Join Me In Gawking At These Polish Homebrew Rigs

[Loetz]

I'm surprised at how well organized the Polish homebrewing forum is.

http://translate.googleusercontent.com/ ... YVHnhBYZbg

You can look at breweries based on type by clicking on the appropriate category under the heading on the left.

I'm sizing up the competition for Birofilia 2014. It might be stiff.

 

[PD]

I'm gawking too. some good ideas there on the images for anyone thinking of building a small brewery set up.

:thumb:

 

[Loetz]

I'm really impressed with what I'm seeing on their forums. A lot of them seem to be very knowledgeable. Especially about American styles. I just stumbled onto a very passionate argument about yeast in an American Wheat which actually sited BJCP guidelines.

...I also see that a few of them are still using the 29 liter canners combined with a motor powered agitator for the mash a la old school german hobby brewing...

 

[LeithR]

I've just read one of the threads (Beer and Oxygen) where a Grady Hull is talking about using Olive Oil in preference to Aeration of the wart, it promotes Linoleic acid.
http://translate.googleusercontent....is.pdf&usg=ALkJrhhMxdZo-mGb9jDOpf9i9xh0pg_2uQ

 

[Loetz]

I tried to register on the forum, but the email authentication link just gives me a 404. :cry:

 

[Loetz]

Google Translate does an ok job with the Polish, but every once in a while I come across things like this:

"I gave candy to the Black IPA after 5 days of fermentation."

and that was the only thing the guy said in the post, so there was no context to work with. ha!

 

[adomant]

I've just read one of the threads (Beer and Oxygen) where a Grady Hull is talking about using Olive Oil in preference to Aeration of the wart, it promotes Linoleic acid.
http://translate.googleusercontent....is.pdf&usg=ALkJrhhMxdZo-mGb9jDOpf9i9xh0pg_2uQ

I know this technique is used heavily in ethanol biofuel production, not sure I know of anyone doing it in a brewery at present

 

[zgoda]

These "Lidl canners" as we call them are very popular indeed. It's easy to equip them with pretty sophisticated mash automation, plus they are very cheap. For brewers living in cities this is often the only way to brew because flats have very small kitchens and larger setup simply wouldn't fit.

If you find anything Google has problem to translate just let me know, I'll do it.

 

[Fil]

I've just read one of the threads (Beer and Oxygen) where a Grady Hull is talking about using Olive Oil in preference to Aeration of the wart, it promotes Linoleic acid.
http://translate.googleusercontent....is.pdf&usg=ALkJrhhMxdZo-mGb9jDOpf9i9xh0pg_2uQ

Caught that myself or something similar the other evening when browsing, started very skeptical, but the more i read.. i am gullable tho i didnt think to check for any april 1st dates on any documents?? but when u consider the quantities of olive oil used, (a fraction of the coating of a thin wire dipped a few mm deep) it might just be worth a try,, some of the photos supporting the theory had mad fermentations escaping
their vessels.. the biology is way over my head.. is it a prank??

 

[Loetz]

These "Lidl canners" as we call them are very popular indeed. It's easy to equip them with pretty sophisticated mash automation, plus they are very cheap. For brewers living in cities this is often the only way to brew because flats have very small kitchens and larger setup simply wouldn't fit.

If you find anything Google has problem to translate just let me know, I'll do it.

I have one of these canners myself, but I just use it as a HLT. I've always been a little skeptical about their use as a mash tun, but I guess I don't know why. I guess I worry about uneven heating and it seems like the agitator would be just one more thing to build and clean. I live in an apartment myself and I find no problem with using the ebay thermoports. They maintain temp and are comparatively affordable. Plus you don't need to lauter.

Hey, if you know the admins over at Piwo.org, you might want to let them know that their registration doesn't seem to be working. I'm still getting a 404 when I click on the authentication link in the email. It's fine for me since I don't really need to post there anyway (I just wanted to be able to look at some pictures, etc.) But it might be a problem for some other people who are trying to join.

Oh and are you planning to go to birofilia this year? I'm pretty confident that I want to submit a Cascadian Dark Ale and an American Wheat. I wonder how many people I would be competing against.

 

[godfrey]

Google Translate does an ok job with the Polish, but every once in a while I come across things like this:

"I gave candy to the Black IPA after 5 days of fermentation."

and that was the only thing the guy said in the post, so there was no context to work with. ha!

I think as you move over the translation words should highlight yellow
then you can see alternative suggestions

 

[Loetz]

actually I think that he had put the candied sugar in his fermenter after fermentation ended. I read some later posts suggesting that he should have 'given it candy' during the boil, so I'm guessing that's what it was. Either way, it's fun to picture him offering skittles to a bucket of Black IPA.

 

[zgoda]

Hi, Loetz, I'm going to Zywiec as usual, I'll be serving my beers on "the island" in main tent.

Competition is fierce, in less popular categories it's 70-80 entries, the most popular gets 140-150. American wheat is moderately popular but American black ale will be hardest I guess. I'm planning to enter my beers in dubbel, export stout and bitter, maybe imperial stout too but I didn't brew it yet. This is the highest profile comp here, beers in final round are usually of really high quality. If you could make it to visit Zywiec you could taste final round entries after results are made public, quite interesting.

I'll ask Tomek the admin to look at the registration issue.

 

[Loetz]

ha! well I guess I won't get my hopes up too high.

I think I saw something about this beer island on piwo.org. How does it work? Are all of the homebrewers expected to share their brew there? Are you selling it or giving it away? Is it like you have a stand and anyone can come up and get beer from you, or is it more like a table of friends sharing beers?

I thought about the imperial stout, but I don't really like the type that BJCP describes. I don't like all of those dark fruit, barley wine flavors in my stout. I prefer an 'american double stout' as they call it on beeradvocate. It's really just an american stout, but stronger. The focus is more on roast, chocolate and coffee.

http://beeradvocate.com/beer/style/157

 

[zgoda]

We can not sell homebrew, as anywhere else in EU.

It's not completely for free, though. Visitors are expected to drop 1 token for a 100ml taster in special hole in the table but they can not give it to us. Nice circumvention but afaik perfectly legal. This year i had 2 cornies, mild and bitter and i was giving it away for free because i wanted to show people my 3% abv beer, mind you, it was weakest beer served there (see me there -> http://www.piwo.org/gallery/image/4097-p6140352/ the guy in dark shirt).

Many people just come on Saturday with only few bottles to share or swap, it's not required to serve beer to regular visitors but it's of course well received. Some bring cornies, some bottles, some even regular 30 litre kegs. You are not required to stay under the tent for all the time, there are nice places all over the old brewery you can sit and taste other beers available on the Beers of the World alley. We had an informal tasting of beers we try to organize into new competition category as "Polish farmhouse ale", i think in 2014 we will try with "country festive beer" but it's not decided yet.

There is also large exchange of beer memorabilia in the warehouse, tens of people sell glasses, old bottles, rare beers, beer mats and so on. You can visit Museum of Zywiec brewery for free on Saturday and there are 1-2 groups allowed for guided tour of new brewery located just other side of street.

Pics from 2013 edition -> http://www.piwo.org/gallery/category/29-edycja-2013/ and 2012 -> http://www.piwo.org/gallery/category/11-edycja-2012/.

 

[Loetz]

Looks like fun! When do you think they will announce the dates? I booked a room already for July 11 & 12, but I can cancel for free if those aren't the dates. Honestly I hope it's the 18th and 19th as that is a holiday here in Austria, so I wouldn't have to take extra days off of work.

What would a country festive beer be? A saison with lublin hops? I have a feeling that I won't participate in that one since I don't really like saisons, but I will gladly drink your beer. :drink:

Could be fun to do the brewery tour, but I'll have the dog with me. Maybe I can have the dog sit outside with the wife while I walk around the brewery.

Do you go to the contests in Budapest and Slovakia? I'm thinking about going to the one in Budapest as well. That's actually an easy trip for me to make.

 

[zgoda]

It's 3rd weekend of June, but because June begins in Sunday i'm not absolutely sure. Anyway I made a question on their FB page, will wait and see.

I don't know what beer will it be, the decision will be made in late February. I'm opting for festive - beer that was brewed for harvest Festivals, before XVIIIc by people then by innkeepers who paid landlord to have local monopoly on beer and spirits. It was stronger version of usual daily beer (12.5-14 Plato vs. 8-9 Plato) and was brewed as last brew in early May from barley malt, unmalted wheat or wheat malt, and sometimes other unmalted grains. It's not a competition, we rather try to brew something unusual just to have an hour of tasting fun.

The Bela Vrana comp is outside of my interest this year. I don't know how will it be with Slovak Homebrewing Star.

 

[Loetz]

Yea, I'm not sure what to think of the two Slovakian competitions, but I have a good feeling that I'll go to the Budapest one. There were a lot of categories last year...

Düsseldorf Altbier (7C)
English pale ale (8C)
Brown porter (12A)
Dry Stout (13A)
American IPA (14B)
German Wheat beer (15A)
Dark strong Belgian ale (18E)
Fruit beer (20)

I might try the American IPA category if they offer that again.

Let me know if you hear anything about dates for the festival in Poland!

 

[zgoda]

Looks like fun! When do you think they will announce the dates? I booked a room already for July 11 & 12, but I can cancel for free if those aren't the dates. Honestly I hope it's the 18th and 19th as that is a holiday here in Austria, so I wouldn't have to take extra days off of work.

Confirmed, it's July 20-21.

 

[Loetz]

Cool! I have a room booked for that & it's a holiday in Austria so I have Thursday-Sunday off from work!

..and I think we both mean to be saying June and not July, right?