Home Brewing Wine Kits: You Can Really Do It At Home
April 28, 2011
Home Brewing Wine Kits: You Can Really Do It At Home
We are all so used to going out and getting a bottle of wine when we want to but if you have a bit of time to spare and are interested in learning something new, a great thing that you could do is go shopping for some home brewing wine kits so that you can get everything that you need to get started here and then start brewing your own home right at home.
Whether you are concerned with getting cheap home brewing kits or don’t mind spending a bit more money here, the most important thing is that you are going to get home brewing wine kits that are going to allow you to prepare your favorite wine right at home.
You want to make sure that you have all the different supplies that you need to homebrew your own wine, and once you have the home brewing wine kits that you need, you will be able to get started right away on making your own wine at home.
Getting Started
Once you have your home brewing wine kits, you are going to be ready to get started. To make your own wine at home, there are a few basic fundamental steps that you are going to need to learn first here. This includes flavor extraction, fermentation, bottling and aging. You are going to need to understand these basic steps before you are able to get going here.
Let’s start with the first step which is flavor extraction. Remember that there are some wines that can be made from pure undilated juice from the grape while others have a lot more sugar added into them. This is all going to reflect on the quality of the wine overall, and how much it is going to be worth it if you are planning to sell.
Then there is the fermentation stage that you are going to need to take care of. When you are making wine at home with your home brewing wine kits, you will quickly see that the extraction and fermentation work together and you need to pay close attention to the process as you are following through with it. If you let something go for even a second or two too long it could ruin the whole brew and so you need to be extremely careful here. Making your own wine at home is a new skill and it is a lot of fun.
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How to brew beer at home (DIY)
April 28, 2011
How to brew beer at home (DIY)
Who would not like to brew his own beer. Actually making beer isn’t that hard or even expensive and you can do it at home. Brewing may first seem like complicated process, but with right knowledge it’s one of the best hobbies I know! And who know, maybe one day you’ll hit great recipe that will be enjoyed worldwide and you’ll one big brewery with your name on it… 
Beer
One of the oldest (if not the oldest, dating back 9500 BC) alcoholic beverage and most popular after water and tea. Moderate consumption give a lot of positive long term effects like: lowers risk of diabetes, reduces number of silent infarcts, increases coronary blood flow, improves bone mineral density, reduces risk of arthritis, reduces risk of developing kidney stones and many more, but the most important one, it tastes great. Also varieties are numerous so you can try out new beer every day (including yours).
Equipment
Equipment for brewing beer isn’t expensive, maybe you have everything at home, even if you don’t, expenses for whole equipment can be low as . Also you can order beer brewing kit with starting prices under 0.
Just to get you into what you need, here is the list:
1. Pot for brewing – some stainless steel pot, at least 5 gallons
2. Plastic pail with lid – you’ll use this as container for beer while fermenting (can be also from glass)
3. Funnel, strainer and siphon hose – for tranfering beer between brewpot and fermenter container and from fermenter to bottles.
4. Thermometer and hydrometer – for checking beer for different stages of fermenting
5. Airlock and stoper – while fermenting it allows carbon dioxide to exit and blocks oxygen to enter fermenter.
6. Bottles – for storing finished beer
Not that complicated and expensive…
Ingredients
Ingredients are also non expensive for a starter. Brewing around 10 gallons (40 litres) of beer can cost you low as , that’s quarter per beer. Remember this when you’re buying 6-pack or ordering a beer in your local bar.
This are the ingredients:
Water – This is what of beer is mostly composed
Starch source – most common is malted grain (you can buy it as Malt extract)
Specialty grains
Hops – the flower of hop wine, it gives beer bitterness and aroma
Yeast – type of fungus that converts sugar in malt to alcohol and carbon dioxide
Sugar – dextrose or glucose, but this ingredient is optional
Other – clarifying agents and other like licorice, teas, etc. to add special aromas to beer
You can find great recipes HERE!
Brewing
When we have everything prepared it’s time to brew your own beer. This is complicated as making a soup.
First you have to sanitize all of your equipment, this is the most important step. First we have to steep grains in “large tea bag” for 20-30 minutes on around 150 degrees F. After removing bag with grains we add malt extract and bring everything to boil and we stir the best we can so that malt wont burn at the bottom of the pot (at this point we add hops in different intervals to add aroma ).
After the liquid is boiled (now called wort) we need to cool it down quickly as possible to little higher than room temperature, ice is a great help.
When the wort is cooled down we need to transfer it to fermenter and before fermenting starts this is the only time splashing of the wort is allowed because yeast needs oxygen, once fermentation starts we’ll need to block exposure to oxygen. With a strainer we remove all the hops and add water and yeast to the wort. After all that we have to lock it and put into dark area with room temperature and within 24-48 hours it should start bubbling
After a week your beer is almost ready (when bubbling almost stops), you only have to bottle it, store it for week or two and it’s ready for cooling down and enjoying.
Beer brewing can be a real art, there are great books and other materials (like recipes, tips, hints…), with in depth step-by-step tutorials for both beginners and experts. CHECK THAT HERE!
Home Beer Brewing Secrets Honest Review
April 25, 2011
Home Beer Brewing Secrets Honest Review
Well first off I want to tell you I usually don’t do all this online eBook stuff. I always think of it to be scams and rip offs but my friend convinced me so much to give this one a shot I thought why not. After tasting his beer I wanted to try it out for myself!
The eBook goes into great detail about every aspect of what you need to know. It goes into ingredients, good environments to make beer in and even shows you why usual homemade beer tastes so bad. The secret way to store your beer and stop it from spoiling has been a “beer saver” for me, allowing me to make vast quantities of beer at a time and not worry about having to drink them all before they spoil. The eBook goes into detail about proper storage and drinking responsibly as well.
If you’re sick of going to the pub and paying sometimes up to for a pint then this guide is for you. For very little money you can start making your own beer, in turn saving you money. For mere pennies you’ll have your own brewery in your garage, shed or even your main house.
Like I said at the beginning I was skeptical buying this guide but I am so glad that I did. It taught me everything I needed to know and tells of closely guarded secrets I’d never have even imagined before for getting the best possible taste and colour.
So if there is anyone out there sick of high prices for lager and wishing to start making their own, this is definitely the right guide for you. Whether you want to make a few pints worth a month or a few kegs a month this guide will tell you everything you need to know.
Facts and Trivia: Beer
April 25, 2011
Facts and Trivia: Beer
Everything You Wanted To Know About Beer
Beer: love it or hate it, it’s a universal passtime. We like to think of it as fully American, but it originated far in the past and was carried through the ages. Next time you want to wow your friends and colleagues, just jump back to this list of fun and useful beer trivia and facts:
• The first consumer protection law ever written was enacted over beer by Duke Wilhelm IV of Bavaria in 1516. It was a purity law limiting the ingredients of beer to barley, hops and water.
• Tegestology is what collecting beer mats is called.
• Beer is the second most popular beverage in the world, coming in behind tea.
(Mobile Themes)
• Pabst Beer is now called Pabst Blue Ribbon beer because it was the first beer to win a blue ribbon at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893.
• To get rid of the foam at the top of beer (the head), stick your fingers in it.
• Monks brewing beer in the Middle Ages were allowed to drink five quarts of beer a day.
• Bavaria still defines beer as a staple food.
• To keep your beer glass or mug from sticking to your bar napkin, sprinkle a little salt on the napkin before you set your glass down.
• The oldest known written recipe is for beer.
• The Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock because of beer. They had planned to sail further south to a warm climate, but had run out of beer on the journey.
• Anheuser-Busch is the largest brewery in the US.
• The longest bar in the world is the 684 foot long New Bulldog in Rock Island, IL.
• The powers that be at Guinness say that a pint of beer is lifted about ten times, and each time about 0.56 ml is lost in a beer drinker’s facial hair. That’s a lot of wasted beer!
(Mobile Themes)
• As of 2001, 62% of Americans reported using a designated driver at least once.
• Molson, Inc. is the oldest brewery in North America.
• Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) was elected in 1932 because of his promise to end Prohibition.
• The first United States Marine Recruiting Station was in a bar.
• The first brewery in America was built in Hoboken, NJ in 1642.
• In 1935 the canned beer industry was revolutionized by a vinyl plastic liner developed for cans made out of tin.
• The movie The Shawshank Redemption got their period beer containers wrong. The prisoners on the roof drank beer out of bottles in the 1930s, when beer was canned until many years later.
• Tossing salted peanuts in a glass of beer makes the peanuts dance.
• Samuel Adams Triple Bock is the strongest beer in the world with 17% alcohol by volume. The strength is achieved by using champagne yeast.
• In Japan, beer is sold in vending machines, by street vendors and in the train stations.
• Bourbon is the official alcohol of the United States, by an act of Congress. Many people have attempted to have that overturned in favor of beer instead throughout the years.
• Many actors started out as bartenders: Sandra Bullock, Bruce Willis, Tom Arnold, Chevy Chase, Kris Kristofferson and Bill Cosby are a few of these.
• American beer is made mostly by rice, unlike the beers of other countries. This was invented to give American beer a lighter taste and tap into the market of women buyers.
• Michelob was invented during a brewer’s strike in the 1930s from a recipe tossed together by the untrained workers left behind to run the brewery. It was so bad local taverns tossed their delivered barrels in the gutter until the streets ran with beer. When the strike was over, the brewery didn’t want to lose all that beer, no matter how bad, so they repackaged it and sold it as Michelob.
• Beer is a source of B- complex vitamins.
• If you collect beer bottles your are a labeorphilist.
• The portable beer cooler was invented in Australia in the 1950s.
• The ‘33′ on a bottle of Rolling Rock was originally a printer’s error. It refers to the 33 words in the original slogan. It has generated enough mystery over the years that the company left it in the label.
(Mobile Themes)
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Home Beer Brewing Tips & Techniques
April 22, 2011
Home Beer Brewing Tips & Techniques
There is a niche of people in this country that takes great pleasure in brewing their own beer in the privacy of their home. There really is no limit to the different types of beer you have the ability to brew. It is also doable to come up with unique inventions that no one has previously imagined before.
In most towns there is likely a microbrewing store. At these retailers you have the ability to purchase just about everything you may ever find necessary to make your own beer. There are complete packages that have all the equipment and ingredients, or else you can acquire whatever you may need al la cart. It is not very expensive to buy every required brewing equipment. Everything you need can be obtained for anywhere from 0 and 0 dollars. Before starting your home brewing you need to buy the following items: a brewpot, primary fermentor, airlock and stomper, a plastic hose, a bucket for bottling, bottles and bottle brushes, bottle capper, stick on thermometer, as well as a variety of household items.
Now let’s talk about the basic methods of how to brew beer. For the first step, malted barley is soaked in hot water which releases the malt sugar. Next, the malted sugar is boiled with hops. This combination is then cooled down and to begin the fermentation process, yeast is then added. As the yeast ferments the sugar, CO2 and ethyl alcohol is released into the combination. Lastly, when the fermentation process completes, the beer is bottled and extra sugar is put in to make it carbonated.
When you are prepared to get to it, head on over to your local brewing store. Here they can set you up with just about everything you will need, in addition to instructions, books, directions, knowledge, and anything else you may need to begin making your own beer. After you learn how it all is supposed to work, you will be well on your way to producing your own varieties of beer. Who knows? Perhaps one of the beers you produce will catch on!
For more information on brewing products and techniques, please visit www.microbrew-beers.com
How to prepare and use dark malt and grains to home brew brown ale beer; learn more about how beer is made in this free instructional video. Expert: Mark Emiley Contact: www.wahomebrewers.org Bio: Mark Emiley has been homebrewing since 1998 when he cooked up his first batch of porter. Filmmaker: Mark Emiley
Video Rating: 3 / 5
Home Beer Making – Beers For All The Seasons
April 22, 2011
Home Beer Making – Beers For All The Seasons
After tea, beer is the most popular beverage found all across the world. Beer lovers can enjoy the beer all 365 days a year. It is a wonderful seasonal product that can be produced year round and some tastes are even brewed specially to match the thirst of the season. Special beer styles are brewed for a specific season. The term seasonal beer signifies its availability and also the taste it is meant to stir up.
The seasonal styles of the beer suit and match the mood and temperament of the time. There are four seasons of beer.
1. Spring beer indicates life-is -good-again mood and has the colors, flavors, freshness and vitality. It is more zingy but easy to drink. Some of the best Spring Beers too enjoy are India Pale Ale and Belgian-style wheats.
2. Summer beer indicates a lets-live-life attitude and therefore we see light golden ale or larger beers to quench the thirst. Some of the best Summer Beers too enjoy are Wheat ale and White ale.
3. Autumn is the time when we are preparing for winters by warming ourselves. Therefore, darker, toffee and bonfire flavors that are more earthy and spicy are preferred beers in the autumn season. Some of the best Autumn/Fall Beers too enjoy are Autumn stout and Barley Wine.
4. Winters are the time we need a boozy warmth and comfort. In winters we have darker, barley wines with sweet flavor and roasty full-bodied stouts, thick and warming. These season beers are crafted to satisfy the thirst and match our outlook of the season. Some of the best Winter Beers too enjoy are Winter Lager and Winter Ale.
The sad part is that seasonal beers are available only for a short time in a year. But the good part is that we can enjoy it year round at any temperatures, weathers or seasons.
Depending upon the ingredients used for the brewing, the taste of the beer also varies. Stout, Lager, Ale, IPA, Wheat etc are some very popular beers. The way of drinking beer also depends on the place and traditions being followed. In most of the places it is kept at the room temperature but many beer lovers prefer more chilled beer. There are many breweries that brew special beers at certain time of the year. Depending on your personal liking, the choices of beer are just endless.
You can find local grocery stores stacked with seasonal beers to fulfill your needs year round. But many people prefer to brew their own beer at home and this also saves them money from buying expensive beers. Brewing beer at home is not a difficult task especially when you have all the necessary things readily available. With a small initial investment you can easily make your own seasonal brew at about half the cost of buying it from outside places.
First you have to find a good home beer brewing kit and a guide that teaches you all the tricks of the trade for home beer making . An expertise in brewing can be simple if you have the right guide and home brewing kit. Serve your friends the perfect beer you have brewed at home and be proud of your beer brewing skills.
This is what you learn in college, kids. enjoy those pierogs!
Video Rating: 3 / 5
Home Brewing – Liquor Craft
April 19, 2011
Home Brewing – Liquor Craft
We all know how popular DIY is all through the world and actually home brewing is nothing else but a kind of DIY (and one with an enjoyable final product). Previously, making spirits at home used to be quite cumbersome, but a new technology promises to make it easier and hassle free. Air Still have been used for home brewing for some years now but the Still Spirit Air Still System represents a revolutionary breakthrough in Air Still Technology. Based on the pot still system it is a simple to use set up that is proving to be quite popular among home brewers.
In case you are looking for home brew and brewing ingredients, you cannot go wrong with Australian Home Brewing. The company started in 1968 which means they are in their 40th year of operation. In fact, they started in this business when “homebrew” was illegal. It was not until 1972 when the Whitlam government was in power that the Attorney General, Lionell Murphy changed the law to allow people to ferment beer, wine & other drinks for their own use.
Australian Home Brewing has always looked after the needs of people who are interested in making their own drinks at home. They supply the brewing ingredients, equipment and information you need to make your own drinks & also make sure that you get the maximum drinking pleasure & enjoyment from brewing by backing you with expert help. You can have as much help as you want from them and it is all free.
In addition, they are part of a Nation-wide Network of Specialists called BREWnet. This gives them a vast pool of knowledge and expertise to call on so you will always be able to get an expert answer. If we don’t have the answer to your question, they will be able to get it from someone else in the network. If you would like some advice, or if you have any questions to ask, please visit them at their website www.liquorcraft.com. You can also order distilling equipment, Air Still and any other brewing ingredients that you need.
Paul Gilbert Signature Model parametric Equalizer pedal from HBE Homebrew Electronix. Pretty cool idea really…especially if you’re playing an amp with only a couple of tone knobbies on it. I didn’t spend enough time with it, but then again, I never do, but after listening to the clips while editing, I really dig the pedal…plus, Paul Gilbert pretty much rocks ass! I used a www.kingbeeguitars.com relic Telecaster and a http Jaguar Twin Amplifier. Very affordable pedal, which is what we all need!
Video Rating: 4 / 5
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Home Beer Making – Beers of the World, Different Types and Styles
April 19, 2011
Home Beer Making – Beers of the World, Different Types and Styles
There are hundreds of different types and styles of beer being brewed all over the world. People from different part of world have designed and developed their own techniques of home beer making adding custom flavors and aromas to it. Beers also vary in their appearance, texture, smoothness, flavor, ingredients, gravity, texture and recipe. Each type of beer has a history attached to it as to where and how it was originated. Here are the three main kinds of beers found at different parts of the world!
Top Fermenting Type
These beers are made from top-fermenting yeast, which typically ferments at higher temperatures giving a significant amount of esters and other secondary aromas and flavors. The yeast forms a layer of foam at the surface of the fermenting beer giving flavors that resemble those of apple, pear, pineapple, grass, hay, banana, plum or prune. The top fermented beers include Ales, Altbeer, Special and Wheat beer.
- Ales – This beer is very popular in England. The style includes bitters, pale ales, porters, stouts, barley wines, trappist, and alt. Barley Wine is an English beer which is popular being powerful, syrupy and strong flavored. It comes in golden or dark colors. Biere de Garde is medium to strong spicy ales from North West France.
- Altbeer – Made in the city of Dusseldorf and other cities in the north of Germany, this beer is copper-colored aromatic ale, which is quite bitter in taste. It contains about 4.5% alcohol and is made using the ancient style of brewing. Diebels, Schlosser and Uerige are few examples of Alt beer.
- Wheatbeers – Berliner Weisse is a popular and sharply acidic wheat beer being made mainly in Berlin, Germany. This beer has low alcohol and comes with green woodruff or raspberry juice added to it giving colors to its cloudy white appearance.
Bottom Fermenting Types
In these types of beer the yeast ferments at lower temperaturesand process a compound called Raffinose is a complex sugar. The yeast collects at the bottom of the fermenting beer giving its own flavor. Lager is the most popular kind of beer fermented this way.
- Lagers – The bottom fermenting procedure is also called “Largering”. The Lager beers include bocks, doppelbocks, Munich, Vienna, Märzen and pilsners. Popular Lagers include Oud bruin, a weak sweetish Lager from Netherland, Muncher a brown malty lager from Munich, Germany. Marzen is another copper-colored lager made in Vienna.
Spontaneous Fermentation Type
In the spontaneous fermenting type of beers wild stains of yeast are used. These types of beer originated and are very popular in Belgium. These types of beers are often referred as Lambic.
Lambic – This beer is often flavored using fruit like cherries and brewed in parts of Belgium. Kriek is a Belgian Lambic beer has a fruity flavor and deep colors. This beer is secondary fermented by adding cherries to it. Faro is another Belgian Lambic beer is weak and is sweetened with sugars. Geuze is a ripe blend of old and new Belgian Lambics. Gueuze is not filtered or pasteurized and has a fruity, sour, dry taste.
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Microbrewery Kit Makes Home Beer Brewing Fun and Simple
April 16, 2011
Microbrewery Kit Makes Home Beer Brewing Fun and Simple
No beer is quite so satisfying to the taste as one you\’ve brewed yourself. Brewing beer is also a fun hobby. What are you waiting for? Let\’s get started.
You\’re going to need some equipment. It\’s not hard to find, and shouldn\’t cost too much to pick up. You\’ll find everything you need at any local brewing store or online brewing site. Here\’s a list:
Small bowl
Bottle brush
Saucepan
Bottling bucket
Airlock and stopper
Spatula
Oven gloves
Wooden mixing spoons
Brewing Pot
Plastic hose
Fermenter
Bottle capper
Thermometer – the stick-on type is best
But – it\’s much easier, especially if you\’re new to this, to pick up a microbrew kit. It will include everything you need, all the brewing ingredients, including hopped malt concentrate and brewers yeast powder, and fermentables, which are what you need to produce your desired flavor of beer. It\’s possible to get everything separately, but a self-contained kit is much more convenient.
The equipment will need to be sanitized. In fact, this is one of the most important steps in producing a decent beer. Everything needs to be cleaned with hot, soapy water. Then the equipment should be sanitized using either the chlorine solution or iodine solution which came with the kit. Even better, and more environmentally friendly, is sanitizer which contains Sodium Percarbonate – as effective as chlorine but without leaving the problematic residue of bleach.
Once everything is sterilized, we are ready to begin. Two quarts of water go into the brew pot. Heat the water until it begins to steam – around 180F. Remove from heat. Add the beer kit and fermentables. Follow the instructions that came with the kit.
Stir the brew until everything is dissolved, then put the lid on and leave it to sit for ca twenty minutes on a low heat. Fill the fermenter with four gallons of water and add the mix, known as the wort. Stir this for four minutes to oxygenize the mixture. Once the wort is cool to the touch, the yeast can be added.
Now the wort needs to ferment. The fermentation process continues for five days. During fermentation it\’s important to keep the temperature constant, at around 65F, and the wort should also be kept in a dark place. During the fermentation process you will observe tiny air bubbles rising to the surface.
After five days you need to check the beer daily. The beer is ready to be bottled when no more air bubbles appear. It\’s very important to wait for fermentation to fully complete, so don\’t be impatient or you will ruin your beer.
Before bottling you need to prepare what is known as the primary solution. The primary solution is what carbonates the brew. Add two cups of water and three-quarters of a cup of dextrose to a saucepan and bring to the boil over a medium heat. Let it cool for thirty minutes then pour it into the bottling bucket.
Now for the bottling itself: put one end of your hose in the bottling bucket and attach the other end to the spigot on your fermenter. Open the spigot and transfer the beer to the bottling bucket. When finished, detach and clean the hose and throw away the fermenter. Each bottle should be filled leaving one inch of air at the top. Cap the bottles tightly making sure there are no leaks.
Almost there now, but it\’s still not quite ready for drinking. The bottled beer needs to be kept in a cool dark place for the second fermentation process. The fridge is too cold for this purpose. Basements are ideal, if you have one. The beer needs to sit for two more weeks before being ready to enjoy.
Well, that\’s the traditional way to do it. But it\’s really much easier to purchase a microbrewery kit which includes an all-in-one single step fermenter, conditioning vessel, and dispenser apparatus. No need for bottling – the beer can be tapped directly from the dispenser. And the assembled kit sits in your fridge taking up no more room than a conventional six-pack.
Cheers!
How to make your own beer?
April 16, 2011
How to make your own beer?
Beer is a popular drink and this is the reason why some brands of beer are really expensive and you cannot buy more than a certain quantity of the same. Therefore, you can definitely brew your favorite drink in your own kitchen quite affordably. So if you’re wondering how to make your own beer, please keep reading.
The home brew kits for beer are perfect especially if you are a beginner. These kits contain each and every tool required for beer making such as concentrated hop malt and yeast. It should be noted that, if you are interested in giving your beer some special flavor, then you have to purchase those special flavor separately. You must wondering that can you purchase all of the other necessary equipment separately and is this more affordable than the brew kit? Well, the answer to your question is yes, you can purchase all the equipments separately but where the affordability factor is concerned, it basically depends on the quality of the products you purchase. Also, you may forget to buy any equipment which might be necessary and this will certainly affect the process of brewing you beer. This is the reason why the beer making kits are more preferable. Also, these kits come with a proper instruction book or DVD which comes very handy while brewing your beer.
So we have seen how to acquire the equipment necessary for brewing beer. Now, back to the main question which is how to make your own beer? You can definitely research on the Internet for getting detailed information about the same or even refer the instruction books available with the kits. You should always remember to sanitize your equipment before using with chlorine or iodine solution which comes with kit itself. Fermentation is another thing which you need to take care about.
So, if you follow the instruction book step-by-step and allow your beer to ferment for the appropriate time, you will definitely get an amazing and enjoyable beer.
Katelyn Smith