West Coast Brewer Home Brewing Blog
A HERMS or heat exchanged recirculating mash system is a mash recirculation system that regulates mash temperature by pumping the wort from the mash tun through a heat exchanging tube, coil inside of the hot liquor tank, or a secondary heating tank. The wort then flows back into the mash tun to maintain the mash temp without applying direct heat to the mash tun.
IBU or international bittering units is a measurement showing the actual, not perceived, bitterness that the alpha acids from hops have imparted on a beer. The strength, sweetness and maltiness of a beer impacts the way our taste buds perceive the alpha acid bitterness in the beer. Typically the stronger or maltier a beer tastes, the less we perceive the bitterness, so a brewer must balance the beer with additional hops or a longer boil time to compensate.
Below is a listing of common IBU levels that you can expect from different beer styles. The international bittering units are important when designing a beer as you want to make sure you do not add too many or too few international bittering units and create a beer that is not consistent with the style you are attempting to brew. Knowing the typical IBU of a style of beer may also be helpful when ordering a beer so that you can select a beer with a bitterness level that you find most enjoyable.
IBU by Beer Style – International Bittering Units
A hopback or hop back is a small hop-filled vessel, typically made of copper or stainless steel, that is placed between the brew kettle and wort chiller, or brew kettle and fermentation chamber. It is highly recommended that you place the hopback between the brew kettle and chiller if an external chiller is being used.
If the beer is chilled, then the wort flowing over the hops will be far less effective at extracting the resins and oils from the hops. If the temperature of the wort is under 170° F, the alpha acids will not isomerize, and no bitterness will be imparted on the wort. The aromas extracted from the hops will be diminished as well.
Whole hops are typically recommended or required for using most hopbacks, as pellet hops are more prone to clogging, and a good deal of the particulates from pellet hops will end up in your fermentation vessel. In addition to adding hop flavor and aroma to your wort, a hopback is also a valuable tool to filter the hot break and or cold break from your brew kettle to your fermenter. As the wort passes through the hopback, the hops will work as an organic screen, capturing many of the larger protein and particulate masses that enter it.
Below is the Blichmann Hop Rocket that I use when a hopback is needed for one of my beers.
Home brewing hopback/hop back, Blichmann hop rocket
Maltodextrins are a group of mostly unfermentable carbohydrates produced by the partial hydrolysis of starch or glycogen. Maltodextrins typically impart little or no flavor upon the finished beer, but are important because they can be a valuable method for adding gravity and perceived body and mouthfeel to a beer.
This can be extremely helpful when you are brewing a heavy adjunct beer, such as a gluten free ale, that might have a thin or diminished body. Maltodextrin is often made from corn, and a typical composition will be .5% dextrose, 2.5% maltose, 3.5% maltotriose, 93.5% higher saccharides. You will want to consult your vendor for actual numbers.
Cellulose is the most abundant organic polymer on earth, and the primary content in a beer’s trub. Cellulose is unfermentable, tasteless, and odorless. It is a solid, and much of it will drop out of the beer during primary fermentation, where it sinks to the bottom of the fermenter and helps to form the trub bed. The primary contributors to a beer’s cellulose content are fibrous materials like grain husk and hop leaf.
Calcium sulfate or CaSO4 is also known as gypsum. It can be used to boost sulfate or add permanent hardness to a mash. You will want to verify with your vendor, but one gram per gallon typically adds 62 ppm calcium,147 ppm sulfate, and 153.5 ppm to the permanent hardness.
Calcium Sulfate
Calcium carbonate or CaCO3 is precipitated chalk. It is typically used in brewing as a water adjustment to increases the pH of a mash. You will want to verify with your vendor, but 1 gram per gallon usually adds 106 ppm calcium and 158 ppm carbonate.
Calcium Carbonate \ Chalk
Cold crashing or cold filtering is a common method used to clarify beer. When a beer is cold crashed, it is chilled down to approximately 35 F and left for several days to several weeks. During that time, yeast and other solids tend to clump together and fall to the bottom of the fermenter or holding tank. The clarified beer is then racked above the layer of sediment and potentially ran through a filter if additional clarification is desired. Cold crashing or filtering is not appropriate for some beer such as a hefeweizen or certain Belgian ales where a yeasty flavor or hazy beer is desired.
Carbonation or carbonating is the process of dissolving carbon dioxide in beer. There are different methods of carbonating beer, but the end effect is basically the same from a CO2 standpoint. Carbon dioxide is built up under pressure, which carbonates the beer; when the pressure is reduced, the carbon dioxide is released as bubbles into the beer. Carbonation helps form the head of the beer and makes the beer effervescent. Carbonation has a significant impact on many aspects of a beer, from the body and mouthfeel to the aroma delivery and appearance.
Some of the different methods of carbonating beer include:
Krausening, which is the process of adding a small amount of young fermenting beer (about 10-20%) to a finished beer in order to carbonate it. You then seal the beer to allow the pressure to build and carbonate the beer. Krausening is typically a little less predictable then other forms of carbonation since it is more difficult to control the exact amount of carbonation that will occur. One of the benefits is that there is typically minimal impact to the flavor profile of the beer.
Force carbonating a beer is done by placing (preferably chilled) beer into a sealed vessel that is connected to a pressurize CO2 tank. You pressurize the sealed vessel via the CO2 tank, and the CO2 is rapidly absorbed into the beer. The benefits of forced carbonation are that it is quick, and, since you are not fermenting in the bottle to build the CO2, the beer is typically cleaner with far less bottle sediment and fewer flavors imparted by the yeast, if that is desired.
Another method is by starting to carbonate your beer towards the tail end of your fermentation. To do this, you can remove your air lock and seal the fermenter; this will pressurize it and allow it to carbonate naturally.
Lastly, you can bottle condition and carbonate your beer by priming it at the time of bottling with a specific amount of sugar. You should use approximately .5 teaspoons (½ tsp) of priming sugar per 12oz bottle. Typically you will want to prime your beer with corn sugar (dextrose). It is critical that your beer has completed its fermentation prior to priming and bottling, as residual fermentable sugars from the primary fermentation can create excessive pressure in the bottles and cause them to explode. It is also critical that the yeast is still viable, so that the priming sugar is converted to CO2 in the bottle, and you do not end up with a flat\sweet beer.
Autolysis is the destruction of a cell by the actions of its own enzymes. In brewing, autolysis typically occurs when yeast cells either decay over time or destroy each other. When the outer wall of the yeast cell is degraded and can no longer contain itself, it releases off flavors and odors into the beer. These odors are typically described as rubbery in aroma.
Autolysis is most common in aged beers, but can also occur in a fresh beer due to a variety of factors including unhealthy\aged yeast, stress caused by too rapid of a fermentation, excessive temperature changes and high alcohol levels. One of the best ways to reduce the impact of autolysis is to conduct a secondary fermentation as a means of removing the beer from the yeast cake. Other ways of reducing the impact of autolysis is proper aeration of the wort prior to fermentation, avoiding oxidization, keeping a consistent and appropriate fermentation temperature, and properly regulating the temperature of your finished beer.
A beer or brewing adjunct is any unmalted grain or other fermentable ingredient used in the brewing process.
Brewing adjuncts are often used with the intention of lowering overall brewing production costs or modifying aspects of the beer such as creating better head retention or enhancing the flavor of the beer.
Some common brewing adjuncts include rice, corn, sorghum, rye, oats, honey, fruits, and candi sugars.
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