Heading towards Christmas a few of us were running low on base malt stock – not enough to do a brew during the holidays. We there for decided to combine a visit to SA maltsters with a tour of their facilities, and a four of the adjoining brewery SAB Alrode.

Andrew Downs did an excellent job of answering all our queries. The tour started of with a short informal "lecture" about barley malt and malting. Andrew then led us through the maltings offering us tips on how to produce some speciality malts (see Andy’s contribution), and improve our beers.

After a brief spell in the elevator, Andrew put us in Nikki Else’s capable hands for the tour of the brewery. Once again many great tips were gleaned to enhance our brewing experiences. The visit to the pub at the end of the tour was a treat, the beer so fresh and the company great. I learnt much about bottling – now to put the info info into practice on a minuscule scale.

Any suggestions to improve/grow the club in any way will be appreciated.

Don’t forget to visit our web site at :

http://www.oocities.org/tradeger/newslet/letindex.htm

As Wort Hog Brewers, our club has come a long way, since Moritz Kallmeyer first hosted people at his home in 1993. Club membership has steadily climbed to 44 members at the end of last year. However the best indicator of our success for me was the quality of beers presented at the December meeting. Interestingly, these included a kit beer that knocked my socks off. We can be very proud of our club. Many thanks to Danie de Villiers for his leadership over the last two years

The year ahead looks to be fantastic. Our first Summer Beer Festival, almost single handily organised by Jeremy Wallis, will give us a great opportunity to demonstrate our brewing ability to our friends and some of the beer cognoscenti of South Africa. In March, Charlie Papazian is visiting our shores. In May we will participate again in International Homebrew Day. In August we will hold our annual homebrew competition. (I am working on getting the top three beers entered into a homebrew Tri-Nations, with Australia and New Zealand.) So there is a lot to look forward to.

Our club is run by volunteers. The committee for 2001 is as follows:

Treasurer – Jeremy Wallis

Secretary – Tony Lelliott, assisted by Coenraad Vegter

Tastings – Moritz Kallmeyer, assisted by Danie de Villiers

Magazine – Donald Coward

Tours -- Andy Tasker

Library – Gavin Currin, assisted by Dennis McLean

Special Project – Llewellyn Janse van Rensburg

Our main aim for the year ahead is to help each other to brew the best beer that we can. The more home brew I taste, the more I believe that we can brew beer that tastes much better than that which we can buy. The looks on the faces of the judges that we get from professional circles reinforces this view. These judges taste our beer expecting infection, and instead are blown away by the quality of the taste experience that they enjoy.

To achieve this goal we are going to continue with technical talks at each meeting, aimed at the brewer who is serious about beer quality. A slight change from last year is that we are going to get Moritz to lead beer tasting as he did at the December meeting. For the members this means a more focussed discussion of the merits of our beers than was possible during the informal tastings that we had previously.

A club needs new members to avoid stagnation and "group think". A danger of technical meetings is that they go over the heads of the brewer who has just brewed his/her first kit. Our second goal is thus to bring new members up to speed as quickly as possible. We will do this in two ways. Firstly our speakers will ensure that they focus part of their presentation on new brewers. Secondly, Llewellyn has been tasked with developing a "beginning brewers" kit – which will include reading materials and suggested equipment to get people off on the right foot.

Finally, the committee feels that the time is right for us to raise awareness amongst the general public regarding our club and craft beer in general. Our Summer Beer Festival is the first step in this direction.

In South Africa we have amongst the most home brewers per capita in the World. The vast majority of these brew sorghum beer – "umgqombothi". When you look at sales of Anchor yeast and King Korn sorghum malt, the 14 000 members of the American Home Brewers Association pale into insignificance.

Admittedly, the methods used are quite different to those used by club members, but the basic principles are the same. I think that we can learn a lot from our fellow South African homebrewers. I have certainly discovered a new world of flavours since I incorporated sorghum malt into my grist’s.

May your wort never boil over !

Ant Hayes

Greetings for 2001 !!

Firstly I want to remind everyone that this column was started in order to provide a forum for comments and snippets of interest related to Brewing from all members – Please let us hear from you this year. This is your newsletter and as a Wort Hog member your views, ideas and information are important. All contributions are very welcome, just jot something down (preferably in an MS Word file ) and send it through to Donald or Andy. Thanks in advance.

As you all know some ingredients for brewing are difficult to come by and I have resorted to attempting to create my own adjuncts for various styles of beer. Here are a couple of recipes you may find useful:

• ROASTED BARLEY

Take unmalted barley grains and place in a roasting pan to a depth of not more than 25mm. Place in a preheated oven at 375 F (190 C) for 45 min's then 30 min's at 450 F (232 C) until 10% of the grains are very dark and 10% are still light brown. You can stir the grains every 15 min's or so and turn the pan 180 degrees in order to get even temperature distribution.

(Ref. – extract from HBD)

• CRYSTAL MALTS

Fully modified green malt or less economically, very pale malt re-wetted by steeping (up to 50% moisture) to remove the surface moisture from the corns. The drum is then closed to prevent further evaporation, and the temperature is slowly increased to 65-70 C with external heating to obtain maximum production of reducing sugars and until the endosperm has been replaced by a clear sweet liquid that emerges if the corns are squeezed. The temperature may then be increased suddenly. Alternatively, the temperature may be slowly and continuously increased over 40 minutes to 100 C. Changing the moisture content and temperatures alters the nature of the product, for example the levels of reducing sugars. When the corns contents have liquefied, heating is resumed to dry them and to develop the desired colour, flavour and aroma. For carapils drying is at a low temperature 55-60 c. The final temperature is higher for more highly coloured products, being in the range 120° -160° C, higher temperatures giving darker coloured products. The malt grains are smooth, round, swollen bright and evenly coloured without any dark spots. When cut across, more than 905 should appear hard and glassy, not floury and mealy.

( Ref. – extract from Malts and Malting by Dennis E. Briggs )

Have Fun

Cheers

Andy

*****

Well done again - Perhaps I can put a perspective on Lyn's comments to Ant on wort oxygenation. Whilst it is true that SAB would use lower oxygenation on a brand requiring higher ester, e.g. Black label, it is still very high when compared to home brewers. The reason is that we use pure oxygen, not air, which is only about 20% oxygen. The theoretical maximum DO the brewer can get from aeration is about 12 PPM. For BL we would use about 16 - 18 PPM. Also we employ HG brewing so our yeast count would be higher, therefore need more O2 (You should have about 1 million cells per degree Plato).

I would seriously doubt that a home brewer could ever over oxygenate his wort, on the contrary, most problems would stem from under aeration. The yeast needs O2 to manufacture extra cell membrane components which it uses when it divides and an under aerated wort would cause fermentation problems

The main reason for avoiding using yeast from BL is because of its different sugar spectrum ( In fact some breweries do re-pitch BL into BL, but not BL into CL)

Donald, I am happy to keep contributing to the magazine - perhaps I could answer technical questions from your brewers?

Keep well

Tim

*****

As pale as a Pilsner but with the delicate fruitiness of an ale! Kölsch is a lightgold, clean tasting, top fermented (obegärig) German ale, originating from the Rhineland region in Köln (Cologne). Berghof Kölsch proudly promotes this unique ale of Köln by rigorously following the traditional Bräukunst. An unique yeast strain imparts the delicate fruity, winy character. The light body is created by the use of 10% winter wheat malt. Berghof Kölsch is exclusively "Noble Hopped" with the flowery Saaz hop. Served cold but not freezing, with a crisp, refreshing carbonation, Berghof Kölsch is indeed worthy of the slogan: Das Gesellige Bier!

About.com Beer & Homebrewing Newsletter

December 28, 2000 Volume II - Issue XI

* Brewing Software *

Drew Avis, one of our Forum Foamies has concocted a

promising brewing calculator called "Strange Brew".

I've checked his calculations against my own system

and it seems spot-on. You can download a full working

copy from his site.

*****

Improving Your Kit Beers

(Ant Hayes November 2000)

You’ve made your first kit beer, and whilst the pleasure associated with the first sip of your own beer can never be replicated, your third and forth glasses lead you to wonder how you can improve things. In this article I have set out five simple ways that you can improve your kit beer, without too much additional effort.

1. Jump-start your yeast!

It has been said many times that brewers make wort and yeast makes beer. So my first tip has to do with making the yeast as happy and ready to go as possible.

Think of yourself on a Monday morning after a heavy weekend. Your palate is dry, your head foggy; all you want is a cup of coffee, a shower, and to ease into the day. Now picture the same scene, but instead of waking up at home, you wake up at your desk. The phones are ringing, your boss is hovering - not a pretty picture is it?

A dried yeast cell is fairly similar to a hungover sleepy human. When you throw it straight into your fermenter full of wort, it feels a bit put out and does not really work that efficiently. It much prefers to ease into fermentation.

Tip 1: Re-hydrate dried yeast in 35° C water for 15 minutes before you pitch it.

A sugar solution puts pressure on yeast cell walls. When a yeast cell has been dried, its cell walls are weak, and so placing it in a sugar solution can damage it. It is better first to re-hydrate the yeast in as neutral a solution as possible. Pure water works fine.

My approach is to boil a cup of water and then let it cool down to 35° C (between 30 and 38 is okay). This ensures that the water is relatively sterile. I then pour in my sachet of dried yeast and cover the cup. After 15 minutes or so, the yeast will have started to release CO₂ showing that it is healthy and ready for work. Throw the yeast into your fermenter when your wort is at fermentation temperature.

2. Oxygenate

My second tip also has to do with yeast health. Yeast goes through two phases in your fermenter. During the first phase, it buds to form more yeast. During the second it ferments to form alcohol.

The first phase requires oxygen. Yeast can make do without oxygen, but this results in a poor fermentation and off flavours. It also results in a higher final gravity than desired.

Tip 2: Oxygenate your wort at the start of fermentation.

There are many ways to oxygenate your wort. The simplest that I have found is to use a whisk. Once I have made my wort and am happy that it is at the right temperature, I add yeast and then beat the living daylights out of the wort with my whisk – normally for 15 to 20 minutes. Not only does this start your fermentation more quickly, it also gives you a great shoulder workout.

It is important to note that from about 18 hours after the start of fermentation you don’t want any oxygen to get to your beer, or as little as possible.

3. Malt tastes better than sugar!

Malt is a form of sugar – but it is one that tastes great after fermentation. Household sugar does not taste so great once it has fermented. A simple experiment is to ferment a cup of sugar solution and taste that – the cidery taste will remind you of some of the poorer kit beers that you may have consumed.

When malt ferments, it leaves behind all of the beery flavours that we enjoy so much. A great beer has yet to be described as sugary, whereas everyone looks forward to a malty beer.

Tip 3: Replace the sugar called for in your recipe with malt extract.

It is possible to calculate the exact amount of malt extract to use, but I simply substitute either dry malt extract or malt extract syrup for the sugar called for in the recipe on a gram for gram basis.

Malt extract is more expensive than sugar – but the improvement in taste more than compensates.

4. Keep the bugs out!

Wort makes a good meal for a range of beings other than yeast. Yeast is quite an aggressive creature at defending its turf, in that it drops the pH and releases alcohol, both of which discourage other bugs. However, some bugs release off flavours very quickly and can spoil your beer despite there only being a few of them.

Tip 4: Sterilise everything that comes into contact with your beer.

Household bleach makes a great steriliser. It is relatively cheap and you don’t need a lot. Just remember to rinse things before they come into contact with your beer as bleach flavoured beer is not great. Also avoid the scented bleaches for similar reasons.

5. Your friends don’t respect a headless beer!

The one perennial problem with kit beers is that they are either headless or good substitutes for fire extinguishers. This depends upon whether they were correctly primed when bottled or whether the brewer got tired of headless beer and decided to heap his/her priming spoon a little.

Tip 5: Adding heading liquid to your beer before bottling ensures a good head

Heading liquid is a wonderful substance sold by many home brew shops. It is added in small quantities before bottling and makes all the difference. I cannot taste it in my beer, and so no one needs to know about it.

It is important to follow the directions carefully though, as too much can turn your beer into a geyser.

In summary

This article contains some very simple tips that can greatly improve your kit beer. Tips 1 to 4 apply to all brewers whether they be kit brewers or professionals. Tip 5 is a simple way to impress your friends. The real joy of kit beer is that it is so quick and simple. I hope that these tips don’t add to the time you spend but greatly to the finished product.

Submitted by Jeremy

Plato: It was a wise man who invented beer.

Winston Churchill: I took more out of alcohol than alcohol took out of me.

Frank Sinatra: I feel sorry for people who don't drink - when they wake up in the morning it's the best they're going to feel all day.

Dean Martin: You’re not drunk if you can lie on the floor without holding onto something.

Henny Youngman: After reading about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading.

W.C. Fields: A woman drove me to alcohol, and I didn't even have the decency to thank her.

Humphrey Bogart: The problem with the world is that everybody is a few drinks behind.

Dave Barry: Beer is without doubt man's greatest invention. OK, the wheel was a great invention too, but it doesn't go nearly as well with pizza.

Stephen Wright: There are 24 hours in a day and 24 bottles of beer in a crate. Coincidence?

W.C Fields: I always carry some whiskey with me in case I chance upon a snake. (I always carry a snake with me, too).

Robert Benchley: You say alcohol is slow poison? So who said I'm in a hurry?

Jackie Gleason: I use alcohol to remove warts. Not mine, the people with whom I am.

George Nathan: Not all chemicals are bad. Without hydrogen and oxygen, for instance, it would have been impossible to make water, which in turn is an important component of beer.

Ant Hayes:

Most of the books I have bought describing beers of the world allocate one page to Africa, and Malawi is not on that page. I just got back from a visit to Malawi, and I thought that people might be interest in my notes.

The only clear beer that I could fine was brewed in Malawi "Under the supervision of Carlsberg Copenhagen". The brewery is based in Blantyre. There are three beers in the stable, known as "Green", "Brown" and "Special Brew" to he locals. The labels of Green and Brown have identical text, only the colour differs.

Carlsberg Green is a typical African lager. It has a clean taste, but with plenty of DMS. Hop bitterness is at a very low level, and I could not detect any hop flavour or aroma. It has 4,7% alcohol by volume. It is straw coloured.

Carlsberg Brown is slightly darker coloured than Green, with a copper tint. I suspect from the taste that they use burnt sugar, rather than speciality malts to provide the colour. The alcohol level is 4,7%, and again there is little hop evidence.

Carlsberg Special Brew appears to me to be a 5,7% alcohol version of Green. There is no additional maltiness, so I guess that sugar or maize is the source of the additional alcohol. In fact, the additional alcohol was unbalanced by any other flavours, detracting from the beer, in my opinion

The beers I bought were all in 333 ml bottles and sold for 0 Malawi Kwatcha in the hotel, roughly R6. Apparently they go for MK 20 in a bottle store. Malawi has a huge homebrew culture. When I asked what the locals called someone who brews at home, the answer was "mama". Apparently in most households, the mother brews beer. However, they make sorghum beer, and don't use western methods at all. The beer is cloudy and thick, and drunk within a few days of being made, before it gets too sour.

Sorghum beer is made locally and sold in litre cartons. The only brand I saw was Chibuku. A litre sells for MK15!

Ant Hayes

*****

To produce malt barley is soaked in water at a controlled temperature to increase the water content to around 45%. This takes approximately 34 hours, during which time the temperature and aeration is controlled. The wet barley is transferred to "boxes" where it germinates over a period of 4,5 days. Again the temperature is controlled and the grains are aerated, maintaining a predetermined moisture content. After germination the grains are transferred to the kilns. In the kilns hot air is forced through the bed of grain for a period of about 21 hours. During the kilning stage the temperature is raised in stages to 81° C. The Alrode maltings are designed to produce pale malt and can also produce small batches of specialised malt which can be produced from pale malt i.e. Amber, Chocolate and black malt. Other speciality malts which need to be produced from green malt can not be produced

The first stop on the tour was the brew house were the wort is created. The malt is crushed wet and mixed with more water as it is pumped to the Mash tun. Mashing takes approximately 45 minutes – I’ve always mashed for 90 minutes using malt from Southern Associated Maltsters, for most of my beers I was probably wasting time. Mash in is 62° C to 63° C for 25 minutes, the temperature is then raised to 72° C. At the end of mashing the grist is transferred to a lauter tun where the wort is separated from the husks. Lautering lasts approximately 3 hours – I usually do it in under 45 minutes, but since the tour my extraction efficiencies have risen to the upper 70%.’s. 63% Of the wort is run off before sparging commences.

Hops used in the boil are Oteweniqua (13% alpha acid!), Southern Brewer, Southern Promise, Perle and Saaz. The hopping rate is about 60g/hl.

The hot break is separated from the wort in the whirlpool which has an upper and a lower take off. @ brews from the brew house are pumped into one fermenter (1500hlX2=3000hl/fermentor) .The wort is oxygenated during transfer.

Yeast is re-pitched to the 6^th generation except when Black Label is made (Something to do with the crab-tree effect).

The beer is fermented and conditioned for 18 days after which it is filtered in candle type filters with diatamatious earth and transferred to the bright beer tanks.

The bright beer tanks feed beer to the packaging lines which fill umpteen million bottles and cans.