How can the “homebrewer Boni” help the “aspiring judge Boni”?
Hey! Let’s talk a bit about my love for homebrewing and how it can help me on my journey to become a certified BJCP judge. I started brewing regularly in January 2019, like a New Year's resolution. I’d tried brewing before, but only sporadically. Then, at the end of 2018, I came across a homebrew kit on sale for a great price and couldn’t resist the holiday temptation. Plus, the kit came with a recipe for a Black IPA, one of my favorite styles. But this was just an embrionary beginning. The kit made only one gallon, about 3.8 liters. Since brewing takes about a month, I’d always end up finishing what I’d made before the next batch was ready. No way?! Haha. Over time, I started to think about increasing my production volume. First, I bought a 20L stainless steel conical fermenter. With that, my kitchen pots couldn’t hold all the liquid anymore (at one point, I even tried with two pots, haha), so I bought a 27L electric kettle as well. But the kettle didn’t work, and the seller left me high and dry. He asked me to record videos showing it wasn’t working and then did nothing about it. I had to track down the brand’s representative in Europe myself, and with just two emails, they sent me a new kettle with no questions asked. They didn’t even ask for the old one back!
Hiccups aside, since late 2020, I’ve been making 15 to 20 liters of beer at a time. This keeps a good stock between brew days. I also follow some really informative pages about brewing, and it’s impossible not to mention Beer School again (Portuguese content only, if you know a good Youtube channel for homebrewing send me a message!). For anyone looking to really dive deep and brew for competitions, it’s the best Portuguese spoken channel, no doubt. But we’re all different; as a homebrewer, I like to keep things simple, without too many process controls. This week, they’re running a deep-dive cycle on Bitters, one of the traditional English styles. The classes are about 2.5 hours long, but for the beer nerd in me, they’re addictive! I also really agree with Jamal on the idea of setting goals as a brewer. If your goal is to deepen your knowledge, you should definitely follow his channel. But my goal right now is to become a BJCP judge. So, as a brewer, call me lazy if you want, but I brew in my kitchen, and my fermenter sits in the living room or guest room at room temperature; that’s what I’ve got. My focus is more on cleaning and avoiding contamination, which isn’t too hard for someone who’s worked in a lab or hospital setting like I have. But my scientific side loves reading and watching videos on brewing processes, especially with historical context, and Jamal does that really well at Beer School. All the learning about brewing processess is very useful for an aspiring judge, as you will get familiar and become able to suggest improvements when judging a beer.
Brewing at home also has another advantage for “homebrewer Boni” in his quest to become “judge Boni.” As I mentioned before, I’ve been having trouble finding certain beer styles. But I can easily find recipes for them online. This way, I can recreate styles I’ve never tried before. Yesterday was one of those days. I brewed (or at least tried to) a Dark Mild Ale, a style that almost became a “Historical Beer”, as it almost disappeared. “Mild” in English means light, soft, moderate. And when we talk about beer, that term can turn off consumers, or at least it used to. It turns people off because most beer lovers want flavor bombs, lots of aromas, and a beer with “mild” in the name will usually have more subdued characteristics. There’s a whole historical context behind this, but I’ll get into that when I taste it and study the BJCP style. I said it used to turn people off because we’re now seeing a slight shift in the beer market. Many consumers are more aware of alcohol content and calories, so they’re choosing lighter or even non-alcoholic beers for a healthier lifestyle. Dark Mild Ales are a great option since they’re still expected to deliver flavor, body, and aroma with a low ABV (3 to 3.8%, according to the BJCP). Now I have to wait about half a month to taste this beauty and see if it matches the BJCP style description.
What else can I tell you about being a homebrewer? For me, brew day is always a day well spent. And yes, it usually takes the whole day, as long as this paragraph. Yesterday, I started around 11 a.m. and didn’t finish until about 6:30 p.m. (and I still waited until 11 p.m. to add the yeast). But throughout the process, there are some incubation times, which let you enjoy a beer, take notes, eat, etc. But most of those waiting times are spent washing used or soon-to-be-used equipment. I’ll try to summarize the process simply here, and you can see almost all the steps in the Instagram reels just released. First up is milling the malt. Barley malt has a husk, and the sugars we want are inside it. I buy mine pre-milled. Next, we add water at a specific temperature to dissolve the sugars, relying on enzymes in the malt to break down the sugars into molecules small enough for the yeast to consume. This process takes about an hour. Then we drain the liquid into another vessel and add fresh water to the grains to ensure we extract as much sugar as possible from between the husks. When we have the desired amount of this “barley juice,” we bring it to a boil. The boil not only sterilizes but also drives Maillard reactions that contribute to flavor and aroma. This is where we also add hops, which will add bitterness and/or aroma, depending on our goal. The boil takes about an hour to an hour and a half. Finally, we need to cool the liquid and add yeast. Then, we wait. I’m in that phase now; the fermenter’s behind me, making that fermentation sound we brewers love. Fermentation itself would only take 3 to 5 days, but the beer will stay in the fermenter for about 10-15 days. This is because, after fermentation, young beer still has many unpleasant flavors and aromas from the intense early fermentation. The yeast then consumes these molecules, which is why we call this the maturation phase. I’ll do two tests with this beer. One part will go into a keg with lower carbonation, typical of an English beer. The other part will go into bottles, aiming for a bit more gas, so it doesn’t go flat during storage. I hope no one’s fallen asleep, haha! I’m really curious to taste this beer. And, of course, you’ll be the first to know! See you next time!
