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Using a few simple procedures and quality ingredients, it is easier than most people think to make excellent beers. Most people agree that beer has four main ingredients: water, malt, hops and yeast are the bread and butter of brewing. All other ingredients are called adjuncts and are used to compensate for where the beer's flavor falls short or to enhance the overall experience. Here is some very basic information provided by Chico's Home Brew Shop. Yeast: Yeast does all the work of making alcohol and carbon dioxide out of malt sugars. Experimentation is key in order to experience the differences between them. Pure strain liquid cultures are better than dry yeast because they are free of bacteria and give a consistent and predictable result. Water: The basic rule to tap into about water is that it is alright to brew with it if it is all right to drink it. It is always better to be safe. Letner's advice is to use sterile water, so it is best to boil. Keep in mind that 98 percent of beer is water. Hops: Long ago brewers added various herbs to beer to flavor and help preserve it. In modern times we have come to use hops almost exclusively for these functions. There are many different varieties of hops, each giving a particular beer style characteristic and aromas. Malt: Malted barley is the main ingredient in beer. It is the source of the fermentable and non-fermentable sugars that makes beer a malty, alcoholic beverage. Malted grain must be mashed in order to convert the starches in the grain to the sugars that brewers want. As a beginner, you will probably use malt extract where the mashing has been done and the sugars are condensed for convenience. Malt extracts are available either as a syrup or a dry powder. There are many different types of malted grain that include pale ale, pilsner, chocolate and caramel. Extract makers blend many kinds of malt in their mash to produce light, amber and dark malt extracts.
An extensive brewing website dedicated to teaching better beermaking with Q&A for first-time brewmasters. The American Homebrewers' Association homepage with classic recepies created by brew professionals. Contains the latest news on homebrewing. www.xmission.com/~grbstein/homebrew.html Contains a brief history of beer and homebrewing plus recipies. Also has many links of interest, including instructions on the most popular beer drinking games.
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INGREDIENTS
..."hop" on to more information with these beer brewing links.