Choosing Home Brew Ingredients For A Better Taste

By Virginia Cooper


The drive to brew your beer at home is anchored on the need to achieve a unique taste. Achieving such expectations will depend on the home brew ingredients you choose. It is frustrating when you have all the ingredients only to miss the mark on taste or texture. Here are other tips to consider so that your brew is excellent.

Insist on using fresh components. Beer is made from yeast, malt, crushed grains, etc. Their quality is determined by age and manner of handling. Fresh extracts provide a more refined taste compared to canned extracts. Storage of these components including dry malt, yeast, crushed grains and liquid malt matters. The idea is to use them before they are damaged by oxidation.

There are rules governing brewing though there is room for creativity. Brewing allows you to try out recipes in order to achieve a particular taste or texture. This does not provide a leeway to go overboard since you will defy the science of brewing. Conduct thorough homework on formulas that determine the quality of a good drink. There is the possibility of committing grave mistakes when the science of brewing is ignored.

Sterility is important. Beer takes the taste and shape of anything that goes into the pot. Ensure that you sanitize any item that comes into contact with beer after cooling. It is important to avoid contamination with infections or bacteria. Such contamination may derail fermentation. Some of the sterilizing solutions you can use include iodophor and ordinary bleach.

Be careful during cooling. Tannin and protein quality are affected by the speed of cooling. During this process, your brew is exposed to infections and bacterial attack. To avoid such contamination, an immersion wort chiller can be used. It safeguards the quality and clarity of brewed beer. The chiller is especially useful during full batch boiling.

The boiling of your wort should be timed. Boiling is more than bubbling. It facilitates vaporization of undesired elements beyond sterilizing the ingredients. It is through boiling that proteins and tannins are coagulated. Boiling also assists in getting rid of bitterness in hops. Depending on desired lightness, boiling should take 60-90 minutes. The components used may also affect the duration of boiling.

Glass or stainless fermenters are the best for brewing. Typical plastic apparatus can be used but they do not guarantee the best monitoring results. Glass and stainless steel are easier to sterilize and will provide a perfect oxygen barrier. The possibility of leaking makes plastics undesirable since it is difficult to determine the extent of fermentation. The stainless and glass apparatus are affordable in different sizes.

It takes time to obtain the best brewing results. Many brewers fail because they expect instant results. Achieving the desired results requires mastery of timing and several experiments with ingredients. Those who give up too early will not achieve desired results. Source your ingredients from reliable stores to be certain about their quality. This will affect the quality of your drink.




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