It is my site and I will do what I want. And besides, I have been on the web longer than you.
February 8th, 2008 — Beer & Brewing, The Brewing Process
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.
July 27th, 2007 — Beer & Brewing, The Brewing Process
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).
October 22nd, 2006 — Beer & Brewing, The Brewing Process
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.
October 12th, 2006 — Beer & Brewing, The Brewing Process
By Jon Griffin
Beer in its basic form is an alcoholic beverage made from barley, hops, water and yeast. In fact the Reinheitsgebot German Purity Law adopted in 1516, states “the only ingredients used for the brewing of beer must be barley, hops, yeast and water“. This is the oldest provision that protects consumers in the world.
Before and even after that time outside of Germany, many other ingredients were added to beer and some of them were poison. Many of these optional ingredients are still used today in other styles of beer and are called “adjuncts”. Some common adjuncts used are sugar, rice, corn and molasses. Wheat is also technically an adjunct and the Reinheitsgebot has been amended to allow this adjunct.