We had a great brew last weekend—our holiday porter is bubbling away, and it smells fantastic.  I’m really excited to see how it turns out (although I can’t think of any brew I haven’t been excited to taste).  We had a few helping hands—Helene, Ant, Katie, and Cederic (some names have been changed to protect their top secret identities).  Helene is quite a beer connoisseur, but had never brewed before.  Ant’s always up for a few beers, and Katie was taking Cederic on a tour of Philly before he has to head home to redacted.

Other than the hop bag coming undone and spilling hops into the boiling wort, the whole brew went according to plan.  Temperatures were held, the cooling was quick, and Garrett Oliver’s extra yeast suggestion worked… too well.  The next morning, I came down to find a stream of wort leading away from the carboy.  The escaping gases foamed up, causing wort to clog the holes on the airlock.  After building up some pressure, the cap of the airlock went flying (I still can’t find it) and a geyser of beer shot up (scrubbing the ceiling is not fun).  Next time, I’ll leave the cap off of the airlock…

Becky and I finally made it over to Hawthornes Cafe for dinner, and it was great.  I thought the food prices were a little high at first, but then I saw the portions.  We talked to the owners, Chris and Heather, about a homebrew brunch some time in the next few months.  Anybody else up for swapping a few beers on a cold Saturday morning?

And another thing—I’ve really been enjoying the newest local beer mag to hit, Philly Beer Scene.  Anybody else reading it?  I liked the beer tasting they had a Raw Dawgs Saloon in South Philly—might have to hit that place up soon.

Garrett Oliver recently came to Philly for a night of debauchery high-brow discussion.  A bunch of us met up at Bishop’s Collar, and after Garrett finished mixing some beer concoctions behind the bar, we figured we could pick up a few tips.

We learned that he has a new beer encyclopedia in the works, covering all aspects of beer.  How such a thing could exist and not have to be split into 8 volumes is as-of-yet beyond me.  But if anyone is able to make such a thing not only readable, but enjoyable, it’s him.

We were also able to glean a very important tip from him.  Joe asked, “If there was one thing you could tell all home-brewers that would make a definite difference in their brewing attempts, what would it be?”  Garrett didn’t even blink: more yeast.  He asked if we use liquid yeast (sure), if we’ve ever run into the situation where we ever waited more than a day for the yeast to start bubbling away (yes!), and if we ever notice off-flavors in those batches (umm, yeah).  He said that if his batches aren’t bubbling away after 12 hours, he starts sweating.  There are two good reasons behind this (the 12 hour mark, not the sweating).  Pitching too little yeast puts the yeast into “reproduction mode” first, where they have to multiply to achieve sustainable numbers.  He said this produces a lot of esters that you may not want in your beer.  Also, it gives other bacteria a head start, creating even more chances for those tongue-twisting off-flavors to occur.  He said that the amount that most home brewers pitch is between a quarter to a third of what big-time brewers use.

His recommendation?  Buy two pouches of the liquid yeast and pitch them both at the same time.  A yeast starter would work too, but if you’re brewing on short notice (as we often are) two pouches should be sufficient.

Which reminds me…  We’re brewing this weekend, so if I’m going to get that starter going, I’d better go buy some yeast.