Old Dutchman Brewing

Welcome to Old Dutchman Brewing! If you've discovered that there is a lot more to beer than the domestic swill you used to get drunk on in college, then perhaps it's time for you to try your hand at a little homebrewing. Below you'll find some tips, some recipes, and (hopefully) a lot of incentive to make your own beer. But the best place for you to begin is at a homebrew supply store. They can give you all the information you need to start out on the right foot.

  • Visit my favorite Home Brew shop: South Hills Brewing Supply here.
  • Contents:

    1. How To Do A True Brew
    2. Build a Brew Center
    3. A Tried And True Recipe...Or Two!
    4. MEAD--The Very Best!
    5. A Final Word
    6. BONUS: my Pumpkin Ale recipe

    How To Do a True Brew

    The Beginning Brewers Essential 10 Tips. The purpose of this information is to clarify the things that must be done to brew your first successful batch of beer. I assume that you already have a set of instructions on how to brew your first beer. If any part of your instructions conflict with these 10 points, you should follow the advice given here and ignore your instructions on that point.

    1. Plan on it taking up to 5 hours to get your first batch into the fermenter. While it may only take 2 hours, it can easily take you longer.

    2. Start with an ale. If you don't know what an ale is, ask the person you buy your ingredients from. Don't start with lager beers. In order for lagers to taste right, they must be fermented at very low temperatures.

    3. Use corn sugar only for priming. As a general rule you will have best results with "all malt" beers. Unfortunately, many kits use only one can of malt extract and tell you to add pounds of corn sugar to the boil. Do not do this. Instead substitute light, dry malt extract pound for pound for the sugar. Corn sugar or table sugar is okay for priming.

    4. Don't use unknown yeast. If you buy a kit that comes with an unlabeled or generic packet of yeast taped in the lid, throw away the yeast and buy two packs of good dried ale yeast recommended by the store. Examples of good dried ale yeasts include: Coopers, Whitbread, and Nottingham.

    5. Watch your kettle closely when it first comes to boil. When the "wort", (extract and water), first comes to a boil it will climb the sides of the kettle rapidly and can easily boil over. Before you start boiling have on hand a cup of ice and hot pads. If the foam in the kettle gets too high, dump in the ice. After the boil gets going, regulate the heat so that you have a strong rolling boil but the froth isn't climbing ever higher up the kettle.

    6. Clean and sanitize everything. After the boil it is critical that everything that touches your beer be cleaned and sanitized. This includes the fermenter, hoses, spoons, bottles, buckets etc. Cleaning involves washing away all visible signs of dirt. Sanitizing involves killing any microscopic things which might spoil the taste of your beer. If your instructions don't tell you how to sanitize, you can soak your equipment in bleach and water in the ratio of 1 Tablespoon of bleach per gallon of water for twenty minutes.

    7. Try and ferment the beer between 60 -70 degrees F. Higher temperatures may give you a fruity beer, lower temperatures may cause a slow ferment. Despite this rule, you can add the yeast to the beer when the temperature of the beer drops to 75 degrees. In addition, don't put the fermenter in a place where the temperature will fluctuate wildly, e.g. an unheated garage. The yeast can't handle it.

    8. Be patient. Don't worry how the beer looks in the fermenter. You may have dirty foam on top of the beer or coming out of the airlock. You will have crusty stuff on the insides of the fermenter. This is all normal. After bottling, it will take a couple of weeks for carbonation to develop and the yeast to settle out. Some yeasts settle out slower than others, so it may take a month before your beer tastes right.

    9. Brewing is easier with a buddy.

    10. Relax, don't worry and have a homebrew - but not four. Boiling water is surprisingly hot and you will want all your wits about you till after your beer is in the fermenter.


    The Brews

    I've done many different styles of beer, often at the same time, as this picture shows! To make brewing easier, I constucted a BREW CENTER. Click here for details!

    A Tried And True Recipe...Or Two!

    Khazad-dûm Dark Dunkle (Joy of Home Brewing, pp 204-205)

    · 3/4 lb. (3 cups) crushed Crystal Malt.
    · 1/4 lb. (3/4 cup) crushed Chocolate Malt
    · 1/4 lb. (3/4 cup) crushed Black Patent Malt

    Drop grains into 1 1/2 gallons cold water. Bring to a boil, remove grains. Add:

    · 1 can (3.3 lbs.) Munton & Fison Amber Malt extract
    · 3 lbs. Munton & Fison Dried Dark Extract, return to a boil and add:

    · 2oz. Hallertaur hops

    Boil 60 minutes. Add:

    · 1/2 oz. Hallertauer hops at 30 minutes into boil
    · 1/2 oz. Hallertauer hops 15 minutes before end
    · 1/4 tsp. Irish Moss 10 minutes before end.

    Sparge into 3 gallons cold water. When cool, rehydrate yeast for 10 minutes and pitch.

    · 1 pkg. Ale Yeast

    Bottle with 3/4 c. corn sugar.


    Shoofly Ale (Compare to Theaktons "Old Peculier" recipe.)

    · 1/2 lb. (2 cups) crushed Crystal Malt.
    · 1/2 lb. (2 cups) crushed Roasted Barley

    Place in grain bag in 1 1/2 gallons cold water. Bring to a boil, boil for 10 minutes then remove grains. Add:

    · 3 lbs. dried Amber Malt Extract
    · 1 can (2.2 lbs) Morgan's Caramalt "Master Blend" Extract
    · 2 oz. Fuggles hops

    Boil for 45 minutes. Add:

    · 1/4 tsp. Irish Moss 10 minutes from end,
    · 1/2 oz. Nothern Brewer hops 5 minutes from end.

    When done, turn off head and disolve into the wort:

    · 1 lb. 10 oz. dark brown sugar

    Sparge into carboy with 3 gal. cold water. When cool, rehydrate yeast for 10 minutes and pitch yeast.

    · 1 pkg. Cooper's Ale yeast

    To bottle:

    · 3/4 cup Black Strap Molasses
    · 1 tsp. Ascorbic acid

    Dissolve the molasses in boiling water. Remove from heat. After boiling stops, add ascorbic acid. Add to beer before bottling.


    One more? Click here for my Pumpkin Ale recipe.


    Mead -- The Very Best!

    "Here's a health to the ox, and all of his breed,
    May God send our master a good cask of mead.
    A good cask of mead, as may we all see.
    In the wassail bowl, I'll drink unto thee!"

    What is Mead?

    Simply, a fermented drink made from honey. Mead is a very old concept -- older than beer, and probably older than wine. There are so very few places making mead today that almost the only way to taste it is to brew it yourself. It's very easy, and lends itself well to experimentation--try adding fruits and spices. Here is a WONDERFUL beginners recipe:

    Midsummer Madness Mead

    · 2 oz. fresh grated Ginger
    · 2 tsp. acid blend
    · 2 tsp. yeast nutrients
    · 1/2 tsp. Irish moss
    · 2 tsp.fresh ginger, grated

    Add to 1 1/2 gallons cold water. Bring to a boil, turn down heat, and add:

    · 3 quarts to 1 gallon clover honey (about 10 pounds)

    Sparge into a carboy containing:

    · 1 gallon apple juice
    · 2 gallons cold water

    Rehydrate yeast for 20 minutes in 105° water. Pitch yeast at 80°.

    · 1 pkg. Champagne Yeast or (better) Wyeast Mead Yeast

    Bottle with 3/4 cups corn sugar.

    Additonal notes about mead: The commercial meads that I've tasted are all very sweet, way too sweet for my taste. This recipe produces a rather dry mead. In fact, the reason I add the ginger is to sort of "round out" the flavor, which otherwise is very dry. Unlike malt, which always has residual unfermentable sugars, honey will ferment out almost completely. You can expect final Specific Gravity reading of very close to 1.000.

    Traditionally it took a long, long time to brew mead. Most recipes call for fermentation times of a year or more. This is because honey, while being full of sugar, has almost none of the other nutrients that yeast needs to begin multiplying. The addition the "yeast nutrients" in this recipe cuts down on fermenting time greatly.

    Because the mead produced in this recipe is very high in alcohol, carbonating with added sugar does not always work well. You can always enjoy a still mead, but for the best results with a sparkling mead, try this: Track the Specific Gravity closely, and when it reaches around 1.016, bottle the mead without added sugar. The mead will hopefully continue to ferment, and produce a lovely sparking drink.


    A Final Word...

    Kindly observe the tankard of beer I offer you. This bock was not made simply to drink. It was made to speak to you. And if you, with your tankard of beer,could learn the dialogue, you would discover that in your tankard lives a milky way of tiny bubbles. And inside each bubble, there exists an idea that is waiting to be discovered. Each of these ideas can make you grand and large and fortunate if you so desire to learn and talk with beer.      - M. Bellot


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