What's on Tap - Just in time for SGF Craft Beer Week

Just in time for SGF Craft Beer Week, I've built a handy SGF Craft Beer Events Calendar called What's on Tap. You can check it out in the menu at the top of this screen.

What's on Tap! is a weekly feature on my radio show, Beer Buzz, and I've decided to make it easier to reference the information mentioned on the show by trying to compile it into a calendar for your easy consumption.

Enjoy the calendar, and if you have any events to add, please let me know.

Thanks,
Ben

Calculators! For BEER!

I like to play at programming.  I typically don’t do anything too complicated, but sometimes I do something useful.

I know there are a lot of homebrewing calculators out there, for mash temperatures, etc., but I thought I would sharpen by programming skills a little on something I love to do, so I made a few toys to play with.

First, I made a strike water and mash infusion calculator.  They are separate, of course, and they function on John Palmer’s math from How to Brew.  Then, I decided to make a BAC estimator (do not use to determine if you’re safe to drive.  Good rule of thumb – DON’T DRINK AND DRIVE).  It’s on the same page as the others because I was just throwing random calculators together that day.

Then, I got a bit more involved and decided to program a Draft Beer System evaluating tool.  There are two stages in this calculator.  The first is a pressure calculator for slow force carbonation (and maintaining the carbonation level).  The other is a beer line length calculator which tells you, at the temperature specified above and with that pressure, how much beer line you need to balance your system and prevent mass chaos when you pour. 

Give them a try and see if they work for you.  Please feel free to add feedback in the comments, as I’d like to tinker with them if there are any problems.  Then, bookmark the strike water and infusion calculator page so you can refer to it quickly when doing your mash math on the fly. 

Missouri Passes Homebrew Transportation Bill

Good news for home brewers in Missouri and Illinois.  Both state legislatures recently passed laws enabling home brewers to transport their wares, explicitly expanding the “personal or family use” clause beyond the interpretation as “consumption.”

Once they’re signed by the governors, which is expected to happen for both bills, home brewers will be able to share their beer with friends, family, and neighbors outside of their homes, enter homebrew competitions, bring their beer for feedback from homebrew clubs, and pour their beer at festivals.  That’s right.  POUR THEIR BEER AT FESTIVALS.  Nice.

There is no doubt that these bills are beneficial to the home brewing community, but I have two concerns about them. 

First, the argument could be made that transporting homebrew wasn’t actually illegal in either state before the law was passed.  These bills weren’t necessary until recently, when the state governments of Missouri and Illinois suddenly began interpreting the words “personal or family use” in a very strict sense, meaning “personal or family CONSUMPTION.”  This very limiting interpretation of the law was a twisting of the language of the law, which mimics federal law exactly.  The federal law has never been interpreted to limit transportation or use, so why should the state law do so?  These bills simply correct that interpretation.  Why our state government suddenly decided this was a problem I’ll never understand, but it is good that the legislatures took decisive action to fix this.  I’d hate to think that “Personal or family use” actually meant “consumption.”  That would mean it was technically illegal to bathe in your beer, water your garden with it, or to even wash your car with it (not recommended). 

Second, these bills deliberately limit their verbiage to beer brewers and do not include wine or meadmakers.  This is not an oversight.  It was done deliberately, as the folks creating the bill felt there was no reason to include them.  See my post on this law here.  Senate Bill 121 is actually very close to the Senate Bill 114 I wrote about in that post.  I’ve since changed my view on the law slightly, as I do believe it is a positive thing to explicitly state our rights without question, but I am still disappointed that they did nothing to offer the same liberties to wine and meadmakers.  They’re home brewers, too.

I’m glad to know that we, as the Homebrew ZOO, will be able to participate in festivals in the area to aid not-for-profits and share our beer with folks at beer festivals and at homebrew rallies.  It will do a lot to expand the interest in our hobby and hopefully bring a lot more people into our little world of geekdom.

To read the full press release, click here.

Beer Buzz Radio - Talking Sensory Evaluation with Ashton Lewis of Springfield Brewing Company

Thursday night's Beer Buzz Radio show was pretty fun. Brew Your Own magazine and Springfield Brewing Company's Ashton Lewis walked us through some ways to improve your ability to perceive and understand the flavors in beer. By the time we were done, the table looked pretty ridiculous.

Listen here:

Missouri Homebrew law may change, but is it for the better?

Not too long ago, I had Todd Frye from the Home Brewery on the show to discuss Home Brewing and homebrew law.  There are currently two bill circulating in the Missouri House of Representatives that look to expand the rights of homebrewers in regards to sharing their beer.  The laws were, at first, identical.  The Senate Bill has since been amended to expand away from the original message, but still includes the same protections for homebrewers as the other law.

Unfortunately, this protection seems to be limited to home brewers of beer.  Winemakers and meadmakers are not considered in the bill, and, in fact, seem to be deliberately excluded from the bill. 

To illustrate my point, let’s look at the proposed language of the bill.  In the first paragraph (which contains the original language used in the statute), the language used reflects “intoxicating liquor”.  Unfortunately, the second paragraph limits the new provisions strictly to “beer”. Here is the language as it is listed in the bill.  Please note that the emphasis is mine.

From paragraph one:

“The aggregate amount of intoxicating liquor manufactured per household shall not exceed two hundred gallons per calendar year if there are two or more persons over the age of twenty-one years in such household, or one hundred gallons per calendar year if there is only one person over the age of twenty-one years in such household.”

From paragraph two:

“Beer brewed under this section may be removed from the premises where brewed for personal or family use, including use at organized affairs, exhibitions, or competitions, such as home brewer contests, tastings, or judging.”

As a home brewer myself, I know many people who make their own mead and wine who will be excluded from this exemption.  It may be that this is simply an oversight.  Unfortunately, I do not believe it was an accident.  The limitation of the bill to be beer only appears to be a deliberate exclusion of any home brewer who also makes mead. 

Looking at the home brewing world from outside, it is easy to see the beer brewing competitions and craft beer festivals, and this exemption was intended as a reaction to one such event being disrupted last year in St. Louis.  Unfortunately, the liberties granted in this bill do not go far enough.

Appropriate events such as homebrew competitions would apply for meads and wines, as well.  Events such as the Mazer’s Cup and BJCP Certified Mead Making Competitions are popular with wine and mead makers throughout the country and the state.  In addition, not-for-profit events at which wine and mead tasting is allowed could be considered an applicable event, as well. 

Winemakers also have their own competitions.  One of the larger events is the competition organized by Winemaker Magazine, which is a publication for home winemakers.

The provision should allow for all intoxicating liquor covered under the personal production licensure.  There is no disputing that all sales should be prohibited to home brewers, but I also believe that this law, if not changed, will allow for the interpretation that “personal use” is equal to “personal consumption” and that all other uses are illegal for wine and mead makers, and that is unfairly and unnecessarily limiting their right to enjoy and share their passion with friends.

For that reason, please write to your representative and request that the first word of the second paragraph from “beer” to “intoxicating liquor.”  This will make the second paragraph read as such:

“Intoxicating liquor brewed under this section may be removed from the premises where brewed for personal or family use, including use at organized affairs, exhibitions, or competitions, such as home brewer contests, tastings, or judging. The use may occur off licensed retail premises, on any premises under a temporary retail license issued under sections 311.218, 311,482, 311.485, 311.486, or 311.487, or on any tax exempt organization's licensed premises as described in section 311.090.” 

Just a single change of phrase will guarantee the same liberties to all home brewers regardless of their product.

Beer Buzz Best In Beer Survey 2013

As most of you know, I am the host of a Craft Beer radio show in Springfield, Missouri called Beer Buzz.  As part of my duties as host, I sometimes post links or information about that show here on my personal brewing blog.  This is one of those posts.

We're trying to find out the best places to get beer in Springfield.  We know quite a few of them, but we want to know which spots are your favorite.

So, we keep this simple.  What is your favorite bar, restaurant, and package store for buying craft beer?  Answer below.

Time to grow your own hops!

It’s nearly spring, and the rhizome sales are popping up on every homebrew supply site on the web.  That means it’s time to think about planting your own hops.

If you’ve never done this and you’re a homebrewer or gardener, you should try it.  Buy a single hop plant and put it in the ground.  Or, better yet, talk to the guys in your homebrew club and ask anyone if they have any rhizomes they’d like to share for free.  Homebrewers who grow their own hops have to trim back the root ball periodically, and many of those homebrewers love to share the hop love.

If you’re not a brewer, you should still grow some and find a home brewer with which to trade.  Offer to trade your hops for some of their beer.  They won’t refuse. 

If you’re interested in growing your own, you might want to check out the Homebrewer’s Garden, or at least read this.

I started growing mine last year.  I have four Cascades and a Tettnanger in my back yard, and I managed to talk my mother in law into planting four Centennial and four Willamette plants at her house last year.  The first year production wasn’t pretty, but I attribute that more to the drought we had here than to anything else.

I bought my hops at Great Lakes Hops for a single reason: They sell whole hop crowns, not just little sticks to bury.  It gives you a head start and can give you a larger yield in the first year.  Of course, that didn’t matter last year because of the drought, but seemed like it was worth in my hop-eyed fantasy world where I would grow hundreds of pounds of hops to share with every homebrewer I’ve ever met.

Speaking of hop-eyed fantasies, I know a couple of guys who are working to make theirs a reality.  Two friends of mine are working on their first commercial hop-growing venture right here in the Ozarks.  I’ll not give too many details right now, as they’ll be coming on the show before long, but they will be planting a quarter acre of hops as a trial this year.  If things go well, you may be drinking their wares in a harvest ale brewed locally by this fall.  I’ll write some more about them later. 

Anyway, happy growing.  Let me know if you have a good year at it.  Maybe we’ll work out a trade.

Gluten-Free Beer Recipe for Big Brew Day

I posted recently about the AHA Big Brew Day.  Here's the recipe I came up with for the More Fun Blonde.  It's pretty simple, really.  I substituted the Breiss Sorghum syrup for the pale malt extract and I subbed in the T-58 Belgian yeast (dry) for the liquid yeast, which tends to have small amounts of gluten in it.  If you're not a celiac and not allergic, the yeast substitution may not be a big deal, but this yeast is gluten-free, so if you are a celiac, I'd stick with it.

On a similar note, you should also be very careful about your corn sugar.  Verify with your homebrew supplier that the corn sugar they use is gluten-free.  Some corn sugars are produced in plants that also produce wheat and barley products, and cross contamination can be dangerous for those with severe allergies.

If you're interested in seeing the other recipes converted to a gluten-free recipe, let me know.  I'll be happy to take a crack at it for you.  I'll not guarantee it will taste exactly the same as the non-gluten-free versions, but they will be good. I think this recipe for the blonde ale will be pretty close, though.  the spiciness of the sorghum will probably be hidden somewhat by the spiciness of the yeast, adding some great depth to the character of the beer.  Give it a try and let me know if you like it.

Big Brew Day, Gluten Free Brewing, and Free Food.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted to this blog.  Between my day job, the radio show, and the homebrew club, I’ve been pretty busy.  Plus, my garage is a wreck and I need to sort it out before I can really pick things back up from where I left off. 

So, I’ve decided to set a deadline to resume my brewing on Big Brew Day this year.  May the 4^th be with you.  Why Star Wars Day?  Because it’s also the American Homebrewers’ Association (AHA) Big Brew Day.  Big Brew Day will unite AHA members and the home brewing community in an effort to raise awareness and educate people about home brewing as a hobby.  Each year, the AHA releases recipes which everyone who participates will brew.  They then tally up the amount of brew and publish the total number of gallons of each beer produced.  It’s a fun way to show solidarity and to participate in a rally in your area.