Snow floats down from a cold, gray sky clumping silently on the windowsill. Inside, your kitchen is warm and smells like fresh-baked bread. Under the orange stove light, a brew kettle boils. You inspect the remaining ingredients on the counter top, grabbing a handful of malted wheat and letting it run through your fingers before opening a packet of hops. The pleasant bitterness mixes with the smell of grain, a preview of the beer to come. In the refrigerator green and brown bottles stand in neat rows dressed up in customized labels bearing your name and brand, ready to be savored one delicious sip at a time. This scene might evoke an image of some log-cabin brewery in the Austrian Alps, but there’s no reason that it can’t be set in your house or apartment. With the recent boom in DIY books, internet recipes, brewing apps, and brew shops that carry ingredients, equipment, and starter kits, the art of homebrewing has never been more accessible. A Primer on Brewing If you’ve ever thought about brewing your own beer, but were reluctant due to cost, time, or complexity, then fear not. Getting started is relatively inexpensive: $100 - $150 for decent quality base equipment, though like most hobbies, there are more expensive, higher quality options available. And once your home-brewery is properly outfitted, brewing a batch of beer is much cheaper than anything you could buy at the grocery store. If you do it right, it should taste better too. On the surface, homebrewing may seem complex and intimidating, but it doesn’t take a chemistry degree to succeed. If you have three consecutive hours on a Saturday and can follow basic instructions, you can brew beer. The basic brewing process is quite simple: grains are soaked in water and heated to create a liquid called “wort” (pronounced “wert”). If ingredient experimentation is not your forte, you can always use malt extract packets from a kit (concentrated wort), allowing you to shave time off of the process and take the guess-work out of flavoring. Bittering hops are then added to the wort to cook for about an hour (aromatic hops may be added in the last 15 minutes). The wort is cooled and poured into a fermentation jug where the yeast is pitched. Yeast is the organism responsible for fermentation and will break down the sugars in the wort to produce alcohol and carbon-dioxide. The jug is then sealed for around two weeks in a temperature controlled environment to protect against bacterial infection. When the fermentation period is over, priming sugar is added to the brew and the contents are bottled and capped. The bottled beer should sit for around two weeks to properly carbonate. Serve chilled in a frosty mug and enjoy the delicious (fermented) fruits of your labor. Note: The above brewing process is simplified for comprehension. There will be some variety in cook times and temperatures between different types of beer and different strains of grains, hops and yeast. Follow the recipe you are using and talk to the employees at your local homebrew shop for the best guidance. The Storied History of Beer By brewing beer you are participating in a celebrated pastime that has existed for millennia. So crack open a cold one, take a deep whiff, and let the grainy, hoppy vapors take you back to days of yore. Brewing, like civilization itself, finds its roots in ancient Mesopotamia, though it possessed cultural significance to a variety of other societies like those of Babylon, Assyria, Egypt, Israel, China, Mesoamerica, and Scandinavia.[1] The first known beer recipe was part of a poem etched onto a clay tablet by a Sumerian poet in 1800 B.C. Brewmasters recreated the recipe in 1991, drinking it from large jugs through straws as the first brewers would have done almost four-thousand years ago.[2] Ancient beer tasted different than it does today however, since hops, small flowers that add bitterness and aroma to beer and help to guard against bacterial infection, weren’t added until around 1,000 B.C. It was around that time that beer began to play a role in the formation of communities in Medieval Europe, serving as a means of water purification through boiling. The Monasteries took the lead on distribution until the government realized the value of beer and interjected itself, even going as far to war over resources. Brewing didn’t just impact European history, though. It was a beer shortage that influenced the Pilgrims to land at Plymouth Rock in 1620, the first recorded “emergency beer run.” One could say that American history was built on beer. And our founding fathers would likely agree, namely Washington and Jefferson who owned private brewhouses.[3] So be a patriot. Next time you take a sip of that sweet homebrew, raise a glass to Freedom. The Benefits of Homebrewing Brewing harnesses the power of nature to create something greater than the sum of its parts. Beer does not just equal water plus grains plus hops plus yeast. Fermentation is a delicate chemical process that goes beyond the simple mixing of ingredients. And homebrewing builds an appreciation for the work required to craft delicious beer. Brewing is a craft after all, like carpentry or welding, a seamless integration of science and art. A brewer with imaginative whimsy but no methodical discipline will make mistakes and brew poorly, or worse, be unable to replicate the rarely occurring success. A brewer of strict rigidity but no creativity may be able to brew acceptable beer from recipes, but might fall short in the creative expression that comes with experimentation and forging new flavors. It is important to develop both sides of that coin to make really, really good beer. That is the homebrewer’s ultimate goal. In preparation of this undertaking, the homebrewer should dip his toes into a variety of other subjects. To better understand his ingredients and how to get the most out of them, the brewer must grasp basic botany and chemistry. To build the most efficient set-up, a bit of systems and mechanical engineering will be helpful. And if he wants to make his bottle labels stand out from the crowd, a brief study in art and graphic design certainly couldn’t hurt. In addition to academic learning, homebrewing reinforces key values that are applicable in and out of the kitchen. It takes patience to brew. A brewer can’t say, “Hey, I want a nice peach amber ale,” snap his fingers and make it so. He has to plan ahead and schedule the brew, giving himself several weeks per batch. Brewing is a slow, chemical process that has been around a lot longer than we have, so the brewer must learn to let the yeast do its job while providing the best possible environment for the brew to be successful. Brewing requires a keen attention to detail. Without clear and consistent recordkeeping, recipes will be difficult to replicate and troubleshooting errors will be nearly impossible. A brewer must be proactive and observant to prevent his liquid gold from taking on any off-flavors or worse, suffering bacterial infection. This can be difficult because there are so many factors at play: equipment, sanitation, water composition, ingredient species and age, cooking and fermenting temperatures, timing, and methodology, even the degree to which the brew is jostled and aerated can make a noticeable difference in final flavor. A good homebrewer must learn how to properly juggle all of these factors, because failure in one might compromise all of the others. There’s a metaphor for life in there somewhere. The Craft It’s not just homebrewing that has exploded in the last few years. Commercial brewing is returning to its local roots, a triumphant homecoming marked by micro-breweries lining city streets and a scattershot of small-batch tap handles in regular old bars. In fact, the number of breweries in the U.S. doubled between 2011 and 2015, reaching a grand total of 4,144, which broke the old record that had been in place since 1873. That’s around two new breweries that open each day. To really emphasize how much this trend has boomed in the last 25 years, realize that in 1990, there were just 284 breweries.[4] So go and visit brew-pubs to taste what other small batch brewers are creating. The owners of these places may have gotten their start in homebrewing just like you, and with a little elbow grease, capital, and good fortune, turned a hobby into a career. Support their business, talk to them, get inspired, and expand your knowledge of the craft. Whether you plan on getting into homebrewing or not, going on tours of breweries (large and small) is always a fun activity. You can still enjoy small-batch beer even if there aren’t any brew-pubs in your area. Next time you visit your favorite restaurant or bar, look into their selection of craft beer and try something new. Not every bottle will be a winner but you will be able to better understand what flavors you like. Just don’t become a beer snob. It is possible to like good beer without being condescending towards your buddies about the pitfalls of commercialism in the modern American beer industry. People are allowed to like different things. Conclusion Now you know the basic process of brewing beer, a short history of it, and the values and skills that homebrewing can reinforce in your life. So what is the next step? Go read a book that will serve as a more complex guide into your brewing journey. How to Brew: Everything you need to know to brew beer right the first time by John Palmer is an excellent reference that delves into some scientific inquiry but manages to keep things entertaining and applicable. Locate your local homebrew shop and talk to its employees. Get some advice from friends who brew (that’s how we got started). But the best thing you can do is get out and experiment. Make mistakes. Skunk a few beers. Eventually you’ll craft your golden, fizzy masterpiece. And when that day comes, take a deep sip letting the foam collect on your slightly-out-of-regs mustache and revel in your new title: Homebrewer. [1] Raley, Linda (prof.). “A Concise Timeline of Beer History." BeerHistory.com, 1998.
[2] Dizon, Jan. "Drink Like An Ancient Sumerian With The Oldest Beer Recipe Ever Discovered." Tech Times, 21 Sept. 2015. [3] Raley, Linda (prof.). “A Concise Timeline of Beer History." BeerHistory.com, 1998. [4] Hahn, Fritz. “America now has more breweries than ever. And that might be a problem.” Washington Post, 18 Jan 2016. Web.
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