If you can make tea, read a thermometer, or a book you can brew beer.When I first heard of homebrewing it was from a bio-chemist and I mistakenly assumed that it was some complex and technical undertaking that only the truely dedicated could bring off. Not so. Beer is almost as fun and easy to make as it is to drink.
Beer is made out of:
-Water
-Malt (a kind of sugar)
-Hops (a bitter plant)
-Yeast (the fungus that makes bread rise)
-Grain (barley, wheat, or something else)
Besides being easy its also rewarding.
You get a lot more than a buzz out of making your own beer:
-Its cheaper than buying the fine, exotic beers
-After a couple batches you'll be making beer on par with or better than anything you can buy
-Homebrewing teaches you a lot about beer
-It makes a personal gift
-It's a hobby you can have for life
My beers usually take a month or two to completely ferment and finish the brewing process. It's explained in depth here.
My home brews take about 10 steps:
1. Heat a couple gallons of water
2. Add the grains, malt and hops (these ingredients will go in at different tempatures depending on the recipe and your preference)
3. Boil
4. Cool the mixture (this liquid is often called the tea or the wort)
5. Add to three gallons of room temperature water
6. Wait a couple weeks
7. Add some finishing sugar
8. Bottle
9. Wait another week
10. Drink up!
Check this blog tomorrow for recipes I have used in batches I am brewing/drinking right now.
Photo Credit: Marie Pavlich (my cousin!)
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Home brewing relly helps you understand and appreciate beers, and once you are confident enough it can be a great place to experiment with new beer flavors (i.e. squash/pumpkin). This is a great overview of the process.
ReplyDeleteThanks Marie, You're totally right. Making beer makes you better at drinking beer.
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