First off let me say this is not going to be a complete guide to every detail of crafting your first brew. I am sorry, but as you read you will find out that the fun of making your own brew is all the different possibilities. This is going to be an overview of how it is made, and help a guy out on what all is going to be involved with venturing into this craft. Maybe you are just curious on how your favorite drink is made. After all, I know that with a group of friends all together having a couple cold ones every now and then the topic is brought up. How do they make this stuff. As a man of means you would have an idea, if not already have educated yourself on the subject. At least in my opinion. So lets get started.
Lets go over ingredients. As stated before there are many styles of beer and too many to include in on this particular post. The normal say, "domestic beer" is comprised of these elements.
- Water
- Malt (barley)
- Hops
- Yeast
A combination of these ingredients make many different kinds of common beers that you find at your local grocery, liquor stor, whatever. When or if you venture into making a brew. There are going to be other products that are going to be needed, such as water finings different malt types, different hops, and depending on the particular style you like or ingredients used different yeast strains.
Water
To start the brew, you will need water. It is common in the craft beer world to use the water you got. After all it is a good feeling to know that the beer you make is custom to you, as well as your location. Many brewers that get a more detailed will analyse their water source to predict an outcome of how their water is going to affect the outcome of their session. Things that affect water are mineral content and bacteria. When I say use the water you have. I mean to say water that comes from your home faucet. You can go the extra and get prepackaged drinking water from your local grocery. Major brewers refine their water to have certain amounts of minerals and properties to allow the rest of the brewing process to go as they plan for their particular style of beer. Importantly, clean water. A typical homebrewer will go off of common reciepes off the internet, local beer shop, or best friend that has done this a few times. These common brew sessions are a 5 gallon (us) typically. However with the brewing process you will need slightly more then that because this water is going to be boiled. Boil time depends all on the reciepe, and again this is an overview.
Malt
So with a recipe in hand. You collect the amount of water needed. Next ingeridient is malt. Typically barley malt. A man of means will know that with making beer, you are not typically going to use the local farmers barley straight from the field. The idea of making a common beer is that alcohol is going to be produced. Making beer, alcohol is a byproduct of the reaction of yeast and sugar being fermented together. The sugar source in this case is malt. Malt is a term used for when the grain barley is taken from the fields and germinated. This is a process of letting the barley develop to a modified form of grain. At a certain point determined by the malt producer, the germinated barley will contain the right amount of sugar. From there the malt is kilned. Lets take a second here to take a look at this process. A man of means will know why some beers are dark, and some are light. Other then how much malt was used in the brewing process. When malt producers kiln the malt, they kiln many different varieties. So for an example. some malt is only slightly kilned. This will give the straw colored beer that is commonly see. That same malt can be kilned further to different colors. As anyone would know the more you cook something typically it will get darker. So darker or malt kilned for a longer time or temp will be darker. These darker kilned malts are what make dark beer. I dont know how many times I have heard someone say "ya i dont like that dark lager stuff". You are a man of means, you read this article and you can back your knowledge that beer is not dark because it is a lager, it is dark for malt that is cooked more (essentially). Possibly other ingredients, but lager is a form of fermentation, and little do they know, they may be sipping on a lager while saying this uninfomed remark. Such as a common beer that ryhmes with sudweiser. Anyway, back to malt. So malt is used in different combinations and amounts depending on the reciepe. This will be the sugar source and some taste source of the beer. For a certain reciepe this malt is submerged into some water at a specified temp, for a specified amount of time to get the type of sugar we want in our beer. Once the grains are rinsed of this sugar/water (wort) it is put into a boiling pot. Ah hah! getting somewhere now. That malt water solution is wort. This is the base of the beer. 
Alright. Got some wort in the pot. It can be processed without hops and still be made into beer. A man of means wants to know how their common beer is made. Common beers have hops brewed with them. A hop is a plant that is made just for beer. How cool is that. A plant was made and its only major intention is for making beer. When you try a different beer that you normally don't drink. You may notice that it may taste more bitter, or smell different. That is likey because the hops were used different enought. Hops give beer the tangy, bitter taste. Hops also contribute to stabilizing and smell of a beer. The hops are incorporated into the beer because the plant contains acids. These acids give the the hop notes to the beer. These acids are extracted by boiling them in the wort. There are different hop amounts, boil times, and usage of hops to give beer its distinction. Man of means know that hops give the bitter, part flavor(along with malt flavor) and aroma.
Slight overview here. Water was combined with malt. That made wort. Hops are added to wort and boiled. The hops and other solids in the boil are seperated so that you have a beer. This beer is not quite done yet. It needs alcohol.
Yeast
Yeast in beer is actually a living micro organism. These little guys do alot. Because they do so much, and are an actual organism, they are very tempermental. The way we use it for beer is, we combine an amount of yeast into the unfinished beer and let it sit and ferment. Fermentation in this case is allowing the yeast to react to the malt sugars. Together they produce alcohol. So the more yeast and sugar you have the more alcohol is produced. When making beer there is an art to the balance of these. Yeast is very vital to how the beer turns out as far as taste and overall finished product. So vital, that major breweries keep their yeast strains secret from everybody. Alot of times locked up and only a few people in the world are allowed to know the strain of yeast they use. There are many great yeast products out there for brewers. Over fermentation time the yeast grows and reacts until finally its done all it can do. At that point the liquid beer is filtered out and Walah! Beer!, but um not quite. It tastes great but is flat as a pancake. Needs carbonation.
Carbonation
Carbonating beer, or giving its bubbly affect is done a few different ways. Depending on the maker of the beer the CO2 is either put in the beer naturally or forced into it. To do this naturally beer makers add a bit more yeast, and seal in an airtight container. Another byproduct of fermentation is CO2. This CO2 byproduct will reabsorb into the beer, causing it to be carbonated. This is another art, and different ways of doing this. Alot of major beer makers wish to force it is. CO2 absorbs into liquid. This CO2 can be taken from high pressure containers and forced into the liquid. This can give a more controlled carbonation outcome. If you have ever had a beer where there is a sediment at the bottom of the bottle, that is likely yeast. It is there because they allowed the beer to be naturally carbonated. This is the most common use is you were to make your own. It is a bit cheaper for the beer maker to do it this way.
Conclusion
Chill all this down and enjoy. Making beer at first site is a bit difficult. I myself brew beer as a hobby and love to do it. It takes some simple equipment that can be aquired easily online, or search for a local brewing shop. Usually they will have beginners kits and books for reference. Beware, like many hobbies there are people that have nothing better to do then to make an exact science out of this. The more you know the better, however, if you approach a beer geek seeking info, make sure you get the facts to the level of brewer you are. If you are a pure beginner, make sure you are getting the facts to make your first beer that will taste ok. Dont allow them to get you into a complex setup that will take years to figure out. There is so much info available, stick to the basics first.
I will be writing more specifics on this subject as time allows. I just wanted to put an overview of the brewing process. Maybe help clear up a few questions. I am sure this article can attract many other questions as well as criticism, but if you are interested in getting into this hobby, or want to know more, check out some well known authors such as john palmer, or dave miller. There are others, but these guys are authors to many good how to brew books.
Have fun, drink responsibly.
Here is a cheap video series on how you can do this yourself ===> HOME BREW VIDEOS
Here is a great supply to get you started brewing. Everything you need click HERE
No comments:
Post a Comment