Brewing - An Introduction

Brewing – An introduction;

Beer has been around since Christ were a lad. Actually for many years before. From cereal grains fermented by wild yeasts, fuelling parties amongst middle eastern tribes in around 3500BC - to Monasteries setting up breweries in Belgium after fleeing from Napoleon in the late 18^th Century – to the thousands of craft breweries located all around the globe today, pushing the boundaries of taste and creativity in what are really exciting times for beer lovers.

I started making beer a few years ago and quickly discovered that it's impossible to know everything about it. It's actually one of the reasons the hobby has stuck, there's always more to learn. With just some basic equipment, some raw ingredients and patience, you can make almost any style of beer. If done properly, seldom will you have a finished product unequivocal to something you would happily pay in excess of £3 a pint for, made at a fraction of cost. You might want to brew to save money, you might like the idea of being able to create something that you can proudly call your own, or you might just want a hobby to share with a friend on an otherwise uneventful Sunday afternoon. I personally brew for all those reasons and more (except the money saving one hasn't quite gone to plan). What ever the motivation, it's creative, it's intriguing and it's fun. On top of that the end result is several gallons of beer! Fantastic surely?

What makes good beer is a question of taste and inclination. The far simpler question of just 'What makes beer?' is one I will attempt to answer in detail over my next few blogs.

To try and summarise however, beer is made from four main ingredients; malted grain, hops, water and yeast. Each just as important as the other. The malt is soaked in water heated to a specific temperature, which converts the starches present into sugars. The grains are then rinsed and water drained to extract as much sugar as possible before being boiled. At various stages in the boil, hops are added. The 'Wort' is then cooled and transferred to a suitable vessel before yeast is added. The yeast eats away at the sugars producing amongst other things, alcohol , and beer is created. That's beer in a nutshell, and I will expand on the process and ingredients over the coming weeks.

Thank you for reading, and please stay tuned in.