Blending Calculator - pH, ABV and Carbonation

Below is some background and link to the calculator mentioned in my NHC Seminar: How to Brew, Blend and Maintain an Acid Beer . This calculator adds a few features to Mike's (Mad Fermentationist) Blending Priming Calculator.

Here is the google doc link - Blending Calculator - pH, ABV and Carbonation (EDIT - Updated 11.13.18 - Do not request edit permission. Go to File -> "Download as"

I have made the following changes from Mike's original work:

• Formatted this to easily print on one page and act like a batch summary sheet
• Added ABV calcs
• Added component weight feature for blending
• Added pH calcs
• Added priming yeast calcs + Acid Shock Starter
• Added bottle count feature

The calculations have been used and were found to be fairly accurate over the past year of blending and bottling beers at Council Brewing. 

P.S. It was great meeting so many of you and thanks for the great support during my talk.
P.S.S. I'm always looking for ways to improve this tool - so please email (Jeffrey.E.Crane at gmail) with comments (or questions)

NHC 2015 - San Diego: Acid Beer Seminar + Brett Strain Tasting

We are now just 2 weeks away from National Homebrewers Conference (NHC) in San Diego. This will actually be my first conference (unfortunate timing the past years). I will be speaking this year at the conference as well. Knowing that this event is large enough that we get a lot of  homebrewers travelling to attend, I wanted to make sure I try to meet as many of you as possible that (actually are still following) share the passion of brewing sour/wild/Brett beers. Please reach out in the comments or while you are at the conference (name tags help with this).

 With that being said, I've put together my schedule for the show that is geared toward sour and wild brewing.

	Wednesday, June 10	Thursday, June 11	Friday, June 12	Saturday, June 13
9:00 AM				Mastering the Art of Hop-Fu!
9:15 AM
9:30 AM
9:45 AM
10:00 AM
10:15 AM			Intro to Professional Brewing QA	Taking Funky Beers from Homebrew to Pro
10:30 AM
10:45 AM
11:00 AM
11:15 AM
11:30 AM
11:45 AM
12:00 PM	Kearny Mesa Brew Bus
12:15 PM
12:30 PM
12:45 PM		Practical Blending and Post Fermentation Adjustments for the Homebrewer	Brewing with Coffee: Approaches & Techniques from Dry-Beaning to Home Roasting	Hops: Grow and Enjoy Your Own
1:00 PM
1:15 PM
1:30 PM
1:45 PM
2:00 PM		Wild and Spontaneous Fermentation at Home	Panel: Taking Homebrewing to the Pro Level, From Concept and Design Through Opening	Berliner and Beyond: Sour Mashing and Its Applications
2:15 PM
2:30 PM
2:45 PM
3:00 PM
3:15 PM			How to Brew, Blend and Maintain an Acid Beer
3:30 PM
3:45 PM
4:00 PM
4:15 PM
4:30 PM		Keynote
4:45 PM			Tasting Panel for the Eureka Brewing Great Brett Experiment
5:00 PM
5:15 PM
5:30 PM
5:45 PM
6:00 PM				Banquet & Award Ceremony
6:15 PM
6:30 PM
6:45 PM
7:00 PM		Welcome Reception & Toast featuring BA member breweries
7:15 PM
7:30 PM			Club Night featuring AHA member clubs
7:45 PM
8:00 PM
8:15 PM
8:30 PM
8:45 PM
9:00 PM
9:15 PM
9:30 PM
9:45 PM
10:00 PM
10:15 PM
10:30 PM				Social Club
10:45 PM
11:00 PM
11:15 PM
11:30 PM
11:45 PM
12:00 AM

My seminar is going to be at 3:15 on Friday afternoon in the Pacific Salon. I'm quite happy with how this presentation is coming together. The focus is on practical tips to produce beer with a strong lactic acid character along with a house Brett flavor. I think there is some good original content and the process has been working well for us at  Council Brewing. We will also be serving 2 Council Brewing beers during the talk - 1. Our acid beer - which has never been poured 2. Our house Saison - Farmers Gold

I know there is already a lot going on at the conference, but I would really like to organize a time to get together and taste through the 20 Eureka Brewing Brett strains. It's been over a year since they were all tasted and over 1.5 yr since they were brewed. I figured maybe some of the other participants would be attending and we could find an area to taste through these beers. I put a tentative time on the schedule above. Please leave a comment or email me (Jeffrey.E.Crane at gmail) if you are interested. (no conference ticket needed)

During the Welcome Reception, I'll be pouring some of our Beatitude Tart Saison at the Council Brewing booth. And my plan for club night is to have some bottles of homebrew available at the QUAFF booth and likely walking around with a few. 

Exploring Oak Aging Alternatives Part 2: Cost

This second part in the series attempts to compare the cost for different oak aging alternatives as well as providing some resources that can be used by the homebrewer and pro brewer. I want to clarify that this is only covering cost. As a person that cares about the product they produce, cost is always evaluated separately from quality. This was more put together as a good reference to know general price points for the different alternative oak aging options.


 Cost matters (size doesn't, well not totally true wait till part 4 of the series). The table below was created based on recommendations from the manufacturer as to how much of their product is needed to be equivalent to a "new barrel". "New Barrel" refers to how much oak flavor you will get if your wine (or beer) was placed in a freshly toasted ~60 gal oak barrel. This quantity is likely too much for almost every beer style and is geared toward oak forward wine styles. The typical amounts to use in different beers styles will be discussed in Part 4: Extraction and Use.

Oak Cubes	Qty for "New Barrel" Flavor	Cost $/lb*	$/"New Barrel"	Vendor
American Oak Med +	24 oz	$20.00	$30.00	MoreWine
Hungarian Oak Med +	24 oz	$25.00	$37.50	MoreWine
French Oak Med +	24 oz	$33.00	$49.50	MoreWine
Amer. Oak med +	24 oz	$6.50	$9.75	Oak Chips, Inc **
Fren. Oak med +	24 oz	$8.50	$12.75	Oak Chips, Inc **
Oak Spirals	Qty for "New Barrel" Flavor	Cost $	$/"New Barrel"	Vendor
American Oak Med +	6 pack-1.5"x 9"	$50.00	$50.00	The Barrel Mill
French Oak Med +	6 pack-1.5"x 9"	$79.00	$79.00	The Barrel Mill
Oak Chips	Qty for "New Barrel" Flavor	Cost $/lb	$/"New Barrel"	Vendor
American Oak Med +	24 oz	$6.00	$9.00	MoreWine
French Oak Med +	24 oz	$9.00	$13.50	MoreWine
Honeycombs	Qty for "New Barrel" Flavor	Cost $	$/"New Barrel"	Vendor
Multiple Wood Types	Barrel Pack	$55.00	$55.00	Black Swan Cooperage
Staves Segments	Qty for "New Barrel" Flavor	Cost $	$/"New Barrel"	Vendor
French Oak Med +	96 oz	$20.00	$120.00	MoreWine
Staves	Qty for "New Barrel" Flavor	Cost $	$/"New Barrel"	Vendor
American Oak Med +	Barrel Replica	$99.00	$99.00	MoreWine
French Oak Med +	Barrel Replica	$124.00	$124.00	MoreWine
*Shipping not included
** Pricing may vary, must request

As I transitioned over the last year into the commercial brewing side one of my main duties was to source the equipment and supplies for our barrel program at Council Brewing. I soon realized that it was not quite as user friendly as ordering homebrew supplies. I first started looking for used wine and spirit barrels by checking the wine business used barrel classifieds. This was a good start and I still use it, but it is mostly geared toward medium to large producers. (If possible, the ideal situation is to find a local wine or spirit producer to partner with). However, several of the barrel brokers would post as well. I decided to compile their company names and list what they generally offer. This should at least help people get started and find a few contacts.

If you have any questions or any reference information for me to add please leave a comment.

Barrel Program Resources Barrel Brokers Company Website Racks Spirit Barrels Wine Barrels Country Connection countryconnection.biz     X           X Quality Wine Barrels  qualitywinebarrels.com     X           X            X Barrels Unlimited, Inc barrelsunlimited.com           X            X The Barrel Broker barrelbroker.com/barrelsracks.php     X           X           X Griffin Barrel bourbonbarrel at yahoo.com           X Rocky Mountain Cooperage rockymountainbarrelcompany.com/brewers           X           X Kelvin Cooperage kelvincooperage.com           X Barrel Builders barrelbuilders.com           X 5 Star Barrels fivestarbarrels.com           X Bungs Alasco Rubber & Plastics Corp. alasco.com Dalco Duall Complete Bungs Oak Alternatives Oak Chips, Inc. (OCI) oakchipsinc.com Oak Cubes, Segments, Chips, Staves Barrel Mill thebarrelmill.com Oak Barrels, Spirals Oak Infusion Spiral infusionspiral.com Oak Spirals Black Swan Cooperage blackswanbarrels.com Multiple Wood Honeycombs, Barrel