Home Brewed Beer Part 2

[StephenLee]

Firstly, thank you for the positive and encouraging comments on my piece about kit brewing. They are much appreciated.

In this article I will cover malt extract brewing, the next step towards brewing perfection. This gives you a much wider range of options than the kit route but it is more work.

Beer, proper beer at least, is comprised of 4 ingredients; Malt, Hops, Water and yeast. Each one contributes to the final product.

Malt or Malted barley is the main component of beer. To make malt, barley is wetted and allowed to sprout. Almost immediately, the sprouting process is curtailed by roasting the malted grain in a kiln. Malting grains develops the enzymes required to modify the grain's starches into sugars The degree of roasting determines the flavour and colour of the malt. Pale Malt is the least roasted malt and forms the bulk of most beers. The roasts then get progressively darker from crystal to black malt, the latter giving the colour and earthy flavour to stouts and dark porters, etc. The malt is then crushed or milled.

The process of turning malt into beer is called Mashing. Very simply, the crushed malt is mixed with warm water until a thin porridge-like consistency is achieved. This is then kept at about 65C for a couple of hours. During this time the enzymes in the malt act on the starches in the grain and turn them into simpler sugars on which the yeast can feed upon to make carbon dioxide and alcohol. I will go into this process in more depth in my bit about all grain brewing.

The resulting sweet malt liquid is the boiled until concentrated into a thick sticky black liquid that is canned. This is malt extract.

Malt Extract from heath food shops is no use in brewing as it contains extra ingredients like cod liver oil. Imagine the advert “Treadmill – the worlds first lager with the great taste of fish” - can't see it catching on myself.

So, to the brewing. This is my 'work-a-day' bitter. It is clean, refreshing, easy, cheap and a sensible strength (a good session beer)

Equipment you will need;
Large sauce pan (as large as you can get or a Burco boiler)
Sieve (as large as you can get)
Spoon or stirrer
Fermenting vessel (25 ltr)

Ingredients you will need;
1 can (approx 1.5kgs) Medium or light Malt Extract (Munton's is a good product)
500gms White granulated sugar
350gms Crystal Malt (Crushed)
75gms Hops (I use Fuggles but Goldings will also work well)
Beer yeast in a starter bottle
Beer Finings
Priming sugar

Method;

Bring 2 gallons of water to about 65C on a stove. This is about the heat of a very warm bath but use a thermometer if you like. Pour in the Malt extract and rinse the tin with a couple of cups of boiling water to get it all out. Stir to dissolve completely. Add the crushed crystal malt and maintain the temperature at 65C for 45-60 minutes then slowly bring to the boil. Add 50gms of hops and maintain a slow rolling boil for 1 hour. After 45 minutes add the remaining 25gms of hops and continue for the last 15 minutes.

Put the sugar into the 25lt brewing bucket and strain the contents of the saucepan through the sieve into it. Pour hot tap water over the sieve contents to extract as much sugar and flavour as possible. Finally top up to 25ltr with cold water. When the brew has reached blood heat or cooler, give it a good stir and add the yeast from the starter bottle. Cover and put somewhere warm. After a day or so, you should get a thick foam on the top of the beer. Skim this off with a spoon and discard.

Take the gravity after 4 days and each day thereafter until it has dropped to 1.000 or lower. Add the beer finings in accordance with the instructions.

When the brew is clear, either bottle (with just under half a teaspoon of sugar in each bottle) or put into pressure barrel (with two tablespoons of sugar). Leave in a warm place for a couple of days then somewhere cooler for 2-3 weeks. Drink and enjoy.

This recipe can be the basis of experiments to find your perfect brew. Change the type of malt extract, change the type of hops (There are lots to choose from), use different yeasts. All of these will change the flavour. Keep careful records and tasting notes. One of the most frustrating thing is to produce the perfect beer and have no recollection of the recipe.

Good Brewing

Stephen

[preppingsu]

excellent instructions. Thank you.
It makes trying things easier when you know someone else has had success. When you look in a book you never know if it will work or not.
Cheers