“Beer is another proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy!” Words by Benjamin Franklin. American Founding Father, politician, inventor, scientist, writer, diplomat, musician and talented businessman.
In a word, you can trust him!” Beer is another proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy!” Words by Benjamin Franklin. American Father is a founder, politician, inventor, scientist, writer, diplomat, musician and talented businessman. In a word, you can trust him!
Beer is a unique drink with a rich history. This drink is loved everywhere. Different countries around the world have their own unique recipes for its preparation. There is reason to believe that beer is the oldest alcoholic drink in human history. The first mentions of it go back ten thousand years.
It is truly known that the Sumerians and Babylonians drank beer. This drink has gone through history and has only become more popular in our time.
You can find out more detailed history of beer in a separate article on our website.
On store shelves you can find a wide range of beer - for every taste and for every budget. Brewers around the world are constantly trying to outdo each other in the art of brewing. However, anyone can master this type of art, right in their own kitchen.
There are a great many recipes for making beer at home, but the basic ingredients and principles of preparation are always the same.
Cooking at home without special equipment
Components
- water - about 25 liters
This is the basics. The water must be clean, without impurities. The taste of the finished drink depends on the quality of the water. Spring water is best; in extreme cases, bottled water from a trusted manufacturer.
- hops (acidity 4.5%) - 50 grams
Hops can be homemade or purchased. It contains a substance that gives the drink a characteristic aroma and bitter taste - lupulin essential oil. Hop varieties are divided into red, green and semi-red. Green hops are considered to be of lower quality, but they are worth choosing for those who like drinks with a pronounced bitter taste.
Many different varieties are grown in different countries. When choosing hops, you should pay attention to the IBU value - a unit of measurement of the bitterness of the drink, where 1 is the least bitter varieties (fruit), and the most bitter drink has an indicator of 120 (American barley beer).
- barley malt - 3 kg.
Barley malt can be purchased at the market, in a store, or ordered online. Malt gives the drink body and rich taste. When choosing this component, you should pay attention to the manufacturer. The highest quality malt is produced in the Czech Republic and Germany.
High-quality grain easily pours from hand to hand, has a fresh, clean, straw smell, is light yellow in color, all grains are the same size and have a shiny surface.
You should also try to chew a few grains. Most of it should be easy to chew, crumbling in the mouth (mealy grains). If the grains are hard and crumble in the mouth like glass, problems with filtration will arise during the preparation of the drink.
Malt is ground grains that are first allowed to sprout, then dried and ground. It is made from wheat, barley, oats, the source material affects the taste of beer. It’s easy to make malt at home; the grain is placed on an enamel baking sheet, moistened well and left warm for a couple of days. When the seeds sprout, they are slightly dried in the oven and crushed with a rolling pin. You should get quite large pieces, reminiscent of Artek cereal.
- brewer's yeast - 30 grams
Yeast can be either liquid or dry. Of course, it is liquid yeast that opens up the widest range of flavor and aromatic properties of the drink. But they are very difficult to transport, difficult to store, difficult to choose quality ones.
Therefore, dry yeast is better suited for a beginning brewer - it is much easier to use and will do its job perfectly.
IMPORTANT! Before adding yeast, it must first be diluted in water. It is better not to introduce yeast directly into the wort; in this case, only 60% of the yeast culture will survive. If you first dilute the yeast in water, the indicator will increase to 90%.
- sugar
Cooking recipes
There are a large number of methods for obtaining the drink that are used in home brewing. DIY recipes also differ from each other, so everyone can choose the best option for themselves.
Classic way
When it comes to homemade beer, most lovers of this drink will choose the classic recipe. It allows you to obtain a unique taste and easily recognizable aroma. Even people who are indifferent to alcohol can love this beer. The following ingredients will be used in the cooking process:
Correct procedure
With honey and rye malt
This recipe for making beer at home allows you to get both a light drink and a dark one. The color depends on the type of malt used and the process of its preliminary preparation. To obtain dark beer, add more rye malt, which is slightly toasted in a dry frying pan in advance.
For this alcoholic drink you will need:
Beer brewing process: stages
From grain bread
This is one of the cheapest homemade beer recipes. It’s quite easy to make it with your own hands, so even a novice brewer can cope with this task. In the cooking process, it will not be the bread itself that will be used, but the crackers made from it.
Products used:
The last ingredient will give the beer a special aroma. If you want to get an even more pleasant smell, you can add a minimal amount of other spices.
How to make homemade beer from bread crumbs
Viennese drink
This rustic drink is made from two types of malt and hops. Their combination in the right proportions allows you to obtain a pleasant taste and aroma. The production of such beer is considered a rather labor-intensive process that requires patience and strict adherence to technology. For Viennese beer you need to buy:
This drink is considered unique, since its production allows you to obtain a special aroma that cannot be compared with other types of beer. Finely grated orange zest adds an additional note of flavor.
A homemade drink is prepared in the following simple way:
Source
Traditional recipe with malt and hops
Preparation
The first step is to thoroughly wash all equipment.
IMPORTANT! If you approach the issue of sterilization carelessly, all further work will simply go down the drain, since so-called “wild yeast” or other pathogenic organisms may get into the wort. In the end, instead of a divine drink, you will end up with a tasteless mash.
Then you need to prepare dry yeast. To activate the fungus, it is necessary to pour the entire volume of the package into a small amount of water at a temperature of 25-28 degrees for 15-30 minutes. Different manufacturers compress and package yeast differently, so it’s best to stick to the information on the package.
Malt crushing
Crushing the malted grains is a very important step in the brewing process. Ideally, the grain should be divided into 5-7 pieces. It is important that the pieces retain parts of the peel. It is simply not possible to filter malt that has been ground into flour.
For the correct grinding process, it is best to use a special grain mill, with which you can obtain malt of the desired grind. You can use a simple meat grinder, but there is a risk that the grains will be crushed too much, or simply crushed. You can buy ready-made crushed malt in the store, but often unscrupulous manufacturers add flour or starch to increase the volume.
Preparing for brewing and mashing the wort
It is necessary to prepare a bag made of 3-4 layers of clean gauze. You will need pieces no smaller than one meter by one meter. Place the ground malt in a bag so that it does not spill out.
- Pour into a 25 liter pan, place on fire, heat to 80 degrees.
- Place the bag of malt in the pan and close the lid.
- The water temperature during the brewing process should be 67 degrees - it is at this temperature that beer is obtained with a strength of about 4%, quite dense, with a mild taste.
- After an hour and a half of continuous cooking, you need to do an iodine test.
- It is necessary to determine whether starch remains in the wort.
- Take a few tablespoons of wort and place them on a clean white plate.
- Add a couple of drops of iodine. If the color has not changed, then the malt is ready for the next stage.
- If the malt turns blue, you need to continue brewing for another 15 minutes.
- After additional time, there is no need to test again.
It is necessary to brew malt so that the natural processes of fermentation of the ingredients begin. Once all the starch has been broken down, this process must be stopped. To do this, raise the temperature of the water in the pan to 80 degrees and cook for another 5 minutes.
Then remove the bag of malt from the pan and thoroughly rinse it in 2 liters of water at a temperature of 78 degrees. Add wash water to the wort. In this way, the remaining extractive substances are washed out of the malt.
The described method of mashing wort is called “in the bag.” When using it, there is no need to use a complex filtration system and multiple transfusions.
Boiling the wort
Place the pan with the wort on the fire, bring to a boil, add 15 grams of wort. Cook for 30 minutes over high heat. Next, add another 15 grams of hops, continue to actively boil for another 40 minutes, and then add the remaining 15 grams of hops and cook for 20 minutes. In total, the entire boiling process lasts one and a half hours.
IMPORTANT! Throughout this time it should boil quite actively.
Cooling
At this stage, you need to try to cool the beer wort as quickly as possible to a temperature of 24-26 degrees. If cooling is slow, there is a risk of contamination of the wort with bacteria or wild yeast. The ideal option is to cool for 15-30 minutes. You can use a special immersion cooler consisting of a hollow tube twisted into a spiral and two plastic hoses at the ends. Run cold water through the cooler for 15 minutes.
Preparatory activities
Before brewing beer with your own hands at home, it is necessary to carry out thorough preparation, without which it is impossible to obtain a high-quality drink. It consists of selecting and purchasing ingredients, as well as finding suitable utensils.
Purchasing Products
In addition to food, during the brewing process you will need a lot of utensils and various equipment. They can be found in the kitchen or purchased at a specialty store. To work you need:
A simple recipe without equipment for home brewing
In addition to the rather lengthy traditional beer brewing technology, there are many simple and quick brewing recipes.
For the simplest things you will need:
- barley malt – 6 kilograms
- water - 22-24 liters
- hops - 6 glasses
- molasses or jam - 1.5 cups, or sugar - 200 grams
- salt - 1 teaspoon
Pour cold water into a clean large saucepan and add crushed malt. Leave for 12-16 hours. Put the mixture on the fire, add salt, and boil for 2 hours. Add hops and cook for another half hour. Carefully pass the beer through cheesecloth, add diluted brewer's yeast, molasses, jam or sugar, and mix. The beer should sit for 6-9 hours, then pour the drink into bottles and leave for another 8 hours - the beer is ready!
The drink should be stored in the refrigerator.
The easiest homemade beer recipe
If you need to quickly prepare beer, I advise you to familiarize yourself with the following method:
1. Boil 15 grams of hop cones in 5 liters of water for 90 minutes.
2. Dissolve 250 grams of sugar in a glass of water.
3. Add sugar syrup to the hop decoction and cook for another 20 minutes.
4. Strain the liquid, cool to room temperature, add dry yeast (10 grams).
5. After fermentation is complete, pour the beer into bottles, seal and incubate for three days. After this, the drink is ready to drink.
Source
Honey beer recipe
Compound:
- Overripe strawberries – 2 kg.
- Dry hop cones – 25 gr.
- Purified water – 25 liters.
- Natural honey -5 kg.
Cooking technology:
- Dissolve honey completely in water.
- Add hop cones and berries
- Mix everything thoroughly.
- Tie the neck of the dish with gauze or a thin cloth (so that air can circulate easily) and leave to ferment for 4-7 days.
- After this period, the container is closed with a lid and the drink ferments for another 30-40 days; it should be stirred daily.
- At the end of the second week, the beer is tasted for sweetness; if necessary or if fermentation is weak, another kilogram of honey is added.
- The fact that the beer has fermented is signaled by the berries falling down. You need to wait another week, strain the liquid through 2-3 layers of gauze and pour into 3-liter jars, which are stored in a cold room for 1-2 months.
- During this time, a sediment forms in them, from which the beer is carefully poured into bottles, corked and stored in the basement or refrigerator.
Berries should not be washed before cooking. On their surface there are natural yeasts, without which the fermentation process will not begin.
Beer made from hops and malt
Ingredients:
Recipe
1. Dissolve barley malt in water and leave for a day.
2. The next morning, pour the mixture into a cooking container and add salt.
3. Boil the dissolved malt for 2 hours.
4. Add hops and cook for another 20 minutes.
5. Strain through a sieve, then cool the wort to room temperature (necessarily below 30 degrees).
6. Add brewer's yeast with sugar, stir and leave to ferment for 12-18 hours in a dark, warm place.
7. Pour the drink into bottles. After 12-14 hours the beer will be ready.
The result is a natural, home-made product that is close to traditional technology. If 20 liters of beer are not immediately needed, the proportions can be reduced several times. Some home brewers don't even use special containers, making do with a regular bucket.
The best snacks
Different countries prefer beers with their own characteristics, which is why snacks to go with them also differ. For example, the Germans are especially fond of strong, rich types of beer, which go well with hearty and fatty dishes:
- Veal sausages with lard and spices.
- Salty pretzels.
- Baked knuckle.
- Various types of cheese and crackers.
- Stewed in duck fat, sauerkraut.
- Obazza (a spicy mixture of cheese, butter, onion and paprika).
In our country, it is customary to serve beer with:
- Crackers from rye, white bread, loaf with various sauces, garlic, salt.
- Crayfish, shrimp.
- Various types of croutons.
- Salted fish (dried, smoked, dried).
- Salty varieties of hard cheese.
- Raw smoked sausage, balyk.
- Salted nuts (peanuts, pistachios)
- Smoked pig ears.
Beer experts are amazed by our habit of drinking beer with ram; they believe that such a snack is the least suitable for this drink in terms of taste. However, this tradition developed back in Soviet times, when salted and dried fish was most accessible due to the fact that they prepared it themselves from their own fishing catch. Other, more refined products for beer were scarce and expensive.
Among Americans, “junk” food is popular as a complement to an intoxicating drink:
- Chips.
- Packaged crackers.
- French fries with sauces.
- Fried chicken wings.
- Nuggets.
Experts consider this assortment to be the most unsuccessful, firstly, due to the high content of preservatives, calories and hidden fats in snacks, and, secondly, that too hot spices and an abundance of enhancers do not allow you to feel the taste of the beer itself, not to mention the to successfully highlight with products
Of course, to make beer at home, you will have to tinker. You need to carefully approach the issue of choosing ingredients; you will have to buy additional equipment. But the result is worth it! After all, in the end result, instead of store-bought beer with preservatives and dyes, you will get a high-quality natural product. Real craft beer made with your own hands!
You might be interested in reading about the famous Lager beer!
