Labeling your Homebrew

I have had to work 2 of the past 3 weekends, so I have had very little time to spending on brewing related items.  I missed my scheduled porter brewday and will need to reschedule to sometime in December.  I was able to carve out some time to bottle a case off of my Plastered Pilgrim keg and label them!

I thought I would post about some of the methods of creating and applying Labels for your homebrewed beer or wine.  Hopefully this post will alleviate you readers from some of the leg work.

Label Design

The key to a good label is being able to express your thoughts or theme which will attract and inform your consumers (friends).  Think about what draws your attention when looking for new beers at the bottle shop.  Maybe its a creative logo or cool font (DA Fonts).  Maybe its a picture or a beer name.  Homebrewer's tend to do labels in 1 of 2 ways:  (1) Labels which have consistency (Logo, font, layout etc.) or (2) each label is its own creation.  I like to side with the first option.  I like to think of my homebrew as if it was real brewery.  I want my labels to all have a feel which evokes brand recognition.  I think Samuel Adams and Sierra Nevada are two breweries that effectively do this.

Now that you have some ideas, you need to decide how you will be creating the labels.  Some artistic folks decide to do it by hand.  These can be really awesome!  Unfortunately, I was not blessed with an artistic hand and tend to go the digital route.  I use GIMP, a program similar to photoshop, to create my labels.

Dimensions

Are you making labels for 12 oz or 22 oz bottles?  When I was looking online it seemed like a lot of labels for 12 ounce bottles were 3 inches high by 4 inches wide.  I went with this and, it produces a nice label, but I think I will increase the dimensions as it just didn't cover as much space as I as hoping for.  Additionally, the text which looked rather large on my computer monitor, was almost illegible when printed.  The "Surgeon General" warning I created was in 14px, and other text about the beer was 16px.  I had to increase this and recommend 20px or greater for any text.  In GIMP I set the pixels to match inches.  3x4 correlates to 900px by 1200px.  So keep that in mind with font sizes.  I think my next set of labels will be 4 inches high by 5.25 inches wide

Printing and Applying

Unfortunately, if you have an inkjet printer, you won't easily be able to label with my suggested adhesive (see below).  You can purchase specific adhesive papers from places online such as onlinelabels.com which will allow you to use inkjet.  If you have a laser printer, you're set!  If not just print out one color sheet from your inkjet printer and take it to a local copy center like Kinkos or Staples etc.  I used Staples and was able to use their straight-edge cutter, which was a real time saver!

Applying - Most homebrewers hate de-labeling commercial bottles.  It is a painstaking and time intensive process.  So why would you want to put labels on your beer that is hard to take off?  I browsed the forums, and although skeptical, found that milk was the best adhesive!  Sure enough, I poured an ounce of milk onto a plate and lightly dipped the back of the labels in the milk and applied them to the bottles.  Held strong!  Came off with a little water and scratching with my fingernail.  And they didn't smell :)

Plastered Pilgrim - Spiced Pumpkin Ale

I felt it appropriate to unveil the first of my new labels in the post for this beer.  I have created somewhat of a template which I hope to incorporate into future labels.

I have been doing some thinking about the best way to share my recipes/brewdays with everyone on the interwebs and decided it would be best to wait until I had the final product before me to do so.  In these and future posts I will give a short descriptive synopsis of the beer, followed by the recipe and sum it up with my thoughts.

The beer smells exactly like pumpkin pie, and not just the spices.  Call me crazy, but as I take deep sniff, I can pick out a the smell of pie crust.  The beer is a bronze-orange color, which at the time of tapping is a tad hazy (picture to come).  The pumpkin spices flood the mouth, followed by a moderate carbonation and creamy body.  The spicing is balanced, and the beer leans a tad towards the malty side.  The finish has a gentle tinge of alcohol warmth (most likely from the low level of bitterness).  This is a very palatable pumpkin ale, and one that could be consumed in session quantities.  The spicing does not overwhelm.

Plastered Pilgrim Recipe
Brewed On: September 15, 2012
Style: 21A - Spice, Herb, Vegetable Beer
Batch Size: 6 gallons
Efficiency: 82%
OG: 1.058
FG: 1.015
IBU: 18 (Rager)
ABV: 5.6% (forgot to change label, but close enough)
Yeast: WLP002 - English Ale Yeast - Rinsed from prior batch

Grist Mashed at 155 for an hour (sparging was a PITA with pumpkin!)66% - Maris Otter - 10lbs
25% - Pumpkin Puree - 60 oz (4, 15 oz cans baked at 350° for an hour)
3% - Biscuit - 8oz
3% - Crystal 40 - 8oz
3% - Crystal 120 - 8oz

Hop Additions 
1oz of Willamette 4.8%AA - 60 minutes - 18 IBUs

Overall - This beer is pretty tasty.  I can't take full credit for the recipe as I modeled it largely off of the hit "Thuderstruck Pumpkin Ale" on HBT.  I think this may become a seasonal for me, but I will leave it up to friends and relatives to decide.

Craft Beer, Costly in Montgomery County, MD

I moved to Maryland a little over a year ago.  It is a great state and has a lot of things going for it, but the alcohol situation in Montgomery County is not one of them. 

There are four counties in Maryland which are controlled jurisdictions.  This basically means that all liquor, wine and beer is controlled by the county.  This control allows for some positive things such as the department generating enough revenue that it can donate $32.4 million in 2011 or $240 million over the past 10 years to the counties general fund.  But it also means another middle man in the chain.  And it provides two additional times for the consumer to get hit where it hurts, in their pockets.  There are a few different scenarios beer gets to market.  The first two below are standard, the third is Montgomery County:

• Self Distribution - In some states, self distribution is allowed and provides the opportunity for the brewer to distributes its products directly to retailers (bars, bottle shops, liquor stores, and/or individuals)
• Required Distributor - That state requires breweries to work with a distributor; a company which specializes in selling your beer.
• Montgomery County - The county buys and sells all products from distributors.

There are varied rationale's on whether self distribution or a distributor is better for the brewery as far as opportunity costs and actual costs go.  Either way, the third option results in another mark up to the consumer.  The county controls which products can be sold and for what price.  Bottle shops are forced to take a drastic hit in profit or offer beers at a higher price than other counties in Maryland, but most of all higher than bordering state of Virginia... a craft beer oasis in comparison.  

Now we know the cause, but lets look at the effect. I have visited a few different bottle shops in my area, and I was actually really impressed with the selection.  The problem was the price.  I was finding six packs of California based breweries for $15-$18.  These sixers were sitting at room temperature and had some visible dust.  Green Flash and Firestone Walker make some great beers, but I just don't want to take a chance on their freshness, especially when I would be forking over $3 a bottle.  Depending on the shop you could have to pay $9-$10 for a six pack that would be $7-$8 in Virginia.

However, the price gouging doesn't stop a the sticker.  About a year ago, Montgomery County increased the sales tax on alcohol to 9%.  So not only would I potentially be paying 20%-30% more for my beer, I would then have to pay and addition 9%  in sales tax. Disappointed to say the least.  I am glad my hobby allows me to make flavor  beer on the cheap at home.

To end this discussion on a positive note, I will say that thankfully there were 4 grocery stores in the county which were grandfathered in.  These locations, of which I only am aware of one, somehow have reasonable prices and decent selection.  Maybe they get a volume discount, or maybe it is because they are the only grocery stores allowed to sell booze, but they do have reasonable prices.  All I know is I go to buy craft beer in the county, I will be willing forking over way to much cash, or going the Shoppers Food Warehouse in Germantown.

Brewery Update 10-7-2012

Here we are, into October already!  My Washington Nationals will be playing post season baseball this year, as well as the other local team - Baltimore Orioles, who I will also be rooting for!  Gotta keep up with my 2012-2013 Brew Schedule to ensure I won't go thirsty during the games!  Had a productive day in the Brewery yesterday accomplishing the following:

• Kegged and added the pumpkin pie spices to the Pumpkin Spiced ale - Still working on some potential names, "Naughty Gourd" is at the top of the list.
• Brewed the Northern English Brown ale - Need to reevaluate my boil off rates, it appears my preboil gravities are higher than expected, but then the post boil is lower than expected.
• Sampled the RIS which was brewed back in July - Definitely will benefit from some aging time.  Initial notes are a bold bitterness that is partially from the 3 oz of 15.8% Alpha Acid Warrior hops, but also from the large amount of roasted barley.  The bitterness lends to a very brief "flavor" profile period and is quickly washed away by alcohol warmth.  May or may not be at an acceptable profile for xmas gifts, but thats what happens when it gets brewed in July instead of January!

(Pumpkin Ale Hydrometer Sample definitely has a orange glow)

Also have been working on some labels for the brewery.  Hoping to unveil a few of those soon in a separate post.  Stay tuned!

Flying Dog Brewery Tour

On Saturday my wife and friend accompanied me a few miles north to Frederick, MD to tour the Flying Dog Brewery.  Flying dog originated in Aspen, Colorado as a brewpub, but came to Frederick, MD when the opportunity to expand presented itself through the acquisition of the Frederick Brewing Company.  Flying Dog has a really great story and I would encourage you to take the tour or read "About" it on their webpage.  

When we arrived at the brewery we were able to meet our tour guide - a fellow homebrewer and distant relative through marriage, Jamie.  All tour members got a sample to sip on and the tour began.  I was impressed to find out Flying Dog is currently operating 24 hours a day 6 days week and just about at their capacity around 100,000 barrels.  This allows them to execute some energy efficient practices liking taking the hot water, a byproduct of using the heat exchanger, from cooling one batch of wort down and recycling it to start mashing the next batch. Flying dog has 50 bbl boil kettles which feeds into 200 bbl fermenters.

Flying Dog has its own lab for quality assurance and have two proprietary yeast strains (FDL - Flying Dog Lager and FDW - Flying Dog Wheat) which they use and maintain for many of their beers.  The brewery uses a 2-step filtering process for all of its beers (not including two of their wheat beers) and they have a rock-solid bottling machine (Krones brand is built to last).  I also learned that some years hop crops can be chemically different and will be more or less affected by storage temperature.  After lab analysis of each hop, different beers are allowed to be stored in Flying Dogs warehouse at room temperature before being distributed, as they will not have an adverse affect on the beer.  Those beers which need to be kept cold are housed in their cold room.  Flying dog also hand packages all of its variety packs by pulling 2 beers from 6 different cases and combining them.

After the tour we headed back to the tasting room to sample the great assortment of beers there on tap...at least 15 offerings I believe!  They currently have 3 different single hop Imperial IPAs (using El Dorado, Chinook, and Citra hops), their year-rounds, seasonals (Pumpkin Porter, and Marzen), some gruit (no hops beer) and even some small batch's from the staff.  This is a really cool aspect of Flying Dog as a business - all employees are given the opportunity to pitch an idea (I believe it is monthly) for a beer and have it be brewed on a small scale.

Overall, it was a really great tour.  Many thanks to Jamie for fitting us in and being an awesome guide! My wife took a bunch of pictures so be sure to scroll through those!

(Self Explanatory)

(Would love to have this much Stainless Steel)

(First Part of the Filtering Process, OR a rocket ship?)

(Bottling Line)

(Pallets of wonderful beer!  Forefront is where/how variety packs are made)

(Jamie, our great tour guide!)

(About Half of the Tap handles in the Tasting Room)

(Me on the right, occasional co-brewer on the left)

(Panoramic Cheers! Can see all the tap handles in the back)

(Mrs. Shegogue Brew and Myself)

(2008 Horn Dog Barleywine...delicious)

"Good People Drink Good Beer"

Brewery Update 9-21-2012

I brewed the Pumpkin Ale last weekend.  Had some issues with sparging due to the pumpkin, but was able to successfully extract the wort.  I pitched some WLP002 I had harvested from my mild back in April.  I had a lot of issues trying to determine how much actually yeast I was pitching - 3 pint jars of rinsed yeast from 6 months ago I estimated I had about 30-45 billion viable cells.  I pitched this into a 3 quart starter, which was then chilled and decanted to pitch into the pumpkin ale on Saturday night.  I utilized this great Yeast Calculator which is helpful when you are pitching with a specific quantity of yeast outside of a vial.  I will have a full post on this recipe, the process and tasting notes once it is ready to drink.

This week I received the first package addressed to my residence as a Brewery...that makes me official right?  Thanks to my good friend, I was able to source some cheap spice flavoring for the pumpkin beer, which came in the mail.

This weekend we will be touring the Flying Dog Brewery in Frederick, MD.  I am looking forward to the tour and trying some of their awesome beers.

Seasonals, out of Season

I recently read Billy's article on Whats the Ideal Beer Lineup?    The article analyzes commercial breweries beer lineups and tries to conclude the perfect formula for the number of Year Round, Seasonal and Specialty beers for a brewery.  As with anything worth talking about, there were a wide range of opinions.  An off-topic statement that got to me thinking in his post was that of Seasonal beers and their "seasons."  Are Seasonal's really in, Season?

I find that a lot of breweries seasonal beers are scheduled to be available for a quarter of the year.  This makes sense as our seasons are 3 months each - no flaw in logic here.  So whats the problem.  Well, I find the problem with seasonals is they come out WAY to early, which leads to them being gone WAY to soon.  I am going to use two Delaware breweries as my guinea pigs for this example (mainly cause I have family in DE and often support those breweries), but to my knowledge, everyone doing it.  The Breweries are Fordham and Dogfish Head and the beer for this example is based on the season of fall and and the sweet tastes of Autumn.

Dogfish produces its fall Seasonal called Punkin Ale, while Fordham produces the Spiced Harvest Ale (which to my knowledge doesn't actually contain pumpkin, just the spices).  Dogfish's offering comes out right about the 1st of September every year, where Fordham's beer comes out in Mid August.  Dogfish recommends pairing Punkin Ale with the following: Turkey, roasted duck, lamb, stuffing, dessert dumplings, sharp cheddar.  Fordham suggests paring with Turkey, Ham, braised veggies, pumpkin pie, cheesecake and cinnamon streussel.

(Photo Compliments of LittleKata)

Man, all those foods sound delicious, making me salivate for Thanksgiving....wait, its September!  We just had labor day celebrations.  Its still warm and humid in D.C.  Thanksgiving isn't for another 3 months?  The first time I start thinking about pumpkins is in October, when I decide what to carve in my pumpkin.  After I binge on candy, my mind shifts to rich pumpkin pie, but this is all months away.  To add insult to my pumpkin spice cravings, dogfish even states on their website that if you want to have some for Thanksgiving, you need to stockpile some up cause its is usually GONE come November.  What a buzzkill.

Maybe breweries do this by design, as the beers seem to be all consumed or sold out at the end of the season when you really want it.  Like all of those summer thirst quenchers in late August and early September, when they were finished distributing in July ( Sierra Nevada Summerfest).  Maybe their rationale is if you want it you will then make a mental note and buy more the next year?

I obviously don't run a production brewery, so I don't know if seasonals are done this way because they all want to fall in line.  Or if there is a business reason behind it, but to me the consumer I would like to see the dates pushed back a little bit to encapsulate the larger portion of the desired season.  In the Shegogue Brewery we will be brewing our Pumpkin Ale this week.  It will be ready for consumption at the end of October and should be good past Thanksgiving into December.

So what are your thoughts?  Seasonals in and out too early or are they just right?  Let me know