Thursday, February 7, 2013

All Grain Home Brewing For Beginners

By Debbie McClendon


Producing beer in your own home is as popular as it's ever been, and because of that, there are a large number of people trying out all grain brewing. Home brewing is seen by many people as a ton of fun. It should not take more than around $100 to get the basic kit you will need to get started in this exciting pastime. When you buy such a set up, it's going to have everything you need to brew up your first 5 gallon batch of delicious homebrewed beer. This includes the standard ingredients: brewer's yeast, liquid or powdered malt extract, and specially chosen hops.

A number of people make great homebrewed beer using fundamental ingredients. Brews produced with extract are often everything an amateur brewer may wish for. Malt extract based brews can be every bit as good as all grain beers, and in home brew competitions many of them earn honors. Even so, you will find those who would like to take their favorite pastime to another level. These brewers will probably decide to try out all grain home brewing.

To create beer using malt extract, the only thing you will need to do is mix the malt extract up with a pot of hot water, bring it to a boil, stir in your hop pellets, then cool it down and add the yeast that came with your kit and let it ferment. To be able to completely manage precisely what they put into a beer, more advanced brewers can essentially produce their own malt extract through a procedure called mashing. Mashing in the simplest form simply means keeping a combination of malted barley and water at a precise temperature for a period of time. This allows enzymes contained in the malt to transform starch into sugar which the yeast then utilizes to create alcohol. When the enzymes complete the work they do, a sweet fluid known as "wort" will be drawn off; at this point things are exactly like an ordinary malt extract brew.

In order to begin in all grain brewing, there's a little bit of additional equipment you will need as well as the basics. A particular bit of hardware you cannot get along without is called a mash-lauter tun. This vessel is where the mash takes place, and it needs to be effective at holding the mash at the appropriate temperature for the enzymes to get their job done. The vessel utilized should also have a way to draw off the sweet liquid yet leave the used up grain back. A container which is really well-liked to do this is one of the orange cylindrical coolers, much like the ones used for Gatorade at football games. The cooler would be fitted with either a perforated false bottom, or possibly a do-it-yourself manifold that permits liquid to be drawn off into the brew kettle while the grain stays behind.

There are additional objects which work just great as a mash-lauter tun. Homebrew stores generally offer for sale used half-barrel beer kegs which are specially converted for this purpose, and they are the choice of many. A lower priced option that meets the requirements of many people is a food-grade plastic pail. Numerous containers may be customized to do this, and the important things are that a) whatever you choose is food safe; b) it is water-tight; c) it can be altered to permit fluid to be drawn off while keeping back the grain; and d) you are able to find a way to either apply heat directly or insulate it. So while there are most certainly expensive setups on the market, it is not required to shell out a lot.

The mashing process itself is pretty simple once you have collected the appropriate equipment. However, just like all hobbies, you will always be able to come across new things to blow your cash on, should you so decide. The people who decide to try their hand at it generally decide that all grain brewing makes making beer even more interesting.




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