Cunnan - User contributions [en]

Beer brewing

2005-02-24T01:19:14Z

JimBob:

It's fairly simple to make you own basic beer but you will need to buy some equipment (see the [[Brewing]] article for info). You can either start with raw ingredients or purchase a can of [[beer mix]] or a bag of [[dry malt extract (DME)]]. For people just starting out its recommended that you start with a can of beer mix as brewing from raw ingredients can be quite complex.

[[category:brewing]]

why brew beer? I brew because I love great tasting beer, and the microbrew stuff is too expensive for me. I make beer for about 25 cents per 12oz bottle. My beer is some of the best I have tasted, and I sample a lot of the microbrews around my area of Grand Rapids MI.

Brewing is fun. I love to create something I know that my friends and I can enjoy. The most important thing to remember when brewing is what Charlie Papazian proclaims in his books. "Relax, don't worry, have a homebrew!" It is easy to get wrapped up in tiny details when brewing, it is important to remember that we are doing this for fun. Little things will go wrong, and there is nothing we can do about this. So relax, dont worry, and make some homebrew.

==What you need==

Basic brewing can be done with little equipment. I will list the equipment in order of importance

* Fermentation bucket:
These are sold in any homebrew shop, or you can use a large bucket or container you have already. You want to size your bucket a gallon or two larger than your batch size. you want a bucket that can be sanitized easily. This means it shouldnt be scratched up, because bacteria can hide in the scratches and avoid the sanitizer. It is best if there is some way to seal the bucket. I use 6 gallon plastic buckets for my primary fermentation and glass carboys for the secondary fermentation. The six gallon bucket costs about $10 at a homebrew store.

* Boiling Kettle:
I use a 21 liter aluminum pressure cooker. For a five gallon batch of beer, you want to be able to boil about 2.5 gallons of liquid. A 16-32 quart enameled steel, aluminum, or stainless steel pot will work well. this can be the most expensive part of the setup. I bought my pressure cooker off of ebay for $30, I think you can get enameled pots pretty cheaply at a walmart.

* Longhandled Spoon:
to stir the boiling wort with.

* Bottles:
To bottle a 50 gallon batch, 50 or so 12 ounce bottles are required. I have heard that you can use twist-off type bottles, but I only use the kind that require a bottle opener. I heard that you can get powdered glass in your beer when using twist-off bottles, because they arent built to be recycled. Pop-top bottles are surprisingly hard to get a hold of in 50 bottle batches. maybe contact someone you know that works in a restaurant for these. Homebrew shops sell the bottles new for 50 cents each.

* Bottle caps:
These can be purchased inexpensively from a homebrew shop. I think they run about $3 for 100

* Bottle Capper:
This costs about $15 at a homebrew shop.

* Sanitizer:
you can pay a lot of money in a homebrew store for a fancy no-rinse sanitizer, or you can use common household bleach. I use bleach. I pay about $1 a gallon for it.

* Airlock:
This allows the carbon dioxide to leave your fermenter, but keeps air out. It isnt absolutely necessary, it is possible to brew fine beer without one, but they are cheap and make life easier. They cost about 75 cents at the homebrew store.

* Hydrometer:
found in homebrew store for about $3-6. these are very delicate, I have broken several. These are not especially necessary anyways. They are used to find the alcohol percentage of the beer.

* Timer

* Thermometer

== Lets Brew! ==

wait a minute, not so fast. we need some materials to make the beer from. These can be purchased from a homebrew shop.

===Easy Amber ingredients:===
*6 pounds of Amber Malt extract(liquid or dry)
*3.5 ounces of Cascade hops
*1 package of Ale yeast
*3/4 cup of corn sugar OR set aside 1 1/4 cup of the dry extract

Once we have the equipment and the material, the fun can begin.

A quick overview of what we are about to do:
* sanitize equipment
* boil the wort
* cool the wort
* mix wort and water in fermenter
* pitch yeast
* put fermenter in a dark place and leave alone for two weeks
* bottle and cap beer
* leave bottles alone for a week
* drink the beer

First, we need to start the sanitation process. Anything that will touch the beer has to be sanitized, except the brewpot, it boils the beer for an hour, and gets sanitized that way. Fill the fermenter with cold water and pour in some bleach. not much, only a little is needed to accomplish a lot.Fill the fermenter with cold water and pour in some bleach. not much, only a little is needed to accomplish a lot. The proper dilution ratio when making a bleach sanitizing solution is 1/2 ounce of bleach per gallon of water. Leave the equipment in the bleach for at least 20 minutes, then rinse in hot water before use. If the bleach is at the proper dilution, it will not leave a smell after rinsing. Some people love the sanitation aspect of brewing, and use it as an excuse to spray sanitizer on every surface in the house. If you are like this, just remember it is MOST important to clean the equipment well. If you like to spray sanitizer on everything else too, then by all means go ahead, it cant hurt.

Beer brewing

2005-02-24T01:13:43Z

JimBob: /* Lets Brew! */

It's fairly simple to make you own basic beer but you will need to buy some equipment (see the [[Brewing]] article for info). You can either start with raw ingredients or purchase a can of "beer mix" and a bag of [[brewing sugar]]. For people just starting out its recommended that you start with a can of beer mix as brewing from raw ingredients can be quite complex.

[[category:brewing]]

why brew beer? I brew because I love great tasting beer, and the microbrew stuff is too expensive for me. I make beer for about 25 cents per 12oz bottle. My beer is some of the best I have tasted, and I sample a lot of the microbrews around my area of Grand Rapids MI.

Brewing is fun. I love to create something I know that my friends and I can enjoy. The most important thing to remember when brewing is what Charlie Papazian proclaims in his books. "Relax, don't worry, have a homebrew!" It is easy to get wrapped up in tiny details when brewing, it is important to remember that we are doing this for fun. Little things will go wrong, and there is nothing we can do about this. So relax, dont worry, and make some homebrew.

==What you need==

Basic brewing can be done with little equipment. I will list the equipment in order of importance

* Fermentation bucket:
These are sold in any homebrew shop, or you can use a large bucket or container you have already. You want to size your bucket a gallon or two larger than your batch size. you want a bucket that can be sanitized easily. This means it shouldnt be scratched up, because bacteria can hide in the scratches and avoid the sanitizer. It is best if there is some way to seal the bucket. I use 6 gallon plastic buckets for my primary fermentation and glass carboys for the secondary fermentation. The six gallon bucket costs about $10 at a homebrew store.

* Boiling Kettle:
I use a 21 liter aluminum pressure cooker. For a five gallon batch of beer, you want to be able to boil about 2.5 gallons of liquid. A 16-32 quart enameled steel, aluminum, or stainless steel pot will work well. this can be the most expensive part of the setup. I bought my pressure cooker off of ebay for $30, I think you can get enameled pots pretty cheaply at a walmart.

* Longhandled Spoon:
to stir the boiling wort with.

* Bottles:
To bottle a 50 gallon batch, 50 or so 12 ounce bottles are required. I have heard that you can use twist-off type bottles, but I only use the kind that require a bottle opener. I heard that you can get powdered glass in your beer when using twist-off bottles, because they arent built to be recycled. Pop-top bottles are surprisingly hard to get a hold of in 50 bottle batches. maybe contact someone you know that works in a restaurant for these. Homebrew shops sell the bottles new for 50 cents each.

* Bottle caps:
These can be purchased inexpensively from a homebrew shop. I think they run about $3 for 100

* Bottle Capper:
This costs about $15 at a homebrew shop.

* Sanitizer:
you can pay a lot of money in a homebrew store for a fancy no-rinse sanitizer, or you can use common household bleach. I use bleach. I pay about $1 a gallon for it.

* Airlock:
This allows the carbon dioxide to leave your fermenter, but keeps air out. It isnt absolutely necessary, it is possible to brew fine beer without one, but they are cheap and make life easier. They cost about 75 cents at the homebrew store.

* Hydrometer:
found in homebrew store for about $3-6. these are very delicate, I have broken several. These are not especially necessary anyways. They are used to find the alcohol percentage of the beer.

* Timer

* Thermometer

== Lets Brew! ==

wait a minute, not so fast. we need some materials to make the beer from. These can be purchased from a homebrew shop.

===Easy Amber ingredients:===
*6 pounds of Amber Malt extract(liquid or dry)
*3.5 ounces of Cascade hops
*1 package of Ale yeast
*3/4 cup of corn sugar OR set aside 1 1/4 cup of the dry extract

Once we have the equipment and the material, the fun can begin.

A quick overview of what we are about to do:
* sanitize equipment
* boil the wort
* cool the wort
* mix wort and water in fermenter
* pitch yeast
* put fermenter in a dark place and leave alone for two weeks
* bottle and cap beer
* leave bottles alone for a week
* drink the beer

First, we need to start the sanitation process. Anything that will touch the beer has to be sanitized, except the brewpot, it boils the beer for an hour, and gets sanitized that way. Fill the fermenter with cold water and pour in some bleach. not much, only a little is needed to accomplish a lot.Fill the fermenter with cold water and pour in some bleach. not much, only a little is needed to accomplish a lot. The proper dilution ratio when making a bleach sanitizing solution is 1/2 ounce of bleach per gallon of water. Leave the equipment in the bleach for at least 20 minutes, then rinse in hot water before use. If the bleach is at the proper dilution, it will not leave a smell after rinsing. Some people love the sanitation aspect of brewing, and use it as an excuse to spray sanitizer on every surface in the house. If you are like this, just remember it is MOST important to clean the equipment well. If you like to spray sanitizer on everything else too, then by all means go ahead, it cant hurt.

Beer brewing

2005-02-24T01:12:29Z

JimBob: /* What you need */

It's fairly simple to make you own basic beer but you will need to buy some equipment (see the [[Brewing]] article for info). You can either start with raw ingredients or purchase a can of "beer mix" and a bag of [[brewing sugar]]. For people just starting out its recommended that you start with a can of beer mix as brewing from raw ingredients can be quite complex.

[[category:brewing]]

why brew beer? I brew because I love great tasting beer, and the microbrew stuff is too expensive for me. I make beer for about 25 cents per 12oz bottle. My beer is some of the best I have tasted, and I sample a lot of the microbrews around my area of Grand Rapids MI.

Brewing is fun. I love to create something I know that my friends and I can enjoy. The most important thing to remember when brewing is what Charlie Papazian proclaims in his books. "Relax, don't worry, have a homebrew!" It is easy to get wrapped up in tiny details when brewing, it is important to remember that we are doing this for fun. Little things will go wrong, and there is nothing we can do about this. So relax, dont worry, and make some homebrew.

==What you need==

Basic brewing can be done with little equipment. I will list the equipment in order of importance

* Fermentation bucket:
These are sold in any homebrew shop, or you can use a large bucket or container you have already. You want to size your bucket a gallon or two larger than your batch size. you want a bucket that can be sanitized easily. This means it shouldnt be scratched up, because bacteria can hide in the scratches and avoid the sanitizer. It is best if there is some way to seal the bucket. I use 6 gallon plastic buckets for my primary fermentation and glass carboys for the secondary fermentation. The six gallon bucket costs about $10 at a homebrew store.

* Boiling Kettle:
I use a 21 liter aluminum pressure cooker. For a five gallon batch of beer, you want to be able to boil about 2.5 gallons of liquid. A 16-32 quart enameled steel, aluminum, or stainless steel pot will work well. this can be the most expensive part of the setup. I bought my pressure cooker off of ebay for $30, I think you can get enameled pots pretty cheaply at a walmart.

* Longhandled Spoon:
to stir the boiling wort with.

* Bottles:
To bottle a 50 gallon batch, 50 or so 12 ounce bottles are required. I have heard that you can use twist-off type bottles, but I only use the kind that require a bottle opener. I heard that you can get powdered glass in your beer when using twist-off bottles, because they arent built to be recycled. Pop-top bottles are surprisingly hard to get a hold of in 50 bottle batches. maybe contact someone you know that works in a restaurant for these. Homebrew shops sell the bottles new for 50 cents each.

* Bottle caps:
These can be purchased inexpensively from a homebrew shop. I think they run about $3 for 100

* Bottle Capper:
This costs about $15 at a homebrew shop.

* Sanitizer:
you can pay a lot of money in a homebrew store for a fancy no-rinse sanitizer, or you can use common household bleach. I use bleach. I pay about $1 a gallon for it.

* Airlock:
This allows the carbon dioxide to leave your fermenter, but keeps air out. It isnt absolutely necessary, it is possible to brew fine beer without one, but they are cheap and make life easier. They cost about 75 cents at the homebrew store.

* Hydrometer:
found in homebrew store for about $3-6. these are very delicate, I have broken several. These are not especially necessary anyways. They are used to find the alcohol percentage of the beer.

* Timer

* Thermometer

== Lets Brew! ==

wait a minute, not so fast. we need some materials to make the beer from. These can be purchased from a homebrew shop.

Easy Amber ingredients:
6 pounds of Amber Malt extract(liquid or dry)
3.5 ounces of Cascade hops
1 package of Ale yeast
3/4 cup of corn sugar OR set aside 1 1/4 cup of the dry extract

Once we have the equipment and the material, the fun can begin.

A quick overview of what we are about to do:
* sanitize equipment
* boil the wort
* cool the wort
* mix wort and water in fermenter
* pitch yeast
* put fermenter in a dark place and leave alone for two weeks
* bottle and cap beer
* leave bottles alone for a week
* drink the beer

First, we need to start the sanitation process. Anything that will touch the beer has to be sanitized, except the brewpot, it boils the beer for an hour, and gets sanitized that way. Fill the fermenter with cold water and pour in some bleach. not much, only a little is needed to accomplish a lot.Fill the fermenter with cold water and pour in some bleach. not much, only a little is needed to accomplish a lot. The proper dilution ratio when making a bleach sanitizing solution is 1/2 ounce of bleach per gallon of water. Leave the equipment in the bleach for at least 20 minutes, then rinse in hot water before use. If the bleach is at the proper dilution, it will not leave a smell after rinsing. Some people love the sanitation aspect of brewing, and use it as an excuse to spray sanitizer on every surface in the house. If you are like this, just remember it is MOST important to clean the equipment well. If you like to spray sanitizer on everything else too, then by all means go ahead, it cant hurt.

Beer brewing

2005-02-24T01:10:58Z

JimBob:

It's fairly simple to make you own basic beer but you will need to buy some equipment (see the [[Brewing]] article for info). You can either start with raw ingredients or purchase a can of "beer mix" and a bag of [[brewing sugar]]. For people just starting out its recommended that you start with a can of beer mix as brewing from raw ingredients can be quite complex.

[[category:brewing]]

why brew beer? I brew because I love great tasting beer, and the microbrew stuff is too expensive for me. I make beer for about 25 cents per 12oz bottle. My beer is some of the best I have tasted, and I sample a lot of the microbrews around my area of Grand Rapids MI.

Brewing is fun. I love to create something I know that my friends and I can enjoy. The most important thing to remember when brewing is what Charlie Papazian proclaims in his books. "Relax, don't worry, have a homebrew!" It is easy to get wrapped up in tiny details when brewing, it is important to remember that we are doing this for fun. Little things will go wrong, and there is nothing we can do about this. So relax, dont worry, and make some homebrew.

==What you need==

Basic brewing can be done with little equipment. I will list the equipment in order of importance

Fermentation bucket:
These are sold in any homebrew shop, or you can use a large bucket or container you have already. You want to size your bucket a gallon or two larger than your batch size. you want a bucket that can be sanitized easily. This means it shouldnt be scratched up, because bacteria can hide in the scratches and avoid the sanitizer. It is best if there is some way to seal the bucket. I use 6 gallon plastic buckets for my primary fermentation and glass carboys for the secondary fermentation. The six gallon bucket costs about $10 at a homebrew store.

Boiling Kettle:
I use a 21 liter aluminum pressure cooker. For a five gallon batch of beer, you want to be able to boil about 2.5 gallons of liquid. A 16-32 quart enameled steel, aluminum, or stainless steel pot will work well. this can be the most expensive part of the setup. I bought my pressure cooker off of ebay for $30, I think you can get enameled pots pretty cheaply at a walmart.

Longhandled Spoon:
to stir the boiling wort with.

Bottles:
To bottle a 50 gallon batch, 50 or so 12 ounce bottles are required. I have heard that you can use twist-off type bottles, but I only use the kind that require a bottle opener. I heard that you can get powdered glass in your beer when using twist-off bottles, because they arent built to be recycled. Pop-top bottles are surprisingly hard to get a hold of in 50 bottle batches. maybe contact someone you know that works in a restaurant for these. Homebrew shops sell the bottles new for 50 cents each.

Bottle caps:
These can be purchased inexpensively from a homebrew shop. I think they run about $3 for 100

Bottle Capper:
This costs about $15 at a homebrew shop.

Sanitizer:
you can pay a lot of money in a homebrew store for a fancy no-rinse sanitizer, or you can use common household bleach. I use bleach. I pay about $1 a gallon for it.

Airlock:
This allows the carbon dioxide to leave your fermenter, but keeps air out. It isnt absolutely necessary, it is possible to brew fine beer without one, but they are cheap and make life easier. They cost about 75 cents at the homebrew store.

Hydrometer:
found in homebrew store for about $3-6. these are very delicate, I have broken several. These are not especially necessary anyways. They are used to find the alcohol percentage of the beer.

Timer

Thermometer

== Lets Brew! ==

wait a minute, not so fast. we need some materials to make the beer from. These can be purchased from a homebrew shop.

Easy Amber ingredients:
6 pounds of Amber Malt extract(liquid or dry)
3.5 ounces of Cascade hops
1 package of Ale yeast
3/4 cup of corn sugar OR set aside 1 1/4 cup of the dry extract

Once we have the equipment and the material, the fun can begin.

A quick overview of what we are about to do:
* sanitize equipment
* boil the wort
* cool the wort
* mix wort and water in fermenter
* pitch yeast
* put fermenter in a dark place and leave alone for two weeks
* bottle and cap beer
* leave bottles alone for a week
* drink the beer

First, we need to start the sanitation process. Anything that will touch the beer has to be sanitized, except the brewpot, it boils the beer for an hour, and gets sanitized that way. Fill the fermenter with cold water and pour in some bleach. not much, only a little is needed to accomplish a lot.Fill the fermenter with cold water and pour in some bleach. not much, only a little is needed to accomplish a lot. The proper dilution ratio when making a bleach sanitizing solution is 1/2 ounce of bleach per gallon of water. Leave the equipment in the bleach for at least 20 minutes, then rinse in hot water before use. If the bleach is at the proper dilution, it will not leave a smell after rinsing. Some people love the sanitation aspect of brewing, and use it as an excuse to spray sanitizer on every surface in the house. If you are like this, just remember it is MOST important to clean the equipment well. If you like to spray sanitizer on everything else too, then by all means go ahead, it cant hurt.

Complete Joy of Home Brewing 3rd ed.

2005-02-24T01:08:33Z

JimBob: /* The Complete Joy of Home Brewing (3rd ed) */

Complete Joy of Home Brewing 3rd ed.

2005-02-24T01:08:04Z

JimBob:

Brewing

2005-02-24T00:56:27Z

JimBob:

Beer brewing

2005-02-24T00:51:36Z

JimBob:

It's fairly simple to make you own basic beer but you will need to buy some equipment (see the [[Brewing]] article for info). You can either start with raw ingredients or purchase a can of "beer mix" and a bag of [[brewing sugar]]. For people just starting out its recommended that you start with a can of beer mix as brewing from raw ingredients can be quite complex.

[[category:brewing]]
1 Brewing Beer

why brew beer? I brew because I love great tasting beer, and the microbrew stuff is too expensive for me. I make beer for about 25 cents per 12oz bottle. My beer is some of the best I have tasted, and I sample a lot of the microbrews around my area of Grand Rapids MI.

Brewing is fun. I love to create something I know that my friends and I can enjoy. The most important thing to remember when brewing is what Charlie Papazian proclaims in his books. "Relax, don't worry, have a homebrew!" It is easy to get wrapped up in tiny details when brewing, it is important to remember that we are doing this for fun. Little things will go wrong, and there is nothing we can do about this. So relax, dont worry, and make some homebrew.

1.1 What you need

Basic brewing can be done with little equipment. I will list the equipment in order of importance

Fermentation bucket:
These are sold in any homebrew shop, or you can use a large bucket or container you have already. You want to size your bucket a gallon or two larger than your batch size. you want a bucket that can be sanitized easily. This means it shouldnt be scratched up, because bacteria can hide in the scratches and avoid the sanitizer. It is best if there is some way to seal the bucket. I use 6 gallon plastic buckets for my primary fermentation and glass carboys for the secondary fermentation. The six gallon bucket costs about $10 at a homebrew store.

Boiling Kettle:
I use a 21 liter aluminum pressure cooker. For a five gallon batch of beer, you want to be able to boil about 2.5 gallons of liquid. A 16-32 quart enameled steel, aluminum, or stainless steel pot will work well. this can be the most expensive part of the setup. I bought my pressure cooker off of ebay for $30, I think you can get enameled pots pretty cheaply at a walmart.

Longhandled Spoon:
to stir the boiling wort with.

Bottles:
To bottle a 50 gallon batch, 50 or so 12 ounce bottles are required. I have heard that you can use twist-off type bottles, but I only use the kind that require a bottle opener. I heard that you can get powdered glass in your beer when using twist-off bottles, because they arent built to be recycled. Pop-top bottles are surprisingly hard to get a hold of in 50 bottle batches. maybe contact someone you know that works in a restaurant for these. Homebrew shops sell the bottles new for 50 cents each.

Bottle caps:
These can be purchased inexpensively from a homebrew shop. I think they run about $3 for 100

Bottle Capper:
This costs about $15 at a homebrew shop.

Sanitizer:
you can pay a lot of money in a homebrew store for a fancy no-rinse sanitizer, or you can use common household bleach. I use bleach. I pay about $1 a gallon for it.

Airlock:
This allows the carbon dioxide to leave your fermenter, but keeps air out. It isnt absolutely necessary, it is possible to brew fine beer without one, but they are cheap and make life easier. They cost about 75 cents at the homebrew store.

Hydrometer:
found in homebrew store for about $3-6. these are very delicate, I have broken several. These are not especially necessary anyways. They are used to find the alcohol percentage of the beer.

Timer

Thermometer

1.2 Lets Brew!

wait a minute, not so fast. we need some materials to make the beer from. These can be purchased from a homebrew shop.

Easy Amber ingredients:
6 pounds of Amber Malt extract(liquid or dry)
3.5 ounces of Cascade hops
1 package of Ale yeast
3/4 cup of corn sugar OR set aside 1 1/4 cup of the dry extract

Once we have the equipment and the material, the fun can begin.

A quick overview of what we are about to do:
* sanitize equipment
* boil the wort
* cool the wort
* mix wort and water in fermenter
* pitch yeast
* put fermenter in a dark place and leave alone for two weeks
* bottle and cap beer
* leave bottles alone for a week
* drink the beer

First, we need to start the sanitation process. Anything that will touch the beer has to be sanitized, except the brewpot, it boils the beer for an hour, and gets sanitized that way. Fill the fermenter with cold water and pour in some bleach. not much, only a little is needed to accomplish a lot.Fill the fermenter with cold water and pour in some bleach. not much, only a little is needed to accomplish a lot. The proper dilution ratio when making a bleach sanitizing solution is 1/2 ounce of bleach per gallon of water. Leave the equipment in the bleach for at least 20 minutes, then rinse in hot water before use. If the bleach is at the proper dilution, it will not leave a smell after rinsing. Some people love the sanitation aspect of brewing, and use it as an excuse to spray sanitizer on every surface in the house. If you are like this, just remember it is MOST important to clean the equipment well. If you like to spray sanitizer on everything else too, then by all means go ahead, it cant hurt.

Brewing

2005-02-24T00:50:40Z

JimBob: /* Equipment */

Brewing

2005-02-24T00:49:00Z

JimBob: /* Equipment */

'''Brewing''' is an ancient art and is fairly easy and fairly cheap to get started with. It's far easier than you think. Brewing encompasses any boiled and fermented beverage, anything between [[beer]] and [[mead]].

Fermentation, simply put, is the process of [[yeast]] converting sugar into alcohol and CO<sub>2</sub>. Brewing, at the most basic level, involves giving yeast things to eat. It's a little more complex - you also need to manage what kind of yeast you have, what the yeast has to eat, and for how long.

Different brews require different techniques - if you're interested in making a specific drink see the links below.

==The History of Brewing==
Brewing was known to the early [[China|Chinese]], the Mesopotamians, the [[Egypt]]ians and the Babylonians. As best as we can make out, most of these early brews involved thick porridge-like mixes of grain and water that had been left out for wild yeast. The resulting 'beer' was probably not particularly tasty, but '''alcoholic'''. Big news.

Beer tended to dominate cultures that lacked [[wine]] - the [[Roman]]s looked down upon those pesky barbarians who drank beer.

It has only been relatively recently that the agent of brewing (yeast) was actually understood to be any part in the brewing process at all. Many of the old recipes call for you to simply put the ingredients into a barrel previously used for the purpose and wait. It was not known what it was that magically caused the alcohol to form in the brew.

Obviously, brewing still worked - mainly because the grapes often carried the wild yeasts upon them, but also because the residue of the previous brews would still be embedded within the grain of the oak casks.

==General Brewing Technique==
If all that you're interested in is [[Beer]] then you should visit a home brew shop or supermarket and pick up a brewing kit. These tend to include most if not all of the following:
* Long plastic spoon
* Fermenter (including lid, airlock and rubber seals)
* Bottle filling valve

This equipment can be used to brew other things than beer and should cost $60-$100 (Australian).

Wine kits are also available - though often much harder to find. However most stores also offer many books on brewing that will give you a wide range of options for your brewing pleasure.

==Basic Safety==
The number one tip I can offer is to do a good job cleaning your equipment. This really does make a huge difference to the outcome.

While many people claim that it is necessary to sterilise, it is more important simply to follow good common sense with regard to basic hygiene. you're basically doing some cooking with some food that will be sitting around for weeks (beer) or months (wine) and so if any greeblies get in - they will breed for that time and you'll end up with an awful mess.

If you trust yourself to be exceptionally clean, then do so, but otherwise, invest in some of the pink sterilising solutions you can get at a brew shop. Alternatively, try [[Aquashield]].

A word of warning: be careful if you use sterilisers that aren't specifically for brewing!

You will be drinking this stuff later, and drinking bleach or other household sterilisation stuff is a Bad Idea™.

The only other thing to be careful about is bottling - read the page on [[glass grenades]] to get an idea of one of the more dangerous problems that can occur if you're not patient.

== Topics ==
=== Equipment ===
*[[Brewing equipment]]
Basic brewing can be done with little equipment. I will list the equipment in order of importance

* Fermentation bucket:
These are sold in any homebrew shop, or you can use a large bucket or container you have already. You want to size your bucket a gallon or two larger than your batch size. you want a bucket that can be sanitized easily. This means it shouldnt be scratched up, because bacteria can hide in the scratches and avoid the sanitizer. It is best if there is some way to seal the bucket. I use 6 gallon plastic buckets for my primary fermentation and glass carboys for the secondary fermentation. The six gallon bucket costs about $10 at a homebrew store.

* Boiling Kettle:
I use a 21 liter aluminum pressure cooker. For a five gallon batch of beer, you want to be able to boil about 2.5 gallons of liquid. A 16-32 quart enameled steel, aluminum, or stainless steel pot will work well. this can be the most expensive part of the setup. I bought my pressure cooker off of ebay for $30, I think you can get enameled pots pretty cheaply at a walmart.

* Longhandled Spoon:
to stir the boiling wort with.

* Bottles:
To bottle a 50 gallon batch, 50 or so 12 ounce bottles are required. I have heard that you can use twist-off type bottles, but I only use the kind that require a bottle opener. I heard that you can get powdered glass in your beer when using twist-off bottles, because they arent built to be recycled. Pop-top bottles are surprisingly hard to get a hold of in 50 bottle batches. maybe contact someone you know that works in a restaurant for these. Homebrew shops sell the bottles new for 50 cents each.

* Bottle caps:
These can be purchased inexpensively from a homebrew shop. I think they run about $3 for 100

* Bottle Capper:
This costs about $15 at a homebrew shop.

* Sanitizer:
you can pay a lot of money in a homebrew store for a fancy no-rinse sanitizer, or you can use common household bleach. I use bleach. I pay about $1 a gallon for it.

* Airlock:
This allows the carbon dioxide to leave your fermenter, but keeps air out. It isnt absolutely necessary, it is possible to brew fine beer without one, but they are cheap and make life easier. They cost about 75 cents at the homebrew store.

* Hydrometer:
found in homebrew store for about $3-6. these are very delicate, I have broken several. These are not especially necessary anyways. They are used to find the alcohol percentage of the beer.

* Timer

* Thermometer

=== Types of Brewing ===
* [[Wine brewing]]
* [[Mead brewing]]
* [[Beer brewing]]
* [[Alcoholic Infusion]] (legal liqueurs)

=== Drinks ===
* [[Mead]]
* [[Wine]]
* [[Beer]]
* [[Spirits]]
* [[Cider]] / [[Perry]]
* [[Cordial]]

=== Sources ===
There are several period sources for information regarding brewing but as with recipes much of what is "known" about period methods is speculation. Most long works on the topics are [[Out of period]].

Useful works include:
* The [[London and Country Brewer]]
* The Complete Joy of Home Brewing 3rd ed.
** by Charlie Papazian
** very good descriptions of everything needed to homebrew, including many recipes.
[[category:brewing]]
[[category:arts]]

Brewing

2005-02-24T00:45:42Z

JimBob: /* Sources */