Davik Brewing

Proposed Style Guidelines
OG 1.070 - 1.080 (1.050-1.056)
FG 1.018 - 1.020 (1.012-1.016)
ABV 6.9% - 8.0% (5.1%-6.5%)
IBU 28 - 45 (18-30)
SRM 10 - 14 (7-12)

Recipe Guidelines
Follow the traditional grist ratios of 50% Vienna malt, 30% Munich malt and 20% Lager malt. This “bigger beer” requires a larger grain bill to meet the gravity requirements, a Munich or lager extract could be used to reduce the grain bill.

The traditional hop schedule doesn’t include any late hop additions after 30 minutes. For the Imperial version,  a small amount later in the boil is acceptable. The use of only noble hops, or an acceptable substitute is recommended.

Noble Hops Substitutions
Hallertau crystal; liberty; tradition
Tettnanger glacier; williamette; fuggle
Spalt German select
Saaz sterling; ultra; vanguard

DavikBrewing Imperial Oktoberfest

OG 1.074
FG 1.018
ABV 7%
IBU 42
SRM 12.5

Grain
7lbs    Vienna
4lbs    Munich
3lbs    Lager malt
(substitute 3lbs Lager LME for a 11lb mash)

Hops
.75oz    Perle 8.0% @ 45min
.50oz    Perle 8.0% @ 30min
.50oz    Sterling 6.3% @ 15min

Yeast
White Labs WLP 830 German Lager yeast

Mash Schedule
single infusion mash 60min @ 152F

Filed under: Recipes on September 19th, 2009 | No Comments »

Munich Brewing Engineers Research Energy Savings

Brewing engineers from the Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM) are working hard to improve the energy balance of the amber beverage. They are looking into a new process combination that would allow energy savings of up to 20% during brewing.

The Weihenstephan scientists will be exhibiting the heart of their energy-saving idea at the drinktec trade fair in Munich (14 – 19 September).

For over one hundred years one fundamental technical precept has applied to all breweries: You can’t brew beer without a kettle. Only a mighty boil kettle is capable of generating the temperatures of 110 to 160 degrees centigrade required to boil down the wort.

This process consumes substantial amounts of energy: Almost half of the overall energy consumption of a classical brewery, 45% to be exact, goes into wort processing. That is why engineers have been working on solutions to reduce heat and electricity consumption in brewing for years now.

One approach was to use combined heat and power (CHP) stations, which are highly energy efficient and environmentally friendly due their cogeneration of power and heat. This technology, however, has proven to be unsuitable for breweries: CHP stations do indeed generate heat in addition to power, but only achieve temperatures up 90 degrees centigrade. Boiling down wort requires at least 110 degrees centigrade.

To remedy this deficit, engineers from the Institute for Resource and Energy Technology at the TU Muenchen have been following a hot trail since August 2008: They have combined the CHP station with a so-called “zeolite storage system.”

Such storage systems work thermo-chemically with zeolite spheres 2-3 mm in diameter. These porous pellets are made of silicate minerals and have excellent heat storage properties. One gram of zeolite has an internal surface of about 500 square meters. The pores absorb water to full saturation. When zeolite is heated, the spheres dry up – the storage system is charged. Once water is added again, the zeolite spheres release heat of up to 250 degrees centigrade.

Read the entire article here:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases

Filed under: Articles on September 8th, 2009 | No Comments »

When Light Meets Beer…

Light sensitivity is caused by hops, the dried female flowers of the hop plant that have been used for about 1,000 years to impart bitterness and a mellow aroma to beer and other brews. Hops boiled during the brewing process contain chemicals called isohumulones, also known as isomerized alpha acids, which when struck by visible or ultraviolet light produce some of the same chemicals that skunks spray at their antagonists. Beer drinkers understandably are not fond of the accompanying scent and spurn light-struck beer as being “skunky” or “skunked.”

Skunkiness, incidentally, is quite different from the unsavory flavor that develops in beer that is stale or that has been subjected to warm or fluctuating temperatures. Stale beer can taste like cardboard, while skunked beer tastes like — well, like a polecat smells.

The deleterious effects of light on beer have been known for more than a century. Historically, beer has been bottled in green or brown glass because those colors are easily produced by natural iron oxide in the sand used to make the glass. Brown glass is better than green, because unless it is very thick, green glass permits the passage of the primarily skunkifying green and blue light, while brown or amber glass blocks it. The widespread appearance of canned beer in 1935 sidestepped the problem, of course, but bottles still hold the allegiance of craft brewers and finicky drinkers.

Read the entire article here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com

Filed under: Articles on September 2nd, 2009 | No Comments »

To create your own smoked beer (aka Rauchbier) you can use a cauldron-style charcoal grill with a shallow, screen-basket to smoke the malt.

The malt rests in a screen-basket, which you can make from a wood frame with screening stapled to it. Build a small fire with a handful of charcoal briquettes off to the side (you do not want the malt directly over the coals), and wait until the briquettes have finished flaming and are white-hot.

Soak wood chips in water, then spread them over the coals. Spread malt evenly into the screen-basket, and place the basket on the rack in the grill (but off to the side), close the lid, and allow to smoke from 30 minutes to 2 hours.

Be selective in the wood chips you choose for smoking…

Mesquite will give a delicate spiciness. Peat imparts phenolic, oily, creosote-like characteristics. Alder has a sweet, delicate woodiness, as does apple. Cherry adds almond fruitiness, and birch gives a subtle wintergreen profile to the malt. Grapevine wood is herbal, while white oak tends to add a pungent, musty backbone.

Filed under: Brewing 101 on August 24th, 2009 | No Comments »

Every year aspiring homebrewers enter their beers into competitions around the country with the goal of bringing home a medal but there is a better reason to enter competitions and that is feedback.

The scoresheet for homebrew competitions have five sections for giving feedback; aroma, appearance, flavor, mouthfeel and overall impression. A judge evaluates these different aspects and makes notes in each section regarding the beer being judged.

These comments are all based on the style guidelines for that particular beer so it is important to pick the correct category that best fits the beer being judged.  The Beer Judge Certification Program has a website, www.bjcp.org, with a list of all the styles of beers that are generally judged in homebrew competitions.  If there is uncertainty as to what style to enter, refer to your local homebrew store.  They will be happy to taste and determine the best category to enter.

Read the entire article here:
http://www.examiner.com/x-16115-Tulsa-Home-Brewing-Examiner

Brew style specific beers with the Brewers Resource Package

Filed under: Articles on August 23rd, 2009 | No Comments »

Tired of drinking the same flavors of beer?

Home brewing offers a chance to create unusual, exotic varieties you could never find in a store.

“The great thing about this hobby is you can keep it as simple as you want,” says Rex Halfpenny, the publisher and editor of Michigan Beer Guide, a bimonthly publication with a circulation of 15,000.

“Anybody can make beer. It’s that simple.”

Halfpenny says making your own with a kit costs about $30, and takes a few hours on the kitchen stove.

“Your yield on a 5-gallon batch is two cases of beer,” he says, adding that it costs about the same to buy two cases at the store.

It offers something for everyone, from the beginners to the experts.

Starting out

“The beginner kits are a lot like Campbell’s soup,” says Jason Smith, 35, who owns Adventures in Homebrewing in Taylor. “You just go ahead and add water, yeast and you are ready to go. Approximately two weeks later, you bottle it. . . . It’s very easy. The hardest part is probably the two-week wait.”

Necessary supplies include a pot, a spoon, a plastic bucket with a lid and air lock to allow carbon dioxide to escape, a variety of hoses, bottles and bottle capper, a thermometer and a hydrometer to measure the density of the liquid you’re working with.

“From there, all of the equipment can be upgraded. Those things can be vastly improved upon. With the kits, you can make 90 different kinds of beer,” Halfpenny says.

“If you like to cook, if you enjoy doing something on your own and you feel it’s neat to invite your friends over and offer them a beer, that’s probably the biggest motivation,” he says.

First-timers should be ready to spend an entire day on the first batch.

“When you get good at it, in a two-hour day you can knock out a batch of beer,” Smith said. “I tell everybody, on their first day, to plan a 12-hour day. If you do it in two hours, wonderful.”

Read the entire article here:
http://www.tampabay.com/features/food/spirits/article1026357.ece

Filed under: Articles on August 19th, 2009 | No Comments »

Or is it Beer o’ Clock?

Who came up with this rule anyway, and does it even apply on the weekend?

I guess as a standard, people who drink beer in the morning are considered
alcoholics -as far as the non-drinking population goes.

But what about champagne brunch? And when is brunch? -sometime between breakfast and lunch! So if you can have champagne between breakfast and lunch why not beer?

We still haven’t determined what time Beer 30 really is, so maybe it’s a matter of when you wake up. How many hours do you have to wait until you can have a beer?

5 hours, 6 hours … 2 hours?

Maybe there should be a standard set -like the next 30 minute mark after you finish coffee or tea …or even breakfast. This would fall into the time frame between breakfast and lunch!

So let’s say I wake up at 7:30 on Saturday morning, I finish coffee at 8:45.
By the time 9:30 rolls around, we’ve reached the time frame of “brunch”. I
waited until the next :30 minute mark after I finished coffee…

Is this Beer 30?  Or does it have to be a 2 digit time… like 10:30?

I like the rule of the next 30 minute mark after breakfast, because food is
good… especially if you’re drinking! Remember… be a responsible drinker!
And maybe the addition to the rule… it has to be a 2 digit time.

So this would make it 10:30   Beer:30 = 10:30

I’m interested in knowing what you perceive as Beer 30!

Post your comment, and be sure to leave your email address (it will not be
posted publicly) and if I like your response, I’ll give you my Brewers Resource Package

Cheers!

Click Here To Fill Out A Google Form

Filed under: Articles on August 15th, 2009 | No Comments »

Sculpin Ale …everyone’s favorite!

22oz bottles will be available at the two brewery locations this weekend, and will be replenishing the shelves of your local bottle shop sometime next week.

The bottles will surely go fast. The only way to make sure you are not left out is to come visit them this weekend.

The bottles will surely go fast. The only way to make sure you are not left out is to visit them this weekend.

Ballast Point Brewing Co.
10051 Old Grove Rd.
San Diego, CA  92131
(858) 695-BREW (2739)

Ballast Point Brewing Co.
5401 Linda Vista Rd.
San Diego, CA  92110

Filed under: Microbrewing on August 14th, 2009 | No Comments »

Turn your Beer Bar into a “Better Beer Bar”

You know what your mother always told you about gaining a bad reputation. Don’t let anyone steam-roll you into carrying only brands from the mega breweries. Just as good wine bars become well-known, so do good beer bars. Local Craft beers and desirable imports from Belgium, Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, Japan, Australia, and England should make up a significant part of your beer menu.

If you don’t have a beer menu, design one. It can be as funky as a chalk board with constantly changing items, a stapled skinny of folded paper several pages long that you create on your computer, or a leather bound volume chock full of beer information, including recommendations for dinner pairings, style characteristics, flavor profiles, or historical tales. Feel free to add a little humor to it. There’s no need to be overly posh.

The more interesting you make your menu, the greater attention it will pull from your friends. As they linger or laugh over each beer listing, their curiosity will build. Serve beer in glassware that will enhance its appearance and aromas. If a Belgian calls for a chalice or goblet, flaunt it with style. Serve beers in glasses with logos, whenever possible. Learn about beer - how to pour it with flair, discuss it in a creative way, and pair it with food.

Rotate your offerings often, and keep those tap lines clean. Hold beer dinners or beer-and-food-pairing nights. Trivia nights that focus on beer-centric themes will educate your friends in a fun way, and go a long way to increasing the comfort level among those who know little about the craft beer scene (but don’t want to appear stupid in front of their peers).

Recommended Serving Temperatures for Beer:
Dark ales, porters, stouts - 55-60°F
Belgian ales, strong ales - 50-55°F
Pale ales, amber ales, dark lagers - 50-55°F
Wheat beers and pale lagers - 45-52°F
Fruit beers, lambics, framboise - 40-50°F

Filed under: Articles on August 12th, 2009 | No Comments »

Denver, CO  September 24-26, 2009

The Pro-Am part of the competition is of particular interest to homebrewers as this is a partnership between the homebrewer and a craft brewer.  Where a homebrewer has created a recipe and worked in conjunction with a craft brewer who has brewed the recipe at a commercial scale.

Last years competition had over 2,900 commercial beers in the competition, with 3 awards going to Pro-Am entries.

Brewers in the area have expressed interest in being able to work with homebrewers.   Most often a large homebrew competition will try to find a brewery who’s willing to take the “Brewers Choice” and making it into a commercial beer.

Read the entire article here:
http://www.examiner.com/x-15891-Manchester-Home-Brewing…

Filed under: Articles on August 6th, 2009 | No Comments »