This Home Brewing Kit Will Produce A Drink For You In Less Than A Day

Coffee at home: Brew like a champ with the right tools - Food & Drink - The Sacramento Bee

Its now 2014, and it seems that interest in home brewing continues to rise; indeed, a Google Trends analysis shows that theres been a steady increase in home brewing kit queries since 2011. Many of these home brewing kits, however, require liquids to go through several days or weeks of fermentation before a drink is produced arguably far too long a period for beginners to go through the trial and error of concocting the perfect alcoholic beverage. Well, Idaho startup Ruckus Fermentation is offering the Bootlegger Bottle , which decreases that wait to less than a day. Google Trends show that home brewing kit has seen a gradual increase in search queries, beginning around 2011. Founded by Joshua Riley and Tushar Jain, Ruckus Fermentation offers patent-pending technology that simplifies the entire fermentation process, allowing for easier production ofwines, ciders, alcoholic cocktails, and others by literally anyone. All you have to do is pour your desired beverage mixture into the Bootlegger Bottle, close the lid, and let it ferment for at least 12 hours at room temperature. Homebrewing is a science, said Riley. This can make learning how to homebrew very complicated, and most times very expensive. Imagine investing hundreds of dollars and weeks of your time to make your own homebrew, and the end result isnt worth the bud light you pay for by the rack. While sales of home brewing kits have increased in recent years, the number of people who keep up with the hobby apparently dont match up with those entry stats. According to Riley, the majority of amateur home brewers dont continue with home brewing because of the amount of time and money that needs to be invested; theres little room for trial-and-error, and the rewards (if a drinkable beverage does actually result) dont make up for the amount of resources used. With the Bootlegger Bottle, those costs are drastically reduced. For many, Mr. Beer is their ingress into the world of home brewing; however, Mr. Beer beginner kits require many different pieces, and the fermentation process involves a 14-day minimum wait. This doesnt allow much opportunity for those starting out to actually play around, experiment, and actually enjoy the hobby. The Bootlegger Bottle merely requires the bottle itself and the companys BioEx Beads (the secret behind their quick fermentation process). Because of its simplicity, beginner home brewers can pursue the hobby with very few limitations. Said Riley: Other small homebrew kits like Mr. Beer have missed the point: nanobrewing isnt a way to make cheap booze, its a form of learning through trial and error. Nanobrewing should be simple enough to understand the first time, but complex enough for them to continue growing and learning how to make better alcoholic drinks.
Source http://tech.co/ruckus-fermentation-bootlegger-bottle-home-brewing-kit-make-alcohol-less-than-a-day-2014-05

Brewing up a celebration - Baltimore style - National Resort & Spa | Examiner.com

An eighth craft brewer is under construction, with plans to open in August. Those two counties have a combined population of nearly 206,000, according to state estimates. That comes out to one craft brewer for each batch of 25,700 residents compared with a national ratio of about 1 to 114,900 and a Wisconsin ratio of 1 to 63,500 residents. Portage and Marathon counties even beat Wisconsin craft beer hot-spot Dane County, where the ratio is about one brewery for every 45,200 residents. "Everyone is pushing each other, making good beer," said Marc Buttera, co-owner of O'so Brewing Co. in Plover. "Then, you look up, and you have four brewers in your county. It's crazy." Along with O'so, Portage County is home to Stevens Point Brewery in the city of the same name, which was ranked as Wisconsin's second-largest craft brewer in 2012 by the Brewers Association, a trade group based in Boulder, Colo. There's also Central Waters Brewing Co. in Amherst, and Kozy Yak Brewery, a small brewpub in Rosholt. Wausau has Bull Falls Brewery and two brewpubs: Red Eye Brewing Co. and Great Dane Pub & Brewing Co., part of a Madison-based group. Marathon County's fourth craft brewer, North Abbey Brewing Co., is opening in Mosinee. Dane County makes sense as a place where craft beer accounts for about 20% of the local market, compared with the craft beer segment's 8% nationwide market share: With the University of Wisconsin-Madison, there's a more educated, wealthier population that tends to favor beers from places like Capital Brewery and Ale Asylum. Scratch the surface in Wausau and Stevens Point, and you'll find some similarities. "We like the demographics. There's some money up there," said Eliot Butler, owner of Great Dane, which operates three brewpubs in the Madison area, along with the Wausau location. Wausau includes a relatively sizable number of people who earn good incomes in such industries as papermaking and insurance, Butler said. He declined to provide sales volume for Great Dane's local operations but said the business has grown after Butler's company reopened a failed brewpub in 2009. The shuttered brewpub, Hereford & Hops, once employed Kevin Eichelberger, who also previously worked for Great Dane in Madison. In 2008, Eichelberger opened Red Eye Brewing, which last year sold 532 barrels. This year's first-quarter sales were up 14% over the same period in 2013, with local patrons broadening their tastes for various beer styles such as India pale ales, he said. Stevens Point, like Madison, has a University of Wisconsin campus, a flourishing arts community and a strong tendency to buy locally grown foods from nearby organic farms, said Central Waters co-owner Anello Mollica. "The people in this market really like to support local," Mollica said. Dave Holborn and Doug Gilberts are part of the "drink local" crowd. The two retirees were sipping beers late Thursday afternoon at O'so Brewing's tap room, as Buttera chatted with other customers and his wife and co-owner, Katina, and son, Dylan, worked behind the bar. "It's fun to be able to talk to the owners," Gilberts said. Both he and Holborn said O'so also is known for supporting local charities. And the beer is very good. "It's legitimate," Holborn said.
Source http://www.jsonline.com/business/central-wisconsin-craft-breweries-thrive-off-roots-in-home-brewing-b99273461z1-260624911.html

Reno News & Review - Strange brew - 15 Minutes - Opinions - May 22, 2014

13-14, 1814. As part of the Star Spangled Summer celebration, Baltimore craft breweries are offering a variety of beverages for locals and visitors to toast the Anthem and Americas victory (again) over Great Britain in the War of 1812 , which ended in December 1814. For example, with 12 percent patriotism in every standard drink, Baltimore-based Union Craft Brewings Anthem Golden Ale is a light golden ale brewed with American grown barley, wheat, corn, and oats, and lightly hopped with Columbus for bittering and a kiss of floral Mosaic. For a stronger taste of Baltimore try Flying Dogs Dead Rise Old Bay Summer Ale, launching this weekend for summer distribution in New York, Washington D.C., Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey and North Carolina. If there is anything better than Baltimore brew, its Maryland blue crabs. To celebrate the 75th anniversary of Old Bay, Flying Dog Brewmaster Matt Brophy traveled to Baltimore to meet with the flavouring expert of McCormick, the iconic Maryland company that began in Baltimore in 1889, and owns the Old Bay recipe. With the basic Old Bay recipe scribbled on a napkin, and six months of development time, Flying Dog created a German-style wheat ale with a crisp dose of floral hops and familiar Old Bay notes of celery salt, white and black pepper, and garlic salt. A portion of proceeds from Dead Rise will be donated to True Blue, a program that advocates on behalf of the Chesapeake Bays 5,500 watermen and promotes sustainably harvested Maryland Blue Crab. Baltimore, founded in large part by hard-working, hard-drinking German immigrants, is home to a number of large and small breweries big and small, award-winning gypsy brewers, beer-mixologists, tap houses and sports bars, each serving the best of local ales, pills, IPAs and stouts. I found some of the city's best craft beers along with its best attractions and activities for a summer Beer-cation trail. It was a tough job, but somebody had to do it. VINTAGE BALTIMORE BREWS Pratt Street Ale House, Inner Harbor 206 West Pratt Street Dating back to 1888 when Pratt Street was first constructed in the heart of Baltimores Inner Harbor, the Pratt Street Ale Houses story is that of the neighborhood itself. In 1940s, the building was turned into the Pratt Furniture Company until 1980, when it housed its first bar and grill, P.J. Cricketts. In 1992, the Olivers turned P.J. Crickkets into the Wharf Rat. The brewery was added in 1993 and has created award-winning ales ever since, making Oliver Breweries Baltimores longest-running brew pub. Serving Olivers brews, the Pratt Street Ale House been named Best Brew Pub three times in the past decade by Baltimore Magazine and City Paper. http://www.prattstreetalehouse.com/ Baltimore Brew: ESBCask-conditioned, its an English strong red ale Pair with: Sports Legends Museum, Geppis Entertainment Museum BEERS ON BEERS ON BEERS Maxs Tap House, Fells Point 737 S Broadway In the heart of historic Fells Point by the Inner Harbor Maxs Tap House is legendary for having Marylands largest selection of local and imported beer with 140 rotating drafts, five hand-pumped cask ales, and a world-spanning collection of approximately 1,200 bottled beers in stock. http://www.maxs.com/ Baltimore Brew: Evolution, Stillwater Artisanal Ales Pair With: Frederick Douglass Museum, Robert McClintock Studio, Charm City Food Tour, Chost Tour POST MODERN BEERS Of Love & Regret - Stillwater Ales, Brewers Hill 1028 S Conkling St A beer company and art collective, gypsy brewer Stillwater Artisanal Ale has found a new home in Of Love & Regret, featuring famed brewer Brian Stumkes brews plus a menu crafted around them. Top selection is the Stateside Saison - Stillwaters flagship brew, Stateside Saison is naturally brewed with the finest European malts & fresh aromatic hops form the US & New Zealand. Baltimore Brew: Stateside Saison, Cellar Door, Autumnal, Existent. Pair With: Canton Waterfront Park MEET THE BREWERS Heavy Seas Alehouse, Little Italy 1300 Bank St Meet the Heavy Seas Alehouse brewers in the old Holland Tack Factory building, where the Alehouse combines the charm and character of the historic space with the bold industrial elements that occupied the building for more than 90 years making fasteners that went into major league baseballs, countless school bulletin boards and enough sofas to seat all of Baltimore. During the Civil War, the building served as a hospital for Confederate soldiers. Baltimore Brew: Heavy Seas Gold, Heavy Seas Cutlas Amber, Heavy Seas Powder Monkey Pale Ale Pair With: Reginald F. Lewis Museum, Star-Spangled Banner Flag House CRAFT BREWERY TOURS Union Craft Brewing, Woodberry 1700 UNION AVE Along the Jones Falls River in Baltimores historic Woodberry neighborhood, The Union Craft Brewery makes beer with reverence for tradition that unites old and new ideas, the science and craft of brewing, and the boldness and balance of flavor. Founded in the fall of 2011 by Kevin Blodger, Adam Benesch and Jon Zerivitz, brewing operations officially began in the spring of 2012 with the installation of a 20 barrel brewhouse and the initial launch of Duckpin Pale Ale. The brewery is open to the public for free tours and tastings every Saturday from 1-4pm. Happy Hour from 5pm 8pm Thursday and Friday. Baltimore Brew: Duckpin Pale Ale and Balt Altbier Pair with: Art on Purpose, Heavy Seas Brewery, Corredetti Glassblowing Studios COME FOR THE BREWS, STAY FOR THE BOOKS Eightbar at Atomic Books, Hampden Village 3620 Falls Rd Baltimore's legendary, alternative, independent bookstore specializing in zines, comix, self-published periodicals and fringe non-fiction now has its own craft beer bar in the heart of Hampden. No neighborhood says Bawlmer quite like north Baltimores Hampden, a 19th- century blue-collar mill town that has evolved into the epicenter of hipster Baltimore kitsch with original shops and an eccentric array of cafes mingling with the barber shops and pharmacies that keep this authentic, hard-working neighborhood real. Baltimore Brew: Elysian Brewing Companys Oddland series, which is a collaboration with artists from Fantagraphics Books (which Atomic carries) Pair With: Cafe Hon, Ma Petite Shoe WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO MAKE A NEW BEER AT ANY TIME The Brewers Art, Mt Vernon 1106 N Charles St Set in a grand Mt. Vernon townhouse, The Brewer's Art Crafthouse features 4 main beers and 20 seasonal beers brewed in house. Its beers have been named No. 1 on the Baltimore Suns list of Top 20 Beers in Maryland, CNBC named it as a Top-Notch Brewpub Brews and Esquire Magazine ranked it the number one bar in America. Baltimore Brew: Resurrection, Ozzy, Birdhouse, Saison Pecore, plus Brewer's Art remixes Pair With: Walters Art Museum, Maryland Historical Society DOG DAY AFTERNOON Pub-Dog, Federal Hill 20 E Cross St Nestled in Historic Federal Hill, the original Pub Dog is a locally owned and operated pizza and drafthouse serving up some of the best personal-size gourmet pizza and house-brewed craft beer. Its Dog Deal - two mugs of the same kind at the same time for only $4.50 Baltimore Brew: Imperial Dog, Bloodhound, Grand Mariner Ale and Fest Dog, Pub Dogs Oktoberfest Ale Pair With: Maryland Science Center, American Visionary Art Museum TAKE ME OUT TO THE BEER GAME Dempseys Brew Pub & Restaurant, Oriole Park at Camden Yards Oriole Park at Camden Yards, 333 West Camden Street Named after beloved former Baltimore Oriole Rick Dempsey, the sports bar is open daily on Eutaw Street at Oriole Park at Camden Yards for the ultimate beer experience among Orioles memorabilia and accomplishments of the Orioles Hall of Fame and the MVP of the 1983 World Series. Add to that 20 bottled beers, including 10 local and regional craft brews, plus some themed beer go-withs like the Black and Orange Burger, Camden Yards Crab Cakes, and the Dempsey Club. Baltimore Brew: Ricks Red Ale, Wild Pitch Wheat, Rain Delay IPA, and The 83 Golden Ale Pair With: Sports Legends Museum at Camden Yards, Babe Ruth Birthplace Museum COCKTAIL HOUR B&O American Brasserie, Inner Harbor 2 N Charles St Where American Dining meets the American Rail, the B&O is a combination of style and substance worthy of the legendary Baltimore & Ohio Railway's headquarters, complete with original Beaux-Arts architecture and touches from old B&O railway carriages, and dining cars like The York. B&O Master Mixologist Brendan Dorr ensures the cocktail menu is never without a beer-inspired . Baltimore Brew: Suds Bucket... (Recipe: Barenjager, Allspice Dram, Lemon Juice, and Allagash White Ale) Pair With: Inner Harbor Waterfront
Source http://www.examiner.com/article/brewing-up-a-celebration-baltimore-style

BC's craft beer boom fuelled by homebrewers |2| Brewed Awakening blog | The Province

Essential traits include attention to detail (measurements and timing can be crucial the length of the boil, when ingredients are added, for example); patience (conditioning beer, particularly lager, can take weeks); and cleanliness (the smallest contamination can spoil a whole batch, though this can also lead to some serendipitously delicious creations). Booth says a good brewer shares many attributes with a good chef. Someone thats got a good palate and balance. You dont need to be a rocket science, but if you know the science it definitely helps. A good sense of taste and judgment and creativity, says Booth, an experienced homebrewer himself. Overall, theres a particular mix of art and science, theory and practice to the process. You need to know some science behind the whole brewing process but then you have a lot of space for flexibility and creativity, says David Bowkett, a homebrewer who went on to set up Powell Street Craft Brewery in East Vancouver. Ive always liked doing things myself and being hands on. David Bowkett at Powell Street Craft Brewery in Vancouver. Im an engineer originally and I find it does tend to attract a lot of those types, says Chad McCarthy, another long-term homebrewer. theyre very much do-it-yourselfers, inventors that like to build equipment. This surge in interest in amateur brewing has resulted in an interesting mix of people that gather for the monthly meetings of VanBrewers , Vancouvers homebrewing society. Co-founded by Graham With in 2010, VanBrewers quickly gathered more than 100 members. A huge amount of homebrewers came out of the woodwork, recalls McCarthy. Tons of people like me brewing in their basements not knowing anyone else existed. VanBrewers quickly became known as a place to get inspiration and education. We offer quite the resource for people to improve, says Scott Butchart, who took over as VanBrewers president after With stepped down to focus on his job. Obviously when most people start out theyre not so great and they struggle a bit. People say they come to our meetings and they leave with 100 per cent more knowledge than they came with we have a really well rounded, well experienced group that can help you. VanBrewers president Scott Butchart with a sleeve of his homebrewed brown porter. That help comes from the collective knowledge of the many and variously skilled people who attend VanBrewers meetings. Such as the web designer with the award-winning barley wine; the opthalmologist who some say makes the best lagers in Canada; or McCarthy, an electrical engineer-turned lawyer whos a certified cicerone a beer expert on par with a wine sommelier as well as a national-rank beer judge. Im not as accomplished as a brewer but Im interested in the science of it and the judging aspect of it, training yourself to know what a beer should taste like and if it doesnt taste right, what might be wrong and provide advice to people, McCarthy says. (Theres) a little bit of an art to it as well as a science. Electrical engineer-turned lawyer Chad McCarthy is also a long-time homebrewer, member of VanBrewers, certified cicerone and beer judge. Hes pictured at an educational off-flavours class he taught last year. * * * With all this focused intensity among a tight-knit group of skilled crafters, itll come as little surprise to learn that some homebrewers can become obsessed. A phrase that seems to be in common use in brewing circles is going down the rabbit hole. And indeed, homebrewing offers a Wonderland of possibilities thats only limited by the crafters imagination and availability of ingredients. Tak Guenette left the rabbit hole for a brewing job at Steamworks in 2012, but he still burrows back into it several nights a week. Not content with his full-time position at the Vancouver brewpub, Guenette finds the time to brew up to four batches a week in the den of his apartment. I do have a bit more of a creative freedom to do odd things, Guenette says of his homebrewing.I can brew something exactly the way I want it, something with my tastes in mind. Steamworks brewer Tak Guenette with his homebrewing setup at his Vancouver apartment. Guenette says he began homebrewing because he simply couldnt find the styles he wanted to drink. Since then, hes become a local expert in lesser-seen English stylessuch as mild ale, which he often conditions in a traditional cask. He does admit his double brewing duty is slightly excessive. His fiancee, with whom he shares his apartment, likely agrees. We made an agreement when we moved in to a larger place, a one-bedroom plus den, that I put everything into that one small room so she can close the door and not look at it.
Source http://blogs.theprovince.com/2014/05/26/craft-beer-starts-at-home-how-homebrewers-are-fuelling-the-b-c-beer-boom-part-2/

How to Build a Home-Brew Radon Detector - IEEE Spectrum

Griffin Print Photo: Jon Holmes Over the past few years Ive designed a number of radon detectors; building them is an opportunity to work on multidisciplinary projects with a social benefit. Worldwide, naturally occurring radioactive radon gas seeps from rocks and soils, where it can accumulate in buildings at hazardous levels. The World Health Organization estimates that as many as 14 percent of lung cancers are due to radon exposure. In my work at Carleton University, in Canada, Ive used custom integrated circuits and specially programmed microcontrollers for my designs, but recently I wondered how I could make a detector with spare parts lying around my basement. It turns out that you can make a cheap and effective radon detector with five basic elements: a webcam, a funnel covered with copper tape and mesh, a voltage multiplier built from some basic electrical components, a box, and a computer. The system works because radon and some of its daughter products emit alpha particles as they decay. These alpha particles are responsible for most of the damage to human tissue that occurs when radon gas is inhaled, but they will also produce a slew of electron-hole pairs that show up as illuminated pixels should they strike the CMOS image sensor chip thats at the heart of many webcams. As alpha particles dont travel very far through solid matter, its necessary to cut away the protective cover over the webcams image sensor. Starting with a spare Microsoft LifeCam VX-2000 webcam (about US $20 to $30 online), I cut away the protective cover using a Dremel tool and covered the indicator LED with electricaltape. Putting the modified webcam into a dark, ventilated box and connecting it to a computer via a USB connection gave me a workingbut very slowradon detector. In order to make it more sensitive, I added an electrostatic concentrator to capture one of radons alpha-particle-emitting daughter products. When radon decays into polonium-218, the polonium is usually left with a positive charge, so it can be swept toward the webcams image sensor with a suitably shaped electric field. Some copper tape (VentureTape 1626) and a powder funnel (I happened to have a Nalgene 4252-0100 powder funnel on hand) is all you need to make a two-electrode electrostatic concentrator that creates a field of the right shape. I applied the copper tape to the interior of the funnel, making sure to preserve electrical contact for both electrodes. I used a bottom electrode size and spacing of 15 millimeters. I then stretched copper mesh over the top, soldered a few spots into position, and I was done. To get an idea of how the concentrator would behave and how strong a field I would need to generate, I modeled it using Comsol s multiphysics simulation software. For a concentrator 10centimeters high, I estimated that an electric field strength of 50volts per meter would suffice for collecting charged polonium-218. Although high voltages are required at the concentrators electrodes to create this field, they arent that hard to generate because, effectively, no current will be drawn between the electrodes. Photos: Clockwise from top: Ryan Griffin (2); Jon Holmes RadCam: Copper foil and mesh applied to a funnel [top] form the electrodes for an electrostatic concentrator that boosts the count rate of the radon detector. The high voltages required are provided by a voltage multiplier [bottom left]. The detector itself is a CMOS-based webcam with its image sensor exposed [bottom right]. I put together a 12-stage Cockcroft-Walton voltage multiplier driven by a bipolar 555 timer feeding a Triad Magnetics SP-4 audio transformer. The multiplier converted a 15-V supply to the 1370V and 990 V I needed for the upper and lower concentrator electrodes, respectively. Although you should be careful dealing with voltages as high as these, the voltage multiplier supplies so little current that an accidental contact shouldnt be lethal. I also used small (1 nanofarad) capacitors to avoid a dangerous buildup of charge. But again, be careful, and proceed at your own risk. Turning on the high-voltage concentrator improved the count rate of the detector by 25 times or more. Not bad for an old funnel and copper tape! I used Matlab software to control the webcam and also analyze the data. As the image sensor can potentially also detect less strongly interacting beta particles, I set the detection threshold, over which a pixel is considered to have been struck by an alpha, high enough to avoid noise and beta impacts. Also, when the sensor is struck by an alpha particle, an entire cluster of adjacent pixels will often register the impact, so its necessary to identify any clusters to avoid overcounting strikes. I used an 8-nearest-neighbor algorithm to find clusters. In all, it took about 100 lines of code. Calibrated with a Safety Siren Pro Series3 radon detector (about $130), my system counted 5.2 alpha strikes per hour in an ambient radon concentration of 159 becquerels per cubic meter. At this level of sensitivity it would take the detector about 20 hours to determine whether radon was present at levels recommended as actionable by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency with about 10 percent accuracy. (For the future of this detector, I am thinking of using electrostatics-modeling software to optimize the concentrator shape, electrode size, and voltage to make an even more efficient detector. It would also be interesting to rigorously calibrate the detector and observe activity dependencies on temperature, humidity, and the presence of airborne particulates.) If you build a similar detector yourself and start reading high counts, contact a professional (or buy a calibrated detector). It might be time for radon mitigation in your own home. This article originally appeared in print as DIY Radon Detector. Learn More
Source http://spectrum.ieee.org/geek-life/hands-on/how-to-build-a-homebrew-radon-detector

Indian beer hobbyists are not just brewing pints at home, they're giving it a desi touch Brewers have had hits and misses. Sameer Madan remembers his first batch -"It was the worst and left my father, who tried it, very sleepy even though the alcohol content wasn't very high" On May 16, as the election results were announced, Pune-based Sameer Madan cracked open a bottle of beer. Nothing exceptional about that except that it wasn't just any beer but a bottle of the latest batch of his own home-brewed beer a mango ale with the aroma and flavour of that king of fruits, the Alphonso. In a country where it's difficult to lay your hands on any of the ingredients to home-brew beer and where the only choice when it comes to beer is largely lager, a bunch of home brewers are going against the grain and brewing various beers from stouts and ales to wheat beers and dunkels. Mumbai-based Navin Mittal went from being a beer drinker to a beer buff while living in the US. After coming back home, he told people, as every Indian does, to bring back alcohol from trips abroad. Only he didn't want an expensive single malt or a triple distilled vodka, but a six-pack. But there's only so long that you can make a six-pack last, and one fine day as he was having a drink, he decided to look up home brewing. "I was surprised at the amount of information on the web," says Mittal. It took some doing to source the ingredients etc but he finally managed to make his own. "The first one was pretty decent," he says. "I couldn't believe I had created beer. I opened the bottle, it had head and fizz... oh my god... that's when I got hooked." An impatient brewer, he kept checking on his second batch so much so that it got infected, but since then there's been no looking back and he has brewed about 150 batches to date. Though brewing has taught him patience, he does keep trying the brew so that sometimes by the time it is prime, as the adage goes, 'when beer is the best, the home brewer has none.' Not so with Delhi-based musician Garreth D'Mello whose interest was sparked off when his girlfriend, aware of his passion for alcohol, gifted him a book on home brewing. "I read it more than any textbook I've ever read. By the time I started brewing I knew most of the book by heart," says D'Mello, 35, who still has a couple of pints left from each of the batches he has brewed, an ale and a stout, but "now that I know it's happening, I'm not rationing it so carefully." It's a challenging hobby, not just because of the technicalities involved, but also because India lacks a home brew culture and brew shops where one can pick up equipment and ingredients. Bangalorebased consultant Archit Agrawal says his first shopping expedition yielded nothing. "We didn't get anything except baker's yeast which was useless to us," he says with a laugh. If some brewers here have understood the alchemy of alcohol, some of the credit goes to 40-yearold Mittal, who blogged about his experiences and experiments on indianbeergeek.com. He wrote in detail about the equipment one needs, how to DIY it and exactly where to source ingredients. The hops and yeast have to be imported though grain can be sourced from Gurgaon. "The yeast can be reused, I take a portion and keep it aside," says Chennai-based Harsh Bansal, who had a few failed batches initially until he figured out the processes with a little help from Mittal. He now brews almost every week. They've all had their share of hits and misses. Madan, who has so far brewed about 15 batches of beer, among them the German style Hefeweizen, Irish ale, American Amber ale and, of course, the latest mango one, remembers his first batch. "It was the worst and left my father, who tried it, very sleepy even though the alcohol content wasn't very high." "But even my crappiest beer would be better than the packaged beer available," adds Bansal. And once you've got the equipment in place, probably cheaper too. "My first batch, a simple ale, cost me about Rs 100 a pint, far cheaper than an imported ale," says D'Mello. Some brewers have moved on from simpler brews to customizing, tweaking and flavouring to go local and seasonal. Prateeksh Mehra's paan brew with betel leaves from his own back garden has turned out "a brilliant, brilliant beer". "It was a refreshing beer, it opens up in the mouth with the soft notes of gulkand and supari," says the commercial photographer whose pints don't last very long, especially if he has a party. Friends of Delhi-based Hanumant Sakhuja, who did a course in the UK and brews regularly, don't buy lager since he brings his beer along to parties. Besides the house parties, brewing throws open opportunities to exchange notes and brews. "It's a community of like-minded people who share the same philosophies in life," says Aurelia Bhoy, 24, who did her Masters in brewing and distilling in the UK and is now a brewer at The Brew Pub in Pune. She and Mittal, who quit his job at a website, and with partners Rahul Mehra and Krishna Naik set up the Gateway Brewing Company that currently offers its craft beer at seven bars in Mumbai, may brew professionally but they remain enthusiastic home brewers. "It's so stress-busting, you forget your worries," says Mittal. "Besides, I can't ask a microbrewery to brew 10-20 litres of a beer just because I want to have it," says Bhoy, who wants to do a mango beer too. "It's about learning and having your own signature. Home brewing is so much fun, and at the end of it you get beer. It's a win-win situation."
Source http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/stoi/deep-focus/Getting-ahead/articleshow/35581492.cms

Molly Pitcher Brewing Co. to open in Carlisle with taproom | PennLive.com

to open in Carlisle with taproom Molly Pitcher An artist rendering of what the front of Molly Pitcher Brewing Co. will look like when it opens this summer in Carlisle. (Provided ) Molly Pitcher Brewing Co. will begin brewing this summer in Carlisle. The microbrewery and taproom will open at 10 E. South St., and joins a growing list of new breweries including Alter Ego Brewing in Harrisburg and Moo-Duck Brewing in Elizabethtown popping up on the Central Pennsylvania beer scene. Molly Pitcher operations manager Mike Moll said the facility will include an open floor plan with a 30-seat taproom serving light fare. Patrons will be able to watch the brewing operations from the taproom. Molly Pitcher is the brainchild of four partners, all Carlisle residents and avid homebrewers, who along with Moll, include brewmaster Zachary Ziegler, brewer Tim Fourlas and CFO Brandon Bear. Together, they have a combined 30 years experience in home brewing. "It's always been something each of us has talked about and wanted to do for a long time, and we finally decided to make it happen instead of just talking about it," Moll said. Molly Pitcher will brew on a seven barrel system with an estimated initial capacity of 700 to 1,000 barrels, he said. The partners plan to brew a wide range of styles that include IPAs and pale ales but focus on "malt styles opposed to the fad of hop-centric beers that are popular right now," Moll said. "We consider ourselves malt-heads, if there is such a thing," he added. They plan to operate four days a week. In addition, Moll said the beers will be on tap at other midstate restaurants and bars.
Source http://www.pennlive.com/food/index.ssf/2014/05/molly_pitcher_brewing_company.html

Central Wisconsin craft breweries thrive off roots in home brewing

It's called Imbib Custom Brews, and its the kind of thing at which Reno and its denizens have long excelled. All the details can be found at www.indiegogo.com/projects/imbib-custom-brews-help-us-find-a-home . Tell me a little bit about what you have going. My partners [Jason Green and Bart Blank] and I are working on a brewery that engages people in the process far more than your average brewery. We're all homebrewers, so we really want to brew beer and get it out into people's hands in a different way. One way is a club-based model that is based on community-supported agriculture, where somebody pays an annual fee, and they get a guaranteed quantity of beer once a month, and they also get a say in what we brewnot everything we brew, but some of the stuff that we brew. It's a new model. There's a few people around the country doing it, but it hasn't really been totally tested yet. That's one piece. Whats another? Continuing on the theme of engaging people, we know that there's a niche market for custom brews, for people's weddings, events, things like that. I've done this many times as a home brewerbrewed a beer for a friend's wedding. But again, we're trying to take it to another level where we would actually provide a service where we could provide a custom brew. Part of it is like a consultation process, where you'd taste eight different beers, you'd tell us what you like. We'd get a range of beers, you'd tell us what you like about each of those, and then we'd design a recipe around that. I suppose youd have specialized labels for a larger event. Exactly. Im getting the idea. Not only the recipe, but a custom package so that it demonstrates that the event is unique in some way. Part of our model is to really engage the home brewing community. There are a couple of home brew shops, one home brew shop that just opened up in Reno, and then there's the existing one. We still think that we would provide supplies in some ways, but we probably wouldn't launch a retail part of our business, just because Its probably not sustainable for three homebrew shops in Reno. Yeah, exactly. I see it as part of the Indiegogo campaign, it includes lifetime memberships and those sorts of things. You just started that off. What made you decide that method for getting funding? We have been working on this model for a little while. In a typical scenario, you would probably do the Indiegogo piece last. But we need both big and small investors. Indiegogo is obviously on the smaller side. But for us to get our brewery up and running, we have to have a physical space. Before you can even apply for a license, you've got to have a space. Right now we need that funding to get into a space so that we can get our licensing and really start putting out a product. We're fearful that if we wait until some of the other funding pieces come into place, just given the competitiveness of brewing in Reno, and the buzz we've built at this point, that might die out pretty quickly, and so we've been donating beer to a lot of events as home brewers, and we just felt like there were enough people talking about it, that this was the time to strike.
Source http://www.newsreview.com/reno/strange-brew/content?oid=13503149

Getting ahead - The Times of India

25, 2014 - 12:00 am Copyright 2014 The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. The ideal way to experience the elevated quality of coffee in Sacramento is to drop by one of the leading shops and enjoy a cup made with skill and precision. But the best coffee people want you to make great coffee at home, too. Several shops teach classes, many of them for free, on everything from coffee-brewing basics and home-roasting to the wonders of latte art. There are several ways to brew excellent coffee at home with plenty of room for innovation and tweaking. But there are a couple of fundamentals: You need high-caliber whole beans, and you must grind immediately before brewing. A quality burr grinder costs $75 to $200 or more (cheaper blade grinders shred the beans and compromise flavor). For some methods, youll need a kettle. Electric kettles are best and cost $50 to $100. For precision, use an instant-read thermometer to get the water to 195 to 205 degrees Fahrenheit. 1. Electric drip machine, $50 to $200-plus Most basic drip coffee machines dont get the water hot enough to extract the right balance of flavor out of the ground coffee. The Bonavita Exceptional Brew costs $169 and has a block heater that quickly gets the water temperature to 200-205 degrees. Further, the thermal carafe keeps the brewed coffee hot for hours. A hot plate and a glass carafe will make the coffee taste burnt the longer it sits on the hot plate. Coffee geek upgrade: I forgo the paper filters in my Bonavita (even with rinsing, I can taste the paper) and use a stainless steel filter from Able Brewing. The drawback? It costs $60. 2. French press, $25-plus This is one of the simplest ways to make good coffee. For a time, this method fell out of favor, mostly because poor quality beans tended to taste bitter with French press. But if you appreciate top-notch beans and use a coarser grind, you can easily achieve a full-bodied, expressive and nuanced cup of coffee in about 3 to 5 minutes. You heat water, put the proper ratio of coffee to water (standard is 2 tablespoons coffee for 6 ounces of water) in the carafe and steep for the allotted time. Push the filter to the bottom and pour. The nice thing is you can play with the ratio to get the strength of flavor youre after. 3. Aeropress, about $30 This simple little device has taken the serious coffee world by storm. Not only does it make a very good cup of coffee, but there are hacks you can apply to alter the process and make even better coffee. A stainless steel filter upgrade allows the coffee oils to add body and additional flavor to the cup. The drawback: You can make only one cup at a time. The advantage over French press: easy clean-up. 4. Chemex, $35 to $45 This elegant and simple device is a large, shapely glass carafe that showcases the pour-over method on a large scale. The one feature the manufacturer touts is the extra thickness of its paper filters, which are supposed to reduce bitterness. You add the ground coffee to the top of the filter, then slowly pour hot water over it. Takes about five minutes. Because the paper can come through in the taste of the finished coffee, you must pre-rinse the filters. A better solution is to use to use the after-market stainless steel filter by Able Brewing ($60). 5. Pour-over, also known as V60, $3 to $30 Before the advent of third-wave coffee, this was known as the Melitta method (after drip-method inventor Melitta Bentz). You place a plastic or ceramic dripper on top of your cup, insert a filter, add coffee and water. When you get the ratio down, youll have a consistently good cup of coffee. Call The Bees Blair Anthony Robertson, (916) 321-1099. Follow him on Twitter @Blarob .
Source http://www.sacbee.com/2014/05/25/6426301/with-right-approach-and-tools.html