Brewing beer is more like a science and an art in part. This may sound like something very complex, but the process involved is simple and has been practiced for centuries. You basically heat a mixture of water and grain to boil, cool the mixture, ferment it using yeast and finally carbonate. That’s straightforward, right? Here is a detailed preview of the important steps you should follow for home brewing.

Cleaning and Sanitization
The very first step of the brewing process is usually cleaning the equipment. You need to clean and sanitize any tools you will be using in the brewing process. This is crucial and you should ensure anything that comes in contact with the beer in the brewing process is sanitized using a solution recommended for this purpose. After you are done cleaning the equipment, the next step is to get going with the brewing.

The Brew
This step calls for the most attention and takes more time. You have to follow a strict timeline while monitoring the brewing process. In this step, you will follow several sub-processes including mashing, lautering, and boiling. You could learn a lot from 52 Brews as the site publishes reviews of the best methods to use while brewing and they also offer you ideas to improve your beer brewing skills. Some of the procedures you will find on the site expounded areas discussed below.

The Brewing Process

The Mash
Mashing is the first step of brewing beer. This process activates enzymes in the grain and helps to convert starch into sugar. Mashing is similar to steeping tea as you have to immerse the grain in hot water and allow the heat to break starches down so as to activate enzymes required in the brewing process. Ensure to use quality water, check the temperature and stir as the mashing progresses.

Lautering
From mashing, you will proceed to later, which is simply a process where you separate the wort from the grain. This helps to remove trapped sugars in the grain after mashing. You can do lautering in different processes including sparging, which involves heating water separately, which you then use to rinse the grain to remove the remaining sugars.

The Boil
Many people confuse the boil with the mash, but the processes are different. The boil helps to destroy any unwanted enzymes and gets rid of harmful oxygen to help in the stabilization of the wort. In this stage, you use a temperature that is higher than what you use in the mash and the process takes a longer period of time.

Fermentation
After all the processes mentioned above, you should allow the grains to cool. You then move to fermentation, which is the most important step in making the beer. This is where the magic happens as the yeast converts sugars to CO2 and ethyl alcohol. Be patient at this stage as it might take up to two weeks depending on how well you have prepared ingredients. Once the beer is ready you can choose to either bottle or keg it. It is ready for consumption and you can keep for your personal use or share with people.

Homebrewing is an interesting concept that you could implement at your home to make some amazing beer. All you need is to master the process involved and have the right tools to prepare the beer. Ensure to sanitize and clean all tools you will be using and while brewing follows the brewing process as described above. Once you master the entire brewing process, you will find it easy to prepare beer for your home.

 


Vicky Charles

Vicky is a single mother, writer and card reader.

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