Shout out to Nicole Chowles for the link - definitely check out her site if you are ever stuck for a gift!!! Originally this discussion came up over Black IPA and Pulled Pork Sannies ironically. That place definitely owns most of my finances...
I like to think of myself as someone that tries to keep up with things - news, events and more importantly, South African budget speeches. OK, maybe I made that last bit up, everyone knows that our budget is usually reserved for the butt of a Trevor Noah joke, but either way it is important for you to see how it all works. If you are like me and like to understand the things around you, you should definitely check out this video where managing a country's finances are compared to the beer brewing process. This video originally appeared on Paula Chowles' site. Muchos respectos for helping us all understand this in a very unique way...and in a language I can understand!!! Cheers!!!
Shout out to Nicole Chowles for the link - definitely check out her site if you are ever stuck for a gift!!! Originally this discussion came up over Black IPA and Pulled Pork Sannies ironically. That place definitely owns most of my finances...
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We have all been down this road. One that leaves you waking up with a mouth lined with sandpaper, a room that is still slightly spinning and plenty of quick prayers to help you get through the day. The old adage to have some "hair of the dog" jumps around in the back of your mind in your dad's wise old voice, but it brings along a sudden surge of very real nausea as you think about having another sip of booze. You shoot off another quick prayer or two hoping to delay the inevitable headache and utter words like "I am never drinking again" in a blind panic...This is the feeling of the hangover also know as severe dehydration. Turns out the phrase is the shortened version of "hair of the dog that bit you" and it was in reference to treating a wound after being bitten by a dodgy dog. The story goes that one is to steal some of the hair from its tail and apply it to the wound to heal it faster, prevent you from also getting rabies and to "keep away evil spirits". In alcohol related terms, this translates to the idea that if you had one too many the night before, you can "cure" yourself by having another one the next morning to help the wounds heal faster and drive away that bad juju... MYTH DEBUNKED!!! Not only will having another pint of booze not help you in any way, shape or form, but it will actually just make things worse. "Bad idea," Dr. Hall-Flavin from MensHealth.com states flatly. "It will provide a numbing effect, but all you're doing is prolonging the inevitable, and it will likely make your headache worse." The crew over at alcoholrehab.com further state that: "While drinking alcohol after a heavy night of drinking may lessen the effects of a hangover it is not something that is recommended. Any reprieve from these symptoms will only be temporary and there are real dangers to drinking off a hangover including: Drinking alcohol in the morning is a common symptom of alcoholism." In my mind it would make sense: because you are having some more of the substance that caused you to feel so bad in the first place, you are only aiding to further dehydrate your body and therefore mostly only delaying the symptoms from showing up. There are some articles that suggest more alcohol the following morning is a good idea, stating that adding more alcohol allows the liver to focus on the new alcohol and "forget about the bit from the previous night". Again, this will make you feel mildly better, but only until the "newly introduced" alcohol starts getting digested by the liver so just repeating the cycle as I have suggested. I have written a (hangover-plagued) post on this before detailing the only scientifically proven thing that can be done to soothe a hangover and I must admit I have used it several times since to some great effect. Obviously, you will still experience some symptoms depending on how much you consumed, but surely the after-effects can be reduced compared to what they could have been. Especially if you do the Vitamin supplement/water combination before retiring for the evening..HowStuffWorks also list a couple more hangover remedy myths on their site. Maybe reconsider cracking that Label for breakfast the next morning, what you really need is available freely from any kitchen tap...unless you have mates like these!!! Critters. Organisms. Beer-slaves. Whatever you prefer to call them, yeast is at the end of the day one of the more important ingredients in your beer. It can impart a specific tinge of flavour, provide you with your alcohol and ultimately even clean up after itself. Yeast is actually a live little organism that lives inside your sugary-wort, eating, reproducing and burping up all sorts of things. I do not want to make this sound gross, but in a nutshell it is what it is. However, the end result can be really good or really bad depending on how you treat them. If anything, remember this: take care of your yeasties and they will take care of you. Pretty cool if you think about it. So far, every time I have purchased yeast it was the dry, vac-pack style in the little sachet. This works perfectly well and can be found in basically any variety to help you brew whatever style you prefer. In my opinion, dry yeast is probably the best option for beginners (and even the more advanced among us) as it is very easy to use. You can basically just snip the top off the pack and drop it straight into your fermenter - no real need for making a starter or re-hydrating (although this does not mean that you should not). It is also much easier to store and it will last much longer than the liquid variety if it remains sealed in the package. Finally, and most importantly, it is definitely much easier to come by and much cheaper than their liquid cousins. Recently, I have been doing some mild research and experimentation of my own with yeast. Pitching it, reusing it and storing it for future use. What are the rules? What are the best practices? The idea of reusing yeast is certainly not a new concept, I suspect that most of the beers you consume from breweries are using the same or a familial derivative of a yeast strain that was used with a previous batch. Re-using yeast helps to ensure that the beer keeps a similar profile. But is there a limit to the amount of times you can use yeast? There appear to be a couple of methods to go about harvesting, "washing" and "storing" used yeast. There are also one or two bits and bobs required for this (from billybrew.com):
Briefly, the steps to harvest some yeast would go something like this (paraphrased/adapted from the steps available on beersmith.com):
Some things to consider with this process: Always ensure everything is sanitised - even the top rim of the primary fermenter you are pouring the slurry from. Obviously re-using yeast provides another risky situation where you can transfer or introduce other nasties, so always be careful to keep everything that it will touch super clean and sanitised. The standard iodophor seems to do the trick for me every time. Harvest your yeast from a primary fermenter. It is best to obtain your yeast from your primary fermenter (although it is not unheard of to obtain from secondary) as this will ensure you get the most active, flocculent and healthiest of the lot. Harvest immediately after you syphoned off your beer. The faster you get the yeast out of there and clean it up, the lower your risk of getting it infected - kind of makes sense. Try to use the yeast for a similar style. Needless to say you cannot use your US-05 to suddenly brew a Saison or an English Ale - US-05 is still a standard American Ale yeast, and will always be! Best to re-use yeast from lower gravity beers on higher gravity beers. Example, you can start off by brewing a simple Pale Ale, next you can use that same yeast to make a slightly stronger IPA and ultimately you can use that same yeast to make that IIPA you have always dreamed of! This way the yeast will be really "hungry" by the time it gets to the IIPA as the previous beers basically serve as starters. Try to not re-use yeast more than 5 times. To keep the risk of infection to a minimum, it is advisable to only re-use yeast 3-5 times - unless of course you are a pro and have specific equipment and a team dedicated to taking care of and developing your special strains. For most home brewers, I will safely assume this is not the case...Remember, every time you wash and re-use you expose yourself to some risk so probably best to quit while you're ahead. I remember once quite early in my brewing days when I tried to rehydrate a packet of dry yeast with boiling water before adding it to my fermenter...what a waste. At this point I was also not aware that you could re-pitch new yeast so I ended up discarding 20 litres of hopeful Amber Ale. I know, right... I should have been hung with my own syphon tube and beaten with the bottle brush, but you live and you learn. The more I brew, the more I experiment and the more "risks" I tend to take. I guess this is part of the process and eventually teaches you one or two things along the way. Do you have any experience with re-using yeast? Any good/bad stories? Any ideas you could share with the rest of us? Do tell!!! Drop some comments or shoot me an email and I will update the post accordingly.
On the 17th of Oct, the DPBC Taproom played host to the first ever Beer Club meeting - the idea being to bring like-minded individuals together in the name of beer. The "Club" is all about visiting local breweries in Cape Town and surrounds, sampling what is on offer and having a chance to engage with brewers and industry professionals. The meetings also provide the opportunity for home brewers to bring along a couple of bottles to share and get some feedback from all in attendance. I must admit I was rather impressed with the setup and the talk from JC, the head brewer at Devils Peak Brewing Company. Even in just discussing the history of DPBC and the kind of beers they brew, one can see some serious passion and a wealth of knowledge. With DPBC beers being my favourite on the market (Black IPA all the way!!!), this was definitely right up my alley...especially when JC shared some tips on producing a solid IPA coming off their latest victory of being voted best beer in South Africa. On offer during the tasting evening were all the beers from their founder series - Golden Light, Silvertree, Woodhead and of course the King's Blockhouse. JC also delved into two of their lower alcohol beers from the "Explorer Series" in the form of the American Pale Ale and English ale. To end of the evening, we were lucky enough to share the final two bottles of the Vin de Saison - their lauded beer-wine hybrid. If you are at all interested to attend the next meeting (which I believe might be at Triggerfish), please give Wayne or Matthew a shout. Don't forget to follow The Beer Club on Twitter so you can watch it all unfold over the next year as they promise big things for the craft beer scene!
Hope to see you at the next one! |
About me
Recently enlightened by the exciting world of craft beer I have been falling in love with new flavors, colors and smells. I do not consider myself a professional brewer (yet), but I am an enthusiast and passionate about beer and that is all that matters... Archives
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