Bathtub Beer

According to Alan Moen, author of "The distiller's manifesto", "A lack of proper equipment, supplies and information about the process created the fog of ignorance that persists today. Just as much of the "bathtub beer" created during the era was of poor quality, the same was true of the whiskey."

Simply put, bathtub beer is a term that is used to describe home brewing. It has its roots in shoddy or illegal home brewing practices during prohibition, but is not necessarily so today. Home brewing today is possible with good sterile technique and outstanding glass or stainless equipment.

The actual use of a bathtub for aiding in the temperature regulation of your carboys during primary fermentation will work, but means no bath for you. It may also prove helpful in catching any spilt wort or foam, but so will a large bucket, without losing the traditional use of your bathtub.

Mr. Beer Kits

Hey beer buddies,

I wanted to make sure I told you about some great new deals from Mr. Beer. Mr. Beer has sold over 650 Thousand beer kits and really produces some nice, consistent beers with low investment. Take a look at these popular kits just in time for the holiday season.

MR.BEER Deluxe Beer Kit Brewing System With the Mr.Beer¨ Deluxe Brew Kit you'll brew up 2 gallons of great-tasting beer in as few as seven days -- and you will be drinking your first batch in just two weeks. It is designed with simplicity and ease of use in mind -- providing reliable results every time you brew. MAKES A GREAT GIFT!

MR.BEER Premium Beer Kit Brewing System The best starting point for a beginning brewer -- the Mr.Beer¨ Premium Beer Kit comes with everything needed to brew and bottle your first 2 gallons of top-quality beer. Reuse this kit again and again with our Refill Brew Packs which are available in many flavors so you're sure to find the right brew for you. MAKES A GREAT GIFT!

MR.BEER Pro Beer Kit Brewing System The Mr.Beer¨ PRO Addition Beer Kit comes complete with everything you need to brew and bottle 3 great-tasting batches of beer -- this Brew Kit also contains all of our brewing tools to make your life easier. Designed with simplicity and ease of use in mind Mr.Beer¨ provides reliable results every time you brew. MAKES A GREAT GIFT!

MR.BEER Ultimate Beer Kit Brewing System The Mr.Beer Ultimate Addition Beer Kit comes complete with everything you need to brew and bottle 7 great-tasting batches of beer -- this Brew Kit also contains all of our brewing tools and lots of extras. Designed with simplicity and ease of use in mind -- Mr.Beer provides reliable results every time you brew. MAKES A GREAT GIFT!

MR.ROOTBEER Rootbeer Making Kit With the Mr.Rootbeer¨ Kit -- you'll make 2 gallons the best tasting root beer in as few as 3 days! The kit produces a very traditional old-fashioned tasting root beer that is a hit with adults and children alike. MAKES A GREAT GIFT!

Give these kits a try. Next post will include how to find larger kits that will be a bit more involved but give you greater culinary flexibility in how you make your beer.

Enjoy,

Robert

Microbrewed Beer of the Month Club

By far my wife's favorite way for me to enjoy beer at home is through this little secret. I have found the best gourmet beer of the month club and receive micro brewed beers from around the world shipped straight to my door. According to my wife, this is the best compromise for my wanting to try new beers, and her not having to contend with my brewing equipment and processing of my own beer. I still like to experiment and make my own, but now I can experience a wider variety of tastes in a shorter amount of time.

The Beer of the Month club is also a great gift idea for a beer lover in your life. Beer of the Month Club members receive 12 beers, 4 different styles each month.

On Making Great Tasting Beer

Of all the things that go into making great tasting beer at home, patience is the first concept to put into practice. Be patient when boiling your wort, patient when adding your finishing hops, patient when going through primary fermentation. Patience allows the chemistry to come together, allows the flavors to be extracted from the hops, and patience allows the fine sediments to be distilled out of your beer to improve its appearance.

The next and probably most important aspect to making great tasting beer is great tasting water. If you have impure water from your tap, it's acceptable to use bottled water. Of course, using bottled water can add to the cost of your beer, but believe me, it will be worth using a high quality water as your foundation.

Your choice of the freshest barely or malt extracts, hops and yeast species will all add to your great tasting beer. If you have a chance to go to your local home brew supply store, take the time to smell each of your chosen ingredients for the quality and flavor you are looking for. The aroma of your ingredients should be a great indicator of how your finished product will taste.

Lastly, consider organic ingredients, which can often be found at your local green grocer as well as your local home brew store.

Making great tasting beer is rewarding in its own right, and by taking your time, using the best quality and freshest ingredients, you will improve the quality of your beer and make yourself a proud brewmaster.

Why would anyone want to know how to make beer?

My wife asked me this question last night, and I was able to think of a number of reasons why someone would want to make their own beer at home, as opposed to just going to the store and buying whatever commercially available beer happens to be around.

Well, although there are lots of pre-made products in our grocery and big-box stores, we as consumers tend to make a lot of the things we consume, using ingredients purchased at these stores, why should beer be any different?

Brewing beer (or making wine) at home is a hobby, much like cooking any other food or drink product, that requires special equipment, extra time, patience and skill. Arguably, once you have the equipment to make beer, your costs from that point on will be low, and you can enjoy the fact that you will make a product that you will be proud of, and can share with your friends.

Comparing making beer at home to fishing, making beer will come out far more inexpensive and yield a much larger catch, than my favorite of all sports. But, to me, fishing isn't about catching fish, it's about appreciating the outdoors. Catching fish is just a bonus. If I make beer, I know what I'm going to end up with, and don't have to fight mosquitoes to get any.

So, I guess the answer to my wife's question is this:

• There is no excuse but sheer enjoyment for the pursuit of a hobby


• To demonstrate your brewing skill and creativity


• It is fun


• You can share it with your friends


• It is a low cost craft or hobby

It's time for a beer.

How to make beer - Fermentation 101

NOTE: Make sure to read all of these instructions prior to removing the lid on your primary fermenting container.

You've sealed the primary fermentation container and are patiently waiting for your mixture to ferment. Fermentation should be pretty active in the beginning days as evidenced by the continuous stream of bubbles in the airlock. You do not want to contaminate the batch by opening it up too soon, so please be patient. Beer can ferment in the primary fermenting chamber for 10 to 14 days depending on the stability of the ambient temperature.

My recommendation is to wait the full 14 days. The sugars should be fully converted to alcohol and dead yeast should be settling to the bottom of the primary fermenting container.

After sanitizing your hands, siphon hose, mason jar, and hydrometer, you can open the primary fermenter lid, and siphon a small amount of the wort into the mason jar for testing. Ideally, the specific gravity will be between 1.010 and 1.020, but this may also depend on either your kit, recipe, or other instructions.

Secondary fermentation occurs in the bottle. There are a couple methods of priming the secondary fermentation, one is with malt extract "drops", the other is to make a malt extract syrup.

Before making the malt extract syrup, sanitize all 2 quart sauce pan, 20 quart pot, spoons, hosing and racking cane, and hands.

Boil one pint of water in the 2 quart sauce pan, and add either 3/4 to 1 cup corn sugar, or my favorite, 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups dried malt extract. The more sugars you provide, the greater the carbonation, so make your first batch with a lower concentration of sugars. Pour this into the sanitized 20 quart pot.

Without disturbing the primary fermentation container or carboy, open the lid, and begin syphoning the wort into the 20 quart pot. It helps if the primary fermentation container is slightly elevated, and the 20 quart pot is lower, to take advantage of gravity during this phase.

NOTE: When siphoning, keep the high end of the hose above the sediments, unless you want a "hearty" beer.

The flat beer will mix with the primer solution as it is siphoned into the pot, but you can also stir gently to ensure complete mixing.

It's time to bottle your beer. A special beer bottle filling hose attachment will rest on the bottom of the bottle as the beer flows through. Fill to the top of the bottle, and the fluid level will decrease when the filling hose is removed. Fill and cap each bottle immediately.

NOTE: Document in your brewers journal, the date and time of bottling.

Secondary fermentation will complete the beer making process after another 14 or more days. Aging the beer a couple months can improve the taste, so remain patient. Your beer will be worth the effort and something you can share with friends and family.

How to make beer - Brewing 101

There are basically four phases in brewing beer, each phase broken down into smaller steps, but it is important to remember to follow the steps, especially of any custom recipe with patience and precision or your beer will not turn out as you might hope. We will go over the process for cooking or brewing your beer using the cheat of malt extract. You can make your own mashed malt, and I will discuss this in a future article, but for now, we'll keep things simple at first just to practice the procedure of making beer, and getting the experience of our first batch under way.

NOTE: Start your training and continue your beer making hobby with copious note taking. Write down everything. Write down the date and time you perform each task. Write the amounts of each ingredient down.

Start with a simple beer first, here is a sample...

Amber Ale

8# pale malt extract
1# 60L Crystal
1/2 # Carapils
1 oz Challenger (7.9%) 60 min
1 oz Challenger 5 min
Ferment with W.L. California Ale Yeast

If you bought a beer making kit, you will want to follow the specific instructions provided with the kit. Otherwise, read on my eager fellow beer maker.

Starting with sterilized 20 quart boiling pot, stirring spoon (2 foot steel spoon), tablespoon, pyrex measuring cup, mason jar, thermometer, and five gallon glass primary fermenting container or plastic carboy and an airlock for your fermenting container. These parts can all be sterilized by either boiling for 20 minutes, or using a bleach based bath to soak these items for 20 minutes. If you use a sanitizing product, be sure to rinse these parts thoroughly with clean/boiled water before use. Also, use a good hand sanitizer for your hands before touching anything. You need to ensure the surfaces which touch your beer, yeast, grains or water is sterile at all times, so be careful what you touch and try to maintain some awareness to your kit.

All great brews start with great tasting water. If your water is not of good quality, you can use bottled water, but you will typically start with 1.5 Gallons of water for your first batch. Other recipes may call for more water, and that's OK too, just watch your recipe for details.

NOTE: Keep a gallon or so of warm pre-boiled water on hand for a number of tasks, including re-hydrating the yeast, rinsing utensils, and cleaning later.

We're now going to make wort (wurt). This is the basis for your beer. Bring 1.5 gallons of water to a boil in the 20 quart pot on your stove.

While your water is heating, it's time to rehydrate the brewers yeast. The yeast selected is important to the taste of your beer and must you must be very careful to do this with viable yeast and keep the temperatures within the specified tolerance levels or it will either not ferment or will die from too much heat. So...Put 1 cup of warm (95-105°F, 35-40°C), pre-boiled water into your sanitized jar and stir in the yeast. Cover with plastic wrap and wait 15 minutes.

Proofing the yeast is required to ensure the yeast is alive. This is done by boiling 1/4 cup of water and adding 1 teaspoon of malt extract, which is set aside to cool. Once cool, you can pour it into your yeast jar and observe for any activity, churning or foaming action. If nothing happens, your yeast is dead and you should try these steps again with fresh yeast and keeping an eye on your temperatures.

Once your water is boiling, it is time to add the malt extract. Turn off the burner before adding the malt extract, to prevent sudden boil overs. Gently stir the malt into your water to ensure a complete mixing of malt and water. Once you are convinced the malt is completely dissolved, add your hops and turn the burner back on to bring the wort to a boil. Continue stirring your wort to prevent boil overs for one hour (unless your recipe calls for less or more time). Unhopped malts may require more boil time than hopped malts.

Take the wort off the burner and cool to a yeast pitching temperature (65-90 °F [18-32 °C]) by placing the boiling pot into a tub of ice water. You want to prepare the wort for the yeast, without killing the yeast in the process.

NOTE: Sanitize your fermentation bucket or carboy, strainer, air lock, and siphon before continuing.

We are now ready to start the fermentation process. Fermentation is the the conversion of carbohydrates into alcohols or acids under anaerobic conditions used for making certain foods. Fermentation begins when we Pitch the yeast into the wort. Pour your yeast solution into the fermentation bucket/carboy followed by the wort. Take care to pour the wort into the fermentation container through a strainer to catch any hops and top help aerate the yeast.

Find a warm 65-70 °F (18-21 °C), temperature and light stable environment for storing your fermentation bucket, then seal the container. The airlock should be firmly in place and you will begin to see evidence of fermentation within 24-48 hours. Allow the fermentation to continue for a minimum of two weeks or longer depending upon your tastes and ingredients. The sugars need to be completely fermented, and particles in your wort must settle to clear the mixture. The more time you allow at this phase, the clearer your beer will be, but a cloudy beer does not mean bad tasting brew. Experiment with various durations of fermentation after this batch.

Finally, thoroughly clean and sterilize all of your cooking utensils, pots, and other equipment, and stove.

Go have a beer, you deserve it. You'll get to sample your own soon enough.