Extract Beer

This is where your life-long obsession with beer making will begin. This process, known as 'Extract Beer Brewing', opens your beer making world up to the foundations of actual brewing. Whereas with kit beers typically all of the ingredients are infused into one syrup and you basically just add water, with extract beers you evolve into a purer form of the process that separates all the ingredients and are boiled to allow for the proper chemical reactions and flavour infusions to take place.

Extract beer consists of a fairly standard set of rules or guidelines if you will. These may vary sometimes between homebrewers, yet the basics can all be agreed upon by a fair majority of brewers. The first step involved is 'Sanitation and Preparation'. In this step, you gather all of the ingredients you'll need, and sanitize any of the items you'll be using throughout this process.

In terms of ingredients, we need to look at our four essentials: Water, which can come straight from your tap in most regions; Hops, which come in all different varieties and should be available at most Beer Brewing Supply shops like www.canadianhomebrewing.ca; Yeast, again in many varieties and available at supply shop; and finally Malt Extract. This final ingredient is what makes this type of brewing process what it is. The idea here is that you have the finished product of malting certain grains, allowing you to skip a long and complex step and get right into the brewing. Malt extract is a syrup that comes in varying degrees of quality and colour grades, they should also be available at most supply shops.

Beyond those ingredients there are a wealth of other additives and your own personal experimental additions, but for our purposes here I'll stick to the basics, with the exception of a brief mention of specialty malts.

The sanitizing would include items like your fermenter, air lock device, funnel, etc... basically anything that will be touching your beer once it has finished its boiling process. Anything that touches your beer during the boil doesn't need sanitizing as the heat from the boiling process destroys all nasty bacterias.

So, here we are, ready to begin. Grab a decent sized stock pot now and fill it up approximately three-quarters with water. Stick it on your stove and bring the water to a boil. During the time it takes to come to boil is the best time to throw in any specialty malts you may want. These malts are crushed malted grains that add everything from colour to flavour for your beer. They are best placed in cheese cloth and tied up into a hand sized ball. Then just steep them in the water like giant tea bags until the water starts to boil. Upon boil, take them out and chuck them as they're not really re-usable, unless you want to make chocolate chip cookies with the grains (which a friend of mine did, nothing to brag home about, but super cool for beer geeks like us). Now you pour in your malt extract and stir it in very well to avoid it all glooping to the bottom and burning, as this creates gross beer and a very tough to clean pot. Electric coil stove tops are the worst for this problem as it's direct heat to the bottom of the pot. Propane burner stove tops are the absolute best for this process, virtually eliminating this burning problem due to its indirect and very even heating. Once stirred in, throw in your hops and any other soluble ingredients you may have. At this point mark the beginning of an hour and keep your brew at rolling boil, that point between just boiling and boiling over. After 55 minutes, throw in your aroma hops. Then at an hour, stop boiling, and start cooling QUICKLY!

Yes folks, quickly. It's important that you cool your brew as fast as possible to avoid contaminating your beer with evil beer killing bacteria. If you can cool your beer concentrate within 10 minutes, you'll be okay. One of the easiest ways to do so is to fill a large sink with icy water, and sit the pot in it. There are many more sophisticated ways, but that's for another post.

Once cooled, you'll have a somewhat syrupy beer concentrate. Strain this into your fermenter and then fill the rest of the fermenter up with coolish tap water. Give it a good stir with a long stir stick to aerate the brew. Then take a sample of it using a baster and put it in your hydrometer to measure out what the specific gravity will be. After measured, DO NOT put the sample beer back into the fermenter, it's gone too far. Instead, drink it and get an idea of flavours and what it tastes like at this phase.

Now throw your yeast in, seal it up with an airlock, and let it do its thing. After a few days have past, and the fermenting starts to settle down, you should rack your beer to get it off the sediment formed at the bottom. This sediment can cause crappy flavours if left in too long. Also sample some more of the beer at this point and take another specific gravity reading to see how much sugar is left to convert into alcohol.

Now once it's all done, bottle it, wait a week or so, and then enjoy! This method produces decent beer, well worth the brewing process. However, the next two phases of homebrewing will show you much better beer, and finer understanding of the process. Till then, cheers.

Kit Beer

So I figure I'll start off the technique portion of this with the easiest one: Kit Beer. This is basically exactly what the name says, beer in a kit. They are available at most Wine and Beer Making stores and supply shops, and have everything you need all in one canister. You simply open it up to find some hop-infused malt extract, and some yeast. All you have to do is fill your fermenter (pail or carboy) with water and I think some sugar, and add the ingredients from the kit. In about a week or so's time the beer is ready to bottle and you're done. It's that simple, that's all there basically is to it.

Bottling is a process unto itself and is typically the same no matter what technique of brewing you use. Once the beer is done fermenting, you rack the beer into another pail or carboy with a measured amount of dextrose mixed with a cup of boiled water in it. This adds a little more sugar to your beer, allowing further carbonation to occur in the bottles. Once racked, you siphon the beer into individual bottles and seal the bottles to keep the carbonation in. From here it's good to wait another week to allow the carbonation to fully occur.

Kit beers are the cheapest, easiest, least time consuming beer making method... and they're also the worst. The flavor of these beers tends to be extremely low-quality, often with that classic "homebrew flavor" that many homebrewers go to great lengths to eliminate. If you're looking for cheap beer and don't care so much about the taste or the finer methods of brewing, then this is the beer for you.

As I'm sure you can clearly sense, I'm very much anti-kit brewing, but only because I've tasted what can be made by learning about beer making and applying more authentic technique to your brewing, and the difference in flavor quality is drastically different. I will say this however, kit beers are a great way to start the beer making process, and provides an easy entry into the world of brewing. However, I would only ever suggest making a kit once, and then move on to the next step in homebrewing. I would even go as far as to recommend skipping the kit beer altogether and starting with an "Extract Beer" instead. Cheers.

Into the Brewpot...

So now that we're all familiar with ingredients, lets move onto some brewing techniques... actually, I started writing this post and found that there is just WAY too much info to spew at once, so I'm gonna recommend something and then try and segment my thoughts into future posts. My suggestion is to visit the link I have at the side for "Canadian Homebrewing Supplies" and find the book "The Complete Joy of Homebrewing". Buy this book. If you're interested in brewing beer, this is the best $20 bucks you'll ever spend. The book details far better the processes and ideas than I ever will on my blog.

Also if you want to brew you're own, this webstore is possibly the greatest one I've ever shopped from. Fair prices, and very quick service for those of us in Ontario.

Anyways, I leave you now with a glossary of sorts. This will dramatically aid me in my blogging as it will help you understand some terms without me having to write explanations. There are many more 'beer' terms, but I thought these would be the most common ones I'll use.

THE GLOSSARY

Adjuncts: Fermentable ingredients and flavorings other than malted barley - such as rice, corn, brewing sugar and herbs.

Ale: Typically, a class of beer made with a top-fermenting yeast strain that is fermented at warmer temperatures. Ale fermentations are generally shorter than lager fermentations, and the yeast fermentation by-products are more pronounced in the flavor/aroma.

Alpha Acid: Resin in hops that contributes to the bitterness of beer. The higher the alpha acid% in the hop, the more potential bitterness can be extracted from it.

Aroma Hops: Hops usually added in the last 5 minutes of the boil to impart hop aroma. They do not contribute much bitterness.

Base Malt: Malt such as pale malt, that serves as the "backbone" of the beer, as well as the main sugar source for fermentation.

Bittering Hops: Hops used early in the boil to impart bitterness. They do not generally impart much flavor or aroma.

Bottle-conditioned: A beer that undergoes a secondary ferment in the bottle.

Bottom-fermenting yeast: One of the two types of yeast used in brewing. Bottom-fermenting yeast works well at low temperatures and ferments more sugars leaving a crisp, clean taste and then settles to the bottom of the tank. Also referred to as "lager yeast".

Caramel malt: A sweet, coppery-colored malt. Caramel or crystal malt imparts both color and flavor to beer. Caramel malt has a high concentration of unfermentable sugars that sweeten the beer and contribute to head retention.

Chill haze: a haze sometimes evident in cloudy strands caused by coagulated proteins in chilled beer, does not affect flavor.

Cold Break: The coagulation of proteins during wort cooling.

Conditioning: Period of maturation intended to impart "condition" (natural carbonation). Warm conditioning further develops the
complex of flavors. Cold conditioning imparts a clean, round taste.

Fermentation: In simple terms, the process of yeast breaking down sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide.

Fermenter: The vessel in which fermentation takes place, typically a glass carboy or food-grade plastic bucket for homebrewing applications.

Final specific gravity: Specific gravity of a beer when fermentation is complete (that is, all fermentable sugars have been fermented).

Flavor Hops: Hops added to the boil within the last 20 minutes of the boil, imparting flavor and some aroma to the beer.

Grist: Brewers' term for milled grains, or the combination of milled grains to be used in a particular brew. Derives from the verb to grind. Also sometimes applied to hops.

Gruit: A precursor to modern beers using hops. the anti-spoilage and flavoring effects of hops was created using rosemary, juniper and other herbs.

Hops: A climbing vine, whose oily flower cones are used to give beer its bitterness and aromas, as well as acting as a preservative. Bitterness of a beer is measured in International Bitterness Units (IBU). This is determined by the Alpha Acid content of that crop of hops and the amount of hops added to a batch of beer. There are many varieties of hops that each impart different flavors, aromas, and bitterness levels.

Hot Break: The coagulation of proteins during wort boiling.

Hydrometer: Instrument that measures the density of liquid in comparison to the density of water. One can determine the alcohol % of a finished beer by comparing the original gravity and final gravity.

IBU: International Bittering Units. A scale for measuring the bitterness of beer.

Lager: Beers produced with bottom fermenting yeast strains, Saccharomyces uvarum (or carlsbergensis) at colder fermentation temperatures than ales. This cooler environment inhibits the natural production of esters and other byproducts, creating a crisper tasting product.

Lagering: From the German word for storage. Refers to maturation for several weeks or months at cold temperatures (close to 0°C /32°F) to settle residual yeast, impart carbonation and make for clean round flavors.

Lautering: The process of washing converted sugars from grain

Lauter: To run the wort from the mash tun. From the German word to clarify. A lauter tun is a separate vessel to do this job. It uses a system of sharp rakes to achieve a very intensive extraction of malt sugars.

Lovibond: scale used for measuring darkness in malts. The higher the number, the darker the malt. Some malts, especially crystal malt, are available in many degrees of Lovibond.

Mash: Step in all-grain or partial mash brewing in which crushed grains/malt are mixed with hot water to rest at a pre-determined temperature or temperatures(if step mashing etc). The enzymes in the malt then convert the starches in the grain to fermentable and unfermentable sugars which the yeast will then consume during fermentation.

Malt: Barley and other grains that have been partially germinated, then dried, to allow starches to be converted to usable sugar.

Malted Barley: Barley seed that has been sprouted and dried. It is then roasted to varying degrees of darkness. Ranges from very pale (pilsners) to dark, espresso-like brown (stouts). Gives the beer its mouthfeel and sweetness.

Malt (ing): The process by which barley is steeped in water, germinated ,then kilned to convert insoluble starch to soluble substances and sugar. The foundation ingredient of beer.

Malt Extract: The condensed wort from a mash, consisting of maltose, dextrins and, other dissolved solids. Either as a syrup or powdered sugar, it is used by brewers, in solutions of water and extract, to reconstitute wort for fermentation.

Mash, mashing: The process of converting the complex carbohydrates in grains into simple fermentable sugars by mixing with and then boiling in water.

Mash Tun: A tank where grist is soaked in water and heated in order to convert the starch to sugar and extract the sugars and other solubles from the grist.

Original gravity: A measurement of the density of fermentable sugars in a mixture of malt and water taken at the beginning of a given batch of beer before the yeast is added.

Priming: Addition of a fermentable sugar to finished beer to carbonate the beer in the bottle. Corn sugar is a common priming sugar.

Reinheitsgebot: "Purity Law" originating in Bavaria in 1516 and now applied to all German brewers making beer for consumption in their own country. It requires that only malted grains, hops, yeast and water may be used in the brewing.

Sparging: Rinsing excess sugars from the grain after mashing.

Specialty Malts: Malts used in lesser quantities in the mash that are usually used to impart flavor/color/aroma. Most specialty grains do not need to be mashed and can be steeped.

Specific gravity: A measure of the density of a liquid or solid compared to that of water.

Steeping grains: Used in extract brewing applications. It is the process of soaking grains (usually specialty grains) in water to extract color/flavor/aroma/body. Steeping differs from mashing in that there is no starch-to-sugar conversion.

Top-fermenting yeast: One of the two types of yeast used in brewing. Top-fermenting yeast works better at warmer temperatures and are able to tolerate higher alcohol concentrations than bottom-fermenting yeast. It is unable to ferment some sugars, and results in a fruitier, sweeter beer. Also known as "ale yeast".

Two-row: The most common type of barley for brewing in the world - except America where six-row in mostly used. Two-row is considered to have better flavours than six-row.

Wort: The liquid resulting from sparging, or rinsing of the malt with water to come up with a fermentable sugar solution. The wort is heated to destroy bacteria, then cooled and mixed with yeast to attain the desired outcome of beer.

Yeast: One of the four main ingredients in beer. Yeast is a single-cell fungus which feeds on sugars produceded by mashing/malt extract, producing alcohol and carbon dioxide. Yeast is considered by many to be the most important ingredient in beer making.

Humble Beginnings

So as my first real post about beer, I thought I would start this blog off by explaining how beer is made (for those of you reading that don't know). It's funny how much in life we consume without ever stopping to discover what actually makes up the product we're eating or drinking. We just sit back and say, "Damn that's good", and continue consuming. Beer, as it turns out, is a very simple and organic concoction, consisting of four main ingredients.

The first ingredient is Malted Grains. This is the chief influencer on the beers color, alcohol level, and the malty flavour characteristics you taste in a beer. A malted grain is basically any grain that goes through a soaking and drying procedure that creates a chemical reaction which allows the sugars to be properly absorbed from the grains when brewing. I'll explain why the sugars are important at the last step.

From here we move on to the ingredient that makes up the majority of beer: H2O, also known as water. This ingredient can have a huge effect on the outcome of your beer. Any region with a decent water filtration system in place will usually be fine for homebrew, but basically the harder your water, the more you'll need to use certain additives to create a better PH balance, as well as decrease the amount of certain minerals... this is the scientific part of brewing that I find incredibly interesting, but I won't bore you with this right now, as I've got a lifetime to blog about that. If you have just regular tap water, you're good to go. The neat thing is that many world beers use specific unique water sources to them or their region that help them create very unique beers.

The next ingredient in the mix is a plant referred to as 'Hops'. Basically there's this plant that secretes an oil used in beer as A) a preservative, and B) a bittering agent and aroma agent. This is what gives your cool refreshing lager it's 'tang', or mouth-puckering bitterness, as well as those great beer aroma's. This ingredient is used at varying amounts to create the desired balance of bitterness flavour with the malt flavour. Brewers typically use leaflets of this plant often referred to as 'whole hops', or they'll use hops that have been processed into pellets, referred to as 'Pellet Hops' (duh). Pellet hops are far more stable and so are usually far more popular, even among the big breweries.

The final ingredient, and actually the most important ingredient in your homebrew, is the Yeast. Once the above three ingredients have been mixed, boiled, and cooled, the yeast is added to seal the deal. Yeast chemically reacts with all the sugars from the malts, and converts them to our best friend in the whole wide world... ALCOHOL! It also produces carbon dioxide, which is allowed to escape during this stage called 'fermentation'. This stage is important as it tempers the sweet malty slurry into a drink with a ton of great characteristics. Now this ingredient, although SO important, often gets entirely overlooked by beginner homebrewers or those who just want to make cheap beer. It's essential that a high quality, preferably liquid, yeast is used. Yeast comes in literally a bajillion different varietys, some good for certain foods or drinks, while others totally inappropriate. Within those that are good, most breweries around the world have cultivated their own, allowing their beers to be entirely unique and specific to certain types of beer (ie. Stouts, Lagers, etc...).

So those are the four main ingredients, although many others can be utilized in your beers to help create whatever your imagination comes up with. Interesting to note though, Germany sports an incredible law, known as 'The Purity Law', which dictates that nothing other than the four ingredients above can be used in brewing beer in their country. This Law dates back hundreds of years to I think the 1500's. It's relaxed slightly over the centuries, as it was found that yeast was what made beer what it is. Until then they honestly thought that God blessed the beer and that's what turned it into what it became. All the while it was actually just airborne yeasts from their regions. A scientist discovered this way back, and thus the Purity Law was amended.

Anyways, I blathered on long enough for now. I'll follow up shortly with a post that details the process as opposed to the ingredients. Cheers.

BEER!

This blog is soon to be regularly updated, probably in a months time, with all the happenings with my beer making experiences. I've been homebrewing for just under a year, and am starting to churn out some pretty awesome beers. Come and check it out every once in awhile as I'll post beer making recipes and my thoughts on beer in general. Should be fun. Later, and remember to always "spill some for your hombre's".