Saturday, January 22, 2011

Home Brewing Beer: Simple And Easy

By Steve Pavilanis


In 1978, President Jimmy Carter signed legislation making it again legal to brew beer at home. Individual states were given the power to make their own regulations regarding the quantity and quality of the alcohol produced. In the past thirty years home brewing beer has become massively popular. The process is simple, and beer aficionados everywhere are coming up with their own favorite concoctions.

Taste is one of the biggest reasons why people choose to craft their own alcohol. By making the product from scratch, minor adjustments can be made to the ingredients and the process. These minor adjustments can have a large impact on the final taste of the beverage. Experimenting to find the perfect taste is what keeps many people brewing the next batch and refining their methods.

Cost can be another major factor for those crafting their own alcohol. It is always more cost effective to do something yourself than to pay someone to do it for you. There are many examples of this and brewing is one of them. Crafting it at home is much less expensive than buying it pre-bottled by a manufacturer.

Micro-breweries have been around for many years, but their popularity has grown rapidly in the past decade. Regional breweries that produce a small quantity of high quality beer have been the new trend. Naturally, this drove people to want to do this themselves and home brewery kits made it possible for an amateur to produce with the same advantages of any micro-brewery.

While easy to lean, home brewing is still somewhat of a complicated process. There are many steps that must be carefully followed although there is room for variation. The steps required are easy to learn. Perfecting them is the challenge. The process can be divided into three simple steps. The first is the brewing process where the ingredients are mixed together and left to ferment. Any variation in the ingredients or amount of fermentation will directly affect the taste of the final product.

After the primary fermentation process which lasts for five to seven days. The mix is transferred to a secondary fermentation unit. The brew will become less cloudy and mature even further during this step in the process. Again, the mixture should be left to ferment in a cool, dry place for an amount of time that varies based on the taste of the brewer.

The last step of the process is bottling and adding carbonation. After being bottled and capped the bottles must be left to mature for about seven more days. During this time, the drink becomes carbonated naturally. The yeast consumes the natural sugars and this creates carbon dioxide thus adding carbonation.

Home brewing beer is easy to learn. It has become popular enough that there are plenty of resources for those just starting out to study from. Many people find their own specific way of crafting their brews that suits their tastes. While the process itself is fun and fascinating, the end product is the best part. The reward for all this effort is a great tasting beer that bears the signature of the person who brewed it.




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