2011 Beers in Review

I made my first home-brew in January 2011. So it's been almost a year. I didn't even come close to the legal limit of 200 gallons per year: maybe 2012 will be better. I learned a lot about grains and yeast this last year, and I hope for many more opportunities to apply that knowledge.

The first batch was "Cronin," made with my buddy Caleb. That was our only extract batch: we made it with 8 pounds of Pilsener extract, a pound of chocolate malt, and a pound of turbinado. It was our first batch, and it had all the adventure a first batch should have. It ended up way too sweet, and we bottled it with far too much sugar and yeast. The bottles were way too carbonated, but we didn't actually have any explode. I think I have one bottle left.

From Brew Day: Opening Cronin

After Cronin we made "Lawnmower" with the yeast we had left-over from Cronin. Lawnmower was our first all-grain beer, and it was a simple recipe of two-row barley, crystal 60, and blackberries. It turned out far dryer than we expected, and very unevenly carbonated. Some bottles were all but flat, some spewed foam all over the kitchen. We only made two-and-a-half gallons of Lawnmower, which might have been a mistake. It was just starting to mellow to a nice beer when we finished the batch.

From Lawnmower

After Lawnmower, I made a solo batch I called "Old Woolen Shirt". It was an attempt at an Irish Red, and it wasn't half bad. Again, I found my carbonation levels were uneven. I ended up giving almost none of it away, as it was too unpredictable. I did make a second batch of Woolen Shirt later in the summer, which turned out a lot better.

From Woolen Shirt

From Woolen Shirt

On the heels of Woolen Shirt, I took a recipe I dreamed up with my friend Greg: "Greg and Mark's Amber Wheat." It was the worst beer I've made to date, but that's really due more to the execution than the recipe. It was thin, too dry, and too hoppy. The hops and malt were totally out of balance, it lacked mouthfeel, and it just wasn't what I had wanted to make. I think that one needs another go.

After Amber Wheat came another attempt at Lawnmower (this time with raspberries instead of blackberries), and a Belgian-like wheat beer we called "Toad". Toad was our first attempt at a beer with spices in it: we used cinnamon and nutmeg. Toad was a hit with everyone who tried it, but when I opened my last bottle (a few months later), I thought the cinnamon and nutmeg really over-powered the beer.

In the fall I bought an outdoor burner and inaugurated it with my first Dry Stout: "Rainy Season Stout". I think RSS is my best beer to date, but it's honestly pretty hard to mess up a stout. That was the first five-gallon batch I made since Cronin, and I think it's an improvement. With the smaller batches it's just too easy to run out.

In November I brewed a brown ale with a couple co-workers. It went well as far as execution, but I'm reluctantly concluding I'm not a real fan of the final product. I think I dislike the taste of Carapils Dextrine malt. This is the second time I've used it, and both times the final beer had a flavour I don't like. I want to retry that recipe without the dextrine (perhaps replacing the carapils with Maris Otter?) and see how it goes. I suspect I'll like that a lot better.

My final beer of the year is still in the fermenter: I made a batch of something vaguely Belgian on my week off for Christmas. This one is ten pounds of Pilsener malt, one pound of Special B, and a pound of palm sugar. I have high hopes for this beer, although it's far too early to tell how it'll turn out. I ended up with too much volume on this one: from now on I think I'll stick to 90-minute boils.

What have I learned in my first year as a home-brewer? First, I learned that it's just too much fun making beer. It takes a lot of patience, but there's a lot of joy in opening a bottle of something you made yourself and serving it to guests.

Second, I realized that I'm making beer a lot cheaper than I can buy it. Even including the cost of "failed" batches, it's way cheaper to brew than to buy: I'm somewhere in the realm of $4 per gallon. That's just ridiculous.

Third, the challenge of brewing is much more complicated than cooking. When you cook, you can add flavours directly; but when you brew, the flavours are harder to predict. If you think a beer should taste sweeter, you need to consider that it is boiled, then fermented, then conditioned before it's tasted. In cooking, sweeter can be achieved with sugar, honey, or the like. In beer, the fermentation will remove most or all sweetness, so you need to add something you think will increase sweetness after it's been boiled, fermented, and conditioned. The correct ingredient can be counter-intuitive.

Finally, I realized this can be a terribly obsessive hobby. I honestly make a good deal more beer than I drink. I suspect I drink less now than before I brewed. I find a lot more pleasure producing than consuming, and serve most of my beer to guests. That's not to say I don't drink, but my consumption seems to have dropped with brewing. I notice a lot of people online who've invested thousands into their "home breweries". I refuse to do that, but I'm starting to appreciate why they do. Precision with temperatures. volumes, and so forth can be a tricky problem to solve: a lot of brewers solve them electronically, which entails a significant cost.

I keep budget down largely by selecting styles that arose from less controlled environments. I personally don't like lagers all that much, so that eliminates the most expensive projects. I prefer the flavours of Belgian and British ales: Belgian yeast tends to like warm ferments, so that makes it easier on the temperature controls; British ales are frequently drunk young, so there's a reduced exposure to variations.

But in the end, it's all about having fun. I enjoy brewing, and most of the beers I make are at least decent, some are even good. I'm still working on producing one that's excellent.