Homebrewing: 101

Brewing beer from extract ingredients and fermenting.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• homebrew
• home
• brew
• fermenting
• beer
• brewing
• homemade

[bradyscottboynton]

i saw that you used bottled water but I read that the wert need hard water to make a good brew. Did you add irish moss or gypsum

[blackheartbrewery]

We used bottled water for consistency. A good brew does not only depend on the water, different recipes use different water and mineral content, hops, yeast, grains, in order to make the best brew and what you are brewing. Usually you would use soft water for Scotch Ales and hard water for Pale Ales.

[punanibuzzed]

what kind of beer were you making? what are "specialty" grains? what does the liquid and dry malt extracts do?

[blackheartbrewery]

Malt (maltose) is the sugar content for the yeast to ferment which then turns into alcohol and CO2. In small home brewing, liquid (color & flavor) and dry malts (total sugar needed to ferment) are used to accommodate the large amount grains that would have been mashed with hot water to extract all the malts from the grains.

They develop the color of the beer, flavor of the beer, and using the sugar content measure for the gravity, which can predict the alcohol content to be developed.

[smellpickle]

tip.... if you put your 4 other gallons of water in the frig. over night, when you pour the cold water in your fermenter then pour your hot wart into it will bring your wart to about 70 to 80 degres, that way you dont have to make an ice bath.

[bguttridge]

Whats the name of the thermometer your using- it sounds pretty cool

[blackheartbrewery]

It's good for home brewing because you only make 5 gallons at a time, but microbreweries are making beer for the market, the best products make the best beer.

[blackheartbrewery]

I doubt it, only because extracting it from the grains themselves is better, since the brewers have the control over the malts and how much is extracted and make sure everything done well and right, etc.

[punanibuzzed]

do you think there are micro breweries or brew pubs or any commercial breweries that use dry/liquid malts to make their beer as opposed to using a mash ton?

[blackheartbrewery]

Specialty grains are just the differ types of grains used to make the beer, which depend on how they were dried, air dried (for golden color) vs. barrel roasted (dark browns and chocolates).

· Drying/heating the barley when it reaches its highest starch level

o Air yields natural golden color

o Kiln toasts the grains brown

o Sod yields a Smoked beers

o Barrel roasting for chocolate or black malts