Homebrew Tips and Techniques

Three cheer for beer ” wait that doesn’t quite work, as one of those needs to be a plural. How about three cheers for beer(s)? That’s better and actually more accurate because if you have the right home brewing kit, you can make many different styles of beer. And that’s what making beer at home is all about, making as many styles as you like in a simple and easy to follow process.

If you aren’t into having all the equipment in your basement, then you might want to think twice about making beer at home. However, it is honestly not that difficult and even a novice with no experience can manage to make some really nice beer, provided they read the manual and do what they’re told.

Not everyone will thrill to the challenge of making beer at home. So if you aren’t sure this is what you want to do, then don’t spend big bucks on a home beer making kit. Get a cheaper version and give it a try first and then if you like the idea, and the beer actually tastes like beer and not some as yet unnamed poisonous liquid, go for a better kit.

One of the best things about making beer at home is that it is really a cheap, easy and fun thing to do, provided you follow the directions ok? Don’t be getting into this with the thought that you can “wing it” if things go wrong. Winging it is the wrong thing to do and will result in some of the worst tasting beer you’ve ever had the misfortune to run across. And since this is a pretty easy process, if you mess up that bad, let your wife take over.

Most of the kits on the market for making beer at home are pretty decent and go well together with the variety of ingredients you will need to get rolling. Make sure that the ingredients you do buy are top quality. Cheap ingredients will affect the taste of your beer. The scoop is that a good beer making kit can range in price from $60 to $200 and can keep you in beer until the cows come home once you have mastered the art.

Making beer isn’t any harder than reading a cookbook and making a meal. Ok, if you can’t even do toast, then stay away from making beer. Seriously though, you only need four ingredients ” filtered water (not tap and not distilled), malted barley (if this is your first time buy malt extract), hops (to balance out sweetness) and yeast (is the catalyst and adds “feel” to the finished liquid.)

With ingredients at the ready all you have to do is boil malt, hops and water for a set period of time. Read the directions, it varies depending on the style of beer you want. The mixture you’re creating is called wort, not to be confused with wart and is pronounced wert. When the boiling is done, the wort goes into the fermenter to cool.

The cool liquid you have in the fermenter is now ready for the yeast to be added. Once you have done that, airlock the opening and leave the whole batch alone to ferment. No peeking. In about ten days the yeast will have eaten the sugar in the mixture and it will wind up on the bottom of the fermenter. Bottle and leave it to mature for about 14 days.