Home Brewing Beer: Beer Culture

Before we begin Home Brewing Beer, we must first learn a little  history of the Beer Culture, as this is important to any Brewmaster. There are many traditions and social activities associated with drinking beer, such as playing cards, darts, billiards, bowling, golf, and many other recreational activities and games.

Beer is consumed all over the world, in almost every country, and every culture there is a history of beer and breweries.  The majority of breweries are in Europe, North America, and Asia.  There are also breweries in some Middle East countries, such as Syria and Iraq.  African countries also have breweries, as well as other remote countries such as Mongolia.

Home Brewing Beer:  Beer Glassware

The correct Getting an appropriate beer glass is considered desirable by some drinkers. There are some drinkers of beer that may sometimes drink out of the bottle or can, while others may choose to pour their beer into a glass. Drinking from a bottle picks up aromas by the nose, so if a drinker wishes to appreciate the aroma of a beer, the beer is first poured into a mug, glass, or stein.

Similar to wine, there is specialized styles of glasses for some types of beer, with some breweries producing glassware intended for their own styles of beer.

Home Brewing Beer:  Beer Temperature

The conditions for serving beer have a big influence on a drinker's experiences. An important factor when drinking is the temperature - as colder temperatures will start to inhibit the chemical senses of the tongue and throat, which will narrow down the flavor profile of beer, allow certain lagers to release their crispness.

Home Brewing Beer: Beer Pouring

The process of pouring will have an influence on the presentation of beer. The flow rate from the tap, titling of the glass, and position of the pour into the glass will all affect the outcome, such as the size and longevity of the head and the turbulence of the bar as it begins to release the carbonation.

The more heavily carbonated beers such as German pilseners will need settling time before they are served, although many of them are served with the addition of the remaining yeast at the bottom to add extra color and flavor.

Home Brewing Beer: Beer Rating

The rating of beer is a craze that combines the enjoyment of drinking beer with the hobby of collecting it. Those that drink beer sometimes tend to record their scores and comments on various internet websites.

This is a worldwide activity, as people in the United States will swap bottles of beer with those living in New Zealand and Russia. The scores may then be tallied together to create lists of the most popular beers in each country as well as those throughout the world.

We all know the effects (and after-effects) of beer. But lifting a glass of cool liquid to your mouth on a scorching hot day, have you ever stopped to consider the processes and ingredients involved in making it? Well maybe not but here is the answer anyway!

Simply, beer is a fermented combination of water, barley, yeast and hops. The major variation in any beer is the type of yeast used in the fermentation process.

Let's look at the properties of this beverage.

Home Brewing Beer Supplies: Beer Ingredients

Water is the main ingredient of beer. In the past, the purity of the water influenced the final result and was specific to the region of the earth from which it came. Today, water is filtered of these impurities, although pure water supplies are still ideally preferred by elite brewers.

Barley malt is an extremely important ingredient in beer as it is the main source of fermentable sugar. Many new breweries use barley malt extract, in either syrup or powder form, as this form ferments much quicker. It also contains many minerals and vitamins that help the yeast to grow.

Without yeast, beer would not exist. Yeast is a unique single cell organism that eats sugar and expels alcohol and carbon dioxide, two of the more recognizable ingredients of beer. Yeast comes in several variations, of which there are two major categories that determine the type of beer produced; Ale yeast and Lager yeast. If yeast alone were used the beer would be extremely sweet and therefore another ingredient needs to be added to reach the final product.

Hops are the flowers of the hop plant, a climbing vine plant that grows well in many differing climates. Hops contain acids which add bitterness to beer. Adding bitterness to beer helps to balance the sweetness, as well as acting as a natural preservative. Add more hops to the mixture and you will get a more bitter taste. This kind of beer is extremely popular in Britian and is simply referred to as "Bitter" (the original names are always the best!).

Variations of these ingredients create different tasting beers as well as having an affect on the alcoholic content.

Home Brewing Beer: Making Beer

When making your own beer many good resources are available which provide home brewing kits. It is important to read the ingredients of the packets in order to ascertain which has the best mixture according to your needs. One quick tip which many home brewers fail to adhere to is this: "Use fresh still water"!

Many have often sought information on how to make beer and the basic home brewing beer equipment is not very expensive you can get what you need, for as little as $100.

In order to start home brewing beer, you will need the following:

A Brewpot, Primary Fermentor, Airlock and Stopper, Bottling Bucket, Bottles, Bottle Brush, Bottle Capper, Thermometer, In addition you can even use items from your kitchen to aid in the home brewing beer.

A breakdown of all the home brewing beer supplies is as follows:

Brewpot
A home brewing beer brewpot is made of stainless steel or enamel-coated metal which has at least 15 litre capacity, but it's no good if it's made of aluminum or if it's a chipped enamelized pot, (these will make the beer taste funny). The brew pot is used to boil the ingredients thus begins the first stage of beer making.

Primary Fermentor
The primary fermentor, when home brewing beer, is where the beer begins to ferment and become that fabulous stuff that makes you so funny and charming. The primary fermentor must have a minimum capacity of 26 litres and an air tight seal it must also accommodate the airlock and rubber stopper. Make sure the one you buy is made of food-grade plastic, as it wont allow the bad stuff in or let the good stuff out.

Airlock and Stopper
The airlock is a handy gadget which allows carbon dioxide to escape from your primary fermentor during fermentation, it is this process that keeps it from exploding, but it doesn't allow any of the bad air from outside to enter. It fits into a rubber stopper, and is placed into the top of your primary fermentor. The stoppers are numbered according to size, so make sure you use the correct stopper for the correct hole

Plastic Hose
This is a food grade plastic hose which measures approximately 5 feet in length. It is needed to transfer the beer from system to system, and it is imperative that it is kept clean and free from damage or clogs

Bottling Bucket
This is a large, food-grade plastic bucket with a tap for drawing water at the bottom, it needs to be as big as your primary fermentor, because you need the capacity to pour all the liquid from your primary fermentor into a bottling bucket prior to bottling up.

Bottles
After fermentation, you place the beer in bottles for secondary fermentation and storage. You need enough bottles to hold all the beer you're going to make, the best kind of bottles are solid glass ones with smooth tops (not the twist-off kind) that will accept a cap from a bottle capper. You can use plastic ones with screw-on lids, but they aren't as good for fermentation and don't look as well. Whether you use glass or plastic bottles, make sure they are dark-colored. Light damages beer, i would recommend green or brown bottles.

Bottle Brush
This is a thin, curvy brush which is used to clean bottles because of the the shape of the brush it makes it very affective at getting the bottle spotless. We haven't even gotten into how clean everything has to be, but we will, and the bottle brush is a specialized bit of cleaning equipment that you will require in order to maintain your bottle kit.

Bottle Capper
If you take buy glass bottles, you will need some sort of bottle capper and caps, of course, and you can buy them from any brewing supplies store. The best sort of bottle capper is one which can be affixed to a surface and worked with one hand while you hold the bottle with the other.

Thermometer
This is a thermometer which can be stuck to the side of your fermentor, they are just thin strips of plastic which are self adhesive, and can be found in any brewing supplies store, or from a pet shop or aquarium. Not everything costs money though even some household equipment can be used.

Household items
In addition to the above specialized home brewing beer supplies, you will need the following household items home brewing beer supplies:

Big mixing spoon

Pot handlers/Oven mitts

Rubber spatula

Saucepan

Small bowl

So there you have the home brewing beer ingredients, the home brewing beer supplies, and the method to make your home brew, all you need now is to get yourself a home brewing beer kit and your on the way to beer heaven.

Home Brewing Beer Simplified

Found at findebookee.com

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