How do you brew beer?
oikos,
thanks for the nice input
elle,
you r an evil little beo-ch
Well now, this has become interesting.
Just brew the way most do with a nice kit. From there advance to extract recipes formulation and maybe grain brews. No big deal brewer man.
It is very easy to do a web page search on beer and brewing. You may just have a local specialty shop to help you get started. Ask them there if they know of a local club of brewers you can join and get further help. Try Beertown.org the AHA can help you with all of these issues here.
Beer is an alcoholic beverage of which the ingredients are water, cereal-grains, herbs, and a fermentative microorganism. The most common ingredients used are water, malted barley, hops, and cultured yeast. The main brewing steps used to actually produce beer is mashing, boiling, and fermentation. Extended steps necessary to process beer include the malting of cereal-grains- (barley, wheat), aging and filtration, and packaging.
The ingredients include but are not limited to the following: (Cereals, Herbs, and Microorganisms)
Malted & Unmalted Barley
Malted & Unmalted Wheat
Corn, Oats, Rice, and other cereal-grains (so-called adjuncts)
Hops and/or other herbs and spices
Culture & Uncultured Yeast and Bacteria
The steps in brewing beer:
Mash: The mashing procedure is a naturally- (usually) occurring enzyme degradation of starch reserves of the cereal ingredients. The results of this temperature-controlled procedure are the produce of fermentable and nonfermentable sugars, color, and grain flavors. This sweet solution is called wort- (wert).
Kettle Boil: The boil serves to sanitize by heat, the sweet wort solution. In addition to sanitation the hops are added to the boil. The hops contribute bitterness, hop flavors and aromas, and a natural bacteriostatic (preservative) nature to the beer. The boiled wort is now called bitter wort.
Fermentation: The fermentation main purpose is the produce alcohol (ethanol), carbonation (CO2), and yeast derived flavors. During the fermentation the bitter-wort/beers’ pH is also lowered increasing palatability and preservation. The most commonly used microorganism used to fermenting the wort is yeast. The yeast utilized has as its natural physiological function production or attenuation of sugar and flavor. Therefore the yeast a brewer employs for fermentation is “strain specific.”
Brewers often craft a beer recipe to a particular style. This is accomplished manipulating of a myriad of variables of the above ingredients and processing.
From another answer I give you this.
http://www.bjcp.org/docs/2008_Guidelines.pdf
http://www.camra.org.uk/page.aspx?o=aboutale
These organizations have been founded to educated people on the ever-growing styles of beer, ales & lagers and to promote beer in general. If we consider beer to be two categories called Ales and Lagers, we can discuss the many varied styles of each. But for a near complete list go to the BJCP and CAMRA sites above.
BASICALLY
Beer is an alcoholic beverage. The alcohol being produced by the process of fermentation by unicellular microorganisms, yeast. The sugars (predominantly) are derived from malted barley. Malted barley is a process of modification of the grain seed that alters it biochemically for brewing use. Part of the malting process is kilning. The wet germinated seed is dried in an over or kiln. Some of the grain is left pale and some lightly toasted/roasted. Some of the grain is toasted even more until it becomes progressively darker. By controlling the process the maltster can produce a variety of specialty grains that are amber in color and a little sweet to very black and bitter in taste with a selection grains that have a range of color and flavor between the two extremes. Once the barley has been prepared for brewing through the malting process, it is used by the brewer in mashing.
Mashing is basically the soaking of the malted and milled barley in hot water. Here the starches of the grain are naturally reduced to sugars and other chemical components. This resultant solution is cooled and sent to a fermentation tank where yeast is used to produce alcohol (ethanol) and carbonation and some flavors too. We now have beer.
By controlling the amounts and types of barley in the mashing process the brewer makes the many styles of beer on the web pages above. Other things to consider that make a beer what it is are the hops, water, and alternative ingredients used. The hops will provide a balance of bitter flavors to those of the sweet malt and certain hops aromas. Water has a profound effect on the chemical nature of the beer and how we perceive certain flavors. The alternative ingredients provide other variables to the body or thickness of the beer and its color and flavor.
Basically that is beer.
For the designation of ales & lagers
In a very simplified sense non-yeast experts consider an ale a beer that was fermented with something called a top fermenting yeast. Lagers then they say, is a beer which, has been fermented with bottom fermenting yeast. What does the top and bottom have to do with beer? Not much actually. What the mycologist and brewer is concerned with is the chemical flavors each produce. With ales the beer is fermented at relatively warm temperatures in which the yeast produces esters that give fruity flavors and aroma to the beer. Lagers are then fermented at relatively cold temperatures and produce no fruity esters. Also key for the lagers is also a "no net production" of diacetyl which, may be acceptable in ales.
So from the yeast used we can determine whether a beer is an ale or a lager. From the use of the malted and specialty barley and the hops we can determine the beer being a certain style of ale or lager.
Keep in mind that both ales and lagers can be described as light or dark in color. They can both be light or high in alcohol (ethanol, ethyl alcohol) concentration. They both can be thick or thin in body or mouthfeel. So the real and only definition is a combination of the ingredients used and an understanding of the yeast and how it is employed.
From this and especially using the pages above you will begin to understand the vast styles of both ales and lagers.
BASICALLY
When you become a highly skilled brewer you can try the more advanced skills in decoction mashind and cereal adjunct brews. To make Euro Lagers (Pils Urquell, Jever), especially pils, and American Style Lagers (Bud, Coors, Miller) well it the hight of brewing.
Home Brewing India Pale Ale (IPA) Beer : Siphoning For Home Brewed India Pale Ale Beer
Get a blender, rubbing alcohol, and brown food coloring. Then brew your little heart out! LMAO. Sorry I hurt your wittle feewings
References :
Comment by elle — January 9, 2010 @ 4:31 am
Suggestion: Get Papazian’s book The New Complete Joy of Home Brewing. Read the first 40 or so pages to learn what basic equipment you need. Then, pick a recipe for an all-extract ale (no grains used). Add supplies to your list. Now, go to http://byo.com and click on resources to find a place to buy everything. Order. Brew. Enjoy. Plan your next beer, perhaps an ale made with extracts plus specialty grains.
References :
Comment by oikos — January 9, 2010 @ 5:09 am
Well, first off, you have to give up the notion of beer being the stuff that you see from Bud/Miller/Coors and suff like that.
Then you go and buy some supplies. A fermenter, called a carboy, is good, or you can get a plastic food grade bucket. You’ll need a racking cane, hydrometer, airlock etc. Then come the ingredients. Malted barley, or Malt Extract (liquid or dry), hops and yeast. Plus several other adjuncts if you feel like it.
You can purchase a start up kit for about $110. There are some cheaper ones, but you’ll just end up spending more on the few items that are very handy but don’t come with the lesser kits.
Then you do research. There are a million variables to consider when it comes to brewing beer. Start out at http://www.morebeer.com to get just about anything you need. You can look around online and see if there is a Homebrew supply shop near you, but More Beer has everything you could ever want.
Then visit http://www.howtobrew.com for a very respected homebrewer giving you step by step instructions on brewing.
Then visit http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com for just about everything else that has to deal with brewing beer.
Brew Strong!
rat pad
References :
http://www.morebeer.com
http://www.howtobrew.com
http://www.basicbrewingradio.com
Comment by Kenny — January 9, 2010 @ 5:26 am
Find your local home brew shop. Most are cool and will help you get started down the right path. I’ve been brewing fro 5 years and its a great hobby. Most home brew shops will sell you a kit with instructions for your first batch. The things you’ll need to get started:
1) A kit of some type, which will contain malt extract, hops, yeast and maybe some specialty grains to steep in a mesh bag.
2) A fermentation bucket. Don’t bother with a glass carboy the first time.
3) Sanitizer. Everything needs to be super clean and sanitized.
4) Airlock for the bucket.
Some things to note, get some foolproof yeast the first time. US-5 is a good choice. Follow the instructions on the kit and the sanitizer to the the T. Also remember that patience is an ingredient. Don’t try to rush the fermentation or bottle too soon. Again, your local hombrew shop should be able to help with all these things. If they don’t, spend your money at a different one. Check online and in the library. There is lots of help ready for your to read. Hope you have fun and don’t let an odd batch wreck homebrewing for you, its a pretty fun hobby.
References :
Comment by brokenrobot — January 9, 2010 @ 5:58 am
Use this site, there are GREAT links. I learned using findingdulcinea.com.
References :
http://www.findingdulcinea.com/guides/Food/Beer.pg_04.html#04
Comment by LuckyScheu — January 9, 2010 @ 6:34 am
Just brew the way most do with a nice kit. From there advance to extract recipes formulation and maybe grain brews. No big deal brewer man.
It is very easy to do a web page search on beer and brewing. You may just have a local specialty shop to help you get started. Ask them there if they know of a local club of brewers you can join and get further help. Try Beertown.org the AHA can help you with all of these issues here.
Beer is an alcoholic beverage of which the ingredients are water, cereal-grains, herbs, and a fermentative microorganism. The most common ingredients used are water, malted barley, hops, and cultured yeast. The main brewing steps used to actually produce beer is mashing, boiling, and fermentation. Extended steps necessary to process beer include the malting of cereal-grains- (barley, wheat), aging and filtration, and packaging.
The ingredients include but are not limited to the following: (Cereals, Herbs, and Microorganisms)
Malted & Unmalted Barley
Malted & Unmalted Wheat
Corn, Oats, Rice, and other cereal-grains (so-called adjuncts)
Hops and/or other herbs and spices
Culture & Uncultured Yeast and Bacteria
The steps in brewing beer:
Mash: The mashing procedure is a naturally- (usually) occurring enzyme degradation of starch reserves of the cereal ingredients. The results of this temperature-controlled procedure are the produce of fermentable and nonfermentable sugars, color, and grain flavors. This sweet solution is called wort- (wert).
Kettle Boil: The boil serves to sanitize by heat, the sweet wort solution. In addition to sanitation the hops are added to the boil. The hops contribute bitterness, hop flavors and aromas, and a natural bacteriostatic (preservative) nature to the beer. The boiled wort is now called bitter wort.
Fermentation: The fermentation main purpose is the produce alcohol (ethanol), carbonation (CO2), and yeast derived flavors. During the fermentation the bitter-wort/beers’ pH is also lowered increasing palatability and preservation. The most commonly used microorganism used to fermenting the wort is yeast. The yeast utilized has as its natural physiological function production or attenuation of sugar and flavor. Therefore the yeast a brewer employs for fermentation is “strain specific.”
Brewers often craft a beer recipe to a particular style. This is accomplished manipulating of a myriad of variables of the above ingredients and processing.
From another answer I give you this.
http://www.camra.org.uk/page.aspx?o=aboutale
These organizations have been founded to educated people on the ever-growing styles of beer, ales & lagers and to promote beer in general. If we consider beer to be two categories called Ales and Lagers, we can discuss the many varied styles of each. But for a near complete list go to the BJCP and CAMRA sites above.
BASICALLY
Beer is an alcoholic beverage. The alcohol being produced by the process of fermentation by unicellular microorganisms, yeast. The sugars (predominantly) are derived from malted barley. Malted barley is a process of modification of the grain seed that alters it biochemically for brewing use. Part of the malting process is kilning. The wet germinated seed is dried in an over or kiln. Some of the grain is left pale and some lightly toasted/roasted. Some of the grain is toasted even more until it becomes progressively darker. By controlling the process the maltster can produce a variety of specialty grains that are amber in color and a little sweet to very black and bitter in taste with a selection grains that have a range of color and flavor between the two extremes. Once the barley has been prepared for brewing through the malting process, it is used by the brewer in mashing.
Mashing is basically the soaking of the malted and milled barley in hot water. Here the starches of the grain are naturally reduced to sugars and other chemical components. This resultant solution is cooled and sent to a fermentation tank where yeast is used to produce alcohol (ethanol) and carbonation and some flavors too. We now have beer.
By controlling the amounts and types of barley in the mashing process the brewer makes the many styles of beer on the web pages above. Other things to consider that make a beer what it is are the hops, water, and alternative ingredients used. The hops will provide a balance of bitter flavors to those of the sweet malt and certain hops aromas. Water has a profound effect on the chemical nature of the beer and how we perceive certain flavors. The alternative ingredients provide other variables to the body or thickness of the beer and its color and flavor.
Basically that is beer.
For the designation of ales & lagers
In a very simplified sense non-yeast experts consider an ale a beer that was fermented with something called a top fermenting yeast. Lagers then they say, is a beer which, has been fermented with bottom fermenting yeast. What does the top and bottom have to do with beer? Not much actually. What the mycologist and brewer is concerned with is the chemical flavors each produce. With ales the beer is fermented at relatively warm temperatures in which the yeast produces esters that give fruity flavors and aroma to the beer. Lagers are then fermented at relatively cold temperatures and produce no fruity esters. Also key for the lagers is also a "no net production" of diacetyl which, may be acceptable in ales.
So from the yeast used we can determine whether a beer is an ale or a lager. From the use of the malted and specialty barley and the hops we can determine the beer being a certain style of ale or lager.
Keep in mind that both ales and lagers can be described as light or dark in color. They can both be light or high in alcohol (ethanol, ethyl alcohol) concentration. They both can be thick or thin in body or mouthfeel. So the real and only definition is a combination of the ingredients used and an understanding of the yeast and how it is employed.
From this and especially using the pages above you will begin to understand the vast styles of both ales and lagers.
BASICALLY
When you become a highly skilled brewer you can try the more advanced skills in decoction mashind and cereal adjunct brews. To make Euro Lagers (Pils Urquell, Jever), especially pils, and American Style Lagers (Bud, Coors, Miller) well it the hight of brewing.
References :
Man just do it. It is a cool thing that can be rewarding in many ways.
Comment by * — January 9, 2010 @ 6:56 am
Yes, I brew. I do mostly mashed brews but other methods as well. I will try to add details later but for now my mind will not focus.
**Hardly worth the effort now. Very nice answer.
References :
Comment by BEER — January 9, 2010 @ 7:34 am