I like people with a beer in their hand, or maybe thatÕs my hand, anyway the best kind of beer is a free beer; well the next best is one that you have brewed yourself. The great things about brewing your own beer are the endless possibilities, whether making a traditional style, experimenting, or trying to clone a favorite. Read the steps below to learn how to homebrew.
Beer recipes are made up of water, grains that add sugars and flavor, hops that add flavor and bittering, and yeast that converts the sugars into alcohol. The varying varieties of these ingredients, the timing of adding ingredients and the temperature all can lead to different flavors in your beer. You can also get creative by adding different things to your beer like salt, jalapenos, coffee beans, coriander, fruit of all types, honey, and anything else you think might work. The fun is making a beer that youÕve created and can share with friends.
SEE ALSO: The Most Romantic Places To Have A Beer This ValentineÕs Day In Wilmington, NC
You can get started with beer kits, making the beer on your stove top and then evolve to more complex recipes and set ups. I suggest brewing with a friend as beer and brewing can be a fun socially. Another tip is to be diligent with the cleaning and sanitizing of your equipment. Also, donÕt forget the main principle from Charlie Papazian, the grandfather of homebrewing, Òrelax, donÕt worry, have a homebrew.Ó
For equipment and recipes please visit the good people at Wilmington Homebrew Supply on Kerr Avenue.
Try this great recipe and get your homebrew started!
10 Gallon SMASH (Single Malt and Single Hop)
Recipe: First things first, pour yourself a beer. 18 pounds of Marris Otter, 60 minutes mash at 152ûF water. Mashing is the brewer’s term for the hot water steeping process which hydrates the barley, activates the malt enzymes, and converts the grain starches into fermentable sugars.
After the mashing process is completed, the grains, water and sugar are still in suspension in the mash container, called the mash tun. The sugars are separated from the grains in a process called sparging. The mash tun typically has a false bottom or screen at the bottom with a spigot that allows the brewer to draw run-off from the bottom of the grain bed. Hot water at approximately 175 ûF is slowly added to the top of the grain bed, run through the bed, and drawn off the bottom through the false bottom and out the spigot into a pot. This extracts sugars from the grains and produces sweet liquid called wort for boiling.
Boil for 60 minutes, add 2 oz of Nelson Sauvin hops at the 40 and 20 minute mark and 4 more when you turn the boil off.
After cooling the wort down to 68-70 û move it to your fermentation vessel and add your yeast, Califorina 001 liquid yeast.
Wait 2-3 weeks and bottle or keg. Once it’s carbonated, refigerate, pour and enjoy!
Do you like BEER? Great! Do you like FREE BEER? We thought so! In honor of our big Local Beer Sale going on this month, we’re excited to be giving away Tidal Creek Gift Certificates every day this week in FeBREWary! Click here to enter.
