So who here brews their own beer?

[Doowai]

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Wow. Medicinal beer. I would love to see one made with dong chong xiao (cordyceps sinensis), Huang Chi (astragalus), Reishi (Ling Zhi) and Hong Zhao. Or Astragalus, reishi, red dates and American ginseng. I don't know if they still do, but there is an east coast company called Hsu's that sells fresh American ginseng - as fresh as store bought carrots (which happen to be a similar family and can be used much like ginseng medicinally) and they would ship to you (back in the 1990's)

Its really not a matter of pinyin or romanization. Its latin botanical names, versus common names versus Chinese (usually Mandarin).

Ex. Jujube Zizyphus (botanical), is the same as Hong Zhao (Chinese), is commonly called red dates.

Huang Chi (Chinese) is Astragalus and is also commonly known as Milk Vetch.

Dong Chong Xiao is the Chinese name for the fungus called Cordyceps Sinensis (latin), known commonly as caterpillar fungus.

Renshen is the Chinese name for what is commonly called Asian Ginseng, and botanically is known as Araliacea Panax (family and genus). American ginseng is the same family and species as Asian ginseng but a different subspecies and is considered very different medicinally in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) where asian ginseng is considered hot/yang and American ginseng is cool/yin. American ginseng is more expensive. Siberian ginseng is an entirely different genus and species but is still considered an adaptogen.

Astragalus is being used experimentally in the United States to develop a telomerase and has been used at a few medical centers in the United States to treat ARC and AIDS with some success. Huang Chi and Hong Zhao are used in TCM (traditional Chinese medicine) as part of Fuzhen therapy. Reishi is used in Japan as part of medical treatment for cancer.

 

[Josh L.Ac.]

Going to make a Yin Yang Huo wheat beer in a few months. Haven't had time to research but I'm fairly sure I'll need to cheat and soak the loose herb in alcohol for a few weeks then add it to the secondary when the beer is ready to transfer over.


We shall see.

 

[Gimlet]

Going to make a Yin Yang Huo wheat beer in a few months. Haven't had time to research but I'm fairly sure I'll need to cheat and soak the loose herb in alcohol for a few weeks then add it to the secondary when the beer is ready to transfer over.


We shall see.

You should check out the book Radical Brewing by Randy Mosher. He has a whole section that focuses on using crazy herbs and spices in homebrew.

 

[Josh L.Ac.]

I'll check it out. I did get Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers and it is interesting for the historical context but is fairly lame overall.

 

[dutchmaster]

Thought I'd jump into the discussion.

Been homebrewing for a couple years, mainly doing extract + speciality grain...occasionally with a partial mash recipe but not too much.

Just finished up the last bottle of a Hazelnut Milk Stout that i brewed in early November. This beer was freaking awesome...i basically made a milk stout and then added to the primary about 1 qt of my favorite strong hazelnut coffee. Would be willing to share the recipe with anyone interested.

Anyone ever brew a Belgian Tripel? If so, any concerns about brewing with hard water? I live in an area that has extremely high CaCO3 content and i am afraid that all the light malts in the tripel may not be able to cover up some of the high mineral content, unlike darker varieties. Perhaps this is only an issue if you are doing a full mash recipe and not in extract?

 

[Josh L.Ac.]

Any updates? My Old Rasputin clone crashed and burned, so I attempted to modify it by making it a coffee stout.


Unfortunately, attempting to add coffee grounds in a cheesecloth to my secondary was a dismal failure. Plus, in addition to resorting to just dumping the coffee grounds into the secondary (yielding an acidic / bitter tasting beer), I also ended up with a small contamination in my beer. Luckily, the 9% ABV stopped the contamination, but there still was some activity.


It's been in the bottle for two weeks now and hasn't mellowed a bit. It will probably take 4-6 months before it is even drinkable.

 

[akpete]

I've always thought about getting into home brewing. Maybe now before residency starts would be the time to begin.


Gimlet, I was wondering if you ever did talk about homebrewing at interviews? I am aware of one intern who actually included it in her CV and was talked about frequently at interviews, in a positive light.

 

[Gimlet]

I've always thought about getting into home brewing. Maybe now before residency starts would be the time to begin.


Gimlet, I was wondering if you ever did talk about homebrewing at interviews? I am aware of one intern who actually included it in her CV and was talked about frequently at interviews, in a positive light.

If you want any advice on getting into brewing, we should chat on match day, akpete! I would bring some homebrew for you to try, but they did expressly forbid alcohol at the ceremony. Maybe during PFI!

I put Zymurgy on my list of hobbies in ERAS, and was asked about it in all but a couple of my interview days. Many people started out our interview by saying "I have to ask you...what the heck is zymurgy?" which was a great conversation starter. Definitely glad I put it on there. The only place that asked about it in any sort of a negative light was our home program, when the PD jokingly asked whether they would have to worry about me becoming an alcoholic during residency.

 

[Josh L.Ac.]

Hard to imagine alcoholics brewing beer because it takes to damn long.

 

[anesonia]

Brewed a double (10gal) batch of American Ale several weeks ago and will be drinking at least 1 of the kegs tonight - tasted awesome out of the secondary, but still haven't tasted the final product yet. Hard to wait!

 

[dutchmaster]

Cracked open my first bottle of my first all-grain batch.

It was an American Pale Ale. I thought it turned out pretty good given my ghetto all-grain setup. It was somewhat hazy when serving, next time I'll probably incorporate a protein rest into the mash schedule.

Next up i think will be a nice Hefeweizen for the summertime.

 

[Gimlet]

It was an American Pale Ale. I thought it turned out pretty good given my ghetto all-grain setup. It was somewhat hazy when serving, next time I'll probably incorporate a protein rest into the mash schedule.

What kind of hops/hop schedule did you use for the APA?

I would give your bottles a few more weeks in the 'fridge to let the haze completely settle out...usually does the trick for me. According to Palmer, most American malts are modified enough to forego the protein rest nowadays -- you can actually take too much body out of the finished product by doing a protein rest with some malts, leaving the beer too watery.

My Hefeweizen from last spring turned out great, aside from it being a tad too hoppy for the style (watch this when formulating your recipe). I really liked the results of going with the Wyeast 3068 (Weihenstephan strain) - lots of great aromatic esters (spicy clove/banana). Just make sure to keep the fermentation temp at the lower end of the range listed for the yeast, or the banana flavors will dominate. If you go above the temp range, you'll get a weird bubblegum flavor.

 

[Josh L.Ac.]

I never cold crash by brews long enough because if it is in the fridge, I end up drinking it instead of waiting 2 weeks.

 

[dutchmaster]

What kind of hops/hop schedule did you use for the APA?

I would give your bottles a few more weeks in the 'fridge to let the haze completely settle out...usually does the trick for me. According to Palmer, most American malts are modified enough to forego the protein rest nowadays -- you can actually take too much body out of the finished product by doing a protein rest with some malts, leaving the beer too watery.

My Hefeweizen from last spring turned out great, aside from it being a tad too hoppy for the style (watch this when formulating your recipe). I really liked the results of going with the Wyeast 3068 (Weihenstephan strain) - lots of great aromatic esters (spicy clove/banana). Just make sure to keep the fermentation temp at the lower end of the range listed for the yeast, or the banana flavors will dominate. If you go above the temp range, you'll get a weird bubblegum flavor.

My mash schedule was a single infusion mash at 153F with sparge at 170.
Did 2oz of cascade + 1 oz of homegrown hops (fuggles or northern brewer, cant remember) for 60 minutes plus 1oz cascade at 1 min.

Hopefully they'll clear up with some time in the fridge, but in the end it doesn't really matter if they're hazy or not, it still tastes good. A protein rest probably isn't necessary with fully modified malts like you said as far as giving the yeast enough basic nutrients. It might still help with foam potential/clarity, especially if using many adjuncts.

I have some Wyeast 3333 left over from an old wheat beer for my next Hefeweizen, gonna make a starter out of that and see if it's still kicking. If not, i might try your suggestion with the 3068

 

[Muadib]

i do a little home brew. my favorite is a mead that is bubbly like champagne. tho i'm starting to get into brewing nice hearty stouts.

 

[Josh L.Ac.]

Is transitioning into partial or full-mashing worth it in terms of time and taste?

 

[Gimlet]

Is transitioning into partial or full-mashing worth it in terms of time and taste?

The general consensus seems to be a resounding YES. I haven't done an all-grain batch yet (first one will be later this month), but from everybody I've talked to, the benefits in terms of flavor and quality of beer (especially in producing very light-colored beers, which is hard with extract) is well worth the extra time, effort, and money.

As far as going from extract to partial-mash (and I'm talking about having a good percentage of your fermentables coming from mashed grain, not just steeping some specialty grains and calling it a partial-mash), I'd say if you do it right it could be a good way to transition into all-grain and find out if it's for you. Just make sure any equipment you invest in for a partial mash setup will be big enough to use for an all-grain operation later on. For example, when I switched to a "countertop partial mash" method, I started out by turning a 2 gallon beverage cooler into a mash tun. I should've just begun with a large enough cooler to use in my all grain setup, because now that I'm getting a big enough kettle to do full boils for my all grain, I also needed to upgrade my mash tun volume. Make sense?

 

[Gimlet]

My mash schedule was a single infusion mash at 153F with sparge at 170.
Did 2oz of cascade + 1 oz of homegrown hops (fuggles or northern brewer, cant remember) for 60 minutes plus 1oz cascade at 1 min.

Hopefully they'll clear up with some time in the fridge, but in the end it doesn't really matter if they're hazy or not, it still tastes good. A protein rest probably isn't necessary with fully modified malts like you said as far as giving the yeast enough basic nutrients. It might still help with foam potential/clarity, especially if using many adjuncts.

I have some Wyeast 3333 left over from an old wheat beer for my next Hefeweizen, gonna make a starter out of that and see if it's still kicking. If not, i might try your suggestion with the 3068

Sounds good. Here's what I've got so far for my APA I'll be making this month (see below). If it sounds like a ton of grain for a 5 gallon batch, it's because I'm assuming pretty lousy efficiency for my first all-grain (I was only hitting about 60-65% with my partial-mash brews, anyway). I'd rather overshoot my OG and wind up having to top off with some extra water than come in low. I'll be dry-hopping with my home-grown Cascades from last summer.

[size=-1]BeerSmith Recipe Printout - www.beersmith.com[/size]
[size=+2]Recipe: Classic American Pale Ale[/size]
Brewer:
Asst Brewer:
Style: American Pale Ale
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (0.0)

Recipe Specifications

Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Boil Size: 6.06 gal
Estimated OG: 1.054 SG
Estimated Color: 7.6 SRM
Estimated IBU: 39.9 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 60.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:

Amount        Item                                      Type         % or IBU      
11 lbs        Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)            Grain        88.00 %       
1 lbs         Caravienne Malt (22.0 SRM)                Grain        8.00 %        
8.0 oz        Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM)     Grain        4.00 %        
0.50 oz       Columbus (Tomahawk) [12.20 %]  (60 min)   Hops         21.6 IBU      
1.50 oz       Cascade [7.40 %]  (Dry Hop 7 days)        Hops          -            
1.00 oz       Centennial [9.10 %]  (15 min)             Hops         16.0 IBU      
0.50 oz       Cascade [7.40 %]  (5 min)                 Hops         2.4 IBU       
1.00 oz       Cascade [7.40 %]  (0 min)                 Hops          -            
1.00 tbsp     PH 5.2 Stabilizer (Mash 60.0 min)         Misc                       
5.00 gm       Calcium Chloride (Mash 60.0 min)          Misc                       
1 Pkgs        GF All American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1272) [SYeast-Ale

Mash Schedule: My Mash
Total Grain Weight: 12.50 lb

My Mash
Step Time     Name               Description                         Step Temp     
60 min        Dough-In           Add 15.63 qt of water at 164.2 F    152.0 F

Notes:

 

[dutchmaster]

Sounds good. Here's what I've got so far for my APA I'll be making this month (see below). If it sounds like a ton of grain for a 5 gallon batch, it's because I'm assuming pretty lousy efficiency for my first all-grain (I was only hitting about 60-65% with my partial-mash brews, anyway). I'd rather overshoot my OG and wind up having to top off with some extra water than come in low. I'll be dry-hopping with my home-grown Cascades from last summer.

This is gonna be awesome! You'll have to let us know how it turns out.

I bet you'll have a much better efficiency now that you have a bigger mash tun with a more proper grain bed depth. The bigger tun should allow for more water contact with the grains, which is something the diastatic enzymes prefer.

 

[dutchmaster]

Is transitioning into partial or full-mashing worth it in terms of time and taste?

For sure man...you get a lot more variety in the styles of beer you can make. Furthermore, it's way more fun 🙂