The conclusion of the Angry Hop Brewing Co.

I've been a little busy flying across the planet, pardon the lack of posting but I promise theres more to come. ALOT more. But first I'm sure you are all wondering about the Angry Hop.

The Angry Hop entered the market on a Tuesday, they were going up against the big guns. 5 "mega breweries" one was even creatively named "mega brew", we also had the Intl' brewing company, Clybourn Brewing Company, Global Brew, and one other "big name". The competition was fierce, the hops were even more angry.




In this fantasy world of brewing there are 3 main products that are produced. To simplify we will simply call them Draught, Cans, and Bottles. All 6 breweries started out with their own draught line. The first financial period that changed. Some went right to the uber-expensive bottling lines. Others added canning lines, and yet others still decided to go the route of contract brewing. The advantage being that you dont have to invest $$ into equipment. The downside? You arent making as much. Not NEARLY as much.

The angry hop decided to formulate a strategy inspired by a little brewing company down south, whos mascot I'm particularly fond of. We started with the intention to buy a bottling line but in the end contract brewing was where they found their success.




Ok, so I didnt open a "real" brewery, but who cares. Reality can really suck. This was a simulation game (think brewery monopoly) where each team is given share capital as well as the opportunity to invest in the different lines of product. We set our own prices and battle for customers. The market is determined by our instructor. The Angry Hop wasnt always the powerhouse it ended up to be. In fact they ended up in the red after the first period. (This is not unusual for even a startup brewery to lose $$ the first year)

To make a long story short the Angry Hop got angrier, and eventually, like a turtle with a carrot dangled in front of him racing a tortoise, he perceived and the Angry Hop was the only company ending in the black as you can see below. It wasnt as realistic as the real deal, but it was interesting, and a little fun as well. Did I mention I love competition and hate losing.

(For those interested the big numbers are our profit/loss at the end of the quarter. Small 2 numbers are what we expected to sell and what we actually sold. One company actually got merged due to some bad biz'' planning :)

The story of the Angry Hop Brewing Co. (Part 1)

Once upon a time in the world of brewing beer there was a brewery called the angry hop brewing co. The employees certainly werent angry, but the hops were. The entire company consisted of 3 people. The first was a woman, the only one with brewing production expierience. She had previously worked at a brewery on a river named after one of my favorite critters. The second, a maltster from South America. The third was a crazy young kid with a dream, take over the industry and cripple these mega-brew-conglomerations.

They wanted vengance, and vengence is what they would get. They were a small brewery. The only brewery in the entire industry that considered itself a "micro/craft" brewery. The competition had big scary names like "mega brew" and "global brew". They had a plan and they had the ambition to just maybe... pull it off....

(Up Next: The Story of the Angry Hop Brewing Co. (Part Deux))

Clarification on hop utilization:

Ok guys and girls, I need to apologize and clarify. I was infact mistaken when I posted about hop utilization and the boiling time/added having no effect. So please forgive me and allow an explanation:

1) Timing when the hops are added (60 mins or 10) does have an effect on IBU's.

2)It is impossible for a homebrewer or even most microbreweries to accurately calculate their IBU's. There are just too many variables which I will go into.

3)There is a huge curve (crashing downwards) in hop utilization after 60 minutes.

4)The threshold for IBU's. I have had 2 teachers tell me 2 different things. The first one said the human palate can only sense up to 75-80 IBU's, the 2nd teacher and the one who brought up this topic originally said the threshold is 40. I think this is a subject still in huge debate.

I talked to him again and his point was that its impossible for homebrewers/micro breweries to calculate their IBUS. Have you ever thought about after your "60" (minutes) is up?

What happens then? The whole world of chemical transitions and changes just come to a halt? No sir. Think about pro' brewers who are whirlpooling for up to an hour or even more. Even some homebrewers through use of plate chillers might have wort in the kettle at near boiling temps for 30 minutes or more. Do you think those hops just "shut off" at 60?

I HOPE this clarifies things as I am responsible for mucking them up. Up next is another interesting story and then my trip to Europe. So stay tuned.

Field Trip

Goose Island has 3 locations, 2 brewpubs and a production facility. I attend classes at the Clybourn Brewpub. Anyways we got to go tour the brewery and I brought my camera. Great place, great people. Got to try the bourbon 2k wheatwine, which was delicious. Cheer.

Goose Island Fullerton

One of our teachers showing the pilot system, a cool little 5 gallon system

Our tour guide starts by the kettle and mash tun

The mash tun in action

Making way for the kegs

The class

The bottling line

The bottling line (again)

The class (and my favorite photo)

Packaging (The Corona experiment)

How a beer is packaged can have an enormous impact on the stability and shelf life of a beer. The enemies of beer are light, oxygen and extreme temperatures. Not in that order, any one of these can destroy a fine brew. This was blatantly displayed to us during one of our sensory tastings. You too can perform this test and see the results for yourself, should cost you no more than $15 and 12 minutes of your time.

First, you will need to buy a 12-pack of Corona. The reason for a 12-pack (and not a draft or 6'er) is the packaging. Its packaged completely in cardboard, hence there is no light contaminating the beer during transport and its shelf life. Take your 12 clear soldiers home with you, place one in your window sill or anywhere its in direct sunlight. The other bottle should be kept in the case or placed in the fridge.

Wait just 15 minutes.

Retrieve both beers and take a seat. Find 2 glasses (pint glasses will work fine), clear and clean are the important things. Pour each into its own glass. Now give the one that sat in the dark (or fridge) a good sniff. Raise the glass to your nose and take 3-4 SHORT sniffs. Short is important, it wont over saturate your palate. (Though in this experiment it wont be a problem) Now do the same with the "windowsill" sample and take note of the results. See what I mean?

The results were astounding to me. It blows my mind that a company of that size and resource would continue to let its beer be destroyed by the use of clear bottles. Though maybe if you were like me, you never realized that probably all the bottles you had were skunked.. or maybe not..

Cheers,

Matt

What I learned from drinking 15 budweisers'...

Budweiser, the self proclaimed king of beers. Images of mythically large Clydesdales prancing and galloping and whatever else horses do when they have had a few too many of the product their selling, I also hear they’ve been known to play a bit of football as well.

The first week when I saw our teacher carrying in cases of ice cold bud I figured this was an excersises in patience, or temperance, it was neither. It was actually one of the most educational things I've done during the course and as a craft beer drinker.

Why bud? For those not familiar with this product its neutral, its clean, its consistent. The hops and malt are balanced, not "bitter" nor overly "sweet", clean in that there are no esters or strange flavors. Its a consistently made clean product, and the perfect "control" for these experiments. Our teachers have taken these bottles of bud and "spiked" them with various chemicals and compounds... the results were a great combination of facinating, horrible and downright nasty... so without further delay (me babbling) I give you Budweiser, 15 different ways:


The Results: (Brief tasting notes)

Basic Flavors and Compounds

Sample 1- Control (Just regular old bud)
Aroma: Corn, malty, slight sulfur, clean, simple, almost no hop prescense.
Flavor: Slightly malty, clean, slight bruised apple, feint lemongrass

Facto Says: Its bud. What else is there to say. Its Budweiser. In a bottle.


Sample 2- Sweet (2% Sucrose)
Aroma: Very similar if not the same.
Flavor: Sweeter in the middle and backend.

Facto Says: Nothing terribly offensive here. Just bud with a bit of sugar.


Sample 3- Sour (Acetic acid 300mg/L)
Aroma: Slight sulfur and lemon notes enhanced just a bit.
Flavor: Sour, not stale milk or lambic sour just a bit of tang in the back end.

Facto Says: This is not poor mans gueze, so don’t even think about it sourheads!


Sample 4- Salty (0.2% Sodium Chloride)
Aroma: Actually a bit more bland. Or maybe that’s my palate.
Flavor: More salt, initial flavors are slightly enhanced.

Facto Says: Dude, like remember that time in Cancun when you like totally swam out in the ocean and drank that bud and like some of the water totally got in your beer dude. Yea. Its kind of like that, except that never happened to me. And I’ve never been to Cancun.


Sample 5- Bitter (+25 BU(bitterness units)) (pre-isomerized hop extract)
Aroma: A bit of body odor (not the good kind) is added into the mix
Flavor: Astringent bitterness, not pleasant by any means. Chemical like flavors.

Facto Says: Ok, so the aroma could of came from the guy next to me. No, not dry hopped bud. Just bitter bud. Chemically bitter bud.


Sample 6- Metallic/Astringent (3mg/L FeSO4.7H2O)
Aroma: Not really that different
Flavor: Very metallic. Like chewing on aluminum foil or sucking on a roll of pennies while drinking bud.)

Facto Says: The only chemistry course I’ve ever taken I got a D- in. That having been said I think the chemical was iron sulfate, hopefully someone can chime in here.


Sample 7- DMS (150ppb di-methyl sulfide)
Aroma: Cooked corn/vegetables. Slightly more salty?
Flavor: Dulls the mouthfeel, more cooked corn/vegetable funk.

Facto Says: This is one of those really easy to spot off chemicals that occur in beer. Its not pleasant and once its above the threshold it will pretty much wreck any beer of any style of any creed on any planet. Get it?


Sample 8- Isovaleric Acid (3ppm)
Aroma: Artificial candy, stale gummies, BO, all sorts of terrible things going on.
Flavor: Sharp, cheesy, just plain awful.

Facto Says: Isovaleric acid is the result of when hops stale. Trust me, you don’t want this stuff in your beer. It was bad, really really bad. Barely finished the sample, and I’ve drank some terrible stuff before.

*These were from a different tasting 2 weeks later, the control, enviorment, and taster were the same. However as everyone knows my palate is not the same everyday of the week. I might have had a slight cold, might of drank liters of Imperial IPA before the tasting (just kidding) but you get the picture. These are not absoloutes, and I am by no means a trained professional beer drinker……. Yet…

Yeast Related Flavors

Sample 1- Yeasty, fresh (fresh yeast/vitamin tablet)
Aroma: More yeast in the nose, processed vitamins/pills, slightly bready
Flavor: Sweet yeasty, a bit more to it, less foam, different mouthfeel.

Facto Says: Who says beer isn’t good for you? Ever had a beer for breakfast? Kill 2 birds with one stone, your nutritional needs and that nasty hangover all in one! (Greasy breakfast supplement recommended)

Sample 2- Yeasty, autolysed (autolyzed yeast)
Aroma: Not bad, bread, yeast, a bit of canned cat food (Good catch Destiny)
Flavor: Beef bullion (the cubes) soy sauce.

Facto Says: Interesting, very interesting..


Sample 3- Ethyl Acetate (ethyl acetate 100ppm)
Aroma: Rubber, solvent, astringent, more hazy in appearance.
Flavor: Solvent, astringent, just slightly sweeter on the back end

Facto Says: I have no idea what this stuff is. Nor do I want to, nor do I want it in my beer.. ever.. again..


Sample 4- Iso amyl acetate (Iso amyl acetate 6ppm)
Aroma: Banana Runts.
Flavor: Bit more fruity and sweet, slicker mouthfeel.

Facto Says: This chemical is also used in flavoring banana candy. It really did smell like those banana runts.


Sample 5- Ethyl hexanoate (Ethyl hexanoate 0.6ppm)
Aroma: A bit of star anise, licorice
Flavor: More anise, similar to the aroma, sweet

Facto Says: Yes obviously this is ethyl haxanoate, haven’t you ever heard of ethyl hexanoate? What the hells wrong with you?


Sample 6- Infected (diacetyl 100ppb + acetic acid 300ppm)
Aroma: Rancid butter, microwaved buttered popcorn sour cream
Flavor: Basically echoing the aroma. Rancid butter and sour cream, mouthfeel becomes butter and less assertive

Facto Says: Diacetyl might be the one chemical I absoloutely cannot stand in beer. It will drive me mad and possibly be the end of me. In vapor form it is a carcinogen (causes cancer (boo)) but don’t worry in its solid non-vaporous form its harmless. Except for the fact that it freakin’ wrecks the beer.

Lots more to come, I promise.

Update:

I know its been awhile since I’ve posted something so I’ll try and make this a good one. Regarding me personally, learning is taking place. Test scores are good. Better than any grades I got in college. My brain is so crammed with information I sometimes confuse myself, not that that’s the hardest thing to do without all the information.. The “American” or “theory” part of the course is coming quickly to an end. On October 27th 30 of us will be boarding a plane on the way to Munich, Germany, where the rest of our “formal” education will occur. This will include 3 weeks at the Doemens academy, where they actually have a small scale brewery we will be working on (and formulating/designing our own beer)

The final 2 weeks will conclude with a “European Brewery Tour”. This will include 5 countries including Belgium. Cantillon here I come!

Still no reply on the hop utilization yet. I will post when I hear something.

Cheers,

Matt