Fermentation Station

Belgian Style beer fermenting away, releasing CO2 and producing all of its lovely phenols and esters that we much appreciate from Belgian strains of yeast.

I am doing my best at keeping the temperature just right in my living room, I do not have a temperature gauge so I am just trying to be a good host to my little yeasty friends.

Brew day! but no pictures...

Taking pictures isn't something I feel I need to do to document every single thing in life although it is good to do I still probably wouldn't post pictures from todays brew day on here any way....

Thanks to my friend Andrew for coming over and giving a helping hand and I really appreciated the questions he asked, he is more of a cook (and a very talented cook) who knows his shit in the kitchen. It was very cool to make the comparison from brewing to cooking (Maillard Reactions and Caramelization) ect ect.

I also would like to Thank "Cool Calm Tom" aka Daddy Long Legs" aka "Dr. Escape Sticks" for the recommendation on the yeast variety. The Safale T-58 a Belgian Style Yeast!

We brewed a Dark Belgian Strong Ale with a Plato at 18º an IBU of about 30, I say "about" because I never sent in my beer to the lab to figure out my Utilization. So It could be 30 or it could 20 or less.

Summit Hops

Pils 75%
Carafa Spezial II 5%
Munich II 10%      
Carapils 10%

18º

About 30 IBU's

Also got to put my brewing maths to the test and it is now beginning to make more sense than ever before.

Check out the trailer for this documentary that I am in!

Some friends of mine from Poland are making a documentary! It is about people who work for free in exchange for room and board, at one point this was exactly what I was doing and this how how my friends who are making this film became friends.

At the time when this documentary was being filmed I was living and working at a brewery in France on the mediterranean. My wife and I were sleeping in our tent and getting paid 100 per week and putting in anywhere from 4 to about 20 hours of work a day... We also had free days as well.

I can honestly say that I learned a lot from this experience and well I did not do this for nothing either. I had to fulfill at least 3 months of work in a brewery in order to get accepted to the brewing school that I went to in Berlin.

Anyway I hope you enjoy the trailer and keep on the look out for this movie to be released. Also like them on Facebook!

Enjoy!  




DON'T PAY ME - a documentary movie trailer from A/H1N1 on Vimeo.

More brewing math!

Brewing Recipe

This is a beer idea I have... Since I do not have my brew kit here at the present moment I have just been jotting down ideas for recipes so these are theoretical but would still work... The notes section are just my ideas that I have for before/during/after fermentation.

I enjoy doing these kind of things... it's different from what I am used to doing which would be writing poetry but I find this just as satisfying now I just have to brew this up... Or if any of you out there are interested in brewing this by all means please do just tell me how it turns out. 

Some Brewing Math!

Some examples of some brewing math for practice!



A grist mill has a capacity of 1500 [kg/h]. How much time do you need to crush a grist load of 2500kg?

Since 1500 kg takes 1 hour but you have 2500 kg then:

2500kg/1500 kg/h = 1.6 ( 1.6 x 60 = 96 = 1 hour and 36 minutes)



You have 300 hl of kettle full wort at 10.5% you wish to cast out at 12.5%. How much hot cast wort will you have at 12.5%?

(300*10.5) = ( x = 12.5)

300 * 10.5 / 12.5 = 253hl



With kettle full wort before the boil of 300hl you boiled for 1 hour. After boiling you had 253hl. What is your percentage of hourly evaporation?

300 - 253 = 47

47 * 100 / 300 = 15.6% is your percentage of hourly evaporation.



Math is not my strong point so if you do find any mistakes please let me know... I am using this as practice and have been practicing my brewing math since I got out of school... I'll post some more equations over time.

I also hope that this may help who ever reads this.

Doing a bit of dusting

Ok... so it's been a while, I do have valid reason tho. One is well... I got to go to school at the VLB in Berlin and graduated in June and am now a Certified Brewmaster. My wife and I are still residing in Berlin and are now expecting a little one!

Yes everything usually happens at once.

I must say tho, my understanding of brewing of what it was when I started this blog and what it is now kind of makes me embarrassed of my last posts but it is what it is and now I can maybe even post somethings that might actually help some people out or something like that.

Either way I am going to do my best at keeping this blog going a little bit of nagging from my wife will always do the trick... It's actually why I am back on my blog now...

Here are a few photos from the past year or so up until now.