Fermentation
Getting the fermentation right is as important in making a good beer as using good ingredients and ensuring good sanitation. Fortunately, a little time and effort can ensure a good fermentation.
All-grain brewing
In all-grain brewing, or mash brewing, you do exactly what commercial breweries do to make beer, just on a smaller scale. You mash malted grain to extract the sugars, bring the liquid to the boil, add hops for bitterness, flavour and aroma, cool the wort then pitch yeast to ferment the liquid to make beer.
Partial mash brewing
A partial mash, also called a mini-mash, is a hybrid between kit or extract brewing, and full mash brewing. A can of concentrate or malt extract is used, and extra fermentable sugars are added by mashing grain to convert the starches to sugar. Hops are often added to supplement the hops in the can of concentrate. Of course, if unhopped extract is used then hops must be added.
Malt extract brewing
If you already add hops and specialty grain to kits of concentrate, you're more or less making malt extract beers. However, with malt extract brewing — or simply "extract brewing" — you add bitterness to unhopped malt extract, rather than relying on the bitterness from the can of concentrate. You add hops at various times, and possibly other ingredients such as grain, to make the wort that is fermented into beer.
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Other ingredients
Apart from grain, water, hops and yeast there are hundreds of other ingredients that can go into beer. Some of these additives are traditionally used in beer, while others have only begun to be used recently as microbrewers push the boundaries of brewing. These ingredients, along with unmalted grains, are not essential ingredients in beer and are referred to as adjuncts.
Read more ...Three-vessel brewing
Thanks to homebrewandbeer.com member and award-winning brewer DrSmurto for this tutorial and pictures.
Read more ...Bar phrases and their meanings
“You get this one, next round is on me.”
(We won't be here long enough to get another round.)
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May 28, 2017
New beer reviews
Check out our latest constructive, funny, ridiculous and just plain stupid beer reviews. We've added 20 new reviews of Australian and NZ brews.
Millennium Ale review
We've tasted the 16th bottle of the Millennium Ale. We didn't enjoy it.
