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11 Jan 22:15
Ten Tips Everyone Needs to Know Before They Brew Their Own Beer
by Brad Smith and Friends
Before you take on the challenge of making craft beers at home, you should get as much information as you can. The internet is filled with various tips and ideas on how to make beer. But to help you get started quickly, we have compiled this concise list of expert tips that will help you to avoid many beginner pitfalls and achieve fairly good results from your initial attempt at brewing your own beer.
Editors Note: This is a guest post from Tony Bod. Tony is a passionate blogger, freelance writer and a regular contributor to several blogs. He loves reading news and sharing unique articles through his contents. When Tony is not working, he enjoys music, camping and spending time with his family.
1. Do Adequate Research
Do your homework before you begin the craft beer making hobby. From the onset, you should be aware that brewing good beer is partly an art and a science. To learn the science of brewing, you should read top brewing books, consult with accomplished craft brewers and use some of the great brewing resources online including discussion forums, brewing blogs, and software. Thereafter, you can master the art of brewing by focusing on creating one specific kind of beer with a distinct flavour and tweaking the recipe and ingredients till you achieve perfection.
2. Maintain Exceptional Sanitation
Pay great attention to sanitation and sterilisation throughout the brewing process. You won’t want to discover a bug, bacteria or dirt in the beer you’ve spent several days brewing. Sanitation and sterilisation starts before you begin the brewing process and continues until you finally cap the bottles. The most critical stage for sterilisation is immediately after you cool the wort. Since the yeast has not started fermenting, contamination from bacteria is more likely at this stage.
3. Work With Fresh Top-Quality Ingredients
You can only get a great home brew from fresh, high quality ingredients. For instance, liquid yeast will help you produce better beer than dry yeast. During extract brewing, it is better to use a fresh extract instead of one that has been packaged for several years. To keep your beer ingredients fresh, store your liquid yeast in your refrigerator and your hops in the freezer. Bear in mind that crushed grains, liquid malt, yeast, dry malt and hops must be used early because of oxidation and short shelf life.
4. Boil Your Wort for At Least One Hour
You should boil the wort in a single batch for between 60 and 90 minutes. It will cause tannins and proteins to coagulate from grains, make the hops release bitter oils, vaporise several unwanted compounds, and sterilise the wort before cooling. If you are not making a dark beer, you should boil the wort for close to 90 minutes.
5. Cool The Wort Rapidly
One way to minimise the occurrence of contamination in your beer is to chill the wort as rapidly as you can. Thus, you will quickly reduce the temperature of the wort from the range that bacteria enjoys. Initially, you may follow the common practice of submerging your brewing kettle in ice in a bath tub. But this could take as long as 40 minutes depending on the quantity of ice in the bath. That is why it is advisable to emulate the top microbreweries and invest in a wort chiller that can cool about 5 gallons of beer within 20 minutes.
6. Try Brewing Dark Beers First
No matter what your best type of beer is, you should start by making dark beers like stouts and dark ales. For example, a significant number of the best Australian craft beers are dark ales. These dark beers will allow you to cover up a lot of your initial mistakes because of their rich flavour profile. It is important to strive to achieve success early so that you won’t get discouraged and give up on your new hobby. Usually, your first few attempts at making dark ales will not be a total flop, so you will be motivated to keep trying till you achieve perfection.
7. Work With a Glass Fermenter
Many popular home brewing kits come with plastic fermenters because the manufacturers want to sell relatively cheap kits quickly. However, you should switch to a glass fermenter as soon as you can. Glass fermenters are easier to clean. They are not porous like plastic, so they offer a better shield against oxidation during fermentation.
8. Regulate the Temperature During Fermentation
To brew craft beers successfully, you need to be able to monitor and regulate the fermentation temperature. One of the best methods of doing this is to select a cool and dry part of your home, wrap wet towels around the fermenter and put a standing fan before it. Every 12 hours, soak the towels in cold water to keep them wet and re-wrap them round the fermenter. You can attach a stick-on thermometer to the fermenter to monitor its temperature.
9. Purchase Brewing Tools for the Long Term
Your first attempts at making craft beers at home may be done with a home brewing kit. But subsequently, you should make sure you buy your brewing tools with long term expansion in mind. For instance, if you start with a 3-gallon pot, and you feel you should buy a bigger one, go for a 9-gallon pot instead of a 5-gallon pot. You will also save a lot of money by investing early in a good chiller, a large pot, and a glass fermentation vessel.
10. Keep Good Brewing Records
Maintain a good brew log for every brewing session whether it is a simple or complex recipe. Write down the recipe, ingredients and outcome. This will enable you to quickly modify a recipe till you achieve perfection. You can refer to your records at any time and check what you did. Preferably, you should assign a code to each beer you make and use a permanent marker to write it on the cap. Then in your brew log, you can write the code and give a brief description of the beer.
Finally, you need to be specific and be able to focus on what you want early. Before you start, spend some time deciding on how you want your beer to look and taste. You may also pre-determine its colour and alcohol content. If you apply the tips given above, you will soon join the league of the great microbreweries who brew unique craft beers with exceptional flavour.
Thanks to Tony Bod for providing this guest post. Thanks for joining me on the BeerSmith Home Brewing Blog. You can grab a trial version of BeerSmith from BeerSmith.com. Be sure to sign up for my newsletter or my podcast (also on itunes…and youtube…and streaming radio station) for more great tips on homebrewing.
11 Jan 22:10
China pushing propaganda through hip-hop
by Janet Nguyen
None!The Chinese economy hasn't been growing like it used to, with a turbulent 2015 for the country's stock market.
But despite the economic slowdown, China would like you to think otherwise, says Marketplace's China Correspondent Rob Schmitz. Its latest tool to push a rose-tinted outlook: communist hip-hop propaganda, also known as rapaganda.
CCTV, China's biggest state broadcaster, recently launched a cartoon extolling a political committee — the Central Leading Group for Comprehensively Deepening Reforms — headed by China's President Xi Jinping,
A snippet of the song's lyrics, translated into English:
Gotta eye the reform group in 2015 / [It] pushes economic development and a wealthier society / [It] improves [government] services / [Must] streamline the administration and delegate power to lower levels / [Must] believe in the government/ Let hands that should not move stay unmoved, let the market rule ...
However optimistic China may want to appear, 2016 is looking to be a rough year for the country.
"This year is not going to be easy for China," Schmitz said. "We're going to see more defaults from state-owned companies in the heavy industry sector, and that'll mean more unemployment, too."
Also known as rapaganda.
08 Jan 15:29
On the Street…Faces by The Sartorialist
by The Sartorialist
None!robyn got new hair y'all
I love how color can brighten the face, lighten a demeanor and feel so inviting.
Shot for Faces by The Sartorialist.
07 Jan 14:55
North Korea's verbose statement about the H-bomb test
by Sarah Menendez
None!We talked about sanctions at the top of Wednesday's program, the North Koreans are thinking about 'em too.
Here's just a brief snippet of the official English language announcement of the test from Pyongyang:
"The U.S. is a gang of cruel robbers, which has worked hard to bring even a nuclear disaster to the DPRK. Not content with having imposed the thrice-cursed and unheard-of political isolation, economic blockade and military pressure on it, for the mere reason that it has differing ideology and social system and refuses to yield to the former's ambition for aggression."
So, that
The awkwardly-worded English language version of the statement calls out the U.S.
07 Jan 14:52
Chipotle sales tumble
by Janet Nguyen
None!15 percent
That's how many people said, in a new Bankrate.com study, that they would borrow from friends and family in the event of a financial emergency. A third of consumers said they would dip into their savings, while 23 percent of those surveyed said they would start cutting back on other costs.
250,000
That's how many older and less-educated workers (out of a total of 50 million workers in these two groups) moved from full-time to part-time jobs over the past two years. Many Obamacare critics have said that that the country's health care law would cause employers to reduce workers' hours in order to avoid insurance costs. However, a new report from the journal Health Affairs states that it's found little evidence of that connection.
14.6 percent
That's how much Chipotle's same-restaurant sales fell during 2015's fourth quarter. The chain's earnings have taken a hit due to several health-related incidents at company locations across the country. A norovirus outbreak in Southern California affected about 100 Chipotle consumers back in August, while an E. coli outbreak in October and November affected 53 people in nine states.
Here are the numbers we're reading and watching for Wednesday.
07 Jan 14:41
Five ways baseball has changed since Ken Griffey Jr.'s prime
by Tony Wagner
None!i played a lot of Griffey on N64.
Outfielder Ken Griffey Jr. and catcher Mike Piazza were voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame Wednesday evening, beating out Barry Bonds and Rodger Clemens to get the 75 percent of ballots required for induction.
Griffey just retired in 2010, Piazza in 2007, but they and other eligible players hit their prime in the '90s. How has the game changed since then?
A more diverse, competitive league
Baseball has become more than just America's Favorite Pastime in the past two decades, said Andrew Zimbalist, a Smith College economics professor and author of several books about the game.
The percentage of white players in the MLB in 2014 more or less matches the U.S. population, according to Pew Research, and the portion of black players has declined since the '90s, while the share of Asian and Hispanic players has grown. Most of these players — and about a quarter of the league in 2014 — are from outside the U.S.
A larger talent pool across the board raises the bar for players entering the MLB, Zimbalist says.
A larger, more centralized MLB
The game is bigger than it was during Griffey and Piazza's rookie years, with new divisions, four more teams and more inter-league play than ever before. That adds up to about 100 more players any given season, new rivalries and diminished emphasis on the National and American leagues, says Alex Remington, a baseball blogger who writes for Fangraphs and edits the Braves Journal.
"The importance of the leagues is the lowest it's ever been," he said. "When Griffey and Piazza came into baseball, I think many fans might have been fans of their team, then fans of their league, then fans of the sport. I think that middle step is a great deal weaker than ever before."
The steroid furor has settled down
The '90s are widely remembered as the "Steroid Era." Remington calls that something of a misnomer, because while steroids were more prominent, performance-enhancing drugs have been widely used for decades, and he says the label denigrates players' accomplishments.
"We didn't call the '80s the Cocaine Era, even though it very frankly had just as much of a destructive an effect on sports in general as steroids could have possibly had in the '90s," he said. "But we've sort of managed to see past that with a little bit of time."
Testing and strict violations have helped, though Remington guesses use of performance-enhancing drugs is at a "historic norm."
For what it's worth, Griffey is often cited as the exception to the ubiquitous steroid use in the '90s, but there's no way to know for sure.
Bigger ratings and profits
The MLB had a very good 2015, with a record-breaking $9.5 billion in revenue. The boost is thanks in no small part to huge media rights deals, Forbes notes, and the success of the streaming service MLB Advanced Media.
Ratings are on the rise too, with last year's playoffs attracting 3.74 million viewers, helped along by big-market teams making the playoffs. The LA Times reported that millions more followed along online through the league's live stat portal.
Streaming has changed the game
Perhaps the biggest change, at least from a business point of view, is the arrival of Major League Baseball Advanced Media, the MLB's streaming video team. BAM has distinguished itself as the cutting edge of not just sports but streaming entertainment in general.
That's important as more people cut the cord. Live sports are still a draw, but even that attraction is waning, and BAM has since helped power other leagues' digital business, as well as build HBO Now.
"As an Atlanta Braves fan who lives in Washington DC, the ability to get an MLB.tv subscription has been fantastic," Remington said. "I think in many ways its a remarkable time to be a fan."
As he and Mike Piazza head to the Hall of Fame, lets look back at the game as it was in the '90s.
07 Jan 14:39
A blizzard's toll: 30,000 dairy cows
by Andy Uhler
None!Though the numbers are still being calculated, it looks like more than 30,000 cows are dead because of a blizzard over Christmas weekend in Texas and New Mexico. Tara Vander Dussen runs Rajen Dairy in Clovis, New Mexico. She has about 10,000 cows and said her farm had to dump 10 tankers of finished milk because trucks couldn’t get there to pick it up.
“And that’s about the equivalent of $80,000,” she said.
New Mexico produces a lot of dairy. It's fourth in cheese production in the U.S. and ranks ninth in liquid milk. Vander Dussen said everyone she knows is in the dairy business. Her farm lost about 100 cows, and some neighbors lost many more.
“It was devastating to hear all the stories coming in from the storm because we are all so close,” she said.
Even though it seems like a lot of cows, Brian Gould, agricultural and applied economics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said it likely won't change national prices much. There are more than 9 million cows in the U.S., but this could still be tough for the region.
“I would think that most of those producers that were impacted sell to one plant," he said. "That plant could be severely impacted.”
The USDA will have a better idea of the storm’s effects when it releases its monthly report of milk production.
Storms that flooded Missouri also brought a blizzard to Texas and New Mexico
06 Jan 21:05
Prohibition-Era Parties Inspire a Basement for Entertaining (14 photos)
by Becky Harris
None!my apartment used to be a speak easy
Part of the inspiration for this extensive basement renovation was the idea of rollicking speakeasy-esque parties. “The homeowners found out that their house was a big party house during Prohibition, and so we wanted to riff on that idea,” designer Colleen Knowles says.
The 1922 Seattle home...
The 1922 Seattle home...
Ivan Bogush likes this
06 Jan 21:01
The face of Louis Vuitton's womenswear is a teenage boy
by Mukta Mohan
None!he is not good looking. but his girlfriend is (please be 18)
Will Smith's son Jaden is the new face of Louis Vuitton's womens wear campaign
06 Jan 14:40
Three Problems With Spreadsheet - Dilbert by Scott Adams
None!ha ha haha. i'm going to use that line...
06 Jan 14:37
How the strong dollar is hurting American tourism
by Mark Garrison
None!yes but it was really nice being able to walk around Manhattan yesterday.
The currency is sending foreigners elsewhere and Americans abroad.
05 Jan 21:09
Christmas Tree Decorating
by admin
How to quickly decorate a Christmas tree. Remember, we have tons of Christmas GIFs.
©Reaction GIFs, 2015. |
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Post tags: Christmas, Christmas tree, hax
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05 Jan 15:15
Free Rabies Vaccination Clinic
by dbryan
The Hoboken Health Department will host a free rabies vaccination clinic for dogs and cats on Saturday, January 23, 2016 from 11am to 2pm. The clinic will take place at the Multi-Service Center, located at 124 Grand Street. All dogs and cats must be securely fastened with a collar and leash or in a carrier and accompanied by an adult. Dog owners must have a 2016 Hoboken dog license which can be obtained on site. Proof of Hoboken residency is required. License fees are $10 if the pet is spayed/neutered and $14 for non-spayed/neutered. Click here to view the flyer with additional important information.
04 Jan 13:06
freezing
by admin
None!i heard its cold in NYC today
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