Horst Buch's Fast and Easy Beer

Article Tools

Image Gallery

Print

E-mail

Comments

RSS

If you start getting over-anxious about putting your beer into bottles, a hydrometer will ensure that your bottles won't explode from excessive gas build-up. When you place the hydrometer in your brew and it floats up to the 1000 mark, your beer is safe to bottle. By taking readings when you first mix your ingre dients, and again when you bottle, you can determine your brew's alcohol content, which varies with the ingredients you use and the temperature under which they ferment. My beer averages 3.8 percent alcohol, which is plenty for me since I'm out for the taste, not the buzz. If you want to increase the alcohol content without affecting flavor, add a bit of dried malt extract. To customize the flavor as well, add a "kicker" can of Munton and Fison specialty malt extract. Any good beer supply outlet can help you with the details.

And While You're Waiting. . .

Okay, your beer is bottled. Now starts the hard part: waiting for it to age. Set the bottles aside, preferably in an area where the temperature stays between 60° and 70° F, for at least six weeks (be patient!) before pouring yourself a cool brew. Otherwise you'll take one taste and think you blew it. If you start getting restless while you're waiting, brew up another batch! Once you get a system going, you'll always have aged beer in the fridge and aging beer in the cellar. Caution: Ambition is good but stay in control. Federal law allows you to make 100 gallons per year for a one-adult household; 200 gallons for two or more adults. Some states require a permit. Arkansas,

Georgia, Oklahoma, and Utah outlaw home brewing altogether.

After you get a few batches of brew under your belt (quite literally), you may wish to branch out, experiment and learn the jargon. One possibility is joining a local home brew club where you can trade sage remarks and suggestions with fellow members. Some of these clubs include: Suds of the Pioneers, The Draught Board, and the Boston Brew-Ins. Or perhaps, like me, you'll be satisfied with one heck of a thirst-quenching beer. For me, over analyzing only kills the joy.

What You Need and What It'll Cost

For a six-gallon batch of beer, you'll need to purchase these ingredients each time:

Malt: one 3.3 pound can of Munton and Fison amber malt extract (not hopped), $9.65. Hops: 1 1/2 ounces pelleted Hallertau, $2.35. Sugar: eight cups corn sugar (6 1/2 cups for brewing, the rest to use for bottling), $1.80. (To make an all-malt, Euro-style beer, substitute an equal weight of malt extract for the sugar: 6 1/2 cups of corn sugar weighs about two pounds.) Yeast: one packet Old English lager yeast in winter. During the summer, you're better off using Munton and Fison warm-temperature yeast, 79¢.

RSS | Comments | E-mail | Print