This is my Bible http://homedistiller.org/
And I love it !!
marți, 22 martie 2011
Home Distilling
In our travels at Wine-Compass.com we've met many micro-brewers and wine makers who first received training in their craft by manufacturing beer or wine at home. This list includes many of today's most popular brewers, including Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery and Jim Koch of The Samuel Adams Brewery. Koch still supports the homebrew movement with the Samuel Adams American Homebrew Contest where the brewery crafts the winner's brew. And homebrewers even have their own support group, the American Homebrewers Association.
Now, home wine and beer making may still not be legal in your specific area. When the 21st Amendment passed,which repealed the 18th amendment and the Volstead Act, it left regulation of alcohol to the states. However, they still heavily taxed home brew and wine until 1978, when Congress exempted a certain amount of beer\wine brewed for personal or family use from taxation. (A household of two adults or more can make up to 200 gallons of homemade beer\wine\cider annually. Single adult house-holds can make up to 100 gallons annually.)
Yet, there are no similar exemptions for home-distilling; partly because the government puritans want to control people's behaviors regarding hard alcohol. In fact, distillers were the main targets of the 18th Amendment which outlawed the manufacture of alcoholic beverages with 40% alcohol. It wasn't until the Volstead Act which outlawed the manufacture of alcoholic beverages with 1.2% alcohol, where wine and beer production was virtually eliminated. Yes, sacrificial and small qualities of home winemaking were still permitted.
But the primary restriction to home distilling is the federal government's unending thirst for tax dollars. Approximately 32% of the purchase price of a 750ml bottle of your favorite spirit goes to Uncle Sam or states. "That's more than three times the tax on wine, and twice that on beer." So yes, you can distill spirits at home, put the government forces you to undergo the same agonizing process that commercial distillers experience. Yet, the U.S. government allows the purchase of a one gallon still for the purposes of distilling water and essential oils from plants. There are many online providers of distilling equipment such as Home Distilling Shop. And it is legal to research and distribute information about distilling alcohol. But remember, it is not the distillation process that creates alcohol - its fermentation. So maybe there are still some brave souls out there experimenting with distilling micro batches of fermented grappa, corn whiskey, applejack, plum brandy - you name it.
Now, home wine and beer making may still not be legal in your specific area. When the 21st Amendment passed,which repealed the 18th amendment and the Volstead Act, it left regulation of alcohol to the states. However, they still heavily taxed home brew and wine until 1978, when Congress exempted a certain amount of beer\wine brewed for personal or family use from taxation. (A household of two adults or more can make up to 200 gallons of homemade beer\wine\cider annually. Single adult house-holds can make up to 100 gallons annually.)
Yet, there are no similar exemptions for home-distilling; partly because the government puritans want to control people's behaviors regarding hard alcohol. In fact, distillers were the main targets of the 18th Amendment which outlawed the manufacture of alcoholic beverages with 40% alcohol. It wasn't until the Volstead Act which outlawed the manufacture of alcoholic beverages with 1.2% alcohol, where wine and beer production was virtually eliminated. Yes, sacrificial and small qualities of home winemaking were still permitted.
But the primary restriction to home distilling is the federal government's unending thirst for tax dollars. Approximately 32% of the purchase price of a 750ml bottle of your favorite spirit goes to Uncle Sam or states. "That's more than three times the tax on wine, and twice that on beer." So yes, you can distill spirits at home, put the government forces you to undergo the same agonizing process that commercial distillers experience. Yet, the U.S. government allows the purchase of a one gallon still for the purposes of distilling water and essential oils from plants. There are many online providers of distilling equipment such as Home Distilling Shop. And it is legal to research and distribute information about distilling alcohol. But remember, it is not the distillation process that creates alcohol - its fermentation. So maybe there are still some brave souls out there experimenting with distilling micro batches of fermented grappa, corn whiskey, applejack, plum brandy - you name it.
3 Gallon All Grain Homebrewing Video
In this video I walk everyone through how to brew 3 gallon All grain batches of beer. It's really simple and easy. Check it out. And don't forget, Ben's Homebrew is now selling 3 gallon all grain equipment kits and ingredient kits! http://www.benshomebrew.com/product-p/eq3gallonallgrain.htm
Tips for the Time Constrained Brewer: Part 3
The final part in this series is going to discuss the No Boil method. And if you're thinking to yourself that there isn't a beer out there that doesn't require a boil, then think again. And the one I'm going to specifically discuss is the Berliner Weisse.
The Berliner Weisse beer was originally concocted in Germany hundreds of years ago. It's not a very strong beer and only comes in at about 3% or so. Now, being home brewers we don't have to stick to those guidelines if we don't want to. With the Berliner Weisse, you typically add about 25-50% wheat to your grain bill. Now this method can only be done by brewing All Grain. Here's a recipe for a simple Berliner Weisse and how to brew it. Bittering hops are completely optional. Since this beer usually has less than 10 IBUS I sometimes find that you don't even need to add bittering hops.
Also, this is a sour beer. It's not a very sour beer, but it will give you a tart flavor in the finish. And souring all depends on how long you let it sit in order to get the sourness level you desire.
Berliner Weisse 5 gallon batch based on 75% efficiency
4 lbs 2-row pilsner
3 lbs wheat
WLP 011 European Ale yeast
Dough in as usually with 1.25 qts per lb of grain. Hit a mash temp of about 148 and let that rest for an hour or so. Then, stir up the grain so the temp falls to below 110 degrees. Once this is accomplished add a handful of crushed grain to the mash and stir well. By doing this you are naturally adding Lactobacillus to the mash and this is what's going to make it sour. Let it sit over night or for a day or two. WARNING: The mash is really going to smell like rotten trash. Don't be afraid of it, it's just fine. But it will smell rancid; that's just the Lacto doing it's job.
After you've let it sit, sparge as normal with about 200 degree water and get as much sugars out as possible. Collect in your kettle and heat the wort to about 160 degrees and pasteurize it. That's it. Cool it down and add your yeast and you're done.
Proceed with normal fermentation and bottling. And there you have it. Pat yourself on the back for making a sour beer!
The Berliner Weisse beer was originally concocted in Germany hundreds of years ago. It's not a very strong beer and only comes in at about 3% or so. Now, being home brewers we don't have to stick to those guidelines if we don't want to. With the Berliner Weisse, you typically add about 25-50% wheat to your grain bill. Now this method can only be done by brewing All Grain. Here's a recipe for a simple Berliner Weisse and how to brew it. Bittering hops are completely optional. Since this beer usually has less than 10 IBUS I sometimes find that you don't even need to add bittering hops.
Also, this is a sour beer. It's not a very sour beer, but it will give you a tart flavor in the finish. And souring all depends on how long you let it sit in order to get the sourness level you desire.
Berliner Weisse 5 gallon batch based on 75% efficiency
4 lbs 2-row pilsner
3 lbs wheat
WLP 011 European Ale yeast
Dough in as usually with 1.25 qts per lb of grain. Hit a mash temp of about 148 and let that rest for an hour or so. Then, stir up the grain so the temp falls to below 110 degrees. Once this is accomplished add a handful of crushed grain to the mash and stir well. By doing this you are naturally adding Lactobacillus to the mash and this is what's going to make it sour. Let it sit over night or for a day or two. WARNING: The mash is really going to smell like rotten trash. Don't be afraid of it, it's just fine. But it will smell rancid; that's just the Lacto doing it's job.
After you've let it sit, sparge as normal with about 200 degree water and get as much sugars out as possible. Collect in your kettle and heat the wort to about 160 degrees and pasteurize it. That's it. Cool it down and add your yeast and you're done.
Proceed with normal fermentation and bottling. And there you have it. Pat yourself on the back for making a sour beer!
Tips for the Time Constrained Brewer: Part 2
The second method in this series is very simple and very easy, however, it's generally applied to hoppy beers like IPA's and Pale Ales. It's simply hop bursting. What is it? Well, hop bursting is adding a shit-ton of hops during a 15 minute boil and that's it. You boil for 15 minutes and go from there. I wouldn't recommend this method for all grain brewers because depending on the grain you're using you may have to boil off the DMS during the boil. I only recommend this for extract brewers.
The tricky part about doing this method is figuring out how many IBU's you're putting in to you beer. I'm not going to get in-depth with calculating alpha acid content and boil time, because, quite frankly, I don't know how to do that. I use software programs that help me with it because technology is great. This is the one I prefer Beersmith.
That's really all there is to it, and remember that with hop bursting you're going to be adding a lot of hop flavor to your beer, not just bitterness, so the beer should just bounce off of your tongue when you drink it.
Have fun with it! And let me know what you think if you try it.
The tricky part about doing this method is figuring out how many IBU's you're putting in to you beer. I'm not going to get in-depth with calculating alpha acid content and boil time, because, quite frankly, I don't know how to do that. I use software programs that help me with it because technology is great. This is the one I prefer Beersmith.
That's really all there is to it, and remember that with hop bursting you're going to be adding a lot of hop flavor to your beer, not just bitterness, so the beer should just bounce off of your tongue when you drink it.
Have fun with it! And let me know what you think if you try it.
Tips for the Time Constrained Brewer: Part 1
Being a stay at home Father, running a business and taking care of a 2 year old and a 5 year old while my wife is away in Iraq, really doesn't leave me much time to brew beer. So I've come up with a few different ways to cut back on the amount of time it takes to brew beer.
The first method is what I call the No Chill method. It's very simple and can cut out at least a half hour of your time from brew day. And it's a technique that I've been doing for more than a year. The No Chill method is adding the hot wort to your fermenting bucket (being careful not to splash too much) and then adding your cold water to it to top it up to 5 gallons, snapping on the lid and leaving it sit over night to chill down and then in the morning pitching your yeast.
One good thing about this method is that if you don't practice sanitation, then usually the wort gets chilled down to about 160 degrees and that's the temperature for pasteurization. Now I'm not saying that pasteurization kills all bad bugs, because it doesn't but it does kill enough of them to prevent infection of the wort.
A lot of literature out there recommends that you chill as fast as possible and then pitch your yeast. That is an option, however, if you're looking at shaving off some time to your brew day, give the No Chill method a try. You may not get the cold break you normally get when you do a fast chill, but I've found that that doesn't matter because once you bottle and keg, the cold break drops out anyway. If anyone has more questions please feel free to leave them in the comment area.
Thanks.
Homebrew Junkie
The first method is what I call the No Chill method. It's very simple and can cut out at least a half hour of your time from brew day. And it's a technique that I've been doing for more than a year. The No Chill method is adding the hot wort to your fermenting bucket (being careful not to splash too much) and then adding your cold water to it to top it up to 5 gallons, snapping on the lid and leaving it sit over night to chill down and then in the morning pitching your yeast.
One good thing about this method is that if you don't practice sanitation, then usually the wort gets chilled down to about 160 degrees and that's the temperature for pasteurization. Now I'm not saying that pasteurization kills all bad bugs, because it doesn't but it does kill enough of them to prevent infection of the wort.
A lot of literature out there recommends that you chill as fast as possible and then pitch your yeast. That is an option, however, if you're looking at shaving off some time to your brew day, give the No Chill method a try. You may not get the cold break you normally get when you do a fast chill, but I've found that that doesn't matter because once you bottle and keg, the cold break drops out anyway. If anyone has more questions please feel free to leave them in the comment area.
Thanks.
Homebrew Junkie
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