Posted By Drew Vics on November 13, 2013

Since Christmas is nigh, and all of the department stores started reminding us of that on Halloween, I thought, “Hey, why not let all of the cool home brewers and awesomest friends of home brewers in Cryptobrewology land know about some great gift ideas!”

And so…

You may not be aware that I have updated and expanded the available designs and slogans at the Cryptobrewology CafePress store, but that will change shortly… I have updated and expanded the available designs and slogans at the Cryptobrewology CafePress store!

There are some seriously fun t-shirts, sweatshirts, aprons (helps keep the malt off your duds on brew day), mugs for your coffee brew, drinking glasses for your homebrew and a lot more to check out, all featuring great designs or slogans like the definition of “Hoptimistic” (there’s an IPA version too), “All Your Base Malts Are Belong To Us” (still funny!), “It’s All Good” for wine lovers, some fun famous beer quotes, and the original “What’s in Your Carboy” design as well as the newer one with the carboy cartoon on it. So take a look at the links and pics above, you might be able to get some of your Christmas shopping done early, and here are some quick links to categories:

Store Home | Glasses and Steins | Homebrewer Aprons | Homegoods (Pillows, Jammies, etc.)

Make sure to check our homegoods section, we have “Homebrewers Do It for At Least An Hour” PJs (ladies…), and T-shirts in the other category too!

Now is the time to grab up some great deals on t-shirts, pint glasses, steins, pillows, PJs and tons more for your home brewing friends or loved ones this holiday season. Great stuff there, and great prices too!

Category: Cryptobrew News | No Comments »

Posted By Drew Vics on November 8, 2013

Okay I’ll admit that, though it gets easier with time and experience, home brewing is never quick. but jazzing up your beer into a more hearty holiday offering may be easier than you think, and if you have an un-carved pumpkin sitting on your doorstep like I do, you can still use it before it rots or gets smashed. It could help you get smashed!

Spiced Holiday Ales and Pumpkin Ales
A simple way to spice things up is to add some spice to your pale ale, brown ale or porters and you’ll create a nice winter warmer for the holidays. Add pumpkin puree to your fermenter, or near the end of the boil, and you’ll get a nice spiced pumpkin ale.

When adding fruits or spices to your beer you first need to adjust your hops. Bitterness and various floral components of hops can interfere with the effect you are trying to achieve. To keep it simple, stick with hops that have a mid to lower alpha acid content (8% or less) and also have complimentary aromas.

Good Hops for Spiced Holiday Ales and Pumpkin Ales
Hops with pine, spice, citrus or floral notes fit right in with Fall and Winter ales. Some good choices for this type of beer might be Cascade, Athanum, Fuggles or Kent Goldings. A suitable yet more fruity and floral, and somewhat spicy hop would be Crystal. While some of these may be used for bittering, their AA% is lower than more aggressive bittering hops. Also, you will add less hops than usual, only an ounce or so for a 5 gallon batch, and add them in the last 10 minutes of the boil, to extract only aromatic compounds.

What Spices Should You Use, and How Much to Add?
Common spices used for making holiday ales are clove, cinnamon and nutmeg. Even some corriander or ginger can add a nice spicy note to a beer. Use spices sparingly though, especially the heartier nutmeg, clove and cinnamon, they can ruin a beer if too much is used.

Spices can be very overpowering, and will continue to spice the beer as it sits, so consider steeping the spices within the last 10 minutes of the boil, or add the spice to the secondary, whole in the case of cinnamon, or coarsely ground nutmeg and clove, in hopsacks or nylon stockings.

If you add them in powdered form and leave them in suspension they will continue to add spice, making the beer eventually undrinkable.

Since we’re trying to affect the nose, it’s probably a better idea to just steep the spices in the last 10 minutes of the boil, as you would with aroma hops. This will also cut down on potential contamination that is possible when adding things to the fermenter.

For cinnamon, nutmeg and clove keep the addition below an ounce or so for a 5 gallon batch. You can use a little more, 1 1/2 ounce say, for things like corriander and ginger.

Adding some orange peel is also a good way to compliment the spice and add a pleasant citrus note to the finished beer. You can zest an orange yourself or find dried orange peel at your local homebrew supplier or try the Sweet Orange Peel at MoreBeer.com.

A blend of these spices, along with the orange peel and hops mentioned above, makes for a very interesting and fulfilling experience.

Making a Spiced Pumpkin Ale
Now that you have some spice, take your beer to another level by adding some pumpkin notes to the flavor and aroma.

The easiest way to do this is with a can of pumpkin puree, but in some cases pumpkin puree may lead to a sweet, rich pumpkin pie flavor, which might not be what you’re shooting for. In my opinion, residual sweetness in an ale, especially holiday ales, should come from the malt, not adjunct sugars.

For a true pumpkin flavor and aroma try using a real pumpkin. If you’re brewing your seasonal in the early fall you should be able to find one around.

If you’re brewing an extract recipe you will add the pumpkin to the boil. Pop the top, scoop out the pumpkin guts and take out some meat, cut it into 1 inch cubes and carmelize to strengthen the flavor. You will want to use about one pound of pumpkin, that’s a good starting point.

To carmelize the pumpkin, heat a large skillet over medium heat and arrange the pumpkin in a single layer if possible. Cook for about 10 minutes, stirring or rolling the pumpkin to heat it evenly. After that, let it cool, then mash it up and you can store it in the fridge until you use it.

Add the carmelized pumppkin to the wort during the last 10 to 15 minutes. Longer time in the boil will impart more pumpkin flavor and aroma, less time will have more effect on the aroma.

If you’re doing an all grain batch you can roast the pumpkin and use it in the mash. There is a great guide to making an all grain pumpkin ale at the American Homebrewers Association website.

What else can you do with a pumpkin? Why not make it into a keg!

Hope this helps you get a good start on holiday brewing. Enjoy, and as always, Happy Brewing!

Category: Home Brewing Tips | No Comments »

Posted By Drew Vics on October 9, 2013

A few posts back I gave a quick review and overview of the new BrewDemon beer making kit. Well, BrewDemon products are now available at Amazon.com.

Get started with their Basic Beer Kit, Plus Beer Kit, and Signature Beer Kit, or buy components separately, like their 2.5 gallon Conical Fermenting System, bottles, or Basic and Plus refill kits, including American Prophecy Ale, Dante’s Delight Weizenbier, Hellfire Deep Red, or Twisted Monk Witbier, just to name a few.

Visit the BrewDemon page at Amazon.com and browse their selections.

A BrewDemon kit makes a great gift idea for the holidays, get someone you know brewing up some of their own homemade beer this year!

Category: BrewPub Reviews, Product Reviews | No Comments »

Posted By Drew Vics on September 26, 2013

Now here’s a good thing. Animal lovers take heart, not only does Weyerbacher Last Chance IPA taste amazing, it’s doing a solid for dogs, cats and other animals.

With the retarded liquor laws in Pennsylvania — okay, not as retarded as Utah, I’ll admit that — we can only buy beer by the case, unless it’s at a restaurant willing to sell package goods or, my favorite, Wegmans. When will they pass legislation allowing us to buy our beer and wine in the supermarket like some other states?

All Wegmans locations may not participate, but the store nearest to me has a mix-a-six section where selective beer lovers can pick and choose and make up a six pack to their liking. That’s how I stumbled on Last Chance IPA.

As usual, like cover-surfing on Netflix, I get caught up in browsing images. There are so many cool labels out there it’s often hard to choose, but the artwork depicting a paw print made out of hops was intriguing, so I snagged me a bottle and jammed it into my six pack carton next to some other choice goodies, I’m sure you can imagine.

I was not disappointed. Last Chance IPA is a HUGE hop-forward beer. Cascade, Simcoe, Centennial and Columbus hops are cleverly blended to create a beautiful citrussy and woodsy blend.

It reminded me of the great outdoors. A good beer should transport you, and this one does. Very aggressive nose and bitter bite, with a very subtle maltiness and lingering bitterness. I was taken away to a crisp fall afternoon, maybe on the hunt with my trusty hound. If I hunted.

If I had a hound! I’m actually a cat guy. My wife and I recently lost our little pal Dusty, and his sister Christina sadly passed the previous year. If you follow us on Facebook you may have seen a picture of her in our photo albums. She was sleeping in a Magic Hat 12 pack box until I woke her up. Okay, I’ll post it here too.

Anyway, I’m certain that a trip to an animal shelter is in our future. We support animal rescue efforts, and someday again may visit a local shelter to find a pet to adopt.

What’s cool about Last Chance IPA is indicated in the name, and hinted at in the paw print graphic, and clearly explained on the side of the label. A portion of proceeds from every sale of Weyerbacher Last Chance IPA goes to support regional animal rescue efforts. A worthy cause. I will raise a glass of Weyerbacher in honor of such efforts to keep our furry friends happy and safe in worthy homes.

As of this writing Weyerbacher has donated $25,964.50 to shelters since introducing Last Chance IPA in May of 2012. The most recent donation, July 2013, was $1,850 to Last Chance Ranch in Quakertown, PA. Actually not too far from Cryptobrewology headquarters.

Style specs: West Coast style American IPA, 5.9% ABV and 62 IBUs.

Here’s to a great beer, and a great bit of giving back. Bravo Weyerbacher. Learn more about Weyerbacher and Last Chance IPA at their website. Cheers!

Category: Beer Reviews | No Comments »

Posted By Drew Vics on September 16, 2013

Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Albuquerque DEA, Hank Schrader, was brother-in-law of the Chemistry teacher turned meth cook -turned drug king pin Walter White, in the killer AMC series Breaking Bad. But most importantly, for Cryptobrewology, Hank was a home brewer.

We were introduced to Hank’s homebrewing hobby in season two, when he brings a six pack of his Schraderbrau to a family gathering. Breaking Bad continues through 5 seasons, unfortunately with only a few mentions and scenes regarding Hanks brewing prowess. Vincent of Awesomeness By Volume discusses Hank’s Schraderbrau and attempts to identify the beer style based on some evidentiary episodes from the series. I agree with his assessment.

Hank “blogged” about his beer and offered a free t-shirt to anyone who suggested the winning slogan for his brand. He didn’t give us any information on what style Shraderbrau is or what the ingredients may be. Who, knows, the fictional brew was probably just a basic recipe with no special additions or changes.

Home brewers, hold your steins high in memory of Hank and Schraderbrau! RIP ASAC Schrader, you will be missed.

Still can’t want to see what the last two episodes of Breaking Bad have in store for us.

Category: Home Brew Recipes | No Comments »