The Best American Beer: Homebrew!
Jun 06 '01
The Bottom Line Until the advent of the 20th century almost every beer-drinker made their own beer and mass-production does NOT turn out a better product than you can make at home.
Perhaps you never thought of beer as a homemade food-product before. Perhaps you have considered whipping up your own batch of brew and were intimidated by technical and forboding instructions. In either case I would urge every fan of the sudsy quaff to cast fears aside and bodly venture into the world of homebrewing.
Advantages of homebrewing include cost savings, the personal satisfaction of creating something good in your kitchen and the healthful considerations of imbbing a finished product that is rich in nutrients and anti-oxidants. Distilled alcohol, such as that found in many popular "alky-pops" that I detest is an oxidant with no beneficial effects on the body or digestive system. Homebrews are naturally fermented. Natural fermentation results in a richer, fresher, tastier and healthier product then any mass-market swill or micro-brew.
The would-be homebrewer doesn't need much in the way of supplies -- a big food-grade bucket, a strainer, a bottle capper or corker, some copper tubing or a plastic hose and a clean wooden or plastic spoon and some empty bottles is enough to get you started -- everyone probably has most of those items on hand in the kitchen. Some people may prefer to buy a homebrew starter kit for about 50-100 US bucks (check you local phonebook for beer & brewing supplies or visit a d-i-y friendly local micro-brewery).
It's simpler than you think so don't be intimidated by words like "zymurgy" or "attentuation" that you'll find in even the best books on the subject, e.g. Charlie Papazain's classic, "New Complete Joy of Homebrewing".
The three basic ingredients in beer are, water, yeast and a sugar source : barley malt; molasses and/or honey will all work fine, so will maple syrup, corn syrup or plain old table sugar
The fourth ingredient that is usually associated with beer is hops. Hops lend a bitter taste to beer and are natural preservatives. Hops, however, are not an absolutely required ingredient. Feel free to skip 'em altogether or to substitute yarrow, bitters or even black tea in the usual place of hops.
The proceedure is basically this: boil your sugar source in your water (with a roughly 4:1 water/sugar ratio) for about an hour. When this cools to about 70 degrees add your packet of yeast. Pour this into a clean container -- an airlocking lid with a venting hole such as those that come with a homebrew kit is ideal -- and leave it sit at room temperature for five days.
On the fifth day the yeast has done it's work (turning most of the sugars to alcohol and providing carbonation. Then it's time to bottle the new beer -- or "green beer" as it's called. You can drink it green, but it's better to bottle-condition it for an additional 2-8 weeks. Put a little sugar in the bottles -- about 1/4-1/2 teaspoon to keep the yeast busy.
If you must add hops, but 'em in about 45 minutes into the boil -- one ounce of hops to every five gallons of beer should be more than enough. If you love hops, put in more. Use a strainer to filter out the hop-mush before locking the brew up in the fermenting bucket.
Barley malt is the standard sugar base for the brew. Good imported barley malt can be at at the brew supply store -- I like a copper-colored ale. A blend of Munton's Amber and Dark malts suits me fine, but good brew can also be made with maple sap or molasses.
Whatever ingredients you decide on, your homebrew will shine in comparison to any mass-market domestic or imported beer. And it will cost a lot less than a nine dollar borttle of Hennepin or Chimay.
Another advantage of homebrewing is the ability to season your beer to your own taste. If you like cinnamon, try adding cinnamon to your boil. Fond of nutmeg, camomile, black tea, vanilla, chocolate, sage, rosemary, or saffron? Go ahead and put some in and see what happens.
Try brewing! It's easy, fun and rewarding!
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