10/06/09 Corn Sugar – Also referred to as “brewer’s sugar,” the most fermentable and commonly used adjunct. Often used instead of the more expensive barley malts, and usually used for priming. Increases alcohol level without increasing body. Flaked Corn (Flaked Maize) - Provides depth of character to lighter beers. Increases alcohol but not flavor, color or body. Color is 0-1 SRM.

10/07/09 Belgian Candi sugar- A Belgian sugar used in brewing, especially stronger beers such as dubbel and trippel; basically this is an invert sugar, i.e. one that has been converted from sucrose to a mixture of fructose and glucose by heating with water and some acid, usually citric acid. It is used to boost the alcohol content without adding extra body to the beer and without forcing the yeast to produce invertase, which some drinkers claim adds an undesirable taste to the beer. Also used as a priming sugar, to aid in bottle-conditioning and carbonation, with the same benefits as listed above.

10/08/09 Some beer glassware info.: Snifter - Used for brandy and cognac, these wide-bowled and stemmed glasses with their tapered mouths are perfect for capturing the aromas of strong ales. Volumes range, but they all provide room to swirl and agitate volatiles. Goblet (or chalice) - Majestic pieces of work, ranging from delicate and long stemmed (Goblet) to heavy and thick walled (Chalice). The more delicate ones may also have their rims laced with silver or gold, while the heavy boast sculpture-like stems. Some are designed to maintain a 2-centimeter head. This is achieved by scoring the inside bottom of the glass, which creates a CO2 nucleation point, and a stream of eternal bubbles and perfect head retention as a result. Shaker Glass – otherwise known as a tumbler or todays American pint glass. This glass was never meant to be used for beer and does not benefit beer’s aroma, head retention, or complexity of flavors. However, since most people can not afford to own ever type of glass; shakers are good as default glasses.

10/9/09 Unpopular beer styles: Biere de Garde:: The Biere de Garde is golden to deep copper or light brown in color. They are moderate to medium in body. This style of beer is characterized by a toasted malt aroma, slight malt sweetness in flavor, and medium hop bitterness. Noble-type hop aromas and flavors should be low to medium. Fruity esters can be light to medium in intensity. Flavor of alcohol is evident. Earthy, cellar-like, musty aromas and flavors are okay. Diacetyl should not be perceived but chill haze is okay. Often bottle conditioned with some yeast character.

10/12/09 From Tasting Beer by Randy Mosher: Drinking a hoppy beer with spicy food, will only intensify the spicy heat in your mouth. For contrast to the hoppyness try rich and or sweet foods. One suggestion he gives is carrot cake.

10/14/09 For some beer freshness information check out these 2 links: http://beeradvocate.com/articles/327 http://sites.google.com/site/freshbeeronly/

10/15/09 (from Brew365.com) Wet hopping is the use of fresh hops that a have recently been picked. Hops are not hard to grow in most areas of the US. They are grown from a rhizome, which is a root-like ’stick’ that is planted. Wet hopping is a fun and rewarding way of using home-grown ingredients in your beer. Because of the moisture content of fresh hops as compared to dried pellets, plugs, or whole hops you might get from a manufacturer, one ounce of fresh hops will impart much less bitterness than a comparable mass of the same variety that has been dried. Dry hopping is the process of adding hops into your beer after the onset of fermentation – either in the primary or secondry fermenter (if one is used). Because there is no boil, not bitterness will be imparted to the brew. However, the volatile oils that make up the aroma aspect of hops will be released into the beer. Usual amounts of hops are anywhere in the 1 to 2 oz range … but if you like hops, knock yourself out!

10/16/09 Cask ale or cask-conditioned beer is the term for unfiltered and unpasteurised beer which is conditioned (including secondary fermentation) and served from a cask without additional nitrogen or carbon dioxide pressure. Cask ale may also be referred to as real ale, a term coined by the Campaign for Real Ale, often now extended to cover bottle-conditioned beer as well.

10/17/09 In 1997, eight Trappist abbeys – six from Belgium (Orval, Chimay, Westvleteren, Rochefort, Westmalle and Achel), one from The Netherlands (Koningshoeven) and one from Germany (Mariawald) – founded the International Trappist Association (ITA) to prevent non-Trappist commercial companies from abusing the Trappist name. This private association created a logo that is assigned to goods (cheese, beer, wine, etc.) that respect precise production criteria. For the beers, these criteria are the following: 1) The beer must be brewed within the walls of a Trappist abbey, by or under control of Trappist monks. 2) The brewery, the choices of brewing, and the commercial orientations must obviously depend on the monastic community. 3) The economic purpose of the brewery must be directed toward assistance and not toward financial profit.

10/18/19 Brewing Water (Beertown.org): Making up 90-95 percent of beer, water is an important ingredient in the brewing process. Tap water will work, but overly chlorinated water can result in harsh flavors in the finished beer. Chlorine can be removed by boiling or filtering, or you may choose to use bottled water. Factors such as mineral content and pH of brewing water can a have significant effect upon the final product, although these are of less concern in extract beers than in all grain beers. Certain minerals may be added to beer to achieve flavors found in beers brewed in certain areas of the world, for example the famous English pale ales of Burton-on-Trent are brewed with the very hard water found in that region. The more common mineral used in brewing include Calcium Sulfate (gypsum), Calcium Chloride, Sodium Chloride (table salt) and Magnesium Sulfate (Epsom salt).

10/19/09 Belgian IPA (BeerAdvocate): Inspired by the American India Pale Ale (IPA) and Double IPA, more and more Belgian brewers are brewing hoppy pale colored ales for the US market (like Chouffe & Urthel), and there’s been an increase of Belgian IPAs being brewed by American brewers. Generally, Belgian IPAs are considered too hoppy by Belgian beer drinkers. Various malts are used, but the beers of the style are finished with Belgian yeast strains (bottle-conditioned) and the hops employed tend to be American. You’ll generally find a cleaner bitterness vs. American styles, and a pronounced dry edge (very Belgian), often akin to an IPA crossed with a Belgian Tripel. Alcohol by volume is on the high side. Many examples are quite cloudy, and feature tight lacing, excellent retention, and fantastic billowy heads that mesmerize (thanks, in part, to the hops). Belgian IPA is still very much a style in development.

10/22/09 (Brew365.com) Amarillo Hops: Characteristics: Amarillo is a relatively new American hop variety that has been described as “super cascade.” The bitterness is between 5 and 11% AAU, making Amarillo a good hop for flavor and aroma additions. The flavor profile is very citrusy, especially leaning toward a distinct orange flavor and aroma. I also find Amarillo to be somewhat sweet until it mellows out in a beer. This hop was reportedly discovered and introduced by Virgil Gamache Farms Inc. and resulted as a mutation of another hop variety. Citra Hops Characteristics Citra is a new moderately-high acid (10-12%) US hop variety releaset sometime in 2008. Citra is a cross between several hop varieties including Hallertau Mittelfreuh, U.s. Tettnanger, E.K. Goldings, and other unknown varieties. The aroma is reported to be very fruity (citrus fruits especially.) Descriptors I have seen used include: grapefruit, lime, melon, gooseberry, lychee fruit.

10/24/09 Supporting your local brewery is one of the important part of being a craft beer drinker and or advocate. Please check out Supportyourlocalbrewery.com for information on how to get involved in Craft Beer Activism.

10/21/09  Winter Warmer Description:
These malty sweet offerings tend to be a favorite winter seasonal. Big malt presence, both in flavor and body. The color ranges from brownish reds to nearly pitch black. Hop bitterness is generally low, leveled and balanced, but hop character can be pronounced. Alcohol warmth is not uncommon.

Many English versions contain no spices, though some brewers of spiced winter seasonal ales will slap “Winter Warmer” on the label. Those that are spiced, tend to follow the “wassail” tradition of blending robust ales with mixed spices, before hops became the chief “spice” in beer. American varieties many have a larger presences of hops both in bitterness and flavor.

11/23/09 Mashing is a step in the brewing process that combines crushed Malts with hot water in a mash tun to convert complex starches into simple sugars that are more readily fermented. There are many variations of mashing, but the single infusion mash described below is easily done with home equipment, and suitable for most popular beer styles. During the malting process barley grains develop many enzymes that are needed for mashing. These enzymes, when heated with water in the mash, react with the starches in the malt and produce maltose. Maltose is a favorite food for yeast during fermentation. After the mashing process, hot water is used to extract the sugars from the grain in a process called sparging to produce a sweet liquid called wort for brewing.

12/03/09 (Beerfacts.net)

Myth A “beer belly” is caused by drinking beer.

Fact A “beer belly” is caused by eating too much food. No beer or other alcohol beverage is necessary. According to research conducted at University College London, Beer has been falsely blamed for expanding waistlines. The study (conducted in the Czech Republic, which has the world’s highest per capita beer consumption,) analyzed the beer drinking habits and weight of more than 2000 men and women. According to the results, light to moderately heavy beer drinkers were no more overweight than non-beer drinkers. Because of beer’s high calorie and carb content, it was previously blamed for adding extra pounds and causing the dreaded Beer Belly. But researchers warn, the study is not a license to consume beer carelessly. As with most any simple pleasure, enjoy your brew in moderation.

12/21/09: Sorry for not updating this page for a while here are some cool craft beer videos that I found recently:

12/28/09 Continuing with the beer related videos here are two more great ones:

1/4/10 (BeerAdvocate)

Alcohol By Volume
Alcohol by volume (ABV) simply represents what portion of the total volume of liquid is alcohol. Our liquid of choice is, of course, beer. And to determine the ABV of a beer, a brewer typically uses what’s called a hydrometer, which is an instrument that aids in measuring the density of liquid in relation to water (it essentially free-floats in a cylinder or liquid). The hydrometer will be calibrated to read 1.000 in water (at 60°F), and the denser the liquid (example: add sugar to the liquid), the higher the hydrometer reading.

Okay, so how does this relate to beer? Well, before yeast cells are introduced to ferment beer, the liquid is called “wort (pronounced wert),” and it’s full of all kinds of sugars that were previously extracted from the grain. A brewer will take a hydrometer measurement of the wort (at 60°F) to determine what’s called the original gravity (OG). Then yeast is pitched into the wort, and fermentation begins. As the yeast cells eat the sugar in the wort, they create two wonderful by-products: carbonation (CO2) and alcohol. And once the brewer has determined that our hungry yeast have had enough (could be days, weeks or months), s/he’ll go ahead and pull another hydrometer reading (at 60°F) and record what’s called the final gravity (FG).

Notice that all measurements were taken at 60°F. That’s because the temperature of the liquid will impact the hydrometers’ measurement of the liquid, and the hydrometer was calibrated with water at 60°F. So in order to maintain controlled calculations … you get it. Otherwise you’d need to make adjustments in calculations, and we don’t want to worry about that.

Calculating the ABV
Say our brewer crafted a high-alcohol beer. The OG measured at 1.080, and the beer stopped fermentation with a FG measurement of 1.011. Simply subtract the FG from the OG and multiply by 131.

1.080 – 1.011 = 0.069 x 131 = 9.039%
So we’ve got a 9 percent alcohol by volume beer. Easy!