Force Carbonation

When you first start kegging your beer the one thing you need to decide is what method you are going to use to force carbonate your beer. Below I have set out the steps for force carbonating your beer using two different techniques. The first few steps are the same regardless of the method you are going to follow, then the techniques diverge, I will lay out the steps to follow for each technique and then I will give the reasons I follow one of the techniques.

My set up, a 6kg Co2 tank sits outside
the fridge and a gas line is fitted through
a hole drilled in the kegerator door.

Step 1 - Transfer your beer to the keg, connect the Co2, turn on,  and purge the keg with a few lifts of the pressure release valve. Doing this will help seal the lid properly and also expel any oxygen present in the deadspace at the top of your keg.
Step 2 - Turn off the gas and let your keg refrigerate for 24-48 hours. This will allow the temperature of the beer to drop which will result in easier absorption of the Co2 once you start to force carbonate.

Method 1: Rock and Roll
Step 3 - Turn the gas on and raise to a PSI of about 45, you will now hear the Co2 entering the keg, now gently place the keg across your knee making sure the 'gas in' post is at the top of the keg*. Now gently rock the keg back and forth across your knee for about one minute. As you do this you will hear the Co2 entering the keg constantly. It is now being absorbed into the liquid and the tank is refilling the dead space with more Co2.
Step 4 - After a minute turn off the gas at the regulator and continue to rock the keg back and forth. The gauge on your regulator should now start to drop. You are looking for it to stop at between 20-23 PSI, if it falls below this it is under gassed and you may need to repeat steps 3 and 4. If it finishes above this the beer may be over gassed and so you will need to vent the excess gas.
Step 5 - Leave the keg to sit for one hour and then turn the gas back on to 15 PSI. Your beer should now be carbonated to the right level.

*this is done to try and alleviate the risk of liquid entering the gas line, if liquid gets sucked up the gas line to your regulator it will ruin it.

Method 2: Set and Leave
Step 3 - Turn the regulator to the desired PSI based on the table below. In order to determine the liquid temperature of your beer, place a spirit thermometer in a glass of water in your kegerator while the beer is left to cool for 24-48 hours, this should give you an accurate enough reading for the liquid temperature inside your kegerator.

					PSI
Temp	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17
7	2	2.1	2.2	2.3	2.4	2.5	2.6	2.7	2.8
8	1.9	2	2.1	2.2	2.3	2.4	2.5	2.6	2.7
9	1.85	1.9	2	2.1	2.2	2.3	2.4	2.5	2.6
10	1.8	1.8	1.9	2	2.1	2.2	2.3	2.4	2.5

Temperature is listed down the left hand side and PSI across the top, so for example if the liquid temperature is 8c and you are looking for a carbonation level of 2.1**, then you need to set your regulator to 11.

Step 4 - Be patient, following this method your beer should be carbonated to the desired level in 4 days, however if you can leave it for a week then all the better.

** The level of carbonation you aim for really depends on the style of beer you are brewing and also your personal preferences, here is a rough guide of what you should be aiming for with the most typical styles:

My current APA carbonating
at a PSI of 10.

British Style Ales: 1.5 - 2
Stouts/Porters: 1.7-2.3
American Ales/Lagers: 2.2 - 2.7
German Wheat Beers: 3.3 - 4.5

My Technique
Personally I use the set and leave method. I find this to be very consistent, and extremely straight forward. You determine the PSI based on the table above, set your regulator and then leave it alone. Moreover when you come to serving your beer you can leave the regulator as is and leave your gas turned on all the time (although do make sure you have no leaks). Due to the fact that equilibrium will have been achieved between the keg and Co2 tank the only gas that will be used is as you dispense the beer and so it is an easy, no hassle way of carbonating and dispensing your beer.

Metalman Pale Ale

I posted a few months ago with regard to the imminent launch of Metalman Brewing's first beer, a pale ale. I know the co-founders through Beoir and so I was really excited to sample their first professional brew (although I had tasted a number of their pilot home brew batches). Through one thing and another I never made it to their launch night and so it was only last Saturday in L Mulligan Grocers in Dublin that I got the opportunity to try Metalman Pale Ale for the first time.

I have to say that I really enjoyed this beer. It is great to see an Irish brewery brewing American style beers and doing it so well. Metalman Pale Ale has lovely citrus and floral notes in the aroma, this is followed by a nice body and finishes with a nice stiff level of bitterness. It is very refreshing and I can see it making a great summer session beer.

The great news is that Metalman are set to launch their second beer this weekend, a seasonal special, Windjammer. I have not tried this beer yet and so i'll give you the description from Metalman themselves:

American style amber, but hopped exclusively with New Zealand hops. An antipodean extravaganza, with Southern Cross and Pacifica for bittering and flavouring, with Nelson Sauvin included in the late additions. 

Sounds great and I have been told that Windjammer should be available in the Bull & Castle in Dublin from next week.

I have to say I really like the direction that Metalman is taking, I think they have hit the mark in relation to their branding and their product range to date and hopefully in the not too distant future we may see Metalman bottling some of their range. You can find out where you can try Metalman beers through the 'Find a Stockist' section of their website.

To Dry Hop or Not

Dry hopping in brewing is the technique of introducing hops to the beer later in the process than is usual. Typically hops are introduced to the beer during the boil, during the boil early hops impart bitterness, those added in the middle to late boil impart flavour and hops added late or at flame-out impart aroma. The aroma and flavour of hops can be quite delicate and dry hopping is used to boost the hop flavour and aroma of a beer. Typically dry hopping can occur in two ways. The most usual way is to dry hop the beer in secondary after the vigorous primary fermentation has completed, the second way is to dry hop beer while it is in its serving keg. The latter is something that I have done with some success in the past by adding a bag of hops to a keg and leaving the hops in the keg during dispensing.

With my latest beer I wanted to do a comparison between a beer that was dry hopped and one that was not. So yesterday I bottled eight beers from my Lady Liberty Pale Ale (straight from Primary) and then transferred the remaining 19 litres to a carboy and dry hopped this with 25g of cascade hops. The carboy will be left for a week before being transferred to a keg and carbonated. I then should be able to do a taste test between the bottled beer and the dry hopped keg beer.

I will report back with my findings in 2-3 weeks.

Where does the future of craft beer lie?

The recent announcement that Goose Island was to be bought by AB InBev has got me thinking about the future of craft beer and what the future may hold for the fledgling Irish craft beer scene.

I am a big fan of Goose Island's IPA as well as their Honkers Ale and so I greeted this news with mixed feelings. On the one hand I lamented the fact that a great craft brewery had succumbed to the corporate greed of the brewing behemoth, however in retrospect I think that this augers well for Goose Island. For me personally it should certainly mean greater access to their beers as they make use of the global distribution network of AB InBev. Also if reports are to be believed, it appears that Goose Island will still operate as is, with very little input from AB InBev in relation to brewing operations, marketing and product development. This should allow the brewery to grow and prosper, opening up their quality product to a wider market. From an AB InBev point of view it would seem that this deal has lots of positives. They are buying a proven and quality brand. They are tapping into a market, that while currently small, is growing year on year. Lastly they are expanding their product range, so that when you or I walk into a bar or off-licence, they will probably have a product that meets our needs regardless of our taste in beer.

But how will all of this play out in our little craft brewing backwater of Ireland. I think this deal will have one major long term effect, and that will be to open up the market for Irish craft brewers to prosper. If AB InBev put a small fraction of the capital they put into promoting their mainstream brands into promoting Goose Island then it is safe to say that in the medium to long term we will all be drinking more Goose Island. We taste Goose Island, we like it, our interest expands, we try other beers we may not have heard of etc etc etc.

I cannot envisage a day when Trouble Brewing, Metalman, Dungarvan Brewing or any of our other indigenous craft breweries would catch the eye of a Diageo or AB Inbev, but you never know what the next 10 or 20 years will hold for these fledgling enterprises. Hopefully as they begin their journey it will help their product reach a wider market and lead to more choice for beer lovers.

AG #8 - Lady Liberty Ale - Fermentation update

Ordinarily when I brew a beer I will leave it happily fermenting away for at least a week before I concern myself with how things are progressing. On this occasion two things have led me to take a look earlier than normal. Firstly the yeast I used was a liquid yeast and normally it is not advised to use a liquid yeast if it is more than 6 months from its manufacture date. My yeast was seven months from its date of manufacture, due to this I was expecting to have to either pitch a packet of dry yeast on top of the liquid yeast, or be very patient and wait for fermentation to build very slowly.

The second reason I was interested in finding out where things were at with this beer was that, considering point one above, I was surprised to watch fermentation take off like a rocket. Within six hours of pitching the yeast I had airlock activity and by 18 hours the airlock was bubbling a couple of times a second, which is probably the most aggressive fermentation I have seen for a while.

The result of this, after 4 days fermentation, 1016. Target for this beer is 1012 and I would expect it to achieve that over the next week or so. The plan is to leave this beer in primary for another 7-10 days, I will then transfer to secondary and dry hop with some cascade.

Oh, it tastes pretty good as well.

AG #8 - Lady Liberty Ale - Recipe

For one reason or another it has been a long time since I had a brewday (kids, new job, weather etc, etc). But finally I have a day set aside this week to get back in the brewing way. I really enjoyed my last brew but found that it was a little too strong to have as a session beer and so I decided that this time around I would revisit one of my favourite sessionable styles, American pale ale. I have not yet made a brew using amber malt and so I decided to brew this beer, which is a recipe from Palmers How To Brew. Apart from the amber malt this is not a great departure from my previous pale ales, and once again relies heavily on two of my favourite hops, Amarillo and Cascade.

The only thing that will stop me from brewing this week will be torrential rain or an unseasonal snow shower, here's hoping we don't get either!


Lady Liberty Ale

10-A American Pale Ale
Author: Mark (from John Palmer's, How to Brew)



Lady Liberty Ale
10-A American Pale Ale
Author: Mark

Size: 25.04 L
Efficiency: 72.93%
Attenuation: 75.0%
Calories: 159.41 kcal per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.048 (1.045 - 1.060)
Terminal Gravity: 1.012 (1.010 - 1.015)
Color: 23.63 (9.85 - 27.58)
Alcohol: 4.71% (4.5% - 6.2%)
Bitterness: 41.0 (30.0 - 45.0)

Ingredients:
4565.0 g Maris Otter
300.0 g Amber Malt
310.0 g Crystal 60
21.0 g Northern Brewer (10.5%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min
20.0 g Cascade (5.5%) - added during boil, boiled 30 min
21.0 g Cascade (5.5%) - added during boil, boiled 15 min
16.0 g Amarillo (9.5%) - added during boil, boiled 1.0 min
1.0 tsp Irish Moss - added during boil, boiled 15.0 min
22.0 g Cascade (5.5%) - added dry to secondary fermenter
1.0 ea WYeast 1056 American Ale
200.0 g Dry Light Extract

Maximator!

The first thing about this beer is the name, Maximator, the name alone promises so much. Maximator is a StarkBier brewed by Augustiner Braun Munchen. Stark bier in Germany literally means a strong beer, Maximator certainly falls into this category, weighing in at a hefty 7.5%.

The beer pours a nice rust colour with a thick billowy loose head. The aroma is beautiful, it is sweet with nice caramel hints, little hop aroma is present. The beer is surprisingly under carbonated which is unusual for a German beer, the mouthfeel is relatively smooth and creamy. As this beer warms up you really get lovely complexity in the flavour. The caramel is still very much to the fore, but you also get traces of dried fruits and a slight burnt toffee flavour. It is quite boozy on the end and the finish is sticky and sweet with that lingering alcohol warmth.

Overall this is a very nice beer, strong, and due to the 500ml bottle is one to savour slowly. Definitely worth picking up a few bottles.

Trouble Brewing - Dark Arts

Trouble Brewing launched in Ireland last year with their first offering, Oir, they have now doubled their product line by brewing a Porter, Dark Arts.


A very quick review from a recent pint I had in the Bull & Castle in Dublin. Chocolate sweet aroma. Thin but consistent tan head. Medium to full bodied with a very smooth and clean mouthfeel. Not a big hop presence, this beer is really all about the malt bill, which a porter should be. Needs to warm up a bit for you to get the full effect. I can see this being a really good session beer, a bit too easy to drink!

Exciting Times Ahead

The growth of the the craft brewing scene in Ireland has gained great momentum over the last few years. The launch of Trouble Brewing last year, and the recent launch of their second beer, Dark Arts, has shown that like minded people with a passion about good beer can overcome the bureaucracy inherent in the Irish system to launch a brewery to better serve a growing craft beer consuming demographic in Ireland.

Next week this momentum will be maintained by the official launch of Metalman Brewing. Metalman Brewing is the culmination of many years of experimentation and hard work by Grainne and Tim, two fellow members of Beoir who have achieved what we home brewers all dream of, making the leap to commercial brewing. Metalman's first brew will be a pale ale that they will officially launch in the Bull & Castle in Dublin next week. I for one am looking forward to trying their first commercial brew, having had the pleasure of sampling many of the home brew versions of their pale ale, based on my experience of these, I have no doubt that Metalman Pale Ale will be a great success.

I look forward to reviewing Metalman Brewing Beers for a long time to come and will report back shortly on the first offering to hit the market.

Isolation Ale

Still slowly but surely making my way through my Christmas hamper of beer. Next on the list is a seasonal offering from Odell Brewing, Isolation Ale.

Described as a traditional winter ale, Isolation Ale pours a light Amber colour with a thin off white creamy head. Nice combination of malt and hops on the nose. The malt is to the fore with a nice hint of spicy and fruity hops. On the light side of medium bodied with a creamy mouthfeel. The taste is more hop forward than I would have expected from a winter beer, the hops are a nice balance of spicy and piney, with the merest hint of citrus. The finish has a very subtle bitterness.

Not what I would consider a traditional winter ale, for that I would have expected a very malty beer with a spicy hop profile, the malts in this beer are quite understated with the hops taking the driving seat. However as the beer warms up you get the malts more and more. Hints of chocolate and caramel raise their head and give this beer an altogether more wintry profile. Altogether this is a very nice beer and at 6.1% and not too heavy, I could see myself having a few of these. Definitely worth picking up a bottle or two.