I get tons of searches on Fermentarium looking for answers to different brewing questions.  I’ve collected some of the more common questions here with answers.

How do you add alcohol to beer?

I usually tell people “it is a white powder I special order from Malaysia”.  I guess there is a grain of truth to this.  I add yeast to the wort, which in dry form looks like a coarse powder.  To make a beverage alcoholic, you need to ferment it.  The fermentation process occurs when yeast convert available sugars to alcohol and carbon dioxide.  When the fermentation is complete, the liquid contains alcohol.

How do I read a hydrometer?

I find it interesting this is the number one search which brings people to Fermentarium.  Reading a hydrometer is very simple.  Place you hydrometer into your jar with the solution you wish to measure.  Read the value at the bottom of the meniscus.  You can find more information on reading the hydrometer with this article .

How do I make hard cider?

I use this recipe when I make my hard cider.  The recipe really is just apple juice, some sugar, and yeast.  The important step I use when making cider is to add apple concentrate after the apple juice is fermented and stabilized.  This gives the cider a sweeter apple flavor.  The cider is very popular in the summer.

Does beer contain sulfites?

Small amounts of sulfite are produced in the fermentation of alcoholic beverages.  Most breweries have limits on the amount of sulfite that can be present in the beer.  The sulfite could be added as a preservative in some rare cases, or simply be a byproduct of the fermentation.  The Food and Drug Administration in the United States requires any beverage which has more than 10 parts per million (ppm) to include a warning on the label.  I have not seen many beers with a “Contains Sulfites” warning on the label, so most beers should be below 10 ppm.  German beers will not have sulfites added, but the beers may still contain some sulfites from fermentation.
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How do I brew spirits?

You can’t really “brew” spirits like vodka or gin. To make spirits, you first need to ferment a strong alcoholic beverage.  Then the alcohol is distilled from the beverage.  The alcohol is distilled by raising the temperature of the alcoholic beverage to the point where the alcohol boils, but water does not.  The ethanol steam is collected, possibly distilled again, charcoal filtered, and then the result is your spirit.  It is quite a bit of work and requires specialized equipment.  It is illegal to produce spirits in many countries, including the United States, but the equipment is readily available.  The distillation equipment is meant for ethanol production (gas), but it also works for spirits.  Personally I think it is more work than it is worth.

Can you homebrew/make ice wine?

Yes, kinda.  If you have access to the grapes, you can make any wine.  To make a true ice wine , you need to harvest the grapes after they have over-ripened and frozen on the vine.  There are only three places in the world where it gets cold enough for this to happen on a consistent basis: Ontario, Germany, and New Zealand.  However, you can make a very good approximation using a wine kit. 

You could also freeze your grapes, and press the frozen grapes.  To do this, you need a press which can provide a lot of pressure.  Your goal is to get a must with a brix over 30.  It’s a lot of work, and you will never get the same flavors you would get from ripe grapes frozen on the vine.  I’d recommend the icewine-style wine kit.

How do you make lambic?

It’s a long article to describe how to make this delicious beer.  Too much to describe here, but luckily I’ve already covered it.  The basic process is to add a lambic blend to your beer.  The lambic blend includes Brettanomyces, Saccharomyces, and the bacterial strains Lactobacillus and Pediococcus.

What do I clean my kegs with?

Cleaning kegs is very easy.  I use soap and water.  Rinse the kegs very thoroughly.  For the harder to remove deposits, I use PBW.  Once the keg is clean, I sanitize the keg with a one-step solution.

Can homebrew beer be poisonous?

No.  There are no known pathogens which can live in alcohol.  This does not mean your beer cannot taste foul.  You might have a nasty tasting beer that induces vomit, but it is not poisonous.  One caveat: you can get alcohol poisoning if you drink too much, just like regular beer.

Why does my beer have no alcohol?

If your beer is as sweet as the day you pitched your yeast, your beer does not have alcohol because it did not ferment.  There are many causes for this, but the most common reason is your yeast was dead.  It might have been dead before you pitched, or you might have killed the yeast when you pitched.  Here are some points to consider before you pitch your yeast.

Do you have a question?

If you have questions you would like answered in a future article, please use the contact us page .  I’ll collect the questions and answer them in future posts!

What’s in a name?  Nothing and everything if you’re planting champagne grapes. 

I find this bizarre and somewhat annoying.  Everyone knows “true champagne” comes from the Champagne region in France.  Everything bubbly outside of this area is just sparkling wine.  For some arbitrary reason, grapes grown on one side of the line are expensive and coveted while the other grapes are just grapes.  This random designation is called “appellation”.  

The champagne name was originally protected in the Treaty of Madrid (1891) and later added to the Treaty of Versailles after World War One just in case anyone forgot.  The French are so protective of this name they have even stopped the town of Champagne, Switzerland from using their own town’s name on any wine sold.  They cannot put Champagne on the bottle.  The French will surrender anything to just about everyone, but never on the Champagne name.

The purpose is to control who can use the “champagne name”.  You wouldn’t want a wine from Egypt labeled “champagne” if you were looking to purchase real thing from France (however the name “Camel Piss Champagne” might give it away).  This nomenclature mixup would be misleading to the consumer, and creates room for deceit on the part of the seller.  

Appellation also makes a big difference in the price you can sell your grapes.  On one side of the line you can get 1 million Euros per hectare of grapes.  If your grapes are on the wrong side of the line, they are worth only 5,000 Euros per hectare.  That is a HUGE difference in price.

The true purpose of this appellation is money and greed.  A grape grown on one side of the line does not guarantee the flavor is any better than a grape grown on the wrong side of the appellation line.  

If there is any doubt this is purely a money thing - get this.  The French don’t think they are making enough champagne for the world.  Markets in Russia, China and Japan are driving up the demand for the “special” sparkling wine.  How do they solve this problem?  They redraw the lines of course.
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You read that right.  The French are planning to extend the region by 2,500 acres.  Grapes which were once labeled substandard are now worth a cool million per hectare.  It’s that easy.  Growers who are on the right side of the fence will see their crop values skyrocket.  These grapes are greener than the other side.

So next time someone breaks out a bottle of “true” champagne, you will have to ask yourself, “is this the one and only champagne from inside the box before 2008, or is this the one and only champagne from just outside the old box but still inside the new box after 2008”.  Of course your grandfather will be quick to point out the champagne from his day was even better, back before they redrew the lines in 1927. 

All I can say is that I want one. 

How cool is this?  Amber Iris Limited in the UK makes inflatable pubs.  It is like a great big jumpy castle for adults!



There are 4 pubs to choose from, with the largest pub being about 1100 square feet inside with a 27 foot high ceiling.  The interior is painted to look like a pub, complete with paintings, hanging fish, and an Inglenook fireplace.  The capacity of the largest pub depends on if you have tables, but the company estimates the portable pub will hold 20 to 50 people.  The pubs even have an internal frame for lighting and decorating.  It truly is a portable pub which you can erect anywhere.



Before you get too excited, like I was, these pubs are a bit pricey.  The large one, which of course is the one I want, costs £16,500.  I even deluded myself into thinking the conversion rate was better.  Nope.  That’s $33,000 USD.  Then I found the American website .  It actually costs $45,978 USD (nice round number).  Still, it is a really cool jumpy castle – and you can drink beer in it!  It would be perfect for the park parties in my neighborhood .


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The portable pub really is targeted towards businesses.  They offer services to hook up kegs and beer lines in the pub, as well as, services to help you set up a pub business.  It looks like those services are strictly for UK customers.  That’s ok, because if I had that kind of money to spend on one, it wouldn’t be for business.

If that isn’t cool enough for you, they do offer custom castles.  Granted these are specialized for Coors or Guinness, but imagine the wow factor if your name was plastered across it.  The company says they also can design pubs to specification.  If I had the money, this could be lots of fun.  I can already imagine taking “Castle Deege” to my party location.  I guess I better start saving up.  

(pictures from the company website) 

Ever wonder how many different beer styles there are?  Here's a map of the beer styles in the world that you can print out! 

I was searching around wikipedia one day and I found a beer style tree.  It was so bad and inaccurate; I swore I needed to create another map.  This is my breakdown of the beer styles of the world.

 Beer styles of the world

If I am missing any beers, please let me know.  You are free to distribute this map in its entirety, just give me some credit if you do.  Let me hear your comments, and definitely let me know if I missed any beer styles!

Mexican lagers have always been an enigma to me.  I've been all over Mexico, and I can say with certainty the place is hot.  The last time I was in Mexico was for a football game between the Miami Dolphins and Denver Broncos in Mexico City.  The game was at night, but seemed as hot as a summer day in Denver.  At the game I learned a few things.  One, the Mexicans love the Dallas Cowboys, Miami Dolphins and Oakland Raiders in that order.  Two, the Denver Broncos are at the bottom of the list of favorites, right under root canals and spinal taps.  Three, Mexican beers taste awesome when it is really hot out!

History

Some places like Puerto Peñasco are dry and hot, others places like Acapulco are humid and hot.  All in all, Mexico is hot (did mention it's hot in Mexico?).  Making an ale would not surprise me too much, but lagers seem to be an odd choice for such a warm climate.  I have troubles with lager temperatures in Colorado, so Mexico seems like a "lager impossibility".  Believe it or not, the first lager brewery in Mexico, the La Pila Seca, was opened by a Swiss immigrant in 1845.  That's impressive since commercial refrigeration really didn't take off until 1856.

Still Mexican lagers are a great choice for a summer beer.  If you want to make some for the Fourth of July, now is a good time to start.  You'll need to lager the beer for four weeks after fermentation.  These are great summer party beers to drink through the hot summer days and nights.  The lagers are yet another good session beer, but a bit stronger at 4.5% ABV to 5.5% ABV.

Vienna Lagers

The Mexican lager we're going to look at is really a Vienna lager.  The Vienna lager died out in Germany, but not before Santiago Graf and other Austrian immigrant brewers in the late 1800s brought the style to Mexico.  In fact two popular beers, Negra Modelo and Dos Equis Ámbar are heavily influenced by the Vienna style.  The Vienna style shouldn't be an exact match of these Mexican beers, since the commercialization of these beers have altered the profile of the true Vienna lager.  They now add corn syrup and other adjuncts to reduce costs.  The lager should be maltier than your typical Pilsner, more so than Corona or other lagers based on the American-style Pilsner lagers.

The Mexican lagers, like the Vienna style lagers, are a reddish amber to copper color with a good off-white head.  The head should last a bit.  This beer is similar in flavor to the Märzen/Oktoberfest beer , but not quite as malty. 

Many Vienna lager recipes use some darker malts for color, but they should not impart any flavor or aroma.  The beer should not have any caramel flavors.  The flavor is more like toast.  Since this is a North American beer, you can use any quality Pilsner malt as your base malt.  The beer should have a crisp clean lager finish, almost dry.  The body of the beer should be a bit creamy, and have mild carbonation.  Most Mexican lagers unfortunately do not have the flavor of the original lagers.  While the current commercial incarnations are heavily laced with adjuncts, the future for Mexican lagers looks brighter.  The microbrew industry has taken America by storm also is taking hold in Mexico.  We may yet again see accurate versions of the Vienna lager in Mexico.

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Recipe

3.75 lbs. of Continental Pilsner Malt
5.0 lb. of Vienna Malt
1.0 lb. of Munich Malt
6.0 oz of Crystal Malt
1.5 oz Hallertau (4.0% AA) for 60 minutes
0.5 oz Hallertau (4.0% AA) for 10 minutes
White Labs WLP838 Southern German Lager or Wyeast 2308 Munich Lager

SG 1.051
FG 1.013

Mash the grains for 90 minutes at 152 F (67 C).  You'll want to boil the beer for 90 minutes to eliminate any DMS (dimethyl sulphide).

Ferment at the wort at 50 F, the lower end of the recommended temperature for the yeast.  Once the fermentation is complete, you'll want to lager the beer for at least 4 weeks.  If you can make the beer in February or March, the beer will be even smoother by summer.

Carbonate the beer 2 to 2.5 volumes.

Do I fruit the beer?

It's really up to you if you want to "fruit the beer" with a lime.  The origins of the lime were to prevent insects from getting into the beer, but many like the flavor so it has since become a tradition.  Burt Renyolds and Miller Beer can't really be trusted on this subject.  They said "don't fruit the beer", and a few months later released Miller Chill.  Go with how you feel, and forget what everyone else says. 

I'm planning to add better pictures for the website.  Here's where you can get all your beer pron needs! 

Some of the images on Fermentarium are really too small to see the subtle beauty of beer and wine.  I've created a Flickr account that will be updated with images from brew sessions or other beer photography.  I am also working on videos for the website for reviews, how-to's, or site seeing.  Exciting times are coming, make sure you're subscribed to the RSS so you don't miss a thing!

I hope you enjoy the pictures.  If you want to use any of the images on your site please let me know and provide a link back to Fermentarium. 

I missed out on the grandfather date for legally drinking 3.2% beer in Colorado by a little over a year.  It was weird having friends who could legally buy alcohol who were under 21 years of age.  I always felt it was unfair I could not buy alcohol, just because I was a bit younger.  You can hunt, vote, marry, live on your own, purchase porn (or even perform), have sex, have abortions, get a credit card, enter into legally binding agreements, hold public office, be executed, get sued, own a business, employ others, and even go to war and die for your country.  You just can’t buy a beer.

The National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 required every state in America to legislate and enforce 21 years of age as the minimum age to possess and consume alcohol.  The Federal Aid Highway Act takes 10% of highway funds from every state which does not set the minimum age at 21.  Fair or not, the legal drinking age in the United States is 21.

What's Changed?

Bad choices, not alcohol, are to blame

How old to fire a gun?!?

No beer, but here hold this gun!

696 reasons to lower the drinking age to 18

With the aging baby boomer population, this might be the best untapped business yet. 

A story in Reuters ran last week about Mike Hammond who was looking for a drinking buddy for his 88-year-old father Jack.  The duties included taking his father out for a pint once a day.  The best part about the job was that it paid. 

Imagine that, a job which pays $14 USD an hour to be a drinking buddy.  If you are interested in the job, the position was filled by a retired doctor and a former military man.  There still is hope.
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This occupation could be an unfilled niche.  The baby boomer generation is currently retiring at a massive rate.  Some reports speculate around 50% of the federal workforce will retire in the next few years, although it likely will be fewer for economic reasons.  Still many will be retiring.  Add in the workers from the public sector, and you have a large retirement party coming.  That is a lot of drinkers!

In the next few years, many of these people could use a drink at the pub.  See a need, fill a need.

Many elderly are shut in and this might be a great way to give them a bit of their life back.  Not only would you be providing a valuable service, you get to have a pint on the job! 

A line from the movie Angel Heart rings so true for this beer, “Mephistopheles is such a mouthful”. 

Background

I like stouts, and I’ve liked most everything from Avery, so I thought I would give Mephistopheles Stout a try.   The name gives everything away for this stout.  This is a devil of a beer.   

Looks

Mephistopheles has a dark tan head and a thick head.  Everything about this beer screams DARK!  

The dark brown head stood for quite a while, lasting a few minutes.  The head is really thick and foamy.  The head on this stout could hold a dime, and is one of the better beer heads I’ve seen in a while.

This stout is a very dark beer.  (Did I say that already?)  A quote from the label states “he who does not love light”.  The quote is no exaggeration; this beer abhors light.  I held the glass up to the light and I could see no light through the glass.  I can’t get coffee to do that!  The glass was held a few inches from the light bulb.  I am officially impressed at how dark this beer is.  The color was dark like black coffee, but no light could pass through.  Mephistopheles is like a beer black hole.

Aroma

This beer makes a very impressive entrance, and when the bottle cap is popped off everyone around knows it.  Mephistopheles Stout has a very strong smell of spices and nutty coffee.  I could actually smell the beer from several feet away.  The aroma could almost be described as toffee.  There are also hints of caramel.  I could smell a bit of the hops, but I would not say it was pronounced.  The beer has just a hint of hops.

Taste

The stout has a good creamy mouthfeel, with an alcohol bite which creeps up on you.  Mephistopheles is a very strong beer.  The alcohol content is 16% ABV, much stronger than most imperial stouts.  The mouthfeel may be from the lower carbonation levels which give the beer a smooth seductive feel.  The mouthfeel does seduce you a bit, but the bitterness and alcohol quickly overrun any flavor you might enjoy.  There are strong notes of whiskey.  The roasted malt flavor seems like “burnt coffee”.  The beer has some maltiness, but not sweet.  I’d even call it a whiskey coffee or whiskey double expresso.  
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The beer claims 107 IBUs, although I thought I had read 100 IBUs were the effective limit for any beer.  Needless to say the beer is a bit very bitter.  I think you need to add a ton of hops just to balance the amount of malt needed to reach 16% ABV.  The label states they also added turbinado sugar (brown sugar), most likely to get the alcohol content high.  The grain bill for this beer must be impressive, second only to the hops needed to reach 107 IBUs.  

It takes a while to drink this beer.  It took me a very long time.  If you enjoy very strong stouts, this is a good sipping beer on cold winter nights.  

Results

Mephistopheles is much stronger than I’d like it.  Imperial Stouts are usually around 9% ABV to 10% ABV.  I think 16% ABV is too much, and it really overpowers this beer.  The bitterness is very powerful, and the roasted malt tastes too burnt.  I’ll give this stout 7 dark princes out of 10.

Brewery: Avery
Country of Origin: Colorado, USA
Style: Imperial Stout
ABV: 16% ABV 

There are two choices for how to make wine , kit wines or wine from grapes.  Each method has distinct advantages and disadvantages.  These are the main differences between the two methods to help you decide which is better for you.

Price

The price for grapes usually is between $30 and $40 per 30 pound crate of grapes.  Grapes from Napa Valley, raised on bottled spring water and blessed by the patron saint of wine may cost even more.  It depends on the year, but usually three crates will equal 6 gallons of wine.  You can also buy a 6 gallon bucket of grape juice already pressed for about $50.  I’ve had great results from the white grape juice buckets; however red wines typically are not sold in the bucket.  You can buy merlot grape juice, but it will not contain the skins.  In the past few years, grapes have cost me $120 per 6 gallons.  You might be able to get the cost down even more by buying in bulk.

Wine kits usually range from $50 to $150.  The price range is determined by the quality and amount of juice in the kit.  For example, you can purchase a 7.7 liter (2 gallons) wine kit for about $50.  An expensive wine kit will have 15-16 liters of juice (4 gallons) and possibly grape skins.  Besides the volume of juice included, the higher end kits use grapes from specific vineyards and contain higher levels of total dissolved solids.  The dissolved solids give the kit wine flavor and aroma.  The price and volume of juice are directly related to the quality of wine produced.

I usually buy the premium wine kits, so all in all I have not noticed a huge price difference between the two.  
Advantage: None

Labor and Equipment

Other than hard cider , there is nothing easier to make than a wine kit.  If you follow the directions religiously, you will get a good wine.  You do not need any additional equipment other than your normal homebrewing equipment.



Making wine from grapes includes more know-how and significantly more work.  If you buy your grapes from a wine making store, you likely will be able to use their equipment for free.  My first year I purchased grapes, but I used their crusher/de-stemmer and their wine press.  The problem with using a store wine press is you need to crush your grapes on premises, take it home and ferment the wine, and then bring the wine back to the store to press the wine.  I eventually purchased a wine press , because it is difficult bringing grapes back and forth to a store 20 minutes away.

Given wine kits are so easy to make, the score goes to wine kits.
Advantage: Wine Kits

Wine Aroma

When I first started drinking wine, I never understood what people were talking about when they referred to the “aroma” of the wine.  I could not smell anything.  When I attended my first wine festival, I went to a wine pairing dinner and realized it wasn’t me it was the wine.  A good wine will have a very pleasant smell.  The aroma of a nice wine cannot be beat.  It can smell of grapes, flowers, cherries, and perfume. I finally understood what everyone was talking about.

I never notice this smell with wine kits, and I only make the high end kits.  Kit wines just do not have the same aroma.  Sometimes you can pick a few notes or raisins or fruit, but the scent is much more subtle.  The aroma is a huge part of the wine experience, but kit wines fall into a lesser quality category of wine.    

With my grape wines, the smell is amazing.  
Advantage: Grape Wine

Wine Flavor

I’ll probably get lots of hate mail or hate comments for even mentioning “kit taste”.  Look on any winemaking or homebrewing forum and the “wine kit taste” topic will eventually come up.  
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Many swear there is an off-flavor from kit wines; others say it is the taster’s imagination.  The taste is described as sweet, caramel kool-aid or “jolly rancher” flavor.  For a dry red wine, this flavor can be distracting.  Even worse, only some people can detect the off-flavor.  It is maddening for some winemakers to hear there is an off-flavor in their wine which they cannot detect.  Personally I am in the “I can taste it” camp.  

The “kit taste” in kit wines comes from the pasteurization process.  Some of the sugars in the wine bond to form more complex sugars which are not fermentable.  

Still there are few people who can detect the flavor.  I’m the only one in my family who can taste it.  The “kit taste” only affects red wines.  I’ve never tasted it in white wines.  I still have to give the advantage to grape wines.

Advantage: Grape Wine

Intangibles

After reading the last two points, you probably think I hate kit wines.  It’s not true, I like kit wines.

I can make a kit wine any time of the year.  Most varieties are available in kits year round.  Grape wine can only be made at the end of the summer when the grapes are harvested.  You have much more flexibility with a wine kit.

With kit wines you can make wines which normally might not be possible for you.  For example, I live no where near South Africa, but with a wine kit I can make a good Pinotage wine.  When you make wines from grapes, you are limited to the grapes in your area.  In Colorado, we can get some grapes from California.  These grapes are shipped in refrigerated trucks and stored in refrigerated warehouses.  It can sometimes take several days before you can crush the grapes.  The types of wine you can find in a kit are usually better than what you can get locally.

Finally wine kits consistently win awards in head-to-head competitions with grape wines.  Grape wines win as well.  Nothing can speak stronger than a first place ribbon in a blind taste test.  The key point to take away from this is a kit wine can be compared side-by-side with a grape wine.  In some cases, a kit wine can be a better wine.

Advantage: Wine Kits

Conclusion

So it really depends on what you want from your wine.  Personally I like the aroma and flavor of grape wines more than kit wines.  If you have limited equipment, a kit wine is a much better choice.  I often make kit wines through the year while I wait for my grape wines to age.  Most kit wines benefit from aging, but the aging process for grape wines is much longer.  And remember, the best wine (kit or grape) is the wine which makes you want another glass.