Extracts -- good or bad?

Is the use of extracts in beer brewing a good thing?

It is actually quite common for commercial breweries to use hop extracts. Even Belgian Trappist breweries do it(!). And their beers are considered among the best in the world.

In my opinion it is not necessarily a detriment to good beer. Same thing with malt extract, from which you can actually make some damn good beer. But it won't give you the same flexibility as all-grain would.

The reason the big commercial breweries use them is because they strive for consistency -- and hop extract give them just that. It is very predictable. That said they do also put a lot of effort into making beer cost-efficiently. On a larger scale the little things have a big influence on cost. Note that the reason they aren't using malt extract is that it is much more expensive than all-grain, which lets them squeeze the last drop of malt sugars out themselves.

This shouldn't stop them from making good beer though, as there is no defense against making bad beer.

Probably the best aroma in the world

..or perhaps not.

I've had a 60 ml glass of liquid aroma extract that is intended to be used by commercial breweries for a while. Now this is a lot of hop extract. Well, the label does not actually say hops, whatever. The glass has been left alone in the fridge as I have had no idea what to do with it. I haven't been particularly tempted to actually try it out in one of my 25 liter batches. I do quite a bit of experimentation, but this wouldn't count as one that would be worth it.

Today I found a 500 ml can of lager lying around and found that I should give the extract a try.


Well, how much extract to use? I had no idea. I suspect that these glasses are meant to be used in pretty big batches. In retrospect I wouldn't be surprised that we're taking about something like 25.000 liters of, ahem, definitely not the best beer in the world, Danish lager. After all, there isn't that much hop aroma in a bland commercial lager.


The smallest measuring spoon I have is 1 ml and I decided to just go ahead and add that to half of the contents of the can. I did that so that I could dilute the mixture with the remaining beer, if neccessary.

The extract itself isn't particularly viscous like syrup, but is instead more like cough medicine. It smells really strong. There is an intense floral and grassy aroma that melds into an almost unbearable pungent syrup.

I stirred the extract in the 1 ml spoon into the beer. It didn't quite mix with the beer, but instead formed drops of heavier yellow clumps. If you look closely that the image above you can see these yellow drops forming.

The one sip I had from the glass almost made me puke. The experience was just too intense. It was just like drinking gasoline. I decided not to waste the remaining beer.

Well, that's enough experimentation on my part. If anybody would like to try it out in a 25 liter batch please let me know. There's still 59 ml left.

Ten beers for a beer list

Knut Albert recently started an interesting series of blog posts about what would constitute a nice pub. Today he posted his list of 10 imported bottled beers that deserve a place on a beer menu. All the beers on the list must be available on the Norwegian market, but must not be Norwegian beers (that's for another list).

This makes for an interesting subject, so I've decided to create my own list. The beers are (in alphabetical order):

• Anchor Porter
• Delirium Tremens
• Einbecker Brauherren Premium Pils
• Fullers ESB
• Goose Island India Pale Ale
• Guinness Draught
• Hoegaarden Witbier
• Rochefort 8
• Orval
• Schneider Weisse Original

Note that this list does not constitute a list of my favourite ten imported beers, but more a diverse list that could be a beer list at a pub. Those would of course not be the same, but there are overlaps.

Creating such a list is really hard given its small size. A list of 20 beers would be a lot easier. One have to make sure that there's something for everybody, so a broad selection of beer styles is needed IMO. As the Norwegian market for imported beers is very small some bland beers like Guinness Draft and Hoegaarden Witbier ended up on the list. There are certainly other beers that I would have liked to see on it, but they are not available in Norway.

Beer and cheese - a perfect match

Wine, and not beer, has been considered the customary drink to serve with cheese. Everytime I've had cheese at a dinner it has always been with red wine. A month ago, or so, I had beer with cheese at a local restaurant here in Oslo. That was a pleasant surprise. The proposed beers were Nøgne Ø Porter and Aass Bock. I chose the bock to go with the four cheeses. This was truely a mind-opener.

On New Year's Eve we tried a beer and cheese pairing with a couple of friends. Four cheeses and four beers. This was the third dish, served just before dessert and after the main course. This is what we had:

• Nøgne Ø Saison with Brie
• My own Belgian amber ale with Taleggio
• Erdinger Weissbier with Manchego
• Anchor Porter with Saint Agur

I am a bit disappointed with Brie as it can be very dull and tasteless sometimes. Quite a few of them are produced for the mass market, much like the yellow swill you can get in bottles. This one in particular was really dull and tasted almost nothing, but it did have the texture and oiliness of the style. The spicy saison handled the oiliness wonderfully, but it would have been nice with a more characterful cheese. Try a matured Brie instead, or perhaps even a Camembert.

The Taleggio had much more character and matched the sweetness in the Belgian amber ale nicely.

It seems really hard to get hold of good Manchego cheese here in this country. Either it is too dry or too rubbery. This one was too rubbery and had almost no flavour. The weissbier was thought to be a great match with almost any kind of cheese, even this one.

All cheese plates need a blue cheese of some sort, this one included. Since I knew that at least one of the diners did not like blue cheese I settled with a mild one, a Saint Agur. A characterful cheese needs a characterful beer to balance the sharpness. The porter handled the job nicely.

Knowing which kind of cheese goes with what kind of beer is not very obvious, but after having tried this I'd say that it is really hard to go wrong. Pairing cheese and beer is fun. Give it a try.

To get you started, here are a few articles on the subject: [1], [2], [3]

WTF, a red Guinness?

I didn't see this coming. It looks like they call it a stout, but I find that a bit strange. It is going to be interesting to see how it compares to their Kilkenny.

We've been taking our life in our hands and working hard on a really exciting new Guinness innovation. Called Guinness Red, it uses lightly roasted barley to give it the kind of rich red colour that you can already see at the bottom of a pint of Guinness Draught if you hold it up to the light. Its got a well balanced, bitter-sweet taste and still has all the hallmarks of the Guinness pint that you know and love - 2 part pour, surge and settle and a cracking creamy Guinness head.

More info on The Guinness Blog.

The brewing process

These are the steps you will have to go through in order to make beer:

1. malt
   
2. crush
3. mash
4. sparge
5. boil
6. chill
7. ferment
8. package

Malting is a process to let the malt develop its enzyme content and render it suitable for mashing. The process involves soaking, sprouting and then drying grain.

Unless you've got too much time on your hands you might what to skip the malting process as professional malting companies will do this for you at low cost. Their malting quality will very likely be much better than anything you could make yourself. So you typically buy premalted grains off the shelf instead of making it yourself. That said, it would of course make an interesting research project.

The malt quality have a big impact on your brewing efficiency. A low quality malt will get you a less flavourful beer and (fortunately) less beer. A high quality malt will be much more consistent and let you extract more malt sugars.

If you make your beer from malt extract you can skip the crush, mash and sparge steps as these have been done for you. The malt extract is the end result of these steps (plus the fact that it has been concentrated down to syrup or powder). With malt extract you can move right on to the boil. This will save you a couple of hours in your brew day.

The crush is when you take your malt and crush it in small particles exposing the inner starch granules. The purpose is to make it easier to extract the malt sugars. You will need a malt mill to do the crushing.

The mash is when you mix the crushed malt with hot water until it resembles a thick porridge. The hot water will trigger enzymes in the malt that turn the starch into malt sugars, simple ones or complex ones depending on the temperature. The mash will then typically be left alone for about an hour or so. This to ensure that all the starch have been converted.

To get a step further the sugars are then to be separated from the grain husks. This is done through a process called sparging or lautering. There are several ways to do this, but the easiest one is to just drain the liquid (called wort) through a filter and into the boil kettle.

Once the wort is collected in the kettle the next step is to actually boil it for an hour or so. Throughout the boil hops will be added in several steps to lend bitterness, flavour and aroma to the beer.

We're now almost ready to hand over the wort to the yeast so that it can turn all the sugars into esters, carbon dioxide and alcohol. To avoid killing the yeast the wort have to be cooled down to a lower temperature. The cooling process is typically done in a short period of time with the help of a wort chiller.

The wort is then transfered to a separate fermentation vessel where it can be fermented. The fermentation is typically done in a closed environment reducing the chances of infection. A carboy with an air-lock on it is quite common. The yeast is then added to the cool wort. It will now become beer as the yeast eat up the sugars. Once all the sugars and nutrients have been depleted the yeast will go dormant and settle out on the bottom of the fermentation vessel.

We now have beer that is ready to be packaged. The beer can be bottled or transferred to kegs. It will also have to be carbonated, either mechanically or naturally.

This posting gives a brief overview of the brewing process, but it has just scratched the surface. So I'll be posting [much] more detail about various aspects of the techniques, equipment and ingredients involved in future. If there is anything particular you'd like to have covered please let me know.

"Purity laws"

In fact the previously listed ingredients, water, barley malt, hops and yeast[1], were the only allowed beer ingredients according to the historical German Reinheitsgebot (literally 'purity requirement', or 'purity law' - if you will). Lars Marius Garshol and Ron Pattison have interesting views on it - both recommended reading.

The Reinheitsgebot originates from Bavaria, Germany (1516), but it has been enforced in several other countries up until modern times. In Norway it was enforced between 1857 and 1994. In practice this meant that brewers were constrainted with regard to what kind of beers they could make. Historically the law has been used as a means of market protection, stamp of quality assurance, and for marketing purposes. But creativity and diversity have suffered...

[1] Yeast was actually not included as constituent of beer in the original version of the law as people did not know that it existed. It was added later when it was discovered by science.

So, what's in a beer?

To make beer you need:

• water
• barley malt
• hops
• yeast

That's it. Well, there's nothing stopping you from putting other things in there as well, but this is what is considered to be the minimal number of ingredients.

What are hops and malt you say? Follow the links to find out.

If you are new to beer brewing you may want to start out by using malt extract instead of barley malt as this simplifies the brewing process somewhat. This is fine at first, and you can make some great beers with it, but after a while you'd want to take the step up to all-grain brewing. Doing so will give you a wider palette of flavours and aromas to play with.

I started out with extract brewing myself and did about 10 brews before taking the step up. I have not regretted that move. Anyway, at least for your first brew you should use malt extract as there are enough new things to keep track of the first time. Trying to do and learn too many new things on the first brew is not neccessarily a good idea. You'll have plenty of time to perfect your brewing skills later.

Why brew your own beer?

There are several reasons why I do brew my own beer. It is fun and you get to drink a lot of really good beer. Well, not everything is perfect, but there is a whole world of beer out there that one cannot really try unless you make it yourself.

Here in Norway, where I live, there isn't really much of a selection when it comes to good beer. The selection is decent, but you can drink your way through it in a few weeks time. Then what do you do? Well. Travel or stay home to make some yourself.

Norway is not a big country, about 4.5 million people live here, so the beer selection is never going to be huge. The decent beers that we do get here are for the most part bland Norwegian beers and a small number of imports. We do have a small number of microbreweries, Nøgne Ø and Haandbryggeriet being the best known ones as they are now being exported to several countries including Denmark and the US. The number of small breweries is increasing, but slowly.

Anyway, the main reason why I'm brewing I'd say is that I find it a very interesting hobby. It is a very creative process as a lot of brewing equipment and ingredients are involved. For each of the beers I brew I make my own recipes. This is half of the fun. Trying to pin down a certain beer style or a certain kind of profile is challenging, and you learn a lot from experimenting. After a while one is able to figure out how the ingredients work together and what it takes to achieve the right balance.

Learning is an important aspect of homebrewing. There is always something new to learn. There is always something you can read up on or experiment with. There is always some new kind of brew gear that you can build that make things more efficient, shortens the brewing process, increases flavour, or just looks cool. There is always some new ingredient you have been wanting to try out in a beer. You really never run out of ideas.

These are all, more or less, the same reasons why I work with computers.