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.

Tags: Cask ale, moment of truth, All you need to know, home brewers, highest quality

Variety Is The Spice

There are several great lies about beer. One of those is that it makes you funnier. It doesn’t, it only makes other people more likely to laugh at your jokes, and they need to be drinking too. Another, and a more serious one, is that all beer tastes the same. This line is so untrue that there should be disclaimers issued on national TV every time someone says it. One can only wonder how many people are sitting in bars, drinking just to get drunk, who have only ever tasted a couple of beers and don’t really like them.

When you brew your own beer, you come to appreciate just how much variety there is in the process of making certain beers and in the taste of the end result. Many home brewers never make two batches that taste exactly alike. One small change to the brewing process can lead to vastly different results. It might not be a change you enjoy, but it will certainly be different.

There are so many different kinds of beer that the idea of them all tasting the same is flawed right from the get-go. You have light, crisp lagers and heavy, dark ales. You have thick stouts and sharp white beers, and these are just a few of the options out there. That is before we even get to the stage of adding flavors, experimenting with strengths and other variations that can produce incredible results. All beers taste the same? No. No, they don’t.

Tags: different kinds, Draught beer, dark ales, end result, Types of beer, Hospitality Recreation, Pale lager, home brewers

How To Start Your Home Brew Adventure

There is an unavoidable element of light mockery that surrounds the practice of home brewing beer. There will always be the same jokes – that you are so fond of a drink you decided that you couldn’t deal with the trip to the bar, for example. Or that you wanted to drive the price of beer so low that you could be permanently drunk without it costing you so much. Once you get over the impression that this is about being cheap and reinforce the fact that it is more of a hobby, though, there is a lot to recommend home brewing.

Getting off to a good start is important – you should not begin to brew beer at home until you have researched the process a little. What equipment will you need, how much can you make at a time, and how do you get the type of beer that you like? There is little point at all in setting up to brew a dark stout if you prefer lager – and many home brewers find that their early efforts tend towards the darker side of the spectrum.

Research how you should go about brewing the beer you like and what you will need in order to make it. There are plenty of places online where you can find great information – including communities dedicated to home brewing which will be full of people who can give you helpful tips and hints, and will be pleased to share some details of their own innovations. You also need to set aside the space for your equipment. If you are making an alcoholic drink, it should at all times be out of the reach of children.

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