Jerry Wayne Odom Jr

Baton Rouge has a Windows Phone 7 User Group.   One of my favorite things about the Microsoft products is there seem to be several communities popping up concerning their technology.   I volunteered to talk about my experiences as relates to the development of Pocket Brewer so I’m doing that.   The slides and demo code as relates to this talk are at the links below for anyone interested in them.

DummyWP7App – Windows Phone 7 Demo App

Pocket Brewer Power Point

My two most recent home brew beers were outstanding. The flavor, smell and feel of the beers were just far and beyond what I’ve done in the past. For me it was a sign that refinements I’ve made in my brewing process really mattered. Here’s what I did differently:

• Infusion Mash – bar far the biggest improvement in the arena of brewing. I used a simple 3 step mash popular with brewers of German lagers and the quality of malt taste in the beers was shocking.
• Hop Balls – Also known as a herb ball these little tools allow you to keep the hops in the wort while keeping them out of the final product. What’s that mean? Well typically when I add hops I have an issue with the boil pushing them on the sides of the kettle and leaving them out of the boil. You can’t get bitterness that way. The second part of that is that once you’re done boiling you want the hop trub out of your beer. Well the hop balls keep the mess all together so you get that too.
• Purchased New Deep Freezer – I use a deep freezer for my lagering tank. I had an old beat up freezer which had inconsistent temperatures and was hard to control. Appropriate temperature control is key to preventing off flavors and aids in the lagering process where your beer really smoothes out. On my Pocket Brewer Recipes Page you’ll see I have a Baton Rouge black beer. After secondary fermentation it was so harsh I thought it would be terrible but after 6 weeks lagering it’s incredibly smooth.

I got many compliments on my beer before I made these improvements and now I get wow when people try my beer.    Most already had tried some home brewed beer before and knew that usually it’s just average beer.    However with refinements you can make excellent beer unlike anything people can get elsewhere.    It’s rewarding and worth the extra effort.

I’m starting to notice a trend in my adventures of beer brewing.    I’m becoming a bit of a beer brewing equipment snob as I learn more about the craft of brewing beer.   Don’t confuse this with a beer snob as I’ll drink any beer especially free beer.   I don’t care if it’s natural light, high life or Colt 45 malt liqour the only bad beer is no beer!   

Anyhow before I get too far off topic I’ll tell you why I’m becoming a beer equipment snob.   I haven’t brewed beer in about 3 months due to the fact that I lost my freezer that I use as a temperature control tank.    I had to wait until I was able to purchase another freezer which I did about 2 weeks ago.    I can remember when I would brew an ale and throw it in the coolest corner of the house for a few weeks and happily drink it.     Now days I’m not happy unless the hydrometer shows ideal results in ideal time and I am a big critic of my results being that brewing a beer usually involves slaving over a brew setup for 4 hours.(it takes so long because I also only brew all grain now)

Ok it gets worse.

In addition to the freezer I also impulsively ordered an expensive stainless steel wort chiller because I am worried the small one isn’t cooling my hand made stainless steel keg pots fast enough.   I also ordered hop balls because I feel like trub and hops getting tossed to the side walls of the pot is hurting my bitter.    For strike three I’ve also ordered an expensive refractometer because I want another verdict on my gravity readings versus my hydrometer.

I feel like I’ve become a beer brewing equipment snob.   I remember when I happily brewed with $150 worth of equipment and now I know it must be 10 times that!     I warn you all out there that beer brewing can become an expensive addiction like fishing, golfing or any other accessory driven activity.    But it sure is fun!