In Victoria, Australia, for instance, we

went through one of the driest periods

since records were held. Dam levels fell

to one of the lowest all time low even

with the “Drought Proof” building of the

Thompson Dam. It eventually prompted

the State government to issue the building

of a desalination plant.

During this dry period the crops suffer a

shock type syndrome which initiates

survival mode. What that means is that

the protein levels of the barley will in-

crease with lowering of the carbohydrate

or starch levels.

This two fold phenomenon leads to fil-

tered beer being more cloudy and propen-

sity to form much more particulates in

packaged beer. This renders the beer

difficult to transport long distances espe-

cially to export markets. And the starch

levels may also suffer meaning lower

yields and so increased production costs.

So lack of water can mean not only

higher ingredient costs (because of lower

yields in the field) but can adversely

affect quality and efficiencies of produc-

ing the beer.

So lets not knock the big brewers as a

standard thing because sometimes good

things come out of the research money

they invest to the benefit all brewers right

down to the homebrewer.

I read with interest an article in The

Motely Fool which gave a clear indica-

tion why we need the big brewers.—

http://www.fool.com/investing/

general/2014/03/29/1-reason-craft-beer-lovers-

should-appreciate-meg-2.aspx

The article goes on to talk about how

water is becoming scarce in some re-

gions of the US.

(Hello, we in Australia are one of the

driest continents on earth, so they say).

The article says that because of the US

being in dire drought in some regions

that famers such as barley farmers, are

suffering to the detriment of growing

good grain and obvious rising costs due

to increased water consumption.

The article goes on to say, “Water's

importance to beer is obvious: crack

open a cold one, and it is 95% water in

there. Less intuitive is the sheer volume

of water needed to produce the grains

used in the brewing process. When you

factor in the entire lifecycle of a can of

beer, growing its ingredients accounts

for an astounding 90% of its water

needs.”

MillerCoors, one of the biggest brew-

ing companies in the world is leading

the change in water consumption for

the barley growers by employing new

techniques to watering.

“In 2011, MillerCoors gave a $1 million

grant to the Nature Conservancy to turn

a standard barley farm into a state-of-

the-art irrigation innovation centre. The

nonprofits in turn unleashed its team of

irrigation specialists on the land, who

then implemented a flurry of changes

ranging from soil sensors to redesigned

spigots. The new farm saved 270 mil-

lion gallons of water in its first two

years, and 400 million gallons in its first

three”.

As the article continues, “It's an impres-

sive commitment, but it is not one that

every brewer can make because of the

sheer cost involved. MillerCoors will

innovate and implement, discovering

best practices and driving costs down.

Eventually, these new techniques and

technologies will become the new

industry standard. That's something that

will benefit all brewers, great and

small.”

So should we really knock the big

brewers? If it were not for their input in

implementing new technologies every-

one suffers including craft brewers and

the cost of raw materials, including

barley and wheat, will continue to rise.

But there is a more serious side to the

drought and that is one that most craft

brewers are unaware of.

“1 Reason Craft Beer Lovers Should Appreciate Mega Brewers”

We are entering the cold season and so we should be thinking about drinking

some heavy tasting beers like porters

and stouts.

Think of those cold days sitting in

front of a fireplace sipping a relatively

tasty and perhaps higher alcohol con-

tent beer.

If we think of Guinness we think of a

syrupy , very malty, chocolaty brew

with a dry, sometimes acrid finish.

Lately, brewers have added some

hoppiness to those brews and replaced

the acrid dry finish with more smoother finish but higher bitterness

and aroma; a kind of souped up APA

but with aggressive hopping and

malting.

In this recipe I like to use some fruity

hops such as Nelson Sauvin and Gal-

axy. It’s aroma is very strong but pleasant and inviting and may appeal

to the fairer sex.

Try this recipe;

Volume—42 litre batch (after boil)

OG– 1.0506

F.G—1.008

ABV– 5.5%

IBU– 34

Sundries– Add 8g Calcium Chloride

to the mash, 1 whirlfloc tablet 10

min. Before end of boil

Malt:

6 kg JW Pilsner

0.7 kg wheat malt

0.6 kg Crystal (Medium)

0.6 kg Chocolate malt

0.7 kg Cane sugar to the kettle boil

Yeast; Saflager US05 23 g.

Mash Water 26 litres

Sparge water 60 L.

Hop Additions:

30 g Pride of Ringwood (10% AA)

hop pellets-60 minutes boil. 50g

Nelson Sauvin and 50 g Galaxy at

flameout

Mash-in for 60 minutes.

Ferment at 20 deg C for 7 days

Chill fermenter in refrigerator for one

day.

Remove fermenter from fridge care-

fully without agitating the yeast,

bottle the beer and condition for 2

weeks after priming at 20– 22 deg. C.

And enjoy after chilling.

C o s t a n z o B r e w i n g C o n s u l t a n t s

March, 2014

Volume 4, Issue 1

Better Brews

News Inside this issue:

“1 Reason Craft Beer Lovers Should Appre-ciate Mega Brewers”

1

Dark IPA Recipe 1

Do you want your very own beer

label?

2

Charlie Papazian -A stalwart in Homebrewing

2

Beer Funnies 3

Tell us What? 3

To analyse or not to analyse beer

(why should you?)

3

Spotlight on Suppliers —

Brewers Coop

4

Latest Brewing Course Updates

4

Dark IPA Recipe

“The distinguishing

feature of this beer it’s

rich maltiness and

chocolate-coffee tones

with a real burst of

fruity hop aroma and

dry but pleasant finish“

Some homebrewers are so passionate

about their brews that they enter their

beers into homebrewing competitions.

The feedback can be valuable as it

allows for constructive criticism that

allow the brewer to do better.

But for the few that do well. is that all

there is? Have they reached the pinnacle

of their passion?

Perhaps that is all they aspire to. Like

Mark, many brewers aspire to win that

elusive competition. He says,”I attended

your course earlier this year in Sydney.

I thought you might be interested to hear

that my California Common came sec-

ond in the Amber & Dark Lager division

of the national championships held a

couple of weeks ago in Canberra.

Mark Davies (14/11/2013)

But there are those who would like to

take their passion to another level. And

that is to have their own label.

They reason “that my mates like it and I

do too and have even placed well in

comp or two. So what’s stopping me

going commercial?”

Well, one thing is having a deep pocket.

As Andy Mitchell, a Master Brewer who

works with the Australian-owned com-

pany Casella points out, you do not

make money starting off and the over-

heads are high so you need to do every-

thing yourself, including buying second

hand equipment.– Source http://

www.lifehacker.com.au/2012/08/how-to-

take-your-home-brewing-operation-to-

the-next-level/

Another approach is to have your beer

contract brewed. In fact, you don’t really

have to know much about brewing. You

can leave it up to the experts in that

field.

Although this option is capital free you

have to have a good marketing and sales

avenues in order to move your beer.

But is it that easy?

Well not quite. You see, you need to

firstly ensure your costings are worked

out and it can turn out that there is not

much left after you sell your beer.

However, it’s a great way to get your

brand known and tested in the market.

The hardest issue to deal with is who do

you choose to contract brew with?

You need to consider the capability of

the brewer; that is how good is the

brewer in terms of quality and upscaling

from your sample brewed at home.

Just considering the upscaling problems

alone can mean your beer is not up to

scratch compared to your brew or at best

is different.

You will need to inspect the hardware in

the brewery as well as the brewers

capabilities in quality and consistency.

This is not an easy thing to do by your-

self as you may not have the experience

as to see what the strengths and weak-

nesses are of the brewery and brewer.

When choosing a brewer you must

consider what quality systems are in

place. You would look at the brewhouse

and what type of brewhouse they have.

This can have a great bearing not only

on quality and consistency but on the

types of beers you can produce.

Do they have an adequate QC program

and someone who understands and runs

it?

What about the volumes you want

done? You may want to start with a

small batch. Is the contract brewer able

to handle small batches. And if so how

capable are they in measuring analytical

parameters to ensure consistency?

One thing I have found is the smaller

the brewer the less likely they are

capable of controlling their brewing

processes and more likely of having

variable and inconsistent beer produced.

And then the more likely the shelf life

of the beers produced are affected. That

is a quandary for the you because it is at

the beginning where selling your beer

is slowest. So you need longer shelf

life.

These are some of the concerns you will

have when creating a new label for the

market.

Then there are the packaging materials

which is another issue.

In summary, you should get help with

getting your beer on the market. Em-

ploying a virtual brewer who has the

right mix of experience in production

and quality control can make the jour-

ney not only less stressful but increase

the chances of your label being success-

ful and will pay for itself within a short

time.

Call us today to see how we can help on

+61 (0)408104176

tion.

What about the international Home-

brew scene?

Developing beer enthusiasts in other

countries see what we’ve done here in

the US and are really jealous. They

would like to do what we do in their own

countries, but there’s no infrastructure to

support the hobby. There are no easy way

to get equipment and ingredients, and of

course there’s no reliable local informa-

tion.

What are your thoughts on the Micro-

brewery rage?

Consumers have never had the kind of

choice that they currently have in the US

in the history of the world. There are so

many beer styles and beer types that have

aided in the development of the Ameri-

can palette.

The American palette has definitely

improved for the existing beer drinkers.

But then again, there are so many new

beer drinkers reaching the legal drinking

age each year that there still needs to be a

“Charlie Papazian is considered the

father of the modern homebrew move-

ment in the United States. His book,

“The Complete Joy of Homebrewing”

has had over 25 reprints and has sold

over 900,000 copies worldwide since it

hit the bookshelves back in 1984. Charlie

is currently the president of the Associa-

tion of Brewers which is the parent

company of various other divisions

including the American Homebrewers

Association and the Institute for Brewing

Studies.” -Source http://

www.homebrew.com/articles/

article09189902.shtml

In an interview with Homebrew.com

Charlie answers some questions;

Tell us a bit about the Association of

Brewers (AOB).

The American Homebrewers Association

(AHA) was restructured to accommodate

the different levels of interest among its

members and so the AOB was formed as a parent company to house a variety of

different divisions including the AHA....

This was to help each divisions’ interests

get the focus it deserved without getting

diluted in one large unwieldy corpora-

continuing effort to educate the beer

palette. The education of the palette is a

continuing process.

Big breweries in the specialty market.

Well, 20 years ago homebrewers and beer

enthusiast used to rag, rag rag on the big

brewers and lament “Why can’t the big

brewers produce a decent beer? When are

they going to get their act together?”...

And interestingly these same types of

people today are ragging on the large

brewers because they are making decent

beer... The question becomes “What’s the

real issue with the big brewers;

the company or the beer?”. If its a matter

of availability of good beer, I personally

welcome all kinds of good beer whether

its made by the largest brewer in the world

of the smallest homebrewer. Good beer is

good beer!

If its a matter of the companies producing

these beers, each of us has our own ap-

proach and philosophy about which kind

of company we want to support and we

can do that with our dollars.

Do you want your very own beer label?

Charlie Papazian—A Stalwart in Homebrewing

Page 2

Better Brews News

“By Having your beer

contract brewed you have

the advantage of not hav-

ing to purchase equip-

ment and it reduces risk

in testing the market”

...what’s stopping me

going commercial?

….one thing is having a

deep pocket

Student practicing on the

Infusions Brewery in

Sydney

Charlie Papazian

An alarming news Beer contains female hormones! Yes, that's right, FEMALE hormones! Last month, Sydney University and scientists re-leased the results of a recent analysis that re-vealed the presence of female hormones in beer. Men should take a concerned look at their beer consumption. The theory is that beer contains female hormones (hops contain Phytoestrogens) and that by drinking enough beer, men turn into women. To test the theory, 100 men each drank 8 schoo-ners of beer within a one (1) hour period.

It was then observed that 100% of the test subjects, yes, 100% of all these men:- 1) Argued over nothing. 2) Refused to apologize when obviously wrong. 3) Gained weight. 4) Talked excessively without making sense. 5) Became overly emotional 6) Couldn't drive. 7) Failed to think rationally, and 8) Had to sit down while urinating. No further testing was considered neces-sary!!

the beer gods are on your side. Albert Einstein said that

the definition of insanity is doing the

same thing over and over and expect-

ing different results.

In other words, how do you know

what to do differently if you cannot

measure the result or have some basic

understanding of what and how you are brewing? If there is no benchmark

you cannot expect to make any reason-

able changes.

Analysing you beer will give you a

better understanding of any changes

you make and how much.

So what is important to measure?

Many brewers measure OG, and FG

and then wait till the beer is ready

before they taste it. The alcohol can be

determined by calculation. Some more

adventurous brewers measure pH as

well. But is that enough?

If we take the example of bitterness

and what can vary during the brewing

process we begin to understand that

this parameter can be wildly variable

and hence the beer can taste either too

bitter or not bitter enough.

What would you say if you made an

IPA that was wildly bitter? Your brew

calculator said to add a certain amount

of hops for a particular recipe but it

Many homebrewers enjoy making beer as a hobby. Some of those end up be-

coming more serious about their brew-

ing and want to learn more, eventually

becoming microbrewers. The question

of why, when, what and how to analyse

your beer becomes a vexing one.

Analysing beer can tell the brewer a hell of a lot about the brewer and the

process of making the beer.

For those who haven't done a chemistry

degree at Uni the picture shown on the

side here can seem quite intimidating

(by the way, this is one way of measur-

ing alcohol content in beer).

And as a homebrewer do you really

need to analyse your beer. After all, its

just a hobby and you may not be fol-

lowing all the rules of brewing but just

dabbling and learning as you go.

Well, if that's all you want to do then

that's fine and you need not read on.

But for the rest of you who want to

know a little more on the finer points of

brewing then listen on.

To make good beer you could just use

your taste buds; but what if you can't. What can you do about it? Well, if the

beer turns out badly your taste buds

cannot tell you what to do so you can

dump the beer and start again and hope

rarely turns out spot on, right? Well, the first thing you need to ask is what

is spot on. How would you know you

hit the target if you did not analyse the

beer for IBU?

There is no way of knowing!

When we consider the following it is no wonder the bitterness is probably

the most difficult to get right:

varying bitterness levels in

hops from season to season

varying utilisation rates of hops

in the kettle

losses due to trub, yeast absorp-

tion

losses due to fast fermentations

losses on filtration

oxidation levels during the

whole process

beer storage conditions

(temperature and time)

Transport of packaged beer

conditions

Ok, so you don't always have full

control of most parameters at home so

you don't really care what the final

result is. But if you enter your home-

brew into competitions then you will

want to score highly, do you not?

Read More →

Beer Funnies

To analyse or not to analyse beer (why should you?)

Tell us What? ture varies alot between different points in the water reservoir. So I have a magnetic stirrer to keep the water stirred and homogenous. Secondly, when I mash in I loose quite a bit of heat as the insulated mash-lauter tun is not the best. You will always loose a bit when mash-ing in simply because of the lid being off and if your vessel is poorly insu-lated. So aim for at least 2 degrees higher than your expected mash temperature. My kettle, which is gas heated, heats up really well as I have a high pressure regulator which you can purchase at some homebrew shops.

I can cool relatively quickly by using a small heat exchanger (from a homebrew shop). This is important to cool quickly in order to minimise infections. Then there is the fermentation tempera-ture and we want to have steady tem-peratures and not uncontrollable tem-peratures which result in bad tasting beer. I have a fridge with a temperature controller and I can set it to virtually any temperature I choose. Just remem-ber that the cooling isn’t instantaneous because it takes time for the beer con-tents to change temperature even though you have set the right fridge temperature. So, although not ideal like the glycol jacketed fermenters brewer-ies have, it is certainly better than no control at all!

What is one of the homebrewers worst disasters? What do you have difficulty with? Let us know and the best story will be published in the next edition of this Newsletter and the winner of the pub-lished story will win $100 off the price of a short homebrewing course. I know I have problems with tempera-ture control. You need to spend quite a bit of money to have good temperature control. I know I have to do that or suffer the consequences. It starts with the hot liquor. I have about 80L of water to heat up and do so with a 2400W heating element. This takes a long time and I have found the tempera-

Page 3

Volume 4, Issue 1

“Analysing beer

can tell the brewer a

hell of a lot about

the brewer and the

process of making

the beer”

My homebrew grain

brewing system has

some temperature

control

In this issue we will be talking to the Brewer’s Coop who are located in Auckland, NZ. They

supply an array of ingredients and equipment to the local homebrewing community. Last

Newsletter (Dec 2013) we spoke to Mike. In this issue we conclude this second of a 2 part

interview with Mike.

What do you have in store for your customers in the near future? (new products), and what

new directions do you see the industry is taking.

We are looking to making available clone recipes of favourite craft beers. We are just

thinking how best to do this.

There are a lot of ‘new entrants’ in the brewing industry. A lot of good homebrewers would like to give micro brewing a go. To be a success you also have to be able to market your product well. Those that do this best will be successful. Some will fall by the way-side leaving a ready made brewery for another brewer to try. This is all good. As long as craft brewing is growing and developing, so too will the homebrew shops if the

owners keep up with the trends.

Where can those wanting to homebrew go to find you?

Visit our webb site www.brewerscoop.co.nz. Our address (unit 2, 3 Prescott Road, Penrose,

Auckland) is there, along with phone numbers and a map showing our location

What is your view on the craft brewing industry in New Zealand and Australia?

Exciting. Conventional brewing techniques are being challenged to the limit and the resul-tant beers are absolutely great. I feel tho that there is a bit of a trend moving away from the full on flavoursome beers to concentrate on really well made older styles . Its all inter-

esting and keeping me in the ‘business’

To order products:

Michael & Pip Ellwood

Email: brewerscoop@gmail.com

Unit 2, 3 Prescott St., Penrose

consistent beer.

And still others come from various

backgrounds such as retail sales

staff or even microbrewers that

wish to hone their skills.

But what I found was that some did

the one day course which was

fantastic, but didn’t always continue

on to do the 4 day Masterbrew

class.

The Masterbrew class is where it

all happens and about 99% of

students tell me that the course

was well worth the effort of attend-

ing.

I believe that knowledge is best

served if one finishes the full pro-

gram of courses. As such this year

I have designed a new package,

the All-Inclusive package that is

designed to encourage you to

complete all 5 days at once.

The way it works is that if you want

to do the 4 day Masterbrew course

or just the 1 day Brewing Essen-

tials course only, then by combin-

With the New Year well and truly

upon us we look forward to

another exciting year in home-

brewing and microbrewing.

A good way to come up to speed

with brewing knowledge is by

joining us on short brewing

courses.

Hundreds of people have al-

ready completed the courses

since its inception in 2008.

Those that attend come for all

sorts of reasons.

Some come simply because

they cannot think of a better

thing to do other than learn and

talk to like minded homebrew-

ers. Others come for potential

business reasons like wanting to

find out more about brewing and

how to start a microbrewery.

Avoiding all the traps can literally

save you thousands of dollars,

not to mention all the heartache

that comes with either getting

the wrong equipment or not

knowing how to brew good,

ing both you will receive the one

day course compliments of Co-

stanzo Brewing. But you must stay

at the hotel where the course is

being held for this deal to be on.

So what I have done is negotiate

with the hotel better prices for ac-

commodation which will in turn

encourage more people to stay on

premise and by my offering of a

complimentary course also get

students to fast track their learning.

A win-win-win situation. This is

proving popular for folks out of

town. But if you live nearby you still

can partake of the early bird spe-

cials or Silver or Gold packages.

If you would like to attend one of

the courses or enroll in the pack-

age deal to fast track your learning,

feel free to check out the brewing

school webs i te on h t tp : / /

www.costanzobrewing.com/home-

brewing-courses, or call Vince on

+61 (0)408104176

Latest Brewing Course Updates

Spotlight on Suppliers— Brewers Coop– NZ

“I believe that knowl-

edge is best served if

one finishes the full

program of courses”

Mike from the Brewers Coop

Phone: (09) 525 2448

Fax: (09) 525 2442

OPENING HOURS

Mon-Fri 10am - 5pm

Thurs (late night)10am - 6:30pm

Saturday 9am - 3pm

Enjoying The substantial

Lunch at the March Course