Home Brew Society

A Home Beer Making Kit Will Improve Your Popularity!

It is a well known fact that Americans love their beer and desire nothing but the best from their beer. No doubt the large commercial beer manufacturers hold a considerable chunk of the beer making pie, but the number of home beer makers too has steadily been rising.

In fact, the popularity of home brewed beer has risen dramatically during the past twenty years or so, and custom made beers are more popular now than ever before.

Only Need a Few Hundred Dollars to Get Started

The American taste for beer is quite sophisticated and faced with an inexpensive as well as easy method of making home brewed beer has only stoked the fire of brewing beer at home. You may only require a few hundred dollars investment to purchase the required home beer making kits along with ingredients before you are well on your way to preparing homemade beer.

You can easily source home beer making kits from homebrew supply stores who stock not only the kits, but also the required ingredients as well. Before you actually get stuck into brewing beer at home you should be well acquainted with the different home beer making kits available that each comes with different supplies.

At the very least, your home beer making kit must include vital items such as the brewing kettle that is usually made from stainless steel and is used to make the wort. You should select a brewing kettle size that can hold at the very least twice the amount of beer you wish to brew.

Another important piece of equipment that your home beer making kit should have is the fermenting container which holds the brew at the same time as the yeast performs its function. In addition, the container should allow the brewer to check the fermentation that is going on, and it should also have an airlock to let gases escape.

Your home beer making kit should also have a hydrometer which is a tiny probe whose function is to measure the wort’s specific gravity while fermentation is taking place, and also before the fermentation process begins. A good thermometer is also necessary to check the temperatures between a low of sixty degrees Fahrenheit and a high of two hundred twelve degrees Fahrenheit at which point water begins to boil.

A very important facet of brewing beer at home is cleanliness and so you should ensure that your home beer making kit also has a sterilizer and it should also come with a racking cane, associated tubing as well as racking bucket - all of which help in transferring the fermented beer into a temporary location before it is actually bottled.

It is not unusual for home beer making kits to not contain bottles, caps as well as cappers which you will require for storing the fermented beer from the racking bucket into the bottles. With these pieces of equipment you should have no difficulty in brewing your beer at home.

About the Author- Ann Marier has written many articles about the house and garden providing helpful tips and advice. Her latest articles are all about home brewing and the intoxicating fun you can have with this hobby

Types Of Beer

The word "beer" is often used as a generic noun used to describe a cold refreshing beverage. For example, "Hiya Mike, let's go for a beer." However, beer lovers around the world will heartily agree that there's nothing generic about beer.

When it comes to types of beer, there are many, many options to choose from. It's impossible to say which type is best, because they all have very different characteristics. You'd be surprised at how a pilsner can differ from a porter, or how a stout stands out from a cider.

The names given to different styles of beer generally reflect individual characteristics of the product, such as where it originated. Most beers, particularly those sold commercially, are processed using traditional methods.

Different types of beer have unique qualities like appearance, taste, origin and aroma. There are several styles that make up the world' most common types of beer:

Styles of beer have a lot to do with how they taste, what they look like, how they smell and of course where they are made. Some common choices include these:

* Lager: Some of the most popular types of beer are lagers. These include American styles including basic lager, all-malt lager, light lager, double pilsner, malt liquor and low-alcohol or "light" beers. Popular international choices include Czech, European, Japanese and German lagers.

* Ale: American amber, brown ale, porter, strong, sour and wild ales are also common American beers. Also falling under the category of "Ales" are Chile Beer, Pumpkin Ale, Belgian and French ales, English, German, Irish, Finnish, Scottish and Russian ales.

* Cider: While not an official beer, cider is still enjoyed by many beer drinkers. Favorites include standard cider, New England cider and many specialty ciders.

* Hybrids: combining different beer styles or ingredients create this "experimental" beer. Berbed, smoked, fruit and vegetable beer and spiced beer are all types of hybrids.

* Mead: Mead is not a beer, rather a honey wine that has been adapted from centuries-old recipes. Melomel is a type of mead blended with fruit or vegetables. Braggot is concoction of beer and mead, while Metheglin is mead blended with spices.

Variety is the spice of life. If you're a beer drinker, you're likely loyal to a tried and true brand. But remember that variety is the spice of life. There is a world of options available to you, so try something new next time you're ready to crack open a cold one.

Beer - A Brief History

Who doesn’t love an ice cold beer on a sunny day or after a hard days work? Many of us do but what is it that makes beer so great? Well, we could spend years talking about the virtues of beer and trying to categorize them all, but instead why not focus on the conception of beer and learn its quenching history!

Beer is possibly the oldest and most popular alcoholic beverage on the planet today. Records of beer can be traced back to 5000 BC in the ancient writings of the Egyptians and Mesopotamians.

It’s basic mix of carbohydrates and water made it a simple beverage to create and became a staple, along with bread, in the diet of medieval times. It was sometimes a thick and floral concoction with often poisonous flavorings that was a far cry from what we now drink today.

During the middle ages, brewing beer shifted from homemakers and became more a tool of the artisan. Pubs, Monasteries and Monks in particular, began brewing beer for the masses. Hops were added to induce some bitterness to the sweet brew making it more identifiable to your palate today.

In 1516 the brewing guilds of Bavaria pushed for beer purity laws making it illegal to brew beer with anything but barley, hops and water. (This of course predated yeast) it was shortly after this in 1553 that Beck’s brewing of Belgium began producing beer commercially for the masses.

With the discovery of the new world so did the progression of beer brewing. Many breweries started the process of mass production but with differing results, regional flavors and taste. Many prominent men of the day brewed beer, sometimes hiring brew master’s from the old world to come and work their craft. Beer brewing hadn’t changed much until 1876, when Louis Pasteur was able to isolate a single yeast cell in a controlled lab environment thus changing beer brewing forever. The true secret to fermentation was discovered and was now repeatable. Controlled mass production and consistency were now available to the joy of beer drinkers everywhere.

Since then beer has been manufactured by several large multinational corporations around the world but still retains its artisan roots with regional craft breweries and small “micro breweries” producing outstanding product with a great regional feel and flavor. With the introduction of the metal keg in 1964, it was now possible for completely hygienic and sterilized product to be shipped worldwide thus evoking the term “Import or Domestic” on Tap and giving us the modern brew we love and enjoy today.
About the Author Michael Kyle has been a hospitality expert for 18 years leading to the successful launch of www.thesexykitchen.com

Beer Through The Years

No one really knows exactly how the first beer came into being ...

Suffice it to say that, around 10,000 years ago, somebody let a primordial barley and hop concoction stand long enough for it to ferment. The result not only made anonymous history, it was the genesis of beer's own special influence throughout the ages.

Here are a few examples of note:

It was the accepted practice in Babylonia, as early as 4000 years ago, that for a month after a wedding, the bride's father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer, and because their calendar was lunar-based, this period was called the "honey month" or what we know today as the "honeymoon." I have also heard that the custom included one of the most resourceful bits of propaganda ever created for husbands. As the story went, if the groom drank mead for an entire moon, it would enhance the chances of his wife bearing a male heir. The bride, however, had to abstain from drinking alcohol at all. I'll leave the punch lines to you.

After consuming a bucket or two of vibrant brew they called ‘aul,’ or ‘ale,’ a certain self-appointed breed of Vikings would head fearlessly into battle without armor, or even without shirts. In fact, the term "berserk" means "bare shirt" in Norse, and eventually took on the meaning of their wild behavior in battle. They believed that Odin’s favor was all they needed for protection, and if they were to die in combat, it was only because The Allfather decided it was their time to enter the hallowed halls of Valhalla. This was Odin's great ‘Castle of the Chosen Slain,’ where 'inductees' would spend eternity in Viking nirvana, ie- fighting all day, having their wounds miraculously heal at sundown, and then partying all night, with generous quantities of ale at their beck and call.

Before thermometers were invented, brewers would dip a thumb or finger into the mix to find the right temperature for adding yeast. Too cold, and the yeast wouldn't grow. Too hot, and the yeast would die. This practice is where we get the phrase, "rule of thumb."

The first known consumer protection act arose with the German Beer Purity Law of 1516, known as Rheinheitsgebot. This decreed that, in order to be called 'beer,' a beverage could only consist of four ingredients: malt, hops, yeast and water. This is such a revered regulation that when the European Union facilitated the introduction of other beers into the German market, it took a court order for many stores to sell them. Most of those beers contained preservatives, and to a respectable German, that meant --- and still does --- that such beverages were not beer.

In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts. So, in olde England, when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them to mind their own pints and quarts and settle down. It's where we get the phrase, "mind your P’s and Q's."

Also in England's olden days, pub frequenters often had a whistle baked into the rim or handle of their ceramic cups. When they needed a refill, they used the whistle to get some service. "Wet your whistle" is the phrase inspired by this practice.

In 1740, Admiral Vernon of the British fleet decided to water down the navy's rum. Needless to say, the sailors weren't too pleased and called Admiral Vernon “Old Grog,” after the stiff wool grogram coats he wore. The term "grog" soon began to mean the watered down drink itself. When you were drunk on this grog, you were "groggy," a word that has been expanded to include the effects of too much beer and is still in use today.

There are numerous quotations which pay homage to beer. Allow me to list three of the wittiest:

"Sometimes when I reflect back on all the beer I drink, I feel ashamed. Then, I look into the glass and think about the workers in the brewery and all of their hopes and dreams. If I didn't drink this beer, they might be out of work and their dreams would be shattered. Then I say to myself, 'It is better that I drink this beer and let their dreams come true than be selfish and worry about my liver.'"

-- Saturday Night Live's faux-philosopher, Jack Handy

"Put it back in the horse!"

-- W C Fields, disapproving of a sub-standard brew

"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy."

-- Benjamin Franklin

Given a good pint, composed of God's natural ingredients and nurtured by man's learned craft, beer has made us very happy, indeed.

Just keep the joy below 0.08% of your blood content.

Welcome to the Homebrew Society

Home Beer Brewing Kits Are The Start Of An Intoxicating Adventure

You will be right in thinking that there must be an alternative to drinking commercial beer that large factories containing huge copper containers manned by white-coated employees are churning out and for which you end up paying more than you wish to pay.

The answer is simple. You should think about buying home beer brewing kits and brew your own beer at home which will help to save your money while experiencing the pleasure of drinking beer that (if made properly) will taste the way that you want it to taste.

Make Two Gallons or More with a Kit

With Microbrew home beer brewing kits you will find that you can make as much as two gallons of beer that should cost you a mere twelve dollars or so. With the typical home Microbrew home beer brewing kit you will find that it comes with a Brew Keg as well as hops and malts and some “Boosters” as well that are “the additives that add the alcohol”. Along with the plastic caps for the Brew Keg that can be used over and over again is included the instructions.

You can use your Microbrew home beer brewing kit to make a variety of beers including Pilsners, Lagers, Stout, Light beers as well as ales that are fruit based. The whole home beer brewing kit exercise requires discipline and once you have combined all of the ingredients and closed the key and started to brew there is no scope for peeking by opening the keg until the whole process has finished.

You must learn to trust in the microbrew kit instructions and not deviate from the set path and you should certainly not rush the process at all.

If you like some variety, you can try out the Home Microbrew Kit for Root Beer as well as the one for Birch Beer. There are many different types of home beer brewing kits available that suits the budget, level of experience and those that can be gifted or contains the complete set of tools for brewing beer at home.

All said and done, home beer brewing kits allow you to gain added satisfaction in your glass of beer that just cannot be found in the average commercially brewed beer. Besides saving money, home beer brewing kits allows you to actually brew the beer that tastes just the way you want it and with some improvisation, it allows you to develop a personal style as well as flavor that just cannot be mass produced.

Common Problems Associated With Brewing Your Own Beer At Home

Stuck Fermentation

Stuck fermentation occurs when your beer fails to ferment to completion. This can result from the use of old yeast or poor ingredients. The best way to take care of this problem, is to prevent it from starting. To do this, you should:

1. Use an all malt or a recipe that has a lot of it, as yeast needs nutrients to stay alive. Corn and sugar lack these nutrients. If your yeast still fails to survive, it cannot reproduce. For this very reason, distilled water shouldn't be used when making beer.

2. Re-hydrate the yeast by adding it to some water and adding wort to the yeast an hour or more before you pitch. This will help ensure that your yeast is still active.

Under Carbonation

If you've used the proper amount of priming sugar and your beer is still flat, it's probably due to the fact that you didn't properly rise the sanitizing solution from the bottles. If too much sanitizer is left in the bottles, it can kill the yeast, which results in flat beer. The only way to prevent this is to stop it from happening.

Over Carbonation

Over carbonation can cause your beer to turn into a foam disaster. It can result from these causes:

1. Bottling your beer too early can also result in too much carbonation.

2. Too much or uneven priming sugar. You should measure your primer carefully and dissolve it thoroughly in boiling water and allow it the proper time to cool. Before bottling, make sure to stir this into your beer.

3. Bottles that are under filled can also contribute to over carbonation. You should allow 1/2 inch of head space to allow your beer time to pressurize.

4. Poor sanitization is also a cause. If you allow your beer to come in contact with wild yeast, it can result in over carbonation and possibly even off flavors.

By taking the proper time to fix problems, you'll ensure that your brew comes out great every time you brew it. If you happen to run into a problem, always take the time to rationize it before you rush into fixing it. If you rush into fixing a problem, you may start another one.

You should expect problems, especially if this is your first time brewing. Even for expert home brewers, problems can occur from time to time - which is something you'll learn to deal with.

How To Brew Your Own Beer

There’s no bottle of brew that tastes quite as good as the one you’ve made yourself. It's also a fun hobby. So what are you waiting for? Here’s how to brew your own beer.

There’s some equipment you are going to need. You should be able to pick it all up for under $200, and it’s not hard to find. Any local brewing supply store or online brewing site will have everything you need which includes:

Brewing Pot
Plastic hose
Fermenter
Bottling bucket
Airlock and stopper
Bottle brush
Bottle capper
Thermometer – the stick-on type is best
Small bowl
Saucepan
Spatula
Oven mitts
Wooden mixing spoons

The easiest way, especially for beginners, is to pick up a beer kit. It will contain all the needed ingredients, which include yeast and hopped malt concentrate. You also need to buy fermentables, which are what add the different flavors to your brew. Of course you can buy your ingredients separately, but the kit is a foolproof way to get everything you need.

You will need to sanitize all your equipment. In fact, it’s the most important thing you will do. Clean everything with hot soapy water. Then you need to sanitize all your equipment by using either the iodine solution or chlorine solution that came with your brewing equipment.

Now that everything is sterilized, you are ready to start. Put two quarts of water in your brew pot; then heat to around 180F or until it steams; then remove it from the heat. Add your beer kit and fermentables. Follow the instructions provided with your kit.

Stir until everything is dissolved; then put the lid on and leave it sit for 20 minutes on low heat. Add your mix, which is called the wort, to the fermenter which should be filled with four gallons of water. Stir for 4 minutes. This oxygenizes the mixture. When the wort is cool to the touch you can add your yeast.

Now it’s time to let your wort ferment. The process starts right away and continues for 5 days. During this period it’s important to keep the temperature constant, around 65F, and to keep your wort in a dark place. You’ll be able to tell when your wort is fermenting because you will see tiny little air bubbles rising to the top.

When 5 day arrives you need to start checking your beer each day. When there are no more air bubbles your beer is ready to bottle. Don’t be impatient. If you don’t wait for the fermenting to complete you’ll wreck your beer’s taste.

Before you bottle you have to prepare what’s called the primary solution. This is what carbonates the beer. In your saucepan add 2 cups of water and ¾ cup dextrose. Bring to a boil over medium heat, and then let it cool for 30 minutes. Pour it into the bottling bucket.

Attach the hose to the spigot on your fermenter and put the other end of the hose in your bottling bucket. Open the spigot and transfer your beer over to the bottling bucket. When done, detach and clean the hose and toss the fermenter. Fill each bottle leaving 1” of air at the top. Cap securely and make sure there are no leaks.

Wait, it’s not quite time to drink it yet. You need to put your bottled beer in a cool dark place for the second fermentation process. Don’t put it in the fridge as that’s too cold. Basements work great. It now needs to sit for 2 more weeks. And then it will be time to enjoy!