I've always loved beer and when I left school I ended up working in a brewery laboratory where a large part of the job was tasting beer which at 16 was a pretty good first job. Many of the kits make about 5 gallons of beer (about 19 litres) which is really more than is practical to make and store once bottled. So I found a beer making kit that produces 1 gallon (3.8 l) which my wife got me as a Christmas present. Yesterday was the first time I have had enough time to actually start the process. Basically it is like cooking, you just follow a recipe! Even in production breweries you have a recipe to follow. The kit I have gives you all the ingredients and equipment you need to start the first brew (excluding bottles and pots) and costs about £40.
If you don't know brewing there are basically five processes before you a get final product:
1. The Mash (first pic)- this is where you add the grains and malts to hot water and cook for 60 minutes. Temperatures are important as it affects the amount of sugar you get out of the grain and malts
2. The Sparge (second & third pic) - here you drain the grains and malt from the liquid. You then pass the liquid through the grains/malt again followed by more hot water. This ensures that all the sugars are removed. The spent grain/malt can be used as bird food.
3. The Boil (fourth pic) - the liquid (wort) is boiled for 60 minutes and during this process the hops are added at various times. Hops are there to add flavour, bitterness and also act as a preservative. Different hop varieties have different flavours and properties.
4. Fermentation (fifth pic (and yes I can see it is on it's side! )) - yep, once the liquid is cooled to about 21C, yeast is added and it ferments to produce the beer. This takes about two weeks.
5. Bottling - This is the final process. A little bit of sugar (honey) is added to the fermented liquid at the bottling stage as this will encourage in-bottle fermentation and carbonate the beer. In production brewing the beer is carbonated by using CO2 and the beer will also be filtered and other processes applied to it. At home though it just goes in the bottle as is! After two weeks it is ready for drinking!
Producing the fermentable liquid took about four hours and the ingredients would cost about £15 to produce about 7 500ml bottles. If you exclude the initial cost of equipment (as that will get reused) it probably works out at about £2 a bottle which is comparable to decent bottled beer here. Buying the ingredients in larger volume will help to reduce costs which I will look at once I get a few batches done. I found the process of making the beer quite relaxing apart the wife's comments about house smelling like a brewery and the mess in the kitchen! Now looking forward to bottling this batch and starting another and then tasting this one!
There are so many beer types and recipes that once I have the process sorted it should be possible to vary the recipes to suit personal tastes.
If you don't know brewing there are basically five processes before you a get final product:
1. The Mash (first pic)- this is where you add the grains and malts to hot water and cook for 60 minutes. Temperatures are important as it affects the amount of sugar you get out of the grain and malts
2. The Sparge (second & third pic) - here you drain the grains and malt from the liquid. You then pass the liquid through the grains/malt again followed by more hot water. This ensures that all the sugars are removed. The spent grain/malt can be used as bird food.
3. The Boil (fourth pic) - the liquid (wort) is boiled for 60 minutes and during this process the hops are added at various times. Hops are there to add flavour, bitterness and also act as a preservative. Different hop varieties have different flavours and properties.
4. Fermentation (fifth pic (and yes I can see it is on it's side! )) - yep, once the liquid is cooled to about 21C, yeast is added and it ferments to produce the beer. This takes about two weeks.
5. Bottling - This is the final process. A little bit of sugar (honey) is added to the fermented liquid at the bottling stage as this will encourage in-bottle fermentation and carbonate the beer. In production brewing the beer is carbonated by using CO2 and the beer will also be filtered and other processes applied to it. At home though it just goes in the bottle as is! After two weeks it is ready for drinking!
Producing the fermentable liquid took about four hours and the ingredients would cost about £15 to produce about 7 500ml bottles. If you exclude the initial cost of equipment (as that will get reused) it probably works out at about £2 a bottle which is comparable to decent bottled beer here. Buying the ingredients in larger volume will help to reduce costs which I will look at once I get a few batches done. I found the process of making the beer quite relaxing apart the wife's comments about house smelling like a brewery and the mess in the kitchen! Now looking forward to bottling this batch and starting another and then tasting this one!
There are so many beer types and recipes that once I have the process sorted it should be possible to vary the recipes to suit personal tastes.