homebrew
I have picked up a new hobby: brewing my own beer. I love it. It's equal parts art and science - my favorite kind of cooking. If you know me at all, you probably understand that I'm attempting to create quality beers. I have no interest in the ordinary American macro lagers. I'm going for the Belgians, the American craft brews, the flavor-packed beers reserved for that shelf at your local beverage supplier that waits patiently for someone who appreciates the complex flavors and aromas it holds. Not that there's anything wrong with American macro beers. :) I just think they're bland and gross.
Enough of that. On to brewing. You can find better coverage of the process on a number of other websites, but it begins with extracted malted sugars that our yeast will turn into flavor compounds, alcohol, and carbon dioxide. These sugars come usually from barley grains, which is the only grain I have used. The sugars are added to several gallons of water and brought to a boil. The malt is what creates bready, grainy, sometimes caramel, chocolate, coffee, roasted flavors in the beer. Hundreds of different types of malts exist, which are produced from both different types of barley and different treatments of the barley once harvested, such as the amount of heat applied to the kernels. Complicated much?
The next main player in our brewing game is hops. The flowers of the hop plant provide a few important ingredients for our beer. First, the acids in the hops can be extracted by boiling, usually for 30 minutes or more, which produces bitterness. I know it may sound like a bad characteristic in a beer, but bitterness is very important in order to balance the maltiness. Hops provide flavors, especially when they are boiled for less than 15 minutes. Hops also provide aroma, which is closely related to flavor. The flavors and aromas that hops create are things such as flowers, perfume, herbs, grass, pine, and citrus. Like malts, there exist many different types of hops, all with their own bitterness and flavor/aroma characteristics.
The final key ingredient is yeast. These single-celled organisms do all the work to turn our big pot of ingredients into a beer. The yeast take their time - sometimes over two weeks - consuming sugars and producing flavors, alcohol, and CO2. Yeast are responsible for flavors such as doughiness, earthiness, and all sorts of fruity flavors. They can produce a variety of other undesirable flavors if they are not given a temperature-controlled, sanitized environment. Yeast are extremely picky. There are also hundreds of different strains of yeast available, each with its own flavor profile and preferred temperature range.
That sums up the basics. In addition to the variety of malts, hops, and yeasts, some beers incorporate additional ingredients such as spices, chili peppers, fruits, wood chips, strains of bacteria responsible for souring, and things you and I probably can't imagine going into beers. Needless to say, there are a LOT of possible combinations of these ingredients and brewing variables, leading to an infinite number of beers. The fun lies in trying new combinations and seeing what happens. Art plus science.
Here are some pictures of the process:
Now that's a pot!
Water that has been steeped with grains
Aerating the liquid to provide oxygen for the yeast
Me holding the very active package of yeast
The finished product. Beautiful, no?
Enough of that. On to brewing. You can find better coverage of the process on a number of other websites, but it begins with extracted malted sugars that our yeast will turn into flavor compounds, alcohol, and carbon dioxide. These sugars come usually from barley grains, which is the only grain I have used. The sugars are added to several gallons of water and brought to a boil. The malt is what creates bready, grainy, sometimes caramel, chocolate, coffee, roasted flavors in the beer. Hundreds of different types of malts exist, which are produced from both different types of barley and different treatments of the barley once harvested, such as the amount of heat applied to the kernels. Complicated much?
The next main player in our brewing game is hops. The flowers of the hop plant provide a few important ingredients for our beer. First, the acids in the hops can be extracted by boiling, usually for 30 minutes or more, which produces bitterness. I know it may sound like a bad characteristic in a beer, but bitterness is very important in order to balance the maltiness. Hops provide flavors, especially when they are boiled for less than 15 minutes. Hops also provide aroma, which is closely related to flavor. The flavors and aromas that hops create are things such as flowers, perfume, herbs, grass, pine, and citrus. Like malts, there exist many different types of hops, all with their own bitterness and flavor/aroma characteristics.
The final key ingredient is yeast. These single-celled organisms do all the work to turn our big pot of ingredients into a beer. The yeast take their time - sometimes over two weeks - consuming sugars and producing flavors, alcohol, and CO2. Yeast are responsible for flavors such as doughiness, earthiness, and all sorts of fruity flavors. They can produce a variety of other undesirable flavors if they are not given a temperature-controlled, sanitized environment. Yeast are extremely picky. There are also hundreds of different strains of yeast available, each with its own flavor profile and preferred temperature range.
That sums up the basics. In addition to the variety of malts, hops, and yeasts, some beers incorporate additional ingredients such as spices, chili peppers, fruits, wood chips, strains of bacteria responsible for souring, and things you and I probably can't imagine going into beers. Needless to say, there are a LOT of possible combinations of these ingredients and brewing variables, leading to an infinite number of beers. The fun lies in trying new combinations and seeing what happens. Art plus science.
Here are some pictures of the process:
Now that's a pot!
Water that has been steeped with grains
Aerating the liquid to provide oxygen for the yeast
Me holding the very active package of yeast
The finished product. Beautiful, no?
posted by Eric Lundgren at 11:42 PM
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