Some of you may be familiar with a hop back.  Essentially, it is a container that holds hops while post-boil but still-hot wort runs through the chamber on its way to the chiller and then fermenter.  Probably the most famous user of a hop back is Troegs Brewing Company (who even have an amber beer named, "HopBack").  They use a hop back for several of their beers. Blichmann Hop Rocket It is something that I have been curious about using.   Blichmann Engineering produces a hop back called the Hop Rocket .  I have been thinking about purchasing one for a couple of reasons.  First, I like the idea of a hob back. I like the flavor and aroma it gives - at least in the beers I know have used it. It would be similar, I think, to adding a few ounces at 0 minutes.  Second, a hop back also acts as a filter for some of the hop bits from pellets and the like.  A loaded hop back can filter out some of the hop sludge so that a plate chiller won't get cl...

Sorry for the lack of posting lately.  With vacation and family visiting, writing wasn't one of my top priorities. Summer will do that to you.  But for now, I am back and I'm talkin' pale ale.  You can check out the recipe and some notes here .   Also, I do occasionally post some stuff over at Facebook if you want to "Like" that page.  I'll also update you when I have a new post up here. (Sorry for the shameless plug.) So, the first brew on the new equipment went well.  It wasn't perfect, but it was pretty good, all things considering.  I think I did some miscalculations with my mash water amount (too little water), but the mash still went ok.  I was pleased with how the day overall went.  Fermentation was ok, too, except I couldn't get the stinkin' temperature controller probe to stick to the carboy.  I had to submerge it in the blow-off hose bucket.  So, the temperatures were a little less controlled than I wanted. Curren...

So, the title might be a little misleading, but the point remains.  I bought a system in which to brew beer - or as a normal person would call it: a brewery. I have sung Craigslist's praises in the past and I will do so again here.  That place - if you're lucky - can be a treasure trove of cool stuff.  I was lucky enough to find this system on there several months ago but the price was out of my range.  So, I held off from calling.  Over the months, I did research on building a system from scratch found out that what this guy was offering was actually a pretty good deal. So, I called.  I talked him down a little bit on price and when I went to pick up the system, I was more than pleasantly surprised.  Overjoyed?  Ecstatic?  Happy?  This was more than a frame and some kegs; this guy built the brewery to be an efficient, compact, easy to use piece of beer brewing wonder.  He had a horrible ad on Craigslist, which turned out to be aw...

So, the big brew day has come and gone.  (But that is not the big news.   What big news, you ask?  The big news I posted about on Facebook .   That big news is coming up soon.  Oooh, the anticipation!) Eric and I brewed our first all-grain batch of beer - a west coast amber ale based off the recipe in the book Brewing Classic Styles.  The recipe was simple and straightforward.  The mash was a single-infusion (meaning we get the grains and water to one temperature, 152 F, and keep it there for one hour), so that played in our favor.  Nothing too complex or difficult.  The hardest thing to control would be our (ok, my ) excitement. For a brew day, things went very smoothly.  We didn't have any major calamities or setbacks.  Impressive, right?  The only thing is, we didn't quite hit our numbers.  When mashing, we were under temp for a long while, but finally got the temperature up where it needed to be.  When we lau...

For those who may be behind in blog reading, a while ago I decided to do a little yeast experiment.  I brewed one batch of beer, divided it into three fermenters, and added different yeast to each.  You can read more about the exploits in my previous post - Yeast Experiment: Episode I. I decided to brew a pale ale, since that is a recipe I would like to have as a staple.  Everyone should be able to brew a nice pale ale, right?  This project would give me a good head start on what yeast to use in that staple recipe.  I played around with malts and hops for a while, settling on a recipe heavy in late hop additions.  But I wanted a little more flair in my beer so I added a pound of orange blossom honey at knockout.  For the three yeasts, I used Wyeast 1968, Wyeast 1450, and White Labs 051. I fermented and bottled, and this past week I took three bottles of my yeast experiment over to some friend's house (shout out to Kate and Dave!) to get their...

So, after a long process, lots of delays, many hours of research, much money spent, and tons of craigslist searches, our first all-grain batch is coming up next weekend.  The actual switch from extract to all-grain isn't really that difficult - if you have the Ben Franklins to drop on the new equipment.  For us, gathering all of our equipment without dropping hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars is what has taken so long.  And we're still not there. Ours won't be so fancy - at first. Our ideal setup is a three keg system (known as a half barrel system, see to the left).  Many homebrewers use old kegs as boil kettles and mash tuns, and for good reason.  First, they are all stainless steel, and thus durable.  Second, they are large, holding fifteen gallons.  They can be used for double (10 gallon) batches.  Third, they look bad ass. It is very easy to attain one of these kegs.  The hard part is doing so legally.  See, most people...

Part of transitioning from extract brewing to all-grain brewing is gaining (read: buying ) more equipment.  It is easy to do if you have lots of cash money to throw around, but if you are like me, you tend not to be so extravagant with your spending (no comments from the wife, please).  Eric and I are piecing together our all-grain brew equipment one tank and burner at a time.  Because of this, I have had lots of time to think about what we need.  I thought I would review what I (currently) see as important to have in the three main brewing vessels. Hot Liquor Tank - The HLT is used for holding hot water for mashing (that's a brewer's word; common parlance would be "soaking" or "steeping") the grains and then for sparging (another brewing term; it's really just rinsing the grains of sugars that are left behind). Ideally, HLTs should hold as much liquid as your mash tun, but a little less is ok.  Grains do take up some volume in your mash...