Priming Sugar Calculator & Carbonating

Priming Sugar Calculator at Northern Brewer
Mahalo Nui Northern Brewer!

Norther Brewer offers a really nice priming sugar calculator here for just about any kind of sugar. You can enter a beer style or a desired volume of CO2 to see the required sugar. Great stuff, ENJOY!

Also in the knowledge base: Bottle Carbonating

Posted on August 30, 2011 by tphelan

Bottle conditioning is the process of naturally carbonating beer by adding a priming solution (water + some type of sugar) to the flat beer immediately before bottling to initiate a “re-fermentation” in the bottle. The CO2 produced from the re-fermentation in the bottle is absorbed into the beer, creating carbonation. The amount of carbonation in the finished beer can be controlled by adjusting the amount of sugar in the priming solution. After priming and filling, the newly bottled beer should be stored at 70-75F for 2-3 weeks or until fully carbonated. After this time the bottles can be chilled or stored below 60 degrees to stabilize the beer.

Bottle conditioning also has an effect on the flavor and aroma of the beer due to the presence of active yeast in the bottle. The yeast in the bottle

Oeno Winemaking, Kailua HI 96734

Oeno Website

Who We are

Oeno-(Eeh-No) Is the greek goddess of wine. She had the ability to turn ANYTHING into 

wine.  Our kind of goddess!  

26 Hoolai St. STE. 900

Kailua, HI  96734

808.263.6366

info@oenowinemaking.com

"Racking" your beer

Recently I was asked about the current trend of not racking beer into a secondary. I have always racked and known that whenever I didn't rack the beer just wasn't as it should have been. This article posted on Homebrew Talk has some really good information about racking and why you don't want to be lazy. Mahalo HomeBrewTalk.com! 

Racking is the term brewers use to describe transferring wort or beer from one vessel to another. Racking is typically done through the use of a siphon. Thos who have fermenters with a tap can also use hosing.There are several common pieces of racking equipment: the racking cane and the auto-siphon.

Reasons for racking

There are three main reasons for racking. Firstly, if you wish to ferment your beer longer than say 10 days, moving the beer off the yeast cake will reduce the risk of autolysis, a process whereby yeast cells, having consumed all other available food, begin to metabolise each other, creating a foul taste. Secondly, the time spent in the secondary gives the beer time to clear, as solids in the beer settle out. Thirdly, the time the beer spends in the secondary fermenter is a period during which the beer matures and the flavours smooth out. A period of time maturing in a fermenter is more beneficial than maturation in a bottle, as larger volumes make maturation easier and more effective.

AHA Introduction to All-Grain Brewing video series

Mahalo nui loa to the American Homebrewers Association!  

 

 I got an email this morning from Duncan who wanted to share some new videos, here is the message - "Looking to get into all-grain brewing, but having trouble getting started? Let American Homebrewers Association Director Gary Glass walk you through the ins and outs of brewing with grains, and you will be a master of the mash in no time!


The series includes five short, easy to follow videos. Topics include:
-An Introduction to All-Grain Brewing
-How Malt Is Used
-Required Equipment
-How to build a mash tun
-How to conduct a Mash and Batch Sparge

All videos can be accessed here. 

Make sure to share this resources with your homebrew clubs and friends!

Cheers!
Duncan"

Mahalo WHITELABS for sharing this great artice by Chris White and Brew Your Own magazine!

BEGINNERS: ATTENUATION AND FLOCCULATION DEFINITIONS

Beginners: Attenuation
and Flocculation Definitions

Brewing terms attenuation and flocculation are defined and explained in this section.  The material is derived from articles Chris White wrote for Brew Your Own magazine many years ago.

Attenuation:

Yeast is responsible for turning sweet wort into what we call "beer".  Yeast consume the sugar in wort, and turn that sugar into CO2, alcohol, and flavor compounds.  When yeast finish the fermentation process, they shut down, clump together, and fall to the bottom of the fermentor, or  "flocculate".  When yeast flocculate, it is easy to see that fermentation is done.  But how can the brewer be sure?  What if the flocculation is  minimal, and yeast and CO2 stay in solution.  How does the brewer really know when fermentation is done? The answer:  by testing the degree of attenuation.  Apparent attenuation percentage is the percentage

Understanding Malting and Mashing Barley for Homebrewing

Mahalo nui loa e Marty Nachel from Homebrewing For Dummies, 2nd Edition! Great stuff!

Understanding Malting and Mashing Barley for 

Homebrewing

By Marty Nachel from Homebrewing For Dummies, 2nd Edition

Of the four main ingredients used in homebrewing beer (barley, hops, yeast, and water), barley makes the biggest contribution. Barley gives beer its color, underlying flavor, sweetness, body, head of foam, and mouthfeel. Barley also contributes the natural sugars that feed the yeast, which in turn converts the sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide during fermentation.

Malting

Before you can brew with barley, it must undergo a process known as malting. The malting process simulates the grain's natural germination cycle. Under closely monitored conditions, malting companies wet the barley kernels and allow them to sprout. As the seedlings begin sprouting, the starchy insides of the kernels (orendosperm) begin to change. This modification causes the hard, starchy endosperm to begin to break down into natural malt sugars (maltose) that brewers later liquefy, during the mashing process. One of the important features of this process is the production of the enzymes brewers later use in the mashing process. And the maltose sugars, along with proteins and dextrins, contribute the color, flavor, sweetness, body, mouthfeel, and foam in the beer. (Mouthfeel can be defined as the textural qualities of beer on your palate and in your throat — viscosity, or thickness; carbonation; alcohol warmth; and so on.)

Only after the barley has undergone the malting process does it become malt, or barleymalt.

Malted barley is an incredibly complete and convenient package, seemingly designed exclusively for brewing beer. Each grain kernel contains carbohydrates (which eventually convert to sugar), enzymes(which do the actual converting), proteins (which provide yeast nutrition, mouthfeel, and head stability), and a husk (which, when multiplied by thousands, acts as the perfect natural filter bed through which you can drain the unfermented beer).

Very few commercial brewers — usually only the huge beer factories — do their own malting. Professional malting companies (also called maltsters) malt most of the grain for the brewing industry (including smaller commercial brewers and homebrew supply shops).

Mashing

In order to make beer from the malted grain, the starch within the kernels of malt must be made soluble. This liquefying process takes place during the mashing procedures in a vessel called amash tun. The mashing process is where the natural enzymes found in grain break down the grain's starches; hot water then dissolves the starches so they leach out of the cracked grain. After you've rinsed all the malt sugars from the grain, you transfer the syrupy-sweet malt tea, called wort, over to the brew kettle, where you boil it. Homebrewers who make their beer with malt extract can avoid the mashing process altogether.

Wort (rhymes with dirt) is the German word for unfermented beer. Some brewers also call wort greenbeer (and not just on St. Patrick's Day).

Mashing Your Barley

Mashing Your Barley (you tube)

An introduction to making home brewed beer using the all grain method & mashing barley. Homebrewing beer is a great hobby and using the all grain method will give you the ability to customize your beer on every level. This video will introduce you to mashing, equipment used to make all grain beer, the general scientific process of mashing and some mashing terminology.

Getting Carbonation Right with Kegs

Getting Carbonation Right with Kegs - Mahalo Northern Brewer!

Getting Carbonation Right with Kegs

Posted on August 30, 2011 by tphelan

Carbonating your beer, cider, or soda in kegs can be simple, easy, and quick. There are a few things to know in advance, and a few different methods. This guide will go over them for you. Most carbonation in kegs is done using pressurized CO2 from a gas cylinder, a process called force carbonation. The fastest results can be achieved when the beer in the keg is at a cold temperature. This will let the CO2 diffuse into the beer more efficiently and at a faster rate.

The most accurate and easiest method for force carbonating is often referred to as the “set it and forget it method.” On page 2 of this document, select your refrigerator temperature and your desired carbonation rate, set your CO2 regulator to that pressure, and wait 5-10 days for the beer to carbonate.

A more accelerated method of force carbonation involves putting 30-40 PSI of CO2 into your chilled keg of beer, and shaking or rocking the keg to diffuse the gas at a faster rate. Depending on how cold your beer is, and how much you agitate the beer, you can have your beer carbonated in anywhere from 12 hours to 3 days. Once it is carbonated, dial your CO2 regulator down to serving pressure, and vent excess CO2 out of your keg. It is advised that you wait an hour or two for the beer to settle down before serving.

Another way to carbonate in kegs is with priming sugar, or any other fermentable sugar. For a 5 gallon batch, just go by the same amount of sugar that you would for a bottle conditioned batch, typically 5 ounces for priming sugar. This will take 2-3 weeks for carbonation.

Gordon Biersch Honolulu

HI - HONOLULU

OUR BEER                                              FULL MENU
Purity. Precision. Perfection. These are the hallmarks of our premium German-style biers. Crafted to the exacting standards of the Reinheitsgabot or German Purity Law, we use only the highest quality Weyermann Malt from Bamberg, authentic Bavarian Hersbrucker hops and pure, filtered water to craft a range of well-balanced flavors for every discerning taste.


Situated in the Aloha Tower Marketplace on the Honolulu Harbor, Gordon Biersch is Hawaii's first brewpub. Known for its waterfront views, island music and its spirit of "Aloha," Gordon Biersch Honolulu is all about fun, friends, pupus (appetizers) and music.

How do brewers measure the alcohol in beer?

Mahalo TLC for this great article!

How do brewers measure the alcohol in beer?

To determine the amount of alcohol in the beer they are making, brewers compare the specific gravity of the beer before it starts fermenting to its specific gravity when it is finished fermenting.

The specific gravity is a measure of the density of a liquid relative to water. The density of water is 1 kilogram per liter, so if the specific gravity of a liquid is 1.06, one liter of that liquid will weigh 1.06 kg.

The liquid that will form the beer is called a wort (pronounced wert). Its specific gravity is always higher than water because it contains a lot of dissolved sugars. Yeast added to the wort will convert some of these dissolved sugars into ethyl alcohol. When the beer is finished, the specific gravity is always less than when it started, because some of the sugars have been converted into alcohol, which is less dense than water (0.79 kg/L).

Glucose (C₆H₁₂O₆) is the main sugar that will be converted to alcohol. Many reactions take place inside the yeast that ultimately convert each glucose molecule into two molecules of ethyl alcohol (CH₃CH₂OH) and two molecules of carbon dioxide (CO₂).

C₆H₁₂O₆ => 2(CH₃CH₂OH) + 2(CO₂)

If you check the periodic table, you can figure out the molecular weights of these two molecules. The molecular weight of ethyl alcohol is 46.0688 and the molecular weight of carbon dioxide is 44.0098. You will need these numbers

Big Island Brewhaus

Big Island Brewhaus

Great Food deserves Great Beer which deserves Great People who deserve Great Live Music! Find it all at Big Island Brewhaus and Taqueria.

One of Hawaii's most accomplished brewer's has begun anew, bringing you Fresh Island Mexican Food & World Class Handcrafted Beer... Enjoy the new Bamboo Beer Garden at Hawaii's Highest Brewery, 2,764' above the sea, in Waimea.

Aerating wort: Techniques

Mahalo Jon Stika & Brew YOUR OWN Magazine!

Aerating wort: Techniques

Author:  Jon StikaIssue: July/August 2009

Your chilled wort needs oxygen to keep the yeast healthy — here’s how to deliver it.

Oxygen in beer is undesirable except at one point (and only one point) in the brewing process. That lone point is when the post-boil wort has been chilled down to fermentation temperature, but before the yeast has been pitched into it.    

Oxygen dissolves into wort as a function of temperature and specific gravity. As such, the colder and less concentrated the wort, the more oxygen will be able to enter into solution. All the bubbling and splashing that occurs during the boil drives most of the oxygen out of solution because the wort is too hot while boiling. Therefore, oxygen must be replenished after the wort is cool and able to retain the oxygen in solution again.    

Oxygen is essential for yeast growth and reproduction. Yeast must grow and reproduce first, before actually fermenting the wort to make beer. Yeast needs oxygen to synthesize the material for expanding cell walls; namely sterols and fatty acids. Overlooking proper wort aeration can lead to problems

The Compleat Meadmaker by Ken Schramm

The Compleat Meadmaker 

by Ken Schramm

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...hands down the best mead how-to book... If you make mead... you *need* this book... " -- Vicki Rowe, Webmistress and meadmaker, www.gotmead.com, July 15, 2003

From the Author

My goal in writing this book is to begin bringing to meadmakers the breadth and depth of knowledge and resources that are available to beer brewers and winemakers. I sought to cover the many aspects of meadmaking in a comprehensive but easy-to-read fashion, and to provide readers with an understanding of the role quality ingredients play in creating a really pleasing mead.This complex, diverse and romantic drink deserves more attention than it has received in print. It can range from bone dry to profoundly sweet, and can be crafted to complement any type of food. If I spread some of my enthusiasm for mead, and for this simple, fun and remarkably rewarding hobby, then I will have succeeded at my task.

Kauai Island Brewery & Grill

Aloha!  Please stop by and see our new place, have some pupus while you try some of our handcrafted beers.

About us:

We are a microbrewery/brewpub, with a showcase copper-clad Brewhouse, featuring 10 house beers on tap, plus several rotating guest beers both on tap and in bottles. On the kitchen side our pub-fare menu includes a large choice of pupus, soups, salads, wraps, sandwiches, burgers as well as a variety of fresh fish and mouth-watering entrees. We also feature a keiki menu for the little ones. Our full bar serves wine, mixed drinks, and cocktails. There are five 55" flat screen HDTVs throughout the pub to watch all the games. Brewery tours are available upon request. Currently we sell and fill growlers for beer to go, and keg rentals are available.

Big Brew 2013 - Join in!

Big Brew 2013

In 1988, May 7th was announced before Congress as National Homebrew Day. The American

Homebrewers Association (AHA) created AHA Big Brew as an annual event to celebrate National Homebrew Day around the world. AHA Big Brew is held each year on the first Saturday in May.

Homebrewing has been practiced in America since the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. Today there are an estimated 750,000 homebrewers in the U.S. Homebrewers are passionate about brewing beer and love to share that passion with others.AHA Big Brew gives homebrewers an opportunity to get together all over the world to share their love for the hobby.Big Brew Trends 2012. An estimated 7,100 people celebrated the AHA National Homebrew Day at 254 registered sites in May 2012. 1,500 batches created 11,200 gallons of homebrew, enjoyed around the world. Nine countries participated with registered AHA Big Brew sites, including 44 of the United States.

Crack Open A New Hobby

Crack Open A New Hobby

Mahalo Morebeer!

Mauna Kea Pale Ale - Mehana Brewing Co.

Hawai'i Nui Brewing

Mehana Brewing Company

A special mahalo to Keith Kinsey and the Shindo 'ohana!

Product Description

Mauna Kea Pale Ale is an American Pale Ale.  The malts and hops are from the Pacific Northwest.  This premium ale is dry-hopped for a minimum of 25 days.  Actual whole hops are used to give the beer a touch of floral aroma and citrus flavor.  Medium copper in color with a superbly well-balanced hop flavor.  It is named for the most majestic mountain on the Big Island.  The Mauna Kea Pale Ale won a Silver Medal at the 2010 US Beer Open in the American Pale Ale category.

Pairings:  Pairs well with spicy dishes such as Thai or Indian curry

Style:  American Pale Ale

ABV:  5.4%

Bitterness:  27 IBU

Ingredients:  2-Row and Caramel Malts, Cascade Hops for bittering and aroma

Maui Brewing Company

http://mauibrewingco.com/

Homebrewing on Maui? Get Supplied at the Maui Brewing Company

http://www.mauibrewingco.com/mbc/MBCHomebrew.html



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