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“The reason I like making my own beer is that I can buy the best ingredients and put as much effort into the process as I feel I need to. Then I’m getting a $5 glass of beer that costs me only 15 cents to make,” says Frank Sullivan, an Aroostook County artist and beer maker. “I would pay $20 for this flavor because it’s worth it.”
Sullivan and his wife, Meryl, ended up in Littleton because they felt something wasn’t worth it— their hectic life in a crowded section of Massachusetts. “Meryl and I were driving really long commutes to work. Our two children were in day care for 11 hour days. It was just not a fun way to live. “
About a year before their move to Maine in 2006, Sullivan had done an exercise where you asked yourself what you would do if you had only had six months to live, if you suddenly received $1 million. “I came up with the same answers,” he says. “I would quit my job and move up north, buy an old farmhouse with a barn, turn the barn into a studio and paint. And here we are.”
His interest in beer making came long before he moved north. “I always liked really good, imported beer and making my own was appealing to me.” However, making brew got set aside for years—until he picked up the hobby again after his move to Maine, doing research into brewing techniques and continually modifying the process.
Things really improved, he says, when he supplemented the liquid malt extract with crushed grains. “It’s a two-hour process when using the extract method,” says Sullivan, “but it turns into a five-hour process when making your own mash, via the all-grain method. You have to crush the grain and convert it into simple, fermentable sugars.” It also requires some special equipment (see sidebar), along with a large boiler that can hold five gallons.
To Sullivan, the extra work of making his own mash is well worth the extra work. “Essentially, it’s the difference between making instant coffee, where you just add water, or grinding fresh beans right before you brew.”
The process requires an artist’s patience and attention to detail. “Working with all-grain brew, you have to maintain the temperature of the mash for an hour,” he says. “It has to be between 140° and 155°. That’s the window where the starch conversion will occur. If it gets hotter than that, you risk destroying the enzymes that convert the starches into simple sugars. That’s not good. If it isn’t hot enough, you won’t get the flavor.”
Displaying a sealed packet of compressed hop flowers, Sullivan says: “These are whole leaf hops, the best way to buy hops. You get the most flavor when they are fresh.” Beer makers can buy compressed hops in pellet form that looks almost like rabbit food, but again Sullivan says the convenience is not worth the loss in flavor. “It’s like cooking with dried, ground herbs from a jar versus using fresh herbs.”
Sullivan keeps his finished beer in five-gallon Cornelius kegs, usually used in the food service industry for soda. “I used to bottle my beer, but bottling beer is a really involved process,” he says. “You have to have really clean and sterilized bottles. Filling them is time-consuming and messy. Then you have to cap them all, and if the caps don’t go on right, you don’t have a tight seal and the beers will be flat,” he says. “I think kegging beer is better. I use a CO2 tank to carbonate the beer, which only takes a couple of days.” In bottles, he says, the beer carbonates naturally, and that can take eight weeks or more. He also likes the control of the CO2 tank. “It has a regulator which allows me to control the level of carbonation, which I set low. I have found that many bottled home brews are over-carbonated.” Plus, he says, “I don’t have to wait as long for that first sip.”
Sheep Stealer’s Strong Ale
Grain:
4 lbs. UK 2-row pale malt
2 lbs. Munich malt
2 lbs. wheat
1 lb. medium crystal malt (Lovibond=40)
1/2 lb. biscuit
1/2 lb. Special B
1 lb. Belgian Aromatic
Mash Water:
2.75 gallons @ 172°F
Mash at 154°F for 60 minutes
Sparge:
With 6 gallons water at 165°F. Treat wort with one packet Burton Water Salts.
Boil: 60 minutes
Hops:
1.5 oz. Domestic Warrior or Magnum (17.4% alpha)
add at beginning of boil
0.5 oz. Domestic Warrior or Magnum (17.4% alpha)
add 50 minutes into boil
1.0 oz. Centennial (10.4% alpha)
add at end of boil, cover, and steep for 15 minutes
Add 1 tsp. Irish Moss 10 minutes before end of boil. Reduce temperature to 80°F and pitch yeast. (Use a British Ale-style liquid yeast, doing a starter at least one day prior to brewing.)
Original gravity: 1.048 @ 80°F
Terminal gravity: 1.008 @ 68°F
Editor’s Note: Seasoned beer makers will understand the terminology in this recipe; beginners will need to start with the books Frank Sullivan suggests on the next page, take a course, or apprentice with another beer maker. For step-by-step instructions for Sheep Stealer’s Strong Ale, see the online version of this story at www.bangormetro.com.
THE BEER ESSENTIALS
Beer making requires equipment, knowledge, and patience. Beyond his fresh mash, whole leaf hops, Cornelius kegs, and CO2 tank, Frank Sullivan’s list of essentials includes the following:
BREW KETTLE
This can be a large stainless steel or aluminum kettle, at least seven gallon capacity, with a false bottom and closeable drain spigot.
MASH TUN
This is a five-gallon insulated brewing vessel with a false bottom and an attached drain spigot. The vessel must be able to maintain constant temperature for at least one hour. The false bottom is designed to hold back grain husks. Sullivan uses one made from a five-gallon plastic cooler such as used for soft drinks.
PROPANE BURNER
Sullivan uses one generally for frying turkeys. It must be able to support a brew kettle and at least six gallons of liquid.
TWO GLASS CARBOYS
The carboys Sullivan uses are five-gallon glass bottles enclosed in a basket works or a wooden box to keep the bottle from being broken.
GOOD REFERENCE BOOKS
Two books Frank Sullivan recommends are The Joy of Home Brewing by Charles Papazian and Homebrewing Guide by Dave Miller.
Sullivan's Step by Step Recipe
STEP 1: Measure out the grain and crush it using a malt mill. Crushing the grain immediately prior to brewing will give you the best flavor, or it can crushed by the supplier.
STEP 2: Measure the mash water (one quart of water to pound of grain) into the brew kettle and bring up to temperature (between 145 and 155 degrees).
STEP 3: Combine crushed grain and mash water into the mash tun. Check temperature to ensure it is between 145 to 155 degrees and check the pH. This may need to be adjusted with gypsum or calcium chloride. Let sit for required mash time, at least 60 minutes.
STEP 4: While mash is proceeding, measure sparge water into brew kettle and bring up to 165 degrees.
STEP 5: Sparge grain into brew kettle. This process involves running off the sweet liquid (wort) from the mash and then rinsing the grain further with more water. Ideally about six gallons of liquid should end up in the brew kettle with the flavorless grain husks in the mash tun.
STEP 6: Transfer brew kettle to propane burner that has previously been lit.(Burners should be used outdoors.) Cover kettle to increase the time takes to reach a boil.
STEP 7: When liquid in kettle reaches a good rolling boil, add bittering hops. Note time. Begin sterilizing carboy, funnel, thermometer, hydrometer, strainers, blow-off hose, etc. into a large bucket containing five gallons of warm water and six oz. of bleach.
STEP 8: Ten minutes before end of boil (depending on recipe) add one tbsp Irish Moss and immerse wort chiller into brew kettle (to sterilize). Add any flavoring/aroma hops according to recipe.
STEP 9: Leaving wort chiller in brew kettle, transfer kettle to kitchen sink and connect intake hose from chiller to sink faucet and outlet hose in sink. Run cold water through chiller and monitor temperature. When temperature reaches 75 degrees stop water flow.
STEP 10: With screened funnel drain off sample from brew kettle into hydrometer tube and check specific gravity. Transfer from kettle into carboy.
STEP 11: When liquid transfer is nearly complete pitch active yeast into wort.
STEP 12: Wort must be aerated to maximize oxygen content for yeast growth. Sullivan uses an oxygenator (liquid bread) to inoculate the wort with 99.9 percent pure oxygen. Or you could shake the bottle like crazy for two minutes.
STEP 13: Add remaining wort and finish filling carboy.
STEP 14: To create an airlock, use about 30 inches of rubber tubing with one end inserted into the carboy. Seal the mouth using plastic kitchen wrap and duct tape. Place the other end of the tubing in six inches of water in a gallon spring water bottle. Set the carboy in a warm dark place allowing it to ferment.
STEP 15: Primary fermentation. Depending on the yeast, fermentation will take from two to four days. When the bubbles in the airlock are at greater than 25- second intervals, fermentation has slowed down enough for the next step.
STEP 16: Secondary fermentation. Dissolve a half a tsp. gelatin powder in half a cup of boiled water and allow to cool.
STEP 17: Place carboy directly under spigot in brew kettle and with a screen in the opening of the carboy drain a sample into the hydrometer. After checking for a specific gravity reading, drain wort into carboy. Seal with airlock and wait at least five days before kegging.
