Home Brew Miscellany
What does 'brix' mean when associated with malt extract?
April, 1998The term brix (bricks) when associated with malt extract may be a unfamiliar term to even the most experienced of homebrewers. Brix is the amount of solids in a solution or suspension: i.e., if you remove the water from a 100 ml of your favorite craft root beer, you may end up with just 11 ml of sugar and flavoring. The root beer contained 11% solids or as we say in the industry 11 brix.
The term brix or the solids percentage is not usually found on malt extract products. This is unfortunate, especially when it is some of the most important information available to the brewer.
Why all the fuss?
Well let's say you are from Chicago and you gave a friend in Colorado one of your favorite homebrew recipes. Your recipe called for 6.6# of a specific brand, say Northwestern Extract (A shameless plug). Your friend went to his favorite homebrew shop in the bay area and just tapped off 6.6# of the store's pale malt extract. Will your friend achieve the same original gravity as your recipe indicates?
Malt extract is typically 80 brix. So what if the light malt extract I use is more watery, say 75 brix. Big deal!
It really isn't a big deal as long as you realize that you're dealing with malt that may contain almost 7% more water then 80 brix malt. The point is that malt extract that contains more water requires more malt to achieve desired results.
Here is a great rule of thumb that will help you determine low brix malts. If you suspect a product is more watery than another, open each package after it has been exposed to the same temperature for one hour or more.
Pour the malt extract at the same time, and observe how fast it flows from the package. If one package is slow to come out and the other pours somewhat faster, it can be assumed that the faster flowing malt contains more water then the slower, or has less brix.
As previously mentioned, if your preference lies with a lower brix malt extract and you're making great beer don't change anything. Just be aware that it will be necessary to make adjustments when you convert brands.
The Homebrew Microbrewery
On a recent Sunday, I was hovering between becoming a total couch potato and curling up for a mid-morning nap when I suddenly ran into an infomercial on TV. It was a California group pitching the wonderful uses of the new "Microbrewery" to make your own homebrewed beer. The idea that all you have to do is add water and yeast certainly caught my attention, because who wouldn't love an easier way to make your own high quality homebrew.
Well to say the least, I just had to watch. First thing I noted was this product has been in mail order magazines and such for a couple of years now. I wasn't impressed then and I certainly wasn't impressed after viewing the infomercial.
The Microbrewery said they used the technology of million dollar microbreweries to come up with the concept of adding dry mix to water (not even a boil) and adding yeast. Show me a brewery that makes beer this way and I'll jump on the Microbrewery bandwagon!
Brewing is an art centuries old. Nothing so drastically can be done to change the art of brewing. In reality you need only $50 to $90 in bare essentials, not as touted on the infomercial as "hundreds of dollars in equipment".
Now for you people who own the Microbrewery equipment, everything is not lost. One way to improve your beer while utilizing this equipment is to boil your mixture before adding it to your keg. If I owned one, I would use it as a neat serving vessel. Some homebrew purists would say using it as a vase would be too good for it. The options for using a Microbrewery are many, and you can still improve on your hobby.
Now if you have given some thought to homebrewing, and just haven't made the leap yet. Open your yellow pages to Beer, sub-category Homebrewing or beer making. If you can not find a listing there try Wine, sub-category Winemaking. If you're still drawing blanks check with the many fine advertisers of Beer Notes (The second shameless plug and actually your first choice to find top-notch homebrewing suppliers.)
Retailers Corner
Our reports show that it was a successful but strange Christmas season overall. We have some information concerning this Christmas Season and how you can use it to your advantage next season. Fax a copy of your company letterhead with the words "Christmas 97 & 98" written on it. We will fax you a copy of this useful information packet.
Recipes
Jim McMillian of Brew It Yourself Center in Southgate, a southern suburb of Detroit has this mega Barley Wine recipe.
12# - Northwestern Extract Gold
3# - Dextrose
4 oz - Crystal Malt
1 oz - Black Malt
1 oz - Chocolate Malt
5 oz - Perle - 90 minutes
2 oz - Mt. Hood - 5 minutes
Wyeast 1056
Champagne Yeast at Bottling
1/3 cup of Dextrose for priming
IBU's: 75
Original Gravity: 1.115
Terminal Gravity: 1.030
Jim says that you should use a large yeast starter. Primary fementation is about 3 weeks, and secondary fermentation is about two weeks. Other specifics include making a champagne yeast slurry and add one or two drops to each bottle at bottling time. Age this product for close to a full year before giving it a try.
Jim adds that the use of dextrose really lets you have a thinner end product, by pointing out that if you added another three pounds of malt the terminal gravity would be a thick 1.050.
Brew It Yourself Center is located at 13262 Northline Rd in Southgate Michigan. Call them at (313) 284-9529.
From Brent Rannow at Evergreen Brewing Supply in Bellevue WA comes this Old Rascal Barleywine.
6 # Coopers Light malt extract syrup
4 # Breiss Gold dry malt extract
1/4 # Flaked wheat
1 # 20'L Crystal malt
1/2 # Carapils
1/4 # DWC Aromatic malt
1/4 # DWC Biscuit malt
1 # invert sugar
2 oz Chinook leaf hops (60 min)
1 oz Cascade leaf hops (45 min)
1 oz Cascade leaf hops (20 min)
1 oz Cascade leaf hops (steep)
1 oz Cascade leaf hops (dry hopped)
Wyeast 1056 American Ale yeast or 3 pkgs. Coopers Ale yeast
3/4 cup dry malt (priming)
Original Gravity: 1.085
Terminal Gravity: 1.022
IBU: 75
Brent says steep Crystal, Carapils, Aromatic, and Biscuit malts in 150¡-180¡F brewing water (amount of water determined by size of your pot) for 15-20 minutes. Then remove.
Mix in malt syrups and dry malt, bring to boil. After the hot break add flaked wheat and Chinook hops. Add the rest of hops based on the schedule. Add invert sugar with 5 minutes remaining in boil. Cool wort in pot, then transfer to fermenter, top up if necessary to 5 gallons, and pitch yeast when temp is <80'F.
Evergreen Brewing Supply is at 12121 NE Northrup Way #210 in Bellvue WA. Their phone number is 425-882-9929, or email them at everbrew@aol.com.
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Jim passes his days in leisure, peddling products from Northwest Extracts, and his nights slaving over a word processor for Beer Notes. That should explain quite a bit.
