Choosing Home Brew Ingredients For A Better Taste

By Virginia Cooper


Everyone has a unique taste that might not be met through commercial beers. This forms part of the motivation behind domestic brewing. To achieve this taste you need unique home brew ingredients and understanding of the brewing process. It can be very frustrating when you do not hit the mark. What should you do to avoid this pitfall?

Have fresh ingredients. The age of yeasts and other extracts determines the ultimate taste. The choice between dry and liquid yeast will also affect the taste. Fresh extract produce better results than canned ones. Storage also has an impact on the quality of beer produced. The limited shelf life of such components as crushed grains, liquid malt, yeast and dry malt matters. Some of these items may oxidize over time and thus affect the eventual taste.

Brewing is partly an art and partly a science. While you are allowed to guess the artistic part of brewing, the science element cannot be guessed. To avoid mistakes that arise out of overconfidence in your recipe, it is advisable that you do your homework. There are applications and formulas that can help you calculate elements like color and determine dominant textures. Use these platforms to avoid costly mistakes.

The place of sterility in brewing cannot be ignored. Everything that goes into the pot affects the taste and quality of your beer. To avoid contamination, the apparatus used in the brewing process should be sanitized. After cooling, beer is exposed to bacterial and infection contamination. This derails fermentation. To avoid such a mess, sterilize using ordinary bleach or the specialized iodophor.

Your wort should be cooled quickly. The speed of cooling affects fallout of tannins and proteins which are bad for your beer. The idea is to avoid contamination with bacteria and infections. Invest in an immersion wort chiller which improves the quality and clarity of your beer. This process is especially significant for full batch boils.

Be sensitive on the duration of boiling your wort. Boiling for brewing purposes is more than bubbling. The aim of this process goes beyond sterilizing to cover vaporization or removal of certain undesired elements. Boiling also facilitates coagulation of tannins and proteins. It helps to eliminate bitter oils especially from hops. The duration of boiling varies between 60 and 90 minutes depending on desired texture and components used.

Go for stainless or glass fermenters. Brewing requires the highest levels of sterility and monitoring. Typical plastics present a challenge on this front. However, stainless steel and glass apparatus are known to present an incredible oxygen barrier and higher levels of sterility. Plastics are vulnerable when heated leading to leakage which affects the quality of fermentation. Glass and stainless steel apparatus are very affordable and come in different sizes.

The first brewing session is unlikely to produce the best results. It will take time to master combinations and timing of different processes. This means that short term brewers may fail to achieve the desired goals because they exited too early. Invest in quality and reliable brewing apparatus. Purchase the ingredients from reliable stores and based on personal taste. Do not stretch your experiments too far.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment