Beer Design
Designing good beer is to me perhaps the most fun part of brewing.
Designing good beer is to me perhaps the most fun part of brewing.
Yep, I said it twice, because it's a big statement and I want to make sure that sinks in. To give context, I'm going to give a rant about mindfulness (brace yourself). I've been doing a lot of listening to podcasts recently about mindfulness and a whole bunch of other things. Basically I think of the ultimate goal of mindfulness to be like Jason Bourne - "I can tell you the license plate numbers of all six cars outside. I can tell you that our waitress is left-handed and the guy sitting up at the counter weighs two hundred fifteen pounds. I know the best place to look for a gun is the cab or the grey truck outside, and at this altitude, I can run flat out for a half mile before my hands start shaking. Now why would I know that?"... and while mindfulness is something I'd like to achieve, my general default state of mind is almost the exact opposite of mindfulness - I'm a dreamer (but my heart's of gold). If I was in the Jason Bourne movie, I could quite easily have walked into the diner, planned my next brew, including malts, hops, yeast, mash schedule, fermentation, and yet not realised there were any other cars outside, not notice anything other than that the waitress had a nice smile, and basically be oblivious to the world around me.
Yes, designing beer is the fun part of brewing for those of us who are dreamers. Thinking deeply about what beers you like, what kind of beer you're trying to make, and how to get there, but be different (and better) than other beers you've tasted. That's the real enjoyment of brewing. Planning the journey, and setting the goals.
I don't really understand the incentive for home brewing to a recipe. If you want good beer that matches a particular style you may as well buy it - the brewer who made it is far more skilled than you and has far better equipment. The fun with homebrewing is making beer that you've designed yourself and is unique (and hopefully delicious).
My beer design process involves a range of using apps/calculators (my favourite is Wort) and reading about various malt, hops and yeast as well as brewing techniques.
I haven't brewed in 6 months due to work commitments, so I'm particularly excited about my upcoming brew. I'm going to make an NZ style Pilsner, perhaps slight German style Pils influence, but using all NZ ingredients and with a good NZ hops aroma over a clean crisp subtle yet notable malt base. I'm thinking two hops - Waimea for the bitterness and classic Pilsner bitterness (but maintaining an NZ aromatic hops balance) and Riwaka as a late addition to really give a nose that shouts New World NZ beer over the top of what would otherwise be an old world Pils.
I've been reading a bit about fermenting under pressure, and also about dry hopping vs whirlpool additions. As I'm planning to ferment in the NZ Summer without a temperature controller I'm going to try a fermentation under pressure with a Czech Pilsner Yeast at 25 PSI (probably at about 20 degrees C), and I'm going to favour a massive whirlpool addition of hops with no dry hopping, basically with the hopes of ending up with a nice crystal clear beer (I've never managed to dry hop a beer and have it look anything other than cloudy - not something acceptable in a Pilsner in my opinion).
I'll put up a recipe with some photos and results soon. For now that's my rant on beer design. I love it.
Designing good beer is to me perhaps the most fun part of brewing.
Yep, I said it twice, because it's a big statement and I want to make sure that sinks in. To give context, I'm going to give a rant about mindfulness (brace yourself). I've been doing a lot of listening to podcasts recently about mindfulness and a whole bunch of other things. Basically I think of the ultimate goal of mindfulness to be like Jason Bourne - "I can tell you the license plate numbers of all six cars outside. I can tell you that our waitress is left-handed and the guy sitting up at the counter weighs two hundred fifteen pounds. I know the best place to look for a gun is the cab or the grey truck outside, and at this altitude, I can run flat out for a half mile before my hands start shaking. Now why would I know that?"... and while mindfulness is something I'd like to achieve, my general default state of mind is almost the exact opposite of mindfulness - I'm a dreamer (but my heart's of gold). If I was in the Jason Bourne movie, I could quite easily have walked into the diner, planned my next brew, including malts, hops, yeast, mash schedule, fermentation, and yet not realised there were any other cars outside, not notice anything other than that the waitress had a nice smile, and basically be oblivious to the world around me.
Yes, designing beer is the fun part of brewing for those of us who are dreamers. Thinking deeply about what beers you like, what kind of beer you're trying to make, and how to get there, but be different (and better) than other beers you've tasted. That's the real enjoyment of brewing. Planning the journey, and setting the goals.
I don't really understand the incentive for home brewing to a recipe. If you want good beer that matches a particular style you may as well buy it - the brewer who made it is far more skilled than you and has far better equipment. The fun with homebrewing is making beer that you've designed yourself and is unique (and hopefully delicious).
My beer design process involves a range of using apps/calculators (my favourite is Wort) and reading about various malt, hops and yeast as well as brewing techniques.
I haven't brewed in 6 months due to work commitments, so I'm particularly excited about my upcoming brew. I'm going to make an NZ style Pilsner, perhaps slight German style Pils influence, but using all NZ ingredients and with a good NZ hops aroma over a clean crisp subtle yet notable malt base. I'm thinking two hops - Waimea for the bitterness and classic Pilsner bitterness (but maintaining an NZ aromatic hops balance) and Riwaka as a late addition to really give a nose that shouts New World NZ beer over the top of what would otherwise be an old world Pils.
I've been reading a bit about fermenting under pressure, and also about dry hopping vs whirlpool additions. As I'm planning to ferment in the NZ Summer without a temperature controller I'm going to try a fermentation under pressure with a Czech Pilsner Yeast at 25 PSI (probably at about 20 degrees C), and I'm going to favour a massive whirlpool addition of hops with no dry hopping, basically with the hopes of ending up with a nice crystal clear beer (I've never managed to dry hop a beer and have it look anything other than cloudy - not something acceptable in a Pilsner in my opinion).
I'll put up a recipe with some photos and results soon. For now that's my rant on beer design. I love it.
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