The 2025 O'Connor's West Michigan Brew Off is in the books, and what a great showing!

12th Annual O’Connor’s West Michigan Brew Off

Brew Competition Online Entry & Management

Congrats to the following Keepers for their achievements!

Chris Baar with Harry Jachym Bronze for Strong Bitter  

Chris Baar Gold for a Wee Heavy

Jeff Pregenzer with Tim Wicklund, Bill Blakeslee and Shane Gritzmaker Silver with a British Strong Ale

Clark Bennett Gold with a Blonde Ale  

Doug Vohden Gold with his Cherry Sour

Tim Wicklund Bronze with a Wooded Saison

Brian Stephens Gold with his Fruited Saison

Brian Stephens with Shaina Cranson Silver for Red IPA

Bevan Griego Gold with a Saison  

Jason Kniss with Brian Stephens Bronze for Black IPA

AND!

An extra special CONGRATULATIONS to Doug Vohden whose Cherry Sour took BoS!  Congrats Doug!!!

Great competition and congrats to everyone!

Hello Keepers (and other visitors, welcome!),

A few years ago now, we held a 'fantasy football' style draft board to have a bit of fun to build recipes on the fly, and as it’s football (whichever flavour you prefer) season once more, we are bringing back the homebrew fantasy draft once again!

The aim of the competition is to learn a little bit about formulating recipes, choosing ingredients, using substitutions, getting adventurous, and just having fun. Last time was a blast, and we had a ton of great brews come out of it.

This time, we’ll be meeting at Distant Whistle at 118 S Main St, Vicksburg, MI 49097 on Sunday September 28th @ 5pm. South County Homebrew Supply will be open so we can pop over & grab ingredients.

The rules for this year:

• Brewers or teams of brewers will have the opportunity to "draft" your recipe.
• Where available, ingredients should be drafted from the ingredient list (see below).
• Required ingredients include: base malt, specialty malt, adjunct, two hops, yeast, and one flex option. You can draft up to 10 ingredients.
• Ingredients must be ‘perceptible’ in the final brew; you cannot pick an ingredient & ‘bench’ it or use it so sparingly that it’s not evident.
• Write-in & trades will be accepted.
• Brewer/Brewer teams are limited to 16.

Beers will be due at the Keepers November 9th for judging.

The final draft board is included below. Thanks for all that turned out & made it such a fun evening.

The Kalamazoo Hot Sauce Enthusits meeting in January was a great success!

After a long break following the worst of COVID-19, KHSE met for the second ever time at the Distant Whistle brewery in Vicksburg.  While not Keepers distinctly, we absolutely consider them a sister club!

Many a sauce was shared and many a tongue was burned!

Cheers!

What do I mean by "Brewing with intent"?

Instead of digging right into it, I'll start with a few personal examples. My very first solo batch of beer was supposed to be a chocolate banana stout, and one of my first batches of mead was supposed to be strawberry lemon. The beer turned into bottle bombs because I just chucked in chocolate and banana whenever, and the strawberry lemon had neither of those flavors.

I knew what flavors I wanted, and I used them at some point during the making of my batches, but I didn't use them in the way that would make them the most impactful. And I see this in a lot of other homebrew as well. Things like alcohol based extracts ruining batches, and brewers tweaking recipes that were designed with intent and not being happy with the end result.

That got me thinking about how I brew now. By imagining a flavor and working backwards to achieve that, whether it be beer, mead, cider, wine, or whatever. When designing a beer I make intentional decisions that, to the best of my ability, will match a particular flavor that I'm imagining. How bitter do I imagine this IPA when I think about drinking it? Do I want this stout to taste more roasty or chocolatey? How sweet a FG do I think I'll need to balance out the insane tartness of all of these black currants?

What do I intend this beer/mead/etc. to taste like at the end of the day?

I think in some ways brewing with intent is both a beginner and an advanced topic, which is why I thought it would be fun to type something up and start a thread about it. Much of what I'm going to say it just personal opinion and suggestions for self exploration in your own homebrewing. This isn't defacto information, just a write-up on thoughts that I've had, and things that I feel I've done to improve my beer over the last few years.

I think, based on what I said above, that this can be broken out into two main parts:

• Designing and implementing your own recipe with intention
• Understanding the intention of already created recipes when using them as your own

So then first let's talk about recipe design. I think we can mostly focus on the basics:

• Water
• Malts
• Hops
• Yeast
• Adjuncts

Water

I think many people here have heard the basics regarding Gypsum and Calcium Chloride so I'm not really going to dig into that. Rather, I'd like to talk about actually tasting the minerality in beer. I'd suggest putting together a small glass of RO water, a glass of water with just gypsum, a glass with just calcium chloride, and then work on some blends and taste them. Other minerals too if you feel so obligated, but I don't usually adjust with much else besides these two. It takes an impressively low amount of brewing salts to affect the flavor of water in pretty noticeable ways.

When designing a recipe, imagine the type of malts blending into each kind of water. Is the hardness of the water going to make your stout taste better or worse? Will the bitterness of your IPA be more in line with a softer water profile?

I've personally had the best luck with the Bru'n Water spreadsheet for calculating my salt additions and pH, but have since dialed back nearly 50% from most of the recommendations on that sheet. I go a little by gut feeling on what's going to be appropriate, but I think my lagers have been far more malt-forward and my NEIPA's have been far less "chalky" since doing this. NEIPA's, in particular, were impacted the most for me. I still keep a fairly large 2:1 chloride to gypsum ratio, but just scaled far back. Something closer to 75:35 ppm chloride to sulfate, rather than 150:75 or 200:100. I know others that go even higher at times.

I think that, as we're learning with thiols, more is not necessarily always better.

Malts

Chew your grain! I can't say this enough. Even your dehusked carafa III, give those a few chomps.

There are so many malts that I've used in the past by just blindly following recipes that I now, after really tasting them, have decided I don't like or aren't actually appropriate. I used honey malt for years in my hazy IPA's because of how many recipes had it listed. When I finally started munching on it as a snack one day during a brew session, however, I was surprised how little I cared for it. I didn't really get much of the advertised "honey-ness" from it, and instead thought it tasted more cardboard-like. Brown malt is another that I see in random recipes off of the web. If you've ever tasted it, you'll know that it's not just a "brown malt" that's added for the color. It has a very distinctive flavor and, I think, belongs in very few styles of beer.

I'm sure there's more to say here, let me know!

Hops

By far one of the more complex ingredients we have to work with as homebrewers.

Hop selection and usage is going to be one of those things that will come with experience, but you can still use intent to derive some options. If you're brewing a Czech beer you'll likely be using a fair bit of Saaz. If you're making an English ale you'll likely want to stick with English hops (Golden Ale maybe being an exception). There's a reason these styles evolved from the ingredients that were local to them. That's not to say you can't play around, but again I think that will have to come from experience.

One thing I'd like to bring up here is to mind your AA% when creating AND brewing your recipe. I'm guilty of this too, but I know many brewers who have/still create a recipe, then order ingredients, then just go and make the beer as written without looking at the percentages on their hops. If you made a recipe assuming 2.5% AA EKG, but the EKG you received was 4.5%, that's going to have an impact on your beer.

Yeast

This, again, is going to be another one of those that will have some basis in personal experience but can also be picked apart a bit while deciding what the intent behind your beer is. Many beer styles can use many different kinds of yeast with great success. I've used Kolsch yeast to make Irish Stouts, 34/70 to make Blonde Ales, and Scottish Yeast to make Russian Imperial Stouts. You don't always have to match up a yeasts origin to a style, just focus on what the outcome should be.

In the case of my RIS above, Imperial Tartan is a malt-forward strain that has a pretty low ABV tolerance (10% or so). This yeast is extremely consistent for me and rarely goes above 10.5%. I love that, because I don't like my big beers much above 10% anyway and it let's me be really precise when it comes to the FG of the beer. Because I know what my FG will be at for sure on such a big beer I can really hop the beer exactly how I want it and know that there's going to be some sweetness in the end to back some of that up.

I'm brewing a beer with an intent for it to taste a particular way and selecting ingredients to ensure it tastes like what I have in my imagination.

Adjuncts

These are by far one of the first things that many homebrewers use to express their creativity and probably one of the worst offenders for ending up with weird mediocre beer. Again, I'm an offender here! Hearken back to that chocolate banana beer up top. Tossing in fruits and wood and spices willy nilly isn't going to end up with a result that's satisfactory unless you specifically sit down and figure out what flavors you want and how you want them displayed.

If you want a beer to be sweeter, lactose is going to give a higher FG but may not actually taste as sweet as it's not a particularly sweet sugar. If you want maple flavor in your brown ale then using Walmart brand pancake syrup in primary isn't going to give you any flavor at all. Fruits taste different when fermented vs. fresh. Vanilla extract tastes different than vanilla pods.

In general, with fruit I'd try to use 1-2 pounds per gallon, stray away from alcohol based extracts, use most everything that's not a "normal" beer flavor in secondary, and experiment with stabilizing beer post fermentation before adding back anything that has a fermentable sugar (like fruit.)

Again, these are not hard or fast rules. These are just things to look into when adding non-standard flavors to your fermentable.

I think it'd be a fun thought experiment to go through and make a recipe for a chocolate raspberry stout or something. I've never made one before, but I don't think it necessarily needs to be included in the body of this post. I'll maybe write a comment later.

Other's Intent

Which then brings us to understanding the intent behind pre-existing recipes. I don't nearly as much to say here, but I think that it's important to bring up. There are a near infinite number of homebrew recipes to springboard off of online, with the common advice of "tweaking" them to your own tastes. But, sometimes those recipes were designed in very specific ways for very specific reasons.

Perhaps a specific yeast is being used to maintain a specific gravity, like how Scottish yeast typically have a lower ABV tolerance. Or maybe a specific hop was selected for it's cohumulone content because, despite all of the other flavors in the hop, the cohumulone is what adds the particular flavor that the brewer wanted.

Very rarely is intent ever mentioned with a recipe, so when you discover one you want to brew I'd challenge you to imagine the ingredients and really see if you can figure out what that beer is going to taste like before you brew it and only then go on and tweak it. It'll take experience, but that's another great joy in this hobby.

Thanks

I want to end by saying that I am in no way advocating for not experimenting and playing around. That's a ton of fun and really what brings a lot of joy into this hobby. What I am saying, however, is that when playing, imagine what your end goal is. What your outcome should be. If you're boiling down cider to concentrate it, how are those concentrated acids going to play with the extra sugar? If you're boiling down some wort for a Scottish beer, how intense of a flavor are you looking for? Things like that.

Cheers and happy brewing!

The thought of first putting something like this together came to me when I was judging a competition some odd months back.

As my judging partner and I were going through the beers, I mentally noted to myself just how often I was recommending increased carbonation in my overall impression sections. There were so many beers that were quite good, but could have been SO much better with just a little extra kick from more bubbles. This is something I find in many breweries I visit as well, so I don't attribute this to just being a homebrew thing.

Beer demands bubbles.

And, of course, this varies from style to style. Getting a Dark Mild that's carbed like a Saison totally happens too, but whichever the direction the result is the same. It affects the appearance, mouthfeel, taste, and aroma of the beer. One single ingredient can make or break the whole thing, and I don't think it's talked about enough.

I'm sure I'm missing plenty of topics, but I sat down with a beer and a notepad last night and tried to scribble together everything I could think of regarding carbonation in beer. How to get it, how to keep it, what it affects, etc. Here's what I came up with:

• Impact on aroma
• Impact on mouthfeel / texture
• Impact on flavor intensity
• Packaging

And I want to say before I go on, I'm not coming at this as a professional in anything brewing related. I may be talking out of my ass for most of this, but that's why I'm writing it up. I think this should be a good discussion topic and I hope that at least one person out there goes "Yeah, I really do need to work on that" or something and improves their beer.

This is all just my thoughtful Wednesday afternoon rambling. I often write how I talk so I apologize if any (or all) of this comes off sounding very casual. That's intentional. Again, trying to start a discussion and not be an authority figure.

Impact on aroma

Craft Beer and Brewing Magazine has a great write up on how we smell beer here so I'm not going to go into any of that. Bubbles aid in helping aromas gather and intensify etc. That's pretty much common sense. Instead what I want to focus on is its impact from a presentation aspect. When you present someone with a beer what's the first thing they do? What's the first thing you do when you get a beer? I can't speak for everyone, maybe it's habit, but I for sure smell it.

Aroma sets the stage for tasting and, along with appearance, gives us an idea of what we're getting ourselves into. A lackluster intensity of aroma sets the stage for a lackluster tasting beer (even if it tastes great.) We make a bunch of split second judgments about a beer before we even taste it, and having a beer that lacks aroma can create a negative bias towards the beer before we really even give it a fair shake.

So what's the carbonation impact on aroma? Well it can lose some intensity if it's undercarbed. If it's overcarbed… I honestly don't know. You tell me in the comments. I feel like in my heart of hearts that I can pick out the carbonic acid aroma. Something like a light twang, but not what you'd get with old LME. Just an effervescence.

A well carbed beer will present an aroma that sets the stage for the rest of the drinking experience. It's important, but I feel like it's impact on mouthfeel and flavor trump it in terms of impact. So let's talk about that.

Impact on Mouthfeel / Texture

Have you ever had a NEIPA right out of the fermenter and thought it was just a little slick? Or had a beer that was almost going to be a bottle bomb, and when you take a sip the bubbles basically just explode in your mouth and you can't even taste the beer? It makes for a pretty pitiable drinking experience.

Carbonation is what makes beer fun to drink. It's what makes it palatable, and what makes you keep going back for sip after refreshing sip. Next time you're out at a bar or brewery and get an undercarbonated beer, pay attention to your desire to go back to the beer and take another sip after you put it down. I find that drier, well carbonated beers get finished off in nearly no time while beers with less carbonation can present as a little more sweet and not as desirable. I sip them, which is fine, but if you're goal in making a beer is wanting people to really, really enjoy them then they need to have adequate carbonation.

I've actually drank a whole Budweiser while typing this up without even realizing it because that's just the kind of beer it is. Highly carbonated and very drinkable.

This isn't just for beer either. Things like hydromels, or short meads, really need carbonation to help the drinking experience. It's like the difference between drinking a flat pop and a freshly opened bottle. The flavor is kind of the same, but one is vastly better because of the experience it provides. Because of the sensations. Because it helps drive home the flavors.

Impact on Flavor Intensity

So how exactly does it impact flavor? I think it does it both directly and indirectly.

It's direct impact is through carbonic acid. Carbonic acid will lower a beer's pH (though not drastically), and has its own flavor that it can present. Sour Beer Blog does a great write up on it regarding to sours (but also somewhat generically) here.

It's indirect impact is what it helps accentuate. Beer is obviously more than just bubbles. We have hop, malt, and yeast character (at the very least) that we, as brewers, try to keep in balance to make a really great end product. To that end, these specific traits are usually something that we want to be a bit more noticeable in specific styles. In an IPA we may want to err on the side of slightly higher carbonation to help get some of those volatile hop aromas out of the glass and punching the drinking in the face. For a Dark Mild we may want to keep it lower and let some of the delicate malt aromas gather together and shine. In a sour we may want to use REALLY high carbonation to help accentuate the acidity that's already in the beer.

So how do we dial it in, especially when bottling for friends, competitions, or homebrew club meetings?

Packaging

When I taste other brewer's beers for feedback, the most common piece of advice I give back is "needs more bubbles". I'd say it beats out any other suggestion at least 2:1. So why would this be so common? It comes down to how the beer gets placed into the container it's served in, or packaging.

There's really just two common ways of carbonating beer, and for the purposes of this discussion I think that really only kegging merits some extra discussion. Bottle conditioning is pretty straightforward i.e. use an online calculator and dose by weight to get a desired carbonation level. Packaging from kegs, however, leaves a few more options open:

• Packaging straight from a tap
• Packaging using a growler filler
• Packaging using something like a Blichmann beer gun
• Packaging using a counter pressure filler

Am I missing anything? Let's talk about each of those in turn:

Straight from the tap

100% the easiest option of the four I listed. There's no extra equipment involved, and no extra cleaning needed. For filling growlers, or anything with a bit of a bigger opening really, it works well enough. You're likely to lose some carbonation as the beer smacks against the inside of the container as well as risking some oxidation there as well, but it's a fine option if you don't plan on entering a competition with whatever you're filling. Likely a fair amount of foam as well, which can end up wasting some beer. Consider this option fine for immediate drinking.

Growler filler

This was my first "investment" into helping me bottle beer off of my taps. It's just some tubing attached to a metal piece with some o-rings that can fig snugly into your tap-hole. They're super cheap and very easy to use. They're typically using vinyl, so it's pretty easy to replace the tubing if needed when it starts to look dingy (which you should absolutely do). They're also cheap enough that, if you bottle sour beer, you can just buy two and keep them separate.

Some disadvantages here are that, in my experience, due to the extra points of contact in the tubing as it works its way into your container, they tend to knock CO2 out of suspension as with just filling it off the tap. Expect a loss of carbonation when you open whatever it is your packaging back up. not a lot of loss, but some. They're also not great for packaging highly carbonated beer. Or even beer that's on the higher end of the range. They loss of carbonation is paired with excess foaming. If you're not using a tap with flow control you may need to adjust your pressure in the keg to aid with getting a decent fill. Keep in mind too that, like the rest of the options that are listed, this is an extra piece of equipment on the cold side and as such is another point of risk for contamination.

Something like a beer gun

There are a few options here. The Blichmann Beer Gun has the most name recognition, but there are also options like "The Last Straw" as well as some homemade gadgets I've seen posted about here and there. This is where I went after giving growler fillers a fair shake. The first great things about these devices is that they allow you to CO2 purge your bottles. Bottling on the least amount of air as possible is a really great benefit, especially if you're packaging beers that are very sensitive to oxygen or will likely be sitting around for a while. I don't need to go into why O2 is generally bad, you're a smart bunch, but if you didn't know it then congrats on being one of today's lucky 10,000!

These also give you better control over the speed at which you're filling which, in turn, lets less CO2 out of suspension and thus causes less foaming. Less beer waste is always good in my opinion. They're not perfect, but they're better than a growler filler. This is second-hand, but I've also heard stories of studies from breweries where a beer gun beer out their packaging line in terms of dissolved oxygen (DO), so they do a great job in that aspect (supposedly).

The annoying thing here, and why I eventually moved away from even these, is that they need to hook up directly to your keg. For me, that meant one of two things:

• Leaving my keezer lid open and moving a table over to my keezer while I bottled
  or
• Taking the keg out of the keezer and moving it to where I needed to be, thus shaking around sediment on the inside and potentially kicking up some haze that I didn't want.

Neither of which jived with me a ton. I also found them to be somewhat annoying to clean. The gun itself was generally fine, but the tubing had to be purged of beer and dried which I didn't have a great setup for. I'm sure some people do, it just wasn't for me. It was just a lot of setup and cleaning if I wanted to only bottling like, 3 beers for a competition or something. They're more suited for bottling a lot of beer at once, and they're great at it. As soon as I learned about counter pressure fillers, however, that's where I ended up moving towards.

Counter pressure fillers

Counter pressure fillers work very similarly to the way the above fillers do, except that they also allow you to keep the bottle under pressure as its filled. What this means is that you not only CO2 purge the can/bottle you're filling, but afterwards you can also keep it at roughly the same pressure as that of your keg. In doing so, when beers is transferred to the bottle, very little CO2 leaves suspension. Less CO2 leaving suspension means a more optimally packaged beer, as well as less beer waste via foam.

When I started looking into these I lucked out in that something called the Tapcooler had just came out around the same time. This is where I get a little (more) biased.

The Tapcooler is a counter pressure filler that doesn't have any extra tubing (though there are attachments for it). Like a growler filler, it plugs directly into your tap-hole and allows you to both purge, pressurize, and fill containers using one little device. It's super easy to clean, easy to sanitize, easy to use for just a few bottles at a time. No moving kegs around, disconnecting anything, or otherwise fussing around. They're also cheaper than a beer gun.

There is a learning curve to using these. There are plenty of videos online on how to properly work them so I'd say give those a watch, but it'll vary from setup to setup as well. I don't think I use mine quite like any of the videos, but I have a great experience.

To use these properly, however, you do have to have a CO2 source to hook them up to. This can be annoying if you only have one CO2 tank, so I do suggest having a "utility tank" that you can haul around and use wherever. If this isn't possible, having a secondary regulator open on your current setup is probably advised.

I do attribute a portion of my success in the competitive homebrewing scene to using a Tapcooler (or just counter pressure filler in general) though. Unless something even better somehow comes out I don't find myself willing to move away from this one single device.

TL;DR

Carbonation is really important for beer, and having the right amount can make or break drinking it. Don't work hard on brewing and fermenting it, but neglect to carbonate it properly. There are lots of gadgets out on the market to help with this (if you keg), and some options are better than others. Counter pressure filling is amazing and shouldn't be overlooked.

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

Pittsburgh, Pa. • June 25, 2022

The Keepers of Craft homebrew club of Kalamazoo, Mich., was presented the Gambrinus Club Award at the 2022 National Homebrew Competition, organized by the American Homebrewers Association® (AHA) – the national not-for profit organization dedicated to advancing the hobby of homebrewing. Winners of the world’s largest amateur homebrew competition were recognized for the most outstanding homemade beer, mead, and cider, concluding the 44th annual Homebrew Con™ in Pittsburgh.

Named for King Gambrinus the (unofficial) patron saint of beer, this award is given to the homebrew club with the most final round points per their number of competition entries.

“This year we are happy to congratulate the Keepers of Craft as they are awarded the well-regarded Gambrinus Club Award,” said Chris Williams, competition director. “This award is not given out lightly and is extremely spirited amongst the top tier of homebrewing leaders. Congratulations again!”

“We are so honored to receive this prestigious award as it highlights the vibrant homebrewing culture in our communities of Kalamazoo and South West Michigan,” said David Jones, president, Keepers of Craft Homebrew Club. “Our club has only been together since 2015 so this recognition early in our club's history makes us excited for the future of quality and innovation at Keepers of Craft.”

This year’s competition saw more than 2,940 entries from 1,187 homebrewers located in 48 states, Washington, D.C., and seven countries. In total, 159,770 entries have been evaluated since the inaugural AHA National Homebrew Competition in 1979 in Boulder, Colo.

A complete list of winners of the 2022 National Homebrew Competition can be found here.

Header image credit to @morebeer_official.

At the last meeting we announced the rules & teams for the inaugural Keepers of Craft Wort Mixer. Teams of 3 brewers have been randomly paired up to design and brew one of 4 styles together:

• Belgian
• Wheat Beer
• Stout/Porter, and
• British Beer

Each team will be given $20 to spend at South County Homebrew Supply and will brew it in person at MacQuillan's Lab near the Kalamazoo County Sheriff's Building at 2304 Washington Street, Kalamazoo, MI

We are brewing on Big Brew day on Saturday, May 7th at 10 AM.  This is taking the place of our May meeting.  Bring Homebrew to share and a side if you want as it looks like we will be having another fish fry.

The Winning Team will Rebrew their beer using the Conical Fermenter and keg given to us to use for winning Club of the Year at Homebrew Fest and serve it at this years Fest as a featured tapping.  

Teams:

David J, Hays W, Drew D
Tim W, Harry J, Mark O
Patrick Y, Jason G, Jason K
Jason K, Gerald VdW, James G
Brian S, Ron H, Bill B
Brandon E, Jeff P, Mark H
Matt McQ, Jordan B, Chris B

Here are the descriptors, causes & possible fixes to the off-flavours from yesterday's meeting

Acetaldehyde (green apple)

• green apple/dry cider
• acetaldehyde is a precursor to ethanol from glucose
• is found in every beer to some extent
• also caused by oxidation of ethanol
• lager yeasts can cause higher acetaldehyde

to avoid:

• sanitation
• use a healthy yeast pitch
• oxygenate wort (esp. at high gravity)
• Let the yeast clean up after themselves, avoid racking off yeast cake until fermentation is complete
• patience- wait until fermentation is complete after reaching terminal gravity
• avoid allowing O2 into beer after fermentation

Papery (trans 2-nonenal):

• the papery off-flavor occurs when beer is oxidized. It can also present itself as a cardboard flavor or even as a sweet stone/sherry flavour at lower concentrations.
• typically formed in packaging when stored at elevated temperatures (above 40°F) for any period of time due to the typically higher amount of dissolved oxygen present in beer after packaging.
• it’s very hard to remove all oxygen from beer – especially during packaging. Reduce oxygen inclusion at packaging
• the easiest and most important way to stave off oxidation is the proper storage of beer at cold temperatures.
• oxidation is a thermodynamically-driven process ∴ temperature plays a critical role in the shelf-life; keep beer cold and it’ll last longer
• a 2-4x decrease in freshness is seen for every 10°C/18°F increase in storage temperature.

to avoid:

• Purge bottles/kegs with CO2 before filling to remove air.

Solvent (ethyl acetate):

• Ethyl acetate is the most common acetate that is produced by brewing yeast, which has a flavor threshold of around 2PPM, and starts out with a fruity or pear-like flavor, but can end up tasting solvent-like >30 PPM. The style of beer being made defines the concentration and types of acetates that are desired in the resultant beer.
• Increasing the fermentation temperature will allow more fruity flavors to emerge from the beer, while decreasing the temperature will prevent these flavors, of which acetates are a factor.
• healthy yeast starter decreases the resultant acetates, while a weak starting yeast will produce more. This is why it is important that the timing of your yeast starter be good. If the yeast is not ready in time for pitching, and some other yeast gets colonised into the beer, it can have an additional acetate lacing effect.
• ethyl acetate can be produced in offensive levels by Brettanomyces when exposed to oxygen.
• ethyl acetate is a metabolic dead-end, meaning that there is not a known pathway for breaking it down; once it’s in your beer, it’s in your beer.

to avoid

• healthy yeast starter
• lower fermentation temperature helps reduce ester formation

Diacetyl (buttery)

• buttery or butterscotch aroma
• flavour threshold between 10 & 40 ppm
• affects mouthfeel @high ppm slick/oily
• is more detectable towards end of glass due to high temperature as beer warms up
• is formed from two sources: during fermentation & infection
• diacetyl is a precursor to compounds (acetoin and butanediol) which are much less intense in taste and aroma ∴ almost imperceptible
• diacetyl occurs naturally during fermentation
• diacetyl rises to > 100 ppb in first few days of fermentation, drops 50% a day to low levels
• wort deficient in FAN can lead to elevated diacetyl
• can also be formed by spoilage (esp in presence of air)

how to eliminate?

• use high FAN malt
• healthy yeast pitch
• following end of airlock activity, allow a diacetyl rest @ ~70°F for 24-72 h

DMS (dimethyl sulphide)#

• flavour/aroma descriptor: a corn/creamed corn-like flavour/aroma
• threshold ~ 35 ppb
• typically higher in lagers than ales
• usually considered to be due to malts (like pilsner)
• however it originates in brew kettle from degradation of S-methyl methionine (amino acid)

to reduce

• evaporates out of wort- to reduce it forming simply leave the kettle lid off during boil
• rapid cool/whirlpool can also reduce: rapid cool means that no heat to form DMS & no boil to drive off the compound

Light struck

• the name is self-explanatory; it’s caused caused by light interacting with the beer
• Blue/UV (350-500 nm) light causes the reaction
• forms free radicals from iso-humulones (hop compounds) which interact with sulphur containing amino acids to form 3-Methyl-2-buten-1-thiol (3-MBT), a similar chemical found in skunk spray

to avoid

• avoid using green or clear glass to store beer (reduces blue/UV light)

Each year homebrew clubs from around the state of Michigan pool together entries for the Michigan Beer Cup homebrew competition.  When medals are awarded, scores are also given and aggregated for each club.  A gold is worth 3 points, a silver 2, a bronze 1.  

This year Keepers of Craft barely stole the win, sneaking by the next runner up by only 2 points!

Congrats Keepers!

Prepared by Evan Kessick

Ingredients:

• 6 gal distilled water (2 gal at boil, 4 gallons cold) (Boil)
• 6 lbs corn sugar (dextrose) (Boil)
• 12 gm Citric Acid (Boil)
• 4 gm Calcium Chloride (Boil)
• 1/3 oz Burton Water Salt pk (Boil)
• Yeast Nutrient Schedule:
  • At boil: 8 gm
  • 24hr: 8 gm
  • 36-48hr: 8 gm
• Yeast: Lalvin EC-1118 Dry Wine Yeast (2 pks)
• Yeast Energizer: ½ tsp per 1 gal (At Yeast Pitch)
• -1.5 drams Lorann Oils (Flavor of your choice) (Post fermentation)
• Gelatin Finings: ½ tbs per 5 gal (Post fermentation) (Optional)

Brew Stats:

• Boil Temp: 170°F
• Boil Time: 20 minutes or until all scheduled ingredients are fully dissolved
• Original Gravity: 1.032-1.036
• Final Gravity: 1.000-1.002
• ABV: 4.5-4.7%
• Fermentation Temp: 68°-72°F
• Fermentation Time: 2-3 Weeks (Depending on yeast energizer)

Directions:

Sanitize:

Properly sanitize your equipment before brewing and fermentation, this will help assure a good finished product.

The Boil:

Bring 2 gallons of distilled water to boil temperature (170°F). Once at boil temperature, slowly add the corn sugar (recommended 1lb increments or less) and stir consistently until dissolved (consistent stirring will help avoid scorching). Next, using a kitchen scale, measure the citric acid (12 gm), calcium chloride (4 gm), yeast nutrient (8 gm) and add to the boil. Lastly, add in the burton water salt packet and stir until dissolved. The order these items are added to the boil does not matter.

Flameout:

When the boil is finished, use a wort chiller (or other cooling method) to bring the wort to a comfortable temperature so that when mixed with the cold 4 gallons of distilled water you end up with an ideal yeast pitching temperature. I use an online temperature conversion calculator to help calculate what my wort should be chilled to based on the temperature of the 4 gallons to be mixed. Once the wort is chilled, add to the 4 gallons of distilled water, stir and aerate. At pitch temperature, add the Lalvin EC-1118 Dry Wine Yeast (2 pks), and yeast energizer (½ tsp per 1 gal).

After pitching the yeast and fermentation is active, follow the yeast nutrient schedule above. Fermentation should take 24-36 hours to start and should take between 2-3 weeks to reach the final gravity. Once the final gravity has been achieved, cold crash and add flavoring oil.

The finished product will be cloudy and gelatin finings can be added to help clear the finished product. After cold crash and during the kegging process I add the gelatin finings. This process takes a few weeks to finish, but once the keg is carbonated, enjoy!

Cost per 6 gallons: $29.19 initial cost (after two batches, $25)

• Corn Sugar - $11.10 (6 lbs)
• Water - $4.80 (6 gal)
• Flavoring Oils - $3.99 (2 drams)
• Yeast Nutrient - $1.40 (2 oz)
• Yeast Energizer - $1.80 (1 oz)
• Calcium Chloride - $1.45 (2 oz)
• Citric Acid – $1.40 (2 oz)
• Yeast EC-1118 - $1.80 (2 pks)
• Gelatin Finings - $1.45 (1 oz)

Many of these items listed can be reused for multiple batches and the cost per 6 gallons goes down. The cost per 6 gallons after 2 batches goes down to $25.00.

References:

Bells General Store

Lorann Flavoring Oils

https://www.onlineconversion.com/mixing_water.htm

For our November meeting we were honored to have Lance Shaner, owner of Omega Yeast, on to talk to us about some of the Kveik strains they propagate (and other cool yeast knowledge!)

Check out the video!

Entries for the 2020 Keepers Cup are now being accepted!

Competition season has been a little rough this year due to the pandemic, but that's not going to keep The Keepers of Craft down.  All members through the 2020 calendar year are eligible to sign up for the competition, and for a chance to win the Keepers Cup!  If you aren't currently a member you can still sign up!

The competition will be a "brew your best beer" competition.  One entry per member will be accepted, and 4 bottles per member of that single beer will be required.  No ciders or mead will be accepted for this competition.  Beers will be judged by BJCP judges and professional brewers to the 2015 BJCP standards, highest score wins!

Entries will be accepted through Friday, November 13th.  The awards ceremony will take place at the December meeting.

Good luck!

https://competition.keepersofcraft.club

Fermentation isn't just for liquids. In this presentation we introduce the art of fermenting foods, focusing typically on the fermentation of fruit & vegetables, but similar techniques could be applied to meats, if that's your thing.

The presentation introduces the basic procedures to start your own edible ferments, equipment as well as links to online resources to get you up and running with your new obsession. Hey, we all have more time on our hands these days, so what's another hobby between friends?

Fermented Foods Presentation

Cross posting a recent Reddit post I made in /r/homebrewing.

So what is Philly Sour?

Philly Sour is a Novel Lachancea spp. yeast that is capable of producing lactic acid while also producing ethanol. It basically does all of the cool fun things that we want a yeast to do while still (and including) helping us make beer.

As for it's discovery, it was isolated by the Brewing Science team over at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia headed up by Matthew Farber, PhD.

There's a ton of information that Dr. Farber has put together in a livestream video which I highly recommend watching. You can find it here.

So what can I do with Philly Sour?

Make sour beer! Philly sour is, to the best of my knowledge, completely hop/IBU tolerant which means you can use it to replace most yeast for most styles. What you'll end up getting is something resembling an ale with slight stonefruit/peach/red apple esters and a bunch of tartness.

According to Dr. Farber, Philly Sour is also pretty easily out competed which doesn't make it a good candidate for co-pitching. You can, however, finish a beer off with another strain. According to his studies this yeast has shown to sort of produce most of it's lactic acid up front, mostly within the first 4-5 days. Right now there's just not a ton of information out there on what that would look like so it's probably going to be on us as brewers to start using our imaginations as to all the possibilities.

So what did I make? A sour NEIPA of course!

So traditionally I don't think that tart and bitter go together all that well. I still don't, but I still wanted to try this style. The goal was to add very little bitterness while still pumping it full of hops. To that end, as I didn't add any boil hops, I probably could have just done a no boil but I like to enjoy my brew days and find that boiling gives me time to do some cleaning and play with other stuff around the brewery.

For hops, I used what I had in smaller vacuum sealed packs that I wanted to get rid of since this was sort of an experiment anyway. I ended up with a little Bru-1, little Sabro, Citra, and Galaxy.

Shout out to /u/defubar for the grain bill below. He's the first person I know who used this yeast and basically gave me a starting point for a recipe. The purpose of the dextrose in the recipe below is that, according to Dr. Farber, around a 2% addition of glucose to the drives the esters to be more stonefruit and peach like instead of red apple. It also drives down the pH and, supposedly, the TA. I don't have the tools to measure TA so sadly I don't have a number for this.

The recipe is as follows:

Sour NEIPA

Details

Type: All Grain

Batch efficiency: 72.0 %

Boil size: 7.5 gal

Boil length: 60 min

Batch size: 6.5 gal

Estimated OG: 1.061

Actual OG: 1.061

Estimated FG: 1.011

Actual FG: 1.008

Estimated SRM: 4.9

Estimated ABV: 6.6 %

Actual ABV: 7.0%

Final pH: 3.3

Water

Pretty standard 150ppm Chloride to 100ppm Sulfate

Fermentables

Hops

Yeast

Fermented at 72F for the batch’s entirety.

Mash

So how did it turn out?

It's still a touch green but it's really fun! Between the hops and the yeast it's got this pineapple, grapefruit, lime flavor going on that's pretty enjoyable. As it warms I think the lime fades a little and you sort of get more tropical flavors out of it. It's very much tart and I would love to add some fruit next time. I think some sweetness would really round a beer like this out.

The bitterness is almost non-existent which I'm thankful for. In my normal NEIPA's I dig just a bit of bitterness to really round out the beer but I wasn't super excited to have anything like that in this recipe. I think I pretty much succeeded there.

As you can tell from the picture above the head is pretty much non-existent. Due to (I'm assuming) the pH / TA it fades pretty quickly after it's poured but the color turned out gorgeous. I may actually go for a little honey malt or something next time to just to bring a little more orange into the picture.

It really was a breeze brewing with this stuff though and I'm pretty convinced already that I'm likely not going to be doing kettle sours again. Time will tell though!

This is the most recent revision of the brewing water presentation that I've given in the past. The presentation explores the contribution of various ions to the perception of the beer, mash pH, historical brewing profiles, and most importantly how to change the profile of your brew water to meet certain styles.

You can find a PDF version of the presentation here.