Variety is the Spice of Beers

There are many different herbs, spices and fruits that can be added to beer to enhance the flavor. Which ones and how much is anybody’s guess and everyone has a different taste. On my reading journey around the internet, I have come to the conclusion that less is more. Start with a small addition in the primary or secondary. The yeast will definitely work on the flavors of the spices. It seems to be the general consensus that additions should be made at the end of the boil, in primary and or again in secondary.

 Some tips: Be careful with nutmeg. It has a powerful flavor and a little goes a long way. The heat of ginger will balance the sweetness of other flavors such as cinnamon, allspice and vanilla. Fresh ginger is the best. The general opinion on cloves is they should be left out of beer. I like the smell of cloves but have never tasted a clove beer. I know there are a few commercially available. I will leave that up to you.

Under hopping often allows the spice or herb to contribute to the flavor profile.

Vanilla beans should be split length-wise and opened up. Scrape out all the fibrous, oily material on the inside, but don’t throw it out. Now chop up the bean into ½” pieces. This will make getting them into smaller necked bottles easier.

Once you’ve figured out what spices you want to use and have them measured out, soak them in enough vodka to cover them for at least 24 hours. Then throw the whole mess into your primary or secondary. Don’t throw out the vodka or you’ll be throwing out a lot of the flavors that have been infused and drawn out of the spices. This may make your beer clear a bit slower, but so worth the wait. Don’t be afraid to try other alcohols in your blend. Bourbons and rums make fine additions as well. The secret to finding the proper blend is patience. Make small additions and taste weekly until you are satisfied with the results.

 

Here are some equivalent spices in different forms, meaning that one equals the other in flavor potency:

5 average sized nutmeg berries or 1 teaspoon of ground nutmeg

5 allspice berries or 1 teaspoon ground allspice

1 inch of vanilla bean or 1 teaspoon of real vanilla extract

1 tablespoon fresh ginger or ¼ teaspoon ground ginger

1 cinnamon stick or ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

The following is a list of some herbs, spices, etc… and the best descriptions I could find of what each one tastes like.

Allspice gives a pumpkin-pie flavor and is used in fall and holiday beers.

Bitter orange peel gives a chamomile flavor, not a bitter or orange peel taste.

Candi sugar is made from sugar beets and is popular in Belgian-style beers.

Cardamom tastes similar to a spicy cola and is used in holiday and Belgian beers.

Chicory root has a coffee-like flavor and is popular in Belgian white beers.

          Chili powder makes beer hot and spicy.

          Chipotle pepper gives a hotter, smokier flavor than chili     powder.  

Cocoa can enhance the chocolate flavor in your brew.

Coriander adds a bit of spice and is often used in Belgian beers.

Cumin seed has a distinctive warm, nutty flavor, slightly smoky with a little bit of peppery heat.

          Dried elderberries have a tart, unique flavor. High in vitamin C and antioxidants.  

          Dried elderflowers have a pleasantly fragrance and impart a Muscat grape-like flavor.

Ginger root adds a hot, tangy flavor.

Heather tips have a flavor similar to chamomile, mint and lavender and give a smooth and pleasing bitterness.

Juniper berries have a bittersweet aroma and a unique flavor that is pungent and piney. This is where gin gets its wonderful flavor.

          Lemongrass leaves a hint of lemon.

          Mugwort is a bittering herb used gruit before hops came into play.

Paradise seed has a peppery taste and zing; it also has an earthy pine and citrus note.

          Rose hips do not taste like roses, more of a tangy, hibiscus like flavor. High in vitamin C.

          Sarsaparilla root has a taste very close to root beer.

Star anise, anise seed and licorice root give a licorice flavor.

Sweet orange peel has an orange flavor and is popular in Belgian-style and holiday brew. 

Sweet gale has a woody taste and is great in holiday brews.

         Wintergreen, peppermint and spearmint each have a unique   minty taste.

Woodruff has a distinct smell of fresh-cut hay and vanilla.

          Wormwood is another bittering herb used to make absinthe.

There are many more dimensions you can add to your beer. The only limit is your imagination, so whip up a brew on the wild side. You never know, you could have an award-winning beer!

Brewing Storm

Morning everyone!

It's been a busy couple of months with the holidays and brewing projects, so I thought I would give you a little update to what we've been up to.

Well, between holidays, hooplas and Christmas parties, we have managed to fit in a few brewing sessions. We have brewed and bottled another batch of smoked brown ale, our first all-grain porter, an Oktoberfest and now have a milk stout in the primary. We have, also, bottled a batch of Elderberry wine that has been sitting on french oak chips (medium toast) for 6 weeks. The flavor is amazing. Reminds of a very good Chianti with the Elderberry lending its own twist. Now the trick will be getting it to last long enough to get some of it aged.

This weekend will be another brewing session for us with our best friends as we ring in the new year. We have come up with a recipe we call Rhumb Line Porter. This batch is being donated to our local brewing club for a benefit. Tastings will open to the public and all proceeds are being donated to a local charity. So we win both ways. We get to brew beer, share time with friends and taste beer at the event. What more could we ask for?

So until the next post, we wish everyone out there a Happy, Healthy New Year!

The Beer with More…

Just as in cooking, adding depth and complexity to your beer can transform a good beer into something truly amazing. Many different things can be added to your beer at different stages of the process to gain more levels of depth in your beer. Each thing you add to your beer lends its own flavor good or bad. It may take some time to come up with a great beer, but don’t give up. That is one of the things that attracted us to home brewing in the first place, the endless varieties that can be made with just a little imagination.

Oak is one such addition that can added to any style of beer to create new and interesting flavors. I’m not going to get into the technical make-up of oak, but rather touch on the different flavors oak can impart, the different types available and the usage rates for beer. Some of this information is from our own experimentation, some from reading all over the internet and some from the manufacturers of oak products. We’re just here to sharing information with fellow brewers from our point of view.

Oak comes in many forms from barrels to cubes, chips to powder or essence, to spirals and stave form.  There are lots of choices but some stand out because of cost and practicality. They also come in different toast levels from untoasted to dark, each bringing its own flavor.  Barrels are not practical for most home brewers. They are expensive and extraction times are long. Sawdust is a pain to work with. We have had trouble getting it mixed into the batch. It wants to float on top, stick to the sides of your primary, your spoon and everything else. The flavor is not very complex.

Cubes and chips seem to be the best of both worlds for the home brewer. Chips are thinner than cubes and the extraction time is about 1 – 2 weeks. They work well used in the primary or in lighter styles of beer, but lack the complexity of cubes. Cubes have thickness and more sides so many more toast levels involved. They say the flavor is much closer to barrel aged flavor. Extraction seems to vary widely mostly on individual taste. I have seen 4 weeks up to as long as a year. The last batch of smoked porter (5 gal.) that we made was 3 weeks, but that was our taste. Maximum extraction with cubes should take no longer than 2 months but additional time will give the flavors time to blend and add smoothness to your new brew.

From what we have seen, chips and cubes come in 3 species of oak: American, French and Hungarian. Each one has different flavors so we followed the descriptions from various suppliers and manufacturers. Flavors to be had from your cubes and chips, depending on toast level and aging are vanilla, caramel, bittersweet chocolate, milk chocolate, butterscotch, coffee and even spices such as allspice and cinnamon. Just think what you could do to a stout, a porter or scotch ale with these flavors. The possibilities can be endless!

Usage rates are more of a general rule of thumb. If you add too much, you can’t take it back out. We started light and pulled a sample for tasting every week until we were satisfied with the flavor. StaVin is one manufacturer of oak products and recommends 2 – 2.5 oz per 5 gallon batch or 5 oz. for a 10 gallon batch. Extraction time they say is 2 months but that definitely varies by taste. Chips usage is .5 – 2.5 oz per 5 gallon. Extraction time is about 2 weeks.

The last thing I want to touch on is sanitation. I think the alcohol levels in beer are low enough to cause some concern about contamination. I would hate to throw out a batch of beer because of contamination. Wine alcohol levels (Say 11 – 13%) will usually kill any bacteria hiding within the oak. We have a vegetable steamer that we used and it worked really well. We put our cubes in and steamed 15 – 20 minutes. I took the temperature during the steaming and was 210 degrees, more than hot enough. I would say that 165 degrees for 15 minutes is hot enough. Milk is pasteurized at 165 – 170 degrees for a minute, so 15 minutes should kill the little beasties! ARGH! Other methods include using the microwave. Put the cubes in a dish with just enough water to cover them. Put in the microwave and heat until the water starts to boil, turn off microwave and let sit 2 minutes. You can repeat that a couple times. Now you have sanitized cubes and some water with oak essence in it. You can add that in too. Another method is soaking the cubes or chips in whiskey or other strong alcohol. It may take a couple days or up to 2 weeks depending on thickness of oak.

Well…these are some of things we have learned along the way and we hope this opens another door in your home brewing experience. Happy brewing out there!  

Random thoughts for today

Afternoon everyone! It's a nice, sunny day in upstate New York. The temperature is a breezy 60F. Not to bad for November. I came up with name "Smugglers Den Brewing Co." because I've always loved sailing ships and pirates, so I thought what a great name for our hobby. That's what it is - a hobby. The beers and wines we make are not for sale. We make no guarantees about any of the information on this blog. This is just me, Morgan, telling you what we did and what works for us. This blog is to share information freely with everyone involved.

We have been experimenting with some different things lately in our brewing process and in secondary. We have playing with some smoked malt in different quantities, different yeast strains and additions of oak in our secondary. First of all, smoked malt has an amazing aroma and taste. When I open the bag I want to eat it right out of the bag. It smells that good! It adds excellent flavor to your beer. There are many different smoked malts out there each with it own aroma and flavor. If you haven't tried any smoked malts in your recipes, step outside the box and add some to your next brew.

We've been changing yeast strains in our beers and wines, opening up a whole world of different flavors. We have used dry and liquid yeasts with very good results. We even used a Saflager lagering yeast and fermented and aged at ale temperatures which produced an amazing tasting Oktoberfest. We just bottled a batch of smoked porter that was aged 3 weeks with an addition of french oak cubes. The flavor is warm, complex and perfect for the upcoming winter months. The problem is getting it to last that long.

I'm going to do an article soon on oak additions to your beers and what we have learned through the process. Stay tuned in the weeks ahead to see what's brewing next. This is part of the wine and beer we made this year.

Welcome to Smugglers Den Brewing Company

Welcome to Smugglers Den Brewing Company and Smugglers Den Cellars.  I decided to start this blog after being bit by the brewing bug just to post my progress, share my findings and learn as I go. This blog will not be limited to beer only but also making wine, cider, mead or anything else that deem worthy beverage. We may also throw up recipes from time to time since beer, wine and foods go hand in hand. So far this year, my wife and I have made 6 batches of beer and 8 batches of wine. We have learned so much in the process. So as I get my thoughts organized, I will be sharing what we've learned along the way. Please feel free to post comments.