Frequently Asked Questions Below you will find answers to the most commonly asked questions at The Brewer's Apprentice. If you can't find an answer to your question on this page, we first suggest that you browse our website, as we have provided a lot of detail on many different subjects. If you still can't find an answer, you can Contact Us via email, or you're always free to call us directly at the store during our normal business hours! How much does it cost to make beer, mead, or wine at The Brewer's Apprentice? We have many different beer and mead recipes and a lot of wine styles to choose from and they all use different quantities and types of ingredients, so pricing can vary wildly. That said, to make beer on our premises (15 gallons), as of 2011, you're looking at a recipe price range of $195 - $350 depending on how much "stuff" is in any given beer... Generally, the more alcoholic a beer is, and/or the more stuff it has in it (such as hops, fruits, spices, chocolate, etc.) the more it will cost. If you need bottles, we will sell them to you at wholesale cost; as of 2012, the average price for 6 cases of bottles is in the $50 range. When it's all said and done, to brew beer at our store for the first time costs an average of around $250. Don't forget that it becomes cheaper as you brew more! The bottles that you put your beer in can be used over and over again for years to come... so each successive batch that you brew you'll only be paying for the beer itself and not the bottles! To make mead or any variation of mead (such as melomel or metheglin) the price range, as of 2012, is around $225 - $300 for 15 gallons. There are a wide range of bottles that you can use when bottling mead, so you would need to call us directly or drop by the store to figure out which bottles are right for you and what they cost. To make wine in 2012, the price range is $205 - $250 (for 6 gallons) with the average cost being $180. We also have port and riesling wines available for around $165 (for 3 gallons). The price that you pay for wine is all inclusive... every batch that you pay for includes the wine, 2 cases of 750ml bottles, and labels. Where should I store my beer once I bring it home? This is a question that many brewers neglect to think about! Where you store your beer is very important because its location will dictate the overall quality of your beer and its longevity. Ideally homebrew should be stored in a cool basement (away from hot things such as water heaters, heating systems, etc.) or in a refrigerator... away from light (especially sunlight and fluorscent light). You should strive to never let your beer get any warmer than room temperature. The warmer beer gets, the less storage-ability it will have, and, if it gets too warm, its flavors can be skunked. The worst place to store beer is in a garage... there are creepy crawlies running about, and worse, the temperature will fluctuate wildly from day to night... and this will almost always throw off your beers flavor and it will absolutely cut down on your beers life. For further information, visit our bottle care page. What do I do with my used bottles between brewing sessions? As soon as you pour the beer out of a bottle you should rinse it thoroughly with warm or hot tap water until you're sure that all of the beer "remnants" are gone. Next you should place the rinsed bottle back in its case upside down. Avoid storing your empty bottles in the garage, if possible. The garage is not a friendly place for beer or beer bottles... there tends to be quite a bit of dirt, bugs, and heat fluctuations in a garage... all of which are enemies of beer and bottles. If you forget to rinse your bottles out and/or to store them upside down, you should soak them in a sink or tub full of cleanser, such as One Step or B-Brite, per the manufacturer's instructions and then rinse them. If you've got really dirty bottles with hard deposits, you'll need to soak the bottles (as just mentioned) for a longer time and then use a bottle brush to remove the harder deposits... this can take quite a bit of elbow grease... which is why we so strongly recommend rinsing your bottles in the manner mentioned in the first paragraph! If you've brewed with us before, please remember that the machine in the bottling area is not a bottle washer, rather, it's a bottle sanitizer which means that it will not clean your bottles... it will only sanitize bottles that have already been perviously cleaned. If you bring dirty bottles to our store hoping that our sanitizer will clean your bottles, be forewarned that it will not... and we do not guarantee the quality of beer bottled in previously used, dirty bottles! How long will my homebrewed beer, mead, or wine last? Each beverage has its own general shelf life, and depending on how you store your product, you can have it age fully or it could prematurely spoil. The key that all of these beverages have in common is that none of them want to get hot and they don't want to be in an evironment with fluctuating temperatures. In short, don't store them in a garage (or any non-insulated room) or outside. You want to keep the product inside and consistently cool. Ideally, you want to "cellar" your beverage... keeping it somewhere in the 50's (° fahrenheit). Try to not let your homebrew go above room temperature (68°) and definately don't let it go below freezing (32°). For beer, the shelf-life is dictated by its ingredients. The more alcohol and/or hops that a beer has, the longer it will be able to age. So, for instance, a pilsner is relatively low in alcohol and hops... this type of beer, if kept ideally in the 50's, will last for about 6 months. A pale ale has a bit more hops, so it would age a bit longer than a pilsner, about 1 year. An IPA usually has an extraordinary amount of hops when compared to almost all other beers, so it can be aged for years (depending on the specific alpha acid level). Barleywines have a large amount of everything, including alcohol and hops, so these beers age longer than almost any other type of beer... possibly for decades. For specific ageing times give us a call or drop by the store! Mead can age longer than almost any other fermented beverage because of its higher alcohol levels and because of its main ingredient, honey. Honey is naturally antiseptic... fighting off bacteria and other infectious organisms. Because of this potent combonation of preservatives, a batch of bottled mead can easily age for decades... sometimes, in fact, not even hitting its true flavor potential for years. Usually most people agree that mead starts to tastes really good after a year of ageing in the bottle... but those who force themselves to behave and store some of it for longer are amazed at how much meads flavor develops and improves as it ages. For wine, the shelf-life is dictated by the style, the quantity and types of preservatives added, and alcohol levels. The wine you make on your own is no different than the wine you buy in the store... Typically, when you buy a lighter, un-oaked white wine it will be 1 year old... Red wines, around 2 years old... If a wine is sufficiently oaked and/or it has a higher alcohol level, it can be aged considerably longer. Almost all wine is preserved with sulfites and/or sorbates... they are usually added soon before bottling and they help preserve the wine by killing most of the organisms that are living in the wine, including the very yeast that help ferment it... this helps prevent the wine from turning into vinegar. The Brewer's Apprentice uses about half of the amount of sulfites used in commercial wine. This provides a good balance between shelf-life and overall wine quality. Because we use less sulfites, your wine can be consumed younger while avoiding a lot of the "sulphite heat" that some wine drinkers feel. In general, white wine made on our premises can start to be consumed in about 6 months and it will have a shelf-life of about 2 years. The red wine should really be aged for a full year before it is consumed, with a shelf-life of 3 to 4 years... but many people drink their wine before our suggested ageing times and they love it. In short, the ageing of your beverage is a personal thing... You may agree with our suggestions, or you may like ageing your beverage longer, or you may like your beverage right out of the bottle the moment it is bottled... go with your instinct and what makes you happy! Can I change one of your recipes or brew my own recipe at your store? Yes! Many people like to tweak our recipes and make it more of their own. This can be done by first picking a recipe you want to start with and then bringing it to our front counter where the brewmaster on duty will talk to you and figure out exactly what you want to change. Please note, that adding new ingredients or increasing the volumes of an existing ingredient will obviously increase the cost of the recipe. If you have your own recipe, it's a good idea to bring it in advance of your scheduled brewing appointment so that we can make sure that we will have the ingredients for you and so that we can price out your recipe. If we are not comfortable with a change you want to make to one of our recipes or with a recipe that you bring in, we will let you know our concerns... if we're not confident that the recipe you want to do will come out to your liking, we may not guarantee your beers quality, or we may refuse to let you do it on our equipment. If you have any questions, as always, feel free to call us or stop by the store! Do you have any discounts or specials? For homebrewers who buy ingredients directly from our store and brew at home, we have The Frequent Brewer's Card. For each complete recipe (must include enough grains, and/or malt extract, hops, and yeast to brew one 5 gallon batch of beer) that you buy you get one credit... once you have five credits on your card your sixth recipe is up to 50% off ($15 max)! Ask for a card during your next visit. This offer is not valid for online sales. For brewers brewing on our premises, we do not currently offer any discounts or specials. We have worked out our recipe pricing to be as fair as possible, we offer bottles at wholesale cost, and offer two cases worth of labels for free for every brew on premise beer that you brew. What are the advantages of BOP (Brew On Premise) vs. brewing at home? There are quite a few! For many people the main advantage is that they don't know how to brew. Brewing on our premises is a great way to get a crash-course in homebrewing... we take you through all of the basic steps and techniques... many people want to "get their feet wet" on our equipment and learn from our trained staff before they jump into homebrewing on their own. Another reason is our water. Our multi-step filtration process removes all traces of chlorine, heavy metals, and toxins... making perfectly pure brewing water. A big reason many people brew with us is because of the batch size. When you brew on our premises you are brewing a 15 gallon batch... which is three times the size of a normal home-brew batch of 5 gallons! So you get 6 cases of delicious beer as apposed to 2 cases. Many people brew with us because it's easier than brewing at home. Whether you know how to brew or not, brewing at The Brewer's Apprentice is just plain easy. We make sure you don't make any mistakes and we clean up after you... heaven. The final reason that so many people brew with us at the store is quality. We guarantee that you'll like your beer. We take care of your beer while it ferments and take it through all of the normal processes it has to go through. You just have to brew it, bottle it, and drink it. Simple. We hope to see you soon! To learn about late breaking news, future events, contests, new products, and much more, join our monthly online newsletter! It only takes a moment of your time and there's plenty to learn! And we never share your email address with anyone. Join hundreds of Brewer's Apprentice customers and their thirst for a better brew, meet other brewers, learn about new products, and become an all-around cooler person... become a brewer! The Brewer's Apprentice, Inc. ~ 865 Route 33 West, Suite 4, Freehold, NJ 07728 ~ 732-863-9411 Store Hours: Monday, Wednesday - Friday: 1pm - 8pm ~ Saturday & Sunday: 10am - 4pm Copyright © 2012 The Brewer's Apprentice. All rights reserved. Website Created By: Inner Eye Design.