Organic Homebrewing

usda_organicA lot of homebrewers brew their own beer because they enjoy making things themselves from scratch and the local freshness of it.  But one thing I know a lot of brewers would like to do is to brew organic beer, but it can often be quite a hurdle to understand exactly what this means.  Luckily, I was able to get in touch with a Charlotte area homebrewer, Matt Coffey, who has offered to give us the run-down!

Matt has been homebrewing since 2007 and has won several ribbons in local NC homebrewing competitions. He is one of the founding members of the Cabarrus Homebrewers Society based in Concord, NC. Matt also writes a blog dedicated to brewing and fermentation entitled Traditional Brewing: Reinvented.
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Categories: All-Grain Brewing, Brewing Techniques, Extract Brewing, Theory | Tags: , , , | 1 Comment

BrewDurham 2012 Recap

If you were not out at the Scrap Exchange in Durham on Saturday afternoon or evening, then you missed out!  A big thanks goes out to Keil Jansen and the folks at the Scrap Exchange for putting on a great festival for the second year in a row.

There was a sold out crowd of 300 festival goers split between the two sessions, added to 25 or so brewers with over 75 gallons of beer, and it made for a great day.  Not to mention the awesome live music and the two food trucks (Pie Pushers and Chirba Chirba Dumplings).

brew durham festival crowd Read more »

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Following My Dream!

Today, I want to let everyone know how extremely fortunate I am.  Not only have I had the opportunity to brew thousands of gallons of beer, five to ten gallons at a time, learning the art and science of a wonderful craft over the past several years, but I have been given the opportunity to take this passion for creating quality beer and turn it into something more.

That’s right, with the help of a few great partners and investors (@Stuart_Arnold, @MrMoBeer, @1FatFinger) who believe in what we are doing, we will be opening Fortnight Brewing Company in late 2012. (Sorry, not much on the website yet, but we are on Facebook and Twitter)

Fortnight Brewing Co. logo Read more »

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Keep it simple, stupid

keep_it_simple“Keep it simple, stupid” or K.I.S.S. is a saying that gets thrown around a lot when you come across things that should be nice and straight-forward, but people want to make more complicated.  Home brewing is easily one of those things.  My last few posts have been about HERMS and RIMS brewing, growing your own hops, etc. and I’ve realized that we all need a reminder to get back to the basics every once in a while.

That’s why, this week, we’re featuring a guest blogger who is new to the area and new to home brewing, but brings an old message – keep it simple.  It’s easy to get overwhelmed when you’re first starting out, so check out the post below from Tim Campbell (@VncentLIFE) on how to keep focused on the basics when you first start brewing.
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Categories: Extract Brewing | Tags: , , | 1 Comment

Building a HERMS Brewery: Part II

A couple of weeks ago, I posted about my plans for building a HERMS home brewery.  I wanted to post a follow-up with some updated photos and a little video since I have changed it up slightly.

Below is the finalized wiring diagram.  Since the control panel is mounted on top of a shelf, I didn’t want any wires coming out of the bottom, so the power in comes from the spa panel to the right, and the power goes out to the kettle to the left, as does the temperature probe wire.

HERMS wiring diagram Read more »

Categories: All-Grain Brewing, DIY Showcase, Projects | Tags: , , , , , | 2 Comments

BrewDurham Homebrew Festival 2012

brew durham 2012After an incredibly successful event last fall, BrewDurham is coming back for round 2!  If you missed the event last year – you’re in luck, because this year is going to be bigger and better (if that’s even possible)!

When: March 31st (Session 1: 1pm – 4pm; Session 2: 5pm – 8pm)
Where: The Scrap Exchange, 923 Franklin Street, Durham
Cost: $30 per ticket ($5 for non-drinking tickets)

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Building a HERMS system

Herms coil outputThere have been several posts over the past few months about mash tuns and controlling your mash temperature using a HERMS or RIMS set-up.  Controlling your mash temperature via a recirculating system can greatly help with consistency, especially when it comes to hitting and holding your mash temperature.

I have decided to take my own advice and take my personal brewing to the next level, making beers more easily replicable while simultaneously making my brew day a little less stressful by upgrading to a HERMS brewery!

The first step was to convert my 3-tier gravity system to a 2-tier system utilizing a single March pump and a plate chiller.  These two upgrades would allow me to move wort faster and not have to reach to the top of the 3rd tier to fill my HLT with water, which was sketchy at best.  It also would allow for quicker and more precise cooling instead of using an immersion chiller in a 10-gallon batch. Read more »

Categories: All-Grain Brewing, DIY Showcase, Projects | Tags: , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Swap time!

Over the past few months, several people have said that we should organize a big homebrew swap so that all of the homebrewers in NC can get together, meet each other, and try some great beer.  Well, the wheels have been turning and we have teamed up with the Craft Beer Collective to host a HUGE swap event!

Beer and glass swap Read more »

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Easy Upgrade Series: Fermentation Chamber

Last week we took a look at an easy upgrade to the “hot side” of brewing (converting a keg into a keggle), so this week, I wanted to conquer the “cool side.”  One of the biggest struggles homebrewers face is controlling their fermentation temperature.  Sure, it may be a perfect 68-degrees in your house, and ale yeast typically does great at 68 degrees, however, when those yeasties start going, they’re not just producing alcohol and CO2, they’re also creating a lot of heat.  So your fermentation temperature could roar up into the mid-70s!

Unlike professional breweries, the homebrewer doesn’t usually have a glycol system that wraps his fermentor in coolant.  Instead, we need to be a little creative.  There are a few ways to maintain proper fermentation temperature, even in the hot summer months.  Some require a little more monitoring while others can be more automatic but may be more expensive.
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Categories: Projects, Yeast & Fermentation | Tags: , , | 6 Comments

Easy Upgrade Series: Building a Keggle

Recently, I have begun posting some more advanced brewing articles, but I don’t want to alienate any beginning brewers, so we’re going to start an “easy upgrade” series on some affordable, simple upgrades you can make to your own system that will hopefully lead to better beer.

We’ll start with a popular upgrade.  Whether you’re doing extract batches or all-grain, five gallons or 10, it is always good to have the ability to boil the full volume in your kettle.  This is preferred to having to boil a smaller portion and add water after the boil. A simple way to do this is to convert a stainless steel 1/2 barrel (15.5 gallon) sanke beer keg into a brew kettle.

3 keggles Read more »

Categories: All-Grain Brewing, Equipment, Projects | Tags: , , | 7 Comments