The Boston Lager Hunt.

As mentioned in a previous blog I have been hunting for a UK supplier of Boston lager. I emailed Shepherd Neame the UK importer and they replied to let me know both Sainsburys and E H Booths stock the beer. Neither of these companies have local branches to me so I went on a mission to my closest Sainsbury’s in Darwen, 7 miles away. The store was a small and under stocked supermarket and I wasn’t very impressed at the range of beers. It certainly didn’t include the mystical Boston lager!

I wasn’t about to make the same mistake with E H Booths, as it was another 15 miles drive away! So I called the store, something I should have done in the first place! I spoke to the head of beers and wines. His name was Phillip and he was very helpful. At first he said that he hadn’t heard of the beer but promised to check with his head office. I called back 30 minutes later and Phillip had some good news, they had just started to stock the beer and would have some in the next day! I was so happy!

So today I drove to the nearest branch of Booths in Clitheroe. I walked into store and headed straight to the booze section. And in the corner trying to hide away from me were lots of bottles of my favourite beer! I had to buy the lot, 18 bottles! I think the checkout man thought I was an alcoholic, buying 18 bottles of beer at 9 o’clock in the morning!

So here I am having a beer very early in the morning, I don’t care, it tastes soooo good!

The Technical Stuff.

I have quickly realised that an explanation of the basic brewing methods and ingredients is needed. So here is a simple run down of things you need to know when trying to create your own yummy beers:-

What makes a Beer?

1) Malt. This gives the beer its colour, most of the flavour and most of the sugars needed to ferment with the yeast. There are lots of kinds, but we shall discuss the varieties as we come across them whilst making different beers.

2) Sugar. The malts alone rarely generate enough sugar to create the right amount of alcohol. Commercial brewers do not use the sort of sugar you and I put in our tea. These sugars are too refined for brewing. Less refined sugars such as syrups are a much better idea as they impart some flavour and sometimes colour to your beer.

3) Hops. These delicate petals give the beer the bitterness to balance the maltiness. They also give a beautiful aroma. Again there are lots of different types and the ones you use can make a huge difference to the character of your beer. We will talk more deeply about the hops when we come across them in the recipes.

4) Adjuncts. Other cereals are sometimes used in brewing beer, such as wheat, rice and barley. These are used for a number of reasons. To give extra flavour or just to save costs (as they are cheaper than malts) and even for giving your pint a better foaming head.

5) Yeast. This coverts the sugars into alcohol and your beer wouldn’t be much good without that stuff. It also produces the carbon dioxide needed to make your beer all fizzy! Amazingly there are many different varieties of yeasts and the one you pick depends on the style of beer you are aiming for. A beer for example should only be called ale if it has been brewed using ale yeast.

Brewing techniques.

1) Yeast starter. It’s worth getting the yeast cultivating before you start brewing. The yeast is added to some sugary warm water and left to its own devises a day before you start.

2)Mashing. This is when you add the malts and adjuncts to hot water in a suitable boiler (must be around 62-66c) and is left at this temp for about an hour. A pan on your domestic cooker will do but a brewing boiler with a thermostat is a much easier way to do it. The exact temperature is needed to create the right conditions for enzymes to break down the starch into fermentable sugars.

3) Sparging your wort. This is just the retrieval of those fermentable sugars from the mashed grain; this liquid is called the wort. This is normally collected using a grain bag, which allows you to lift the mashed grains from the boiler. The bag must be supported in such away to allow the remaining wort contained within the grain to drain out and be collected. Once I start my brewing I will include pictures to demonstrate what I mean.
Once the grains look fully drained further wort is collected by gently pouring hot water over the grains. This process is continued in till the desired amount of sweet wort is achieved.

4) Boiling. Once the desired amount of wort is collected it requires boiling along with the hops for about an hour. Once completed it can then be topped up using cold water to produce the correct amount of liquid.

5) Gravity reading. A specific gravity reading can be taken at this point. This will require a devise called a hydrometer. It is used to measure the amount of sugar in the solution. Various things can be worked out from this reading including the potential alcohol content. It is also a good way of checking the progress of the beer.

6)Fermentation. Once cooled to room temperature the yeast can be added.

7) Bottling or putting in barrels. Both require priming of the container. This means adding a little sugar to the bottle or barrel to restart some more fermentation. Because the beer will be fermenting in an air tight container the carbon dioxide is trapped. This is what gives the beer its head and fizz.

8) Drinking. The best bit.

Which Beer to Brew First?

On my last few trips to the United States I have discovered a beer that if readily available in this country could quite possible turn me into an alcoholic. It is called Boston Lager made by a brewery called Samuel Adams ( http://www.samueladams.com/ ). It’s a very new company, only founded in 1984 but it’s beers are already world award winning creations. It is imported into the U.K by Shepherd Neame but I have never seen it for sale (I have written an email to them asking where I can buy it, will post the information when I find out).

Boston Lager is what I would describe as an Amber Lager. It uses malts that you would use to create a pale ale together with the sort of hops and yeast normally only used in brewing lager. The result is a crisp refreshing but rounded malty tasting beer.

Because I can’t seem to find this beer here in England I have decided to try and make something similar. I found a commercial recipe for the beer and will adapt it for home brewing the best I can. For this first recipe I’ll cheat slightly and use malt extract rather then using the crushed malt grains, but don’t worry I will be making some beers using only dry ingredients soon. I will be using 3kg of Brupaks Pale Malt Extract syrup but also add a small amount of crushed crystal malt (500g). The hops used are what gives this amber lager real identity. Samuel Adams use two varieties of Hallertauer hop, Heresbrucker and Mittlefruh (50g of each). I will also be using a very good lager yeast called WYeast Bavarian lager. Hopefully the malt extract will provide all the sugar I need but if I need more I will add some golden syrup.

I should point out that if you’re lost with any of the product names and technical stuff don’t worry because I will be writing another Blog giving a good explanation of all the processes in home-brewing.

For the first time I ordered all the above ingredients on the web! I have used a company called The Home Brew Shop ( http://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/ ). Will be giving a report on how good the service is from this site.

Introduction to Beer Brewer's Blog.

When I was 15 my best friend Peter and I came up with a rather creative way to get hold of large quantities of highly potent alcohol. Whilst others boys our age begged customers outside corner shops to buy them there first taste of illicit booze me and Peter decided to make our own!

And so started a lifelong love of home brew. Its not very cool I grant you, but it is fun and it does work! When we first started out on our brewing odyssey we made fruit wines. They were cheap, as most of the ingredients could be found growing within a mile radius of the house! They also tasted good; at least they did to our untrained taste buds.

Some years after we had stopped making fruit wines and the demijohns had been left to collect dust in the attic, I came across a book called “Brewing Beers Like Those You Buy” by Dave Line. It was indeed an intriguing title. I bought some basic beer brewing equipment and resurrected some of the old wine making gear and set about cooking up a batch of Fullers E.S.B. The result was a rather tasty treat! I must confess it didn’t taste that close to the beer it was designed to imitate but none the less the 5 gallons of frothy ale went down a without any fuss.

Since then I have made a few more batches of beers using Dave Lines recipes and I have had varying results! (The Stella Artois I made was something of an acquired taste) But I have decided it is time to take the next step and start creating my own beers from my own recipes. And this is where the blog comes in very useful, as I will use it to record the processes and the results of my experiments! And if anyone actually decides to read this maybe they will be able to use the blog to make their own beer too.