In order to begin brewing your own beer at home you will first need to have a taste for good beer. If you enjoy drinking Bud, Coors or Miller ad nausea you probably won’t care much for homebrew. However, if you have already acquired a taste for a variety of micro-brews and enjoy trying new and different beers then you are a prime candidate for brewing your own beer.
To get started making your own beer at home I recommend purchasing a brew kit and one or more extract ingredient kits. You will also need a pot that will allow you to boil 2 or 3 gallons of water (the bigger the better), and enough beer bottles for 5 gallons (about 54 if they are 12 oz. each). The bottles should not be a twist top.
Virtually every local and Internet homebrew store sells kits that do not have a gasket seal on the fermentation bucket. Since sanitation is critical in home brewing I recommend a fermentation bucket that has a seal to help keep your beer from becoming contaminated. About 90 percent of the kits sold on the internet and in local stores use an inexpensive food grade type lid with no sealing gasket.
Find a kit that contains a 6.5 gallon primary fermenter, 6.5 gallon bottling bucket with bottling spigot, 5 gallon Better Bottle PET secondary carboy fermenter, instructions, C-Brite sanitizer, twin lever capper, triple scale hydrometer, airlock, pre-drilled universal carboy stopper, liquid crystal thermometer, siphon hose and shut-off clamp, Fermtech auto siphon, bottle filler and a bottle brush.
One of the more difficult tasks in home brewing is transferring the liquids. When making beer, you can’t start a siphon with your mouth due to the hazards of bacterial contamination. The auto-siphon solves this problem completely. I was amazed how well this worked the first time I used it. Just pull up then push down a couple of times and the siphon starts. Also get a kit with a Better Bottle PET Carboy for secondary fermentation, to produce clearer beers. This carboy has less weight than glass, an equivalent performance, and no chance of breaking. This kit is a great value for beginning brewers.
Pick out an extract kit of a beer that you would like to try. Read these instructions and you are all ready to brew. Lastly, go to makebeerathome for information on the brewing process.
Gregory McLaw is a regular contributor to www.makebeerathome.info and enjoys brewing and drinking his own beer.
Author: Gregory McLaw
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Healing food: natural way to cure cancer
This is some awesome new beer technology. Thought I’d share.
If you have some awesome beer technology to share, join us at the Pub for Beer Enthusiasts, Beertaps.com Pub.
Have you ever visited one of those restaurants that display their own beer brewing equipment? You know, those big brass machines that make the restaurant a favorite place to hang out with your friends?
Have you ever wished you could brew your own beer like the ‘big boys’ do? Well, you can, and it’s really easy to do.
Yes – I can guess what you’re thinking: There is no way your going to fit a brewing machine that big inside your home or apartment, let alone afford the cost! Don’t worry – home brewing does not require such big equipment – in fact, you would be surprised how little the home brewer needs in order to make a fantastic brew.
All you need is one six-gallon fermenter jar with an airlock plus some ready-made malt with hops, and you’re all set to start to make hom brew. You can get the malt extract in a can, so there’s no more messy and difficult malting of your own grains.
Just mix, brew, bottle, and drink! The mixing is done in the fermenter – you just need hot water and a malt kit, add in cold water, and then some yeast. It’s even easier than adding making bread in a bread machine. The brewing is done by the yeast, while you sit back and take it easy. The last step is bottle your beer, and soon you can enjoy that first golden sip.
Making your favorite types of beer at home just became a lot of fun – and as an added benefit, you save a lot of money over drinking the commercial brands. You can brew up six gallons of your favorite nectar for about $20-30.
And did I mention how much better a home brew tastes when compared to the beers you can buy? I mean, why do you think these restaurants that offer their beers fresh on tap do better than those larger chains that serve the regular stuff you could buy at the store?
Because the beer is fresh, crisp, and more refreshing than anything else.
Author: Kevin Flamell
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Buy electrical pressure cooker
The hop plant (Humulus lupulus) has been cultivated for over 1500 years. Most people know of its use in flavoring beer, but it can also be used as an ornamental plant for your landscaping. This article is written for those who will use it for both.
The first order of business is to find the perfect spot to plant your rhizome. I recommend full sunlight for your plants. Hops can grow up to 20 feet in height when supported by a trellis but I opted to grow my hops up my backyard fence which is located next to my decking where I brew beer.
The hop rhizome can be planted either vertically or horizontally in a trench about 2 – 3 inches in depth. Surround the plant with a mound of soil to help direct water to the plant as you want to keep the rhizome moist until the first sprouts appear. After a few weeks you will want to train the plant on a trellis, I support my vines with some inexpensive wire fence screwed into my wood fence and I opted to weave my plants zigzag through my wire fencing in a 6ft by 6ft area. Most commercial growers will train 5 or 6 shoots on a trellis but I only train 2 at the most since I have limited space. Just cut back any unneeded shoots.
Like most plants don’t over water your hops. If you water on a regular time table you may be hurting your hop plants. Keeping the soil moist all the time encourages only the top roots to spread. For a healthy plant you need the deep roots to grow so only water when the top soil is drying out. But don’t wait for the leaves to turn brown or purple before you water just monitor the top soil. You will need to feed your hops on a regular schedule. I use an all purpose vegetable fertilizer that mixes with water.
Despite your best efforts, hops may be savaged by disease or pests. Downy mildew is the most common disease. Avoid the hot, moist conditions that favor spore germination. This is why I don’t use sprinklers to water the plants. And I usually water early in the morning so the leaves can dry off.
The most common pest is the hop aphid. It is a tiny, soft green pest that sucks the juices out of the plant. They should be controlled before the hops produce cones, because once they get into the cones a black mold grows on their secretions rendering the cones unusable. Ladybugs are a natural enemy of aphids and will help keep them under control. Insecticidal soaps and diatomaceous earth are used successfully to control aphids. As a last resort, commercial insecticides might be needed.
Since hops are a hardy perennial once established they can be harvested for many years. And as a homebrewer this makes economical sense for me. And it adds a special touch using my own hops in my own beer. So why not enjoy both the looks and the uses of the amazing hop plant?
Author: JD Hoffman
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Electrical Pressure Cooker Online
It’s that time of year again! St. Patrick’s Day is right around the corner, March 17th actually. This year that falls on a Wednesday so you should probably decide pretty quickly if you’re going to celebrate the “wearing of the green” on the 13th or the 20th. Regardless, you certainly don’t have to be Irish to enjoy the festivities. St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated around the world in cities big and small with music, parades, and a host of people wearing all sorts of green stuff and eating and drinking in honor of the Irish. And none of the parties are ever complete without the famous green brew!
Even though its still March, it is almost like St. Patrick’s Day kicks off the spring season of festivities, outdoor picnics, and ball games. St. Pat’s day sets the stage for Memorial Day, 4th of July and a whole lot of summer fun. Getting together with friends, whether you are raising your glass to the “Luck of the Irish,” enjoying a baseball game or relaxing after cutting the grass it is always better when you have a cool refreshing beer or ale to enjoy.
Kick this spring and summer season off now by learning how to brew your own beer, and then follow the steps to brew beer in less than an hour’s worth of work. It’s a fun hobby, you don’t need a lot of brew equipment, and you can start now and make the perfect green brew for St. Patrick’s Day!
Once you have made and bottled your first batch you will soon be sharing a wonderful hobby with family and friends as well as a delicious beverage. The choices are endless! Some beers might take longer to brew, and you might even change around the ingredients from one batch to the next but you will never get bored!
Author: Jesse L Moore
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Buy electrical pressure cooker
Here is what is true: Beer, especially home brewed beer (due to it having no artificial colors or flavors, and no preservatives), can help when it comes to your health. Like apples, you could say, “A beer a day keeps the doctor away!”
Following are the eight ways that home brewed beer is healthy for you:
1. Studies have shown beer to increase HDL (“good” cholesterol) and decrease the occurrence of blood clots.
2. In May of ‘99, the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center found that moderate beer drinking would lower the drinker’s chances of getting coronary heart disease by 30% – even upwards of 40%.
3. “The New England Journal of Medicine” reported in their November ‘99 issue that moderate beer drinkers would decrease the chances of their suffering a stroke by a full 20%.
4. The TNO Nutrition and Food Research Institute found that home brewed beer contains the vitamin B6, which prevents the build-up of the amino acid homocysteine (these have been linked to causing heart and vascular disease).
5. Home brewed beer contains no fat and no bad cholesterol. Drink it guilt free!
6. Drinking beer (brewed at home) helps promote blood vessel dilation, sleep, and eases urination in elderly people.
7. Beer is a proven stress reliever and sleep inducer. Nothing like relaxing with a glass of delicious beer you brewed yourself. In fact, the very act of making beer is relaxing.
8. Beer increases vitamin B6 absorption into the blood plasma by 30% – no other beverage can do this!
Now you have another reason to finally begin brewing your own beer at home. It’s not only tastier and cheaper than any commercial beer, it’s also healthy for you. Salute!
Author: Tracey S Watson
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Buy electrical pressure cooker
If you are reading this then you are either one of the people who have joined the ranks of home brewers or are seriously thinking about it. Learning to brew your own beer is a fun and rewarding hobby for many people. And it is also a way to save money in uncertain economic times. If you are a beer lover at all you know how much an import or micro brew can cost compared to the brands generally pushed by the international breweries. Knowing how to make your own beer is a valid way to deal with always increasing prices and, you get a better beer in the end.
If you are already brewing your own then this information will, probably, be redundant. But if you are in the consideration stage, please pay attention!
Tip 1 What is the best way to get started in home brewing?
By far the easiest way to begin is by purchasing a beer kit from one of the online beer sites or a local store. These starter kits come with everything needed to successfully produce beer including instructions and ingredients. Many of these kits start at under $50 and most can be had for less than $100. Since these kits allow you to make beer 5 or 6 gallons at a time, by the third batch you are going to be saving cash.
I think the most overlooked benefit to home brew beer is how many different recipes are available. You can, really, find the ingredients to brew any flavor of beer you can think of. Try doing that at the store.
Tip 2 Cleanliness is everything!
As you begin your adventures in home brewing always take care to keep all your equipment clean at all times. If you aren’t sure if something is clean or not, clean it and sterilize it again, More brew batches have been ruined by contamination from stray microbes and bacteria than anything else.
If you took my advice on tip #1 and bought a beer kit then it came with sterilizer and instruction on how to use it. Be sure to follow the instructions faithfully and restock well before your run out. Please take my word that it is very frustrating to sample a new batch only to find it was contaminated somewhere along the line and has to be thrown out.
If this all sounds intimidating or complicated, it really isn’t at all. If you are able to successfully boil water, you are ready to successfully brew your own beer.
Author: Jesse L Moore
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Electrical Pressure Cooker Online
Many people that are new to brewing are always wondering how other brewers “do it” and what methodologies they use. Well, with that, I decided to share what I have learned at this point to help everyone (as well as myself) improve their brewing skills. In this, the inaugural issue, I will start from the beginning by explaining the basic ingredients used in brewing as well as the overall process. Then, on a weekly basis, I plan on covering all the aspects of brewing and providing tips and tricks that I have learned.
Basic Ingredients in brewing beer:
There are only 4 basic ingredients in brewing beer. Water, Malt, Hops and Yeast. You can use “other” ingredients but these are just the basics. The Germans think that beer should ONLY consist of these ingredients and wrote the “German Purity Law” (Keep in mind that this document was written in 1516 and is still adhered to today!!) So, if you use these four ingredients and don’t try to get too fancy you can brew some great beer!
1. Water – Water makes up more than 90% of beer. The mineral content of water can influence the flavor of beer and is typically specific to the region from which it came.
2. Malt (Barley) – Barley must be malted before being used to brew beer. Malting is a process applied to cereal grains, in which the grains are made to germinate and then are quickly dried before the plant develops Hops1
3. Hops – (Humulus Lupulus) Flowering vines whose flowers are used as a preservative and for their essential oils that add flavor and aroma to balance the sweetness of the malt.
4. Yeast – These are a type of fungi. Yeast is one of the most essential aspects of brewing beer. This is where all the magic happens. It is during this stage that sugars from the malt are metabolized into alcohol and carbon dioxide.
General overview of the brewing process:
1. Malt barley is soaked in hot water, just like making a giant cup of tea (this releases the sugars in the malt). This mixture is now called “Wort”.
2. The malt sugar solution is boiled with hops to add flavor and aroma.
3. The solution is cooled (typically to room temp) and yeast is added to start the fermentation process. The mixture can now officially be called “BEER”. I am man, hear me roar!
4. The yeast ferments the sugars, releasing CO2 and ethyl alcohol. This can be done in a single stage or two stage fermentation process typically taking 1-2 weeks.
5. When the fermentation is complete, the beer is bottled with a little bit of added sugar to provide the carbonation (the residual yeast “eats” the sugars and releases more CO2). This is called “Bottle Conditioning” and typically takes another 1-2 weeks.
Well there you have it, a general overview of the brewing ingredients and process. In my next series I will cover the process from the very beginning, concentrate of methods and practices of “The Boil”…stay tuned.
Author: Rob W Young
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Advice on AdSense
With little time, and only a sliver of effort, anyone can make their own beer at home. Once someone successfully creates great tasting home brewed beer, it is only natural that they will want to do it all the time. It is possible for you to have the entire brew inventory that you like and need at your convenience – whenever you want and without making dreaded trips to the store and waiting in long lines.
Many places online can point you in the right direction to find all the necessary ingredients you need to brew your own beer from home. Extracts are available in many types, such as pre-hopped and un-hopped malt extracts. There are in existence thirty different varieties of grains that you can crush up and steep for your beer, according to how you want it to suit your taste preference.
Aside from having a good home brewing beer guide and kit, all you need at your house is the necessary ingredients and the counter space.
Flavor is a determining factor in deciding what you would like to brew. This can be the hardest part of making your own beer from home, as there are many varieties of beer:
- dark
- pale
- amber
- English
- German
- American
- . . . and much more
Make sure that you sanitize your equipment, and keep it sanitized whenever beginning to brew your own beer at home. To do this, simply wash all of your supplies with warm water and let it dry completely. You need to make sure that everything is clean and ready for your home beer brewing strategy.
Once you have the necessary amount of water, and all the malt extract which you are using is in the pot, allow it reach a good boil. You can use either pre-hopped or unhopped malt extract, depending on the particular recipe that you are using. Next, allow the mixture to cool down and place the brew kettle in a sink full of cool water. Be sure to let the brew fall in temperature below 100 degrees(Fahrenheit). Next, just pour it into the sanitized container you will be using for the fermenting, then top it off to the five-gallon mark.
Adding yeast to the container is the next and simplest step. This is what will help enhance flavor in your home brewed beer. Allow your newly brewed beer to ferment for at least eight to ten days minimum. Then, allow it sit at room temperature for about two days, after the bubbling has ceased.
Now it is time to bottle your home brewed beer. Put all the beer into a bucket, adding about ¾ of a cup of sugar. Fill your bottles to about an inch from the top, and apply a cap. Let the bottles carbonate for about en days.
After the 10 days are up, place your new and exciting home made brew into the refrigerator and allow it to chill.
Sit back and relax with your fresh and great tasting bottle of beer!
Author: Robert Ragsdale
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Electrical Pressure Cooker Online
Home brewing is a growing hobby for people who want to drink something that cannot be found in the aisles of a local liquor store and it is becoming more popular all the time. Home brewing is not that difficult, although beginners should follow recipes carefully in order to ensure results that are drinkable. When you are getting started, it is important to follow a recipe until you learn all about the home brewing process. Home brewing is evolving from a simple hobby into an alternative source of cheap alcoholic beverages. It is simply the process where any person can make beer or wine from grains and fruits, in their home from choosing their own ingredients to the bottling and consumption of the finished product. Home brew beer is typically a very strong beer, with higher density than store bought beers of a similar style, and should always tastes fresher since you make it, chill it, bottle it, and drink it while it is still fresh.
Home Brewed BeerBeer has been around for a long time, in different cultures from all over the world. Beer is basically just fermented grains, just as wine is fermented fruit. Beer generally falls into two categories: ales and lagers. Today, beer is still made with all manner of herbs and spices like ginger, clove, cinnamon, etc. Beer making may be more fun that what you think. It is fun to try to make your own, and it is not difficult at all. Much of the excitement of making your own beer is the anticipation of what it will taste like when it is ready! Beer is made from fermenting cereals and hops so in that regard, beer is a living organism, which needs time to grow. Beer brewing is easy: just find a room you can control the temperature of and pick the right yeast. The natural process of fermentation does the rest. All you need is a little patience!Making Your Own WineWine making is the next step for anyone that has already tried their hand at brewing their own beer. Wine making used to be done by stepping on grapes and allowing the grape juice to ferment, but now you can order your own wine making kit online and have wine in just a few weeks from such varieties as zinfandal, cabernet, chardonnay, riesling and merlot. All you need is the correct quantities of grapes and other fruits, herbs, and spices, and you can make all types of wines. Plus, when you make your own wine, you aren’t limited to grape-based wines. You can use any fruit that is in season. You can try raspberry wine, pear wine, cherry wine, or even banana wine!Home brewing is a fun and rewarding hobby. Home brewing is both extremely simple, and yet surprisingly complex. Making your own beer or wine is the process where you choose the ingredients, ferment them, bottle your end-product, and, best of all, drink the finished product. Home brewing is an inexpensive way of producing beer or wine that can taste just as good as the beer or wine that big corporations make. And you get the bragging rights of putting your own name on the label!
Author: Dean Novosat
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Canada duty
