Tuesday, May 5, 2009

How To Brew Beer

Beer is one of the oldest and most widely consumed alcoholic beverages consumed in the world today. It is the result of brewing and fermentation of starches, which are mainly derived from cereal grains. At present, malted barley is the grain most commonly used to make beer, though wheat, maize (corn), and rice are also quite popular. While you can easily get beer from the market, brewing your own has its own advantages. In case you are game for it, go through the following recipe and know how to brew beer.
Recipe For Brewing Beer At Home
Supplied Needed
  • 3 lbs Dry Malt Extract
  • 0.25 lbs Black Malt, crushed
  • 0.5 lbs Chocolate Malt, crushed
  • 0.5 lbs 60 Crystal Malt, crushed
  • 0.5 lbs Row Malt, crushed
  • 0.5 lbs Roast Barley, crushed
  • 1 quart Maple Syrup
  • 2 oz Perle Hops, pellets
  • 1 package Scottish Ale Liquid Yeast
  • 2 tbsp Cinnamon
  • 2 tbsp Allspice
  • 2 tbsp Cloves
  • 1 tbsp Nutmeg
Instructions
  • First of all, you need to put the grains in a bag that is big enough to allow water to flow between the grains, after they swell up.
  • Put the bean bag in a pot full of cold water and place it on flame, bringing the heat up to 160oF.
  • Making use of a spoon, squish the outside of the bag, mixing the grains in the process.
  • Take out the bag from the pot and drain the water. Refill the water in the pot, squish the bag and drain, every 5 minutes, for one hour. Make sure that the temperature of the water never goes above 170oF.
  • After an hour of squishing and draining, take out the grains from the bag and put them in a colander that hangs in the rim of your pot.
  • The next step will comprise of pouring half a gallon of clean water through the grains.
  • Now, add the first batch of hops (1 oz) to the pot and bring the water to a boil. Turn off the heat, add malt extract and stir well (to dissolve).
  • Turn on the heat and add the second batch of hops when 30 minutes are left to the boil. Add the spices as well.
  • When the water comes to a boil, add maple syrup and turn off the heat.
  • Now, transfer the pot to your kitchen sink and fill the latter with ice and cold water.
  • In a sanitized bottling bucket, pour 2 gallons of water, which is at fermentation temperature.
  • When the water in the pot cools down to fermentation temperature, add wort. Pour it in the bottling bucket and add water to 5 gallons.
  • Let the water set aside for 30 minutes and then drain the wort into a 5 gal carboy, leaving the solids (trub) at the bottom of the bucket.
  • The next step will require you to add (pitch) the yeast starter and set up a blow off tube.
  • As the yeast starts working, you will see a bunch of foamy gack (krausen) blowing out the tube.
  • When the krausen calms down, keep an airlock in placed of the blow off tube.
  • With the slowing down of airlock activity, transfer the liquid to a secondary fermentation carboy, using a racking tube.
  • Now is the time to add the dry hops to the liquid, leading to the picking up of the airlock activity (a little).
  • After the fermentation is complete, let the beer settle down, by keeping it aside for a day or two.
  • Get the bottling bucket with beer and put 3/4 cup corn sugar (boiled in 16 oz water) in it, stirring with a long sanitized spoon. Store the beer.

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