I have a strange habit when I’m commuting to and from my place of employment. Mind you, travel time is usually less than 20 minutes, and yet that is plenty of time for me to get into trouble. Specifically, listening to NPR in an attempt to inject as much world news into my head as possible. Inevitably this leads to me going from zero to rage in a matter of seconds – usually due to a segment read by a mild-spoken Brit regarding how the world economy will eventually implode, mass hysteria, etc. – cue apes hurling nets on top of scantily clad humans. A future in which I am left to wearing washcloth-sized animal skins to cover my nether-regions is pretty scary.

To combat my rage-before-I-even-get-to-work syndrome, I’ll try to find a fluff piece that details children selling cookies to pay for a house to care for kittens, or something similar. Perhaps some astronomer found yet another rocky planet orbiting a star 7 brazilian light-years from Earth. Whatever. Sometimes I can’t find anything during the ride, so I’ll do the next best thing: Internet to the rescue! I could read a new beer review, or watch a video of some Russian teens jumping off a 20 story building. After I’m done, I’m primed for work and yet another productive day (or if ready for dinner, if the day is already done). Genius, right? A person could argue that I should just reconsider listening to news during the commute, to which I say shut up.

This scene unfolds day after day and has worked flawlessly until today – I came upon (yet another) forum argument regarding extract home-brewers being simple-minded, while all grain home-brewers being snobs. I typically avoid any e vs. ag flame wars, but for some inexplicable reason, I decided to stay and read on. I think it might have been the style sheet that kept me transfixed.

I have to admit, I don’t recall what the original article was. Both the article and the courteous discussion of merits was quickly obscured by back-and-forth insults that further devolved into name calling. Please don’t think that I’m implying all e vs. ag discussion is reduced to name calling – it is not. In this case, it was unexpected and came out of nowhere.

Let me break it down for you. For the most part, extract brewing consists of boiling measures of dry or liquid malt extract. The greatest advantage is that there is no need for mashing/lautering nor any its additional equipment. Some brewers consider this method to be less satisfying as someone else does the majority of the work. As for all grain, it offers a much wider range of ingredients and better control over the brewing process, however, longer brewing times should be expected as well as additional equipment to deal with mashing/lautering. A more complex system that can provide additional points of failure. Some brewers consider all grain to be for elitists. I have history of brewing both extract and ag – I am at a loss as to where the hate comes from. I understand that there is always going to be at least a certain modicum of friendly competition, but when tempers flare, it will do for us all to remember: We are all on the same team.

I am the kind of guy that loves doing whatever I can on my own steam, be it because of a perception that the MAN is keeping me down or because I want quality ingredients in my beer. If I could make my own penicillin, I would (here comes the email telling me how to do it). But at the same time, I’m not going to grind, press, flake, cook and dry ingredients to make raisin bran cereal. I’ll open the box and pour it into a bowl. It’s similar with home-brew. I have found a sweet-spot with ag, but my father is only comfortable brewing extracts. Both he and I make some fine brews, as far as I am concerned.

It is important to remember that much of home-brew is based on a belief of choice and, dare I say, freedom. The choice to do extract or ag is a function of what the brewer’s requirements are. It may be impractical to do ag in some situations. Extract brewing may be inadvisable in other situations.

While I would happily argue with my father regarding the finer points of software patents (he’s “antiquated” and I am a “communist”), I would not disrespect his brew just because it’s not the same method I use to produce my own. I might offer some suggestions to improve, but never out of spite and never from a place of conceitedness.

Take a hint from Queen Vitoria: “Give my people plenty of beer, good beer, and cheap beer, and you will have no revolution among them.”

I am always keeping an eye out to see what kinds of brewing software is available for the average home brewer. The traditional beer software you hear the most about is ProMash and BeerSmith, they are both excellent pieces of software. Some people chose on over the other for various reasons and features. As for myself I usually write everything down, but for each recipe I keep a folder on my computer with all my recipes written up in Qbrew. The software is Open Source (free to download here) it comes with basic features for building recipes. It also has enough hops, grains, yeasts, and adjuncts built in so you start using it right away.

Qbrew has been a good stand by, but today I started reading about the BrewTarget brewing software, which is another feature rich and Open Source piece of home brewing software. One of the key features is that it uses beerXML and you can import your BeerSmith recipes. The interface is clean and useful whether you are brewing or just building a recipe. I am going to try it out for my next batch to see it works, and I will post a review. If you have tried it before let us know. Don’t forget if you like the software, toss the developer a few bucks, I bet they would love a beer for their hard work.

Good news everyone! RIBS now has a regular place to meet, it is no longer a TBA. We will continue hosting the meetings the second Thursday of the month, each meeting will be held at The Trinity Brewhouse. A nice location where we can talk about brewing, it is easy to get to, and has great beer. So come on by have a pint and lets talk brewing.

While we are on a hot streak of making calender dates RIBS will also be doing bi-monthly brewery tours. The next tour is going to be March 24th to Grey Sail Brewing Company of Westerly RI, for more info on times please email info@ribrewingsociety.com

The holidays have passed, we’ve all had to loosen our belts a bit and now it’s time to get serious about brewing again. I thought I would start off the new year with a tip that all extract brewers can use. It may seem obvious for some of the more experienced brewers out there, but for those just starting out it may save you some time and frustration….

I don’t know about you guys but when I am brewing with extract syrups, honey or other high viscosity (read: thick) liquids it takes forever to pour them out and then you have to scrape the sides of the container! It is also well known in the home brewing community that if you heat up a high viscosity liquid it will temporarily lower the viscosity (make it flow better). Most people would recommend you put the cans of malt extract in the sink and run hot water over it… that may work for some but you’ll be using a lot of water and then you won’t be able to use your sink temporarily.

Protip: if you have a small cooler, fill that with the hottest tap water you can get right before you start heating up the water. Throw your cans of malt in there and close it up until you are ready to use them. Be careful though, the cans will be very hot when you pull them out of the cooler, you might want to wear cooking mitts.

Happy Brewing!

Happy Holidays from everyone here at the Rhode Island Brewing Society!

Don’t forget, If you want to meet us, 7:30 PM Providence Trinity Brewhaus downstairs is the place to be tonight!

December 5th 1933 the 21st Amendment was ratified thus ending Prohibition. There is way more information over at http://www.repealday.org/. Now go celebrate with some friends and a drink!