Are you a beginner in home brewing?

Domestic brewing has been there for a long time though it is subject to government regulations in some areas. Are you a law abiding citizen? Then it is always good to stay on the right side of the law by following your countries regulations on home brewing.

Though you can home brew for different reasons, it is very true that home brewing gives you a cheaper beer as compared to buying some of commercially equivalent beers in the market. You also have the opportunity to adjust the brewing recipes according to your taste giving you a beverage that is either not available in the market or a beverage whose ethanol level is low. You can also create a drink with low calories.

You can always choose to mash your own grains or purchase malt extract. Whichever route you take, boiling the liquid and addition of hops is surely inevitable. Hops is a plant whose dried female parts (flowers) are used in brewing.

Home brewing kits

The first step to becoming a successful home brewer is by having by the right home brewing kit. Brewing kits includes fermenters, hydrometers, carboys and thermometers among others. My best pick is BSG Handcraft Gold Complete Homebrew Kit which is a perfect pick both beginners and expert brewers. It comes with everything you need to start your home brewing hobby but ingredients. It gives you the ability to brew up to five gallons of fresh beer at home. Among its exceptional features is large 7.8 gallons fermenter which has a drilled lid and an air lock. It also has six glass carboy and stainless steel brewpot with a lid.

I would recommend it especially if you are a beginner. Other excellent kits that you also opt for are master home brewing kit, super deluxe kegging kit, standard home brewing kit and beer machine brewmaster among many others.

For home brewing you can go for extract home brewing or all grain brewing.

Extract home brewing

There are different ways to brew extracts. Just imagine brewing a beer with the same taste as the regular beers! It does not make any sense. Why would you waste time brewing something you can buy?

Extract home brewing is a great opportunity for beginners to familiarize themselves with home brewing since it only requires a few pieces of equipment and you are started. The most basic ingredient you need is malt extract which is dried sugars from malted barley and can be either in dry or liquid form. Most extract brewing kits includes hops, malt extract and yeast (can be either in syrup or dry form).

Some people finds the task of finding recipes for extract home brewing a bit daunting. To start with you should try recipe kits since they comes with all ingredients and instructions. As you continue experiencing home brewing you will learn some tweaks you may want to make in order to suit your recipe.

All grain brewing

Another great way of achieving your home brewing desires is through all grain brewing. This is where by you make beer directly from malted grains. I love this one especially with my buddies after work. I enjoy sipping beer brewed from all grain since it gives me maximum relaxation. You do not use pre-made malt extract. This is a straightforward process which requires the following steps.

•  Milling: you should first mill or crack your grains. All-grain beer kits comes with both unmilled and milled grain options so no need to worry if you do not own a grain mill.

• Mashing: the milled grains are then mixed with the required amount of water and allowed to mash for about one hour. Starch contained in the grains is converted to sugars by natural enzymes contained in the malted barley.

• Sparging: hot water is passed through the grains to rinse the sugar once sugar has been converted. You then collect the run-off (wort).

• Boil: you should then boil the wort.

Beer fermentation process

The basic fermentation process in home brewing takes place in plastic or glass carboys. Sometimes it can be done in a food-grade bucket which is almost near sealed. After sealing the fermenter, you should stopper it with a fermentation lock which allows carbon dioxide produced during the fermentation process to vent. This also prevents entry of other gasses and foreign particles. Depending on the type of yeast strain you are using, it is advisable to optimize conditions like temperatures.

With favorable conditions, a vigorous fermentation takes place starting from 12 hours of the set up. This continues for the next few days during which fermentable sugars like glucose, maltose and sucrose are fermented by yeast giving out ethanol and carbon dioxide. A layer of sediments composed mainly of proteins, heavy fats and inactive yeast is formed at the bottom of your fermenter.

After the primary fermentation, advanced home brewers will prefer taking the ethanol through a secondary fermentation process like I do. This helps me to enhance the flavor of my beer. It also clarifies my beer by removing any sediments that may have been left by primary fermentation process.

Carbonating your beer before consumption is always advisable. Here you can either opt for keg carbonation where compressed carbon dioxide is forced in a keg with the beer. This is known a kegging. You can also opt for bottle carbonation a process known as bottling. The bottles you use should have the ability to withstand carbonation pressure.

Carbonation

The best approach to carbonation is addition of malt extract or priming sugars to the beer after all its fermentable sugars are totally consumed. Each given beer recipe has a recommended level of priming sugar to which you should not exceed otherwise the bottle will explode. Other reasons for explosions could be use of inappropriate bottles or improper capping techniques. The best carbonation is achieved by adding about 4oz of corn sugar that is initially boiled in 2 cups water and cooled. This should be added to five gallons of beer before bottling.