Even Santa Drinks Great Beer

Good morning. Merry Christmas Eve to all who celebrate. If you happen to live in Australia, it’s possible you’re giving Santa a beer to share with his cookies instead of a lukewarm glass of milk.

While I’m sure he appreciates the beer, let’s just hope Australia is his last stop or we all might not get the presents we hoped for this year.

-Brandon Copeland

Homebrewing Holiday Wishlist: 3 Items To Treat Yourself (And Your Water)

At this point, if you haven’t bought gifts for friends or family, it’s crunch time. It’s better to show proof via email that a gift is on the way versus not having one at all.

However, if you’re done with your Christmas shopping and in the mood to treat yourself, here are 3 homebrewing gift ideas all focused around water.

1. Grainfather Sparge Water Heater

I’ve previously mentioned I have moved over to all-in-one all grain brewing with the Brewzilla Gen 4, which has drastically reduced my brewing footprint and made brew days much easier. However one thing about my brew day that is a minor headache and isn’t temperature controlled is the sparge water.

I heat this up in my old brew kettle on the stove, and I have a digital thermometer that I monitor to see that it gets to the desired temperature. However, life would be much easier if I could just fill the Grainfather Sparge Water Heater to my calculated sparge water volume, flip a switch, and know that when it’s time to sparge I will have the proper amount of water at the ideal temperature.

Certainly, this is a nice to have item and it is not required to make great beer. However, I value items that save me time or make my brew day easier.

2. Water Filter Kit

The most prominent ingredient in beer is water. If you are starting with bad water, then you will most certainly end up with bad beer. You can go deep into water - there are entire books written about water chemistry (like this one by AHA). Once you go down this rabbit hole you’ll be starting with distilled water and then adjusting the water chemistry to reach your desired levels based on the style of beer you’re brewing.

However, if you currently just use water out of the tap, running it through this Water Filter Kit could drastically improve the taste and quality of your beer. From the description, it seems the attachments are made for a garden hose - you may need to buy an adapter if you’re trying to hook up to your kitchen sink.

3. KegLand pH Meter

The theme of this holiday wishlist is water, because it’s vitally important and often overlooked. This next item is the Kegland pH Meter which will allow you to check the pH of your mash if you are brewing all grain.

This pH meter is a steal at it’s price point, and it allows you to start getting a closer handle on your mash. It has automatic temperature compensation which means you can take your sample directly from the mash and you don’t have to wait for it to reach room temperature.

If you’re interested in learning more about proper pH ranges or steps to adjust the pH of the mash, check out this article here.

Beer Trivia Question

🍺 Who started the tradition of brewing Christmas beers?

Read to the end to find out if you're right!

Deal of the Week

Receive 15% Off your Order at Adventures in Homebrewing

Use the code HOLIDAZE and receive 15% off your entire order at Adventures in Homebrewing.

Last Weeks Poll Results: How Do You Pitch Your Yeast?

This one was a toss up - what I could gather from comments and the results was that there are two main camps - people who pitch dry yeast directly into the fermenter, and people who make yeast starters with liquid yeast.

I personally have fallen into both groups - sometimes depending on the beer, I think two packs of dry yeast is sufficient and I pitch it straight in. For other recipes, I spend the extra money/time to do liquid yeast and make a yeast starter. Depends how ambitious or lazy I’m feeling at the time as well.

Brewgr Recipe of the Week

Czech Solstice II

The Czech Republic is a great place for beer - their classic Czech lager is famous worldwide for a reason. This recipe seems simple and approachable, but will yield a solid dark Czech lager. Keep in mind you would have to lager this in a temperature controlled environment for several weeks at minimum, which isn’t noted in the recipe.

Credit: Chu

And the Answer Is...

🍺 The Vikings. In the 10th century, King Haakon I decreed that every household was required to brew Christmas beers and host a party for their new Christian god, and failure to do so would result in fines or even forfeiture of land.

Freshly brewed Christmas beers and mandatory parties? That’s a decree I can get behind.