There is truly an enormous amount of information to learn about beer making. This is part of why it intrigues me. Things that are overly simple and can be learned or mastered quickly bore me because I live for a challenge. Imagine how dull life would be if suddenly you knew everything there was to know and suddenly had no more questions!
That being said, if you're like me at some point you've asked or at least wondered aloud "why do we always bottle our beer in brown bottles? And why do we cover our carboys up with warm cozy blankets?" Well it turns out that the answer sounds like this: "To prevent skunking." Then I'm like "Ooooh, okay. Wait- what's skunking?"
This is where the complexity of all the chemical processes in brewing comes in. I am NOT going to pretend to understand them well, but to the lay-person like myself there is some information out there that can give you an okay feel for what's going on inside that glass enclosure.
Apparently there are compounds that are extracted or derived from hops during brewing called "isohumulones." I don't know what role these are supposed to play but I've learned what role they're supposed not to and that involves skunking! So what is it? Isohumulones are broken apart by Light in the Ultraviolet range of frequency, which the sun and light bulbs shoot out tons of. These now broken up molecules are very eager to bind with traces of sulfur suspended in the beer somewhere to make new sulfur-containing compounds that apparently taste wretched and somewhat... well... skunky. So beer that has been exposed to too much light changes unfavorably in chemical makeup to make a nasty flavor.
Bottling beer into brown bottles and covering carboys with blankets helps filter out some of the UV rays and mitigate the process of skunking.
This information provides a very basic answer to why we use brown bottles. But after all that: There are some types of beers where a certain amount of the production of sulfur-containing molecules is desirable. (Certain kinds of lagers, I read)
So I come full circle to that satisfying sense of dissatisfaction where now that I sort of have an answer I have several more questions. Such is the way of life.
Skunking everyone... skunking.
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Bottling: A landmark in the individual brewing process...
I can't really classify different steps in the process of making a home-brewed beer in terms of importance partly because I'm still very new to the process and partly because it just seems wrong. But I can stress how satisfying it feels to have finally completed the bottling process. Basically, once the beer is in the bottle, all the work is done. This is of course unless you consider drinking the victory beer some weeks later to be work but I don't think many people would take that position.
The process of bottling, while it certainly is work, is fairly simple and straight forward compared to everything else up to this point.
You basically just need a rudimentary pump to get beer out of the carboys (giant glass bottles where the wort was fermenting into beer) and into individual bottles. In HBK historically, we've used 22oz bottles and 750mL latch-top bottles. Some people have their own "growlers" that they bring to be filled, which is basically just a 64oz latch top bottle. The nice thing about growlers is that they 're huge. So there's lots of beer all in one place. The bad thing about them is that they're huge. So all your beer is in one place. You see what I mean? Once you open that puppy you've committed to 64 oz. of rich, scrumptious home brew that, in the HBK at least, tends to be pretty high gravity compared to the store bought stuff. So it's good or bad... or both, depending on how you want to look at it.
Anyways, the latch tops are really nice in that they come with everything they need. You just pump the beer into the bottle and latch it up when it's full.
The 22oz bottles require new lids for each use but it's not a big deal.
The only real concern during bottling is cleanliness. Obviously you don't want to pour fresh beer into a filthy bottle. The beer is still an ideal place for bacteria and competitor fungus to grow, so that's why it's so important to rinse your empties out with hot water before returning them to HBK for refill! (hint hint)
Beyond a good rinsing, we also rinse the bottles, caps our hands and all other equipment that may come in contact with the beer in an iodine solution. This acts to sterilize the equipment by penetrating the cell wall of any bacteria or fungus and messing it's sh** all up. So that's cool.
The process of bottling, while it certainly is work, is fairly simple and straight forward compared to everything else up to this point.
You basically just need a rudimentary pump to get beer out of the carboys (giant glass bottles where the wort was fermenting into beer) and into individual bottles. In HBK historically, we've used 22oz bottles and 750mL latch-top bottles. Some people have their own "growlers" that they bring to be filled, which is basically just a 64oz latch top bottle. The nice thing about growlers is that they 're huge. So there's lots of beer all in one place. The bad thing about them is that they're huge. So all your beer is in one place. You see what I mean? Once you open that puppy you've committed to 64 oz. of rich, scrumptious home brew that, in the HBK at least, tends to be pretty high gravity compared to the store bought stuff. So it's good or bad... or both, depending on how you want to look at it.
Anyways, the latch tops are really nice in that they come with everything they need. You just pump the beer into the bottle and latch it up when it's full.
The 22oz bottles require new lids for each use but it's not a big deal.
The only real concern during bottling is cleanliness. Obviously you don't want to pour fresh beer into a filthy bottle. The beer is still an ideal place for bacteria and competitor fungus to grow, so that's why it's so important to rinse your empties out with hot water before returning them to HBK for refill! (hint hint)
Beyond a good rinsing, we also rinse the bottles, caps our hands and all other equipment that may come in contact with the beer in an iodine solution. This acts to sterilize the equipment by penetrating the cell wall of any bacteria or fungus and messing it's sh** all up. So that's cool.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)