Brewing Low Gluten Beer Made Easy!?

Some scuttlebutt has been circulating through the home brewing community that challenges current conceptions about making beer that is safe for those with gluten sensitivities and/or Celiacs Disease. The problem is that the current methods for brewing low gluten or gluten free involve using grains other than barley. These alternative brewers grains such as sorghum, millet, and quinoa can be difficult for home brewers to obtain and use the same way they would barley. In addition to the aforementioned practical problems with these alternative grains, beer brewed without barley just tastes off at best. At worst it can be undrinkable.

The solution: Brew beer using conventional  methods and then remove the gluten! While there have been no scientific studies that support this; some home brewers are claiming that the addition of an enzyme called Brewers Clarex (AKA “Clarity Ferm”) can be used to reduce gluten content in beer wort to near insignificant levels. A number of home brewers have reported gluten levels in their beers to be as low/or less than 5 ppm this is equivalent to %0.0005 gluten content. In terms of actual grams of gluten per pint you are talking approximately 0.0025g of total gluten. Though this is not “gluten free” it is a very, very low level of gluten.

Tips for achieving a beer that is low in gluten:

• Do a complete all grain mash with rests at 98-113F, 120-130F, and 149-160F.
• Sparge Slowly
• Be sure to use Whirlfloc or another type of carageenan & chill rapidly to encourage cold break.
• Don’t use wheat or rye in your mash.
• ClarityFerm should be added to the beer immediately after chilling before yeast is pitched.

Please keep in mind that everyone has varying levels of gluten sensitivity. Use your judgement regarding how you present beers brewed in this way to your friends and neighbors.  Some homebrewers got vary low gluten beers using these methods, your results may vary. You can order gluten test kits here http://www.ezgluten.com/. You can also have laboratory tests for gluten done.

Cheers,

-Jeremy

NHC Days 2 & 3 The Gadgets.

Saw Some More Toys!

Even better  than the SABCO stuff (drool) and the all electric brewing system I saw down there (neat-0!), I had a chance to talk with the nice folks at Speidels about their “Braumeister” brewing system. This is by far the most innovative and compact brewing all grain brewing system I have seen in a long time.

The Braumeister takes brew in a bag to the next level. Instead of a bag to hold your grain and then laughter the Braumeister actually uses a perforated stainless tub that sits inside the kettle. After you have mashed, using the integrated heating element and temperature controller you either use a worm gear (for the 20l & 50l models) or a pulley (for the 200l model) to lift the mash tub and allow your wort to drain. When this is done you boil in the same kettle you mashed in. Pretty nifty.

The two downsides that I see to this system are:

1) The limits on how much grain you can actually get in there given that  this is a no sparge system. You cannot get above 1.060 OG without adding malt extract or boiling way down.

2) The Price. The 20L unit will rug you upwards of $2,000, the 50L over $3,000 and a whopping $14,500 for the 50L. Ouch.

Asside from the price this seems like an awesome concept and I can’t wait to see what similar systems are being built in the garage by all you innovative home brewers out there.

Some Braumeister Pics:

5oL Braumeister

20L Braumeister Taken form Speidel.com

Some more Cool Gadgets:

This interesting dispensing system was on display in the Hospitality Suite.

This generous home brewer shared some of his creations from a very portable draft system while we waited in a long line.

Inside this most portable draft system. It even holds a full size CO2!

Some of the most heavy duty HB mills I have ever seen by the folks at "Monster Mill". The larger ones just about took 2 hands to lift.

A new stand alone HRMS controller by SABCO with optional touch screen.

That’s all for now. I attended a bunch of seminars at NHC and plan to post more on those once I can link to the AHA’s lecture slides, but they are not up on the AHA website yet. Also sorry about the sideways images. The wordpress photo up-loader is a little finicky.

Cheers for now,

-Jeremy

NHC 2011 Day One

Went to some great Seminars today.

First Presentation: Chad Yakobson of The Crooked Stave:

Chad Yakobson of The Crooked Stave brewing gave a great presentation on brewing with brett. He had really easy to understand explanations on how to ferment with either 100% brettanomyces or blended fermentations. I thought it was really interesting that the time at which the brett is added during a brettanomyces/servomyces can really change to flavor of the finished beer.

Basically brett added later in the fermentation gives much more “funk” to the beer, while brett added earlier in the fermentation gives a cleaner, less “barnyard type of flavor. Chad also gave some really good information

Slides from his presentation are not available but you should be able to find them here in a few days http://www.ahaconference.org/conference-information/presentations/

You can also check out chads brewery here http://www.crookedstave.com/

and his website for the Brettanomyces project here: http://www.brettanomycesproject.com/

Second Presentation: What’s Wrong With My Beer, Randy Mosher

Randy did a great job of covering common off flavors in beer. He gave some great information on common off flavors in beer and how they result, with a specific focus on proper serving, pouring and handling of beer. I learned some particularly gross details on what a dirty draft system does to your beer. Yuck. Bacterial colonies in a faucet can actually travel all the way down a beer line and into a keg if a draft line infection gets bad enough.

Randy also had some great things to say about dirty glassware, or glassware that still has soap on it. He also had some great explanations on why it is a bad idea to serve beer on blended gas, and why so many pub owners do it (basically it makes the beer flat if you don’t do it right, but it also keeps beer from foaming).

You can find info on the Cicerone program here, which Randy has taken great steps to train beer servers, brewers and retailers on how to store, package, and serve a beer to keep all those wonderful flavors intact. http://www.cicerone.org/

Slides for his presentation can be found here as soon as AHA posts them. http://www.ahaconference.org/conference-information/presentations/

And of course the day would not be complete without checking out a little bit of bling:

The John & Crew of Blichmann Engineering gave us a sneak peak at their newest offering. “The Tower of Power”! The tower of power is a mudular structure that allows precise control over kettle temperature by regulating the gas flow to your top tier burner. He does this with a digital controller, a striker and a gas solenoidvalve to control the flow of propane into the burner. The Tower is also available with an integrated March 809 Pump, flow controller, & 3 way flow control valves. Very cool. I cant wait to have one of these in the shop to drool over.

Here are a couple of Tower of power Pics. In case you miss it in the pictures there is also a USB port in the back of it so you can plug in a laptop. And pictures:

Ohh yeah. The Blichmann Guys have also updated their “Quick Connector” design. They have changed the washer location (so they don’t fall out all the time), and added a silicone hand grip so you can grab the nut on these while the fitting is hot. They also have it available with an optional 90 degree bend on the output to keep your tubes from kinking when you put hot wort through these fittings.

Heres a pic of that design:

To finish off the night Owen from wyeast labs was kind enough to share a wide variety of belgains with myself, Sean Paxton, The guys from Northern Brewer & Midwest Homebrew supplies among others. We werent really sure what was what because all the labels were in Flemish or French, but the beers were really great. I particularly enjoyed one that was brewed with spelt and wheat. Very nice Belgium, very nice.

Here are some pics of our great Belgian Beer experience.

Thanks for reading guys. It’s back to NHC recovery now for me. More to come as I get time. Be sure to bug AHA to post those slides of you get a chance .

Cheers,

-Jeremy

Celebrate Passage of SB 444 w/Us!

If you’ve got your finger to the pulse of the home brew scene, there’s no doubt you’ve heard that SB 444 is now law!  Gov. Kitzhaber signed the bill into law on Monday, effectively breaking the chains that bound home brewed beer to the brewer’s home and outlawed our beloved competitions.  Since the transportation and sharing of home brew outside the home is no longer illegal,  we have decided to hold a little event here at our shop.

Saturday April 2nd, which is this upcoming Saturday, we will be hosting a “Set Home Brew Free” event.  We along with members of the Oregon Brew Crew will be celebrating the passage of SB 444 by inviting home brewers, professional brewers, beer bloggers and connoisseurs out to share samples of beer with each other.  Why, you might ask?  Because we can!

The event begins when our shop opens at 9am, which if you ask me is kind of early to start drinking.  However, it’s never too early to start brewing!  We would also like to encourage home brewers to bring their gear down to our shop and brew here in our warehouse, or weather permitting, in the parking lot!  Jeremy will be brewing a batch of beer and answering questions for anyone who might have them.

This is an all-ages event but we will be checking identification and asking that persons under the age of 21 not consume beer at our shop.  We would also ask any participating beer samplers to please practice moderation.  We want this event to be a fun and entertaining celebration while maintaining a family-friendly atmosphere.

If you would like to help in the promotion of this event, CLICK HERE to download the flyer, hand it out to your friends and post it up at local businesses!

Cheers!

Monday Is The Day!

If you’ve been following the news about SB 444 then you are well aware that it has passed both the House and the Senate.  All that’s left is for the Governor to sign it into law.  This is supposed to be taking place around 3pm on Monday.  After being signed into law, the ban on transportation of home brewed beer and the subsequent ban on home brewing competitions will be over!  This is a great example of democracy at work, we all (the home brewing community) let our legislators know how we felt about the law and they acted on our behalf to change things.  Seriously, every one of you that wrote your legislators on behalf of home brewers everywhere, you deserve a pat on the back.

SB 444 to be signed by Gov. Kitzhaber on Monday.

After passing unanimously in the House, it seems very unlikely that the Governor would choose not to sign SB 444 into law.  However, stranger things have happened.  We will be keeping our finger on the pulse of SB 444 through Monday and once it becomes law, I say a celebration is in order.  We’ll keep you guys posted about what we have up our sleeve via Facebook and Twitter.

 

Senate Responds to Unpopular HomeBrew Law

For those of you that have been under a rock for the past 9 months here’s the scoop:

Last summer a ruling on the interpretation of home brewing legeslation was requested by an Oregon Brewery Wanting to hold a tasting of home brewed beers. The Oregon Department of Justice came forth with a ruling citing oregons current legal provisions that Oregons Current Law “apply(ied) to the making or keeping of naturally fermented wines and fruit juices or beer in the home, for home consumption and not for sale.”

This ruling stated that it was against Oregon state law to remove homemade beer or wine from ones residence. This effectively baned home beer and wine competitions, or tasting of home beer and wine at home brew clubs. It is currently a crime to take a six pack of home brew to your neighbors BBQ.

 

Now that everyone is caught up. Here is what is currently happening in the Oregon State Legislature.

 

Yesterday the Oregon State Senate approved Legislative Bill 444, which would allow Home Brewers and Home Wine Makers to transport and serve their home made beverages provided that they no “value that is given or received directly or indirectly through sales, barter,trade, fees, charges, dues, contributions or donations.” This however does not apply to homebrew clubs or any event charging admission where the amount of alcohol consumed is not dependant on the charge of admission.

In lamens terms this bill would:

● Eliminate restrictions on the transportation of homebrew
● Eliminate restrictions on where homebrew can be consumed
● Eliminate restrictions on where homebrew can be made
● Allow clubs to charge dues
● Allow entry fees and prizes at competitions
● Allow homebrew to be served at club meetings held at pubs or other licensed premises
● Allow homebrew club members to participate in small-scale professional brewing at pubs
● Allow people who teach homebrewing classes to be paid.

This bill has not been passed into law!

Though this bill has been unanimously approved by our state senate it still must pass the house. We urge you to contact your House Representative and let them know how important it is to correct this law. Let them know how important it is that this bill be ratified.

One Last Reminder!

Scavenger Hunt Recap

We have all kinds of really great prizes that we want to give to you!  Take a look at this loot!

We will be starting our scavenger hunt at 3PM today and it is your job to figure out were the staff is and then identify us to win a prize.

• The Staff will be dividing into two teams
• Hints will be labeled with tags, either “Team A” or “Team B”
• We will spend about an hour at each location, maybe a little longer, depending on how efficient your hunting skills are!
• We may ask you to perform some strange act, like standing on the bar and singing, in order to claim your prize.
• Multiple clues will be given for each location via Facebook and Twitter.
• NO CHEATING – If we suspect that you are not participating fairly, NO SOUP FOR YOU!
• The first 2-3 people to find us at each location will receive a radical prize from one of our sponsors, everyone that finds us will receive a raffle ticket to win the Blichmann Boilermaker.
• You’re going to need to know what we look like in order to find us, check the staff page on our website to see photos of the hunky beer bros that you’ll be looking for: www.fhsteinbart.com/staff.html
• Good Luck!

Prizes, Prizes and More Prizes!

Hey Blog Readers,

We are super excited for our scavenger hunt this weekend. We hope to see you all out there. Here’s a list of all the prizes we have so far for you guys:

• Some Hoodies and Tee Shirts From Upright Brewing
• Free Pint Cards at Coalition Brewing
• A fruit wine making pack from Brewcraft USA
• Assorted Bottled Beers From Sierra Nevada
• 2 $40 Gift Certificates from The East Burn
• 2 Goblet Glasses From Double Mountain Brewing
• A Growler + Cozy + Fill from Plews Brews
• A Free Subscription From Beer Northwest
• Assorted Beers from Belmont Station
• Assorted Beers from Johns Marketplace
• A big old box of swag from Wyeast Labs
• A growler + fill at Hopworks Urban Brewery
• A $25 Gift Certificate from The Beer Mongers
• We are throwing in a 10 gallon Boilermaker brew pot as well as a brewing starter kit and a special super hoppy ingredient pack!

Prizes are still rolling in so stay tuned!

2010 Magical Mystery Scavenger Hunt

On Saturday August 28^th the FH Steinbart Staff will be going on a Magical Mystery pub crawl.  We won’t tell you where we are going (this is a mystery pub crawl) and you can’t come on the crawl, but you can try and find us to win prizes. More than one pub crawl may happen, those multiple pub crawls may even split into even more pub crawls.  The hydra emerges from the shop at 3pm and will spread throughout the city.

The Scoop:

Our mystery crawl starts at 3pm and goes until we call it a night, your job is to find us at each stop.  We will be going mostly to local beer places (and maybe even a wine place or two).  Clues as to our location will be posted on Lisa Morrison’s radio show “Beer O’ Clock”, and through FH Steinbarts Twitter and Facebook account (find links to these on our website).

How you win stuff:

This is a scavenger hunt, and what, you might be asking are you hunting?  You are hunting for us (the Steinbart crew), follow the clues, win the prize. We may give out passwords that you have to say (we might even ask you to get on top of the bar and yell) to get a prize.  We will have a bunch of gift certificates as well as some larger prizes to give away.  The first one or two people to find us at each location will win one of these prizes.  However, everyone that finds us will receive a ticket for the grand prize give-away, a 10 gallon Blichmann Boilermaker Kettle ($309 Value)!

The Rules:

There are too many ways that you can cheat such as, trying to follow us when we leave a  location, texting your friends,  etc…

The rules are simple:

-Be honest and don’t be a jerk, if we feel like you are not following the spirit of the event, no prize.

-You can only win one prize, but you can win a raffle ticket for each location that you find us at.

-You must be old enough to enter the pub (sorry minors).

-We reserve the right to change these rules at any time.

Fresh Hops Are Coming!

It is late July and hop harvest is quickly approaching. Everyone in the shop is excited to see the 2010 harvest come in and to brew some wet hop beers. Many commercial examples of these beers are available in September and October and you have probably tried them. They are referred to as “wet hop”, “fresh hop”, or “harvest” ales. These beers have a unique grassy character and a smooth citrusy bitterness. Fresh hop beers are usually less bitter than their counterparts brewed with cured hops.

Fresh Hop beers are made with we un-dried wet hops. The hops brewers typically use are dehydrated immediately after harvest (usually within a few hours). Hop processors do this for good reason as wet hops have a tendency to “compost”, which does not make a beer taste very good. We only get one hop harvest a year here in North America and we need to dry out our hops so we can make tasty brews year round with them.

Brewing with Fresh Hops:

Fresh hops usually contain about 80-90% water by weight while tried hos are around 13-15% water by weight. This means that you want to use about 5 times as much by weight when using a wet hop. Some brewers like to use pellets or dried whole hops as a bittering hop and follow with wet hops during the last 25 or 30 minutes of the boil. This helps cut down on some of the grassier flavors you can get from using wet hops.

Wort loss to hops is greatly increased when using wet hops. If you use alot of them it is not uncommon to lose 30-40% of the wort to the hops. We don’t suggest using wet hops as a dry hop, as it takes a lot of agitation to release the aromatic compounds in the wet hops, and you will extract lots of chlorophyl.

We are currently taking pre-orders for wet hops here at the store. These hops are being overnighted from the grower to us and we suggest that you use them right away if you order. Mail order customers may want to opt for expedited shipping as we suggest you use these hops within 48 hours of harvest. You can order hops here: http://www.fhsteinbart.com/products/index.php?subgrp=FHP&subgrpdesc=Fresh%20(wet)%20Hops