A Recipe for Great Beer: Homebrewing with Professor Pete Sanderson

Take an inside look into the art and process of beer making with home brewing expert, Professor Pete Sanderson, Program Director of Computer Science at the Otterbein College Mathematical Sciences Department.  

How did you get into beer brewing?

When we moved to Missouri in 1992 from Pittsburgh, I discovered the craft beers I’d grown accustomed to were not available.  I heard there was a home brewing supply shop nearby so decided to give it a try.  I’ve been brewing ever since and am fortunate to now live near a home brewing supply shop in Columbus, Ohio.

Could you tell us about the “all-grain” process?

Nearly all beers are brewed from malted barley.  Malting is the process of first soaking the grains to begin germination then roasting them.  The grain is now loaded with starch.  The malting process is very long so all brewers purchase the barley already malted.   This is where the “all-grain” process begins.  In preparation for brewing, the malted barley must be “mashed.”  The grains are crushed then soaked in 150° F water for 60-90 minutes, a process that converts the starch into fermentable sugars.  The resulting liquid is then strained or “sparged” into the brewing pot.  The resulting “wort” is then heated to boiling to begin the brewing process.  The “spent grains” can be composted, fed to cattle, or dried to add flavor and texture to breads or other baked goods.

Mashing and sparging require about 3 hours and some specialized equipment, so most home brewers bypass this by purchasing malt extract in syrup or powdered form.  The extract is added to boiling water to begin the brewing process.

The brewing process from this point onward is about the same for both extract and all-grain.  Hops are added at the start of the boil to add a bitter counterpart to the sweetness of the malt.  The wort is boiled for 60-90 minutes with flavoring ingredients such as honey, herbs, spices or additional hops added 15 minutes before the end.

After boiling, the wort must be brought back to room temperature as quickly as possible.  Then yeast is added and fermentation begins.  Yeast converts the fermentable sugars to alcohol and carbon dioxide, with the carbon dioxide vented from the fermenter through an airlock.
The all-grain process from mash through yeast addition requires about 5-6 hours.

What responses have you gotten from people when they learn that you brew your own beer?

Responses fall into two categories, depending on who I’m talking with.   If the person is male and between 21 and 35, the response is either “I’ve been seriously thinking of doing this” or “I’ve done some brewing too.”  Otherwise the response is some variation of “Wow, that’s cool!  Can I try some?”

What books would you recommend for those starting beer brewing?

The New Complete Joy of Home Brewing, by Charlie Papazian.  Your first brewing efforts are bound to be filled with anxiety, and Charlie’s mantra is “Relax, don’t worry, have a homebrew.”  Many call this the Bible of home brewing.  His recipes are creative and easy to follow for the beginner.  His sense of humor is so corny that you can’t help but to laugh out loud.  If you can’t find it, go for The Complete Joy of Home Brewing Third Edition, by Charlie Papazian, which is similar only more recent.

What types of beer have you brewed?

I have brewed a wide variety of styles using both the all-grain and extract processes.  All beers are classified as either ale or lager, based on the type of yeast.  Ales generally are fermented for a couple weeks at room temperature and I brew them from spring through fall.  I brew British-style ales such as pale ale, India pale ale, porter, stout, Scotch ale and barleywine.  Specialty ales include apricot ale, spiced holiday ale and espresso stout.  Continental ales that I brew include German-style wheat beers such as hefeweizen, and Belgian ales such as Trippel and Saison.  The German and Belgian ales use specialized yeasts that impart distinctive flavors.

Lagers generally are fermented for months at refrigerator temperatures, so I normally brew them in December and January to lager for the winter.  Most lager styles are German in origin and all the best selling beers in the U.S. are lagers.  Styles that I enjoy brewing are pilsner, Kolsch, Vienna lager, rauchbier (smoked lager), maibock, doppelbock, and other dark lagers.

Most of my beers are brewed from recipes in the book Clone Brews by Tess and Mark Szamatulski.  These recipes are designed to approximate the characteristics of well-known commercial beers.  They can be followed by beginning brewers but are offered without explanation which is why I continue to recommend Papazian’s books to beginners.

For the past couple years I have been experimenting with substituting various herbs for hops in otherwise standard styles.  Hops were not widely used in brewing until the 1600s but herbs and spices have been used for thousands of years.  Last year I brewed an otherwise traditional Kolsch beer with lavender substituted for the flavoring hop (“last 15 minutes”) hops and a porter with star anise to give this dark ale a licorice flavor.

What is your favorite beer to brew?

The brewing experience is distinct from the drinking experience, each enjoyable in its own way.  The experience of tasting your own brew is different from anyone else’s because you also have the memories of the brewing.  I tend to be my own harshest critic, yet enjoy sharing my brewing experiences and beers with family and friends in an annual backyard beer-tasting and cookout.

The beer that I find most enjoyable to brew is the spiced holiday ale because of all the different flavors that go into it and wonderful smells produced during the brew.  Here is a recipe I brewed last August for the 2009 holiday season:
Heat 3.5 gallons of water to 170° F and stir in the following crushed grains:
10 lb Maris Otter
8 oz Crystal Malt 40° L.
4 oz Chocolate Malt
Mash at 152° F for 90 minutes.
Sparge with 5 gallons of 170° F water or until you get 6 gallons yield.
Bring to a boil and add:
1 oz Simcoe hops
Continue boiling for 75 minutes then add:
0.5 oz Cascade hops
1.25 lb star thistle honey
2 dried anise stars
0.5 tsp ground nutmeg
15 whole cloves
8” of cinnamon stick
Peel from 4 freshly-grated oranges
2 oz freshly- grated ginger root
1 tsp dried Irish moss (a clarifying agent)
water to replace what has boiled away
Boil for another 15 minutes then add:
0.5 oz Cascade hops
Turn off the heat and chill to room temperature.
Strain into primary fermenter and add a packet of Wyeast #1028 London Ale liquid yeast.
Ferment for a week then rack to secondary fermenter for another week.
Prime with 0.75 cups corn sugar or 1.25 cups dried malt extract and bottle.
Age in the bottle for as long as you can stand to, no less than 2 weeks but preferably 3 months.
Enjoy!  The resulting ale will be about 6% ABV.

Any number of substitutions are possible.  I never make it the same way twice.

If you could summarize beer brewing into one quote, what would it be?

Charlie Papazian: “Relax, don’t worry, have a homebrew.”

As a computer scientist, my professional life is forward-looking and ever-changing.  Brewing has remained essentially unchanged for hundreds of years and provides a foundation, connecting me in a very real way to my English and German ancestors.