Brew-In-A-Can: The APA Experiment

Well shit. What was clearly advertised as a "Beer Pack" on BeerSchool arrived at my door as a big ol can of mess. I had been expecting something along the lines of the Brewers Best kits I started homebrewing with and was looking forward to a nice and easy extract brew day. And for a decent price at that. ￦60,000 ($54.00) for the all inclusive kit and a packet of dry yeast figured to produce about 50 beers.

Then this tub-o-worthless showed up. But, the money was spent and there was shiny new equipment begging to be used in some fashion or another. There was also little to no chance the beer would taste worse or have less flavor than Hite, so why not give it a go? So I threw 8 liters of water on to boil and got going with what's easily my most shameful moment as a homebrewer.

As with everything there was some silver lining. I'm currently working with an amazingly badass stovetop that gets water up to a boil much faster than any previous setup I've had. Within 15-20 minutes the water was ready to go and it was time for me to pop open the dented and appropriately disrespected lid on this future "beer."

And there it was in all its glory: thick and goopy with the hops already tossed in like the finest oregano of a canned pasta sauce. What else was in the can is something of a mystery, but I'm guessing roughly 3kg of amber extract, cascade hops swept off the floor of a real brewery and shipped over, and some very misplaced love. It did have decent color when mixed in, smelled kinda like beer and had an OK thickness. Treating it like an extract brew I boiled for 60 minutes, cooled it down, and threw it in the fermenter with an extra 8 liters to top it off.

The brewday ended with a 1.042 Original Gravity which isn't great, but it could've been much worse considering where the contents were coming from. In hindsight I would have added less top off water to the fermenter and dealt with a smaller batch, but the habits of a 5 gallon extract brewer die hard. The fermentation wasn't anything overly exciting to see happen, but it did the job and produced some alcoholic content. The Final Gravity was 1.010 resulting in a 4.2% ABV which... isn't great, but it's only a small step down from what's readily available here and is still far superior in taste.
 
  

As of this post's writing it's had three weeks in the bottle and has vastly improved with each week. The sweetness of a strictly extract brew is going away more and more with the passing of time, though I'm sure it will never truly be eliminated. It's not the finest beer I've made, but it's rounding into a very drinkable ale that most definitely won't lead to a hangover of any serious magnitude.

All in all this was a great way to test run all of my makeshift equipment and ensure it was in good working order before starting on the long and glorious journey of Brew In A Bag. It also gave me an excuse to match my friend's ridiculous name choice of Bald Eagle APA (a combination of the 'Merican spirit and my recent war on cranial follicles) with an equally ridiculous label. I can't say I would do it again, and certainly wouldn't recommend it, but it's been a fun learning experience.

German Bar 2 Weizen

In typical Korean fashion German Bar 2 in Gwangju has already closed in favor of a new German Bar 1... which is technically German Bar 3 since 2 opened after the original 1 closed. Confused? Doesn't matter. The beer is one of the best I've found in my short time here.  Certainly on the smaller side of the scale, German Bar is a true microbrewery in Korea's sixth largest city and a delightful oasis in the decent-beer-desert that is this country. At the time of my vist they were offering a Dunkel and a Weizen, I enjoyed both but only managed to take notes on one.

I was pleased as punch to actually smell wheat and yeast in a draft beer with quite a bit of clove, coriander and a lot of citrus to boot. The taste followed suit starting out wheat-yeasty and finishing with a lovely amount of florally citrus that stuck around for a while after. Certainly thicker than any other beer in the house, this weizen was well balanced and still thin enough to enjoy as a session beer.

Overall this was easy to drink, highly enjoyable, and most importantly real beer. If you find yourself in Gwangju and can somehow locate whichever incarnation of German Bar is open, pull up a stool and enjoy.

De-Labeling Made Easy

Even if it's a fantastic brewer's bottle you've decided to make Captain Planet proud by reusing, it's a good idea to peel away the artwork to avoid confusion in the fridge. Should you leave an Oatmeal Stout label on your double IPA an unsuspecting bystander may be in for a rude (yet still delicious) awakening. Worse yet, you could leave a Cass label on there and even you will recoil before remembering the actual contents.

Aside from confusion, de-labeling bottles is an easy way to give them an extra sanitary soak before adding your hard earned barley pop. When you're in a situation like the one I've found myself in, you may have to barter and scrounge for usable bottles, so giving them an extra bath will be necessary.

In the typical Korean kitchen setup you won't have a lot of space to complete projects like this. Fret not. This is the first of many examples where that ₩5,000 tub you bought will be worth its weight in gold. First thing you'll want to do is cram as many bottles as possible into that tub and fill them with the hottest water your tap can manage. Be sure to fill them all the way or they'll float unruly in their new bath. Once the bottles are filled I usually boil some water in the kettle and add that to the mix. Not only will the hot water help dissolve the glue holding on the labels, it'll help kill any bacteria living in what you can now proudly claim as your bottles.

As a side note: even though there are some green bottles in the pictures, do not use these if it can be avoided. Dark brown bottles let in the least amount of light and therefore are the best, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

At this point in the cleaning process, the Beer Craft book offers one of their best tips: add OxiClean to your tub-o-bottles. Though I haven't attempted to get this here in Korea yet, it's readily available at damn near any store in the States and it works like gangbusters. Leave just about any bottle in OxiClean water for 10-15 minutes and the vast majority of the labels will fall right off.

Should you find yourself in an OxiClean-less world, or prefer to use nothing but good ol hot water, meet your new best friend: the straight razor. This whopping ₩200 blade makes de-labeling bottles a breeze, and will come in handy for quite a few other homebrew projects (more on this in the bottling bucket post). Using the straight razor is also a great way to eliminate the glue residue that often remains for labels that peel away or fall off.



A lot of people could really care less about these things, but having truly clean bottles matters here at Woodtooth Brewing. Maybe it's just the OCD... who knows. If you're not overly picky about how pristinely clean your bottles are, but would still like to have the original label off, may I present the best thing about Hite: ridiculously easy to remove labels.

 

Because Hite collects and reuses their bottles the same way any good homebrewer would, their labels don't have the stingiest of glue holding them in place. With the breifest of brief soakings both the neck and main labels peel away without any need for a razor. If time is of the essence, or you just don't care about shiny clean bottles, Hite is the bottle for you. Just steer clear of drinking it beforehand.

But what if you're living in a land that actually loves beer? Should you be lucky enough to live in ignorant bliss of the swamp water that is Hite or Cass, you most likely have a lovely collection of microbrews that need their labels removed. Here's what I found in my time cleaning back in the States:

The Good

• Two Brothers - Labels are stickers that will peel off without having to soak em.
• Abita - Fall off easily after a soak.
• Dogfishhead - Fall off easily after a soak.
• Magic Hat - Easy after soak, but a lot of glue leftover.

The Medium

• Bridgeport - Easy with a blade after soak.
• Sam Adams - Easy with a blade after soak.
• Founders - Will require a little work with your blade skills, but nothing terrible.

The Recyclables

• Harp - Label's stingy as all get out. If you have extra empties just throw these in the recycling.
• Dark Horse - Drink this beer and love it. Then forget the bottle even exists. Flat out not worth the effort.

This is in no way the end-all be-all list of labels, so if you have any recommendations please feel free to leave some comments below.