South Bay, Los Angeles County, California

By Jim Hilbing

Northwest Homebrew Express

NHC '98 was held at the Lloyd Center Doubletree Hotel, which is on the northeast side of Portland not too far from the convention center and the Rose Garden. Portland's light rail public transportation passed right next to the hotel's parking garage, making it very easy and inexpensive to get to the main downtown area, the site of the Oregon Brewers Festival.

With the exception of the second-round judging and the optional tours, the conference events began Wednesday evening with an opening reception. The reception featured a selection of some of the great beers from the Oregon area, and was followed by a roast of beer writer Fred Eckhardt.

Every conference participant received a bottle of commemorative beer and mead. The beer this year was "Little Olde Finkel" Barley Wine, brewed by the Grateful Deaf Homebrew Club. According to the description, the beer is medium dark brown, highly hopped, with a fair amount of residual sweetness and a smoky-malt background. Dick Pilz and the Oregon Brew Crew created the commemorative Oregon Blackberry Mead, which was made with blackberries and blackberry honey and conditioned for 11 months. I'll save these for the club to taste at a meeting sometime next year.

Charlie Papazian opened the conference sessions the following morning with a 20-year perspective on homebrewing, commenting on where we've come from in the past, and where he sees us going in the future. He brought along some videotapes of news coverage from the 1983 homebrewers conference. The piece portrayed homebrewers as hillbillies, and the editors had even had appropriate music dubbed in the background. While the video did get a laugh from the audience, this type of attitude still exists today, unfortunately, and it is one of the things we need to continue to work to change.

Homebrewing has become much more technical and elaborate than in the past; we have a wide variety of high-quality ingredients and a lot of really good information available to us. We don't want to become so sophisticated, though, Charlie said, that we leave brewing behind by brewing less because it's more difficult. It's still about making beer.

Speaking about the cost of a batch of homebrew, he received a unanimous vote from the audience on the willingness to spend a few extra dollars to make better beer. Each extra dollar spent on a 5-gallon batch of beer translates to only about 2 cents a bottle. The same idea, he said, also applies to buying ingredients locally. Don't help destroy the homebrewing infrastructure by trying to skimp a few bucks by going straight to the middle man: support your local homebrew store.

After the opening session, the conference began running sessions in parallel. This was really the worse part of the trip--having to decide which sessions to skip and which to attend. Since the conference organizers tried to have sessions targeted for all levels of experience, some sessions were easy to eliminate. Here's the information from the sessions I attended:

Members of the Oregon State University Fermentation Science Department conducted an off-flavors workshop. It was really more of an off-aromas workshop, since they had little sniffer jars of beer doped with various fermentation by-products for the participants to smell.

The sessions discussed the following six chemical compounds, and gave some information on each:

Diacetyl: Threshold 0.02 to 0.15 ppm (parts per million). A result of both fermentation and bacteria.

DMS (Dimethyl Sulfide): Threshold 25 to 50 ppb (parts per billion). A cooked-corn aroma. Boils that are not vigorous enough and lose less than about 8% of the liquid volume tend to have DMS problems. High levels of malt proteins provide high levels of DMS precursors. Rolling Rock is a good example of a beer with high DMS--the level is way above the detection threshold. Interestingly, breezes from the coast can include DMS, and workshops with people from coastal areas sometimes have attendees who cannot detect this compound.

Acetic Acid: Threshold 60 to 120 ppm. Caused by infection in the presence of oxygen. Since eliminating oxygen eliminates the formation of acetic acid, bottle-conditioned beer should never have this problem since the fermentation in the bottle effectively scrubs the oxygen from the beer. This by-product is more of a problem for kegged beer and beer lines.

Isoamyl Acetate (Esters): Threshold 0.5 to 1.7 ppm. A banana, fruity, artificial, Circus-Peanut aroma. Caused by high gravity worts (>13 P), overactive fermentations, poor wort aeration, and infection. To decrease the levels of esters in beer, lower the wort concentration, use better aeration, and increase the pressure during fermentation. Increasing the pressure refers to using tall fermentation tanks over shallow tanks, however, this is not usually a consideration for the homebrewer.

Phenolic (4 vinyl guaiacol): Threshold 4 to 20 ppm. This is the clove-like, spicy aroma found in an authentic Bavarian hefeweizen. It's also caused by wild yeasts, so beers with a phenolic character not made with these specific yeast strains may indicate an infection.

Isovaleric Acid: Threshold 0.5 to 1.5 ppm. Characterized by a stale cheese, old hop, sweat-sock aroma. Caused by old or improperly stored beers, the excessive boiling of hop compounds, stale or oxidized beers, and infection. To reduce the occurrence of this acid, use quality hops, keep wort boiling times within reason, and limit oxidation.

Of the six, the isovaleric acid had the most objectionable odor. Good thing we weren't tasting the beers.

At the next session, Maribeth Raines-Casselman presented information on culturing yeast from commercial bottles of beer. She's a leading member of the Maltose Falcons Homebrew Club and a brewer for the Great Beer Company, as well as a professor at UCLA. This was a popular session, and not just because she brought along a keg of her Kolsch-style beer. Besides information on culturing from commercial bottles, she also passed along a lot of her opinions about yeast starters.

The first step in culturing yeast is to obtain a sample of the yeast you want to culture. Maribeth presented a short list of bottled products with viable yeasts, including Hoegaarden and Blanche de Brugges for Belgian Wit beers; La Chouffe for Abbey-styles; Cuvee Renee and Cantillion (Lambic styles); and Adnams and some Fullers (English ales). Some of the Anderson Valley beers and Rogue ales are also bottled conditioned. Cask conditioned ales on tap and local breweries are also good sources for yeasts. She brings along small sample tubes with her when collecting yeasts from pubs and breweries--the sterile slants have a small amount of culture media in the bottom. A complete list of bottle conditioned beers can be found at www.nada.kth.se/~alun/Beer/Bottle-Yeasts.

In the 1990's, Chimay began using a different yeast strain for bottle conditioning than the strain used for the main fermentation. This is also true of Duvel and Orval. While these strains can obviously be cultured and used to make beer, the character of the finished beer may end up being a little different than that desired.

During the session, Maribeth talked about the following steps in the yeast culturing process:

Sample Collection: Use well settled bottles of beer, ones that have sat for a week or so. Sanitize your the environment by using a HEPA filter, wiping the surface of the work area with 70% ethanol or isopropanol, working near a flame, and keeping containers open for as little as possible. Sanitize the bottle opener and bottle caps using vodka or alcohol, and ignite the still-wet alcohol. Flame the bottle lip before pouring, and decant the beer, leaving about ½ inch in the bottle. Rouse the yeast sediment into suspension and pour into one or two conical vials. Set the vials aside in an upright position to sediment out.

Yeast Resuscitation: Suck the beer out of the settled vials with a sanitized turkey baster, and top up with sterile wort or starter media. You can use 1.020 to 1.040 wort; she recommends 1.040. Re-feed the yeast with wort if no visible signs of activity are seen within 4 to 7 days. If it goes more than two weeks without visible activity--forget it!

Yeast Purification: This step is optional but highly recommended. There are two choices are conducting an acid wash (which removes bacteria but not wild yeast), and isolating a single cell on an agar (aw'-ger) plate. She covered this last method in some detail:

To isolate a single cell on an agar plate: Use the quadrant streak method to wipe a sterile loop dipped in yeast sediment on an agar plate. To do this, sterilize a loop in a flame, holding it near vertical to increase the amount of wire which glows red hot in the flame, and quench it on the agar plate; dip it into the yeast at the bottom of the vial and streak it across one side of the agar plate (This is shown by the number 1 in the figure). Re-sterilize the loop, quench it on an un-yeasted area of the agar, and streak a second set of lines roughly perpendicular to the first set (2). Do not redip the loop in the vial--instead, overlap the second set of streaks with the first, pulling some of the yeast deposited on the agar with the first set of streaks. Repeat this process on the third side of the plate (3). On the fourth repetition, streak the remainder of the middle of the plate (4). The purpose here is to repeatedly dilute the amount of yeast cells on the plate with each successive streak. She said it's often desirable to let the plate sit between the first and seconds streaks.

Allow the yeast to grow on the plate, and then pick one or more colonies from the plate which were grown from a single cell. Yeast colonies will have a dull, matted look, and will tend to be larger than bacteria colonies; the bacteria colonies will appear shiny and mucusy. Put the colonies in 10 ml. of wort or starter media, and let them grow for 1 to 2 days. Create a yeast starter by building up the wort volume to 500 ml, which should be sufficient for a one gallon test brew. Complete this test brew; check attenuation and conduct a sensory evaluation of the beer.

As for yeast starters, Maribeth believes you should always make one. Her recommended minimum volume is one quart of 1.040 wort with nutrients and hops, boiled for 15 to 20 minutes or sterilized by tyndallization (that's one to look up in the dictionary--it's canning wort 2 or 3 days in a row to kill spores). She let's her starters grow at room temperature, and agitates them during growth.

Ralph Olson of Hop Union discussed the newest varieties of hops during the next session. Actually, he pointed out, they're cultivars, not varieties, but are called varieties popularly. Although he spoke about hops in general and had a number of different varieties on hand, his talk centered on three varieties: Centennial, Ultra, and Crystal. For each of these, he brought along a craft-brewed beer made either solely or predominantly from one of these hops:

Hop Jack Ale, made with Tettnang and Centennial. Unfortunately, I didn't note which brewing company makes this beer.

Triple Mash Ultra, brewed by Cirque Brewing Company in Prosser, Washington. Made with Ultra hops.

Brutal Bitter, from Rogue Ales (www.rogueales.com) in Newport, Oregon. Made with Crystal hops.

The last beer was the stand-out of the three. It was very aggressively hopped, and would definitely appeal to the hop-heads in the club. I found out some specs on this beer at the Oregon Brewers Festival. Brutal Bitter, billed as an ESB, has OG 1.060, FG 1.016, 6.3% alcohol by volume, with 14.3 SRM color and 59 IBU. The grains are floor-malted Pipken Pale, Caravienna and Carawheat.

Ralph also passed around bundles of six other new varieties of hops:

UK First Gold: 9.1% alpha acid; a dwarf, low-trellis variety.

UK Phoenix: 9.4% alpha acid; described as a dual-purpose hop.

Horizon: About 10.8% alpha acid.

Amarillo: 8% alpha acid; a mutation found in the fields, similar to Centennial.

Santiam: about 6 to 7% alpha acid; a low alpha, low cohumulone variety, with an essential oil profile like Tettnang.

Bor: 6.3% alpha acid; from the Czech Republic. An attempt by the Czechs to enter the higher alpha acid market.

Unfortunately, we only had a chance to smell these new varieties. A beer brewed with each of these would have made this session that much better!

Other tidbits of information on hops included the fact that A-B is behind most of new varieties. Hop samples (including the ones passed around at the session) are wrapped in special no-aroma paper which is colored purple just because it makes the hops look better. The hop cone is really a protective seed coat. When a variety is ready to be picked, the grower has about a five-day window to harvest the hops while they are at their peak. Cascade hops are really bad for aphids.

The most depressing news of the conference was Ralph's description of powdery mildew, a fungus particular to the hop. It was first found in April of 1997, and by the first of August, growers were tearing down some fields and burning the plants. The fungus comes in from the bottom of the bines and works its way to the cones. Growers have had to spray for the fungus before it's even evident on the plants, and they really need to spray about every 5 days, causing pesticide costs to jump from about $50 an acre to about $500 an acre. Powdery mildew can travel up to 500 miles a year, and I think Ralph said it's now found in two out of the three major hop growing areas in the US (ID and WA, and on the way to OR).

Al DeLange gave a presentation on chemically matching your brewing water to the classic brewing cities such as Munich, London and Pilsen. He passed out a lot of information, and I still need a chance to filter through it. One point he did make, though, was that you must match how the brewer in the city whose beer you are trying to emulate treats his water--it's not good enough to just match the water of the city.

At a beer style seminar, Alan Sprints of Hair of the Dog Brewing Company discussed high gravity brewing, and brought along samples of his beers: Golden Rose, Adam, and Fred. Out of all of the really great beers available in Portland, these three kinds were the only ones my wife and I brought back. I plan on bringing them to the September meeting for tasting, where we'll discuss the information I learned during the session.

The last session from which I have information was a panel discussion on common mistakes that judges find in beers entered in competitions. The panel consisted of David Houseman and Ed Busch, both on the AHA Board of Advisors, Al Korzonas, beer writer and award winning brewer, and Russ Wigglesworth, director of the Beer Judge Certification Program.

The panel took turns listing the mistakes, problems, or suspected causes that they encounter most in their judging. They mentioned the following: DMS; diacetyl; oxidation; fermentation temperature too high (greater than about 72 F), resulting in high levels of esters; insufficient aeration, leading to a vegetal aroma and/or under attenuation; chlorophenols; excess astringency, due to high pH or sparge temperatures above 170 F; and beers entered in the wrong category;

The official AHA score sheets were modified this year, with the biggest change being the point total in the Appearance category. Beers were regularly scoring 3 to 6 points in this category and never 0 to 3 points. Therefore, these three "unused" points were redistributed into other categories.

Instead of a banquet dinner at the hotel, this year's conference was invited to join the pre-festival Brewers Dinner of the Oregon Brewers Festival. This was a buffet-style dinner the night before the festival opened to the public. Besides good food and live music, everyone was given a commemorative glass, drink tickets and allowed a limited (it can't be unlimited, you know) sampling of the craft-brewed beer on tap. A partial list of the beers available included kegs from Full Sail, Rogue Ales, Pelican Pub, BJ's, Widmer, Grant's, Alameda, and BridgePort. The food included a very good and interesting dessert: Beer Bread Pudding with Hefeweizen Glaze.

Most people spent the evening standing around the beer trailer talking homebrewing and beer. My wife and I even had the chance to meet Charlie Papazian and his wife.

The final event of the conference was the Homebrew Festival and Expo, which included exhibits by homebrew equipment companies, microbreweries and homebrew clubs. It also hosted the judging for the two dozen entries in the Invitational Brew-Off. Since this year's conference did not have a banquet, the competition winners were announced at the Expo. Congratulations are due to David Welch for taking a Bronze medal for his IPA. It was great to hear both his name and the name of the Strand Brewers Club announced to the crowd. The Homebrewer of the Year Award went to Ichiri Fujiura from Tokyo, Japan, for a Coconut Porter.

The conference ended up being both a lot of fun and a good source of information. Hopefully, we'll have the chance to attend again sometime in the future.

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