BIG DREAM Hobby and Craft: Pliny the Elder clone, brewing with potatoes, and more

Brew Day Bulletin

Dear Homebrewer,

Pliny has become the standard by which many modern double IPAs are measured. Try your hand at it with our Russian River Brewing Co.'s Pliny the Elder clone recipe [Free].

BYO's Technical Editor Ashton Lewis shares his favorite tips when dry hopping your beers [Plus video].

Learn about the history of Steam Beer [Plus and Digital Members], starting with California's gold rush.

Arizona Wilderness Brewing Co.'s Tres Leches clone [Plus and Digital Members] tastes like tres leches cake with the additions of lactose, cinnamon, vanilla, and brown sugar.

Mr. Wizard answers questions about over-pitching [Plus and Digital Members] and post-souring gravity [Free].

Read our take on brewing with potatoes [Free].

Get project plans for the ever-popular wooden two-tier brew stand [Free] and an indoor vent hood [Plus and Digital Members].

Cheers!
Brad Ring
Publisher

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Video
Dry Hopping

Learn our favorite tips when dry hopping your beers from Brew Your Own Magazine's Technical Editor Ashton Lewis.

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Read & Brew: Free Content For All

Recipe
Russian River Brewing Co.'s Pliny the Elder clone

Originally brewed to be part of a first-ever "Double IPA festival" back in 2000, Pliny has become the standard by which many modern double IPAs are measured. As with any hop-heavy beer, Pliny is best enjoyed fresh, while the massive hop aroma is at its peak.

Article
Brewing with Potatoes

The common potato comes from the potato plant (Solanum tuberosum), a member of the nightshade (Solanaceae) family. The nightshade family also includes tomatoes, tobacco and peppers. The edible portion of the potato plant is the tuber, a modified underground stem. There are many varieties of potatoes found on supermarket shelves and they can be grouped into two functional categories, waxy or mealy (or starchy). Mealy varieties — such as Russet, Yukon Gold or baking-type potatoes — can easily be used in homebrewing. Waxy varieties — such as Chef's potatoes or red potatoes — may be usable, but I don't have any experience with them.

Ask Mr. Wizard
Post-Souring Gravity

Q I have been getting into sour beers lately with two of my latest being Irish reds kettle soured with GoodBelly mango-flavor probiotic juice drink. I stopped the first at a pH of 3.8 and the second at 3.4. Both are great, with the 3.4 the best. Will let the next batch go a bit lower. This started me thinking, obviously the souring bacteria eats sugar to make the lactic acid, so how much of the fermentable sugar is used up? The Irish reds were already expected to result in a low abv. I lost my starting gravity readings on both so I can't get any numbers but the taste tells me the finished products are lower than expected. Also, would the lactic acid have messed up the readings anyway? I'm thinking the next batch I may use 50–100% more fermentables. Does that sound reasonable?

A Thanks for the interesting question, Duncan. The product you are using as your source of bacteria lists Lactobacillus plantarum as the only bacterial ingredient in this beverage. Lactobacillus plantarum is a facultative heterofermentative lactic species.

Project
Wooden Two-Tier Brew Stand

I have been brewing beer at home for about seven years, using equipment that has gotten progressively larger or more sophisticated. Last year, I wanted to make my brewing process more time efficient and get away from using crates, boxes, and my workbench to achieve the three tiers I needed for a gravity fed system. To help solve some of these problems I decided that I would upgrade to a larger kettle and build a two-tiered brew stand that, when placed next to my propane burner, becomes a true three-tier, gravity-fed brew stand with the hot liquor cooler on the highest tier and the mash tun on the middle tier.

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Recipe
Arizona Wilderness Brewing Co.'s Tres Leches clone

This recipe from Arizona Wilderness Brewing Co. (Gilbert, Arizona) was a collaboration with Chris Bianco of Pizzeria Bianco and brewed to taste like tres leches cake with the additions of lactose, cinnamon, vanilla, and brown sugar.

Article
Steam Beer

It was born of necessity, the legend has it, in the days of California's gold rush. Surely no one then ever thought that nearly a century and a half later there would still be such a thing as steam beer – or that it would be one of America's finest and most distinctive beers. But what does the name mean? What could beer possibly have in common with steam?
.

Ask Mr. Wizard
Too Much Yeast? Is over-pitching a problem?
Q. It seems like I often hear about the "dire" effects from under-pitching yeast, but can't say I've heard much about the consequences of over-pitching, besides the advice of: "Don't do it." Would love to hear what problems are associated with over-pitching yeast, notably over-pitching with yeast slurry?

Project
Build an Indoor Vent Hood

When you decide that you're ready to brew inside the comforts of your home, you will need to find a way to exhaust the condensation from your boil. You could go out and buy a commercial kitchen vent hood, but most of them are usually a far reach from a homebrewer's budget.

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