Beer, the beverage that launched a thousand ships.
In my youth, I labeled it as an acquired taste, like coffee or Barbara Streisand. This was driven by a focus on massive, corporate beer producers. After all, they were the cheapest, seemed interchangeable, and it was just beer, right? Wrong. Good beer really is good. Bad beer really is bad.
Beer snobbery is in full force in America. People care about what they drink now. No more grabbing the cheapest six pack available and running. Well, at least not very often. Blind wine-tasting competitiions have rountinely been won by some of the cheapest bottles of the shelf. Beer, however, does not work this way. The difference between Miller High Life and Saint Arnold's is abundantly clear. MGD 64? Please don't waste my time. If you want to count calories, join Jenny Craig.
In my youth, I labeled it as an acquired taste, like coffee or Barbara Streisand. This was driven by a focus on massive, corporate beer producers. After all, they were the cheapest, seemed interchangeable, and it was just beer, right? Wrong. Good beer really is good. Bad beer really is bad.
Beer snobbery is in full force in America. People care about what they drink now. No more grabbing the cheapest six pack available and running. Well, at least not very often. Blind wine-tasting competitiions have rountinely been won by some of the cheapest bottles of the shelf. Beer, however, does not work this way. The difference between Miller High Life and Saint Arnold's is abundantly clear. MGD 64? Please don't waste my time. If you want to count calories, join Jenny Craig.
This increase in beer enlightment has yielded an explosion in home brewing. It seems everyone knows someone that brews beer these days just like everyone knows someone with a food blog... After an initial investment, you can make your own suds for less than a dollar a bottle. And you can name it whatever you like. "Would you care for a Monkey McHoppyStein?" Yes, yes I would.
I wanted to learn what I could about this process, so in December I enlisted the help of two veteran brewers, The Captain and Stone Cold. They've produced numerous batches with varying profiles and I've enjoyed sampling them over the past two years. I tagged along as they visited a local brewing shop to grab ingredients. Please note that people who work in brew shops are perhaps the snobbiest beer personalities you'll ever meet. They seem annoyed that you're there despite the fact that you plan to give them cash money for provisions which allows them to stay open and make a profit. I guess all groups have elitists, beer brewers included.
(This Is Totally Legal)
(Cleaning)
(Steeping Beauty)
At this point, flavor from the grains is leaching out into the water creating a part of the flavor profile for this brew. Also at this point, I'm enjoying a finished product; this is essential to the bewing process. The aroma from the grains is identical to Grape Nuts. This is a nice thing, as far as I'm concerned. While the steeping of the grains continued, sanitation continues:
After an hour of steeping, it was time to sparge the grains. That's right, we've gone from steep to sparge. Although not as impressive as the switch from DOS to Windows, it's pretty nice. Sparging is trickling water through the grain to extract sugars from the grain. Thanks Wikipedia.
After sparging the grains, the liquid was returned to the burner where the malt was then added. It pours very slowly and the flavor was similar to molasses, sweet with some spice.
After bringing all incorporated ingredients into harmony, the time for bittering hops had arrived. Bittering hops smell exactly like you think they would, Old Spice. After some simmering down time when the hops could think about what they did, the flavoring hops were added.
After a little more time in the bubble bath, it was time to chill the wort. That's right, it's called the wort. Its important to do this as quickly as possible as the presense of prolonged heat at this point will alter the flavor of the beer, and not in a good way. We positioned the boiler in a tilted cooler loaded with ice water and the outside temperature had fallen into the low 50s which definitely sped up the process.
After being chilled, the wort was transfered to the "Ale Pail", but not before a sample was gathered into the hydrometer to determine its specific gravity -- needle scratch on record player/music stops -- time for some science. Specific gravity is the density, or weight per unit volume, of a substance divided by the density of water. A measurement is taken prior to the addition of yeast and then after fermentation with the two figures being used to determine the beer's alcohol content. The measurement taken at this stage provided a potential alcohol content of aheckuvalot%; the second measurement will give us the actual % by volume. Cross your fingers for a strong turnout.
(What Was The Gravity Ma'am? I Need You To Be Specific)We all took a swig from the hydrometer and I found the wort to be sweet with a touch of spice from the grains. Getting to taste the beer, or potential beer, at this stage was an interesting and unique experience. Without the addition of sugar, there had been no fermentation and therefore no alochol or carbonation present but the flavor of Octoberfest was in the background. Alcohol and CO2, which turn the wort into beer, are produced when yeast consumes sugar. Its yeast poop.
(Heat Check -- If Its Too Hot The Yeast Dies -- 60 Degrees Is Good)
After transfering the wort to the "Ale Pail" and adding the yeast, it was sealed up and transfered to the closet where it would rest for a few weeks, give or take.
Coming up, racking the wort. Tom Petty said it best:
