Making Your Own Beer From Home

– Contributed content –

(Rawpixel, Pexels.com)

7 June 2018. When it comes to scientific experiments, what kind is better than the one that gives you alcohol at the end? You have probably heard about people trying out beer-brewing their own home before, in all likelihood with rather mixed results. As it happens, it is one of those things which is at once simple and complex, in that the process itself is not too full-on, but it can take a long time to master it and end up with great beer. In this article, we are going to go through the basic process of making your own beer, so that you can give it a go yourself and see what happens. If nothing else, there are worst experiments to fail.

Gather your equipment

You will need a number of things for this, ranging from a sinobatoo mini-keg to a large container to mix all the ingredients in and get brewing in the first place. On top of that, you will also need the ingredients for the beer itself, which includes malt grains or liquid, hops, whatever other special grains you want to add for flavor, and yeast. All of these are easy to find online, and you can even get some of them – like yeast and grains – in a number of supermarkets and other high street shops. Once you have gathered everything you are going to need, you can get to work on the actual brewing process itself.

Steep grains

Once you have gathered and cleaned all of your equipment, it is time to steep your grains. This is basically a matter of putting your speciality grains into a grain bag, which is essentially a mesh bag, and steep them in a large pot in hot water for around half an hour. Steeping in this way allow the flavor to come out more fully, so the more patient you are, the better. Then you will need to drain the bag and extract the grains.

Add malt

Next, you need to grab your malt extract and add it to the mixture, taking care as you bring the whole thing to the boil. You will be adding the hops at various intervals in order to introduce different kinds of taste and texture to the beer, bearing in mind that those added early produce bitterness and those added late produce more flavor and aroma. This is only a general rule, however, so it’s all about experimenting and seeing what works. Once you have done all of this, you are well on your way to creating your own delicious beer.

Chill & ferment

You then need to chill the entire mixture as quickly as possible, for example by using an ice bath. Once it is cool, you can then put it in your fermenter to ferment. It is now a matter of waiting to see what happens, and all of the hard work is pretty much done. Once you have fermented your bear, it is time to bottle it and drink – or share with your friends.

*     *     *