Love Good Beer

Fraser Valley Hops and Grain

Tuesday, February 7th, 2012 | Homebrew | No Comments

There is a new homebrew supply business in BC, some competition for the venerable Dan’s Homebrewing Supplies.  I got an email from a guy called Jonathan who told me he’s starting Fraser Valley Hops and Grain in Mission.  No website at the moment, but they do have a Facebook Page with contact details.  Fraser Valley homebrewers will likely be pleased they don’t have to make their way all the way downtown for supplies.  All the best to Jonathan and the new business!  This could lead to more quality craft brewers showing up in the valley a few years down the road, neat.

Update: They have a website now.  Also, they are doing beer making seminars for newbies, contact them for info.

Cheers,

Chris

Tags: Dan's Homebrewing Supplies, fraser valley hops and grain, Homebrew, mission, vancouver

Dan’s Homebrewing Supplies

Wednesday, April 29th, 2009 | Beer, Breweries, Homebrew | 5 Comments

Dan’s Homebrewing Supplies located in Vancouver’s threatened Heatley Block is the soul of Vancouver’s growing craft beer movement.   Yes that is correct, the very soul of craft beer in Vancouver is a homebrew shop.    If craft beer was a body, the many fine brewers in BC would be the heart, retail shops, restaurants and pubs such as Brewery Creek, the Alibi Room and The Whip would act as the arms and  legs, and the dedicated consumers represented by groups such as CAMRA Vancouver would be the mind.  All parts play an integral role in a successful beer revival, and although all parts are equally important, Dan’s will always hold a special place in my heart.

My love for beer came from an interest in homebrewing – without Dan’s I may never have been exposed to the diverse selection of beer that the world has to offer.  The entire Vancouver area is littered with many small u-brew and u-vint businesses that carry a limited selection of homebrew ingredients and supplies, but none of these compare to Dan’s Homebrewing Supplies.  Dan’s is the only retail store in the entire Vancouver area where whole-leaf  hops, hop pellets, a full selection of barley, wheat and rye malts, brewing supplies and brewers yeast can be found.  This list does not include the friendly advice and recipes that Dan and his staff are more than happy to provide to their customers.  Here is a video put together about Dan’s Homebrewing Supplies.

The most creative and experimental beer will always be homebrew.  I have to admit that some of the cask beers that brewmasters graciously provide are delicious and very creative, but craft brewing is still a business and the beer they produce must be commercial enough to sell.  Whereas homebrewers do not sell their beer and only have to please themselves and their usually appreciative friends – the only limitation homebrewers face is their own imagination.  For a mere sixty dollars on supplies and twenty to thirty dollars for ingredients, and add in a small amount of patience and there it is,  an incredibly unique and flavorful beer.

The  North American craft beer renaissance that was started in Northern California over thirty years ago was largely influenced by hombrewers.  Homebrew shops have always and will continue to play a vital role in the growth of craft beer.  For anyone interested in homebrewing, I highly encourage a  visit to Dan’s Homebrewing Supplies – I am sure Dan and his staff would be more than happy to help.

Cheers,

Erik

Tags: alibi room, camra vancouver, Dan's Homebrewing Supplies, Homebrew, the whip

Homebrewing for the first time

Tuesday, April 21st, 2009 | Beer | 4 Comments

This past Saturday, Erik invited me over to brew a batch of porter with his good friend Brad.  I had never homebrewed before, so this was completely new to me.  I arrived at Erik’s house a while before Erik, who was running late, returned from Dan’s Homebrewing Supplies with the malt and hop ingredients.  Luckily, I was really on time because Holly had just finished making lunch.  I was already liking brewing by this point.

When Erik got home with the goods, the first thing we had to do was heat up some water for the first phase, mashing.  Mashing involves mixing the malted barley (the recipe of which Erik can fill you in on) into hot water.  Our malt mixture contained very little roasted chocolate malt (you could see the odd black fleck), which you might be surprised to find out is all that’s needed to give a beer that dark porter colour.  The water had to be heated up to approximately 170F on the stove to get a temperature of 152F in the mashing vessel.  How Erik knows this, I cannot tell.  We used Erik’s fancy beer making software to figure out the ideal temperature of 152F.  Apparently, anything three degrees above would lead to too many unfermentable sugers in the mash (leftover sugar means sweeter beer) and anything three degrees less would lead to too many fermentable sugars (not much leftover sugar means dry beer).  After Erik had mashed in his barley malt and was ready to let it sit in the lautering process, we were dead on at 152F.  Erik’s giant beer cosy system only loses 1F per hour, which I was pretty impressed with.  Lautering is the process of letting the mash steep, to extract the fermentable sugars that yeast turns into alcholol.

Erik Mashing in the barley malt

Action Shot of Mashing in the Barley Malt

Lautering in the giant Beer Cosy

Now Erik would tell you that home brewing is easy, and it is fairly straight forward, but it is really only easy when you are me.  It is true that while homebrewing, you do a lot of work in bursts and then wait around for an hour or so.  Homebrewing is also fairly precise and requires a fair amount of careful sanitization, as well as a good chunk of knowledge (that Erik has and I don’t).  For me, brewing consisted of playing a lot of frisbee with Luca, Erik’s dog, and drinking a lot of beer.  Whereas Erik spent a lot of time tearing around, cleaning stuff, carefully measuring/mixing, and took part in a good deal of attentiveness.  I had a great time though, because frisbee and beer drinking are pretty fun.  We drank a lot of fantastic beers, including Mission Springs Fat Guy Oatmeal Stout, Swans Coconut Porter, Swans Berry Ale, and Anderson Valley Tripel.  We also had Paddock Wood IPA, which I thought was more of a decent pale ale than a respectable IPA, and Granville Island Brockton IPA, finally a westcoast IPA.

Luca, good frisbee player

After an hour of waiting (drinking beer and playing frisbee), it was time to sparge.  After draining the wort (unfermented beer) from the mashtun (Erik’s has a filter in the bottom), we poured hot water (hotter than the first go because we need no more extraction) through the mash to get more of the sugar out.  We did this three times, stirring each time before draining more wort.

Erik draining the wort into the kettle

Wort going from the mashtun to the brew kettle

Chris stirring during sparging (one of my few tasks)

Bad, a good man

After we’d recovered the wort, it was time to fire up the brew kettle.  Erik’s kettle is a turkey fryer that he heats with a potent propane burner.  Bringing the wort to a boil was fairly challenging (mostly for Erik) because the wort wants to quickly extricate itself from the kettle.  After achieving a boil, Erik immediately added the bittering hops for the hour long boil.  After fifty minutes, the aroma hops were added.  I do not recall the types of hops we use, but I seem to recall willamette being used for aroma.  I’ll be honest, by the time the aroma hops were added I was out of beer making mode and into beer drinking mode.  After the hour long boil, Erik cooled the wort using cold water running through a coper hose.  Once cool, the wort was put into a carboy, to which yeast was added, and left to ferment for a week or so.  After further ageing in the bottle for a few more weeks, we’ll have a tasty porter.  Although, I fear my involvement may have somehow ruined this beer, but we’ll see.  Erik, thanks for letting me make beer with you and I apologize if I somehow ruined it.

The Brew Kettle

Erik preventing extrication

We had a good time

Stirring in the bittering hops

Cooling down after the boil (cold water runs through)

Cheers,

Chris

Tags: anderson valley trippel, barley malt, Brockton IPA, dan's homebrew supplies, Fat Guy Oatmeal Stout, granville island, Homebrew, hops, lauter, mash, mission springs, paddock wood, Porter, sparge, swans berry ale, swans coconut porter

Brewday 2009

Monday, February 23rd, 2009 | Beer, Homebrew | 3 Comments

Last Saturday was the first of hopefully many brew-days this year.  I have been an active homebrewer for almost a year and a half now.   My love for homebrewing started while walking down a Home Hardware store in the small town of Qualicum on Vancouver Island.  This particular store sold a home brewing kit – the thought of brewing my own beer was intriguing and had never previously crossed my mind.  Although I did not buy the kit that day, I made it my personal mission to become a homebrew master – I’m not there yet, but one day.

Unfortunately, all of my friends, including Chris, who clearly cares more about Mats Sundin than me, were busy, so had to go it alone.  All in all it was a relaxing Saturday spent brewing what will hopefully become a delicious IPA.

Vorlaufing - Draining sweet wort from the mash and then recirculating back into the mash tun again and again until the wort runs clear. Any grain left in the wort could result in an astringent taste and mouthfeel.

Wort slowly filling the brew kettle

Sweet wort in the brew kettle approaching a boil. Once it reaches a boil the foam layer on top explodes everywhere - if the brewer is not standing by.

The Brewkettle

Adding hops to the wort. Centennial 60 min, Cascade 30 min, Amarillo 5 min

Immersion wort chiller cooling the wort. The hot wort needs to go from boiling to room temperature as quickly as possible. If not a nasty infection could spoil the brew.

Cooled wort beginning its week long ferment.

Erik

Tags: Homebrew, IPA