The wild and wacky world of beer infusions

need some water, dry malt extract and sanitizer.

A stir plate, which can easily be made at home, is highly recommended to continually add oxygen to the starter, which is crucial in growing the yeast cell population in a starter. If a stirplate is not available, simply giving the vessel a shake every now and again is better than not adding oxygen at all.

Establishing an ideal yeast cell count

It is important to have a target number of viable yeast cells when formulating a starter. This is determined by the beer batch’s volume in relation to the original gravity. Generally speaking, an ale requires 0.75 million viable yeast cells for every milliliter of wort per every degree plato, while lagers require 1.5 million viable yeast cells for every milliliter of wort per degree plato. So, for example, a 5-gallon batch of 1.064 ale wort would require about 227 billion viable yeast cells: (0.75 million viable yeast cells) x (18925 mL of wort) x (16° Plato) = ~227 billion yeast cells Determining gravity, temperature & volume for a starter

Gravity: Aim to have the gravity in the 1.030-1.040 range, which will promote healthy growth without introducing too much unneeded stress.

Temperature: In general, aim to keep yeast starters around 72°F (22°C), with ales being able to be a few degrees warmer and lagers a few degrees cooler.

Volume: Determining volume can be a very involved process. The volume of the starter in relation to the number of viable yeast cells added, termed the inoculation rate, will determine the growth potential for the yeast starter.

Making a yeast starter: The steps

Now, all that’s left is to actually make the starter! The following are general instructions that can be applied to all sizes of starter:

Determine the appropriate starter volume to achieve the target number of viable yeast cells for your beer. Remember, you can use an online yeast calculator like the one linked above to quickly determine these variables.

Weigh out 1 gram of dry malt extract for every 10 milliliters of target starter volume.

Add the dry malt extract to the vessel you will be boiling in.

Add enough water to the boil vessel (dry malt already added) to reach the target starter volume.

Add about 1/4 teaspoon of yeast nutrient to the boil vessel. You can use slight less for starters under 1-2 L and slightly more for ones larger.

Bring to a gentle boil for about 15 minutes. Keep the boil vessel covered to maintain as much of the volume as possible.

After 15 minutes, allow the wort to cool.

If needed, transfer the liquid to the vessel that will hold the starter. (Note: As with beer, anything that comes into contact with the starter wort post-boil should be properly clean and sanitized).

Pitch yeast into the chilled starter wort.

Use a stir plate or intermittent shaking to add vital oxygen to the starter.

Pitch into beer once ready!

Pitching a yeast starter

Starters are typically either pitched during high krausen or after active fermentation has subsided.

Pitching at high krausen, or at the height of the fermentation’s activity, which typically is 12-18 hours after pitching the yeast into the starter is the most convenient method. Simply pitch the entire contents of the starter into the wort of your homebrew once it’s ready.

Be sure the temperature is within 5-15°F of the wort’s temperature when using this method. If it’s too hot or too cold, it can shock the yeast and ultimately create problem fermentations.

Warm starters or starters with volumes more than 5% of the main batch volume need additional preparation. First, allow the fermentation to basically complete and then chill the starter by placing it in the fridge until it is near the temperature of the wort it is intended for. Decant the liquid and pitch only the yeast cake.

Home brewing can be a wonderful hobby, and a great way to save money. If you love the taste of quality beer but not the high cost of buying it, making your own home brew can be a very smart idea, especially if you incorporate the tips listed above into your first home brewed batch.

If you’re tired of the same old beer concoctions, consider infusing your beer with these things instead.

(Just be sure to warn your friends before you inevitably force them to taste what you made, aight?)

The explosion of the craft beer industry has changed the nature of beer drinking. Where there were once just a few kinds of pilsner and lager available, today there are hundreds of different options with many new kinds of flavor.

What that means for you beer lovers is that you can try an endless parade of exotic taste combinations, and there is almost certainly something that will appeal to almost every palate — even if you aren’t a big fan of the brewed stuff.

For some devoted beer aficionados, though, this great bounty is not nearly enough. There are a few of you out there who want to experiment with wild new combinations of tastes, and can’t (or straight up won’t) wait for the craft brewers to get around to their ideas.

We’re talking about the types of brave explorers who have figured out that they can use the French press to infuse new flavors into their beer in the comfort of their own homes. You know the ones.

For those beer devotees, there’s the option of beer infusing. Yes, beer infusing, which is exactly what it sounds like. You infuse your beer with some wild and wacky stuff — much of which works when it absolutely, totally should not.

If you want to get into the exciting world of beer infusing, then you won’t need to look far or spend a lot of money for your new hobby. All you need is a French press and some common spices, herbs, fruits, and such that can easily be found in grocery stores and home brewing supply shops.

As a rule, you should let your infusions steep for three minutes before you strain and taste them. Letting it steep longer than this will strengthen the flavor, but it could easily overstrengthen it. However, you shouldn’t worry about the outcome too much. You only need to risk one bottle and a few cheap ingredients for each experiment, so you aren’t losing much if it doesn’t work out. You also might end up discovering an incredible flavor combination!

If you need some inspiration, here are a few recipes for different infusions for your beer: Ginger Grapefruit Ale

Zest a medium sized grapefruit and put it into the French press.

Squeeze the juice from two grapefruit segments into the press as well, and add the pulp as well.

Dice 2 teaspoons of fresh ginger root and put it in the press, along with 12 ounces of pale ale.

Infuse and enjoy.

Smokey Oak and Coffee Stout

Add 1 tablespoon of coffee beans, coarsely ground, together with ¼ cup of smoked oak chips, to your French press.

Pour in a 12 ounce Imperial Stout, and let it steep.

You should know, though, that this is one robust infusion. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

Chocolate Nibs and Fruit

Put 1 tablespoon of cocoa nibs into your French press, and pour a 12 ounce fruity wheat beer over them.

The chocolate nibs add a rich, bitter flavor that acts as a counterpoint to the fruity tastes of the beer.

Oak, Smoke, Cocoa, Coconut

Put 1 tablespoon of shredded, unsweetened coconut into the press. Add 1 tablespoon of cocoa nibs and ¼ cup of smoked oak chips.

Pour in a 16 ounce bottle of a bitter ale.

The resulting complex flavor is something that any beer lover has to try.

Infusion is a fun and inexpensive hobby that you can pursue at home. You can use it to explore the true potential of the brewer’s craft on your own, or you can force your buddies to try out your “interesting” concoctions when they stop by randomly. But whatever you do, make sure you warn them what you’re doing beforehand. We don’t need any longstanding friend beefs forming from this little infusion experiment, now do we. — DGO Staff

Considering a shift to the Colorado #vanlife?

Don’t jump on that ship until you’ve gotten prepared, goose. Very, very prepared.

The state of Colorado tends to attract residents who are looking for alternative living spaces, whether out of necessity or lifestyle preference. That includes residents who are opting into long term car camping — or #vanlife, if you’re interested in that sort of thing — which is just one reason why it’s so common to see decked out sprinter vans with blacked out windows in the parking lots of grocery stores or local parks. Those aren’t just expensive vans; they’re homes — literal mobile homes.

People opt to live out of their cars for various reasons, especially in our fair state, which caters to those who are looking for an outdoorsy, more transient lifestyle. But with the climbing cost of traditional homes, this type of housing is becoming even more popular — especially among those who aren’t able to swing high rent prices on one full time job. They could perhaps afford rent instead by working two or three jobs, but that lifestyle can be so exhausting that life in a car often seems better by comparison. (Plus, what good is it to live in Colorado when you’re working so much that you can’t take advantage of what it offers?) Others may opt into car living because driving back and forth from work is too exhausting, or because they simply want to drive everywhere around the country and experience different places without having to spend on a hotel room every single day.

Whatever your reasons to live out of your car, it can help to go in with a clear idea of the challenges involved, and the steps you need to take to overcome them. So before you make the full-time shift to official long term car camper, here’s what you should know.

You’ll need to make some serious arrangements to sleep well.

As you may have gathered, getting a good night’s sleep is one of the biggest challenges of living out of a car. To begin, most cars aren’t designed to allow you to lie down flat. If you have an SUV or minivan that allows the rear seats to be folded down to form a large, flat surface — such as the Honda CR-V, Subaru Forester, Toyota Sienna, Chevy Astro, or Ford Transit — you’re in luck. You’ll just need to plop down a mattress. The Toyota Prius is popular among car dwellers for the way the seats fold down flat as well.

Seats can be folded down in other vehicles, too, but the space that’s created can come with level differences. If you live in a less than ideal vehicle, it could be a good idea to build a wooden sleeping platform for the space that you clear up by folding the seats down. You could even build a box platform that you can store stuff in.

Sleeping in a parked car can be illegal in some jurisdictions, and it’s something to worry about. If you can afford it, it would be a good idea to buy an old panel van. That way, passersby wouldn’t be able to see you sleeping inside it.

You’ll need a list of good overnight parking spots.

Car camping isn’t exactly welcome in some areas, and that’s true even for Colorado, where this type of lifestyle is anything but taboo. What that means is that finding the right place to park in your general area on different nights of the week is important. And, it’s a good idea to not use the same place more than once a week.

It’s safer to find a well-lighted spot rather than a dark area. Curtains over your windows could help make sure that it’s dark enough inside; you don’t want to

use newspapers or blankets. These can announce to anyone passing that you are living in your car and get you into trouble. Tinting is also a good idea, both for the darkness and to make it hard for any jerks to look inside for stuff to steal.

Every state except Ohio and North Dakota, however, prohibits tinting the entire windshield. Other states have specific restrictions on how dark you can get and what areas you can cover. You want to avoid violating the law if you are to not call attention to yourself.

Accessible truck stops and parking lots set up by churches and nonprofits — like Safelot in Colorado — are good ideas, too. You might even obtain your employer’s permission to park in the company parking lot. Walmart parking lots are also notoriously friendly to car campers, so don’t overlook well-lit lots like those when you need a safe place to catch some sleep.

You will need to know where to access bathrooms.

Finding a quiet, safe spot to park overnight is one thing; having access to facilities is another. You may need to get a pee jar for when you need to urinate at some inconvenient hour. But you do need a real toilet and shower the rest of the time.

Many people living out of their cars, especially those in tourist-driven areas, will sign up for memberships at a 24hour fitness center that has showers and toilets. Not only can such a membership give you access to bathrooms, but you also get access to all of the workout equipment, which can come in handy for a few different reasons — not the least of which is for working out. Staying fit can be especially important to get your circulation going when you spend a good part of your time in a cramped car.

You might also be able to find a 24hour storage facility that offers members bathroom facilities.

Do whatever you can to avoid sleeping with the engine running.

This may seem like a more obvious tip for new car campers, but it’s not. It’s common for car campers to deal with issues from running vehicle engines constantly, in part because staying warm or cool is one of the great challenges that come with living in a car. The current heatwave (or any frigid Colorado winter night) might lead you to consider running the engine to power the heater or air conditioner, but it can be very costly to deal with. It can wear out your engine prematurely, and more importantly, it could lead to carbon monoxide poisoning. People do die sleeping in their cars with the engine running.

In winter, it’s a good idea to buy the warmest blankets you can find, get a zero-degree sleeping bag, run the engine to warm up the car for a few minutes, and simply go to bed early. A $25 car space heater may seem like a good fix, but it really wouldn’t be a very workable option, considering how much power they draw. You don’t need to crack a window for oxygen, because cars aren’t airtight and tend to have enough air, anyway.

To stay cool in the summer, cracking the windows and using a car fan are the first ideas to try. A 24 V portable camping air conditioner could be a possibility, but it can cost hundreds of dollars and require car batteries that you would somehow have to charge every day. It would make more sense to buy a portable evaporative cooler. These can be very effective in low-humidity conditions and use very little power. A cooling blanket made of special, thermo-regulating phase-change materials and a cooling mattress are worth trying as well.

Plan for food, which can be your biggest expense.

Unless money is no object, food needs to be carefully planned for. The cost of eating out for every meal tends to compound quickly, which is why so many people who live out of their cars will eat at restaurants with affordable $4 menus or live on canned food.

It’s also possible to cook with an induction cooktop when car camping, and it’s not terribly labor or cost intensive,

which is sweet. For example, you could buy an inverter for your car to be able to plug one in, or you could go to a public park or picnic area that offers an AC outlet. Some people simply choose to work at a restaurant where they can get free food instead.

Saving money should still be a freaking priority if possible.

When you live an unusual life — i.e. you live in a camper van or another type of vehicle — it can feel as if the normal rules of life don’t have to apply to you. And, to be fair, some won’t. You don’t have to mow your lawn or weed a garden, and you don’t have to do basic maintenance on household appliances or other expensive gadgets. That can lead to justifying yourself frequent indulgences — but that’s often at the cost of being able to save money.

Saving a few bucks (or way, way more) is important, however. Depending on why you’re living in a vehicle, it can mean the difference between putting off necessary expenses and doing things like taking regular care of your health in a medical emergency, paying for repairs if your car should break down, buying a vehicle better suited to living in, and sustaining yourself. Having money to fall back on can be a great psychological boost as well, so you’ll be doing a lot for your mental health if you can carve out some spare cash to toss aside.

Make sure that your car is in perfect condition.

Let’s face it. There’s a stigma attached to this type of lifestyle, especially if you’re venturing outside of the confines of Coloardo. That means you’re more likely to get pulled over by the police and get into trouble for unpermitted car camping or other petty issues if you give the cops a reason to do it. And one of those automatic reasons is that your car is in poor shape. It can just make life easier to make sure that your car gives the police no reason to be suspicious.

That can mean anything from dressing up your van to making sure your car has the appearance of a working man’s vehicle can keep the cops away. Think about it this way: Pizza delivery cars and plumbers or handmen speed around town all the time and don’t get stopped, because the police tend to accept that working people are not a threat to society. Those who are camping out in cars, though? Well, that may be a different story.

Obtain a P.O. box.

Having a place where you can receive physical mail is important for a number of different purposes, not the least of which is getting access to your packages and mail. Since you need an actual home address to be able to get one, you’d need to obtain it before you actually began living in a car. Alternatively, you could use the address of a loved one to get access to a P.O. box.

Renter’s insurance is an actual, real-life option for vanlifers, so consider it.

There’s a real possibility that someone at some time will break into your car and steal your belongings. The good news is that while it seems a little unusual, insurance companies do offer renter’s insurance to people who live out of their cars. You simply need to make sure that you don’t hide the fact from them.

If you’re doing this out of necessity and not a lifestyle choice, it may also worth looking for a job that comes with housing included — like the manager of a storage facility, a staff member at a resort that caters to tourists, or even apartment building. And while living out of a car can be depressing if you have no other options, it’s important to remember that vehicle living isn’t considered particularly uncomfortable. Lots of people opt for this lifestyle, and truckers do something like it for a living — so aside from the obvious mental hurdles you may face if you’re stuck with no other choices, try to remember it’s a lifestyle that you don’t often hear those types of #vanlife people complain about.

— DGO Staff