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Home Brewing is Legal in All 50 States

Did you know that George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were home brewers? This highlights that Americans have been brewing beer in their homes since colonial times. Until recently, there were a few states that didn't permit home brewing, and recent growth of interest in home brewing has created complex and difficult questions for state legislators and alcohol regulators.

As of July 1, home brewing is legal in all 50 states. Yes! Now that home brewing is legal in all states, and it is growing in popularity, other concerns may become issues, but there is still plenty of reasons to celebrate. The progress made in expanding the legality of home brewing in just the last 10 years has been exciting to watch. Alabama almost become the only U.S. state in which it was illegal to brew beer at home. However, as of May 9 2013, home brewing is legal in Alabama. Mississippi then became the last state in which it was illegal to home brew, but this was remedied on July 1 2014 when a recently approved a home-brewing bill became law. Prior to the change in home brewing laws in Alabama and Mississippi, Utah and Oklahoma enacted similar laws in 2009 and 2010, respectively.

Considering that some states have "dry" counties, it's understandable that states like Alabama and Mississippi have been slow to adopt a more freedom-oriented stance on home brewing. The freedom to brew beer in one's home comes with varying levels of restrictions, depending on the U.S. State. Some states limit the amount a home brewer can produce i

Prohibition outlawed alcohol

n a year and many states still prohibit home brewers from transporting their beer to club meetings or competitions. A number of states limit the percent alcohol of home brewed beer.

The hobby's popularity and the growth of home brew supply stores is making it harder for some states to be lax in enforcing such rules. The "hands-off" approach taken in some states may soon change. Ironically, it may be the increased freedom to brew beer in all 50 states that motivates an increase in specific restrictions and enforcement of such. With freedom can come restrictions. Nevertheless, it is important to see the pint as half full. This is the year that we can say that home brewing is legal in all 50 U.S. states Congratulations Mississippi and Alabama!

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Aluminum vs Stainless Brewing Pots

Aluminum vs Stainless Brewing Pots…a debate that may never end.

Aluminum pots are inexpensive and widely available. Inexpensive pots in the 36 quart range can be found at local stores, particularly right after Thanksgiving on sale.  Aluminum pots cost much less than stainless steel pots. Also, since aluminum is a better conductor of heat than steel, you will be able to bring your pot to a boil faster. It will also cool down faster after you're done boiling.

The only major disadvantage of aluminum is that it will oxidize. This means you can't use oxygen-based cleaners to clean aluminum

Aluminum vs Stainless Brewing Pots

pots. You will need to use other cleaners and sanitizers. Oxygen-based cleaners are prevalent in the home brewing world, so read labels. Stainless steel can be easier to clean since you can use such cleaning agents. Keep in mind that aluminum will get an oxide layer over it which can give it a grey tone. This layer of aluminum-oxide actually protects the pot, and there's no reason to worry about it. Though the pot won't be as shiny and flashy as a more expensive stainless steel pot, it will not affect the flavor of the wort.

So, what about stainless steel pots? Stainless steel pots are easier to clean, but can cost two to three times an equal sized aluminum pot. Stainless steel will remain shiny which makes it easy to tell when a stainless pot is truly clean. As mentioned earlier, you can use oxygenated cleaners on it, which can speed the cleaning process. Keep in mind that bleach based cleaners as these can pit a stainless steel pot if the steel is exposed to this for an extended period of time.

Stainless steel is less easily dented or scratched because it is stronger than aluminum, which is a softer metal. The major disadvantage of stainless steel is that it does not conduct heat as well as aluminum, which means a longer time to reach boil and also longer cooling times after the boil.

What's the final word on aluminum vs stainless brewing pots? The bottom line is that as long as you select a well made heavy-duty pot that's large enough for a full boils, either stainless or aluminum will do the job well.  A well made aluminum or stainless steel pot will likely last a lifetime.

For those just starting to brew beer or on a budget, the large price advantage of aluminum can make brewing more efficient and affordable. I personally use both stainless steel and aluminum pots, and I get great results with either. If you're new, I hope this quick comparison of aluminum vs stainless brewing pots has helped to answer your questions about what brew pot to buy and use.

Looking for a new pot?  The Brew Beer Store has a wide collection of high quality brewing pots at great prices. Check it out and get your brew on!

Aluminum vs Stainless Brewing Pots

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How to Make Hard Cider

Are you wondering how to make hard cider? Brewing hard cider from standard apple cider is a simple process, and learning how to make hard cider is a breeze even if you've never brewed anything on your own.

The first step is to get all the needed or desired ingredients and equipment together. The basic list of what you'll need when learning how to make hard cider is listed here:

For 5 Gallons of Hard Cider:

5 gallons (20 liters) apple juice or apple cider

1 envelop dry wine yeast or dry beer yeast

1/2 cup (125 ml) cane sugar or brown sugar

1 cup (250 ml) water

Optional:

1 to 2 pounds of sugar such as corn sugar (dextrose – also called brewing sugar or priming sugar)

2 tsp (10 ml) yeast nutrient (optional)

1 tsp (5 ml) pectic enzyme (optional)

Equipment:

One 5-gallon food-grade plastic bucket with spigot, lid and airlock

3 to 6 feet of 5/16-inch food-grade plastic tubing

Stainless steel or plastic spoon

Enough half-gallon glass “growler” jugs or other bottles (including caps or corks) to store the

finished cider

Optional: Stainless steel or enameled pot

Optional: a second 5-gallon food-grade plastic bucket with spigot, or a glass carboy

  Be sure to choose your cider carefully. Sweet apple cider fresh from the cider press makes an awesome hard cider, but this isn't always easy to get your hands on. Most likely, you'll be buying sweet apple cider from a grocery store of health-food store. Be sure to check the label to be sure the cider doesn’t contain chemical preservatives, such as sodium benzoate or potassium sorbate. Such preservatives will kill the yeast and prevent your cider from fermenting. Also, a good hard cider can be made from a good, preservative free grocery store apple juice.

A quick note about pasteurization; the usual method of pasteurization kills microorganisms with heat, which affects the flavor of the apple cider or juice. A “cold pasteurized” apple cider or apple juice uses ultraviolet light in place of heat, and impacts flavor very little if at all.

Of course, you'll also need a good quality yeast that's capable of fermenting well and contributing the characteristics you desire when you make hard cider. If you have never brewed before, learning how to make hard cider might lead you down a path of learning about yeasts. There's a lot to know about the dozens of commonly uses brewing yeast. Fortunately, a variety of dry and liquid brewing yeasts will do the trick, and you don't need to become a brewing yeast expert. You can find brewing yeast online or from homebrew stores. I would recommend a quality dry wine yeast since these usually do an excellent job.

On brewing day, bring your cider or juice to a solid simmer in a brew pot for at least 30 minutes, but preferably 45 minutes. This will make sure the only yeast fermenting tour cider are the ones you add yourself because the simmer will kill most of the wild yeasts in the cider. This step also kills bacteria that may ruin your hard cider if not destroyed before starting the fermenting. However, don't let the cider boil because it will cause the hard cider to be hazy in appearance. This is mostly due to pectins, which are quick to “set” if a boil is allowed.

If you want to boost the fermentable sugar content in your cider, which will increase the alcohol content of your final hard cider, you can add the optional 2 pounds of brown sugar, dextrose, cane sugar, or honey. Add this during the simmer.

To help the yeast get a good start, boil a cup of water and add ½ to 1 cup of a sugar of choice, then let this cool to room temperature. Adding an ice cube will quicken the process. Once cooled, sprinkle your yeast into it, cover loosely with a lid, an let it sit for 10 to 15 minutes.

Next, pour the cider into a sanitized fermentation bucket. Let the cider cool to less than 80 degrees, which may take a few hours. Add your yeast and stir the cider vigorously for two minutes with a sanitized stainless steel or plastic spoon. This stirring will aerate the cider, which will help the yeast start well.

Seal the lid and affix the airlock. Place the bucket in a room or closet where the temperature is maintained 60 to 75 degrees. Be patient and let it ferment for 2 – 3 weeks. Within a day or two you should see the airlock start to bubble from the build-up of carbon dioxide, a byproduct of the fermentation process. The other byproduct is alcohol.

There are a number of options for bottling, which can be a lengthy topic on its own. If you're unfamiliar with bottling home brewed beverages, check out the other articles on this site that discuss this specifically. A sparkling cider will require the addition of priming sugar at the time of bottling. Once it ha been bottled for a week or two, you can move onto the best step in learning how to make hard cider…tasting your first batch!

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With craft brewing on the rise and many breweries tinkering with flavorings that range from the somewhat obvious (honey or citrus) to the eyebrow-raising (jalapeño, hemp, ...

starthomebrew.com - I want to try this. Maybe the yeast are from Mars!

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Hilarious Caption Needed for Beer Stroller

    Have a Great Caption for this Picture? Share it Here or Vote for Your Favorite!

Life is full of compromises. Have a kid(s) and minivan, or money and a sports car? Enjoy good beer and an extra pound of body fat, or drink light beer and have a six pack. There's obviously a dual meaning in last statement.

Some people have a way of just making the best of every situation. Some people are great at finding uncommon ways to make things work. I like to think that, in most situations, I'm such a person. Sometimes making the best of a situation entails drinking a beer or three, such as a boring party a spouse drags you to. Not to brag, but I'm pretty good at this method of improving a situation.

Even though I have come up with some creative solutions to problems, challenges, and issues I have encountered in my life, I still find myself amazed by the incredible, and sometimes hilarious, solutions people find for their own challenges. I have a few images that flash in front of my mind's eye that illustrate funny and creative solutions, and I have some actual images I'd like to share. A picture can be so much more descriptive than a verbal or written description, and some form of humor are simply better portrayed via visual images.

The image in this post is one of my favorites. Depending on your sense of humor and how you perceive the picture, you'll probably think it's at lease s little funny. While words can sometimes distract from a message being portrayed in a picture or image, there are times when a caption can double or triple the comedic value of a picture. We've all seen the forwarded emails with funny pictures that are made hilarious by an accompanying caption.

Funny Caption Needed

The pic posted here is funny, in my opinion at least, for a few reasons, but it could be hilarious with the right caption. This is where you come in. Does a funny or gut-busting caption come to mind when you look at the picture here? Do you think you have the best caption in mind for this picture? Show the world your sense of humor and share your caption. Submitted captions can be voted on by you and others, so see if you can come up with a caption funnier than all others! It should go without saying, but please keep your captions in the PG-13 range if at all possible…or at least under a R rating. I, and maybe the rest of the world, will be eagerly awaiting for the funniest caption!

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Alcohol Percentage in Beer - Weight versus Volume

Some states, like Colorado, require that grocery stores only sell beer that has an alcohol percentage no more than 3.2% by weight. Colorado isn't alone in having this requirement; Kansas, Minnesota, Oklahoma, and Utah only permit general establishments such as supermarket chains and convenience stores to sell "Three Two" beer. In these states, any alcoholic beverages, including beerm containing more than 3.2% alcohol by weight (ABW) must be sold from state-licensed liquor stores.

I remember, shortly after moving to Colorado, I was at a grocery store and getting in line to check-out. In my cart I had a 12 pack of a beer I'd rather not claim to have ever drank. A small old hispanic lady came up to me and said, "Are you going to buy that crappy three-two beer?" This was well before I started brewing beer at home, and I was not only ignorant of how to make my own beer, but I also had no idea what she was talking about. I looked closely at the beer box and realized it seemed to make a point of the alcohol percentage of 3.2. What I didn't know then, but later came to realize, is that the whole 3.2% alcohol by weight (ABW) regulation in some states is a widely misunderstood and pointless regulation.

Why pointless? The answer lies in the way the alcohol content of a beer is expressed. Nearly all alcohol sold in liquor stores and the like has the alcohol percentage stated as Alcohol by Volume (ABV) and not as Alcohol by Weight (ABW). Most people are familiar with ABV since it is the most pervasive way alcohol percentage is expressed. Many people hear about or see the 3.2% ABW beer in a grocery store and simply assume that they can compare this to the beer sold in a nearby liqour store, but ABV and ABW are not equivalent. Here's the surprising part; 3.2% ABW beer is actually equivalent to 4.1% ABV beer (plus or minus 1%). If you're familiar with the ABV of some common beers sold in the United States, such as those listed on the beer list page of this site, you know that most light beers contain around 4.2% ABV. Some have a slightly lower ABV, while others may be slightly higher, but 4% to 4.4% is a very common ABV range for light beers sold in the United States. In short, the 3.2% ABW beer that some people complain about in grocery stores of Colorado is actually the exact same beer that is sold at the liquor store as about 4.1% ABV. ABW is simply not the same as ABV. The perception that the 3.2% ABW beer is lower in alcohol than the same beer sold in a liquor store is just an illusion created by the sneaky use of ABW instead of the most common ABV.

The reason that Alcohol by Volume does not equal Alcohol by Weight is due to the fact that alcohol weighs less than water for any given volume. As an example, consider that a pint of water weighs 1 pound. However, a pint of alcohol weighs only 0.79 pound. This is why a beer with an alcohol content of 3.2 percent by weight is actually 4 percent by volume. A fairly simple way to convert an alcohol-by-weight reading to its alcohol-by-volume equivalent is to multiply the ABW by 1.25. To convert an alcohol-by-volume reading to its alcohol-by-weight equivalent, multiply by 0.80. In case you don't care to do the math, or maybe you've already had one drink too many while reading this, there is a simple chart below showing equivalent alcohol percentage in ABV and ABW.

  Alcohol by

Weight (ABV)

Alcohol by

Volume (ABV)

Alcohol Percentage Conversion Reference 3.2% 4.1% 4% 5.1% 4.5% 5.7% 5% 6.3% 5.5% 7% 6% 7.6% 6.5% 8.2% 7% 8.9% 7.5% 9.5%

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Ninkasi

Have you ever heard of Ninkasi? This is the name of the Sumerian goddess of brewing and beer. She was also the head brewer to the gods themselves. Her name means "the lady who fills the mouth." The following text was written by a Sumerian poet and found on a clay tablet dating to 1800 BC. This is the Hymn to Ninkasi, translated by Miguel Civil. One of the interesting bits of trivia that may interest you is that it includes one of the most ancient recipes ever found for brewing beer.

Find everything you need to brew your own beer and make your own wine at Midwest Supplies.

Hymn to Ninkasi

Borne of the flowing water, Tenderly cared for by the Ninhursag, Borne of the flowing water, Tenderly cared for by the Ninhursag,

Having founded your town by the sacred lake, She finished its great walls for you, Ninkasi, having founded your town by the sacred lake, She finished it's walls for you,

Your father is Enki, Lord Nidimmud, Your mother is Ninti, the queen of the sacred lake. Ninkasi, your father is Enki, Lord Nidimmud, Your mother is Ninti, the queen of the sacred lake.

You are the one who handles the dough [and] with a big shovel, Mixing in a pit, the bappir with sweet aromatics, Ninkasi, you are the one who handles the dough [and] with a big shovel, Mixing in a pit, the bappir with [date] – honey,

You are the one who bakes the bappir in the big oven, Puts in order the piles of hulled grains, Ninkasi, you are the one who bakes the bappir in the big oven, Puts in order the piles of hulled grains,

You are the one who waters the malt set on the ground, The noble dogs keep away even the potentates, Ninkasi, you are the one who waters the malt set on the ground, The noble dogs keep away even the potentates,

You are the one who soaks the malt in a jar, The waves rise, the waves fall. Ninkasi, you are the one who soaks the malt in a jar, The waves rise, the waves fall.

You are the one who spreads the cooked mash on large reed mats, Coolness overcomes, Ninkasi, you are the one who spreads the cooked mash on large reed mats, Coolness overcomes,

You are the one who holds with both hands the great sweet wort, Brewing [it] with honey [and] wine (You the sweet wort to the vessel) Ninkasi, (…)(You the sweet wort to the vessel)

The filtering vat, which makes a pleasant sound, You place appropriately on a large collector vat. Ninkasi, the filtering vat, which makes a pleasant sound, You place appropriately on a large collector vat.

When you pour out the filtered beer of the collector vat, It is [like] the onrush of Tigris and Euphrates. Ninkasi, you are the one who pours out the filtered beer of the collector vat, It is [like] the onrush of Tigris and Euphrates.

Find everything you need to brew your own beer and make your own wine at Midwest Supplies.

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How Do You Store Bottles

  The question of how to store bottles comes up from time to time. New brewers sometimes worry about keeping bottles clean or sanitized. Some brewers get concerned with dust that can make its way into empty bottles. Is there really anything to worry about?

The truth is that how you store bottles isn't as important as how you clean and sanitize them. When it comes to storing the bottles, you shouldn't be too concerned about keeping them perfectly sanitized since you will be sanitizing them before you put your beer in them again. Simply storing them upside down is sufficient to keep dust and small debris out of them. This is a good idea if your bottles are stored in a garage or other area that can get dusty or may be used for other activities that may cause the bottles to get dirty. A good example of this is the use of a saw in a shop. Sawdust can get into any place if wood is cut in a shop or garage without a good dust collection system.

As mentioned, how you clean and sanitize before you store bottles is an important consideration. It's a good idea to get in the habit of immediately rinsing your bottles after you finish drinking from it or pouring it into a mug. Unless you're filtering your beer, you are almost always going to have a t least some sediment in the bottom of your bottles. This sediment should never be allows to dry in the bottle after the beer has been removed from it. Trying to clean a bottle with dried sediment can be a pain, depending on the type of beer and the ingredients in the beer that contributed to the sediment. Just run about an inch of warm water into the bottle, swirl and shake the bottle, then dump it out. Usually rinsing a bottle 3 or 4 times right after removing the beer is fine for getting any noticeable sediment out.

It really isn't necessary to sanitize bottles before storing them, but you certainly can if you want to. As long as there isn't any dried sediment in them, a quick soak in sanitizer right before you start bottling your beer is all you need to do. If visible sediment is in a bottle after it has soaked in a sanitizing solution, don't use it. You can't sanitize a dirty bottle. If you want to use the bottle, you will need to use a bottle brush to really get it clean and then sanitize it again.

Don't forget that you should not use soap and water in your bottles for sanitizing them. If you use a mild soap and water solution at all, you can really hurt the head retention of the final beer. Even just a very thin film of soap residue in a bottle can ruin the head you'll see when you pour the beer. When a hot soap and water scrub is necessary, just be sure to rinse very well and use a sanitizing solution for a final rinse. Better yet, use one of the cleaning solutions specifically designed for homebrewing. Such cleaners or cleaner/sanitizers are formulated to not affect the head of the beer. Store bottles in a way to keep dust and debris out of them and all they will need is a quick soak and rinse on you next bottling day.

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Buckriceghum Gluten Free Ale

  I recently made a gluten free ale from some buckwheat malt that I made and roasted myself, along with rice and sorghum malt extract. The recipe and more info can be found at http://glutenfreebeerbrew.com/gluten-free-beer-brewing-video-series. After weeks of anticipation, I finally popped the top on the gluten free ale I have named Buckriceghum Gluten Free Ale. I added a little video, which can be viewed on YouTube or here. It conditioned in the bottle for about 3 weeks before I gave in, but 3 weeks is enough time for most gluten free ales. So how was it?

In short, it's good! It's about what I expected, and I had some pretty good expectations. Just saying that this gluten free ale is "good" doesn't really help you to understand how it turned out, right? I'll describe the major aspects that come to mind and you can feel free to drop me a message if you want to know more. Plus, the video will provide some info too.

The appearance of the beer is similar to an unfiltered hefeweizen (wheat beer). Head retention is poor and the initial thin head that forms quickly disappears. However, the level of carbonation is very good without it being too bubbly. The crappy head retention is in part due to the amount and types of proteins present, but the carbonation is just right. Check out the post HERE for more of a description of this gluten free ale.

As I noted before, I failed to get an initial specific gravity reading so I'm not able to say for certain the ABV this beer reached. However, from personal experience and based on the mouth-feel, the taste, and the effect one 12 ounce beer had on me, I would predict this to be at 5.5% plus or minus 1/2%. In a standard college grading scale, I would give this gluten free ale a B+ for a beer, and an A for a gluten free beer. Yeah, I like it! Of the gluten free ale recipes I have experimented with, I would say this is my favorite so far.

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BeerSmith 2 Home Brewing Software

  Take the guesswork out of home brewing with BeerSmith 2!  BeerSmith 2 has been completely redesigned from the ground up to include tabbed browsing, graphical recipe design and a host of new features.  BeerSmith helps you design great beers, match popular beer styles from around the world, manage your recipes, generate step-by-step brewing instructions and perform dozens of brewing calculations with ease.  BeerSmith sets the gold standard for brewing software.  Now available for Macintosh (Intel/Leopard/10.5 and above), Windows 7, Vista and XP/SP3. Features:

Take the guesswork out of home brewing using the gold standard for recipe design

The new BeerSmith 2 was redesigned from the ground up with a modern, graphical interface

Tabbed browsing lets you work with multiple tools and recipes at the same time

Build recipes by selecting ingredients from our preloaded database of hundreds of ingredients

Download new recipes and ingredients (add-ons) from within the program

Does dozens calculations for you – estimates color, gravity, bitterness, and more

Shows step-by-step instructions for any recipe

Inventory, shopping list, calendar and folders help you organize your brewing

Over a dozen stand alone brewing tools including our new yeast starter calculator

Supports metric, english and imperial units

Available for the first time on Macintosh (Intel platforms) as well as Windows 7, Vista and XP

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Spent Grain Solution - Homemade Dog Treats

What can you do with spent grains? What are spent grains? If you're new to homebrewing, you may not have experience with using grains in your brewing since many people start homebrewing with malt extracts. If you've brewed with grains, either in all-rain brewing or the use of grains as adjuncts, you may have wondered what you should do with the grains when you're done with them. One great solution is to make homemade dog treats.

Making homemade dog treats is simple and can save you some money. Plus, it puts your used grains to a good use. In addition to this, it also gives you control over what your best friend or friends are getting in their treats. There is one big aspect that you really need to keep in mind though; hops are not good for dogs. Hops can make a dog very ill, so any grains that may have come into contact with hops can't be used to male dog treats. Of course, this isn't an issue most of the time since we don't have grains present in the boil, which is when hops are added to the wort.

Homemade dog treats can also take a number of forms and flavors. Anyone who has a dog knows that these 4 legged companions have a never ending love of peanut butter. Even a stubborn dog will pay attention to you if you bribe them with peanut butter. Hell, I love the stuff too…oh crap, my wife knows this too. Maybe I've been trained in some way with peanut butter? The next time she offers me a peanut butter treat to clean the bathroom I should really be suspicious.

Alright, aside from my suspicions of being classically conditioned with peanut butter, I still think the stuff is great. If you, or your dog(s), have a peanut allergy, I am sorry to be highlighting this food item. I am a registered dietitian in addition to a home brewer, and I know there has been some very promising research on helping to minimize allergic reactions to peanuts for those with peanut allergies…might be worth checking with your doctor about. To get back on topic, spent grains can be very wisely used to make homemade dog treats. The spent grains are generally lower in calories and carbohydrates since a good amount of the carbohydrates are removed during the brewing process…usually. This can be good if your dog is a little on the heavy side. Also, the spent grains provide a good amount of fiber which, with adequate water, can prevent constipation.

Hopefully you're sold on using your spent grains to make homemade dog treats at this point, but how can you do this? I have experimented with a number of recipes for homemade dog treats, and I found a very simple recipe that will help you use your spent grains and put a smile on the face of your dogs. As a quick note, making homemade dog treats is a good way to control for terrible dog breath. Some dogs don't have an issue with this, but one of my dogs has breath that is horribly putrid. It's related to his never ending love of licking his butt. To help with his horrible breath, I have used a little peppermint extract in the dog treats I make for him. This is something you can find in the baking isle or candy making isle at your local grocery. A little can go a long way, so try not to over do it…even if your dog's breath smells like he ate a diaper that's been left on a hot beach all day.

Here's the recipe that my dogs like and I don't mind making. Feel free to leave comments.

4 Cups Spent Grains

1 Cup Peanut Butter

2 Cups All Purpose Flour

2 Eggs

1/2 teasspoon Peppermint Oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F ( 177 degrees C). Scramble the eggs in a large mixing bowl. Add all other ingredients and mix well. You may choose to roll this mixture into a uniform sheet on an oiled cookie sheet or other baking pan, or you can spoon this onto cookie sheats as you would a cookie mixture and moderatly mash into a cookie shape. If you ernt with the single sheet of the mixture, bake for 30 minutes then cut into 2 inch squares and bake at 225 degrees F for 4 to 5 hours. If you went with the dog treat cookie option, just recude the heat of the oven to 225 degrees F and bake for 3.5 hours. Ensure that the center of the treats is dry and crisp since any residual moisure will reduce the shelf life of the treats. Bake for an additional 10 minutes if needed. Recheck and continue baking if needed until the center of the treats are dry.

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Note: The moisture content of the spent grains can make a big difference in baking times. Also, you can freeze unused spent grains for up to 6 months

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Bottling Beer Tip - Sanitizing Bottle Caps

If you're bottling beer, you need to make sure that everything that comes into contact with your beer after the boil is sanitized. Bottles must be cleaned and sanitized and most new homebrewers do a good job of this. Also, the bottle filler, bottling bucket, bucket valve, and tubing all need to be sanitized. If any of these items aren't sanitized appropriately, the beer may become contaminated. At best, the beer will not taste or smell good. At worst, the beer could cause illness.

One part of bottling beer that is often overlooked is the sanitizing of beer bottle caps. Since these generally come in a clean and sealed plastic package, some homebrewers may assume the bottle caps are sanitary and skip sanitizing these. Also, sometimes a brewer may simply forget. Much of the time there won't be any negative consequences to overlooking or skipping the sanitizing of beer bottle caps since the materials in new and unused bottle caps aren't a good growth environment for germs. However, it's still a good idea to sanitize beer bottle caps, especially if they are coming from a previously opened package.

Sanitizing standard beer bottle caps is straight forward and simple. Any sanitizing solution used to sanitize other home brewing equipment will work fine for caps. Simply soaking them in the same concentration of sanitizer for the recommended amount of time will do the trick. Usually a few minutes is all that's needed. Depending on the sanitizer used, it may not be necessary to rinse the caps afterwards.

While standard beer bottle caps don't require any special care during sanitization, oxygen absorbing caps do require that specific sanitizers be avoided. It may seem obvious, many brewers don't think about the fact that some sanitizers are able to sanitize through oxygenation. Sanitizing beer bottle caps in such a solution would expose the oxygen absorbing component of the caps to high amounts of oxygen, which will make them unable to absorb more oxygen when they're used in bottling beer.

To sanitize oxygen absorbing beer bottle caps before bottling beer, sanitizers such as Iodophor or Star San should be used. Of course, the caps will still work fine if a brewer does use a sanitizer such as One Step for bottle caps. The caps would simply work like traditional, non-oxygen absorbing caps. If you bought special oxygen absorbing bottle caps to minimize oxidation effects in bottling beer, it would be shame to render the caps useless for this purpose. Nevertheless, it's better to have sanitized bottle caps for bottling beer than to have unsanitized caps that can absorb oxygen.

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Dry Hopping

Most new homebrewers soon come across the term dry hopping once as they delve deeper into the art and science of brewing beer. The process of dry hopping is simple. By adding hops, usually in the secondary fermenter, a homebrewer can add more of a hop aroma to to their beer. Dry hopping is commonly used for pale ales and IPA's. However, a home brewer isn't limited to only dry hopping these two styles of beer. Many people are doing this process in many other styles as well.

Keep in mind that you aren’t extracting any significant amount of the oils from the hops since the hops are added during the relatively cool fermentation phase when dry hopping. The main contribution to the beer is the aromatic properties. Our sense of taste and smell are tied together to form our perception of flavor. This is why dry hopping can be a great way to modify a beer's flavor profile. Dry hopping is a must if you love hops.

Methods vary, but a simple and very effective dry hopping method is to add the dry hops about 3 – 5 days before bottling or kegging. The goal is to infuse the beer with added hop aroma without having the aroma fade. Adding hops a few days before the end of fermentation provides the freshest hop aroma in the beer. Some people prefer to add the hops to the secondary fermenter about 2 weeks prior to bottling, which can help the hops to blend with the beer very thoroughly. This can lead to some loss of the hop aroma, which may be preferred for particular beer styles.

What type of hops are used for dry hopping? Leaf hops are easier to deal with when the beer is transferred, but pellet hops will work as well. Any of the varieties of hops can be used for dry hopping. Many brewers simply use the same type of hops that were used during the boiling phase. Keep in mind that too much of anything may not be good, and it is possible to overpower a beer with hop flavor if too much hops are used for dry hopping. Typically, 1 to 2 ounces of hops is enough to meet the expectations of dry hopping.

The hops can be simply poured directly into the secondary fermenter. If a carboy is used, a hop bag won't be an option because the hops will swell as they absorb liquid which makes it very difficult to get the hop bag out of the carboy. There are ways to minimize the mess that can result from fry hopping, especially when dry hopping with pellet hops. One very good option is to use something like the brew infuser, which works well with pellet hops and minimizes the messy aftermath of dry hopping.

If you like beers with pronounced profiles, we would encourage you to give dry hopping a try. It's quick and easy to do, but it can have a big impact on your beer.

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All Grain Centennial IPA Beer Recipe

Here's an all-grain beer recipe for an India Pale Ale (IPA) that uses a good amount of Centennial hops. If you haven't used the centennial hop before, you may fall in love with this variety. It generally has an alpha acid content of 10% to 11%, but can range from 9% to 12%. The most notable chracteristic of this hop is it's citrus-like aroma and flavor.

All Grain Beer Recipe – IPA w Centennial Hop Emphasis 

Starting Gravity 1.059, Final Gravity 1.012 (5 Gal); Expected ABV: 6.1%; Estimated IBU: 81

Beer Recipe Total Grain Bill: 11.5 lbs.

10.5 lb 2 Row Pale Malt

1/4 lb Crystal Malt (70L)

1/2 lb Munich Malt

1/4 lb CaraPils

Beer Recipe Hop Schedule:

2 oz – Chinook hops (60 min.)

1 oz – Amarillo hops (2 min.)

1/2 oz – Centennial hops (2 min.)

1/2 oz – Centennial hops at FlameOut

1 oz. – Centennial hops (Dry Hop)

Yeast: White Labs California Ale Yeast or equivalent

Beer Recipe Mash/Sparge/Boil:

Mash at 152° to 154° for 60 minutes

Sparge

Boil 90 Minutes Total

Cool and ferment at 65° to 69° in primary for 2 weeks

Transfer to secondary for 4 weeks

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Simple Mash Tun

We recently came across a page on another website that did a great job of showing a reader how to make an affordable and simple mash tun. There are a number of ways to make a mash tun from a cooler, and this is the type of mash tun most commonly used for single infusion mashing in all-grain brewing. Any cooler with a bottom drain can work, but you'll want a cooler that doesn't leave much water behind when drained through the bottom drain valve. Some coolers have to be titled quite a bit to get all the water out of them. The round beverage coolers work great, but rectangular or square coolers can be used just as easily for making a mash tun.

Here's the link to the page we referred to: http://www.donosborn.com/homebrew/mashtun.htm. We would like to thank Don Osborn for sharing his mash tun build…"Thanks Don!"

If you're moving up to partial mash or all grain brewing, you will need a mash tun. Given how important this piece of equipment is for brewing beer in all-grain brewing, we thought we'd also share a few videos on making a cooler mash tun:

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Calories in Beer Produced by Anheuser-Busch

Budweiser and Anheuser-Busch are names we don't mention much here at starthomebrew.com, but the Anheuser-Busch brands will be the focus of this article. Specifically, the calories in beer produced by this company are the focus here. Have you ever looked into the brands of the Anheuser-Busch company? You might be surprised by the number of brands owned or managed by Anheuser-Busch. You'll probably also recognize some of the brands and thing, "I didn't know Anheuser-Busch owned that!" However, brand recognition and ownerships isn't the real focus of this article.

The main focus here is the calories in beer options that fall under the Anheuser-Busch umbrella. I've been working on a much larger update to the previous article's list of the alcohol content of beers and, in the process, developed what you'll see below. This table represents at least 90% of the beer brands owned by Anheuser-Busch. In addition to listing such brands, you'll see the ABV and the calories in beer per 12 oz serving too. I have decided to take it one step further and introduce my Buzz / Gut Rating, which indicates how much of a buzz from the beer will impact your waistline. It's derived from the formula: ABV/Calories*100.

For the purpose of the above equation, the ABV value is used in a whole number form, so 5% is entered into the equation as "5", and the calories in beer per 12 oz serving are used. The result is multiplied by 100 to simplify the comparison of the final values, which would otherwise be in small decimal values.

I need to note 2 last things: The information on the following table is not guaranteed to be 100% accurate, and the following information is being provided for informational purposes only. For clarification, I have been diligent in gathering the correct data, but an error is possible and the ABV as well as the calories in these beers may change over time if the brewing process or beer recipes are changed. Simply put, higher values for the Buzz / Gut Rating mean there are less calories in beer consumed to obtain a "buzz" than if this value were lower. Higher Buzz / Gut Ratings are better if you're watching or counting calories. The calories in beer are sneaky and quickly add up.

Anheuser-Busch Brands / Beers ABV (%) Calories Carbs Buzz / Gut Rating     (per 12 oz) (per 12 oz) (abv/cal*100)           Alexander Keith's Nova Scotia Style Pale Ale 5.4 159 11.7 3.40 Alexander Keith's Nova Scotia Style Brown Ale 5.4 178 16.5 3.03 Alexander Keith's Nova Scotia Style Lager 5.4 168 13.8 3.21 Bass 5.1 160 13.2 3.19 Beck's 5.0 143 10.0 3.50 Beck's Dark 4.8 146 11.0 3.29 Beck's Oktoberfest 5.2 155 13.5 3.35 Beck's Premium Light 2.3 64 3.2 3.59 Beck's NA 0.4 90 13.0 0.44 Boddingtons 4.6 148 37.0 3.11 Bud Ice 5.5 121 4.0 4.55 Bud Light 4.2 110 7.0 3.82 Bud Light Clamato Chelada 4.2 151 15.6 2.78 Bud Light Golden Wheat 4.1 118 8.3 3.47 Bud Light Lime 4.2 116 8.0 3.62 Bud Light Lime-a-Rita 6% 6.0 247 32.7 2.43 Bud Light Lime-a-Rita 8% 8.0 330 43.7 2.42 Bud Light Platinum 6.0 137 4.4 4.38 Budweiser 5.0 145 10.6 3.45 Budweiser American Ale 5.3 182 18.1 2.91 Budweiser Clamato Chelada 5.0 186 20.3 2.69 Budweiser Select 4.3 99 3.1 4.34 Budweiser Select 55 2.4 55 1.9 4.36 Busch 4.3 114 6.9 3.77 Busch Ice 5.9 171 12.5 3.45 Busch Light 4.1 95 3.2 4.32 Czechvar 5.0 142 11.0 3.52 Goose Island – Honker's English Style Bitter 4.2 135 10.5 3.11 Hoegaarden 4.9 153 13.0 3.20 Hurricane High Gravity Malt Liquor 8.1 212 13.0 3.82 Hurricane Malt Liquor 5.9 136 4.2 4.34 King Cobra Malt Liquor 6.0 134 4.3 4.48 Kirin Ichiban 4.9 147 10.6 3.33 Kirin Light 3.2 95 7.8 3.37 Landshark Lager Lager 4.9 150 13.0 3.27 Leffe Blonde 6.6 200 39.0 3.30 Leffe Brune 6.5 195 18.0 3.33 Lowenbrau 5.2 160 15.0 3.25 Margaritaville Brewing Co. Spiked Lemonade 5.5 230 32.0 2.39 Margaritaville Brewing Co. Spiked Tea 5.5 230 31.0 2.39 Michelob Amber Bock 5.1 152 11.8 3.36 Michelob Golden Draft – Regional 4.6 121 7.1 3.80 Michelob Golden Draft Light – Regional 4.1 110 6.6 3.73 Michelob Honey Lager 4.9 178 19.0 2.75 Michelob Lager 4.8 158 14.4 3.04 Michelob Light 4.1 122 8.9 3.36 Michelob ULTRA 4.2 95 2.6 4.42 Michelob ULTRA Amber 3.9 95 3.2 4.11 Michelob ULTRA Light Cider 3.9 120 10.0 3.25 Michelob ULTRA 19th Hole 3.9 140 16.1 2.79 Michelob ULTRA Dragon Fruit Peach 4.0 95 5.5 4.21 Michelob ULTRA Lime Cactus 4.0 95 5.5 4.21 Michelob ULTRA Pomegranate Raspberry 4.0 95 5.5 4.21 Natty Daddy 8.0 183 5.0 4.37 Natural Ice 5.9 130 4.0 4.54 Natural Light 4.2 95 3.2 4.42 O'Doul's 0.4 65 13.3 0.62 O'Doul's Amber 0.4 90 18.0 0.44 Redbridge (Gluten Free) 4.0 127 12.3 3.15 Rolling Rock 4.5 132 10.0 3.41 Rolling Rock Light 3.5 83 3.0 4.22 Shock Top Belgian White 5.2 167 14.6 3.11 Shock Top Honeycrisp Apple Wheat 5.2 167 14.6 3.11 Shock Top Lemon Shandy 4.2 168 9.0 2.50 Shock Top Pumpkin Wheat 5.2 162 13.6 3.21 Shock Top Raspberry Wheat 5.2 179 17.5 2.91 Shock Top Wheat IPA 5.8 174 15.0 3.33 Staropramen 5.0 144 10.0 3.47 Stella Artois 5.2 135 9.0 3.85 Wild Black 8.0 240 21.0 3.33 Wild Blue 8.0 260 26.0 3.08 Wild Red 8.0 240 21.0 3.33 ZiegenBock Amber – Regional 4.9 147 11.0 3.33