Now I know why it's called "brewing" beer

For Christmas, Michelle got me a Mr. Beer, home brew kit. The kit included a fermenter keg, some condensed wort, some dry, all purpose brewer's yeast, and sugar.

Basically, it works this way. The wort mix that's provided is added to sugar water, boiled then cooled, then added to the fermenter. Then the yeast is added and days later: you have flat beer. The yeast eats the sugar in wort and produces, among other things, alcohol. Then the beer is bottle carbonated, which means, it's added to bottles, along with more sugar, so the yeast can produce more alcohol and CO₂.

At ideal temperatures, it all takes about 2 to 3 weeks.

I started mine off a few days after Christmas, and drank the first bottle just last week.

Last weekend, we were out buying pots and pans so Michelle could bake me a cake, when we bumped into one of Michelle's old friends and her fiancé. Her finacé brews his own beer, and was interested in my recent undertaking in the hobby (Though, I would later learn, he could have easily scoffed at my mere attempt at something only remotely similar to actual home brewing.)

I went to his house and saw his brewing supplies. I also drank some of his beer. It was delicious. I learned many things.

Firstly, I learned that my kit is very simple, and just barely home brewing. In fact, it might be more correct to refer to it as home fermenting.

Here's how beer is made...basically:

1. Malted grains are milled and cooked in hot water (around 150°) for some particular amount of time, depending on the beer that's being brewed. This is called mash.
2. Hot water is steeped through the cooked grains. The grains impart flavor into the water, as well as sugars. (Just like brewing coffee.)
3. This new malted grain flavored water is called wort. It's boiled for some particular amount of time, again, depending on the beer that's being brewed. Also, hops are added at this point to impart bitterness and flavor to the beer. There are all kinds of hops to use, and different beer recipes use different hops in different amounts.
4. Then the wort is rapidly cooled (to a temperature that will not kill yeast.) Then it's added to a fermenter along with the yeast and ferments a week or so.
5. Finally, the beer is bottled with a bit of sugar, capped, and stored a week or two more until carbonated. Or , it goes into a secondary fermenter, where other flavors (such as fruit and spices) are added. Then it bottled and naturally carbonated. Or, the beer is added to kegs and carbonated with compressed CO₂ rather than naturally carbonating.

Besides learning the basic process, I also learned how to actually make my next batch of beer taste better, even though I brew it the simple man's way.

Concerning my first ever batch of beer, I would say I liked it like a mother thinks her ugly son is handsome..if this wasn't my beer, I would not have paid money to drink it. But, my next batch should be better.

So, what went wrong?

1. I used a dry, all purpose brewer's yeast to ferment my beer. I should have used a liquid yeast (better quality) that was designed specifically for the type of beer I am making (an IPA versus a light wheat beer, versus a stout, versus an ESB, etc.)

2. I used refined table sugar (as directed) to carbonate my beer. This produces a cidery taste which is a little too sour for most people's taste. There are other forms of sugar that are more appropriate to bottle carbonate beer.

Wednesday, I'll be receiving a new batch of ingredients to brew a new batch of beer. This time, I'm going to go a brewing supply store to get liquid yeast designed for the particular kind of beer I will brew, and I'll get some of the correct sugar for carbonation so my next batch will taste less sour.

So, if you stop by in the next few months, I should have some new beer I made, and you can drink some, but even better, it should actually taste good too!