We often hear about the presence of sulphites in wine. Apart from giving us a headache, what exactly are they used for? Let’s try and demystify the issue together.

Sulphites are compounds containing sulphur. They are added to wine because they have antioxidant and disinfectant properties. In this way, they protect the wine from oxidation caused by oxygen and bacteria harmful to these products. Sulphites can be found in 2 compounds: sodium metabisulphite and potassium metabisulphite.

The main difference between these two compounds is the quantity of sulphates released by each. Sodium metabisulphite releases more sulphites than potassium metabisulphite. This means you need less to get the same result, which is better for your wallet. If you’re sensitive to sulphites, potassium metabisulphite is an interesting option.

If you don’t intend to make wine, you can also use this product to bottle your delicious NEIPA. With their antioxidant properties, you can use metabisulphites to preserve your big hop juices without worrying about them turning brown and tasting like cardboard. It’s a good idea to add them if you use bottles to package your NEIPA. If you’re very sensitive to sulphites, you could also use ascorbic acid instead.

You can buy these products in powder form or in capsule form (campden tablet).

Jocelyn Bernier-Lachance is a home brewer with ten years’ experience. He is also a microbiologist by training, having previously worked for Lallemand, the Gallicus craft brewery and Beer Grains. Now he’s keen to share his experience with you and spread his passion for micro-organisms and fermentation.

The fine weather is upon us! This is the time of year when breweries start offering us sour beers. We’ve all tried a fruit beer with enough acidity to pickle our tongues, but how do the brewers go about it? With lactic acid bacteria.

There are two main types of lactic acid bacteria used to make beer: Lactobacillus and Pediococcus. Unlike yeast, these bacteria produce lactic acid when they ferment.

In the sour beers commonly found in modern breweries, Lactobacillus is the most widely used. These bacteria are also found in yogurt. In just a few hours, they can acidify beer to the desired pH without altering its taste. They work fastest at temperatures of around 40 degrees Celsius. However, they are sometimes too fast for yeasts, which can suffer from such a rapid change in pH. What’s more, they are not very tolerant of the presence of hops. A level of hops above 8 IBU is enough to inhibit the growth of most commercial strains. This is why the use of a massive quantity of over-aged hops (aged and therefore less rich in IBU) in traditional Belgian sour beers allows the pH drop to be slowed down long enough for the yeast to do its job properly.

As for Pediococcus, it takes months for it to significantly reduce the pH of a beer. This is why they are used in the production of aged beers such as lambics and other traditional Belgian sour beers. This gives the yeasts plenty of time to finish their work before the pH drops. However, if the beer is not left to age long enough, a popcorn taste (caused by the presence of diacetyl) will appear. Unlike yeast, Pediococcus cannot break down the diacetyl it produces. If yeast is added to the beer, it will take care of this instead.

Although lactic acid bacteria are still the main way of acidifying beer today, a new type of yeast could well compete with them. Belonging to the genus Lachancea (no, but what a beautiful name), this yeast produces both lactic acid and alcohol.

At a time when the Vienna Lager has all but disappeared from the planet, one country stands out as an exception: Mexico. To answer this question, we need to delve into the history of European brewing, the second Mexican empire, France’s ambitions for greatness and the heroic power of nostalgia.

A Malt Story

With its amber or copper colour and medium to light texture, Vienna Lager is particularly easy to drink. Its aromas mainly reflect malt, with lightly toasted notes that are not in the caramel aroma spectrum, and may present a certain presence of noble, spicy and floral hops.
Vienna Lager is mainly characterised by its malt aroma and slight sweetness. The traditional Vienna Lager recipe uses only malt from Vienna, giving it a caramel and bread flavour. Current Vienna Lager recipes probably contain Munich malt, Pilsner malt, Vienna malt and dextrin malt, or even wheat. The hops used are German noble hops and the yeast is a lager-type yeast. A Vienna Lager from Saint-Bock in Montreal. VIenna Lager is a rarity in Quebec, as it is everywhere else!

Vienna Lager ranges in colour from pale to medium amber, with a reddish tinge and a thick, off-white foam with excellent retention. The ABV of Vienna Lager is between 4.5 and 5.5% and the IBU between 18 and 30. The best glass to serve this beer is a flute-shaped glass and the best food pairings for Vienna Lager are grilled meats and vegetables such as sausages, spicy chicken wings, game and fish and chips. According to the Brew Your Own guide, a good example of the style should be well attenuated with enough hop bitterness to have a balanced but moderately crisp finish.

The story of Vienna Lager begins in 1841, when it was introduced to the market by Anton Dreher, owner of the Schwechat brewery near Vienna. This was only a year before the advent of pilsner, the first clear lager popularised in Europe. Vienna Lager, named after the city where it was created, introduced most of Europe to modern bottom-fermented beer, before being supplanted by pilsner. It should be noted that none of these beers is strictly speaking an invention. Rather, they are a synthesis of English malting and German know-how.

This is largely thanks to Anton Dreher and Gabriel Sedlmayr, two great names in modern brewing, who together made a research trip to England and brought back to the continent the achievements of the time: English pale malt (which accentuates clarity) and saccharomyces (which measure fermentable sugar). It was on their return that the idea mill was set in motion and the beers that would go down in history were born.

The Emperor, the people and the revolution

Its history is well known. Emperor Maximilian 1st, an Austrian nobleman brought to Mexico by the French, is said to have introduced Vienna Lager to Mexico so that he could drink his native beer in his new homeland. He is said to have ordered the construction of a brewery to brew Viennese beers. The brewery was built in Orizaba, Veracruz, and was known as “La Constancia”. As a result, Vienna Lager was quickly adopted throughout Mexico, which explains the current popularity of this style of beer.

However, if you take a closer look at history, this version doesn’t hold water. Maximilian’s reign did not last long enough for him to realise his brewery project. The poor Habsburg was shot dead by Benito Juarez’s revolutionary forces three years after his arrival in Mexico. Although the order to build a brewery in Veracruz was probably given, there is no concrete evidence that the beer was ever produced on a large scale, let alone enjoyed.

The “La Constancia” brewery was probably completed in 1865 and began producing beers for the Mexican elite, but it is doubtful that this beer was comparable to Vienna Lager or that it was very popular. On the contrary, this European beer, the embodiment of foreign occupation, would probably have been shunned by the masses. The emperor, although a liberal, had clumsily angered the country’s revolutionary and monarchist forces by supporting a policy of land reform and the end of slavery.

The first traces of lager beer being brewed in Mexico date back to 1880, 13 years after the death of Maximilian I. Furthermore, the mention of a Viennese Lager in Mexico in 1865 does not correspond to the adoption of refrigeration, which arrived in Mexico long after the Emperor’s tragic end. Given the high temperatures in Mexico, producing Lager on a large scale would have been a truly monstrous challenge.

This is where we come in: the Vienna Lager explosion in Mexico. At the end of the 19th century, Mexico was undergoing a period of unprecedented economic development and industrialisation. Huge brewing industries were already being set up, all under the omnipresent influence of American technology and finance. Against this backdrop, it’s not surprising that Victoria de Modelo, along with other Mexican Viennese Lagers, was presented to the middle class as the Mexican alternative to foreign beer.

The first Viennese-style beer would probably be Victoria, produced by the Compañía Cervecera Toluca for the first time in 1875. It wasn’t until 1882, thanks to cooling technology, that it became one of the first Mexican lagers. The Victoria brewery, established in 1906, is the main producer of this Mexican classic.

Even back then, the brewery offered a range of well-known European styles, with a Mexican twist: Bock Bier Toluca, Märzen Bock, Lager Bier Toluca, Toluca Extra, Pilsner and Victoria. Gradually, Vienna Lager established itself as a beer brand in Mexico, both as a mark of authenticity and history and as a luxury brand for the middle class.

In the 1970s, international beer expert Michael Jackson said that Negra Modelo was the proudest representation of the original Vienna Lager. Today, Grupo Modelo, which absorbed Tuloca, is owned by global brewing giant Anheuser-Busch InBev.

For brewers inspired by this article, try this recipe

By: Pierre-Oliver Bussières

Sources:

Craft Beer Club. (s.d.). Vienna Lager. https://craftbeerclub.com/beer-style/vienna-lager
Laviña, A. (2018). Vienna Lager: The Beer of Vienna. Alcohol Professor. https://www.alcoholprofessor.com/blog-posts/vienna-lager
Brewers Union Local 180. (s.d.). Vienna Lager. https://www.brewersunion.com/vienna-lager/
Tonsmeire, M. (2016). Vienna Lager: Fire in the Glass. Beer and Brewing Magazine. https://beerandbrewing.com/vienna-lager-fire-in-the-glass/
Philips, B. (2020). The Humble, Historic Vienna Lager. San Diego Beer News. https://www.sandiegobeer.news/blog/beerhistory/thehumblehistoricviennalager
Beer Judge Certification Program. (2015). Amber Bitter European Beer. https://dev.bjcp.org/docs/2015_Guidelines_Style_8C.pdf
Brew Your Own. (s.d.). Vienna Lager. https://byo.com/article/vienna-lager-in-exile/
García, J. (2019). De Austria para México. Mural. https://www.mural.com.mx/de-austria-para-mexico/ar2235027

Brettanomyces, saccharomyces bayanus, saccharomyces cerevisiae, bruxellensis, claussenii, lactobacillus… does this ring a bell? With this lexical field of wild yeasts, we explore a whole world of beer wort fermentation. Would you like to learn a little more about the subject? Let’s go on an adventure together!

How does a yeast work? What types of yeast are there?

Simply put, beer, without the magical intervention of yeast, is just a wort, a grain juice. The traditional yeast is then added to the wort and the fermentation process begins. For example, the traditional yeast used in breweries or microbreweries are easily recognizable and often come from the same strain. This is the case when you drink a Unibroue, for example; the characteristics of the yeast are distinct and compose an easily recognizable taste.

There are different types of traditional (or non-wild) yeasts and they are many and varied. Here are a few examples: Belgian yeast, Weizen-type yeast, Norwegian kveik yeast (with accents of orange peel, cloves and nutmeg), champagne yeast, Bohemian lager yeast, German Kölsch yeast, etc. The yeast works once added to the wort; temperature control is then crucial: the ideal is for low fermentation is between 10-13 degrees Celsius approximately (like a lager), high fermentation is between 18-21 degrees Celsius approximately (like an ale).

Sometimes, it is better to activate the yeast before pitching so that it is more vigorous, more valiant! This is called a pitched beer, whereas with a spontaneously fermented beer (like a lambic), you use the bacteria and wild ferments in the environment. A small distinction! Also, certain conditions must apply for the yeast to “work” such as the presence of nutrients, fermentable sugars, minerals, oxygen, nitrogen, etc.

What about our valued “wild” yeasts?

More precisely, we integrate them during fermentation. These organisms are resistant and can contaminate materials such as barrels and even pipes. Rigorous handling is required, as well as impeccable hygiene, of course. The wild has its reasons that reason does not know! Ideally, beers made with traditional yeast should be kept separate from beers made with wild yeast in separate productions.

What makes them different? A more untamed, unpredictable character! The result will vary more with the use of wild yeast. Often characteristics such as dryness or acidity will be obtained. A longer fermentation time is often required when using wild yeast. Up to a few months!

The properties of wild yeast

“The brewer who knows how to dose well can produce flavours that are certainly original, but as rustic as they are elegant, as refreshing as they are punchy, as dry as they are easy to drink”, just by experimenting with wild yeasts, say Martin Thibault and David Lévesque Gendron in Les saveurs gastronomiques de la bière. Incredible, isn’t it?

At the Brett&Sauvage nano-brewery, they add wild yeast from the Gaspé flora, which they have collected from an apple, currants, a native plant or from honey. We identify the yeast after isolating it, we characterize it, we sequence it, all this before using it. We have fun with the “signature” characteristics of 100% Quebec wild yeast,” says Rosemary Ahelo-White, brewer at Brett&Sauvage.

Wild yeasts are real gems! Brettanomyces brings horse, leather, mouse, flower and earthy flavours; acetobacter creates vinegar flavours and lactobacillus brings us to the plain yogurt side!

Finally, what about spontaneous fermentation? Spontaneous fermentation is different because it takes place without adding yeast to the wort. The ambient microbes present on the beer’s ingredients do all the work. Finally, the fruit will often be complementary to spontaneous fermentation beers or beers made with wild yeast, because it is a perfect complement to the aromas already present in other ways.

By Paule Gosselin
Enthusiastic literature professor, passionate about beer, its ingredients and its craftsmanship, Paule Gosselin loves above all to share her love of excellent brewing products through her writing. She is always on the lookout for trends.

Tip 1: Be patient

It takes time to get the best out of mixed fermentation beers. Wild yeasts work slowly and it can take months or even years for the flavours to develop, so it is important to allow a longer fermentation period for the wild yeasts to finish their work. In addition, wild yeast can produce more complex aromas and flavours, which may require adjustments in the recipe to balance the beer’s profile.

Tip #2: Get separate equipment

Because the fermentation process will take so long, you won’t have another fermenter at your disposal if you only have one. If you use the same fermenter, I recommend using a glass or metal fermenter. Plastic has a bad habit of retaining odors and scratching more easily, making it harder to clean. You also risk contaminating a future brew. It doesn’t take much wild yeast to contaminate a beer, so clean your equipment well!

Tip 3: Make several different brews.

The beauty (and also the flaw) of mixed fermentations is that it’s hard to predict the end result. The presence of different microorganisms is one cause of this problem. If you make several different brews, you can blend and save a brew that would otherwise probably have ended up in the drain. For example, a brew that is too acidic or contains too much tannin can be softened by diluting it with a milder brew. For best results, use high-quality ingredients. Mixed fermentations can bring out the complex flavours of grains, hops and fruits, but they must be of the highest quality to be fully appreciated. Opt for fresh, high-quality ingredients, such as fresh hops, local seasonal fruits and high-quality grains, to create exceptional beers.

Tip #4: Don’t buy oak barrels.

First of all, it’s difficult, and probably more expensive, to get a reasonably sized oak barrel. The ones you see in breweries can hold at least 200 liters of beer! Furthermore, they require a lot of space to store, they must be filled to the top, and they are very time consuming to maintain. The inside of such a barrel must be kept moist, otherwise it will start to leak and the risk of mold growth will increase. Finally, you need the approval of your significant other, which is not always easy! The good news is that there are simple solutions to replace these barrels. Badmotivator Barrels produces reusable and affordable mini barrels. Personally, I use oak chips. One ounce of these chips added to the beer a week before bottling is enough to give you a woody taste similar to a barrel.

Tip #5: You don’t have to be a microbiologist to do mixed fermentations!

You can buy ready-to-use ferments and even ready-to-use ferment blends. Ask your home brew supply store. Even easier, if you’ve tasted a really good mixed fermentation beer at home, save the bottom of the bottle. You can even add fresh fruit (that you grew or picked yourself) and the yeast and bacteria on the surface of it will do the job. That said, still be careful of cross-contamination: wild yeasts are everywhere in the environment, so it is important to take steps to avoid cross-contamination with other brews. You can buy ready-to-use ferments and even ready-to-use ferment blends. Ask your favourite home brew supply store. Even easier, if you’ve tasted a really good mixed fermentation beer at home, save the bottom of the bottle. You can even add fresh fruit (that you grew or picked yourself) and the yeast and bacteria on the surface of it will do the job. That said, still be careful of cross-contamination: wild yeasts are everywhere in the environment, so it is important to take steps to avoid cross-contamination with other beer brews. This can be done by thoroughly cleaning and sanitizing brewing equipment and avoiding practices that can introduce unwanted wild yeast into the brew.

Tip #6: Write to me.

I’ll be happy to help! jclnlachance@gmail.com. I look forward to hearing from you,

Jocelyn Bernier-Lachance is a home brewer with a decade of experience. He is also a microbiologist who has worked for Lallemand, Gallicus microbrewery and Beer Grains. Today, he wants to share his experience with you to spread his passion for microorganisms and fermentation.

Jocelyn Bernier-Lachance M.Sc., Mcb.A.

Photo by: Magnus Jonasson

To be a great brewer, you must acknowledge that perfecting recipe design is a lifelong process. We often start in one direction, and over time tweak and modify until it is something completely different. This process can take months, or even years to complete, and regularly comes with a lot of frustrations when things don’t turn out just right.

There is a temptation to add a wide variety of grains to create a complex and nuanced flavour profile, but in reality, simplifying your grain bill is what will provide you the most benefit in the long run.

In fact, I have found that anything over 6 types of grain is overkill, and results in a beer that has a muddied flavour profile. Choosing the right grains from the get-go will lead to a more balanced and enjoyable beer.

Base

Base grains provide the foundation on which amazing beers are brewed, and although there are a wide variety to select from, there is rarely benefit in using more than one kind per brew.

Keeping to one type of base grain will help you achieve better consistency, while helping to dial in your mash temperatures. Doing this will improve your overall efficiency and wort extraction. You can adjust your mash profile to provide many of the same benefits you would achieve in blending base grains.
Specialty Grain
Specialty grains are added to the recipe to provide specific flavours and aromas. While it can be tempting to add a large variety of specialty grains to your recipe, using fewer types can actually help to create a more balanced flavour profile.

The desire to layer specialty grains is a natural thought process, wanting to nail that specific flavour you’ve been dreaming of – and there are a huge variety, each promising to deliver some desired characteristic to your beer. However, the small percentages of each that end up being used typically don’t provide the desired effect, and will instead result in a confused flavour profile.

Focusing on a maximum of two varieties will provide the best results, and will be far more likely to deliver the flavours you are searching for.

Colour

Adding grain to achieve a specific colour is a complex process, only made more confusing by attempting to blend many varieties across the Lovibond scale.

The most effective way to achieve your desired colour is to select a single grain, whose flavour compliments your specialty grains, and use it in the right proportion.

Colour has a way of getting out of hand quickly in a grain bill, often resulting in beers that are darker than initially expected. Sticking to one grain will help you make necessary adjustments in future batches.

Head Retention

Foam is an essential part of any beer, and the desire to dial in that frothy head can lead to us adding all kinds of grains to “help”.

Realistically, foam stability is more a factor of process than adding multiple ingredients. Your mash profile is going to have a greater effect on the result than adding in extra adjuncts.

Typically, a small percentage of Carafoam, paired with the right mash profile, will give you the head retention you are looking for. A touch of wheat might be acceptable if you are really struggling to get it dialed in.

Body / Haze

There are a lot of factors that go into creating the body and haze level desired in a beer. Again, process is just as, if not more important than, the grains themselves. Some adjunct grains are appropriate for building the desired profile, but sticking to a maximum of two will ensure you get the results you are looking for without overdoing things.

Conclusion

In conclusion, simplifying your beer recipe and using fewer types of grain can lead to a more balanced and enjoyable beer. By focusing on a few key base and specialty grains, you can achieve a consistent flavour profile, colour, and head retention.

Greetings to all and happy February. With a thousand thoughts on this “Alcohol Free February” that is buzzing around me, I decided to do some research on warm and comforting beer suggestions! These will sit well on your tables, right next to the wood stove, if you are lucky enough to have one. Not that I wanted to be bold here; it is, in fact, very relevant, on a regular basis, to take stock of one’s own alcohol consumption. I leave this personal task to each one of you to do, in your soul and conscience.

For my part, I have made a different choice this year, to savor the present moment, to taste in the light of day each beer that crosses my path, in moderation. So share wonderful moments and heart warming beers with those you love! Get closer to others! And remember that drinking a good microbrewery beer is a social event!

Comforting beers, in a flash

First of all, the idea of a Scotch ale crosses my mind. It has caramel notes, is soft on the tongue and sweet. It’s a round beer that comes to your mouth with a warmth of alcohol. Syrupy, even, it can have notes of candied fruit, candy cane, Cola, cookie, honey, taffy, toffee. It is a beer of choice to face the bitter winter, just like barley wines or American barley wines, which are even stronger.

Then, my senses go to the Belgian type beers, which can come to us in different forms, including dubbel, triple Belgian, quadrupel, etc. These are beers whose body is very heavy. These are beers whose fullness seduces in cold weather. It’s heavy stuff. Its main characteristics, abbreviated here of course, are spicy and fruity esters, often enhanced with coriander seeds. I personally like that little scent of clove that comes up sometimes, at the heart of the beer’s aromas.

I’m also thirsty, in February, for those beautiful, majestic beers that have been aged in barrels. Sometimes those barrels are maple, oak, etc., and sometimes they have held spirits like brandy, bourbon, scotch, whiskey, among others. I also like the complexity that comes from aging beers in barrels that have previously contained wine. This is especially pleasing when aging in pinot noir, burgundy, port, Sauterne barrels! Alcoholic notes and warmth will be present after this stay. Aging is a beautiful thing!

As far as comfort is concerned, my heart also often leans towards the Patisserie Stouts. They offer a superb roasted bitterness, a nice roundness and … sugar. Who doesn’t love a good dessert? Various additives can entertain our taste buds here, including the addition of lactose, molasses, honey, maple syrup, candy sugar and the work on the beer and its malts can reveal in some cases notes of mocha, cocoa, milk chocolate or dark chocolate, fudge, waffle, brioche, espresso, among others! Do you like thrills? Opt for a Stout in all its greatness and prefer its Imperial version, even more complex and strong.

To conclude

Choosing between all the possible variations of cozy beers was much more difficult than doing this research and writing. I would be terribly ungrateful if I did not at least mention, in passing, the beautiful well-malted beers that transport us to roasting, toasted bread and candied fruits! I also like, as a comforting beer, a less heavy beer that puts “winter” fruits in the forefront, such as dates, plums, black currants, figs or black cherries. Also, other warm ideas: Rauchbier or smoked beer, spicy Christmas beers, a Marzën with roasted cereals and spicy notes, a Vienna Lager with caramel notes, the earthy side of the Extra Special Bitter, the density of an Eisbock whose concentration has densified the flavours and the warmth, and why not a Schwarzbier, a beautiful black lager! Have fun, explore these styles, don’t hesitate to ask for advice in your local microbrewery; there is a whole comforting world to discover!

By Paule Gosselin

Jocelyn Bernier–Lachance is a microbiologist with nearly 10 years of experience in home brewing. He has worked for Lallemand and Gallicus Brewery and is now a consultant and microbiologist for Beer Grains.

For centuries, humankind has developed an unstoppable fondness for the beloved Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast. In fact, its ubiquity in beer can make it seem as if this special strain of yeast has truly conquered the world! Through careful genetic selection techniques over numerous decades, brewers have been able to rid beers of even unwanted aromas and flavours such as acidity or earthiness – leaving behind a perfectly crafted brew that’s sure to please any palate.

The history of brewing is a fantastic paradox: the pursuit to refine beer directly resulted in an abundance of unique yeast and bacteria, precisely what breweries seek to avoid! Yet ironically, these same organisms were responsible for their discovery. Thanks to modern refinement we have access today not only to many delicious brews but also incredible variety among yeasts and bacteria that remain largely untapped.

A little over a year ago, I decided to experiment with brewing beers from ferments deemed “impure”. I discovered a world of unique flavours with which I instantly fell in love.

This article is the first in a series dedicated to wild ferments and their use in beer production. I hope to break this “micro-racism” that is rampant in the brewing world. Let’s start by familiarizing ourselves with these infamous wild ferments.

It took humans a long time to understand that fermentation is caused by microorganisms. Thus, the first fermented beverages contained both bacteria and yeast, the product of soaking the grain in the open air. Most of the time, these bacteria do not yield significant amounts of alcohol. However, some of them are known to produce large amounts of lactic acid. Why is that?

Lactic acid production is initially a survival strategy. The purpose is to lower the pH to prevent other bacteria from competing for resources. Most bacteria, including those that can make us sick, cannot survive in a pH as low as that produced by these troublesome bacteria. To the delight of our taste buds, they also give off nice aromas by acidifying the environment.

It comes as no surprise then that someone who happened to be passing by decided to experiment with this mixture devised by Mother Nature. It became clear quite early on that it was much safer to consume this product instead of drinking the water available at the time. Thanks to the microbrewery revolution and the general tendency to return to basics and to the terroir, these bacteria are now back in the picture! Today, the two most common species of lactic acid bacteria are Lactobacillus and Pediococcus.

Unlike bacteria, wild yeast are able to survive in a somewhat more acidic pH. Alcohol is simply a waste product generated by the yeast when producing energy from sugars. It is also an antibacterial agent still commonly used today. The best known species is Brettanomyces. These microorganisms are omnipresent in the environment. A significant amount can be found on the skin of fruits, feeding on their sugars once the skin is pierced. They can also be found in great quantities on the malts used to make beer.

The history of brewing is a fascinating one, full of trial and error as brewers sought to perfect their craft. Thanks to the efforts of these early pioneers, we now have access to a wide variety of delicious beers that can please any palate. If you’re interested in learning more about key trends in the craft beer industry, be sure to check out our blog for more tips.

Cheers!

Paule Gosselin is an enthusiastic literature teacher who is passionate about the art of beer brewing. She loves learning about the ingredients and artisanal production of different beers and enjoys sharing her knowledge and love for excellent brewing products through writing. She is always keeping an eye out for new trends in the world of beer.

I recently spoke with Yan Smith, brewer at the microbrewery Le Bien, le Malt in Rimouski. I met him several years ago, when he was taking his first steps in the world of home brewing. He has been a professional brewer for more than 6 years now and I thought his experience could inspire you.

Q: Hi Yan! What kind of equipment do you want to buy when you are a home brewer, and what should you buy to avoid beginner mistakes?

I think that initially, basic equipment that is not too expensive is ideal, as it is important to determine if you are going to enjoy brewing beer, how often, etc. Many people immediately spend on equipment that is not too expensive. A lot of people spend money on fairly expensive systems right away, only to sell their equipment soon after because it wasn’t their cup of tea. If after a few brews, the motivation and passion remain, then you can consider purchasing more professional equipment.
Initially, you can make do with a large pot to boil the wort, a large cooler that you can buy already modified or modify yourself to serve as a mash tun, and finally a glass carboy or a plastic pail for the fermentation. Then, if you really get into it, you can turn to more professional systems which are always more expensive.

Q: What are the really essential technical skills required for the very first home brew?

Personally, I would recommend anyone who wants to get into this wonderful hobby to read the entire book, or at least most of the book How To Brew by John Palmer. In my opinion, it is a must. You should also do a lot of research on home brewing forums and/or Facebook pages. Otherwise, the most important thing in my opinion is to have good equipment cleaning and sanitation practices. It sounds like nothing, but without it, you can quickly run into contamination problems and therefore have to throw away the fruits of your labour.

Q: Where do you source your raw materials as a home brewer?

Ideally, we check if there is a store specialized in home brewing in our area so that we can go there to buy our ingredients and equipment and talk to the salespeople to discuss the subject and the products. Otherwise, there are now a multitude of sites that sell a wide variety of products online and deliver to your home. As a last resort, you can ask your local microbrewery to help you out, but I’m a little less in favour of that option since they usually keep a pretty specific amount of malts/hops/yeast based on their needs.

Q: Where do we get inspiration for our first recipes to brew?

Initially, the easiest way to start is obviously to execute established recipes that can be found on the internet or in magazines. It is very important to taste the different malts we use and to smell the hops as well as the yeast. The more you are in contact with the different ingredients and the more you learn about their particularities, the easier it is to design your own recipes later on. You quickly realize that there is virtually no limit to what you can devise as a recipe.

Q: What good bottling and storage tips would you give to a home brewer?

As far as bottling goes, again, you have to be extra careful about cleaning and sanitizing bottles, tubing, siphons, etc. The greatest danger at this stage is also oxidation, so avoid going too fast and minimize contact with oxygen. You also need to know how much sugar and yeast (if any) to add for refermentation/carbonation in the bottle. Patience is also an important element in achieving the best possible end result, as it often takes two weeks or more to complete the fermentation. Bottles should be at room temperature for this step. If you have the option of having kegs instead of bottles, it greatly simplifies the work and the risks of oxidation, as well as a much shorter waiting time before the product is ready.

Q: Feel free to mention any good tips you wish you had when you were first starting out in home brewing

In the end, my advice is to always be stricter on cleaning and sanitizing procedures, don’t use tap water for brewing, otherwise treat it accordingly. Favour osmosed, distilled or demineralized water. Be able to measure the pH at different stages of brewing. Read the book How To Brew by John Palmer.

Happy home brewing to all!