss software.

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Calculating Original Gravity for Beer Recipe Design

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by BRAD SMITH

Original Gravity is a key parameter for beer recipe design. The #originalgravity of a #beer is a measure of the potential sugars, about 60-75% of which will be converted into alcohol during fermentation. So original gravity drives both the alcohol content and the residual body of the beer. This week we’ll cover how to estimate OG by hand, though in practice most people use brewing software to do the calculation more easily.

What is Original Gravity?

Original gravity is a measure of the sugars dissolved in the water in your unfermented wort. It is typically measured with a #hydrometer or #refractometer in the fermenter when brewing is complete but before fermentation has started. The gravity measurement is most often done on a unitless scale that measures the relative density of the wort compared to water. So water would have a specific gravity of 1.000, and beers often start in the 1.030-1.060 range.

OG can also be measured in degrees plato. You can do a rough conversion (its not exactly linear) by taking the “points” of a unitless measurement, and dividing by four. For example a reading of 1.048 is 48 “gravity points” which is roughly 48/4 = 12 degrees plato.

Understanding Grain Potential

First I would like to apologize in advance to those using metric units – this is one of the rare cases where working in English units (gallons and pounds) makes the math easy.

To calculate OG for a recipe, you need to know the “potential” contribution that each grain or extract in the recipe will make. This corresponds to the contribution that a pound of grain or extract will add if dissolved in a gallon of water. The maximum potential is approximately 1.046 which would be a pound of pure sugar in a gallon of water.

Liquid extracts typically have a potential of around 1.036, dry extracts run around 1.044, and pure sugar runs close to 1.046. Grains vary tremendously – from a low of 1.025 up to highs in the 1.040 range. Even Pale malt (which is often around 1.036-1.038) varies depending on the maltster.

You can find good values for the “potential” of various grains from the maltster’s web site or using software like BeerSmith which has hundreds of grains available (including dozens of add-ons).

Estimating Original Gravity Points

Once we have the grain bill and potentials for each extract or grain in the recipe, the next step is to calculate the “points” for each grain contribution and total them up. This is done simply by multiplying the potential points for each grain by the weight of the grain.

Recall that points are simply the fractional part of the potential – so an extract with a potential of 1.046 is simply 46 points. So for a simple stout with 8 lbs of pale malt (1.036 potential) and 1 lb of roast barley (1.025 potential) would give us:

36 points * 8 lbs = 288 points

25 points * 1 lb = 25 points

Total = 313 points.

The next step is to apply an “efficiency” factor to our process. The potentials given for the grain are the maximum possible amount you could draw from the grains if you crushed them under laboratory conditions with no losses. Real mashing processes and subsequent sparging, boiling and transferring are not ideal – so a typical brewhouse has an efficiency number far less than 100%. The brewhouse efficiency number includes all of the losses in the system into the fermenter including mashing, lautering, boiling, trub loss and transferring the finished wort to fermenter. A typical brewhouse efficiency number for a home system is 70-75%. In this case we’ll use 72%

313 points * 72% efficiency = 225.4 points

Now we just divide by the “into fermenter” volume which in this case is 5 gallons:

225 points / 5 gallons = 44.8 points/gal

And that is the original gravity estimate if we convert it back to specific gravity – 44.8 points gives us an OG of approximately 1.045

Using Original Gravity

Now that we have our OG estimate, we can measure our OG when we brew the beer and see how well we did. Assuming you hit your target volume (which also has a large effect on OG) and your OG comes in low, you can reduce your brewhouse efficiency number next time (which will make you use more grains) to drive it up again. Similarly if your OG comes in high you can raise your efficiency number (making you use less grains) to get back on target.

We can also use the OG to get a rough estimate of the final gravity (FG) for our recipe. The simplest way to do this is to apply the average yeast attenuation to the OG to get the FG. For example a yeast strain with an attenuation of 72% would leave about 28% of the remaining sugars unattenuated, giving us 44.8 * 0.28 = 12.5 pts which is a final gravity of 1.012.

What about Mash Efficiency?

You can also estimate the OG using mash efficiency (which accounts only for losses in the mash) instead of brewhouse efficiency. To do this we start with the estimated pre-boil gravity, which is done the same way as we did above, but using the pre-boil volume instead of the “into fermenter” batch volume. This calculation will give us a good estimate of pre-boil gravity.

Next you would need to account for all of the losses in the system from boiling forward. This would include boiling, which concentrates the wort (losing volume, but not gravity points), trub loss (which takes both gravity points and volume away) and any top up water added (which dilutes the wort). The calculation is a bit more complex, but can be done by tracking the changing volumes as well as gravity points remaining in the wort.

That is quick overview of calculating original gravity. As I mentioned earlier, most people use software like my BeerSmith application to make this a bit easier, but its good to know how to calculate by hand.

http://beersmith.com/blog/2015/01/30/calculating-original-gravity-for-beer-recipe-design/

FILL-BOSS COUNTER PRESSURE BOTTLE AND GROWLER FILLER

 

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Thanks for the overwhelming support of this product!!!

Fill-Boss is the first "Automated" counter pressure bottle filler that is affordable enough to be purchased by home brewers but strong and fast enough to be used by nano and micro brewery operations as well. It is built like a tank from laser cut and formed 12 ga 304 stainless steel. Fill-Boss is microprocessor controlled, so it fills bottles and growlers to exactly the right level every time, just by pressing one button! The simple design can be used for nano and microbrewery operations as well as brew-pubs that want to add inexpensive bottling and growler filling to their operations.
The innovative spring loaded adjustment system can adjust to most bottle sizes, including 1.5l wine bottles and growlers!

• Spill free automated counter pressure filling.
• Bottle non-carbonated or fully carbonated beverages from 5 Gallon Cornelius Kegs (Cornelius Keg, CO2 tank, and regulator required but not included)
• Adjustable fill speed bleed valve.
• Includes Ball Lock connectors and tubing for Ball-Lock Cornelius kegs.
• Contact us for special connections for Sanke Kegs and Brite Tanks. We will find a way to connect to your vessel!

We've received calls from a prospective customers asking "what is wrong with these units?" Why are they 1/3 the cost of other automatic fillers? The reason Fill-Boss is less costly than other options is that it was designed from the ground up to be an affordable and reliable filler. We use the Fill-Boss in our brew-on-premise operation daily and it has never hiccuped! One Fill-Boss commercial customer reports a 3-1/2 day payback when he switched to Fill-Boss! Yes, it is for real!

We have designed a conversion kit for the Fill-Boss that will allow filling of the new Synek system bags! Stay tuned for this kit on the web site as well. We are working with Synek to make this available on their web site as well

http://www.brew-boss.com/Fill-Boss-Counter-Pressure-Bottle-Filler-p/fill-boss.htm

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