The Art Of Brewing Your Own Beer
Brewing your own beer is straightforward and exciting. The expectation of taste and results of your own beer is a great experiment for any true beer enthusiast. Additionally, beer brewing kits are cost effective, and simple to come by. Creating the best beer possible is always the goal so below are some pointers on brewing better tasting beer. The following beer recipe assumes you already have a kit, or already know what to have available. A fast overview of what you want follows:
1) Large boiling kettle
2) Malt in a can
3) Hops pellets
4) Timer or clock
5) Fermentation container with a lid
6) Bleach or other sanitizing option
7) Dehydrated yeast in packages
Empty bottles to put the beer
9) Bottling bucket
10) Siphon hose,
11) Racking cane
12) Bottle filler
13) Corn sugar solution
About Malt Extract and Making “Wort”
To start, you have to have malt extract. Often it comes in cans that need to be heated. This softens the extract, making it better to pour from the can. You want a kettle big enough to boil a gallon and a half of water. When the water is boiling, begin to add your malt extract. This mixture is known as “wort” once the malt is totally dissolved into it. Continue to boil your wort for a full 30 minutes. Just ten minutes before the time is up, add your hop pellets to the boiling mix.
About Sanitation
Sanitation is not just to have a germ free work area before starting, it also makes for a better beer taste. As you probably know many individuals struggle for exactly the right flavour and if you use bacteria-tainted containers you will definitely not get good tasting beer. To sanitize your beer making equipment, use an ounce of bleach to a gallon of water, and with a new sponge, clean everything. Some people prefer to use boiling water to clean objects. Clean the fermenter utterly and fill it with 3 gallons of cold water and place the top on.
How to Cool and Ferment your Beer
Now you are able to add your wort to the water in the fermenter. Carefully pour your boiled wort blend into the fermenter and permit this to cool to room temperature. Then follow the re-hydration directions on your yeast packets. Some do this ahead of time, as the yeast has to go into the wort mix while it is still warm enough to activate the yeast. You definitely shouldn’t want to do it too soon though, so read your yeast activation instructions thoroughly. Do not stir in the yeast; just lock down your fermenter lid quickly to assist in the fermentation process. Fill the air lock on the fermenter half way. Now just leave the fermenting beer alone in a dark room where nobody will want to peek at it. Within 14 days you will see bubbling inside of your fermenter air lock. This means that a good fermentation has occurred.
Proper Bottling
Clean or sterilise your bottles and caps by putting 2 oz of bleach into 5 gallons of water and let them soak for at least 45 minutes. Again, some opt to boil the bottles and caps for an extended time instead of utilizing bleach. For the caps utilise a weaker bleach solution. Wash them in water that has been boiled to get rid of traces of bleach. Confirm they’re well washed before filling them with your beer. Clean up all tools you’ll use to fill your bottles.
Now you want to dissolve corn sugar into a cup of water and boil it for 10 minutes. Next add your corn sugar solution into your bottling bucket. Now slowly siphon the fermented beer into the bottling bucket, and when it is full place it on the counter top. Then attach the racking cane, siphon hose and bottle filler to the bottling bucket. When you fill each bottle, leave some space at the very top of the neck and then cap it. Keep these bottles in a cool dark place. They are going to need to remain unopened for no less than 2 weeks. After they have been sitting in a cool dark area for a couple of weeks, they are finally ready to be placed in a fridge and enjoyed!
Jeff is a beer enthusiast who owns a site that lists the very best of Houston happy hours. He frequently writes articles about all the differing kinds of Houston bars with their various drink specials.