Beer Quest Creators Win Homebrewing Award!

Greetings Beer Quest followers! We wanted to share the news that the show's creators and producers, Jon and Kieran, recently proved their beer prowess by winning first place in the German Wheat category of the Southern New England Homebrew Competition! We also want to give a shoutout to Ray Girard who also won several awards in the competition, including a first place prize for his American Stout! A friend of the show, you may remember Ray as one of the homebrewers featured in our pilot. You can read all about it at this write-up of the competition's winners:

http://www.undergroundbrewers.org/snerhc/results/Results_2009.htm

Awesome Cask Beer Festival This Weekend

If this weekend you find yourself a bit parched and looking for something to be sure to check out Brazenhead’s Cask Festival running all weekend long in Brooklyn as outlined at their website. The festival is organized by one Alex Hall and you may remember Alex and the bar from our pilot where he educated Steve on the wonders of cask beer. Well once more Alex has outdone himself in putting a fantastic list of rare beers including selections from Dark Star Pub in Britain where Alex first delved into the beer trade. Who knows, you may just catch some us guys behind Beer Quest if you play your cards right.

If you’d like to know more about cask beer and New York’s microbrew scene pay a visit to Mr. Hall’s web site as well at www.gotham-imbiber.com. The site is loaded with information. In particular be sure to check out his warnings of false cask beer engines in America so you know you’re getting the real thing!

Pilot Online! Also, Part 4 of Your Continuing Beerducation: Water

Good afternoon everyone!

Before we jump into today's lesson I just want to give everyone a reminder that our pilot episode is online at www.beerquest.tv, our official website! If you haven't already, please take a look and let us know what you think.

It’s been a little while since the last Beerducation segment and I hope you’re all ready to jump back into it. Today we will be talking about the ingredient which comprises the majority of the delicious beers you drink – water! Like Earth, your body and a two year old’s diaper, water reigns supreme. I’m sure many of you are thinking “How complicated can water be?” or “Are there gremlins living in my walls trying to sabotage my life?” I can’t help with the latter inquiry but I hope to shed a little light on the former.

Nowadays there are countless ways to tinker with our water with filtration, pH levels, and more. Back in the days of yore however people’s knowledge of water chemistry was simple in terms of being non-existent (coincidentally beer was often drunk as a safe substitute for what was often contaminated water). You must keep in mind too that water can be very different depending on its source. For example, certain sources had water with either high or low mineral contents which can have a profound difference on the beer.

What happened with these water sources was that certain cities, such as Pilsn, Dublin, Burton-on-Trent and more, became brewing centers which pioneered a number of beer styles based on the water sources that were available.

To use a classic example, Pilsn, a medieval Bohemian town, has very soft water meaning that it had fewer minerals. The effect on brewing was that it allowed for extremely crisp, clear beer with a sharp noble hop bite to it – the Pilsner. The Czech brewers also had to use special processes when steeping their grain as well to bring down their pH levels for proper mashing.

If you recall from a previous installment, mashing is when you steep the grain to create wort, the liquid base of beer. Mash pH should be roughly 5.4, give or take a little. To use another historical example in Dublin the alkalinity of the water balanced the acidity of darker malts, allowing the creating of dark beers such as stouts.

Water is by no means a simple beast and people continue to dissect its chemistry to learn all of its secrets. Most importantly though is that it has always been the cornerstone of life, and great beer all over the world, no matter what its profile may be. So next the time you have a tasty beer give a toast to this liquid helper and all of its refreshing goodness that makes the world go round.

Current State of the Brewnion

Hey everybody, we hope you all had a great week. First off a huge thank you to everyone who came and enjoyed the show on Sunday and have been supporting and helping us all this time. Its you guys who make the show.

We want to remind everyone too that there is more to come in the future. For those who missed the premiere and who just can't get enough of the pilot, we will have it online within the next week or two. Keep an eye out for future screenings as well!

We will also continue to update our websites with beer related articles and other media as well to help foster this burgeoning community. Soon our website will be fully operational as well, acting as a source for all Beer Quest goodness.

And finally we will continue to pursue our mission of finding Beer Quest a home on cable television. If you would like to help us with this mission the most important thing you can do is to spread the word for us on the streets and make people aware of Beer Quest, and the amazing craft beer community it wishes to explore.

Until next time have a great weekend, be safe and drink well!

Cheers!

Part 3 of the Beerducation Crash Course: Yeasty Beasty

Greetings everyone! Thank you for being so patient in waiting for this latest segment in your continuing Beerducation. Today we bring you yeast, the mighty little microbes that convert all that sugar into alcohol. They are the amazing alchemists that make beer, beer.

Yeast is a microscopic fungus that has been one of humanity’s best little helpers for thousands of years, helping us ferment beverages and make bread for millennia. For beer there are primarily two strains of yeast used and choosing the proper type is a huge factor in determining what kind of beer you will come out with, but more on that later. Depending on the type of yeast you use, you can come up with a variety of flavors and aromas such as banana, clove, plums, prunes, clove, and vanilla; even tartness and sourness.

To briefly recap some of our previous lessons, once the sugars are extracted from the grain, making wort, the liquid is boiled and hops are added at this time. Once the boil is finished (after 60 to 90 minutes usually) the wort is then crash cooled as quickly as possible. Once the wort reaches the target temperature you want to ferment the beer at the yeast is added and the fermentation vessel is sealed with an airlock. As the yeast consumes the sugars and produces the alcohol it will also produce plenty of carbon dioxide, which will need to escape.

How do you determine your fermentation temperature you ask? Well that factors in when choosing your yeast. The two main ones are the warm fermenting ale yeast, and the cool fermenting lager yeast.

Ale yeast is by far the oldest, dating back to when dinosaurs ruled the earth (http://www.fossilfuelsbrewingco.com/)! Aside from our reptilian cousins, humanity has also been using this yeast for centuries. Ale yeast usually ferments at temperatures within the 65-75 degree range at a faster rate. The result is a less “clean” beer with more prominent fruity flavors (known as esters) that give ales an added complexity. Common ale styles are the Pale Ale, the Heffeweizen (wheat beer), and Stouts.

Lager yeast is the new kid on the block at roughly several hundred years old. It is believed to have been originally developed somewhere in Germany through the practice of storing and aging beer in caves. The word lager means “to store” in German. Lager yeast is usually fermented in the 45-55 degree range in a slower, less tumultuous process. After the initial fermentation the beer is stored at near freezing temperatures for an additional period (the actual lagering). This process integrates sulfur compounds that come from lager yeasts, giving lagers their crisp, clean taste. Common examples of this are the Pilsner, Oktoberfest and the mighty Dopplebock.

Right now I’m going to clear up a common myth about ales and lagers; that ales are darker beers with higher alcohol and lagers are always lighter beers with lower alcohol. This is completely and utterly false. Ales can be made as light as any lager and low in ABV with the English Bitters as an example, being pale straw and in the 3-4% ABV range, and lagers can be be dark and mighty, with Baltic Porters being as dark as any stout with up to 10% alcohol.

There is one other variety that I haven’t touched upon and that is yeast from wild, or open fermentation. Used in parts of Belgium to produce Lambic beers, the process calls for native yeast spores to inhabit open vats of wort for fermentation. Once fermentation is completed, it is aged in wooden barrels and often mixed with other beers. The result is a wild and unique sour beer, although some styles are mixed with fruits to sweeten them. While I recommend everyone to try a lambic at some point, I’d be careful about trying open fermentation yourself. While the wild yeast in Belgium may be world class, you’re probably not going to get the same results in Brooklyn.

Thanks for tuning in for your continuing Beerducation, I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it (which, in case you’re wondering, I did very much enjoy it). Keep an eye out for the next segment where we’ll begin delving into some beer styles and also a recap of our next adventure in home brewing, where we will be making an American Amber Ale and a French Saison. Until then enjoy the nice weather, stay safe, be healthy, and enjoy some great beer!

Beer Quest Sneak Peek!

Hi Fellow Questers!

There is a Beer Quest Sneak Peek Video up on YouTube in HD! Steve introduces you to his world and the adventures he will encounter along the way! Check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyJuVQMSpVM

Also if you are on Facebook, the Beer Quest event is now online. You can find out more information by going onto Facebook and signing up for our Fan Page "Beer Quest!"

We hope to see all of you at the Premiere on Sunday, September, 20th as there will be two screenings at 4 & 8 PM. Along with the screenings there will be 40 rare kegs, a raffle, fresh produce, and live music. We will also be celebrating Jon LaPearl's birthday!

We hope to see you all there! Keep checking back for more information!

- Beer Quest Team

State of the Brewnion

Greetings Beer Quest fans! It’s been awhile since we’ve posted here as we’ve been wrapped up in preparing for the premiere coming up in September (don’t worry The Beerducation segment will continue). We wanted to give you all a little reminder of said premiere and update you on the state of the show.

As has been mentioned before the rootin’ tootin’, epic and magical premiere episode of Beer Quest! will be screened on September 20th, 2009 at Studio Square in Long Island City, Queens, NY. This will be in conjunction with the closing ceremonies for New York Craft Beer Week and will also include food, live music and TONS AND TONS of great beer. The show will be screening at 4 pm and 8 pm so you’ll have two opportunities to catch it as well.

This premiere also coincides with co-producer Jonathan LaPearl’s birthday so make sure you come or else he’ll cry!

Other stuff you can look forward to soon includes our official website on way at www.beerquest.tv, more on the Continuing Beerducation, and a short video shedding a little more light on the show. Also we will home brewing again soon and we’ll be sure to let you know how the day goes!

In the meantime, stay safe, live well and enjoy some great beer for us!