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Last active August 29, 2015 14:04
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Beer talk
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beer.md

Overview

  • Ingredients (water, malt, hops, yeast)
  • Styles (during ingredients)
  • Equipment (brew day, bottling day)
  • Technique (brew day, fermentation, conditioning, bottling day)
  • Alternatives (3 vessel, keg or cask)
  • Mistakes (write stuff down)

Props:

  • Malt, Hops, Yeast (beer and baker).
  • Cup, nylon bag.
  • Bottler, bottle, caps.
  • Hydrometer, sugar water

Ingerdients

  • Third most drunk beverage drunk in the world after water and tea.
  • It is a feremented beverage like wine and cider. Which means you extract sugars from a starch source like grapes, or a cereal and add yeast. The yeast create alcohol and carbon dioxide until the sugars are eaten.
  • Beer is made from 4 Ingredients (water, malt, hops, yeast)

water

  • Each region has different mineral compounds in their water. Dublin & London has hard water better for stouts. Pizen like Glasgow has soft water better for making lagers, Burton has a lot of Gypsum in the water which helps hop flavour so is good for IPAs..

  • You can treat water to remove or add minerals. We are lucky in Glasgow and the north east of England that we can just add minerals to water to get a desired level. Glasgow water contains 10x less than the definition for "soft water".

  • Doesn't directly affect flavour, but acts on the flavours from the ingredients.

Starch source

  • The starch provides the fermentable material that defines how strong ABV the beer will be. Beer is usually grain.

  • Grain is kilned (add water to germinate, stop it, heat it -> the heat defines the colour)

  • Other grains can be added like Wheat, Rice, Oats, Rye, Corn (cheaper)

  • This defines the colour of the beer and mouthfeel.

  • Flavours:

  • Standard: grainy, corn, bready, saltine cracker, and husky

  • Crystal: caramel, toffee, brown sugar, molasses, and burnt sugar

  • Darkest: roasted, burnt, smoky, chocolate, and coffee.

Hops

  • These are used for bittering, and to improve the flavouring and aroma.

  • Malt is very sweet, we use hops to give it a balanced flavour

  • For people who say they don’t like beer, hop bitterness is the most commonly identified reason.

  • What happens with a hop depends on when it's added.

  • Hop flavours: Floral, fruity, citrus, herbal, earthy, piney and spicy

  • Malt forward beers: Scotch Ale, Vienna. Hop forward: IPA.

Yeast

  • Yeast is the microorganism that is responsible for fermentation in beer.
  • Yeast metabolises the sugars extracted from grains, which produces alcohol and carbon dioxide, and thereby turns wort into beer.
  • In addition to fermenting the beer, yeast influences the character and flavour.
  • Yeast is either top fermenting (ale) or bottom fermenting (lager).
  • Before we understood Yeast, wild yeast got to beer, in Belgium they still do this to create sour beers. Which also have fruit added to them.

Technique

  • Before: Decide recipe, buy ingredients

  • Brew day

  • Prepare Equipment (clean)

  • Dry Area: BIAB bag, 1L & 1/2L Pyrex, malt/hop glass, electronic scales, cake rack

  • Wet Area: Fermentor with lid & airlock. Wort chiller, refractometer, metal sieve, towels, brew sheet

  • Flame Area: Stockpot, lid, ruler, mash paddle, digital thermometer

  • Pre Mash: Add water, treat with Camden & Gypsum. Raise temp to 2C above strike temp (68C). turn off heat. Add cake rack and bag.

  • Mash: Pour grain in. Keep it at that temperature for 90 minutes. Check gravity. Flame off. Remove and squeeze bag.

  • Boil: Go to 100C. Add bitterng hops, Add flavour hops, Add aroma hops, Add fining agent. Flame out.

  • Cooling: Add wort chiller, bring wort to 2C above yeast guidelines.

  • Fermentation: Move wort to FV. Aerate for 5 minutes. Add yeast. Seal container. Keep temp controlled for two weeks.

  • Bottling:

  • Prepare Equipment (clean, sanitize)

  • Bottles, Capper, Bottle caps, Siphon , Bottling bucket, bottling wand, bottle tree, Vinator

  • Sanitize everything

  • Put Starsan in vinator with boilng water

  • Clean each bottle, then put onto bottle tree

  • Boil water for disolving sugar (3 times the sugar volume), then add sugar, stir then reduce heat

  • Take a hydrometer reading for FV

  • Use Siphon to take beer from primary to bollting bucket

  • Once started, add the cooled sugar water

  • Attach bottling wand to bottling bucket

  • Batch fill the bottles

  • Cap all the bottles

  • Clean everything ready for the next brew

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