Brewing Your Own Beer
by admin on Feb.15, 2009, under Articles
Brewing your own beer is easy; it’s just like being in science class and doing a little experiment in the lab. Below are the basics of brewing your own beer from home:
Prepare your lab
Believe it or not, beer is made from these 4 main ingredients: (1) malt, (2) hops, (3) specialty grains and, (4) yeast. You may buy them separately or in kits. You may add sugar if you don’t have enough malt.
Prepare the equipment in your beer brewing ‘laboratory:’ (1) large (10 gallon) food grade plastic pail with lid where fermenting is done, (2) a siphon hose that you’ll use for beer transfer from pail to (3) plastic bottles with cap, (4) a clamp to the siphon hose to prevent spillage and (4) a hydrometer for temperature checking during fermentation.
The Process
1. Sanitize, brew and bottle. These are the three, basic processes of beer brewing. When the processes are followed to a T, you can expect great tasting, freshly brewed beer.
Sanitizing is the first and most important process in beer brewing. You shouldn’t miss this. In fact, you should be extra careful during the clean-up stage. If you can sterilize your bottles, you should do so. For larger containers like the plastic pail, you can sanitize it using acid-sanitizer that assures no after-taste.
2. Beer cooking is simply doing a simple ingredient mixing and cooking. Let the pail stay closed with a lid during the fermentation process. Open the lid up occasionally to add more ingredients and stir the contents once in a while. After which, leave it for 6 days; your pail of beer is ready for bottling.
3. Use plastic bottle containers for home made beers. They won’t break and are readily available in stores. If they are bought brand-new, they don’t need sanitizing as they are pre-cleaned or pre-sterilized even before they are sold in stores.
Let’s drink to that
Now that your handmade beer is ready, it’s time for some party. Even if it taste good and it’s easy on the pocket, its alcohol content can really give a kick.
