Homebrewing Hints:

Before you bottle your beer, you have to sanitize the bottles, otherwise bacteria can form in the bottle and ruin the entire batch.

The first step of the process is to prepare a place for the bottles to sit while they are being sanitized. This should be a place that can hold 50 beet bottles. In home brewing, the best place for this is the bathtub. To prepare the bathtub, first scrub the tub will with bleach, then fill it up with water and a full bottle of bleach. Let this solution sit for a day and rinse.

The second step is to make another mixture of bleach and water. This mixture should be approximately one teaspoon of bleach per gallon. If doing this in a bathtub, it is about 2 cups of water. The proportion of this mixture does not need to be perfect, so don’t get too tied up making it exact.

Next, put the bottles into the tub (or whatever you are using to hold the mixture) making sure that the inside of the bottles are filled with the solution. Any other equipment used in the bottling process should be in the tub with the bottles. Everything should sit in the solution for about 20-30 minutes.

Rinse the bottles very well. Bacteria can ruin the batch of beer and so will extra bleach left in the bottle. When rinsing, do not touch the rim of the bottles with your hands. Move the bottles touching them on the outside. Continue to keep the bottles sanitary until the beer is capped.

Homebrewing Hints:

If you are a complete beginner to home beer making you probably think there is only one way to brew your own beer at home so it may surprise you to know that there are actually three main ways to make homemade beer and your skill level and what you want to achieve will determine which home beer brewing method you choose.

Whichever method you choose you will find you can save a lot of time, money and effort by getting some professional tips and training but for now lets just look at what these main brewing methods are.

1. Kit Beers.

This is where most homebrewers start and it is surprisingly easy. You simply buy your home brew beer kit which usually includes pretty much everything you need, follow the instructions and voila! 4-6 weeks later you can start drinking your own home brew beer.

The Problem with these kits is that you are very limited as to the type of beer you can brew and more importantly the instruction that are included never actually give a beginner accurate instructions to make excellent beer and so it is only after many trial and error attempts that you are likely to end up with a good beer (there are much better ways to making home brew beer than simply adding yeast and water to these kits). Unfortunately most homebrewers give up long before they have started achieving the results they desire.

2. Extract Brewing

This is a simple step up from the home brew beer kits but importantly gives you control over the hops you include in your brew as well as giving you the ability to add specialty grains to the mix. This gives you much more control over the flavour of your home brew beer and will produce a beer you will be proud to share with your friends.

3.All Grain Brewing

This is the final step in home beer brewing and requires more equipment and a lot more knowledge as it gives you total control over every element of your homebrew beer.

This is a lot more involved and for most people it is an unnecessary step that should only be undertaken by those committed to the intricacies of making home beer brewing a dedicated hobby.

So that’s the three main ways to get involved in home beer making it really is a lot easier and more rewarding than most people imagine but like most things it is important to get yourself armed with the right information before you start making your first home brew beer.

Homebrewing Hints:

A mistake that people who are new to home beer making is that that they drink it too quickly. When you are too impatient and don’t let your brew age long enough you are often disappointed in the results. Depending on the recipe you used, most home brew beers require, after fermentation, you let the beer age for a period of at least two and as much as six weeks. Please note that these are the minimum recommended times. If you let your home brew beer alone for longer periods you will get better results.

While it looks like nothing is going on during this period nothing could be further from the truth. During the aging process the yeast continues to ferment with the sugars that remain in the beer after the bottling process. This naturally adds to the carbonation of your brew. This is what gives your beer bubbles. The other thing that’s going on is the yeast will begin to settle out of the brew itself. This helps the taste to be smoother and further enhances the flavors of the recipe you chose in the first place.

This aging process will vary widely depending on the recipe brewed. The reason for this is that the flavor ingredients in each recipe are different and require different amounts of time to mature. You can easily find some beers recipes that are ready to drink in as little as two weeks and others that are recommended to age for four months.

After you have bottled your beers, preferably in brown or amber colored glass bottles to protect the beer from Ultra Violet radiation, you will need a safe, undisturbed place to store them while they age. Your new home brew beer should be kept in a cool, dark place where they won’t get moved around and the temperature never goes above the limit recommended for the recipe you used. Different yeasts require different temperatures. This is usually 72 to 74 degrees and is never higher than 76 degrees.

Once your new brew has aged and you are ready for the first sample be sure you record the length of time you let the batch age before sampling. In fact, good record keeping about what happens with each batch you brew is a very good idea. As you try different things and get different results, you will be building a written record of what works best for you and your home brewery. These records will help prevent you from repeating mistakes and are also a great resource for additional ideas on what to try on your next brewing adventure.

Homebrewing Hints:

There are several words that you will be introduced to when brewing beer. Some of them are probably things that you have heard before such as pH, Ale, and Lager. This article will give a more in depth description of these terms as well as give you a variety of new homebrewing vocabulary that you may not have heard yet.

ABV – Alcohol by volume
ABW – Alcohol by weight
Airlock – a plastic top that lets carbon dioxide be released during fermentation without contaminating your brew.
Ale – top fermented beer
Carboy – glass fermenter
Conditioning – Adding sugar to your beer before bottling. This makes the left over yeast react with the sugar to create carbonation.
DME – dry malt extract
Dry hopping – adding hops during the fermentation stage
Fermentation – the time in the brewing process where your beer is sitting in a container and reacting with the yeast. This usually takes a couple weeks and is done before bottling your beer.
FG – Final gravity (the gravity of the beer taken at the end of fermentation)
Gravity – denseness of a liquid (used to determine the amount of alcohol)
Hydrometer – tool used to determine gravity
IPA – India Pale Ale
Lager – bottom fermented beer
Lautering – mash separated into the wort and leftover grain
Malt – Grain (either barley or wheat) sometimes in a malt extract form which is a syrup
Mead – fermented honey
OG – Original gravity (the gravity of the beer taken at the beginning of fermentation)
pH – percent Hydrion
Pitching – pouring yeast into your beer
Sparging – filtering water through grain to get the sugar out of the grain
Wort – What you call your brew when you have finished boiling before adding it to the fermenter.

Homebrewing Hints:

I was looking online trying to find reviews on the Beer Machine (an all in one homebrew system.) While I was doing some research I found this video. At first I thought it was a joke because the guys are so eccentric, but it was on the news and The Beer Machine, even has a link to the video posted on their website. I hope you see the humor in the video like I did. Here are some of my favorite quotes:

“Wow…”
“What a trooper!”
“Easy Fast Eddie!”
“Then he continued eating pretzels…”
“Just pour the beer Paul”
“I cant drink on TV… my boss wont let me.”

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Homebrewing Hints:

Here is a pretty funny cartoon I found about the 20 things you need to know about beer. Some of them you may know, but many you probably have not heard before.

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/beer

Homebrewing Hints:

Have you ever considered making your own beer? Many people shy away from this idea because it may seem like too much work, the process may seem overly difficult, or maybe you just don’t know where to begin. However, there are many benefits to brewing your own beer and it is easier than most people imagine.

Brewing beer gives you the freedom to create any beer you choose. Not only are you able to replicate any style you see in the store, you can brew many unique beers that cannot be purchased anywhere in the world. Does a Chocolate Cherry Stout sound intriguing, or maybe a Vanilla Bourbon Porter? The beer you brew is limited only by your imagination.

Brewing beer is also considerably less expensive than purchasing an equivalent microbrew at your local store. You can easily brew five gallons of high quality beer for below $25. This will equate to less than $0.50 per 12 ounce bottle of beer. Not only is this less expensive than the microbrews that will cost $8 per six pack, it is even less expensive and far better tasting than the economical, watered-down, domestic beers sold everywhere in America today.

Learning how to homebrew will give you a much deeper appreciation of not only the brewing process, but of beer in general. By learning more about each particular ingredient that is involved in creating the flavor of a beer, you begin to get a greater appreciation of each style of beer for what makes it unique and special. Previously you may not have liked a particular style of beer because it was too hoppy or malty for your tastes. However, don’t be surprised if that style of beer begins to grow on you as you get a better understanding of what makes that style special. Though, if nothing else, you will now be able to better articulate why you do not enjoy a particular beer.

One of the biggest reasons most people brew beer is the satisfaction of crafting a product from beginning to end. There is a certain amount of pride in knowing a product, which gives you so much enjoyment, was created by you. There will always be something special about sampling that first frothy slip of a new batch of homebrew you painstakingly crafted.

So don’t be afraid to take the next step and learn how to homebrew. This is not only an inexpensive hobby to get into, it will actually save you money in the long run! Oh, and incase you are overly worried about majorly screwing up… you may be relieved to know there are no known deadly pathogens that can survive in beer!

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Ginger beer has a completely different recipe than regular beer, its completely non alcoholic and easy to make, the confusion that people have probably lays in the term beer, its just a common mistake. Ginger beer may be mixed with beer (usually a British ale of some sort) to make one type of shandy. Anyone can make this ginger beer recipe and everyone can drink it, even children.

The process involved of making home made ginger beer is quite simple and quick, it is a lot of fun to make even with your (grand)children. Really anyone can make this refreshing recipe. There are a lot of ginger beer recipes you can find online but the one we will give you is especially popular

What do you need for your own Home Made Ginger Beer

Ingredients and Tools:

When you plan to make your own home made ginger beer you need the proper tools and ingredients. For our ginger beer recipe you will need eight pint (plastic) bottles or four quart (plastic) bottles, and bowls where you can make the mixture in.

Basic Ginger Beer Recipe

For this most basic home made ginger beer recipe, the required ingredients are as follows:

- 2 oz. fresh ginger

- 1 tsp. cream of tartar

- 2 lemons

- 1 lb. sugar

- 1 oz. yeast.

- 1 gallon boiling water

The preparation is easy, You need to wash the lemons and slice them in thick rings, after that the ginger root should be roughly crushed. Mix the ginger, lemon, sugar and cream of tartar in a large bowl.

Pour the boiling water over the top, stir the mixture and let it cool to lukewarm temperature. After that you need to stir in the yeast. You’ll need to leave it for 24-48 hours to let the yeast go to work. Once the plastic bottle is very hard, and can’t be squeezed, the ginger beer is done. At that time you need to skim off the yeast and the mixture strained. After that your ginger beer can be bottled. Place the bottle in the fridge overnight. This halts the yeast and stops the bottle exploding. Once the ginger beer is chilled, pour it into a glass and enjoy. When you just follow this simple ginger beer recipe you can’t go wrong.

Exploding bottles

Because of the yeast, ginger beer can be a very aggressive fermenter, it produces high pressure very rapidly. So it is better not to bottle ginger beer in glass bottles. You also should not leave the finished ginger beer in a closed up warm place, because this can result in generating enough pressure to explode the lid of.

This is just one, although very popular, recipe for ginger beer. On the internet or at your favorite brewing supply store you can find many more.

Have fun in making this delicious Ginger Beer recipe, and enjoy making it together with your children or grandchildren. Together you can make little changes to make it your personal Ginger Beer recipe.

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Homebrewing Hints:

Hops and Cannabis are from the same family so it makes some wonder: Is it possible to brew beer with marijuana? It is true that in the past, many cultures have made some type of drink using cannabis. However, it is also true that marijuana is currently illegal in almost every country in the world.

I had trouble finding any step by step instructions for this brew for several reasons, mainly because marijuana is illegal.

The reason anyone would want to brew beer using marijuana would be to get the effects of marijuana. The THC present in the plant causes the effects of marijuana, so it is necessary to not lose the THC during the brewing process.

If you were going to try to brew marijuana beer, you could not just substitute it for hops. The reason for this is that the boiling of the hops (or in this case marijuana) would boil out any of the THC. If there is no THC, there is no point in making a marijuana brew, because people are not attracted to the drug for its taste. One way around this is to dry hop your brew with weed. Doing it this way you will not be boiling off any of the THC. Dry hopping is just adding hops when transferring the beer into the second fermenter and letting it sit until bottling.

The only problem with this is that the amount of marijuana needed for dry hopping is quite a lot. You need about a tsp or 2 per beer to get a desired effect. Doing the math means that you need at least 17 tablespoons of marijuana per 50 gallon batch.

Another way to do this without brewing a whole batch of “marijuana beer” is to add the weed to the beer when bottling. Just add a tsp to the bottle when bottling and let the bottle sit for 2 weeks or so. After this, the marijuana will have settled with the yeast and you can drink the beer from a glass. The beer will taste somewhat like marijuana though. The benefit to doing it this way is that you can experiment with just a few beers in your homebrew batch.

Although coming from the same family, marijuana cannot be substituted for hops when making beer. It would give an unpleasant taste and the THC will be boiled off during the home brewing process. However, if your mind is set on making a batch of “marijuana beer,” there are other ways to include it in your brew.