A Brand New Flavor

Home brewing beer is a science. To get it right you need to be scientific in your approach, and it is often noted that science isn’t all about knowing everything. In fact, science by its very definition is about the fact that we do not, and cannot, know everything so we have to settle for finding out everything that we can and applying that knowledge as best we can. And that can be applied to home brewing, because brewing is a process that ensures you learn something new every time. The moment you stop learning is the moment it becomes a chore.

The brewing of flavored beers is a popular way to make home brewing more interesting. If you have never tasted a flavored beer, maybe now is the time to give it a go and see how enjoyable it can be – some of the more popular ones on the market are Belgian fruit beers which contain elements of cherry and raspberry. Technically, however, there are few limits to the fruits that you can add in the brewing process, and the effects that they can have on the taste.

That’s not to say that it will all be good. You have to make sure that what you are adding goes in at the right time, is added in the right form, and does not conflict with the other ingredients you have added. Finding the right mix is something that may take more than a few attempts. It’s not just a matter of trying new fruit flavors, either. The addition of spices or of other ingredients can turn out a fantastic beer, so it is worth continuing to experiment with different additions and seeing where they take you.

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The Grand Tasting

For any home brewing buff, the moment of truth is always the tasting. You will not get a real idea for how good or otherwise your beer is when the brewing is complete. Even at this late stage, there is more that needs to happen before it is what it will be. You will put your beer into bottles still not being sure that it is quite right – and this is enough to send a lot of home brewers crazy with impatience. And the thing is that there’s more to it than that. Even once you have left the beer long enough to carbonate completely it may still have time to go.

To clarify, the time that you are advised to leave your brew before drinking it is the “ready to drink” time. Now, there is a world of difference between “ready to drink” and “worth drinking”. Many beers benefit from being left a little (or a lot) longer in the bottle before you drink them, during which time they get to settle, to broaden in terms of taste, and to do any number of other things that will turn them into highly drinkable beer.

The reason for this is down to countless small influences that can affect a lot of things to do with the beer. You cannot expect a perfect beer after the minimum “ready to drink” time, just as people who make their own wine will not expect it to mature to its highest quality within weeks. Some of the best wines around have been in the bottle for years – and it is not just wines for which that is true.

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The Delicate Balance

Brewing your own beer is not an easy process. From start to finish it can take weeks, and it is obvious that the longer it takes to do something, the more chance there is that that something can go wrong. Therefore you need to be practically parental in the way you bring along your home brew. It is something that rewards careful planning and cautious management. How well you have done will only be confirmed when you first taste your newly-brewed beer.

The fact is that there are some aspects of the process that are beyond your control. You can buy the best equipment, recommended by experts and talented amateurs, you can follow the recipes right down to the last miligram and final punctuation mark. However, there is still the chance for something to be not quite right, and this is where you will find yourself calling on people who have been there and done that.

It has been seen on several different home brewing forums that a person goes from start to finish in brewing their beer, bottles it and leaves it for drinking and when they come to it, sometimes months later, it doesn’t taste right. Asking around to see what the problem is, they are asked by someone who has been brewing for more than a decade: “What kind of water did you use?”. And something as basic as the pH balance of the water used can interfere with the quality of a beer. Don’t be discouraged if something small knocks your brew off – put it down to experience and learn.

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