SARAGOSSA SUDS
Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy
--Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
Are you a beer drinker? Ever thought about making some at home? You'll be surprised at how easy it is to brew your own beer.
In fourteenth century England, ale was commonly brewed from malted barley grains, rolled oats, water and yeast by and for peasants in lieu of the more expensive wines of the elite. By the seventeenth century, hops were boiled into the sweet wort as a preservative and for the thirst-quenching bitter flavor and distinctive floral aromas they yielded. Sealed keg conditioning with "priming" sugar yielded a refreshing light carbonation.
You can easily make your own rich, full-bodied beer at home. All you need is an ability to follow directions and a little patience - like, for assembling Christmas toys. It also helps immensely to have a companion who at least doesn't mind the rich aroma of boiling malt and hops, possibly shares your appreciation of the taste of freshly brewed full-bodied ales, and is even willing to help. Um, tell her beer provides the four major food groups: water, grains, hops, and yeast... What could be more "naturale"?
12:48 Mon, May 26, 2003
Stout and Pale Ale
Hermann's two new kits reviewed.
Hermann's has put together Oatmeal Stout and a "High Sierra Pale Ale" kits recently, and I decided to try them out. The oatmeal stout came out dark and richly satisfying, true to the type. It is not overly sweet only if you let it bottle-condition at least 3 weeks at room temperature to assure conversion of all the sugars. My first batch I conditioned 2, 3 and 4 weeks to see how it altered the finish. The 3 and 4-week conditioned set of bottles were not discernably different.
The pale ale is on it's third week of fermentation in the carboy. I want to see if it will clear up some more before I bottle next weekend. Then I will condition half for 2 weeks and the other 24 bottles for 4 weeks. The wort is raw-honey-colored and slightly cloudy right now, but still "burping" occaisonally.
19:40 Tue, Apr 1, 2003
A New "Keeper"
"Muddy Paws" Meets Expectations! Coffee adds the fifth dimension to this smooth brew.
"Muddy Paws" is my first coffee-beer. I added 1/2 cup of ground french-roast beans to the grains bag. The flavor nuance is just recognizable as coffee, but urges the over-all impression towards something solid and resembling a popular dark and creamy Irish stout. Just what I was looking for.
14:52 Tue, Mar 4, 2003
AWRIGHT!
Backing up to square one yields success...
My "return to basics" ploy worked. I reverted to the original Mt. Mud Puddle recipe, used bottled water throughout and was doubly careful to sanitize everything. I kept a couple gallons of BTF solution handy to rinse my hands, thermometer, spoon, tongs, etc. before contacting the wort at any time. I also used the BTF solution to sanitize the carboy just before pouring the wort in.
Man! This ale is fantastic... mellow, with that rich flavor I got in the first 8 batches.
See the Ingredients section for details on brewing this porter-style ale.
Apparatus we use:
$75 Beer brewing starter kit:
Carboy, bucket fermenter, gas trap, siphon, thermometer, bottle capper, cleaning brushes, brewing guide, hydrometer
Basically, everything you need to get started, less the recipe ingredients.
Kitchen magician!
Ahh, I love the heady aroma and merry agitation of a boiling wort (pronounced 'wert') in the morning! Merry, merry, boil and bubble, keep me happy and out of trouble.
Love that chemistry!
It's a thrill to watch the frantic churning of yeast frolicking in their bath of malted barley sugars, hear the satisfying "blurp, blurp" of the gas trap, and know a new batch is on the way.
Origins of Brewing
The earliest written description of the brewing process by the ancient Sumerians appears in The Hymn To Ninkasi, their goddess of beer. Impressed in a 3800-year-old clay tablet, the hymn serves as a recipe as well as a song of praise. Contained in the verse are directions for the making of beer using loaves of bread. The Sumerian bread of the time was known as bappir and, aside from its brewing applications, was only consumed in periods of famine. This fact alone lends credence to the argument that suggests that beer, not bread, is the cornerstone of civilization.
Ninkasi
The process was fairly straightforward; A heavy dough was made using a considerable amount of yeast; this was then formed into loaves and lightly baked. It could be that this was just a convenient way to store ingredients as a compact "kit"-loaf. On "brew day" the bread was crumbled into water, steeped and later strained to produce a wort. "Sweet aromatics" were then added to improve flavor and dates or date juice to increase sweetness. The resulting liquid was fermented in large vats by yeast-laden grapes or raisins and eventually placed in sealed jars to be stored and transported.
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