Back in the bad old days, a home brewer was happy just to have a reliable yeast culture to pitch into his/her wort. The average home brewer today is no longer content with having access to yeast cultures that get the job done with leaving a trail of metabolic trash that is a mile wide. He/she wants to be able to compute and hit the exact number of cells needed to ferment a given batch of wort. The cold hard truth is that this level of precision is neither obtainable, nor is it necessary in a home brewery. A yeast culture is like a nuclear weapon in that a brewer only needs to be within a reasonable distance of his/her target in order to complete the task at hand. In this blog entry, we will cover how the yeast biomass in a starter or fermentation grows, and why home brewers are placing emphasis on precision where it is not needed.

Brewing yeast is a mystery to many home brewers. It is easily the most technically complex part of the brewing process, after all, brewers make wort, yeast makes beer. Fermentation is little more than controlled spoilage. In the case of beer, the spoilage microorganism is the yeast culture that we pitch. We want the pitched yeast culture to “own” the wort, and we want to ensure that it owns the wort quickly enough to prevent any wild microflora (yeast, bacteria, mold) that may have hitched a ride on airborne particulate matter from gaining a foothold in our fermentation. We accomplish this task by pitching a large number of active yeast cells while practicing good brewery hygiene.

Yeast cells go through three distinct phases during fermentation before entering a state known as quiescence. The phase that we will be discussing in this blog entry is known as the exponential phase (also known as the logarithmic phase). The exponential phase is where the yeast biomass grows. This phase is called the exponential phase because the cell count grows exponentially at a rate of 2ⁿ, where n is the number of minutes that have elapsed since the culture entered the exponential phase divided by the replication period in minutes (computer scientists who are reading this blog entry will recognize this growth pattern as O(2ⁿ), or binary exponential growth). The reason why the yeast biomass grows at a rate of 2ⁿ is because each mother cell buds a daughter cell during a replication period.

With the above said, let’s examine the basic formula for approximating the cell count at a given number of minutes into the exponential phase.

yeast_cell_count_at_time_t = initial_yeast_cell_count * 2ⁿ, where n equals the number of minutes that have elapsed since the beginning of the exponential phase (time_t) divided by the replication period (replication_period)

Let’s apply the formula shown above with time_t equal to 90 minutes and replication_period equal to 90 minutes.

time_t = 90 minutes into the exponential phase
initial_cell_count = 200 billion
replication_period = 90 minutes

n = 90 / 90 = 1 replication period

yeast_cell_count_at_time_t = 200 billion * 2¹ = 400 billion cells

After ninety minutes of exponential growth, the culture has doubled in size.

Let’s extend time_t to six hours, which equals three hundred and sixty minutes.

n = 360 / 90 = 4

yeast_cell_count_at_time_t = 200,000,000,000 (200 billion) * 2⁴ = 3,200,000,000,000 (3.2 trillion) cells

After four replication periods, the cell count is now sixteen times larger than it was when it was pitched. Herein, lies the explosive power of exponential growth.

We can determine the number of replication periods necessary to reach a target cell count given an initial cell count by re-writing the equation to solve for n. We will refer to the variable n as the number_of_replication_periods and the variable cell_count_at_time_t as target_cell_count in our re-written equation.

number_of_replication_periods = log (target_cell_count / initial_cell_count) / log(2)

Let’s set target_cell_count to 3.2 trillion and initial_cell_count to 200 billion to verify that the formula produces the number 4 for the number of replication periods.

number_of_replication_periods = log (3,200,000,000,000 / 200,000,000,000) / log(2) = 4

With that said, the yeast calculator that we used for our latest recipe determined that we needed to pitch 200 billion cells. Our culture only contains 150 billion cells. How much impact will underpitching by 50 billion cells make in the amount of time necessary to reach maximum cell density for 5 gallons, which is approximately 3.8 trillion cells?

number_of_replication_periods = log (3,800,000,000,000 / 200,000,000,000) / log(2) = ~4.25

number_of_replication_periods = log (3,800,000,000,000 / 150,000,000,000) / log(2) = ~4.66

As long as there is enough oxygen in solution to support cellular health, the difference in exponential growth time between pitching 150 billion cells and 200 billion cells is 4.66 – 4.25 = 0.41 * 90 = ~37 minutes.

Okay, let’s pitch half of the number of cells that our yeast calculator computed.

number_of_replication_periods = log (3,800,000,000,000 / 100,000,000,000) / log(2) = ~5.25

Once again, as long as there is enough oxygen in solution to support cellular health, the difference in exponential growth time between pitching 100 billion cells and 200 billion cells is 5.25 – 4.25 = 1.0 * 90 = 90 minutes.

As one can clearly see, underpitching by as much as 50% only lengthens the exponential growth phase by 90 minutes. The key is to ensure that there is adequate dissolved oxygen to support cellular health when underpitching, as there is almost always enough carbon (sugar is carbon bound to water; hence, the term carbohydrate). While brewing species within the Saccharomyces genus do not respire in brewer’s wort due to being Crabtree positive, they do use oxygen for ergosterol and unsaturated fatty acid (UFA) biosynthesis by shunting oxygen and a small amount of carbon to the respirative metabolic pathway. These compounds are used by cells to maintain their plasma membranes. Plasma membrane health determines how well a yeast cell can take in nutrients and expel waste through its cell wall.

If yeast cultures are like nuclear weapons, why do we have pitching guidelines? Well, most pitching guidelines are for slurry, not laboratory grown yeast. Slurry is a mixture of various age cells that have been through one or more fermentations. These cells have been subjected to ethanol and brewery-related environmental stress. Most starters are grown from laboratory-cultured yeast. Laboratory-prepared growth media and environmental conditions are designed to maximize biomass growth while minimizing stress.

With that said, there is a significant challenge that places a lower bound on our pitched cell count; namely, sanitation. No real-world brewery is sterile. Airborne microflora has an opportunity to contaminate a culture or a medium every time it is exposed to air. Residual surface contamination from less than adequate cleaning and/or sanitation increases the chance of wild microflora gaining a foothold in a fermentation. Bacteria are the biggest threat because they too grow exponentially, but their replication period is one third that of yeast; hence, the bacteria cell count increases by a factor of eight every time the yeast cell count doubles. If we normalize the bacteria growth model to that of the yeast growth model, we end up with the equation shown below.

bacteria_cell_count_at_time_t = initial_bacteria_cell_count * 8ⁿ, where n equals the number of minutes that have elapsed since the beginning of the exponential phase divided by the yeast replication period

Hopefully, readers have noticed that “yeast replication period” appears in bold font. The reason being is that we have normalized the growth models to the amount of time that it takes the yeast cell count to double. Since the bacteria cell count doubles in one third of the amount of time that it takes the yeast cell count to double, the bacteria cell count grows at a rate of 2³ every time the yeast cell count grows at a rate of 2¹.

To give one an idea of how this difference allows a tiny number of bacteria cells to overtake a larger number of yeast cells, let’s calculate the 2ⁿ and 8ⁿ multipliers out to 16 replication periods (n = 1 to 16).

Cell count multiplier for the 2ⁿ growth pattern = 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192, 16384, 32768, 65536

Cell count multiplier for the 8ⁿ growth pattern = 8, 64, 512, 4096, 32768, 262144,
2097152, 16777216, 134217728, 1073741824, 8589934592, 68719476736, 549755813888, 4398046511104, 35184372088832, 281474976710656

After sixteen yeast replication periods, the yeast cell count can be as much as 65,536 times larger than it was when we started whereas the bacteria cell count can be as much as a whopping 281,474,976,710,656 times larger than when we started, that is, if there is sufficient carbon, oxygen, and space to support that much growth. Herein, lies the reason why we need to pitch a large number of cells. We want our yeast culture to rapidly shutdown the replication of any competitors by dominating a batch of wort. In modern vernacular, we want the culture to “own” the wort to the extent that nothing else stands a chance of tainting our controlled spoilage process. However, that feat can be easily accomplished with modern commercial yeast cultures without having to worry about pitching a precise number of yeast cells.

In closing, hopefully readers have gained an understanding of the explosive nature of exponential growth. Exponential growth can basically erase a difference in cell counts that is less then a factor of two, and make up to a factor of four difference in cell counts insignificant, which is why yeast cultures are like nuclear weapons. There are even times when we want to purposely underpitch, but that is a topic for a future blog entry.

On January 24, 1848, James W. Marshall found gold at Sutter’s Mill in Coloma, California. That discovery set into motion the 1849 California Gold Rush. Over 300,000 people migrated to California to seek their fortune, many traveling all of the way from the East Coast in covered wagons. Today, there is a different kind of gold in California. It is a type of gold that is precious to brewers, a microscopic gold. The topic of this entry is the wealth of Saccharomyces and non-Saccharomyces yeast species held by the University of California, Davis.

The University of California, Davis (UC Davis) is home to two yeast collections. The larger of the two collections is the Phaff Yeast Culture Collection, which is named after Dr. Herman Jan Phaff. Dr. Phaff was born in the Netherlands in 1913. He migrated to California to attend graduate school at the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) when he was 26 years old. Dr. Phaff’s interest in enology and brewing was kindled at his family’s winery. After moving from UC Berkeley to UC Davis in 1954, Dr. Phaff went about building the existing UC Davis yeast culture collection into one of the largest in the world. Today, the Phaff collection holds 400 of the 700 known yeast species, including those useful to brewers and vintners. The current curator of the Phaff Culture Collection is Dr. Kyria Boundy-Mills. Dr. Boundy-Mills was fortune enough to be able to work with Dr. Phaff before he passed away.

A second yeast culture collection is held by the Department of Viticulture and Enology. While many of the strains held in this collection are also held in the Phaff Collection, this collection contains a few brewing strains that were either culled from or apparently never held in the Phaff Yeast Culture Collection. The curator of this collection is C.M. Lucy Joseph, M.S. In addition to caring for the Enology Culture Collection, Ms. Joseph is a published expert on the Brettanomyces genus.

With the above said, the cultures held at UC Davis are not for budget conscious brewers, nor are they for brewers who are not versed in aseptic transfer technique, which is a topic for a future blog entry. However, for amateur and professional brewers who are comfortable wielding an inoculation loop, the cultures held at UC Davis offer a unique opportunity to work with heirloom strains that have been forgotten by history.

One of the first cultures in the UC Davis culture collections to capture my attention was FST 40-219/UCD 1219. FST 40-219/UCD 1219 is the production yeast culture that was used at the defunct Acme Brewing Company in San Francisco. The deposit was made in 1942, which makes the culture 73 years old. A little known fact is that the yeast currently used to ferment Anchor Steam has only been employed at Anchor since the mid-seventies. It is an old Wallerstein strain. FST 40-219/UCD 1219 was used to produce lager beer in San Francisco at least 73 years ago. Since the Acme Brewing Company survived prohibition, it is not out of the realm of possibility that FST 40-219/UCD 1219’s use in San Francisco predates the Volstead Act. Another interesting fact is that Leopold Schmidt founded the Acme Brewing Company after founding the Olympia Brewing Company in Tumwater, Washington; therefore, it is also not out of the realm of possibility that FST 40-219/UCD 1219 is a descendant of the original Olympia production yeast strain.

In use, I am not going to sugar coat things, FST 40-219/UCD 1219 is not much fun to grow on solid media. The colony-forming units on a plate are tiny enough to be mistaken for petite mutants. I had to contact Ms. Joseph when I went to subculture the slant on which the strain arrived from UC Davis because it appeared to be blank. According to Ms. Joseph, the culture is a diploid yeast strain. Most brewing strains are polyploids, which is yet another topic for a future blog entry. I wound up using the add a few milliliters of autoclaved 5% weight by volume (w/v) wort to the culture tube, suspend the cells that are available, and then pitch the liquid in the culture tube into a slightly larger amount of autoclaved 5% w/v wort technique because I was unable to harvest a significant yeast scrap from the slant.

The truly strange thing about FST 40-219/UCD 1219 is that it does not behave like a petite isolate when pitched into wort. Attenuation proceeds at a pace that one would expect from any other production strain. The strain is very flocculent. The yeast aggregates into pea-size flocs, resulting in rapid sedimentation at the end of fermentation. After struggling to get this strain to grow on a plate, I was truly astonished to see how well it behaved after being grown into a culture large enough to pitch into a batch of wort. I have never experienced this kind of behavior with a yeast strain since plating my first brewing strain almost twenty-three years ago.

The initial batch of wort used for experimentation with FST 40-219/UCD 1219 was a Pre-Prohibition-style Pilsner with an original gravity of 1.062 and a grist composed of 85% domestic 2-row and 15% flaked maize. The beer was hopped twice with Liberty. The boil length was 90 minutes with a hop addition at 60 minutes before the end of the boil and another hop addition at knockout. Primary fermentation was perfomed at 15°C/59°F. The resulting flavor was very rich for such as well-attenuated beer. This strain quickly became a “keeper” in my bank.

Another interesting culture that I obtained from UC Davis is FST 40-420/UCD 1420. FST 40-420/UCD 1420 was deposited by Dr. Catherine Roberts in 1947. The strain is from Kongen’s Bryghus (was King Christian IV’s brewhouse) in Denmark. Dr. Roberts was quite a remarkable woman who was way head of her time. At a time when job opportunities for women were very limited, she was pioneering the field of yeast genetics with Dr. Øjvind Winge at Carlsberg Laboratory in Copenhagen, Denmark. Dr. Roberts earned her Ph.D. at UC Berkeley, which I assume is how the culture eventually wound up at UC Davis.

If I had to describe FST 40-420/UCD 1420, I would say that is it like Wyeast 1007 with better flavor. Like Wyeast 1007, FST 40-420/UCD 1420 produces a huge head during fermentation. Apparent attenuation is very high (>80%), but flocculation is low, resulting in slow sedimentation. The strain is suitable for top cropping. FST 40-420 is fantastic strain for those looking to produce Northern European ale styles. It is crisp and clean with a nice subtle candy-like ester profile that works very well with Pilsner malt and continental and British hop varieties.

In closing, the cultures held at UC Davis offer advanced amateur and professional brewers an opportunity to work with heirloom strains that have been forgotten by time. There many other brewing yeast strains that are not as old with respect to deposit date, but are equally intriguing, including Wallerstein strain #36C4 (better known as the UC Davis strain that was selected for use at New Albion) and old lager cultures from Lucky Lager in Azusa brewing and Liebmann Breweries in Brooklyn. Brewers should not expect to receive much in the way of brewing data when digging deeply into the UC Davis collection. Opening up the vault is experimental brewing in the truest form because one never knows what one is going to get with culture collection strains. If any commercial yeast propagators are reading this blog, I have attempted to convince Chris White to license FST-219/UCD 1219 from UC Davis for propagation. He does not appear to be interested. Here is an opportunity to propagate a true turn-of-the-century San Francisco yeast strain. I know that Dr. Boundy-Mills has shown interest in working with yeast propagators.

Fermentation is an incredibly complex process that can be mind boggling at times. Brewers like to think of yeast as a microscopic lifeform that transforms the sugars found in wort into alcohol, carbon dioxide gas, and metabolic byproducts that add flavor to the final product. However, in reality, yeast cells do not consume sugar. Yeast cells consume carbon, which they attempt to transform into energy. Alcohol and metabolic byproducts are the results of an inefficient metabolic pathway. The topic of this blog entry is how yeast cells transform compounds collectively known as carbohydrates into energy.

Brewers often hear the term “organic chemistry” used when describing fermentation. Organic chemistry is the study of carbon-based compounds. Sugar is carbon bound to water; hence, the term carbohydrate. All of the sugars found in wort are multiples of CH₂O. The simplest sugars found in wort are known as monosaccharides. The monosaccharides commonly found in wort are glucose, fructose, mannose, and galactose. These sugars are also known as hexoses because they contain six carbon atoms. All of the hexoses share the shame chemical formula, which is C₆H₁₂O₆. How the hexoses differ is in their linear form.

The four hexoses commonly found in wort belong to two different types of simple sugar. Galactose, glucose, and mannose are aldoses. Fructose is a ketose. An aldose is a sugar that contains one aldehyde group per molecule. A ketose is a sugar that contains one ketone group per molecule. Aldoses differ from ketoses in the location of something known as a carbonyl group. A carbonyl group is a carbon atom that is double bound to an oxygen atom. The carbonyl group appears at the end of the carbon chain in aldoses whereas it appears in the middle of the carbon chain in ketoses. Ketoses where the carbonyl group appears at the end of the molecule can isomerize into aldoses. The carbonyl group in d-fructose appears at the end of the molecule; therefore, it can isomerize into an aldose.

As we move up the scale in complexity from the monosaccharides, we discover a group of sugars known as disaccharides. A disaccharide consists of two monosaccharides bound by what is known as a glycosidic bond. The most abundant disaccharide found in wort is maltose. Maltose consists of two glucose molecules bound by a glycosidic bond. Sucrose is also a disaccharide found in wort, but to a lesser extent. Sucrose consists of a glucose molecule bound to a fructose molecule by a glycosidic bond. Another disaccharide that Saccharomyces pastorianus (S. pastorianus or simply lager yeast) can reduce to monosaccharides, but Saccharomyces cerevisiae (S. cerevisiae or simply ale yeast) usually cannot is melibiose. Melibiose consists of a glucose molecule bound to a galactose molecule by a glycosidic bond.

What is a glycosidic bond? A glycosidic bound is a type of covalent bond. In the case of glycosidic bonds, the bond occurs when atoms in two different sugar molecules share what are known as valence electrons. A glycosidic bond is formed via what is known as a condensation reaction. The outcome of a condensation reaction is another compound and an H₂O molecule. For example, as mentioned above, maltose is a disaccharide that contains two glucose molecules bound by a glycosidic bond. Maltose is formed via the following condensation reaction:

C₆H₁₂O₆ + C₆H₁₂O₆→ C₁₂H₂₂O₁₁ + H₂O

By the way, like the monosaccharides, all disaccharides share the same chemical formula. The chemical formula for a disaccharide is C₁₂H₂₂O₁₁.

The most complex sugars found in wort that affect fermentation belong to a family of carbohydrates known as trisaccharides. A trisaccharide consists of three monosaccharides bound by two glycosidic bonds. All trisaccharides share the chemical formula C₁₈H₃₂O₁₆. The ability to reduce trisaccharides to simpler sugars is one of the attributes that affects how well changes in saccharification rest temperature affect final gravity. For example, maltotriose is the most frequently occurring trisaccharide found in wort. Maltotriose consists of three glucose molecules bound by two glycosidic bonds. One of the reasons why Lallemand Windsor leaves a high terminal gravity is because the yeast strain is maltotriose challenged. One way to offset this weakness is to rest one’s mash at a temperature of 65°C/149° or lower to produce an extract that contains a lower percentage of trisaccharides and dextrins. Many brewers refer to this type of wort as a more fermentable wort.

If yeast cells can only use monosaccharides directly, how do they reduce disaccharides and trisaccharides to monosaccharides? Yeast cells perform this feat via the inverse of a condensation reaction. The process is called hydrolysis. The roots of the word hydrolysis are from the Greek “hydros” for water and from the Latin “lysis” for break apart or deconstruct. Together, these words mean break apart via the insertion of water, and that is exactly what happens.

While breaking the glycosidic bond in a disaccharide is a one-step process, breaking the glycosidic bonds in a trisaccharide requires two steps. In the case of maltotriose, the first step involves breaking a maltotriose molecule into one maltose molecule and one glucose molecule.

C₁₈H₃₂O₁₆ + H₂O → C₁₂H₂₂O₁₁ + C₆H₁₂O₆

The maltose molecule is then split into two glucose molecules.

C₁₂H₂₂O₁₁ + H₂O → C₆H₁₂O₆ + C₆H₁₂O₆

Brewers who have delved into this area of fermentation have heard that S. pastorianus can use raffinose as a carbon source while S. cerevisiae can only partially metabolize raffinose. This limitation is due to the same limitation that prevents most S. cerevisiae strains from using melibiose as a carbon source. Raffinose consists of two glucose molecules and one galactose molecule. What happens when S. cerevisiae attempts to break the glycosidic bonds that hold raffinose together is that the raffinose molecule is split into one melibiose molecule and one glucose molecule. Unable to break the bond that holds melibiose together, this disaccharide is left undigested. Raffinose is lost during the malting of barley; therefore, it is absent from wort.

The rate at which hydrolytic reactions occur is shortened by the creation of enzymes. Enzymes are reaction catalysts. A reaction catalyst is a compound that increases the rate at which a reaction occurs. The enzyme responsible for catalyzing the hydrolysis of maltose into two glucose molecules is called maltase.

Enzymes are proteins, and proteins are encoded by cells via a process known as transcription. A cell’s DNA provides the blueprints for transcribing proteins. If one has ever wondered why different yeast strains yield different levels of attenuation given everything else equal, herein lies the reason. A yeast cell’s DNA controls the enzymes that can be encoded as well as the level at which the enzymes can be encoded.

What happens after the higher-level saccharides are broken down into monosaccharides? Well, the yeast cell goes about performing something known as catabolization. Catabolism is a metabolic process where the yeast cells attempt to turn carbon-based compounds into energy.

The primary catabolic process that occurs in yeast cells is called glycolysis. Once again, we see a word that ends in “lysis;” therefore, we know that this process involves the breaking apart or deconstruction of a compound. In the case of glycolysis, the compound is glucose. Glucose is the primary monosaccharide found in wort. It is also a building block for the most common disaccharides and trisaccharides found in wort. The goal of glycolysis is to turn glucose into a compound known as adenosine triphosphate (ATP). ATP is the fuel source for a cell. The transformation of glucose into ATP in the less efficient anaerobic metabolic pathway results the production of ethanol, higher alcohols, diketones, and organic acids. We can look at these metabolic byproducts as the yeast equivalent of incomplete combustion, as all of these compounds contain carbon.

This past weekend Denny and I were invited to roam around the Bay Area by one of our podcast sponsors, Craftmeister. Craftmeister was in town to demonstrate their cleaning line to customers and employees at the Bay Area More Beer retail locations and brought us along to autograph copies of B3's latest catalog offering - Experimental Homebrewing!

Anyway - Denny and I met up with Jonathan Ettlie in Oakland and proceeded to run around town. You see, we have this new thing - the podcast - and you know what's hard? Making sure you have enough good and interesting content. After all, why listen if all you've got is two blowhards boringly bloviating even if the blather is about beer. (Stop me before I alliterate again!)

So, the good news is we turned our madcap time in the Bay Area into a full field recording session for the podcast. Assuming the audio we captured worked out - we've got some great content coming up from Jay Goodwin of the Rare Barrel and the Sour Hour, Shaun "Sully" O'Sullivan of 21st Amendment, a listener tasting gone awry at MoreBeer, Nick Impellitteri of the Yeast Bay and the always voluble Rodger Davis of Faction Brewing

Day One

Rare Barrel

Our first stop was one of the most exciting breweries in America - The Rare Barrel in Berkeley. The basic story of the Barrel - Jay Goodwin worked on barrel aged projects for the Bruery before striking out on his own to produce nothing but sour ales

We got to sit down with him and a tasty tasty glass of Map of the Sun. Even though we were there while the brewery was closed, the whole massive operation was rocking with brewery workers hard at the process of creating new sours. We had a fascinating talk about his philosophy and process of brewing - grabbed tips and tricks and hopefully if the audio survived - we'll feature Jay in episode 3 on December 9th.

21st Amendment

A Wall of Bitter American Cans greets you - Eventually Sully wants to open a performance space up here in the front - until then - monkey's on cans!

So we left the airport and went north to get to Jay and then promptly turned around and went south of the airport to get to the place I'm calling "Rancho El Sully" aka Shaun O'Sullivan's adult wonderland - the 21st Amendment Brewery in San Leandro. First order of business was grabbing a Toaster Pastry - the beer named for the former tenant of the massive facility - a manufacturer of breakfast cereals and toaster warmed pastries.

Zambo and Sully on the Sully Tour

Our first greeting was with an old friend - David Zamborski aka Zambo. Zambo brewed years ago for BJ's down in LA before floating around and eventually landing as the chief brewer at the original 21A brewery in San Francisco. He was out at the garguatuan brewery working on 21A's first barrel project so that was unexpectedly awesome to thumb my nose in greeting at one of my favorite people.

Barrels of deliciousness - these are the construction beer barrels. Filled while the brewery was still in progress and moved around constantly as construction continued around them. Sully was pleasantly surprised with how they're tasting.

Sully then showed up and took us around the brewery like a proud father, completely baffled how a little 12 barrel brewpub in San Francisco could eventually grow up into a monster brewery like this. As he took us around, the refrain kept repeating of "look at all these cool toys and how strange is this?" This is one of the most beautiful brew decks ever with computer controls and beautiful hop tanks. Hell, even the boilers look like the first super computers I worked on - only with chimney stacks.

The underside of a very small mash tun

These are the backside of the very fancy boilers that power the brewery. Room in here for at least one more should they need it

Much like the smaller PicoBrew Zymatic systems - you add your hops to the boil kettle via these tanks down on the ground floor

A fully automated brewery requires the use of computers to control the whole flow and that's what we've got here. Cool touches existed everywhere including the brewery's logos to demonstrate that the whole thing is custom

When your fermenters are super tall, you need a better solution that cart barrels of hops to the tank top and dumping them in. In this case, you fill the small tank with hops and blow them into the fermenters with CO₂. The tank name - that's the guy who suggested the trick to Sully!

The tank farm - cause every brewery needs a whole pile of giant fermenters!

We sat down in the brewer's office, hidden by the tasting room and had a lovely chat with Shaun. Expect to hear his take on the brewing world and how you go from a little brewpub messing around with cans to an old lager brewery in the Midwest to a terrifying industrial complex of your own.

I swear I'm not planning anything nefarious!

A little Toaster Pastry!

Yeast Bay at the Trappist

One last stop of the evening took us back to Oakland and one of my favorite bars, The Trappist. There we met with Nick Impellitteri, owner, proprietor, chief rancher of the Yeast Bay. Sitting over a couple of beers, Denny and I chatted with Nick about why he started the Yeast Bay and what drives his particular take on a yeast company. We also got into the mix a bit on his favorite bacterias and strains and why he works with White Labs. We're looking forward to playing with more of Nick's products and getting to know his strains better!

Day Two

MoreBeer Los Altos

On Friday we started our world tour with a morning run to the heart of the Silicon Valley and the MoreBeer in Los Altos. On the way we waved hello to FaceBook and a bunch of other names we all recognize. The Los Altos store is super tiny, but fun to explore all the nooks and crannies. As we talked up the Craftmeister cleaners and signed books, I kept finding new things to try at home. (Mostly around the wine/cider side of the house). More reports on those later.

A definite highlight of the visit was a mobile version of Troubleshooter's Corner (a thing I do for the Maltose Falcons). A reader and listener, Alex, showed up with a bottle of his Kombucha beer, but things turned mildly explosive as we raced trhough the store, recorder in hand. I really hope the audio for this turns out because the image of me running and narrating is really awesome.

Beer Tasting on the Fly

MoreBeer San Leandro

I grabbed exactly zero photos as we returned to the land of Sully, but what was really interesting to see was how MoreBeer is integrating purchased properties like this store, which was BrewMaster and moving the wholesale/retail operations under one new roof away from the traditional home of Concord.

Also, you know what's really nice? Showing up at a place after the Briess folks have been there is always a treat because they usually leave Malted Milk Balls. These things are so fantastic it's unfair. Seriously, you want these balls in your face hole. subtle>

St. George's

While we were really tempted to go hit El Sully again, we had another date to make for our podcast tour. Jonathan bravely tackled the Friday night traffic to take us from San Leandro to Alameda island. If you're not familiar with the Bay Area - Alameda is one of many islands in the Bay that's been used over the years by the US Military. I think every big island in the Bay has been a military base at same point - Alameda, Alcatraz, Angel, Treasure, Yerba Buena, etc.

Anyway - as the military reconfigures its domestic base profile, facilities are left fallow and ripe for adaptive reuse. Given the expense of real estate in the bay, it really shouldn't be surprising that the former military bases are ripe for re-use. Out on Alameda, a series of massive helicopter hangers are all in use by the beverage industry - Hangar One Vodka, my favorite American gin maker - St George's and naturally what we're really here to see -
The Billion Dollar View - From Faction's parking lot looking over to the city.

When we first arrived, I knew that St. George's was next door to the brewery, so I figured we'd have to stop in and say "hi". Sure enough, I ran over and found out that the tasting room closes well before we'd be done with Rodger, so I cajoled Denny and Jonathan into joining me for a tasting. I'm super good at that. (My superpower - convince people to do the things they want to do but keep telling themselves they shouldn't!)

Between Jonathan and I we ordered pretty much all of the St. George lineup available that day. The All Purpose Vodka was what it said on the tin - all purpose, clean, neutral. Jonathan really liked the Green Chile with it's punchy peppery nose while I appreciated the bright blast of the Citrus Vodka. Then of course there's the gin - the thing they're really known for. I still view an ice cold Terroir Martini with it's strong sage and piney notes as the perfect post work week antidote, but hey any of them work well! But the real surprise and mic drop came with the fruit and other liqueurs. They had a pretty rad Absinthe and Chicory Coffee liqueur, but the stars were a Pear Brandy in the Eau de Vie fashion that was also used to create a Spiced Pear Liqueur that's pure awesomeness.

Faction Brewing - A Man, A Bear and A Beer

After our brief journey into the land of spirits, we walked across the parking lot to find and say hello to the crew at Faction. Basically that's Rodger's operation in a converted marine helo hanger with all the requisite doors that he closes with his favorite toy - the forklift. (When we first arrived, Rodger was running around cleaning up the brewery for the weekend. He was busy driving around, picking up stacks of kegs and barrels. He even swung the forklift around to say hello to us. He also insists that the forklift is not one of his favorite things. I would disagree, but he might get mad at me)

Brewery Mural Above the Racks of Barrels

I love old pieces of hardware - that's a seriously crunchy auto door return.

My new favorite beer name - Hipster Conformant

Beer Equipment Gets Recycled From Brewery to Brewery

In the interview,Rodger revealed that he had possible the longest grain augur that runs from the back of ther brewery warehouse all the way to the brew house towards the front. (Follow the white pipe.) Why? A small endangered species lives on the far side of the runway necessitating height restrictions that forced the silo to the back of the hangar.

Rodger has an unironic love of Hamm's. Sascha (the real bear's name). The bear keeps a watch from the commander's office over the brewery floor

Such a thing with brewers

Rodger is known for being a voluble subject with plenty of attitude and opinions on beers and brewing. He played great host with an unending supply of beer samples including his long series of 2 Hop Pales with a main bittering hop (Delta while we were there) and a different finishing hop.

As we sat up in the commander offices were talked for a long time and covered endless subjects, so let's just say that Denny has his work cut out for him! After a long time of sampling and talking we finally retired for one last day of adventuring.

Day Three

MoreBeer Concord

Jonathan, Denny and Drew at the MoreBeer Concord Mothership

Our final day started at the mothership of MoreBeer. Formerly the home to MoreBeer's warehouse activities, the showroom has plenty of room to grow and is in the process of being re-worked.

While Jonathan proffered samples and talked to everyone about the cleaners and their experiences. Denny and I spent our time talking with customers, signing books and answering questions. We hung out and generally had a grand time. Jonathan gave away a ton of cleaner and we signed a whole bunch of books and meeting podcast listeners. (It's really great to know that people are listening!)

Denny making friends

After MoreBeer, we took a slight side trip...

Hop Grenade

After all was said and done, we were in Concord with time to kill before our flights the next morning. So naturally we went to the Hop Grenade, home of the Brewing Network.

While there, and enjoying beers with various folks - Denny and I invaded the Brewing Network's proper studio. Denny got to play audio engineer and looked around all the equipment and commenting on the qualities of the various mikes and compressors. One of these days maybe we'll have real gear like those boys!

Requisite studio invasion photo

Denny's a Natural

We did make one last stop - Cellarmaker, but by that point I was done with cameras and audio. Beer was good though!

Day Four - Goodbyes!

So long San Francisco! Until next time - keep your pints frosty for me!

Because I can, that's why

This is my recent splurge food. I love it and it's fairly healthy. Ok, it's mostly a clever way to have a satisfying chunk of meats and cheeses in red sauce and not feel like a total pig.

What does this have to do with beer? Well, if you eat this instead of the full fat, full meat, full bechamel, full every damn cheese version, you can drink more beer and not be a lard butt. Expect to see a whole lot more about how to lose weight as a brewer in the near future. This is just one part of it! It's damn tasty and you should make it. Here's how

Zucchini Turkey Sausage Lasagna

Makes 6 servings in a 9x13 pan - because they lie when they say "8 servings" No one eats 1/8th of a 9x13 pan of lasagna without feeling a pang of regret and nibbling off small pieces with a fork.

Approximately 420 calories per serving. (Compare that to traditional lasagna which has something like eleventy billion per slice - and you eat two of them)

"Noodles":
3 largish zucchini, sliced into planks on mandoline, salted liberally on paper towels. I use the second thickest setting on the mandoline to get sturdy slices that dont fall apart but also don't dominate the meaty cheese goodness.

Sauce:
1 onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
3 links hot italian turkey sausage
1 tbsp tomato paste
10 oz crimini mushrooms, chopped
1 big can crushed tomatoes
2 oz vermouth/wine
1 tspish oregano

Cheeses:
12 oz part skim mozzarella, shredded
12 oz ricotta
1 egg
1 oz grated parmesan

Instructions
Preheat oven to 350F

Noodle Prep
Prep zucchini and let salt do it's magic for ~20 minutes while you assemble the sauce.

Sauce Prep
Sweat onion over medium-high heat with a little olive oil (or spray oil) in your sauce pot with salt. Get translucent. Add garlic, stir until fragrant with salt. Remove sausage from casing, break up into wee little pieces in the pot. Saute until no longer pink. Add tomato paste to pot and stir until no longer bright red and threatens to burn. It's flavor, shut up. Add chopped up mushrooms with so much salt. Cook for 10 minutes until mushrooms release moisture and moisture goes bye bye. Add tomatoes. Rinse can with wine and add to pot. A little booze actually helps release flavors otherwise not available. Simmer until thick - 20-30 minutes.

Noodle Cook
Now that zucchini has been sitting a while, dry with paper towels. Place onto baking sheets lined with silicone mats or parchment paper. Bake for 15 minutes. Pull and allow to cool.

Lasagna Assembly and Cookery
Mix the ricotta and egg together with some salt and pepper. Set aside

Take a 9x13 pan, I use a enameled cast iron because heavy is good. Add a layer of sauce to bottom of pan. Lay in half the "noodles" and top with more sauce. Add most of the ricotta mixture. Spread it around. Add 1/2 the mozzarella.

Layer in more noodles. More sauce, the last bit of ricotta, the other half of mozz and then sprinkle with the parmesan on top.

Put 9x13 pan on a cookie sheet and bake for 35 minutes in the middle of the oven. Turn the broiler onto low and broil for 5-7 minutes until the top is so, so gloriously brown.

Pull for the oven, wait 15 minutes to avoid burning the hell out of your mouth. Slice, serve, be thankful for a "healthy" fix.

TLDR - BIG TAKEAWAY - A quick plea to brewers everywhere - for the love of all of everyone - label if your beer uses grapefruit in it. Turns out there's a chance of it causing some nasty side effects. (Actually for that matter - be kind to everyone and label your beers with anything outside the core four.)

Edited to add - Taking feedback from various parts of the community and adjusting language to be less hyperbolic

Not that long ago, grapefruit was an American breakfast staple. If you wanted to lose weight there's even an ancient still kicking fad diet centered around a ton of grapefruit and grapefruit juice with every meal. But, sadly sometimes even a good thing can be dangerous when combined with the wrong sorts of other good things.

What does this have to do with beer? Some brewers, in an effort to boost those beloved American citrus hop characters, add grapefruit to their beers to create a "wow" aroma and flavor. See Ballast Point's Grapefruit Sculpin as an example. It's amazingly effective and fits seamlessly into the beer spectrum of flavors. But...

Grapefruit has a nasty completely unexpected side effect of interfering with a series of liver and intestinal enzymes - chiefly Cytochrome P450 3A4 aka CYP3A4. So? Well, the job of the thing that sounds like a Star Wars droid is to oxidize and neutralize toxins, poisons and drugs. Really, those are the same thing - scary molecules that your body wants to remove from the system. (Remember Paracelsus maxim: "sola dosis facit venenum" or in a non-dead language "The dose makes the poison" Aka - anything, in large enough quantities can be poisonous.) The studies published show that it takes a bunch of grapefruit juice to have truly deleterious side effects, but many patients and doctors prefer to stay on the safe side when you're dealing with things like heart meds. (Denny for instance)

For most everything we ingest, this inhibition isn't a big deal, but, for a certain fairly sizeable set of medications, it's downright deadly. Many of these drugs are taken on a regular schedule that's determined by a combination of factors including the time for the body to remove it from the system and reduce it below theraputic thresholds. Aka - your dose is based around the general timing that your body will flush enough of the drug within X hours to remove the effects you want from the drug.

Start interfering with the liver's ability to dispose of the chemicals and you throw the time table all out of whack. Suddenly where there should have been little of the medical compound left, you now might be adding another full dose in on top of a high continuing blood level. Since it's the dose that makes the poison, well, you can see the problem.

What causes the problem then? Grapefruit contains chemicals related to furanocoumarin. The nasty piece of business in there is the coumarin which is a liver toxin that is used sparingly in some medications and as a vanilla flavoring. Mexican vanilla extract was banned in the US for years out of adulteration concerns when manufacturers started using the much cheaper Tonka bean to boost the vanillin quantities in their extracts. The tonka bean being the source of the name for coumarin (from the French), turns out that it was dosing a fair amount of coumarin into the extract along with vanilla.

So coumarin, which is mostly banned in the US as a food additive, enters your blood stream via your grapefruit addition in the beer and starts messing with all those enzymes. Keep taking your meds as a good patient should and suddenly you cross from theraputic into potential lethal blood levels of your meds and then you have issues on top of your issues.

For those who are curious Wikipedia lists that there are 85 drugs currently understood to have interactions with grapefruit. Not all through the mechanism above, but mostly in similar fashion the coumarin interferes with enzymes that take up the drugs and cause an inadvertant overdose.

NOTE: All of these drugs have listed interactions with grapefruit - doesn't mean they're going to kill you, but that it will mess with the presumed metabolism of the compound in your body. For some drugs that's particularly dangerous (see many heart meds), but for some things like caffeine as long as you not being a he-man macho idiot, you'll be fine. Heck, even with things like everyone's favorite blue pill, you're probably fine too unless you've got heart problems in the mix - but you already knew those drugs have potential consequences for those with heart conditions.

What's the Risk?: Presumably, low, but when it comes to some of these interactions people need to extra careful. Treat it like an allergy - annoying but with bad consequences.

All we're asking for - help keep Denny alive - label if you're using grapefruit. He's had scares and his heart can't take it. (or something) Heck you should probably label things outside the "core 4" anyway to avoid allergies. Just like the whole thing with , it's not a guaranteed doom and gloom scenario, but your care can help avoid any issues.

Here's some of the biggies.

• Acetaminophen (aka Tylenol - this one's really dangerous because Acetaminophen is already sketchy with the amount of we use in over the counter meds and it mixes poorly with alcohol)
• Adderall
• Allegra
• Cialis
• Codeine
• Cymbalta
• Levitra
• Lipitor
• Prilosec
• Ritalin
• Valium
• Viagra
• Warfarin/Coumadin
• Xanax
• Zoloft

And many people's favorite psychoactive substance - caffeine

YCH Hops asked to me to write occasional blog entries for them. Here's the first one...http://ychhops.com/connect/news/blog/top-10-tips-for-brew-day

I remember back to when I brewed my first batch of beer. It seems like yesterday; however, over two decades have elapsed since that faithful day. Much in the world of home brewing has improved dramatically during the last twenty years. An improvement that comes readily to mind is ingredient quality. Those of us who were participating in the hobby during the first home brewing boom can attest to having to work with hops that were often brown and malt that was past its prime. Small-scale brewers used to receive macro brewer cast-offs, and home brewers received the macro cast-offs that small-scale brewers rejected.

While poor ingredient quality and selection are a thing of the past, there are areas of home brewing that have changed very little in the last twenty years. One such area is an understanding of fermentation byproducts. We have transitioned from a hobby with an incomplete understanding of fermentation byproducts that fermented at room temperature to a hobby that uses temperature-controlled fermentation chambers to mask our incomplete understanding of fermentation byproducts. The topics covered in this blog entry are fermentation byproducts and the role that they play in beer flavor.

Brewers who are relatively new to brewing often treat esters and fusel alcohols (a.k.a. fusel oils) like they are the spawn of Satan. However, beer would not taste like beer without these compounds. In fact, suppressing the production of fusel alcohols and esters can often remove much of an individual yeast strain’s character, resulting in little to no change in flavor when changing yeast strains.

With that said, what are fusel alcohols? Fusel is a German word that translates to “bad liquor.” Another term for fusel alcohol is “higher alcohol.” Why are fusel alcohols referred to as higher alcohols? Well, the word “higher” refers to the fact that fusel alcohols contain more than two carbon atoms.

If we examine the chemical formula for ethanol, we discover that it is mostly commonly written as CH₂CH₃OH. Another formula for this chemical compound is C₂H₆O, which makes it clear that ethanol contains two carbon atoms. Alcohols with more than two carbon atoms have higher molecular weights and boiling points than ethanol; hence, they are higher alcohols.

One of the most commonly encountered higher alcohols in brewing is isoamyl alcohol. The chemical formula for isoamyl alcohol is (CH₃)₂CHCH₂CH₂OH. The formula for isoamyl alcohol is often written as C₅H₁₂O. As one can clearly see, isoamyl alcohol contains more than two carbon atoms. In fact, another name for isoamyl alcohol is isopentyl alcohol due to the fact that the compound contains five carbon atoms.

Another frequently encountered higher alcohol is isobutyl alcohol. The chemical formula for isobutyl alcohol is (CH₃)₂CHCH₂OH. The formula for isobutyl alcohol is often written as C₄H₁₀O. Once again, one can clearly see that this alcohol contains more than two carbon atoms.

An alcohol that is often grouped in with fusel alcohols that is not a higher alcohol is methanol. The chemical formula for methanol is CH₃OH, which is also written as CH₄O. Methanol has a lower molecular weight and boiling point than ethanol. One will often hear the term “heads” used to describe the first condensate that is produced during alcohol distillation. This portion of the condensate is discarded. The reason being is that the heads are mostly methanol due to the fact that methanol makes the phase change from liquid to vapor before ethanol. Methanol is generally not a problem in beer because it exists at low levels. Methanol becomes a problem when we distill beer into whiskey, which is why one should stick with beer. Due to their higher molecular weights and boiling points, the true higher alcohols appear in the condensate known as the “tails.” Higher alcohols have an oily consistency, which is why they are referred to as fusel oils.

Okay, now that we now know that higher alcohols are alcohols that contain more carbon atoms than ethanol, what is an ester? An ester is the result of a condensation reaction between an alcohol and a carboxylic acid. A condensation reaction is a reaction where two compounds combine resulting in a new compound and a water molecule. A carboxylic acid is an acid whose formula ends in COOH. Esters are responsible for a large part of what we describe as beer flavor, especially ale flavor.

A carboxylic acid that is commonly found in beer is acetic acid. Acetic acid production is integral to the yeast metabolic cycle. Every beer drinker who has tasted German-style hefeweizen has encountered an acetic acid-based ester that is available at above perception threshold levels. That ester is isoamyl acetate. Isoamyl acetate is the condensation reaction between isoamyl alcohol and acetic acid. As mentioned above, the chemical formula for isoamyl alcohol is C₅H₁₂O. The chemical formula for acetic acid is CH₃COOH.

Condensation reaction for isoamyl acetate

C₅H₁₂O + CH₃COOH → C₇H₁₄O₂ + H₂O

The reaction shown above reads one molecule of isoamyl alcohol plus one molecule of acetic acid yields one molecule of isoamyl acetate plus one molecule of water.

Two other acetic acid-based esters that are commonly encountered in beer above perception threshold levels are ethyl acetate and isobutyl acetate. As one has more than likely assumed, ethyl acetate is the result of a condensation reaction between ethanol and acetic acid. It has the sweet smell of nail polish remover. Isobutyl acetate is the result of a condensation reaction between isobutyl alcohol and acetic acid. Isobutyl acetate smells like raspberries or pears.

Other carboxylic acids that are frequently encountered in fermentation are hexanoic acid and heptanoic acid. The esters that are most commonly found in beer that are condensation reactions between these carboxylic acids and an alcohol are ethyl hexanoate and ethyl heptanoate, respectively. Ethyl hexanoate smells like red apple. Many brewers who are new to beer sensory evaluation mistake ethyl hexanoate for another yeast metabolic byproduct that smells like apple; namely, acetaldehyde. Acetaldehyde smells like tart green apple. The reason being that if we oxidize acetaldehyde, we obtain acetic acid. Ethyl heptanoate is my all-time favorite ale ester. It smells like one of those grape lollipops that were often given to children by bank tellers and medical office receptionists when I was young. Ales fermented with the Young’s Ram Brewery strain usually contain high levels of this ester when young, which is why I refer to ethyl heptanoate as the British lollipop ester.

An important thing to understand is that ester formation during fermentation occurs within the cell wall with the aid of enzymes. An important group of ester production-related enzymes are known as alcohol acetyl transferases (ATTase). As I mentioned in the blog entry entitled “Carbon Credits,” an enzyme is a reaction catalyst. A reaction catalyst is a compound that increases the rate at which a reaction occurs. Two important acetic acid ester-catalyzing enzymes are AATase 1 and AATase 2. Yeast cells contain two genes that are responsible for encoding these enzymes; namely, ATF1 and ATF2.

I mentioned in my introduction that we have transitioned from a hobby with an incomplete understanding of fermentation byproducts that fermented at room temperature to a hobby that uses temperature-controlled fermentation chambers to mask our incomplete understanding of fermentation byproducts. Quite frankly, fermenting ales at low internal temperatures in order to avoid unwanted fermentation byproducts is treating the symptoms instead of the problem. Fermenting at low temperatures slows yeast metabolism, and anything that slows metabolism slows growth. Most of the esters and higher alcohols are produced during the growth phase.

Other than yeast genetics, the most important attribute in ester production is wort composition. The carbon-to-nitrogen (C:N) ratio plays a major role in ester production. As I mentioned in my blog entry entitled “Carbon Credits,” yeast cells do not consume sugar, they consume carbon, which they attempt to convert into energy. Sugar is carbon bound to water. All-malt wort has a lower C:N ratio than does wort that contains adjuncts. The amount of nitrogen that is available after dissolved oxygen is consumed determines the amount of acetyl CoA that is formed during the growth phase. Acetyl CoA is formed by combining acetic acid with coenzyme A; therefore, more acetyl CoA translates to higher acetic acid-based esters. The least desirable of is ethyl acetate.

Surprisingly, the higher C:N ratio found in adjunct wort results in lower ester levels. Macro beer is maligned beyond belief within the home and craft brewing communities; however, the German brewmasters who were responsible for creating this style were nothing short of geniuses. American 6-row and 2-row barley have higher protein levels than continental and British barley. Higher protein levels translate to higher nitrogen levels. The addition of adjunct reduces the aggregate nitrogen level of the grist, resulting in lower nitrogen wort, which, in turn, results in lower ester levels. Protein levels also play a role in higher alcohol production. Higher alcohols are formed when amino acids are metabolized in via the Ehrlich pathway.

Finally, the type of sugar being metabolized plays an important role in the creation of higher alcohols, which, in turn, plays a role in ester production. Sucrose and fructose result in increased higher alcohol production, and so does glucose to an extent. Maltose metabolism results in considerably lower higher alcohol production than does glucose and fructose.

With this blog entry almost complete, how does one put this information to work in a home brewery? Well, as Denny Conn likes to say, “Wort wants to become beer.” This statement is absolutely true. What we are attempting to do by applying science to beer production is to gain a finer level of control over the finished product. There is no one size fits all approach to brewing. There are just too many variables involved in beer production to distill the process down into a repeatable cookbook process that works in all breweries with all styles and yeast strains.

Due to lack of access to a fully-equipped quality control laboratory, home brewers work with an incomplete knowledge of their ingredients; therefore, one should start by selecting the highest quality ingredients available and applying brewing techniques that have stood the test of time. After the basics have been mastered and a considerable amount of data has been collected (i.e., a proper brewing log is a must), a brewer can start to alter the experiment one variable at a time while taking copious notes.

We know that the disaccharide sucrose and the monosaccharides fructose and glucose tend to translate to increased higher alcohol production; therefore, one strategy to reduce to higher alcohol production would be to avoid mash rest temperatures below 150F, especially when using high protein barley such as American 2-row. A second strategy would be to dilute the protein levels found in American 2-row with a low-protein adjunct such as flaked maize at the rate of 10% of the grist. I personally prefer to use low nitrogen continental and British barleys.

While ester production is bounded by higher alcohol and carboxylic acid production, yeast genetics play a significant role because enzymes are proteins and proteins are encoded via a genetically controlled process known as transcription. We can adjust wort composition and fermentation temperature regulation to control higher alcohol and ester production, but yeast genetics play the ultimate role in the production of these compounds. I always say, “One should pick a yeast strain for the task at hand instead of attempting to trick a yeast strain into performing the task at hand.” If a yeast strain is not producing the sensory profile given by a yeast supplier when used within the given temperature range, then one needs to examine one’s wort composition and/or ensure that one’s thermometer is calibrated. Temperature measurements should be taken as close to the middle of the fermentation vessel as possible.

In the end, brewing is a continuous learning experience. Home brewers have the luxury of being able to brew without having to maintain a profit margin; therefore, one should feel free to experiment with wort composition, temperature control, and different yeast strains while fine tuning one's brewery and brewing process.

I have a confession to make...I am a yeast abuser. And I have been for years. Yes, I know all the "rules" and try to follow them, but sometimes I fail and resort to....yeast abuse. Recently I brewed a batch of my Rye IPA recipe on my Zymatic. Looking in the fridge, I saw some WY1450 with a date of June 26, 2015....10 months old. I thought "I could make a starter with that", but then I thought "Damn, that would take effort".

I simply took it out of the fridge and smacked it to see if there was anything left alive in there. Sure enough, the pack swelled. The yeast abuser in me was delighted...."hey, it's only 2.5 gal. of a 1.065 beer....that should work without a starter!". I know, I know....yeast abuse.

After the beer was done, I sanitized the smack pack, cut off the corner and poured it in. The wort was at 63F. I was nervous, but had faith in my laziness.

When I checked the beer 24 hours later, nothing.

24 more hours and still nothing.

About 12 hours after that, I saw the first signs of fermentation and thought "good enough".

12 hours after that there was a huge krausen that had formed.

After a week-10 days, I opened the keg I was fermenting in and saw that the foam had dropped quite a bit, but was still there. Took a gravity reading an got 1.030....damn, too high. Let it go for another week.

Yesterday I noticed the foam had completely dropped, so I crashed the temp to 33F. Took a gravity reading and it was 1.013...exactly on the money for a FG for that beer!

Poured the gravity sample into a PET bottle, put on a carb cap, and hit it with 30 psi. After 45 min. in the freezer, I had a cold, carbed sample to try. And it was delicious....perfect....exactly what that beer should be. Yeast abuse had paid off again. Sure it took a bit longer to ferment than usual, but that seems to be the only downside.

The moral of this tale is that you should trust your experience. It's great to know what the rules are, and I advise you to follow them until you have enough of your own experience to draw on. And once you do, go with it...trust yourself.

Try what seems to make sense to you, but in the end trust what you know to be personally true. And pour yourself a beer.

On January 24, 1848, James W. Marshall found gold at Sutter’s Mill in Coloma, California. That discovery set into motion the 1849 California Gold Rush. Over 300,000 people migrated to California to seek their fortune, many traveling all of the way from the East Coast in covered wagons. Today, there is a different kind of gold in California. It is a type of gold that is precious to brewers, a microscopic gold. The topic of this entry is the wealth of Saccharomyces and non-Saccharomyces yeast species held by the University of California, Davis.

The University of California, Davis (UC Davis) is home to two yeast collections. The larger of the two collections is the Phaff Yeast Culture Collection, which is named after Dr. Herman Jan Phaff. Dr. Phaff was born in the Netherlands in 1913. He migrated to California to attend graduate school at the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) when he was 26 years old. Dr. Phaff’s interest in enology and brewing was kindled at his family’s winery. After moving from UC Berkeley to UC Davis in 1954, Dr. Phaff went about building the existing UC Davis yeast culture collection into one of the largest in the world. Today, the Phaff collection holds 800 of the 1,600 known species, including those useful to brewers and vintners. The current curator of the Phaff Culture Collection is Dr. Kyria Boundy-Mills. Dr. Boundy-Mills was fortune enough to be able to work with Dr. Phaff before he passed away.

A second yeast culture collection is held by the Department of Viticulture and Enology. While many of the strains held in this collection are also held in the Phaff Collection, it does contain a few brewing strains that were either culled from or apparently never held in the Phaff Yeast Culture Collection. The curator of this collection is C.M. Lucy Joseph, M.S. In addition to caring for the Enology Culture Collection, Ms. Joseph is a published expert on the Brettanomyces genus.

With the above said, the cultures held at UC Davis are not for budget conscious brewers, nor are they for brewers who are not versed in aseptic transfer technique, which is a topic for a future blog entry. However, for amateur and professional brewers who are comfortable wielding an inoculation loop, the cultures held at UC Davis offer a unique opportunity to work with heirloom strains that have been forgotten by history.

One of the first cultures in the UC Davis culture collections to capture my attention was UCDFST 40-219/UCDVEN 1219. UCDFST 40-219/UCDVEN 1219 is the production yeast culture that was used at the defunct Acme Brewing Company in San Francisco. The deposit was made in 1942, which makes the culture 73 years old. A little known fact is that the yeast currently used to ferment Anchor Steam has only been employed at Anchor since the mid-seventies. It is an old Wallerstein Laboratories strain. UCDFST 40-219/UCDVEN 1219 was used to produce lager beer in San Francisco at least 73 years ago. Since the Acme Brewing Company survived prohibition, it is not out of the realm of possibility that UCDFST 40-219/UCDVEN 1219’s use in San Francisco predates the Volstead Act. Another interesting fact is that Leopold Schmidt founded the Acme Brewing Company after founding the Olympia Brewing Company in Tumwater, Washington; therefore, it is also not out of the realm of possibility that UCDFST 40-219/UCDVEN 1219 is a descendant of the original Olympia production yeast strain.

In use, I am not going to sugar coat things. UCDFST 40-219/UCDVEN 1219 is not much fun to grow on solid media. The colony-forming units on a plate are tiny enough to be mistaken for petite mutants. I had to contact Ms. Joseph when I went to subculture the slant on which the strain arrived from UC Davis because it appeared to be blank. According to Ms. Joseph, the culture is a diploid yeast strain. Most brewing strains are polyploids, which is yet another topic for a future blog entry. I wound up using the add a few milliliters of autoclaved 5% weight by volume (w/v) wort to the culture tube, suspend the cells that are available, and then pitch the liquid in the culture tube into a slightly larger amount of autoclaved 5% w/v wort technique because I was unable to harvest a significant yeast scrap from the slant.

The truly strange thing about UCDFST 40-219/UCDVEN 1219 is that it does not behave like a petite isolate when pitched into wort. Attenuation proceeds at a pace that one would expect from any other production strain. The strain is very flocculent. The yeast aggregates into pea-sized flocs, resulting in rapid sedimentation at the end of fermentation. After struggling to get this strain to grow on slant, I was truly astonished to see how well it behaved after being grown into a culture large enough to pitch into a batch of wort. I have never experienced this kind of behavior with a yeast strain since plating my first brewing strain almost twenty-three years ago.

The initial batch of wort used for experimentation with UCDFST 40-219/UCDVEN 1219 was a Pre-Prohibition-style Pilsner with an original gravity of 1.062 and a grist composed of 85% domestic 2-row and 15% flaked maize. The beer was hopped twice with Liberty. The boil length was 90 minutes with a hop addition at 60 minutes before the end of the boil and another hop addition at knockout. Primary fermentation was conducted at 15°C/59°F. The resulting flavor was very rich for such a well-attenuated beer. This strain quickly became a “keeper” in my bank.

Another interesting culture that I obtained from UC Davis is UCDFST 40-420/UCDVEN 1420. UCDFST 40-420/UCDVEN 1420 was deposited by Dr. Catherine Roberts in 1947. This strain is from Kongen’s Bryghus (King Christian IV’s brewhouse) in Denmark. Dr. Roberts was quite a remarkable woman who was way ahead of her time. At a time when job opportunities for women were very limited, she was pioneering the field of yeast genetics with Dr. Øjvind Winge at Carlsberg Laboratory in Copenhagen, Denmark. Dr. Roberts earned her Ph.D. at UC Berkeley, which I assume is how the culture eventually wound up at UC Davis.

If I had to describe UCDFST 40-420/UCDVEN 1420, I would say that it is like Wyeast 1007 with better flavor. Like Wyeast 1007, UCDFST 40-420/UCDVEN 1420 produces a huge head during fermentation. Apparent attenuation is very high (>80%), but flocculation is low, resulting in slow sedimentation. The strain is suitable for top cropping. UCDFST 40-420 is fantastic strain for those looking to produce Northern European ale styles. It is crisp and clean with a nice subtle candy-like ester profile that works very well with Pilsner malt and continental and British hop varieties.

In closing, the cultures held at UC Davis offer advanced amateur and professional brewers an opportunity to work with heirloom strains that have been forgotten by time. There are many other brewing yeast strains that are not as old with respect to deposit date, but are equally intriguing, including Wallerstein strain #36C4 (better known as the yeast strain that was selected for use at New Albion) and old lager cultures from the Lucky Lager Brewery in Azusa, California and Liebmann Breweries in Brooklyn, New York. Brewers should not expect to receive much in the way of brewing data when digging deeply into the UC Davis collection. Opening up the vault is experimental brewing in the truest form because one never knows what one is going to get with culture collection strains. If any commercial yeast propagators are reading this blog, I have attempted to convince Chris White to license UCDFST 40-219/UCDVEN 1219 from UC Davis. He does not appear to be interested in licensing the culture. Here is an opportunity to propagate a true turn-of-the-century San Francisco yeast strain. I know that Dr. Boundy-Mills has shown interest in working with yeast propagators.

Fermentation is an incredibly complex process that can be mind boggling at times. Brewers like to think of yeast as a microscopic lifeform that transforms the sugars found in wort into alcohol, carbon dioxide gas, and metabolic byproducts that add flavor to the final product. However, in reality, yeast cells do not consume sugar. Yeast cells consume carbon, which they attempt to transform into energy. Alcohol and metabolic byproducts are the results of an inefficient metabolic pathway. The topic of this blog entry is how yeast cells transform compounds collectively known as carbohydrates into energy.

Brewers often hear the term “organic chemistry” used when describing fermentation. Organic chemistry is the study of carbon-based compounds. Sugar is carbon bound to water; hence, the term carbohydrate. All of the sugars found in wort are multiples of CH₂O. The simplest sugars found in wort are known as monosaccharides. The monosaccharides commonly found in wort are glucose, fructose, mannose, and galactose. These sugars are also known as hexoses because they contain six carbon atoms. All of the hexoses share the shame chemical formula, which is C₆H₁₂O₆. How the hexoses differ is in their linear form.

The four hexoses commonly found in wort belong to two different types of simple sugar. Galactose, glucose, and mannose are aldoses. Fructose is a ketose. An aldose is a sugar that contains one aldehyde group per molecule. A ketose is a sugar that contains one ketone group per molecule. Aldoses differ from ketoses in the location of something known as a carbonyl group. A carbonyl group is a carbon atom that is double bound to an oxygen atom. The carbonyl group appears at the end of the carbon chain in aldoses whereas it appears in the middle of the carbon chain in ketoses. Ketoses where the carbonyl group appears at the end of the molecule can isomerize into aldoses. The carbonyl group in d-fructose appears at the end of the molecule; therefore, it can isomerize into an aldose.

As we move up the scale in complexity from the monosaccharides, we discover a group of sugars known as disaccharides. A disaccharide consists of two monosaccharides bound by what is known as a glycosidic bond. The most abundant disaccharide found in wort is maltose. Maltose consists of two glucose molecules bound by a glycosidic bond. Sucrose is also a disaccharide found in wort, but to a lesser extent. Sucrose consists of a glucose molecule bound to a fructose molecule by a glycosidic bond. Another disaccharide that Saccharomyces pastorianus (S. pastorianus or simply lager yeast) can reduce to monosaccharides, but Saccharomyces cerevisiae (S. cerevisiae or simply ale yeast) usually cannot is melibiose. Melibiose consists of a glucose molecule bound to a galactose molecule by a glycosidic bond.

What is a glycosidic bond? A glycosidic bound is a type of covalent bond. In the case of glycosidic bonds, the bond occurs when atoms in two different sugar molecules share what are known as valence electrons. A glycosidic bond is formed via what is known as a condensation reaction. The outcome of a condensation reaction is another compound and an H₂O molecule. For example, as mentioned above, maltose is a disaccharide that contains two glucose molecules bound by a glycosidic bond. Maltose is formed via the following condensation reaction:

C₆H₁₂O₆ + C₆H₁₂O₆→ C₁₂H₂₂O₁₁ + H₂O

By the way, like the monosaccharides, all disaccharides share the same chemical formula. The chemical formula for a disaccharide is C₁₂H₂₂O₁₁.

The most complex sugars found in wort that affect fermentation belong to a family of carbohydrates known as trisaccharides. A trisaccharide consists of three monosaccharides bound by two glycosidic bonds. All trisaccharides share the chemical formula C₁₈H₃₂O₁₆. The ability to reduce trisaccharides to simpler sugars is one of the attributes that affects how well changes in saccharification rest temperature affect final gravity. For example, maltotriose is the most frequently occurring trisaccharide found in wort. Maltotriose consists of three glucose molecules bound by two glycosidic bonds. One of the reasons why Lallemand Windsor leaves a high terminal gravity is because the yeast strain is maltotriose challenged. One way to offset this weakness is to rest one’s mash at a temperature of 65°C/149° or lower to produce an extract that contains a lower percentage of trisaccharides and dextrins. Many brewers refer to this type of wort as a more fermentable wort.

If yeast cells can only use monosaccharides directly, how do they reduce disaccharides and trisaccharides to monosaccharides? Yeast cells perform this feat via the inverse of a condensation reaction. The process is called hydrolysis. The roots of the word hydrolysis are from the Greek “hydros” for water and from the Latin “lysis” for break apart or deconstruct. Together, these words mean break apart via the insertion of water, and that is exactly what happens.

While breaking the glycosidic bond in a disaccharide is a one-step process, breaking the glycosidic bonds in a trisaccharide requires two steps. In the case of maltotriose, the first step involves breaking a maltotriose molecule into one maltose molecule and one glucose molecule.

C₁₈H₃₂O₁₆ + H₂O → C₁₂H₂₂O₁₁ + C₆H₁₂O₆

The maltose molecule is then split into two glucose molecules.

C₁₂H₂₂O₁₁ + H₂O → C₆H₁₂O₆ + C₆H₁₂O₆

Brewers who have delved into this area of fermentation have heard that S. pastorianus can use raffinose as a carbon source while S. cerevisiae can only partially metabolize raffinose. This limitation is due to the same limitation that prevents most S. cerevisiae strains from using melibiose as a carbon source. Raffinose consists of two glucose molecules and one galactose molecule. What happens when S. cerevisiae attempts to break the glycosidic bonds that hold raffinose together is that the raffinose molecule is split into one melibiose molecule and one glucose molecule. Unable to break the bond that holds melibiose together, this disaccharide is left undigested. Raffinose is lost during the malting of barley; therefore, it is absent from wort.

The rate at which hydrolytic reactions occur is shortened by the creation of enzymes. Enzymes are reaction catalysts. A reaction catalyst is a compound that increases the rate at which a reaction occurs. The enzyme responsible for catalyzing the hydrolysis of maltose into two glucose molecules is called maltase.

Enzymes are proteins, and proteins are encoded by cells via a process known as transcription. A cell’s DNA provides the blueprints for transcribing proteins. If one has ever wondered why different yeast strains yield different levels of attenuation given everything else equal, herein lies the reason. A yeast cell’s DNA controls the enzymes that can be encoded as well as the level at which the enzymes can be encoded.

What happens after the higher-level saccharides are broken down into monosaccharides? Well, the yeast cell goes about performing something known as catabolization. Catabolism is a metabolic process where the yeast cells attempt to turn carbon-based compounds into energy.

The primary catabolic process that occurs in yeast cells is called glycolysis. Once again, we see a word that ends in “lysis;” therefore, we know that this process involves the breaking apart or deconstruction of a compound. In the case of glycolysis, the compound is glucose. Glucose is the primary monosaccharide found in wort. It is also a building block for the most common disaccharides and trisaccharides found in wort. The goal of glycolysis is to turn glucose into a compound known as adenosine triphosphate (ATP). ATP is the fuel source for a cell. The transformation of glucose into ATP in the less efficient anaerobic metabolic pathway results the production of ethanol, higher alcohols, diketones, and organic acids. We can look at these metabolic byproducts as the yeast equivalent of incomplete combustion, as all of these compounds contain carbon.

This past weekend Denny and I were invited to roam around the Bay Area by one of our podcast sponsors, Craftmeister. Craftmeister was in town to demonstrate their cleaning line to customers and employees at the Bay Area More Beer retail locations and brought us along to autograph copies of B3's latest catalog offering - Experimental Homebrewing!

Anyway - Denny and I met up with Jonathan Ettlie in Oakland and proceeded to run around town. You see, we have this new thing - the podcast - and you know what's hard? Making sure you have enough good and interesting content. After all, why listen if all you've got is two blowhards boringly bloviating even if the blather is about beer. (Stop me before I alliterate again!) So, the good news is we turned our madcap time in the Bay Area into a full field recording session for the podcast. Assuming the audio we captured worked out - we've got some great content coming up from Jay Goodwin of the Rare Barrel and the Sour Hour, Shaun "Sully" O'Sullivan of 21st Amendment, a listener tasting gone awry at MoreBeer, Nick Impellitteri of the Yeast Bay and the always voluble Rodger Davis of Faction Brewing

Day One

Rare Barrel

Our first stop was one of the most exciting breweries in America - The Rare Barrel in Berkeley. The basic story of the Barrel - Jay Goodwin worked on barrel aged projects for the Bruery before striking out on his own to produce nothing but sour ales We got to sit down with him and a tasty tasty glass of Map of the Sun. Even though we were there while the brewery was closed, the whole massive operation was rocking with brewery workers hard at the process of creating new sours. We had a fascinating talk about his philosophy and process of brewing - grabbed tips and tricks and hopefully if the audio survived - we'll feature Jay in episode 3 on December 9th.

21st Amendment

A Wall of Bitter American Cans greets you - Eventually Sully wants to open a performance space up here in the front - until then - monkey's on cans! So we left the airport and went north to get to Jay and then promptly turned around and went south of the airport to get to the place I'm calling "Rancho El Sully" aka Shaun O'Sullivan's adult wonderland - the 21st Amendment Brewery in San Leandro. First order of business was grabbing a Toaster Pastry - the beer named for the former tenant of the massive facility - a manufacturer of breakfast cereals and toaster warmed pastries. Zambo and Sully on the Sully Tour Our first greeting was with an old friend - David Zamborski aka Zambo. Zambo brewed years ago for BJ's down in LA before floating around and eventually landing as the chief brewer at the original 21A brewery in San Francisco. He was out at the garguatuan brewery working on 21A's first barrel project so that was unexpectedly awesome to thumb my nose in greeting at one of my favorite people. Barrels of deliciousness - these are the construction beer barrels. Filled while the brewery was still in progress and moved around constantly as construction continued around them. Sully was pleasantly surprised with how they're tasting. Sully then showed up and took us around the brewery like a proud father, completely baffled how a little 12 barrel brewpub in San Francisco could eventually grow up into a monster brewery like this. As he took us around, the refrain kept repeating of "look at all these cool toys and how strange is this?" This is one of the most beautiful brew decks ever with computer controls and beautiful hop tanks. Hell, even the boilers look like the first super computers I worked on - only with chimney stacks. The underside of a very small mash tunThese are the backside of the very fancy boilers that power the brewery. Room in here for at least one more should they need itMuch like the smaller PicoBrew Zymatic systems - you add your hops to the boil kettle via these tanks down on the ground floorA fully automated brewery requires the use of computers to control the whole flow and that's what we've got here. Cool touches existed everywhere including the brewery's logos to demonstrate that the whole thing is customWhen your fermenters are super tall, you need a better solution that cart barrels of hops to the tank top and dumping them in. In this case, you fill the small tank with hops and blow them into the fermenters with CO₂. The tank name - that's the guy who suggested the trick to Sully!The tank farm - cause every brewery needs a whole pile of giant fermenters! We sat down in the brewer's office, hidden by the tasting room and had a lovely chat with Shaun. Expect to hear his take on the brewing world and how you go from a little brewpub messing around with cans to an old lager brewery in the Midwest to a terrifying industrial complex of your own. I swear I'm not planning anything nefarious!A little Toaster Pastry!

Yeast Bay at the Trappist

One last stop of the evening took us back to Oakland and one of my favorite bars, The Trappist. There we met with Nick Impellitteri, owner, proprietor, chief rancher of the Yeast Bay. Sitting over a couple of beers, Denny and I chatted with Nick about why he started the Yeast Bay and what drives his particular take on a yeast company. We also got into the mix a bit on his favorite bacterias and strains and why he works with White Labs. We're looking forward to playing with more of Nick's products and getting to know his strains better!

Day Two

MoreBeer Los Altos

On Friday we started our world tour with a morning run to the heart of the Silicon Valley and the MoreBeer in Los Altos. On the way we waved hello to FaceBook and a bunch of other names we all recognize. The Los Altos store is super tiny, but fun to explore all the nooks and crannies. As we talked up the Craftmeister cleaners and signed books, I kept finding new things to try at home. (Mostly around the wine/cider side of the house). More reports on those later. A definite highlight of the visit was a mobile version of Troubleshooter's Corner (a thing I do for the Maltose Falcons). A reader and listener, Alex, showed up with a bottle of his Kombucha beer, but things turned mildly explosive as we raced trhough the store, recorder in hand. I really hope the audio for this turns out because the image of me running and narrating is really awesome. Beer Tasting on the Fly

MoreBeer San Leandro

I grabbed exactly zero photos as we returned to the land of Sully, but what was really interesting to see was how MoreBeer is integrating purchased properties like this store, which was BrewMaster and moving the wholesale/retail operations under one new roof away from the traditional home of Concord. Also, you know what's really nice? Showing up at a place after the Briess folks have been there is always a treat because they usually leave Malted Milk Balls. These things are so fantastic it's unfair. Seriously, you want these balls in your face hole.

St. George's

While we were really tempted to go hit El Sully again, we had another date to make for our podcast tour. Jonathan bravely tackled the Friday night traffic to take us from San Leandro to Alameda island. If you're not familiar with the Bay Area - Alameda is one of many islands in the Bay that's been used over the years by the US Military. I think every big island in the Bay has been a military base at same point - Alameda, Alcatraz, Angel, Treasure, Yerba Buena, etc. Anyway - as the military reconfigures its domestic base profile, facilities are left fallow and ripe for adaptive reuse. Given the expense of real estate in the bay, it really shouldn't be surprising that the former military bases are ripe for re-use. Out on Alameda, a series of massive helicopter hangers are all in use by the beverage industry - Hangar One Vodka, my favorite American gin maker - St George's and naturally what we're really here to see - The Billion Dollar View - From Faction's parking lot looking over to the city. When we first arrived, I knew that St. George's was next door to the brewery, so I figured we'd have to stop in and say "hi". Sure enough, I ran over and found out that the tasting room closes well before we'd be done with Rodger, so I cajoled Denny and Jonathan into joining me for a tasting. I'm super good at that. (My superpower - convince people to do the things they want to do but keep telling themselves they shouldn't!) Between Jonathan and I we ordered pretty much all of the St. George lineup available that day. The All Purpose Vodka was what it said on the tin - all purpose, clean, neutral. Jonathan really liked the Green Chile with it's punchy peppery nose while I appreciated the bright blast of the Citrus Vodka. Then of course there's the gin - the thing they're really known for. I still view an ice cold Terroir Martini with it's strong sage and piney notes as the perfect post work week antidote, but hey any of them work well! But the real surprise and mic drop came with the fruit and other liqueurs. They had a pretty rad Absinthe and Chicory Coffee liqueur, but the stars were a Pear Brandy in the Eau de Vie fashion that was also used to create a Spiced Pear Liqueur that's pure awesomeness.

Faction Brewing - A Man, A Bear and A Beer

After our brief journey into the land of spirits, we walked across the parking lot to find and say hello to the crew at Faction. Basically that's Rodger's operation in a converted marine helo hanger with all the requisite doors that he closes with his favorite toy - the forklift. (When we first arrived, Rodger was running around cleaning up the brewery for the weekend. He was busy driving around, picking up stacks of kegs and barrels. He even swung the forklift around to say hello to us. He also insists that the forklift is not one of his favorite things. I would disagree, but he might get mad at me) Brewery Mural Above the Racks of BarrelsI love old pieces of hardware - that's a seriously crunchy auto door return.My new favorite beer name - Hipster ConformantBeer Equipment Gets Recycled From Brewery to BreweryIn the interview,Rodger revealed that he had possible the longest grain augur that runs from the back of ther brewery warehouse all the way to the brew house towards the front. (Follow the white pipe.) Why? A small endangered species lives on the far side of the runway necessitating height restrictions that forced the silo to the back of the hangar.Rodger has an unironic love of Hamm's. Sascha (the real bear's name). The bear keeps a watch from the commander's office over the brewery floorSuch a thing with brewers Rodger is known for being a voluble subject with plenty of attitude and opinions on beers and brewing. He played great host with an unending supply of beer samples including his long series of 2 Hop Pales with a main bittering hop (Delta while we were there) and a different finishing hop. As we sat up in the commander offices were talked for a long time and covered endless subjects, so let's just say that Denny has his work cut out for him! After a long time of sampling and talking we finally retired for one last day of adventuring.

Day Three

MoreBeer Concord

Jonathan, Denny and Drew at the MoreBeer Concord Mothership Our final day started at the mothership of MoreBeer. Formerly the home to MoreBeer's warehouse activities, the showroom has plenty of room to grow and is in the process of being re-worked. While Jonathan proffered samples and talked to everyone about the cleaners and their experiences. Denny and I spent our time talking with customers, signing books and answering questions. We hung out and generally had a grand time. Jonathan gave away a ton of cleaner and we signed a whole bunch of books and meeting podcast listeners. (It's really great to know that people are listening!) Denny making friends After MoreBeer, we took a slight side trip...

Hop Grenade

After all was said and done, we were in Concord with time to kill before our flights the next morning. So naturally we went to the Hop Grenade, home of the Brewing Network. While there, and enjoying beers with various folks - Denny and I invaded the Brewing Network's proper studio. Denny got to play audio engineer and looked around all the equipment and commenting on the qualities of the various mikes and compressors. One of these days maybe we'll have real gear like those boys! Requisite studio invasion photoDenny's a Natural We did make one last stop - Cellarmaker, but by that point I was done with cameras and audio. Beer was good though!

Day Four - Goodbyes!

So long San Francisco! Until next time - keep your pints frosty for me!

Because I can, that's why

This is my recent splurge food. I love it and it's fairly healthy. Ok, it's mostly a clever way to have a satisfying chunk of meats and cheeses in red sauce and not feel like a total pig.

What does this have to do with beer? Well, if you eat this instead of the full fat, full meat, full bechamel, full every damn cheese version, you can drink more beer and not be a lard butt. Expect to see a whole lot more about how to lose weight as a brewer in the near future. This is just one part of it! It's damn tasty and you should make it. Here's how

Zucchini Turkey Sausage Lasagna

Makes 6 servings in a 9x13 pan - because they lie when they say "8 servings" No one eats 1/8th of a 9x13 pan of lasagna without feeling a pang of regret and nibbling off small pieces with a fork.

Approximately 420 calories per serving. (Compare that to traditional lasagna which has something like eleventy billion per slice - and you eat two of them)

"Noodles":
3 largish zucchini, sliced into planks on mandoline, salted liberally on paper towels. I use the second thickest setting on the mandoline to get sturdy slices that dont fall apart but also don't dominate the meaty cheese goodness.

Sauce:
1 onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
3 links hot italian turkey sausage
1 tbsp tomato paste
10 oz crimini mushrooms, chopped
1 big can crushed tomatoes
2 oz vermouth/wine
1 tspish oregano

Cheeses:
12 oz part skim mozzarella, shredded
12 oz ricotta
1 egg
1 oz grated parmesan

Instructions
Preheat oven to 350F

Noodle Prep
Prep zucchini and let salt do it's magic for ~20 minutes while you assemble the sauce.

Sauce Prep
Sweat onion over medium-high heat with a little olive oil (or spray oil) in your sauce pot with salt. Get translucent. Add garlic, stir until fragrant with salt. Remove sausage from casing, break up into wee little pieces in the pot. Saute until no longer pink. Add tomato paste to pot and stir until no longer bright red and threatens to burn. It's flavor, shut up. Add chopped up mushrooms with so much salt. Cook for 10 minutes until mushrooms release moisture and moisture goes bye bye. Add tomatoes. Rinse can with wine and add to pot. A little booze actually helps release flavors otherwise not available. Simmer until thick - 20-30 minutes.

Noodle Cook
Now that zucchini has been sitting a while, dry with paper towels. Place onto baking sheets lined with silicone mats or parchment paper. Bake for 15 minutes. Pull and allow to cool.

Lasagna Assembly and Cookery
Mix the ricotta and egg together with some salt and pepper. Set aside

Take a 9x13 pan, I use a enameled cast iron because heavy is good. Add a layer of sauce to bottom of pan. Lay in half the "noodles" and top with more sauce. Add most of the ricotta mixture. Spread it around. Add 1/2 the mozzarella.

Layer in more noodles. More sauce, the last bit of ricotta, the other half of mozz and then sprinkle with the parmesan on top.

Put 9x13 pan on a cookie sheet and bake for 35 minutes in the middle of the oven. Turn the broiler onto low and broil for 5-7 minutes until the top is so, so gloriously brown.

Pull for the oven, wait 15 minutes to avoid burning the hell out of your mouth. Slice, serve, be thankful for a "healthy" fix.

TLDR - BIG TAKEAWAY - A quick plea to brewers everywhere - for the love of all of everyone - label if your beer uses grapefruit in it. Turns out there's a chance of it causing some nasty side effects. (Actually for that matter - be kind to everyone and label your beers with anything outside the core four.) Edited to add - Taking feedback from various parts of the community and adjusting language to be less hyperbolic Not that long ago, grapefruit was an American breakfast staple. If you wanted to lose weight there's even an ancient still kicking fad diet centered around a ton of grapefruit and grapefruit juice with every meal. But, sadly sometimes even a good thing can be dangerous when combined with the wrong sorts of other good things. What does this have to do with beer? Some brewers, in an effort to boost those beloved American citrus hop characters, add grapefruit to their beers to create a "wow" aroma and flavor. See Ballast Point's Grapefruit Sculpin as an example. It's amazingly effective and fits seamlessly into the beer spectrum of flavors. But... Grapefruit has a nasty completely unexpected side effect of interfering with a series of liver and intestinal enzymes - chiefly Cytochrome P450 3A4 aka CYP3A4. So? Well, the job of the thing that sounds like a Star Wars droid is to oxidize and neutralize toxins, poisons and drugs. Really, those are the same thing - scary molecules that your body wants to remove from the system. (Remember Paracelsus maxim: "sola dosis facit venenum" or in a non-dead language "The dose makes the poison" Aka - anything, in large enough quantities can be poisonous.) The studies published show that it takes a bunch of grapefruit juice to have truly deleterious side effects, but many patients and doctors prefer to stay on the safe side when you're dealing with things like heart meds. (Denny for instance) For most everything we ingest, this inhibition isn't a big deal, but, for a certain fairly sizeable set of medications, it's downright deadly. Many of these drugs are taken on a regular schedule that's determined by a combination of factors including the time for the body to remove it from the system and reduce it below theraputic thresholds. Aka - your dose is based around the general timing that your body will flush enough of the drug within X hours to remove the effects you want from the drug. Start interfering with the liver's ability to dispose of the chemicals and you throw the time table all out of whack. Suddenly where there should have been little of the medical compound left, you now might be adding another full dose in on top of a high continuing blood level. Since it's the dose that makes the poison, well, you can see the problem. What causes the problem then? Grapefruit contains chemicals related to furanocoumarin. The nasty piece of business in there is the coumarin which is a liver toxin that is used sparingly in some medications and as a vanilla flavoring. Mexican vanilla extract was banned in the US for years out of adulteration concerns when manufacturers started using the much cheaper Tonka bean to boost the vanillin quantities in their extracts. The tonka bean being the source of the name for coumarin (from the French), turns out that it was dosing a fair amount of coumarin into the extract along with vanilla. So coumarin, which is mostly banned in the US as a food additive, enters your blood stream via your grapefruit addition in the beer and starts messing with all those enzymes. Keep taking your meds as a good patient should and suddenly you cross from theraputic into potential lethal blood levels of your meds and then you have issues on top of your issues. For those who are curious Wikipedia lists that there are 85 drugs currently understood to have interactions with grapefruit. Not all through the mechanism above, but mostly in similar fashion the coumarin interferes with enzymes that take up the drugs and cause an inadvertant overdose. NOTE: All of these drugs have listed interactions with grapefruit - doesn't mean they're going to kill you, but that it will mess with the presumed metabolism of the compound in your body. For some drugs that's particularly dangerous (see many heart meds), but for some things like caffeine as long as you not being a he-man macho idiot, you'll be fine. Heck, even with things like everyone's favorite blue pill, you're probably fine too unless you've got heart problems in the mix - but you already knew those drugs have potential consequences for those with heart conditions. What's the Risk?: Presumably, low, but when it comes to some of these interactions people need to extra careful. Treat it like an allergy - annoying but with bad consequences. All we're asking for - help keep Denny alive - label if you're using grapefruit. He's had scares and his heart can't take it. (or something) Heck you should probably label things outside the "core 4" anyway to avoid allergies. Just like the whole thing with , it's not a guaranteed doom and gloom scenario, but your care can help avoid any issues. Here's some of the biggies.

• Acetaminophen (aka Tylenol - this one's really dangerous because Acetaminophen is already sketchy with the amount of we use in over the counter meds and it mixes poorly with alcohol)
• Adderall
• Allegra
• Cialis
• Codeine
• Cymbalta
• Levitra
• Lipitor
• Prilosec
• Ritalin
• Valium
• Viagra
• Warfarin/Coumadin
• Xanax
• Zoloft

And many people's favorite psychoactive substance - caffeine

YCH Hops asked to me to write occasional blog entries for them. Here's the first one...http://ychhops.com/connect/news/blog/top-10-tips-for-brew-day

Introduction

I remember back to when I brewed my first batch of beer. It seems like yesterday; however, over two decades have elapsed since that faithful day. Much in the world of home brewing has improved dramatically during the last twenty years. An improvement that comes readily to mind is ingredient quality. Those of us who were participating in the hobby during the first home brewing boom can attest to having to work with hops that were often brown and malt that was past its prime. Small-scale brewers used to receive macro brewer cast-offs, and home brewers received the macro cast-offs that small-scale brewers rejected. While poor ingredient quality and selection are a thing of the past, there are areas of home brewing that have changed very little in the last twenty years. One such area is an understanding of fermentation byproducts. We have transitioned from a hobby with an incomplete understanding of fermentation byproducts that fermented at room temperature to a hobby that uses temperature-controlled fermentation chambers to mask our incomplete understanding of fermentation byproducts. The topics covered in this blog entry are fermentation byproducts and the role that they play in beer flavor.

Fermentation Metabolites

Brewers who are relatively new to brewing often treat esters and fusel alcohols (a.k.a. fusel oils) like they are the spawn of Satan. However, beer would not taste like beer without these compounds. In fact, suppressing the production of fusel alcohols and esters can often remove much of an individual yeast strain’s character, resulting in little to no change in flavor when changing yeast strains.

Fusel Alcohols

With that said, what are fusel alcohols? Fusel is a German word that translates to “bad liquor.” Another term for fusel alcohol is “higher alcohol.” Why are fusel alcohols referred to as higher alcohols? Well, the word “higher” refers to the fact that fusel alcohols contain more than two carbon atoms. If we examine the chemical formula for ethanol, we discover that it is most commonly written as CH₂CH₃OH. Another formula for this chemical compound is C₂H₆O, which makes it clear that ethanol contains two carbon atoms. Alcohols with more than two carbon atoms have higher molecular weights and boiling points than ethanol; hence, they are higher alcohols. One of the most commonly encountered higher alcohols in brewing is isoamyl alcohol. The chemical formula for isoamyl alcohol is (CH₃)₂CHCH₂CH₂OH. The formula for isoamyl alcohol is often written as C₅H₁₂O. As one can clearly see, isoamyl alcohol contains more than two carbon atoms. In fact, another name for isoamyl alcohol is isopentyl alcohol due to the fact that the compound contains five carbon atoms. Another frequently encountered higher alcohol is isobutyl alcohol. The chemical formula for isobutyl alcohol is (CH₃)₂CHCH₂OH. The formula for isobutyl alcohol is often written as C₄H₁₀O. Once again, one can clearly see that this alcohol contains more than two carbon atoms. An alcohol that is often grouped in with fusel alcohols that is not a higher alcohol is methanol. The chemical formula for methanol is CH₃OH, which is also written as CH₄O. Methanol has a lower molecular weight and boiling point than ethanol. One will often hear the term “heads” used to describe the first condensate that is produced during alcohol distillation. This portion of the condensate is discarded. The reason being is that the heads are mostly methanol due to the fact that methanol makes the phase change from liquid to vapor before ethanol. Methanol is generally not a problem in beer because it exists at low levels. Methanol becomes a problem when we distill beer into whiskey, which is why one should stick with beer. Due to their higher molecular weights and boiling points, the true higher alcohols appear in the condensate known as the “tails.” Higher alcohols have an oily consistency, which is why they are referred to as fusel oils.

Esters

Okay, now that we now know that higher alcohols are alcohols that contain more carbon atoms than ethanol, what is an ester? An ester is the result of a condensation reaction between an alcohol and a carboxylic acid. A condensation reaction is a reaction where two compounds combine resulting in a new compound and a water molecule. A carboxylic acid is an acid whose formula ends in COOH. Esters are responsible for a large part of what we describe as beer flavor, especially ale flavor. A carboxylic acid that is commonly found in beer is acetic acid. Acetic acid production is integral to the yeast metabolic cycle. Every beer drinker who has tasted German-style hefeweizen has encountered an acetic acid-based ester that is available at above perception threshold levels. That ester is isoamyl acetate. Isoamyl acetate is the condensation reaction between isoamyl alcohol and acetic acid. As mentioned above, the chemical formula for isoamyl alcohol is C₅H₁₂O. The chemical formula for acetic acid is CH₃COOH. Condensation reaction for isoamyl acetate C₅H₁₂O + CH₃COOH → C₇H₁₄O₂ + H₂O The reaction shown above reads one molecule of isoamyl alcohol plus one molecule of acetic acid yields one molecule of isoamyl acetate plus one molecule of water. Two other acetic acid-based esters that are commonly encountered in beer above perception threshold levels are ethyl acetate and isobutyl acetate. As one has more than likely assumed, ethyl acetate is the result of a condensation reaction between ethanol and acetic acid. It has the sweet smell of nail polish remover. Isobutyl acetate is the result of a condensation reaction between isobutyl alcohol and acetic acid. Isobutyl acetate smells like raspberries or pears. Other carboxylic acids that are frequently encountered in fermentation are hexanoic acid and heptanoic acid. The esters that are most commonly found in beer that are condensation reactions between these carboxylic acids and an alcohol are ethyl hexanoate and ethyl heptanoate, respectively. Ethyl hexanoate smells like red apple. Many brewers who are new to beer sensory evaluation mistake ethyl hexanoate for another yeast metabolic byproduct that smells like apple; namely, acetaldehyde. Acetaldehyde smells like tart green apple. The reason being that if we oxidize acetaldehyde, we obtain acetic acid. Ethyl heptanoate is my all-time favorite ale ester. It smells like one of those grape lollipops that were often given to children by bank tellers and medical office receptionists when I was young. Ales fermented with the Young’s Ram Brewery strain usually contain high levels of this ester when young, which is why I refer to ethyl heptanoate as the British lollipop ester.

Factors Affecting Metabolic Production

I mentioned in my introduction that we have transitioned from a hobby with an incomplete understanding of fermentation byproducts that fermented at room temperature to a hobby that uses temperature-controlled fermentation chambers to mask our incomplete understanding of fermentation byproducts. Quite frankly, fermenting ales at low internal temperatures in order to avoid unwanted fermentation byproducts is treating the symptoms instead of the problem. While fermentation temperature cannot be be ignored, the role of genetics and wort composition in the production of fusel alcohols and esters are equally important.

Temperature

Fermenting at low temperatures slows yeast metabolism, and anything that slows metabolism slows growth. Most of the esters and higher alcohols are produced during the growth phase. Slowing metabolism reduces metabolite production.

Genetics

An important thing to understand is that ester formation during fermentation occurs within the cell wall with the aid of enzymes. An important ester production-related enzyme is known as alcohol o-acetyltransferase (ATTase). As I mentioned in the blog entry entitled “Carbon Credits,” an enzyme is a reaction catalyst. A reaction catalyst is a compound that increases the rate at which a reaction occurs. There are actually two AATase enzymes; namely, AATase 1 and AATase 2. Yeast cells contain two genes that are responsible for encoding these enzymes; namely, ATF1 and ATF2.

Wort Composition

Other than yeast genetics, the most important attribute in ester production is wort composition. The carbon-to-nitrogen (C:N) ratio plays a major role in ester production. As I mentioned in my blog entry entitled “Carbon Credits,” yeast cells do not consume sugar, they consume carbon, which they attempt to convert into energy. Sugar is carbon bound to water. All-malt wort has a lower C:N ratio than does wort that contains adjuncts. The amount of nitrogen that is available after dissolved oxygen is consumed determines the amount of acetyl CoA that is formed during the growth phase. Acetyl CoA is formed by combining acetic acid with coenzyme A; therefore, more acetyl CoA translates to higher acetic acid-based esters. The least desirable of is ethyl acetate. Surprisingly, the higher C:N ratio found in adjunct wort results in lower ester levels. Macro beer is maligned beyond belief within the home and craft brewing communities; however, the German brewmasters who were responsible for creating this style were nothing short of geniuses. American 6-row and 2-row barley have higher protein levels than continental and British barley. Higher protein levels translate to higher nitrogen levels. The addition of adjunct reduces the aggregate nitrogen level of the grist, resulting in lower nitrogen wort, which, in turn, results in lower ester levels. Protein levels also play a role in higher alcohol production. Higher alcohols are formed when amino acids are metabolized in via the Ehrlich pathway. Finally, the type of sugar being metabolized plays an important role in the creation of higher alcohols, which, in turn, plays a role in ester production. Sucrose and fructose result in increased higher alcohol production, and so does glucose to an extent. Maltose metabolism results in considerably lower higher alcohol production than does glucose and fructose.

Applying Science to Beer Production

With this blog entry almost complete, how does one put this information to work in a home brewery? Well, as Denny Conn likes to say, “Wort wants to become beer.” This statement is absolutely true. What we are attempting to do by applying science to beer production is to gain a finer level of control over the finished product. There is no one size fits all approach to brewing. There are just too many variables involved in beer production to distill the process down into a repeatable cookbook process that works in all breweries with all styles and yeast strains.

Quality Ingredients and Proven Techniques

Due to lack of access to a fully-equipped quality control laboratory, home brewers work with an incomplete knowledge of their ingredients; therefore, one should start by selecting the highest quality ingredients available and applying brewing techniques that have stood the test of time. After the basics have been mastered and a considerable amount of data has been collected (i.e., a proper brewing log is a must), a brewer can start to alter the experiment one variable at a time while taking copious notes.

Adjusting Wort Composition

We know that the disaccharide sucrose and the monosaccharides fructose and glucose tend to translate to increased higher alcohol production; therefore, one strategy to reduce to higher alcohol production would be to avoid mash rest temperatures below 150F, especially when using high protein barley such as American 2-row. A second strategy would be to dilute the protein levels found in American 2-row with a low-protein adjunct such as flaked maize at the rate of 10% of the grist. I personally prefer to use low nitrogen continental and British barleys.

Selecting for Character

While ester production is bounded by higher alcohol and carboxylic acid production, yeast genetics play a significant role because enzymes are proteins and proteins are encoded via a genetically controlled process known as transcription. We can adjust wort composition and fermentation temperature regulation to control higher alcohol and ester production, but yeast genetics play the ultimate role in the production of these compounds. I always say, “One should pick a yeast strain for the task at hand instead of attempting to trick a yeast strain into performing the task at hand.” If a yeast strain is not producing the sensory profile given by a yeast supplier when used within the given temperature range, then one needs to examine one’s wort composition and/or ensure that one’s thermometer is calibrated. Temperature measurements should be taken as close to the middle of the fermentation vessel as possible.

Closing Thoughts

In the end, brewing is a continuous learning experience. Home brewers have the luxury of being able to brew without having to maintain a profit margin; therefore, one should feel free to experiment with wort composition, temperature control, and different yeast strains while fine tuning one's brewery and brewing process.

I have a confession to make...I am a yeast abuser. And I have been for years. Yes, I know all the "rules" and try to follow them, but sometimes I fail and resort to....yeast abuse. Recently I brewed a batch of my Rye IPA recipe on my Zymatic. Looking in the fridge, I saw some WY1450 with a date of June 26, 2015....10 months old. I thought "I could make a starter with that", but then I thought "Damn, that would take effort".

I simply took it out of the fridge and smacked it to see if there was anything left alive in there. Sure enough, the pack swelled. The yeast abuser in me was delighted...."hey, it's only 2.5 gal. of a 1.065 beer....that should work without a starter!". I know, I know....yeast abuse.

After the beer was done, I sanitized the smack pack, cut off the corner and poured it in. The wort was at 63F. I was nervous, but had faith in my laziness.

When I checked the beer 24 hours later, nothing.

24 more hours and still nothing.

About 12 hours after that, I saw the first signs of fermentation and thought "good enough".

12 hours after that there was a huge krausen that had formed.

After a week-10 days, I opened the keg I was fermenting in and saw that the foam had dropped quite a bit, but was still there. Took a gravity reading an got 1.030....damn, too high. Let it go for another week.

Yesterday I noticed the foam had completely dropped, so I crashed the temp to 33F. Took a gravity reading and it was 1.013...exactly on the money for a FG for that beer!

Poured the gravity sample into a PET bottle, put on a carb cap, and hit it with 30 psi. After 45 min. in the freezer, I had a cold, carbed sample to try. And it was delicious....perfect....exactly what that beer should be. Yeast abuse had paid off again. Sure it took a bit longer to ferment than usual, but that seems to be the only downside.

The moral of this tale is that you should trust your experience. It's great to know what the rules are, and I advise you to follow them until you have enough of your own experience to draw on. And once you do, go with it...trust yourself.

Try what seems to make sense to you, but in the end trust what you know to be personally true. And pour yourself a beer.

Hey, we promised pics of cool kegorators, and here they are!  First the R2D2 kegorator from Hellgate Homebrewers in southern OR...

And of course, the Ale Camino

In the last couple years, we've been seeing the growth of what I guess you could call a new style of beer....The NorthEast style, usually made as an IPA.  The common factors seems to be a "soft" bitterness (often brought about by adding large amounts of calcium chloride to the water, rather than calcium sulfate which is more usual), a massive hop flavor with a pretty forward aroma, and usually a hazy appearance.  And by "haze", I mean a lot of them look like gravy!  Proponents of the style say "who cares how it looks, it's about the taste".  Others, like myself, are mystified.  Why does a good beer need to look like a bad homebrew?  Do these beers even taste like what most people think of as IPA?

In a way, this goes back to the debate about East Coast vs. West Coast IPA.  East Coast IPA is generally less bitter and hop forward, being heavily influenced by English IPA.  West Coast IPA, which is widely acknowledged to have been led by Anchor Liberty years ago, has a sharper, more intense bitterness and usually a very prominent hop aroma.  Ever since, regional proponents of one coast have derided the other coast's preference.  But, as well all know, beer preference is subjective, so both styles have survived.  Until recently, though, it seemed to be the west coast styles that got most of the press and adoration.

As far as I know, one of the first of the new East Coast IPAs was Heady Topper from The Alchemist.  Part of the appeal seemed to be from the limited availability of it, although people also raved about the flavor of the beer itself.  It was hazy, it was massively hopped, it was only available at the brewery and you had to drink it fresh.  Seems to me like that's a lot of rules to simply enjoy a beer!  My one opportunity to try Heady Topper was at the National Homebrew Conference in Grand Rapids a few years ago.  I have no idea exactly how old the sample was, although I was told that it was fairly fresh.  I was a bit put off by the appearance, but the aroma was inviting.  Flavorwise, I found it to be a bit "flabby", having an unfocussed flavor that really didn't stand out to me.  It was by no means a bad beer, but after all the hype I was disappointed.  And I said so online....apparently, over and over, and over again. 

So where does the haze come from?  There seem to be several possible causes.  Some people say that it's hop haze caused by the heavy hop loading that these beers use to achieve their flavor.  That's certainly possible, because they do have a very prominent hop flavor and aroma.  And we all know that the polyphenols in the hops will bind the proteins in the beer to create haze.  But I've had beers here on the west coast (I'm thinking of Sticky Hands from Block 15 in Corvallis OR or about anything from Bale Breaker in Yakima WA) that have similar hop flavor and aroma and are clear or only slightly hazy.

Another explanation is the yeast.  The Conan strain used by The Alchemist is not only a very fruity yeast, but also reportedly a slow flocculator. The sensations I got when drinking some of these beers would certainly be consistent with yeast in suspension. 

I've also heard that sometimes flaked barley, oats, wheat or even flour are added late in the boil to create the haze and "soften" the flavor.  I have no verification of this, but it seems to be a popular theory.

A gentleman we'll refer to as "Mike" was kind enough to put together a selection of 10 NE beers, most of them IPA, and send them to me.  I think he may be a bit aggravated at my reactions to some of the beers, but I want to assure him (and you) that I tasted them with an open mind and hoped to find at least some that I liked.  Mike, I can't tell you how much I appreciate the effort and hassle you put out and I hope to be able to reciprocate.

Tasting Protocol

A few overall tasting notes before we start....having heard that these beers are best fresh, I let them sit in my fridge only 2 days to "relax".  I decided I'd taste one per day so as to give them a fair chance and not burn out my taste buds.  Keep in mind that generally I'm trying to describe the beers.  If I make a value judgment, it should be pretty clear, but some of the descriptors can sound negative when they're really only words to describe the beers.  And also keep in mind that these are my subjective opinions.  Based on how well they sell and the vehemence of their defenders, there are a lot of people who really like the style.

Also, I asked around if I should pour the entire can or bottle into my glass or decant carefully.  I didn't get a good answer anywhere, so the first three beers were poured with all the stuff in the bottom of the can in them.  That could account for my mouth feel comments in the first 3 beers.  After that, I decanted them and left all of that behind.

Terminology Q - What the Heck is Juicy?

And finally, the word "juicy".....I've talked about this both on the podcast and online.  I have yet to really figure out how "juicy" describes a beer...but I'm trying.  When I think of "juicy", I think of fruit like raspberries or a tangerine.  When you bite into it, the sweet juice explodes across your palate in a flood of liquid sweetness.  Is this what the advocates are talking about?  When I ask I can't get consistent responses. It's like "juicy" means different things to different people.  Is it possibly a combination of the fruity yeast and hops and thick mouth feel?  And why is that described as "juicy"?   I just don't know yet, but I hope to get it sussed. 

OK, enough of that...let's drink some beer!

The Tasting

Eureka with Citra - Tree House Brewing - Monson MA - American Blonde Ale - 4.1% ABV

Beer pours hazy and opaque with a straw color.  It has a tight white head with pretty good retention.  It has an herbal aroma with dank hop notes-you can almost smell the hop cones.  The bitterness is low, but not so low as to be unbalanced.  It has a dry, tannic (not in a bad way) hop flavor.  There is some back of the palate bite, a little bit if bite up front and a mid palate "hop vegetation" taste. 

Not a bad beer.  I kinda like it and I certainly wouldn't send it back, but I also wouldn't order another one.  As I continue drinking, I get a back of the palate minerally aftertaste.  There is a slightly gritty mouth feel and what I detect as an astringency from the hops.  Remember, I poured the entire can here! 

Green - Tree House Brewing - Monson MA - AIPA 7.5% ABV

This beer is hopped with Galaxy hops, one of my favorites.  The label says the aroma has notes of pineapple, orange sorbet, and tangerine and is "massively juicy".  You'd think that would give me a clue about what "juicy" means, but no such luck.  The character is very fruit forward, but I have to admit I'd never think "juicy".

The beer pours completely opaque, and has a tight white head with good retention.  But it looks uninviting and...well...ugly.  There are dank notes of orange and tangerine in the flavor.  The bittering is very soft.  There are some fruit notes up front, more mid palate, and then it dies.  There was no finish.  The mouth feel was gritty and astringent and left my mouth feeling like it was coated with fuzz.  The fruit flavor lingers on and is quite tasty, but the bitterness and flavor both seem muted.  There is eventually a nice tangerine aftertaste that comes on.  It's not a bad beer at all if you don't look at it, but if you do it leaves you wanting to see the light playing through the beer.  There is a huge hop flavor and good aroma, but the coated, dry feeling it leaves in my mouth makes me certain I wouldn't want another one.  Is that from hops, yeast, starch?  Who cares...I don't care for it.

Alter Ego - Tree House Brewing - Monson MA - AIPA 6.8% ABV

Pours hazy, opaque, orange gold color.  Tight white head with pretty good retention.  Aroma of oranges with notes of lemon and lime.  There's a little dankness and a mango aroma emerges as the beer warms.  Flavor is a little bitterness up front, an herbal mid palate, and some bitterness in the finish.  It has the same dry, coating mouth feel but not quite so strongly.  It's my favorite so far, but I have to admit I wouldn't go out of my way to drink it.  It's also the first of these that has what I would call "apparent bitterness".  The flavor of this one is great, but the mouth feel is very off putting.

NOTE: After this beer, I started wondering if I was missing something by not pouring the dregs.  I' heard people say that one reason Heady Toper is supposed to be drunk from the can is that it continually stirs up and remixes the dregs on the bottom of the can.  I decided to do both...I poured the first half of the remaining beers carefully, but after drinking that I poured the entire remainder into my glass to see what the difference would be.

The IPA - Building 8 - Northampton MA - 6.5% ABV - &) IBU Simcoe, Citra, Mosaic

YES!  Clarity!  Straw gold color, tight beige head with good retention.  Just short of brilliant, but very clear.  Aroma of tangerine, lime, orange, mixed berries.  There's bitterness up front, citrus fruit in the middle, and a lingering dry finish with fruit and hop notes.  A very well made beer with no apparent flaws.  Medium body and a lively mouth feel.  Crisp, clean and refreshing...really liking this one!

Sap - Tree House Brewing - Monson MA - AIPA - 7.3& ABV

Appropriate name because on opening the can I was hit with a huge piney aroma.  Pours with a tight white head that dissipates quickly.  Very hazy and opaque.  Aromas of pine, orange, mango, maybe a bit of lemon.  There's an orangey bitterness up front, herbal notes mid palate, and more like mango in the back.  It's not as "crunchy" and astringent as the other Tree House beers I've tried, but still a very drying finish with some cotton mouth.  A fairly full mouth feel but still enough bitterness to make a statement.

Haze - Tree House Brewing - Monson MA - IIPA - 8.2% ABV

Hop aroma wafts up to me as soon as I open the can.  The beer is hazy (well DUH!), opaque, and a straw yellow color.  It has a tight white head with good retention.  The aroma is full of fruit...orange, lime, lemon with some dankness mixed in.  The flavor is delicious fruit up front and mid palate with some bitterness at the back.  There is a very dry, astringent finish.  Full body, slight grit in the mouth feel.  I love the flavor and the mouth feel isn't as objectionable on this one.  I kinda like this beer!  If only it was clear....I'd love to try a clear version of this beer against a hazy one to help me understand what it is that haze brings to the party in my mouth.

Santilli - Night Shift Brewing - Everett MA - AIPA 6% ABV

Pours very clear, just short of brilliant.  The beer has a light gold color and a tight, foamy white head with excellent retention.  The fruit aroma hits you from a couple feet away.  There are notes of orange, tangerine, and mango combined with a spicy herbal hop character.  Flavor os of fruit up front and bitterness mid palate with fruit and a dankness from the hops in the finish.  It has a very dry finish with a minimal amount of astringency from all the hops.  There is no grit in the finish on this one.  It has a medium full body.  It seems to have more bitterness and less "juiciness" than some of the other examples.  It still has a big fruit character but seems more like a "traditional" AIPA.  The fruit fades a bit as the beer warms.  Pouring the dregs from the can doesn't make much difference in either flavor or mouth feel.  I like this beer, but maybe it's just comfort from being more like I expect an AIPA to be. 

Steal This Can - Lord Hobo Brewing Co. - Woburn MA - IPA 6.5 ABV

There are fruit, herb and spice notes in the aroma, along with dankness.  The beer is very clear and has a gold color with an orange hue to it.  It has a tight, foamy white head with excellent retention.  The fruit aroma takes a back seat to the spice, herbs and dankness.  There is an herbal, vegetal (not in a bad way!) tart bitterness up front, more of the same in the middle, and not much flavor on the finish.  Just a lingering bitterness.  There is a hint of lime in both the flavor and aroma.  It has a medium body and lively mouth feel.  Not a bad beer, very straightforward. 

Sea Hag - New England Brewing - Woodbridge CT - AIPA 6.2% ABV

The beer is brilliantly clear with a golden color and a huge beige head with good retention.  Aroma of oranges and tangerines with a background of tropical fruit.  As it warms, hops dankness becomes more prominent, then the fruit fades back in.  The flavor is bitterness up front, fruit mid palate, and a lingering dry finish.  There is a very slight note of oxidation to it, but not so much as to be objectionable.  There were no dregs in this can to pour into my glass.  This is another more traditional AIPA, with a lower fruit presence and more bitterness than other examples.

Be Hoppy - Wormtown Brewery - Worcester MA - AIPA 6.5% ABV

This is the only example I had that came in a bottle rather than a can.  The label says they double dry hop it and use a hopback.  The beer is very clear with an orange gold color to it.  There is a tight beige head with great retention.  Big citrus aromas....orange, tangerine, grapefruit.  After the fruit, you start to get herbal and dank hop aromas.  A wonderful, well rounded flavor coats your mouth.  There is fruit up front, an herbal dryness mid palate, and a very dry, maybe slightly astringent, finish.  Medium body, lively mouthfeel.  Another winner, a very drinkable beer.

Conclusive Tasting Notes (or Something Like That)

So, after all of that, here are my thoughts on the NE IPA style....based on these examples, there seems to be more than one NE IPA style.  While some of these beers were extremely hazy, others were as clear as any other beer you'll see.  All exhibited a lot of tropical fruit aromas and flavors and pretty much all of them had citrus notes, too.  The ones without haze and grit were great examples of the "traditional" AIPA.

But that haze...I'm still at a loss to explain how that improves a beer.  Yes, it does significantly alter the mouth feel, which is what proponents seem to be looking for.  But in my opinion (and remember, it's ONLY an opinion) the mouth feel isn't altered in a positive way.  It not only feels strangely thick and gritty in my mouth, it seems to mute some of the flavors.  And that seems to be a good thing also to the people who like the style.  I've heard it said that you can get extreme fruitiness with subdued, soft bitterness by making beers like this.  Tastes are subjective as we all know....they're welcome to their opinion, but those beers just don't offer the crisp, refreshing flavor and sparkling appearance that I enjoy in an AIPA.

I also can't reach any conclusions about the source of the haze.  In some of the Tree House beers, for example, the grit in the mouth feel could be from either hops or yeast.  If I had to make a guess, in those beers at least, I don't think the grit was from unconverted starches as I've heard surmised.  But there's no way of knowing for certain what created it.  And it's entirely possible that each brewery has their method.

I may have finally gotten a bit of an idea about what "juicy" means in relation to these beers, though.  Could it be that the combination of the intense citrus/tropical hop flavor and low bitterness, combined with the thick mouth feel, kind of remind people of orange juice, with the haze and grit being the pulp in the juice?  I dunno,,,,that's about all I can think of and I haven't heard a description from anyone to compare mine to.

In general, I really enjoyed these beers and I want to once again give a huge thanks to Mike for the trouble and expense he went to in order for me to hopefully finally understand the NE IPA style.  I hope he's not too disappointed in the results!  I can assure him (and you!) that I'll continue to explore the style.

A quick note before we begin - we will always tell you when a manufacturer has provided us with goods to test. In this case, Monster Brewing Hardware did not provide Drew the mill. This is his review of his purchase.

It's funny the little things that conspire to keep you from doing a thing you love. Time, family, work, obligations are all a part of it, but sometimes it's also just a small pain point that's enough to prevent you from building up the head of steam to overcome the joyful inertia of sitting on your butt (particularly when it's hot and there's A/C inside)

Doesn't this look more fun than sweating over a brew kettle in the SoCal summer?

In my case, my speed bump was my old mill. I bought a good quality 2 roller mill a number of years ago because it seemed like a natural thing to do. Get bulk grain cheap, mill on demand - fresh beer! I really love having a mill on hand. Makes the brew life a more "on demand" type of thing.

My mill worked like a charm for a decade, but for the last few years, it's become annoying and terrible. Get milling on some grain, chug along and *screech*  - the whole assemble would stop. The roller attached to the drill would keep spinning furiously, but the passive roller would be stuck. I developed a technique of carefully reaching under the mill and helping re-engage the passive roller to crush out another pound. 

I tried rehabbing the mill. Taking it apart, brushing and blowing everything out, making sure there was no obvious friction wear. Checking the gap - not too tight, not too loose, etc. But no matter what, every batch became a seemingly Sisyphean struggle - mill vs man - man vs his desire to brew - man vs his desire to say "f this, I'm going to have a beer." Even at my recent Brew With A Falcon event, the same damn thing happened (after I pre-prepped the mill). I finally decided I had to replace the old girl and put out a call on the webs for everyone's favorite. Hands down the answer came back - Monster Mill MM-3. 

N.B. Astute readers will notice I haven't said what brand my old mill is. I haven't because I still believe the old mill is a pretty fine mill and I'd really rather not slag on a company for the performance of a decade old piece of machinery that could probably be rehabbed by someone compentent. (aka - anyone other than me). Plus the old mill has the advantage of being less expensive than the MM-3, so there's that too. 

Last week, the MM-3 I ordered arrived and that naturally meant I had to put it to it's paces. I assembled the mill and the hopper in a half hour and my first note on the thing - it's a beast. That is some seriously heavy metal in the gizmo. 

The Mill in Rest

Walking into the garage brewery, I have bins of grain at the ready. Vacuum sealed specialty malts on the left in tubs, base grains in buckets sealed with Gamma lids. (Each bucket holds 25 lbs). I love those lids. Aside from freshness, these methods of sealing have kept my grains rodent free for years. (The colony of feral cats in my neighborhood helps too, just like in Chicago.)

Base Grains (2-Row, Pils, Maris Otter, etc)

Specialty Grains in Tubs (Mythical Flavor Bucket in Lower Left)

To keep the test simple, I grabbed 6 lbs of Great Western 2-Row from the buckets and set about a simple timing test. After all for me, my primary worry was "Can I mill three pounds of grain with as little fuss as possible" Bonus - this also counts as the "cleaning the mill" step to clear off any remaining machining oil.

Weighing the Grain - 3 lbs only,Vasili

Next on the list of things to replace in the brewery - this drill. How it hasn't killed me yet, I don't know, but rest assured by the time you read this I will have replaced it! (It's also a beast)

The Death Drill

First test - let's fire up the old mill. Remember this is a simple 2-roller mill. One roller driven by the drill, the other by the friction of the grain falling into the gap. 

The Old Mill

The Old Mill mostly cooperated today - during it's run of 3 lbs, it only jammed up and stopped once, necessitating the ole reach under to fix. Total time to mill 3 lbs with the stoppage - 53.4 seconds according to the clock

Old Mill Time

Ok, onto the MM-3 - same test. The MM-3 chewed through the grain like a hungry beast and the only surprise I had was the mill really wants the chuck to be tightened down. Had to stop for a moment and retighten the chuck. I don't know how well a modern keyless chuck would work and I don't think you'd want a cordless drill anywhere near this thing. Remember, you have to put enough force into the drive shaft to drive the main roller and two passive rollers. Wimpy drills need not apply!

MM3 On the Drill

And boy - I wasn't kidding - this bugger chewed through the malt! 22.64 seconds on the clock and no stoppages!

MM-3 Time

Ok, great time trials - how's the malt look? It's no good to us as brewers if the malt isn't crushed or is overly crushed or the husk is torn to shreds! Well, let's look, shall we?

The Grain

Pardon the crappy handwriting - the nuns never could get me to the point of proper penmenship. You can see the results for yourself. Just looking at the time differences, we can see that if the timing held up and I was crushing my grain for my usual batch of Saison Experimentale (for 15 gallons yield), I need 27.75 lbs of grain crushed. On the old mill that would take 494 seconds or 8.2 minutes. Blargh. (Assuming the usual amounts of stoppages that's extra annoying!). On the MM-3 though - 209.5 seconds or 3.5 minutes. Much better andm uch less annoyance!

Let's look at the grain crush quality. After all, the three roller setups are supposed to allow you better crushes with more cracked kernels and less damage to the husks. So, did it?

The Old Mill Crush

MM-3 Crush

To my eye what I see with the old mill is a lot of kinda sorta cracked grains and some very intact husks. The grains tend to fall apart with a little pressure. The MM-3 crush, a few more torn husks, but still mostly intact, but the malt itself is mostly crushed into fine little pieces.

Now the next step is to obviously brew, so pay attention for that one coming down the pike!