Hola! So, now that the beer god has dawned upon you, let’s wait no more and brew the most elegant drink of mankind. From chilling on Friday scenes to helping us get over our heart-breaks(s) beer has stood the test of time like the truest pal. Now is the time to get back to your pal and brew your own bottle. Let’s step aside from the speculation of the machinery required and get down on the basics. So what are the things that you need to brew your own bottle? Well, just enthusiasm toppled with a bit of patience (and some basic ingredients, of course).
To start with your fancy art of home brewing, you’ll need a separate space from your daily ventures so that the brewing process can be hassle-free.
To brew and prepare, you’ll need a few utensils, containers and a few other measurement tools:
● Kitchen thermometer
● A voluminous brewing pot (large enough to boil water without any spillage)
● Large funnel
● Strainer (should be large enough to strain chunks of grain before it goes for fermentation).
● Rolling pin
● Airtight bags (to seal the grains in them and crush in it)
● Water gallons (the quantity depends on the amount of beer you want to prepare)
● Fermentation container (the water gallons can be efficiently utilized for this)
● Empty bottles for storage.
● Poly-vinyl tubing (for airtight fermentation process)
The basic ingredients for the process are:
● Hops
● Grains/ Malt Extract
● Yeast
● Water
Practically Hops are the flowers that have acids in them, and it is because of this acid the beer tastes bitter. The higher the acidic quotient, the more bitterness it will release into the bear while boiling. However, one important point to notice here is that each year the produce of Hops may have varying acidic content, so don’t miss out on checking the product label to have a rough idea of the boiling process. Apart from adding bitterness, the generous Hops also lend some of its aroma and fragrance to the solution.
Add that extra punch of flavor and color, don’t miss out on adding fresh grains from the local stores. Before adding them, you must crush them with a roller for better dissolution.
Now to add life to lively drink, add the star ingredient, which is Malt extract – the key to a lip-smacking home-brewed beer. Available in two different forms – liquid and dry solid, the extract can be used to brew several batches of beer.
At last, for the fermentation process, we turn our heads to yeast god. The single-celled organism converts sugars into alcohol and Carbon Dioxide. Just like malt extracts, yeasts also come in two varieties – dry and liquid. While the dry yeast is easy to store, the liquid one comes in exuberant flavors to choose from.
Lastly, the ingredient that is going to be the 90% constituent of the beer is water. Water with low alkalinity and less chlorine content is highly recommended, as it will keep the odour away for an extended period.
Fill the grain in a large plastic bag, which is airtight and then slowly start crushing the grain; you can do this with a kitchen roller. The powder need not be fine, just make sure that the larger chunks are broken down into smaller granules.
To extract the real juice of the grain and malt, we boil them in water. Post separating 1/6th of your water solution. Add the fine-grain mixture to the water and heat it at medium to high flame. Now, turn off the heat and leave the pot covered for 30 minutes. Post half an hour, strain the mixture with a large strainer and remove the residue of granular content. Now, boil the strained content. Halt for a bit, remove it from the heat and then stir the malt extract. Repeat the process over and over (in the course, try to avoid boiling it, as the content will turn into a sticky mass which will be difficult to clean).
Now you’ve got the unfermented beer, all you’ve to do is devise a way so that the Carbon Dioxide can exit the container. For the same, you can choose a commercial airlock, and in case if you don’t want to go ahead with it, you can make your own. Drill a hole in a bottle cap and attach a plastic pipe to the same, it will serve as an air locker. The next step is to cool your beer, remember, the sooner, the better. For a faster cooling process, you can create a makeshift water bath by placing your bear container in a voluminous container filled with water. To accelerate the process, add lots and lots of ice to it.
As soon as the beer is cooled, store in a sanitized container. Why sanitize? Because in the aging process, you won’t like to add the taste of insects to your beloved barley and hops. Now you have to add the yeast in the container; remember, the wort (beer to be fermented) needs to be completely cooled off before the yeast addition. Another aspect that needs to be taken care of is yeast’s amount in the container as a packet of yeast is sufficient for 5 gallons of solution.
The fermenting process takes over for 7-10 days. In this stint, the sugar is converted into the beer while the Carbon Dioxide escapes through the air controller. Once the fermentation is over, you’ll notice flaky white foam on the top of the liquid. To control the bitterness, you can add the heated sugar solution slowly after the fermentation, and then you’re so ready to consume it. Pack the solution in sanitized bottles and just binge-watch your favourite drama series with your very own home-brewed beer.
