Beer and Travel: Survival tips for the beer enthusiast

When traveling to a new city, region, or country one of the best ways to explore their culture is through beer. Here are some tips and tricks to maximize your beer traveling experience.

1. Plan ahead

Plan ahead before you travel to someplace new. The Internet is a great resource to look for recommended breweries, bottle shops, and liquor stores. Planning in advance can save you some time and headaches of running into closed or limited business hours.

2. Use your Apps

Phone apps (and corresponding websites) like Ratebeer, Untappd, and Yelp can help you decide on bars, breweries, and bottle shops to visit. They generally provide customer reviews, the number of beers served, and the ambiance of your potential beer refuge.

       

3. Use Public Transportation

Hopefully the city you plan on visiting has some form of public transportation which will allow you to safely (and legally) get from bar to bar. Public transportation can also allow you to stay in cheaper accommodations which can give you a little extra cash to spend on, you guessed it, beer. If there are no public options you can usually get a taxi, rickshaw, or hoof it (as long as it isn’t a DMZ).

4. Find What Locals Drink

Locals generally (I’m looking at you Hákarl and Balut fans) know where the best spots to eat and drink are, follow the crowds. If you find a place not on your itinerary but it is packed out, it may be worth a visit, but great places can also be desolate (la Kiva comes to mind). I usually try to seek out the local brewery tap rooms/restaurants as they generally serve local fare and favorites.

5. Buy in Season (or don’t for some added savings)

Many breweries have special beers that are only available during certain seasons (e.g. Märzens at Oktoberfest) with some beers only being produced in certain regions. By drinking seasonally you can try beers that often only locals get to sample. You can also find some deals on beers that are going out of season. Brewers will often discount beers near the end of their season to make room for the next season’s beer. Watch out not to get last year’s beer.

6. Save some money and Shop at a Bottleshop or Liquor Store

One of the best (and cheapest) ways to sample a regions beer is to visit a bottle shop, liquor store, or grocery store (if they sell beer). They often have large selections of local beer that you would be hard pressed to find in a single bar. Shopping at a bottle shop/liquor store can free you up to sample beers in your hotel room. That’s especially useful for drinking after bars close or those early Sunday mornings when you’re craving a liquid breakfast. The biggest advantage to buying bottles in a shop is cost. Most beers may be half to a quarter of the cost at a bar.

7. Be Prepared and Resourceful

If you plan to buy bottled beer one thing you are going to need is a bottle opener (obviously). There are many options available including shoes with church keys in the sole, bottle openers that fit in your wallet, or on your key chain. There are also the old party trick favorites of using a lighter, a wedding ring, or edge of a table but you want to avoid the ire of your partner or the hotel staff.

                           

Another key to buying bottled beer (if you don’t buy it cold) is cooling it to drinking temperatures. In winter (non-tropical climates) this can be as simple as putting your beer out on a ledge or next to an open window. If your hotel has ice you can always chill your bottle in a trash can full of ice.

                       

If its summer you have a couple of options. You can use the trash can with ice trick or some evaporative cooling tricks. Grab a wash cloth and soak in cold water, then wrap it around the bottle and place on the air conditioning unit or vent. If you don’t have A/C let’s hope you at least have a fan. Point the fan at the bottle with the wet cloth around it and keep it moist to maximize cooling. The fan may only cool it a few degrees but if all else fails go to a bar.

By following these tips you should be able to maximize your beer traveling experience and enjoy new cultures through the unifying power of beer.

Brew Day: Terry's CO Milk Stout

Terry's Chocolate Orange

Each year nearing the winter holidays, a wonderful creation surfaces on shelves around the country. The chocolately, orangey masterpiece known as Terry's Chocolate Orange and better still, Terry's Dark Chocolate Orange. This recipe is an attempt to capture the essence of the Terry's CO and wrestle it into a smooth, medium bodied milk stout. Although this recipe contains no chocolate, we achieve a chocolate flavor using grains that had been transformed by the Magic of Maillard. (5 gallon extract)

Fermentables
5.5 lb DME
1.0 lb Lactose
.75 lb Chocolate
.50 lb Caramel 120L
.25 lb Dehusked Carafa III Special

Hops 

Terry's CO Milk Stout 12 hours after Pitch

0.75 oz Galena 13%  45 min
0.25 oz Fuggle 3.6% 15 min
0.25 oz Fuggle 3.6% 05 min

Yeast
Wyeast 1318 London Ale III

Other
Organic Orange Zest 4-medium navel

Estimated

OG: 1.060

FG: 1.016

ABV: 5.8%

IBU: 33

Brew Day Notes: Grains were steeped in 5.5 gal of water at 155 °F for 30 minutes. We had to take about an hour break before starting the boil due to a car accident (luckily no one was seriously injured). The rest of the day went as planned. Tried whirlfloc for the first time. We ended up with about 4.5 gal a bit above the predicted OG and decided to leave it alone. Wyeast 1318 London Ale III was streaked on a slant to bank later.

The Orange zest extract was prepared by zesting the organic oranges, and then adding the zest into a mason jar along with enough grain alcohol to cover the zest. The mixture was placed in the fridge with a lid and swirled occasionally.

There was a good bit of blow-off during fermentation. Wyeast definitely seems to be the best commercially available yeast we have tried so far. It always seems to start quickly and with great vigor. Beer was racked to secondary after 1 week in primary. Specific gravity had fallen and remained steady at 1.022. The beer remained in secondary for approximately 2 weeks. 

After beer was racked into the bottling bucket boiled water was added to bring volume up to 5 gallons reducing the final gravity to 1.017. 6 teaspoons of the orange zest extract was added and stirred into the beer along with the priming sugar. The original diluted gravity was calculated based on the volume added to the beer at bottling.

Measured (before dilution/ after dilution to 5 gal)

Vol: 4.5 gal/ 5 gal
OG: 1.065/1.053

FG: 1.022/1.017

ABV:5.6%/4.7%

Tasting Notes:
2 weeks:
Appearance: Dark brown with a thin tan head
Aroma: orange, coffee, dark chocolate
Taste: orange, coffee, chocolate, slightly sweet
Palate: Medium light body, dry finish
Overall: This beer turned out quite well. The aroma came out spot on with the chocolate orange. The body could have been thicker. Maybe adding in some flaked barley next time will take it to the next level. Compared to a Westbrook Orange Bliss chocolate orange stout, the only thing we felt the Westbrook bested it in was the body.

The Magic of Maillard

Ever walk into a homebrew shop and wonder how or why there are so many varieties and types of malt? I know when I first started home brewing I was amazed by the dozens of choices I had; black malt, chocolate malt, caramel malts, biscuit, Vienna, and victory malts . Dark specialty malts are especially important ingredients for the production of several beer styles (e.g. stouts and porters). Most of these specialty malts owe their existence to one reaction, the Maillard Reaction (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Black malt (Patent Malt)

The Maillard Reaction is responsible for many of our favorite flavors in food. Think about coffee, a nice seared steak, the crust on your favorite bread, or most importantly your favorite porter.  The Reaction is often called the “browning reaction” and it isn’t only about the color but the flavor it produces in a complex set of reactions involving sugars, amino acids, and heat.  

The reactive carbonyl group (having one oxygen atom double-bonded to a carbon atom) of the sugars found in malt reacts with the nucleophilic amino group (organic molecule with a nitrogen base that tends to donate a pair of electrons to form a bond) of the amino acid (building blocks of proteins), and forms a complex mixture of molecules responsible for a range of odors and flavors (Figure 2). This process is accelerated in an alkaline environment (e.g., lye applied to darken pretzels) and the type of the amino acids involved also determines the resulting flavors ⁽¹⁾.

Figure 2. Example of Carbonyl groups of a simple sugar

The temperature and duration of the roast largely determines the level of the reaction. Malts used primarily for coloring beer are produced on a kiln using elevated curing temperatures, while caramel malts and roasted malts are attained from roasting green malt and pilsner malt in a device similar to that used for coffee roasting ⁽²⁾. The longer the kilning process the less aromatics that are present in the finished malt and the more dry burnt flavors are added to beer. The darker malts also have no enzymes available to help in mashing (conversion of starches to fermentable sugars) which includes black malt (Black Patent), chocolate malt, and caramel (crystal malts). The next post will cover how these malts are used to create a stout.

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1. Maillard reaction. (2013, October 30). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 23:49, November 26, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Maillard_reaction&oldid=579509781
2. Coghe, S. et al. 2006. Development of Maillard Reaction Related Characteristics During Malt Roasting. J. Inst. Brew. 112(2), 148–156, 2006

Brew Day: Oatmeal IPA

After tasting Good People's Oatmeal IPA back in August, I knew I would eventually want to make one. Finally that time has come. The recipe is a partial mash, making 5 gal (I don't have the equipment for all grain yet unfortunately). Why do a partial mash instead of just steeping the specialty malts? Check out the Hulk Mash post for the importance of mashing adjuncts.

Setup for Partial Mash. "Mash Tun" (left)

Fermentables
5.5 lb Light DME
2.0 lb 2-Row
1.0 lb Flaked oats
1.0 lb Victory

Hops (all 14.4%)

0.75 oz Citra 60 min
1.00 oz Citra 15 min
1.00 oz Citra 05 min
1.25 oz Citra 07 day dry hop

Yeast
Wyeast 1272 American Ale II

Mash schedule
60 min 153°F

65% Efficiency

Estimated

OG: 1.065

FG: 1.017

ABV: 6.3%

IBU: 66

Brew Day Notes: The "mash tun" did not hold temps well, and was consistently below the target mash temp. We had to add boiling water in addition to heat from the range several times to bring temp up to 153°F in the center of the mash. In all, it ended up mashing for about 90 minutes. Every thing else went as planned except that we ended up with slightly less than 5 gal (approx 4.75). We also inoculated a malt agar plate with Wyeast 1272 American Ale II left over from the smack pack for banking (instructions here using smack pack as your yeast sample).

Oatmeal IPA in Primary

When we racked to secondary over dry hops we lost a good bit of volume due to the huge amount of trub. It looks like we will end up with a little over 3.5 Gallons for bottling.

At bottling the hop aroma was pretty intense. Both of us agreed that it was good enough to drink flat, but more on taste after it has carbed. Ended up with a total of 39-12 oz bottles (3.6 gallons).

Measured
Vol: 4.75 gal
Eff: 70%
OG: 1.072
FG:  1.016
ABV: 7.2%

Tasting Notes:
2 weeks:
Appearance: hazy-gold, with white head, good lacing, and good head retention
Aroma: Citrus (grapefruit, tangerine), slight red fruit, bread, biscuit
Taste: apricot, fruity citrus, slight nut, malt, nice bitterness
Palate: good carbonation, nice mid-light body without the malty sweetness, no noticeable alcohol
Overall: Pretty solid beer. The oatmeal adds the needed body without adding the caramel sweetness found in some IPAs. Will not be around for very long. A brew again beer.

HULK MASH!

Modified From: http://beforeitsnews.com/motor-junkies/2013/04/hulk-smash-2463796.html

Who knows, the big green wrecking machine may also be an avid homebrewer when he hangs up his purple shorts and returns to being Bruce Banner the mild mannered scientist. Most everyone is familiar with the basic principles of how beer, and for that matter all alcoholic beverages are made; you take some variation of a sugar solution, add yeast and let the magic happen. In the case of beer and malt-liquor, you have a sugar solution made primary up of maltose; but where does this maltose come from exactly?

Well as the name implies, from malt! More specifically, malted barley, wheat, rye, or other cereals. The only trick is that this maltose is locked away inside the grain as large polysaccharide (sugar) chains that cannot be broken down by yeast alone. This is where the mashing process comes into play. Typically, when you get grain from your LHBS it has already been malted (basically controlled germination). It may have also been roasted or kilned, creating malts of various flavor and color. In simple terms, the malting process activates the production of certain enzymes in the seed to mobilize sugars it requires for growth into a new plant. This process is then halted by drying; stopping the enzymatic breakdown of the starch but preserving the enzymes.

 Figure 1. Crystaline structure of α-amylase (left) and β-amylase (right) (wikipedia.org)

The enzyme that we as brewers are mostly concerned with is amylase. In general, amylase catabolizes (the metabolic breakdown of complex molecules resulting in simpler molecules and energy) larger polysaccharide chains resulting in smaller chains, some of which can be used by yeast to make alcohol and CO₂. Amylase catalyzes the hydrolysis (chemical breakdown with the addition of water) of the polysaccharides amalose and amylopectin, the two molecules that make up starch into smaller oligosaccharides. There are two types of amylase, α-amylase and β-amylase that have several key differences (Figure 1). α-amylase cuts at random α-1,4-glycosidic bonds, making it relatively fast, cleaving amalose into both maltriose and maltose and amylopectin into glucose and "limit dextrin" at branch points (Figure 2). This results in the production of some longer unfermentable sugars that can be cleaved further given enough time and high enough α-amylase concentrations ⁽¹⁾.

Figure 2.  α-amylase (Hulk) action on a starch

β-amylase also works on α-1,4-glycosidic bonds, but only on the non-reducing end of the polysaccharide chain, making it slower, cleaving two glucoses off at a time resulting in a single maltose molecule⁽²⁾ (Figure 3).

Figure 3. β-amylase (Red Hulk) action on starch

Figure 4. Products of hydrolyzation (Left to Right) Glucose, Maltose, Maltotriose, Limit Dextrin (wikipedia.org)

The activity of these enzymes can be controlled by the temperature of the mash.  α-amylase has a temperature optimum from 149 °F to 158 °F ⁽³⁾ and β-amylase from 134 °F to 141 °F ⁽⁴⁾. By controlling the mash temperature you can push the optimal temperature to α-amylase or β-amylase which will result in more or less body respectively in the final product .

Only certain grains have still have enough amylase to convert the starches to fermentable sugars. Typically, this includes grains that have not been extensively roasted or kilned as these processes denature the amylase enzymes. This difference in amylase enzyme is measured in diastatic power. The greater the diastatic power the more amylase present and the greater ability to convert available starches. American 2-Row, American 6-Row, and Maris Otter are examples of "base malts" with relatively high diastatic power (140, 160, and 120 respectively) and are able to convert about an equal amount of malt with no diastatic power. Munich malts do still have diastatic power (72) but it is much lower than that of the base malts. Kilned malts like black malt have no diastatic power. Other partially processed adjuncts like flaked oats and wheat do have starches available for conversion but no diastatic power and must be mashed with base malts to extract the sugars from the grain.

If you're wanting to venture into brewing beers with a more complex grain bill than the typical extract recipe or just want to have more control of what exactly is going into your wort remember the words of the mighty Hulk, "HULK SMASH!".

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1. Greenwood, C.T., MacGregor, D.Sc., and MacGregor, A.W. 1965. The isolation of α-amylase from barley and malted barley, and a study of the properties and action-patterns of the enzymes. J. Inst. Brew. 71:405-417
2. Enevoldsen, B.S., Bathgate, G.N. 1969. Structural analysis of wort dextrins by means of β-amylase and the debranching enzyme, pullulanase.J. Inst. Brew. 75:433-443
3. Bertoft, E., Andtfolk, C., and Kulp S.E. 1984. Effect of pH, temperature, and calcium ions on barley malt α-amylase isoenzymes. J.Inst. Brew. 90:298-302
4. Eglinton, J.K., Langridge, P., Evans, D.E. 1998. Thermostability variation in alleles of barley beta-amylase. J Cereal Science 23(3): 301-309

'Tis the Season

The holiday season is upon us and it is that time of year when most breweries release their obligatory Winter/Seasonal Ale. While Winter Ale is not a recognized style, a few styles of beer and ingredients lend themselves to producing beers hardy enough for winter. I generally think of barley wines, malty beers, spiced ales, and old ales with high alcohol content. Recently I’ve run across a couple of winter ales that don’t really fit into the winter ale category. They weren’t necessarily bad but definitely not what I expected or didn’t satisfy my winter cravings. Below is a sampling of those beers.

Smuttynose Winter Ale, Portsmouth, NH

Amber/brown colored with a medium tan head. Aroma of roasted malts, caramel, and chocolate. Light body with some caramel notes but lacking on malt characteristics. I was a little disappointed.

Verdict: Not Naughty nor Nice

Big Sky Powder Hound, Missoula, MT

Copper colored with large white head. Aroma of floral/earthy hops and malt. Medium body with floral/earthy hop bitterness upfront and a nice malt backbone. Seems like an IPA guised as a Winter Ale.

Verdict: Not bad for an IPA but deserves a visit from Krampus

  

                
Harpoon Winter Warmer, Boston, MA

Amber/brown colored with small tan head. Aroma of cinnamon and nutmeg with some malt sweetness. Light body with overpowering cinnamon upfront which overpowers anything else. The aroma was the best thing about this.

Verdict: Like a Christmas Wreath, best thing about it is its aroma

Goose Island Sixth Day, Chicago, IL

Brown colored with small tan head. Light aroma of hops and roasted malt. Medium body with earthy hop bitterness upfront, some caramel and chocolate notes, and a warm alcohol finish.

Verdict: On Santa’s Nice List

Victory Winter Cheer, Downington, PA

Golden colored with large white head and nice lacing. Aroma of wheat, banana, and citrus. Light body with citrus hops upfront, fruit notes, and some wheat body. Another summer beer masquerading as a Winter Ale.

Verdict: Shouldn’t be surprised with coal in the stocking

Sam Adams Winter Lager, Boston, MA

Dark amber colored with small tan head. Aroma of caramel and citrus. Light body with malt sweetness upfront and notes of cinnamon and caramel.

Verdict: On Santa’s Nice List

Great Divide Hibernation Ale, Denver, CO

Brown colored with small tan head. Aroma of roasted malts and coffee. Medium body with malt body and coffee notes upfront some hop bitterness and a dry finish.

Verdict: A gift from St. Nick himself

I am not one to say beers should follow the exact guidelines of a style or that brewers shouldn’t experiment with new ingredients and techniques but when I get a Winter Ale I have some expectations. I expect not to get an IPA guised or repackaged as a Winter Ale and I expect to get something that’s warming (high in alcohol) or at least malty. Just simply slapping a winter label on a beer does not make it a Winter Ale. Have a happy holidays and prost!

YIC: Isolation, and Making a Starter

*This is part two of the Yeast from the Iron City (YIC) series. For sampling, media, and plating information check out the first post, Yeast for the Iron City: Sampling and Plating

Figure 1. Mixed culture from several fruit. (picture looks hazy because of condensation on lid)

Now that we have a culture growing wild on the agar plates that looks something like figure 1, its time to move on to the next step, Isolation. One of the best isolation techniques to use is what's known as a 4-quadrant streak (Figure 2). This does take a bit of practice to get perfect, but is pretty easy and very effective at isolating colonies of microorganisms. The best tool to use is the inoculation loop. If you have a nichrome loop (non-disposable metal loop) you will need to run the wire and loop through a flame until it is red hot to sterilize it. Sterile plastic disposable loops are available, but you would need 4 per plate and who wants to buy something to throw it away after a single use?

Figure 2. 4- Quadrant Streak Technique. (Numbered as steps)

It may look like a 5 year old with the ability to color in the lines can do this,but as I said earlier, this technique takes a little practice to get good isolation. I'll give you the steps with a nichrome loop because that is what we used. If you are using plastic, one, I'm disappointed, and two, whenever the nichrome loop gets sterilized, toss yours in the garbage (or you can save them and autoclave them I suppose if they are autoclave-safe) and get out a new one. 

First identify a colony you suspect to be yeast that is mostly free of other colonies touching it. Typically, the yeast colonies I have seen will be opaque white/ off white with clean edges (Figure 3). The stuff you don't want to touch is either fuzzy (fungi), has a very slimy shiny appearance (typically bacteria) or is a color other than white/ off-white (Figure 1). Sterilize your loop in the method described earlier. Then wait about 10-15 seconds to let it cool (don't "shake it like a Polaroid picture" as they say to cool it faster, you will increase the chances of picking up microbes from the air). Take about half of the individual colony making sure not to touch any other colonies and streak onto the plate as in Figure 1-1. Sterilize your loop and let it cool. Make streak as in step two of figure 1. The key is to only cross over your initial streak a few times. Repeat these steps two more times with successively less crossing into the previous streak. 

Figure 3. Isolated Yeast Colonies

Let this stand at room temperature until you start to see growth. Theoretically, you will have diluted out the original streak to single individuals that will then form a single isolated colony in either the 3rd or 4th quadrant (Figure 4A). If you do Success! You can now take a sample (from a single colony) and look at it under magnification to tell whether or not you actually have yeast (Figure 4B).

Figure 4. A) Example of 4-Quadrant Isolation. B) Wild Yeast X400

At this point you can begin to build up a starter to use pitch. To avoid possible contamination, it is best to start with a relatively small starter and work up to the size you want to pitch with rather than just going straight from plate to a .5 L starter. This greater yeast to starter ratio will allow the yeast to out compete most other microbes that may have been introduced into the starter. Nothing left to do now but pitch and hope that you've caught a good one! The Saga continues in the next YIC post: Temperature-dependent Flavor Determination.