http://www.scribd.com/people/view/295293-brad-smith This a feed for documents on Scribd written by beersmith 30 Tue, 02 Sep 2008 03:44:16 GMT Tue, 02 Sep 2008 03:44:16 GMT http://www.scribd.com/doc/5404072/Decoction-Mashing-for-Beer-Recipes Decoction Mashing for Beer Recipes By Brad Smith -- Originally posted on our BeerSmith Home Brewing Beer Blog, Sept 2008 Decoction mashing is a great way to enhance the flavor and clarity of your all grain beer recipes, and requires only minimal additional equipment and time. Few homebrewers use decoction mashing in their recipes, but it is a very powerful technique for enhancing many styles of beer. This week we’re going to demystify decoction mashing so you can add it to your arsenal of homebrewing tools. Decoction mashing involves nothing more than extracting a fraction of your mash mixture Tue, 02 Sep 2008 03:44:16 GMT http://www.scribd.com/doc/5404072/Decoction-Mashing-for-Beer-Recipes http://www.scribd.com/doc/3632833/Enhancing-Beer-Head-Retention-for-Home-Brewers Enhancing Beer Head Retention for Home Brewers By Brad Smith -- Originally posted on my Home Brewing Blog, June 2008 An important characteristic in homebrewed beers is the ability of the beer to retain a nice foamy head for a long period of time. Commercial brewers go to great lengths to improve head retention by a variety of additives. However homebrewers also have access to ingredients and additives that can help your foam last until the last drop. Note that enhancing head retention is closely related to enhancing the body of the beer. Foam is the result of CO2 bubbles rising through the bee Thu, 26 Jun 2008 04:39:55 GMT http://www.scribd.com/doc/3632833/Enhancing-Beer-Head-Retention-for-Home-Brewers http://www.scribd.com/doc/3224055/Converting-All-Grain-Recipes-to-Malt-Extract Converting All Grain Recipes to Malt Extract By Brad Smith -- Originally posted on our BeerSmith Home Brewing Beer Blog, June 2008 This week we take a look how you can convert an all grain recipe to malt extract (or back). The majority of brewers (perhaps 70%) brew with malt extract recipes, though most serious enthusiasts have made the switch to all-grain. Yet it is the small percentage of expert brewers who write all of the brewing books and publish a large portion of recipes online. This can leave many extract brewers out in the cold. The basic process for converting an all grain recipe to Wed, 04 Jun 2008 06:12:50 GMT http://www.scribd.com/doc/3224055/Converting-All-Grain-Recipes-to-Malt-Extract http://www.scribd.com/doc/3162552/Home-Brewing-Social-Sites-Beer-and-Web-2 Home Brewing Social Sites: Beer and Web 2.0 By Brad Smith -- Originally posted on our BeerSmith Home Brewing Beer Blog, May 2008 Sifting Through the World Wide Web The web has become incredibly large. The Great Library at Alexandria, the main repository of the ancient world, numbered a half-million volumes. The Public library in New York City today holds an impressive 42 million items. However the World Wide Web now contains over 100 billion public pages, all of which were created in the last 18 years. Pages related to home brewing alone number in the millions. Web 2.0 helps you sort find the Fri, 30 May 2008 06:56:29 GMT http://www.scribd.com/doc/3162552/Home-Brewing-Social-Sites-Beer-and-Web-2 http://www.scribd.com/doc/3047306/Dry-Hopping-Enhancing-Hops-Aroma Dry Hopping: Enhancing Hops Aroma By Brad Smith -- Originally posted on our BeerSmith Home Brewing Beer Blog, May 2008 Dry hopping is a great way to enhance the hoppy aroma of your home brewed beer. Real hopheads will tell you that in addition to boil and late hop additions, adding dry hops is a preferred technique for preserving a burst of delicate hop aroma for IPAs and other hoppy beers. Hops are normally added during the boil to extract alpha acids that provide the bitter flavor needed to offset sweet barley malt in beer. Brewers also use late hop additions in the last 5-10 minutes of the Thu, 22 May 2008 04:33:31 GMT http://www.scribd.com/doc/3047306/Dry-Hopping-Enhancing-Hops-Aroma http://www.scribd.com/doc/2977190/Bottling-Beer-10-Tips-for-Home-Brewers Bottling Beer: 10 Tips for Home Brewers By Brad Smith -- Originally posted on our BeerSmith Home Brewing Beer Blog, May 2008 Bottling beer can be tedious, which is why many of us eventually make the switch to kegging. Home brewers say that bottling is their least favorite part of the brewing process. To help ease the pain, this week we present 10 tips on bottling your home brewed beer. 1. Inspect your Bottles Before Use - Inspect each bottle by holding it up in front of a window or light source and looking straight down the bottle. Bottles tend to chip and crack either around the mouth or bott Thu, 15 May 2008 05:40:08 GMT http://www.scribd.com/doc/2977190/Bottling-Beer-10-Tips-for-Home-Brewers http://www.scribd.com/doc/2926639/Wheat-Beer-Recipes-Weizen-and-Weisse-Styles Wheat Beer Recipes – Weizen and Weisse Styles Originally posted on my BeerSmith Home Brewing Blog, May 2008 Wheat, Weizen and Weisse beer recipes have become very popular craft and homebrew beer styles here in the United States over the last 20 years. Today, we’ll look at the history of wheat beer, how to brew a wheat beer and a sampling of wheat beer recipes including both Bavarian Weissebier and Berliner Weisse. Wheat Beer History Since wheat is a staple grain, it should be no surprise that wheat has been used for several thousand years to brew beer. There is historical evidence to suggest t Fri, 09 May 2008 22:32:03 GMT http://www.scribd.com/doc/2926639/Wheat-Beer-Recipes-Weizen-and-Weisse-Styles http://www.scribd.com/doc/2926566/Soft-Pretzels-A-Recipe-for-Bavarian-Pretzels Soft Pretzels – A Recipe for Bavarian Pretzels Originally posted on my BeerSmith Home Brewing Blog, May 2008 Nothing goes better with a cold homebrewed beer than a big soft pretzel fresh from the oven! Today we’re going to set homebrewing aside and look instead at a recipe for large, Bavarian beer pretzels . Below is a recipe I’ve used for years to create delicious pretzels at home: Soft Pretzel Recipe - makes one dozen large pretzels: • • • • • • • • 1 packet active dry bread yeast 1 cup warm water 2 tablespoons soft butter or margarine 2 3/4 cups bread flour 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon s Fri, 09 May 2008 22:20:42 GMT http://www.scribd.com/doc/2926566/Soft-Pretzels-A-Recipe-for-Bavarian-Pretzels http://www.scribd.com/doc/2869190/Beer-Color-Understanding-SRM-Lovibond-and-EBC Beer Color: Understanding SRM, Lovibond and EBC By Brad Smith -- Originally posted on our BeerSmith Home Brewing Beer Blog, April 2008 Beer spans an endless array of colors. The deep black color and white foam of an Irish Stout, deep copper of a Pale Ale and cloudy light color of a Bavarian Wheat are all within the rainbow we call beer. Today we’ll look at beer color, how its measured, color limitations, and how to estimate the color of a beer recipe. The History of Beer Color The system used to characterize beer color has its origins in the late 1800’s. The original lovibond system was create Sat, 03 May 2008 19:19:24 GMT http://www.scribd.com/doc/2869190/Beer-Color-Understanding-SRM-Lovibond-and-EBC http://www.scribd.com/doc/2650191/Brewing-Hops-10-Tips-for-Surviving-the-Hops-Shortage Brewing Hops: 10 Tips for Surviving the Hops Shortage By Brad Smith -- Originally posted on our BeerSmith Home Brewing Beer Blog, April 2008 Editors Note: The last article in our 4 part series on the ongoing hops crisis is a collection of tips for conserving and preserving your precious hops supply. Given the ongoing hop crisis, prices for hops are now hovering at $4 an ounce or more, up 200400% from their pre-crisis levels. Some suppliers are rationing their hops, limiting sales, and many of my favorite English and European varieties are simply not available at any price. I’m treating my limi Sat, 26 Apr 2008 03:54:46 GMT http://www.scribd.com/doc/2650191/Brewing-Hops-10-Tips-for-Surviving-the-Hops-Shortage http://www.scribd.com/doc/2582778/Calculating-Hop-Bitterness-How-Much-Hops-to-Use Calculating Hop Bitterness: How Much Hops to Use? By Brad Smith -- Originally posted on our BeerSmith Home Brewing Beer Blog, April 2008 Editors Note: This is part 3 of a 4 part series on strategies for surviving the ongoing hop crisis. Please join us next week for 10 tips to conserve precious hops. How much beer hops is enough? With the hop crisis in full swing, it is important to understand the quantity of hops you need to properly balance your home brewed beer. Hops are a precious and increasingly expensive commodity. Knowing exactly how much to use for your target equipment and beer style Mon, 21 Apr 2008 03:56:53 GMT http://www.scribd.com/doc/2582778/Calculating-Hop-Bitterness-How-Much-Hops-to-Use http://www.scribd.com/doc/2547426/Brewing-Hops-Storage-Preserving-Precious-Hops Brewing Hops Storage: Preserving Precious Hops By Brad Smith -- Originally posted on our BeerSmith Home Brewing Beer Blog, April 2008 Editors Note: This article is part 2 of our 4 part series on surviving the ongoing hop shortage. Our first article was on Growing Hops at Home. With hop prices pushing $5 US per ounce and the hops crisis likely to get worse before it gets better, caring for your precious hops supply is more important than ever. Today we're going to look at the best way to store and preserve your hops and also some of the effects of hop aging. Hop Aging and the Enemies of Hops Al Wed, 16 Apr 2008 05:06:11 GMT http://www.scribd.com/doc/2547426/Brewing-Hops-Storage-Preserving-Precious-Hops http://www.scribd.com/doc/2515852/Growing-Hops-in-the-GardenHow-to-Grow-Beer-Hops Growing Hops in the Garden: How to Grow Beer Hops By Brad Smith -- Originally posted on my Home Brewing Blog, April 2008 Editors Note: This is part 1of our 4 part series to help home brewers survive the ongoing hop crisis. Join us next week for another installment. With the ongoing hops shortage, home brewers are turning in record numbers to growing hops for beer at home. Growing hops is an fun way to expand your hop personal hop supply. There is great pride of enjoying a beer brewed with hops you grew at home. Whether you live in the Northwest, Northeast, Midwest, South or California does not Fri, 11 Apr 2008 02:19:46 GMT http://www.scribd.com/doc/2515852/Growing-Hops-in-the-GardenHow-to-Grow-Beer-Hops http://www.scribd.com/doc/2421693/Making-a-Yeast-Starter-for-Your-Home-Brew-Beer Making a Yeast Starter for your Home Brew Beer By Brad Smith -- Originally posted on my Home Brewing Blog, April 2008 The quality of your homebrew can be dramatically improved by making a yeast starter. Home brewers often toss a packet or vial of yeast into their beer without much thought to the quantity needed. Though modern liquid brewer's yeast smack packs and vials are a huge improvement over older dry yeast packs, these packages do not contain enough yeast cells for optimal pitching. Underpitching results in slower startup, higher risk of infection, off flavors and sometimes incomplete fe Wed, 02 Apr 2008 06:01:17 GMT http://www.scribd.com/doc/2421693/Making-a-Yeast-Starter-for-Your-Home-Brew-Beer http://www.scribd.com/doc/2327155/New-BrewPoll-Home-Brewing-and-Craft-Beer-News-Site New BrewPoll Home Brewing and Craft Beer News Site By Brad Smith -- Originally posted on my Home Brewing Blog, March 2008 We're pleased to announce the beta launch of the BrewPoll Home Brewing and Craft Beer News Site. After launching into the Web 2.0 with BrewWiki a few years ago and our BeerSmith blog the last few months, we've been fascinated with the way that many new social sites are able to find and promote the "best of the web". Home brewing and craft beer is no exception - in fact there are over 200 active beer and brewing blogs boasting over 20,000 articles. The web has become unimag Fri, 21 Mar 2008 06:20:15 GMT http://www.scribd.com/doc/2327155/New-BrewPoll-Home-Brewing-and-Craft-Beer-News-Site http://www.scribd.com/doc/2301109/The-First-Wort-Hop-Beer-Brewing-Techniques The First Wort Hop: Beer Brewing Techniques Originally posted on my BeerSmith Home Brewing Blog, Mar 2008 Brewing beer with first wort hops (FWH) is a method I have used extensively for beer brewing over the last few years to improve the character of many recipes. First wort hopping produces complex bitterness and aroma that is both smooth and pleasing to the pallet. The method has become quite popular with homebrewers and microbreweries over the last 10 years due to the pleasant and complex flavor produced. FWH involves adding a portion of the hops to the boiler at the very beginning of the s Tue, 18 Mar 2008 03:34:12 GMT http://www.scribd.com/doc/2301109/The-First-Wort-Hop-Beer-Brewing-Techniques http://www.scribd.com/doc/2282719/Brewing-an-Irish-Stout-Beer-Recipe Brewing an Irish Stout Beer Recipe By Brad Smith -- Originally posted on my Home Brewing Blog, March 2008 With St Patrick's day upon us, it seemed appropriate to discuss the beer that Ireland is most famous for: Irish Stout. We'll review the history of Irish Stout, the design of Irish Stout recipes and finish with a selection of great Irish Stout recipes for home brewing. The History of Stout Irish Stout traces its heritage back to Porter. As described previously in our article on the Porter Beer style, Porters were first commercially sold in the early 1730s in London and became popular in bot Sat, 15 Mar 2008 07:17:29 GMT http://www.scribd.com/doc/2282719/Brewing-an-Irish-Stout-Beer-Recipe http://www.scribd.com/doc/2270038/Designing-Great-Beers-by-Ray-Daniels-A-Book-Review "Designing Great Beers" by Ray Daniels - A Book Review By Brad Smith -- Originally posted on my Home Brewing Blog, March 2008 I recently revisited Ray Daniels' classic work "Designing Great Beers", a book written in 1996 and published by the Brewers Association. Though I originally read this book several years ago, I enjoyed it even more the second time. For those of you who don't know this book, it is advertised as "The Ultimate Guide to Brewing Classic Beer Styles" and to a large degree lives up to that billing. Daniel's book is engaging, packed with useful information and unlike many books Thu, 13 Mar 2008 05:38:30 GMT http://www.scribd.com/doc/2270038/Designing-Great-Beers-by-Ray-Daniels-A-Book-Review http://www.scribd.com/doc/2249392/How-to-Batch-Sparge-A-Batch-Sparging-Guide How to Batch Sparge: A Guide for Batch Sparging and No Sparge Originally posted on my Home Brewing Blog, March 2008 Today we look at traditional fly sparging, batch sparging and no-sparge brewing techniques. Batch sparge techniques have become very popular with homebrewers recently, primarily because batch sparging requires less time and less equipment than traditional techniques at minimal added cost. Sparging (or lautering) is done at the end of the mash process, before the boil. The purpose is to extract the sugars created by the mashing process and dissolve them into hot water to form wort Mon, 10 Mar 2008 02:52:43 GMT http://www.scribd.com/doc/2249392/How-to-Batch-Sparge-A-Batch-Sparging-Guide http://www.scribd.com/doc/2244732/All-Grain-Beer-Brewing-with-Infusion-Mash-Setup All Grain Brewing with an Infusion Mash Setup Originally posted on our Home Brewing Blog, Mar 2008 This week we take a look at instructions for all grain beer brewing using a single step infusion mash setup. Infusion mashing with a Gott type cooler, will unleash the full power of all grain brewing while keeping it simple. Are you an intermediate brewer looking to make the leap to 5 gallon or 10 gallon all grain brewing? Do you want to learn how to brew all grain beer? Don’t be afraid of the mashing process. The vast majority of all grain brewers use a one step infusion mash to create outsta Sun, 09 Mar 2008 19:19:24 GMT http://www.scribd.com/doc/2244732/All-Grain-Beer-Brewing-with-Infusion-Mash-Setup http://www.scribd.com/doc/2200273/Beer-Styles-Making-a-Porter-Recipe Beer Styles: Making a Porter Recipe Originally posted on my Home Brewing Blog, March 2008 Porter is a English beer style that has become very popular in the United States. This week we will look at the origins of Porter, how to brew Porter at home and provide a collection of sample recipes. When I started brewing back in the 1980's, the microbrewery revolution was still in its infancy, and it was difficult to find anything beyond the classic American lager in the stores. Yet dark beers were a passion of mine, and Porter was a perennial favorites.Porter is first mentioned in writings in the ear Sun, 02 Mar 2008 08:04:29 GMT http://www.scribd.com/doc/2200273/Beer-Styles-Making-a-Porter-Recipe http://www.scribd.com/doc/2184935/Making-Full-Bodied-Beer-at-Home Making Full Bodied Beer at Home Originally posted on my Home Brewing Blog, Feb 2008 For many beer styles such as traditional ales, browns, porters and stouts, a full body beer style is very desirable. Full body beers have complex character, better head retention and enhanced mouthfeel. Higher body is achieved by raising the final gravity (FG) of a beer without producing an incomplete fermentation. Body can be enhanced by adding unfermentable (complex) sugars, and also by increasing the amount of protein in the brew. Making full body beer at home can easily be done if you use the following four Thu, 28 Feb 2008 06:10:16 GMT http://www.scribd.com/doc/2184935/Making-Full-Bodied-Beer-at-Home http://www.scribd.com/doc/2161582/Homebrew-Crisis-Where-Have-All-The-Brewing-Hops-Gone Homebrew Crisis: Where Have All The Brewing Hops Gone? Originally posted on my Home Brewing Blog, Feb 2008 If you’ve made a trip to the local homebrew store you have probably noticed that hop prices are up and many of your favorite hops simply are not available at any price. I ordered hops last week at prices over $4 per ounce for some varieties. What caused the shortage? What does it mean for the average homebrewer? When will it recover? The cause of the problem is threefold. First, over the last 15 years, hop acreage has declined by 50% due to a global hop glut that started in the early 19 Sun, 24 Feb 2008 06:13:52 GMT http://www.scribd.com/doc/2161582/Homebrew-Crisis-Where-Have-All-The-Brewing-Hops-Gone http://www.scribd.com/doc/2097771/Better-Beer-with-Late-Malt-Extract-Additions Better Beer with Late Malt Extract Additions Originally posted on my Home Brewing Blog, Feb 2008 Today we look at a method for malt extract brewers that can improve the quality and color of your extract beer. Both liquid and dried malt extract beers suffer from an effect called carmelization when brewing. Carmelization occurs when liquid extract or excess sugars settle to the bottom of the brew pot during the boil and the sugars carmelize (harden) in the bottom of the pot. This typically darkens the beer, and in extreme cases can also affect the taste of the beer. Obviously this is a problem f Thu, 21 Feb 2008 03:01:31 GMT http://www.scribd.com/doc/2097771/Better-Beer-with-Late-Malt-Extract-Additions http://www.scribd.com/doc/2079155/Ten-Top-Tips-for-Home-Brewing-Beer Ten Top Tips for Home Brewing Beer Originally posted on my BeerSmith Home Brewing Blog, Feb 2008 Today we look at 10 tips for brewing better beer. These are things I wish I knew when I started homebrewing but had to learn the hard way. Enjoy! 1. Use High Quality, Fresh Ingredients - Fresh ingredients make better homebrew. If you 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. started with dry yeast, move up to liquid yeast. If you are an extract brewer, look for fresh extract rather than a can that is several years old. Store liquid yeast in the refrigerator, grains in a cool dry place, and hops in the freezer. Hops Sun, 17 Feb 2008 08:30:36 GMT http://www.scribd.com/doc/2079155/Ten-Top-Tips-for-Home-Brewing-Beer http://www.scribd.com/doc/2079088/How-to-Keg-Homebrew-Beer How to Keg Homebrew Beer Originally posted on my BeerSmith Home Brewing Blog, Feb 2008 Would you like to learn how to start kegging your own beer? Kegging your homebrew saves time and money and offers a very convenient way to serve your beer. This article walks you through the basics of purchasing a kegging system, filling your kegs and serving your kegged beer at home. Purchase a Beer Kegging System If you don't already have a beer kegging system, you can purchase one from your local homebrew store or a major online brewing supply store. A kegging system consists of a keg, a CO2 (carbon dioxi Sun, 17 Feb 2008 07:09:43 GMT http://www.scribd.com/doc/2079088/How-to-Keg-Homebrew-Beer