Entries Tagged 'Beer & Brewing' ↓

Ales and Lagers

I just wrote an article for http://hubpages.com/hub/Ale-and-Lager about beer. It discusses ales, lagers, classic beer styles, flaws, history of brewing and has some great videos. Also it discusses beer myths.

General Instructions for Extract Brewing

By Jon Griffin

These instructions take into account your boil size. Since most new brewers only have small pots to boil in, it is important to take into account the specific gravity of your wort. The amount of bitterness that is extracted from hops is affected by time, temperature and gravity.Therefor if you want to maximize your hop bitterness and you are boiling less than 5 gallons of wort, you need to lower the amount of malt extract in your boil pot.

Please follow any specific instructions that came with your kit, but most recipes (including all recipes on this site), are calculated for a full boil (usually 6.5 gallons boiled down to 5 gallons).

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Quasi Aussie Bush Bread

By Jon Griffin

This is a quick bread that doesn’t require rising and is mellowed by the yeast addition. It is the perfect way to use your spent grains. This doesn’t work with grains that are mashed (there is no sugar left, so the taste is not good) so all grain brewers are left out of this one.

1 Pkg Dry BakersYeast
1/4 Cup Warm Water (about 110°)
1 Cup Warm Milk (about 110°)
3 Cups Flour
1 1/2 Cups Spent Beer Grains
1 Tbls Baking Powder
3/4 Tsp Salt (optional)
2 Tbls Butter (cold)

1) Sprinkle Yeast over warm water in a small bowl to bloom (make sure it is big enough to combine milk later).

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Mashing 101 - How do grains turn to simple sugars?

By Jon Griffin

Mashing is simply the conversion of complex sugars, which are developed during malting, into simpler sugars that yeast can metabolize.
There are 5 main types of mashing, but we are interested in only 4 of them in this class. They originated in different areas and helped create the classic beer styles of the world. Mashing techniques evolved based on climate and malting technique. In Europe most of the Maltsters, made under modified malt, whereas in the British Isles they used fully modified malts.

Historically the Picts created alcoholic beverages in 6500 BC, although no one really knows what they would have tasted like. The Vikings passed down brewing sticks for generations and yeast evolved on them to create ancestors to the very yeast used today for brewing. Belgians have always used wild yeasts and bacteria in their beers, and it wasn’t until the mid 1800’s that the Germans and French determined what yeast really were. By the late 1800’s a chemist a Carlsburg brewery isolated the yeast strain that made lagers and modern yeast knowledge was vastly improved.

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