Mike’s Homebrewing Page
(Last Updated 10-09-08)
Welcome to my Homebrewing and Beer page!
Here's hoping you will find something on the site that helps you in your own brewing, or at least a bit interesting.
History
I started homebrewing in 1998. The progression
from Extract Brewing to Extract with Grain was on the 3rd
batch. About a year and a half after starting brewing, on the 25th
batch, the move was made to All Grain. My brewing
knowledge has increased over the years and and much of it can
be attributed to working with and in my local homebrewing club, CARBOY. Since beginning brewing, many ribbons and
awards have been earned in competition for my beers, culminating in a
third place finish for North Carolina Brewer of the Year in 2002. My
current BJCP
ranking is
National, I grade exams, and serve as the BJCP Communications Director.
Generally
brew days consist of multiple batches at the same time with different
mashes to end up with two to four 5-gallon batches at the end of the
day. The preference is variety, and if a
recipe is brewed twice, it is usually tweaked some the second time
around. Online participation includes
frequent postings on rec.crafts.brewing, Beerinator, BeerMapping, BJCP Forums and
More Beer
and lurking on on the HBD,
RateBeer, BeerAdvocate along
with many other homebrewing and beer sites.
Pages
Below are some pages about my brewing equipment and techniques along with some other experiences and interests.
Fermentation and Serving – A unique aspect, others
have more elaborate systems, and some with similar equipment, but few
have more flexibility and variety.
Inexpensive Rectangular Mash Tun – This is the
very first mash tun I started with, and still use to this day. It generally runs in the 80-85% efficiency,
and once you see the simplicity and low cost of it, you will no longer
be scared of the potential costs people often associate with All Grain
equipment.
How to make a Coffin Mash Tun – This is how to
make a large mash tun for team brews.
Malt Mill and Large Hopper – This is my malt mill
which was motorized, and the large hopper constructed for it. An in depth article about motorizing a mill is
in the section below
Propane Burner conversion for Sanke Kettle – This
is how to make a three legged propane burner work for a converted Sanke
kettle which was originally too large in diameter to fit on the burner.
Setup and Mashing Techniques – This is a rundown
of my brewing setup, and the techniques used to make the brew day more
productive.
Starters and Pressure Canning Wort – Page on
starters and the procedure for pressure canning wort for starters.
Freezing Yeast – Method for freezing yeast and
then bringing them back to life.
Measurement Devices – This page details some
information on Thermometers, Hydrometers, and Refractometers.
Counter
Pressure Bottle Filler – This is my filler.
Great
Taste of the Midwest 2003 – Twelve of us from North Carolina made
the trek to the Great Taste in Madison, WI. This
is highlights of that trip!
Articles
Here are several articles I wrote.
Building
a Keg Pressure Tester – This is a device all people who are kegging
must either purchase or make. It is the
only way you can insure the pressure in your keg is exact. (PDF)
Cleaner
or Sanitizer? – This article lists a majority of the cleaners and
sanitizers on the market and their recommended concentrations to
properly do the job. (It is about midway through the newsletter or PDF.)
The
Brewing Library – This is a list of the publications you might want
to get to establish a decent brewing library. (It is about midway
through the newsletter)
Motorizing
a Malt Mill – An in depth article on how to go about motoring your
mill. The article should be applicable to
any type of mill that can be motorized. (PDF)
Yeast
Washing, Quick and Dirty – An article taken from the information on
the Wyeast website,
and an old article by Robert Arguello. (PDF)
Cleaning and Rebuilding Ball Lock Kegs – A
slightly dated article but with good information. It
should be updated to suggest cleaning with Straight-A,
and sanitizing with StarSan. (PDF)
Lubricants for Keg Parts – An article describing
what “keg lube” is and might be.
Base Malt Steeping Experiment – An article on
whether base malts can be steeped or not. Conclusion
- they must be mashed, and not simply steeped.
Keg
Thread Sizes
Recipes
Below are links to many of my recipes that have done well in various competitions.
(The
recipe Aye
Corona was meant to be a crowd pleaser for a party, and has become a
favorite
of many of my homebrewing friends, some who brew it fairly often.)
Fuggled Up Pale – ESB recipe brewed to get rid of
a plethora of Fuggle Hops, 5 gallon recipe.
140/-
Shilling Historical Scottish Ale (1850) – Very strong historical
Wee Heavy, 3 gallon recipe.
IP Freely – IPA recipe brewed to get rid of
Cascade Hops, 10 gallon recipe.
Klassic
Kolsch – Very good Kolsch recipe, 5 gallon recipe.
Altstadt Alt – Very good Düsseldorf Altbier, 5
gallon recipe.
Red Mild
– Very good mild that uses quite of bit of cane sugar, 5 gallon recipe.
Bigfoot
+ - Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Clone that does not miss by much, 5
gallon
recipe.
Weizenbock
Party – Helles Weizenbock that is excellent, though very light, 5
gallon recipe.
Historical
Porter – First stab at what a historical Porter would been like,
and a great beer, 5 gallon recipe.
Spaten +
- A decent Oktoberfest/Maerzen recipe, 5 gallon recipe.
Red
Ryder – A California Common recipe originally given to me by Mike
D’Brewer, 5 gallon recipe.
MD CAP – My Classic American Pilsner recipe, 5
gallon recipe.
Berlin-Er-We-I-See
– My Berliner Weisse recipe, 5 gallon recipe.
Wit or Witout – My Belgian Wit recipe, remains one
of the best basic Witbier recipes around.
Now
We’re A Bruin – My Oud Bruin recipe, 5 gallon recipe.
Mike’s Hard Lemonade – An experiment that got out
of hand, 5 gallon recipe.
SinSaisonal
– A very good Saison, 5 gallon recipe.
Aye Corona – A no style beer that is a crowd
pleaser. Plenty of alcohol, and a really
nice finish. You can increase hops and other ingredients as you please.
The key to this beer is the corn, the honey malt, the mash temp, and
the yeast. 5 gallon recipe.
Historical Recipes
Below
are a list of the Historical Recipes brewed and some notes about them.
A few appear above and have won awards in competition, but most were
brewed
just to see how beers you cannot purchase today would have tasted
originally.
1908 Kentucky Common – This recipe is a naturally
soured brown ale that was brewed in Kentucky around the turn of the
century. The route chosen was to use
yogurt to sour the mash, if rebrewed, raw crushed grain would be
utilized for souring. It is a quite
refreshing, slightly sour brew that was a favorite of many.
1837 Historical IPA – This recipe was send to me
by Andy Davison before getting my hands on a copy of Old British Beers
and How to Brew Them. It is an 1837 IPA
recipe. It uses nothing but pale malt, and
the original hops were Kent Goldings. One
substitute was Fuggle for bittering, and Kent Golding for aroma and dry
hopping. The beer is surprisingly balanced
and very good.
1850
Historical Scottish 140/- - A recipe from Noonan’s style book. This beer is only a 3 gallon recipe and
requires a large amount of malt, and caramelizing the first runnings. It only gets better with age, and stands the
test of time as good as any strong beer. A
very potent brew.
Historical
Porter – When reading the book on Porter, I decided to try and brew
one based upon the recipes and descriptions given in the book. This was and excellent beer, and one that will
be brewed again.
Classic
American Pilsner – This is a pre-prohibition recipe.
CAP is rarely found outside of homebrewing, and this recipe is a
good one for the style. In 2000 CARBOY brewed a commercial sized batch
of CAP for NHD. The details on that can be
found here NHD2000.
Utah Series of Beers
Mockel
- a Munich Dukel grist using PacMan slurry.
Mocktoberfest - an Octoberfest grist using PacMan slurry. coming soon
Beer Judge Exam Study Aids - BeerStud
In our area we have a YahooGroups site
that has many good links and lots of files that help brewers prepare
for the BJCP exam. (Current BJCP Exam Schedule) If
you are interested you would need to join the group.
It is called BeerStud and to be included, you would need to
send an e-mail to BeerStud
to join, and give your name and city/state in the body of the e-mail.
Once signed up, you can change the format, to read on the web, digest,
etc. If you are not going to take
the exam when given in our area, please change your format to digest.
Please be sure to spend some time in the files area once you become a
member.
BJCP Exams
If I graded your BJCP exam, drop me an email and let me know . Also, keep me posted as to how you progress within the BJCP. Give me some information on when you took the exam and I can perhaps tell you why it was graded as it was.
A
Raleigh, NC BJCP Exam is planned for February
Upcoming North Carolina and South Carolina Competitions
I’ll either be judging or entering the competitions listed below.
If I ever judge your beer at any competition, please send me an email and tell me what you thought of your score sheet. It will assist me in my judging.
BBG
Skirmish In the Triad - November 1, 2008
PSB Brewer's
Open - December 6, 2008
Southern Brew News
If you have any news to report with regard to NC and SC breweries, brewpubs, or beer releases drop me an email and let me know.
This page will certainly change and be updated. If you have any comments, feel free to send
them to me at my email address.
Thanks for dropping by, and Cheers!
Mike Dixon