Sunday, 28 August 2016

Choosing Home Brew Ingredients For A Better Taste

By Virginia Cooper


The drive to brew your beer at home is anchored on the need to achieve a unique taste. Achieving such expectations will depend on the home brew ingredients you choose. It is frustrating when you have all the ingredients only to miss the mark on taste or texture. Here are other tips to consider so that your brew is excellent.

Insist on using fresh components. Beer is made from yeast, malt, crushed grains, etc. Their quality is determined by age and manner of handling. Fresh extracts provide a more refined taste compared to canned extracts. Storage of these components including dry malt, yeast, crushed grains and liquid malt matters. The idea is to use them before they are damaged by oxidation.

Stick to brewing rules without ignoring creativity. Brewing at home allows you to exercise creativity in order to achieve a distinct texture or taste. The provision for creativity does not offer a license to go all the way. Brewing is both artistic and scientific. To avoid a disaster, study the formulas and techniques that guarantee quality. This helps you avoid costly mistakes arising from ignored procedures.

The place of sterility in brewing cannot be ignored. Everything that goes into the pot affects the taste and quality of your beer. To avoid contamination, the apparatus used in the brewing process should be sanitized. After cooling, beer is exposed to bacterial and infection contamination. This derails fermentation. To avoid such a mess, sterilize using ordinary bleach or the specialized iodophor.

Be careful during cooling. Tannin and protein quality are affected by the speed of cooling. During this process, your brew is exposed to infections and bacterial attack. To avoid such contamination, an immersion wort chiller can be used. It safeguards the quality and clarity of brewed beer. The chiller is especially useful during full batch boiling.

Time the boiling of your wort. There are several important functions performed by boiling worts. Beyond sterilization, it vaporizes a lot of undesirable elements. It also assists in coagulating tannins and proteins as well as releasing bitter oils from hops. The recommended duration for boiling is between 60 and 90 minutes. Boiling the wort for a longer period makes your beer lighter. The extent of boiling depends on the components used and the desired results.

Glass or stainless fermenters are the best for brewing. Typical plastic apparatus can be used but they do not guarantee the best monitoring results. Glass and stainless steel are easier to sterilize and will provide a perfect oxygen barrier. The possibility of leaking makes plastics undesirable since it is difficult to determine the extent of fermentation. The stainless and glass apparatus are affordable in different sizes.

It takes time to obtain the best brewing results. Many brewers fail because they expect instant results. Achieving the desired results requires mastery of timing and several experiments with ingredients. Those who give up too early will not achieve desired results. Source your ingredients from reliable stores to be certain about their quality. This will affect the quality of your drink.




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