A Few Important Considerations Relating To Home Brewed Beer
When it comes to beer, brewing is the process of taking grain or fruit and permitting it to ferment for a period, letting the sugars to turn to alcohol. Beer can either be made using the grains themselves, or the extracts of those grains. The basic procedures that go into making both commercial and home brewed beer are pretty much the same.
The first step in **making home brewed beer is the mashing stage. In this step, all the grains are crushed and soaked in water, forming an extract. The mash is then held at a relentless temperature, which pulls some of the enzymes and starches out of the grains. These starches are then converted into sugars that will eventually become alcohol.
The second step is known as sparging. At about that point, clean water is added to the mash so that any sugar remaining in it’ll melt. It’s also at this point the mix is now called wort a dark, sugar loaded liquid that’s the root of all lagers.
After the sparging is complete and all of the sugars are melted, the wort is boiled. During this stage, any additional ingredients are added to the mixture. Hops are usually a staple for beer, but other ingredients can be added also. Many home brewers will add their own touches and twists to any recipe they are following, so that each home brewed lager they make has a different and unique flavour. This process also kills off any bacteria or other microorganisms that may be floating about in the wort, and also evaporates some of the excess water.
Next, the mix is placed in a massive glass jar or vat, and yeast is added to the wort. This mixture is then allowed to ferment for several days. In the fermentation process, which can last from seven to fourteen days or longer, sediment and other materials will settle to the base of the container. Once the opening fermentation is complete, many brewers will decant the lager off into another fermentation vat or jar and permit the beer to ferment again.
Packing the lager is the final stage in making lager. It is here that the final product is placed in bottles and capped.
You could be wondering the way in which the carbonation gets into **home brewed beer. For most beer lovers, carbonation is a necessity. Nobody likes drinking flat lager. Home brewed lager typically has some carbonation when it’s done, though not often enough. When you’re making beer at home, there are a couple of ways to get the carbonation into the brew.
The first, and most daunting, is forced carbonation. This means that carbon dioxide is forced into the bottles just before the bottle is capped. Unfortunately, this can also be a difficult, and potentially hazardous, method of carbonation.
A simpler technique of introducing CO2 into home brewed lager is to permit it to ferment longer. The fermentation action of the yeast produces carbon dioxide as a byproduct. The longer you allow your beer to age and ferment, the more carbon dioxide, and therefore the more carbonation, your beer will have.
Another method of carbonating your home brew is to add a little bit of unfermented wort to each **bottle of brewed and fermented beer as they are being capped. It is wise to be cautious with this method, however, as adding too much wort can create too much CO2. If the pressure in the bottle becomes too great, it’ll explode.
September 10, 2010 | Posted by Stew
Categories:
Tags: