Creating Your Home Brewery

Before we started our adventures in home brewing beer, most of us had visions of shiny copper kettles and large wooden barrels taking up most of our kitchens bubbling and boiling as we brought to life our latest homebrew.

I hope this doesn't disappoint you, but the reality isn't much like that at all. Mankind has moved beyond the use of copper and wood to make and store beer and now relies on aluminum, steel, and food grade plastics. And while the new equipment doesn't have the same cool look as the old, it is much easier to keep clean, doesn't take up nearly as much space, and produces a better home brewing experience.

As you begin your homebrew adventures, don't lose sight of the fact that we all were beginners once and didn't have all the equipment we do now. I urge you not to feel compelled to go buy everything at once. Take your time and proceed at whatever pace is comfortable for you. Remember, homebrewing is supposed to be a fun and relaxing hobby. Don't turn it into an arms race where you always have to have bigger and better stuff.

Having said that, where should you start?

Not surprisingly, there is a minimum amount of stuff you will need to successfully brew beer. Many, if not most, homebrewing equipment shops offer starter brew kits that have all the basics needed to get started. These kits run the range from barely sufficient to absolutely top of the line. Prices begin under $100 and can go north of $400 pretty easily.

These kits will all have the basic stuff needed and some of the more expensive will include books of recipes, instruction DVDs, and more which will drive up the price.

One thing that many starter kits do not include is bottles to put your new homebrew in. And not just any bottles will do, you need the older style bottles whose caps do not screw on. Interestingly, most brew kits will include the bottle capping tool and the bottle caps.

My advice is to start your search in your local phonebook under either "beer" or "hobbies". If you find a local shop, you have the opportunity to see what you will be purchasing and ask questions about what options you might have. If you don't have a local store, and many folks don't, then it's time to start the on line search. Even a quick Google search for "brew kits" returns something like a million results.

Take your time, make your choices depending on your individual budget, and don't overbuy stuff until you are more confident in what you need and, above all. HAVE FUN!

Creating Flavored Home Brew Beer

Image by toddross via FlickrWhile you walk down the beer isle in the food market how many different choices are there? A dozen? Two dozen? My bet is you can even find more than this in the ordinary grocery and even more in liquor stores. So why would you keep to precisely the same flavor with your home brew beer? One of the primary aspects of setting up a home brewery is you can make your own unique flavors that you will never find at the store.
 Depending on your special individual tastes it is possible to create numerous variations that will be yours and yours alone. If you choose to, you can include special flavors for instance cherry, caramel, or smoked flavors just by adding various items at the proper time throughout the brewing process.
 Personally, among the top flavors I quite like in the home brew beer process is a "Cherry Wheat". To obtain the particular cherry wheat flavor into your beer, you include a type of cherry extract within the mix. Subject to what quantity of beer I will be brewing, I prefer about four oz. of cherry extract to six and half pounds of wheat.
Also, for people who want a different type of experience, by using the same home brewing procedures as beer you can also make cider. The method to make cider uses the same equipment as brewing beer that will be very tasty when done properly. Also, with cider, you can contribute a number of flavors for example , cranberries to create a unique flavor.
 Don't believe that you will be stuck with fruit type flavors with home brew beer. Even a quick look at the online beer sites will show how many different flavors are possible. With only a little experience you will easily be able to produce pilsners, ale's, lagers, stouts, brown ale's and many types of kinds of creative and unique flavors. Right here is the primary benefit for home brew beer; getting precisely the flavor you wish every time. And all of this features a quality that is unrivaled in the store brands.

There is a very good short article about the differences between Lagers and Ales here and another discussing how long home brewed beer needs to age is here.

Even more about home brew beer, beer glasses, and beer in general can be found at Brew Beer Today

Evolution of "Light" Low Alcohol Beer

Image via WikipediaMiller Brewing Company launched the first reduced alcohol beer, "Miller Lite" in 1973. Now, almost 40 years later, every major and micro brewing company offers a reduced alcohol product and it accounts for an ever growing percentage of the annual 180 million barrel US market.

To be considered a “light” or reduced alcohol, beer must contain no more than 3.5% "alcohol by volume" (ABV). This compares with "regular" beer that, generally, contains between 5% and 6%. A recent testing of the best selling US light beer, Bud Light showed it to have about 100 calories in a 12 oz. can compared to about 142 in Budweiser's regular beer. The spelling "Lite" is a trademark of Miller brewing company and should not be used to refer to reduced alcohol beer in general.

The states of Utah, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Kansas, and Colorado will allow convenience stores and supermarkets to only sell beer with ABV of 3.2%. Higher alcohol content beer may be sold only in liquor stores licensed by the state. Interestingly, Oklahoma further mandates that beer over 3.2% ABV must be sold only at room temperature. Some classify this reduced alcohol beer as "near-beer" but that term originated much earlier, during the prohibition era.

Originally, "near-beer" was a name for malt based beverages with little or no alcoholic content. These brews sprang up as soon as prohibition outlawed the brewing of any alcoholic beverage. These brews were officially classified as "cereal beverages" to distinguish them from the illegal recipes. These brews proved to be popular with the public and about 300 million gallons were produced in the early 1920s and provided a much needed revenue source for many breweries.

One of the most important reasons for near-beer's popularity was that it was easily spiked with grain alcohol and soon acquired yet another nickname; "needle beer" because of a needle was often used to inject the alcohol through the cork (this was a time before pop-top cans or screw top bottles).

Preceding near-beer was a product called "small beer" which was widely produced both in colonial America and even earlier in Europe. Small beer is an extremely low alcohol drink that is flavored with different ingredients such as molasses. It was often served to children and servant along with meals, including breakfast. At the time, it was a safer drink than water because of the brewing process which boiled the wort, which killed the water born diseases of the time such as cholera.

Small beer has fallen out of favor with today's drinkers and is mostly brewed by home brewers and some microbreweries. However, Anchor Brewing Company in San Francisco still produces "Anchor Small Beer" which is listed with an ABV of 3.3%

Read more about beer and home making beer at Brew Beer Today

Specific tips on home making beer are available home brew beer

Aging Home Brewed Beer

Perhaps the most common mistake that those who are new to home beer making is that they drink it too quickly. When you are too impatient and don't let your brew age long enough you are often disappointed with the results. Based on the recipe you used, the majority of home brew beers require that, following the fermentation process, you allow the beer to age for a period of at the least two and as much as six weeks. Take note that these are the minimum advisable times. Should you let your home brew beer alone longer periods you will get better results.

Although it appears nothing is happening throughout this period nothing could be more wrong. During the aging process the yeast continues to ferment using the sugars that remain in the beer after the bottling process. This naturally enhances the carbonation of your brew. It’s this that gives your beer bubbles. The other thing that's going on is the yeast will begin to settle out from the brew itself. This helps the taste to become smoother and further enhances the flavors of the recipe you decided on to start with.

This aging process will vary widely depending on recipe brewed. The cause of this is the fact that flavor ingredients in each recipe vary and require different amounts of time to mature. You can easily find some beers recipes that will be ready to drink within two weeks and others that are recommended to age for four months.

Once you have bottled your beers, preferably in brown or amber colored glass bottles to protect the beer from Uv radiation, you'll need a secure, undisturbed spot to stash them while they age. Your new home brew beer should really be kept in a cool, dark place where they will not get moved about and the temperature never goes higher than the limitation suitable for the recipe you used. Different yeasts require different temperatures. This is usually 72 to 74 degrees and is never greater than 76 degrees.

Once your brand-new brew has aged and you are ready for that first sample, be sure you record just how long you let the batch age before sampling. The fact is, good documentation as to what happens with each batch you brew is a very good idea. Whenever you try various things and find different results, you are developing a written record of the techniques that work best for you and your home brewery. These records should help stop you from repeating mistakes and they are also a great resource for further ideas on what to try on the next brewing adventure.


Read more about home brewing beer at  homebrew supplies