Category: Miscellaneous

This stout-cured corned beef and cabbage recipe comes from Sean Paxton (aka The Home Brew Chef) and originally appeared on his website HomeBrewChef.com.

The brine incorporates a few pints of your favorite stout beer, which is a great way to work some of your homebrew into a St. Patrick’s Day dish. If you don’t have any homebrewed stout on hand, get planning for next year (check out our selection of homebrew stout recipes) and use one of your favorite commercial beers instead. The Home Brew Chef shares some of his favorite stouts at the end of the recipe.

Visit Paxton’s website for more Irish menu ideas.

Servings	Prep Time	Cook Time	Passive Time
1 large corned beef	20 minutes	2.5 hours	5–8 days

Ingredients

Instructions

Stout Cure/Brine Directions

1. Rinse off the beef brisket to remove any of the juices and small pieces of fat.
2. In a large stock pot or 12-quart Dutch oven, add the water, stout beer, salt, sugars, and pink salt (if using), and turn heat to medium.
3. In a sauté pan over medium heat, add peppercorns, coriander, cloves, mustard seed, grains of paradise, allspice berries, and (if using) cardamom pods, star anise, and caraway seeds.
4. Mix with a wooded spoon until the spices start to pop and release their essential oils (you should smell all the spices).
5. Remove from the heat and add to the water/beer mixture. Add the orange zest, red pepper flakes, bay leaves, garlic cloves, and cinnamon sticks to the water/beer mixture. Alternatively, you can purchase store-bought pickling spices or create your own mix and use about 3 tablespoons. I like to create my own mix, which is what I just described.
6. Bring the brine to a boil for about 5 minutes. This dissolves the salts and sugars while infusing all the flavors like a tea. Turn off the heat and add the ice to chill the mixture.
7. Check the temperature of this mixture to make sure that it is below 38° F | 3° C, or chill in the refrigerator until that temperature is reached. Transfer the stout brine to a Cambro 8 qt. Polypropylene Food Storage Container or zip-top bag and add the brisket.
8. If using a container, add a small plate to the top of the brisket to make sure the beef is completely submerged. Seal the container with its red lid.
9. Place in the refrigerator or kegerator for 5–8 days to fully cure the brisket. A larger brisket will take longer to cure. The long the brisket cures in the stout brine, the more flavor it will pick up.
10. Remove the brisket from the brine and rinse well to remove any of the whole spices. Notice how the color changes, not only from the dark stout, but also from the brine. The corned beef should feel firmer than when it was just raw meat.

Option 1: Slow Cooker Cooking Directions

1. Remove the now-corned beef and place it in your slow cooker. Add the stout beer and enough water to just cover the corned beef.
2. In a sauté pan over medium heat, add peppercorns, coriander, cloves, mustard seed, and grains of paradise. Stir the spices until they start to pop and become very aromatic (about 3 minutes). Add the toasted spices to the brisket and cover with a lid.
3. Most slow cookers have two temperature settings. If you use the low setting, set the timer for 8–9 hours. The low temperature, which varies depending on the brand and manufacturer, can range from 190–200° F | 88–93° C. This is very similar to the temperature at which you would sous-vide cook a brisket. During the last 45 minutes of cooking, add the potatoes, carrots, onion, and garlic. In the last 20 minutes add the cabbage. For the high temperature setting, 290–315° F | 143–157° C, the corned beef will take around 3.5–4.5 hours to be tender and fully cooked. Add the potatoes, carrots, onion, garlic, and cabbage during the last 30 minutes of cooking.

Option 2: Sous Vide Cooking Directions

1. In a sauté pan over medium heat, add peppercorns, coriander, cloves, mustard seed, and grains of paradise. Stir the spices until they start to pop and become very aromatic, about 3 minutes. Add the toasted spices to a bowl to cool.
2. Place the corned beef into a large bag, or split the corned beef into pieces that will fit in the bags you have (even individual serving sizes). If you have a chamber-style vacuum sealer, add enough stout beer to barely cover the meat, then add the spices, dividing among the number of bags. Seal on high.
3. If you have a Seal-a-Meal^®, FoodSaver^®, or similar style vacuum sealer, first freeze the stout beer in ice cube trays overnight. Then add the ice cubes with the cured meat and divided amount of spices and seal. This will keep the beer in the bag so that it is not sucked out and into the machine when sealing.
4. Set the water bath temperature to 180° F | 82.2° C. Place the sealed corned beef into the water bath and set the time for 8 hours. I have experimented with other temperatures and cooking times in trying to achieve the most tender corned beef. I tried 136° F | 57.7° C and cooked for 72 hours (3 days). This yielded a pretty tender, medium-rare corned beef that didn’t fall apart. It sliced well, and was more tender the thinner the meat was sliced.
5. For the vegetables: Vacuum seal the potatoes and carrots separately, adding a few tablespoons of butter and seasoning with a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Add the bags of potatoes and carrots after the meat has cooked for 7 hours. The potatoes and carrots will take about an hour to fully cook. For the cabbage, first sauté the sliced onions in butter over medium heat until they turn transparent, about 5 minutes. Add the sliced garlic and cook another minute. Then add the cabbage (slice for this version, removing the core), stir to coat the cabbage in butter, and sauté until the cabbage turns a bright green color, about 4–5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, and it’s ready to serve.

Serving Directions:

1. When ready to serve, remove the corned beef from the cooking pot and transfer it to a large cutting board. Slice the meat across (perpendicular to) the grain to make the corned beef more tender. If you cut the corned beef with the grain, it will be noticeably tougher. Place the sliced meat on a serving platter and add/arrange the strained vegetables. Use a few tablespoons of the cooking liquid to moisten the meat for presentation.
2. To enhance this classic feast, serve with clarified butter infused with a clove or two of peeled garlic, Mustard Ale Sauce, and/or Horseradish Ale Sauce.

Recipe Notes

Beer Suggestions: A stout seems so fitting for this feast. A few classic brews that work extremely well for this recipe are Samuel Smith’s Oatmeal Stout, Guinness Stout, Anderson Valley Brewing Co. Barney Flats Oatmeal Stout, or a homebrewed dry Irish-style stout. Make sure you have enough to serve with the meal as well.

Pink salt or sodium nitrate will help preserve and cure the meat. It is what keeps the brisket pink and prevents it from turning a muddy grayish color when boiled. Pink salt can be found at Savory Spice Shop. It is also used to make bacon, pancetta, hams, some sausage styles, and other cured products. If you have issues with nitrates, you can omit the pink salt from the recipe.

The post The Home Brew Chef’s Stout-Cured Corned Beef and Cabbage Recipe appeared first on American Homebrewers Association.

By Matt Bolling, AHA Events & Membership Coordinator

The growing number of Big Brew sites registered with the AHA every May demonstrates that National Homebrew Day truly is a special day for homebrewers in the US and abroad. With more than 480 registered Big Brew celebrations last year, it’s clear that no event is the same. Some sites report attendance in the hundreds for their Big Brew days, while many others simply consist of one homebrewer, one kettle, and one canine or feline brewer-companion.

No matter the size, all Big Brew events offer an opportunity to share the passion for homebrewing. So, we took the time to speak to a few Big Brew site organizers from around the country about what makes their events special. Here are five tips from these homebrewers on how you can make your Big Brew day truly remarkable.

1) Make your Big Brew day about more than just beer

The PumpHouse Homebrew Shop in Struthers, Ohio has been partnering with The Purple Cat Farm for several years. “The Purple Cat is an organization in our area that employs, houses, and helps adults with disabilities. So, when we host the event at the farm, we ask for a donation for those purchasing public tickets. The Purple Cat receives 100 percent of that money,” said Gregg Wormley, manager of The PumpHouse. “We also do other things that day to entertain attendees, like show the Kentucky Derby, host a brew club basket raffle, hold a homebrew competition, and organize a Big Brew breakfast. Many people also bring fishing poles, and we line up a few food trucks later that afternoon. We also allow overnight camping to the brew club members and have a campfire music jam if the weather cooperates.”

2) Know all of the resources that are available to you

“Your biggest resource will be your club members or shop customers banging the drums so that everyone is aware,” said Chris Frey, who hosted an annual Big Brew event in Ann Arbor, Mich. in the early 2000s that drew more than 100 attendees annually. “But that can only get you so far. You need to be aware of the resources the AHA has available to you, and utilize all of them. Actively promoting your event on social media (download) and inviting the press to cover your Big Brew day will go a long way when trying to recruit new, loyal customers to your shop—or new members of your club.”

3) Use your local star power

Using the official Big Brew Editable Press Release will hopefully get your local news anchor to attend your Big Brew event, but why stop there? Bert Lightle of ZZ Hops Homebrew Club in Kansas City, Mo. contacted local culinary celebrity and James Beard Award-Winning Chef Celina Tio of JULIAN to attend their Big Brew event at Boulevard Brewing Co. in 2016. “Beer and food are tied so closely together; it was great to bring our two worlds together. There’s lots of good chefs all over the country who like beer and would be interested in partnering with your Big Brew event, guaranteed,” Bert told us. “Don’t be afraid to ask! I got in contact with Chef Tio through Twitter. She loved the event and is now a great friend of the club.”

If you aren’t fortunate enough to live in an area with an award-winning chef, there’s still plenty of people in your municipality that are worth contacting. Local city council members, congressional representatives, and other elected officials have been attendees at many Big Brew events all over the country in previous years.

4) Be visible

Though plans have changed for 2017, for several years Siciliano’s Market partnered with Coldbreak Brewing Equipment to host their Big Brew event in Calder Plaza, an iconic public park in downtown Grand Rapids, Mich. “It took a lot of research into pulling the correct city permits the first year, but that became easier every year we did it,” said Steve Siciliano, founder and owner. “We invited the mayor every year to offer the official toast, and then about 50 brew teams would mash in. We got a ton of exposure because the city really got behind the event and the media loved it. Since it was in a public park, we had to work closely with city officials to ensure that everything was safe and that our water treatment was up to code, but it was a great way to foster goodwill amongst our community and expose our hobby to new people.” Before planning a Big Brew event in a public arena, please be sure to check the legality of hosting such an event with your municipal and state regulatory agencies.

5) Think outside the box.

The official date of Big Brew this year is May 6, but that doesn’t mean your brewers all have to brew on that specific day to celebrate—or even be in the same place! The Frogtown Hoppers of Toledo, Ohio took their Big Brew event to new heights by hosting multiple Big Brew events on different weekends. Club founder Jerry Payton told us that they wanted to turn Big Brew day into Big Brew week. Though the Big Brew sites on both weekends were the capstone events, Jerry encouraged club members to brew throughout the week as well. To read more about The Frogtown Hoppers’ Big Brew day, check out their article Big Brew With Toledo’s Frogtown Hoppers.

To register your own Big Brew event, visit the Big Brew Event Registration page or find a Big Brew event in your area. For more tips on how to make your Big Brew event successful, check out my article, “Relax, Don’t Worry—It’s Learn to Homebrew Day,” which offers valuable suggestions you can adapt for Big Brew.

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Matt Bolling is the Events & Membership Coodinator for the American Homebrewers Association.

The post 5 Tips for Hosting a Big Brew Event appeared first on American Homebrewers Association.

Do you consider yourself a craft beer nerd? Well, there is no better way to advance your understanding of all things beer than learning how to homebrew!

Here are five ways making beer at home will evolve you to a level 50 beer nerd.

1. Homebrewing gives you a better understanding of beer ingredients.

Every beer starts as a recipe with brewing ingredients in their most basic form. Homebrewing allows you to get hands-on with beer ingredients, which helps develop an understanding of how certain ingredients lend themselves to a beer recipe and are perceived in a finished beer.

As you try your hand at homebrewing different classic beer styles, you will develop the ability to pick out specific ingredients in your favorite commercial beers. Your beer nerd vocabulary will evolve from simply noting the characteristics in a beer to intelligently theorizing what ingredients created them.

Get started now by looking through some homebrew recipes of your favorite beer styles!

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2. Homebrewing teaches you the brewing processes.

It may seem all beers are made by completing the same exact process—with the ingredients making the profile difference—but variations in brewing processes and techniques can also effect the character of beer. Exploring and trying different brewing methods will make you well versed in various brewing procedures and how they can be perceived in finished beer. This will also help you to develop your beer vocabulary into something greater than just flavor descriptors.

Processes like “mashing” and “lagering” and terms like “wort” and “gravity” will become second nature when talking beer. For example, you could intelligently conjecture that the dryness of the saison you’re enjoying could either be from an addition of simple sugar or because the grains were mashed at a lower temperature making for highly fermentable wort.

Explore various homebrewing techniques in our Let’s Brew section and How To Brew posts.

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3. Homebrewing increases your ability to diagnose 0ff-flavors.

Identifying off-flavors (unwanted flaws perceived in beer) is a skill many homebrewers and craft beer drinkers have mastered. However, homebrewers take it to the next level by developing the skills to not only identify flaws, but be able to figure out what caused the flaw and how to prevent it the next time the beer is brewed.

So next time you get a hint of green apple in a Belgian dubbel you can confidently say, “I am sensing aceteldehyde. This beer might be too young or was pulled off the yeast too early.”

Learn more about common off-flavors in beer.

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4. Homebrewing allows you to brew the unobtainable.

Craft beer nerds love their “white whale beers.” You know, the ones that are a thing of legend and increasingly difficult to obtain. 2014 Best Beers in America winner Pliny the Elder from Russian River is a great example. Even if Russian River distributes their double IPA in your area, it can be very difficult to get your hands on a bottle or enjoy a pour from your local taproom.

Homebrewers have the advantage of being able to brew what we call “clone recipes” of their favorite commercial beers. Sure, they don’t always come out exactly the same, but at least you can get an idea of what that elusive beer tastes like.

Check out our homebrew recipe library for some clone recipes!

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 5. Homebrewing fosters respect for the craft of brewing.

It’s easy to take the thousands of craft beers available to you for granted, but it’s important to remember the blood, sweat and tears that goes into every ounce of your favorite commercial brew. Operating a brewery is more than a few pals slugging beers while standing around a boil kettle. This will become quickly apparent after brewing your first 5-gallon batch. It’s not rocket science by any means, but it takes considerable time, effort and know-how. Now magnify your small-scale homebrewing experiences to brewing a few barrels, like our craft beer brethren, and your appreciation for their skills and labor will sky rocket.

Next time you’re at your neighborhood brewery (find a brewery near you), let the brewers and staff know you appreciate the effort that goes into each pint. They’d love to hear it!

The post 5 Ways Homebrewing Will Make You a Better Beer Nerd appeared first on American Homebrewers Association.

The Frogtown Hoppers, a Toledo, Ohio–area homebrew club, conducted a multi-site AHA Big Brew Day for 2016 and a makeup day at a member’s residence the weekend after. Thirty-six brewers, seven of whom were first-time brewers, made 27 batches of beer totaling 168 gallons. Introducing newcomers to homebrewing is important to the Hoppers because one of their main focuses is education. Two coordinators secured and managed each of the two venues. Logistics such as water, shade, spent grains, and fire safety were important.

“It’s important to iron out who brings what,” said Dirk Karrenbauer, site coordinator. So, the club used an online Google signup sheet to secure ice-cold drinking water, spare equipment, sanitizer, canopies, and tables. “Face-to-face [coordination] with the site host to do a walk-through was key to success,” according to Chris McKenzie, site coordinator.

“There’s a lot that goes into this: site selection, traffic patterns, load/unload, hot chill water disposal, shelter,” he says. “Ideally, one or two people would co-brew, or not brew at all, to answer questions and talk through the process with interested visitors and bystanders. Whoever shows up will witness a variety of beers brewed on a wide range of equipment, so this makes a good opportunity to speak to the ability to tailor the hobby to any taste preference or depth of complexity that the new homebrewer wants to dive in.”

The Hoppers kicked off planning with a meeting in early March 2016, and press releases and posters were distributed. Social media outreach included five other local homebrew clubs. Richard Kenny, owner of one venue, Forest View Lanes, remarked, “I thought it was great! So many people there participating, and everyone was willing to help anyone that needed advice, tools, equipment, or anything. For someone that never brewed a beer, lots of knowledge in one place.” Richard is already on board with plans to host the club again in 2017.

The Hoppers partnered with local homebrew supply shop Titgemeier’s Feed & Garden Center to offer a discount on the club’s Big Brew recipe; a double IPA named “Hopper Mojo”. Titgemeier’s also ran a special 10% off on all homebrew equipment kits during the entire event, and flyers were on display at all sites. An event flyer was also created and posted at the venues and surrounding stores where craft beer is sold.

Because the Toledo area is so large and people’s schedules are very tight that time of year, the Hoppers realized early on that a multi-site event that also recognized solo batches brewed during the week of Big Brew could build a lot of involvement. The AHA was consulted on counting these batches in the 2016 Big Brew statistics, and agreed to include them.

This coming year, the Frogtown Hoppers plan to build on their success by incorporating a charitable aspect. Community outreach is valuable to us. We are looking for ways to help the people around us. We took what we learned last spring and turned it into a very successful month-long charity drive for Learn to Homebrew Day last fall. We try to use what we learn. It’s a great feeling giving back. We’re not so much goal-oriented, but huge turnout is a kick, and if we can couple that with doing something good for those around us, so much the better.

The post Big Brew With Toledo’s Frogtown Hoppers appeared first on American Homebrewers Association.

I’m William from Massachusetts. I’ve been a homebrewer for over two years and, I enjoy DIY projects.

I’ve seen other people with wooden beer carriers, and I have a bunch of reclaimed wood lying around, so I figured I’d make my own. My wooden 6-pack carrier is 11″ × 7 ¼” × 11½” (length × width × height) and includes a removable divider.

Materials

Wood:

• 2 end pieces: Wormy Chestnut cut to 11″ × 7 ¼”. Any wood will do, especially if it’s hardwood. If it’s softwood, I recommend using 1” thick.
• 2 bottom pieces: Oak wood cut 11″ × 3 ½” with a ¼” gap. You can use one piece if you have wide enough wood. I recommend a hardwood of ½” thickness or softwood using 1″ thick.
• 2 side pieces: Pine cut to 11″ long by whatever width you want. In my case, I used four pieces (two per side) so you could see the bottles through the sides. It can be any wood since this is for aesthetics.
• 1 handle for the carrier: Pine cut to 9″ × 1″ inches thick. Any wood will work, including a dowel.
• 3 pieces to make up the divider: ¼” oak wood—one piece cut to 9″ × 3 ½” and two pieces cut to 6″ × 3 ½” wide. You can use any wood here.

Other Materials & Tools:

• Screws, nails, or both
• Wood glue (TiteBond III)
• Saw
• Sandpaper (80-grit and 200-grit)
• Wood stain (I highly recommend Danish Oil)
• A wall-mounted bottle opener.

Construction

Pre-cut all the wood before beginning the build, and sand each piece with 80-grit sandpaper and finish it with 200-grit. Once everything is sanded, thoroughly clean off all the dust and stain every piece. Sanding and staining everything after the pieces are assembled will be much more difficult.

Next, do a dry fit of the assembly to make sure all the pieces fit together. Use the materials list as a guide to determine where each piece goes.

Then, use clamps to hold everything together and pre-drill all the holes that are needed. Once the holes are pre-drilled, put a little wood glue on all the parts that are being connected and screw them together. I chose not to glue the divider in place so that it can be removed and replaced with a divider that works for four 22-ounce bottles. You can also remove the divider altogether and fit small growlers.

Last, mount the bottle opener to one of the sides.

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William McEttrick is a homebrewer and AHA member from Norton, Mass.. You can follow McEttrick’s homebrewing adventures and DIY projects on his Twitter account @TotallyBrewedCo.

The post How to Build a Wooden 6-Pack Holder appeared first on American Homebrewers Association.

by FastBrewing & WineMaking

WHO WILL KNOCK Brandon off the podium this year? 3-2-1 FastRack!

Many fallen soldiers will be had as bottles be flyin’ at this years 4rd Annual International FastRack Speed Challenge Championships during Homebrew Con in Minneapolis, MN

What Can You Win?

Participants will be chosen at the HomebrewCon and we’ll be bringing back some winners from previous years. The fastest participants will win entry to FastRack Speed Challenge Championships taking place on Saturday at the HomebrewCon and a chance at a MASSIVE FastBrewing & WineMaking prize pack consisting of:

• 1 Brand New 14G Conical Fermenter (Check out FastBrewing.com in March for more info)
• 2 New Accessories – Hop Filter & Stainless Steel Thermowell
• FastFerment Thermometer, Sample Port and Stand
• 1 Set of FastRack24 and FastRack12
• 1 Set of 12oz Beer FastLabels
• 1 Set of 22oz Bomber/Wine FastLabels
• PLUS, automatic entry into the 2018 National Homebrew Conference (Homebrew Con)

How Can you Get in on the Action?

Anyone can participate!

It’s the 4th year of the competition and homebrew enthusiasts are gearing up to find the World’s “Fastest Hands”! This challenge is open to any homebrew club, retail store or event that hosts a Speed Challenge. Following the event, you must submit the three fastest times to FastBrewing as entry into the international competition. This past year we expanded the chance at the World’s “Fastest Hands” overseas.

Speed Challenges bring an exciting element to your event with some friendly competition. Also, with the chance to win many valuable products and entry to Homebrew Con, you will undoubtedly draw a crowd.

The Champ

Brandon Kessler is the reigning champ for the 2nd year in a row and is looking for some challengers. He’ll be at the Homebrew Con and we hope you will too!

The post 4th Annual International FastRack Speed Challenge Championships! appeared first on American Homebrewers Association.