On December 12, 2017, a remarkable event took place in our nation’s capital when Republicans and Democrats united over something we all love: homebrew and independent beer.

Although it may seem as though Republicans and Democrats are as divided as ever these days, great beer receives bipartisan support. On December 12, 2017, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle attended the Brewers Association’s (BA’s) annual holiday tasting on Capitol Hill to unite and celebrate homebrewing and independent beer in our country.

The event was open to staff and members of Congress and continues to be a great way to promote the efforts and missions of the American Homebrewers Association (AHA) and BA. This year had a little twist on the event by including the second annual Capitol Hill Staff Homebrew Competition awards ceremony, an event that promotes homebrewing in the House and Senate. This year we had 15 entries and opened the event to all Capitol Hill staff. AHA competition coordinator John Moorhead spoke about the competition, the AHA, and the symbiotic relationship between homebrewing and a growing beer industry.

Bob Pease, the Brewers Association’s president and CEO, presented the awards, which included first, second, and third place in two categories, a best-of-show award, and a House vs. Senate award for the staffer who had the highest score between the two legislative chambers. We also had an  AHA booth where beer from all the entrants in the competition was poured so fellow Hill staffers could sample their beer during the event. The list of winners is below.

Competition Results

Best of Show Award: Michael Rodger, Capitol Hill Police (recipe below)

House vs. Senate Homebrew Award (highest scored entry): Trevor Reuschel, Office of Congresswoman Bustos (D-Il)

Category 1: American & British Beer

• 1^st Place: Trevor Reuschel with co-brewers Chris Fitzgerald and James Robertson, Office of Congresswoman Cheri Bustos (D-Il), American IPA
• 2^nd Place: Gray Maxwell, Office of Senator Benjamin Cardin (Md.), British Brown Ale
• 3^rd Place: Perry Yates with co-brewer Jared Eichhorn (cloakroom), Office of House Appropriations, American Pale Ale

Category 2: Belgian, Spice, Smoked & Wood Ales

• 1^st Place: Michael Rodger, Capitol Hill Police, Sweet Stout with chocolate, peppers and spices
• 2^nd Place: Claudia Urrabazo with co-brewer Yuri Beckelman, Office of Representative Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md), Saison
• 3^rd Place: Eric Lausten, Office of Congressman Dan Lipinski (D-Il), Belgian Blond Ale

Additional details on the competition can be found in the official press release on BrewersAssociation.org, and photos from the ceremony—which are you are welcome to share with credit to the AHA—can be found here. We are happy to answer any questions!

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Mash crushed grains in 4 gallons (15 L) water at 150°F (66°C) for 60 minutes in a single infusion mash. Sparge in 4 gallons (15 L) water at 170°F (77°C) to collect 6.5 gallons (25 L) of wort. Boil and follow the hop schedule. Cool, pitch yeast, and transfer to primary for 4 days at 50°F (10°C). Rack to  secondary and continue for 7 days. Rack, prime, and bottle.

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Who doesn’t love a fried potato? Potatoes, as simple and unpretentious as they may be, transform when they’re fried. The crunchy outer edge of a just-greasy-enough potato latke with a side of sour cream is about as good as it gets.

The origins of potato latkes didn’t start with Hanukkah, though that’s where they have gained most of their popularity via the traditions of this eight-day Jewish festival. The holiday dates back to 168 BCE, at which time Jews found themselves developing recipes to celebrate the tradition based on where they lived. Those on the Mediterranean coasts used fresh-pressed extra virgin olive oil to fry foods because Hanukkah coincides with the end of olive harvest season. Potatoes were not only readily available to European Jews, but they were cheap and easy to store for long periods of time. Thus, the tradition of latkes blossomed, and Jewish mothers kept hungry children at bay with a simple potato recipe.

Spent Grain Potato Latkes & Avocado Cream

Ingredients for Latkes:

Directions:

Step 1: After you peel your potatoes, place them in water to prevent browning. While you’re peeling potatoes, heat oil in a large skillet.

Step 2: Cut potatoes in half and use a cheese grater or food processor to create thin, short, spaghetti-like strips. Use a cheese cloth to drain all the moisture out of the potatoes.

Step 3: In a medium bowl, place the shredded potatoes with the rest of the ingredients and stir until evenly mixed.

Step 4: Drop spoonfuls of the mixture into the hot oil and press down with a spatula to flatten them into pancake form. Cook on each side for 3–4 minutes or until the tops are a nice brown color and crispy.

Step 5: After you’re done frying the latkes, allow them to dry on paper towel and blot away any excess or unwanted oil.

Ingredients for Avocado Cream:

Directions:

Step 1: Take the sour cream out of the fridge and let it soften a little bit while you cook the latkes.

Step 2: Peel avocado and add it to the sour cream in medium bowl along with the lemon juice, salt, pepper, and garlic powder.

Step 3: Depending on how ripe your avocado is (the riper, the better), you may have to use a hand mixer/blender to mix the sauce. If the avocado is super ripe, you should be able to mix it until it’s a smooth consistency.

Step 4: Put cream sauce in fridge until you’re done with latkes.

Pairing Suggestions

It’s hard to think about what to pair with a fried potato because, let’s be honest, they take on the flavor of anything you cook them with and they’re pretty delicious with virtually anything. I decided to go with a fish-and-chips concept by pairing these latkes with an English-style strong bitter (sometimes generically called “ESB” in North America, but ESB is a trademarked brand of the Fuller’s Brewery in London). The biscuit-like and bready aroma of the strong bitter will complement that toasty fried crunch on your latkes, while the mild bitterness will elevate the flavors of the avocado cream sauce. This meal can get pretty heavy between the fried potatoes and the dairy, so the sessionable qualities of the English pale ale make it a great pairing as well.

English Style Bitter Homebrew Recipe

If you’re planning ahead, brew this English-style strong bitter recipe, “I’m not Bitter, I’m Thirsty!” originally featured in Jamil Zainasheff and John Palmer’s Brewing Classic Styles. 

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Hailing from the South, Millie Shamburger has developed an affinity for the beer industry and all the shiny things that come with it. When not exploring beer, Millie is in the kitchen, enjoying the outdoors, and wearing out her dancing shoes. 

The post The Homebrewer’s Table: Spent Grain Latkes & Avocado Cream Paired With English-style Bitter appeared first on American Homebrewers Association.

Do beer drinkers build up a resistance to hops? It’s a question that’s surrounded by controversy and uncertainty, with experts from all over giving their input on the matter. In 2005, Vinnie Cilurzo at Russian River Brewing coined the phrase “lupulin threshold shift,” to describe when a once extraordinarily hoppy beer now seems pedestrian.

Hops are wonderful. Believe it or not, there was once a time when beer wasn’t hopped. Instead, medieval brewers used spices, flowers and other herbs to give beer flavor (think gruit). In the 13th century, brewers started using Humulus lupulus (female hops) to improve flavor and aroma, which soon became commonplace as it improved beer’s head retention and shelf life. Today you’d be hard-pressed to find a beer that was made without hops.

Our ability to taste bitterness evolved as a way of detecting poison. It’s interesting that we’ve developed an acquired taste for bitter food and drink as it seems rare elsewhere in nature. Is it this contrast that has driven us to crave a good IPA?

Because of the lupulin threshold shift, it seems as though we’ve built up a tolerance to hoppiness and bitterness. Beers that once impressed you with their flavor, bitterness and hoppy aroma don’t seem as interesting or have the same punch that you’ve come to expect and desire.

Two years after Cilurzo coined the term, it came up during a Q&A session at the First International Brewers Symposium. Following a presentation detailing results of research related to bitterness quality, an attendee explained the concept of lupulin threshold shift to Tom Shellhammer and drew an analogy to spicy food. “When you get used to hot food you have to put in more and more spice to get the same perceived spicy heat; the same analogy applies to beer and bitterness, in my opinion,” he said.

Shellhammer replied: “I use the same analogy to describe temporal and qualitative effects of bitterness. For instance, the heat from ginger is different than the heat from chili peppers. But in regard to what you described as lupulin threshold shift, we don’t see a shift in how the panelists perform over time.”

However, human olfactory psychophysics, the study of how humans perceive odors, indicates that the impact of an aroma may change. Andreas Keller and colleagues at Rockefeller University discovered that the perceived smell of an odor at a given concentration changes over time and depends on prior experience. In other words, the more you’re subjected to a smell, the more you adapt to it, thereby raising the threshold of that smell. Although this does not completely apply to nonvolatile bitter components, it has been shown that the brain, smelling hoppy aromas, expects a more bitter drinking sensation, or a lupulin threshold shift.

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John Moorhead is Director of the National Homebrew Competition and AHA Special Projects Coordinator.

Sources

• For The Love Of Hops, Stan Hieronymus
• The Oxford Companion to Beer, Garrett Oliver

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The AHA celebrates its 39th anniversary by sharing the original issue of Zymurgy magazine

Can you believe it? December 7, 2017, marks the 39th anniversary of Charlie Papazian publishing the first issue of Zymurgy magazine and launching the American Homebrewers Association.

A lot has changed over the last 39 years in the world of homebrewing, most notably the legalization of making beer at home in all fifty of the United States, but the AHA continues to help people around the world make damn good beer at home!

Since registering its first member in 1978, the American Homebrewers Association has grown to over 44,000 members around the globe. These card-carrying members provide the support that makes the homebrewing not-for-profit possible, and you can support the AHA, too!

In celebration of our anniversary, we are sharing the original issue of Zymurgy magazine for download! It truly is a blast from the past seeing homebrew advertisements nearly four decades old. Be sure to keep an eye out for the announcement of the first-ever National Homebrew Competition, which has since grown to be the world’s largest beer competition!

Download Zymurgy Magazine Issue 1

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Mash rest at 150°F (66°C) for 20 minutes, collect wort slowly, and sparge at 170°F (77°C). Add malt extract to filled kettle. Boil for 90 minutes, adding 4 oz. (113 g) of hops at 45 minutes, 1.5 oz. (42 g) at 30 minutes, and 0.25. oz (7 g) at flameout. Pitch twice the usual amount of HEALTHY yeast cells, and aerate twice as much as normal. Pitch a new, healthy yeast culture to prime at bottling. Prime to reach about 2.3 volumes (4.6 g/L) of CO₂. Age for as long as you can wait, ideally at least three to six months.

Primary Fermentation: 7–10 days at 72°F (22°C)

Secondary Fermentation: 2 days at 55°F (13°C), 7 days at 40°F (4°C)

Notes: 

The key to success is a healthy, vigorous yeast, asserts Alec Mull, who provided the recipe. “Otherwise, the beer will never go terminal, and the residual starch will make it cloyingly sweet.” For a 5-gallon batch of imperial stout in the 1.100 OG range, he recommends “pitching the slurry from at least a 1-liter starter, or brew another 5-gallon batch of normal-strength stout or ale and repitch the slurry from that.”

The post Bell’s Brewery Expedition Stout Clone appeared first on American Homebrewers Association.

Lamb and mint are a classic pairing, and despite my best efforts, I haven’t been able to find a historic reason for why these two are irresistible side by side. Either way, this fresh herb and full-flavored meat have been known to be served together as far back as the 18^th century. Who loves braised lamb leg and mint jelly? I do!

I love meatballs, mostly because they are easy, but also because they’re versatile. You can basically make a meatball out of anything, not to mention the endless possibilities for what to serve with them. I like to put them atop a fresh arugula salad with roasted sweet potatoes drizzled with the mint yogurt sauce. The sky is the limit, though. Serve them with a root vegetable puree and wilted greens, wrap them in a pita, or pair with a fresh cucumber and tomato salad. The dynamic flavor of the two together is sure to be the shining star, no matter how you decide to prepare them.

Simple Lamb Meatball & Yogurt Sauce Recipe

Directions:

Prep time: 15 minutes

1. Add all the ingredients except the eggs to a medium mixing bowl. Mix well until all ingredients are combined. Add the eggs to the mixture, making sure the egg is evenly distributed throughout the meat and spice mixture. Roll the mixture into approximately 12 meatballs. Set aside on a plate, covered.
2. Prepare your yogurt sauce. Simply add all the ingredients into a small bowl and whisk together until the mixture is creamy but slightly thin (dressing consistency).
3. Heat oil in a pan on medium-high heat. Toss your rolled meatballs into the pan and cook until they are slightly firm on the outside. Let them rest, and then serve topped with yogurt sauce and a garnish of fresh mint.

Pairing Suggestions

In thinking about a swoon-worthy beer when you sit down to this meal, I can’t help but focus on the key elements of the ingredients. Lamb is fatty and more gamy than poultry or beef, which is probably why it does so well with the fresh, bright, and floral flavor of mint. A California common beer is an excellent choice for this meal because the Northern Brewer hops complement the minty, herbal flavor of the dressing, while the bitterness can cut the fattiness of the lamb and elevate the umami aspects of the meat that we all love so much.

California Common Homebrew Recipe

If you’re planning ahead, brew this California Common recipe, the “Dream Steam,” that won a gold medal in the 2016 National Homebrew Competition in Baltimore, Md.

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Hailing from the South, Millie Shamburger has developed an affinity for the beer industry and all the shiny things that come with it. When not exploring beer, Millie is in the kitchen, enjoying the outdoors, and wearing out her dancing shoes. 

The post Brew & Bites: Lamb Meatballs with Mint Yogurt Sauce and California Common appeared first on American Homebrewers Association.

Written By Kyle McQuillen and Craig Reavill, R&D Chemists at Treatt

There are a number of ways to extract flavors from natural ingredients; the most practical for homebrewers are:

• Boiling: simmering with sugar to make a sugar syrup extract
• Hot water soaking
• Cold water soaking, then pressing
• Steeping in high ABV spirits
• Steaming or pressure cooking

The name of the game when creating extracts is to expose as much of the surface area of the fruit, vegetable, spice or flower as possible, to maximize extraction. This can be done by finely chopping, grating, bruising or crushing.

With ginger root, two of the best methods are steeping in high ABV spirits and simmering with sugar to create a syrup based extract.

Ginger is a unique flavor source. It is pungent and spicy and can add a nice complexity to many styles of beer. Ginger is the underground rhizome of the Ginger plant (Zingiber officinale). It has a firm texture and is quite fibrous, which can make it a challenge to work with. Making a ginger extract can be labor intensive but the end result is worth the extra effort. Below are two methods of making a ginger extract at home:

1. Alcoholic extract: produces a clean ginger flavor with little to no heat
2. Syrup extract: provides a spicy yet flavorful extract

Ginger Alcoholic Extract

• 450 ml vodka (minimum 40 percent ABV (although the higher the better)
• 45 g fresh ginger root (after peeling and slicing)

Peel the ginger and slice fine enough to fit through the neck of a suitable bottle.

Add the vodka and shake twice daily (minimum) until desired flavor intensity has been extracted. The longer you let it sit, the more intense the flavor becomes.

This should take between two and six weeks depending on taste preferences. It should then be filtered to remove all the ginger and small plant fibers. For filtration, cheesecloth, coffee filters or even hop bags will suffice.

Using Ginger Alcohol Extract in Brewing

Volumes can be adjusted—ginger should be used at 0.1 g per ml of vodka. This alcoholic extract provides a clean and fresh ginger flavor with little heat. Dosage rates of extracts will vary widely depending on many factors, including the style of beer, IBUs and quality of bitterness in the beer. Start at very low dosage rates in your beer and work your way up to find the desired flavor profile. With this extract, we would recommend starting at 1000ppm (0.10 percent) by volume post-fermentation and working your way up from there.

Ginger Syrup Extract

• 500 ml water
• 50 g fresh ginger root (after peeling and slicing)
• 100 g sugar (sucrose)

Peel the ginger and bruise (with a rolling pin or similar) to rupture and expose fibers, but not too much to prevent the release of small fibers into the solution.

Place into a saucepan with the sugar and add boiling water. Simmer for 30 to 45 minutes or until the volume has reduced by about half.

The bruised roots will look slightly darker and slightly mushy or slightly cooked. The solution will turn a deep golden color. Cool, then filter and store in the fridge—use within two days.

Using Ginger Syrup Extract in Brewing

Since the ginger is exposed to heat, this syrup extract provides a hot, full-on, yet sweet ginger flavor. This is because Gingerol, a major component of Ginger essential oil, is converted to a compound called Zingerone, which is sweeter than Gingerol but still provides spice to the extract. Again, dosage rates will vary, so add a very small amount to your beer and work up from there. The “spent” bruised ginger can be used for cooking for those culinary-minded people—it tastes great!

It’s worth noting that the syrup extract will provide fermentable sugars. It can be added straight into the fermentation vessel, just before pitching the yeast and the flavors can mature with the brew. Although depending on the strain of yeast used, the flavor profile of the extract could be altered due to biochemical transformations initiated by our favorite microorganism.

The other way to use the syrup extract would be to add it post-fermentation, either in place of the priming sugar when bottle conditioning or after cold crashing when kegging the brew.  With a specific gravity of approximately 1.151, this will slightly increase the final gravity of your beer.

The extracts above are very simple to make and extremely powerful. With ginger, your method of extraction will depend on if you want that extra heat in your beer. The syrup extract will pack quite a punch, so be conservative when adding to your beer. You could even go all out and use them in combination, adding the syrup extract pre and or post fermentation, as well as the alcoholic extract to enhance the final top note, thus giving the full spectrum of ginger to your latest creation.

Sources

Connel, DW and Sutherland MD. “A re-examination of gingerol, shogaol, and zingerone, the pungent principles of ginger.” Australian Journal of Chemistry 22-5 (1969): 1033-1043.

Phung, Alice. “Ginger.” https://scienceandfooducla.wordpress.com/2014/09/30/ginger/. Science and Food. September 30 2014.

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About Treatt

Treatt is a specialist ingredient solutions provider that offers a wide portfolio of natural essences and extracts to the craft beer market, including citrus oils and its range of 100-percent natural Treattarome distillates made up entirely of FTNF ingredients. Treatt partners with its customers to develop new flavor combinations formulate blends and conduct taste trials. It has pilot breweries in both the U.S. and UK to further study brewing science and identify new ways for Treatt to provide value to brewers.

We look into the what, why and how of using natural extracts in brewing on our website TreattBrewSolutions.com take a look to find out more!

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On December 3, 2017, the American Homebrewers Association (AHA) and the Brewers Association (BA) will hold the second annual Capitol Hill Staff Homebrew Competition, bringing together Republicans, Democrats, and other staffers in a friendly competition.

When asked about the purpose of the competition, AHA Director Gary Glass stated, “This competition, open to legislative staff and other federal employees on Capitol Hill is a fun non-partisan outlet for the Hill staff, while helping to increase awareness of and appreciation for homebrewing with this influential group.”

There are 16 entries in a variety of beer styles that will be judged on their own merits and against each other. Category winners and a Best of Show recipient will be announced by members of the House and Senate Small Brewers Caucuses, alongside BA President & CEO Bob Pease, at the Capitol Hill Tasting event on December 12, 2017.

New this year, the highest-scoring beers of the House and Senate will go head-to-head and the winner will be announced during the awards ceremony with a trophy presented to the Chair of the winning Small Brewers Caucus.

“The Capitol Hill Homebrew Competition brings together and celebrates the homebrewers on Capitol Hill in a fun and friendly way, celebrating the roots of the small and independent craft beer movement in this country,” says John Moorhead, AHA Competition Organizer and manager of the competition.

See the official press release on BrewersAssociation.org.

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[This article is an excerpt from the “From the Glass” column featured in the November/December 2017 issue of Zymurgy magazine. Join the American Homebrewers Association to subscribe to Zymurgy and gain access to the archives.]

If I haven’t told you this recently, I really appreciate your membership to the American Homebrewers Association! There’s more to the AHA than Zymurgy magazine, AHA Member Deals, our events, and all of the great benefits the AHA offers to members. Your membership dollars help ensure the AHA, an association proud to advocate on behalf of homebrewers worldwide, will be around for the long haul.

You may not be aware that the AHA conducts both an annual survey and four quarterly surveys of homebrew supply shops. We do this to help us track the health of the hobby and to help shops understand the market. No one else is doing this kind of work.

Following annual declines in gross revenue of two percent in 2015 and one percent in 2016, our data for the first half of 2017 show that shops in general saw modest declines in gross revenue of 3.4 percent and 2.2 percent, respectively, for the first and second quarters relative to 2016 revenue. When looking just at brick-and-mortar stores (i.e. not primarily online businesses) that have been open five or more years, the picture is somewhat worse, with declines of 6.1 percent and 7.7 percent, respectively, for the first and second quarters of 2017, meaning that online retailers and newer brick-and-mortar stores are faring better than long-established brick-and-mortar stores.

At the individual shop level, there could be a wide range of reasons for sales performance, but generally speaking, fewer customers are buying from homebrew supply shops, existing customers are purchasing less, or some combination of both is responsible for the declines in revenue.

I think of the local homebrew supply shop as the focal point of the local homebrewing community. Those shops play a critical role in keeping our hobby alive and introducing new people in our communities to homebrewing. If you have a shop in your area, consider the impact on the homebrewers there if your local shop were to close. We’ve seen a number of shops close over the past couple of years, so the threat is real. With that, I ask you all to please support your local homebrew supply shop!

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Gary Glass is director of the American Homebrewers Association.  

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