Football, fall and a new crop of brews...

Brewing is in full swing now for the OCBC. We have been pretty busy just about every weekend either brewing, bottling or transferring while always "tasting" our product for quality control. For me, the fall is an ideal time for different types of beers that ring in the seasons and get me ready for the holidays. From the first taste of a Sam Adam's Oktoberfest to the deep dark tastes of a Cherry Stout from Bells, it is a great time to enjoy beer.

With new beers comes a new set of labels. You can see our hobby of brewing mixes with our hobbies away from the club. Enjoy...

Better Aeration Makes Much Better Beer

When we first started brewing, we did it by the book (but only as far as we knew to read). We had the recipes to follow, the online forums and tips, and we had some intuition on how to brew beer. We also focused all of our attention on getting the steps right and keeping everything sanitized. All of these things are still being done, but we have found out a few key things that are improving our process and our beers' flavors.

The main thing that we have started to do, that is helping the flavor and quality of our beer, is proper aeration. We knew that we were supposed to aerate the wort before we pitched the yeast, but we were a little lazy and would only shake the carboy for 5-10 minutes at most. The beer would foam up and we assumed that was enough.

1000+ OCBC beers later, our palettes have become more fine tuned with what our brews are supposed to taste like. Many of our beers are very distinct, but we started noticing that some of them were having a slight banana after taste. A little research informed us that our beers may not have enough oxygen and the banana flavor is a result of the yeast suffocating. We decided that the best thing to do was invest in the Northern Brewer Aeration System, that we use after the wort has cooled off, and before we pitch the yeast.

Like everything else, it has taken a few tries, but we have learned how to successfully aerate the brew. The first lesson was how to aerate the wort, but keep the foam contained and "blown off" in a controlled manor. We devised a setup where the diffuser stone and aeration tube runs through a 1" vinyl tube and placed in an universal bung that we drilled a 3/4" hole in. This allows the aerator to continue to run and directs the foam to just fall into the sink or trash instead of all over the side of the carboy and floor.

The other thing that we have learned is how to properly maintain the diffuser stone and in-line filter. The directions just say to not touch the diffuser stone directly, because oils from our fingers will clog the microscopic holes. To keep it clean and sanitized we just boil the stone for 10 minutes before and after use. This keeps any wort that may dry on the stone off and any bacteria from growing where the sanitizer can't get to it. The stone is only handled through the plastic pouch that it was shipped in. We also keep the filter completely dry, so that the air can freely flow through the line.

Since using the system, we haven't had any banana flavors and the fermentation seems to be more intense and uniform. Just another way that OCBC strives to have the best quality and flavorful beers.

Explore Your Craft by DRAFT

An opportunity to partake in art, food and most importantly BEER. Explore Your Craft will be in 4 cities in October, including Orlando!

Per the website,

"DRAFT has partnered with Widmer Brothers Brewing to create Explore Your Craft, an evening celebrating the artistry of brewing, cooking, visual art and musical performance. Centered around the Widmer Brothers’ collection, a chef-designed menu features dishes made specifically for and with Widmer beer, served at pairing stations throughout the space. A visual and musical feast fills the room, with a live performance artist and unique soundscapes from some of the area’s most celebrated musicians. Once inspired by pints and plates, patrons can pick up a paintbrush and join our artist in creating a special, one-of-a-kind work of art."

A great opportunity to meet a Co-Founder of the first Microbrewery in the progressive state of Oregon.

Its great to have events like this in Orlando, an artful and inspiring city. Come out and take part in local culture.

The art of the label.....

Here are some labels for a couple of the beers I have had the pleasure brewing, naming and drinking. As the previous post stated, this is far more than brewing beer for drinking sake. Well, that is most of it I guess, who am I kidding. The other half is the opportunity to stretch out the creative thought process and add some art to the final product. As unique as each beer is, the label should also follow suit and be unique as well.

The following set are some that I came up with. The Ichabod's Grog has yet to be brewed because pumpkins just became available in the cool state of Florida only yesterday. However, I have been dreaming about making my own pumpkin ale since we first started the OCBC almost five months ago now. I went with a name that resonates with relationship to pumpkins without defaulting to naming it something with pumpkin in the title. Where is the creativity in that?

Plenty of Swag to Go Around...

Being that the club is comprised of creators, be it Landscape Architect or Graphic Artist, everything we do must be accomplished with a unique touch. Simply brewing beer, bottling beer and drinking beer wasn't enough to pass the time (kind of).

Our thought is that only half of the creativity involved in brewing beer has to do with the ingredients of the beer itself. The other half should be applied to the bottle's face and cap...and t-shirts...and glasses. You can see where this uncontrolled creativity could get out of hand. Since each of our styles varies, we needed something to brand our club's efforts and provide a framework for each member's 'bursting' creativity. This is where our dedicated Graphic Artist (and wife) stepped in. Our brand was established through the custom OCBC logo and applied to shirts and glasses. Many friends, family and fans are already able to take part in our club with the nearly 100 glasses and t-shirts that have been ordered and distributed in the past few weeks.

The OCBC logo, t-shirts and glasses weren't enough. We wanted to create an identity for each beer through artwork and by name. Keeping the OCBC brand in mind, our Graphic Artist (and wife) created a template package for our labels to be placed within. These templates act as the unifying element for our distinctly different designs (and beers). When a member creates a beer and names it, that member then designs artwork inspired by that beer and places it into the template creating the BEER LABEL (At Home IPA shown). Each beer and its label is unique and shows insight to its originator.

We are all creators, liking many different types of beer and design, brought together by the sport of brewing!

Brewing At OCBC Is A Team Sport

The OCBC has learned lots of things about brewing in the past few months, but one of the main things that we have learned is that working as a team, and using our numbers, helps make a better beer and a better time.

When we started the club we knew that we wanted several members to not only help split the costs, but also to help split the work. Some of that work is the menial tasks of cleaning, removing bottle labels, and just watching water boil. It also helps that more people are available to run and get ingredients or equipment when emergency or convenience arises. It also seems that the biggest tasks that we need more numbers on is the mental tasks of keeping all of the tasks straight and in order. It is also to get everyone's opinion on how some of these processes are to be done.

Do we mix the yeast straight into the carboy? Do we really need to sanitize that? Weren't we supposed to rack that beer today?

We have simplified the brewing schedule with an Outlook calendar, but on some days when we are brewing, bottling, and racking on the same day, the steps get muddied. We have gotten these tasks streamlined and all able to be completed in 3 hours. That being said, all it takes is forgetting to sanitize something or in which order things need to happen to add an extra 30 minutes or more to the process.

Luckily we are doing this for fun and time isn't really money, but is just time. Of course extra time brewing isn't so bad since we are drinking beer and hanging out, but we can do that sitting on the couch watching football. I guess we wouldn't appreciate the success of tasting a delicious craft beer as much if it didn't take a little sacrifice and hard work, and is why there is no "I" in OCBC.

Orlando Brewing Fieldtrip

Tonight was an education field trip for the OCBC. The Club was due a visit to our local professional brewery (1 of 27 in the state), Orlando Brewing Company. Orlando Brewing is Florida’s only certified organic brewery, and is only 1 of 9 in the entire US! We also found out what it actually means to be organic; It means that ingredients used in crafting their ales are grown without insecticides, bioengineering, genetically modified organisms, sewage sludge or irradiation. Orlando Brewing's Blonde, Pale, Red & Brown Ale, Olde Pelican, Blackwater Dry Porter and European Pilz, are officially certified Organic by the USDA. All our beers are the only ones declared “Fresh From Florida” by the State’s Department of Agriculture. Not only can you taste the difference, but you can see the freshness of the "live" brew.

The main things that the Club took away from the brewery tour and visit with the guide was:
1. We have to move to kegging
2. Recipes are non proprietary
and 3. The only difference in their operation and ours is scale


Moving to kegging was something that we were already exploring, but the explained that going to this process is a big step in growing as a brewing operation. It allows us to skip 2 weeks of the brewing process by adding carbonation through CO2 instead of sugar in the bottles. They even said that if we wanted bottles we could keg the beer, and then turn around and bottle them and drink them immediately. It also made it easier to store and transport than 50 glass bottles.

We also learned that the recipes that we were using from stores, books, and the internet were non proprietary If we can execute the recipes correctly, make good beer, enter it in a competition, and win, it is our prize and our beer. The names and logos that we create are the only things that are proprietor and cannot be taken by anyone else. I am glad we have Michael and Susie to make such an awesome logo and guide us through our label making.

Lastly we learned that the process of making beer doesn't change, just the size of the operation. The owners of Orlando brewing started out like us, with 5 gallon carboys and experimenting with recipes. We did learn all of their processes and how they treat their water, equipment, and ingredients, but it still came down to good water, malt, hops, and yeast.

Orlando Brewing was an impressive facility, with 12 solid beers that are always on tap there and then another 8-10 that they brew seasonally. They have a cool volunteer program that allows curious home brewers the chance to gain knowledge of larger scale brewing by helping clean and do any tasks that are required to make the brew and ship it out. Best of all it showed us that brewing attracts good people and brings people together in good fellowship.

Spreading the Craft Brew Love

Even the hardest days of brewing are still better than any day at the office. Like most hobbies, we seem to be willing to work longer, perform menial laborious tasks, and put up with conditions that we wouldn't normally be willing to endure. Brewing is no different. Summertime brewing in Florida is hot, scrubbing labels and bottles is monotonous, and cleaning the gunk out of carboys and kettles is about like cleaning a dirty diaper. The perks are of course sipping on good beer, smelling the beautiful aroma of barley and hops, and enjoying the satisfaction of a successful brew.


This past Saturday, the OCBC had a long afternoon of bottling 2 batches and brewing a new one. We bottled the Amazingly Apricot and the Brunette Blonde, and we brewed one of the IPAs we are exploring. We were using the Northern Brewer, Dead Ringer Extract Kit with Specialty Grains. It is touted to be a copy of the Bell's Two Hearted, so we will see in 6 weeks how it tastes.

Luckily we had 7 of the 8 club members present to give a hand, so we were able to multitask. We had to clean and sterile the 100+ bottles, rack and bottle, and keep an eye on the kettle to watch for boil over and all the brewing steps. We also had several friends over to experience the brewing process, and hopefully have inspired a few out of town folks to take up brewing. I guess the saying could be

"Give a man a beer and he has one beer, teach him to brew and he'll never be thirsty". 

We shall see if the OCBC will have a few branches sprout up.

Will the real yeast please rise up!

From time to time it seems that you will eventually have one billion organic problems that set out to make sure you fail. Such has been the case on a couple of our latest brew adventures. First there was Craig's pilsner which failed to step up to the plate and, just this week, the first batch of our Oktoberfest. How to deal with it? Easy....call in one billion more replacement yeast warriors to battle it out in the fermentation process.

Flat and sad...

After stressing out over the fact that this new brew was flat we called upon our new friends at the Magnolia Square Market in Sanford, FL to assist us with purchasing some new yeast to help kick start the process. Now, the Oktoberfest is acting like it is suppose to and burping away happily. The only hard part now is waiting the better part of eleven weeks to drink it. It should be ready for the UF versus Kentucky game come September 23rd though which is good.

Fluffy and happy...

Also, this weekend we will be enjoying some good company and brewing some good new beers. Over the next couple of weeks we will have around 400 bottles ready for drinking and over 150 new beers hanging out in Paul and becoming good friends. So, all is looking good for the OCBC. Oh yeah, GO USA!

The Unsung Member - Paul

The Orlando Craft Brew Club would not have had the initial success or the ability to up the production without Paul, our Coldspot Chest Freezer. Being located in Central Florida gives us a slight disadvantage to our brew friends up north. We don't have basements because of our geology, or any locations in our houses that can store fermenting beer without major climate control devices.

We were fortunate enough to have 1 wine chiller at Micheal's house and Sugar was able to purchase another one for $20 at a neighbor's yard sale. Hoppes was our inventive member and built a chiller box from online plans, equipped with a thermostat and fan, and only requires the changing out of 1 gallon ice chugs every other day. Either way, that only gave the OCBC the ability to have 3 carboys in the mix at one time. With us having so many members and so many of us with great ambition about what we could be making, we needed another option.

The best solution that we could come up with was a large capacity chest freezer with a thermostat override. The only challenge would be to find one that was used, in good condition, and reasonable in price. Luckily for us, Craigslist has lots of cheap appliances and we were able to find a Sears Coldspot Freezer for $100. Perfect!

Sugar and I traveled across town and picked up the freezer from an older gentleman by the name of Paul, which the freezer has been dubbed. This freezer has been babied for the past 30 years and has been kept in mint condition. It appeared that it was being used to store enough frozen vegetables to survive the "zombie Apocalypse". Now it will get to spend its final days helping us brew fine beer.

The Northern Brewer thermostat allows us to control Paul to whatever temperature our brews require. We can now use the mini-chillers to brew our lagers and cold fermenting brews and keep the ales in Paul. Now all we need is another smaller chest freezer to get a keg and tap system going. Its only a matter of time.

The Orlando Craft Brew Club

The Orlando Craft Brew Club was founded in May 2011. March Madness had just ended and the founders of the club were wondering what we were going to do with our time. We were also wondering what excuses they were going to make to get friends together to enjoy good beer and fellowship. Brewing beer was proposed and immediately it seemed that nothing could stop the idea. Don't get me wrong, the idea wasn't new and it had been brought up before, but now seemed to be the perfect time and place to launch it.

The OCBC was started with 8 paid memberships that got it off the ground. All members paid $50, we ordered the Deluxe Beer Starter Kit from Northern Brewer, an 8 gallon kettle, and our first ingredient kit. The Club brewed 4 trial beers to get the kinks out, and to see what craft beer was all about. Needless to say, we couldn't stop. We invested in mini fridges and "Paul", an 8 carboy capacity chest freezer, for fermentation storage in the hot Florida climate. We also expanded the number of carboys and upped production to our full capacity.

Members of the OCBC can pick whatever beer recipe they want to try, brew it, and sell it to the members or keep it for themselves. This way club members get to try lots of different types of beers, we can efficiently keep the numbers of beer high, and the overall costs low for club members.

Who knows what the OCBC will grow into. Visions of kegs, taps, our own swag and recipes are all so close at hand that they don't seem like goals or visions, but rather just the next logical step. This blog is to report our progress, let you know what we are drinking and finding in our brewing, and to help share the art of craft brewing.

Brew on!

First Brew - Palm Pale Ale

The OCBC's inaugural brew was the Northern Brewer AK47 Pale Mild kit with specialty grains. Since we are down in Florida and we brewed it on Palm Drive, we dubbed it the Palm Pale Ale. This beer was perfect to to give everyone an idea of what we were getting ourselves into, and we only had to wait 4 weeks to reap our reward.

The brewing was easy, but with it being our first time we were overly cautious and double checked every step. We started by soaking the 0.5 lbs Simpsons Caramalt and 1 oz Fawcett Pale Chocolate in 5 gallons of water until it reached 170 degrees. We then brought it up to a boil and added 3 lbs Munton’s Light dried malt extract. I think that I love smelling the boiling wort almost just as much as I do drinking beer. It was an awesome aroma that was spread throughout the house, and the Brew Club enjoyed taking peeks under the kettle lid and sipping on good brews.

Once the malt was stirred in and boiling, we were ready for the 60 minute hop boil with 0.75 oz East Kent Goldings for 60 minutes and 0.25 oz East Kent Goldings at the last15 minutes of the boil. We then finished it off with 1 lb corn sugar before we began chilling the wort down to 70 degrees. Luckily we invested in a copper wort chiller and had access to a bunch of ice packs, because cooling down 5 gallons of boiling hot liquid took just as long as getting it up to boil (about 45 minutes)! We bought the Wyeast 1945 NeoBritania smack pack and pitched it, aerated it by hand, and sealed it up.

What we learned from the first batch...
The first thing that we didn't do properly was popping the internal yeast pack of the smack pack. We smacked it, and it appeared to swell up, but it did not break the pouch and the yeast expanded from the warmer temperature. We pitched the yeast anyway, and it did work.

We also forgot to add the sugar to the wort, before we had already chilled it down to 70 degrees. It would have been ideal to mix it in when the water was boiling, but it slipped our mind as we were being attentive to sterilization and keeping the steps straight. Again, we did add the sugar and it apparently dissolved fine and had no bearing on the brewing.


I really didn't know what to expect after we placed the carboy in one of our "single" chillers, but it was like waking up on Christmas morning 8 hours later. One of my dogs woke me up early that morning and I heard a bubbling/thumping sound that I had never heard before. My first thought was that we had a leak in my house, but then I remembered the fermenting beer and the bubbler airlock we had used. I rushed to open the chiller and saw and heard the glorious sound of yeast multiplying, converting the sugars into alcohol, and producing CO2 that was bubbling through the lock. it was an awesome feeling of success.

The brew fermented for 2 weeks and then we bottled it and left it to condition and carbonate. When that 2 weeks was up, we chilled them and then got to experience the feeling of drinking a beer that we had made ourselves.

True, most mild beers are like little brown ales, but pale versions have existed and still do exist. This beer is an homage to one of the "relatively" famous ones, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, but we felt that it turned out to taste quite a bit like a Sam Adams Light . It was lightly hopped and light-bodied, but not at all boring. The beer was ready to drink quickly, obligingly chuggable, and remarkably complex for barely 3% abv.