Make Your Own Beer

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        Have you ever wondered why there are so many different brands of beer on the market, and why each brand tastes a bit different from the others? Beer is beer, right? Well, not exactly. As you will learn when you make your own beer, there are literally hundreds, if not thousands of different recipes that you can use to make your own beer. The objective is to find the recipe or recipes that you enjoy the most when you make your own beer.

The most basic recipe that you can use when you make your own beer includes ingredients such as crystal malt, dried malt extract, hops, brewers yeast, and of course, sugar. Some recipes get very complex, calling for various types of malts. The recipe that you use will depend greatly on the type of beer that you want when you make your own beer.

Different types of beer that you can make when you make your own beer include light ale, strong ale, American Lager, Bitter Beer, Pale Lager, Spiced Beer, Steam Beer, and many others. There is a different type of beer to suit every taste, and if you really want to get good when you make your own beer, you should try to make different types of beers. You might prefer to make Scottish Ale or Belgian Ale when you make your own beer.

However, because of the wide variety of tastes that you can produce when you make your own beer, it may be wise to purchase different types of beer from the store to taste them, as some types of beer won’t taste good to you. If there is a certain beer that you prefer that you purchase regularly from the store, look to see what the ingredients of that beer are, so that you can find recipes that use the same ingredients when you make your own beer.

You must also consider beers made from different grains when you make your own beer. The most common types of grain used when you make your own beer, or recipe types, include all grain, extract, mash, or partial mash. These beers will not only have different tastes, but they may also have different weights and textures as well.

Again, there are tons of recipes available when you make your own beer. It is important to realize that one recipe is not better than any other, but each recipe will produce a different taste when you make your own beer, and you must find the recipes that you enjoy the most.

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     You see beer kits and instructions to make your own beer all of the time, but you may have chosen not to attempt this because you believe it is not legal to make your own beer. Some people will tell you that it is legal to make your own beer and wine, as long as it is only served in your home, not distilled, and not sold. However, this isn’t actually the case in all states. In some states it is still illegal to make your own beer, and even in states where it is legal to make your own beer, there are limits to the amount that you can make per year.

For example, it is legal to make your own beer or wine in the state of Arkansas, but you can only brew 100 gallons per year if there is one adult in the home, or 200 gallons per year if there are two or more adults in the home. In the state of Alabama, it is illegal to be in possession of home brew. The state of Idaho allows for the brewing of ‘native’ wine or beer for personal use, which means that you can only brew beer using native grown products. In Georgia, you can brew just 50 gallons per year. All states that allow you to make your own beer will have a limit to the amount of beer that you are allowed to brew under the law.

Before you decide to make your own beer, you simply need to use the Internet to find out if it is legal in your specific state. Do not take the word of private citizens. You want confirmation from people who are authorized to give you this information. You can also call your County Extension Service to find out this information, in most places. If they don’t know the answer to your question, they can direct you to the authority that has the answer.

It is legal to make your own beer in the majority of states in the US, however, there are stipulations in each state, and each state’s rules and laws are different. The law in your state may stipulate that only the head of the household is allowed to brew beer for consumption by the family only. In this instance, it would be illegal for your twelve year old to help you to make your own beer.

It is also interesting to note that if a state does not have a law specifically prohibiting the brewing of your own beer or wine, the law defaults to the federal law on the topic. By federal law, it is legal to make your own beer and wine, for your own consumption, including consumption by your family and guests in your home. So, if your state has no law regarding whether or not you can make your own beer, you can.

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     Most people who have brewed their own beer will tell you that it is not only fun, but after they perfected the brewing method, they will also tell you that it is the best beer that they have ever had. You can make your own beer too, but there are some things that you need to know before you try to make your own beer.

First, making beer is not like making tea. You cannot just whip it up and serve it over ice. With the fermentation process, it takes about ten days to make a batch of home brew. There is no way around the fermenting process, so if you are planning to make your own beer to serve at a special occasion, you will actually want to start about a month in advance. This is because you will want to make at least one or two test batches before you make your final product – to perfect your brew when you make your own beer.

That’s the next thing that you need to know. Your first batch of brew when you make your own beer may not taste very good. You can have all of the right equipment, and the right ingredients, but you will need to perfect the measurement of your ingredients to get the right taste when you make your own beer. Don’t be disappointed and give up after just one batch when you make your own beer.

Before you start to make your own beer, you must determine whether it is legal to do so in your state, how much you are legally allowed to brew, and how you are legally allowed to use the brew when you make your own beer. Contrary to popular opinion, it is not legal in all states. However, if your state does not have a law that specifically states that it is illegal you fall under federal law, which does allow you to make your own beer.

Read as much information as possible before you start to make your own beer. Read about problems that other people have encountered, and how they overcame those problems. Look at different recipes and techniques that people have used, and the results that they had. This will enable you to make your own beer very easily, with fewer mistakes from the very beginning.

Again, it is fun to make your own beer, and once you have it down pat, it will be the best brew you’ve ever had. You can make your own beer for yourself and for special occasions.

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            So you’ve decided that you want to Make Your Own Beer? Now what do you do? Believe it on not making your own beer at home is very easy and rewarding! All it takes is a few hours of brewing, a little waiting and some patience. Once you’ve purchased your initial equipment (typically $75 – $150) making beer is very inexpensive to make. To give you an example of this, you can purchase an American Ale ingredients kit for about $25 – $30. That beer ingredients kit will make 5 gallons of beer greatness! 5 gallons of beer is the equivalent to roughly 53 beer bottles, that’s a lot of beer for $25.

Typical Steps for Making Your Own Beer.

1.       Order your beer brewing equipment.

2.       Order your beer ingredients kit.

3.       Brew your beer.

4.       Let the beer ferment for roughly 2 weeks.

5.       Bottle or keg your beer.

6.       Carbonate the beer.

7.       Invite your friends over and try your homemade beer!

You can get the basic brewing equipment kit for around $100. Your brewing kit should include the following.

·         5 Gallon Glass Carboy

·         6.5 Gallon Plastic Fermenter with Lid

·         6.5 Gallon Bottling Bucket with Spigot

·         4 Gallon brew kettle (Pot)

·         Sanitizer (i.e. Easy Clean No-Rinse Cleanser)

·         Drilled Carboy Bung & Airlock (Keeps air out)

·         Hydrometer (Determines alcohol content)

·         Bottle Brush

·         Carboy Brush

·         Bottle Capper (i.e. Twin Lever Red Baron Bottle Capper)

·         50 – 12 oz Beer Bottles

·         50 Bottle Caps

·         Bottle Filler

·         Siphon (An Auto-Siphon is even better)

·         Siphon Tubing

·         Shutoff clamp

When you’re ordering your beer kit make sure you also order a beer ingredients kit. There are three levels of beer ingredients kits. The first level is Extract kits (beginner), the second level is Partial Mash (intermediate) and the third is All Grain (Advanced). For now I would start with the extract ingredients kits. After brewing a few extract batches you can then move up to the partial mash kits.

When brewing your first batch of beer, make sure you set aside a few hours to complete the brewing process. Make sure you read through all of the directions that come with the ingredients kit before you get started. Typically the directions that come with the kits will be pretty much the same. However, depending on the kind of beer you’re brewing you’ll be adding hops at different times throughout the brewing process. Once you’ve finished brewing the beer you will cool the beer (or wort as it’s called at this point) down to at least 80 degrees. This can be done by placing the pot in a sink with ice or using a wort chiller. Once you’ve cooled the wort down to at least 80 degrees you will then pour the wort into your 6.5 gallon plastic fermenter. Make sure you check your direction. You’ll likely need to add water to the fermenter to bring the level up to the 5 gallon mark. Once you’ve done that you will add the yeast and then aerate the wort to make sure you get enough oxygen into the wort for the yeast to work properly. You will then place the lid on top of your fermenter, place the airlock into the lid and place the fermenter into a dark closest. You want to make sure your fermenter is in an area that will stay somewhere between 70 – 80 degrees.

Now here comes the hard part. You’ll need to wait about two weeks for your wort to ferment into beer. Once you get towards the end of the fermenting process you’ll start checking the beer using a hydrometer. You’ll check it each day until the reading on the hydrometer is no longer changing. Once this happens the fermentation is complete! At this point you have two options – you can either bottle your beer or you can transfer it to your carboy. Transferring it to the carboy and letting it sit for another week or so will allow the beer to age a little bit and more importantly it allows the beer to clear up. If you skip this step you will likely have cloudy beer. It’ll still taste good it will just be a little murky.

Now that your beer is done fermenting it’s time to bottle or keg the beer. Bottling your beer is nice because you can easily take your beer to a friend’s house. However, that’s 4 dozen bottles that you have to clean, fill and cap. Your second option is to Keg the beer. Once you start kegging your beer you will likely never go back. It’s harder to take beer to a friend’s house but so much easier to clean and fill.

Once you’ve decided if you’re going to bottle or keg the beer you now need to carbonate it. There are two ways to carbonate the beer. The first one is called natural carbonation and the second is called force carbonation. To naturally carbonate your beer you will add sugar (i.e. corn sugar) to the beer before you bottle or keg it. The residual yeast will eat the sugar and create C02 that will then be absorbed by the beer. This process usually takes 1 – 2 weeks. To force carbonate your beer you will need to use a keg. In this case you will not be adding sugar to the beer. Once you’ve transferred the beer to a keg you can now attach a C02 tank to the keg and apply somewhere between 10 – 20 PSI of C02. Depending on the temperature and type of beer will determine how much C02 pressure you need to apply to the beer. Force carbonation can take anywhere from just a few days to a week or two.

Now that you know how to Make Your Own Beer you can make your friends jealous that you now have an endless supply of inexpensive beer.

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