Begin Brewing!

As a home brewer, there is one question that almost every non-brewer asks me: "How long does it take to make a batch of beer?" This question might mean any of the following, or all of them: How much time and effort goes into brewing and bottling a batch of beer? How long does it take to go from grain, water, yeast, and hops to a finished glass of beer? How long does the brewing and bottling process take, end-to-end? They might even be asking a combination of these questions. The unfortunate part is that you can't give a single answer to the question. Brewing effort is affected by: The brewer's experience and skill level The brewer's equipment Whether the recipe is an extract brew, all-grain brew, mini-mash, or extract with steeping grains The temperature in the brewing area (e.g, if it's cold, it takes longer to heat water) The recipe being made The yeast strain being used The availability of temperature control during fermentation What

About two years ago, I decided to try my luck at brewing a Gulden Draak clone. Gulden Draak is one of my favorite Belgian beers, but its price makes it one that I don't drink nearly as often as I'd like. To do that particular clone, I cultured up yeast from the dregs of four bottles of the real beer and tossed it in an extract beer I'd brewed based on a recipe in a book. This time around, I wanted to do an all-grain clone and see if commercial dry yeasts would result in a beer that was close to the original. As you can see in the image at the left, the clone came out very close in color to the original beer. Unfortunately, while there were similarities in the flavor and aroma, in those respects the clone needs more work. The recipe below is derived from one I found somewhere... in a book or online. The Ingredients 13 pounds Belgian 2-row Pale Malt 1 pound Caramel/Crystal 40L 1 pound WhiteSwaen Wheat Malt 8 ounces Melanoidin Malt 5 ounces Caramunich I Ma

Surly Brewing Company of Minneapolis, Minnesota, is well respected in the craft beer community for its many fine beers. None of them are available, as of this writing, in Ohio. I ran across a clone recipe on Northern Brewer , supposedly provided by the brewmasters at Surly, for their Bender brown ale. I liked the general description of the beer and its ingredient list, so I decided to brew my own version. At left, you can see the finished beer and the Futurama-inspired label I came up with for it. The finished beer is a dark brown color with thin beige head that doesn't last more than a few seconds. As a first attempt at a brown ale, I'm happy with it. I've never had the actual Surly beer, so it's fair to say this is not an exact clone. It's more like my interpretation of what I imagine the real beer to be like. The Ingredients 7.25 pounds 2-row Pale Malt 1.75 pounds Aromatic Malt 12 ounces Crystal/Caramel 60L Malt 12 ounces Belgian Special B Malt

Back in May, I brewed my last attempt at a Belgian Tripel. All of the attempts so far have been good beers but haven't been exactly what I wanted... sort of  cross between Unibroue's La Fin Du Monde, Tripel Karmeliet, and Victory Golden Monkey. I want a mildly sweet base with notes of spice and fruit showing through. The recipe below is a variation on a La Fin Du Monde clone recipe I found, and marks the sixth time I've tried to brew a Tripel I really loved. The Ingredients 11 pounds of Bohemian Pilsner Malt 8 ounces of Honey Malt 4 ounces of Munich Malt 3 ounces of Cara-Pils Malt 2 ounces of Aromatic Malt 1.25 pounds of table sugar 1 pound of Golden Candi Syrup (5L) 1/2 tsp. Coriander seed, crushed 0.5 oz. Bitter Orange Peel 0.25 oz. Sweet Orange Peel 0.5 oz. Styrian Goldings @ 6.2% AA 0.35 oz. Northern Brewer @ 10.1% AA 0.3 oz. Styrian Goldings @ 6.2% AA 0.3 oz. Hallertau Mittelfrueh @ 4% AA 0.65 oz. Czech Saaz @ 3.2% 1 Campden Tablet 1 Tbsp. pH 5.