Making Cider

I've been too busy to brew beer lately but I wanted to do SOMETHING. So last weekend I filled a carboy with five gallons of cider and dumped two packets of beer yeast in. Soon I will have wonderful hard cider to enjoy on the coming summer days. Here are are a few more details for those who want to make hard cider.

Start by pouring five gallons of juice into a glass carboy. You can use fresh squeezed juice or store bought juice. I sometimes like to mix my own flavor. It's ok to use 4.5 gallons of apple juice and .5 gallons of something else you think will perk up the flavor. Experiment!

Once the juice is in the carboy you are ready for the yeast. You have several choices. You can use a champagne yeast if you want a dry product that does not retain apple flavor, you can use dry beer yeast if you want it to remain somewhat sweet and still have a hint of apple flavor, or you can pickup a special liquid yeast intended just for making hard cider. I use dry beer yeast.

Now put a $1.50 airlock on top and fill it with vodka as a barrier to bacteria or wild yeast falling in. Place the carboy in a reasonably cool and dark place, such as a closet, and leave it there for two weeks. You should see bubbles in the airlock within 24 hours. After two weeks siphon the hard cider into a second carboy and again leave it there for two weeks. At this point you should have no activity in the airlock and the cider should look very clear.

You last step is to bottle the cider. You can use old, but clean, beer bottles for this purpose. Soak the bottles in an iodine solution (instructions on the bottle) to make sure they are sanitary. Use a siphon hose with a crimp to feel each bottle from the bottom and then cap them. I prefer a bench capper (vs a wing capper) which can be had for about $50.

Once again, leave the cider alone for two weeks or slightly longer. Refrigerate and start enjoying them. You should be able to make a very enjoyable product this way but there are a few extra things you can do to alter your cider.

One of the most popular things you can do is add some additional sugar to increase the alcohol content. Using apple juice from the store you will start with about 5-6% alcohol once it is fermented so any added sugar will add a punch. The most common types to add are corn sugar or honey. When I make my cider I heat up 3 pounds of honey on the stove so it is very viscous and pour it in with the cider. If you are using a 5 gallon carboy you may need to decrease the amount of juice you use to accommodate the honey.

In a quick nutshell that is how to make hard cider. It is a very refreshing drink in the summer and I've found it to be very popular with friends and family. So get cracking because summer is coming up fast.

Yakimania

I am almost recovered from Yakimania. Hosted by Ralph Olson at the Hop Union this is an event for homebrewers to come together, taste each others brews, tour hop fields and see how hops are processed. This years event began on a saturday morning and finished fairly late that night. I learned quite a bit, drank a few beers and met some great people.

The day started at the Hop Union. Harvested hops are brought there to be pelletized and shipped to

commercial brewers. We checked in around 11am and had a chance to mingle and sample each others beers before

lunch was rolled out. This was happening in a big warehouse full of machinery not in use at the time. Ralph Olson gave a very nice presentation on hops and many of the homebrewers grilled him for additional information. When you have the king of hops in front of you, that's the time to ask questions!

We split up into small groups and mine went on a walking tour around the pelletizing equipment. The hops look like little green pine cones. The magical part of hops is the lupulin which appears

as little yellow powder inside the cone. The goal of the

pelletizer is to chew up the cones and then push the material through a mold to produce what looks like rabbit food

pellets but smells like the strongest flowers imaginable.

Pelletized hops have many advantages over hop cones. They store longer, take up less space and their chemical composition is a tested and known factor which makes beer production easier. The pellets are stored in foil bags and purged with nitrogen before they are shipped out.

We then moved on to the unloading dock where the hops arrive on a flatbed

truck in 200 pound bales. The first thing that happens, once the bales are unloaded, is a temperature check. Some varieties of hops have a nasty habit of spontaneously catching fire if they get too hot. You don't want that happening inside the warehouse! They also check the water content. There are two reasons for that. One is the hops need to be dry enough to run through the pelletizer and the other is that hops are purchased by weight. Nobody wants to buy water stored in the hops! Next a core sample is taken and sent to the lab. This is where they determine the alpha acid (bittering capability) which can affect the price. A brewer wouldn't pay as much per pound for hops with a 7% alpha acid rating as they would for 9% since they would have to use more hops to make the beer.

The hops are then stored in a warehouse until they are ready to

be processed. Walking into one of these warehouses is

something like walking into heaven for a home brewer. The aroma of hops is heavy in theair. I've seen more than one person hug a bale of hops. Here is the question of the century, why don't they sell hop aromas for the house? Mine house just smells like sage. Ralph reminded us that storing hops in the warehouse requires constant monitoring to ensure a hop bale doesn't catch fire as happened two years ago in a nearby warehouse. Two million pounds of hops were lost in that fire.

Our tour continued to follow the life of the hop in a backwards fashion.

After seeing how it would be processed at the end of it's life we went out to Mike Smith's ranch to see how the hops are handled prior to being shipped to the Hop Union. Walking into the warehouse we saw dozens of vines hanging upside down from hooks. These vines go through a machine that strips off the cones and the leaves, leaving the vine looking like a shredded green...vine. This machine looks like a huge grater

so don't stick your arm in. Next the cones and leaves go over a series of belts at a particular angle. This causes the cones to roll down the belts and the leaves to sit flat on the belt, thus separating them. This goes on for several iterations until the cones are all by themselves and ready to be dried. They follow a belt high above the ground from this building into the drying plant. The leaves follow a different belt and are composted and used for fertilizer.

So now our merry band moved on to the drying plant. This place is huge.

The first floor is made up of the most massive drying machines I have ever seen. Think of a hair blow dryer that is 32x32ft and there were a bunch of them shooting hot air up through a grate to the hops. On the second floor the hops are piled two feet (it varies) high but don't jump in, hops will scratch the heck out of you. The hops are dried to around

10% of their original weight in this room.

As all of the moisture comes out of the hops the room becomes a sauna. The heat was unbelievable and fogged everyone's glasses and camera lenses. There is some risk of fire at this point as the hops will combust at a fairly low temperature. While the aroma was wonderful it was a short visit and we ushered ourselves fairly quickly through this section.

The last part of our tour took us to the

hop field itself. We learned that the hop root is perennial (it survives the winter) while the vine itself is an annual. The length of daylight in Yakima is perfect to signal the vine to grow and then produce cones at just the right time. We talked at great length regarding mites and other predators. We broke the cones, rubbed them on our hands and smelled the wonderful wonderful aroma of hops as fresh as they possibly can be. Then came the machinery.

Imagine a group of men all grunting like Tim The Toolman. First comes the cutter on a small truck. This machine cuts the vines off about 3-4ft above

the ground. The energy stored in the remaining vine will flow back into the roots and preserve it for the winter. Then comes the harvesting machine in two parts. In front is a simple pickup truck with a flatbed and tall sides. The engine isn't turned on. Behind is a tractor pushing the truck but also holding up high a cutting device that removes the hop vine from the twine. You can watch a movie of this in action by clicking here.

Wrapping up the day we headed back to the Hop Union

were we enjoyed a wonderful meal prepared by Rob Brown from the YEAST home brew club. BBQ chicken, brats, and corn on the cob. A few beers and cigars later the evening was over. I was tired but very satisfied.

Brewing Demonstration

I'm not sure what was harder to handle at my recent brewing demonstration. The 102 degree weather or the sight of my hairy white legs.

In July I demonstrated how to make beer at Hometown Ace Hardware. I picked my all time favorite recipe, a clone of Mac-n-Jack's african amber. If you haven't had this beer yet you need to try it. Lots of body, great hop taste and nose that will nock your socks off. My clone is pretty close but I frequently jack up the hops and the alcohol content for a bit more bang!

The demo went well even with a small crowd. One guy who attended spent the entire day with me doing all of the tasks himself and learning as he went. It was his birthday and that was exactly what he wanted to do with his day. I couldn't argue, making beer is fun.

So everyone there learned about sparge water, making a mash, boiling, and finally about fermenting. It is a lot of information to take in but we had roughly five hours to cover it all.

Ace Hardware was demoing their treager grills by bbq'ing some pork. We made a delicious lunch out of it!

If you haven't used a treager yet, I encourage you to try one. They burn wood pellets for indirect heat and they can smoke at 120 degrees making for tasty meat that you cut with a fork.

So, is it easy to stand next to a 50,000 btu burner on a 103 degree day? No it isn't but it was worthwhile to introduce people to the wonderful world of beer.

Moxee Hop Festival

Once again the Yakima Brewers were at the Moxee Hop Festival to help pour beer. This is an annual event to raise money for various town projects and we were very happy to assist.

Our group volunteers every year to help in the beer garden. This is a vary large area roped off for drinking and dancing. There was a rock and roll band, dancing and lots of young people dancing and having a very good time.

Last year we saw a few fight break out which were quickly controlled by the overwhelming police presence. This year I didn't see any fights, just lots of people having fun.

We drew the 10-11:30pm shift and when I arrived I was told, "Do not shut off the faucet, never stop pouring" and that's pretty much how the night went. As fast as I could pour the beer it went out to thirsty dancers. Of course we were all dancing a bit trying to keep up with demand! Most of the beer served was Budweiser but there were a few microbrews to be sampled. The most common request was for "beer."

Overall this it was a great night to help a good cause and we all enjoyed ourselves tremendously. Party on!

Making Sarsaparilla

When I was very small I used to drink root beer at my great grandmother's house. One day I grabbed a bottle from the fridge and was happily settling in front of the tv when she came running up behind me and grabbed the bottle. Turns out I had a beer bottle and not a root beer bottle! Oops!

As an adult I shared that story with my father. He said great-grandma used to make her own root beer and probably used great-grandpa's empties to hold them. Hmmm, could I make my own root beer? An interesting idea!

Another jump in time found me at Hometown Ace Hardware, my local homebrew

supply store, this past saturday. I was looking down the isle when I spotted Old Fashioned soda extracts. On the recommendation of my friend, Charles Gonzales, I bought the Sarsaparilla and went home to make some soda.

Since I am a beer brewer I have lots of kegs sitting around and I thought a short 3 gallon keg would be perfect for this experiment. The instructions on the soda box were written for someone bottling so I went online to find instructions for kegs. The best, and easiest, I found went like this; use 1 oz of extract for every gallon of water and 1 lb of sugar for every gallon of water. Simple enough.

Now what about carbonation. I could have pitched a packet of dry yeast into that sugary concoction but I decided to force carbonate using my co2 tank. I hit the keg with 30 lb of pressure and rocket the heck out of it to get as much co2 in as possible. I then dropped the keg into my freezer since cold liquid accepts carbonation better than warm.

Of course there had to be one little hiccup. I forgot the keg in the freezer and froze it solid overnight. Thankfully it was only 2 gallons of liquid in a 3 gallon keg so it had plenty of room to expand, no damage done. I let the keg sit out to thaw and sampled it a few hours later.

Wow, it was pretty good! It definitely had a sugary twang to it but the flavor was very nice. This is something I would do again in an instant.

Ok, a couple of things to note for next time. One, don't let the keg sit overnight in the freezer. Two, make sure the sugar is mixed into warm water, maybe on the stove, to ensure it dissolves. Three, apparently anything rubber that soda hits is flavored for life. So no more beer in that particular keg.

Overall this was a fun project and I would do it again. In fact I think I will!

A history of brewing

My good friend, Earl Barton, has been making beer for years. He has a garage full of kegs and always has at least six beers on tap. In 2004 he shared his love for beer brewing with me and I was hooked. He taught me about the grain, the yeast and how to bottle this wonderful product. He still has more kegs than I do, and he brews more often than I do, but I plan to catch up someday.

In those early days we were using a camp chef stove and some old kegs with the tops cut off. It was all pretty basic but we were making beer! Rich Walker, another local brewer, became my brewing partner and we made many many good beers together including clones of Mac-N-Jack, Deschutes Black Butte Porter, Fullers Porter, Geary's Hampshire Ale, and Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout to mention a few.

Of course we made a couple of real dog rockets as we were learning. I brewed a christmas spice ale with Earl using allspice from the kitchen. Do Not Try This at home kids. I couldn't even give it away! Then there was the time I decide to make an IPA using only Nugget hops. Another beer that went down the drain. Wasted beer makes me cry, you would not have enjoyed watching my tears and the beer go down the drain.

Along the way I earned the Brewer of the Year award from the Yakima Brewer

s group in 2006. That was a close race right down to the end. We had to brew five beers over the course of ten months, each being graded by the attending club members, and points were tallied in October. I studied each style, tirelessly sampled

commercial examples, and refined my brewing process. My efforts paid off when I won the award!

In 2007 I received a blue ribbon for my beer at the State Fair in Yakima in 2007.

This was a small competition and more than one person received a blue ribbon (that's how the local fairs work) butI was still pleased!

In 2007 I was in a rut (without a beer) and decided to get serious. I enrolled in the Siebel Institute's advanced beer brewing course in Durango, Colorado. There I met the giants of the beer world. Randy Mosher, author of Radical Brewing, and Ray Daniels, author of Designing Great Beers. Meeting them was the highlight of my year

and inspired me to "get radical." I also met Chris White from White Labs and Chris Graham from More Beer. So there I was with the giants, the kings, of the homebrew industry along with a group of guys that wanted nothing more than to brew really good beer. We learned alot and only had one run in with the police that is documented on youtube if you can find it. :-)

That brings us to 2008 when I decided to build "the brew stand." Every brewer dreams of having a brewing system that will make his friends drool. Buying one would cost $5,000-$15,000 so I decided to build one with the help of my friends. Ryan Case drew up the plans and dimensions, Don Barnes welded the pieces together, a local paint shop powder coated it, and Ryan came back to help with electrical and propane. The system is SWEET. It is one of the nicest looking systems I have seen and I could afford it!

In late 2008 I hurt my back badly and was not able to brew all winter long. Several MRI's, doctors, and physical therapy sessions later I'm probably 80% recovered and that is enough to start brewing again. This time I'm doing a demonstration at Ace Hardware on Tieton and 36th. I'll post all the details in a new blog entry shortly. Last time we had about 18 people show up and they cleared out the brewing supply isles afterward, a big success that we hope to replicate.

So there you have it. I love drinking beer, I love making beer and I love talking about beer. It was only natural that I would start a blog so I can tell the world about it. I'll be posting about beers that I drink, events that I attend and teaching sessions