Making Good Beer at Home History of Beer

Making Good Beer at Home

History of Beer • One of the oldest beverages, dated to 6 th Century BC • The oldest still operating commercial brewery is the Weihenstephan (Bavaria) abbey brewery, 1040 AD • Schafer-Meyer Brewing Co, 1850, in Louisville.

Styles of Beer • Most people only know of three styles. – Regular Lager – Import lager – Light beer • Over 125 styles of beer. • Specialty beer/wine – mead, cider, apfelwine

Ingredients • • • Malted barley- Several varieties Specialty grains for flavor or color Hops – about 30 varieties Good Water – balance & profiles Adjuncts – corn, rice, oats Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Process • Malted barley is soaked in hot water to release the malt sugars. • The malt solution (wort) is boiled with hops for seasoning. • The wort is cooled and yeast added to begin fermentation. Aereate • Beer is bottled.

Equipment

Let’s Make Beer ! • Cincinnati Pale Ale Ingredients for a 5 gallon batch 3 -4 lb. Pale malt extract syrup, unhopped • 2 lb. Amber dry malt extract • 12 AAU of bittering hops (any variety) For example, 1 oz. of 12% AA Nugget, or 1. 5 oz. of 8% AA Perle • 5 AAU of finishing hops (Cascade or other) For example, 1 oz. of 5% Cascade or 1. 25 oz. of 4% Liberty • 2 packets of dried ale yeast

Let’s Make Beer • Prepare a gallon of boiled water for sterile • Clean & Sanitize • Boil 2 gals of water. Pour into fermenter to cool. • Boil 3 gals of water+ extract. Add hops per directions • Add yeast. This is what makes wort beer.

Fermenting 7 -10 Days for primary fermentation. You will see it in the airlock, and measure it with the hydrometer.

Bottling SANITIZE EVERYTHING Non screw off bottles are great Oxyiclean to remove labels Wash, sanitize, dry. Add “priming surgar” to beer. This will cause the carbonation.

The worst part It will take about 3 weeks to carbonate and age the beer. Time is your friend here. What to do? Start that second batch, the first one goes very fast!