Do love great beer? Do you hope that someday you can create your own home brew that will win competitions? Did you know that many commercial breweries owe their beginning to homebrewing? Many people take up the homebrew activity and, if things go well, it may result in the desire to grow and expand, perhaps one day into a full fledged brewing operation.
Making beer at home can prove to be an enjoyable and rewarding hobby, and most homebrewers take up this art as a way to enjoy the creativity that comes with brewing one’s own product. With homebrewing, the brewer follows a formula similar to that of a commercial brewer with some differences. The aging process has to be altered slightly for homebrewing. Once the mixture has been boiled, cooled, and fermented, it has to be bottled. But in order to get the carbonation one expects in a bottle of beer, a small amount of additional yeast must be added. This is accomplished by drawing out a small amount of the fermented wort, adding yeast and dissolving, then pouring the mixture back into the wort and stirring it well. The added yeast at the end of the process causes the yeast cells to reactivate for a short time, producing just as little more alcohol and carbon dioxide.
One of the many great things about homebrewing is the limitless variations that the homebrewer can create. All sorts of different grains, extracts, and other ingredients can be added to enhance the complexity and the taste of the final product. One is limited only by his/her imagination. I have tasted homebrew made with melted chocolate, almond extract, vanilla, cinnamon, ginger, grapes, and countless other ingredients.
Homebrewing clubs exist all over the nation, in many different locales both small and large. There is also a homebrewing organization that exists on a national scale. It’s called, appropriately, the American Homebrewer’s Association, a division of the Association of Brewers. The organization was founded by Charlie Papazian and it hosts many events and competitions throughout the year. For more information, visit the AHA web site, www.beertown.org.
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