This is the first batch i am brewing since before Pesach. Things have been a little crazy and I haven't had the time to brew. So I figured since I am jumping back on the bandwagon after a few months I would give my Hop Cult IPA a shot. This recipe is probably going to be the hoppiest beer I have made to date. This is brewed with 6lbs of LME and 2 lbs of DME (wheat and barley). It has a blend of Warrior (boil), Galena (5 min), Citra (5 min) and Centennial (5min). I will also be dry hopping it with Citra and Galena as well. Smack in the face hoppy is what we are looking for on this bad boy.
6/18/14 update: transferred to secondary and dry hopping with 3 oz of Citra pellets and 1/2 oz of Galena leaf- Smells hoppy..... (just like it should).
August 2014- After some conditioning time, this baby is super hoppy. Its floral its bitter is a mega IPA. I am proud. I am even more proud to share it with people who actually claim to enjoy Bud, and Coor Light. Ah the face that a sissy beer drinker makes when they try a real IPA is great!
I also keep Kosher, and just received a homebrew kit for my birthday. Do you have a list of suppliers/ingredients that are certified Kosher? Would you be willing to share your investigations? Likewise, do you worry about ingredients that have been repackaged by your supplier, like extracts, grains, and hops? Finally, what do you use as a clarifying agent, if any? Thanks! -Steve
ReplyDeleteHi Steve,
ReplyDeleteHomebrewing is a great and rewarding hobby. When it comes to kashrut of ingredients the guidelines that I was advised of and hold by are as follows. If you are using grains, they don't need a hechsher since they are pure and unadulterated. The liquid and dry malt extracts that probably don't need a hechsher as they are also pure ingredients with nothing questionable or flavors added. Personally, I stick with malt extracts and grains manufactured by Briess since the Briess products ARE under a reliable hashgacha. What you need to keep an eye out is on the yeast. The yeasts may have additives or preservative that might be questionable. There are many yeasts that do have reliable hashgacha (see previous posts) e.g. Muntons, Fermentis, Nottingham, White Labs, etc. Hops are also pure ingredients and the hop farmers are really careful to keep their quality and purity top notch. They need to if they want to be able to sell their different hop varieties. Most hops looks the same once they are dried, but the flavors and aromas they provide are worlds apart.
You asked about clarifying agents, you need to watch out for those because one popular clarifier is gelatin. Personally, I have made many a batch without the use of a clarifier as well as a few while using "Irish Moss". Irish Moss is exactly that, a moss. It look and smells like seaweed. It does not have a hashgacha, but as a pure plant product, I don't have an issue with it.
I also don't have an issue with buying repackaged as most of the ingredients I buy form my supplier (Midwest Supplies) have their packaging marked with what they have repackaged. Eg. The midwest LME and DME is now called Mallard Malts is actually repackaged Briess malt extract. So that works for me,
I hope this helps. Happy Brewing!!
Thanks for the detailed reply--that's really helpful!
DeleteI recently found out that Whirlfloc tablets are kosher-certified (the folks at BSG sent me the certificate!), so that's nice.
I also found that Hopunion hops are kosher via OK. Your point about hops being pure ingredients is a good one, but I wasn't sure about what the issues are when they are compressed into pellets. Luckily, my local shop mainly gets hops from Hopunion. They repackage them, but in talking with them, they just pour the hops directly into their seal-able bags and then vacuum seal them. Thus, there's a low-risk of "contamination" with non-certified ingredients.
Our local supplier also has many grains and extracts from Breiss. Again, these get locally repackaged into single-use bags. Again, the likelihood of these becoming "contaminated" appears to be small.
I can't wait to get started! Thanks again for your help. I'm going to try to start my first batch this weekend.
Shabbat shalom!
Glad to hear that my data checks out :-).
ReplyDeleteThe local supplier are great for info and undercover research as well.
Happy Brewing and a Shabbat Shalom to you as well.
Steve,
DeleteIf you don't mind uploading or emailing me the certificate for the Whirlfloc, I would to have it posted on the blog.
Thanks.